60th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era

Just like Lady Alabaster had said, darkness and the small confined space meant little when meditating. And the near-absolute lack of stimuli made the meditation deeper and easier. The hatch above opened, and Newt's eyes adjusted to the light in an instant.

"Welcome to Explorer's Island!" Lady Alabaster already stood outside, and Newt quickly followed.

He looked around at the tropical fortress before him. What little of the island he could see was surrounded by massive walls, all save for the pier standing next to him and the surrounding beach of black sand.

A jungle loomed beyond the wide strip of sand, quite dissonant from the walls in which it ended. As Newt turned, he noticed the walls went into the sea and stretched nearly a mile away from the island. Other than salt sprayed upon him by the docile azure waves, he caught a faint note of smoke in the air. Newt examined the sky and noticed dark-gray plumes rising towards the sky from a distant mountain, which he assumed was a volcano.

A path, fifty feet wide, led into the jungle, beyond which Newt caught glimpses of fortifications sticking out.

"An appropriate level of awe." Lady Alabaster laughed. "You may close your mouth."

Newt left his mouth hanging, focusing on the swirls of dense mana dancing in the air. Blue splashed up with each wave, the forest radiating brown tones tinged with blue, as the pale-green of air, nearly white, mixed with the orange-red brought by the wind blowing from the volcano.

"This place is overflowing with mana," he said, still staring at the scene in a daze.

"Yeeees," Lady Alabaster dragged out the word. "That's why our founders built a chivalric order here. Come on, we have to get you registered and thrown into the meat grinder, I mean, the dormitory."

Newt was certain his master had said something he would not have liked, but the strange feathered pterosaurs flying about grabbed his attention. Their whistles and cries formed a strange symphony of sorts, noisy, yet pleasant to the ear.

He followed his master and stepped onto the black sand as fine as flour, pleasantly scalding to a mageknight with fire affinity. Faint red mana rose from it like thin, hazy vapor, blending with the earth energy.

For some reason, Newt grew drowsy and yawned. He thought about it and recalled sleeping mere two or three days ago. He still had some time before he had to sleep, but the journey had drained him physically and mentally, as did the sleepless night when he was supposed to rest. Unfortunately, meditation was no substitute for sleep, at least not at his realm.

"Hey, snap out of it. You could've slept on the sub, if you were that tired." The sand rippled under Newt's feet, throwing him an inch up into the air, and startling him awake. "Come on, we have to register you, get you your clothes, test you…"

Lady Alabaster chattered about inane things. Newt ignored her, instead observing the jungle. He saw brightly colored frogs as small as his nails, a pair of small feathered saurians with clawed wings, but the weirdest animal he spotted was invisible to his eyes, but his mindcore clearly revealed its silhouette.

"There are invisible saurians?" he asked.

"Yes, but that's just a chameleon. Now, quit gawking around and try to keep up." Lady Alabaster suddenly shot forward. Mana flaring from her and opposing gravity. Newt refrained from further questions and sprinted, jets of heated air bursting from the soles of his feet, turning his run into a rapid series of forward leaps. Soon enough, another wall appeared before them, splitting the jungle.

"Decent speed, considering you're self-taught. Then again, it shouldn't be that surprising, fire is second to air in terms of mobility. Once you attain the fourth realm, you should be able to achieve partial flight. At fifth, most awakened can fly by themselves, but extended flight is still beyond them; even several breaths of flight waste too much mana for those with earth affinity."

Just before they reached the wall, Lady Alabaster landed, moving the final two dozen yards on foot with Newt following behind. A gate emerged from the foliage, and Newt was surprised to see four guards flanking it, all of them fully armored and at the third realm.

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They saluted without a word, and one of them opened the gate without saying a word.

"Those are outer members of the order," Lady Alabaster explained after the gate closed behind them. "The hierarchy is simple. You have outer members, inner ones, this is currently the group you belong in, by the way, and then we have the elites. The difference between these is mostly in talent, but you can climb up or fall from your position depending on your actions. Showing initiative and completing missions and challenges is a good way to make yourself seen. Then there's a direct contest of strength to advance, but you will find out more as time goes by. Sufficient to say that you get to skip being an outer student because you are my personal ward and I vouch for you. Now, can you tell me what you see and feel?"

