Chapter 156 - 149

"Ouch!" Nick yelped, dismissing the third attempt at covering himself with electricity. From an objective standpoint, it couldn't possibly be a good idea. Lightning was wild, and it very much liked zapping anyone foolish enough to think they could tame it. There was a reason, after all, why Arthur had told him to ensure that all his attempts were aimed away from himself first. Looking at the reddened skin on his left arm, Nick sighed. I'm not really making progress. Every time I try to extend [Spark] beyond my hand, I lose control and get zapped. Arthur had made it clear that it would take him time to even be able to attempt [Lightning Armor] safely, but he had hoped it would be another challenge he could overcome. Having a Lightning Affinity made it a lot easier to master basic spells, but Nick might have been a bit too arrogant to believe he could learn a spell he had no frame of reference for without putting in the time. Hmm, actually, maybe that's the way to go. I should first learn an armor spell, and once I have that down, I can try mixing in lightning. Yes, that seemed like a much smarter course of action. Momentarily abandoning his attempts to tame lightning, Nick turned to the one element he knew he could control easily. The wind readily responded to his call. It barely took a thought to shape it around him, but while he successfully formed a thin barrier of air just an inch from his skin, it soon became clear that making it into a spell wouldn't be as quick as he had hoped. At least it's not hurting me. That makes trial and error much easier. "Alright, what am I missing? Elemental armors don't look like much more than a simple layer over the caster, but that is evidently not the case. There must be more to this." With a flex of his will, the wind sheet he'd constructed around himself dispersed, though he didn't relinquish his grip. "There must be a reactive component to it. I seriously doubt people are constantly accounting for every shift and movement. While that might be possible in a training setting, it would be absurd to split your attention like that in combat." He muttered, trying to work his way through the problem. Holding his hand up, Nick coalesced the winds around it. He tried to instill a sense of adaptability into them, which proved to be easier than anticipated, thanks to the air's very nature. When he moved his hand, swishing it around, the thin layer of compressed air followed, making him smile. Unfortunately, it immediately unraveled when he released his grip on the construct and tried to keep moving. "Aargh! Why is this so difficult?!" Sitting down on the ground, Nick took a moment to breathe through his frustration. It wasn't often that he failed at magic these days, especially not with wind magic, but he might have gotten too used to success if this was how he reacted to the first inconvenience. "Let's take it from the top. What did Arthur say about [Lightning Armor]? There must be something I'm forgetting." Given how high his mental stats were these days, recalling the conversation took only a moment. He had been somewhat distracted by the constant crackling emitted by the spell, but Arthur had given an actual explanation. "[Lightning Armor] is as much a spell as a skill. It creates a circuit of active electricity throughout your body and releases it into the world, granting you increased physicality and making it very dangerous to touch you. It will be harder for you to learn, as it requires not just power but also instinctive understanding." Had been his words. Yes, I remember now. And with that, Nick had the answer. He couldn't impose his will upon the element from the outside like he did for his offensive spells. This wasn't a one-and-done effect; it wouldn't benefit from being rendered unstable if left beyond his direct control. No, this was meant to be a constant cycle between his body and magic. I need to find a way to establish a feedback loop between the two components. But how do I… Nick abruptly stood up. He took a deep breath and held it in for a moment before releasing it, feeling the mana move through his channels. The Stalking Gait was something he didn't find much use for these days, aside from being a concentration aid. He rarely needed the physical boost or the stealth benefit, but there was another component to it. It passively moved his mana in and out of his body without his input. That was something he had never considered, but it now dawned on him that it was exactly what he had been missing. In a way, it was the opposite of [Aura]. Where his father needed to work to crystallize his will into effect, Nick was too used to doing that. Instead, he needed to operate within his body's limitations and strengths for the first time. Focusing on his breathing, Nick brought up the underlying matrix. Though the [Stalking Gait] was a skill, and it lacked the artful touches of a spell, it remained beautiful in its simplicity. The underlying concept was clear: a predator would become one with its surroundings to hunt down prey. Everything else stemmed from that. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Nick observed how this seemingly simple principle caused a series of secondary effects. The breathing pattern was the method through which the predator took in the environment, and by exhaling, it influenced the world around it. It was much deeper than he had ever realized, and now he understood how people like his mother and Akari could have a successful adventuring career by using it as their foundational skill. Given Nick's affinity for the air, it was even easier for him to understand how those concepts were intertwined with the act of breathing. By accepting portions of the World into himself, he was allowed to affect the World in return. That is what I need. Arthur had only provided him with the bare minimum, and if Nick hadn't had the Stalking Gait to rely on, he was certain it would have taken him weeks, if not months, to finally figure out what he needed to do to develop a proper armor spell. But now he felt confident that he could actually do it. At least with Wind; Lightning might take some more time. Taking another deep breath, Nick didn't follow the prescribed pattern. Though it felt wrong for a moment, as he had spent months incorporating it and it had become second nature, he managed. At