Legend of Niyonika

Element Defining Test (Ch.19)

~Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living~

- Soren Kierkegaard

"Kent, sixteen summers of age, Fire elemental."

"Outer disciple Kent and fire elemental, pass!"

"Dan, seventeen summers of age, water elemental!"

"Outer disciple Dan, exiled!"

"Grey, eighteen summers of age, air elemental!"

"Outer disciple Grey, eighteen summers of age, Pass!"

And so the elder went on and on, calling one disciple after the other and then announcing their fate after the element defining rock had given it's assessment, between the lines, some of the top ten outer disciples had been called up at one point or the other, each passing their test successfully.

The smug look on Yana's face when she descended from the elevated dais after clearing her test successfully was amusing to Niyonika, Yana walked past Niyonika to return to her place, not forgetting to pass Niyonika a condescending look.

The next of the top ten outer disciples to take the test was Daine ranked No 5, after which a few other random disciples were called up and then No6 and No7 of the top ten outer disciples were called up in succession.

Surprisingly, before it got to Niyonika's turn, all of the top ten outer disciples had taken their test successfully, however they still remained within the test grounds to receive further directions on the next stage of the ranking test from the elder.

The list went on and on until finally Niyonika was called up.

"Niyonika, fifteen summers of age, air elemental!" The elder called, Niyonika stepped out and headed for the elevated dais, she mounted the stage easily and arrived before the element defining rock.

Niyonika stretched out a hand and placed it on the space created, shutting her eyes as she felt her concsiousness leave her, for Niyonika who had time jumped into numerous timelines, this feeling was not unpleasant but instead familiar and comforting.

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Niyonika's eyes fluttered open, her eyes widening as she quickly took in her surroundings while struggling to maintain her footing.

Niyonika currently stood at the peak of a very high mountain, not long before her was the mountain edge and furious winds billowed all around, threatening to toss Niyonika off the mountain's edge.

The wind blew so furiously, if it was back in 2099, Niyonika would have certainly concluded she had somehow appeared in the midst of a tornado.

How her foot still remained rooted to the ground, Niyonika herself could not understand, all she knew was that with the steady increase in the ferocity of the winds, she was soon to be thrown off her feet and fall down that mountain edge.

Niyonika did not have to look over the mountain edge to know it would be a great fall, the clouds she could visibly see floating past was enough for Niyonika to understand just what height she currently stood at.

Niyonika lowered herself to the floor to reduce the effect of the wind on her form in order to buy some time to come up with a plan as the ferocity of the wind picked up rapidly.

Niyonika was not particularly certain on what she was to do, she had gathered from watching the other disciples tests that she would have to use her element to survive and protect herself in the illusion world, however how to go about this was what Niyonika was yet to figure out.

All things fully considered, in the end, Niyonika had only appeared in this Elemental god continent merely a few hours ago, despite her display of calm and seemingly quick adjustment to her new fate, where had Niyonika had the time to understand how these elementals used their elements?!

Niyonika cursed her luck, she had completely overlooked the fact that the only knowledge she had aquired was merely the basic facts and happenings in the Elemental god continent, nothing about how she was suppose to summon this element they supposedly possessed.

How was she to protect herself with an element she did not even know how to use? Niyonika found herself in a predicament.

On one end, the winds were blowing more furiously and Niyonika had to hurriedly crawl to the closest tree and grab a tight hold of it.

On the other end, Niyonika still had absolutely no idea how to summon this element she was supposed to use for protection.

Niyonika racked her brains thinking over all her knowledge on cultivation and how she would get herself out of this situation.

The elder had said the element defining rock could measure one's level and would give the tests in the illusionary world based on one's cultivation level and Niyonika herself was merely at the mid stage of the first level of the elemental novice realm, no matter how she considered it, this could not possibly be the test for such a low level.

Cultivation had always had to do with spiritual energy, it was one's inner strength that sourced from within.

Niyonika's eyes fluttered shut as she calmed her heart and forced herself into a relaxed state, focusing instead on her inner self.

Niyonika could feel the sound of the fierce winds getting more and more distant as she entered a state of tranquil, at this point her physical body released it's tight grip on the tree despite the fierce winds and lowered itself into a meditative position.

This action of her physical form had gone beyond Niyonika's sphere of knowledge but was now in accordance with muscle memory.

Although this body was Niyonika's body, at the same time it was not as this very body also had a back story in this strange continent and although how this was possible was a fact Niyonika was yet to figure out, it did not change the fact that this body had certainly cultivated before and so Niyonika's current actions were all guided by muscle memory.

Not long after, Niyonika found herself in a vast and endless expanse of land, this land stretched for as far as the eye could see and somehow, Niyonika knew she was within her own mind.

"Is this some sort of mind space?" Niyonika wondered in astonishment.

Back in 2099, due to the advancement in research on the entirety of the human make up, it had been discovered that some geniuses and people with extremely high intelligence quotient possessed something they had tagged a mind space.

Niyonika herself had one,it was a little space in the mind were one could store up information and it was said whatever information stored up there would remain there for life, hence whoever possessed this mind space would naturally never forget that information for life.

These fortunate humans who possessed the mind space were said to store and process most of their information using this mind space they possessed which made the effectiveness of their performance at anything a hundred times better than any regular human who did not possess a mind space.

On the discovery of this, the I.T.H.A had examined all the time travelers to discover those who possessed this rare mind space and a good number of them had been discovered including Niyonika.

They had then been intensively guided on how to make the best use of their mind space in their line of time traveling.

However the mind space Niyonika had in 2099 had never been a concept that could take on a realistic form of a visible space like Niyonika currently saw.

It was more akin to an extremely small shelf within one's mind were one could categorize the most important information, and the shelf got filled pretty quickly, Niyonika actually possessed the biggest shelf amongst all the time travelers but even hers only had a limited amount of space available for use.

And one could never physically see the shelf but could only mentally direct information to it, comparing that and this endless expanse of land Niyonika currently saw was too far fetched, however a mind space was the closest and most reasonable conclusion she could come to on this strange space.

Niyonika could still barely hear the sounds of the furious winds and she wondered just how long she would be able to hide within this mind space of hers before she would have to go out and face the real or rather illusionary world.

Niyonika had not intended to appear in this mind space when she had forced herself into a tranquil state, she had done that based on her little knowledge of cultivation of spiritual energy from her time jumps, she assumed it would be mostly the same concept that applied to cultivating elemental energy.

But instead of discovering a method to summon her element, she had instead appeared in a mind space.

Niyonika pondered over what next she would do and finally decided to give another go at cultivating elemental energy the same way it worked for spiritual energy, if she could succeed in cultivating it, Niyonika was certain she would find a way to summon it in that process.

Niyonika lowered herself to a meditative position within her mind space, there was no use going out yet if she had no way of protecting herself from the furious winds.

Niyonika's eyes fluttered shut and she concentrated her inner mind. After a while of concentration, something finally appeared within Niyonika's view of her inner mind.

A little glowing mass of silvery coloured energy appeared, pulsing energetically and Niyonika immediately knew this was the source of her air element.

Niyonika unconsciously noticed the sight of three other little masses of energy but they looked extremely dull and Niyonika was not certain of their significance so she ignored them and focused on the mass of her air element

Niyonika could feel the power pouring off of it in waves, however the force of this power was extremely weak signifying her low level of cultivation, still yet the vibrant mass of energy was still considerably powerful and Niyonika found it hard to believe this mass of powerful air element was still at the mid stage of the first level of the elemental novice realm, it seemed much too powerful...