by Roharp17
Umbra asked, "What is mana manipulation?"
"Mana manipulation is the natural form of using magic. Spells were developed later to create an easy method of casting known configurations with the elements." Looking around the Archwizard turned to Danny, "Here, Danny, please give her an example. Can you cast raised earth on the wall over there, in a cube, then create a similar sized creation of your own design next to it?"
Nodding, Danny turned toward the stone wall right behind himself. He cast mana sight and started dual casting. Charging raised earth with his right hand, with the other, Danny sent a stream of mana out toward the same wall, just far enough away where the two wouldn't interfere with each other. Once the mana stream reached the wall he caused it to spiral and taper off so it wouldn't be too heavy on the end furthest from the wall. Then he cast the earth rune and let go his connection with his left hand. At the same time he cast with his right.
As a perfect cube of mana jutted out from the wall, a spiraling stone form emerged next to it. Arya's eyes widened, while Brianna and Wren just looked impressed. Danny heard Wizard Basalt laughing down the table. Umbra looked shocked for a second before getting up and approaching the two shapes. "This is remarkable, can you do this Storm?"
"No, Umbra."
"Is there anything else I should know," Umbra said absently, sitting back in her chair.
"Yes, while the boy has a low rate of mana regeneration and flow, this will increase with time. I would recommend his training here continue until his rates increase enough to be affective in battle. Also, I would like to also point out that he has gained access to the nature elemental affinity."
"Really, when did you find this out," Umbra demanded.
"Just before we came, Adept Creek grew an apple tree for us near the tower."
Umbra nodded.
Danny chose this point to speak up, "I also have access to storm affinity."
The Archwizard stuttered saying, "That's not funny, Danny," and looked crossly at him.
Danny held up his hand pushing mana at the top of the ceiling. He cast the storm rune.
The Archwizard’s face went from annoyance to shock and clouds tried to from as the air pressure dropped. Nothing actually formed but the Archwizard knew Danny wasn't bluffing. Danny canceled the magic now that he could see the Archwizard believed him.
Seeing the Archwizard’s pale face, Umbra laughed softly, "Adept Creek, is there anything else you wish to share? Part of me hopes not, as our esteemed Archwizard here might not survive it."
"No Umbra, I have nothing else to share."
Danny looked back over at the Archwizard to find him staring at Danny sadly. The older man finally said, "It took me most of my life for my affinities to be high enough to gain that affinity, and you... you’re..." The Archwizard was too befuddled to continue.
About that time the door opened and three girls walked into the room and stood quietly by the door.
Umbra noticed them and said, "Shadow Basalt and Archwizard, would you please excuse us?"
The five adults, on the sides of the table, quietly got up and left the room. Umbra motioned for the three girls by the door to sit down on the other side from Danny.
Once they were seated, Umbra began, "Jade, Ivy, and Brooke. I would like to introduce you to the potential final member of your future shadow, Adept Danny Creek."
The three girls nodded as she said their names. Danny suddenly got quite nervous as they all turned to look intently at him. Jade was a tall and gangly girl with dark blonde hair with bright green eyes. Danny thought she looked familiar but was sure he would remember those eyes. Ivy was a petite girl with dark hair and brown eyes. Danny knew she could easily be a child model in his former world. Brooke was a large girl with blonde haired girl with brown eyes. Once again she looked familiar as well. Danny had perfect memory so he most know someone related to them. Danny guessed them all to be slightly older than his seven years.
Turning and looking at Danny, Umbra said, "From this moment forward, you are no longer a Creek. You are Adept Danny until such time as your shadow becomes official and is given a name. This will then become your family name. You are not from one of the noble houses and might not know this. Only the first two daughters can claim the name of a noble family. The rest must join another family as part of a Trio. This is why many noble families do not have more than three daughters. It is frowned upon for noble families to not produce a third daughter to give to our order.
Ivy is the leader of your group, she will be in charge. Ivy will also be the Strike, she will also attack on the front line or retreat to fire from range at opportune moments. Brooke is the Guard, she is the one who will be on the front line. Jade is the Reach, she will attack from range or scout ahead for threats. Now normally we don't select wizards for this training until they are older so you four will be a bit of an experiment. Do you have any questions, Danny?"
"What will my positions be called," Danny asked.
Umbra blinked and looked at him strangely, "Wizard, of course."
"Oh, right... wizard." Danny suddenly wanted to pull the stone floor around him in a safe cocoon, where he couldn't be embarrassed.
"Any further questions?"
"No, Umbra."
"Good, I will allow you to have supper here in this room. That should come shortly. I will leave you, so you four can get to know each other a little better." Looking at both sides of the table she continued in a less formal tone, "I really hope this arrangement works out as you are some of the best your generation has to offer. Your team has potential we haven't seen in a long time."
With that, Umbra stood up and left the room.
There was silence for but a few moments but it seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Right when Danny had built up the nerve to say something, Ivy spoke up.
"Danny, I want to welcome you to our group. I hope we can come to work well with each other. If you don't mind, could you tell us a little about your family?"
