Grano
In a forest behind a small building, Garen was standing there paying attention to the surroundings and every swaying leaf and blade of grass. Wind gusted through the forest, sending the leaves dancing.
His whole body was surrounded by greens and shadows. His eyes would wander occasionally, glancing at some inconspicuous place.
'Void Worm is just a scout. They already have their eyes on you. Now, you need to learn to deal with this sort of creature yourself.' Black Sethe's voice sounded beside his ear.
"What do I need to pay attention to? How do I exterminate them?" Garen asked.
'They are just worms, very very weak, only that normal physical attacks have no effect on them. You have to cover yourself with aura. Aura is the origin of Mother Stream. It's their nemesis. You just have to condense your aura and attack them with it. That's how you settle them.'
'However, the trouble now is that you cannot control yourself when you're dreaming. Your subconsciousness is bouncing back too much and causing you to completely follow your instinct. Hence, there is one thing you have to do first, which is to raise your focus in your dreams. Otherwise, you remain too susceptible to your instinct and cannot even control your actions, nevermind your aura.' Black Sethe said.
Garen repeated: "The first step is to train my attention in my dreams, right?"
'Go on and try.'
"What about those ordinary people who don't have aura? What can they do if they encounter Void Creatures?" Garen suddenly asked.
'Search and distinguish them, or try to communicate with the risk of being contaminated to get a certain amount of knowledge about Void. Else, take the initiative to avoid them by getting out of their dreams. The flow of time they live on is different from ours. Generally, the Void Creatures live on a slower timeflow than us. Their one breath may be years for us, so don't try to compete in patience with them. That's what they're good at. Some of them can even live on for more than ten thousands of years.' Black Sethe droned on. 'The Void Creatures usually do not take an interest in average people. If it happens, then there are only two possibilities. One is that they're trying to pollute the human race. Because they mainly consume a constant stream of energy from biological consciousness, polluting a consciousness will make it one of their kind and a producer of their energy source. The other reason is curiosity, pure curiosity. Just like when the researchers found some ants who don't grow antenna.'
Garen nodded to indicate his understanding of the meaning behind Black Sethe's words. Although his explanation was redundant and long-winded, he understood the main points behind his teachings.
The trees and grass swayed and not far from him were the sounds of cars and advertisements.
Garen slowly sank his consciousness while controlling it and began to fall into a deep sleep.
His consciousness began to grow blurry. He unconsciously leaned against a large tree. His back touched the rough surface of the bark and he sat down on the soft, moist grass. The ground was slightly warm and he could smell the faint aroma of grass.
Without noticing, Garen closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
Chirp chirp…chirp chirp…
It seemed that there were birds chirping in the distance.
Garen opened his eyes drowsily and found himself lying on the bed at his home. There was an electric fan blowing at him. The shape of the fan was unclear. It seemed to be white and it also seemed to be made of noodles. The wind was hot and humid.
The surrounding walls seemed to be constantly flowing and its color was ever changing. It seemed to be brown in color. Garen felt dull and he did not know what he was doing. He tried to lower his head to see the pose he was in but he was unable to.
'Put the knife back into the box.' He suddenly had this thought and then his body floated from his bed. He found out that at the back of his room, there was an additional black knife. The knife was long and wide and its edge silvery white.
He felt himself drawing towards it and took the knife down from a shelf that came out of nowhere. After that, out of nowhere in his hand was a box and he inserted the knife into it.
Garen suddenly remembered that he had something he had to do but standing there and thinking for a long time, he just could not remembered what it was.
So, he kept on standing there and kept trying to recall. Suddenly, he felt his right leg getting itchy as though a worm was crawling on it. He tried to bend over to scratch it but he could not find his right leg.
Pa.
A drop of dew dripped on Garen's head and slid down his nose bridge, and from his chin it rolled past his shirt collar.
Garen opened his eyes and there was a comfortable feeling all over his body.
'Did you wake up?' Black Sethe's voice sounded right on time.
"Seems like I did not succeed?" Garen frowned.
'It's obvious that you failed.' Black Sethe sounded happy, 'You weren't even aware that you were in a dream, got led around by the nose and finally you came out achieving nothing.'
