I genuinely don't know what made me think that I'd be fine if I just landed on solidified air, but I learnt the hard way that it wouldn't be the case. She picked me up once again, going up towards the spot we were at earlier, and stopped midair while still holding me.
"Let's take a different approach for the second round, alright? Try to harden the mana next to me."
With her finger, she then drew a line.
"That's the extent of how much mana im condensing right now, so try to do it past that point."
"Alright."
I don't really know how I did it earlier, but I remember the feeling to some extent. This time, since it seemed like she wouldn't yeet me out of nowhere, I did actually close my eyes and go with the whole "feeling the mana in the air" bullshit. bla bla bla, you all already know how that goes man. Yeah, I was able to feel it, and of course, since I had already done it previously once too, all I had to do was just copy that insane coincidental success I had earlier.
"Hm, seems hard enough. But there's only one way to find out, soooo."
What was I even expecting anymore? Of course she threw me up on that spot, it's Maia we're talking about. Fortunately, since I did manage to harden it enough though, I didn't fall too much, and landed perfectly safe, with just a little pain on my ass.
"Can you at least warn me before yeeting me next time…?"
"Haha, of course not. If someone wants to stab you in the back, they won't warn you first, no?"
"Yeah, but I'd imagine my own sister not trying to?!"
"Anyways."
"Why're you ignoring it???"
"Try to envelop yourself in a thin layer of mana as I told you. It's really not that hard. Once you do it once, it's like a switch activating in your brain that kinda allows you to do it any time. Kinda. Hopefully. But usually it should be like that."
"…am I supposed to move on and just say alright then get to work?"
"Yep."
"Alright…"
I guess I didn't hear anything. Either way, she said it was easy, so technically speaking I shouldn't have any trouble with it, but the line between what's easy for her and what's easy for any regular human being was pretty thick. Closing my eyes once again, instead of focusing on the external mana surrounding me, this time I put all my focus into my pitifully empty and small mana pool.
I really have little to no mana… this is definitely a humbling affirmation…
Seriously, yesterday I was getting dragged around by thugs and teased by a whole restaurant, and now I'm forced to accept that I have the same amount if not less mana than a newborn… give me a break will ya? But anyways, at the very least I was able to properly feel it, and also kinda envision it in my head.
Now I have to take a small stream…
The problem with that though, was that I literally only had enough for that one small stream.
Yeah, never mind. That just won't work. There has to be another way… what if
Instead of actually using literally all the mana I had for this, what if I took a few droplets, then…
Maybe if I try to imagine those few droplets fusing together and stretching thinly…
It was honestly just an insane mental play. I was definitely able to envision it though, and I could feel those few drops stretching longer and longer, as I condensed them together prior to their stretching.
I did it! Will this even work though? If this was a physical stream of water, it might be as thin as a spiderweb or something like that…
But I really didn't have any choice other than trying to move to the next step. Maia was silent, thankfully just allowing me to do my thing, but I felt that she wouldn't hesitate a second to yeet me down if I failed now, so it was time for the second part of the first step.
Well, at least it's something. Now I have to take this outside of my body and envelop myself with it.
I'd rather not make this comparison, but genuinely the only way I could describe the feeling of trying to get the mana out, was the same feeling as forcefully taking a piss. It was so weird though, since the feeling didn't come from my jewels, but from all over my body… I really hope that I either get used to it, or I'll manage to ignore it in the future, because even though I did in fact succeed, it wasn't all that pleasant.
I feel like I just pissed myself…
"My, aren't you quite the little genius?"
I opened my eyes, turning my head around to look at her. Her face was showing anything but surprise, but it also didn't seem to be making fun of me either, so I took it as a compliment.
Did she feel that small layer? I didn't even tell her that I succeeded yet, but I guess it isn't necessary, huh.
"I'm still the eldest son of the Ashfords after all, aren't I?"
"I guess you have a point. How is it? You think you can maintain it?"
"Besides the awfully uncomfortable feeling of getting my mana out and around me, I don't really feel anything unpleasant or that would be hard to control, so I don't think holding it will be a problem…"
I slowly got up on my feet, as there was probably no reason for me to have been sitting down to begin with for that matter.
"Good, good. Now then…"
"Hm?"
My eyes widened the next instant, as I felt it. She got behind me so fast that I couldn't even see her move, and the inevitable approached, I was already aware of what would happen.
You have to be fucking with me…!
"Good luck, my dear little brother!"
"I'll remember this, Maiaaaaaaaa!"
This time though, I wasn't all that scared or worried anymore, however I still had a problem.
Oh, no,no,no,no,no… there they come again!
The clouds. Going down at the same speed as earlier, the moment I went inside them, it began. The mana around me seemed to do absolutely nothing when it came to defense, so it still felt like thousands of sharp needles puncturing me at the same time. It hurt. Like, a lot. It wasn't unbearable, but there was a big problem that arose from it.
Finally, it's over! Now all I have to do is uhm, yeah that. Fuse the layer around me with the mana in the air- hmm? Wait, what happened to my… layer of mana?!
