B6 Chapter 32: Skill Experimentation

(So I'm alive. Not really, but I am. I apologize for the silence I have been travelling and out of state for nearly the month. I will be back soon probably Wednesday. I plan on catching up and releasing the appropriate amount of chapters by Friday's end. So oof it'll be a lot of writing post jet lag but damnit I owe yah guys. Thanks for those who stuck around! Hope you had a great weekend!) ---Llama

Teldrin sat in a meditative pose while my familiar circled him. Like a coiling snake, Sturmrorex glided through the air, his eyes locked on the boy. 

“Remember, keep it gentle,” I reminded him.

“But of course! A king should know how to control his power!” Sturmrorex roared.

I sent him the equivalent of a mental head chop from Áine’s small but eager fists. The mighty dragon spirit cleared his throat and nodded. I turned my gaze to Teldrin and sighed.

Oh, hi Sam, how has adventuring changed you? Oh, you know, I strung a baby teen along for death and glory and tortured him a bit in the name of practicing his skills. Just the usual!

I scoffed at the imagery of the big blue oni giving me one of her signature looks. Dragging myself away from the memories, I mentally prepared myself and sent Sturmrorex the signal.

Faster than Teldrin could react, he dived, spiralling past his shoulder like a bullet as the tip of his claw lightly brushed the boy’s skin. Teldrin hissed, but the brief discharge of electricity was barely more than a static shock. If anything, the cold, harsh wind around Sturmrorex’s form should have counted as more damage.

Khrem had his notebook ready and nodded.

I could feel his skill activating. The rippling of his mana blossomed outward from the center of his chest and moved to expand across his body. I stretched my senses closer, invading Teldrin’s own to get an impression and found a faint hint of electricity and wind mana. Probably a fraction of a percentage, but noticeable. I relayed it back to Khrem and nodded at Teldrin.

“How do you feel?”

“Uhm, I’m not sure? It didn’t hurt as much as I thought, mostly surprised me,” he explained.

“Sounds about right. Notice any changes to your mana?”

He scrunched his face and closed his eyes before reopening them and shaking his head. “No.”

“No? Can’t you feel your mana signature?”

“I can, but I don’t sense anything different.”

“Hmm. Okay, ready for more? We can stop anytime.”

“No, I’m ready. Let’s keep going.”

I signaled for Sturmorex to continue. It wasn’t until the eighth pass did Teldrin finally report a noticeable change. For added measure, I had Sturmrorex directly touch him without the surprise and ask how he felt.

“It’s weird. I can feel the tingling, but it’s faint. There’s no heat to it either,” Teldrin said.

“I think this means you are immune to this level of output,” Khrem said after flipping to a new page. “How does your mana feel?”

“Like it’s moving. I can feel it concentrating like pressing into water where Sturmrorex is touching me.”

“What about the wind? Feel any different there?” Sereza asked.

Teldrin paused, waiting as a gust blew through and pushed at the sails. He smiled as it lifted his hair, but he slowly shook his head. “It’s not as cold? I think.”

“So success. Test phase one down. Now we try to ramp it up and see if there’s a milestone you need to achieve for any hidden effects. Then we can test other mana types,” I said, patting the kid on the shoulders.

“I’m ready!”

“Good. Sturmrorex, add some sea water and increase output!”

***

Teldrin finished describing the latest report and waited for Khrem to close the journal. To his credit, he looked happy, albeit exhausted. He was a trooper. Tough kid withstood increasing damage and tests for the last hour. Every mana type we had readily available was converted into resistance by his passive.

I had Áine come out and restore him after the more intense testing, so he wasn’t hurt. 

“It looks like your passive is about what we expected. I’d say damage intensity around twenty-five percent reaches a milestone trigger for your skill. Noticeable resistance is apparent around that level, and reaches another by fifty.” Khrem pointed his pen at Teldrin. “Your current skill seems to fail around a sixty-four percent threshold. By that point, the damage overwhelms your passiv, and you are unable to adapt.”

“There’s also an increase in mana drain, adapting to higher intensities. I think maybe ten percent more mana required if your passive activates hard and fast rather than through a slow, gradual build-up,” I added.

