Apollo's Chronicle by Seraph Wedd (book club reads TXT) 📖

his father.

“You need to imagine the flow of energy and guide it to the tip of your fingers.”

“Don’t put too much stress on your posture. Relax. Doing that, the flow will be much smoother.”

“If you can’t manage to do it on your right hand, try your other hand. There are those which are much comfortable when using their other hand.”

The energy, called «mana», is something that is present in any living organism. There’s no actual limit to the amount of mana that a person can have. It is often limited by the ability of the person himself.

There are also those born with the ability to see mana flow with their bare eyes. Properly trained soldiers can also see mana by focusing mana on their eyes.

The boy, having attended all the levels of training (just as a bystander), was unintentionally taught on how to control his mana.

During the training, he was focusing mana on his eyes and saw the flow of mana for each trainee.

Comparing the rough and random flow of mana of most of the trainees, the flow of mana of his father is calm and moderated. It is like comparing a crude ore to a refined one.

After training for an hour, all the trainees finally got a grasp of the basics.

The managed to release the mana inside their bodies to the tip of their fingers. However, the speed of their transition is nowhere near practical.

“Okay! Good work! Let’s have a break for 30 minutes.”

At his father’s command, all the trainees fell on the ground and started breathing erratically.

Continuous use of mana will make the body tired. Especially when you are just using raw mana without refining it.

“Papa!”

The boy called his father and ran towards him with a smile. The father noticed him and smiled back.

“Oh, are you watching the training again? You really like to watch our training don’t you?”

“Yeah!”

“Hahaha! If you could just share that sentiment to even half of the villagers, then guarding the village will be way easier.”

His father laughed while patting his head. He smiled again, enjoying the patting of his head.

“Be careful now okay? The next stage of our training is a little dangerous for bystanders. Try keeping your distance. You understand?”

“Yeah!”

The boy and his father then chatted for the whole duration of the rest time.

After the rest time ended, the boy stood a little bit farther than his previous spot.

In front of the trainees, large rocks about three-fourths of their size were lined. One for each trainee. It was arranged in a 4x4 matrix.

Then, to explain the next stage, his father once again spoke with a loud and clear voice.

“Okay! The next stage is for the explosion part! In front of you are a special type of rock that reacts to mana. All you need to do is to put a crack to the rock and you will pass. Be careful though, if you make it explode grandly, the rock may split and shower our gallery. Do you all understand?!”

“““Yes Sir!!!”””

And so, following his tips once more, the trainees tried to inflict a crack to the stone in front of them.

Half an hour passed and nobody still manage to inflict even a single scratch to the stone.

His father then gave his trainees more pointers and allowed them to rest a bit to recover their breaths.

After another thirty minutes, the first trainee to inflict a crack at the stone knelt down with a smile in his face.

The crack was just around a single small depression, stretching for around 10 centimeters from it. Even though it looks a bit insufficient, he managed to pass the current stage.

Trainees manage to inflict cracks on their stone one by one. At the end of the training, after 5 hours, only half of the trainees managed to do the task.

“That’s it for today! Those who passed will continue training and master the control of your energy! Those who failed will repeat what we did from morning until you manage to inflict a crack to your assigned stone. Cheating is prohibited. Then, you may rest before returning if you like.”

At his words, almost all the trainees dispersed and sat on the ground slightly away from the center. Those with still enough stamina continued training at the center.

The boy then once again ran towards his father. Unintentionally, the boy heard his father’s words.

“… We have quite a number of promising trainees this time… with this… then…”

“Papa?”

“Oh, you’re still here huh? Did you skip lunch?”

The boy shook his head at his father’s words. Then, the boy once again smiled and tried asking his father.

“Can I try it too?!”

The boy asked energetically while pointing to the stones standing on one side of the field.

The stones cracked earlier has already recovered and not a single crack could be seen.

“Eh? Hahahahaha! It’s not as easy as you think you know!”

“Can I? Can I?”

“Okay! Then, go! Play to your heart’s content. Be careful not to injure yourself okay?”

“Yeah!!”

At his father’s words, the boy ran quickly towards the stone matrix.

He stood in front of one corner. The stone was more than twice his height. However, he stood in front of it with a wide smile in his face.

He stood at an arm’s length away from it.

Then, as if just playing, he posed similar but quite far from what the trainees did. His posture is more similar to his father’s.

Seeing this, his father was slightly surprised. But then, he went back to his smiling face.

The boy then slowly calmed the flow of mana in his body.

He then let it flow towards the tip of his fingers, while swinging his left fist forwards.

Before contact, just right before his mana left his fingers, he collected the mana for a moment. It was like suddenly stopping the flow of water that is coming out of a hose.

Then, just like how he stopped it, he then let it flow once more.

He just followed his father’s tips to the other soldiers.

