While they sat waiting for the Beast Tide to blow over, the villagers of Meita Village looked over their rations and took it upon themselves to bide their time in their own ways.
Some of the bolder children were playing a game in a far corner of the bunker, but for the majority of the villagers, they quietly listened to the booming sounds of a multitude of creatures overhead.
The air manipulators created fresh air for the people, and the water manipulators had drinking water made in minute amounts.
The major concern about the bunker was the lack of food for the villagers as there were no methods of preservation aside from salt and the like.
To be able to manipulate water into ice was one of the more advanced practices and even with the ice, without suitable containment, there was only so long before any organic foods began rotting.
It was however, colder in the underground bunker, so there was constantly burning fire for warmth; simple torches were placed along the wall and were lit by the fire manipulators.
As the eerie silence pervaded the bunker, Klein was not deterred from training his mei veins; unlike before, there was more motivation to get stronger for the village's sake.
He could not allow his father's sacrifice to be for nothing.
And so, Klein performed many actions before his mother while most of the village had no clue as to what he was doing.
His mother, Meira, gladly allowed him to indulge in such practices as she knew just how important it was for her husband to maintain the safety of the people.
If luck was with him, Meior might even survive the entirety of the chaotic Beast Tide. No one knew for sure the exact cause of this particular tide, but most often it was the fault of a stronger meibeast staking its claim on the lands.
'Let's hope for the better. After all, he was stronger than even the previous head by a lot,' Meira was desperate to see her husband's face once more, 'You must survive, honey. For us.'
She stared at her only son whilst he gradually manipulated each of the elements in a small cycle of air, fire, water, and earth.
Unlike his father, Klein seemed the ineptest when it came to the factor of earth manipulation. Perhaps there was a reason behind this, however the difference was highly negligible between each element.
Slowly but surely though, Klein was getting stronger and stronger; he was not nearly of age to properly use his mei veins, yet he could manipulate almost near the weakest of that sort.
'Soon,' Klein could feel it.
It was as if his body was telling him that he was ready to transform drastically in terms of his body's capabilities.
'Direct the mofei lower and converge it.' He subconsciously went into a sort of trance as the ambient mofei was drawn into his body, the other manipulators helping him as they drew in the mofei to the bunker.
If before Klein was taking in sparse droves of mofei into his body separately before channeling it through his body, he now was tapped into a constant flux of the energies.
With his will, the fires in the bunker burned fainter, the air became thinner, the dampness in the air was depleted, and the earth beneath his form was turning sandy.
'More. More!' With his eyes closed and his mind focused solely on gorging on every available bit of mofei surrounding him, Klein had gone further than he ever had to reinforce himself.
The changes were obvious enough to everyone in the bunker at that point.
Some of the older and stronger of the villagers knew that the son of Meior had inherited a bounty off his father's bloodline, however they did not know how powerful his son's gift would enable his growth.
---
On Planet Mamon, the earliest of the Imeni people had cherished a special ore known as meirite.
This mystical mineral had the ability to both channel and filter through the different elements with natural ease in comparison to any living beings' mei veins.
The composition of meirite depended on the place of its origin.
For example, if there was a vein of meirite near a volcano, the density of the fire and earth mofei would have an increasingly easier time pervading the "veins" of the meirite, thus configuring the properties of the meirite into that of its "charged" element(s).
In short, raw meirite could transform a myriad of forms depending on what was incorporated into it in terms of mofei.
The poor village of Meita could not hope to see an ore vein as they were incredibly rare and often times being guarded by fearsome meibeasts.
---
While Klein sat in his trance, his eyes suddenly snapped open and a wave of mofei was sucked directly into his eyes that were reminiscent of the illusive meirite.
His mother along with the rest of the villagers were shocked at the sheer amount of mofei being gathered.
Due to them being underground, the earth mofei came from the deepest depths of the earth in such a pure state that the four earth manipulators could not help but gape in awe.
With such an amount of mofei, they could erect walls that would fend of any beast as large as an elephant.
"Just what is happening to you, my baby boy." Meira spoke silently.
They all sat wondering what could cause such an abundance of mofei to gather around, and all they knew was that Klein was in the center of it all.
The one in question just so happened to glean the answer to the question they all had.
He could feel his mei veins growing at such a fast pace that all the pain from his previous training seemed to have come to fruition. The veins that were present throughout his body were steadily branching out towards the most delicate parts: his eyes.
Before, he would feel a stinging pain resounding from his mei veins premature growth, but nothing could prepare him for the feeling he was undergoing at this point.
It was not pain, but a sense of numbness.
With his eyes open, the closest person to him, his mother, could see the changes happening to his eyes with hers alone.
The radiance inside his eyes seemed to slowly dim until it finally went dull until finally, Klein felt the numbness recede.
The radiant light had vanished from his eyes, but it travelled all along the opened mei veins throughout his body and took in as much mofei as they could.
The size of his veins grew to a size that only an adept manipulator could possess.
Yet, he was not excited by this fact despite knowing how bountiful this process seemed to be for him.
He knew his eyes were open after the process was finished, yet there was no light in the dark, damp bunker.
"Mommy?" He reached out with a quivering voice, the world now pitch black in appearance.