The Beginning After The End Chapter 38 - Introspection

[] [] []

Chapter 38: Introspection

“Whew.” Wiping the sweat off my body with a towel I hung nearby, I put my robe back on. I was in the backyard patio with only the full moon illuminating the area. Sylvie was curled up besides me, her now white fur heaving up and down, matching the pace of her breathing.

With everyone else sleeping, I had the peace of training to my heart’s content. These past few weeks, I’ve been doing little outside of training myself as well as helping the growth of Elijah and my father, with a little bit of pointers for my baby sister as well.

Ellie hasn’t been training much but her progress is still pretty decent. I predict that she’ll awaken around 11 if she keeps at her pace, maybe even 10 if she actually starts trying more. I find it oddly satisfying when I watch my sister play with her friends she made at the School for Ladies she attends.

This was basically just a small class of noble young girls gathered together to be taught etiquette and basic household skills. While I’ve known this before, the general population believes that “proper” and “refined” ladies should have both the manners and grace of a queen, while still able to cook and sew for her husband.

In the world I lived before, women worked just as much as men, and the whole “women should stay at home” saying became a taboo, often incurring the wrath of many females if said aloud.

Ellie was asleep now after creating a fuss, saying she wouldn’t go to bed if I didn’t stay with her until she fell asleep. This makes me chuckle when I compare that spoiled behavior to the refined, graceful façade she put on in front of her friends, acting all lady-like or what not. I almost burst out laughing when she addressed me as “dear honorable brother” in front of the couple girls her age she was having a tea party with.

My sister’s birthday was coming up soon and I could tell she was eager as to what present I would give her. Knowing her, she would probably love whatever I gave her as long as I gave it some thought, but with my personality, I wanted to give her something functional as well. The problem was, I was out of money. This blasted dimension ring cost me all the gold I earned as an Adventurer.

I thought a little bit about what I could do to earn money when something came to mind. One obvious advantage I had was my mind filled with ideas and inventions that haven’t been developed in this world yet.

With a satisfied grin on my face, I turn back to training. There were two things I was focusing on outside of developing my mana core, which I estimate will reach dark yellow stage by the time school starts in autumn. One was training heavily on my Lightning and Ice attribute skills, which are by far my strongest assets.

I’ve decided that I will keep my fire or water, alongside lightning and ice, skills a secret during my stay at Xyrus Academy. I think being an adept dual-elemental Augmenter is the most attention I would want during my years there. Since Lucas has only seen me use fire elemental skills during the dungeon excursion and the testing ground, it’ll be even harder for him to fit the pieces together if I only use earth and wind magic. If I purposely don’t train my earth and wind magic at all until I enter the Academy, I think it’ll be more than enough to pass off as just a ‘talented genius’ that won’t raise too many eyebrows.

I opened one of the books I brought with me from the library. I managed to find some of the limited books on deviation skills, containing a few segments on lightning and ice. It seems that, for lightning, there are two main methods that Augmenters opt towards. One was internal, and other was external. Because of the unique properties of lightning compared to other elements and their deviants, there are some individuals who focus on using internal lightning skills, which is stated as much more difficult.

Thunderclap Impulse is one of the internal lightning techniques that I developed, which could said as the stepping stone into much more powerful skills. The book only goes to say that, for internal lightning users, most reach a ceiling quite early on and switch to external techniques to learn. This means that internal lightning skills haven’t been developed enough for people to actually find advantages in.

This is also the route that I chose to go to. While I will have some external lightning skills under my belt, I know from experience just how much more powerful internal skills are compared to the external counterparts. Of course, it may not be as flashy but what I want isn’t a dazzling light show, but absolute power. It’ll take time and patience to develop but I already know the rewards will be tremendous as I imagine a level above just using a small current of lightning to quicken my reaction.

As for my Ice elemental skills, I want to focus on wide range skills, focusing on fighting against multiple opponents. The combination skill of White Fire and Absolute Zero is my strongest skill, which I can only use under the massive power up I get from the second phase of my Dragon’s Will, Integrate. I imagine that, for now even if I have the technique and theory down for either lightning or ice skills, I’ll need to be in the Integrate phase if I want to use the more powerful skills.

I can’t help grow a little impatient at this fact but there isn’t much I can do now except train. I have so many advantages but I’m still not satisfied at the level of power I was at. I can say with confidence that, if I were to fight against the former me from my old world, I would win. The amount of mana in this world and the fact that I have Dragon’s Will alongside of mana rotation, I can just overpower my previous self. However, the world I’m in is filled with dangers much greater than the dangers in my old world, so growing complacent would end up being detrimental.

