Meeting the sage.

Neklous was no stranger to this place as Gwenael had taken him here before but the man wasn't there at the time.

"I want to return to my roots... "

"The First Order.. The church.. the city watch.. even the Thunderbirds.. I dislike them all"

"Humans walking around so high and mighty.. so righteously entitled.. "

"Disgusting.."

"These city walls..."

"They are nothing but.. CAGES!"

"And what society has made norm... are THE CHAINS THAT BIND ME!"

"Originally I didn't feel this way.. but I soon noticed my own family member who is in the First order secretly despised me.. "

"Secretly looked down on me till one day.. till one day he simply couldn't take it anymore and degraded me as being no more than.."

"Than.."

"TRASH ON THE STREET!!"

"From that moment on my eyes began to opena bit more. I don't fit in anywhere within these city walls. "

"I've been reading lots and lots of books.. I came across many religious.. many stuff about the stars and the past heros of kingdoms...but you know what I found the most interesting?"

"The land."

"The land is so giving and nurturing! Why worship the stars when the land is so much more!"

Neklous sighs rubbing the back of his head.

"I've gone off topic and ranted a bit.."

"Apologies.."

"Anyway I intend to return to the forest and return to my beast kin roots just as my Beast kin ancestors did when their perspective became similar to mine"

"For that to happen though I would like to learn how to embrace the wild nature more within me as well as how to commune with the plants and animals of the forest!"

"Nature magic is what I am asking for your guidance on!"
(Neklous Endore)
----
Welp. Turned out Neklous was some kinda radical anarchist. Hey, that was fine! Frog and Gan knew a few genocidal wizards, ghost women, all kinds of messed up people!

In truth, that's what the sewers were for. Or well that's what they figured.

"Think about it for a sec, yeah? Look down at the ground and the struggle you face is mirrored."

A pale bony hand juts out and washes itself over the mushrooms below. A battle of creaking concrete from the sewers and the land itself breaking through. Mushrooms thriving in a place where nothing else could.

"Surrounded by all this bad stuff, yet still you're making the best of it an' surviving. The city is a cage but it ain't mean you can't thrive.

Just gotta find your way."

His hands retract back into his brownish poncho and his helmet bobs up and down upon his head.

"Though I agree, respectin' nature should be more of a thing. And if you wanna run off? more power to you.

Where do you wanna start?"
(Frog)
----
Neklous looked at Frog kind of suspiciously. He had let a bit of the crazy out on purpose. He truly wanted to see if Frog was the real deal or not and just reject him due to the perception he had of the world.

Calming down a bit, Neklous's ever so distant doll blue eyes took on a sereneness to them.

"I will let you have that honor of deciding that. Whatever you speak on whether relating to nature or magic, I will listen and respond attentively."

"First though.. I don't believe we have introduced ourselves. Names are irrelevant and introductions are simply surface dweller habits but I can't help myself indulge in the act"

"Pardon me"

Taking a seat on the cold ground, the Ookami didn't seem to mind getting dirty. In fact after he heard Frog's response, he relaxed himself and acted his normally carefree, booze and nap loving self.

"I am Neklous Endore. Just call me Klous though."

"Before we begin though.. I would like to tell you why I have chosen this path. Perhaps the wisdom and insights you give may change to accommodate this. "

"I Neklous Endore am the Thorned Rose of the Endore family.."

"I say this because after observing a thorned rose flower growing in one of the family gardens, I noticed that it stood alone.. "

"After watching it grow through the seasons and throughout the year.. I began to noticed plants and other flowers would group everywhere except near that thorned rose.."

"Then sooner or later after going through strife and being unable to fit in.. reality was playing a cruel trick. "

"That Thorned Rose that only the stars knew where it came, was actually a reflection of my very self."

"The Thorned Rose.. Beautiful to the eye but that is all it will ever be."

"It has beauty but it will never know the feeling of being touched thus never knowing love.."

"What plant or person would want to get near something that has a wild side and could potentially harm them? "

"Meh.. I've babbled enough.. I have much to say on how it reflects me but I am more eager to here what insight you have to guild me."

(Neklous Endore)
-----
Frog clears his throat as the lesson formally begins.

"Yeah. The Drain is what we call it. Bunch of people with no where to go really. It's what Gan and I are workin' on."

