by Tao Wong
A too-human scream jarred the Kallik’s concentration, making it hesitate for a fraction of a second. A thrown spearhead punched through its neck and interrupted its attack for all time. I exhaled in relief as I clutched my arm and turned to look down the landing to see Alexa as she stood weaponless and bloody amid the corpses of her attackers.
“Tha—” The ankle that was yanked out from beneath me sent me falling forward abruptly, cutting off my voiced gratitude. I landed hard and bit my tongue, blood immediately filling my mouth as a forgotten Kallik pulled itself upward, using my body as leverage. Claws pierced my skin, and I jerked spasmodically, my feet kicking out uselessly.
By the time I recovered my senses fully, the monster had squirmed two-thirds of its way through the railing, its claws dug into my feet. I slapped a hand sideways at its head pitifully, short, coarse hair and the flexible cartilage of an ear coming into contact with my skin. My hand closed around its ear as claws continued to dig into my body. I twisted and yanked upward, jerking the Kallik toward me and away from my prone body.
A moment later, Alexa was there, as she tackled the monster and sent both of them into the metal railing. Alexa snarled as she plunged a knife that I never knew she had into the monster while I pushed myself away. Seeing that Alexa had things mostly under control, I tried to form a Heal spell around the radiating pain of my wounds, but the spell formations and chants escaped my grasp with each pulse of pain.
***
I came to as a warm energy pulsed through me. As I returned to wakefulness, I noticed the pain from my wounds was gone, replaced by this comforting, warm feeling. As I attempted to sit up, I found an insistent pressure on my chest and a noise in my ears that finally resolved into words.
“Stop moving!” Alexa said and pushed on my chest again. “You’ll open all your wounds again.”
“Sorry,” I said as I relaxed onto the cold floor again. Unable to feel my wounds as that energy flowed through me, I instead focused on my own Heal spell, letting the initial portion of the spell play through my mind. That part of the spell focused on locating injuries and assessing the damage, a magical feedback on the extent of damage that I had experienced.
The overall results were not good. I had numerous cuts and stab wounds in the back of my legs and a few in my torso, from the last Kallik that had clawed itself up me, along with the cut in my arm. Add to that numerous scrapes and bruises and significant blood loss and I was grateful Alexa’s healing ability was patching me up. Unlike my own spell, it seemed to bypass minor things like blood loss and instead proceeded to fix problems directly, using the energy as its fuel source. Still, I decided not to just wait for her to be done and focused on my own spell, searching for and directing the spell to focus on the production of additional blood.
It took another few minutes before Alexa finally let me up. By that point, I had begun to shiver slightly from the cold, lack of movement, and blood loss and had to spend the next few minutes doing jumping jacks and chugging an energy drink. I resolutely kept my eyes off the Kallik corpses during this entire process.
“Did we complete the quest?” I asked Alexa while she looked on with an amused expression. I had to admit, between the blood stains, torn clothing, and low light, I probably was an amusing sight. Still, the movement was at least warming me up.
“Not yet,” Alexa said. “I’m pretty sure I heard a few others moving around afterward, moving away from us.”
“Okay, well, I’m ready,” I said, my spells formed in my hands. It seemed a side effect of her spell was a reduction in the headache and mana weariness I experienced from casting. Before we left the landing, I spent a few minutes adding Light Spheres all around the building. Even with the added light, we saw no further signs of trouble in here.
A short and tense hour later, we had searched and prodded our way through the entire warehouse and were finally sure the Kalliks had left. A broken lock and a few fallen treasures on the way out the door told a tale of a hasty retreat. I was glad. The other signs we found indicated there had been children here. I knew I had to get harder, but killing children, even monster children, was a line that I couldn’t cross. Not yet at least. Perhaps it was because they were humanoid, or that they seemed mostly sentient, but the thought of murdering them just didn’t sit well with me. The quest complete notification, as usual, was just more information that we already knew. This time, Alexa only shifted a bit when it appeared.
“What are you doing?” I blinked as Alexa returned to the main nest of the Kalliks and sorted through what was left.
“Searching,” Alexa said. “Ah, har!” She pulled out a wad of cash which she pocketed. A few minutes later, she had some jewelry and some other, more questionable, acquisitions. Some, I could guess, were reagents, items that people like El would like.
“Isn’t this…” I frowned, searching for the word. “Wrong?”
“They left. And they probably took these off people they killed. So, no, I’m not finding it wrong,” Alexa said. “How do you think the Templars finance themselves? Killing monsters isn’t exactly government funded.”
“Oh,” I said, wondering exactly how much money you could make looting dead bodies. Then, I considered my own circumstances. “You going to share?”
Chapter 13
In the four months since I had acquired the ring, I had gained all of seven levels. In the following four weeks after Alexa moved in, I doubled my level again. There were a few reasons for this. Firstly, I was no longer struggling to figure out the new world I lived in, spending as much time questioning Lily and El about the world as I was questing. Secondly, the newer, tougher quests that we worked as a team forced me to constantly push myself, while Alexa’s constant, nagging insistence on training when we weren’t questing increased my productivity. Even if I hadn’t been slacking off, the woman brought a focus to my training that hadn’t been there before.
