Combat Art, Part 2

"Ah," Kerius quickly jumped up. He pulled out a small booklet wrapped in leather.

"Gerald, I'm prepared to make the exchange. Here's the Unmoving Boulder Art." He pushed the booklet in front of Gerald.

'What? Is this why he's here?' Gerald squinted his eyes as he was suspicious of Kerius' behavior so he didn't accept it immediately and instead said, "Hold on. You didn't just…steal it, did you? I don't want any trouble."

"No, no, no," Kerius quickly shook his head, "I would never dare to steal from my family," he assured him.

Gerald didn't quite believe him and continued to ask, "Then why are you so nervous? What happened?"

"Well…" Kerius tried to speak multiple times but then he always stopped. Gerald was getting really annoyed with him right now.

"Speak! Or this deal is over."

Those words finally scared Kerius enough and he said, "Okay, okay, I'll tell you… I had an argument with my elders and well… I told them that you are a really powerful traveling mage. I told them that you were researching Combat Arts and that you were prepared to trade our family treasure for an even more powerful Earth spell."

Gerald pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Are you telling me that I'll have to pretend to be some powerful mage?!" he asked in disbelief. If this fool brought trouble for him, he really wouldn't know what to do.

Kerius quickly tried to calm him down, saying, "No, no, no, don't worry, you won't have to lift a finger. The elders are suspicious of me, but when they see your Stone Bolt spell I guarantee they will cool off and not make any trouble for you," he straightened his back with confidence.

Gerald sighed once again and took the notebook out of his back pocket. He gave it to Kerius and at the same time took the Unmoving Boulder booklet saying, "Just take the damn book and go. And leave me out of your lies next time."

Kerius grinned when he took the notebook and said, "You got it! See you around, bye." And he quickly ran away into the night.

Gerald looked at him leaving and murmured, "Did he really not steal it?" He scratched his head and went back to his room. "These youngsters...well I'm one of them of course. But how can they be so mature and at the same so…childish? Don't they ever think about the consequences?"

Tired, he jumped on the modest bed in his room. With hands behind his head as a pillow, he stared at the ceiling. "It has been two weeks now since I left my home. I wonder if people even noticed I was gone? The school will probably contact my family in a few weeks about my disappearance. Maybe I'll even be on the News… It will be another unsolved mystery added to the pile." Gerald sighed and looked at the burning lamp.

"I never would have imagined things would turn this way. Even though this world is way more dangerous, I prefer the freedom it offers. I mean, look at me. A name and a job change, with a place to sleep required just a few words and a little bit of money. Who wouldn't like this?"

As he was speaking to himself, his eyes slowly closed and he fell asleep with a smile on his lips.

***

The next morning Gerald woke up late, although he had plenty of exciting stuff to do. After taking care of all his bodily needs, he went straight to reading the Unmoving Boulder manual.

After giving it a thorough read, he noticed that it was indeed just like the Headmaster Orin said; the Combat Art was a vastly simplified version of Stone Body Iron Heart. Though, the difference between them was absolutely immense.

The Unmoving Boulder was like a shell of the actual art. It lacked the depth and power of its predecessor, while also greatly lacking in the defense it provided.

That was not what bothered Gerald, though. In both the original art and the Unmoving Boulder there was a mention of something called Earthen Elemental Energy Manipulation. You were supposed to make use of this technique to operate Unmoving Boulder, otherwise, it would not work.

"Damn it!" Gerald squeezed his fist hard and said, "I knew that bastard was hiding something from me. Without the proper technique to operate the Earth Elemental Mana, I can't make use of the Unmoving Boulder."

"Hmph…" Gerald rubbed his chin and enter into deep thought. "If I just need to get a better understanding and control over the energy to control spells, then that shouldn't be too hard." He grabbed the book and ran outside.

Whenever he needed answers, Headmaster Orin was the best person to seek advice from.

Unfortunately this time, Gerad didn't get much help. Mainly because the Headmaster himself didn't know much. He did, however, point him to the library, where there were some old documents, containing fragments of information on the energy manipulation.

Gerald spent the next few hours, trying to get something out of the damaged scrolls, however, they were too far gone and the ink was all blurry. Some places were already completely rotten through and were completely useless.

Fortunately, it wasn't a complete waste of time. Gerald found some clues that pointed him in an interesting direction. The parts that he managed to understand, looked similar to some kind of a meditation technique.

It reminded him of some old Chinese practices he read about. It was used to balance the energies of the body and to control life energy. Gerald didn't know if these two things had any connection with each other.

He started to suspect that there was a connection between this planet and Earth. That's because just like this planet in the past, Earth was currently without Mana. And if there was a reason for why that was so, Gerald assumed there had to be some big force behind it all.

Unfortunately, he had no clue if his hypothesis was correct. And even if it was and Earth was robbed of its Mana, he could do nothing to change it. He assumed he was still in the same universe because the laws of nature seemed to be the same, but he couldn't be completely sure.

It was somewhat unnerving just thinking about it.

Mana seemed to be able to regenerate itself over time, and for the Earth to be completely void of it… Some greater power had to be behind it.

Gerald went back to his room and tried some simple meditation techniques he learned in his free time so he could relax his mind.

At first, he couldn't calm down, because he was too excited. It took him almost half an hour to completely empty his thoughts. At first, he felt nothing different from before, however, after five or so minutes he started to feel something and it was way different from what he ever felt before.

Gerald opened his eyes in surprise and looked over his body. In a shock, he gasped and said, "There's no way this is real."