The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 272: Shards of glass

Glancing around, he quickly spotted a strange circle in the middle of the room. It was covered in even more enchantments than everything else, clearly protecting something extremely valuable. And Percy knew exactly what it was.

The Wiseman’s Dust.

There was an indentation inside the circle, about the shape of a palmprint. Percy placed his hand on it without hesitation, prompting an immediate reaction.

Something metallic unlatched with a heavy click, the disk splitting into six slices before retracting to its edges. Beneath them, another protective layer was revealed, this one transparent. It was a glass screen lined with six rows of colourful symbols. They rhythmically pulsed outwards in a spiral pattern, protecting something important. The panel looked rather thin, but Percy was under no delusion he’d be able to scratch it.

Under the glass, he saw a tiny mound of clear sand, emanating a soft light. Compared to the countless enchantments decorating the room, it almost appeared dim, yet still irrevocably demanding of attention. At least, Percy found it difficult to avert his gaze. It radiated a different kind of aura, bathing the room in its mystical power.

Concentrating on the feeling, he realized there wasn’t a shred of mana emanating from it. At first, he thought it might be raw willpower – much like a domain. But that wasn’t it either. Whatever the sand did, it affected his mind directly like the potions. Though it didn’t take him long to realize it didn’t empower his thoughts in the same way.

‘It’s not really making me think faster, or smarter… Just… different…’

Putting it into words wasn’t easy, but he felt as if the Wiseman’s Dust planted new ideas in his head. Or, more accurately, it helped him develop his own ideas, opening his mind to new possibilities.

Before coming here, he’d extensively planned the details of the trip – hoping to make the most of his time in the chamber. He’d selected specific pre-casting exercises he thought would help him the most, and even decided how he would attempt to heal his host. Yet, after spending mere seconds in the sand’s vicinity, he was second-guessing everything, thinking of new ways to refine his approach.

‘Wow. This kind of benefit is almost impossible to quantify. But I can see the appeal…’

The time dilation and the potions alone would have allowed him to squeeze weeks’ worth of training in mere days. On the other hand, the effects of the dust were both subtler, and yet infinitely more powerful. How they were leveraged ultimately came down to the individual. For some, they might be worthless – offering no guidance at all. But for others, they might be the key to a path they would have forever missed. All that remained to be seen was where Percy stood on this spectrum.

‘Either way, this is a priceless experience in and of itself.’

It wasn’t every day a mortal got a glimpse of divinity. Perhaps, this kind of out-the-box thinking was precisely what one needed to reach godhood. And maybe, it had to be so deeply engrained in their very bones, that it left all sorts of indelible traces behind.

‘And to think these are just the impurities…’

The clear dust before him was, in a way, little more than filth. The part of the demigod that had failed to ascend.

But, from a different perspective, it was flesh and blood that had accompanied a Green-born for thousands of years, throughout their mortal life. Purified again and again with each promotion, washed repeatedly with raw power, until it faltered at the very last step. Had things gone slightly differently, it could have been part of a greater existence. Blessed with immortality. Destined to eternally roam the cosmos.

Yet, here it was, as residue, doomed to fade with time after gifting a fleeting glimpse of its owner’s radiance to a few lucky mortals.

‘Regardless… it’s time to get started.’

Sitting cross-legged beside the dust, Percy pulled out one of the notebooks and flipped to the first page. He’d read them all before, of course, but he hadn’t copied his host’s actions entirely. Certainly not inside the Wiseman’s Chamber.

Pre-casting was a broad technique that covered all the ways one might prepare the mana inside their core to influence their spells. Consequently, there were countless ways to practice it, depending on factors like affinity, talent, spells, and intended use. What worked for one person might not be suitable for another.

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Had Percy developed a training plan in a vacuum, it might have even been best to ignore the boy’s previous efforts entirely, doing his own thing.

‘But mimicking his methods is the best way to jog the lost memories…’

The first exercise involved splitting the mana inside his core into two portions. A trivial thing, even for Percy. He wasn’t yet at the level of the other Pre-casting 4 students, but he could already separate his mana into more than a couple flows if he wanted. Still, he didn’t skip the exercise, choosing to read Leo’s notes carefully.

