After returning home from the Alkena’s manor, Ezekiel spent the rest of the day helping his mother in her shop. Given that he was in no state to be using his mana and practicing what magic he could, he was ok with this, as there was little more that he could do beyond reading books he had already read and wasting time doing little to nothing.
Though he did take some time to practice his wood carving. Having found it to be a relaxing and fulfilling hobby that he was happy to spend time doing.
Little else happened for the day, but upon waking up the next morning, Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel quite refreshed. No longer did he feel a sense of lethargy mixed with a dull ache constantly pushing at the center of his brain. He was still slightly tired, but he felt like he could at least do a self-examination with his meditation.
So, he did, and low and behold, he was incredibly pleased to find that he still had one hundred motes of Void mana still remaining within his body.
What surprised him, however, was the presence of the single mote of Flame mana that had remained within his core for the last two days. By all the writing he had read regarding the subject, taking in mana that wasn’t a match to one’s elemental affinity would only result in it going out of control and wreaking havoc on one’s spiritual pathways until the mote ran its course and faded away.
A single mote wasn’t necessarily a death sentence, but it still should’ve caused him more damage than he had apparently received, yet it was still there, sitting peacefully within his now opened Chakra.
Focusing slightly to take a closer look, Ezekiel noticed something peculiar about this mote of Flame mana. While it wasn’t under his control, not like the Void mana that he could move around as he wished, this mote seemed to be unable to move as it was locked in by the Void mana within him.
Curious, as he knew the only control that he had over other elemental motes of mana came from when he stuck a mote of Void mana onto it, he figured that he should try to see what would happen if this singular mote of Flame mana was let loose, at least momentarily.
So, after carefully maneuvering that mana within himself so that it could quickly catch the Flame mana if it started going wild, Ezekiel released the Flame mana, removing its connection to the Void mana within him.
It immediately went wild.
Having never witnessed differing mana types react when they were freely left within the body, Ezekiel was shocked when the Flame mana started bouncing around erratically, moving from one Void motes to the next as it seemingly tried to get out from his body.
He even started to feel a slight burning sensation near his core muscles as the mana tried to burn him.
He had barely let the Flame mana free for a few seconds before he sent some of his Void mana to capture it in order to remove it from his body. Using the newton’s cradle technique, he sent the singular mote of Flame mana flying from his body with a sense of relief.
Opening his eyes, he couldn't help but place a hand on his stomach where he still felt a small tingling stinging sensation from the burn. He figured he should get his father to take a look at that before he had to leave for his duties today.
Yet, when he left his room, it was his father that he came face to face to, as Warren was standing in front of his room with a hand raised, ready to knock on his door.
“You’ve woken up early. Are you okay?” Warren asked as he gave Ezekiel a look over in concern.
“I’m fine. There weren’t any effects from yesterday or the day before, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Ezekiel said, before taking a second to correct himself. “Ah, wait, there was one thing.”
He then explained what he had seen occur within his core when he had tried meditating after he woke up. Warren immediately picked him up and placed him on the sofa in the main room before placing a glowing hand on Ezekiel’s stomach.
“Dad!”
“Quiet. You were going to tell me about this anyway so I could check it, weren’t you? So let me check it before we find out that your insides are a crispy cinder.” Warren snapped with an angry tone and a glare.
Ezekiel wisely shut his mouth. After a few seconds he felt a pleasantly warm sensation as his father healed his stomach. Laying back with a sigh, Ezekiel saw his father slump backwards to sit on the ground and stare at the ceiling with a sigh.
“Dad?” Ezekiel spoke.
Warren didn’t say anything for a few moments before looking down at his son in exasperation.
“You need to stop scaring me like this. Please, son. I don’t know how much more I can take.” Warren said with a tired voice.
Ezekiel winced in regret and guilt as he was reminded of all the times that he had terrified his parents with regard to his experiments with mana. His recent fight against Theo being just the icing on the cake at this point.
Suddenly realizing that his mother had likely seen what had happened, as she was usually downstairs at this time, Ezekiel whipped his head towards the kitchen area, only to see that it was completely empty. His mother was nowhere to be seen.
“I let your mother sleep in later today.” Warren stated as he stood up and made his way into the kitchen. “I figured I’d prepare breakfast today, make something she and your sisters can eat when they need to get up in an hour or so.”
