I Don't Own Minecraft
I was humming to myself, it was a habit I had seemed to fall into more and more often. I blame the lack of music in this world or at least I blame the fact that it's not as accessible as it used to be for me. Just another reason to learn to play an instrument I guess, something I still have yet to do really, though my ability to throw knives and sow, yes a very compatible set of skills I know, were getting better and better the more I practiced.
I still missed a good bit of the time on none moving targets and my sowing skills really only have come in use once when I had to sow up the chest of a being that could teleport at will but I think that's all besides the point to the fact that over time I have most certainly been getting better and better. Though of course those weren't the only skills I've been working on over the last couple days. Though it would be more accurate if I replaced the word skill with Spell.
I was in the middle of doing my analyze thing, as I've come to realize that elemental magic was much more involved with science than the others. Which just meant that I was pretty lucky to get it as my draw on Magical branch. At the moment I was focusing on Water rather than Air, even though I had seen the latter in action already. The reason behind that choice was a simple one. It had just rained and I know how humidity works.
Which I think is how Water users work, at least I'm pretty sure it's how they work, as otherwise it would involve using the user's own body, as it is sixty percent water, as the source and that feels very dangerous and more likely to be another branch of elemental magic, probably under the name of Blood or something equally edgy sounding. Anyway, back to my point being made.
It had just rained and we were still in the late part of Summer so it was quite humid out at the moment, a lot of water in the air. Something for me to draw on to begin my understanding of how to conjure the element without needing to rely on it. Just like how I used friction as a crutch for a while before learning the element enough to no longer need it to make Fire.
Of course it wasn't correct to say I would never need a bit of water to start the process, as like all my Dark Spells, I had to have something to start from, a bit of shadow to expand upon, or if not, I would just have to make my own with Blackout, even if it does happen to be very costly. Basically, if you look at it from one angle, I take a base element and use MP to make it larger in quantity and manipulate it from there afterwards, but no matter what, I need a base element to start from in some way, like a catalysis.
For Dark, I'm pretty sure I use the shadow I, myself, give off or at least the dark patches that you don't think are actually there, like the insides of my sleeves, or the area of my back that's covered by my cloak. Fire is one that I know exactly how I get to it, it's from the natural heat in the air, because like I said, we're still in the Summer, though it has been shifting to fall soon, I can use the high temperatures to expand that into flames. Though I have no doubt the action might be a bit harder to do when it turns to winter.
Now onto Water, I have no idea where to start really, I know where the water is, but unlike heat, in which I just slam Mp into it until it causes a spark of fire, that wouldn't work in a situation like this one. No, the water is already present in the air around me, even in the fresh bits of mud on the ground and in the roots of the grass and plants in said mud. I just have to find a way to draw it out from those areas. Like a straw. Huh, actually, could that work?
I mean, I push out Mp all the time, it's basically second nature as that's how I can shot off both Dark and Fire bolts out of my hands. Dark Match and Shadows Will are a bit different, I just need eye contact to manipulate them, but those last two aren't as important in this situation as the first two. I mean, it stands to reason that if I can push an element out, I can draw one in as well right?
If I could, then I would just do what I did last time and just flood the bit of water with Mp. Hey look I made a pun! I don't usually make those, that's both neat and completely off topic. Anyway, back to said topic at hand, hey look another one! Get it? Hand? Water on hand?...Yeah I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. So with that, instead of trying to be even more hilarious than normal, I decided to test my theory on the matter. I was quite excited because if I'm right about this, then this could also be the opening to unlock Air as well!
Of course it was all much more simple to say than to do, that became pretty obvious after a good fifteen minutes looking at my hand, trying to be able to envision something like pulling on the water in the air, or at least try to do the opposite of pushing which was near impossible because of the fact that I had never had to even so much as really think of how I was pushing before in the past. It lead to a lot of forced reflection how I did it to try and reserve engineer a way to go at the problem backwards and kind of sideways at the same time. It was pretty hard and not something I would be making progress in for a while it would seem.
It was sad and a tad bit annoying but it took me nearly two and a half weeks to figure out most the tricks to Fire, and considering that I know have those tricks to call on already for this next affinity, it shouldn't take me much more than two weeks in total to figure out at least a number of ways to make Water more efficient to call on and use. At least I hope my time table is right, as otherwise it would be a bit sad if I'm only to be stuck with two elements to play with while I'm stuck on the Misc situation.
