Chapter 5 — (Un)Sagely Advice
“So, I’m assuming you have no formal education in Ether, right?” Mat inquired as Ren nodded.
“Alright. First a clarification on what ether is and what it does.” He sat across from Ren. “It is everything. The ground, the skies, the seas—all of it is Ether.”
Grabbing a metal chunk off the floor, Mat lifted it to his eye. “There are types to it though.” he waved the chunk. “This. It consists of what we’d call Aether. It’s the non-magical stuff, like matter.”
The presence of his hand holding the chunk spiked as he wound back his arm. “Now I flood my arm with the free-ether unaligned with anything else…” He threw the chunk with a boom into the darkness.
“Free ether?” Ren tilted his head.
“It’ll make more sense in a second”—He paused for a moment—“and I know the name sucks, but the academics haven’t been able to officially rename it to mana due to religious reasons.”
He pointed to himself. “Now, I assume you remember the first notification you got when you awakened? The spirit one?”
Ren nodded, pulling it up in his view to refresh the memory.
“When it awakened and elevated to tier one?” He asked to confirm.
“Yes. That too is made of ether. Specifically Anima. The light side of spiritual ether.” He pointed at himself. “My spirit”—he pointed at Ren—”your spirit”—he spread his arms—”the spirits of every man and animal under Gaia’s protection? Anima.”
“And the other side?” Ren raised an eyebrow.
“Miasma. The dark side of spiritual ether.” He poked his temple. “Remember the scrap construct? That monster? It had a spirit just like you or I—except for the fact it was a Miasmatic spirit.”
“Okay… everything is some flavor of Ether. How does that make me shatter a metal wall with my fist?”
“That is where ether on ether interaction exists. You see, many things influence how things react to each other. One of the largest factors is ether.” He lifted his fist as its presence spiked once more. “I raise my fist, and have my ether scream that it is dangerous, that it is a threat. I am amplifying the properties of raising my fist.” He unclenched his fist as the amplification fizzled out.
“So that explains the presence of your fist. Can you suppress that?” Ren asked, thinking of the practical concerns of an attack announcing its presence.
“Oh, totally. I’m intentionally making it obvious.” He poked the ground as a large dent was blasted into it. “See? It can be done subtly too.”
“And it works on everything?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yup. It's one of the most basic etheric arts. It’s very reliable.” He spread open his eyelid. “You can even apply it to something like sight.”
“Why not just always use amplification then?”
“Well, doing a maximum power amplification on your entire existence is rather exhausting. But at a low level? Effortless.” He waggled a finger. “Ah, but you’re already doing that. Constantly. Just by existing even. Didn’t you notice you were stronger after awakening?”
“Is there any point to a full body amplification then?” He tilted his head.
“Ah.” Mat scratched his stubble. “Hmm, okay. Think about it as the difference between resting, walking, and sprinting. Resting lets your body recover, but even then it’s still not fully inactive. Walking isn’t straining but it is by no means a replacement for rest. Then a sprint is putting aside all notions of conservation and exhausting yourself. The same applies to the spirit with Amplification.”
“And that maximum you mentioned earlier…?”
“Your ether can only assert itself so loudly to the world. That strength to assert itself is the tier of the ether. Your spirit and essences being composed of ether inherit the tiered nature.”
“Hold on, essences are made of ether?”
Mat rolled his eyes. “I said everything. Keep up.” He stood up. “However, I’ve covered enough theory. We can start actually applying this knowledge now.”
“Wha- that’s not nearly enough!” Ren complained, as he too stood up.
“Yes it is. Fight back.” He held a finger and poked it into Ren’s chest, almost casually, as something began to invade his spirit.
He stood still for a moment, the invading ether pushing his aside, speaking over it. As Mat’s examples had put it.
But it was just for a moment as his spirit roiled forth and asserted itself over the invading ether, fighting back against the invasion, as if shouting over the invasion.
As the Ether was expelled, the sensation of his ether asserting itself seared itself into his mind as he watched on, eating up every last bit of the sensation, the feeling of it as it died down.
“Good, now-” Mat started as Ren began to rile up his ether, getting it excited as it started to assert itself once more marking its place here and now.
“Ah. Nevermind.” Mat stared before he shook his head. “We’ll move past that step then. You’re currently agitating your Ether, pushing it to act. However it is currently far too unfocused and weak. You need to be able to wield it like a precision tool, not like a wave of turbulent power rushing through your body.”
