Rainfall welcomed Vivi to Paradise.

Heavy rain, though not quite comparable to the violent downpours of Fellwater, where droplets hammered against the steel roofs loudly enough to make conversation difficult. This rain was calmer, each droplet landing softly on leaves, flowers, tree bark, as well as Vivi’s face as she lay on her back. The wet cold grass quickly soaked her dress from below, rain tapping on the fabric from above.

She lay there for a while, admiring the dark clouds, accepting her drenched fate as the rain thoroughly soaked her. Memories from home flowed in. When the weather was just right, the rain heavy enough to send townsfolk inside but not so violent that it was painful, Vivi sometimes headed outside to just stand there, atop the hill outside the smithy, doing nothing, perhaps visualizing her next runesword, and bathing underneath the comfort of rain.

“Looks like it’s another tragedy over here,” Lucius eventually said.

Hopefully it was Veronica, Vivi thought. She pushed herself up, and rain dripped from the fabric of her dress. The hem clung to her leg stubbornly.

“This is why raincoats are superior,” Vivi said. “You never know when it’s going to rain.”

Lucius gave her a deadpan look. “You know, you’re wearing moonweaver’s silk, right? It’s immune to rain if you push ether into it.”

“Really?” Vivi said, raising her eyebrows. She tested it out, adding a light amount of ether to the dress.

Suddenly, rain was pushed out of the fabric, replaced with a glowing coating of ether. Rainfall tapped on its fabric as if it was as solid as a raincoat, no more rain making it inside her body.

Vivi’s eyes grew sparkles. “Oh, wow. It works!”

Lucius floated beside her proudly. “See, no more need for raincoats.”

Vivi grinned at him, possibilities running through her mind. “What if we make a raincoat out of moonweaver’s silk?”

Lucius’s grin fell. “Seriously? That’s what you take away from this?”

“Well, a dress doesn’t have a hood,” Vivi said. Rain still fell on her head, soaking her hair. Although, she didn’t particularly mind. She smiled at the forest, hopped around a bit, before picking a good spot.

Well, then, she thought. Two strings of ether. How do you think we can achieve that?

“Uhh,” Lucius said. “If I were to guess…I don’t know. I have no idea, Vivi. My old wielder was a bit weird with this. He liked to channel ether more than ascension skills. During our later months, he figured out some weird method to use ascension skills.

”

Vivi tilted her head, noting that Lucius had said months, not years. Had his stay with his old wielder been short, then? She’d have to ask later.

I guess we can only try and see what happens, Vivi thought. Give me a light coating of ether.

She gave a mental command to Lucius to shape the amount of ether she wanted. Even now, Lucius was ultimately in control of the amount of ether Vivi could use—if he didn’t want Vivi to have ether, he could block off access—but he had followed Vivi’s mental requests regarding where and when she wanted ether channeled. He did so quickly, almost automatically, providing ether in the instant that Vivi requested ether to be shaped.

The light coating entered her muscles. Vivi tried to feel what was going on in her body. She didn’t feel pressure in her muscles yet. As a test, Vivi requested more wisps, slowly adding more, while focusing deeply on the feeling within her muscles.

The feeling was still pleasant, as if her muscles were receiving a mild massage. As she added more, however, a slight pressure settled within her body, growing stronger the more wisps she added. The ether felt powerful, of course, but now that she focused deeply, that power wasn’t added to her muscles.

It looks like Tsarvan’s explanation was right, Vivi thought. After a certain point, ether doesn’t enhance my muscles. Instead, ether takes control. It’s almost like a fight happens between my muscles and the wisps on who is in control. With enough ether, my muscles just lose.

“This is getting a bit complex, Vivi,” Lucius said.

Of course it gets complex, Vivi thought. We’re trying to use the equivalent of two exalted ascension skills at once. But I doubt we’ve figured out anything at all yet.

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Vivi lowered the amount of ether back to what felt like a relaxing massage. Moving her hands, she still felt her muscles clearly working, though her limbs were practically weightless.

If I understood Tsarvan correctly, Vivi thought. This coating is supposed to protect me underneath the effects of an ascension skill. The thousands of wisps will be channeled as a separate layer. Though I suppose we aren’t using skills. Just an ascension, then?

“Yeah, that sounds about right,

” Lucius said. “Shall we test it out?”

Vivi nodded and took a comfortable position underneath a tree. She closed her eyes and focused entirely on what happened inside the ethereal realm. Let’s start small. Fill me with your regular reserves and burn around five thousand wisps.

