Will stands in front of his master, practically vibrating with excitement. He has a million questions he wants to ask but doesn’t know where to begin. As he tries to figure out what the best question to ask first is, his master finally speaks.

  “I need you to understand Will that training with your element is something that has to go slowly. You might be able to start training with an element in the spirit realm but the key word here is start. This is not something to run head first into. Although it is something your spirit can now endure, you can still destroy your spirit and kill yourself if you push yourself too hard. Also, it is possible for your control to slip and for a person attempting to wield their element to physically harm and then kill themselves. This is not to be taken lightly, do you understand?”

  “Yes sir!” And Will did understand. At least partially. He still vividly remembers the lightning beginning to rip his body apart during the testing. It is not something he wants to repeat.

  “Now, what do you know about lighting?”

  “Ummm, actually sir, quite a lot.”

  Amos raises an eyebrow at Will, a disbelieving look on his face.

  “Explain.”

  “You see last year we spent a decent amount of time during science class studying earth science and I guess the teacher was a weather nut because he spent a lot of time on how weather works. Specifically, he went over tornado’s and lightning. Anyway, lightning seemed really cool to me so I asked him a bunch of questions after class a few times and did some research on my own on the library computers and yea..” Will scratches the back of his head in an abashed way as he reveals what he thinks is an embarrassing and nerdy interest.

  “Putting aside what half of what you just said even means, that actually makes this much easier. As I’ve explained before, the more you understand your element the stronger you will become in it. It was one of the issues I was concerned about considering lightning is a bit of a mystery and only understood on a very basic and shallow level. And getting someone to teach you is not possible.” Will was holding out a small bit of hope that his master might know one of the few lightning users on this world. A hope dashed now. “However, not having a teacher is something I believe has some benefits to it. A teacher in using a specific element may only hinder your own creativity in how you use it. There are of course insights that can be learned through other people, but because of the understanding you already have, I still believe a teacher would only limit you. Instead, I’ll serve as a sort of sounding board for you to bounce ideas off of. Of their feasibility in a fight, in possible utility, and when it’s way too dangerous to even try.”

  “Thank you master. I look forward to seeing what I can do.”

  Amos didn’t say it, but he very much agreed.

  “Now, what you must do to activate your element is simple in instruction but complex and can be difficult in execution. There are three parts. Firstly, you must have an at least partial understanding and grasp of what your element truly is, then you must center yourself, focus on your Qi rotating deep in your core, and find your element within. I understand that is vague, but it is believed that a person’s resonance and attunement to their element originates from their core. So it is there that you must find it to utilize it. Lastly, you must cycle your Qi to enable the element to manifest.” Will nods in understanding, a look of extreme determination and concentration on his face. After all, he really doesn’t want to die.

  “If you manage to do this successfully, all I want you to do is hold your element. Don’t do anything with it. Don’t so much as send a spark into the air. Just hold it. In your hand, around your body, it doesn’t matter. Just hold it. Understand?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Good. Now, begin.”

  Will takes a deep breath in through his nose and then out through his mouth. He does this several times as he clears his mind and then focuses on what he knows about lightning.

  Lightning isn’t completely understood even in his old world. But it is understood that lightning is a plasma, the fourth state of matter.

  Will suddenly feels a slight tingle across his skin.

  He stays focused and continues to go over and remind himself of what he was taught.

  He remembers that the cause of lightning is an extreme difference in charge in different areas. That lighting goes from a place of an extreme negative charge to a place of an extreme positive charge.

  The tingle across Will’s skin gets stronger.

  Will remembers how lighting can form in three different ways. Cloud to ground, cloud to cloud, and cloud to air.

  Will feels the hair on his arms rise.

  Will recalls that in clouds electrons are built up by particles colliding at high speeds, which results in electrons separating and then accumulating. He knows that this can happen in a cloud with ice and water, or in volcanic ash.

  Will feels the hair on the rest of his body rise and tingle as well. Will can feel the air around him seem to energize. Almost like an electromagnetic field, although he’s not sure how he knows that.

  The last thing Will remembers his old science teacher telling him about lightning is that it ionizes the air in the route it travels down, and the charge in that area equalizes as the lighting discharges.

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  The energy in the air ramps up to another level. Will doesn’t understand exactly what’s going on, but he doesn’t hear Amos telling him to stop so he continues to the next step.

  Before he does he can’t help but think to himself, isn’t lightning only supposed to begin forming once he starts cycling his Qi?

  Will takes another deep breath and then begins to do as his master instructed. He closes his eyes and focuses inward, concentrating on his core.

  He’s not sure how, but he feels his consciousness pull inward and into his core. He can see the deep blue of his Qi circling and rotating around and around in a tight ball in his center.

  He takes a deep breath, then releases it and lets himself fall deeper into his core.

  There! He can see it. He can feel it. A churning ball of deep lightning of a color he can’t discern. Ready and pulsing with power, just waiting to be used.

  Will cycles his Qi throughout his body, completing his masters instruction.

  The lightning seems to leap from his core and out into the world. Almost eager, almost impatient to be used.

  It wasn’t difficult at all for Will to find his element within. Is that a good thing or a bad thing, he wonders.

  Will’s eyes snap open and he’s stunned at the scene around him.

  Lightning crackles from him as it manifests around him. Streams of it arcing around him in a sphere of power.

