Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 66 - Candleflames Don’t Produce Smoke

Xavier sat at the edge of his stool, staring at Sam—Samericalian—the bartender at the bottom of the Tower of Champions, wondering if he would finally get some information about the Spirit Core he’d just discovered inside himself.

The bartender waved a hand in a circle. “The System prevents me from telling Champions things they haven’t already discovered, or other things, like what I told you about being forced to clear a floor.” He sighed. “I’m restricted by so much, sometimes it’s difficult to know what I can say until I say it.”

The man pointed at Xavier’s chest. “But as you’ve already learnt you have a Spirit Core, and the names of those three skills.” He shrugged, gave a conspiratorial smile. “Why don’t we just see what I can get away with?”

A part of Xavier wanted to ask why the man might even wantto help him, but he didn’t want to make Sam second guess what he was about to do. He remained quiet.

“First, Aura-Control.” Sam closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Power suddenly rippled off him in waves. A power like nothing that Xavier had ever felt.

The man’s aura. Xavier could see it. Feel it. God, if the tavern wasn’t a self-contained instance, he’d imagine he would be able to feel it from all the way in his room.

The aura felt so much different to the other auras Xavier had sensed. He could feel his own aura, which was perhaps ten times as strong as the aura of those in his party. The auras of the other level 4 Champions he’d seen around the tavern? Theirs were incredibly weak.

But this… this was like Xavier had waded out into the surf during a thunderstorm. The man’s aura was applying a physical pressure on him. One that wanted to push him away. Push him down.

And it was even… painful. Physically and mentally.

Xavier didn’t move from his seat, however. Even though a small part of him screamed that he should run, he didn’t let it take control.

Samericalian was far more powerful than Xavier. Maybe even a higher Grade. But he wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t there to harm Xavier. And Xavier wasn’t about to let what he’d felt from that aura appear on his face.

Sam opened one eye, as though he were peeking out at Xavier. A slight smirk appeared on his face as he saw that Xavier hadn’t moved. Then, as suddenly as the power had been released, it withdrew until he couldn’t feel a speck of aura coming from the man once more.

The bartender rolled his head from one side to the other with an audible crack. Then he grabbed a glass from underneath the bar and poured himself some whiskey. “Haven’t let my aura flow in a while.” He sipped the whiskey. Swallowed. Then breathed deeply from his nose. “Felt good.”

Xavier tilted his chin up. “You’re E Grade, aren’t you?”

Sam winked. “I can’t answer that.”

He took the wink as confirmation. “When can I get to E Grade? How do I get there? What does getting there mean?”

“Can’t answer that either.”

Xavier wanted to slam his fist on the bar. He downed the rest of the whiskey. Slammed the glass on the bar instead, holding back his strength so as not to break it. “Well, go on then, what can you say?”

“What you just felt is me letting my aura flow free at”—he wiggled his hand—“about a quarter power.”

Xavier blinked. Tried not to let his feelings show. “That was a quarter?”

Sam smiled. “Indeed.” He chuckled and waved about the tavern. “You know, if I did that with any of the other Champions from your cohort around, they probably would have fallen unconscious. You didn’t even move from your seat. Quite impressive. For a level 10.”

The way he said that, the way he looked at Xavier, he could tell the man had figured a few things out about him.

He would know the only way I’d be strong enough to have cleared three floors that fast is if I had powerful titles.

“I thought the others wouldn’t be able to see your aura? My party members can’t see mine. Yet they would fall unconscious?”

“They can’t yet see the aura, no.” Sam frowned. “Not until they gain Aura-Sight with their first class. But they can sense it, even if they don’t realise it. Those of a lower power level than your own, and those who aren’t even integrated yet, they’ll feel an… urge to listen to you. An urge to follow you. Not a compulsion, mind. Nothing to do with mind control. Just that they’d sense, in a way, that power that emanates from you.”

Xavier let that thought swirl around in his mind for a moment. He supposed that made sense. The others had listened to him even after they’d seen his strength. “If your aura could make someone unconscious… what could an A Grade’s aura do?”

Sam shook his head, the tiniest flash of fear in his eyes. “Not my business to talk about. Even if I could.”

Xavier pulled back, sensing he’d asked a question too far. He brought them back to the topic at hand, the reason he’d come down here in the first place for, though he had to say he was interested in everything the man had to say.

He wondered about the implications of having a powerful aura and simply… letting it loose against weaker enemies. Would he one day be powerful enough to kill a low-level beast without even doing anything?

It’s not low-level beasts I need to worry about killing.

“So, how do you do it?” Xavier asked. “How did you control your aura? I’ve tried to control mine, but it’s like grasping at tendrils of smoke.”

Sam inclined his head. “Let’s see how much I can say. Maybe if I speak in metaphors...” he muttered. He tapped his fingers on the bar. Then clicked his fingers as though he’d an idea. “All right.” He raised his left hand. A stick appeared gripped inside it.

Summoned from his Storage Ring?

