“These spheres. I get the feeling that if I can let them go. They’ll do their own thing.

But I also feel that they’ll do their own thing.”

“The depth of stupidity our hero reaches, to solve simplest of things. If anything, it is astounding.

Some would call it eccentric, but in reality, it is convoluted nonsense, serving only to dumb us all down. Giving the naive a sense of deference.”

“I’m trying to force the way the energy moves. But all I’m doing is working against it. It’s like trying to make water flow uphill.”

“Whilst our hero loses himself in the mindless drudgery of his mind, we can look to his companions. It is not only our hero that has felt the touch of enlightenment.

After nearly giving himself to the way of the flora, Tréjörð has furthered his connection to his ancestors, the ancient sentient trees.

Their immobility limited their dominance but once within their domain, few could escape unscathed.

Even the fabric fanatic Wraps of sorrow and despair has found herself in a situation that will enhance her abilities.

After collecting the spoils of war, she crawled up Tréjörð’s tree and made herself a web and cocoon.

While it is not hard for beings such as us to peer past her defences, we have been politely asked to give her privacy.”

“You know I can hear you right?”

“It would seem our hero has befriended his spherical companions. It is strange that he would be at odds with them. But we have long lost any sense of normalcy.”

“Be that way. More interesting is the way these spheres work. I felt this limit before.

As if there would be no way to add more spheres to my. I’m just going to call it formation, even though it just feels like juggling.

Recently I’ve been thinking about how to make a spell. Because for some reason spells can be cast faster than me creating spheres.”

“As ignorant our hero is, this particular issue of spells, is a fault of the system. If the world has not acknowledge a set of actions known as spells, one will not receive its help.

This does not end with spells but every action from crafting clay vases, cooking milled white wheat bread and roasting pork over a scorching fire.

All these things are possible without any external interference. It is a thing of convenience.

What these, lowborn, believe to be tradition, ancient gods and whatnot. Is but a system that saves their actions. This form then assists them in replicating them.

There are reasons to follow this system, despite its inadequacies. Our hero and perhaps even his companions and their peers might however be better of steering off the beaten path.

Even then, when against the wall, the ease of access is alluring.”

“I am trying to break through right now. Why do you always pick these times to talk so much.”

“Even when appearing calm, closed eyes and physically relaxed, our hero continues his conversation with himself.”

“Seventeen spheres. The eighteenth is almost there. It doesn’t even feel difficult.

It’s just a matter of time. I’m finding the rhythm. The right moment to add it to the formation.”

‘It is good that you are progressing but you are interrupting my rest. My strength still lingers in the ground.’

“I’ll shut up. I need to focus on this anyway.”

‘Thank you, friend.’

“Only the sound of the wind and creaks of wood can be heard. The quick rest planned has now spanned three days.

Our hero has yet to progress his control exercise and add the pivotal eighteenth sphere.

Tréjörð continues to draw nutrients from the ground. His roots spreading further and deeper.

Last is the young lady. Her strength lies in her fabrics. She continues to commune with it. Every matriarch before her has passed down their strength. The collected strength requires both a bloodline connection and delicate control.

From what we can gather, she comes from a long line of enchanters. While a simple enchant can be earth shattering. Her Wraps are something different entirely.

This can be said about all heirlooms of greater crafting families. The requirements to improve upon such items become too stringent.

Near millenia of study, both tailoring and enchanting. As well as the culmination of their power. All for minor incremental increase in an item’s power.”

“...”

“In deep concentration, Ji continues his exercise. He has become observably thinner, a strong contrast to our tree friend who grows larger in all dimensions.

Occasionally a roaming pack of stones will wander into Tréjörðs range and be swallowed. These are actions are more predatory than protective. A natural response to food.

It would not be surprising if this tree would continue to live and grow here for a few decades.”

‘I have fully recovered my strength. I feel greatly invigorated. My tree will protect you while I go out and hunt.’

“Have fun.”

“The heavy steps of the enlarged man shake the ground. But with every step the impact is lessened until the shaking ceases. Quick to regain control of his newfound physical body.

It’s worth noting that he’ll require to hunt his prey one by one rather than luring them in large packs. It was only due to misses Wraps of sorrow and despair’s heirloom wraps that they were able to cast such a wide net.

And while their current hiatus is due to the strenuous activities of fighting a horde of stones. Once they find a balance they might clear this part of their mission in a fraction of the expected time.”

“Just me and Wraps.”

“Two additional days have passed, Wraps of sorrow and despair has emerged from her silk cocoon. And without a word left to join Tréjörð’s hunt.

It is now our hero that continues to lounge around. Leaving the work to his companions. Who knows, they might have finished and left already. Dropping the dead weight.”

“Are you trying to irritate me? Because you are succeeding.”

“With a relaxed expression our hero waves his hand and conjures a sphere. It steadily grows in size, to match the other seventeen.”

