Next morning started with weirdest possible question I could think of. After having breakfast with legendary Wizard of South, who was now somehow my new teacher, he decided to ask question he wanted to ask since day before.
"Is that your natural color of hair, Aiken?“
I was not sure what he meant. After all, I was just village boy, and never knew about fact that some rich people bought special potions to just change color of their hair.
"What do you mean, natural?“ I asked confused.
"Did you not change color of your hair using some potion?“ he asked again.
"No, i did not use any potion. Is it important?“ I asked.
"Yes, it is. Color of hair represents the color of soul. Every color of soul has its unique properties. Most ordinary are black and brown, less ordinary is gold blonde, but there are also many other colors, like dark blue, dark green, dark purple, silver white and many other. They are however extremely rare. But to be honest, I have never heard about red hair like yours.“ he answered properly, after realizing I as ordinary village boy had no way of knowing. After all, this was advanced magic theory, that one would not be able to learn in commoner branch at all and even in branch of honor, few opted to study as deep into theory as he did.
"Color of hair reflects color of soul? Teacher said black is ordinary color of soul, does that mean teacher's color of soul is ordinary?“ I asked.
"Your grandfather and father have black hair. Look at mine more closely. See?“ he answered and waited for my response with anticipation.
"It is... black?“ I asked in confusion.
"You little brat! Can't you see how it reflects light in unusual manner? Confusing my rare onyx colored hair with ordinary black hair.“
"Onyx?“ I asked. I had not even known what onyx was and had no clue it was also used to describe unique shade of black.
"Yes, onyx color, one of three most special soul colors in my opinion. Its unique properties can only be matched by silver-moon and amethyst-violet colored souls.“ explained teacher, who did not understand my question and was thinking I was in awe he has such rare hair color.
"What properties?“ I asked with excitement.
"When I cast my spell, I can also weaken spell of my enemy by whole tier of power at the same time. Isn't that amazing?“ he answered.
"That truly is amazing. Teacher is sure powerful.“ I responded, to his boasting. Then idea crossed my mind.
"Teacher, you said it is possible to change color of your hair with potion. Does that also mean you will change color of your soul?“ I asked.
Legendary magician laughed lightly, as if entertained by that idea.
"Of course not you silly brat. That would be completely insane.“ he answered with wide smile. Then he inspected my hair more closely.
"Truly unique color. Does someone in your village also have same color of hair?“
"Only my grandfather.“
"Does he also have soul power of zero?“
"I don't know.“
Teacher Alaric rubbed his own chin.
"Well, I will need to write this down later, but before that I will explain to you what you should do now. It is special type of really fast soul power training. Usually, it is not used, since it is harmful to ones soul development and after improving your soul power by some amount, it will become much harder to continue improving your soul power any further. If this soul training does not help your soul power grow, then it probably is really impossible.“ he explained.
I was ignoring possible negative effects after hearing about them from him, since I was still just a little child and had complete trust in him. After he finished giving me instructions, I calmly sat down, closed my eyes and started meditating, using method he just explained to me. I did not notice his stare full of expectations, since my eyes were closed.
After less than hour, I heard soft clapping of hands, so I interrupted meditation and opened my eyes.
In front of me, teacher was offering me crystal and in his eyes, there was hint of anticipation. When I touched crystal, once again, zero appeared on it, as if it was trying to mock my hard work. But yet again, teacher had shown no disappointment.
"Interesting. Seems like there is seriously nothing we can do about your soul. I honestly have no clue whether your soul is sealed, uncontrollable, or whether you even have magic soul at all.“ he said with excitement. His words however caused me uneasiness.
"But that means I will never become strong magician. Is there really no way for you to help me improve my soul power?“ I asked with tears in corners of eye.
As teacher noticed effect of what he said, he realised that excitement he felt about finding person with true inability to ever gain soul power was not appropriate.
"Calm down, Aiken, calm down. Why couldn't you be strong magician with no soul power. You are already able to cast tier six spells and you should already have lot of mana. As long as you can fully focus on practicing your spirit capacity, you will be able to become strong magician.“
"That is lie, strong magicians need to have strong soul power as well. My uncle told me that. Even if I train my spirit capacity, I will not be able to defeat those who have both spirit capacity and soul power.“ I protested almost on verge of crying.
"Aiken. Aiken! Damn, listen to me Aiken!“ he screamed, finally getting my attention. His sudden scream scared me little bit.
"Yes, normal magician with no soul power could never ever dream about becoming strong magician. But you are not normal magician. You have one special something none of them will ever have.“ he answered.
"I have special something? What is it?“ I asked, filled with anticipation.
"Me of course. Your teacher. Do you think there are thousands of brats outside who can say their teacher is strongest magician in whole world? I doubt so. With me as your teacher, don't you think, it would be possible to become second strongest in world? I can tell you are really fast learning brat, and with my help, you will truly become powerful. Who knows, one day, you might become greatest magician to ever walk this world.“ he said.
