Julius didn’t know why Professor Youma had asked him to stay behind. Did he do something wrong?
Professor Youma had assistants helping out with the class like the other professors. So he waited for everyone to leave before he paid attention to Julius. The older man stood up from his place on his desk and started to roam around the room. He didn’t say anything to Julius, but he just paced around the room.
Julius started to feel a bit weirded out by the situation and was about to walk out on his own. However, Professor Youma finally turned to look at Julius, “How did you get your aura skill?”
Julius was not expecting that question. He had been predicting the man would ask him why he was taking this class or something along those lines, but not that.
“Pardon?” He acted confused.
“It's clearly already past the uncommon stage, and it's a high-grade one also. Gabriel had told me about you earlier, he was so excited. In the many years I have known him, I haven’t seen him quite like that,” Professor Youma said offhandedly.
Julius was taken aback. It seemed that Gabriel had told Professor Youma about Julius. He had promised Julius that he would not share any of his secrets. Julius shook his head in annoyance, he really thought he could trust that Gabriel wouldn’t share his stuff with anyone.
Professor Youma interrupted his thoughts and reassured him. “Don’t worry, I know what you are thinking. He didn’t even tell me your name or year. He didn’t really tell me anything, he was surprisingly tight-lipped about it. The only reason why he told as much as he did was because I have known Gabriel since he was your age.”
“So how did you know it was me?” Julius asked.
“It wasn’t hard to figure it out. He told me that the person was very strong for their tier, but the fact that he hadn’t mentioned them before made me believe that they were a new student. That meant the list was narrowed down significantly. I counted only four people in your class who had an aura skill. So I paid attention to you four first. Two of you were artificially given an aura skill, so I discounted them, Gabriel wouldn’t be that interested in people with their types of personality either. So that just left two of you. The other student is a mage, so I also eliminated her. That just left you, a combat student. To be honest, I didn’t know for sure, but your reaction just now confirmed that it was you,” the old man explained like it was obvious.
So if I had continued to play dumb he might not have known. Did I just get played by this wrinkly old fossil? Julius felt like he had just been taken advantage of.
“What if it wasn’t me? What would you have done afterward?” Julius asked annoyed.
The old man had sat back down on his desk, swinging his legs back and forth. “I was pretty confident. I noticed you when you walked into my class this morning. If you are trying to hide your strength you might want to do something about your aura.”
Julius must’ve made a confused face, because Professor Youma continued on, “Your aura has a unique mana signature, which is something that occurs with people who have large amounts of mana. It gets mixed in with your aura, but if anyone with good senses investigates closely enough they would be able to see that you have more mana than most Tier 2s.”
Julius frowned upon hearing that and was worried about what that would mean. All of his other thoughts were put on hold. “And there are ways to hide it?” Julius asked concerningly.
“Of course, it is actually a very similar process to what we had done today in class,” he said.
Julius hadn’t heard of a mana signature before, but from what Professor Youma was saying, it was like he could tell how much mana Julius had based on it alone. He had only been at the academy for several days, but he had to wonder how many people had already noticed his large mana capacity. He hadn’t had many run-ins with that many Tier 4’s yet, but that might change soon.
Also by the sound of it, it would be a good skill to learn either way.
“Can you show me?” Julius asked the man.
The old man smiled at Julius, he didn’t say anything, but he got up and walked over to a set of chairs a few paces away. He ushered Julius over, having him sit down.
“Okay, the first thing I am going to do is give you a general feeling of containing your aura. Don’t move or react to what I am going to do. It is going to feel weird but I want you to get used to it,” Professor Youma instructed him.
Julius took a deep breath and let the old man do his thing. He felt the old man’s aura, begin to squeeze his aura. Julius didn’t even feel the man’s aura move. One moment he felt nothing, the next he felt an enormous pressure containing his aura.
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The best way Julius could describe it was that it felt like he was being shoved underneath a pool of water and suffocated. Professor Youma definitely downplayed how weird it was going to feel. It was slightly terrifying, and he instinctually lashed out with his own aura.
However, Professor Youma’s aura was light years stronger than Julius’s. It didn’t even budge, as Julius smashed his aura against his. It just continued to squeeze the life out of Julius.
It got worse and worse the longer it went on. He could feel the excess aura emitting from his soul and filling up the bubble Professor Youma had him trapped in. Julius recalled what Professor Youma said about containing his aura and using the excess to fuel other techniques.
So he tried to use some of his aura to empower his body. He felt his aura infuse into his muscles and bones, strengthening them. The pressure was still there, but it had alleviated by a bit.
