"Only use my Aether?" Ning asked.
"Yes," Alexis said. "No using of hands or feet when it comes to the actual task you want to do. I will be able to tell it if you do."
"Sigh, okay," Ning said and walked off.
He went around the forest looking for some fruit. Very soon, he came across some growing on the top of the tree.
He wanted to teleport up there and grab it, but that wasn't allowed. He scratched his chin in confusion as using Aether didn't seem to be usable here either given how low his Aether amount was.
'That fruit is too far high. My little Aether won't be able to reach that location, let alone have enough force to pull the fruit off of the branch,' he thought.
He needed to think of some other ideas. He needed to think of some other ways.
"Hmm, if I weren't using my Aether, how would I get that fruit?" Ning thought to himself.
The first way he could think of was to climb up the side of the tree and go grab it. That was basically what he would do with Aether as well.
However, that wasn't possible right now. He was too weak. Then, the second way was to…
"Throw a rock at the fruit and hope it falls," Ning thought. Ning looked down at the ground and picked up a small pebble about a quarter the size of the pear-like fruit in the tree.
"I can only use Aether," he thought and the pebble started floating in his hand. He would then have to use his Aether to forcefu—
Ning lost all control of his body and fell to the ground. He had been paralyzed. 'Dammit!' he thought. 'Just that little use of Aether and I'm down?'
He had really underestimated just how low his Aether was right now. Having had so much Aether for so long, he had forgotten what having little Aether was like.
He used the Abyssal Absorption technique and got back his Aether a few seconds later. He didn't absorb a lot of Aether as that would have likely brought him to the next rank, Aether Student.
Alexis definitely had some plans with him as an Aether Starter.
Once Ning got back on his feet, he decided to do the same thing again. Only, this time, he didn't hastily use his Aether on the pebble.
He first decided to think about what he was going to do.
"Floating the pebble required gravitational energy and that emptied by Sea of Aether very quickly. I need to use something other than Gravitational energy. So… Kinetic energy?" Ning thought as he looked back up at the tree.
"Yeah, no other energy. Just a simple burst of Kinetic energy on the pebble that should propel it in the direction of the fruit.
"If I can get my aim correct, I should be able to get the fruit to drop," Ning thought. He was sure about it.
Ning got ready. With a single burst of use, he threw in all of his Aether onto the pebble to hurl it upwards.
He suddenly lost control of his body and fell to the ground again. Even as he was face down, he saw the pebble hit the branch next to the fruit and do nothing.
Ning's aim was off by just a few centimeters. "Again!" he thought and absorbed a bit of Aether to get back on his feet.
He knew what to do now, so he just needed to keep doing it until he succeeded.
It took him exactly 5 tries to get the fruit off of the tree. Ning gathered some Aether again to heal his paralyzed state and finally picked up the fruit.
He looked at the fruit with a little chuckle as he saw a part of it missing due to one of the time the stone hitting it directly.
'This likely won't be enough. Let's get some more,' Ning thought. He went to the other side of the tree to get some more of the fruit and in less than 30 minutes, he had about 4 of them now.
His aim improved a bit as well. Once he thought that he had enough for the night, he returned back to the small house.
"Oh, you returned quite fast," Alexis said. "It hasn't even been an hour yet."
"Yeah, I got the food," Ning said.
"Where is it?" Alexis asked.
"In my storage," Ning said as he brought out the 4 fruits.
"Remember what I said when you left here an hour ago?" Alexis asked.
"What?" Ning asked.
"That you are only allowed to use Aether," Alexis said.
Ning's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the fruits. "You don't mean to say that I can't store it in my storage either, do you?" he asked.
"That is exactly what I meant," Alexis replied.
"But… these will go bad if I don't store them," he said. "It's not even a cold climate. It's pretty hot out here."
"Then you will have to create something cold to keep it in then," She said.
"Damn, I should make ice to store it on my own as well?" he asked.
"Yes," Alexis said. "Although that can wait for later. Eat something if you're hungry and get ready. You have something else to do now."
Ning nodded and ate one of the fruit he had before asking Alexis what he was to do next.
"Go take one of the branches there and half bury it on the ground," she said.
Ning nodded and did as he was told to. He took one of the branches and half-buried it so that it stood like a stump on the ground.
"Alright, done. What now?" he asked.
"Now, step a little back and light the tip of the stump on fire," Alexis said.
Ning nodded and did just that. With a simple thought, a fire appeared on top of the stump, that burned brightly even in the day.
Ning nodded to himself and turned to Alexis. "Now what?"