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For few seconds, he stayed silent, as if thinking about what he should do. Only ten years later has he told me, that it was point, at which he was deciding if he should give me [Greater Spirit Capacity Training Method] of his clan, or whether instead of it, he should teach me [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], one of six powerful techniques he found in ruins that made him grow to this point, of which he only mastered two and remaining four were too dangerous for him to even try them.
I do not know how my story would have developed, if at that moment he decided to give me technique belonging to his practitioner family. Would I have become just average magician, or would I find other way to power anyways? But truth was outcome of his dilemma was decided even before he thought about it, and there was only one conclusion it could lead to. This time it was not because of fate, but simply because teacher Alaric was kind of person, who was always wondering about everything, and once he had an idea, he had to test it. And at this moment, he started wondering about how far could I reach as magician should I learn mysterious spirit expanding technique. Moment he started wondering about it, what decision he would make was already clear. That was just kind of person teacher Alaric was.
"Listen, I will tell you secret technique that I found in ancient temple ruins in mountains, that I used to become strongest magician. It is technique called [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique]. You however are not allowed to tell this secret technique to anybody.“ he said. If you are thinking how could person as smart as teacher Alaric trust six years old child to not tell this to anybody, you are asking correct question. Answer was he didn't. [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] had five levels, and teacher Alaric was planning to teach me only first one.
First level of technique was only capable to help spirit grow in two times rate of his own family's technique would achieve. While such increase in speed was indeed great, even if this technique were to fall into hands of Wizard of North, it would merely help him reach one additional tier at best. Fourth level, that Alaric learned recently was compared to that more than ten times stronger. Giving away mere first level of this technique seemed like a joke to him. Even if I were to spread it to whole world, he could still laugh, because he not only had already mastered this technique to much scarier degree, he still had [Mystical Soul-blade Sharpening] technique that helped him reach his insanely high soul power, technique which he also mastered to fourth level.
Even his own disciple only knew first two levels of both techniques and there was no way Alaric would give him other levels yet.
"So listen closely, you should first completely empty your own spirit of mana, by casting some spells, ideally some that don't destroy this room.“ he said his first instruction.
I used few [Air Steps], in order to quickly waste all my mana.
"Great. Now listen carefully. You have to meditate and try to find your spirit inside your mind. Once you do so, try to force it to move in all possible directions, like you were stretching your own muscles. Once you know how move your spirit, keep moving it. As mana will be slowly restored to your spirit, it will become harder and harder, so when you can no longer move your spirit, slightly decrease amount of mana by casting spell. Understood? Actually, I will write it down for you. It will probably take few days before you can master it.“
"Few days?“ I asked. His explanation seemed to imply something.
"I know I told you I would train you, but after seeing how your soul behaves, I have some things I want to check in Royal library. It will take less than week, and after I return, I will keep teaching you.“ he said.
"Teacher, you are leaving? You just started teaching me today.“
"Listen brat, there is no point in me teaching you while you are like this. What would I teach you? Tier six thrash spells? If you want me to properly teach you, master this [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] I gave you and reach tier seven magic before I return. Also, please, do not leave this guest house. It is important for your safety that no one will know about technique I taught you, or evil people could take you away in order to force you to tell them.“
"I understand teacher. I will stay inside this house. I will master this technique and never tell it to anyone.“ I said with determination.
"Okay, Aiken. Wait for my return and keep training.“
"I will, teacher! I promise.“
Of course I did not notice mocking smile of teacher Alaric, as he left. Learning first level of of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], to the point that he could freely stretch his spirit even when it was filled with mana took him three months alone. It was impossible for six years old child to learn it in mere few days.
But Alaric had no knowledge of fact, that I already once managed to move my spirit once and moreover it was while it was full of mana. Just few days ago, while I was tested by elders of village for soul power, I accidentally managed to use movement of spirit to temporarily fool soul power crystal and make it show soul power of one.
That was why my spirit moved to my will without any problems, after I started meditating with almost no mana. I kept moving it, while mana was slowly recovering and even though it became harder to move, I still managed to move it. After mere three hours, I was already fully proficient, and felt as if I discovered new limb I always had but never noticed before.
And this limb was growing stronger as I kept practicing. After headmaster's servant, older woman who was probably just few years younger than my grandfather, who was fifty two years old, brought me dinner, i actually stayed training until late night.
Next day of training, however, boredom started to win over my patience. Six years old boy I was, of course I would not have enough patience. I started to try messing around with my spirit, making it stretch as much as possible, then contract as much as possible, stretch, then contract again. It felt more tiring than before, but I felt intuitively that it would be more effective then just random stretching. This however could not entertain me for long as my focus shifted from training to small shelf of books. These books obviously did not belong to teacher Alaric, but were part of equipment of guest room.
None of books were about magic, but I found one about geography of Southern Empire, which managed to keep me occupied for few hours. After eating lunch, however, I started to feel bit guilty since I promised teacher Alaric to keep training my spirit, so I returned back to it. For next three days, I spent about half of time training and other half reading all books from shelf.