May 10, 10:45 am BT – 8:45 am UT, The Gorge At The Iron Gate Pa.s.s, China

"Concentrate," Black Wind growled. "Find the core of your power."

Irade frowned, sitting cross-legged. Her palm lay open over her knee as she breathed in slowly. She held her breath for a few seconds, then let it go.

The difficult part of meditation was letting go. Every time she thought she had let go of everything, she would find herself thinking another thought.

"The problem is that you are thinking at all," Black Wind growled. "You shouldn't be thinking anything."

The two of them were sitting in front of the waterfall, meditating. Or at least, Black Wind was trying to teach Irade how to meditate. He had her use [Flight] above the water in front of the waterfall, sitting cross-legged, and trying to clear her mind.

She had spent the past week splitting her time between trying to get used to move without her left arm, and meditating like this. It turned out that her left arm did a lot more than Irade realized. Now that it was missing, her entire center of gravity had s.h.i.+fted. She basically had to re-learn how to walk since her balance was so off.

On the other hand that Irade now did have, meditation was boring and difficult. Apparently, she needed to do this because Black Wind took one look at her "core" and saw that it was closed off to the natural magical energies in nature.

"It's very strange that you can use magic at all like that," he had said. "But in order to truly learn control, you must unblock your magic."

Which lead to the meditation. Unfortunately, Irade was hopeless at it. She had never been the best at sitting down and doing nothing. The sound of the waterfall and birds were always enough to break her concentration. Black Wind's advice to just go along with the distraction didn't help either; it just made her want to stand up and yell at the waterfall.

So they were trying something a little different. Today, Black Wind had advised her to try floating atop the water while meditating.

"I can see your flow of magic while you work," he growled. "While you have something to focus on while you meditate."

"I don't really think much when I use [Flight] though," Irade replied.

"Then you should be like that while you meditate."

Honestly, if Irade had a [Meditate] Skill, things would be so much easier. It would be useless in any other situation, but after a week of Black Wind's growly lessons, Irade was trying to think of anything she could do in order to stop these lessons.

As such, she decided to give his suggestion a go. It couldn't be any worse than what she was already doing, after all.

[*Arabic Writing*: Level 63]

[HP: 1057/1057]

[Strength: 1044]

[Speed: 1055]

[Intelligence: 1056]

[Agility: 1051]

[MP: 900/938]

With her current MP, she should be able to float for about fifteen minutes or so. With that in mind, Irade crossed her legs, and closed her eyes.

...

As she floated, the sound of the waterfall in front of her while birds sang their songs from the trees above, Irade began to notice a weird...feeling in her stomach. It was a weird hum, vibrating from her abdomen.

The more she focused on it, the more she could...feel...the power radiating from it. It felt warm, and red. Irade didn't know how to explain it exactly. It wasn't that it felt bad, but it didn't feel...natural either. Like something foreign to her.

She focused on it more, fascinated. The core seemed to pulse every now and then, sending waves of energy throughout her body. Now that she noticed it, she remembered this feeling as the one she felt whenever she activated [Flight]. She had been pretty certain before, but this confirmed it. This glowing, red thing was her core.

"That's right," Black Wind growled softly. "Very good..."

She sat there, focused on her core, fascinated by the pulses. The more she watched, the more she became aware of how the energy moved throughout her body. In waves, pulsing through her veins, sinking through her muscles.

She became aware of how the energy aligned with her breathing, moving in and out as she breathed. For a moment and an eternity, she felt herself completely at peace with herself. She was completely in tune with herself, aware of the every breath, every heartbeat, every stray stream of energy flowing through her.

And the next moment, she became aware of another energy.

Breathing, pulsing, vibrating.

It was all around her. She could feel it, feel how she was simply sitting there, a rock in the ocean of energy around her.

[Requirements: Met!]

[Unlocked New Pa.s.sive Skill: Mana Sense]

Irade opened her eyes, shocked out of her meditation. The sheer amount of energy around her was enough to instinctively turn the Pa.s.sive Skill off.

