Ranvir blew out a breath, creating a geyser of sand meters high and revealing his face. The sand arced through the air, grains flashing brilliantly in the sun, before spraying Faidar and Siphis.

“Now you’re just being childish,” Faidar said with an unamused look. The kortian didn’t outwardly react, though she wouldn’t be near as bothered under her fur. Kortians weren’t as sensitive as humans regarding pretty much anything.

“I feel like this isn’t necessary,” Ranvir muttered. Shifting, he dislodged a larger pile of sand as he slowly got up from the makeshift dune he’d pulled forth. Rustling his wings, a beach’s worth of the stuff rustled onto the floor.

They were standing outside in one of the isolated gardens, underneath the bare-edges of a massive tree, its canopy stretching to cover multiple such gardens. Faidar and Siphis sat in the corner on a bench-and-table combination of furniture. Their notes spread out before them. A small mana-item called a windbreak was set up on the table, protecting the papers from blowing off.

“It is,” Siphis said. “The Ability will be difficult for someone with your stats, but having triple checked the build myself, I can assure you. It is entirely necessary.”

“Listen to the lady,” Faidar said. “She knows what she’s talking about.”

Siphis’ ear flicked twice in some kortian gesture Ranvir wasn’t too sure about. Pleasure perhaps.

“Fine,” he groused, firing up Sandstorm Rage. He kept in relatively low powered, only feeling the pebbling of his skin a little. Carefully, he reached for the surrounding sand, catching as small a portion of it as he could with his Absolute.

A trail starting from the dune, and he set it whirling through the air towards his raised hand. Frowning in concentration, Ranvir kept the stream light and thin, enough that he could easily see through it.

Ranvir felt the others’ desire to speak and guide, almost like a physical force weighing down on his shoulders. He couldn’t tell if that was worse than them actually trying to guide him. Faidar and Siphis were scholars, experts in their field, but they weren’t teachers. Faidar did lectures, not lessons, and so the experience didn’t quite translate to one-on-one experiences.

Clenching his jaw, Ranvir narrowed his gaze on the trail as wrapped around his hand. “Keep it light, keep it clean,” he could practically hear Faidar say as he started up a similar motion with Sandstorm Rage within his body. He carefully matched the spin of his internal mana to the spin of the external sand.

Vortex, Sandstorm Vortex would be the likely name, was supposed to be a better Ability than Sandstorm Rage. It was originally called Water Vortex, and they’d then adapted it to his element. Why he wasn’t so sure about. Their claim was supposed to be supported on multiple levels.

Or rather, they claimed Sandstorm Rage was a lesser Ability compared to Sandstorm Vortex. Rage was entirely internal, deliberately chaotic, physical enhancement, as such it was difficult to exercise it with any deliberation or special focus. Ranvir reluctantly had to agree with them. He spent a lot of time channeling the Ability. He had it on almost constantly and it only kept ahead of his other Abilities by a slim margin.

They also claimed that his goal of keeping to only manipulating sand, rather than creating it, would be aided by Vortex. Since it had an external element, the Ability would grab more sand rather than spontaneous generation if he controlled it poorly.

And lastly, they claimed it had a higher top level of use than Rage, which again was deliberately chaotic and therefore hard to channel directly. Sandstorm Rage’s highest skill function was simply purely aiding one stat over the other, strength or toughness.

Vortex was more stagnant, but controlling the Vortex part had benefits of its own, together with a new Ability they’d taught him.

Bastion was a shield Ability, a really common one. Fire, Water, Stone, Wind, and a dozen other elements had some variety of it. Almost every culture across the width and breadth of Korfyi had discovered Bastion in some form or another, because it was as simple as it was strong.

Sand Bastion, in particular, involved a shield of sand swirling about the braced’s form, protecting them from enemy attacks. It wasn’t great at a singular massive attack, but even then, it would take the brunt of the attack.

Both Sandstorm Vortex and Sand Bastion features sand swirling around his form and unsurprisingly, there was a high number of registered synergies between the two Abilities. At least in the Collegia’s library. If only the information had been more widely available, then Ranvir might’ve already caught onto it.

Amanaris

***

Sandstorm Rage - 337 has undergone development:

Sandstorm Rage -> Sandstorm Vortex

Sandstorm Vortex:

Gather sand in a thin swirling shell around your form, enhances your Physique: Strength and Physique: Toughness.

Ranvir blinked, looking at the notification, then down at his hand. Sand swirled around it, forming a loose shell. Already, two other streams were traveling from his personal dune and towards his feet, where they spun together.

“Oh shit,” he said.

“Well done. What were you doing differently?” Siphis asked, already grabbing a pen.

Ranvir winced. “I wasn’t really thinking about it,” he muttered, though from the way her ears turned, he got the feeling she still picked up on it. “I got a little lost in my thoughts.”

“By the darkest side of Nysea,” Faidar cursed and dug into her pocket. Ranvir frowned in confusion as she handed over a handful of keys to Siphis.

