Final Day

My vision still hazy and my mind and body half asleep, yet I still had managed to pull myself away from the warmth of my covers, and began dressing myself and getting ready to leave for practice.

Mist still hung low across the landscape of the cold eerie morning, as I traversed through the gates of the town and back into the forest just outside. My boots allowed water and grime to leak in through the holes in them, making my toes rigid, yet slimy covered in a sickly brown that clung to it shards of ice that began piercing my skin with every step I made.

Today I had decided to move my place of training to slightly different surroundings, still in the forest of course, like a lake surrounded with multiple rocks, pebbles, boulders and such.

"I wasn't able to get to much practice in yesterday as I only began somewhere around mid-day, so I need to persevere today, especially today since tomorrow our party is supposed to head out. "

With that in mind and off my chest, I began warming up, by conjuring the same wind slashes as yesterday. Their potency hadn't gone down and in fact had slightly increased. My mana manipulation came naturally since I was so heavily favoured by mana and overnight my reserves had expanded more. I was now able to utilise the mana more efficiently, rather than wasting mana like I was doing yesterday. After all, yesterday, when I fired of my wind blades, a quarter of the mana I built up in my hand had been dispersed back into the surroundings because I didn't apply it to the structure of the blades well enough. However more and more did my wasteful nature decrease and I applied the mana in my intended way.

"Okay, that should be enough as a warmup." I say as I look towards multiple trees that had been chopped down. "Today I'll focus on earth magic."

I once again sat down close to the middle of the forest, however in a space that naturally possessed more rocks and boulders, and what better place for that than a lake. I sat on top of the largest boulder that I could find at the side of the stream, crossed my legs and let my mind focus on tempering my mana into the same tough, rigid, rugged essence that I felt from the surrounding area. I struggled for a while since my mana branched of into entering water magic when I would lose concentration because there was still a higher amount of water affinity mana in the surroundings, even more prominent than the earth affinity which was the most abundant here.

After an hour or so of complete dedication of time and concentration, I managed to grasp it. "Yes! I did it! Oh my days~, at this rate I thought I'd never get it!" I shout in bliss euphoria at my achievement. I quickly focused and honed my mind on that grasped sensation as to not let it escape me and continued to carve it's essence into me by allowing the earth converted mana, to flow into my feet, through my legs, abdomen, chest, arms and finally my palms.

"I feel it." I whisper to myself quietly as I control my breathing, composing my self and further deepening my image of the mana flowing through my body. I stand up and open my eyes, ready to try and use my newly acquired earth magic, whatever I would conjure. But to my surprise... Nothing came.

"Huh? Why is nothing happening? I can definitely sense the earth affinity and infuse it with my mana, but I can't seem to be able to evoke any spells." I sat back down on the boulder once more, trying to gather my scattered thoughts. Had my magic theory been wrong? Or maybe each magic has it's own theory on how to use it? Ughhhhh! I have no idea as to why nothing will happen!!

I spend the next couple of hours, laying on the boulder, as uncomfortable as it was, blasting blades of wind as I gazed into the sky pondering for an answer. Agitated with each passing second that was wasted. This was supposed to be my last day before the quest. The day were I'd dedicate completely to furthering my advancements in magic so I'm prepared.

"What could I be missing? This is so hard!!" I shout, letting out my frustration that had long grown in me, causing one of my wind blades to go out of control and hitting the surface of the water. The water splashed upwards and came crashing back down making a slapping noise. My gaze drawn to the scene which had unfolded in front of my eyes, set a blaze by a brilliant idea.

"THAT'S IT!" I scream out loud scaring any animal in the vicinity. But I couldn't care less. I immediately got back up on my feet, jumping of the boulder on to steady ground and began soaking my mana in the earthen affinity that I had previously tempered within my body. I gathered it into both my palms and crouched in the spot I stood at and placed my hands against the uneven floor, sensing it's texture and taking in it's colour which began to resemble my mana more and more. Rather my mana began taking the correct complexion. I could feel it, even without having to use my eyes, which were closed now. In my head, my mana moulded and transformed into a massive spike emerging from the ground, manifesting into reality just as much as it did in my head, as the ground that I had been touching configured it's shape into a small jagged spike with multiple sharp ends on it, coming out in different directions.

I stood up and leaned my head back, switching my focus to the sky, more closely the sun which had been sheltered by grey clouds and mist that climbed further up the sky. Though the sun was hidden, its eminent energy struck a chord within me with a reaction of my achievement and made the corners of my mouth curl up.

"Yes. I did it." The words that came out of my mouth sounded more relieved and exasperated rather than happy and ecstatic. My hands clenched at either side. A sense of achievement settled deep in his heart, and the process of achieving something ingrained deep into his body and exhausted mind.

"So to use earth magic, your magic can't conjure earth out of nowhere, it needs to supplied and can only manipulate it's shape. I wonder if that's similar to all magic or is it exclusive to earth magic? Well that's a theory for another day. I need to get to practicing as my imagination doesn't match my end result. It's more of a downgraded imitation if I had to say. Guess I really have to give it my all now since I don't have much time."

I smacked my fist against my other hands palm and began practicing my earth magic. Mostly taking the form of defensive walls and trying to increase it's size and thickness each time, to make it a feasible shield capable of protecting someone, or a group of people. It proved to be rather mana draining, especially compared to wind magic that came to me like second nature. Still, it wasn't that mana draining to take up really any significant amount of mana from me. Though I'm saying that, it still took it's toll on me due to my body which is not used to expending much mana at all.

The day slowly came to an end as I became slowly satisfied with my results for the second day. It certainly didn't go exactly as I planned, but I learnt something that will surely be valuable information for me later down in the future when I utilise other affinity's.

"Big day tomorrow. Look out for me, brother." I whisper to myself as I headed back to the old mans home, dusk settled in the back, my breath smoked as I continued walking forward in my tattered clothes and my body drenched in sweat.