Chapter 10: Learning How to Manipulate Energy
After Shaman Catori taught him the way to manipulate Life Energy, she said that she will come back tomorrow to see his progression before she left. When Alfred learned the way to manipulate Life Energy, he immediately practiced it repeatedly.
Alfred needed to control the Life Energy, then brought it outside his body like what he did to his heart, but he didn't realize that it would be much harder this time. The first time was quite easy to control because the Life Energy was just inside his body, but this time the Life Energy was now flowing in every part of his body.
Alfred compared Life Energy to water. The 1st Stage was like putting scattered water into the main canal to make them flow. However, the 2nd Stage was like controlling the water to go to another canal, but that canal was connected to the main canal so the water just kept flowing back.
Alfred kept repeating the same action, but he kept getting the same result. Alfred started to feel dismayed, he has no idea what to do, he calmed down, then try to recall what he knew to see if he missed something.
'Shaman Catori said to control the life energy, then bring it outside my body and keep them there as long as I can, but how? I already tried the same action I did with my heart so what's the problem?... Wait, shaman Catori said to control the Life Energy, then bring it outside the body, but she didn't say I should imitate what I did with my heart.
Yes, 2nd State is Energy Manipulation. I need to manipulate the Life Energy not control them, but how can I manipulate the life energy? If I want to manipulate Life Energy, I need to control it indirectly. Instead of controlling the Life Energy itself, I just need to control its flow. Therefore, by controlling its flow, I can make the energy go wherever I want. However, how can I control the flow?
The flow of Life Energy is like flowing water, if I want the water to flow in another direction, I need to block its passage. Wait no, the flow of Life Energy and the flow of the water might be the same, but they are still different.
Blocking the passageway of the water to control it might work, but blocking the passage of Life Energy? That might be dangerous, I don't know what will happen to my body if I do that. Maybe I will just explode if I do something like that. However,… maybe the idea is not that bad. I don't need to block the passage of the Life Energy entirely, I just need to narrow it, and if I limit it enough, the Life Energy will find another place to flow to.'
After Alfred made the theory in his head, he started experimenting. After a trial and error, he finally succeeded in manipulating Life Energy. Alfred limited the flow of Life Energy by narrowing its passage. It still took a lot of focus to do it, but it's so much easier than directly controlling it.
After Alfred succeeded, he was finally able to bring out the Life Energy on the nail of his index finger, but it's still too thin to see using a naked eye. Alfred retained the Life Energy on his fingernail until he almost depleted the Life Energy in his body. Alfred intentionally left a small amount of life energy within him,
because Shaman Catori warned him about using all the Life Energy in his body. Shaman Catori said that depleting all the reserve Life Energy inside the body has an unwanted side effect. Although Alfred left a small amount of Energy, he still felt so weak that his eyes were starting to close on their own.
Alfred tried his best to stay awake because he wanted to manipulate the Life Energy while the feeling was still fresh in his head. Alfred absorbed the Life Energy in the environment again, then store it in his heart. After a while, the strength that he lost was gradually returned to him.
Because Alfred has already experienced the 1st Stage, he didn't feel excited anymore like last time, so he didn't fall into the tranced this time.
After absorbing enough Life Energy, he manipulated it again. Alfred repeated this cycle until morning, he even forgot to rest. When Shaman Catori came into Alfred's tent, she saw Alfred sitting in a lotus position, and absorbing Life Energy.
Shaman Catori forcefully woke up Alfred.
"Did you not rest?"
When Alfred opened his eyes, he got startled when he saw Shaman Catori asking him a question. Alfred was a little confused about why Shaman Catori was inside his tent, but when he saw the light outside, he finally realized that it was already morning.
When Alfred felt Shaman Catori was still staring at him, waiting for his answer. Alfred felt embarrassed.
"I think so, I am too focused on manipulating the Life Energy. I did not realize that is already morning."
"I knew that this might happen, that is why I told you I am going to visit you again today to check on you. You know manipulating the energy is harder than absorbing it, you wouldn't be able to produce energy outside your body even if you try it for days. You should probably rest now, and do not strain yourself." Shaman Catori's advice.
Alfred was confused because he could already bring the energy outside his body.
"But I already can, even though it is just on the point of my finger, but still"
Shaman Catori didn't understand Alfred.
"What do you mean you can?"
"I can already bring the Life Energy outside of my body" Alfred replied.
"That is impossible, do you know how much control you need to bring out even the tiniest Energy outside of your body? A lot, you need a lot of practice and strong Life Energy inside your body to forcefully bring it out, and you will take days or even one moon to achieve that"
Alfred stopped explaining, then showed Shaman Catori the Life Energy on the point of his index finger. Shaman Catori became bewildered by what she has just seen.
"How… how did you manage to do that?! That is impossible!"
"Well, you said that you need a lot of practice to forcefully control the Life Energy, but I think you might misunderstand the meaning of the 2nd Stage Energy Manipulation. Theoretically, your solution of forcefully controlling Life Energy is not wrong. However, it is not the best way to control it.
You do not need to control the Life Energy itself, you just need to control its flow. By doing that, you can choose wherever you like Life Energy to go without resistance. Therefore, it is called Energy Manipulation." Alfred explained.
When Shaman Catori heard Alfred's explanation, she became disappointed in herself.
"How can I miss something so simple? It is already in the name how can I not see it? I understand the hunters forcefully controlling the Life Energy because they are simple-minded, but me? I should have known this a long time ago, did I become too old that I miss something this simple? You really are smart."
Alfred became bashful when he heard Shaman Catori's compliment. While Alfred was enjoying the compliment, Shaman Catori suddenly interrupted him.
"Never mind that for now, if you can produce energy outside of your body, then can you finally make a rune?" Shaman Catori excitedly asked.
When Alfred heard Shaman Catori, he finally remembered that he did all of this to make a rune.
"I think so, but first, I need some kind of Energy source. Do you have a beast core?"
"What is this beast core?" Shaman Catori asked.
"I hope you know because I have no idea. It says in the parchment that it was the best source of Energy."
Shaman Catori became silent and thought if she heard a beast core somewhere, then she realized something.
"You said beast, the only thing I know that is inside the beast is its Life Stone. Is that what you are asking?"
"Maybe I do not know." Alfred hesitantly replied.
"If that is what you are asking, we do not have that. Do you know how valuable a Life Stone is? Do you know how hard to obtain one? Even if our tribe possessed one, we will not give it to you for this experiment. Did the parchment say anything about any alternative?"
Alfred was a little perplexed, he didn't know a beast core was that important.
"There is an alternative, it is monster's blood." Alfred said.
"If just a monster blood that is easy to acquire." Shaman Catori replied
After shaman Catori said that, she gave an order to one of the hunters to get a monster's blood in her shelter. After a few minutes, the hunter returned with a waterskin made from some kind of monster skin. When the blood of the monster was finally here, Alfred started to write the rune using life energy.
Alfred closed his eyes, then imagined a hot fire in his head. After that, he slowly wrote the word fire using a runic symbol. When Alfred finished the rune, the rune suddenly glowed with white light, and Alfred felt a lot of Life Energy leave his body. Even though Alfred was clearly weakened because of the sudden drain of Life Energy.
His focus was still on the rune. After taking a break for a second, he took the waterskin from shaman Catori. Alfred became anxious because only a single drop of the monster's blood would reveal the truth about whether the parchment was real or fake. Alfred opened the waterskin, and finally. he dropped the blood of the monster.