Rakna hastily grabbed Sonata and pulled out his cigarette case inside the same hand. He turned the scarf into a Guandao with practiced ease and blocked an overhead strike from Gray’s sword cane. He instantly felt as if he had just tried to stop a truck going at full speed.

His hands were so numb after the impact he thought they were broken. But his instinct kicked in as always and made him jump back without even thinking. He then activated his Fabled Sight and saw a brief surprise on Gray’s face before it went away.

“[Swords of Liberation],” the three swords materialized and shot off toward the clown who let out a chuckle. He simply ignored them and dashed forward. When they touched his body, it was like seeing paper being put into a shredder as the cold energy was destroyed.

Rakna’s eyes widened when he saw that but he was forced to quickly recover when Gray rushed at him with an even higher speed than before. This time, he snarled and his fangs grew along with a bit of fur. He had entered a semi-transformed state.

His attributes increased by about 20% and he used them to dodge the clown’s strike and summon Gungnir as fast as he could. While it was still forming, he thrust it at the clown’s stomach since the difference in size between the two of them didn’t allow him a much better accessible target.

Sadly, Gungnir ended in the same way as the swords and was destroyed at the first contact with Gray’s body, or to be exact, the very discreet membrane of energy around it.

Rakna clicked his tongue internally and used Artzpul to retreat. He swapped his Guandao for the bow and pulled the string. Seven Eion arrows condensed at once and were shot right after.

After evolving twice, Sonata had not only increased the number of arrows it could produce but also the damage it inflicted in all of its forms.

Gray watched the arrows fly at him and grinned as his cane sword blurred. Before Rakna could even react, the arrows were shattered midair and a blade was pressed against his neck. “Let’s stop here for now. You already achieved the purpose of this spar,” Gray said as he sheathed the blade.

Rakna grunted and lowered his bow before it turned into a scarf again. “Thanks for holding back, I guess,” he said as he wrapped Sonata around his neck and Pronos, who was had been spectating the fight, came up to him.

“At least, you know that,” Gray snickered. “If I hadn’t been holding back, I would have cut you in half along with your weapon before you could even realize it. I’m a Warlock too; my main ascended attributes are intelligence and speed. I could have ended you with a single T.10 spell.”

“Are you done boosting your ego?” Rakna deadpanned.

“Yes. Yes, I’m done,” Gray said contently. “Anyhow, did you see what happened during our small spar?”

“Yes, my magic was dispelled the second it touched the weird carapace around you.”

Gray nodded. “That’s Aura. It’s an active-passive skill. It has no cost and you can consider it as a sort of delocalization of your internal powers. Instead of having them inside your mana pool or your muscles, a bit like Ki, you take it and coat your body with it.”

“And that’s what stopped my magic?”

“Yes, Aura is raw mana mixed with internal force and it fights back when another kind of energy comes in contact with it. People also use it as a means of intimidation or showcasing of their power. Aura is very important when facing magic users. Let’s take something like Blood Magic for example. Without any defensive measure against it, someone with that element could just take control of your blood and impale you from the inside. Aura prevents something like that.”

“Hm, what about something like telekinesis?”

“You mean like the Nirvana Skill of your friend? It is the same idea, yes. Telekinesis can only be used on things perceivable by the user, so she wouldn’t be able to twist your insides or something but she can break necks, pull out eyeballs, strangle, twist fingers and limbs, stuff like that.”

“…”

“What?” Gray chortled. “Too graphic? In any case, to avoid that happening, you can either have such a strong body that you can ignore the telekinetic force or you use Aura to repel the external influence. If Aura didn’t exist, powerhouses would most likely be dying left and right. Of course, if the power exerted on the Aura is too strong, it can be bypassed but that usually doesn’t happen with people of the same level.”

“So?” Rakna uttered. “How do I do it? I guess I could try to externalize my mana but I have not the slightest idea of how to use internal force.”

Gray smirked. “Are you sure? You should already be using it though.”

“What?”

“Have you forgotten? Reinforcement; you have it, right?”

“…oh.”

“Yep. ‘Oh’. I get that reaction a lot. Many tend to forget the description of Reinforcement. Internal force is a sort of synonym for stamina and the skill uses it alongside mana. You probably have the image of Ki being something you can make energy waves or fly with but honestly, it’s just the budding energy contained in your muscles and cells. In the System, that represents the source of energy for skills that require stamina to function.”

“Makes sense,” Rakna muttered. That explained how some skills could display magic-like effects without using mana. “What about soul power? Could I add that to Aura?”

“Yeah, sure. Soul power is a ve… ry… nice… say what now? Soul? Did you say soul?” Gray repeated with a dumbfounded tone. “Are you able to control your soul power?”

“I am.”

“Uh… well damn. To be clear, soul power isn’t something managed by the System. It is something that belongs to you only but it is indeed a very useful thing to have. Most people don’t have the necessary talent to even sense their soul, much less control it. How did you do it so quickly?”

“I have a skill for it,” Rakna shrugged. “I had it ever since I woke up in the Initiation.”

