Ciar entered his Psionic Studies room and looked around. The room was quite unique, even for Lunaris. To start, the entire room was made of smooth stone. Four large pillars held up a ceiling that stretched about 10 meters above Ciar's head. A variety of objects were scattered around the room, ranging from small boxes to massive boulders. In the very center of the room, in a space that was void of clutter, a basic classroom setup was present. There were about 30 chairs, with no desks in front of them. Facing the chairs was a single, plain wood desk. The only thing of interest in the classroom was the five red orbs that sat on the desk, each pulsing with a faint light.
Ciar sat down near the back of the chairs, and quietly waited for class to start. Just as the period started, Felix entered the room. He strode leisurely to a position in front of his desk, and faced the students, his hands clasped behind his back. He did a quick headcount, then nodded in satisfaction.
"Good, all 22 are present. Now, as I am sure you all know, I am Sir Felix, the Grandmaster Psionic of Lunaris. I am the only teacher of Psionic Arts in this institute. I found at a young age I had no affinity for normal magic, but found my calling in Psionic Magic. Does anyone here know what Psionic Magic is?" He announced, ending his introduction with a question. The class sat there for a bit, stunned. This was the first instructor to actually ask a question besides "Understand?" Finally, a female student near the front raised her hand. Felix nodded to her, and she began to speak.
"Uhh, the Psionic Arts are the use of one's mind to manipulate the world around them. Things like telepathy, telekinesis, and mental attacks." She said nervously.
"You are mostly correct, Miss, but you are wrong on one point. It is not actually the mind that is used to perform Psionic Arts, but simply your mana. Now, you may wonder what I am talking about, after all, everyone can manipulate their mana at will, correct? No. Mana can only impact other people directly, such as picking them up, when mixed with some form of essence. Now, Psionic Arts does not have a traditional essence. What we harness is called the mind essence. It is the embodiment of our own mind and consciousness. To find it, you must search inside yourself. Every person has mind essence, but only a few can find it. It concentrates itself into a ball inside of you, waiting to be used. Harness this energy, and you can truly become a Psionic." He said. As he finished, his brow furrowed slightly. Slowly, every single boulder and box in the room, around 100 in all, rose into the air. Each object slowly began to spin, then crashed back down to floor. Ciar, despite himself, found himself staring awestruck at Felix. He had assumed the man was powerful, given his position and relationship with the director, but to be able to lift thousands of kilograms without even saying a spell or lifting a hand to help guide the essence, was insane.
"As you can see, despite not directly harming opponents like fire, Psionics are quite powerful. Another application, as you said miss, is mental attacks. Now, to perform this, you harness your essence, and then try to insert it into the essence of another person. This is incredibly difficult to do, as not only must you control your own essence perfectly, but you must also find another person's essence and attack it. This will require years of practice before you can even attempt to assault someone's mind." This time, every student in the room bent over in pain, clutching their heads. Ciar sat in the back, unaffected. He assumed that Felix had performed a minor mental attack on all the students, but he could not tell. This was due to another one of his racial abilities, Void Mind.
Void Mind
Your mind is one with the void.
+Immune to mental attacks
-Emotions are dulled significantly (WARNING: OVERRIDDEN)
Felix, seeing that Ciar was unaffected, smiled at him knowingly. Ciar simply smiled back, then sat there silently as the students began to recover. He received some pointed stares from students, but shrugged them off like usual. Felix waited for the students to recover before continuing.
"Now, I know that being attacked mentally is a bad experience, but I wanted you to understand the power you are about to gain access to. Psionics are extremely rare and powerful individuals, as they can manipulate people to their whim without lifting a finger. You are all going to become powerful individuals if you work hard in this class. Now, any questions before you begin meditation?" He asked. Ciar raised his hand, a slight smile on his face.
"How can you defend yourself from mental attacks? It seems unlikely that Psionic Magic is invincible."
"Very good question, Sir. In order to defend yourself from a mental attack, you must put up a layer of mind essence around your core mind essence. This is usually done by drawing out the outer layer of your mind essence, infusing it with your mana, and creating a barrier around the inside. You can then manipulate this buffer to stop pointed streams of enemy mind essence that are attacking you. With enough practice this will become second nature to you. Now, if nobody else has questions, I would ask that each of you attempt to find your mind essence for the remainder of class." With those words, he went behind his desk and sat down, closing his eyes.
