A few minutes later, after having inhaled his food, Nar rushed towards the Aura Hall.

  When he arrived there, he was relieved to find that half the pods were still free, as the apprentices were taking their lunch break.

  He almost ran towards the closest one, as though scared it might get snapped from him before he could reach it, and closed the pod around him.

  It was still early into the lunch break, so hopefully, maybe, just maybe, he could make some progress in that small half an hour he had before the afternoon aura class started. He didn’t want to face the master without having at least something to show for all of his efforts, no matter how small it was.

  He sat down and closed his eyes, not waiting for the barrier to reach the ceiling of the hall, and plunged head first into the dark place within him that was his aura core.

  Okay… Okay, he said to himself, his heart thundering in his chest. Let’s see. Look for it leaving the ball of light… Leaving… Leaving…”

  He got on his tippy toes, and tried to see if there was anything above his ball of aura, already expecting not to find anything. And for the next few minutes, he frantically went around the sphere, inspecting every inch of it, and even going so far as to stick his whole face inside the aura. However, he found nothing.

  He glanced at the clock. Shit… I’ve only got fourteen minutes!

  He closed his fists, the food in his stomach doing unhappy somersaults, and stared at his ball of aura.

  It simply floated in the nothing, unbothered and peaceful, as it always did.

  Nar forced himself to take a deep breath, and a follow up slow exhale.

  This is getting me nowhere.

  What was the point in rushing?

  All I’m doing is probably just make it worse, he realized, staring at his aura. And not get it done right.

  He wanted to progress, yes. Fast, if possible? Also yes.

  But he didn’t want to risk not doing it properly.

  His path would be with him his whole life. What was being given out to, or being punished, compared to ensuring the integrity and stability of the foundation of his path?

  It’s nothing… It really doesn’t matter.

  He sighed, and made to open his eyes. However, in that brief split-second of relaxing and letting go, he caught sight of something.

  A flash of several things.

  It was faded, but for a moment, he was sure that he had seen…

  Lines…

  Lines.

  Now why did that make sense?

  He ran through his memories of everything the Master of Aura had taught them, and of what she had further told him in private. And out of it all, a word popped out to him.

  Veins.

  The master had said that their channels, or pathways, as they were properly called, were like veins connecting their cores to their bodies. The energy of their souls gathered in their cores, and from there, it spread throughout their bodies through the vein-like aura pathways.

  But I’ve only seen it as light, covering my whole body, Nar thought, considering the sphere of light before him. Should it be more like veins… Like lines instead?

  He made to approach his face to the sphere again, but then he stopped. Instead, he took a few steps back.

  And he looked.

  I saw those broken pieces before, he thought. They just went upwards, and that’s all I thought was going on. I pulled on my aura and it went up from here, and into that hole in my chest… But what if it's not going up… Or not just up. It’s in the center of my chest, so it should be going… In all directions!

  And before his stunned eyes, he saw it, and within his chest, he felt it.

  One, then two, then three and at last four lines stretched a few inches from his core.

  He raised a hand to one of those lines and felt its warmth across his right arm as he passed his hand through it.

  From my core, to my body, through my pathways… These are the pathways!

  He laughed, still shocked by his discovery.

  It was so simple… he realized, following the lines with his eyes. How did I not think of this?

  He had thought that the light of his aura that he saw covering his body was all there was to it, but just like his blood needed to flow through his veins, he should have realized that the same was true for his aura!

  My pathways, he thought. I wonder if I can get more of them… I mean there’s only four.

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  And as if struck by a sudden insight, he knew he was right. More pathways meant his aura reached more parts of his body and that he could cycle more of it at once. And better and more easily as well.

  But first, I need to understand the one’s I have, he thought, frowning at them. They don’t look right… Or complete?

  Looking down at his chest, which was sort of confusing given that he was both inside his core and looking down at it, he could just about make the beginning of his pathways spreading from his core, from the place he had once considered to be a hole.

  Now, he saw a smaller sphere of light there, the center of all of his pathways, current, and yet to be. To be brought about by his own efforts.

  Without thinking about it, the aura class all but forgotten, Nar decided to focus all of his attention into one of the four main pathways.

  It sprouted from the right side of his core, so he assumed that it was meant for his right arm, the same pathway he had briefly just touched.

  Following that logic, the one on the left side was meant for his left arm, the one on the top for his head, and the one at the bottom would probably divide itself to go into both of his legs.

