With Niphru’s request in mind, Dawheir resideo go see if she could find the books at the shop on the first floor. Meanwhile, Niphru focused on increasing his strength, with several ideas floating in his mind about how he could use this magi the future.

  It was, however, somewhat difficult to figure out how to increase what his force magic could withstand before breaking. In the end, he decided to just keep trying the same thing, as that had helped in the past. He also sidered trying to make different yers or structure them differently, but was waiting to see if a simpler approach would work.

  By the time Dawurned, he had firmed that his idea was w, si took slightly more force for his paw to pass through than before. He did want to advance faster, however, so he went ahead and started to try his other ideas while Dawn put away the books she had brought back.

  Once she was finished, Dawn came over to where Niphru ractig and stated, “I wasn’t able to find any books on wind or force magic, but I found several books that are more advahan what we have, as well as some for water magic.”

  Niphru nodded as she tinued, “They said that it is likely they get the books from the other spires, et copies made of the o left here. So hopefully ick those up soon!”

  “That is great news,” Niphru remarked before fog on his practice again.

  Since she was able to use force magic as well, Niphru sent the ideas he had through their bond in hopes that it would help her as well. A few moments ter, she joined him in practice.

  Eventually, he found that yering pnes of forly slightly increased the strength, but f a grid-like structure between two yers resulted in signifitly higher durability. While this took signifit amounts of effort and time, he could actually press down on it without breaking it, as long as he only put about half his weight on it.

  While he was excited about this development, he tried to stay focused, only barely avoiding boung up and down. Dawn smiled at him as she felt his feelings over their bond.

  After sharing the trick with her, Niphru began recreating the pnes of force over and ain, trying to get the plex design ingrained as something he could do quickly. This, however, took quite a bit of time, due to the intricate nature of the design pared to a simple textured design on a single pne. As such, he did not succeed during the day of practice.

  Fortunately, there was nothing essential to do for some time, so he spent the several days w on it while Dawn occasionally went out to socialize with their group. He knew he should join her, but he felt he was close to a breakthrough and really wao be able to stand fully on his own force magic ptform.

  Six days ter, he finally succeeded in making the new design the default that he created; it used more mana but produced a much stronger pne of forbsp; bined with the textured top yer, he could even pick up and hold books, food, and even scrub himself in the shower!

  Following this success, Dawn cooked up a rge meal to celebrate and, while doing so, spoke of how her own practice was going well.

  “I haven’t quite ma, but I’m getting close to the basieeded to actually join roup properly. Water is still givihe most trouble. Oh, and that reminds me, I got the other books while you were focused so ily on your practibsp; The one on force magic actually mentioly what you have been w on as a major step forward in increasing what you aplish,” she excimed as she finished cooking.

  Since he could eat more ly now, Niphru sat on one of the chairs instead of oable like usual. tinuing his practice, he used his magic to lift food off the pte and float it over to his mouth. He did find it difficult to eat this way, but eventually figured out the trick to it. While moving the food, he used a textured grip, and while eating, he smoothed it out so the food would slide into his mouth instead of having to try to bite around the pne of force.

  Upon finishing, he was even able to help with taking the dishes back to the kit, which he had been uo do until now, making him feel like he could be more useful. He did, however, have extreme difficulty trying to help with the washing of the dishes, so instead, he went back to the living room.

  Since he had finally realized Dawn had brought back the books he had asked about, he looked through the colle on the shelves until he found ohat looked like it was about force magibsp; He quickly noticed an advantage he had with using his magic; he could reach betweeher books to grab the one he wanted easily, where Dawn had to pull the edge out first.

  Following his quick discovery, he settled down on a chair and began to read, thinking that it was amusing he was using force magic to read a book about force magic.

  When she finished, Dawn joined him in the living room, grabbing one of the books about water magic for herself. The two of them sat iive silence beside each other, reading their books until they became tired, eventually agreeing the day was over, with much progress having been made.

  A few days ter, Niphru still hadn’t go to meet the group, leading Dawn to worry about him. However, he was determio succeed befoing back to the group. And succeed he did, after those few days!

  Niphru turned back towards the entry as he heard the door opening, and a moment ter, Dawn dropped to the ground in shobsp; Niphru slowly lowered the ptform he had been standing on back down from eye-level, struggling to bahe forces involved but still managing a mostly steady dest.

  Unlike when he was simply resting a paw on it or purposely breaking it, he had to take into at the recoil effect of the magid ba out with more pressure oform. While he felt fident in trolling multiple things at once, such as his fmes, this plex w still exhausted him mentally.

  Dawn stood back up and grabbed him out of the air, hugging him and scratg his head as she excimed, “I wasn’t expeg a flying fox! This is so cool! Is this what you’ve been trying to do for all this time?”

  Niphru nodded, dismissing the now-useless magid replied, “Yes, I was so close, but so far at the same time. I only barely ma, but I succeeded in supp myself with nothing but magibsp; I’ll be sure to actually join you ime you visit roup. I just felt I was on the verge of succeeding these past few days.”

  A moment ter, he tinued, “Would you miing me go to bed? That was really taxing, and I’m exhausted after managing it.”

  Dawn nodded and apologized frabbing him without thinking before carrying him to the bedroom and ying him down on the bed. Smiling, she pat his head o time auro the living room.

  As he had said, Niphru was exhausted, and found himself falling asleep quite rapidly, despite being so excited about his success.