The Black Desert.

Much of the region was sectioned off by The Living Fortress, a monolithic structure whose black sand walls shifted and flowed like a muddy river.

Presently, a Tier-7 Green-Tailed Phoenix was soaring majestically over The Fortress when a giant hand of sand erupted from below, grabbed the bird, and squeezed it into juice.

A short while later, two figures appeared at the foot of The Fortress.

By the time Henry’d logged back on, the abandoned city’s lake had been fully-converted into paint. After the craftsmen had been shipped back to their zones, Karnon had teleported him here for the next 'lesson'.

This was a Tier-8 region on the southern tip of the Western Continent, whose name referred to the magical black sand covering everything that not only absorbed but amplified the sun’s heat. This trait could be observed from the fact that his shoes had burst into flames.

A bacon-smelling smoke wafted up from his feet, along with a multi-coloured mote.

The Elemental spirit rewards your deeds! 1% of the Energy necessary to build a connection has been accumulated.

Karnon, shapeshifting into his tornado form, roared down at his burning protégé. “I’m gonna sneak through The Fortress and chat with a special someone. While I’m away, you should do some self-study on the Elements! To control the flame, an Earthfriend must first endure its heat!”

Stretching himself into a tube, the God slithered into The Living Fortress’s surface.

Henry topped up his health pool by self-casting a .

Despite him having , this Black Desert posed a significant danger. The biggest threat wasn’t actually the heat, though, but rather a sneaky species of—

A tiny scorpion emerged from a traphole by his feet and, faster than he could respond to, plunged its stinger into a toe.

At once, his body began to swell like a balloon, the buttons of his pants pinging off.

Through an increasingly small slit between the skin of his expanding cheeks and forehead, he scanned The Living Fortress for a snickering tornado popping back out to save him.

Alas, there was to be no salvation.

“Ugh-dee-ught," he mumbled an insult through his swollen lips.

Before he could pop, he activated the game’s suicide command, causing his body to sublimate into a sparkling cloud of soul lights.

Oh no, it seems you’ve died!

Please choose a Reincarnation Monument to transfer your soul to. If no choice is made within 30 seconds, the nearest will be selected.

His ‘mentor’ had killed him.

In death, his consciousness was transferred to one of the soul lights, from which he could still view the world, albeit in monochrome.

The scorpion, confused, jerked around in search of its prey, who'd left nothing behind, not even a morsel of meat. Because the monster didn’t have a Spatial Bracelet, Henry's demise hadn’t resulted in his most valuable item being sucked out of his inventory.

He browsed through an option menu listing respawn points, then selected the nearest, about three kilometres away. A second later, he found himself being dragged across the desert sky.

During the journey, he saw a pack of velociraptors with iridescent feathers battling a triceratops, also iridescent. These were Faesaurids, a species of hybrid fairy-dinosaurs, the dominant monster in this part of the Western Continent.

Eventually, his consciousness reached a white-stone obelisk jutting out from an oasis of boiling metal.

Upon his arrival, a notification gave him a choice between waiting 24 real-life hours for his body to recompose or respawning immediately while suffering a level reduction penalty.

Technically, the death penalty wasn’t identical to losing a level. While a player would have to farm back their experience, their stats would drop, and use of certain items and spells might be disabled, the player wouldn’t have to relearn abilities.

Henry waited before respawning, since a Faeankylosaurus that could one-shot him was making a bed from plants growing around the oasis’s shore.

After a few minutes, an eagle, probably azure, landed on top of the Reincarnation Monument. When it returned to its human form, the Faeankylosaurus gave the God a harsh look, grumbled about a past grievance, and lumbered away.

Karnon’s arm shot out to catch Henry materialising beside him.

“Was that intentional?”

The God sighed like a teacher marking their worst student’s test paper. “This trial, which you theoretically could have passed, you failed. How tragic.” He reminded himself of a teacher’s duty and squeezed his fist with determination. No child should be left behind! “Although you lacked the requisite intellect, strength, and ingenuity, you displayed plenty of an Earthfriend’s most essential asset. Do you know what that is?”

“Shamelessness?”

“Correct, your heart! You failed miserably, but you did your best. And as long as we devote our hearts to our chosen Paths, Nature will provide the means to reach its end. Accept Nature's support!”

The God slapped Henry across the face.

You have received Valas’s Blessing. Immune to environmental damage for the next 24 hours.

Valas was the progenitor God of the Shaman class. It was bizarre that Karnon could—

Slap!

You have received Zeyma’s Blessing. Monsters will no longer attack unprovoked for the next 24 hours.

Slap!

