Elydes Chapter 41: Progress

Chapter 41

Finally, it was over. Kai was almost dancing on his feet as he got ho. Three new books were held firmly in his arms, 2 silvers and change in his pockets. He said goodbye and thank you to uncle Moui and knocked on his door with a smile. It didnt last long.

Alana opened the door. He barely had ti to put down his books when his mother said, Co, we need to talk.

Taking his hand she dragged him outside, leading them away.

Mom, I know youre mad, but Kai began to say, but Alana silenced him with a glance.

They continued to walk till they reached their usual spot by the shore. Sitting on the cobbles so they could have so privacy. The lights of the Fortuna could still be made out in the distance.

His mother finally turned towards him, her expression unreadable to him.

Kai She began, taking a mont to find the words. Do you realize how reckless you have been?

Mom, Im not a child.

This is not about you being a child or not. Important decisions should be made after talking with your family regardless of your age. You might be smarter than many adults, but you havent experienced this world like one.

I had everything under control. I Kai protested.

No, Kai, you did not. Moui had told exactly what happened. Your deal hung on the word of a rchant you had just t for the first ti and probably will never see again. What if they decided to leave earlier, refused to buy or lower the prices? You trusted them blindly and took a risk without discussing it with . Her gaze nailed him on the spot.

Kai lowered his head. Put it that way, he felt a bit naive. I

Moui is a good person, but it wasnt fair to ask him for money. If sothing went wrong you would have put him and our family in a very awkward position.

Kai nodded his head, castigated. He wanted to argue the risk had not been that big. But it was true he would have had no way of repaying the debt if things didnt go as expected. He was still a child and whether he liked it or not his actions would have repercussions for his family.

Im sorry. I didnt think it through and co to ask you first.

Alana's tone beca a little softer, Its fine as long as you learn.

The waves continued crashing on shore as they sat with no words exchanged between them. Their hearts settled down. Kai was the first to break the silence a few minutes later.

Mom, since everything went well, I gained a few coins. He said in a fake casual way.

Alana sighed, indulging him with a question. How much?

About two silver sars.

His mother slowly turned towards him. Kai, its not a good ti for jokes.

Thats fine because Im not. Here, take them. Taking out the two silver coins Kai put them in the hands of a stunned Alana, who stared at them with disbelief.

He smiled proudly, I didnt work three days straight for nothing. Im sure the money will be helpful.

Kai This is your money. I cant accept this much.

Why not? I wont need them at the estate and Id rather take a break from alchemy for a while. So there isnt much Id like to buy in Greenside.

***

When the light filtered through his window the next day, Kai conceded himself five more minutes in bed.

I really miss my soft bed at the estate.

As the first five minutes turned into the second five minutes, he knew he had to get up. He had skipped his physical routine in the last few days for obvious reasons.

Just five more minutes.

He knew he would have to go if he got up. Taking a deep breath, Kai jumped out of his bed before he could change his mind. It was ti to get back on track.

After a quick breakfast and ditation, he went out Running towards the beach. It wasnt as bad as he thought. Pushing his body instead of his mind was quite relaxing. It was easy. He enjoyed feeling his muscles slight burn as he forced them to give everything they had.

This was probably the best state his body had ever been in. Taking a break for three days had given him the ti to rest and grow stronger.

Jumping into the churning waves he felt he had missed having a good swim, continuing beyond the minimum requirents of his routine before getting on shore.

Next were his stretching exercises to increase his flexibility. To his great surprise, he was finally able to do a perfect split.

Finally, he practiced his weapon stances. These required him to use his brain a little to check his movents, but it was mostly chanical by this point. Done with todays training, he sat on the cobble beach to think a little.

He liked practicing the knives a lot, but they had no reach and were not fit to be his primary weapon. If it ever ca to that he preferred not to get so close and personal with his opponents.

This left: spear and sword, both equally good options. He resolved to decide between the two and take a skill before he had to go back to the estate.

The sword was the classical weapon of stories, but there was a reason why the spear was called the king of the battlefield. A longer reach was extrely helpful.

After doing a list of pros and cons for both, he decided to check his skills.

