"Are you alright?" A girl sitting next to Auric asked, looking at the injuries on his body.
Fortunately, he was wearing long sleeves, so only the two scratches on his cheeks were visible.
"I’m fine. Thanks for asking." Auric smiled. He had practiced really hard yesterday. In fact, his body was quite sore due to the intensity of the training.
The girl and probably a few more people were thinking the sa thing. This was their chance. They could buy Auric so ointnts and give them to him.
Auric, on the other hand, had sothing else in mind. He had been in a daze several tis since he woke up.
"Are you really all right? You are usually focused. Do you have sothing on your mind?" Lindwurm asked. This was the first ti he had seen Auric so distracted.
’Can’t you read my mind?’
"No. I can hear your words if you wish to communicate with . I won’t get anything from you if you don’t, such as thinking about won and stuff like that."
’I don’t really think about that, but...’ Auric thought for a mont. He didn’t know what to say about Lindwurm. Still, Lindwurm had been a great help the whole ti. So, he ignored the first part and explained, ’I’m just wondering how I should approach the problem.’
"What problem?" Lindwurm asked. "Your breathing technique is quite good. You’ve been able to maintain it for so ti. Your posture has been stabilized due to the footwork, but more training is necessary. I will personally oversee your training, so you don’t have to worry about your progress."
’The way to combine the two elents. My teacher is thinking about placing one elent on top of the other, right?’
"Oh!" Lindwurm chuckled. He didn’t expect Auric to worry about that. "That is actually not a problem. There are actually three ways to approach this problem. The first is what you’re thinking right now. Stacking them together."
’Three ways?’ Auric didn’t expect there to be so many ways.
"Yep. The second way is similar to how people wield their weapons. You will first manifest one power and coat it like a layer of skin. You understand the difference from the first thod, right?"
’In the first one, stacking elents will depend on their compatibility. You can’t just stack water with fire, because it will either evaporate the water or extinguish the fire.’
"Correct. On the other hand, the second one will coat the power. Still, there will be so losses due to this thod. For example, coating fire with water will either make the fire lose its heat or cause the water to heat up, right?"
Auric agreed. Even though his teacher told him about the steel plant, the plant elent would break down the earth elent.
Hence, it would end up causing so problems, such as weakening the original toughness of the steel.
’Judging by your character, this third thod fixes that flaw?’
"Yes. However, this thod is extrely difficult because it requires a great deal of control. At least, you are not capable of achieving it yet. I’m talking about Fusion."
’Fusion...’ Auric narrowed his eyes. ’Creating a new elent or sothing?’
"Of course not. There are many steps required to achieve this feat. You need to gather the sa amount of power and have good enough control. Most of the ti, those who can achieve this are identical twins, husbands and wives, and comrades who have fought together for so long that they know each other’s habits."
’I think I get the idea. You need to match everything, correct?’
"Yes. That’s why trust is also necessary. However, you are doing it by yourself, so you probably can achieve it faster than anyone else. The only problem is to split your focus into two. If you want to try it, you can start training to be ambidextrous."
’That’s going to be hard. It definitely requires a lot of practice. I guess the three ways are divided by the desired effect as well as the difficulty.’
"Indeed. Right now, you can easily do the first one. It’s sothing everyone can do. If you want to do the second one, you can check with the people from the other departnt or learn another basic technique. I think they’re going to teach you about it pretty soon."
’Really?’ Auric wondered what he was talking about until the teacher entered.
Professor Eren moved to the center while raising two fingers. "All right. Welco again, everyone. I believe so of you have checked the library. I hope the books you’ve chosen are useful to you.
"Now, I’m going to tell you about the two things that you will learn from for the rest of this week. The first one will be regarding the basic trinity that you need if you ever want to beco stronger.
"The second thing is the next step after manifesting your elent. That is... body armor."
Professor Eren released his energy. At first, it was unrestrained, blazing like a fla.
However, the blazing energy soon cald down and covered his body like a layer of skin.
"!!!" Auric widened his eyes in surprise. He finally understood what Lindwurm was talking about.
What Professor Eren showed was how to envelop sothing with one’s energy. It didn’t necessarily need the body as the target. It could be anything, including weapons. That was why Lindwurm suggested going to the other departnt.
Lindwurm probably didn’t expect they would teach him sothing like this so suddenly.
’So, that’s how it is... Covering my manifestation with another layer of energy.’
"Well..." Lindwurm thought they would teach him about it on the third or fourth day, since the basic trinity was more important. It looked like he was wrong. "...yeah. You manifest it in two steps, which creates two layers of energy, like water and oil."
Auric understood everything. It was sothing basic, but this was indeed important.
"As you may already know, if you release your energy normally, you will feel like there is another layer of armor protecting you. It will lessen the damage done to your body.
