After Roy had finished with his tents, Roy taught me most of what Aura was. First, Aura is an alternative to someone who cannot sense or develop an Aether soul. It's obtained by doing strenuous training for multiple months, if not years to obtain just the first stage.
Though once someone has acquired Aura, it's been defined as the internal energy that's been stored to use externally and internally to the user's advantage.
Of course, the longer someone has been training Aura for, will depend on how much aura they will have. When someone acquires what is called an 'Aura Circle', is when they will know that they are at the beginner stage.
Unlike an Aether soul, an aura circle has more stages and has in total, 6 stages, but no sub-stages. Though no one has gotten to the sixth stage as the person has to complete a circle much thinner the last each time till they reach 100 circles.
The thinner the circle is, the easier it is to break, of course breaking a circle will break any other circles besides the ones that have been fully stabilized, indicated by the stages. Which makes the sixth stage more than a myth, the higher the stage, the more aura circles the user will need to obtain.
The more circles one has, the more it allows them to have multiple layers of enhancements, such as defense and strength, or even enhance their aura affinity by however many circles they have. The stages are as follows.
Beginner being that of a 1 circle, intermediate with 3 circles, adept with 4, expert with 7, master with 10 circles, and finally boundless with 100 circles.
Within Aura, there are multiple paths one can take besides the normal basic body enhancement. In total, there are 4 paths. Both similarly and different to an Aether Soul, one can use all 4 Aura paths, but are unlikely to be adept at them all, having a higher affinity to one particular one, they mainly stay focused on that one than trying to master them all. The 4 main paths are called 'Reji', 'Sterz', 'Jul', and 'Viser'.
'Reji' allows an Aura user to use their own aura to completely negate other's aura or Aether, whether it be temporarily shutting down aura-enhancements, aura weapons, fire blasts, curses upon yourself, 'Reji' can do it. Of course, it's not one without a cost, in order to negate said aura or Aether, the 'Reji' wielder must have a significant amount of aura to shut down others' aura or Aether based actions.
'Sterz' allows an Aura user to make aura-made weapons and constructs to their advantage. Whether it be a spear made of aura, or a cannon made of aura, a 'Sterz' user can do it.
'Jul' allows an Aura user to shoot out raw aura and manipulate their own aura to have certain properties. Such as elasticity, or as sharp as a blade.
'Viser' can bestow upon themself as well as others blessings or curses. Certain conditions are needed with more stronger blessings or curses needing stronger and more conditions, and weaker blessings/curses needing at most one condition.
It's unprecedented that one could obtain Aura as well as Aether, but it's not impossible that one can't use both.
So, how does Aura compare against Aether? There's evidence that a Fourth Prism stage user can go toe to toe with a beginner Aura user, and a master Aura user can go toe to toe with a First Prism stage user.
"Roy, what stage have you achieved?"
"I'm at the master stage. Pretty cool right?"
The master stage was said to take many years to obtain yet Roy had looked so young..
"You're an adventurer right?"
"Yep!"
"What's your rank?"
"Huhuhu.. Not to brag but.. I'm Z rank!" He pointed at himself as he puffed his chest out.
"Isn't that the highest rank?"
"Yep!"
No wonder Dad loss so quickly, this guy was at the top of the top!
"How old are you-"
"Now now, you're asking me a little too many questions, I'll answer them later alright?"
"Okay."
The moon had risen and night had taken over. Roy and I were out in the open field but not too far from our campsite.
"Alright, ready to get started?"
"Yep!" I was excited, of course I was. If I could utilize both Aether and aura, I'd be one of the strongest wielders in the world!
"Okay first off, how I learnt aura was by sitting with my legs crossed, and closing my eyes. I then focused in on my surroundings."
I quickly sat down on the grass field, and followed his steps while he continued to speak.
"It took me a while but, if you're talented enough you might be able to feel the vibrations of your surroundings. You can visualize everything even with your eyes closed."
"The vibrations you feel will slowly recreate what you could see even when your eyes are closed."
I focused as hard as I could but, to no avail I couldn't feel any vibrations or visualize the falling leaves or the breeze that swept over the grass.
"It took me more than 3 months just to feel the vibrations and visualize my surroundings, and it took me an additional month to obtain a singular aura circle. But my master said even that was quite fast, so don't be too discouraged if you can't get it on the first day."
20 minutes swiftly went by and I still couldn't feel anything. This was much harder than when I developed an Aether soul, though I think it was with the help of my past life that had developed it for me.
"While you're meditating, I'll teach you the rest of what I did when I was obtaining my first aura circle."
