Shaun didn’t drink the elixir straight away, instead he wanted to level up his mediation skill as much as he could first and try to really connect to the fire element around him. To do this he sat himself next to the largest lava pool in the cavern, the one that the boss lizard came out of. He got as close as he could where he could feel the increased heat on his skin but not so close that he would quickly start to burn. He didn’t want his earth affinity to interfere in this process so he didn’t want to use stone skin, he wanted to be able to concentrate on the feeling of fire, of heat and how it could burn.
He set himself a time limit of two days to level up his skill as much as he could, drink the elixir and then continue on through the dungeon. He would then try and finish the dungeon within the following two days, he didn’t know how long the dungeon would be but he hoped that it wouldn’t take any longer than that, as if he could finish everything in this time period it would still leave him 20 days in stage 2, just enough time to do two more dungeons, or so he hoped.
When he started out meditating at the beginning of the first day it didn’t come naturally to him, it wasn’t an instantaneous skill that he could just switch on and he would immediately fall into the trance like state, he had to first calm himself completely and only when he started to let his mind clear was he able to start utilising the skill. He first started out focusing inwards, he wanted to see if he could more easily pick up on the stream of earth that he had found when he created Stone Skin, he didn’t want to use the affinity, just see how it interacted with his body.
Only once he was comfortable with how it spread throughout him did he start to focus more outward and into the cavern itself, he could feel the heat radiating all around him, with all of the lava pools present it wasn’t hard, but that was just the first step. He wanted to try and form some sort of connection to the heat and lava before he took the elixir, figuring that this would better his odds of success. During the course of the day he would slowly move closer to the pool of lava, he was adjusting to the heat and although he was going through his water supply pretty quickly he had decided it was worth the risk.
Eventually, once the day had come to an end, Shaun had made good progress, he wasn’t able to form a solid connection to the fire element but what he had been able to do was follow along with the movement of the lava, finding this easier than trying to connect to the heat in the air as he found that the lava also contained traces of earth. This also let him see how the two elements interacted with each other, something that may become useful in taking the elixir and trying to form that second affinity with fire.
*Multiple Skill Level ups: [Basic] Meditation – Level 6*
He had levelled up his meditation skill a lot over the day, he hadn’t really been doing anything but using the skill for over 12 hours so he had expected to gain at least a few levels. He was comfortable with using the skill now and although he would have liked to focus on it further before taking the elixir he was out of time.
Taking out the elixir again, Shaun couldn’t help but hesitate, second guessing everything he had done to prepare and whether he was even ready for such a big step, he had his earth affinity and it had done a lot for him so far, what if taking the elixir had some adverse effect, it was legendary grade after all, what if his body wasn’t even capable of using it yet? No, it was in the tutorial, it wouldn’t be here if we couldn’t use it.
He knew he was just procrastinating, it was a big decision to make, one that could affect him for the rest of his life, but if it worked he would have more advantages than anyone else from his planet, not to mention the Multiverse. He stopped delaying, cutting off all the doubts he had and opened the little bottle of elixir. He immediately smelt a sweet welcoming smell coming from the bottle, it was captivating in a way that made him just want to sit there and do nothing but lose himself in the scent.
Turning his attention away from the smell, which wasn’t an easy feat, he closed his eyes and with a final breath poured the elixir into his mouth, there wasn’t a lot of it and he was able to swallow it all in one go. He gave it a few seconds, waiting for it to take effect, knowing that if it was anything like the usual potions it wouldn’t be immediate, but after a full minute with nothing happening he started to worry.
Just as he was about to give up all hope he felt a pressure build inside of him, it started out very slow but quickly gained momentum and within seconds his entire body was feeling like it was being torn apart cell by cell. The elixir said it would put me in a trance, not try to kill me! Shaun couldn’t move, he was barely able to breath at that point, he had never experienced such pain. And like a switch being flipped everything came to a stand still, the pain was gone but he also didn’t feel like he was present either, he could still feel his body but had no control over it, like he was an observer.
Shaun didn’t know what to do, after all of the training he had done with his meditation skill it had turned out to be useless. He could barely concentrate in his current state, let alone do anything useful like form a connection to fire, the only thing he knew for certain was that if he didn’t do something, and fast, that this whole experience would be for nothing. Focusing his mind like he had when using his meditation skill he attempted to calm his thoughts, he imagined breathing softly, in rhythm with his heart beat. Slowly he calmed down, he turned his mind inward and found the stream of earth affinity inside of him in turmoil, it was completely out of control, wreaking havoc on his body. This explains the pain I felt, the elixir didn’t say what would happen if you already had an affinity and used it, this must be the result. It would also explain why the description didn’t mention feeling any pain, there wasn’t supposed to be, but if you were foolish enough to use it when you shouldn’t, like I have, this was the result.
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Moving past the self-pity Shaun was currently feeling he decided not to give up, the first thing he set out to do was calm the raging river of earth inside of him, he used every skill that he thought might help, his Mind skill and Mediation running over time to try and correct what the elixir had done, slowly the streams inside of him started to calm but didn’t fully settle. That done he turned his focus out into the cavern and what he found was different to anything else he had ever seen, through his mind he was able to see mana, more specifically, the different types of attuned mana around him.
