Chapter 219 - Mana core and the soul

“I heard about what happened. I’m sorry if my family bothered you,” Creva said apologetically as the city of Deller disappeared behind them. 

“It’s fine,” Adion said. He had only had an hour or two for himself in the library yesterday before various members from the Helmis family arrived, casually taking their seats around him. They couldn’t hold in their curiosity for very long and started questioning him about his experiences and what made him so valued by Cyalis and Heavenly Light. 

Adion had thought Creva was inquisitive enough, but it turned out she had probably been holding back all this time. 

I wonder if this will be my life from now on. 

I should figure out what to be open about and what to hide.

Well, I’ll leave it to the Headmaster to figure out.

“I should have punished them harder,” Creva muttered, “To think my family is full of dimwits. Can’t even figure out something so simple as you having a space core.”

“Didn’t you say it wasn’t easy to figure out without the aura sense of a Soul mage?” Adion asked.

“That’s for normal people,” Creva said, “I expect better from my family.”

Adion at least felt assured that he wasn’t as easy to figure out as he feared.

He looked out the carriage window as he felt White’s aura approach. Adion communicated through his aura that everything was fine and that he could follow them from a distance until they got further away from the city.

“By the way,” Adion said, turning to Creva, “What do you think about traveling on White? It would be a lot faster.”

“You’re still on that? How can you expect a Noble lady to travel like that? You’ll never get yourself a wife if you don’t sharpen up,” Creva said.

Adion felt a little stumped.

I don’t feel like Sell would mind something like that. She would probably enjoy it.

“Fine,” Adion said with a sigh. He could see that traveling in a carriage was more comfortable. Since Creva had volunteered to accompany him, he should accommodate her. 

“Now, what can you tell me about your powers? I’m curious,” Creva said, “Your Gift, it’s not actually a Gift, is it?”

“That’s right,” Adion said, “I just freeze space using my own powers.”

Adion didn’t mind sharing some of his abilities. Creva would figure it out anyway. And since she was so clever, she might come up with new ideas that Adion could test.

“How do you do it?” Creva asked, “Do you conjure space? How much space can you conjure?”

“I can’t conjure very much, so I just grab hold of the space directly,” Adion said.

“Seem awfully powerful,” Creva said, furrowing her brows, “Is it because space is special, or do you have an incredibly powerful Will?”

Obviously, it was because he had Authority over space, but he couldn’t tell her that.

“A little of both, I guess,” Adion answered, “I don’t understand very much about space myself. It’s not like anyone can teach me about it. I just grab hold of the space surrounding people and use my Will to freeze it. If I’m up against a more powerful Will, it’s useless. But it’s very handy for those with a weaker Will.”

“Just freezing someone in space during a fight for a second is enough to kill,” Creva said, sounding a little baffled, “It’s simply overpowered.”

“All elements should be equal,” Adion said, “Maybe I just got lucky and the best use of my space powers. There could be equally powerful applications of the other elements, it’s just that nobody has found it yet.”

“There is nothing to support the claim that all elements are equal,” Creva contested, “It’s just that we feel that it should be like that. Not very scientific. Anyway, what else can you do? You’ve been hiding your abilities for so long. Do you have any other special moves?”

Adion shared whatever Heavenly Light already knew about him. When Creva heard about his ability to teleport, she was incredibly fascinated, and she demanded to experience it herself. 

When Adion teleported the two of them outside the carriage and back again, Creva turned into a giddy little girl, wanting to experience it again.

Adion kept answering Creva’s questions all through the day. But it wasn’t that bad. Through her questions, Adion was forced to think of explanations and was required to think about things he hadn’t really considered before. It was quite helpful.

I guess it’s true when people say that the best way to learn is to teach. 

When the sun was starting to settle in for the day, they stopped the carriage to make camp for the night. Adion didn’t argue to travel through the night, as Creva seemed quite particular about her travel experience. 

She had a big, luxurious tent brought along that the driver helped set up. 