Ciar began to search inside of himself, trying to find his mind essence. Surprisingly, unlike time and gravity essence, he found it incredibly quickly. A small ball of essence swirled just behind his forehead, waiting to be used. He injected his mana into it, and began to pull the essence out of the ball. To his surprise, unlike gravity and time essence, his mind essence was tinged with gray. Ciar assumed this was an the effect of his Void Mind ability, so he ignored it. Pulling the majority of the essence out, he pushed it toward one of the smaller boulders. He had chosen to hide his ability in other classes, but he had already resisted Felix's mind attack in this one. Many students probably already thought he knew Psionic Magic, so manipulating an object quickly would probably only make them believe he had experience.
His essence now firmly around the boulder, he focused on lifting it into the air. It was much more difficult than he thought it would be. Nearly ten minutes later, Ciar was sweating profusely, but was also smiling with satisfaction. He had managed to lift the boulder off the ground about a centimeter, and received the two skills he wanted.
Skill Gained: Basic Mind Manipulation (lvl 1)
The basic ability to conform the essence of mind to your will.
Skill Gained: Basic Telekinesis (lvl 1)
The basic ability to manipulate objects with mind essence.
+5% mind essence power
Upon receiving the skills, the boulder had seemingly become slightly lighter. Ciar figured that the power boost from Basic Telekinesis had made his essence slightly stronger. Relaxing his grip on the boulder, he allowed it to drop to the ground with a small thud. Glancing around him, he saw all the other students staring at him in wonder.
"How can he already do that?"
"Wh-What? How? I haven't even found my essence yet!"
"And I thought my 60% affinity was high, he must have at least 90%"
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"Hmmph, he probably had prior experience, how else would he have lifted that boulder and remained unharmed when Sir Felix attacked..."
Ciar listened to his classmates murmur for a bit before returning his attention to the boulder. He focused on lifting it again, hoping to increase his skill. Sadly, no progress was made by the time the period ended. As Ciar was rising to leave, he heard Felix speak from behind him.
"Sir Ciar, would you please with me a moment, I would like a word."
Worried he had done something wrong, Ciar turned and walked nervously to Felix. The instructor glared at the students who glanced at Ciar, ushering them out of the room. When the room was empty of other students, Felix turned to Ciar, a smile on his face.
"You are exceptionally skilled, Ciar. I had always heard stories about how skilled "void-touched" beings were, but seeing it in person is a different experience all together!"
"Ummm, thank you Sir Felix...if this is what you wanted to talk to me about...." Ciar said hesitantly.
"Oh no, no, no. I am not going to ask you about your "condition." I simply want to offer you additional lessons after class. As I am sure you could tell, I am quite profficient in Psionic Arts, and I know many secrets that I won't be willing to share with the class. You, however, I think have the potential to surpass even me at Psionic Arts. Think about it! Psionic Arts are some of the most powerful magics in the world, and I could turn you into a Grandmaster."
Ciar considered the offer. It was true Felix was incredibly powerful, and that Psionic Arts would help him become much more powerful. However, he was already taking private lessons from the Miss Fellana and he did not want all his free time to be consumed by personal tutors. He needed time to experiment with his own magic. He wanted to work on controlling his Void Power, using Void Magic, and learning space and reality magic as quickly as possible. To do this, he needed alone time in his room to experiment. Besides, he also wanted to spend some time with Ryle and Luna, doing things children his age normally did.
"I-I'm sorry Sir Felix, but I must decline. I'm already taking private instructions from Miss Fellana, and I would like some time after classes that I can use as I wish...."
Felix nodded slowly, his smile never fading. "I understand, Ciar. Don't worry about it, it was just an offer. Now, you better hurry on to your next class, I hear that instructor doesn't appreciate late students." He said.
"Is there something special about the Lost Arts instructor?" Ciar asked.
"Oh, you'll find out when you get there. Now run along." Felix said mysteriously as he guided Ciar towards the door.
After Ciar left, Felix walked slowly back to his desk, his expression no longer one of joy. He muttered to himself, his voice angry.
"I had hoped he would take the lessons. It would have been much easier that way. No, no, Fellana can just influence him, she knows how....it's just a small setback. I can't push him to hard, or he might go the complete opposite direction. Best to back off for now, let Fellana take it slow....."
---------------------------------
Ciar stood inside his Lost Arts classroom, staring open-mouthed at the instructor.
"Director Hendricks?" he stammered.
Before him stood the director of the academy, though he was no longer dressed in his formal attire. His two horns glowed with a faint heat as he smiled at Ciar.
