Chương 191: Tell Me How

Something resonated within me at those words, something that stayed during all of Miflin's lesson. After the beginning explanation she told me to start using Accelerated Perception, so as not to waste more time. I could still feel the flow of mana, the strain on my brain, but the extra time would be worth it. She went on about the theoretical fundamentals of how to manipulate aura, how it interacted with other energies and with other people.

She went to great lengths describing how aura masters could improve themselves in a wide variety of ways, how aura interacted with the body, from the macroscopic level down to the microscopic, even subcellular level. It was all extremely fascinating but frustrating at the same time, I needed practical applications, not... this. My irritation was clearly showing because she scolded me many times about the need for a solid foundation before proceeding further.

As she explained to me the main disciplines of aura control, she made me do an exercise, the only one I did today. Making myself clothes. I had the suspicion that it wasn't part of the training at all, her reasoning was shaky at best, but it actually provided quite the challenge, until I got the trick down. I had to view myself as more than just myself, as if my clothes were part of me too, only so that I could keep my pants on. It made for a couple of embarrassing tries. And Miflin took great joy in mocking me.

I didn't know what her deal was, but she was extremely volatile in her behavior. In any case, I managed, and at the same time I gained an understanding of what was possible to do with aura, and boy, I really used it like a caveman. She listed the main disciplines, main being the key word here. There were many more that were either more niche or simply more secret, after all not everyone left their theories and techniques to posterity for everyone to learn.

But the twelve disciplines were these: Reinforcement: the art of strengthening structure through aura by saturating physical matter with aura. Most aura users begin here instinctively. Something that I tried in the past but never really trained. I basically skipped the basics completely. Enhancement: the art of increasing physical output by amplifying movement, speed, strength, reflexes, and bodily performance both for the vessel and for items.

Another of the basics, something that I'm sure Adrian already knows how to use very well. Recovery: the art of restoration and stabilization. It stimulates natural healing and internal repair by guiding aura through damaged systems. It could also help with toxins, poisons, and magical adverse effects, such as curses. Disruption: the art of destabilizing aura systems. Disruption attacks the opponent's aura directly rather than their physical body.

Apparently my cursed aura already had a particularly strong disruption aspect when dealing with curses and external magic, something that is natural for me, and it's actually listed in my traits. Pressure: the art of imposing one's presence through aura. Pressure weaponizes the soul's presence itself, overwhelming weaker beings mentally, spiritually, or instinctively. Something that I was able to do already even before reaching the first safe zone.

I remembered using it on Gilbert, at the time it was weak as hell, but I still managed. Miflin thought I had a talent here. Projection: the art of releasing aura externally by sending aura away from the body while maintaining shape and force. This was very different from what I did. I had actually never practiced this without relying on my skill, and apparently that was cheating. Expulsion: the art of explosive aura release.

At first glance it looked similar to Projection, but Miflin assured me there was a distinction for a reason. Expulsion prioritizes sudden force and overwhelming output over sustained control. Absorption: the art of consuming aura. Despite how aura is generated, she assured me it's not impossible to absorb external aura sources and convert them into usable energy. But it's one of the hardest disciplines to master. Shaping: the art of giving aura stable form.

Shaping allows aura to maintain structure outside the body. Basically my specialty, for now. Perception: the art of sensing through aura. The Perception stat could be used to extend awareness beyond ordinary senses, using aura as a sensory medium. Very useful against assassins. I wasn't sure if I was already instinctively using it or if it was all my Arcane Sense skill. I needed more testing. Conversion: the art of altering aura properties. Another of the hardest disciplines to master.

Conversion changes the behavior or nature of aura into specialized forms, including elementalizations and many others. I was thinking of aura lightning after remembering that bloodline about cursed lightning. Fusing the two concepts together could really be something worth keeping in mind. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Imposition: the art of forcing aura upon reality.

This was considered the highest form of expression, and quite often it was related to mastering a law, but despite the difficulty it wasn't impossible to learn even without any laws. Something that I still had yet to touch and probably wouldn't be able to touch for a long time if what my Aureal teacher was to be believed, because Imposition extends aura beyond simple manifestation and imposes the user's will onto the surrounding world. It was probably the most esoteric concept for me to grasp for now.

There was still much more to learn, but for now she deemed it enough. It took basically most of the morning to get primed on aura from my new teacher, but I had a greater understanding of how aura worked now. I didn't think this was wasted time, even if I didn't really train that much. This theoretical knowledge would let me practice even on my own. Knowing that something was possible was already good enough.

