"Winsor, Winsor! wake up!" Lukart yelled as he circled around Winsor. The two of them had fallen for more than a hundred meters but they were surprisingly still alive.
"H-how are we still alive? I thought we fell?" Winsor responded as he picked himself of the ground. There was dirt all over his clothes and a few scrapes on his hands but he was completely fine. No broken bones at all.
"Yeah, I thought we were going to die. I get what you meant by a weird air around her now." Lukart said with an angry look on his face. He seemed to be annoyed by the fact that Miss Aiko seemed to have betrayed them.
"Never again," Lukart whispered under his voice as he turned his attention away from the angry thoughts in his mind.
Winsor heard it but he chose not to say anything, not that he knew what to say. He dusted himself and took a look around his surroundings.
He noticed that there was a fracture in the cliff that now seemed like a towering wall. It led to a shallow cave and the area around it was quite rocky. There were a few ferns growing around the area they had fallen and trees that grew a few meters away.
He tried looking into the forest but since it was already starting to get dark, he couldn't see further than about a few dozen meters. A light fog was starting to fill the area, making his vision even worse.
"We can deal with her once we head back to the manor. Lets set camp here since we're tired and a fog is forming." Winsor said as he finally finished analyzing his surroundings.
"Right," Lukart said as he his face lightened up. He was still angry but he felt more tired since it was a long day.
The two walked towards the fracture and set down their bags in the small cave. They picked dried branches and dead leaves and started a fire in a small cave.
Miss Aiko had taught them to ensure that the flame was under the ground level or at least out of view. If it was above ground, it would be like a beacon in the darkness attracting anything that had eyes from miles away at night time.
The smoke too, would be a give away to your location and could attract scavengers who most times come in groups in the day time. The two of them were too tired to dig a hole so they just lit it behind a large boulder inside and used it to warm the cave.
The night quickly grew cold and the two tried to get comfortable knowing they were far out from any person besides the one that tried to kill them.
"I'm sure she's already back at that village getting cozy in an inn," Lukart grumbled as he looked at his amulet while facing the fire.
Winsor sighed and began thinking of just how they were going to fix this situation. He knew he wasn't strong so getting back to the little village, let alone Rarden would be a serious hassle
'Well, if she tried to kill us we should probably wait her out, then head back to Rarden.' Winsor thought as he stared deeper into the flames.
Now that he looked at them, he remembered how Miss Aiko had told them how to activate their skills. When the two tried it at the time, they failed to do anything and it left them with a bitter taste in their mouths.
'Push your mana towards what you want to control then activate it,that's what she said, right?. Now that I see it, why don't I-,' Winsor said before stretching out his palm towards the fire.
He pictured the flames moving and pushed his mana out of his body in a continuous stream. He met a lot of resistance until his mana suddenly dispersed. He could still control it but he could feel it more spread out now.
He tried again picturing the flame moving, this time with the wind helping to push it, then the fire flared up suddenly. The flames burst out and nearly grazed Lukart who was sitting a bit too close to it. A gust of wind blew around the small cave making the fire much brighter till it begun to snuff it out.
Lukart quickly leaped backwards in terror as the flames had nearly burnt him. Winsor quickly stopped the flow of mana and system notifications soon popped up.
[Your Affinities have leveled up]
[You've gained wind control]
Winsor got excited when he read the notifications about his affinities leveling up. He hadn't checked his stats even once since the first time. In hind sight he should've checked it more.
'self appraisal,' Winsor thought with the intention of seeing his stats. He saw some notifications that he gained an extra point in both strength and agility due to all the exercise they did over the past few days. Now his stats looked like this.
[Name: Keith Winsor]
[hp: 23/24]
[stamina: 11/30]
[MP: 4/6]
[Stats]
[Strength:9]
[Agility:9]
[Endurance:10]
[Mana:3]
[Skills : Blade mastery(lv0), Wind control (lv1), Fire control(lv1)]
[Affinities: Shadow(lv1), Wind(lv1),Fire(lv1)]
He was happy that something as simple as running and walking could increase his stats, even though slightly. That aside, he finally noticed his first skill was still at lv0 and started to wonder why. He focused on it trying to gain more information on it, then another sub screen showed up.
[Blade mastery (lv0)]
[Increases slashing damage by 50% and piercing damage by 30%]
[Blunt weapons are 10% less effective]
He was shocked to see that his skill actually reduced the blunt damage he did. It was the easiest kind of damage to deal because it didn't require much finesse or skill and you were essentially just hitting something.
'Hmm so if I level it up, will the defect become worse or less? Plus why did I get blade mastery. Does it have something to do with my past?' Winsor thought as he dismissed his screen.