Immediately, Black Wind was on her, growling comfortingly.

"You're okay, you're alright," he said softly. "It's just magic. You have become aware. It's okay, you can hold it back."

Irade blinked, then slowly patted Black Wind. She wanted to tell him that she was fine, but Black Wind had never actually let her pat him before...maybe she could just...pat him a little...just for a little while…

"You don't seem as distressed as one normally would be," growled Black Wind from under Irade's soft hand. She sheepishly pulled her hand back as Black Wind walked away.

"How are you not overtaken by the might of nature?" he asked, once he looked back. Irade had a feeling that he was using those blue eyes to watch her magic.

"I turned the Pa.s.sive Skill off," she said simply.

For a moment, all was silent save for the sound of the waterfall.

"You...turned it off?" Black Wind asked quizzically.

"Was I not supposed to?" Irade asked, confused.

Black Wind simply looked at her like she was crazy.

"It takes a great amount of skill to be able to simply turn off one's ability to sense magic," he said. "Much like it is difficult to stop oneself from hearing, or smelling."

Irade nodded slowly. That...made sense. She looked at her HUD, feeling mixed.

It seemed like this thing was both a useful tool, and a crutch. On the one hand, it apparently made it a lot easier for her to use magic. After all, Black Wind had continuously stated how Irade's ability to fly and re-grow her arm for short periods of time were beyond even his capabilities.

However, it seemed like letting the HUD use the skills for her meant that she herself was left with very little control. For example, no matter how deftly or quickly Irade moved, [Flight] always had the same Mana cost. Most of the time, this was a good thing, but Irade felt that it was a little rigid at times.

As for [Left Arm Of The Djinn]...well...the cost for that one was pretty high. Irade wasn't sure when she would use that.

"Okay, I'll turn it back on," said Irade, mentally preparing herself.

"No, wait," Black Wind interrupted her. "Since you can turn it on and off at will, we shall take advantage of this."

"First, root yourself in your own magic. Find that place you found just before the trees fell and you found yourself drowning in the sea of energy."

He gave a couple more bits of advice, which Irade mentally noted. She re-a.s.sumed her position, and started breathing slowly. She made sure to focus on her core, relaxing and feeling the waves of magic within herself pulse. Once she felt she was in a good rhythm, she activated [Mana Sense].

Immediately, she found herself bombarded by the sea of mana all around her, beating and batting her around. The currents of magic were rus.h.i.+ng over, under, past, and through her all at the same time, threatening to drag her away.

"Root yourself in your own magic," Black Wind had told her. "Know where you are among the chaos."

Irade grit her teeth, sweat pouring down her forehead. She focused once again on her core, on the center of her magic. Despite everything, she found that it was still flowing normally through her body. It was a little out of synch with her breathing, but it was still working, keeping her afloat.

The more she focused on her own mana, the less the outside mana bothered her. Slowly, her breathing stabilized as she found herself among the torrent.

"Very good," she heard Black Wind growl. "Very adaptable. How wolf-like of you."

Irade heard the praise, but didn't pay it much mind. She simply let it flow through her like the mana was around her.

Then again, it might be more accurate to say that the environmental mana was now flowing...around her. Her own mana was rooting her, forming a protective s.h.i.+eld from the flowing energy around her. The more she focused on her own mana, the stronger the s.h.i.+eld became.

After a while, her s.h.i.+eld was strong enough that Irade's mind began to wander again. She began to notice little details in the outside mana, making out shapes and forms among them. Focusing harder, she realized that these other little spots of mana all seemed to be living beings.

She turned her head – mentally, of course, since this was more 'sensing' mana than seeing – and found another, strong rooted mana source right beside her. A mana source that was strong, calming, and for some reason, gold. Curious, Irade instinctively reached out to it, touching it.

[Requirements: Met!]

[Unlock New Skill: Mana Absorb!]

