Chapter 19

The sky, vibrant and purple, stretched out before him. Air crackled with energy around his floating body, immersing him in shimmering, swirling magic. As he floated up in the sky, he could sense the air moving in a circulating dance, entwined with the earth magic that enveloped him. An aura of something else expanded around him, giving him almost supernatural awareness in every direction, and empowering his mastery over the magic above and below. The magic of the air and the earth.

He looked down at the endless sand below him and knew, with a pang in his heart, that he was in a dream. He launched himself forward anyway, and the wind felt like an old friend. The earth magic around him didn’t feel disconnected despite being so far from ground below him. Instead, it was anchored to his spirit, coming from a well of magic inside him he couldn’t have imagined while awake.

In a moment of clarity, separated from the dream, Oskar wondered how far he could get before waking. His dream self could sense something far off in the distance, and he knew time was short. The desperation of the dream pulled him in fully. He needed to get there before the storm came. Flying forward at incredible speeds, he rode the currents.

The wind smelled like rain, a smell he’d almost forgotten, and he realized as he flew forward that he could feel the wind in his beard? He didn’t have a beard… but remembered for a fleeting moment he was dreaming, and the thought passed.

As the wind, no longer familiar but wild, rebelled, he lost speed and altitude. A greater power than he himself was near, and the wind knew it to be its true master. The first raindrop hit his face, and he matched it with a teardrop of his own. Rain. Finally, life-giving rain. He might not be too late.

Oskar wrestled control of the wind back and shot forward, even faster than before. He pulled the strange aura around him close, and the magic responded. He had to focus. If he didn’t quit- and he would never quit- he could make it. He just wished it didn’t hurt so much. Why did it hurt so much? Oskar screamed, spiraling out of control.

***

Pain lanced through Oskar’s body, waking him from unconsciousness. For a moment, he felt like he was still screaming, but no sound came out. His bleary eyes opened, and he saw Fox and Touwon gently pulling him under the tent and out of the dual suns' light. The oppressive heat lessened some. He barely noticed, though, because his breath was raking his insides.

Fox gave him a whispered “Thanks,” and went back to the Wayspring to check on Penny, who was kwinning contently now that Oskar was awake.

Thank God that tough little critter is okay.

He accidentally let out a long breath of relief, and his eyes watered as sharp pain shot through his body.

If I'm gonna be consistently hurting myself like this, and I expect I will, I desperately need to work on a healing or recovery spell. I wouldn't even know where to start, though. The PUB doesn't seem to be super forthcoming, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

Notifications blinked in the corner of his vision, catching his eye. His PUB was being annoying, and since he didn’t have any plans to move from this spot for the next year or so, he went through the notifications. Seeing the Gambit completion notification was a bitter reminder of his injuries, but the Wind Riding ability brought him up short. He gave a small exhale of amused breath that caused another wince at the PUB’s comments, but also noticed there was no tooltip for the new ability.

He looked at the damage notifications and outlines surrounding his left forearm and his ribs along that same side, as well as the one that remained on his missing right foot.

Thanks. I had no idea, he thought at the PUB.

// I’m surprised you have any ideas at all. Sorry, that was aggressive. //

He pulled up the missing notifications, which offered more confusing news, but it seemed like the PUB was trying to take the chance to let Oskar know a little about what was going on. He read the notification about Sora and pulled up the information it offered.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

// Prerequisites met: Sora unlocked.

Sora is the magic above. Many elements encompass this type of magic, namely wind, but mastery over the other concepts is not far behind for those willing to put in the work! That’s the old script, how do you like it?

Well, anyway, you learned something about the wind and yourself in that fight, and although there is more than wind magic to be found in Sora, it can be a lot of fun.

You did well, but you gotta be careful throwing your body around like that.

There are ways to transfer all that kinetic energy into your weapon, but it’s not something I can explain, never having had my own body before.

