“Alright, Arthur, I need your full attention for this training, so that means you can’t go staring at my ass as usual.”
Arthur felt a deep red blush color his cheeks, and his ears got hot with her statement. Had she noticed him staring at her ass? Surely not. After a few moments of Arthur’s introspection, Allendria let out a big laugh.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see your reaction, but it appears I was correct. I don’t mind if you look as long as you keep your hands to yourself. Now on to business.”
Arthur felt rather sheepish after she called him out like that, and then his foolishness only caused her to see the truth in her jest. He decided he would find a way to get back at her in the future for that. He turned his attention to Allendria to work on his training.
“As we discussed when I was teaching you Earth Magic, you have a specific feeling associated with the magic as it flows through, do you not?”
Arthur nodded his head to her.
“Come on, Arthur, we are adults in a teaching situation. Use your words like a big boy.”
Again Arthur was embarrassed by her statement but also felt oddly good about it. It appeared she was starting to loosen up around him and joke. She was a bit antisocial when they had first met.
“Yes.” He replied.
“Better, now let’s get started. The feeling of your Earth Magic will be a big difference here. Each realm of magical skill works similarly, but the key difference is the feel of the magic. Theoretically, anyone can learn any magic skill, even without a teacher, if they can find the correct feel and power flow. With someone to assist, it makes this process faster and more likely to succeed. Since you are well aware of the absolute basics of magic now, I am going to skip over most of this, and we will go straight to unlocking your fire magic skill. Please come over to me and put out your hand, face up.”
Arthur strolled a couple of steps to her and cautiously stretched his right hand out. He wasn’t sure why she needed it but was worried it might be harmful.
“Now, I am going to place my hand on yours, and I need you to focus.”
She placed her hand on his, and Arthur felt a slight warmth spreading into his hand from hers. It wasn’t painful but also wasn’t overly comfortable either.
“Focus, Arthur. Most instructors would let you squirm for a bit and flaunt their talent, but I am going to push this straight to where we need to go. I want you to focus on this power as it enters your hand. Pay close attention to the feel of the magic as it leaves my hand and enters you. Once you figure out the feel, try, and regulate the flow of the magic into your hand to match the same feeling. Once you can control the fire energy entering you, it should unlock your skill for you, and you will understand how to manipulate and create the flow of power yourself.”
Arthur focused on Fire Magic as it entered him. He couldn’t quite grasp what she meant by the feel. It just felt like a dull pain in him. He thought about his Earth Magic and decided to analyze it first. Earth Magic had a distinct feeling to it. It was the feeling of thick sap flowing over a solid stone and accented with a deep drumbeat. The beat was a steady thrum that never changed pace, and the flow was just as smooth.
Keeping that thought in his mind, he decided to try again on focusing on the fire magic. The flow itself felt like a crackling flame in a fire on a cold winter day mixed with a warm breeze. Arthur wasn’t sure how to combine those feelings in himself with power. He decided to focus on the energy as it entered him now. He tried to grasp it with his mind and force it to his will, but this didn’t do anything. The power seemed to flow right past his will.
He took a deep breath and decided to try again. This time he pictured himself in a leaping tackle to try and force the power to his will. Instead, it felt like he tackled nothing but mist and stumbled past. He wasn’t sure how to do it, and nothing he tried to do was working. He supposed Allendria was paying attention to a bit of the struggle on his face because she decided to give him a bit of a hint.
“Arthur, you need to calm your mind. You cannot force an elemental power to your will. You have to influence the power carefully. Instead, try to focus on what you wish it to be and coax it into being that way.” Allendria told him calmly.
Arthur nodded and turned his attention back inward. Instead, he decided to try and approach it her way. Trying to hold his will and assert the necessary feeling wasn’t working either. He thought about it and decided it was an issue with trying to do too much at once. He couldn’t honestly expect to align the entire power all at once, perfectly. He decided to focus on one aspect of this power and slowly mold it. He focused on the feel of a crackling fire and pushed his will in the direction of the energy entering his body but was careful not to force it directly into the power stream. He kept the slow push of will in place and felt the power slowly shifting.
The power seemed to shift into separate bands subtly, and he felt one of them morph into the feeling of the crackling fire he had pictured. This change gave him hope, and he wanted to jump up and yell in triumph but knew he couldn’t break his concentration. He focused on the next feeling of a cold winter day and felt the bands shift again. To his disappointment, though, the crackling fire band turned back to the raw stream while the second one changed to the aura of a cold winter day. Well, at least he knew they would get progressively harder. He had to keep the original idea firm in his mind and add piece by piece to shape the power.
He went back to the first idea of the crackling fire, and it quickly solidified one stream, and the cold aura stream went back to normal. He then pictured the crackling fire with the aura of a cold winter day around it. This time two of the streams solidified into place. He then added the warm breeze feeling into the mix, and all three bands of power came into being as he felt them coming from Allendria. He waited like that for a while, and nothing happened. He expected some feeling to let him know he had succeeded, but nothing was happening. He looked a bit closer to the power coming from Allendria and realized that her magic wasn’t split into three separate bands that matched the feelings. Hers was all one solid band that contained the three distinct characteristics. That meant he needed to meld his streams of power back together.
