Chapter 50 - Fire magic

  The day had gone by rather quickly. After they finished the awakening, they were given a week to prepare themselves as hunters before they got sent out on their first mission. At first, Adam was afraid that a week wouldn’t be enough time since he couldn’t even access his new core.

  Instructor Mai was a great teacher, she was clearly proud and motivated about teaching young mages and her teaching methods helped Adam greatly. He learned how to extract the power stored in his second heart and could now do so with relative ease. Reabsorbing the power again was now also a simple task and it had opened his mind to many possibilities he would never have considered before.

  For their last lesson of the day, she had promised to show them how to externalize their power. This was what everyone here had been waiting for.

  “Over on this side, you can find all the items necessary for your various powers. You have water, rocks, candles, steel, and the material needed to form static electricity. The only power we can’t help with is poison, but none of you have poison as a primary talent. Of course, those with secondary talents will focus on their primary for now. Learning your primary will be far easier and the experience you gain will help greatly if you ever pursue your second talent.

  Now, retrieve the items relevant to your powers and get them ready.”

  The various items were located in different crates labeled with whichever power they were designed to help with. Out of the eight members of their group, two grabbed rocks from the first crate, one grabbed a small bucket of water, two others went for various steel objects, while Ellio was the only one to use the rough gloved material used for creating static electricity and Adam and another young boy both took a candle and maches each.

  This was his first time discovering the powers of the other members of his group, and he was happy to see he wasn’t the only fire mage, he would therefore be able to see if he was doing something wrong by copying the other guy.

  Ellio didn’t seem to have such luck as she was the only lightning mage, yet she didn’t seem too worried, and actually looked proud of her uniqueness, it probably reminded her of the Grand master's praise of her rare power.

  They all returned to the middle of the training yard moments later with all their items in hand. Eight stone pillars rose from the ground in front of each of them as they all instinctively took a step back.

  “You can place your tools on these platforms before we begin.” Said instructor Mai while standing in front of them. Adam didn’t even notice her moving her hands before the pillars rose. They were all waist high and wide enough for any of the items the group had selected.

  “The mage's heart isn’t simply power but an extension of your will. If you want to move your arm, you simply have to think it, if you want to control your powers' element, simply thinking it won’t be enough, you first have to make it a part of yourself.

  To begin, use your hunter's heartbeat to expel your powers, then push that power into your various elements. As an earth mage, I enveloped the ground in my hunter power and made it a part of myself. For earth mages, follow that example and push your power into the rocks. Same for steel mages and water mages. The process is a little different for active elements like fire and lightning.

  Those elements are in constant action and cannot simply be grasped like a rock or a steel object. Instead, you must shape its motion and make its existence accelerate with your power as the fuel.”

  Adam and the other fire mage were both standing side by side and both exchanged a worried look. They didn’t understand how they would accomplish this and they both knew that this was going to be hard. He then looked to his left, where Ellio was staring into space as if thinking deeply about the instructor's words. She had two almost glove-like rectangle objects in both hands and she then looked down at them as if looking for answers. Her eyes met Adams and she seemed just as lost as him.

  He felt bad for her, since lightning wasn’t something he could even consider taming. Fire seemed daunting enough and he had a candle to use. Ellio on the other hand had to make her own lightning before she could harness it. He briefly wondered if this was the end of his older sister's path on the road to becoming a hunter, but shook the thought away the moment it came.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  He may not be her real brother anymore, but he still felt some responsibility to help her. She was the only link left to his host, and the wonderful opportunity this place had given him thanks to Dorain's untimely death had made him very thankful towards the unfortunate young boy.

  Doing his best to support his host's sister was the least he could do to repay his debt. His admittedly minor knowledge of modern science from Earth might come in handy in helping her, but he first had to figure out his own fire element.

  Unlike the pure white mana of the alien world, he couldn’t augment his eyes with this less mana variant so he was blind to the power that left his body. But that didn’t mean he was completely lost, as when his hunter’s heart revved up and the power spread around his body, he felt it build up in his hands.

  He felt the power at the end of his fingers and all it took was a simple thought to let them loose beyond the confines of his body. He could have of course expelled them from any part of his body like they were trying not to do during the previous exercises. Expelling it out of one's own fingers was simply done for the sake of control since the size of the mana streaming out was already funneled into a smaller point rather than an uncontrollable cloud.

