6 New energy

After getting out of the library Carl decided to search for a place to stay in, where he could slowly test what he had learned. While walking along the road two men blocked his path. He tried to move passed them but they shoved him into an alley beside the road.

"Hello little ofra, you are far away from home."

"What do you want?" Carl questioned

"Well I've heard that some lad got some fortune"

"Are you robbing me?"

"No we just want to keep the money safe, you should know that you can't possibly keep it safe, right?"

"You can't possibly know that."

"Okay brat hand over your money if you don't want a beating"

"Come at me if you have the guts"

The men grunted and one of them launched a punch towards Carl. Carl was ready to mobilize his mana to create a mana bullet, however a sheathed sword suddenly deflected the punch. Before him and the thugs stood a woman, she wore a short light blue dress and blue denim pants. On her right hand was a sheathed sword.

"Accosting a minor, you lot should just die." She sharply said.

"Scram woman, this isn't your business"

"I can't just pretend not to notice a crime when I see one."

The man who had thrown the punch earlier tried to hit the woman but she was faster with a blur she swiftly struck the man on the stomach, chest and neck. The man fell over clutching his throat while violently coughing. The other man had cold sweat trickle his back after seeing his fellow being easily beaten.

The man drew a knife from a scabbard on his belt. Filled up courage the man swung the knife towards the woman, however the woman easily parried the attack with her left hand and struck the man's face with the sheathed sword. The man cried out in pain as his nose was probably broken.The thug was about to rush at the woman again when she unsheathed her sword. Blue mana like aura begun coating the blade making it seem like it was ablaze on blue flames.

"Oh shit, she's an advanced warrior." Cried one of the men.

"Get lost." The lady shouted at the thugs who scrambled to get out of the alley leaving Carl and the woman alone.

"You'll regret crossing our path lady." One of the men said when they reached the end of the alley.

"Hello, are you okay?" the lady asked concern etched on her face.

"Am fine, who are you?"

"I am Anna Roxley, what about you?"

"Am Carl"

"So tell me Carl what are you doing in such a place? But before that let's change the venue"

Anna took Carl to the hotel where she stayed and bought a heavy meal for the both of them. When she learned that Carl was all alone with nowhere to stay she took pity on him and paid for a room for three days. She advised Carl to travel out of the city to prevent any trouble from the gang backing the thugs from earlier.

While Carl and Anna were conversing, Carl noticed an enchanted necklace with a blue mana core on Anna. Anna explained that it was a simple enchantment that boosted her strength and agility.

Anna was an adventurer not from around Chorin country, she had come to this remote city in search of a rare herb that grows on the outskirts of the dark forest.

Carl asked why she didn't just kill the thugs shocking her, she told him that the city has rules that one has to follow and killing is against the rules. If she were to kill the thugs she would be apprehended by the city guards and locked in a prison.

After eating Carl and Anna both went to their rooms. Finally alone Carl took this time to organize what he had earlier learnt in the library.

The first ranks had red, yellow, green, blue and purple mana but he had white. This meant he was probably in another rank that had white mana but if no rank were characterized by white mana then it would mean that they were irrelevant when it came to him. The white mana has always been part of him for as long as he could remember, when he was always born he would bath the world with white mana, it made him gain the moniker the white devil in his past lives. But that was all in the past, right now he had a new body and a new world with lots of mysteries to explore.

In the books that he read he came across the word meditate a lot. When awakened wanted to connect to the world and sense the world's mana they had to meditate. When they wanted to fully know their internal state they had to meditate. It was something novel that he wanted to try out.

Sitting in a comfortable position, relaxing his body and closing his eyes, he started breathing in a rhythmic cycle. At first nothing noteworthy happened but then he started to sense myriad colors around him. He noted that these lights were mana which he could already see thanks to his body, but now they felt different, they felt like a part of him. He drew them in with a deep breath in filling his body and watching them disappear into the mindscape. With a deep breath out the surrounding mana would fill the vacuum he had just created.

Sinking his consciousness even deeper he entered his mindscape also known as the spectral plane. This was said to be the internal plane where ones consciousness resides. Carl immediately came to a dazzling place. He was still in his ten year old looking self, shrouded in a white robe with white skin. At the distance there was a glaring huge white sphere illuminating the dark space with light.

After a few minutes the initial excitement of exploring the astral space he quickly faded and Carl returned to reality. There is one final trick about meditation he got to try. To be able to sense the physical state of the body and depending on the strength one can sense even the individual cells.