Teldrin rubbed his fingers and looked down. “Can I improve that?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“I don’t believe so,” Zog cut in.

“Huh? Why not? It’s his first time using his skill.”

Zog patted his chest. “Passives aren’t like actives. While one can find the proper triggers and limits to their skill, one does not usually acquire more power through training. While skills are like muscles, most passives have stricter requirements. My own passives could only be pushed, but never refined. I imagine it’s the same for you as well, Miss Sereza.”

“I have a growth passive, with my poison synthesis, and that’s permanent growth, but my other passives follow what Zog said. Part of my flexibility passive is static. I can push my body to strain against itself, but the passive is essentially a percentage. More mana won’t increase it even if I tried,” Sereza explained.

“I guess that's how my Etherious Blood works,” I grumbled. “Except all my other passives have changed so much. Sovereign-Threaded Soul, for example, is constantly fixing me. Spirit Lord’s Chorus is more like an active than a passive. Then there’s Dual-Mind Cultivation and Strax.”

“I did say most passives,” Zog added.

I groaned and Teldrin raised a hand. “Yes?”

“Who is Strax?” he asked.

“Uhhhh. Don’t worry about it. It’s complicated.”

“Oh. Alright.”

I summoned a mana potion and thrust it into Teldrin’s hands. I wasn’t sure he even noticed that he started shivering. He sipped at it slowly while Zog conjured a flame in his hands. It didn’t take long for the boy to warm up and recover.

I finished off the snack in my hand and stretched. 

“Alright. On to the next tests!”

***

Pondskimmer, Teldrin’s other passive was quick and done, testing-wise. He completed a set of exercises and found it amazing how much further he was able to stretch and bend. Flexibility was something the guards had helped train him in, so he was already on par with any kid used to martial arts practice. With the skill’s passive, he was able to do the splits with ease and even matched Sereza in some of her more intensive stretches. 

Sturmrorex helped test his other half of the passive and pulled up puddles of seawater for him to run through. He slipped at first, but after the second try, he managed to skate across any length of surface with ease as long as it was shallow enough.

Pondstone Anchor was an interesting skill. The pearl was the size of my fist and it shone with an almost grey luster that reminded me of gunmetal. The skill gave the kid a mental echo map of any object and person within the radius of the pearl, while water started to form below it.

Honestly, it reminded me of a Pokémon battle where the zone would change effects according to where you were on the map.

The slowing effect wasn’t too strong; it felt like the air got hard and you were wet because of it. Teldrin could channel more mana into the skill, but he tired quickly.

Oddly, however, I noticed that when he channeled more mana into the pearl, it would come out almost jerkily. 

We moved on to the only other skill he could test and I summoned two pouches.

“With your familiar skill unusable, let’s move on,” I said.

“Does this mean I can contract a familiar tonight?” Teldrin asked excitedly.

I raised my tail to his nose and booped it. “Hold your seahorses. I’ll have Galarion copy over some of my memories later. After that is done, I’ll have you memorize and run through the rules about what you should and shouldn’t do while in the other planes. When that’s done, I’ll consider letting you use your skill. Understand?”

Teldrin didn’t shy away and pout. The boy nodded and performed a military-esque salute. “Understood!”

Sereza snickered while Zog looked on approvingly. 

“Okay. Enough. Take these pouches. Go ahead and open it.”

Teldrin opened the right pouch and pulled out a marble, then a piece of iron shavings.

“Try to use your skill on them,” I instructed.

As I predicted, his skill failed to activate. Teldrin went through the assortment of random materials, finding only the ones made of actual stone and rock worked. It was only brief, but the pebbles would shrink, compressing together. 

“Now release it in the air. Try to time it about five feet away from the railing. Don’t want to hear complaints from the crew because we accidentally showered them with debris,” I said.

Teldrin pinched the bead-like brown pebble and lifted his arm. He had good form, the kind to make any sports-dad envious, but when Teldrin lost contact with the pebble, it shattered.

I brushed fragments off my chest and raised a brow. Teldrin was frozen as he stared at the spot where the pebble had exploded.

