by R. A. Mejia
Meno seems to be struggling with something when I look at him, but he finally comes out and says, “I appreciate the help escaping, but I know better than to go anywhere near the Imperare lands. I’m afraid our paths will have to part soon.”
I am actually hurt a bit, although I shouldn't be. Meno has become such a good friend, and I would have liked to have had him watching my back on this dangerous journey. But, I really can’t blame the guy for not wanting to take such a big risk for kobolds he’s never met before. I just nod and accept his decision.
Dyblex and Kitsune have much the same thoughts, and I can understand where they are coming from. Both were almost enslaved by the Empire, and they must dread the thought of ever going into their lands and taking the chance of becoming a slave again. Dyblex plans to return to Secundum, and Kitsune will continue her journey back to her homeland, Oturan.
Token’s plans are the most surprising to me. “I won’t be joining you on your journey into the human-ruled lands of the Imperare Empire either. I’ve completed my task for now: I found you, and I have helped place you on your path to serving Cherax Quadricarinatus. I’ll be leaving soon, though I do expect our paths to cross again someday.”
Lilliandra and Rex almost speak simultaneously, but Rex’s deep voice overpowers hers. “We will go with you too, lad. We left you once and look at all the trouble that you got into. We wouldn’t be very good friends if we abandoned you now.”
Lilliandra nods in agreement at her husband’s words and adds in a motherly tone, “Besides, who else will make sure you are eating right?”
Keans cuts his two friends off before they can say anything else. “Are you two daft? How do you expect to hide the fact that you’re both not human? You know the two of you stand out everywhere we go now. Imagine all the scrutiny we’ll get in a country where anyone not human is a slave!”
“We?” I ask.
Keans takes a pipe out of his jacket pocket, fills it with tobacco, and lights it before answering. “Yes, I said we. I intend to take the place of my two doting friends. I’ll help you cross into the Empire and try to keep you out of as much trouble as I can.” He takes a long drag from his pipe and mutters, “Though, trouble seems to follow you around like a puppy follows a child who drops food all the time.”
The three argue a bit more, but after a while they agree that, out of the three of them, the roguish Keans would be best suited to guide us on our journey. But Rex and Lilliandra are also determined to make the most of the time they have to help train me, Mary, and Vrax.
Meno, Kitsune and Dyblex leave the group when we come near the next town.
Before Dyblex goes, she pulls me aside. “I’m sorry I can’t go with you, Armon, but I just can’t make myself go.” She looks down at her feet, and her long ears seem to wilt. “It’s shameful to my pride as a goblin that I can’t help you when you need it”--she looks up and reveals a package to me--“but I made these for you.”
I take the gift, carefully wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. Unwrapping it, I reveal a pair of black fingerless leather gloves. The don’t look particularly remarkable until I focus on them.
Gloves of Force (Interchangeable)
A pair of custom-made gloves created by the inventor Dyblex. These gloves not only provide protection to the hands of the wearer but also have magical engravings to channel mana to an interchangeable plate of metal on the knuckles. The plate can be switched out for a variety of spell effects, and the cost of the spell depends on the plate used.
Current plate: Force damage. Costs 5 mana per punch. Damage: 1-2 (Force).
Dyblex’s voice interrupts my examination of the gloves. “See, it’s what we talked about in my shop in Restrian: gloves that would add force damage. I improved on the idea and made it so that you could add a different kind of magically-engraved plate if you needed to do a different kind of damage.” She points to the glove. “I even made sure to cut out the fingers so that they wouldn’t interfere with your spellwriting.”
After reading the description and listening to how much thought she put into the gift, I can’t help but give the goblin a big hug. I know that magical engraving cost XP, and I can only imagine what she spent creating something like this. “It’s truly a wonderful gift, Dyblex. Thank you. I’ll cherish it.” She walks away blushing.
Kitsune’s eyes are red as she hands me a note before she leaves quietly with Dyblex and Meno. After the three are gone, I open the note and read it.
Dear Armon,
I don’t have the strength to tell you how much you’ve come to mean to me. You not only saved me from a life of servitude but have helped keep me safe on my journey. I’d faintly hoped you would come home with me and help me rebuild my kingdom, but after seeing you with Sonya, I know our paths have to diverge. Please know that you not only have my eternal gratitude, but that of the nation of Oturan. If you are ever in need, you just have to send a message, and I will do what I can to aid you.
With love,
Kitsune, daughter of the Nine-Tailed Fox Tribe
The note shouldn’t be surprising to me, but it is. I never suspected she felt that way.
When Token leaves, it’s in the middle of the night. He comes to me in a dream and tells me that he’s glad that I’ve taken the first steps on my life journey. He advises me to keep practicing artifice and to keep learning more skills. He says that he foresees a great destiny for me and knows that we’ll meet again. When I wake up the next day, he’s gone.
____________
Monstrum shares a border with the Imperare Empire along the south and part of its eastern borders. The borders to the east are heavily guarded and patrolled, but the southern border is almost completely desert. While the Monstrum military has a presence there, it’s much lighter since both countries find the massive desert too difficult to cross.
