The second day of training began, I waked up at the first sign of light and headed toward the island with Althaea. She didn't stay by my side today and headed to the center of the island, it seemed that she had some training to do as well.
I sit down and began to concentrate to move my soul. My control compared to yesterday was much better, even the pressure was affecting me less and less, however, something unexpected happened.
"AHHHHHHH"
An immense pain assaulted me. I felt as if my flesh was being ripped apart, every cell in my body was screaming in pain. The pain was not physical, it was something that transcended the body and even the soul felt.
After some moments, the pain receded. My body relaxed more and I was breathing hard.
Althaea came walking from the island and stood beside me.
"Oh, that was quick, it seemed that you had your first success."
"This was a success?" I asked with a puzzled face.
"Yes, it was. The pain came from the fact that you could move your soul separately from your body. You are still not used to the feeling, the pain will vanish quickly."
"Everybody that cultivates soul power feels this pain?"
"No. Some other methods to cultivate the soul are not painful, but this one is the most effective and quick. Do not worry about the pain, just keep going with the training."
After saying this, she left the place and returned to the island.
I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and continued with the training. The pain was so great that sometimes I couldn't even concentrate. The day passed slowly, and time seemed like an eternity. The pain together with the pressure from the place made me stumble in the training. It seemed that things were not so easy as I thought they would be.
***
I looked at Ullach that was seated on the ground and training. from time to time he suppressed the screams that were about to be made due to the pain and continued the training.
I have never seen someone so talented…. He could move his soul just on the second day of training when most others would take months to accomplish this. And I was not even taking into consideration that most humans didn't have the aptitude to soul power.
His talents were great, but the thing that left me impressed was his willpower… The pain that a person felt from the training method that I gave him was monumental, something that almost no one could take.
The Race that had the most aptitude for soul power was the Adhar's, they were the race that lived in the clouds. They had discovered many methods to train soul power, and although this was the most effective one, most people didn't use it because of the pain.
I gathered my thoughts and began kept training.
***
The night was slowly approaching, the sun was setting in the horizon and the fog was making it seen as night had already arrived.
Hearing footsteps coming from the island unsteadily got up and went toward the forest to gather some Anam to cook.
The task that seemed so easy yesterday now looked almost impossible. My thoughts were easily dispersing and I couldn't concentrate on anything. After almost half an hour, I gathered enough and went toward Althaea to cook.
After getting our food ready, I ate like a ravenous wolf. This was the only meal that we were having daily, but somehow, the Anam was no nutritious that another meal was not needed.
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After dinner, my soul felt refreshed again. the phantom pain disappeared and I could finally concentrate again.
While I was eating, Althaea got up and fetched something from another room. She came back holding a book in her hand.
"You have to read at least a chapter of this book before sleeping. When you finish this one, tell me and I will give you another." She finished her Anam and went away.
I picked the book, the title was Herbs and where they grow. It seemed that my days would be longer than thought. I got up, cleaned everything and went to my room to read the book.
***
The days quickly passed, It had already been two months since my training began. After the first week, the pain stopped and I could finally concentrate better in my training. The process of expanding the soul was slow and boring. It required a lot of concentration, and the soul expanded at a snail pace.
The more I practiced, the quicker and further I could expand the soul from my body. The perception that came from expanding my soul was much more clearer them my mana perception. it was as if I had magnified my vision a hundredfold and was able to see everything as if it was in front of me. My soul could only expand to 10 meters around me.
I could maintain my soul expanded for 5 minutes now. The burden from keeping it expanded was too great, but at least I had achieved something. I still had not learned any methods of how to apply soul force or how to use it with Althaea, but I knew that with time I would learn everything.
After another day of exhausting training, I prepared ou dinner and sitter by the table to eat. "You are advancing pretty quickly. Soon you'll be able to learn some tricks." Althaea said to me.
"Great! I am finally taking some big steps!" I answered excited. The thought of finally being able to achieve some power was amazing to me.
