Origin Seeker

Chapter 26: Training

"So Scarlet, what're your skills?" (Dream)

Dream looked towards Iris so she could give her answer. Besides [Devour] and some fire magic, he didn't know anything else.

"I have [Fire Manipulation], [Devour], and [Basic Air Magic]. I also have [Close Combat Mastery] and [Expanded Stomach], which goes with my devour skill."

"...So that's why you eat so much. And Fire manipulation? So you have control over fire and can create it?"

"Ya pretty much. Though more fire and precise control costs more mana."

"...Then why did you say you have no ranged abilities?! You can throw fire lances like Luna, or spew out fire like a flammenwerfer!"

"I-I have no idea what that is. But I don't have any ranged because fire is hard to control! Luna's water is easy! I barely know how to create a blade of it by my hand! That's why I said I was melee. It's just easier for me to slash and burn..."

Iris turned her head away in embarrassment from Dream's scrutinizing gaze. Meanwhile, Dream could already figure out the solution to most of her problems. He stared at her for a second before giving up.

" *sigh*.....Oh good lord we have lots of training to do. What about you Luna?" (Dream)

Dream turned to the hopefully not so hopeless one, Luna.

"I have [Water Manipulation], [Basic Earth Magic], and [Basic Restore]. The restore one is my healing ability that dad says is a class above regular [Healing] magic. I also don't use earth magic very much."

Dream guessed she also had the combat mastery since they practiced a lot. But other than that, It seemed like he was rather on the spot in terms of what they could do. Just that he didn't know their skills were something like manipulation.

Manipulation is very likely above even advanced magic, allowing you to control the element with your mana freely. This opens up tons of avenues for them. One of which is dealing with groups of monsters like earlier.

Dream took a deep breath and formulated a strategy.

" *sigh*...Ok! So we need to correct both of your ways of using your magic. First, Luna." (Dream)

Dream summoned a knife from his inventory and walked in front of Luna.

"...Yes Dream?" (Luna)

Luna eyed him in confusion and a little wariness. 

"Heh don't worry. I want you to practice digging a trench. 10 feet long, 5 feet wide, And deep enough for me to stand in."

Dream dug an outline in the ground with the knife as he said that. This is what he would use to confront those forest crawlers. 

"Uhh...Ok. I'll try" (Luna)

"And Scarlet. Time to commit a little arson."

"Arson?" (Iris)

"Follow."

Dream grabbed Iris and walked a little ways from Luna. It was time to teach some basics.

When they were far away enough, Dream stopped and faced her.

"Alright. First question. What is fire?" (Dream)

"Fire?" 

"Yes."

"Uhhh..."

Iris stood there with a concentrated face. Only for about a minute.

"I don't know."

"Obviously."

"Then why'd you ask?!"

"Heh. Just listen close. I'll try to keep it simple. To make fire, you needs three things. You need heat, food, and air. The food and air burn when you give it enough heat. In your case, when you make a fireball, you heat and burn the mana in your hands, while the air around you automatically gets used. You got that?"

"....I think so. So I need to burn the mana like normal and give it air to keep burning?"

"Almost. You also need to keep the mana coming. If you cut off your food source, then it will still stop."

"But what about when I would be hunting the bulls. Their hair would still burn even though I wasn't giving them mana."

"That's because the hair became the food instead of your mana. Wood is food, grass is food, many things can be used as food. But to use your skill, it all starts with you burning your own mana. So to start, create a ball of flame in your hand."

Iris brought up her palm at Dream's command and a fireball was created.

*Fwoof*

"Good. That ball of fire is burning mana on the inside, while air comes from the outside. The burning mana and the air combine to create the orange flame you see. So what do you do if you want to throw it?"

"Hmmm...I need to keep giving it mana?"

"That's half right. You need to give it some extra mana, throw all the mana, and push it with air to let it travel. Try it."

"Alright...Hyyaaa!"

