Amanaris

***

Stone Spear’s Ability Score increase: 291 -> 292.

Ranvir didn’t outwardly react to the notification as he continued to focus on his Abilities. He could feel the quivering mass of the spear hovering before him, the tension from the high-strung mana filling the air. The hissing whoosh of stones whipping through the air added to the effect. Without his affinity for space, Ranvir would’ve thought the tiny missiles were hissing through the air mere inches from his skin, instead of ten feet above his head.

He hadn’t shifted from his seat in nearly an hour, yet he wasn’t even feeling any sense of numbness or soreness from sitting on bare stone. The sensation had instead been replaced with a general tingling all throughout his body. This unfamiliar sensation wasn’t nearly as painful as prolonged sitting on un-cushioned rock, slightly distracting and more than a little uncomfortable, but no pain.

He sensed Peeve launch itself from his lap, tiny paws touching only briefly on his shirt before his jaws snapped closed on empty air.

“So close!” hissed a young, excitable voice. “Try again. You almost got it.”

Ranvir resisted the urge to open his eyes, instead focusing on his Abilities even as he sensed the cat getting ready to pounce once more. The rear-legs shifted, tail flicking through the air, then with a roar that could compete with a particularly aggressive purr, Peeve attacked.

Tiny teeth bit into Ranvir’s ear, yanking his head sideways as a weight suddenly settled onto it. Ranvir jerked to the side before stabilizing himself and opened his eyes.

Amanaris

***

Stone Heart’s Ability Score increase: 430 -> 431.

Sighing, he gently reached up to cup the baby cat’s rear, so it didn’t accidentally fall down and hurt itself.

“You got it! Go Menace!” cried Frija. The exclamation caused the four-year-old to fall from her perch. Only Ranvir’s anticipation catching her in time. She fell on a web of purple lines, bending at right angles to create a bed for her. She just barely let out a cry before she’d stopped falling. Then Ranvir pulled her over and disengaged Peeve, Menace’s, teeth from his ear. “Woah, that was close. Quick thinking, dad.”

He shook his head and chuckled. “Careful Firehearth, you could get hurt,” Ranvir let the spear Ability dissolve, the stone crumbling under its own bizarre shape and size. It had been a week since Ranvir had taken up the challenge of reaching the tenth and final tier of Kistios in a month and he was already forced to take a break.

Ranvir had some personal opinions on the viability of both Amanaris and his tether, but Amanaris allowed one to pack on power quickly. In the last week, Ranvir had been specifically targeting higher tier, or even occasionally higher set, folds. With katapetra that were stronger than him, he’d been packing on Levels and Tiers.

In just under a week, Ranvir had reached Tier 6 (50) Level 10. He would’ve advanced already if not for a single issue. There were certain sensations that were to be expected when growing in power, especially in Amanaris. A light bit of strain to the spirit, a little bit of discomfort and odd growth within the space the system occupied within him.

So when he’d felt pain in his spirit, Ranvir had immediately stopped forcing the advancement to break before it could proceed. He hadn’t even known he was capable of that until he’d done it. The katapetra had gone to waste, which was a shame, but he’d halted its progress right as he started sensing the pain.

Ranvir had some theories of what might happen if he’d not stopped, but they were only theories for now. He, most likely, wouldn’t have experienced any ramifications yet. Or even at all as a Kistios. If he’d ignored it, however, Ranvir suspected a flaw would’ve been layered into and sealed within Amanaris, forever to remain in his spirit.

The requirements to excel with the system and to be passable were notably different. You only technically needed five Levels in a Tier to advance to the next, and seventy Levels within a Set to advance to the next. Except, if you didn’t have all 100 Levels in Kistios, it was commonly accepted that you simply wouldn’t amount to much in a career where Amanaris played a role. Which was most of them.

It was like a sanctioned seal of apprenticeship made by the plane for everyone to look at. If you couldn’t show off a complete Kistios Set, then you weren’t worth as much as someone who could.

