The Beginning After The End (New Heights Book 2) (20 page)

While I was thinking of these things, a sudden
feeling interrupts me.
 
It wasn’t as
intimate as the mental transmissions I have with Sylvie but a primitive form of
communication.
 
Realizing that it’s
from the will of the Elderwood Guardian, I will more mana into the beast core,
hoping it’ll somehow allow me to have a better connection with it.

“I see…” I can’t help but feel a bit
disappointed as I let go of the beast core.
 
From what the Elderwood Guardian was
trying to express, if I were to try and absorb this beast’s will, only the
stronger of the two will end up being left.
 
It made sense, but what I didn’t
understand was, why wasn’t my father able to absorb the beast’s will?

I realized the answer almost immediately after
remembering what Grandpa Virion, that crazy old elf, taught me a few years
back.
 
There was the matter of
compatibility between the beast’s element and the mage’s element
attribute.
 

I can’t help but let out a small smile knowing
who to give this to.

‘Good morning Papa!
 
Why are you smiling?’
 
Sylvie cuddles up on my lap and purrs
when I pet her.

“I’m just thinking of how fun school is going
to be.” I answer.

“BROTHER WAKE …oh!”
 
My sister slams the door open but sees
awake me petting Sylvie.

I walk up and also pat my sister’s small
head.
 
“Let’s go eat!”

“Whew.”
 
Wiping the sweat off my body with a towel I hung nearby, I put my robe
back on.
 
I was in the backyard
patio with only the full moon illuminating the area.
 
Sylvie was curled up besides me, her now
white fur heaving up and down, matching the pace of her breathing.

With everyone else sleeping, I had the peace of
training to my heart’s content.
 
These past few weeks, I’ve been doing little outside of training myself
as well as helping the growth of Elijah and my father, with a little bit of
pointers for my baby sister as well.

Ellie hasn’t been training much but her
progress is still pretty decent.
 
I
predict that she’ll awaken around 11 if she keeps at her pace, maybe even 10 if
she actually starts trying more.
 
I
find it oddly satisfying when I watch my sister play with her friends she made
at the School for Ladies she attends.
 

This was basically just a small class of noble
young girls gathered together to be taught etiquette and basic household
skills.
 
While I’ve known this
before, the general population believes that “proper” and “refined” ladies
should have both the manners and grace of a queen, while still able to cook and
sew for her husband.
 

In the world I lived before, women worked just
as much as men, and the whole “women should stay at home” saying became a
taboo, often incurring the wrath of many females if said aloud.
 

Ellie was asleep now after creating a fuss,
saying she wouldn’t go to bed if I didn’t stay with her until she fell
asleep.
 
This makes me chuckle when
I compare that spoiled behavior to the refined, graceful façade she put on in
front of her friends, acting all lady-like or what not.
 
I almost burst out laughing when she
addressed me as “dear honorable brother” in front of the couple girls her age
she was having a tea party with.

My sister’s birthday was coming up soon and I
could tell she was eager as to what present I would give her.
 
Knowing her, she would probably love
whatever I gave her as long as I gave it some thought, but with my personality,
I wanted to give her something functional as well.
 
The problem was, I was out of
money.
 
This blasted dimension ring
cost me all the gold I earned as an Adventurer.
 

I thought a little bit about what I could do to
earn money when something came to mind.
 
One obvious advantage I had was my mind filled with ideas and inventions
that haven’t been developed in this world yet.
 

With a satisfied grin on my face, I turn back
to training.
 
There were two things
I was focusing on outside of developing my mana core, which I estimate will
reach dark yellow stage by the time school starts in autumn.
 
One was training heavily on my Lightning
and Ice attribute skills, which are by far my strongest assets.
 

I’ve decided that I will keep my fire or water,
alongside lightning and ice, skills a secret during my stay at Xyrus
Academy.
 
I think being an adept
dual-elemental Augmenter is the most attention I would want during my years
there.
 
Since Lucas has only seen me
use fire elemental skills during the dungeon excursion and the testing ground,
it’ll be even harder for him to fit the pieces together if I only use earth and
wind magic.
 
If I purposely don’t
train my earth and wind magic at all until I enter the Academy, I think it’ll
be more than enough to pass off as just a ‘talented genius’ that won’t raise
too many eyebrows.

I opened one of the books I brought with me
from the library.
 
I managed to find
some of the limited books on deviation skills, containing a few segments on
lightning and ice.
 
It seems that,
for lightning, there are two main methods that Augmenters opt towards.
 
One was internal, and other was
external.
 
Because of the unique
properties of lightning compared to other elements and their deviants, there
are some individuals who focus on using internal lightning skills, which is stated
as much more difficult.

Thunderclap Impulse is one of the internal
lightning techniques that I developed, which could said as the stepping stone
into much more powerful skills.
 
The
book only goes to say that, for internal lightning users, most reach a ceiling
quite early on and switch to external techniques to learn.
 
This means that internal lightning
skills haven’t been developed enough for people to actually find advantages in.
 

This is also the route that I chose to go
to.
 
While I will have some external
lightning skills under my belt, I know from experience just how much more
powerful internal skills are compared to the external counterparts.
 
Of course, it may not be as flashy but
what I want isn’t a dazzling light show, but absolute power.
 
It’ll take time and patience to develop
but I already know the rewards will be tremendous as I imagine a level above
just using a small current of lightning to quicken my reaction.
 

