"You need some help?" Ning asked.
"No," he said. "I need to learn to do this by myself. Once you leave, senior, I will need to take care of my sister and myself. So, I need to learn how to do this now."
He kept on striking the stones and did manage to create some sparks, but nothing substantial enough to light a fire.
"You really don't need my help?" Ning asked again.
"I— I probably do, but I also want to do it myself," Famir said.
Ning thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you do this? Just think of the fire burning, and then try it. Just imagine a fire in your head and think of it appearing in front of you."
Famir squinted his eyes and looked at Ning. "You want me to use Aether?" he asked.
"I-I don't know what you mean," Ning looked to the side and started whistling while continuously looking towards Famir from time to time.
Famir looked towards the door and then turned to Ning. "Do you think I should do it?" he asked.
"Other people are desperate to learn how to use Aether, and you are letting go of such an amazing opportunity. Do you really think it's alright?" Ning asked him back.
Famir thought for a second and nodded. "Yes, you are right. I will try," he said and turned around. He seemed to have stopped caring about what his sister thought and started using the gift he had been given.
He closed his eyes and visualized fire. Even as Ning watched, a spark appeared in front of Famir that grew to become an open flame.
'Ah! He got the location wrong. I should go help him with the woo—' Ning stopped where he was. Suddenly, the fire in front of Famir that was being lit, moved forward until it reached the dried leaves and started lighting it on fire.
"Woah!" Ning said in surprise which broke off Famir's attention. He opened his eyes to see the fire in front of him and a rush of excitement shot up through his body.
"I did it! Senior, I did it! I invoked fire," Famir shouted out as he jumped up and down.
"You didn't only invoke it, Famir. You manipulated the fire as well," Ning said.
"What? I manipulated the fire?" Famir said in surprise. "That can't be. That would mean I'm a—"
"A Dual Aether user, Yes!" Ning said.
"That's… I can't believe it. Let me try once more," Famir said. "I will try to manipulate something." Famir put a small leaf out to the side and started focusing.
"Hwoooo" Famir exhaled and tried to concentrate on moving the leaf. His Aether in his Sea of Aether started bubbling soo and the leaf started to move a little.
It then slowly flew up and went where Famir wished. "Haha," Famir's excited laugh could be heard as he moved the leaf more and more.
Ning looked towards the leaf with a smile on his face as well. Just as he was watching it, the leaf fell to the ground.
"Why did you drop the leaf?" Ning asked and looked behind only to see Famir who was falling to the ground. Ning immediately caught him with telekinesis and slowly laid him on the ground.
"Don't worry, you're fine. Just use the technique I taught you a few days ago, okay?" Ning said.
"Okay," Famir grunted to answer and concentrated. Ning could see the kid's skin change patterns as the pores opened up and devoured a lot of impure Aether at once.
Finally, Famir got control of his body and slowly stood up. "Urghh… this feels horrible," he said.
"You have impure Aether right now. Go and refine it. Once you are done, you can finally stop feeling like this," Ning said.
"Later, I have to cook the f— "
"Go! I can cook it," Ning said.
Famir felt a little conflicted. "Okay," he finally accepted and went back inside.
"Damn, he really did it. A Dual Aether user, huh? Even I feel a little jealous. Good for him," Ning thought and got to cooking the food.
He looked at the ingredient he had and shook his head. "They don't have that many spices huh? I should get them a few seeds," Ning thought.
He asked the system to create a few spices that he felt were crucial to every meal and cooked the stew. He exchanged the dried meat for some fresh meat from the beasts he killed in the secret realm, and a few rare ingredients as a better substitute for the vegetables.
Once it was done, he took the stew into his storage space to keep it hot until it was time to eat. Famir was still refining the Aether and Mavenna was busy reading the books.
Even though she hated Aether, she was quite engrossed in the knowledge. 'She is his sister after all,' Ning thought. Seeing that they were both busy, he decided to do a quick run to the mountain and gather some energy.
He teleported to near the seal and quickly touched the barrier. He immediately gained the total cap for the day.
"Wait, don't I… Status" he asked to see the status.
A blue panel appeared in front of his vision as well as inside his mind. His eyes shined a little when he realized that he had finally done it. He had finally collected 10 Billion Kinetic energy.
"Aside from that… I have less than 3 billion energy left," Ning sighed as he saw that. Aside from that indestructible marble, he still had a lot of different things to buy, and he was getting a little annoyed.
"I will just get the rest of the energy through the Aether Absorption technique since I can't absorb this with sound," he thought. "System, buy the energy cap double for Kinetic energy," he said.
<Are you willing to spend 10 Billion Kinetic energy to double the energy cap?>
Ning had been planning this ever since he came to Vilmore, so he didn't hesitate at all and answered, "Yes."