"While I meditated, my master told me to take breaks every 30 minutes, it wasn't good to focus so hard as you might gain a headache. At most, do this 5 times for 30 minutes and take 10 minute break intervals."
"When I was 15, I did 90 push ups, 120 high knees and 70 pull ups within those 10 minute break intervals. But.."
The more Roy talked, the fainter his voice sounded. Till the point I couldn't hear him anymore. Why did he stop? Instead of pondering why, I continued to concentrate on trying to feel the vibrations, I forgot how long I was meditating for but it felt like mere seconds had passed as I concentrated further.
The sudden sound of water dropping near my ear normally would've made me jump, but I didn't at all. What was this sensation? It felt..? I could feel it, and hear it. Was this the vibrations Roy was talking about?
"Roy.. Roy.. I can feel the vibrations."
A few seconds went by and there was no response at all. Why did I sound so? I knew I should've been 'ecstatic' but I wasn't.
"Roy."
I opened my eyes but when I did, I was somewhere else. It was a pitch black room that seemed to never end, the only exception was myself and each time I stepped I could see transparent ripples that were probably the vibrations.
I walked forward for multiple minutes and still hadn't reached the end, where was I? I felt unusually.. What feeling was this? Was it a feeling at all?
I could still see my hands, my legs, and my body, but, this thing? I couldn't comprehend what this 'feeling' was at all. It was indescribable, a feeling that wasn't a feeling? No matter if I tried to feel something or not, I just couldn't. I couldn't feel anything, but the sensation of 'feeling' was there.
My sense of direction was distorted, but because of a faint glow that permeated throughout my body, I was able to at least know if I was going 'left' or 'right'.
The ripples beneath my feet ceaselessly continued while I walked, the thought of never being able to escape didn't scare me at all, it was like I was nothing but something at the same time. How long was I in here? The concept of temperature didn't exist, and maybe even time didn't exist.
Eventually I had found a white door and opened it to see a bright white light in which I went through.
"O■■h■■a! OPHELIA!"
I woke up to Roy's face calling my name.
"Urgh.. Huh? Roy? How long was I out?"
"Around 2 hours and 30 minutes."
"I was within this weird.. Pitch black room. And I found a door.."
"Wait.. That sounds like the null realm.."
"The null realm?"
"The null realm is when your body goes into what we call 'Meditative Hyper-Active State', a state when the soul is transported to another dimension from meditation. The longest someone went before going into this state was about 36 hours 30 minutes? What was his name again.. I think it was O..? Orn Kruel?"
Roy quickly shrugged it off. "Well, no one is able to really explain the sensation when they go in there and time is slowed there. Since you were out for 2 hours and 30 minutes, you were in there for about 50 minutes."
The null realm? It piqued my curiosity.
"Is there anything other than an infinite pitch black room.?"
"The longer you stay within the null realm the higher chance your body becomes snatched by other wandering souls. Because of the weird sensation you get, it feels like you have almost or no desire at all to leave."
"But.." Roy paused, "No one has failed to escape from it."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Because the souls that snatch the body keep the information of the previous holder. We currently don't have a sure-fire way of knowing if their body got snatched or not. Out of the current 361 escapees, in which around 50 were killed for unusual switches in behaviour."
I suddenly didn't feel interested in the null realm anymore..
"You were lucky to have escaped, if not.."
"How do you know I'm not someone else?"
"Just a gut feeling!" Even though he was smiling, it felt off, as if he was sending a message? No.. It was more of a threat.
"What..?" Goosebumps raised and an eerie feeling of unease washed over me.
"Anyhow, you got extremely unlucky, it's uncommon to even go into that state without intense meditation and meditating for long periods of time.." Roy's eyes squinted as he rubbed his chin.
"Roy, before I got sucked into that weird realm I was going to say I felt vibrations."
"Wait what?!? YOU MEDITATED FOR 40 MINUTES AND ALREADY FELT VIBRATIONS?"
Roy grabbed a hold of my shoulders before shaking me back and forth with his mouth wide open.
"Incredible.. You're a monster among monsters.. Oh wait, I probably shouldn't say that to a kid."
"Let's stop here, and get back to the campsite. Oh and.. Let's keep this a secret, I don't want your parents telling on me because you almost lost your soul.."
"That's fine by me, but are you going to teach me when we reach the kingdom of Myura?"
"Ah.. Sorry, I won't be able to because I'm going to meet someone.. Special."
Who was special? Was it the royal family? Or was it somebody else? I nodded and quickly headed back telling my Dad of how I felt vibrations but left out the null realm part. They were quite surprised, well very surprised.