She hugged me tightly. "I'm so glad you're ok." Tears landed on my shoulders.
'Is it that bad?' I thought
'It is, you could have easily died.' my spirit responded.
I started sobbing.
Dad caught on quickly but didn't cry, instead electing to comfort mom and me.
After the tears dried, dad spoke.
"Dwelling on all that will get us nowhere fast, let's just focus on the now. Judging by the color of the ball, you're currently in the middle of the First Stage. Finding your affinity is a little trickier because Superior Spirits are all unique. Normal Spirits can only plead the gods for help, whereas Greater Spirits can manipulate Eneru freely, Superior Spirits on the other hand can have any ability between specifically being able to do the dishes to leveling a city."
'Wow, that's a lot of information.'
"Based on what we've seen, each one of these Spirits exerts escalating pressure on a young user. This is no longer an issue for you now since your horns mysteriously grew, and since your pure Eneru fixed the crystal ball, I have a theory, but we will have to run some more tests to find out."
"What's your theory?"
"I think you can manipulate matter itself, a power thought impossible by normal people."
"Let's get to it then, what do I do?"
Father took me to the backyard and gave me a stick.
"Try to make that into the toy you were making earlier."
I imagined a miniature crossbow and added some Eneru to the stick, it took a few moments, but the stick exploded the same way as before.
"Hmm, deadwood isn't very conductive, maybe try it on a living branch?"
To my surprise, when I tried to change the branch, it worked and I ended up with one crudely made miniature crossbow, albeit without a string.
"Try using telekinesis on your crossbow."
When I thought about picking up my crossbow without my hands, it floated but once it moved more than 1/3rd of a meter away, it fell.
"We've learned is that you can perfectly manipulate Eneru conductive materials in a short distance, and it seems like the more conductive a material is, the more you can manipulate it. But that's enough intuitive magic, it's time to do runes."
Father drew a rune in the air and a mote of light appeared. He carved the rune into a stick and handed it to me.
"Try casting that spell, and when you do, make it leave your normal range."
I did as Father said, but I didn't get runic casting, I had never done it before. My light went out before the spell was completed.
"No, no, no you can't just shove your Eneru into it, you have to trace the rune, try again." Father had momentarily forgotten that I haven't gone to school yet.
When I properly cast the spell, my mote looked smaller than Father's, but I wasn't discouraged, so I moved it out of range, where it promptly dissipated.
'Eh? some Superior Spirits can flatten cities but mine can only cast out to 30 centimeters?'
'You will find my abilities much more useful than flattening a city.' The voice echoed in his head again.
'And how is that may I ask?'
'Remember your mission, you are not here to flatten cities, but rather bolster them, and what better way to bolster a city is there than creation.'
"Well now that we know its basic functionality, you need to give your spirit a title, the school will need records."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The school needs to know what to call your spirit because you may start school as soon as you get a spirit core."
"Alright, what do we call it, Spirit of Making? Nah doesn't fit. Spirit of the Forge? Nah, metals are rare. Spirit of Manipulation? Nah, don't like it."
'If I may interject, how about Spirit of Creation?'
'Ooh, I like that.'
"Spirit of Creation, final answer."
"I'll get you signed up, give me two days, then you will go to school on the third day."
"That soon? I thought I would have to wait at least a year. I need new clothes, mine are old and dirty."
"Don't worry, they will send you a uniform tomorrow. Just start packing the things you will need for three months taking into account that you only need one uniform."
As I was packing I felt a pressure in my head.
'Spirit, is that you?'
No reply, but I could sense where the pressure was coming from, and so I followed it. After walking around the streets for a bit I found myself at the southern gate. I pondered going back for my parents but then the pressure suddenly spiked and started dropping rapidly. I had a feeling that I wouldn't have another chance at this.
I started running as fast as my feeble body could take me into the tundra and when I reached the source of the pressure I saw a giant injured fox, towering a whole meter taller than me. Its tail slung a ball of ice at its foe, a direwolf. The direwolf died on the spot but the fox wasn't much better and it collapsed, the pressure dropped again. I ran over and cast the checkup spell mom had used on me many times.
'He's clearly got organ damage, and I don't have any real healing spells I can use here. Hmm, he has a spirit core, maybe he conducts Eneru.'
I wasted no time attempting to fix the fox's organs, the organs changed shape but like with my horns, it hurt, the fox was whimpering. I thought for a moment, trying to find a solution but couldn't find one. I had heard that beasts with spirit cores could understand and even speak Common so I went up to the fox's face and asked:
"I can save you, but it will be painful, or I can put you down painlessly. Which do you choose."
The fox returned a weak reply "L-live."
And so I went to work, fixing all of the fox's organs as quickly as possible, trying to ignore its screams. The pressure in my head had long since receded, presumably because the fox was trying for help and found it. My Spirit returned but wasn't helpful. When I finished healing the fox, I was immobilized from Eneru exhaustion.
And there I was, slowly falling unconscious in the middle of a freezing tundra, next to an unconscious giant fox that was known as "The Dread Fox" by the townsfolk.