Azrael looked down, into the rushing waters.

“Do you think she will survive?” He asked Sera.

“I doubt it.”

“Well damn” He sighed “She made me think so much, for nothing.”

“At least you know to be on guard” She replied “Do you think we should expect any trouble?”

Azrael stood up “I doubt it. She should think that I was an ordinary NPC. Also, it was the mountain goat that put her into that position, not me. I even tried to help her!”

“No need to sound so defensive.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“…”

“You still planning to go after the dragon?”

Azrael looked at the collapsed path and the looming mountains behind it. Without a companion, and possible dragon snack, the endeavour was already looking much riskier.

“No”

“But you put all this time into getting here!”

“Yeah, but we don’t know exactly where the dragon’s lair is and what to expect. There could be hundreds of obstacles between here and there. Realistically, you would need a fully mounted expedition to stay on the safe side. Look, even with the amount that we’ve been traveling plus Sophie’s wind boost spells, we haven’t seen anything that looks remotely like a dragon’s lair. We don’t even know when this gorge ends.”

“So, you’re just going to leave it like that?”

He grinned wryly at her.

“Aren’t you meant to be my voice of reason?” He asked.

“Do you want me to be?”

“No, all good. Let’s go home.”

“It’s a long way back.”

“Well, it’s not getting any shorter”.

Sera was right, it was a long way back. Even traveling at his fastest pace, he barely managed to reach the pace that he had with Sophie. He took the travel time to chat with Sera, but there was still an annoyingly large distance to traverse.

In the end he decided to test his luck once more with [Elemental Mana], hoping to gain access to a wind. He hoped that he could then use a wind based speed boost, similar to how Sophie had used, to speed up his travels.

Seeing how useful the different elemental categories were he beat felt like beating himself up for not experimenting with them sooner. There was no use crying over spilt milk though. He would just have to make the best of the situation now.

Settling into a seated position under one of his makeshift stone tents, he let his thoughts fade, until all that was left was his breathing. Once more he was conscious of his breath, of how it moved through his nose and lungs.

He could feel his blood, moving through his body and his muscles, tired from the day’s travel. [Meditation] made him acutely aware of his body’s condition, including the mana in his core. What had once been a pitifully small star had now expanded into a decently blazing sun.

Drawing a thread from his mana pool. He took it through the movements, as he played with it a bit. He enjoyed the feeling of control. Under his administrations his mana took on various forms, becoming first a sphere, then a bolt, before bursting into flames, like last time.

Without dismissing it he then reverted it back to a pure mana state before changing it into earth, and finally water. While he still had to continuously feed small amounts of mana into the external construct, he marvelled at how much control he now had, compared to when he started. Very little was wasted, held in control under his firm grip.

Playing around he let an [Earth Dagger] flow into a [Water Whip], before reverting it into a plain sphere of mana hovering over his hand.

Wind. What was wind? Air? Gas? All the other elements had been easier. Raging fire, solid earth and flowing water were all easier to envisage. Air was… nothing, but not. Using his free hand, he rubbed his head in frustration. Why was it so difficult?!?!?

You could watch fire burn.You could feel the heat and hear the cracking of the flames. Earth and water were much the same. Earth you could feel, see, touch and even smell. Water you could see and feel as well. Air… Air you could feel, but only if there was a breeze. You couldn’t see it, you couldn’t feel it and it might as well as not exist.

What if he could sense it? Due to [Mana Sense] he knew that there was mana in the air. If he could sense that, then maybe, maybe he could do it.

Pulling several threads of mana from his core Azrael began to try something that he’d never done before. He tried to actively dispers his mana.

Azrael had always controlled his mana, forming it into constructs. He had never tried controlling it, without controlling it, by dispersing it into his environment.

Releasing his mana, he pushed [Mana Sense] to the maximum of its abilities. His sensed his mana disperse into the air, becoming fainter and fainter. He could feel the natural mana in the air, but the two types of mana didn’t mix. His only continued to disperse, until he couldn’t differentiate it from all the natural mana. Once it was out of his control he couldn’t even reel it back to him like a… like a fisherman!

Drawing many threads from his core Azrael began weaving them together into a rudimentary net. Many places warped, trying to re-join with each other, but he forced them apart. Then, when he thought he was ready he cast his mana net.

The net passed through the metaphorical air, touching strands of natural mana. For a moment Azrael thought he could feel something in the air, moving on the currents, but then his mana net collapsed, ripping holes into itself as parts of it tried to join back together. What he was left with was a mess of wasted mana.

He reeled it in, the threads happily joining together into a singular mass. Annoyed, he blasted the entirety of the regathered mana out, as an unfocused mana blast. The mana had no structure, only force and dispersed in every direction. Some rebounded off nearby objects returning to him. It was such a shock to feel something invisible hit him, that he actually fell backwards from his seated position.

What had…? Had he? What was?

A hundred thoughts raced through his head as he toppled backwards. But past all that he realised he’d touched… something.

Blasting a bit of mana out from himself he waited, but nothing happened. Had he been mistaken? No. There had definitely been something. He glanced at his MP. It was a little under half full. The mana net had taken a lot out of his reserves to fashion.

Drawing out as much as he felt was safe, he let it blast out in every direction.

There! He felt it. There was something. Something had reacted to his mana.

Crawling outside he checked the place that his mana had given him a signal and found a bird taking off in flight. At that very moment a blue screen popped up in his vision.

Congratulations!

By discovering a new application of mana you have gained the skill [Search]

Search

He who sees with eyes alone is truly blind.

You are able to discover items, objects and creatures containing mana, or traces of mana.

Distance increases with level.

Is slightly hindered by mundane mass.

It was only a few days after this achievement when Azrael managed to gain access to [Air] magic. Of all the elements this one had taken him the longest to understand. The notifications that had accompanied his success had been a pleasant surprise.

Congratulations!

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

[Elemental Mana]

There is a truth that even nature obeys.

You may grant your mana an elemental affinity.

Current Affinities: [Fire], [Earth], [Water], [Air].

Congratulations!

For successfully harnessing the four basic elements you have gained a level in ‘Sorcerer’ INT+1 WIS+3 END+1.

Air also had currents, like water, but these only flowed in one direction. This meant that he found them harder to control, as he had to force his mana to constantly flow in a singular direction.

Despite the notification congratulating him for ‘successfully’ harnessing the four elements, he still had trouble with [Air].

Many times, he ended up creating [Water] instead of [Air], which was a pain. Especially when he tried to boost his movement speed using small vortexes of air under his feet, but he ended up with wet boots instead.

The spell itself was also not very cost effective and had a distinctively higher channelling time than his other spells, however he still sped homewards with good time.

Azrael looked forward to sleeping in his own bed.