Johan was walking in the back today. Not for any particular reason, that's just kind of how it turned out. In front of him was Jen who was talking to Pat and Anne as the group walked. She seemed to be in much higher spirits than she had been just yesterday. Maybe her talking to Pat helped her work out an issue she was having.
Johan was constantly moving a shape of mana around himself as he walked. He had been somewhat lazy in the last few weeks, not training to be able to constantly use mana in any situation. Currently he was shifting the form of the mana shape as he walked, but he had also been toying around with trying to form different orbs of mana types as he walked as well, maybe to try and summon as many different types as possible.
As Johan was thinking about this he suddenly bumped into Jen, who had stopped due to Markus talking.
"Ah, sorry. I wasn't really paying attention for a bit there. Are you alright?" Johan apologized to the girl.
"I'm fine. Just be more careful, you could've knocked me over." Jen said, a bit annoyed, but not embarrassed or scared.
"Alright! We'll be climbing this cliff, as it would take far too much time to go around it!" Johan heard Markus from the front as he was now paying more attention. "We'll go with Me and Johan first, then we can help pull everyone else up." Everyone else agreed with Markus's choice.
Johan went up to the front, and prepared to climb along side Markus, making sure his gloves were in good condition as well.
"I've never climbed a cliff before." He mentioned to Markus.
"That's fine. This cliff seems rather sturdy all things considered, and we'll have a rope tied to each of us so that if one of us falls it won't make both of us fall. It seems to only be around 30ish feet so it isn't a huge climb either, though I still wouldn't want to fall from up there."
"Agreed. It's good to know that I'll have a safety net of some sort at least as well." Johan said as he grabbed a rope from the bag of holding to tie to their waists.
-
It took a little under an hour to scale the cliff face. Johan hadn't expected it to be so taxing on his body either. He could feel aches from various parts of his body from when he would have to hold position for several minutes. He was using muscles that he normally didn't use after all. It helped tremendously with helping him focus and keep his mana orb running, since it was something entirely new as well. He considered it to be a great sign that he was able to keep the shape of mana formed the entire time.
After Johan and Markus had made it to the top of the cliff, they both untied the rope from their waists and then they lowered it to the others. If the cliff was 30 feet then the rope was 40, allowing the duo a bit of leeway. The heaviest person they pulled up was Pat, who also had Adv on her back at the time they pulled her up.
"Alright. We'll walk a few hundred feet then we'll take a rest so me and Johan aren't as tired. After that, we'll continue on to the stopping point for today." Markus said, as he coiled the rope back up, before eventually handing it off to Johan who stowed it away into the bag of holding once more.
"Sounds good!" Pat said, stretching her arms into the air, clearly enjoying the sun on her skin.
-
The group sat in a small clearing in the forest. It was around dusk now, and the sky was glowing with a variety of orange and reds, as well as some purple. It made for a peaceful sight that Johan was sure he would never forget.
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By the fire Anne was sitting talking to Pat and Jen about something or other. Every now and then a few giggles would come out, and even more rarely was an outburst of full blown laughter.
Johan had a small smile on his face as he began to concentrate on what he was doing. He was focusing on modifying Wind Blade. So far he had partially gotten to what he wanted. The part he was struggling with was how to implement mana blocks into the spell. It was beyond infuriating, bordering to the point of Johan deciding whether he wanted to actually implement it now, and maybe just moving onto another thing entirely for the time being.
After a few more minutes of looking at the spell form, he let out a long sigh. He then let the form fall apart in his mind and decided to try it again in a less problematic setting, maybe when they weren't in the middle of nowhere. For now he would go and work on learning Earthen Wall.
It would help him to more easily establish a structure, and even the act of learning a new type of spell entirely was good, since it would help him become more accustomed to different attributes. Every spell he had learned up to now was based on conjuration, where as Earthen Wall was based on manipulation of existing materials. It would, at least in theory, cost less mana than any spell he had learned so far to boot.
Johan cracked open his book regarding elements, and turned to the chapter labeled as Earth
'Chapter 7 - Earth
Earth mana is weighty. It doesn't actually weigh anything, but when enough is gathered in one spot, it has a weight about it. Some say it is similar to the concept of killing intent, which is when one has killed enough people that they can exude an aura of sorts- not to be confused with the aura of a martial expert- and make someone feel physical effects. Dirt and earthy materials tend to be hefty, and the mana seems to pick up on that. It is also really easy for beginner mages to control, as it can be shaped and molded much more simply than the other primary elements.
Some of the early spells of this element are things like Earthen Wall, or Earthen Bolt, and especially Earth Manipulation. These are effective against many enemies, and can have some noncombative uses. For example, many mages will know the example of Earthen Wall being used to construct temporary structures, or on occasion permanent structures.'
Johan read the exposition this time, but didn't put much thought into it. Everything he had read was stuff he had read before, as he had read up on the primary elements a few different times now, but as he was now stepping up into learning the spells related to the element he was wanting to get a good understanding before hand.
Johan shut the book, and then he began to pull earth mana to him. It was easy since it was an abundant resource just about anywhere that wasn't an ocean. He very quickly understood the feeling of weight that the book described. After only a few minutes he felt like he was wrapped up into a weighted blanket. At this point he decided to stop actively pulling in mana, and then he began to study the spell form.
Like the book had described it was quite easy to manipulate earth mana, reminding Johan of his clay method of mana manipulation. It was both soft but also very conforming. Once he put it into a spot, it tended to stay there. It made it extremely fast when it came to completing the spell form, only taking him about an hour over all from reading up, to completed spell form.
Johan did note a few spots that he was wanting to fix in the spell form, as he could feel some spots that weren't quite correct in his senses, but after that, he was pretty much done. It felt really simple to him. It was to the point that he even wondered if he might have an earth affinity.
After that, Johan saw that it still wasn't too late, and decided that he may as well go ahead and do his first cast. It might take a bit longer than his previous one had, but he was fine with that as he wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
Thus it came as a shock when he casted the spell in only around 30 minutes or so. After that he cast it a few more times, getting faster and faster. By the time he stopped he had cast it about 30 or so times and had gotten to the point where he could cast it in 2 minutes. if he could could get it to less than 30 seconds, he would consider it a combat ready spell.
The only problem he could see was that there were now several spots of earth raised into the air. Johan wasn't exactly sure how to get rid of them, but then again, he probably needed to learn how to manipulate earth in general to do that. Perhaps he should have learned Earth Manipulation first, but the thought had eluded him before. Either way, he was tired, and so, for the time being he just decided to forget about it.