Weaving together a stream of Mana, I breathed Winter into the world right at the edge of the bluff. A layer of frost started growing on the ground below where the Mana was hanging. Then, looking around on the ground, I found a pebble and chucked it into the field of Winter.

The moment it touched the field, it froze in place mid-air.

"The way Novi instilled the idea of Winter in me was as a medium of control. Since control and stillness go hand in hand, this is the easiest thing to do with it besides making ice. I also got a Strand that improves upon Winter. It's supposed to improve 'control over myself' immensely. But I have no idea what that means beyond being more resistant to mental effects." I said. To be fair, I hadn't done much testing as to what it could mean, but I'd been busy for the past few days, so who could fault me for that? "I'm not instilling this Mana with my Strand at all, though."

Autumn nodded slowly and walked around the frozen spot. I wasn't sure what insight they were pulling from my Mana, but they were focusing so intently, I didn't want to interrupt.

"What happens when you let go of the rock?" they asked when they seemed to have gotten what they wanted.

"It just continues its path of motion as if I hadn't done anything to it," I replied, then released my hold on the Mana. As soon as the Winter began dispersing, the pebble resumed its course through the air as if it had never stopped.

A cold sea breeze blew the newly frigid air towards me, and I pulled my cloak tighter in response. The chill felt refreshing but I enjoyed my fantasy.

Autumn hummed like a branch creaking under the weight of snow.

"What happens if you try to have the rock build momentum while it's sitting in place?" they asked. To which I had no answer, I had never tried instilling that kind of Intent into the Mana.

In my internal circuits before releasing the Mana, I instilled the idea of an object building momentum alongside the usual transformation I apply to turn Nature Mana towards Winter.

Then I did the same thing as before, I created a field of Mana and threw another pebble in.

This time, I could feel the Authority I was using to hold the field together slowly draining as the rock sat there. That was the only indication something different was happening, as otherwise it appeared the stone was still perfectly still… Wait, is it moving slightly?

Walking up to get a closer look, I could see the pebble was slowly dragging itself through the field of Winter. Very slowly accelerating, but still accelerating.

"Huh, that's new." I poked the rock, and the direction it was moving adjusted slightly in response to the way I pushed it.

"It would work better with an object or material aligned with, preferably snow, but ice would work too, I think," Autumn said, drawing my attention away from the stone that was starting to draw more and more of my Authority to do whatever it was doing.

"Why's that?" I asked, and a moment later, I noticed the pebble was starting to drain more Authority than before.

"Your version of Winter acts as a kind of Winter's Fury. It's replicating an avalanche, which is interesting because the kind of Winter I usually see, embodied by stillness, is one of death. This isn't that at all. If yours were trying to replicate death, the rock would have dropped the moment you let go, all momentum lost. Instead, you're saving the—"

They were interrupted when the amount of Authority required to hold the rock in place had started to increase exponentially. I burned through over ninety percent of my reserves in a couple of seconds trying to wait until they finished speaking. I even started rerouting Mana to generate more Authority.

That wasn't enough. The rock slipped out of my grasp, vanishing so quickly I didn't even see it move. In its place, I heard the sound of a whip crack and a rumbling like thunder from out over the ocean in the direction I had thrown it.

"All the momentum until you finally release it all at once." Autumn finished when the rumbling finally finished.

I just nodded.

"I think it may be best that you figure out how to use that effectively before we explore anything else. If you are having trouble maintaining your control over it when you let go, then you'll probably need more practice with your aura," they continued, which didn't sound quite right to me. "It makes sense, you just gained access to it, and your aura is something that you have to train yourself to use. Your Spirit stat should help as well if it includes what I think it does."

So other people did have Authority as a kind of spiritual muscle. That was interesting. I think I preferred that I had to pay Mana to use it in exchange for it acting personally. I could see someone else preferring it the other way, though. A warrior or other close-range fighter, for example.

"Oh, no, I don't feel any exertion using my Authority. That just burned through all of my reserves of it faster than I could generate more. It only started ramping up in cost while you were speaking, and I didn't want to interrupt," I replied.

Autumn blinked blankly at me, "What?

"I don't actually generate any myself. I have to use an artificial source that I store inside my head. I found the material right before I met you, actually, now that I think about it." I tapped my head and drew my flesh apart for a moment to show the Authority Core I had stored in there. Then, I snapped it back in place once I saw they got my point.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"That's not right… You should be able to create it yourself, like anyone else," Autumn replied, their vines twisted together, then unwound in what looked like pensiveness.

Well, I think I know why that isn't happening.

I shrugged, "Just another thing that broke about my species when it was nerfed."

"Can you look at mine now? It kind of works similarly to Ellie's, but it isn't quite the same. We have different Strands after all," Novi asked.

A frown crossed Autumn's face for just a moment before disappearing, "Sure. Let's start with the same exercise. I have no idea how a Concept could affect your overall development."

"I'm gonna start working on making materials. Let me know when you're done and ready to help, Novi." I said as I walked away to find an open space to start setting up a base of operations. I figured if we were going to take the time to do this properly, I might as well make myself comfortable

''Kay!" Novi called out after me.

