Chapter 22: Nest

I barely managed to get to my room, where I passed out the second I threw my body onto my bed. 

I had probably crawled for most of the way there, but I really didn’t care since I had just become enlightened. 

As someone who had spent his entire life on Earth, a magic-less world, these sorts of feelings were all new and eye opening. How else was I supposed to react to being able to glimpse the thoughts and feelings of people I didn’t even know?

And then there was the fact that I was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of utilizing this ability. How much more was there that I could become capable of?

I went to sleep with all sorts of thoughts on my mind. 

And it was some much needed rest, too. I had dumped all the Psyka I had into the coat and my aura. It was worth it, but I had been left a husk. 

Unfortunately, I slept for longer than I expected. 

By the time I woke up, it was already well past noon. I slept through my alarm. 

It made me panic, since I had missed all of my classes, the last of which was ongoing when I cralwed out of bed. 

“Well, at least I’ll be rested for training.”

Those classes didn’t particularly interest me right now, so I didn’t care too much. 

With that, I freshened up before getting a bite to eat. The Magisterium had a nice restaurant on campus, so I checked it out and ordered some food. 

It was rather cheap compared to what I was used to, not that the Founder’s Market was a good reference to have. 

And after eating there, I spent the last hour or so I had assessing my new abilities. 

I was now aware of my own and other people’s auras. And even without the coat as my guide, I could stream my Psyka into it. 

This was the biggest barrier, but with the power of an exorbitantly expensive item, I was able to bypass it. 

And by infusinng Psyka into my Aura, I could finally understand what Maxwell was talking about. 

I understood that my Intent, along with other details about myself, were spread beyond my body through my aura. And since I could stream Psyka into it, and I could control my Psyka, that meant I should be able to control my aura, and by extension, my Intent. 

I rode that simple logic and tried to test my theories. 

In my room, I sat in a chair and dumped some Psyka into my aura. 

This increased my awareness of my aura by many times, similarly consuming energy. 

And with my Psyka inside my aura, I began practicing. 

I used the same formations that Maxwell had taught me, forming lines and symbols of Psyka. But instead of doing these things within my mind, I did them within my aura. 

And it was then that I saw a faint glow. 

A line of light appeared in front of my eyes. It was red, and it formed the same shape that I drew with my Psyka. 

My Psyka had manifested beyond my body. 

From there, I continued drawing. 

The formation was created in front of my eyes as dozens of red lines and symbols appeared in the air. 

But this method of drawing was different than I knew. 

I quickly encountered difficulties because of this difference. 

I wasn’t simply drawing it, like paint with a brush. Instead, it felt like I needed to imagine my Psyka being drawn. From there, it would be drawn. 

I likened it to an out of body experience. I wasn’t doing the drawing. I was telling my mind to draw. It seemed like the same thing, but it wasn’t. 

There was a certain detachment between the two, a line that I was barely getting the hang of riding. It took a lot of concentration, and even more than that, a suspension of disbelief. 

I almost couldn’t understand how I was doing this, and because I didn’t understand, I got close to convincing myself that I shouldn’t be able to, or that it wasn’t possible. But I deliberately kept myself ignorant, simply doing it whether I thought I could or couldn’t. 

It was only by doing that that I could continue, as if I started to question it, then I would lose the ability. It was similar to dreaming, where if you became aware that you were dreaming, then the dream would stop. What I had to do was something close to lucid dreaming, where I was aware that I was dreaming, but I suspended my connection to reality in order to let it play. 

And by doing all these things, I was able to accomplish not just controlling my Psyka beyond my body, but tapping into my Intent. Through this technique, controlling my Psyka would be no different from controlling my intent. 

But it was incredibly difficult, so much so that I couldn’t complete even a fraction of the formaiton that I had made hundreds of times before. 

It would require another level of control, but at least I now had another level to rise to. 

Knowing that, I shut things down, returning to reality. I was now tired, but thankfully I would still be able to participate in the training. 

But when I looked at the time…

“Shit! I’m late!”

It had started 10 minutes ago. I promptly rushed out of my room and threw on my air mask, using its boost in stamina to run to the training grounds. 

I arrived with labored breaths, seeing a group of people outside the building. 

I saw Tana, who looked at me with a snicker, and Mr. Puppet, who seemed angry. 

“You! Why are you late! You better have a damn good reason, or you can just go home! I don’t cater to lazy asses!”

“…”

I was silent as he called me out. And when everyone turned to me with questioning looks, I took off my air mask and answered back with slight confidence. 

“I was learning to control my Intent.”

“Bullshit. You didn’t even know what that was yesterday.”

“…Fine.”

I suddenly concentrated, tapping into my aura and doing what I had just done only a few minutes ago. 

Suddenly, red lines sparked and appeared in front of me, writing a few segments of a formation in the air. Unfortunately I wasn’t entirely focused, not to mention I was tired, so the formations broke apart not long after. 

But that was enough. Mr. Puppet seemed more than surprised, as did several of the others around me. Tana especially had wide eyes. 

I felt a bit accomplished, so I couldn’t help the smile. 

After a few moments, Mr. Puppet grumbled. 

“You win. So get over here and listen up.”

“Yes sir.”

I gave a weird salute before standing with the group.

He sighed. 

“Since I’m not explaining everything again, I’ll keep it short. Today we’re doing a group scenario. Five groups of four will each be separated into their own environments. Your goal is to raid a Hive, killing the King in the process. The Hives will be identical, and you will be scored based on how fast and how many enemies you kill. Total extermination will result in a perfect score, but mind you, there will only be 3 hours to complete this raid, and killing the King will require the fullest effort of every group member. Now, stand by while I form the groups.”

