Breakfast was silent as the group was incomplete. Grace hadn't awoken yet, Guy figured that she was probably exhausted after unveiling her darkest secrets. Revisiting trauma was never pleasant, and oftentimes physically draining.
A dismal ambience lingered around the dining table, even the usually upbeat Dora kept mum the entire time. She didn't even pester Kano to elaborate on his trip to the city. Markus ate his food mechanically, the same as Marie. Jean wore her usual impassive expression, yet her body language screamed discomfort. She could read the room and had no idea why such a dreary atmosphere pervaded it.
Guy finished his food and placed his wooden spoon into his bowl.
"Markus, from today onwards we will add combat as part of our regular lesson rotation," Guy declared.
The eyes of his two students darted his way in disbelief. His disciple was also thoroughly floored by Guy's sudden announcement.
"Master? I'm not sure that I understand..."
"We've been neglecting a key functionality of magic during our lessons. After our trip to the Cloudstrider Sect, it became clear to me that our approach was incorrect. Danger lurks behind every corner, we must be prepared to contend against such threats that target our lives and that of our loved ones. Although you succeeded this time, we also established that it was in large part due to your opponent's complacency. If there is one thing I know for a fact, is that there will never be second chances in life-"
'Lies!' Guy thought to himself. He was here right now in his second chance. 'But they don't know that. And maybe my second chance was also the first time. What guarantee is there that I or any of my students will get a second iteration?'
"Anyways, self-defence is a must-have skill for everyone. We will add combat to our usual physical training regiment."
"I understand, Master," Markus affirmed.
"Jean, I would like for you to attend as well. Although I cannot force you to participate, it would be beneficial for you to learn. As for you Marie-"
"I will voluntarily sit out. I am learning to cultivate and practice magic to expressly avoid such scenarios," Marie interjected immediately while shaking her head. "I don't want to give myself an out by supplementing myself with combat exercises. Besides, the old man keeps telling me that 'our way is to puncture with a borrowed knife' or something like that. He probably has other plans for me."
"Are you sure Big Sis?" Markus inquired.
"A hundred per cent! This handicap will push my limits. I am sure of it!"
____
A flurry of |Fireball|, |Ice Lance|, |Water Jet| and a plethora of other projectiles flew back and forth between two casters as a third individual observed unwaveringly. Almost akin to a turn-based game, the duo attacked and defended alternatingly. Each pushing their spellcasting and ingenuity to the limit to produce solutions on the fly. In one instance, a |Fireball| would be negated by another |Fireball|. In another, the |Fireball| would get pulled into |Wind Vortex| morphing it into a |Flame Spin| that spread outward with a shockwave.
Guy and Markus, along with Jean, were in the usual clearing where they tested and practised spellcasting. Their previous location had undergone a thorough landscaping operation and thus they had to manually clear a section of the forest to create a new one. Today could be considered an inauguration of this new field, and it was already starting to look worn out due to the heavy pummelling from the rogue spells.
Both Markus and Guy had their wands out. Guy had built one for himself a while back when he made one for Jean and Marie. He'd mostly been using it for spells of convenience, either to clean the roof tiles of the orphanage or the stairs, maybe sweeping fallen leaves and dust. This spar was officially the first time the wand participated in actual combat. Needless to say, Guy was plenty impressed with his creation. He had tried the wand out to cast a few combat spells during its conception, but he hadn't used it in a high-stress situation. After actually doing so, he realised just how cheat-like it was. Certain spells which took a heavy toll on the mana pool were turned into trivial cantrips thanks to the wand. This was also in large part due to Markus' innovative Compartmentalisation algorithm that further enhanced Guy's Modular Spellmaking.
"If I were to describe it, I would say that our combat style is like a brute force attack, isn't it?" Guy commented as he redirected a burst of water whipping from his blind side. "We are leveraging our efficiency in spellcasting to overpower our opponents. There doesn't seem to be a technique to this."
"Technique is anything you want it to be," another voice responded. Neither Guy nor Markus had to divert their attention to know that it was Teacher Al Jeeves.
"I was wondering what all those mana fluctuations were. I must say, this is my first time seeing you so aggressive Guy," Al commented.
"Master is quite unrelenting," Markus chimed in as sweat started to form across his forehead. "The spells are-"
A compressed vorticing ball of fiery gas propelled itself at Mach speeds towards Markus. Markus barely shifted his hips to the left and the ball flew past, missing him by a millimetre and collided against a tree on the other end of the field. As the ball hit the trunk, it expanded and exploded magnificently, taking with it a huge bite of the trunk. The tree fell after a second, as it finally realised that its body was suddenly missing.
