Apprentice

'That's it!' Evan was excited. He knew that this was how people would use their abilities, but it was different. The body of a person had pathways specifically for the use of their abilities. But these pathways were different, they were somehow also attached to each individual's specific mind and body to create their specific ability. Evan wasn't clear on how that worked, and there wasn't any research on this either. Abilities had just always been a part of their lives' so there was no need to research it. It was a rare case for someone to not have an ability.

What Evan was thinking was that by practicing, he could possibly force pure spirit energy out of his body. He could feel the spirit energy in his body since he had started hunting, it was an odd sensation on the inside of his body. It felt like his body was breathing very slowly, but he could feel the breath slowly circulate around his entire body until reaching the center. Each time this revolution happened his Spirit Pool Stat would increase by one. He had only noticed it when he was trying to calm his breathing in the forest during his first hunt, but since then it has always been in the back of his mind.

'Would this answer suffice Feldman's requirements? Or should I learn how to do it for proof? Damnit, that old man wasn't very specific! Well, I don't want to get turned down, so I need to try.' Evan wondered with frustration. The old man said he needed to tell him what was missing. The problem was that Evan or Evias didn't have enough knowledge in this world to explain what he was thinking properly. But if he could show Feldman what he was talking about, then there was no way to dispute him as a student.

Evan sat on the floor with his legs crossed. It's not that he was trying to meditate, but that it was just comfortable on the hard floor. He was concentrating on that faint "breath", but the more he focused on it, the less he could feel it. So, he started to think about what he was doing when he first noticed it.

When he first noticed the spirit breath, he had just spotted the first Verret. It was 50 yards in front of him on the bottom of a tree trunk. He only noticed it was an animal because he got lucky enough to see it move. He knew that if he made a single sound, the animal would likely run away. So, he slowed his movements as much as he could. He became rigid, appearing to be stuck in some sort of slow-motion ability.

He was so focused on the animal in front of him and the steps he was taking, that his breathing had slowed to a shallow breath. His breathing had become so shallow that without special attention to the slight movements in his chest, he would appear motionless.

Little did Evan know, but this was a form of spirit refinement. By slowing the breath to that amount, it would cause the body to naturally increase the amount of spirit pulled into the body to try and supplement the oxygen loss in the organs. This was a very crude method to cultivate, but Spirit Refinement techniques were rare. Most people who found one or created one would hide it, or horde it for their family's personal use.

He tried to recreate this feeling by clearing his mind, and simply focusing on a single speck of dust floating by. He was trying to pay attention to each and every detail of the speck, the size, the shape, guessing how much it weighed. He then was trying to memorize each detail of the speck, the way the fibrous dust molecules stuck together in certain parts.

He felt it, and when he did, he switched his focus from the speck to his own body. No longer following the speck and focusing on the feeling inside his body. From there he just tried to keep the feeling going without losing his focus. This alone was incredibly difficult. It took more than an hour to focus on the feeling without finding an outside source to focus on first. After another half hour, Evan was able to enter the state at will.

It was an odd state to be in. He not only could feel his spirit flow, but he was able to perceive in every direction in about a 3-foot radius. Now that he felt confident in feeling it, he needed to influence it. He first tried to flex his muscles in the area that he could feel the spirit moving. This did absolutely nothing. He wasn't convinced at all that this wasn't correct, he just didn't think he was trying hard enough.

He tried again, and again. After a good half hour of attempting this, when his face was red from all the strain, he felt something different. At the moment when he was about to collapse from fatigue, he felt a wisp of energy. It didn't leave his body as expected but it melted into his muscle.

*Body refinement process discovered.

Continued progress can obtain one attribute.

This attribute may only be placed into your Strength, Speed, or Agility. *

'What the fuck?' Evan was astonished. This wasn't what he expected. He expected to send some spirit out, but to refine his own body. Was that even possible? 'This is amazing, and I need to try some more, but right now I need to figure this out. If I don't, I can kiss Alchemy good-bye.'

Evan entered his spirit state again, but instead of trying to force the energy out, he just felt it for a while. He hadn't done this yet because he was convinced that he could do everything by forcing it. But now, he wanted to see if there was anything he didn't notice before.

As he was watching, he started to notice that around his fingers, instead of having a circular flow, there was a stopping point. At this stopping point the energy would turn around and come back the same way it came, then go back into the circular flow of his body. It wasn't very fast due to his energy flow being so slow, but it was difficult to feel it at first. The dead-end pathways were very small, almost impossible to notice. The only reason that Evan could, was due to the systems perfect memory. The energy didn't go down the dead-end pathway on every circulation but every 5th.

Evan tried to time it to force the energy out through the pathway. It was very difficult to do. The problem wasn't tracking the energy, his energy flow was very slow so following was easy. The hard part was trying to force it out the moment that it hit the end of the pathway.

Success!

He had a single tendril of energy shoot out of his fingertip like a bullet. It put a small hole in the floor. The hole was a perfect circle the same size as his fingertip. The hole wasn't burned, it was more like a drilled hole, with smooth sides all the way through.

'Well, I did it, but there's no way that's controllable.' Evan thought that his "spirit bullet" was pretty cool but it still wasn't what he wanted to do. 'Maybe I'm approaching it wrong. On Earth the only way to do things with the body is either by force, or through electric impulses in the brain. Like moving an arm is thoughtless but jumping is a conscious decision. Maybe there's another way here.'

Evan once again entered his spirit state. He was confident that he could figure this out. The issue was he wasn't sure if he could do it in the time frame given. The sky was starting to get light out and that means it would only be like 6 or 7 hours till the deadline.

He followed his energy flow till it reached his fingertips and started trying to move the energy forward with his thoughts, instead of his muscles. There was a small amount of energy that left his body. It wasn't much, a small orb the size of a dime. But he could feel the energy just in front of his finger.

He used his thoughts to try and push the energy forward, and it ever so gently drifted forward.

Evan smiled. He was now an Alchemical Apprentice.