After making my decision on my predicament I am right now concentrating on waking LILY as my first priority. So except for the time where I will be eating or playing with my mother, I will be absorbing energy from the atmosphere. I even tried to make the remaining energy to make its way to LILY to lessen the time of her waking even a little. Like that almost 5 months passed. Life became almost monotonous. Eat, sleep, play with my mother and absorb energy. Even though I can’t freely manipulate the energy in my body, I became somewhat proficient in guiding that energy slowly in the way I want.

Another thing I discovered as I tried to analyze that energy is that it felt somewhat closer to something I knew. What that was, I don’t have an answer right now but I have a feeling that it will become clear in the future. I have a feeling somewhere in the back of my mind that it is taking more time than necessary for LILY to wake up. It’s like a stalled car engine and need to jump start.

But what I didn’t know that we can’t manipulate the pure and wild Spirit energy like I did. If anyone knew what I am doing, they will go crazy and look at me as if I am monster…

One day, as I finished my eating and planning to go back to my room to start absorbing energy, a maid came to me and said that my dad is waiting in his study and I am to go meet me there. I nodded my head and started walking to my dad’s study.

My dad’s study can be called his office as he makes his administration from there. I stood outside the big carved doors and lightly knocked.

“Come in, Azalon”.

I opened the doors and walked in. Inside is my father along with that scary looking geezer whom I say on that day. I lightly bowed to him as I have heard from my mother that he is a respectable elder in my father’s clan. I looked towards my father and asked,

“Did you call for me, Father?”

“Yes, we are going somewhere. Get ready in an hour. ”

“Yes, Father”, I bowed as I turned around and walked to my room.

We left the mansion in a carriage after an hour. It’s my first time leaving the mansion and I was looking at the surroundings. My dad and that elder are talking in hushed tones and no matter how much I concentrated, I couldn’t hear them. Then I had an interesting idea and I berated myself as to why I didn’t think of that soon. I tried to absorb the surrounding energy as it became an instinct in the last year and half, and just like that energy was absorbed, divided, disappeared which left me with a trickle. I concentrated and imagined that energy moving towards my ears, strengthening my hearing.

As I willed, that energy started moving to my ears, and suddenly noise exploded in my ears. So much that I couldn’t keep my mind going blank and there is nothing but noise. I gave a low shout and collapsed unconscious.

I woke up groggily and with ringing ears. I looked up and saw my father shaking me and saying something. I could hear nothing but white noise. Slowly my hearing came back and I heard my father scolding me for falling asleep in the carriage. I woke up and looked outside to see a huge arch with two metal gates with a name written above the arch “Martial Arts Pavilion”.

I looked towards my father and saw him exchanging a look with the elder. He then grabbed my hand and we got down from the carriage and walked towards a middle aged man standing beside the gates.

As we walked to him, he bowed to the elder and my father and said, “Elder, welcome back. Lord Dragus, Welcome. Oh, he should be the Young Master, right?”

“That’s right, Leo. He is the one meeting with the Head Elder today”, the elder replied.

I didn’t know what to do. If it was my past world, I would have walked up to him and give him a handshake. But that is not the custom here. So as my mother taught me, I took two small steps, lightly bowed with cupped hands, as I am the son of the city mayor I can’t bow low, and greeted him.

“Azalon greets Elder Leo”.

My father looked at me with pride in his eyes and Leo and that elder looked pleasantly surprised that I could greet him with such etiquette.

“Good manners. But I am not an elder, Azalon. You can call me Uncle Leo.”

“Azalon greets Uncle Leo”.

“Good. Now let’s go to the Head Elder”, the elder said to Leo.

He nodded and his head and lead us inside the pavilion. The pavilion is wide and beautifully maintained. We were walking a blue stone path in the middle of a well maintained lawn. We reached a 4- storied building at the end of our walk built of completely white stone like material. I couldn’t help but look at that stone as I never seen such a material in my past life. My father saw me looking at the building interestingly.

He lightly laughed and said,”Azalon, this building is made of white stone called Spirit Stone. It is mined at places where Spirit energy is concentrated. It forms when Spirit energy gets absorbed into the natural stones after a long time. Sometimes it takes tens or even hundreds of years to form the mine of Spirit stone. That’s why it is very costly. Even I can’t afford the material cost of this building. This is built by the empire and we are just maintaining it”.

