Chương 141: Chapter 139 - Experimentation

" Pardon me… the WHAT?" Eli cocked his head, " I mean the nausea is subsiding the more I use it, but it's really weird stuff that sucks. It's not always a licking sensation, but the prevalence of tongues and tentacles is really concerning." Astra started cackling with laughter as Mira glanced back and forth between them, a concerned look growing on her face. As she watched Astra wipe a tear from one eye, her expression began to grow more curious than confused. She turned back to Eli and cocked her head." Mr Mercer…

you are serious?" Eli nodded, " I mean … yeah?" She tapped her knee as she studied his expression, " So what kind of effects have you experienced." He leaned back and thought for a moment before speaking, " Let's see…

"" There was the tongue bath. Then there was the time an invisible tentacle wrapped around my spine and tickled my eyeball, the time when all my joints quadrupled, once my bones all spun 360 degrees in place, and just yesterday something licked the back of my teeth. There's been more, but those are the ones that come to mind…" When he was met with silence he glanced over at Mira." What? What's with that look?"

She had looked more and more confused by the moment, drifting between shock, confusion, and settling somewhere between sympathy and disbelief." That is not how these Skills work, that's not how any of this works."" Show me." Eli shrugged, " All right." The trio stood and tramped out of the wind barrier, Eli pointed at the far corner of the wagon, " From here to there work for you?" Mira nodded, her eyes blazing with energy as their glow brightened until they resembled miniature spotlights, " Aye. Begin."

Eli took a deep breath and triggered [Veilstep], a layer of spatially aspected mana blossoming outwards from the center of his back, coating his entire body in the blink of an eye as he focused his intent on the corner he was traveling to. The moment the shroud was completed his body twisted, not right or left, but in a direction that did not exist, at least not to mundane senses.

For the briefest of moments he swore his remaining hand felt as if it was larger than his body, as his fingers multiplied exponentially, their numbers rising from the normal five into hundreds. He also could have sworn that they developed taste buds as he was immersed in the sensation of a flavor that, for once, was pleasant if a little difficult to place.

As he returned to reality, or at least reality as he knew it, Eli's feet touched down on the far corner of the wagon, the lingering taste of purple drifting across his tongue. He turned to ask, " How was that?" and recoiled slightly as a faint purple mist drifted from his mouth. Mira didn't answer, her eyes remained fixed on the faint wisps of violet haze drifting from between his lips. Eli wafted a hand in front of his face, dispersing the mist, " Huh, that's new…" Silence lingered in the air.

When he heard nothing but the creaking of wagon wheels and the quiet chatter of the nearby soldiers, Eli glanced up to find Mira staring at him with an odd expression somewhere between genuine concern and a curious excitement he didn't think he had ever seen her wear before. She was almost breathless when she spoke." Fascinating… truly fascinating. Again, please. Now." Eli glanced over at his resource pools in the corner of his vision.

Mana: 257/1130 All the demonstrations so far today had been pretty intensive and, given his past experiences, he was little too close to the bare minimum cost for comfort." Sorry… I can't right now, I'm too low on mana. I'd be more than happy too later?" Mira cocked a brow, " Can not or will not?" Eli winced, " Will not, things tend to get risky when I get low."" Oh, risky how?"

Eli cleared his throat and held up his left arm, the sleeve rolled back to show the stump of his missing left arm, where a spatial eruption had severed the limb, mid forearm. She grimaced, " Ah I see. A private conversation then, come." The trio re-entered the wind dome and sat down, Eli and Astra sharing a glance as they waited for Mira to sort out her thoughts.

Given the recent topic, Eli found himself wondering whatever happened to his missing limb, he had lost track of where it had gone in the rush of everything that happened after the ritual." Say what was the deal with freezing my arm anyways, I haven't seen it since that night?" Mira gestured distractedly as she answered offhand, " I was hoping to reattach it after the fact, but with my injuries too much time had passed for the procedure to be viable.

Now as far as your skill-" She was cut off when an unheard impact vibrated the roof of the wagon, and Eli turned to look for the source as a scaly head poked through the wind barrier. Whatcha doing? All done running?" Yeah for now, just going over some of my skills with Mira, getting some pointers." Boring… Let me know when something fun happens. Tia pranced over to Astra, completely oblivious to the fact that she was interrupting, and unceremoniously flopped upside down in her lap.