He focused on each band and decided to go in the same order. Holding the idea of the fire, he slowly pictured the power of the cold aura wrapping around the power strand of the crackling fire. It resisted shortly and snapped into place. He finally brought the warm breeze band of power into the equation and pictured the energy flowing through the entire scene to create a consistent breeze. After a few moments, it solidified as well, and he heard a chime in his head.
Congratulations, you have learned Fire Magic for a 100 experience bonus.
“Fantastic job, Arthur. I don’t know of many who ever accomplished that so fast. Usually, it is a slow process over a couple of days, but I had faith in you. Now that you have unlocked the power, it will come as naturally as your earth magic and won’t require all of the in-depth visualizations. I know you didn’t realize it, but that tome of earth magic did this same process to you forcefully and made the visualization solidify there to give you the skill. Now you need some spells. I will be able to teach you one beginner spell of Basic Fire Bolt. That should get you started, and you can use your imagination to find more.” Allendria told him. She was smiling at him, and that look on her face warmed his heart.
“Thank you so much, Allendria. I hope you know how much I truly appreciate this gift. I understand the consequences of what this means to you and will not betray your trust and friendship.” He told her somberly.
“Thank you, Arthur. Now on to your new spell. The Basic Fire Bolt spell is relatively weak but is a good distraction as well as a good fire-starter in a pinch.” Allendria said as she winked at him.
She walked him through the Fire Bolt spell. It was similar to what he had done before. He had to visualize the small projectile of fire and picture it shooting away from him. Everything was working well until he tried to cast it. He failed spect
acularly, and the little ball of flame popped right in front of him. Not only did it utterly surprise Arthur, but it also did an excellent job of scorching his hands.
You have been hit with 10 HP damage from Fire Backlash.
“Oh, Arthur!” she exclaimed. “I am so sorry about that. I wanted you to fail that spell so you could learn a lesson from it, but I completely forgot to instruct you on protecting yourself from your flames. Please forgive me for that.”
Arthur laughed a bit at himself and winced as he felt his hands sting a bit from the heat that had blasted them. He was sure he would end up with a few blisters later, but it wasn’t too bad. Better to understand that lesson on a weak spell like this.
“It is all right, Allendria. I know you wouldn’t have done that on purpose. So how do I protect myself from those flames?” Arthur asked.
“That is a good question, Arthur,” she said in a mock sarcastic teaching voice. She stared at him for a moment as he cocked an eyebrow at her, and then she giggled a bit. “To protect yourself from the flame, you need to coat your body parts in your flame power at the same time. So while you visualize your spell, also visualize a thin barrier of that same power covering your hands. Your hands and lower arms are good enough for these lower spells, but as you get more advanced spells, you will need to expand that coating and sometimes thicken it depending on the heat.” She explained to him.
“Now, on to the other portion of that spell, the failure itself.” She continued, “Do not feel bad about it because I have honestly never known anyone to handle that type of spell their first time without fail. All of the current spells you have done so far have been stationary type spells. They may change the shapes of things, but that thing never leaves contact with your power. In the case of this Fire Bolt, the flame itself does leave you and your ability to influence it. Once it leaves your hand, it is its own separate entity. Due to this, you have to do a couple of things different. First and foremost, you must have a distinct picture in your head of where you want it to go. Since it is magic, you can have it fly around things or change its course, but all of that must be determined and set before letting it go. Also, keep in mind, it can slow the spell if you make it change course a lot, which means your target will be long gone before it arrives. Any questions on that so far?” She asked.
“So, let me get this straight, I can make this bolt fly around a tree and strike a target behind it?” He asked.
“Indeed you can, but keep in mind, you still have to know precisely where it should go, or you will still miss the target. You can direct it around a tree, but if the enemy doesn’t inhabit the target spot you choose, you have wasted a shot. Alternately you can anticipate an opponent’s movement and have the bolt fly directly at them to make them dodge but swerve to the area they will dodge to hit them. It is difficult to do unless you are familiar with their type of fighting and techniques.” She told him.
Arthur nodded. He was sure that knowledge would come in very handy.
“For the second different thing, you have to incorporate an element of time into the spell. Time is the main thing that caused your spell attempt to blow up as soon as you tried to cast it. Your visualization lacked time, so when released, it exploded where it was. To fix that, you need to add time to it. I know this sounds difficult, but it is effortless. You do not have to predict and imagine the future or anything perfectly. You honestly don’t even have to picture the correct thing at all. You have to show at least one thing moving for comparison to show the time. For instance, you can cast the spell and imagine yourself dashing to the side as your bolt flies. It simulates the time needed for it to fly. You do not even have to do that action. It is just a reference. The one exception is if you are trying to predict a target, as we discussed before. In that case, you must picture what they will do and where they are going to be as the bolt flies.” She told him a matter of factly.