“I don’t think burning five thousand is considered small, Vivi,” Lucius said.

I want to see what happens, Vivi thought. You can burn wisps in Paradise without wasting them in the real world, right?

“Yes, although those wisps will be spent in Paradise,” Lucius said. “They’ll come back in a month or so. The system is a bit weird. Transferring wisps in Paradise makes me lose them, until the dream realm resets on a monthly cycle. Then I’ll be back at whatever number that we have in the real world.”

Odd, Vivi thought. But we do have millions of wisps. Plenty to try things out. Burn it.

She pushed five thousand ether to Lucius’s core, pushing him well above his five thousand maximum. Then, she placed all of her focus on the protective layer of ether around her muscles. She clung to it, just like she did when channeling ether. The sensation was similar to holding onto a twig poking out the side of a cliff.

The ascension invaded her body like a storm, immense power filling her. Lucius’s regular reserves and the ascension combined for a total of ten thousand wisps, the same as one exalted ascension skill. She felt like an explosive campfire, burning as she sat underneath the tree.

Her protective layer was immediately attacked. Vivi clung to it with all she had, holding tight to the little twig, while an avalanche of wisps flowed on her from above. Her hold began to slip, and the twig itself—her protective layer—threatened to snap.

The ten thousand wisps won. Vivi’s hold slipped, and the protective layer broke, its wisps blending in alongside the ascension. She was left unprotected, wisps pillaging inside her body.

She felt powerful. A simple punch would have destroyed a boulder. She had the urge to call Moonlight and just swing at something. She resisted it, having to remind herself that this was practice.

Beneath the power, if she focused deeply, Vivi could feel her body in pain. Just as Tsarvan said, the concentrated ten thousand wisps were fighting inside her. They were pressurized, and that pressure caused damage from the inside.

Most of the pain came from her head. She felt a headache forming. On one hand, her instincts felt sharp, but on the other, it was hard to think, as if a blockade had been placed on the logical side of her brain.

Her body still felt surprisingly fine. Exhaustion formed in real time; Vivi could feel her muscles growing weaker, as if she was carrying something immensely heavy. Slowly, the sensation evolved from exhausted to painful as her muscles tried to give up.

That’s good, call it off,

Vivi thought.

“Did it work?” Lucius asked. He stopped focusing, and the pull from Vivi’s core lessened. This caused wisps to dissipate into the air rapidly, freeing her from ascension.

I believe I understand the idea, Vivi thought. I kept the protective layer active for a moment. And it certainly helped. When it was swept away, the ascension grew a lot more painful. We just need to practice keeping the protective layer active.

“Yes, I saw something similar,” Lucius said. “The light layer of wisps fought against the ascended wisps. But the force was too powerful, and they were swept along.”

Vivi was surprised that Lucius actually understood what was going on. But she supposed it made sense. Theory was what confused him. When he could actually see what was happening, he could intuitively understand.

Let’s keep practicing, Vivi thought. Five thousand wisps is definitely too much. For now, let’s start with our basic ascension skill and slowly move up the amount of ether.

Practice continued. The first hour went by with moderate success. She fumbled around, clinging to her protective layer, while a total of five thousand and five hundred wisps flowed in her body. Keeping the protective layer active was easier, of course, but a new problem made practice difficult.

The amount of wisps provided by basic ascension just didn’t hurt. Vivi could withstand it without the slightest problem. She barely even felt weight. She asked Lucius, Do people normally feel pain from basic ascension skills?

“That depends,” Lucius said. “I’ve seen people that start feeling pain at less than two thousand wisps. Some fighters need to channel ether, and keep protective layers, even without ascension skills.”

Interesting…

After performing a few tests, Vivi found out that the level at which she started to feel mild discomfort was at around six thousand wisps. Seven thousand started to exhaust her muscles, and beyond that ether got painful, though still not unbearably so even up to ten thousand.

“Most wielders would just die at ten thousand,” Lucius said. “Your affinity with ascension skills is very good, Vivi, as I have said.”

Vivi wasn’t certain how to feel about that. Somehow, she was naturally talented. She found that unexpected. Her core had been in debt all her life. It didn’t make sense that she was actually good at withstanding ether. Logically, it should have been the opposite. With her core so much in the negatives, her tolerances for ether were never trained.

Unless a negative number had somehow strengthened her core all throughout her life. Vivi found that unlikely.

Regardless, Vivi didn’t complain. Her affinity with ascension skills was an opportunity, which she would use to its maximum. She continued training for another two hours, until the theory she’d learned started to make sense in practicality as well.