Adion wasn’t jealous, though. He had the pleasure of sleeping on White’s comfortable fur. 

“Everything is set up, Soul mage Creva,” The driver said with a bow, “If there is nothing else. I’ll take my leave for the night.”

“That’s fine. Thank you,” Creva said, looking at her tent with contentment. 

Adion had lit a fire, and he was just finishing up the Gold beast meat that White had hunted.

“Mind if I join in?” Creva asked, taking a seat before waiting for an answer.

“Sure,” Adion said.

“Thank you for the meal, White,” Creva said, not forgetting the one who had procured the meal.

White looked up for a second from his own meal, but he didn’t answer.

Creva didn’t seem to expect any answer either. She turned to Adion and smiled, “You must have pretty good control over fire, considering you fooled the professors you were a fire mage for so long.”

“I realised I couldn’t show off my space powers as soon as I got them,” Adion said, “So I’ve been practicing using fire since I first got my core.”

“Impressive,” Creva said as she accepted the meat Adion handed over.

“I still don’t know what element your core is,” Adion said.

“I’m a water mage,” Creva answered, “Nothing interesting there.”

Adion pondered silently for a few seconds before asking, “Do you know anything about compressing an element? Are you able to do it?”

“Compressing an element? What’s that supposed to mean?” Creva asked. 

Adion thought about what Shindo had shown him. His lightning became incredibly powerful by compressing his attacks. He was curious if it was known in Shiora as well, but it didn’t seem like it.

“I met a mage who could compress his attacks, making use of a lot more mana, but making his attacks a lot more powerful,” Adion said, “I’ve been curious about it.”

Creva conjured some water and examined it carefully as the ball of water grew bigger and bigger. 

“Using more mana only conjures more water,” Creva said, looking at Adion, “I guess that’s also a little more powerful. But I don’t understand how it would be compressed. Is it some kind of concept?”

“I don’t think so,” Adion said, “Maybe it’s a part of it. Well, if you don’t know, it doesn’t matter. He was from Quemer, so it might be something practiced over there.”

“Hmm,” Creva mused, “Where in Quemer was he from? What was his element?”

Adion thought about how to answer. He trusted Creva somewhat, but Shindo seemed to be hiding from something, so he thought it was best not to reveal too much. Creva didn’t seem to have an explanation anyway.

“Never mind,” Adion said, shaking his head, “I’ve been answering questions all day. It’s your turn now.”

“Fair enough,” Creva muttered, digging into her meat once again.

“I read a bit of your book,” Adion said, “I didn’t get very far before your family members appeared, though.”

“Sorry about that,” Creva said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Adion said, “I can get my answers straight from the source after all. You wrote about integrating the mana core into the soul…I didn’t get very far, but it sounded interesting.”

“Well,” Creva said, pausing to swallow, “Most of it is a repeat of established knowledge. Just laying the groundwork for my theory. How much do you know about the Soul stage?”

“Not a lot,” Adion admitted.

“I guess I’ll explain it,” Creva said, “As you advance through the early stages before the Soul mage stage, you gather mana into your core. When your core can’t hold any more mana, you need to compress it, thus advancing a minor or major stage. Doing this requires Will. A lot of mages get stuck because their Will isn’t strong enough to compress their core, so no matter how much mana they try to gather, they can never advance.

“But this can’t go on forever. Not in the same way, at least. Once you reach the peak of Diamond, you’ll notice that no matter how strong your Will is, the core can’t be compressed any further. But actually, this isn’t quite the case. It’s just that it takes more than a strong Will. 

“You need to integrate your mana core into the soul. It’s a lot harder than just compressing your core, which is why so few manage to advance to the Soul mage stages. The way to do it is hard to describe. The soul is quite mysterious after all, and not even Pure Soul mages understand half of it. 

“But basically, if you have a peak Diamond core and try to compress it further, you will notice that it’s nearly impossible to shake. Only with an extremely strong Will can you shake it. But the result isn’t that the core is compressed; it starts to break. 

