The sun shines early in the morning. Dor'al walks up to Kassius and Kaizen, lying on the ground.
Dor'al: "Up you two! Time to wake up!"
Kaizen: "Mhhh..."
Kaizen wakes up. Kassius slowly opens his eyes.
Kassius (in head): "I'm too tired... wha-"
In a quick jolt, he widens his eyes and sits up, looking at the grass.
Dor'al: "Everything alright?"
Kassius: "Yeah... it's fine..."
Kassius looks to the side and sees Arnold and Bonnie eating food.
Dor'al: "They woke up earlier. Come. We will eat and resume from yesterday."
Kassius and Kaizen joins the others and eat their food. After cleaning up, the group starts walking along the cliff area.
Dor'al: "OK, so what have I told you?"
Kassius: "Presence is our existence."
Dor'al: "Good. What else?"
Bonnie: "The sensory technique thing."
Dor'al: "Exactly. Now, moreso of what I'm getting at, what did I tell you about living things vs non-living things?"
Arnold: "Living things have fluctuating Presence and non-living things do not."
Dor'al: "Almost. It's that living things have natural fluctuations. That is key for the next step."
Kaizen: "What do you mean?"
Dor'al: "Well, when you interact with inanimate things, you can cause temporary fluctuations. These are caused by what you can think of as remnants of our Presence. For example, a body smell that lingers on a shirt. The thing is, for the second major application, you need to be able to actively fluctuate an inanimate object's Presence."
Bonnie: "By second application, you mean the Unique techniques, right?"
Dor'al: "Yes. Those are a bit more complex than the sensory ones. Once you get a hang of Presence Scoping which is what I have you doing now, you'll understand the feel of Presence and you can learn how to focus it at specific points in the body."
The group stops by a tree.
Dor'al: "I want to test something. All of you place a palm on the tree."
The group put their hands on the tree. Dor'al puts his hand on too.
Dor'al: "Now currently, the tree is slightly fluctuating. But it's very small, almost unnoticeable. I will be honest, even I cannot notice it. However, Remus does say it is the case. Now, I'll fluctuate my Presence around my palm. Do you guys feel a difference?"
The group looks at him and they shake their heads.
Dor'al: "Hmm, OK. Forgive me, I guess it isn't so easy to force to feeling onto others."
Kaizen: "Look at that."
Kaizen points to the tree, seeing a bunch of ants scattering out of a hole.
Bonnie: "The ants?"
Kaizen: "Did your Presence scare them?"
Dor'al: "Well... in a sense, it did. My own fluctuations caused fluctuations in the area of the tree I was touching, which rippled out. The ants noticed these ripples and panicked."
Arnold: "Ants can use Presence?"
Dor'al: "Animals in general are actually more in tune with the sensing of Presence than us. It's instinctual to them. Remus calls them geniuses in the book."
The group walk back to their camp area. The rest of the day passes, as they continue looking at the stick and grass. For some time they look, other times they spend exercising and talking. The day passes by and evening arrives. Dor'al sits the group down.
Dor'al: "OK, now that you have the foundational knowledge, I can explain the Unique technique. What he defines it as in the book, is the ability to manifest your true desire."
Kassius: "True desire?"
Dor'al: "Indeed. It could be an ambition you have, a lifelong want. But it must be real. And you must be aware. He says those who do not know their desires, do not know themselves. As the name does suggest, the technique is special to you. Why do you think this is?"
The group sits in silence, not knowing how to respond.
Dor'al: "Because people can share a desire, but not what that desire means to them... or at least, that is the idea he pushes."
Arnold: "Does the meaning really matter?"
Dor'al: "What do you mean?"
Arnold: "I mean that even if two people have different meanings to their desire, what difference does it make? If the desire is the same, shouldn't the technique also be?"
Dor'al: "Well, that would be true, but the there are two key things with the expression. Let me use myself as an example. My technique allows me to use doors to go from one location to another. Perhaps someone else has a similar desire to me. Their technique does not have to use a door. Nor does it have to be similar to transporting from one place to another. The choice of action to reach a desire is your own."
Kaizen: "But what if they, you know, stumble onto the same technique?"
Dor'al: "Then the differentiator would be in the conditions."
Kaizen: "Conditions?"
Dor'al: "This is the main thing that allows Unique techniques to work. And it is also why I mentioned the temporary fluctuations earlier. Unique techniques come in two forms, your base technique, and your irregular technique. For now, I'll just explain the Base. The Base technique is the standard ability you get by manifesting your desire into an action. You define the action, and place rules upon yourself."
Kassius: "Why do we need to put rules?"
Dor'al: "One must earn their desire, and cannot attain it unless they believe they deserve to. Therefore, the simpler the action, the less rules you need to impose on yourself. But, the harder you make achieving said action, the more you can use it."
Kassius "Kind of like a balancing game then."