The vast majority of the mana was attuned to fire, it was like tiny little red glowing light around him, mixed in with that he could also see a darker brownish slate colour that he associated with his own earth affinity. There was also one more type present, it was more of a clear glow, and if he was to guess it may be associated with air. When he reached out with his mind he immediately gravitated towards the earth mana, almost like a magnet sticking to metal, but that wasn’t what he needed at this time, he already had earth, he needed fire.
It took a lot more mental energy to try and connect to the fire Mana, it was almost like it didn’t want to form any kind of bond with him, he didn’t give up though, instead he entered what could only be described as a battle of wills with the little mana particle. Eventually he was able to bring it under his control, but when he did it felt like his mind was on fire, a splitting headache instantly appeared, one that he wasn’t able to ignore, he didn’t let go though. Not knowing for certain what he was supposed to do, he did the only thing he could think of, he tried to bring it into his body.
The closer he brought the fire mana towards him it seemed the harder it tried to get away, refusing to give up though he eventually bought it right in front of him, choosing not to delay and think of what could go wrong, he pulled it straight into his body. Turning his attention inward again he could see the mana now inside of him, but it didn’t settle into the stream of earth affinity and instead seemed to try and escape. Rather than give up, he took control of his earth affinity and created a cocoon around the fire mana, essentially trapping it inside of him.
The headache went away as soon as he lifted his control over the fire mana, it was solidly trapped inside of him and couldn’t break through his existing earth affinity. Still unsure whether this was what he was supposed to do he continued the same process, he would gain control of the fire mana and then bring it inside of his body one at a time, trapping each one in the process.
He continued doing this for what felt like forever, it had gotten to a point where there was almost no mana left in the cavern and he had used every single bit of the earth affinity inside of him to trap all of the fire motes. For what he hoped was the last time, he inspected his body, what was once a stream of earth running through his body was now solid spheres of earth surrounding the foreign fire mana motes, the more of it he had taken into his body, the hotter he had become. His body now felt like a furnace, ready to instantly combust into flame if he made one wrong move.
He needed to get the stream moving again and he needed to do it all at once, if he just tried to move a small amount he would cause a blockage and he feared that he would cause an explosion inside of himself that would cause instant death. Spreading out his mind and will to encompass his entire affinity was hard, especially given how taxing the entire experience of bringing the mana into his body had been, but he felt like he was heading in the right direction.
Slowly, he was able to get the stream moving again, at first he could barely tell there was any movement but eventually he could start to see small shifts in the spheres. He continued focusing on nothing but getting the stream moving until eventually it was circulating around his body, although slower than what it needed to be, so he continued pushing it, trying to build momentum. Once he was happy with the speed his affinity was travelling he now needed to figure out a way to incorporate the fire mana.
He knew fire and earth could exist side by side, the lava had shown him that, but to replicate that harmony in his body was not going to be as simple as smashing the two together, he didn’t want to change his earth affinity to a lava affinity, if that was even possible, what he wanted was to have the two affinity side by side. What if he could create a helix rather than just a straight stream, he could have the two affinities circle around each other while they travelled through his body, not touching but combined into an inter tangled corkscrew.
Shaun liked the idea, thought it had some merit, now that he had his earth affinity moving he started to manipulate the way it travelled, still flowing through his body but now in a circular motion. It took time to adjust the flow but eventually he did it. The last step in his plan was to release the fire mana and form it into its own stream, this was also the most dangerous part as he didn’t know what would happen when he released it. He started off with just one little mote, it felt like someone had stuck a hot poker through him the moment he released it but he ignored the pain and just focused on the one bit of fire inside of him, moving it in the way he wanted.
Once he got used to the feeling he added another, and he kept releasing the fire mana until there was no more left to release. His entire body was on fire and at any second he thought he was going to just crumble into ash but he kept going, condensing the mana into its own stream until it looked exactly the same as the earth affinity, twin streams circling each other.
Once he was done something clicked into place and instead of controlling the two forces inside of him he was able to completely let go and they continued on as they had been, his body started to cool back to his normal temperature and he was now able to move his body. When he opened his eyes and looked out around the cavern he could no longer see any mana floating around and he felt the last of the elixir's effects wear off.
*Affinity Detected: Fire*
*Fire (Affinity): The multiverse is made up of many elements but Fire is seen to be one of the most valuable. Through your connection to heat and flame you will be able to manifest and control the element of fire within the world around you. You are one with the flame and are now immune to any of its effects. +10 Wil, +10 Soul, +5% Wil, +10% Soul*
I did it…… I actually got a second affinity. Shaun could barely believe the notification in front of his eyes, he had nearly killed himself multiple times during the process but it had all been worth it to be able to not only control fire but to manifest it. But to also be immune to any damage that fire could cause him? This dungeon just became a hell of a lot easier.
*Heritage detected*
What is happening? There is nothing on my status sheet about a heritage.
*Prerequisites for Heritage awakening met*
What prerequisites?
*Awakening initiated*
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on? What heritage is the damn thing even…..”