10 A Nightmare or A Blessing

As its jaws moved closer to my neck I felt powerless, my muscles refused to budge. I could only wait for my demise, but just in the nick of time.

"Psychí ..." Her voice sounded like she was on the other side of the room, and her words, as if she was underwater.

Soon my eyelids pried open, but she was not on the other side of the room, she was beside me, and Mr. Rockwell by her side.

"Are you ok?" She said wiping the sweat from my brows with a cold cloth.

I laid there unable to respond, unable to move. I was twitching and my muscles could be seen rubbing against each other under my skin stiff. They waited realizing I couldn't respond. As my muscles relaxed and seemed to get smaller, the sweat over me ceased and I felt my strength returning. With the strength that seemed to be sprinkled over me for its insufficiency, I spoke, soft but none the less.

"I... think... so." Rose seemed to be relieved, the sigh she gave said as much.

Mr. Rockwell looked worried, even after I spoke. Then he spoke.

"When you're feeling better... come to the workshop." Those were his only words before he stormed off, not looking back, as if he had left the furnace on or something.

"As long as you're ok." She said as she smiled.

"What happened?" I mumbled my strength slowly returning.

She sighed." Where to begin. I came to wake you at twelve because you seemed completely out... but." She paused as if not wanting to tell me.

"But." I said wanting to know what had happened to me.

"You were wet, sweat. You were breathing heavily and flexing, you were holding on to the sheets pretty tight as well. I got closer, worried, and... You had canines... not normal canines, canines two inches long, all your other teeth were sharp as well, too sharp, your nails were black and pointed... and it looked like..." She paused her face looking worried and a little disgusted.

"And." I said again, conveying I was ready to hear everything.

"It looked like something was moving below your skin." Her face now showed the sight was unpleasant to say the least. "I called father and when he came... he just stood there in shock. That's when I started calling out to you. It was ten times until you responded." She held one elbow looking away.

"I don't know what to say honestly. I don't know what happened, but I think I'm about to find out, from Mr. Rockwell." I said raising myself out of the drenched bed.

"Mr. Rockwell." She laughed. "Why call him by his first name if your just going to use mister anyway." She assumed a smile now.

"To be honest, both his names sound like a last name."

She laughed once more. "Anyway, see you later." She walked out of the room waving goodbye as the door closed.

The act could now stop. I started desperately grasping for air with my nostrils, I held my head trying to cope with the swelling pain, my bones creaked, and my muscles stung. It felt like the time I jumped off a cliff, but worse.

I crawled to the bathroom, tossing away my wet clothes. Finally in the shower I was barely able to reach the console, pressing continuous shower. As the water bombarded me I could feel the pain ease, I laid there in the fetal position, being unable to do anything else. After ten minutes the pain stopped, but I was still weak. I used the little strength I had and took a proper shower before going down to the workshop.

As I entered I could see Mr. Rockwell tapping away at the screen. I got closer but he didn't pay me much attention. I averted my eyes and looked at the screen, what he was looking at was spirit inheritance on what seemed like a database. I didn't connect the dots but I would soon understand.

"I'm sorry." His first words shook me, he didn't have anything to be sorry about, or did he.

"For what?" I squinted my eyes looking over at him.

"Well... Lets start from the beginning." He took a deep sigh. " First, and this is important so listen. Some animals have their skills linked to their spirits, while they have no souls, the mass of mana that inherits and grows with their being remembers their entire existence. You killed a wooly panther... an animal that has its skill linked to its spirit. When you killed it, you inherited its spirit. when I came into that room... I saw something fascinating... and equally terrifying. The panther's spirit had almost completely overshadowed yours. If you were using spirit manipulation this wouldn't be a concern, but you weren't. You were asleep. This is on my shoulders though. My neglect and lack of foresight." He then had his hands rested on the table.

"What do you mean."

"There's something known as force activation in spirit manipulation, it applies here as well. I can see people's spirits, or rather their aura. When I saw the flame I shrugged it off, the skill was called kill aura after all, I had seen spirit manipulation users before and it looked the same, I should have known."

"You said something about forced activation." I said reminding him of his original topic.

"Oh yes, all animal spirits are linked to an emotion, this is the basics of spirit manipulation by the way so listen up. This is called the emotional chart. You have anger, peace, happiness, sadness, sadism, mosaicism and stoicism and some overlap. After inheriting a spirit like you did, it may be dormant... like it was until... wooly panther falls under anger, whatever you thought about got you angry enough to forcefully awaken the spirit. As I said... sorry... it was my fault." He looked down clenching at the table.