Cliff-side houses built into what's possibly some Sewer Catacombs. The ground was unreliable at best and you could see the massive drop that'd await you if you took a wrong step.

A terrible fate, but all the more exciting.

"So that story does help a lot. Think you're a bit like me, yea? Looked to the mushrooms as it felt sorta right. Survivors in some place odd! And they're a bit odd themselves.

It sounds like you connect a lot to that there rose. Both outcasts who are rejected for no good reason, aye?"

A hand comes up and taps against his helmet, adding to some masquerading act that portrayed him thinking.

"So? Channel those emotions you got and combine it with yer magic. Focus it into an environment for - something -.

My advice is to find a rose plant and practice using it. Build that environment, nurture it with mana and your emotions and try to get it to grow."
(Frog)
-----
See, Frog wasn't lying. He wasn't much of a fighter at all.

But, hey, it was nice to help someone else out.

The Sewer Sage would show his expert affinity! And it'd be just plain terrible! Sloshing waves of wet earth would skid across their arena and crash into Klous. Leaving him drenched in mud, foreign objects, and overall? Feeling gross.

His Nature magic was also unique, and more socially acceptable. Spores would fly out from his cloak and give birth to Mushrooms of various sizes! Most notably a large green bioluminescent one that'd restore some of Frogs vigor to him.

He had taken his magic and made it his own. Adapting to his environment, much like the Mushrooms he championed, and making the best of it.

But his showcase wouldn't do much to Klous. He should own up to his own strength because he had something there. The barrage of time magic, his claw swipes, he was no joke at all.

Even more interesting, it'd seem his time magic would have an affect on Frog's mushrooms! Some would grow, others would shrink back into the soil. Their growth randomly changed by such an unpredictable magic.


"Ah!"

Frog would say, tired from their bout.

"See? Ain't got much fight in me. Mostly why I stick to helpin' rather than fightin'.

You got something to you, Klous. Don't sleep on it."
(Frog)
--------
Soon after the spar began, Neklous circulated mana throughout his body causing runic tattoos to appear on his arms. In his left palm, a pupil less eyeball opened up revealing a strange lime green rune. This run shook time to time but otherwise remained within the eyeball. If it were to be translated to Esshar's language.. it would translate to the word 'Past'.

On his right arm a similar occurrence happened but what appeared in the pupil less eyeball within his palm was a grey and dimming rune which translated to 'Future'.

Now manifesting his core magic, Neklous cleared his mind and stood in silence as Frog sent out mud and spores to shroud him. He didn't move as he was allowed his time path dao marks to fully spread around his body so he could enter into his transcended state where seeing the future or merely its possibilities was possible.

Just before the spores and mudslide completely devoured him, Neklous had stepped into his special state and used his claws to rip through the elementals of the earth.

His claws were show sharp that it made cutting the earth easier than cutting tofu. Despite this though, earth and spores still shrouded his body and harmed him as they were a mix of gas and solids.

His claws couldn't touch what didn't have much of a form.

Neklous's purpose in this fight was not to win though. It was to gain enlightenment in the path of nature. Every time Neklous destroyed a nature projectile of Frog's, he would allow the weaker parts that he purposely didn't destroy to allow to hit his body, allowing it to temper him.

As the battles went on, Neklous slowly but surely started grasping the concepts of nature but not on his own. He was looking through frog's path to gain understanding on the path as the path itself was to hard for him to touch upon it directly.

Obviously without Frog allowing this to occur he wouldn't have gained the insight he did.

After the fights finally came to an end.. Neklous fell to the ground exhausted. He could feel the dirt between every cranny of his body.

His body was not only covered in earth and spores.. it was covered in Frog's nature magic which had nature path dao marks within it.

Dao marks are simply what form the magic. They are the concepts and the laws of the universe that allow the magic or element to exist.

Even though very few dao marks could be transferred by fighting, over time they would accumulate.
(Neklous Endore)
--------
Neklous was slightly confused. He didn't mind answering any question. He had not achieved or even touched on the boundaries of nature magic. He had only used Frog's nature magic to temper his body, making it more suitable for nature energy.

Even though it was extremely and almost useless to do that unless they fought hundreds of time, Neklous still did it.

The big gain from this was Frog imparting his knowledge to him before the fights began. He would focus on that thorned rose and try to make something of himself.
(Neklous Endore)