Another heads up, Insight isn’t really a point or percentage system, it’s more like a milestone system. It accesses information I have limited access to and… uh, processing power to help you consolidate and comprehend what you’ve learned until you reach that milestone and “get it.” And getting it is different for everyone.

Just to clarify, I can help you put into words the concepts you learn, but I can’t teach you how to do stuff directly. Just information and processing power to work it out. But your intentions matter. The thing that sets a unique class apart is its ability to morph skills and abilities as they grow from your intent.

You’re a druid, and that comes with some perks. For example, your Water Sense will likely remain a morphing ability that will change and grow in power based on your personality and creativity. You're using it to sense life, and that changes the ability over time. Wind Riding, too, could also eventually become second nature, no longer active. Just… something you can do.

Additionally, your constant “reaching out” for water in your practice is affecting the magic in the water itself. Keep it up, and you might be able to pull water to you, which is a whole different level of lazy.

You trying to be a waterbender? Seriously, though, this is only possible because you come from a planet with no magic, so you ignore the rules and try to do stupid stuff. Stupid stuff that’s working out for you for some reason.

Your Wind Riding ability is less unusual in its initial stages, but you’re just insane enough to eventually break even that mold wide open. Other Wind Riders are on rails, ability wise. It works and grows the same way. One person’s ability is effectively the same as someone else’s.

I will say this, too. No one I know of has ever unlocked Wind Riding by cannonballing into someone at like forty miles per hour in a moment of desperation. If you don’t die growing this ability, you’re gonna be one real nasty fella in a fight, but your ignorance of magic that is helping your Water Sense is likely to get you killed with Wind Riding. So please, just... be careful.

What’s kind of awesome is you’re trending toward raw kinetic power, which means you can hit hard, but like I said, you’ll have to learn control on your own. That goes against the usual recommendations. //

Oskar's brows furrowed.

Okay, but why? I feel like if you’re gonna get a weird magical boost, it should be in speed. Eventually, people could learn to control it.

// If you say so, man. You might eventually have the benefit of Sora in the air to help you, which will nullify much of the risk, but you’re still a long way from mastery, and so you can’t control yourself at all right now. People are more likely to live through going slightly the wrong direction while practicing at running speed than stopping slightly in the wrong place at a hundred miles an hour, though.

But why am I bothering trying to explain logic to you when I know you’re gonna completely ignore the rules of physics and magic, anyway? I don’t get you at all. You’re the kind of nut job who’d try to suplex a moving train. What's a train?

As far as healing... step one is not hurting yourself, and step two is up to you. You're a unique class. Work on mastering what you know and again... intent matters.

Anyway, I can’t really give you proper tooltips on unique class abilities when you’re going all willy-nilly: like I mentioned earlier, it’s all personalized and you’re acting like a suicidal Dragoon instead of a gently floating, wise druid.

You’ve gone rogue! Or Dragoon. Or Doomed Druid Dragoon Dirt Dude. Druidgoon? //

I don’t know what hurts more, my brain listening to you, or literally everything else put together.

// Arguing with you is pointless. This is why you don’t have any friends. //

At least I have a body.

// Low blow dude. And BARELY. Half of your ribs are broken, and something is wrong with one of your lungs. You’re also missing a leg... in case you didn’t know. //

It’s not missing, per se. I know where it went. It went everywhere, Oskar sent back with a heavy dose of inward snark that somehow still made him wince.

// Wow. Just… wow. I’m textless. //

Ok, you’re funny sometimes.

// Gee, thanks. You, too. Anyway, arguing with you uses a lot of energy. I recharge mostly through solar energy and your ambient magic, some through kinetic movement, but for now, I have to rest to move the potential energy to usable energy. As you grow, so will I, but for now. It’s sleepy time. Try not to die, Druidgoon. //

That's not a thing. That's not what we're calling my fighting style.

// Can't hear you. I'm asleep. //

Oskar smiled, again hit with how drastic a turn his life had taken these past few days.

I miss Erik. Of course I'm worried, but I'm having the time of my life. It's crazy what having a few friends and a purpose can do for you.