Complete Private Hellevator

[Luthien]

"You changed again, almost didn’t recognize you." The quiet flutters lessened as her boots touched solid ground, the verdant wings around her ankles finally dissipating into energy particles as the magic faded back into the air. "White looks good on you, unnie."

She hadn’t recognized the figure at first while waiting for Lune, but something about the woman and the smaller figure that followed besides her had drawn Lúthien’s gaze to them before refusing to let go. Something about the oldest of the two felt familiar to the blonde even if she couldn’t place a finger on the why, until the answer finally revealed itself when their energies mingled together as they’d stepped close to the ranger.

The surprise on her face was impossible to hide, but the blonde had managed to keep any questions to herself until they were out in the wilderness—away from any prying eyes and ears. Her gaze fell back on the smaller figure that had tagged along with them, a heavy sigh escaping Lúthien as she finally looked back at Lune.

"So… who’s the kid?" This was the last thing she’d thought they’d be talking about when she’d messaged Lune to meet up, but it was probably best to address the elephant in the room now rather than later. Never a dull moment around here...

@Lune

 

[Lune]

Luthien sent her a message, asking to meet up specifically in Hylands. It's definitely been a long while since they hung out together in-game since she avoided that and preferred to do all social things in the real world. After thinking for a while, Lune replied that she'd be there, before closing the UI and looking at the girl to her side.

Arriving at the agreed spot, the woman looked around for the elf's presence. Who would have thought that Luthien would come from above? "This one wasn't actually my doing," She shrugged, touching her white locks. "Must be a side effect or something."

Ever since she did the life-saving procedure, day by day Lune slowly morphed to look more like the younger girl, perhaps an actual consequence of doing the two-way-bypass. Not that she cared, but she felt like she should tell Yugam of this potential oversight the next time they meet again.

"Let's go, so what are we doing?" They walked, slowly leaving the premises of the village they met at. She could already feel that the ranger had some questions about the quiet girl tagging along, and the steel reaver herself had to think twice about how many details she wanted to divulge.

Probably just the tl;dr, for now.

"So… who’s the kid?"

"Oh, she is under my care, you'll see her tagging along a lot." That should be sufficient for now, unless Luthien followed up with more questions. She tapped the shorter girl's shoulder, before speaking softly to her. "Introduce yourself to mother's friend, will you?"

The white-haired girl shyly stared at the elf for a while, before stuttering. "A-ah. My name is Ryujin..."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"A side effect?" her head tilted slightly as she echoed the words, brows furrowed in concern as Lúth stared back at her unnie. "From your heart or…?"

Her gaze slowly shifted towards the young girl accompanying the Steel Reaver, and the amount of questions inside her mind only seemed to exponentially grow with each passing second. However it was clear Lune wasn’t interested in going too deep into the topic, shifting the conversation towards their plans for the day instead as they walked away from the village.

"Well you’re the only experienced Astramancy user I know," Alright, maybe she knew another one, though certainly not one Lúthien would reach out for advice. "I’ve gotten used to it somewhat, but it still feels like I’m missing something…?"

Whether that was better control or just overall a better grasp on her powers the elf wasn’t sure, but Lúthien couldn’t help but wonder if things would’ve gone down differently the last time they’d traversed these lands if she’d asked for guidance sooner.

Eventually though her mind drifted back to the young child that tagged along with Lune. At a glance she looked no older than perhaps twelve or thirteen at best, but she’d learned from personal experience how malnourishment in this world could make some landers look much younger than they truly were. Both eyebrows raised considerably when Lune referred to herself as the child’s mother, a baffled expression on her face as she blinked towards the woman, before the quiet stutters grabbed Lúthien’s attention.

"Ryujin? That’s a really pretty name~" Her voice was soft and light hearted as she conversed with the child, a smile on her lips as she continued. "I’m Lúthien, it’s very nice to meet you."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"A side effect? From your heart or…?"

"It's... a bit complicated." At this point, explaining anything feels like doing a lore dump. It's not harmful to anyone, so she just spared Luthien from how she turned into this form.

