“Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus, focus, fo-cus!” sang Iris.
Strangely enough, her constant reminders to focus were not actually helping Sophie focus much. Sophie had gotten somewhat used to it over the past three months, but even so, she preferred the times when Iris wasn’t “helping” her practice.
At the moment, she was practicing her {Mana Circulation} skill. During one of her rare bouts of sanity, Iris had explained that for her plan, Sophie needed to get her {Mana Circulation} skill to the skill cap before her next class up, which was rapidly approaching. Ascending to the third tier had taken her all of two weeks after starting her discipleship, and her progress remained swift as the months stretched on.
Going through the entirety of the third tier in less than three months would have been unheard of without a lucky encounter with a powerful, dying monster, but here, Sophie was managing through sheer effort alone. Being discipled to a dragon probably helped, but Sophie was sure that even with that, she wouldn’t have been able to do it if she had literally anything else to distract her with. The island was small, and the ruins were ancient, so there was really nothing she could do but practice.
“Your progress is good,” said Iris, her voice suddenly steady.
Sophie’s eyes snapped open. While it had been getting ever-so-slightly more common lately, these moments of clarity were still a rare thing that she couldn’t afford to miss.
“Thank you,” said Sophie.
“You are level 18 now?”
“19,” said Sophie. “I just leveled up this morning.”
“Excellent,” said Iris, nodding. “And {Mana Circulation}?”
“42.”
“Cutting it close, but I believe you should still make it in time. If not, we will have to wait until your next class evolution, which will take much longer. Though by then, I will have almost fully regained my sanity, so it will be easier. But enough on that. Let us continue.”
“Yes, Master.”
Sophie sat up straighter, closed her eyes, and started circulating her mana again. A few moments later, she flinched as she felt Iris’ hand on her shoulder. A bit of the dragon’s mana entered her body, disrupting the steady flow, but correcting the internal pathways. As Iris had explained before, while {Mana Circulation} was an excellent skill, it was a mediocre replica of what dragons did naturally.
What she was trying to teach Sophie was {Draconic Mana Circulation}, a rare skill reserved only for dragons, and those they deemed worthy to learn their secrets. It was similar to regular {Mana Circulation}, but much more complex, and in some ways counter-intuitive. It had been somewhat painful to learn the initial patterns, but with the help of her newly evolved {Mana Manipulation} skill, she was able to keep it going reasonably well without Iris’ help. She would occasionally drift back toward the System’s defaults, but Iris was able to correct it usually.
Sophie flinched again as the hand hit her in the sternum this time, correcting the flow once again. She was corrected once more before Iris reverted back to her usual state, and started floating about idly, jabbering away with herself. Sophie tried to meditate for a bit longer, but between Iris, and her boredom, she gave up and switched to practicing {Mana Manipulation} instead.
Even after having it for so long, she still often marveled at it. It was a rare skill, usually reserved for sixth tier mages or higher. Some classes, like her own {Dragon’s Disciple} and her mother’s {Mana Dancer} were able to acquire it much earlier though, making them highly sought-after. It was one of the reasons that her mother had made the decision to move out to the woods away from Jelor. When Sophie was younger, she remembered a fairly constant stream of petitioners asking her mother to take in their children as disciples to teach them to be a {Mana Dancer}.
Sophie felt momentarily saddened by the memories of her mother, but pushed the feelings aside, and returned to her practice. She had developed a routine, with help from Iris, to give her a wide range of skills. Since she was on the beach, she had all the major elements available for her to cycle through. First, she raised a ball of sand, spinning it, stretching it into a rod, shaping it into a cube, then letting it fall. Then, she did the same with water, then air, then some conjured flame.
With her previous class and its {Lesser Mana Manipulation} skill, she was able to control all kinds of mana and bend it to her whims, but it relied heavily on her own concentration, as well as physical gestures. Without them, the skill would not function. True {Mana Manipulation} not only didn’t require gestures, but it didn’t even require half as much mental focus, at least for smaller tasks. The most difficult thing about the new skill was not using it, but it was training herself not to move her hands while using it. If she had gone on to take {Mana Dancer} like she initially planned, the motions would still have had a positive effect on the skill’s power, but without it, it was just a waste of energy.
She ran through the warmups twice, then started working on the more advanced or obscure elements. Nature was easy enough. She retreated to the treeline, and focused her attention on one of the vines, and started making it twist and bend like a snake. Sound was a bit more difficult. She could make loud sounds, high pitched sounds, and low-pitched ones but her precise control was still lacking, and she could not even come close to imitating voices with it like Iris demonstrated. Even worse, it was annoying to practice, since it sounded so awful.
Lightning was something she hadn’t delved very far into. The most she ever did was generate a few sparks between her fingers. Any more than that, and she started to get uncomfortable. Light magic was tricky. Sophie couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. She could brighten her hands just a little bit, but that was as far as she had made it, and Iris hadn’t had time to teach her more on that.
