Mako opened the backdoor of his house, only to feel the air around him suddenly feel heavy. There was a special of suppression imposing itself on Mako, one that Mako had not felt until now. The suppression had little effect on him, and being exposed to it for the first time from inside his house had caught him off guard.
As the door fully opened, Mako saw the source of such a great aura. Bill was still sitting at the kitchen table learning the abilities mentioned in the Wind ability book and unconsciously releasing the combined aura of two level 3 abilities.
"How in the hell are you doing that!?" Mako asked as Bill finally moved his head from the book and stared at Mako.
Bill had not moved a muscle since the last time Mako saw him when he went to the forest to test his new abilities. He had no idea that it was the next day or the fact that Mako was missing for the night and was now wearing different clothes.
"Hey, you're back early," Bill said as he resumed reading the book.
Mako was beyond shocked to hear what Bill had just said. The kitchen of Mako's house didn't have any windows so Bill had no clue when the night was over but it seemed as if Bill was too focused on the book to even notice the shift in time. For him, it was as if two hours had passed.
Mako slowly approached Bill as the intensity of his aura became even stronger. Mako couldn't believe that Bill's aura could be so high as he could still only emit a stronger version of a level 3 aura since he had 2 abilities, but he couldn't keep both auras active at once.
"What do you mean, early?" Mako said as he just wanted to confirm his suspicions.
Bill took his glance off the book for the second time as he explained," You practice in the woods for longer, so I was a bit surprised to see you back home a bit early."
"Bill, do you know what time it is?"
"Uh...no."
"It's the next day!!"
"What?! No way...."
Bill was genuinely shocked to hear Mako say that it was now the next day. He got up to look at the clock display in the living room; sure enough, Mako wasn't lying.
{ 03: 45 PM }
{ Sunday }
{ 22/01/3100 }
"Hehe... I guess I lost track of time, I was too absorbed in the ability book." Bill apologized to Mako while smiling and scratching the back of his head.
Mako let out a sigh as he couldn't believe this was the same Bill Johnson that he was so scared of a few weeks ago. Bill asked what had happened because even though Bill lost track of time, it doesn't ignore the fact that Mako himself had just come home.
Thinking about what to say, Mako decided to not tell Bill of the events that took place last night, because Bill would know Mako had no such ability that would turn him into a battle-thirsty monster seeking to destroy all his enemies and it would raise a lot of fingers on him which he didn't want.
Mako made up the same excuse as Bill saying that he lost track of time while practicing his abilities and went pretty deep into the woods, and it took him a while to come back as well. The excuse didn't cover the fact that Mako was wearing different clothes but thankfully Bill wasn't a keen observer.
Both boys were starving as neither of them had eaten anything in almost 24 hours. They decided to freshen up and have something before continuing with their discussion.
Mako quickly took a shower and changed into his own clothes before making his way into the kitchen and taking the bag full of goodies out of his inventory. The bag was still warm and the goods inside still smelled as if they were just made. This confirmed Mako's theory that whatever he stores in his inventory will maintain the same state until it is taken back out again.
Bill came back to the kitchen after a few minutes and Mako explained to him that he ordered something to eat while he was in the shower. Bill was too hungry to question anything so both boys decided to just dig in.
After a very delicious and fulfilling meal, Mako asked Bill again, how he was able to emit both level 3 auras at the same time.
Bill grinned at this because he had finally caught back on to his former glory as he was now stronger than Mako again, but now they were friends rather than enemies.
Bill explained that he picked the wind ability from the get-go because his father also possessed these two elemental abilities and he knew a great deal about them. The process that Bill was talking about was called "Resonance", it can be done when a person is familiar enough with two different auras in his body and starts to command the aura to bind with each other.
Bill's father was a military veteran who got loads of training regarding his abilities and he passed down these teaching to his children, during training matches. Even though Bill was viewed as someone without any talent in his father's eyes, Bill had taken great interest during the training matches and he memorized everything his father ever taught him alongside his elder siblings.
It took an average person around two weeks two get familiar with the aura of the ability inside them and to utilize abilities, but Bill had already learned all three wind abilities in the book and also managed to resonate the wind and earth abilities together, all in a single day.
It was an astounding achievement and it was all thanks to the lessons he learned from his father even though he didn't care for him, it was Bill's life goal to earn his father's respect.
Mako was truly amazed by the concept of Resonance and was intrigued as to why the system hadn't informed him about it yet. Mako chalked it up to the fact that he had just learned the Lightning ability and it would take him some time to get familiar with it alongside his fire ability, as he didn't have any teachings to go off of.
Bill wanted to continue reading the book as even though he had learned about all three abilities, it would take some time before he could master them fully, and he didn't want to waste a second.
Mako used Analyze on Bill again just to see how his status sheet had changed from before.
'Analyze'
[Analyze]
[Profile: Bill Johnson]
[Ability: Earth (Level 3), Wind (Level 3), Sand (Level 1)] ⓘ
[Health: 160/160] ⓘ
[Energy: 300/300] ⓘ
[Strength: 25] ⓘ
[Agility: 15] ⓘ
[Perception: 3] ⓘ
[Intelligence: 7] ⓘ
[Mentality: 20] ⓘ
[Stamina: 10] ⓘ
[Charisma: 9] ⓘ
[Fortitude: 20] ⓘ
Bill's stats had improved a lot in a little amount of time which goes to show his determination to become stronger and do right to his corrupted past. He had gained a boost from learning the Wind ability, but that wasn't the shocking thing at all.
Bill had 3 abilities!
Mako focused on the third ability that presented itself in front of him and he noticed that the Sand ability had a darker grey close to a blue outline around it which signified its importance over the other abilities.
Mako was very curious about this new ability so he utilized Analyze on it so that he could get a better understanding of what was going on.
'Analyze'
[Ability: Sand (Level 1)] ⓘ
[An advanced ability that combines the auras of Wind Element and Earth Element to provide the user with the power to manipulate sand. It is similar to controlling the earth, but with much more accurate and finer control, as the particles of sand are just fine earth that can be easily controlled and manipulated with the resonance of the Wind Element.]
Again the same word "Resonance" was used as it was by no means a coincidence anymore. Bill had seemingly mixed the two auras to birth a stronger ability that could make the air around Mako heavy even though it was just a level 1 ability.
It was mind-boggling that something so strong could be produced just by the mixture of weaker abilities and this made Mako even more excited for the future, where he would be able to resonate his two abilities and create something even more powerful that could help him in future battles.
The two boys eventually went outside in the backyard which was also the entrance to the woods, and Bill decided to teach Mako as much as he could about how to resonate abilities together as it was not going to be very easy.
Mako was eager to learn so he got started straight away and was determined to not lag behind Bill again and become the weaker one again. Mako immediately started to practice his lightning ability so he could get more familiar with his second ability while Bill started experimenting with his sand ability to see just what he could do.
Small sand pillars rose and fell at the command of Bill's hands as it was truly a magnificent sight. Bill started to have flashbacks of the time his father showed him and his siblings some of the moves that he could do with the sand ability.
****************
"Earth and Wind are two elements that make up the ground and sky, learn to use them efficiently and you can create a very strong and versatile combo." William Johnson instructed as spikes of sand erupted out of the ground and 15 meters into the sky.