"What kind of choices? Like what you're going to summon next?" Clementine asked curiously, her hand on the bandages that Ashton just put on her arm.
"No, I already know that. You need specific ingredients and offerings for specific summons. Especially for a Low-Grade contract, which is a step above all the ones I've made so far. Once you've sorted the ingredients, just making the ink is going to take a few hours," Ashton called the undine out of his vessel, and she swam out of the bottle of water he had under his cloak. "The wisp and undine both reach level 10, so it's time for them to advance. They trust me enough to give me the choice, even though it's probably going to be a permanent change for them."
John curiously leaned forward. "That's the thing where you personalise things about your class, right?"
"Sort of. You choose a path when your class reaches level 10, you refine your skills when they do, and in the case of the summons, they advance. But yeah, depending on what exactly you do, you get different options offered to you. For example, I walked down the 'Path of the Magician' when I reached level 10," Ashton said, as he pulled up the advancement windows for both of the elementals. "I can only recommend leaning into any weird or specific things you want to work toward. Like Jacky, shooting multiple arrows, shooting especially far away, or shooting as fast as possible one after another."
"I've been trying to do that force-boost thing that you told us about, would that give me a specific 'path'?" John asked, excited at the idea. Ashton shrugged. He didn't know the details, but he figured so.
"Maybe. The only way to know is for you to keep going. The actual options you're given can be pretty cryptic too. It's not like you'll be told exactly what skill you'll get after you make your choice, though you can get descriptions when choosing the way to refine the skills you already have. Now shush, I need to concentrate."
The others seemed excited, and started talking about what they might want to try to do to move along their class. But Clementine stayed quiet. She was just silently sorting through the materials. Ashton had a good idea of why she was acting like this, but there was no reason to talk about this in front of everyone else. Giving her a bit of time to think and calm down after everything that happened to her until now wasn't a bad idea, either.
Plus, he really needed to let the elementals advance.
First, he focused on the options for the wisp.
[Elemental Advancement | Lesser Wisp]
[Elemental Fusion]
[Multiplicity]
[Spell Storage]
[Spiritual Sensitivity]
Luckily, it seemed like the advancement options were pretty clear.
Elemental Fusion would help the wisp take on other elements somehow. Spell Storage would probably let Ashton place multiple spells within the wisp at a time and just swap them out. Multiplicity was a trait that some elementals developed that allowed them to split themselves up into multiple versions. While it only minimally helped channelling, depending on what the summoner was trying to do, it did double the output of the elemental when they were doing something on their own. Each 'multiple' wasn't as strong as the original, but in many cases it was still a massive improvement in efficiency. Plus, with the wisp specifically, Ashton could actually think of a lot of ways this could be useful.
But then, there was Spiritual Sensitivity... that was probably the one that was the most useful to Ashton right now. If he chose that option, he might be able to actually sense things the way he did right now even at his full channelling range. It would probably also improve the power of a lot of spells.
If Ashton had to make a choice for himself, he would choose the latter. It was going to make things better for him in almost every way. But... he felt that 'potential' within the wisp earlier. Now that he had the four options in front of him, he could feel those options within the potential. And with his raised familiarity with the wisp, he could also tell their emotions, and had an inkling of what they preferred.
It wanted to go the route of 'Multiplicity'. Ashton wanted to go for 'Spiritual Sensitivity'. And the wisp had given Ashton the choice, which meant that he was practically given permission to just do what he thought was best.
There was a basis of trust there, and it wasn't like the wisp hated the idea of going for Spiritual Sensitivity... they just really wanted the Multiplicity.
In any other situation, if he were dealing with a beast, demon, or spirit, then Ashton might choose what he wanted in this sort of situation. But with elementals, it was a bit more complicated. They were conceptual beings with their own ego. If the wisp preferred Multiplicity, then there was probably a reason for that. It was likely that this was the route they were meant to go down.
'Well, it's not like the wisp is the only option for me to see properly,' Ashton thought to himself.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[You have chosen for the [Lesser Wisp] to advance through [Multiplicity]
[Contract | Lesser Wisp has gained the ability [Multiplicity]]
And while that change was now settling in the wisp's form, Ashton quickly moved on to the undine. Here, there wasn't one that he particularly preferred over the others.
[Elemental Advancement | Lesser Undine]
[Automatic Response]
[Compression]
[Elemental Volume]
State Change]
Automatic Response seemed to be borne from the fact that Ashton kept using the undine to instantly cover the mouths of any monsters that came into his range, and would probably let that happen without him having to even think about it. It might be a pretty good defensive tool, now that he couldn't see.
Compression and Elemental Volume felt quite similar in essence, somehow. The former would allow him to force the water he could currently control into a smaller space, to pack more of a punch, and the latter would allow him to simply control a larger amount. These just seemed pretty solid options to increase the combat efficacy of the undine.
But then, there was the last one. State Change, it was the one that the undine's potential was leaning toward. He remembered this ability too, from the studying he did on elementals.
