14 The Challenger

I've already researched many things regarding my various Attributes and Enigma's special 'Gift'.

I was unable to tell the difference between regular humans and myself at first... that was until I began to concentrate in order to sense the Mana within other living beings.

It was a unique ability only I was able to use. A power that allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of Ether and Mana as whole. I wouldn't have been able to properly utilise my manifested Aura to mimic elements without the it's deductive abilities.

In my eyes, every human except myself had a pure white 'flame' within their hearts. This 'magical flame' is what I believe to be the Internal Energy within Humans and Beasts alike.

But wasn't the important part... The most vital information I gathered was that my own 'flame' wasn't like those of others. The flame within me might look pure white on the surface but I knew through sensing it that there was a hidden black flame underneath its exterior.

From what I've researched over the years with the help of my doting parents, this pitch black flame with blue highlights should be Moon Mana: The main Internal Energy used by Fiends of the past.

I felt instinctively that I could switch the positions of the white flame and the black flame hidden within it with just a single push of my own willpower. It was such an easy thing to do to the point it felt like an inborn ability... but even so, I never used this mysterious ability due to my cautiousness towards the unknown.

After all, my great instincts are born from my paranoia. It's not like I lived a long life on Earth by being reckless enough to mess with the unknown.

Who knows what could happen if I was to unleash my Moon Mana? Perhaps I would mutate immediately and become unable to return to my humanoid form... There may be a chance that everything would be fine but I'm won't draw a conclusion without evidence!

Instead of relying on a power I'm unable to understand, my first objective would be to master my current abilities. Especially when it came to my use of Aura Techniques.

There's plenty of time for me to investigate this innate ability Enigma has secretly gifted me without recklessly unleashing it. My trust in him isn't that high so I'll be cautious.

I previously believed Enigma didn't wish to harm me but there's a lot of things regarding my reincarnation that don't seem to properly add up... or maybe it was my own mistake for not asking about my abilities.

Nah~ It's definitely the former~! How can someone as intelligent like myself make such a mistake?

Either way, it's not like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill... Enigma really is suspicious in a way.

For example: Why did he reincarnate me as a servant of a noble family of magical swordsmen who are located near the borders of their kingdom? There are many better options than this if he wanted me to live a peaceful life...

I shouldn't have walked out without listening to Enigma's explanation regarding my special Attributes! Why wasn't I suspicious of Enigma like I am with everyone else...?

Well... no point complaining over spilt milk... I should keep moving forward!

"The Lightning, Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Natures within one's Aura are merely counterfeits of the real thing. The Elemental Attributes of Sphera can't be copied so easily... However, being able to use them to their fullest potential shouldn't be hard for a reincarnated individual like myself!" This may sound arrogant, but my words are at least backed up by my previous life's scientific knowledge.

Increasing my magical combat potential should be easier than creating powerful Spells at least.

With a single thought, I released my Aura and used it to mimic flames. The diamond-like glow of the Aura around my arm turned ruby red as a result.

Their were many ways of mastering Aura Manifestation. The creator of this flexible technique originally wanted to use it to sharpen his Aura, but those of less ingenuity than the Sword God named Gerald Knightly found that adding more Mana to it was the easiest way to increase its power.

Sharpening one's Aura to the point it could cut down those of stronger Magical Talents takes a lot of effort while adding more Mana into the technique in order to bring out greater effects was the easiest method used to control Aura Manifestation.

The most 'orthodox' way of increasing ones mastery over Aura Manifestation changed over time. This caused the sharpening of a person's Aura to become the most 'unorthodox' way of mastering it.

From what I've researched, the Sword God's method of training his Mana was crazy to the point it'd make one wonder why he had to go so far just to increase his strength. I'm not too keen on following in that insane guy's footsteps when it comes to training...

I punched out while focusing the ruby red radiance onto my fist, then watched carefully as my knuckles punched empty air. A hand-sized amount of crimson flames shot out of my knuckles with a single punch but vanished into thin air inches away from it.

"Not enough..." Although such a punch can hurt ordinary fighters using Aura Manifestation, it wouldn't be able to even scratch those that have higher Magical Talent. Those guy's who properly use Aura Manifestation to an acceptable level.

The war between Warriors of this world under different national powers against the Blood Nation's forces was very dangerous. I don't want my fate to be decided by others. Instead, I hope to be able to protect myself with my own strength!

This world is so beautiful, and it would be a shame to spend most of my life in this mansion as a regular servant. My father should be keen on letting me experience the world for myself as an adventuring Mercenary instead of a Butler. This is the decision I came to after my years of training to become a powerful fighter.

After strengthening my resolve, I tampered with the crimson flames of my Fire Aura and experimented different ways to put it to use.

I used the Tetrahedron Theory I learned in my past life to create three unique Spells. One that emphasised on 'Heat' while the other emphasised on an extremely 'Explosive' chemical reaction.

The third one I thought of focused more on spreading rather than burning is something I'll put to the side for now after remembering how lethal it would be if it was to hit a human target. The power of incineration was hard to control, after all.

I tried to manipulate Fire Ether the same way I did with my manifested Aura since I was technically a rare Universal Specialist of all affinities.

The result was creating a few small thumb-sized Blue Fireballs that had the power of a Second Tier Combat Spell. An accomplishment only I alone had the wisdom to achieve with my... less than desirable Magic Capacity.

Looks like there weren't any problems with using my Spell Conjuring despite my Magical Talent. It must be due to the power of my Sun Attribute.

