Kan listened to what Lariel told Ivan very carefully. To him, it had seemed like Lariel had told Ivan to balance his stats, but there was probably something deeper since Ivan had now gone into a full thoughtful state.

He was so distracted that he didn't even see Lariel focus his gaze on him and make appear three books out of thin air. When he finally looked back at Lariel, he was holding those three books to him. While questioning Lariel's sanity, Kan picked up those books and read their names. Mana Control Exercises. Mana Compression. Creating Constructs.

"What's this?" he asked. Luckily for him, Lariel had already prepared his monologue.

"Those are the books that gave me the edge. The first one, the control one, helped me shape my mana much more quickly and more precisely. It's due to that that I can create constructs so fast and with so much precision, although I can't yet do all the books exercises. I used that technique with the Rock Bullet spell, which I learned from the Creating Constructs," so that's how it is. He didn't have infinite layers, he just spammed them...

"The Creating Constructs is the hardest, and I will mention it in just a second. In the Mana Compression book, you will see how to make your constructs way tinier. I haven't managed to get that Basic Mana Compression skill yet, but since I have already memorized the book, you can have it," how nice... Kan thought with sarcasm. Deep down, he was actually pretty impressed that Lariel was giving this to him without reservations.

"The Creating Constructs book is the hardest as I have said before. It allows you to create matter with Mana. While the other constructs need more layers to gather all the resources needed, that book explains how to change mana into the material. It's quite hard, and I have yet to master that logic. I want to have all my spells with that creation layer on them. That's why I am holding back on creating more. It's harder to change how a spell is engraved in skill than it is to create it," that made a lot of sense to Kan's mind.

You can alter how a skill functions if you forcibly change it but all the times you active the skill, you change what it does. But getting used to how a spell feels already with that change, before creating the skill is better because it is not so mentally exhausting.

He made two more books appear out of thin air, and Kan realized what it was.

A storage ring.

More importantly, a very expensive storage ring. The basic versions of them went for a minimum of three gold coins. A fortune, especially for Kan who needed 2 gold coins and 3 silver coins to get out of the orphanage contract.

"How did you get that?" he asked pointing to his hand. Lariel just glanced at his ring and shrugged.

"Made a deal with a smith, in exchange for me saying my equipment was made by him, I don't pay equipment, and he also gave me this storage ring when I asked for it."

"You are saying that you made a deal with a smith, that basically consists of you advertising his gear?" Kan asked dubiously. "Why the hell don't I get those contracts?

"Probably because you don't have a Steel plate while at the age of 15."

So that's how it is... He had gotten that deal because he would be famous and bring more clients to the smith. Perks of being OP, I guess... Then Kan focused on that books.

"Those are the books that I saw you reading. You said you had a plan for them," he said while receiving the books. They were both skill books. One was Wind Blast, and the other one was Wind Control. The Wind was not that famous of an element, mainly because most people considered it weak, so Kan did not know where Lariel was going with this.

"Yeah, I do. They are the underdog element, but I think they can become way overpowered down the line. People only have never bothered to try it because they are relatively weak in the beginning. But for me, a spearman and a mage at the same time? They fit my needs perfectly," to Kan's understanding, what Lariel had said was that wind was op when not only for mages and that people never tried to make it op because it was weak compared to fire, water, or earth in the beginning.

"Care to elaborate?" Kan asked.

"Yeah. Basically, I have this idea," Lariel then sat down again and began explaining his point of view.

The wind was powerful because there was air everywhere for you to control. The Fire was rougher. More destructive power, and less stable, also needing a source. Therefore, in the eyes of Lariel, worse than wind. Although fire could maybe counter the wind, because hotter air went up, but that could be fixed with a high enough Wind Control skill level.

Water was kind of the opposite of fire. More finesse was needed, but you could just bombard enemies without care. It had less power to destroy than fire, but pressurized water could also deal a lot of damage. Nothing concentrated wind couldn't do though. It also became very op when you used it against monster while you were with high enough Water Manipulation level since you could just suck them dry of water. But if the enemy had high Willpower, it got harder to do so. The need for a source was kind of non-existent here because there was natural moisture in the air.

Earth was rough like fire, with decent destructive power, but fragile unless you were a master earth manipulator that could condense earth to Legendary like forged steel. There were sources basically everywhere. Also dust in the air, so that wasn't a problem, but it lacked accuracy and maneuverability.