Okay, now I might be fucked. The pain must've distracted me to the point where I completely forgot to hold the layer of mana around me, so now I was actually free falling once again without the first step in action, and that's where I started panicking.
Imagine it, imagine it… a few droplets, condensing each other and-
It broke. The condensation failed, the droplets of mana fell back inside the pool, and my time was slowly running out.
Come on… come on! Just condense already!
It was of no use though. I knew that losing my temper and panicking would only worsen my situation, but let's be for real. How many people would actually manage to stay calm in my situation? Actually, no. There's a lot of weirdos out there, so I'll rephrase it. How many normal people would be perfectly calm and just casually be able to redo their mana layer?? Probably close to none.
…This isn't going to work is it?
Giving up on my 2nd attempt, I managed to calm down, and just prepared myself mentally, since this was going to hurt like hell.
Maybe If I fall flat and break my spine the paralyzation will numb the pain.
At the very least, I had the guarantee of not dying no matter how hard I fell, so I wasn't actually too worried in the end. Some people might think that Maia was straight up evil for allowing me to go all the way down and what not, but I think that it's the most logical thing she could do.
If she just saved me from any fall damage, I'd definitely value failure a lot less. For that matter, it would've probably become like yesterday in the alley where my certainty of her arrival almost made me give up and risk getting Jun and Juna in even more danger. The guarantee of not dying aside, she wasn't catching me and let me fall in order to give me a realistic sense of what failure meant within the circumstances.
It was probably something along the lines of "You won't die, but you will still break your bones if you fail. If you don't want to experience any more of that excruciating pain, you have to succeed." Which I honestly simply couldn't go against man, since I actually respected that approach. Sure, it hurt like hell the first time and as I was now about to fall further for the second time, it was absolutely going to hurt, maybe even worse, but it was still undoubtedly a great method, albeit not very ethical.
I really hope this won't take too many attempts.
I thought as I prepared myself for impact, trying to remain as flat as possible, until I eventually reached the ground, with my back downwards.
After healing me and going back up, the 4th and 5th attempt ended up pretty much identically. No matter how much I tried, I always lost focus in the end because of the clouds, or got lost in excitement like in the 6th and 7th. Keeping the layer around me kinda felt like when you're flexing a muscle. Of course, it wasn't that exact same feeling, but it was the most similar thing that I could actually compare it to. I would manage to keep it around me stable for a while, then it would dissipate the moment I lost focus.
She said that I'll be able to do it subconsciously after actually managing it once, but clearly she either lied, or it actually takes a first successful attempt at flying as a whole for me to get used to it and be able to do it by just thinking about it like she said.
On attempts 8 through 12, I actually managed to hold it until I was out of the clouds, but lost focus because of the excitement of actually getting past the hardest point, then went back to failing because of the clouds for attempts 13 to 17.
How was I still willingly going through this even though I had already fallen around 6 kilometers down 17 times? I have no idea myself either. I was genuinely terrified of it, every single time, but I also managed to suppress that fear enough to not be constantly shivering or thinking about it, but it didn't actually cancel it out. Though it didn't really matter at the moment, and I think that by now it's pretty obvious, there might actually be something wrong with me. Either way though, as I said, it's pretty irrelevant now, so I guess it's time to move on.
It was around 7-8 in the morning when we began, and taking in consideration the average time between enveloping myself, falling, getting healed, resting a minute and going back up, give or take it was around 7 minutes per attempt. By the time I got to the 43rd ish, around 5 hours had passed, and we went back to the town for lunch.
Seeing the fairly adorable kids trying to help around and then getting stuffed like a pig by Layra, all in all, it wasn't a bad lunch experience. It would've been at least 17.8 times better if Luna was there, and I did ask Maia and Layra about it, but unfortunately it seemed like she wasn't in town today, and was busy… I guess it was just luck that I saw her yesterday, huh? But anyway, around an hour and a half later, we were back in the sky, at a slightly different place this time since there weren't really many clouds outside, especially now that it was around the middle of the day.
I forgot to mention it earlier, but we had also moved quite a few times before our break. No matter what, it seemed like she really wanted me to, or rather was fixated on me passing through the needle camp on every attempt.
"I'm starting to seriously question your Ashford blood, Cael. We're supposed to be a lineage of prodigies… I lost count of how many times you've failed so far…"
"43… this is the 44th attempt I guess."
"It's even creepier how you're so calm after breaking several bones and getting internal damage 43 times…"
"As if you're one to talk. I don't have a choice, do i? And for your information, I am insanely scared even now. I just don't let it get to me too much."
"Are you even a human?"
"I recommend you look in a mirror sometime, before asking me that…"
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
I sat down, then closed my eyes and began tbh 44th attempt by trying to envelop myself with mana once again.
"Shhh. Give me some silence to concentrate, will ya?"
"Hmp."
