-Caelum: Five minutes after the incident-

  What soon followed after that horrific experience was thankfully a simple awakening from that decrepit world. I sat hunched over on Lunar’s bed, detailing the events I was met with. He stood before me, his arms crossed, nodding in acknowledgement.

  “…I see. So you were essentially pulled outside of that realm?”

  “Yes, I can still feel those hand things clutching onto my body…”

  He let out a deep sigh, resting his chin on his fingers.

  “That makes things quite tough. It seems that we’ll have to brute force our way through.”

  “…What’s on your mind?” I asked, slowly raising my head.

  “We’ll battle, simple as that,” he responded, turning back to the corner full of objects and fishing out a wooden sword. “I’ll just have to provoke you until we get a reaction.”

  “So something like a sparring match?” I spoke enthusiasm slowly brewing within me. “I can do that!”

  Once more, that moment when I found myself in that desolate realm started to feel like a regular nightmare. Before explaining what I saw, Lunar had told me that I never moved an inch, nor did I emit any sound. It really did appear that everything I experienced happened inside of my head, or… soul…

  Because of how safe I felt, as well as how everything seemed as if nothing ever happened after I stepped foot into this room, I could push the questions and feelings I initially had aside. That young woman I saw, her voice, the hands that clutched onto me, that world of complete darkness…

  …I was aware of all of those things. But they were not a priority for me right now. All that mattered was for me to learn what my abilities were. I decided to treat it like how I treated encountering that mysterious woman in that strange cathedral. A dream.

  “Remember how you summon your Grimoire?” Lunar sounded, turning back to his objects-filled corner. “Performing second conjurations is practically the same, but you’re going to want to imagine shooting arrows made out of your soul pressure.”

  The sounds of metals clanging against each other reverberated throughout the room. After just a moment, he managed to fish out an old-looking brown book.

  “I made sure to borrow a Hex Archive from the academy. Here’s where all known kinds of Hexery are detailed. For your sake, we’ll have to go to the Smuldra section.”

  He took a seat next to me with the Archive on his slender legs. The cover appeared quite intricate; it was embellished with three circular carvings, surrounded by various of mythical emblems. At a glance, one would assume this was yet another one of his occult books, but it truly was a lot more than that.

  He skimmed through the pages. Each one seemed like a story of its own; with drawings of people, weapons, Grimoires, potions and foods, serving to provide the necessary explanation of certain topics. It ranged from molding Infinite Arcana cards in order to create powerful potions to brewing, or crafting special food, to actual demonstrations of Hexery.

  He eventually arrived at the Smuldra section. The first page had the symbol of the Holy Spirit etched on the header area; the ouroboros dragon. Below it were contents specified for close-range Grimoires, something we weren’t looking for. He would skim a few more pages until we landed on the right category.

  “…Ranged. There we go.”

  “What does it say?” I asked, leaning forward.

  We were looking at a single spreadsheet page that consisted of a man with a bow shooting arrows. With small descriptions of the bow and the arrows surrounding the figure.

  “One of the descriptions repeats the belief that the Smuldra Hex has the most forms of second conjurations. The most common second conjuration for your type of Grimoire is… air manipulation.”

  “Air manipulation?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Lunar glided his finger across the page and pointed towards the man shooting arrows. He then sighed through his nose and turned to the next page, where the actual information regarding this form of second conjuration was written. He took a few moments to read before answering.

  “…It says that the base Seer ability consists of what I spoke to you about. Shooting arrows made of air.”

  He closed the book and threw it on his pillow.

  “Once we confirm this, we’ll know for sure that this is your second conjuration.”

  “Alright, let’s do it!” I nodded.

  ***

  We both made our way to the back cliffside courtyard of the building that was connected to a staircase at the back end of the bedroom hallway. The wind breezed quite strongly, causing our hair and clothes to flutter as we stood adjacent to each other. Lunar nonchalantly held his sword on top of his shoulder as he began speaking.

