Ed and Bolin entered the wooden cabin. The living room had an antique oak table. A large window let light shine upon the table. A brick fireplace sat on the opposite side of the room. The cabin also had a small kitchen, bath, and two bedrooms.
Ed glanced at Bolin. "I'll be entering closed-door meditation for a few days. You can do whatever you want in the meantime. Just keep in mind that killing me will automatically activate the mana-collar in your skull."
He entered one of the bedrooms. It was furnished with teak furniture. The bed had a red comforter that matched the red drapes on the window. 'I'll take precautions anyways. I'll be damned if I trust World Walker of all people.' The edges of the door began to melt as he welded it shut. Then, he extended the wood to block the window, which left him within complete darkness. The defense was mediocre at best, but it would buy him a second or two if someone tried to attack him. That's all he would need to be ready to fight back or escape.
'Time to begin.' He sat atop the bed in the lotus position and closed his eyes. His mana quality and quantity had steadily increased ever since he started practicing the Mortal Dragon Technique. Now he was just a little bit away from completely filling his two heart meridians. Two days quickly passed. He only took small breaks for food and rest during this time.
'They're full.' He smiled. The mana within each of his heart meridians was almost comparable to all the mana he had in his entire body previously. Now that they were full, his improvement had come to a temporary halt. 'I'll choose the triple burner meridian next.' The triple burner was an organ that didn't exist within western medicine or culture. It referred to the connective tissue throughout the body. Particularly, the connective tissue between the chest, abdomen, and pelvis regions of the body.
'Breaking through this meridian is a little trickier than the others, but it'll be worth it.' Storing mana within his heart meridians had led to his heart becoming stronger. The connective tissue of the triple burner meridian ran throughout his entire body, so improving it would improve his overall strength and defense.
Previously, he broke through to the heart meridian by breaking through a single strong barrier. That wasn't an option this time. The triple burner meridian had a series of weaker barriers spread throughout the body in layers. This may make it sound like it's easier to break through, but it's actually the opposite. The layers would repair automatically if he tried a forceful breakthrough. Instead, he had to take it slow and make an effort to keep each individual barrier open.
Just like his mana-paths, the various barriers were made of highly concentrated mana. The book had mentioned that these barriers existed for almost all espers and that the reason for them was unknown. However, a few rare espers had no barriers from birth. These espers were the chosen sons and daughters of heaven, blessed with great talent beyond that of their peers.
Ed controlled his mana to gently flow near the first barrier within his abdomen. The mana ebbed back-and-forth in a slow grinding motion and the barrier soon broke apart. He left some mana behind to leave the barrier open and moved onto the next one. He continuously repeated these steps until every barrier within the abdomen was open. His face turned pale from exhaustion and lack of mana. However, he had only finished a third of the work.
'I'll do the pelvis region next.' Mana flowed from the 1st of his two heart meridians. His face returned to normal as he felt the mana flowing in his body once more. It entered the abdomen and flowed down towards the pelvis. The grinding motions began once again. It wasn't long before he had finished that region and exhausted his mana again.
'This would have been near impossible without opening two other meridians first. Previously, I had almost chosen to open the triple burner first. Thank God I opted for the heart meridians instead back then.' The last of his mana flowed from his 2nd heart meridian and headed for the chest. The mana moved shakily in jagged motions. Sweat covered Ed's face. 'I've never controlled so much mana before.' It took almost all his concentration to keep the previous two batches of mana focused on maintaining the open barriers within the abdomen and pelvis.
The mana ground against the chest barriers in large ugly movements. It took him nearly three times as long to open the chest barriers when compared to the previous regions. A series of shattering sounds rang out when he finally succeeded. The connective tissue throughout his body greedily began to absorb the small amount of his remaining mana. Most of his mana had simply vanished through his body and into the atmosphere as he exhausted himself. It would likely take him a few hours to recover back to his normal self and a day to return to peak condition.
"Hooo." Ed breathed out slowly as he let his exhausted body collapse against the comfortable bed. He felt the mana in the atmosphere slowly enter his mana-core, which in turn began to fill his body. 'I suppose mana is a bit like the rain. It evaporates as you use it and rises into the atmosphere. The mana-core absorbs the mana from the atmosphere just like how a cloud absorbs water vapor. Then the mana-core provides a usable version of the mana to the esper, much like how the clouds provide usable water for the people via rain.'