Sam waved the stick, and suddenly it was alight at one end, a whisp of smoke rising from it, all the way to the tavern’s rafters. “You said trying to control your aura was like grasping at smoke.”

The man, holding the stick with his left, grasped at the tendrils of smoke above the flame with his right. They flowed through over his palm, through his fingers. He closed his fist, but could hold nothing.

“It’s an apt comparison.” He brought the stick closer to himself. “You can’t grasp it. No matter how strong you are, brute strength isn’t the thing you need. You need to think differently about it.”

The man took a deep, mouth-wide breath, drawing the smoke in. He closed his mouth, held the smoke in like someone taking a pull from a pipe, then he released the breath, the smoke wisping out with it.

Sam curled his hand in a fist and put it to his chest. “Think of your Spirit Core as though it were a fire. The power inside it burns, and your aura is like smoke, wafting from you in waves. The stronger the core, the stronger the smoke it can produce. You can draw your aura back inside yourself, like breathing in smoke, but it won’t be enough. You aren’t trying to grasp your aura and pull it into you. Not for the first rank of Aura-Control.”

Xavier frowned, looked down at the flame. “I can’t bring the smoke back, but…” He grasped the flames, closed his fist around it—they weren’t strong enough to turn his hardened skin. The flames ceased, the last wisps of smoke fluttering away. “I can stop the fire from burning.” He shook his head, looked down at his stomach, put a hand to it. “But I don’t want the power in my core to stop burning.”

Sam looked as though he were about to speak, but Xavier raised a finger.

Xavier stood from his stool, stepped over to one of the tavern’s tables, then whisked a burning candle away from it and placed it on the bar. “Candleflames don’t produce smoke.” He tilted his head to the side. “Not much, anyway.” He ran his fingers through the flame, playing with it. “I remember staring at a candle on my bedside. The power was out, and I was reading a book late at night.” He chuckled. “Had a bit of a romantic feel about it, even if it did strain my eyes. When I finished the book, I just stared at the flame for a while, unable to sleep because the ending was so damned good.

“After a while, I noticed no smoke rising from the flame. I suppose I always knew that.” He shook his head. “But I didn’t know why. That thought stuck in my head for a while, until I ended up looking it up.” He ran his fingers through the flame again, the heat felt sweet on his skin.

“When a candle is lit, some of the wax melts, turning to liquid. It moves up the wick like water spreads through thin paper. The wax combusts at the tip of the wick, creating more heat, and the oxygen and wax diffuse at the same rate they are consumed.”

Even as he spoke, Xavier was surprised he remembered the details of this so clearly. Something he’d looked up on his phone and read only once a few years ago. He supposed he had his stats to thank for that.

“So, when fire burns efficiently, little to no smoke rises from the flame. Candles, unlike a fire in a hearth, were designed with that in mind. Or maybe we just got lucky there.” He frowned. “It’s about balance. About… efficiently controlling the aura within me?”

Sam’s lips twitched at the sides in a smile. “Yes, it’s about balance.”

Xavier sat on the stool once more and shut his eyes. He felt his Spirit Core within him. That well of energy. Felt the aura around him. The inherent connection between the two. And realised that yes, he had been looking at this all wrong.

He’d been trying to pull his aura back inside of him, but the aura that was around him… it was just smoke.

Xavier focused on his core with every ounce of his mental energy, falling into a meditative state. He felt his core more clearly than he ever had. Felt the power roiling within it. Burning. Aching to be free, like he ached to keep progressing in the tower.

He didn’t know how long passed with him sitting there, focused on his Spirit Core, on the energies within, but something clicked within his mind when he’d thought of the candleflame, the balance, the smoke.

His Spirit Core was burning fuel at a constant rate. Spirit Energy. That’s the fuel. Over and over and over. Bit by bit. But his Spirit Energy recovered faster than his core could burn it without casting a spell.

It must always be that way. Even with only 5 points in Spirit, a Denizen would have enough Spirit Energy recovery to constantly be burning Spirit Energy, even if to a minute degree—like 1 point per minute—and that’s why the other Champions felt so weak. Their weak Spirit Cores didn’t have as much fuel to burn.

And mine is burning like a wildfire…

Xavier took a deep breath, further narrowing his focus.

He could feel it burning now. Feel the Spirit Energy constantly churning through him. Like gas keeping an engine running.

Now, if I just…

Suddenly, his Spirit Energy began to drop. 10 points per second, then 100 points per second, until it was dropping at a rate of over 1000 points per second.

Available Spirit Energy: 15438/21700

His aura flared. Pushing outward in a massive wave, encompassing the entire tavern.

Available Spirit Energy: 10032/21700

“Stop!” Sam said. “You’ll burn through everything in your core!”

Available Spirit Energy: 5829/21700

Xavier tried to clamp down on his core. He’d never felt so powerful! But that power, it was leaving him by the second. Draining away from him even as it flared.

The flames are burning the fuel faster than I can recover it. What happens when the fuel is all gone?

Xavier tried to stop it. Focused, hard as he could.

Available Spirit Energy: 432/21700

But there wasn’t anything he could do.