"I’ve gotten used to it somewhat, but it still feels like I’m missing something…?"

"Hm, it is quite an advanced and deep mastery, after all."

She noticed Luthien's confused face, and quickly explained after their introductions. "She was from High March. Yugam nursed her back to health." It's simpler than detailing the whole curse-animancy-link and that the girl was technically a lifeforce vampire now, but technically it's what actually happened.

Ryujin took two steps back and stayed on Lune's side. While they continue walking towards an open field, the woman explained. "Astramancy is both deep and wide. But we can categorize the power into three basic concepts." She showed her hand, raising three fingers.

"First, the divination. It can come in the form of precognition, vision, or others." Lune explained the first of many handful powers that came with the mastery."Next, manipulation of gravity. This one I used the most, and it's the simplest of all three." Flight, acceleration, or even physical power amplification is possible with gravity power.

"Lastly, power of the stars. As in, actual pure energy." The human crossed her arms. "Which one are you thinking of?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"It's... a bit complicated."

A heavy sigh escaped her lungs, though the elf was seemingly kind enough to let the matter drop along with it. She just hoped whatever mysterious procedures Lune was doing didn’t come back to bite her unnie in the ass.

Whatever thoughts she had concerning astramancy had quickly flown out the window as the woman decided to expand a bit more regarding her sudden daughter. "She was from High March. Yugam nursed her back to health." A delicate eyebrow rose high into the air upon hearing the involvement of her boyfriend in the matter, arms loosely crossed over her chest as the ranger rested her weight on her left foot for now.

"Seriously? You keep me in the dark all the time for my own ‘safety’, but it seems that doesn’t apply for him." Her arms shifted so the blonde was able to add visual air-quotes to accompany her words. "I swear, how I missed the similarities between the both of you before is beyond me."

The younger girl remained close to Lune as they walked and talked, always sticking to the side that was opposite to where Lúthien stood. She nodded softly as Lune explained that astramancy could be categorized into three basic concepts, focused on the information her unnie was willing to share. Divination and gravity manipulation were two that Lúthien had been aware of, but neither of which the ranger had harnessed often enough to feel she had a decent control of them.

In fact she’d been about to retort that gravity manipulation wasn’t easy at all, but the blonde managed to hold her tongue back. Just because Lune had said it was the simplest one didn’t exactly mean it wasn’t complicated to put into practice… right?

"Which one are you thinking of?"
"Last one actually, I want my arrows to go boom like a mini supernova."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Seriously? You keep me in the dark all the time for my own ‘safety’, but it seems that doesn’t apply for him."

Lune raised two fingers, "First of all, it was nothing big nor dangerous. Secondly, I needed the help of an actual expert at animancy."

"I swear, how I missed the similarities between the both of you before is beyond me."

She just chuckled while giving Luthien a coy shrug. Overprotectiveness toward the elf might be something that the siblings shared in their DNA. Nothing they could do about that. Perhaps, some things were also better kept a secret.

"Last one actually, I want my arrows to go boom like a mini supernova."

The white-haired woman was deep in thought for some seconds, hand on her chin. Then an idea came.

"Technically doable. So, we have access to this flow of star energy."

Raising her left hand, she opened her palm, and the center of it started glowing light purplish. There were a lot of ways Lune used the energy power. A lot of time, she just let a stream of light out of her palm like an anime beam move. Some days, she preferred laser eyes. Because why not, both look cool as hell.

"You can kinda 'mold' the energy into a semi-solid state, like this. I just imagine creating an egg with a soft inside and hard shell, this is to keep the energy stable so when it escaped my hand..." As a small, glowing ball made of energy was concentrated on top of her palm, Ryujin admired the magic with childlike curiosity and sparkly eyes.

Lune proceeded to 'throw' the energy ball toward the nearest tree.

"It'll not dissipate. Until it hit something, of course." The light ball made contact with the tree trunk and created a 'pop' sound, leaving a circular burn mark on it. "Now, it is gonna be harder imbuing a physical item because more control of the energy is needed. Especially if you really want it to go big boom."

