His thinking was a little blurred, which explains why he began without listening until the end of the explanation so in a sense, his decision was a good one, to retrieve his mind and logical thinking, beginning by the brain was indeed needed.
He was a natural at it, not needing a lot of explanation, he already did the hardest step, feeling and absorbing the energy. He just has to feed it to his body with few simple steps. He could already feel his mind becoming clearer, his thought quicker and organized sign of his successful beginning.
"But it's weird, with what I could understand of this caring family, the youngest, Méline if I remember correctly, seems to have difficulty feeling the energy surrounding her. I found it quite easy with the few steps of The Art helping me, not passing more than a day on it I think. But their explanation seems however quite complete, did they have a missing part or is it something different..? Eline was able to manipulate energy back in Ol'Tree village when she was ten or so... I must understand more. But first of all, I must complete this Evaporation level that he spoke of!"
Erik was observing with great care, his energy completely flowing around to feel what Alix was doing. Noticing the energy moves to the brain, he was now sure he had understood what he said and even seems quite good to put it in practice, not even taking a minute to do it successfully.
"You began with the brain region, it's a good idea with your current state, so I will explain a little more to you about what you should do now! All of the Grand levels are composed of the seven same steps. We name them generally because each person can have a different order for his feeding of the cells. They are namely, the early, middle, late and apex each one separated by the other with the first, second and third transitions. Each step match with one body zone completely fed whatever it is"
Alix at this time stopped his process of cells nurturing to understand better where he was going. These divisions of the Grand level were set to simplify and make comparisons easier in a system allowing a lot of freedom in your path.
"For example, you began with your brain so it's the nerves body part which allowed you to increased your speed of thoughts, your reflex and also, unfortunately, your response to pain which is a part of our nervous system. You must feed your entire brain, your spinal cord and the little nervous center existing in your digestive system for it to be completed. You don't have to nourish the nerves linking your muscles to your brain and chord because the cells are actually in them, the nerves just an extension of their main body."
Alix was beginning to understand, in the beginning, he thought it would be body part like the head, the leg and so on. But it made more sense to improve your body by each strata composing it.
"Fortunately I know a little in anatomy, if not I would be completely lost in this explanation. It seems I will have to increase my knowledge of it if I don't want to make mistakes when feeding my cells. The following one should be the bones or something like that no? Ah, such a shame I could not ask questions for the moment, my body isn't responding enough for something as complex as speaking!"
The whole family had now sat around them, listening to this explanation even if it was not their first time hearing it, it was always good to recall your path a little.
"If you actually completely fed your nerves cells, you would be considered as an early Evaporate being. Your next step should be to make sure you didn't forget even one cell and when it's done, which could take a long time if you move the energy haphazardly, you could attack the first transition. For you, it could be anything besides the nervous system, namely, your skin, your bones, your organs, your blood, your muscles or your joints. Your decision mustn't be rushed because few techniques depend on one or more of this system, allowing you to use the technique earlier in each level depending on your choice."
Taking a breath, not wanting to make mistakes while explaining the steps to reach Immortality, he looked seriously at Alix before continuing.
" I won't go much further, you must focus on what you are doing, the next steps are logical but I would advise you to not go for it head first if you want to go higher, at least that what I say to my children. And I don't know you enough to completely trust you with the following steps, I'm just helping a boy in distress to cure his disorder."
-"Dad!" "Erik!" his children and wife shouted at the same time.
-"You didn't have to add that part dear !"
-"How could you say that dad, you always said to us, be kind to others without waiting for others to be kind to you!!"
-"Stop it, that's what I'm thinking and nothing could change it, go and help him, I will try to see if I could hunt something now that the rain had stopped."
-"...Thanks" A whispered word echoed in the little house. Alix could actually say his thanks and didn't hesitate to do it, overwhelmed by the kindness of this family.
-"You can actually talk" Méline nearly jump on it, with a furious glare.
Alix could just say no slowly with his head in response.
-" Yeah, I would let this one passed... I hope you will get better, quickly do what my dad said you must do, even if he can be a bit coarse in his words, he has a gentle heart and he means well!"
- "Let him rest a little Mel, he must be really tired, it's good that he was able to say his first word, everything is going better !" Cilis took her two children by their hand to free the room, letting the weakened Alix in the warm silence of this home.
"Actually I should rest but I want to continue this strengthening, it feels really marvelous, as when I was drinking green blood... I will try another time and after I will rest!"
Willing the Dark energy once again to move toward his brain, Alix could already feel tiny progress in the way the energy move. He had a little less effort to do to make it budge. The brain cells were swallowing as if starving for it, quickly filling the little organelles with this extremely sparse gaseous state named the Evaporate state.
