The both of them used the same secret pa.s.sageway and walked out of a hidden tunnel by the side of the mountain.

As it was early and the woods where the so-called Snuffed Pond was, which was just near the Horizon Mountain, Allen and Edwin took their time hiding from the eyes of the sentry posts and patrolling guards while the younger one enjoyed the snow white scenery down below.

It was as if the day today was on their favor, because snow has temporarily stopped falling again, letting them clearly see the snow covered lands until to the end of the horizon.

Additionally, some portions of the clouds that were preventing the sun from s.h.i.+ning down for several days has dispersed.

"Is this why the mountain was called Horizon?", Edwin muttered to himself.

After sneaking pa.s.s several sentry posts and two herds of mountain goats, the both of them has finally reached the bottom. Between the two of them was a snow covered gra.s.sland.

They both transversed through it, with Allen being on the lead. Good thing that their robes were snow white color, because even though they were away from the mountain already, some sentry posts could still monitor the gra.s.sland they were on right now.

There was nothing to see, and their journey was uneventful. When they finally reached the nearby woods, that's where they took off their hoods, because the sentry posts from the mountain won't spot them anymore.

"Are there dangerous beasts in here?", Edwin asked.

"No, most of them will hide because of the Winter Wolves while the remaining ones will hibernate during the winter.", Allen replied.

The two of them continued their journey, with Edwin still following Allen's lead. Despite the fact that it's now winter, there were still some small animals that were travelling on top of the snowy ground.

Finally, after pa.s.sing a large shrub, the both of them reached Snuffed Pond. As soon as they entered, Edwin felt that he was reenergized. As he was about to ask why did that happened, Allen already answered, "This place is bountiful of unrefined mana on the air to the point that it could affect us non-magicians. It's basically a paradise for mana users."

"You're more affected by the sheer density of mana in this place than me, because you haven't used internal energy yet.", Allen added.

"So, you're going to teach me how to use internal energy?", Edwin asked with a tinge of excitement.

"Not just pure internal energy, but also mana. The reason why people who used internal energy couldn't use mana after they became pract.i.tioners of the said energy is because they didn't absorb mana when they finally controlled their internal energy for the first time."

"Even before they became internal energy users, their body was already frequently producing internal energy, it's just that they can't sense nor control it. As I said earlier when one controls it for the first time, it becomes permanent and using mana will almost be impossible.", Allen said.

After a pause, he added, "Try to sit down here and relax yourself."

Edwin sat cross-legged, after which, Allen took out a little notebook from his satchel and gave it to the boy, "Read this, and you'll know how to sense and control internal energy."

Edwin started reading the notebook, which was full of drawings and descriptions about mana and internal energy. Everything in the book was handwritten, which made him inwardly curious and he guessed that Allen got it from somewhere very dangerous. However, it was Allen who actually wrote the contents of the book when he was at Alchem Town, with the some knowledge of his books back at this home and mostly through the books at the library in the said town.

After completely reading it, Edwin read it again to make sure that he really comprehended every word and every drawings on the notebook. Afterwards, he closed his eyes and meditated.

...

Almost an hour later, Edwin felt pain all over his body to the point that he yelled. At the same time, Allen put some pressure on the boy's nape with his palm, also using his internal energy to soothe the pain.

Then Edwin panted heavily due to exhaustion and laid down on the cold ground, "Is it successful?"

"I don't know, you can try to sense it.", Allen said.

Edwin remembered the contents of the notebook and followed the procedures, then he sensed the energy flowing inside his body. He felt that there were two types of energy in his body, one was as if giving him a perfect sensation of himself, and the other was more mystical, as if coming from a heavenly well.

"It's a success, there is mana and internal energy in my body!", Edwin had a very wide smile while he told those words.

"Good, it looks like the bountiful mana in this place helped." Allen said.

Due to the abundance of mana in the area, Edwin didn't need to absorb the said energy by himself and the mana itself voluntarily entered his system.

Then Allen asked, "Now, can you separate both of those energies?"