“That makes sense. I never thought of the time aspect of it, but without that factor, it would be difficult to judge the missile speed and for it to go anywhere. I am greatly relieved it doesn’t expect me to simulate what will happen though perfectly. That would be almost impossible.” Arthur said with a relieved sigh.
“Now try it again. This spell is simple enough that you should have enough mana to attempt it again without running out.” She told him.
Arthur checked, and he did indeed have almost three-quarters of his mana left. He followed Allendria’s instructions about the protective layer and then cast the spell. This time it worked great and shot off like an arrow. It flew directly at the tall stem of dead grass he had been aiming at and lit it on fire in an instant. He jumped up and cheered at his success as he heard the familiar chime.
Congratulations, you have discovered the Fire Magic Spell: Basic Fire Bolt. You have gained 250 experience in Fire Magic for discovering a known spell.
You have gained 60 experience in Fire Magic for successfully casting Basic Fire Bolt.
Spell: Basic Fire Bolt
Requirements: Fire Magic
Spell Damage: 4-6
Mana Cost: 15MP
Cast Time: 2 seconds
Description: Shoots a small bolt of fire at the designated target.
Mastery Level: 1
Allendria had been right. The spell wasn’t very powerful but with the short cast time and low mana cost, it could be very useful as a distraction or to throw someone off guard at the right time.
“Now for you to learn the art of Enchanting. We can walk back toward the village and discuss the basics of it as we go. We will need a place to work in town to practice this skill. I have a few of the basic items we will need for it so do not worry about that.” She told him.
“So what exactly is Enchanting used for? I imagine from my past knowledge of the skill it has to do with magically enhancing items.”
“That isn’t far off from the mark.”
He had played enough games in his day to understand the implications of this skill and was excited to learn it.
“Part of the reason I chose to teach you this skill is that only those who have unlocked a magical power can use it. It is the ability to combine an item with specific arcane script and infuse mana of that power into the item to permanently enhance that item in some way. Due to you now having two sources of magic you can make items that utilize both fire and earth magic. You also don’t have to know the spell itself to enchant it onto an item you merely have to use the correct symbols to hold the power. After that, you can modify the power in the item to do the desired effect. It isn’t uncommon to learn spells while performing Enchanting either. If you successfully imbue an item with an enchantment there is a chance you will learn how to do that spell on your own as well. Conversely, if you already know a spell it is much faster to enchant and imbue the power.”
“You are an absolute lifesaver Allendria. I don’t know if I can ever repay you for this.” Arthur told her.
“Well, you did save my life, so there is that. On top of that, I do like the way you treat me. Even among my people, I was never able to be like I am now. I may think of something in the future though if I think I need to.” She said to him with a wink.
“For Enchanting, is it a new set of letters I have to learn or is it based on a distinct language?” Arthur asked.
“Oh it is based on an old language but I doubt it is one that you are familiar with…well, I say that, but your ability to speak multiple languages without knowing them may be a big benefit to you in this. If that gift works the same for this you will be a natural with this skill.”
“Let us hope it does. I am not sure I have the time to learn another language with everything else that is going on now. If it came down to that, I would probably have to postpone working on much of this skill for a while.” Arthur told her.
They calmly made their way back to town with some pleasant conversation about the surrounding landscape and weather and gradually made their way back to town. Arthur decided they should swing back by the in
n on the way in to check on how things were going. When he arrived he saw a few people standing around and assumed they were there for him.
The first two were Rowan’s new apprentices. They were there to turn in their orders for the ingots. He acknowledged their completion and immediately made two more identical orders for them to accept and sent them on their way. He instructed them to take the newly smelted ingots back to Rowan at the forge for immediate use and they were happy to comply. He was surprised when they asked him another question he hadn’t considered.
“Sir, are we able to allocate our meals for others to use? I know if we keep up this speed for orders we will have more than we can reasonably use and wanted to know if I could allow family or friends to cash in on some of my meal tokens?”
“I have no issues with that but it could be hard to keep up with. We wouldn’t want people to start stealing meal tokens from others so I think we will just have to keep a tally book at the inn for tracking meals earned and used. We can allow each person to allocate others to use their tokens. That should keep things straight.” Arthur told them seriously.
Both of them smiled at that and took off while saying their thanks. The other two who were milling around in front of the inn were the father and son pair he had seen in the morning and they had a small cart with the necessary logs on them he had requested. He accepted their order completion and made them again. They both decided to accept the order again and Arthur explained that he was implementing a tally system in the inn so they would be able to allow others to use their meal tokens as they wished. They both perked up and smiled at that. He was sure they had other family members they were worried about and were probably trying to figure out how to get meals for them as well. He asked them to drop the logs behind the inn for now and both of them took off with a little more oomph in their step as they went straight back out of the village.
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