Chapter 98—Friends suffer together

Chapter 98: 98—Friends suffer together Lucen found Liam’s attempts to channel amusing. They both sat atop a moving carriage, so their hair was harassed by the wind, but Liam’s face was scrunched up from his intense focus. Lucen considered tying his blonde hair back. It had gotten unnecessarily long recently. Selene’s hair grew really fast too; she always said he should grow it below his shoulders. But that wasn’t a manly style for Elarians. Chester’s short, smoothly styled hair was more the standard, together with a clean-pressed military uniform, any woman would find him attractive. Lucen was wearing a baggy linen shirt and trouser pair. It was plain and white but supremely comfortable. They were his favourite clothes, not exactly suited for fighting and travelling through the wilderness. But he didn’t really care. The first carriage in their caravan was in charge of defending them against monsters for today. One of the Low-tier Knights in it had powerful mana sense. So Lucen would probably not be fighting today. His shift would come at night, together with Helie, Kon, Hither, and Elle, of course. They had two Low-tier Knights on their team, but they were either annoying or plain weird. They weren’t even in this carriage, choosing to ride up front with someone. He lounged against the top of the carriage and watched Liam try to draw mana. Liam sat in a meditation position. Anytime the carriage shook slightly, he would frantically grab the hoop rings beneath the wool canvas. His eyes were closed and he whistled an upbeat tune while making different hand signs. "Slow down the tempo," Lucen advised. "The mana’s flow is changing slightly." Liam’s face hardened and he slowed down. His hand signs remained the same either way. Lucen guessed they were more of a belief thing, something to focus your intent. Liam was using a Low-rank elemental channelling technique, one that his father left behind. It could only channel wind mana though and, from what Lucen could see, wasn’t properly nourishing his soul. But Liam wanted to use his father’s technique. Heroic techniques were better. You could channel anytime you like and still probably be a Knight in a few years. But Liam wasn’t concerned with efficiency. You needed all four elements to properly strengthen his soul. Lucen wasn’t sure how this worked for Divine and Life mana, because they weren’t split up by elements. [I mean the personality of the spell types are there. Armament spells is pure offence, Defensive are well... pure defense. I think there are differences in the Divine mana.] Lucen shrugged, still wondering when he could convince Liam to leave the flawed channelling technique. [You still have the scroll of the High-rank channeling technique, Nature’s Song. Just ask to see the technique he got from his father, then fuse it with Nature’s Song. Then trick him into using the new technique.] Lucen only saw the scroll once, and Liam was already itching to rip it from his hands. For an only child, Liam had a lot of problems with sharing. Though, Lucen couldn’t blame him for being so enamored with everything that had to do with his father. In both lives, Lucen had known his fathers, not that he would call Heimar father. His real dad’s name was also Kevin. Lucen had been Kevin Junior. His father was kind beyond measure, often to his own detriment. He would let people walk over him sometimes, and it always irritated Lucen. Back then he probably believed that his father’s weakness passed on to him. But all that was just excuses for him to be pathetic. Liam probably felt something similar. In any sense, thinking about the past hurt. So Lucen focused on Liam; he was almost there. There had been a few moments when Liam had briefly channelled mana, but now he was getting used to the small things. His hand signs flowed quickly. Each time he felt mana flowing into him he kept his tempo steady, and when the flow of mana dipped, he quickly adjusted his whistling. It was a slow process. One that would take Liam about two days to channel what Lucen could in six hours. But there was no rush; first he needed to get better with [Mana Sense]. Once Liam’s mana sense grew to a decent level, he could watch how the mana reacted to his attempts at channeling and adapt his actions accordingly. Lucen wasn’t sure how he would teach Liam second sight, given that his was a combination of his [Mana Sense], which he had been training since he was a kid, and [Reading], which was a skill he got from killing Lurker Hounds. Now that he thought about it, [Reading] was still Minor-rank. Why was it even a separate skill from [Mana Sense]? [Reading is a skill you can turn off; Mana Sense is more or less always active if you’re listening.] Maybe using [Reading] and [Comprehension] without [Mana Sense] was the next step. How that would work? He didn’t know. He needed to find a way to turn off [Mana Sense]. [Cordvein. It does inhibit your soul, so with a higher dose your Mana Sense would be weakened.] Just one vial put him in agonising pain. He had to tell Set that some days he wouldn’t be able to fight because he would be suffering the aftereffects of Cordvein. A higher dose sounded like a suicide attempt. And how would he even train his ability to predict attacks when he was writhing on the ground? [I don’t know. Maybe some Willpower.] Lucen scoffed, briefly drawing Liam’s attention and simply waving him off. [The Green Lake Elixir will help your mind stay clear through the horrific pain. I can always come up with a schedule for how often you should try this extreme form of training.] Lucen was ready to shrug off the suggestion, but he glanced up at Liam. Who would teach the fool second sight if he didn’t? Lucen sighed, reclining back into the soft canvas of the carriage’s roof. The wind tousled his hair; he closed his eyes and tried to see without Mana Sense. It was like trying not to feel the rushing air with his skin or trying to be blind while seeing. Mana Sense couldn’t be disabled without drastic methods. He just hoped using double the dose of Cordvein was like temporary blindness. If not, then he would be dealing permanent damage to his soul.