"Is this all bad?" I asked trying to find the good in the situation.

"If you learn to control it, it's amazing, spirit manipulators are some of the strongest mages... if not... ruin." His eyes reflected memories, bad ones.

"So, what happened to me?"

"Well with spirit manipulation, it overlays the spirit over your physical body allowing you to transform and do things you couldn't. This happened forcefully, the spirit attacked you at your weakest, in your sleep, meaning your body resisted the transformation hurting you in the process, as I said, equally terrifying, I can only imagine the pain you held back, thanks for not worrying Rose." He looked over at me his brows weighing down his eyelids, he was sad.

"I'm better now, and thanks for the transparency and information."

"Of course, as your mentor, it's my job to ensure your nurtured growth. If I was cryptic and held things back how would I be a good mentor." He then smiled.

"So how do I control it."

"Well, that I do not know, my guess is you'll have to put it under subjection or confront it, gaining its respect, and maybe then it will allow you to use its power freely. Oh, and one last thing... two actually. Don't get knocked out and get ready for training, you're late.

"Yes sir." I said, soon after I went and had my balanced breakfast and changed into my sports gear.

He brought me to a stadium or rather an arena behind the estate in the woods, a waterfall was at one end, the falling water pooling at the bottom, floating boulders stacked like a tiki totem at the other and targets of all shapes and sizes. A stone wall encompassing it all, like he had excavated a hills insides from the top, a stair winded down the inside clinging to the wall. The floor was white washed, moss was sprinkled everywhere and vines crept up the sheer walls.

"Let's begin." He said as he descended into the hole. "First basic spells and spell creation."

First on the list was hardening and strengthening. I already knew how to harden my body so that would be the easy bit, or so I thought.

I had to stand under the waterfall, hardening my body ensuring it didn't break, this would also gauge my mana capacity. The first time and last time I lasted two minutes. The mana was pouring out uncontrollably and as such it was depleted and made the ability inefficient. As Mr. Rockwell had identified the two main problems I had, he could fix them.

As I stepped from beneath the waterfall Mr. Rockwell walked towards me.

"Have you realized your two gates yet?" He said wrapping his index finger around his middle one.

"I don't know what that means." I was confused.

"Turn around." As I turned around he put his fingers on my back, where my mana entered my body. "Calm down, breathe." As I took in a deep breath, I felt something pierce me, yet strangely there was no pain.

Then suddenly, I felt a space inside, it had three loose spheres flowing into themselves like yarn, one was green, another white and the other a dark purple. These were my cores, the one I got upon entering the world, the one I was gifted... and the one I stole. They were all in my chest area, there was even a new space overlapping my entire body.

Even the gates were now outlined, loose circles on my chest and my back. The one on my back syphoned mana out of the air and flowed them into my cores, and the one on the front spilled out the converted mana into the overlapping space, though it still felt like my body.

"Now that's out of the way, try again. This time fill the space overlapping your body with mana and try not to let any get out. When you have achieved that, condense the mana until it cant be condensed anymore." He then stepped away a questionable distance, and was then looking at me expecting me to get it right.

I was then fully concentrated on getting the technique right. As I thought about where I wanted the mana to go it moved, not like before but like clay in my hands. I went around my body holding in the mana and soon enough it started to condense. It filled the space and then kept getting darker, soon the color was akin to black. I soon found it hard to move, I actually couldn't move at all. Then it got harder and harder to hold in the mana until I couldn't anymore and let it out.

As the mana inside me exploded outwards so did the ground below me. As my mana fell to the floor gushing outwards... it took the floor with it. The floor followed my mana, spilling outwards until my mana dissipated and the ground stopped moving. I was now in a small hole, about three meters in diameter and four feet deep. I was surrounded by a frozen tide, or rather wavy earth that followed my mana, I was like a droplet frozen in time.

I could no longer see Mr. Rockwell, but soon enough the ground returned to normal propping me out of the divot and returning the rock to normal. Mr. Rockwell slowly came into view his hand on the ground and green mana pouring out into the ground shaping it back to normal.

"Two birds, one stone. Now you know how hard you can get your body right now and that you can manipulate the earth, congratulations." He was smiling from ear to ear. "You have a strong earth affinity to displace so much earth on the first try."

"I didn't mean to do that. I didn't even know it was possible."

"Well you did well, and it can be better. Harden your body again, but this time make your joints shallow having little to no mana." He stayed as he instructed, surprisingly.