"How did you do that?" Guy asked. He could see the precision in Markus' movement. It was calculated- No! It was like he already knew the ball would follow that trajectory before it even left Guy's wand.
"I used the new sensory data that my mana sense can observe to predict the path," Markus answered truthfully.
"Really? Which new data channel is this?"
"I believe it was what Master called Spacetime?" Markus answered while scratching his head.
"WHAT?!" Guy shrieked in surprise. "How?"
Markus smiled proudly and started to explain his process of stumbling across the new channel that led to his advancement into Foundation Establishment.
"You do realise just how risky your method was, right?" Al reprimanded. "Many mages have lost their sanity after delving into the information gathered from their mana sense. Nonetheless, your gains did end up outweighing the risks. Being able to access an exclusive sensory channel through the mana sense is a one-in-a-million ability held closely by specialised practitioners from deep-rooted clans, sects, or beings with special bloodlines and physiques. I caught a few glimpses of how you used this new sensory channel to your advantage in the fight against Cleo. Definitely handy! Although I don't know what else it offers you apart from an extremely precise view of your surroundings."
"You have no idea just how broken this is," Guy said to Al. "Being able to observe spacetime, like actually seeing it, opens up a realm of new possibilities for Markus."
He then turned to the boy and asked, "Have you found any interesting new uses?"
Markus scratched his chin and said, "It isn't exactly a spell, more like an ability- no, an intuition that I get when I sense spacetime. I can manipulate the meshgrid with my mana. The longer I do it, the more exhausted I get and it is highly exponential."
"Can you show me?" Al inquired with interest sparkling in his eyes.
Markus nodded and said, "Teacher Jeeves, please lower your guard for this one. I haven't tried it on someone two realms above me, I don't know if it will work."
Right as Al obliged verbally, he could feel a minuscule change transpiring around him. He suddenly started to feel a fluctuation in his weight. Thanks to his cultivation realm, Al had a highly attuned sense of perception of himself. He had lived in this body for over a century now, needless to say, he knew every nook and cranny of it, from the length of his tone-nails to the number of eye-lashed on his left eye. The small disturbance in his weight was nigh-imperceptible but wasn't missed by him. He was lighter by exactly one kilogram.
After a short second, the feeling reverted, but then pushed in the other direction. Instead of feeling lighter, he had gotten heavier.
"That is fascinating!" Al congratulated. Markus stopped his ability acting on Al and diverted it to his Master
"That's freaky!" Guy exclaimed.
"I used this to cause Cleo to lose her step during combat," Markus revealed.
"That's an excellent application!" Al praised. "Most combatants and martial artists learn how to react to changes in the environment. Missed footing, slips, obstacles, and so on. But no one really trains how to compensate for sudden changes in their internal model. Though I must say that it may not work so easily with veteran fighters. I highly suggest you figure out a way to augment this ability."
Markus nodded and said, "I am searching for ways to formalise this. If I can translate this into a spell circle, I believe it will be even more efficient and tweakable."
"I bet this ability also gives you a lot of insights into that black hole spell you've been trying to cook up," Guy added.
"The boy calls it a |Singularity|. That's what I remembered hearing," Al chimed in.
"Was that English?" Guy shot back incredulously.
Markus smiled bitterly and said, "There were no apt words to describe it, so I used the word Master used to define a black hole."
"What's English?" Al interjected. "It's definitely not Ancient Tongue."
"It's the language that most of the insight in my inheritance is encrypted in," Guy lied without missing a beat. For the first time, he didn't feel any discomfort as it rolled out the tip of his tongue. The triviality of the process did unsettle Guy, but he quickly waved it away.
"I wouldn't be able to replicate that, right?" Guy redirected immediately.
"I don't think so. The way Markus described it, this new ability is probably a byproduct of his specific cultivation method - whatever it is. It would be difficult for you to replicate it without going through a cultivation deviation. You could create an analogue if you tried, just like how Markus managed to create a pseudo replica of Gaige's attack. But creating the same would be extremely difficult." Al explained. "In fact, you should probably have some special ability with your specialised cultivation method. Have you tried testing it out?"
"My cultivation method?" Guy blurted out. Frankly, he had no idea what it was either. How could he know what his special ability would be?
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