“Truly, some people are just born with talent,” Gray sighed. “To answer your question, yes. It is possible to add soul to your aura. If you want to see the specifics for yourself, why don’t you try to manifest your aura? It should barely take a few minutes for someone like you. And if you really can control your soul power, use it as a ‘recipient’ to form your aura. It’ll make things easier.”

Rakna nodded and sat crossed-legged on the ground to meditate. If he wanted to manipulate his soul, he needed to concentrate carefully. He then followed Gray’s advice and covered himself in his soul power to use it as a recipient for the mana and internal force.

He proceeded with the step that he would probably be able to complete the fastest. The soul mold he had made gradually became filled with mana.

From an outside perspective, Gray was curiously observing as a very rough aura began to emerge from Rakna’s body. It was jagged and although the mana seemed to be kept in check by the soul power, it was still in an unstable state and seemed to be seeping out instead of staying in place.

Rakna himself was aware of that fact. His MP was dwindling and if he had understood correctly, it wasn’t the desired result. But before worrying about that, he had to find out how to use his internal force.

He didn’t know how to picture it nor did he have any idea on how to sense it as he had done with mana. So, he decided to activate Reinforcement hoping that it would fill in what the Aura lacked at the moment and get a feel for it then.

‘Good call,’ Gray commented inwardly as he saw the unperfect aura become sharper and release less mana due to the effects of Reinforcement.

Rakna had immediately felt the difference after activating the skill. He had even somehow begun to be able to picture the three energies around him as three lines of different colors. He gritted his teeth as he imagined the three lines get bigger and bigger as they overlapped.

But he seemed to be lacking one final push. His soul and internal force now seemed to be in perfect harmony but it was now his mana that was causing him problems. Before he could try and come up with a solution, it came to him in the form of a majestic blue star in his mindscape.

Then, before he knew, the star merged with the line of mana and he opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by a membrane of blue translucid energy, releasing cold air strong enough to reduce the air pressure around him and cause gusts of wind in the room.

Gray whistled in amazement as he stood unbothered by the wind while holding his hat in place. Meanwhile, Rakna was flooded with notifications.

❮ ◈ ❯

Eyes of the Soul has leveled up!

Mana Sense has leveled up!

Mana Control has leveled up!

Reinforcement has leveled up!

Cold Star Magic has leveled up!

Soul Core has leveled up!

---

You have learned the skill; Aura!

The skill Aura has mutated into Soul Aura!

The skill Soul Aura has mutated into Cold Soul Aura!

---

Cold Soul Aura (Lv.1): This is the natural evolution of the Soul Aura skill after entering in contact with Cold Star Magic.

When releasing your aura, the temperature around you will drop considerably and could even cause harm to those weaker than you. Additionally, physical contact with you will have a chance of freezing the other party to the bone until the entire limb becomes lethargic.

For as long as the aura is out, magic power directly trying to interfere with the user’s body will be mostly nullified and external magic power or energy will be lessened depending on how strong both the user’s internal force and mana are. Additionally, any ice or cold-related magic will turn into mana for the user to use for himself.

The soul power infused in this skill makes it also a perfect protection against spiritual attacks of all sorts while the aura is active.

Note: There is no calculation for this skill. The Aura will repel offending energies as best as it can for the user’s body but it will be ineffective when an attack carries more power at once than the user’s stamina and mana combined. Keep in mind that aura also gets weaker as you get tired during a fight.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna exhaled a cold breath as he took a look at his aura. He tried to touch it but he didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. He looked around and noticed that the wind he produced had died down after the entire training room was cold enough.

He then heard the sound of someone clapping and turned toward Gray. “Cheers, Rakna. Not only did you learn Aura but your Star Magic was incorporated in it as well. I guess that is one more thing we didn’t know about this element.”

Rakna grunted and stood up as he tested out if he could manipulate his aura more concretely. After a few attempts, it seemed he could make it go colorless, smaller or bigger, and make it almost invisible. He also could modulate how cold it was if he wanted to.

“Now,” the clown raised his voice. “Turn that off. It’s time for your next and final lesson of the day. There are two very common skills called ‘Magical Damage Resistance’ and ‘Physical Damage Resistance’. I will have you learn them.”

Rakna scowled as he deactivated his aura. His mind also went back to what he had seen on the status of the Dreorins. “And how am I going to learn that?”

“Simple,” Gray grinned and summoned a fireball above his palm. “Get beaten up. Don’t parry, don’t run, don’t use aura, don’t use magic. I will hit you with magic and I’ll pummel you until you awaken both skills. Your little friend should join too since he also needs it.”

Pronos started sweating when he was suddenly called out. The second he had heard ‘get beaten up’ he had wanted to run away to watch from afar but it seemed he was going to get dragged into it as well.

On the other hand, Rakna’s expression twitched furiously as the fireball continuously expanded as seconds passed. “Ready or not; here it comes,” Gray cackled as he threw the fireball and caused an explosion in the training room.