First Nen Experience

"Bred? Bred!" Tornado dragged out her crisp, childish voice to get his attention, but all she received was a hollow, lifeless gaze. Unable to help becoming irritated and frantic, she snapped, "What are you spacing out for? I've been calling you forever! Honestly! You rude guy with locked-up ears! Dummy! Blondie! Big idiot! ￥%#@~~~"

Bred rolled his eyes. "You're too noisy, Tornado. Be quiet for a moment. I'm busy training."

"Quiet? I can't be quiet, absolutely not! Who told you to ignore me? Hmph~" Tornado crossed her arms and struck a pose, lifting her chin at a forty-five-degree angle, as tsundere as could be. But then she immediately muttered from the corner of her eye, "Unless... unless there's some grow-taller milk! Listen up! It's not because I want to grow taller, and I don't even like milk. This is, this is a sincere apology for you ignoring me!"

Bred: "..."

Offering milk with both hands to the boss he could not afford to offend, Bred fell into deep thought, pondering the so-called—Nen.

Although there had been some disturbances in the morning, Anderson still completed the introductory lesson on Nen that afternoon.

A few hours earlier...

"Alright, children, let us compose ourselves and set out once more, down the path of seeking true power." Anderson removed his priestly robe, dressed lightly in a dark shirt, and said warmly, "I have already told you what Nen is. So, how do we learn Nen? There are two methods: learn it on your own, or accept someone else's help to force the learning process. The latter is also why Nen is taught before Haki and Chakra. Haki and Chakra cannot be forcibly learned."

"Accept someone else's help to forcibly learn it? Does that mean we don't have to spend time working hard...?"

"I don't believe there's such a thing as a free lunch!"

"Shut up! You're distracting me!"

"..."

The very notion that they could accept someone else's help to forcibly learn Nen immediately sparked heated discussion among the boys and girls.

"Don't be hasty, children. Let me finish." Anderson remained unhurried as he pressed both hands downward, signaling the students to quiet down.

"Swish, swish~~~"

Strokes sharp as iron hooks and silver lines.

Burn, the Four Practices: Point, Tongue, Refinement, Action.

"Let us first discuss learning Nen on your own! In truth, every time you persistently temper your body, engage in combat, and so on, you are learning Nen on your own. You strengthen the power stored within your body by strengthening your body, but that is not enough. You must also strengthen the latent power of your mind by strengthening your mind. In the end, the power stored within the body and the latent power of the mind are strengthened together. Mental power perfectly commands physical power, allowing you to truly sense and awaken life energy."

"Everyone understands how to strengthen the body, but how do you strengthen the mind? Most people likely do not know. You need to rely on 'Burn.'"

"Burn refers to the burning of the mind—that is, whether one's will is firm. It is the foundational method of training the mind, and it can be divided into the Four Practices..."

"Use Point to focus your mind, gaze inward, and then establish a goal; use Tongue to turn it into words; use Refinement to elevate your will; and finally, turn your will into Action."

He paused slightly.

"Perhaps some of you children do not understand. That is alright. When I heard my instructor's explanation in my youth, my head was a complete mess too." Anderson smiled. "I will demonstrate. Next, I will focus solely on wanting to kill all of you. But rest assured, and do not overreact—especially you, Miss Esdeath."

"Hahaha~"

"Bring it on! I won't be scared this time!"

"..."

The boys and girls were amused by Anderson's joke.

Holding a Bible in one hand and placing the other atop it, Anderson closed his eyes. "Point: focus the mind, gaze inward, and calm one's emotions! Tongue: turn what was imagined during the Point stage into words exactly as it is. Whether you recite that sentence silently or speak it aloud is fine... I want to kill all of you."

"Buzz~~~"

The moment Anderson opened his eyes, a sense of unease descended upon the students.

Then—

That unease expanded without limit, and quite a few students' legs began to tremble.

"That just now was Refinement." Anderson once again shifted between a terrifying expression and a smiling one. "In other words, if one's will is strong enough, Action becomes actual action."

The boys and girls: "..." Was he insane? He was terrifying!

"Alright." Anderson clapped his hands. "The Nen lesson will stop here for now."

"Eh?!"

"You haven't told us the secret of accepting someone else's help to forcibly learn Nen yet!"

"Father Anderson!"

"..."

The boys and girls scratched their heads anxiously.

"Because accepting another's help to forcibly learn Nen is not an orthodox method, and because you are at an age when your minds are rapidly developing and life energy is most easily awakened gradually, I still ask that you try your best to learn it on your own first." Anderson thought for a moment, then said, "I have seen many exceptionally gifted children. Given their excellent qualities, once they encountered Nen, they awakened their life energy in merely a week or several weeks. Very impressive! You should work hard too!"

"Father?" Tornado raised her hand. "What should someone do if their life energy is naturally in a state of explosive overflow?"

Everyone: "..."

"I have accepted the academy's special appointment for a period of six months. If any of you awaken your life energy, I am willing to teach you individually. Once the six-month term ends, I will provide assistance together to those students who have not awakened their life energy." Anderson looked at Tornado, admiration showing in his eyes behind his glasses. "Child, remember to come find me in the office."

At that moment.

"I succeeded," Bred suddenly said.

Tornado calmly sucked on her straw. "Oh."

Bathed in warm light and seemingly shrouded in a layer of mist, Bred looked around. He also saw a state similar to his own surrounding Tornado, though the difference was—the difference between a cat and a tiger.

Tornado stood within a vortex of life energy. Like her name, she was a tornado, a storm.

"Bred? Do you know what that Conqueror's Haki of Esdeath's is? The instructors seemed pretty surprised." Tornado puffed out her cheeks. "It seems fun. I want one too."

"It was a concrete manifestation of one's presence, an incredibly rare talent—one in a million. As for its effects... people with Nen could intimidate and deter those without Nen, while those with Conqueror's Haki could intimidate and deter all living creatures. I don't know whether it has any other effects." Bred stretched lazily. "I want to find Father Anderson. Are you coming?"

"Yes!" Tornado replied decisively.

Bred glanced at the restless Mosquito Girl and encouraged her, "You can do it, Joanna."

PS: Ahem, ahem, I've signed a contract. I'll write this properly, so please support me. Updates should be stable from now on. I went to sort out the contract yesterday, and it was rather troublesome since I'm in a remote area. Also, it's hard to explain the Nen power system literally while keeping it consistent with the plot, which is why there was only one update yesterday.