This was the one that could probably change the way Ashton used the undine's magic the most. He had already done it a few times by turning the water into some kind of mist, but it was hard and forced, and there was a limit to what he could do with that. But the 'State Change' route would probably change that. The ability referred to the states of matter, or more simply, solids, liquids, and gases. Technically there were more than that, but Ashton doubted he would be able to bring water into a plasma state, and he didn't even understand any of the other ones.
If he remembered right, it wasn't like this ability would change the temperature of the water. The solid water wasn't ice, and the gaseous water wasn't steam. It was the same temperature that the regular water he was controlling was. That fact would limit what he could do with this ability.
"Then again..." Ashton whispered, smiling. "What if I make hot water solidify around a monster?"
Plus, theoretically, if Ashton could change the state of water, then he should be able to stop the change, too. With the salamander's magic, he could force water into a boiling state without letting any energy escape. He could combine it with a frost spell placed into the wisp to create extremely sub-zero steam. That would basically give him a way to weaken any future lizardmen he fought against. Plus, other cold-blooded creatures.
Too bad that most wyverns were hot blooded, otherwise this would be a great thing to use against the one in Drakewood.
Either way, this time, the choice was simple.
[You have chosen for the [Lesser Undine] to advance through [State Change]
[Contract | Lesser Undine has gained the ability [State Change]]
[Contract | Lesser Undine's ability [State Change] has been absorbed by the innate ability [Water-Born]]
Ashton smiled as he looked through the notifications. First, he pulled the wisp closer to himself. He could feel the new ability within the elemental, and by channelling it, knew instinctively how it could be activated.
With just a single thought, the wisp split into two forms, shrinking slightly. The total volume of mana that made up their bodies was the same as before, though.
"What just happened? Did you summon another wisp?" Oliver stared over at Ashton surprised, and he quickly shook his head.
"Nope. That's a new ability they gained just now called 'Multiplicity'. Right now they're limited to two bodies, but that's going to change as they level up more," Ashton explained happily, moving his hand around. One of the wisp's bodies followed his index finger, the other his middle finger, and he made the two bodies dance around each other. Of course, this was still one being, they just had two bodies now.
Either way, they seemed happy. Really happy, actually.
"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying this." Both of the wisp's bodies shrank down as far as they could, and nuzzled into Ashton's hand, where they slowly fused back together. And while that was the case, and they were showing their appreciation, Ashton focused on the undine.
He channelled the elemental and collected some rainwater. The moment he did and tried to move it, he could feel something else shifting. It was an awkward sensation, to say the least. It was like beyond the three axes of space, Ashton was able to move the water down a fourth axis.
He slowly pushed the sphere of water forward along that axis, and it turned into a solid ball of ice. Room-temperature ice, which Ashton quickly confirmed by touching it with his fingertips. As he pulled the ice back into the other direction along that invisible axis, it instead turned into a gas. And with that, it turned fully invisible to everyone at the table.
Though not everyone was looking, the ones that did notice what Ashton just did were a little confused.
"... I've been trying to ignore your muttering and weird hand-movements and stuff this whole time, but did you just make water disappear?"
Ashton smiled and shook his head at Jacky's question, "No, actually, I turned it into steam."
"Steam? You can do that now? So you can change the temperature of the water you control?" John asked and curiously furrowed his brow. "There's no mist at all, so it's not cooling in the slightest?"
"There's nothing to cool," Ashton said, flicking his wrist as he pushed the steam toward John.
Instantly, he flinched and jumped up from his seat, "The fuck are you–" he started yelling, though a moment later, his mind actually caught up and he felt his face. It was wet from the bits of the steam that got stuck to his skin. "That... wasn't hot."
"Exactly. I'm just changing the state, not the temperature."
John narrowed his eyes. "That doesn't make any sense. The change in the state of matter happens because of the change in kinetic in molecules, which is caused by the increase of heat."
Ashton shrugged. "Uh, honestly I've never thought about it too deeply in that direction, but I guess the gist is that the molecules are moving faster because of magic, and not heat. Or something, I don't know. We can chat about that more later if you want to figure out some details."
"... Yes. Yes, let's do that, please," John replied as a grin formed on his face. He started swatting the air, trying to feel the cold steam again. Ashton could see that he was trying to figure out how he could do something like this on his own. Hell, maybe he'd be able to figure that out once he was able to control mana properly. He sure as hell knew more about physics than Ashton did, having studied physics before all this happened and all.
Now that he had taken care of these tasks for now, there were just a few more things to do. For one, Ashton had to start charging up the random item box that he got after killing the draconid, so that he could maximize the quality of the item he got out of it, and he had to prepare the rest of what he needed to summon the Salesman.
On top of that, Ashton had to find the rest of the Marked that he had to kill for the Executor's quest, and also find the time to go back to the elementary school as he had promised Millie.
Ashton smiled and wrote himself a mental checklist, starting to organise his plans for the next few days.