  As soon as it manifests the lightning first appears a rich red color, then immediately flashes to a vibrant orange. Two seconds later it finally settles on a dazzling gold. He’s not sure why but right now he doesn’t have the ability to focus on anything else but keeping control of the lightning.

  It feels like it’s trying to free itself from his control. That it wants to strike at everything around him. At first Will almost feels like destruction is inherent in his element, but that’s not it. It’s not destruction, it’s simply action, force. Almost even a sense of physics, of reaction, but stronger. Inevitability.

  That’s the sense he gets from his lightning. A sense of overwhelming inevitability that his lightning will move, attack, ignite.

  Finally Will feels what Amos has warned about so strongly. He can feel the strain on his spirit as he attempts to contain and corral his power to his will. He can feel it right on the edge of tearing. Stretched thin but his will refusing to back down. He can do this, he will do this, he will not give in.

  It’s strong, almost impossibly so. But he didn’t go through a torturous life, a terrifying journey to a new world and work harder than he ever has in his life just to lose control of a power that is his.

  Will stands there, eyes fixed ahead, stance braced and firm, fists clenched and will as iron.

  Will reaches out with his Qi and his will and imbues his rule and control on his power. It is his, he will be the master of it, not the other way around.

  With a surge of Qi and a will that will not bend, Will asserts his full control over his power and he feels it settle inside him.

  He breathes rapidly, sweat beading along his face, the sheer effort of will he exerted higher than he thought. He calms his breathing slowly and stands up. He still has to actively control the lightning but it comes easier now. Not easy, just easier.

  He can’t fully stop the arcs of lightning from coming off of himself; the power is too much for him to control absolutely. But it doesn’t do more than that without his will directing it.

  He raises his hands in front of himself and turns them back and forth. Flexing his fists several times. He knows his master told him not to do much, so he resists the urge to start throwing lightning bolts and allows some lightning to gather in his fists instead.

  He feels strong. Powerful. It’s not just the power he literally holds in his hands. He can feel how his lightning has coated his entire body. He would have to test it to be sure, but he thinks if he devoted more of it to coat himself he would be able to move faster and be physically stronger.

  Finally done examining himself and his lightning, he looks over at his master.

  Amos has one of the most intense look on his face that Will has ever seen. He unconsciously takes a step back, thinking maybe he did something wrong?

  Amos notices Will’s reaction and forces himself to calm down and relax himself. Finally he speaks.

  “That’s enough for now Will. Stop cycling and release your lightning.”

  Will does so. Stoping his cycling is easy enough. He thought doing so would end his lightning automatically but that’s not the case. He has to do both at the same time. Stop his cycling and release his lightning. He oddly feels some resistance at releasing the lightning. Almost like it wants to stay active. But it has been tamed and he’s able to release it along with ceasing his Qi cycling after an extra second of trying.

  Will takes a deep breath and looks up at Amos again. “Master, that was..intense. Does everyone have to conquer their element like that?”

  “…Not quite.”

  “And those colors! That was so cool! Odd though. Do you know what that was about?”

  A shadow of that intense gaze enters Amos’s eyes again, but only for a second.

  “Take a seat Will.”

  Amos casts his hands forward and multiple balls of metal come flying out of his pocket and stretch and form into chairs.

  Will sits and looks at his master. “Is everything ok?” He’s pretty sure he didn’t do anything wrong…

  “Remember when I said increasing the strength of your element and your cultivation realm are not mutually exclusive?”

  “Yes I remember. But..that means they don’t have to happen at the same time right?”

  “More or less. It would be closer to say you can do one without the other but they can also happen at the same time. The point is, it is possible to increase the strength of one without also increasing the other.”

  Will nods along. “That makes sense to me. So what does that have to do with my lightning?”

  “The strength of certain cultivator attuned elements in this world are able to be discerned by their color. Fire is one such element, water to a lesser degree..and also lightning.”

  Will’s eye’s widen slightly. “So that means…” Will leaves the statement open ended.

  “There are seven levels of power in the lightning element’s power scale. It goes red, orange, gold, white, purple, green, and then finally blue. You, Will, skipped the first two levels of power and went straight to lightning’s third level of power.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” It was hard for Will to get a read on Amos’s tone and posture.

  “It’s a dangerous thing. While you can increase in strength in one and not the other, it is dangerous to stagger them too far apart. Can you guess why?”

  “Uhhhh ummmm the spirit? Maybe because the spirit is only able to handle so much and when you increase elemental strength to much before increasing cultivation strength it will put to much strain on the spirit and that might kill you?”

  “Are you asking or telling me?”

  “Absolutely asking. I am so far out of my depth here.”

  Amos smirks. “Well self-awareness is one thing you have going for you. But yes, that’s exactly why it’s dangerous.” Amos pauses, seemingly trying to figure out how to approach the next part of this conversation. “The problem is that lightning is so rare, so it is a little difficult to gauge. On top of that, all the references I could use to help explain the gravity of the situation to you, you wouldn’t understand. To put it simply, if my guess is right, if a random person ever managed to even reach gold in the first place, they shouldn’t reach it until they reach the fifth realm of cultivation.”

  “And how many realms are there? I don’t think I ever asked actually.”

  “There are ten.”

  “Oh.”