Well nothing to it but to do it, and with that I just got right back to focusing on my hand as I tried to figure out what way I should be directing my Mp to get the desired effect while ignoring the weirded out look Warren was giving me.
"Why are you doing that?" I didn't look away from the amazing sight in front of me as I watched Dot hop up and down, doing a few flips as well before leaping back over to Zane, who deftly caught the little guy in the palm of his hand. After just a second, Dot did another flip before hopping in my direction. I already had my hand out so it was easy to catch the little cube of greenness. After a moment of watching the little monster jump around I finally answered Warren's question.
"We're playing something I like to call Hop the Dot. I came up with it, out of needing Dot to do something with his pure awesomeness and this seemed to fit the bill" I couldn't see what Warren was doing but I could guess what action he had taken, and yet I just ignored it and watched on as Dot did a big jump over to Zane, who just moved forwards in time to catch the little awesome cube that was Dot the slime. The main reason behind this was mostly just to give the little guy something to do as he's seemed to be a bit antsy lately. Well as antsy as a block of green slime could show it.
"And what's the aim of this game to win?" Aim? Why does this game need a way to win? Personally Dot is the biggest winner here just from playing this little game. Still, I might as well come up with a proper answer. So after a half a second of thinking on the matter I answered Warren's question while Dot was in the middle of hopping his way back to my open hand.
"Well it's more like the aim is not to lose, and who ever doesn't lose for the longest period of time wins" Maybe it was the way that I should feel Warren shift, but I could tell he was frowning a bit at that, clearly he wasn't very use to this kind of game. Which was made quite the bit more clear when he spoke up again and said in a bit of a disbelieving voice.
"I don't think a lot of people would find something like that fun" I just shrugged while Dot jumped back to Zane, who seemed to be enjoying this little activity enough that it proved Warren wrong. Still I answered his unasked question all the same and said happily.
"You'd be surprised, it adds a level of competition in it when you think about it only as not losing before someone else does. Makes it seem more achievable that way, you don't have to win, you just have to not lose" As I finished speaking, Dot decided to be mean to me and jumped not towards me, but off the side of the cart, still in my general direction of course, but not at my palm. I let out a yelp and jumped backwards, catching my foot on an item on the bed of the cart to leverage myself in place as I cupped my out stretched hands around Dot.
Pulling myself up straight, I sighed in relief as the slime just hopped back over to Zane, landing into his held out hand without trying to give him a heart attack like he did me. After a second of wondering if Dot was going to try something crazy again, I let my hands drop to my side as the green cube hopped his way up onto Zane's head. Riding in between his ears. Clearly that last jump was his last attempt to mess one of us up before taking a break. Warren just laughed a bit before saying.
"You say that, but I have a feeling that Dot's the one that won that one, not either of you, especially not you Max" I just huffed at that as I leaned myself back into the cart properly as I checked on my foot to make sure whatever I had grabbed onto to keep myself in the cart hadn't been anything to important. It wasn't, just a bit of rope that I had bought for reasons. What reasons? Well no idea, but that just means the space is open when I come up with one!
Huh. I'm wet. Don't take that out of context, I mean my hand is literally half covered with water at the moment. It was weird to look at considering that the water seemed to be stuck to me like glue, though that wasn't accurate since even glue obeys the laws of gravity, which the liquid on my hand didn't seem to particularly care about. As the water just clung to most of my hand, I wondered about it for a moment before all those unimportant thoughts left as I realized what had happened.
Laughing a bit to myself in sudden joy, I hopped a bit from where I had been sitting not a moment ago and looked at my hand with a very keen interest. The hand itself was only partially covered, so the only thing to do is to flare up my Mp on my hands and get it to expand even further. So that's what I did, and in a moment the water exploded into a running mess, as it trialed down my arm, stopping just before my elbow and then just stayed there.
Pulling back my damp sleeves, I noted faintly that the water was covering the same amount of space that Dark and Fire does when I'm pulling fully on my entire reserve of magic. Interesting, I have a number of doubts that I've mastered this already, but hopefully it'll be like riding a bike, though considering it wasn't like that at all when I figured out Fire, I have a feeling it isn't going to be that easy.