Dor'al: "Exactly. The harder it is for yourself, the more beneficial the reward."
Bonnie: "Could you give an example? I'm a bit lost."
Dor'al: "Hmm... Ok. Let's say I have a desire, for example, to touch the clouds. There are many possible actions to manifest this desire. You could want to fly or to jump high. Now, you cannot naturally do these things, so to balance, you impose a rule to using this action. You can make many rules, or a single rule. Regardless, the point is the difficulty of fulfilling it."
Bonnie: "Ahh, OK I see."
Kaizen: "You say the harder it is, the more we can use it. So what if it's the condition is too easy?"
Dor'al: "Then your Presence may fluctuate dangerously, possibly harming you."
The group goes quiet, as the sun starts to set.
Dor'al: "It's all about the intent. If you believe the conditions are at least reasonable, then you have nothing to worry about. Remus advises a minimum of two conditions but you can make three to be safe. From then on, more conditions means you can use the technique more and get less fatigued using it. I think it's kind of obvious but Presence usage is very much linked to your energy. So you cannot just use it whenever you feel like it."
Kassius: "So conditions are also a way to save energy?"
Dor'al: "Precisely."
Arnold: "Why do we need the temporary fluctuations then?"
Dor'al: "Great question. You need it to create the Conditional Manifesto. Basically, everything I've explained, you need to concretely write it down. Like making a contract, but you make with yourself."
Arnold: "What's the purpose of the fluctuation then?"
Dor'al: "Well, at the beginning, I mentioned intention. This applies to making the Manifesto as well. You cannot just write it down wherever. You have to actively fluctuate the thing you write it on. I will also say, it's very important you know where you write your Manifesto."
Kassius: "Why?"
Dor'al: "If what holds your Manifesto gets destroyed, so does your Manifesto and you'll have to recreate it before using the technique again."
Bonnie: "Wait, doesn't this mean we can just write the Manifesto anywhere?"
Dor'al: "You can but it's a bit more complex than that. I'd just advise you to write it in one place you can access easily."
Kassius: "So Hassan's technique works the same way?"
Dor'al: "Yes. Whether he showed you his Base or Irregular technique, the Unique Technique follows these rules. This applies to him, me and any other Presence Users."
Dor'al stands up.
Dor'al: "I'll go get some food. In the meantime, continue until you get something."
Dor'al walks away back towards the village. The group go back to looking at their sticks.
Kaizen: "This is some pretty interesting stuff."
Bonnie: "I wonder what my true desire is."
Kassius: "Maybe it's to constantly eat."
Bonnie: "Mmm, that's not too bad, you know."
Kassius: "Hehe, you suddenly have a new goal in life?"
Time passes by as Dor'al brings food back and they eat. As the night goes on, Dor'al falls asleep, as the others continue focusing.
Kassius: "You know, I think this is probably what he used."
Arnold: "Hmm?"
Kassius: "Sado Talman. When I fought him. That appearing behind me thing."
Kassius looks back at his stick.
Kassius: "He didn't use it that much, so I'm guessing his conditions were not hard to meet... what about the others? Did they have Unique Techniques?"
Arnold: "The ones I encountered did not."
Kaizen: "Neither did I."
Bonnie: "Well, the one I faced seemed to be a step ahead of me. Maybe his Unique Technique was to read minds."
Kassius: "We were pretty lucky to face them early on."
Kaizen: "I'm going to bed. My eyes are hurting."
Bonnie: "Same here. Wake me up if you figure something out, will you?"
Kaizen and Bonnie lie down and go to sleep. Kassius and Arnold continue looking at the sticks.
Kassius: "You noticing anything yet?"
Arnold: "No. I think I'm going to go to sleep as well."
Kassius: "Alright, goodnight."
Arnold lies down and goes to sleep. Kassius continues looking, but stares beyond into the distance.
Kassius (in head): "I hope they're all OK."
He slowly falls asleep.
"Who are you?"
Kassius: "Mhh..."
Kassius slowly opens his eyes but stops midway.
Kassius (in head): "Hmm? What's... this feeling... and that shape..."
Kassius slowly continues to open his eyes.
Kassius (in head): "Is that..."
Kassius' eyes open fully as he stares at his stick.
Kassius: "I... see it... I- Yo! Wake up! I can-"
Kassius looks at the stick in confusion.
Bonnie: "Wha?... What happened?"
Kassius: "I... I think I saw it."
Arnold: "What did you do?"
Kassius: "I just woke up and I could see it. I was, like, slowly opening my eyes and bam! There it is."
Kaizen: "Are you sure?"
Kassius: "I think so. I'm awake, right?"
Dor'al: "What did it look like?"
Kassius looks to the side, seeing Dor'al look at him.
Kassius: "Like... like a bubble, all around the stick."
Dor'al smiles and nods his head.
Dor'al: "Congratulations. You've just seen the Presence of your stick."