"Normal, low-quality arrows most likely will disintegrate or explode when you infuse it with some energy, but I have seen yours and I think it might work?" She crossed her arms, a bit unsure. "Give it a try."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

She knew their actions came from a place of love and care, Ari and Dayeon both just wished to keep her safe, but that didn’t lessen the ache in her chest whenever she stumbled or found out about something new. Sure, so far it looked like they had everything under control… but she worried that wouldn’t hold true forever.

Patience was a virtue she was sometimes graced with, the blonde quiet as she imagined the cogs turning and churning within Lune’s brain as her unnie mulled over the ranger’s goal. She was still fairly new to the mastery and its powers, relying mostly on instinct whenever she wielded her masteries, but this one had proven to possess a steeper learning curve than the others.

"Technically doable. So, we have access to this flow of star energy."
"Mhmm."

Her head nodded softly as she listened to the explanation provided by her unnie, while her gaze remained on Lune’s opened left palm as she provided a visual guide to her explanation—something Lúthien was quite thankful for. The look in Ryujin’s face hadn’t gone unnoticed however, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips as the blonde was reminded of her own fascination with the magic within this game shortly after she’d begun to play it.

"I see…" The thought behind it wasn’t dissimilar to the concept Lúthien had used to imbue lightning into her arrows, but that method had drastically failed when she’d tried to adapt it for her astramancy. A hand reached for one of the many arrows in her quiver, pulling it into view before she tapped the metal head softly. "I had these crafted when regular arrows didn’t work for conducting lightning, but when I tried to ‘store’ astral energy in them they just exploded."

However she’d never thought of giving the energy a physical form until Lune displayed it for them and, after a moment of consideration, it seemed to have sparked a new idea inside that little head of hers.

Eyes closed as the elf mimicked Lune in the initial motions, left palm held open and facing upwards as Lúthien focused. A small crackle echoed for a fraction of a second, the static a clear sign of the high affinity she shared with that particular mastery, before a shimmering haze began to coalesce in the center of her gloved hand. Purple and pink shades melded with streaks of blue and black as the mist slowly swirled counter-clock wise, the power gathering in its center as it struggled to shift into a semi-solid state.

This proved harder than Luthien had originally bargained for, and even with Lune’s helpful soft boiled egg imagery sharp in her mind the ranger struggled to reach that stage. "You made it look so easy…!" Her words were barely above a strained whisper, brows furrowed while her eyes almost seemed to glare at the stubborn energy in her palm.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"You made it look so easy…!"

"It needs practice. Took me like, weeks to grasp that concept." She reassured, watching the elf trying hard to maintain and mold the energy. Luthien's astral energy looked different, whereas hers was simply a solid red-purplish, the blonde's comprised of multiple shades and streaks.

She didn't understand what was up with that. Perhaps more kinds of energy were mixed in there, or maybe it was a different kind.

The older woman brought forward both of her hands, putting them around Luthien's left hand. "Here, let me help." Lune produced a small amount of energy, making sure not to mix it with the elf's, but hardening it slightly as a thin shell to contain the swirling astral sphere.

The thin, translucent purplish-red glow helped to contain the energy, allowing it to stabilize. Ryujin seemed to be impressed with how many colors were mixed in the ball, letting out an enthusiastic "Wow."

Lune smiled, slowly removing her hand. "Alright, the next step is all yours." She motioned to Luthien. "Try storing the energy in your arrow by any means." The woman turned to the young girl, warning her as a precaution. "Might want to take two, three steps backward, Ryujin."

She just nodded, before walking backwards slightly.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

She’d never expected to get it right from the first try, but the blonde had also underestimated the finesse and control it seemed to take to actually force the energy into a tangible form. The fact that their energies had differed in appearance wasn’t something that even stuck out to the elf, too focused on trying to force her own into a semi-solid state.

"Here, let me help." Lune’s voice reached her just as she’d been contemplating giving up on this attempt and allow the energy to dissipate, the ranger’s right hand now hovering above her left palm as she’d tried in vain to forcefully mold the cosmic matter. A pair of hands were placed towards the sides of her own, effectively creating a little containment box of sorts, before a thin shell formed around the swirling astral energy.

