The Disciple

Regius was walking around Rowan while he writhed on the floor bordering between consciousness and being unconscious, as the pain felt like someone was drilling into his bones and setting his skin ablaze at the same time. Rowan had tears streaming down his face and had been sobbing in pain for the past hour. No matter what, Regius did not help him yet.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally stopped and stooped over him. "I've decided you'll be the first. The second option was the path to becoming my disciple. My first ever, in fact, so we are gonna do it correctly, but first you need to prove that a tier zero soul is not wasted on you. You've been through enough battles to evolve your mana space, and your mana space was built nearly perfect thanks to the system, but mana needs direction and until much later in your cultivation, your mana space is what will do that. When a mana space evolves, it becomes a form most adapted to process your own mana. Your mana space would have evolved on its own, but as a rank 2 existence, no mana center is going to evolve without help."

Rowan stared daggers at him, hanging on every word despite the massive amount of pain that he was in. Regius waved his hand and all of a sudden they were in a much larger room that looked like a training room, but only with the two of them in it. Regius put both of his palms forward, facing Rowan as he slowly began to float upwards and suspend in the air through Rowan's mana.

Regius clenched his left hand, making a fist as he slowly pulled it backwards. He slowly drained the excess mana from Rowan and then drained the all of his own mana, forming it into a ball and leaving it to the side. It made Rowan hyper-focus on the pain from his mana space shattering, but now the pieces seemed like the pieces of a puzzle as they shined with a light and Rowan focused on them as he began to mold and reshape them.

A mana space evolution was supposed to be a natural occurrence but Rowan had a peculiar situation so unbeknownst to him, the shining light that he was seeing was a result of Regius interference but he could not tell him that or reshape his mana center for him because doing so would cause irreparable harm instead of help him. Rowan gritted his teeth and suddenly it was like his will was being fully exerted over the pieces. As they began to move and shape themselves, Regius smiled. They all formed into a falcon image at first but instead it became a miniature version of himself. Like a fairy in tv shows, it was a small human with wings. It was exactly then that Regius shook his head.

"Good thought, but no, the shape of your mana space also decides certain characteristics for your mana. Think of your attunement while you take this opportunity. Now try again.' Regius released the hand that was closed before snapping it shut with enough force to shake the room. An invisible wave came from his fist and slammed into Rowan's body and shattered his mana space all over again, causing him to launch back into the pain. He would try another three times and Rowan would shatter it another three times after telling him that it wasn't good enough. He had, at some point, started to throw up and convulse from the pain, but he kept going and was sure to listen to the advice that Regius was giving him.

He was on his sixth attempt now. He created a cloud before turning it into a ball and making several others just like it. Before long, it had formed a ring made of clouds that looked like it was encased in glass.

The whole thing began to spin. Rowan felt the pain finally fade away as he lay there in a pool of his own vomit. Rowan quickly glanced at his status and realized that his stats were much lower and that his level was back to 1. It's like someone had hit the reset button.

Regius slowly picked him up and grinned in his face, alright precious disciple, not a bad transformation, how ya feel?" Rowan stared daggers at the man in front of him. "Fuck you." Regius clapped him on the back, "Good answer twerp, of course the first disciple I take is like you. Now drink this and listen up."

Regius waved his hand before a blue liquid appeared before him and he drank a sip. It tasted like a mash up of several different fruits, but more so the mana it contained washed through him and closed the cracks that had opened on his flesh. Regius stood in front of him and once he saw more than half close, he waved his hand and a board appeared behind him. "Alright quick crash course, elemental mana is governed by 4 core elements. All other elements are derived from the four of them,and while you can be born attuned to them, you don't particularly want to, it limits what you are able to do. Luckily, your attunement is the storm. I have discovered many more types of mana in my exploration, and all of them can also be found around your world as well. Your attunement is special in the aspect that it has been grossly limited by your inability once again."

Rowan scoffed. "I have channeled all the aspects of the storm. I'm confident I know my attunement." Regius raised an eyebrow. "Stop being so obstinate and listen. Don't act like a brat. Now, as to what I was saying, you judged your attunement like someone who has never touched mana before, but this is different. You should have experienced it during the fight with that necromancer, but I have something different in mind. Since you had to restart your cultivation anyway, let's evolve your mana into its true form without you tainting it. Now when you begin to draw mana in, don't think of just the wind, rain, and lightning. Think of the storm."

Rowan had already fallen into a trance from Regius' words, but Regius kept speaking as he opened the world of mana bare to his disciple.