Not all our new quests involved violence, just a good portion of them these days. As we learned from our mistakes, we started spending a greater portion of our time studying and learning about our potential opponents before we embarked on the quests. Between Lily’s extensive knowledge and the Templars’ archives that Alexa was able to access, we rarely walked into a problem ill-prepared once we actually started doing our homework.
Thankfully, even Alexa understood that constant violence was a bad idea. Every couple of days, she would pick out a challenging, if nonviolent, quest to undertake. I had to admit, these quests were my favorite and ranged from spending a day layering warding spells, under the guidance of a master warder, to being magical security at a rave. I even managed to put my very first personally crafted spell into play at the rave as I muted the music all around my seat while I watched for glamours and illusions being used to sneak the underage in.
Five months after joining the supernatural world, as I lurched out of bed and got the coffee started, I had to smile as I pulled out my new character sheet.
Class: Mage
Level 14 (45% Experience)
Known Spells: Light Sphere, Force Spear, Force Shield, Force Fingers, Alter Temperature, Alter Sound, Gust, Heal, Link, Track, Scry, Mend, Ward, Glamour, Illusion, Detect Magic
I’d grown quite a bit in the last few weeks, and even if I’d never admit it to Alexa herself, it had mostly to do with the initiate. Of course, I wasn’t the only one who had developed. Alexa had grown more confident, sure of herself and her choices during the quests. The continuous training she did in the mornings had honed her martial skills.
What puzzled me at first was that Alexa would also sneak out regularly at night or when we had called it a day. One particular evening, I decided to spend some time scrying her, using a piece of her hair, my familiarity with the woman, and a clear bowl of water. Unfortunately, once she entered the office building that was her goal, further scrying attempts were blocked. I’d admit I felt a little dirty doing it, but considering the precarious situation I was in, I felt it
necessary. In the end, I spent time watching the office building and Alexa, coming to the conclusion she was reporting in to her superiors. That the office building was within walking distance of my apartment was both reassuring and suffocating. In the end, all I could do was put the entire thing to the side.
The coffee beeped, finally telling me it was ready, and I poured myself a cup before turning to the side to look at the jinn. “Lily,” I called and waited for her to pause her game before I continued. “We need to talk. About my sheet.”
“Oh?” Lily said inquiringly, arching one perfectly plucked eyebrow. Or shaped? Created? After all, the visage she showed was entirely artificial. I thought. I wasn’t entirely sure about that, come to think about it. “What’s wrong?”
“The spells. Or skills. Or, you know, this entire thing,” I said. “The knowledge you are inserting into my head is beginning to diverge a bit from what I see here. Or maybe the things I understand are diverging. It’s like I’ve got these spells in my head, but as I understand them, as I level, I realize each of the spells are just parts, components. I can alter them to do what I want if I want. Well, theoretically at least.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Of course,” Lily confirmed. “It means you’re beginning to understand magic properly.”
“But, if these spells don’t matter…” I frowned, shaking my head, trying to explain my concerns.
“Listen, Henry. Learning magic is like learning a new language. People like myself, the fae, vampires, and the kraken, we’re native speakers. We grew up knowing magic, and while we might not necessarily know the finer points of grammar, we intuitively understand it and can ‘speak’ the language. Humans though, you’re ESL. Most mages learn magic step-by-step, memorizing words and understanding the rules of grammar. It means they aren’t as intuitive as we are, but they can sometimes pull off things we would never have thought of.
“You on the other hand, well, you’re different. The way you’re learning magic from your levels is closer to what I understand—intuitively, as a whole. But at the same time, you’re human. You need to understand the rules. The spells, well, they’re like memorized chapters from a book. You know the chapters and can speak them without thought, but to really understand magic, you need to analyze each sentence, each paragraph, individually.”
I nodded at her words, rubbing my chin. If we took the analogy further, there were words, concepts Lily had inserted into my mind that didn’t necessarily “fit” with any of the spells at first glance but actually underpinned why the spells worked. I could cast any of these spells, and even alter them, by changing specific words or adding new paragraphs. In fact, I’d been doing this without really considering the underlying structure of the spells.
“Does that mean I’m just a giant parrot? Squawking away spells whenever I need to?” I asked.
“Yes,” Lily said, smiling slightly.
“Huh,” I said. I’d have felt insulted, but the fact stood that I didn’t understand the majority of the spells. Even my Light spell, which was perhaps the easiest spell I knew, was something I still could not cast without relying on the gifted knowledge. But the spell was more complicated than willing light to appear. First, you had to define what light was, then you had to define how much mana you’d supply to create the light. If you were creating a light ball, you had to define the space that the light itself would be in, which meant defining the sphere that the light energy was being focused into. Then, you had positioning of the spell itself in relation to yourself and the world. And that was for the simplest option, without adding in modifications for ongoing channeling and tethering of the spell to yourself.
