Once I got the hang of dispersing my Will, he walked me through the process of absorbing my essence back. The process that every Holder goes through when using their Will. At some point, you'll run out of essence to unleash and have to take it all back in. The quantity at which one can disperse their Will is different for everyone, but also increases with Rank. Because of my Will's Lord Rank, I have a large quantity of essence, but only compared to another Mid Rank Holder. Of course, that will increase over time.
The difficulty of Absorption comes from the changes between attributes. Every attribute has a unique way of reabsorbing essence. For example, with my Frost Will, it could be as simple as defrosting my ice, or surrounding ice, taking in essence in the process, or it could be as complicated as basking in cold air, taking in atmospheric essence, which is slower. Taking in room-temperature or warmer atmospheric essence is even slower. A Fire Attribute Holder, however, will primarily get their essence from warm atmospheres, as fires are not permanent constructs. Only if there is a surrounding natural fire can they absorb atmospheric essence faster. The reason the fire has to be natural is because a fire that originates from their Will feeds off of their essence to spread. They'll just be taking in what they already let out, nullifying their attack, while losing some essence in the process.
Sir Chiron was able to explain the technique of absorbing essence, somewhat easily since he has a Water Will, which is a similar process to Frost, as it's a supplementary attribute to Water.
Sir Chiron described absorption like breathing, it can happen naturally or forcibly. Naturally, by giving your body time to recover its essence, or forcibly by absorbing what you unleashed, or atmospheric essence. Only you need to focus on what you're 'breathing in'. The reason natural absorption takes longer is that your body does not focus on and separate the individual essence particles in the atmosphere. Nor does it take advantage of the environmental conditions that force absorption does.
To practice, Sir Chiron dispersed puddles of water around the room, which I then had to freeze using my own dispersion. Once they were all frozen, I then had to go back and defrost all the ice while absorbing the essence. This was to test my essence capacity and control. I slowly lost essence while doing it, as they became ingrained in the atmosphere, but recovered most of it.
Trying to absorb essence while doing anything else was straining and difficult, but should become easier with training. As the force absorption process becomes more natural, I won't need to focus on it with max effort to get the full benefit. The technical term is called Impulse Absorption.
Once I became proficient enough in those two capabilities for my level, we moved on to Condense. Sir Chiron described it as tensing a muscle. Only it's not a muscle, but instead an ever-changing form of mass that reacts to my Will.
There's a large difference in difficulty between Disperse and Condense. The essence associated with Disperse is pre-programmed for how it will react when it leaves my body. In my case, the amount it spreads, leading to it popping. Proficiency leads to a stronger and quicker reaction.
Condense is the complete opposite; it comes from contact. Condence takes my essence and alters it into a hardened form. I could freeze puddles with Disperse, but I cannot make layers of ice without Condense.
To prove his point, Sir Chiron made me unleash my essence into my hand while condensing it. The result of doing so left my hand surrounded by a thin layer of ice. No matter how much I condensed my essence into my hand, the ice never grew thicker, only denser.
"You can't simply 'tense' your Will, just like any muscle. Essence is an ever-changing mass. Don't focus on condensing in the same location, the only result would be a denser layer of ice. To increase thickness, condense your essence into the space just above the previous layer. You'll lose density, but create a larger entity. Excel in both, and you'll reach the average level of a Holder."
"Easier said than done," I responded through labored breaths, the toll of overexerting my Will slowing down my progress.
The faster I can react to the change of depth of my essence, the faster the thickness will grow. But if I wanted thickness and density, I would have to focus on both at the same time. To say my brain was overloaded at first is an understatement.
After a few more attempts at Condense, I was able to increase both thickness and density at the same time, but the amount of force it could handle was about a finger flick. So far, focusing on one at a time was faster and more effective than both. But Sir Chiron did say that I was naturally more adept than most others my age.
"It seems that you have gotten the hang of the two capabilities. Along with absorbing. Now, before we end it here, I would like to try something first." Sir Chiron said while standing over me.
"O-okay," I responded, sitting down out of breath.
"Now, your Will is technically that of a Lord. Which has me thinking about attempting to perform three other capabilities, even though you resemble that of a Mid-Will Holder."
Getting up from my seated position, "That would be great!"
"Indeed. Now, the four other capabilities are as follows: The third, Release; fourth, Imbue; fifth, Transformation; and lastly, sixth, Contain. However, we will not be attempting Transformation, as you need to reach Secure Integration before performing that cap."
"Sounds good. So, where do we start?"
"I will first have you perform the Release capability. The first thing you should know is that Release is comparable to Disperse and Condense by using them in combination. An upgrade, as some might say. It is impossible to perform a Release cap without first knowing Disperse and Condense. Start with condensing a ball of ice in your hand, not around, but in."
