by John Nest
They carried on with this exercise for the next two hours. Gradually, Eleve increased her miniscule fireballs to four, and Smoke could deflect two of them. With this exercise alone, he increased his Fire Manipulation ability to Beginner Level 5.
"That's enough," suddenly said Eleve. "Next, Do you know what a Fire Triangle is?"
Smoke silently shook his head. He decided it was better to stay quiet than act like he knew anything about it.
"The fire triangle represents the three prerequisites needed for a fire to exist. All three requirements must be present at the same time to have a Fire. The fire will continue to burn until one element is removed," explained Eleve. "And these three requirements are fuel, heat, and oxygen."
The elderly HighElf then pointed at the candle. "Just like that wick being burned, that plays the role of fuel. Heat or spark is when we lit it, and of course oxygen is around us. The optimum amount for oxygen to burn anything is 21%, the exact percentage of the oxygen we need to breathe."
With a wave of her hand, Eleve then snuffed out the light of the candle. She then let out an even larger flame on top of her right palm.
"Now, why do you think I can make this fire burn?" she asked Smoke. "I'm not burning my flesh, but the flames are still there. What am I using as a substitute for the three requirements?"
Smoke's body leaned in closer, as he pondered on Eleve's question.
"For oxygen, of course, it's the air. For fuel, I'm guessing that you're using your mana," answered Smoke. "But I don't know what you used for spark."
"I'm using my Gahum," answered Eleve. "Gahum is not simply mana. It is everything and nothing at the same time. It is the special catalyst that controls all elements. It changes the element into something else."
"Gahum can be used for both creation," said Eleve, summoning a small salamander next to the candle.
"Or for destruction," she went on, and the salamander turned into a fiery ball of flames as it devoured the candle into nothingness.
The training room went pitch black. Then, Eleve created a floating flame in the place of where the candle was.
"Now, why don't you try it," said Eleve.
Once more, Smoke respectfully bowed down, and faced his opened palms. He concentrated all of his mana into it, but nothing came out, not even a small spark.
"Of course nothing will come out, you idiot," said Eleve. "You still don't have the Gahum of Fire."
"The Earth element is convenient, because it is always there before you manipulate it, right?" said Eleve. "But what did you do when you used your Lightning Manipulation?"
"I had to use a special equipment to produce Lightning," answered Smoke.
Eleve nodded, scratching her cheek and chin. "I guessed as much."
"Well, there are several ways to acquire the Gahum of Fire," said Eleve. "You can go on a quest in Votl City, the one where Fire Mages receive an engraved Flame Ring socketed with an ember stone."
Smoke's face cringed at the thought of submitting himself to apprenticeship to be a Fire Mage, simply to acquire some ring.
Eleve saw his reaction and slightly smiled.
"Then, there's also the accumulation of the Fire Gahum within your own body," she said with the same stern expression.
"How do you do that?" asked Smoke.
"Hm... You could eat ten-thousand fire fennel flowers," said Eleve. "They have flaming petals that when consumed bonds with your inner organs."
"But that would take too long, as they are very scarce," said Eleve, dejected. "There is another way, but that one is next to impossible."
"What's the other way?" eagerly asked Smoke.
"You could go hunting for ember sprites, but these things are extremely rare and skittish," said Eleve. "They run and disappear as soon as they sense the presence of other species. Even if you do find one, they will only join those who are great leaders, and I'm doubtful that you will pass that."
Smoke's eyebrows instantly raised. "Really? Are you sure?"
"Positive. At least, that's what Magietrois Florissant told me," said Eleve and shrugged. "I've only ever seen them in books."
Staring at his metal orb compartment on his chest, Smoke was slightly hesitant to let his symbiote out. However, he quickly dismissed his doubt after he saw a slight purple glow from Igniz.
"To be honest, I have an ember sprite," said Smoke. "In truth he is my symbiote."
He then opened the metal orb on his chest and released the dark ember sprite.
"No! It can't be," said the old HighElf excitedly. "That's an ember sprite, but it's purple? Wait, Is that what the book called a dark ember sprite?"
Smoke humbly nodded as Igniz flew around the dark training room.
"You might have just changed my opinion of you," said Eleve. She suddenly paused and her eyes brightened. "Could this be why she chose you?"
"Who chose me?" asked Smoke, confused.
"Don't mind an old lady's babbling," she said. "Anyway, what about your symbiote? What kind of abilities have you learned with it?"
"Igniz is a he," reflexively snapped Smoke. "Please stop calling him as if he was a mere object."
"Oh, sorry," said Eleve. "Looks like you can be a bit touchy when it comes to Igniz, huh?"
An astonished Eleve stared at the blitzing dark ember sprite in the room. "He truly is a fascinating creature, isn't he?"
"Telefax Vision and Symbiote Vision," suddenly said Smoke. "Those are the only two abilities that I've learned with Igniz."