You have received Karnon’s Blessing. All stats increase by 1126 for the next 24 hours.

The God paused to see whether a higher deity would smite him for breaking the world's rules through technicalities. Receiving no punishment, he snickered at his own genius.

“And wasn’t it partially my fault that tragedy befell you during your assignment? A good mentor should admit his mistake and compensate his student's losses.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Slap!

You have gained 971 XP, restoring your Level to 5.

“And couldn’t it be said that you’ve already put in the effort to connect with the Elements by experiencing and beating death?”

"Do you really have to—"

Slap!

You feel a spiritual connection to the rain, the wind, the earth, the thunder, the frost, and the flame.

With the Elemental domain having opened its ear to you, you may call upon it to refine Nature into Elemental Energy for the creation and utilisation of spells.

Karnon paused once more.

Still safe.

He teleported them back to The Living Fortress, where he shapeshifted into a tornado again and dragged Henry into the wall.

The pair travelled through a claustrophobic, ever-shifting tunnel. The scalding sand inflicted no damage due to .

After being tumbled about and squeezed for a while, they arrived in a black space. The God, placing Henry down, transformed back to a human and created a miniature sun. Its light illuminated an enormous cavern that a black sand ceiling and floor indicated was still within the walls of The Living Fortress.

The Fortress’s origins and function were unknown to Henry.

“Craft your Elemental spells before she arrives!”

“She?”

“My bride-to-be and a guest tutor in your lesson plan! Get on with it!”

Henry, simply relieved to hear that it wasn’t himself getting married, gathered two handfuls of Elemental charges.

'From storm clouds above the mountains, the thunder humbled me. "You are but an ant," it seemed to jeer.'

Thunderbolt

Fire a bolt of electricity that inflicts moderate damage and paralyses the target for 0.2 seconds.

5 Elemental Charges. 10% Nature Energy Consumption. 6-second cast. No cooldown. 60 metres.

Planting his feet, he activated the spell, a ball of electricity forming and expanding in one of his palms. Six seconds later, a blindingly-bright bolt zapped out lightning-fast, converting the mound of black sand it struck into molten glass.

In a spell rotation, competed with the Celestial ability for use as a basic damaging attack. Each held certain advantages. projectile speed made it easier to aim, and its mini-stun could create openings for allies to land their attacks. On the downside, it had a longer cast time, during which the Earthfriend could not move their feet, and the spell fired instantly upon completion, with no possibility of delaying it to line up a more accurate shot.

'Water: within a wave, it erodes the continents; from the sky, it moistens the fields; in a cup, it soothes my parched throat. Infinite are the Paths provided by Nature.'

Natureweaving

Create a custom spell by bending the forces of Nature to suit your needs. Can mix in Energy from all Nature sub-domains.

Due to a lack of support from a patron deity, Naturewoven Spells will be less potent relative to their Energy costs than standard spells.

Variable cost (Minimum 1 Elemental Charge). Variable cast time. Variable cooldown.

If the class weren't flexible enough, it had the ability using to create custom spells. These were what Suchi’s Earthfriend trainers had been demonstrating at the ‘Exchange of Friendship’ before Karnon abducted him. The uses were infinite, yet Naturewoven spells were considered worthless outside of roleplaying and questing, since they were orders of magnitude weaker than standard spells.

For example, using to recreate with 10 Elemental Charges, Henry blasted another mound, the attack throwing up a shower of sand but leaving the particles undamaged.

“Embarrassing! Without my blessing, you would struggle to singe the hairs of a racoon.”

“Well, we can’t all syphon power from our followers.”

The random abilities Karnon had been using, like the tidal wave summoned at Sarrf’s Rest, were Naturewoven spells enhanced by a God Energy tied to the number and loyalty of one’s worshippers.

And that was it for Tier-0 Elemental spells, just those two. An equivalent to existed, but it was exclusive to Elemental Path Earthfriends.

The default class wasn’t designed to be equally powerful in all areas. From his guild’s analysis of 6-man dungeon data, comparing Earthfriends to the best classes in each role, they could achieve 88% of the healing capability of Miracleworkers, 86% the tanking of Fighters, 77% the physical damage of Qi Masters, 40% the magic damage of Arcanists, and 36% the non-healing support of Accompanists. Only by blending abilities from across the roles did the class match up overall.

Karnon pointed at a hole that opened up in the cavern wall. “Look, it's my love!’

The hole vomited out a zebra-leather handbag.

Like a typical handbag, it lay where it landed, immobile, not gesturing, speechless.

The God rolled his eyes. "She's always dressing up for strangers. Tell me, my protégé, isn’t she stunning? What about her impresses you most?”

