Chapter 23: The Tricks of Air

Upon being warped to the air room Tide got to work straight away siting down and trying to observe the air mana interacting with his skin. When he had tried to unlock it earlier, it was quite difficult due to the sparse amount of mana that naturally flowed in the air. Now that he was in an environment where it was air mana was artificially added it was much easier to get a feel for it.

The air mana was once again unique in how it interacted with Tide’s body. While earth mana all moved in one direction in a structured manner, it seemed much more random with its mana particles going every which way. Occasionally they would sync up and produce a slight breeze in a certain direction, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for when that occurred. Water mana flowed past his body until he was able to incorporate himself into the flow allowing it to diffuse into him. Due to the chaotic nature of the wind mana, there was no exact flow to follow.

Air mana had the most similarities with fire mana based on their chaotic behavior, but rather than being destructive and invasive, air mana would just bounce off Tide’s body. Any attempt to grasp the mana with his will or absorb it on contact would just cause the mana to fly away faster, as if it was trying to avoid him. It was like the mana didn’t want to be held against its will. Obviously, he wouldn’t make any progress trying to force the air mana to integrate.

Tide tried meditating while standing to feel more of the breeze brush against his skin and hair. The breeze itself was refreshing and this moment of calm after all the tortuous tests felt like a well-deserved break. He tried to let his body naturally coexist with the air mana around him. Slowly as his muscles and mind relaxed, he began to slightly bend and move with the occasional gust of wind moving throughout the room. Part of his mind was nagging him to check what was happening and see if any air mana had begun to integrate, but he slowly let those thoughts drifted out of his mind as he slipped further into all most nonexistent state. Soon he wasn’t even registering what was occurring around him, as all his senses began to dull. He was getting more and more absorbed into just existing and slightly bending with the wind around him.

He remained in this state and unknown to himself his internal mana began to resonate with the air mana surrounding him. He began to slowly attract more of the mana to flow around, making the gentle breezes speed up and become stronger. This phenomenon kept increasing as Tide slowly began to sway further and faster keeping up with the more intense air flow.

Soon Tide was encompassed by a much fiercer wind, pushing, and pulling at his body, but in this relaxed state Tide didn’t feel a thing and just allowed it to roll past him. This state was only interrupted when an especially fierce gust of wind caused Tide to lean too far over and lose his balance. The abrupt collision with the ground shocked Tide out of the meditative state once again becoming aware.

His eyes opened back up and shone with the light of understanding. The air element was a free spirit, Tide couldn’t control it all he could do was be open to it and go along with the air as it flowed. It wouldn’t flow into his body, but his body could flow with them. If he was already moving with the wind his body wouldn’t absorb or grab the mana instead it was catching them softy.

His eyes lit up even more when the system window materialized in front of him.

Congratulations on gaining a new affinity! As an Elementalist class individual you will now be able to integrate the Air Affinity into all of your class skills.

Upon closing that window another one popped up right afterwards.

Congratulations on being the first Human to gain all four base affinities.

As an award for this accomplishment your Observant trait will evolve into the trait Shamanic Senses. Additionally, you will also receive ten undistributed stat points.

As the window disappeared Tide was blinded by the intense brightness swirling all around him. He closed his eyes and rubbed them. After a moment he slowly cracked his eyes open and slowly let more and more of the light hit his eyes. This way he eyes began to adjust to the massive change.

Once he had them fully open, he was stunned by what he saw. All around him light green motes of lights swirled around him. It was a beautiful ocean of tiny stars that slowly glided across the room. For a couple of moments Tide just stood there entranced by the spectacle happening all around him. After he had gotten used to the visual stimuli, he realized that his other sense was different as well. He noticed that some of the particles would crash right into him, and he felt each of their slight impact. He watched the go flying of course knocking into other particles and setting off a chain reaction. In the end it looked like a ripple that quickly calmed down before the particles flew once again with the overall flow. He could smell and taste the particles too and the only way he could describe it was crisp.

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Confused at all these developments Tide opened his stat page to look at his newest trait.