“You were betting on me?”

“I said you would have difficulties with the Ability, because of your bloated Draw,” Faidar said.

“And I knew,” Siphis sent Faidar a look so smug, it translated between species. “That it was performance anxiety.”

“I do not have anxiety.”

“Sure,” the kortian replied, returning to her notes. “All I said was that you could do it once you started relaxing.”

Ranvir sighed. “Alright, that’s two down, Bastion and Vortex. What’s next?”

“Dune Blow,” Faidar said, checking her notes. “Just focus on using as much of your ‘treasure’,” she gestured at the pile of sand taller than a man next to Ranvir. “In a Sand Strike. Try not to get it everywhere.”

Ranvir squinted at her. “It’s that simple?”

Faidar raised both hands flat, one above the other, like she was showing the bottom and top of a box. She waved her top hand, “Height of the skill ceiling,” then she gestured with the bottom hand, while also lowering it well below the table. “The bottom of the skill ceiling. You can form Dune Blow into different forms for different purposes, but the basic function is a single strike with a lot of mass and force behind it.”

Ranvir nodded. His Draw was so high, even his most concentrated Sand Strike looked like an external Ability, which was embarrassing since it really wasn’t. Sand Strike was supposed to create a burst of sand on impact, which was kind of the opposite of his current goals.

Focusing on his fist, Ranvir called up a sloppy Sand Strike. Sand and color burst around his fist, grains sparking into existence as mana flowed from it irregularly. Drawing even more heavily, Ranvir bound the Ability to the makeshift dune.

Waving his hand, Ranvir tugged the sand along, shifting the entire pile as he did. It was a strain on his Absolute. Even aided by his Disciplines, Amanaris’ form of control wasn’t meant for anything on this scale.

In a moment of singular brilliance, Ranvir gazed upwards instead of at the enclosing hedges. Thrusting an uppercut at the sky, mana poured forth and strained his spirit, as a sand pit’s worth of gritty grains followed the trajectory of his strike. It burst less than an arm’s length above his hand.

Stretching his Veil, Ranvir protected himself from the downpour, even as what felt like a seaside poured down over the rest of the area. Calling on Loce, he swiftly began gathering as much of the sand as he could. Using his Dagger, he slowly dragged it across the gardens, gathering and lifting a cloud of it which the swarm brought back.

“Did it work?” Faidar said, brushing her hand across her hair.

Ranvir shook his head, already winding up a new one.

“What are you doing?” Vasso asked, entering their garden. He was carrying a book across his chest and had a downtrodden look on his face. Ranvir finished his current barrage. His current Sand Spear Barrage. It was the last of his four new Abilities that Faidar and Siphis had endowed upon him.

It was also the best.

There was something really satisfying about throwing a spear. There was something really satisfying about throwing a lot of sand about. They’d gone and combined the two, simply because he mentioned really liking his new storm mana spear.

There were some other mentions about how trainable it was and other nonsense, but really, what Ranvir cared about was the absolute deluge of spears he could throw now. Graywing could shoot its missile with such frequency and rapidity, it felt like it was using multiple at a time. If he combined it with his new Sand Spear Barrage.

Still, seeing Vasso’s gloomy mood, Ranvir drew back on his own enthusiasm. “What’s up?” he asked, stepping closer.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Vasso muttered.

“Alright,” Ranvir said, resting his hand on the boy’s shoulder. He glanced at Faidar and Siphis, who were both studiously examining their notes.

“It’s not really that important anyway,” Vasso continued, exactly like someone who didn’t want to talk about it.

Ranvir nodded and patted him once more.

“It’s just that I really hadn’t seen it coming,” Vasso threw his hands in the air, nearly dropping the book he was holding.

Ranvir paused, narrowing his eyes, a thought striking him. “Is this about your librarian friend?”

Vasso didn’t pout. He was almost a teenager, and that’s basically a grownup. He was scowling. Definitely. Otherwise, Ranvir might not be able to restrain a smile. “Her boyfriend showed up,” Vasso scowled really hard.

“Oh,” Ranvir replied, rubbing his back. “That’s…” he glanced at the women, who were pointedly not looking at them, but also not talking. “So annoying.”

“Yeah,” Vasso sniffed and scowled so hard.

“You wanna help me throw some spears?” Ranvir asked.

Vasso shook his head. “Can we grab some more ice cream?”

Ranvir smiled. “Of course,” he looked at the women, who seemed to suddenly realize they weren’t alone. “Let’s say goodbye first. I don’t suspect we’ll have the time to visit again soon.”

Amanaris

***

Name: Ranvir

Age: 4 Years Old

Element: Sand

Tier: 10 (90)

Level: 10

Statistics:

Mana: Draw - 450

Perception - 50

Abilities:

Storm Locust - 351

Sandstorm Vortex - 337

Sand Spear Barrage - 301

Dune Blow - 281

Sand Bastion - 5