He smiled as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Every breakthrough allowed him to feel a new sense of freedom as the chains that bound him broke away. In turn, this allowed him greater control over his body, which gave him a euphoric feeling.
The next day.
Ed stretched as he got out of bed. He quickly returned the room to normal and headed for the kitchen. He had only eaten some dry rations in the past few days and was starving as a result. Unfortunately, it turned out that the kitchen was completely void of food! World Walker was nowhere to be seen.
'Damn.' He frowned while rubbing his grumbling stomach. He refused to eat any more dry rations. He looked out the window. The sun had only come up a short while ago. 'Guess I'll go hunting. I've never really tried it before, but how hard can it be?'
He left the cabin and walked across a field to the nearby forest. The tall pine trees gave off a heavy scent. Occasional bird calls whistled through the air. He entered the forest and it became noticeably darker. The forest canopy blocked off most of the sunlight. He wandered for nearly an hour without seeing anything.
Soon, he found what he was looking for. His eyes widened as a smile appeared on his face. Just 10 meters or so away from him was a fluffy white rabbit. It sat completely still next to a large bush. Ed slowly walked forward while trying not to make any noise.
Suddenly, the rabbit's ears twitched. Ed froze in place. He felt his heart nearly stop in panic, but the rabbit continued to sit still. He slowly started moving forward again. 'Damn. Wish I had a gun on me. I should have just repurposed the kitchen sink into one. Not like anyone was using it.' Every once in a while, the rabbit would twitch, causing Ed to stop. He would wait roughly half a minute before moving forward again.
He was now just a few meters away from the rabbit. Suddenly, a crunching sound rang out as Ed stepped on a small twig invisible beneath the grass. The rabbit instantly looked towards him. Both of them stood frozen for a second. Then Ed charged forward as the rabbit quickly leaped away. He tried melting the ground around it to trap it, but it easily jumped to the side to avoid the trap. It continued gaining distance as it ran.
"FUCK!" He screamed aloud in anger as he gave chase. 'How freaken fast is this thing?! Would Nexus give it a D rank in agility?!' He shot a ball of fire towards the rabbit. Its ears twitched as it dodged to the side. The flames slammed into the trunk of a tree and scattered in different directions. Ed ran past the tree without a second thought. More fireballs flew forward, but the rabbit avoided them all.
"ARAGHHH!!!" He screamed in frustration as flame and wind blasted out from all four limbs. It pushed him forward and he began to fly just barely above the ground. He adjusted the strength of the flames coming from his arms to weave back and forth between the trees as they sprung up in front of him. The ground was a blur as he moved forward.
One final burst of strong flames pushed him forward even faster. He rolled on the ground and reached out with his hand to make a grab towards the rabbit. He rolled several more times before he lost his inertia by slamming into a tree. "Ugh!" He groaned in pain while grinning. He looked in his right hand where he held the rabbit by its ears. "Thought you could outrun Forge you little shit?! You're my fucking breakfast! You should have been grateful for the honor of becoming my food and knelt down in thanks to me."
He continued to mutter nonsense towards the rabbit to ease his frustration. He stopped when he started to feel that it was getting a bit hot. He looked up and his eyes widened in surprise. The surrounding forest had caught on fire in all directions. Smoke drifted everywhere as the burning trees crackled and split apart. However, that was not the surprising thing. What was surprising was the pack of mutants that had unknowingly surrounded him. Most of them were around 1-meter-tall. They had large sharp teeth and horns stuck out from their heads. They were giant white fluffy rabbits!
Ed glanced at the small rabbit in his hands. On a closer look, he saw that it had a small nub on its head that would likely become a horn in the future. 'Ah, I forgot I'm not within a city's boundaries. Most wildlife here would be of the mutant variety... That would explain this little guy's speed.'
White glows covered the rabbits as they ignored the raging flames. The glow extended to their horns to create small white orbs. Suddenly, all of the orbs fired toward him at once! Long white streaks were left behind in the air as the orbs traveled.