With the matter of keeping the energy from continuously escaping as Lúthien summoned it finally solved it didn’t take long before the elf managed to shape the contents within into a small sphere… though the multicolored marble that suddenly plopped down onto her open hand had fully shifted into the solid spectrum. "Fuck… se me pasó la mano."

The enthusiastic ”Wow.” that escaped Ryujin as the girl came closer for a better look earned a soft chuckle from the ranger, gently holding out the tiny marble for the younger one to look at so long as she didn’t try to touch it. "Alright, the next step is all yours. Try storing the energy in your arrow by any means." Easier said than done however, her initial idea of simply coating the arrowhead on the energy had flown out the window now that it had solidified to this point… but maybe it was just the right size for it to still work?

The idea itself had occurred to them not too long ago, a lightning bolt of inspiration that had crossed her mind one night as she’d watched the hunter craft his blood bullets. She’d had a few of her arrows customized as a result, and she’d picked up that order before meeting up with her unnie. She pulled one from her quiver, brows furrowed in thought as she quietly inspected the hand-carved space on the steelhead. It’d be a tight fit, but not impossible… Lune must’ve noticed the questionable look in her eyes though, the older woman quietly cautioning her young charge to take a few steps back for precaution.

Lúthien began to carefully push the small marble towards the slot, the colors within continuing to swirl as the blonde continued to work it into place. At one point she came across some resistance that required a considerable amount of force to be applied—she’d feared the marble would explode then—but finally it had been embedded into the arrowhead.

Crude and rustic, but it would have to work for now.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

Lune watched with confusion as the elf pulled out an arrow with a peculiar head, where there was some kind of convenient space to impart something. "Huh," She inspected the arrowhead closer upon the successful embedding, "It somehow fits in there."

Once Luthien is better at this thing, shaping it into something else other than marble is going to be no problem. But for now, it's the easier form to imagine.

"Don't worry, it's not gonna break just by applying normal force, even though it's weightless." The woman reassured, before explaining the reasoning behind her method. "I know what you are thinking: 'Wouldn't it be easier to coat the arrow with the raw energy instead of all this chore'?"

Answering her own rhetorical question, Lune elaborated. "Yes, it is easier, but you'll have no control when it'll go off. And I doubt you'll have time trying to stabilize and weave the cosmic energy mid-combat, so..."

She pointed at the arrow.

"Prep time is king anyway. Maybe with the risk of carrying magical grenades at all times, but those can always be safely stored in the inventory."

The white-haired woman then looked into the distance, looking for something before her sight locked into a particular direction, her finger pointing there."That one tree seems far enough," She turned at Luthien, smirking at her to try and test the newly-developed astral-imbued arrowhead.

"Reckon you can hit it from here?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Yeah," She hadn’t expected the marble to snuggly fit into the partition of her arrow, crimson eyes inspecting it carefully to ensure it was properly affixed and not going anywhere anytime soon. "I didn’t think it would."

It sounded like her initial concerns about the small sphere were unfounded too or, at the very least, she trusted Lune when the woman mentioned it wouldn’t explode for pressing against it too hard with her thumbs. Perhaps in the future she could try to mold the energy slightly differently when creating it, though the elf doubted she’d deviate too far from its current marble state.

"Actually, I did try the coating before." A sheepish smile was given towards her unnie, and the expression on the blonde’s face probably told the other woman all she needed to hear—it had gone very poorly. "Thought it would work like my lightning arrows… but nope."

Prepping her arrows ahead of time wouldn’t be too dissimilar to what Yugam did with his bullets, and most could be stored away within her inventory if she was truly worried about the potential nuclear catastrophe the might create in a worse case scenario. She’d keep a few within her quiver though for insurance, just in case the UI ever got wonky at a time where they needed the game’s systems to work the most.