  “Remember, this is only going to be a friendly battle…”

  As he said this, he slowly pointed his wooden sword towards me.

  “…However, I don’t mind lowering the bars of restrictions if that’s okay with you.”

  “Heh!” I chuckled, frowning, as I summoned my silver bow. “I’m all in!”

  “Perfect. Let us go.”

  With a strong kick to the earth, Lunar propelled himself forward with great speed. That alone could have been the decisive blow. I narrowly avoided his destructive slash, as I could literally see a wall of wind right in front of me. I took a big leap backwards, chuckling as I groomed my hair over my scalp, my head lowered for a prompt moment.

  “Not bad! We’ve only sparred three times with each other so far, haven’t we?”

  “And its bound to become much more!” he exclaimed, his voice thrilled with energy and pride. I raised my head, trying to locate the source of his voice, however, I was already too late.

  His voice boomed from behind me. As soon as I turned around, he twirled and landed a devastating hit with his sword on my chest, causing me to propel backwards.

  “Ngh!”

  Midair, whilst flying towards the other end of the cliffside, I began to think about his words.

  It’s the same, he said, right…?

  Then… this should be easy!

  Focus, Caelum, focus!

  I gripped the earth with my right hand and attempted to position my bow in order to shoot, but Lunar was already right above me, preparing for yet another slash. I hurriedly dashed and rolled forward to throw him off guard and turned back towards him, trying to shoot out an arrow, yet I couldn’t find myself getting a good hold of my bow, causing me to tick my tongue and frown.

  “Damnit! I don’t think this bow is for me!”

  “False, Caelum!” he spoke with a serious tone, pointing his wooden sword towards me. “Anyone’s Grimoire is intricately bound to one’s soul. It doesn’t matter what kind of Grimoire you have; may it be a gun, a sword, a flute, a musical instrument, you should be able to use it regardless. You only need to get used to it!”

  “But, how?!”

  “By taking advantage of your talent!” he responded, instantly propelling towards me. Thrown off guard, I accidentally let go of my Grimoire as I nearly avoided his incoming slash. I soon realized that my bow wouldn’t fall to the ground, as if the laws of gravity didn’t apply to it. As I leapt backwards again, it followed me as if it was some sort of tracking drone. Despite not holding the bow, I could still feel a layer of soul pressure on my hands.

  With trembling hands, I began to breathe deeply whilst maintaining eye contact with Lunar. ‘Each one of us is talented’, he said… So… pretending as if I was shooting an arrow would have to be possible for me.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I concentrated on the soul pressure on my hands and positioned it as if I was firing off an invisible arrow. As soon as I pulled my right hand backwards, a strong gust of wind exploded around me, causing my hair and clothes to flutter, and I could see a singular wind current soaring towards Lunar.

  Yes… it worked!

  However, my enthusiasm was short-lived.

  He held his wooden sword with one hand, and easily parried the incoming arrow as if it were nothing. He smiled, slowly raising his head to meet my shocked eyes.

  “Oho? You’ve realized it already, huh?”

  “…Shoot!”

  “Not bad! Now do it again!” he responded, running towards me. “Your enemies won’t let you have any moment of rest before they’ve destroyed you!”

  This was my first time ever displaying magic.

  Of course, just like everyone else, magic was something completely normal to us. It was as usual as seeing the morning sunrise after waking up. However, actually performing magic was slightly different. Despite having been taught about Hexery, and knowing about Seers, I felt both amazed and shocked to see how truly talented I was.

  To put into perspective, I was never “taught” how to use magic. So for me to suddenly shoot out a magical arrow made of air would make anyone understandably question the situation, despite me, a person with naturally-born Seer characteristics, being the one in question.

  Even though I considered this, still… displaying magic felt surreal. It seemed that Lunar and the others were already given the chance to be amazed at their own magic. This was my ‘moment of awe’, but it was sadly short-lived.

  I was momentarily frozen in place, making me as free of a target as a deer standing in the middle of a highway. Lunar didn’t hesitate to land a clean kick to my abdomen, sending me flying towards the high, stone platform leading back into the building.

