CH36: WILL AWAKENING

This is a passion work. So, I would really appreciate it if you leave behind a review when you're done reading.

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CH36: WILL AWAKENING

"So how do I awaken my Will?" Korede Balogun asked.

"Though awakening of Will is not easy and is spontaneous, there are two known ways it is awakened." Hattori answered.

"First is by accident. In very extreme situations, a person can awaken their Will and do something that may very well be a miracle. Anyone can awaken their Will this way. They don't have to be at the expert-level.

An example of this was a mother whose child was trapped under a heavy object. In a single-minded quest to save her child, she awakened her Will, enabling her to lift the heavy object which should ordinarily have been impossible to lift with a human's strength.

However, there is something you should always keep in mind. 'The world is fair/balanced'. Anyone below expert level who awakens their Will this way would most likely lose the manifestation after the event. They would also probably never be able to control their Will again, much less be able to use their Will manifestation again. In short, they will never become a Master.

Of course, there are exceptions.

Mostly only those at the expert level would be able to keep their Will and its manifestation after an accidental awakening. "

Korede nodded his head. So, the old man continued.

"The second method is for someone at expert level to have an inviolable confidence in their skill that it acts as a trigger to awaken their Will. In this case, their Will manifestation will be born using that skill as a base.

This is the most favoured method of awakening as the manifestation produced will definitely match one's skill while the other method's manifestation is completely random, mostly matching the need of the event causing the accidental awakening."

Having said this much, Hattori Hanzo felt his throat had become dry so he drank his tea as he waited for Korede to digest everything he had said. After a while, the youth said, "So from everything you've said if my understanding is correct. One, my constitution increases my skills by one level.

Two, I've currently reached a bottleneck in my skill due to my lack of control over my Will. That means I'm between Expert and Master level.

Three, since my brother knows all this beforehand, I'm guessing he is a Master. He said you are above him, but you also said the seventh level is now a myth. That means you must be at the sixth level making you a Grandmaster.

Finally, the best way for me to progress is to awaken my Will with something I have absolute confidence in."

A look of appreciation appeared on the old man's face. He smiled and nodded his head.

Korede turned to Miyako and asked, "What about you, Miss Hanzo? I'm guessing you are also a Master."

"What Miss Hanzo? Call me Miyako. I told you to stop being overly polite." The lady said, annoyed. "Yes, I'm also a Master. I'm surprised you could tell."

"I have good intuition." Korede said with a smile. He turned back to the old man. "So what do I have to do to awaken my Will." He asked. The answer the old man gave surprised him because it was similar to what the Symbiote had said.

"The way for you to awaken your Will is simple. Stop limiting yourself!" Hattori said. "I noticed during the spar that after you released your limiters and freed yourself, I could feel a short pulse of Will being imposed around you. The pulse was very small and weak, I doubt you even noticed. I was only able to sense it because I'm a Grandmaster and I'm very familiar with Will imposition. It shows you are on your way to awakening your Will. Once you do so, you will no longer involuntarily release such a detectable Will pulse.

You are very confident in your fighting style especially when your limiters are removed which caused your Will to begin awakening. If you keep limiting yourself, the confidence in your abilities will be weaker hence why you won't be able to awaken your Will. So like I said, to awaken your Will, you just have to be in your most confident state which is your unlimited state."

Korede was quiet. Unlike what Hattori thought, Korede had a good idea of what his manifestation was. It was most likely his 'Zone'. However, since he wasn't sure, he didn't say anything. Instead, he asked, "Can you tell me what your Will manifestations are?"

Ordinarily, it was best to hide your Will manifestations from others but then again, the stronger the person, the more versatile the application of their Will manifestation. To such people, telling their Will manifestation did not affect them much. If anything, its effect will increase for foes that know. Besides, the people in the room didn't mind telling him even if that wasn't the case.

"My manifestation is in form of Enhanced healing." Kola went first. "I can heal from any injury very fast. I also have a strong life force. I awakened accidentally when I was mortally injured on a mission. I clung to life desperately and my Will awakened at that moment and my manifestation was formed. I like to believe that my Will is a strong Will to live.

"My Will manifestation is in form of a quick burst of speed." Miyako went next. "All my life, I have been fascinated with speed. All my skills are bias towards speed. One time during my routine swordsmanship training, I fell into a trance and I kept trying to move faster and faster until I noticed I had awakened my Will. Since speed had always been my forte, my Will manifestation was born from my confidence in my speed."

Finally, Korede looked towards Grandmaster Hattori. To be honest, he was most interested in his master's manifestation.

The old man said, "From Karate to Swordsmanship, I have always had the mindset of Self-defense. At my best, almost no one can break through my defense in a fight. From this, my Will manifested into something I call Reinforcement. I can increase the defensive strength of my body and anything I'm in contact with. "

Korede finally figured out why the Shinai didn't break from his full power punch during their spar. The old man had used his Will manifestation to protect his Shinai. Somehow, Korede felt proud of being able to force the old man into using his Will manifestation.

This was what the Symbiote had intended to tell Korede but refrained from doing so. It refrained from telling him because it wanted the youth to learn from his defeat and not to feel proud of the 'little' achievement.

Talking about the Symbiote, it had been silent since the discussion on Will began. Korede tried to contact it numerous times but it didn't respond. As if it was fully engrossed in its thoughts.

From what he just heard, Korede was finally having an idea of how strong Will manifestations could be. While he didn't believe every Will manifestation would be outrightly strong, he believed even the 'weak' ones will be powerful enough in the right hands. A case in point is his zone. Though the slow down of time to slow-motion speed might not seem powerful to most people compared to the others' manifestations, to him, it was good enough for him to infinitely increase his combat strength.

