The Way Ahead

Chapter 75c: Two Paths Diverged In The Verdant

Edwin worked to eke out a few more levels with Identify, trying something relatively novel and pairing it directly with Basic Mana Sense- something he hadnt really thought to do until recently. By the end, he had pushed his range up to a good fifty meters- quite respectable and absolutely sufficient for his purposes.

He gorged himself on pretty much anything edible he could find, and with Nutrition, that was a lot. Seeing he pushed by trying to mess up his vision, with sheets of ice and glowing potions, mist and smoke, and pushing through even that.

Most of his attention, though mostly, it was focused on Packing and Firestarting, his two all-star Skills.

With Firestarting, his primary focus continued to be on finessing it, trying to manipulate its area of effect. He managed to constrain it to just his fingertip, and then push it out to the end of a stick. That allowed him to burn single dots onto wood held over his fire, but that wasnt enough.

It took him a week, but he managed to get the area burned changed from a dot to a line. Then, a line to a curve. A curve into multiple curves. Curves into simple shapes. Simple shapes to detailed shapes. It took intense focus and significant amounts of time, but he could manage it, in large part thanks to Visualization actually giving him the capability to, well, visualize where the area was affecting.

He tried to get the Skill to help his breathing, and while he got a few levels in the latter, Firestarting didnt seem to do much. It was probably for much the same reason he didnt make iron rust, some intentional safeguard crafted by the System to avoid such a major and obvious side effect. Or maybe he was totally wrong about how the Skill worked. It certainly wouldnt have been the first time.

Edwin didnt stay idle on Packing, either, though he made much less headway. Progress in the manner he was already trying felt akin to hitting his head against a brick wall. He needed some sort of fundamental shift to his approach, but what?

Edwins balance wasnt improved by Packing, he had found. However, between Flexibility and Athletics, his natural balance was nearing the peak of human capability. Thus, he was able to sit not exactly comfortably, but at least competently, while balancing on the top of his stick.

However, while using Packing, he should have theoretically been able to lean to the side and not overbalance, it didnt work so well in practice. While the stick didnt just push into the ground thanks to Packing spreading the weight out across the ground, it didnt provide any support to the rest of his body. It all just came from the stick.

It didnt stop him from trying to lean out as far as possible, though. He felt like if he could master this, he might be able to master flight. Unfortunately, it hadnt borne fruit yet.

This time, he was attempting something different. Mana Infusion through Packing helped strengthen objects, but what about if he tried to use it on two different things simultaneously? He threaded a trickle of mana out of his foot and into the wooden rod supporting him, and without letting it finish, he also connected it to his shoe, trying to reinforce them as a single object. It wasnt the first time hed done this experiment, naturally, but it had never worked before.

It didnt work this time, either. The stick filled up with mana and refused to smoothly bridge the gap to his boot, which frustrated him to no end. It shouldnt make that much of a difference, should it? He could Infuse and reinforce objects made from different materials no problem, so why was this different?

He kept working at it for a while longer, but as night began to set in, he nearly gave up. What even was the issue? It wasnt like there was any fundamental difference between the leather of his boots and the wood of his stick. It was all just carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen once you got down there, just arranged in different ways. They may not have been held together by molecular bonds, but then again, neither was a lot of the wood! They were all just different cells, vaguely kept together by electromagnetic forces in the form of friction or bonds. That wasnt different from his boots and his stick! Hed cleaned off the bottom, it wasnt dust getting in the way.

What could be the difference? Edwin cast his mind back to Earth, trying to figure out what kinds of bonds Infusion used to determine what was a single object, though he could still Infuse an object made of multiple materials.

Hmmm hydrogen bonds? Van der Waals? No, that applied to everything. Gah, OChem was so long ago. Was there some kind of structure involved in holding cells together or something? A framework of some variation? Though that wasnt true for metals- though metals were essentially just one giant molecule, so maybe they got a pass- and it wouldnt be true for water. Literally just gluing the two together should do the trick, and why was glue special. A lot of the time, glue was just vaguely hydrogen bonds, but hydrogen bonds existed between everything. The only thing that made glue special was that it seeped into microscopic pores and just stayed there, displacing the air!

And then it clicked.

The first thing Edwin noticed was that he no longer needed to work on balancing in order to stay perched on his stick. Instead, his entire body felt remarkably sturdy, as though he were wrapped in form-fitting foam or buried in sand, though without the pressure associated with the latter.

Huh. Hey Inion! I think I got it! he called out.

Did you? Good job! Lets see! Inion was over in a flash, and snatched his stick out from under him. Edwin half-expected to find himself dragged along with the pole, having used it as an anchor. Instead, he found that his support immediately vanished and he crashed to the ground.

Uhhh Guess not, he groaned. I could have sworn that I had it that time. It felt so different.