I did what I did the first time but that time leaving my joints shallow. I could then move my arms and legs but for some strange reason I couldn't bend my back or neck.

"Did you forget your back is a length of joints going up to your neck." He smirked.

I did but I wouldn't say it aloud. Making my back to neck shallow I could now move freely, though hard as iron. Then it happened again I was reaching my breaking point.

"Close your gates Psychí, it's as simple as that." His instructions kept coming.

Then, focusing on my gates, I could close them. I no longer had the problem anymore and I was staying solid which surprised me.

"Sir, why isn't my mana dissipating. I don't seem to be losing durability." I was now walking about getting used to the feeling of having no feeling. No touch to be exact.

"Well there are two types of spells, abilities and even skills. You have the ones that require an upfront cost and the ones that require a cost overtime. This is one that requires an upfront cost. Manipulating the ground is an example of a cost overtime, as you manipulate the ground, the mana is outside your body and as such dissipates and returns to a natural state."

This was good to know and I hadn't even thought about it before.

"Next, there's nothing more to learn here, as this spells improvement depends on your mana density, something that I will not be able to teach you about now in such a short time frame. To the good parts now, manipulating earth."

He put his hand on the ground and started to make something, the ground bubbled and contorted beneath his hands, soon it took form. It was Rose, down to every minute detail.

"While it might take you years... what am I saying. Earth is my weakest affinity so this took me years, this should take you months. This too." He stood up, his hand above the sculpture, then I could hear creaking like that of an old door. Then the figurine jumped to life. It walked about, and it wasn't even robotic. "This is now a golem, get to work creating your own." He then returned the stone to the ground, filling the void it had left.

I stooped down and based on what I knew I got to work. I poured mana into the ground through my hands which was now seamless due to realizing my gates. The ground started to bubble beneath my hands too, but as I directed the mana upwards the ground broke apart. I tried again and again but no avail. Mr. Rockwell just stood there, patiently.

I was trying to replicate what Mr. Rockwell had done but it proved too complex. I then shifted my focus to making something simpler. I made six rough cubes, staked them together in a vague humanoid shape and then stitched them together by pouring mana into each cube and allowing it to flow into the others. I had the golem but no way to move it, just like I couldn't move my body. I applied the same principle as my body and made the joints shallow whist making everything else condense.

As I pulled the mana forward in the golem's arm it moved but got disfigured. I then remembered how mana spilling out was a problem and so I kept it inside, when I moved it again it didn't get disfigured. Everything he had taught me came right back to what I was learning.

"Now move away and make it move, like five feet." I couldn't imagine doing something like that, but none the less I moved away, then I was just standing there confused. "Don't you still feel and see your mana." He was right I did. "Now think about moving it as your own body." He had taught me so much before and now I was not going to doubt him.

As I thought about moving my mana inside the golem it moved. As I stepped back seeing how far I could go my jaw was dragging on the floor in front of me. I was in disbelief, I was happy and even a little scared. The ability to control something remotely like that made me fear the worst. As I stepped back and was about ten feet it fell to the ground and shattered.

"Good, now fix my floor." He said with a smug look on his face.

I walked over to the golem, and as I put my hands on the floor and flowed mana through the shattered pieces of the golem flattening it to the floor, it worked and refilled the hole.

As I stood up he showed me the next demonstration.

He lifted his leg and in it I could see the condensed green. As he slammed it against the floor it flowed out, but unlike mine it made spikes when it stopped.

"Always remember that you can sculpt your mana into what ever shape you want." He said as the spikes receded into the floor. "Your turn, he was yet again silent and watching me."

I lifted my leg as he had done and slammed it against the floor. As it flowed out I shaped it into spikes and lifted them up into the air. It soon came to a halt, but it worked none the less. There were spikes going towards Mr. Rockwell though not as sharp as his spikes they were decent for a first try.

"Next, attack magic, watch carefully."

He put his hand out in front of him and made a ball of white mana about the size of a pebble, as he propelled it forward a whip could be heard but not seen, even though I could see the mana, I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge the attack as it would be too fast. As it hit the wall it shattered, pieces of rock flying everywhere. There was also a small hole in the wall about the size of a tennis ball.

"Your turn." He took his usual state, silent and observant.

I put out my hand in front of me and made the same pebble. As I thrust forth my hand, I heard the whip sound, though this time it was more violent and fast. It hit the wall and made a hole about the size of a basketball, debris flying everywhere.

"So you have a high wind affinity too do you, how high I wonder." He rubbed his chin.