"Don't be so excited, on the level you are in, almost nothing can be done." She shook her head.
"Even if it's a little bit, advancement is still advancement!" My happiness was overflowing. It has been only a few months, but I could almost achieve something by now.
Through these last months, our relationship had improved, Althaea was not so closed anymore, she had even explained to me that the reason that she had shown up in the village but after some time disappeared was that people were trying to capture her because she was different.
Although the slave market was not so big in the continent, it still existed and was something that you had to look out for.
I realized that Althaea was so cold to other people because she was a lonely person, and the company was slowly releasing her shackles, at least with me.
I had learned many things from the books that she gave me these last months. the improvement of soul power also made my mind sharper and my memory stronger. According to Althaea the mages also saw the improvement of their mental faculties because they were slowly tempering their soul power while practicing their cultivation, but the improvement was something much slower them me, that was directly training the soul.
I learned about Botanics and the uses of the herbs, the different races of magical beasts that roamed the continent and their weaknesses, the minerals and the potential uses in alchemy and finally, the details of different kinds of cultivations. The details of the mages were most skipped by me. In my pursuit of magic, I had learned almost everything that was to learn about the mages. How, they improved their circles, how to form a magic formation, the bases of how the different kinds of magic were formed and the comprehensions needed to learn them, and many more things.
It was an enjoyment to see that my mind was becoming stronger and stronger. But what really surprised me was the details about the other kinds of powers. They were so different, but all of them lead to power, something that everyone wanted.
I began to form a theory of how I could achieve some power of my own, but that was something that I didn't have the power to do right now, it would have to wait.
***
I slept the whole night like a baby and woke up early in the morning to train with Althaea. In these last months, I changed the location of my training and now I was sitting at the beginning of the bridge.
I seated and saw that Althaea seated beside me.
"Today, you will learn another exercise of how to use natural energy around you." She said.
My eyes shined with a surprising luster. It was finally time to advance!
"As you already know, soul power is part of you and every living being. The soul is used as a medium to wield mana. This ability comes from the fact that the soul is naturally permeated by the innate mana in our bodies, and this mana can resonate and influence the natural energy or natural mana."
I was finally enlightened by why I couldn't use mana because my lack of innate mana made it simply impossible! I looked at her and she continued.
"Although you don't have the natural ability to influence the natural mana, you still can do it with your soul power. That's why the users of soul power can enhance their other cultivations by using it. For the people that can resonate and influence the natural mana using their own, it's a simple thing to learn how to do it with their souls. But, because you don't have that ability, things will be much harder for you."
"But harder is not impossible, right?"
"That's correct. Harder doesn't make it impossible, but it will be challenging."
"If there is a will, there's a way," I said to her, showing my determination.
"That's right. Now, let's cut the chase. You can already feel the natural energy, you could probably feel it during your whole life because as you said, your sensitivity towards mana is great. The process of how to do it is simple. initially, you will simply have to use your soul power to "grab" at the natural energy, using it like a hand. That's the first step. After you achieve that, tell me so we can go to the next phase."
"Understood."
After getting my consent, she got up and went toward the island.
sitting there, I looked at my hands and clenched my fists. I closed my eyes and began to expand my soul. The surrounds were clearly shown to me. seeing the natural energy, I began to try and grab it using my soul power. I slowly permeated it, but it was as if the natural energy was water, and I was trying to grab it using my hands, it just slipped through my fingers.
Not losing my patience I continued to train and kept trying to grab at the natural energy.
The process was exhausting just like any other kind of training that I did. I could only keep my soul expanded by 5 minutes for now, and while I was stretching it, I still had to manipulate it to grab the energy. I trained for 5 minutes and rested for 10 to do it again.
The day passed in the blink of an eye, and there were still no results. A drop of frustration was beginning to form inside of me, but I quickly suppressed it. Training was never about achieving instant results. It was like a construction where brick after brick would have to be laid.