Aether Beasts

The next two weeks were filled with nothing but training, and more training. Each day began the same with an hour of meditation followed by a body strengthening bath. The meditation got easier as the days passed by, but it was still uncomfortable as was the bathing, however, the results began showing after the first week. I felt stronger, not just physically, but endurance-wise, and when it came to my durability. There was new weight to my strikes even without using aether burst. Zirani did say it would eventually become useless and that she would have to create a new version, but for now, it was working its wonders.

The meditation was working its own wonder as, by the end of the first week, I'd seen a huge boost when to my core. I had been stuck at the beginning of the hydro stage since I'd taken the warp seed, but with the meditation technique and the natural essence I absorbed from cores at the same time, my core was well on its way to the iron stage of density, which was something I could have only dreamed of before. It also helped immensely with the aether infusion as I finally understood what one of the technique's main purposes was. The core could only take in so much aether and essence at a time and often the rest would just disperse, but the technique forced the aether that didn't enter my core to infuse into my body. That along with the aether gathering elixir helped my growth greatly and at a speed, I hadn't thought possible. The techniques and elixirs work perfectly together and just proved once again that Zirani knew what she was doing.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though, the hardest part of the training was the foundation learning Zirani was teaching me. From the patterns to how they worked together, to certain rules I needed to know and limitations. It was all so to take in and at times I found myself getting overwhelmed, and I wasn't the only one. Sandra seemed to have trouble putting Zirani teachings into action when it came time to try and create a dark technique whose main purpose wasn't offense. Misty seemed to also be having a lot of trouble in that regard as all her attempts came out similar, usually a technique that just caused damage.

Zirani was there to help, however, and one by one, she helped guide us through the process. In my case she had me go through all the techniques I currently had and to disassemble them in separate patterns which was a lot harder than it seemed since the pattern for a technique was a combination of pieces of origin patterns and not the whole thing. In the end, though, with a lot of time and repetition, I was able to disable bark armor which earned me a reward from Zirani that night.

Speaking of nights, now that things between me and Sanda were cleared, often nights I found myself sleeping with one or another. I'd never thought I'd been having so much sex, but I wasn't going to complain. It helped a lot for both parties and allowed us some relaxation and pleasure, heavens knew we needed it.

By the end of the second week, all three of us had the meditation technique down, although there was still room for improvement. We'd all managed to disassemble our techniques and had even made a few adjustments, though only minor. I'd added a function that let my vine split it into two smaller vines while Sandra now was able to fling a dagger into a shadow to remind there for a few minutes, and if she called it back, it would fling out of the shadow to her hand or a target location. Misty had managed to add the rotting affecting of her death ball to her claws. We were all coming along well, and it was clear Zirani was very proud.

"I have to say, I never expected you three to make it this far this quickly," Zirani praised. "But I guess I shouldn't be shocked. Aiden here has the arch vein bloodline and learns at an incredible rate, Misty here is an aether vampire, and Sandra is of the Umbrin."

"Mine doesn't sound as flattering as the others," Misty grumbled. "Misty the vampire, sounds odd."

"I have no doubt you'll earn a greater title in the future," Zirani replied. "We're done for the day, though. These two weeks have been very successful, and for this third, we will be pushing for the second level of infusion and a stage up in density after which I will be teaching all of your more advanced techniques especially you Aiden."

To any other arcanists of the plains that would have sounded crazy, but I Zirani, we'd trained with Zirnai and had reaped the benefits.

"I think I'm close," I said as I focused on my core.

"I'm almost certain you are," Zirani said as she turned to the others. "As are you two. Once we're done with that, we will be leaving this place and heading to the next floor."

"What about the herbs and plants?" I asked in confusion.

"They won't be too effective anymore," Zirani said. "And we've packed a ton of all inside your storage rings and that device we found the other day."

When we'd been hunting for more cores we'd stumbled across an odd little scene. An abandoned camp with a storage drive that was empty, and with town horn clothes laying on the floor as if the people who'd been wearing them had just vanished. It had been an eery sight, and none of us had been able to explain what it meant since the image of twin horn arcanists suddenly getting undressed then running off and abandoning their camp seemed too stupid and odd to be real.

We hadn't run into any more abominations during the two weeks, though we had definitely been on the look out. Whenever we went hunting we always made sure that one of us was constantly looking around so that we weren't caught off guard. We did however find other odd scenes not that different from the twin honor camp. Lifeless beasts who looked like they had been drained and what was strangest and more disconcerting was that when we'd opened one up they'd had an empty core as if their essence had been drained while it was still inside them.

We all headed back up to the treehouse, and after a quick hour of meditation in my room I prepared my bath. As I entered the dark red liquid, I grit my teeth. Even after all these times, is still stung like a bitch. It was nowhere near as bad as it had been the first time, but it was still an unpleasant experience, laying in a pool of water that seemed to be attacking you with hundreds of sharp needles, all while you boiled from the inside.

After I was done and the water was clear of color, I did another hour of meditation and was about to head to sleep when there came a knock at my door.

"Emm, come in."

Sandra of Zirani didn't ever knock which meant it could only be…

"Misty?" I quickly looked down at my nakedness, then pulled a blanket to cover myself. "W-what is it?"

"I erm, I wanted to talk if that's ok?"

I frowned but nodded nevertheless. "That's fine, about what?"

Misty didn't respond at first, instead, she shut the door then walked over, and then took a seat next to me on the bed, far closer to me than I had expected, and she didn't seem shocked or embarrassed at my lack of clothing.

I coughed once to get my heart under control especially as I noticed that she was wearing only a robe and nothing underneath.

"I… Aiden do you not like me?" Misty blurted.

I froze then slowly turned my eyes to hers and tilted my head to the side. "Like you? hasn't Zirani or Sandra told you."

"They say you do, but you've been ignoring everything I do or try for the past two wells."

"Past two weeks…" I suddenly felt the urge to smack myself. "Oh, oh no. Oh, Misty, I'm so sorry. I was wondering what it meant, but I was too caught up in training to realize."

"Is that why Zirani kept sending me and you together to hunt?"

Misty nodded. "Yes, but you just ignored everything I said or seemed oblivious to it. So.. wait you do like me."

"Yes!" I said louder than I intended. "I do, and if I'd have known you were trying… this, then I would have gladly accepted."

Misty smiled and blushed faintly. "Well, it's not too late."

Misty stood and slowly untied the rope holding her robe together and the fabric fell from her, pooling at her legs.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"