We stepped into the in-between space, but this time it was a small training room. There was a black panel set high in the wall with a clock in white print counting down.

“The next floor is a tournament style challenge. You’ll be fighting other climbers and until you get to the top five finishers you can’t make it to the next floor. Brute strength alone probably won’t get you through it.”

“Then why are we in a room like this?”

The door closed behind us, and the room lit up a bit more. The light source seemed to be a mixture of wall lights and light seeping out from the molding near the ceiling.

“You’ve got to wait till the current tournament is finished before you can enter the floor. Again, on this floor we won’t be with you, and you’ll be stuck on the floor without us until you win.”

“Then what about Mezu? I can’t feed him if we’re separated for that long.”

“Time will flow differently in this space and the tournament space. Each time you lose you’ll have to wait in the floor’s training grounds before you can try again.”

“Are you just assuming I’ll lose?”

“Shall I list your short comings, or shall we spend the time we do have a bit more wisely?”

He’s asking before listing them? Is he in a rush or something?

“Well aside from my daily quest, what am I going to do in here? You don’t seem to know much about aura so you can’t teach me. You don’t have administrative powers and training on my own since I don’t know what to do will be kind of pathetic, don’t you think?”

“Do you remember the events of the thirteenth floor?”

“Yeah, when that wolf Fluffy made friends with came to help us?”

“Yes, the librarian you met is also an option for that, so calling them here and requesting the needed information on aura would be good. Make sure to tell them in detail about your issues. Specifically: your race, that you don’t know the other half, that you can’t use mana but aren’t sure why, and that you’re an idiot who can only read in dwarvish.”

Both me and Mezu tilted our heads confused as to why he was telling me this.

“Young master if you would summon Mypheryn.”

That last word wasn’t a language or word I knew. Must be the name of that owl.

Mezu nodded and then Alcoroth disappeared, just like he had for the library floor.

I watched as Mezu began to draw a circle on the ground with his mana. His mana had a nice warm tint to it, and even though I knew that his markings were proper, it also seemed like he had only recently learned to write these ones.

The last time, it had taken him a decent amount of time to draw out the circle, so I had committed it mostly to memory.

Somehow…

How had I committed it to memory? Why was I so sure about it? And why was I so sure it was different than the last time? All I knew was that four positions directly opposite each other had markings that were different than last time The only difference in what he was doing was who he was summoning. It must have been Mypheryn’s name which would mean that on the labyrinth floor, it must have had the wolf’s name written (which I didn’t know).

When the markings were finished, he put his hand right outside the circle and closed his eyes. The markings then glowed brightly, and the circle burnt up as Mypheryn materialized where it was.

“Young Master, I am surprised for the summon.”

Mezu beamed but seemed a bit tired with his eyes suddenly drooping.

“Sorry about that but we were hoping you could help me a bit.”

“With what exactly?”

They took off and landed on a perch that materialized.

“Well, the next floor is a tournament apparently and my current skills are not entertaining enough. Honestly it will probably take me a bit to fully brute force my way through things. So, I was wondering if you could help me learn a few things about aura. I can’t use mana for some reason and since I’m a high elf I really shouldn’t have this issue, but I don’t know my other half, so that could be the reason I have issues.”

“Interesting, a half elf that can’t use mana. What languages do you read in?”

“I’m only confident in dwarvish. But I can mostly speak common and elvish, so if you don’t want to translate anything those could work.”

“If I understand you correctly, you are not the type that is generally overly curious about the greater breath of knowledge associated with things?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m uninterested in things, but I just don’t think knowing things really helps me out. Like if I know too much or think about things too much, I get worse at whatever it is. I like doing things not thinking about doing them too much.”

Mypheryn chuckled.

“Alright then, unless you ask, I won’t go too far into explaining things, but as sharing knowledge is something I greatly do enjoy excuse me if I go a bit too into detail every now and again.”

“As long as the important bits aren’t hard to think about, I don’t mind. But we are limited for time.”

“Alright then. If I’m honest knowing your race would make things much easier. What is your understanding of aura? if you have any, that is.”

