Apparently, Ace was training a team of villagers to gather resources and helping develop labour techniques to keep up with the quota he was making all these years. The townsfolk were glad to make the effort since they didn't want to go back to stricter jobs. Jack kept getting distracted, which was a new for him. Reading was his forte, but he felt that this would be harder material to grasp. He should try to follow the notes, that might help.

He stepped outside in the grass. He knows how to use fire mimics, but it never has a form. Ace's notes say that fire mimics are really sporadic and hard to control. It needs to be collected before thinking of it as a spell. The moment that he stops collecting them it should launch. Jack stood with his feet planted firmly on the ground. He squared his hips and placed his fully extended right hand in front of him. He braced the trigger arm with his left gripping his wrist. Gather...Gather...Gather... A red orb started to form in his palm. Smaller red orbs formed just outside the circumference, flowing into the large one, slowly increasing the size. Release! The red orb ejected forward but fiddled out in all directions without leaving so much as a gust of wind.

"It is a pretty hot day, there should be a lot of fire wisps in the air. I am surprised that didn't make an impact," Ace said walking up the hill.

"That didn't look too good did it." Jack chuckled. "I am not sure what I did wrong. The notes say collection then rejection."

"We will get to it soon, lets first see how much you understand," Ace said. He took a seat on the porch. "How do we use mimics?"

"Umm, mimics are the collection of certain elemental wisps that copy the behaviour of that element. Wisps are always present and invisible, but the amount of an elemental wisps depends on the surroundings, and this can contribute to how difficult and effective a spell can be. We use this collection of wisps to create forces."

"Sheesh, you could have used your own words. I see your memorisation is top notch." Ace grinned.

"You forgot that the environment doesn't affect ether wisps," Tenny said with a big smile on his face. Ace patted him on the head for his guidance.

"One more question and we will begin practice. What are the most common practises for each elemental mimic?"

"Okay so, the four common mimics are fire, wind, water and earth. This is what we learned in school. I see in your notes that it is a bit different. Red is something called plasma, green is gas, blue is liquid and yellow is solid," Jack said slowly. "Umm, I am a bit confused by this, but I understand that it is the density and controllability of the individual wisps that changes the uses. Red wisps are hard to control like fire, but they hit the hardest like an explosion.

"Green is less sporadic than red but almost works the same. It is best used to create something like a piercing force by compression and is the preferred choice of accelerating motion.

"Blue flows like water and generates the least amount of feedback force so it is used for creating something like a current to move objects or a dampener. It says that the military mostly uses it as a support mimic.

"Last is yellow which is the most dense and it is used to create a rigid form. It can only be used by almost making contact with the earth. This is the most commonly used support mimic."

Jack took a breath and stared up at the sky to see if he was forgetting something.

"Dark and Light wisps are unique and only people who have undergone special requirements can call on them. Dark is the densest of the mimics and can take almost any form and is almost impossible to break, but it cannot travel, so it always has to be in the palm of your hand. Light has no mass and is used to generate a light at any intensity. It is extremely fragile, but when someone has the ability to use dark and light wisps, they can unlock some seriously dangerous stuff," Tenny chimed in as proud as can be.

"Wow Tenny, you know a lot about those. Can you use them?" Jack said waiting for a demonstration.

"Nah. Only humans and the Three Divine Guides can control wisps. All other creatures use our mana to generate the actual element. When we use magic, it has all the properties of the element, not just the kinetic force. I learned about wisps with Ace since I use light and dark magic."

"I think you have a good grasp on the ideas, and you were almost spot on with the differences in density and controllability. The one factor that controls all of this is the energy between particles. Once you keep this in mind, controlling wisps will be a bit easier. If you take a solid and give it more energy, it becomes a liquid. If you do the same thing, then a liquid becomes a gas. Gas can be turned into plasma. We say earth, water, wind and fire because these are the general ideas we see in nature," Ace explained while gesturing to different parts of nature around them. "Because mimics are based on wisps and not the actual element, they only behave like the element. The only property they exert are mechanical forces, so a push or a pull. Fire mimics convert what would have been known as thermal energy used to expand the air around it, completely into a push force when it makes contact with anything. Simply this is the reason that your fire spell can't burn anyone, and your water spell can never drown anyone."

"I understand the principles and knew about the not burning stuff, but everything else is a bit much for me to grasp fully," Jack said feeling a bit disappointed.