"SHIT!" He quickly shot flames from his legs to fly into the air, narrowly avoiding the attack. 'It's like facing a freaken firing squad!' He aimed his free left arm towards the mutants and fired a large blast of flames boosted by green wind. It rained down upon the rabbits but caused no significant damage. Their coats became slightly charred at best.
'Screw it.' He turned around and flew back towards the cabin, completely ignoring the mutant rabbits. They couldn't catch him in the sky anyways. Soon, he disappeared from their sight. He landed with a thud in front of the wooden cabin. 'Mm. Let's get cooking.' He smiled while looking at the small rabbit in his hands.
Suddenly, he felt a strong sense of danger. He could subtly feel the mana shifting within the air. He let go of the rabbit and blasted flames out as he dodged to the side. Dozens of white orbs slammed into the wooden cabin, completely destroying it. The mutant rabbits charged out of the forest towards him.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" He screamed in rage. "I've killed dozens of espers. I've tricked the strongest esper in the world! I've fought against nightmares! And fucking rabbits are what I'm struggling against?!"
He rose both arms towards the rabbits. 'I had been saving this for a better opponent but fuck it. I'll kill them all. I'll destroy their entire goddamn species!' He controlled his mana to reconfigure his arms. The fire mana-battery became blocked off as an opening was created for the water mana-battery. The openings on the end of his hands became even smaller as he narrowed the area within his limbs. A blast of water shot out followed by a blast of wind. The narrow tunnel and opening compressed the water to an extreme, creating thin blades of high-pressure water.
"DIE!" He yelled as the water shot forward. It directly cut through their bodies like they were nothing. Not just the rabbits, even the trees in the distance were punctured full of holes. He swung his arms to the side and nearly a dozen rabbits and the trees behind them were bisected as a result. Soon, all of the rabbits laid dead across the empty field. Dozens of trees on the edge of the forest had collapsed. The flames behind those trees still raged as they spread further into the distance.
Ed spotted the tiny rabbit as the only remaining survivor. It was completely frozen in fear. He walked forward and picked it up by the ears again. "Don't think I'm done with you yet." He walked towards one of the bisected rabbits and ripped some flesh out from it. He created an opening for the fire mana-battery and charred the rabbit flesh with his free hand. 'Good. Only the fur was fire-resistant.' He bit into the charred meat as he walked towards the forest.
"Mm. Not bad." Ed nodded happily. "Maybe I'll leave you with a few survivors since you taste good." He twisted the small rabbit's leg, causing it to snap. It screamed in agony due to the pain. 'The screams sound a bit like a scared child. Creepy.' He continued to walk through the burning forest. If the flames started to bother him then he just covered himself and the surroundings with some water.
Soon, hundreds of red eyes greeted him as 1-meter-tall rabbits completely surrounded him. They had been attracted by the tiny rabbit's screams. "This will be a good start!" He smiled as he fired high-pressure water in all directions. It only took him a few minutes before he had created a large clearing. Hundreds of dead rabbits laid amongst the collapsed trees. 'Mm. I can still kill some more.' He continued carrying the screaming rabbit as he continued the hunt.
Several hours later. 'I should stop here.' He had likely killed over a thousand rabbit mutants in his rage. 'I still need to find better materials for my arms.' He sighed. The high-pressure water slowly ground down the metal within his arms. It was easy to repair, but he needed materials on hand to do so. The tiny particles of metal that were ground off shot out of his arms with the water, so he needed metal to repair them.
Ed returned to the destroyed wooden cabin and snapped the tiny rabbit's neck. Then he tossed it beside the other dead rabbits.
World Walker stood with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "What the hell did you do?!" He yelled. His cabin had been destroyed and the forest surrounding it was filled with burning dead trees. Smoke and flames could be seen far off in the distance as the forest continued to burn.
"A slight accident." Ed smiled. "It doesn't matter. We're returning to Steam Work City tomorrow. You'll be infiltrating Steam Work Academy once again. Doesn't that sound like fun?"
"The academy?" Bolin rose an eyebrow. "What for?"
"Recruitment and revenge. It should make for a good time. I was a bit hesitant before, but I'm much more confident with you on my side and the rankings book you gave me."
"I see..." He nodded in reply.
"Anyways, let's enjoy some barbeque. Got any sauce?" Ed used his powers to raise the ground into two seats. Then he got work on preparing one of the large rabbits for a feast.