Warren began pulling food items out of the ice box and preparing a morning meal for himself and Ezekiel, while also making extra for Evelyn and the twins.
Ezekiel then noticed that his father was not dressed in his uniform, but also wasn’t dressed in his sleep clothes either. He was instead dressed in loose yet fitting common clothes. A simple pants and tunic combination that was good for labor work and exercise. Ezekiel would know, as it was an outfit he tended to wear when he would sometimes go over to the Alkena’s when he was only intending to train, no studying or anything else. As he could do so without worrying about the defensive enchantments on his clothing activating with every hit he took.
His friends would often change into similar training outfits for sparring sessions as well, but he had never seen either of his parents wear such things. His father was almost always in uniform when Ezekiel saw him or dressed in something more appropriate for business or social gatherings, and his mother was always wearing a dress of some sort.
“Why aren’t you wearing your uniform?” Ezekiel asked as he sat down at the table.
“Because I’ll be training you, and this is easier for me to wear when I’m not working.” Warren said as he continued cooking. “Theo will be helping as well and is waiting at the Alkena’s making some preparations for us, and your mother will take over in three days when I need to get back to work.”
“How did you get time off work? I didn’t think that city guards could just take time off.” Ezekiel further inquired.
“Usually, you’d be right, but due to the trials going on with the Guild, we’ve found that much of the guards are unneeded for now, as there is little going on outside the Guild District. Or at least, that’s what Count Harkem has decided.” Warren explained.
“But that doesn’t make sense.” Ezekiel said, not understanding how reducing the guards, in any capacity was a good idea. “Wouldn’t this just make people more likely to break the law if the guards aren’t around?”
“Given that most of the guards that have been given ‘vacation time’ are those with ties to various Void Mages, and those that have made the most arrests in the last few months, I’d have to agree with you.” Warren told his son with a cold and frustrated tone of voice.
Ezekiel was silent at this. He’d always known that there were a lot of people amongst the nobility that didn’t like Void Mages for some reason, but the fact that they had the influence to reduce the number of Guards on duty meant that things were really bad right now.
“Are we going to be in trouble?” Ezekiel asked, worried that he and his family would be drawn into whatever was going to happen.
“I, your mother, and your sisters should be fine. But one of the reasons I’m okay with you going on that expedition is because I don’t think you’ll be in any less danger if you do.” Warren reluctantly stated. “Gerome is also quite powerful, being one of the dozen or so Tier four Mages in the city. Him being a Hunter just makes him even better.”
“Okay...” Ezekiel trailed off as Warren finished speaking.
Ezekiel and his father stayed silent for a little while as Warren finished cooking. The food was slightly burnt, but not too crispy because of it, and Ezekiel wasn’t going to complain given the mood at the table right now.
After they finished eating, Warren brought out the box with the remaining pure mana crystals. Handing it over to Ezekiel, Warren looked at his son expectantly.
“Well, since you’ve still got a way to go, it’s best you absorb those now. The sooner you reach a higher Step the better.” Warren said as Ezekiel looked at the remaining crystals.
With a reluctant feeling in his heart, Ezekiel absorbed the remaining crystals, bringing him to just over three hundred mana, with two more crystals remaining. However, Ezekiel did not absorb the mana in those crystals, as he knew they contained barely enough mana to reach three hundred and fifty motes.
It would be pointless for him to absorb right now, as he needed to have four hundred at least before he could reach the next Step, thereby increasing the minimum size of his mana pool. The mana in these crystals could help him break through later or refill his mana pool in a pinch.
Seeing that he hadn’t absorbed all the crystals, Warren asked him why he stopped. He accepted Ezekiel’s answer when he told him.
“Then along with this, we’ll dedicate at least a week before you leave to increasing your mana to the point that these crystals push you over the edge.” Warren stated.
Ezekiel and Warren then cleaned up and left the leftovers covered on the table before leaving the house. Evelyn and the twins would be getting up soon, so there wasn’t any risk of the food going bad.
“Hey, dad.” Ezekiel said as they made their way through the city streets towards the Alkena manor. “I haven’t really thought about it before, because, well, it took me five years before I reached Tier one, but why does it take so long for most people to reach higher Steps in lower Tiers?”
