n

n

nErik and Eldrian talked a bit more, first about the flower. With Erik sharing what he speculated it would be capable of doing when turned into a potion. After that, the conversation turned to how he was able to do it.

n

"I just had to strengthen the bond I feel with plants, adding mana into it and then thinking of what I want. It isn't the easiest, but I am getting better. For now, my limit is just flowers.

"

n

"And what would be next?

" Eldrian asked.

n

"That would firstly be forming branches,

" Zamia said, coming to fetch Eldrian for the start of his training.

"Then branches with fruits and flowers, then shaping the branch into a useable item. For example, how Cephaphyr had made those arrows for you. From there the sky is the limit.

"

nShe smiled as the two quickly turned around and greeted her.

n

"Faust, continue with what you have been doing. Akarui is already in the cave practicing, you can join her there if you wish. But remember, the enhanced elements there will slow down your growth but help you experiment.

"

nErik nodded, quickly wished Eldrian good luck and then decided to try and find a new type of plant he had yet to attempt guiding. Which was what the ability to control plants and having them form something was called. 'Growth Guidance' was the name of the ability.

n

"What are you going to have me do?

" Eldrian asked, curious how different this and last time was going to be. He assumed there would be a massive difference since last time she had only given him some guidance. Not taken on the role of a mentor.

n

"First thing first, show me your capabilities.

"

nNodding, Eldrian went all out. Casting all the spells he was comfortable with, to the best of his abilities. He even dual-cast Frost Needle, refraining from triple casting since his control over them would weaken if he did.

nTen minutes later, Eldrian was done showing what he was capable of. Having taken a moment with each spell to show how much control he had over it.

n

"Right, as I suspected, you lack creativity in how you use the spells. It is common for all static casters. Let me show you something,

" Saying this, Zamia cast Frost Needle. Naturally, how she did this differed from his way, but not by much anymore.

nShe then had the ice morph, slowly becoming a thin ice disk about the size of a hand and no more than a millimeter thick. Completely transparent.

n

"Since you are able to even dual cast this particular spell, you should be able to do this too. You no longer use a spell module for it, correct?

"

n

"Yes,

" Eldrian nodded, surprised she had managed to pick up on it. It was the only spell he could cast just on feel and thought, outside of Tier 0 spells naturally.

nDuring her demonstration, Eldrian had been using mana sense constantly to try and see what she was doing. Alas, outside of the movement of mana which wasn't even all that clear thanks to the environmental mana, he gained nothing more.

nStill, Eldrian felt he knew where to start. So, he envisioned the ice disk and sent the mana he was so used to out to the spell. However, it immediately shattered. After two more attempts with the same results, Zamia spoke out.

n

"The properties of the structure you are trying to summon isn't that of a solid icicle. Your approach has to change.

"

nNodding, Eldrian realized this was the problem that he faced with the Tier 3 version of the ice spell too. His mana was correct to form the ice, but not correct to survive for long. Time quickly passed as he continued to try different combinations of water and darkness (different ice temperatures).

nZamia had long since left Eldrian to his own devices after sharing a bit more advice. He was constantly doing his best even having gone back to the spell module. Which had been a massive failure. When he attempted to change it through the module a massive headache would cause him to lose all focus.

n'I can try doing it in the magic abyss. Changing the structure of the module to that of a disk might work, but that still won't be the correct technique.' Realizing that doing so would basically be cheating, and more importantly that it might not even work, Eldrian continued at it.

n

"No no, you are now trying to form a ticker disk. My demonstration was just a millimeter thick for a reason.

" Zamia said, having arrived after Eldrian's third attempt after trying to thicken it.

nHe had planned to make a palm-sized disk instead of a hand-sized one. Tripling the thickness and hopefully allowing the spell to not shatter as it grew too large.

n

"Oh right, what did you ever do with the Ether of the spell?

" She asked as she left again, the shards of his new failure flying into the ground.

n

"But... How do I change that?

" Eldrian asked and received no reply, instead, at this time Ceph came for a visit. Eldrian deciding it was about time for a break, yet he started becoming worried. By now six hours had passed and no success.

nAs he talked with Ceph, trying to glean something on the way that the young alicorn did magic, Eldrian realized something. Breaking from the conversation, he summoned Nidia.

nInstead of increasing the mass of the water, this time he tried decreasing it. Finding that as he did, he found it hard to keep the mana concentrated. When pushing mana into it to grow it larger, he always lost some to the surroundings. But that was acceptable as he just needed to continue to feed it.

nOne would assume that when it was smaller the surrounding would have less of an effect or even add mana to it. Eldrian realized this wasn't the case. It was the opposite in fact. Nidia seemed to be just the right size when cast normally. Just large and small enough for the surroundings to not affect it much.

nSmaller or larger, then suddenly a pull appeared on the ball of water.

n'I have been trying to use the same amount of mana.' Letting half the mana of Nidia go, the ball shrank naturally. Next, Eldrian tried expanding it back to its original size without adding mana.

nThis kept him busy for the rest of the day, and the next. Eldrian attempting the same thing with each element, coming to learn how the mana in the air interacted with his spells. And more importantly, how it pulled or pushed on them.

n

"Finally!

" Eldrian shouted in joy, not having succeeded with the task Zamia gave him. Rather, with the one he had made for himself.

nInstead of casting the Tier 0 spells as they were intended, he would let his mana slowly move out and form a flame or drop as small as he could possibly manage. The amount of mana this required was so little the system couldn't even pick it up. The flame and drop were so small, in truth the flame was more a spark and the drop was just a drop of mist.

nFor Light and Dark, Eldrian repeated what he had done. Using what he had learned over the past two days about the pull of the surroundings on these specific elements and how to control so little mana. Executing it took him half of the day, making it around two in the afternoon when he decided to take a break.

n