Chapter 18 - Learning About Aura And Mana (Part Two)

Lucas wanted to ask why, and Leon knew he would ask that. He took out his glass pad and brought up a picture. It was an old picture of Leon and another man. "The person that you see next to me, is my best friend. We fought side by side during the wars, and he always had my back. He attempted to do two bones at the same time, and ended up losing his left arm", he said dejectedly.

The man next to Leon was almost in his thirties. He was smiling wide and had tan skin. His hair was in a dreadlock style, and it ran down to his neck. His eyes were cat green, and he was wearing a white Henley. His sword was strapped to his back, and one of his sleeves was hanging loose. With his only hand present, he was holding a peace sign above Leon's head.

Leon's voice turned shaky. "His name is Wilson Bright. He thought doing it bone by bone would make the process slower, so he tried to do one whole arm at the same time. It ended up shattering his whole arm, and I had to cut it off, to save him from the backlash. We did not have the proper techniques at that time, so it was all trial and error", he said.

Lucas nodded his head. "Do not attempt it if you don't want to die", he told himself. "The fourth stage will be to move your Aura and use it to defend yourself. This one only consists of moving within the body and covering your organs. And at the end of this stage, you will have to inject a quarter of your aura into your heart", he said.

"The reason is to allow the activation of Stage One much easier. Yes, after mastering it will be easier. But if you do this, it will be much easier and give you a very quick response speed", he said. "Do it before Stage Four, and there will be severe pain. That is because the more stages it passes, the more your body adapts to it", he said.

Lucas was stunned when he heard this. "So even though it is innate, the body must adapt to the Aura", he muttered. Leon nodded his head. "SO, what's the fifth stage?", he asked enthusiastically.

"The fifth stage has three phases. Phase One is to use the Aura as armor on the outside of the body. Pushing it out and using it as armor will allow you to maximize the use of your beast gear. Phase Two is to inject the Aura into your weapons or armor. This is a bit more difficult as you need to have a certain amount of control over your Aura. Phase Three will be the hardest. You will have to materialize it", he said.

"Materialise it?", Lucas asked in confusion. "Does it mean to cover my weapons? Or use it like the Aura Slash? What does he mean when he said to Materialise it?", he thought. Leon then motioned for Lucas to follow him and jumped out of the window. Lucas followed behind him. They ran past some guards and entered the training grounds. Leon pulled out his sword.

Lucas felt a sudden change in the air. The sword was slowly getting covered with Aura, and Lucas began to see a faint glow of red. The glow began to grow stronger until the whole sword was covered in Aura. "This is called covering your weapon. This will increase the power of the weapon when you're fighting with enemies, and you can also protect your weapon from getting too damaged", he said.

"The next one you're going to see is the true essence of materializing Aura", he said and snapped his fingers. A dark red shuriken formed in Leon's left hand. Lucas was shocked. "Isn't that the Aura master used?", he thought. Leon nodded his head and threw the shuriken towards one of the targets used for practicing. It sliced the target into two, and still kept moving forward!

Lucas was shocked. He didn't know what to say. "Truly terrifying", he thought. Leon moved his index finger, and the shuriken came back. "You can control it at will, and it is extremely sharp. Once you have mastered this stage, I can proudly tell you that not many people can defeat you in terms of Aura", he said.

"What about Mana, Master?", he asked. Leon nodded his head. "For people like us, who use both Mana and Aura, it will be much easier to Master Mana. Mana has only two stages. Stage One is to gather the Mana surrounding you and use your body as a vessel to store it. I think you won't have any problem in that department", he said.

Lucas smiled. He knew what Leon meant. "The second stage will be to manipulate Mana outside. This is often called 'External Manipulation'. This is extremely difficult to do, as you have to sense the Mana flow around you, and redirect it towards the spell that you or someone had cast. Cast an icicle", he said.

Lucas cast an icicle. As soon as the Icicle landed in front of Leon, it began to change its shape. It turned into a long hammer, and Leon wielded it on his shoulder. "Even though this is your spell, I have manipulated it, changing its form and properties", he said and swung the hammer towards Lucas. Lucas got hit, but he was stunned.

"The Icicle shouldn't be that hard and strong. It's almost like a wall", he thought. Lucas nodded his head towards Leon and deactivated the spell. The icicle disappeared, and Lucas began to contemplate his understanding of Aura and Mana. "There is something that I must show you. Sit down over here", he said.

Lucas sat on the floor in a meditative pose. Leon sat behind him, and he placed his arm on his back. Just as he felt something, Lucas saw a notification.

[Unknown Energy is being detected]

[Protecting Host's Body]

[Do you want to allow it into your body? Yes/No]

Lucas understood what he was trying to do. "SO, he wants to teach me to control Aura", he thought. He then allowed the energy into his body, and it began to stimulate his Aura around the body. It entered into his nerves and began to run through his whole body. "Remember this feeling. This is Stage One", said Leon.

Lucas began to memorize the feeling. It was a very refreshing feeling for him. He then saw another notification pop up.

[Aura is being stimulated]

[Aura is entering Host's Nervous System]

[Aura stimulation complete]

[Unknown Energy is leaving Host's body]

[Do you want it to leave? Yes/No]

Lucas allowed it to leave, and he sat down to do the same thing. Leon smiled from the side, and he didn't disturb him, as he needed him to learn this before he set out from the palace. "There are a lot of people out there who have trained it since they were kids. It's going to be hard for you, kiddo. Just make sure you survive", he muttered underneath his breath.

As Lucas was doing the same thing, his body began to develop a slight glow. It was very faint, but Leon was surprised when he saw it. Lucas also began to feel a new surge of strength but he didn't stop. "No, this is not enough. If I have to survive in the outside world, I would need to reach at least Stage Two before I leave", he thought. A sudden notification popped up.

[Aura is being circulated]

[Aura has now reached the threshold]

[Convert MP into Aura? Yes/No]

Lucas didn't understand what it was, but if he needed to further his understanding of Aura, it seemed that he needed to consume his Mana. "I'll ask Master after this", he thought. He then converted all of his MP into Aura, and suddenly he began to feel drained.

Leon was stunned. "This kid has reached a bottleneck in such a short while? I never expected this to happen! If I had known, I would have taught him of the method to absorb Mana and convert it into Aura", he thought. The faint glow began to get stronger until his nerves began to show on his skin.

"This is the final phase of Stage One. Let's hope he can breakthrough successfully", he thought. He looked at Lucas with interest and didn't lose focus for a second. Lucas, on the other hand, was seeing another notification screen.

[Breaking through threshold]

[Breaking... 15%... 30%...45%... 60%... 75%... 90%....]

At this moment, the number began to move up very slowly. He was stuck in 90 for the past six minutes! After crossing it into 91 in another minute, it began to move faster. It reached 99 in a few seconds and was stuck right there.. After twenty minutes passed, Lucas was drenched in his sweat and was smiling wide.