“I’ve never experienced anything more frightening than that feeling. If you push too much, you just might destroy your core and lose all your power. It happens from time to time with mages who are too careless. 

“The reason mages do push their core to their breaking point is that in that moment of deep fear, you instinctively try to save yourself. It’s in that moment that the soul comes into play. Even if you can’t control your soul, you can force it to act by doing something dangerous.

“As you use your Will to control your core and keep it from breaking, you will instinctively make use of your soul. It is very difficult to feel, which is why getting familiar with aura and other aspects of the soul beforehand is so important. You have to be able to feel how your Will interacts with your soul, and you have to be able to make use of it.

“Of course, just stabilizing the situation is far from enough. You have to push your core to the breaking point over and over again until you finally gain control over that aspect of your soul. I won’t get too deep into the process, as you are far from that step, but essentially, you integrate your core into your soul through this process. 

“This is an incredibly delicate situation. If you let go of your Will, anything can happen. The only way to be certain of any stability going forward is to advance your core. It wasn’t possible before, but with the soul involved, grasping the core, you will be able to compress the core once again without it breaking. 

“Once it’s compressed, and you’ve advanced yet another stage, the core will have been ingrained into your soul. 

“While my mana core is still inside my chest in a physical sense, it also resides inside my soul in the same location. Superimposed, so to speak. 

“From the moment you advance to the Soft Soul stage, your power increases vastly. Every aspect of you is improved: aura sense, mana sense, longevity, you name it. You can apply concepts more easily. It’s like shedding skin. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

Adion had heard some of this before, but it was the first time he had heard such a detailed description. He was completely enthralled.

I can’t wait until I become a Soul mage myself. 

“Anyway,” Creva continued, “Advancing to the Soft Soul stage from Diamond is easy compared to advancing to the Hard Soul stage from the Soft Soul stage. But I feel like saying too much too soon won’t do you any good.”

“I’m very curious,” Adion said with a serious expression.

“Haha,” Creva laughed, “You should ask the Headmaster about this. Aren’t you his disciple? He can probably explain it much better than I can anyway.”

“I’m sure it’s advantageous to hear several points of view,” Adion said.

“Maybe tomorrow, then,” Creva said with a soft smile, “I’m getting sleepy.”

Adion didn’t want the conversation to end and asked, “What about your theory? What is it about? Consider it my homework for tomorrow.”

“Haha,” Creva laughed, “Fine. I just thought that it might be possible to advance to the Soft Soul stage sooner than Diamond.”

“What do you mean?” Adion asked.

“Think about it yourself first,” Creva said, “Didn’t you say you wanted homework? Think it through and share your thoughts about it with me tomorrow.”

With those words, Creva got to her feet and headed inside her tent.

Adion sighed and put out the fire. 

He walked over to White and patted his head for a while.

Advancing to the Soul stage before Diamond…

What would that do for your strength?

Can you get that special feeling without pushing your core to the breaking point at the peak of Diamond?

Adion closed his eyes and focused on the middle Silver core inside his chest. 

Just where does my soul exist in all of this? Can I get it to interact with my core?

Adion didn’t know where to start. The soul wasn’t anything you could consciously control.

Forget it.

Adion stopped patting White and lay down against him to sleep. 

His mind wouldn’t stop spinning, though.

My memories…Aren’t I able to recover them because they are a part of my soul?

Adion focused on the memory he had recovered earlier in the morning when he was painting. It was a memory of him in class back at the Academy. 

He tried to remember what had happened before and after that moment. But as always, there was a white void there that required tremendous effort for him to clear. 

What is this white void? Am I interacting with my soul at the moment? My memories exist in my soul…and my memories are hiding behind this white void.

I should be interacting with my soul in some way by recovering memories. But how can I translate that to an interaction with my core?

I guess I’ll need to ask Creva more about it in the morning.