No Aptitude

"Huh?"

Ivo nodded silently.

"Master....." Jax began.

Ivo closed his eyes, waiting for Jax's burst of emotions from the sudden news.

"...it's not good to play pranks like this" Jax said.

Ivo quickly smacked Jax across the head, this time soft enough only to leave a small tingling pain behind.

"You fool, do you really think that I would play a prank about something like this?!" Ivo said frustrated.

"Then... I really have no aptitude? No talent?" Jax muttered.

Ivo let out a sigh, before shaking his head. He looked at the sky, noticing that night would soon be upon them, with the threat of the winged beast as well.

"Let's talk about it back home. There's much I must explain." Ivo said.

The two walked away from the lake, returning to the crack in the cliff that led to both Jax's cave and Ivo's stasis facility. After eating a few fruits to satiate their hunger, Ivo sat Jax down on the ground, while he sat on the couch against the cavern wall.

"Boy I'm going to explain a few things going forward, and I only plan on explaining everything once. So listen closely." Ivo said sternly.

Jax, although still shocked at his lack of ability, sat up and watched Ivo keenly.

"Firstly, you know the various combat styles I had described before, right? There are Martial Artists, Psychic, Augmented, Clerics, and Casters. Ignoring the Augmented, those are weird anyway, every user of these styles has organs in their body that allows them to channel their powers. For Martial Artists, it's their 'dantian' where they gather and flow their internal energy through their bodies, weapons, and techniques. For Psychics, it's their highly developed pineal gland, which they express their abilities through." Ivo explained.

Jax listened intently, learning about organs that he didn't even know existed.

"Do you remember how I said some Augmented awaken a special power? It's really rare, but some users find that their nervous system develops to a point where they can control electrical currents outside of their body. It allows them to magnetize metallic items to them and better control not only their cybernetics, but also machines, robots, and exosuits. These are the really dangerous ones, but they are far and few between. We call them Amplifiers, or Amps for short." Ivo said.

"Continuing on, Clerics are interesting since their powers are all so different, but all have a specialized growth attached to their heart. It acts as a pump of sorts, sending their energy through their bodies on certain paths. While there's no set name for those paths, the pump is called a conviction ventricle. Finally, Casters are born with a small shard of mana just to the right of their heart. For those who don't follow the path of being a Caster, it is non-intrusive and doesn't affect their lives. But for those who do train, they can develop that shard into a larger gem. We call that a Mana Heart. Unlike other styles, the Mana Heart doesn't provide energy, but rather allows us to channel mana into our bodies, shape it into spells, and cast them out of our bodies. This is helped by a variety of tools, hand signs, magic circles, and incantations, as to make sure not to overload the Heart." Ivo finished explaining.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Ivo asked Jax if he had any questions so far.

"None that I can think of..." Jax quietly said, astounded by the interworkings of how superhumans used their abilities.

"Good," Ivo said. "Moving forward, the bad news is this. You have none of those organs."

Jax's jaw dropped. How could he not even have one inherent talent for internal energy?!

"Well, I shouldn't say you have none of them. You have a pineal gland, it's just normal and unable to develop psychic powers. Same with your nervous system, it's just extremely unlikely for you to develop it." Ivo said.

"When I did the test, I made sure to check for each of these possibilities after I found you didn't have a mana shard in your body. That is why it took so long since it required a lot of careful searching."

Jax felt his head begin to weigh heavy and a depressive mood was about to sweep over him. His master, who was clearly strong and highly experienced, couldn't even train him. He felt useless right now.

"The strangest thing about this whole ordeal is that you look to have the talent for being a caster. At least externally." Ivo said.

"What does that mean?" Jax asked.

Ivo cleared his throat, before taking a good look at Jax.

"You see boy, Casters naturally have mana gather around them in the Universe. This is supposed to be due to the Mana Heart. But you're strange, boy. Mana gathers around you, despite your lack of a mana heart. In fact, the density would indicate that if you could become an even stronger Caster than myself. This is why I thought it would be perfect to teach you how to become a Caster, but it's impossible without that organ."

Jax thought for a moment. Mana gathered around him? Why? Whatever the reason, Jax knew he couldn't make use of it without that organ Ivo mentioned.

Suddenly a thought came to mind.

"Wait master, there were mana crystals in the other cave! Can we use that to make me a mana heart?" Jax asked, with anticipation growing on his face.

Ivo shook his head solemnly, indicating it wasn't possible.

"That would kill you. Those crystals are pure mana and unattuned to your body. In fact, it very well could rip you apart, down to your very atoms." Ivo explained.

Jax shuddered. Although becoming a Caster would be a dream come true, dying horribly like that was the last thing Jax would want to do.

Ivo sighed, seeing that Jax was still thinking of ways to gain a mana heart, and decided to move on to the next topic.

"Even if we can't teach you to become a Caster, I can at least train you to be stronger physically and mentally."

Jax looked at Ivo sitting on the couch. The old man clearly wasn't joking or messing around. Jax felt slightly disappointed, not only for being unable to become a superhuman but also because he was letting his master down. Still, he offered to train him, and that would help his chances of surviving on this planet.

"We will start tomorrow. And do not mistake my words, this will be grueling training, and you will wish you had never agreed to it." Ivo said with a sinister grin.

Saying this, Ivo left to sleep in his small facility, while Jax began winding down to sleep on the couch.

Perhaps due to the exhaustion of the test or just his emotions bursting out earlier, Jax fell asleep quickly.

....

Back in Ivo's stasis facility, Ivo sat for a while thinking to himself.

At this moment Iona, the AI that accompanied Ivo appeared.

"Grandpa, I'm fully charged again!" Iota said cheerfully.

Ivo gently smiled at the AI, before speaking again.

"Iota, sweetie, I'm so happy to see you, can you make a note for Grandpa? It's about that boy up in the cave."

A pen and notebook appeared in Iota's hands, with the little girl looking ready to write down whatever Ivo said.

"That boy..... is strange. I have never seen anyone like him before. Maybe we can try some experiments. Write down these next ideas for me sweetheart."

Ivo began listing various ideas he had and the types of experiments he would try as a part of Jax's training.