"Well, when you reached level fifty, and so received your power increase, a week and a half ago, we tested your physical abilities then, so we should be able to compare them to how they are now. If I remember correctly, your lifting limit last time was two thousand pounds. Accounting for the increase in your strength skill since then, we would perhaps expect you to lift 2300, so let's start there."
Saying such, he summons and shapes a cube of metal, doing so with an ease that I cannot help but be envious of. "This cube should be of about the right weight, I will add to it as needed. When you're ready, try lifting it."
I immediately bend down to the ground, hooking my finger's around the sharp edges of the cube. This is going to hurt, I think to myself, before straining every muscle in my body towards the goal of lifting this piece of metal. Rather surprisingly, despite being heavier than my previous record by several hundred pounds, I lift it without too great of a struggle. Sure, it is heavy, but certainly not unbearably so, nor even close to such a level.
"Make it three thousand," I say rather boldly, after setting it back down. Lector looks slightly surprised, but he adds another layer to the cube before telling me to go on.
The cube is definitely heavier this time. My muscles strain and my face grows red as I subconsciously hold my breath. Slowly, the cube lifts off the ground as I lift it over my head before carefully setting it down in front of me. I had to resist the urge to just drop it all the way down, as doing so would definitely destroy the floor.
"My, quite impressive. That is certainly an improvement, and your two additional levels in moderate strength don't account for it. It would appear the bonus to your strength was quite impressive. While we could do more tests regarding physical abilities, I am much more interested to see the increase to your magical abilities. If you would not object, I'd like to see you try to complete the task I previously assigned you."
"The mana shaping one?"
"Yes, the same."
I conjure a massive orb of metal elemental particles, making it as large as I can with what is available in my surroundings. I then compact the particles into the shape that I have grown a master at producing through my practice, the basic sword. Despite using one of my weakest elements, the process is far smoother than any of my efforts with air. The process feels much more natural, comparable to the way that my manipulation of the elements became much more intuitive when elemental manipulation passed over the moderate and greater barriers.
The sword forms smoothly in front of me, solid metal from the tip to the pommel, gleaming in the candlelight.
"Why, that was quite smooth, better than even my expectations. Actually, let us take a break from our tests for one moment, though this will still test your abilities. I would like you to try to lock this construct in place, so you don't have to maintain its shape at all times when holding it. I'm sure that you've noticed that my blocks of metal don't disperse even when I stop manipulating them; I would like you to do the same with your sword."
I am about to ask him how I would go about doing that, when he continues "Just imagine the particles merging together, physically joining together. It is the same process as compression, but only a continuation of such."
I try to compress the already compressed particles even more together, being careful to maintain the sword's shape all the while. It is quite challenging, especially because the purpose of this is to push particles closer together at a minute level without much changing the dimensions of the sword. Because the particles are already quite near one another, it is certainly a challenge to compact them together, one that I certainly couldn't have accomplished before being named. Now, however, with the bonuses that my naming has provided, the task is manageable.
I release the particles from my command, holding my breath in anticipation of this moment of truth. And the truth does not disappoint. The blade, only about a millimeter smaller on all planes from the compression efforts, holds its own without any sign of returning to the base elemental particles that compose it.
"This…" Lector mutters, before continuing louder "Very impressive indeed. Here you have accomplished the same amount in two and a half months as took me thirty years under my first master. Forget being a genius, a prodigy; neither of those words can accurately describe this. If you continued on at this pace… perhaps in as little as a millennium you could reach even dietylike in some of your skills."
"Dietylike?" I question, having never heard the term before.
"Yes, that is the skill interval above lesser dietylike, and the practical maximum skill level that mortals can achieve. In history there has only ever been a single human to pass dietylike, and he eventually went on to garner enough power to be recognized as a god."
"Wait… I just realized that I have no idea how skill levels progress after master."
"Well, I suppose it's not particularly common knowledge considering how few people make it to even 'greater' in any skill during their lifetimes. As you already know, the skills start off with lesser, followed by moderate, greater, and master. After master, they continue to progress to grandmaster, which is broken into 50 levels. After that, they diverge into two paths: resistance-type skills become immunities, reaching the end of their progression, while most other skills continue on to transcendental, which is broken into a 100 levels. From there, skills progress through lesser dietylike, dietylike, and higher dietylike, each having 100 levels, before moving onto the godly levels, about which little is known."
"So the number of levels gets so high as 100 to progress between skill increments?"
