Alright, it’s finally time to learn how to master Aura. I’m gonna do all of the cool training montage things like lots of running, fighting, cool acrobatics, weird stuff that makes me exhausted in the end, that sorta thing. Quincy has this very angry look on his face--and I definitely know why. I wanted to spend more time in that heavenly situation so that punch to the face was worth it. At least he finally got out of his room. I’ll have to brace myself for the incoming history rant in the future. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can open a portal when he’s not looking and escape. I still don’t know where those things would send me. Maybe by some god-like luck I open a portal back to my own world. Can I do that? I wonder if I’m that strong. Most likely, I’d end up in someone’s bathroom in this world by mistake.
As we head through the portal to North Point I ask Armstrong,
“What is the difference between aura and magic? They seem very similar to me.”
“Hmm, for simplicity’s sake, you could think of Aura being your life energy and it's directly tied to the individual. All forms of life have an aura. When people refer to magic, think of it as a kind of energy in the environment you can draw power from, or like the aura from nature you can manipulate to suit your needs,” Armstrong states.
“Then doesn’t using magic sound like a better alternative to aura, as you’re not draining your own life force when you use attacks? You could die if you try to use too much of your aura, right?”
“While it may seem like a better alternative, magic has its own set of limitations as well. Magic takes a lot of stamina to use, so the more magic you use, the more exhausted you will be. This can be trained upon so you gain more endurance and can use more magic,” he notes.
“Are some people more talented than others in using either magic or aura?” I question.
“Indeed my boy, certain races are more compatible with magic, so they don’t have to train as hard as others. Take your elf companion for example, most elven races have quite a talent for magic. Some bloodlines are known for being quite powerful with either magic or aura so keep that in mind.”
It seems some people are more naturally talented than others. I hope this doesn’t make Quincy start ranting about the Declaration of Independence since it appears all men are not created equal.
“What about someone’s warclass then?” Quincy prods.
“Ah you see, boy, Monks like us are exceptionally talented in manipulating aura, but we lack the finesse required to use magic effectively. Magicians are on the opposite side of the spectrum, who are talented at using magic, but usually don’t make use of their aura. The other warclasses lean towards one side or the other with swordsmen being the most balanced of them all,” Armstrong answers.
Yay! I can use both effectively. I guess I’m sort of a jack of all trades, master of none at the moment. However I did unlock my specialization recently so I bet that changes something.
We walk up to an empty part of the field in North Point and Armstrong turns to face us.
“Alright you two, firstly, I want both of you to try summoning your aura on command. I need to know what I’m working with after all,” he commands.
Hmmm, how do I go about doing that? I suppose it's like unleashing a wind bullet, but not actually firing the attack. I try out my hypothesis and I feel my hand start to emit this purple energy around it but I’m having difficulty spreading it out around my body. It seems I don’t have very much control over this power yet.
Quincy tries to summon his aura and makes this face like he’s constipated, but nothing happens. Armstrong and I stare at him for the next 30 seconds while he makes grunting noises.
“I can’t do it on command, only when I’m in a fight or if I’m about to get hurt,” Quincy exasperates.
Armstrong picks up a small pebble like the size of an M&M and says,“In that case...”
He flicks the small pebble at Quincy’s forehead and suddenly this black energy appears around Quincy to protect him. The pebble bounces off his head and Quincy proceeds to throw the pebble back in retaliation. However the pebble misses even though we’re only five feet away.
“Wow great aim, I might have mistaken you for an Archer if I didn’t know otherwise,” I sarcastically remark.
Ow. Alright, Quincy just punched me in the arm for that. I guess he’s still mad about the portal thing.
Armstrong notes the differences in the way we summon our auras. He turns to me and says,“It seems your aura’s nature tends to be more offensive seeing how you're able to summon it when you want to attack.”
“And you, your aura reacted to protect you so your nature is more defensive,” he tells Quincy.
“Either nature works for now. I’ll come up with separate training programs for you both, but for now we should focus on stability and control. For now I want you two to try and maintain that feeling you have when you summon your aura.”
For the next hour or so Quincy and I try to do our best to keep our auras out with varying degrees of success. It seems Quincy is having an easier time than me when it comes to this whole aura thing as I can barely keep it up for about 15 minutes.
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“Hah, Will, you suck at this aura thing,” Quincy taunts.
“Okay, you, shut up or I’ll throw you through another portal,” I retort as my hands reach towards the dagger and shortsword by my waist.
As I unsheathe my weapons I feel my aura erupt around the rest of my body. It’s the same feeling as when I fought Lilith the other day. So this is what it feels like. I feel stronger and lighter as if I weighed nothing. I’ll remember this feeling so that I can summon it when I need to.
Armstrong takes notice and commands,
“Would you put the toothpicks away please? I doubt you could even shave my beard with those weapons. Anyways, it seems you two are ready for what I call, hands-on experience.”
I suppose he’s right, I do need to get better weapons. Maybe Vasavir can recommend me to a good smith after this. We proceed to follow Armstrong through a portal back to the castle and while he lands flawlessly, Quincy and I fall, making an indentation in the ground. He takes us to the back of the castle and we walk up to the point where the castle meets the cliff. Oh right this place is on top of a mountain. The view looks nice, but I wonder why we're here.