Pouting like a cute girl won't make you less of a gorilla.
as if somehow hearing what I was thinking, I received a kick to my ass, but she actually went silent to let me concentrate afterwards. During our lunch break, I realized something. The reason why my mana layer dissipated wasn't necessarily because I lost focus. The feeling had also changed at this point, and instead of being similar to flexing a muscle it was more like when you're trying to glue something together, and you have to press it down for the reaction to occur.
I'm not saying that what I needed to do was constantly "press" my mana against me though. But I think that one of the problems was that I focused too much on actually stretching the layer enough to cover me, and not enough on actually making it dense enough to stick to me, and survive the mana in the air which was substantially thicker.
Thinking back, it was such an obvious thing which I somehow missed, and I don't even have any way of defending myself for it either. If the mana in the air is a lot denser than the thin layer surrounding me, it will obviously dissipate. It wasn't about just managing to envelop myself with the little mana that I have, but also to condense it enough to resist and be able to merge with the one in the air.
Now that I think I'm aware of what I was missing…
"I should be able to do it this time."
"Hm? Are you sure about it?"
"Yeah, I think I finally understand what I was doing wrong this whole time."
"That being?"
"You're not going to confirm whether I'm right or not even if I do tell you, no? So how about you just kick me already and we find out. Or what, do you expect me to jump on my own? I'm way too scared to do that, just to let you know."
For the first time in a few hours, she smirked. That usual smirk that she makes when she's excited or expectant of something or someone. There could be only one reason behind it. She was either just amused by my idiocy, or was convinced that I was finally able to place out the final piece of the puzzle.
"That so? Then…"
Pausing her sentence, her instant appearance behind me sent shivers down my spine, but instead of scaring me, I couldn't help but start grinning widely as I was now also confident with the answer I had come up with.
"…let's see you fly then. My dear little brother."
Pushing me with even more strength than usual, and sending me down further from the hardened area, I couldn't help but feel excited as I passed through the clouds a few seconds later.
As I thought… not a single hint of pain!
It wasn't that the mana layer couldn't protect me earlier, it was simply too thin. Now that it was substantially denser , it was actually keeping the highly pressurized water droplets from piercing me. The feeling really was similar if not almost identical to enhancing my body too, so I could actually make the protection even stronger, but it wasn't needed now.
"Hahahaha! I guess getting squashed 43 times wasn't all for nothing!"
I finally understood it. I decided to wait to get out of the clouds though, so I could actually see it once it happened, but in the meanwhile while passing through, I began merging the mana around me with the mana in the air.
It doesn't feel any different from how it did when I just hardened it. As I thought, I really just had to make a denser layer!
Now being fused with the mana in the air, I could feel how much longer I had until I'd be outside the clouds. As my body went down, and my excitement was rising up even further, I slowed down my fall the moment I was out of them.
Should I make a footstep in the air? Or just fly towards Maia- why am I even bothering asking?! Of course the answer is!
Flying. Slowing myself to the point where I had almost stopped in midair completely, the next instant I turned my head upwards. I have absolutely no idea how, and I don't even care, but as I screamed in ecstasy, accelerating upwards and passing through the clouds, I could feel tears of joy streaming down my face.
I'm actually flying! This is way too fun!
Finally exiting the clouds, I saw her there still standing up still, and the moment she saw me, her grin had widened even further, before dashing towards me, and hugging me midair.
"I knew you could do it! You really are amazing, Cael!"
"Hahaha, I can't believe this! I finally managed to do it!"
"Yep, yep, you really did! I'm so proud of you!"
I was happy. So extremely happy. Flying was something that any human back in my previous life had dreamt of, and now… I was finally doing it.
"I'll let Layra know to make a special platter for dinner, we have to celebrate!"
"Please tell her to make it of a reasonable size… but even if she doesn't, I don't even care anymore, I'll eat until I explode!"
"That's the spirit, my dear little brother! We're flying home individually tonight."
"Wouldn't that take a while though? You're still a lot faster than me."
"Who cares?! We'll take all the time you need. If anyone has a problem with that, they can kiss my ass."
"Hahaha, Alright then. I guess I should practice until it's time to go eat then go home, so it won't take us too long. Wanna join me, my dear older sister?"
"Of course, It's my pleasure. My dear little brother."
And so until it was time to first go back in town to eat, we had give or take around 5 hours, which we spent mostly flying around without any precise destination, just exercising, and enjoying our time together after a really painful streak of failures. Also, Since the layer surrounding us was merged with the mana in the air, it didn't actually consume any of our own. essentially, you could fly endlessly as long as you learnt how to. I genuinely have no idea how some people intentionally choose not to learn this awesome skill, but eh, I guess it's none of my business. They can all stick to the ground, while I'll fly around all I want.
After eating dinner and celebrating at the restaurant, it took us about an hour to get home. It honestly was a lot less than I thought, and fortunately enough I hadn't crashed on my landing either. And while it did take another hour ish until i was able to change into my ridiculously heavy pajamas and get into my tent, due to our parents, the twins and pretty much everyone else congratulating me, after a long day of a lot of broken bones and pain, I was now able to go to bed and sleep peacefully for the night.