Skills:

Running (lv74)Swimming (lv73>74)ditation (lv63)Awareness (lv54)Herbology (lv52>54)Acting (lv44)Processing Plants (lv32>35)Reading (lv19)Gardening (lv12)Sneak (lv7)Mana Sense(lv41)Mana Manipulation (lv9>10)Alchemy (lv7>8)Inspect (lv6)

His reckless marathon helped the related skills grow a lot. Alchemy and Mana Manipulation in particular had a drastic increase he never thought would reach in such a short amount of ti. Without the challenge and deadline looming over him, he would have never been able to push his limits so much.

It was a valuable lesson, but it had also been incredibly stressful. He wasnt looking forward to repeating the experience anyti soon. If it had continued a couple days more, he would have reached a breaking point.

Looking back at his skills, he was disappointed that ditation had not leveled again. He was quite sure he had been able to use it this morning while training, but he had found so very clear limitations.

If he pushed his limits too hard the skill wouldnt activate. The action had to be within his scope of comfort, preferably sothing thodical that didnt require him to co up with new ideas.

He would probably never be able to use it in everyday life, butif his hypothesis was correctit could beco a great asset during training. Helping him focus and deal with the tedium of repeated actions.

Planning about the future, he decided he was going to ditch Gardening for a weapon skill. At the estate he spent a lot of ti tending to plants but going back to Greenside made him realize he was not always going to live near a large garden. In the future, he would probably buy most of his ingredients.

With these decisions made, Kai had a clearer mind. It was ti to go back ho, but he wasnt that tired yet and there was one thing he had wanted to try first. With his higher Mana Manipulation, it might just work.

Running had been stuck at the threshold for a while. This ti he wanted to get sothing more than the sa boring basic evolution.

Dora had once explained to him how most people evolved physical skills with mana. Sotis it even happened unconsciously after repeating an action countless tis or in extre situations.

Kai hoped for a more controlled evolution. He had the theory down, now it was ti to see if his mana skills werent just for show.

Getting up for another little run on the beach, Kai split his focus trying to manipulate the mana inside of him. Mana naturally helped and sustained his body as proved by the side effects he suffered when he consud too much. So, if he concentrated on the right muscles and ligants, he should be able to push them harder and reduce the strain.

Kai had already practiced standing still, but doing it while running was harder than he thought. Hopefully, he just needed a proof of concept and the evolution would take over the burden.

Co on just a bit longer.

*Ding*

Running reachedlv75 Max, congratulations!

Running (lv75)

You are presented with two choices to continue your journey:

Stay the course. You wont gain significant new benefits, but youll deepen your insight into what you already know.Consu a small quantity of mana to reduce the strain on your muscles allowing you to go beyond your usual limits.

Is that even a question?

*Ding*

You chose the second option, Running (lv75)can now reach lv100!

Wasting no ti, Kai tried it out and continued his run. The first thing he noticed was that utilizing the new function of the skill was optional. He took a mont to find the right ntal command to activate it.

With the assistance of the Guide, small filants of mana separated from his channels and accumulated in all the relevant muscles he was using, mainly in his legs. There was a small drain on his reserves, but it was barely noticeable. He could probably keep it active for hours without a problem.

Exhilarated by his new ability, Kai sprinted along the shore. Moving at the fastest speed he ever reached, the salty breeze blew through his hair.

He soon made two discoveries. First, the mana consumption was proportional to his speed, doubling during his sprint. Still not huge, but sothing to keep in mind. Second, his mana only helped his muscles and ligants, it did nothing for his lungs and need for oxygen.

Maybe in the next evolution I can fix that.

Looking at the sun, he had already been out for a couple hours. Strolling through Greenside to get ho he couldnt help but plan for his next evolutions. He was certainly going to do sothing similar with Swimming, maybe focusing on his need for oxygen if he could figure out how.

After his triple option with ditation, he had unconsciously considered evolutions up to fate and circumstances he couldnt predict. That was the wrong mindset. They werent random but sothing you could purposefully pursue.

Reaching his ugly house, he was going to be alone for most of the day. Kea had started going out again with her friends, doing only the spirits knew what. With no schools or adult supervision, that was what was expected of her at her age.

