Master Of None

Foggy. That was the way that Walker’s mind felt right now. As if he had just woken up and all his memories of the recent days were a little harder to recall until he managed to wake up fully.

Walker stood in front of the flames for a few moments looking at them. He could feel that they were even less dangerous to him now. However, he also had no idea what the feeling he had when he had reached out to that elder heart. That thing of fire and pure flame to its very core. He couldn’t even properly remember the appraisal for it.

Instead, Walker just knew that the pierce of that mana he had reached out to and used his own mana to help dispel some of the fire mana within had actually taken a significant amount of the mana within his body. It had even taken some of the natural mana within him even without him meaning to pass that on to it.

All of that together made it clear that whatever it was and had once been was more than just what was left behind. That there was something alive within it still allowing for it to keep passing that mana out and in to the fire elemental plane.

While the fact that it was another anchor of sorts for the fire elemental plane, it was also a place of danger due to the potent mana that it releases. The eyes of the fire king were there to safeguard it and the fact that it was part of what made the fire elemental plane the fire elemental plane.

He wanted to focus more on it but the focus for that was much harder. It was like he had seen something in a dream rather than seen something he could learn and use. Maybe part of it had been a dream. Maybe he had not fully felt and processed what that was and instead just interacted with it mentally only to exhaust more mana than before.

He felt that there was a little something more to it though. That what he had done was touching on something a little too grand and a little too old for him to make proper sense of. He might need to work on his fire manipulation and understanding a bit more at the core of what he believes it to be.

The simple idea that a being, no matter how old, was once able to convert all its mana and body in to pure fire mana beyond which even the fire king and embodiment of fire could control was hard to fathom. It was a rule of whatever made fire what fire was, meaning that it wasn’t simple and could not be easily grasped in any form. It was a goal for him and surely every origin being to understand things like that one day.

When he turned, he found that the others were a greater distance away. That was before he realized that the swirling and clashing mass of flames was actually smaller. They hadn’t moved, he had been the one to move.

In just a few steps, Walker managed to catch up to them. In his movements, he had used fire mana to push off faster. He hadn’t meant to use it but his thoughts of getting to the others faster seemed to have worked with his body instinctually to help make it happen.

This wasn’t how he normally used fire mana but now, the fire mana was closer to him. It might have been a result of whatever mana had entered his body as he used mana to make that heart’s fire mana dissipate even more. While Walker had no direct proof of it, he decided to accept whatever it was since clearly it was not harmful to him.

”Sorry if that took a little longer. I spoke with the fire king and they will support us as long as we are keeping the balance. I think I also helped them too. It’s strange, but I would say that we are even more welcome within he fire elemental plane now too.” Onyx, Gil, and Su looked at Walker carefully before pointing out that he had some burned armor and clothing. Not terribly but enough that he would need to change.

The shocking part was that the materials were very resistant to fire. The cloak he wore even repelled fire mana to a higher degree since he had made sure to wear one with the best capabilities. Then again, he realized that he didn’t feel that twinge of discomfort as he had before in the ambient fire mana. He felt comfortable now. Even the heat wasn’t bad at all.

He’d grown in fire resistance too. Regardless, he had changed his clothes in an instant with his multi dimensional storage. He had also seen Su use her skill that changed her armor rapidly using spatial mana. Therefore, he had been able to copy it to a degree. He had hopes he would be able to arm himself faster using the style and eventually be able to develop a rapid armor and weapon swapping skill even faster than how he used various weapons and changed the form of the eternal codex right now.

”I think we are free to travel toward the next elemental plane. I can sense that there is a way through the fire elemental manas toward the wind elemental plane. I think the fire king allowed for a wisp of wind mana to come this way since they knew I would be looking for the next closest elemental plane.” As Walker moved with them, he told them what he sensed and saw the others still waiting for them, Remey was standing straight up waiting for him to return too.

As he approached they gave him a strange looks. ”What? Is everything ok?” Walker looked at his arms and clothes seeing that they weren’t still singed since he had changed.

”Your hair has a little red in it now. I thought you would have noticed.” Gil laughed to himself a little. It seemed that Gil was very amused by the slight changes in Walker’s hair since it made him look a little odd. The kid of red strands in to Walker’s longer brown hair was definitely a different style.

”I… feel some fire mana in it. It’s from me helping a bit in that clashing mana. I touched something unique to help dissipate mana. Something part of the very essence of what makes the fire elemental plane what it is. How space and fire come together to allow all this to be possible. There might be more places like this in each elemental plane.”

Saying this out loud had a greater effect on Walker than what he might have imagined. He realized that the foundations of every elemental plane might have been created long before the origin being were able to carry more elemental planes here. That something larger had given itself to be the reason all could gather and that it was also one reason why the world was able to form at its center.

Maybe even greater than just the will of existence and was actually related to whatever the will of creation was. But the thought gave him a headache snapping him back to the walk out of the fire elemental plane and following the wisp of wind used to give them guidance outwards by the fire king.

”Everything worked out for you Remey?” The thought occurred to Walker that she had absorbed a larger amount of the solid flame gem cluster than what he’d expected.

”It is. I feel stronger inside and out. Not like I can punch someone harder but more solid like I matter more to everything around me.” Now that was an odd way to put things, but Midnight nodded in agreement and so did Onyx. Even Su gave her an approving smile.

”I felt that when I joined with the drop of high elf blood. I felt it more after I fully accepted what I was. Like I had become who I am and screamed it out to everything that was by accepting it.” When Gil responded, it made Walker wonder if he’d felt something similar or if he was also still on that path.

”I also learned how to use a little more fire and I can make several potions at once using fire floating around me if I want. The skill is called multi potion brewing, and I use that with alchemy flame potion brewing to make them. Then if I use the battle alchemy potions…” she giggled in glee as all the potential skill combinations offered unique methods to her.

”So you’ll need another opponent to fight then” Walker sighed slightly wondering how much trouble this would bring.

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