Avatar - Conquering the Elements-Chapter 9. Lost

From the moment Yui learned to speak and walk decently, she became a little inquisitor, following me around like a shadow whenever she had free time. I was more involved in her upbringing than her parents, though she listened to them too—just not with the same enthusiasm she had for me.

Often, in the library, you could find her sitting beside me with a serious expression, trying to understand what was written in the books, recognizing only a few familiar words. Somehow, she even managed to beg for training sessions. With her pleading face, it was hard to refuse, so now we include her in our massage-training sessions, stretching her body.

One goal was achieved by my fifth birthday: I had finished reading a large portion of the city library. The remaining books were copies from the palace library. Toward the end of this period, the regular visitors to the library began to look at me strangely. People here naturally read slower due to the lack of systematic education. I don't know about other cultures, but here, parents teach their children to read and write, and that's enough for a comfortable life. How they do it doesn't matter. In their view, I wasn't reading but simply flipping through pages. I didn't bother to enlighten anyone—as long as they didn't kick me out, it was fine.

The notebooks my father gave me for birthdays had to be used to write down my knowledge for Wan Shi Tong. I remembered him, unfortunately, and now I had to actively sift through my memories to figure out which knowledge might be useful in the magical world and which was still undiscovered. I figured if I wrote it as it was, the great owl wouldn't be too upset. After all, in my previous world, what I wrote actually worked.

My parents already considered me a once-in-a-century genius, especially after the childbirth incident. They started thinking I was blessed by some benevolent spirit. Well, I blessed myself, heh-heh. Because of this, their supervision was very lax. The main rules were to always come to meals on time and stay safe.

A few days before my fifth birthday, my spirit and body fully merged. It happened during sleep, and I still remember every detail vividly. At first, I felt warmth at chest level. Not thinking much of it, I tried to continue sleeping, but then every part of my body was washed over by some energy. Wherever it passed, it felt like my cells were experiencing ecstasy. A blissful moan escaped my lips on its own.

As soon as I came to my senses from the overload of sensations, I rushed downstairs to check my energy. My two sources pulsed in sync with my heartbeat, now unrestrained, pouring out an abundance of magic both into my body and outward. Looking closer, I couldn't find my spirit—not even a trace. It had completely merged with my body, with no visible boundaries or seams.

As Wan Shi Tong wrote in his observations of Chin, who once visited his library in the human world to repay a debt with books, Chin's spirit and body were also so deeply merged that you couldn't tell where one began and the other ended. Wan Shi Tong found this intriguing. Even among humans, and even among Avatars, you could usually find points where the body and spirit met. But Chin was a unified whole, allowing him to travel through the Spirit World in his physical form with all his powers intact. Already possessing power, strength, and wealth in the human world, he had no interest in interacting with the Spirit World. As we know, even the Avatar, when entering the Spirit World, leaves their physical body behind, sending only a projection of themselves to the other plane. It's thought that this is simply the astral body of humans. Later, in the Spirit World, Iroh also didn't appear very material.

Another bonus to being a hybrid.

Unable to wait for sunrise, I quickly dressed and ran to the nearest artificial pond to practice waterbending.

Some palace residents might have heard my joyful laughter that night, but at that moment, nothing else mattered. Moving water through the air, I truly felt whole, as if something long lost had been returned to me. My level hadn't changed—I was still a low-tier spirit bordering on mid-tier. The important thing was that I felt no barriers to reaching the mid-tier level. But trusting my intuition, I decided to wait a bit. After all, my body had only just begun to absorb all my energy, and it needed time to stabilize.

The next day, I delighted my parents with my water control, earning official permission to practice magic in my father's personal training area.

After calming down and clearing my head, I carefully assessed my skills. I discovered that mastering magic in the human world was slightly harder than in the Spirit World due to the lower energy density here. Additionally, controlling energy was more challenging. As a spirit made of energy, I controlled magic with my entire body. But a physical body has channels through which magic flows, imposing certain limitations. It's no coincidence that benders of all elements accompany their techniques with movements—they're like hand seals in Naruto, crutches of sorts.

Master benders don't really need them. My hybrid nature stood out here too. The channels that had only been filled with energy yesterday were larger and stronger today. In theory, this process would only accelerate, and once the channels completely filled my body, I would become more of an energy-based life form—something between a spirit and a human. The analogy that comes to mind is from the anime Naruto: a tailed beast is roughly what I'm supposed to become.

For now, though, I'll have to study stances and movements for better water control. The upside was that the restriction low-tier spirits face—a water control range of 1-2 meters—was lifted. Now I could control all the water I could sense, as long as I had the strength. Finally, I could use long- and mid-range techniques.

