Ember yawned as the sun just started to break the horizon. It had been several days since he'd been released from the infirmary, and Chris had been busy. Ember wasn't entirely sure what he was busy with, as Chris wouldn't tell him. In the meantime, Ember spent his free time working on his ichor ability. He had come to learn something called the ichor rotation, in which one pulled ichor into their cup and then breathed out and then pulled it again and breathed out again. It helped to work on control and focus. Of course, nobody told him this. Only after he explained it to Chris did he get a name for it. Chris actually looked shocked when Ember mentioned it. Apparently, it was one of the most basic techniques, but it usually required outside help to learn. Ember was proud of that.

  His scar itched in the cool air, though the sharp coldness made it feel less invasive. Ever since he had received this trophy, as Boulder liked to call it, a lot of people looked at him differently. Some looked at him scared, others impressed. Ember wasn't entirely sure how to take the newfound attention he received, but he tried to not let it bother him.

  He rubbed his hands together as their horses trotted down the well-worn trade routes they were currently on. Every now and then, he caught himself slipping, but he had pretty much gotten used to horseback by this point. Winter is in full effect. The leaves were almost completely gone from the trees. He was familiar with it, after all, he had lived in the mountains for a couple of years. He wasn't looking forward to a Tennessee winter. They could be kind of cold at times, at least so far in this world. He wrapped the fur coat he wore around himself tighter. He still didn't have a ton of clothes, only about two changes, but he had enough to work with. The sky was overcast, making it a dreary, miserable morning.

  Ahead of him, Chris trotted along, quiet, deep in thought. Whatever Chris was working on, it was big. At least, that's what Ember assumed. His companion hadn't really talked to him much, rarely being at the Guild Hall. Ember hoped he wasn't doing anything reckless or stupid, but considering it was Chris, he highly doubted that. He may not know him enough to consider him a close friend, but he knew him well enough that he wouldn't make stupid mistakes if he could avoid them. At least he hoped. Chris didn't say where they were going, just that he wanted Ember to follow him. Ember took his word for it.

  They'd been trotting along for about three or four hours when they came across a lake so large it was impossible to see the other end. Ember wasn't aware of any lakes in Tennessee this big, but he had also learned that even though the shape of this world was similar to his, the content within it was not. I wonder why we're out here. Does he want to go fishing? Ember shook his head at the stupid thought. Nah, Chris wouldn’t waste time doing that when we could just buy our food. He followed Chris as he turned off the beaten path and traced the edge of the lake.

  Ember shivered as the air flowed across the water, straight through his clothes. The fur coat definitely helped, but it was still cold enough for him to feel it. Maybe half a mile inward, they stopped at a small rocky shore that gradually went into the water, black pebbles making up the little beach. Chris hopped off his horse, his boots crunching on the ground below, before turning to Ember.

  "We are here.”

  "We are indeed?" Ember replied, a little confused. "Why are we here?" he asked as he climbed off his horse.

  "To train. Specifically, to train you. I want to start doing dungeon runs soon, and with the way you handle your sword, you are not ready. At the very least, we need to know what your sword's ability is. You remember the meteor?"

  "Yeah," He didn't need any probing about what his sword was capable of. The cathedral and its carnage were still fresh in his mind, but the impact of it had already started to fade. He had realized there was no point dwelling on it. He could not bring those people back, and the chances that he would have to kill again were not zero. All he could hope was that he'd be able to avoid civilian casualties again.

  Chris nodded. "We need to know exactly what the limits of that ability are. Does it have a height limit? If it has a height limit, how does that height limit work? If we use its ability underneath the height limit, is it even effective? How much ichor does it take for you to use it? Can you use it repeatedly? These are the questions we're going to have to figure out before we go into the dungeon, because your ability is extremely powerful. It's a massive AoE attack. But we don't know the limits of it. So, I brought you out here to this lake where you could practice using your ability. This way we don't accidentally blow up half the town or hurt some poor trader who's just walking along a route.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “We'll hurt the fish," Ember mumbled to himself low enough so that Chris couldn't hear him.

  Chris pointed to the lake. "Now, you remember how to activate an ability?" He nodded. "Good. Go ahead and get started."

