Chapter 7: Elemental Affinities

Another half an hour passed before he got back into town. On his way back he saw that people were being to explore the areas around the town. Once through the gates Tide made his way towards a shop with a bag on the sign. Opening the door to the general store, Tide looked over to see a bearded man sitting across the counter smoking a pipe.

He was an NPC a soulless husk that was used to help facilitate the trials. There were a few of them around the town that provided key services you the contestants. Tide walked up and list the objects he wanted to get.

“I need a map of the nearby area, a bedroll, 3 water skins, a weeks’ worth of hard tack, a weeks’ worth of salted beef, 20 feet of rope, wood axe, fire kit and a shovel.” Tide said not caring for manners.

NPC looked real enough, but there were only able to maintain simple conversations. Tide always found them sightly creepy, so he like to keep his interactions short.

“That will be 4 silver and 42 copper all together” the man said putting down his pipe standing up to retrieve all the items.

Tide reached into his pockets and grab the 5 silver everybody started out with. Another perk of the changes geared so that people wouldn’t starve to death anytime soon. The monetary system in place during the trials was interesting. 50 copper pieces would be worth one silver and 50 silver pieces being worth a gold one. He had heard that there was a platinum coin after that, but never got the chance to see one.

Once the man gathered everything, he had asked for he handed over the 5 silvers. The man opened his pouch and began to count out 8 copper to hand back to him. Once the transaction was completed, Tide did a quick look around outside before being to store everything inside his ring of storage.

He left out a bit of hard tack and beef jerky to eat while walking around the town, wanting to check on how the rest of the survivors were doing. To do so he began making his way back towards the town center where most people would still be.

Once he got there, he was somewhat surprised. Rather than the chaotic disorder that unfolded in the test group, it looked like the survivors were in organized in a couple of long lines. Walking a bit further up Tide saw that at the front of each line there was someone speaking with each person and was then put into a group nearby.

At the very front of the lines was a man standing on a wooden box directed the rest. He was muscular and had a neat haircut. Most likely a member of the military who used his rank and presence to create some sort of order. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be so bad this time if they set up a good system and everyone worked together.

Of course, Tide wouldn’t be joining in their impromptu town government. He had to little time to deal with people who would be very quickly out of their depths. With the supplies he just bought he planned on spending the rest of the grace period outside of the town privately working towards getting a good class.

As such Tide began leaving the town. He wondered how things would shake out this time around with a more stable start in the works. Once out of eye shot from the gate Tide grabbed the map out of his ring and began to look over it. After a while, he took note of a good spot for his training. If he followed the river upstream, he would eventually find the terrain getting a bit rockier and a mountain further on. Ideally, he would make his way there along the river so he could have access to clean water to bath and drink.

With nothing else to do but start moving Tide began to jog following the river making his way towards the forest he saw earlier. For a couple of minutes, he kept his pace rhythmic and steady as he used a breathing technique that marathon runners tend to use, in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Hopefully by the time he got to the spot which was a good eight miles away according to the map he might earn a point in endurance. Once he got into a good rhythm and pace that he could keep up without struggling, Tide forced himself into a trance like state.

He began pulling mana out of his mana well condensing it into a small sphere, that he brought through his chest, to his arm and eventually out his palm. Once it left his body the mana wavered for a second losing stability, but Tide reigned it in and kept it stable. With his will he dragged the wisp of mana alongside himself as he ran. Occasionally either due to a brief stumble or lapse in concentration the wisp would unravel and Tide would have to make another one.

Once he was able to consistently keep the wisp together and moving alongside him, he upped the difficulty. He would carefully move the mana around making the shapes slowly letting his body and mind get used to manipulating the wisp.

At first it started out simple with shapes like squares, circles, and plain old squiggles. Occasionally, he would stop and let his stamina recharge or pull a new wisp out of his mana well to replace a worn strand. As the day passed and Tide neared his destination, his control grew. By the time he finally reached the spot he set out for, he was able to shape the mana into every letter in the alphabet. It only took him around two and a half hours to get there. Not to bad considering his low endurance and that he was going uphill for a decent chunk of the trip.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

The spot he picked out to start his training was right where the edge of the forest was beginning to transition to the mountain range. There was moderately large cliff around one and a half stories tall that the river poured over making a waterfall. At the base of the water fall the water was quite deep due to the erosion of the rock bottom over time. The water flowed at a decent pace keeping it clear and clean.

At this point the day was starting to end. The sun was just about to set on the first day of the trial. Tide went around to gather some firewood to keep him warm throughout the night. He set up camp a bit of a ways away from the waterfall to keep his bed roll and self-dry.

Due to the exhausting first day, once he set up camp and got the fire going, he quickly fell into a deep and undisturbed sleep.

