Chapter 446 - Aether Flight

Gravity. Ning never even realized that it could be one of the energy. Having forgotten nearly everything about the earth, he hadn't remembered the different types of energies as well and was waiting for the next one to be unlocked.

'I wonder if the next one I unlock is gravity or something else,' he thought. 

The system actively tried to not give him information about energy or anything related to gathering a massive amount of energy in a small span of time. 

So, for the past thousands of years, he had to live in the dark, unable to learn about the different types of energies. 

It also didn't help that Kumia didn't really have a science-dependent society like Vilmore had come to be. 

'Right, there must be quite a little information about energies in this world now,' he came to a sudden realization. 

'Nice, I can finally learn about them.'

"Gravity is something you've been interacting with since birth. So, don't worry about not being able to counter the gravity with your own. You will be a natural at it," the teacher said.

"Alright, everyone get on top of the padding and try it."

The students nodded and walked onto the half a meter thick padding that was spread halfway through the training room.

Ning took a section to himself and started practicing. He closed his eyes and focused on flying. He wasn't trying to fly because of flying itself as that was something he was already capable of. 

He wanted to learn how to fly so that he could learn to control gravity. If he could change gravity on something… there would be a lot of different things he could do. 

He closed his eyes and tried to sense the current gravity. As gravity was a daily thing to him, it was hard to know when it was there as you usually forgot about it.

'Gravity,' he thought. 'Something pulling me downwards.'

The Aether in his sea started bubbling slowly and reduced in size. The Aether that escaped from the sea had now changed already and was traveling throughout his body. 

'Focus!' he said to himself. 'Imagine that whatever is pulling you downwards isn't there anymore.'

Suddenly, he felt light, as if he had no weight. He wasn't floating, but that was probably only because currently, his body had no motion at all.

'Let's go up,' he thought and jumped with his weightless body. Suddenly, his body started flying upwards and quickly reached the ceiling, hitting his head on it. 

'Shit! That's too much force, lower the gravity a bit,' he thought and instead lost all of the gravity he was pouring out. 

With no control, he fell onto the padding. 

"Great Job, Ning," the teacher said. "I have never seen someone understand gravity manipulation this fast."

"Thank you, teacher," he said while standing up and rubbing his head to get rid of the ceiling dust.

"Although, when you've learned to counter the gravity, instead of jumping, add some kinetic energy to yourself. That will help you maneuver yourself more easily than a random jump," the teacher said. 

"Okay, teacher," Ning said and went back to practice. 

Ning tried it once again. He imagined himself being weightless and before he knew it he was. Then, instead of jumping, this time around, he imagined himself going up slowly. 

The Aether in his body turned to kinetic energy, giving him motion. He slowly drifted upwards and halfway through, he tried to change the direction.

Suddenly, he felt himself wobbling, nearly losing the counter gravity he was putting on himself.

'Focus!' he told himself again. Doing multiple things at once was hard. It was easy to lose concentration and forget about doing one of the things in the process.

Until the way to do it was ingrained into his mind, he needed to keep on concentrating.

After a few minutes, Ning was very proficient in flying. Slowly, the other students were getting the hang of it too. 

One after another, the students started flying in the air with a face of glee and happiness. Even the adults were experiencing this for the first time and were incredibly happy about it all. 

One of the students raised their hands from mid-air and asked, "Teacher, why don't we see more people flying in the air in the city?" 

"Flying… is very dangerous," the teacher said. "You never know when you will lose focus and fall to the ground. You don't want to fall to the ground from such a high height, right?" 

The kids shook their heads.

"Yes, for that reason, Flight is banned in the cities across most of the world. There is also another reason and that is the fact that flight takes up a lot of Aether. 

"With how heavy you are, and how many different things you have to keep your mind on, the complexity of the task is very hard, and it is possible for you to run out of Aether mid-flight."

"So, it's banned," the teacher said.

"Eh? Then does that mean that we can't use this technique despite learning? That's so boring," a few students said.

"There are a few cases where you can fly," the teacher said. "But you don't need to know that right now. For now, just fly and enjoy."

The kids wanted to learn more but the teacher just kept his mouth shut. Ning wondered what the few cases where flying was allowed were.

'Some of it should be if there is an emergency or something like that. What about the rest? I hope the teacher tells us, or maybe I will have to ask the sys—'

"LOOK OUT!" somebody shouted behind him while he was distracted.

"Wha—"

Before Ning could react, somebody crashed onto him in mid-air. Ning had just managed to turn around and caught the person, but that ended up making him lose focus and the both of them fell to the ground. 

Fortunately, there was padding on the floor. 

"Are you okay?" Ning asked the person, only to see a horrified expression on their face.