With this said, Ivy smiled and Danny realized this girl wasn't just beautiful. She knew how to use it to get what she wanted from others. Danny pictured warning lights flashing in his brain. Wasn't she too young to know how to do that? Danny tried to think back to when he was this age, what would it have been, elementary school? He needed to tread carefully here.
"Sure, I grew in the middle of the outer wall area. My mother is a leather crafter and my father helped in my families shop. The head of my family is a merchant, and the other member of my mother's Trio is a blacksmith. I have two older sisters, an older non-wizard brother, and a younger sister."
Ivy smiled at him and was about to ask another question when a woman pushed in a trolley with plates of food. She quickly doled out the plates and utensils. She also brought out a pot of steaming tea and cups. After receiving thanks from the four youngsters she left.
Ivy got up from there side of the table and came over to sit by Creek, explaining, "There, it looked odd us all sitting one side of the table."
"So, could I know more about your families," Danny asked as Ivy sat down.
Ivy looked at the others before speaking first, "My family is in leadership roles in the Diadem government. My father was a wizard. I of course have two older sisters, two younger brothers, and four younger sisters."
Brooke spoke up next with a big grin on her face, "My family, Peak, is also in leadership..."
At the mention of her family name, Danny almost spit out his tea he had chosen to sip at that moment. Brooke noticed this and gave him a very familiar glare.
Groaning internally at this situation, Danny said, "I met your brother at the academy."
Brooke nodded, as if that was enough information for a justification and continued, "We also have a number of businesses that include the buying and selling of elemental crystals from the dwarves. My father is a fire wizard and aids our smithies. There's my two older sisters, you unfortunately met my younger brother, and I have two younger sisters.
Jade smiled shyly
and said, "You have met my aunts and uncle, the Basalts."
Danny had his tea away from his face so he was prepared to smile and nodded for her to continue.
Jade continued, "My family, Bramble, has leadership roles as well. The family business is financing and investments throughout the country. Then there is just my sister's and I."
Brooke spoke up next excitedly, "So what kinds of magic can you do!"
Ivy looked annoyed at her outburst, but Danny just laughed.
"I have all the five elements, plus nature and storm magic."
The smile left Brooke's face as silence reigned throughout the room.
Ivy was the first to recover, "Wow, that's amazing. Umbra said you were an adept."
"Yes, I just started at the academy last spring, and only recently went for my stone and air exams. I didn't want to get in over my head if they were too difficult."
Ivy looked at him shrewdly and asked, "Where they difficult?"
"Oh yeah, I wasn't sure if I had the air exam beat or not."
Ivy nodded, seeming pleased with his response.
Danny asked a question that had been bugging him, "So how old are you all? I am seven and a half."
Brooke said, "I'm nine."
Jade said, "Nine."
Ivy said, "I'm ten."
Danny was shocked, he thought Ivy was the youngest. Brooke he had pegged about right, but was left wondering how tall Jade was going to get. Danny had thought Jade was the oldest, with her height.
Ivey looked at everyone and suggested, "Looks like everyone's done, so I suggest we adjourn for the night. We will have time later to talk."
Danny looked at Ivy wondering how old this girl really was. Brooke and Jade acted about the right age, but Ivy was like a little adult. Maybe she had increased intelligence like he did. Could that be why no one questioned the way he spoke... Maturity has some effects on the way one speaks. For Ivy it must be burdens of leadership, he guessed.
As they were all walking out of the room, a women he guessed was in her fifties stopped talking to a desk worker and walked their way. Danny recognized her from earlier in the cavern. She reached them and greeted the girls before turning to Danny.
"Hello, Danny, I am instructor Meadow. I will be teaching you not to get killed when the other members are too distracted to watch your back. Do you have any skills in weapons?"
"I have two levels in unarmed and one in staves."
"Good, we can use that. With your spells, you wizards don't need much ranged weapon training. I usually start teaching a single handed weapon to new wizards, but the staff is a good weapon too. Should keep you alive till the others can come save you.
I will take you to the boy’s dorm and your new room. We have a bell system like the academy. Follow the other boys to breakfast and then be out in the training area with your team as soon as possible."
"Should I wear my academy uniform?"
"You will be given a new uniform to wear and anything else you will need can be provided by the dorm. Are you ready?"
"One more thing, what about my family?"
Instructor Meadow looked ready to go but paused with this new question. "Look, you can't go see them until your training here is over. Then before you start your 'apprenticeship' with Wizard Basalt. Someone from the order will get in touch with them shortly."
"How long is my training here supposed to take?"
"That depends on you..."
Danny didn't like that answer, but figured he didn't want to know the real answer. Danny turned to see the three girls still standing there. Danny said his goodnights to them and followed instructor Meadow.
A note from Roharp17
Version 2.0 - A big shout-out to denkkar for grammer and spelling corrections.