  “Make them more powerful. Use as much soul pressure as you can!”

  “…That… is possible?” I muttered, coughingly, as I mustered the courage to stand on both feet.

  “Yes. The more soul pressure you use, the stronger your abilities get,” he responded. “Each ability has a base strength depending on their significance. However, they get accentuated the more soul pressure you put into them. Our base Seer abilities are the easiest to enhance.”

  He pointed his wooden sword towards me again with an eerie smile on his face.

  “So try and put as much soul pressure as you can into a single arrow… and shoot!”

  It was only after he said this when I realized my body feeling a lot… lighter. A feeling similar to when one unshackles themselves from lifting weights and heavy chains, causing them to feel a lot more dexterous. I inspected my arms and bawled my hands into a fist as I remembered that I was an Enhancer…

  …Meaning that I should be able to enhance my body!

  But… how should I do this?!

  Think! It should be… yes, it should be the same as performing a second conjuration, but on yourself…?

  I channeled the soul pressure I had left throughout my entire body, engulfing it whole. Right as I did this, Lunar began reaching for me once more. As soon as his sword was about to make contact with my face, I spun and landed a clean, wrenching punch on his abdomen. Due to being enhanced by my soul pressure, the force was great enough to send him flying…

  …off the cliff.

  The cliffside on which the building had been situated was connected to a vast forest filled with trees that obscured the sky. Due to realizing this, my worries regarding his safety were placated. My soul pressure and Grimoire diminished, and my body went back to its usual sensation. The cliffside was not super high, allowing me to slowly glide off the escarpment until I eventually landed on the ground. I looked around in hopes of finding him before I could hear the sounds of wriggling grass from a few meters ahead.

  As I turned towards the source of the sound, I saw Lunar descending from a high tree. Despite his attire having been turned disheveled, his demeanour was as composed and calm as ever.

  “Lunar! Are you okay?!”

  “No worries, I’m fine,” he smiled, patting off earthly remnants from his clothes. “I’m glad you caught on with what I was trying to make you do. You took advantage of the opening I gave you. It may be a lot more convoluted in real scenarios, but at least you’ve gotten a hold of it.”

  “Thanks…” I chuckled, nervously scratching my scalp. We both then held our hands on our hips as we stared at the upper cliff. I sighed, and said, “Man, I guess we’ll have to take a roundabout, huh?”

  “Seems like it. T’was quite the high fall. Let us go.”

  Nature was nothing new to us Ventorians. Our love and affection for the wilderness had been well known throughout many aeons. Even though I, for one, had been to many forests, this one in particular seemed especially evocative.

  The trees, as said before, obstructed our sight of the sky, besides the place where we landed. It was a vast place that even had small rivers and ponds scattered throughout.

  We followed the outline of the cliff on which our dorm was built on, and soon found ourselves in an open space, where the sounds of wind rustling through leaves, birds calling and squirrels chatting were more prevalent. Our footsteps were also tinged by the crunching sounds of dead pine needles and twigs; accentuated by the fresh earthly smells of pines and wildflowers.

  “It seems like you have an idea of what your ability may be,” Lunar began. “I noticed you were able to shoot arrows made of air, and enhance your physical capabilities by using that same air.”

  “Would you say these are my only abilities?” I asked, embellishing myself with the beautiful scenery.

  “Most likely. I assume Vash was hoping for us to share our knowledge with you. The training procedure we went through was quite simple; We just needed to sort of ‘demonstrate’ our abilities. Since we’re naturally born Seers, showcasing them was as easy as how you were able to demonstrate your abilities moments ago.”

  I slightly squinted my eyes before answering.

  “…I feel like I need to be sure, though. Let me try this again. I’ll summon my Grimoire and repeat one of my abilities.”

  “I understand,” he nodded. “This place seems vast enough. Let’s do this here.”

  “…Alright.”