‘…Mr. Lonan stressed the importance of visualizing the mana inside our core. He said it’s easier to control when you can clearly picture its movements. He suggested we each develop our own internal model, since what works for one person might not suit another…’

‘…I found it easier to keep the two flows apart by imagining them as two distinct marbles rolling along opposite walls of my core. Lyn pictured hers as two candle flames floating in her sternum, but that didn’t seem right for an air affinity. In my case, the mana wants to stay in motion, so I have to play along – shaping it into two orbs chasing each other in an endless cycle…’

Following the instructions, Percy adopted Leo’s imagery, setting his own instincts aside. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t ideal for him, since it went directly against his long-term goal of forcing the mana to stay still. But there might be time to try his own methods after working through the notebooks.

Sure enough, it took only seconds to replicate Leo’s actions. Unfortunately, nothing changed. The boy’s fragmented memories continued absorbing the mind mana at the same snailish rate as before.

‘Maybe the exercise was too simple. Or maybe it’s because his method was too different from my own.’ he shrugged, turning to the next page.

‘…restraining the flow to a single axis is difficult because the mana wants to move randomly. It’s also hard to track its motion inside the core, as it flows incredibly fast in a tight space. After hours of failure, I came up with a simple trick…’

‘…pressing my index finger against my chest, I imagined it piercing through my core. Then, I focused on moving the mana around it without ever touching. A bit silly – I know – but it worked! It only took me a few minutes to get it right once I applied this! Though the others did make fun of me for a couple of weeks, until I learned to do it without the finger…’

Now, this one was more promising. Still relatively basic, but Percy hadn’t practiced it as much as the previous one. He could do it, though his rotations were more wobbly than he’d care to admit.

Pressing his fingertip to his sternum, he tried shaping the flow correctly. This time, he got an immediate reaction. An image flashed in his mind. Blurry and fleeting, but still a great sign. Pushing onward, he immersed himself into the exercise, reaching for the fragmented memory.

The outlines sharpened. It looked like a classroom, but it lacked colour or sound. Beyond that, everything around him remained indistinct.

Percy tried to make out the details of the nearest person, but that caused him to make a mistake with the exercise. He slipped, the mana veering off course, colliding with what should have been the image of his finger. He tried to correct it, but the damage was done – the memory vanished.

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m clearly on the right track here!’

Not letting the hiccup discourage him, Percy spent a few seconds examining his mind. His brain seemed to be drinking the mind mana more eagerly than before. Not fast enough yet, but it was a promising start. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Diving back in, he repeated the exercise, this time causing the memory to return even faster.

Percy accelerated the mana’s rotation, careful not to lose control this time. At first, nothing changed, other than the memory growing slightly clearer. But he kept at it, pushing the speed up bit by bit as he got more comfortable with it.

Eventually, something else changed. A second memory surfaced, equally incomplete. This one contained no images – only sounds. The chatter of his classmates buzzed in the background, Mr. Lonan’s stern voice explaining something. The strangest thing was that the memories felt disconnected – as though they belonged to separate moments entirely. Yet, Percy wasn’t sure that was the case, as the sound seemed to match the teacher’s lips.

Focusing on the two memories almost caused him to lose control again, but he held on. Juggling the exercise and the images, he pushed the mana faster, knowing this was the key to Leo’s recovery.

The two fragments twitched – almost like they were reaching for one another!

‘I knew it! They’re from the same day – they just drifted apart due to the damage in Leo’s mind!’

Pressing forward, Percy pushed the rotation to its limits. It was already risky – the mana was moving fast enough to injure Leo if he made a mistake. But he also understood his host wouldn’t need a healthy core if his mind remained broken.

The fragments trembled. This time, they moved closer to one another, though they met heavy resistance. Like two islands fixed in place amidst a raging ocean, Percy had to not only unlodge them from their spot, but to also push them across a sea.

“Ugh… shit!” Percy groaned, nearly losing control.

It wasn’t a painless experience in the slightest. The memories felt like shards of glass, stabbing violently into his brain. But he gritted his teeth, enduring the agony. This was the only way forward.

The fragments moved again, and that wasn’t everything. This time, a third one appeared – that of his finger pressing against his chest. But it was slightly different. It felt muted, and the finger was pointing a few degrees off. This wasn’t Percy’s doing! It was from when Leo had done the same thing, months – or maybe years – ago!

And that was just the start. A fourth component soon appeared – mana rotating in his core. It overlapped with what Percy was doing, except Leo was more precise, having practiced the exercise for much longer.

Percy grabbed hold of this final memory, using Leo’s experience as a compass to refine his own control. It was as if the two were helping each other – Percy piecing the boy’s mind back together, while Leo guided him in pre-casting.

‘Come on, just a little farther!’