Clay opened his eyes. Sir Reed was standing on his side.

"What do you mean by that?"

"To meditate, one needs to concentrate. Be calm–think of nothing but the light you visualise. This training room is built with the same monotone stone throughout." Reed said, tapping on the grey wall. "It is to stop swordsmen from thinking of unnecessary things."

"But what colour is the light that I'm supposed to visualise? How bright should it be?" Clay asked.

"The fact that you're asking me these questions tell me you are unable to concentrate!" Reed replied, pacing back and forth. "Now I see why you're still unable to sense your aura even with six months in a cave!"

He continued. "If you think of the colour, shape and brightness of the light, it's no longer visualisation, but imagination!"

"So how–"

"How, you ask." Sir reed turned to Clay. "Focus. Calmness. That's all you need. Your body will know."

Clay closed his eyes once again.

"When I was training to sense aura, my teacher taught me to think of this–a light, a light, I have a light in me, and it is surrounding my body..."

Clay tried imagining it. A light, a light, I have a light in–

Whack! He felt a whack at the back of his head. It was heavy, almost as if his head was being cracked open. He looked up to see Reed holding a wooden stick. "Sir Reed! What was that for?"

"You were thinking of the words! You weren't concentrating in visualising the light!"

"But you told me to–"

"What I want is for you to subconciously think of it, not to think of it out loud in your brain!" Reed shouted. "Try again!"

Once again Clay closed his eyes.

"A light, A light, I have a light..."

Reed's voice drowned out. For a moment Clay felt at peace. There was no sound, no noise. Silence.

Almost... too silent.

He felt his legs dangling. He was not standing! But was he falling? He couldn't see the ground below. He couldn't see anything at all.

It's as if he was floating around in darkness, or falling into an endless abyss. 

He blinked his eyes. He could feel his eyes blink. It was still darkness all around. 

He tried moving his arms to wake himself up. His arms flailed around, he could feel it. Every bone, every muscle, even his finger tips. But everything was still dark.

Clay started to panic. "What's going on?" 

Suddenly, a light appeared behind him. From nothingness. 

It was dark, but now there is light. The light shone brighter and brighter. 

Clay took a closer look. It was round. How large is it? Very large. How bright is it? Like the sun. And the colour? Red.

He reached out to touch the light. It vanished. 

A cool and refreshing wind circulated around his entire body–a gentle breeze, no, a Radiant Breeze. 

Clay took his chance. He recited the manual for Radiant Breeze: 

In stillness, find your grounding,

A meditative stance, your spirit rising.

Breathe in deeply, life's essence flows,

As exhalation whispers, the gentle breeze grows.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled. Hoooo...

Just as the manual depicted, the breeze circulating him increased, and...

Visualise the light, expanding, contracting, 

Reflecting your heart, with energy acting.

Feel warmth awaken, sensations ignite,

A luminous aura, enveloping light.

Clay closed his eyes, thinking of Reed's words. A light, a light... And from the refreshing breeze, a speck of warmth appeared... 

Open your eyes to the glow that you wield,
With Radiant Breeze, your power revealed.
Cultivate harmony, where light resides,
Embrace the flow, as the journey guides.

He opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the red light, now enveloping his entire body. But this time, instead of darkness, he returned back to the training room. He looked at his hand, completely awestruck. "Sir Reed! I think I did it! I see a red light wrapping my body!"

"Good. And can you see mine?"

Clay turned around to Sir Reed. He could see it. A yellow luminous light. "Yes, I can. Your aura is yellow!"

Reed chuckled. "That's right, kid. You can now sense aura. If you look closely, you can also see your aura has a little hint of orange in it, while my yellow also has a bit of orange mixed into it."

"Is it special?" Clay asked, his eyes sparkling.

"It depends on how you put it. If you're talking about you as someone new to aura, yes. But if you're talking about aura proficiency, not quite." Reed replied. "Since we've come to this, let me tell you a bit about aura. Aura is separated into different stages."

"Different stages?"

"Indeed. From what I know, aura can be separated into different colours. Think of it like a rainbow–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Red is the first level an aura user can reach, while indigo and violet aura users are those of grandmasters or legends. Of course, the colour changes gradually as you improve, that's why your red aura has a hint of orange in it. You're close to reaching the orange aura stage."

"How powerful is a red aura compared with an orange aura?"

"Yes, speaking of aura stages, we can put it like this: someone with red aura has the strength equivalent to roughly that of thirty grown men combined. Hence why you could easily destroy things even if you didn't use much strength; an orange is most certainly going to overpower a single red; a yellow can comfortably take on five oranges; a green can take on ten yellows alone; a blue is equal to fifteen greens..." 

Clay imagined the power of those swordsmen. He was already capable of tearing off doors and toppling trees. What would he be capable of doing when he reached violet...

"But when it comes to indigo and violet, they're more ambiguous, as those stages were reached only in recent decades by some of the strongest grandmasters in the kingdom. Not many swordsmen I know of have reached these stages. All I can say is a violet aura user is most likely capable of single-handedly taking down dens of monsters, and with the right swordsmanship techniques some say they could even flatten hills or sink complete islets."

"Sir Reed, you're a yellow aura user. How strong are you?" Clay asked.

"Well, I'm not completely in the yellow stage... I suppose I could topple a massive tree with a strong push." Reed replied. "But enough of that. Shall we move on to the sword technique that I will be teaching to you?"