CelestialShadow
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Chapter 18 - Hiding strength
🕑 Added 2023-11-22 16:54:52 +0000 UTCAfter three more months of hard practice, Fellion finally decided that Adion was ready to practice aura control. He could now tell lies from truth at a much higher level. According to Fellion, he should be able to see through every human that couldn’t control their aura now. Adion had also noticed that he could feel the intent of the beasts in the area much better now. His conversations with White, seldom as they were, did not take place just in Adion's imagination as much as they used to.
He couldn’t converse with beasts yet, but he could at least understand simple meanings when a beast wanted something said. And with White, he was able to even hold a conversation. Even though he didn’t receive words in the same way as he got from Fellion, he still understood a lot of what White said just through his aura sense. He could sense intent to a much higher degree, and Fellion had told him that this was how beasts communicated. Adion was still far from being fluent in beast tongue, if that is what it's called, but it had gotten a lot better.
Fellion said he wasn’t surprised as Adion had been very fast in his progress in all areas of aura use. Fellion himself would sometimes talk in beast tongue just to help his practice. But that made it incredibly difficult to perceive lies.
“Remember that it is not simply intent that we beasts communicate through. That would make lies impossible, and we beasts lie just as much as humans do. It is simply that we communicate words but in a different way, with feelings and images. One could say that we communicate straight to the point, with only the meaning of what we want to say, instead of a word representing a meaning. Do you understand?”
“Well, not entirely. But I have an idea of what you’re talking about. No wonder beasts are so much more proficient in aura use. They learn to speak through aura from the day they are born.”
“Yes, it makes for excellent practice. But remember that beasts are born with a much lower intelligence. If they can’t reach the higher stages, they won’t be able to express much, and their aura use will suffer a lack of practice after a while. With the need to express more complex thoughts comes the need to develop a more intricate aura use.”
“That makes sense. So anyway, will I finally be able to practice my aura control now?”
“You have indeed reached an adequate stage. This training will be crucial if you wish to hide your strength and strange space element once you get back to humans again.”
“I understand. Please instruct me, teacher.” Adion gave a formal bow with his fist palmed.
“Alright, the first thing to do is to try to show the strength of a peak Iron mage. To do this, try to sense your own strength and how it exists within your aura just as it does in everyone around you. Then you need to pull some of that aura back, so to say, or perhaps disperse it, is another way of explaining it. Everyone doesn’t think of it in the same way. It would work best to figure it out by looking at how you are already doing it instinctively. For example, by lying and trying to hide the fact that you are lying. Do that at the same time as you are focusing on your own aura and try to sense what you are doing.”
Adion nodded and started telling a simple story from his everyday life back home to Fellion. Once in a while, he would throw in a lie, sometimes simple and sometimes more intricate. And after a while, he noticed how his aura reacted when he was being deceitful. It was as if his aura changed and was pulled back, and the part that exposed his lying was now closer to him. Adion started to focus on that and tried to pull that part of his aura closer and closer to his core. Fellion seemed to notice the change.
“It seems you are starting to grasp your own way of thinking about hiding your aura. It is getting harder to expose your lies through your aura, still not difficult for me or any beasts worth their name, but with enough practice, I am sure you could fool even me.”
“I will practice hard then,” Adion said with a grin. He was feeling elated at finally gaining control of his own aura.
Fellion was right to wait with this. Without practicing my aura sense, I would have no chance of noticing these tiny changes in my aura and how my thoughts and Will can affect it.
“Now that you have reached this step, you can only progress through diligent training. You don’t need me for that. So let’s move on to the important part, hiding your strength and space element, and then your presence if we have time. The easiest should be to hide your strength, as you are very good at sensing the strength of others. But remember that even humans who haven’t had any aura training can usually sense the strength of others, at least to a small degree. So you need to be aware that not everyone can be fooled so easily.”
“Alright, I will see that I master it before I try fooling anyone. Do you have any tips?”
“You only need to feel the part of your aura that is your strength just as you felt your aura before. This time, you should do the same thing but leave enough of your strength that equals a peak Iron mage for everyone to see, and keep the rest of your strength hidden.”