"Yes. And it is important to keep in mind that skills become much harder to increase the level of once you reach higher increments. It is for that reason that only a tiny fraction of people make it through grandmaster, which only a tiny fraction of people reach in the first place. Grandmaster alone has 50 levels within it, more than everything through master combined, and each of these levels is far more difficult to pass through than anything before. And then to wallow through transcendental and lesser dietylike for a hundred levels each… well, even with the greatly expanded lifespan that comes with reaching high levels, it is no wonder that so few reach them."
"And, despite this immense difficulty, you believe me to be capable of reaching dietylike?"
"Well, considering your explosive rate of growth, if anyone is to reach such an unattainable goal, it would be yourself. That said, if you are to ever reach such levels, we must continue our practice! Come on, now, let's see what you can do!"
The rest of the night is spent with Sir Lector showing me various applications for the skills I have learned. Compression, projection, multicasting, and shaping; these can be brought together with various elements to bring about nearly any desired result. Lector freely imparts his knowledge to me. No more do we deal in theoreticals as we once did; no, Lector shows me many very specific and useful applications of mana.
Take flying, for example. While I had tried to fly when I first started working with air elemental mana, I had been unable to sustain it for more than a few seconds. Add that to the immense difficulty of controlling trajectory, and I was left with using it only to enhance my jumps and roughly shove myself in a desired direction. However, with the increased control over the elemental mana that my elemental manipulation skill provides, alongside the knowledge of the surrounding mana that magic sensory provides, and in addition to a lot of practice, controlled flight is very possible.
As Sir Lector explains, usually elementalists don't even try to fly until reaching the grandmaster level; however, considering the increase to my proficiency coming from my naming and that air is my most proficient element, he believes that I will be able to.
He then begins to explain the specifics, though he insists that the best method to get better is to practice. Noting that the explanation is far too specific and detailed to be something foreign to him, a thought crosses through my mind.
"Master, are you able to fly?" I ask.
"Of course! I am a higher elemental manipulation grandmaster, how could I not be? I realize that you have never seen me doing so, simply as there is no need here, but it should be a bit obvious."
[Well, to be fair, he didn't even tell me that flying was possible until a few moments ago, and even if he had, he never told me his skill level either], I think, while saying "Of course. I apologize for my foolish lack of observance."
"Ha ha ha! There is no problem in it. Now, let us go outside and actually practice flying; I fully believe that you will have great success in such an endeavor."
We exit Lector's house, after which he leads the way to an empty field. "You wouldn't want to crash into anything," he says, by way of explanation as I look around.
Not one to generally waste time, Lector then instructs me to use air elemental particles to control a column of wind to lift myself a few feet into the air. I do as he says, struggling a bit to maintain my balance atop the pillar.
"Now, slowly propel yourself forward, maintaining your current height."
I try to do as he says, but as soon as I push myself forward I begin to struggle. Maintaining the adequate amount of upwards pressure while moving forward is quite difficult, as the air must be perfectly manipulated to maintain the correct relation to me to keep me from falling to the ground.
Still, perhaps due to my recent naming , it's not [that] difficult; due to my abilities with elemental manipulation, making careful adjustments to the air pushing into me from all around feels quite natural.
In fact, I notice as I slowly propel myself forward while maintaining my elevation that the process is actually [easier] when I don't focus too intently on it and instead allow myself to naturally make the constant small adjustments to maintain my balance.
After I have gone about twenty feet, my master commands me to turn around and go back, all the while maintaining my 'flight.' I try to do this seemingly simple task, but I quickly find it to be far more difficult than my expectations.
While on the ground, turning is as simple as pushing off of the surrounding solid surfaces. However, in the air there are no such surfaces to push my body off of; instead, I have to manipulate the air to push my body in the direction I want to go. In order to turn around, I need to apply just the right amount of force to one side of my body to push myself into turning around, all the while maintaining my balance atop a steady air spell at my feet.
If I had attempted this before being named, I know that it would be a truly hopeless cause. Even with greater elemental manipulation, I would have no chance of maintaining these various efforts at once. Unlike with my other efforts, however, this has nothing to do with the spells themselves. Every spell here is, at most, only slightly compressed, and while I have to keep casting more spells to gently nudge myself in the right direction or to keep my balance, only two spells are constant, and at most four are active at once.
No, the issue here is not the type that quickly increases one's magical exhaustion; no the issue is the type of effort one must use to solve tricky physics equations back to back, performing small mental calculations and estimations to figure out what part of one's body to target with the spell. Still, due to my ever increasing affinity with the elemental particles around me, the process is greatly simplified. By just focusing on making the adjustments that feel right, utilizing my connection to the elements to aid me in doing so, I can skip most of the precise calculations and naturally make changes as necessary. Where in previous magical efforts higher level elemental manipulation provided mainly power, here it helps me with speed and precision.