  ***

  A tree standing ten or so meters away from us had become my target. Upon materialization, my silver bow floated right beside me. I decided to send an arrow without it, so I channeled my soul pressure throughout my arms, prompting me to realize that I truly was able to also enhance my body.

  “So it seems I have mastery over two different abilities.”

  “Seems like it, yes,” Lunar responded next to me, his arms crossed. “Do remember that this is your base ability; meaning that you have the potential to further accentuate these abilities once you get stronger. For example, the arrows made of air can be multiplied once you reach higher Seer levels.”

  “Right,” I nodded.

  “Try and shoot that tree down,” he said, pointing towards it. “If you manage to break it down with a single arrow, it’ll be safe to assume your strength is around the wall-level range.”

  He looked at the tree as if contemplating my strength. He already experienced my arrow firsthand… Since he was able to parry it with just one hand, I assumed he underestimated my strength. So I was prompted to really try my hardest to break that tree down, just to show him that the arrow he parried was evidently different than the one I was about to shoot.

  And so I did. I positioned my hands, channeled my soul pressure, and shot a large arrow onto the tree, causing our hairs and clothes to flutter in the magical wind pressure.

  It soared through the myriad of other trees and greenery which caused a large amount of leaves and dirt to flutter mid-air, obstructing our view right as it collided with the tree. A loud thump! Followed, a signal that my arrow did make contact with something.

  As the leaves and dirt finally calmed down and fell on the soil, the tree was revealed…

  …It only had a single dent. Nothing more than if someone were to punch the tree numerous times.

  I ticked my tongue and got into position once more.

  “Let me try again.”

  After channeling my soul pressure into my arms, I shot another arrow. It soared through the area until it crashed with the tree once more.

  It was only slightly more dented.

  “Try and enhance yourself,” Lunar suggested. “And then break down a tree with either a punch or kick.”

  “…Okay.”

  I attempted to channel my soul pressure again. However, I could sense that it wasn’t as strong as before anymore.

  I grew even more frustrated, as I repeatedly tried to focus and focus, just for my soul pressure to diminish. It was like ferociously cranking a geared generator in order to make a light bulb illuminate, only for that light to fade away moments after shining.

  Lunar noticed this, and turned contemplative.

  “…Looks like a lot of training awaits you. You’re not capable of shooting more than a handful of arrows right now.”

  Suddenly, as he said this, I could see Vaelen’s face crossing my mind. This caused a shadow to fall over my face as I lowered my head. I spoke to him with a solemn tone.

  “…Say, Lunar, what about Vaelen? How strong is he?”

  “Oh, Vaelen? In all honesty, besides me… he may be the most talented Seer I’ve met so far.”

  “Besides you, huh?” I responded, raising my head to meet his eyes. “…I can’t deny that.”

  “You can’t, no,” he responded firmly, and egoistically. This sudden prideful change in demeanour certainly rubbed me in the wrong way… but, he was right. Even though I wasn’t able to measure the strength levels between him and the others correctly, something about him convinced me that he really was destined to become a formidable Seer.

  “My abilities and strengths are objectively better than Vaelen’s from a fundamental perspective,” he continued. “However, even though there are differences in our base abilities, it doesn’t mean he won’t be able to grow as strong as me, or even stronger.”

  He then crossed his hands behind his back, and turned towards me with a smile.

  “Life is unfair, remember? You’re going to have to force yourself in if you want to be acknowledged as a great individual. Nobody will care about you until you show the results of your labour.”

  “…Lunar…”

  “Hm?”

  “…Fight me. Fight me with your abilities.”

  “…No, I won’t,” he said calmly, not a hint of fright in his voice. He turned around, his hands still crossed behind his back and continued. “Right now is not the time. We’ll need to return and prepare until the second day begins.”

  “…Tsk.”

  Not uttering a single word, I followed Lunar’s trail back to the abode.

  That book…

  …No.

  I… won’t use it.

  I’ll keep using this Grimoire. That one… isn’t real. It’s not a real Grimoire.

  Yes, it was all a dream…