Kai didnt like the idea much, but it wasnt up to him. Most of the people he interacted with after leaving Whiteshore were those who made trouble. His vision was a bit skewed. He was sure there were plenty of good kids. Probably.

Finding himself with a lot of free ti, he considered his options. One thing was sure: no more alchemy for a while. Exploring Greenside didnt hold much appeal either, the town was only so big. He couldnt say he was familiar with it like his pockets, but he knew enough to satisfy his curiosity.

Kai could also read his new alchemy books. He was excited to have gained the first volus of what would hopefully one day beco a big personal library. Still, that was just more alchemy and he did not have the mind for that right now.

Looking around his cramped room, his fathers notes and books offered a much more appealing alternative. He had not forgotten his plans. There were less than two weeks till the ceremony and he wanted to learn the basics of the Vastaire language before then.

Taking a big folder full of yellowed papers Kai sat on his bed. The idea to spend a cozy day among the old pages sounded perfect to him. The right asure of challenging and relaxing.

At dinner ti, the whole family sat down at the table together to eat. Enjoying the food and talking about their day.

After they helped clean up the dishes. There was one more thing to do. He had skipped the last few days since he had no mana to spare, but he had not forgotten or given up. He wanted to help his sisters gain Mana Sense.

Kai could tell Ele was not very enthusiastic about it, probably hoping he had forgotten. After the previous failures, Kea was not as eager either.

It seed to be the curse of living in Greenside, people never expected anything good to happen. As if the heavy humidity suffocated their desires and flas of hope. They easily resigned to their boring routine.

Kai didnt know if he was misinterpreting the facts. His view was hardly impartial and he had not spent enough ti here to spew definitive judgnts. He might be imagining things to be worse than they really were.

In any case, he would not let his family give up so easily, even on such a minor thing.

Are you sure this is even possible to get Mana Sense this way? Kea said. She never had much patience after all.

Kai tried to sound confident. Completely sure.

Not even a little.

Ele gave him a patient smile. Co on, little brother, we can start with .

Sitting across from each other, Kai put his hand over his sisters palm. His Mana Manipulation had improved a lot in the last few days. Which imdiately beca apparent as he easily manipulated his mana outside his body.

He needed to succeed.

No more wiggly constructs barely holding together, his attuned mana looked more stable than ever. Usually, he just slamd his mana onto his sisters hand, today he tried a more subtle approach.

Molding his mana around her skin and slightly poking around.

Ele let out a laugh, It tickles.

Are you sure you're doing this right? Kea interrupted.

Kai suppressed an annoyed response and forced himself to smile at his younger sister, Im sure. He turned towards Eleni. Try to close your eyes and ignore every other sensation. Focus only on the feeling on your hand and tell what you feel.

Looking at his serious face, Ele hid her smile and followed his instructions, giving this test an honest try. Now it was all on him.

Controlling his mana even more carefully, Kai tried to be as delicate as possible with his touches. When Eleni told him she couldnt feel anything, he increased the pressure just a little. He wanted to stay around the minimum perceivable threshold. Only enough that his sister was 50/50 sure that sothing was happening.

Kais brows furrowed in concentration, even with his improvents this level of control was challenging. His reserves had been completely full in the beginning, but they soon started to dwindle as the minutes went by.

Alana and Kea silently observed from the sidelines, while Kai and Ele were completely focused on their task.

When his mana reached around 70%, Kai was forced to stop to keep enough to try with his other less grateful sister. He had truly thought this ti was the one. Now the doubts he had suppressed ca knocking.

Are we wasting our ti in a fools endeavor?

Lost in his thoughts, he didnt notice Ele had her gaze lost into the void. She finally murmured, I cant believe that worked. I was so focused I must have missed the notification.

His head snapped up. Did you get Mana Sense?

Ele mouth turned into a big grin, I never doubted my genius brother.

Kai was too happy to point out the obvious lie, getting swept up in the celebration. Alana ca to congratulate them both too.

When is it my turn? I want to learn that skill too. Kea said. Her previous skepticism was completely forgotten.

Kai sighed, now that he proved it could work, his sister would surely pester him till she got what she wanted. Give a mont to rest and we'll start.

Changing things for the better was possible after all.