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Warren let out a bark of laughter as he heard Ezekiel’s question. His son had taken five years to break through to Tier one, when most took a year at most, and yet he was asking why others were so slow.
“What makes you think they’re slow?” Warren asked after calming his laughter. “I don’t suppose you think that mana crystals are actually common, do you?”
“Of course not.” Ezekiel said indignantly. “I just thought that I need to absorb twice as much mana as a normal person, but I seem to be keeping up just as easily as others my age. I can get over ten mana in one session if the ambient mana is full after all. That means that, if I wasn’t losing mana so much before I figured out that trick last month, I could’ve broken through in a couple weeks.”
Warren tensed up slightly as he heard his son’s explanation regarding his thoughts regarding mana accumulation. Being reminded of yet another thing that could be affecting his son’s mind.
“... Actually, since you can use all types of elemental mana to create Void Mana to gather, doesn’t that mean you can, potentially, gather mana four times faster than most people?” Warren refuted, doing his best to ignore the nagging thoughts in his head. “... There’s also the fact that your mind is stronger than most people your age. Very rarely can children like you create such defined images in their minds in order to attract mana as fast as you can. It’s why most do like what you used to, and train martially, so they can save mana for their breakthroughs to the next Step in their Tier.”
“Usually, only adults have the mental focus necessary to meditate and gather mana as fast as you can.” Warren stated, his tone proud, but weary.
From this explanation, he realized that Shari must’ve held back quite a bit when she had been sparring earlier. Both against Garrad, and against Ezekiel himself, as she must’ve retained most of her mana, and been incredibly close to the next Step to have broken through as she had. That, or she had spent as much time as possible over the last few days meditating to fill her core up that last little bit as quickly as possible.
Ezekiel said nothing as he thought about his father’s explanation. Thinking back, this made a lot of sense, as he knew that a lot of kids would have trouble sitting still, or otherwise not moving long enough to properly enter a meditative trance in order to gather mana.
He knew full well that neither Wendy nor Ellen had managed to enter a trance yet, but he hoped that they would manage it before he returned from the expedition. That would be great, and since he knew his parents were sharing their own techniques, he knew that his sisters would progress with great speed when they finally managed to do it.
He did feel nervous about his father’s mention of adult minds being better at focusing on the necessary visualizations for meditation, as he now knew that the only reason that he could progress so well was due to his reincarnation.
But as the two of them reached the Alkena manor, Ezekiel put those thoughts out of his mind.
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“HAAAAAH!!!”
CLACK!!!
Ezekiel yelled when two wooden swords crashed against each other as the training swords Warren and Ezekiel both held were swung against each other with great strength. Neither one moved for a second as their weapons remained locked. Only for Ezekiel to be forced backwards as he noticed a horse sized white lion with a golden glow about it came charging in from the side.
He quickly backtracked several dozen feet as he tried to get some distance, only for his father to charge forward, golden light glowing beneath his hands and feet. Ezekiel nearly lost his grip on his weapon, but instead rolled with the hit, focusing his own mana to roll with the blow as he lost balance.
As he rolled to his knees, he immediately held up an arm to block against the large lion’s paw that was coming crashing down on him. Wincing when he did, as he realized that his mana had dropped below one hundred.
“TAP!” Ezekiel called out, Theo’s paw was immediately removed from his arm, the large Lion backing away so that Ezekiel could regain his breath.
“Dammit...” Ezekiel was panting with exhaustion, and his clothes were soaked through as he remained kneeling on the ground.
This last exchange had lasted nearly five minutes as Ezekiel had spent his time doing his best to dodge, block, or otherwise avoid taking a ‘lethal’ hit from either his father or Theo.
Warren and Theo had, in some ways, reduced their strength by quite a bit. They knew that the creatures that were likely to be the most troublesome on this expedition were Cruor, and they didn’t have quite the number of ranged options that elemental Spells had. So, for now they decided that it would be melee training, which made sense, as Ezekiel didn’t have many ranged options either, as Void mana didn’t do anything on its own when it was let out into the atmosphere.
