Chapter 104 The Obsession

Late afternoon that same day, Evernya awoke to find herself engulfed in white. She telekinetically prodded the wall of soft white, causing moans and squirms from the clamped on Kitsune.

After a few minutes of prodding, the wall of white receded to reveal her bedroom. She let her mate continue to sleep, for now, so she retrieved one of the books Meira wanted them to read. This one was about useful and edible plants found in the wilds.

She spent the next two hours reading through it, finding the book detailed and interesting. Leave it to an elf to know so much about plants. She even noted which plants I should look out for making my smoothies. This world is so much more interesting than my old world. Mana seems to cause plants and animals to have thousands of variations, causing an extremely varied world. This book was only for this region’s plants, yet there are many thousands of different types of plants. Every single one of them has a use for something to ingredients for potions, poisons, healing, and many uses. I wonder if my mind can handle remembering everything about every region in the world. So far I haven’t hit the limit, but there has to be one. There is no way one person could know everything.

Deciding it’s time to get up, Evernya gently nudged the clinging Kitsune awake. “Time to wake up. We have a lot to do before college starts.”

“Aya wants to sleep longer.” The sleepy kitsune mumbled telepathically.

“You can take a nap later.” Evernya compromised, understanding the love of sleeping.

“Fine,” Aya grumbled uncharacteristically.

She unlatched herself and sat up. As the covers fell away from the girls, Evernya finally noticed their state of dress, or lack thereof. “Why are we naked?” Evernya questioned.

“Nya’s clothes were filthy, so Aya removed them. Aya, not wanting Nya to be naked alone, removed her clothes too.” Aya replied with a blush. Evernya missed it because she had her back to her.

“That's ok I enjoy sleeping naked too. Meira keeps dressing me in pajamas after I pass out so I haven’t had a choice.” Evernya commented without a hint of embarrassment.

“Aya prefers Nya naked too.” Aya blurted without thinking. As soon as she realized what she said, her pale face reddened to the point it almost matched her ruby red eyes. She covered herself with her tails, then hid under the covers in embarrassment.

Evernya pretends she missed the comment and changed the subject. “You should start reading the books Meira gave you. We only have six more days to read them all. Since you have a good grasp on your combat style, why not alternate between your fire sorcery and reading the books today? I’ll focus on getting better at my physical aberration ability today since I have already read two and a half of the books.”

After receiving no response from the hiding Kitsune, Evernya announced, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to take a shower.”

Evernya hopped off the bed and trotted into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, Evernya emerged from the steaming bathroom clad in her skintight training suit. A blur of white shot past her into the bathroom, slamming the door as it went inside.

“I’ll be in the backyard,” Evernya announced, but again received no response.

She worked her way through the house, seeing no elves on the way. After a pit stop in the kitchen to grab a smoothie, she exited using the screen door in the kitchen. She sat down on a patio chair to drink her smoothie while poking at her suit computer.

After setting a three-hour timer on her suit computer, she got to work practicing the basic forms. She first spent an hour further refining her strikes and slashes, adding in grapples. Satisfied with her progress. Evernya dropped to the grass cross-legged as she planned her next course of action.

Do I want to risk activating physical aberration again? What if this time it doesn’t release sucking my mana dry? But I need to learn how to use it or I can say goodbye to turbo mode. I guess no risk, no reward.

Evernya sprang to her feet, then sent a command to her mind to activate physics aberration before she can back out. Like last time, the wind blew past her as if she had a barrier blocking its influence.

Afraid to slip, Evernya pumped mana to the bottom of her feet as she took a step. To her relief, her grip held. With her current progress confirmed, Evernya toggled physical aberration off, returning the normal physics to her body.

A wave of dizziness assaulted her, following its deactivation, prompting her to check her suit computer. Holy shit, I used 40% of my mana to use physical aberration? That doesn’t make sense. I doubt I used that much last time, and I spent at least an hour stuck with it on. Unless most of the cost is from toggling it on and off? Should I risk testing my theory? I would rather not drain myself dry for a theory.

Evernya trotted inside to grab a couple of smoothies before returning to her spot in the yard. She chugged the first pink one. Then sipped on a second blue colored smoothie while in contemplation. I have to learn how my new ability works, but is it worth the risk of draining myself? Sure, I’m in a safe environment with Meira nearby, but I doubt she could save me if I bottomed out in mana. Still. I will never be able to use physical aberration unless I learn its capabilities. I guess no risk, no reward.

With her decision made, Evernya set the empty jugs on the ground before taking a deep unneeded breath and toggling physical aberration on. When she felt it take effect, she glanced down at her suit computer. Oh crap, I am under 30% capacity now. I feel fine but I have a feeling the ability is protecting me from low mana exhaustion.

Evernya took several cautious steps while watching her mana capacity closely, but to her surprise, it only dropped a fraction of a percent after several minutes. So activation is the biggest mana sink? I know turbo mode required a ton of mana to maintain, but maybe physical aberration takes it upfront? As much as it doesn’t make sense how I can break physics, I suppose one thing that does make sense is the massive cost of mana. Though I’ll need to do more testing to know the specific cost.

Emboldened by the high but manageable mana usage, Evernya jogged. Light as a feather, Evernya pranced in circles. She stopped back where she started near the center of Meira’s yard, then looked skyward before bending her knees. As if gravity barely influenced her, she flew three meters into the air while performing a backflip. At the peak of her jump, her tail flashed out, correcting her balance, righting herself midair before touching down on the grassy ground.

