Master Of None

Once Walker had gotten himself awake and ready for the day it was time to hunt for where Midnight was sleeping. He noticed that Onyx was not in his tattoo form and nowhere to be found. Walker wanted to know where he had wandered off to but decided to leave it be, it was time to get training!

Checking the kitchen first Walker found only a few snacks to eat while wandering the mansion. The next destination was the fireplace in the dining hall, he knew that this was also a favorite napping spot for the cute dragon.

Surprisingly he found that Midnight was not there either, the embers were barely burning in the fireplace showing that no one had been there to stoke it up for some time. With a puzzled expression he decided to check outside, maybe she had gone to the forge for some reason. The wandering blacksmith could have heated things up to experiments with the environment. 

Walker left out the back door and barely made it ten steps before he noticed Midnight in the slightly muddy training field. She was flapping her wings in strong up and down motions slightly lifting off the ground with each attempt. Her wings had been getting thicker and more developed these last few days since she had been practicing every day. She had become enamored with flying after seeing Stella and Elise both accomplish it multiple times. 

She would only get about an inch off the ground before she would touch back down but Walker could see just how fast she was developing. It was only a short while ago that she was only able to open and close her wings, let alone still had all her baby scales.

Keeping his distance Walker waited until it looked like Midnight had reached a breaking period. Once she had stopped and regained her breath he made his move forward. ”Good morning Midnight! You look like you’re really starting to get the hang of things!” Midnight puffed up her chest happily hearing his praise. Walker wanted to make sure he played to her pride as much as possible so that she would be even more motivated to figure out a fire breath skill.

Midnight had already learned a black fireball skill but it had too many downsides. On top of consuming all her mana and leaving her completely defenseless it was also a one shot skill. If the black fire ball was to miss or not finish off her opponent it was basically signing her own death certificate. 

”Are you still up for some more training? I have the last of the darkness crystals and can try and manipulate some fire with my skills. If we can figure out a flame breath attack you can help out our wandering blacksmith friend who seems to have slept all night in the forge.” Hearing that Walker was going to give her the remaining darkness crystals already energized her, but having the goal to have her own fire breath attack like she had seen at the tamer’s guild was even more so.

She nearly tackled Walker as she tried to get him to hand over the darkness crystals sooner. ”Alright, alright, I will get them out don’t worry.” Laughing at her actions Walker took the remaining darkness crystals from his storage along with a damaged piece of rib bone from the greater ice imp. He figured that the greater ice imp was a strong opponent and if she ate the bone it could help her strengthen her scales some more.

Midnight made quick work of the darkness crystals, her teeth shattering them in her mouth. The wisps of darkness elemental mana flowed around her, while she absorbed it there seemed to be a strong aura growing within her. The damaged rib bone served as her dessert, Midnight easily chomped down on it making it seem like she was eating candy. The wisps of darkness elemental mana seemed to have a few strands of bone white mixed in as they faded in to her scales.

Walker watched this process trying to grasp the flow of mana from crystal to living being. This was not something every monster was able to do and served as valuable experiences for those that needed to understand a certain element. Walker had not made much effort to learn darkness elemental mana but had a solid grasp on it due to his connection with Midnight. He knew that it was much like the light elemental mana which was part of ever day life. It would fade in strength during the brightest time of day and increase during the darkest period of night. The darkness elemental mana was fleeting and could show up easily but also disappear easily, Walker could almost describe it as slippery. 

The shadows around Midnight and Walker seemed to be drawn to her while she was stationary, this was the finishing of her little meal of crystals and bone. She had fully absorbed the mana from the crystals and stabilized her own inner energy. This process had only taken her a little over an hour which just went to show how focused she was on her own training. Midnight could feel that there was a huge amount of energy built up within her chest. 

”There we go, looks like you are ready to train! I am going to get a fire started and we can both try to manipulate it with our mana.” Walker’s plan was simple, start a fire and have Midnight try to breath some darkness mana from her body in to it. After she had control of that she could use her internal flames to do the same and create a black flame breath attack.

Walker gathered some wood from old training dummies and a pile near the walls. The fire he started was not too large but would last long enough to them both to take their time experimenting.”Midnight I am going to try and mix the fire mana with the dark mana and see if I can make a black flame. Try to release small amounts of your own darkness mana in to the flame too. Just small amounts, it doesn’t all need to come out at once like your black fire ball.” Midnight looked like she understood and got right next to the growing flames.

She was almost touching the flames with her face, Walker was constantly amazed by her natural resistance to fire since she always slept almost on top of the fire in the fireplace. He could easily see her making a next in the embers if she was ever cold. 

Walker himself started by watching the shadows that seemed to dance with the flames. They moved freely like the flames did almost like the light given off by the fire was chasing the shadows. This made Walker realized that fire was not necessarily the same as the light element but the two being so closely related would make it much harder to bland fire and darkness. He decided to start with manipulating the shadows that were cast in to becoming denser. The mana he used was almost so small that it did not even register as a single point, it was regenerated before he even really noticed. The affinity he had for darkness element mana since Midnight had consumed a lot of the condensed understanding was much higher. 

The shadows became almost as dense and dark as the night sky, they were able to fend off the light coming from the fire, however this was not Walker’s goal, he instead wanted them to welcome the heat of the fire. He first tried to bring flames without any adjustment toward the dark shadows. The results were not as he desired, the flames completely dissipated after mixing with the dark shadows. The light element within them had been snuffed out and the fire in turn which was mixed in with it as well. 

Walker glanced at Midnight who was having her own struggles, she would puff up her chest with a full breath and release it with some darkness mana all at once. This led to a puff of darkness infused air that would force the flames away from her mouth not mixing at all but constantly bending away. The darkness mana was proving to be a real pain to infuse with the fire on purpose. Seeing this Walker realized the the black fireball skill must be an instinctual skill that Midnight’s species must learn and not one that they gained through experience, meaning that even she did not have a grasp on how the flames became mixed with the dark mana. 

Midnight was working hard ion slowly releasing her breath, she needed to forcefully slow the release of the mana she built up. Walker wanted to help her but realized that he had no skill that would act as a support for her at the moment. Sadly the two of them needed to work out how to do this on their own and once they succeeded then maybe they could give the other some guidance.