16 Essence Flash

The sky overhead gradually presented an amber hue as a slight chill blew against the verdant autumn leaves. Aser had already returned and finished dinner. The cracking of leaves spread through his surroundings as the boy strut to the library. His gaze filled with a pondering light, Aser stepped into the vast hall filled with the musky smell of leather and wood.

Looking at the dense foliage of resources that were simply waiting for him to exploit, the boy revealed a hint of his pearly white teeth and shining eyes. Steadily, Aser walked towards the stairs leading to the second floor. He wanted to finish his Essence Cultivation for the day before venturing into the jungle of knowledge.

On the second floor, a similar sight presented itself before him. Looking around, he found the closed wooden doors embedded with a circular slot and a number. Locating the room with the number 3 on it, he retrieved the token for the study rooms and inserted it into the door.

The token gave a slight twist and the door swung open with a creak. Stepping into the room, Aser was hit by the distinct water-like scent of the light crystals blooming. The room was decorated with a large table, eight wooden chairs, a bookshelf similar to the ones outside and a resting area with a small bed. The room gave of an aura of relaxation, and he couldn't hear anything other than his breathing. There was a window on the far end with a small balcony, the orange color of the sky streaming in through the gaps of the glass panel.

Hanging his white jacket on one of the chairs, Aser sat down on the bed and calmed his breathing. As soon as he started the cultivation process, bright white and green motes of light sprang up around him. Upon closer investigation, you could see slight lines connecting these motes together. Targeting the ones with thicker lines, Aser started gathering the Essence around him into his body once more. His blood started boiling as the essence swam through his body, enhancing his veins and muscles, changing his body for evolution. He noticed that it had become somewhat easier for him to gather larger clouds of essence. The world around felt distinctively brighter, as if the essence contained inside each of the bright spots started shining like stars.

At one point, a thought ran through his mind. What would happen, if I combined the two essence clouds together before absorbing them? Deciding to experiment for a bit, Aser reached out to a couple clouds of essence and brought them together in front of him. The motes of light in each cloud started tangling themselves with the lines from the other. It felt as if two intrinsically similar but different objects pushed against the other. There was a slight rejection that he could feel between the two clouds, and just as he was about to give up, he felt one of the clouds give way to the other. As the lines entangled between each other, the cloud of essence turned darker until a tiny absorbing suction started. Keeping his mind clear, Aser continued observing the interaction between the essence until he noticed that he could alter the shape of the clouds after they turned darker.

Spreading his hands beside the clouds, Aser tried compressing the two into a ball to combine them. The more he compressed, the higher the absorbing force and the darker the clouds became until he started to actually see them in his natural vision. The clouds gradually morphed into the shadow of a twisting mass of gas. He felt the gas starting to twist faster and faster until it abruptly stopped and started unraveling at a frightening pace. Alarmed by the sudden change, Aser decisively got up while trying to maintain the gas and cloud of essence in between his hands. Opening the panel to the balcony, he threw the ball of gas up into the sky outside, leading to a complete loss of control.

Enabling [Mind's Eye], Aser saw the now dark motes of light and tangled lines of the two clouds quickly unraveling and getting brighter until the lines started snapping. As soon as the first snap occurred, a chain reaction began in front of his eyes. The lines cracked, tore and stretched continuously, causing the motes of light to bounce against each other turning brighter until a loud bang followed by a large gust pushed against the air around the cloud of essence. Aser felt a heatwave rushing in all directions from the central point of the clouds exploding along with a blinding light.

As the waves gradually spread out, the surroundings quietened down with Aser not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He had just received a notification from Ashes when the explosion went off.

[Congratulations! Generated new Combat Skill.]

[Essence Flash Level 1: Multiple groups of Essence are gathered together until reaching terminal rotational velocity. The gathered force is injected into the Essence clouds causing the Essence to be distorted until reaching a state of bright nova explosion. Best Use: Blind and Heat]

[Current Mastery of Essence Flash Level 1: 11%]

"Wow," he said, getting back inside and taking a seat, "Essence is actually order! We are able to absorb Essence because even though they look random, there is a form of order to them. When I tried combining the Essence Clouds without worrying about the order, it resulted in forming chaos. The extreme opposite of order is chaos. As I kept on compressing the Essence, the lines got further tangled, which is why the essence also grew darker. Until finally it reached limits of chaos I could compress it to, which made the essence naturally try to head into order. But because there were two clouds involved with their own order, it was like two armies trying to seperate themselves on the battlefield while wearing the same uniform. The need for order lead to more chaos until an explosion that wiped out the army resulted in a form of extreme order!"

[While your explanation for what had happened isn't completely correct and very narrow, it does fit your current understanding of Essence. Aser, shall we talk about the plan for the library while you're reading?]

"Yeah-", Aser said while leaning back, the experiment just now had exhausted his capacity for cultivation for the moment, "-let's do that. I've been thinking, is it possible for me to use [Mind's Eye] to generate books in the system's library?"

[It's possible, but not recommended. It will take far too much effort and time to inspect each book with your current level. I have a better idea Aser. The trials have a list of 100 books you need to give an exam on for completion. Let's generate a 4 day study plan for each trial where we finish the books listed accordingly. While you are studying, I will also try to investigate the relevant Essence History of the subject to reinforce what you learn. This way, we will be able to read more while comprehending the details of the subject faster.]

Pondering over her proposal, Aser felt as if it made a lot of sense. It wasn't realistic for him to be able simply touch a book and generate it in his mind, how would he actually learn? Just having the knowledge didn't mean he could know what it meant. So even if it's slower, he will simply have to read and learn in his own way with the help of Ashes's guide, instead of trying to look for a way to cheat all of the contents directly into his head.

"Alright, let's go with that for now. 4 day study plans dependent on the trials. There are 60 library based trials, all of them essentially being 100 books and an exam, so let's try to gather as many points as we can from these!" he took a deep breath and got into position to start his cultivation once more after finalising his plans.