He knew he didn't have much mp but he wanted to at least get used to controlling the elements. He stood up and turned towards Lukart who was staring at him with a shocked look on his face.
"How! How did you do that? Everyone refused to tell me, saying that Aiko would teach me but you know how useful that was." Lukart asked while staring at Winsor.
Lukart noticed how Winsor didn't flinch at all even though he was nearly engulfed by flames. He thought that Winsor had discovered some new technique that even Miss Aiko didn't know about.
"Well, I just pushed the mana out of my body into the air and the fire then it just moved. I think picturing it in you mind is important." Winsor said as he thought back on what he did before he could move the wind and fire. He explained further how he had affinities with the two and how he pictured them in his mind.
"Awesome! I'm going to try it now!" Lukart said excitedly as he sat facing the other wall of the cave and closed his eyes. "I need to concentrate a bit and I don't want you getting hit by anything. Could you please wait a bit further out the cave?"
"Sure, I needed to practice too." Winsor said as he walked outside the cave. He decided he was going to practice wind control since he didn't want to accidentally set the whole forest on fire. He grabbed his spear just in case he found something outside the cave and he needed to protect himself.
"This should be far enough," he said to himself before he started moving the wind.
At first it was simple back and forth, up and down and side ways but he soon started more complicated moves. He made leaves of smaller plants fly as he used the wind to pull them upwards.
He was pretty content with what he had done so far and was genuinely enjoying himself. He even started trying to use the spear like a staff but found it was difficult to control.
He found aiming the wind at further objects was easier when he used the spear as a staff. He also tried wrapping the wind around the spear but that idea was only good in his head.
He soon started to feel a bit dizzy as a warning from the system saying he was almost out of mana popped up.
He sat down and decided to take a break and enjoy the fresh air. He sat with his back to one of the larger rocks around the cave and took a short break.
'I wonder if I can do what she did.' Winsor thought before he tried copying what Miss Aiko had done to push them off the cliff.
He ignored the system warnings and went ahead anyway since he had about 2 mp left. He conjured a mass of winds and started to condense them but he found it very hard to do so.
'I guess doing so while holding a spear is a dumb idea.' Winsor thought as he realised his mp was about to reach 0.
He gave up on trying to copy Miss Aiko since he failed to even condense the wind into a ball like shape. It either went into a cone like shape or a tube like one.
As he was thinking to himself, he heard something rustle in the bushes somewhere beyond the tree line.
It wasn't easy to miss since there were also grumbling sounds and the night was not so loud. There were of course insects and the occasional night bird calls but this one sounded odd.
Winsor looked over at it and saw two yellow eyes staring back at him. He quickly stood up alarmed even though he was starting to feel dizzy and tightened his grip on his spear.
His head cleared of any other thoughts as he was locked in a staring competition with whatever was in the bushes.
He hadn't yet dispelled the cone like mass of wind around his arm when he held the spear so it flowed and covered his spear. The wind seemed to become more concentrated around the tip of the blade.
Winsor was aware of this the whole time, or at least partially since his thoughts were on if he could throw the spear from this distance or take his chances fighting whatever it was in the dark.
He was thinking that if he was lucky, the wind would pull his spear and maybe correct any mistakes he might have made due to nerves. He didn't fully realise that his thoughts were shaping the wind around the tip of his spear.
He felt himself get dizzier and dizzier so he chose what he thought was the best idea.
He planted one foot forward and arched his back backwards. He held his spear in one hand and pointed the other arm at two glowing eyes.
The eyes had started to move at this point and started running towards Winsor. It made weird noises as it run towards him. Now that it got closer, Winsor could see that it was holding something in it arm.
Winsor didn't wait for it to get into range to use its weapon and threw his spear while twisting is arched back.
Woooosh
Sqeulsh!
The spear flew at a high speed and pierced right in the middle of the eyes. It had gotten past the tree line so Winsor could now see its body with the help of the moon light.
'I was about to start running of it didn't hit but, .... ew what is this,' Winsor thought as he approached the the unmoving body of what he hit.
It looked like a disgusting child sized goblin. There was dark red blood all over the leaves behind it as the spear had gone through its head and mouth , partially exiting from the back. it was holding a stone dagger but it dropped it when it died.
[You have gained a new skill.]
A system notification came out of no where bur Winsor didn't bother paying attention to it all as what he saw next terrified him.
There, were tens of foot prints that looked like they were made recently in the dirt not so far from where the goblin lay dead. They seemed to form a trail and it looked like many goblin like monsters used it, frequently.
"Why here? Of all places?" Winsor said as he looked at the tracks with a scared and defeated look on his face.