Chapter 22 - Training II

As Daron got home, he went to get the box that had the power artifact that he had won from the competition.

Opening the box, he grabbed the power artifact and set it on the counter. It had a flat square on the bottom, with a sphere protruding from it, harsh markings were engraved along the entire area.

Activating the Scan skill, Daron started inserting energy into the artifact, and as soon as it passed 65 energy, some information popped up in front of his eyes.

[Ability Domain: Heresy Veins]

[Description: The persecuted of the living. The more scars one accumulates, the more power they hold.]

Daron frowned at the description. "Isn't this completely useless to me? My physique doesn't allow me to get scar tissue. It just heals to look good as new. Well, it looks like that's good news for Mr. Gail, though."

Packing the power artifact back into the box, he went to practice the next step of the technique.

Sitting down, he steadied his breath and closed his eyes. He then began slowing down the aspect of strength in his body. Though he knew this was the incorrect way of doing the technique, he felt he would be able to get to the point of being able to freeze the aspect all at once if he employed this strategy.

So, for the next few hours, he sat slowing his aspect of strength in his energy path as the system constantly alerted him of energy blockages and then alleviated the problem.

By the time he was done training for the day, he felt as though he could slow the aspect in his energy path a few seconds faster than before. A long way off of being instantaneously frozen, but it's an amount of progress that he could only achieve with the help of the system.

Thinking about it, he found it a bit odd.

"How exactly are the energy blockages being dealt with?" Daron thought out loud.

[The System will deploy safety measures to ensure the host does not stray from an equilibrium or corruption of energy]

[This was designed for the host to have the highest chance of survival]

He stared at the two messages for a few moments. "That... doesn't really answer my question. Yet, at the same time, it gives me a lot more questions I don't think I want the answers to."

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he got ready for bed.

As morning dawned, Daron headed toward school.

He arrived early to Mr. Gail's classroom, and it seemed as though Mr. Gail had as well.

"Mr. Gail, I've got good news! Well, good news for you, at least. I'll be handing the power artifact off to you, as it is entirely useless to me," he said.

"Oh, is that so? Entirely useless?" Mr. Gail asked.

"Yes, it's an ability domain called Heresy Veins. The description read, 'The persecuted of the living. The more scars one accumulates, the more power they hold.' Yeah, great. I can't form scar tissue. My physique just heals and makes it look brand new."

"Yes, that would be a problem. Though, I doubt anyone else would want such an ability domain either. Only someone with an equally destructive physique would probably like this."

"Well, it's in your hands now," he said, handing the box over to Mr. Gail.

"I can't thank you enough for this, Daron. Of course, I know you don't need it, but still. This will help a lot with my research. Even if it's not a power artifact with a physique in it, this ability domain seems similar enough to one. It should be fine."

"What do you mean?"

"Ah, of course, you know from experience that ability domains are more powerful than physiques. However, there are some ability domains that are nearly indistinguishable from physiques; some people don't even realize that they are ability domains at first. The key difference is, of course, ability domains can freely use energy outside of the body. Technically, as I've shown you, the physique side has the ability to do this as well, but we need to train to be able to do that. I imagine you'll have an easier time doing that now that you have the system. The ability domain in this artifact is similar to a physique as it is built off of the body. The difference is that it's using the outside of the body. Physiques use energy inside of the body to grow stronger over a long period of time. This is why I said it should be fine," Mr. Gail explained.

Daron nodded and then headed to his seat as more students were arriving at the classroom.

Once in his seat, he began his practice once more to learn to freeze his aspect.

He slows his aspect, the system deals with the blockages and repeat. Before the class was over, he was able to complete this process three times.

"How's your progress, Daron?" Mr. Gail asked.

"Slow, but I think I'll be able to freeze my aspect if I keep the strategy I've been using up," he answered.

"Strategy?"

"I've been slowing down my aspect repeatedly, trying to get faster to the point of where it's instantaneously frozen when I focus on slowing it down."

Mr. Gail nodded. "A strategy only you can do. I suppose I can respect that. Remember to be able to freeze all your aspects at the same time as well before moving on to the next part in the step."

"Right. Though the way it's described, you can freeze all the aspects at the same time, but you can't trap them all at the same time, correct?" He asked.

"That is correct. You would need another technique to do something like that. This step is only part of the beginning of the technique as well, so you'll be hard pressed to focus on learning this technique instead of learning another one."

"Yes. I was just curious about it. Thank you, Mr. Gail, have a good day," Daron said as he headed home.