Philip didn’t mind about the fact that his Aura Ring had “cracks”.
He sure felt regretful about it it and slightly inconvenienced, but in end he understood that there was nothing really he could have done about it and that it was no ones fault, it was only his bad luck that he didn’t meet Tolvir sooner to prevent his Aura Ring from cracking which was the end of discussion.
The only thing he cared about was the fact that he could still use “Aura” even with the “cracks” on his Aura Ring.
Tolvir was quite unsure what went through the boys head, he was a very weird kid he thought, but nevertheless Tolvir simply chalked it off as a childs ignorance and continued teaching Philip about Aura telling him the effects of the cracks on his Aura Ring while also patching up the cracks using his own Aura like a bandage.
This took approximately 4 long hours, after it was finished Philip felt very different from before, he wasn’t tired per say before he had his Aura Ring bandaged but after having it Bandaged he felt as if his whole body had more spare energy left which invigorated him immensely.
Luckily Philip was exempt from field work that day, conveniently assigned as a temporary servant to Tolvir by the old village chief to care for his daily needs until he fully recovered which was also a request by Tolvir to the village chief just so he could teach Philip in private and so nobody would suspect anything when Philip was gone for a long amount of time.
Those first 4 hours were Philips most exciting moments of his life ever since he was born, with Tolvir patching his Aura Ring while simultaneously teaching Philip about the basics of Aura, Philip started to understand the intricacies of his Aura Ring and how everything worked.
Mind you the patching of Philips Aura ring was only temporary, Tolvir was not capable of fixing Philips Aura Ring and could only temporarily alleviate it to a extend until the Aura bandages started to “Decay” and he would need to change them again, of course Tolvir couldn’t stay with Philip forever to help with this issue regarding the cracks.
Tolvir would only stay until he was fully recovered and until then he would teach Philip as much as he could while also showing him how to change those bandages himself without his help.
Back to the teaching.
The First thing Philip was taught through this tutoring was the use of circulating his Aura.
Aura circulation is the first thing a Aura user learns upon being officially taught, it is the essential technique to which a Aura user gains more strength circulating the Aura within their rings, with each circulation the maximum capacity of a Aura user increases allowing them to access more Aura without changing the size of the Aura Ring.
A normal person with the talent to use Aura would usually circulate Aura passively without knowing it, a single circulation around the ring could significantly change the body of a person strengthening their physique, unfortunately such passive circulation is not very efficient as it would take a person with average talent 2 to 3 years until they completed a single circulation.
In comparison a Aura user who knew what they were doing would only need 2 to 3 hours a day to circulate their Aura once which is still a good amount of time but still far more efficient then passively having your Aura circulate on itself.
The size of the Aura Ring also plays a huge role as people who have smaller Aura Rings have a far easier time making the circulation in less time then people who have bigger Aura Rings, though this also comes with different results as the people who have bigger Aura Rings usually gain far more then the people who have smaller Aura Rings forcing those who have smaller Aura Rings to circulate more then once everyday to keep up.
Age is also a extremely important factor when it comes to Aura circulation, as one gets older and the body starts to deteriorate the Aura circulation slows down, it becomes harder to actively circulate the Aura making further progress difficult in old age.
Aura is formed through the refinement of life energy, the Aura Ring acts as a sort of generator, absorbing the life energy largely from the things humans consume everyday, breathing air and being exposed to the sun or other elements also absorbs life energy, but the amount of life energy absorbed this way is so negligible that its not even worth mentioning.
Philip on the other hand was very different.
Philip produced 3 times the amount of Aura a normal person does, Tolvir wondered about this fact and couldn’t simply understand how that was possible, Tolvir at first tried to understand by asking Philip and trying to see whether or not he was doing something that was causing him to produce so much Aura, through the state of his current Aura Ring which was full of cracks everywhere, Tolvir concluded that Philip must have consistently produced so much Aura all his life making him believe that there had to be a kind of routine in his life that caused him to produce so much Aura.
-Hmm ? Routine ? What do you mean ?
-Well, like for example, what do you eat everyday ?
Tolvir asked, to Philip the question seemed very strange but since Tolvir his unofficial teacher wanted to know he easily complied and told him his diet or rather what everyone in this village usually ate everyday.
Philips village was a remote agricultural village, they mainly grew wheat and potatoes, making the usual meal, bread and potato soup 2 times each day all year around.
Sometimes there would be meat in the soup but that was rare as meat was extremely expensive in a remote village like this, hunters did exist in the village but they were few and rarely caught anything as the forest was very dangerous for villagers like them especially at night.
Trading caravans usually came to this village once per month, most of the necessities are bought from these caravans like salt and oil by trading their yearly harvest to the caravan.
Of course there also existed celebration such as the harvest festival and birthdays where people could eat a lot, but even then meat was still very limited.
