'Meditate?'
Everyone thought the same thing in confusion. Though no one spoke, everyone knew what running through their friend's head.
Having a thought, Sefir and Emmia turned to Icarth. Witnessing a serene smile on his face, both of them reached the same conclusion.
'He's going to sleep.'
"Now what do you think I mean by meditating?" Melvin asked a rhetorical question.
"It's not regular meditating just sitting with your eyes closed. While doing that for years on end, one may achieve the method to perceive universal energy, this course does not stretch for more than one year."
"I have to get you all to get the feel for universal energy in at least one year." Melvin smiled again, the students suddenly felt an ominous premonition.
"So welcome to my neat trick. Before I demonstrate it, I'll ask a question. Would the concentration of universal energy in an area affect the time taken for a person to perceive it?"
Sefir raised his hand to answer.
"Yes, Sefir."
"Sir, the ability to perceive universal energy does depend on the concentration of it in the surroundings. It's like the more humid the air is, the better we can feel the water in the air."
"Correct," Melvin praised with a smile.
"Now next question. How does the turbulence of Universal energy in the surroundings affect the ability to perceive it?"
Putting two and two together, a student suddenly asked, "Sir are we going to combine both concepts to try to perceive universal energy?"
"Well yes," Melvin confirmed slightly disappointed that no one answered his question.
"Now, we'll only start with stage one. If you can get the feel of it in stage one, good for you. If you can't don't worry, I have more stages left to help you."
Icarth straightened up, no longer with any intention to sleep. Through all his training sessions, he had never been able to see or feel the universal energy. This class would truly help him power up if he got the hang of it.
Melvin activated his gift «Heat Forge».
The temperature in the room slowly rose as the universal energy itself started to heat up. The universal energy gained a property like that of hot air coming from an open oven.
The students finally started to feel the heat and everyone started to sweat profusely.
"Now guys, don't focus on the heat solely. You need to dig deeper and get a feel for the universal energy underneath."
'How are we supposed to do that?!' The students cried out in frustration at their teacher's bad explanation.
The temperature had rocketed up and now was at the level of an oven set on a high level.
Icarth and Sefir had already closed their eyes along with a few others.
Emmia and the rest soon followed and joined their classmates.
All thoughts of relaxing were completely thrown out of the room as the heat was truly unbearable.
Icarth felt the heat prickle his skin, sweat had started to flow out of him like a river.
Eyes closed, Icarth couldn't sense anyone else through the heat. His usual senses were cut off and the only thing he felt was the indomitable heat that surrounded him like molasses.
Giving up on sensing anything else, he focused on the heat surrounding him. But the moment he did that, the sensation seemed to multiply by multiple folds.
The blanket of heat thicked to the extent of constricting his breath. Icarth tried his best to bear the suffocating sensation. Trying to maintain his breathing, Icarth found that even the air he inhaled burned his insides.
Focussing on something else all Icarth found that he could do was focus on the ever-increasing blanket of heat strangling him. Finally finding it unbearable, Icarth gasped out loud for air. The moment he opened his mouth, the heat around him disappeared like a lie.
His focus broken, Icarth opened his eyes in confusion.
Melvin was standing calmly in the front of the room.
Around 10 minutes had passed, and not a drop of sweat was seen on him. His clothes were still immaculately dry without any sweat marks.
On the other hand, Icarth and the others were covered head to toe in sweat. It dripped from their foreheads down to their feet.
"Pretty good first attempt," Melvin stated. He eyed Icarth from the corner of his eye. The boy had lasted for about 10 minutes. Most of the students had not even made it past 5 including his sister. Melvin had to remove the heat surrounding them the moment they started to suffocate in the heat.
The students were sitting, mentally exhausted from the ordeal. They had each tried a different method to feel the universal energy and almost each of them had nearly been choked by the heat that surrounded them.
While everyone rested, someone murmured out loud, "First attempt?" He just repeated what Melvin had said a few moments ago.
Everyone turned to their classmate and then to their teacher. Melvin just smiled.
"I reckon we can get in another 2 attempts before the end of the class."
Everyone felt their soul leave their body upon hearing his words. No one thought that they could survive two more attempts.
Only a few were ready for the next few attempts.
'A better time than last time,' Sefir focussed his mind and prepared himself for the next onslaught.
'Need to keep my focus,' Icarth thought and readied himself among others.
"Well, I'll be starting now," Melvin stated before releasing his control on the heated universal energy surrounding his students slowly. He hadn't turned his gift off for a second after activating it. Flexing his tremendous control over the universal energy, he maneuvered it around each student individually when they were in danger.
Letting the heat set back onto his students, Melvin watched intrigued. He had noted a couple of outliers as one would call them - the ones who actively sought out ways to strengthen themselves. Icarth, Sefir, and Ragnar were the three that had lasted the longest.
Ragnar was breathing heavily, willingly taking deep breaths of the heat-filled universal energy. Ignoring the burning sensation that filled his insides, he tried his best to witness the universal energy inside his body.
Sefir was employing a different strategy. Regulating his breaths, he unknowingly opened his pores like he would while training, and soaked in the heated air choked with universal energy.
This was his way to try to get a feel for the universal energy.
Icarth was sitting stock still. Not a muscle was moving. His sweat had started to dry up, his body no longer being able to produce anymore. Yet he didn't care.
He was trying his best not to lose focus on the heavy universal energy surrounding him.
It was heavy. It was suffocating. Just like before, the weight of the universal energy seemed to increase with each passing second that Icarth focussed on it.
The heat contricted his throat, his eyes were sealed shut, and now there was no way he could move even if he wanted to. Yet Icarth persevered and tried to reach the essence of the universal energy to try to observe it.
Universal energy was an elusive concept even for the strongest. That's why it was currently only used for gifts.
Explaining how to perceive was impossible. Everyone had their own method of attaining that ability to feel universal energy. In fact, explaining your own way of how you perceived universal energy may be detrimental to the development of their own method. In most cases, it would hinder the person from being able to see universal energy. Knowing this, this was why Melvin had chosen this method to help his students perceive universal energy.
It was to help them to find their own way.