Ranvir shook his head and returned his attention to his daughter. She’d asked him something, but he’d been too distracted to notice. “What was that, Fireheart?”

“Can you make another one? I wanna fly again!” she giggled and waved her hands in the air.

Ranvir smiled down at her and nodded. “Of course, give me a moment,” he began calling forth another Stone Spear, even as the final of his three Abilities ranked up.

Amanaris

***

Stone Storm’s Ability Score increase: 300 -> 301

He didn’t feel a change in the raging field of stone above him, but with Ability Scores, this high individual increases were less noticeable. Despite Stone Storm being his newest Ability it had gained and then overtaken Stone Spear remarkably quickly. It felt like no surprise when Ranvir tried to summon forth another spear.

With his Draw divided into three, Ranvir actually had an easier time managing each of his exercises. Stones, pebbles, rocks, and dirt rattled together before melding into one huge stone spear. The shape was mostly there. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut food with, but it came to a definitive point, and there was even a line showing a ‘separation’ between the head and stick of the spear. These were all huge steps forwards for Ranvir, however, it was also as long as his room. Over twelve feet long and thicker around the handle than Ranvir’s torso, it apparently made for an excellent flying spear.

Frija giggled and ran off his lap and over to where it hovered in the air. Dancing a little jig, each booted foot tapping the rocky soil as she hopped back and forth. Ranvir manipulated stairs of hardened space to use for mounting. The spear bounced and jiggled his little girl as she yipped, squealed, and played like she was taming an unruly horse.

Ranvir leaned back slightly, tickling the kitten’s stomach as he watched his daughter laugh and enjoy life. Menace, Ranvir thought Peeve was more accurate, swiped at his forearm and bit at his fingers, its tail flicking back and forth just long enough to tickle Ranvir’s elbow.

He watched his daughter play for a while, a deep, satisfied warmth within his chest as she lifted both hands from the spear and raised them above her. The storm of stone he’d set spinning above them whipped up enough wind that it pulled on her hair, the light catching the color, making it look like it was on fire.

After a time, Ranvir let the spear disperse, sensing the quaking within growing worse. He cursed to himself that he wasn’t rewarded with another Score increase, but immediately pushed it out of his mind as Frija ran into him. She nearly slammed face first into his chest, which would’ve been little different to running into a wall with Stone Heart up.

Ranvir caught her, allowing his daughter to fling her arms around his neck, even as he moved Menace out of the way so the little kitten didn’t accidentally got knee’d in the face.

“That was so much fun, Daddy!” she clung to him for longer, and Ranvir realized she had more she wanted to say.

“Was there something else, Firehearth?” he asked after waiting a moment longer.

Frija pulled away from him. “When are you going away?”

He’d already told her about his nine-day-long trip into a fold and that this one would be too dangerous for her to come along, but Frija didn’t seem to register that a week had barely passed. She just knew he was leaving at some point. Maybe he should get a calender or something, just to hang it up on the wall and show her when he was leaving. Stuff like that.

“There’s a while yet,” he replied, mussing her hair. “Another three weeks,” presuming he didn’t spend the next three weeks recovering from pushing too fast, though he didn’t actually think he’d be spending more than a day before advancing into Tier 7 (60).

“How long is that?”

“A veeery long time.”

Frija scrunched up her face, as if thinking really hard. “And you’re going to be all alone?”

“Mostly,” Ranvir replied. “But don’t worry, I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.”

Frija pouted. “You shouldn’t be alone. Can’t you bring a friend?”

Ranvir cocked his head. “Like Amalia?”

Frija shook her head. “You said you had to go alone, a friend like Menace!” she reached for the kitten, which Ranvir still held mostly in one hand. The little baby kitten was small enough to just barely overflow from his grasp, causing one leg to hang limply. They were sitting in the sun and the kitten was characteristically fond of a nice ray of light.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to bring Menace,” Ranvir answered after admonishing her to be careful with the tiny creature.

