“Wake up Niko, the time for sleeping is over.” Niko awoke to the sound of crickets, the sun had yet to rise and the chilled air from the mountains was blowing fiercely. The Scholar was looking down upon him, the head of the oaken staff pressing down on his stomach. Before the boy could respond he received another smack to the head, laying once again flat on his back, head reeling.

“Have you already forgotten all our training boy? I told you… you must be capable of activating your aura upon command, you must have control over no matter the circumstances. Get up, eat this and we will get back to training.” The Scholar tossed a small pouch of cured meats, hard bread, and an assortment of nuts. The travel pack was standard fare for those on the move, providing adequate nutrients and sustenance, not the best tasting but it was known to get the job done.

“As you already know we will be arriving in the capital this afternoon. My schedule however makes it difficult to train you for the day or two that we remain here. Keep in mind that although we are in friendly territory, I have many enemies and they may employ proxies even in the capital… Every city has its underbelly, and I would prefer we not poke it, but if you happen to run into such a situation deal with it swiftly… and for that we are here.” Niko reeled from the punishing blow to his flank, he was not suspecting the strike and did not put up his aural defense in time.

It took some time to learn but Niko now understood a little more about his aura ability, the first standard form for a lowly apprentice in the Earth realm revolved around aural defense. The key to this ability was to limit the impact of enemy attacks, not to take them head on like a shield. With the aura wrapped around him like a second skin, which could be perceived as a soft glow. That glow depended upon the stage one had cultivated to, an Earth stage adept would possess a muddy copper aura, like Niko. Whereas a peak rank Earth warrior would possess a glistening bronze aura.

That was all the Scholar was willing to teach until he had advanced further down his aural path, which he mentioned could involve specific elemental affinities as one progressed. For now, however, he was to focus on mastering that which was in front of him, specifically his aural defense. After which the Scholar mentioned other abilities that he could unlock, but they required certain training regimens that would be just as painful, a thought Niko didn’t look forward to, but would not shy away from.

Another strike landed on Niko, this time impacting him squarely in the face. This time however he was able to get his defenses up, the muddy copper shield absorbed the impact, the waves of physical force swept over him before impacting into the ground below his feet. Yet the second the force had dissipated he fell to his knees, sweat pouring down his neck as he struggled to breathe.

“That is what I meant when I told you about over exhausting your aura boy. Instead of guiding the force, perhaps by redirecting it to one finger and touching the ground, you let it flow over you like a wave. That only works when you have a large excess of prana and a core with such a quantity, you have neither… The cure for the mana curse placed on you inhibits your ability to absorb prana rapidly… Here perhaps this will make it clearer.” The Scholar grabbed a cup and filled it with water from one of the communal barrels. Dumping a minute amount upon the earth he began to mold it into a bowl, creating a second one next to the first.

“This open bowl we can assume is how a normal spiritual core would act, watch.” Niko watched closely as the Scholar began pouring the water into the bowl, as expected it collected at the bottom turning the ground muddy. However, before Niko could question why the old man was pointing out such an obvious fact, he had already gone to retrieve another cupful of water. This he brought something else, a small clay bowl, it was flat with a wide brim, something akin to a sauce cup. He placed this on top of the carved dirt mound, such that the opening was partially covered by the flat bowl on top.

“This Niko is how your spiritual core acts.” This time the Scholar poured the water from the cup it would hit the sauce cup; some would spill outside the mud bowl while some would stay in the sauce cup. At most around thirty or forty percent of the water would actually enter the bowl below.

“This is your reality Niko; you cannot absorb at the same rate as others. The glyphs which saved your life also inhibit prana from gathering, in addition to stealing some of it away to contain the mana crystals. Conversion from prana to mana I can assume is very inefficient judging by how long it takes you to refill your tiny core… But don’t feel down, there are other ways for you to grow fast, it’ll be far more dangerous, but you might actually be able to grow faster if given the right opportunities.” Niko who had been becoming slightly depressed at each sentence was suddenly given a sense of hope. His eyes focused in on the older man, attention hanging on to the man’s every word.

“Don’t look so excited Niko, the means to do that requires converting mana through your glyphs, purifying it and returning it to its earlier state, life force… prana. This you could feed into your core while the glyphs consume the stripped away aspects of mana which had latched onto the prana. The problem boy is that you cannot absorb raw mana into the body, not your body anyway. What you require is already processed mana, and those are not easy to find.” Niko kept observing the Scholar as he reached into one of his hidden pockets and removed a single light blue crystal.

“This is a mana crystal, here hold it in your hand… Hold it tight and do not let go, no matter what. Do you understand?” Responding with a nod, Niko took hold of the crystal. The second he did so he flinched, there was a sharp pain in his hand and when he looked down at his palm, little tendrils could be seen digging into his flesh. “DO NOT LET GO NIKO! Focus on the crystal in your hand, tighten your grip. Focus on reaching out with the glyphs, create a pathway for them to directly interact with the crystal, same as you did with the mana curse. Allow the glyphs to feed on the mana, let them extract it for you.”

Blood seeped from the palm of Niko’s hand as he grasped tight enough to tear flesh. The skin started to turn blue, barely perceptible flakes of ice crawling across the surface. The boy who had never experienced such cold ever before began to shiver in place, but still he kept hold. Then, just as his focus was beginning to wane, the ice began to melt. Little by little the crystal began to fall back, its icy tendrils falling away one by one, a red glow emanating from his palm and consuming the light from the crystal.

Soon enough the blue crystal began to shake, after which its color dissipated, its tendrils falling away completely. All that remained was a dull black stone, unassuming in every way. Yet the wounds were gone, and Niko couldn’t help but stand and move around. The exhaustion that had brought him to his knees was gone, his skin seemingly shining with a healthy glow. Turning to the Scholar, Niko couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “I feel fresh, reinvigorated, stronger than earlier… What exactly did that do? The pain was really bad at first, but now I feel great.”

“That was you using mana absorption, the glyphs are specially designed to contain the mana crystals embedded inside you. The mana crystals in turn are quite good at absorbing mana and consuming it for their own growth, but the sigils which form the glyph are siphoning all that energy as it comes in. Any residual the crystal accumulates is bled out over time. The left-over energy absorbed by the sigils is converted and then deposited into your spiritual core. That you need to cycle and purify for your own use. But otherwise, an efficient system, however, beware that you do not over consume mana, there is only so much the glyphs can absorb.” The Scholar grabbed the black stone from Niko’s hand, depositing the former crystal into yet another pouch.

“The pain will increase the larger and purer the mana you are trying to absorb is and will only increase if you attempt to overfill your cup so to speak. Too much mana and you risk losing control, either the crystals inside you will break free or you could die from mana poisoning. Too little and you will not grow in strength which could also lead to your death at the hands of an enemy. The path you tread will not be easy, for you tread it alone, and there is only so much help I am able to provide at this moment. When we get some time later, we can take a closer look at some of your other abilities, for now training of your aural defense and mana absorption should be enough. The others will be waking soon, since we are already up how about we help get breakfast ready.” As much as Niko might have wanted to continue practicing, he understood the danger of pushing yourself to unsafe extremes.

For the moment he would have to be content with his current practice and focus on polishing the first aural ability, only then would he be able to move on to the next task. The harsh training did sometimes bring back memories of the arena, memories of training with Vishnamitra, it was at these times Niko allowed himself to grieve for his adoptive father. It was only the presence of his new family that he was able to find balance and a sense of peace amongst the laughing, grumbling, angry, and mischievous faces. Together they formed a complete picture, all their distinct and unique personalities mashing into one cohesive group, one that was always interesting to be around.