"That's okay. It really isn't that important but having a decent understanding of it will let you master it a little quicker later on. The important thing is practice and understanding what the steps are to use a spell. You said earlier that it is 'gather and reject' to use a spell, but what do you think of when you try this?"

"Well, I just imagine gathering red in my hand and then sending it away." Jack looked at his palm calling a small number of red wisps.

"I think that's where you are going wrong. The ability to call wisps comes from the mana in your body. It flows throughout your body and that is what gives us extra strength and durability, but the only place mana can gather wisps is in the palm of your hands. Collection and rejection are just what happens but that isn't really how you use mimics. It kind of works like how your body uses energy. We don't think about every muscle that reacts to get our finger to move, we just tell ourselves that we want our finger to move. The same idea for magic. If you want to launch a red ball, then you need to imagine forming the red ball and how much power you are sending it off with. The wisps will respond to your flow of mana. The more you use a spell, the easier it becomes, like muscle memory. Since the idea can really only occur in your head, we give spells names to help with tactics and recalling the sensation of using that spell. It is the same way we call a push-up a push-up but the way we actually do the push up is all in the head of the person. Got it?" Ace gave a thumbs up after his long-winded explanation.

"So, it basically is trial and error, and thinking what I want to do," Jack said with a flatness that echoed disappointment at the science behind it all.

"Exactly, so we are going to start with the spell that will be your speciality. It is what made me really dangerous, and I think it will best suit the person you are. We are going to use the Wind Walk." Ace curled his smile and lowered his eyes at Tenny. Jack was getting used to his stomach turning around Ace, but this time he felt extra nervous.

"Okay so I gather wind wisps, in my hand. My hand is pointed in the opposite direction of where I want to go. Imagine I am using the wisps to push me forward quickly and that is it?" Jack said getting in the form. He quickly stood up straight. "Wait how do I stop?"

"That isn't important right now, just focus on using a little push to get a couple of feet. Usually at extreme speeds, we use any mimic that can give us a brake force. It is easiest to use another wind mimic to stop movement in that direction."

"Okay, I'm going to give it a try." Jack placed his right leg behind him. He bent his left knee. A good running stance achieved. He placed both arms fully extended in line with his back pointing away from where he was staring. He gathered the wisps and shot forward. His foot immediately dragged on the ground causing him to slide face down a couple of feet. Ace and Tenny burst out laughing. They held their gut and pointed at the boy who decided dirt was his lunch.

"Don't worry about it. The wind movement spell is the last common spell they teach in the military. That is going to happen a bunch more times."

"Why would you make me do it first then?" Jack yelled at the pair that clearly set him up.

"Because I want it to be the first sensation you get when it comes to controlling your mimic. I am going to force all your other concepts around this one. This is what will make you scary. Don't worry too much, I have a way to make sure you get the hang of it," Ace said again with that evil smile from before.

***

The trio are standing in the grass fields a couple of miles west of the village. Large animals of all kinds are roaming around, and sudden glances from them caused Jack to jump back a bit. There are no dirt paths in this grassland, so Jack already had the feeling that it is not ideal for humankind.

"Okay the best way to learn is by surviving. I want you to avoid it as much as possible. No offensive mimics. You are not allowed to hit it. Just stay out of the way. Ready?" Ace said while finding a sizable rock.

"What are you talk—" Jack started.

"Set! Go!" Ace launched the rock at a decent speed pass Jack. Jack followed the projectile from the palm of his hand directly into the closest rhino that was clearly minding his business. Jack's spine twitched in a way he never felt. Every hair on his body stood up as the rhino turned around and stared him in the eyes.

"Why would you do tha—" Jack turned around to see Ace's back sprinting away holding Tenny between his bicep and ribcage. "Damnit!"

Jack felt the ground shaking. He didn't know if he would have time to turn around. He jumped to the left as hard as possible rolling away. The rhino continued in that direction for a couple of steps before making eye contact again. Jack got in his position. This time he angled his body and vision to move closely off the path of the oncoming beast.

"Make sure and follow through with your step as you are rejecting!" Ace called from a distance.

"Follow through, follow through, follow through, follow through," Jack kept mumbling as green light formed in his palms. The rhino was accelerating. Its head down and horned pointed. Jack launched forward pass the rhino, pass the rock, pass everything he remembered was close by before crashing into the ground at deadly speeds. The rhino stared at Ace and Tenny with a look of bewilderment. The three of them turn their heads to see what happened to the ragdoll that launched himself almost out of sight.

"I think the rhino is embarrassed for him," Tenny said bluntly.

"Yea, I think so too."