William feels the sheer heaviness of this new form of his Vector Claw. It's like dozens upon dozens of bricks are attached to his right hand. It is also very straining to his whole body and particularly his right side which feels like cracking from the pressure. Muscles, tendons, and knuckles are screaming in terror and pain in his forearm. Though, William doesn't even think of that, even if he wishes he wouldn't
He isn't one to stop when he wants to do something unless he has a clear reason to stop himself. This is Roman's task, so he will accomplish it like everything he has done so far. At least somewhat... eventually, that is.
William tries and tries to connect to the Feel of Annihilation, but it is to no avail. His mind isn't steady and calm for this sort of processing requirements of the Mindless Eyes, and also this pressure within his hand. It pains him... He can't think properly because of that and it makes him unable to control his Vectors well enough. It is so wild, William even feels a tingling sensation of danger and going out of control with his Annihilation.
So he starts punching his face with his left arm which is free.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
With a bit of a different kind of pain away, William restores his mindful attitude for enough time to follow up the Mindless Eyes to the end of this madness. The call towards the second skill succeeds and a flood of information enters William's mind.
Unlike anything before, this isn't like the Mindless Eyes that tell him something beyond consciousness. It isn't hard to tell or point out what exactly the System points to within this Feel of Annihilation. It is a supportive skill for his Element, so he has to proceed with no carefulness, but utter confidence.
This is a very clear-headed idea he has, so William must grab this choice.
The flood of information is something that is beginning to turn clear and understandable the moment this call stops.
William looks at his surroundings after opening his eyes. They have been closed since the beginning of the struggle. He endured the moments of pain within his seated position, as well as the hand that still points forwards. He could see the destruction of stones and many kinds of cracks in almost 10 meters in front of him, and even Roman changed his position.
William doesn't feel much from this sight, so he motions his real hand inside the claw to turn upwards. He uses the connections to the Vectors to form some understanding through the use of Feel of the Annihilation. He doesn't know why or what is this for, but he feels this is the right move to do so. This is for the sake and the core of his Element, and he should turn it down with some gesture, or a simple thought.
As if turning a gear down, William gradually spins his real hand in a try to appease his gesture with intent and seriousness. It slowly decreases the amount of Annihilation Element, until it returns to his Emblem completely. All it took was a couple dozen seconds.
Then, he goes in another direction with his hand, and the Annihilation Element returns from the Emblem towards the flow of Vectors. It was rather a strange sight when the crimson Vectors go back to his Emblem and then reappear with quite a power and pressure. It changes his whole Claw in turns of his real hand, but it takes some time. At least 30 seconds, which is a lot to consider.
As far as William can tell, this is a very hectic way to see and use this. The distinct crimson, and then the more deadly crimson, are easily recognizable from each other, so he knows he succeeded.
William looks forth at his claw, which changes shape, size, and strength with straining effects. He keeps turning his hand, adjusting and feeling the flow of vectors within his hand. There is also the pressure rising with his adjustments, making it seem he can do pretty much anything that he could.
He goes at this for 5 minutes, before finding the sweet spot which feels right for his newly acquired knowledge. He shouldn't go too far with this Feel of the Annihilation, nor too little. There is some sweet spot that will enable him to get the most out of this.
Now, his claw is about 4 and a half feet long, with still bigger and sharper claw than the normal one. It still has sharp points around the knuckles and wrist. They didn't disappear even within this sweet spot, or lower aptitudes. However, if he wants to, he can make them more pronounced and deadly, but that will put more pressure on his hand, and harder controllability. It is simple math. The more Annihilation, the harder control but the higher power. There are some cons and pros, which he has to figure out the more he will keep using this method.
If he wants, he could go even further and increase the strength of the Annihilation with the motion of his hand. He now knows how which feels strange to him.
Roman claps his hand while giving rare praise for William's sudden success and great accomplishment.
“Excellent! You did phenomenal work. I thought it would take much longer than a single hour to figure out the Feel of the Annihilation and how to control the Element. Most would do it much longer and use a whole day for that.”
“Hour? Where?”
“Yeah? It has been an hour. See?” Roman pulls another timer from his pocket, which is for his personal use. It's already past the 60 rotation, which shows that 1 hour has passed.
“It felt like 20 minutes at best. Maybe even less than that.” William argues, feeling confused and conflicted in this case.
“Oh, you... Did you feel that? It's normal. Have you ever heard of meditation and things that go within mindful training?”
“Like the made-up stuff when one is calming himself in a sitting position and trying to feel some nirvana or some other made-up stuff?”
“Heheheh. Yea. Something like that.” Roman chuckles but still chose to agree with him.
“I read some books about it but nothing more than that,” William replies in honesty, which stems from his experience on the 3rd and 2nd floor of the Library. After all, he spent a long time there in the past 6 weeks and whatever was interesting to him, or was recommended to him by Mi-Yung, he read it.