Other than using it to charge up some ball bearings to make them explode, Ezekiel couldn’t do anything at Range beyond supercharge another Mage’s spells by channeling his Void mana into them, but that had several issues and difficulties that made it difficult. Not to mention the fact that Ezekiel was training to survive an attack on his own, should something happen while he was away from the city.
Standing across from him in the training room, Warren looked at his son, feeling a mix of pride and worry. Pride at how well he was doing, as no child his age should’ve been able to hold out as long as he had, and worry, both because of the fact that this still wasn’t enough to survive in the desolate lands, as well as his thoughts regarding Ezekiel’s mind and memories.
“Alright, we’ve been at this for a while now. Take a break. We’ll wait until your mana refills again, and then try again.” Warren said as he walked over to the weapon rack and put his sword away. “No need for you to bother with dodging right now. I can tell that now just your mana is exhausted right now.”
Ezekiel didn’t say anything as he laid down in the middle of the sparring ring.
He had spent most of the day either running or dodging Theo, who would act like he was playing an intense game of tag. They would do this after Ezekiel first expended his mana, bringing him down from three hundred mana to one hundred mana each time. They had done this three times now, each time taking a couple of hours for his mana to refill. Something that Ezekiel absolutely loved.
Having one’s soul be able to produce mana upon opening one’s Chakras was amazing, and he loved it more than anything else he had gained from becoming Tier one.
“I’m going to get us some food. Feel free to meditate, Theo will be here to watch over you if you do. Just don’t do anything dangerous, ok?” Warren said as he made his way from the training room.
“Okay.” Ezekiel muttered as he continued lying down.
Ezekiel, having nothing better to do as he laid on the floor, decided to take his father’s advice.
Falling into a trance, Ezekiel examined his mana as it sat in the pool within his core. The little motes of white light settled down inside him as he just examined them, not bothering with trying to gather anything at this point, though he noticed the different colored motes floating around, beyond the range he knew indicated his body.
A Range that he realized was much greater than he remembered. As it extended far enough to reach the nearby shadows beneath the stands within the room. Granting him access to Obscure mana, which he usually avoided gathering during the daytime due to the lack of abundance compared to Radiant mana.
‘I wonder what would happen if I visualized a centrifugal compressor when I’m not at my limit?’ Ezekiel suddenly thought to himself.
Deciding that it likely couldn’t hurt, as he would not be forcing his body and soul to absorb more mana than he could naturally contain, he quickly visualized the same device that had let him break through previously.
Immediately, his mana started getting sucked in as it was forcefully pulled into the imaginary turbine. He also noticed that, once again, the mana outside his body wasn’t coming toward him.
But this time, wondering if he could do something different, he visualized an image of the six different elements that were immediately present in his vicinity. He immediately felt some staring, but it was still nowhere near as bad as the last time he’d done this. If anything, it had become easier as his soul had become stronger. His focus hadn’t improved, but the pressure he felt from focusing so much had lessened.
As these images appeared in his mind, motes from the six elements present, Cavern, Tempest, Flame, and Glacial, all started drifting towards him. As they neared his body, the mana didn’t even get within a foot of his body before it was immediately drawn into the vortex created by the centrifugal compressor he had visualized within his core.
This was unexpected, as Ezekiel had expected the mana to only be drawn in as it entered his body like before, but it appeared that, with his Chakra opened, and his sensing range increased, so too had the range of his influence over mana under his control.
Ezekiel wondered if he’d be able to keep control of his mana outside his body. He decided that he would have to try it when he finished meditating.
For now, though, he realized that he was actually having not too difficult a time keeping these images in his head. Having only one spiraling image in his mind was much easier to imaging, even if he was visualizing multiple elements, as none of the elemental images he was imagining were moving.
However, even as the elements mixed within the whirling movement created by the image of the centrifugal compressor, Ezekiel noticed something he hadn’t before. This image was working for his visualization, for the purpose of gathering mana, but he couldn’t help but feel like it was wrong. Like it was just a stop gap, and that he wasn’t properly visualizing what he needed to.
Ignoring this feeling for now, Ezekiel finished his meditation by forcing the excess mana from his body as he usually did. But he saved just one mote of Radiant mana for testing purposes.
Bringing his mana to the edges of his body, Ezekiel pushed both the Radiant mana, and his own Void mana outside of his body. Just to the very edge of his skin.