“Now I just need to insert it into the formation.”

“The irregular movements of the spheres shift around, the movement hard to distinguish due the already chaotic trajectories.”

“And go.”

“Eighteen spheres have found a renewed equilibrium. Their movements would still strike an outside observer as jumbled. Anything but order.”

“Ye it’s hard to tell the different. But I can feel the power rise. On a whole it felt a bit forced.”

“Out of the many ways to practice one's control, our hero selected a rather violent way. Differing from Wraps of sorrow and despair’s and Tréjörðs soft manipulation.”

“Soft? What do you mean violent?

Okay, yes. It I had to kind of jam it into the formation. But that doesn’t make it violent.”

“Had our hero split the spheres a few times into smaller ones, his abilities would find a more delicate touch. It is up for debate which is better, not all tools serve the same job after all.”

“I’d describe my control as smooth. Just look at them, they are very content.”

“While our hero’s ways are violent, perhaps brutish. There are more domineering ways to go about the process.

Some choose to wield the singular, large and heavy. A large hammer comes in mind.

Others may choose play with numerous knives. Each has their own merits. But differ enough to find their own place in the world.”

“Huh.”

“The masterful, will choose every way to improve their control. As they recognize it as the true foundation of all future strength.”

“Now that I think about it. It must be hard to control all those roots. And I’m sure those endlessly long fabrics that Wraps uses are difficult as well.”

“Having achieved a minor threshold, our hero may be capable of creating a few spells. Should his mind be put to it.”

“I’ve created a bunch of spells. What do you mean?”

“The intent that goes into an action is essential when creating spells. Not all spells are easy to replicate or teach.

This has to due with affinities that are hard to reach. But most simply require a certain amount of control.

If our hero created a spell that fit his current level of control. He would be hard pressed to teach his allies.

Their control soft, and would need to adjust to the more rugged, heavy handed control our hero practices.”

“Stop bad mouthing my control.

I don’t really have time to create new spells. But I can try improving some of my existing ones.

Maybe I should focus a bit more elemental conversion. I feel like I’ve only been using pure mana and nothing else for a while now.”

“Surprising. Somewhat strange. That our hero has finally made a sliver of sense.

While his foundation somewhat extravagant, the addition of a mana fiend class thrust him in a rare position.

A situation where the only reasonable course of action was to practice his control over mana, internal and ambient.

The next control threshold far enough away that devoting some time his auxiliary abilities should take the lead for a while.”

“You think so? I’m just excited about using elements to attack. Got a bit boring to sling mana spheres all day.

I’m going to start with the movement skill.”

|Weaving water boots|

Water - Wind

Requires

[Novice water affinity]; [Novice mana manipulation]; [Beginner wind affinity]

[Movement] [Water][Wind]

Conjured water and wind covers the feet.

“Fundamental movement ability that focuses on maneuverability rather than acceleration.

It’s use versatile but requires a period to adept.”

“Feels better. Takes more mana to maintain it. But I don’t think it’s noticeable.”

“A film of tenacious water has covered half his feet. The water is manipulated by instinct for the most part, it tries to stay as even grounded as possible.

The wind will try to move between the water film and the physical body.”

“Like a balloon. That’s how it came to me actually.”

“The ability does provide some increase in acceleration, but it’s greatest merit is the quick deceleration.

Provided the physical body is sturdy, our hero should be able to come to a full stop from immense speeds.”

“I don’t think that’s the best part about it at all. The best part is quick turning and the synergy with the Oh clans flexible fighting style.

And you can bounce.”

“This ability requires minimal amount of control and some affinity with the elements, but cannot cause damage. It would instead reduce it.”

“That’s fine. I wasn’t planning on kicking people with my soles.

I’m going to go look for Tréjörð and Wraps.”

“A step out of the house and our hero has ignited a sphere on fire.”

“Figured I’d try some stuff.”

“The fireball begins spinning at increasing rates. This quickly lessens its volume.”

“I think it needs a protective cover to spin like that. But the wind doesn’t hold up either. It’s not that it can’t envelope it, the fire eats away at it and creates holes.

This makes it drain energy even faster. But it does sustain a bit longer.”

“The creation of an ability that supersedes a well rounded concentration of mana does prove difficult for most. It is instead efficiency that they look for. They look ways to minimize the damage loss and further reduce the cost of mana.”

“What? That sounds stupid.”

“On the other end of the spectrum you have the gift from god, the mana bathed demi-god. Trying to further his destructive capabilities by squandering even more mana.”

“I can see you're trying to subtly compliment me. I appreciate the effort.”

“Once more, we are without words. And can only watch our hero pillage the ambient mana into his absurd experiments.”

“Maybe if I put i put a mud layer around the fire, then a water and wind layer and then another mud layer? Or maybe I shou-.”