Chapter 3: 2. Water
Consciousness began to return to me, some tension was felt in the body, but it was not unpleasant, rather, as a result of a good workout, when the muscles worked well and the body feels lighter.
When I opened my eyes or what replaces them for me, I saw Wong looking at me with concern. Exactly, I remember how the residual energy from the dark spirit entered my body.
Having started the diagnosis of my condition, I did not notice thirst, or other factors indicating my entry into the dark spirits. But there were plenty of other changes.
First, some part of the line that enveloped my body turned blue. Secondly, the energy density has increased, and its very amount has increased significantly. The body itself has become bigger. I became more like a humanoid, there was a semblance of a head, arms and legs. I think there is a possibility that I will return to human form as I rise in rank. This cannot but please.
Starting to dive further into myself, I saw my source of energy, or already sources. Next to the transparent ball, a ball of blue energy hovered, as if consisting of water. So this is what a piano looks like in the bushes. I will hope that there will be no problems with the addition of a new element.
- Khm khm - interrupted me by a slight cough from Wong.
Having stopped looking at myself, I noticed Wong shifting from one foot to the other, who continued to anxiously wait for my answer.
"It's okay, Wong, I think I'm still neutral," I said to the worried baboon.
- It looks like I've screwed myself up too much, - he said with a relieved smile, - I feel the Qi of water in you, it looks like you're abnormal even for a place where mysterious things can happen.
- I don't really understand the situation myself, as you know, I realized myself here recently, - I said with a wry smile, - better help me figure out what happened.
As he knows, even in the realm of spirits there are some laws that seem to be supported by the world itself. It happened that he communicated with more or less adequate dark higher spirits. They say that only about 25% of the total energy can be taken from the defeated spirit, and when digesting this energy for themselves, even less is obtained, the remaining majority is always absorbed by the world itself. And just the same, what goes to the world most often does not carry any aspirations or emotions in itself, which would be safer for the dark ones themselves. Many high-ranking dark ones are trying to circumvent this rule, but so far no one has succeeded.
"Then I want to ask you to keep it a secret," I said in a serious voice.
- No problem, I don't give away friends, - he said, tapping his chest with his hand, in an allegedly cool pose.
- I think it's worth seeing what I got from this update– - getting up and walking towards that pond– - I don't know much yet, I would like to hear your assessment.
The closer I got to the pond, the clearer I began to feel too much influence of the increased background of water energy on me, I just wanted to go under the water and just swim without thinking about anything. This is bad, it looks like I got some side effects from the increase. Well, for now it's just a small desire to stay closer to the water, such impulses are easy to crush, but this already gives food for thought.
Asking this question to Wong, I did not expect to hear new unpleasant discoveries for me, as it turned out our nature affects us spirits more than I initially thought. For lower and middle spirits, it is in the order of things to be closer to places saturated with their element all the time, so they feel much more comfortable, they can go in search of new housing only if the situation requires it. As he admitted, even being the highest himself, it is still more pleasant for him to be in the forest near the trees by force of habit.
For spirits, the statement "being determines consciousness" will be true. Until you enter the elite, your impulses will be conditioned by your body, not by your mind. It's not very good, I'm just nothing here, but slowly, as if the world itself is trying to adjust me to its parameters.
Stopping at the pond, Wong began to guide me along the path of conquest, the closer you are to the source of your element, the easier it is to control it. I had to go straight into the water. Then, following Wong's advice, he began to try to feel the water itself.
At the same moment, some techniques that that dark spirit used came to mind, there were only two of them, but even that was good news for me. The first was a certain film of water on top of the body, which increased the protection of the body from attack, evenly distributing the damage inflicted, I will call it the armor of water. The second technique came from her, when in close contact with the enemy, he could sharply direct the armor away from himself to knock down the attacking enemy. But even these techniques did not save that average spirit in front of the naked power of the higher spirit.
In addition, I could just move the water with my mind within two meters of me. With the increase in energy characteristics, I will be able to control the element further away from myself, and with a much larger volume.
