As the lightning mana ravaged his body, Varian felt something similar yet different emerge from within.
That something gave him enough push to stay awake.
"Haah" Varian's eyes snapped open, and he was no longer dizzy.
Even though the pain still gnawed from every corner, it was more bearable. More importantly, the numbing feeling decreased.
'I need to get out.' Varian glanced up and realized he was at the edge of the golden apes line up.
'Go!'
The lightning arcs continued to bombard the river and Varian could feel every drop of water around him full of current.
His body twitched and spasmed, but he had a better reaction to it now.
Holding himself from fainting, he dashed through and crossed the attack range of the apes.
"Hoo!"
"Hoo!"
The apes continued to attack.
Even with their limited intellect, they knew a Level 3 would not survive this onslaught. He must resurface sooner or later.
If he didn't, his blood traces would give him away.
As for escaping? Lightning attacks had numbing effect, it was much more difficult to move. With enough attacks, he'd be paralysed in no time.
But Varian somehow broke these three restrictions.
First, he was far away from the source of attacks and was strong enough to bear the attacks.
Second, His blood trails were sealed by his space powers.
And third, even though he was almost paralyzed by the lightning attacks, awakening in the lightning path gave him the final push.
The apes didn't know, the 'thief' already escaped.
But the thief had his own problems.
Varian wasn't in a good condition. Despite increased resistance against the 'numbing' effect, his body was still partially paralyzed. It was much harder to move his limbs.
The injuries didn't help either. His flesh was burnt in many places. Thankfully, Varian couldn't smell anything underwater.
'Just a bit further.' Despite his worsening condition, Varian continued forward underwater.
Even though he escaped from their attacks, he was just barely out of the golden mountain perimeter.
What if some golden apes were watching the river banks?
So Varian continued ahead. Even though he was losing strength, he swam.
'More'
Only by reaching a place far away from the golden mountain could he get rid of the enemies.
Each second seemed to stretch itself into eternity as Varian endured the pain.
Finally, he swam far enough and went back to the surface.
Each water drop flowed down his burnt flesh and bleeding skin. The pain was terrible, but real.
He survived!
"Haaa!" Varian took a deep breath and air filled his lungs. He was underwater for nearly an hour.
He spread his space sense and perked his ears, after ensuring no enemy in the vicinity, he stepped onto the land.
"Ouch." On his first step, he couldn't walk properly and almost tripped.
Varian glanced at his legs and clicked his tongue. They were like charred logs attached to his torso.
'Should I use a healing potion?' He thought and checked his space ring. There were only three healing potions left.
He finally decided to save them.
'I might stay in this place for long. Who knows…'
Searching for a hiding place, he felt the new sensation from within once again. It was as if he was connecting to something present everywhere.
'Status'
[Body Path Level 3: 5/400
Space Path Level 2: 40/200
Lightning Path Level 1: 0/100]
'Lightning Path, huh.' He closed his eyes and felt the new 'aura derivative' flowing in his body.
Lightning Mana.
'I'll check it out after I find a safe location.' Varian proceeded into the woods. He sensed a few magic beasts from afar and avoided them.
He could still kill Level 3 magic beasts but that'd not be worth the risk.
As he passed through the forest, the golden-leaved tall trees didn't give him any sense of security. If anything, they reminded him of the golden mountain.
'Damn apes.' Varian hissed from the pain on his body. He wouldn't be able to repeat his 'borrowing' again.
After some wandering and observation, he found a desolate tree. It was dying but had a huge burrow. Huge enough to let in a human.
'No creatures in.' Varian checked and entered the burrow.
"Haa!" He finally let go of the space binding and—
"Splash"
"Splash"
The blood withheld by space binding gushed out and wet the ground. Varian's face paled but he calmed himself and sat down.
Then there was no more blood. He was a Level 3 Body Awakener and his healing speed was much many times faster than a normal human.
'Two hours.' Varian estimated the time to be completely healed and then decided to check out his new path.
'System, can you give me an intro or what?'
[Lightning Path: 0/100
Lightning Sense: Sense the lightning mana all around.
Invoke: Use the lightning mana in your body]
Varian closed his eyes and carefully felt it.
With his experience in Space Sense, he was able to quickly grasp what the System was talking about.
He had another sense. It was similar to Space sense, but unlike how Space sense saw the world through 'space', this Lightning sense connected him to the lightning mana everywhere.
Through the lightning mana, Varian could 'see' the surroundings.
'But isn't this a very polarized skill? What if there was no lightning mana…' Varian wondered before ending at another question.
There was no lightning mana in the air. There was only aura.
'Am I sensing the lightning mana within the aura?' Varian was puzzled.
Was Aura the result of a mix of chi, space power and others, or was Aura the actual pure form that was divided into these strange energies?
To put it plainly, did Aura give birth to chi, space powers and mana or did they combine to form Aura?
The consensus was the former, but there was no concrete evidence.
The only conclusion was that in some places, Awakeners would be able to progress faster than others.
For instance, Varian would progress faster in a region with rich lightning.
Thus, thinking about lightning sense, Varian was baffled.
[Host, don't overthink it too much. Aura is… more complicated. What you sense is indeed the lightning mana within aura. You would have no problem most of the time.]
'So the exceptions are…'
[Yes. Even Aura can be manipulated. Naturally, some locations have more of one elemental mana than other. Say Oceans, they have more water mana than fire. But fire mana is not absent.
Manually, one could indeed decrease the lightning mana of a location.
In both cases, the said elemental sense's use would be reduced.]
'Damn. Isn't that dangerous for lightning awakeners? What if Abyssals can do this?'