There are many of Sphera who have improvised and improved Combat Spells and Arts over the course of history. Some created their own Intrinsic Magic that only they could use while others sold their magical techniques to the Mage Association for fame and fortune.

I won't mention all those failures I had where my entire body was thrown off the floor and onto a wall because they were just embarrassing... Trying to create new techniques is a lot harder than it looks since failures are the stepping stones to success!

At least I didn't burn my room down or alert the entire household by not allowing the destructive potential of my personal Spells go over a certain limit. I really HAVE outdone myself this time~

It's the first time I felt my stubbornly narrow mindset could be an advantage while comprehending how to create new magical techniques.

I remembered how I was just unable to truly believe that things like Metal Mana and Earth Mana being of different elements before coming to understand the affinity of Earth more deeply. Metal Mana had nothing to do with ores from the ground and had more to do with the user itself. It was the power to remain unaffected by most other Attributes.

But that's unimportant right now.

In my opinion, everything in the world originated from the four main natural elements: Those being Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. The fact that I could bring myself to imagine Lightning as a separate element was really hard to do after experiencing my previous life as a man of science. (In College at least.)

This world is filled with a variety of External Energies of different attributes. However, one's ability to manipulate them depends on how talented they are at visualising elements they're able to comprehend.

I'm now able to comprehend the five elements of nature, but even that advantage it isn't enough to match those who could ignore elemental weaknesses due to their strong Mana and intricate elemental techniques.

Even Sun Mana can't mimic nor copy techniques of others that I don't fully comprehend. After all, I wouldn't be able to reproduce any of the other techniques passed down to me if my understanding of them was wrong or even the slightest bit misguided.

For example, although I've gained insight into Lightning Mana and am able to produce Purple Lightning, this doesn't mean I will be able to easily use techniques beyond basic Lightning Spells. After all, there's a limit to what a self-taught Magic User could train by himself.

Well... this would be true if I had no knowledge of Earth. I've already seen technological advancements using electricity on Earth so creating my own personal Lightning Arts and Spells should be a walk in the park!

Scientists of my past life weren't able to deduce 'why' lightning formed within storm clouds on rainy days, yet they were STILL able to harness its power after understanding 'how' by using batteries to store electricity...

[Spell Conjuring- Water Manipulation]

This time a small cloud hovered above my hand as I used it to produce a large amount of natural lightning for a period of time. The different things I was able to perceive in that time through actually seeing the 'Blue Lightning' myself really helped me find new ways to control it.

Unlike lightning of Earth, the Purple Lightning of Sphera had a strange ability to affect one's mind and spirit. It was as if the Attribute of Lightning didn't only contain the power to destroy anything it touches but also the power to affect souls of others...

[Spell Conjuring- Lightning Manipulation]

The sapphire-like aura around my hand slowly turned amethyst while taking in the blue electricity I created above it. It was only then the clouds I made above my hand dissipated into nothingness. My new Secret Art was coming together as I saw in that moment where Blue Lightning and Lightning Aura could overlap.

Now that I think about it, can't I manipulate magnetism now that I can now fully control the qualities of my self-made Lightning Art?

It was then that I felt I was struck by a flash of inspiration! My gaze flickered as I used the my Earth Aura to create a set of round, spherical marbles.

Then I tried adding a positive charge to one marble and a negative charge to another using my Aura. The result almost made me cry out loud in excitement as I succeeded in magnetising the the spheres of Earth in my hands. I found that I could use a mixture of my Elemental Aura to manipulate natural forces of nature.

My eyes opened to various new possibilities as I wanted to continue experimenting, but before I could my thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the door. I reluctantly stopped practicing and opened the door to whoever was knocking me...!

Damn! Which idiot interrupted me?!

"Simon Rainglow, I challenge you!" A big and burly guy about my age declared straightforwardly. I looked at the unreasonably tall 'idiot' who was both arrogantly and proudly standing before me with a blank expression on my face after hearing his words.

What the hell is with this guy?!

"I refuse." I unceremoniously closed the door and went back to my training after answering the arrogant prick who interrupted my important magic practices and experiments.

This time I turned the spheres into cubes and tried to stick them together using magnetism I derived from the four fundamental forces of nature.

This unique Spell I personally created has a lot of room for development.

As I continued to patiently learning the extent of my powers, someone knocked on my door once again. This time the volume of the knocks were louder.

"I challenge you to a duel!" The same burly kid my own age declared once again after I opened the door to see who it was. It seems he's more annoyingly persistent than most since he looked like he'll repeatedly declare his challenge until I actually agreed to battling him. How annoying...

"I refuse." I answered again without hesitation. I'm not interested in what he meant by a 'duel' since it sounds troublesome no matter how I hear it.

As I was about to close the door once more, the youth reached out his large fingers and firmly kept the door open with a powerful grasp of his hand.

"You are the Young Miss' new scoundrel of Personal Butler, right? The F Rank Magical Talent that used his father's influence to worm his way to the Young Miss' side?" The giant youth asked provocatively with a glare. After hearing his questions, I didn't feel anger because an adult like myself getting angry at a child like him would be immature...!

I don't know what he's talking about but I feel like I'd lose if I asked... It's better to just go along with what he's saying so I can get back to experimenting with my new Spell.

"I don't know who you are, nor why you want to take that position off me using force, but if you're looking for someone to teach you manners, then you've come to the right place...! I accept your challenge!" With my strong words, the youth smiled slyly as if he had anticipated my strong reaction. He didn't even try to hide his disdain. His gaze held a light of amusement as he finally backed off and let me close the door.

What's too bad for him was that I lied~!