Chapter 19) Results

A shadowy figure darted among the tree tops of the Grey estate. It's movement speed easily surpassing small arms bullet velocity, as it hurtled towards the edges of the woodland environment. Not a single sound could be heard as it finally touched down on the ground. As you could imagine it was me all along, Jason! After a week of meticulous experimenting and analysis of my limits, I finally produced some amazing results.

'I finally managed to use shadows with a mixture of spatial mana to be like those ninjas from that show I used to watch.' I had learned what that energy was called two days ago, when the ring finally decided to speak to me again. It had originally been begging me for energy as I had been using enormous amounts of its mana to do as I wished. The ring has no name, but it did have a weird quirk of always calling me 'Master'. It said that if I named it, it could "integrate" with me better, but I simply told it that I'd have to think a little longer about it. 'I have no idea what will happen, nor did the ring explain or really specify what it means by integrate.

Over the course of the last week I had detonated a few minor explosives so that the ring could have its fill, and each time I asked it whether it was finally full, it would only say "more". The damn greedy thing wanted me to waste all my material! I would not have it. I didn't end up telling Nick nor Tricia about all of my testing as I was trying to separate them from this whole magic business. Tricia got accustomed to my partial nudity fairly quickly, while always establishing a cute little relationship with Luna. Nick on the other hand, grew to be Kuma's new favorite toy. he would get gnawed on and pounced on everyday all this week, barely fending Kuma off. He strangely didn't seem to dislike it all that much though, and by the end of the week he had managed to react quickly enough to stop the pouncing from in front of him at least.

While I don't seem to have mastered everything quite yet, I did manage to reinforce both my internal and externals, effectively evolving my body to a super human level. I have gone through six mana baptisms for both of them and have finally reached a point where my body doesn't get affected by any level of mana that attacks it. Oh, the whole term for mana comes from that ring, cause it complained to me about my lack of understanding of such a basic term. It had been hearing my thoughts all this time, and simply told me what the energy was. I found it hard to believe as mana is only really heard about in games and such, but accepted the term nevertheless because it was the only reasonable word to use. As I gained mastery over a few standard elements of nature, these last two days I had been practicing what I have termed as advanced elements, or elements born or mixed from the standard ones. That ended up being light, dark/shadows, and then spatial.

Performing spatial magic was surprisingly easy with the use of my domain, as I knew a few physics theories that could be put to the test when trying it out for the first few times. One theory revolved around how teleportation could work. By visualizing the space in front of me folding up like paper, I pretty much "shorten" the distance I would have needed to travel in order to get to whatever location I was headed towards. I effectively folded the space in front of me so that I can travel vast distances with a single step, although I am currently limited to the distance within the confines of my domain. A special way I manipulated space though was as I had just been using it. As I move around, I hold myself in position for a fraction of a second to make contact with something, and erase the sound waves of my actions by collapsing the space that they formed. It requires an enormous amount of concentration, but I still barely made it work with space alone. That is where I blended in shadow magic, to smother any escaped noises as well.

I had been practicing moving like that all day, and finally showed a decent improvement. I kicked up a bit of dirt as I raced across the fields heading back to my house. After the sixth mana baptism, my body naturally moved as fast as when I used to reinforce my body with mana to propel myself faster. If I were to do so now, it would quadruple my speed, but I had no reason to go anywhere near that speed. Even if I only doubled my current speed, I would break the sound barrier with almost no effort. I reached my backyard within a few seconds, steam coming off of me after having been moving so fast and having suddenly stopped, putting a crater into the ground.

'Let's see how everyone is doing.'

I released my domain, easily encompassing the whole house, and immediately finding both Nick and Tricia playing with their respective new house friends. Tricia was riding around on Luna's back upstairs while Nick was play fighting with Kuma, and losing. I chuckled as I walked into the building. Luna and Kuma immediately knew I had come back and both started rushing towards me. I patiently waited for both to arrive while I heard voices yelling in my head. 'God these two have grown annoying over this week.' The voices were from my feline friends as I accidentally gave them sparks of intellect this week when trying to give them mental commands. It started with broken words, but both soon managed to make competent sentences and forge their own mental voices to match their respective ages. Luna mentally spoke like a mature older sister, with a sense of loftiness in her tone, while Kuma sounded like a young adult butler that has been wizened by experiences to make him act more mature. Overall though, when in my presence they melted their facades after talking for a few moments as they treat me like a young master or younger sibling at best.

"Nick! Tricia! I'm back! What are we having for lunch?!"

There was momentary silence before they both barraged me with multiple answers. Then an argument started between them as they couldn't decide what to have. The final answer ended up being "make anything you want to and we'll eat it Jason." I could only roll up my sleeves and let out a rueful sigh as a smile graced my face and I got to work.

'You'd think they would cook after being here a whole week and tasting my food? C'mon Jason, you know better.' As I thought this to myself the ring decided to pipe in now. 'Master, why is it you have small talk with yourself when there are clearly other humans nearby?' I could only flinch at that question. 'It's because I am stating questions I already know the answer to, and not wanting a real answer from the people it is being directed towards. It is called a rhetorical question. Its a question meant to state the obvious in a roundabout way.'

'Sometimes you worry me Master. You seem to talk to yourself quite frequently.'