Adion once again focused on his aura. His aura sense was greatest at feeling the strength of another's aura, so he could feel it clearly. But as he had never controlled this part of his aura even on instinct, as he had done with his lies, it took a lot of effort to get it to budge. He focused for a few hours, but nothing came of it.
“Hmm, so you are not a complete monster after all. It would be frightening progress if you could learn this within a day. You can continue practicing by yourself for a while now. I could help you by pushing your aura in the right places, and perhaps that would speed up the process, but considering your talent, I believe that would be a disservice to you. This will be great practice for your future aura control. I will leave you to train for now and check up on you occasionally. I look forward to your results.”
And without waiting for Adion to reply, he unfolded his large wings and flew off.
Have I been keeping him away from something important? Well, he got paid for the service, so it doesn’t matter. I need to focus and master this quickly. I should get as much use of my time here as possible.
The rest of the day went by, but Adion made no noticeable progress. He went back to his cave to practice his scheduled two hours. The progress was a lot slower now than when Adion could just focus on improving his core and mana control all day, but a little progress every day added up, and Adion had been here for five months now. He would still need more time to reach middle Bronze, though.
Adion felt that practicing his aura sense during this time also helped him with his mana sense. It was as if he could feel both aura and mana around him more clearly now. Of course, his aura sense had the most significant improvement.
Adion continued his routine of going to the glade every day, now without Fellion there to guide him. It took him a week to get a firm grasp of the strength part of his aura and then two more weeks for him to hide it and only show the strength of a peak Iron mage.
He didn’t know how well he had hidden it, though. Before he controlled it, it was like his aura was a large cloud, growing sparser over distance. And his strength was so tricky because it was all over his aura. He had to be sort of attuned to only the parts where his strength was showing. Then he had to grip it with his mind, using his Will, and pull it towards him. He felt that if he could pull it all the way into his core, not even Fellion would be able to get a sense of his true strength, but that took more aura control and Will than he had.
Thankfully, the Will it took to reign in his aura diminished over time as he got more practice, which made sense, or else even Fellion would be completely exhausted hiding his strength for so long during their training.
He now felt that the part of his aura that revealed his Bronze core strength was in a smaller cloud, about 10 inches away from his body. He didn’t know if that was good or bad, but it got better with practice. He could pull it in further if he pushed his Will to its limit, but it would only last for a short while and leave him too exhausted to continue practicing. So Adion only did that right before going to bed after his mana practice session.
Fortunately, it got easier with practice, and by the end of the fourth week of his solo practice, Fellion finally showed himself again.
“I see you have improved greatly. You have already managed to hide your strength down to peak Iron stage. Impressive.” Fellion said as he walked up to Adion.
“How obvious is it that I am hiding my strength? How deep do I need to pull in my aura to fool people?”
“It depends on their aura sense, of course. And I can’t say for sure. I don’t think of it as pulling in my aura as you do. I imagine my aura being dispersed, and though still there, it is hidden from anyone looking. Everyone pictures it differently. Aura is mysterious and complicated; it is likely that neither of us has a correct idea of what is actually happening, but through our mental pictures, we can produce the desired results.”
“So I am not actually pulling in my aura?” Adion asked.
“It is impossible to say; you could very well have the correct image in mind, and it happens exactly as you see it. Perhaps everyone has a different aura that works in its own way. No one knows. But it matters little. Stick to the method that works for you.
“Now, if I had to guess, I would say that humans of the same stage as you would perhaps get fooled, but most people would at least sense that something is off about you. But considering you have only practiced for a month and reached this stage, this shouldn’t be a problem if you continue practicing.”
“Don’t worry, if it is anything I am good at, it is training,” Adion said with a small rare smile.
“I know that very well. You have shown as much during this half year. And a lot of your aura training is something you will have to do by yourself once you leave. But there are some things left to teach. I will guide you through the process of hiding your space element and how to go about hiding your presence. There are, of course, countless other things you could focus on in the future, but it is up to you to choose what you will focus on.”