Dark is based solely on instinct by pushing out my Mp through my hands, Fire is me pushing Mp into the heat infused air around me to spark it into flame, and Water it would appear is based on push and pull, the reason why it took so long was it was a two step process, I push my Mp into the air and pull it back, dragging the humidity with it, making it cling to my skin. None of this cost any Mp though, as all I'm doing is just giving it a form to hold in the real world. Like having it ready on stand by.
All of that is to basically say that the fact of the matter is, a two step process takes longer to do than either of the others, meaning drawing on it takes longer. Of course there is a number of factors and variables that could change that. Like being next to a massive body of water or on the opposite side of that spectrum, be in the middle of a very dry desert, of course it's like that with the other two as well, with me being much stronger in the night rather than the day when using Dark for an example.
Though I will think a bit more on that example more in a second, I do want to also make note that over time, the more and more I use the element the faster I'll be at getting it active, no matter the area's environment. I mean, when I first started I could barely get more than some steam on my hands and now, while it does take a second or two, I can almost instantly catch both hands aflame. It's all about experience in one form or another.
And the only way to get experience is to do the thing required so many times that it makes your head spin! So with that I pulled my mana back into me, or wherever the hell it goes to when I'm not using it, and watched with a bit of interest as the water just splashed onto the dirt in front of me. Yeah I figured it wouldn't go back into the air after I dragged it out and made it into a big glob of water. Now I'm glad I decided to do this when I wasn't in the bed of the cart, that would have been a mess.
Now then, time to get back to it! So with that I held out my hand in front of me and focused on the Mp, letting it drain out into the air, ignoring the very clear bits of black mist beginning appear to leak out from my skin from it more than likely being impossible for me to push out magic without it instantly taking this form before I convert it. Which is what I was in the middle of practicing. So time to get to it in earnest.
"Why are you having me do this again!" I was laughing, loudly, at Warren as he barely managed jumped out of the way of a very close encounter with Eline's wooden training sword. He had a wooden version of his axe as well, but it wasn't being put to much use at all. As he was spending most of the time running for his life, hence the reason why I was laughing so hard. This was really great fun to watch! Still, after a few second I was able to calm down enough to call out to him and said.
"Because you need to know at least how to dodge when we all are in a fight just in case one of us isn't there to help you out. Of course learning how to fight back would be good as well but you'll get there in time...probably" I snickered a bit at the end of my very comforting statement as Warren looked like he really wanted to turn to look at me with a glare and the only reason he didn't is because if he did then Eline would smack him upside the head. Didn't stop him from making more comments.
"And why in the world aren't I fighting you or Zane, since, you know, you two aren't as willing to go for kill strikes!" I just blinked in confusion at that, I knew what he was talking about of course. Eline and Warren get along fine but they argue quite often, and this is the prefect time for Eline to get revenge for all his comments so she's being a bit unfair by not holding back near as much as she should to give Warren something resembling a fighting chance. But that doesn't mean his words were in any way accurate.
"Both me and Zane always go for the killing blow, he would have a dagger in between your eyes in an instant or I would have to resembling like a pin cushion with a few spikes of shadow, either way you'd be dead. In fact, besides you, Eline is the only one that hasn't killed anyone so I don't see what point your trying to make here" Zane gave a nod at that, even though Warren couldn't see it I apprenticed the support on my retort, even if the meaning behind it was pretty fucked up. That didn't stop Warren from having a reply though.
"You really aren't helping my pride here kid!" Oh. He only calls me kid when he's distracted and forgets that I'm three years older than him or when he's trying to mess with me. Considering the fact that he is currently on the ground rolling out of the way of a jab that would more than likely have pierced a rib, I think it's the former of the two, either that or he's really committed to insults in the face of adversity, even if he isn't even insulting said adversity.
"The entire point of this is to get you some pride in the ability to fight, so what I think I'm trying to say is. Suck it up!" I said it so cheerfully that Warren actually turned to glare at me, just in time to look away from the sword that smacked right into his chest, from the way he bent into two, it would seem he had gotten the wind knocked out of him.
"While I don't mind listening to this, shouldn't you two also be training?" I nodded to Eline at those words as she walked up to Warren to make sure she didn't hit him to hard. We really should have been training but this is more entertaining to watch. Still, we should probably get back to it, so with that I turned to Zane and said to him.
