[Avatar of the Force] 14 – Lessons

[2,500 W0rds]

I nearly collapsed on the spot from how drained I felt.

Just that brief use of Force Rage drained all of the Mana out of my body and left me with [Mana Exhaustion Stage III].

[You have been afflicted with: Mana Exhaustion (Stage III)]

[-15% Maximum MP until Recovered]

I had leveled up four different times in that fight alone, showing just how much stronger those beats were when compared to me. Not wanting to waste any time, I allocated all twenty free attribute points I received.

Reaction: 19 -> 20

Perception: 12 -> 15

Endurance: 11 -> 15

Strength: 18 -> 20

Agility: 16 -> 20

Intelligence: 16 -> 20

Wisdom: 25 -> 27

Momentarily distracted by the rush of energy that flowed into me, I took a moment to breathe before wincing in pain as my injuries flared to life, reminding me just how dangerous my life was.

I ripped part of my robes and used the cloth to bandage the more serious wounds that continued to bleed while grabbing my sword and slicing off the heads of all the Sith Hounds. Unfortunately for me, the blade was somewhat dulled from the impacts of me launching them like ballista bolts with Force Push, making it far more tiresome to cut off one head, let alone all of the heads of the Sith Hounds present.

Soon enough, the blade chipped, and it was one bad step away from breaking entirely in my grasp and becoming next to useless. Regardless, when I had all of the heads I needed, I spent a bit using the hide and sinew of the Sith Hounds to make a sort of carpet I could use to drag their heads and carcasses back to the Bane's burial chamber.

It physically hurt so much to drag the carcasses, but I would need the food. I'd rather give Bane as few reasons as possible to punish me for taking my time, and the logic for my actions, not that I believed he would accept it, but it was worth trying nonetheless. 

I was thankful that I was not attacked on my way back to the burial chamber. However, I will admit to having struggled significantly in dragging the corpses through the dilapidated tunnels and corridors back to Bane's burial chamber, where I found him floating in the air, a red miasma surrounding him, revealing just how angry he was.

"Where have you been?" His voice echoed through the burial chamber, his baleful red eyes sweeping over my form and quarry.

"Hunting, like you asked," I answered with a bit of annoyance as pain continued to wrack through my mind.

"It appears that you had some...trouble, I did not expect you to be so...weak for an Acolyte," Darth Bane insulted me to my face.

"I've been an Acolyte for less than a few months, and have had no official training or direction in the Academy outside of what you have given me," I told him earnestly, trying to earn some brownie points.

"The Sith, as foolish and naive as ever," Darth Bane scoffed as I directed his anger towards the Academy rather than solely on myself. "Present me with your kills. Explain your thought process and how you hunted each of them down, obtaining such grievous injuries."

"Grevious to you maybe, but I heal fast," I commented, getting a bolt of Sith Lightning for my mouthing off, grunting in pain as the lightning only made the pain feel worse.

"Feed on the pain, do not let it consume you; instead, let it strengthen and bolster your resolve to survive against this harsh Universe," Darth Bane advised me, not that I was feeling pleased about the pain that came with his lessons.

[Pain Tolerance: Level 29 -> Level 30]

Ignoring the notification, I took a moment to breathe before setting down my makeshift animal-hide sled, before sitting down, not that Darth Bane commented on it. "So, you want my thought process? Fine."

"At first I thought you gave me an impossible task, one which you knew full well I'd likely not have survived and lived to see it through after the end, and part of me knows that is exactly what you were thinking," I commented, getting a nod and some commentary from Darth Bane, "Correct. You shall either die or become strong enough to be a Sith worthy of the title."

Continuing, I gestured to what remained of my sword, "I don't have enough control or strength with Telekeneisis to choke or use effectively against the Sith Hounds, so I traded it for sheer force, launching my sword directly into the skull of one of the Tuk'ata before focusing on the others."

Another shock coursing through my system made me recoil for a few moments, "Do not be in such a rush to throw what could be your only weapon, especially when it is the only weapon you have against multiple foes."