the same time, he began actively feeding mana into the wind construct, condensing and empowering the glove of air around his hand. Integrating the conceptual symbiosis of the Stalking Gait felt less like the artificial joining of two pieces of magic and more like slotting in a perfectly fitting puzzle piece. Keeping his grip tight around the construct, Nick observed how it reacted to the new component. The thin sheet of wind moved from hovering above his skin by exactly one inch—as had been his command—to embracing his hand, adapting to every shift without requiring his input at all. Nick couldn't suppress the laughter that bubbled up, and even as he shook with happiness, the glove remained solid. Slowly, he relaxed his grip, allowing the spell to stand on its own. When it didn't react at all to the change, the System finally acknowledged his efforts. CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the spell [Wind Armor] +12.232 Exp Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Extending the [Wind Armor] all over his body proved to be a relatively simple process. With the spell crystallized by the System, Nick only needed to supply the additional power and gradually envelop himself with the wind construct. Once he'd done so for the first time, he dismissed the armor only to summon it again. This time, he did so with the intention of protecting his entire body from the start. Though it wobbled somewhat when he pushed too much power into it, he was quickly covered. Again and again, Nick practiced. By the twentieth time, he was pretty sure he'd found all the kinks, but he kept going until, by the hundredth, he was beginning to feel he could do it in his sleep. Despite his best attempts, he still couldn't make the materialization instantaneous. However, he was confident that increasing his mastery could solve that issue as well. Unfortunately, when he attempted to apply those principles to [Lightning Armor], he was forced to dismiss the spell immediately as electricity coursed through his entire body, sending him sprawling. "Ah, that might have been a bit too ambitious." He muttered as he waited for his limbs to stop twitching, staring up at the clouds passing by. I think I need to raise my Lightning Affinity first. I just don't have the same level of control with it, and whenever I try to unify it with my body, it zaps me, and I lose the shape. Despite his failure, Nick didn't feel particularly down. He had invented a new spell and discovered a path to developing the other one. "Meow!" Turning his head, Nick was faced with Talbot's unimpressed stare. "Ah, I didn't mean to ignore you, sorry." He apologized, lifting a hand to pet him. The spirit cat harrumphed but did not turn away and even leaned into his touch after a moment. "I promised you we'd spend some time together, didn't I?" Nick asked, earning an affirmative meow. "I had an idea I wanted to run by you, if you don't mind. I think this could be a pretty cool activity." Talbot tilted his head inquisitively, and Nick smiled. "I've wanted to make some decent equipment for a while, and now that the Summer Court has been defeated, I think I should be able to summon a few simple spirits to bind without risking being attacked. What do you think?" The cat harrumphed, making a show of considering the proposal. "Meow. Meow, meow, meow." Nick bit his lip. Talbot was just too cute. Fortunately, he had a vague idea of what he might be saying. "You want me to make you something, too?" Talbot tilted his head before miming a bite. Then he opened his eyes wide. "Meow?" "Ah, you want to eat the leftovers. I'm sure we can work something out if you do your job properly." Nick said, doing his best to ignore the frankly adorable look. "Tch." Turning around in surprise, Nick was met with a perfectly innocent look that did nothing to fool him. "How about this? If we get lucky and more than one spirit answers my summons, I will let you have your pick after I've taken the ones I need for my equipment." Talbot jumped enthusiastically on his chest, licking his face while purring, and Nick knew he had his agreement. "Alright, alright!" He laughed, grabbing the cat and standing up before placing it back down. "Let's get this hunt started, eh?" Talbot didn't need another urging; he slipped ahead and turned around, looking at Nick as if to ask why he was being so slow. Who knew I'd get such a sassy guy when I did the summoning? When he returned to his room, he found the spirit cat lounging on his bed, and Nick patted it on the head before getting to work. "I'll get what we need, but I want to wait for a while to recover all my mana first. We don't want to be faced with a hostile spirit and be unable to fight." Talbot gave him a look that said that should have been obvious, and Nick returned to his preparations with a smile. I should still have a few cores lying around; those should be more than enough. After all, I don't want to summon a spirit that's too powerful to bind. Grabbing his chest from beneath his bed, Nick took out the ghostgrass pouch Ogden had given him and emptied it onto the bed. A dozen thumb-sized monster cores spilled out, and he began sorting them based on how dense they felt. "I was thinking of making myself a better leather gambeson, but now I'm thinking I don't need one since I learned [Wind Armor]. I should still empower the dagger. That, and perhaps a totem for protection at night? Or should I simply go for a spyglass and rely on that and my senses to find anything that might attack us?" Talbot meowed dutifully in support, and Nick smiled. "You are right. I shouldn't skip out on protections if I'm sleeping in the open. Maybe I should even invest in better camping gear, though for that, I should first see if Rhea has something. Ogden takes her on gathering missions once in a while, so they probably already have tents and bedrolls. I really don't want to use the ratty ones Dad gave me in the dungeon." A displeased sound made him look back at Talbot, who nodded toward the rest of the house. "Hm? Oh! You are a genius! Mom was an adventurer for years! She must have something left from her days in the field! Yes, that will work. I'll ask her if she has any equipment in good enough condition, and then I'll empower my dagger and make a totem." Talbot meowed in agreement, earning a well-deserved pet for himself.