  Ember swallowed hard as he stepped up to the edge of the lake. Its surface was gray and bleak, much like the sky above. Despite the fact that he had come to terms with what he did at the cathedral, the thought of activating the ability again still made him nervous. As Chris said, he had no idea what the actual limitations of his sword were. He took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm starting now."

  Chris nodded as Ember pulled his blade out and gripped it with both hands in front of him. He closed his eyes and envisioned the cup and the ichor pouring into it. The last several days of training had been a bit of a struggle, but they had produced some decent results. He had been able to turn the explosion of golden liquid into more of a guided rapid. While he couldn't shut it off completely, he was able to turn it into a trickle compared to what it would usually be. Despite gripping the sword with both hands, the coldness from the ichor only went through his right arm. It seemed that ichor always traveled through the dominant limb because that dominant limb was stronger and could hold more. He wasn't completely sure if that was right, but it’s what he thought.

  The coldness seeped into his bones as it pooled into his chest from his shoulder. "How do I know when to activate the ability?" he asked, eyes closed.

  Chris replied beside him, "The general consensus is three-quarters of a full cup is about what is needed to activate an ability if you're a transitional or below. Of course, there are outliers who can activate the ability multiple times in sequence, but in your case, we should probably be careful and try to get your cup at just before it hits the lip. Keep in mind that if you use an ability and you don't have enough ichor, you're going to burn your life force as a substitute."

  "Right," Ember muttered, his heart skipping a beat at that.

  He did as Chris instructed. In his mind's eye, he imagined the ichor flowing into his cup. He rarely had control over how much filled his cup; he didn't really understand how it worked himself, but the cup filled up almost immediately. He did his best to shut off the flow, so it became a trickle. Some still leaked, but at the very least, he wasn't going to accidentally overflow.

  "Okay," Ember said, trembling as he held the ichor within his chest. It felt very similar to holding a breath, if not significantly colder.

  "All right, now force that ichor back into your weapon. The ability will activate automatically once it reaches the threshold."

  "Right," His voice trembled from both the cold outside and the cold inside. With a deep breath, he tried to force the ichor back into the sword. It was not nearly as easy as doing it with the rare weapon he had used against the troll. Before, it had been like shoving water back through a hose. But this was like trying to shove a stream up against the tide. It was not an easy feat.

  For several moments, he struggled to force the liquid from his cup back into his arm and into his sword. After several long moments, it finally went. The ichor poured from his chest back into his arm, down his wrist, into his hand, and finally into the sword. It was a strange feeling, like the cold leaving his body and a hollowness forming in his ribcage.

  The sword flashed. He felt it tremble in his hand and opened his eyes. Above, about three hundred feet high, a ball of fire appeared. It was maybe the size of a small transport truck. As it fell, it grew to the size of a short bus, and a deep roar reverberated through the air. The two watched in amazement as the meteor slammed into the lake with enough force to shake the ground and cause a plume of water to explode some fifty feet upwards. Ember breathed out, and the remaining ichor in his body exited with the breath in the form of a frost cloud.

  "Wow," Chris said as the waves splashed up and around their boots. "It’s stronger than I thought."

  "I'll say," Ember replied warily. It had been strange using the ability. While his body didn't feel tired, it did feel used in an odd way. His mind was exhausted, but his body still brimmed with energy. Ember asked Chris about it.

  "That's how it usually goes," Chris commented as he surveyed the effect of the meteor, the waves still hitting their little beach. "You're not actually exerting any physical effort when you use a weapon's ability. It's all mental. The ichor doesn't come from you — it comes from your sword. The better the ichor, the more mental strength it takes to use. Theoretically, you could drop meteors all day if you had the mental capacity for it. Or at least until your weapon ran out."

  "That can happen?" Ember asked.

  "Of course," Chris scoffed. "All weapons have a finite amount of ichor in them. It's just that weapons of your caliber tend to have higher amounts. Speaking of caliber," he sighed, "you should probably go see a seer at some point. I completely forgot."

  Ember wanted to ask what he meant, but Chris shook his head. "Anyway, we're not done yet. I need you to drop a few more meteors. We both need to know your own limits as well as the limits of the weapon." Chris clapped him on the back. "Now get to it. We've got a long day ahead of us."