"Noted," I gritted out before continuing my story, "Of course, the Sith Hounds wasted no time and pounced on me, one of them getting a good chunk of my leg in my weakness. The aftermath is still hazy, but I got furious and found myself becoming increasingly stronger in my rage till the point I could crush bone with a good strike of my fist.

"Force Rage," Darth Bane commented, his arms pressed behind his back while he leaned down to look me in the eyes, "Best be careful with that technique, for most it is the very thing that will bring them down, then give them an edge to win. I have witnessed many Sith lose themselves to their rage and anger in the heat of the moment, becoming blind to what was obvious or most dangerous in their current situation. Force Rage, while it has its uses, is best to be controlled, or it will control you, understood?" 

"For Jedi and Sith being so different, they sure do care a great deal about control," I replied, getting a snicker from Darth Bane.

"Both the Jedi and the Sith are on different sides of the same coin; the methods may differ at times, and they may not see the things the other is in the same way, but their ends are still the same means. What a Jedi may see as the best hope for the salvation of a species could very well be genocide of another, while what a Sith may see as a cure-all to all diseases and pathogens at the cost of a man's personality or sanity. The Force is subjective," Darth Bane growled at the end.

"That's...not what I expected to hear from you, Darth Bane," I answered with a bit of surprise at the Sith Lord's words.

"It is merely ethics, Acolyte. You will come to see that the difference between the Sith and the Jedi is based on public perception and the Force Sensitive's actions," Darth Bane wisely warned me before looking down at my quarry.

"Eat, heal, rest. I shall make sure you are...uninterrupted, and once you are ready, I shall hear the rest of your story, including the one about the parasite you have attached to your soul," Darth Bane ordered me with his unblinking baleful red eyes.

"Ah," I spoke aloud, realizing that I probably should have mentioned that first before another thought crossed my mind. How was I supposed to cook any of this?

...

A few hours later, I was healed enough to get up from my Meditative pose and feel a mind-breaking hunger wrack my body and mind along with a series of notifications that were ultimately trivial. 

Mana Exhaustion improved slightly, dropping to stage 2, and my maximum MP decreased by 10%. Meditation went up in level twice more to level 19, as it took a lot more concentration to meditate through pain, and Pain Tolerance's Level continued to shoot up as I had nothing to dull or numb the pain of my body actively rebuilding itself at a pace visible to the naked eye, rising to level 32. Even my Lesser Force Sensitivity increased by a level due to the amount of meditation I've been doing and my exploration of the force around me and within me.

As for what I was up to, I had gathered what flammable material I could, along with what clean metal and pottery I could. I made myself a makeshift fire pit over which I had some Tuk'ata meat smoking to make something resembling jerky, earning me, of all things, a Basic Cooking skill, not that I'd get much experince with the skill with how little my options were when it came to cooking food in a collapsed building that hasnt seen any human activity in centuries if not thousands of years.

Meanwhile, Darth Bane watched me constantly, his eyes never once leaving me as he watched me work, meditate, and cook burned and charred Tuk'ata. I was well aware of his academic interest in my Biology and the way everything worked with the Force when compared to all, if not most, other Force Sensitives.

"Curious," He finally spoke.

"What is?" I asked, training my Telekeneisis by slowly twirling a piece of meat on a metal pole above my makeshift fire pit.

"You are," Darth Bane answered, as if that said anything, "You are an anomaly. You are flesh and blood, yet your body acts in no way a body should. You heal far faster than the norm, even though you are not using any accelerated healing techniques, and the amount of energy your body must be consuming to heal as fast as you do should be leaving you crawling on the ground, a husk of what you once were, yet here you sit, clearly hungry but not as much as you should. How?" He asked with a dark curiosity in his tone.

"My guess?" I asked, though not really asking, "I think it's force bullshit."

"Force...bullshit?" Darth Bane spoke with a calm, but momentarily confused tone.