"Yeah, she has a point. Come on, lets see how much better your close ranged fighting has gotten" He's ears lowered a bit at that like he was about to pout so I just smiled and put my hand on his head and rustled his hair a bit, making sure not to mess with the ears to much. They are sensitive you know.
"Come on, just cause you have some throwing knives now doesn't mean we get to slack off! It wouldn't do if Warren some how caught up to you wouldn't it?" He blinked at that before turning back to look at the slowly recovering form of Warren, who was still on the ground but wasn't wheezing anymore so I think that's a good sign. After a moment, he looked back at me and said.
"I guess your right, but I think I would have plenty of time before that happens" I gave him a grin at that and gave another head pat before waving for him to follow as we moved a bit further away from those two. It's nice that he's beginning to open up just a bit more, enough to be comfortable in starting to tease the others.
"Don't bother, no reason to go hunting for you're knives afterwards" Zane blinked at me as waved him to sit back down around the campfire. He gave a glance back at the passing zombie just long enough to watch as a spike shot from the ground and impaled it straight through the chin up into the skull. After that he didn't have anymore problem with my request and dropped back down next to me as we continued on with our night watch. Normally, I would have done this myself, but Zane had one of his nightmares and so here we are.
Sadly said nightmare was making him a bit jumpy at the moment which was the reason he was half way through throwing a knife into the walking undead's skull before I stopped him. I normally wouldn't mind if he did kill it, no reason to get rusty after all, but I feel like him killing anything after a near panic attack is a horrible thing to let happen so I stepped in on being the one to kill it.
Zane was still in the process of calming down though, so I held my hand out and let some faint fire spark on the tips of my fingers. Just to draw his attention to them before holding out both hands in front of me. This was going to be a bit tricky, to be honest, Dark is so much easier to have control over but if I never practice then I'll never get better, besides even if it is a bit difficult, it doesn't mean it is any less fun to play around with.
And just like that the fire light up on my other hand as well, and after a long second a spark appeared in between my hands. I had figured out this trick a while ago, it wasn't the sustaining of the fire that had drained my mana last time, it was the fact that I thought it needed to be sustained by constant feeding of Mp, when in fact it's like Blackout, the cost is all it takes, all I was doing was adding more and more fire to the condensed ball of fire at the time. I'm surprised it didn't blow up looking back on it.
Anyway, back to what I was doing, the small sparks turned into a small fire, into a slightly bigger one, now a ball in between my two hands. After a moment of focus, and ignoring the small bit of aching behind my eyes, I watched as the fire changed a bit, slowly at first before morphing into a small stick man. It was hard, because until Shadow's Will, Fire's Will was not made from my natural affinity. Still, I could manage with the slightly shitty controls I had. It was like playing a game with inverted settings almost, expect almost nothing like that.
With that the stickman slowly changed into another figure, that was mostly to just have some sort of base to work off of like a outline. After almost a full minute of work, and a faint ringing in my ears, left me with a small kitten made of fire. The main thing was just keeping the shape to hold without moving much to distort the image, which was something fire just did naturally. Still with that done, I noted Zane reach out, like he wanted to pet the little ball of fiery fur. So I said a it quickly.
"It's still made of flames, I don't want you to burn your fingers" He blinked a bit at that and nodded to me that he understood. I don't think he minded much as he was still caught up in how cool the sight in my hands looked. It made sense, the sight was one that could be seen in a mildly high budget movie, it could be better of course but I'm still learning for right now. Plus this is a good way to get my body a bit more use to the strain on the mind that magic puts on it.
"Alright" I gave him a smile at that before humming a bit before slowly moving my right hand away from the fire construct and held it out to him to see. This one was a very big stretch on my mind but I didn't care much about that as slowly the fire covering my palms dimmed into darkness before from said darkness came another construct, this one was a dog, and fully capable to being touched. Though it would feel a bit cold.
"Here" He looked at it for a moment before slowly scooping the small black animal up as I quickly shook the fire away from my right hand as the pain was beginning to give me a bit of a nose bleed at splitting my concentration so massively. Stopping the use of Fire helped a lot on the head pain but it was still a bit present from my body not liking me pushing it that hard, which with how much I've already been pushing it recently with my trying to master Water, well, I couldn't really blame my body for being mad at me with all that in mind.
"It's so small" I focused away from the pain, something I was already trying to do so I found the distraction quite nice. Leaning towards Zane a bit, I absently wiped the blood under my nose away with my sleeve before saying to him as I concentrated on the small bit of my shadow's will in his hand for a moment when the dog jumped up and did a small flip. Zane laughed a bit at that.
