I woke up and jumped into the waterfall basin to refresh myself. I inspected the waterfall while floating around. The highest point was 712m and the lowest point of the waterfall was 476m. It would make sense to start at the easier 476m first. I would practice with my tails out first because there's no point in trying without and then drowning and dying. 12 coconuts were put at the edge of the basin so that I could swap with them when I mess up. I blasted some rocks that I might crash into and spent half of my day blasting rocks away to make sure I don't crack my head open on any. I had to rest because removing rocks is tiring without being able to use earth leyline energy. It might be my imagination but the waterfall kept becoming more and more intimidating. Was this a good idea? I have nobody around me now to tell me that this is stupid or to bail me out. I jumped in the water and spun my tails like propellers and tried to move myself forward through the water with water Dragonvein.
Aaand, I got washed away. I didn't even get close to the waterfall itself. I severely underestimated the power of water. I was completely drained of energy and decided to try again the next day.
I tried and I tried and tried. And reached the base of the waterfall on day 183. I got way better in controlling water now but I was nowhere near my goal. I also became a great swimmer. Makes sense if you’re trying to approach a violent waterfall you either drown or become a great swimmer. I got out of the water, dried my tails off, and brushed them. My tails had to take in a lot of water to make myself heavy enough to stay underwater. I’m not sure how to solve this problem without my tails. It might actually become exponentially harder without my tails.
Its time for a holiday! Destination: the desert. A change of scenery. It took 30 minutes walking through the desert to think I’ve seen enough sand. I wondered how effective water leyline would be here and created water and dropped it but the sand sucked it up. I tried to pull the water out of the sand but it didn't want to listen. The sand just moved with it. I also got sand that wasn't wet.
Hmm, what is this? Did I finally master earth? It was slightly different but I could control sand with similar movements as water it’s just…
Holy shit this stuff is heavy! It was to be expected, earth and sand are way heavier than water. So, I can control sand but I still don’t know how to do earth. And it’s not like I’ll be hanging around in deserts often. I had to run because some enormous sandworms detected my presence and I didn't want to deal with them. I arrived at a village that was near a big excavation site.
Good day mister, I’m a tourist, what are they digging u over there? This man with big bushy eyebrows raised one of his brows.
“A tourist you say? Here in the middle of nowhere? Are you lost, lad?” Ehh, yeah, I have a terrible sense of direction, so what are they digging here?
“They found traces of ancient structures here. It seems to be quite old and it has symbols never seen before. It seems to have a different significance than other structures that have been found. This one looks like some sort of a temple.” I got excited because maybe these guys were digging up a dungeon. Thanks! I gave him 1 silver for the useful information. His sour expression changed to a grateful expression.
“If you get lost again find me, I will help you out!” I’m sorry mister brow but I’m not lost. I hopped into the excavation site. A lot of men were moving rocks sand and dirt away with earth magic. Others were studying what was already unearthed and another group was carefully digging out more. My excitement died; this wasn't a dungeon I wanted to head back home when something caught my attention. I could read the symbols on this structure. It was in ancient draconian. This thing must be extra ancient. What caught my attention, even more, was the word ‘Isi’. Isi was a spirit but she did say she was named after the planet. Is this temple dedicated to worshiping the planet? There was one thing clear though, the underground leyline currents converged here. This can't be a coincidence. I approached the front door. It was tightly shut tight but it wasn't locked with obnoxious puzzles.
“Hey! You, what are you doing there?” Hey, do you know who or what Isi is?
“What? No, maybe Melissa knows but she is away for a bit, are you part of her team? I haven’t seen you here before. We have been trying to figure out where this structure fits in history or even which civilization built it, we have 0 leads.” I placed my hand on the fort door and said the ancient draconian word for ‘Open.’ The doors made a grinding sound and opened. No boobytraps inside so I stepped inside.