I could only grimace.

'You know, exposing my problems like this isn't very nice to your master you know that? I do all of this so I can rationalize my thoughts before saying any of it out loud.'

'Then why haven't you told your two friends what you've been doing all week when you disappear on them? While this is your property, I would think they would like to assist you in some ways to pay you back for the good you've done them, and leaving them behind while you sneak off doesn't really give them the opportunity to help. I'm surprised they haven't confronted you on this matter already.'

The ring did make a decent point. I have been avoiding them all week so I can train more, and only really talk to them during mealtimes. 'Damn, a sentient ring is more open to socializing than I am. That is pretty depressing if I do say so myself.'

'You are saying this to yourself though.'

'Did I ask you? Stop jumping into my inner monologue like that. It throws me off.'

'Oh is that how you treat me after I change your entire existence for the better starting with giving you access to magic, and now giving you advice in being more human? I see how it is. Clearly someone believes themselves to be competent in a social gathering. I'll be taking my leave, o' glorious Master of mine.'

'Hey hey hey, I never said you have to go completely! How come you can act so human-like when you're just a ring?'

'How can you act less human than a ring is the better way of putting it master.'

" Hey-

"Jay why does it look like you're constipated?"

I turned around to find Nick standing there staring at me. Right behind him stood Tricia, and both seemed to have weird expressions on their faces.

"Shut up, I don't look constipated. I'm just trying to figure out how much work we're gonna have to do tomorrow. Did you both forget we go back to school tomorrow? Sorry to rain on your parades but we're still students."

Both immediately had pale faces before Nick came right back with a counter argument.

"Hey that is so not fair. You're only thinking about how much work WE have to do. You finished the curriculum last month. You graduate at the end of the year while we're stuck for another whole school year!"

My face grew pale while Tricia had a look of shock on her face. 'He's already graduating? Isn't he in the same grade as us though? I knew he was smart but I didn't think he was that smart.'

"Nick, you don't get lunch today." I said while having my face down.

He immediately started trembling.

"Hey buddy, pal, amigo, you don't really mean that do you? It was a slip of the tongue, honest."

I only glared at him, making him run off, sadly gaining Luna's interest as she now had prey running around the house. My gaze grew distant as I absentmindedly started making something to eat, completely disregarding Tricia's presence until she spoke up.

"Why did you not want anyone to know about that? Isn't it great that you're so gifted? I'm honestly jealous."

I could only shake my head.

"Trish, let me ask you this. Besides Nick, how many people do you see stick around me at school?Cause I'll tell you now, the answer is no one. Not a single person stays anywhere close to me besides Nick. The reason is that the people that know my family background are intimidated, either because of my financial might, or how my parents handle the people that only want my money. If they notice someone leeching off of me, they immediately separate them from me. The only person to receive their recognition is Nick over there, as he approached me for nothing other than to give me company. No ulterior motives, nothing. So overall I was isolated from my peers for just background alone, what happens when the same kid has talents beyond literally everyone in his age group? They compare themselves, and grow to resent him for having everything they don't. I made a choice to act like I struggle at school so I could hopefully make a few friends, but my background continued to push people away, so I guess my effort was meaningless."

'Why is this the typical "I'm better than everyone at everything so I suffer cause its lonely at the top" trope? Never thought I would meet the real world version of those. Jeez I didn't just dig up a landmine, I dug up the whole damn field.' She stood there with a heavy look on her face before seeming to make up her mind.

"Doesn't matter."

I looked at her with confusion clearly written on my face.

"Yup, I said it doesn't matter. So what if other people get all frustrated because of some weird inferiority complex? It's not your job to give a single shit about their feelings, its theirs. You have no reason to manage someone else's mindset when you have your own to deal with. I get you want to make more friends and stuff, but seriously, if they want to really be your friend, its a two way street. If they don't put in the effort the same way Nick seemed to have done so, then they have no right to be your friend in the first place. Its that simple."

Her words cut pretty deep, but understanding settled in quickly. She only spoke the truth, and I had to accept that, but damn was it annoying. She was now on the same line of thinking as the ring, and that irritated me more. 'Why is it everyone is magically wise and all knowing about me? It makes no sense.'

'Says the person that is now a superhuman, magic slinging, rich boy, genius scientist. You have no room to be calling other people abnormal.'

'I never said they were abnormal, I said that it feels odd that the people around me are poking holes into my negative mindset all of a sudden.'

'Well there is an answer behind all of this. It is because you've allowed more people to notice the problem, and now that they all know, they want to help fix it, whether because of feeling a sense of obligation, or because it is within their nature. Look at Nick. He naturally wants you to be happier as a person. Tricia on the other hand, seems to be more of the obligatory type. She feels indebted to you, and wishes to see you better as it would be a sign that she paid you back.'

All of this further made me fall into a mental turmoil. All of these emotions usually didn't run so rampant but with my barriers being pried open by the ring, Nick, and Tricia, I now had to face the problem of organizing myself or risk losing what makes me who I am.

'Wait that is the bigger question. Who am I? And what do I want? What do I need to do?'

My mind raced for solutions and found nothing. As I stood there in a stupor, my body started shutting down so that it could designate more energy and focus to that task. My vision started going dark and the last thing I saw was Tricia rushing forward.