The situation that occurred as the aftermath of Koji and Ivory's encounter could only be described as a miracle.
Lin was furious, as he clearly stated to Koji to not get involved with Ivory; he had assumed that Koji had violated this agreement. However, Koji told him the truth of the matter and Lin ended up believing his explanation. Of course, that did not expel his wariness towards Koji and Ivory now.
So the training continued, and today marked a very special day.
The sun was rising, the wind was not flowing and the sky was not completely blue; rather, it contained hints of orange throughout it and purple, clearly exaggerating the effect of the boundless brightness of the sun.
But this was not the only special thing about today.
"Koji, I have a special surprise for you today."
Lin was smiling slightly, obviously excited to see Koji's reaction.
"Oh? What is it?"
Koji's expression brightened in excitement and obliviousness.
'Hm, maybe it's a sword for fighting... Wait, no I forgot swords are kind of useless against Transcendents, so what is it? Maybe a Relic... That would make lots of sense.'
Koji already considered multiple possibilities, and came to the conclusion that it was a Relic.
Lin slowly moved his hand from behind his back, his hand still being closed in a fist-like position; he then opened his large hand and inside a glowing, yellow ball could be seen.
"A Relic!"
Koji decided to act surprised on the outside, although he already expected this outcome of course.
"Yes, and a lightning one at that."
Lin's demeanor did not change at Koji's facade, because he did not know that it was a facade. Although he may have been able to tell before, now was different; Koji had become much more skilled at faking emotions than he had been before.
Before, he only had a relative amount of knowledge on how to do it. But now, he knew lots: First off, he learned to not exaggerate his expressions too much, and also not to make them too weak, secondly he observed the way Ivory acted, and recalled the way kids back on earth also acted and implemented them into his personality, he also learned how well each person in his life was able to deduce his real emotions, and what exact things fooled them the best, he learned how to stay completely consistent with his attitude for the most part too. Lin had the impression Koji was a bit cold for a child, and a bit of a troublemaker who was lazy, but still nonetheless had all the qualities a seven year old would. Of course, he acted different around his parents and Ivory slightly but that was important too, because if he acted the exact same around everyone then they would start to catch on to him.
Well, one day he would have to start being real with them. However, this was easy; he would just slowly start to show more of his real personality as he got older and they would just think it's him maturing.
That all goes to say, Lin was unable to detect Koji's real thoughts anymore, and he would likely never be able to again.
"So, Koji. I want you to take the Relic and pour your energy into it."
He placed out his hand, signaling for Koji to take it. As he took the relic, it felt like nothing he had ever laid his hands upon before.
It was slightly smooth but tingly, and had the effect as if it was constantly moving but it wasn't at all.
"So, first you need to concentrate. Just as you did when creating your Xin core, you need to establish a link between you and the Relic."
Koji had experience with this from way back, so he did it relatively easily.
"Now, pour your energy into it."
He thought this would be easy, but as he did it suddenly an intense feeling of nausea struck him.
He was unable to handle the feeling further, so he broke the link.
"Why did it make me nauseous?"
Lin sighed, already expecting this to happen on Koji's first try.
"You did it too fast and poured too much, Koji. You have to do it slowly because you are a bottom tier Miniscule. The higher level you get, the easier you will be able to activate Minor Relics and the less concentration it will take. Right now, you are literally the weakest of the weak. If Miniscule rank was a tall latter, you'd be right at the bottom."
Koji frowned, he already knew he was weak; he didn't need Lin to tell him that.
"So what? I have to pour it in at like 5% per second?"
Lin laughed a bit, he was amused at Koji's expectations.
"No, more like 5% every 3 seconds."
Koji's eyes burst with surprise and anger as he said this.
Well, inwardly he was not surprised or angry; he already knew his expectations would be drilled into the ground.
'I really need to get stronger, this won't do at all.'
He knew this was gonna take time, but time was of the essence. After all, life was short and his time to become strong before he needed to use his strength was most likely even less.
"Whatever, fine..."
He grumbled and moved on to the task at hand.
He gripped the Relic with newfound knowledge, doing exactly as Lin said. The feeling of nausea was still present, but it was on a much more miniscule version than before.
He slowly poured the essence, the Relic slowly activating. It started to emit lightning from itself, but it did not effect Koji at all; the feeling of being shocked was completely absent from Koji's senses.
"Now, Koji. Focus on directing the lightning at something."
Koji tried to focus at aiming the lightning the Relic was emitting while continuously focusing on pouring essence.
He decided to direct it at a rock, and so he sent out the lightning at the rock!
The lightning completely missed the medium sized, dark grey rock and instead struck the comforting grass beside it.
"Yeah kid, this needs a lot of work."
Koji grumbled at this, although he didn't expect to hit it first try he at least expected to be slightly on target. However, the lightning he shot out didn't even come close to hitting the rock.
"Koji, now you need to absorb the Relic into your body."
Koji quickly recovered from his previous disappointment and focused on the new task that was presented.
"How do I do that?"
Lin explained in the simplest terms that he possibly could.
"Well, you need to instead focus on absorbing the essence of the Relic into you instead of pouring the essence into it. You can do this very quickly, almost instantly. It is not hard at all."
Koji nodded as he heard this, being glad this was not going to be difficult unlike the previous endeavor.
He closed his eyes, envisioning the stream that connected his own mind and the Relic in his hand. He then focused on absorbing the Relic into his own mind, the stream emitting a feint white light as he did.
The Relic instantly faded from his hand and was now in his mind.
He felt his whole body slightly tingle as it was absorbed.
"You probably felt a tingle, that means your Velsit reacted to the new Relic and is now slightly adapted to lightning. Of course, not enough to show any real effect because this Relic is the weakest possible lightning one that I could find on the market."