Mana Essence

"You do?" Aiden asks slightly surprised by Ariel's reveal. Even though he was sure that Ariel didn't have the lightning superpower, it could be that she truly had the ability to help him cultivate the technique. She was the one who gave him the technique in the first place.

"Yeah. However, It might be a bit dangerous!" Ariel said blankly.

"Dangerous?"

"Uhn..." Ariel nodded.

"How so?" Aiden asked. he was truly curious. What kind of method was Ariel talking about and how dangerous must it be?

"Do you know the name of the power that gives humans superpowers?" Ariel asked instead of replying to his question.

"Mana?" Aiden asked in a slightly questioning tone. He knew this. In fact, every human being knew that mana was responsible for the superpower they have.

However, with Ariel asking such a simple question, he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, mana wasn't what gave humans superpowers. The subsequent words of Ariel seed to have confirmed his suspicions.

"Nope. That isn't it."

Her next set of words, however, confused him again.

"The power responsible for the superpowers humans have is called Mana Essence."

"Mana Essence? Is it the same as mana?" Aiden asked in surprise.

"No!" Ariel exclaimed, "Mana is a subset of Mana Essence. There are two types of mana essence one of which is mana and the other is... I don't know what it's called but let's say Essence."

Aiden merely smiled at Ariel's naming conventions.

"Just like the writer of the technique stated, the body of both living and non-living things are created or formed using this essence. Even though Mana serves as empowerment of all things, the Essence is what brings them into being!"

"Hm, I see." Aiden clearly remembered these words. However, he hadn't paid much attention to it when he was reading the technique. In fact, his eyes just skipped over it, not knowing it contained quite crucial information.

"However, how does this all relate to the technique?" Aiden asked in confusion. The writer told him to just summon the divine tribulation and conquer it to complete the first stage of the technique. He didn't mention anything about essence or mana apart from the explanation he gave about how the body is created.

This made Aiden much confused when Ariel brought up these things. Even if he knew the thing that gives powers to humans, there was no connection between this and the technique. Or so he thought as Ariel's next explanation made Aiden understand why she was talking about the essence of the world.

"It has everything to do with the technique if what I am thinking is right!" Ariel said with the utmost confidence. "According to my speculations, the writer of this technique wants you to simply extract lightning essence from the environment and use it!"

"Extract lightning essence?" Aiden asked, "How do we do that?"

"I know how. However, it is quite difficult to do!" Ariel said making Aiden realize why she warned him of the danger of cultivating this technique.

"How?" Aiden asked.

"....." Ariel decided not to answer that yet and went on another round of explanation.

"Essence is just like mana, but only people who cultivate eye techniques can cultivate it. Seeing that you haven't really started cultivation, it is almost impossible to teach you a sight technique"

Aiden frowned. He hadn't thought that there would be some requirement in using essence. "Sigh, guess I will have to forget about this technique then!" Aiden sighed. He had tried and failed. He was already exhausted from moving around all day. He simply wanted to rest.

"I am sure you can feel mana by now. After all even people at the elementary stage can even sense mana!" Ariel said.

"Hm.." Aiden nodded. He could indeed sense mana. They were extremely small particles of light that seemed to crackle with energy. In Aiden's case, they cracked with what seemed like lightning.

They were extremely minute, much smaller than atoms but he could see it due to the abundance in the atmosphere. At first, he was overwhelmed by the amount of mana in the atmosphere.

However, the moment he tried to ignore them, they vanished, literally. When he tried o focus on them again, they appeared yet again and Aiden learnt how to turn this on and off this effect.

Without even him knowing, he had created a sight technique already. One that would enhance the sights of the later generation to a crazy degree.

"Unlike humans though, we can see it. We can see essence to a much greater degree!" Ariel said. "Essence feels exactly like mana but they are much bigger and greater than normal mana. Moreover, they seemed to harbour the intents of the heaven and the earth and their-"

"-Their oppressive might are the greatest someone can ever witness!" Aiden completed making Ariel's eyes widen in shock.

"How did you know that?" Ariel asked. Unlike Aiden, she could see essence very well and even its flow in this world. Due to this, She could describe the theme in detail. What Aiden said was what she was about to say. However, he shouldn't know unless...

The next moment though, Ariel shook her head.

"There is no way a human can sense it. It is essentially invisible to them!"

Of course, the condition she thought about was Aiden having the ability to sense essence. However, this felt so surreal that she couldn't believe it herself. Aiden's next set of words, however, shocked her to her soul!

"Are you talking about the other kind of power other than mana?" Aiden asked with a smile.

"How the?"

He could sense it. He could really sense it!!

Ariel felt a surreal feeling swell up within her. It was disbelief. She simply felt as if she was dreaming and this wasn't real. She simply couldn't accept it!

"Am I right?" Aiden asked after realizing Ariel's silence towards his comment. When he said this, a meek voice that he never expected to hear from Ariel sounded in his ears,

"Y-You are right..."

[ A/N:

Thanks to poor_soul for voting 2 power stones. And as usual, folks, remember to vote. The power stones are free after all.

]