"This looks troublesome." Garen frowned and said.
'That's for sure. Anyone who does this training has to do it for a long time. You'll get better through practice.'
Garen stood up. He really did feel something crawling on his right foot.
He shook the leg of his pants and out came a small white ant. The ant flipped over from the ground and soon disappeared into the grass.
"This is a whole new thing." Garen said in a low voice, "But I will have a lot of time to train and deal with it."
'Someone's coming.' Black Sethe's voice quickly died down.
Garen glanced towards his left. From his point of view, he could see that on the lawn between two houses was a tall slim girl walking over. She wore white casual wear while carrying a small red bag. She had long red hair, an oval face, white skin and exuded a cold aura.
"Isaros, long time no see." Garen smiled and gave a greeting.
"Garen, you came to morning practice?" Isaros also noticed Garen, slightly startled. "Something cropped up yesterday so I didn't go to see you."
"It's okay. You came for some afternoon exercise?" Garen asked.
"Mm. I am used to doing so at this time." Isaros nodded.
"Now that I think of it, it's been a year since the time we first practiced together here?" Garen walked forward a few steps and stood a few paces away from Isaros. Suddenly, his nose slightly twitched and he flashed her a strange look.
"How about a spar or two?"
Isaros' eyes lit up.
Hu!
She did not wait for a response and went for a side kick, blowing away the air.
Pa!
Garen warded off her kick but another kick came over from the right. He continued to parry and the spar went on with the third, fourth and fifth strike!
The both of them continued with their spar with peng, peng, peng sounds.
Isaros' speed became faster and faster. Both her legs did a series of kicks as though she'd become a spinning top. Her toes were like spinning blades that constantly brushed against Garen's right hand.
"Watch out!"
Isaros retreated for a bit with her right knee bending up. She suddenly throw a straight kick like a cannonball forward.
Peng!
Both of them suddenly separated. Garen's right hand went down slowly and his face showed a charming smile.
"You've improved again."
"Still can't force out your second hand." Isaros slightly sweated and shook her head.
"Remember that trick I showed you?" Garen suddenly lowered his voice.
He stretched open his right hand's fingers as though holding something. At this moment, a strange scene happened.
It was as though there was wind slowing in the middle of his palm.
Air currents as thin as strands of hair were flowing around his fingers.
These life-like invisible currents were constantly circling in the palm of his hand.
In that instant, Isaros felt her vision blur. She did not hear any sound but only saw a blur until Garen's right hand had already reached her forehead. His thumb stretched right in front of her left eye with just a little bit of distance.
Only then did Isaros felt a slight chill.
The crisis premonition that she had always been proud of had no reaction at all this time.
"Silent Killing Technique." Garen took back his arm. His right arm lightly gripped as though holding invisible wind.
"You have an extraordinary sense for wind and air currents. You may be able to really grasp the essence of this skill."
There was nothing wrong with his words. This was definitely a technique, not a secret technique or some secret skill or secret method. This was just a simple trick, a trick to control the flow of air currents that through movements.
In theory, only those who grasped vibration skills in secret techniques could achieve it. However, Garen had discovered something special about Isaros. She was very sensitive towards the impending change in the subtle flow of air. Perhaps she might possibly be able to master this skill that applied the technique that induced airflow changes.
"Silent Killing Technique?" Isaros repeated this name. Her eyes glittered and her hands started to imitate Garen's previous actions. Although the actions were exactly the same, not even the slightest change had occurred.
"Don't be fooled by its name. I am a law-abiding good citizen." Garen laughed. "Then I shall go back first. You should slowly practice it."
"Okay." Isaros nodded and said but her hands were as though controlled by demons and kept repeating the previous actions.
She felt that she could learn it.
Garen laughed again while looking at her who'd been charmed and walked towards the back door of his home.
Aside from any selfish motives, he admired a gifted student like Isaros. She was someone who knew how precious these techniques were. She had almost died countless times before these seemingly simple techniques. Only those who had first-hand experience would know the value. For such a person, imparting a little bit of knowledge was reasonable.