A Background Character’s Path to Power

Whoosh~

Instead of coming out herself, she preferred to summon me to her domain.

I appeared on that previous floor, suspended in the void.

She didn't say anything about my conversation with Cassandra, probably because it would reveal the fact that she might have been listening.

"Shall we continue?" She smiled.

I nodded, sat cross-legged, and resumed the affinity training.

According to her, 5 or 6 hours here equaled one hour outside. Since I would have about 8 hours of free time in reality, then it would mean approximately 40 hours to train here, minus the few hours of sleep part.

It should be enough to get the hang of it... Right?

15 hours passed.

Hooh. I did it.

I finally completed her request to form droplets ten times in a row. I even did it for the ice. But for the void, she said it was better to ask my master's help, for he was the best one to teach it.

Honestly, it was pretty exhausting. Unlike most Resonators whose aura would've been depleted, mine was impossible to with this low-level training.

Thankfully, her domain had other useful effects too. Like high mental and physical stamina, recovery.

She even taught me to visualize anything I could into illusions here. And that made it a lot easier to do the affinity training.

And now, it was finally time to take the next step.

"Excellent. Your aura adaptation is faster than I expected," she said, rising from where she'd been observing. "Now comes the real challenge."

She gestured for me to stand, then moved to face me directly.

"The next step is what I call 'Resonant Shaping' - taking your tinted aura and molding it into special forms and functions." She raised her hand, and a small flame appeared above her palm. "Watch carefully. I'm gonna demonstrate it again."

The flame began to shift, stretching and condensing until it formed a perfect miniature sword.

She repeated the previous process again, but much slower and easier to observe this time.

"Your droplets are just raw elemental essence given basic form," she explained as the flame returned to its original form. "True mastery means commanding that essence to serve your will"

She dismissed the flame and looked at me seriously.

"This requires three things: visualization, intention, and most importantly - emotional resonance. You must not just think the shape, but feel it. Understand its purpose, its nature. What you want to do with it."

"Start simple. Create water droplets as you've been doing, but this time, don't let them fall. Will them to remain suspended. Feel the connection between your aura and that water - imagine it as an extension of your body."

I nodded, extending my palm and focusing on forming the familiar droplet.

"Once you can hold it steady for a full minute," she continued, "we'll move on to basic shaping. First a sphere, then a cube, then more complex forms. Each shape teaches your aura different aspects of control."

The droplet materialized, trembling slightly above my palm.

"Remember," she added softly, "the water or any other affinity doesn't resist you because they're stubborn. It resists because you're still thinking of it as a separate part of yourself. Make it part of you."

I nodded and started practicing.

Thankfully, my comprehension made up for the lack of my raw talent. Plus, her easy-to-understand teaching. It was much easier than getting beaten nonstop, at least.

But it was still difficult.

The first hour was nothing but a failure.

The droplet would form, hover for maybe three or five seconds, then plummet to the void floor below. Each time I tried to maintain that connection Lady Nisha described, it felt like grasping at smoke.

The water seemed to slip away from my mental hold the moment I stopped actively creating it.

"You're 'gripping' it too tightly," she observed during one particularly frustrating attempt. "Think of it like... holding a bird, too loose and it flies away, too tight and you crush it."

I adjusted my approach, trying to find that delicate balance. Instead of forcing the droplet to stay, I began imagining it as naturally wanting to remain suspended, like its task was that. Gradually, the duration increased - five seconds, then ten, then fifteen.

By the third hour, I was maintaining stability for nearly thirty seconds before my concentration wavered. The breakthrough came when I fully stopped thinking of the water as 'other' and started treating it as part of myself.

Just as I didn't consciously command my fingers to move, I began letting the droplet exist as part of my natural state.

The emotional resonance aspect proved trickier.

It wasn't enough to visualize, I had to feel the water's nature.

Cool, fluid, adaptable, and free.

I found myself recalling memories of rain, of drinking from mountain streams, of the way water moved and flowed. Each memory seemed to strengthen the connection.

Around the eighth hour, I hit another wall. The droplet would remain stable for about forty-five seconds, then suddenly collapse as if my aura had simply... forgotten it existed.

"Your aura naturally wants to return to neutral," she explained, "you need to make the tinted state feel just as natural as the neutral one."

More hours of practice, more adjustments.

I began to notice subtle things, how my emotional state or breathing affected the stability, how certain thoughts would cause fluctuations, and so on.

Each discovery led to small improvements.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of attempts, I achieved the full minute. The droplet hung above my palm. But when I tried to replicate it immediately after, it barely lasted twenty seconds.

So yeah, the consistency was the real challenge.

"You did it, do you want to advance?" Lady Nisha asked.

I shook my head. "I'd like to continue for a bit."

I kept pushing forward, determined not to settle for a single success. Two minutes became my goal, then three.

By the twelfth hour, I was regularly maintaining the suspension for four minutes, though the mental strain was considerable.

The real breakthrough came during the fourteenth hour when I stopped trying so hard to maintain control and simply... let it be.

The droplet didn't just hover; it felt stable, permanent, as natural as breathing. I understood the feeling, but it was hard to describe it in words.

But it felt really exhilarating.

That attempt lasted for six minutes before I deliberately dismissed it.

"Hoo..."

I wiped the sweat away, finally allowing myself a moment of satisfaction.

The task was complete, had been for several hours actually, but I'd pushed myself to overachieve it - make it last more than five minutes with perfect stability.

"Well done," Lady Nisha said, genuine approval in her voice. "You're ready for the next one."