Fay kept working at it, until his body began to feel sluggish and refused to move.
Only then did he stop.
[Good. It seems you can hold on much longer now. Just rest up and focus on recovering. Here—chew this slowly and feel your mana recover.]
Elaruîn handed him a strange leaf after offering a well-deserved praise. As Fay chewed on it, he felt the energy in his core gradually begin to replenish. He closed his eyes while chewing, sensing the flow of mana slowly becoming visible to him.
Just imagining it made the energy around him pulse faintly. He felt it rising from the earth, the trees, and the wind, like scattered particles moving gently through the world.
All he had to do was close his eyes and picture them.
They felt alive, swirling just out of reach.
He breathed in slowly, realizing that even this simple action drew in tiny amounts of that energy.
But it puzzled him.
His creature, Grin, didn't seem able to grasp this energy the same way. It had to either draw it from Fay or from a living source—usually something recently killed.
Fay wondered why Grin couldn't just draw it from a tree or the ground.
He raised a fistful of dirt, watching closely. Once it was removed from the ground, the aether within it began to fade.
"It wouldn't be enough, huh... no wonder."
He let the dirt fall and refocused on the leaf in his mouth. It didn't taste good at all, but the mana it held was likely a thousand times more potent than anything he could gather from the soil.
Once the last bit was gone, he stood up and looked to Elaruîn, who was humming a soft song while perched on a tree branch.
"Say... teacher, what was that plant?"
Fay asked, but all he got was a finger raised to the elf's lips.
[We can't divulge that information, young one. It's far too important for my tribe.]
Fay tried to interpret the words, but gave up with a sigh.
"Fine, keep your secret. Now, do you think we can finally kill the creature, since I don't make any noise anymore?"
He asked, wondering if he was truly ready.
[Do you think you can kill a wyrmling with a spear and no magic abilities? I don't think so. That rod won't hold, and wooden or metal spears will just be toothpicks to him. So work harder. You figured out how to use one skill, but you have three creatures. Start learning to use them properly.]
Elaruîn continued to look down at the boy, watching as Fay examined his hand, clearly trying to find a way to use magic.
Truthfully, the boy was already on par with a well-taught Eluwyn, despite having arrived only recently.
Elaruîn was intrigued by what the child could accomplish on his own before being properly taught.
It was how he had trained all his disciples, including his granddaughter, Selûne. And yet none of them showed the same level of talent as he had when he was young.
The elf had high expectations for the boy the ancient recommended.
He noticed how Fay kept focusing on his hands, sometimes closing his eyes, as if working something out internally. Elaruîn wondered whether he was trying to produce electricity, or perhaps channel the touch of his jellyfish summon.
Then, Fay summoned his small floating creature. Elaruîn was about to speak, ready to ask if he needed a partner to put to sleep, when his brow lifted in surprise.
"To think you would try that…"
He had forgotten one more trait the small creature possessed—the passive ability to absorb mana. But Fay wasn't relying on the creature this time; he was trying to do it with his own hands.
Fay placed his palms on the ground. Curious, Elaruîn activated his spirit vision—an ability granted by one of his bonded creatures—to observe the flow of aether.
He stood still for several seconds, stunned.
The boy was attempting to absorb mana directly from the ground. It was inefficient and crude, but he was actively adapting to the problems he'd encountered.
That was, until the process overwhelmed him.
Fay suddenly collapsed on the floor.
"A little too early to be doing that, kid. You just formed your core, and now you're trying to absorb raw mana without filtering it…"
The small jellyfish, Somni, hovered above him. Its tendrils touched Fay's cheeks, easing him into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.
"Fine... I'll give you an hour to rest."
The elf then turned toward a distant part of the dark forest. Far away, a new spawn had emerged—not the source of the current disturbance, but likely something tainted by it.
"Lirosyl, protect the kid. I'm going to hunt a few pests that are spreading near our home. Let him rest for a while."
Elaruîn called out to his small green vine-lizard summon, then leapt upward just as a large bird manifested above him.
"Thirawen, take me to the creatures. I'll need your help with the larger ones, but we should be able to finish before the kid wakes up, right?"
A massive green-feathered bird, three times the Eluwyn's size, swooped down gracefully.
Elaruîn reached up and gripped its legs, and with a powerful beat of its wings, the two lifted into the sky.
Together, they soared toward the dark forest, where the canopy below had begun to wither unnaturally.
Before long, Elaruîn located the first creature. He leapt above the trees and landed on one of the largest branches. From a strand of his long hair—interwoven with a special plant—he produced a living vine, using it to slowly lower himself. He pressed close to the thick bark for cover before producing a second vine to sling himself into position.
Then, he moved.
He hopped from his perch, pressing off the bark while extending another vine toward the creature. Using its momentum, he glided silently to a better vantage point.
At that moment, he reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out several feathers.
With a flick of his wrist and the aid of the wind, he hurled them toward the enemy. Each one glowed green as it launched forward, piercing straight through the creature like a shotgun blast.
The beast collapsed—but it wasn't the last.
The elf continued gliding through the forest, following his large bird companion, who occasionally struck down another target mid-flight.
"Thirawen, make sure you don't eat any of the meat from these creatures. Use your talons—not your beak!"
The blood of the monsters wasn't red. It oozed black and sickly; unlike anything they had encountered before.
Elaruîn was still trying to uncover the cause.