I would take everything that Miflin taught me and add to that with my own findings, after all it was her who said that mastering aura is mastering the self. I would have to work much more after today. I had choices to make, a guild to manage, and foes to overcome. And a massive headache. I returned to the waking world with my body stiff and nearly out of mana. This was despite my stats, what the fuck was this? It was way too painful. I felt like my brain was on fire and melting.

I had to resort to using a portion of the life-force stored in my ring to bring myself to a functional state.

"I told you." Yeah, fuck you Miflin, you told me, yes. Now leave me be.

"Don't make that face, we progressed greatly today. In the next session we will start with basic exercises, but don't forget to improve and review my teaching on your own."

"Are you giving me homework?"

"Like any proper teacher should." She was far too happy for my tastes.

"Ok, so, I had a question unrelated to aura."

"What did that tiny human say?" She started tapping her chin with a finger.

"Ah yes! Shoot!" I wanted to strangle her, what the fuck was wrong with her mood?

"I was wondering if I should use some of my tokens, or if it was better to continue as it is."

"What tokens do you possess?"

"Trait, skill, class, attribute evolution tokens, and a skill insight one." Her face went rigid, as if she had frozen in time.

"What in the... I knew you still didn't use the attribute one, but what about the others?"

"What about them? I wanted to push for more achievements. I didn't know if evolving my class would block me from getting more, with the token I mean. Evolving it normally I think is a mistake for now. I'm plenty strong already." She looked at me as if I was dumb.

"What many more achievements do you think you can get?"

"I don't know, that's the point." She shook her head.

"You already managed to gain the Paragon of Transcendence, which is crazy for someone who isn't a scion of powerful Clans or Houses. Not only that, but you gained Perfected Being too... you do know, right, that the System is made to reward specialization?"

"No, not really, I thought synergy was the best way of progressing."

"Synergy is a great way of going about things, but in the wider multiverse where resources are scarce, this is not something that happens frequently. I mean you finding natural resources left and right, having a shop with any kind of item you can possibly need, and paying peanuts because you can remove curses by yourself." She was nearly shouting by the end.

"Sorry, it's not your fault, but you must understand, when you are out of this place, you will find a vastly different environment. Your skills will progress extremely slowly, you won't find such easy access to monsters, well, not on your planet at least, and especially not at the level and in the numbers you would need for progressing easily. Everything will be harder, especially advancing your class.

While the series of Paragon titles will help you immensely, it's a real possibility that you will have to accept a class evolution you didn't want, or simply not change class and continue progressing with the one you have because you didn't unlock more requirements for a better class." When put like this, I didn't know if I wanted to leave the tutorial... actually I was starting to understand Adrian, not that I would ever tell him, but still...

"I can't fully grasp everything but I have an idea, so in the end, what is the best progression for me now?"

"Use your attribute token first, you know which stat to use it on."

"Willpower."

"That's a given. After that evolve all your skills after pushing them a little. If you can manage to create better synergies it would be great. The trait token... that is something that really is a wild card. It would shape your class incredibly based on where you use it, along with the skill insight and evolution tokens. If I were you I would point everything toward aura. I know you are a curse user primarily, but your aura is so intertwined with your curses that it really won't disrupt your talents.

Actually, it could bridge them and create something really powerful. After all of that, use the class token, take the new trait and the free skills, then evolve the class the normal way again."

"How many skills would I gain this way?" Now she was really selling this whole power-up thing to me. If there wasn't much more to gain, it could be worthwhile.

"As a Tier II you already possess many skills thanks to the shop and the token you already used for a class evolution. Yes, I can tell. Not the best choice by the way, but to each their own. After the double class evolution and reaching level 50? Well, you would gain five new skills total, and two traits... it's... a lot." She was right, and actually if I didn't care anymore about the achievements tied to level, I would be able to evolve again at level 50.

I should have accumulated enough experience to reach the maximum already, no? After all I killed thousands of spiders and those dreadful insects, not to mention the Venomfall Serpent.

"Ok, I will work on it, first the attribute. But for the trait token... I still have to evolve my Curse Resistance trait another time, and I'm not sure if I can really do it before getting the crown."

"Oh, about that, don't worry, I have a way."

"What do you mean?" She raised her golden-white translucent hand and opened it.

"I mean that I can help you evolve your trait in the matter of five days, if you are willing to go through hell..." I paused. Was I willing to go through hell for that? What a stupid question.

"Tell me how, master."