CH 6- Grasping

The next day has already started greeting the sun.

Liam and Faux were looking at each other.

"Did you memorize it?"

"Yes. All in my head"

Liam nodded

"Good. You have a good memory. A useful quality."

Faux praised.

"But the easy part is over now. You seem to have a good foundations on martial arts and swordplay. It will give you a great advantage in future. Those who just depends on magic will sooner or later lose miserably if facing a seasoned martial artist fighter.

Start the meditation"

Listening to grandpa Faux Liam began. He sitted himself on the ground crossed leg.

Raising his both the hand parallel to the ground he started making hand symbols.

He made symbols as instructed in the manual.

After completion of all the hand sign he halted his hands making a diamond sign.

"Now to the next step"

Taking a big breath , he realesed a big sigh

"sigh"

Then he started taking in air in a strange manner.

Taking in the air from the atmosphere through his mouth , locking it in inside of himself for 10 seconds and realizing it from his right side of the nose blocking the left.

In the next moment he repeated same , this time releasing the air from the left hole of the nose .

He continued doing so in a periodic manner.

A chill ran through his body. Liam started to fell cold inside his body. But it didn't proved itself as any discomfort rather felt good. Without breaking his concentration he carried out.

He could fell the magic from his surrounding entering his body and tempering every part of his body gradually. The magic from nature ran through every bone ,tissues and cell of his body.

Liam was sometimes feeling pain, sometimes suffering from a ticklish sensation and various other processes inside his body.

While Liam was having a great time absorbing power , he didn't notice a wide eyed grandpa Faux.

( Am I seeing a dream?!. He who never meditated in his life, how could he grasp such a complicated technique so quickly and his speed of absorption is none like I have ever seen. His body is like a endless pit lusting after magic)

Seeing Liam grandpa Faux had a complicated face.

( Maybe he can reach the advance apprentice stage by the end of this month. Let's observe his progress for the forthcoming 9 days).

2hrs passed by.

Granpda Faux was dozing off while standing leaning against a tree while Liam was immersed in meditation.

Suddenly a strange sensation started swelling up inside his body. It felt to him like he was starting to bloat from inside.

"boom!"

A light and sudden upsurge of magic erupted from Liam's body creating slight ripples in air.

Granpa Faux became startled and woke from his nap.

"Granpa Faux what happened to me. Did I go somewhere wrong"

He had a worried expression in his face.

"Gods! The sun seems to be still up high in the air and you have already broken through to the novice apprentice stage 3"

"Did I?"

He had a excited look on your face

" Yes, I can feel the magic in your body have improved , both volume and density. As you break through stages , the reserve of your magic will start inflating too"

"Yes, I have read about it but experienced practical today"

Liam's mood was high in the sky. But he controlled his emotions.

(Don't get too excited me. I'm not an apex mage yet. Lot of room to improve). He calmned himself.

"As I remember there was a technique in the ice scripture you can enable yourself to use if you practice the meditation technique"

Grandpa Faux questioned Liam

" Yes. The Freeze Burst"

When Reading through the ice scripture , the book ended with explaining a magic attack called , "The Freeze Burst". Only usable to ice scripture meditation practioner.

"Think You could perform it now"

" I can try"

Liam begun.

He started circuiting the magic in his body as explained in the book.

(First transport your magic to all the part of your body. Then in the sudden instant release it all out with a burst)

"Freeze burst"

He yelled and attached his right palm to the ground.

Liam waited and waited but nothing seemed to come out of it.

" Huh! Nothing happened"

Liam seemed depressed.

Grandpa Faux scolded

" Are you are some kind of God.? Did you think its so smooth sailing to be mage that you can do whatever you want in first try"

Liam hung his face down in shame

" Don't worry and keep meditating. In time you surely can use it"

Feeling Liam's sadness he cheered him up.

Liam never had the leisure to use magic in his childhood. Maybe he became too fired up this time.

"Yes Grandpa Faux"

He saluted.

Seeing him suddenly cheering up Grandpa Faux smiled.

"Now I will teach you a technique to enhance your physical strength"

"All ears sir!"

Grandpa Faux started explaining

" It's a technique called dragon scale skin. This technique intensifies the muscle strength of your

body. This may even help you get taller and gain some muscles on your bone"

He teased Liam.

" I am not short!"

Liam didn't like to be teased on his thin and short frame.

"haha! I'm sorry. So listen to me carefully."