With the return of magic came the spirit's senses—a sort of human intuition that helped me gauge an opponent's strength in the Spirit World. Its main function was to help me avoid the attention of unfriendly high-tier spirits.

After running around the city and scanning people, I created a rough grading system for human strength based on spirit strength. Untrained teenage benders and those just starting to learn magic had the strength of a weak low-tier spirit. Graduates and ordinary benders who weren't yet masters had the strength of a strong low-tier to weak mid-tier spirit. Waterbending masters had the strength of a strong mid-tier to strong high-tier spirit.

Surprisingly, the most powerful in terms of energy density and quantity was the head of the healing chambers—the same elderly woman who examined me as a child. At 140 years old, she looked very spry, having outlived four chiefs. There were also two grandfathers at the level of weak high-tier spirits, both among those who fought against the Fire Nation.

But it's important to note that I only tested energy reserves and density. Human bending strength isn't just about that. A bender's strength is the essence of their experience, skill, mental flexibility, and only then their energy quality and quantity. Otherwise, I wouldn't have met masters with energy reserves at the level of a weak mid-tier spirit.

Over the next month, I restored my waterbending control to my previous level and regained all my signature techniques.

It took another three months to gain full control over water within a ten-meter radius. Now, within that circle, simple water manipulation requires no body movement.

Four months were spent mastering water's other states. Ice and steam now obey me just as well. Many techniques were added, but only some I've automated in creation.

There's the water needle, shot from the mouth at high speed. To create it, you hold saliva or drink water beforehand. I also created its counterpart, the ice needle, with the same effect on impact.

The octopus style creates water tendrils around the body, allowing the bender to both defend and strike enemies.

Ice spears, arrows, swords, daggers—whatever your imagination desires, send them flying at your enemy.

Ice boots or skates allow for quick movement across the battlefield.

The water/ice vortex is simply heavy artillery in waterbending. After using it, I spent another week repairing the training ground.

There are also non-combat techniques I've added to my arsenal: water filtration, an air bubble for breathing underwater, and walking on water—just because it looks cool.

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In the four months leading up to my sixth birthday, I engaged in battles with Mom, who I finally convinced to fight without holding back. One thing is performing techniques perfectly; another is executing them flawlessly during a fast-paced fight.

This year had few events; I was completely absorbed in magic. That's because right after my sixth birthday, a battle with a student chosen by the waterbending masters was scheduled. And to spite the old-timers, I want to challenge one of the masters to a fight after an easy victory. Let's see how they sing then.

Remember how happy I was when my magic activated? I immediately ran to the waterbending training ground, demanding they personally train me. I was a bit cheeky then, but the choice was to either ask them directly or join a group with other students, where my progress would be much slower. Teachers usually adjust the pace to the group's average level. Knowing waterbending would come more naturally to me, I wanted to spend my time efficiently, mastering combat waterbending and leaving time for healing magic.

I don't know how it happened, but even after demonstrating my immense potential at the time, those stubborn and unpleasant people, citing training traditions and my immaturity, told me to enroll in a group like everyone else.

My body, deciding to prove that hormones in a child's body aren't just words, rebelled and showed how it could "handle" situations.

In the end, we made a bet. In a year, I'd fight the student they chose. If I won, I could approach any master on the training ground for lessons. If I lost and still wanted to learn from them, it would only be on their terms. I really bruised their pride then. They'd been training worthy men in proper bending for almost half a century, and here I came, the improper one. That's basically how they put it.

Also on emotion, I decided to have the last word, shouting across the entire training ground that I'd kick even a master's ass. The rumors spread quickly, and now neither side wants to back down. Of course, no one believed my words about beating a master, but I won't take back what I said. Unfulfilled promises, even those made in the heat of the moment, still linger in people's subconscious. Your words will carry less weight—that's just human psychology.

I'm also used to keeping my word, unless it's a matter of life and death.

There's a week left until my fight, and the whole city knows about it. When Yui found out, she was burning with righteous anger, wanting to beat up those bullies herself for picking on her little brother. Mom and Dad took it more calmly, both thinking their prematurely grown-up son was about to get his own lumps.

That's what happens when you rush—you make a fool of yourself. The good news is that in about a year, by age seven, my body will be ready to handle the full power of advancing to mid-tier spirit level. Once I reach that level, I'll need to visit the Moon and Ocean spirits. I don't know what will change when I become a mid-tier spirit compared to ancient spirits, but let's be honest—I'm just trying to delay my visit to them. Ancient spirits have ancient issues in their heads, and that's dangerous.