Khrem bent down and picked up a piece. “The stone decompressed at a forward angle, more triangular than its original form.”

“Did you mean to make it go off?” Sereza asked.

Teldrin shook his head. “No.”

“Well, try again. Try these bigger rocks. I think you overwhelmed the material’s mana capacity.” I grabbed a gumball-sized beachstone and handed it over. “Try to switch directions while you're at it, see if you can make it expand toward the side, or backwards.”

Teldrin accepted the rock and activated his skill. The gumball shrank to be no bigger than his thumb, smoothing out. He assumed the position once more and then flung it forward. It managed to clear the railing before it expanded forward, turning into an abstract triangle for a brief second.

I wiped off a chunk from my hair and hummed. “So, better material or more to work with.”

Teldrrin hung his head. “I’m sorry. I tried to do as you said, but it was hard to control.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. Try again and let’s see.”

A couple of dozen tries later, Teldrin finally sank to the floor. I had to hand it to him, his mana capacity was decent for a kid his age. There was one at the orphanage who could only use her skill a handful of times before it was spent. No doubt, his perk and biology were helping him along.

My eyes turned to the small coating of stone fragments across the deck and railing. While Teldrin had improved in how far he could throw it, controlling how the stone expanded remained impossible.

Even then, he was only able to send it a foot out. That’s a little too short. 

Zog cocked his head and leaned closer. “What are your thoughts?”

“Well, he definitely has a decent mana pool. I can also see how this skill can be useful, but…”

“But?”

I clicked my fangs and turned to Teldrin. “Is there a blockage perhaps? Mental problem? Your mana should be solidifying when you use the skill. I can feel you inject it with enough output to shrink the stone, but when you release your mana turns soft. If that makes sense.”

“That’s not uncommon. While the teachers and the guards on the island would have trained young Teldrin in the basics of mana control, refining it into a skill is difficult. Especially when it comes to affecting physical objects.”

Now it was my turn to stare. 

I understood first-time skill use being awkward, but it wasn’t just Ripplestone Surge.

“No, I mean, even when he used his other skill, his mana is kinda wavy. It’s… I don’t know, soft. The skill should guide you, at least the kind he has.”

“Guide you?” Sereza asked.

“Well,l if you had a fireball skill, picture the fire growing in your hand. Thread the mana, push it outward and down your arm through your palm, and tadaah. Fireball.”

This time, all three of the adult members of my team gave me mixed expressions. Even Khrem, with his shark eyes, looked perplexed.

“What?” I demanded.

Sereza was the first to react. She hung her head while facepalming. “You know, I heard you describe it that before, but I should have realized.”

“That makes more sense. He used similar terms when helping me with the potions. There is also his above-standard mana control.”

Zog was the third who made a face before chuckling. “It should be of no surprise. His biology is born for challenge.”

“No uh. It’s more than being just a felkin. He’s a savant with a high pedigree. He was trained by an elite team of adventurers, along with gods,” Sereza huffed.

“Okay, what the fuck are we talking about? How does this have to do with Teldrin?” I grumbled.

Sereza patted my shoulder and looked at me with an exasperated but loving annoyance. “Cyrus, Teldrin is actually making great progress for his first time activating his skills. I wasn’t able to produce a decent dagger until half a week of practice with my spectral blades.”

“Wait what? Just use the skill. Chanel mana into the wisp and–”

“Cyrus,” Zog said as he patted my other shoulder.  When you said you thread your mana, what do you mean?”

What the hell is going on here?

“You will a few strands from your mana pool, picture it weaving together like rope and then push iti into the skill wisp. I solidify my mana, firm it up. I then control it from there. Wait, what do you guys do?”

Khrem patted my head and my eye twitched. “It’s okay to be gifted. We accept you.”

Teldrin chuckled as I threw off their hands and swiped at them with my tail. I was ready to demanded an explanation, but a horn rang from across the deck.

I turned and found a shimmering wave of concealed mana rushing toward us atop a raised bed of water. As it neared through the lone piece of sunlight from the clouds, the mana retracted, breaking off like crystals retreating into the ocean.

Huh.

“Man your stations! A ship approaches!”