Chapter 27
Danny's cell, as he liked to call it, in the boy’s dorm was about two meters by three meters. Enough for a bed and a trunk. Besides bedrooms, bathrooms, and afternoon training, everything else was done with your team. The whole cavern was humid and it always seemed like there was water dripping somewhere. The constant dripping was about to drive him crazy. The dorm, like the rest of the complex, was carved out of the stone around the cavern. Apparently if they needed a room they just picked another spot on an open wall and carved out a door. There was just one entrance into the boy’s dorm, a fire code violation if Danny ever saw one. The dining hall was in between the two dorms. Danny woke to the bell in the hallway of the boy’s dorm. Without any windows the sound just kept jumping around for what seemed like forever. No trouble sleeping through that. Food was already laid out on the table in plates, and Danny was pleased to see a steaming teapot between every four place settings. Brooke waived at Danny when he entered with some older boys, and he headed over to them. Danny had been given black trousers and a dark red shirt to wear. His shoes were replaced for some boots that actually felt pretty comfortable.
Sitting down, he greeted everyone and poured himself some tea, taking a sip.
Ivy watched him happily drinking, and asked, "So how did you like your room?"
"Oh, it was a little on the big side, but after I get my desk and bookshelves down here it will right cozy."
Ivy smirked but didn't reply.
Brooke thought it was pretty funny and said, "I kept falling off the bed, not being used to one so small, I finally gave up and just slept down there."
Danny looked around and said, "So how often do we get to go outside, or do we stay down here the whole time."
"No, we do a lot of training outside the city."
"That's a relief." Danny picked up his fork and started digging into his food.
The day started with everyone practicing unarmed moves. It reminded Danny a lot of the karate classes he attended, except they were not learning karate.
They did this for about an hour, then they started running. About this point Danny was ready to call it a day, but instructor Meadow had other ideas.
Hours later, at lunch, Danny decided that he hated Meadow's ideas. He also determined that her ideas hated him right back. Danny could feel everything. Everything was throbbing and yelling at him to stop. They had practiced unarmed moves, run, climbed, lifted, and then practiced with a weapon of their choice. Danny of course grabbed a staff. He wasn't about to pick up one of the dull metal training swords that looked like they weighed half as much as he did.
Danny did his best to only complain internally, but he noticed the sympathetic looks he got from his teammates. They did their best to encourage him.
After lunch it was specialty training. The girls went their separate ways and instructor Meadow introduced Danny to the scariest looking little wizard Danny had ever seen. He wore a black duster with red trim. Meadow said his name was instructor Pebble. Danny just called him Wizard to be safe. The man's sleeves were so stretched out, Danny didn't know why they didn't just get him a duster that fit him. Danny was directed to a training room that looked similar to the ones at the academy. Except this one had, in either corner of the wall with the door, a small pool of water and plot of earth. Also, this training room was set farther from the others.
Opening the door, instructor Pebble, said, "This is your training room, you keep it clean. You will practice every day and use your magic as much as possible to increase your mana reserves. I was told about your gifts and cannot help teach you. So instead I will challenge you. You will create a novel defense and offense using each of the elements you control. You will have to show you can use these quickly and under pressure."
"How long do I have to complete this?"
"You have until I start to wonder if you’re actually trying."
Danny did his best to hide his confused look. "Besides cleaning up before I leave, is there anything else I should know?"
"Yes, if you are going to kill yourself in some stupid way, try not to make too big of a mess as I will be the one to clean it up."
"Sure...'
The door slammed as the wizard abruptly left.
>
Danny looked around and saw a crate next to the stairs. Inside was a few smaller baskets with apples, grapes, and strawberries. Confused, he didn't know if these were for training or lunch. Shrugging his shoulders he got to work.
By the end of the first week, Danny was ready to try and see if reincarnation would work again. His aches had aches, and the only thing that he felt like he was improving on was magic.
For fire affinity he made a wall of fire, and then for an attack, he made a sweeping whip of flame. It was almost too easy to make new things now. The only question is if he can do it under pressure. So he practiced them until they were second nature. He learned to split the flame whips and give them multiple tails. The wall of flames was pretty straight forward and could be shaped different ways. He also wanted to make a better fireball. So he would create a free floating ball of mana, then send a stream of mana in front of it, then when he cast the fire rune to create the fire ball, it would attach to the mana stream allowing him to control it. Well he could correct it slightly. His ability to correct its trajectory was limited by how far he could stretch his mana. This was a two-step process compared to the firewall and flame whips.
Danny was excited, and then annoyed when he discovered his efforts got him to Journeyman in flame affinity. He usually ended his week by checking his mental sanctuary. He walked into the mana room to find two additional walls. One wall looked like a volcano barfed on it and the other was covered in ice. Between the fire and air walls was now, "Cold Affinity". He figured fire and air would make steam, but he was apparently wrong the other wall was between earth and fire, called "Lava Affinity." While he was excited by the development, this meant he had to come up with even more attacks and defenses. Stupid advancement. Once again he had three levels in each already. Danny thought, Thanks public education, these Diadems... Diademians... Diademites... they were missing out.
The next day the teams were given packs and lead down, yet another, long corridor to the north. Of course they jogged it. Only this time it took as long as the corridor he had come down to reach the headquarters. When they emerged from the tunnel they were in a cave. Leaving the cave brought them out onto an overlook of a forest, with mountains in the distance to the west. It was beautiful and Danny realized he had never left the city before. It took him a moment to realize that the trees here were enormous. They stretched high into the air. There were some smaller varieties interspersed amongst the larger. This must be the Great Forest.