There were other types of manipulation of course, but they were mainly derivates from the four bases. There were also the ones like Time and Space, but those were Absolute Mana Manipulation level of control.

All in all, following Lariel's train of thought, Wind was pretty good across the board, unlike the fellow elements that dominated some components while failing miserably in others. After explaining how the other elements compared to wind, Lariel started explaining how they adjust to physical fighting.

"How do you increase damage?" He had asked, only to answer his own question. "It depends on mass and acceleration, or speed as sometimes it is referred to. The heavier the object and the faster it travels, the more damage it causes when impacting something. That's where the wind comes in."

He then began explaining that you could control the wind to accelerate yourself, and increase the weight of things by pushing the air on top of them. It was why he wanted to control the wind.

Image you jumped ten meters into the air. It was also easier with controlling the wind to push you upwards and reduce the resistance of air, and your objective was to create the biggest crater possible. Yes, you could blast fire downwards. water did not matter here because it had virtually no impact, and the earth was cheating.

You had two options. You could blast wind onto yourself, adding weight and speed to crash into the ground like a comet, or you could just do like fire and slam air into the ground, creating more and more weight, accomplishing your goal. The wind had high destructive power, but also high maneuverability, and you could find air anywhere to control.

Seeing from that point, the wind was pretty powerful. Kan was convinced there and then. He would train with the wind.

"I recommend you use Earth, but that's up to you," Lariel said after he explained in every way possible that wind was better. "You lack defense. Fire is for attack, water is kind of both attack and defense, and Earth is for perfect defense. A wall of fire also protects you decently, but Earth is better for that. Wind on the other hand is for control. It's for someone who has decent defense and offense. Not your case, in my opinion," Lariel explained.

Once again, flawless. I will be damned if he doesn't have a persuasion skill or something speech-related. Damn hidden charisma stat. Kan thought. Remembering those things made him remember Ivan. He glanced at Ivan, that was focusing on them like he didn't want to miss any micro movement.

"Is everything okay?" Kan asked. Lariel did not seem surprised by that. Actually, Kan had never found Lariel to be surprised with anything that happened near him. Just how high is his Perception?

"Yes. I was just listening to your conversation," he then turned to Lariel. "You have given me a great idea, but I disagree with you with one thing."

Lariel tilted his head to that. He just tilted his head! Was he the most relaxed person on Alca?? Ivan seemed to take that as a question.

"If you are better at something, then you should focus on that thing. Kan could indeed use defense because he doesn't really specialize in anything. But what about a tank like me? I am better off with Earth than fire. I won't be attacking. I am the shield. I protect, I don't attack."

Lariel just looked at him for ten seconds.

"Then you caught on what the speech was about?" he asked grinning. Ivan copied his grin.

"Damn right I have. That's the smartest thing I ever heard. I do not think that anyone has tried it."

"Yeah. Probably because it is really hard," Lariel retorted.

Kan was lost. What the hell were they talking about? Was it just not keep the stats balanced?

"What are you talking about?" he asked, too curious to not ask. Two grinning idiots turned to him, but it was Ivan that spoke.

"I am going to specialize in Earth Magic."

What?? Is he crazy? He doesn't even have Mana Sense! Or Mana Manipulation for that fact! Luckily Lariel explained before Kan could point those very obvious points of which Ivan was obviously aware.

"Relax, it's not like that. Tell me. Do you use Mana Sense when throwing a Fireball? Or Mana Manipulation even?" he pointed out.

Kan thought about it and then came to a realization. He did not. Now, he was starting to see where this was going. Lariel's words echoed in his mind. 'Just because you don't have the specific skill for the job, doesn't mean you can't do it. You just have to take the rough path.'.

Ivan was actually going to try Earth Manipulation without the Mana skills. Crazy, Was the only word that Kan found for that.

"It's going to be harder, yes," Lariel pointed out. "He is going to need to increase his Int to be able to do anything with it because with the low mana tanks he must probably have, he won't have the necessary amount of mana to hold out during a long fight."

"Why doesn't he use Mana Absorp-". Kan started. It seemed obvious.

"He can't," Lariel interrupted. "Without being able to manipulate it and sense it, he can't'. A pause. "Either he ups Int, or he is stuck with slurping Mana Potions like they were nothing but little treats. And that is not very wallet healthy. Especially in the beginning, where every piece of money counts." Again. Damn hidden charisma stat.