Tide Blackwater

Lv: 12 (17%) [25 Stats Undistributed]

Class: Elementalist

Health: 850/850 (Regen 42/h)

Mana: 950/950 (Regen 95/h)

Stamina: 600/350 (Regen 60/h)

Vitality: 17

Strength: 10

Endurance: 12

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 19

Control: 20

Affinities:

-Earth: 28%

-Water: 25%

-Fire 22%

-Air 3%

Traits: Shamanic Senses, Fire Forged, Stone Sturdy, Depth Developed

Focusing on Shamanic Senses, Tide pulled up its description.

Shamanic Senses: Your body is connected to energy of the world around you, allowing it to perceive environmental mana flows. You gain affinities at a faster rate than normal.

Tide was quite excited by this acquisition. It was almost like a passive spell that he wouldn’t need to spend mana on to always use. The only issue was that it never would turn off as well. He would have to get used to this new layer of perception currently the air mana was blanketing his vision not always allowing him to view the cave around him. Slowly, Tide made his way back to the door and touched its doorknob. He was whisked back away to the world tower.

Once there he notices a couple of things. The air in the tower didn’t seem to contain any mana at all, not even the stone floor and walls had earth mana inside of them. The only glowing objects were the doors around the room. Each door radiated a light that Tide assumed showed which elemental chamber it was connected to. The one he just came from gave off the same light green glow that the wind mana in the chamber did. The fire door glowed a bright orangish red, the water door was a dark blue and the Earth was a muddled brown.

Upon closer inspection Tide was able to see that the glow came from runes slightly imprinted into the doors frame. The doorknobs also gave of a stunning deep purple glow from the many intracity, and tiny runes engraved over its whole surface. Looks like Tide was able to use his new sight to detect magical items and the runes enchanting them.

He took a half an hour to check out each room and seeing how each element’s mana acted. Once his curiosity was sated and Tide had gotten used to the new layer of visual information, Tide went back to the air room. There was still one thing left to do. The wind elements test.

Going inside again he walked over to the purple crystal podium which was now was giving off many different colors of mana creating an incompressible glow. He wanted to try and study the magic at play here, but it was far beyond his means of comprehension, so he ends up just starting the test.

The winds test had the same exact goal as the others, to get to the center of the room, but the issue Tide faced was completely different. Rather than there being different rings imprinted to the floor there were three large gaps, between him and the middle of the room. The first was about 15 feet wide. Tide made his way towards the gap the wind in the room picked up a notch. Standing over the edge looking down he noticed too things. There was no bottom that Tide could see, and that wind rushed straight up. After a second, the flow of the air reversed and began to suck air downwards into the depths of the pit.

Tide immediately got the challenge here. Looks like would need to make the jump while the air was helping him out. Tide began to study the air flow looking for a pattern he could use to help time his jump. As he sat there for a bit his face slowly drooped into a frown. The timing didn’t seem to follow any pattern. Sometimes it would blow upwards for long periods while other times it switched quite rapidly.

Looks like it was random, and he would have to take a gamble when he jumped and just hope the wind favored him. Well at least it was a good fifty-fifty on getting past this first gap. With his higher strength Tide thought he might be able to make it to the other side without the wind help even.

This didn’t mean Tide wouldn’t try his best otherwise. He began to stretch and limber up to get his legs in prime condition. Next, he found a good distance at which he had a decent run up to the edge and took a deep breath. Ready to go he dashed forwards as fast as possible before dipping deep to jump and began sailing across the gap. As he saw and felt the air mana pushing up on him Tide let out a smile looks like things were working out. His smile quickly faded as he didn’t seem to be falling fast enough. At the rate he was going he would sail over the patch of ground between the first and second gap. He tried to correct mid air flailing his arms and legs out wide to try and slow down. It helped a bit and soon his feet hit the ground close to the other pit. He slammed his feet into the ground trying to slow himself down.

His momentum was too much to handle, and his heels slid past the edge. Twisting his chest Tide tried to grab the lip with his hands to stop his decent. He managed to curl the fingers of his right hand on the edge and held on. He shuddered, as he abruptly stopped and almost pulled his shoulder out of its socket. Laughing Tide swung his other arm up and was going to pull himself up. As he did the air around him changed and pulled him back down. Not getting a break a much stronger wind than the first pit caused his hand to slip and pulled him into the darkness below.