The Force Dart was even more complicated. The spell was actually a wave of built-up kinetic energy shaped into the form of a dart, locked into space by mana, and then propelled forward by even more mana. On top of all the size, shape, and energy definitions and power requirements that the Light Ball required, Force Dart also needed to be defined according to its flight path and patterns. Still, if you looked at it that way, upgrading the spell from Force Dart to Missile was simple. I was mostly just altering the shape of the container with minor adjustments to the amount of force wielded. The Force Spear, on the other hand, was more complicated with a significantly larger container and more complex equations required as it traveled and interacted with the real world.
“We done?” Lily asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“Not really. I still think the way we have this set up isn’t good,” I said, waving my hand. “Maybe we should have started with a different system. Perhaps one that did better at teaching the basics.”
“Just remember,” Lily said. “You’re asking me to try to teach you magic when I use it subconsciously. It’s only because I’ve been owned by so many mages in my time that I even know where to start.”
“Yeah, I figured,” I said. “Still doesn’t solve the problem.”
“Well, I could put concepts into your mind and let you work it out from there,” Lily said. “Hopefully you’ll figure it out?”
“Uhhh… no,” I stated firmly, making Lily laugh. Before we could continue the discussion, the doorknob twisted and opened, reminding me that once again, I needed to get Alexa her own key.
“I’ll think about it,” Lily said as she turned back to her game. “You know where the quests are.”
Alexa frowned slightly and shot a suspicious glare between the pair of us. When she received no further clarification, she walked over to pick up the quest sheets. Still, from the line in her back, I had a feeling I was in for a more difficult quest.
***
Sometimes, being wrong was worse than being right. In this case, rather than a difficult quest, Alexa had located a monotonous, boring, and yet exacting quest—the unloading of a container’s worth of magical merchandise. As the merchandise couldn’t be physically touched, I spent the entire day moving one box after the other with Force Fingers, also known as an abbreviated form of magical telekinesis. Of course, added to the dull, throbbing pain from the constant use and concentration required from magic, I also had to contend with the icy disapproval radiating from Alexa. Not that ‘anything was wrong’ when I’d asked of course.
By the time we got home, I was ready to curl up on my makeshift bed and sleep the night away. Unfortunately, Lily had other ideas. Once Alexa had stomped into the bathroom, the olive-skinned jinn waved her hands at me, and a series of words appeared.
Magical Skillset
Mana Flow: 2/10
Mana to Energy Conversion: 2/10
Spell Container: 2/10
Spatial Location: 3/10
Spatial Movement: 2/10
Energy Manipulation: 2/10
Biological Manipulation: 1/10
Matter Manipulation: 0/10
Duration: 1/10
“Wha…” I said and then stopped, my sluggish brain finally catching up with me. Of course. This was Lily’s solution to my problem. A series of skills that demarcated my knowledge. Still. “Why out of ten? And what’s considered good?”
“Ten because I’m not doing percentages. Again, jinn, not a god. I can’t read your mind, so these are rated off your shown understanding of magic,” Lily said. “And an apprentice mage would be expected to be a three across all these areas.”
“Ah.” I frowned, prodding at the list before adding, “This an arithmetic or a logarithmic increase?’
“Logarithmic, I guess. It’s going to get harder the more experienced you get. Not that information you need changes, but how easy it is to learn it,” Lily explained.
“Thanks,” I said. Well, at least this helped to solidify some of the concepts I had been playing around with. As I lay on my mattress, I could not help but prod at the list to get further information.
Mana Flow dictates your control of mana—the amount, quantity, and quality of mana you can put into a spell.
Mana to Energy Conversion is
a ratio and indicates the quality of your control when converting mana to energy to affect the world. Required for most spells.
Spell Containers define the boundary of a spell. Higher levels of this skill indicate increased complexity and types of containers that may be defined.
Spatial Location defines the location that a spell may be cast. Low levels indicate the ability to cast spells within touch range. Additional levels dictate distance a spell may be cast from the caster and by visual or other methods of defining locations.
Spatial Movement dictates how a spell will or will not move. Higher levels allow spells to adjust trajectories after being cast or to define multiple variables.
Energy Manipulation indicates the caster’s ability to manipulate different types of energy. Low levels indicate base understanding of energy types and forms. Higher levels will allow caster to manipulate multiple forms of energy at the same time and rarer types of energy.
Biological Manipulation indicates the caster’s ability to interact and understand biological changes. At the most basic level, caster is able to sense and replicate biological matter from a healthy template. Higher levels allow the caster to alter the template, allowing replication from damaged or unhealthy biological matter or the creation of new biological matter.
Matter Manipulation indicates the caster’s ability to interact and understand matter. Low levels allow the caster to replicate matter from templates. Higher levels allow the caster to alter the template, allowing replication from damaged matter or the creation of new matter.
Duration dictates the caster’s knowledge of time as it relates to his spells. Basic levels allow the caster to constantly channel a spell or to cast a spell of set duration. Higher levels allow longer duration spells as well as the use of time-based triggers for spells.