“Remember, follow the trail north until ya hit the main road. After that just keep headin’ north. Plentya people will be able to help ya on yer way if ya get turned around. I’m puttin’ you two close enough that anyone will be able to tell ya which way to go to the sect.” The dwarf says.
“Thank you.” Will says. “Seriously, for everything. We probably wouldn’t have made it without your help.”
“Yer right.” The dwarf starts laughing uproariously.
“I know you said this was a favored owed to master Taleya, but we’d still like to pay you back one day.” Alea says.
“Get strong enough and maybe you’ll be able to.”
The two smile at that.
“Deal.” Says Will.
“Good luck you two.”
Will tries to respond, but the dwarf activates the teleportation and the two are sent off.
He actually manages to hold his breath this time and a few seconds later they find themselves on a small forest trail.
Seriously how much of this world is woods?
Will looks over to Alea. “You ok?”
Alea looks back at him confused. “Yea why?”
“Oh, my mistake. I forgot how used to being teleported you are.”
She smiles and shakes her head.
“It’s definitely hard to get used to.”
At that, Will hikes the pack on his back that the dwarf had given him and starts walking.
He really is grateful for all that dwarf did for them. Especially sending them off with a pack full of supplies for each of them.
They’re capable of hunting and catching their own food, but basic supplies like a tent, cooking gear, water, blankets, and a few other odds and ends makes all the difference.
Will never went hiking or camping or anything like that in his old world, but he always wanted to. Being out there with Alea kinda felt normal for Will for a second. Like two friends going camping for the weekend. If it weren’t for that giant bird attacking him the last time he was in the middle of no where in the woods he would probably be a lot more relaxed. But oh well.
It was barely dawn when the dwarf had teleported them, and it was the same when they appeared in the woods. Which means the teleport wasn’t absurdly far. At least, that’s what that means if this world’s solar system and physics work the same way his old world’s did.
They hiked the trail all day, stopped for a light meal of nuts, berries and water from their packs and kept going. All the while following the trail they had first appeared on.
They didn’t speak much during the first day of the trip. Both of them eager to just finally be moving again and trying to cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible. They both had a nervous energy about them. At least for Will, he felt like he needed to get stronger as fast as possible.
When dark came they made camp, Alea having to show Will how to properly set up his tent. They then settled around a small camp fire eating dried meat that the dwarf had given them. After they were finished with their dinner they settled companionably around the fire.
Will broke the silence first.
“So I’ve been thinking. We both need to get stronger, fast. There’s really not a lot we can do besides keep grinding every day. But I have an idea of how I can help you.”
“I think I know where you’re going with this and I’ve changed my mind. I want to find out more about my element on my own. No offense, but I don’t want to end up like you and have to wait till I’m stronger to use my own element because it’s too powerful for me.”
“Trust me I get that.” Will says as he absently rubs his chest. He can still vividly remember the intense soul damage that almost killed him. “But I figure I can still give you a little bump. Not enough to send you up a tier of elemental power, but enough to still increase your strength. I don’t know about you, but I can feel the power of my lightning. I can feel that, just like cultivation, you can be stronger or weaker within the same tier of power.”
Alea nods along. “Yea, my fire works the same way. I can feel how I’m still early in the orange tier.”
“Great! So, what do you know about fire?”
Alea squints her eyes at him.
“You’re not going to let his go are you?”
“No, not at all.” He smiles brightly at her. “Sooo..”
She rolls her eyes at him. “Fine. In the beginning my understanding of fire was pretty simple. Fire hot. Don’t touch. That sort of thing. But when master Taleya started training me I began to realize how much more it was. Fire is heat. Fire is life. We’re able to live the lives we do because of fire. Innovation has come from many different places, but fire was the beginning. Fire is force, propulsion, destruction. It can be used to help build almost as easily as to destroy. Burn the tip of a wooden spear and it becomes harder. Smithing without an affinity for metal needs fire. Heck, even with one, they still use heat and flame. Fire can be almost liquid at times, it can be fierce and quick, or slow and smoldering. But the biggest thing I learned about fire was just how versatile it can be. I can use it to burn someone, fuel my punch or kick to make it hit harder, keep me in the air, even manipulate metal to a degree. I’ve even begun to experimenting with condensing it to cut through things. The versatility was the straw that broke the camels back I think. It was after that revelation that I was able to tier up from red to orange.”
When she finally finished Will learned two things. One was how passionate Alea was about her element. Which was probably a good thing. It would most likely lead her to experiment and push her fire in new ways, which will lead to understanding the element, which will lead to more tier ups. The second thing he learned was that she still had so so far to go.
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“Well?” She asks.
“Sorry. Just processing everything you told me.”
“This is what I was worried about.” She said.
Will quirked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I was worried I would know more about fire than you do. No offense, but I didn’t expect a country bumpkin to tell me more about fire than I’ve already figured out on my own.”
Will holds back his laugh. It would probably just anger her if he did, and it would be hard to explain how he wasn’t laughing at her, just the absurdity of the statement. Still, it was difficult to keep his face straight.
“It’s not that. It’s just I was trying to readjust what I was going to tell you. You know so much less than what I thought.” Her eyebrows came down and her face flushed.
Will put his hands in front of himself and hurries to continue. “That’s not an insult! I promise! Look I’m already on the third tier of my lightning right? I just know a few things and-“
She just gets angrier. “So now you’re bragging or something?”
“Crap. Wait. This is all coming out wrong.”
Why am I such an idiot?
He takes a deep breath. “Just let me explain. I’m coming off the wrong way. I don’t mean anything as an insult. I think you’re amazing. You’re talented, your fighting ability is insane, you’re fierce and strong and I respect that heck out of you.”
