Chapter 90- State Of Flow
"Do it again," Emilia said with a stern look on her face. She looked like an angry goddess, ready to punish a sinful mortal for their bad deed.
Rin had no way of running away so he could only gulp down a mouthful of saliva and try to apply whatever she said.
Taking a deep breath, he formed another ball of mana and tried to turn it into a square. Again, he failed at that miserably.
*Smack*
"Ouch!!" Pain assaulted his arm again from the side and made him grab it and rub it while looking at Emilia.
"I said try to focus on the mana around you and fuse yours with it. Don't focus on your own mana alone, but on the two types of mana at the same time."
"How can I focus on two things at the same time? That's impossible!"
"I just did it right in front of you. Do I look like I have two brains?" She asked with a glare.
"N-No?"
"Then, try again!"
*Smack*
"Ouch!"
Then, for the next 2 hours, Rin experienced the worst possible training session in all of his two lives. He kept on repeating the same training again and again and again without getting a minute of rest. Unfortunately, he failed every time to replicate what Emilia did. It was simply stupidly hard to try and split your brain into two parts and focus on two things at the same time.
The human brain was created to only be able to focus on one task at a time. Any more and it will just freeze or stop functioning with the same efficiency as before. It's how that organ works for every person, yet, Emilia wanted him to do that seemingly unachievable feat.
So, because of that, each time he failed, he would get smacked on his arm again and again and again on the same spot. The place had turned extremely red from the stick.
"Repeat again!"
"Can I just rest for a few minutes?"
"How much mana do you still have?" She asked.
"Around 80%." He said.
'That much? He has been going at it for more than 2 hours!' Emilia thought to herself.
"Then there is no need for you to rest. You must master it by tonight." She said.
Even though Emilia said so, expecting him to learn something that took her weeks to learn in less than a day was simply absurd. But, Rin's existence was absurd in and out of itself so why shouldn't she expect anything from him?
"I understand." Wiping the sweat from his face, Rin started trying again.
"Keep your focus on the mana and the mana only. You don't need to think about what to do or what will happen, just focus on the power surging through you and around you. Let the world's mana guide you along with it."
'Focus on the mana around you, blend your mana with the mana of the world. Calm and still as a windless lake. Become one with the natural mana.' He repeated in his head as he closed his eyes and erased any unnecessary thoughts from his head.
The world around him turned into a black void devoid of anything unnecessary for him. His mind entered a deep state of focus where his mind and body existed alone.
After that, he channeled his mana again very gently. In comparison to his way of using mana before which was frankly reckless and chaotic, he was now able to make it move in his body calmly. His aura also looked very serene and still just like a lake.
His whole body was engulfed in that warm feeling of mana passing through his veins and reaching every fiber of his being. Then, he calmly and elegantly extended his hand and created a ball of mana. The small ball floated on top of his palm silently.
'A square.' He thought in his head.
Immediately, the ball changed shape to a square. Surprisingly, the square didn't look blurry or agitated but instead looked perfectly shaped.
'A triangle.' He thought again and the shape changed to a triangle.
'A hexagon.' And the shape became a hexagon.
Just like that, he kept changing the mana into different shapes fairly effortlessly. It did take all of his focus but for him to be able to pull it off was already a great step forward.
Finally, after finishing all shapes and forms, he was ready for the last and most important part.
'Vanish.' He thought.
His mana shook a little bit but then quickly calmed down again. RIn's eyes brows knitted closely to each other as he formed a frown of focus on his face. Sweat trickled down his face from sheer mental exhaustion.
Then, his mana started blurring and disappearing bit by bit.
Outside, Emilia watched with her mouth agape like a small chick waiting to get fed.
'He's doing it…'
She made sure to not make a single movement at all so that she doesn't disturb him. But, the more shocking thing that made her even more amazed is the state of focus Rin had reached. She knew that very well since she also experienced it before.
'State of flow… No way. There is no way he just entered a state of flow instinctively. How is that even possible?!'
State of flow or also called the 'the zone' is when a certain individual reaches a state of extremely deep focus on a certain task. That kind of thing mostly happens when someone is so immersed in doing whatever they enjoyed that their mind completely erases any other thing and solely focuses on the task.
This state could only be achieved when a person has complete mastery over their mind and soul. A true state of them being one with their thoughts. And while it may exist in worlds where magic doesn't exist, for it to happen in Divine Sapphire, it was way harder than the normal state of flow.
Mages and great warriors are the only ones that ever reached that state. Beings that far exceeded everyone else and truly reached the peak of their areas of expertise.
Even someone as talented as Emilia could only do it after years and years of training like a maniac and experiencing brutal life-or-death fights again and again and again until her mind was tempered.
'Yet, this boy reached it by merely trying to focus on camouflaging his mana.'
As much as she felt overwhelmed with this absurd outcome, in these few hours that she trained Rin, she started to learn to expect anything from this little freak of a human.
'How is a talent like this ignored all this time? Are people blind?' She asked herself.
Rin wasn't a mere genius anymore, he was a monster in every sense of the word. A person that if left to develop properly could easily topple down the whole world single-handedly and no one will be able to stop him.
But, that also could be considered a great threat to his life. If the wrong people knew about him, he might as well dig his own grave from now.
'Especially those bastards! If they knew someone is threatening their positions, they will come to hunt him down.'
Gazing deeply at his silhouette, a flash of emotions passed through her eyes for a moment.
'I must not let them. I will definitely protect him until he can stand on his own two feet. I must see for myself where Rin can reach. I must see how high he will soar in the future.'
Her determination to protect this precious gem ignited in her heart. Emilia was a very curious person by nature and having Rin who was akin to a Matryoshka doll that no matter how much she gets rid of layers and layers of it, there was still more to be discovered that deeply shocked her was the perfect meal for her raging curiosity.
Meanwhile, the one that was the target of all of this was simply focusing on this hard task. He was now facing a hard wall. He couldn't continue fusing his mana any further.
'I'm close! Come on! Don't do me like this!! TO HELL WITH THAT!!' He frowned even harder and tried to force his way through.
But, unfortunately for him, he couldn't do so. The world mana didn't let him finish. That's when something completely unexpected happened. His frustration and anger grew like a huge tsunami close to flooding a whole city.
'Fuck! Fuck! Come on!!!'
[Host's emotions are out of control. The host is reaching a dangerous level of resistance.]
[Berserker skill has been stimulated by the host's state of mind.]
[Bereserker skill has been activated!]
Rin couldn't even react to that notification when he felt his body going limp and cold. He also lost his focus as he started to panic.
But, his panic vanished as the same blank look he had during the fight with the D-Rank demon returned to him.
His purely blue mana also changed to a deep red one.
Then, as if it was a raging bull, it smashed that wall that was stopping him from completely camouflaging himself with the world mana. If his mana before was as calm as a lake, it was now a raging and chaotic mess.
"What's happening?" Emilia noticed the sudden change in his aura.
His mana was getting messier and messier as time passed.
"Is he trying to self-destruct?!" As she quickly tried to approach him, it happened.
*BOOOOM*
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