Gains Galore

Despite putting in a hard day's work, Blink was still up and about while everybody was sleeping.

After munching to their hearts' delight at Calandra, Blink and Jogr immediately returned to Kasgar.

Upon arriving home, they found Hubr and Zugr already in the common room warming up and stretching. Zugr's father was in his old familiar spot.

Looking at Zugr's father, Blink realized something. He and Flip had always sauntered towards the same spot during their breaks. The other boys also had their own spots and kept at it. It was a rarity to see a boy move to a different spot and if one ever did, he was sure to have a very good reason for it.

Even Master Tszarek occupied the same exact spot while watching them spar.

It was the total opposite with the girls. It was rare to see them in the same spot more than three days in a row.

'If I were to teach his son for a year, I'm sure this bloke would stay in that exact same corner every day for a whole year,' Blink thought. The thought brought a smile to his lips.

"Teacher seems to laugh by himself a lot," Zugr observed. "People say that a person who laughs by himself must be crazy."

"They said that? Well, they must be correct. If I'm not crazy, why else would I bother teaching the two of you for free?"

Zugr swallowed his saliva. He regretted his joke but immediately recovered.

He said, "On the other hand, it's very healthy for a person to laugh by himself, so I should do it more often as well."

"Ah, you sure are a smart lad for your age. I like that. Good! Very good!"

Once again Blink smiled by himself.

Their sparring session went well. Hubr made vast improvements with his defensive skills and fist techniques such that Zugr was getting pressured more often than he was used to.

Blink decided that perhaps it was about time to improve the boy's defensive and counterattack skills. Hubr also suggested that Zugr should also train in palm techniques.

As the two boys carried on with their sparring, Hubr struck out with a turning heel kick while retreating from Zugr's pressure. The kick stunned Zugr he took some time on the floor before getting up.

"Now you know that the turning heel kick and turning side kick are actually most effective as defensive techniques, Blink pointed out to his students.

Zugr nodded his head in agreement, but Hubr gave Blink a 'you could have told me that long ago' kind of look.

Blink chuckled at Hubr's reaction. He was quite sure his nephew's reaction to his next revelation would be even more precious.

"You can actually execute a jumping turning side or heel kick to save yourself the trouble of setting your lead foot horizontally," Blink said. "It looks like this."

With toes pointed towards the target, Blink executed a jumping turning side kick and a retreating jumping turning heel kick.

He smiled at his students. "It's easier, right?"

As expected, Hubr gave him a 'you could have shown me that move long ago' glare.

Blink rubbed the younger boy's head and drew him into a hug.

"Some things you must work hard to discover by yourself to really mean something," he told Hubr.

Blink then made Hubr practice the [Returning Palm] and [Hidden Dagger] movement sets while he instructed Zugr on defensive techniques. Over and over again, Blink made Zugr execute several blocking and movement techniques to avoid getting hit.

He was very satisfied at the boy's ability to absorb knowledge.

"Tomorrow I'm going to teach you to turn defense to offense and how to attack defensively," Blink told the boy.

He then made Hubr demonstrate to him the result of his practice on the [Returning Palm] Movement One and Two as well as the [Hidden Dagger] movement set.

Blink was actually very satisfied with Hubr's improvements with the [Returning Palm] style even though he pointed out a few minor flaws that he wanted Hubr to work on. As for the [Hidden Dagger] style, it was still clearly a work in progress.

He gathered the two boys close to him and announced that a new student would join them within the next few days.

"Is he one of the best among the trainees?" Zugr asked excitedly.

"I hope you didn't pick someone older than me by two or three years," Hubr expressed gravely.

As for Jogr who was sitting in his usual spot beside Zugr's father, Blink's announcement somehow made him uneasy. Very uneasy.

After Zugr and his father had left, Blink led Hubr to the backyard. They arrived at the exact same area where he found Hubr injuring his fingers by punching a piece of log that was erected upright.

He instructed Hubr to practice his palm technique by hitting his palm against the log.

"Slow and gentle at first and gradually increase the speed and power. The important thing is to toughen the base of your palm. The power of a palm strike is that its damage may not seem much on the outside, but it's actually devastatingly damaging on the inside."

After guiding Hubr for about one hundred strikes, Blink rushed to the training center for his daily sparring with Senior Brother Garth.

This time, Senior Brother Garth finally unleashed in its full form the fighting system he had been working very hard to develop. For the very first time, he was able to beat Blink and quite easily at that.

Despite losing badly, Blink was rather excited for his senior brother. But more importantly, he seemed to be closer towards attaining comprehension from Senior Brother Garth's fighting style.

They fought again five more times. Blink lost in all of them, but each time he was able to unravel a weakness that Senior Brother Garth determined to fix.

After their sparring bouts, Senior Brother Garth asked Blink for details regarding the day's battles in Nagwa and Calandra.

"I heard you took down a gang of over a hundred bandits," he said.

"Less than thirty at Nagwa and around a hundred and twenty at Calandra," Blink replied. "Around eight hundred men of Calandra joined me in the second battle."

