Weeks had passed and life had settled into a rigorous routine for Elias and Aina, marked by relentless physical drills with Roric as he took them through practical applications of Flow Techniques. This afternoon, however, was different. It was a live training exercise—a supervised hunt.
The target was an Imbued Deer, a large, mature buck whose proximity to a minor Flow nexus had resulted in irregular energy saturation, making its meat highly prized and its body dangerously stronger and faster than normal. The hunt took place in a section close to the Iron Forest where the trees grew unnaturally straight and close, their dark bark faintly shimmering with captured energy. The air was cool and smelled sharply of pine and damp soil. Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy in thin, dusty columns.
Roric moved silently through the branches with the stealth of a cat, his black-purple hair nearly blending with the shadows as he observed his pupils from above.
"The Imbued Deer moves on rhythm," Roric whispered, his voice barely audible above the rustle of their own movement.
"Its heart rate dictates its speed. Aina, you manage its movement. Elias, you wait for the final opening."
Aina moved to the left flank,this time, she wore a forest-green attire making her almost invisible against the backdrop of the pines. Her face was set in a mask of total concentration as she began to channel her Trait, 'The Emperor' to fire bolts of electricity at it using them to direct the Deer.
Elias took a deep, steadying breath, preparing to activate the one Trait he had revealed under duress: 'The Magician'. Its true authority, Vectors, Direction, and Distance, felt deceptively simple but was proving powerful when applied to movement and perception.
Roric gave the signal—a single clap.
Aina acted first. Instead of a direct attack, she subtly manipulated the gravity to create walls of force along the deers path. Its enhanced senses enabled it to percieve these barriers and cause it to change direction, just as Aina wanted.
This created the opening.
Elias erupted from his cover. He didn't run towards the deer; he ran away from it, towards a large, oddly shaped boulder fifty meters to the right. As he ran, he channeled his Trait into his path. His movement was not merely fast; it was instantaneously efficient. He subconsciously negated all unnecessary vectors—wind resistance, slight turns, wasted motion and inertia. The result was that he covered the fifty meters in a few smooth strides, feeling the air itself shift to allow his passage. He reached the boulder and slapped its surface.
He reversed the Vector command.
His momentum, which should have carried him forward, was redirected instantly. The boulder, suddenly imbued with the perfect, opposing Vector of his speed, acted as a launch pad. Elias rebounded with the same explosive force he had generated running, but his Direction was now perfectly targeted toward the deer's flank, closing the Distance in a flash.
The deer finally recognized the threat, but it was too late. Before it could move, Aina hit it with the final stage of her attack. She shifted gravitational force, applying a focused, heavy increase of gravity directly onto the deer's four legs, causing its powerful muscles to lock up under immense, localized weight.
The Imbued Deer crashed heavily to the ground, its body pinned, unable to move a single hoof.
Elias slammed into its side with dagger he had manifested made of his flow that crystalized into a sharp shape. The spike found the gap in the shoulder blade where the muscle was exposed, and the hunt was over.
Roric stepped out from the trees, a small smile touching his lips.
"Clean kill," he pronounced, walking over to inspect the deer.
"No wasted effort, no extra damage."
The phrase "no extra damage" was a pointed reference that immediately dragged Elias back to the day he revealed his hand. It had been three weeks prior, three days after Roric started tutoring them during a routine drill near the hunter outpost.
The sun was high and hot, the dusty smell of the plains mixing with the faint scent of charcoal from the outpost fires. He and Aina were practicing advanced evasion when the air had split with a sound like tearing canvas.
A Grim Boar—an Imbued Beastthe size of a small car, its tusks the length of swords—had burst from the forest line. Due to its nature, it had developed a roar that carried the force of pure concussive sound, capable of pulverizing bone and stone within ten meters—a truly terrifying natural Trait.
It ripped through the palisades of the Hunter Outpost as if they were sticks, scattering men and equipment.
Aina, momentarily stunned by the sheer power of the beast's entry, had frozen, assessing the chaotic situation. That split-second hesitation was the only window the beast needed. It lowered its immense, scarred head and charged straight at her.
Elias saw it all in terrifying slow motion. Aina was the most brilliant person he knew, but she had a blind spot when faced with a true, unexpected shock of force. He knew she could control the situation, but not if she was hit first.
