Emperors War 41 What Is Fire?

While sitting in the medic station and waiting for patients to show up Aker couldn't help but think back on everything that Vance had told him.

If he truly wanted to get stronger, he would need to focus on the magic fighter path. Vance had reached the Source Core and was currently at the Water level but he didn't know how to break through to the Nature's Core. That means that Vance could only help Aker advance to the same level. The biggest problem with that was it just wasn't strong enough. If that was enough strength for Aker to get his revenge Vance would have already done it.

Aker had been pondering over another thought as well the entire time. He couldn't help but concentrate on his Level and Skills. In talking with Vance, it doesn't appear that the Skills is common to the point that Aker may be the first person who ever had this ability. Since he couldn't outright ask about the Leveling and Skills, he kept asking about it in a roundabout fashion as he asked questions regarding magic and nature particles.

"So my Level and Skills seem to be more support based than direct." Aker mumbled under his breath.

Upon leveling up to Level 5 he allocated three points to strength and one point to agility. While he didn't get to test the strength and agility boost after he leveled them up due to going to bed, he did have a "feeling or sense" of how much more he got out of it. It was slightly less than his comprehension boost and was roughly in the .5 - 1% range per point.

He noticed the difference after he woke up. Having completed his first step in the path of a magic fighter: Skin, he could feel his strength was considerably stronger. He had gotten a huge boost from the minor level up and not only that but he felt like he could move better and breath better. He felt more agile, he felt like he had shed a significant amount of crud and sickening substance from his body making him for more alive and lighter.

There was tremendous benefit to passing the first stage of the Body Conditioning level but that wasn't all. He could somehow feel that the .5 - 1% increase in his strength applied to his foundation or base. If before he was able to lift 45 Kilograms or 45,000 grams before he reached skin level and then he added in the 2.5% from the strength in his Skills he would have been able to lift 46,125-grams. Now after reaching Skin if he could lift 90,000 grams without his Skill boost it wouldn't be the same 1,125 increase but a 2,250-gram increase.

The Skills increased his attributes based on his body, the more his body improved the more the Skills would contribute to his power. The more Aker thought about this the more excited he became. When it was just his Level and Skills, he was already ecstatic at his improvement but now his could barely contain himself.

While his body was still weak and he was low leveled the benefits of the Skills wouldn't necessarily set him apart from others at the same Magic Fighter level as him. However, as he progressed as a Magic Fighter the Skill points would really start to show their power.

"I just entered the path of a Magic Fighter and completed the first level but I am progressing in two methods at the same time. The cultivation of Magic Fighters is already established and known, as such I just need to follow the path that is already there. However, the second path doesn't even have a name that I know of, how about for now I call it.....Peerless Body. Peerless Body for the fact that as I add skill points my body becomes peerless and no one who would be at the same level as me could stand my strength."

As Aker was talking to himself and heard the name Peerless Body, he couldn't help but be pleased. Perhaps somewhere out there it was possible that the Levels and Skills existed and already had a name, but for now since he didn't know it and he had to call it something he felt happy with the name he came up with.

As he sat and pondered Kara studied away over at the desk area, still reading the Basic Anatomy book. Based on what he had heard it normally takes a few months to reach an understanding well enough in the Basic Anatomy to begin studying Field First Aid. Kara was not Aker only needing a few hours to master both books but if she continued at this pace, she would have mastered both the anatomy and first aid book within one to one and half months.

Aker who was sitting alone in the medic area waiting for patients was roughly ten meters away from Kara who was sitting focused on her studying therefore she couldn't hear all of Aker's mumbling. While Kara was studying and Aker was contemplating Vance showed up and let both of them know it was time to move on to blacksmith training.

Both of them got up and followed Aker to the forge. Kara who was consumed in her reading decided to bring her book along so that she could read while Aker swung his hammer.

Upon entering the forge Vance followed his normal routine and left Aker with Mavis. Again, without saying a word both Mavis and Aker went about their business. Aker grabbed the tongues and hammer, picked up an ingot and walked over to the fire.

Mavis was waiting at the bellow, as soon as Aker approached and put the ingot in the fire Mavis began pumping the bellow.

"Tell me what you see?" Mavis began their daily comedy routine that Aker hated so much.

"The flame is getting bigger." When Aker was in the forge, he always felt like he was stuck in a loop. The same questions. The same answers. The same swing of the hammer. The same swing with your heart statement. While his time in the medic station and the kitchen went by to fast his time in the forge seemed to drag on and on.

"Now the flame is getting smaller." Aker called out as Mavis slowed down his pumping of the bellow causing the flame to shrink down.

