45: Leaps Of Progress

The key lay in the concept of prana equilibrium. Prana wanted to stay at the same density everywhere. That was why his body leaked prana—because his body had a surplus and his surroundings were empty, or nearly empty.

So then, what would happen if he created a pocket completely empty of prana, within his own body? It stood to reason that whatever meager amount of ‘black’ prana there was in the ground would be drawn into him.

But doing something like this required even more control than what he’d needed for activating Prana Vision. There, he’d done the bare minimum necessary to alter his blood flow into his eyes. Here, he’d have to do nearly the opposite. He’d have to go in with a heavy hand and evacuate all the prana from an area of his body… which meant evacuating the blood as well. Which sounded incredibly dangerous.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to do it for long. When Riyan had used Leap, prana had entered his body and powered the ability all within the blink of an eye. Not nearly long enough to do damage to his body.

Taking a deep breath, he looked over at Maiya, who peered at him intently. “Alright, I’m gonna give this a go,” he said, standing up.

He got into an athletic stance, as if he was about to lunge forward. Then he took control of as much blood as he could in his left leg and tugged.

The blood obeyed his command, with the majority leaving his leg. Vir sent a pulse of prana up to his eyes, causing Prana Vision to flare up. He still couldn’t see any black prana outside of his body, but he did see motes of black affinity prana enter his body through the soles of his feet… and got stuck there. He felt nothing, but he could see it.

And to his surprise, there was more prana entering his foot than he’d thought there would be. How far underground was he pulling prana from to get to this level?

He didn’t know, and that wasn’t all that relevant right now. Now that he had this surge of prana in his body, he expected something to happen… but it didn’t. What’s more, no matter how much he wanted the prana to go further into his body, it refused.

Vir immediately released the blood he’d held hostage from his legs, allowing it to return to its normal path, and allowing fresh blood to refill his legs.

That was when he had his next flash of insight—the black prana that had been stuck in his foot now rushed into his body.

Of course, he thought. His blood carried almost all the prana in his body… And he’d removed most of it from his leg for this experiment.

But that posed a conundrum. He needed blood to ferry black prana to his leg, but in order to pull prana from the ground, he had to evacuate his leg of prana—and thus blood.

Hang on a moment… Something didn’t add up. His body was pretty full of prana to begin with. Despite this, the prana he’d pulled from the ground had no issues entering his bloodstream.

Which meant his blood could handle even more prana… Perhaps only for a short time, or maybe for some other reason, but he could oversaturate his blood with prana. He was sure this was what happened to Riyan as well when he’d used the ability.

Luckily, the short duration he’d evacuated his leg of blood hadn’t seemed to do any damage. In fact, it hadn’t really even hurt apart from a bit of discomfort.

Vir tried again. This time, he left a small amount of blood in his leg to carry the prana from the ground, and evacuated the rest.

As before, black prana rushed into his foot, but this time, it immediately supersaturated the blood there. Vir lost no time and forced that blood directly into his leg muscle while crouching and kicking off.

Vir expected a small boost in his leaping ability. Instead, he crashed into a wooden post in the sand… ten paces away. At high speed.

His face took the brunt of the impact, sending him reeling in pain.

“Vir! Vir? What happened?”

“I think I just learned how to do Talents,” he said, turning around. He wished he could’ve frozen the look of shock on Maiya’s face.

“Chala’s knees, Vir! Y-you’re bleeding! Oh, no. W-wait. Just hang tight, okay? I’ll go get Riyan, we’ll get you healed up!”

Vir nodded, cupping his profusely bleeding nose. That was the second time his harebrained experiments had worked better than he’d thought they would. He really had to be more careful. The amount of prana he’d used was nowhere near what Riyan had consumed to power Leap.

He sat down on the ground. He just needed a few minutes to…

Why’s the world going dark?

As his vision faded, he had the realization that smashing his head into a wooden post was probably not great for his health.

— —

Vir woke to clapping and deep and rich laughter.

Riyan was… laughing? No. Impossible. Riyan never laughed. This could mean only one thing.

The Ashen Realm had finally eclipsed the world, casting them all into oblivion. Or perhaps this was the afterlife. Vir would’ve preferred it if the man wasn’t here… was he doomed to endure the man’s brutal training even in death?

“Vir?” Then a melodic voice sounded out. An angel?

Vir looked up. Nope. Not an angel. Just Maiya.

“Thank Yuma, you’re awake! He’s awake!”

“About time the boy woke,” Riyan said, clapping him on his back. That hurt. A lot.

Vir looked around to find himself in the living room, on a sofa with his head in Maiya’s lap.

“What happened?” He asked, gingerly touching his nose, only to find it mended and healthy. Had he imagined crashing headlong into a post?

“You crashed into a wooden post, Vir. It was incredibly hilarious. We were just chatting about it,” said his wonderful friend.

“I only wish I was present to see it myself,” Riyan said, wiping tears from his eyes.

Why’s he in such a good mood? Vir thought as he sat up. He’d never seen the man this happy.

“I must commend you, Vir. Never in my wildest dreams did I think you would learn a Talent this quickly. Truly incredible. You may very well be a prodigy.”

Ah. That’s why. The man was glad that he’d just become a more potent tool for him to wield.

Vir ground his teeth in frustration. If he’d played his cards well, Riyan would never have found out about his Talents. Now, the cat was out of the bag.

Maiya flashed him a pained look that said ‘I tried’. Vir quickly understood—Maiya had lied on his behalf and had been found out.

Wait… ‘Vir’!? Riyan had just referred to him by his name! He’d never done that before. Not even once. He’d always been ‘boy’. For some bizarre reason, he drew as much satisfaction from this as his new Talent.

Since the man seemed to be in a good mood, Vir figured he’d play along and see what information he could glean from the man.