  Gritting his teeth, he dug deep and forced all of his attention to be on that one tiny little beginning of a pathway. He wasn’t sure if he was really “looking” at it, or just sensing it, but the master had told him to do it with his eyes closed at first, so it was bound to be helpful to do it like that.

  Slowly, little by little, that little nub of shimmering gray light became an inch. Then two.

  Tiny bit by tiny bit, requiring his entire focus so as to not lose sight of the pathway, Nar followed along it, the line growing from his core alongside his efforts.

  By the time he reached the palm of his hand, the line split into five, and Nar nearly lost all of his work by trying, foolishly, to do all five lines at once.

  Fucking idiot! He allowed himself to swear.

  Shaking with effort and enthusiasm, Nar followed each pathway up their corresponding finger, one by one. And when he was done, he had a sensation of deepening within him, spreading from his core, up to his shoulder, then down his arm, elbow, wrist, hand and fingers.

  He was done.

  Carefully, afraid to let all of his hard work fall apart, Nar eased his focus off the pathway. When nothing happened to the lines, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  And now…

  He took a deep breath, and cycled some aura. As before, it spread into his body, but he focused on his newly established pathway. There was aura in it already, of course, but he wanted to see what would happen if he filled it up more. If he used it to properly cycle aura.

  A gasp escaped his lips.

  Power coursed through his newly formed, or discovered, pathway.

  If the previous feeling could be described as getting his little pinky wet, now this was drenching his entire arm!

  He still saw the hazy outline of light covering his arm and hand, but the pathway shone with a much brighter lighter within it. Stronger. Focused. Both deeper and wider somehow.

  And if I can do this for my whole body, and get even more pathways! And with more aura! Then I…

  DING!

  The sound brought him back to reality, and with it, came a wave of exhaustion that nearly doubled him over.

  Slowly, grinding his teeth to maintain his now failing focus, Nar retracted his aura back to his core, and hoping the new pathway would stay where it was, Nar opened his eyes.

  A window was in front of him, and it took him some time for his blurry sight to make out the words before him.

  No upgrades on his [Mastery], but regardless of that, he had done it! And he owed Cen a thousand massive thank yous for guiding him in the right direction. However, he had still been the one to figure it out in the end, and that filled his battered self with a sense of pride and achievement.

  As well as realizing that I can’t rush things, he told himself. I want a proper, well-built path. Not something that could break one day, when I need it the most.

  However long it would take, it would take. He would just have to do his best, and hope that when the time came to Climb back down, that it would prove to be enough.

  TING!

  What now? He thought, checking his notifications.

  The subject read Safe! Just about…, and he knew immediately who had sent it.

  Scowling, he opened the message.

  It was impossible to maintain his scowl for long, and by the time he reached the end of the message, he was at equal times shaking his head at his master and smiling at how clearly pleased she was that he had made progress.

  He doubted that Cen had rushed to their master to tell her how she had helped him, so he simply chucked it up to the master's insane ability to know everything. Or perhaps she got a notification anytime they got their skills.

  Yeah… That’s probably it, Nar thought, through the pleased haze now slowly claiming his brain.

  He instructed the barrier to come down and forced himself up to his feet. Outside, aura practice was in full swing, and every pod seemed to be in use. In front of him, he could see the head of the queue of apprentices waiting their turns at the pods.

  Oh… I must have gone straight through aura class and into free practice.

  With a grimace, he stumbled his way to the exit, just glancing to his side as an apprentice rushed to take his pod.

  He squeezed through the queuing apprentices feeling as though he floated on air, rather than walk on his way back to his room.

  It had been a long two weeks, but not only had he succeeded in unlocking his [Vigor] and even making a three-point gain on it, he had also made significant progress in his aura classes, managing to get the attention of the Master of Aura herself.

  Now, if only I could get that with the Master of Blades too, he thought.

  However, that thought came out with a chuckle.

  His path was progressing much better and faster than he had expected it to, and Intro Weeks were over according to his schedule. He couldn’t wait to see what he was going to be learning coming next week.

  Hopefully, finally about how to use my sword.

  Before that however, he had a whole evening and weekend ahead of himself of an apparently free schedule.

  I think I’ve earned some rest… Ohh! I can turn off my alarm tomorrow!

  Now that was something worth looking forward to.