It was already late in the afternoon when I went to find my Senior Brother Merlin to get my magic and energy control. I knocked on the door, and when I got permission, I entered to see him giving pointers to Tulip, the female student who was my age.
"Should I come back later?" I asked, not sure if this was okay for me to interrupt.
"No need," Tulip shook her head, "I am almost done."
Merlin continued with his pointers for a few more minutes then turned his attention to me. While stroking his beard, he eyed me curiously and then asked, "Did Farbauti and Mimir help you make a wand, Orion?"
I nodded my head and showed the wand to him. "A wand is only a means to help facilitate the usage of your energy when you are a beginner. Once you become adept at controlling this energy, it will no longer be needed," he calmly explained to me the basic concepts of wands.
"Energy is all around us, everything is made from it. As cultivators, we absorb the energy from around us to evolve and become stronger than before. Of course, the higher energy you have, the harder it is to control. Some of the elements even affect the rate of absorption and control."
I listened attentively to his explanation and made sure to engrave everything he was explaining in my mind. He continued, "The Wind element is usually chaotic and difficult to control for a novice, but coupled with the calm and soothing nature of the Water element... I wonder, will it become easier?"
"Come," he said after he had sunk into some thoughts about the nature of the elements, "Shall we try some spells, Orion?"
I stood up and stood in front of him, raising the wand in my hand to face a test dummy in front of me. He corrected my stance and said, "Relax your shoulders. You will not be in control when you are tense. Now, imagine yourself in darkness, what is the first thing that would come to your mind to make the situation better?"
"To get a source of light," I blurted out the answer. He smiled and nodded and told me to repeat a word - a chant- after him while visualizing a light that pushes away the darkness.
I followed his instructions with intense focus. Then, I felt the blood rushing to my right hand that was holding the wand, and from its tip came a blinding light that covered the entire room which was already bright enough.
"Ouch! My eyes!" Tulip, who was watching on from the side this whole time, exclaimed in annoyance at the blinding light. I turned my attention to her at that moment and the light was instantly extinguished.
I turned to look at the old man to see him smiling wryly, "I have truly underestimated you, Orion. But that is normal, considering the absurdity of your nature. Let us do some more simple spells before moving on to elemental energy control."
An hour quickly passed by as I tried one spell after another. According to Merlin, all of these were considered simple, which made me unintentionally think about the difficulty of later spells. But I had to admit that it became easier and easier the more I did it.
At last, Merlin decided to stop with the simple spells and decided to test my abilities further. "As with all the previous ones, visualize yourself sending an attack made from Wind on the test dummy while chanting these words," he ordered, suddenly having a serious expression compared to his casual one before.
I raised my wand, made up the scene in my mind, and then chanted the words. The air in the room suddenly converged into a big slash that attacked the dummy. However... Things got out of hand pretty quickly...
Instead of simply harming the dummy, the latter was completely shredded. After it was done with the poor test dummy, the attack hit the wall behind it, creating a shockwave that resulted in the destruction of the wall.
I was stunned beyond words, and then the reality of what I had just done hit me. I was about to start apologizing to Merlin when a voice said from behind me, "I did not bring you here to destroy walls in my mansion, Orion."
I turned around and saw Richard looking at the wall with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. He then smiled and shook his head, and with a wave of his hand, the wall returned to its previous state before it was destroyed.
"How did you do that?" Tulip finally asked me when she recovered from her shock. I shrugged and said with a wry smile, "I did as Senior Brother instructed, that's all..."
"Merlin, maybe we should let Orion take his classes outside from now on," Richard suggested to which Merlin, who was surprisingly not angry about what happened, nodded.
"Alright, Orion. I will send you back home, see you tomorrow."
---------
Author Note: Updated on 30/4/2024