“Hey! W...wait! Hey Larry! This is great news! I don't know who this is but he opened the door!” I walked to the centre of the building. It wasn't a large building but something was glowing in the centre. I could feel the leyline energy becoming more intense with every step. I looked at an orb of crystallized leyline energy. I haven't seen crystallized leyline energy since Boshi town. I turned my leyline filter off in my eyes and suddenly the room seemed empty.
Interesting. I turned the filter back on and the orb appeared again. I connected to the leyline energy here and saw a bright flash. Oddly enough I didn't hear the voice that I always hear when I connect to leyline energy. The flash disappeared. I was surprised because I should be immune to flashes. I soon found out that I wasn't in the building anymore. What the?
“I finally get to talk to you.” I know that voice! I looked around and saw a young woman with white long hair and 4 arms sitting on some kind of stone chair. It could pass for a throne but it wasn't as fancy. Uhm, do I know you? And where am I? It should be impossible to force me to a different subdimension due to my [Spatial Anchor].
“Don't worry, this is a mental plane.“ She stretched one of her hands out and created a mirror that showed that I was still standing in front of the crystalized leyline energy. “And you might be familiar with my voice and name, I'm the one who has been crying for help and you might recognize the name ‘Isi’ that is my name.” Wait? So, you’re telling me that you’re our planet and that you have been crying for help all this time? I hope you know how ridiculous that sounds.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I know it’s hard for you to believe" Nah, I believe you, my eyes can’t make a distinction between you and the spatial fabric I have seen before, as if you’re made out of the same stuff as that or that stuff is made out of the same stuff as you. So why would someone important like you bother with a random brat like me?
“A male nine tailed spirit fox is not a random brat at all. Moreover, the first one that is able to use the true energy this world has to offer.” Wait, nobody ever bothered to use this?
“Not to the extent you do, there are many forces on me but my lifeblood, or ‘Dragonvein’ or ‘Leyline energy’ as you call it is the only force that reflects and embodies my will.” Oh, eh, I’m sorry I didn't know and I just randomly used it left and right, I’ll try to find something else.
“Oh, no I’m glad that you’re using it, I want you to continue to use this, just like you need a planet to live on, I need the tailed beasts to help me maintain my body. What you are seeing here in front of you is a mere simulacrum and not representative of my current state since I created this simulacrum way before I started to deteriorate. But it pains me to say that I’m in bad shape.” I see, and using Dragonvein, I mean your lifeblood fixes that?
“In some cases, it will help but that is not the reason why I want you to continue, The reason is to keep you alive.” Huh?
“As I said, the energy you’re using is my will and I also need the tailed beasts to keep existing. I’m fully aware that your race is nearing extinction.” Isi’s eyes glowed golden. “Currently there are 104 nine tailed spirit foxes alive on me. Of which you are one out of 5 males.” Oof, wait do you know if our home Hourai is still ehh on you? And if not where it is?
“I apologize, I possess more than 1.2 million sub-dimensions I don't notice when one disappears nor do I know all their names.” Ugh, unfortunate.
“I would love to answer more of your questions but we don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough time… Listen, there are 3 things I want you to take with you from this meeting. Firstly, continue what you want to do and what you are supposed to do, I have no intention of bending your will or inconvenience you. By the nature of your race’s being, when left on their own, they will be of great assistance, you have assisted me more than you might realize so I have no complaints there. Secondly…” One of Isi’s arms gestured for me to come closer. I walked toward her and her 3rd arm touched my forehead.
“I will impart [Isi’s Will] upon you. This is a token of me giving you authority to use my lifeblood, err Dragonvein. Depending on my strength at the moment I can give you more or less authority whenever you reattune and calibrate to my will. I do have to take the state of your body into consideration so I can't give you a lot. 1.9% authority is the best you can handle now, it will increase the potency of your skills greatly though, besides that, your affinity to my will, will also determine its strength. Thirdly. You need to set an avatar, giving your attacks a certain form is the norm, right? The avatar will represent you and your use in using my will, it can be anything, so what will it be?” Hmm, an avatar for Dragonvein?