"Right," Doing as he directed, I condensed a ball of ice into my hand, of small size and low density.
"Good, now using Disperse, load the ice with freeflowing essence. When the ball makes contact with an object, the dispersion will trigger a reaction. Feel for essence beyond Disperse and Condense. Both of them, but entirely new. You should feel a pull on your core. Assign the ball a designated target and a velocity. The ball should launch wherever you wish without you having to throw it."
Concentrating on his guidance, I held my palm flat out with the ball in the center. Focusing on using Disperse and the 'pull' of essence to launch it in front of me. A geyser of mist unleashed from my palm, wrapping around the ball at high speeds, but failing to move it.
After a minute of failing to move it an inch, while periodically increasing the pressure, Sir Chiron instructed me to stop.
"Enough! It seems that your Lord will is in name only, at the moment." He said softly, no disappointment in his voice.
Absorbing the frost ball back into essence. "I-I don't get it. Should that not have worked? Did I do something wrong? Did I just not understand your instructions?" I stammered. Hoping that I could utilize all capabilities right away.
"You haven't done anything wrong, It appears that you are simply… unable. When reaching the Decent Will Rank, a conscious combination of Disperse and Condense will naturally transition into Release. Unless the Holder knows how to keep the two separated, they will act in unison. You… do not, so there should have been no issue. It should have been something like this…"
Sir Chiron raised his arm up, pointing his palm towards me. A vortex of water appeared in his hands before a high-pressure stream of water came shooting in my direction. Reaching me in a second, I was blown back and sent gliding across the air along with the water. Slamming against the reinforced wall with a loud thud. The water persisted for a moment until all that was left was a trickle-like fountain coming from Sir Chiron's finger, as he walked up to me.
Wiping my face, I stood back up, prompting Sir Chiron to quit dousing me with water. "Was that really necessary?"
"Undoubtedly so, Disciple Rin." He said with his usual warm smile. "Allow me to get you cleaned up."
I stood tall, extending my arms in preparation for him to absorb the water. Just before he did so, however, an idea came to mind. "Wait, let me try something."
Sir Chiron nodded, allowing me the chance to experiment.
I focused on my Will and the flow of essence throughout my body. As far as I could tell, essence travels everywhere, leaving me to believe that it could also be unleashed anywhere. And I was right.
Using Disperse, I controlled my essence to spread over my body with a light chill—enough to freeze the water but nothing else. It took serious concentration, getting the temperature just right, and focusing on that accuracy everywhere. I was a little off, but my intention was fulfilled.
I took a step forward, making sure to bend every nook of my body. My legs were a little hard to move as I accidentally froze them to densely, but each step and rotation of my arm caused more pieces of ice to crumble off my body. Until all that was left were flakes on the ground around and behind me. To complete my impromptu drying, I shook out my hair, causing even more flakes to fall to the ground.
"Impressive showing, Disciple Rin."
Exhaling loudly, "Thank you. Perks of having a Will with an attribute." I said dramatically. "If only I didn't have a faulty Lord Will, you wouldn't have sprayed me."
"There are no quick perks that beat hard work, Disciple Rin. Even if success was handed to you on a sapphire platter. Faulty or not, something you earn… is always worth more than something you inherit."
Rubbing the back of my neck. "Yeah, I guess. Still would have been nice." Composing myself again. "Alright, what's next?"
"Unfortunately, based on the circumstances, there is no reason to test you for the other capabilities. If you cannot perform Release, there is no chance you have the others."
"Really? That's unfortunate. I would have liked to learn how to freeze someone from a distance again." I said begrudgingly.
"Pardon me?" Sir Chiron said. "Are you saying you froze someone from a distance?"
Confused about what he was stunned by. "Y-yes, but I assume it's just because I made the room really cold."
"Were the walls frozen too? Or the floor?"
"No… they were frosted over, but not as frozen as my target."
"That's… that's not possible. And you said you were at a distance?" Faltering over his words, he began to talk to himself. Looking down with his hand over his mouth. "That couldn't have been anything other than a mix of Release and Contain. Disperse isn't manageable enough, he would have frozen the whole room, along with everyone in it."
He shot me a surprised look, his eyes bulging dramatically. "Intriguing. I wonder what could have caused a sudden enhancement in caps?" He said slowly. Something seemed to have clicked in his mind as his eyes grew wider. "Wait here, I'll be right back."
Sir Chiron left in a hurry, talking to himself in a jumbled tone the entire way to the door.
Taking longer than expected to return, I continued reviewing the drills he taught me to improve the two caps and Absorb.