After an hour or two, honestly, Aiden wasn't sure about how much time he had spent with his eyes closed.
But, he had finally opened them again and he had an idea in mind.
He wasn't sure if it would work or not, but he wouldn't lose anything by trying it.
'Should I ask for his opinion about it?' thought Aiden as he glanced at the old man who still had his eyes closed and was completely unmoving as if he were a statue.
'Can you even have such a state of concentration?' thought Aiden, as he didn't understand how that old man wasn't moving when sleeping, he had to admit that it was extremely impressive from his point of view.
Then, as Aiden slowly stood up and placed himself in front of the boulder. Isolde who was also sitting right beside him with her eyes closed felt someone moving close to her which is why she opened them again.
'Did he figure out something?' she thought as she observed Aiden having his dagger in his hands, preparing for a strike that might completely cut this boulder in two.
While all of this was happening, the old man who appeared to be sleeping, slowly opened his eyes discreetly observing Aiden's next movements.
'Let's see if he figured something out that fast,' thought the man, as he didn't believe for a minute that he had found how to cut that boulder.
The old man had made it obvious that you didn't require strength to do so, but that wasn't the end of the trick, there was something else other than technique and he doubted that the Reaper had figured it out.
Then, he saw that the weapon that he was using was a dagger and realized that the Reaper would have even more difficulty than Isolde since his weapon was so small.
'Alright, let's see if I was actually right about this whole thing,' thought Aiden, as he started to concentrate both his Mana and his Qi toward the dagger in his hands.
Aiden wasn't sure if he was right but he had seen some vibrations from the broadsword that the old man had used and he had tried to think about how he had caused those vibrations and only a single thought came to his mind.
It was a simple one too, he had added energy, probably mana in this case to empower his weapon.
Aiden didn't think that this old man had access to Qi, but he couldn't be sure.
Then, as Aiden felt that both Mana and Qi had reached his dagger, he started to try and solidify this energy at the end of it.
Aiden was currently trying to form some sort of aura at the end of his weapon.
However, he wasn't sure if he would be able to.
He was looking at his dagger and he started to see that both of the gray and blue energy were starting to dissipate as if it was never there before.
Then, after a few seconds of constant struggle, the energy completely vanished as if it was never there in the first place.
The old man which had been faking his sleep, slowly but surely made it known that he had now woken up as he coughed a little.
*Um*
*Um*
Aiden hearing that cough had no choice but to look in that direction wondering what was happening to that old man.
Was he dying?
He needed to know.
However, it wasn't anything like he had expected.
"Young man, what you just did was..." he said as he took a small break. "Incredible!"
'Incredible?' thought Aiden, confused.
He had just failed what was so incredible about what he had just done.
Why congratulate him when he failed to do something, Aiden simply couldn't understand.
Shouldn't he be punished instead or shouldn't he feel bad about it?
After all, that was how it was in the past, whenever he would fail at something, he would get beaten up until he couldn't walk anymore or something like that.
So, why was this man happy?
"What do you mean incredible? I failed, I didn't even get close to succeeding," lamented Aiden, as he made known that he was angry to have failed.
The old man could only chuckle hearing all that negative emotion coming out of Aiden, as this was nothing to be ashamed of at all.
In fact, it was a great achievement.
The Reaper had figured out the way to reach the next challenge, which was to create a weapon's aura.
"What do you mean? You don't think what you just did was incredible, you don't feel proud about what you just did?" said the man, becoming extremely excited about this whole thing.
"I told you, I failed. So, why would I be happy about failing to do something?" asked Aiden, as he simply couldn't understand that mindset.
Why celebrate when you couldn't do something, it simply made no sense.
Even Isolde who was listening to Aiden's mindset started to understand how that man who came from a middle-level family reached this place.
He was dedicated, so dedicated that she wasn't even close to him in that department.
There was a reason why he had won the Inter Family Tournament, after all.
"Young man, why are you so pessimistic? You just figured out the way to succeed and go on to the next trial. Why are you trying to go so fast? Calm down for a second," said the man, not understanding the reaction that was coming from the Reaper.
Aiden hearing all this, didn't even care about what that man was trying to say as he simply thought that he was trying to comfort him and Aiden didn't need that stuff at all.
"Whatever, just leave me alone," said Aiden, as he looked at the dagger in his hand trying what he had just done once again.
Now, that he knew that this was the right strategy to cut this boulder, he wouldn't stop until he would be able to make an aura.
That was his goal, now and nothing could change that.
He would practice for such a long time that he would never fail to make one again.
However, while he had become determined Isolde was the one that was starting to become pessimistic as she didn't know how to make an aura or anything like that.
Also, looking at Aiden's state, she was debating whether or not to ask him for help since he didn't seem to be in the best of conditions.
However, at the end of the day, if she wanted to get further in this training which was supposed to be solely for her, she needed his help.
So, she found all the courage that she could muster and approached Aiden as she said, "Can you explain to me what you're doing?"
Aiden who was currently frustrated by this whole thing dismissed this rage as he heard the voice of Isolde turning toward her wondering what she was currently asking.
"An aura, that's what I'm doing," he replied, still not completely void of his frustration.
Still, he was making some efforts to sound as nice as he could, but it wasn't easy.
"Um, sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that. Basically, all you need to do is condense your mana into your blade," explained Aiden, not revealing that he was mixing both Qi and Mana while doing so.
He wasn't the type to reveal all of his secrets, after all.
Isolde who heard that, was still confused. How could someone condense mana? How did that work?
"And how do you condense mana?" she asked afterwards since that was the question on her mind.
However, the answer from Aiden didn't help her one bit.
"Well, look at me, does it look like I know how to condense mana? I can't do an aura," said Aiden as he honestly found her question incredibly stupid.
Why would she ask for him to show her or something like that, when even he couldn't do it?
It simply made no sense, however, Aiden didn't make a big deal out of it.
"Well, thank you either way. I'll try to figure it out," said Isolde who didn't seem to be in the greatest of moods.
'Why do I even have to do this? Why do I need to create an aura? I know I'm lacking in terms of close fights, but do I really need to reach that level of fighting with close-range weapons?'
'Hell, even Aiden who uses a dagger doesn't know how, what sort of training even is this?' thought Isolde, frustrated.
She thought that she would be working more on her skills as an Enchantress and here she was trying to cut one big boulder.
"Alright, tell me if you figure out anything," said Aiden as he noticed that Isolde was going back to her spot.
He had already calmed down and was now trying to create an aura but it seemed that he still wasn't quite there yet.
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