Hearing this Tolvir wasn’t very surprised about the impoverished situation of the remote village, even though he hasn’t gone out yet to inspect the village in detail he knew that he didn’t need to as his own daily meals alone showed him how really poor the village was, his meals usually always had a bit of meat in them but now listening to Philip he understood that the meat must have come from the village chiefs personal stash to show Tolvir his appreciation.
Tolvir having come from a prestigious family and a large clan didn’t put those meals in his eyes, he still ate them to nourish his body and speed up his recovery, but he didn’t feel anything or thought they were good in anyway, after all he ate far better things his whole life like whole pigs and large steaks, his upbringing was very abundant in which he never lacked anything, and that’s not to say that he disdained the food as he also understood certain standards from different places through his harsh training and the travels he had been through which forced him to eat cold and hard rations over time that were hard to swallow.
In the end Tolvir still didn’t get the slightest idea as to how Philip was capable of producing so much Aura without any external help, he ultimately concluded that Philip must have had some kind of special Physique that allowed him to produced so much Aura and upon thinking of it that way a light bulb flashed within Tolvirs brain giving him an idea as to what the answer could be.
-Maybe…maybe Philip doesn’t absorb life energy from the things he eats…maybe Philip uses another channel to absorb life energy, like air or the sun maybe even a combination of all two or forms…
Tolvir thought of his idea as plausible.
If an Aura user like Tolvir who ate a lot of food to absorb life energy from was a fuel generator, then an Aura user like Philip who worked in the fields would be a solar generator or wind turbine.
In fact such special physique wasn’t unheard of within Tolvirs memory, though it wasn’t to the extend of Philips capabilities there did exist people who absorbed more life energy from either the sun or air within the atmosphere, those people would still rely on food to absorb life energy but they would also not be too inconvenienced even if they didn’t have much food available.
-Mister Tolvir ? Is anything the matter ? You got quiet all of a sudden.
Philip asked, pulling Tolvir out of his mind for a moment as he stopped his line of thought, he looked down towards his small unofficial little disciple of his and couldn’t help but smile at him wryly.
-Fate really plays a lot of tricks these days…
He mumbled, Philip didn’t quite get what Tolvir had said, but since it didn’t look like he was talking to him Philip didn’t question it and simply waited until Tolvir was ready.
On a side note, Philips first time circulating his Aura was very difficult.
Having Tolvir explain Philip the procedure didn’t quite help either as the whole sequence was about sensing it then following a instruction, if it wasn’t for the fact that Philips Aura sensitivity was high and close to himself, Tolvir suspected that it would take quite a while until Philip would be able to even control his Aura and let it circulate within his Aura Ring.
Luckily such thing did not happen as Philip completed the task within a day through persistent training.
-Yes ! I finally did ! I feel it, it seems like my Aura which was lighter before got a bit thicker…my body its also a bit more lighter then before…amazing !
Philip happily exclaimed.
Watching him this entire time, Tolvir only gave Philip advice and pointers whenever Philip was stuck at something and didn’t know what to do next.
Usually it takes close to a week of training before a Person with average talent can make a successful circulation.
Tolvir himself remembered how he only needed 3 hours with the help of his masters tutoring before he could make a simple Aura circulation, this already showed how small of a gap these two had when it came to talent but at the same time it didn’t mean Tolvir was better then Philip as Philip had his own good points that Tolvir couldn’t replicate, on top of that Philip was extremely persistent regarding Aura, the fact that he pushed through for an entire day just to learn how to circulate Aura without a stop somewhat impressed Tolvir, increasing his opinion of Philip which was already pretty good.
Unfortunately even though Philip succeeded with great delight things never were as simple as they seemed, while circulating his Aura Philip couldn’t help but notice something.
-Ehh…mister Tolvir I did everything as you said but while I was circulating my Aura I noticed…
Philips Aura, while circulating through his ring partially decreased as he continued his circulation, at the beginning he used a lot of his Aura as much as he could use since more Aura within the circulation meant more benefit leading it through the Aura Ring just like Tolvir had taught him.
But the longer he was leading the Aura through the ring the more Aura was decreasing with each second until finally only two thirds of the Aura remained which circulated through the entire ring.
Philip explained as such and upon hearing it, Tolvir wasn’t surprised and calmly explained to Philip what happened.
-The reason why your Aura was decreasing mid circulation was because of the “cracks” on your Aura Ring, even though I patched them that doesn’t mean I completely “blocked” them small amount of Aura will still seep through the gaps, if it wasn’t for the “bandages” I applied I doubt that you would be even capable of circulating the Aura in the first place before losing everything to the cracks, but don’t worry even if its only 2/3 of the amount you originally used, since you still produce a lot of Aura even the amount you lose won’t mean much other then a bit of lost time, the only thing you need to do is to circulate your Aura once again and this time regulate it, control it to make sure that nothing gets wasted and while you can’t retain 100 % of the Aura within the circulation at least I am sure you could keep at least 70 to 80 % of it, but beware don’t circulate your Aura all day, after 4 to 5 circulations take at least 8 hours of rest maybe even more.
