AN: Hey everyone! Hope you are having a nice Sunday or whatever day you are reading this... Anyways, I wanted to let everyone know that I will be going out of town soon and will not be back to my computer until next Saturday night. So there might not be a chapter that day but I will do something the day after...
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"Hmm… no, definitely not like that. *sigh* Honestly, I thought I would have figured this out already…" looking at the aura that is being expelled from my body in no small amount of frustration I pondered what it was exactly that I was doing wrong.
'I figured Ren would just be expelling aura with the intent of "Ren" or attacking something…' quickly retracting my aura back into a stable Ten I began to consider what I was missing.
"I mean Ren was always depicted as being more explosive… or was that one of the advanced techniques? I know the general idea is expelling more aura than your typical Ten but maybe it has to do with density? Or speed?" musing to myself as I continue to change various factors whilst expelling my aura.
'You know, while I figured I could easily learn Nen using meta-knowledge this shit is hard… I'll probably have to look for a Nen master for pointers in the future.' still having trouble with the next step of my Nen training I began rethinking my plan on learning by myself. While I certainly had an advantage over any other individual, the fact that the scope of my knowledge was small and mostly forgotten besides key points and persons.
"!!!" quickly stopping my previous train of thought I snapped my attention back to my aura which had a slight change in state. Instead of a gel-like layer of aura that signified Ten, my aura began to turn into airy wisp-like tendrils emanating from the very tips of my aura. Focusing on the feeling of its qualities, being the refinement of my aura then explosively projecting it outside the body. Unfortunately, I was unable to progress past this early stage of Ren. This was mostly due to my unrefined Ten, even if I had well above average talent, only half a day's practice with Ten wasn't enough to get it to the mastery required for Ren.
"Well… this should be enough for water divination? Not really sure, regardless, I might as well try and figure out my aura category." A bit bummed that I was unable to progress through the basics quickly I decided to try water divination to break up the monotony of my training.
'Now that I think about it….' with a canteen in hand and sitting down in the middle of my makeshift training area I realized one small problem.
"I am in a desert… where the FUCK am I going to find a leaf?" quickly standing up and scanning the same barren wastelands that surrounded me for the past two days for any and all non-existent greenery.
'Ah… I did not consider the need for a leaf, though is there anything I can use as a substitute… actually yeah I think so?' moving back to my tent I dug through my bags before taking out my used travel tickets.
"I mean it's paper, and small enough so it should work? The only thing the leaf was used for was either specialist changes or moving a bit if you are a manipulator…" quickly tearing up the ticket stubs to the rough shape of a leaf regardless I plopped the small piece of paper on the surface of my water canteen before setting it upright in front of myself.
"Here goes…" closing my eyes and recalling the sensation of Ren I focused my aura mostly on my hands before moving them to either side of the canteen. Eventually, the aura began to flow from my hands into the canteen. Mentally pushing myself further I tried to shift the form of my aura into that of Ren once again.
*splash* with the slightest sound of the water being disturbed I opened my eyes while continuing to feed my incomplete Ren into the canteen. Leaning over and peering into the mouth of the bottle I looked at the piece of paper moving around the surface and creating small ripples across the surface of the water.
"Huh… that actually worked and my prediction was actually correct, I guess I am a manipulator. Uhm… the makings of a manipulator were… logical thinking people who are argumentative and put the lives of those they care about of utmost importance, and are driven when they have a goal in mind and never listen to outside input when pursuing it… Yeah that sound like me I guess." nodding at the conclusion of the Water divination and its implications regarding my transmigration.
'So while I do have an innate talent in terms of abilities derived or similar to 20th-century boy, my Nen category was most likely not changed to fit the ability better… though that brings the question of how the hell I make the stand work through manipulation…' scratching my head at the new problem on my plate I quickly decided to through it on the back burner due to the more pressing problem on hand.
"Well… Is the worm even there anymore? He has been pretty quite recently." bending over and picking up a rock the size of a softball and lobbing it into the sandy dunes surrounding the rocky island I was on.
*smack* landing on the hot desert sands with a strong thud the rock created a small dustcloud that was slowly being dispersed by the wind.
"..." waiting in silence for some sort of reaction or sign of the sandworm I looked around the outskirts of the rocky island while pacing around for a small period of time.
"*sigh* Well, looks like he left alrea-" sighing in relief and turning around as I walked back towards my campsite I was interrupted as I vocally expressed my relief.
"SSKKKKREEEE!" being the ever-present nuisance he has been, the sandworm made its unfortunate presence known with its loudest screech to date. Seemingly enraged due to my continuous resistance to ending up inside of its stomach the now hungry beast had lost its patience.
"...I spoke too soon huh?" slowly turning around while flaring up my aura a bit as I widened and lowered my stance a bit readying myself for the now unavoidable conflict.