Eleve smiled. "You're in luck! Wait right here," she said and teleported out of the training room, leaving a fiery afterimage of herself.
Smoke then turned to Igniz. "At least you don't have to hide anymore," he said. "Hey, wait a minute! Was that the reason you wanted to reveal yourself?"
Igniz pretended not to listen to Smoke. Instead, the dark ember sprite energetically flew around the training room, as he enjoyed his newly gained freedom.
PLOP
Eleve suddenly reappeared in the same spot where she was squatting. In her hands was a bulky book with special leather bindings.
"I've been wanting to see this tome put to good use," she said to Smoke. "Faux, please take this."
She handed the book to him, and a notification window popped up immediately after.
+ Learned Ability: Symbiote Synergy
Active
Level: Beginner Level 1
Experience: (0/1,000)
Synergized Fusion with your symbiote on the cellular level.
* Acquire the Physical attributes of your symbiote
* Acquire the Elemental attributes of your symbiote
* Acquire the Gahum of your symbiote
Notes:
> The entity with the higher Intelligence gets main control of the body.
> Dying in synergized form means permanent death for the symbiote.
After the book vanished, Eleve eagerly ordered Smoke. "Go on, use it already. Merge with Igniz!"
"Wait, before I do, I want to know more about the ability?" asked Smoke. "What exactly happens to Igniz when we're merged? Does it lessen his lifespan? Am I slowly absorbing his abilities, or even worse his essence?"
Eleve chuckled and hysterically slapped her knees. "Stop being overdramatic. Your symbiote is going to be fine… probably. Now, go on and just do it. I thought I wouldn't see this in my lifetime."
Igniz flew down near Smoke.
"Well, what do you say?" Smoke asked his symbiote. "Are you up for this?"
Letting out a bright purple flame, Igniz nodded his head in agreement.
"Alright! Let's do this!" shouted Smoke, and used their third symbiote ability. "Synergized!"
The moment Smoke activated the ability, Igniz's small flaming body was absorbed into Smoke's. Fumes started coming out of his skin. Until, two dark purple flames came out from his palms.
"I can't believe it!" said Eleve, shaking her head and loudly clapping her hands. "You actually pulled it off."
However, a notific
ation window popped up in front of Smoke.
- You have received the Burned Status. Losing 500 HP/second.
Smoke's life bar was steadily being depleted, and Eleve instantly noticed this as well.
"It seems your Synergized form is still not complete," said Eleve. "You will have to work on it until it doesn't hurt you anymore."
A carefree Smoke nodded. Despite the steady decrease in life, he was still widely grinning. He tried letting out several fireballs, and at once eight purple fireballs came out of his palms.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Smoke.
'The fireballs were even stronger than the ones from Igniz,' thought Smoke.
"Good, now let's really start your training," said Eleve, resuming her serious tone and even sterner appearance. "Here in Florissant Seminary, we believe that repetitive actions leads to mastery."
"Normally, you would spend numerous days, memorizing spells and incantations," explained Eleve. "Yet, due to time constraints. It would be best for you to practice being autodidactic."
"Autodidactic? What's—" began Smoke, but he was instantly cut off as Eleve teleported Smoke and herself into a survival mission.
* * * * * *
"Where are we?" asked Smoke, looking around. A purple flaming Smoke stood next to Eleve, who teleported them to a small grassland in between two forest patches. His life bar was steadily being depleted.
"We are in one of Florissant's special gaming grounds," said Eleve. "There is a high chance that you might die, but I thought it would be okay since you're a Sonstwelter."
"But that won't be good for Igniz," said Eleve. "So, I suggest you cancel your synergized form and do this yourself."
"Gee, thanks for thinking about my well being," replied Smoke with a hint of sarcasm, and obediently ended his infused state with his symbiote. A purple flash suddenly appeared and Igniz was happily flying next to him.
"Of course, Faux. Like I said, I've changed my opinion of you," reminded Eleve. "Now, that I know you have a dark ember sprite."
"So, shall we get started?" said Eleve.
Without waiting for Smoke's reply, she pulled him closer and pointed to one of the forest patches.
"There are foraging santelmos to your left, and voracious servals to your right," she said to Smoke. "Of course there are other creatures in those forest, but those two are the monsters that I want you to focus on."
"Why?" asked Smoke for clarity.
Eleve grinned at him. "Let's just say that something special happens when you kill enough of them."
Smoke's eyes instantly livened with excitement. "I need to kill ten thousand of them before that happens, right?"
"Hey, how did you know that?" pouted Eleve.
"You know, for an elderly HighElf, you sure don't act your age sometimes," suddenly blurted out Smoke. "I mean you act on opposite ends of the spectrum," he quickly added to appease her.
