Watching his Master return to his study, Zao Wu Hai walked to his bed and unloaded his pack. With his bedroll spread across the new bed frame, he laid down to close his eyes. It was hard for him to unwind, there was always something rushing through his head. Sometimes they were ideas, sometimes they were fragments of his daydreams.
'A Dream world exists to allow the imagination to run wild, To create a dream world one can meet the unexpected within will take the destruction of forethought. The world is not enough, Tomorrow may never come, Dream a Dream, Live a Life' Random images kept popping into the Dreams of Zao Wu Hai.
He could see a singular moon in the distance within the dream, it was dark and drab.
The moon was void of color, pale and filled with pits as if a great and terrible battle had been waged upon it. The night sky inside the dream was quiet and had no worlds in its view. Small Stars in the distance left him with a feeling of loneliness and regret. He felt a feeling of loss, as fleeting as it was. He knew it was a dream and nothing more but what a dream.
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Weeks passed, a bird chirped outside of his window and Wu Hai went out to do his morning exercises. The Spring air was in his face, dissipation of winter left the ground cool and the suns were bright, hanging above. With all of his training he was only able to manage the Darkflame Ring down to 35% compression, it was almost back to the size when he had first started his training.
"To think it would actually be this hard to compress." He struggled with his manifestations, every now and then he would fumble and the pain would come. Training had its ups and downs, there was no gain where there was no pain. "Ughh, tired.." Wu Hai went back to his room and disrobed, his body was thin but with his training, he'd lost nearly all his baby-fat.
Looking more like a teenager than a child, he still wasn't tall. Settling in the tub, Wu Hai summoned his flames and heated the water. He thought about how his brother would tease him over his height and missed his brother. He often wondered where Zhan was.
It was only a few more weeks until his birthday.
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It was foggy outside the cabin again, Zao Wu Hai had been through months of compression training and the progress was back to where he started. Albeit many times more complicated, the theory would work on most magic types.
"Control, Accuracy, Speed and Timing." Remember them well. Old Man Jiang had Wu Hai repeating his words constantly during the training sessions. "Concentration, Aim, Size, Trajectory, Control, Accuracy, Speed and Timing. Repeat after me!"
These were the fundamentals of casting a spell. 'C.A.S.T.' Wu Hai chanted to himself while he was practicing, power was relatable but most people couldn't change their base power no matter what they did. He followed instructions to the best of his ability and repeated the Old Master's words again. "C. A. S. T, Control, Accuracy, Speed and Timing. Concentration, Aim, Size, Trajectory. Control Accuracy, Speed and Timing."
"You were either born with Magic, or not. No matter how hard you work, one day there will be a wall and most people in history have failed to move past that wall. Go around it." Master Jiang clapped his hands to increase the pace of the training and Wu Hai stopped to put his hands on his knees.
"The Compression seems to be relative to the width of my ring. If I could only get it razor thin, I bet I could compress it down further." He thought it over a few minutes and argued with himself in the yard. The Old Man didn't give him any problems over it but still listened to what Wu Hai had to say about the matter, the boy's insight to his own problems had gotten him quite far in his training. To think over what his disciple had to say, Old Man Jiang went back into the house.
'Problem is I'll still have to keep the same power levels or Master will be upset with my progress.' Thinking about how to internalize his ability in a more practical manner, Wu Hai pushed his Darkflame Ring down into a flat disc and a small whirring could be heard as it circulated. It sounded like it was cutting through the air.
Although it had regained some of its diameter and was a few feet wider, it didn't grow too much. The Compression Ring had made it to 30%. 30% was much smaller than when he was trying it with the ring as thick as an arm. Just trying to maintain the consistency of the Darkflame Ring, Wu Hai was already sweating. He produced a fireball, then a second one and had them orbit the ring counter-clockwise. 'I to maintain more than one magic if I'm was ever going to evolve this skill.'
For the young Disciple, it was frightening and wild. His control was growing significantly as the rotations of the fireballs slowed down, fighting against the current. Once they had overcome the centrifugal force, they sped up altogether, pushing back and cutting through the darkness ring. It was a terrifying energy.
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The Old Man had been at his shop contending with customers in a random fashion. Not many of the visitors were friendly and most of them wanted to run off without paying for the harder to see books. "So disrespectful, some of the public would be thrilled just to enter but no, there's always some asshole and their mutant spawn." Old Man Jiang could only sigh and sneer as he flipped his hand over to read another page in his book. It had happened forth time that day that another child had come in. As the Store owner, Master Jiang had even considered installing a defensive formation to keep wastrel children and weak adults away but every spell formation he had would cause damage to people forcing through them. He didn't have the heart to harm the children, even if they were cruel imitations of their parents.
Old Man Jiang was clearing up his shop when a book fell from the shelves, as if it fated he read the title, Flash Step. "Hah, If he had this he wouldn't have an excuse for being late." The Old Hermit chuckled when he thought about how he was going soft.
Putting the book aside, he had another customer.
A woman in sleek dress that was completely impractical for battle had walked in. She noticed the book Old Man Jiang had set down and came into contact with the counter, making sure her breasts laid on top of it gently.
"Can I buy this book?" Batting her eyelids at the Miser did nothing but agitate him. She pouted slightly when his eyes lit up in fury.
He quickly scuttled any ideas in her petite little body and rushed her out the door. The tastes of Old Man Jiang had always been clear to himself. He chased his brother-in-arms because of the bloodshed they shared. The thrill of combat was something no one could ever deny and women were just distractions on the battlefields.
She was upset that the bookstore shopkeeper was kicking her out without saying a word. She even tried to hold out but the Old Man was strong for his apparent age.
"I said no, you can take that charm spell you're flaunting and get the hell out of my store." Master Jiang flicked his hand toward her, bright lights emerged, hovering, intimidating her out of the doorway. 'Women who try sex as a bargaining tool are only tools themselves.' He spat out of the doorway and made sure she left. There were several men outside, all of them had seen what had just happened and tightened their fists.
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Wu Hai was out late training once again. The hours flowed and the Suns had been chased away by the night sky. He wanted to return to his home and bed but hours had passed while he was reading he was half-asleep at the table when Old Man Jiang dropped the book to stop his drooping eyes.
"WAKE UP!" The Old man snapped his fingers, he had a look in his eyes. "I've got something for you."
Reading the cover, Wu Hai fingered the binding in confusion. "Its not my birthday yet, is this alright?" He didn't want to take on more work than his Master would allow. Training was hard and he was concentrating to his fullest.
"Of course, I chanced by this in the shop today. To think I overlooked your speed for this long. Its my fault and so I must trouble you. Commit this to memory and add it to your training." Old Man Jiang was quiet for a moment then Wu Hai saw him drifting out the door and into his office. 'Cleansing the body will be a good idea, I should get him into the Springs before they freeze. I just hope it doesn't affect the his bloodline.'
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