"The firestorm is capable of endless destruction, leaving nothing but ash in its wake." Rowan placed one hand out and a ball of pulsing flame formed in his left and before twisting itself into a mighty cyclone. Regius kept speaking, though. "The ice storm buries everything in its patch and freezes anything near it." Rowan had to focus, but Regius was right and he could feel the mana all around him, he was attuned to all of these elements if he so chose. "A landslide is simply a storm made by the earth but it is a natural destruction just like every storm and even metal can include itself… Your attunement is more than just three elements Rowan, your attunement is natural destruction in its rawest form. Now continue to show me the rest of the storm Rowan. A spatial storm cuts apart everything in its path. A storm of light and darkness will rewrite maps. A storm of time will age whatever it touches to dust."

Rowan's hands had been moving in line with the words that Regius was speaking as he transitioned from element to element as Regius spoke. He looked up at him as his amethyst mana burst back to life and swarmed towards his mana center, but Regius held his hand up and the mana froze. "No. You aren't done. There are still 4 elements left but those I will help you with, it is too dangerous otherwise."

Rowan sat across from him and took Rowan's hands in his own as the mana in the room began to move again. "A solar storm will melt even stars in its wake." Regius slightly tilted his hand and solar mana poured into the amethyst and twisted it as the color finally fused with the other and became obscured. "A lunar storm, on the other hand, moves in silence and drains life everywhere it passes." Rowan lightly tipped his hand again and whitish light poured into the obscure mass.

"You have seen what happens when death mana is misused and as my disciple, I hope that you will never do as such, but a storm of death is exactly that. It is plague, rot, and ruin." A storm of life is a force so potent that it could bring anything back from the brink of death." Regius added the final four elements and all of them coiled around the others and the whole thing became a platinum mass that pulled itself into a single gaseous strand and was sucked into his mana space, the same platinum mana he had used after berserker's sin. He felt a strength that was miles apart from his previous mana as strength coursed through his mana space once more, but the joy did not last long at all.

"Alright, now that it's done, we need to move to our next task. Only a week has passed. Thankfully, I've mastered time dilation. A week here will be an hour in your home world. I plan to keep you here until I'm satisfied but I will not push you past the bounds of rank fifty and level five, your cultivation will be your own after that and I should only have to sit back and look pretty while you wrack up achievements under my name…."

Rowan looked at him with a deadpan gaze, and Regius smiled back. "I mean, make your master proud." Now we've got two more orders of business before your formal training begins. We need to evolve your mana body into its final stage and give birth to your mana body tattoo. You will need a new weapon forged. The last one was good, but let me tell you a secret, your master is the best crafter in the entire universe."

Rowan couldn't help but think that this master of his that had tormented him for over a week was some sort of demon but at the same time it gave Rowan a feeling he had been missing in his life for a very very long time, the love of a parent and their bond grew as time passed as Rowan Raid began to step into his true capability under the tutelage of the king of the Ark, Regius Lowe.

Rowan did not know it but the room had been set up to look like the warehouse that housed Regius' father's workshop,and his first training room. It had been a sacred place for Regius and while his children had access to it; it was rather known that it was Regius' private training room, and this was the first anyone had seen him with someone else in there as well. Three people stood outside the room behind a mirror that was disguised as a wall on the inside of the room.

They were formerly known as the Royal butler Empry, the queen of the left Ashlyne and the Queen of the Right Eve. It was Ashlyne that had led the conversation. "When was the last time that either one of you saw him smile like that?' Eve seemed to ponder for a moment, "When the kids were born and when he got to do this with him." They both turned to Empry, who looked embarrassed. "Rowan Raid is my selectee for the master's talent hunt. I think the boy compliments the young master rather well. The truth is, I had to search very hard for him on the second layer, the young master has been bored as you both know, he has sought to keep his watching of Rowan from me but from the moment I introduced Rowan raid the young master has been spending time watching his journey in his free time, it has indeed brought back some of the smile that his boredom had taken away."

Eve nodded, "Ever since his gene evolved he is distraught keeping it at bay but it seems taking his first disciple has alleviated that greatly." Ashlyne nodded as well "I intended this as a means to give back but this is more than I could have hoped for, at this point I think it would be good to double the efforts of everyone maybe one day he will have a whole host of disciples that can climb up to his point."

It was Empry that chuckled as the two women walked away as he spoke to no one in particular. "It is not that he wants to have a whole host of disciples. The young master seeks to make a pantheon. If they only knew the gears that still spun in the young master's brain, the ark was only ever just the beginning. Hopefully, young master Rowan helps him smile more in the future as they travel this path together."

Empry began to walk away all the while humming to himself as he input the upgrades to the system and managed the castle's affairs all in Rowan's stead while he indulged in the feeling of being a teacher with a student no less talented than he was.