Knowledge and Power: Reincarnated Into A Society That Only Values Strength.

Aside from my time with Rafi, it was still just another normal day. I had to get up, get dressed, and go downstairs for breakfast. As I moved though it started to become hard to even stand. All of my senses were thrown into overdrive. It wasn’t like before when they were reversed, now they were heightened.

 

I could hear footsteps from people downstairs, see the individual grains of wood in the floorboards, and feel every individual fiber of fabric that touched my skin. The scent of fresh bread was present, but if I focused I could pick out the scent of other things too. Someone had made tea, and one of the people there had recently been around a horse.

 

Moving even an inch almost hurt from how sensitive my skin had become, and the noises around me only grew louder, my nose somehow starting to only pick up the nasty smells as well.

 

Moving may not have been comfortable, but the longer I stayed still the more I felt like I was losing my mind.

 

‘I’ll just be quick. It’ll be like ripping off a bandaid…’

 

I tried to throw off the blanket and stand up as fast as I could, and I did… But the moment I was standing straight up in the brisk morning air, everything got worse. I had already started moving though, so all I could do at that point was move faster.

 

Even after I finished changing and getting ready I didn’t stop moving at full speed. The moment I was ready I flung open the door and sprinted down the stairs.

 

Just as I hit the bottom I heard the wind up of a swing, like a pitcher throwing a baseball, and I felt the air rush across my face.

 

“Catch.” A deep voice bellowed from my side.

 

The hard and jagged rock hurt my hand, leaving a dull sting from the impact, making my hand start to shake as my nerves began to feel like they were shortcircuiting. 

 

He squinted, as if unsuspecting of me to be able to actually do what he said. “Good job.”

 

I inwardly looked at my manna and the flow was running wild. It was like it was overflowing from inside of me, but not because there was so much of it. It was more like something else was trying to fill the same circuits. The two forces together collided. Most likely being the cause.

 

“Take the stone, follow me. You won't want to eat breakfast today.”

 

He paused as I got closer. “Giver me your hand.”

 

I did as he asked. He grabbed my hand and I felt a shock wave go through my body and then quickly rush back out from where it came, fixing the issue, and allowing my body to finally calm down.

 

“If your manna gets any more potent it will start leaking out, if that happens you stop regenerating it naturally and eventually go into a coma.”

 

“Manna leaking bad, got it, so… what do we do?” I was pretty sure the reason my manna was condensing was because my soul energy was increasing, taking up more of the same space within my body… 

 

Unlike with mana though, soul energy isn’t expended when used, so it wasn’t like I could just use it up to make room. And given the way my last meeting with Rafi ended, I had no idea when my next dark magic lesson would be.

 

He looked at me intently but soon turned to lead the way. “When you put out the candle, do you remember how the ice you created attacked you?”

 

“Yes…” ‘kind of hard to forget…’

 

“That happened for three reasons, firstly because you were afraid, and couldn’t empty your mind. Secondly, because your manna circuits are still underdeveloped, and Finally, you let your manna do whatever it wanted to, instead of directing it properly.

 

These are the same three problems you need to fix if you want to be able to control the build-up of manna inside the body, also the same three things we are going to fix today.”

 

That was his full explanation. He wouldn’t say anything more. Like always, he walked in silence. Whenever I asked a question he would either answer with you’ll see, or just not answer at all. It made me grateful to Rafi, for taking the time to explain, even if she didn’t want to.

 

When we arrived it seemed as though the tree had restructured itself. A massive open space sprawled out larger than I had remembered. On one end there was a bath of water with an icy fog hovering over it. Even from a distance, it was giving me a chill. ‘What is that… liquid nitrogen? I don't have a good feeling about this…’

 

The crystal I was holding began to resonate with the magic circles laid out on the ground and started to vibrate, floating away from my hands as it hovered to the center.

 

“I have taught you magic. Now, if you want to leave this place alive, you will show me you can control it. Channel magic through this crystal and empty your mind. If you fail your magic will consume you and explode outward, slowly destroying your body, not unlike what just happened last time, just inside of of as well. If you succeed, the crystal will start to glow, and become heavy.”

 

“Oh, joy…” ‘Another life or death trial, well if it makes me stronger…’

 

 “For every time you fail, you will sit in that tub for 10 minutes.” He pointed to the ice bath I saw earlier.

 

“Why though?” ‘I have to sit in an ice bath? I guess it's to help clear my mind and focus on that cold feeling I use to make ice explode everywhere. Although… It could also just be a punishment for failure… Honestly, with him, it’s impossible to tell.’

 

“Hurry up.”

 

I gritted my teeth. “If I’m going to do something this dangerous can’t you at least explain it a little more?”

 

“Just do it. I told you what it will teach you, you don't need to know how or why it works.”

 

I looked over at the ice bath. ‘Won't I die from the cold instead of magic backlash?’

 

With a deep sigh, I caved in and decided to just get started. “I understand…” I walked over and grabbed the crystal. It felt like it had no weight or temperature, almost like I wasn't holding anything at all.

 

“Let's begin.” His voice rang out like a starting pistol and all I could do was run the race. If I wanted to back out, I had to have tried before that moment.

 

I held the crystal with both hands slowly focusing on pouring manna into it. I thought about the burning surge of manna that flowed through me and imagined that flow going into the crystal.

 

A burning flame surged out, searing my hands. Every muscle in my body tightened as my hands clinched to the stone even tighter, I could feel my hands melting as I cried out in pain.

 

My father slapped it away. “Fail.” He said plainly, pointing to the icy water.

 

I ran over to it and put my hands in immediately to cool them off. Somehow the cold was so intense that it only made them hurt more though. There was no way it was water, it was far colder than even ice, and I could see the moisture on my hands freeze solid the moment they touched it.

 

“Oh, we're off to a great start…” I groaned. I looked at my hands through whatever the strange liquid was. My hands may have hurt like a thousand knives, but my skin wasn’t even seared. ‘At least the burning was all in my head. That means I won’t have to take time off again to heal after this.’

 

My father walked up behind me and picked me up with one arm, walking up the stairs to the massive tub and holding me above the liquid. “Don't worry, you can’t die from the cold with your aptitude for ice magic. That's what makes this perfect.”

 

Chills went through my entire body, anticipating what came next as he dropped me in. My body screamed out and began to feel as though I were freezing solid. I couldn’t even breathe.

 

“When you feel close enough to death, all thought leaves the mind and instinct takes over. That will empty your mind, and having an empty mind, also means that your mind is absent of even fear. You only need to get there once, but you need to get there.”

 

My words already started to fragment. “A liter-ral d-demon didn’t get, there, b-but you think this will? F-f-f AGH!” I screamed out as loud as I could to try and hold myself together. “What is this!”

 

‘He better be right about me not dying from the cold…’