“Ugh,” Nar groaned, as he lowered himself into a sitting position within the already closed pod.

  Despite being less than three hours long, the session today at the hands of the Master of Blades and his instructors had been even more devastating than the previous day’s one. Nar still couldn't understand how they had managed to achieve it, but if anything, he felt actually ill today.

  And no signs of that new attribute… he thought with a sigh, as he tried to get his body into the least painful seated position he could manage.

  They had spent the first twenty minutes just jumping in place. Nothing else. Just jump as high as you could, in tandem with the master's claps, and it had only gone worse from there.

  The man’s hands had to be as rough as shredded aetherium to withstand the amount of clapping he had gone through.

  Crystal, did it really need to be that hard?

  And of course, no complaining, Nar thought with a grimace.

  Some apprentices hadn’t learned the lesson from their first class, and to make sure the lesson finally stuck, they had all been forced to do this crab-like crawling exercise, back and forth across the hall for another twenty minutes. No one had made it to the end without stopping, and Nar had been forced to take the punishment when his legs had simply failed from under him.

  He rubbed his chin. It still hurt from how he had landed on his face.

  “Don’t worry, apprentice. We’ll teach you to fall. Soon,” the instructor that gave him his punishment told him, grinning.

  Please, give me that attribute soon, Nar half seriously prayed.

  However, their intense training was supposed to last until the end of their second week aboard the Scimitar. That meant that he was barely a quarter of the way through…

  He took a deep breath.

  Just have to get through this, he told himself. It’s not worse than the Climb, and sure as the pile, it’s not worse than the machine either! Alright, Nar! No more complaining! Let’s get this aura training started! Yeah! We can do it!

  For that was exactly what today's aura class was all about.

  Nar had been surprised, and a little disappointed to arrive today to see that all the pods were already active, and that the class would be a period of mandatory training under the watchful eyes of the short, pale, Teacher of Mastery and the aura instructors.

  Nar had been wanting to ask the Master of Aura about his [The Aspiring Champion] passive, and why she hadn't mentioned it, but it would have to wait for another time.

  There was probably no rush anyways. Besides, what was he going to do? Give up his path after telling the Crystal twice that he wanted it? No, of course not!

  At least for now, he was sticking with it, and waiting to see where it would lead him. And of course, there would soon be instructions from K and whoever else on how to proceed, once their basic Intro Weeks were done.

  For now, he was happy to focus on strengthening his body, gain a new attribute, and deepen his control and understanding of his aura, the great foundation upon which his entire path and future as a combat class depended on.

  And so, he got started.

  He quickly reached his aura light ball within himself, and just as quickly and easily coaxed his aura into spreading evenly across his entire body.

  And now what?

  It was obvious that wasn’t the end of it. That would’ve been quite the letdown!

  But it did mean that he needed to figure out where to go from there, or at least, try something new. The Master of Aura’s punishment hung heavy over his head, and having three days now in which to do it, present day included, was starting to feel very uncomfortable.

  However, as part of the punishment, the master had told Nar that she wasn’t going to tell him anything, and leave it up to him to figure it out by himself. Which led him to his current, nerve-wracking predicament.

  “Hmmm,” he said, as he easily kept his aura cycling across his entire body, even without thinking too much about it.

  Uh… Oh! Is that it? Not thinking about it? Make it like, just happen?

  But that felt like the end goal, not the next, and likely obvious, step in the ladder to get there.

  Come on, man. Think… What do I need? Ah. What am I even doing?

  He allowed his aura to cycle back to his core and opened his eyes, and leaned back against the barrier with a groan. The pods were sound-proof, so he didn’t need to worry about disturbing anyone else.

  He sighed in relief, leaning his weight against the green barrier, and looked up the narrow tube of light encasing him.

  Easy to forget where you are, he thought, not for the first time.

  The aethership flew so smoothly, that other than the sudden weird feeling he got whenever they micro-jumped along their path, he usually forgot he was within an actual, massive, moving ship.

  I wonder how you even pilot this thing…

  He snorted and rubbed his gritty eyes.

  What am I doing? My deadline is coming and I have no idea what to do!

  He rubbed his eyes harder in irritation and then…

  Wait! That’s it! My eyes!

