Harold and Blake came to the training ground where they usually practice. Harold made sure that no one except them was around as Blake will need full concentration. If he is able to shut down the corrosion effect, then he can slowly master its control.
"Blake continue our usual control exercise. Circle the purple rope around the rock and try to control the corrosion. If the rock gets corroded and then divided into 2 pieces then it means you failed and you have to start again on another rock." Harold said. This kind of practice had become a usual routine for Blake in the past week. He was now able to slow down corrosion to a great extent but Harold wanted him to have complete control over it.
"Blake remember that just restricting yourself isn't going to help. You need to identify how the corrosion works and gain control over it." Harold encouraged Blake to find his own way while doing things so that Blake feels its natural. That way Blake can use the power of the soul spirit to its fullest extent.
Blake used the purple rope gripped the stone. The stone started corroding but it was very slow. After a few minutes, the stone had corroded more than 80% and the speed of corrosion was the slowest Blake and Harold had ever seen.
'I feel a bubbling liquid kind of feel that is corroding whatever it touches. Now I just have to make sure to effectively control that.' Blake continued to feel the bubbling liquid and now he had reached to the point where he could feel it on the surface of the rope.
"Uncle Harold its like a thin liquid of acid spread over the rope that is corroding everything. How do I control it?" Blake looked back at Harold who could give him some kind of idea as to how this will work.
Harold thought for a few seconds and responded "Blake imagine the surface of the rope as your skin and let the liquid enter inside the rope from the surface. Do it as if the rope is sucking all the liquid in through millions of small pores."
Blake decided to try Harold's idea and imagined pores opening under the liquid. After a few minutes, Blake could feel that the surface was completely dry and he could even control their suction and secretion of the the boiling liquid. He suddenly heard Harold yell "YESSS"
He opened his eyes and looked at Harold who gave a thumbs up to Blake. Blake was a little confused by this so he looked at the rock and saw that the corrosion had stopped completely.
'Wow, I managed to stop it completely. Now I can train with Simon and Arya and like Simon said I can also join the academy with them.' Blake thought. He loosened his grip from the rock and circled his rope on another rock. Harold didn't stop him as even he wanted Blake to gain fine control over this. And even if the corrosion rate was 1%, it was not acceptable and Harold and Blake both understood that.
'I hope I was successful in stopping the corrosion completely. He could feel that the entire surface of the rope was dry. Blake didn't have to actively hold back the boiling liquid anymore. After keeping the rope on the new rock for 2 minutes, Harold signaled Blake to remove the rope. This was the moment of truth. Even if there is an ounce of corrosion visible on the rock then Blake needs more practice or else he gets to enjoy today to the fullest and tour the city including the academies.
As Blake removed the rope he could see some markings on it. Seeing them Blake felt a bit worried. 'Dammit...did the corrosion not go away completely?' he thought.
Harold went close to the rock and crouched down. He touched the markings and after a few seconds looked at Blake with a serious expression on his face.
Blake was getting impatient so he just frowned and said "Come on uncle Harold, don't keep me in this suspense for so long. Tell me fast."
Harold chuckled and said "These markings aren't of corrosion but your tight grip. We will need to work on your grip but for now you have held back the corrosion completely. Congrats."
Blake took back the purple rope back into his arm. He looked at Harold with a proud look and said "Of course, it was a piece of cake." In his mind he knew that it wasn't one and he had to do everything he could to just do something like control. Unbeknowist to him Harold was really proud of Blake as he thought that
'Children his age take months and years to obtain control over their soul spirit. But mostly in the other way around. They can't use the innate skills that come with their soul spirit and they have to practice day and night to do it but Blake had to practice to control an already active innate skill and turn it into passive.'
Harold looked at Blake and said "Let's go and give everyone the good news. After a few hours we need to leave for the academy registration."
Harold and Blake headed to the training ground where Simon and Arya practice. They knew they would find Anya and Sheila there as well.
As they reached they saw that Arya was practicing her agility with the sword while Simon was simply swinging the sword by reading instructions in manual. Sheila and Anya were sitting on the bench at the boundary of the training ground.
Anya saw Harold and Blake coming and called out "You two are early today. Does that mean what I think it means?" this captured the attention of the other three as well.
Harold smiled and nodded while Blake shouted "I learned to control it completely."
Arya quickly ran up to them and said "Great let's fight Blake." she was extremely excited but Anya threw water on her excitement shortly after."
"Arya now is not the time. We have to get ready to leave. Blake congrats on your achievement but don't get too excited as this is the start of your journey."
Sheila chuckled and said "She is right Blake. Now let's go home and get you changed to leave." Sheila said as she came close to Blake and ruffled his hair. She then looked at Anya and said "I will get this little devil ready in half and hour then we can leave."
Anya nodded and then looked at her two kids and said "Both of you go and get ready as well."
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