"However, this is very inefficient during battle because there will be energy loss. If you can contain and maintain it like a layer of skin on your body, you can get the effect while minimizing the loss.
"In fact, if your control is good enough, you might have no loss at all.
"I don’t have any doubt that so of you have actually trained the basic trinity before even coming here, so I will only explain it briefly for the students who have yet to practice, before moving on to body armor."
Since this was an introductory course, Eren had to be fair to everyone, including those who had yet to even prepare themselves to fight.
Once he was done, he would continue with the body armor.
The principle itself was easy.
By following the instructions, Auric succeeded on his first attempt. However, just like in his other training, he maintained it for a short ti before it dispersed due to a lack of control.
The sa thing happened to Eric and Simon. They were able to maintain it for six and ten seconds, respectively.
Still, because Auric had practiced his control more than anyone else as an evolution master, he was able to maintain it for thirty seconds.
"It looks like so of you have succeeded. As you may have found out, it’s easy to form the body armor, but it’s hard to maintain it, especially in a high-pressure situation such as a battle.
"Hence, this will be your task for this week. You are going to train your breathing technique, observation technique, and footwork. In addition, you are to maintain the body armor for as long as possible. If you want it to be effective in combat, I expect you to maintain it for at least twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes was quite short. Still, for those who didn’t have much energy, twenty minutes would feel like forever. And when they were fighting, they had to release a portion of their energy for defense and offense, so the duration would be shortened further.
Eric glanced to the side. Just like before, Auric took notes about everything. Whenever the class started, Auric would pay attention no matter how boring the class was.
That was why he had always challenged him. He wasn’t soone who would slip up easily.
Once the professor stopped talking, Lindwurm asked, "So, what are you going to do now? I assu you want to practice this body armor, then continue to the next step, right?"
’Yes. Should I call this Elent Coating? Since it’s just covering your elent with another. Or does it have an official na?’
"The official na is Elent Blanket. It is a technique that overlaps one type of energy over another."
’All right.’ Auric paused for a mont. ’Can I do sothing like this? Practice this so-called body armor while also practicing my footwork and breathing technique?’
"Yes. In fact, you have to do it with the breathing technique at the very least. The breathing technique allows you to maintain a certain rhythm in your body, and it’s best if you are able to match that rhythm with your elent."
’Fair point. How about the footwork? What’s the reason?’
"There are three reasons. First, the body armor will prevent injuries. Second, your current energy is close to 100%, except for the fact that it is divided into several elents. If you use that reserve, you can do it all day long without any problems. This is your biggest advantage over the others."
When he said it that way, Auric agreed that his existence was too much of a cheat.
’What about the third reason?’
"The third reason is to get accustod to coating your body. Do you rember the ti you turned your hand into steel?"
’What about it?’
"At that ti, you were releasing your power recklessly. Even though you were able to do sothing similar to the body armor, the power was leaking away."
’I do rember that.’
"By mastering this technique, you will be able to manifest other techniques more masterfully, especially the ones related to evolution."
’Ah?!’ Auric had forgotten to link this to the technique he learned as an evolution master.
"For Extre Bridge Managent and Dual Fusion thod, you can create two containnt vessels that are more durable and stable."
’I have to agree. It looks like we are going to have a long session of training today. Or maybe I should go back ho today.’ His ho wasn’t that far, but it would still take thirty minutes for a round trip.
During those thirty minutes, he could practice even more.
"You should go back. Your mother might worry about you. Besides, your father is gone right now, so your mother is alone. She must be lonely. Also, your mother is so beautiful that shouldn’t you worry that so married n are seducing her?"
Auric’s eyebrows twitched. ’Mom is fierce, so I don’t have to worry about the latter. But I guess I should go back to show I’m fine. I will probably write down anything I need on the way.’
"You are a workaholic." Lindwurm sighed.
’Isn’t it fine? If I have to say it, grind hard at first and enjoy the benefits later.’
Lindwurm just rolled his eyes.
anwhile, Auric’s attention was drawn by soone. For so reason, his vision was blocked by a person.
When he raised his head, he realized it was Simon. Simon was glaring daggers at him.
"Do you need sothing?" Auric asked as if he had no grudge with him.
Simon pointed at him while saying, "You and I—we will have a duel at the end of this session."
Since each session lasted five days, it would be Friday after classes. It looked like Simon planned to regain his dignity as the top student.
Auric didn’t really care about his position, but this was where his motto applied. Since Simon wanted to reclaim his reputation and glory as the top student, he would do the sa to him.
Simon must have practiced the basic trinity, which ant he could focus his remaining ti on the body armor and his battle techniques. That was why he had enough confidence that he would win.
But Auric didn’t plan to back down now that the trouble had co his way.
"Fine, I guess." Auric casually accepted it while adding inwardly, ’Change of plan, Lindwurm. I will go back today and tell her that I’m going to stay on campus for the next few days.’
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