With Naea handling the training of what I was lovingly calling the Fledglings, I had some time to myself. It felt… strange. Naea was a constant companion for the past weeks and months, and though we had a constant connection, this was the first time we intentionally chose to work separately. Even knowing it made sense, and it was important for Naea to find a solo identity that could exist without me…

It was weird.

I gladly threw myself into a task I had accidentally procrastinated upon. I had to promise Naea “officially” not to poke my head into any more portals. Even if they looked really cool. Or valuable. Or if there was a time limit. She had been quite specific. I had signed multiple printed documents. When I asked where she had got them from, she merely winked and told me “a lady must have her secrets.”

I conceded the point, and the promise.

No portals, just me and the three claimant monsters stopping me from getting at the full System faction menu. If I let my mind wander and my feet do as they wished while simultaneously focusing on the quest, I was able to get a vague sense of their direction. Which is to say, I had the absolute worst and least helpful hot-and-cold direction finder possible. Naea had genuinely tried to teach me Find The Path but I just couldn’t get it.

“You have to get your mana like… this,” she had given bunk advice while gesturing unhelpfully, “and then you make it spin while colouring it with the thing you want to find’s scent. Magically.”

I had been frustrated by both her explanation and my inability to just figure it out anyway. It was the first time I had encountered something magical that I couldn’t replicate and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Instead of a handy and pretty stream of glittering mana to follow, I had to stand still for a few minutes every hour of travel and reorient myself. Thankfully, the claimant beast seemed to enjoy hanging around fairly obvious landmarks.

The drake had set up in the Evergreen Everbloom, and my next victim was apparently in the only true mountain around. It was hard to tell as it had been in the distance for the most part, but I could have sworn the peak was getting higher. It seemed higher than the last time I saw it, which would have been a month ago. I’d bet all of those weird dragon coins I had on the mountain being a resource.

But was it the famous and elusive grade two resource?

My senses said no, though it was definitely “loud” magically. The energy felt grade one, but on a literally mountainous scale, it was making my head spin a little. The grassland dotted with small woods and larger forests gave way to hard stone and the moment my foot touched it, I had to step back. To my Stormborn eyes, the rock was vibrating with mana. It made my vision feel fuzzy, like I had motion sickness.

With a flex of Dao, I took control of the mana in my vicinity. For a wide area around myself, the excited energy of the mountain froze, a mouse under my snake’s gaze. There was an expenditure of willpower and mana, but it was negligible enough. I began my climb of the rocky mountain, trying to get used to the strange energy it held.

The pace in which I was scaling to the top would put any old-world rock climber to shame. Throwing myself from hand hold to hand hold without a care, transforming the Alternating Armament into just the right shape to attack the rock. I hauled myself onto a plataeu and took in the view. I could see Newtown more easily than my Outpost from here, though both were in the same direction.

It was at this point in my trek that I was first beset by the denizens of the mountain.

They did not disappoint at all. After the “normal animals but larger” Everbloom Evergreen, I was hoping for something with a bit more flair to battle. There had been a lot of monsters in the trial wave, but I had barely spent time looking at them before tearing them apart. When I saw the level of the strange creature that decided I was unwelcome, I paused.

Monster - Shaleborn Kalar - Level 47

So, apparently a Kalar had the proportions of a monkey with no head and four arms. I assumed being Shaleborn was why it was made entirely of stone, but maybe that was a Kalar thing, too. I had time to consider this as I soared through the air, off the mountain. The rock was steep where I had been climbing, so there was quite the drop.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I fell through the air, glaring daggers at the Kalar which seemed to be waving its fists at me. You motherfu-

Terminal velocity and rocks weren’t enough to kill me anymore, but it was the principle of the thing. I decided to test something, and used Tempest Form when I neared the ground, hoping to disperse the impact. It wasn’t a complete failure. Instead of landing awkwardly, I landed wide. My essence scattered for a few uncomfortable seconds, making me black out. As enough of myself pulled together, I deactivated the skill with a gasp. Instead of broken bones, I had drained nearly my entire mana pool and left myself with a migraine.

I decided to place all of the blame onto the Kalar which had thrown me. Without waiting for my stamina and mana to recover, I launched myself back at the rocky expanse without pause. Before too long, I was back on the exact same plateau, and this time I was ready. The reason I had been so mercilessly tossed last time was because despite being made entirely of loose rocks, the Shaleborn Kalar was silent as it moved up the mountain.

However, knowing it was coming allowed me to react. I definitely saw its arm appear from the rock, already around my ankle. I smashed the hand, but two more grabbed my other leg and I was again kissing the clouds. The fall gave me some time to consider, and in that descent, I decided I didn’t want to fall anymore. I didn’t actually have a choice this time, but I promised myself it would never happen again.

