Ranvir sat with his shirt off underneath the sweltering heat of the sun, taking a break from his training. It had been just over a week since he’d reached Tier 3 and officially joined the Sentinels as a trainee watcher. That usually meant three months of training and exercise, except his powers had allowed him to retain a better shape than the average trainee and already had training superior to their three months of lessons.

That just left Ranvir to fill out his Abilities and raise their scores high enough. This wouldn’t regularly be an issue, however his heightened Draw was showing. A week of effort and his Stone Throw had only just reached 40, and he still hadn’t filled out any of his other spots.

Besides him, Frija stifled a giggle poorly as the trainees’ assigned trainer threw another one to the ground. He ruffled her hair as he examined his fellow watchers. There were a dozen of them, ranging from late teens, with the oldest being in her late twenties. The day was hot, and all had stripped to the waist, including the women, which threw Ranvir for a loop. Despite living in Korfyi for three years, he still sometimes found himself on the off foot in scenarios such as these.

He shook his head and returned attention to the trainer. He was no highly skilled master from the Academy, instead he was a senior sentry—the second rank among the Sentinels—as signaled by the blue banner that now lay limp in the heat next to his discarded shirt. While he wasn’t anything special to Ranvir’s senses, he clearly had an overflow of experience, if not as much training.

Ranvir shook his shoulders out, realizing that he was feeling recuperated. He took another long drag on the waterskin before putting it down and getting to his feet. “Firehearth, I’m going to go back and practice my Abilities.”

“Okay, daddy,” she said kicking her legs in the air from where she was sitting. He’d brought along some toys for her to play with, as there weren’t always a lot of kids running around the Sentinels’ headquarters. Though, at times, there was a surprising amount. Thankfully, there were always several odd and interesting looking people entering and leaving, which Frija found endlessly fascinating to watch. He’d quickly acquired pencil and paper for her to draw what she saw, which she seemed to find entertaining enough.

Ranvir stifled a wince as he left the shadow of the building and took the full brunt of the heat on his shoulders and neck. I should probably just continue practicing Stone Throw, get it to at least 60, he walked past the trainees, exchanging a nod with the trainer before continuing to the range and dummies, which ranged from straw to clumps of metal depending on the strength of the braced. That’s getting a boring, though, Abilities were very strict in how they allowed someone to use them, and he could only apply the barest hint of his Absolute to shift the function of the Ability.

He pulled his notes out from a small pocket-space he’d started keeping close at hand. It was way smaller than what he’d maintained back at Vednar, but it fit with his ‘minor’ talent.

Stone Heart, Ranvir mouthed the words to himself as he read through on his theories for creating a Full Synergy of three Abilities working in tandem. A synergy, when executed properly, allowed to Abilities to borrow from each other, saving a bunch of mana in the casting. Most calculation came out to about one and a half times the normal cost of the two Abilities, but some had purportedly gotten it lower.

He read over the Stone Heart Ability. A physical enhancement, increasing durability and strength of the braced, favoring the durability slightly. Among the openly known Abilities for stone mana, this one increased strength the most and was what he’d based all of his calculations around synergy on.

Closing his eyes, Ranvir dove into Amanaris-space and touched the rock that hung at the center. With a flick of his will, he opened his second Ability slot, which immediately was filled with the basic Ability.

Amanaris

***

Stone Throw:

Create a simple stone construct that is hurled at a target.

As he summoned the secondary Stone Throw, Ranvir focused on having the stone come from the earth, instead of generating it, applying his absolute as well as he could, while drawing as little mana as possible. The first casting took nearly ten-seconds before a pebble rose to hover above his hand.

Amanaris

***

Stone Throw - 1 has undergone development:

Stone Throw -> Stone Toss

Stone Toss:

Call a single stone to your hand and toss it with enhanced power.

Ability Score increase: 1 -> 2

Ranvir grinned and repeat the Ability. This time it automatically drew a pebble from the ground, instead of trying to generate one. He repeated the Ability a few times, increasing the score to 3, before changing his tact again.

Closing his eyes, Ranvir drew in breaths slowly. He could feel the heat attacking his skin and lips, trying to crack and burn his paler features. He shut it out. The wind rustled poorly through the city and over the walls of the compound, but could clearly be heard as it passed through the leaves. He shut it out. His feet shifted, gravel, dust, and stone crunched underneath his feet and clinging to them. He focused on the stone.

He turned his senses fully onto the material below him, sensing the structures of the tiny minerals as he delved with his tether-sense and opened his Veil a bit. He locked on to the slight rise and fall of energy that resonated with the material. Locked his senses on it.

Ranvir unconsciously licked his lips as he used Stone Toss once more, this time focusing on turning the attention of Amanaris from the pebbles to the energy flowing alongside them. Amanaris reached out as instructed, grabbing onto the mana, but also the pebble.

Ranvir grit his teeth and resisted the system’s pull, fighting against it with his Absolute, pushing the pebble down and away from him. Slowly, mana leeched into the air, rising away from the stones as Amanaris, too stupid to realize what he really wanted and too weak to fight against his will, dragged the mana upwards.

