Vallen sat cross-legged on the floating metal slag. His breath was calm and controlled. His body was still as a statue. His mind was empty.
He was at peace.
"... alright, this is leading nowhere," Vallen groaned out as he lay on his back. He laid on his back and stared at the blue sky. He breathed out heavily as he glared at the sky.
For the past hour, he had been sitting in that god-forsaken monk pose and tried to "feel" any energy hidden within him. In that time, he had to endure the ocean and its harsh attitude, since it had sent him wave after wave. With each wave causing him to either break concentration or almost fall off his raft.
There were even times when he actually almost fell off, but at the last second grabbed the edge of the raft and managed to pull himself back on. This was when he discovered how truly weak he was.
His body matched his looks, as under the clothes he looked like a crumpled-up skeleton hiding behind just a few layers of skin and no fat. He would have loved to wonder if he was going to be this weak forever or if he ate food, if it would change, but sadly, the ocean gave him no time to think. It had even sent him a giant wave that almost swallowed him and his raft into the deep.
When the ocean finally calmed down and became still, he was overjoyed. Enduring the thrashing of waves and the constant wetness was excruciating. So getting time to rest and actually do what he was trying to do earlier was a Godsend blessing.
But sadly, the world was a cruel place and in the twenty minutes of peace he had. He discovered nothing, absolutely nothing special. He had thought maybe he would have felt a spark or maybe a revelation of some kind. Heck, maybe even a voice that would teach him the step-by-step basics on how to use his abilities.
"Maybe I am doing it wrong?" Vallen muttered as he bit his thumb. He laid there and thought about how he could use his abilities. With one thought being just to shout them out loud, but in the end, he decided not to repeat his past mistakes.
"Okay, let's think. From what I know, I don't seem to sense anything special in me, meaning that either there is nothing inside me or I can't sense it. If it's the first option, then it means that I need some sort of outside force to use my abilities, but if it's the second, then it means I am doing something wrong," Vallen said as he sat back up and rested his hand on his knee.
"Maybe it's like Helper and requires some sort of outside action? Like a finger snap?" Vallen said as he focused, "but if that is the case, then how would people know how to use their abilities? Does it come naturally to them? But from what Storyteller said, people don't know what their abilities are and can only use the hints they are given."
"Am I thinking too hard on this?" Vallen said as he looked at his hand. His eyes stared at his hand intensely. Slowly, Vallen's mind focused on his hand, and slowly, he could feel every part of his hand. From the breeze of the sea gliding on it, the wet droplets splashing onto its surface, and even his muscles twitching from the smallest of actions.
"Maybe, I am thinking too hard, " Vallen stated as he focused more on his hand, as he slowly made his palm face upwards. His mind focused more and more on his palm. His mind was slowly shutting off the feeling of everything else but his palm.
"Maybe I should stop focusing on what Storyteller said. How he said people needed to use hints to activate their abilities," Vallen said as he slowly raised his palm up, "yeah, I should stop thinking about that. From what the Storyteller said, almost everyone in this world uses Arcana, yet I use Prana. So this means that, unlike them, I don't need hints. Maybe?"
Vallen's eyes focused more intensely on his palm as he felt a slight change, "no overthinking. The fact that I don't have a Mark means that either my energy doesn't give me one or that I don't need it. After all, the Storyteller did say Marks were mainly used as a way to give hints and that was it."
Vallen lifted the palm closer to his face. As he did, the feeling of slight change grew slowly and some subtle things appeared. Though very small, Vallen could have sworn that he could see some black dots forming on the surface of his hand.
"So if I don't need any hints. Then it means I should, hopefully, know my ability just from instinct alone," Vallen said as he focused on the slowly appearing black dots, "so let's not think anymore and just do what my body is telling me to do."
As he finished that line, Vallen inhaled and, with a powerful breath, blew away the black dots. As he did so, the black dots soon dispersed into a giant black smoke that moved like a mix between water and flames. The water flowed steadily and guided, while the flames burned and ravaged anything that came near it.
The smoke moved like a flag in the wind, whipping around and flowing in the path of the breath. Seeing this, Vallen's eyes went wide as a grin slowly appeared on his face.
It had worked! Though he wasted some time meditating, he was still able to figure out how to use this ability.
"Now, what ability are you?" Vallen said as he snapped his finger.