"You’re testing my eyesight too?" There was a jovial tone to her words as the ranger gazed towards the tree Lune had chosen, standing the furthest away from the trio. It had a mostly straight flight path, though there were two other trees that narrowed it considerably halfway through.

Nothing that Lúthien felt she couldn’t handle though.

"Alright, time to treat Ryujin to some fireworks~" A playful wink is given to the younger girl who’s remained quiet so far, the familiar bow apparating into her waiting hand as it’s summoned from the inventory. She takes a memento to balance the arrow against her finger, committing the slight shift in weight to mind before nocking it against the bowstring.

A deep breath courses through her nostrils, slowly filling up her lungs as the elf takes careful aim of her target. The arrow is released along with an exhale, whizzing through the distance effortlessly until it’s finally forced to stop by the tree trunk in its way. She mentally flicks off the safety pin keeping the energy within the marble stabilized just as the metal tip easily pierces through the bark and lodges itself against it… but nothing seems to happen despite the seconds ticking by afterwards.

"... the fuck?" A puzzled expression causes her brows to furrow as the elf mentally checks her steps over and over again, certain that she hasn’t missed any. "Why isn’t it popping—!?!"

An unexpected trail of sparkles quickly light up in the air, tracing the path traversed by the arrow just moments ago, before a deafening blast echoes as the cosmic energy is finally unleashed in a mesmerizing display of purples, pinks, and blues.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"You’re testing my eyesight too?"

"Even explosive arrows are useless if you don't hit your targets." She chuckled, shrugging.

Watching as Luthien aimed down and released the arrow toward the tree, Lune squinted to see the projectile had effortlessly made its way into the tree trunk, but without any explosion whatsoever.

"Why isn’t it popping—!?!"

Her enhanced, magical right eye didn't pick up any magical reaction. "Weird, I didn't double-layer the shell. Are you sure you have remotely detonated—"

Her question was promptly cut short by a sudden light pillar rising to the sky, before unleashing multiple waves of different-colored explosions. The blast wind came shortly after, sending a strong breeze even from this distance.

"It's beautiful." Ryujin commented in awe.

The older woman, however, was still confused. It was a good thing that they picked a spot in the middle of nowhere to test this thing, because that explosion could probably wipe a small bandit camp. She then turned to the elf.

"How much energy were you pouring into that small ball, again?" Having misjudged the expected effect of the magical detonation, Lune asked. She suspected that Luthien might actually possess a talent for condensing a lot more magic into a smaller, denser shape.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

The expression on her face said it all, she’d been as confused as her unnie as to why the detonation didn’t initially go off. A frown had appeared on her face as the older woman questioned her remote detonation methods, but before Lúthien could’ve given a response the arrow had finally decided it was time to go off with a BANG!... and what a bang that was.

”It’s beautiful.” Silence had reigned after everyone had been buffeted by the blast wind, the ranger instinctively raising an arm to shield her face (primarily her eyes) until it had passed. She couldn’t help but nod in response to Ryujin’s observation even as the myriad of colors slowly dissipated.

"How much energy were you pouring into that small ball, again?"
"I-I don’t know… a lot, I guess?"

It hadn’t felt as such though, she had simply mimicked the same steps used whenever she’d charged lighting into her arrows… but, aside from perhaps a handful of instances, she couldn’t remember those detonating as intensely as this one arrow had. "I actually cut back a bit, thought maybe I was putting too much into it and that’s why it was hard to shape it into a marble…?"

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"I-I don’t know… a lot, I guess?"

Raising her brows, Lune replied with confusion. "... You guess?" She then motioned toward the fallen trees and the aftermath of the massive explosion before shrugging and exhaling. "Well, it's a lot."

"I actually cut back a bit, thought maybe I was putting too much into it and that’s why it was hard to shape it into a marble…?"

That's cutting back? The idol's eyes widened upon hearing that. She proceeded to scratch the back of her head, turning to the colorful, dissipating remnants of the cosmic energy on the distance.

"Okay. I know what's up now." Snapping her fingers, Lune finally deduced the anomaly that just happened now, after realizing why the colors didn't mix inside the ball. "I believe your astral energy has more pressure than mine, hence why it was too hard to make it into a dense marble."