[ {Mana Manipulation} has leveled up! lvl 31 -> 32 ]
Sophie smiled when she saw the System message, then switched her attention over to the final advanced element, and the one that she had an even weaker understanding of than Light. Unfortunately, it was also the element that she would need most to get off the island. She didn’t quite understand most of what Iris’ plan was, but she knew it involved spatial magic, or at least breaking spatial magic, since that’s what was keeping them trapped on the island.
She held out her hands, and tried doing as Iris taught her, creating a portal from one palm to another. Sophie thought that sounded like a huge first step for an initial foray into spatial magic, but even sane Iris had said it would be fine, so she kept trying. She hadn’t had any luck. She could feel the mana moving around her hands, but nothing ever happened. She had even gone out into the water to the edge of the island’s range a couple more times, trying to get a feel for spatial magic in action, and that didn't really help either.
She tried for a full half hour to get the portal working while Iris floated lazily above, unusually silent, until her concentration was interrupted by a sudden grumbling in her stomach. She glanced up at the dragon, who seemed to be paying no attention to her at all before starting her march toward the center of the island.
The island had exactly one source of food, and that source was a pond in the center that regularly spawned trout. It was a small pond, and didn’t spawn many fish, which is the reason that Iris was always in her human form. There was enough for two humans, but not even close to enough for a dragon.
By this point, Sophie was adept at catching the fish in a sphere of water, and transferring them to the land, so she did just that, cooked it over a well-used fire pit, and ate as she watched the sun set over the hill she had arrived on top of. After her meal, she continued to practice {Mana Circulation} until her body ached and her mind was too tired to go on, then stumbled over to the makeshift bed of grass and leaves she had created for herself, and fell asleep almost immediately.
In her dreams, she found herself back at the cabin. It was not the first time she had been there in her sleep, but she still never got used to it. She was crouching in the hallway with her brother and Bianca, panicking, and begging her brother not to leave their parents behind. They placed Snowberry in her arms, and Nick ripped the scroll, and suddenly, Sophie was alone.
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Usually, that was the point in her dream where she woke up. This time, however, she remained asleep. The world around her was dark, but her mind was lucid, and she found herself plagued by a set of worries that had been a constant since the incident. What had happened to her parents? Where were Nick and Bianca? Where was Snowberry? Why did the scroll only teleport her? Was everyone else alright?
She spiraled into despair for some time before suddenly the darkness shifted, and she was somewhere unfamiliar. It was dark too, but she could just barely make out some shapes nearby. In front of her seemed to be an enormous tree trunk, extending so far down she couldn’t see the bottom, and above her was a leafy canopy so dense she couldn’t see the sky. There was a faint light emanating from behind her, but when she turned around, all she saw was a flash of red before she was suddenly awake again.
It was the middle of the night, and the moon was full. Both of them, actually. Iris was standing right beside Sophie’s bed, staring off into the distance. A moment later, she turned down to Sophie, her yellow eyes almost glowing.
“Disciple,” she said.
“Y-yes, Master?”
“Do you know anyone who is skilled with Aether?”
“Aether?” asked Sophie, not sure if she heard correctly. “What’s that?”
“Aether. Essence. The mana behind the mana.”
“I don’t think so?” said Sophie, racking her brains, trying to think of anyone like that. “Maybe my mom?”
“Did your mother have red eyes?”
“No?”
“Did you know anyone with red eyes?”
Immediately, Snowberry came to mind. But that couldn’t have been it. Snowberry was just a rabbit.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Interesting,” said Iris. “Well, someone with red eyes and a lot of Aether was looking for you.”
***
“Alice. Stay.”
Walter stared down his tiny companion who clearly had no idea what he was saying. It had been almost a week since she had been forced upon him, and while she was no longer afraid of him, she also had no understanding of language. The bastard Freddy told Walter to train her to recognize his commands, but he didn’t tell Walter how to do that.
Walter tried walking a few steps outside of his cave, and Alice hopped behind him. He immediately turned and growled at her, which made her stop, but as soon as the growl ended, she inched closer again.
“Stop!” he said. “Go back! Stay!”
Alice tilted her head in confusion. Walter growled, then huffed and turned away. If she wanted to follow him so badly, so be it. What did he care? So what if she died? He didn’t want to be punished, but it might be better than having to deal with such a stupid “friend”. Besides, she had followed him out the previous hunts and been fine. Mostly.
He stalked into the forest in search of prey, but kept finding his mind preoccupied with the rabbit behind him. She was sticking close, only a few feet from his back legs, nibbling on grass whenever he paused to sniff the air.
In the way, thought Walter.
Hunting would be much more difficult with her around. She was easily the weakest thing in the forest at the moment. She wouldn’t even be able to kill a slime. And she smelled good. If Walter left her behind to go hunt prey, she might get eaten while he wasn’t looking. However, he needed to hunt. He could last a while without food, but he didn’t like to. He preferred to have a full stomach. A full stomach made everything better. He would have more energy to deal with his new “friend” if he had more food in his stomach. He had gotten a couple birds that had swooped in for the rabbit, but they barely had any meat and they were covered in feathers. Gross.
