The Key to Soundbending

{Airbending} (Passive)

LV Master (-99% EXP Gained)

EXP: 0/100,000

Allows you to Airbend.

Increases the skill in Airbending.

You can now Bend with minimal movements.

{Air Sense} (Passive)

LV 76 (-56% EXP Gained.)

EXP: 136/5,600

Passively increases your sensitivity to the movement of air currents by 152%

I finally had my second Master level skill.

[You have fulfilled the requirements to get the title, Master Airbender!]

[You have gotten the Perk, {Perceptive}]

[You have passed 100 PER! Choose 1 of the 3 options below.]

{Enhanced Senses}

{Bodily Control}

{Chi Sense}

It was like too many screens were popping up for my success. Swatting them away, I focused on the only important one, the perks. Two were disappointing, Chi Sense giving me the skill Chi Sensing and decreasing the amount of Chi I had to use, but it wasn't that much in the first place, plus, I could already Sense Chi.

Bodily control was equally disappointing. It allowed me to fully control my body to the most minuted functions. I didn't have much experience with biology so I didn't want to fuck with my hormones or digestive system and not know how to restart it.

Enhanced Senses was average. It increasing all my senses. Seeing it being the only good one, my choice was easy.

I waited a few moments. 'I don't feel any different,' I think to myself. But, then, my nose twitched.

"What's that..." It smelt good. Confused, as I had never had the best sense of smell, I followed it with surprising ease.

The rest were cooking. Fish on sticks around a fire. I could see it from a surprising distance, hear them speak too.

"This is actually really cool," I mumbled to myself. But shaking myself out of my new enhanced senses, I focused, walking away from them and ignoring the chance to eat.

Though I said that, I realized something, nearly making me bash my head into a tree at my stupidity. With my new senses, it'd be many times harder to go to sleep.

"Fuck me," I groan. If only I had taken Bodily Control, I could've forced myself to sleep if that was a case! Why was I such an idiot?!

I sighed. 'There's no point in thinking about that now...'

It looked like I was just as impulsive as ever.

...

I sat on my knees, staring intently at my hands. I vibrated the Air, feeling the air vibrate. I could hear a constant buzz, my hand feeling the brunt of the vibrating noise. I was trying to do something very deliberate. I wasn't able to do it at level one hundred, so hopefully Master level would do it.

I manipulated the air around the already buzzing air, trying to make it so it didn't reach me, the sound that is.

Sound, as far as my knowledge, moves through waves that went in every direction and bounced off things. So, if I either somehow managed to guide those waves, or give it something to bounce off of, naturally, I wouldn't hear it if what it bounced off of was in front of me or thick enough. Because it would never reach me.

Yet, despite knowing that... I couldn't do it. For some reason, it just didn't work. I was close, I could feel it! But I was missing something.

What though?

I dispersed the air as I felt someone's presence. I turned my head and saw Katara.

"Elliot," she said.

"Yeah?" I asked. My brows were furrowed, still completely focused on finding that one missing piece.

"I came to tell you that food is done. Come get it before it gets cold," Me, Sokka, and Katara often took turns cooking. It seemed today was Katara's turn.

But I wasn't paying attention to that. "I'll get it in a little bit," I told her, and she nodded before walking back to the group.

'Katara, I could kiss you right now!' Thankfully I wasn't that impulsive, or actually wanted to even do that. Why was I thanking her? Because she had just given me an idea.

What could potentially be, the key to Soundbending.

Heat. Cold. Heat was a form of kinetic energy, and so was sound, right? Molecules at higher temperature have more energy and can vibrate faster, which in turn makes Sound travel faster as a result. Sound travels slower through cold air because it is denser than hot air since hot air expands rapidly and moves more, while cold air does the opposite. Sound is amplified in winter because it refracts on the earth more in cold air than warm air. But, likewise, sound travels further in warm air. Imagine it like how hot air rises while cold air descends, it's the same with Sound.

Hot air makes it travel faster and farther, and Cold air makes it louder yet slower. Simple, right?

I knew i could do it. I had once made the air feel like a sauna, after all. And an average sauna's temperature was around 150°F to 175°F, or 66.554°C to 79.444°C. So, couldn't I recreate that, and theoretically lower the temperature of the surrounding air too?

It didn't seem like a long shot by any means. For the first time, it felt attainable. Instead of just some impossible idea I wanted to accomplish because I thought it was cool, and yet, too stubborn to give up despite it looking hopeless nearly the entire time.

'I can do this, no, I will do it!'

...

Over and over and over again. I tried to manipulate the temperature to lower. It was hard, but increasing my Airbending experience by a ton. When I was doing something creative with a skill, and learning new things about it, as I realized only just a little while ago, it increases my EXP acquisition for that skill by 10 times! Meaning I got 4 experience for each time I used Airbending to practice changing the temperature.

I progressed enough to get the heat around five Celsius higher and three Celsius lower respectively. It was close.

...