“What other things are there to focus on?” Adion asked.
“Well, anything you can imagine. Remember that, in theory, you could understand everything there is to know about a person through their aura, down to every last thought they have ever had. In that vast spectrum of possibilities, you should find what serves your purpose and focus on that. I know that some priests among you humans have trained to sense the virginity of others through their aura. Judges in your courts and the high-ranking guards in your cities all focus on lie detection. In my eyes, they are not very good at it, but amongst you humans, it is a valuable resource.
“You could focus on just improving your aura sense and control overall, but my advice is to focus on concealing strength, your space element, your presence, and your lies. As well as detecting the same in others. But should you discover the need for, say, hiding your age, then focus on that. Whatever serves your purpose. And strive to improve. As far as I can tell, nothing is impossible to hide, and nothing is impossible to uncover.
“But also remember this: sometimes hiding part of your aura will serve the opposite purpose. If you are sneaking into the forest hunting for prey, hiding your presence is a good idea. But do the same in a crowded street, and you will instead alert everyone there of your presence. Every man, woman, and child would turn to look at the strange boy whom they can see but not feel. Use your aura control cleverly, not plenty.”
“I understand. I will be careful in the future.”
“Hmm, good. We will now focus on hiding your space element. One good thing is that the ability to sense the element of another being doesn’t come as naturally to either beast or man. It is likely that most people wouldn’t notice anything different about you, but there are humans with sharp aura senses, although few. You would also benefit from being able to sense the elements of others. Once you notice it in yourself, it will be easier to see in others. Quite the opposite of how we have done it before, where you first practiced your aura sense and then aura control. That is because your ability to sense the element of another's core is zero at the moment. It worked to sense the beast's ages because you already had a small feeling for it. And the same went for strength and lies. Now, you have to start from the ground up. And you have the greatest chance of discovering something new like this in your own aura.
“Last time, I left you to your own devices when practicing hiding your strength, but then you had a place to start and move forward. If I leave you be now, I am afraid it could take months or years before you find the correct part of your aura.
“So sit down, close your eyes, focus on your element, and try to sense it in your aura. I will do my best to help using my aura sense. Normally, you wouldn’t notice me, but there is a method to do this so that you will. When using aura sense, you usually receive what that other aura is sending out, but a bit of probing is necessary with someone hiding part of their aura. My probing ability is very strong, and using it forcefully should make you uncomfortable. Ignore the annoying feelings and just focus on the part of your aura that you feel me probing. That is the place where I sense your space element. Feel it, grab it, and hide it.”
Adion sat down with his eyes closed. That is a whole lot of information to take in. Probing with your aura? Shouldn’t we have gone through this? Oh well, let’s just focus on my aura and do as he says.
Adion focused and soon felt a weird feeling. It felt like someone was watching him in a private place, as if he was alone in his room and felt eyes borrow into his neck. Soon, the feeling got even stronger. Now, it was more like he was naked in his room, someone staring at him with nefarious intentions. He tried to ignore the creepy feeling and focus on his aura; he could feel that only a specific part was being watched, but it was unclear where. He tried to feel it, grabbing and releasing different parts of his aura with his Will in an effort to pinpoint exactly what part of his aura was revealing his space element. After an hour or so, he felt he had a pretty good idea of the affected part, so he tried to hold on to it and pull it towards his core. It was tough work, but thanks to his practice in hiding his strength and with Fellion's help, it went a little faster this time.
They continued the entire day, and by the end of it, Adion was exhausted.
“Good work, Adion. You now have a good idea of where your space core reveals itself in your aura. We will continue this training tomorrow as well to make sure you have a good grasp of it before you are able to practice on your own.”
“Alright, thank you, teacher. See you again tomorrow.”
Fellion gave a nod in response and unfolded his wings to fly away.
I wonder what Fellion does when he is not practicing with me. He’s probably meditating and trying to improve his strength like everyone else. Hopefully, he gets some practice in training with me like he said. Otherwise, I would feel a little bad.