Ren grinned. “Alright. I got a good feelin’ about this. How do we train that?” He looked at Mat, hungry for more.
Mat sagely scratched his stubble. “Eh, just practice for now.”
“...What?” Ren stared at him as if he were crazy.
“Yeah, just keep doing what you’re doing, but refine your control over it.” He scratched his unsagely stubble again. “Not going to lie, this session was going to be learning that feeling and replicating it, but you already got it down. So just practice.”
“Seriously?” He frowned. “Just when the lecturing was over, you cut the lesson short?”
Yawning, Mat turned to leave, holding up a finger. “Actually, you’re the one to blame for figuring it out freakishly fast.” He took a few steps away, considering something. “Ah, do get some good sleep though. You’ll be practicing amplification on monsters tomorrow.” He informed Ren casually before ducking into his tent.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Ren stared as he looked down, recalling the scrap wolf’s strength. He was sure if he fought it again he’d do slightly better if only for knowing it had a core. But it still wouldn’t be easy.
Now alone, he felt at his Ether. While he hadn’t fully understood all that Mat had rambled on about, he did know that it could assert itself. No, he would make it assert itself.
Freakishly Fast? I’ll show you freakishly fast… He challenged himself as he riled up his Ether and punched the wall, frowning as he left no mark.
Again. He punched. Again. He struck. Again. As many times as it would take, is what he told himself.
Ren was shaken awake by Shia, barely hearing her as he mumbled something about five more minutes…
As soon as he realized he was awake, his eyes opened wide and he threw himself up, looking around to see Mat, Cato, and Shia’s golem all packed and ready to go as Shia backed up from him.
“Er uh, sorry?” He apologized, looking down to see a pool of saliva that he discretely smeared across the floor with his boot. “We’re heading out.”
“Yes, we are—BUT why were you sleeping outside?!” Shia held her head. “We set up a tent for you! Why didn’t you sleep in it?!”
Ren looked back at the wall, a slight grin on his face. “I was practicing all night.” He admitted, turning to a concerned Shia.
“You really should’ve gotten proper sleep.” She pouted, worrying over him.
“We won’t be doing anything differently just because you didn’t sleep. You got yourself into this, you deal with the consequences.” Mat joined the conversation, warning Ren.
Ren’s grin broke into a loopy smile as he looked at Mat. “Oh trust me, I’m very keen on proving myself right now.”
After Ren got up, the group was practically ready to go as they moved on, Ren shambling in the back.
Soon enough, another scrap construct blocked their path. This time they were unseen.
“...Think you can handle it?” Mat questioned Ren in a low whisper.
“Absolutely.” Ren replied as Roderick appeared in his grip in an instant.
“Don’t hurt yourself…” Shia worriedly whispered as Ren crouched around outcrops closer to the construct.
This construct was different to the wolf, being built more like a person, with vague arm shapes and legs. However looks could be deceiving as Ren knew the visible anatomy of these constructs were little more than decorations.
Poising himself, he spiked his Ether, pushing it from zero to his current limit of amplification as fast as he could as he launched himself towards the construct in an ambush.
Obviously, he hadn’t been able to do a subtle amplification like Mat, causing the construct to swivel his direction with a claw swinging.
Blade met Claw, the raw force of Ren’s swing knocking it back as it repositioned itself, both arms poised to retaliate.
Clash after clash, Ren found himself able to actually push the construct back—at a ludicrous ether cost, but who was counting?
In a desperate bid, the construct reoriented one of its legs to catch him off guard, Ren’s inadvertently enhanced perception catching as much as he sidestepped the scrap limb and grabbed it, putting the construct in a bad pose as he stabbed towards its chest.
Piercing the corroded metal of the construct, the blade struck true as it hit the core. In a dramatic motion, Ren pulled back, ripping the pierced core back out with him.
The construct’s form quivered as it reached for the lost core, before falling apart into a heap of scrap.
Releasing the etheric amplification, Ren stumbled back as the fatigue set in and he gave a chuckle.
“Too much waste.” Mat commented, standing above the scrap heap. “Good work, I mean. But you pushed your amplification for far too long that whole time.”
“Eh…” Ren lazily looked over at Mat. “I couldn’t figure out that specific amplification thing…”
“Hmm, understandable… But you could’ve flickered between low output and high output to conserve your ether. Either way, well done on the easy victory.” Mat nodded.