To his pleasant surprise, the Radiant mana didn’t go anywhere. It stayed exactly where it was. Attached to his mote of Void mana.
Holding onto that mote of mana. Ezekiel exited his trance, looking at his finger where the motes of Void and Radiant mana were still held. With his own two eyes, he saw a tiny pinprick of white and gold stuck to the tip of his finger.
Pointing his finger towards Theo, who had shrunken to his house cat size and closed his eyes to rest, whilst still aware of his surroundings, for the most part, Ezekiel focused as he mentally pushed his Void mana further out from his body.
To his disappointment, the mana immediately fused together as it broke contact with his skin, forming a small beam of light that shot directly towards Theo, who immediately perked up, having felt the small beam make contact with his body. Something that caused him to feel greatly surprised, as he had not been expecting to be hit by a Radiant spell out of nowhere.
Realizing that the spell came from Ezekiel’s direction, Theo grew to his full size and jumped over to Ezekiel, standing over him protectively as he looked around the room, trying to find the source of whatever it was that had attacked him. Not finding anyone, even after opening his senses as far as he could, Theo mentally notified Warren of what had happened.
Having already retrieved food during the time that Ezekiel had spent meditating, Warren was already most of the way back pushing a cart with a few trays of food and drinks on it. Being notified that there was an unknown Radiant Mage that had hit Theo with a spell caused him to ditch the cart as he moved as fast as he could through the remaining halls to the training room.
Warren burst into the room with a BANG, a sword and shield of light in his hands, as he kicked open the door. Taking barely a moment to examine the room, Warren seemed to disappear before reappearing directly beside Ezekiel, also keeping a defensive stance like Theo did.
“Ezekiel! Are you okay? Where did the other Mage go?” Warren asked in a frantic tone as he tried to split his attention between his son and the area around them.
As far as he could tell, there were only two possible exits from the training room. The one that he had come through, and one more, that was barred for anything but emergencies, that would take them to a side room where additional training equipment was stored. From there they could exit to a different wing of the manor.
“What other Mage?” Ezekiel asked his father. Confused as to what had gotten him so panicked.
“The Mage who hit Theo with a Radiant spell. It was slight, not strong at all, so it didn’t do anything, but the fact that he was hit by a Radiant spell at all means someone else was here.” Warren said without relaxing even a little bit. “It came from where you’re sitting, so I can only assume it was aimed at you.”
“Oh!” Ezekiel finally understood. “That was me.”
So shocked by the ridiculousness of that statement, Warren nearly dropped his light weapons in shock as he and Theo both looked at Ezekiel in confusion.
“Ezekiel, this is no time for jokes. We may have an unknown Radiant Mage within the Alkena manor right now.” Warren stated with disbelief in his voice. “So, I need you to tell me what happened.”
“If you give me a moment, I can prove that it was me.” Ezekiel stated, understanding his father’s disbelief, but also kind of frustrated at it.
Seeing his son’s frustration, Warren started to calm down. He then realized that his son wasn’t stupid enough to tell a lie that ridiculous. Especially if he said he could prove that it was the truth.
“Tell me what you did first. Then you can show me.” Warren requested as he lowered his guard. Theo kept his up, but still listened in on Ezekiel’s explanation.
Taking a breath to calm himself down after his father and Theo’s reactions, Ezekiel explained exactly what he had done during his meditation. Explaining in detail how, after leaving his body, the Radiant mana seemed to stick to his mana as it seemed to try and absorb the Void mana but couldn’t as he hadn’t released or lost control over it. Even though it had technically left the boundary of his body.
It had only turned into a spell when he had pushed his mana to the point that it wasn’t touching him any longer. At which point he had lost control and the Radiant mana absorbed the Void mana before shooting directly at Theo.
Hearing this explanation, Warren felt both relieved and dumbfounded. His son had discovered something strange about Void mana once again. This time showing that he could apparently manipulate other types of mana. Something that he was not expecting when he had gone off to get them all food.
“Dad?” Ezekiel asked as his father continued to stare blankly at him. Not saying a word as he stood there, sword and shield of light in hand.
“You’re kind of ridiculous. You know that?” Was all that Warren said as he continued to stare at his son.
Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel a bit insulted at that.