I pick up the other book that I brought, which is on beast wills. I’ve already read it once so I skip to the part on training it, which makes me sigh in helplessness. I saw this coming, but I couldn’t help but grow disheartened when I read it the first time. It seems that the best way to train the beast will acquired is being taught by the beast itself. The only other alternative mentioned was to study thoroughly about the beast itself so the beast tamer can learn and practice the traits of the beast.

Option one was obviously out of the question, seeing as Sylvia either died or is in hostage by whatever being that black horned figure was. Option two had its limit as well. The fact that I could even use one of the ‘acquire’ skills and even go into Integrate phase was because of the perks in being a Legacy Tamer, where a certain amount of insight came alongside the Will. Even for a dragon, she seemed so unique; I couldn’t even imagine what sort of powers she had. I wish she had left me some clues as to what some of her powers were before everything happened.

*Slap*

“Snap out of it!” I say aloud while smacking both of my cheeks. Bringing myself down on what I don’t have isn’t going to solve anything.

Besides training my lightning and ice attribute magic, the other skill I’m focusing on will be magic cancellation.

The theory is that elemental attribute mana is manipulated, whether it is through the form of a spell or through extensive knowledge of the skill, into the projected destination or into the caster’s own body. Speaking very technically, these mana particles are basically coded to affect either the atmosphere or the specific target to produce a certain outcome. There is a very small delay from when the mage casts the coded mana particles and when those particles have effect and form the spell.

During that delay, if I was able to potentially disrupt those mana particles with mana of my own that can cancel the said spell, I would be able to discretely terminate the spell without it even forming.

While in theory that sounds amazing, there are several problems. One, in order for this to even work, I will have to know what spell the opponent is using. That isn’t a problem when the Conjurer or even the Augmenter chants the spell, but in cases of wordless chanting, or even instacasting, I would have to know what the spell is by the makeup of the mana during the almost split second that the manipulated mana particles are cast before it takes effect and forms into a spell.

This requires learning a tremendous amount of spells and figuring out which skills can effectively cancel them out. Just thinking about that leaves me with a headache. Most can be figured out with magic theory but being able to almost instantly thinking of the correct spell to counteract the opponent’s means I need to know it by heart. However, I know that mastering this skill will be a priceless asset; especially more since only someone like me, who is able to manipulate all four elements, can do this.

On this subject, I start thinking of when I entered the Integrate phase. My vision turned black and white and I was clearly able to see the fluctuation in mana all around me, which, when using something like canceling magic, it would be very useful.

I pick up my books and towel with one hand and pick up Sylvie with the other and head back up to my room. Vincent offered another room for Elijah but my parents wouldn’t allow it since he was a Leywin guest, which meant he should just be in one of our rooms. As a compromise I asked them to just bring in another bed for Elijah, since the room was more than spacious enough.

Returning back to my room, Elijah was already fast asleep, sleeping straight on his back with his arms folded on his chest, making it seem like he’s lying in a coffin.

Even when he sleeps, he looks like such a straight and proper fellow. Elijah was a good friend and it helped that our personalities complimented each other. Elijah was pretty peculiar. Despite his straight-laced, stern appearance (mainly due to the hair and glasses), he was a very emotional lad. He’s logical in a way where he has set principles that he never strays away from, making him very honest and trustworthy, but when it comes to people and relationships, he often thinks with his ‘heart’ leaving him quite vulnerable if people choose to take advantage of him.

I can only imagine when he hits puberty, if he already hasn’t started, and starts thinking with his penis instead of his head when it comes to the opposite s*x.

As for me, whether it was because I lived and remember my previous life, I can only see myself analytical and somewhat scheming. I have to admit that I have a hard time trusting people completely and always trying to think a couple steps ahead. I somewhat regret the lack of innocence I have compared to normal 11 year olds, but one thing that I have grown to realize is that, when it comes to the few close relationships that I do have, I become very invested in them, almost to the point of fault. Did it have something to do with being an orphan in my previous life? Because the only close person I had was the caretaker that picked me up and was later killed?

Even as a King previously, I can’t say with confidence that I was the most mature, and in many aspects, I would even say I’m not very King-like, but one thing that I can’t change is the amount of importance I have to those I hold dearly.

After taking a quick shower, I sink into bed, causing Sylvie to stir in her sleep. She cuddles by me and starts breathing steadily again. The slow rhythm of her breathing lulls me to sleep.

[] [] []

Chapter end