Emrys felt that he didn't have time to waste. He had to find his mother at all costs, and in a world that was most likely filled with danger, strength was paramount.
"Let's start by testing Haki."
Emrys had already thought of a way to experiment a little with observation haki. His first idea had been to use it to search for nearby lifeforms, but he quickly abandoned that plan.
Not only because, at his current level, the concentration required to maintain it prevented him from paying attention to anything besides his Haki, but also because he couldn't sustain it for very long, and its detection range was incredibly small.
However, during his very first use of Observation Haki, Emrys had noticed something extremely unusual.
Unlike the world of One Piece, where it only revealed a dark void, this place was filled with countless glowing particles drifting through the air. And not just the air—he could sense them within the ground as well.
Blue, red, black, white, green, brown, transparent... and countless other colors beyond description. There were so many particles that the black background was almost impossible to make out.
"It has to be mana... Ethernano... or whatever this world's version is called."
He picked up two pebbles from the ground and noticed that they emitted particles as well. Most of them were gray, with a minority of brown and only tiny traces of other colors.
Closing his eyes, he threw both stones as high as he could, launching them well beyond the roughly five-meter radius of his detection field.
Several seconds later, they fell back down at completely different angles. But that didn't cause Emrys any problems.
Toc! Toc!
He caught both stones effortlessly.
Opening his eyes, he deactivated his Observation Haki, bringing the colorful spectacle to an end.
He let the pebbles fall back onto the ground. "Alright. Time to test Armament Haki."
Emrys clenched his fist and closed again his eyes. Slowly but surely, he began gathering his spiritual energy into his tightened fist.It was painfully slow—completely useless in an actual fight—but it was still far better than having to learn everything from scratch.
Eventually, the energy reached his fist.
It was nowhere near Hardening, and there was no chance his fist would turn black anytime soon, but the enhancement was still noticeable.
The air around his fist wavered slightly, as though a faint gas were leaking from it.
Opening his eyes, Emrys assumed a stance for breaking stone.
There weren't any rocks or trees nearby to test it on, so he'd have to settle for the ground.
He raised his fist beside his head...
Then drove it down with all his strength.
BOOM!
A cloud of dust and dirt exploded into the air.
When it finally settled, Emrys remained kneeling in the crater, half of his right arm buried beneath the ground.
He calmly pulled his fist free before standing up with a satisfied smile.
"Not even a scratch."
His fist was covered in dirt and dust, but it hadn't suffered the slightest injury.
Unfortunately, he barely had time to appreciate it before he stumbled.
Slip!
Tap!
Emrys caught himself at the last second, but his breathing immediately became ragged.
He had to brace himself by placing both hands on his knees.
"This headache... and this weakness... are seriously annoying," he muttered while trembling. "Armament Haki consumes way too much mental energy right now."
He slowly walked away from the crater he had made before finally collapsing onto the ground.
Tap!
"Ahhh... I can't even move anymore..."
He lay flat on his back, staring up at the sky.
His eyelids grew heavier with every passing second as mental exhaustion washed over him.
He was on the verge of falling asleep...
But he forced himself awake.
"Not yet. I need to learn Blink first."
He gritted his teeth.
"I don't have the strength to stand anymore, but Blink doesn't require that. I just need to focus."
Easier said than done. With his mental energy nearly depleted, even thinking clearly had become difficult.
Learning that new ability under these conditions wouldn't be easy.
"But I can't afford to waste even a single second."
Emrys turned his head and stared at a point roughly five centimeters in front of him. He concentrated solely on that spot.
He emptied his mind, pushing aside every unnecessary thought.
He created an imaginary point at the exact location where he wanted to teleport and focused all his attention on it.
More than twenty seconds passed...
And without any visible sign—
He vanished.
Crish!
Only the sound of grass being deserted and then reclaimed could be heard.
Emrys instantly reappeared at the targeted location and he burst into laughter.
"Haha! It worked! It actually worked!"
He lacked the strength to celebrate properly, but his joy was undeniable.
There was, however, one unexpected drawback.
"Wait... where did my clothes go?"
His sleeveless red shirt and black shorts hadn't made the trip. Since he had only moved a few centimeters, they were now lying directly beneath him.
Leaving him completely naked.
"Hm... That could become a problem if Bleach's teleportation rules apply here. Though it's not impossible to deal with. I'll just grow my hair out and use it as clothing."
That inconvenience quickly left his mind. He was far more interested in automating Blink.
"The activation time is way too long. I need to shorten it if I want this to be useful."
His previous Blink had taken exactly twenty-six seconds to activate. With such a tiny range, that delay was completely unacceptable.
"My mental energy doesn't seem to have decreased. I think I can keep going."
And so Emrys spent the rest of the day practicing.
The second activation also took twenty-six seconds.
The third took twenty-four.
The fourth, twenty-three.
The fifth, twenty.
The sixth remained at twenty.
The seventh also took twenty.
The eighth dropped to fifteen.
The ninth reached ten.
By the tenth attempt, however, Emrys realized something strange.
"Something's off."
"I've been teleporting this whole time. After everything I've done today, I shouldn't have any mental energy left."
He replayed each Blink in his mind.
"Every time I used Blink, my headache intensified for one or two seconds before returning to normal."
He paused.
"If the headache reflects my mental energy level... then that means my mental energy decreases when I Blink... but immediately regenerates back to its previous level afterward."
The more he thought about it...
The more excited he became.
"So every time I use Blink, my mental energy regenerates almost as quickly as I spend it."
"Kind of like Gojo's cursed energy."
His heart began racing.
The possibility of using Blink infinitely was almost too good to be true.
He immediately prepared another activation. This time, however, he aimed much farther away.
Instead of the usual five centimeters, he targeted Blink's maximum range, one-meter.
Only Emrys didn't have a measuring tape in his eye, so the distance was only an estimate.
Probably around ninety-three or ninety-four centimeters.
For his tenth long-range attempt...
Blink activated in only six seconds.
Blink! Crish!
The moment he reappeared—
Instead of a mild increase in his headache...
A wave of agony crashed into him.
"Argh! Damn it... my head..."
For a distance nearly twenty times greater It would appear that the activation cost is also multiplied by twenty.
And if the cost increased twentyfold...
Then the recovery time apparently did as well.
Instead of lasting only one or two seconds It took somewhere between twenty and forty seconds before his headache finally returned to its previous level.
"Alright... note to self."
"Never exceed a certain distance when my mental energy is nearly exhausted."
Forty seconds later, his mental energy had recovered to the point where it had been before the Blink, the state where he couldn't move anything except his head.
After that he continued practicing Blink.
The sun disappeared beyond the horizon as Emrys attempted it one final time.
The six hundred and twelfth activation took only half a second.
Not having allowed enough time for her mental energy to regenerate, even under those conditions, was enough for the young soul.
He fainted as soon as he reappeared and his body dissolving into a spiritual form at the very same moment.
Spam power stones please. And put your opinions on this chapter in the comments