Tolvir warned him sternly, but Philip was confused, he couldn’t understand why which is why it couldn’t be helped when he suddenly asked.
-Why ? What would happen if I didn’t rest ?
Tolvir furrowed his brows, raising his hand he pointed it towards Philips forehead tapping it lightly while speaking.
-Your mind is a mechanisms within your body that allows you to make complex movements at will or imagine difficult concepts, when a Aura user circulates their Aura they rely on their mind to control and lead the Aura through the ring, controlling the Aura exhausts the mind, consuming mind energy while also pushing the body to its limits consumes your stamina, mind energy is inherently more brittle then the stamina that comes from your body, which is why it also gets consumed much faster, the more one circulates their Aura the more mind energy one depletes, there is no real limit as to how much mind energy one can have, some people have more while others have less, some people have a lot at one point while having close to nothing at the next, Will can substitute the mind for a while but it cannot sustain the body, the mind relies on will to determine its limits and set its scale, a body without a mind has no control while a body without will has no life…do you understand what I am trying to say ?
-…
Philip was silent, staring directly towards Tolvir he thought long and hard about what Tolvir had just said, he especially focused on the last line.
“A body without a mind has no control while a body without a will has no life”
Philip wasn’t very smart, but he could reason and connect dots, his head heated up from thinking so much, the mind he was using right now was consuming a lot of mind energy to comprehend the concept Tolvir was trying to convey, through this consumption of mind energy Philip realized something, the connection it had towards his will and the connections of his will towards his life, Aura users absorbed life energy and refined it to become Aura.
To circulate Aura one needs to control Aura and lead it through the ring, controlling Aura consumes mind energy if the mind energy is at one point completely exhausted it gets temporarily substituted by will, but even will has its limits if will is exhausted what happens to the Aura that is being controlled ?
Philip thought, but as much as he thought and thought he realized that he had no clue as to what would actually happen, in the end he could only look at Tolvir blankly before giving him his best guess.
-Without will the Aura user would let go of the control of the Aura ?
-heh…
Tolvir only smiled at that answer giving him a light chuckle, he shook his head before saying.
-Your not wrong but you aren’t quite right either, its true that one would let go of the control of the Aura without sufficient will, but what you neglect to think about is what happens when you let go of control and I don’t fault you since it is easy to assume that the Aura would just slow down within the Aura Ring and regain its undisturbed state, but in reality that’s not true…
Tolvir gave a slight pause.
-You see, as I said before a body without a mind has no control while a body without a will has no life, the real result of losing control of your Aura without your will, can cause your Aura to start rampaging within your Aura Ring, this is also called “Aura deviation” and is a extremely fatal state in which a person in the lightest state can get mortally wounded or die instantly, the reason being the rampaging Aura within the Aura Ring, once its starts rampaging it will it start to ram and smash the insides of the ring nonstop until the Aura gets under control again, this ramming and smashing can have dire effects such as “cracking” the Aura Ring like in your case or completely break the Aura Ring in two which would kill someone instantly as they wouldn’t be able to circulate life anymore, the reason you are fine even though you have a cracked Aura ring is because your Aura ring got cracked overtime and not instantaneously while you also produce 3 times more Aura then a normal person, this is like having small nonconsequential cuts covering your whole body over time and also pumping 3 times as much blood then a normal person, it stands to reason that your body would adapt for a short while within a equilibrium until it starts to deteriorate as you get older breaking the equilibrium, another good example of this would be the heart itself, our heart is connected to our mind what we see and what we feel influences the rate of which our hearts beat, forcing ourselves to be calm is the act of controlling our mind to control the beat of the heart, fear is the opposing force of our mind a type of emotion and the enemy of our heart, when we fear we risk losing our control over our calm which controls our heart, when we’re enveloped by fear and lose control, our will supports our heart to stand firm against fear even when we are scared, and when we finally lose will despair is born and our heart breaks.
Philip could finally understand, listening to Tolvir he found his explanation quite profound and easy to follow, it was as if an entire new world had opened up towards Philip as if he had gotten enlightened even though he was only just 10 years old.
-Mister Tolvir, if I don’t want my heart to break what do I have to do ?
It was an innocent question really, maybe even too innocent to the point that it made even Tolvir slightly dazed, but nevertheless he recovered before putting on a light smile gazing at the kid.
-Well there isn’t really much you can do, fear is merely one such emotion that can make you lose your heart, there are many more emotions and feelings out there that can make you feel hurt or break you, directing your effort in one area will still make you weaker in another, its unavoidable we’re human after all, not mindless machines without control over ourselves or lifeless undead without will to live, our emotions is what makes us human and gives us meaning, the only thing you can do is strengthen your mind and steel yourself, to become a sharp blade means to go through countless bouts of tempering…
A Place Of Legends 