“Isn’t it like the manifestation of someone’s fighting spirit?”

“It isn’t. Do you think aura and mana are the same power but named different things?”

I nodded, but where were they going with this?

“Okay, so mana and aura are two different things, however, because true aura is rare in most races, over time the literature on aura has been manipulated. The term physical augmentation mana has become popular and now people believe that this type of mana is actually aura and use the two terms interchangeably.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“It’s interesting though because those that are told they are able to use physical augmentation mana are actually just elemental users without an immediate limit on the elements that they can manipulate.

“Because of the prejudice around not having a specific affinity right off the bat, they are just thrown into a group and not properly educated. It’s honestly hilarious to think that so many years have gone by and there has been no correction to this misconception. I suspect it has much to do with the hierarchy structures within you mortal’s societies.”

I tilted my head confused and they laughed uncomfortably before coughing.

“Anyway, among those that are segregated to the physical augmentation side of mana, it is very rare for them to be unable to feel mana at all. And it is my understanding that you cannot feel mana, correct?”

I nodded; they clearly could talk for hours on this subject. I felt a little bad that I couldn’t follow along with their interest.

“True aura users also cannot feel mana, and until they awaken their aura, they cannot feel it within themselves. Since I am not an aura user, I will not be able to tell which one you are, be it that you’re a mana user that simply can’t feel it or if you are an aura user. If I was and I knew, then that could help with your training even more.

“But no matter, the only important thing is that the way to train is similar. Just don’t have the image of a mana core while training.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aura and mana move differently in the body. Aura is like a part of yourself, until it manifests you cannot mentally separate the feeling of it from your body. Mana however is scattered throughout the body and when cultivated is meant to gather into a center and create a core.

“Depending on the cultivation method you learn, the size, shape, number and placement of one’s core will vary. But when it comes to physical augmentation the image of a core is not necessary in order to train it.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“We will be using imagery as your method of training. Creating a solid image of the aura or aura like field around your weapon of choice and solidifying that image will be the goal. If you are a physical augmenter, you will have to create it first and it will only be useable when you are able to create it reflexively without concentrating on the perfected image you have.

“If you are an aura user, you will awaken your aura and be able to feel it. If you do that then you simply need to work on moving it through your body until it flows without being inhibited. But getting that perfect image is what’s important so that’s what we’ll start with.”

“Okay?”

I was still confused by what he meant, but hopefully the image creation side of things wouldn’t be too hard.

“Alright, now what is your weapon of choice?”

“I use both my sword and my hands. I’ve been trying to get better with my sword, but I also just instinctively fight bare handed.”

“No gauntlets?”

“Well… I have some, but if I use them and don’t have backups, it feels like a waste. At a certain point they just get so stiff when blood and stuff dries on it.”

They laughed.

“Well, we’ll use your sword then since it will be easier. Take it off and keep the sheath on it for now.”

It took a bit for me to detach the sheath from my belt. The weight was much different than I was used to.

“Tie the sheath to your handle so that it doesn’t fly off.”

I was a bit confused but did as I was told, they must’ve been going somewhere with this.

“So, if you try swinging it a bit, I’m sure you can feel a difference in the weight distribution of it.”

He was right. A few swings in the air and I could tell how different the weight was. And I could feel a slight gap between the sheath and the blade. I wasn’t really sure if I was meant to feel that or if I was really feeling that.

Like my brain labeled that feeling as that, but it sounds a bit ridiculous to be able to feel that. Aside from that, because I had gotten so used to the weight of my sword normally, I couldn’t help but notice the weight differences now.

“The image we will work up to for your aura is that of the sheath. It surrounds your blade and moves with it. But we will start off by retraining your muscle memory of your sword.

“Practice on the dummies over there with your blade sheathed and get used to the weight and feeling of this. And its best if you do it blind folded. Don’t be too concerned with hitting the dummy itself just focus on your form.”

“I don’t really have much form practice, my teacher taught me on a rapier, and I ended up with the blade instead.”

They laughed.