She blushes again.
“Ok…so what are you trying to say?” She says while looking away.
“That’s the hard part. I’m afraid what would be too much. Your worries are accurate. I don’t want to hamstring you by making you barely able to use your element. But I think I can give you just enough info though.”
“Ok..”
He gathers his thoughts for a second, trying to decide how to approach what he wants to say.
“Where I come from, we have a very deep understanding of fire. As you said it can be used for many things, in many ways. Tell me, when different materials burn, what happens?”
Her face quirks up. “What do you mean?”
“For example, when you burn wood as opposed to burning oil.”
“I‘ve..never seen oil lit on fire before.”
Will looks into the air as he tries to think of another way to go about this.
“I’m going to assume you’ve never seen gas lit on fire either then?”
“Gas? Like fumes?”
Will rubs his face. This is going to be harder than I thought.
“Ok different question. In nature fire is sometimes different colors right? Why?”
She looks to concentrate for a second. “I’ve only seen orange and red flame in nature before. Are you implying there can be other colors that naturally occur?”
“I’ve seen some examples of technology here. The screens at the arena and those observation boxes-“ Suddenly it hits him. This world’s technology isn’t like his world’s. He thinks back to the gurney the dwarves put Alea on when they brought her to their mountain.
“The technology that I’ve seen so far, it’s a form of..” He tries to think of the world. “Magitech right?”
“If I’m understanding what you mean by that word, then yes. A lot of the technology here is built upon from our understanding of magic. But what does any of this have to do with fire?”
“That’s..a little complicated.” How does he explain that without magic, this world’s technology would have had to advanced a completely different way? In terms of non magical technology, this world is basically in the Stone Age. But with magic, they far surpassed his old world.
“Let’s get back to the original question. In nature, there can be different color flames. This can happen for two reasons, but only one really matters. Depending on what is being burned, fire can generate different levels of heat. Gas and oil burn significantly hotter.”
At least, I think.
He was going off common knowledge here. He was a science nerd true, but it’s not like he ever got the chance to take any college courses. He was going off of what he was taught in high school, his own questions during science class, and common knowledge. But he couldn’t really tell her that.
“I don’t want to go too far into this, but I’m hoping just a basic understanding of the nature of fire will help you. Have you noticed any difference yet?”
“Not yet.” She said.
“Hmm. How about this. I think I can push it a little further. In nature, in terms of temperature, from coolest to most hot, the color of fire goes orange, red, yellow, white, and then blue. Pretty sure I’m remembering that right. I don’t know if the colored tiers of power for fire are the same, but in nature that’s how it goes.”
Will then points to above himself, into the sky, where the stars have really begun to shine as full dark descends.
“Have you ever noticed how the stars are different colors? That’s because they are burning at different temperatures, which makes them different colors.”
Alea’s eyes widen and then she looks up. She stares for a few minutes, her expression mostly unreadable. She then goes into a meditative sitting position and meditates immediately. Twenty minutes or so go by where she attempts to consolidate her new understanding.
After the twenty minutes goes by her eyes snap open and she smiles. She lifts a hand in front of herself, palm up, and ignites a single flame that sits in the palm of her hand.
It’s a bright and vibrant orange. More robust and rich than before, Will can definitely feel a stronger sense from it than the last time he saw her element.
“Congratulations.” He said.
She finally takes her eyes off her flame, her smile still shining brightly. She looks over at him as she extinguishes it.
“Thank you.”
He smiles back at her, happy for her advancement, and was going to leave the conversation at that.
“How much more do you know?”
He looks back up at her, a questioning look on her face. She’s doesn’t seem suspicious, just genuinely curious.
“That’s hard to gauge. Maybe enough to get your flame to green.”
Her eyes widen at that. “That’s not possible.”
He shrugs. “I can’t be sure obviously. But I would bet I could either get you there or extremely close to it.”
He was glad she didn’t ask the next question that he would have in her situation. Why not all the way to blue? Which, if he remembers correctly from Amos, is the pinnacle of fire in this world. And that’s because, for all the similarities he’s noticed between this world and his old one, there seems to be almost an equal amount of dissimilarities. He believes that there must be things about this world, especially it’s elements, that are intrinsically different from their counterparts in his old world. Because of that, he’s almost positive that his knowledge of any of the elements, even the more basic ones, is insufficient to bring anyone to the top, himself included.
After Alea’s minor breakthrough, they both meditated for a while. Alea meditated to try and get a better understanding of the things Will had revealed to her.
Will on the other hand was finally trying to decide on some moves he wanted to try and develop with his lightning.
His master had laid a lot of ground work for him to finally try and develop actual techniques. And then master Taleya had fine tuned that ground work with practical theory for elemental techniques.
Master Amos had said over and over that a cultivator was only limited by his own imagination and understanding of his element. That no element was truly stronger than another. That the true difference came in a cultivator’s understanding of their element and their imagination and ability to utilize their element in different ways.
Lower tiers were all about using their element in a straight forward, brute force way. But the upper tiers were known for their ingenuity and versatility. Well, they were obviously known for power as well. But master always says how creative and unexpectedly you can use your element goes a long way to winning any fight. And Will’s inclined to believe him.
Will has a lot of ideas for techniques he wants to try and develop. The trick was, which one is the most important, or will help him the most. This is usually where he would go to his masters. Their experience would go a long way in helping him to figure out which of his techniques to develop first.
But that wasn’t an option right now. Now he has to decide on his own and hope for the best. A slight edge of anxiety creeps in during his meditation. He knows that if he makes the wrong choice here it could mean trouble for him, even death. He does his best to steady his mind as he prays he makes the right choice.