"I can try.", Edwin closed his eyes and felt out to the energy again. The mystical feeling earlier came from the mana, while the other one was his internal energy. After doing several steps of separating both of the energies, the boy was finally able to do it.

"Done.", Edwin said.

"You are fast.", Allen said. "Now then, if my guess is right, your body has strengthened again."

Edwin nodded, "Uhh, I think it did?"

"Now stand up."

Edwin did what Allen said.

"Before teaching you how to use mana and internal energy, you need to know how to fight first. Let's do it with bare hands first." , Allen dropped off his satchel on the ground. "So that the time you start practicing with them, you'll have some experience already."

"Alright.", Edwin got into a fighting position, while Allen was still standing like a normal person. Their distance from each other was five arms away.

"Go." Allen said under his breath.

Finally, the boy charged towards Allen. As the former was about to hit the latter, Allen sidestepped without any haste and punched at the boy's stomach.

Edwin stumbled to his knees fell to the ground and held his stomach in pain.

"I'm already being gentle with that punch, stand up.", Allen said.

"Isn't it actually better... hiss... to teach me some fighting technique first? I can't find back against you, even if you won't use all of your strength.", Edwin slowly stood up.

"No, the way we fight won't necessarily be the same. Specially that you want to wield two daggers. If you still can't take it, then I'll be on the defensive.", Allen said.

After his sentence, Edwin charged again and punched out. Allen easily dodged the punch, at the same time, the boy sent out more punches, however, on the way, he suddenly lost momentum and tripped to the ground.

"Don't exhaust yourself, and pay attention to where you're moving, if this was a real fight, I would have killed you for at least 75 ways already.", Allen said.

Edwin stood up again and inwardly noted what Allen said. The former stabilized his breath and attacked again.

Attacking, making a mistake, Allen giving tips. The said actions repeated until they rested at noon.

"Here, it is a notebook of all basic techniques I know that uses internal energy.", Allen handed out a small notebook to Edwin.

"Oh, thanks.", Edwin took hold of it and read the contents of the first page. "Basic Techniques of the Erchian Dagger."

"Erchian Dagger, what's that?", Edwin asked again.

"It's nothing. Go read it somewhere, I need to check something here.", Allen said.

"Ehh... alright.", Edwin left the area where the pond was.

...

Deep in the afternoon...

Edwin unsheated his daggers and closed his eyes to remember the steps of how to create a dagger flash.

He opened them again and slashed out towards a tree.

-sou-

A small dagger flash flew from one of Edwin's daggers and hit the tree. The flash left behind a very tiny cut on the tree, which was nothing significant.

"Finally after several hours, but why is it so small?", Edwin examined the cut and got an idea. "I think I should ask Allen for more tips, it won't hurt, right?"

He approached the location where the pond was, and from behind the shrubs, Edwin saw Allen crouching by the pond looking at his reflection.

Edwin narrowed his eyes and attempted to spy from afar.

From his location, he saw Allen's reflection, which looked like a younger version of himself, not wearing any eyepatch of some sort, smiling, unlike him right now.

"You know... it is useless for you to hide from me, Edwin.", Allen suddenly start speaking, taking the boy off guard.

Hearing Allen's sentence, Edwin stepped out of the bush and said, "Don't worry I didn't see anything."

"Is that the truth, or are you implying that you won't tell anybody?", Allen said.

After a pause, he s.h.i.+fted the topic, "Have you ever wondered why was this location called 'Snuffed Pond'?"

"Why?"

"Look at the reflection of the sun."

Edwin did what Allen said and looked to the reflection of the sun, which was already near the corner of the pond. There, the former saw that the sun's reflection was just a big ball of rock!

"This pond... is magical.", Edwin was amazed at the sight.

"Originally, it was not. Let me ask you an another question, have you ever wondered why are there no animals in the pond nor near the vicinity?", Allen questioned.

"Now that I've thought about it, I don't see animals here.", Edwin glanced around him and questioned, "Why tho?"

"It's because there's a monster at the bottom of this pond, to be precise, a devil."

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