The gift

Azel sat comfortably on the wooden bench with the box in hand.

He brought the box closer to his face and observed it, his fingers tracing the meticulously carved white flower patterns, exploring the smooth curves and intricate details. His blind eyes gleam with admiration as he appreciates the craftsmanship, each stroke and contour a testament to the skill that went into creating this artful piece.

Azel weighed the box a bit and it was light, so light that if he didn't pay attention he would forget he was holding anything at all.

Azel decided to stop fiddling with the box and open it.

Opening the box and feeling the object within, all of Azel's previous expectations came crashing down.

Even though the box was light his expectations for what was within it were high, very high; it could be anything like a potion, a Mythril-crafted dagger or you know the fantastical stuff.

Anyway, we are getting off-topic, in the box was a foot-long piece of blindfold.

'Blindfold?'

Azel thought to himself.

The blindfold was soft and exquisite in Azel's hand it was cool and pleasing to the touch.

Azel untied the old one and brought the new blindfold closer to them, wore it and tied the ends of the fold to secure it.

Azel hoping something would happen looked around the room with a bit of excitement, this went on for a few seconds before he realised nothing would happen.

"sigh* what did I expect?"

Azel's shoulder dropped in sadness and the entire training ground became quiet with only the momentary sound of Azel's breathing filling the place.

Azel sent mana to his mana pool, to calm himself down, a few days ago he discovered sending mana into his mana pool has a calming effect on him.

#Whoosh!!!

'hm? '

The mana Azel sent in was sucked not by the pool but by.

"The blindfold?"

Azel said with a bit of doubt.

He touched the blindfold and sent a bit of mana to it.

The blindfold reacted to it and promptly sucked in the little mana it received.

".... Ok let's try that again."

Excitement is evident in his voice.

Azel cleared his mind slowly drew mana from the environment, and sent it into his body, the mana was sucked in by the blindfold, Azel increased the input of the mana he drew in and the blindfold didn't stop taking in mana.

Azel kept on drawing mana from his surroundings and the blindfold kept accepting, this act went on for more than two hours.

"Grrrr."

Azel gritted his teeth and kept passing mana to the blindfold.

Blood was slowly dripping out of the corner of his mouth, a direct proof of the effect of using one's body as a conductor at an early stage

Another half an hour went by and drastic changes were occurring all over his body, his mouth was fully covered in blood, heavy visible veins could be seen on the side of his head, his face his all red and his body was emitting strong steam.

'Am almost there I can feel it just a little-'

Azel bit his lips so as not to lose focus, using his last bit of strength he drew in a massive amount of Mana and....

FWOOSHHH

A reaction occurred a wave of blue energy was expelled out of Azel's body and changes began to occur on the blindfold.

Successfully taking note of the change Azel collapsed in satisfaction.

His body slowly fell to the ground but before it could the shadow of a woman appeared suddenly and caught him, the woman held him gently and carefully placed him on her thighs.

She laid him down and caressed his hair, she did this while using mana to erase the blood from his face.

"You have been through a lot... But sadly it's only the beginning."

She gazed at him for a while before kissing his forehead.

"Rest for the journey ahead."

She said and disappeared like she was never there all traces of her was gone.

.

.

.

.

"Took you long enough."

Azel just looked at the body made up of moving green codes in confusion.

"Vena?"

Azel said with a bit of scepticism

"Yes."

"The hell, what happened to you? Where am I? And what's going on?"

"Okay calm down, first of all, it's because I died, and it take some time to become normal."

Azel nodded and gestured for her to go on.

"Second you are in the system space and you are her-"

"Wait, wait hold on."

Azel abruptly interrupted her.

"System space, you don't have that; you are not supposed to have that, so how?"

Vena rested her hands on her hip and pointed to a random place in the rocky-themed room.

"That brings me to my third answer, you are here because of it."

".... What the actual fuck?"

Hi, I would like to apologise for the delay and my lack of update.

I'll be posting the second chapters in a few hours along with an updated schedule.