As this was happening Little Kara who was quietly reading her book suddenly lifted her head up and asked out "Big Brother Aker why does the flame get smaller and bigger when Teacher Mavis pumps on that?"

Hearing Kara's question Aker hesitated to answer. For the first time since he had been in the forge he started to contemplate about the fire itself.
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Every day Mavis would ask about the fire and every day Aker would respond with his same canned responses. This had become their routine. This was how he went into the forge and did his training. It never occurred to him to think or wonder about the forge while he was there.

When Aker was in the medic station, the kitchen, and even the arena he would think and contemplate about what he was doing. He would digest information and formulate ideas and strategies. He would experiment and he would try the ideas he came up with, but in the forge he just answered the questions Mavis would ask each time the same way and swing his hammer. He never put more thought into it than that.

'Why did the fire burn hotter and brighter when he pumped the bellow?' Aker asked himself. He had never given it a thought. He had seen Mavis pump the bellow countless times in the last couple of weeks and it never dawned on him, because he saw the fire burn hotter, he never questioned why.

Aker stopped moving and only stood in front of the fire. As he stood in front of the fire, he could feel the fire burning and felt the scorching heat from it. Unlike before when he was focused on turning the ingot red, he was now only focused on the raging fire within the forge.

As Aker stared into the fire, he could feel the pressure and begun realizing, the heat wasn't just from the flame itself, heat emanated out from it. He then turned his attention to the ingot in the fire and it suddenly struck Aker that the fire burned so hot that it was able to burn the metal. It wasn't as if though the ingot was catching on fire but it malleable due to the heat from the fire.

What kind of destructive capability must it have to do that? How much power is in the flame and heat that it can warp and twist metal?

Why does the bellow make the calamitous nature of fire so much more destructive?

'The fire must burn oxygen; it must use it as a fuel…' this sudden thought struck Aker. 'However, the air can't catch on fire by itself so it must need other fuel to burn as well. No... other fuels burn and oxygen helps to increase the rate of burn and to keep it burning.'

Mavis who was watching from the side didn't say a word as his young disciple contemplated on fire. Since the first day that Aker had walked into his forge he had been bewildered by the kid. On his first day Aker was able to swing the hammer thousands of times and had already achieved a 20% hit rate. As Mavis watched over him the last couple of weeks and the growth he showed, he couldn't help but be baffled.

Aker had already started figuring out how to thin out and strengthen the metal. He was learning where he was making mistakes in his hammering and even how to fix his mistakes. Unbeknownst to even Aker he was creatively figuring out complex blacksmithing techniques without Mavis having to point him in the direction at all.

Aker was just swinging his hammer and as he hit the ingot, with each swing he paid attention to the feel and result of that swing. Aker was learning blacksmithing by feeling. Mavis who originally wanted to guide him couldn't help but just want to watch as the boy progressed. He wanted to see what kind of blacksmith would be created if they learned strictly by feeling alone.

Due to Mavis wanting to see what would happen he wouldn't offer guidance to Aker even when he saw him making simple mistakes. Mavis was amazed and flabbergasted when Aker started to correct mistakes on his own. That didn't mean Aker had corrected all of his mistakes, in fact he still made plenty of easy to fix mistakes, but he was still able to recognize something wasn't right and fix it. Watching Aker learn through trial and error had Mavis's blood boiling! Mavis had a true love for blacksmithing and watching how Aker managed his way through it exhilarated Mavis to no end.

Because of all of that he didn't want to explain concepts about fire to Aker, he wanted to see if Aker was capable of learning these concepts for himself and what concepts he would come up with. He only tried to nudge Aker along by asking "what do you see in the fire" each time they would walk up to the forge in the hopes that he would contemplate on the fire itself.

Due to Aker's headstrong nature he would only answer Mavis with the same answer every single time he was asked. It had irritated Mavis to no end that the boy wasn't catching his hint and kept answering back with the same line every time he asked the question "the fire is getting bigger" "the fire is getting smaller", Mavis was ready to go on a rampage hearing that same answer over and over and over again. Each time Aker would respond that way the resentment that was growing within Mavis felt like it needed an outlet and would explode. Mavis's only recourse was to swing his own hammer and try and not lose his temper after Aker would leave each day.

Mavis seeing Aker now contemplating the fire because of Kara's simple question wanted to walk up and thank Kara profusely. Perhaps he would never utter the words again "Tell me what you see?". Within his forge in the future saying those words would be akin to declaring war, there might not be a bigger sin to him than asking that question.

As Aker was contemplating fire and as Mavis was thanking Kara in his mind and cursing the words "Tell me what you see" it went completely unnoticed by everyone that a tiny black tattoo of a flame appeared on Akers hand and merged with the tattoo on his pinky.

Chapter end