"That is correct, Ciar. I am the instructor the Lost Arts class, and you are the only student. I left the director meeting early in order to teach you this. You see, the moment I learned you were "void-touched," I knew this class would be possible. Ciar, nobody but you can learn what I will teach you in this classroom."
"Wha-what will you be teaching me?" Ciar asked.
"A lost art of hand to hand fighting. It was feared as one of, if not the, most powerful martial form before The Sundering. Sadly, all practitioners of the art died during The Sundering, and all records of the art were lost."
"Then...how do you know it?"
Hendricks winked at Ciar. "That will be my little secret, if you don't mind me keeping it. The martial form is called Udo, and was practiced by the Black Chord, the most deadly group of assassins before The Sundering. It prioritizes agility, mana enhanced movement, and terrific power. Sadly, even if the art was not lost, it would be impossible to practice with the current ages knowledge of body enhancement. You, however, possess a special body, if I am not mistaken. This body of yours will allow you to learn the art in full without repercussions. A fair bit of warning before we start though, this form will require dedication to learn. Your enhanced learning ability will help, but I believe it will not be as successful as it was in your other classes."
Ciar's mind reeled. First, Hendricks had implied that he had been around since before The Sundering. This would mean he had been human at one point, and was over 500 years old. Second, he understood Ciar had a special body. At first, Ciar had thought that Fellana had told him, but Hendricks had known about it since before he joined the academy. Finally,he knew about Ciar's learning ability. This ability wasn't even a product of being "void-touched,' meaning either Hendricks thought it was, or he knew what Ciar truly was.
Stepping back, Ciar spoke, his voice cold. "What do you know, Hendricks."
The Director raised an eyebrow, then sighed, his voice soft and calm, "I mean you no harm, Ciar, if that is what your asking. Trust me on this, even if I did know about your true nature, I would not share it with anyone, not even Felix. I know enough not to piss off the Progenitor. You can relax Ciar, I simply want to make you stronger, and Udo can do that."
Ciar relaxed slightly. It was reassuring that Hendricks knew about the Progenitor. While it brought up more questions about his true identity, it also proved to Ciar that the man meant no harm. Anyone with knowledge of his true nature and his Progenitor, would know that killing him would not be wise.
"Alright, I'll trust you Hendricks. Now, teach me about this....Udo." Ciar said.
"First, you must learn the basic form. I am going to teach you the first stance of the art. Just this stance alone will take you several days to perfect, even with your ability." he said.
Ciar was doubtful, thinking only of the stance as a simple way of standing. He was quickly proved wrong, however. Hendricks instructed him to stand with his feet slightly past shoulder width, the left foot slightly in front of the right. He then positioned Ciar's hands so that they hovered in front of his face, palm open and facing away from him. Ciar was then told to bend his knees slightly and straighten his fingers.
"This is the basic stance. Now, for the hard part. Use the Void Power inside of you. Infuse it into your muscles, your skin, your bones, your blood. Make your body Void. You have the power inside of you, it is simply the application of it that matters."
Casting his surprise about Hendricks knowledge aside, Ciar focused. He grasped at the rampant energy inside of him, and tried to infuse it into his muscles. He found it nearly impossible. The power refused to stay in his muscles, and often times the power caused the muscle to bulge grotesquely. In those situations, Ciar was forced to quickly withdraw the power, then return it slowly, healing the damage done to his body. Time passed, and unbeknownst to him, his final period of the day ended. Ciar remained in the Lost Arts room, under Hendricks careful gaze, attempting to fuse the power with his muscles.
Finally, 6 hours after he started, Ciar succeeded in the first portion of fusing his power with his body. His muscles were now tinged a faint gray, just like his skin and horns. When he shifted his body, he could feel the power inside of it. He felt as if, with just this alone, he could obliterate enemies into the void with a single punch. Off to the side, Hendricks began to clap.
"Congratulations, Ciar. You have finished the first part of the form. Your muscles will remain like that permanently. Naturally, you can still work out and have them grow. As they grow, you will need to rebalance the Void Power so that it remains evenly infused. You should be much more powerful with that enhancement, so be careful. Don't go around accidently pulling doors off hinges. Now, hurry up and get to bed, its past 11 o'clock."
Ciar did not reply, as a sudden wave of exhaustion rendered him unable to speak. He stumbled, and was caught by Hendricks before he could fall.
"Hmm, it appears it was much more stressful on you than I thought. I will inform your teachers that you won't attend class tomorrow. Now.....Sleep." Hendricks finished his statement with a command. Ciar felt a vibration of power in the speech, and then everything went black.