The ground was uneven enough to the point that this wasn't as simple a task as one might think. I could knock the normal trees scattered about down with a wave of my hand, but unless I wanted to start filling the ground in, it would be annoying to try to build anything on the top of the bluff.

Which is why I chose to hang it off the side attached to a solid granite boulder. After looking over the edge to make sure it wasn't at any risk of falling, I stretched my newly generated Authority downwards. Using [New Growth], I grew a half dozen drill-shaped roots made of Scorchbranch and started drilling them into the boulder, using Nature Mana to physically control the material alongside bursts of Winter to help break apart the rock.

Not that I needed to do that much. Material I grew using [New Growth] had my Stats, meaning the wood was several times stronger than the rock.

Once the roots were in place, I built a platform, then connected it to the root anchors with long, thick, rigid poles with a wide pad footing to prevent them from wobbling.

Adding two tall poles to each side of the platform, I connected them with cables to the ground at my feet. Drilling into the rock once again.

From there, all I had to do was build a bridge out to the platform, and I was technically done. Or at least I could let go of it with my Authority, no longer needing to hold the whole thing in place.

This would never pass inspection and would kill anyone inside were it built on Earth out of normal materials. Still, unless somebody came along and started cutting the support beams, this wasn't going anywhere.

Also, if it fell while I was inside it, I'd probably be fine. That was the main reason I didn't give a shit about trying any harder.

On top of the platform, I simply used regular Nature Mana to manifest a wooden bungalow. The wood was covered in bark, but it had a unique aesthetic that I kind of liked.

Just to test it and make sure I wouldn't be hurt if it fell, I threw myself off the cliff. When I hit the ground, I bounced and rolled. Other than being completely covered in dust and gravel, I was fine.

I took a moment to brush myself off, then took the path up the cliff.

"Did you just fall off the cliff?" Novi asked once I reached the top.

"Yeah, I had to test that the fall wouldn't hurt me." Obviously, why else would I have?

She just shook her head, "Alright, whatever, I'm done. What are we making?"

"Are you going to show me what your version of Winter does, or are you dodging that intentionally?" I asked.

Novi just sighed and pointed over to where she and Autumn had been working. There was a spot that was a lot darker than the rest of the landscape. I tilted my head and saw that the dark patch seemed to be a specific spot in the air.

"So what? You make things darker? Are you using a pretend version of Shadow Mana?" That seemed kind of dull. I see why she was embarrassed. Being able to launch objects at hypersonic speeds was much cooler.

"It's supposed to be an endless night. You know the Winter solstice or something like that." She replied.

"Like, endless, endless?" I asked, walking over to the dark spot.

I tried passing my hand into it. My hand disappeared into the dark smudge.

"Well, I don't know how to remove it. So endless for now."

"What happens if you try to do something like this?" I grew a Light circuit onto my finger, turned it on, then poked it into the dark patch.

My finger was swallowed up by the dark yet again. I wiggled it around and suddenly could see my finger again. The darkness was removed only in the exact space where the Light circuit passed over. Which meant it could be cleared, but it would be a massive pain unless someone mopped it up with Light Mana.

"Huh, well, it's resistant enough that it could be useful. I am certain that it will be incredibly annoying to deal with if you just coated literally everything with it. Can you see through it when channeling your Strand?" I asked, noting I needed to check how my Strand interacted with the momentum buildup thing. I might be able to do that with myself, but I'd need a lot of fine control not to send myself into a wall at hypersonic speed.

Novi just nodded.

"Cool, I don't know what you want to do while we're busy, Autumn, but you can watch us do some chemistry if you want."

"What are you doing playing with chemicals?" Autumn asked, clearly never having heard of the subject.

"Alchemy, material transmutation, whatever term you use here," I tried with a chuckle.

"A stupid activity people do to poison themselves? Now I'm even more confused." They said back to me, brows furrowed.

My clarifications clearly weren't helping when I was converting my definitions of the words into Rootspeech.

"Alchemical transmutation," Novi said, actually putting the normally used meaning in instead of my own personal definitions. Completely ruining my fun.

"You know what, I'll just wait outside. The building you built looks like it's about to collapse," they said, then walked over and started growing a small hut out of roots at the end of the bridge.

That was probably for the best. I didn't want to poison them with some kind of herbicide accidentally.

As I passed by Autumn, I tapped them on the shoulder and pulled them into a hug when they turned around. "Missed you, friend."

Autumn let out a chuckle like branches being rubbed together. "I missed you too, now go on. Novi looks like she wants to get started."

Walking into the house that hung over the bluff, I opened the menu, which listed new potential materials. The categories were the same, but when I opened Trivial, I noticed dozens of new options.

I let out a long breath and turned to Novi, "Okay, so what do you want to prioritize?"

"Well, I do have a few ideas. But could we build me a doll body first? I'm not interested in trying to perform fine manipulation on tools with these," she said, tapping her claws together.

"Fair enough," I sighed and started building it. I knew she could do it herself, but she appreciated that I was giving special attention to it for her. This meant even more of my Wit being sequestered away, but I was going to get some more from when I levelled up Greenweaver, which should happen soon, hopefully.

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