Chapter 8: Ohrtending 101

"Pay attention to my hand, miss fairy."

Verina proceeded to churn the engine of consciousness within her brain, computing the essence of reality and creating what should be referred as a miracle in the exchange of her 'lifeline'.

There, numerous tiny chunks of dirt began to rise and swirl before converging into a singular lump of bigger dirt.

The ball of dirt was carelessly floating above Verina's palm.

"This is dirt."

"I know."

"It has presence and weight. It is rotund, with no features, and no orientation." Verina's emotionless eyes pierced deep into my soul. "It is mass."

"Ah yes, the floor is made out of floor."

"Almost everything that exists in this plane of reality is mass. Mass is boring, but a necessity."

The first building block.

"The mass then can be shaped into a form," I said while I stared back dead-straight into her eyes. "We then can apply angles, features, and intent."

Verina nodded, then proceeded to shape the ball of dirt into a cup.

"To apply meaning, fashion, and creation," Verina closed her eyes as she nodded, as if she was affirming herself. "This is design."

The second building block

"The third one, should be 'lifeline', right?" I asked.

As the cup of dirt floated in the air, Verina used her own psionic power to cut a small wound on the tip of her finger.

Through the same ohrtending capability, she poured down enough blood to fill half of the dirt cup.

"Without blood, the vessel's organs couldn't get the oxygen and nutrients they need to survive." As if holding a cup of wine, Verina lightly stirred the red liquid as it interacted with the impurity of the shaped-soil. "We couldn't keep warm or cool off, fight infections, or get rid of our own waste products. Without enough blood, we'd weaken and die."

As such, the blood is referred to as 'lifeline', because it is literally our lifeline.

Especially since there were a lot of people in this world that possessed a much longer lifespan than your average human.

At least, that was what implied by the info dumps that I got.

"Don't tell me that you're going to drink that."

"You're quite the chatty student, miss fairy."

"I thought that it would be hilarious."

"You're not wrong... Ehem," Verina cleared her throat before we continued. "Volatile, and sharp, yet miraculously radiant. Blood is the epitome of heat, the rage of war—the presence itself is enough to evoke a strong emotion, because it is already in its purest form."

She was basically implying that it was different than mass and design, since blood doesn't just appear in nature like a morning dew.

"Of course, there are more than one type of blood out there." Verina nodded with eyes-closed once again. "Plants don't bleed, and neither was rock—

"However, both of them do indeed possess their own form of blood."

"Sounds like fiction." I snickered in disbelief.

"You're a fairy, miss Narcissus. You're supposed to know stuffs like this."

"I'm the same fairy who remorselessly deforested an entire perimeter to build my own comfy cabin."

"I guess that makes sense."

Plants might not possess the same kind of blood as humans do, but it possessed something called 'tree sap', which is like blood, that transports nutrients around the plant.

While those that have resin, are more like the platelets in the blood. It is the solid or solidifiable part of the sap, that can plug up leaks, wounds, and also can fight off invaders by clogging and miring them with goo.

It is basically their own version of human blood, in a sense.

As for rocks—

What was even the equivalent of blood for rocks??

"Anyway, those three building blocks pale in comparison to the fourth concept in terms of the value and crucialness in the making of this world and ohrtending itself."

Verina then proceeded to burn the lifeline inside the dirt cup, turning them into fuel to create psionic resonance.

I was caught in that resonance, which spiritually opened my own perception, And to an extent, increased my Consciousness to 120% temporarily.

It was rather faint.

But when I looked at Verina in her entirety, I was able to perceive the labyrinthine networks of golden anchors that sprouted from a single point of space.

"Do you see it? Look closely here, on the center of my chest. " Verina pointed to the sprouting point with her index finger. "I don't know the extent of a fairy's consciousness, but if you were able to see pass through the sprouting point, you'll see an invisible thin filament that spiral into all sorts of patterns."

