25 Magic Flow

In the following hour I had only managed to read and decipher the first page of Silence. The book was rather obscure. From what I could gather Silence involved using the same principles of telekinesis to get rid of the natural resistance in the world. This would cause there to be less friction, thus lowering the sound a person makes. The skill was linked to the perception sub stat, and its level of effects would depend highly on that.

The skill would become a passive skill that was always in effect, however the cost of this would be a permanent loss of 15% of the user's essence. Once I learned this skill that would mean I would only have 75% of the essence that everyone else had. Thankfully none of the skills I used other than beginner's telekinesis and stealth used any essence, and the cost for both was negligible.

There was no point in thinking about it, the choice had already been made, I could only proceed on the path I had been given. Apparently, my destiny was to be a silent assassin with a magic short sword. It might not be as cool as Cyan's Telekinetic weapons, or Lily's Vampiric Illusions, but it was my path, and I would own it.

Class was soon over, and I tucked the book into a pouch attached to my belt. I went to meet Lily as the others went to Lunch. We talked around the castle as we discussed our morning. Her class had learned about using essence to form spells, and how the process was like that of practicing telekinesis, so they had to be diligent in telekinesis training. This information was useful to me, as we would be learning it in class next week. I did not have the luxury of the 3 hours of practice that the other students had. I would have to practice at other times, but this was not a problem as I had already reached perfection in Beginners telekinesis, which was not a requirement for learning intermediate telekinesis. I would be able to practice the energy flow even while I trained other things without being distracted.

I listened carefully to what she said. "Magic flow is much like telekinesis flow, but instead of focusing the essence on the outside to move objects you focus the flow in your mind, allowing your essence to flow through your body, we have not yet learned anything other than that, because we need to master the flow of magic before we can use magic"

I nodded as she spoke, and asked a question "So you can practice the flow without consequence, even if you do not expend the energy?"

"From what I understand yes, it will slowly deplete your essence as you allow your essence to flow in the path of magic, but if it is not expended on a spell then the cost is much lower than telekinesis. Theoretically you could allow the magic flow to run 24/7 and only have a small depletion of essence. However, it is easy to be distracted so it is not likely for such a scenario to happen."

I nodded again, "so it's like telekinesis? And only once you reach perfection you would be able to do it regardless of what's happening outside?"

"Well yes, and in fact the stages have a synergy, it is much easier to level up magic flow if you have a high stage in telekinetic flow"

I smiled, as I already had reached perfection in my telekinesis thanks to the hell training Mcquire had put me through. I doubt anyone else would have been able to survive that training. As we walked, I attempted to run the magic flow as she said, and found that it came easily to me, it heightened my sensitivity to my essence, and found myself easily distracted. I was forcefully shut out after a few seconds and was left with a strong pain in my head. Training this was going to suck. The pain faded after a few minutes.

Lunch was almost over, so I took Lily to her class before running to the Library. The old man was waiting as I entered the library. He looked up from his desk as I walked in, pointing to some books on a cart. "Those books need to be put in their correct locations. They are split by their categories and topic. You will find a number on the inside of the books corresponding with its location." He paused for a moment as he looked at me "it seems you have begun to learn magic flow, for the next 3 hours as you are putting away the books try to maintain the flow. If you drop it continue as soon as you can".

The old man simple returned to doing what he was doing before I arrived. I began to circulate the magic flow, but was again assaulted by the feeling of essence, not just in myself but all around me. My eyes shined as I saw countless tiny bubbles in different colors. Each had a different feel, but they all seemed to scatter as they drew near me. All except the black ones. The black ones seemed apathetic to my existence and simply floated where they were, harmlessly passing through my body.

As the first black orb struck me the magic flow once again shattered around me, I had not even taken a step. I grit my teeth and began the process again, ignoring the pain in my head as I continued the flow of essence. The second time I lasted less than a second before the flow crumbled.

Like this 3 hours passed, I had not even taken a step when it was over, but the old man did not seem to mind. He simply told me to go to my next class and come back tomorrow.

I sighed at my lack of progress, each time one of those orbs passed through me I was forced out of the flow, and it always happened within a second of starting. My head was pounding as I walked towards the courtyard. I felt lucky that the other orbs rushed away from me, and that I only had to deal with the black ones. Otherwise, this training would have been hell.

Master Asura was waiting for me in the courtyard which was already filled with several classes. She must have decided that the area was too crowded as she guided me to a different area. We ended up in a small courtyard outside a house bigger than my dorm 4plex. "This is my private courtyard, and that is my house. From now on simply come here when it is time to train. We will go back to cover my dagger class and then come back here."

I nodded as she spoke "yes Master". She smiled at my response.

"You seem different than this morning, care to explain?"

I proceeded to tell her about what happened with the Old Librarian. Which caused her to laugh. "So Old man Death has taken a liking to you as well huh? Well don't let it get in the way of our training. Yesterday I had you practice the slash, so we will begin with that."

As I drew the short sword that was on my side she frowned. "There is no point in using that, just summon your Esper blade. At your level you couldn't hurt me even if you tried, and you might as well get used to using your own blade."

Blood Drinker appeared in my hand, as in took up the stance she had told me. I performed the slash as I had been instructed and found that my movement was slightly faster than with the wooden sword. Master Asura noticed it as well. "Your Esper blade has less substance than an actual blade so your movements will not be as restricted as much by its size. This will be a great help to you as you can better utilize your increased speed. Continue."

Three hours passed, all of which was spent practicing the slash. My arms were covered in bruises from Master Asura's strikes as I deviated from exhaustion, but I could feel that I was getting slightly more proficient with the move. We switched courtyards and joined the rest of the Assassins in class for dagger training. In this class she introduced us to the thrust and had us practice for an hour. And then it was back to her courtyard where I practiced the thrust some more. I received far more strikes in that hour of training than I did from the 3 previous hours of Slashing training. Finally, she let me go and I was allowed to return to my room. My entire body hurt, and after feeding myself and Lily I quickly passed out.