"I can merge with minerals....and that's all I know right now...." Emmia replied sheepishly.
Momentarily speechless, Mr. Melvin gave a small smile and gestured to the minerals lined up against the right wall.
Emmia observed the minerals trying to recognize any of them.
'That one looks familiar...wait no...'
'I think I merged with that one before....'
'Arghh....I really can't tell the difference,' Emmia thought scratching her forehead.
'Whatever...I just need to choose one for the tests,' Emmia reached out for a lustrous blue-colored rock shining in the light.
Taking a deep breath, Emmia exhaled trying to loosen her tense body. Clenching her teeth prematurely, Emmia activated her gift.
Universal energy rushed towards her hand as the rock started to glow and sink into her body. Rocky outbreaks started to cover Emmia's outer skin causing her to grit her teeth even harder. The pain was just as unbearable as the last time she had used her gift.
'When will this....end....' Emmia thought tears threatening to break free. Finally, it was over, 5 seconds which felt like an eternity to Emmia.
'At least she didn't scream in pain,' Melvin Homes thought to himself as he noted Emmia's state right now. The rock in her hand had disappeared, a crystalline surface covering most of her visible skin. The hard, yet smooth edges of the mineral outlined Emmia's skin perfectly and reached up from her legs to her face.
"Haaah," Emmia exhaled shakily, still feeling the phantoms of the pain that had just passed.
"I can only do one...." Emmia weakly explained to her teacher.
Mr. Melvin nodded slowly as a couple of thoughts whirled around in his head.
"At this point in time, this could be considered your limitation in using your gift," Mr. Melvin stated flatly, his words poking into Emmia's conscience.
'I knew it was bad...but....' Emmia couldn't help but think to herself. It was one thing to understand that you were bad at something and another to get it said to your face.
"So, it's better you get to work at improving," Mr. Melvin continued with a small smile.
Emmia gazed at her teacher, a small premonition striking her.
"Wait...you mean..?" Emmia's voice came out softly, almost a whisper.
"Keep using your gift, merge and de-merge with these minerals here, and try all other things lying around as well," Mr. Melvin gave an even wider smile.
"Don't worry, I'll take care if you collapse," Mr. Melvin added after seeing Emmia's wide eyes.
Emmia whimpered at the thought, her body starting to shiver.
"You may think, 'Why is this necessary?', but there is only one way to improve your gift. It's to use it constantly. And this is just the start. It will get more painful as you try to get more and more powerful. One thing should be very clear: there is no easy way to get power," Mr. Melvin cooly gazed at his student.
"Decide now. Whether you have the resolve to get stronger or not. In the end, it's up to you to decide. If you decide not to, then our session ends here and you should keep in mind to never bother me ever again," with that Melvin Homes leaned back against the wall, keeping his expression neutral, watching Emmia.
Emmia trembled as her mind raced.
'I need to get stronger...'
'But the pain is too much...'
'I don't think I can handle it...'
'It's my stupid body that isn't allowing me to use my gift....'
'It hurt so much...and will it hurt even more in the future...'
'....I don't...'
'But Seril endured much more pain than me....'
'...but..but..I don't want this pain....'
'..maybe I can do something....'
'..I can become a supporter instead...'
'...But what if I can't do enough to support Seril....'
'I want to protect Seril....but I just can't handle this...'
Emmia's thoughts waged war on each other, each thought heightening her heart rate and blood pressure, causing breathlessness, and leaving her light-headed.
'I wanted to get stronger...'
'I really thought I wanted to....'
'..but this pain is just too much....'
'..Seril...I don't know what to do....'
'...What can I even do....'
'...I just hate this condition that I have....'
'...why did it have to be me....'
'...why couldn't....why couldn't I have been like Ica....'
'...Seril...I just want to talk to you...'
Time passed and Emmia's thoughts truly threatened to break her. Suddenly the room around her felt suffocating, making her want to leave it immediately. But Emmia knew. If she did that she would lose any opportunity of getting stronger as Melvin had clearly stated.
'..I can't do this...'
Emmia wanted nothing more than just to leave this room and run away from her problems, praying that Seril would solve them.
'...I can't do this after seeing what happened to Seril....'
'..If I don't change now...then what use is me coming here..'
'I want to change myself...I can't remain this weak after all this...'
'...I want to protect Seril....'
'...I want to stand next to Ica...'
'...I want to protect myself from the hidden danger that Mr. Ulmolg told me about....'
'...I want to live up to Luna's expectations...'
'...and ... I want to get stronger...'
With the last thought surprising even Emmia herself, she decided then and there.
Instead of speaking a word, Emmia glanced back at the pile of rocks. Her breathing having calmed down; she reached out to another blue rock, identical to the first one.
Gritting her teeth, Emmia activated her gift again. A rush of universal energy engulfed the rock and it started to sink into her body, just like the first one.
Unable to prevent herself from screaming, Emmia doubled over falling onto her arms and legs, "Arrrhaghhhg!"
It was as if her entire body was on fire, the inside and the outside. In Emmia's mind's eye, the rock covering around her started to spread slowly, extremely slowly. The previous patches of blue mineral over her body stretched and grew in size, creeping towards each other, with some combining to form a bigger patch.
"Aaaaggherhghrhh," Emmia continued to let out, tears streaming down her face as she felt her entire body restructure itself. Involuntarily, her nails started to dig into the ground, trying to find some grip to try to get rid of the pain.