“You just spend your 20 minutes what felt quite shorter for you. In fact, more than 1 hour is gone. This is a basic meditative state that could be achieved by the Walkers when comprehending certain things in their System or Skills. You just generated this state without me or you knowing. That is quite nice.” Roman clarifies William's previous wonder, which sounds more like unhinged mockery to William.
“Oh... That explains some things... but it still sounds weird to me. Should I be worried about spending seconds in this state while hours or days would pass for my senses? That sounds... Does it even makes sense?” William asks Roman, but more himself.
“That's rather extreme, but even that is possible. I have never experienced it though, but I heard some cases of hard-earned comprehension upon some battles or whatnot. It isn't a bad thing, William. Like you with your Annihilation. Do you think you did badly?”
“Well... I succeeded. I can tell that, or did I not?” William asks, while still sitting down, and observing his big Claw high in the air. “It feels much calmer now. Similar to the Hand, but this feels stronger, and the Annihilation Element is under my control.” He tells Roman who nods in reply.
“Remember to reach this state in combat. I would dare you to strike some rocks, but those aren't so easy to get here. Maybe later in the week.”
“I can see that. Though, I am rather curious about how powerful this thing is now. There won't be no combat-related instructions from you?” William asked in wonder since Roman only tells him stuff while watching his progress. Apart from the first moment when he destroyed that rock, nothing indicated any combat training.
“Are you curious about fighting?”
“I would lie if I wasn't. Walkers fight against Dark beings and that is common sense. Of course, I would like to see what I can do, but not against any monsters... or... I don't know how beginner Walkers even train, so I apologize if I sound a bit strange.” William shakes his hand and awkwardly scratches his head with his left hand.
“Rank 1 Dark beings would still tear you apart, William. That, I can tell you right away.” Roman argues but doesn't mind this conversation at all. He feels it's right to have the mental fortitude to seek the fight, but some things have to come first. The problem in most cases would be, when the fight starts, what then? That is the trouble of intuition, and experience, and Walkers constantly are dying because of the lack of them.
Roman is quite aware of problems that low-rank Walkers experience and their survivability of them is important. Yet, the majority of deaths are within the beginning, and that was always the case even in the past.
There is no fine line between being combat-ready, and being mentally ready for going against the Dark beings. Their sole purpose in life is to destroy and seek out the Walkers and humans have one problem. It is the nerves and mental fortitude as well as the human sense of self-preservation.
Dark beings don't have the last thing, which makes them quite a nightmare. When meeting death, even the brave could turn to wimps, and cowards, dying in agony so fast, it will turn their minds to mush. When monsters of utmost strength to reach the mind of inexperience, it can lead to disaster.
But there is a simple solution to this, and that's the experience and further improvements until one feels certain they can go toe to toe against them. The wild Outside and the fight against the monsters that caused this apocalypse is the core of the Walkers. It has always been this way, but reaching these steps is harder than one would think.
Roman knows it far too well since he watched countless Walkers dying left and right in many missions, and occurrences of the Hordes, or... something else that he would rather not even think about.
“I can see your eagerness, so some information is good to tell. These 10 days have a formal format that I had to keep up with. It is up to me what to do with them, but the last 3 days are most important. I will be your combat instructor in the last 3 days of this 10-day period. Others Walkers who are going with the Trial are also doing this and that is about it. 7 days of some comprehending, and 3 days of combat training. So far, it's not worth trying to teach the combat, until you will get familiar with Skills and things around your Emblem a little bit better. You expect a lot for your start, yet you know nothing much and aren't prepared for the real deal. Be patient and do things from the word of experienced. If that makes sense...” Roman explained his truth, which is nothing but facts that he believes in for as long as he remembers.
“Alright. I am plenty patient. I simply asked because I was curious about it. That's that, and I have no issue with taking it slower.” William replies while speaking nothing but the honest truth as well.
All that he has, is himself to blame if he isn't strong enough and that has been his view on the world since the day he lost the hand of his mother.
Now, he feels a different kind of power and gladness in his hand. This power that goes through his right hand is something he feels a lot, and there is nothing but marvel and awe.
In fact, he no longer feels the previous pain, anxiety, and strain of the Vectors. Maybe it's because he found that sweet spot using the Feel of the Annihilation? That could result in these feelings, but only Roman saw the proper period of 1 hour which took place before his own eyes.
Roman is nothing but faking his calmness, which is hiding his surprise even through his previous words of warning. Though, he knows that no matter the talent, even geniuses should take things slowly, as William said.
“You did great. How do you think you can last in this state?” Roman asks the question that William kind of expected.
“I bet around 10 minutes like with the two Skills together? This definitely is something similar to that. I am using my Vector Claw, but this Claw is easier to use. I have no Inner Enchantment, and the Annihilation Element and Feel of the Annihilation are the only addition to this, aren't they? Wait... is it... 3 Skills? Is this fine?” William says in uncertainty.