  He was a highly mobile, close-combat melee class! How was he supposed to use his aura if he could only do it with his eyes closed!

  Or sitting down? He thought, excited. Yes! This is it! It’s gotta be it! But how do I do this with my eyes open?

  Nar looked down at his chest.

  How do I get there without closing my eyes? Wait… Do I even need to get there?

  He had spent over fourteen years of his life using his aura with his eyes wide open… And standing! Of course, he had also made an absolute butchery of it, but, if he didn’t break his aura into pieces, and just pulled on it, like he used to do for the machine, wouldn’t that work?

  He had done it during the latter stages of his Climb after all. He just needed to relearn to do it without the help he had been given at the time.

  Decided, Nar stood up.

  Alright… Let’s try this, he thought. And why do it sitting? He’d done it standing well enough for years. Surely, it wasn’t a few months break that would make him forget how to do it, no?

  He took a deep breath and steadied himself.

  Then, he reached for the center of his chest, where his sternum was… No, his heart? And probed for an opening, just like his dad had taught him all those years ago.

  There it is…

  An opening within him, from where…

  “Ugh!” Nar said, finding himself before his aura ball. “I closed my eyes again!”

  He exhaled and stretched, and shook his arms, loosening his stance.

  “Okay, okay… We can do this. We’re on the right path!” he told himself out loud. “Come on, Nar! Come on! Eyes open!”

  And keeping them open, Nar prodded around for that opening once again. However, this time, when he felt the flow of aura seeping into his body, he stopped, and grit his teeth so as not to be sucked in again.

  How is it pulling me in, and letting out aura at the same time?

  And how come aura was seeping out from it? He wasn't using aura, nor calling upon it.

  Between the soul and the physical, Nar thought. Maybe it's always leaking a little bit into my body. I mean, my soul and my body are connected, right? Oh well…

  Deciding to leave what he felt was probably a very deep, and very complex topic, he focused instead on that opening through which his aura seeped through.

  Okay, let’s pull…

  Gently, ever so very gently, as though he was barely reaching it with a very, very tentative pinky, Nar willed the flow of aura to increase, just like he had done countless times before in the factory. The effect was immediate, and a warmth spread over his chest.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Ah!” he shouted, laughing out loud. “Oh, my Crystal! I did it!”

  Emboldened by his success, Nar pulled on his aura further, cycling it up his shoulders and down his arms, and into his hands. As though he was going to push them out of his palms and fingers and into the controller of his recycling machine.

  The warmth, enveloping and strengthening sensation was unmistakable, and he lifted his tingling fingertips closer to his face, unable to stop smiling.

  Is that… It is!

  It was faint, but there was a very slight haze of aura wafting from his fingertips.

  Curious, he cycled more aura, as much as he could up to his 105 [Mastery] limit, and chuckled in delight as his whole arm was just barely visibly enveloped in hazy aura. His fingertips now left very slight trails of hazy, smoky gray in their wake too.

  Delighted, he rebalanced the cycling of aura across his body, and pushed it towards his legs and feet, as well as his head.

  He gasped as aura reached his brain.

  Everything within the barrier looked suddenly a touch sharper and brighter. His body too, did not feel as sore anymore, and a sensation of warmth and deep relief seeped into his abused muscles, nerves, tendons, bones and every fiber of his being.

  Nar inhaled deeply and moved forward, without hesitation, and paced in tight circles within the pod.

  He lifted and lowered his arms, opened and closed his fists, wiggled his fingers and toes, stopped, kneeled, squatted and even jumped.

  When the flow of aura within him hesitated, threatening to reverse back to his core, he concentrated harder and tried the same movement again and again, until it was smooth.

  Minutes melted into hours, and hours passed by in that half-dazed and half-blissful state.

  Eventually, Nar realized that for a while, he had not encountered any hesitations or jarring in his flow. His cycling was working perfectly well.

  DING!

  “Woah!” he shouted, surprised at the sudden window that popped open before him.

  His hold on his aura slipped, and pain snarled and snapped across his body.

  “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”

  He quickly re-asserted control over his aura and looked over his unexpected gains.

  Both of them to level 2… Uh. I guess you really can make gains outside of combat.

