Chương 10: The elemental awaits

The element was Shadow. Shadow: 52% (Prerequisite: Smoke + Sound)"That's… not possible," he said. Dubbie peered at the empty air.

"What's not possible?"

"I don't have Smoke." His fingers curled.

"I don't have Sound. They're both zero."

"So?"

"But I have Shadow. 52% Shadow."

"I mean, you're very good at sneaking into the house quietly. But… why is it listed in percentages?"

"That's not the point. The point is that tertiary affinities are derived. They are emergent. You do not get them unless the substrate exists. Smoke plus Sound produces Shadow through attenuation and occlusion. This is basic thaumaturgic taxonomy."

"Uh-huh. Then what do you call that thing you do..." She snapped her finger.

"where you sort of… vanish sideways when you don't want to be noticed?"

"That's not a spell."

"Sure it is."

"It's a coping strategy, and it doesn't count." Dubbie tilted her head.

"Did you or did you not call it 'Side-Slink of Moderate Dignity'?"

"… That name was ironic."

"Fabrisse. Just try it." He sighed, shrugged, shifted, stared at the shadowed corner ahead, then bent a knee forward. His eyes blurred. He felt himself displaced, like slipping between two stacked pages. An instant later, he was standing in the far corner of the room, swallowed by shadow where the shelves blocked the light. An apparition appeared before him. [Skill Cast: Shadowed Reposition Protocol — (Rare, Rank II)] He stared down at his hands, then whipped his head around until he found Dubbie.

"That is an actual spell."

"If it looks like a spell and acts like a spell…" Dubbie shrugged. But how? He had never enrolled in Shadow studies. You couldn't, not without passing foundational Air resonance. The registrar didn't even let you submit the form unless you had demonstrated controlled airflow manipulation at Tier I. Shadow was considered an advanced attenuation discipline, postgraduate and restricted.

"But I failed Air."

"That does seem like a design flaw," Dubbie said. She had a habit of saying things that felt profound but was ultimately utterly meaningless.

"You saw that, right?"

"Of course I did. You just… teleported. Not far, but yeah. It was weird. I always assumed that was something you learned at the Academy." So that was what slinking was supposed to be.

"... Right." Dubbie rubbed at her temple.

"Fine. You' ve apparently acquired an invisible administrator or something."

"I told you."

"I didn' t say it made sense. I said you' re seeing something." She pointed at the empty air.

"Whatever that thing is, it' s giving you information you shouldn't have."

"Yes." She sighed exasperatedly.

"Fine. Let' s say I believe you. What else does that thing tell you?" What other skills do I have? He wondered. So he willed the Skills menu into existence. [Skills Accessed] [SYSTEM NOTE: Skill terminology is regionally adjusted. Refer to 'Notes' for local equivalents.] [Only reliably repeatable skills registered. Incomplete or unstable forms excluded.] [Expand for more...] [WARNING: The list of skills is EXTENSIVE.] Skill Name Tier Sub-Affinity Description Terralift Minor (Rank I) Common Earth Lift a small patch of earth. Loamwake (Rank I) Common Earth Reinvigorates depleted soil by redistributing nutrients and latent aether to promote natural recovery. Strata Recall (Rank II) Common Stone This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Touch an old stone to glimpse into emotional events of its past.

Gravelkin (Rank I) Common Stone One particular stone in your collection can lightly shake on command. Burden of Stones (Rank II) Common Stone Increase an object' s weight using emotional burden. Stonesway (Rank I) Common Stone Levitate up to three small stones. Liminal Presence Drift (Rank III) Rare Shadow Become harder to notice unless directly observed. Stronger in quiet environments.

Auditory Dissipation Field (Rank II) Common Shadow Dampens minor sound emissions from the user's movements, including footsteps, rustling fabric, and clinks from spiritually important rock collections. Aetheric Veil: Echofold (Rank II) Common Shadow Leave a false trace to confuse auditory, magical, or scent-based tracking. Especially effective against detection wards or scent-based familiars. Shadowed Reposition Protocol (Rank II) Rare Shadow Reposition a short distance into an area of lower attention.