“You said that Talents don’t use magic, yeah? That means they don’t use prana?” He asked, massaging his head. Most of the pain of his encounter with the post had dissipated, but a headache still lingered.

“Correct. This is why we Talent wielders can fight anywhere in the world with our abilities, the only restriction being that we cannot initiate Talents midair. No one understands why.”

It made perfect sense to Vir. Earth affinity prana lived only in the ground, after all.

“Rejoice, Vir,” Riyan continued, “for you have been blessed by the gods. What they took away from you in prana ability and stamina, they have given you with aptitude for Talents.

Oh, right. He still doesn’t know that my stamina’s improved a lot.

He could use that. If he kept the true extent of his strength hidden from the man, it might very well give him the edge he needs in the future.

“Here, Vir,” Maiya said, handing him a plate full of brown rice and lentil soup, along with a tall glass of water. “It’s not much, but I figured you’d wake up hungry.”

“Thanks Maiya,” he said, right as his stomach grumbled.

Vir immediately dug into her delicious food.

“So,” he said between bites, “What can you tell me about Talents? How do people usually learn them? What kinds of Talents are there? How powerful do they get?”

Riyan remained silent for a moment, stroking his long beard in thought. “Some Talents are well known, and the method to obtain them well understood. Others may come to people during times of extreme duress, or on account of unique situations. For those that are known, they usually involve years of intense training and meditation, and even then, not all warriors can learn even a single Talent. Though, those that do learn one Talent are likely to learn several more in their lifetime.”

That made sense to Vir. Talents used prana. Specifically, Earth affinity prana, and also apparently Black affinity prana. Which meant that only people possessing these affinities could use Talents. Those with lesser affinity compatibility probably had to struggle far more to gain a Talent than those with Apex compatibility, and from what Vir guessed… people were blindly learning these abilities, stumbling about until they happened by them through sheer luck.

Another thing Riyan said struck him. The man said he could use his Talents even in the Voidlands, which meant that Earth affinity prana—and probably also Black affinity—had to exist everywhere, and in sufficient quantities to power arts. Very much unlike the other affinities, which existed only in the air.

Vir had really lucked out. There was no reason to believe his black prana would behave the same way Earth prana did. Granted, they both lived inside the ground, so he had some reason to believe they’d be similar, but he was beyond ecstatic that things worked out this well. In fact, it seemed like he needed less prana to pull off Talents than what Riyan needed with his Earth affinity prana. Was ‘black’ affinity simply more potent?

But his excitement wasn’t about his discovery of Leap, though that Talent was certainly useful. He’d learned something far more profound.

He’d learned the concept behind Talents. With his new knowledge, there were so many experiments he could run. So many ideas to explore. He’d bet an Imperium seric that he’d be learning more Talents soon. Who knew? Maybe he’d even invent new ones people had never seen before.

But above all of this, it proved to him once more that he wasn’t in fact prana scorned. And that made him so happy he could almost die happy. Almost.

“As for what Talents exist, there are many. Talents, like magic spells, are ranked on a scale. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic, And Lost Arts, in order of increasing rarity and power.”

“What Talents do you have?” Maiya asked.

“It is rude to ask,” came Riyan’s curt reply.

“What rank is Leap?” Vir asked, half guessing the answer.

“Common. It is a basic Talent that almost every Talent wielder possesses.”

Thought so… The ability was pretty basic, after all.

“I suggest focusing on Leap, High Jump, Empower, and Blade Projection. The first two are self explanatory. Empower increases the weight and speed of a strike, and Blade Projection is one of my favorites. As for rarer ones, Shadow Blend is highly coveted. It allows one to melt into the darkness, becoming invisible—so long as they do not move. ”

Several sounded pretty understandable to Vir, and he had some ideas on how to accomplish them… all except for two. Shadow Blend sounded incredibly useful, though he had no clue how to even go about learning something like that.

“Blade Projection?” He asked. That one seemed more doable.

“Some things are better shown than told,” the man said, producing a shortsword from under his robe. Why did he carry a sword in his own home? Because he was Riyan, of course.

Their instructor took a combat stance and swiped into the air, aiming for the side table next to the soda.

“Did you see it?” He asked.

“See what?” Maiya said. “All I saw was you slice at the air—oh.”

One of the ceramic cups on the table cracked in half, despite never having been struck by the edge of the blade.

Vir narrowed his eyes. He’d sent blood to his eyes in anticipation, so Prana Vision had been active while the man performed his slash. He had seen something. A blade of Earth Prana had extended past the edge of his blade, striking the cup.

He knew not how to accomplish such a thing. Riyan’s prana had clearly extended past the confines of his body to empower the blade. Every time Vir had tried to grasp prana outside, he’d failed. But now that he knew it could be done, he was sure he could find a way. Clearly, Talents didn’t quite follow the same rules as orb-based magic did. Tanya herself had said that mejai had to hold orbs to charge and trigger their spells.

The big question now was whether he ought to reveal what he knew to everyone. With enough effort he felt confident he could convince Tanya that his ideas about Talents using magic were sound. Especially if he managed to learn new Talents in quick succession.

But what would he gain from it? Neither Tanya nor Riyan were his friend. No, best to keep this close to his heart. He could tell Maiya, but she couldn’t use Earth or Black Affinity prana anyway, given how she had neither in her body, so there’d be little point.

He didn’t know what would happen if this knowledge became widespread. Would he be revered? Or would he be hunted down? It could very well break the foundation of humanity’s understanding.

Vir realized he’d have to think for himself from now on. He really couldn’t take any existing knowledge as fact anymore.

Because if everyone was so wrong about there being only six affinities, and if they were wrong about Talents, he had to wonder… What else were they wrong about?

Note: How many circles on the chapter header? :D