2.The Water
The attempt to open my eyes, or at least what replaces them for me, was successful. And the first person I saw was Wong, who was looking at me with considerable concern. A series of recent memories flashed through my head. I remembered that the residual energy from that dark spirit entered my body.
I immediately began to diagnose my condition, and without noticing thirst or any other factors indicating my entry into the dark spirits, I exhaled with relief. However, there were plenty of other changes.
First, some of the energy lines that enveloped my body turned blue. Secondly, the energy density has increased, and its amount has increased significantly. And the body itself has grown in size. I became more like a humanoid: there was a semblance of a head, a pair of arms and legs. I think there is a possibility that I will regain my human form as I rise in rank. This is good news.
As I began to sink further into myself, I saw my own source of energy or already sources... Next to the transparent ball, a new sphere of blue energy floated, as if consisting of real water. So this is what a contrived coincidence looks like. I hope that with the addition of a new element, no new problems are expected.
– Ahem, ahem, – Wong interrupted my thoughts with his light cough.
Having stopped looking at myself, I noticed Wong shifting from one foot to the other, who continued to anxiously wait for my answer.
– It's okay, Wong, I don't think I've turned into a crazed dark spirit, – I said with a smile to the worried spirit.
– I must have worked myself up too much, – he said with a relieved smile. - I feel the magic of water in you, perhaps you are abnormal even for the Realm of Spirits. Places where the most mysterious things can happen.
- I don't really understand what's going on at all... As you know, I realized myself here quite recently, – I said with a wry smile. – You'd better help me figure out what happened.
As far as he knows, even in the Spirit Realm there are some laws that are maintained by the world itself. It happened that he managed to communicate with more or less adequate dark higher spirits. They said that only about twenty–five percent of the total energy can be taken from a defeated spirit, and when digesting this very energy for themselves, they get even less, the remaining part is always absorbed by the world itself.
And just the same, what goes to the world, most often does not carry any aspirations or emotions. Absorbing such energy would be much safer for the dark ones themselves.
Many high-ranking dark ones are still trying to circumvent this rule, but so far no one has succeeded.
– Then I want to ask you to keep it a secret, – I said in a serious voice.
– No problem! I don't give away my friends, – he said, tapping his chest with his hand in an ostensibly cool pose.
– I think it's worth seeing what I got from this "update", – I said, starting to walk towards that pond. – I still don't know much, so I would like to hear your assessment.
The closer I got to the water, the more clearly I began to feel the strong and intrusive influence of the increased background of water energy on me. I wanted to go under the water as quickly as possible and swim, swim, swim, without thinking about anything else.
This is not good, it seems that I still got some side effects from the increase. It's good that so far it's just a small desire to stay closer to the water. Such impulses are easy to crush, but this already gives food for thought.
When I asked this question to Wong, I did not expect to hear new unpleasant discoveries for me. As it turned out, our nature affects us spirits more strongly than I initially thought. It is normal for lower and middle spirits to be closer to places saturated with their element all the time – this way they feel much more comfortable. They can go in search of new housing only if the emergency situation requires it. As he admitted, even being the highest himself, it is still more pleasant for him to be in the forest near the trees by force of habit.
For spirits, the statement will be true: "being determines consciousness." Until I join the elite, most of my aspirations will be driven by my body, not my mind. It's not good. I'm here just for a few days, but slowly the world already is trying to adjust me to its own rules...
Stopping at the pond, Wong began to guide me along the path of controlling the elements.
– The closer you are to the source of your element, the easier it is to control it, – was the first thing he said.
I had to go straight into the water. Then, following Wong's advice, I began to try to feel the very "essence" of water.
At the same moment, some of the techniques that that dark spirit used came to mind. There were only two of them, but even that was good news for me.
The first was a kind of membrane of water on top of the body, which increased protection from attacks. It helped to evenly distribute the received damage. I decided to call it the "armor of water".
The second technique came from the first one. In close contact with the enemy, the spirit absorbed by me could sharply direct the armor away from itself in order to knock down the attacking enemy. But even such powerful techniques did not save that average spirit in front of the pure power of the higher spirit.
In addition, I could just move the water within two meters of me with the power of my mind. With an increase in energy characteristics, I will be able to control the element further away from myself, and with a much larger volume.
- Now try to nourish your body with energy – it comprehensively increases your strength, agility, defense and reaction speed, – Wong gave a new exercise. – As you develop, the improvement coefficient will increase, besides it passively improves the conductivity of your energy.