'As the old man said, I intuitively feel confident in my unique style especially when I'm unshackled. My Will must have manifested in the form of my 'Zone' because of it. Also, if I'm not wrong, it would mean only when I'm unshackled can I withstand the toll from using the Zone.' Korede mused.

He then realised something interesting. Everyone in this room had at least touched upon the Master level. He couldn't help but say, "Why do I feel that Masters are not rare?"

Hattori burst into laughter, Kola shook his head while Miyako smiled. She said, "It's not that Masters are not rare. Actually, there might only be one Master in every million people. Remember that this is for all Master, not just Martial Masters. So painters, singers, scientists, etc are all included.

Hattori interjected, "As far as I know, there are less than twenty Martial Grandmasters in the world. If I'm not wrong, there are less than two hundred Grandmasters alive in total today. So, whether they're rare or not depends on your point of view."

"Actually, our clan produced a number of Masters during its golden era. Even now, there's always, at least, a Master amongst us in every generation. In the best generation, we had thirty Masters at once."

"You mean the Clan era? Then that means…" Korede cut in

"Yes. The Clan's Warriors Leaders were all Masters." Kola announced.

"Wow. Your family must have a rich history." Miyako said.

"Yeah, we do. Unfortunately, a lot of that was lost during the colonial wars." Kola said sadly.

The group went on to discuss their experiences using Will manifestation to finally discussing Korede's future training regimen and expected results. Kola and Hattori agreed, to Korede's dismay, that he would continue his Oro Akogun (Warrior's ritual) regimen while training his Swordsmanship and Karate. By the time their discussions were over, it was already late into the night. So, they decided to retire for the night.

It was at this time Korede found out the room he was staying in was not a guest room. Rather it was the room Miyako's father stayed in while he was still living at the residence. Miyako took Kola to the actual guest room for him to stay the night.

In the room, Korede didn't sleep yet. Rather he tried to speak with the Symbiote who had been silent all this while. It had been around a week since they had been conversing in his mind, Korede had found a way to converse with it without distracting his conversation with others. After all, the speed of thoughts is faster than the speed of speech. This had been the longest the Symbiote had been silent for.

'Hello. Anyone here? Come in, Symbiote'

[Really? 'Come in, Symbiote'? you couldn't find something better to say?]

'Well, as long as I got your attention. Why have you been silent?'

[I was comparing the information you got about how you humans awaken and use your Will with every other method I know of. They're a lot, so it took a while. The good news is that with old man's extensive explanation, I now fully understand human Will. I can finally start paying my rent.]

'Is that so? Anything I need to know?'

[Not really, the old man had said it all. Like I had also told you earlier, the key to increasing your pitiful strength is to stop limiting yourself. The only thing you need to know is that your 'zone' as you put it is not your Will manifestation. Your Will has to be fully awakened for it to manifest. Since it's not yet fully awakened, your zone can't be a manifestation. It's most likely a Will technique.]

'What's that? How is it different from a manifestation?'

[As it sounds, a Will technique is a technique that uses or is powered by Will. A manifestation is a way your Will is directly imposed on the world. Will techniques are comprehended while a manifestation is innate and spontaneous. Since Will techniques are based on one's comprehension and powered by one's unique Will, they can't be taught to others. No matter how you explain your understanding to others, they will always get an understanding different from yours no matter how small that difference is. No two people will have the same perfect understanding. There will always be, at least, a minute difference. Even a small infinitesimal difference in understanding means the Will technique will be flawed. If it is flawed, it can't be learnt.]

'I think I understand.'

[Good. Back to your zone. If I had to guess, I'd say it's not an ordinary Will technique because I believe it originated from the Laws of Time or as you know it, the River of Time. It should have been formed using the Mark of Time and your intuition as a base to alter your perception of time.

If I'm right and it originates from the Laws of time itself, the technique will have a lot of growth potential. You have only begone to scratch the surface.]

Whether Zone was a manifestation or a technique, Korede didn't care. All that matters is that he has a good technique in his bag of tricks.

[But as the old man said, the world is fair/balanced. You should never forget this statement. Being a technique with such a strong origin, it will have strong limitations. It can be anything. For now, the toll it takes on you means you have to be mindful of the aftermath of using it. You will probably go into a weakened state after using it. Also, I have a feeling it will be difficult to improve. Well, you will figure it out in due time.

That been said, it's a good thing for your future growth to have comprehended a Will technique this early.]

'Why is that?'

[It will help your Will training.]

'Will training? Please explain.'

The Symbiote didn't answer immediately. Korede could tell it was thinking of a way to answer him. After a good while, it said

[To better understand this, think of your Will as a muscle. To strengthen a muscle, you must repeatedly use and exercise that muscle. In the same way, to train your Will, you must repeatedly use it.

Since the methods that allow you to use your Will are Will techniques and manifestations, Will training is limited by them. Think about it. All Will techniques and manifestations have limitations that curb the number of times you can use them. So, the more methods you have and the earlier you get them, the faster you can start your Will training and the longer and more impactful each session will be.]

'The analogy is a little weird but I think I got the gist of it. Since Will manifestation and Techniques don't share the same limitations, in Will training, when one is on 'cooldown' I can use the other to continue my Will training until every one of them enters a cooldown period. So the more methods I have, the more training I can get done before everything is on cooldown. The earlier I start the training, the earlier I will have a reasonably developed Will.' Korede said after some thought.

[Exactly.]

'So, how are you going to pay 'rent' to me?"

[Simple. By teaching you a third class of Will utilisation method. It is called Will Tactics.]

[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion matters to me.]