“Not Menace, like the men,” she scrunched her face up real tight, clearly thinking very hard. “From the city. The people with the animal pets.”

“From the city?” Ranvir thought for a moment. “Oh, you mean, the other Sentinels with the combat pets?”

Frija nodded, pushing her face into Menace’s furry coat.

“I don’t have a lot of affinity with animals,” Ranvir replied. “I could probably wrangle an elemental, though…” he leaned back, considering the option. That would be an easy Ability Score raise as well, like Stone Heart, which he could keep on for extended periods of time, even when he wasn’t training. “Except, all stone elementals are pretty much just big brutes, hitting things really hard and being really tough. Maybe if I somehow could get access to a water or sand elemental, they have some real variety and useful options.”

Ranvir bit his lip in consideration before shaking it. Stone really wasn’t a great fit for him. It would just allow him to do what he was already doing, but spread the power even more widely. He glanced up at the sky, seeing the Stone Storm still raging. Realizing he’d not gained an increase in a while, Ranvir dismissed the Ability, making sure the stones were flung away from them.

As he re-cast the Ability, Frija stared up in awe. Pebbles and rocks no bigger than his closed fist began rising in the air. Stone Storm came easily to him, the mana scattering easily and smoothly. It grabbed onto the all the tiny rocks and pebbles made when his Stone Spear fell apart and lifted them until they spun above them.

From directly below, Ranvir could be convinced that it was actually a hundred birds circling above at high-speed.

“Look dad!” Frija squealed, having already forgotten their previous conversation after seeing the stones rise. “I’m making a storm too!”

She grabbed handfuls of loose dirt and was throwing them around herself while spinning about. Menace was jumping around within the growing dust cloud as well. Most of what she was tossing up was the tiniest remnants of his Abilities, pebbles and gravel ground into sand. It didn’t take long before she started coughing as she inhaled the sandy dry soil.

Ranvir flicked the sand cloud down with using his Absolute through his Veil. His mana soaked easily and swiftly through the tiny particles and forcing them down to the ground again, before he scooped her up into his arms, then scooping Menace up as well.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She coughed a few more times, sticking her tongue out in a distinctly disgusting child-like manner as she all but spat him directly in the face.

“It’s polite to cover you mouth when you cough.”

“Sorry,” she muttered, then fake coughed twice into her hand. “I just wanted to make a storm like yours.”

“Like this?” Ranvir asked, reaching through his Absolute again. Like he’d observed first as he’d begun developing his Stone Heart Ability, and then again later when he’d developed Stone Storm, Ranvir found it easier to spread his mana wide. Stone mana soaked into a half meter diameter circle in front of them. Maintaining the steady flow took a lot of concentration, but Ranvir could manage this much even if his Abilities faltered slightly.

Slowly, small clouds appearing and Frija gasped, her hair whipping him in the face as she looked back and forth between the building haze and her father.

“Back home,” Ranvir said. “There was a country that could have storms of sand build up so huge that they could swallow houses and hide entire villages beneath their black grains.”

As he spoke, the clouds grew until they formed a single mass of gritty, sandy, dirt spinning around the epicenter of his manipulation. Ranvir couldn’t help but grin himself as he watched Frija stare at the miniature sandstorm.

He couldn’t help thinking back to how difficult he found other things. Stuff that should be simple. Like the Stone Spear. In every piece of information he’d been able to get his hands on, the Stone Spear was one of the most simple and easy to raise Abilities out there. So why was it ranking up slower than his Stone Storm?

Was it simply that the Stone Spear was a single unit of melded stone, rather many smaller? Idly, he let go of the sandstorm, which continued on its own momentum for a little while longer. Using Absolute, he manipulated two spears from the stone below. One he made from a single rock, the other from loose dust.

“Huh,” Ranvir muttered, redoing the exercise, and then again. The loosely held together spear was much easier to make. He would need a lot more experimentation before he felt anywhere near certain.