Elemental Cats

Toz woke up surrounded and covered by a bunch of cats. The last thing he remembered was Scrael and Asilean lying next to him. But when he woke up, he found the other three sleeping on his torso.

He didn't want to disturb anyone's sleep, so he closed his eyes again. Despite sensing that Toz had awoken, the cats also continued sleeping. Since Toz was tired enough to fall asleep just like that, he obviously needed his rest, and if the cats showed signs of being awake, he would continue working non-stop until he fixed Scrael's leg.

But despite wanting to let the cats stay sleeping, Toz was too anxious to try out his new elements to continue lying down.

He didn't know much about either element. The void beasts had exposed the island to void magic innumerable times, but Toz had a feeling that the void magic displayed by the beasts was as basic as the void magic could get. It was nothing more than a result of pushing void mana onto the surroundings. Trying to ignite something only by moving fire attribute mana close to it was probably similar. Without creating a phenomenon with the mana, it was simply the mana's nature doing all the work.

Otherwise, it would have been a lot more difficult for a bunch of fourth level beings to resist the magic of a high level void beast.

The most advanced void magic he had seen was the shark concentrating the void mana in its teeth in order to make its attacks even deadlier. It was like hoping a higher concentration of natural fire attribute mana would light a fire faster.

Toz opened his eyes again and lightly shook his body to wake up the cats on him.

Nil and Mindle, who realized Toz was determined to get to work, begrudgingly got up. But Lucy stubbornly persisted and shut his eyes hard enough to crease his brow.

When Toz moved his arms to lift Lucy off of him, he also roused Asilean and Scrael.

Asilean felt slightly embarrassed after getting caught fitting in so naturally with Toz and the other cats, but he didn't let it bother him too long.

The cats sat in a half-circle in front of Toz as they waited for him to try the new elements he had gotten. Even without training and specifically absorbing void and space mana, Toz was able to use them at once, thanks to his pre-existing mana. However, since he hadn't gotten his body used to the attributes at all, the magic would be even worse than magic cast using first level mana. The only difference would be in the amount of mana Toz could use.

Although Toz had seen more void magic, he had gotten a better look into what space magic was, thanks to Asilean when they tried to fight off the swarm of void beasts. So that was what he was going to try first.

Asilean had torn and twisted space itself so that the void beasts ripped apart when they passed through the area that he used his magic to change.

Even if it would be simpler with mana of a higher level, Toz wanted to try something similar, so he channeled space attribute mana into his hand and fingers. Toz dragged his hand through the air, and he could feel space brush against his fingertips. When he pushed harder against that sensation, he managed to create a few ripples in the air.

Toz wanted to continue experimenting, but Asilean had bonded with him so he could use void magic to try and create a leg that would work with Scrael's magic. Learning how to use the void attribute would naturally be his first priority.

However, unlike with space, the only guide Toz had regarding the use of void magic was what he had seen the void beasts do.

So that was where he started.

Asilean was about to help Toz, but the other cats signaled him to let him be. If Toz couldn't stand on his own legs, there wouldn't be a reason for him to have them. For Toz to really learn void magic, he would have to discover the fundamentals of the magic by himself first.

Toz started with a similar approach to how he had used the space mana, he channeled it to his hand and fingers, but he didn't stop there. Toz projected the mana outside his body to see what he could do with it.

The first challenge was that he couldn't see the effects of the mana with his eyes like he could see metal, darkness, fire, or lightning. Toz could only vaguely sense the void mana drifting around in the air above his hand.

Since his eyes weren't of use and only limited what he could perceive, Toz closed them and focused on his mana sense.

The second challenge was that even when he focused his perception on the void mana, he didn't know what it could do.

The other attributes all had clear possibilities of what they could be used to accomplish. Metal could be made and shaped into things. Darkness hid, covered, and devoured. Fire burned and heated. Lightning was fast and powerful. Even space's possibilities were clearer. Toz had seen Asilean blink through space. Toz had also touched on space himself.

However, he didn't know what void magic did other than disperse other magic. And even that was only what void mana did in its natural state.

But at least it was a starting point, so Toz began strictly watching the mana above his hand's interactions with the mana around it. The mana he controlled was so low in quality compared to the mana in the surroundings that it took a few moments of monitoring for Toz to notice.

And when he did, he realized why Asilean had been so sure he would be able to create the perfect leg for Scrael with the help of void magic.

The void mana had begun dissolving the various elements of mana in the air. It didn't break down or change the mana itself. Only how it moved in the air.

Mana of the same element usually clumped together and stayed together in groups. Currently, the mana in the air on the island was a mix of everything the trees gathered from the void, so almost any kind of mana was gathered in small groups of their own attribute.

However, Toz's void mana was slowly changing that rigid structure.

The void mana stopped the other elements from sticking so tightly together. The various attributes began spreading out and mixing around.