Ranvir carefully tried to lower the amount of mana he drew, but the pebble started rising then. Reflexively, he shoved it down with a greater push of effort. The pebble, having only risen half a meter into the air, struck the ground like he’d thrown it as hard as he could. At the same time, the overflow from his poorly controlled draw accidentally let Amanaris grab onto a dozen pebbles, which it flung into his hand instead of the single.

Amanaris

***

Stone Toss - 3 has undergone development:

Stone Toss -> Stone Barrage

Stone Barrage:

Hurl a barrage of stones at your enemy.

Ability Score increase: 3 -> 4

Ranvir cursed to himself and rubbed his sore hand as he muttered in frustration to himself. Then he consulted the notes for Stone Heart again. It was the right process he’d just lost control at the wrong moment. Stone Barrage should still work to develop Stone Imbue, which would be the second-to-last step in the process to develop his desired Ability and the first physical enhancement.

There were a faster paths, but they required a greater control. Ranvir relished in all the information available on stone mana. In his brief survey from the local libraries, including the Sentinels’, he’d discovered four dozen physical enhancement Abilities with stone mana. Ranvir could pick and choose among them with ease, and without fear of running into information walls.

After a brief break, Ranvir returned to transforming Stone Barrage into Stone Imbue. He was surprised to find that Stone Barrage was easier to manage than Stone Toss had been. That was a factor he hadn’t seen discussed in many of the books. Despite Barrage focusing on a lot more stones, it also spread out the mana more. With the mana more diluted, he had an easier time managing his semi-unstable flows.

Soon, he was rewarded with a cold certainty and solidity that he felt from the tip of his fingers to the bottom of his feet. He bent and let the loose stone and gravel run through his fingers. They felt almost dull against his toughened skin. He even tried dragging one with a sharp edge against his skin, which left little in terms of marks.

Amanaris

***

Stone Barrage has undergone a development:

Stone Barrage -> Stone Imbue

Stone Imbue:

A physical enhancement Ability with greater focus on durability.

Ability Score increase:

4 -> 5

Ranvir sighed as he felt the Ability protect him even from the heat and light, if just a little. He ran a few laps around the estate, getting used to the flows of power. He regulated it from so weak the Ability itself wavered as his control faltered to powerful enough that he felt mana spill away. Thankfully, as the Ability was entirely internal, that wasn’t as visible.

“Someone’s with Frija,” Latresekt warned him.

Ranvir glanced over to see an older woman sitting with Frija, who pointing excitedly at a braced who had three fish made of fire swimming around their head. As he approached, Ranvir heard the woman explain to Frija that they were “elementals contracted from a fold.”

“Daddy!” Frija exclaimed, jumping down from the bench she’d been sketching and ran towards him. He picked her up gingerly, as he looked towards the woman. She exuded suppressed power. He remembered the sensation well from his first visit to the Sentinels. “Why do you feel so weird?” Frija asked, poking him in the neck, which didn’t quite bend as much as it should.

Ranvir dropped the Ability as he smiled at her. “Better?”

“Yeah…” She pursed her lips before pushing away, “But put me down.”

Sighing internally, Ranvir knelt to do as he’d been bid.

“You must be Ranvir,” the stranger said.

“I am,” he replied. “You must be Kyriake, the local Warden.”

“I am,” she said with an affable smile and tapped her jaw. Ranvir repeated the motion, before seating himself opposite her and mentally cursing Amalia. “You’re probably wondering why I’m talking with you.”

Ranvir nodded.

“First of all, I’d heard talk about the most adorable little red-haired darling running around our estates and I just had to see her,” she made a little face at Frija that made Ranvir think she must have children of her own, as it made the little girl smile shyly. “And I’d heard about our newest trainee, who only needed his Ability Scores raised.”

Ranvir shrugged. “I’ve had a few months of training when I was younger. It’s really nothing special.”

“You’re a little young to be using that word so casually,” Kyriake said with a good-natured smile. “I came to offer you a deal,” Ranvir frowned, but she cut ahead of him. “We’ve had a few Sentinels throughout the years who have been single parents and I know it can be difficult to make ends meet, especially on a trainee salary.”

“Some months are tougher than others,” Ranvir acknowledged tentatively.

“As a trainee, I can’t simply raise your income, or preemptively end your training, but since it is mostly finished already, I can do something else. What would you say to delve the weaker folds on your own? You could bring all the katapetra and other resources you find back and make a few keys on the side.”

Ranvir hesitated. He hadn’t had lunch today, Frija hadn’t asked about it, but he’d seen her notice it. And they were only a few weeks away from the next issue of the Collegia being released. Going with Amalia hadn’t even been difficult.

“That sounds good,” Ranvir finally said.

Kyriake smiled, “I’ll have the paperwork written out in brief by the end of the day,” she offered her hand to him. Licking his lips, Ranvir took it and they shook once. He sensed no probing touches of her tether-sense, no snaking effects of her trying to infiltrate his spirit and discover any potential secrets.

“Does this happen often?” Ranvir asked as Kyriake got up.

The older woman paused, glancing briefly at the other trainees before returning her gaze to him. “Semi-regularly.”