He acted without thought, positioning himself himself squarely in front of Aina. He waited until the last possible moment, and instead of bracing, he let his body go slack.
The Boar struck him.
The impact was bone-shattering, a sickening, wet crunch that was absorbed entirely by his fragile human frame. He felt his ribcage give way, the sharp edges of bone immediately piercing his lungs. The concussive energy from the beast's charge lifted him off the ground entirely, sending him spiraling several meters through the air before he landed in a tumbling heap of dust and pain.
He lay there, blinded by the raw agony. His body was a wreck. His spine had been affected and his ri cage had been crushed, splinters of bones stabbing his lungs. He could taste the metallic copper of blood filling his mouth as his lungs began to drown.
'It was over.'
Then, the cold, powerful reality of his curse took hold.
He didn't need to instruct his body; the internal system of his immortality automatically performed 'Accelerate Heal'. He felt the excruciating sensation of bone grinding against bone as the fragments quickly resealed. His muscle tissue knit itself back together with terrifying speed, forcing the air back into his punctured lungs. The process was agonizing, but it worked.
'Tch,damn it. Another failure.'
As he healed,he sensed the heavy footsteps of Roric and the lighter, hurried footsteps of Aina approaching. He couldn't let them see this. They couldn't know the extent of his internal power.
With the worst of the injury sealed, he used pure Flow Reinforcement to seal the visible surface damage. The energy reinforcing those areas crystalized , covering his chest and sides, hardening into a shell that covered the deep bruises and skin tears.
The crystals cracked immediately due to the unstable nature of his internal healing speed, but they provided the necessary visual illusion: a desperate application of a standard technique attempted on instinct.
Aina reached him first. She knelt down, her usual composure fractured, her voice tight with panic.
"Elias! You idiot! Your ribs—"
He winced as he pushed himself up, still shaky but physically whole. He met her panicked gaze and managed a weak, dismissive wave.
"I'm fine, sis."
Aina however took off his torn cardigan and , surveyed the cracked, crystallized remnants on Elias's chest. Roric, seeing that the boy was alright, let out a sigh of relief. Still he was surprised the boy survived that hit with only a few bruises because he knew how bad the hit must have been.
''You managed to reinforce your body the instant before impact." Roric observed.
"Naturally," Aina interjected, her panic instantly replaced by cold pride. She stood, brushing the dirt from her skirt. "After all, I trained him."
But her eyes lingered on the remnants of the cracked crystals.
Then, the focus shifted back to the beast. Aina was engulfed by a cold rage at the audacity of the beast attacking her brother. She turned and moved silently back toward the wreckage. She channeled her Trait to manifest tendrils of metallic dust and began to whip the Grim Boar, each strike sending a shock through its body. The Beast turned its attention to her and emmited a powerful roar but she deflected it with her Star Trait forming a wall of gravity to defend against it. Seeing its attack didn't work, the beast growlled at Aina before charching. Aina fired black metallic daggers charged with electricity at it. The Boar growled forming a field of concussive around it that deflected the blades. The Boar let out a roar but Aina had erected a barrier infront of it which reflected its attack back at it and sending it flying back.
Roric, having checked Elias once more, gently guided him back toward the outpost. Elias watched as the handful of hunters present stared in astonished silence at Aina's controlled chaos.
"She's terrifying," one hunter muttered, awestruck.
"Yeah, she has potential." another agreed.
A wave of bitter coldness washed over Elias.
'Of course, she's better.'
Aina was a natural-born talent, a vessel designed for greatness. Her success was a given, a head start dictated by genetics and destiny.. It was undeniably unfair.
Just as that thought solidified into a spike of resentment, a deep pressure registered in his senses before anyone else noticed, they began letting out blasts of thier own and causing destruction. He snapped his head toward the forest line.
Smaller, equally wild Boars—the offspring of the larger beast—came rushing out of the trees, agitated by their mother's pain. The hunters immediately sprung into action to contain the situation.
But one of the younger boars, driven by pure instinct, veered sharply around the melee and charged directly at the distracted Aina's back. She was entirely focused on maintaining the gravitational and electrical field that now trapped the massive mother beast.
It was the second time in as many minutes. Elias reacted before his conscious mind registered the danger.