  To be honest, he had sort of found that hard to believe, despite it coming from the mouth of the masters themselves and Professor Thim. However, with this, he could lay those doubts to rest.

  He smiled, as re-read the notification.

  “Yeah… Take that!” he whispered.

  “Are you talking to me, apprentice?” a familiar voice spoke.

  Nar nearly jumped out of his skin, and again, pain ravaged his body as he struggled to control his aura.

  “M-master?” he asked, through half open eyes, cycling the flow to be smooth once more.

  A rectangle appeared in the barrier, and the Master of Aura strode in without requesting an invitation this time. Nar back pedaled until his back was against the barrier.

  “Sit!” she said. “We must talk.”

  Gulping his nerves, Nar did as was told, and lowered himself to the floor in front of her, and let go of his cycling slowly and carefully.

  “You are progressing too fast,” the master said, staring at him through narrowed eyes that made him nervous. What was she staring at now? His very aura inside of him? “We have many fast learners amongst us, like we always do, and you are not the fastest. Your friend, Cen, is one such fast learner, and she made the same gains as you just this morning. However, all of these apprentices are in the aura class, and building [Aura] centered paths. While I understand that the passive skills we discussed previously will aid you in your aura mastery, I did not expect you to keep pace with the aura class. Nor surpass most of them… So, explain.”

  Nar licked his lips. Well, it wasn’t how he had envisioned it, but here was the master, so what in the pile, right?

  “Well, actually, there was something I only noticed after the last time we talked, master,” he said.

  “Spit it out, apprentice. Your mind’s a jumble of non-sense and worry.”

  “Uh, yes. Sorry, master!” he said, sweat spreading across him. “Truth is, last time there was a skill you didn’t talk about.”

  She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, when you opened the list of my skills…

  “Like this?” she asked, popping up the same window from before.

  “Y-Yes! And look! There’s a skill missing!” Nar said, pointing at the list.

  The master did not speak for a moment, looking at the window before her, with an increasingly furrowed expression.

  “[The Aspiring Champion]?” she said, presumably plucking it out of his head. “Can you read the description of that skill to me, please?”

  “Uh… Of course!”

  “I’m not sure if this is the reason why…”

  The master raised a hand to silence him, and she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking.

  “Do you have any idea what this skill is, Nar?” she eventually asked him, opening her eyes to fix him with a penetrating gaze.

  Her eyes are so blue, he realized. They were a very clear, very pale light blue color, the kind he had never seen before in a human, which he assumed she was.

  He shook his head, almost mesmerized by the intensity of her eyes. He felt as though he could lose himself in them, if he wasn’t careful, and pulled his eyes away.

  “This, apprentice, is what is called a hidden skill,” she explained. “Very rare. Very valuable. Very powerful. I don't know yet what this means for your path, but we’ll need to include it in our calculations and planning from now on. I’ll let both K and the Master of Blades know about this, but for now, I urge you to not speak of this to any… You’ve already babbled to someone haven’t you?”

  Nar winced, guilty as charged. “I just mentioned it to my party!!”

  “Fine… Just keep it to yourself going forward then. Hidden skills are no joking matter, and we need to address this with care and the proper considerations,” she told him. “However, you are right. This hidden skill is not the reason why you have progressed so quickly, nor why you have so much [Aura] in the first place. I sense you know the real reason…”

  Nar hesitated for a moment. He hadn’t even told K about it… First, because he hadn’t thought it relevant, and secondly, these people were all still, to all purposes and intentions, strangers to him. It wasn’t easy to just speak about his life as an Unclean…

  But why shouldn’t I tell her? It’s not like that stuff means anything to her… And if it helps them teach me… Besides, she’s reading my mind right now, anyways!

  “It is best if you tell me,” she said.

  He took a deep breath, and scratched the back of his neck, suddenly feeling awkward.

  “Something happened when I was little,” he said, resolved to keep the recounting brief and to stick to the important bits. “A disease went through my neighborhood, and the survivors were branded as Unclean by the rest of the cubeplant. As punishment, we were all forced into doing double shifts at the aura machines. Even us kids, who usually only start when we’re ten years old, were forced to do it from five instead… And I was five at the time. That means that for fourteen years I worked those double shifts. When I left the cubeplant… Well, I’ve always had the highest [Aura] in the party. Even higher than Cen.”