He grabbed a sheet of paper, reading off a list. 

Everyone’s name was one I didn’t know, and I watched as they all walked to the side and separated into their groups. 

I was a part of the third group. 

“Tana, John, Heubert, and Umara.”

I moved with Tana, standing off to the side. Two others moved with us. 

One man and one woman, who I guessed were Heubert and Umara respectively. I nodded to them as Mr. Puppet finished forming the groups. 

“Alright! Walk through the portal and begin! Clock starts now!”

He gave us no time to mentally prepare, and we were forced to rush into the portal without so much as an introduction. 

But everyone seemed used to this, so I rolled with it and entered with my group. 

I felt the weird sensation of being teleported before I appeared within a barren desert. 

In front of me, I could see nothing but red sand. But when I turned around, I could see huge stone structures. 

They rose up like towers, and many of them were connected to each other, forming walls and barriers. Their black luster told me that they weren’t exactly natural formations, but knowing this world, they could be. 

And in the distance amongst the tops of all those towers, I could see holes that housed what seemed like huge locusts. Of course, they had the signature look of puppets, but everything else resembled the body structure of an insect. And while some had wings, others didn’t. 

At the front, there was an entrance into what seemed like a maze of this locust hive. 

“Let’s introduce ourselves.”

Someone spoke. I looked at saw that it was Umara. She looked like a Warlock, with some gray robes and a staff that held a cluster of crystals atop its pole. 

And although she asked to introduce ourselves, everyone ended up looking at me. So I went first with a smile. 

“I’m John, and I guess you could call me a ranged fighter. Pleasure to meet you all.”

“Mm. I’m Umara. Warlock specializing in ranged spells.”

“Heubert. Knight specializing in defensive combat.”

“Tana. Knight specializing in offense.”

I nodded to the others as they gave a brief introduction. 

Heubert was a large man, built like a football lineman. He carried a large steel shield and sword, and his bald head gave off a meathead type feel, contrary to his sharp, squinted eyes. 

And then there was Tana, the nimble swordswoman. 

Two ranged fighters, a tank, and a melee fighter. It was a rather well rounded lineup, especially since we might be fighting off some flying puppets. 

The others seemed pleased as well. 

“We have a good group.”

Heubert nodded pleasantly. Tana smirked a moment after, though.

“Yes, it would be a good group without John’s fatal flaw.”

She smiled at me. 

“You can’t keep quiet, can you?”

“No, not really.”

“Then that increases the difficulty by several times.”

“Wait, you were the loud one yesterday?”

Umara suddenly questioned, earning a nod. 

“Yea, that was me. My weapons are powerful but they have a hard time keeping it down.”

“So basically, every puppet is going to be flooding toward us so long as he’s active. But I will admit, his weapons are amazingly powerful.”

Tana pat my shoulder before looking toward the Hive. 

But then, Umara spoke with a thought. 

“If it’s loud, I might be able to help. I know a sound isolation spell. It’s not absolute, but it could mitigate a good chunk of the sound.”

“That’s a thing?”

I asked in surprise, and she gave me a shrug.

“It’s an auxiliary spell that I learned. I haven’t really used it, but if it’ll help, then I can. It’s stationary though.”

“That shouldn’t matter too much. You two would stick in the back line anyway, so when we get into fights, you can cast the spell and John can do his thing.”

“That works.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. After that, Heubert put on his helmet and hoisted his shield. He looked like a real knight. 

“Then let’s get going. We have three hours, so let’s move fast.”

“And kill fast.”

Tana took the front with Heubert while Umara and I followed behind. 

We entered the gates of the Hive, getting a better view of the towers that seem constructed of thousands of stone disks stacked on top of each other. 

And since the wind was mostly blocked by the walls, the wind didn’t blow any sand into our eyes. However, it still shifted under our feet, making mobility a bit more of a concern. 

What we found were many pathways, almost like hallways, as we continued through the Hive. It was a maze of these walls and towers, but in general, there seemed to be one set direction. 

We didn’t see anything except the occasional flying locust that passed between towers. However, afer covering enough distance, we arrived in a large plaza. 

It seemed to be a junction between several more possible paths. And within this junction, there were dozens of locusts crawling about. 

Heubert lowered his stance as several noticed us. Tana also unsheathed her sword. 

“Get ready.”

“Casting sound isolation.”

Umara muttered under her breath, and before I knew it, a slight ripple in the air formed a dome around us. The sounds coming from the outside didn’t change, making me think that it had done nothing. But I decided to trust it and summoned a weapon. 

It was my rifle, and I raised it while looking through the iron sights. 

My target was a flying locust that was turning our attention to us in the air. And with a quick adjustment, I pulled the trigger. 

*BANG*

The sound was the same, but nobody besides Umara recoiled at the sound. 

And with that shot, the flying locust fell out of the sky. Its body was much bigger than normal, probably the size of an adult man. 

It made me cringe as green blood splattered on the floor. At least they were easy to kill. 

“The isolation works! Go!”

Tana shouted before dashing off, thrusting her sword and piercing the body of a locust on the ground. Her sword swung and bisected it, leaving a huge trail of blood. 

Heubert also prepared, staying in front of us while shield bashing a few bugs that crawled forward. 

And Umara prepared some spells, lights flashing in the air as arrows of ice appeared out of magic circles. 

A glimpse at the spells reminded me of circuits, as did most spell formations. 

Her icicles pierced a few different locusts after preparing for a few seconds. 

And I chambered another round, taking aim at another unlucky puppet.

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