Well, whaddidya do?

I was thinking about what utter nonsense it is for magic to treat objects as distinct in any real meaningful way, especially those made of varying types of materials. Hmmm.

Edwin experimentally tried Infusing the rock he was on, and some minutes later when it was complete, he tried imagining much the same thing as before- that the two objects were held together by the exact same forces as the forces within the same object, albeit in a much weaker manner.

That didnt work.

Okay, what was it then? The glue?

A lot of the time, just utilized hydrogen bonds, but hydrogen bonds existed between practically everything. What made glue special? It just seeped into microscopic pores and just stayed there. It was as though air was a liquid that could harden into a solid.

If glue made two things the same, then so should air!

Click.

Ah. There we go.

So had Edwin been unintentionally hindering himself by trying to ease himself into supporting himself through air alone? The secret was just to persuade the magic that air was part of him and so Packing should apply to it? That was well, it made sense. It wasnt overly simple, it wasnt super obvious, it wasnt some basic trick that he should have gotten ages ago. Rather, it was hard work, practice, and a good understanding of the fundamentals of the universe.

The feeling of support he got from Packing like this was unusual, but not uncomfortable. All the weight of supporting himself, no matter how miniscule, was gone, though he was still able to move more or less freely.

Yeah, I got it, he settled, drawing Inions attention back to him. I just had to apply science to everything Ive mastered so far. Not easy, but I might be able to coach someone through the process.

Can you teach me?

No, someone with Packing, obviously, He sighed. Besides, you can already fly aaand youre just messing with me. Anyway.

Whats keeping you up? Mana or stamina?

Mana, I think. I dont have Stamina, though?

Ah, everyone has Attributes. When you unlock one, you just get a number for it and have it strengthened. I think six or seven is what you might normally start with?

Huh. You couldnt have told me this before because..?

You didnt ask, she teased.

I could have sworn that I did, but you know what? It doesnt matter. Nope.

How long can you keep it up, do you think?

Uhhh.

There was a slight ongoing drain on his mana, but it didnt seem like it would run dry any time soon.

Indefinitely, maybe? Theres just a trickle of my mana going into it.

Really? Can you do anything beyond just sort of floating an inch above the ground?

I dont want to try and accept any Skills, though?

Inion reached out and whacked his head, breaking his concentration and dropping him to the ground, Ow! What was that for?

You know that you dont need Skills to do something. It just makes it easier. Now, start floating again and push more mana into it.

Edwin grumbled but complied. Now that he knew the trick, it only took him about a minute to get into the proper mindset needed for him to levitate, but it didnt make it any easier to maintain. Sensing his own mana was easier than sensing any outside of him, but pushing at the mana didnt seem to really do all that much. Or rather, he was already pushing as much as he could at the Skill, and that was what was just barely allowing him to hover.

I dont think I can. My mana manipulation Skill is stuck at level nine.

Inion looked at him, disappointed.

Hey! I didnt know any better! It was like my fifth day here, he defended himself.

She sighed, Well, you can always try to improve without the System, or hope that your Skill helps with the cost in some way once you take it.

Edwin could only shrug helplessly, I guess?

He checked his notifications. Sure enough, the message he was hoping for was present.

You have unlocked the Flight skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

He declined it for the moment- accepting it now would throw off everything hed been working towards- content in the knowledge he could re-unlock it shortly, once he had all his Paths completed. In the meantime, he decided to peek in and see how his Skills were going.

Level Up!

Skill Points 14731508

Progress to Tier 2: 1590/1770 (Avg level: 78/77)

Basic Mana Sense 77 82

Breathing 75 76

Firestarting 90 94

Flexibility 74 76

Identify 71 80

Mana Infusion 8385

Memory 5657

Nutrition 6973

Outsiders Almanac 124 125

Packing 83 92

Seeing 70 72

Visualization 78 80

Well then, Edwin thought with a smirk, Time to get started.

Name

Edwin Maxlin

Age

1 year

Race

Extraplanar Human

Class

Sapper

Attributes

Mana 5

Health 7

Skills

Magical

Basic Mana Sense: 82, Mana Infusion: 85 (Basic Mana Manipulation 9)

Physical

Athletics: 81, Breathing: 76, Flexibility: 74, Nutrition: 73, Packing 92, Seeing: 72, Sleeping: 73, Survival: 76, Walking: 74

Mental

Polyglot: 59 (Language 36), Mathematics: 74, Memory: 57 (Research 50), Visualization: 80

Combat

Bomb Throwing: 49 (Throwing Weapons 48)

Utility

Firestarting: 94, Alchemy: 83 (Improvisation 14), Outsider's Almanac: 125 (Status 22), Identify: 80, First Aid: 82, Purify: 75, Harvesting: 76, Construction: 77