“That’s the right idea, but I can sense your aura still. You need to hide the fact that you are using it better. You are letting some aura slip out of control, which is why I can still sense it,” Professor Youma told him.
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Julius kept on trying, using his excess aura to enhance both his body and his constructs. It was difficult to get used to feeling like he was drowning in his own aura. Professor Youma had Julius attempt to even enhance his mind, which Julius hadn’t attempted before.
He had tried to empower his [Savage Dance] skill before with [Empowerment of Will] but that had sent him straight to dreamland. So he hadn’t thought of directly enhancing his mind with aura. It was a silly oversight, but it was better late than never.
Honestly, he didn’t see much of an effect though. It certainly helped stabilize his mind and focus, but it was still not as effective as [Savage Dance]. He didn’t feel like his mind needed a boost either, but it was a good thing to practice just in case he needed to use it in the future.
Around thirty minutes after Julius started, Professor Youma had him stop. He needed to get going, but he wanted Julius to keep practicing the technique later.
“How am I going to practice using the excess aura properly if I cannot even hide my aura normally yet?” Julius questioned.
Professor Youma thought about his words. “Well, you better learn how to suppress your aura fast,” he said while shrugging his shoulders.
Julius knew he was right, but practicing the passive enhancement technique wasn’t his only concern.
“What about when I meet someone who can figure out my strength through my mana signature?” Julius asked worriedly.
“You don’t have to worry that much. The only people who would be able to sense it are a very select few fourth years and senior staff members,” Professor Youma told him.
“So why did you make it sound like my aura was a huge deal?” Julius asked him.
“I just wanted to see your reaction,” the old man said while chuckling to himself. “It was quite funny seeing you get all worried.”
Julius didn’t know whether to thank the man or to punch him. He wanted to do both but ended up deciding on just thanking him. He still needed the old man’s help after all.
“So I don’t have anything to worry about?” Julius wanted to make sure.
“I never said that.”
Julius looked up to the ceiling and groaned inwardly.
The man must’ve seen his stress, and said, “Okay, take this.” He handed Julius a small ring out of nowhere. Julius assumed it came out of a spatial storage device, but he didn’t see him activate it. “This ring will help suppress your aura just enough to hide your abnormal mana signature from anyone with a good aura sense but it will also allow enough through so that nobody should notice anything wrong.”
Julius took a good look at the ring. It was a simple silver band of metal. At first glance, it was a plain ring of insignificant value. However, with a closer look, Julius was able to detect the intricate enchantments on the ring. They were so small and delicate, that Julius knew that this ring wasn’t as simple as he thought. Julius had zero doubt that this ring was expensive and Professor Youma had just given it to him.
Julius looked at Professor Youma and back at the ring, lost for words.
“It wasn’t getting any use from me anyway. I used to wear it when I was still practicing how to camouflage my aura,” he said casually.
“Camouflage?”
“Yeah, it is a more advanced technique that makes others believe your aura belongs to a person of a lower tier. Sometimes completely suppressing your aura is an indicator in itself. There are times when it is more beneficial to hide within the crowd,” Professor Youma explained to him.
That made sense to Julius. The act of blending in was a familiar concept he had seen in old spy movies his grandfather liked to watch.
“Anyway, I gotta get going. Once a week we can discuss your progress, but for the rest of the time, make sure you practice. It will take a while so stay patient,” he instructed Julius.
Julius promised to do that and was about to say goodbye, but he remembered he still had a question and stopped the professor.
“You said there were three first-year students who have aura skills other than me?” Julius was curious.
“At least three, there are always a few every year. Most of them always try to hide it, because it is a good thing to keep up your sleeve. However, some like that Patterson kid like to shout it from the rooftops,” Professor Youma said exasperatedly.
“And why did you assume I didn’t have an uncommon aura skill?” Julius wanted to know how this man figured out his aura skill so easily.
“When you get to my level, it is as obvious as you dancing on a cafeteria table naked.” Professor Youma chuckled to himself.
It was that obvious?
Julius noticed that Professor Youma evaded his question though. Julius was still curious but left it be.
He said goodbye as he watched the professor leave off to wherever he needed to be. Julius on the other hand, wanted to continue his aura training. He believed it was something important and wanted to focus on it for the moment. His other skills were hitting a wall, and he thought that he should try to shore up some of his weaknesses before anything else. So he headed toward his dorm to feed Drasil and then planned to go to a meditation room for some training.