She grabbed one of Astra's hands and dropped it on her belly and, before Astra could even begin rubbing the soft scales covering her belly with a bemused smile, her breathing evened out as Tia swiftly fell asleep. Mira chuckled as the sound of soft snoring filled the space. She shook her head and gave the not-quite-so-small-anymore wyvern a fond smile, " To be young again…"

Mira continued, lowering her voice a little so as to not disturb Tia, " As I was saying, whatever your Skill is, it is not a translocation Skill, I do not even think it is a teleportation Skill either. Frankly I am not quite sure exactly what it is, and while I have my suspicions I would rather not speculate aimlessly."" For one, if it was a teleportation skill there would be a detectable fold in the local space, while it is not my specialty, I have seen the effect before and would recognize it.

If it was translocation it would be instantaneous, and while it may seem so to you Mr Mercer, you were most certainly absent from this plane for a detectable period of time." She grinned, " So you must have gone somewhere, and that is exciting."" For now do not worry about refinement, we will have to do some testing to find out the specifics of the Skill's energy consumption and, before anything else, we shall strengthen that barrier. A fault in the barrier cost you your arm?"

Eli nodded, " Not on the actual movement, although both times I sustained an injury on the same arm when I was low, but when the ritual exploded it was the only thing I could think of to shield us from the blast, it just … wasn't enough." Mira gave him a proud smile, " I would not be so certain, I wager it was plenty. From what I was told of past events you did not have much choice at the time, as much as I would have preferred for you to stay put in Emerald Grove all together.

Both of you are alive, and while you are not quite whole and hale, this outcome is vastly preferable to the alternative." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. A slight hint of irritation entered her tone, " It seems experimentation on [Veilstep] shall have to wait, although as of now you will report to me anytime your mana pool fills completely throughout the daytime hours.

Only being able to test two or three variables a day is unfortunate but there is little we can do about that for now. I had hoped to focus on foundational combat skills, but we may have to prioritize boosting your resource recovery a little sooner than I had expected, especially since all of your new skills are so costly." She gestured, " The next one if you please. This is a new one, right?" Eli nodded, " Yup. I picked it up a little after the ritual finished, I haven't had much time to test it out yet."

He shared the description with them. [Facet: Lv 1 - The Weave is not merely threads to be parted, but a tapestry to be beheld. Where the Veilcutter perceives instability in its structure, they may reinforce the Weave itself, stabilizing a small portion into an immovable facet. This skill creates a small plane of stabilized space at a moderate initial mana cost. Once formed, the facet remains fixed relative to the surrounding Weave and requires a minor ongoing mana cost to maintain, lest the threads return to the Weave. Facets possess extraordinary resistance to disruption, but are limited in size and duration. Their continued existence requires uninterrupted concentration and an ongoing mana expenditure. Minor reduction in casting cost and slight increase in maximum duration per level.]" Finally one without a warning attached…"

Astra chuckled as she stroked Tia's scales, reading over the description as she did so, " How small is small?" Eli shrugged, " About six inches or so." He pointed a finger triggering [Facet], and a small translucent plane formed mid air in the center of the group, appearing as if a small hexagonal sheet of glass was hovering motionless in the air. Once the object finished forming it appeared to fade into its surroundings becoming almost invisible, although it could still be seen as a slight distortion in the air.

Mira leaned forward to take a closer look, but Eli gestured for her to stay back, " Watch out!" She gave him a confused look, although one that cleared quickly as the object drifted, slowly passed through the wind barrier, the small particles of sand suspended in the air current striking the plane and sliding off as it remained fixed in the air as the wagon passed by beneath it." I'm still working on that part. They're cheap but fixed in position after being created…"

Mira chuckled, " Such a strange problem for a tier two to have… The Skill most likely ties natively to a single reference frame, do you know which it is yet?" Eli shook his head, " Not quite yet, I've haven't had the time. My best guess is either the planet itself, or whatever local reference frame my body is in at the moment of creation. I've been trying to work on shifting it to something more flexible but haven't made much progress yet."

Mira glanced over at Astra, " My Lady, is it too early to halt the column for the midday meal?" Astra snorted in amusement and shook her head, " Sorry to disappoint you Mira, but no stops for today. We were looking at numbers yesterday, with all the civilians they just took far too long to make and break camp. If we kept at that pace it would add weeks to our travel time. I had the Mess prepare travel rations to be distributed instead, we will be eating on the road instead." She shrugged, " Shame.

Very well, testing for [Facet] will have to wait as well. I rather suspect Ms Fletcher has begun to wonder where her morning entertainment has disappeared to." Eli sighed as Mira smirked, " Your reflexes will not improve by sitting here… Off with you."

After surviving another afternoon as Sasha's quarry, Eli found himself hauled off into an adjacent meadow by Mira when the column stopped for the evening. They found an open stretch of grass not far from the convoy where she could put his new skill through the paces. Mira had come prepared with a laundry list of alterations to try, and as they ticked through her list one by one, what they found was fairly interesting.

