Back at his cave Azrael tried on his new clothes.

He’d swung by the lake on the way back and washed off all of the dried blood that still stuck remained on his skin. Most of it had already flaked off, but some parts required a bit more scrubbing. Some of it had also managed to get into his hair, which had been bit harder to get out, but he’d managed.

Now, finally dressed in proper clothes, he felt like a new man. The wolf hide was on his bed, discarded. He was now fully dressed in rough clothing, with spear in hand and with boots!

Azrael exited his cave with a spring in his step. He felt great! He was freshly washed, clothed and fed and he had boots! Most people thought of forests with soft springy ground, but nobody bothered mentioning all the small rocks, twigs and branches that would constantly stab into your bare feet.

With half a day still left before him, there was no better way to feel as he set off in search of a new place to live.

The place he found was almost exactly how he imagined it to be. On the other side of the like he’d stumbled upon a small idyllic clearing. It was perfect in almost every way possible.

The only problem, that he could find, was that on the other side of the lake, almost completely opposite was where he was, the village was being built.

Luckily his clearing was hidden maybe thirty meters from the shoreline, but it still rankled him. Even across the water he could still faintly hear the crashing of falling trees.

What made the site ideal, from a defensive point of view, was that this was a natural choke point. One of the valley’s mountains’ ridges came down, to nearly meet the clearing, on the opposite side from the lake. That meant that if he wanted, he could start a small farm if he wished and anyone that wished to approach it would have to pass by his house, as the other three sides were protected by the mountains, the cliff and the lake. Once the village stopped felling trees it would be perfect.

Satisfied he returned to his cave for the night and the next day he started to move his belongings to the new sight and start on the construction. By ‘moving and construction’ he meant carrying his wolf skin over to the site and procrastinating about what he actually wanted to build.

After having burnt down a village, he wanted to build his house out of stone, because he’d seen how easily wooden houses could be destroyed. Considering that he could manifest fire at will and lived in a forest, stone seemed like a better option.

After much mulling around he decided on a simple floor plan with two rooms. A main living space with kitchen, along with a smaller side room for sleeping. A simple home for a simple life.

Using fallen branches, he began marking out the corners for the general floor plan that he wanted. After several different iterations he finally managed to settle on one. The larger main room was on the east side of the building, while a smaller bedroom was tucked in on the westside. Satisfied, he began the next crucial step. He had to learn a new magic!

Out in the forest he didn’t have the tools he needed to build a house. Chisels, hammers, planks, nails. He had none of that. Instead, he figured that if he could create fire using mana, shouldn’t he be able to make stone? If he could make bricks of of magic he would be able to save so much time!

Mana was energy and wasn’t matter just energy in a different form? E=mc something or rather. Maybe he just had that wrong.

Taking a seat he took up a lotus position, ready to ponder on the nature of earth, or rocks, or… whatever. He closed his eyes.

And screamed in frustration. It’d been nearly an hour since he sat down, and he had gotten nowhere.

Sure, fire had been easy, but fire go boom, it burn! You could visualise those. The only things he had for earth were solidarity and stability. How do you depict solidarity and stability?

Despite being as frustrated as he was, he realised that he was getting nowhere and decided to take a break. Either he would find some inspiration, or he would be able to alleviate some stress. At this point it didn’t really matter. He was just going mad from sitting around.

Leaving the clearing he stormed out of the clearing, deciding to explore further towards the waterfall.

He kicked a tree. Trees, trees, trees! There was nothing here! It was all monotone, nothing exciting. Oh, the boredom. He wasn’t even sure why he was here if it was this boring. What happened to dramatic battles and magic creatures? Where were the dragons? The gryphons? Hell, he’d even take an overgrown spider! Even a slime would have been a welcome addition at this point.

Despite all this, all these creatures seemed to elude him. Either they didn’t exist, which he highly doubted, or they just weren’t here. The only thing of interest that he found he discovered on his way back. It was a small cave. Well, overhang.

It wasn’t anything overly interesting, but it was an unexpected discovery amongst the monotonous trees.

Hidden about a hundred meters from his clearing, the little cave was hidden behind two bushes. He sighed, and took a break in the ‘cave’. Squeezing between the bushes he leant back against the cool stone.

He was so bored that, for a moment, he imagined he was an adventurer lost in the woods, or a pirate stranded on a wooded island, the little cave his only shelter. ‘Or a monk’ he thought with some irony.

Taking up the lotus position he began his ‘meditation’ once more. This time he drew forth his mana, feeling it flow through him.

Guiding it to one of his palms he let it ignite, becoming fire. For a moment he watched it burn, happily dancing in his palm. He chucked it at the cave wall, watching it splash against the stone and gutter out. The short-lived flames never even stood a chance.

Azrael frowned and summoned another wisp of mana. Then, he began to try the opposite of what he had just done. Instead of speeding up the mana flow and agitating it he decided to calm it down. If fire was energy, short lived and lively, then earth was solid, ancient and steadfast.

Azrael pictured the mountains, ancient and tall, he pictured the boulder he’d sat upon to watch the sunset, calm and proud. Finally, he pictured a small stone. He held that image in his mind.

Azrael slowed the mana down, before grabbing small bits and putting them in an ordered structure. It was a bit like trying to put Lego block together. Except these Lego pieces were made out of magnets that repelled each other.

The entire mana construct was only staying together by force of his will. As he pushed down the mana resisted, trying to shake free of its stationary bonds. It took all of his concentration to keep it from flying apart.

Each new bit of mana that he placed in the structure reacted and connected with the bits beside it. A few times the ‘structure’ cracked as he lost concentration, forcing him to concentrate on fixing it before continuing, or else start over.

Eventually though, he had it. In his palm, no larger than his pinkie, hovered a sliver of stone, suspended by his mana. He celebrated as a blue box appeared in his vision.

Congratulations!

Through a new understanding of mana you have progressed the unique skill [Elemental Mana].

[Elemental Mana]

There is a truth even nature obeys.

– You may grant your mana an elemental affinity.

Current Affinities: [Fire], [Earth].

Smiling at his success, he realised that he hadn’t checked his status since the battle in the village. There had to have been some sort of change during the battle. He’d seen enough blue windows.

He fired the miniature stone into the bushes and excitedly opened his notifications.