"Hmmp. Don't you know that deep down, all of us are just kids? We never truly grow up," she reasoned out, while her wrinkled face still pouted. "At least that's what I learned from her."
"From Flor—" said Smoke, but quickly stopped himself as to not ensue the wrath of the sensitive HighElf.
"So, can you tell me what abilities I can get from the servals and the santelmos?" asked Smoke.
"Well, aren't we cocky?" pointed out Eleve. "It's not yet a guaranteed that you can get their abilities, because this gaming grounds has a time limit. One can only stay here for eight days straight once a month."
"You should have told me in advance," angrily said Smoke. He quickly did some rough calculations in his head. "Considering our wasted time, this means I have to kill at least sixty of these monsters in under an hour for the next eight days straight. That's one monster per minute."
"I'd say that's about right, and you can only choose one of them too," said Eleve.
Smoke was troubled because this meant that he would not be logging out for Zectas for the next two days in the real world. He would be violating the health rules of the game.
"Hurry! Tell me which one is easier to kill?" asked Smoke.
"That depends on your abilities," answered Eleve. "The santelmos are plentiful and don't attack unless provoked. Whereas, the servals are scattered and vicious."
After hearing Eleve, Smoke ran for the forest filled with santelmos. He had no idea what a santelmo or a serval looked like, but he decided to go with the less aggressive monsters.
"You'll need one of these monsters abilities in order to take the next step!" shouted Eleve to him.
Using his Hyper Jump ability, Smoke reached the forest patch in two minutes.
- Entered Fourrage Forest
- The creatures of note in this forest are stone deers, stag moose, and santelmos.
- Suggested level for entering this place is 200.
Smoke ignored the notification window, and immediately set out to find the santelmos. Only seconds into the forest patch, and he spotted twenty of them.
They had humanoid bodies covered in orange flames, and were almost two-meters tall. Most of them were picking up rocks in the forest. They threw them into their mouths as soon as they picked one up, swallowing it in one bite.
Smoke took out two black lightning rods. He was aware that he no longer needed to increase his Lightning Affinity.
However, after dropping his weighted chain and sickle against Ultimo, this was his only remaining weapon that could inflict great melee damage.
Right from the start, he used Lightning Strike on the fire monster. A blue flash of light enveloped the forest. The targeted santelmo's life bar displayed (360,000/400,000 HP).
A flying Igniz overhead blasted his fireballs at the santelmo, but displayed an attack damage of zero.
"I think you have to sit this one out," said Smoke to Igniz.
Immediately, the other santelmos gathered near it, ran far away. Whereas, the injured santelmo's flames became hot red.
It charged at Smoke, but its speed was noticeably slow. Smoke engaged the monster and delivered blow after blow worth 4,000 to 4,500 damage points.
The sluggish santelmo could do nothing against the experienced Smoke. He danced around the red fiery monster, unscathed.
Smoke spent the next two minutes attacking the monster until he finally reduced its life bar to zero.
+ You have dealt a fatal blow to the santelmo.
+ You have killed the santelmo.
+ You have gained 380,000 exp.
'That's not bad,' thought a delighted Smoke, picking up the loot of the santelmo.
+ Acquired coal.
Despite easily defeating the santelmo, his state of mind quickly dampened. He realized that he could only kill thirty of these santelmos at best, and he already used his Lightning Strike ability.
Recognizing that he needed to increase his damage output, Smoke grabbed the black and silver metallic rocks from his backpack, and threw them to the ground. He used his Electromagnetic Golem Offering and created two minions to his aid.
Next, he used his Master Level Earth Manipulation. He molded a clay golem after its predecessors. Yet, this one was slightly thinner. He hoped that this would make it move faster.
Then, Smoke used his Animate ability on it, giving it a simple command to attack any flaming humanoid monsters like the santelmo.
After completing his golems, Igniz orbited around Smoke, as if asking if he could do something to help.
"Sorry, Bud, but these guys are Fire elementals," said Smoke. "You can't do anything against them."
He then switched out his twin lightning rods for his power chainsaw bow. He only needed to run a few meters before he spotted another group of the santelmos.
Firing four arrows, the same number of red santelmos were charging straight for them. Smoke faced one of them, while his metallic and clay golems challenged the other monsters.
The metallic golems moved like sloths, but their speed were evenly matched against the fiery santelmos. The red flaming monsters damage on his minions
only amounted to 500 points, while the monsters could dish out 1,000 points with their strong punches.
On the other hand, his animated clay golem moved slightly faster. This gave it an edge of parrying the santelmo's attacks before delivering a counterstrike.
By the time Smoke killed his santelmo, the golems had damaged their opponents' life bars by at least 24,000 points.
Smoke then proceeded to help them finish off with their respective santelmos. Together with his minions, it took him five minutes to eliminate four santelmos. He had gotten close to the one minute per monster condition. Yet, his mana was only at 16% and was steadily being depleted.