When the entire room shook, Midnight looked up to see that walker had just failed in creating a small wall. She had sensed him gathering earth mana to try something. She had been doing the exact same thing. Yet, when the stones scattered across the floor from shattering, she was instantly up on her feet.
Walker was looking at the small scratches on his hands wondering just how he had messed up. It had been a long time since he had failed such a thing. The stones were sure to have caused issues to anyone that was so close to them when Walker had broken them. But the stones that had cut him were completely because of the unsettled mana that he had used.
Controlling too much mana was an issue that many mages worried about. The simple fact that they could cause such disasters when working with their affinity elemental mana made sense. Fire could explode, stone could shatter, water could spontaneously freeze, wind could make blades. The light could blind them and the darkness could cause rot to suddenly bloom on their body. All were possibilities.
The reason for Walker's failure was easy to see. The small piece of stone that he had started with had been overwhelmed with pressure. The idea that midnight and Walker had was to condense the stone through pressure. This seemed to work and the two had been playing with a fist sized piece of stone that was almost double as dense as what they had before when it came to the small pebble the size of a marble.
Unfortunately, Walker had tried to go bigger and released the pressure on a single point. that caused the stone to shatter at that point and send shards everywhere. Midnight had been fine since she still had scales over most of her body in her dragonkin form. But Walker had been cut because he was fighting against his own strength. Luckily, a quick healing skill fixed it.
The experience from the mistake was key though. Walker and Midnight just had to look at one another to understand the failure. This failure had attracted some attention though. Specifically from Su who had gone looking for the two after she had properly rested and made her own plans for her future growth.
Su didn't immediately approach the two. Due to her relationship with her partner, the grand earth spirit, she knew that they were training very closely in the earth mana that was naturally all around them in this secluded passageway. Especially in this palace where the carvings showed many young dragon hatchlings.
She had expected that midnight and Walker would go exploring. The royal dragons had also done this when they had finished speaking. Terron was too busy and the others had grown impatient waiting for him to have more things to tell them. Therefore, the royal dragons had taken it upon themselves to see what the wyverns had done with their section of dug out caves and also see what other secrets the ruins might have. Their history was right there before them.
When Su saw that Walker had healed his cuts and started to draw more of the weaker stone to him, she felt that he was trying too hard. The stone was stubborn and needed a lot of force, but that same force would break it. She didn't approach that mindset when she used the earth shield or created a thicker earth shield on her own twin shield.
The reason she didn't was that she believed that the earth was already open with her. Whether she had adapted that mindset because of her partner or because she had gained a much higher affinity for earth elemental mana, didn't matter. The mindset had let her learn and use the earth to strengthen her defenses better.
As she saw Walker and Midnight both controlling a part of stone, she was impressed to see that midnight was working so hard in her dragonkin form. She had not been using it much at all since they were on a long journey that required her toughest form. Her dragon form was massively more powerful when it came to protecting and defending. Survival was airways at the top of the list.
The dragonkin form had almost no use in battle other than some physical attacks. Midnight could use flames on her claws and she had trained this with Su. However, now that Midnight was learning to use stone, that meant that Su would have a much harder time to defend against Midnight's attacks if they were to fight each other when Midnight was in this form. It was a good thing.
"Now let the earth wrap around your claws and the stone become one with you. It isn't separate from you. It is always part of you, you are just using it now. It's an extension of your own limbs." Su calmly walked toward them and gave the soft commands to Midnight. Walker also heard them but his mind was intently focused on the condensing earth that he was unable to try anything just yet.
The feeling was shared with him. Midnight found that Su was giving her advice and listened without hesitation. She trusted what Su said as she started to let the earth close in on her claws more closely. The idea of making a wall or shield was forgotten for the moment.
"Keep on doing that. The earth is where everything comes from. It is the ground you walk but also the origin of food. Let it stay close to you. It isn't malleable like water but it is your support. The thing that holds you up." the stone slowly coated just the claws on Midnight's hands. It was a small matter since it didn't cover her entire hand and arm as some dragonkin could when they learned attacks that Terron had shown them.
The tougher stone claws were easily better than what Midnight's normal claws could do. Even just by a little bit, they cloud cut in to tougher defenses more. "That is the start, let it expand more or make it support you with more strength. Ask it with your mana and it will bend to your will. It is stubborn but so are you because you are the same." These pieces of advice were just about changing mindset. Stone was tough but if you were tough as stone, why would it not move the same as you? A simple thought.
When Su looked over, she saw that Walker had coated five of his fingers on one hand with stone. The small shaping that followed was the stone moving to mimic claws like Midnights. She had no idea how the two were mimicking each other but she smiled nonetheless. This was very interesting and proved that she would most likely be able to do something similar. She would be able to try and copy the skills that should be a dragon's. She already had the blood and the bonds, why not?
By the time that Su stopped speaking and sat down too, she had already removed her heavier armor to allow her to be closer to the stone. The three just sat calmly changing the stone in their hands while letting the soil pile up near them. Their clothes were getting fairly dirty but their learning was growing.
Su could feel a slightly stronger bond with Midnight when she started to try and pull stone toward her. She had no idea how she could also do as the two did since she had no mage skills like Walker. But with the help of her partner, she could make an earth shield. The real challenge was making her own without her partner.
Her training was different, yet, it was very similar to what the two had been doing. That was why she started making the earth shield flat on the ground between Midnight and Walker. That way she could just focus on making the shape. She didn't notice that Walker was also starting to copy the same thing.
'The skill, earth hardening has been taken from the stone cutter system. The skill earth hardening has been learned to a higher degree than necessary for a basic skill. The skill high earth hardening has been learned instead.
High earth hardening- 5+ mana depending on area
The earth focused when using earth related skills can be hardened to a denser level depending on the mana added. Further mana being added can condense search of a greater area or of a greater density. The dangers in doing so are greatly reduced through training for this skill. The mana used must be balanced and not overly forced.'
The skill appeared and Walker immediately felt it flowing more clearly. But he was getting a bit frustrated since he was still struggling to shape the earth in his ideal way.
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