Chapter 6: 6 – Breakthrough

Teran spotted the two and waved, walking over.

“Good morning you two!” 

The bald man sat down by Ruith, letting out a sigh.

“I’ll take you back to the Bastion in about an hour, so you have a bit more time to train here.”

Ruith nodded.

“Teran, I was wondering about something. Is it fine if I ask a few questions related to my ability?”

“Of course! What is it?”

Ruith proceeded to explain what his ability was, and then asked if Teran knew a better way to use it. He also added how he felt the strange mana inside of the tree.

“Nature Manipulation, huh? Never heard of an ability like that, but I think I can help you a bit.”

He paused before continuing.

“All living things absorb and store mana, however, only humans, beasts, and Voidborne have mana cores. In this case trees absorb mana in order to grow faster than they would simply using normal means. The mana of plants is easily manipulated, as there is no will behind it. Even I, though my ability is Air Control, am able to slightly manipulate the mana of plants. I assume it will be much easier for you due to your ability though.”

Ruith pondered this for a moment. Previously he had tried to affect the mana within the tree, but perhaps he had not done it correctly? 

“Teran, how do I manipulate the mana?” Ruith questioned with excitement in his voice.

Vaeri’s father told him how to do it, and it was surprisingly simple. All he had to do was ‘wrap’ the tree’s mana with his own, and then he would be able to guide it in a way.

Teran explained that a person’s own mana had their will attached to it, but the tree’s mana did not have that will, resulting in it being extremely easy to manipulate.

Ruith quickly tested it out. He sent his mana into the entire tree, and then wrapped it around all of the foreign mana. 

At first the feeling was quite strange, as he was not able to directly control the mana, but he quickly got used to it.

Sending his mana through a root, the foreign mana moved with his. Ruith then did what he normally would, using his mana to grow the root towards the surface. However, this time the tree’s mana was assisting him. 

SHHH!

A sharp root with the diameter of Ruith’s pinky shot out of the ground and pierced two feet into the air. 

“Holy shit…”

Ruith’s eyes widened in disbelief. All of his mana had been used by doing that, but previously he wouldn’t even have achieved 20% of that effect.

‘I finally have an actual attack!’

Ruith was ecstatic. He would actually be able to use this in a fight. The root moved fast, was durable, and the tip was sharp. 

Of course, he had to name it. The boy decided on [Root Pierce], a simple name for his first attack.

Teran smiled as he watched the boy, when he was younger he had acted the same way upon creating his first attack.

Ruith sent more of his mana into the tree, and discovered that his attack had used 20% of the mana within. For such a small attack it used quite a bit, but trees grew slowly and did not need to store a ton in the first place. He felt the tree restoring its mana slowly, about 5% every minute.

Despite this, he was still extremely pleased. The tree wasn’t even that large compared to others, and he was able to achieve this. As Ruith’s own power grew, he would be able to use the energy of more and more trees at once.

He daydreamed of himself in the future, possessing the power of entire forests, his enemies utterly overwhelmed.

Ruith continued to practice with this new method, exhausting both his and the tree's mana multiple times.

Eventually, Teran spoke to him again.

“I’m sure there are even more ways to use Nature to help your ability, but I have no experience with that. Good luck, Ruith.” 

The older man gave a light smile, and Ruith thanked him for the help.

“How do you feel about staying with us for a bit longer? This is a better place for you to train, and I’m sure Vaeri will appreciate the company while I’m not here.”

Ruith instantly agreed to stay. This place was far less dangerous than the Bastion, and he wouldn’t mind spending more time with Vaeri. Even though he was used to avoiding people, the lack of social connection had affected him a bit.

“Alright you two, I have business to attend to in the Bastion.”

Teran stood and said goodbye to them.

WHOOM!

The man blasted into the air at an insane speed, disappearing in the direction of the city.

Now left alone, Vaeri walked over to Ruith. 

“Since you can attack with your ability now, let’s have a real spar.”

She swung her sword around, waiting for Ruith to stand. Once he had fully recovered his mana, he stood in front of the girl.

“Alright, go.”

BOOM!

A small dent appeared in the ground where Vaeri was standing, and she shot at Ruith at an incredible speed. Luckily, the boy was able to just barely react.

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Her sword pierced towards his chest, but Ruith sidestepped. The short girl did not pause, following up with a slash towards his neck. 