"Let's just say... it's more dangerous than mine." She warned Luthien, letting her know that she should train the method properly to avoid hazard.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

Lune would find her confused look mirrored back on the younger blonde, Lúthien responding with a small shrug of her shoulders as her unnie repeated the end of her answer. She had no way of properly measuring what a lot actually was in-game, but the ranger had thought it was about average considering she’d never truly struggled to harness the magic, and the metal heads of her arrows had never failed to absorb all the energy she’d pumped into them.

It wasn’t until she’d tried to mimic that with astramancy that Lúthien had finally hit a hurdle she’d found hard to overcome on her own.

The snapping of fingers pulled the blonde out of her own thoughts as her unnie seemingly found an answer to her own questions, the elf quietly nodding as she listened to the idol’s explanation. "Huh, I guess that makes sense… I’d never really paid attention to it, but magic doesn’t seem to always express the same way between players—even when they have the same masteries and stats." She’d never taken a moment to think about it properly before, but looking back now she could confirm that hypothesis to be somewhat true.

"Let's just say... it's more dangerous than mine."
"Dangerous as in ‘that marble’s gonna pop if you’re not careful next time’ or just the pretty fireworks once it goes off?"

@Lune

 

[Lune]

The more she thought of it, the more she was impressed. The game didn't hardcode anything, even something as basic as the same exact magic was different for others. As if magic, which is a universally made-up concept, was actually supposed to be a natural law of nature.

And it seemed like Luthien hadn't grasped of why this might pose quite a threat to both herself and the people around her. Despite the colorful explosion and relatively safe energy housing marble, the problem lay elsewhere.

"Dangerous as in 'you might level a settlement while hunting a goblin' if you can't control how much you put in." Misjudging the amount of energy in a single arrow could mean a lot of things; enemies getting obliterated too violently, blue-on-blue incidents, potentially causing a cave-in, and many more.

"Of course that's a hyperbole, but actually not that impossible."

She felt like after introducing the elf to this kind of technique, at least she needed to see it through so that Luthien could control it safely. Her right palm reached forward, toward the blonde before Lune asked an question.

"Should we give it another go?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

It was quite easy to forget this was all just a virtually made world within a game, and perhaps it was the reason why the elf had never questioned how or what rules the devs might’ve coded into it where magic was concerned. Magic wasn’t something Lúthien thought about when conjuring its powers, grasping onto the flow of energy instinctually as if it was as natural as breathing for her elven body.

Seeing how drastically different their astral powers were had caused the blonde to think about it at last. "I wonder if magic manifests uniquely for each individual… maybe it changes depending on what players do as they master it?" Could the game truly cater to their strengths—and, in turn, their weaknesses—with such a level of accuracy?

Her unnie’s example quickly put into perspective what type of dangerous Lune had actually been speaking about, a quiet "... a-ah." escaping the blonde as she visualized the scenario in her mind.

"Y-Yeah, that would be bad…" It wasn’t hard for other similar scenarios to pop up in her brain afterwards once the initial seed had been planted, a gloved hand reaching to rub the back of her neck as the ranger realized how very lucky she’d been that none of them had come to pass as of yet... but it would be a matter of when instead of if before they did with the lack of control she had over this particular power.

"Should we give it another go?"
"Mhmm, I wanna try again."

Her hands faced one another as they hovered an inch away from Lune’s outstretched palm, the elf keeping her unnie’s warnings in mind as she slowly channeled the energy once more. Don’t go overboard… don’t go overboard… It took a moment before the swirling colors began to concentrate into a single point once more, forcing them to take physical shape, until a small orb finally formed.

"Alfather… it’s gonna take making hundreds of these before it gets easier." Forming this marble had been just as strenuous as the first one, and that was with Lune’s help… Lúthien didn’t even want to think how much worse it’d be when she had to do them on her own.