We had made it to Gaoling. I actually forgot we were even supposed to go here for Toph to participate in Earth Rumble 6 to earn some extra cash. Honestly, I was too holed up practicing temperature control to interact with anyone, even Toph. Sure, this led to a little more discourse between Toph and Katara, since I wasnt there to mediate, but they could be put on hold for a bit. And they also got along for the most part. I think. Again, Soundbending was the only thing on my mind.

...

I put my hand on a log of firewood I bought from a vendor. The log began to shake, I could feel it vibrating under the palm of my hand, but my hand wasn't feeling the effects of the violently trembling wind. I pushed more, sweat dripped down my brow as I breathed deeply, in and out, as I fully focused. It was hard, as I needed to be extremely delicate and yet violent simultaneously.

But, then, for the first time, the log cracked. The center of it splintered in the middle.

It was second day since getting to Gaoling, noon, and a screen popped up in front of my face.

[You have created the skill, {Soundbending}!]

[You have achieved an unrepeatable and practically impossible feat in the world!]

[You have created and obtained the title, Originator of Soundbending!]

[You have created and obtained the Sub-Class, Soundbender!]

[Airbending has leveled up!]

[You have fulfilled the requirements to get the title, Grandmaster Airbender!]

It took a few moments for the words to process in my head. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"YES! YES! Holy shit! Haha! I-I actually did it!" I laughed in disbelief, sincerely shocked I got it to work. I stood up hurriedly, rushing towards the others. We had bought and set up some tents, it being cheaper than spending a few nights at an inn until the tournament arrived.

"Guy! I did it! I fucking did it!" I cheered excitedly.

"What? You did what?!" Sokka asked as he sat up from his attempts to take a nap. The rest looked on in interest as well, Aang lithely coming down from Appa, Toph forming a seat under herself, and Katara stopping her Waterbending practice, letting it drop to the floor with a splash.

"I'm the greatest goddamn Airbender alive!" I shouted into the skies, giddiness and pride overflowing from within me.

"I've never seen you this excited before..." Katara remarked, incredibly surprised.

"How could I not?! I mean, look at this!" I pulled out a log from behind my back, actually my inventory, and demonstrated. In a few seconds, it snapped in half.

"You... actually did it," Toph murmured in shock. No doubt she could feel the log tremoring in my hand.

"Did what?" Sokka stared at it, rubbing his chin as he tried to figure out what I did.

"Soundbending! And Toph, we did it. Just like how we created Metalbending, fuck, we're awesome!" I exclaimed.

"Soundbending?" Aang inquired, curious.

"Okay, so essentially, I'm using the air to manipulate sound." Sokka's jaw dropped at my explanation.

"That's possible?" Aang asked, wide eyed.

"It is now! Haha!" I couldn't help but laugh, joy at sharing this filled me.

"That's so sweet!" Toph boisterously proclaimed, laughing with me.

"That's..." Sokka didn't even seem to know what to say.

"Don't be too shocked Sokka, I'm gonna be doing bigger things in the future, I'll go down in history, I swear it!"

"Like what bigger things?" Katara questioned.

"I'll Master all Bending Styles! I'll be the best Bender to have ever lived, no one will be better than me, past, present, or future!" I stated confidently. Drunk on this feeling of overwhelming confidence, pride, and joy, I declared such a grandiose dream.

"Okay, Avatar." Sokka rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, that's a bit..." Katara didn't finish what she wanted to say, but I could tell by the doubting look on her face.

"Uh... I guess you can try?" Even Toph was doubtful.

"... I think you can do it, Elliot!" Though I knew Aang was just saying this to be kind, it still felt nice.

"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost guys," I replied sarcastically, but from the wide smile on my face they knew I wasn't hurt.

...

The creation of Soundbending, an endeavor I chose to do by myself, without any prompting or real help with the system, filled me with seemingly boundless confidence. It was mine, something I had created with all my heart and soul. I had done something truly special.

I'm not gonna lie, after creating Soundbending, my mind whirled with thoughts of what was possible or not. Thoughts about the capability of Bending as a whole.

There was oxygen in blood, could I manipulate that and stop the oxygen from getting to someone's brain and kill them like that? That would be the ultimate assassination technique. Could Earthbenders manipulate the iron in someone's blood? That should be possible, right?

If something had even the slightest possibility of being possible, is wanted to prove/create it. I had already done that for Soundbending, so...

Why couldn't I go further? I had with Airbending. I genuinely believe I could, no, I would. I had done it before, and I will do it again.

It was only a matter of time. But, first...

{Airbending} (Passive)

LV Grandmaster (-99% EXP gained.)

EXP: 10/1,000,000

Allows you to Airbend.

Increases your skill Airbending.

You can Psychic Bend.

It seemed I hadn't actually become the greatest Airbender. There was still one more level left, and seeing the experience required nearly made me faint.

'This will take I while,' I mused. No, it would probably take way longer than I thought. Years at the very least.

That also isn't taking into account the fact that I had to level up {Soundbending} as well. My life, while definitely improved, had made the grind of it twice as long.

'Fuck me.' Yet despite thinking that, I knew I would trade nothing for this, at least judging by the wide ass grin on my face.