Chapter 16 Smoke Screen

The explanation given by the chief was helpful to Alex. He finally got the gist of how to use the mysterious energy. And he was ready to try it out.

He moved to an isolated corner in the training ground. Then he closed his eyes and sat in a relaxed position.

After that, he began meditating. One by one he relinquished his sensory perceptions to focus on meditation.

Finally, he felt the mysterious energy flowing through him. It was a mild and peaceful energy that gently flowed through his veins.

After grasping hold of the feeling, Alex opened his eyes.

Now he had to try and control the energy. Remembering the feeling he got the first time he tried to control the mysterious energy. He willed it to move according to his thoughts.

From the chief's explanation, Alex learned about the enhancing power of the mysterious energy.

By forcing the energy to accumulate in his muscles, he could temporarily improve his muscle strength and durability. This method was used by the tribesmen to drastically increase their physical performance.

Alex also wanted to master this method. But he felt that the chief's explanation was lacking.

When he moved the energy towards his muscles, it accumulated and rested in the muscles according to his will. But a doubt slowly formed in his mind.

If he only strengthens his muscles, how would the bones bear the increased load? Will they break? He thought.

So, to not take any risk. Alex began to fill his entire arm with energy. Bones, skin and muscles, everything was enhanced by the energy and finally, a silver lustre manifested on his arm.

He had successfully performed body enhancement. It was easy for him.

To test how strong his arm has become. He smashed it towards a tree nearby.

"Thump." A hole was blasted through the tree trunk.

Unlike what he expected, the tree was trunk did not break. Only a single hole was made through it. Alex was thrilled to see that.

He didn't feel any pain at all. It was a completely painless process.

If he had seen the bulls he hunted before, he felt like he could kill them with a single punch.

After experimenting on a couple of trees, he felt the energy inside his arms depleting. He had to consciously divert more energy into his arms to maintain his strength.

Now he was ready to test the full body enhancement skill shown by the chief. If what he learned from his experiment is correct. He had to fill his entire body with energy and activate it to use the full-body enhancement.

"Let's try it once." Alex knew that his success rate was low. Nonetheless, he tried.

"Extract the energy flowing throw the blood vessels, compress it and maintain it throughout the body." Alex quickly succeeds in completing the first two steps.

But the silver lustre didn't manifest all around his body. Only some parts were enhanced.

He looked like a spotted cow with an uneven patched silver lustre all around his body.

'Why do I look like this?' He thought while he analysed his situation.

Looking closer, he could see that his large muscles were mostly enhanced by the mysterious energy. But some muscles didn't show any reaction to the energy.

"Does it have something to do with how well each muscle reacts to the mysterious energy? Or is the energy not enough."

To try out different methods, Alex diverted even more energy into his muscles. He compressed it and pumped it throughout his body to maintain balance. Finally, he could see the unresponsive muscle groups reacting to the energy.

Alex felt his energy depleting quicker than he could maintain the full-body-enhanced state.

Suddenly, A slight tremor went through his body. His weaker muscles began spasming uncontrollably.

The silver lustre that surrounded his body disappeared. And the mysterious energy inside his body became an uncontrollable torrent of energy. It was threatening to tear his muscles apart and destroy his body.

"Haa!" A groan escaped from his mouth.

It was a painful experience for Alex. He didn't have any time to think.

To prevent the energy from rampaging inside him, Alex began pushing it out towards his skin. He wanted to throw it out before it did any permanent harm to his body.

Like a balloon deflating, the energy inside his body was released outside. The moment the energy escaped from his body, it turned into a thick plume of smoke. It densely covered the area around him, temporarily blocking the vision of everyone around him.

It was dense and heavy, like a fog covering a large area. It spread to his surrounding like a tsunami of clouds enveloping the training ground.

For a moment, the entire training ground became quiet. All the kids who were training were perplexed by the sight. But they didn't panic. They had experienced even worse snow storms in their life. It was nothing compared to that.

They slowly moved away from the training ground into the village to avoid the fog. They thought it was natural and will go away after some time.

But Alex who was at the centre of it all was having a different experience.

Seeing the energy he released turn into a sea of fog. Alex panicked.

It took him a moment to grasp what was happening.

'Is this my special power, the power granted to me by my spirit guardian?' He thought.

Unlike everyone else, the smoke screen he released did not obstruct his vision. He could see and feel everything around him. He suddenly felt like he got a sixth sense.

And that was not all. He could, to some extent control the smoke.

By waving his hand around, Alex willed the smoke to move away from the training ground. And just as he did it, the smoke began moving according to his will. But due to the vast quantity, it was taking a lot of time to move away.

So, Alex willed it to disappear.

And just like wished, it began to thin out and disappear from the air.

Finally, he was left standing in an empty training ground all alone.

Even though his muscles hurt a little, he was thrilled to know how to use his special ability.

'It is a smoke grenade, I can cover a vast area in smoke and blind the enemy. While I enjoyed full freedom in this area. It might seem like a deceptively bad ability. But I know how good it was. Ask anyone who plays a game. How good a smoke grenade is.'

'If I can control the quantity and quality of the smoke screen. Then it would be too awesome.' After thinking that, Alex tried to walk towards the village.

"Ouch." It was then that he noticed how strained his muscles were. He had bruises all around his body and it was painful.

'I should be more careful in the future about how I use the mysterious energy. Some of my muscles are not used to the strain. It might be the reason that they become uncontrollable and spasmed. I need to do a localised training regime to get used to the mysterious energy.'

'It would be better to train one muscle group a day until I can maintain the full body enhancement state. As the chief said, training was the only way to get strong. I have abundant energy and no way to use it.'

"Huh, sigh." Groaning a little, Alex walked towards his home. He just wants to rest in a warm place today. He was too tired to do anything.