Keans, the troublemaker and scalawag that he is, knows some people in a town called Urgoe who regularly make the illegal crossing between kingdoms to transport illicit merchandise with high profit margins.
The remaining weeks traveling there are spent training. While Keans helps me with my stealth and bow skills, Rex continues to train me in unarmed combat techniques. I learn an ability called [Multipunch] from him that lets me hit an opponent with a flurry of blows.
Multipunch
A special attack available only to the unarmed fighter. Multipunch allows for several fast jabs. The damage is usually lighter than a heavy punch, but the fierce flurry of blows has a chance to stun an opponent.
Damage: Four quick jabs at 50% normal punch damage per blow. Chance to stun: 5%
Stamina Cost: 10
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Training with Lilliandra focuses on combat magic. She was disappointed when I told her that I lost the journal she gave me, and she says that she understands, but the painful lessons in combat magic make me think that maybe she isn’t 100% okay with it. After testing me on everything I know about spellwriting and making me demonstrate everything she’s ever taught me, Lilliandra passes a hand over my head, and I get a notification.
Magical Aura, Aura Projection, and Mana Control advanced to Beginner level 1. New bonuses apply.
I almost smack myself for forgetting that progress in those skills had stalled out. Thankfully, as my teacher, Lilliandra somehow knew and pushed me past the Novice level. I look over each description and note the changes.
Magical Aura
You can now directly connect to your personal source of magical energy and mana. Accessing this mana pool takes less time as the skill advances. At the Beginner level, your aura has increased in size, making both it and your mana pool deeper.
Beginner 1 (1%)
You are 100% faster when accessing your mana pool and making it a part of your aura. 1% increase to mana pool.
Aura Projection
You can now project your mana. As the skill advances, it takes less time to project your magical aura, and you gain more control over your mana. Perq
uisite: Magical Aura. At the Beginner level, you may now form simple shapes with your aura.
Beginner 1 (1%)
You are 10% faster when projecting your mana.
Mana Control
This skill allows the user to automatically adjust how much mana is applied to a spell. The strength of the spell will be adjusted as well. At the Beginner level, you may now apply specific amounts of mana to a spell rather than a constant stream.
Beginner 1 (1%)
Spells cost 10% less mana. Apply mana to spells in set bursts of 10s or 5s.
I check my character sheet and note that my mana has increased by one whole point, bringing it to 69. While I appreciate any freebie, I’m also aware that this bonus will grow along with my mana pool, or as the skill increases, and the bonus itself improves. I’m not really sure what making simple shapes with my aura projection means or how exactly adding set amounts of mana will help me, but I’m sure Lilliandra will explain it at some point.
After I finish checking out my new skill bonuses, Lilliandra and I talk about what I want to do with combat magic, specifically what combination of spells I’ve used.
“Well, on my way to Monstrum, I discovered how to use the arcane symbol ‘remove’ to pull heat from an area and create ice. I also learned how to use the ‘earth’ symbol to trap a person’s legs in rock. My go-to spell was ‘fire’ to burn opponents, but when we fought against the undead, I figured out how to create impromptu weapons like the knuckle busters.”
I think about how to phrase my next statement. “Lilliandra, don’t take this the wrong way, but is there a way to speed up the time it takes to spellwrite? My biggest complaint about spellwriting is how long it takes to write and cast a spell, especially if I’m trying something new.”
She purses her lips together, and her eyebrows tilt in amusement. “Armon, you are not the first, nor will you be the last, to think spellwriting takes too long. I promise you that your ability to cast quickly will improve with practice.”
“Yeah, but it’s so much faster to throw a mana bomb and make things go boom.”
“A mana what?”
I explain about making mana bombs and how they’re a combination of spellwriting and [Crystal Programming]. I further explain that, even though it requires quite a bit of preparation, the effects are either instantaneous or timed, since Token showed me how to do that too.
The normally-calm and collected half-elf listens to me quietly, but when I’m done, her left eye is twitching, and she speaks to me with a raised voice. “While I understand that circumstances forced you to create such devices, I cannot approve of them. From what you describe, those kinds of weapons can be used by anyone. The power to manipulate the arcane forces of the universe should only be used by those who have been trained to responsibly handle them. Otherwise, every fool with money will be able to kill his neighbor with magic!”
I’d never considered that. I just needed a way to fight back.
Lilliandra takes a deep breath and continues in her normal, calm voice. “Now, let us move on to your training. I suggest we focus on some crowd control, support effects, as well as improving your ranged attack.” She waggles her finger at me. “While your mana bombs may be an effective weapon, you are spending XP each time you use them. Those crystals will break from being used that way, and they are not repairable.”
I realize that she’s correct. I’ve spent almost as much XP as I’ve gained these last few months making and using those bombs. They’re a finite resource, unlike my mana, which regenerates. I bow my head to Lilliandra. “Thank you for sharing your wisdom, teacher.”
