Arcane Crest

The Promise

A/N: I've run out of things to say so here something. Thousands of promises are made every day, and they either get broken or kept. The promises that form a lasting bound will always be the ones you remember.

Fernande

Fernande was wondering what could be in the chest that spooked her just moments ago. She knew it was something to do with her training, but what?

'Maybe some kind of ring that made the mana inside me more chaotic. Then I would have to stabilize it... no, it wouldn't be in something so big. Oh, maybe a puzzle where I have to use my earth crest to solve it.'

A river of ideas went through her head, each one making her a bit more excited. Because of this excitement, one could imagine her discontent when she discovered it was filled with sand. Her treasure box of imagination was destroyed by the dull red grains of rock in front of her.

"sand?"

Her voice betraying her Disappointment. Sophia nodded her head and began the explanation.

"you have reached peak capacity for form one, so you shouldn't have to worry about mana shortage in your future. That being said after you reached form two, you will need a good control of that mana in order to level up and move to the next forms."

"I know, Victor had told me. How hard it is to create spells without proper control."

The young girl chirp in while watching the sand fall through her fingers. Sophia nodded her head then turn to Daya gesturing for her to finish the explanation.

"Oh right! So far it seems you've just been lifted heavy pieces of rocks. With this sand... well, it's easier to understand if you experience it. Try creating a ball out of it."

Daya instructed. Fernande nodded her head and brought her left hand over the box with the palm facing down. closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she activated the earth crest. One by one the grains began to float up to Fernande's palm. The rate of the floating sand increased until it was a slow and steady stream up to her hand.

Fernande pictured the sand as water being poured into a sphere shape cup. How it would flat in the beginning; they would become a ball the more water was added. She didn't imagine it all at once, instead, each part of the process was focused on until it was time to move to the next.

It was when the sphere was at five percent did she begin to notice something odd. She felt that her mana storage was 75% from full. Then she made it to 10% of the sand ball's completion and she felt only a tenth of her storage left. A percent later and the girl was straining her mana to keep going. That consent stream was reduced to one or two grains at a time.

In the end, the young lady had to stop or feel the wrath of mana depletion. All the sand she had gathered sounded like rain as they fell back into the box. Fernande also fell to the ground feeling a burning sensation from her right hand. She could hear distant clapping echoing in her ears. Looking towards the sound she saw Daya, who's image kept going in and out of focus.

"Calm down and breath. Straining yourself like that is never good."

The dark elf's words made Fernande acknowledged the tightening feeling of her throat. She started a slow and steady breathing pattern in order not to panic. She needed to focus on regaining mana. Daya nodded her head revealing a smile.

"Going into the danger zone is quite... well dangerous." She rubbed the back of her head a bit embarrassed. "While you regain your energy, think about what happened okay?"

Fernande nodded her head and took a look around. She saw Sophia next to Kiyoshi, who was in the same spot as earlier.

'Such a weird way to meditate.'