Ren scratched his head as he absorbed Mat’s advice, flickering amplification for a moment to see if he could and Mat was entirely right. “I see.”
Mat gave a look over to Shia and Cato. Shia looked extremely proud and Cato nodded.
Ren had to mostly retire for the rest of the day after taking out another monster, but the day was fruitful as his combat potential grew by leaps and bounds.
The day after, Cato graced him with a little help on his form with his knife.
“Like this?” He questioned as Cato stood behind him, adjusting his form before nodding.
He stabbed forward, not really feeling a difference, but a look at Cato suggested that she found his form much more acceptable. He really didn’t get it…
Four days passed as they continued deeper into the dungeon. Mat put him up against a few of the scrap constructs they crossed every once in a while, allowing him to stomp them quite easily as he grew quite accustomed to fighting them.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t learn anything else in those four days, but it was mostly lame navigation stuff and general knowledge Shia caught him up on.
He hadn’t slacked on his Amplification practice either, taking time every time they set up camp to push it a little closer to the max he could feel himself approaching.
Mat didn’t really have any tips for him other than to ‘keep doing whatever you’re doing’ every time he came to him with his progress.
Shia did also point out he was somewhat neglecting Scramble as they decided to give him a different monster encounter.
“So, this thing also has a core?” He questioned as he stared at the smooth metal blob ahead of them.
“Yup. It’s a metal slime. Usually they’re elites as they gorge on the metal in the dungeon but this one seems to be a fresh spawn.” Shia confirmed.
“And I absolutely cannot just stab it?” He mimed as if he was holding Roderick.
Mat moved in next to Ren. “You can, but it won’t work. The liquid metal makes it easier for the metal slime to move its core out of the way.”
Supposedly, this encounter was supposed to force him to stop laser focusing on amplification and actually use his essence ability.
He confidently jumped down into the area with the Metal Slime, letting Roderick appear in his hand with a twirl.
The metal slime shook at his approach, reeling back before exploding into a metal spike aimed for his heart—Which he blocked with Roderick.
However, unlike his expectations, the metal spike hit the dagger and flowed around it, two prongs now reaching for him.
He sheathed Roderick to free the dagger from the slime’s hold before jumping back from the metal tendril spikes. He grimaced as he found himself not really sure on how to approach.
Something to splat it, maybe? He considered, shaking his head. No, I have no way of doing that… A boulder would be too heavy for the sheath quintessence.
With a sigh, he relented and let Ether flood into Scramble, relying on the unreliable essence once more as he began to glow. And just glow.
You see, this is why I don’t like it. He complained internally as glowing did absolutely nothing to help him.
Going in he dodged a few more spike tendrils from the slime, aiming a palm towards it as he let Scramble shoot again. Harmless flowers sprouted around the metal slime.
Really? How are they even growing in raw iron…? He questioned the illogic as he was forced back by the slime’s desperate whipping of metal wires.
Two usages of Scramble alongside his Amplification was draining his ether reserves rather quickly… If he got something shit again then he might have to legitimately call it quits and pull back.
Hoping for something good, the Scramble gods were grateful as from his palm a fiery ball burst forth, splattering the metal slime’s casing.
Immediately taking advantage, Ren rushed in as it started to pull itself back together, a stab at its core being evaded before he just grabbed it with his hand and crushed it like an egg.
Letting the fragments drop to the floor, he walked back to the trio. “Was a bit of a challenge, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
Mat scratched his stubble. “Yes… maybe. I’m just thinking about what your capstone for this whole excursion will be.”
“Capstone?” Ren tilted his head.
“Like the climax of this delve. What would be impressive.” Mat clarified, closing his eyes in debate. “I think I got it.”
“What?” Ren grinned at the idea of a challenge.
“Your capstone, you’ll fight an elite monster as your final challenge.” Mat snapped. “You up to the challenge?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course I am.” Ren proudly slammed his chest as Mat nodded.
?????????? 6/10 Follows (60%)
?????????? 1/3 Ratings (0%) [Milestone 5 → 3 Ratings]
?????????? 1/1 Reviews (100%) ?Bonus Chapter Achieved
Bonus chapters in reserve: 1
Have YOU been checking out the lovely shout outs?
Would you rely on Scramble?