It was then I remembered I had been gifted the wind affinity.

"I think I might know why, I was gifted the affinity by a lesser spirit." His eyes winded and his jaws dropped. "You are one lucky kid, you know that. No wonder it was so much better." He looked at the crater once more. "Next a water-based attack."

He put forth his hand once more and that time a dark blue could be seen. Soon water started to form in front of his palm, drop by drop. He then flattened it and shot it at the wall, that time it left a precise cut like a blade.

"Your turn." He said and did what he always did.

I put forth my hand and changed the color of my mana to a dark blue, and to my surprise the same phenomenon happened water was now right in my palm. I flattened the mana and the water followed. As I shot it out the wall was gashed but this time rugged and shallow, like a dull blade.

"Good enough, next fire." He really wasn't going to focus on the details.

He put forth his hand as usual, but that time he formed the mana about four feet away from his person, it was crimson in color. That time he did not propel the mana, but instead poured raw mana through it; it had no color. Though regardless of the color he was then a human torch, I understood why he had it so far in front him. It was a white blue flame, the hottest possible.

I didn't even wait for him to tell me my instructions, as soon as he had finished his demonstration, I dove right in.

I lifted my hand and created a red, though surprisingly it was not crimson but a light red, as I poured raw mana through it, it created a yellow flame. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

"Ha ha ha, you didn't think you were going to get a white flame did you , don't be disappointed my strongest affinity is fire." Though I understood what he meant I was still disappointed.

"Let's not break your streak, next." He was taking no breaks.

He walked towards the lake the waterfall created and then poured blue mana into the water, and soon was sculpting it, after getting a ball he changed the color to a white-blue and soon it froze and fell back into the lake.

I waited for no que, I got to work. I found it easy to sculp the water and in the same vein I got the same white-blue and the ball of water froze, falling into the lake.

"One more." He said reaching into his back pocket. Pulling out, desaturated paper, and a stick of coal. The paper was the paper used to cast written spells at will, or in layman terms, an empty scroll.

He passed it over and told me to recreate the earth attack spell we had done. His instructions were also exact. I was to use the old language. This was technically easier than the science route as you could just use sentences, but it required you to learn the language. Lucky for me it was in the tablet Cecelia had given me.

I stooped down and wrote each step, and as I plastered it to the ground and poured mana into it, the spell was cast and spikes shot out in front of me, and soon they receded into the ground.

He started to slow clap, almost condescendingly but soon stopped.

"Wow, that was my last idea for shaving some percentage off your final score. A solid hundred, color me impressed." He looked surprised at least, his eyes were plastered to the scroll.

"You were grading me?" I said surprised, "I thought you were just teaching me."

"I did teach you, what you just learnt is the foundation of every basic element. If you couldn't do them in a relatively short amount of time, this would have been useless since we only have two days left." He said his face expressionless.

"I guess your right... wait two days?" I though I had at least five more.

"I miscalculated, forty-eight hour flight, registration and an orientation. Woops." He smiled as he finished his sentence.

"So do we have enough time?" I was worried we weren't going fast enough.

"Enough time? I only have one more thing to teach you, a spatial awareness spell, I thought you'd move fast but not this fast." Rockwell would scratch his head.

"So that's it?"

"Yup, it was an honor being your teacher." He bowed himself.

"Woah. We're not out of the woods yet. You still have something to teach me." I made sure to remind him.

"Silly me. Since you were gifted the wind affinity lets go with wind, it's the best regardless. But before I teach you this one, you need to understand it so you can build on it later." He sat on the ground. So, I sat with him.

"I'm ready." I said, my full attention directed at him.

"I'll only be explaining the basic wind one though. Is that okay?"

"It's fine by me." I was happy with anything.

"Okay so first you need to understand why it works, and I think this will answer questions you didn't even ask. First, the moon." He pointed upward.

"The moon?"

"Yes." He said smiling. "Long ago in the old era, when man was young and the Primordial spirits still walked the land unlike now where they have hidden themselves. The oceans were without waves, the night dark all year round. Then... they saw something, it grew bigger and bigger in the sky, it got closer and closer, they feared it would be the end of organic life, but then. It stopped getting bigger and started to slowly get smaller, but they realized something. This object as it came close gave life to the seas, light to the dark of night. So they decided to keep it."

"Keep... it?" This was too much, even for me.

