Training Basics

Upon reaching a clearing in the woods they stopped, Wendy and Carla were clearly confused.

Their confusion lasted until he showed them the hidden door in the rockface.

They were surprised and a little impressed of what he had built in the mountain.

He told them he would have to make some changes to accommodate them as it was designed for someone who could see in complete darkness and wield many different magics.

It wouldn't take him long to change it into an area suited to the two girls as he had picked up quite a bit of basic lacrimas from Margaret town.

Building a little camp fire in the clearing he told Wendy and Carla to explore a bit around the area, check their surroundings and basically kill some time while he set up their room.

Starting with a hallway in the rock pretty much opposite his own room he easily carved out another decent sized pocket, this time he built shelves on the wall and 2 beds.

He doubted they would use the second bed but he wanted to be considerate.

Deciding to give then their own bathroom for privacy sake he did just that.

This one was a bit different from his own as he affixed some of the lacrimas he purchased into the walls and ceiling for water and light, he also added a tub instead of a shower.

Finishing the room off with a mattress and blankets for each of the beds, he was satisfied.

He had traded most of his furs and all his remaining Jewel for the lacrimas and bedding, but it was worth it.

He couldn't exactly expect them to sleep on the bare rocks after all, even with the furs it still wasn't very comfortable.

Placing a couple light lacrimas into the walls of his kitchen, living room and entrance, he called the girls inside.

Giving them a quick tour and explaining how the lacrimas worked, he shut the cave entrance and bid them goodnight.

It had been a very long day after all.

Alex woke early the next day to prepare some breakfast for the girls and do his morning routine.

When breakfast was ready, he went to wake up Wendy and Carla.

Carla was already up, and trying to get Wendy out of bed.

Evidently the young slayer was not a morning person.

Giving one last small chuckle towards the half zombie that fumbled its way to the table, they all ate breakfast together.

When the girls were done with their morning bath, they met Alex in the living room.

They wanted to see what he had planned for training and how he could help them with magic.

Carla was especially exited, she wanted to clear how to control her magic so she would stop having nightmares.

He went through the basics of drawing in Ethernano as well as trying to feel and manipulate the natural Ethernano, if they could then they could pull more in and get more magic faster.

He was also using this as a test too see if they could learn even a small part of {Mana Manipulation} or if it was something that was just so broken it couldn't exist naturally in this world.

'In a world where everything is made up of Ethernano, even the earth we walk on, the ability to use, control and change it at its base is just too broken' He thought as he watched the 2 girls sit in a meditative position and try to absorb Ethernano.

Wendy got it fairly quickly, she was a slayer wizard so her body was already used to breaking down and absorbing foreign magic.

Absorbing it from the world was many times more beneficial though and stayed with the user permanently.

It took Carla quite a bit longer as her body was not native to this world, although she was born here her body still had to undergo slight internal changes before she was able to freely absorb raw Ethernano.

He made them train solely in magic accumulation/meditating and told them they would have to focus on that for the next couple days.

It would probably be boring as hell for the 2 of them but it was necessary for what was to come.

They would need all the magic they could use for the hellish physical training he was going to force them to do.

Dragon slayers, just like the dragons that sired them, had amazing talent with mana accumulation.

Even without meditating it would rise quicker than most wizards.

However, unlike their dragons they are limited by their bodies.

Dragons naturally had monstrously powerful physical bodies, this allowed them to be able to store a great deal of magic power within those bodies.

As they got older, their bodies only get stronger until they reach the end of their life span.

Human bodies are a little different, they need to be trained to become stronger.

Alex was hoping if he strengthened her body it would be easier for her to draw in and claim more Ethernano to her mana pool.

But first they needed to get as much magic as their bodies can hold until the accumulation rate starts to slow down.

While the girls were meditating, Alex was focusing on something he had been curious about for a while.

If he could make permanent items using {Mana Manipulation} alone.

He was sure he could, he could already make the basic elements permanent and even strengthen or change them at will.

Before he had started this he had asked Wendy to 'demonstrate' her buffing/enhancement enchants.

He knew hers were only temporary but it would still give him a frame of reference and somewhere to start. It did not take him long with his cheat-like ability to copy and eventually be able to cast her buff spells.

His versions were still incredibly inefficient, but now that he knew them he could fine tune them to his hearts content.

The spells he learned from Wendy gave him a direction in which to start his enchanting.

It was far better than nothing but still required him to do a lot of testing on his own.

Luckily for him he could make basic items like swords and gear all day long if he needed too.

He would not be hurting for practice materials.

It took him about a week before he started seeing some acceptable results, he had managed to enchant a dagger with a poison affect.

He had not exactly planned for it and was actually getting annoyed with his continued failure.

He had ended up pouring his annoyance into the blade with his magic and the result was a poison enchant.

He could tell from its smell and potency that it was not a fatal poison. "Heh, it would probably end up just being annoy..." He froze, eyes going wide.

"The power of Emotions/Feelings! Why the hell didn't I try that before!? I guess I completely forgot about that little quirk of this world" Alex said.

He was so excited to have his first big lead that he didn't even realize he was talking to himself out loud, like a crazy person.

For the next couple of days he enchanted random items using basic emotions as a base to see what they would do.

He wanted to have a frame of reference before pushing any 'intent' into said emotion.

The results were interesting but not very shocking, the emotions that actually showed results using only their base were, Hate, Love, Anger and sadness.

He couldn't get other emotions to have an effect but shrugged it off as not imagining them properly.