Liam started listening to him with a puffed face.

" The dragon scale skin allows to you to transport your magic from your navel to your muscles and bones in a special manner. Like you can say when you heat and hammer a metal it becomes more tensile. This technique works on the same page. But remember it will hurt like hell.

I remember when I started training on this technique I couldn't sleep all night due to the frantic pain and soreness.

Grand Faux had a afraid look on his face.

"Gulp!" Liam swallowed his saliva with tension.

" Before I teach you the hand signs for this technique and tell you the way to practice it, promise me one thing. You won't pass out this technique to anyone . Cause if you do I will find you and mince your body and feed it to the rats"

He gave a warning to Liam.

"Ye ...yes..yes I understand"

Liam could sense a murderous intention in his words.

"Good now focus"

Time passed by without pause.It was about to be sunset

Granpa Faux was done explaining 'The dragon scale skin'

"I understand master, .. sorry Granpa Faux"

"Good now begin"

Liam then started at performing the hand sign while taking a stance.

(Liam this technique is very dangerous , thats why I prevented you from passing it to anyone.

Not everyone can use this technique. Only men who inherited a robust body could use it otherwise all the muscles in your body will be punctured and you will be crippled for life. Though I don't have much expectation out of this small body of yours but let's see if a miracle were to happen and you are not what you seem from outside. But if I suspect you are not eligible to use it , I'll erase your memory of this technique)

Liam didn't know what Granpa Faux was thinking.

After Liam was done with the hand signs, he could feel his magic sucked out of its reserve and starting to move towards every muscle and bone of his body in a strange manner.

Slowly a discomfort invaded him.

He started to have a difficult time to breath.

" Grahhhhhh!"

A painful shreik came out of Liam's mouth.

His muscles started to convulse and contract, body slowly swelling and steam was coming out of his body.

"Yaaa! grhhh! I must stand this pain"

Saying out the words he encouraged himself to keep going.

But only he and grandpa Faux knew what he was suffering from.

(Shit! It feels like I'm getting eaten from the inside. This pain arghh!)

Seeing him in such agony grandpa Faux started sweating too.

(Is this too much for him . I should stop it or else he's gonna be crippled)

"Liam! stop. You are not cut out for this"

Listening to grandpa Faux, instead of sulking his spirits rose higher.

"I decide what I'm capable of. Nobody else can deem my fate beside me. I will not bow to some magical arts."

With sheer determination he straightened his back instead of all the pain.

(What determination! To withstand pain such as this. This kid got real guts!")

15 minutes went by of extreme pain.

Liam has now stabled a bit. The pain slowly start to subside. His complexion was a lot better.

Grandpa Faux was looking at Liam with satisfaction.

"All right stop! enough for today"

Responding to him he stopped.

Liam's limbs gave out and he heavily fell on ground.

"ha! ha! ha hu"

Heaving breathing could be spotted on him.

This 15 min was like an eternity to him.

"You did good"

Liam smiled with his eyes closed and his clothes totally wet from sweat.

After recover a bit of strength , he opened his eyes to find out that granpa Faux was looking at him strangely.

" What is it?"

" Nothing seems to be changed"

"what doesn't seems to be changed?"

"when practicing this technique the muscles of you is supposed to show some changes even if the change is negligible if one observes he can tell. Your case you look thin as ever and short as ever"

"Couldn't you use better words"

Thinking something Faux came to a conclusion.

"This only tell one thing. The Moon Beauty body"

"Moon what?"

Grandpa Faux started on his words

"The Moon Beauty Body is a specially constituted body. which keeps the volume of the muscles constant no matter how much you exercise. This type of body helps you to keep your figure intact without gaining such bulky muscles like mine"

Saying that he showed off his muscles

"Humph!"

Liam snorted.

"But good for you it goes perfect with the dragon scale skin. Some people in past who practiced it grew so big you could barely call them human. You wouldn't want to look like that right"

"No! I'm happy with this thin frame"

Saying it, Liam hugged his precious body.

With a frown on his face granpa Faux said

" Well what is strange is this constitute of the body is very rare. It can only be inherited from your parents. Does your father has a thin body like you"

"No my father is a giant full of muscles. I inherited my body from mother"

"Then it is settled , your mother had the moon beauty construction."

Liam also found it reasonable

" As rare as it is, it's only found in women."

He then looked at Liam from head to toe with some doubt.

Liam's rage erupted.

"I'm a guy!!"