—
Name: [Vallen Flint]
Age: [20]
Gender: [Male]
Mark: [None]
Abilities: [Prana Blood], [Twisted Touch], [Twisted Mind], [Twisted Form]
Items: [?]
—
"If I had to guess, I would say that you are [Twisted Mind]," Vallen stated as he tapped on its icon.
—
[Twisted Mind]- An ability that allows the user to weave the forms of Prana into a gaseous form before being absorbed into the user's body. Where their form and ability are stored, hidden from any darting eyes. The host's main body will not be able to use stored abilities and stored abilities will not be lost. Current abilities stored: 0
—
Vallen stared at it for a couple of seconds before blinking, confused by its description.
"Now that doesn't sound right? It says it can weave Prana into a gaseous form before it is absorbed by me. But that isn't happening right now," Vallen looked from the screen and stared at the flowing black smoke that was currently spinning in a circle, sort of making a sphere. If what the ability says is true, then this gas should have entered his body. Maybe?
Vallen stared at the sphere, trying to figure out what was going on. The sphere in question was floating harmlessly in the center of the raft. It's form floating several inches off the ground and appearing to be unbothered by the changes caused by the ocean.
Vallen stood up, patting his hand on his pants, as he walked towards the sphere. He walked around it to see what it was. But no matter where he looked, all he could see was just a black sphere floating above his raft.
Soon, curiosity got the better of him as he raised his right hand up and placed it on its surface. As he did so, some sort of information flooded his mind. His mind and body paused as he was assaulted by this wave of information. His body began to sweat as he just stood before the sphere with his palm still on its surface.
After a couple of seconds, Vallen blinked before pulling his hand away. He took several deep breaths as he stared at the sphere. He stared at its surface as he slowly digested the information that flooded his mind.
Once that was done, he finally calmed down and stared at it. A smile appeared on his face as he flexed his right hand.
"So you're not [Twisted Mind], but instead are [Twisted Form]. From what I understand, the reason you are like this is that you have neither form nor an ability to give one. So, unless I get either one of them, you are basically an egg ready to hatch," Vallen said as he smiled.
"Now I need to thank you for confirming that all I need to do is just to listen to what my body says," Vallen said as he flexed his right hand once more, but as he did so, the same black smoke blew from the surface of his hand. The smoke slowly drifted towards the black sphere, being absorbed by it.
"So this is Prana?" Vallen said as he lifted his hand and stared at the smoke flying into the sphere. He stared at it before chuckling, "I am not offended by the color, but I would have preferred blue. Shame the egg didn't tell me anything about Prana, only what it was and how to get the things it needs to hatch."
Vallen walked towards the edge of the raft and sat down. He lifted his hand above the water and watched as the smoke changed directions. Its form slowly flowing down and touching the surface of the water. Its form lingered just on the surface for a moment before diving deeper into the water.
Its black form slowly disappeared into the water as its color was devoured by the depths.
"Guess I am fishing", Vallen said as he moved a bit until he felt comfortable. He hovered his hand above the water as though it were a pole and the smoke was the line.
Now, why he was doing this was simple.
From what he gathered from the sphere, the ways to get its form and abilities could be done in one of two ways. The first way was by meeting a twisted and absorbing its form as well as its ability. But seeing as how there was nothing living for miles and he didn't want to fight off some sort of invisible being with nothing but his skeleton-looking body, he opted for option two.
Option two was actually quite simple. From what the sphere says, there are supposedly other forms of Prana floating around aimlessly in the world, with each one having its own abilities. Now, where to find them was quite simple, in places where there are tons of life.
Now, Vallen wasn't in a city nor a forest, but in the middle of the ocean. So where could he find life? Simple, underwater. After all, that is where the fish live.
Thankfully, he didn't need to dive deep underwater and deal with sharks. All he had to do was just have some of his Prana sink deep underwater and just wait. Supposedly, the floating forms of Prana will be attracted to greater forms of Prana and will merge with them. So what Vallen was planning to do was have his line of Prana attract any nearby Prana and then use his ability, [Twisted Mind], to absorb it and put whatever ability he gathered into the sphere. Egg?
"Actually, should I keep calling you a sphere? I mean, you are basically an egg," Vallen mused as he turned back around and stared at the sphere. After a couple of seconds, Vallen just nodded, "yeah, I'm going to call you an egg."
So Vallen sat there, his Prana line waiting to catch any stray Prana, as he hummed and stared into the dark depths of the ocean.