"Yeah, not as cool as Dot though. I'm no were near that good at this Spell to manage his greatness" Zane absently nodded at that, which both just showed how much he liked what is now basically his pet and hurt my pride a small unnoticeable bit. Oh well, i don't really care, I said so myself. As frankly it's probably impossible to mimic the awesomeness that is Dot.
Still, I just continued on to entertain my little brother with my shadows for a while until all the tension in his shoulders from his rude awakening was gone. Even if at some point my headache turned a bit more to the side of a migraine.
Doing a front flip is a thing that I'm actually capable of, in fact I'm a bit more flexible just in general than I think I use to be in my old world. A plus from my higher than average score in Dexterity I figure. Anyway, I'm mentioning this because I just found out I can also do a back flip without to much heart ache and I found that just a fun bit of information to know about. Though I seemed to be the only one.
"Could you stop that. The thuds are making the Sams nervousness and I'd rather not lose control over the cart because you couldn't stop showing off" Eline has no sense of self discovery! Still, I gave her a salute that she couldn't see before dropping down, making one last thud onto the cart as I landed on my seat. Eline just turned to give me a bit of an annoyed look before turning back to the front as we rolled our way along the country side.
Smiling a bit to myself, I moved my mind away from that and instead just looked off to the side at the small lake we were currently passing by. It was a bit interesting but I was more interested in the fact that we were quickly approaching Boltal. As the village had two lakes near by and from the fact that there was a sign a little while away from said lake that read 'Boltal Lake: Misint' let me know which one we were currently passing by.
We should be arriving there in maybe a day or if we're lucky it could be before it turns to night. Which would be good, as while we still have a bit extra food as I planned for us taking a bit longer on the road this time. But we had been on the road for nearing on two weeks now, and a nice and proper bed would do well for my party. Plus, while I wasn't all that caring about it, it would be nice for everyone to go to a bath house and actually get a good scrubbing in. As it was beginning to be a bit noticeable with my very sharp nose.
So all in all, I'm glad we were now getting to another village. It would be a nice break from having to stay up for a portion of the night as well, since the monster activity seemed to have spiked a bit recently, though I wasn't sure why. We still had maybe another week at least before the next full Moon and yet that one zombie I had killed a few nights ago was now nightly a small horde of them walking around. It was a bit weird but I know the signs of a natural undead and a necromancer made one.
The main thing was decay, natural spawned undead where at that point half skeletal usually, while a necromancers work would have a body that was only freshly killed, as I believe from the way the necromancer back in Colwell gathered undead she had to have a time limit on how soon they had been killed, or at least the body she made more than one zombie from had to be a bit fresh. I still don't know the specifics nor do I know how exactly the Gem she used effected her Magic.
But basically the point is that undead and other types of monsters were becoming a bit more common. It might have something to do with the fact that we are going from summer to fall at the moment but that doesn't seem completely right. It was just one of those puzzles that I didn't have enough pieces too at the moment to solve fully. Anyway, all that was just a side observation, back to daydreaming about all the things I can do when we get to Boltal! I wonder what kind of bookstores they have ther-
"H-hey, am I the only one seeing that smoke?" I blinked as I sat up and looked out in the direct Eline had pointed towards. I looked at the sight for a short moment, before hopping up onto my feet and walked up to the front for a moment as we were just coming up over the lip of a hill. The smoke was dispersed a good bit at this height and way to much to just be a weirdly timed campfire. Not to mention the color is white, which means the fire is just getting started or at least is still getting going.
"Pick up the speed. Judging from the smoke we should see it from the top of this hill" Eline shot me a look at that as my tone had shifted into a bit more of a serious one. Something the two behind me noticed instantly as well, as they stood up and made there way behind me for all of us to look as the horses just reached the landing of the hill. With that the sight in front of us was laid bare. A medium sized village off in the middle distance was currently enthralled in flames.
Hey look a cliffhanger, isn't that nice of me. I was going to post these bulk of chapters somewhere around the twenty-two chapter mark but decided to just finish up the stuff in Kebell and at that point I knew I was going to do something like this so I just continued on so I could leave everyone off at an infuriating ending because I'm just a nice guy like that. Anyway, See ya.