Author's note: I initially wanted to bring this out yesterday but... I had computer issues (RIP) so I couldn't, I got it fixed today so I should be good to go again!
Enjoy!
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Zaran sat down into a lotus position again and started to breath in and out very slowly. Before he could create a pellet of one element he had to attune to the element first. It was a very basic step but it was still not an easy thing to do. The rate at which one would attune to an element largely depended on their affinity. While a good understanding of elements could increase this process, if one's affinity was bad it would still take a large amount of time.
Slowly Zaran's consciousness started slipping away while attuning to the nearby wind element particles. At first he could only feel his breath escaping his body, soon after he could sense the minute changes in the air that happened as he was breathing in and out. He started to focus on the elemental particles that entered his body as he breathed but upon doing so he noticed that he could no longer notice the minute changes, forcing him to start over again.
This time he did not make the same mistake and just let his consciousness float away completely. Soon after, his mind entered a hazy state as he started to feel the wind gently brushing through his hiar, against his clothes and against every uncovered part of his body. His body started to feel like it was one with the wind and as if every little breeze could make it float away instantly. Zaran suddenly started to feel very small in the world. Like he was just one speck of dust among a billions upon billions of other specks of dust.
With every breath his understanding of how the wind affected his surroundings grew larger and larger. He could sense the wind blowing against the grass and blowing against the trees and felt it gently kissing the water surface, making it seem like it was urging the water forward. Even Kirin's and Cindarrah's calm breathing could be clearly sensed by Zaran. Finally he was at the last step to attuning to the wind element, where he was feeling every little change that the wind created in his surroundings. After spending half an hour in that state of mind he started sensing the nearby wind element particles. One by one their presence appeared before him. Another hour passed until he could no longer sense additional wind element particles appearing.
Another hour passed before he finally dared to command the wind element particles to move according to his will. He gently commanded them to swirl around his finger. At first nothing happened but slowly but surely the particles started to twirl around his finger. After one swirl the particles settled down again, not moving to another command Zaran made. Zaran didn't let it bother him and tried again, this time not being as gentle with his command. Instantly the particles started to swirl around his fingers but with too great a force causing small cut wounds to appear in his finger. Zaran made the particles stop and then commanded them again, this time making his command in between the forceful and gently one. Now the particles moved exactly as he wanted causing him to be very relieved. He commanded the nearby particles to stick close to each other and only after they formed a ball the size of a fist did he start condensing them further.
The particles didn't struggle too much and soon a small barely visible translucent pellet was formed. Immediately after it was formed Zaran stored it away, not giving it time to break apart again. The system recognized it as an item and after Zaran took it out again he could still clearly feel the particles but they could no longer move of their own free will. Praising the game system, Zaran stood up and stretched for a while. Before sitting down again he started thinking about 'Nature's gift of the elements'.
Through his previous experience in creating the wind element pellet he had started to remember more about the technique. While the basic technique involved the four elements the complete version also had a dark and light element pellet added in it. Another thing he remembered was that every type of element had their own type of command they would listen to. Wind and water particles required a neutral sounding command to be given before the particles would fully obey towards the command, earth and light needed a gentle sounding command and finally fire and darkness needed an aggressive command. For example wind would react to "gather" whereas fire would react to "come!".
After remembering that dark and light elements could be added in Zaran started to contemplate if he should add them straight away or leave them for later. Thinking about some of the easier to create spells he discarded that idea of adding light and dark in early on as none of the easy dark or light type spells he knew were area of effect damage spells, which was what he needed the most. He guessed the dark and light AOE spells would be far too complicated with his current wisdom.
He took of his shoes and firmly planted his feet in the soil. Next up would be to attune to the earth element and create an earthen pellet. Zaran let his focus shift to his feet that touched to soil and let every other thought disappear from his mind. Slowly he started to sense every speck of dirt that touched his feet. Soon after he became aware of every little thing that moved in the earth. Still after having that same feeling for an hour not a single earth element particle had entered his awareness. He tried starting over but the same thing happened.