"Ha! That could have easily been a massacre!"

"I was intrigued by that bandit leader at Calandra," Blink expressed some worries.

"Why is that?" Senior Brother Garth asked.

"He is a lot stronger than the usual bandits and actually knows martial arts. His name sounds strange, too."

"Yeah?! What's his name?"

"Arsianovix."

"Arsianovix? What kind of a name is that?"

"He is obviously from another country."

"So our local bandits now are recruiting foreign rogues?" Senior Brother Garth wondered.

"I hope we find out more soon enough."

"You seem quite worried."

"I hate to admit it but I actually am, Senior Brother. I have a bad feeling that this might not be a simple matter. I'm afraid our local bandits are actually unwittingly serving some sinister design on Ragha."

"You think so? I mean some power behind the scene is moving in on Ragha?"

"I hope I'm wrong, Senior Brother."

"I am one who believes that we must always prepare for the worst as we hope for the best. I hope we can have more clarity before I travel to our academy in three days. If it is as you fear, then Master Tszarek must know about it in order that we can respond to this hidden threat."

Blink nodded his head. It was indeed for the best if the academy were to intervene under the worst circumstance.

"Oh, by the way, since you have a few more days before leaving for your mission, can you continue training the kids while I'm gone?" Senior Brother Garth requested in earnest.

"No problem," Blink replied.

That night Blink took a dip in the river to relieve himself of the accumulated stress of a very strenuous day. After swimming for half an hour, he went on to practice the three movements of the [Returning Palm] style against the river current.

When Blink emerged out of the water, he was very satisfied with the result of his training. He decided to include training in the river as part of his daily preparation for his upcoming journey.

He then went home expecting a blissful sleep. Yet, he had been lying on his bed for over two hours and was still very much wide awake.

Blink walked about pondering what could be bothering him but he seemed unable to wrap his head around it. He was sure it wasn't the involvement of a foreigner in local banditry although he was also worried about that.

Finally, he decided to meditate. Two minutes into his meditation, he felt that the "magic fuel" in his body was spilling over. He decided to release some of it by practicing his magic skills. He walked towards the river and aimed his [Flame Shot] towards the placid waters.

Realizing that it would take him about an hour to expend the "magic fuel" from his body, he decided to try for five [Flame Shots] at the same time.

He extended his right hand, fingers spread out. He visualized the image of five [Flame Shots] coming out of his fingers on his mind. Soon enough five small flaming projectiles flew out of his fingers. He casted it successfully, but the range was rather disappointing. The projectiles only flew for slightly more than a meter. However, he wasn't there to practice his casting skills but to expend the "magic fuel" in his storage, wherever that was.

In less than five minutes he felt that his "magic fuel" had emptied out. He went back to the common room and prepared to meditate.

After meditating for over an hour, he felt his "magic fuel" storage reach close to a half-full state.

That's when Blink realized what was bothering him. He could feel the presence of "magic fuel" in his body, but he wanted to find out if it were possible to attain a visual image of how much "magic fuel" he possessed. Blink felt that if he could somehow have a visual of his "magic fuel" level, he would be better able to handle its consumption during combat.

He decided to continue meditating until his "magic fuel" storage filled up to the brim. Thus, Blink sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.

When Blink sensed that his "magic fuel" was about to fill up he tried to attain a state of absolute calmness by recalling that scene of him and Berge trying to gain Tukruk's blessing. Blink couldn't count how many miracles he was able to perform by simply recalling that scene. He called it his "lucky moment."

Once more he was counting on his "lucky moment" for another small but significant miracle.

When Blink opened his eyes, he was beyond stunned. There was a transparent film surrounding his body. The film extended about three centimeters from his skin. Inside this filmy storage was a cloudy substance with sporadic splashes of a very faint blue color.

"So, this is how my "magic fuel" and its storage look like," Blink said quietly to himself. He mocked himself for being a sorry excuse for a wizard who didn't even know what these magic-related phenomena were supposed to be called.

The surprises didn't end there.

Blink felt a crackling sensation on his palms, so he spread them out in front of him. The faint blue substance in his storage was tracing the outlines of an illustration on his palm that he had seen briefly on his sixteenth birthday. The illustration seemed to represent the sun—a big ball of fire with flames extending from its sphere.

Before he realized it, the balls of fire rose from his palms and floated about five centimeters from his hands. The balls were about the size of a baby's fist and had a bright reddish glow.

After studying the balls of fire for five minutes, Blink tried to retract the spell. It worked! However, the "magic fuel" that he had consumed to summon the balls of fire did not return to his storage.

"It seems I could use this method to drain my storage of that faint blue thing I use to make magic," Blink surmised.

Because he had always heard that people have a soul, as well as for lack of a better term, Blink conveniently named the transparent film surrounding his body as his soul.

Now that he was able to solve the matter that had been bothering him and preventing him from getting a good night's sleep, Blink went to bed satisfied with all the gains he had achieved for the day.