The pebble slapped into the palm of Oberon’s waiting hand, followed almost immediately by multiple system messages for both the completion of the Lesser Force skill and levelling up. Combined, it made for a rather satisfying feeling, especially when the level up was accompanied by a list of evolution options for him to pick from; even if the options available to him were admittedly a little lacklustre. Sprite, Hipixie and Imp remained option from his last evolution, but this time were joined by a variety of elementally aligned pixie-variants, none of which seemed particularly interesting.

Continuing down the Sprite path, further developing his Light Affinity and increasing his ‘potential’, whatever that meant, seemed like the best option at the moment; the system even marked it as the choice that he had the most suitability with, unsurprisingly. Hipixie was also a tempting choice, what with the size increase and the related ability to wield light equipment, but the size increase also came with reduced flight capabilities and also made him a larger target; the ability to use equipment would be useful, but it did come with downsides. Imp was something he had already decided against in the past and nothing had changed there, while the elemental species were interesting but also easily dismissed; the extra affinity for certain types of magic would be nice, but he felt like it would lock him into a single element at the expense of all others. Technically he had already done that by picking Sprite the first time and would be doing it again if he chose Sprite again now… that was an argument he didn’t have a good answer for.

At the end of the day, it was the chance for variance that solidified the choice in his mind. So far he had seen three creatures with variances, two of which were currently in his party, and every one of them seemed to come with an affinity for that element alongside other benefits; Digbie and Ash both had the Mystic variance and both had Mana Affinity, Digbie also had the Earth variance an Earth Affinity as a result. Finally, although it had been a few days since he had last analysed him, the flame-throwing Goblin Crispy from back in the cave was almost certainly a Goblin with a Fire variance. While picking something like Lampad or Nephos might give Oberon an affinity for one element, picking Sprite seemed like it would give him the chance of earning multiple variances and multiple affinities as well; it was a case of taking a gamble in order to potentially have his cake and eat it too. Even if it didn’t work, he didn’t think Sprite was a choice he’d regret.

The Sprite was curious about something however. He had spent the last couple of days learning as much magic as he could, covering as many elements as he could, which apparently played a role in the evolution options he was given; he had learned Fire, Water and Wind based spells and earned the ability to evolve into Lampad, Nixie and Nephos as a result. The fact that he was most suited for the Lampad was probably due to the fact that he had learned more than one Fire spell overall, but did this then mean that if he learned more spells of different elements that he would unlock more evolution options? Would that also mean a greater chance for gaining a variance in those elements?

Oberon tossed the pebble in his hand up and down a few times, catching it and throwing it again each time as he pondered this. At the moment his only Earth spell was Sacred Ground, which was also a Nature spell. If he learned a true Earth spell like Earth Wall or Stone Shot would that affect his evolution options? What about Ice Spike? Oberon caught the pebble again, but this time held onto it as he felt its weight settle in his palm. He began to channel Mana into the stone, much like he had with the water and surrounding air earlier, as he activated Mana Sense and looked at the pebble in his hand.

If he could see the Mana entering the stone and also see the moment it changed colour from non-elemental Mana to Earth Mana, he should be able to create the Stone Shot spell and spells of the same type more easily. He waited until the Mana he was sending into the stone changed colour in his enhanced vision, until he could feel the Mana change within his hand, and then threw the pebble into the ground a foot or so in front of him in his first attempt at a Stone Shot. If that wasn’t enough to complete the spell then he would use Lesser Force to pull the pebble back to him and attempt it again, using more Mana and focusing more on propelling the stone with the magic inside of it.

[hider=Action Report]
Used "Mana Sense I" on Mana-charged pebble
Attempted "Stone Shot" using Mana-charged pebble
Used "Lesser Force I" to return pebble to hand
Attempted "Stone Shot" again using Mana-charged pebble
[/hider]

[@Zeroth]