The intricate swirls within it were just as captivating as the first one had been though, a small reward that helped make it worth it in a sense… until a problem became apparent as the ranger pulled out another arrow. "... fuck." When she’d tried to slot the orb into the premade hole in its steel head it had slipped through without any issues before landing on the grass at her feet.

The marble was too small.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Maybe it changes depending on what players do as they master it?"

Lune put her hand on her chin, pondering.

"Perhaps. Or latent, like DNA, we'll never know. The world surprisingly has no detailed records of magic." This was surprising for a medieval-ish fantasy universe, as humans had already written an impressive amount of documents from ancient times in the real world. Meanwhile, the MIT's more occupied with things like magitech, of all things.

"Mhmm, I wanna try again." Deciding to give it another shot, the white-haired woman instructed the elf what to do. "Alright, mold the energy again. I'll help form the shell."

Upon hearing Luthien's protest that this was gonna take a long time before she got used to it, she chuckled. "Of course. I'd be really pissed if you mastered it in one or two tries." It was fun and games until their completed marble fell to the ground because it was not the right size.

"... Oh yeah, perhaps that's another hundred tries of practice to correctly pour the magic just enough to be the right size." Finding out the true hurdle of this approach, she sighed, before extending her hand once more. "Store that one, we try again, perhaps visualizing the approximate size of the slot this time?" It's not like people have a scale inside their heads for putting an exact, specific amount of magical energy.

Meanwhile, Ryujin sat on the grass to their side, moving her hands close as if she were trying to make a marble herself.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

It always circled back to that, the lack of knowledge of how masteries—and, by association, magic—worked in this world left many lagoons that Starcalled had tried to figure out themselves… and while a certain degree of success had been made mainly by those in MIT, it was nowhere near what the elf felt it should be for how long some of the players had been involved with TerraSphere.

Especially those unfortunate enough to experience UI locking during the earlier stages of this game.

"You’d think there would be more records in those ruined dungeons we’ve uncovered," Surely the devs had added lore and hints somewhere in this universe… right? "It still feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface of it all."

A soft chuckle escaped when her unnie expressed how upset she would’ve been if the skill had come too naturally for Lúthien, but despite her own grumblings the elf’s focus remained steady in their lesson. She liked being able to spend time with Dayeon, though that was harder to do IRL given their actual locations and busy schedules… the flexibility TerraSphere offered to connect with those Lúthien considered near and precious was certainly another boon of the game that kept her logging back in despite the dangers that lurked here.

With a flick of her hand the too small marble disappeared into the ether, and it would soon be joined by a handful of others of varying sizes as Lúthien continued to struggle in her attempt to find the right size. "F-Finally…!" She was probably close to two dozen’s worth of attempts before a proper marble emerged, it’s fit snug and perfect for the slot in her arrows.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"It still feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface of it all." Hearing that, Lune shrugged, exhaling. "Well, it can't be helped. Before travelers came along, people here were living like cavemen in a dark age setting." There's some outliers of course, like landers who have perfect knowledge and control of their power.

Perhaps those documents exist, and there's an evil cult somewhere hogging all of it. Who knows.

They went back to trying to form the energy sphere, this time it was too big. "Again." Another try, and the size wasn't still right. "Again." She instructed the elf to immediately try once more, to not lose focus and the feel. However, with every attempt, Lune reduced the amount of help and interference she put into shaping the ball, slowly taking off the training wheels.

"Almost there, one more."

And there was it, the exact perfect shape and size.

"F-Finally…!"

"You got it," What she didn't tell the elf was that she barely did anything for this one, except to help seal the sphere. The pace of how much Luthien quickly adapted was surprising. Lune let her take a breath as Ryujin tugged her finger.

"Mother, look." The girl opened her palm, showing her what she had been making in the background while the pair was trying to perfect the technique. "Marble."

Lune raised her eyebrows, looking both surprised and concerned as she picked up the energy ball, examining it slowly. It's rough, but still impressive considering she made it by just looking at the two. "It's great. Be careful when playing with it." She returned the small ball to the girl, before turning to Luthien.

"So, another firing test, or are you gonna save that one?"

@Luthien