Sir Lector had said that generally only masters can pull this off, and I see why. The issue is not that elementalists with lower relevant skill levels don't have the power to propel themselves through the sky; it's that they lack the precision. Where I am able to rely on my intimate knowledge of the mana around me, someone of say, moderate level elemental manipulation, would actually have to perform every one of those physics calculations to perfectly find the correct trajectory and accurate force requirement.
Perhaps if I had tried that, I would have failed. Actually, considering my weakness in understanding the field of physics, I definitely would have failed. One of my balancing air blasts would have been too weak or too powerful, and I would have fallen off my pillar of wind to the ground below. However, due to the power imparted upon me by my naming and my acceptable levels in magic sensory and elemental manipulation, I am able to return to Lector without any major mishaps.
"I suppose I better learn to stop being surprised when you succeed at something difficult with minimal effort. I know I named you and all, but you are a full level increment below the standard of 'master' for flight; that you should fly with such ease instills in me slight envy at your ability."
"Well, I wouldn't recommend you get used to it unless you want to be sorely disappointed. My flight was a bit too difficult to be considered done with ease, perhaps considering it a tough but doable challenge would be most accurate. Furthermore, remember how mana shaping took me such extensive time? That was hardly minimal effort, was it?"
"Hmph. Minimal compared to average, at least. It does make sense for you to figure out the very elementary level of flight much quicker than mana shaping; after all, at higher levels flight only feels more and more natural as one's affinity with the surrounding mana increases. But to not even stumble? To not fall, not even once! Such is worth complimenting."
"Well, if I am truly so lucky as to have a ridiculous general leveling bonus and strangely fast leveling skills, why should I desire or deserve compliments? There is nothing to compliment in being lucky, and from luck my power is derived."
"Perhaps that is the case. In truth, I simply become shocked whenever you pull off another absurd stunt of rapid growth, and compliments seem to me the natural route. It is not often that I have a student that does anything worth being impressed over, much less complimenting; to be able to compliment a student of mine for mastering something I taught him, how could I pass by the opportunity?"
"So, what you're saying is, through complimenting me you complement your own perception and teaching prowess?"
"Why, what an excellent way of putting things!" he says unabashedly.
I shrug before saying, "Well, in that case compliment me as much as you see fit. Truly I say to you, there is no limit to the number of compliments you deserve. From your power, abilities, efforts, skill… what aspect of you is not worthy of praise?"
"You're making me blush," he replies sarcastically, the tone of his voice drastically changed.
"Well, blushing at praise is hardly fitting for one who would compliment himself through praising his disciple, is it?" I respond, a very clear joking tone in my voice.
"Hmph. If you are so against receiving compliments, perhaps I shall no longer provide them?"
Our meaningless banter continues for a few more exchanges before Lector redirects us to the task at hand.
"Well, I desire to continue complimenting you (and your magnificent teacher by proxy) so let's move onto something worth complimenting. Fly to the end of this field and back. You have one minute."
[That's a pretty big step up from last time!] I think as I begin to propel myself forward. Recognizing the immensely increased distance and drastically reduced time, I have no choice but to go fast. Where my previous flight was akin to maintaining balance atop an ever-moving pillar of wind, this feels more like pushing myself forward at all costs while carefully maintaining a propelling force from the ground. The adjustments I must make to stay off the ground and centered on the large ball of wind that is behind me and propelling me forward are more difficult than my slower flight in that they must be done even faster, but surprisingly easier in that the amount of balance I must maintain on the wind holding me up is lessened in a very hard to explain manner.
Still, I manage to make it to the end of the field and back without crashing. Despite this, there is none of the customary praise from Lector. A good thing, I suppose, so long as he is merely playing along and not actually disappointed.
"Hmph. Four seconds too slow. Now, again."
And so my night is spent away, practicing flight. I must admit, the idea crosses my mind to simply fly away and never return. However, when I remember my slave crest, the one that can be used to kill me in one of a million different ways the moment I am noted as missing, I am forced to give up on any such thought. [All of this effort, all of my power, all my advantages… and yet, I cannot even escape an undesirable situation. It is as though the world only gave me these powers to mock me. Gifted with all the powers one may desire, yet bound to not one but two masters: Sir Lector and the nation itself. What a cruel world… and yet, I do not even face the worst fates it deals. Look to Jorgenson: honorable, compassionate, patient… conscripted and eventually killed by the army, all to prove a point. I have vowed before, and I shall surely vow again: this world must be punished for its sins. Even for just its sins against me, it ought be covered in an ocean of blood and burned until nothing remains. When just the crimes of this world that I have seen since reincarnation are added up… well, death may be too merciful for this world and the enablers it finds in its inhabitants.]