He stumbled back a bit, the tip of the blade almost slicing through his throat.

‘What the hell, is she trying to kill me?’

Vaeri once again launched forwards, but three thin roots shot up towards her from the ground, halting her. She slashed through them, and they went back underground.

However, that was just a distraction. Now the boy had gotten close to her and let loose a powerful punch. At the same time, a larger Root Pierce with a rounded end shot at her right hand, trying to knock the sword out of her grip.

It slammed into Vaeri’s hand right before Ruith’s punch connected…and did nothing. Her grip didn’t even falter.

Before his punch connected, she lowered her stance at an inhuman speed, and it went right over her head.

A powerful slash went towards the side of Ruith’s torso. It was too fast for him to defend himself.

CRACK!

Several of his ribs let out a sickening crunch, and Ruith was sent crashing to the ground. It was as if a dull blade had hit him. He groaned on the ground, not daring to move and increase the pain.

“I swear I was…going to get sliced in half…”

Vaeri held back a laugh.

“Of course not. One of the effects of my ability is to control the sharpness of any blade I wield.”

“Well you could have at least held back a little…”

“I did. You’re still in one piece, aren’t you?”

Ruith glared at her. “Not what I meant,” he sat up as his mana started to slowly knit his broken bones back together. “So how did I do?”

“Well, your plan might have worked if it was someone closer to your level. However, I’m a brown core and the other effects of my ability increase my strength, speed, and durability.”

Ruith raised an eyebrow. Her ability sounded a little overpowered to him.

“Also, you’re still bad at using your ability. You didn’t make any of your attacks come from behind me, and rushed in too soon. I assume you still had enough mana to keep your distance for a bit longer.”

The young man nodded. He needed much more practice if he wanted to have a chance against even a weak Voidborne.

It took an entire half hour for Ruith to fully recover, and the two began to spar once more. Ruith had managed to convince her to hold back a little so they could train with less time in between fights.

Throughout the rest of the day, he didn’t win a single time. But he had greatly improved, now trying to keep his distance until he couldn’t, and using Root Pierce when he saw a gap in her defenses. 

It turned out he didn’t even need to control the sharpness of his attacks, Vaeri’s skin was strong enough to shrug them off. He did manage to land a few, but none of them would’ve been lethal even if her skin wasn’t so tough.

Five hours later, Ruith was utterly exhausted while Vaeri only had a light sweat on her face. His battle skill had improved by leaps and bounds thanks to the constant fighting and Vaeri offering tips after each spar, though his actual power had only increased by about 10%.

Ruith’s mana core started to feel a little weird, like it was getting closer to bursting. He asked Vaeri about it, and she actually had a slightly surprised expression on her face.

“That means that your core will soon evolve to the red rank. Your progress is extremely fast, it took me almost a month before my core ranked up.”

Ruith’s face lit up at this information. The red mana core was an important rank. All aspects of his body would improve several times over, and he would gain Mana Sight. This would allow him to see the mana of the world, helping to predict enemy attacks.

Plus, he was actually better than Vaeri at something.

Ruith smirked. “So I’ll be stronger than you pretty soon, huh?”

Vaeri scoffed. “Don’t get too confident. By the time you reach the brown rank I’ll be miles ahead!”

The boy rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, I’m starving. Let’s go inside.” Ruith stood, walking back to the house while Vaeri followed.

In the kitchen, he realized he had no idea how to make any kind of food. Looking to the short girl for help, she sighed and walked over to the pantry.

“Come here, I’ll show you how to make something simple.”

Ruith smiled and listened to her instructions. They ended up making a stew of meat and various vegetables. The delicious aroma wafted to his nose, making his mouth water.

Now late in the day, they sat down to eat while chatting a bit.

“Oh, by the way, since father isn’t here some Voidborne might wander this way. Don’t worry though, they’re usually weak and you need some real combat experience anyway.”

“Usually weak?”

“Well sometimes there are some stronger ones. Nothing we can’t handle though.”

Ruith resumed eating.

‘Finally I’ll be able to actually fight some Voideborne. After my breakthrough today I should do well against them.’ 

Though dangerous, it was strangely exciting.

A little while later while they washed the dishes, something finally happened.

High pitched inhuman screeches began resounding through the forest, drawing closer to the house.

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