Eisen grabbed the book 'How to control your inner mana' that Morrom gave him before and flipped it open to the chapter where he couldn't continue the last time he started practicing with its help.
"How to infuse elements into your mana, huh? No wonder I had to wait until I got Mana Manipulation higher." The old man muttered to himself after starting to read the different steps.
First, Eisen needed to create a base that would be infused with the element. Usually, you would do it without such a base, and then simply expel the pure elemental mana. But for now, Eisen had to use all extra steps to get used to how the element felt. This way was also used if you wanted to create complex constructs of a certain element since pure mana was much easier to form and control than elemental mana.
First, Eisen needed to find the source of the 'Flame of the Earth' element inside of him. It was supposed to be similar to the way that his mana had such a unique feeling, as if both hot and cold at the same time while it was moving around his body similar to his own blood.
So, Eisen tried to close his eyes and feel his mana. He followed it back to its source, the same place where his heart was. While it was the source of his bloodstream, apparently it also was the source of his mana stream.
But at that place, Eisen found something new that wasn't there before. It felt to Eisen like a small flame, but at the same time somehow had the solidity of earth. It felt weird and just as contradictory as his mana, but Eisen knew that this was what he was looking for.
It was the source of his new element.
Now Eisen could actually do what this chapter of the book was supposed to teach him: Infusing his element into mana.
After forming a small sphere of mana above his palm, which he was able to do nearly instantly at this point, Eisen concentrated on his element again. He moved it slowly throughout his body, from his chest to his hand, and pushed it out through his skin similar to the way he would with his mana.
Without actually forming anything on its own, Eisen could feel that the element was instantly absorbed by the small sphere, and the old man could have his first look at this new substance.
It behaved completely like a flame, moving around slightly with the air current and Eisen's breath pushing against it, but it seemed to be completely made of dirt.
Slowly, Eisen placed his finger against the 'Flame'. It felt warm, but not hot, and there was a certain amount
of density to it. It wasn't as dense as normal dirt, rather very loose sand that was floating around.
"This is interesting… Something like this can only exist here, huh?" Eisen whispered to himself and
continued reading the instructions in the book.
The next step was to control its state. Meaning, the water element could be frozen or turned into dense
steam and the flame element's heat could be controlled and changed, or the Earth element could be changed
into dust or rock.
As for Eisen, he figured he would be able to at least change if his element would be a flame or dirt. So, he
tried to concentrate on the flame of dirt in front of him as was described in the book. He imagined it turning into a pure flame, and soon enough the dirt caught fire and disappeared as if burnt away.
It was a mostly dull red flame, with the hottest area only burning a deep orange, rather than the white or blue that Eisen expected.
The old giant-dwarf halfling thought about whether it would be possible to change the heat of this as well like for a normal flame element, so he thought about its heat rising. And slowly but surely, the center of the flame turned a clear orange closing in on white. But this was about the hottest that Eisen was able to get it for now. Maybe that would change at later ranks of the skill connected to his element?
Either way, first, Eisen wanted to try and change the flame back into its base-state, and then into the complete earth version.
Eisen imagined the fire in front of him to turn into that flame made of earth that he just saw a minute ago. And slowly, from the center of the flame at its hottest part, dirt slowly spread outward until the fire completely disappeared and turned into its pure elemental state.
After managing this, Eisen imagined the earthen-flame as pure dirt, and he could slowly see it change to become harder and lose its flow until it began forming a complete sphere of dirt.
Trying to check if it truly turned solid, Eisen poked the sphere and smiled when it didn't give in to his touch.
"Magnificent! This is truly amazing, I have to admit… Now, what's the next task in the book?" Eisen wondered, and flipped to the next page that explained the basics of forming attacks with the use of your element.
The first thing you were supposed to do was form your mana into the shape you wanted your attack to be in, and then infuse it with your element just like before. Then, you would manipulate the mana construct to do what you wanted with it.
"If that's the case, then can I also do something like this…?" Eisen muttered to himself and activated his Mana Double skill, as well as his mana copy skill to make sure it was actually clothed in case someone woke up, and then placed his palm on the Double's back. Eisen slowly pushed out part of his elemental essence again and into the double's form, then watched as it was slowly filled out with that earthen-flame.