Finally, 5 seconds passed as the pain receded as abruptly as it had struck. Emmia panted roughly, tears still flowing down her face, her arms and legs barely holding her torso up.
Emmia's mind was a mess, the pain having completely scrambled her thoughts. But one thing held, even in her white mind. Her resolve to get stronger. She had decided to get stronger, to walk down this thorny path. And Emmia decided- no, swore- that she would see it to the end. She just had to.
"I....haaaah...want....haaah....to get.....haaaaah....stronger," Emmia managed to get through as her arms finally gave out under her. The last thing that Emmia remembered as her eyes rolled back into her head was Mr. Melvin smiling softly while the word "splendid" reached her ears and her fading mind. With that, Emmia almost hit the floor, before Melvin bent down to catch her. Carefully turning her over, he laid her on her back so that she could rest easy.
'Well, now that the student has shown so much resolve, I can't hold back either can I?' Melvin smiled to himself as he prepared a guide so that Emmia could get stronger.
-----
Emmia woke up with a start, her eyes shooting open, facing an unfamiliar black ceiling. The sound of fire crackling reached her muddled head, which only served to produce a slew of confused and sluggish thoughts.
'Where am I?'
'Why is there a fire..'
'My back feels cold..'
'And why is the ceiling black?'
As these thoughts meandered through Emmia's mind, she started to recollect the events leading to her fainting.
'Oh yea, using my gift and going overboard....' Emmia thought to herself with mixed feelings.
She did feel proud for being able to merge with two minerals, without any prior testing, but the fact that this itself led to her collapse sort of discouraged her.
'Oh well, I have to start somewhere,' Emmia cheered herself up as she sat up, head still dizzy.
"How are you feeling?" Mr. Melvin's voice echoed in the room, originating from somewhere behind Emmia. Twisting her body, Emmia replied, "I feel tired....and my head hurts." Emmia faced Mr. Melvin as she saw him seated at a desk with a stack of papers scattered about.
"Hmm," Mr. Melvin hummed as he gathered up the papers he needed to give to his student.
"You were unconscious for about two hours," Mr. Melvin informed Emmia, as she rubbed her head.
"T-two hours?" Emmia gasped in shock, before muttering to herself, "Well, better than a few weeks of coma."
Raising an eyebrow, Mr. Melvin chose not to say anything in response. Instead, he smiled slightly extending a few pieces of paper to Emmia, "Here, take these, I've sketched out a plan to make you stronger, we will start with some explosive improvement to prepare you for the practical exams. Then after that, we can focus on long-term goals."
Emmia received the papers from her teacher and started to read through them.
'What's the upper limit of the minerals that can be merged?'
'How long can we sustain being merged with something?'
'What are the best minerals to use for merging?'
'How should one fight when merged?'
'What are the advantages of being merged?'
...
...
...
'Can we mix two or more minerals and merge them? Or can we just directly merge with two different minerals?'
'Up to what extent of change can a mineral undergo before it's no longer able to be used as a merging material? Can this limit be improved?'
"It's just a bunch of questions," Emmia asked Mr. Melvin, puzzled at the 'plan to become stronger'.
"Of course, or did you expect it to just be a bunch of mundane steps that you can mechanically follow?" Mr. Melvin smiled as he raised an eyebrow.
"N-no," Emmia averted her gaze, eyes dropping back to the papers in her hands.
Melvin nodded in agreement with Emmia. "I have just sketched out a guide for you. Now, whether you can get stronger or not, is wholly up to your ability to answer the questions."
"It is most likely that the more questions that you answer, the stronger you will be at the end of all this," Mr. Melvin continued as he watched Emmia listen attentively.
"Now, while I will not answer any of the questions for you, I am here to help you test out any hypothesis you might have," with that Mr. Melvin folded his arms as Emmia fell into thought.
"Yes..! Thank you Mr. Mevlin!" Emmia thanked her teacher for finally getting her to the starting point. Now, it was all up to her whether or not she had the will to continue to climb higher.
In response, Mr. Melvin just waved his hand with a smile.
'I'll start with the 3rd one right now,' Emmia thought to herself after examining her condition. Right now she had just recovered after two successive uses of her gift and she didn't want to overexert herself.
'Wait, now that I think about it, where are the two rocks that I used to merge?' Emmia thought to herself while looking around. She had just realised that she was unmerged and the rocks were nowhere to be found. Usually, when she deactivated her gift, the minerals were returned to their original form.
"Mr. Melvin? Where are the two rocks that I merged with?"
"I have them with me," Mr. Melvin replied with his perennial smile, 'I'll hand them back to you after analyzing them for a bit,' Melvin thought to himself.
Emmia nodded and asked, "Are there any books that you have on minerals and their properties in this room?"
"Use the door towards the left," Mr. Melvin answered Emmia's question while taking the two rocks out from his desk drawer.
"Okay!" Emmia said to herself mostly, bubbles of excitement rising up within her as she rushed over to the door with a few minor incidents.
'ohhh nooo, stood up too fast,' Emmia felt her vision blacking out as she got up too quickly.
"AHh," A short while after she stabalized herself, she managed to stop herself from tripping over her own feet before she finally reached the door.
Pushing open the door, Emmia walked into a musty room filled to the brim with books of all shapes and size, the soft smell of ink on paper wafted through the room relaxing Emmia.
'Alright, time to get to work.'