I lead the way with Ruby following me, I take her to the sewage treatment room, it's big and full of pipes and things to blow up. I take her to the middle of the room and turn to face her.

"Okay, first I'm going to talk you through the firebolt spell to see if you can get the skill."

Ruby says "Okay!"

So I talk her step by step through the spell and how it works and how it feels. She catches on quickly and soon has the skill and fires off her first firebolt. It hits the pipe she was aiming for but barely scorches it.

"Okay, now I'm going to show you the blue firebolt."

She watches closely as the small blue ball of fire forms at the end of my finger and then shoots off. It blows a section of pipe apart and melts even more.

Ruby says "Wow! That is way more destructive!"

"Yes, but it's very complicated, you have to understand fire to a higher degree to evolve the skill."

Ruby says "Okay, I will try my best."

So we sit down on the floor and I start explaining, I start with how the air is composed of different gasses. Once she understands that I go into how fire works and how different things burn in different ways. I have her summon a firebolt without releasing it. Then step by step I walk her through what I did, first more airflow, then only taking in oxygen, then compressing the flames.

Adding pressure is what takes her the longest to understand, I have to explain why compressing it makes it more potent and then what forces compress things. It takes us about five hours before she understands enough to evolve her skill into the blue fire. When she successfully casts it, something I wasn't expecting happens, Ruby is suddenly covered in blue flames. The heat is so overwhelming I have to quickly roll away and take cover behind an old vat.

Peeking around the vat I can see all the pipes near Ruby are melting from the extreme heat. She is still covered in blue flames although it doesn't look like it's hurting her. In fact the look on her face I can best describe as rapture.

"Ruby! Are you alright?"

Ruby starts and says "Oh! Sorry, master! I was distracted, so much just happened!"

"That's fine, Ruby. As long as you are not hurt, do you think you can stop melting the room now?"

Ruby says "What? Oh! Um, give me a second!"

The look on her face changes from confusion to surprise and then to intense concentration. It takes her a few minutes to get her aura under control so the flames die away and the heat drops to normal around her.

As the flames die down the first thing I notice is that her hair is now blue, a bright vibrant blue. I carefully approach her once the temperature in the room drops down to something close to normal.

"Are you alright?"

Ruby says "I'm better than alright, I'm fantastic!"

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"Okay, so what happened?"

Ruby says "Um, I guess I evolved like the spell did? All my abilities are now blue fire abilities. I also gained superior intelligence so I guess my stats went up. Sorry, I got a lot of messages all at once, I'm not sure I caught everything."

"Wait, you evolved? Are you still a flame spirit? Or something new?"

Ruby says "I am a Blue Flame Spirit now. I can't be sure but I might be the first one ever."

"Hey, that's awesome! Don't worry about it too much, being unique isn't a bad thing. Oh, uh, by the way, your hair changed color."

Ruby quickly reaches up and grabs a strand of hair and pulls it in front of her face so that she can see it.

"Don't worry, it looks good on you. Your eyes didn't change so your name still suits you."

Ruby says "Really? It looks good?"

"Yes, it looks good! You are really going to stand out once we make it outside!"

Ruby says "I'm not worried about standing out, as long as you like it I'm happy."

I smile at Ruby and stroke her hair, I'm amazed at how soft and silky smooth it is. She smiles back at me as I run my fingers through her bright blue hair.

"How are you feeling? Ready to go back to camp?"

Ruby says "I am feeling tired, but before I rest I would like to try out my new blue fireball if that's okay."

"Sure, but let's move to this side of the room first and you throw it at that side. Oh, and can you talk me through the fireball spell like I did the firebolt spell?"

Ruby says "I can try."

We move down to the end of the room closest to camp and she aims her spell at the other end of the room. She casts her spell slowly, telling me what she is doing step by step. Her phrasing is a bit weird to me but I manage to get the gist of what she means.

When her fireball goes off it turns the far end of the room into a bright blue inferno, when the flames die down none of the pipes are left and the walls and floor are slightly melted.

*DING*

Congratulations! You have acquired the magic skill Blue Fireball!

Blue Fireball

Level 1

MP Cost 50

Deals 100 damage to a 30ft area.

"Wow, that is some impressive destructive power!"

Ruby smiles and says "Yeah, it is! And it's all thanks to you, master!"

"I simply shared some knowledge with you, you did the rest on your own."

Ruby says "Still, none of this would have been possible without you experimenting. I'm sorry I doubted you master. But I'm tired now, so I'm going to rest."

Before I have a chance to say anything Ruby turns into a spirit, I notice her spirit form is also bright blue right before she zips into the amulet to rest. I pat the amulet and think to her to sleep well. I turn to head back to camp but it hasn't been that long, I'm not really tired or hungry. So I turn my steps the other direction and head back to continue exploring the cavern.

The area that Ruby fireballed is still too hot to cross so I have to go the long way around. It takes me a few minutes to remember which tunnels to take to circle around but then it's a straight shot back to the cavern.

Once inside the cavern I hang a left and follow the wall, I count my steps as I go because with the terrain it is hard to judge distances and I want to make the map as accurate as I can. I also try to memorize the positions of the pillars as I pass them.

As I follow the wall around, it soon starts descending, I pass within fifteen feet of where we chose to go up to the lake. The way narrows as the cliff wall rises on my right, soon there is only about five feet between the wall and the cliff face. It quickly feels more like a tunnel as the path continues to descend, the roar of the waterfall becomes muted.

Then the path curves a bit and as I move around the bend the roar of the waterfall becomes overwhelmingly loud. I stop as the path ends, the walls spread out a bit and five feet in front of me is a pond that the waterfall is dropping into. The waterfall is only about thirty feet high but the walls wrap around the pond magnifying the sound.

The only way out I can see is the small fast river leaving the pond through the cavern wall. Judging by its size and my location I think it is the river that leads past my camp. I am about to turn and leave when something shiny catches my eye, stepping to the bank of the pond I can see something shiny in the waterfall.

I take a few steps closer until I can see a spur of crystal just barely poking out of the waterfall. What's more I see a shadow behind the waterfall, is it a cave? I guess there is only one way to find out.