Master Of None

"I told you there were wind elemental materials everywhere! This is the top of a mountain. The winds that hit every single pebble and the plant that survive the cold breeze are everywhere. This is the best place to make the perfect wind elemental arrow!" Zephyr had felt the strength of the materials as soon as she had gotten near the mountains. She was sure that Gil could ignore his desire to make water elemental arrows for a short while. 

"I know, I know. I grabbed every single thing you told me on the climb up. I just don't get why I need to be up here where I can fall to my death at any second to make a proper wind elemental arrow?" There was still confusion in his voice since the materials all seemed to be rocks or pieces of broken bushes or random dried plants. 

"They are wind elemental materials and this is the highest you can get. Wind spirits come up here to blow with the breeze and travel the world. The mana is being directed by nature and it can be condensed better. You will make the best wind elemental arrow ever!" Zephyr had no doubt that Gil would be making an amazing arrow. 

"Alright, I hear you. I will focus and see what we can do." Gil pulled out the piece of wood from the bush he had found dead and dried between rocks. 

"That has been in the cold winds its entire life. It even dried it out and started to fossilize it." Zephyr pointed out the fact that there was no way this broken wooden bush branch wouldn't have wind elemental mana. 

As Gil began to cut off the small imperfections he could, he found that it was radiating wind elemental mana. The piece he had found was small and only able to be cut in to four pieces for arrows. However, there had been many other similar pieces around showing that the bush would have to grow seasonally then die off quickly. 

It did not take long for Gil to balance the pieces and have four rounded arrow shafts. They were not very special but there were many hollowed lines within the wood. "I think the wind started to blow through where the water would travel in the bush this was from. But the constant dry air has almost tempered it." Zephyr was moving about excitedly now that she saw Gil was mumbling with interest. 

The next step was to shape the light rocks that Zephyr had insisted he pick up. The strange part was, that unlike the other rocks around these ones, were light and felt almost weightless. However, Gil had to use a lot of effort to smash and break them in to smaller pieces. The shards from them were what he would make his arrow heads out of. 

He used his dagger and a few other small blunt tools to chip away and create an arrow head shape. It was a rough diamond shape until he started to smooth it. The constant dragging against a tougher piece of rock was a little rough on the ears but to Gil, it was music. 

The rock itself was almost impossible to tell from another. The only factor was the weight, however, Zephyr had already told him it was the exposure to constant wind elemental mana that changed it. The fact that they were on the top of many other rocks was proof they were always being exposed to the windy mountains. 

It was much harder to shape arrow heads to perfection. Yet, when Gil had smoothed the rock and fitted it in to the arrow shaft he could feel an instant connection with the wind elemental mana. The mana was traveling through the arrow shaft and already collecting in the new arrow head. It was a wonder that it worked so well at storing wind elemental mana without any external prompting from Gil. 

His next movements were faster. Gil had become much more interested now that he was seeing how everything was coming together. "Be careful. Those leaves are sharp." Zephy was worried about the final material that she had felt was full of wind elemental mana. The leaves that would be the fins of the arrow. 

"I can see that, they are almost like razors. I can't imagine what plant these are from and I don't think I could grow it anywhere but a mountain." The extremely thin and stiff leaf could easily be confused for a piece of green and white striped metal. The edge could slice through his finger easily, but this was what made it a good material. 

The thin fin would cut resistance and Gil would be able to make the arrow fly through the air much more smoothly and faster using it. The method was simple. Cut the leave halfway up to the point and slide them in to a notch he had cut in the back of the arrow shaft. They would fit perfectly without the need for any additional materials. Even the arrow head was cut perfectly to fit in to the arrow shaft. This was a skill that only someone who had experimented with their own arrows could have. 

When the final piece came together, Gil felt he was looking at an off arrow. The appearance was not shocking but the powerful feeling of wind elemental mana was much stronger than any of the other arrows he had or the arrows that he had seen at the forest elf village. The simple reason? The materials. These materials had given birth to the much stronger ability to absorb and manipulate the wind elemental mana that would be stored within them. 

Gil did not hesitate to start pulling the wind elemental mana around him and focus it in to the arrow head. The entire arrow acted like a sponge to pull in more mana than he intended and expected. This wasn't a problem though, it brought an excited smile to Gil's face.

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