Zaran frowned and tried to remember more about the gift of the elements and the attuning to the earth part. But he just couldn't remember more. While the initial knowledge came back fairly soon, everything else was still a grey zone in his memories. He started to mill over the possible things that he could have over looked for a while until he came up with an idea that sounded plausible. While he had felt everything that moved in the earth he hadn't sensed how the earth affected every living being nearby.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He started attuning to the earth element again and tried to shift his awareness to what the earth was affecting. Surely enough this time the elemental particles rapidly started appearing before him. With just one gentle command the particles formed a beautiful light-brown pellet. Again he stored this pellet in his storage ring before the elements had a chance to revert to their previous state.
Not giving himself time to rest Zaran started working on attuning with fire. He sat down in a lotus position as close to the fire pit as possible and let his awareness shift to the heat and power it produced. His awareness swiftly drifted away and the explosive force of the fire was the first thing he became aware of, while the comfortable warmth came second. Finally the third part showed which was the boundless hunger of fire, a desire to devour everything in its presence. Not much after the fire's hunger showed itself the fire elemental particles started appearing one by one.
Zaran commanded them to join which they swiftly did. But after a few seconds the elemental particles reverted to their previous state, viciously burning Zaran all over, instantly taking away half of his health. Zaran waited a bit before commanding them again. This time he kept giving them command after command and soon a blazing hot fire red pellet entered his hand. This pellet was swiftly stored as well.
Finally it was time for the last element. After already having gained a wind pellet, gaining a water pellet was fairly simple as the process had been remarkably similar. Once he got the cold and light-blue water pellet stored away Zaran gave his mind an hour to recover.
While creating any of the pellets could've caused his dead by itself, creating a mana seed with this method would be a hundred times more dangerous. The four pellets would all enter his body at once and he would control them to fuse with a cell in his body. After fusing with the elements that cell would instantly become a mana seed.
However due to the enormous amount of energy that even a single pellet held, controlling the fusion was an extremely hard thing to do. Unless one was completely in control of the elements would the fusion be successful. This made it so Zaran would have to give multiple correct commands at once to the different element particles that would be in his body. While it sounded like it would be very simple to do it was an almost impossible task to fulfill. Unless one had an extremely strong mind one would never be able to pull it off. Through reincarnating over and over Zaran's mind had naturally strengthened many times over. While initially he had thought of himself as a weak minded person he no longer felt that way.
Quickly taking the four pellets out of his storage ring, Zaran threw them in his mouth and swallowed them without a second thought. Instantly the elemental particles in the pellets started to go wild and Zaran threw command after command at them, slowly but surely guiding them through his body. Still, his control was not perfect and some of the particles sought their way out of his body, heavily injuring him in the process. Zaran clenched his teeth as he kept going, slowly but surely perfecting his commands.
It was only after every command was correct for multiple times in a row that the elements started their fusion with each other. They swirled around each other and melted in to each other to form a beautiful rainbow colored pellet. After this rainbow colored pellet was formed Zaran guided it towards the area above his dantian and fused it with a cell. Due to already having fused the different elemental particles together they did not refuse his further commands and a rainbow colored mana seed was swiftly formed. It instantly started sucking in more of the nearby elements and produced a translucent blue liquid within itself.
Zaran watched over the mana seed for an hour and a half. It was only after the mana seed had stopped taking in the nearby elements for a full hour and after it had settled down completely that he dared to stop keeping watch over it. Zaran let out a deep sigh and wiped his face that was covered in beads of sweat. Just a day had passed since he had gathered enough ki for the time being and the amount of mana in his body had caught up just an hour after creating the mana seed! Zaran was praising the Nature's gift of the elements when a message box that he had been expecting popped up.
You have created a forbidden cultivation technique. Please name it.
Congratulations on creating the forbidden cultivation technique 'Nature's gift of the elements'. Do you wish to publicize your name?
He had quickly named the technique but did not dare to share his name for this one either. Both this one and the heavenly cloud condensation were very rare and immensely powerful techniques. Normal people wouldn't even be worthy enough to know their names. Needless to say Zaran was slightly annoyed by the system again as the world was notified of the creation of yet another forbidden technique.
Zaran let himself fall on his back and watched the sky for a while.
So mana and ki are now present within this body, what should my next course of action be?" Zaran thought as he wracked his brain over the best possible training methods now available to him.