Chapter 106 Freedom and Surprises

Such an outrageous theory gave Daichi the premise for his first insight into the element of Void which encompasses all space. He continued to think about time and how it could be manipulated by a mortal, by someone of his level only to come up empty handed. instead Daichi’s first insight was into the manipulation of the universe itself came in the form of space. In the endless mist, he came up with a theory for how to manipulate space itself.

Daichi figured he could move instantaneously from one location to another if he merely removed the “space” in-between. Although he had no way of actually doing so, and he couldn’t form a theory that would safely get him from one place to another, he decided to his innate ability. He could manipulate an energy that didn’t seem to exist in the universe itself!

“Using the mana of the world around me… I could coat myself in a thin layer of that mana and then trigger my chaotic mana which is seemingly an affront to the universe as it is something that didn’t seem to exist in the universe and create a hole to eliminate the space in-between myself and my destination…”

Although the more he thought about it the more complicated it began to become, he was certain that not only was this something only he could do (or at least only he could do it this way) but there would be serious limitations and safety concerns to think about.

“What if I blow myself up? What if I disappear from the universe itself? What if I succeed but not all of me makes it out of that void like space?”

There were too many questions and any answer he came up with led him to come up with multiple more questions. It felt unending but Daichi came to love these moments. These moments where regardless of the issues in front of him, he felt he was at least on the right track. Any theory that had any merit was something he was willing to follow to the very end until he exhausted his brain thinking of ways to utilize it in practice!

This was one of the first insights Daichi attained within that mist-like space. Although if anyone who trained or spent their life trying to understand the concept of the element of Void (Space) heard about a teenager who dared to not only focus on trying to understand the Void element based on a theory alone and with no prior understanding of the element itself they would laugh out loud until they possibly died of coughing after that fit of hysteria passed. If they learned that, that teenager’s theory bore fruit… They’d die coughing in anger that such a thing was even possible!

The first thing that Daichi did when he’d realized there were people in the “vicinity” was test this theory. Not only had he fortified his mind in what he considered his mist prison, but he also carefully considered every possibility within the scope of his knowledge and understanding of what detriments and benefits there were to his theories and insights. In Daichi’s mind this was one of the safer theories. He already knew that people could travel through “the void” as magicians that practiced studying the void element called it, therefore he knew it was possible. It was only a matter of verifying whether he could do it his way.

Daichi was more than shocked as he tried his first attempt. Not only did he succeed, but he realized that he wasted very little mana!!

Daichi continued disappearing and reappearing within the area of the forest he’d appeared from. Looking closely it looked like he was just popping in and out from one place to another. If someone, say a god, where to look at Daichi from very far away, they’d realized he was simply taking a walk.

“INCREDIBLE!!” Daichi’s eyes were wide with glee. The more he used the ability the further his heart settled down. Instead of going out of control with excitement a multitude of emotions he never thought he would experience washed over him. Generally Daichi felt nothing at all, but after having spent what felt like an eternity by himself literally feeling nothing at all. Every little thing inspired a spike of joy at being able to do anything at all.

He didn’t stop using his ability, in fact his mind was mostly focused on fine tuning the ability itself and finding its limits and how to utilize it properly but a small part of him was trying to understand the emotions passing over him. He didn’t understand any of them at all as he’d never felt them before.

If he were a normal in any sense of the word he would have instantly recognized the emotions; gratitude, relief, joy, contentment, and even peace.

Unknowingly, in the instant he realized he could use this ability formed from a theory that was fine tuned over the course of a painstakingly long period of time. Daichi came to feel gratitude that he was forced into the mist, given refuge and even saved as his life was on the brink of death.

Relief not because he was freed from his prison, but for finally after some affirmation that his time wasn’t spent in vain. He’d theorized so many different things, furthered his understanding of the universe and fine tuned those insights into something practical and cohesive but in the end, he felt they were only theories until he could use them. Until he had proof that their foundations were solid and that they weren’t abhorrently flawed.

Contentment at being freed and with his first theory validated, a sense of freedom that he’d never had in the world before. He didn’t know how long he’d been in the mist but he knew that the way he would experience the world from this day forward would be nothing like how he had before. In his eyes the world was filled with so many more possibilities, all of which he thought before but now he had an appreciation he’d never had before.

Lastly peace. A peace so profound that it steadied his mind and stopped his excitement from from pushing his once youthful exuberance into doing everything too fast. He had a patience he never had before, a calm that far surpassed what he once had before and an appreciation for everything around him that complimented that calm that simply made him a new man.