- Now try to nourish your body with energy, it comprehensively increases your strength, agility, defense and reaction speed, - Wong gave a new exercise– - as you develop, the improvement coefficient will increase, it also passively improves the conductivity of your energy.
- How do you know all this? I asked curiously, still he doesn't look like someone who will measure and analyze all this, in my opinion it's easier for him to hit harder and be done with it.
- When it gets really boring, I came to Wang Shi Tong, he is only happy to read lectures to you, though I get bored quickly and often I fell asleep, - he said with a laugh – I usually woke up already in flight from his library, hearing grumbles about ungrateful spirits.
So there is also his library here, and there may be knowledge of the spirits themselves, you will need to go to him. There is no need to go there, but first you need to figure out your abilities and become even stronger.
Having started to saturate my body with the energy of water, I immediately saw the result, the body seemed to become stronger, time itself seemed to slow down for me. But this condition consumes energy too quickly, if I didn't have a source, it would only last for 30 seconds, and so it feels like I can hold out for a few minutes.
I decided to try to use a neutral source, directing energy through the body, I got a much better effect, as if I became twice as strong, so it's better to use this source to strengthen.
Then I started experimenting with renewed enthusiasm. Who among us would not like to learn bending?
Now that there is a semblance of hands, I can strike with them. Hitting the wood, left only a small roughness on the surface. Weakly. This time I decided to nourish the body with the energy of water. This time the blow left a dent. That's better. Now neutral energy. From the impact, the tree shook noticeably, at the point of impact, the tree simply tore, I think with a strong wind, the tree will immediately fall.
But this is still not enough, during the battle you will have to let the enemy get too close to you, it's worth looking for solutions in the elements. I came up with the idea of creating a shield and a sword out of water, since there is a spirit armor, I will be a kind of knight.
Having started to condense water, I began to compress it to the shape of a sword, spent only 15 minutes on its creation, for a long time, no one will give me time to create. But for the second time it turned out in two minutes, it looks like the water remembered the right shape, or I could do it faster knowing the whole process. I decided to test the result on another tree. Upon impact, a small incision appeared, without getting too upset, I decided to direct the water along the blade under constant pressure. It's too hard to hold a sword in this case, and the expense is large. But the result was worth it, it turned out to be an even cut. The next victim was a stone, it took more effort, but the stone was also cut in two.
With this sword, I even began to feel more confident. It remains only to fix this technique on a subconscious level in order to create it in a couple of seconds.
It turned out to create a shield even faster, it was like a highly compressed armor of the spirit. Thinking how to check it, I saw Wong, with this banding I completely forgot that I was not alone, it's worth being careful, so you can miss the attack.
- Wong help me check out my new techniques - he called a friend, starting to condense the sword and shield, which was very difficult.
While the energy of water is spent on skills, neutral will strengthen the body itself, thanks to this I will become several times stronger.
After a little sparring, Wong was very thoughtful.
- Already now you will be able to defeat not a strong average spirit, the shield will also withstand several attacks– - he said after a few minutes of reflection - eh, it's already enviable that you, with your rank, can defeat an opponent stronger than you by a whole step.
"But don't get too cocky, there are many spirits stronger than you," it was said in a more serious tone.
"I didn't think so," I replied, also seriously.
Having spent the entire reserve on practicing skills, we decided to go back to that tree, as it turned out, this tree is his home. I spent the whole day exploring new possibilities, but I did not have time to understand the mechanism of the process of absorbing energy from the dead spirits. Tomorrow I should ask Wong to take me to a place where dark spirits gather. And you need to start practicing your skills yourself in battles with other spirits, but still I will ask Wong to insure just in case.
***
In the morning, if it is possible to call it that, a place where, depending on the region, it can be either day or night all the time, I noticed a clay pot. Here's the first bell for you, that the mind is degrading, the loss of attention to detail has fallen. Previously, I definitely would not have forgotten to find some kind of vessel for carrying water, fighting without my main tool of a water bender means bringing death upon myself. There may not always be water sources nearby, but the ability to condense water from living organisms or even from the air, I still dream and dream about such abilities.
