Master Of None

”Fire resistance training is the first step you will need to be able to go on this expedition. Some of you lack the affinity for fire mana in general which means you may not have a high resistance to fire naturally. Others are weaker to fire mana in general because of your affinities.” This was the same statement that su had made to several groups today.

These groups of soldiers had been prepared to go through the fire resistance training that had been set up over the coming weeks. This was to be sure that the soldiers, adventurers, and guards who came on this expedition would grow to be able to survive it much better than idf they did not have this training.

This was also so that those who could not improve enough could be weeded out and return to their other positions. Some people would not be able to gain enough fire resistance to be able to venture in to the fire elemental planes.

While everyone understood that there would be armor prepared for everyone, it was not the end all be all of their protection. So many people would try and rely on armor, rune sewn fabric, or other accessories that helped to resist fire mana. If they did so, then they would find that they were unable to actually grow stronger at the end of the day.

Several groups of guards had been eliminated right away because they were unable to handle the simple heat of the fire elemental territory that Ignus was in charge of. They had found that they were extremely weak to the heat and were not able to resist. This can be the case for many of the water and ice mages as well. They had manas that resists fire but could not maintain them.

Some of the spirit race members who relied on fire since that was what made up their bodies primarily also failed.

This was for the opposing reasoning though. They found that they were absorbing too much fire mana too quickly. They could live within it and around it, so could the angels with fire mana affinity. Yet, then they were exposed to greater and greater purities of fire mana it was getting too great for them.

They would have too much mana enter their bodies causing them to fall ill very quickly. The worst part was that these people needed to be treated by specific healers who had the same affinities to be able to draw the excess fire mana from their bodies. For the spirit race and the angels, this was not easily done.

This was why many of the elder fire dragons had helped watch over the testing. They knew that they could also join the expedition if they could take a dragonkin form, but they also had to go through the same testing to show that they had enough control over their fire mana so that they would not violate the harmony in the fire elemental plane.

That was the specific focus that caused a few of the elder dragons to be removed from the expedition. They were not able to maintain enough control of their fire mana. This caused there to be damage to their surroundings when fighting in their dragonkin form.

This was also a requirement. The dragonkin form was better suited to traveling in groups and also hid some of their strength so that it could be used as a surprise if anything worse happened. Therefore, if fighting in that form was not something they were capable of, then they could not join the expedition.

This was very hard to be the judge of since Walker had already received a few compaints. There were people who had trained for a long time to become what they were today only to find that they were still not able to join and fight for what they had decided to follow.

The fact that Genesis had opened so many doors had made it clear that the potential everyone possessed was something that no one had ever properly understood. And when they found out that there were limits to this when they had made such a large decision to come to Genesis in the first place was tough.

However, when they began to see what Walker was doing for the more advanced trials and training, many began to understand.

When Walker started to gather fire mana in one of the larger training fields set up in the fire dragon territory, he would make the flames appear smaller. They would even be condensed in to floating orbs that used fire mana to fuel them. It was similar to the light orb skill he used, but utilizing only fire mana.

In Doing so, Walker was able to focus on the what and the fire mana radiating through it more than anything. It was a shocking method to make an area much more focused on pure heat rather than just fire mana.

Some people had learned that they were able to resist the fire mana better than the heat. There were some earth mages, and even a few rock mages who had begun to fight with their strength. They would make armors of earth or stone around their body to protect themselves. It was a good method and many of them could keep the armor they made, just thin enough so that they were able to keep it on their bodies indefinitely.

Yet, this only protected them from the flames. The fire could not land on their bodies and burn them. It was not able to ignite the stone or the earth either. Where things became dangerous was the heat.

The fire would heat up the earth and the stone armors making them slowly but surely begin to overheat themselves. The people using these skills would end up burning like they were cooked in an oven making it very dangerous for the earth and stone armor skills to be removed by the whalers. This had been one reason where the specifics of skills like this had been stopped.

Since Walker invited those who complained that it was not fair to witness this stage in training, they had all begun to understand the depths of what they would need to resist. Not just the flames that burned but the heat around them in general.

Besides this, there was the issue that came when Walker and Ignus cooperated with Ventus in the toughest training session.

They had managed to get the coliseum to be available and reinforced with new and improved fire resistant rune formations. It had taken a few days but proven very valuable to what was needed for this level of training.

When Ignus used his dragon breath and Ventus used her wind dragon breath, it created a violent torrent of flames and wind that mixed together at a much greater temperature. It was then that Walker began to gather more of the manas and contents it in to a constant burning storm of flames that acted as a real challenge.

”In the fire elemental planes you will find yourselves facing the constant flow of peaceful fire mana. You will also see the monsters and races that live there who can make that peaceful flow in to a deadly storm that you can’t even control if you wanted to. Can you survive that?”

His words of challenge had echoed through the coliseum and inspired many.

Several groups had been tasked with walking through the colosseum to the opposing exit. This would be easier for the average person of there was not flames, but the sands had melted in to molten glass that changed with the fire. There was even flames that caused their armors to melt. That was all putting aside the fact that most defensive skills were not doing much to prevent this.

The dragonkin who had the greatest fire resistances were grabbing everyone who failed after a few steps and bringing them right to healers.

Slowly but surely, Walker witnessed a small handful of guards, adventurers, and soldiers make it through. They would be greeted at the end by Remey who spent time judging their injuries and also directing them to take special whaling potions that allowed them to focus on the feeling on fire mana and how they were able to resist it.

This sort of training was harsh, but it was the path to being able to go on this expedition and many more in the elemental planes. This would have to be repeated for every elemental plane as the expeditions were planned and permission received.

Walker would be able to lead them, but one day this would have to be done by others. They would always have to be powerful enough to lead and protect others. Those people were who Walker wanted to have the opportunity after this first part of training for the first expedition.

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