The numerous organelles were soon bulging, full, the lining ready to blow up. He didn't understand for now how he could put more energy in it, denser, in the later Grand levels without letting them explode. He should ask Eric when he was ready to attack the next one!
The center of his brain was nearly full. It was a weird feeling to have a ball of energy in his head, He could feel it was easy to move it now that he had his cells full, but he would have to replenish them after so he chooses to not try it for now.
Understanding that just letting his cells swell with energy already reinforced his body, he continues to do so. After one hour, tired, small drops of sweat were streaming down his face, indicating that he overdid it a little. Choosing wisely to sleep, he fell on the couch instantly.
Three days passed in which Alix was focusing on feeding his brain, the family let him alone, just visiting to propose simple meals. He understood that his presence prevented them to eat to their heart content despite being already in the need.
Even if Lor, Erik, and Cilis could easily hunt, the wilderness was particularly empty around this place after the thunderstorm. They now must go far away to find beast to kill or nourishing plants to harvest because the two often goes in pair.
They couldn't let him alone in their own house and Erik had already left for three days to find some meat as he said previously. " I won't let their generous hearts go unpaid, I must return back what they freely gift me, a new life and a path to become stronger! I don't think this is a debt I could one day be able to pay but I must try hard!"
His Dark energy had now faded a little, the place where he used to make it move around his front now empty, making a white spot the size of a little bead appears on the middle of his face. It wasn't particularly attractive and he could see with the small shaking of Méline's shoulder that she was trying not to laugh when seeing him.
She would often sit beside him, reading or trying to feel the energy, letting him focus on his work. But when he was stopping, she would ask question after question, a curious mind inside her head.
Alix tried to answer, his elocution better and better but even before the fall he used to not speak too much. Having spent six months alone with cruel creatures as neighbors, he unknowingly lost the skill to interact with other humans.
Little by little she made him go out of his comfort zone, making richer answer than a "no" or a "yes" like in the beginning.
-"Tell me, how could you absorb this black energy without knowing anything at all?"
-" I didn't know anything... Back in my village, a few could use energy... I wasn't one of them... But I remembered a few sentences they said." Alix's phrases were particularly short, punctuated by long silences, but he was trying hard to make out what was on his mind.
-" So you already knew about the Abraxas and how to feel energies? You cheated !"
-"No... I knew about The Art... It's another thing I think... And in it, you have to feel energies...I tried to do it and it worked."
- "Yeah yeah, genius, stop trying to show off! But I can't even feel anything even after four years of trying! Show me if you are really telling me the truth"
Alix knew it was a clumsy try to make him reveal his secret but he didn't mind, he owes them too much, particularly this little girl who found him in the night.
-"You have to close your eyes..."
-" Yeah really a genius, as if I don't know that already !"
-"Try to empty your mind... Clear any thoughts you could have... Kill it when one appears...Let a geometrical form appear in your mind...It can help I think"
-"..."
-"Good, let your mind exit his shell... Stay clear-headed... Don't try to focus... Open yourself to the world around you..."
Alix let a good minute pass before continuing.
-"Now feel... Feel what is around you... Try to connect with it...You should feel tendrils wrapping around... Let your mind connect to it"
After about ten or so minutes, Méline suddenly jumped on the couch completely excited.
-"I did it, I did it, I could feel it a little, I'm such a genius, thank you Alix" In her joy, she deposits a big kiss on his cheek, her head instantly going red like a cherry. She then proceeds to run in the whole house telling everyone of her exploit, her brother and mother that is.
Alix could hear sounds of congratulation and smiled a little, remembering how much she pestered him just for him to say his name in the beginning. She was starting to feel closer like family.
Focusing again, he continues to feed his nerves cells. He was now feeding his spinal cord, feeling that he should have approximately did half of the path. "It's really a long and arduous process, I had already gathered all the necessary energy but couldn't even finish a step in four days. Time to be a little bit more devoted to it."
Five more days passed during which Méline finally started to absorb her first bit of energy, the house was upside down in joy. Erik returned with a weird looking deer, three-time its normal size with red antlers. It was really a joyous event, Alix preventing himself to devour the whole beast in one go, just eating his share as to not bother this loving family.
It was more nutritious than the Big Eyes on the surface of the canyon, testimony to the incredible strength holding by wilderness beast. Alix was anticipating to hunt in this area, eating to his heart content.
At the end of the fifth day, he could feel there weren't many nerve cells to feed anymore around his digestive system. An hour later, he could feel a special feeling going through his body, allowing a quicker response to stimuli, a better understanding of his environment and his five senses greatly improving. He was finally an early Evaporate level being.