--- Gremory Point of View --- Still in the woods
"Yeah, look at you, I knew that you only needed some physical activity to get back to your real self" The old man said to me.
"Robert, this is no time for jokes, look at him, he clearly did something to the animals, couldn't you leave any animals even for us to eat? We spent hours here and we are going to come back empty hand"
"Sorry, I really didn't do it on purpose"
"Calm down Carine, it is also clear that he has no control over it, let just come back tomorrow to hunt again, it's not like you have many things to do anymore"
"Yeah, but this was supposed to be a retirement, you have not mentioned we would have to deal with an overlord."
"Hey, you know I am here, right?" I spoke.
"It's better we come back to the village, I will deal with this later" Robert said with a worried face.
"Agreed, the more we stay in this forest, the more chances I put an arrow in his head" Carine responds even more angrily.
"You know I am not going to do anything to you" I spoke to Carine trying to calm her.
"You said yourself, you have no control over your powers."
She looked at me with an apprehensive face, I know she wouldn't do it, even then I have no blame for all of this, as soon the animals died, they also turned to dust, is not like I have a switch button.
--Back at the village--
"Boy, go back home and rest, tomorrow we will hunt again, but this time will be different" The old man said to me.
"Hunt again? Okay sure, but how you expect this time will be different?"
"You will see"
The old man never talks about something he does not know, even so, I doubt this time will be different...
The day was still pretty clear, but the moment I lay in bed I just blacked out, the tiredness of all these accumulated weeks was finally leaving my body.
Once again I am woken by screams, but this time it was the old man.
"WAKE UP KID! We have a long day ahead".
"What the problem with you guys screaming out of nowhere in the morning".
I look out of the window and to my surprise, is not even morning yet.
"Why did you wake me up so early?"
"Yesterday I said we were going to hunt, but first we need to start your training".
"Training? For what?".
"To better control your mana and power"
"Mana? But I was tested, I have no mana"
"Look kid, I know I look just an old man, but I am a veteran of many wars, I saw many mages already in the battles and I know that what you did is somehow similar to what mages do, so we start there"
"And you are going to teach me? You also said this thing was exclusive to the mages"
"Yes, that's true, unfortunately for you, I'm the closest to someone with experience in magic here, so stop complaining and let's go"
'I have nothing to lose for trying, so why not?'
We went to a region in the forest that had already been prepared for training, I suppose it was what he did yesterday after the hunt.
"What do I do?"
"Look around kid, what can you see?"
"A forest, some small animals in cages (squirrels and mice), nothing more..."
"Yes, but what you see when you look to these animals?"
"Hmm... eye, nose, ear?"
"Not that, in the forest every time we kill an animal, somehow your body created a connection between him and you, I want you to control that connection."
"And how do I do that?"
"Don't know, you must focus, I think you will be able to see something, maybe..."
"Understood!"
I stand in front of a cage and focus on the mouse inside it, still ... I can't see anything.
"I only can see the mice, nothing more"
"I was worried that it was the case, let's try something then. Keep looking at him and focus!"
He took the mouse out of the cage and killed it in front of me with a small knife, the body of the mouse turned into dust, the same feeling as always comes to me, yet... nothing more.
"What did you see?"
"Nothing, there is nothing to see, the only thing I can see is the mouse dying"
"Stop complaining and focus, I will try again"
And so did he, and again.. Again.. Again.. Again.. Until it happened.
"I CAN SEE"
"What? Really? What did you saw?"
"It was like a black energy, leaving the body of the mouse"
"That is, now you must control this aura, leave this be at the mouse body next time"
"Okay, do it again"
The same thing repeats multiple times, luck for me this old man got a lot of animals somehow.
"Wait a minute, let me think before you kill the next one"
The things I learned is that, when the animal dies, the black energy inside the body of the mouse, somehow lose the protection, something like an animal losing his shell, when this happens, I can fell the energy and just like air, I automatically pull into my body. But if just like the animal, I create a shell around me, I would be able to choose the moment to open the shell and receive the energy.
"Kill the mouse"
The old man took another mouse out of the cage, but this time was different, when the mouse died, no sensation and no black energy coming out of the mouse's body.
"You did it, good one kid!"
'Finally, it worked, the old man was right after all.'
"Now we must hurry, I told Carine to wait for us in the forest"
"Why didn't you say so?"
"At first, I didn't think this would work, but when I saw that we were making progress, I decided not to disturb your focus"
"I see, so let's hurry up, otherwise I am the one she will be yelling tomorrow"
The old man fed the rest of the animals in the cages, and we headed to where Carine was.
She was angry at the delay, but as soon as we started hunting, and she saw that I was being able to hold myself in front of the animals, the stress on her disappeared, until one hour I approached them and my barrier faltered, transforming all the animals that we had collected in dust.
So we did the same thing the other day, the training and the hunt.
And the next
The next
For four years....