“I see, a dragon is a fitting avatar.” Wait what? Ehh well that seems cool enough.
“I’m sorry for rushing this but I’m running out of time and energy, I will give you a chance to change your avatar on our next meeting, which I hope will come…” The area started to blur and another white flash and I was back in the room. The crystalized orb started to crack and shattered.
“Hey, are you alright? You were just standing there.” Yeah, sorry, I’ll let you guys do your work. Oh, and you should check out the floor. The random archeologist got too distracted by the symbols on the floor to question me any further. I left the archeology site and went back home. I thought about the encounter I just had. Nobody is going to believe me if I said I had a brief chat with the planet. I don't have reason to believe that was fake or there were any lies. So, this planet is really called Isi. She looked quite sad. Could she be seen as a goddess? I have no idea. Her appearance looked quite normal besides the 4 arms. I thought I saw a glimpse of a 5th arm but it looked quite bad. She tried to keep it hidden but I caught a glimpse of it. Is there any significance to this?
I reconnected with the leyline. Information flooded my head. My leyline avatar is a no-winged dragon and currently, I have a 1.3% affinity and a 1.9% authority. This seemed to mean that I could use 1.9% of all the leyline energy available here and that my efficiency at using that is 1.3%. Oof that doesn't sound like a lot. I used [Drowning Pulse] and the area started to flood rapidly.
Holy shit! I stopped because I didn't expect to get this big of a boost. Right, I take all that back this already seems strong enough. So, if I can only use 1.3% of the 1.9%, she gave me… how strong would I become if I one day hit 100/100? I tried to imagine but it was hard to. I followed the instructions of the information I got from reconnecting. The movements were quite easy. I formed a no-winged dragon out of water. It seemed as if it was sentient. The water also seemed lighter than before I got Isi’s blessing.
This [Dragon] is stupidly strong. I tested it out in the other elements and it was consistent in becoming sentient and following my will after a while which allowed me to use other techniques. I already knocked a lot of trees down with the water [Dragon] and had to be extra careful with the fire, lightning, and wind variants. The power of these things terrified me. I decided to make a friendlier version. I spent the rest of the day creating battle-friendly ones, they were simple to execute but wouldn't instantly kill any humans, I could also sneak other techniques in between. That is how I created [Water dragon dance], [Fire dragon dance], and so on. These would make me create 2-5 smaller dragons. I made a more intense version and called them [Water Dragon Festival] and so forth which created way more dragons and had more power. I wondered if my waterfall challenge would go way better now. I decided to sleep for the day and try tomorrow. I was supposed to take a holiday but I got curious so on day 185 I restarted my waterfall challenge. I used [Water Dragon dance] and I made it halfway through the waterfall before I got flushed down.
The water dragons greatly boosted my maneuverability and speed in the water I also noticed that because Isi’s blessing I was strong enough with Dragonvein to not need my tails. I reached the top of the waterfall at the end of the day. I was exhausted but I reached the first step of my sub goal. The 712m waterfall was next but I would take a holiday for real now. I slept for 3 days and slacked for 4 more. I was starting to feel the effects of using leylines which was some kind of nonstop workout. I tested out my agility and I felt lighter, faster, and more in control of my body. And yes, I got lighter again. I hope I won't poof out of existence like this.
I made a water [Dragon] and made it attack me on the water basin and the moves I could pull off to evade it seemed like I was defying physics. It reminded me of the battle I had with Paul, he seemed quite annoyed that I seemed to defy physics. I canceled [Dragon] because it flew into the 712m waterfall and almost destroyed it. Can't have my attacks destroy my sub goals. I decided to create a technique called [Waterfall] after I cleared this challenge. Rushing at something with water around me with this speed and force is certainly going to deal a lot of damage. I almost made it after 4 tries and on the 7th try, I cleared the waterfall. I roared in victory. On day 193 I created [Waterfall] and [7th Waterfall] this was just [Waterfall] but with 6 clones. I needed something special for this occasion. I decided to set a new subgoal and I would start that on day 200.