With Niphru’s request in mind, Dawn left their residence to 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 magic in 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 considered trying to make different layers or structure them differently, but was waiting to see if a simpler approach would work.

By the time Dawn returned, he had confirmed that his idea was working, since it 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 was practicing and stated, “I wasn’t able to find any books on wind or force magic, but I found several books that are more advanced than what we have, as well as some for water magic.”

Niphru nodded as she continued, “They said that it is likely they can get the books from the other spires, or get copies made of the one set left here.  So hopefully we can pick those up soon!”

“That is great news,” Niphru remarked before focusing 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 later, she joined him in practice.

Eventually, he found that layering planes of force only slightly increased the strength, but forming a grid-like structure between two layers resulted in significantly higher durability.  While this took significant 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 bouncing 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 planes of force over and over again, trying to get the complex design ingrained as something he could do quickly.  This, however, took quite a bit of time, due to the intricate nature of the design compared to a simple textured design on a single plane.  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 next several days working 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 wanted to be able to stand fully on his own force magic platform.

Six days later, he finally succeeded in making the new design the default that he created; it used more mana but produced a much stronger plane of force.  Combined with the textured top layer, he could even pick up and hold books, food, and even scrub himself in the shower!

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

“I haven’t quite managed it, but I’m getting close to the basics needed to actually join our group properly.  Water is still giving me the most trouble.  Oh, and that reminds me, I got the other books while you were focused so intently on your practice.  The one on force magic actually mentions exactly what you have been working on as a major step forward in increasing what you can accomplish,” she exclaimed as she finished cooking.

Since he could eat more cleanly now, Niphru sat on one of the chairs instead of on the table like usual.  Continuing his practice, he used his magic to lift food off the plate 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 plane of force.

Upon finishing, he was even able to help with taking the dishes back to the kitchen, which he had been unable to 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 collection on the shelves until he found one that looked like it was about force magic.  He quickly noticed an advantage he had with using his magic; he could reach between the other 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 in relative 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 later, Niphru still hadn’t gone out to meet the group, leading Dawn to worry about him.  However, he was determined to succeed before going 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 later, Dawn dropped to the ground in shock.  Niphru slowly lowered the platform he had been standing on back down from eye-level, struggling to balance the forces involved but still managing a mostly steady descent.

Unlike when he was simply resting a paw on it or purposely breaking it, he had to take into account the recoil effect of the magic and balance it out with more pressure on the platform.  While he felt confident in controlling multiple things at once, such as his flames, this complex working still exhausted him mentally.

Dawn stood back up and grabbed him out of the air, hugging him and scratching his head as she exclaimed, “I wasn’t expecting 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 magic, and replied, “Yes, I was so close, but so far at the same time.  I can only barely manage it, but I succeeded in supporting myself with nothing but magic!  I’ll be sure to actually join you next time you visit our group.  I just felt I was on the verge of succeeding these past few days.”

A moment later, he continued, “Would you mind letting me go to bed?  That was really taxing, and I’m exhausted after managing it.”

Dawn nodded and apologized for grabbing him without thinking before carrying him to the bedroom and laying him down on the bed.  Smiling, she pat his head one last time and returned to the living room.

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