Quickly Daichi came to fine tune the amount of mana he needed to coat himself with and the amount of his own mana he needed to trigger this new skill. He came to understand that he could only “eliminate” the space between himself and a location he could actually see. Moreover it wasn’t simple to form the mana, trigger it, and reappear somewhere else while completely having his bearings. Daichi understood that this would be extremely useful in order to cover large distances or even small ones, but it would be useless in a fight. There wouldn’t be enough time with his control to use this skill and then counter with another.

‘Still… This is pretty amazing. This is more than I could have hoped for. Moreover I know that this is only the beginning, once I gain more experience and some further insight there is probably a slew of different ways I can tweak this skill into something even more amazing…’

Even thinking that much, Daichi decided that since this was a skill he purposefully created in the mist, he needed to name it.

Speaking out loud as if so the world itself would bear witness to this moment “I will name this skill…”

…’I’m drawing a blank’

Daichi realized he hadn’t named a single skill or theory, and now that he’d tested and proven one he was drawing a blank. An absolute blank. He’d spent so much time in the mist that at some point he stopped thinking about when he’d actually get to test a theory that naming a theory or skill had been so far from his mind he couldn’t think of a single thing.

Bitterly smiling at the anticlimactic moment, he shrugged and then thought to himself ‘Meh. I’ll name it Flash.’

Even after fine tuning the amount of mana he used from the world and his own mana pool, Daichi’s body couldn’t help but faintly glow as he wrapped himself in the mana of the world and so he decided it was as good as any name for the short to mid-distance skill.

After familiarizing himself with this first skill, he considered trying some of the other theories but instead decided that he was safe enough that he could run from an opponent now. ‘If they are so close that I can’t run, I can always just use my Chaos Erupts of Chaotic Eruption skill to kill or run so this should be good…’ as a slight excitement bubbled over at the idea at seeing someone else after years.

Being honest with himself, he would be more than happy seeing a troll right now. Anything that would verify that he was in fact alive, back in the ‘real’ world and not having a terrible dream.

Shaking his head as if to dissipate that thought from his mind, Daichi felt for the people he’d found before and discovered they were in a battle. ‘Perhaps they were in a battle earlier and I didn’t notice? Maybe I just forgot…’ he thought to himself having been too focused on himself.

Daichi focused on the direction they were and began slowly triggering his new <Flash> skill as he covered the distance that would have taken other hours in a fraction of that time. Due to the fact that his skill required him to see his destination before he triggered it, Daichi choose to travel atop the trees as he leisurely enjoyed the ambiance of the forest in between uses of his skill. He realized how relaxed he felt, and thought about how when he entered the mist just about everything could kill him if he wasn’t careful, and while that wasn’t untrue anymore… The amount of confidence he now had in himself was incomparable to what what it was before he entered the mist.

He arrived at the location of the humans within half an hour and even that was only because he was still acclimating himself to using his new skill. Now that he could cover any distance within his sight at a time with each activation of his Flash skill, covering a mediocre distance such as this had turned out to be a piece of cake for him.

Although after triggering it a few times he’d barely consumed any mana. Taking a glance at where he’d come from he couldn’t help but smirk as he thought about how he would have taken hours running through the trees in that uneven terrain with various obstacles. Daichi did realize something that had he been moving with haste he may have missed ‘It seems that the further the distance, the more of my own mana I have to use… The difference can seem minor but if I really pushed myself to try to travel a very long distance the difference would become very obvious… It’s a good thing I figured this out sooner rather than later.’

Instead of going directly down, he used his <Mana Sense> as he decided to officially name it to try to distinguish the situation going on beneath. At this distance he could just spread his mana sense outwards in every direction and become aware of what was happening as he could see the mana inside of the humans and beasts they were fighting alike.

“Kill them all!!! We need to go help the instructor!”

“I’ll take these two! Finish those!”

“Cover our flanks! They’re only getting fiercer as we kill more of them!!!”

Shockingly to Daichi the humans were decimating the beasts. The beasts were all wolf shaped but based on the mana circulating within their bodies he could tell they looked like some wolf-human hybrid. ‘They are bipedal, and their size are huge and yet they still have such speed! Their mana alone is surprising!’ Daichi was shocked at what he was ‘seeing’.

‘These humans! Their mana is insane! Are they some elite group or something!? What the hell!? Instructor!?’

Daichi could fit a whole melon in his mouth with how wide his mouth was gaping. He was stunned by the strength of the beasts and even more so by the humans.

‘Every single human here has as much mana as me!’ He thought to himself completely surprised. He was already pretty pleased by the amount of mana he possessed before, and now he was confronted by a group of humans who were suddenly making him feel… Mundane.

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