Hate manifested as darkness, it had a very sinister aura to it and he imagined if he put it in a weapon it would be curses.

Love manifested itself as an energy shield, the more mana you put into it the stronger it would become.

Anger manifested itself as Fire... It was not surprising but still kind of disappointing.

Sadness manifested as a rain cloud, this was also not surprising and just as disappointing as the fire was.

(A/N: please note that he only experimented with emotions to see how they manifested themselves. Emotions almost always cause magic to react in some way in this world. He will not be using emotions as a way to create objects)

Once he was done testing the attributes of basic emotions he started testing 'intent' the same way he got emotions to manifest an effect and the world of true item enchanting opened its doors to him.

'YES!' he screamed in his head as he got it to work

'It's all starting to make sense now, and now that I found the proper way to manifest the 'intent' I can start experimenting' he thought excitedly.

He could have just learned how to make regular "holder-type" magic items but the vast majority used lacrimas to store and release the magic.

It was incredibly inefficient and you had very little control over its power, making them almost completely worthless to wizards.

The items he wanted to create would be used exclusively by wizards, so he wanted them to augment their abilities or even give them temporary access to magics they cant normally use.

After having discovered "true" item enchanting he dove right into enchanting all sorts of things, from plumbing fixtures to magical guns he dabbled in a bit of everything.

Getting his skill up was necessary if he wanted to create truly amazing gear after all.

When he was satisfied with his skill progress another 2 days had passed, his inventory was slowly filling with useless junk and his cave had gone through an almost complete make-over.

Looking around the room he noticed Wendy and Carla quietly absorbing Ethernano in the corner of the room, they appeared to be trying to stay out of his way.

'I should make them each something special as a reward for being so diligent in their training, even when it's boring as all hell' he thought with a small smile.

Turning his thoughts inward he had the perfect idea for each of them, not wasting any time he jumped right back to the grind, this time with a massive smile on his face.

Two more days had passed since he started making the 2 gifts, making the base had been easy but in order to get the result he wanted it had taken massive amounts of mana.

He had spent the majority of each day just channeling mana into each item, resting to recover his mana, and channeling more.

When he was done, he was incredible happy with the results.

Looking up and seeing both girls staring at him he realized he had finished just in time, it appeared they were getting bored.

"Haha, It looks like you girls have finally had enough sitting around" Alex said with a chuckle as he walked over too them.

"I'm sorry I got lost in my own testing" he followed up.

"It is fine, you looked like you were having a lot of fun at times" Wendy said.

She was still a little shy in her speech, but had grown quite a bit more comfortable with him after almost 2 weeks of living together.

"Indeed, your focus was very commendable" Carla agreed.

"What were you making?" Wendy couldn't help but ask, curiosity clearly in here eyes.

"AH! Right" Alex started as if remembering. "I created some items for each of you as a way to reward your hard work these past 2 weeks, I know all too well how damn boring meditation can be" Alex said with a smile.

He could actually see Wendy's eyes start to sparkle at the mention of a gift and Carla also paid closer attention.

Alex withdrew a few things from his {Inventory} and set them on the table.

What appeared in front of Wendy was a pair of blue boots the same colour as her hair.

They had a dragon scale like pattern over the entire surface with white wing designs on each side of the laces, they were elegant yet comfortable looking.

Although they looked a bit too big for her, Wendy still had stars in her eyes as she touched them.

In front of Carla was a pair of beautiful earrings, they were simple in their design but still seemed to scream 'divine royalty' to anyone looking at them.

Turning to Wendy and pointing at the boots, Alex began his description of the items, the girls could already tell they were magical and listened with rapt attention.

"These boots are very special and are linked directly to your magic, nobody but you will be able to use them... Well, unless another Sky Dragon Slayer shows up" he said with a chuckle.

"They are called 'Wind Walkers' and do almost literally what it sounds like.

By channeling your magic into these boots you will activate a spell that will allow you to run through the sky.

Using your wind magic to move yourself, you could even turn it into real flight" Alex said to the awe-struck child.

Turning to Carla he noticed she was also stunned.

Resisting a chuckle he continued "Your earring are the same way but with different active functions.

They will not work with anyone else's magic but yours, not even other Exceeds will be able to use them.

The first one is linked to your clairvoyance, it is like an artificial memory(flash drive) that will record the visions you have.

Most of your visions are confusing because you only get flashes, that is all your brain is able to grasp in the short time span the vision takes place.

This will allow you to store, review and even share your visions if you should so desire.

The second one is a little bonus" Alex said with a smile to the little kitty that had tears in her eyes.

"The second one is called a 'storage' item. It holds within it a small pocket space that only you have access too. It is essentially 'itemised re-quip magic'.

This should allow you to carry big objects without relying on others or flying to move them" Alex said, sitting back as he finished his descriptions.

The girls were still in different stages of stunned silence or happy sobs.

When Alex noticed that Wendy's mood and changed from happiness to sadness and longing he couldn't help himself but ask "Wendy, what is the matter? Did something happen?" he said with concern clearly in his voice.

She was hugging the boots like they were a lifeline while sobbing her eyes out.

It confused him greatly and even pulled Carla out of her own thoughts.

"There, there child. Tell me, what is wrong?" Carla asked, walking over and placing a paw on the girl.

"I am sorry" Wendy said while sniffling.

"Everything is fine, just tell us what is wrong" Carla quickly replied.

"The aura and texture" The blue haired girl started. "They feel just like my Mother, The Sky Dragon Grandeeney!" She said.

'Well this is sure unexpected' Alex thought as his eyes widened.