Without moving his feet, he extended his right hand, pointing his pointer and index fingers, and cocked his hand like a gun. He had seen the stance in old action films on his previous world.
A blinding, focused beam of pure, raw Flow shot from his fingertips with a loud BANG.
The blast hit the charging boar square in the face. There was no finesse—just brute, channeled force. The boar was knocked out instantly, one of its heavy tusks snapping off with a loud crack as it collapsed into a heap.
Silence fell across the outpost.
The field around the mother beast collapsed, but the mother was too exhausted to move.
Every eye—Roric's, Aina's, and every hunter's—was fixed on Elias, on the tips of his smoking fingers. He felt a sudden, profound regret.
'Fuck.'
Roric acted. He walked over and gently nudged the felled boar with his boot. Its chest was rising and falling still, it had just been knocked unconcious.
"The mother's defense," he mused, looking toward the main beast, which was now whimpering.
"She was trying to protect her litter. A misguided maternal instinct."
Aina approached Elias, her expression now intensely analytical. She ignored the surrounding chaos, peering at his hand like he was a specimen. "You manifested a Resonant.Does that mean you know what your trait is?"
Roric intervened, placing a massive hand on Elias's shoulder.
"Not only defense but your offensive reaction is already this good. I heard you couldn't use a Resonat but who would have yhought it would take Aina being in danger for you to manifest it."
Aina turned away abruptly, a faint flush creeping onto her cheeks. She quickly covered the reaction with businesslike efficiency.
"We should return to the Keep. We need to be certain my brother has no internal injuries."
The beasts were rounded up and herded back into the forest, the remaining hunters concluding that maternal defense was the culprit. But the question remained, what had agitated the mother so and caused her to direct her agitation at them?
The conclusion of the initial hunt was chaos. The moment they arrived at the Keep, the servants and staff fussed over Elias with an intensity that dwarfed Aina's earlier panic, seeing the dust, the torn remnants of his clothes, and the remaining red shards of crystalline Flow shell still clinging to his chest. Miss Gable asked what had happened and Elias innocently narrated the chain of events. They however were overjoyed when he mentioned that he had finally used a Trait.
The celebratory atmosphere quickly turned into an interrogation. Everyone wanted to know what his Trait was. A Cosmic Class? A Cognitive? Soulfire?
Elias deflected the questions, claiming confusion and exhaustion. At that point he couldn't deny so he considered several cover stories. He could mimic the effects of most Traits with his own underlying power, provided he had sufficient external parameters to work with. But the problem was Resonants—the unique abilities unlocked through Ascension. Every Trait had exclusive Resonants, and every individual utilized them in unique ways. Once he committed to a lie, he would have to stick to it.
'Or is should admit my Trait is an anomaly. Nah, its going to cause even more complications, especially if i admit that i dont know which one it is specifically. That or some organization in a tower will try to take me away. Bah, I read to may too many webtoons.'
He decided to procrastinate and make excuses, but his escape was blocked that evening by Sir Eddie Gable.
Sir Eddie stood in his chambers, a man whose entire existence revolved around orderly administration. He held two crisp sheets of parchment.
"Young Master, wonderful news," Sir Eddie said, bowing slightly.
"I have prepared two letters: one for your father, Lord Alaric, and one for your mother, Lady Elara. They must hear this good news immediately." He tapped the parchments.
"I just require one crucial piece of information before I seal them and send them on the quickest available runner."
Elias felt utterly defeated. There was no escape. He had to choose his life-defining lie now. He mentally ran through the safest, most neutral Traits—something that could easily explain when he went outside the known parameters of said Trait.
He landed on the safest ground: an established, Trait that dealt with predictable, fundamental physics.
"My Trait," Elias sighed, his voice low, "is The Magician."
Sir Eddie's expression shifted from administrative neutrality to slight surprise. He looked at Elias with an odd, assessing stare that made Elias wonder if he had somehow chosen wrong, if his blast contradicted the Magician's authority or some lineage in the family.
Sir Eddie only nodded, however, muttering,
"The Magician, a Cosmic huh? Taking after your father's Trait Class, young master. Excellent, excellent. The Lord will be pleased."
With the crucial lie sealed and the letters sent, Elias was locked into his identity.