"With their powers combined, they threw a lasso, one of mana, and held the behemoth in place. As a result, Efforia's life force, mana, started to gush out, it was an overtime spell, and even after thousands of years , efforia is still using its mana to hold onto its moon. Soon this substance found its way into man, animal and plant alike. Man seeing these huge, bigger than life creatures sculpt mountains out of plains, seas out of deserts begged, petitioned and so they were granted the power to do the same, but a minority thought it was theirs, their birth right. They disrespected the spirits and as such they took back their power, the ones who had done nothing wrong came again unto them to make a final plea, and they heard, but their actions weren't without consequence. Man now had to move with the spirit's power, call their names as they used it, whatever it was, as long as it was respect, the spirits were happy. " He smirked.

"That's what the limitation of respect is, seriously... not that I'm surprised it's our fault." It seemed so trivial but it all made sense. "But what does this have to do with spatial awareness magic?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Well, let me continue then. The energy that poured out of the earth so abundant, mana, the life energy of Efforia, was basically its spirit. The spirit of anything can remember its entire existence, and if possible, find its way back to it. Meaning if you were to spread your mana and let them communicate with each other, you could see your whole surroundings, and the more mana the more detail, but the further you go away the stronger Efforia's influence is on your mana and eventually, it returns to the earth, lessening the detail further away, though, with proper training this can be counteracted. It is also important to remember that when creating a flat detection zone that overlaps everything it comes across to give you you're image, it's cheaper than a dome or a cube, my choice is a circle. That's what I recommend." He then stood up and stretched, before he started to tap away at his watch once more.

"That's it." I said standing up myself.

"Here." A spell was now being projected in front of me. "Go into your mind and put it somewhere, somewhere permanent." I memorized it.

Then it happened, as soon as I entered my mental expanse. My cores were below the invisible floor, they were in full view. I could see the process my mana went through to become my own. I now understood why there was darkness there before. I had not realized my gates.

A loud snap brought me back out.

"That's a problem!... you can't just become incapacitated every time you go into your mind. I think I know what were about to do for the last two days." He smiled, a chill went down my spine.

"Well I'm not incapacitated, I'm still conscious, I just don't pay any attention to the outside world." I could see outside my body, it was hard not to notice in fact.

"Well that's going to stop, just you wait. Any way did you do it?" He looked around me as he spoke.

"No, not yet, I was admiring my mana expanse."

"I didn't think that would happen too, wow, you are one lucky boy. Any way do it."

I went in and it added to my mind's eye and my view of the outside, a new screen that had the spell. It stayed.

"Done." I left my mind.

"Well, I was going to do something else but... a little experimentation never hurt anybody." He said chuckling to himself.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's hurt and killed a lot." I said concerned for my own well being.

"Since you can see your mana expanse from in there, can you interact with it." He looked at my chest.

"I don't know let me try."

"Just try to harden your hand." His eyes seemed to focus on the unseen.

As I entered my mind once more I peered down at my cores and thought about where I wanted the mana to go and it went there.

"Good. Now to wherever you have the spell, flow mana into it to power it." He could actually see it, his words confirmed as much. 

"What... that's my mind remember." I was confused one brow high above the other.

"Just try." His face twitched in annoyance for a moment.

"Fine."

As I looked down at my cores and the corridor where they all intersected leading to my spilling gate. I imagined it branching off and powering the spell, and it did. Soon I could feel every pebble, every ripple and every bit of wall we blew off, I could even feel Mr. Rockwell.

It was like I could see everything without looking. I could see a white outline of everything, though grainy it was in real-time and detailed enough for me to tell exactly what it was.

"Did it work?" He looked around, perhaps he could see the spell as well.

"Better than you could have imagined, I can see everything." I felt omnipresent, if even a little.

"How do you like one thousand square feet, you can change it anytime, since you can read the old language, and if it's pulsing too fast, every millisecond, you can turn it down, to preserve mana OfCourse, though I doubt you'll have to. How much mana are you expelling?" He said smiling with intrigue.

"I can barely even notice the usage."

"Just what I expected, since you were gifted the affinity by a spirit and their mana efficiency is way higher than ours, you barely even notice. That's good, so are you going to turn up the distance?" He looked to the edge of my spell.

"No way, I'm still getting used to comprehending more than what my six senses provide." I was a bit nauseous actually. 

"No problem. Just turn it up when you feel comfortable. Anyway, I'm going back, practice all I taught you for a while before coming back." He then flew out of the hole with wind magic leaving me in there alone.

It seemed he had casually forgot to teach me it and I was not about to use the stairs. Plus, I had a sneaking suspicion it was a test.