- How do you know all this? – I asked curiously, yet he doesn't look like someone who will measure and analyze all this. In my opinion, it's easier for him to hit harder, and that's it.
- When it gets really boring, I went to Wang Shi Tong, the spirit of knowledge. Quite often he's happy to lecture someone, though, I get bored of classes quickly, and I immediately get distracted by something else, – he said with a silly laugh. – As soon as he noticed my inattention, my body was already flying out of the Library. At each subsequent meeting, he grumbles about ungrateful spirits, but continues to hammer knowledge into me.
So, there is also library here, and there may be knowledge of the spirits themselves – I will definitely need to go to it. But first I need to figure out my abilities and become at least a little stronger.
Having started to saturate my body with the energy of water, I almost immediately felt a positive result: the body seemed to become stronger, time itself seemed to slow down for me. But this condition consumes energy too quickly, if I didn't have a source, it would only last for thirty seconds, and so it feels like I can hold out for a few minutes.
This time I decided to try using a neutral source. By channeling energy through the body, I got a much better effect. It feels like I've become twice as strong. Hm-m, so it's better to use this source for amplification.
Then I started experimenting with renewed enthusiasm. I liked feeling the energy flowing through my body, seeing the results of my actions. It was enough for me to simply realize the fact that I now possess the most real magic! Ok, ok, not magic, but bendering!
What is still kind of magic...
Now that the semblance of hands has appeared, I can strike with them. Hitting the wood left only a slight roughness on the surface. A little weak.
Next time I decided to nourish my body with the energy of water. This time, the impact left a small dent. That's better!
Now let's use neutral energy. The impact caused the tree to shake noticeably, and a large gap appeared in the place where my limb and bark came into contact. I think the tree will fall immediately in a strong wind.
But it still wasn't enough… During the battle, I will have to let the enemy get too close to me – it's worth looking for new solutions in the elements. I came up with the idea of creating a shield and sword out of water, since there is a spirit armor, I will become a kind of water knight.
Starting to condense the water, I began to compress it into the shape of a sword. As a result, I spent only fifteen minutes creating it. It's been too long… No one in their right mind would give me that much time to create a technique.
But for the second time it turned out in just three minutes. It looks like the water has memorized the desired shape, or maybe I already knew the whole process – I was able to do everything much faster.
I decided to test the result on another innocent tree. At the first impact, a small incision appeared. Not getting too upset about this, I decided to direct the water along the blade under constant pressure. It's too hard to hold a sword in this case, and the expense is high. But the result was definitely worth it! It turned out to be a smooth line of a fairly deep incision.
The next victim was a stone. This time it took more effort, but the stone was also cut in two..
With such a sword, I even began to feel more confident. It remains only to consolidate this technique on a subconscious level in order to create it in a couple of seconds.
It turned out to recreate the shield even faster – it looked like a heavily compressed armor of the spirit. Thinking about how to check it, I saw Wong. With this magic, I completely forgot that I'm not alone – it's worth being careful, so I can miss the attack.
– Wong, can you help me test my new techniques? – I asked my new friend, starting to condense the sword and shield at the same time, what was extremely difficult.
As long as the energy of the water is spent on skills, the neutral energy will strengthen the body itself. Due to this distribution, I should become several times stronger.
After a little sparring, Wong was very thoughtful.
– Already now you can defeat a weak average spirit - the shield will be able to withstand several of its blows, – he said after a few minutes of reflection. – It's already a little enviable – with your rank, you can defeat an opponent stronger than you by a whole step.
– But, – he furrowed his brows, – don't get too cocky, there are many more spirits in this world much stronger than you, – it was said in a more serious tone.
– I didn't think so, – I agreed immediately.
Having spent the entire reserve on practicing skills, we decided to go back to that tree. As it turned out, this is his house.
I spent the whole day exploring new possibilities, but I still did not have time to figure out the mechanism of the process of absorbing energy from dead spirits. Tomorrow, I should ask Wong take me to another dark spirits. And I need to start practicing my skills myself in battles with other spirits, but I'll still ask Wong to back me up just in case.
***
In the morning, if you can say so at all, because depending on the area, it can be day or night somewhere all the time. So in the morning I noticed a clay pot standing next to me, butaccording to Wong's words, he handed me this item yesterday...