Calming down his excited heart, Carl dispersed his consciousness to his arm. This technique required someone to focus their consciousness to a specific part of their body thereby examining it. Very quickly Carl could sense his bones, ligaments, muscles, blood, blood vessels and nerves. Delving deeper the cells of his arms appeared in his mind in a three dimensional matrix with everything connected together forming his arm.

He still felt like he could dive deeper and so he did, various organelles came into his sight the sheer stuff happening it hard to focus, he had to concentrate on a single cell leaving the others to fade away.

He felt like he could dive deeper still, he then could see individual molecules and atoms within the cell. Focusing on a single atom he tried to dive deeper when he was hit by a blinding flash and the meditation process got interrupted. Although the meditation ended abruptly it wasn't without fruits, it made him realize the tyrannical power contained in his atoms. Even though that power that broke him free from his concentration he managed to catch a glimpse of it and it terrified him a little.

He also gained greater understanding of his body, he could feel the individual muscle fibers on his arm and manipulating them his arm changed into a robust one. With his muscles rippling with vibrant energy, his arm had morphed into that of a body builder. With another thought Carl made his arm go limp, thinning and resembling a twig. Carl was amazed by the new ability he got. What would happen if he were to morph his entire body? He could be a shapeshifter. Calming down from his excitement he entered the meditation state again with the aim to be able to precisely manipulate his body. This time he didn't delve too deep into his atoms.

After thirty minutes he got out of meditation. In his mind was a map of every part of his body and how they connected to each other. He had gained a deeper understanding of his body that by just seeing a cell he could tell the general parts it was likely to be located and its functions. He also noticed that his body acted like a closed system. The stuff that he ate were all absorbed in the stomach leaving no waste, the nutrients were then broken down further into atoms and then his atoms 'ate' the food atoms.

That's right his atoms absorbed the normal atoms. The atoms were also distinct, normal atoms were fuzzy giving the impression of a badly focused image while his atoms were distinct spheres. By learning how to control the size of the very atoms he was able to grow and shrink at will. A new and amazing ability.

There was still something he wanted to try out. Ever since he caught a glimpse of the violent energy within his very atoms, he has felt its oppressing presence within him. He had a feeling that he could release that energy but since it may be dangerous he decided to go outside the city. There were some hills a couple of kilometers outside the city that could act as perfect targets.

Opening the room's window he shrunk in size and floated up in the sky. His hands emitted mana blasts that he used as propulsion. Within a few minutes he was five kilometers away from the city.

The clear night sky twinkled with several shiny stars as the purple moon shone its illuminating gentle rays upon the earth. The cold wind whistled by, ruffling Carl's robes. The chirp of nocturnal insects and birds filled the air. Carl was standing atop a raised mound with his finger pointing towards the hills. He concentrated on the energy atop his finger. It felt like stripping layers upon layers of fabric to get to the energy at the core. He quickly felt the connection with the energy increase. Turning the 'fabrics' into a funnel pointed outwards, he released the last barrier that held back the energy.

A silent swoosh was heard as a silent slender yellow beam was emitted from his finger. At first it didn't seem much, however when it hit the hills a blinding flash lit up the night sky. Finally the sound caught up, with a huge boom a hot blast of air stirred up the surroundings, wildly blowing Carl's robes.

Where moments ago the hill stood was now a smoldering hot crater filled with molten rock. Carl stood there wide eyed and dumbfounded at the destruction he had brought. Thinking that this would clearly cause a commotion on the city, Carl was about to return back when he noticed something peculiar.

The special yellow energy that he had released was not dissipating at all in fact it was slowly but surely assimilating the matter nearby into itself. The rocks, soil and even air itself was turning into that special energy. This was really bad, like really really bad. Flying to the crater he tried to scoop up the energy along with some lava with a mana sphere he created, unfortunately the energy seeped from the mana sphere back to the surroundings.

It had begun forming a yellow haze that was slowly expanding past the crater. Quickly thinking of something he calmed his mind and quickly entered a meditation state. Trying to feel the special energy around him, he immediately was successful. He thought of drawing the energy back inside him and like an outlet draining water from a tank the energy drained into Carl and settled back into his atoms.

'What am I, if this stuff makes up my atoms, have I surely ascended to a level of power that is truly unfathomable?'

Phew! He nearly destroyed an entire world again. Sighing in relief he vowed to be careful with the new energy he discovered. He decided to name the energy imperiumflux, with how domineering and tyrannical the energy was.

After making sure he didn't miss any imperiumflux in the surroundings, he rose in the air and quickly flew back to the city.

With his new found power he felt like a pressurized tank that could explode and destroy the world at any time. Luckily all that energy was hidden in several folds of space and mobilizing it wasn't easy.