“Uh...she must be made of sturdy material if she can avoid combusting. What am I supposed to learn from a handbag?”

“Not the handbag, you blind jellyfish! There!”

On closer inspection, one could see a faint, bubblegum pink mist streaming out of the hole, which preceded to throw out a diamond tiara, followed by a woman’s silk toga, a plush chair, an entire taxidermied unicorn - on and on, luxury goods flowed out, building into a two-story-high pile.

Then, the objects began to fly...swirling around in a vortex...a tornado.

The completed, luxury-containing, bubblegum-pink tornado rushed forward and wrapped around Karnon, its windy fingers ruffling affectionately through his azure hair.

"HAHA, it's true!" Karnon shouted. “Your mentor has bagged a princess! Don’t be jealous! Stick with me, and you’ll pick up some of my irresistible charms!”

“Cool.”

The God was surprised by his protégé’s lack of reaction. “Princess Pateela! You must know Princess Pateela, eldest daughter of Emperor Vadaahavaa, the prettiest belle of The Southern Wind Elementals!”

“All those terms, unfamiliar.”

Karnon winced. “That's right, you humans aren’t meant to know this yet.”

“You’re not a human? Explains a lot.”

“Haha! Have you ever met a man with antlers?”

“Fauna spec Earthfriends.”

“Pure coincidence! I haven't even chosen a Path yet. Now, you’re wondering, ‘Why does everyone in Togavi resemb—‘" Karnon winced again. “Don’t share any of this! The Big Guy might punish me with—“ Another wince. “Don’t tell anyone that there’s a Big Guy!”

Henry shrugged. He’d already known about the last bit.

“As indifferent as a stone, good, keep up that attitude! Anyway, the lesson! Here’s the background: I need Princess Pateela to leave The Living Fortress with us, but, since Southern Wind Elemental culture is quite conservative, a female Wind Elemental can’t exit The Southern Wind Elemental Empire while unwed.”

Their empire being what was hidden within The Living Fortress.

“Hence, you’re marrying a tornado.”

“Precisely. Of course, we'll file for a divorce after the project’s finished. I’m not about that married life.”

“Is she in on this?”

“HAHAHAHA! No!”

“Can she not hear us?”

The tornado had been spinning around them while they talked.

“Where are her ears?" scoffed Karnon. "Second issue! According to Southern Wind Elemental tradition, to marry the Princess, I need permission from her father. However, I’m unable to ask for it because my Tornadese sounds about as dumb as an intoxicated turtle. Now, you’re thinking, ‘how did my mentor seduce this sexy squall without the gift of his azure tongue?’”

“Sure.”

“I’m a fantastic dancer! Check out my—”

“Later. To conclude, you want me to use to speed memorise the Tornado language and, what, improve your speaking skills to butter up her dad?”

That did explain several things. Why the God had seemed pleased upon realising Henry possessed the skill (tangentially, Karnon must have had a different 'lesson plan' in mind before then). Why he'd accepted the loss trading away The Cloak of Wind and Stone and unlocking the Elemental abilities at the start - both were probably needed to learn and speak 'Tornadese'.

“Close," replied Karnon. “Except Tornadese is too much of a tongue twister for me to master. Here's the game plan: you learn the language, I’ll turn into a tornado, you’ll turn into a smaller tornado, you’ll hide inside of me, and you, acting as my mouth and ears, will sweet talk the old man while pretending to be me.”

“Brilliant.”

“Thanks. There you have it, your second lesson in the Elements: learn to speak with the wind. ‘But, Professor K, I’ve already formed the Elemental connection.’ You lobotomised slug, by imagining such a silly complaint, you show you haven't understood a fraction of Nature! Envision the world from the eyes of a beetroot—wait, do-over; I thought of a better excuse. ‘Past’, ‘present’, ‘future’, these are but human fictions. Where does the ocean begin? Where does it end? Nature laughs at the concept of sequences. Are you getting my point?”

“Ignore the inconsistencies.”

“Exactly. Here, she was teaching me the language with these earlier.” The God produced four metal chests containing thousands of clay tablets. “She’ll identify what’s in the pictures; you memorise.”

Henry chose a tablet at random, which depicted a heroic scene of a giant with antlers wrestling a family of otters.

Studying it, he was overcome with a suspicion that if the Princess could make out such subtle linework, then she should be able to distinguish spoken words, which were just shapes of wind.

Dismissing that for now, he changed into his shabby clothes, and, lifting the clay tablet, directed it at...

The Princess lacked identifiable sensory organs, so he waved it around.

"Am I doing it correctly? Princess?"