"Interesting! So it does just work like that!" Eisen said with a slight grin and nodded in approval.
Next, Eisen tried the same thing as before and slowly changed the Double's body into pure flames, and then into its completely earthen state.
After fully getting a feel for this element, Eisen followed one of the examples in the book: A simple magic arrow as a beginner spell.
Eisen unsummoned his Mana Dobules and expelled some mana out of his hands, out of which he formed a simple stick with a pointed tip. It didn't need to be amazing, just something to test this out with relatively quickly.
He infused that mana arrow with the Flame of the Earth element and watched as it took on its, to Eisen, unnatural state. Slowly, Eisen opened the door slightly and with deep concentration shot the arrow up into the air.
[Magic Spell Learned] Flame of the Earth Arrow
[Add to spell library?]
"Oh? Hmm… Yes, add to spell library please." Eisen said with a smile and watched as the next notification popped up.
[Flame of the Earth Arrow added to spell library]
[Info] Spells can be cast by expelling enough mana out of your body to form a cluster and then saying the name of the spell. The mana base has to be of the spell's element
"I see, I see… So can I just do this?" He muttered to himself and pushed out more mana out of his palms, which he then infused with his element. "Flame of the Earth Arrow." Eisen said next and watched as the flame of the earth infused mana turned into the shape of the arrow he just created before.
It floated over Eisen's palm, and he could control it like he normally could without relying on the spell-shortcut.
And this all seemed great and absolutely amazing to Eisen in any and all ways, but still… Eisen wasn't a fighter at heart, and he never would be, so he really wanted to find uses of this element for so that he could do something with it while crafting, although right now he wasn't sure if there were any uses like that.
But on the other hand, there had to be, right? After all, it seemed like this was a special element that Eisen only got through his occupation as an Omni-craftsmaster.
So maybe the crafting uses for the 'Flame of the Earth' element would show themselves at later ranks? Since right now, Eisen absolutely couldn't see any uses for it in crafting, that had to be it, right?
Thus, Eisen chose to be patient and just try to rank the Flame of the Earth magic skill up until it showed its true worth to him.
For now, though, Eisen decided that it was time to change shifts with Jyuuk, and thus woke him up by calling out to him a few times.
---
"Alright everyone, ready to go?" Eisen asked after cleaning up the cooking kit and preparing for the next day of combat.
"Yup~!" Bree said gleefully, while Jyuuk nodded as well.
"But first, Eisen. Can I talk to you in private for a second?" The Monkey-Man said and moved to the other side of the room, waving Eisen over while Bree tilted her head in confusion and then simply shrugged before starting to check she had everything they needed in her backpack again.
"Everything alright?" Eisen asked with a slightly worried frown, but Jyuuk nodded to calm him down.
"Yes, don't worry. Everything is mostly alright. But I just want to let you know that this in-game day is the last day before I need to get up for work. And I'm not sure if we will be able to get you to the level you need to be for that quest by today and get back to that town, Melroe, right?"
"Ah, that's right… I completely forgot about that." Eisen muttered to himself and closed his eyes while slowly scratching his beard in thought. "Thanks for reminding me, Jyuuk."
"No problem, but it's not about that. If I log off, I'll just be lying around here and be a target when I wake back up, not to speak of my beasts, of course, who might just be killed in their sleep. I know I can't be, because of that whole offline and sleep protection, but I'm still worried. If we don't make it back to Melroe before I have to go, could you just take me with you? I will log off on Yamikuma's back and have him carry me there. Otherwise, I would probably be completely lost and wouldn't be able to find my way there." Jyuuk explained, and Eisen nodded as he understood.
"Alright, I will do that, then. Don't worry. But I hope that I will be able to reach my goal by the end of the day as well. It might be tight, but with the strength of these Goblins and how much experience they gave up until now, it should be possible, even if just barely. And if not today, then by tomorrow morning." Eisen explained, and Jyuuk leaned slightly forward in a bow to show his gratitude.
"Thank you, Eisen." He said, and Eisen slapped him on the back with a soft laugh.
"No problem, kid. Now, let's get going, shall we?"