“You two just remember what I taught you and you’ll be fine. Use the power of your aura to ascend the cliff. I’ll meet you back at the guild if you come back before sunset,” Armstrong states bluntly.
“Wait, cliff?!” we say in unison before Armstrong kicks us both off the face of the mountain.
Godamnit, why is it always falling? I don’t think any roller coaster in the world could scare me after all the things I’ve been through. I gotta think of something before we plummet to our death, umm water, nope, trees, nope, stalagmites that will stab us on impact, yep.
“WHAT IS THIS B*LLSHIT?!” Quincy shouts at the top of his lungs.
Wait a moment, stab, STAB, yes that’s it.
“Quincy grab my hand!” I yell as I take out my sword and stab it into the side of the mountain.
I manage to grab him and cease our rapid descent. My arm hurts from the strain and I almost drop him, but luckily he gets a foothold and grabs onto the wall.
“How long do you think it’ll take you to climb up a mountain?” I query
“Maybe half a day. I swear when I get back up I’m gonna kick that guy’s *ss,” Quincy curses.
“You failed the first time, I don’t think the second time is going to go any better,” I sigh.
We start climbing the mountain and surprisingly with our aura it isn’t too difficult. The increased strength and speed we have makes it easy for us to ascend. I think the difficulty here lies in trying to maintain our aura as everytime it fades it becomes much harder to scale the cliff. I definitely don’t normally have the upper body strength to do this. We are about 3/4ths up the mountain when rocks start to fall down on top of our heads.
“That’s definitely not a pebble,” Quincy states as a small boulder is about to land on his head. He punches it and it shatters, leaving debris to fall past us.
Some rocks are headed my way so I fire a few wind bullets at them to change their trajectory. Some of them end up heading Quincy’s way and he yells at me.
“Will, stop trying to kill me!” he shouts angrily.
“Gah, I’m sorry but do you have a better plan at the moment?” I respond.
Quincy thinks for a moment and says, “I do, follow me!”
I follow Quincy for a bit and we come across the heads of the Gods and Goddesses that were carved into the mountain. Now I understand his plan. We end up going inside the ear of the head of the little boy with short hair and we find a system of tunnels inside. Whoa, it's really hollow in here and the sounds have a really harmonizing echo.
“Man, this is weird, it’s like this place could be used to play really special music or something,” I note.
“I read in one of the history books that people sometimes performed special rituals inside the heads of the gods and goddesses. I think the ritual that summoned us was performed inside the head of Vienna,” Quincy says all scholar-like.
Oh no I can feel a rant incoming. Is it portal time? It might be portal time, but I’m going to resist just cause I don’t want to be mean this time.
“I just remembered I have so much I need to share with you. Firstly, let's talk about the previous Wesphalian empire, the emperor Charlamagne was so cool. 2000 years ago…..”
As we wander the tunnels to get back to the castle Quincy gives me an intensive history lesson on the old empire and its destruction. He also proceeds to tell me that the current Westphalian empire is really just a confederacy of states and that I’m going to have to unite them all to reform the old empire. That sounds really painful to deal with and I’m sure I don’t possess the political tact necessary to do any of that. After about an hour of wandering the tunnels we manage to break free into the light.
“Finally, no more history!” I gasp as I take a breath of fresh air.
“Don’t worry, Will, you got the condensed version. I still have 1500 more volumes to tell you about,” Quincy assures me.
We end up taking a portal back to the guild in order to meet Armstrong. We walk inside the guild in order to meet the big guy and he comes to greet us.
“Congratulations, you two, you both managed to make it back alive. In record time too. The last few adventurers I threw off the mountain took the whole day to get back, but you two only took four hours,” he says with a smug look on his face.
“Great. In that case, I’ll become a mountain climber instead of a hero who’s supposed to save the world,” I say sarcastically.
“Now you're ready for the next step. I want you to try and imbue a weapon with your aura like this,” Armstrong instructs.
He picks up a small fork and channels his aura into it. Lightning suddenly appears on the fork and it coats the entire utensil in sparks. Wow, that looks so cool! I wonder what the wind version of that looks like. I take out my dagger and I attempt to mimic what I saw, however it’s hard to get my aura to go any further than my hands and I can't cover my weapon with it.
“Hah, hah, hah, I suppose that will be your homework for the next few days. You two can rest for now. And you--black one, I do not know your elemental affinity so I may have to come up with a different task. Do see me tomorrow,” Armstrong commands.
“My name is Quincy, for your information,” he says while being annoyed at being referred to by color.
We end up going back to the castle for the day, but I remembered I still have something I need to do.
“Okay, Quincy, you can head back to your room. I have to go ask Vasavir about getting better equipment. Have fun with your sea of books,” I tell him as I begin to head to Vasavir’s workshop.
“Alright then, bye Will. I’ll try not to die from the forbidden books,” he answers.
It’s weapon time. I’m so hyped.