Over the next two weeks, Lilliandra focuses on teaching me three things. First, she shows me how to target an enemy. Most of my trouble with spellwriting is that I have to be very specific about where the spell goes off. Touching someone or drawing the symbols directly on them is the easiest way to target the spells, but there is an advanced form which involves intently focusing on a particular enemy while spellwriting. The spell will then auto-focus the instant it powers up. A quick enemy can still dodge your spell, since it targets a particular space, but the technique makes it easier to aim at a distance. There’s an even more advanced way to target an enemy called ‘tracking,’ but Lilliandra says the spell words are too complicated for me right now. It’s the same type of symbol that Mary’s Magic Missile spell uses, but even then, it’s so complicated that it only works with the base elemental symbols. This makes sense to me. Otherwise, every novice be streaming off magically-tracking fireballs and rays of destruction.
The second thing Lilliandra works on with me is how to delay enemies with quick spells long enough to use more powerful ones later. She points out that casters are notoriously weak in melee combat, so it’s better to delay, freeze, or otherwise impede a melee attacker first, thus gaining the time to cast more powerful spells. The two of us work on earth grab, improving the time it takes for me to cast it and refining my spellwriting to target the correct person quickly. A big part of accelerating these casts is having a set block of mana reserved. Up until now, I’ve been visualizing a constant stream of mana coming from my mana pool into the spellwriting. Lilliandra guides me through the mental process of setting aside mana blocks. Essentially, instead of drawing a stream of mana from my pool, I mentally take a bucket, fill it with mana, and then pour that into the arcane symbols I’ve drawn. Lilliandra has me form two mental buckets: one with a 10 mana draw and one with a 20 mana draw. I mentally practice dipping these buckets in my mana pool and throwing them at the arcane symbols I draw out. It’s a much faster process, but once it’s activated, I can’t add more mana or continuously use that effect. A practical example would be how I heal. When streaming mana to the ‘life’ symbol, healing occurs continuously until I stop the magic or I run out of mana. But, if I add a bucket of 10 mana, the same spell activates healing for 5-7 points and then the arcane symbol disappears after. One is applied with the force of a shot from a water pistol, and the other that of stream from the water hose.
The last thing Lilliandra works on with me is a set ranged attack.
“First, create a shape with your spellwriting. Try creating a circle, triangle, or just a line.”
I do as I’m told and pull mana from inside myself, up along my arm to the tip of my right index finger and draw a circle in the air with the mana.
“Good, now draw the arcane symbol for ‘spin’ below it. Here, copy me.” Lilliandra summons her own mana and draws a large symbol in that air that looks like a curved line that wraps inside itself five times. I copy the same symbol beneath the circle I’ve already drawn.
“Now, send your mana into both symbols, Armon.”
I send the mana and am happily surprised to see the circle start to spin. I send more mana, and it spins faster and faster until the line that makes up the circle disappears, and only a sphere remains. I try the same experiment with a triangle, spinning it around the axis intersecting one of the triangle points, and it gives me a cone. Spinning a square or rectangle around the different axes makes many different shapes. If it’s spun around the long axis, you get a tube or a rod. If the short axis is used, you get something that looks likes a cheese wheel.
“Good, you are getting the idea. Now, add an elemental symbol to the shape.”
I have to rest for a bit before I can take the next step. I draw the circle then write ‘fire’ next to the symbol for ‘spin.’ When I send my mana to the spell, it turns the standing circle into a fireball. I can only keep the spell going for a few minutes, but I’m so excited that I don’t watch where my hands are and accidentally brush against the flaming ball. I cry out in pain as my finger gets burnt, I lose my concentration, and the fireball dissipates into nothingness.
Lillian calmly takes my hand in hers and draws several symbols in the air above my burnt finger. The burn disappears. “Now, you see why I didn’t teach this to you before? It’s too easy to harm yourself when you’re creating complex elemental shapes. But you’v
e now progressed far enough that I trust you’ll be able to handle it.”
Lilliandra goes on to explain that, while creating an elemental shape is relatively simple, using those shapes as weapons is more complicated. Since the fireball will burn me just as easily as an enemy, I can’t just grab it and throw it--at least, not without some serious fire resistance enchantments. Instead, after creating the fireball, I have to write a second spell behind it that directs ‘force’ energy in the proper direction to launch the fireball. It takes minutes to setup, and while that may not seem like a long time, it’s an eternity during a fight. Lilliandra assures me that I can get the spell written in seconds with enough practice. She demonstrates by creating an ice-ball and then launching it at a tree. The projectile shoots out at an incredible speed, and when it hits, it leaves a visible gash in the wood. The entire attack, from her first movement to the time to launch, was only three seconds. My best time, when I don’t make a mistake and ruin the spell, is three minutes.
Unfortunately, my time learning from Rex and Lilliandra comes to an end way too soon. We reach the border between Monstrum and the Imperare Empire, and from here, we have to leave the two and continue on our own. After a tearful goodbye, we bid each other our farewells and promise to send communications when we can. Our new group, three humans, a kobold, and a fairy, start our long desert crossing. I look over my character sheet before we go.