Newt looked around. They had just passed the wall and another portion of the tropical jungle stood before them. There were all sorts of insects and saurians around, as well as the paved road leading deeper into the island.

"I can see the jungle, and I can feel the heat—"

"I'm not asking about the scenery, but about mana. What do you see and feel?"

Newt focused on the rich, yellowish-brown of earth. Unlike at the edges of the island, the movement was minimal in the jungle. As for feeling, he had no idea what he was supposed to say.

"The mana doesn't seem to be circulating, and it feels richer than in Star's Fall."

Lady Alabaster clicked her tongue. "One quarter of the way there."

She drew a deep breath, mostly out of habit, and started talking.

"The energy isn't stagnant. That's dead zones, and they range from very uncomfortable to be in to outright deadly if they have a higher mana concentration. You don't have to think about those for a long time, and I don't like thinking about them. The ambient energy here is heavily earth and wood aligned. It moves slowly, and the very atmosphere here resists manipulation by air mana. There are areas where the rocks are saturated with air energy, offering you the same resistance, but in general, earth and rock are always earth aligned."

Lady Alabaster turned her head around. "Are you following?"

Newt nodded. His father and Stronggrow had explained similar concepts back when he was a child.

"Mana here is easier to process for awakened manipulating earth, meaning we recover quicker. Fire and water are unaffected, but those with the air affinity will recover slower. You are a dual elementalist, meaning that instead of one favorable, two neutral, and one hostile environment, you get an even split of good and bad."

She pointed her hand towards the sky, then motioned it down as she spoke.

"Air is always around us, and we always touch the earth. Fire and water are a bit trickier. You can just avoid the environment which doesn't suit you, but if you suddenly find yourself dunked in water, you're in trouble. For you, volcanoes are a peak environment, while any storm would make you miserable."

Lady Alabaster turned silent, and Newt wondered what she expected him to say. That, yes, earth was always around, except when they were in the sub, in which he asked her what she knew about it? Did she find it ironic? Did she forget about it?

"What can you do with earth?" The valiant asked, breaking the prolonged silence.

"I can make my skin and body tougher and increase my strength."

Another silent spell lasted a few heartbeats before Lady Alabaster spoke again.

"Aaaand?"

"That's it. I use earth energy to strengthen my body."

Lady Alabaster turned around, the ground moving to carry her forward while her back was turned. She eyed Newt from head to toe.

"You mean, you use the cosmic power of manipulating one of the four basic elements to empower your mighty, skinny physique so you can whack stuff harder?"

His master's unimpressed tone, and the wording of the question made Newt feel like a fool.

"It works really well, and earth has no offensive capability." Newt fell on his face the moment he said those words. The ground pulled at him with a dozen times the usual gravity.

A spike as sharp as a needle as thick as his finger slowly emerged from the ground right before his eyes. Three others poked at his neck, cheek, and temple, but did no damage, merely serving for intimidation.

"Kid." Lady Alabaster loomed over him. "There's no such thing as an element or an awakened without offensive capability. I may seem like an untouchable, beautiful maiden, but I assure you, I have ground plenty of men, women, and beasts into powder with this element, which you think lacks offensive capability."

Lady Alabaster had seemingly taken Newt's docile evaluation of the earth element like a personal insult. Just as Newt's heart and blood decided that maybe pumping further was unnecessary, the pressure disappeared, and he could breathe again.

"Air can suffocate you, water can drown or explode your blood, fire can turn you to ash, and earth can turn you into a smear. Remember, no element is helpless, and you will never again underestimate anyone's destructive force. Otherwise, you will wake up dead one day, wondering what had happened."

Lady Alabaster helped Newt up, lifting him by the scruff of his neck like he weighed nothing.

"And you are twice as lethal, and full of tricks. Using earth only for defense is not a bad move, if it's just an image you're projecting. Having killer attack moves in your defensive elements and some way to mitigate damage in your offensive element may catch the unwary by surprise. Especially if they believe any of your elements is harmless."

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