It feels about right, but he is unsure if he should be right.
“Right. That's a quite high mark, but I don't know about these Skills of yours and your limits. You can be right or not. Who knows? You can only try to see it for real.”
“Even you don't know? Should I try?” William smirked at his question and feels some incentive to follow through with his idea to go as long as he could.
“Be my guest. While I guess I learned something new today, so do what you think is right for you. Feel of the Annihilation isn't something I have some experience with, but the general use of control of that Skill is quite incredible. Use it well, and your time limits could be drastically different from each other form of your Claw. That is at least my guess.”
“Alright. Should I sit and endure or do so while shadowboxing instead? Shadowboxing sounds like something I can do even with this, isn't it?”
“Listen...” Roman sights. “Do whatever you want, but make sure to not go overboard or become overconfident. Remember my saying of confidence. It's better to be safe than sorry.” is Roman's answer, which means he cares what he will do either way.
This leaves William in no dilemma, so he chooses to sit since it is calmer. This way, there is a base number of what he knows he can use. So, he takes his timer from his left pocket and makes an indication of 3 cycles of 1 minute. That should be the time that he already spent in this state, so he will see the additional minutes that will appear from this simple one-minute clock that keeps adding the minutes at the corner.
In this way, he will know how many minutes he will spend so, there is nothing else than a waiting game before William. He reaches a brand new state according to Walker's standards, but he doesn't even know about it for the time being.
All it took was just a single try.
A single hour.
That, in itself, was the most disturbing piece of excellency that William managed to do in the past 3 days since becoming a proper Walker. Not even the case of the System appearing in the Awakening is that surprising.
William keeps his sitting position with crisscrossed legs, while his longer ten normal right hands rest across his legs that are long ago bare. So far, his only clothes are his underwear, but for some reason, he doesn't feel a speck of shame. Maybe it is caused by a surge of power, adrenalin, and the faster cycles of his Vectors? They are in his body now, making changes and rapidly increasing his bodily functions, so that could be the proper reason.
He waits and waits while breathing in and out to let his fast-beating heart calm down. This is a stabilizing stature and a regular thing to do when one is trying to calm down. It isn't some fancy meditation. William doesn't have a lot of expertise in this, but he tries his best to remain in this state for as long as he could. Moreso, then what would Roman feel is possible.
Though he doesn't know what is even the maximum, or minimal capacity of his cycles in this Claw. Now, he has the option to find it out, but it definitely should be lower than before.
3 minutes go by, with another 5 afterward.
It's 11 minutes in his sitting position, while the flow of Vectors never stopped, but slowed down quite a lot. It is as if it is listening to the calming state of William's heartbeat. It stays afloat for longer than it should, while William already shut his eyes a long time ago.
This causes sitting Roman to frown, as he admires this sight while he keeps rubbing his chin with his fingers.
“It seems to me, that the Skills do more from the basics... The Annihilation Vectors that can become calm with the person? I heard about wild vectors and such occurrences, but seeing it so easily achieved... I am surprised, or even startled could be a better term. This could drastically increase the efficiency of using power, but doing so in combat is hard to tell right now. I doubt he will achieve anything more than 10 or 12 minutes outside of combat, but this is already admirable. This could mean his training speed of comprehending the System through Mindless Eye will be very advanced. If only... he will keep on going at this pace.”
While Roman keeps on wondering, by this point, William starts to sweat and feel formless pressure within his right arm. He could feel the rising problems if he will stop focusing his mind on his hand.
It also causes his grasp of the Feel of the Annihilation to stop working, which in the following 2 minutes, goes out of his reach.
His Vector Claw becomes harder to control, with a strain on his real hand. His muscles and veins are popping off of his skin, but no blood is yet to be visible. Gritting his teeth, William endures this pain, while trying to connect with the Feel of Annihilation once again.
The Annihilation Element is getting crazy through the lower restrains since William's mind is too strained, and tired.
“This should be about your limits, William. Don't force the unnecessary. Stop so I can talk to you face to face.” Roman orders, as he wouldn't have to force himself to do the unnecessary.
Alas for William, he keeps going and feelings of the pressure rising in his mind aren't stopping. It is no longer possible for him to restrain his Element.
William has no choice but to let go of everything, which in turn, causes his Vector Claw to explode in Annihilation Element. Completely unrestrained, the following explosion of powerful and deep Vectors shows how massive and powerful the force of Annihilation that is hiding within his Emblem is.
The Vector Claw forms a long blade-like claw of almost 5 feet in length, while the Annihilation Element in the form of Vectors damages the concrete as if it is tofu. It goes far, dozens of feet outside, and it is even charging at the distant Roman.
“Stop!” Roman shouts as he sees the sudden uncontrollable state.
He gets on his feet, bothered, but ready to stop it for the second day in a row. That... is quite a nice average, but nothing strange when it comes to the Annihilation Elements, and that, he knows.