As for my Ice elemental skills, I want to focus
on wide range skills, focusing on fighting against multiple opponents.
 
The combination skill of White Fire and
Absolute Zero is my strongest skill, which I can only use under the massive
power up I get from the second phase of my Dragon’s Will, Integrate.
 
I imagine that, for now even if I have
the technique and theory down for either lightning or ice skills, I’ll need to
be in the Integrate phase if I want to use the more powerful skills.

I can’t help grow a little impatient at this
fact but there isn’t much I can do now except train.
 
I have so many advantages but I’m still
not satisfied at the level of power I was at.
 
I can say with confidence that, if I
were to fight against the former me from my old world, I would win.
 
The amount of mana in this world and the
fact that I have Dragon’s Will alongside of mana rotation, I can just overpower
my previous self.
 
However, the
world I’m in is filled with dangers much greater than the dangers in my old
world, so growing complacent would end up being detrimental.

I pick up the other book that I brought, which
is on beast wills.
 
I’ve already
read it once so I skip to the part on training it, which makes
me
sigh in helplessness.
 
I saw this coming, but I couldn’t help
but grow disheartened when I read it the first time.
 
It seems that the best way to train the
beast will acquired is being taught by the beast itself.
 
The only other alternative mentioned was
to study thoroughly about the beast itself so the beast tamer can learn and
practice the traits of the beast.

Option one was obviously out of the question,
seeing as Sylvia either died or is in hostage by whatever being that black
horned figure was.
  
Option two
had its limit as well.
 
The fact
that I could even use one of the ‘acquire’ skills and even go into Integrate
phase was because of the perks in being a Legacy Tamer, where a certain amount
of insight came alongside the Will.
 
Even for a dragon, she seemed so unique; I couldn’t even imagine what
sort of powers she had.
 
I wish she
had left me some clues as to what some of her powers were before everything
happened.

*Slap*

“Snap out of it!”
 
I say aloud while smacking both of my
cheeks.
 
Bringing myself down on
what I don’t have isn’t going to solve anything.

Besides training my lightning and ice attribute
magic, the other skill I’m focusing on will be magic cancellation.

The theory is that elemental attribute mana is
manipulated, whether it is through the form of a spell or through extensive
knowledge of the skill, into the projected destination or into the
caster’s
own body.
 
Speaking very technically, these mana particles are basically coded to
affect either the atmosphere or the specific target to produce a certain
outcome.
 
There is a very small
delay from when the mage casts the coded mana particles and when those particles
have effect and form the spell.

During that delay, if I was able to potentially
disrupt those mana particles with mana of my own that can cancel the said
spell, I would be able to discretely terminate the spell without it even
forming.

While in theory that sounds amazing, there are
several problems.
 
One, in order for
this to even work, I will have to know what spell the opponent is using.
 
That isn’t a problem when the Conjurer
or even the Augmenter chants the spell, but in cases of wordless chanting, or
even instacasting, I would have to know what the spell is by the makeup of the
mana during the almost split second that the manipulated mana particles are
cast before it takes effect and forms into a spell.

This requires learning a tremendous amount of
spells and figuring out which skills can effectively cancel them out.
 
Just thinking about that leaves me with
a headache.
 
Most can be figured out
with magic theory but being able to almost instantly thinking of the correct
spell to counteract the opponent’s means I need to know it by heart.
 
However, I know that mastering this
skill will be a priceless asset; especially more since only someone like me,
who is able to manipulate all four elements, can do this.
 

On this subject, I start thinking of when I
entered the Integrate phase.
 
My
vision turned black and white and I was clearly able to see the fluctuation in
mana all around me, which, when using something like canceling magic, it would
be very useful.

I pick up my books and towel with one hand and
pick up Sylvie with the other and head back up to my room.
 
Vincent offered another room for Elijah
but my parents wouldn’t allow it since he was a Leywin guest, which meant he
should just be in one of our rooms.
 
As a compromise I asked them to just bring in another bed for Elijah,
since the room was more than spacious enough.

Returning back to my room, Elijah was already
fast asleep, sleeping straight on his back with his arms folded on his chest,
making it seem like he’s lying in a coffin.
 

Even when he sleeps, he looks like such a
straight and proper fellow.
 
Elijah
was a good friend and it helped that our personalities complimented each
other.
 
Elijah was pretty
peculiar.
 
Despite his
straight-laced, stern appearance (mainly due to the hair and glasses), he was a
very emotional lad. He’s logical in a way where he has set principles that he
never strays away from, making him very honest and trustworthy, but when it
comes to people and relationships, he often thinks with his ‘heart’ leaving him
quite vulnerable if people choose to take advantage of him.
 

I can only imagine when he hits puberty, if he
already hasn’t started, and starts thinking with his penis instead of his head
when it comes to the opposite sex.

As for me, whether it was because I lived and
remember my previous life, I can only see myself analytical and somewhat
scheming.
 
I have to admit that I
have a hard time trusting people completely and always trying to think a couple
steps ahead.
 
I somewhat regret the
lack of innocence I have compared to normal 11-year-olds, but one thing that I
have grown to realize is that, when it comes to the few close relationships
that I do have, I become very invested in them, almost to the point of
fault.
 
Did it have something to do
with being an orphan in my previous life?
 
Because the only close person I had was the caretaker that picked me up
and was later killed?