Without missing a beat, Evernya stood feet shoulder width apart, clawed hands raised to chest level before she began fighting an unknown enemy. Her right claws shoot towards the imaginary enemy’s right shoulder while her left claws targeted the right side of the stomach. She even stepped into the stabs, leaning her weight forward, leaving herself wide-open, but at the last second, she slid herself to the left, ignoring any built-up momentum. Unfortunately, contrary to her plans, instead of sliding while dragging her claws across the opponent, she stumbled sideways. She immediately tried again, this time her left ankle caught on the grass, sending her crashing to the ground.

With a growl of annoyance, Evernya sprung to her feet to try again, but her anger overcharged her muscles, prompting another collision course for the ground, this time impacting the ground hard on her left shoulder. Evernya groaned in pain as she stumbled to her feet, but refused to give in.

What the hell happened to my coordination? I had no problem jogging, so why can’t I propel myself sideways without tripping? I refuse to let a little thing like physics beat me!

Determined to conquer her issue, Evernya spent the next two hours running through combos before attempting to leap sideways, but each time she either tripped and crashed or leaped too high, nullifying any advantage of the maneuver.

Her timer sounded off, indicating it was time to take a break and grab a smoothie. On the way to the kitchen, inspiration hit her, causing her to rush into the kitchen to grab a smoothie as fast as possible. She downed the smoothie before she even made it back outside, then sprinted back to the torn up yard from her previous attempts.

I’m an idiot! I used my mana to anchor myself, but because of it, I have too much grip like I’m wearing cleats!

She set her timer for another three hours before getting to work on her theoretical solution. After she ran through a basic combo with her striking towards the right shoulder of her imaginary enemy, Evernya shot herself sideways. The moment she propelled herself sideways, she canceled the mana anchoring her to the ground. As if shot out of a cannon across ice, she slid five meters before losing her footing. Carried by the momentum that shouldn’t exist with physical aberration, Evernya flew through the air for several more meters before she crashed to the ground on her left shoulder. Her body slid another couple of meters before her dazed mind caught up. She applied mana to her left side, stopping her body in an instant as if sliding onto flypaper.

A whimper escaped her mouth as she rolled on her back, staring up at the cloudless blue sky. After taking a minute to recover, Evernya reapplied mana to her soles before she sprung to her feet. She glared at the divet where she started, face hardened with determination.

She trotted back to the center of the yard before running through another basic combo to set herself up for another attempt. This time she managed to reapply mana to her feet before ice-skating across the yard, but only after she slid several meters.

The next two hours passed, with her failing for one reason or another. Whenever she tried to apply mana too soon, she stumbled or crashed, but if she waited too long, she slid past her imaginary target. No matter how many times she tried, she always failed, only ratcheting up her frustration each time.

As she forced herself upright after a particularly nasty crash, Evernya fumed mentally. Why can’t I get this right! It can’t be this hard! All I need to do is slide a meter! I can’t hop because I’ll fly too high, but I can’t anchor myself fast enough if I slide either.

While she brushed grass clippings off her skintight training suit, she paused as she swore she felt Aya laughing at her through their bond but when she glanced up at their lit up window, but she saw no one.

Fueled by constant failure and her laughing made Evernya refused to give up. She capped trying, but no matter what, she just couldn’t get it right.

The closest she got was stopping herself after a two meter slide, balancing on one foot with her arms flailing to stop herself from falling. Undeterred, she continued to try to perfect her theoretical method of succeeding with her self-imposed challenge.

Soon another hour passed, but this went unnoticed by the driven girl. Even the alarm signifying the three hours mark passing fell on deaf ears.

She could now stop herself after a two meter slide without danger of falling, but any sooner caused her to crash every time.

Another three hours passed with slow progress of a few centimeters each half-hour. By this time, her lack of progress was less to do with making mistakes, more because of the fact she was both mentally and magically drained. Her marathon of training finally ended when she collapsed onto the demolished yard, unable to continue.

She tried to get up but found her body refused to respond. A sudden numbness spread throughout her body as physical aberration deactivated on its own. As a result of its deactivation, her healthy looking figure withered away within moments, leaving her skin and bones. Against her will, her body forced her unconscious to sustain itself.

An hour later, she awoke and immediately groaned in pain, as every inch of her body was sore. Her migraine was even worse than before, but she forced herself to get up, knowing she needed to feed herself. She zombie walked her malnourished body toward the sliding door leading to the kitchen. Once inside, she met two pairs of judgmental eyes staring her down. Not having the energy to deal with them at the moment, she ignored them and dragged herself to the fridge to grab herself some smoothies. When she reached the fridge, her legs gave out, causing her to collapse on the hard tile floor.

Not even bothering to try to get up, she reached for the handle to open the fridge, just barely reaching it with her fingertips. Once open, she grabbed one of the two liter smoothie jugs and immediately chugged it, not caring she was spilling a lot of it all over herself. She snagged another jug, chugging this one like the last.

She repeated the feeding frenzy until she downed six two liter smoothies. Evernya then fell limp back on the floor out cold as the scrapes on her face, hands, and feet visibly healed while her body gradually filled out.