Iris put in a bit of extra mana and threw the ball of flame outward with a loud shout. When the ball left her hand, it was strong at first, before it started dwindling at about 15 meters before going completely out at 20 meters.

"Decent. Now, obviously the more mana you feed it, the hotter and longer it's gonna last. Now, what we need for today is not a fireball, but a flamethrower. What you want to do there is create the ball of mana in your hand, burn it, and blow the burning mana with your air magic. While you're blowing it with air magic, your need to keep producing burning mana in your palm. Try it."

"Ok. *muttering* ball of fire... and thennnn...air."

*Fwoosh*

Iris made the ball of fire in her hand like last time, and then blew on it with air magic. When she did, a 4 foot long tongue of fire was created blowing off of her hand.

"Hey! I'm doing it! Look!"

"Haha you're a fast learner! Now all you need to do is make the torch you have there even bigger. More burning mana, more air magic. There's a tree about 15 feet away. Hit it with your torch."

"Okay!"

Iris excitedly got to work on controlling her new spell. Dream let her figure out the rest and turned around and walked towards Luna.

"How's the digging coming?"

"uhh... It's alright? I'm trying to get it all out but dirt will just fall back inside..."

"Huh? Wait..."

Dream looked down at the 'trench' she made and saw the problem. She was trying to dig the hole like a shovel!

"Heh. I see what it is. It's like you're digging with your hands but with mana instead."

"Is...Is that not what digging is?"

"Well, why scoop when you can just push it? Your earth magic gives you control of any solid material it touches right?"

"I think so. When my mana goes into the ground I can begin to move it how I want."

"Good. So what I want you to do is spread your mana into the ground and shape it into the hole you want to create, and then push all that dirt down. Just take the whole chunk that your mana is controlling and move it down, to the sides, anywhere so you can make the hole. Try it."

"Ok..."

Luna turned to face the ground and started spreading her mana through the dirt and rocks. The mana spread was slow, but when she finally covered a cylinder shape in the ground, she pushed down in the air with her hand.

*Shhoopp*

*Thud*

The ground had little reverberations as a hole of dirt was shoved down. Just like the earth benders on Avatar.

"I did it! I didn't know you could push the ground down..." (Luna)

"Most ground has many little tiny air pockets in the dirt. When you push it down, It mainly just compresses everything underneath. What you could also do it create a wall of mana, insert it into the dirt, and split the wall of mana while pushing away from each other. That would move everything to the side. Like chopping and separating meat. Try and make that trench now. See how you do."

Dream gave her the same assignment, but she was much more eager now. Once you learn a new way of doing the same things, it can change your whole perspective on how it works.

Luna sent her mana into the ground much faster than before. She created a deep wall into the dirt like Dream said, and then she pushed the mana to the side.

*rumble*

A low roll in the ground occurred as much more dirt was moved than last time. After a couple of seconds, a wide trench was next to Luna. It was also the same size as he wanted.

"Nice. I like it! You pick up on things well."

"Hehe, thanks. But it's amazing how you know how all these things work. Do you know if there's anything I can do for my water?"

Dream thought a bit at the question Luna gave. For water? That was a little difficult. 

"So you can turn your mana into water?"

"Yup."

"And I've seen you change that water into ice. Here, I want you to make 4 ice lances on the floor."

Luna waved her hand and made 4 water lances, then froze the water. They fell on the floor.

"Good. Now use your earth magic to control those lances and throw them like spears. No hands. I want you to hit that tree 20 feet away."

"...Ok."

Luna started to move her mana and fill the ice lances with it. Once they were all filled, she slowly started lifting them off the floor.

Dream stayed quiet as this took a lot of concentration on her part. She didn't have a computing skill like he did to make precise movements.

After a minute or so of the lances hovering head level, Luna launched out her mana.

*thud* *thud*

2 ice lances pierced shallowly on the tree trunk

"Huuuhh

Luna let out a long breath of air.

