Air Basics

"It doesn't matter what our names use to be, now we are Apostles for the Legendary Zeus. Our previous identities no longer matter. We are happy to serve Zeus." Axe Mortal explained.

Shit. I'm in a cult, I'm in a cult!

This is literally a cult! I can't be here... but I can't learn the air element from anywhere else! It's fine, as long as I don't pledge allegiance to that weird tall man, am I really a part of the cult at all?

This is immoral... this is wrong! This was nothing good at all and I feel like it would bite me in the ass, especially with my current reputation, but I had to get stronger.

Is this the way? I'm being selfish in looking for strength in such a way as this. I couldn't be considered a Hero right now, but what else could I do?

"For the next skill, I will transmit to all how to manipulate the air with [Manip], a skill unused for a long time that will finally come back!" Zeus shouted out. Surely enough, we were all taught [Manip] and he began his explanation for the skill itself.

"These skills I have taught you are mainly universal with all element wielding in case you haven't known them before, but it seems two of you have. Anyway, with [Manip], you'll be able to change the way the air moves. You can throw it, but what about changing the way it works? Turning it into a flowing river? Moving it in bulk however you want? It's all possible with this new skill! Now, please demonstrate how you plan to use the skill!" Zeus told us all. So, now we had to be creative?

I instantly used [Manip] in unison with [Dispersion] to grab a ball of air, stretch it out, and slingshot it back into the air. It created a burst of wind upon usage, I wonder if that could be turned into a skill itself.

"Oh! Potion Mortal! Very nice job! What about everybody else huh? Looks like the noob is doing better than you guys! I need to see some improvement!" Zeus shouted out to everybody. I needed more things to do... more ideas more skills to further improve my ability to wield air.

Maybe I was greedy, but I needed this. If I want to fight Joro to any capacity, I needed the power to counter any element he throws at me. This air was the start, as I now had the ability to take air-based attacks and manipulate them to a different shape or do whatever I needed to in order to deter it. This was a small start, but ever since he ruined my life, this is the first time I have seen actual progress that was beneficial to my journey in killing him. I finally saw it, and I smiled. I was getting closer.

I was doing good in this world now. Sure, I put myself down when I didn't gain any progress, but that was ignorant of me, I'm willing to admit. I'm doing well here. I regained my friends, I'm getting stronger, my capacity of mana is increasing, and I've done a fair job to offer my potions to all who needed them and saved some people as a Hero. I don't realize my progress because I always had higher expectations than the day before... so humbling myself now by realizing I was actually making progress, I couldn't help but smile.

"Potion Mortal, come up here!" Zeus called over to me. I started to climb the slabs, but Zeus's thundering roar scared me down.

"Float up to me. While wielding the air element, you cannot fly, but you can float. Figure this one out, Prodigy!" He said to me.

Floating up... as long as I could use [Manip] on the air in coercion with [Dispersion], I had a pretty good idea of how to float.

First, I would use [Dispersion] underneath my feet and then [Manip] to move it upward. I couldn't do it for more than a second, but in that second, I was able to move up one of the twenty slabs before the skill vanished.

"Good! Nineteen more times!" Zeus said.

-

After about thirty minutes of regenerating mana and repeating the process, I made it to the top with him. He told the students to follow right behind me after they understood the skill like I did and it was a race. I came in first and Axe Mortal came in second, so I knew that we were at least close now.

"Nice going!" Axe Mortal told me. I nodded and Zeus smiled as he looked back at all of us.

"Goodbye!" He said out loud. With a burst of air from behind us, he shot us all down the staircase of stone slabs. A fall from this height wouldn't be pretty, so I knew I had to use the two skills to float down to the surface once again.

I combined the skills at the last possible second and eliminated my momentum before landing on the ground. I was impressed with myself that I did it... but some weren't so lucky. Some people hit the ground and bounced as their unconscious bodies wildly settled down into the ground once more.

"Potion Mortal back at it again! Okay, so, you all know the two skills with air affinity, so I think it's time we discuss some other things about the element itself. This is where the class actually begins! Those of you who are injured, try again next year, but for the twenty of you, that made it past that fall... I want to congratulate you. It makes me happy that my future soldiers are kind enough to go through all of this just for my sake. You will be rewarded with the opportunity to be a True Apostle!" Zeus told us all.

Little did he know, I'm not in it for anything like that. I'm here to learn how to use this element and to get the hell out of here.