Immediately, Irade felt like she was absorbing the mana from the gold thing. At the same time, she heard a wolf howl, right next to her.

With a start, Irade realized that the gold thing was Black Wind.

She drew back her 'touch' immediately, afraid that she was hurting Black Wind. But as she did, she 'touched' all the mana around her.

"Hnngk!"

Instantly, she felt herself absorbing all the mana in the environment. Irade's eyes bulged, a sudden tightness in her chest. She stopped the skill, but that didn't stop the growing power inside her.

She couldn't breathe, there was no room for breath inside her. All she could feel was crackling, unstoppable power, rising within her, threatening to burst. She knew that she had absorbed too much, she had gotten too much mana.

And she knew that if this kept up, she would die.

So she did the first thing she could think of.

She activated [Left Arm Of The Djinn].

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Irade yelled wordlessly as she felt her arm explode out of her shoulder, crackling with red energy. Without waiting a second, she poured as much mana as she could into her arm, and punched the nearest wall.

DOOOOOOM!!

Her fist made a large indent in the wall, but it wasn't enough. Her fist was still br.i.m.m.i.n.g with power, and she wasn't even hurt. She kept punching the wall, until she felt the power inside her dim a little.

"MOVE!"

Before Irade could do anything, she was tackled to the ground by Black Wind. At the same time, a large boulder fell to where Irade had been.

"We need to get out of here!" Black Wind growled, and immediately leaped off. Blinking, Irade followed, activating [Flight].

She followed Black Wind up the gorge, flying while the wolf leaped onto the air. It looked like he was running and leaping of small, invisible platforms, like a protagonist from a wuxia film.

As they made their way up the gorge, Irade heard something crack. She turned back to the waterfall to see what had happened.

Below, where Irade had been punching, a large network of cracks had formed. Irade had noticed at the time, but she hadn't realized that those cracks traveled all the way up to the top of the gorge, loosening some large boulders from the top.

Irade watched them fall to the bottom of the gorge, splas.h.i.+ng into the river. She could see from here that the entrance to the cave had been sealed by the boulders now, thanks to her thoughtless actions.

Whoops.

She turned back to Black Wind, who was still climbing up the gorge, her face burning. He didn't say anything as they climbed.

They came out of the gorge at the top of the waterfall, their surroundings lush and green. There was a large, red bridge over the waterfall, with thankfully no humans on it. Still, being too close to people was not a good idea, and so she and Black Wind hid in the greenery.

"The next time you decide to play with magic, ask me first," Black Wind finally said. At the mention of her mistake, Irade's face went red. She looked down at the ground sheepishly.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I won't do it again."

Black Wind sighed, and looked up at the sky. Through the trees, they could see that it was blue and cloudless. A cool breeze wafted between the trees, and through Black Wind's fur.

He stood like that for a while. Irade sneaked a look up at him, wondering what he was thinking.

"You truly are remarkable," he said finally, surprising Irade. Of all the things she expected, praise had not been one of them.

"After a week of no results, you've managed to learn how to sense mana and how to absorb it," he went on. "That sort of talent is rare, even among wolves."

If possible, Irade's face burned brighter. She didn't really know how to respond to compliments.

"Um...thank you?" she said.

"Well, it looks like the world is telling us to travel together," said Black Wind, a hint of resignation in his voice. "Lest you run amok and destroy the very world we live in."

He looked back down to Irade, his blue eyes piercing through her soul.

"Is there some place you need to go, human?" he asked.

A lot was happening quite fast. Irade was still reeling from basically having caused a rockfall from just punching a wall really hard. Was she really that strong now?

Not to mention, destroy the world? There was no way she was capable of something like that.

Irade blinked, realizing that Black Wind's eyes were still on her. She remembered his question, then looked behind her.

She couldn't see much through the trees, but she could see where the sun was coming from. It was still morning, so if she walked in the opposite direction..

Right. Her destination.

Kashgar.

"Yes," said Irade, looking into the distance. "There is somewhere I need to go."

Home.

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