  The lit candle in front of him was only inches from his hand. The moment the power reached it, an invisible connection was made. It was like the fire and the mana had merged together and he felt the flame connected to him.

  With a thought, he willed the flame to grow bigger, and that command travelled down his connection through the mana on his finger and reached the small flame.

  A moment later, he felt the mana in his body get sucked towards his hand like a small whirlpool, as the candles flame used his mana to grew at a rapid speed. It went from the size of a fingernail, to the size of a palm in a single second.

  Adam was shocked at the result and immediately pulled away and severed the flames connection to his mana.

  He looked around in shock to observe his group's progress. He saw a steel tube vibrating on the stone pillar a few pillars to his left and a floating pebble on the other side.

  His eyes then met the other fire mages next to him, he held an expression of shock and respect. He smiled weekly and refocused on the flame. It had returned to its original size after he had stopped feeding it mana, so he reached out his hand once more.

  An hour later, the day's training was concluded and the group of young hunters returned the items to the crates and made their way out of the training yard. It had been a long day, probably longer than twenty-four hours, and the sun was still on the verge of teetering over the horizon, but seeming to never actually move. It hadn’t changed position much in at least two hours, based on his experience, he assumed this planet had a day-night cycle with close to thirty hours a day.

  During their last training exercise, Adam had learned to control the flame with great accuracy. He would lose a lot of power to make it grow in size, but making it sway from side to side was now effortless. He still had no idea how to conjure flames out of thin air, but his progress was rapid.

  Instructor Mai told them to keep practicing using their hunter’s heartbeat, but Adam was definitely better than most in utilizing it already. His experience with much sliperier and thinner magic help him adapt well to this lesser variant.

  Ellio hadn’t had as much luck. She still struggled to form a single electrical discharge, and since she couldn’t simply manipulate the electricity like he did with the flame, she was beginning to look depressed and jealous of her little brother's success with fire magic.

  Adam himself was satisfied with his day and giddy at the new power that resided within him. Yet the questions and suspicions he had suppressed all day now slipped back to the forefront of his mind.

  At the start of his training with instructor Mai, his soul was about to give out and lose its hold over his host. During that moment of radical turmoil followed by absolute clarity, his being had connected with something far stronger than he had ever experienced. His soul had ceased shrinking and instead, grew and expanded beyond its original size.

  He was finally able to observe it with clarity and was amazed by the transformation. Unlike the tiny blob of flailing light that it used to be, it now resembled a majestic flame, uncaring and unaffected by anything. He looked like he had a healthy soul once again. But it was a little different from before.

  Unlike the silver light that it used to resemble, his soul now looked to have flames tinted with a hint of blue while its core remained a bright silver color. He inspected the change with interest and opened his status window to double check what he was seeing.

  Dao: Dao root of the soul

  He didn’t know what that new line meant, but he had heard of the Dao. He knew little of it, but knew that it was a popular concept in eastern culture. Yet, here he was, staring at his soul and seeing the undeniable change this new line had brought.

  It appeared as though his soul had changed its fuel, like his soul was no longer its normal self but had fundamentally changed.

  The new blue colored tint wasn’t the only change, as he could also feel it like never before.

  It didn’t radiate heat since it wasn’t actually a real flame, but he could feel his soul's shape and flowing movement, his soul had slowed and solidified, as if it was no longer fighting for its existence, but was actually embraced by the world and uplifted.

  Exploring the changes made him wonder about his main soul. Whatever happened that gave him this new comprehension of his soul, it didn’t seem to have affected his real soul trapped back in the astral realm. He wondered if the dao root of the soul had fundamentally changed his soul identity to the point that he could no longer merge back with his main soul.

  The thought sent fear down his spine, but also a small sense of relief. It was a feeling that caught even him off guard, and yet he couldn’t deny that he didn’t want to leave this place anytime soon. It felt like a dream come true for him. He had already been flung to an alien world with magic, but this world was one of unity and harmony in the face of a common threat. He wanted to explore what else this place had to offer before returning with all the power and knowledge he could.

  He had so many unanswered questions, but now, he might just get the answers he sought in this place. The dao was somehow protecting his soul, so he no longer had a short time limit in this host. He had no idea what the dao root of the soul was or what was powering it, but he would use it nonetheless.

  Yet the question that really burned in his mind, was who the hell was Balak and why did his new hunter heart powers register as being Balak’s lesser gift?

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