  The master sighed and leaned back against the barrier.

  “You’re right that I don’t believe in that nonsense… Unclean!” she huffed. “Idiots, the lot of them! But this does explain a lot… You used your machine operator knowledge, didn’t you? One that is far more advanced than most other operators…”

  “I wouldn’t call it knowledge,” Nar said, grimacing. “But yes. I was just doing what my dad taught me, and what I did for years. And in the Climb too, even with help, controlling my aura was very easy for me as soon as I became an auramancer.”

  “I see… And you kept it in control by the exit too…”

  The Master of Aura crossed her arms and tapped her lips with a finger.

  “All this aura, and a pretty darned good control as well… And if we add in this mysterious melee aura intensive path and skills, even a hidden one…” the master mused. “Very interesting. Very interesting indeed. It seems I need to make some time to visit K with the Master of Blades.”

  The Master of Blades? Nar thought. Did that mean he had a good chance of catching the man’s eyes and earning his private tutelage?

  The master stood up and motioned for him to do the same, even as the walls of the pod collapsed around them. This time, there were even less aura pods active, perhaps less than ten in total.

  “Uh… Master?”

  But before she could explain her actions, a wave of weakness hit him, and his stomach grumbled audibly.

  “It’s nearly two in the morning, apprentice,” the master said, in a soft tone. “We want hard work, but not insanity. Do not skip meals, is that clear?”

  “Yes… I-I didn’t notice how long I was…”

  “I figured, but since you were making such tremendous progress, we allowed it to continue,” she explained. “In the future, the pods will be programmed to only allow a maximum of two hours per session, so this won’t happen again at least. However, whatever you do elsewhere, it's up to you to control and manage yourself.”

  “I can use my aura somewhere else?” Nar asked, as she motioned for him to follow her towards the doors of the hall.

  “All of the training halls available for booking across the ship have aura dampening protections built into them. It’s the material that covers the wall, floors and ceiling of this hall as well. Of course, it’s not as strong as the aura pod’s barrier, but it should keep you apprentices from destroying the ship. Still, don’t go trying anything crazy without our say so.”

  Nar nodded as he glanced around him, at the dark gray fabric that covered every surface of the hall.

  “I did think there was something weird about it,” Nar half mumbled to himself. “They’re quiet…”

  The master looked at him.

  “Impressive senses,” she said, smiling. “Anyways, go eat something and then go to bed.”

  Nar realized that they had reached the door, and that the master was sending him away.

  “Yes, master.”

  “And listen well,” she said, holding him with her gaze. “Forget about the punishment. You are going to continue to do what you’re doing. You probably noticed that it helped your body hurt less as well, right?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s because cycling your aura enhances your recovery capabilities, amongst other things. Be it your stamina bar, your HP or your aura bar, as well your injuries and damage, cycling aura will help you recover faster. Also, next time you come in, sit down again and close your eyes again. Spread your aura like you’re doing, but this time, when you see the hazy aura spreading through your arm, try and look deeper at it, and see what else you can find there… This will help you progress further. And don’t smile! I’m not about to clip your wings because of some stupid punishment! But just because of that dumb grin, I’ll give you until Fifth of next week to show me progress! Now off you go and don’t make me regret it!”

  “Yes, master,” he said, and bowed. “Thank you, master!”

  “And none of that bowing!” she said. “Leave that for those nutjobs in the Hall of Blades. Now off with you!”

  And with that, the master walked back into the hall, likely to go deal with the other apprentices still training within those active pods.

  His stomach gurgled, and Nar decided that it was time to go see what those late-night snacks available in the canteen were.

  And then to bed.

  Next day he had another entire half day of physical torture awaiting him.

  Still, he smiled as made his way to the canteen.

  His body felt less sore and his steps lighter thanks to his regenerative aura cycling.

  The discovery of the hidden skill, as well as the progress he had achieved with his aura, by himself, no less, filled him with renewed hope for both the path he was building and by how fast he was going to be able to build it in.

  Hang in there, dad. I’m going as fast as I can… But it won’t hurt to walk past that window again on my way back to bed, right?

  That night view with all those ships had been engraved in his mind forever. Surely a few more minutes before bed wouldn’t hurt.