Master Of None

”Su what do you think i should do about defense? Do you have any ideas about how i could use fire to defend myself or someone else?” This was the right person to ask, as their group’s defender she would have the best ideas of what shape to make the flames take.

”I would have said to use the fire like you make the earth rise in to a wall, but you said it doesn’t just become a skill that easily. Hmmm….” Closing her eyes to focus on her thoughts she took a few moments. ”What if you tried to copy Midnight, she wraps herself in shadows to sneak around better. If you wrap yourself in flames the ice attacks from snow imps probably won’t get through. You’ll need to figure out the not burning yourself part though, i have no idea how to control flames.” Well at least Su was blunt, her inspiration from Midnight was perfect, but the disappointment in realizing how many burns walker might get while figuring it out. Lucky he had a healing spell.

The distant grunts of Remey unleashing punches and kicks over and over could be heard. The only response were the sounds of Midnight’s growls. If Walker focused he could even hear the stampeding demon boars breaking snow and ice. His party members were pushing themselves to the limit to complete their daily quests and he was afraid to burn himself? Was Su afraid of his flames as he directed them at her? How pathetic! Walker stood up tall he would push harder, he needed to give it everything he got.

Instead of just focusing on the flames he focused on the flow of mana within him, not only would he need to control the flames but he would need to control the amount of mana used to keep them from burning him. Starting small he took a small lick of flame trying to get it to form around his hands, The heat was too much for him causing a lack in focus. The flame dissipated completely leaving nothing behind but reddened skin on Walker’s hands.Using his light heal skill Walker fixed up his hand and started over. Another bit of flame intertwined itself around his hand. This time he put more focus on the mana he used to manipulate the flame, the heat was slightly less than before. Biting his lip he pushed the flame to grow little by little, his entire hand becoming covered.

The flames began to overtake his control blazing up his arm, he dropped the mana letting it dissipate yet again. The damage was more this time he needed to use light heal twice to fix the damage. ”Leader, stop trying to make armor. If you make armor it will fit too closely and burn you, maybe make it something more loose fitting.”

Su was right, he had been imagining a suit of flaming armor that would perfectly defend him. Was that out of his league? Would a suit of flaming armor made with his elemental manipulation be at the level of a mastery skill? What if he did think smaller? He could take some inspiration from Lisa, she had designed his cloaks. Within his mind he thought of every stitch and detail he could remember from the first cloak Lisa had made for him. The flames would become his thread and his mana would forge the needle. Strings of fire began to weave around him becoming something new. There was no burning or heat, just gentle warmth.

Su stood as far back as she could avoiding the flame threads that seemed to weave themselves. Walker standing arms out at his sides not moving an inch. Threads taking form in to a billowing cloak of crimson fire appeared around Walker. Seemingly alive it draped over him not causing a single bit of harm. Even onyx who was still on his shoulders showed no sign of fear or damage. Instead onyx only watched, wanting to take in every second of Walker’s new skills.

’ The skill crimson cloak has been taken from the phoenix king system. Due to the users experimentation with elemental manipulation skill the skill crimson cloak has been automatically learned.

Crimson cloak- 6mana cost

Uses the fusion of the users mana and flames to create a cloak of flame. Magic and physical attacks that come in to contact with the cloak get burned up to varying degrees. Using additional mana the cloak can be expanded to block large area attacks. The larger the expansion the more mana consumed.

Quest: Playing with fire

Requirements:

Learn three fire magic skills using elemental manipulation has been completed.

Reward:

+1 matk point’

The moment the system sent this notification Walker fell to his knees, ” I really need to start paying attention to how much mana I have left when I train” He had burned through all but two mana.

”Leader, that was amazing!” lifting Walker back to his feet Su gave walker a shoulder to lean on. ”You’ll make Lisa way too jealous if you let her see that. She will spend years trying to make a real cloak just like it.”

”Haha maybe it would be a good challenge.” with both of their daily quests completed the two headed back to rest, Walker had dispelled the flame doll letting his mind wander on what else he could shape it in to.

Most of the day had already passed being completely sidetracked by their daily quests. The others still seemed completely set on finishing up so Walker took the opportunity to rest.

Remey flung a punch as fast as she possibly could toward Midnight. Jumping backwards she tried to flap her wings to add a bit of height. She may not be able to fly yet but her daily quest was to learn to use her wings to dodge and attack Remey. Remey had a similar quest which was to use her speed and wits to land fifty hits on Midnight who was faster than her. The two had been sparing as much as possible Midnight wanting the experience from her quest to push her growth farther. She couldn’t get the idea of flying in the air to get above her prey out of her head. She would be the most deadly dragon ever, flying in wrapped in shadows suddenly dragging off a deadly enemy.

Remey was pushing herself for an attack stat point. For Remey, she attack power in the form of the attack stat would be incredibly important. She naturally did not want to get hurt but, she feared the party would one day run in to an enemy she was too weak to even damage. If this ever happened she would be the reason they didn’t survive, she was the main frontal attacker after all.

Gil was in a much different situation than the others, his daily quest had coincided with a system quest unique to his ranger system. Gil’s father was able to use a skill called double shot which allowed his father to shoot two arrows at once. This was very useful for group battles because Gil would be able to snipe two targets at once. More importantly if he could master this skill he could then start to learn triple shot. After that quad shot and furthermore a skill called multi-shot which fired a whopping seven arrows at once.

When it came to mastering the skill it wasn’t enough to just be able to use it, he also needed to be able to fully understand how it worked. How the aiming of the two arrows fit in to the way he held the bow. How his wind elemental affinity could enhance the speed or direction of the two arrows. What to do when using the skill under mental pressure or cornered. These were all things he could work on under the onslaught of Riley’s demon boars. Unfortunately Gil could only survive training with two at the same time, however to Gil’s surprise Riley had the third assist in his own training. Seeing everyone in the parry become super motivated Riley felt he was being left behind. Naturally this feeling was intensified by not being useful in capturing the cursed crow egg.

Laurence had jumped in to save the day with his best tamed beast Bengal. Then there was Elise who had Stella and now an equally impressive double affinity cursed crow chick. It was time he learned to make these wild beasts bend to his will. Utilizing skill after skill Riley slowly tried to make the single demon boar bow to him in either fear or respect. He would have his work cut out for him seeing as the boars were all extremely stubborn.

The remainder of the day went on like this until every single one of them had returned exhausted. The only two unaffected were Laurence and Elise who had leisurely spent the day with snacks and tea enjoying the show. Stella had been caught up playing mother to the cursed crow chick. Tomorrow would be much different, tomorrow was for guild quests and travel.