Veil of Shame (Rank I) Rare Shadow Hide yourself by channeling shame, reducing detection. Prerequisite Emotion: Shame Shameflare (Rank I) Common Aether Release a burst of embarrassment that disrupts weak magic. Most effective in formal settings where mortification is high. Resonance Sense (Rank I) Common Aether Sense nearby aether and areas of strong magical activity. And (8) other Aether skills.

Note: You have (5) other incomplete Fire skills, (7) incomplete Air skills, (4) incomplete Earth skills, and (3) incomplete Stone skills. Instead of excitement, he felt oddly hollow. He had registered skills, some of which were even Rare. The Synod had tested him, and had only ever labelled him responsive to Earth and Stone, and had never bothered measuring anything Tertiary. The Eidralith hadn't given him Shadow. It had just been categorizing what he'd already had. Then what would a Tutorial be for?

The glyph chirped. [Optimal Path Identified.] Based on your cognitive profile and element affinities, your Primary Aether Path has been determined. Another line appeared. This particular line was gilded. ⭐ Celestial Hoarding ⭐ Tutorial Mode: Enabled Hoarding? Hoarding was not an element. It wasn't even a discipline. It was, at best, a bad habit. New text assembled beneath the title.

[Tutorial: Celestial Hoarding — Introduction] Note: This Path is statistically uncommon and frequently misclassified as maladaptive behavior in non-systemized magical cultures.

[Tutorial Quest Received: Writ of Elemental Echo – Earth] Objective: Move to the nearest earthen landmark within your immediate environment (preferably with a companion to aid with the next steps) Time Limit: 1 hour Reward: +100 EXP* [*SYSTEM NOTE: Experience Gain through Quests is only available during Tutorials to accelerate the onboarding process.] The reward above it gave him pause. +100 EXP. Experience?

He was apparently Level Four already, with 1, 050 / 1, 500 EXP, yet the Eidralith had never explained what Experience actually did. Did accumulating enough simply increase the number beside his name? Or was reaching the next Level supposed to accomplish something? The artifact assumed he already knew.

"Hello, Fab?" Dubbie's voice rang.

"I'm asking you a question." He spun toward Dubbie.

"The glyph says I have to sprint towards the nearby hill with a companion. I need help." [REMINDER: This interface is referred to as the System, not "glyph." Terminology adherence ensures proper—] Fabrisse swatted the notification away like a gnat. He wasn't in the headspace to read reminders. Dubbie didn't look up from her tea.

"Fabri. Do you know what time it is?" He opened his mouth, but she held up a finger.

"It's late. I've got morning shrine duty, and your hallucination can wait until the sun exists again. Go to bed."

"But—""Nope."

"But it's a quest!"

"And who gave it to you?"

"This glyph!" [REMINDER: This interface is referred to as the System, not "glyph." Terminology adherence ensures proper—] Fabrisse swatted the reminder away again.

"Are you even listening to yourself..." Dubbie closed her eyes shut, rubbing her forehead.

"Sleep, Fabri. I'll go with you in the morning." He paused, deflated.

"Okay. Maybe it can wait—" [TIME REMAINING: 57 minutes] His voice dropped into a whisper.

"The elemental awaits." Dubbie cracked one eye open.

"What?" He had already scrambled to his feet.

"I need to know what I'm good at! This is how I find out if I'm, like, a shadow person or a stone person or something profoundly stupid but secretly powerful. Eidralith basically implies I'm an earth guy, but then it also tells me to hoard. Why does the earth feel the need to hoard, Dubs? Do you know why?"

"I—What?"

"Yes. What, indeed. That is what we must find out, and we only have 57—ah—56 minutes left." He threw open the door and bolted into the moonlit night, pockets jangling with pebbles and a single chipped teacup. Dubbie stared after him. Her mug was still halfway to her lips. She swore under her breath, set the mug down, grabbed her cloak from the hook, and marched after him into the cold.

"At least tell me exactly what you mean!" she shouted after his rapidly retreating silhouette.

"Meet me at the Reflection Knoll! Destiny needs your help!" he shouted back, disappearing into the dark. She groaned, running a hand over her face.

"I'm an idiot." Then she followed him anyway.