"Are you sure? I have no idea what my unique attribute will do."
"That's why we have protections, go for it."
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
I put my hand out and white energy formed on it, taking the form of a great spear, only to fizzle, pop, and explode in my face.
"OW!"
"Well that was extremely stupid of you, it's Flow Manipulation, not Flow Blocking, look for the river of energy."
I closed my eyes and focused on the flow of Eneru in the world, Fesine put a hand on my shoulder and it was all revealed, the Flow was an imperceptible torrent of raw power, unrestrained but serene.
"Do you see the Great River?" Professor Fesine asked, removing her hand from my shoulder.
"Yes Professor."
"Good, now reach out and take control of a tiny portion of it."
I reached out with my real arm and grasped a small stream, I tried to turn the energy in a circle to keep it active, only for it to blow up in my face again.
"OW!"
"You're paying too much attention to the physical side of this, you have to enforce your spiritual will on the free-floating Eneru, not just physically move it."
"Yes Professor"
I once again reached my arm into the torrent of energy and turned it in a circle, forcing it to my will with my Eneru. A white glow sparkled out of my hands and the metal reinforcements in the walls of the learning hall shifted, following the flow of Eneru until, all at once, all the material flew at high speed in front of me, striking the target.
I opened my eyes to see that though much of the wall had been ripped apart and the target was in shambles, not one of the protections had activated.
"Good enough for you?" I asked
Professor Fesine adjusted the glasses she had to stop from being thrown with my attack.
"Your form was all off, you can't just close your eyes and take your time in a fight and you're manipulating too much at a time, there was no finesse."
"So more practice?"
"Yup, but go outside, apparently the defensive fields don't react to your Flow Manipulation." She spoke like she was about to kill an engineer.
I went outside and practiced, spending the whole time trying my best to capture less and less of the torrent, and because of that my spells got more precise. I threw some spears of metal, the only material Flow Manipulation seemed to be able to change, and they would get thinner, more precise, but would lose a little speed every time I brought down the amount I controlled, by the end of class the smallest amount I could control was the width of my arm and about three Ingens long.
I went back inside to tell Professor Fesine that I was done.
"Well first, you shouldn't confine training to now. You should always do flow manipulation until it's second nature. Spend the time you waste in between classes refining it because it is the most powerful, non-rune-based casting method. Blood Glyphs are almost as fast but also come with a drawback so you can't rely on them."
"Well, I can't exactly be walking down the halls pulling metal out of the walls."
"Don't worry, this is the only room in the entire building made with metal reinforcements."
"Ok, homework received, see you later Prof!" I unfolded my wings and spun the metal I was controlling around me.
'This is damn hard! How am I supposed to fly and practice at the same time?'
'The same way you would fight and fly at the same time: focus and precision.'
'Easy for you to say, you ain't gotta do it.' I was sweaty from the effort.
'Shut up and fly.'
I avoided hitting the wall I was headed towards and circled to Imbuement, I had to learn it's basics before the second semester or I would have a lot of trouble in Expanded Casting types, where they switched the class from Flow Manipulation the first semester, to Short-Imbuement the second, then Blood Glyphs the third, and Verbal Empowerment the Fourth. The last semester is very chill because there isn't a lot to learn about Verbal Empowerment.
"Ahhh! I just wanna go enchant my armor!" I cried, thinking about the work ahead of me.
"Good, you're here, I was just looking for you, you're late." Professor Pei'ye said
"No 'yes?' this time prof?"
"You can only stress so much before even your strongest tic breaks. Now come inside and get caught up, you have missed quite a bit."
"Yes sir!"
We went inside and I was greeted by what looked like an infuser, but it had a place for a spirit core to sit.
"Ok, we start with short-imbuement with your own spirit core."
"Wait, isn't that Expanded Casting?"
"No, we will not be making any effects, we will merely relocate your spirit to something else. like this." He showed me a metal sphere.
"Ok, when do I start?"
"In a week, for now, practice perceiving the flow."
'That's so boring!' I thought
'Live with it, I ain't risking my life on half-baked flow perception.'
"Enjoy!"
I sat and meditated on the flow for the entire period. Letting my consciousness wander, then restraining it when I inevitably think about something inappropriate.
'He said to practice the flow, not to spend your time with your head in the gutter!'
'Hey! It's not my fault I've got a body with needs. You wouldn't get it.'
The rest of the meditation went smoothly and I sharpened my senses a little bit.
"This is going to be so stupid slow isn't it?" I asked
"That's why you have me all year kid."