On my way, I tried to deduce where Grey Lizards could've possibly hid themselves. 'Obsidian Mountains should be out of the question. There is lava underground, logically nothing should be able to survive there. They shouldn't be underneath Sedon either. The Sludge Factory is there, which again should exclude it' I thought. This still left me with a lot of places. They could even be under Boltier or around that area. They could've made their camp in the Land of Sands as well, it was entirely possible.
Although I excluded a few locations, the North wasn't small by any means. I knew very little about Grey Lizards. Even though I knew Alicia, she was too secretive. Always careful with her words and actions. 'She is a bit greedy, but that just a trait she has. Tells me nothing of her people really. Suly is not a good example either… I wonder about her mother though' I thought. Lazar would know something perhaps, I decided to ask him when I got the chance.
I didn't stop my training either. I had to master my Auras and Arts at the same time. Although I could be considered to have touched on the mastery, it wasn't completed yet. With my Bloodlust Aura, I wasn't able to manifest my rage, but I was able to do a few other things. I could make Aura Swords that thirsted for blood. I wasn't sure about the effects they would have during battle, as I had no one to test them on.
I called that sword, Sword of Rage. I was able to wield it, just like any odd weapon, but there was a price to pay. My blood would boil, and the uncontrollable hunger for carnage demanded me to destroy everything in my surroundings. This was concentrated rage, a pure form of rage manifested in an image of a sword. I had to learn how to control that again, just like I used to train with Irwin.
The other Arts were not different. My Art of Stealth was the most developed and advanced though. I could make weak illusions, but nothing of the sort I displayed during a battle with Mordar Army. I was only able to affect the reality slightly. Another thing I figured out, was that my Bloodlust Aura wasn't compatible with illusions. I could only use my Domineering Aura, in order to create them. I couldn't create any illusion I wanted either. My Aura restricted the types of illusions I was able to produce.
Yater's Aura was calm and faint. He could affect the reality greatly, but the effects would look subtle. I could only affect the reality in more… Domineering ways. Which meant my path was that of rather flashy illusions, not subtle and silent. 'Each mastery is different, eh?' I thought. Thinking like this, a question popped into my mind. 'Furians, they can use Auras too. At least that's what I was told. No Furian used an Aura so far, which is weird. Does that mean Eterians sealed their Auras? Or perhaps not every Furian can use them?' I asked myself.
Another question appeared in my mind, 'If Furians can have Auras, does that mean they can master the Arts too?'. It would make sense. Humans were able to learn Arts, because they possessed Auras. Without them, there would be no masters. Perhaps I took Auras for a common thing. Not all Humans had Auras. Even those who broke through to their Outer Limits might lack them. This was something a Human had to comprehend and learn by themselves. That could be the reason why no Furians had an Aura so far. At least those were my speculations.
I had two more Arts that I learned. The Art of Hidden Weapons was different to what I expected. Again, due to my Aura being of a certain type, my Art of Hidden Weapons looked differently to what I expected. The Aura Daggers I created, would actually disintegrate my opponents… Or rather make them more dense. I found that out after some more experimentations. Usually my target were the dead trees, but that was too easy and basic for my experimentation. Instead, I opted for the ground.
The two Aura Daggers slammed into the ground. Two holes a few times bigger than the daggers themselves, were created as a result. The weird thing was, there was no explosion. The ground simply separated into loose sand or rocks. The best way I can explain it, would be like this. The ground beneath my feet might seem solid and condensed, but that wasn't the case entirely. It could be packed to a much higher degree. That is what my Aura did. It made the sand more dense, more compact, hence creating those holes.
When I checked those holes, they were incredibly hot to touch. This alone made me wonder about something. 'My Domineering Aura used to have a different effect. It would actually push everything away, or perhaps I judged it wrongly back then?' I thought. It was entirely possible that my Aura always had this effect, but it was weaker and seemed like it was pushing things away. Now that my Auras could manifest into reality, the true abilities surfaced.
This also reminded me of the Darkness Element. Although that Element simply pulverized anything it came into contact, instead of packing it more tightly. The North had none of that Element though. This was also the reason behind my restricted strength. 'If I was able to use the Darkness Element, I would be much stronger' I thought. North was poor in most Elements, except Earth and Air Elements. In smaller quantities, but ever present and useless to me at the same time.
I also figured out another thing. I was actually able to "explode" my daggers at any point in time. This alone gave me loads of possibilities. I no longer had the need to hit my opponent directly, I could affect the area around them too. With more practice, I was also able to hide my Aura underneath the ground. The Sleeping Blade Forest was basically a greater form of that. My Unyielding Aura was many times stronger than what Domineering Aura could achieve, hence the lesser effects. Either way, I could still make three Aura Daggers pop out of the ground, only the range was much shorter.
'Hmm... The range should increase, as long as my Aura gets better. I feel like I'm learning about my Auras all over again' I thought. The range was around 15-20 metres, incomparable to what I did during the Sedon Battle. The last Art, was the Art of Medicine. But I was completely clueless as to how my Auras could improve that Art. 'Do I use my Auras when making medicine or poison? Would that be effective though? My Bloodlust Aura must be useless when it comes to that. Domineering Aura… Wait! If my Domineering Aura actually packs things more tightly, wouldn't that help me make even stronger Extracts?' I asked myself.
It was something worth trying. After all, I had a few good days of travelling left, before I would reach the Ruins of Ravan. I made sure no dead trees were in sight, and set up my stuff to prepare some medicine. 'Let's test if this works while making the standard medicine, I can then test that with Extracts' I thought. As the medicine cooked, I introduced some of my Aura into the pot. I thought something would happen, but the process was basically the same as always. 'Either way, I should check the medicine first' I thought, and opened the pot.
It looked the same to me at first glance, but then I noticed it was really pure. The strength of the medicine increased by a very small margin as well. I tried a few more times, just to make sure it wasn't some sort of fluke. The results were similar, or rather sometimes better, sometimes worse. 'It works, but it also depends on how much Aura I release into the pot' I thought.
If too much Aura was introduced, the medicine would simply lose its effectiveness. As if the medical properties were squished too much, and destroyed in the process. Too little, and the results were meagre. After a few more tries, I found an optimal amount of Aura. This allowed for my normal medicine to be around 1.3 times stronger than usual, and pure. Pure to the point where I couldn't see any impurities with my mask on.
I also realised why that was the case. All the impurities were dense enough to just fall to the bottom, and stick to the pot. I had to scrape the pot clean, when I realised those impurities collected to a point, they were visible by naked eye. 'This should mean, I can use Aura to enhance my medicine… I don't think I would be able to help Voltars anyway. If I had those rarer herbs, and introduced my Aura to medicine making… They might've been saved' I thought. I didn't think about that anymore, and proceeded to set up my distillery.
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