The Skill heavily resisted changes to size and shape, though he could freely choose its initial position. Once formed, however, the plane became firmly fixed in place. The initial cast was fairly cheap, and while there was an ongoing maintenance cost it was negligible, at least as long as there was no active resistance required. When he created a horizontal pane they took turns stacking more and more weight on it, starting with pebbles and increasing from there, with almost no appreciable difference in cost.

At Mira's direction he removed the small pile of rocks and daggers and climbed up himself, crouching as he balanced precariously on the small surface. Eli grinned as he seemed to hover mid air under his own power, I mean it's not flying but it's still pretty cool, if I do say so myself… The transparency itself was unusual according to Mira, especially once the cast was completed. Sure if something struck the barrier it could be seen easily, he suspected rain or windblown dust would be its bane in time.

The mana was visible when it was being formed, but after the cast was complete the plane blended in with the ambient energy, nearly undetectable unless you knew what to look for. Mira paced in a circle around Eli as he crouched awkwardly in the air, hands clasped behind her back, " It is not a standard barrier, even the transparent ones are still detectable with energetic senses.

You will not fool anyone with higher tier senses as it appears as a void in the ambient field to my eyes, but it is an excellent feature with many uses at your level. Try jumping." Eli performed a small hop, his agility training paying off as he landed on a single foot without so much as a wobble, but he grunted in surprise. When he landed Eli felt a tug in his chest and a small stream of mana vanished as if it was poured down into an invisible hole." Ah, I thought so." Mira glanced up at him, " How much?"

Eli glanced at his mana pool, " Maybe 10 mana?" She nodded sharply, " Again. Higher this time." Eli jumped and felt another tug, " 11 I think?" Mira crossed her arms and hummed as she tapped a finger against an elbow in thought, " Again, but this time try and resist the pull if you can." Eli hopped again. This time when he landed and felt the tug, instead of letting it go he pulled back sharply. There was only a momentary resistance before the [Facet] disappeared and he dropped to the ground, landing hard.

Eli groaned as he sat up, rubbing his tailbone, sore from where he had struck the ground. Mira rolled her eyes, " Oh you poor man… if you want sympathy you should seek out the young Lady not me. Was it a success?" He chuckled, " Sort of, only 5 points this time?" Mira nodded, " This is a good start. Momentum appears to dictate the maintenance costs and, while a backlash may be likely, you can choose to release the skill instead of resisting an impact."

Eli considered her words, " Seems kind of odd for a barrier Skill. Wouldn't something designed to provide a fixed amount of protection make more sense?" Mira gave him a curious look, " I would not be so sure it is one, Mr Mercer." She clapped her hands, " Now. Up with you, for our next test…"

Eli let out a long sigh as he collapsed into his bedroll shortly after night had fallen. Mira had put him to work when they had stopped for the evening, clearly intending to make up for lost time. For what it was worth they had learned a lot about his new skill, and Mira had promised him a brand new list of experiments to try in the morning before the column hit the road. A faint smile crossed Eli's face as he mused over the events of the day.

She's definitely more well adjusted than the rest of us mere mortals, she doesn't let her injuries hold her back for a second. His jaw creaked as he yawned, turning on his side to smile down at Tia as she snored in a deep pile of blankets on the floor of the tent next to his cot, only slightly envying the little lady's ability to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. He snorted, I guess if I ate half as much as she does I would be in a perpetual food coma too. She's still a growing… girl…

The quiet sounds of Eli's steady breathing soon joined Tiamat's as he joined her in drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

Caw, caw, Caww. Eli cracked an eye as he stirred awake, the cries of seagulls wheeling in the sky stirring him awake. He glanced around confused for a moment, finding that it was no longer the dead of night but somewhere in the middle of a breathtaking sunset instead. Ashe turned, Eli found he was also no longer in his bed.

The wooden lounge chair creaked underneath him as Eli sat up looking around the wide stretch of sand and dunegrass spreading out before him, before he jumped, startled as a loud sizzling hiss came from behind him. The sizzling was accompanied by a familiar voice, one he had not heard in weeks, and in that moment Eli knew where he was.

He was back on the beach outside of Vivian's place, and as he turned, Eli beheld a smiling elvish man with matching platinum hair and eyes standing over a heavily laden grill covered in a variety of seafood wearing an apron that read, 'The Secret Ingredient is Love'." Ah, just in time. I hope you came hungry." He gestured to a small cutting board as he clacked a pair of tongs." Pass me the lemon, would you?"