Then, when his mana collided with the stone, a loud explosion occurred.

Cloud of dust quickly raised up high, covering the surroundings. Visibility was zero for a short time before his father cleared the dust by the same principle.

His father’s face was quite pale from anxiety. That is because his own son is at the center of that grand explosion.

Then, his mouth slacked at the scene in front of his eyes.

There, the stone in front of his son, and the stones in front of it, four of it in a straight line. A hole about the size of the child’s fist was punched through.

“……….”

His father just stared dumbfounded.

The stone that they are using for the training, the Mana Stone, is a special type of stone that can absorb mana. When it absorbs mana faster than its maximum absorption rate, it will form cracks. If the influx of mana passes a certain level, the stone will be shattered.

Punching a hole in it is much harder than shattering the whole block of stone.

To do it, you must focus your mana on a single point and let is pass through at an elevated speed. To let it pass through the other side and continuously punch holes through other stones, a large amount of mana is required. With the increase in required mana, the required control increases with it.

And that high level of control is done by his son, who he though was just playing.

“Yay! I did it!”

The boy shouted as he ran back to his father, full of smile and without any sign of fatigue. He then stared up to his father, waiting for him to be praised.

“O-Oh… You did great… By the way, how did you do that?”

“??? I just followed papa’s words earlier… is something wrong??”

His father squatted down and started examining his son’s mana flow. It was similar to the trainees and is overflowing here and there. It can be similar to the heat released by fire in form.

“Do you know how much mana you used?”

The father asked for confirmation. He wasn’t really expecting an accurate answer, but the boy answered.

“Hmmm… About the size of my pinky… or maybe smaller?”

He quantified mana in visual size rather than using the common system. In the common system, it is quantified using points. By the boy’s words, it is around 5 points or lower.

For reference’s sake, the trainees uses around 20 points for every trial. And their body can use up to 800 points continuously before fainting.

Also, the required force to break the stone is around 100 points. The force is directly proportional to the mana quantity and the acceleration of the mana. And, accelerating the mana using lower mana quantity requires great concentration and control.

Punching a hole in a single stone can be reached after training for 1 year. The level of skill performed by his son is similar to the skills of someone that has undergone 5 years of normal training or 3 years of intense training.

“W-What happened?”

“Did anyone see that clearly?”

“… The stone suddenly had a hole!”

“W-What the?”

The trainees who still hadn’t achieved the skill to see mana flow couldn’t describe what happened.

To them, it just looked like the boy swung his fist and then it exploded.

Confusion quickly spread to everyone around the training grounds.

Those with the ability to see mana flow already, and coincidentally left it active during the whole event, started running towards the boy’s father.

“Chief! Your son, he used the skill you often use when combatting monsters!”

“I know. Just from a glance, I already know that. The thing I don’t understand is…”

“Chief… Could your son be highly sensitive to mana? Or perhaps…”

“Neither… I was told by my mother that this child is as normal as it can get.”

“But… that degree of control is…”

As the two adults were speaking with each other, the boy was approached by the other members.

“Hey, youngster. You did some amazing thing back there. Can you show it to us again?”

“Yeah! But… I destroyed the stones…”

The boy spoke as he peeked at his father. His face is as apologetic as it can get.

“Don’t worry about that! The stones will recover its form after you leave it alone for a day.”

“Really?”

“Of course! If you are worried of breaking the stones again, then try making me the target. Even if I look like this, I am the sturdiest student of your dad not too long ago.”

“Are you sure?”

“You bet.”

“Then!”

The boy ran towards the man. He stood in front of the man and stretched his right hand towards the man’s abdomen.

“Then, here I go!”

“Oh! Bring it on!”

At his words, the boy then proceeded to recreate the same skill.

“Eiii…”

He thrusts his palm forward slowly. At the moment of impact… nothing happened.

Or so he thought.

“…..!!! Focus your mana on your abdomen!!”

Seeing the situation, the boy’s father quickly shouted towards the man in front of him.

As instructed, almost reflexively, the man focused mana on his abdomen. At the moment he did, he went flying on a straight line until he crashed on a shed around 100 meters away.

“Owowowow… That packs a punch…”

Luckily, right before he crashed, he covered his back with mana to avoid injuries. However, in the end, he had a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder.

“What the hell happened…?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes Chief… Do you know what happened?”

“You almost died.”

“Eh?!...... You mean that skill is!!”

“Yeah… If you were a little bit late on focusing your mana in one spot, it would rampage inside your body and implode. Then, we would be picking the pieces of your body off the ground.”

“So it is the same skill chief uses as the final test…”

“Since you passed it not long ago, you sure know to what level it was based on the after-effects right?”

“Yes… It’s on an entirely different level than what chief used…”

“Just as I thought…”

Then, after that incident, the intense training for his own child started.