Chương 206: Second Lesson

"You're up early! Ready for a new lesson? But I have to warn you, today we will test your control, it will be much- what the hell did you do to your aura?" Miflin's voice became nearly a shriek as she rushed over to me, floating around and prodding me with her own aura.

"Stop it, it tickles." I said tiredly.

"Elias, really, what in the Ghost Lord is even that? How did your aura become so, so… evil? If I wasn't so much higher level than you I wouldn't be able to resist the effects, you must have terrorized your people!" She wasn't wrong, but I could control my aura now, so I could decide whether to let it out or not, why was she so upset about it?

"I used that trait evolution token, and it came out like this." She looked me straight in the eyes.

"There must have been something influencing it… an achievement, or a trait, do you have any related to fear?" I sighed.

"Yes, actually I gained two more yesterday, but my aura had that fear component since I acquired the manifestation skill, and at that time I had nothing related to fear."

"Then it's your soul. There is no other explanation. Well, it's not that it matters in the end, it's just unusual."

"Are you sure it's not bad? Maybe I can work towards correcting it, but it doesn't create trouble for me for now, at least I don't feel anything different, aside from my aura becoming stronger after the evolution." She considered for a moment, tapping a transparent finger on her chin.

"That was a given, but I can tell that your aura now is going to make interacting with other aura masters quite difficult, they will always feel the fear and may look unfavourably upon you, otherwise it's an improvement like any other, there are infinite kinds of auras, and the more you progress the more your aura will reflect your path."

"You mean that the more I continue the more my aura will get abilities?"

"Something like that, it will reflect some of your skills and traits, but actually, in your case it seems the opposite. From what you told me, it's your skills and traits that are being influenced by your aura, not something unheard of, but usually it's a phenomenon seen at a much higher level."

"Because of the increased mastery of aura?"

"Exactly! But you broke many conventions with that skill, and it's helping you get in touch with your aura much faster than normal, then the tutorial is pushing everything too, and your achievements are doing the same, the increase in skill mastery is working on Aural Manifestation, and in a roundabout way is pushing forward your mastery of aura itself."

I thought about it, the tutorial was, according to Bikrmor and Vix, accelerating our progress approximately ten times over, then all my Paragon achievements were increasing the percentage of gained experience and skill mastery insight… then there was the bonus from the guild. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

I didn't really know how much I was getting boosted, I didn't know if the calculations were multiplicative or additive, but by adding everything even in the least optimistic calculation I was looking at a near 200% increase, that would be already massive by itself, but adding the tutorial as a base, I was looking at something like progressing my skills thirty times more than outside… damn.

My progress would slow to a fucking crawl as soon as I exited this place, I never thought about it in terms of numbers before, but this meant that a day of practice here was like a month outside for me. A month of focused practice, battle, insight, training, learning…

The new understanding helped push back the tiredness, after working for hours on the items I was done, then I took another nap, but woke up after only four hours, it was four in the morning, my mind didn't let me rest more, it wasn't even the curse's fault, I was simply craving movement, action. So I came here to proceed with my aura training and get some answers from Miflin before starting the day and going with my Guild to start our training.

The hardest thing I had to do was leave Rhea sleeping when I got up, I would have to talk to her about my current situation sooner rather than later… I just realized that I didn't even speak to her yesterday after we went our ways after lunch, I wasn't treating her fairly, but my mind wasn't really in the most optimal place either. Excuses, I could have done more. And I will, she didn't deserve it. I refocused on Miflin.

"Well, if my aura control will improve, all the better, I will take advantage of it."

"See that you do, I don't want to see my teachings wasted." She motioned for me to follow her from the entrance to the door separating the shop from her personal quarters.

"Let's get to it, I want to see how your aura improved after the evolution." I followed her inside the room and sat down on the pillow in the center, now there was another set of paintings on the walls, all emanating an unfathomable tranquil feeling as I looked at them, I couldn't pinpoint exactly their function, but if she put them here, they should provide some measure of assistance.

"You will understand their function soon," she said in a serious tone after noticing my gaze wandering to the paintings, the abstract lines didn't give any hint to their purpose, but if she said that I would see, I would.

"For now focus on getting into your soul-space, this time I won't help you get there."

"I understand, master." I said. While normally she was quite amiable, when she reverted to her teacher personality she was adamant about following some customs of respect I wasn't really well aware of, but it wasn't a bad exchange, even if calling somebody "master" left a sour taste in my mouth. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, I could feel my thoughts clearly, the pulse of my heart, the blood flowing, my breath following an easy cadence.

It wasn't my first time doing this, and even before the tutorial I resolved to try many different kinds of meditation, some exercises various therapists made me try had their principles rooted in some form of meditation or another. I soon stopped feeling my breath, my heart became background noise, even the magic in me was just a hum now, distant, after I stabilized my thoughts, I fell.

My eyes opened slowly, the black sun that was my soul was directly beneath me, while my skills acted like shiny satellites orbiting it, I was in a construct of aura similar to the one before, created by my subconscious. Miflin was floating in front of me, hanging upside down.

"Why are you upside down?" I asked her.

"Master," she reminded me. Right…

"Why are you upside down, master?"

"I'm not, there is no gravity here, there is no up or down, I am in this position simply because I feel it fits more." Ok, that didn't really explain anything, not that it mattered.

"So now we begin, and today it won't be a purely theoretical lesson, today we will test your capabilities, then we will delve into one of the main disciplines, recovery."

"Recovery?"

"Of course, it will help with your current undertaking, now focus, this won't be easy, or pleasant." When would it ever be? I readied myself, if this training helped with dealing with the cursed bracelet, I was all for it. I needed to learn as much as I could, and there was little time.

"I'm ready."