Within my soul, an unfamiliar rumble crackled. I hit the ground with a solid thump. By channelling three layers of Infusion and making the Alternating Armament into a kite shield, I merely dislocated my shoulder. The pain was still explosive, like I recalled from the first day everything changed. I tried to remember the face of the man who had helped me back then, but my mind had not been remade by the System’s potential at that point.

All I could recall was facts, not features. He was bald, but I didn’t remember the shape of his head. He had been wearing general labourer’s clothes, but were they covered in paint or were they clean?

I hadn’t lucked into a forward dislocation and my arm bone was scraping uncomfortably against my shoulder blade. The limb looked funny, my left arm a few inches shorter than my right. I giggled and that’s when I knew that I was going into shock. Even my thoughts wandering to Helpful Bald Man was a sign of that. I blinked tears from my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Hup!” I positioned myself under an outcrop of stone and jumped. Not the most medically sound method for fixing a dislocated shoulder, but I had confidence that a bit of healing magic and my body’s natural recovery would stop the injury from healing wrong. “Definitely should have brought Naea,” I cursed. Not only did she hold the true healing magic between us, she could fly.

I had a fluttery feeling in my chest that came from the Dao of Tempests. When the Dao of the Dragon made itself known, it was a fiery and snarling predator which would not back down. The tempest was different. It had been roused by my last tumble through the open air, and I let my mana dance to its rhythmic suggestions. The adversity of pain and climbing put me in a thoughtful mood, as I swayed with the feeling.

The full meaning behind where an Aspect became bound, be it Fortitude, Speed, Mental or Will, I didn’t know. Did the Aspect, and eventual Dao, alter the mentality of the wielder? Even the method of developing my Dao was confusing, a process I had fumbled through up to now. For the most part, I had been ascribing ideals to the Aspects, and then finding myself choosing to live up to those ideals.

It was working for me, so it was easy not to question, but I didn’t want to get stuck in a bad mindset. This mountain was uncomfortably metaphorical all of a sudden, but I ignored that to focus on the magic within me. For the first time in a while, I did a true delve into my inner world.

The sight was not encouraging.

I had been neglecting my psyche, but how could I hide from my very soul? I couldn’t avert my eyes when it was the universe around me, so I faced the damage head on. I had taken on a role, simply by being powerful and not recognising the importance of that in the new world. The pressure I felt from this was represented in a chain around my Dao Avatar.

The way I interacted with my inner world had also changed over time. Initially, it had been a pure visualisation based on my fragmented understanding of magic. When my first Dao Pool formed, a more physical interpretation formed. My starting location was generally the same. Normally, I would appear on a wide open plain, as though I were a denizen of the imaginary planet on a stroll through the well kept wilderness. The sky was dotted with stars, and the brightest two represented the Guidance Stones I had used.

I frowned at the chained dragon to my left. I took in the scene of the heavy metal links holding down the tail, limbs and wings of my mind’s depiction of the draconic power I held. It snorted at me with a glare, so I glared back. Given that it was my soul, I knew what the issue was but I could hardly believe myself. Was my Dao being childish?

“Oh grow up, I’ll play with you more later.” I swatted the air in the direction of the dragon. It’s ever changing form growled and now it was my turn to grunt. “I can’t believe I’m having an argument with my own subconscious. I need so much therapy. No way I’m qualified for that. Listen, you. Power is power, whether I use your’s or…”

I gestured to the moon in the sky. I had envisioned my later powers being used to raise up the incredible potent strengths of the dragon, and the Tempest Moon was the first of those. There were two strange blank spots in the sky that I knew my next Aspects would fit into, but feeling the void there was an itch I couldn’t wait to fix. “Only with the right Aspects,” I calmed the dragon, who knew my thoughts and voiced my own prideful thoughts back to me. Anything less than a legendary Aspect would be a no from me at this point, whether I had the option or not.

I faced the Tempest Moon. Its presence in my soul space had been a nourishing influence. Instead of the domineering energy that the Dragon demanded, the tempest did not qualify the use of its power. The exude strength was the domain of the storm, after all. The Tempest did not oppress, or dominate. Those actions required intent, and the storm was nothing but pure power.

It overwhelmed.

Tha-Dump.

My eyes opened, and the air around me moved to my thoughts. A system message filled me with my information and understanding, a new skill unlocked. More than that, I had been spending a lot of time pondering the nature of storms, my time on Badaila being a crash course I would never forget. The ability was just waiting for me to realise it was there.

Skill Unlocked - Air Manipulation (Tempest)

By infusing the surrounding atmosphere with mana, you bring it under your command.