What he wanted was a deer. However, to get a deer, he had to chase it, and to chase it would mean leaving Alice alone. It might be fine. It also might get Alice killed. It wasn’t worth the risk.
He walked a few steps further into the forest, and decided that going hunting normally wasn’t going to work. He needed a new plan. Maybe he could find a snake. Snakes didn’t taste that good either, but at least they were better than birds. They were also much easier to catch than the deer, since the snakes couldn’t teleport. He was about to start sniffing around to try to find one when he noticed Alice’s ears suddenly perk up behind him. A few seconds later, he heard the sound as well. It was the sound of something walking through the forest. Something metal. A human.
Walter sneered as he turned to face the sound, then stopped. He couldn’t kill humans. Freddy would punish him. But even so, the human was trespassing on his land. That meant it would be okay, right? More importantly, he had Alice with him. He could just kill the human and tell Freddy he was doing it to protect Alice.
As the footsteps got closer, Alice hopped around and cowered behind his leg. A moment later, they stopped, having apparently noticed Walter. It wasn’t that surprising. Walter wasn’t exactly trying to be stealthy. After another minute of silence, Walter decided to make the first move. He took a huge leap forward, knocking over a tree along the way, and a moment later, he was standing in front of the human.
Except it wasn’t a human. It was too short and too wide. It was covered in metal, and had two axes in its hands.
A dwarf! Walter recalled excitedly.
He had never eaten a dwarf before. He snarled and took a step forward, anticipating an enjoyable meal, but something stopped him. Something nagged him in the back of his mind, and after a few seconds, he realized what it was.
“If you kill even one of the dwarves, I’m going to rip your teeth out,” said Freddy’s voice in his mind.
No! Said Freddy.
It was just his luck. The one easy prey he might have found was the one type that he could not, under any circumstances, kill.
The dwarf had braced itself when Walter stepped forward, but now that Walter was stopped, it stood in place too. For almost a full minute, neither made a move. Then, reluctantly, Walter huffed and took a step back.
“Go away,” he said.
The dwarf started backing away cautiously, never taking his eyes off Walter until he was more than a hundred feet away, then turned to run. Walter wistfully watched him leave, then turned back around, ready to get back on the hunt. His mood was ruined, but he was back in good spirits when he caught a whiff of what he was looking for. A snake.
A moment later, he had spotted his prey, slithering away through the underbrush after having caught Walter’s scent in the air. Not on his watch. Walter took a single leap forward, knocking over yet another tree, and landed exactly where he meant to, with the snake's tail under his paw. The snake writhed in pain, bending back to bite Walter’s leg, but its teeth could not penetrate his hide.
A moment later, Alice caught up to him. She hid behind his leg for a moment, but when he took another step forward to step on the front of the snake as well, pinning it in place so it couldn’t move, she nervously hopped forward. She sniffed the twitching tail of the snake, then hopped around to its body. She sniffed once more, but suddenly hopped back when the snake’s body bent slightly, hitting her in the nose. She stared at it for a second, then took a flying leap at it, kicking it with her back feet as she landed.
She repeated this a few more times while Walter watched in amusement. After a little while though, he grew bored, and put a bit more weight on his frontmost paw, breaking the snakes neck and killing it.
Despite their mediocre taste, Walter actually did find snakes fairly satisfying to eat. With no pesky limbs getting in the way, and with bones weak enough to crunch easily, he could just eat them whole, and it only took a few bites. It was a bit too small to fully fill him up, but it made for a good start.
He repeated his snake hunting process twice more, both times letting Alice try to attack it. He had no ulterior motives for doing this. He just thought it was funny.
They had gone out in the middle of the afternoon, and when they returned the sun had fully set. Ordinarily, Walter would have gone on a patrol around the forest at this time but with Alice in tow, he had to go frustratingly slowly, making it not fun. He would go again eventually, since it was his territory, and he had to patrol it to make sure nothing unsavory moved in, but for now, he was taking a break.
He laid down in his shallow cave to relax for a bit, and maybe nap off the meal, but a strange scraping sound disturbed him. He turned toward the back of the cave, where Alice had dug herself a small hole, and found that she was digging more, kicking up loose dirt into his cave.
“Alice,” he said.
The rabbit stopped.
“What doing?”
She stared blankly for a second before going right back to digging. Walter knew better than to keep asking her what she was doing, since she never understood what he said, and she couldn’t speak anyway. Instead, he turned slightly and lay facing the other way so he could watch her progress. After about five minutes, a small ring of dirt had accumulated around the hole, and when Walter raised his head to peer into it, he could see that Alice had made it about twice as wide.
She dug a bit more, then paused for a few seconds before turning to Walter. She stared at him, then jumped into her hole. Then she crept out, looked at him again, then jumped back in. Then, one final time, she peeked at him before going back in the hole for good. She stopped moving for a few seconds, and there was no sound.
Suddenly, there was an odd squelching noise, making Walter cock his head in confusion. He lifted himself up and peered into the hole to see that Alice had vanished. All that was left in her place was a translucent orange cocoon.