That makes sense. So it is a rare material huh. My hands are itching to take a sample to experiment. But I don’t have the proper equipments. Ahhh, how much I miss my state of the art laboratory. My mood became instantly broody.

We walked inside the building and I stood there gawking with my mouth open. If I have to compare the inside with something from Earth, it can be said that it resembles the reception area of 5-star hotel. The entire floor is white stone, the same material of the building. The walls are decorated with various paintings and murals depicting various legends of the country. A crystal chandelier is hanging from the ceiling lightly clinking with the flow of the wind. Various cushions are placed in the area for the visitors to sit and three maids are serving drinks to them.

I rubbed my eyes as I saw something very, very different from the name and purpose of the building. This is a martial arts pavilion, you know. Why is there such a luxurious area here? Leo turned towards a pair of doors at the end of the hall. We walked up to them and he lightly knocked.

“Come”, replied an elderly but commanding voice from the other side.

My father and the elder entered along with me as Leo bowed and left. We entered into a simple and efficient looking office like room. This room gives off a very contrasting feeling to the extravagant atmosphere just outside the doors. An elderly looking lean man is standing looking out of the window facing his back to us. He is clothed completely in white with a light hunch.

He turned towards us. He is according to my estimation around 80 years of age with a long white beard and long eyebrows falling to his cheek bones. He is completely bald and I could see a character like thing on the middle of his head. His face is full of wrinkles and he looked as if he would flow away with a strong wind. But contrast to his entire image, his eyes shone full of vitality as if only his body has aged but not his soul.

“Lorvak pays his respects to Head Elder”, my father deeply bowed to him. I copied him, as if even my father has to bow to him, what can I do but do that huh?

That elder lightly laughed and said, “How are you Lorvak? It’s been a long time since I saw you last”.

“I am fine, Master. It’s been a long time indeed. I was made mayor when I last saw you and you went into closed doors training to attempt to break through.”

“Hmmm… that’s right. Even though I couldn’t break through after all that years I feel as if I can reach that stage very soon. It’s enough about those matters, Lorvak. You said that your son’s body can handle 3 times the normal energy that a human can withstand. Is that true?”

“Yes, Master. I brought him with me so that you can test his condition and provide him with the basic steps”, my father replied with another bow.

I couldn’t make heads and tails of the conversation here. Master? This geezer is the master of my father? Like martial arts master or someone of higher authority than him? Before I could understand, my father lightly pushed me in the direction of that elder. I suppressed my curiosity and looked up at the elder. He is looking at me with those eyes as if he is searching my soul. I felt an immense pressure coming from him and I can’t help but break into cold sweat.

“Come here, boy”, he said in that commanding voice and my body moved automatically as if it couldn’t refuse that order.

The same scene as on that day with my father repeated here. He lifted his hand and it glowed with light azure light in contrast with the pale yellow light of my father. So there is difference in colors of energy? He laid his palm and that light rushed into my body but different from my father, the light on the palm of the elder did not disappear but instead started glowing with a thicker color.

After sometime my body felt full of energy but he didn’t stop the input of energy. My body kept on absorbing that energy and it felt as if I am a water pack on the verge of bursting. Suddenly his palm flickered once with bright azure light followed with a rush of energy into my body like a dam broke out.

My body felt like it is bulging out and pain flooded my entire being so much so that I felt that my very fiber of life is in torment. It was the first time I felt so much pain in both my lives. Amidst that pain, suddenly I heard a faint crack, like something broke under that relentless rush of energy. Along with that crack, the excess energy slowly disappeared completely and left me with a comfortable feeling all over my body. But the lingering effect of that pain still planted itself in my mind.

I recovered slightly and looked around to find myself curled up on the floor. I looked up to see my father with a concerned expression and the two elders with surprise on their faces.

“Looks like what you said is not incorrect, Lorvak. His body can indeed endure higher levels of energy than normal human. All that’s left is to test his comprehension level. If he can refine even a fraction of that energy which he can absorb, he can reach unprecedented heights. Maybe he can even reach the Realms which even I can’t reach in my lifetime.”

Another chapter in an hour or two...