16 Diving the Essence Sea

It was no great secret that it was possible to estimate the Potential that someone had from how deep they could dive in the Essence Sea. It required only an innate ability to be in sync with the Essence surrounding one and to have the ability to separate from the five senses to feel with the sixth.

And a certain measure of simple iron Will.

Cifer was also aware that practice had an effect of increasing that strong will and consciousness of the sixth sense, leading to greater diving ability. But the method used to enter the right state of mind and focus your Will to draw out your Potential was also extremely important.

But after failing the first test, requiring an extra credit type evaluation to scrape a minimum pass, Cifer didn't want to beg for the scrap of teaching given to his fellows. Instead, for this simple test, Cifer made use of the Clan's methods.

Sitting cross legged, Cifer began the focusing mantra and closed his eyes while allowing his powerful imagination to envision a sea enveloping him. It took a couple minutes, but his voice faded from his ears as he felt himself shift into the Essence Sea. His projection began to dive, easily breathing the 'water' at this depth.

As he went down he saw several strong seeming Manifestations. A teardrop of Death that seemed able to melt through stone. A War spear able to puncture the sky. A fist of Evil powerful enough to destroy all in its path. He ignored them all, knowing that they were not even big fish in a fishbowl.

Cifer continued diving, passing more detailed Manifestations. A white flag that pleaded for Mercy. A hangman's noose that imposed Tyranny. A shriveled crop in the midst of Famine. These pushed away the other Manifestations, but they were not worth Cifer's time either. He kept diving.

He felt the thin pressure wall of 700 feet. Breaching it wouldn't be a problem, but once he did Cifer would be entering an entirely different world. He could breath the water of the first 700 feet, and only felt like a gentle hug up until here. But past that pressure wall he would have to hold his breath close to Manifestations and the pressure would change to a tight bear hug.

It wasn't even all that bad really, but it would keep building up until on his last dive Cifer felt like a python was squeezing the life out of him at 950 feet and the Manifestations were dense enough that there was always one too close to allow him to breath. Which was why he couldn't make it past 1,000 feet on his last dive.

Cifer didn't want to let things end so easily this time though. He had witnessed death now, and felt something in him change. Not to mention how Cifer had a desperate need to impress Oji. He gathered his will and struck past the thin pressure wall in a single smooth movement. Then went looking for the closest Manifestation to forcefully teach himself to breath the denser Essence close to them.

He already found he could get much closer in, as much as four or five feet away, before having any trouble. Of course, Wisdom was the weakest of the 7 and this spiraling shape with a wood grip was almost level with the pressure wall. Cifer approached it a dozen times, rejecting a bond firmly each time, as he steadily worked his way closer. He got to two feet away before he quit making progress.

To his joy, Cifer realized that not only had he become able to breath more dense Essence from his brief self training, he was also much more accustomed to the pressure and was tolerating it better. It still wasn't pleasant by a long shot, but that wouldn't stop him. Cifer resumed his dive, ignoring the few floating Manifestations at the range from 700 to 950 feet. He slowed down to look in the crazy mess below him.

He saw scythes, swords, flowers and knives. He saw animals and natural events. He saw fires and storms. The pressure put off by these Manifestations was much more significant than those above, and having seen them before was why Cifer knew that those above were insignificant. What made the pressure extreme was the overwhelming number below him though. There were easily thousands.

Cifer tried to thread a path through them that might allow him to breath as he passed. It proved to still be impossible, since a large number of the Manifestations would approach him the moment he went down to them. He came back up and caught his breath before trying again in a different place. The result didn't change. It did let him see several other Manifestations and he felt like the python trying to crush him was either growing tired or maybe was just a younger and smaller one than at first.

But he was spending too much time, and his concentration was beginning to waver. So he rose 50 feet to get a swimming start. He would dive headlong in and try to go as deep as possible in a single burst since he didn't have the time to continue growing acclimated until he could pass normally.

Cifer than dove as fast as he could, taking his last breath before entering the range of the Manifestation crowd. He had to constantly turn down offers to bond with Manifestations he wasn't even really looking at as the pressure built until it felt like a great stone on his chest. He kept diving.

The stone became a house, which soon became a mountain as Cifer felt crushing weight from a dozen Manifestations following him down and the depth of the Essence Sea. Moments later he burst out the bottom of the thick band of ordinary Manifestations of this range of depth. A single sheathed blade emitting Mercy Essence sent the weaker Manifestations fleeing back up where they belonged.

Cifer couldn't hold up to its approach though, and felt his projection collapse. He'd broken his record by a substantial amount though, and could benefit from this experience from now on. He smiled at Oji.

"I made it 1,200 feet down."