章 14: Time Manipulation

"Where is that monster you two spoke of?"

"Just a little further! We saw it next to the river when we went fishing yesterday!"

"Good job running away and reporting it to us. However, the two of you better not be lying"

"I can promise you that brother and I aren't lying. We really saw it yesterday! It was wriggling and creepy! Just the sight of it made me have terrible nightmares last night…"

The girl tightly held her brother's arm while trembling. The brother stroked her back gently with his hand in an attempt to calm her down.

Hearing a series of voices near him, Arvell woke up and peeked out of the cave he slept in last night.

'As expected they came looking for me. There was no way they would just let a monster come so close to where the river where civilians went fishing. The adventurer guild is pretty thorough on ensuring the safety of the civilians huh?'

After Arvell formed his Aether Core last night, he got his clothes and looked for a suitable place to stay for the night.

He knew that the siblings who fished him out of the lake yesterday would probably tell their parents about finding his wiggling mangled body (which they assumed was a monster), so he found a cave about ten minutes by foot from the river and slept there for the night.

After hearing the voices walk away from his location, Arvell slowly crept out of the cave and proceeded to venture deeper into the forest.

He had no intention of letting him be found by the adventurers. It was just an unneeded hassle.

While he was quite repulsed by the aspect of living in nature due to his upbringing as a prince, he knew that in order to get stronger he would need to train himself.

Even though he looked somewhat different from his previous appearance, some semblances still remained.

Arvell did not want to risk getting found out so early, so he planned to hide in the wilderness until he had achieved a certain level of strength.

He kept walking deeper into the forest for about half of an hour before hearing a loud rumbling sound.

(growl)

Clutching his stomach Arvell remembered that he completely forgot to eat yesterday.

He needed to find a way to procure some food by finding wild fruits and berries or catching his own food.

Lykos materialized beside Arvell and his voice rang out in Arvell's head via their mental link.

'You know… this is a perfect chance for you to practice your Aether manipulation.'

'I see… so I can use this hunting wild animals to practice my control of Aether. How do I control Aether? To manipulate time and space?' Arvell asked.

'A good way to control Aether is by imagining the Aether in your body spreading outwards and covering a certain radius around your body. Then imagine the movement of that Aether to slow down or speed up. This is the basics of the skill known as temporal manipulation,' Lykos explained.

Arvell looked around for about fifteen minutes before seeing a blood-colored rabbit stealthily stalking a rodent that was scurrying around, scavenging for food.

'The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. What a fitting phrase for our current situation,' Arvell mused.

Almost all non-human species had their own version of a Magic Core, which was known as a 'Beast Core'.

Even supposedly weak animals such as rabbits could become much stronger and even become carnivorous if they had a strong enough rank.

One such example was the rabbit that Arvell set his eyes on.

After all, absorbing a magician's Magic Core or a beast's Beast Core after killing them was a quick and easy way to get stronger.

'Hey, Arvell. Before going for the kill first grab your sword. Your chances of killing the rabbit unscathed will be much higher if don't fight it unarmed.'

Arvell gave a confused look.

'What do you mean? My sword got lost remember? Either the Assassins decided to take it as a trophy, or it's at the bottom of the river somewhere. I don't have it anymore'

'Nope! When I was faking your death, I used a bit of my power to put in a separate pocket dimension using Aether. Even the letter from your mother is there too.'

Lykos enjoyed Arvell's shocked expression and began telling Arvell how to open his inventory.

'You only need to spend Aether to make an inventory, but since I already made one for you, you can use it free of charge. Normally this is impossible, but since you gained my essence, I was able to successfully transfer ownership to you. While you are far too weak for me to give my personal inventory space, this newly made one will suit you just fine.'

'What kind of items did you put in your inventory?'

Arvell's interest was piqued. From what he knew of Lykos, he seemed to be an extremely strong person.

Who knew what kind of treasures someone like him was able to amass and store!

Lykos gave Arvell a playful wink.

'Get stronger and find out for yourself~'

Arvell just sighed. At this point, he was slowly getting used to Lykos's antics and he didn't want Lykos to get any satisfaction from teasing him.

'This was completely different from his attitude yesterday.'

After that incident, Lykos acted a little distant and kept to himself. He and Arvell didn't talk much last night after the incident.

However, after waking up, Lykos seemed back to normal. Acting as if yesterday never happened.

While Arvell still held fear towards Lykos after yesterday's incident, it was considerably less. It was as if his body was telling him that Lykos would not do anything to actually hurt him intentionally.

It was as if there was a familial connection between the two, and through that Arvell could feel that Lykos meant no real harm.

Lykos pretended to be oblivious to Arvell's thoughts, despite being able to hear them. Instead, he reminded Arvell that his prey was getting ready to kill the rodent.

The best window for killing it was when the rabbit went for the kill. It would focus purely on killing the rodent, that it would be vulnerable to be killed itself.

'Imagine channeling Aether to your fingertips and tearing a small hole in space. After tearing the space reach in and grab the sword.'

Arvell did as Lykos instructed. He channeled the Aether from his core through his arm into his fingertips and his fingers a faint sky blue.

Though Arvell could see the sky blue color, only he could see it due to his affinity to Aether. While experienced mages could feel and sense mana in the air, only other Aether wielders would be able to see it.

He proceeded to tear a small gash with his fingers, which served to open a small rift in space.

Arvell reached into the space and produced the Hasty Iron Sword.

He felt relief that the magical sword he luckily found at a merchant stall, especially after thinking that he lost it for good.

He closed his inventory, opting to read his mother's letter at a later time.

Lykos suddenly got a brilliant idea and looked at Arvell with an evil grin.

Arvell felt a chill go down his spine as he turned to look at Lykos.

'Arvell in order to properly use the skill when you are first learning it, you need to...'

He explained to Arvell a trick on how to use time manipulation for the first time.

Arvell turned to look at the rabbit, which was coincidentally about to pounce on the rodent, which was perfect for Arvell.

Just when it was about to jump onto the unsuspecting rodent and kill it, Arvell also ran out of his hiding spot and released a mass of Aether from his body encompassing the rodent and the rabbit.

The total area that Arvell was able to cover was that of a sphere with a radius of 5 metres.

'Is this correct?' Arvell asked.

While he felt something off about all of this, he decided to trust Lykos's judgment. After all, he knew much more about Aether manipulation than Arvell did.

'Yup! Absolutely perfect! Now just say the words and go through the motions.'

Arvell made an embarrassing pose and put both of his hands in the air, and slowed down the movement of the Aether in the area.

He took a deep breath in to hide his embarrassment and yelled.

"THE WORLD! STOP TIME!"