It was a few days later when the two travellers encountered their first major problem. They had run out of water.

Before this they had always managed to find a small creek filled with snow melt, or pools of water that they boiled. Unfortunately, they hadn’t encountered anything of the sort for a while.

Food they could hunt or scavenge for. Water… was not so easy. Sure, the animals that they caught needed to drink from somewhere, in order to survive, but they simply didn’t have enough time to be wasting days on a potentially fruitless search for a water source.

Briefly Azrael wondered whether [Heal] could keep them alive, but then he discarded the idea. Relying on somebody else to survive didn’t sit well with him and Sophie would probably run out of mana while trying to sustain them. Also, due to her being a God’s follower, [Heal] didn’t work well on him. Sophie didn’t seem to know what to do about it, beyond “keep searching.”

This meant that it was left to him to solve the problem. And he already had the perfect idea. During the winter months, when their plumbing had frozen he’d started trying to make water out of mana, before Alena pointed out that he could simply melt the ample snow outside.

While he hadn’t encountered anybody that could conjure water he had reasons to believe that it was possible. Since, his unique trait [Elemental Mana] allowed him to turn mana into fire and earth, then water and wind should also be possible. Sophie’s wind affinity [Mage] class further proved that other elements could be controlled.

He’d learnt from Sophie that apparently, a Chosen one’s elemental affinity was determined by the first elemental magic that player used while in game. Some players were luckier and could get dual affinity, but those were rare. Whether the fact that he didn’t have an affinity derived from the fact that he used pure mana first, or simply didn’t have a compatibility he wasn’t sure.

Sophie had also explained that people with an elemental affinity gained a passive increase to all spells of that same affinity, while using spells of other affinity types became harder and more mana intensive.

It was the same concept of specialisation that the rest of the game seemed to work off, but he wasn’t sure whether he could do anything to change having no affinity.

Checking that Sophie was asleep in the makeshift stone tent, he threw another branch onto the fire and settled into a seated pose, sinking into [Meditation].

Calming his breathing Azrael slowly reached out to his mana, feeling it flow through him with each breath, healing him, revitalising him, flooding him with power. He ignored it, instead reaching out deeper into his mana core, and drawing out a small thread of his mana. He felt it trail through him as he tugged.

With [Mana Sense] he followed the streamer, as it moved, from his core to his chest, along his right arm and into his palm, where it emerged into the world, shimmering gold. He’d found that his mana had recently gained a distinct colour in its pure form. He attributed it to the recent change in his soul mist.

Appreciating the beauty of his own mana for a moment longer, Azrael tightened his control over it and moulded it into a sphere, before changing its shape once more.

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This time he drew it out and sharpened it into a projectile. He let his control relax, and the mana unravelled, dissipating into the air as a fine golden mist. The air shimmered gold for a moment, before his mana became too diluted and mixed back in with the ambient mana.

Drawing out another wisp from his core, he brought it once more to hover above his palm. This time he agitated the mana until it burst into brilliant gold flames. Feeding it more mana he stoked the flames. Temporarily the flames flared up, fuelled by his mana. He cut off the flow and eventually the flame receded, before burning itself into nothingness in the night air.

When that too had vanished, Azrael drew out another thread from his core and wove it into itself, strong, rigid, immovable.

The mana solidified into stone. As a construct of his own mana he held it afloat, the stone hovering above his palm. He tensed, shooting the pebble into the night. He heard it land far away and smiled, having completed a run through of the basic properties of his mana.

Azrael had come to realise that mana had set rules and properties, just like everything else. In many ways it reacted just like normal matter. Conservation of mass was upheld by converting mana to mass, thermal dynamics and material states were similarly observed.

However, different to normal reality, he was converting energy into solids, liquids and gas, instead of breaking down those three states into plasma. While it wasn’t an exact copy of the real world’s laws it still held followed the basic principles.

All he had to do for conjuration was mimic the properties of the element he was trying to conjure. Fire was energetic and excited. Earth was stable and unchanging. Water would be… flowing and moving? Wasn’t air the same though. He shook his head as he considered the problem that was before him. He let out a deep breath. One thing at a time.

Calming his thoughts once more Azrael began siphoning another thread of mana into his palm. All the while he held a picture of water in his mind.

It was wet. He tried again, this time picturing the waterfall back in the valley. It was relentless, an ever-moving power of nature. The mana in his palm began to move. He pictured an ocean, the tides flowing in and out. The mana in his palm flowed against itself, pushing and pulling like the tides. He pictured a raindrop, falling pristine, perfect…

A drop of water fell into his palm. He looked up. There were no rain clouds. He looked at his palm.

Congratulations!

Through a new understanding of mana you have progressed the unique skill [Elemental Mana].

[Elemental Mana]

There is a truth that even nature obeys.

You may grant your mana an elemental affinity.

Current Affinities: [Fire], [Earth], [Water].

Smiling he drew more mana from his core, before making it move like the tides. He watched his mana turn from the golden light into crystal clear water. Cupping his palms, he let the it pool in them, and drank.

The water rolled down his throat like rain after a drought. It was tasteless, and temperature less, neither hot nor cold, unlike the water from the waterfall, which was cool, crisp and clear.

Sure, most people claimed all water was the same and that water was tasteless, but water from snowmelt and water from rain and water from a mountain stream all tasted different. This water was just straight up flavour less. He shrugged. It would do its job.

Grabbing the empty water pouches, Azrael began the task filling them up. What would he tell Sophie about where he had gotten it? He looked at her sleeping form and sighed. She was nothing but trouble. Should he kill her now? He could fake the attack of a wild beast. No. He still needed her if he wanted to find the dragon. Her wind movement spells were handy and if they did meet the dragon, well… he might need a snack to appease it.