Tide woke early the next morning just as dawn was break. He felt refreshed and got around six hours of sleep. After a quick breakfast of hard tack and jerky he got started preparing to train.

Putting back all his supplies into his storage ring he made his way to the top of the waterfall. He found a nice spot around four feet away from the river where a nice bed of silt and dirt sat atop a rock bed. He brought out his shovel and began to dig a hole. He dug about one and a half foot deep just hitting the rocky layer underneath all the dirt. Then he widened the hole until he could comfortably sit down with his legs crossed in it. Tide considered washing off all the sweat he accumulated while dig but realized he would just be getting dirtier in a moment.

Sitting down on the rocky bottom of the hole Tide began using his shovel to push the dirt back in surrounding his legs and lower abdomen. It was a little tricky but eventually he filled the hole back to the normal ground level.

From there he began to meditate. It was much easier to slip into that state of mind this time and within minutes he was able to observe his mana flow. Last time after receiving the geomancer class he noticed the ambient mana stored and flowing in the ground underneath him. By synchronizing his own mana with grounds, he was slowly able to absorb the ambient mana in the earth to bolster his spells and increase his affinity with earth magic. The goal today was to see if he could repeat this progress without the class this time.

Last time it took him a while to notice the differences between his mana and the mana in the earth. This time he knew what he was looking for.

Mana flowed differently when present in a medium and had different properties. Inside himself his mana was just steadily flowing like blood, coursing through his body, and reinforcing it. In the earth it was much slower and more focused. It all flowed in one direction; Tides theory was that it was following the planets spin but had no way to prove it.

Due to the mana in him and the earths mana having different properties they repelled each other slightly. In order to increase his affinity with the earth Tide had to begin to dispel this repulsion between himself and the soil. He manipulated the mana in his legs and waist to slow down and stop flowing in a cycle. It felt a bit uncomfortable like he was getting car sick, but it soon passed. He then began to try and get his mana to flow in the same motion of the earth’s mana.

While it wasn't as structured and uniform as the mana in the ground, it was enough for the repelling force to weaken. Soon small amounts of Tides mana were able to flow out of him enter the dirt around him and the earth’s mana began to flow into him from the other side. With this his own mana began to mesh with the earths causing a bit of resonance. Getting to the proper state of mind Tide began to lose himself in this transfer and zoned out.

When Tide opened his eyes, he looked up to see that the sun was high in the sky, and he had meditated for what seemed like around six hours. In front of him a window popped up showing him that his efforts were well worth it.

Congrats on gaining a new affinity!

For being the first human to gain the earth affinity, you will be given +1 Wisdom and the skill earth manipulation as reward.

Tide smiled excited with the progress. It took him much shorter to gain his affinity this time around. It must be due to the enhanced growth that the grace period provided. Another achievement and point in wisdom were just the cherry on top. Earth manipulation was one of the basic skills he had as a geomancer previously and he was already familiar with it. This skill allowed him to soak near by dirt in his mana to manipulate it.

He used it right away to remove the dirt still on top of him and free himself from the hole. Once he did, he felt a little bit dizzy moving that much dirt just a couple of feet took around a third of his mana. Getting up he check out his status screen.

Tide Blackwater

Lv:1

Class: None

Health: 150/150 (Regen 8/h)

Mana: 243/400 (Regen 40/h)

Stamina: 120/200 (Regen 20/h)

Vitality: 3

Strength: 3

Endurance: 4

Agility: 3

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 8

Control: 6

Skills: Mana Manipulation, Meditation, Earth Manipulation

Traits: Observant

Affinities:

-Earth: 3%

Nice! He had already gained three percent affinity. Affinities were notorious for being hard to increase, but it was worth it. The higher the affinity the stronger and more mana efficient spells using it would be. Having 3% after only a half day of meditating was fantastic. He had also gained some points in his other stats due to all the exercising and mana control.

Wanting to celebrate a little bit Tide went ahead and grabbed lunch before jumping into the river to wash off the grime that had accumulated on his body. After a fierce scrub down Tide sat at the edge of the river letting the cool water flow around him.

He looked into the clear water and looked at his reflection. His face was quite plain, maybe even above average. He had shaggy brown hair that almost reached his eyebrows. Piercing blue eyes which he thought was his best feature looked back at him in the water. Tides hand traced a couple of places on his cheek and jaw line where there was previously scares from battle and resolved himself to do better this time around.

After cleaning off his clothes he sank into the water resting for a bit to restore his mana and stamina.

The water felt so refreshing that for a moment he wanted to just flow along with the current and just relax. He allowed himself a moment to just sit there with his eyes closed enjoying the moment.