I nodded, keeping an eye on my MP to stop when it reached near empty and grabbing the hot metal poll by hand, "That's right, by all logic I should be dead, but I think due to my strange connection with the force, part of my body feeds directly from the currents of the Force to keep me alive."

"Perhaps you are right, but the Force does not work that way. To do anything that your body is naturally doing requires a deep focus or specific technique," Darth Bane commented, not disagreeing or agreeing with my hypothesis.

"Is there a way we can test it?" I emphasized, part of me curious.

"In time, but I wish to continue my passive observations for now, it is... fascinating watching your body at work," Darth Bane admitted with mirth, as he sent a shock or two my way every couple of minutes.

Humming and ignoring the probing shocks he sent my way, trying to get underneath my skin, I suddenly asked, "Can you teach me how to use Force Lightning?"

"Why?" He suddenly returned my question with a question.

"Multiple reasons?" I stated as if it was the obvious, "Self-Defence, Self-Offense, a useful survival tool, a way to capture or stun my enemies, any number of reasons really," I answered with a shake of my head.

"Yet you ask me to teach you Sith Lightning?" He inquired with a more direct approach.

"What's the difference?" I asked, straight to the point, meeting his baleful eyes.

"Sith Lightning is a technique with a straightforward purpose; to not use it for that purpose in mind may lead to it failing, exceeding expectations, or even severely failing them. Each...path," he quoted with mirth, "Has its own form of Lightning, with the Sith and their Sith Lightning, the Jedi and their 'Jedi Judgement,' and the many smaller sects with their own form or way of using such techniques."

"And do you know how to use these other techniques?" I suddenly asked.

"I do, but I do not bother to do so, as they all rely on the same underlying principle. Willpower and belief," he explained as if it explained anything at all.

"Meaning?" I inquired further.

"Force Sensitives like ourselves can utilize the Force through our sheer strength of will and desire, and it's that same will and desire that will shape the Lightning to suit our purposes. A Sith uses Sith Lightning to cause as much pain as possible, to probe their enemies and disciples for weaknesses, and to harm their target as much as possible, ultimately. At the same time, a Jedi's Judgement seeks to find cracks beneath their foe's armor, seeking a way to cleanse or purify their foe in their foolish naivety, believing that how one uses the Force determines their alignment with it." He scoffs, looking away from me for a moment before returning his gaze.

"The Force responds to our will and desire, but you have to desire it with all your willpower, else it can turn or even betray you," Darth Bane explained.

"Then what's the difference between specific aligned techniques?" I asked, confused, tilting my head.

"Emotion, direction, belief," He listed out before raising one clawed finger of his gauntlet, "It is not untrue that many Sith use their stronger emotions, such as Hate, Fear, and Loss, to fuel their techniques, but using such...mediums in their techniques can casue side effects, even in the end causing the very thing they feared if they did not hone their willpower enough."

"Using emotions to fuel your abilities may make you stronger in the short term, but all true masters of the Force know that strength lies within how well you control yourself against the temptations of the Force and your own mind," Darth Bane explained.

"So belief and my desire can shape the lightning in ways that could benefit or disadvantage me?" I asked, curious, getting an annoyed growl from the Sith Lord before me.

"Must you repeat everything I say?" He questioned with annoyance, sending a bolt of Sith Lightning my way to likely teach me a lesson before nodding, "But yes. The Force is a... finicky thing, one wrong thought or one wrong moment can be your downfall or your rise to power."

"I see, so does that mean you could fuel a lightning bolt with the power of love and use it with the intent to heal?" I suddenly asked.

"That is what many who use Force Judgement believe they are doing when they use the technique. They seek to purify, to heal, to save, to redeem, but if there's nothing to redeem, then the technique will only burn," Bane explained.

"Alright, I think I understand," I finally relented before asking, "Can you teach me it?"

"And what will I get in return?" He asked, looking me in the eye.

"What do you want?" I asked in return, not shying away from his gaze.