I think that is the first bell... yes, mind has begun to "degrade" – the loss of attention to detail has seriously dropped. Previously, I definitely would not have forgotten to find some kind of vessel for carrying water... Because fighting without main tool of the water spirit, means one hundred percent to bring death upon myself. After all, there may not always be water sources nearby. Alas, I am not yet able to condense water from living organisms or somehow take it from the air... I can still dream and dream about such abilities.
I did not forget to thank Wong for finding such an invaluable item.
– By the way, where did you get it from? – I still wonder where he got it.
– It's from my little friends. Don't be offended... most of them have been attacked by other spirits, and they still don't like to show themselves to new faces, so they're hiding for now, – he finished apologetically.
– No problem, – I nodded calmly. - I understand everything, you can tell them my thanks.
Wong has been living in this area for a long time and remembered where the dark spirits usually come. So knowing the exact locations, we got ready for my first hunt.
We arrived at the first place quickly – it was not so far from the forest where I saw the first battle. After walking a little further, we saw a cave. There were already several lower stone spirits near it, who looked like that first giant I met, only more miniature.
– Be careful, – Wong admonished me, – don't relax until you're sure you're going to win.
Having prepared in advance, I created an armor, a sword and a shield. Starting to circulate neutral energy, I ran straight at the enemies. When they noticed me, they began to collect the nearest stones for additional protection. It seems that the stone spirits are primarily focused on defense. Now it's more of a plus than a minus.
Without slowing down and continuing to spin the water on the blade, I attacked the first spirit. The resistance was much stronger than that of a simple stone. Still, spirits do not forget to saturate themselves with energy, which makes it difficult to penetrate.
Having broken through the protection, I cut through the very "body" of the spirit. As soon as it disintegrated into energy, most of it tried to soak into me, but there was a feeling of some kind of "oversaturation" and the particles simply disappeared into the air.
- "I can't deal with this right now." – I'll think about it later. There are two more spirits on myway. Seeing the futility of their defense, they launched a swift attack.
I took the first blow of one of the spirits on a water shield – it calmly took all the damage. After a few seconds of fighting, the two remaining spirits were cut by my sword.
As soon as the enemies fell, I sharply strained all my senses, trying to grasp the whole process, what was happening with the residual energy. So they flew closer to me – a feeling of fullness of the body appeared, and they simply disappeared into the energy of the world.
So, I should not wait for another gain. But for accurate confirmation, it is worth hunting for the spirits of other elements.
Then, throughout the whole day, we went from place to place, looking for the havens of various dark spirits. At the end of the day, the exact result appeared. I can't absorb any more energy from my enemies – my body simply won't stand the appearance of a new source. It is worth thinking about this when moving to the middle level, it may be possible to absorb other elements when I increase my rank.
Absorption did not occur with any of the elements except water, and even rare types of spiritdid not gave any effect.
When absorbing the water element of the lower spirits, there is a slight pain in the body, which makes it a little difficult to continue fighting. And with the collapse of the average, the pain becomes even stronger, which seriously hinders the battle. I haven't gotten used to it yet, so at the first encounter, Wong saved me when another average spirit was already ready to bite me.
The absorption effect only works if the defeated opponent is no more than two meters away from me.
After each absorption of the water spirit, the source became denser and larger, and the quality of the energy itself increased significantly. The "feeling of water" has already jumped even higher. In addition, it has become easier to create and maintain techniques.
But I couldn't get to the middle level. Now I am infinitely close to this level. It seems that the stronger I became, the more attention the world itself paid to me. After all, I wasn't born here, maybe he or she sees me as an enemy, that's why he puts restrictions on me. Another reason to visit the Wang Shi Tong Library as soon as possible.
After the battle with the water spirits, I caught myself thinking that it would be nice to just stay here and splash in the water… Moreover, the place is very good, the increased background of water energy contributed to this.
With a sharp shake of my head, I pushed such thoughts away. Here's another problem, I began to get closer to the mind of the lower spirit.
Walking to Wong's habitat, I thought that it was not worth staying here for a long time – I need to solve my problems, and sitting in place will definitely not solve them in any way...
Of course, under the protection of Wong, I can safely develop, but still I don't want to lose my identity, even if only for a while. Who knows what will eventually happen at the exit to the higher spirits. And I don't think that without radical steps on my part, I will remain at the lowest level.
In the morning, it was so good to realize my peculiarity, as problems immediately appeared. Although without such problems on the way, it would not be so interesting. Still, by solving them, we are getting better