I lead the way with Ruby behind me, I take her to the sewage treatment room, it's big and full of pipes and things to blow up. I take her to the center of the room and turn around to look at her.
"Okay, first I'm going to explain the fire beam spell to you to see if you can acquire the skill."
Ruby says "Okay!"
I then explain the spell to her step by step, how it works and what it feels like. She quickly understands and soon acquires the ability and shoots her first fire beam. It hits the pipe she was aiming at, but barely burns it.
"Okay, now I'm going to show you the blue fire beam."
Watch closely as a small blue fireball forms on the tip of my finger and then shoots out. It blows up a section of the pipe and melts it even more.
Ruby says "Wow, that's much more destructive!"
"Yes, but it's very complicated, you have to understand fire to a higher degree to evolve the skill."
Ruby says "Okay, I'll try my best."
So we sit on the floor and I start explaining to her how air is made up of different gases. Once she understands, I explain how fire works and how different things burn in different ways. I ask him to summon a beam of fire without letting go. Then, step by step, I explain to him what I did: first more air flow, then just taking in oxygen and then compressing the flames.
What takes him the longest to understand is the pressure. I have to explain to him why compressing it makes it more powerful and then what forces compress things. It takes us about five hours before he understands enough to evolve his ability to blue fire. When he successfully launches it, something happens that I didn't expect: Ruby is suddenly covered in blue flames.
The heat is so overwhelming that I have to quickly turn around and take cover behind an old tank.
As I take a look around the tank, I can see that all the pipes near Ruby are melting from the extreme heat. She is still covered in blue flames, though they don't seem to be hurting her. In fact, the expression on her face could describe her as ecstatic.
"Ruby, are you okay?"
Ruby startles and says, "Oh! I'm sorry, Master, I was distracted, so much just happened!"
"It's okay, Ruby. As long as you don't hurt yourself, do you think you can stop melting the room now?"
Ruby says "What? Oh! Um, give me a second!"
The expression on her face changes from confusion to surprise and then to intense concentration. It takes her a few minutes to control her aura so that the flames die down and the heat drops to normal around her.
When his fireball explodes, it turns the other end of the room into a bright blue inferno; when the flames die down, there are no pipes left and the walls and floor melt slightly.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.
- Congratulations, you have acquired the Blue Fireball magic skill!
√ Blue Fireball
√ Level 1
- MP cost 50
- Inflicts 100 damage in a 30 ft. area.
"Wow, that has awesome destructive power!"
Ruby smiles and says, "Yes, it is! And it's all thanks to you, master!"
"I simply shared some knowledge with you, you did the rest on your own."
Ruby says, "Still, none of this would have been possible without your experimentation. I'm sorry I doubted you, master. But now I'm tired, so I'm going to rest."
Before I have a chance to say anything, Ruby turns into a spirit. I notice that her spirit form is also bright blue just before she reaches into the amulet to rest. I pat the amulet and tell her to sleep well. I turn around to head back to camp, but it hasn't been that long, I'm not really tired or hungry. Then I turn my steps in the other direction and head back to continue exploring the cavern.
The area Ruby threw with her fireball is still too hot to cross, so I have to take the long way around. It takes me a few minutes to remember which tunnels to take to go around, but then it's a direct path back into the cavern.
Once inside the cavern, I turn left and follow the wall, counting my steps as I go because with the terrain it's hard to calculate distances and I want the map to be as accurate as possible. I also try to memorize the positions of the pillars as I pass them.
As I follow the wall, it soon begins to descend and I pass within fifteen feet of the place we chose to climb up to the lake. The path narrows as the cliff face rises to my right; soon there is only about five feet between the wall and the cliff face. Soon it feels more like a tunnel as the path continues to descend; the roar of the waterfall becomes quieter.
Then the trail curves a bit, and as I go around the bend, the roar of the waterfall becomes overwhelmingly loud. I stop as the path ends, the walls open up a bit and five feet in front of me is a pool into which the waterfall falls. The waterfall is only about thirty feet high, but the walls wrap around the pond and magnify the sound.
The only outlet I can see is the small river flowing out of the pond through the cavern wall. Judging by its size and my location, I think it is the river that runs through my camp. I'm about to turn around and leave when something shiny catches my eye. As I approach the edge of the pond, I can see something shiny in the waterfall.
I take a few more steps closer until I can see a crystal spur barely sticking out of the waterfall. What's more, I see a shadow behind the waterfall - could it be a cave? I guess there's only one way to find out.