“A rapier really isn’t a good blade for you, you must’ve had a magician as your teacher. A wise being knows when to consult others when their breath of knowledge is lacking. Let us start with a downward slice.”

I walked over to the dummy and heard them fly behind me, landing on top of one of the dummies.

“Take your sheath off for now. You won’t be able to feel what I mean with it on.”

I did so and left it on the ground a few steps away.

“As you swing downwards, imagine pulling it towards you slightly as you do it. You are trying to pull your blade through the target at the same time as the downward movement.”

I tilted my head and scrunched my eyebrows a bit confused and trying to understand what they meant by that. I tried that with my finger on my arm, and I think I understood what he meant. Doing that in the heat of the moment would have to come with my reflexes, I guess. And what I was doing before wasn’t far off either, so it shouldn’t take me too long to get the hang of it.

After a few slashes it became much easier and quicker to do it.

“Alright, let’s move on to the muscle memory training. Do you have something to cover your eyes with?”

I put my sword down and rummaged around in my bag for one of my extra bandages. They were all kind of dirty and stiff with my blood.

I managed to tie it around my eyes, but it didn’t feel nice, so I took it off.

“Do you rewrap your new wounds with your old bandages?”

“Well, we haven’t really gotten the chance to clean them lately, so I’ve just kind of run out, I guess. At this point I just run around while I bleed for a bit. It stops quick enough so it’s usually not a problem.”

Mypheryn chuckled softly.

“What a strange person the young master has met. I understand why you get along now.”

I looked over at Mezu, who had curled up and gone to sleep in a corner of the room.

“Could I just do it while keeping my eyes closed?”

“Yes, that’ll do for now. Now I want you to just swing your sword in that same motion in the directions I call out. Do your best not to think about anything but the movement of your sword and get used to the weight of it.”

I nodded and stepped away from the dummy, put my sheath back on, and closed my eyes. The next hour or so passed with them calling out directions and me swinging them accordingly. The time between their direction and me doing the movement, got shorter and shorter as the time went by. It got to the point where I began to move the second I heard the start of the direction word. It was harder than I thought to keep my eyes closed the whole time. I really needed to find a way to blindfold myself if I wanted to do this training again.

“Alright good work, now let’s get onto the next part.”

I stopped and tried to catch my breath.

“This is where the imagery and muscle memory come in. Take off the sheath and close your eyes.”

I followed directions.

“Now do a simple downward swing.”

As I did so, I surprised myself a bit at the ease of the movement.

“Since you’re so used to the weight of the sheath, create the image of the sheath in your head and focus on it as we start up again.”

I wasn’t too sure how this was supposed to teach me something, but I did my best to do as they said. They didn’t say anything other than directions to swing, so I assumed it hadn’t worked yet.

I mean it would’ve been a miracle if it did work that easily, but I did my best to maintain that image in my head. And I continued to do my best until they said something other than a direction.

“Alright that’s enough now, you should do your daily quest soon.”

I opened my eyes, put my blade down, and started running laps around the room. Quite a lot of time had passed since earlier, and I tried to rush through my quest, so I’d have a bit more time before I had to enter the twentieth floor.

I finished the quest, but at that point, I only got about ten more swings in before there was a bell.

“We’re out of time. You’re getting closer to it. But me telling you that won’t really be helpful since you can’t feel it. The more consistent you become, the easier it will come to you, and soon you’ll be able to use it on instinct.

“You should practice it in between matches. There will be an area for training so don’t slack off. There are plenty of people that will be better than you and even may be proficient in aura right off the bat. You won’t be able to beat anyone who is already able to produce aura or physical augmentation mana. Don’t worry about the young master. Focus on your training and the tournament.”

“Thanks again. Once I know my race and if you want to know, I can see if I can tell you.”

“I am always curious to learn new things. The lives of people aren’t always written down and it’s always nice to learn about different lives.”

I felt the instinct to bow my head slightly in thanks before slicing my arm off and leaving it for Fluffy. He was still sleeping soundly, and I hoped he’d wake up soon enough for it to not be cold.

Then I stepped through the door that had appeared.