I teleported, right behind her in the air, casting a fire spell on my hand, and sending it straight to her back.
She dodged it, moved a couple of feet away, then turned around and grinned.
"Aye, you know how to use spells, awesome!"
Then, she forced her feet into the ground, fixated her mana into her palms, and with one push of her legs, she came flying towards me while shattering into the blocks, her palms facing me.
I teleported a couple of times more so as to be distant and make her lose the mana in her attack. However, she didn't lose any speed, and kept coming towards me. On being two metres apart, she vanished into thin air, without a teleport portal. For the first time, I saw her not use a teleport portal to vanish.
A crushing attack, straight from above came upon me, smashing me into the ground, with an incredible amount of force, her palm on my chest.
I felt as if I was flattened, and when she removed her palm, I checked myself once to see whether I was still in one piece or not. Thankfully and surprisingly, I was.
There was no pain howsoever, thanks to the shield. But there was a cracking noise the moment I got up.
"Looks like the shield I made was not that strong," she said, unsatisfied.
"Was all this to test out the shield that you applied on me?" I asked, annoyed.
Shifting from one foot to another, she said, "Well, your growth is really non-uniform, and I didn't know whether this shield would last on you or not, and had to test it out. I'm glad though that I got to know before any serious damage could be done. Besides, you've aged another year. It's really interesting, you know."
I was a bit worried about my aging speed, but I would rather not think much about it unless I wanted to jinx it.
I looked around, my hands in a questioning manner as if to say 'Then this was not serious damage?' The areas that she covered with that density of mana was totally in rubbles, and the areas she launched from and attacked at completely destroyed.
She stuck out her tongue.
"Well," she said, "now that I've tested out the shield, I'll apply a more hardcore one that wouldn't break with this much mana.
As for now, I'll teach you some more things so that you can work on them and progress further at your own pace."
With that, she snapped her fingers again, and the whole place changed again. This time, it was a slightly brighter area, with not more than a few trees and scarecrows spread across.
She pulled out two swords from thin air, and gave one to me while keeping the other one.
Mine was ever so slightly worn out with a few scratches and creases. Mom's one was a little more refined, but in not much better condition.
"Now, I'll show you 'physique enhancement' to enhance your powers with a limiter so that you don't over-expend it," she said.
She held her sword in the samurai style, though with just one hand on the sword and closed her eyes. Concentrating, she started glowing.
"Empower"
She turned into a crystal blue stream of vapour, and within a second moved ahead by 5 feet in one single motion, across one scarecrow.
I didn't have my power enabled, but I could clearly see the number of slashes she did in that one second, and it was multiplicatively more than what I could do.
The scarecrow was absolutely rubble-ified.
She wiped her forehead. "Phew, it's tough restricting myself. But then right away showing you how much damage this attack can do with physique enhancement would be too much of a reveal. This was an 80% limiter," she said.
"As if this 20% opening with 'this much' damage was not enough," I thought to myself.
In the next couple of hours, she showed me how to handle a sword, and was impressed at how quick I was. I used a one-hand stance as well, but I used to expend more power at the start than required so as to finish matches quickly. She told me that I shouldn't use my limiter right now as my mana and powers' levels were not high enough, so either way any serious damage would not be done.
We had a practice match, and I used my physique enhancer, while she just parried my attacks. I came up sweating.
Then, she went on to teach me mana usage, but couldn't succeed in it, maybe because there was a different technique in the screen.
By the time the sun came up, I was entirely exhausted and sleepy, so we went back home through her home portal, had a shower, then I went upstairs and crashed into my bed.
At noon, she woke me up and together we had lunch downstairs. I hadn't realised how hungry I was, and in fulfilling my hunger, mom used up all the supplies she bought yesterday, and I felt guilty.
"I'll go to the shops again, so you stay here only. I won't be back very soon, so you can roam around if you want, but don't go too far, else if you get lost, I'll have a tough time to find you," mom told me.
"Okay mom," I said, and planned on trying out my other powers.
The man in that 6th dimension whom I had met, appointed by Lord Camellia had told me I would get a power as decided upon by the upper committee, so till then I should master all that I had, which included getting my power level up.
Besides, I hadn't regained any of the memory that I had lost, so passing time right now whilst preparing myself for the worst would be the only logical thing to do.
A couple of hours after post lunch, mom left to hit the place we went yesterday, though this time she flew instead of walking.
Once she went away, I went back to my room to think of everything that I could do by the time she would come back.
I opened my screen, and went through all the powers that I had -
1. Regeneration (exclusive)
2. Weapon crafting (exclusive)
3. Teleportation (exclusive)
4. Power multiplier (uncommon)
5. Telepathy (uncommon)
6. Spell maker (uncommon)
7. Area radar (common)
8. Spell caster (common)
9. Physique enhancer (common)
10. ???
There was a '10.' as well, but it only had question marks instead of a power, making it clear that I had not yet been assigned the decided one.
I went through every power in detail, so that I knew how, when, where and how to use each one.
1. Regeneration would take place when I would be having more than 30% of my mana, and it's a natural process, so I would not have to activate it myself.
2. In weapon crafting, I right now had only three options - sword, shield, claymore. Each weapon had different types, and specifications, which based on the materials I have would be available to me to build. As for mana requirement in making them, only 1% would be needed for the regular swords, 5% for rare ones and 10% for the exclusive ones. There was a special category, which required about 30% mana, which probably meant an overpowering weapon would be built.
3. Teleportation is a simple power, and like I used it before, required only a single connect between the index and middle finger. I didn't know whether I could save the places that I used to go to, but maybe I wouldn't need it immediately.
4. Power multiplier is something, that will enhance my powers (especially spells) by a specific percentage, based on my available mana and the level of the power I'm using. I have to say 'Enhance' once, and it would be done.
5. Telepathy was not yet available to me, probably because my level was too low. This power did not require any mana, and had no connection to mana. But it would work with only those people with whom I had interacted at least once. I would have to recall their name and face and call it out in my head, then speak.
6. Spell maker was as well not yet available, but it did show how to make spells. All I had to do was think of spells that were non-existent, and think how they would work. If the spell involved mixing of different pre-existing spells, or some that I had made myself, I would have to write them on a page, place it on my head, and say - Absorb. However, a name for each spell would be required.
7. Area radar was available to an extent of around 8 to 10 metres. I could sense any living organism for the time being within the given area, and map my way there. The range would increase with my level.
8. Spell caster only required to call out the spell in the mind, and it would come out at full power. I did use it against mom, but there was no effect on her, which well enough proved that I had more than a lot of ways to go.
9. Physique enhancer was exactly like mom did - say 'Empower', and each and every physical aspect would be strengthened for as much time as one could sustain it for. It consumed a considerable amount of mana, so not using it continuously would be the better choice.
I wanted to try out spell maker, but since it was not yet available, I decided to go out into the forests, a little distant behind the house and try out all the spells that I had and gather stuff just in case something or the other turns out to be of some usable value.
I put on the clothes I wore yesterday, went out the house, and faced the forest.
This is where I currently stand, and my tale begins.