I was in fact not able to see the invisible thin filament that spiral into all sorts of patterns

"It is the source of consciousness itself, isn't it?"

Verina nodded to my question.

The fourth building block.

Otherwise referred as 'soul'.

"Many thought that it was our brain that performed the entirety of human consciousness. It wasn't until the breakthrough of the first generation of ohrtending, we managed to find out the source of our emotions, train of thoughts, and memories.

"The brain acts as the physical conduit of the soul, transferring and connecting consciousness throughout the entire body. This is where ohrtending was born."

And it was none other than the Kilnalans who achieved such feat.

What was the chance of me encountering the part of humanity in Carcosa that founded the very foundation of ohrtending on the first day?

Verina continued, "If our soul is capable of piloting the entire body via the brain and other organs, what if we pilot the other building blocks of the universe using it?

"Of course, that concept was too absurd in practice, but what if we only tamper a small chunk of the reality? Using our lifeline as the source of power and catalyst, we start to meddle with the innate mass and design of the world."

As I tried my best to decrypt this message, my mind suddenly went to a dark place that was far away from light and hope.

Shattering and crumbling wall of knowledge, imitating the creation of heretics that were decapitated for their insolent sins.

Thousands of concepts cradled into nonsense, while the very fabric of reality started to tear itself apart from accommodating my thoughts to uncover the spiritual method to skew the improbable into a miracle.

I couldn't hear what Verina was saying anymore.

I checked my own Health detail, and realized that my Sanity went from 100% to 70% in such a short timespan.

It was then I realized that I was not ready for this. So, I just nope-ed out of the way and grounded my own thoughts into reality.

"Looks like you almost lost your way, miss fairy."

"How can you tell?"

"You suddenly commit to create some sort of pottery using the nearby dirt, out of nowhere, with hands moving faster than the wind while your eyes are gazing on the sky above."

"It looks like I lack the required level of consciousness to rationalize the method of ohrtending."

"Hmm, we'll start building your foundation when you regain your sanity then." Verina said as she placed down the stained cup of dirt to the ground. "This whole learning session reminded me of when I started as an apprentice."

"I appreciate that you're willing to waste your lifeline for this." A nervous grin started to take shape on my face.

"Don't stress it too much, ohrtending isn't something that everyone can do from the get go anyway." Verina stood up and began stretching her hands. "It's quite the discovery for me, however, to confirm that there is a fairy out there who completely breaks the stereotype that big civilization portrays them."

I doubt that I'm a legitimate fairy though.

After the unique crash course, Verina told me a bit more about ohrtending specialty.

Otherwise referred rightfully as Tending Hands.

To put it in layman terms, Tending Hands was akin to a pathway that an ohrtender took.

One pathway usually focuses on one aspect of spellcasting and conjugation, such as how Verina had great control at manipulating temperature and conceptual barrier, with a little sprinkle of telekinetic power.

"This Tending Hands of mine is called Weather Guardian." Despite still being emotionless as ever, she looked rather proud announcing it with a puffed chest. "With enough proficiency, I might be able to affect the weather, or even the concept itself. I will take quite a while, though."

"Why refer to the Tending Hands as a specialty then?" I raised my eyebrow. "That sounds more like a class or a category, or even an ohrtending career."

"Don't ask me, everyone has been referring to the Tending Hands as the equivalent of specialty." Verine shrugged. "I thought it was weird too, but I got used to it."

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I also asked Verina what kind of prowess that she was able to achieve with her Tending Hands.

Yes, I refused to refer to the Tending Hands as 'specialty'. It sounded so wrong.

With how our lives would be relying on each other after the Ordeal of the Dusk started, Verina didn't really have the obligation to hide the extent of her skills.

She somewhat knew that despite being a tourist to the world of ohrtending, I was capable enough to create a proper and rational judgment depending on the situation.

And with her opinion on me valued at 59 after the crash course, I was also able to convince her that I barely mean any ill towards the two of them.

After all, my goal for today was to survive.