"That was good. You at least got the concept down. Using your earth magic to control the solid water. Now you just need practice."

"Ya. But I know how effective this can be so I don't want to take too much time either." (Luna)

After she said that, she summoned more ice lances and started launching them. 

5 lances, 20, 50. Luna just kept launching lances at the tree. Most of them missed, but they kept getting stronger and more accurate over time.

Dream just sat down and let her be. He could feel her determination to do better and knew this was something only she could do.

After about 30 minutes of watching Luna, Dream got a shout from someone.

"Dream! I got it! T-The tree!"

"Hmm?"

Dream turned toward Iris and noticed a large amount of smoke in the air.

'I guess she got the tree.'

He got up and walked towards her to see better.

When he got to where she was, Dream could see a tree stump covered in ashes.

"Wow. Your fire must've gotten pretty hot. Show me the torch."

"Okay!" Iris turned toward a tree about 15 feet away and stuck her palm out.

*Fwoof...sssssSSSHHHHH*

She started with a fireball, and started blowing on it with air. Though as she did it, the fire got more compressed as it turned into an actual torch. 

The compressed flame reached all the way towards the tree as the surface of the bark got red hot and burned. After another minute or so of doing that, half the tree was burned through.

"Alright, you're good. Im surprised you learned how to compress your flame. How'd you do it?"

Dream asked her as he was genuinely surprised she figured it out. Iris stuck out her bountiful chest in pride.

"I heard you talking to Luna about compressing the dirt and thought it could work with my flame too. so I just squished the burning mana together and it started burning hotter in a smaller area. I did that all the way out towards the tree."

"Beautiful! That really is fantastic. Heh, we can burn a lot of those crawlers with that. And once Luna learns her stuff, you two will be killing machines."

"Hehe. Ya. Although...That took a lot of mana....."

"Whoah there!"

As Iris spoke, she started swaying and lost her balance. Dream quickly caught her before she hit the floor.

"I...Sorry. I'm really tired..."

"No it's okay. You've done really well. You can go to sleep, we'll be leaving soon anyway."

"...okay."

Iris closed her eyes after Dream reassured her. When he actually took a closer look, he could see sweat covering her forehead. Dream wiped her face with his shirt and carried her back to Luna.

'She really must've been concentrating hard. It was her first time using air magic. Not to mention combining it with her fire. But now she's become much more powerful than before.'

When Dream got back to Luna, he saw her sitting against a rock.

"How's your head?" (Dream)

"It...It kinda hurts."

"Then let's stop. Your sister is also done for today. You guys worked hard."

"What about the quest?"

"Don't worry about that. Hey Old Man! I need a bit of help!"

Dream called out to the sky for Riddick. He knew that he was flying up there, and right now he could use his help.

"I've been watching, Boy. I've even learned many things. You don't suppose you could teach me some of your knowledge as well?" (Riddick)

Riddick floated down to the ground in front of him. Just like superman.

"I can. But not now. I need your help with her. Luna's about to pass out as well."

"Dream? What're you gonna do?" (Luna)

"We're gonna get you guys back outside the forest. I just want you to sleep. I know its still early, but you guys really pushed yourselves. I'm proud of your progress."

"...Thanks. I guess I can sleep for a little..." (Luna)

As Luna said that, she finally went to sleep. Dream laid Iris down next to her and spoke to Riddick.

"I'm gonna go hunting. I'm the only one that hasn't worked his ass off today and my skill needs to be worked on. Can you at least watch them?"

"Go on, Boy. I'll take care of it."

"Thanks. I doubt they'll wake up today so I'll take my time."

With that, Dream started walking off into the forest.

Riddick watched as he walked off and thought to himself.

'I guess he is pretty smart. And he's rather hard working. Even when we were in the forest he was always working on something. And now my daughters want to work just as hard. It's been a long time since they've been so motivated.  *sigh* He really is gonna take them away huh.'

Riddick turned back and waited with his girls after thinking for some time.