It must have been midnight when we caught sight of five stumbling Frogfolk crashing into our camp. So the girls were cast out? No, then are they supposed to be a gift? Well that’s strange. But okay. Having some allies won’t hurt. The river was a standard size now, with it being several tens of webbed feet wide and ten webbed feet deep. I couldn’t accurately tell the sizes in comparison to my previous world, so I just had to make do.

If I was human sized, then my feet would be like Bigfoot’s. My webbed hands were also enlarged and sticky. The mucus we gave off was just enough to keep us cool so we didn’t make a mess everywhere. I trained the girls on how to use tools and some running exercises. I had tried to stay in shape at one point before giving up. I did try, though.

Thankfully, I had a friend who cared enough to give me an in depth tutorial on running. Even down to the form I had to use. By copying the human movements, the five new additions became acquainted to their new bodies.

I had them carry any food we found so as to build stamina. They didn’t have the power to manipulate water like we did, but we also felt something strange from the heron meat we ate. Once I was alone, I focused on that energy and felt a new path appear. This must have been the heron’s natural flow.

I chose not to copy it, since I probably wouldn’t have been able to anyway, and instead decided to harness the energy itself. Now I could see if this energy was different that the water kind. This time, I was filled with a fast and uninhibited power that swept all through my body. Completely different from the cool and calm it was before.

I focused this energy into my palms and the same swirl formation appeared. Instead of water, it was wind! How amazing! I tried my Strengthening and felt my body quicken. Now that I could compare the feeling, the previous Strengthening was like fluidity and awareness while this was a slicing fast through enemies kind of feeling.

I tried Strengthening my legs and felt as if all else was still. I had practically tripled my previous speed! This was insane! Unfortunately, the amount of this kind of energy I had was already low. Yes it regenerated, but it was still small. If compared to the water energy, the wind energy was at a fifth of the size.

Could it be because of the heron? It was really strong, so why was the energy so low? No, it must be because of the amount of strands.

Then I remembered. I had a small portion, unlike what I got with the kelp jerky! I guess we need to catch more herons! But surely they won’t be so keen on being hunted. And that heron had to come from somewhere. Where was his family?

It seems my siblings and new followers were all trying to copy me. Luckily, the others all had similar levels of wind energy within them. The followers were somehow trying to do something but kept failing. I went over to them and calmly asked them to stop. I patted their gross looking heads and went on my way. We needed to find strange plants with that energy and some animals that also had that energy.

The next day, we set out to follow the river. Sometimes we swam and other times we sat on our Big Siblings and rested. The Big Siblings all had better overall strength and stamina but weaker mobility and magical strength compared to us Little Jumpers, as Mr. Black called me.

Maybe that was just an old timer thing, too. Can’t trust it.

I wonder what level of Mage I am now.

Well, whenever I try and combine the energies, it fails. This time, I tried sort of circulating the two energies at the same time. I thought of the Yin and Yang symbol and imagined the two differing energies spinning around each other. I had them pass through my meridians and acupoints all while still spinning around.

If just doing it normally hurt like hell, then imagine the two energies trying to split from each other as it passes through small channels and vessels. Yeah, it felt like I was getting ripped apart. But I could feel these vessels and acupoints growing stronger since the pain would quickly recede and I could predict that the next time the pain would lessen.

After completing the rotation, I found a third energy within me. If the water energy was blue and the wind energy was green, this energy was like the color of the ocean, a turquoise. I tried to pass the new energy through me, but was met with an intense pain. Maybe next time.

I look over and see all my siblings collapsed on the floor. Even the Big Siblings! I stayed up late, even though I was dead tired, to watch over the camp. Well, it was more like a log that had good hiding spots. But I didn’t have to worry. The morning came and I got to sleep on my Big Brother’s back that day.

Later on, about noon, we came across either a small lake or a large pond. It was twice as big as the pond and a good size bigger than the marsh, just to put in perspective. The strange things was that there were no fish. Not a single creature was in the water. Where were they? This place looked gorgeous!

Oh, I see. There are a group of herons over on the other side. Before we are spotted, I had everyone hide back in the surrounding forest. Who knows if they can tell if something enters the water, they have control over wind!

But, I want to try something. We head back to where we made camp and I set up a target. I had my siblings all practice hitting the target. I then took small rocks and had the followers throw them in the air. We would try and hit them with our abilities.

Eventually, I managed to convince the girls to throw a small but thick branch into the air. I took my sharpened reed and added the wind energy to it before throwing it. The reed stabbed into the stick and burst it into splinters.

Everyone congratulated me on the success.

The next day, we all spent our time trying to launch our attacks on flying objects. You see where I’m going with this? Yep, I am having them practice to hitting the herons if they fly over us. I had no idea the resistance to wind they had, but it was worth a shot.

But just as we packed our stuff, we heard a bird call from ahead of us. It was a heron flying over! I decided to put my skills into effect. I wrapped the reed in the wind energy and begged that I made the shot. I launched the pole, expecting to hit its body. Instead, I clipped its wing and it tumbled down into the river.

We surrounded it and all attacked at once. The bird went down far easier than the last one, since we were more prepared. We decided to cook it again and pass a leg to the five followers. They split it up this time and all shared in the goodness.

You know, maybe we should have talked first…Oh well. I’m hungry.

You know, as an afterthought, I had 33 blue strands, 5 green strands, and 1 turquoise strand. I had to get more strands of energy if I wanted to get stronger. However, I still shared the heron with my siblings.

Now they would have energy as well. Since it was late again, I began trying to use that turquoise energy for Strengthening. The power behind it was immense. It took far longer than normal and none of my siblings were willing to try it along with me. But the followers did with their wind energy. They had easily passed out afterwards, though.

Well, so did I.

The next morning, after I tried it again, I felt far stronger than before. I tried using that turquoise energy and was surprised by the outcome. The spheres used both wind and water! The spinning vortex was far stronger than before. I bet the Drills would be more like actual drills now. I tested them out and was surprised by the strength they now had. It was like comparing a bat to a sword.

Before it could damage the opponent, but now it could kill. The Drills had torn the ground apart and slung debris everywhere. I do believe the herons won’t be a problem anymore. I wonder what would happen if I tried to do a rotation using the turquoise energy? Oh well, it’s time for sleep. The next day we hunt down the herons. I’m hungry.