Don't forget to thank Wong for finding such an invaluable thing.
- By the way, where did you get it from? - I still wonder where he got it.
- It was done by spirits under my protection, some of them collaborated to create it, - said Wong, - do not be offended by them, many of them were attacked by other spirits, and still do not like to show themselves to new faces, so they are hiding for now.
- Okay, I understand everything, can you convey my gratitude to them
Wong has been living in this area for a long time, and remembered where dark spirits usually come, so knowing the exact places we went hunting.
We came to the first place quickly, this place turned out to be not far from where I saw the first battle, after going a little further we saw a cave, there were already several lower stone spirits near it, they were similar to that giant, only more miniature.
"Be careful," Wong admonished me– "don't relax until you're sure.
Having prepared in advance, he created an armor, a sword and a shield, starting to circulate neutral energy, ran straight at the enemies. Noticing me, they began to collect the nearest stones for additional protection, it seems that the stone spirits are primarily focused on defense, it's easier for me.
Without slowing down, unwinding the water on the blade, I cut the first spirit, the resistance was stronger than that of a simple stone, yet these spirits also imbue the stones with their energy, which makes it difficult to penetrate, having broken through the protection, I cut the spirit body itself. As soon as it disintegrated into energy, most of it tried to soak into me, but a feeling of oversaturation appeared, and the energy simply disappeared. I'll deal with it later, the remaining two spirits are on the way. Seeing the futility of their defense, they went on the attack. Taking an attack on a shield that calmly took all the damage. A few seconds later, and they were cut by the sword.
I sharply strain all my senses trying to catch the whole process, what is happening with the residual energy. So they flew closer to me, then there was a feeling of fullness of the body, and they just disappeared into the world. So do not wait for the next gain. But for an accurate statement, it is worth hunting for the spirits of other elements.
Then for the whole day we went from place to place to fight with different spirits. At the end of the day, the exact result appeared. I can't absorb any more energy from enemies, my body just won't stand the new source. It is worth thinking about this when moving to the middle level, it may be possible to absorb other elements when increasing the rank.
Absorption did not occur with any of the elements except water, even rare spirits of the type derived from them did not have an effect. When absorbing the water element of the lower spirits, there is a slight pain in the body, which makes it a little difficult to fight further, and when the middle one disintegrates, the pain becomes even stronger, which seriously interferes with the battle, while I'm not used to it yet, so at the first collision I was saved by Wong, when another middle spirit was already ready to bite me.
The absorption effect is triggered only if the defeated opponent is no more than two meters away from me.
After each absorption of the water spirit, the source became denser and larger, the quality of the energy itself also increased, the feeling of water, which was already not small, jumped even higher. Creating and holding my techniques has become easier than ever. But I could not go to the middle level, now I am infinitely close to this level. It seems that the stronger I became, the more attention the world paid to me, after all, I wasn't born here, maybe he sees me as an enemy, that's why he puts restrictions on me. Another reason to visit the Wang Shi Tong Library.
After the battle with the water spirits, I caught myself thinking that it would not be bad to just stay here and splash in the water, especially since the place is very good, the increased background of water energy contributed to this. With a sharp shake of his head, he pushed such thoughts away. Here's another problem, I've become getting closer to the mind of the lower spirit.
Going to the habitat of Wong, I thought that it was not worth staying here for a long time, you need to solve your problems, and sitting in place will definitely not solve them in any way. Of course, under the protection of Wong, you can safely develop, but still I don't want to lose my identity, even if for a while, who knows what will eventually turn out at the exit to the higher spirits, and I don't think that without radical steps on my part I will remain at the lowest level.
In the morning it was so good from the realization of its peculiarity, as problems immediately appeared. Although without such problems on the way, it would not be so interesting. Yet by solving them, we are getting better.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone