《Descendant of Dawn》
Chapter 1: Prologue
Nalivey knew she was going to die soon.
Things had gone awry ever since her second evolution. Most of the so called civilized races like humans or elves had a deep hatred towards the evolved individuals of other races. Especially on her continent, she had heard rumors about intelligent monsters being accepted in society on other continents like Aikidora, should they manage to convince the nearest citylord of their usefulness.
Her continent had the highest population of monsters so it was inevitable most lost someone to a monster. As humans, elves and dwarves rarely evolved they were fearful and jealous of monsters that managed to do so several times in their lifetime.
When Nalivey had first evolved back in her tribe she had been elated as it would elevate her position in her tribe by leaps and bounds. She could now hunt five times as much as she could as a normal goblin. Hobgoblins were still weaker than the average human, so they were counted as goblins by the surrounding humans. The human town near her tribe was a very tolerant one, trading metal tools against the hunting produce of humanoid monsters.
About a year later, when she had once again been on a hunting trip, she had heard a terrified screech from above. All her instincts told her to run as far and fast as she could and hide. Her curiosity got the better of her however and she cautiously approached a nearby clearing to see what had happened.
As it turned out there wasn''t much to observe anymore, the only thing she managed to see was the glimpse of a lesser dragon flying into the distance and something else tumbling to the ground, probably a part of its prey. Curious as ever Nalivey had chosen to investigate and set off in the direction of the crash.
After half an hour of searching she had finally found what she was looking for, a part of a singed wing as big as she was. It likely fell off when the dragon ate its owner. She didn''t know the race of the beast it belonged to but the flesh smelled delicious and she hadn''t eaten since the morning. Instinct took over, something that hadn''t happened since her evolution and she ate until she was full. Afterwards she started to feel quite drowsy so she climbed a nearby tree and fell asleep.
When she awoke sometime later it was night she felt different, the world seemed clearer than before, her thoughts were more focused and her other senses seemed to have improved as well. Furthermore felt the same hunger she had after evolving for the first time. After satiating herself with the leftovers of the wing she had time to think about her new condition.
Even though she had no clue why, it quickly became apparent she evolved once again, which was both wonderful and completely terrifying.
On the one hand, she had never heard of anyone in her tribe evolving only a year after the first evolution, on the other she would have to leave her tribe and everything she knew, lest the nearby humans would wipe out her tribe as a warning for the surrounding monsters. She couldn''t let that happen!
Decision to leave firmly set, she went to a nearby lake to inspect her new appearance, which was way closer to a human than before. She would probably continue to grow over the next couple of months like she had before so in a few months she would be able to pass as a human. A disguise wouldn''t hold up to a close inspection but anything less would be fair game.
A year passed in moments notice. Nalivey had already stopped growing and could pass as a small human. She had been thinking about what could have caused her to evolve again, obviously the wing had something to do with that but she had had no clue why. Until now a year later she was nearly out of ideas but the last one seemed promising. That idea proved true and over the course of the next six years she managed to evolve twice more.
After her fourth evolution she looked a lot like a Human with slightly pointed ears and only a minimal green tinge left. After years of travelling the continent, ever moving to its midst by some unknown instinct she had finally been confident enough to try and live in a town. Once she had been accumulated to human life she approached a mage for an apprenticeship, something she had been interested in her whole life. Over the course of the next decade, she learned everything the Mage taught her, even Spells that were of no use for almost anybody because of the huge amount of mana they required.
After completing her apprenticeship, she left the town as a full blown mage and settled down in a small village in the human Kingdom of Ruzian where she had used an illusion to disguise herself as completely human, the peasants being way less open about anyone not human than the citizens in cities or towns.
For the next fifteen years she lived a happy life as the village healer until it got apparent she didn''t age as they did. While that would not have been a problem a few years earlier, a new lord had arisen in the area, and he had an irrational hate against anything not human even elves, dwarves and beastmen. When she one day saw one of the villagers leaving towards their lord, she knew her time at the village was over. She had always known that would happen someday, but hoped it would take longer than this. Not wanting to kill anybody, Nalivey had grown to like the villagers she had healed, she left before the lord''s men came to check the rumors of the unaging healer. Either would she be enlisted in his forces if she was declared a powerful human mage, something she had no interest in.
That would have been the most pleasant outcome. If they found her nonhuman heritage, she would have been attacked on the spot. After a few years of wandering towards the middle of the continent once again, she had settled in a village of monsters outside of any civilized kingdom''s or empire''s borders. Nalivey lived a peaceful life there and even found a mate. It had been the best moment in her life when she had noticed she was pregnant.
Alas the world seemed to hate her, as every time her life seemed to move up, humans destroyed her luck once again.
This time they came as a huge band of adventurers that were hired to exterminate the village in order to expand their kingdom¡¯s borders southward. Nalivey had wanted to fight as well and defend the life she had built up, but on the urging of the village elders she accompanied the other soon to be mothers and children. The hired adventurers had proven too much for the villagers as they had been spotted too late to mount an effective defense or flee.
She had been on the run ever since, the others originally with her being killed one by one, the humans saw them fleeing and had hit them with tracking spells she didn''t know and would need time they didn''t have to dispel.
Now several weeks later after giving birth to her daughter she was tired and knew her pursuers would soon catch up to her. While she was a mage of considerable strength and most likely could defeat any one human in physical combat, they were after her in great numbers and had tiered her out over the last few weeks. There was also her daughter¡¯s safety to consider, as the girl was sure to die should she fight her pursuers now.
She took out her biggest treasure, a stone consisting of crystallized mana something her late master gifted her for completing her training.
She would probably die, so she decided to give her daughter the best life possible and cast an illusion that would disguise her only non-human traits, which were her ears and teeth. The spell was cast in a way it would use the ambient mana to recharge itself.
She put her daughter in a basket she had obtained from a nearby human village and put in all the human currency she had left and a note containing her daughter''s name.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Then Nalivey used the mana contained in the crystal to cast a spell no human mage could cast by himself. The spell would transport her daughter to an orphanage located in the capital of the Edruin Empire, where her pursuers would never think to search for her daughter. She had visited the powerful empire once, it was located near the middle of the continent of Kidrin and after hearing of it''s architectural greatness she had known she would have to see for herself. During her visit, she had noticed how humans were treated there and walked past many orphanages on her way to see the grand palace.
A teleport spell was an intricate piece of magic, requiring the caster to have an exact image of where it should lead. The only limiting factor of such a spell was the weight it should transport, distance being no factor at all. By imperial custom, any human without a parent would be allowed to grow up in a safe environment. As her daughter look entirely human with the spell she cast, she was sure to be allowed to grow up safely.
With tears in her eyes Nalivey finished the spell and with a last kiss on her daughter¡¯s forehead, the girl vanished. She had foregone most of the things you would normally do in order to mask your casting as she was sure the huge amount of mana would stop a few of her pursuers, and give her a better fighting chance.
So she prepared to fight for her life once again, something she hadn''t needed to do for a long time and hoped to never need to do again.
Grenvir Dhannu was having a great day. He, his team and several others took on a quest to exterminate some monster village at the edge of their kingdom¡¯s borders. It was a really dangerous quest even for silver ranked adventurers like them, but immensely lucrative as they were allowed to keep all materials they gained.
The quest turned out even better than expected, they managed to kill nearly the entire village in their attack and while many of them died, that only meant more rewards for the survivors. He had spotted a few survivors fleeing their attack and cast a tracking spell on one of them. That one had most likely been a rare evolution as it looked almost entirely human. They had been hunting it for weeks now, killing all stragglers they came across, and slowly tiring it out.
By now it was most likely on its last legs and ready to be killed, he smiled at the thought of getting the reward for its corpse, which was enough to pay for the equipment needed to advance in rank once again.
Suddenly he felt a huge mana fluctuation from the direction his tracking spell was leading him. He didn''t know what spell was cast, but it definitely was some large scale magic.
Deciding he wasn''t going to risk running into a trap by the cunning monster, he told his team to stand down and let the other teams check it out. Several other mages told their teams to do the same. So shortly afterwards about half the teams continued, deciding a monster wasn''t smart enough to prepare a proper trap.
Andra Jonun woke up, startled, wondering what woke her considering she had quite the deep sleep. Looking out of the window she saw the sun would rise within the next hour. Deciding she couldn''t resume her sleep anyways, she started her day early. Shortly afterwards, she heard a child¡¯s scream coming from the direction of the front door. With a sigh, she decided to confirm her worries, when she opened the door she could see an infant in a basket, the parents nowhere to be seen.
She picked up the parchment in the basket to look for the infants name.
¡°Welcome to the Crystal Fountain Orphanage, little Mary.¡± She said, picking up the girls basket to take her inside.
With another sigh she decided to first wake up one of the orphanages new caretakers to take care of the child. Afterwards she started the paperwork for adding another orphan into her care, when the caretaker excitedly came in and told her she found three gold coins in the infants basket.
¡°Thank you very much Nandelia¡±
Andra said, wondering who the girls parents were given they put a fortune into a basket of such poor quality. Gifts like that were normally given to the child once it left the orphanage, as the empire treated all it''s human citizen the same and any child dropped off like this was guaranteed a save life for the first eight years of their life. She took out another new form and completed it with the ones already on her desk.
She really hoped the girl¡¯s parents were fine and would one day return to their daughter.
Grand Duke Falconbridge was no happy man.
He was currently sitting in his grand hall waiting for the Emperors soldiers to come and escort him to the emperor for questioning. Behind him clear to see for everyone was his family''s coat of arms, a Royal Falcon, that proudly stood upon a dead griffin twenty times its size. He had been informed that a detachment of the royal guard had been sent to fetch him. Soon enough soldiers bearing the sigil of the royal guard stormed into his hall. A Colonel of the Royal Guard declared loudly.
¡°Grand Duke Branston Falconbridge, you are hereby commanded to present yourself to Emperor Vibius Blythe immediately!¡±
¡°Of course Colonel, I suppose you and your men will escort me there?¡± he answered. He only got a confirming grunt.
15 Days later Capital of the Edruin Empire - Palace
After what could have easily been the fifteen most unpleasant days of his life, Branston Falconbridge finally arrived at the capital. Not even giving him time to refresh himself the Colonel escorted him directly into the Emperor''s private library. After properly bowing to the man he stood straight waiting for the Emperor to address him.
¡°Grand Duke Falconbridge I welcome to the capital, I do hope you had a pleasant journey?¡± That didn''t bode well as the Emperor didn''t actually care for anyone.
¡°Considering the circumstances, no, definitely not your majesty, may I ask why your men stormed my castle and transported me here without so much as an explanation?¡±
¡°Well, you know, I heard a rather nasty rumor about you.¡±
¡°And what would that rumor entail my Emperor, it must be really nasty to stop a grand duke from performing his duties?¡±
¡°It seems like you are a traitor Grand Duke, some birds told me you wanted to get yourself you own little kingdom, abandoning the Empire, taking my resources and workers with you.¡±
¡°I would never even think about something like that my Emperor. I am well aware, there would be nowhere to hide, we are, after all the most powerful Empire around I wouldn''t want to risk my position here just to be the king of an insignificant temporary kingdom!¡± The Emperor smirked.
¡°Yes that would really be the height of stupidity, wouldn¡¯t it. Unfortunately for you, these rumors have been around for some time and I have to do something!¡± Falconbridge smiled internally, the Emperor was doing just what he had anticipated.
¡°You intent to make an example of me not based on evidence or suspicion, but just to prove you are capable of hitting even the strongest of your subjects, don¡¯t you?¡± He protested loudly.
¡°As it happens, I do, you just happened to be very successful over the course of the last years. You are in luck though, I won¡¯t kill you and you will even continue to be a noble.¡±
¡°My Emperor, I assure you these rumors are completely unfounded, one of my rivals wanted to get rid of me and invented this rumor, wanting to get my position as the Grand Duke of the North. I am one of your most loyal subjects!¡± He protested again.
The Emperor ignored it and called for his personal scribe.
¡°Let it be known that Grand Duke Branston Falconbridge will from here on be known as Baron Falconbridge,. Furthermore all of the Barons possessions outside of the capital will be sized by the crown after a month has passed.¡±
After the Scribe left the Emperor turned to Barnston again. ¡°See to it Baron, to move your most valued items to the capital this month, otherwise you might lose something important. And I know that there are many nobles lusting after your position, but they won''t get it, as there won''t be a Grand Duke of the North from now on, the empire now only has five Grand Dukes!¡±
¡°Thank you for your generosity, my Emperor. I hope sacrificing me will help the empire!¡± Seemingly satisfied with the answer the Emperor dismissed him with a wave of his hand. Falconbridge bowed another time before leaving quickly. He had to start moving some important goods a well as relocate his best and most loyal retainers to the capital before the vultures the Emperor would appoint to his former position realised what he had happened. His work for the next month was set.
Luckily he could use the Teleportation Circles to travel back to his castle, bringing workers and guards to his land to transport everything he needed to the capital. Sadly the Circles could only transport away from the capital the Blythe Dynasty being as paranoid as they were. So he would have to make the journey back towards the capital again, though this time he wouldn''t be hurried along by the royal guard.
Chapter 2
Nandelia really loved children. When she had been given the chance to work at an orphanage she had nearly jumped in joy, she didn''t because the headmistress seemed to be a very serious person and probably wouldn''t approve of such childish behaviour. She was even happier when she got to care for an infant only two months after she started working. The next months were a flurry of activity, nursing and taking care of the infant while new ones arrived every now and then.
The funds the Empire donated to orphanages were enough to pay for one caretaker per twenty orphans. Only humans were allowed in federal sponsored orphanages, something which had been like this for hundreds of years and a glaring injustice as far as Nalivey was concerned.
Only a few months had passed and the Festival of Founding was fast approaching when her class hit its limit of twenty orphans. Things got all the more interesting when the children started to learn how to walk with Mary being the first to manage crossing the room all by herself being just shy of ten months old.
Over the course of the next six months all her charges got increasingly curious and started exploring their rooms. Each class had their own apartment, a dormitory, a restroom and a common room where they could play with each other.
When they reached the age of one and a half, thirty-six months of age, they were allowed to go playing in the inner courtyard as long as they were watched by one of the caretakers.
Her group seemed to consist of mostly calm children considering they never seemed to cause as much trouble as the other groups of similar age did. By the time the last of them hit the age of two she started teaching them everything she knew.
Nandelia differed from the rest of the orphanage¡¯s workers as her father was a fairly successful merchant. She had always lacked the will to survive the business world, something her father noticed early on. Instead of trying to make her into a merchant her father just arranged teachers give her a solid education, afterwards supporting her in whatever work she wanted to do. Because of her family''s wealth a solid education was way more than her coworkers could ever hope to achieve.
She started her lessons with the basics, like the length of a year being twenty-four months, each of which consisted of twenty eight days. Furthermore she taught them how to read and write in the language of the empire, as well as those of the surrounding kingdoms, like high elven, dwarven and the tongue of the lizardfolk.
They were all eager to learn more so she added the history of the Empire to her already existing subjects.
¡°The Empire was founded when Emperor Aulus Blythe managed to convince the true dragon Bronos Firebreath to help him found the Empire.¡± The children were glued to her lips.
¡°The Emperor set out and founded the capital. As ancient tradition had been upheld, the surrounding kingdoms welcomed the new empire in their midst.
Aulus was quite the charismatic man so he had many followers, ranging from powerful mages to simple farmers. With the help of the dragon and a few of his followers who had expertise in these matters, he planned out our capital to the finest detail and set up the Teleportation Circles, a thing no other nation has managed to copy as of yet.
He feared the other countries would invade one of his cities as means to directly attack the capital through these circles so he set them up to never lead towards the capital.¡± Nandelia continued.
¡°As you know, we now have the year 639 EC, EC meaning Empire Ascending. In the first ten years of its existence the Empire enlarged its border by simply claiming unclaimed land. More kingdoms started to take notice and our nearest neighbour declared war, the empire growing powerful way too fast for their liking. The ¡®upstart¡¯ at their border had to be put in place.
We easily won that war because Emperor Aulus had constantly built up the forces over the course of the Empire¡¯s existence. After claiming all of our enemies lands, the Empire continued its uninterrupted expansion in unclaimed territory.
Until we hit the borders of other kingdoms to the south, east and west not long after. The northern expansion stopped before as the monsters in those lands got increasingly powerful and even started attacking our outposts with uncanny levels of coordination. What ultimately stopped the northward expansion for good was a family of true dragons having claimed the surroundings to their mountain range. So the Empire stopped expanding for the first time in twenty years.
We had a period of peace, as Emperor Aulus focused on solidifying the position of his dynasty at the Empire''s top. When the Emperor finally died with sixty years of age he had made sure his family would always rule the Empire.¡± ¡°Why did he die this young?¡± One of them asked. ¡°I heard most Emperors lived up to eighty years of age?¡±
¡°While Aulus was a great leader, he had one big disadvantage, his personal power too insignificant to greatly expand his lifespan but significant enough to stop any means of expanding his lifespan by outside means.¡± Nandelia answered.
¡°After his death several of the surrounding kingdoms declared war against the prospering Empire, hoping to profit from the struggle for the throne they were sure was about happen. What they found instead was the most prospering country around unified behind their ruler.
Aulus son never had plans to further expand the Empire and was content to let all enemies fail against the Empire¡¯s legions and genius organization. Auslus built the empire in a way it was next to impossible to invade, sieging one of the cities would be useless as they could get supplied by the teleportation gates.
Just ignoring the city and raiding the inland was a foolish venture as they would be privy to be attacked by a large force from their rear. A year after his father''s death all our enemies sought peace as they noticed the folly of their actions. Emperor Herius accepted their peace offerings under the condition they repay the Empire for its losses.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
In the remaining time of his rule he formed the Empire into a hub for scholars and increasing knowledge of the civilized races as a whole.
The next four Emperors continued his work, until the Empire had its darkest hour, some of the neighbouring kingdoms assassinating Emperor Oppius and declaring war to his inexperienced son who had just hit ten years of age. While no single army could match the Empire''s legions and it was impossible to siege one of the cities, there are other, more costly ways to conquer a city which were ultimately successful.
The combined army of five of the surrounding counties, all of them ruled by Non-Humans catched the empire¡¯s legions of guard having fought nothing for the last two hundred fifty years other than bandits and some monsters.
The legions were pushed back until only the first six of the Empire¡¯s cities were still under its control. Of course the enemies had grievous losses and their soldiers were dying in droves. At that time, Gallus, Oppius son emerged for the first time, filled with rage and grief for his father''s death and came back looking for vengeance. He had the same strategic genius of his forefathers and didn''t hesitate to use his strongest assets to attack the enemy where it hurt most, interrupting supply lines and using all means necessary to take back one city after another.
After reclaiming most of the Empire''s lands safe for the ten outermost cities he was beaten back again, as the rest of our neighbours joined the war and lost two cities again. He received an ultimatum, cease all hostility towards the surrounding counties or lose all remaining cities except the capital.
With no good options remaining he accepted grudgingly and set the Empire on a darker path than his forefathers. He was filled with fury towards not only the killers of his father but all beings not human. Knowledge was now hoarded by the military, everyone without work had to join the Empire''s evergrowing legions. People of every non human race, as they were the ones to kill his father, lost their equality and most of the rights they had before.
Since then we never reached the glory of old, our relations with the surrounding countries at a permanent impassive. And while our legions are now strong enough to defeat any one of their armies, yet the neighbouring kingdoms would join forces should we wage war against one of them.
Trade had been stagnant until Emperor Vibius great grandfather reestablished it at the start of his rule, he understood the benefits the economy would have from trading. The Blythes never forgot the assassination and the nonhuman kingdoms dislike the Empire for oppressing all races but humans though.¡±
¡°Why were there no dragons in the wars?¡± One of the orphans asked. Nandelia shuddered at the thought. ¡°A country''s dragon never joins a war, except the if core of the country in question is in danger, which in the Empire¡¯s case would be our capital and the five surrounding cities. A dragon joining a war would be devastating for all involved parties as dragons are incredibly powerful!¡±
After she taught them the basic history, she added a little bit of monster lore to the lesson¡¯s as she was sure it would spice things up for the children.
¡°Speaking of Dragon¡¯s how about I teach you lot something about them?¡± She asked them, getting excited agreement.
¡°As you may know, there are four known evolutionary steps a dragon can have. The weakest being lesser dragons found everywhere on the world with little more intelligence than a beast. While a lesser dragon is the weakest of dragons, they are still more powerful than most other beings! Killing a lesser dragon is required for adventuring parties that want to advance into the leader ranks. While powerful, lesser dragons are easy to manage for most countries as there are always adventurers wanting to advance. The body of a lesser dragon is worth a fortune when matured, as the materials one can gain are of very high quality, but that of an immature one are worth way less. Killing a lesser dragon smaller than thirty meters of length results in immediate expulsion from the adventurers guild, if you didn''t kill it in self defense.
A lesser dragon can evolve into a dragon, beings as smart as your average human. Hunting dragons is considered a crime in most countries. That''s mostly due to the fact that to be recognised as an independent country one has to have a dragon supporting it. Getting this support is actually easier than it sounds, as most dragons are incredibly greedy and easily bribed. Killing a dragon is ten times harder than killing one of their lesser brothers as they are capable of breathing fire and subconsciously coat themselves in a magical barrier when fighting. Not counting them being up to a third bigger than lesser dragons of course. Dragons and their lesser brethren are very much alike in color, coming in ever color other than silver and gold.
The third and most beautiful evolution a dragon can have, is called true dragon these, unlike all other dragons true dragons always have either silver or golden scales. They are smarter than the average human. Aside from their huge size, having the possibility of reaching up to one hundred twenty meters in size, their true danger comes from being capable of using their immense magical reserves on thought, like sorcerers, instead of subconsciously. Killing a true dragon, while nearly impossible as they will just flee if their life is in danger, is seen as most stupid endeavor one could want to accomplish, as it will always result in the annihilation of the kingdom responsible by the dead dragons family.
The last known evolution of a dragon is the high dragon. Physically nowhere near as imposing as a true dragon they are the one most powerful races in existence. There are no records of a high dragon even being injured by humans. They are smarter than any human, elf, dwarf or beastkin. Nothing is known about their magic. There a only two reports of an encounter with a high dragon in all known history as they are incredibly rare, and most likely life in the deep wildlands found in the middle of each continent, where you wont find any humans or really anything other than the most dangerous monsters.¡±
When the children started reaching the age of three Nandelia started teaching them basic mathematics as well as a few other important lessons. With the third Festival of Founding since they came here fast approaching she had the joy of telling them they would be allowed to leave the orphanage for the first time in their life, visiting the festival for the first time with three years of age as custom dictated.
Mary jumped in joy when she heard they were going to visit the Festival. She had always felt like some sort of prisoner in the enclosed space of the orphanage, which while no actual prison always seemed constricting to her. While she loved the other children, she couldn''t understand how they were happy with the little space they had, she had always dreamt of running around in the vast woods Nandelia told them about in one of her stories.
She had long since decided she would start adventuring if she ever got the chance. The older orphans told them the festival was a sight to behold, more grandiose than they could have imagined. That they wouldn''t be allowed to leave the group and had ten of the guards accompanying them didn''t dampen her mood in the slightest. While some of the others were a little afraid to leave for the unknown even if only a few hours, most were excited enough, though nowhere near as happy as she was. Tomorrow would most definitely be the best day of her life so far.
Chapter 3
Nandelia had never seen Mary so excited, normally she was a quiet child happy to do whatever those around her came up with. Not so much this time, after Nandelia told them they were going to visit the festival she literally jumped in delight causing wonder in those around her as she usually seemed more occupied with her own thoughts.
Today was the day, Mary would finally see the outside world with her own eyes. She was currently playing with other children in the orphanages courtyard. While normally she would stop the others when they were about to do stupid things, today she was a tad bit distracted, which had already resulted in a scolding by one of the adults for her group. She had known since very early in her life the she was different than those around her. Physically as well as mentality, she was stronger, faster, more perceptive than the others as well as having pointed ears none of them seemed to notice. She had beautiful green eyes that could see better than any of her peers, they couldn''t even see in the dark! She had no clue how they managed to stay so calm at nights, without seeing anything. An advantage she had over the other girls was her hair, as it was really soft and didn''t knot, she furthermore really liked its color a beautiful midnight black.
Her mental capabilities were superior as well, she had instincts that told her how to perceive the different individuals around her. She always had feelings about the people coming to the orphanage to adopt children and made sure the others stayed away from the creepy ones as well. She likewise had always been a tad bit smarter, learning the new languages and anything else Nandelia taught them in record speed. Her class was well liked by the adults as they never made too much trouble, which was her doing as she always warned the others when they very about to do something very stupid, while her warnings had been ignored at first they quickly learnt listening to her would keep them out of the biggest trouble.
In the last month she also noticed strange occurrences happening around her.
¡°Come on Mary stop brooding again we want to go watch the Dragon of the Emperor, today is the day of the parade and we are finally allowed to go watch it!¡± Taliven their de facto leader interrupted her thoughts. He was everything she wasn''t, easily excitable always ready to take risks without thinking of consequences.
¡°Come on Mary¡± He yelled while running in the direction of the entrance. ¡°I¡¯m coming, wait for me!¡± she cried out running after the others, there was no way she would miss this!
They gathered at the orphanage¡¯s doors, as every year, only the children that turned three and seven were allowed to go. The older ones there to watch out for the younger ones together with the adults. Furthermore it was the last year they were legally allowed to stay at the orphanage. Any orphan being eight years old at the time of the festival and without apprenticeship, was drafted in the Empire¡¯s legions for the next two decades. The visit to the festival marking the last time they would have to go out supervised, being allowed to go out alone searching for employment afterwards.
With everyone going present, they set out to the great plaza in front of the palace. Going through the city was the most exciting thing Mary had ever done so far, all the new sights, sounds and smells, half of which no one else seemed to notice. While skipping from one side of the group to the other she had to be held back by the adults several times to avoid losing them.
The palace was a magnificent building, built in the mountain bordering the city''s north, and while she was capable to see it if she climbed the highest tree in the courtyard, seeing it from a closer view was truly a sight to behold. The mountain¡¯s form was a crescent, shaped in form by generations of the Empire''s most skilled Mages, having two peaks at the ends of the crescent. While the part facing away from the city was heavily fortified using a blend of physical and magical means like walls, trenches, steep declines and spells, the inner part of the mountain was clearly build to please the eyes and show of the empire¡¯s architectural skill.
The top of the palace was standing in the ridge between the two peaks, following the mountain¡¯s curve. Over the entirety of the palace length, there was a balcony allowing view over the city and its surroundings. Both peaks were adorned by perfectly round towers reaching high in the sky, guarding the palace entrance. The decline was full of buildings, only interrupted by two roofed staircases which met in the crescents middle, the buildings were the garrisons of the royal guard, as well as huge storage houses.
The decline stopped two hundred meters above the city''s ground level, the inner palace walls bordering the great plaza with an impressive height of sixty meters, they were adorned with beautiful decorative carvings showing the monsters living in the empire¡¯s borders. The great plaza, a perfect circle, throned above the city. Its middle was adorned with a thirty meters high statue of Emperor Aulus. On the decline between the plaza and the rest of the city, the first Emperor had placed a huge park where one could find most plants found in the Empire, growing helped by magic, for everyone to enjoy.
Going through the park had been a completely new experience feeling like home for Mary even more though than through the city proper, the life around her had been intoxicating as well enchanting her with its variety.
Being the richest as well as most powerful, the nobles manors, which looked like small palaces themselves, were built directly behind the park. Another small park seperated the nobles estates from the first city wall.
The next district housed the rich merchants, craftsmen and mages all living in huge four to five story houses. The second district was divided in sub-districts by several smaller walls running between the first and second city wall. The warehouses were located directly between the craftsmen¡¯s shops and the second wall, the houses being near to the first wall.
The third district was home to most normal craftsmen, mages and merchants as well as the more wealthy adventurers.
Mary didn''t know what was beyond the third wall, as she lived between the second and third wall as well, the orphanages founded by the Empire having a guaranteed spot in the third district. As they hadn''t been allowed to leave before today and nobody wanted to talk about the lower districts she had no information about them, other there being another two.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
The festival they were visiting was one of only two festivals that were held yearly, the other being the birthday of the Emperor, obviously changing every eighty odd years. Apparently there had been way more in the early years of the Empire, but these had been cancelled in the postinvasion changes a few hundred years ago.
This one was named ''Festival of Founding'' and celebrated the founding date of the Empire. It was no surprise that the grand plaza was nearly full when they arrived there. Mary and her peers were allowed to sit on the shoulders of the older kids in order to see the spectacle. About a third of the plaza on the far side was secured by the royal guard. In the center of the palace walls, one could see the giant doors the Empire¡¯s dragon would use to emerge out of the mountain. Above the walls, mages had raised a dias, where the nobles and the Emperor could sit and watch the show without having to stand having protection from the sun as well.
About a minute before the sun hit its highest point, the doors started opening outwards with a low grinding noise, that could be heard on the hole plaza.
As the sun reached its highest point, the dragon started emerging from the depth of the mountain his lair being buried deep within.
The True Dragon was a truly magnificent being. It was about one hundred meters long from tail to head, his head held high, the batlike wings folded on its back and the golden scales shining in the midday sun. As the dragon had emerged fully, she felt something strange about it. She wondered where that feeling came from. That feeling was shortly forgotten though, as the dragon roared, something she felt deep in her bones.
After the feeling of that roar wore off, she concentrated on the vibes she got from the dragon, noticing something seemed off, like it was there and not at the same time.
The dragon unfolded his wings, which easily had a span of four hundred meters, and jumped into the air and started circling the plaza. Mary watched in awe as the dragon set the sky on fire creating beautiful images which, she realised, were actually telling the history of the Empire.
Baron Falconbridge watched bored as illusionary dragon repeated the same spectacle as every year. It would have been interesting if old Firebreath had actually shown himself this time, but no such luck. Not that he could really blame him, as it sure would be boring to do the same thing year after year again. While most traditions the in Empire were completely pointless, like every noble in the capital having to attend to events like this one, there was one he really liked. It was his to honour the tradition next year, about seventeen months from now, and he did really look forward to it. Focusing back on the present, he started with his favourite pastime on occasions like that, he cast a spell that would improve his eyesight, watching the citizens amazement for the spectacle.
Mary came to the conclusion the dragon wasn''t really there, it may look the part, but the feelings she got were saying something different, she was sure she would get other feeling from one of the apex predators in the entire world. Additionally all nobles were obviously bored out of their mind, completely ignoring the awesome spectacle above them choosing to chat with each other instead.
She decided the festival was awesome anyways as she and the others could watch something great and additionally got to see the outside world for once.
Decision to just enjoy set, she had way more fun than before and cheered like everyone else for the rest of the two hours long show.
When they headed back home Mary was too exhausted to do much, the excitement of the day finally taking its toll on her, a shame really, she had hoped they could linger in the park for a while. It had been a great day nonetheless, being more exciting than everything happening in the orphanage.
Branston Falconbridge was relieved the day was over, being in the vicinity of nobles not of his family was incredibly exhausting, as most were superficial or plain annoying to deal with. At least now he was ignored by most, as they didn''t want to be associated with the former grand duke.
The years since his loss of rank had been quite exhausting, especially the first month. He had barely managed to move his retainers and all important possessions to the capital.
While still losing a sizeable portion of his wealth he was the richest baron in the entire Empire by far. Of course none of the nobles knew that, they just saw a baron who had once been grand duke and attracted the personal ire of the Emperor. Politics had been really interesting in these last few years, as everyone reevaluated their position without a grand duke in the north and the Emperor obviously willing to punish even most powerful grand duke for unproven transgressions.
He had secured the services of several of the city''s most promising craftsmen be it human or not. He arranged cheap access to the materials they needed for improving their craft, as well as outfitting them with the best workstations money could buy. In return they would supply him with high quality gear for his men and would work for free if a someone who received his support was sent to them. Furthermore his merchants would organise the marketing of their goods, saving them time, stress and increasing their gains. Furthermore he started a little pet project of his, which wasn''t going good at all, while needing a significant portion of his attention.
Additionally he started partaking in one of games most of the nobles living in the capital had found a liking in. A noble would sponsor team of adventurers, betting with each other on who¡¯s team would reach the upper ranks first.
By his estimation most nobles just uselessly threw their money at their team, outfitting them with the best gear possible, which was just stupid in his opinion, as they would learn to rely on their gear instead of skill, which would inevitable stop their advancement for good.
He and a few other nobles took the smarter approach giving their teams access to skilled trainers, teaching them everything needed to be a successful adventurer. They didn¡¯t supply them more than basic gear, paying craftsmen to craft their gear from the materials the adventurers supplied themselves.
Moreover as he didn¡¯t hesitate to employ nonhumans his team had a significant advantage in scouting, as elves and dwarves were way better moving silent in their home turf, forests and caves respectively, than humans. And while lizardfolk had some problems moving in cold environment no other civilized race was as strong or moved as fast as them, they furthermore had the significant advantage of not wanting to fight with a sword like most human adventurers. A standart team was allowed to have up to ten members. His had three elves, two dwarfs, two lizardmen and three humans.
The elves were responsible for hunting game and tracking their target in forests. The dwarves did the same in caves and dungeons as well as making sure their team did not get lost in the more extensive cave complexes.
The lizards had to try to cripple the monsters early in the fight to prevent fleeing, they likewise would get the monsters attention, giving the members of their team time to kill the monsters with ranged attacks. The humans, the race most apt in magic from all the civilized ones, while elven sorcerers were more powerful than human ones, an elven mage would lose to a human in nine times out of ten. All in all Baron Falconbridge was confident his team had would be under the first to reach the upper ranks.
Chapter 4
A week had passed since the Festival, Mary decided it was finally time to properly think about what was happening to her. Over the course of the last week she had subtly questioned her peers if they noticed anything strange about the dragon, but unlike her they noticed nothing other than its grandeur. By now she was pretty sure the dragon was actually an illusion, considering Mary started to feel the magic those around her used since about half a year ago, she could be reasonably confident she was right.
Hopefully being capable of sensing magic meant she could use it as well, definitely something she would try when she was alone, to not hurt those around her should she lose control.
Being cautious in nature, Mary decided it would be smart to question Nandelia about her knowledge of magic first.
At the start of the next lesson Mary asked if Nandelia could tell them something about magic.
¡°So you want to learn about magic, does anyone object to change this lesson¡¯s topic?¡± Nobody spoke up.
¡°Very well then, magic, sadly I can''t tell you too much about it as I''m no mage, but I''ll try my best.¡± Nandelia said.
¡°There are several ways a magic user can use magic, there are wizards and witches, magicians in tune with the natural world, they use magic on the plants around them in a fairly large radius. They are not really useful on battlefields as plants don''t move fast enough to catch anything even with magic. They are very useful as scouts for an army though, as they can easily conceal themselves with the nature around them, additionally they are effective at slowing down big armies as they influence plants to impede the enemies movements. Unlike all other magic users wizards and witches have an evolution path independent from their race, every wizard or witch who has evolved, evolved into a druid or dryad which only differ in looks based on their original race.
The most diverse magicians are mages using mana to cast spells of any type. Elementalists for example are a special type of mage that concentrates on one of the magic schools exclusively, optimizing its usage.
Some races, like the lizardfolk, can''t cast spells in the traditional sense, but use their inborn mana like some monsters do, instinctually enhancing their strength and durability.
Sorcerers are kinda like mages, but with more potential as they can do everything a mage can but have exceptional talent in their born affinity as well as an inborn understanding, which increases with age. The pre invasion empire had a list of all known affinities, but every copy outside the palace was destroyed by Emperor Gallus to deny the knowledge to outsiders. I heard most institutions teaching magic have started their own list, but these are incomplete. The only knowledge from that list remaining is the fact that there are possibly infinite different affinities. Sorcerers mostly are the ones to develop new spells as they have understanding normal mages lack. Of course there are some professions not suited for combat as well, for example enchanters, essentially mages who don¡¯t cast spells but add magic channels to objects to produce certain effects, or alchemists who mix plants to create potions which can help in many situations.
Pure clerics are a rare sight, as healing spells are one of the most complex schools of magic to master. While most mages learn simpler spells like mend bone, close minor wound or produce blood, cleric spells that are actually useful in combat and not painful or exhausting are so hard to learn most mages don¡¯t bother. You have to know there is way more to magic than what i told you, but i sadly know nothing more specific.¡± While they still had lots of questions, Nandelia sadly couldn¡¯t answer them as she had no magical training whatsoever.
With three years of age the children in the orphanage were allowed to explore it by themselves, so later that day Mary was sitting in a secluded corner of the courtyard wondering how to start exploring her magic abilities.
Considering she didn''t know any spells she hoped she was a sorceress so she could invent her own. She would start with the easiest thing she could think of, creating a small light. Without further ado she willed the light a candle would make into being, at least that was what she hoped to accomplish. Instead nothing happened at all, she didn''t feel anything as well. Not that she thought it would be that easy, but it would have been encouraging if at least something had happened. Here goes nothing she thought and again imagined the light that followed lightning a candle in her mind. Again nothing happened. After failing to produce any progress after a hour of repeating the same thing she had to admit that she wouldn¡¯t get any results this way and would have to try another approach. Remembering Nandelia told them everyone used mana to do magic she went on and tried sensing an unknown energy in herself. As it turned out finding that energy wasn¡¯t the problem as she had found it after an agonizingly long day of searching her body with her mind, unlike before she had somehow known she was on the right path and persisted through the frustration. Interestingly enough her ears seemed to be using some of her mana whenever someone saw her. Controlling or even moving mana proved to be a different matter altogether, as even after a week of trying her hardest to move a tiny bit of her mana, it proved to be elusive. Not wanting to be outdone by some stupid energy that was hers anyway, she continued the whole week.
Mary was frustrated beyond belief and decided a break would do her some good so she stood up and went to find her friends. She would have to cut her training time anyway as they were somehow always doing stupid things without her around.
One and a half years ago
Griel was happy, it had been a long road, coming as far as he was now and at times he had nearly been frustrated enough to give up. When the infamous Baron Falconbridge, had approached him and asked if he wanted to be an adventurer sponsored by him he had been delighted, thinking he would be able to fulfill his dream of becoming a mage. That had been why he had visited the adventurers guild the previous year. They told him, while he had quite the innate mana reserves, they didn''t take in untrained mages. So after asking the Baron how he knew about him, he was told the guild saved every applicants data. The Baron had inquired them about potential mages and got sent his way. Satisfied with the response, he had answered the barons questions and obviously satisfied him, as the offer had been repeated. After accepting he was told to be at a building in the second district by sunrise next morning. He arrived there with two other humans and curiously three elves, as well as two dwarfs and two of the lizardfolk. The doors opened as soon as they were all present, and a butler welcomed them to the house and escorted them in a richly decorated study.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
With nothing else to do while waiting they introduced each other, they were all quite pleasant to be around, especially the lizards were way less savage than they looked.
About an hour later the Baron came in, accompanied by a merchant, someone who was obviously a mage and a burly looking fellow who was probably some kind of melee fighter.
¡°Welcome, welcome, I''m happy to see everyone made it.¡± they were greeted.
¡°As you have surely guessed, you lot will be the team I plan to sponsor. Three of the four people accompanying me will be your trainers, while the Merchant will be your most important contact later on.¡±
¡°There were just three people with you.¡± one of the dwarfs said. On that the Baron laughed and pointed at a human that somehow had evaded their detecting until pointed at.
¡°Well Nolan here will be the trainer of the rangers.¡± He pointed at the knight. ¡°Melton here will take over the physical aspect of the training the rest of you will have to do!¡± he pointed at the Mage, ¡°Ebilius will take over your magical training.¡± After that they had been split in groups for the first part of their training, the elves and dwarfs accompanying the ranger, while the humans and lizardfolk accompanied the mage and knight.
Ten months later, he had been immensely frustrated, while at first he¡¯d thought the knight¡¯s training to be hellish and wondered why he as a mage had to train his body. He had been told if he would want to be worked out or not when a greater drake bore down on his party. He had never voiced a complaint against workout again. The mage¡¯s training was way worse, while physically no challenge at all, had proven to be extremely exhausting and frustrating mentally. The workout proved to be a welcome distraction from that. The first months had been filled with trying to sense mana, one would think finding a powerful energy inside yourself was easy, but it wasn¡¯t, after he had finally managed to do so four months later, he had been told he was one of the faster ones to find his mana.
It didn''t get better afterwards, he had to manage to grasp his mana with his mind and then start forming and moving strands of mana that would eventually form runes. Ebilius told them finding mana had been the easy part, moving it reliably sometimes took up to two years to achieve. He was extremely pleased with himself, considering he had managed in just thirty months. The first time he had managed to move his mana he had been incredibly exhausted, just managing to get into his bunk before falling asleep for nearly a day. Obviously trying to control mana hadn''t been his only activity all this time, as they had all been teached ways to fight monsters, as well as quite some magic theory in preparation for later. Now that he had achieved basic control over his mana he was really looking toward practicing actual magic. He would have to wait until the morning tough, as he had been told in no uncertain words should he ever try to cast spells without supervision at this point in his training, he could very well destroy his chances of becoming a mage.
Present
Mary was delighted, it may have taken the better part of two months, but she had finally managed to move a tiny strand of mana. Of course she could have been faster, but she noticed training manacontrol was really exhausting and playing with her friends proved to be relaxing, furthermore she had to keep them from doing stupid things. So before she tried anything, she would go and play a bit more as the mental exhaustion of actually moving mana was way above anything she had experienced so far.
Early the next morning Mary was back in her hiding spot and first tried replicating her feat from before to confirm she hadn''t dreamt it, she did manage at her third attempt. Considering what magic could do, she decided it would be smart to increase her control until she was capable of extending a strand of mana in nine out of ten tries. She internally groaned at herself as it would surely take another two weeks to achieve that goal, yet she knew it was the smart thing to do.
One year ago
Griel was quite pleased with himself, after the initial problems of controlling his mana, he had made quite the progress. It would still take a while until he could perfectly control his mana, but he was already capable of casting most basic spells, it had been a problem at first, simultaneously holding onto his mana and willing it to take the runes required for the spells, but he had prevailed and was now at a point the adventurers guild considered his magical knowledge sufficient enough to allow joining them as a mage . He really envied sorcerers, just having to will their mana to do what they wanted and when within their affinity it would form the required runes itself. Of course sorcerers had other problems, for example their mana was more primal and because of that harder to control, so unless they had splendid control of their mana it was incredibly hard to form the runes required for even the most basic spells.
Once he and the others had achieved basic control over their mana, Griel and his team had had several new lessons like basic survival and most importantly they learned how to work as a team, as it just wouldn¡¯t do to accidentally injure their teammates. Furthermore they had found out why they would need the merchant, he would be pointing them to the barons craftsmen so they could craft new gear from the materials Griels team supplied them.
The most fun part in the last months however had been learning to control Kekos, an adventurers best friend, these oversized lizards were used to transport the materials they got from the hunted monsters. Usually a party took, depending on what they were hunting, about two to five of them on a quest. The baron outfitted them with highly trained Kekos that only adventures of the upper ranks could afford normally. Kekos were an interesting species, as they were completely peaceful creatures yet their strength in addition to their size made them undesirable prey for most monsters. Tomorrow they would go and register at the adventurers guild as the conquest that made the baron and a some other nobles sponsor adventurers was about to begin and everyone had to start at the same day. Griel and his party had been told to come back for more training once they had some experience in monster hunting. Together they decided to advance to the middle ranks and then resume their training as they all wanted to do something more exciting than training for now.
Chapter 5
The last two weeks had been quite tiring, even though Mary only trained her mana control for one or two hours per day, it was extremely exhausting. Yet the training had wielded satisfactory results, as she had reached her goal. As she had no clue what spells were or how to cast one she decided to repeat her first attempt of igniting a small light.
¡°Let''s do this!¡± Mary encouraged herself and took control over a tiny part of her mana and willed it to emit the light of a candle. Her mana tried to escape her control, so panicked she tightened her reign over it. Nothing happened which was disappointing. Wondering what went wrong, she repeated her experiment, the outcome didn''t change. After trying another five times she had to admit to herself that it wouldn¡¯t work like this.
Perhaps she should just let her mana do its thing, while still retaining control, but more in the background. This time, instead of reigning in her mana when it tried to slip her control she let it do as it pleased. The mana shaped in some kind of strange form, yet before the form was completed it ran out of mana and fizzled out of existence.
Mary sincerely hoped she was on the right path and repeated her experiment with a little bit more mana. It worked like a charm and a small light was floating in front of Mary''s eyes. She jumped in joy, subsequently losing control of her mana and the light blinked out of existence. That was something to work at, it wouldn''t do to stop her spells from working by losing concentration. So for the next week Mary did just that, doing everything she would normally do while maintaining her spell, she learnt that her spell needed constant mana supply to work. She decided it was the time to investigate the spell that constantly drained her mana reserves. The spell formed a beautiful pattern consisting of dozens of symbols. As she didn¡¯t know what they did she couldn¡¯t just want them to form, so she had to manually form the individual shapes to see what they did.
It was surprisingly hard to form the strand of mana into these unknown shapes. But Mary being as stubborn as she was managed to form one of the easier ones after an hour of trying. The shape was completely useless, it did nothing she could see or feel, even though it worked.
A month later Mary had given up trying to find out what the spell did, she knew however that her mother or whoever cast the spell was a prodigy in Illusion Magic. Trying to comprehend the spell had helped advancing her magic control by leaps and bounds, similarly showing her how important it was to have complete control over her mana as she could easily imagine other sorcerers being unwilling to learn any spell other than ones of their affinity as it had been really hard forming the shapes manually.
Nineteen months earlier
¡°Watch out!¡± Griel cried, as their path was suddenly blocked by several logs. The half a year of experience kicking in, he instantly surrounded them with a basic shield, that while weak against a concentrated effort was effective against most basic attacks, shielding his team was his duty, as it turned out he had a certain proficiency in shield spells. The shield came up none too early, as shortly after arrows came out of the woods around them. Griel would pity the bandits, they had been stupid enough to pick out a professional team of adventurers as their target. Of course the bandits didn''t know that, when they saw only seven people accompanying four Kekos, they likely thought them easy targets. Sure enough shortly after, the barrage of arrows stopped and several bandits stepped out of the forest.
¡°Concede your goods and equipment and you will be spared!¡± the leader of the group declared.
Griel had to control himself to not laugh out at the cliche statement, instead he replied.
¡°Sorry to tell you buddy, but we are way more than you can chew.¡± The bandit leader did a double take at that and then arrogantly stated.
¡°We have you surrounded and outnumbered by at least four times!¡± Pretending to think about it Griel waited until he heard three bird calls coming out of the forest in quick succession, then he replied.
¡°You see while we live in a civilized land and I don''t really like killing humans you really tempt me, attacking my team that close to the nearest city, that''s just plain stupid!¡±
¡°And while you were gloating about your superiority, my rangers took out all of your man in the forest. Moreover Todron here has just finished the spell for the rest of you.¡± At the end of his sentence all bandits fell to the ground.
¡°Nice timing Todron!¡± he complimented. ¡°Bloody idiots the lot of them!¡± Isilynor, one of their elven rangers said. ¡°You never give someone who obviously has at least one mage in their party the time needed to cast a spell. ¡°Don''t fret over it.¡± Griel responded, ¡°I¡¯m more upset about the loss of time we¡¯ll have because we have to deliver them to the nearest garrison.¡±
¡°Still better than in other countries, where everyone just murders each other!¡± Agrim responded with a gruff voice. ¡°That''s certainly true!¡± Griel had to admit, ¡°But they still could have picked other targets, it''s not like we have nothing better to do than delivering some random bandits to the empire.¡±
¡°At least it pays handsomely!¡± Drisk one of their lizards, who called themselves the Ephozyrn, something nobody could pronounce, said.
They had been on their way for the final mission needed before advancing to Bronze rank, the first of the middle class ranks, when they had so rudely been interrupted by the bandits. They were currently Zinc ranked adventurers having advanced the other lower ranks in the fastest time allowed by guild policy. They started out as probationary adventurers no real rank that was given to all applicants until they completed one quest. The reward for that quest was a full membership at the adventurers guild, and a card that proved you were capable of doing copper-ranked quests. To advance in the lower ranks one had to be the previous rank for at least a month as well as completing a minimum of five quests of that rank.
So after three months they had easily risen to zinc rank, which was the highest rank someone of lower class could have. To advance an adventurer class, they had to fulfill additional requirements, like bringing up their level of equipment by a certain margin, quite the feat for most, as they needed to actually pay the craftsmen for their work, unlike them. Quite unlucky for the Bandits, as they just left the capital with the best gear possible at their level, the master craftsmen of the Baron had worked wonders with the materials. So they had known about the ambush even before the bandits knew of them and hoped they wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to attack them. The quest they were on the way to was a subjugationquest, they had to hunt down a lesser earthdrake, a huge reptilian monster twenty meters long that had a rudimentary control over the ground around it. Lesser drakes were one of many monsters one could kill to meet the requirement of killing a monster of sufficient strength to advance. The particular monster they were hunting had been terrorising one of the empire¡¯s villages.
A week later Griel and his party had delivered the bandits at the garrison and traveled to the village in question, after questioning the villagers about the lesser drake and placing their Kekos in the village head¡¯s stable their rangers went out and started tracking the monster. The rest of the team would search for an appropriate clearing away from the village where they would then lure the lesser drake to and kill it. The clearing was easily found and they set about preparing the battlefield.
They always knew where the rest of the party was as they all had a Party Ring, constantly telling them the basic status and rough whereabouts of the rest, quite the costly enchantment if you didn''t havea noble paying the craftsmen you needed.
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So when Paeral suddenly started taking of towards them with full speed, they knew something was amiss, luckily they had just finished preparing the clearing and were reasonable prepared to face the incoming beast. About five minutes afterwards Tethys and Isilynor came into the clearing, also having sensed the change in Pearl''s behavior.
Shortly afterwards Paeral burst into the clearing, clearly out of breath and yelled. ¡°Incoming, the fucker somehow evolved into a drake, I just saw him finishing off another party!¡±
Griek quickly formed a plan and instructed his teammates. They could already hear the trees bursting. ¡°Get ready!¡±
¡°Todron ¡®World of Ice¡¯!¡±
¡°Jorishol internal heat on Drisk and Dras!¡±
¡°Drisk, Dras get its attention!¡±
¡°The rest of you get out your weapons and prepare for some action!¡± he commanded his party.
Shortly after a huge lizard burst into the clearing easily being thirty meters long and about six wide it''s head alone being big enough to swallow one of them whole, the beast¡¯s mouth full of teeth all long enough to pierce through each of them, all in all not something one would want to see running at them. It''s brown scales were good news at least, suggesting it kept it''s elemental alignment through the evolution, lucky that as any other drake would have caused them quite the problems.
Even though they were no wizards, they knew the basic spells to influence nature and had used the roots of the trees around the clearing to negate the monsters magical means, by binding the surrounding soil with roots. With courage Griel was sure he would never have, Drisk and Dras charged the lizard, activating one of the enchantments their heavy armor had, making them glow brilliantly in the afternoon sun, the drake''s eyes immediately focused on them as they were recognized as the most immediate threats.
It roared in challenge and charged the two. Jorishol had just buffed their two tanks with a spell negating the temperature around them when Griel himself finished his spell influencing the trees around the clearing stem the flow of air in the clearing. Shortly afterwards Todron finished with his spell ¡®World of Ice¡¯ that despite its name had nothing to with water magic, it was a firespell that decreased the temperature around them by around twenty degrees. While uncomfortable for them it would be devastating for all reptilian creatures as they relied on external warmth to work. The two Ephozyrns had by now reached the drakes range and were busy distracting it from the happenings around it. The dwarfs being the incredible little buggers they were started using the special arrows the elves shot in the side of the drake to climb it, completely avoiding its notice as the thick hide wasn¡¯t completely pierced.
Griel was happy the enchanted arrows did what they were supposed to do, he had been worried as a drake was a league of its own. Drisk and Dras had split up, one distracting the drake at the front, while the other went for its hind legs, seeking to confuse the beast by switching it''s attention between them. The meanwhile the dwarfs had split up on the beast''s back, one going in direction of the tail and the other to the head. Drakes, unlike their previous evolutions, were not vulnerable at their eyes. Just when the dwarfs reached their positions, one being just over the drakes hind legs, the other waiting at its neck, the inevitable happened, Drisk just dodging the drakes attempt at stomping him was hit by its tail and sent flying over the clearing. Suppressing the worry that came up for his friend and trusting in Jorishol to see about his survival, Griel concentrated on the battle, Agrim having reached the lizards hind legs took out a big spike and rammed it in the drakes hide. Now was the moment of truth, should he be able to get the spike deep enough in the drakes spine it''s legs would stop working and they had a chance of surviving the encounter.
The dwarf took one swing and struck true buring the spike in the drake up to its hilt. While not working as intended the legs seemed to severely lose in strength. They still had a chance of surviving, he was just about to finish his next spell. so he gave Paeral an order.
¡°Paeral give me an anchor on its head!¡±
Paeral nodded and shot a special arrow between the drakes eyes, giving Griel a solid foundation to anchor his spell, the spell would decrease the air pressure around it''s anchor, robbing the drake of air it needed to breathe. The spell hit and with the cold finally taking its toll of the lizard its movements became more and more sluggish. Jorishol rejoined the battle as well, having made sure Drisk would survive his injuries. After that they managed to distract it enough for Kidmoir to ascend to its head and drive his spike in it''s skull ending the battle in their favor.
¡°We just did that didn''t we?¡± Todron asked disbelieving,
¡°We just killed a fucking drake!¡± Agrim yelled. ¡°Fuck yeah!¡±
Griel hated to bring them out of their great mood he felt the same, but they had a comrade to tend to and work to do before night.
¡°Get out of it, Jorishol tend to Drisk, Agrim and Dras go fetch our Kekos, the rest to me, we have a drake to dismantle, celebrations can be made after we¡¯re done working!¡±
Drisk¡¯s injuries had been severe, being hit by several hundred kilograms of tail did that to you, but he would be up and about in the morning, they spent the next five hours dismantling the drake getting all materials they could use as well as a proof of kill. They had had immense luck, knowing how to fight and kill a drake, as they had all the equipment ready to do so, they originally planned to kill the lesser one like one would kill an actual drake as a sort of test, so they informed themselves how to deal with a normal drake.
About a week later Griel and his team arrived at the city of Rhovara one of the five cities surrounding the capital. First, they organized a stable for their Kekos, as the beasts definitely deserved some rest having carried all the materials for the last week. Then they went to the Guildhouse and presented their proof of kill. They were told to wait by the receptionist. Soon after she came back with Guildmaster, a retired Mithril ranked adventurer.
¡°In my office! Now!¡± he bellowed, one didn''t say no to the guildmaster so they all followed him.
¡°Tia told me you met a drake?¡± he said as they closed the door behind them. Griel swallowed hard, then took a step forward and answered.
¡±Yes Guildmaster, we were on a quest to kill a lesser earthdrake that was terrorising one of the empire¡¯s villages we wanted to advance our adventurer class. We arrived at the village and questioned the inhabitants about it, everything sounded fine, so after taking care of our Kekos we set out and prepared a clearing for the battle while our rangers set out to find it. Paeral found it, but it had evolved into an earth drake and had just wiped out another party. It noticed him before he could retreat, so he came to us and we managed to kill it as we had planned to kill the lesser drake like a normal one. All in all we were extremely lucky!¡±
¡°Well I think you definitely earned that rankup, Tia go fetch them all an iron badge, they definitely deserved it considering they killed a monster that even most iron ranks think about engaging twice, with the gear for killing a lesser drake nonetheless! Good job, though next time I wouldn¡¯t let it notice me if I were your ranger!¡± he told them good natured.
¡°You definitely have to tell me exactly how you managed it later, but now is time to celebrate!¡±
¡°Griel was relieved, he had thought they were in trouble as the Guildmaster normally only appeared when some serious rules were breached.
¡°I will forward my regards to your benefactor about picking such a skilled team!¡± they looked at him in shock, ¡°Don''t look so surprised of course we know of the stupid little bet the nobles have going on, I can tell you, you just made a baron very happy, as you are now the top contender.¡±
¡°You should see to get some more training though, as you still don''t have a familiar, something my mage friends told me to be very useful.¡±
¡°We were planning to get some training in after this quest.¡± Tethys chimed in.
¡°Drisk needs some time to properly heal anyways.¡±
¡°Skilled and smart enough to know training is an essential part of advancing. The guild needs more people like you!¡± the guildmaster told them as he ushered them out of his office.
Guildmaster Hendrik was quite impressed by these young people, gods knew they needed people like them as way too many parties were happy to stay in the lower ranks never risking the dangerous advancement quests. That was one of the reasons the Guildheads allowed the bet to start.
He was pretty sure the kids had no clue of the extent of the feat they had performed, their mages being too young and inexperienced to actually know spells capable of harming the more dangerous monsters. After having questioned Griel about the fight in detail later, he was quite impressed how the kid had circumvented these problems. Affecting the environment to slow it down was an ingenious move considering one normally used ¡®World of Ice¡¯ to cool drinks. Likewise, even though they said they killed it with luck one didn¡¯t kill a drake with luck, while no problem for him or other people of his strength, a party with their equipment should stay far away from foes like that. He was pretty sure only one in a hundred parties could manage the same.
Chapter 6
Four months had passed since Mary had started exploring her magic, she thought she had done decently, achieving decent control over her mana and managing to cast her first spell a month prior. Today she would continue experimenting with creating magic spells as trying to understand the spell her mother cast on her ears. She had decided it would be fruitless to try unlock its secrets now. Instead she would focus on exploring the shapes required for magic to work.
She found out her small light spell actually consisted of two different shapes, one that confined the magic to a small sphere where she wanted it go originate, and the other actually made the light. By experimenting with the manual creation of the spell she could alter the spheres radius by increasing or decreasing the amount of mana in the specific shape, on the other hand she could change intensity of the light the same way. Adding a color increased the needed mana by by fifty percent as another shape had to be added.
A week of experimenting a few hours a day with the same shapes she grew bored and started to think of something new she could try.
She eventually decided she would try to either influence the plants or ground in the orphanages courtyard in order to have some fun tripping other children who were running around.
She managed both, slightly moving the ground and making plants move the way she wanted them. When she found out she could make plants move in any way she wanted, she used an entire afternoon to make her hiding spot as pretty as she could get it, making the tree she sat in form all the pretty plants she had seen on their walk through the park. She was having so much fun doing that, she nearly forgot dinner and going to bed afterwards. Luckily the exhaustion controlling mana seemed to lessen with each try, as she could by now cast spells for as long as she still had mana.
On the next day all inhabitants of the orphanage seemed to have a tendency to stumble in the most inopportune times, it really was a wonder no one got hurt.
The new spells both consisted of three separate shapes two of which were quite similar to each other, the shape essentially controlled the form the plant or ground would take, the other one was the same, it allowed her to cast her magic from afar, the last ones were completely different though, as they determined the object the magic should influence. In the next week she explored the new shapes and their interactions with adding and decreasing mana available for them. Increasing the mana used for one shape increased its size.
Next she tried combining the shape of the light spell with the others and got a spell that created not a ball of light but any form she wanted it to. Furthermore they both costed way more mana than the light spell, practising them turned out to be harder, as her mana reserves depleted quickly so instead of one long session per day, she practised in several shorter ones.
Fifteen months ago
Griel and his team traveled to the capital to report back to the baron it took them the better part of a week to reach it. When they approached the gates of the capital they were relieved, as the wilderness around the capital was left alone so the nobles could hunt to their heart''s content while regular adventurers had to take care of the most dangerous monsters. Most of the time adventurers had to travel to the five big cities surrounding the capital, sometimes even further out. And while there was one big road leading to each of the surrounding cities, inns were few and far between as they had to be heavily fortified and were built mostly for the convenience of the empire¡¯s five grand dukes governing the cities surrounding the capital. As these had the fastest means of transportation there were very few inns.
Baron Falconbridge was quite surprised to see his team showing up on his doorstep only half a year after they started adventuring. When the Guildmaster of Rhovara had contacted him a few weeks prior and told him he had a pleasant surprise moving in his direction. While he had wondered, he knew Hendrik well enough that he patiently waited. So when his butler told him his team had arrived at his mansion he told him to show them in and was sure Hendrik¡¯s surprise had arrived.
¡°Welcome back, I didn''t expect to see you for quite some time!¡± he greeted them.
¡°We had quite the luck, my lord, after reaching tin rank and our gear reached the required level, we got our advancmentquest really quick, as the quest to kill a lesser earthdrake came up just a week after the guild was informed we wanted to advance our class.¡±
¡°I take it you were successful?¡± he asked.
¡°Yes, luckily we planned to kill the monster like we would an actual drake, which turned out to save out life, as the lesser drake evolved in a normal one, it nearly killed Drisk before we were able to kill it. The Guildmaster advanced us directly to iron rank as well.¡± one of them answered.
¡°Congratulations are in order! With you reaching iron rank in just half a year, you are officially the furthest team so far. I reacon most other teams will need quite some time until they reach the middle class, monsters as powerful as a lesser drake don''t come around often in the middle of the empire after all. I heard some nobles sent their team to the north, as the monsters there are way more dangerous. Why are you here then?¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
¡°We came back because you promised us more training once we had some experience, we thought it would be smart to do the training now, as our new gear will need some time until your craftsmen have completed it, likewise Drisk needs some time to heal completely.¡± Griel answered him.
The Baron quickly summoned his butler. ¡°Summon the mage Ebilius, the ranger Nolan and the Knight Melton! As you are now allowed to take on more dangerous monsters, you will be taught how to fight the most common of them.
As you very well know, mages mosty use words to form the runes needed for magic with their mana, you may have noticed that the spells you use regularly don''t need that anymore. That''s because controlling mana is kinda like fighting with a weapon, you remember how your mana has to flow to cast the spell. Ebilius will teach you the advanced versions of the spells you are using now, as well as some new ones, that actually hurt the monsters you will be facing from now on. Afterwards you will be sent out to catch a familiar for your mages.¡±
A month later Drisk was completely healed up and ready to go while Griel and the other two humans had been taught several new spells which were way more mana consuming but packed quite the punch compared to the ones they previously knew.
Likewise, for the first time in their adventuring career they had no armor of metal, as all but the most valuable metals were not capable of being enchanted, thus being mostly useless against more powerful enemies, while possible to use the metal as a conductor, like their Ephozyrn previous armor did, it didn''t hold enchantments at all. Leather armor was the exact opposite as it was entirely useless as unenchanted armor, it held enchantments for a long time as well as being easily enchantable.
Because of this, only the most successful as well as poorest adventurers had metal armor.
Present
¡°Comeon Mary!¡± Somi cried.
They were currently playing catch with another group of their age and Mary and Somi had to catch the others. The other children had scattered throughout the courtyard. When Mary and Somi took off towards the largest cluster of other children, Mary had to hold back as to stay near Somi. The others ran in every direction so Mary said,
¡°Let''s go for Val Somi!¡±
¡°Ok"
Together they took after Val herding her in a corner and finally catching her. ¡°Gotcha!¡± Somi yelled. As three they sat out again, catching the others in decreasingly short order, until finally they catched Henry.
"I win!¡± he exclaimed happily. ¡°You¡¯re the next catcher than, get someone to help you.¡± Mary answered, after a second she added. ¡°But not me!¡±
Henry choose Carol and shortly after they all ran in different directions. Mary took care to always be on the opposite side if the catchers, at least until they split up. Soon enough, a group of five children moved in her direction, Somi among them. Mary ran away naturally taking care to not run somewhere she couldn''t escape. While running she saw some others being chased by another group and slightly changed directions.
¡°Have fun!¡± she cried while passing them, shortly afterwards she was without pursuers again, as hers went after the group being delivered to them by her. The moment of respite was short lived however, as the group she sold wanted revenge and went after her.
The next ten minutes were a blur of running away, distracting her pursuers with others until finally only she was left. The others built a chain and tried herding her in a corner where she couldn''t escape as she was the faster than everyone else. While she managed to avoid it for quite some time, eventually they managed to slowly do it. She wouldn''t get caught so easily she decided, and took of in the direction of the wall at full speed, using it to somersault over the other children. Landing on her feet after the jump, she took of to the middle of the courtyard leaving the others behind her. After ten minutes, the others gave up, declaring her the winner.
After another hour of running around they were all tired, and Mary, Taliven, Henry and Val were meeting the only ones still up and about talking with their friends resting around them. ¡°You really do run like a Shielk Mary!¡± Henry complimented her. ¡°I told you nobody is as fast as her!¡± Taliven bragged.
It all started at today''s breakfast, with Henry telling everyone he was the fastest in the entire orphanage, and Taliven sitting near him responding nobody was as fast as she was. That nearly escalated until one of the orphanage workers told them to make a contest out of it, of course everyone of the two groups wanted to participate, so they decided to go play catch together. It obviously turned out she was the best, though no one knew she still held back.
In the last year it became more and more apparent to her she was stronger and faster than everyone else on top of being capable of reacting faster as well. She didn''t know how Taliven had known, as she always held back, but when he asked her to stop holding back today to show off Henry, the two always had a kind of rivalry going on, she decided to indulge him once.
It obviously had stopped her magic training for the first half of the day, but that was fine, the many breaks she had to take were frustrating her. After lunch Mary went back in her tree, exhausting three quarters of her mana while training. Her mana had refilled two hours later, so she tried coming up with another spell.
Extending another strand of mana, she willed it to cure her exhaustion, it worked on the third try, as she had to add way more mana for the spell than all previous ones, as it took two thirds of her mana, but afterwards she was brimming with energy so it worked better than anticipated even though different.
Jumping down from her tree, she went off to search for something to work off the excess energy she got, she wondered why her spell didn''t do exactly what she wanted it to, though perhaps stuff like that wasn''t a direct part of her affinity and her magic did the best it could to do what she wanted it to, something to further explore later on however.
Chapter 7
Mary always liked mornings, even though no one seemed to share her opinion. the feeling of the day just waking up was great, so unlike her peers she was always up to watch the sun rise in the morning. She was currently sitting on the highest branch of the highest tree in the courtyard doing just that, when two of the orphanage¡¯s workers came in the courtyard chatting with each other. Mary couldn''t understand a word of what they were saying, but naturally curious as she was she decided to try creating a spell, one that improved her hearing. Extending a strand of her mana she willed it to tell her what they were saying. Her mana formed strange shapes and soon after she could hear them as if they were crying in her ears.
¡°Did you hear, the Emperor executed a noble yesterday, for treason against the empire.¡±
¡°Yeah how stupid can one be, one would think after he made the grand duke a baron and executing another noble last year, they would''ve finally learned to not cross him.¡±
¡°I really hate nobles, doing what they want while we poor folk have to scrape together a living.¡±
¡°At least the children still have a chance to become someone. Did you know, there will be a ceremony shortly before the next festival?¡±
¡°No I didn''t even know who there would be one this year. Who is it?¡±
¡°It''s ¡¡±
The workers seemed to move out of the distance her spell covered as their conversation was cut abruptly. While she would have liked to know more, her mana had been running short anyway and breakfast was due to begin, so Mary terminated the spell and climbed down, moving in the direction of the mess hall. She wondered though, what these two had been talking about.
While she could understand the first part of the conversation she had heard, she had no idea what the second part was about. Even in her sheltered life in the orphanage she had heard about the fall of one of the empire¡¯s five grand dukes, happening at around the same time as her birthday, him being accused of treason. As the grand duke as a person had been too important for the empire to just kill, the Emperor took all his holdings outside the capital as well as his title, making him a baron, the lowest of the noble ranks. The second part of the conversation would have been way more interesting to hear, as it probably had something to do with herself and her friends.
Now she had more important things to do however, like breakfast, as the problems of the empires high and mighty held no concern for her.
Nandelia watched as her charges fell upon the breakfast, Mary as everyday had been up before any of them watching the sun rise, joining them to eat later. She really hoped the children would have a successful life, as they would get a new caretaker soon, reaching the age of four, when the orphanage started preparing them for the life outside. While she was looking forward to getting new charges to care for, she dreaded the moment she would have to separate from them. Just as she was about to begin with today''s lesson, one of the workers told her to go to Andra Jonun¡¯s office. She told her class to occupy themselves for a little while and went off to meet the orphanage head.
¡°You wanted me to come Miss Jonun?¡± she asked after knocking at the door and being told to come in.
¡°Nandelia, yes I sent someone to get you, as you may know, a ceremony is being held soon and we may have the honor this time, as I received these tests in the morning. With you being the most educated caretaker around here and with you, your class I want them class to fill out these tests to the best of their abilities.¡± Nandelia had to hold back exclamations of glee as she heard the news.
¡°Of course, I will make them write the test immediately.¡± she replied joyfully. Though, on a more somber note she had always hated tests as a child.
After eating Mary went to the lessons given by Nandelia, though this one was slightly delayed. By now she was able to more or less fluently speak the elven and dwarven languages, though she somewhat struggled speaking the tongue of the lizards. Writing was no problem whatsoever, even though every race had its own script, they were easy to learn together with the language. The rest of the subjects were even easier to remember.
¡°Today we will be doing something else.¡± Nandelia started.
¡°We will be writing a test today, testing your knowledge. Sadly i didn''t get to design it, so you may not be able to answer all questions, don''t let that deter you though and just do your best!¡±
They each got several sheets of paper and a pen. With a few questions written per sheet. First, the test wanted to know her name, so she dutifully wrote her name, afterwards it wanted to know her age, something she didn''t know herself, so she wrote ¡®Presumably three and a half years.¡¯ that didn''t start well, having already failed half of the questions. The next questions were all simple things being written in the different languages she learned, like when was the empire had been founded and by whom, or who is the current emperor. She answered several more questions about history, like what one needed to secure in order to found a kingdom ¡®At least a dragon supporting it.¡¯ After history it wanted to know basic math, like how to add or multiply numbers and a few examples proving you could use the theory, or how far she could count, a stupid question, she was awesome and could count as far as she liked. She couldn''t answer any questions about the gods, as Nandelia had teached them nothing about them, religion being as unimportant as it was in the empire. She didn''t understand some of the questions as they were in languages unknown to her. The test wanted to know some stuff about economics as well, the basics like a platinum coin being worth one hundred gold coins, a gold coin one hundred silver and a silver one hundred copper, when asked what she wanted to work as, she had to think really hard, but in the end there was only one answer she could reasonably give ¡®I want to be an adventurer!¡¯. Likewise there were several other small topics, nothing really interesting though.
When she read the topic of the last questions Mary got quite excited, as it wanted to know stuff about magic. The first questions was ¡®What is mana?¡¯ ¡®Energy to do Magic.¡¯ was her answer. Then it wanted to know something entirely unrelated to magic ¡®What are runes?¡¯ she truthfully answered ¡®The letters of old civilisations.¡¯ really now why would anyone want to know that. The next one was even more stupid ¡®What are runes used for?¡¯ ¡®To write!¡¯ obviously. Up next was the question ¡®How does magic work?¡¯ ¡®Magic is mana forming different shapes which determine how the world is influenced!¡¯. Her answer to the question of what magician she would want to be, she answered ¡®Definitely a Sorceress!¡¯ she wasn''t sure if she could be counted as one yet so she went with the save option. She had no answer to the other questions, like what school of magic she would choose to pursue, but they gave her some ideas for her magic training.
When she had finished, she looked up and saw everyone was waiting for her. She grinned sheepishly, ¡°That was fun! Can we do another one?¡± she asked Nandelia happily. The others gave her a strange look
¡°What?¡± they started staring at her angrily.
¡°No!¡± was all she got. Seeing that she was the only one to have fun doing the test, she let it be. Nandelia collected every test and sent them off to play, cutting the lesson short by half an hour.
After collecting the test Nandelia ended the lesson early and went to give the test back to Andra, having looked at she was fairly confident her class had done well in everything except religion and the last topic, she had to smile to herself thinking back how Mary had reacted to the test.
Arriving at the headmistress¡¯s office, she knocked and waited until she was asked to come inside.
¡°My class completed the test as you instructed, shall I mark it myself?¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°No that won''t be necessary, i¡¯ll wait for the rest of the orphanage to finish and then will sent it back to the noble¡¯s representative to do with it as the noble wants, thank you very much Nandelia.¡± With nothing more to say Nandelia excused herself and went back to the courtyard, taking care her charges didn''t do anything stupid. Not something that happened very often luckily, though it seemed to increase in the last few months.
Finally, Griel and his team had just arrived at the village of Callatis eighteen months after advancing their ranks, somewhere near the empire¡¯s northern border. They were late by about a week, having a runin with old acquaintances, the bandits that wanted to rob them on their way to kill the drake about eighteen month back, as they hadn''t actually robbed anyone before trying them they had been in prison for only six months, spending the next sixteen month preparing to take revenge at the adventurers that brought them to prison. Griel thought to himself these guys could be quite successful if they tried, as they would give any iron ranked team a run for their money, unfortunately for them they picked his team as their goal, people they wouldn''t be able to surpass without the support of another noble.
They were on their quest to reach Gold Rank at the moment. This time they were hunting a pair of Shilks a high evolution of the common wolf, which relied on speed rather than mass. They were way more dangerous than anything they had hunted thus far, a shilk, unlike his brethren with lesser evolutions was a very solitary animal, living alone or with it''s mate and children, this pair most likely thought the human village¡¯s surroundings an easy hunting ground and had moved over the empire¡¯s border. They were especially hard to hunt because of their cunning, as they were too smart to run into most traps.
A Shilk was about five meters from head to tail and three meters tall. They could outrun any horse, and furthermore had control over wind magic, using the air to subconsciously to blow against their foes, waiting for their balance to be destroyed and then charged their prey, throwing it to the ground, ripping their preys throats out in the process.
Fighting them required quite some skill and preparation. Shilks absolutely hated Ifleats a small furry creature that was nearly impossible to catch, getting the Ifleet Blood had been the most annoying part of their adventuring career so far. The blood had to be contained in a container that didn''t let any smell out, as Shilks fell in a frenzy when they smelled Ifleats.
After bringing a sufficient distance between them an the village, they went about preparing for the battle. Their ranged weapons and spells would be useless most of the time, as Shilks were to fast to properly hit, so they had to resort to tricks, creating a sheet of ice around the fighting ground that would stop the beasts from using their speed proper. Additionally, they precast a spell that would close the retreat path of the monsters by creating earthen walls around the battleground. Moving that much ground required more mana than they actually had, so they used manastones containing about double of each of their mana capacities. The only thing the spell still needed was a small activation. After conjuring up several shield wards that would hopefully stop the canines first charge they threw the blood in front of them and waited.
About ten minutes later they could hear terrifying growls coming out of the distance and five minutes after that they saw the Shilks for the first time.
Really terrifying creatures, with teeth as long as a dagger and midnight black fur, a head that was big enough to swallow a human skull hole, and a deeply unsettling anger and hate in their black eyes, five meters long machines of death to summ it up. They could see the the muscles working under their fur, propelling them to speeds unattainable by most groundborn creatures.
The moment they saw them standing there waiting for them, they slightly changed their trajectory and came at them at full speed, the Ifleat forgotten as a far more dangerous prey had dared enter their territory.
Griel waited until they were firmly within the borders of their spell and then released the activation, an instant later they were upon them crashing into their wards at breakneck speed, Griel could feel the first three of his wards being broken, until they were stopped by the combination of the fourth and the shield he threw up as they saw the beasts charge, they had been pushed back by several meters by that impact, pressing their backs against the wall.
The bigger Shilk let out a angry howl, and the monsters retreated for a few meters until they hit the wall that by now had finished forming. Griel let out a breath he didn''t know he was holding, as the most dangerous part of the fight was now over, surviving the charge of a Shilk was said to be an experience that noone wanted to do twice, that much was definitely true.
He could feel the pressure on his shields growing, as the monsters started using their magic to get them of balance. Their rangers started distracting the monsters with arrows, every single one being dodged by the monsters with an impressive feat of agility Griel couldn''t help but envy.
After about half a minute with nothing happening, one of the wolf¡¯s darted forwards trying to seperate them, it obviously didn''t accelerate as fast as it expected, its claws scraping over the ice. His shield stopped it cold, before it could do any harm and it retreated back to its mate.
Jorishol finished the incantation of her spell, releasing it upon their enemies. The ball of fire shot forwards and was progressively dodged by both Shilks, melting the ice around their feet. Toldron completed his spell directly afterwards, and a bolt of lighting shooting forwards, missing both enemies again, but hitting the intended target, the water at the monsters feet and in turn being transferred to the Shilks making their muscles converge shortly, enabling their rangers to hit each of them once. Obviously monsters as strong as these wouldn¡¯t let a few arrows deter them and came at them again with vengeance one shortly after the other, both times hitting the same spot of the shield way harder than before, all while keeping up attacking them with magic. Griel was pretty sure that they would be blown to the ground outside of his shield and the winds were still picking up.
Shortly afterwards his last ward was destroyed, quite problematic as holding up two shields required all of his concentration, adding a shield being way harder when the other ones were pressured constantly, as every strand of mana he extended was automatically used up by the already existing spells and even his improved manacontrol wasn''t enough to circumvent this.
¡°We are on a timer, my shields will be running out in about three minutes if they keep this up"
¡°I¡¯ll take the next shield.¡± Jorishol replied.
¡°We don''t need three minutes to finish them!¡± Kidmoir took off one of the items they had bought for this fight, a quite handy contraption, that was capable of saving a spell and casting it when mana was inserted, without further ado, the dwarf added mana to it and threw it at the monsters. Having learnt from their previous experience, the shilks darted out of the water onto the sheet ice and in doing so avoiding being shocked again.
¡°Well that''s unlucky these seem smarter than your average Shilk!¡± Dras started supplying her muscles with mana and gripped her shield a little bit tighter, likely being frustrated of not being able to contribute to the fight at all.
Griel thought hard, while they were in no immediate danger all of their mages having enough mana to shield the group for another one and a half hours if this frequency of attacks was kept up. That should be enough though, as the arrows had been poisoned slowing the monsters down enough to give them a chance to hit them with more spells. Using too much arrows wasn''t that wise, as they damaged the skin.
About half an hour later they had killed the first one, without having to use more arrows. The second monster howled angrily and redoubled its efforts breaking through their shields, a futile attempt, as half of the onslaught had been lifted from them as the first died. They dealt with the last one in just ten minutes time, the monster starting to get exhausted in addition to the poison and having to constantly dodge spells and arrows.
After dismantling the the Shilks they went back to the village and retired for the night.
On the next morning Griel had regenerated all of his mana, so he cast message spell informing the nearest guildmaster allowed to rank up their class, who coincidentally was the same that ranked them up after fighting the drake.
¡°Guildmaster Hendrik, I report we dealt with the threat to the village of Callatis, killing both Shilks!¡±
¡°Very good kid, you were on a rankup quest weren''t you?¡±
¡°Yes we were!¡±
¡°I thought as much, nobody wants to see a Shilk charge twice! Congratulations though, I will inform the guild of your success, it''s not everyday someone reaches the upper ranks, I¡¯ll see you at the ceremony in Rhovara then. And give my regards to your team!¡±
¡°Thank you very much Guildmaster.¡±
¡°The Guildmaster sends his regards, we¡¯re finally there!¡± his team cheered.
While relatively easy to cast, a message spell was incredibly costly, allowing instantaneous communication with someone else, like teleportation spells they were effectively independent from range, a message spells mana cost increased with each time someone talked. After having taken care of the most important stuff, they mounted their great horses evolved horses and headed back in the direction of the capital. They left their Kekos behind this time, as their mounts were more than strong enough to carry the materials of the relatively small shilks.
On the next day after a healthy breakfast Griel cast another message, this time to the Baron.
¡°We managed to complete the quest, and have reached gold rank!¡±
Chapter 8
Two weeks later
Baron Falconbridge got the evaluation of the tests he had sent to several orphanages two weeks prior. At first there was nothing outstanding to notice, at least until he came to the analysis of the tests originating from the Crystal Fountain Orphanage, where one of the classes had performed exceptionally in all topics but religion and magic, even knowing several languages.
The test had been drafted in a way to judge the tested even without knowing other languages, effectively repeating the same questions slightly different in several languages. He now had an idea of where to go in six months time. Hating to leave things to chance, he had his people create the test and sent it to most orphanages in the capital, hoping to find a child with outstanding intelligence or better education than most.
He had his butler search for the originals tests of the best performing class, annoyed at the corrector of the tests to not have the thought of delivering the most interesting tests directly to him. A day later when he had finally gotten the tests on his desk and was about to work them through by himself, he got contacted by Griel reporting him of the team''s success in defeating a pair of Shilks. Really uplifting news as well, as his informants had reported him Viscounts Snaketon¡¯s team was due to succeed in the coming months as well.
The Viscount was one of his of his most bothersome rivals, as well as being the most unpleasant person the baron knew, while normally, he enjoyed a good rivalry between another noble and himself, he really hated the viscounts guts. Having lost way too many nights of sleep over the bothersome upstart, he decided to host a ball to celebrate his victory, finding great glee in personally inviting the Viscount over. He would probably savor the expression he got the moment he told the viscount of his team''s success for years to come.
The news that the former Grand Duke of the North would be hosting a party went through the noble houses in less than a day, thus a few hours after the Baron got his news, the hole city knew of his team''s success and letters inquiring if the adventurers would be attending as well started arriving at his mansion.
He thought that a good idea and contacted Griel to inquire about his probable arrival. After being promoted in Rhovara, his team could arrive at the capital in about one and a half months, their quest prompting them to travel to his old domain, though they lacked the means of travel the royal guard or a grand duke had access to, so they would need more than two weeks to move such distances.
He told them to be here in two months, and set the date of the ball in three months time. His adventurers had to learn how to deal with nobles after all.
Planning things like a ball wasn''t his forte at all though, so he asked his son to do so for him, him being a natural talent when it came to planning events like that, the Baron had no idea where that came from, as planning events like that was something neither he nor his wife or other children had any skill doing. After consulting with his son he decided to invite the more important people personally, setting out and doing just that.
He had other duties to fulfill as well, most importantly upholding an ancient tradition now called ¡®The Ceremony!¡¯ by the empires citizens, the ceremony was performed by the head of a noble house every twenty five years, visiting one of the orphanages in the capital to adopt an orphan.
It originated in the empire¡¯s founding years. While the empire had started with nobles supporting it, after Emperor Aulus secured his position, he deprived them of their power and wealth, giving it to his most skilled and trusted advisors instead. Most of these new nobles had been poor once, and they decided to take care of the many orphans emerging from the empire¡¯s rapid expanse. They employed teachers to improve the children''s chances in life, taking in the smartest or most skilled as their personal retainers, rarely adopting them as well.
Albeit meant to help the people caught up in Aulus ascent, he was dead now and the empire had relative peace, even though the relations to the surrounding kingdoms were tense. A once beneficial tradition for the poor, now was a way for the nobility to feel charitable, pretending to care about the empire¡¯s normal citizens.
Although the Baron didn''t really care how other nobles thought about him, it was one of the very few traditions he liked, while nobles were selfish and didn''t care about normal people, they still helped one child every twenty five years.
Focusing back on the present, he saw tests that now were in front of him one by one, wondering how these children got the education a fairly successful merchant¡¯s child would get. He sent for one of his informants, and set him to investigate the issue and report to him if anything unusual came up.
Most of the children were decently smart, taking in the languages like only children could, while doing passable with the rest. Some of them stood out with a beautiful calligraphy, or proving to be a natural in questions regarding math. One of them stood out though, a girl named Mary, proving to be very precise and answering every question with great care. She stood out in calligraphy and math as well, additionally being the only one to have answers in the last category at all. Her obvious indignation about runes was really amusing to read as she obviously had no clue about common magic theory.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Three months later, the Baron¡¯s mansion lit the night¡¯s sky, ready do accomodate all invited. He had invited, all nobles living in the capital and most of the younger nobility attended. His mages had really outdone themselves this time around, erecting a protective shield over the immediate surroundings of his mansion in order to protect his guests from the frequent rain often coming up around this time of the year. Moreover, they had cast several illusions lighting the sky and pleasing the eyes of his guests.
His mansion wasn''t used at all, as everything bad been built outside, even a dance floor out of wood had been built, the baron having to hire a wizard to properly even it out and form the wood in patterns. The wizard had outdone himself, creating patterns of all common monsters in the kingdom. It had later been enchanted, the patterns in the wood now moving in tune with the music the musicians played. About a meter above their heads the shield held a thin film of water using it to project the story of how his team had achieved gold rank, showing all notable fights.
Countess Foxwood was duly impressed by the show presented to them, she rarely saw such displays of magic skill, it must have cost the Baron a small fortune to hire all these mages. When she had received an invitation to a ball by Baron Falconbridge she had been doubtful, after all while he was a rather talented individual when planning on grand scales, it was common knowledge among the nobility he had always lacked the imagination required to host successful social gatherings, not surprising considering his background.
She attended anyways, as she had nothing better to do, with her father''s lands being among the most peaceful lands in the empire, located just shy of the empire¡¯s inner cities. Furthermore the host was way more interesting than most other nobles in the capital, as nobles without actual land to govern were mostly incompetent and relied on their birthright to achieve anything. The competent nobles were chosen to govern the empire¡¯s territory by the emperor. Very few like her were representatives of their parents in the capital. After searching for the host she found him talking to the stars of the evening, all dressed in expensive clothing looking adorably uncomfortable with being here.
¡°What a delightful ball you are hosting my dear Baron. And congratulations to the winning team, quite an impressive feat you displayed here!¡±
¡°Countess Foxwood welcome, how are the Count and the Countess doing?¡±
¡°Thank you Countess!¡± The adventurers exclaimed and excused themselves.
¡°My parents are doing fine, as you know our lands are among the most peaceful in the empire, we rarely see anything more dangerous than a pack of wolfs fortunately.¡±
The Baron looked around and then whispered. ¡°I always thought you are one of more interesting nobles, so I¡¯ll tell you a secret Countess: I didn''t plan this ball, my son did, he represented me here back when I was still a grand duke and became really skilled when planning such events!¡±
¡°I can wholeheartedly return the compliment my dear Baron and i¡¯ll make sure to congratulate your son to the successful ball then! But it wouldn''t be fair to occupy the host all by myself, enjoy your ball Baron!¡±
She found Decius, the Baron¡¯s son later that evening looking at ease with the world and himself in a group of his friends.
¡°Can I borrow the young lord Decius for a moment, I would like to congratulate him for the successful planning of this event!¡± She interrupted their conversation. Decius came after his father, being quite tall, nearly reaching 1,90 meters in height, had an impressive physique, blonde hair like most of the empire¡¯s citizens and intelligent, brown eyes, she really liked what she saw. He excused himself and turned to her.
¡°Of course Countess, you have my full attention!¡±
¡°Your father told me we have to thank you for this wonderful party?¡±
He coughed, ¡°Why would you think something like that?¡±
¡°Your father told me, obviously.¡± She smiled at him.
¡°I''m pretty sure you know my parents former duchy is at the northern border, so they had to constantly deal with monsters invading our lands and killing their peasants. One time my father even had to take care of a small army of kobolds, so my parents aren''t used to have to plan things like this.¡±
He smiled at her ¡°How do you like the show my fathers mages arranged Countess?¡±
¡°It''s truly beautiful I was really impressed what was organized in such a short order!¡±
Viscount Snaketon hated Baron Falconbridge, he had been one of the nobles to tell the emperor he suspected the Baron was planning treason as he always wanted his own lands to govern. When his spies had catched wind of something, though without proof he instantly reported to the emperor hoping to be rewarded for his loyalty, but instead of being killed the grand duke he had just lost his title!
To add insult to injury the emperor hadn¡¯t even rewarded him at all. He had hoped he would be appointed to govern parts of the now free lands, but when he had asked the emperor he was rebuffed rudely, being told he would get to govern his own lands if he earned it. To this day the lands had got no new grand duke appointed, the emperor appointing several smaller nobles to govern parts of it instead.
And now he had lost the competition as well. From the start of the competition he had known there would be very few rivals, and had sent people to stop the advancement of them, stopping three teams outright and slowing down all but one team considerably, the people he had sent were properly routed and brought to justice by the team as well, only slowing them down by a week, and most likely causing the stroke of luck that followed afterwards, as they had been allowed to jump a rank because of killing a drake instead of a lesser one. His team had advanced not a week after them, but to his peril were not allowed to jump rank as they didn''t defeat a higher evolution.
His team had managed to catch up as their rivals went idle for a month or two, but they still had to concede the priority of the advancement quest due to reaching the middle ranks faster.
He clenched his fists and felt his pulse increasing just thinking about the smug grin on the Barons face when he was invited to the ball.
He had to smile at the thought of meeting him in an empty alley, at least until he remembered the reason why the Baron was still alive anyways, causing him to clench his jaw as well. The Viscount started pacing around, like many times before, on how to finally get the better of the other noble. Unfortunately since being forced to move to the capital the Baron had behaved like a model noble, doing nothing one could hold against him.
Chapter 9
The last two months had been quite exhausting for Mary, while the test had given her some ideas for her magic development, she had first thought back to her morningly experiment and then tried to expand all her senses while trying a few other things as well, every other one proved to be futile though. The only thing she managed to improve was her sight, as her magic was unable to work around it''s limitations for everything else.
Both of the new spells were different from her previous ones, as they consisted of way more shapes which were interlock in each other. They actually had no shape in common, which told her the spells were like her spell against exhaustion, her magic interpreting her wishes as best as it could. The sight spell was the easier of the two, and she managed to understand its basics quite fast, it only arranged some parts of the air around her to form a crystalline shape in front of her eyes.
The shape was kinda like the cut off bottom of a sphere, and somehow managed to make everything seem closer, the orphanage was to small to use it effectively though, but she imagined it would be quite awesome to use on the grand plaza. The spell to improve her hearing was way more complex, because of that she needed the biggest part of the last two months to understand it. It''s range was determined by a shape she already knew, the one that was used by her plant and earth spell, so like these the range was affected by the mana put into the shape. The rest was really strange, it took some kind of energy from the conversation and transmitted into her ears, so while understanding the basics of how it worked she lacked the patience to really find out the deeper dynamics behind it, being content to find out how to influence the different factors and not caring enough to explore deeper for now.
Continually casting the sightspell was relatively easy as it''s mana cost was relatively cheap compared to the hearing spell, which she could, depending on range, only cast up to a minute.
The test had wanted to know something about wards, which were apparently a spell that was cast and sustained itself from the mana used to cast the spell, she had to ask Nandelia what the word meant as she had never heard it before. They sounded quite intriguing but so far she hadn''t managed to replicate them.
As her mana was full right now and she had explored the new spells to full effect anyways, she decided it was time to try casting a ward again. Like every time she had developed a new spell, she willed her light spell into being without casting it and then told her magic to alter it''s structure to stay until it''s mana was depleted, but the same problem that stopped her previous tries remained, she didn''t have a shape which made her mana keep it''s form after she let it out of control. All her spells so far relied on her keeping them up manually and her magic didn''t seem to know how to to it as well.
Not one to give up easily, she extended a strand of mana again, starting from zero this time, using about three times as much as she would need for a normal light spell and willed it to form a lasting light that would stay there for as long as it''s mana supply didn''t run out. Like many times before, at first the spell formed as intended, but lacked any new components Her magic obviously also didn''t know a way to circumvent this as well as lacking any direct control.
After another few tries where the spell always fizzled out soon after she cut off her control and mana, she finally gave up as her tries in the past months had yielded the same results.
A week later Mary was playing hide and seek with another group of children, they were currently searching for Maleg, one of the tallest children of her age, well at least the others were trying to find him, she knew where he was hiding after all, she remembered that, while she may not have the possibility to find the shape required for wards herself, there was a spell that was doing just the thing she wanted to.
The spell that changed her ears worked even when she exhausted her mana and furthermore had been there for her whole life. That meant the spell had both of the characteristics she wanted, the shapes staying like they were intended and it''s mana not using itself to overcharge the spell when control was relinquished. Remembering her previous experiences with it, she groaned inwardly and decided now was not the time. She took off with a start and sprinted towards the tree she knew Maleg was hiding in, running up the tree¡¯s trunk for two meters until she reached the lowest branch. She then proceeded to climb up the tree until she ''accidentally'' found him sitting there.
¡°Found you!¡± she exclaimed loudly from behind his back causing him to jump.
¡°How did you find me this time? And how did you manage to climb up here, you should be too small to reach lowest branch?¡±
¡°By chance, I wanted to climb to the top to look for you so I just ran up the trunk to then climb up!¡± he stared at her in disbelief
¡°You ran up the trunk sure, nobody helped you. That doesn''t explain how in all hells you managed to sneak up on me?¡±
¡°I didn''t sneak! You were just unobservant.¡± she beamed at him ¡°I told you I¡¯ll find you anywhere!¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever.¡± he grumbled and climbed down.
She followed him, jumping down the last two meters. Suddenly she heard someone yelling her name.
¡°Mary come here right now!¡± The voice did sound quite annoyed. She looked in the direction it came from and saw one of the orphanage¡¯s workers looking at her, he always yelled at her for being ''reckless''. She wasn''t reckless! She just liked to enjoy herself and never did dangerous things. He didn''t believe her though and sometimes yelled so loud her ears hurt afterwards. Still, she obediently went over to him to hear the same speech as always.
¡°What did I tell you about being reckless, you shouldn''t climb that tree and more importantly you shouldn''t jump it down! How did you get up there anyways?¡± she tried to look apologetic.
¡°I ran up the trunk. But I wasn''t reckless, I jumped down only two meters this time.¡± she smiled at him innocently
¡°Don''t give me that look we both know you don''t regret anything! Just be careful! Just imagine how sad Nandelia would be if something happened to you!¡±
She nodded and even had a bad conscience for a moment. She ran back to join the others shortly afterwards, the warning already starting to fade from her memory.
On the next day she started the task of going through all the different shapes that the spell on her ears consisted of, tying every shape to a simple light spell. As that was decently mana exhausting she predicted she¡¯d manage about three to four hours per session.
The next six weeks flew by, until finally she managed to isolate both shapes, of course the shapes had to be the last two she tried. Keeping the shapes in form worked by creating them in a continuous sphere, adding the shape in between the first and last shape. The shape that kept the spell in shape was a really strange one that somehow connected the spells input with the last shape, somehow preserving the spells shapes in the process. The preserve shape actually had to be the last on added to the spell as it would create a closed system out of the spell.
That was where the other shape came in, it was most definitely the most strange shape she knew. First of all it was the only one that had two distinct parts, while the first part wasn''t all that unique, except it being only a part of a shape of course, it was like any other shape, though many times harder to cast than the others she knew. Back when she first tried analysing the original spell it had been the only one she didn''t manage to recreate, and though her control had increased by leaps and bounds in the past months, she still needed nearly fifty tries to successfully cast it even once. The most interesting part however was what happened when you successfully cast the first half, because the other half then automatically used parts of the mana in the first half to come into being without any doing of the mage, even repeated tries to reign her man in to create the second part by herself proved impossible.
Casting the second part was beyond her anyways, as even trying to cast the other part of the shape first proved impossible for now, though she was sure she would manage in due time.
While she now had a way to cast wards, it was kinda useless, as the wards she created had no actual use, being permanently active and the needed to sustain them was ways beyond her.
Sadly her mother''s spell didn''t have a part to toggle the spell, which would be really useful for all her spells.
Viscount Snaketon was very pleased with himself, he had managed to find a way to ruin his enemy¡¯s birthday, his spies found some very interesting things about the Baron when his people started digging, at least if you wanted to know another way he was different from other nobles. Apparently his rival liked to keep his birthdays small, only inviting the closest family and his most trusted retainers to celebrate it.
The same went for the few ceremonies he had performed so far, always using his isolated lands and the difficult to reach capital of his duchy to excuse himself of properly conducting the ceremony.
After finding out, he immediately sent a notice of that to most nobles, asking them for support to petition the emperor to command the Baron to do a proper ceremony.
While he got enough support to bring the matter to the emperor and succeed he didn''t get as much support as he would have thought, as most nobles residing out of the capital seemed content to ignore it. Luckily a fair amount of the empire¡¯s nobles lived in the capital, and most liked a proper ceremony as much as any other such event. Now his failure from the bet actually came in handy, as all nobles that were invited spoke highly of the quality of the Barons ball, increasing the interest in a repetition of such an event.
He definitely looked forwards to destroying the impression the child, which would be the evenings biggest attraction, would have of its new stepfather.
Emperor Vibius Blythe detested most of the nobles living in the capital, so when that slimy Viscount had once again asked for an audience, he had, as always, given him the latest possible date which would not be overly impolite, after all he would probably once again try to convince he was fit for his own plot of land, thinking himself clever enough that he wouldn''t notice.
He had been quite surprised when the Viscount came with the support of most the other useless nobles to ask him to command the former Grand Duke to arrange a proper ceremony.
He actually didn''t care how it was performed, but thought part of the traditions the nobles in the capital insisted on barbaric and cruel towards the child that was adopted, after all on top of dealing with finding yourself in a wholly different world you were presented to a bunch of useless nobles all gawking at you.
He did it anyways, as it would placate the useless nobles for quite some time, as they got ¡®the better of him¡¯ he would have peace and quiet for a week at the least. The next day he got a reply from the Baron that asked how he should properly perform it, he was new to the capital after all and the tradition was different in the north.
He had his secretary throw up something as he didn''t see the need to do so himself and could use his time better by dealing with other matters that were of actual importance, he had an empire to rule after all, and only so much time to do so.
Chapter 10
All things considered the plans for his birthday progressed well, Branston Falconbridge mused to himself, his most trusted retainers as well as family had already been invited. This year would be special though, as it was a year of the ceremony.
On the day before his birthday he would visit an orphanage adopting one of the orphans there. On the next day, the orphan would officially be recognized as a part of his house, getting the official birthday set at the same day as the adopting noble if it was previously unknown.
Of course, things had gone too smooth, as shortly before dusk a letter bearing the imperial sigil arrived. That meant it came directly from the emperor, or one of his scribes. He was commanded to conduct a ¡®proper¡¯ ceremony. That was infuriating, as he thought the way things were handled in the capital completely unfitting for someone who called himself noble. Throwing a child in an unfamiliar environment was one thing that would always happen if someone adopted it, and most children would adapt quickly enough. But throwing a child in an unfamiliar environment and then showing it off like some kind of trophy was just despicable, as it was sure to terrify any child causing it to close up and retreat into itself, a simply unnecessary and cruel thing to do.
He knew why the tradition developed this way in the capital, the nobles here were solely depending on their noble title after all, and on one hand, they wanted to feel morally superior by helping an orphan, on the other hand they actually didn''t want anyone who ¡®didn''t deserve it¡¯ to be like them, because of that there were two types of nobles in the capital, the ones born into nobility and those that weren''t, so the nobles born into their title always held went out of their way like this to instill a sense of inferiority into the children, just plain disgusting if you asked him.
After thinking hard bow to get out of this dilemma, he decided to send an answer to the emperor asking for clarification of his orders.
As it turned out his hunch was correct, the emperor didn''t care about the ceremony, as the letter he received later that week was clearly thrown together without much care, probably by one of the emperor''s scribes.
Obviously the scribe had no idea of a proper ceremony, as he probably was no noble, and the definition of the meaning of a ceremony he got was that several nobles not of his family had to be present to confirm he actually adopted the child.
The letter confirmed his suspicions that the emperor only commanded him on the urging of the capitals noble population. They definitely were the type to do so, the noble that tried to ruin this day would come to regret this in the coming months though. Without further ado he sent out several of his informants to find the culprit of this mess.
He got the information he wanted only a day later, the noble in question not being subtle at all for once. Of course it had to be Viscount Snaketon, while until now he had been a minor annoyance at best, some things went too far, and trying to ruin his birthday and ceremony was one such thing. Until now he mostly held back his personal feelings when dealing with him, but now the other noble had crossed a line the intelligent people in the empire knew not to cross when dealing with him. He was fine with his rivals trying to ruin his enterprises, as he enjoyed a good rivalry and knew competition to be beneficial for economy and innovation.
When people started trying to kill his employees or invade his personal life they crossed a line that would not easily be forgiven. As he found just killing people distasteful as well as illegal he normally chose to ruin them financially, that would be hard to do against a Viscount. He would have to do something else, probably worse for the capitals noble population though, he would completely ruin his social standing.
He would surely need help with that though, as his experience with the finer workings of the capitals nobility still eluded him, he only had three years of time to adapt after all.
A week later his planning for the ceremony had advanced by a fair margin, his son had performed exceptionally when planning the ball, so he once again relied on his help. Unlike the pesky nobles pressuring the emperor thought, there would be no open ball to attend to this time.
He sent out his informants to find all the dirt he was sure they would find if he digged properly, it would probably take quite some time to find enough, as the Viscount, while unfit to govern any lands was quite skilled in hiding his tracks normally. Nothing to worry about though, as he was a very patient person and the viscount would feel safe if no immediate retaliation happened, the young people always seemed unable to properly plan ahead.
His birthday was in two months time, which would be more than enough time to plan a big ceremony. Of course that wouldn''t happen, the guidelines he got from the emperor forced him to invite several nobles to attend so they could confirm the child actually got adopted, complete idiocy of course, as there would be no use in not doing so. Instead of planning a ball like the nobles expected him to, he would invite a few old friends and rivals, most were nobles governing their own lands, mainly in the northern part of the empire. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
As there would be several nobles attending that were no part of his house the conditions given by the emperor would be fulfilled, while he would still get the better of those wanting to mess with him and at the same time get to see some old friends.
The preparations needed while nothing compared to a ball, where still quite time consuming and would be expensive as well.
His son once again proved his capabilities in planning social events and the like, making the Baron wonder why he hadn''t made him plan such events back in his duchy, at least until he remembered there were none as he never saw any value in them.
The ceremony would take place inside of his mansion this time, as there wouldn''t be as many people attending this time. Ge still got his mages to arrange an impressive show, but only to the benefit of the child he would adopt.
In the next week several nobles in and out of the capital received an unexpected message by Baron Falconbridge, inviting them to take part in his ceremony in seven weeks time.
Count Crowdrait always wondered why his former rival fell from glory three years ago, it had always been fun to compete with the Grand Duke¡¯s enterprises and the outcome benefitted both of them as their people developed better ways to produce goods. While normally a Count had no way to compete with a grand duke, this had been different as the north had to fight constant monster incursions which bound a big part of the duchy to it''s defense, the remaining resources were then split up to several of his rivals projects, enabling him to compete with some of them.
He had always thought the Baron a great man, so when he got the message spell, after wondering how the Baron managed to reach him, he answered the spell.
¡°Good day Count I appreciate you managed to answer my message so quickly!¡±
¡°Good day to you too, I have to admit I was surprised to hear from you. I didnt think i''d hear from you ever again, not after our last meeting.¡±
¡°I may not be a grand duke anymore, but I do have my sources. Anyway I contacted you because you always were one of the most competent nobles in the empire, I was informed you wanted to visit the capital in three months time and wanted to invite you to the ceremony I will be holding this year, it would of course mean you¡¯d have to accelerate your plans.¡±
A most curious request. ¡°Why invite me, the capital is practically busting with nobles!¡±
¡°You may know I dislike the way things like this are done in the capital, and hadn''t planned on hosting anything at all, but alas the nobles were goaded by Viscount Snaketon to pressure the emperor to force me to hold a ¡®proper¡¯ ceremony. I know you see this matter like me and I would like to not traumatise the child i¡¯ll adopt!¡±
¡°How does inviting me stop a proper ceremony?¡±
¡°After inquiring about what a proper ceremony is, I got told I needed several nobles not belonging to my house to witness it.¡±
Obviously his rivals intellect wasn''t diminished by living in the capital, the Count had once been an orphan himself and had been adopted by his late father. Back then the policy the baron spoke about was just getting popular in the capital, and he had been on the receiving end, of course it hadn''t been as bad back then. As the ceremony was something he wholeheartedly supported he was disgusted by the nobles destroying it''s spirit.
¡°Of course I¡¯ll arrange to be there!¡±
¡°Very well, see you in seven weeks Count Crowdrait!¡±
He wouldn''t really be inconvenienced by it anyways, his yearly visit to the capital being right around the corner.
Viscount Bearsted was equally pleased and surprised to receive a message from his old friend Branston. The two of them had been part of quite the successful adventuring team, together with another eight noble children, until duty called at least and they had to disperse because the emperor commanded them to take over their parents lands. He only learned of his old friend fall well after it happened, his lands being in the most north-eastern part of the empire. As Branston didn''t see the need to inform him or the others, he obviously saw it as nothing important.
So when he was asked to come and visit the old fox for his ceremony there was really nothing to think about, he got up and was on his way towards the empire.
When he reached his castle¡¯s gates, responsibility trained by decades of being a lord came through for a short amount of time, and he called up his advisors and told them his son would be representing him in his absence. They were long used to his antics and didn''t even properly try to argue with him, though they managed to convince him to take a mount with him, as he could return faster after his business was concluded.
He still wondered why he was given his own land to govern, even he thought himself way too irresponsible to do so. He did it to the best of his abilities though and with Branston gone his lands were among the most flourishing in the surrounding area.
After preparing his mount, a Ephox, a nimble mammal that excelled in travelling the wilderness, he set out to the capital arriving in the capitals surrounding area a month later. Travelling to the capital had been fun, not one to use such things as streets he travelled in a direct line between capital and his castle, running into nothing dangerous, the only mildly curious thing he met was a lesser drake that thought it intelligent to try and eat the lone human camping in its territory, an assumption that didn''t pay off too well for it, but gave him and his mount some very nice meals for the next few days.
He was now really looking forwards to a real bed, as the journey had reminded him of his advancing age.
The next weeks would probably be interesting enough, he was especially excited about who his old friend would pick up this time, as he always had a hand for finding the rare gems among the orphans in his duchy, and the capital was sure to have several.
Chapter 11
The last two month had been really refreshing, Mary thought to herself, she had slowed down her magic training to have more time for her friends because they started doing some really stupid things whenever she went off by herself, managing to get yelled at two times in an hour.
The only time she could safely leave them was when they were sleeping, so her magic training was moved to the early mornings. She mainly trained two things, one decently successful, the other completely unsuccessful. She managed to increase her mana control by a fair margin, but was sadly entirely unsuccessful trying to enchant anything.
In the last week something was happening outside of the orphanage, all of the orphanage workers were talking about some famous nobles visiting the capital all at once.
As always she was up way before sunrise, enjoying the day waking up and planning to do some magic training afterwards. She had just started her training, when she felt foreign mana flooding the courtyard, it was really aggressive and tried disrupting her control. While theoretically capable of continuing, the presence she felt controlling the mana was terrifying and beyond her abilities to deal with, so she did what everyone would do, she absorbed her mana and fled, for the first time giving her all to reach the relative safety of her friends.
Andra Jonun was happy to see Branston Falconbridge again, she had known the noble for decades, but unlike him, she started to show signs of her age, and he was years older than her.
Last week she received a letter informing her he would visit her orphanage for his ceremony. Of course, as always he was throughout in everything he did, and was there way before sunrise, arriving with a beautiful carriage drawn by two Ehyvecs, a special breed of horses, they were the second evolution a horse got, these animals were probably the most valuable thing she had ever seen.
The carriage itself was equally impressive, while small, it was probably capable of travelling every terrain at speeds that would break a normal carriages axis ten times over, if she wasn''t mistaken the axes were made of mythril one of the most valuable metals in existence. She walked him into her office, talking about days gone. They were just talking about the tests he sent her and he started asking questions about every child in Nandelia¡¯s class, when suddenly he looked confused and then sharply turned towards the window facing the courtyard looking at the tallest tree.
¡°Who is this child and where did you get her?¡± he seemed shaken, something she had never seen before. She got up and saw Mary racing over the courtyard with an impressive speed.
¡°That''s Mary, I found her on my steps around the time you fell, she was nestled in a basket together with a paper bearing her name and three gold coins, though I never saw coinage like that before.¡± she stopped when she saw he had stopped listening to her.
Today was the day, Baron Falconbridge was up early as every day. He would go and find an orphan to adopt today and add to his house tomorrow on his birthday. He let his stablemaster prepare his most expensive possession, a beautiful carriage built out of mythril and enchanted by the empire¡¯s most talented enchanters. The carriage¡¯s exterior was full of illusions, allowing it''s inhabitant to change the appearance at will.
It didn''t stop there, the interior walls were fully enchanted as well allowing everything from a three hundred sixty degree view of the surroundings to a closed up view on everything within two kilometers. Furthermore there were the mandatory enchantments increasing the structural strength, the materials durability and temperature inside the carriage. Additionally there were several enchantments that could shield the carriage and the mounts pulling it from harm and even a few possibilities to retaliate against eventual attackers.
It was pulled by two Ehyvecs, an evolution of the common horse, though a relatively rare one. These mounts were used by the royal guard and the richest nobles, they came out of the north, so it wasn''t uncommon for a northern lord to have one in his stables as well. His two were brown with a black mane, their shoulders reaching one meter and eighty centimeters. The endurance of these beasts was scary, as they were capable of moving for an entire day without pause, needing only four hours of sleep fo be back to full strength.
He arrived at the orphanage after a short ride and was greeted by an old friend, Andra Jonun was the daughter of one of his father¡¯s commanders, so they grew up together, she didn''t like the way you lived in the north, and moved to the capital.
He started asking her about the class in question, it turned out their education was due to their caretaker being the daughter of a merchant.
Just as he wanted to get more specific he felt something he didn''t think he¡¯d feel in an orphanage, someone was casting a spell in the courtyard. He instantly turned to the window and started emitting his mana to disrupt any potentially dangerous spell and tried to catch the one doing it. What he saw rattled him to the core, as the mage was a small girl sitting in the highest tree, having a concentrated look on her face. Seconds afterwards she cancelled her spell and practically ran down the tree with a look of fear on her face.
"Who is this child and where did you get her?¡± he inquired, a bit shaken.
¡°That''s Mary, I found her on my steps ...¡± he started zoning out after these words. He had been interested in the girl anyways, considering her test results.
It would have been really impressive enough that she managed to sense his disruption field at all, but somehow she even managed to sense the danger behind it.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
But impossibly she had actually learnt to control her mana, a feat that needed month to achieve at minimum and that only with proper guidance. The girl had managed without, which probably meant she was a sorceress.
Though he had favored the girl before arriving at the orphanage, he knew knew he would adopt her, he had never heard of someone achieving mana control without guidance at such a young age.
¡°Andra, while I will still stay until somewhere around midday, like I originally intended, I will most definitely adopt Mary, so you can already do the paperwork you need to do.¡± He smiled at her.
¡°It''s nice to see you again, you should come visit sometimes.¡±
Normally, he would observe the children that did well in the tests he sent, but for the first time, he didn''t have to do so, his candidate immediately showing herself, even if unintentionally.
Mary thought it smart to stay in bed until the others were up too, even though the feeling she got earlier had vanished after only a second, she was a cautious person and decided she would not be alone today, the scary thing could still be around after all.
They went to breakfast together for the first time in months, where something really unusual awaited them, Andra was waiting for them together with a huge man, he reached about 185 centimeters in height, had a fairly slender built and was wearing really fancy clothes, the only thing she could see about them was their color, his boots were a dark brown, his pants a lighter shade of brown and his shirt was in a deep blue, it was really hard to see any details, as he was full of magic that obstructed her view of him. They were probably enchanted, the one thing she had failed to do even once for the last two months.
¡°Good morning everyone, as you surely have noticed, today is a special day, we have the honour of a noble wanting to conduct the ceremony here. For everyone who doesn''t know what that is, it''s an ancient tradition of a noble adopting a child every twenty five years. Do welcome Baron Falconbridge!¡±
¡°Welcome Baron Falconbridge.¡± they intoned as one.
¡°The Baron will stay here until late afternoon, honoring one of you by taking adopting you!¡±
While eating, Mary couldn''t help but glancing at the man several times, while she was sure she knew the name from somewhere he was different from everyone she knew, unlike every other person in her life, she had no idea how to deal with this person, somehow she wasn''t able to get a read on him at all. Over the course of the last year, she discovered her ability to judge people was tied together with her magic, as everyone had some mana, which was influenced by the persons personality. That she couldn''t get a read on the noble, meant he had enough control over his mana to not give away anything.
The Baron started walking through the rows of tables, occasionally stopping to ask a question to one of the others. When he stopped at her table, he was just about to ask a question when she remembered why she knew the name.
¡°Why did you lose your noble rank?¡± she blurted out before she really processed what had happened.
Baron Falconbridge started wandering in the mess hall, randomly stopping to talk to some of the children. When he got near the girl, he was just about to ask another question when he heard something he didn''t really expect.
¡°Why did you lose your noble rank?¡± he started her dumbfounded, while everything grew quiet around them, the surrounding children staring at her with horrified expressions. He stayed silent for a few moments before laughing out loud, some children had an innocence about them that he couldn''t help but envy.
¡°If I answer that question will you answer mine truthfully too? And what''s your name?¡± he asked her.
¡°Of course! I¡¯m Mary.¡± He cast a dome of silence, a spell that stopped sound from entering and leaving the confines of the spell.
¡°As promised I¡¯ll answer your question, though you have to promise to not tell anybody.¡± a nod.
¡°I lost my rank because the emperor wanted to make a point for the nobility, and I was at hand.¡± The girl had started looking around in wonder as soon as all sound faded, seeming fascinated by his magic, after he finished his sentence, she extended a strand of her mana completely absorbed by her actions.
When the strand touched his shield, she suddenly flinched back and whispered.
¡°You¡¯re it, the monster from today''s morning!¡± all wonder vanished and was replaced by caution. Though he thought nothing would surprise him when regarding this girl, he once again was proven wrong, as she managed to remember his mana signature from the short contact at the morning.
¡°What do you want to know scary man?¡± she asked defensively.
¡°I¡¯m sorry if I scared you earlier, but I thought someone wanted to attack me, noone in an orphanage is able to cast spells normally.¡± She eyed him with several emotions in her eyes, until curiosity won out.
¡°You felt that, nobody here can feel mana!¡±
¡°Yes i did. But you still owe me an answer!¡± he got an excited nod.
¡°Where did you learn to control your mana?¡±
¡°I teached myself, in the two most boring months of my life!¡± the girl got more interesting with everything he learned about her, seeing as she was in a mood to answer his questions now, he asked her something that he noticed when coming near her.
¡°What does the spell on your ears do?¡±
¡°Do you promise you won''t tell anyone and will I get a question as well?¡± he agreed.
¡°I think it''s an illusion that changes my ears.¡± she continued without pause.
¡°Now my question, why are you hiding yourself, you would be way easier to judge if you didn''t hide your mana and not nearly as scary too!¡± she stared up at him expectantly.
¡°What do you mean with ¡®hide my mana¡¯?¡±
¡°I can judge a person by his or her mana instinctively, and you are the first one I met that is capable of hiding his mana, though now that you are not on the other end of the room I managed to anyways, with some time and effort, and you aren''t as scary anymore!¡±
¡°Thank you for the interesting conversation young Mary, but I have to move on now.¡± she pouted.
¡°But I wanted to ask you so much more!¡±
¡°Later perhaps, but i really have to go now.¡± He continued his walk, the naivete of the girl was something to work at, you couldn''t go around and tell everyone you were not human, at least in the empire, eventually he came back to Andra, she looked at him disapproving.
¡°Happy with what you did, do you see how many of the children you scared?¡±
¡°That was necessary, and it was really enlightening, I want to speak to the girl¡¯s caretaker and then we¡¯ll be off.¡±
Chapter 12
As it turned out the monster from the morning wasn''t so scary after all, though the noble had exquisite control over his mana, she managed to get a read on him once she was inside his spell, as he started leaking some mana when casting a spell. After he left she returned to her meal as if nothing had happened.
¡°What did he tell you?¡± everyone around her asked her excitedly.
¡°I promised not to tell!¡±
¡°Oh come on I won''t tell anyone else.¡±
¡°I promised!¡±
¡°You¡¯re no fun at all!¡± they tried everything to persuade her, even though her friends knew she always held her promises, they still tried to change her mind, to no avail though.
After finishing his walk the noble went back to Andra and after a brief discussion they left the mess hall, the until now subdued talking instantly got louder. It was the first time in her life a real noble visited the orphanage and understandably everyone was excited.
After breakfast they went to the courtyard immediately, having learned all Nandelia wanted to teach them only two weeks prior. For the next hour they played several games, though no one was paying all that much attention. Shortly after lunch, Mary was called in Andra¡¯s office by Nandelia.
She was expected by the Baron, Andra and Nandelia, she was sure something was up, as she knew she hadn''t done anything deserving punishment today. She decided patience was the key here and waited for the adults to start talking first, somehow people always got uncomfortable in silence. It didn''t take long until Nandelia broke the silence.
¡°Don''t you want to know why we fetched you Mary?¡±
¡°I figured you¡¯d tell me when you are ready!¡±
Nandelia seemed really happy, having obvious problems of staying demure. Nandelia started to look as if she was about to explode, starting to slightly bounce up and down repeatedly. Mary had to quirk an eyebrow at that, her caretaker had a bubbly personality, she normally had better control of herself. A minute afterwards Nandelia lost against herself, abandoning her position next the the other two who had a bemused expression on their face, and ran to her embracing her tightly.
¡°I¡¯m so happy for you! But I¡¯m also sad because I wont see you anymore! Make sure to write me sometimes! I¡¯ll miss you!¡±
Mary looked at the other two with a confused face. ¡°I chose to adopt you.¡± The Baron clarified.
¡°What! But I don''t wanna go.¡± That exclamation caused confusion in those around her.
¡°Why wouldn''t you, you will never get a chance like that again?¡±
"I¡¯ll miss my friends and they will just run into trouble without me!¡± She started crying, she really didn''t want to leave, she liked it here. Nandelia embraced her a little more tightly.
¡°Don''t cry, you know it was the most likely outcome, you are the smartest here after all!¡± she sniffed. ¡°But that''s it, I don''t need any help i¡¯ll be successful anyways!¡±
¡°And why are you so sure of that?¡±
She looked at her seriously. ¡°Because I¡¯m a sorceress!¡±
¡°If that''s true there is another point to leave, being a noble can get you in magic schools nobody can get into.¡±
She sniffed another time and then reigned herself in.
¡°I really don''t want to go!¡± Nandelia looked at her seriously.
¡°You have to!¡± Visiting a magic school would really be nice, she had to admit that, but she still didn''t want to leave. She looked directly at the noble. ¡°Take Taliven instead, he is a good leader and would surely be happy!¡±
¡°Because you let him, we both know you¡¯d be better at it than he is by far, from what I saw through the window just today I knew you just didn''t want to lead.¡± Her shoulders sagged, the noble was far to observant.
¡°Can I say goodbye to my friends?"
"Of course, take as much time as you want. We¡¯ll wait for you in here.¡±
She ran down the stairs into the courtyard and spotted her friends waiting for her near the entrance so she quickly joined them. Somi came forwards first, embracing her.
¡°I¡¯ll miss you!¡± Afterwards everyone came forth and joined them. Mary looked at them and her tears came again. ¡°How did you know?¡±
¡°You always were the smartest, the moment Andra said he¡¯d be taking one of us we knew it¡¯d be you. Especially after he talked to you.¡± Taliven answered. She nodded, the others retreated a bit.
¡°Promise me you will take care of them and stop them from doing stuff I wouldn''t do!¡± He grinned at that.
¡°I will try my best!¡±
After another round of farewells, Mary left her friends feeling a little better and went upstairs to face her future.
After another tearful goodbye with Nandelia she left the orphanage for the second time in her life. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw now. Two huge animals waiting for them, obviously content to wait for their owner a whole day. They had four legs, shiny brown fur and their heads shot up whenever someone looked at them, who they proceeded to glare at.
Mary abandoned her place next to the Baron and ran towards the beasts completely unfazed by the stares they sent her way, they wouldn''t be here if they were dangerous after all. Arriving there, she did what any sensible child would do, she touched it. At first it looked like it wanted to bite her, but as she reciprocate the stare it stopped it''s aggression and seemed content to let her pet it, which was hard because it was way bigger than her.
¡°And I thought they were exaggerating when telling me you were reckless! Do you know how dangerous these are when they don''t know you!¡±
¡°It obvious, not at all, though don''t you think they are awfully big?¡± The Baron just shook his head.
¡°Let''s get going.¡± The carriage was really strange, it was solid, yet you could see through it from both sides, that meant the tons of mana she could feel stored in several central points were supplying all those illusion spells, she tried making a few of the shapes which worked surprisingly good, though most shapes were only components and had no use without adding more. She combined one of the unknowns with her simple light ball, resulting in some kind of glowing leaf forming in front of her. Before she could experiment more, the carriage started moving, so she abandoned her experiments and enjoyed the view. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
It wasn''t long until they arrived at her new home, a huge mansion surrounded by a beautiful park. The mansion was surrounded by a few rows of trees, that while not overly high were just right to stop any outsider from seeing the house. The rest of the garden was enclosed by hedges stopping her from seeing anything from the carriage. She could hear water splashing somewhere though. As they cleared the trees, she could fully see the mansion for the first time in her life, it was grandiose, standing at only three stories tall it was shorter than the orphanage, but that didn''t change anything about it''s impression.
She could see the front from her vantage point, a facade of expensive marble, not the white one so commonly used in most buildings, but several different colors intermixed with expensive looking wood. The walls were mainly of two different kinds of marble a light brown one with darker veins crisscrossing it. With that marble as a base, there were layers of other colored marble added, for example a deep black with silver veins oder an emeralgreen one which veins were out of a deeper green.
The layers of marble showed landscapes unknown to her, the view from a mountain or into a cave. She didn''t know how long she stood there, admiring the craftsmanship and longing to see these lands herself, when she was gently interrupted by the Baron.
¡°Time to meet your new family, you can look all you want later on!¡±
She didn''t even notice they exited the carriage, though they had as it was nowhere to bee seen. They then entered the mansion through huge wooden doors, which were she noted, now that she had herself together again, full of magic again. Behind the doors was an entrance hall, as beautiful as the exterior, though now the walls were warmer and instead of formed marble landscapes, the walls were adorned by paintings of all kinds of things, people, landscapes, buildings, ruins and monsters all of which she had never seen before. The window¡¯s curtains were made of incredible fabric.
She was led through a series of stairs and hallways, until they arrived in a room as big as all the rooms she had shared with her friends so far, though it only had one huge bad. They were awaited by a girl only slightly older than her there which was introduced to her as her personal maid. She was told the maid would help her bathe and dress, which was stupid, she wasn''t old so she didn''t need help to do so, which she promptly told them. It was to no avail though and she was left alone with the maid soon after, told to let the maid lead her to dinner. The maid who was called Elaine showed her everything, and then really wanted to bathe her, she wouldn''t have that though, and after getting all the strange thing in the bathroom explained was promptly shoved out of the room. After a quick bath, just as she wanted to dress again, she saw Elaine standing in a corner she definitly wasn''t in before, pouting at her.
¡°Why did you do that young miss, I am here to help you after all! You didn''t even properly bathe!¡±
Two could play that game so Mary pouted back.
¡°I already told you to call me Mary! Nobody helps me do stuff like that, I¡¯m no old woman after all. And I did, I even used one of these strange smelling concoctions you told me about.¡± She searched for her clothes, but they seemed to have vanished, she eyed Elaine suspiciously.
¡°Where are my clothes?¡± I threw the rags you were wearing in the fire, no lady of house Falconbridge should wear something like that!¡±
¡°And what should I wear instead?¡±
Elaine guided her to another room adjacent to hers which was full of fabric, Mary stared at all the clothes in front of her, mouth open. Elaine went over go her and closed her mouth.
¡°A lady doesn''t do that!¡± There was something missing here, she eyed Elaine again.
¡°Why are there no pants?¡±
¡°Because a lady doesn''t wear pants!¡± She spat out the last word like some kind of course, Mary had a dark suspicion where this was leading.
¡°You want me to wear a dress then?¡± She made sure to pronounce it like Elaine had before.
Sadly even so she protested loudly and often Elaine was unrelenting, and the older girl had her dressed in some stupid yellow dress in no time. At least she could do something about the color, so she did just that, calling up her magic and wanting it to envelop her dress letting it glow softly in a dark green she remembered from the trees outside.
¡°When do we have to be ready Elaine?¡± She asked, after receiving no answer, she looked at her maid and so her staring at her open mouthed. Mary went over to her and shut her mouth.
¡°A lady doesn''t do that!¡± She told her with some satisfaction. That seemed to snap Elaine out of her stupor though. ¡°How did you do that?¡± Or maybe not as she seemed to have forgotten her stupid speechpatterns.
¡°I cast a spell, duh!¡±
¡°Of course he''d find someone like this!¡± Elaine muttered softly, than seemed to get herself under control again, we still have some time, are you sure you can keep this up for the entire evening?¡±
¡°Of course, my mana comes back fast enough to keep it up all day!¡±
¡°Very well, may I show you the grounds then, young miss?¡± And Elaine was back, really sad she liked the other Elaine more. Something to work at later on, she had a huge house to explore after all, but way more important there was an even bigger garden outside.
An hour later when they arrived at the dining hall, Mary was in love. Elaine had offhandedly explained there was a library behind a door they passed so Mary had insisted they go take a look. The library was one huge room, filled to the brim with all kinds of books and what was best it was near her room too.
Diane Falconbridge was sitting in the dining hall waiting for her new daughter to come, Elaine had informed them she would show the girl around but they would manage to be on time. Branston and her had arrived here first waiting for all others to come, today they would eat in the private dining hall, together with her two sons and the newest addition to their family. Her sons arrived early too, as interested as she was.
Soon they could hear a girls voice talking happily to what seemed to be Elaine. She had to smile, you could hear the strain in the young girl¡¯s voice, the child¡¯s energy wearing down her patience. A minute later they arrived in front of the door.
¡°We have arrived young miss, remember what I told you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not allowed to climb the stairs upside down?¡± One of her sons let out a snort at that, the girl obviously annoying the strict maid on purpose, Elaine was a sticker to the rules, her employment in their house starting only a few weeks ago.
A knock came afterwards, Elaine entering followed by a girl in a glowing dark green dress, midnight black hair and a slightly darker skin like honey. Diane idly wondered where she got that dress, it definitely wasn''t in the ones she bought when she was told Branston would adopt a girl. Upon entering the girl suddenly glared at Branston opening her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by Elaine.
¡°The sirs and lady are Baron Branston Falconbridge, Baroness Diane Falconbridge and their sons Decius and Reynold Falconbridge.¡±
Before Elaine had a chance to introduce her she spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m Mary!¡± Bringing smiles to their faces.
Branston spoke up for the first time. ¡°Thank you for bringing her here Elaine, you may leave now!¡± After he left he addressed the girl directly.
¡°Did you have to do that, intentionally annoying Elaine, she is a good maid!¡± The girl pouted.
¡°Your fault, our deal didn''t involve I had to wear stupid clothes! And she was mean to me, she dressed me in a really uncomftorble yellow dress and wanted to forbid me everything fun!¡± Diane turned to her husband raising a brow, asking the unspoken words ¡®what deal¡¯. Later he answered.
¡°You aren''t wearing a yellow dress now.¡± One of her sons interjected.
¡°I do, but you can''t see because I cast a spell that is directly above the surface emitting a better color.¡± That caused a stir among those present, except Branston, who just shrugged when she looked at him.
¡°Come sit with us and let''s eat.¡± Completely unfazed she was in the presence of nobles the girl came over and sat down in the only remaining chair. Unlike all other children so far, she didn''t immediately wolf down the food, instead waiting for them to do it, copying them to the best of her ability.
Obviously she liked the food though, hardly surprising as the cooks always gave their best on days like this. After dinner the girl seemed placated, she even proved to her sons she actually was a magician, shortly dispelling the spell on her dress, recasting it immediately, they in turn showed her some magic as well. Diane was sad her other sons were somewhere else, they were sure to like the girl, but they were out and about, visiting other continents to see the world. An hour after dinner it was getting obvious the girl needed to rest, the days emotions and excitement finally claiming her.
Chapter 13
Mary awoke early next morning and went into the wardrobe to find something to dress, she chose one of the dresses and hoped the Baron would keep his promise and get her some other clothes today. Whe. She left her room, Elaine appeared out of nowhere, asking her where she thought she was going.
¡°I¡¯ll go outside and watch the sunrise as everyday!¡± with that she walked past her and towards the door, Elaine reached her quickly.
"Not this way young miss, there is a better spot in the garden.¡± She happily let Elaine lead her there, hoping there would be a tree to sit on.
They left the house on the opposite side she entered yesterday, and she followed Elaine through a maze of plants to a fountain, while the spot lacked a tree, it had benches and gave off a very peaceful atmosphere. Just before the first rays of the morning sun broke the darkness, Mary heart someone approaching, the person moved very silently, though more out of habit than trying to sneak. Soon after, a man emerged from the direction of the house, a smile illuminating his face as he spotted them.
¡°Looks like someone found my spot, I always liked the peace here. And who might you two be?¡±
¡°The young miss is named Mary, my lord.¡±
¡°And that''s Elaine, she is my maid!¡± Elaine seemed to sink into the ground, being introduced to a noble.
¡°A pleasure to meet you both, might I inquire what you are doing here?¡±
¡°I always watch the sun rise, and Elaine showed me this spot. And you didn''t tell me who you are!¡±
¡°I must apologize young Mary, I am Viscount Bearsted here to witness the ceremony of a friend, and piss off a few nobles in the process.¡±
He laughed. "I assume you are to be adopted, are you not.¡±
¡°Yes I am.¡± They sat in companionable silence, until the sun had risen fully.
¡°I assume you have not seen much of the world yet, young lady?¡± The viscount asked.
¡°No I didn''t, and call me Mary.¡±
"Would you like me to tell you a few stories of the adventures I had with you soon to be father?¡± Mary nodded excited.
¡°Very well, you know we were all young back then, Branston, me and eight other noble children, we were bored by our lives and all the privilege we had, so unlike the other nobles we joined the guild like a normal person would, of course we blasted through the lower ranks without problems, and overconfident as we were took the quest to exterminate a lesser plantdrake, while officially a proper monster to hunt for advancement, plant drakes are the most dangerous of drakes, and adventurers are discouraged to kill them for advancement. They are mostly taken care of by stronger teams, as the rewards are astronomical. Anyways, arrogant as we were, we went off to hunt it.
When we arrived, we instantly searched the forest for it, and while we didn''t manage to find it, it found us. When we arrived at a really dense part of the forest, we were suddenly enclosed by plants in all directions, and they continued to close on us from all sides, making an escape impossible so our mages summoned a wall of fire around us, buring all plants nearing us, while we were saved for now, we had to hope the drake would run out of plants to throw at us before we ran out of mana that was the first thing you should be wary of when hunting plant drakes.
We stayed at that impassive for a while, until Branston had an idea that probably saved our lives, he told the other mages to take over his part of the wall, and then commanded me stand in the middle of us and then cast a spell that raised me over the canopy so I could see the surroundings, what I saw was probably the most terrifying thing I ever saw in my life, it looked like the whole forest was coming to crush the little humans daring to enter its borders.
But I also saw the drake, near our position, and told them where it was, so soon after we had a small gap in the wall that allowed our ranger and Brantson to attack back, sadly we weren''t the most balanced them, as nobles very rarely learn anything other than melee fighting or magic. We were lucky to even have a ranger at all.
The most dangerous thing when fighting a plant drake is their physiology as they take on some of the characteristics of the plants they control, not unlike wizards. So unlike all other drakes, a plant drake misses a point of weakness that can be used to kill it. To kill one you have to destroy enough of its body that it collapses due to loss of blood, though they do have a glaring weakness against any fire.
We managed to kill it just in time, as most of our mages used nearly all their mana in that fight. It taught us several things which I will impart on you now, as Branston seems to always picks the reckless, if talented individuals out of any group.¡± He looked at her seriously.
¡°Do you promise me to always keep these in mind?¡± She nodded seriously.
¡°Always have an escape route or plan! Don''t fight an enemy unprepared or tired if possible! Always know what you are up against! Never underestimate your enemy!¡±
Those all sounded reasonable, though there was one thing she wanted to tell the old man before he vanished again. ¡°I am not reckless, I only take calculated risks!¡± The old man laughed and went back in the direction of the mansion.
¡°It''s high time we head back too, young miss, breakfast is about to start.¡± Elaine interjected.
¡°Let''s go then, but afterwards you will show me everything in the garden!¡± Breakfast was just as great as yesterday''s dinner, though they were had some losses, the Baron¡¯s other children having serious trouble standing up early. The Baron¡¯s wife was really nice though, asking her about her room and magic and morning and even how she had slept. She felt if they would continue to feed her like that she would just go plob. When she told them that they laughed and said she didn''t need to eat everything, just the things she wanted to.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
After finishing Breakfast she shot off, tracking down Elaine to show her around, she needn''t have bothered, as as soon as she left the room the other girl appeared out of nowhere. The gardens were really too big to explore in one morning, so Elaine told her what significant thing she could show her. The one that instantly interested her was the falconry which, according to Elaine was the Baron¡¯s sole hobby, where he kept and cared for a flock of falcons. Ten minutes later they arrived at a strange hill, home to all kinds of falcons, They ranged from really big ones to some very small ones. She spent an hour there just watching the beautiful birds.
They were off to somewhere else soon, to the trees Mary had spotted upon arrival. They would be really good to climb, but sadly she had no clothes fit for something fun like that, which seemed to greatly relieve Elaine. It had but a bummer to her mood though, and she set out to go into the library, where she searched for a book that sounded interesting and then settled down to read it. With seemingly no time passing at all, Elaine interrupted her for lunch, which was great again.
The Baron¡¯s sons had managed to get out of bed too it seemed, as they joined them this time. The afternoon and evening wouldn''t be fun though, as she had to learn something called ¡®noble customs¡¯ something which Elaine seemed delighted to be allowed to teach her. In the evening she would then have to take part in the ceremony to officially join the Baron¡¯s house.
Noble customs turned out to be just as stupid and boring as she anticipated, though not very hard to learn, by the time she was sent to bathe again and get her new clothes, she already memorized everything Elaine told her, to the girls obvious delight. She was so happy she didn''t even protest when Mary pushed her out of the bath again. The Mary¡¯s intense joy, her wardrobe was now filled with clothing actually useable for the fun things in life. Before that could happen though, she had a ceremony to attend to.
Viscount Bearsted was having one hell of a day, in the morning he had met Branston¡¯s newest family member, a cheerful girl named Mary, and by now the nobles in the capital must be fuming, seeing none of them had been invited to the ceremony, he could see the smile that thought brought on his face on many faces around him too.
It was about to begin, they soon would be officially introduced to the little girl. Afterwards she would be a Falconbridge. With him were another eight nobles, all showing signs of age like him, the invitation had been a welcome opportunity to see his old team again, he had just finished telling them of his encounter with the girl this morning.
¡°I¡¯m so happy for them, they always wanted to have a daughter.¡± Cedra chirped in, she had always been the one to hold their group together in the hard times, with her cheerful and slightly stupid manner.
Even though she seemed stupid, that was just wore a mask she wore, that hid a fierce intelligence, something he needed more time than he liked to admit to find out. After another few minutes of idle chitchat, Branston¡¯s butler interrupted their conversations and announced the main attraction of the evening was about to arrive.
When the door to the ballroom opened, they all could see Branston entering together with a small girl, contrary to the expectations of most attending she didn''t seem fazed by those present at all. The girl had changed into trousers and a shirt, seeming way more at ease when not in a dress. She wore dark brown boots, black pants and a dark green tunic, all made of expensive fabric. Branston had, for once changed out of his normal clothing, trading the simple looking clothes, that were actually more expensive than any in this room, for something more fitting for the occasion, probably hearing on his sons advice for once.
His clothes were enchanted to draw the eyes to the wearer, an enchantment more seen on armor than clothing, the boots were of the finest leather money could buy, worked on by a master craftsmen. The trousers were black and kept simple, in order to draw the eyes to the tunic alwell. The tunic itself was a wonder of craftsmanship, while still in the custom dark blue Branston liked so much, the craftsmen had done wonders, adding a royal falcon, the crest of house Falconbridge on the chest. They walked straight to the central stage that had been built for this occasion, illuminated by all kinds of magic that had been added to appease the eye of the observer. Soon enough they reached the middle of the room, climbing the invisible stairs. They were followed by the imperial clerk that would witness and conduct the whole procedure.
¡°We are here on this Friday in the year of 639 EC to witness the addition of the girl Mary to the house Falconbridge. Do you want to join the noble house of Falconbridge with all duties and privileges that come with it?¡±
¡°Yes!¡±
¡°Do you want this girl to join your house as your daughter?¡±
¡°Yes!¡±
¡°Very well then, I hereby declare the girl Mary to be henceforth known as Mary Falconbridge.¡± That caused cheers among the present nobles, they all knew of the Baron¡¯s talent to find rare gems among the orphans on the north, and wondered what the girl could do, now that he had all the capital¡¯s orphanages to choose from.
¡°Let¡¯s go greet the young lady into the circle of nobles.¡± He and the rest of his team went forth towards Branston and his new daughter, who had left the stage and went off in the direction of the buffet. Music had started playing once again, the musicians nowhere to be seen, either hidden by an illusion or actually created by magic altogether. Cedra shot forwards as soon as they got in range, cuddling the girl, repeating ¡°So cute.¡± over and over again. When they arrived shortly after, the girls eyes locked on him and he got a betrayed look that said ¡®Why did you bring the crazy lady?¡¯ He chuckled at that.
Branston took pity in his new daughter.
¡°Now, now Cedra don''t you think you should introduce yourself first, you know I invited you all to not traumatize the child, which you were just trying to do. Though I¡¯d wager that will be very hard with this one.¡±
The girl was finally released.
¡°Hi, I¡¯m Baroness Cedra Eaglesva, but you can call me aunt Cedra.¡±
¡°I don''t want to, you are crazy!¡± That caused laughs in all those around them. After that they each introduced themselves to the girl, who unlike all other orphan¡¯s he saw in this situation before didn''t seem fazed at all by the high and mighty surrounding them. She seemed more interested in the music coming out of nowhere than all the nobles, somehow managing to ignore all the buzz around them. He went over to Branston.
¡°And why did you pick this young lady?¡±
Branston looked around for anyone near enough to eavesdrop, and then whispered.
¡°She is a sorceress and even taught herself how to control her mana without any assistance.¡± He told them, taking them by surprise, while all of them had learnt how to do so at a young age, they couldn''t fathom how one would do so without guidance.
¡°And what is she doing now?¡±
¡°I think she is analysing the spell used to create the music, I got the impression she is somehow able to see mana.¡±
That was something completely unheard of, everyone who wanted to see mana, had to resort to spells enhancing their vision, something subpar at best. As most other nobles saw the girl wasn''t scared, they came over to introduce themselves, so he and the others retreated, needing time to digest the revelations made to them.
The evening hadn''t been half as bad as Mary thought it would be, the guests of her father, she liked how the word sounded, even though it was unfamiliar, all seemed nice enough, except the crazy lady that wanted to choke her to death at least. She liked the old man she met this morning most, and some others had been nice as well, though the Baron had only told nine people of her talent in magic, she thought it smart to do the same. Tomorrow she would visit the fountain again, ask about this magic school she was told about at breakfast, visit the Falcons afterwards and then climb the trees until lunch. Afterwards she would try out some of the shapes that she saw the evening. The rest of the day would be used to read in the library.
Chapter 14
Mary was slowly getting used to her new life. Four weeks had passed since she left the orphanage. Sadly it had turned out she was too young to visit a magic school just yet, as you had to be seven years old in order to join, normal children apparently needed several years of training by their parents to achieve mana control sufficient enough to learn magic in a school or with a teacher.
She put her magic training on hold, as she had more to do than ever before. While she was reading in the library for a few hours every late afternoon and the early mornings were still reserved for watching the rising sun, the rest of the day¡¯s hours were a flurry of activity.
Seeing her fascination with forests, the Baron had asked if she would like to learn how to properly navigate a forest. She had gladly agreed, but insisted on getting trained in melee combat, as she thought her manareserves too small, they were slightly increasing over time though . Because of that, her days were full of training. Mary had never felt more alive than when she was in a real forest for the first time, even if it was only the small one in the garden, that they used for training. She had never felt more at ease with herself than when she was moving in it, her teacher Nolan, said she was a natural, managing to move silently after only hours of practice, and taking in what he taught her about the forests natural flora and fauna like a sponge. While the training in the forest went really good, the training in melee fighting started out really bad, even finding a weapon that felt good to her had needed a whole week.
The weapon that felt most natural to her was a simple longsword. Of course, a sword was mostly useless against anything but humanoid enemies that were about equal in height, but these were the most dangerous ones as well, as they tended to be the only ones smart enough to actually use weapons as well, you didn''t fight the bigger monsters headon if you could prevent it.
At first, she had wondered why the heavier weapon felt better, that confusion had been cleared up though. An average longsword only weighted about fifty percent more than an average one handed sword, so when fighting with two hands, she was actually lifting less weight per hand than otherwise.
Finding a style took another two weeks, one of the sergeants of father''s guard, Melton, showing her the basics of the techniques he knew until they found one that fit.
After finding her style though, the training became a lot more fun, as she got a teacher specialized in teaching that style.
Interestingly enough the style the teacher used varied from her¡¯s in all ways possible, but both styles complimented the training of the other one. She relied on speed and stamina, outlasting the enemy she fought and seizing opening opportunities. Her teacher on the other had, was fighting differently fast and hard, trying to force his enemy to choose between two bad choices and tempting them to make a mistake, ending the fight with a few hits afterwards.
A stupid way to fight she thought to herself, it was way to exhausting to be useful anywhere but in small scale fights, and completely useless against any of the more powerful, bigger monsters.
To her dismay, the lessons on etiquette she took from Elaine also continued, seemingly taking longer every time, she had to fight sleep every second of these lessons, it was a battle she would surely lose one day though.
Today was sunday, so she had no lessons to attend to.
Like the last three weeks, she visited the falcon¡¯s hill to watch the birds fly off and come back with food for their young, small mammals, insects and reptiles.
She was watching her favorite subspecies again, a smaller specimen that had brown feathers on its wings and head, light brown and white feathers on its belly and orange feet. They built nests in the trees surrounding the Falconhill and were among the more numerous of the birds there. The only reason all these birds managed to live next to one another were the many spells engraved in its surroundings, a piece of art really, one she had not been able to decipher so far, though she got explained it made the birds ignore each other.
After her weekly visit, she set about a task the Baron set her to do, figuring out her affinity, so far, that didn''t go so well, as she hadn''t been able to figure out anything in common between the spells she created so far. Efforts to find out the limits weren''t going the way it was supposed to, as she didn''t seem to have many of these, the only affinities she was capable of excluding were space, time and healing magic. All other things were possible though, wizardry, all kinds of elemental spells, the basic ones like earth, wind, fire, plants and water and even the more advanced ones like lighting or light were no problem. She could even use the strange magic the Baron had used on that day in the orphanage, using mana without forming spells to interrupt the spells of one''s enemy or detect hidden targets. Of course the problem with all that was, you needed to know it existed to use it.
She was really looking forwards to tomorrow, while her other training would be cut short by an hour, she was happy to learn more about the world at large and her father promised her to teach her more about the world and tomorrow would be her first lesson on the history of the world. Nandelia couldn''t tell them much about that as she never learnt the bigger history of the world.
On the next day Mary was up early as always, following her routine until breakfast, after that she followed the Baron to his study, where she would learn about the history at large.
¡°Where do I start?¡± he mused to himself. ¡°At the beginning!¡±
¡°Very well then, we don''t know how the world came into being, some say the gods created it, but in the oldest texts there is no such mention of gods whatsoever.
For the first few thousand years most races lived very different than they do now, with a few exceptions. The dwarves unlike now, completely buried themselves under the ground only coming back up millenia later as a different race.
The elves haven''t changed all that much for all we know, they still like to dwell in forests and live longer than all others, though their numbers have increased significantly.
The beastborn didn''t change at all and are still roaming the lands in tribes, completely disregarding all borders. There have been one or two beastborn kingdoms in the past, but they all destroyed themselves after the leader that united them died. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The humans lived like the beastmen for the first few millennia, wandering the lands in tribes and dodging the dangerous monsters on the way.
The sole exception to this is the Empire of Qildorth, the first and grandest empire in the history of the world. They were the first humans to found a big lasting settlement, abandoning their nomadic roots, there have been some villages here and there, but nothing with more than a few dozen souls.
To this day nobody knows how they managed to defend their first city without the help of a dragon, a feat that was not repeated since, though many tried.
Many of the things they invented are still used today, the concept of small powerful groups, who we now call adventurers, going out and hunting all the monsters in the area comes from them. They were also the first to have an actual written language, what we now call the runic language.
The empire they built soon spanned the entirety of the continent of Aikidora, which even though the empire fell long ago, to this day is the only continent fully settled by the civilized races. Nobody knows how they managed to pacify the middle of the continent and nobody of them is still alive to tell, though they must have had some incredibly powerful mages to achieve that feat.¡±
¡°How did they fall?¡± She asked enraptured by the story.
¡°We don''t know exactly what happened, all we know is that the empire fell shortly after the first sighting of a high dragon in history, they probably angered him and got wiped out.
Of course the grand empire didn''t stay on its continent, and to this day we¡¯re still finding ancient ruins on many of the other continents shores. Many of the advancements our modern society have come from these, ideas saved in enchanted books or paintings on the walls.
While all of these ruins on Aikidora are of Quilldorthian origins, there are many more of unknown origin, built by a race that most likely lacked some humanoid features, and all we know is they were incredibly advanced, even more so than the Quilldorthians.
While all human, elven and beastmen tribes on their continent had been swallowed by the empire, the live of the tribes on different continents didn''t change much, apart from occasionally running into one of their advance settlements.
After the empire fell, another millenium passed until the second human kingdom was founded, this time with the support of a dragon on the continent of Vlayias. The founding of the kingdom caused some kind of change in the human race, as shortly afterwards more kingdoms came to be all around the continent. Soon enough these humans were capable of building ships capable of crossing the ocean once again and started exploring the world.
On one such trip, one of the crews stumbled upon the remains of an Quilldorthian settlement. It waa on a small isle, protected from everything but time, as all things powerful enough to harm the buildings had been wiped off the face of the isle.
It caused wonder in the ship''s crew though, as the settlement was bigger than their capital. They found the settlement completely abandoned, the inhabitants long dead, it¡¯s known as the only intact Quilldorthian settlement ever found and now an independent trading hub between the surrounding continents.
Though nothing was found there, as it was only a small staging ground for the planned expansion to the east, it still stirred up the first kingdoms,the chance of meeting a more developed civilisation than theirs.
It took them fifty years to find the continent of Aikidora, but what they found there was terrifying, they only found the ruins of Quilldorthian portcities but no single city in the middle of the continent, even though there were roads all over. Of course, that didn''t stay like this for too long, and to this day we still find more of their cities buried deep underground.
The continent had the lowest population of monsters in the world, as the monster population hadn''t recovered from the damage the Quilldorthian and then their demise dealt to them.
The kingdoms established colonies on the continent, but those soon became independent as they lacked the heavy opposition of monsters their native countries faced and soon overtook them in all matters. Only three hundred years after the races once again walked Aikidora they had already spread all over the continent. To this day, the continent as a whole is the most developed of all.
Their biggest advantage is of course, unchallenged access to the middle of their continent, where the most valuable metals are found and everything is permeated by mana. Of course the first kingdoms didn''t limit their exploration of the world on finding Aikidora and found the continents surrounding them well before Aikidora. When the second rise of Aikidora started, all continents except Oqueron already had kingdoms and empires rising.
To this day, the continent of Oqeron is untamed by the races, as the only success we managed since it''s discovery roughly eight hundred years ago, are a few portcities that were built with the cooperation of several human, elven and dwarven kingdoms.
The empire came into being during the rise of Aikidora, when the world at large was still untamed and wild. All continents still have lots of unclaimed lands in their midst, as the powerful monsters concentrate there, searching for ways to get even more powerful. All larger expeditions into the middle of the continents have failed, either being wiped out completely or having to retreat because of heavy losses. Some smaller ones have returned, reporting more ancient ruins differing from Quilldorthian ones, also built for races differing from us.
This, of course matches the reports of a few Oquerion adventurers who claim seeing a grand city in the continents jungles.¡±
He looked at the clock. ¡°It seems we lost ourselves in history, your lesson in swordfighting is about to start and I have to resume working.¡± Mary nodded and after a few seconds said. ¡°Thanks father, I hope we will do this again!¡± He smiled at her. ¡°I¡¯m sure I will find some time."
She nodded and ran off, secretly wondering what he even worked on all the time, living in the capital and lacking any lands to govern. None of her concern though, she concluded. She arrived at her next lesson just in time, having run all the way there.
Her teacher Iolaos a surprisingly small man if you considered his style of fighting, greeted her with a grin. ¡°Ran here all the way, did you?¡± She nodded. ¡°Well then let¡¯s get started.¡±
He threw her practice sword in his hand in her general direction, she would have to jump to catch it, something she didn''t do as she had fallen for that trick once before. If she stopped watching him even one second, he would sweep her off her legs. Instead she let the sword fall to the ground and carefully moved towards it, waiting for an attack.
It didn''t come though, and her weapon was in her hands soon enough.
¡°Very good, it seems you are a fast learner, most of my students need several tries to get that right.¡±
She nodded, as they started moving in circles. Like always, she waited for her teacher to attack, which he did shortly afterwards, as always, he didn''t move nearly as fast or strong as he could, just fast enough she had to strain herself to react in time, a fact she greatly appreciated, as her speed and strength weren''t on par with those of a trained warrior and adult.
She carefully watched his attacks, trying to let them miss her entirely, and if that failed making them flow past her with the least possible effort.
The training continued like this, with Iolaos making her repeat the best ways to converse strength while fighting, like never blocking an attack head on or using your enemy''s strength and momentum against him. They were doing this out of two reasons, firstly to firmly imprint them in her head, and secondly to enable her to concentrate on other things while fighting in the future, like watching the battle at large or cast spells, something he didn''t know she was already capable of, and wouldn''t know for some time. The training continued for two hours, after which Mary thanked him for the lesson and was off to her next one, her fatigue already fading in the constant excitement of her new life.
Chapter 15
Six weeks had passed since Mary had joined her family, and Diana had to admit she liked the girl, while she had hoped to have a more calm child for once, it proved to be a futile her husband having a talent to always pick the more adventures types, though it definitely was more fun this way. Last sunday, when the girl came to her and asked her how to proceed, as she had no ideas left how to determine her affinity, her heart had warmed just a bit. She had then volunteered to teach her the basics of magic, seeing she had no magical education at all and the basics were the most important thing about your magic development.
Mary was a constant source of amazement to her, the girl seeming to have an endless supply of energy to draw from, sleeping less than anyone else while training tirelessly six days a week, they even had to force her to slow down on sundays.
Shortly afterwards she heart a knock at her door. ¡°Come in.¡±
¡°Hi Diane.¡±
¡°Hey there, how has your day been so far?¡±
¡°Great, Nolan told me I could make the rangertest about a week after the festival. And now it gets even better because you will teach me about magic, something Nandelia didn''t know.¡±
After mentioning her old caretaker, her voice lost some of the previous excitement.
¡°How about you write them a letter, I can have it delivered by a servant if you want?¡±
¡°That would be great. But can we start now, I want to do more magic again!¡±
¡°You will have to tell me what you have been taught, so I can fill in any gaps you have.¡±
Mary then enthusiastically reported her her knowledge, which wasn''t much, just the very basics, that being the different types of magicians. When she asked if she should report her own experiments, Diane denied her.
¡°That''s not necessary dear, you already told us of your experiments, didn''t you. I know I¡¯ll have to start with the basics. You already know the different types of magicians, so I will ignore these for now, and start with actual magic.
As you know, what we call magic is actually mana influencing the world around us by forming runes.¡±
¡°That''s wrong! Mana doesn''t form runes!¡± That gave her a pause.
¡°What do you mean, of course it does, when a normal mage casts a spell, he incants the necessary runes, which then form out of their mana.¡±
¡°No I already saw some runes, and they are all two dimensional, but the shapes mana forms are all three dimensional!¡±
That robbed her breath, she was an enthusiastic mage, using much of her time to try creating new spells by combining different runes. She had always wondered why runes only occupied two dimensions, as they were influencing three. She had tried like many before her to make the runes visible for her, but the spells used were not all that precise. She stood up and got her spellbook, where every rune she knew was noted down. She opened the first page, where all runes used for a simple light spell were written.
¡°You have just been made my assistent, if what you tell is true.¡±
¡°Of course it''s true, I can show you if you want.¡±
¡°By all means!¡±
Shortly after, a simple light came into being, but unlike normal lights, this formed two different shapes.
¡°The spell is formed out of three shapes, one that makes the light, which I made as dim as possible so you can look at it, one that saves the shape I want the light to have, which I gave the form of the two shapes that form a normal light spell and lastly the one that defines the expansion the spell has in a room.¡±
Intrigued, Diane tried forming her mana in the shown shapes, it was definitely harder than expected, as even she needed five tries to do so. She instantly felt the difference though, as she needed about twenty five percent less mana than when she would cast the spell like normal. The concentration needed was astonishing though, she even had to revert back to incantations, something she hadn''t done for years. That did increase her respect for Mary by a large margin, as the girl seemed to have no problems whatsoever to silently cast spells.
¡°We will explore this more later on, but now I have a promise to fulfill, feel free to speak up if you have more ideas like this. I will still call those shapes runes, and you should start to do too, because knowledge is powerful, and an increase in the efficiency of spells is really powerful. Anyways, there are two types of runes, the common kind that every human sorcerer can use and a special kind, the only runes that are actually seem to consist of two or more parts. These runes are not within any recorded human affinity, though we lost many of these records in the last war. The few we know were found in ancient ruins, they are unique in more ways than that though, as unlike normal runes, their effects differ if you cast them from different directions.¡±
¡°I know one of these!¡±
¡°And where did you get to know it?¡± Diane asked doubtful.
¡°The spell on my ears uses ut to draw my mana to supply itself. Of course that only works because I let it. I don''t know what the other part does though, because I can''t cast it yet.¡±
The spell her husband told her about, hiding her supposedly inhuman ears. ¡°You know you shouldn''t tell anyone that you are no human?¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°Of course, I only tell it to people who don''t care, though there are very few that don''t.¡±
Mary deflated, obviously depressed most people had problems with nonhumans. These feelings were probably increased because there were no children her age around. So Diane did the only sensible thing and embraced the child, letting her vent her feelings. Surprisingly she even started to cry a little. She would have to make sure to comfort her more often, Mary always seemed so mature it was easy to forget she was still a child at heart, having lost everything she knew not two months ago. It took only a minute until she caught herself again. ¡°Thanks mom, I needed that. You won''t tell anyone will you?¡± ¡°Of course not, it will be our secret!¡±
¡°Let¡¯s continue then!¡±
¡°Are you sure you will be ok?¡± An affirmative nod.
¡°The rune you know is the most common of these runes, a relatively simple one that will allow you to add or draw mana from a spell depending on the way you cast it. While most mages will be able to cast the first half of it after a few years of practice, the second one requires mastery over one''s mana only achieved after years of practice, some mages even needing up to a decade. That you were even able to cast it is nothing short of astounding. There isn''t much to tell about runes, as casting them comes with experience. A normal mage has to spent about half of his time learning runes, noting them down in his spell book. The rest of the time is used for different things, these being mana control, spellcraft theory and practice. Of course all these are of different importance in the different stages of learning magic.
The first stage is called control, and about a third of the students time is occupied by learning to control mana, the rest is used up by learning basic runes and basic spellcraft.
The second stage is called specialization, where the time spent learning your control gets significantly reduced, you have to decide how you want to specialize yourself and learn the according runes and rules of spellcraft. About a quarter of this stage is used for practice in your chosen field.
The last stage is called mastery where you already know most runes required for your chosen profession and work on perfecting everything.
The stages get increasingly more complex, the controlstage being completed after roughly two years time. Most magic schools only take in students who have achieved basic control over their mana. The second stage needs, depending on your profession, anything from three to ten years of time. The art of mastering ones magic takes the rest of the mages life though, as there are always ways to increase your skills.
It is always discouraged to cast spells without supervision if you are a mage, as casting them wrong can easily rupture your mana channels and permanently stop your advancement as a mage. Sorcerers like you have it easier, as your affinity will never allow you to cast a spell that''s harmful to you, at least if that spell is within your affinity. It''s astonished that you didn''t destroy your mana channels with your experiments.¡±
¡°How do I increase my mana capacity?¡± Mary interrupted her again.
¡°Well there are three known ways to do so, the first is simply growing up, as your body will develop more mana channels by itself. The second and third ones aren''t really helpful as well, as your mana increases just by getting older. While the third is the best way to increase your mana it is the most unlikely as well, as your mana increases significantly if you evolve.
As you are no pure human, I will explain you the difference between the races if you consider their magical capabilities. Humans are the most proficient mages, a human mage is always more powerful than any others as our mana channels are able to have the fastest output of mana without destroying them.
Elven sorcerers are the most powerful ones we know of, an elven sorcerer always surpassing all others, theoretically an elven mage would be more powerful than a human one as well, but there are no elven mages, as their manachannels output is too strong, and will rupture their manachannels instantly.
Dwarfs are a strange folk, they are the smallest of the civilized races amd have incredible mana reserves, though they lack the mana channels in their skin to cast serious magic. They have other advantages though, as a dwarf has a small amount of control over the few mana channels they have so they can perfectly regulate the mana exiting their bodies when doing magic. That, obviously makes them the best enchanters as control is everything for enchanting.
Beastmen are the best wizards you can find, their innate connection with the lands they travel improving their understanding of nature magic, though a beastmen mage is only marginally weaker than a human one.
The lizardfolk are the most unique race in regards to magic, they are born with basic control over their mana, they somehow are not capable of casting magic at all, instead they can strengthen their bodies with mana, improving raw strength, durability and agility by leaps and bounds.
Normally I would teach you something about basic spellcraft, but that''s obviously not needed as you are still capable of casting magic, so you instinctively understood them. I could of course start with the advanced theory, but I am no teacher and would probably cause misconceptions in you, so I will leave that to the teachers of the school you want to attend. Any questions?¡±
¡°Tell me something about enchanting, I didn''t manage to enchant anything when I tried!¡±
¡°I can tell you only the basics as enchanting is an incredibly difficult profession, something a noble normally doesn''t use his time on, as enchanting is more a way of life than work.
Basically, in order to enchant, you first need a material to enchant, everything permeated with mana is possibly enchantable, though organic materials are the only ones you can enchant permanently. While possible to enchant stone or normal metals, these enchantments wear off only weeks after being applied. Of course the most valuable metals like mythril are different, as they are like organic materials.
An enchantment is effectively a ward carved into a material. The enchanter effectively engraves a magic channel into the material. This magic channel is like the runes a spell forms, though less effective. To activate an enchantment you either have to supply it with your own mana or supply it with a manacrystal. Elves and beastmen are only capable of using enchantments with manacrystals. Alternatively, a really skilled enchanter can engrave the rune to draw mana, something only the best can, which then is capable of drawing on the holders mana with consent.
An enchanter obviously doesn''t actually engrave the object, rather he forced new magic channels into the material. Something easy to do for bigger materials, but also the reason why enchanting clothes is incredibly expensive, as engraving anything in a single thread is incredibly difficult.¡±
¡°Thanks mom, that was really interesting, even though it didn''t actually help me with my problem.¡±
¡°You are welcome dear, be here at the same time tomorrow, we are going to try and find out more about these runes of yours! And perhaps we can find out your affinity together! And now, hush hush, it''s late you have go to bed now.¡±
She smiled as the girl left her laboratory. That conversation gave her a lot to wonder about, she had to admit to herself, why hadn''t anyone ever found out about the true nature of runes for example, it wasn''t like noone ever tried. She was looking forwards to spend more time with her daughter. She stopped at that thought, normally she needed several months to think of the children as hers, but obviously her wish for an actual daughter and the trust the girl put in her had sped up the process.
Chapter 16
Five months had passed since Mary had arrived at her new home. The first few weeks had been harder than she had let anyone know.
It had gotten better when she started meeting with the Baroness more often. She had asked her for help when she finally acknowledged she hadn''t made any progress in finding her affinity. While she still had no clue what her affinity was, as even the Baroness ran out of ideas three weeks prior, they didn''t manage to get any progress in all that time. They really tried everything, and while Mary was capable to cast most spells Diane showed her, it came down to the things she already learnt by herself. Her affinity encompassed everything they tried except space, time and healing magic. It even included magic with mana itself, something really strange which¡¯s effects she wasn''t able to properly grasp yet.
Together with Diane she had improved her manacontrol by a fair margin, though she had been told she was only going to get better with constant training.
While quite time consuming, the time she spent with her mom was time well spent, as they started to really built up their relationship.
Finding out her affinity had only been a small part of their activities though, they spent most of their time together with Diane casting all types of spells and Mary showing her how the used runes actually looked. It had been quite the challenge to find a way to save their research, as books were wholly inadequate to save anything three dimensional. Their solution was simple enough even though only temporary, they used small wards to save each shape, ten wards being connected a manacrystal.
She had also found out what the Baron was doing with all the time he had on his hands. Apparently, he wanted to set up some sort of trading operation overseas. She didn''t really understand why it needed that much time and planning. Though sometimes he did come and join them with the runes, the older mage knowing way more runes than both she and her mom.
Her other lessons suffered quite a bit, as she was spending quite some time with magic studies, that was a given. She still made satisfactory progress in all of them though.
Her ranger training was one of the best parts of her new life, the peace and calm she felt when in between trees was just unbeatable. She was progressing quite nicely there, if you didn''t count archery. While she was very agile and had a good hand to eye coordination, something she needed for sword fighting, shooting with a bow just wasn''t hers. Though everything else came naturally, any arrow she shot just seemed to miss her intended target, even at closest range. That didn''t cause any distress for her though, as she hadn''t been all that interested in archery to begin with.
The rest went quite well though, by now she was able to sneak up upon most people in a forest, at least if they didn''t start employing magical means of detection. She already found a way around two of those, surrounding herself with a shroud of her mana, while quite demanding, most such arlarmwards were only set up as a thin sphere around the user and as such she only needed to keep it up for a few seconds.
Some of the wards, just completely covered the surroundings in mana, and required astonishing manacontrol to keep up, but were a sure way to detect anything in the vicinity. There was a way to avoid it though, even if only for a short amount of time.
You could, shroud yourself in mana as well, denser than needed for the warning shroud though, and move around undetected. At least if the caster wasn''t alert, if he was he would need very little time to detect there was a small moving area he couldn''t detect anything in, a dead giveaway there was something amiss. The second type of ward had a big downside though, as it was impossible to enchant, as there were no runes used to create it.
The last type was nearly impossible to break through though, at least if you wanted to do so undetected. It was a combination of the prior two and a little else, so the manacloud was encompassed by a normal alarmward and surrounded by a weak shield. It was actually possible to enchant it onto something, as the shield could be used to keep the mana inside, though enchantments like this were really difficult to create. More so than the spell, as the amount of factors that had to be thought of was nothing short of astonishing. Furthermore keeping the enchantment running permanently was really expensive, so only the richest of people could effectively have them.
There existed a great variety of alarmwards, but they all roughly followed these three schematics. Nolan told her normal people were unable to actually get through all of those undetected, as they were impossible to detect normally. Some exceptionally skilled or especially trained would be able to get through the first, as actual magic was used and as such it was detectable.
The other two were harder, nearly impossible to detect, as the mana concentration in the air increased only slightly, and detecting something like that was, even with especially built items, near impossible. As a possibility to reliably detect mana didn''t exist, as no one knew what mana even was.
All that didn''t apply for her though, seeing she was able to feel mana, even if she had no idea why or what it was. There were of course enchantments that countered these wards, if you knew they were there, but it was highly illegal to actually make and sell them, if not issued by the empire.
As she had less time to train now, her rangertest had been postponed by a month. At first she had worried she might not be allowed to do it, seeing she couldn''t use a bow, but luckily, there was a different test for the bow. It would now take place exactly a month after the festival of founding, were she would have to attend as her father''s daughter. It would be the first time she would meet any of the other nobles, these that her father didn''t deem worthy of being present to their ceremony. She thought it would be an interesting experience, although she had to promise to not be as blunt as she was to him and his friends.
While that would have been hard a few months ago, by now the lessons Elaine imparted her with stated to take hold, and she even had to admit there was some use to them. It wouldn''t be good for the empire, or any country to be honest, if nobles, some of which had actual private armies would start killing each other after being offended.
Her lessons in sword fighting were progressing depressively slow though, while she was making constant progress, she was still nowhere near her teacher and wouldn''t be for years. A really frustrating experience though she was told she was actually improving faster than many others. She threw herself at the training once again after that, as that meant there were others progressing faster than her! Unacceptable!
If she thought back on how her training started, she had to admit she progressed quite nicely in the past months. While she had been taught basic footwork by her first teacher, she hadn''t seen a sword in the first week of training with her second teacher, as he insisted on her learning how to properly stand and use her feet while fighting. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Though she had doubted his decision at the start, there was way more to learn about standing properly than she ever imagined. And it actually helped her with some other stuff as well.
Afterwards, they had concentrated on how to properly hold her sword, and what she would mainly do with it, as even though all longswords were looking very alike, depending on different factors in the process of production, like the length of grip, the cross section of the blade, the form of the tip, the type of crossguard as well as six other factors, longswords had a variety of different uses.
They chose a double edged longsword equally made for cutting and thrusting. So the actual training started two weeks after she first chose her fighting style. They didn''t use a real sword though, as that would be dangerous a stupid, and fell back to wooden training swords that still hurt like hell if you were hit, but weren''t life threatening.
Unlike most noble children in the capital, her father hired a teacher that taught her how to fight and not how to duel. Iolaos didn''t mind using dirty tricks to win a fight, and found great fun teaching her tons of those. So unlike the spoiled nobles of the capital, she actually learnt how to fight and not some sport without any danger.
There was way more theory to swordfighting than she had anticipated. As of now she had spent about a third of her lessons without actually fighting,while disappointing at first, she quickly saw the benefit she got out of these conversations.
He always told about the different ways she would have to deal with certain situations, after having her try to develop her own way to deal with a problem.
She learnt how to properly align her sword for the best efficiency of cutting and with which part of the blade she had to do the cut. She had learnt that the third quarter of a longsword was actually the best part to cut with, as anything further up the blade weighted too little to do a proper cut, and anything further down gained too little speed by leverage to cut successfully. It was fascinating really, there was so much to learn and ways to deal with a situation she would never think about.
He also warned her of common mistakes made while fighting, if you fought an opponent with half decent armour, you didn''t cut, you tried to disarm your opponent and incapacitate him.
There was one big bummer to sword fighting though, she probably wouldn''t get to fight big monsters with a sword, at least the non humanoid ones. A sword just didn''t have enough reach to properly harm the really big monsters.
Iolaos was really impressed with the noble child he started teaching a few months ago.
It had been quite the surprise when he was approached by a noble to teach his daughter. It hadn''t been the first time, as he had taught a noble child once before.
He had been hired by the boys father to teach him how to fight. He had build up quite the reputation before that, so he wasn''t that surprised it happened, though he thought the request would come from somewhere outside of the capital, as the nobles within prefered dueling.
He had to admit, the boy had been a natural, taking in his teachings like few students before. Iolaos taught the boy all the dirty tricks, making him a formidable fighter. Two years after he started, a scandal rocketed the capital, a noble had nearly killed another one in a duel.
As he had shortly afterwards been called to the nobles mansion, he had a darkfeeling o what had happened.
The assumption turned out right, his student had completely dismantled his opponent, just as he was taught. When he answered the noble in question he taught his son how to fight, the noble was confused. As it turned out, the noble had no idea a fighter was completely different from a duelist. They went at a fight with a different mindset, while one fought to win, the other fought to survive. There was never a question who would win such a fight.
Said noble would probably have killed him soon afterwards, but luckily a few of his former pupil, who had already been promising officers in the imperial legions, had saved his life.
Though they couldn''t do anything about what said noble did other than that. He never saw a noble after that.
He had been content to never see a noble again, and that worked for a few years, at least until he was contacted by the people of a noble to teach his daughter how to fight.
Remembering the last time that had happened he told the messenger he had no interest whatsoever to teach another noble.
A day later, the same messenger had returned and invited him to visit Baron Falconbridge to discuss his employment. Once again he said there was no employment to talk about and had ushered the messenger out of his door.
When he came back from one of his lessons on the next day, he had been surprised to see someone waiting for him in his house. When he attacked the fellow, his sword just bounced off the clothes he wore, like some kind of plate armor. That did convince him to put down his sword really fast as someone with such armor was noone he wanted to have trouble with. He still remembered the ensuring conversation.
¡°So you are Iolaos the swordsman?¡±
¡°Yes my lord.¡±
¡°I want you to teach my daughter how to fight, I already sent several requests with a messenger, but he returned empty handed everytime, care to tell me why you don''t want to work for me?¡±
¡°I don''t teach nobles my lord, I am a fighting instructor, no duelist and I already had a runin with nobility before.¡±
¡°I know, I know, the incident with Marquis Goatnell¡¯s son, a very unfortunate misunderstanding.¡± The noble grew cold after that.
¡°I know of that, I came here because you are the most talented fighting instructor, my daughter is no feeble noble, she wants to learn how to fight and not duel! I can assure you, I am way more recouceful that the Marquis, don''t try to mess with me! I said you will teach her how to fight, one way or the other!¡±
¡°It would be an honor to instruct your daughter, when do I start?¡±
He had been really surprised the Baron had come himself, but also terrified, as the other man excluded nothing, something very few people managed. He was one of the few people that bothered to learn how to do that, as it gave him a good warning what a person he was dealing with. He had heard rumors of course, but they didn''t do the former Grand Duke any justice.
The next day he reluctantly arrived at a noble mansion once again.
Luckily the girl turned out to be a good student, while at first he had been doubtful she had the determination to see it through as she was only four years old. That doubt was soon replaced by elation, as he saw her enthusiasm didn''t whane even after a week of getting her footwork up to a basic level. She wasn''t anything special related towards his training, no naturally talented fighter like most.
Something special was there though, as she, like the Baron had no emissions of mana whatsoever, meaning she achieved the manacontrol of a mage with decades of experience with four years of age. Because of that he added another part to her training, namely he taught her how to multitask while fighting, so she could cast spells while fighting.
He also told the Baron to talk to his daughter about concealing her mana, something no child should show she could do.
He always favored the determined students, as they were more likely to achieve their goals, as they learnt how to deal with failure, and a natural disposition brought you only so far, you had to actually train if you wanted to be among the best.
So all in all teaching the girl was easy, while she lacked natural talent in sword fighting, she was agile and strong for her stature, as well as having superb control over her body and being one of the most intelligent children he ever met.
He initially estimated he would take about three to four years to properly teach her, but even though their training somewhat lessened in the last months, he was sure they would manage in three. Afterwards she would need some real experience that didn''t come from sparring to improve furter.
Chapter 17
Mary couldn''t believe nearly a year had passed since she had discovered her magic, today was the second festival she would attend to, only this time as a noble. Now that she had a better understanding of magic, she was looking forward to see it again, if only to get a few new runes. Because even though her mother was an accomplished mage, she was no illusionist and as such didn''t know much runes in that direction. Of course while her magic practice in the last seven months had somewhat lacked, seeing she mostly cast a small light, her knowledge of runes had increased a hundredfold.
She found out her mother was a skilled witch, though dedicated to magical studies as a whole. Mary even learnt how to incant spells, though she didn''t need it. Incantations weren''t really a language, as every successful mage developed his own way of incanting, effectively they controlled the flow of their mana by different modulations of their voice.
It was harder to do than just control her mana directly she thought to herself. It was especially hard for their studies, as they had cover three dimensions instead of two. When her mother had cast the first real rune, she had actually used the incantations to guide her mana horizontally and used her direct control to add the depth to the rune an impressive mental feat.
They were currently on their way to the palace, arriving with two carriages that would fetch them once the festival was over. All nobles arrived an hour to half an hour before the festival started. They arrived after about twenty minutes of driving, and their carriages departed immediately after they had disembarked. After they entered the palace, they used a strange contraption to get on the walls, where a dias had been built to accommodate the nobility and the emperor. Mary and her family were among the first to arrive, and went to the far left of the stage, sitting down to wait for the next hour.
The next nobles arriving were mostly Barons and Viscounts, all sitting down somewhere different. The next one to arrive was a surprise though, she knew that person. She was one of the nobles that were present at her ceremony and she definitely didn''t expect to see her here so early. Countess Foxwood looked at everyone present, and strode in their direction with purpose. She was one of the strangest nobles that she knew, her appearance and demeanor didn''t match her mana signature at all. On the surface, she seemed like all the other noble woman around the dias, but at the same time was completely different.
¡°A good day to you Baron, Baroness how are you all on this fine day?¡±
¡°Countess Foxwood, as always a pleasure to see you, would you like to join us?¡± One of her brothers answered. After exchanging a few more pleasantries the countess sat down next to him, and then turned to her.
¡°How are you little Mary, how did you settle in your new life?¡±
¡°Things are great, it get to learn lots of new things! Why do..¡± Just as she wanted to ask her why her behaviour was differing from herself, she remembered her promise to not be so blunt, so she quickly closed her mouth. The countess smiled knowingly.
¡°That''s nice to hear, is there anything you like in particular?¡°
¡°I really like the falcons we have!¡±
After a few more questions the chatty woman turned to Decius and began talking to him. As their conversation soon changed to boring stuff she didn''t care about she search for something else to do.
Soon enough she started observing all the arriving nobles, noting that they separated into two distinct groups. The few she knew seemed to concentrate near them, not really caring about their rank all that much. Meanwhile the other group, who were in the vast majority, had a clear hierarchy that was probably defined by their rank, the more powerful the noble, the more of the lesser nobles seemed to be around. Furthermore, they were all trying to be as close to the middle as possible. Half an hour before the festival started all nobles had arrived. While those around her seemed content to stay where they were, the other group had now settled down by rank, the more powerful they were, the closer they were to the middle.
As time passed the plaza in front of them got increasingly crowded, the normal citizens streaming in to witness the event. Twenty five minutes before the festival began, Mary could feel enormous amounts of mana starting to gather in the statue in the plazas middle. She asked her mother what they were doing. As it turned out, the illusion was cast from an enchantment woven into the statue. As the illusion was too complex to cast as one spell be it enchantment or a normal one, the statues creators broke it down in several different, smaller spells. That of course added other complications, these were easier to manage though. Sadly the statue was too far away to properly perceive the mana, as her ability to feel mana had a very limited range, that normally didn''t extend that far.
The only reason she could feel some of the runes at all was the quantity of mana used. Even just what she could perceive from the spell made her realize she still had ways to go as a mage. The amount of mana was astonishing really, and if the most mana consuming runes she felt were taken out, that still left huge amounts of mana that were used for the rest of the spell. There had to be an enormous amount of runes, as the mana coming from the runes and the total mana used differed greatly.
Over the course of the next fifteen minutes the mana continued to built up more and more, the spells used for the illusions being prepared one by one.
After fifteen minutes her examination of the spell was interrupted, as the emperor arrived, and everyone present, the nobles and the citizens, had to bow deeply until he settled in his throne. Considering the emperor was the ruler of the most powerful empire of the continent, he was a really unassuming man. He was about one meter and seventy centimeters tall, had the same hair most of the empire¡¯s citizens had, and wasn''t overly muscular or thin.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
There were two really outstanding things about him though. The first was his presence, that made him look a lot more powerful, he seemed to draw everyone''s eyes to him just by being present. He furthermore wore a robe that radiated magic, not unlike her father¡¯s. The countess explained her the robe was a show of wealth and power, as it was dyed in a certain red dye, that was made from the remains of a lesser dragon, a dye most nobles couldn''t dream to use. While dragons were huge beasts, the amount of dye you got from a lesser dragon wasn''t enough to dye the whole robe.
After the emperor sat down, the noise coming from the plaza had increased by a fair amount. Mary went back to observing the spell that was about to be cast.
Exactly at midday, the doors in front of them stated to open with a loud noise. Soon enough the illusionary dragon stepped out of the gates, and repeated everything like he did last year. Now that she wasn''t distracted if the dragon was real or not, she could fully appreciate the skill of the enchanters that created this illusion. Of course she had never seen a dragon in her life, so she didn''t know how lifelike it was, but it was an impressive display of magic nonetheless.
Like last year, the illusionary dragon ¡®created¡¯ flames that showed the empire¡¯s history.
After the show was finished and the crowd in front of them had dispersed, the noble¡¯s carriages started arriving as well. Most of them would be attending to various different balls that were hosted by some of the capitals nobles.
That wouldn''t be their activity for the evening though, as the Baron¡¯s family, except Decius, didn''t attend to balls.
Instead they were going to visit one of the new film theaters that came into fashion in the last years. They used illusion magic to show events or stories on a big canvas in the front. The costs were affordable for normal citizens, at least the standard variants, as they only showed two dimensional pictures. The one they were visiting was a high class one, way more expensive but also more impressive. They were looking at a stage from above, where the illusions were displayed, the characters voices intoned by unseen speakers.
The adventure they were watching was about one of the first successful quests to hunt a lesser dragon, a feat managed decades after the first kingdom had been founded.
¡°And so our group set out to find a lesser dragon, not very hard to be honest, the beasts were everywhere to find really. There is one major problem in fighting a dragon or any flying creature really. It can easily fly away. Finding the beast''s lair is one of the best ways to force it to fight, as you can be sure it will return there every other day. So we did just that, searching for the lair of a lesser dragon.¡± They could see how a team of twenty people consisting of all the different races tracking the movements of a dragon over the course of a few days.
After it left its lair on the next day, the adventurers prepared the dragon''s lair, creating a false floor, that would trap the dragon in a big underground chamber which they excavated by magic. Obviously facing a lesser dragon was insanely dangerous no matter how you did it, and its size gave some obvious benefits in the enclosed space of the cave.
¡°I can hear it returning, prepare to spring the trap!¡± With a loud crack the ceiling crashed just like intended, the dragon plummeting the twenty meters and landing with a loud sound. The dragon roared in anger and pain, its serpentine eyes leveling on the intrudes in its lair.
¡°Drosk, Dox get its attention!" The two imposing lizard-people, already in front of their comrades ran at the dragon with defiant cries that were equally aggressive and terrified. The dragon, already in pain from the unexpected fall, snapped at one of them, swinging its tail at the other, while the tail got avoided, that snout easily got the unprepared lizard, killing him instantly. The other adventurers hadn''t been idle though, and just as their teammate go eaten, the mages and elven sorcerer finished their first spells, the rangers finishing the last part of the rest of their traps.
The dwarves threw several mythril cables over the back of the dragon, securing them in prepared holdings, severely limiting its movement and stopping it from retreating at all. The mages spells mostly impacted of the dragons scales without effect. The spell of the elven sorcerer had one though, he had used icemagic, a combination of fire and water magic, and the ice seemed to be extremely uncomfortable for the dragon, as it shook itself even more than it did after being trapped.
With the chains impairing its freedom of movement the remaining lizard managed to avoid all of the incoming attacks. The dwarves took out their crossbows and joined the rest of the rangers in attacking the beast with arrows, trying to hit vulnerable spots, namely the eyes and the soft scales where the legs joined the torso.
The arrows were dipped in a potent venom that would further limit its agility and thin its blood. The mages, seeing their spells were mostly useless drew water out of the air and drenched the monster, while the elf froze the water after it flowed between its scales. While all that wouldn''t severely limit the dragon in itself, all effects combined meant they would eventually succeed.
Something the monster seemed to realize as well. And as a result, with a defiant roar the dragon seemed to regain its powers and ripped the chain¡¯s attachments out of the wall ignoring the lone lizard at its feet, throwing itself at the mages that were causing the pain. Most of them managed to get away in time, but one of the humans got ripped apart by the dragon and one of the dwarves got squashed in its wake.
¡°It got Brelda and Nervurn!¡± one of them shouted in shock.
¡°Fan out, so it can''t get all of us at the same time!¡± Their leader shouted.
"Dox get its attention again!¡±
After the plan had failed, the fight evolved into chaos, the adventurers all having to concentrate on surviving for the most part, and only rarely getting off a well placed arrow or spell.
It got noticeable though, that the dragon got tired, the paralysing venom starting to show its effect. After half an hour of constant fighting, the dragon finally succumbed to its numerous wounds.
The adventurers slid down the walls, disbelieving looks of shock and satisfaction on their faces.
The scene faded into black and a different scene followed, the return of the victorious adventurers to their city. The city itself was small, perhaps only the size of the capitals noble district, but it seemed every inhabitant was on the streets to greet their returning heros. Their packhorses laden with the materials they harvested of the dragon body. They were escorted into the king¡¯s keep.
Upon entering the throne room the remaining adventurers fell to their knees.
¡°Welcome back my subjects, I see you managed to defeat the beast, though I do not see all of you?¡±
¡°They died, your majesty, when the beast ripped the attachments out of the walls.¡±
¡°Then we have to mourn their loss and feel sorrow for their loved ones! Now is not the time for sorrow though, we must honor their sacrifices for our kingdom and celebrate this day, for we killed a dragon!¡±
The film was over soon after and Mary had to admit she really liked theater, its organization was incredible, the skilled narrators and expertly crafted illusions being worth the cost.
Chapter 18
It was time! Another month had passed since the last festival and today Mary would finally be allowed to take the rangertest.
Nolan hadn''t been allowed to tell her anything about it. A ranger apparently had to adapt to the conditions without proper preparation. The ranger guild owned a small part of the forest surrounding the capital, so they didn''t have to travel for a month to test their trainees in the capital.
Her father had gifted her a set of enchanted leather armor which was painted with green and brown colors, though the enchantments were not allowed to help her in any way, they only served as protection should something unexpected happen.
She was giddy with anticipation to be in a real forest for the first time in her life. The test would start in the early morning and take until the afternoon. Currently she was sitting in one of her father''s carriages driven by one of his guards. They were on their way to the edge of the forest where the test would commerce. The only thing she had been told about the test was the basic procedure. She would get a goal by the testers, which she had to accomplish and than return to them. The test always took ten hours. You had to manage at least five tasks in this time in order to pass.
She was awaited by the three master rangers that would test her. They were all quite skilled and managed to blend into their surroundings really well. Though she only needed a few seconds to spot them, that wasn''t fair for them, as she was naturally apt at finding hidden people. She decided to pursue her standart tactic, and patiently waited for them to break the silence after smiling at each of them.
Ten minutes later they came out of their hiding places and one of them addressed her guards.
¡°We will take over from here, you can fetch the young lady in the afternoon.¡± The guards saluted and were off. ¡°Now to you, you think you have what it takes to be a real ranger, I will warn you only this once, the life of a ranger is nothing for a pampered noble child like you and you are quite young anyways.¡± He tried his best to look intimidating.
¡°Of course I want to, that''s why I''m here!¡±
"Very well, we will start the test then, follow us to todays base of operations, don''t fall behind and make no noise.¡±
And off they were. Mary followed the rangers for the next thirty minutes, as they quickend their pace every five minutes.
After arriving at the camp, she had to admit they were way better than her, while she managed to keep up, they didn''t seem all that bothered by the speed they were travelling and held back to not lose her.
She got a few minutes to catch her breath after which she was told to join them at a table.
¡°Good job keeping up kid, didn''t think a noble had what it takes.¡± They all looked completely different, way more friendly and not at all grumpy like before.
¡°Your first objective is to track a Kegin to its lair, a dangerous evolution of the common squirrel that, unlike it''s lesser brethren hunts small animals and monster.¡±
Kegin were a strange species, Mary read about them in the library. If not for their looks you wouldn''t believe they had once been squirrels. Compared to them, they were huge, getting up to eighty centimeters tall. That of course meant they had extreme problems climbing trees and were largely groundbound. They were not really dangerous, they were still squirrels after all, though they could take on a child or goblin on their own if they got the jump on them.
The Kegin in question had been hunting in the surroundings of the camp for quite some time, so it''s tracks were all over the place. The rangers showed her how one of the tracks looked and sent her on her way to find it''s lair, with instructions to avoid the beast and return to them after she found it''s lair.
Qinfir was once again waiting for an external trainee to arrive for the rangertest. All citizens of the empire could apply to be tested for a small fee to the guild. The testers were selected by the leadership according to their importance. That meant the trainee they would test was a noble, as standard procedure dictated every ranger could test a trainee with two others. The more important the applicant, the more powerful the testers would get, though only nobles got the honor of three master rangers testing them. Of course that served a dual purpose, as master rangers were way harder to bribe than normal ones.
The first of these tests was unlike the later ones, as it was more about testing the basic skills needed for a ranger. The later tests focused more on one specific skill per test. For example there were two main ways a ranger could fight, one was the standard bow or crossbow, and the other was wizardry, while most successful rangers picked up the basics of the other weapon, the trainees were not required to fight that early anyways and as such the test was designed to not involve any fighting.
When the noble arrived they were already waiting, having prepared the testing grounds beforehand. The details of the test the applicants were told were, of course bullshit. The test started the moment the trainee arrived and ended when the testers arrived at a conclusion.
They were all quite surprised when the noble in question was a small girl, about four years old. After she exited the carriage, she looked around excitedly and then smiled at them and waited. They weren''t concealing themselves to the best of their abilities, that wouldn''t be fair for the tested after all, though still better than most rangers could. All in all quite the surprise, most trainees needed a few minutes to find the testers.
After she proved to have at least some patience, they came forth and dismissed the girls guard. After testing her resolve by intimidating her, adding a bit of mana to the surroundings for good measure, they told her to follow them.
They didn''t have to hold back as much as feared, the child holding up surprisingly well for a noble of her age.
The girl didn''t know, but she had already passed the first parts of the test, impressing them with good eyes, skilled movement in the forest and one of the most important parts of their craft, patience.
The spot they were in was chosen with care, there was nothing dangerous around, and the prey they sent her to track had been taken care of beforehand. The test should test the tested¡¯s reactions under pressure as well as their skills. But not actually endanger their lives, as the guild didn''t want to lose promising people.
Kegins were among the strangest of evolutions. They had some of the same habits as their lesser brethren, taking the prey they managed to hunt back to their lair and burying the parts they didn''t eat for the winter, really they were some of the most stupid monsters in existence.
The girl would just have to see some of the prints were deeper than others which always was a sign the beast ate its prey in its lair. She should, after finding them, be able to follow them to the beast''s lair with ease. After the girl left the camp, they followed her silently and without her notice. She found the lair in record time, returning to the camp in a straight line instead of following the tracks back. They rushed past her when she neared the camp, awaiting her return in the camp with stoic expressions.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Mary returned to the camp elated, if all the tests would be as easy as this one she¡¯d finish the test in no time at all. After entering the forest she quickly found the monsters tracks. When she came across some deeper footprints, she remembered Nolans lessons, where she learnt some monsters took their prey back to their lair. So she followed the deeper tracks until she reached its lair. After depositing the beacon she had been given, she quickly returned to the camp where she was awaited by the three testers.
¡°Did you manage to find the monsters lair?¡±
¡°I did, I deposited the beacon as instructed! What to do next?¡±
She asked excitedly, she didn''t want to sit around in the camp anymore, tracking the Kegin had been really fun, and moving in a big forest was a great experience and the most fun she had had in months.
Next up was a task shouldn''t take much time, she had to find enough edible roots and berries for a breakfast for all four of them, as well as laying traps to hunt small game for lunch later on.
Surprisingly completing that task took about two hours, and after she returned they made a break of another thirty minutes. It had taken her about an hour to find the Kegin¡¯s lair, so she still had six and a half hours to complete the last three quests.
It had been surprisingly hard to find enough of the plants.
After breakfast Mary had to prove she was capable of moving silently, moving past several magical constructs one of the rangers had created. They were about as attentive as an human, which meant she really had to take care. The goal was to find their camp and return to the rangers without getting spotted. That, of course meant she had to sneak past their sentries.
It took ninety minutes until she found the first sentry, always a safe clue you were on the right way. Sneaking past it was a child''s play, the magical construct seemingly sleeping in it''s hiding spot. The sentries got more frequent, and soon enough she had to sneak past several of them at the same time, and while the sensory abilities of these were as limited as a human¡¯s, the parameter was well thought out and the sentries posts were hidden cleverly.
When one of the sentries perked up to some rustling leaves a human wouldn''t be able to hear, she tested his senses sensibility and came to the conclusion it was more at the level of elves, which meant she had to be way more careful. She crouched down and watched the sentry for several minutes, searching for a way to sneak past it, she furthermore searched for better concealed sentries, as elves liked to post one obvious sentry that would lull their enemies in a false sense of security.
Ten minutes later she was sure there were only the sentries she already spotted, so for the sake of safety she assumed all of them were ¡®elves¡¯ even though they didn''t behave like them. Slowly she got up, careful to not make any noise and went to the right where she had spotted a small opening in the parameter that would open when one of the sentries scanned its surroundings.
She thanked her mother she had black hair, as she would have serious problems sneaking through there should she be blonde. When the sentry turned its head, she quickly slid forwards, always keeping her eyes trained on it. When the head started turning back, she was only a third of the way through, as expected, so she lay still, her armor and hair perfectly blending in the shadows of the forest surrounding her, the dirt she had put into her face concealing her skin. After repeating the ordeal another three times, she was finally through the perimeter.
Instead of standing up instantly, she first scanned her surroundings for anything out of place. Luckily she didn''t find anything, so she could stand up and carefully move towards the center of the guarded perimeter again.
Further down the perimeter the sentries guarded, she nearly ran into an alarmward. Now the rangers were cheating, how should a normal girl even know it was there. She climbed the nearest tree and tried to see the camp, as using magic wasn''t an option here, the rangers guild didn''t need to know something important like that after all.
She barely managed to see the tip of one of the tents through the foliage, so she stopped and slowly returned to their basecamp.
Quinfir was really impressed by the skill the noble displayed, she evaded the ¡®human¡¯ sentries with ease, and as luck would have it, even saw that the next line didn''t consist of ¡®humans¡¯ but ¡®elves¡¯ which, even though barely, she managed to sneak past as well. The test was set up to be failed, teaching the trainees important lessons, they should never rely on given information and seek to confirm it themselves for example. That was the reason they set up the alarmward after she started to sneak past the ¡®elves¡¯ but somehow she knew it was there, stopping in her tracks the moment before she would have failed, then retreating a few meters and expertly climbing a tree.
Obviously satisfied with what she saw, she started retreating, so they rearranged the sentries in order to catch her. Infuriatingly the girl barely slipped past these again, and as such was one of the very few who managed to complete this part of the test. Though most that did were older way older than she was and already had years of experience as a ranger as well as a mage. Sadly they couldn''t pressure her to join the order like they would should she be a normal citizen, and even though the rangers guild was one of the most powerful in the empire, threatening a noble was nothing short of stupid.
She even completed this part of the test in record speed needing just four hours to find the camp and return. Most of that time was spent sneaking past the elves, as the way she took was quite slow. After congratulating the girl of her success, they sent her to get some the animals in her traps. This time only he followed her, the other two too shaken to move properly. Ten minutes later she was back with two rabbits, which they proceeded to cook with magic, having another thirty minutes break.
They sent her on her next task, another monster to track, though this time a little harder to follow.
Not that it really mattered, the noble had passed the test already, the duration of the test was only to test the students endurance, and she didn''t seem all that exhausted and would surely manage the last hour.
Mary was currently tracking a Vlerk, one of the few groundborn birds in the empire, they were harmless monsters, but well liked among the races as their meat tasted really good. They were among the hardest to track monsters of their level of threat, which was effectively nonexistent.
Suddenly she heard a pitiful chirping sound coming from the trees to her right. Curious she interrupted her hunt, and went to check out the sounds.
After two minutes of following the sound she found the source of the sound, a small falcon chick that started to tremble uncontrollably when she came into view.
Mary kneeled down in front of it, and carefully started to modulate her manasignature to calm it down. Something she had learnt when watching her fathers falcons was the way the adult falcons behaved, and more specifically how their mana signature behaved when they were interacting with each other, it was out of curiosity. She didn''t know if she would be capable, but tried it anyways.
Only one of the rangers was currently following her, and this one was no accomplished wizard so he wouldn''t feel her feat.
After the chick calmed down, she tried to find its nest, which had to be in the nearby trees. She didn''t see anything though even after a few minutes of searching. The chick still had it''s nestling feathers, meaning it hatched only a few days prior.
It was obviously freezing so she did what she wanted to do anyways and picked it up in order to warm it. As there was no nest in seight she returned to the tracks she had been following with the chick in her hands. Following them was easy enough, while the bird¡¯s tracks were relatively hard to spot it was quite simple to follow them.
After she spotted its nest she quickly returned to the camp, where she was already awaited by the three testers. When they saw the bird in her hands, they raised an eyebrow.
¡°I take it you completed your task?¡±
¡°Of course I did!¡±
¡°And where did you find the bird?¡±
¡°It fell out of its nest and I wanted to help, but I didn''t see a nest, so I took it with me!¡± The man shrugged, he obviously wasn''t all that interested in her pet.
He coughed and straightened his pose.
¡°Congratulations you lady, you herby passed the trial of the rangers!¡±
¡°But I didn''t pass five tasks!¡±
¡°You didn''t know the tasks, the quests you did the whole day were judged by us. We watched you perform them, and then decided if you were fit to be a ranger. You are, at least you have all the basic competences a ranger needs in order to survive.¡±
And with that sentence she passed the trial of rangers and was qualified to work as one. Obviously she wasn''t allowed to work because she was only four but that didn''t matter.
A little bit later they arrived at the forest''s edge again where she was awaited by the carriage again. She entered it together with her baby falcon.
Chapter 19
Mary arrived at home an hour later, where she was awaited by Diane. ¡°Did you pass dear?¡±
¡°Of course I did!¡± Her mom came forward and enveloped her in a hug.
¡°Be careful, you will crush Starshadow!¡± She cried. The Baroness looked at her with a puzzled expression.
¡°Who is Starshadow?¡± Mary opened her hands.
¡°This is Starshadow!¡±
"Where did you get him? And why is it you have to collect birds like your father?¡±
¡°We don''t collect every bird! Dad only collects falcons and that''s because they are awesome! Starshadow is one too.¡± Mum sighed defeated.
¡°I know who will be happy you share his fascination with these birds. But you are filthy and full of dirt, so take a bath now!¡±
Mary nodded and happily ran in her room where she was awaited by a horrified Elaine.
¡°That''s not how a young lady runs around!¡± Being used to the other girl¡¯s antics, Mary ignored her and deposited Starshadow on her bed, casting a spell to keep him warm.
¡°Watch out for Starshadow Elaine!¡±
Ten minutes later she came out again, and found Elaine looking at Starshadow helplessly.
Mary took Starshadow again and went in the garden, a bird of prey had nothing to do in a house, no matter how large. When she arrived at her fountain, she cast a spell that created a hole for him to live in in one of the small trees. Afterwards she cast several wards around it, that would warm him as well as keep predators away. Afterwards she went off again to catch some mice and insects, returning soon after and feeding the adorable little bird as much as he could eat.
Afterwards she left him there, returning to the mansion for dinner.
¡°How was your day Mary, did you pass the test?¡± The Baron inquired after they had settled down. ¡°Obviously I did, though the testers cheated, they used magic and intentionally withheld information.
Not that there was a real problem though, I managed everything without magic like I promised.¡±
¡°Congratulations then, though I expected nothing less. I was told something else happened as well?¡±
¡°I found a falcon chick and took him with me. I already made him a home in the garden.¡± Dad smiled at that, a falcon you say, perhaps you can introduce me tomorrow? Did you feed him already?¡±
¡°Of course I can and I caught a mouse for him to eat.¡±
On the next morning after breakfast, Mary and her dad were off towards the fountain. Mary already fed Starshadow in the morning, and he chirped adorably when he saw her. Mary took Starshadow out of the hole she created for him.
¡°Dad, that''s Starshadow, Starshadow that''s my dad!¡±
¡°Pleasure to meet you little Starshadow.¡±
Starshadow chirped again. ¡°Starshadow says hi to.¡±
¡°Are you sure you want to keep him here and not put him to my falcons, while you would surely help him to the best of your abilities, you are no bird and as such don''t know how to teach him how to fly or hunt.¡± Mary deflated, but she knew he was right, so she nodded.
They went to the falconhill, where guardian greeted them. He spotted Starshadow and immediately went to search for a fitting nest to deposit him. He returned a few minutes later, carefully taking Starshadow from Mary¡¯s hands and led them to a nest of falcons that had chicks about the same age as Starshadow.
¡°Goodbye Starshadow! I will visit you.¡±
In the next three weeks Mary visited Starshadow every day, always bringing some treats out of the kitchen with her. About three days after she found him, he slowly started to grow normal feathers and started to rapidly gain weight. After two weeks he had already grown normal feathers and was starting his first attempts to fly.
Currently, she was once again enjoying the rising sun, when suddenly she heard a bird calling out from behind her. When she turned around, she could see Starshadow coming out of the home she made for him. She immediately went over to him, and he greeted her by tapping her nose with his break. By now, he reached about thirty centimeters of height, while he would still grow a bit, it wasn''t much.
Mary started to hesitantly pet him at first, but as he seemed to enjoy it she continued with glee.
After using the tree¡¯s bark to create an improper glove, she held out her arm like she had seen the guardian do, and he hopped on. He was really light, perhaps reaching a third of a kilogram at most.
Starshadow really grew to be a beautiful bird. The feathers on his belly were white with specks of brown. The feathers on his back were in shades of brown as well, though darker than his belly. His black eyes had a certain cunning in them.
Mary had to go to breakfast though, she was already late. ¡°I have to go now, but I will visit you in the afternoon.¡± Of course the bird wasn''t able to understand her words, but she told him the same by modulating her mana. Something he understood intinctically. He croaked goodbye and flew off as well.
¡°You are practically glowing dear, what delayed you?¡±
¡°Starshadow visited me this morning! He slept in the nest I built for him when I found him.¡±
¡°That''s great to hear. What will you do with him?¡±
¡°I told him I¡¯ll be back after my classes, and than he flew off to get something to eat.¡±
Later that day, Mary had just finished her classes, and was on her way to the fountain, when she heard a falcons cry from above. Looking up, she to hovering above her, using a technique only a few birds were able to do in order to stay above her.The w Like this morning, she made herself a glove out of bark and held it up for him to land on.
A minute later he was seated on her left arm. She stroked him again, something he seemed to enjoy greatly. While he wasn''t sentient like her, she could still talk to him by altering her mana signature. She had the feeling though, that he waswas smarter than the average falcon, as he was capable to understand and even answer basic questions with yes or no.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Over the course of the next months, Mary taught him basic commands and understanding of the a language. While he was perfectly capable to hunt his own food, he always liked to be fed by her. She could slowly feel a bond growing between them, the bird losing its caution around her more and more. He still retreated if more than two others were around though.
Somewhere along the way, Mary had taken to wear a shoulder pauldron, as always creating a glove for Starshadow to land on was impractical and impacted the garden in a negative way.
They were currently watching the rising sun when something strange happened with Starshadow.
Every living being had a barrier of their mana in their skin, that kept their own mana in and at the same time stopped other mana from entering ones body. The only exception she knew were benevolent spells, which were allowed to enter through the barrier. Suddenly the barrier surrounding Starshadow vanished, it didn''t really vanish but rather opened up to her.
She didn''t know what that meant, but could feel some of her mana responding. As she had been taught her mana couldn''t hurt her, she extended the responding part in his direction. When her mana connected to him, some sort of ripple went through her entire being, and all her mana fought her control in order to get to Starshadow.
After the moments she needed to process the new development, she regained some control over her mana. While it still flowed to him through the established link, she could now somewhat control the speed and observe what was happening.
Until she had her mana under control again, nearly all of the responding man had been consumed, about a quarter of her total mana already flowing towards Starshadow. In his body, she could observe his mana and hers mixing.
Every living being had unique personal mana, and as such was easily discernible from another being, unless said person hid their mana emissions of course. Their mana mixed with a two hundred ten to one ratio, as she had more mana available than he did, the mana density in her body exceeding that of a falcon by a great amount, furthermore she was about a hundred times his weight.
Some of the responding mana returned, the returning mana was different, while it was in the sleeping state mana was in when unused, it seemed a little more responding to her will than before. Mary, while still keeping up the tight leash on her mana, extended a strand of new mana and to her surprise, it eagerly responded to her will, being easier to control that before.
I took about an hour to completely change their mana, as she had to slow down the transfer several times because the mixture nearly mixed in a different ratio than before. Mary managed to avoid that though, and after the magic stopped, they both had the exact same personal mana. Furthermore, she now felt a connection between them, their identical mana linking them together.
She spent some of her mana, to try if the new mana would deplete itself, but her mana seemed to have changed for good, as she regenerated the new mana as well. She didn''t really know what to think about that change, while it obviously improved her manacontrol, she didn''t really have to work for that and had no idea of its implications.
First of all though, she was going to explore the connection she had to Starshadow. She concentrated on the feeling, and was surprised she could feel his presence on her shoulder. There was more though, she was sure of it, so she sent a little bit of mana towards the bond, and something interesting happened, she had a feeling he could now understand her better than before, if she talked to him with the bond open. Mary noticed though, the bond didn''t use the mana she dedicated to open up the it.
To test her theory, she asked Starshadow to lift one of his feet, which he did shortly afterwards. Just as she was about to continue her experiments, she could hear someone approaching from the direction of the mansion.
¡°What are you doing out here young miss, you missed breakfast and will be too late to your lessons with the Lady.¡± Startled, Mary looked at the sun and involuntarily had to curse. While she had noted the passing of time, she wasn''t actually aware of it. While she would like to further experiment with the new bond, she had other duties to attend to, so she told Starshadow to do what he wanted and started to move to the house. Obviously Starshadow wanted to stay with her, as he didn''t leave her shoulder. With the falcon perched on her shoulder, she couldn''t move as fast as normally so she was to late.
Mom quirked an eyebrow when Mary entered with Starshadow on her shoulders, as the bird normally didn''t like staying inside at all, as well as shying away from groups of more than two people other than Mary.
¡°What happened that you are to late, you are not one to be too late or one to miss eating?¡±
¡°Something strange, when we were enjoying the sunrise together, Starshadows mana started to behave strangely, it kinda opened up to me. Mine reacted to it, and then mixed with his, and now I have different mana, that''s easier to control!¡±
Diana had felt something was up the moment Mary didn''t appear for breakfast, the girl was real glutton and never missed a single meal. When she wasn''t at their laboratory in time said feeling was amplified.
Just as she wanted to sent out a servant to fetch her, Mary had appeared with her pet bird perched on her shoulder. While at first Diane didn''t understand why her daughter seemed different than yesterday, she understood soon after, as the girl told her she had taken her bird as a familiar.
That wasn''t the smart thing to do, as mages normally took the bigger animals or monsters as familiars. While you got some benefits from airborne creatures like a falcon, the biggest benefit you got from a familiar was the ability to use your familiars mana as well. They had planned to get one of the bigger monsters as her familiar to compensate for the miniscule manapool Mary had. That would sadly wouldn''t happen as a mage only had one familiar in his entire life.
You got a familiar, when a monster or animal trusted you with its life, and opened up his mana for you, if you cared for said animal, your mana would react. Then a mage had to extend his mana into the animal. Afterwards the mana would mix, creating new mana both shared, which would connect them regardless of distance. The connection had a magnitude of uses, for example the animal could understand even way more complex orders.
Furthermore the animal could share his mana with his mage, with a little loss of course. Likewise the animal was able to share its sensation with the mage. That wasn''t all that useful though, as the shared sensations were very basic, and normally you only got a vague feeling of the sent information. A downside was though, your mana got harder to control, the more mana you had the worse.
What surprised her though was her daughter¡¯s delay, a familiar binding only took up to ten minutes maximum, all the mana both had would rush to mix itself after the first contact.
¡°So you bound him as you familiar, something that explains why he choose to accompany you, as the bond still has to settle in correctly and that''s easier if you stay in each others proximity. That doesn''t explain why you were so late, a familiar binding only takes up to ten minutes!¡±
¡°It took an hour!¡±
That took the wind out of her, Mary had no reason to lie. ¡°Why did it take so long?¡±
¡°Because I had to slow down the transfer several times, or the mana wouldn''t have been uniform!¡±
¡°Uniform?¡±
¡°Well yes, the responding part of our mana mixed with a two hundred ten to one ratio, but the rest would not have, at least if I didn''t slow it down!¡±
¡°You observed what happened, tell me everything, our research won''t run away. And afterwards I will teach you what you need to know about your bond.¡±
After Mary recounted the mornings occurrences, mom told her she could actually see and hear what Starshadow saw. Without further ado, she asked him to show her what he saw. She was momentarily overwhelmed by the sensations, suddenly seeing the world through two pairs of eyes instead of one. She didn''t even want to know how he really saw the world, when what she saw now was more detailed than even her eyes could perceive.
¡°Wow Starshadow has really good eyes!¡±
¡°You didn''t hear my last sentences, did you? Why would you say he has really good eyes though, the one time I looked through my familiar¡¯s eyes the world was completely blurred!¡±
¡°I can see so many details I never noticed before!¡±
¡°That''s strange. A falcon does have eyes good enough to see what you experience, but not that good. Ask him to sent you some of his mana, you should feel how much he sends and how much you recieve.¡±
So Mary asked Starshadow to sent her some of his mana, which he promptly did. Mom was right, she could feel the amount of his mana he send to her, which she got nearly instantly. ¡°There is no loss whatsoever mom!¡±
¡°Could it be, again?¡± Her mom seemed to faze out, mumbling to herself. Ten minutes later mom got herself under control again, and after she told her the rest she knew about familiar bonds, they went to find dad.
Chapter 20
Three years had passed since Mary became part of House Falconbridge. The past three years had been very demanding, with all the different things she had to learn.
She learnt how to read and write in another two languages, the most important ones from the two surrounding continents. She had furthermore learnt how to ride a horse and its two higher evolutions.
Her lessons in sword fighting had stopped only a week prior. Her teacher had said he couldn''t teach her anything more, she would now only get better with actual real life practice, something a noble life was very unlikely to deliver at her age.
There was one real downside she and her teacher had discovered though. When she reached sufficient strength to fight in armor, they discovered she couldn''t use a helmet, everytime her head got enclosed by these apparitions of hell she lost it, and had a panic attack that wouldn''t stop until the torture instrument was removed. She really had no idea how anyone could use these hellish devices!
Her parents had at first been unhappy she bonded with Starshadow, as there were the obvious drawbacks of having a familiar with very little mana-reverves. Though it seemed Starshadow had quite the high mana regeneration as well, meaning even though they both had small manapools, Mary was capable of casting small scale magic for a nearly infinite amount of time. She suspected it came from bonding with her, as it was only fair the animal got something out of the bond as well.
She wouldn''t give him away even if she could!
Currently she was once again sitting in the gardens near the fountain, enjoying the sunrise, something she had done everyday in the last years. Starshadow had been a very smart falcon, even before being her familiar and now that he could understand what she wanted from him without problems, they made for a very good team.
Her ranger training had continued after a month¡¯s break, and she was by now capable to move through any natural terrain undetected by even her teachers. She made the first of the advanced ranger tests about a year after the first, though this one had been way easier, as you were allowed to use better gear, something her father was all too willing to supply. She had an additional benefit as well, as she was able to see the area around her with the eyes of a falcon.
There were of course spells that could do the same, but they were complex magical constructs and had serious problems to move around. While at first it seemed they were still better to watch a small area, as they were invisible, they were not. As falcons were the most common species of birds in the world, nobody really payed attention to them, they were just there, and if the falcon was a normal one, it would just be ignored.
She noticed something strange as well, Starshadows mana pool actually grew way faster than hers even though she was the one still growing and he was technically an adult. She didn''t find any cause though, so she had let it be.
She had to admit she tried a few spells to fly on her own, after experiencing the feeling Starshadow had when he flew. Sadly her mana was the problem there, as flying was one of the fastest ways to burn through your mana pool.
Only five months ago, Mary had been allowed to take the exam on wizardry she needed for the next rank as a ranger. She had made sure to nearly fail it, as they were sure the rangers guild had an eye on her, so better be careful.
Sadly, even though her manacontrol was steadily improving, she still wasn''t able to cast the manarune she knew backwards. Her other magical abilities were over the top for someone of her age though, her affinity encompassed most normal spells.
Mother and herself didn''t find any new limits than the ones they found in the first months. She was able to cast all spells except time, space and healing spells with her affinity. Normally she controlled her mana manually though, as she still wanted to improve her control.
Her impressive manual mana control helped her with a project she started soon after Starshadow became her familiar. She managed to teach Starshadow a few basic wind spells that improved his flight, using the air magic to do sharper turns or speed his flight. It had been really hard to teach him though, she only managed the first after months of training, guiding his mana to form the required runes and telling him how to use the spells. More than one time she had to heal some injuries, luckily no severe ones. The problem was, as he wasn''t sentient, he couldn''t willingly cast magic, so he had to do it instinctively. After the first spell all following spells had been easier to teach.
What really elated her though, was the prospect of joining a magical school after the next festival of founding. Such schools only took children who were older than seven. Terms started every twelve months.
That meant she had to apply to one in the next month. She had already narrowed it down to three, all of them outside of the capital though. She was favoring one in the march of marquis Lionward, one of the western territories of the empire. It had the reputation of being really hard to get into with the capitals nobility. Mary thought that was exaggerated though, as most of the nobles she had the misfortune of meeting in the past years had been extremely incompetent.
Said school was actually one that allowed everyone to join, independent from birth or race, something she greatly appreciated, as she didn''t really understand the bias most nobles seemed to have against them.
The other two were in the inner parts of the empire, one in the county of Count Crowdrait and the other in a small Barony about five days from the capital. These were widely seen as the best magic school in the surrounding kingdoms, and because of that reputation they only accepted nobility.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
She had already sent her application to all three. She got the admittance for two of them, but was still waiting for the response of the third. She was reasonably confident she would get a chance to join it. Even though she was quite young for that particular school, the average student joining with eight or nine years.
She had several advantages though. Agora, the Academy of applied magic had a different approach to teaching than the other magic schools. Mages in these schools didn''t get all that much combat experience, not something most nobles would need unless they went out to explore the world. The Academy had a different approach though, when you were enrolled you automatically joined the Adventurers guild as a trainee, and when the school saw you fit you were sent on a quest with an assigned group.
There were several obvious benefits in that approach, you learnt how to deal with people other than nobles, and got tons of life experience on top of that.
Suddenly her musings got interrupted by a craw coming from her left shoulder, where Starshadow sat like always. Startled she inquired why he interrupted her. He looked at her accusingly and jumped in the air and flew towards the mansion. She thanked him for the reminder, and wished him a good hunt.
She jumped up and jogged towards the mansion, she wouldn''t want to be late today of all days. She arrived at the mansion and went to the dining hall where her family would appear soon enough.
As today was the birthday of both her and her father, all would be present, even the long sleepers like her two brothers. She actually had way more than two brothers, but they all were travelling the world with some tasks their father gave them. She only met one of them in the past years, he was adopted as well and one of the most interesting persons she ever met. They had hit right off, as they had the same interests. He told her much about her other siblings, most of which were like them.
¡°Stop brooding dear!¡± Her thought were once again interrupted, this time by her mother. ¡°I wasn''t brooding, I was thinking!¡±
¡°You alway say that!¡± Decius chuckled.
¡°That''s because it''s true, I¡¯m a happy and open person, I just lose myself in my own thoughts sometimes!¡±
Everybody started laughing at that, so Mary pouted.
¡°Be that as it may, you will probably be leaving us for the next years my daughter, so allow me to give you a gift that will hopefully help you in the years to come!¡± Her dad pulled a sword out, which he somehow managed to hide until now. ¡°The core is made of the bone of a lesser dragon.¡±
The sword was about a meter and ten centimeters long, she took it and first admired the scabbard. It was made out of some leather unknown to her. Together with several thin silver strings, the scabbard was decorated with simple forms. It had a deep cut on one of the sides, so you could easily carry and draw it from your back. The pommel was made of mythril if she wasn''t mistaken, the mythril forming crystal shape. The hilt was clad in the same leather the sheath was made of, tightly wrapped around the swords core.
The blade had a bluish tint, which meant it was made out of cobalt. It was balanced really well, the point of balance being at the exactly right point.
The Crossguard itself was a work of art. The middle was adorned by a falcon that looked suspiciously like Starshadow. The crossguard itself was decorated with all sorts of small trees.
The sword and sheath were enchanted as well, the sheath had the standard enchantments you found on every sheath and a few others. It would first of all protected the sword from environmental influence. The incision was protected by a small barrier. Furthermore, the sheath would do basic maintenance for the sword, sharpening the blade to optimal sharpness. The special enchantments were security ones, for example, only the one who inserted his mana in the sheath would be able to draw it.
The sword itself had several enchantments as well. While cobalt itself wasn''t enchantable, the core of the sword was probably made out of some sort of bone, which could be easily enchanted. The leather on the hilt as well as the mythril were enchantable as well.
The enchantments on the sword were more complex, so she needed some time to analyze them. There were several enchantments that were all very useful when you triggered them. One extended the tip of the sword by up to fifteen centimeters, giving the sword a factor of surprise and expanding its reach. The enchantment on the mythril was really intriguing and probably the most useful for fighting. It increased the weight of the sword as a whole, so when fighting, she could activate it to increase the force behind her attacks. The enchantments on the hilt were simple but useful, they improved her grip on the handle.
She got up and embraced her dad. ¡°Thank you so much dad, it¡¯s a beautiful sword!¡±
¡°You¡¯re welcome, but lets hope you don''t have to use it anytime soon.¡±
Starshadow returned about after they walked out of the theater, obviously satisfied. Mary really had no clue how the bird could eat as much as he did, while everyone teased her to be a glutton, and she actually really liked to eat, she couldn''t fathom how much he had to eat per day. He had to eat about a quarter of his own weight per day and still stayed the same weight.
The rest of the day was a happy affair, they visited one of the film theaters again, like they did at least twice per year.
A week later Mary was currently training with some of the guards, when Elaine suddenly appeared, a rare occurrence, the other girl had by now accepted Mary would never be a proper Lady, and opted for denial, just ignoring everything unladylike Mary did.
So if she came here, something important must have happened, as fighting with the guards was about as unnoble as it could get.
She signaled her training partner to take a break and went over to her maid. ¡°What¡¯s the matter Elaine, has to be something important for you to show up here!¡±
¡°A messenger the young Lady awaited for some time has just arrived! The Baron and Baroness require your presence in the Lord¡¯s study!¡±
Shortly afterwards Mary reached the study. She knocked and then waited patiently. ¡°Come in!¡± She was expected by her parents and a woman clad in the gear of a ranger. ¡°And who is this lovely young woman?¡± The stranger asked. ¡°The young miss is called Mary Falconbridge!¡± Elaine introduced her, having catched up to Mary just in time. ¡°Very well, Mary Falconbridge, you are hereby invited to travel to the Academy of Agora, where you will perform a test that will decide if you are eligible to join!¡±
The woman then continued way more informal than before. ¡°I have been sent to the capital to gather you and several other youths! We will travel there in about three months time, be sure to only take what you absolutely need. You are allowed to take anything you and a mount of your choosing can carry!¡±
There were several detail that had to be cleared. The woman was actually one of the older students. She and her team had been sent out to gather twenty one of the applicants and bring them to the academy for testing. Mary¡¯s group all lived in the capital, so they wouldn''t need too long for the journey when the time came.
Unlike the other schools, everyone was only allowed so much to bring with him, regardless of rank, race and title.
Chapter 21
Mary chose the great horse, she had learnt how to ride with, she really liked the huge beast. Deciding what to take with her occupied her for weeks. There were several things that she know she would take, like her new sword, or the enchanted armor she got after passing her latest ranger test. Deciding on what to take otherwise was a chore though. Eventually she just asked dad, he would know as he had been an adventurer once.
With her father¡¯s help she managed to select everything she would need. She bought an enchanted flask, that would distill water out of the air as long as it was supplied with mana.
She furthermore took enchanted cooking utensils with her, these would allow her to make a decent meal out of the stuff she found on the way. They used mana to heat up the food you put in them, so you didn''t need a fire to cook anything really useful when you needed to avoid being seen. She bought an enchanted dagger as well, useful for a variety of uses.
Her father gifted her an enchanted bedroll that would keep her warm even in the most freezing of nights. Furthermore it provided her with protection from rain snow and storm, though she would be really surprised should it start to snow, after all the empire didn''t have winters after all.
Most of her supplies were salt and other spices though. While she could find many of the common spices in all of the empire¡¯s forests, and there were more of them in the hotter climate of the north, salt was really hard to come by if you were inland.
Furthermore she had a few sets of clothes and some other necessities with her. While she could of course pack way more, she didn''t as it was better to travel lightly. Furthermore, should she be accepted, the academy would supply them with clothes they had to wear.
Early on the morning she would start, she had already said goodbye to her parents and Elaine. While she was waiting for their escort to arrive she couldn''t help but feel small. She currently only reached one meter and fifty centimeters of height, so her mount¡¯s back was higher than her head. She wasn''t sure Elwood would even notice she was there, if she didn''t direct him of course.
The older students arrived to the minute, their leader grinning when he saw her standing next to her mount.
¡°Don''t you think that horse is a little too big for you, are you sure you can control him? Great horses are not for children like you!¡± Mary raised an eyebrow and mounted Elwood.
¡°I¡¯m as ready as I¡¯ll ever be.¡±
Valamin Iantoris had been elated when he was allowed to tryouts at Agora. As he was an elf, there weren''t many magic schools in the empire that would even consider him.
Unlike the other races, all elves got lessons how to control their mana at a young age, if they managed, they were a sorcerer. The rest of the elflings childhood then was dedicated to finding the borders of the affinity.
To be honest he never really feared he wouldn''t be accepted, as he had an extremely useful affinity. He was healer and wizard at the same time, and as he was an elf more powerful than any other race. When the students of the academy visited him a few months prior, he had been told to gather in front of the gates with everything he wanted to take with him.
He was now waiting for their escort with twelve other people about his age. That meant there were nine nobles among their group. That would get really unpleasant for him and the others, luckily he had yet to personally meet a noble, but the tales he heart from other elves didn''t paint a pleasant picture of the empire¡¯s high and mighty.
He just hoped he wouldn''t have to do the test with them. While every single one of them had more resources than he and the others combined, they never had to work for anything in their lives. That meant they wouldn''t be taking the test as serious as them, and as such everyone who had a noble was at a severe disadvantage.
After another thirty minutes of waiting the nobles finally came, accompanied by the team of nine that would escort them. Unlike the common people, every noble had his own mount and expensive clothes and weapons.
¡°Why can''t we just take the Circles to the nearest city?¡± One of them grumbled, he was ignored by everyone.
Eight of the noble children were happily chatting with each other, and upon seeing them started to frown. Even though they were all very different, they just seemed to be one and not really different from each other.
The ninth noble really stood out though. For one, her mount towered everyone, Valamin was sure it was a great horse, an aggressive evolution of the common horse, commonly used by adventurers and the legions cavalry. Even though it was way more sturdy than normal horses, it didn''t have to carry as much as the other nobles mounts. He was sure the girl could carry everything she had on herself. Her armor was made out of Bril leather and expertly crafted.
A really rare and high quality leather, Brils were monsters that gave silver ranked teams a run for their money. His father was a leatherworker and as such taught him some of his knowledge. The leather was perfect to conceal oneself in most terrains, the exceptions being high mountains passes or deserts. She sat on her horse with catlike agility, and by the way she moved, he could see she was a trained fighter.
The noble was the most beautiful human he had ever seen. She was on the shorter side for a human, only reaching one meter and fifty seven centimeters in height. She was athletic, with a slender form and skin slightly darker than average in the empire.
She had a really stunning face, the heart shaped face with high cheekbones and emerald green eyes sitting high in their sockets behind long lashes, excluding an air of curiosity and boredom at the same time.
Her eyebrows were an arch following the curve of her eyes. Her slightly upturned nose followed the curve of her face, giving her something special. Her natural full red lips were slightly opened, further increasing the feeling of curiosity surrounding her.
She had long midnight black hair, flowing over her shoulders, slightly reflecting the morning sun. She was a work of art really, and he couldn''t help but stare.
¡°Alright assemble here people, I am gonna tell you the rules of our journey!¡± The leader of the team that would bring them to the academy yelled. They hurried to surround her.
¡°As you all know we will be escorting you to the school, we are students ourselves, and let me assure you we went through the same you will! In the next six weeks, we will cross nearly half of the empire. The first part will be east of the western mountains. We will pass those through an old road dating back hundreds of years. Afterwards we will cross the western plains. The academy is three days in the forest afterwards, where you will perform your tests.
Now there are some rules you will all have to follow! First of all, we are not allowed to help you in any way, we act as guide and protection from monsters, you are required to supply yourself with food and everything else you may need.
We are allowed to give advice but not intervene if you are not in serious danger. The academy provides a place in one of these wagons for everyone without a mount! Furthermore, don''t kill and take care of each other, good luck!¡±
Mary sat on Elwood and observed the group she would be spending the next month with. The other nobles were all prime examples why she didn''t like nobility, they looked upon their companions with disdain and seemingly found something to complain about everywhere. Most of them were obviously just joining in because the Son of a count they fetched last but that didn''t excuse them.
The commoners seemed nicer, while they obviously were slightly intimidated by them, they didn''t seem all that biased towards the elite of the empire.
The humans were boring, like some of the more colorful nobles she had met, only with less expensive clothing. While the academy presented itself as open and uncaring of the students upbringing, she saw no one really poor among those present.
After her short inspection of the humans, she turned to the dwarfs lizards and elves of the group. While she had previously met the odd elf on her ranger tests, these meetings had only been brief.
Instead of openly staring at them like one of the elves did at her, she observed everyone through Starshadow¡¯s eyes from above, while looking around in apparent boredom herself. The group of twelve had all races living in the capital present.
On a first glance there wasn''t anything interesting about them, sure the elves were slightly taller than the average human and had long pointed ears, but her family consisted of really big people and she had slightly pointed ears as well, so she was used to that. Likewise the dwarves were only broad, small humans.
Only the lizards were really different, tall and burly, with scales instead of skin, they looked really dangerous. Their faces, unlike humanones were more like the the face of a drake, with short snouts and big teeth. Differentiating between different faces proved to be harder than anticipated, she only managed to guess their gender based in their built. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
The Lizardfolk were like spiders in that regard, the females being more physically imposing than their counterparts.
After inspecting all the faces, and counting their numbers, she noticed something entirely unrelated to her previous observations, concerning the setup of their group. Though it could be coincidence, she opted to pursue her hunch and find out more about everyone of her travelling companions in the coming weeks.
After laying down the rules for their journey and everybody had mounted and was ready they set out. After they entered the forest, Mary stopped her musings and sent Starshadow to watch out for danger.
They made their first break in the afternoon, when the other nobles looked like they would fall of their horses. They were allowed to wander around, if they stayed within hearing distance. So Mary dismounted as well, and started collecting edible plants that would serve as food for the rest of the day.
Last year, she invented a spell which helped her gathering plants. She only had to follow her spell to find the edible plants in her vicinity, decreasing the time needed to gather food significantly.
Out of their group, four others seemed to have some woodland experience as well, and started gathering food as well after seeing her to so. After that several others went over to them and asked to help, they were required to mostly supply themselves on the journey after all.
Mary went to a group that seemed at a loss of what to do.
¡°Do you want me to show you what¡¯s edible and what not?¡± The entire group looked as if she was a ghost. ¡°
You know the school doesn''t provide food for the journey, if you aren''t too tired you should really do it!¡± She continued talking like she didn''t notice their unease.
She had noticed, that most males that weren''t her family reacted to her in that way in the last months, she was really beautiful after all. They would only stop if she clearly showed she had no interest in them by ignoring all obvious hints or feigning to not notice them.
She looked at them expectantly. Finally one of them gathered his wits and managed to speak up.
¡°We would be honored if you did, my lady.¡± That wouldn''t do!
¡°Don''t call me lady, we will be travelling together for the next weeks, so call me Mary! What are your names?¡± Without waiting for their answer she continued.
¡°Follow me, I¡¯ll show you the basics! You have to take care of yourself after all!¡±
Startled the group followed her, introducing themselves one after another while walking. For the next thirty minutes, Mary taught them the basics of foraging in a forest. They still needed experience, but the school didn''t invite stupid people, so they would get it with time.
After the break, they continued for another five hours before their escorts called a stop for the day. They had stopped at a stream, so everyone could refill his wasterreserves. After she took care of Elwood, Mary helped a group to start a fire with a small spark of lighting.
The only real excitement was caused by Starshadow, when he landed on her shoulder. After the shock of a falcon diving down on them had died down, everybody admired the beautiful bird.
They were prompted to introduce themselves by their escorts so the journey would be more pleasant. The people on the wagons obviously knew each other already, but only the people from their wagon.
¡°I am Valamin Iantoris, I¡¯m an elven sorcerer and skilled in wizardry and healing.¡±
¡°I am Fuhmen Casse and my parents trained me in firemagic.¡±
¡°I am Dehla, and am a melee fighter, my parents trained me to fight with my mana.¡±
¡°I am Mary Falconbridge and a sorceress with greater lightning affinity!¡±
That got her some jealous looks, as lighting was effective against every monster that didn''t have thick hide or scales, furthermore as she had a greater affinity, she could use airspells as well. She and her father decided she would tell the world she had that affinity. Her affinity encompassed way more, but nobody needed to know that, lightning was rare enough after all.
She would have to make sure to inform dad about the elven boy though, he liked to hire rare talents like him into his services.
The lizard was really interesting as well, by the way she moved Mary could see she was a trained fighter, and her weapon fit perfectly for a lizards stature as well, adding to her already superior reach.
There were of course many more, but she had to admit she wasn''t all that interested in them, most were boring, children of successful blacksmiths or other craftsmen and merchants.
After dinner she went over the the Lizardgirl.
¡°Hey, you want to spar?¡± She eyed her up and down, and shook her head with regret.
¡°I don''t have any sparring weapons with me, and I doubt you do, my lady!¡±
¡°That''s no problem, I bet the elf can make use something out of wood with his wizardry!¡±
¡°If you managed to get sparring weapons, I would be happy to.¡±
So Mary went over to Valamin.
¡°Hi, I just wanted to ask if you¡¯d be able to create sparring weapons for me and Dehla there?¡± Of course Mary could theoretically do all that herself, but someone with lightning affinity starting to do plant magic would be rather suspicious. The elf seemed even more nervous than in the morning, he eyed her shyly and than nodded.
Ten minutes later Mary stood across the lizard, and could already feel her starting to circulate her mana in her body in order to increase her strength endurance and agility.
The others were all gathered in a circle around them.
¡°Three!¡±
¡°Two!¡±
¡°One!¡±
¡°Go!¡±
And the bout was on.
They started circling each other, Dehla testing Mary¡¯s reflexes with a few quick stabs, trying to hook her in while returning her weapon. They were testing each other. In this fight, Mary had several disadvantages, namely her weapon her strength and reach. She was pretty sure she could outlast the lizard, her only way to win, as she didn''t have enough reach or strength to break through the lizards guard. Luckily the weapon the lizard used helped her in that regard, she could stay out of the lizards way and tire her out.
Dehla had to admit the human was really skilled. When she had asked to spar, she had been inclined to refuse. But as the girl had the demeanor of a fighter, she had accepted ultimately. Most humans had severe problems when fighting someone of her race as her people preferred weapons like a spear, adding to their natural advantages when fighting humans. She for example, had found the halberd very early on, it was just the ideal weapon in her mind.
She had looked forward to give the noble a lesson to not challenge an obviously superior foe. The young woman lacked real life experience, evident by the way she fought, but she had a natural grace that supplemented her fighting style.
She knew the fighting style she used, it was ideal against her people, as the enemy concentrated on drawing out the fight and outlasting the opponent. Her mother had warned her people like this, you had to take serious risks fighting them. While her people would have superior stamina without using magic, they tired quite fast when fighting with magic.
She tested her once again, and had to admit the girls defence was rock solid. Dehla decided it was time to use a different tactic, her reach was no advantage in this fight, as her opponent was completely fine with staying out of reach. There was other ways you could fight with a halberd, you could, for example go up close and personal, and use it like a quarterstaff. Staffs were actually quite efficient against a sword, as they had more weight and as such momentum behind them.
Using her weapon as a staff was more exhausting as well but forced her opponent to expand way more power to defend against her attacks than she needed to perform them. Dehla slowly changed her grip and started advancing to closer range. After trading several blows with the human, Dehla started a combination of attacks, this time with three successive strikes. The first came overhead, with the halberds head. It was directed to the side, so she used the force of the block to redirect the lower part of her halberd at the girls feet.
That mistake that lost the fight for her, the girl jumped up, landing on her weapon and disarmed her. Surprising, but Dehla was no sore loser.
¡°I surrender! You really are a skilled fighter, my lady! Congratulations, I hope you are willing to do some more bouts in the coming weeks?¡±
¡°Call me Mary. And I would be glad, I feared the journey would be boring, and I¡¯d have to train with myself. You are one capable fighter, that was some very smart thinking from you there, coming in close when you saw you would lose otherwise.¡±
¡°What do you mean, coming in close was the most stupid thing it did! You were on the defense the entire time beforehand!¡± One of the nobles rudely interrupted their conversation. ¡°And you were?¡± The girl glared at the other noble.
¡°I am the Avington Beavergor, first son of Count Beavergor!¡± He declared with obvious pride. ¡°Well first son of Count Fevergor, you have no idea how to fight!¡± That enraged the other noble, as he wasn''t taken seriously by a noble of lower standing. The other nobles seemed more amused by their exchange.
¡°I demand a duel!¡±
¡°You don''t have a weapon, first son of Count Cleavergor, and I doubt you can fight even if you had one!¡± The noble got increasingly enraged, Dehla could already see his head getting a slightly red tinge. He went over to the timid elf that made their weapons as well.
¡°You. You will make me a sparring weapon as well!¡±
The poor elf had no choice but to comply.
¡°Now I challenge you to a duel, you daughter of an upstart!¡±
¡°That''s the best you came up with, that''s really weak First son of Count Weavergor, but if you insist on a sound beating, come at me!¡± By now everybody had started grinning, the arrogant noble really deserved what was coming, he was even warned several times.
They once again cleared space for the fight, and the rules were set. The first to score a hit would win the bout.
¡°Three!¡±
¡°Two!¡±
¡°One!¡±
¡°GO!¡±
Completely unlike before, Mary rushed in the moment the fight started, surprising her enemy. He managed to clumsily block her first blow, a simple cut from the left. Before he could recover again, the next blow came flying at his face.
The next minutes were brutal, Mary destroying the other noble. There never was a doubt who would win, he was just overwhelmed in every way. She skillfully attacked him in a way that allowed him to block every blow, but would knock his own weapon into him.
The farce continued for five minutes before one of the escorts intervened. ¡°You can stop beating up the poor guy, we all know he never stood a chance!¡± Instantly after that, the noble suddenly had a huge hole in his defences and Mary¡¯s sword mockingly tipped his head. ¡°Congratulations, first son of Count Leavergor, you are officially one of the worst fighters I ever fought!¡±
She turned around, leaving the noble laying there. Humiliated by his defeat and the successive insults he yelled in anger and charged her retreating form. Without even looking at him, she deflected his blow and threw him to the ground in one move.
¡°That wasn''t noble, first son of count Conceivergor!¡±
Chapter 22
Mary was kinda ashamed of her behavior yesterday, but the noble didn''t even see her enemy as a person, she went a little overboard. She would have to take care to not do that again. The days passed peacefully, and she started to form a friendship with Delah. They trained every evening. The lizard was a really skilled fighter, she had been trained by her father, who was an adventurer since she was a young child. As such they both won equally often. Mary could score three victories at first, but afterwards the lizard had adapted and managed to defeat her three times in a row.
She was really happy there were spells that kept you clean and removed any dirt and odor that accumulated over the day. She couldn''t help but shudder, thinking how a world without these would be.
They left the immediate surroundings of the capital in the morning, so their escorts warned them to expect attacks.
Early in the morning she got a warning from Starshadow, he had spotted something up ahead. Looking through his eyes, Mary could see a small band of kobolds waiting in ambush. She was confident they wouldn''t attack them, as they had the numbers. Kobolds were intelligent monsters after all and had no desire to die prematurely.
She was proven right, before the scouts of their escort even saw the monsters, they heart their group and retreated in the forest.
That continued for the rest of the day, Starshadow spotted monsters every hour or so, though none were desperate enough to attack a group as big as theirs. That night, about half of them were added as a sentry over the course of the night.
Mary was roused near midnight and instructed by one of the escorts.
¡°No need to tell me all that, I am a fully qualified ranger!¡±
¡°With seven and as a noble?¡± He looked at her in doubt.
¡°I really like forests!¡± He still insisted to tell her everything. Mary would have to watch her part of the forest for the next hour and then wait for her replacement before going to bed again.
About half an hour in her watch, Mary could see something sneaking up on their camp. She was sure no one but her could though, as she had night vision. She couriosly observed the creatures attempts to sneak up on them. As soon as it got near the fires, it would be spotted though. Mary took one of the stones they were given for beast like this one, and threw it in the night. It landed exactly where she wanted, impacting in front of their would be attacker.
It shrieked and ran back in the forest. When her replacement came, she drove off another three creatures.
The next day most people who had sentry duty were on the edge, the constant shrieks in the night had them thinking there was an army of monsters just out of their range of vision. The few that had real experience like her weren''t bothered in the slightest, it was an easy watch and, more importantly they were not attack by anything.
This day, they were attacked for the first time, a group of evolved wolves jumping out of the forest. Normally such a small pack would never attack them, but their evolution caused them to become raging beasts, missing the caution they once had. The pack was a prime example of an evolution gone wrong, while mostly beneficial, sometimes an evolution went wrong, causing the animal to go insane and attack everything around them.
Their escorts dealt with these easily enough, though Mary had to zap one of the monster that got around them with a bolt of lightning. She felt three other people starting to prepare a spell as well, though some were obviously overwhelmed.
Mary got a thankful nod from the leader of their escorts.
Another week passed, and apart from the occasional monster attack nothing interesting happened.
In the third week, they were once again drew closer to a city, and the monster attacks stopped once again. The city would be their last stop in civilisation for quite some time. Afterwards they would reach the western mountains, the biggest mountain range in the empire. Moving through it would increase the time their travel took by another week. If they were to travel on even terrain in a straight line, they would reach the academy in just four weeks instead of the six they would need.
Alas that was not to be, as the roads were in no way straight and the mountains were not going anywhere anytime soon.
Early that morning, Mary spotted a group of bandits waiting in ambush. Their group was nearly as strong as Mary¡¯s and as it was, they would run straight into them. She waited for a bit, and then had Starshadow shriek loud for everyone to hear.
She rode towards their escort.
¡°There is danger ahead!¡±
¡°And how would you know that?¡± Mary was looked upon with doubt.
¡°Starshadow is trained to warn me of danger. That shriek meant there is something waiting for us!¡± Luckily the woman was no idiot, and even though Mary¡¯s explanation was a little thin, she still took it serious. She sent out her ranger to scout ahead, stopping the group for now. Twenty minutes later the ranger returned, telling them of a big group of bandits lying in disguise. He wouldn''t have spotted them had he not searched for some kind of danger.
They were in an uncomfortable situation, their wagons meant they couldn''t sneak through the forest, as they were unfit for off road travel. The Escorts rode in front of them.
¡°Listen up! We spotted a group of bandits up ahead and they don''t look like they will leave anytime soon. Everyone of you who is a sorcerer or knows spells that can help fight them speak up now!¡±
In their group of twenty about half had some kind of previous magical or physical training. All of the nobles of course, as they got the best teachers from a young age. From what the ranger could tell, the bandits didn''t have any mages on their own. He was wrong though, Starshadow spotted one who didn''t have any obvious weapons on him. She decided she¡¯d just zap him first.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
After distributing everyone capable of combat evenly throughout their group, the older students cast a shield that would stop any arrows from hitting them. Ten minutes later, they arrived on the ambush site.
It was chosen with care, the road used an old riverbed there, so the ambushers had a slightly elevated position. The think trees on either side furthermore concealed as the road was in broad daylight. While the first arrows started flying, they already started their counterattack.
Everyone capable of fire magic threw fireballs at the surrounding trees, forcing the bandits to come out in the open as the trees caught fire. Mary¡¯s first bolt of lightning flew directly in the emerging mage, taking him by surprise. While the bandits had the theoretical advantage in numbers, they weren''t prepared for their plan to fail. This group might have been quite capable on their own, and would have been a serious problem for most groups of the same size, but without their ambush they were just some normal humans up against fifteen mages.
After their mage fell, the bandits leader called a retreat into the forest. The bandits, already in disarray complied happily, even managing to pick up their mage in the process, leaving only a few of their number behind.
After securing the bandits caught, they continued their travel. Reaching the next city in the following morning. They reported they ran into bandits to the city guards, getting rid of their prisoners in the process.
Sadly, they didn''t get to sleep in the city, as they reached it in the morning and still had ways to travel.
The whole journey had been one of Mary¡¯s best experiences so far. While sadly, they didn''t need to do much fighting, as their escorts were capable of dealing with everything they encountered so far.
Except the bandits of course, but these had been an exception, groups as big as them were rare. It was bad luck really meeting a group this large in the inner parts of the Empire.
The different monsters Mary saw through Starshadow¡¯s eyes were the best part. By now, she could quickly differentiate between the failed and normal evolutions. She was sure if her peers knew of the quantity of monsters in the forest they wouldn''t be sleeping nearly as deep.
The variety of monsters was astonishing really. Luckily the monsters capable of endangering their group had far easier prey to hunt than a bunch of humans and as such, didn''t bother. The monsters attacking were all failed evolutions or had no experience with humans and hadn''t yet learnt to not bother them.
They collected some of the materials from the stronger monsters, but they didn''t have enough space to take any serious amount of materials with them. Furthermore all added weight would slow them down when they would cross the mountains that could be seen looming in the distance.
The mountains were growing with everyday, and at the end of the third week they were finally at their feet. From her lessons on the geography of the empire, Mary knew the western ranges went up to six kilometers in height. They wouldn''t get nearly this high, there was a pass through the mountains that would allow them to stay under the snowline, allowing travel the whole year.
That was disappointing really, Mary had never seen real snow in her life. She had seen it created by magic, but that wasn''t the same as real one.
For the first time since their journey started, they stopped in the early afternoon. Crossing the mountains was dangerous, even though the road they would take did its job for centuries.
The thing was, the first safe spot to camp was half a day''s journey in the mountains. The spots were more frequent in the pass itself, but the first day was consistent hiking upwards and there was simply no space for a nights rest.
Furthermore, they gathered food, as it was harder to find in the mountains. They were unclaimed by humanity and themonsters there were especially aggressive in defending their territory. Hunting was dangerous in there, at least in the first part of the pass, where they would reach up to two thousand meters of height.
The second half of the pass was a slow decrease in altitude, until they would leave the mountains again.
After a cheerful afternoon and refreshingly long rest, they set out in good spirits. An hour later, they started the ascend up the mountain. Like always, Mary watched the world through Starshadow¡¯s eyes, keeping an eye out for trouble while simultaneously admiring the beauty of the scenery. While the mountains had been decorating the horizon for several days, seeing them up close was something different.
Compared to them, the mountain in the capital was a small hill! While they wouldn''t even reach two thousand five hundred meters of height, they would still be hundreds of meters above the highest point of the palace.
They continued to travel for the whole day, starting to walk on foot on the second half of the day in order to give their horses some rest. Elwood didn''t seem all that strained, but Mary chose to walk anyways, just to show support to her peers.
They reached the top of the ascend early in the evening. Everybody fell on their bedrolls with relief. While the way through the mountains was faster than travelling around them, but was way more strenuous. The pass was only used by small groups of adventurers or travelers, as any merchant wagons would get serious problems with the steep slopes. Even the small wagons they used would get some problems.
Mary was the only one of them that wasn''t all that exhausted, so she volunteered to do the first watch, something greatly appreciated by the rest. The camping place was a big cave in the mountains side, excavated by mages centuries ago, and as such only had one entrance, as such you only needed two people to keep watch. Mary would take the first together with the leader of their group.
After everyone settled down Mary and Vamafre sat in front of the cave, keeping an eye out for any approaching dangers.
¡°You didn''t seem all that bothered by the hike as much as the rest, why is that?¡± ¡°I have a very good endurance, always had. I don''t get tired as fast as others. Probably because of my heritage.¡±
¡°What do you mean, you are a noble?¡±
¡°I was chosen to join my house three years ago. I was found on the steps of an orphanage in the capital shortly after my birth.¡±
¡°Sorry I pried, I know how something like that is, the same happened to me after all, it was the reason I chose an academy as far away from the capital after all.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine, my parents are really nice people and see me as their daughter. I heard the useless part of the noble population can be cruel to orphans though.¡±
¡°Not only the useless part, I several of the nobles that got your family¡¯s lands were equally cruel to me. I can tell you, the life in the academy my not be as easy as you are used to, but it¡¯s way more honest. I don''t think I will ever return there!¡±
Mary threw a stone at the vermin sneaking up on their cave.
¡°Your eyes are incredible, that ranger training really must have paid off! Why did you do it anyways, that''s something nobles don''t do normally?¡±
¡°I just like the feeling of moving in nature! I never feel like that in a city, it''s one of the reasons I applied at the academy, it wanted to have some excitement in nature!¡±
¡°You are in for one hell of an experience, if you pass the first year that is!¡±
¡°You didn''t say if I manage to pass the entry tests.¡±
¡°I don''t have to, be both know you will pass them, the others may not be all that observant, but I am sure you are more capable than any of them can imagine. You may play the bored noble really well, but the way you always watch your surroundings, even if you know you don''t have to defend yourself tells me enough.¡± Mary chose to ignore that, it didn''t really matter what the woman thought.
Chapter 23
The passage through the mountains was surprisingly peaceful, there was the occasional attack from a single mountain lion or a pack of carnivorous goats when they were at the highest points of their journey, nothing really dangerous. When they heard the roar of a lesser dragon reverberate through the mountains, they all paused for a moment before hurrying on.
They had been lucky they didn''t run into any of the more powerful monsters living in the mountains, they were more aggressive than their counterparts in the forests, as they had never learnt to stay away from humans and were more protective against intruders in their territory.
After the exhausting ascend, the mountain pass was easier to traverse. The road was cramped between huge mountain peaks, swaying up and down every so often. After three days in the mountains, they could see the plains they would be travelling through after leaving the boreal forest covering the western mountains in the distance. They would leave the plains after a few days and travel through the woods once again, until they arrived at the academy.
The academy and its small supporting town were in the middle of largely unused territory. While there was some farmland still used, the parts west of the mountains largely abandoned after the empire lost its access to the sea in the war. Most of the food was now produced in the more easily accessible plains of the eastern regions.
Eight days after they started to ascend the mountain pass, they left the mountains forests. For the first time in her life, Mary was truly in the open. While there was some farmland around the capital, it differed from the experience of real open grasslands in unimaginable ways. Everytime in her life so far, she had always seen some kind of wall blocking her vision, be it the orphanage¡¯s wall or the forests surrounding the capital. There was nothing that could have prepared Mary for the experience, it was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. On the one side she never felt so free and on the other, she never felt as small as now. She could see most of those around her reacting similarly.
Plains were quite rare in the empire, most of its area was covered in huge forests, only the deserts in the southwest as well as the vast eastern plains and the slightly smaller western plains broke them up enough to be called more than a large clearing.
Most of the empire''s cities used space formerly occupied by forest and cleared by the empire to built its cities.
Mary had obviously seen the forests from above, and intellectually knew the forests they had moved through until now were bigger than the plains, but seeing something through Starshadow¡¯s eyes was different than seeing it herself.
From her ranger training, she knew plains were actually quite easy to hide in. The hills that made up the landscape worked perfect to conceal oneself, giving the unwary a feeling of safety that was misplaced.
Luckily she had Starshadow, the bird didn''t have the same problems groundborn creatures had in the grasslands, and could just see the world from above. He was actually even better at spotting things without all the trees impending his sight.
She could see several small herbivores that peacefully ate grass just behind the next hill. They were a mix of mice and rabbits and the main reason the empire didn''t use the western plains to grow food.
Their escorts had announced they would camp for the rest of the day and travel out in the open tomorrow. Mary sent Starshadow to catch one of the Dyns. They were unique to the western plains, and really hard to exterminate. She was sure Starshadow could cardy one of the smaller Dyns to her.
The creatures were quite stupid and didn''t even notice when the falcon dove down to catch one of their number. It worked just as the bird had intended, his claws breaking the creatures neck, instantly ending its life. Using his magic, he managed to lift off with his prey again, the one he hunted for her wasn''t a small Dyn, it was rather big from what she could tell. A minute later, she had a proud bird on her shoulder and a dinner in her hands.
Mary carefully stroked his head.
¡°Your bird can catch something for you?¡± One of the more decent nobles said.
¡°Sure, why wouldn''t he, Dyns taste really good so he caught me one. He knows I don''t eat his normal food, so he found something else for me.¡±
They retreated to the cover of the trees for the evening, Starshadow bringing her another five Dyns before eating one himself. Mary shared the meat with the others, something greatly appreciated because they didn''t have to hunt for once.
On the next day, they set out to cross the plains. There only was a poor road to the academy, it was a path of dirt rather than a proper road really. They had split from the main road to the nearest city after leaving the mountains yesterday.
The plains were unlike a forest, the sounds around them for example. While the forest was alive with chattering of different birds and all the monsters living in it, most of the noise came from small insects in the grasslands. There were as many monsters around as in the forest, but they behaved differently, the monsters in the plain were keeping their quiet seemingly all the time.
Interestingly, the biggest problem in the plains proved to be the lack of firewood for the night. They took some with them as advised, but had used it up after the second night. The trees they saw were few and far between and didn''t have much firewood around them.
Over the weeks, they had worked out a routine of who would do what each evening. Mary and some others mostly set out to find food as they were the most capable of their group. The firemage went to start a fire and take care of it. The rest took care of the horses, well except Elwood because the others feared him.
Even the nobles participated, though only after Mary kindly asked them. The commoners looked like they would do everything for them, letting all nobles do what they wanted, something she didn''t support. After a few small sparks her fellow nobles had been eager to help as well.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
They had to change that routine up now though, as there were no roots to find and berries were quite sparse as well. Mary and a few others hunted down the plentiful small game everywhere in the grasslands.
After a week of following the path winding through the hills, they once again reached a forest. There were some differences to the forests around the capital. The most notable of these was the decreased amount of evergreen trees. The further north they travelled the warmer the climate got, at least in the summers. Mary had heard the winters got colder the farther you were inland. The academy stood in the west north-west of the empire, near border nearest to the ocean, so the weather stayed even throughout the year because of the ocean.
They followed the path for the next day, until they reached a big clearing. They were expected by several older people who gave off no mana. So they were very powerful mages. Startled, Mary checked the their surroundings for the academy, but there were no buildings in within the fifty kilometers Starshadow could see.
¡°Welcome dear children, welcome to the tests of passage this year. We will be starting them in the morning, so rest and prepare, for the following week will be more strenuous than the whole journey so far!¡±
They stopped, louder than ever before and chatted with each other in excitement. Mary and her peers went to their duties a little distracted.
Arajes watched the group that arrived today. She was standing together with two of the other teachers. They had been waiting for an hour. Three days prior, they had received a message the new students would arrive today, so they came to the testing grounds, arriving late last night. The children arriving on the clearing were a lively bunch, three lizards, three dwarves, three elves and twelve humans like always.
The academy had two different pools of students, common and noble applicants. Because the empire had way too many nobles, especially in the capital, they only accepted a set number of nobles every year. The upper limit was set to fifty of the total slots every year, so they could always were able to choose the best of the noble applicants.
There a few reasons why nobles even applied to the same school as commoners, one of these being her and the other teachers, and the principal. They were among the most powerful adventurers in the empire, all of them at least in the upper upper ranks. They were known all throughout the empire. An academy like theirs wouldn''t be successful in any other kingdom though. Because the empire had more nobles than territory and said territory was assigned by merit and not birth, there was a fierce competition among nobles to get their own territory to govern.
While personal achievements like they were earned at the academy were no garant to earn your own, they showed you had the willpower needed to achieve them. Finishing the academy took longer than most other magic schools, but a noble had to reach the age of twenty five to even be considered to lead his own house.
Of course, they only attracted a certain type of nobles, these being the adventures type, who already planned on travelling the world fighting monsters. While the training craftsmen visiting them got was superb, nobles had better schools to visit for such thing, that meant the only aspiring craftsmen visiting them were commoners.
They always tried to find an equal amount of all races, which worked better every passing year with their reputation increasing. The academy took in two hundred ten students every year. Apart from this group, which held the most promising of the applicants from the capital, there were ten more groups coming, two from the capital and eight from all over the empire.
The academy always had more possible students come than they would ultimately accept, as some would inevitably fail the tests.
She mentioned the leader of the group they had sent to escort the children to join her.
¡°Welcome back Vamafre, how was your journey?¡±
¡°Quite pleasant ma¡¯am the children didn''t cause too many problems, the only notable delay was caused by a group of bandits, we had to make a detour to deliver them to the nearest city!¡±
¡°I am glad to hear that. What can you tell me about them?¡±
¡°Who are you interested in?¡±
¡°Start with the non-humans.¡±
¡°Very well, the three lizards are like we expected, you should have no problems with them, one of them is a trained fighter though.
There is a rare talent among the elves, a sorcerer with dual affinity of plant and healing. He does need some self confidence though. The other two both have some sort of minor affinity and training as a ranger.
I can''t say anything about the dwarves, they are all aspiring creators, two want to go the smith-enchanter route, while one wants to be an alchemist.¡±
¡°That''s good, we already have so many fighters, the more creator the better! What about the human commoners?¡±
¡°There is a talented fire mage among them, apparently his parents were mages in the legions and trained him from a young age, I think he plans to go on the fire elementalist route. The other two are twins, coming from a relatively wealthy family. They couldn''t be more different though, the boy really likes excitement, while the girl thinks all excitement too much. Both are proficient in basic spells and manacontrol.¡±
Arajes sighed, she really disliked nobility as a whole, living in their huge mansions and castles looking down on all others, but a big part of the academy was sponsored by them.
¡°What about the nobles, anything out of the ordinary?¡±
¡°Yes, two of them, the son of Count Beavergor is unfit for our academy in all ways, beyond the level of tolerance, he is arrogant to a fault and regards everyone as his lesser, even the other nobles.¡± There were always people like this one, they just weren''t worth their time.
¡°And the other one?¡±
¡°Mary Falconbridge, she is his opposite, fair to everyone and incredibly smart and talented in magic. She has superb manacontrol for her age and a greater lightning affinity. Furthermore she had some serious ranger and sword training and stupid amounts of stamina. She has a crazily trained pet falcon as well.¡± That did indeed sound promising, the affinity alone meant she would have good chances being accepted if she didn''t have some serious flaws.
¡°Where is she now?¡± She asked. Vamafre looked around.
¡°The one taking care of the great horse.¡± The girl pointed out was beautiful but small for her age, especially since Arajes knew her father,he was a giant of a man and his wife wasn''t small either.
¡°I didn''t know house Falconbridge had a daughter, I thought they only had sons so far?¡±
¡°The Baron held a ceremony three years prior, they found her in some orphanage in the capital.¡±
¡°That''s some serious luck the Baron had, finding someone with a grater lightning affinity like that, I bet his rivals would grind their teeth if they knew.¡±
Arajes had to smile, while she held a grudge against most of nobility, the former grand duke was quite decent for a noble and the thought they got to develop the magical talent of the girl was even better. She would still have to complete the tests like everyone else though.
¡°Do you think she will manage the tests?¡± She asked Vamafre.
¡°I wouldn''t worry ma¡¯am, she could complete them by herself without problem.¡±
Chapter 24
They were woken in the early morning, and told to assemble around the three teachers after a short breakfast.
¡°Welcome to the trials of Agora!¡± The first started.
¡°Over the next week we will decide if you are fit to join the Academy!¡± The second continued. ¡°There is only one task for you to manage in that week!¡± The third finished.
¡°The test is simple really, we will split you in three teams of seven and you will give your mounts to us in return you will get a map which will show you the way to Agora! Your mounts will be waiting for you there. You can take your belongings with you, as long as you are able to carry them yourselves. Everything still on your mount will be returned after you arrive!
Should you still be out there after a week''s time, you have failed! There is no path to the Academy from here! The trial will test everything needed to join the academy, so afterwards you are either accepted or rejected instantly!
After you arrive at the clearing, you are to wait for one of us to show up!
One of us will follow each group, and provide safety should a lifethreataning situation arise, furthermore we will insure the groups can''t see each other! You are the first to arrive, because you were judged to be the most promising applicants, good luck!¡±
After the speech they were quickly separated in three even groups. Every group consisted of an elf, dwarf, lizard, commoner and three nobles. Mary really had to groan looking at her group. While she was happy to be in a group with Valamin and Dehla, they would really suffer because the idiot was with them as well. The other noble was quite decent enough, and the dwarf was grumpy. They got one of the twins as well, Astriga was unfit for the life in the Academy, she despised all excitement and was more into theory, though quite pleasant to be around.
She had really hoped they would be allowed to choose their teams, but that was no option. They all had to fetch their belongings and leave everything they wouldn''t need behind. Mary was glad she packed light, so she was ready as fast as the commoners, while the other nobles needed some time. The son of Baron Owlnev was smart enough to ask them what he should take and leave behind, so he was ready quite fast as well.
Only the First son of Count Beavergor was making problems already. He refused to had out his stallion, ¡®Noone got to separate him from his horse, as it was below his station to move around on foot¡¯ Mary actually considered zapping him again, just to speed things up.
Ultimately she decided against it, and just went and distracted him while Alwin, the other noble gave everything they wouldn''t need to another instructor.
It was a sight to behold, after the teacher was off, Mary just went back to the rest of the group, cutting him off in his sentence. After shooting an angry look at her, he turned around to argue with another teacher, the first telling him to calm down first, before leaving to accept other things.
She could see the moment he realized most of his stuff had disappeared, and only a small part of it remained at him feet. He just made things too easy for her.
After some yelling, they gathered in a circle to discuss their next steps. The idiot started.
¡°Obviously I will lead us, as I am the most qualified, and have the highest title!¡± Nobody liked that idea. Mary spoke up first, finding devilish amusement always contradicting him.
¡°I think I should lead us, unlike someone else, I have been trained as a ranger and know my way around in a forest!¡±
¡°So you were trained to move in the dirt, fitting for someone your station!¡± He stated mockingly. She grinned at him.
¡°If you have a problem you can always come and dual me. Of course we also can just vote who should be the leader.¡±
All other groups had already left the clearing, and they were the only one left. Interestingly they vanished instantly after leaving the clearing, both in the same direction.
¡°Who of you wants to have the lowlife daughter of a Baron, instead of me, the first son of a Count as your leader!¡± He stood proudly, without any doubts he would get all the support he needed. After everyone present nodded towards Mary, he lost the rest of his composure.
¡°THAT''S NO WAY TO TREAT A COUNT¡¯S SON, IF I SAY SOMETHING PEOPLE LIKE YOU HAVE TO COMPLY TO YOUR BETTERS!¡± He screamed. Mary was on him in an instant.
¡°You, Cleavergor, you are useless, so why would anyone want to be led by you. You must have some magical talent, you wouldn''t be here if not, but all your other skills are nonexistent, and you are unfit to lead even a single person! You were outvoted as well, so comply or stay behind I don''t care!¡±
With that she went over to the teacher, followed by the rest of the group, leaving behind a stumped noble.
¡°I am the leader!¡± She declared. She got the map, a standard issue map, showing the notable point one could orient oneself and the distances between them. They only additional thing marked was the academy.
She remembered one of the points of orientation was already behind them, they passed it early yesterday. She went over to her stuff, picked it up and waited for the rest to get ready.
¡°You coming?¡± She asked Beavergor for the last time. It seemed he didn''t want to give up on a chance to join the academy just yet. He even picked up his stuff by himself after everyone made it evident they wouldn''t carry anything for him.
If the map was accurate, they wouldn''t even need the whole week to reach the academy. She estimated it was about a hundred and ten kilometers away from their current position, so they should manage to reach it in three to four days. Unlike the other two groups, she set out in an eighty degree angle to their previous angle of travel. That way they should walk in the direction of the academy, and not take the detour they were expected to make.
Of course the idiot had to tell her how stupid she was, to leave the clearing in the wrong direction. She told him to shut up because there could be monsters around that he could attract with his complaining. There wasn''t anything dangerous, but there was no need to inform him of that.
The only problem with route she choose was there would be no significant point of orientation for nearly a day. According to her calculations, she should be able to see the academy through Starshadow on the evening of the second day, if they were slow in the early morning of the third.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Obviously the problem didn''t stop her, as she always had eyes in the sky, so she knew they moved in the right direction. They managed to travel thirty three kilometers that day, that meant if they kept up the pace, they would arrive at the early morning of the fourth day. After organizing a watch for the night and eating dinner, they retired for the night, they had several days of walking in front of them after all.
Mary woke the other early in the next morning, she had purposefully chosen the last watch, so she could wake them early. She intended to finish the test in three days after all. While quite grumpy, all of them shut up after she told them they could manage the trial in three days if they slightly increased their pace.
It seemed the world was against it though, because Starshadow soon spotted a group of roving kobolds moving in their direction. Without anyone noticing, she guided them around the monsters, the fight would have been really ugly and most likely resulted in their deaths. They stood very little chance against a group of fifteen of the beasts after all, especially with the noise the others made while moving, destroying any chance to catch the monsters off guard.
Soon after she changed their direction, there was a big monster spotted them, after they moved in its territory. The bear ran in their direction, making nearly no sounds at all, an impressive feat for an animal that size.
¡°Prepare for an assault, bear incoming from ten o''clock!¡± She shouted an warning.
¡°Everyone behind a tree, we don''t want to tank its charge after all! Dehla can you keep its attention until I kill it? Can the rest of you offer any assistance against a bear, if not, stay out of the way! Valamin, try to distract it with your wizardry!¡± Only seconds after she finished her plan, and they all retreated behind a tree, the bear charged the spot they had been in before. Instantly it started slowing down and started turning. Dehla, not nearly as intimidated by the huge mammal as she should be let out a cry and charged the beast.
It had to weigh at least five hundred kilos and its shoulders nearly reached her height. Mary charged up a strong bolt of lighting and shot it at the beast. Simultaneously, she started to cast a spell that should form a bubble of air around his head. The bubble wouldn''t let any air in or out, and greatly help in killing the animal. It roared in anger as Marys bolt hit it, and started turning towards the person that caused its pain. Because of the it got a stab from Dehlas halberd and started bleeding.
Mary saw Valamin starting to cast his spell as well as the two other nobles. The dwarf and other human wisely hid behind a tree to not in the way.
The idiot¡¯s spell was ready first, and a fireball flew at the bear, but sadly something like that, no matter how skilled it was cast, wouldn''t seriously damaged the beast, it would only serve to enrage it further. While the Lizardgirl still held out, Mary knew she would get problems soon, it was way more exhausting to fight an animal compared to a humanoid enemy.
After the fireball hit, the bear got rid of the rest of its confusion caused by her lightning, and attacked Dehla with renewed vigor, as she had managed to get in another stab, this time at something more painful.
Owlnevs spell was ready next, and a sphere of metal shot out of one of his pockets. It started to circle around the bear, always attacking it in its blind spots, not doing damage but distracting it, and buying them some time. By the time the roots at the bears feet started to pull it underground, Mary finished the airspell and shot another lightning bolt at the bear, it recoiled in pain again. As it roared again, one of the metal spheres used the opportunity and shot in its mouth, breaking into its skull and killing it instantly.
¡°Good work everyone, though you will have to work on what spells you use!¡± She looked at Beavergor.
¡°The fireball was useless and only enraged it, you endangered every one of us!¡± She then told everyone of them what they could have done better in the fight, even telling them what she did wrong.
They took enough of the bears meat to eat in the evening leaving the rest behind. The kobolds sure heard their fight, and could be heard in the distance, searching for the noise. They hoped the monsters would be satisfied with the bear and refrain from hunting them. They moved away from the spot with haste. Mary took some additional pieces she fed Starshadow by throwing them in the air, where he would then catch them, eating them while keeping an eye out for her like always.
After an hour they were sure they left weren''t followed, so Valamin could stop using his magic to erase their tracks so they couldn''t be followed.
As they settled down for the night, Mary took out her pan and roasted the meat they took with them. Because they pushed themselves to get away from the bear, they made decent progress today, even though they took the small detour and short fight. Starshadow had already spotted the highest tower in Agora peeking over the horizon.
She climbed a tree afterwards, spotting the next marker in the distance right where it should be, all for the benefit of the teacher following them, as she just remembered. After returning she told them they would take four days, as moving through the forest without a path was too slow to make it in three, they made about thirty two kilometers per day, so they would arrive in the late morning of the fourth day.
They settled down for the night with anticipation for what waited for them at the academy.
Mary woke with a start, something was wrong. She quietly went over to their watch, grabbing her sword in the process.
¡°Anything out of order?¡± She asked her.
¡°Nothing I can see, why are you up already, my watch just started?¡± Dehla replied.
¡°I woke up, and feeling uneasy, Nolan taught me to always hear on feelings in the wild! Wake the others, I will keep watch for now, tell them to be quiet!¡± Slowly, Mary¡¯s eyes accustomed to the dark, and she looked around and saw nothing. Than something rushed past the corner of her eyes but when she looked for it, she saw nothing. Mary¡¯s heart started beating wildly, she had to fight hard to reign it in, some monsters could hear your heartbeat.
She looked away from the place where the shadow should be keeping careful watch over it. Slowly, she started saturating the surrounding air with her mana. After the spot nearly left her line of sight, she saw the shadow move again, it ran straight in her cloud of mana, hiding once again. Careful to not let it know she knew its location, Mary looked in the direction she felt the monster hiding. Slowly, she prepared her most powerful lightning, that would deplete over half of her mana at once.
Before she let go of the spell, she woke Starshadow by a small tug at their bond. She wouldn''t want to wake him by the sudden sound of her lightning.
Before the beast could move again, her spell shot forwards with the speed of lightning, arcing around the small elevation the monster hid behind.
With a loud clap and a blinding light, the bolt impacted on the beast. Mary closed her eyes in time, to not destroy her night vision. After convulsing shortly, the beast stopped moving. The others came running after hearing her spell.
¡°What did you see?¡±
¡°There was some kind of monster sneaking up on us. It was really skilled as well!¡± Together, the others carefully approached the spot, while Mary and several others kept watch for more. They returned together with a dangerous looking creature, which still had some of its fur smoking at the spot Mary hit it.
The beast looked like a fox, only more dangerous. Its fur had the typical red tone of a fox, only it was way bigger, seventy centimeters in height and a meter and ten centimeters in length. Its teeth were longer as well, the canines reaching impressive ten centimeters. Mary really wondered why there were so many beast here, that fox monster could easily kill at least one of them. Mary once again fed some of the monsters meat to Starshadow while they cut out something to roast themselves.
There were no more monsters within fifty meters. Mary kept up the cloud anyways, her manacontrol was capable of keeping all the mana in her control, so she didn''t need to supply new mana. She opted to stay awake for the last two days, she didn''t need the same sleep as humans anyways.
They decided to resume their hike at first light, when Starshadow could fly again. After that, nobody could sleep after that anyways.
After an early breakfast, they set out in the direction of the academy again. Mary set a fast pace for the day, but called an early break, as she saw the others were tiring fast, because they lacked sleep.
After lunch, they set out energized again. They made good progress in the afternoon, and Mary could already see the academy near them. They managed another thirty five kilometers that day, the early start getting them the extra kilometers.
Tomorrow they would only have to travel the last twelve kilometers to reach the academy. That night, Mary slept only three hours, the minimum she needed to function properly.
Chapter 25
After only a few hours of sleep they set out again. The prior night¡¯s attack had rattled them more than they cared to admit, so everyone slept restless. Luckily they didn''t encounter any more problems on the remaining way.
They moved slower than the last days, the exhaustion of the last days finally taking its toll. Even though they reached the town surrounding the academy a two hours before midday. After emerging from the forest into the fields surrounding the town, they saw the academy for the first time.
There wasn''t that much to see from their vantage point though. Mary was able to bypass that though, inspecting her new home for the first time.
The town was a uncharacteristic for its size. While most small towns in the empire were surrounded by a small wall just to keep all the small monsters out, the town had a seven meter tall wall surrounding it. Unlike the big cities, small towns were largely self sufficient, only importing ores and other resources not locally attainable.
With the immediate proximity of a magic academy, the fields that held the crops were way bigger, because the school most likely doubled the town''s population, even though the aspiring wizards helped growing the crops. Despite the increased size of the fields, a relatively small percentage of the townsfolk had to care for crops, leaving a bigger amount of them able to work on different jobs.
Because the academy¡¯s students all were eager to improve their craft or get some fighting experience the townsfolk had easy access to many eager crafters, enchanters and aspiring adventurers. So unlike many other towns, there was little need to get outside adventurers to take care of the surrounding monsters.
The houses in the town were uncharacteristic as well, all having at least two stories. Once again, the students were eager to improve their craft and built up the town''s infrastructure and housings for only a small fee.
With many of the normal needs of a town taken care of by the academy, it was specialized in supporting it. As such, the crafts that were not taught by the academy had some very skilled craftsmen available, just to fill the needs of the nobles that came to study.
Furthermore the town had a huge complex of stables just to take care of the students mounts.
The academy itself grandiose, located on the far side of the town, it was surrounded by a high wall, going up to fifteen meters
Most of the inner courtyard was part of a large park, where the students could relax. There were four big dormitories fitted against the walls, about seventy on thirty meters and three stories high, enough to accommodate all of the academy¡¯s one thousand fifty students.
Next to the garden complex, Mary could see several other smaller courtyards that had more specific purposes. Located to the left of the gate was the smaller stable. Next to the stables where all the different crafting stations required for the students that wanted to learn a specific profession.
The academy¡¯s architect had placed several smaller sections within the gardens, several small arenas, dedicated gardens to grow herbs, a few archery ranges, a few squares for physical training and several small pools of water probably for swimming.
There were several bigger buildings fit against the outer walls, though none were as big as the dormitories.
The biggest building was the central tower though, reaching an impressive one hundred twenty meters in height, with a square base forty meters in length. Located right in the middle of the walls, the tower stood proudly among the surroundings.
While the design was quite simple, just a hexagonal tower with a pointed roof, the material it was built from spoke of the wealth of its builders.
The tower was surrounded by a round square with about eighty meters in diameter.
It was built out of marble, imported from the eastern mountains of the empire. Mary counted twenty stories of windows going all around the tower. Several large pillars went around the towers exterior, standing on the six corners. Another, smaller pillar then separated the exterior walls in two. While the first five floors only had small windows, they got increasingly bigger the higher Mary looked.
She really liked the design of the tower and its surroundings. While it was obvious the school hadn''t been build to repel intelligent invaders, the wall of the town and school were enough to stop most intelligent monsters from attacking.
She and her team, exhausted from the march and lack of sleep put down their packs and waited for the teacher to appear.
Arajes watched as her group started to wait for her after reaching Agora in only four days.
She had been surprised when they took the direct route, something only eleven other groups had chosen since the opening of the academy fifteen years ago. And only eight of these had managed to save time with the route.
The forest had been uncharacteristically dangerous, the group shouldn''t encounter a bear, animals like that didn''t attack without cause, so something had to have angered the beast beforehand. Even more strange was the way of attack it chose, normally bears were quite stealthy despite their mass and while her spells had alerted her of its approach, the Falconbridge girl heart it coming, something that was exceedingly hard normally.
Luckily the Falconbridge girl was no fool and took the right measures to defend themselves even before Arajes could intervene.
What had her really worrying was the monster they killed in the second night though, a Vegfox was a rare and dangerous evolution of the common fox. As the students left it behind, obviously shaken by the stealthy monster, she instantly sent a message to her colleagues, telling them to take extra care. Normally they cleared the forest of anything that could endanger a group of beginner mages, but they obviously had missed the beast in their sweep.
She waited for another few minutes before stepping out of the forest, just as the Beavergor noble looked like he would abandon the group and go into the town against her instructions.
¡°Congratulations you are the ninth group to take less than six days to complete the trial. I will show those of you who managed to pass the academy of Agora. The one who failed will be accomodated in the town''s inn and escorted back to the capital later, after the other groups have arrived.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The town had two gatehouses, both of which led to the main road which ended at the academy¡¯s gates. Mary really liked the finer details the walls of the buildings displayed as well as the overall feeling in the town.
¡°Wait here!¡± The teacher told them and went inside. Shortly afterwards she came out again, accompanied by an aging man. She pointed at Beavergor.
¡°The first son of Count Beavergor will be your guest for the next week!¡± She told him.
¡°Of course, if you would accompany me, my lord, I will show you to your room.¡± Beavergor looked at the teacher with disbelief in his eyes.
¡°Surely you must be mistaken?¡±
¡°No I''m not, you are not suitable to study at our academy!¡± Mary could see the gears turning in his head, and slowly the irritation turned in anger.
¡°WHAT DO YOU MEAN I''M NOT SUITABLE, I''M TEN TIMES BETTER THAN ALL THESE LOWBORNS COMBINED.¡± He yelled at her.
¡°That reaction shows I''m right, you are to full of yourself to fit together with our students!¡±
¡°AND WHO ARE YOU TO DECIDE THAT, I DEMAND A NOBLE JUDGE ME, NOT SOME LOWBORN WITCH THAT DOESN''T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE IN THE COMPANY OF HER BETTERS!¡± Mary could only shake her head, he was really digging his own grave. The innkeeper shuffled uncomfortably, he really didn''t want to be here, attracting the ire of the noble once the teacher dealt with him, though he probably was used to scenes like this.
¡°Now there is no reason to lose yourself, I''m sure you are a capable mage but there is more to the academy than talent!¡± The teacher attempted to defuse the situation.
¡°WHAT SHOULD THERE BE! I''M AM A NOBLE AND A MAGE, SO I HAVE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT QUALITIES YOU COULD WISH FOR, IN YOUR PITIFUL BACKWATER SCHOOL!¡±
¡°You know, you really behave like an uncontrolled raging barbarian, not like the noble you claim to be!¡± Mary said as he drew a breath to resume his shouting. That gave him a pause, he looked around, spotting all the people around them that stopped to watch the spectacle. He drew in a few breaths, turned to the innkeeper and told him.
¡°You may now show me my room!¡± And marched in the inn.
The teacher turned to her.
¡°Thanks for that, my lady, it¡¯s always a chore to tell nobles like him they failed, you just spared us an hour of being yelled at.¡±
¡°No problem, my father taught me how to deal with nobles like him, a very important skill if you want to survive the capital!¡±
¡°Yes, very important indeed, now that we have the unpleasant part of the day behind us, let us proceed to the academy! Follow me!¡±
They continued following the main road, passing several restaurants, tailors and other shops that would be frequented by the academy¡¯s students. The quality of the items or food displayed respectively was way above what a small town like this had to offer normally.
Ten minutes later they arrived at the academy¡¯s gates.
¡°Welcome to the Academy, right now, most older students are still visiting their homes, so it¡¯s quite empty.¡±
After they arrived in front of the dormitories, they were told to wait for someone to take care of them.
¡°You are free to explore the surroundings for now, just be here in an hour, someone will come to take care of you!¡±
With that she vanished. Mary and the others didn''t really want to explore now though and just went to the next clearing, happily chatting with each other for the next hour.
"Hey there, I''m Avao and he is Ebrim, we will show you to your room and then give a tour of the academy to you together.¡± They were separated by gender and led in two different buildings.
¡°Just deposit your stuff and come out again, it¡¯s nearly lunchtime and inspecting your room is something you can always do alone.¡±
After uniting with the other groups again, they were led back to the entrance.
¡°Let''s get the boring stuff out of the way first. To the left of the gates you can see the stables where the teachers keep their mounts, as the villagers were scared by some of them.¡± Avao explained.
¡°Subsequent to the stables are the crafting station, behind the small wall you can see. The wall is there to hold the noise canceling enchantment so the rest of the academy isn''t disturbed.¡± Ebrim continued.
They followed one of the paths leading through the gardens and arrived at a part that was separated by hedges. Inside they could see herbs growing in orderly rows, taken care of by enchantments in their surroundings.
¡°This one of five herb gardens in the academy, they are all somewhere within the gardens! You are free to use the herbs growing in here for whatever you want. Though we mainly grow the herbs for the aspiring alchemists to better their craft.¡±
They exited the herb garden and followed the path again, arriving at one of the small arenas Mary saw out of the air, though now that she was near them she could see the magic radiating off it.
¡°That''s one of the arenas, you are only allowed to use them with a teacher present, at least in the first three years afterwards you are expected to be mature enough to know how to deal with them. The arena is perfectly safe for everyone using it normally, as you don''t actually fight with your body, but as an illusion, so you do not damage the surroundings even with the most powerful of spells.¡±
¡°There are several small targets for archery practice as well as a few small pools of water for swimming scattered all throughout the gardens as well, but we will show you these later, now we are nearing one of the dining halls. Dinner is between five and six pm, breakfast between six thirty and seven thirty and lunch is between twelve and one pm! If you are to late you don''t get anything!¡±
After eating a lunch which tasted way better than everything they were able to eat on their journey, they continued the tour around the academy grounds.
¡°The most of the buildings on the edges contain classrooms, except the dining halls and the houses for the teachers, but I''m confident you will be able to differentiate.¡±
¡°Now let''s get to the central tower, shall we?¡±
¡°The tower is surrounded by the gathering plaza, where you will be officially welcomed by the headmaster at the start of the term.
Some basics first, the tower has a height of one hundred and twenty meters, is forty meters in diameter and has twenty stories. The top two floors are occupied by the headmaster which I''m sure you have heard about. The eight floors below are used by the teachers and administrators of the academy, you can be invited by a teacher to help them with said research, which is the only way you want to get in there, the other possibilities are all undesirable!
The lowest ten floors have several other interesting uses, the second, sixth and eighth are all libraries which you can access in the first second and fourth year. The adventurers guild is located on the first floor, as we work together closely. The rest of the floors contain some more classrooms for the older students, the tenth is the garrison of the guards. The first floor displays all the achievements the students visiting the academy acquired.
The ninth floor is occupied by the hospital. You will learn about the rest in time, though none are of immediate concern now.¡±
¡°Changing floors is possible in two ways, you can either take the stairs or the supply mana to use the elevator!¡±
¡°Well that''s it for now, you can always ask more questions when you see us, make sure you don''t miss dinner and welcome in the Academy of Agora!¡±
As they turned to leave, Mary went forth.
¡°What about my pet falcon, is it allowed to built a nest within the grounds?¡±
¡°You have a pet falcon? Well you will have to register him at with a teacher so he will get a mark so he can pass through the academy¡¯s defenses once they are on, but there is no need to stress it, just ask a teacher in the next week and you are fine!¡±
After the two guides vanished they explored the gardens a bit more, and just relaxed for the first time in weeks. Shortly before dinner Mary had Valamin create a small home for Starshadow, she called him down so he knew were he could sleep and went in her room. She could have created the hideout herself, but if she start to throw around wizardry before the term had even started her disguise wouldn''t hold up for long.
Luckily her room had a window, so Starshadow could visit her whenever he wanted.
The room was keyed to her manasignature, so only she could enter.
It was about four meters wide and five long, and had a small bath to the left of the door. Her bed was located on the left side of the room, near the window. She had a desk directly in front of the window and a small tree stood on its right. The closet stood to the right of the door, only accessible with the door closed. There was a small nightstand with a magical lamp in front of the bed.
Chapter 26
The next ten days passed very slowly. In the past three years, Mary had always been active from dawn to dusk. Doing chores her parents set her to do or finishing stuff for herself. So without much to do, her days consisted of four activities at first. Fighting with Dehla, giving Elwood some practice and scouring the library for interesting books and teaching Starshadow a lightning spell. The library proved futile though, as the books she had access to were just basic stuff she learnt years ago. The stupor was only broken up once the other groups arrived. Out of the group coming from the capital, eighteen passed, three were escorted back to the capital.
Other than Beavergor, one noble and one of the elves failed the teachers evaluation and were sent back to the capital.
Things picked up once someone moved in the room next to her. That day, she just returned from one of her sparring sessions and found someone very unexpected sniffing at the doors of her room.
A small female beastkin that seemed absorbed by some kind of smell, so much that her senses didn''t notice Mary. It was the first time she saw a beastkin up close, so she took her time looking at the small being. Beastkin were quite rare in the empire, as they preferred open grasslands, something the empire with its lush forests didn''t have.
Finding one living in a city was a rare occurrence indeed, there were two beastkin kingdoms on the continent, but both were on the other side of the monster territory so nowhere near the empire.
The girl was obviously some sort of cat beastkin. She only reached one meter fifty in height, was very athletically built and had sleek brown and black fur covering her skin. She didn''t have any shoes, probably because the shape of her feet resembled the padded feet cats had.
She had a long tail that swished around with excitement, it was about eighty centimeters in length. Her arms were longer than the average humans, so she would probably be capable of running on all fours. While her hand was very much like Mary¡¯s she didn''t have any fingernails, instead Mary could see a hint of sharp claws poking out of the top of her fingers.
The girl had a cute pink nose, like some cats Mary had seen before, long fangs that were only visible when her mouth opened and slit hazel eyes. She had cat ears the size of Mary¡¯s palm which were able to freely turn in all directions, they looked like those of a lynx. All in all, she looked like a humanoid cat.
¡°Hello there, who are you?¡± The girl jumped up, her tail and ears dropping, looking quite embarrassed by her lack of attention.
¡°I am Taimanu of the Moonlynx tribe. It''s so exciting to be here. Who are you? Is this your room? Why does it smell like bird?¡±
The girl inhaled, before she could resume her barrage of questions, Mary stopped her.
¡°I am Mary, I can''t answer your questions if you shoot them out like that!¡± Taimanu deflated, her tail and ears dropping even lower than before, she really looked adorable.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m always told I talk to fast. I hope we can get along! I am a mage! My tribe sent me to learn how to interact with humans, you are a strange species, always living on one spot and rarely moving around!¡± By her behavior, Lynxkin was still young, Mary had learnt cat beastkin were usually very patient, but that patience came with age.
Mary just waited until the girl ran out of air again.
¡°How about you let me answer your questions before asking new ones?¡± She continued before the girl had a chance to speak up again.
¡°Yes that''s my room. The bird you smell is my falcon, and he is off limits!¡± For that she surrounded the lynxkin with her mana for a second, just to drive the point home.
¡°I didn''t know beastkin went to human academies, so why are you here?¡±
¡°My father is the leader of our tribe and thinks we should learn from each other. I don''t know why, but he has some serious concerns whenever he talks about the future. So he sent me, to start a relationship with the most powerful human country on the continent.¡±
The girl being the daughter of a beastkin chieftain meant she counted as a noble herself. Mary had no idea what lead the girls father to break ancient traditions, but it sure must be something serious. She opted to report her father about her new neighbor as fast as possible.
¡°You said you''re a mage, what do you specialize in?¡± Mary asked.
¡°I don''t use the magic most of my people use, a combination of body enhancement and wizardry, I¡¯m a ice mage! What about you?¡±
¡°I am a greater lightning sorceress. My dad is an ice mage as well!¡±
¡°That''s so cool, I want to be a Sorceress too! Show me some lightning please!¡±
Smiling at the easily excitable lynxkin, Mary summed some lightning to charge her hair and, with another spell made it float around her head as if she were underwater.
¡°Ohh, I want to do that too!¡± Taimanu said.
¡°So why are you already here, the next group of students was to arrive in the next two to three days?¡±
¡°The others all wanted to take the long way, I showed them the direct way, they just didn''t pay attention to their surroundings while we neared the school, it was frustrating really!¡±
¡°I know, my group didn''t pay attention as well, it¡¯s infuriating! Did you encounter anything interesting?¡±
¡°Nothing really, I had to evade a small group of Kobolds, but that''s it, you?¡±
¡°We had a runin with a bear and an evolved fox tried to sneak up on us, we killed both though!¡±
¡°Uh, bears are nasty, we have to deal with them sometimes, always a hussle with no ice or earth mage around, fire always makes them angry.¡±Stolen novel; please report.
¡°Yeah we noticed that, when one idiot threw a fireball at it, it came out of its daze and nearly killed one of us!¡±
¡°That''s so stupid, you don''t attack a bear with fire!¡±
¡°I made sure he understood that!¡±
The day of the festival came and went, and soon enough Mary and her peers were all gathered in front of the tower.
Unlik the day she arrived, the great hall was now filled with students. Some of the older students already arrived, though their term would only start in two weeks and lunged around them. Most of the people gathered were the two hundred and ten that joined the academy this year though.
Together with Taimanu and Dehla, Mary was near the front of the students. The lynxkin turned out to be one of the most pleasant people Mary had met in the last years. They got along really well, both liking to see the sun rise, and shared a love for forests. Taimanu¡¯s tribe was one of the very few beastkin tribe¡¯s that dwelled in forests.
The ice magic the lynxkin knew was incredibly advanced for her age as well. Ice magic was one of the more powerful magics, because unlike fire magic for example, the attacks had momentum behind them. Ice Magic was essentially a mix of fire and water magic, so skilled ice mages could for example pierce a monsters hide with ice and then fry their insides with fire.
Furthermore, because she grew up wandering the land, it was natural for her to move in forests, she automatically remembered points of interest to navigate the forest, she was arguably as good at it as Mary if not better.
Soon enough, the headmaster stepped on the podium in front of them. Together with her father and fourteen others, the headmaster was one of the empire''s few archmages.
To be acknowledged as an archmage, you had to evolve at least once, and have an incredible amount of magical power and experience. The woman in front of her was apt in all basic elements, but specialized in time and water. Of course, time magic didn''t actually affect time, just the perception the individual had of time, but it was incredibly powerful nonetheless.
The woman wore the typical attire of a mage that didn''t get to travel too much a long robe. The robe was white and blue, with the crest of the academy adorning the chest. Mary could see the magic radiating off it even from where they stood.
She was really tall, reaching one meter and eighty three centimeters in height. The rest of her form was concealed by her robe. She had the empire¡¯s typical blonde hair, which openly flowed over her shoulders, piercing dark brown eyes, that carefully observed them.
The only really distinguishing feature on her face, apart from her eyes, was a broken nose, which in itself was something you didn''t see anywhere, as repairing broken bones was something every decent healer could do. With a loud clear voice, she started her speech.
¡°Welcome to the Academy of Agora! As you may have heard, I am Archmage Verecundia et Potentes and the headmaster of this academy! You are all here, because you wanted some excitement in your life. About a third of you are nobles from all over the empire, welcome. Don''t go around expecting special treatment though, one of the requirements of joining is the acceptance that you are a student like everyone else! Because you joined the academy, you will be allowed to join the adventurers guild a year early, accepting missions under our supervision of course!
The next weeks, until the term starts, will be dedicated to get a more in depth analysis of your capabilities. They will determine the setup of your classes! Though all of you are quite capable to start with I''m sure.
I am honored to greet the daughter of the Moonlynx tribe chieftain in our academy. She is the first beastkin to ever join our academy since its founding!¡±
That caused Taimanu to shrink down, obviously uncomfortable with all the attention that sentence brought her. After the speech, they were seperated in several groups, divided by names, and the evaluation of their magical skilled started.
They were divided by their last names and a teacher took their group in one of the classrooms.
¡°With everyone assembled, we will start a closer evaluation of your skills. You have been divided by name for now, but that will change afterwards. We will try to put you all in classes of equal skill later on.¡±
The evaluation of their skills would need two hours per person, so with one teacher for every thirty students, they would need six days to get ready with ten hours spent evaluating the students per day. Obviously they were not expected to be present just to wait for their turn, so after they had been given their schedule they were free to do whatever they wanted.
Mary¡¯s turn was two days later, so she met with the teacher in one of the classrooms.
¡°You are Mary Falconbridge?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Your application claims you are a sorceress with greater lightning affinity, that true?¡±
¡°Of course!¡±
¡°If you would please put your hand on this gem and pour as much mana as possible within the next fifteen seconds.¡±
He gave her a roughly spherical ruby, so Mary took hold of her mana and inserted her mana in the next fifteen seconds. Afterwards her manapool had lost about one seventh of its capacity. She returned the gem, and the teacher triggered some kind of enchantment carved in the crystal structure of the gem. He noted something down and turned back towards her.
¡°Well that''s some impressive output of mana young lady!¡±
He took another gem out of his desk.
¡°What you see here is something every mage needs. The academy supplies one to every student. It has two functions, and is the single most important piece of equipment a mage has.
The gem is able to store and release mana as needed. The most talented mages don''t need them, as they can cast spells to do the same, but the runes needed for such enchantments are the only ones easier to enchant than cast! Do not lose it, as you won''t get a new one.¡±
Mary got to choose between several different gems, so she took an emerald, as green was her favorite color.
¡°Very good, now please transfer all of your mana in the gem, so I can measure your manapool.¡±
The next item on the agenda was the amount of control she had over her mana. Her manacontrol seemed to impress the teacher, even though she held back a bit.
¡°You are quite talented for you age, congratulations. Now that we have the basics out of the way, let''s start with your affinity! Just draw mana from the gem. You ready to proceed or do you need a break?¡±
¡°I am good to go!¡±
¡°Very well, as Sorcerers have no need to remember runes, as they get supplied by their affinity, we will instead try to find your limits.¡±
The rest of the time was spent exploring the limits of her made up affinity, which worked great, as she could actually cast everything the teacher asked her to. She even got several new ideas from the spells he had her try as well.
Mary got back to her dormitory after lunch where she was expected by a curious lynxkin.
¡°How did it go? What did you have to do? Did anything interesting happen? Do you know what class you will join?¡±
¡°Slow down Taimanu, you know I can''t answer your questions if you chain them like this!¡±
¡°Sorry Mary, but it''s so exciting, and you know I have to wait until tomorrow, I''m so excited.¡±
¡°I know you can''t control yourself!¡±
Mary smiled at her friend and than answered her questions, showing everything she did.
The lessons would start in eight days, and all the older students would arrive after the break as well. They got the results of their tests four days after the last students was evaluated, together with their timetable for the following months.
Mary, together with Taimanu and another twenty two students got in the advanced manacontrol classes, they really look forwards to the lessons they would get.
As they were different kinds of magicians, they didn''t get to be in the same class every time, but that was fine as well, it would allow them to get to know new people that would over time, become the elite of the empire.
Chapter 27
Today was the first day of classes, Mary would have three of them. The first two together with Taimanu, the first manacontrol, a mandatory class for every student. The second was not magical at all, and simply called physical fitness, only required for those who wanted to join the adventurers guild.
The last class was for the new sorcerers, they would be taught how to properly use their magic.
On the way to breakfast, something very unpleasant happened.
¡°OUT OF THE WAY!¡± Someone behind them yelled. All of the older students around them immediately did so, obviously cowed by the shouter. Mary just ignored him and continued on. Suddenly she was thrown out of the way by someone way bigger than her.
After regaining her balance, she looked at the people that threw her out of the way. The group in question was consisted of older students, probably two years older than her. Just as she was about to yell them what she thought of them, a dwarf spoke to her.
¡°Are you ok?¡±
¡°Sure.¡±
¡°I know that look on your face, you shouldn''t even think about it, the seventh son of the emperor is someone you shouldn''t try to piss off!¡±¡¯
¡°You¡¯re right about that, thanks for the warning. I¡¯m Mary Falconbridge by the way.¡± His eyes widened after hearing her name.
¡°I''m Agnem Amberforged, nice to meet you, my lady.¡± He looked at Taimanu, who managed to jump out of the way in time, a lifetime of living in the forest coming in handy.
¡°I didn''t even know we had a beastkin in the academy?¡±
¡°That''s Taimanu, she is a Lynxkin and the daughter of her tribe¡¯s chieftain! And leave the stupid my lady! It''s hard enough when my maid does it. How did you know I''m a noble?¡± The dwarf turned to Taimanu.
¡°Nice to meet you, it''s been a long time since I met a young beastkin, I''m Agnem Amberforged!¡± Turning back to her he spoke up again.
¡°My family is from the north. Your father was well liked in his domain. I was too young when he fell to remember, but my parents and all others alway tell me of the great time the north was united behind him. Your family will always be known in the north!¡±
¡°You are a noble, why didn''t you tell me?¡± Taimanu chimed in.
¡°Yes, because it didn''t come up. It''s not really important for me, I grew up in an orphanage and was adopted with four.¡± The explanation, which woulndt suffice for a human seemed to satisfy the girl, the culture she came from was different from human culture after all.
Pointing at the prince''s back, Mary turned to the dwarf once again.
¡°How do you know him?¡±
¡°I had some runins with him in my first year too, he joined two years ago I came last year. He is completely unsuitable for the academy, but because of who he is even the Academy had to accept him, they are only so powerful after all.¡±
¡°What does he even want to do with that attitude?¡± Taimanu asked.
¡°He is the seventh son of the emperor, his youngest, while the empire doesn''t have the same stupid customs of inheritance like most, he is still at a disadvantage to his older brothers. He is sure he is the only true ruler of the empire.¡± Mary started explaining.
¡°To quell that disadvantage he joined the academy so he could become famous and prove his father he is ready.¡± Agnem continued.
¡°That won''t happen in at least a century though, seeing our emperor inherited the imperial throne only ten years prior.¡±
Mary smiled at Agnem, he was quite knowledgeable for a nonhuman.
¡°How did you get to know all this stuff?¡±
¡°Learned most of it in the academy, deducted the rest myself!¡± He grinned at her.
¡°The simpleton isn''t that hard to understand, I¡¯m honestly surprised he is as good a mage as he is.¡±
¡°Well that runs in the family, they cultivate their magical prowess from very early on. They don''t want to die early like emperor Aulus.¡± Mary recited what she learnt in the past years. ¡°Thanks for the explanation!¡± Taimanu thanked them.
¡°By the way, what magic do you practice?¡±
¡°I''m going the same route my dad did! I aim to be a Smith-Enchanter! What do the two of you practice?¡±
¡°I¡¯m an ice mage and Mary is a greater lightning sorceress!¡± Taimanu answered.
¡°That''s quite impressive, see you around, I have to climb several flights of stairs to arrive in time. It was a pleasure meeting you.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Mary and Taimanu hurried to their first lesson, the prince already forgotten. They were expected by twenty others, with another eight coming after that. The teacher arrived a minute before the lesson started, the doors opening the moment he approached them.
After they all were seated, the teacher, an older man of perhaps sixty years of age, a long beard and a pointy hat, wearing simple robes, surveyed the classroom, as if to assess each of them personally. He didn''t even have a faint hint of his mana leave his body. Quite reassuring, the man obviously knew what he taught!
After finishing his inspection, he went to the front and his name appeared on the blackboard.
¡°Welcome to advanced manacontrol! I am Menateos Sabinus and will be teaching you in manacontrol. You have been lucky! As your manacontrol exceeds that of your peers, you thiry have the privilege to improve your control under me. All other classes have forty five students per class.
I will control if all of you are here. Afterwards we will start with the lesson.¡±
Manacontrol proved to be very interesting, though it would mostly be proactive later on, there was only so much one could learn about mana. To pass the class, they would have to cast an ancient rune Mary didn''t know so far. She was pretty sure she would manage in a month if she really tried though.
As both Mary and Taimanu wanted to be adventurers, they both had to visit physical fitness. All of the people that would join the guild were present, together with several teachers. First, they were seperated into groups, depending on what role they would play in their party. Mary and all the other ranged mages made up the majority, while the lizardfolk and a few humans would train with enhancing magic.
The teachers split up evenly between the students and proceeded to test their limits.
Afterwards they were once agan split in groups and given a new time for the lessons. Mary¡¯s would start tomorrow morning, just before her other lessons, and in three days again.
After lunch, she visited the last lesson for today. Among the two hundred and ten students of her year, only eleven were sorcerers, her already included. The teacher was a young looking man, and once again the doors to the classroom only opened after he arrived.
¡°Welcome to Sorcery! I''m Menateos Steborius!¡± He surveyed the room.
¡°As I see, we are quite the big class this year. Sorcerers like us are quite rare indeed. And a useful affinity like the ones you all have are even more scarce. Sorcery doesn''t involve much learning, mostly experimentation! You all have more potential than the other students of this year, but you will have to work harder i you really want to unravel your full potential.
The path a magician of any other kind takes is predetermined! He will most likely focus on one specific school of magic and then learn a few spells supplementing him. We Sorcerers have to go a different route altogether. Sorcerers get even more powerful by evolutions than normal mages. Apart from the obvious increase in mana capacity and control every mage gets, a sorcerer¡¯s affinity evolves with him, improving the sorcerer¡¯s strength.
Unlike normal magic, which requires repetition, sorcery requires experimentation. There are certain similarities between the affinities, but every affinity is unique. So your goal, after we finish the first few lessons on theory, will be the exploration of these limits.
There is an enchanted room for each of you in the academy, where you can safely do so without the interference of others. I will join one or two of you per lesson, just to give you some pointers.¡±
¡°What theory does Sorcery have, we are superior in every way, just willing our mana do do everything for us!¡± Someone stated.
¡°That''s a very short sighted approach my boy, true, there is way less theory to learn, but that doesn''t excuse that attitude!¡±
¡°So what do we need to learn?¡±
¡°There are several things. First of all, I will teach you the runes of several important spells that every magician should know. Secondly, we will look at the differences of magical professions. Just because you are a sorcerer doesn''t mean you have to pursue that.
As a matter of fact, I would very much think if the life of an adventurer is what you desire.
Sadly, for every magical craftsmen, there are three that throw their life away like that.¡±
They didn''t do much more in that lesson, the teacher trying his best to convince them to pursue a more safe approach in their life. While his argumentation was sound, she knew her path lay in exploring the world.
With a content sigh, Branston Falconbridge leant back in his chair. It took more than three years, but everything was ready to be put in motion.
Ever since Viscount Snaketon had tried to ruin his birthday and traumatize his daughter, he took a few hours a week to prepare for this moment.
Back then, he had been sure he would only need a few months to find enough evidence to destroy the Viscounts social standing, but his rival proved to be really skilled at concealing his actions.
Things picked up only six months ago, when one of his informants finally found something he could use. As it turned out, the high fatality count on the adventurers participating in their bet was the doing of the scheming noble. Apparently, he hired several groups of bandits that had the sole goal of making sure the Viscounts team won.
After that, everything started to fall in place, as his people found more and more very useful information.
If he used even half of the effort he put into manipulating every competition he took part in in useful endeavours, he would have had a good chance to govern his own land by now.
As it stood, with his exceeding unpleasant personality and all his schemes, he destroyed the emperor''s opinion reliably.
Somehow everything was falling apart. Everything he worked for over the last decade seemed to destroy itself. Every single ally he had acquired started to turn their backs towards him. Even though none of his more nefarious activities were found out, every single one that would decrease his standing with other nobles was revealed in quick succession, so practically overnight, he transformed from a really powerful into one of the weakest nobles in capital.
One of his servants timidly knocked at the door to his office.
¡°Sir, we just received a letter for you.¡±
¡°Give it to me!¡± He yelled at him. The servant quickly retreated afterwards.
Viscount Snaketon,
As you may have noticed, you appear to lose some standing among the nobility, something I am happy to tell you is my doing.
My condolences Baron Falconbridge.
¡°WHO DOES HE EVEN THINK HE IS! I WILL KILL HIM ONLY TO REVIVE HIM AND KILL HIM AGAIN!¡±
After screaming and insulting the other noble for another hour, his throat hurt but he regained some of his cool. As it stood, none of his serious crimes had been found out, so he would only get some severe fines. That would be problematic, but he could work around it. His reputation was dead, nothing he could do about it, but he would get his revenge regardless.
Without losing more time he set to work. He had found out the brat his enemy had acquired three years prior, went to a school of magic that taught both commerers and nobles. Why any noble would want to visit it was beyond him, they were in the middle of nowhere, and had to live in close proximity to lesser beings as well.
That helped him tremendously though, as it would be way easier to get rid of her there. Sadly there was no way for him to get to the former grad duke in any other way, he would straight up lose anything else he tried.
Chapter 28
Four weeks had passed since the term had started, and they were on their way to the central tower to finally join the guild. Today was a monday and the lessons were cancelled for today.
The students of the academy joined the adventurers guild in waves, thirty five students per week and her group was the third to do so.
They would be excused from any lessons for that week, as they split up in five teams of seven and finished their first quest, under the watchful eye of a teacher.
Luckily they had some choice in the matter, so she would get to be a team with Dehla, Taimanu and another four people. The process of joining was simplified for the academy, as most of the tests were already done by the teachers and they were all approved to join.
Instead of the lengthy procedure, they just went to one of the guilds staff and supplied their name.
A guildcard was bound to an adventurer by his manasignature and helped identify them. The only things noted on a card were guild rank, name, continent and country of origin and number if completed quests.
The probationary card said even less, only name and country.
¡°There you go lady Falconbridge, welcome to the guild!¡±
After everyone got their cards, they were gathered by one of the present teachers.
¡°Alright everyone listen up! You have thirty minutes to form teams, everyone who doesn''t have one in time will be assigned to one!
Over the next two years, you all will be required to be in a number of teams, until you get to chose your team at the start of the third term!¡±
The three of them went to search for four others. Originally, Mary wanted to take Valamin with them as well, but he had been part of another group. Without further ado they set to find four others to join them.
They found another of the lizardfolk two elves and a dwarf to join them.
The two elves were both wizards, the lizard was another melee fighter and the dwarf was adept in earth magic. Sadly they didn''t find anyone adept in healing magic, but that wasn''t really necessary for the most basic quests.
After assembling, they only had to notify the teacher of their team composition and went to receive their first quest.
As they hadn''t even joined the academy yet, there was only a small amount of quests they could choose from.
They chose a simple request to hunt down twenty horned rabbits that had been bothering the farmers around town. After accepting the quest, they got one of the waiting teachers accompany them. Of course, all quests available at the lower ranks weren''t really dangerous for them, as you had to be a decent mage just to join, so they could be confident they wouldn''t run into problems until reaching zinc rank.
Horned rabbits were exactly what they sounded like, a rabbit that evolved and grew a horn, a quite useless evolution to be honest. The problem when hunting them wasn''t finding or killing them, but catching them.
Together they set out, intend on finishing the quest today so they could get some more quests underway in the next week. The description told them to look to the towns east when searching for the beasts.
Ten minutes after leaving the town, Starshadow spotted a group of them peacefully eating the crops on one of the towns fields.
Mary told the dwarf to slowly lower the ground they were on without disturbing them. It worked like a charm, and soon enough about thirty of them were imprisoned on a small hole in the ground. Mary told the two elves to use the crops around the hole to form a cage around their pit.
Thirty minutes after finding the beasts, they were ready and started their attack. It was over quickly enough, with Taimanu and Mary firing their spells and the two lizards killing them with their weapons. After killing the required amount, they withdrew and opened up the cage, so the rabbits burst out and quickly ran in the forest.
They collected their bounty and returned to the academy only two hours after leaving, quite pleased with their success.
As it turned out, they were the first group to return, so after submitting the rabbits, they got their real card, and advanced to copper rank. As the day was still young, they uniformly decided to take on another quest.
Again, nothing interesting, but that would change as soon as they advanced in ranks.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
For their next quest, they had to find some of the less common herbs in the forest, again something that was really easy as both she and Taimanu had experience in forests and while uncommon the forest still had plenty of them if you knew where to search.
They still needed the rest of the day to find the required amount of herbs. All in all the day had been satisfactory, they managed to complete two quests. Next morning Mary was up early ready to do some more quests.
They met after breakfast again, ready to start early in the morning, they weren''t the only ones with that idea though, as all but one of the other teams arrived at the guild with them. Luckily there were enough low level missions for all of them.
While adventurer ranks enabled you to do missions of their respective difficulty, an employer could add a required amount of completed quests to the commission, which rarely happened in the lower ranks, but as the academy was a school first of all, most quests available were blocked by those requirements, so you did good in trying to complete as my missions as possible.
As they would have to wait for another month to pass before being able to progress further, they would have to complete as many quests as possible beforehand, to be permitted to advance, they would need at least twenty completed missions, if they were to do the advancement quest at the academy that is.
The first of the longer quests would be available after completing five missions.
Their goal for today was completing the last three quests and going on a longer one tomorrow.
This time, they accepted three quests at once so they could save the time they would need to return to the academy. As they were the only ones to do so, they were the last of the groups to set out.
The first quest today was actually a repetition of their first quest, though they were faster this time as the others already understood what she wanted them to do.
After Taimanu froze one of the rabbits and they took a proof of kill from the rest. They left the fields surrounding the town after only an hour this time, and entered the forest. They had to find and hunt two Gefacs, a lizard that grew up to fifty centimeters in length. They weren''t really dangerous, like everything they were allowed to hunt.
Finding them would have proven difficult without her, because they rarely left the trees they lived in. As she had a view from above, she was able to find them in quick succession, so after four hours of hunting, they only had one mission left.
After a short break for lunch, they resumed their quests.
The last one would prove harder than the previous ones though. They had to hunt a couple of Dorigs, a species of small weak wolves that was the limit of what they were allowed to hunt at their
After Mary and Taimanu had spotted recent traces a few hours later, they started to set up the trap. The rabbit Taimanu froze earlier was used as bait and deposited under a tree. With the help of the two elven wizards they hid in the tree. Their scent concealed by the blooms of the tree.
An hour later, they could see their prey carefully approaching. It took another ten minutes for them to be in a range where they could be sure to kill them instantly. Mary prepared one of her lighting bolts, while the two elves took aim with sticks they sharpened as arrows and Taimani one of her ice spells. The trap worked like intended, and after taking a proof of kill they started the way back towards the academy. All in all, they were faster than anticipated, and had perhaps three hours of daylight left.
After completing their quests they went to dinner together, happy to be allowed to do something more interesting for the rest of the week.
After rising early once again, they went back into the hall and started to search for an interesting quest. They found one with several steps, which while not challenging, would prove interesting at least.
The quest had several stages. First they had to find a rare herb. Then they were to use said herb after finding the tracks of their prey to lure it to them and kill it without damaging the fur.
They would be hunting a creature named Calyc. It was a very rare feline creature that was said to be incredibly careful. Of course they were only rare because they were hunted whenever one was sighted them, because their fur was beautiful.
Finding the Krelda required to lure the Calyc took the first day, as they had the advantage of a beastkin in their team, so they could just follow Taimanu¡¯s nose to the smelly plant.
While they had been given a rough location of their prey, they still needed another day to find any tracks.
Afterwards it was as simple as following the tracks to a source of water as they had no hopes of sneaking up to its lair. Planting the Krelda near the pond it seemed to frequent. The monster they were hunting was nocturnal, so in preparation for the night, they rested for the rest of the day, eating the food they took with them.
The sun set and Mary started to control the air around their small camp. While airmagic couldn''t make one invisible, it was really efficient against foes that heavily relied on smell. The spell she cast created a bubble of air around them that slowed the movement of air and as such stopped their smell from spreading. A Calyc¡¯s eyes were excellent as well, so to counter that the two elves raised plants all around their campsite.
Surprisingly the spell didn''t cost much mana, she could probably keep it up for most of the night.
They already had a plan on how to kill the monster without damaging its fur. While she could kill it with one spell, that would singe the fur and as such decrease the furs value.
Around midnight their prey finally appeared, attracted by the smell of the Krelda. Mary prepared to drop her shield and stun it with a weak lighting attack.
The monster noticed them at the same time her spell hit, their smell needing some time to reach it. The Calyc¡¯s muscles started convulsing while she already cast her second spell. This one restrained the beast, lifting it in the air to prevent any escape.
Afterwards they approached it and ended the monsters misery with a quick stab in its eye, killing it without any damage to the fur.
The quest clearly required the whole body, so they had Taimanu freeze it again and finally went to sleep.
The track back to the academy started as peaceful as it could, until sometime around midday Starshadow spotted something disconcerting.
They were being followed by a small group of humans that did everything to stay hidden.
Chapter 29
The people following them didn''t seem to have their best interest in their heads. That was problematic, as she had no way of knowing they were there, but couldn''t let them follow them like that as well. Hell Starshadow only spotted them because some of the metal they had with them was reflected by the sun shining through a hole in the trees.
As of now, they were still a kilometer behind them though they catching up fast. Continuing at this speed, they would reach Mary and her group in two hours, far away from the safety of the academy.
She looked at her companions and debated lifting one of her secrets. When looking at Taimanu, she got an idea. Taking control of a big chunk of her mana, she started to cast a spell that could solve the problem. Over the last years, she had improved at concealing her mana when casting spells, so with utmost care, Mary cast a spell that would hopefully solve her problems.
The spell would create a strong gust of wind blowing in their direction that would hopefully bring their pursuer¡¯s scent to Taumanu.
It was one of the most ambitious spells she had cast in her life, so she took all the time she needed. The spell was dependant on several factors. As she couldn''t start it manually, because the strand of mana she would need to set it off could alert their hunters she had to include a timer, so the spell would set off once the people behind them passed it, so she couldn''t cast it entirely with her sorcery and had to rely on some of the runes she learnt back home. The second variable was the direction of the spell, something she bound to a small pebble that Starshadow would drop directly in between them and the hunters.
Casting the spell turned out even harder than initially assumed, as it turned out combining sorcery with manual runes was extremely complex. She managed nonetheless, and after about ten minutes of forming the spell she anchored it in a tree they had just passed.
At first Taimanu had been scared at the prospect of visiting the human school,, but she agreed anyways, as the mission seemed very important to her father.
She had been lucky and got a room next to a human noble, though their first meeting hadn''t been what she had imagined. She had been inspecting the door next to her room because it smelled of bird, though no one but her could smell it.
Getting used to the nonexistent senses of the humans had actually been the most difficult part of adapting to her new home. That probably was why she hit right of with Mary, the other girl having better senses than all other humans.
Her friend was a very talented sorceress and Taimanu was sure she was even more capable than she let on.
She had been elated when they managed to get on the same team, though the first quest were all things she could do since her early childhood. The one they were returning from just now had at least been something new, though it still lacked any real excitement.
Suddenly she felt a spell going off behind her. Turning to see if the others noticed as well, she saw they hadn''t. Not surprising to be honest because she had an been able to feel spells being casted better than those around her since birth, and humans were really bad at detecting such stuff. The only person better at detecting magic than her was Mary, so she had to have cast the spell. Her friend knew what she was doing all the time, and if she didn''t want the others to detect the spell she surely had good reasons to do so, so she decided to let it be and ask Mary when they were alone.
They were alternating in leading their group back towards the academy, so they didn''t miss anything important on the way. The teacher accompanying them had been quiet for most of the time, content on letting them do what they wanted as long as their lives were not in danger.
An hour later, Mary started leading their group and she joined the others in the back. Suddenly a strong gust of wind blew past them, a very disconcerting smell in it.
When she had first joined the human society, she had been confused by their lack of clues how they felt, they lacked a tail or ears tio express themselves after all, but over the past months she had learnt the smell of humans changed with their emotions and she was getting better at understanding them.
The wind carried the smell of a small group of humans that were out for blood, something the students in the academy rarely felt, so she needed a few seconds to understand it, but after she did, a shiver ran down her back. They were the only people nearby that could be the groups target.
She turned to the teacher.
¡°We are being followed by a group of humans that is out for blood.¡± His relaxed posture and demeanor straightened slightly.
¡°How do you know?¡±
¡°I smelt them, their scent was in the wind that just blew past us!¡±
Now he was fully awake.
¡°How many are there?¡±
Sniffing the air once again, she replied.
¡°Five humans, three male two female!¡±
¡°How long till they reach us?¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°I can''t say that, wind carries smell over large distances, they could be anywhere from a few hundred meters to a few kilometers away!¡±
Mary joined them, alerted by the sudden stop.
¡°Why did you stop, did something happen?¡±
¡°We are being followed!¡±
¡°That sounds ominous. How is following us?¡±
¡°Five humans, they want to kill us!¡± Taimanu shivered again, the reality of the situation slowly catching up to her. The others all looked uneasy as well, there were stark differences between humanoid and beast enemies after all. And they were in no way ready to take on actual humans.
Sadly, the others would never be able to run from grown up humans, they just lacked the endurance and height to do so.
By the standards of her people Taimanu would be called an adult in half a year, on her seventh birthday.
¡°We won''t be able to outrun them, so we¡¯ll have to fight!¡± Mary stated.
¡°With the advance warning we got we can prepare for them and hopefully even the odds a little!¡± Mary said, once again seamlessly taking control of their group, even the teacher seemed at least willing to listen to her plan, Mary just had this aura of command around her.
She looked at the two elves.
¡°You two will start to subtly influence the underbrush to slow them down and we others will search for a suitable spot to defend ourselves!¡± She turned to the dwarf.
¡°You should try to make the ground we move over as uneven as possible to further slow them down!¡± She turned to the teacher.
¡°Any input sir?¡±
¡°Nothing young lady, you seem to have a plan and as long as these people don''t threaten your lives I''m willing to see how the encounter plays out. The only humans out here should be some brigants, something mages like you should be able to handle easily.¡±
¡°Very well, let''s get moving than!¡±
They resumed their journey faster than before, the prospect of people following them motivating them to move faster.
They reached a suitable spot half an hour later, a large clearing with a big tree in its middle, and immediately started the rest of the preparations.
¡°Taimanu, you start drenching the soil with as much water as possible!¡± Mary turned to the dwarf.
¡°Start making the soil as loose as possible please!¡±
The two elves had to form a protective ring of plants around them. The teacher was tasked with raising the ground they were standing on.
It took another hour until she could smell their hunters approaching.
¡°They¡¯re drawing near!¡± She hissed to them. As they reached the clearing they hesitated, seeing their preparations. Afterwards one of them stepped out and addressed them.
¡°NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU HAND OVER THE FALCONBRIDGE GIRL!¡±
That was certainly surprising, and disconcerting, they wanted one of them specifically which hinted they were way better than a random assortment of bandits. The teacher seemed to be of the same mind, as any traces of boredom were replaced by anger and alarm.
¡°LADY FALCONBRIDGE IS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE ACADEMY OF AGORA, THERE IS NO WAY WE WILL HAND OVER ONE OF OUR STUDENTS TO SOME LOWLY BRIGANTS!¡± He yelled back.
¡°WE ARE HIGH PROFILE MERCENARIES, SOME TEACHER AND A FEW CHILDREN WON''T STOP US!¡± He yelled back. As no further answer came from them, he retreated back under the cover of the trees. As soon as he was out of sight, the teacher spoke up.
¡°That''s not good, they are way more than we anticipated, I sent an emergency signal to the academy, but we will have to hold out for an hour, even the headmaster needs time to fly here! The preparations you all made are as good as they will get, so regenerate as much mana as possible until they start to attack, I will shield us against attacks and leave it to you to incapacitate them!¡±
Mary could see how the mercenaries split up and started to surround the clearing. She counted twenty of them, about two thirds of them had the air of a mage. Holding out for an hour would prove challenging, if they wanted a chance they would have to deal as much damage while they were still underestimated. She looked at Dehla and the other lizard.
¡°You two throw back their melee fighters, I guess they will try to surround the clearing so we have no path to retreat, so one of you goes south and the other north!¡± She turned to Taimanu.
¡°We will break their mages shields, I¡¯ll call out a target and you start hitting it with spells, I hope you have your managem with you, because if we want to hold out as long as possible we will have to take out as many as possible in the opening seconds of the engagement. After we both take out one of them, concentrate your fire on my target!¡± She turned to the rest of their group.
¡°You have a crucial role, after Taimanu and I break through a shield you will trip trip and secure them to the ground, take care they are unconcious!
Alright, do you understand what you have to do?¡± They all nodded.
¡°Very well, here they come!¡±
The group of twenty emerged from the forest surrounding them, the melee fighters charging straight ahead while the mages started preparing spells to break through the teachers shield.
¡°The one next to mine!¡± She directed Taimanu and then threw a powerful lightning bolt at the most powerful mercenary. The spell used up a third of her mana pool, but that turned out to be overkill the spell easily broke through the weak shield the mage had prepared.
Her target was thrown back by her spell, already unconscious or dead in the air. Taimanu¡¯s spell had a similar effect, though less dangerous for its recipient. The icicle broke his shield and pinned his leg to the ground, electing a loud cry of pain from the mage.
Three of the melee fighters suddenly were slowed down as they arrived in the perimeter Mary had the others prepare. Three of them were tripped by the others, and shackles of roots and stone bound them to the ground. While the three others were preparing their next spell, ready to bind the two mages Mary and Taimanu had hit, the opposing mages finished their spells.
Twelve fireballs streaked across the clearing, hitting the shield the teacher threw up at the same time.
From what she could see, those were meant to intimidate, they didn''t pack much punch, and fire wasn''t all that effective against magical protections anyway.
Mary fired off another lightningbolt, this time at the weakest of the bunch, hoping to catch him off guard as he was on the other side of the clearing.
¡°TAKE COVER, THEY PACK A PUNCH!¡± The one nearest to the two mages they hit first yelled. While her and Taimanu¡¯s spell hit, the experienced mercenary had already strengthened his shield and their attacks were ineffective. Before the three melee fighters could retreat, they too were caught up in bonds of roots and stone, reducing the effective fighting force of the mercenaries by eight, they were still outnumbered, and lost the element of surprise.
Chapter 30
Captain Thorne was having a really bad day. When they had been contacted by a noble of the neighboring nation, he had thought they were finally moving up the food chain. When they reached Edruin¡¯s capital, the noble told them they had to kidnap a child he accepted, even though that was nothing he was comfortable with, the noble promised them a recommendation on top of their reward.
They travelled to the school the kid they had to hunt was studying at and started gathering information. They were lucky, their prey was on a low level quest to hunt some feline creature. They immediately set out to find them, and managed to follow their tracks after they broke camp. As they were nearing their prey, the forest suddenly got harder to travel through.
They managed to catch up to them a few hours later anyways, where they found an unpleasant surprise, they had somehow been spotted and now instead of quickly overwhelming a bunch of kids, they had to assault them head on.
The following conversation had yielded yet another unpleasant surprise, apparently the school had at least some sense of concern for the security of their students, and sent a teacher to take care of the children.
And now only a minute after they assaulted the clearing, their effective fighting strength was down to twelve. Of course, all of them were mages, the six melee fighters of their company were all bound to the ground. After assembling, he spoke up.
¡°It looks like we underestimated them quite a bit, the teacher is quite talented holding a shield against the twelve of us!¡±
¡°Here is the plan, we are still about a days travel from their school, so we will attack their shield in irregular intervals!
We have time on our side after all, and the spell that broke through Hubertus shield looked really dangerous, so take no chances, always have your shield up when you leave cover and hit them hard and fast, you know the drill!¡±
The decision to press on and make sure to get to them today had payed out as they could now play it safe and slowly whittle down their opposition without worry of any of reinforcements.
He got up, cast his shield and went to the clearing again, shot a fireball against the group in the clearing, this time one that wasted less mana on flashiness and used its power to explode upon impact. Before he could retreat back in cover he was hit by two spells, which nearly broke his shield, the combination of lightning and ice was really nasty, there were no spells more effective against shields in general than lighting attacks and none that had more penetrating power than ice.
After arriving back at the staging ground they used for their attacks, he mentioned Yasmond to him.
¡°Don''t go and attack them, they would break your shield, you¡¯ll have to sit this one out!¡±
If the teacher was as powerful as Hubertus they would probably have to keep this up for an hour until they broke through the shield, he was pretty sure they would be ready to surrender the girl to them then, making the rest of their job way easier.
The next hour was repetitive, with each of his men throwing spells at the barrier to keep their opponents on the edge.
As the first hour drew close, another one of their number had been taken out by the lightning mage, but the shield started to visibly weaken. By his estimation, they should break through in thirty minutes. He neared the clearing once again, staying in cover.
¡°IF YOU HAND THE GIRL OVER NOW NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO THE REST OF YOU. BE REASONABLE, WE CAN ALL SEE HOW THIS WILL PLAY OUT!¡± He yelled. After getting no answer, he returned back to their camp.
¡°Well boys, it looks like they won''t surrender, so let''s get to it shall we?¡± Suddenly he heard something behind him, something dropped to the ground right behind him.
¡°Get to what, what where you baberians about to do?¡± Spinning around, he saw a woman in the attire of a magical scholar standing behind him, glaring at his men and him with an angry scowl on her face.
¡°And who are you, to insult us just like that, we have you outnumbered twelve to one!¡±
¡°I¡¯d still beat you all to a pulp if there were a hundred of you!¡± She scowled at them again.
¡°Who do you even think you are, attacking my students unprovoked?¡± If what she said was true, they really had bad luck, running in another of the academy¡¯s teachers when they started their attack, but luckily she chose to confront them without the other teacher and her students so they should be able to easily deal with her.
¡°You don''t get to threaten me and my men after insulting us!¡± He growled.
¡°Show her the folly of barging in a camp and insulting the inhabitants! Give her hell!¡±
As one, all twelve of his men unleashed their full power against the woman.
Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next, instead of faltering under the combined magical powers of all of them, the woman laughed, her shield of water absorbing all punishment they threw at it without even faltering.
The most problematic thing about that was that she seemed to speed up the whole time.
Suddenly, instead of standing upwards and casting spells, he lay on the ground, his men next to him, all bound to the ground.
Looking around, he could see the ones they lost at the clearing as well, even Hubertus, while looking worse for the wear, looked very much alive, if a bit singed.
He could see the woman that somehow rendered them helpless on the ground, talking with a middle aged man. On the far side of the clearing, he could see a group of kids excitedly talking with each other. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
One of them, a black haired girl suddenly moved in his direction. She sat down beside him.
¡°I see the headmasters spell finally wore off.¡±
¡°What spell, she didn''t cast anything?¡±
¡°Well a group is weak as yours shouldn''t, she is a water and time archmage after all. You never stood a chance, especially as she was pissed she had to fly all the way here!¡± Thorne silently cursed to himself, had they known there was an archmage near, they would have cut their losses upon arrival, to hell with that noble. The mission was doomed to fail from the start.
¡°You see, I wonder why you would take such a mission, you seemed reasonably competent, you didn''t search for information of course, but your skills in battle are decent for a group your size. And yet, without apparent reason, you decide kidnapping a noble is a good idea.¡±
¡°We didn''t know you are noble, we thought you were some brat that offended the noble and he wanted some personal payback.¡±
She looked at him incredulously.
¡°Are you stupid? Only noble names have an animal in their last names!¡± She looked at Hubertus. ¡°You know, I''m really relieved I didn''t kill that one.¡± And with that, she left him lying there.
Verecundia was royally pissed off, someone actually had the nerve to hire mercs to kidnap one of her students. Luckily they had been noticed before anything bad could happen. Taking care of them had been easy enough, they had nothing to defend against her time magic.
What she had been told didn''t make any sense though, the beastkin¡¯s nose may be good enough to smell them over that distance, but the gust of wind that tricked them off was just wrong. As the wind blew in the opposite direction this time of the year.
She really didn''t know what to think about that. Her college told her it didn''t originate from the children, though he also added he had never been able to see if the Falconbridge girl cast magic.
Theoretically it was possible to perfectly conceal your cast, if the control you had over your mana was perfect and you stopped any stray mana appearing out of your spells.
Of course that wasn''t really necessary, as the miniscule traces that appeared were next to impossible to notice by most. That he couldn''t sense the girl casting magic was nothing short of astonishing though, he was quite adept in sensing mana.
That however, begged the question how the girl knew they were being followed. She really respected the baron, otherwise she would have the girl bound to the ground as well, there was no way she should have been able to know they were followed if even the beastkin and teacher hadn''t noticed a thing.
There was only one real way to find out what was happening, so she called up her mana and messaged her father directly.
¡°Lady Verecundia, what gives me the honor of your message?¡±
¡°I have a small problem with your daughter here!¡±
¡°Did something happen to her?¡±
¡°Well not really, a couple of mercs wanted to kidnap her, but I dealt with them.¡±
¡°What''s the problem them?¡±
¡°You see, they should have been successful, but were spotted by one of her teammates.¡±
¡°How come they should have been successful, if they were spotted by a child?¡±
¡°More like smelt, your daughter is friends with a beastkin that joined the academy this year, and she managed to smell them because of a gust of wind that blew in the wrong direction.¡±
¡°I fail to see where my daughter comes in here!¡±
¡°She is the only one of the group she was with who has enough control over her mana to hide it from the teacher I sent with them!¡±
¡°So you are saying she somehow spotted mercs behind them that even a beastkin couldn''t and instead of saying anything relied on an untested spell to tip of the beastkin? Come on you know how that sounds.¡±
¡°I do, it sounds exactly like someone raised by you would do, always hiding their true capabilities!¡±
¡°Now tell me how she did it or I will have to throw her out regardless of her talent!¡±
¡°You know you won''t be able to push me with threats. We have been there already and you know where that leads.
I''m not cruel, I''m gonna give you something, but you¡¯ll have to find out the rest for yourself, though you will have to assure me you won''t talk about any of it to anyone.¡±
¡°You have my word.¡±
¡°Take a look at her pet!¡±
And with that, the insufferable man cut off his supply of mana and ended the spell. She mentioned the girl over to her.
¡°So I was told you showed impressive decisiveness and intelligence in dealing with the situation.¡±
¡°I just did what everyone would do!¡±
¡°Oh you did so much more, you may have been able to fool your teacher, but I want to know how you knew the mercs were there!¡± The girl looked at her with innocent eyes.
¡°Because Taimanu told us, she has a really good nose!¡± Verecundia condensed some of her mana around the girl.
¡°Don''t play games with me, we both know she was only able to do so because you delivered the smell to your friend!¡± After finishing the sentence, she looked around herself and saw she had overdone it, all students around her except the beastkin and the one she wanted to intimidate were shivering in fear.
¡°That''s mean, the others didn''t do anything!¡± She was yelled at. It baffled her, normally none of the first year students were resistant to that. Reabsorbing her mana she looked at the two quizzingly.
¡°How did you manage to withstand that?¡±
¡°My father has a much more terrifying aura when he is angry, even across the mansion.¡±
¡°The more powerful members of my tribe did the same, that had their aura up to scare the weak beast away.¡±
¡°The two of you, follow me now!¡± She bellowed.
After they were out of range for anyone to hear them, she turned back to the two.
¡°I already talked to your father, and being the insufferable human he is, he only told me to take a look at you pet, now I will only ask this once, what is your pet?¡±
¡°I have a falcon!¡±
¡°Is there any way to call him, or is it her?¡±
¡°His name is Starshadow. But I will only call him if you don''t hurt him!¡±
¡°Done, I didn''t plan to do so anyway. Now call him!¡±
The girl simply raised her arm, and a minute later a falcon came falling down from above.
After landing on the offered arm, the bird started to groom his feathers, seemingly content with sitting on his owners arm.
On the first glance, she could see nothing extraordinary, so she sped herself up.
Apart from its behavior, she noticed nothing that distinguished it from other falcons she had seen, the mana pool was clearly larger than normal, but nothing she hadn''t seen before.
Really strange considering Branston had yet to lie to her even once. That meant it had something to do with its strange behavior. There were several reasons an animal could behave differently than its wild brethren ¡ no that couldn''t be, could it.
She had heard rumours he always found talented kids, but something like that, surely not.
Luckily, it was easily verifiable.
It was actually true. The girl had a familiar bond with the bird. But that wouldn''t explain why she was able to spot the mercs.
¡°The bird is your familiar!¡± She stated.
Chapter 31
¡°The bird is your familiar.¡± The headmaster stated. She did sound quite shocked.
¡°And don''t you dare try to deny it, we both know how easy to verify that is, in fact I already did!¡±
¡°And how did you get to that conclusion?¡± She asked, she would have to fix that after all, sure the headmaster was old and experienced, but she still should need more time to get to the idea of checking something like that.
¡°Because of your father, he told me to inspect your bird and has yet to lie to me, so with nothing really out of the ordinary, except a very large mana pool, its speciality had to be its behavior, and there are only a few ways to make an animal behave as different as yours, one of which being the familiar bond. I have no clue how you managed that, normally it takes up to three years for an animal to have enough trust in a human to open up for a familiar bond!¡±
¡°He was enjoying to be near me!¡±
¡°You don''t have to tell me, the meeting of a mage and his familiar is something only the mage needs to know! What I need to know though, is how you managed to spot them and what role did your bird have in it?¡±
¡°He saw them and warned me!¡±
¡°And just because your bird warned you of something you set up a trap for these mercs, without knowing what followed you?¡±
¡°Of course, he warned me of sentient hunters that couldn''t be lost!¡±
The headmaster didn''t look satisfied, but she seemed fine with the answer for now. Mary felt a tug at her arm, where she saw Taimanu looking a her with puppy eyes, something quite ironic considering she was a cat.
¡°You already have a familiar, I want one too, but my father told me to wait.¡± She pouted.
¡°Why were you allowed to get one?¡±
¡°I didn''t know I was binding him as my familiar, it just happened, I rescued him while doing my first ranger test, and a few months later he trusted me enough to be my familiar!
Of course, when his mana opened up to me I had no clue what was happening. My mana was attracted in ways I didn''t know back then, so I just went with it out of curiosity."
The headmaster shook her head, looked at her quizzingly once again and then said.
¡°With that unpleasant conversation out of the way let''s return to the group, I will accompany you back to the academy.
Don''t worry, we will thoroughly interrogate them to find out who hired them!¡±
¡°No need to bother with that.¡± Mary said.
¡°What do mean by that?¡±
¡°There is only one noble I know of that would be stupid enough to think he can get away with this. He recently lost all his social standing in the empire because some of his secret activities were exposed to the noble population of the capita by my father so he has sufficient motivation as well. That noble really brings the worst out of my father, I didn''t even know he had a vindictive streak until I saw the two of them dealing with each other.
Though I also have to say it''s understandable, I met the guy one time and he really is one unpleasant fellow!¡±
¡°Now who do you think it is?¡±
¡°Viscount Snaketon.¡±
¡°I know that one, when we refused his son because he lacked the talent to join he personally came visiting to give me a part of his mind. Thought throwing around his rank would actually get him anywhere.¡±
A day later they arrived back at the academy. The townsfolk was buzzing with excitement when they saw them return with twenty prisoners after the headmaster shot off to somewhere the previous day. They delivered their prisoners to the towns small prison and proceeded to the academy.
They were awaited by a crowd of students, that found out about their arrival. The headmaster forbid them to disclose any details, a badly veiled warning in her harsh words.
She had known there was no way they would be able to keep everything under wraps, but decided nobody needed to know the finer details, like the intended target of the attack.
Mary was really looking forwards to sleeping in a real bed again, the one part about adventuring she really disliked!
She promised to herself she would find a way to take a bed along on her travels once she was fully grown up.
While flying would help a great deal as long as she stayed in civilized territory, she had plans to explore the middle of the continent as she felt a deep fascination since the first time she had heard of it.
Over the last years her mana pool had increased enough for her to fly for twenty minutes, nothing she would be able to use to reliably travel anyways.
These thoughts were for later though, as they had to finish their quest first. After arriving at the central tower, they went to one of the clerks.
¡°We completed our latest quest!¡±
¡°What did you have to do?¡± The woman asked.
¡°We hunted a Calyc!¡± With the last word, she took the fur out of her backpack and carefully placed it on the desk in front of her.
After inspecting it, the receptionist looked up again.
¡°That''s some top quality fur, new adventurers like you lot usually take a lot longer for that quest only to deliver worse results. How did you manage to kill it without damaging the fur?¡± That was no secret, so Mary told her. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
¡°That''s quite ingenious. If you lot would had over your guild cards I can update them.¡± The clerk cast a spell on each of their cards, it was a really simple one and she was able to cast it herself, sadly she couldn''t skip grinding quests by updating the card herself as her manasignature wasn''t authorised to do so and the card would turn invalid if she did.
¡°There you go, I have been informed of the extra excitement on your way back. If you manage to not reveal any details as a group, you will get another completed mission for it.¡±
After finishing their business in the guild, they went into one of the restaurants in the city, celebrating their survival and the completion of their first decently complicated quest.
While the food wasn''t as good as the stuff her father¡¯s cooks could create, it was significantly better than the food the academy had to offer.
They had one day for adventuring left, and decided to do a few easy quests tomorrow. Next monday, school would resume for them. Mondays were quite slow, with only two subjects to learn.
In the morning, Mary had to go to advanced mana control. After lunch she would have sorcery training. There were only two weeks left as a group, afterwards they would go on with personal training, so her mondays would be even better.
After a hearty lunch, they all went their separate ways. Mary, Taimanu and Dehla went to the training fields and started another sparring session with the lynxkin watching them fight.
An hour later she and Taimanu went in the academy¡¯s park. She had promised her to properly introduce her to Starshadow and was going to fulfill that promise now. They set down in a small clearing between some hedgerows. Mary cast a spell that would mask any sound they made and called Starshadow down to them.
This time, she allowed him to land like he normally did after learning air magic.
It always looked impressive when he came falling down and only slowing down long after normal birds would.
By the look in the lnyxkin¡¯s eyes, Mary judged she was duly impressed.
¡°How did he do that? I have never seen a bird slow down so fast!¡±
¡°I taught him several spells, he is able to fly like no other falcon. The one he used to land increases the density of the air below his wings. The spell enables him to slow down or turn faster when he is flying. Teaching it was quite difficult as it is quite dangerous if the increased density isn''t evenly distributed below his wings, it¡¯s quite possible he would crash!¡±
¡°What did you teach him first then?¡±
¡°An easy spell that is derived from flying with airmagic, it just increases the speed the air flows below his wings, allowing him to fly faster with little use of mana! The spells I taught him enable him to fly way more efficient, that''s the reason he is able to stay in the air for the whole day.¡±
¡°When I have my familiar I will teach him magic too!¡±
¡°When your familiar opens his mana for you, make sure to keep it under control!¡±
¡°Why?¡±
¡°I didn''t tell the headmaster, but forming our bond took an hour because I slowed it down, as you may know your mana mixes with that of your familiar, but the faster that happens the less uniform it gets, so if you keep control and slow down you will be able to use your familiar as a second pair of eyes! That''s how I saw the mercs as well, I always have a second pair of eyes in the sky above me!¡±
¡°I can''t imagine how that must be, I would be really confused if I had to process two pairs of eyes at the same time!¡±
¡°It was at first, but I got used to it quite fast!¡±
¡°You mean to tell me the apparent sluggishness of a familiar bond is artificial as the mana isn''t mixed properly?¡±
¡°Yep! Normal people can''t see through their familiar¡¯s eyes because the quality of the bond limits the amount of information that can be transferred, I was able to teach him magic because I could transfer enough information to him to make casting magic to supply his flying instinctive!¡±
¡°I¡¯ll make sure to keep that in mind. Do you mind if I watch you teaching him something?¡±
¡°Not at all, if you wish I could start right now.¡±
¡°That would be great, what do you want to teach him next?¡±
¡°I think his mobility in the air is good enough now, I was going to teach him some lighting!¡±
¡°How long will that take?¡±
¡°It should take about two months, I¡¯ll start with a simple spell that coats his feet in lighting so he can stun his prey.¡±
¡°Thank you very much!¡± Mary grinned at her.
¡°You know you¡¯ve been making good progress, you rarely do any of your monologues in the last days.¡±
¡°I know, I have been getting better, my father will be so proud once he hears about it. It''s all thanks to you, you are always calm and that rubs off on me. My people¡¯s minds always age slower than our bodys, it¡¯s in our nature, we are very excitable in the first ten years of life.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad to be of help!¡±
Three days later, Mary was bored out of her mind, while most of the topics in the academy were at least decently interesting, magic theory proved to be the biggest disappointment. Of course rationally she knew she shouldn''t have expected anything, not everyone had a mom knowing advanced magic theory.
While they were researching the difference of the bond she and Starshadow shared as well as finding three dimensional runes her mom started educating her in it.
If she was honest with herself going to the academy wasn''t really necessary for her, there was probably nothing the teachers could teach her that her mother couldn''t, she was a leading researcher in magic after all.
Normally she distracted herself by watching Starshadow hunt in the surroundings, but today''s topic was so boring she started to slump in her chair as well.
Suddenly the teacher stood in front of her, an angry scowl on his face.
¡°Am I boring you my lady?¡± He asked with no small amount of venom in his voice.
¡°Yes.¡± She decided denying the obvious wasn''t worth it.
¡°Is that so, care to enlighten me why?¡±
¡°Sure, I already know all the stuff you teach.¡± That took the wind out of his sails, obviously not the answer he expected.
"Stay here after the class!" He commanded and continued with his lesson.
Another hour later, the lesson was finally over and Mary stayed behind for the private scolding the teacher was sure to give her.
¡°So, how come you know everything I teach? That''s not someone of your age should know!¡±
¡°You know my mother?¡±
He nodded.
¡°I helped her with some of her research and she taught me the stuff you teach years ago, so I can reasonably help her.¡±
¡°Is that so?¡±
¡°Yep after I was adopted I wanted to know everything there was to know, at first I think she just wanted to be nice without really hoping for any reasonable help. I figure she thought I would get bored soon enough and stop by myself. That didn''t happen, I really wanted to know everything and still want. so she started teaching me in earnest, seeing I could really help her!¡±
¡°Just so we are on the same page, when you are talking about helping your mother do research, you mean helping Diane Falconbridge?¡±
¡°The one and only!¡± The teacher had a thoughtful look on his face.
¡°I have a proposal for you then, I will design a test containing all the topics I will teach this year, if you manage to pass it with more than eighty percent of the questions answered correct I will make sure you get promoted to the advanced class. If you fail you start paying real attention to my class! Do you agree?¡±
¡°YES!¡± She shouted out excited, anything to not waste her time on basic lessons like the one she just had.
Chapter 32
The next two months passed in a flurry. The test in magical theory proved to be as boring as the lessons themselves, while her mom only taught her the answers to fifteen of the one hundred questions, every half decent mage should be able to get the answers to the rest of the questions by himself. Surprisingly it only took five weeks to teach the lightning spell to Starshadow.
Afterwards he became a scourge for all the animals previously way to big for him to carry or kill.
Just now, she was watching two of the older students fighting it out in the arena, while she saw him hunt a Klym, a evolution between the wild dog and the common wolf. It was really impressive watching the thirty centimeter tall bird fall down and kill a beast seventy times his mass.
Killing him was as brutal as it could get, as the bird was too small to kill it properly.
Mary watched the spectacle being equally disgusted and fascinated by the hunt of her familiar.
After eating his toll, Starshadow took into the air and flew her way. Ten minutes later he arrived at her window and she let him in.
Strangely, although his mana was full he didn''t use it to increase his flight this time.
After landing on her shoulder, the bird was suddenly overtaken by a deep fatigue and promptly fell asleep. After checking him for any injuries, she found nothing.
Ever since they bonded his endurance had been greatly increased, no normal falcon was able to stay in the air for a day after all, so seeing him sleep while she was awake was unusual to say the least. Still greatly concerned about him, she tried to wake him, but to no avail.
Without any options, she set him down in the nest she prepared in her room and went to bed herself, the falcons fatigue transferring through their bond.
The academy¡¯s healer would not concern herself with an animal and she wasn''t allowed to go into other dorms to get one of the other students look at him.
To her great relief Starshadow was up and about when she awoke. Today was Saturday so she didn''t have anything to do. Their group had planned to do some quests in the afternoon again, just like they did every weekend since joining the academy. That still meant she had the entire morning to find out what happened yesterday.
After donning on her armor, Starshadow landed on her arm, where she noticed something strange.
He was a little smaller than before and his manapool had increased significantly.
His coloration changed as well, some of the feathers turned white and black on his back, while the feathers on his belly turn lighter, decreasing the visibility from below.
It took a minute for her to understand what had happened, but after she did, she couldn''t help an exclamation of joy, her familiar had evolved.
So after breakfast, she went in the library to find out what he evolved into, she already knew most of the common evolutions of a normal falcon, but she knew none that actually decreased in size.
Sadly, the library was severely lacking information about evolutions of avian species. With nothing better to do, she returned to her room and started a message spell to her father with her mana battery in hand.
¡°Hi dad!¡±
¡°¡±Hey Mary, what gives me the honor of your call?¡±
¡°Starshadow.¡±
¡°Oh, what about him, you mean why I told Verecundia about him?¡±
¡°No that''s not it, I would have called earlier if that was the case, I need help to determine his species, he evolved last night and I don''t know into what!¡±
¡°He evolved?¡± Her father asked excited.
¡°Describe his appearance!¡±
¡°All of his senses have improved, he shrank five centimeters in height and his mana pool increased significantly. Furthermore his feathers changed. His belly is now light brown intermixed with white and his back got some black feathers.¡±
¡°...¡±
¡°Dad, you still there?¡±
¡°Yes, I was just surprised, I don''t know the specific evolution, but the feathers sound exactly like those a royal falcon has, like the one on our banner.¡±
¡°I thought royal falcons were really rare and deeper down the evolutionary ladder?¡±
¡°They are, as far as we know any falcon has to evolve at least three times to become one, though you only get to see that specific coloration after two evolutions.¡±
¡°So he will be one of the kings of the sky one day?¡±
¡°I does certainly look that way, make sure you take good care of him! Now how did you manage to evolve him so fast? The best my people got was one evolving after ten years, most of them die of age before that though!¡±
¡°I don''t know, I didn''t do anything really different, though I did teach him how to use magic.¡±
¡°That could be it, I''m sure your mother will want to examine the theory once you get back. Sorry I couldn''t be of more help!¡±
¡°No problem dad, at least I know I won''t have to worry about him once there.¡±
¡°Take care of yourself Mary! Make sure to call your mother once in a while, she misses you. Don''t worry about Snaketon, I will make sure he understands there are worse things than losing your social rank!¡±
¡°Ok, by dad!¡± She was really happy her mother and her had found a better message spell while working, otherwise a conversation such as this would hardly be possible.
After finding out why she could see through Starshadows eyes, they found a way to significantly improve the efficiency of the spell, which was by now one of the most significant advantages her family had over others.
They next to no need to have precious mana wasted for communication, as every decent mage in their employee had enough mana for a short conversation. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
With nothing better to do than waiting, she called Starshadow to her after retreating back in the gardens. After yesterday he needed a way to kill his bigger opponents faster than picking out their yes and trying to fry their brain with lightning.
There was a spell that would fit perfectly.
It arranged the air in a crystalline structure, just like her first spell to improve her eyesight.
It effectively formed a blade of air perfect for stabbing, so he could use it to directly kill his prey after stunning them.
The blade was useless in a fight as it would easily shatter if it was hit by a real blade, furthermore it was way better at exerting force parallel to the blade itself.
Awaiting yet another morning of repetitive casting of the spell in his body, she was surprised to see he started picking up the basics after only an hour of learning.
After that, she examined his manachannels more thoroughly. The check in the morning had been more a small sweep out of curiosity, without any real depth. Now though she did a very throughout inspection of his mana.
As it turned out, the exterior changes were nothing compared to the interior ones, her familiar¡¯s manachannels had more than doubled. His possible output of mana increased by fifty percent as well, even though only half of the new ones lead out of his body.
his muscles grew denser, which was the reason his weight didn''t decrease as much as it should have, furthermore, after letting him fly around a bit, she noticed the spells she taught him before were used like parts of his body, her familiar was the most agile bird she had ever seen.
Even the higher evolutions her father''s people managed to obtain were nothing compared to her familiar now. As lunch approached, she sent him to hunt something for himself, promising herself to watch closely.
She met Taimanu and Dehla in front of the mess hall, and started chatting with them.
¡°Did something happen mary, you are kinda distracted?¡±
¡°Mhm!¡±
¡°And what?¡±
¡°Mhm!¡±
¡°Are you even listening?¡±
¡°Mhm!¡± ¡®Suddenly the face of lynxkin appeared in front of her.
¡°BOO!¡± Jumping slightly out of her seat, Mary looked into the grinning face of her friend.
¡°Got you, for the first time! What''s the matter?¡±
¡°Oh, Starshadow evolved over the night and I was kinda distracted, trying to figure out what happened.¡±
¡°There is no cause for evolution, it just happens when you are ready!¡± Dehla stated.
¡°Of course there is, everything in our world follows certain rules, we just haven''t found them yet!¡±
¡°And you want to do that, when even the greatest minds of the past failed to do so?¡±
¡°Of course I do, there are few things more interesting than magical research!¡±
And with that, she zoned out again, watching with increasing fascination how her familiar tested out his bodies new boundaries. At first, he saitiated his unending hunger with prey normal falcons ate, but soon enough, he moved to pry normal falcons had no hope to catch, either being too fast, heavy or simply too big. The Klym he hunted yesterday had been all three of those things.
She was reasonably confident it had something to do with that, but had no way to be sure.
After lunch they assembled in front of the central tower, the dwarf being last as usual.
The quests available were better than two months prior, they advanced a rank after all, next week they would be allowed to take another advancement quest, having completed a total of fifty quests, half of those in the rank. The quest had been as easy as anything else, they had to hunt down a small group of tribeless kobolds that caused problems for the farmers by reading their fields. The seven were easily found and taken care of, though Mary had to puke once the deed was done, while kobolds were seen as monsters, she always felt a strange kinship to them, just like to goblins.
The reason she puked was another though, these kobolds had been the first intelligent beings she had ever killed, something that didn''t sit well with her consciousness. That night, she cried herself to sleep, something that didn''t happen for a long time!
The last time she did was the third night after leaving the orphanage. The first two days had been too full for her to properly process everything around her and the full realization of never seeing her friends again came crashing down in that night.
While she still wasn''t comfortable killing the sentient monsters, she was able to do it now, though with half of her team sharing the sentiment they tended to avoid them.
Todays quest would, once again prove way too simple for their liking. One of the farmers discovered a nest of rodents near his field. While they had yet to cause serious problems, they would in time as they were breeding way too fast and the forest around their nest was quite devoid of plant life and anything they could hunt.
As location had already been given to them, Mary only had a routine glance over the area, intending to let her familiar continue his hunt afterwards. As it turned out, the nest was already out of control, there were hundreds of rodents, In equal parts horror and fascination, Mary saw the group hunt a deer by piling on it and biting it to death.
Luckily, it didn''t look like they were enough to develop a hivemind, because if that were the case, they wouldn''t be able to deal with them.
Before they entered their territory, Mary put up a windshield that should keep all but the biggest rodents from closing in on them.
¡°Alright everyone, we are nearing their territory, they will probably try to swarm us with numbers, so I put a shield up, make sure you don''t leave its perimeter or you are lost! They are only strong because of their numbers, so hit them with any area of effect spells you have, while the melees kill those that manage to break through!¡±
A minute later, they crossed the boundary to the rodent territory and the attacks started, at first only small groups of four or five discovered them and were promptly dealt with, but a short while later their numbers increased with every passing minute, fifteen minutes after entering, they were surrounded by the group that just hunted the deer and they started piling up around her shield, the light ones being blown away when they tried to pass, while the fat rodents easily penetrated it only to be killed by their melee fighters.
Mary and the rest started using their most powerful area spells, killing dozens of the little beasts with every attack. Soon enough, the numbers around them started to decrease significantly and they were once again able to advance.
They found the nest two hours later, and had Taimanu burn it to the ground for good. Of course there was no way to get all of them , but they didn''t have to, the quest only called to destroy the nest and kill all rodents they met on the way, which they did. Overall Mary estimated they had killed about five hundred of them.
After returning to the academy, Mary went to the counter to submit the quest. As there was no way for a single team to take a proof of kills for beasts like this, the guild used truthstones that determined if the party did as they said.
¡°We completed the quest, though that was way more than most Tin ranked teams could handle!¡±
¡°How so?¡±
¡°We killed at least five hundred of them, give or take three weeks and there would have been enough of them to form a hivemind and you know how dangerous those are!¡±
¡°I¡¯ll make sure to forward you complaint. Anyways, if you would testify the completion of the quest here so I can update your cards!¡±
¡°Thank you very much, and congratulations on surviving!¡±
They left for dinner afterwards, where one of the elves looked at her.
¡°Are you sure they could have evolved in a hivemind in a week?¡±
¡°Yep, they are at the upper limit of beasts that can form one, so they would need about one and a half thousand individual to do so, but you know how fast they reproduce. Though I''m not sure it would count as evolving, groups of small beasts like this usually get smarter the more of them are there, but to reach true intelligence they need a certain amount of themselves. A true hivemind would have killed us there, it would have traps ready, and even getting through my shield would have been relatively easy had they worked more as a group and less as a mob!¡±
¡°So we were lucky to survive?¡±
¡°No, I knew we could handle it, you can normally recognize the territory of a young hivemind quite easily and then I would have called a retreat!¡±
¡°How do you know all this stuff?¡±
¡°Most of my time back home was spent reading in my father library!¡±
¡°Didn''t you have any friends?¡±
¡°Not really, we didn''t have any children in the mansion and all the other noble children I met were dismissive of everyone below them I never wanted to see them after the first time.
Furthermore I trained many things so even if I wasn''t reading I was busy!¡±
¡°I can''t really imagine what something like that would be like, I''m so glad i was born as an elf!¡± The girl said.
Chapter 33
Mary thought it was high time to try and find out how evolution worked. Evolving weak plants was already within their capabilities as they lacked the innate manashield every creature had, as well as lacking any personal mana.
After getting some grass out of the park and some weed from the fields, Mary started her experiments. Planting all the plants in orderly rows, she carefully infused them with differing amounts of mana. The first got about a quarter of the mana needed to keep a light spell going for a minute.
The amount of mana a light spell needed per minute was the unit commonly used for low level spells and called Makdo, named after the man who defined it.
The mana in every consecutive plant was doubled, until all the twelve plants had been infused, though she infused every amount in two different plants.
The next thing to do was wait, so she did a simple quest with her team, continued teaching Starshadow the new spell and had her normal sparring session with Dehla.
On the next day after class she returned to her room and saw nothing changed, sure the plants grew a little but in essence were still the same as yesterday.
So, she equaled the amount of mana in each plant and continued infusing them with mana. This time, she added an additional Makdo, once again doubling the added mana per plant.
Twenty four hours later, she returned, and once again nothing had changed, so she repeated the process.
Finally, the first blade of grass evolved. Doing the maths in her head, Mary came to the conclusion that it needed between seventy three and one hundred and four Makdo to evolve that grass, so she took the rest of the grass blades, and infused them in steps of six in order to see if there was any change.
The wheat didn''t show any change, so she just continued like before, while getting another ten grass blades to see of there was any difference when they were instantly infused compared to infusing the mana over three days.
A week later, Mary decided to finish her experiments on the grass. As it turned out, grass always evolved after adding exactly one hundred and twenty Makdos.
The only reason the first grass evolved had to do with its age, as it collected some of the ambient mana over time. By now, her room had thirty blades of grass.
The wheat needed way more mana to evolve. The first stalk of it evolved five days after she started her experiment after she added four hundred thirty eight makdo to it. A wheat plant needed a total of four hundred and fifty mana to evolve.
Now that she could confidently say she knew how to evolve plants, she decided it was time to change to living creatures. She had Starshadow bring her ten small lizards, each of which got his own cage.
Reasonably confident the creature would need way more mana than any of her previous experiments, she tried to start her infusion with one hundred Makdo¡¯s.
Or she tried to at least, but the manashield of the creature blocked all but a miniscule amount of it.
Due to her mana control, she managed to break through the animal¡¯s shield in little under a minute. After infusing the mana, the lizard instantly started convulsing in obvious pain.
Mary instantly withdrew her senses causing the creature¡¯s mana shield to spring up once again, that didn''t stop the pain though, and two minutes afterwards it stopped moving.
A careful probing turned out it was dead.
After killing half of her test subjects this way she gave up, the last one died with only one one hundredth of a Makdo.
Even if they were able to survive smaller doses, evolving that way wouldn''t be useful and take longer than they naturally lived. Furthermore, both the grass and wheat had survived thousands of times more than that.
She would have to try and evolve a plant with a manashield to see if that was the case with plants in general or only with ones that lacked their own manashield.
To test that, the next time they were on a quest Mary infused a small tree with mana while they made a break. As it turned out, the tree died as well, though it needed longer than the lizard, managing to survive for ten minutes.
She had of course already heard of manapoisoning, it was after all quite common for mages to get once their last spell used up all their remaining mana, depending on the time it needed to get the mage to a healer, perhaps fifty percent survived the process though.
After that test, she was sure she would have to find another way, as that one would prove fruitless in the end.
She had another idea though, so she went to one of the enchanters and paid them to enchant all the empty boxes to stop mana from passing them.
Afterwards, she set her remaining lizards in the boxes, noted down their mana pools and filled each box with a different concentration of mana.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Even if the experiment would prove successful, she decided to use the remaining boxes to stock up on lizards and go the other possible route to evolution.
As the headmaster had noted, Starshadow differed from normal falcons in two ways, his manapool and his behavior, so she decided it was time to try changing that.
As plants didn''t have any behavior to change, she would forgo them and instantly start with lizards.
The first thing she did was finding out what food they liked best, which she then would use to train them. The training worked better than anticipated, and after only two weeks they started showing significant changes in behavior. She had trained each of them to do something different to get their favorite food, and her five lizards were by now known throughout the academy. Taimanu really liked them as well, often visiting her to watch her training.
After the mana pool showed a miniscule increase, Mary started increasing the concentration of mana in each cage like she did with the plants.
One of the lizards had died once again even though the manaconcetration in its cage was only two times that in the air.
The maximum they could tolerate was an manaconcentration fifty percent higher than normal. As the species weighted about a fifth of Starshadow she thought it reasonable that they wouldn''t need a fifth of his manapool to evolve too. If her estimation was correct, she would have the lizards evolve in time, though it would probably take three years to do so.
Mary was five months in the new term and one announcement brought her out of her studies like none other could have, their team was finally allowed to do the first adventurer class advancement. Afterwards they would have to change their team and form a new, with other students in the academy.
Advancing through the Nickel and Zinc ranks was just as easy as both previous ones, so they all were reasonably confident they would be able to complete that quest as well.
Their quest was scheduled to be completed in two weeks time, they would be the first of their classes to do it as they were the first to reach the required amount of completed missions.
Like with all advancement quests held by the academy, they would be accompanied by one of the teachers.
Though this time the teacher would prove even more important, as they would do said quest in the neighboring dwarven kingdom of Muiden. It was said to be among the most advanced countries in magical enchantments and machinery, though severely lacking in spellcraft.
So all things considered Mary was already quite giddy to visit a different culture.
Of course they would only visit the outskirts of the kingdom, so she didn''t expect anything too different from home, but it would be interesting nonetheless!
Of her team only she knew the dwarven language as learning a different language wasn''t all that useful for most of the empire¡¯s citizens, they would never leave it after all.
Even though, they all had to learn the spells required to communicate with different people. Sadly those spells only worked for spoken language and had no use for written one.
While communication through these spells was widely used, all successful merchants had long ago learnt the language of the country they were trading in.
It was even more important to learn other languages for nobles as it was highly impolite to use your own language or use spells when visiting other countries.
Anyways, she was currently teaching her group the basics of the dwarven tongue, something she thought appropriate. After all, they already had language lessons, but were currently taught one of the elven languages which was spoken in the second country within easy travelling distance of the academy.
From what she gathered, they would be hunting a Hugbear, a powerful evolution of a bear that had an ability to add mana to his roar, which would shortly incapacitate his foes.
Furthermore, the beasts fur bunched up, creating some kind of quills, making it look like an overgrown hedgehog. The beast liked to grapple and ¡®hug¡¯ its opponents, his quills piercing most iron and leather armor while doing so.
Luckily, while quite fast and a deadly predator, it couldn''t take much punishment as the fur covering most of its body pre evolution had grown together to form the quills so a lot of its skin wasn''t covered in the thick fur of normal bears.
As far as she could tell, the beast had lived in the proximity of the city for quite some time, but until now hadn''t bothered the dwarves in the area. Something had enraged the monster though and it had started hunting them.
There weren''t many adventurers that liked to get up close and personal with such beasts.
The borders of the empire and its neighbors always were safer than the rest of their countries as the respective armies had heavy patrols in the area and as such took care of most powerful beasts they ran into.
Without work most powerful adventurers tended to life in the center of their counties, only leaving them for beasts the army couldn''t handle or didn''t care about.
Being faster and nearly indiscernible quiet in forests it was way more dangerous than most adventurers liked.
Even thinking about it made Mary snort in disgust, over half of the existing adventurers were content to stay in the lower ranks. Another third stayed in the middle ranks doing the same. With only ten percent, the upper and leader ranks were the smallest and most powerful group in the guild.
Intellectually she knew that there was no need for all that many powerful teams as most threats the people faced were easily taken care of by the lower ranked adventurers, she just couldn''t understand why they were happy staying there when they could easily advance.
Mary really looked forwards to the fight, and had already prepared several possible ways to fight the monster depending on terrain, weather and distance to them. She was reasonably sure they would once again succeed without losses, or would if they weren''t protected by the teacher.
Sadly, her lizards would probably die if she kept them in their boxes for the week they would need for the quest, so she decided to set them free.
Once the midterm holidays started and she returned home, she would recreate the experiment and have her mother look after it, as the time she would spent away from the academy would only increase.
The rest of two weeks passed in a crawl, even spellcrafting couldn''t get any excitement out of her and that had been the most interesting of the lessons by far.
While sorcery helped you to cast any spell of your affinity, Mary found out it didn''t do so in the most efficient manner, so learning how to properly structure your spells helped to conserve your mana and gave her spells additional punishment that normal sorcerers lacked, never bothering to learn basic magic theory. Of course that didn''t apply to any of the more powerful ones.
Chapter 34
The last two weeks had been a horror, as Mary had been waiting for the to pass. She had, once again taken up to further evolve her plants, trying to find an upper limit of the evolutions she could still influence. As of yet, she didn''t, though she wasn''t in it with as much enthusiasm as before, and didn''t use as much mana for it as possible, instead saving it up for the upcoming fight.
She let them grow in the boxes where she previously kept the lizards, a spell taking care of them.
She could already see the dwarven city in the distance. While the walls were as high as in any other city, most of the buildings apart from the castle, the guild, some inns and some odd houses that were for larger residents.
As they were using some of the larger roads, they managed to cover fifty five kilometers a day, so after only a day and a half of travelling they already arrived at the city.
Their first stop was, naturally the adventurers guild.
Confidently, Mary strode to the counter and started talking to the attending clerk.
¡°Hey there!¡±
¡°Hello young miss, what can I do for you? Do you want to post a quest?¡±
¡°We are here for our advancement quest!¡±
¡°Don''t you think you are too young to be part of the guild?¡± She showed her card to the man.
¡°I am a member of the adventurers guild, and we travelled all the way here to kill that Hugbear that had been bothering you in the last weeks!¡±
¡°My apologies, but that monster is reserved for a group already, they should arrive any time now, they even came here from the empire!¡±
¡°That''s us, we are from the Empire and were told we would be allowed to kill it for our advancement!¡±
¡°And how come someone as young as you can speak dwarven as good as you do?¡±
¡°Obviously I learnt it from a young age!¡±
¡°And why would you learn that? There aren''t all that many of the empire¡¯s citizens bothering to learn other languages than their own!¡±
¡°Some of us are required to do so!¡± She gave an angry and very pointed look, finally taking out the permit that had been given to her.¡±
The dwarf grinned at her.
¡°You certainly have your way with words young noble of the Empire. What do you want to know?¡±
¡°I¡¯d like to know everything you have on that particular beast, its hunting spots, its lair and any habits you know about!¡±
¡°Oh you are one of those. Very well, we don''t really know where its lair is located, but if you have a map of the local area I can show you where our people were attacked.¡±
¡°That would be helpful, just a moment.¡± The clerk marked several spots just east of the city.
¡°There you go. I assume you know how they do their hunts?¡±
¡°Yes!¡±
¡°There isn''t much of a habit, though it always hunts at roughly the same time every two days. The only other significant habit a heard about is quite strange, it seems it likes hugging people way more than most of his other species, while they normally only do so without other enemies around, it likes to charge in, take one of the group and give them a quick hug and retreating back before most groups have really noticed it¡¯s there.¡±
¡°That''s a really nasty thing to do!¡±
¡°There is another thing, quite interesting as well, there are several poisonous berries it rubs on his quills!¡±
¡°That''s really nasty, so it has way more cunning than most of his brethren, anyways, when is its next hunt?¡±
¡°Last time I heard it attack someone yesterday, so tomorrow!¡±
¡°Thanks a bunch mister, good day to you!¡±
¡°Good day to you too!¡±
She went over to her waiting group.
¡°We have a day to prepare, this specimen is quite intelligent, don''t let it hit you or you will get poisoned by its quills! Furthermore it starts its fights with a quick ¡®hug¡¯ incapacitating one person right at the start, so make sure you stay in a group. I presume it will roar directly at the start, hoping to stop any retaliation before it gets one of us!
I did some digging while we were still in the academy, and the roar seems to be air magic, something I should be able to counter. When you hear a roar, stay still and don''t move, we don''t want to scare it away after all, when the Hugbear is committed, start attacking it! Any questions?¡±
There were none, so they went in one of the inns, agreeing to meet early next morning, while Mary started observing the hunting grounds looking for the best place for their fight.¡±
Considering it was still early afternoon, after finding a perfect spot, she decided to go explore the city.
Strapping on her sword and armor, she went to Taimanu¡¯s room and asked her to accompany her.
The city was certainly exotic, while most building had three to four stories, they still looked small even compared to the small town around the academy. At least in height as the area the city covered was way bigger than that of the town.
most of the cities residents were dwarfs, and the few houses meant for elves humans and the lizardfolk were all located in the shadow of the walls, presumably as to not destroy the artistic look of the city.
She had to admit the city was a marvel, not as exotic as the capital, but they only were in a city near the border. She was sure the capital look way more impressive.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The dwarves showed their skills as craftsmen and enchanters, as most of the houses ad some kind of enchantment lying within their foundations. Just by looking around she learnt a few new runes that she would make sure to test out once back at the academy.
¡°So many small people, I didn''t know there were as many of them as that!¡±
¡°You shouldn''t call them small people Tai, they don''t like being called that! Call them Dwarves!¡±
¡°Why is that so, I wouldn''t be offended if someone called me a cat, well I would because I am a lynx but you get what I mean!¡±
¡°Yes I do, but dwarves are a proud folk, and they think anyone calling them small is trying to belittle them!¡±
¡°But nobody does that!¡±
¡°That not the point Tai! Just don''t do it and your life will be easier. I will have to teach you how to handle different cultures one day, learning that in the third year is way too late!¡±
¡°Aww do I have to, we learn so much anyways!¡±
¡°Yes you do, you don''t want to fail a quest because of accidentally insulting the client now won''t you?¡±
¡°Ok.¡± Taimanu¡¯s ears and tail dropped adorably, and once again Mary had to fight the urge to pet her, the only thing that would enrage a beastkin.
¡°Luckily they couldn''t understand you!¡±
While beautiful to look at, the dwarven city soon lost its charm. At dusk, they returned to the inn, having a hearty dinner with their group and the teacher before going to bed for the night.
Mary was up early, so she set out an woke her team, making sure they were sufficiently prepared for the hunt.
After breakfast, she took out the map and started explaining the plan.
¡°Alright, listen up, as you can see the Hugbear always hunts in the same area, it seems to have developed a taste for dwarves and will take them over other things, even easier prey!
As you can see its mostly seen in these areas, so well try to comb at least two of them and hope it will find us, if it doesn''t, Tai and me will try to track it down to its lair while you settle down and wait for us!
Like I said yesterday, stay as a group as much as possible and if you spot something tell me immediately! I will make sure you aren''t affected by its roar but stay still anyways.
As you know this will be the last mission we are allowed to take together, so let''s continue our trend.
I don''t want to lose our last quest!¡±
They were the first to leave the eastern gates that day, and the guards told them in no uncertain words that only fools and idiots left the town to the east.
After thirty minutes of following the road, they arrived at the first spot on their map, their prey nowhere to be seen. Of course, Starshadow was already searching for the beast, ever since his evolution he had been even more useful for her as she could ask him to do way more complicated things than before, just as she was about to turn to one of the other sites, he told her he found it, it was on its way to one of the other hunting grounds, a logging site the dwarves used.
If they hurried, they would manage to arrive just before it. Even better was the fact that said site was the optimal thing for the encounter as all the logs that were abandoned there would help limit the impact of the beasts charge by quite a margin.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the site of the fight. as luck would have it, the wind came out of the direction of the beast, so Tai told them to expect it.
¡°Alright, let''s go in the circle of logs there, that should be able to stop it, Dehla if you think your weapon can stop it you can try to do quite some damage. Don''t use fire or it will go on a rampage and make sure to net let it get anywhere near you! Otherwise, try piercing attacks if possible, I will use my lighting to slow its reactions!¡±
Seconds after she finished, she could feel a buildup of mana in the direction of the beast, so she quickly raised the spell that should counteract the attack.
The moment she raised the shield, they all heard a powerful roar from the far side of the clearing. Her spell didn''t work just like intended, she could feel the effect was greatly weakened, but it had another component than the air she blocked, so parts of it still took effect.
After the roar, they could see it charging out of the treeline. She could still move, and it seemed as Starshadow hadn''t been affected she was able to snap out of it almost instantly, though the fear she had felt had been quite unpleasant.
¡°Snap out of it! Prepare! Turn on it in 3, 2, 1, GO! She hissed at them, turned and shot a bolt of lightning at the monsters snout.
It let out another powerful roar, this time without the magic and increased its pace in anger.
With that mass charging at them, she really wanted something other than a few logs between her and that monster.
That didn''t matter, they were committed now, and she started focusing her spells on one of its feet, hoping it would lose control for a short while.
After it crossed two thirds of the clearing and only needed to cross another ten meters, her gamble paid off and it stumbled, leaving behind a bearsized track and finally being stopped dead by the logs and Dehlas halberd piercing its back.
The others had snapped out of their magic induced stupor and started hitting it with spells as fast as they could manage.
Of course the monster wasn''t nice enough to sit there and let them kill it.
The hugbear was on its feet only seconds after coming to a stop, destroyed the little cover they had.
Dehla landed a good hit above the monsters eyes, causing it to roar in rage again, but obstructing its sight as the blood started flowing out of the wound. Their other melee fighter had, by now, crept around the monster and attacked the tendons of its hindlegs.
He was successful and the bear turned around to attack him instead, giving them time to attack again. It stood up, trying to plow down their friend, when Taimanu landed a perfect icicle in its neck, causing it to fall down in rage. Without the ability to move, they were able to easily take care of it, killing it in minutes.
Taking the proof of their kill, they returned to the city, none of their usual chatter present. That monster had been way more powerful than she had thought possible, and she would have never forgiven herself if one of her team had died. She would have to make sure to be better prepared the next time, and not rush it like she did today, without the terrain they would have lost at least two of their own!
While she had some accusation against herself, her team had no reason to be so down, they solved the situation expertly after all.
¡°Stop the sad faces, we are Bronze adventurers now! You did extremely well today, of course what happened shouldn''t have happened if I planned properly. You all did good, Douho, good thinking, I''m sure you saved Dehla some quite severe injuries! And nice shot Tai, hitting its spinal cord like that!¡±
At her words, her team perked up, walking a little more straight, and their faces lost the scowl and started smiling. Taimanu looked at her.
¡°You did nothing wrong, your planning is the reason we are where we are, and we had no idea that thing would be as powerful as it was, none of us think it¡¯s your fault!¡± She said that with such conviction and emotions that Mary couldn''t doubt her words, and she even started to smile after the rest agreed with the lnyxkin.
They returned to the city half an hour later. Without any pause, they went to the guild to get their rank updated. Mary went to the same clerk as yesterday.
¡°I''m back!¡±
¡°Welcome, you need more info?¡±
¡°No, we killed it!¡±
¡°Well that was quick! You know what I need?¡±
¡°Of course, here is the proof!¡± He looked at them.
¡°You are better than you look, taking out something like a hugbear without serious injury is nothing to scoff at, congratulation on reaching the Bronze rank, if you would give your cards to me so i can update them? ¡±
He did just that, as well as giving out the rewards, as they turned to leave, he shouted into the room.
¡°THE EAST IS SAFE AGAIN, THIS GROUP KILLED THE BEAST THAT PLAGUED OUR TOWN FOR THE PAST WEEKS!¡±
Everyone already there started cheering, though as it was still morning quite a few of the tables were still empty. Some even wanted to drink with them, but were rebutted by the teacher, something about being too young to be allowed to do that.
Chapter 35
Their return to the academy was joyous, with a spring in their step, they arrived in the academy the day after they killed the hugbear. After a satisfying lunch, they had decided to there was no need to postpone their return and made good progress before nightfall.
The academy had a wall of fame, where all notable achievements were displayed, for example the fastest to reach a certain rank.
Mary and her team were able to score third in reaching the bronze rank. In doing so, they threw the team of the arrogant noble that threw her out of the way on her first day out.
They never had a chance to reach the first two teams as these got the quest as soon as possible like them, but their prey had its hunting grounds near the academy, so they didn''t have to travel as much, of course Mary and her team had had luck in that department as well, having only a day and a half to travel.
She was just on her way to her dorm, when she was surrounded by the group they expelled of the board. The prince stepped forwards.
¡°I know you are a noble yourself, what did you think when driving us from the board, I am your prince!¡± He accused her menacingly.
¡°We are just better, I didn''t even know there was somewhere you were credited about something like that until yesterday!¡± She lied in his face. He squinted his eyes.
¡°I think you did, what noble house did you belong to again?¡±
¡°Falconbridge.¡±
¡°Ah the fallen house, don''t you think you should be a little bit more careful when dealing with me, you don''t have the backing of a grand duke anymore!¡±
¡°And why should I? You are just one of the princes after all, and you¡¯ll never get the throne anyways!¡± That caused the whole group to yell angrily, and the prince looked at her with renewed hate.
Until now, he had just been angry they stole his spotlight, but now she had offended him. The emperor always choose his successor out of his or his brothers children, not that the imperial family had any daughters anyways. The successor was always the one the current emperor deemed the most worthy, something the one in front of her would never be.
He lacked the personality to do so, seeing as he was the single most arrogant noble in the entire school and thought the achievement of reaching bronze rank would do any good for him. By now his team Silver ranked, able to deal with most of the threats the world had to offer, so she was quite surprised he took offense in that.
¡°And how did you get that conclusion, you don''t even know me!¡± He yelled with barely suppressed rage.
¡°The fact that you are here, surrounding someone two years younger than you with six others people is proof enough!¡± She stated.
¡°Oh I don''t need any assistance to destroy you!¡± She decided to not antagonize him further, he already was near breaking point, and while confident to take anyone of them alone, she didn''t favor her odds against all of them at all.
¡°Obviously, you are two years older it would be a real disgrace if you didn''t!¡±
¡°Now if you don''t have anything more to say, I¡¯ll have to excuse myself, I have somewhere to be after all!¡± Before she could extract herself, the six surrounding them closed where she wanted to go!¡±
¡°You only go once you have properly apologized to you prince!¡± The biggest one of them said. The guy was easily two meters tall, so she really had to look up to see his face.
¡°For what, being better than him, I didn''t hurt him in any way!¡±
¡°For not being respectful and having the audacity to best him!¡±
¡°You know, I would think about it if he wasn''t such a crappy person and only have friends like you!¡±
¡°You don''t know when to stop don''t you?¡±
¡°What do you mean? I just stated the truth!¡± The noble had even less control than the prince, and she could easily afford to offend him, his father was a small baron after all.
While not proficient in it, she had Dehla teach ehr how to do enhancement magic, so taking control of her mana, she infused herself with enough to push him out of her way.
¡°I¡¯ll get going now, I hope to not see you around!¡± She said and pushed him out of the way.
The look on his face was priceless, he just couldn''t believe he had just been pushed out of the way by a girl forty centimeters small than him, apparently without any problems.
Before the rest of them managed to process her disappearance, she took several turns and was successfully out of their way.
Mary would have to make sure to prevent such runins in the future, while they wouldn''t actually dare to seriously hurt her, they could do all sorts of unpleasant things she didn''t want to experience.
The next day started with monster lore, one of the few topics that would never run out of material. There were, after all, an infinite amount of monsters in the world.
¡°Does anyone know the Chloi?¡± The teacher started the lesson with a question as always. Though, this time all of the lizardfolk started to get uncomfortable, something that didn''t happen often. The teacher saw that too, but decided to ignore it, waiting for someone other than them to answer the question.
One of the dwarfs seemed to know it as well, so he started to answer that question.
¡°Chloi are dangerous monsters. While not intelligent, they are cunning monsters and always hunt in groups. They look akin to the lizardfolk, though with elongated limbs longer snouts. They are uniformly brown and move on four limbs. They live in tribelike communities and are able to build basic stuff out of the materials they find in nature.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
¡°Very good, do you know what threat level they pose?¡±
¡°Depending on the size of the tribe anything from iron to silver rank, they can''t use magic, so you need someone who can keep them of your mages for them to kill them.¡±
¡°Very good. Can any of you think of ways to battle them?¡±
Mary raised her arm.
¡°How fast are they, can you outrun them, how good are their senses?¡±
¡°You won''t be able to outrun them and their noses are at the level of beastkin, their eyes are a little better than humans but they are nearly deaf.
Any more questions?¡±
None came, and like always they got some time to come up with ideas how to fight them.
Like every single time, one of the other nobles started with the same stupid idea as always.
¡°Charge straight in their tribe and kill all of them they are stupid and don''t need a plan to be dealt with!¡±
¡°We already discussed that, nobody wants to charge monsters, especially when they are stronger faster and meaner than you!¡±
¡°Anyone except Mary has any ideas?¡± He asked, already expecting her to have thought of a plan, like she always did. The lizardfolk raised their hands as one. One of them was chosen to talk.
¡°My people have many ways to deal with the abominations, but killing one and letting it lie around their huntingroute riles them enough to get the whole tribe at once.
Usually you get a mage or two built some basic fortification with a choke point and then kill all of them like that. Extreme prejudice is the only way to deal with them!¡±
¡°Ah yes the lizardfolk have a racial hate for them as well ever since a country killed all their tribes because they thought them to be the same!¡± The teacher said.
¡°So Mary anything to add to the age old method the lizardfolk use?¡±
¡°Nothing significant no. I would have suggested a different lure bit that works as well. To get anything better would need more time and detailed information.¡±
¡°That''s good enough for me.¡± The teacher stated.
¡°Let''s move on, the probability you¡¯ll have to fight Chloi are next to nil anyways, as the lizardfolk exterminate them whenever a tribe is found.
Two months later, they were once again out in the forest, on their quest to rank up to iron rank, hunting a spitting gibbon, she had a new team, though she managed to get her two friends in her team once again. This time their team was made up of an elf wizard, an other of the lizardfolk, a human force mage and a healer.
As they were approaching its hunting grounds, Mary started laying out the plan.
¡°Ok, we are approaching our target. I will cast an illusion that will disguise three of you so our prey will even consider to attack, furthermore I will cast a shield to stop the initial acid attack.¡± She smiled confidently.
¡°Kaeso you will inlay a forceshield into my shield, so we can stop its charge. If we want to succeed at the first try we will have to be strike fast and true, because if the ambush doesn''t work, it will run away.¡±
¡°I gather we¡¯ll have about thirty seconds until it recovers from the shock of the barrier and the noise of the spell I¡¯ll cast. Remember to shield your ears or that will hurt like hell¡± She turned to Dehla.
¡°You two will have to cut in the tendons of its legs so it can''t jump in the treetop to escape.¡±
Sadly, they had no earth mage or that enemy would be way easier to defeat, by anchoring a net in the ground after stopping the first charge.
At first, Mary cast the spell she learnt for the hunt and three of them vanished.
After trekking through the territory of the gibbon for nearly an hour, her shield was finally hit with the acid, which was then flung away exactly as planned, landing on a nearby tree and melting through its trunk.
Seconds later, one hundred kilograms of angry monkey barreled into the shield of the force mage from somewhere out of the treetops and were stopped in their tracks.
Immediately afterwards she casts a modified lightning bolt that didn''t even hurt the gibbon as it discharged all around them in a pretty lightshow.
More importantly though, it created a deafening sound that had her ears ringing even through the prepared shield.
The monkey, still recovering from the shock of the interruption of its charge shrieked in pain, as it started to wail in pain.
Everything worked as planned and the two lizards cut the tendons in its legs, stopping an escape.
While unable to properly use its legs, it still fought lime possessed, until Taimanu ended its life with a lance of ice into the brain.
¡°Nice shot Tai, good work the rest of you too, let''s get the pelt for our crafters as well as a proof of kill and return to the academy. Next time remind me of taking one of the academy¡¯s Kekos with us, all these bones will be going to waste.¡±
An hour later they had finally removed the pelt from its previous owner, it didn''t need it now after all.
They started their return to the academy, when Mary saw something angry swinging through the trees through Starshadow¡¯s eyes.
¡°Incoming!¡± She yelled and threw up a shield.
Seconds after her warning, a glob of acid was deflected by her shield, which was broken directly afterwards as the gibbon¡¯s mate cracked it.
Initially it had been aiming at her, seeing as she was the second smallest of their group, it didn''t go for Taimanu because beastkin were more agile than humans and she¡¯d have a decent chance to dodge it.
Of course Mary wasn''t human and had an advance warning, so instead of its momentum being stopped by her body, it was stopped by the ground.
Without warning, she cast the same spell as before, once again causing the beast to wail in pain, this time though, it didn''t stop the attack and started to close in on her.
She managed to dodge the first attack, but the second hit her in her left arm and sent her on the ground. It hurt like a bitch, she was pretty sure the arm was broken as well.
Before the beast managed to close in on her again, Dehla threw herself between them.
Mary¡¯s spell didn''t affect the lizardfolk as much because they didn''t hear as good as others, missing ears and all that.
Dehla managed to deflect one of the attacks with her halberd, and defend herself from a second one with her arm, breaking it in the process.
The others recovered from the shock and started attacking the beast as well.
Kaeso cast a spell she had suggested he learn, a forcecage that seriously hampered the movements of a foe.
With its mobility and strength restricted, they managed to regain the initiative.
The broken arm temporarily forgotten, Mary stood up again, though that wasn''t actually needed to cast magic.
She shot a lightning bolt at its eyes, overloading the visual receptors of the monster for a few seconds, blinding it.
Taimanu, who managed to shield her ears in time, finished her spell as well, freezing the gibbons head while heating its feet, confusing the beast.
With a freezing head, hot feet, restricted movement and no hearing it overcame its anger on its mates death and turned to flee.
They didn''t allow it to though. Shortly afterwards it was dead and their healer took care of their injuries.
She healed all of their ears and Mary and Dehlas arm as well as quite a few scratches the lizard had received.
¡°That was unpleasant, it would have been nice to know there were two of them.¡± Mary grimaced.
¡°Sorry for the spell, I panicked for a moment.¡± She apologised.
¡°No problem, just take care it doesn''t happen again.¡± The healer said.
¡°It won''t, now let''s take this thing apart and return to the academy.¡±
Chapter 36
Iron rank was the rank the interesting quests got available. The previous two rankup missions could be interesting as well, but nearly all missions were simply harder versions of the quests you could do in the lower ranks.
All quests they had been allowed to take so far had either been go there and kill x monsters or go there and collect x plants, nothing interesting.
That was about to change though, because Iron ranked adventurers were allowed to take on special commissions, which had better pay and interesting quirks to them.
Furthermore, they were officially allowed to go and hunt without the assistance of a teacher as they were acknowledged to be able to deal with most threats they would come across in the lands controlled by the empire.
There were as many different quests as there were people, so the diversity as well as difficulty between bronze and iron rank was phenomenal.
Probably the hardest quests special hunting quests, where you had to capture a monster instead of kill it.
Currently they were doing one such quest, having to capture a hobgoblin for one of the teachers who wanted to make experiments on it.
While that didn''t sit well with her, goblins were known to be partially sentient after all, she gave into the insistence some of the new members to do it.
The quest would be easy enough as she had one of the academy¡¯s alchemy students make her a potent sleeping dust and would apply it to the monster with wind magic.
Unlike the big monsters like drakes, capturing weak humanoids was easy. It would only get challenging once they reached higher evolutions, where simple poisons or other alchemedic brews wouldn''t affect them for more than a second.
Finding the goblin proved to be far more challenging than anticipated. The empire¡¯s goblins had learnt long ago that they would mostly be ignored as long as they didn''t bother humans. Sometimes they were hunted anyways but there was nothing except hiding they could do to properly change the status quo.
That only applied to normal goblins though, the moment an evolved goblin was found the adventurers guild sent out someone to kill it.
Obviously the teacher had heard about the coming quest and requested it be caught for him to study.
After three days of uselessly wandering the forest, encountering the odd monster every four hours or so, Starshadow finally spotted the hobgoblin.
Subtly changing their course, she went in his direction.
The hobgoblin was a prime specimen of his kind, a meter and fifty centimeters tall he was above average for his species. Though even the slender elves would seem broad compared to him.
Its mouth was full sharp teeth and big enough to split its head in half with a twisted grin. The ears were out of proportions, long, pointed and bigger than most other species.
It had the same green skin all goblinkind had.Slightly changing the course, Mary made sure Taimanu would be able to smell it.
With Mary¡¯s subtle guidance, they were able to get near enough for Taimanu to smell it. Following it further proved easy enough because of that and would be nigh impossible otherwise, as the monster lived in the forest for all of its life and was able to conceal its tracks perfectly.
As they were about to enter the range it could hear them, Mary cast a spell that would suppress their sounds and smell, or the others would surely destroy any element of surprise, crashing through the forest as they did.
With Taimanu taking point a few meters ahead, Mary noticed the ward the hobgoblin had too late and he noticed them.
Unlike the monsters they had hunted so far, it didn''t charge at them, but chose to flee. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
The only smart choice and one that gave her the final shove.
She had been hesitating to take the quest anyways, there were too many unknown factors she could do nothing about. Furthermore she really hated hunting sentient beings regardless of race.
They weren''t ready to take on one of the eastern forest tribes anyways, several hundred goblins had no problems dealing with a group like hers.
With few more months of practice, they would be able to do something. As the others had to learn how to cast the more advanced area of effect spells that worked against small humanoids like goblins first.
¡°We were spotted and he is running.¡± Taimanu told them.
All but one of them looked at her.
¡°What are you waiting for, we have a goblin to catch. Let''s go!¡± The second lizard pressured.
¡°No, we retreat, there is no way we will be able to deal with its entire tribe, which we have no idea where to find. I would like to live more than complete a stupid quest.¡±
¡°Just like that? We didn''t even try. My opinion of humans like you was low to begin with and now you want to run from goblins! Goblins! Why are you all following her, I was silent so far, but that stops now!
I am her superior in all ways, I vote for me to be the leader.¡± He practically screamed, something Mary was quite surprised by, as lizardfolk males were usually pretty meek.
¡°I am leading because I am the best at it.¡± She stated.
¡°Everyone who wants to die can stay with the idiot, but I will return to the academy.¡±
Unsurprisingly none of them wanted to fight the whole tribe and even the lizard didn''t seem to like his chances without their help.
He was rumbling something to himself the whole way back.
Soon enough she saw retreating had been the right choice. With Starshadow keeping watch, she could see the forest teeming with goblins only an hour after they failed to sneak up on the hob. Seeing the mass of green bodies sent shivers down her spine and had her really glad she was done with the quest.
The goblins didn''t give much chase after checking they retreated so Mary slowed down the fast pace she kept up until now.
As they stopped down for the night, she cast her advanced ward and told her team to settle down for the night. She saw the exhaustion of the march she forced them to do after seeing the goblin tribe in every action they took.
The ward would allow her to get the three hours of sleep she needed and she would be able to keep watch afterwards.
Dresk couldn''t believe what was happening. They took one of the easy quests on his urging. Even though the noble everyone seemed to accept as their leader wasn''t really convinced.
That didn''t matter to him, what really was a problem though, was that fact she didn''t seem to respect the daughter of clanlord Duisk as her superior.
When he had been offered an extra reward should his team take the quest, he had been suspicious at first, but seeing the nobles reluctance he happily convinced his teammates to do it. Everything to cause discomfort for the arrogant human after all.
This morning, everything went to hell, after finally finding the useless monster three days after entering the forest. They were about to finish the mission, until they ran into a fucking ward. Nobody told them the monster was a stupid mage.
Instead of doing the only reasonable thing and following it to complete the quest, they fled. From goblins. He still couldn''t understand it. What would some goblins be able to do to them, they were trained mages, iron ranked adventurers. There was no goblin that could best them!
Deciding he couldn''t sleep anyways, he got up and looked around. The noble¡¯s ward was up, allowing them to sleep without interruption. Getting up, he slowly crept over to her pack where the sleeping powder was located. If the rest feared some goblins he would show them what he was capable of. He would prove the human wasn''t fit to lead the clanleader daughter once and for all as well as establish his standing with her.
The moment he opened the pack he could feel a presence looming over his crouched form.
¡°What are you doing?¡± The human hissed.
Straightening himself he towered over her with his height.
¡°As you are all too cowardly to face a few goblins. I will take the matter into my own hands!¡±
¡°Oh no you won''t, they would rip you apart you idiot. Stay here!¡± She commanded.
No she wouldn''t stop him again. All the hate and content of the clanlord¡¯s daughter regarding her as superior and bowing to her leadership came over him at once. Infusing his body with mana for a short amount of time, he surprised the arrogant human and hit her head with all his might, knocking her out cold in one attack and causing a bloody wound on her head. Finally she got what she deserved, the bloody human. She wouldn''t wake up from that for a long time he noted with satisfaction.
Without any further interruptions, he searched her pack and found the sleeping agent shortly afterwards.
Looking at the unmoving form again, he felt a short pang of regret, but it quickly passed.
After a short internal debate if he should take the sword she always had on her as well, he decided against it. He was no thief after all even though no human deserved such an excellent weapon.
Without looking back even once, Dresk set out into the night. He would show these goblins why they were inferior to everyone else.
Chapter 37
Taimanu woke with a start still tired, but already partly refreshed from the little sleep she managed to get.
The moment her nose registered the smell she knew something was wrong. Someone was bleeding and quite heavily too.
Instantly, all sleep vanished and she was wide awake. She couldn''t place the smell of the blood, it certainly was unlike anything she had ever smelt before.
Getting up, she surveyed their camp. The first thing she saw was Mary¡¯s unconscious form sprawled next to her pack.
Running over to her best friend, she was relieved to see she was still alive. The other girl was bleeding quite profusely, but she could see the wound healing visibly albeit not fast enough for her.
Now that someone had noticed something was wrong Starshadow, the source of the noise that woke her calmed down.
First, Taimanu cast the same ward that Mary would have used and taught all of them. Secondly, she woke their healer.
¡°Wake up.¡± She insisted as he didn''t want to wake up at first. After some forceful shaking, he finally relented.
¡°It¡¯s in the middle of the night, this better be important.¡± He grumbled.
¡°It is. Mary is unconscious and Dresk missing.¡± After that, the training all healers got in the academy took over, being so ingrained in his head he didn''t have to be fully awake for it.
¡°Any visible injuries, is the heart still beating?¡± He asked her while getting up.
¡°A bleeding wound on the head.¡±
¡°Not good, I¡¯ll take care of it. Make sure nobody interrupts me.¡±
Afterwards he started his work while Taimanu woke all the others and had them searching the surroundings for Dresk. They found nothing, no sign of struggle or anything else.
An hour later the exhausted human joined them.
¡°She should wake in an hour. I wouldn''t have been able to safely do more than stabilizing the wound but she has some crazy self healing that will take care of the concussion. You wouldn''t believe she is human.¡±
Mary woke with a glaring headache. Looking around, she tried to find out how long she had been unconscious.
It was still in the middle of the night, which was good. She could feel relief flooding through her bond as well. It seemed Starshadow woke the moment she lost consciousness and woke the others. Shaking off the last pangs of unconsciousness Mary sat up to look around.
The fire was crackling with renewed vigor and her team sat around it, chatting somberly.
As soon as she fully sat up, she was tackled by a small form, all restraint the beastkin got in the last months forgotten.
¡°You are fine. I''m so glad. What happened? Where is Dresk? ...¡±
The memory of the last moments she remembered came back. Setting up the ward, noticing Dresk stopping at her pack. Confronting the lizardman and his surprising attack.
¡°Dresk attacked me. I think he wanted to go after the hob himself and when I tried to convince him it was useless he attacked. I wasn''t prepared and he must have knocked me out in one hit.¡±
That stopped everyone and they stared at her in disbelief.
¡°Dresk was always so quiet.¡±
¡°Didn''t think he was capable of something like that.¡±
¡°Why would he do something like that?¡±
¡°I can answer that.¡± Dehla said quietly.
¡°You can? Care to explain why anybody would do something like that, we could have died if Tai didn''t wake up!¡± Their elven wizard said heated.
¡°It¡¯s because of me. He is very traditional and I am the daughter of a clanlord and he thought you all, Mary especially, didn''t treat me with the respect I deserve.¡±
¡°Why didn''t you say anything, if I had known I would have acted differently.¡± She said.
¡°Because it shouldn''t matter. My family gave up on that title decades ago and only extremely traditional families like his still care enough to know.¡±
¡°What''s a clanlord?¡± Taimanu asked.
¡°A clanlord is like a high noble, a person in direct line to a lizardfolk king.¡± Mary answered.
¡°Why did your family give it up then?¡±
¡°It¡¯s an old title, we are content in the empire and were no real nobility since quite some time.¡±
¡°Nothing we can do about that now!¡± Mary stated stopping the conversation.
¡°What do we do know?¡± Kaeso asked.
¡°We wait for dawn.¡±
¡°And then?¡±
¡°Depending on the situation, we continue back to the academy or wait for him.¡±
¡°...¡±
¡°So, how are you able to heal so fast?¡± Darion, their healer asked, not able to contain his curiosity anymore.
¡°My father had someone cast a greater regeneration ward on me. As long as I don''t die and have mana I will recover from every wound within a week. If I get enough to eat that is.¡±
While true, that wasn¡¯t the whole truth. At the start of her sword fighting training she often got bruises which then healed within two hours. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
At one time she broke her arm after jumping from a tree. Instead of letting someone heal it, her father had someone cast a spell to suppress the pain to a certain degree and make sure it healed properly and decreed to let it heal without magic. It was to teach her caution.
What he didn''t expect was her arm being fine two days later. Her body had abnormal self healing capabilities that were only enhanced by the spell that was ultimately cast.
While her father had had a greater regeneration ward cast on her siblings, it wouldn''t help her much considering the spell would try to replace the natural healing of a body.
Instead, he opted for the usually less useful but cheaper and more dangerous method of increasing her natural regeneration.
¡°Your dad really has to love you, having someone cast such an expensive spell.¡± He noted. While the others looked impressed, they didn''t learn healing and as such didn''t know of the ward she was talking of otherwise their reactions would be different.
Commonly referred to as greater healing ward, mages able to cast it were sought after everywhere.
The spell was cast directly on the mana of the recipient and would settle in the body over the course of a week. Afterwards, the spell would lay dormant within the body until you were hurt.
Replacing the natural regeneration of the body, it used the resources and mana to optimally heal everything.
Casting the spell took three hours of continuous casting and cost enough to finacially ruin a small barony.
After a short and sleepless night, Mary sent Starshadow to see if they could save Dresk from himself while they were eating breakfast.
Ever since his evolution, the bird managed to impress her with his speed and intelligence. While he didn''t know where Drask was he flew in the direction they were coming from without her suggestion.
With a speed unrivaled by anyone moving on foot, her familiar found the stupid teammate within an hour.
What was left of Dresk was no pretty sight, the lizard had been spotted before he knew he was nearing the goblins and walked right into their ambush.
Most goblins were too stupid to set up an ambush that wasn''t obvious, but when they amassed in bigger numbers, the chance of a smart one or a hob appearing increased significantly.
Living in the forest for their whole lives, goblins were able to set up deadly ambushes when properly directed by a leader. Still, there were no problems dealing with goblins most of the time, there were no powerful goblin mages until they evolved two times. And without mages it was nigh impossible to win any battle, let alone a war.
Once that happened the kingdom they were in had a problem though, which was also the reason why hobs were hunted as much as they were, they were easy to kill for most adventurers and had the best potential to evolve in a goblin mage.
Nobody wanted a goblin army rampaging through their lands.
She couldn''t spot any goblins near him, the savage monsters probably left him there as a warning for them.
She decided it was safe to go out and retrieve his body and give him a proper burial.
With the wind blowing in their direction, Taimanu was able to pick up Dresks scent only an hour later. It took them another two to get to his body, which looked even more gruesome through her own eyes. The two humans in the party even had to throw up.
Being as inexperienced in moving through the woods as he was, Dresk walked straight into the goblins ambush. Walking through the forest like the brute he was, they had been alerted of his passage long before he was near them and had ample time to set up the ambush.
There had never been a fight, a young tree was used to take his balance as seen by a few scale marks left in its bark.
Afterwards he was probably swarmed by goblins before he could get his weapon ready.
While getting some experience over the last months, they were only now getting to enemies that matched the powers of the students as they joined the academy, so he had yet to experience problems that could kill him.
The goblins had killed him quickly and brutally.
While able to coordinate bigger groups of goblins, hobs weren''t able to control them, there needed to be something much more powerful to control them. Being the savage beings most goblins were, they teared Dresk apart spreading the body all over the forest¡¯s floor.
While they were taking turns digging the grave for their teammate, Mary noticed a small group of goblin trying to sneak up on them.
Looking at the grim faces of her team, she was sure a fight, as easy as it would prove would be good to vent some pent up anger on the atrocities committed to their friend.
It didn''t matter he attacked her, they were sure any issues could have been resolved and they could return to adventuring, now that wasn''t going to happen though.
Mary wasn''t as naive, she would have made sure to replace him regardless. She didn''t think he deserved that end anyways.
¡°Prepare, there is a small group of goblins sneaking up on us.¡± They didn''t even wonder how she knew, they accepted she knew such things long ago. Taimanu once stated it was better for their sanity if they just didn''t question her in such matters.
¡°As far as I can tell there are eleven of them, so no problem for us. Dehla will take care of those trying to get near us, I will help if needed, the rest of you kill them!¡±
Fighting random group of goblins was quite easy for someone of their rank, small groups like these stopped being a challenge quite some time ago.
Dehla could easily hold off the small bodies and the armor the academies smiths made out of the bones of the hugbear were more than enough to stop the primitive weapons without dealing damage to the large lizardgirl.
Mary was still feeling anger from being attacked but her team needed to vent the frustration of their teammate¡¯s death, something they managed to avoid so far and had now happened because something as stupid as misplaced pride.
The goblins never stood a chance, her team made short work of them.
By the end, three goblins were sporting deadly looking icicles through their bodies, three were crushed to a pulp by an unseen force, two were crushed by roots, one had an arrow through his eye, one lost his guts to Dehlas halberd and one was killed by her lightning.
The return to the academy had nothing if the usual joy and cheerfulness.
Mary felt slightly bad for feeling relieved her team had to get used to such emotions now rather than later, but wisely kept these thoughts to herself.
As her team¡¯s leader, she had to personally report the loss to the academy¡¯s headmaster. A meeting she wasn''t looking forwards to.
¡°Come in.¡± The headmaster answered shortly after her knock.
¡°I have been waiting for you, tell me what happened.¡± She commanded as soon as Mary entered.
¡°We were hired to capture a hobgoblin as you know. When we found it I made sure it wouldn''t be able to smell and hear us.
We walked straight in its ward.
It ran and I didn''t know where its tribe was and decided we should retreat.
Dresk wanted to sneak back and take care of it himself.
I tried to stop him, but he attacked me and knocked me unconscious.
He walked straight in an ambush.
They killed him and left his body there to rot.
When we buried him we were attacked by a small group which we killed and then returned.¡± She finished her recollection of the events.
The headmasters eyes had widened a bit at the mention of Dresk attacking her, so that was her first question.
¡°He attacked you? Any idea why?¡±
¡°Yes. Dehla apparently is the daughter of a clanlord. He was unhappy with me treating her as an equal.¡±
¡°Oh, I will have to make sure to remember that, that''s information she should have told us.¡±
¡°That''s not fair, her family gave up on the title! She didn''t think anyone would know.¡± She defended her friend.
Afterwards, the interview continued for another ten minutes, until the headmaster was satisfied and said she couldn''t have done anything to safe the lizard.
She sent her to one of the academy¡¯s healers to get a full checkup on her head just in case.
Furthermore, Mary and her team would have to have a talk with one of the teachers about the experience of losing a teammate, he was to help them get over it.
With Dresk dead, Mary would have to try and find a new melee fighter. She already had someone in mind, an elven sorcerer how was both a wizard and body enhancer.
She was sure she¡¯d be able to convince him to join her team.
Chapter 38
After leaving the headmasters office, Mary went to get checked up by one of the healers.
¡°You got hit on the head?¡±
¡°Yes, the headmaster said you should check it out. See if there is any remaining damage.¡±
¡°Sit down on the bed young lady. Let''s see if there is anything.¡±
He cast some kind of spell to see if there was anything left. It was quite interesting to note that she thought she¡¯d be able to stop it if she so wanted. Something she would have had problems with a few months ago.
¡°There is nothing left. Are you sure you didn''t imagine it? There is no student your age who is able to heal a head wound as completely as this.¡±
¡°There is no need. I have a greater healing ward.¡±
The man was suitably impressed.
¡°That would explains things yes. If so I am sure you will be fine. You are dismissed.¡±
Leaving the central tower, Mary went to her dorm. She didn''t need as much sleep normally, and slept even less when in the forest. The wound had used way more energy than normally so she decided to sleep until dinner where she would meet up with her team and discuss what was next.
As she was about to lay down, her gaze fell on the boxes she used to study evolution, and she got an idea.
She nearly hit herself for not thinking of it before.
Taking one of the boxes with her, she went out to search for the enchanter that built them for her.
Thoral was busy doing some enchanting when he heard someone enter the workshop he used.
He didn''t know who it was, though there weren''t that many people present in the academy that were among his clients.
After taking some extra time to finish, he turned around and saw one of the most interesting students in the academy.
Mary was three years younger than him. More importantly though, she always had some unique ideas which helped him advance in the ranks.
¡°Thanks for waiting, I take it you have something you want me to do once again?¡± He asked.
¡°Yep.¡±
¡°Something interesting?¡± She took out one of the manacontaining boxes he made a few months back.
¡°Something like this. Only instead of a box I want four stones or something to create a field that will let ambient mana in but not out.¡± That was certainly something new.
¡°How big do you want the field to be?¡±
¡°Five on five on three meters.¡±
¡°That''s not going to be easy, I will need eight stones for that. And with stones I means gems.¡± He really hoped that she would be able to provide the materials once again, but he needn¡¯t have worried, the human noble seemed to have an infinite amount of resources at her disposal.
¡°Sure I¡¯ll send them in a day or two. How long will you take?¡±
¡°The enchantment will need three to four days, it¡¯s quite unique and I will have to do some research for it. The actual enchanting will take another day and finally linking the different stones will take one too.¡± He very much enjoyed working on challenging things like this one. The other projects would have to be put on hold, they were basic enchants after all.
¡°Thanks Thoral, I will bring you the gems tomorrow, bye!¡±
The human was one of his best customers, when she first approached him he had been sceptical of working for someone younger who wouldn''t be able to supply any of the materials needed to improve his craft.
Only with persistence and determination did she manage to persuade him to do a commission. It had been one of the best decisions of his life. The enchantments she wanted him to do had always been unique.
Unique commissions were even more important for the students of the academy, since they needed to do all kinds of different enchantments to advance in class.
On the one hand, the adventures types had it easier to advance, they just had to kill stuff. On the other they had to risk their lives so he would never chose that option.
Over the next week, life continued on. Mary managed to get the elf she wanted to join her team just today. He had readily agreed because his team had always delegated all unpleasant work to him.
Getting the gems for Thoral had been easy enough, she only had to get some rough stones and rearrange their essence with a spell.
Of course nobody knew she was capable of transmutation magic and she had made sure nobody would while she cast the spell. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A few months ago that wouldn''t have been possible due to the immense manacost of the spell, but she noted an immense growth in mana since moving closer to the middle of the continent.
The others started to get over Dresk''s death, the talk with the teacher proving to be more helpful than she anticipated. Her team would need a successful quest to get their confidence back, something she had already made plans for.
She had been quite concerned at first, noticing she didn''t seem to care about his death all that much. It had more been like she was angry she lost someone and not sad she lost a friend.
After some consideration she managed to find the source of that. Her monster heritage was the reason. From what she could tell, attacking her without reason was a sure way to have her ignore that person for good.
On the other hand, she was fiercely loyal to her friends or ¡®tribe¡¯ and would do next to anything to help them.
Today, she would be introducing the rest of her team to the elf, Enaril.
With Taimanu, Dehla, Kaeso and her, she only needed two others to join her team to be the best available team in her year.
The healer they had now was decent, but she didn''t think he was fitting for the team, he missed the ambition to fit in her team. The same went for the elven wizard that was currently the seventh person in the team.
While at first, she had thought Valamin, the elven wizard and healer to be a good candidate. Sadly, he turned out to be a huge asshole and way too confident in himself to fit in her team.
If possible, she would replace the elven wizard with one of the few dwarfs that were not going down the craftsmen route, a metalmage, a rare but useful combination.
The healer she set her eyes on was a dwarf as well, a strange woman that actually believed in a god, the first person Mary met that did.
Other than that strage perk though, the girl was incredibly talented. While her healing was slower than that of humans or elves, it was way more precise as well.
What was more interesting was the way she used her healing magic on enemies. From what Mary managed to hear, she was among the few that were able to heal at range and was using small heals to distract enemies in fights as their mana didn''t block the beneficial mana.
Two hours before dinner, she received a notice from Thoral that her stuff was ready. He used a variation of the normal message spell that wouldn''t create a two way communication and instead just sent a chime to the receiver, most of the time a agreed upon set of short noises.
She left the library and went to the craftsmen area,where she found the dwarf in his usual spot.
¡°Hey Thoral, my stuff is ready?¡±
¡°It is, has been harder than I thought.
With the gems you got me the field can contain up to three times of the ambient mana concentration around here. I have no clue why you would want something like that, I can think of no uses, but that''s none of my concern.¡±
¡°Thanks a bunch, I will be seeing you when I need something else.¡± She grinned at him.
¡°Bye, always a pleasure doing something for you.¡±
After setting the stones up in the corners of her room, she let the enchantment start gathering mana.
Dinner would be soon, so she went out to meet up with her team. She reached them as they were waiting for her in front of one of the dining halls.
¡°Hey Mary.¡± They greeted her.
¡°Hi.¡±
¡°So why¡¯d you want us to meet you?¡±
¡°Seeing as we just lost Dresk I know this isn''t a good moment, but I managed to get someone else help Dehla keep the monsters off us.
You will be meeting him at dinner.¡±
They deflated a little at the mention of the lizardmen, but luckily didn''t seem to hold finding a replacement against her.
¡°So who did you talk in joining?¡± Dehla asked.
¡°Enaril.¡± That seemed to surprise them.
¡°Oh I didn''t know an elf would be suited for such a role.¡±
¡°He is¡± She had to search for a word a few seconds. ¡°unique, but I think his fighting style is best described by him, you will see he is perfectly suited for such a thing.¡±
Ten minutes later, the elf appeared. He was unlike most other elves, though just as short, he was as broad as a human and heavily muscled.
The few of her team that had not seen him before stared at the elf.
After introducing them to each other, Mary watched in amusement as Dehla started to interrogate the elf on his capabilities.
¡°So Mary told me you will be helping me in keeping monsters of them?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°You don''t seem to be perfectly suited for that, being a small elf and all that.¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Why would you do it then.¡±
¡°I like it.¡±
If she didn''t interfere, that would go on for quite some time, the mask of ignorance the elf wore clearly wearing at the others nerves.
¡°You know if you want to be accepted you should drop the act.¡± She said, earning her an astonished look from the elf. While reasonably competent at keeping up the facade, Mary saw through it within minutes of speaking with him.
He tried anyways, tilted his head and tried to look as stupid as possible.
¡°Huh ¡ What act?¡±
¡°You know, overdoing won''t help.¡±
Looking around, he noticed nobody except the six on the table seemed to notice the conversation.
Furthermore the faces of her team told they all believed her more than him.
¡°Well that was quite the surprise, normally nobody seems to notice until they know me for longer than ten minutes.¡±
¡°If you only surround yourself with idiots that''s a given.¡± Taimanu stated.
¡°So now that we have that done, what can you really do?¡± Dehla asked.
¡°You all are too much business and no fun. Well I am a sorcerer. I am both a body enhancer and a wizard. I made a wooden golem which I enter and control to fight. The golem can, depending on the situation, be anything from two to four meters tall.¡± He explained.
¡°And what in the world made you, an elf, decide you want to fight melee? It¡¯s not like your race is really suited for close up fights.¡± Dehla stated.
¡°I really like the thrill of a close up fight, blasting the enemy from afar just isn''t appealing to me.¡±
They spent the next hour discussing how he could be incorporated in their team, until they were thrown out of the hall. Together with Taimanu, Mary returned to the dorm.
Returning to her room was more refreshing than she would have thought possible. In the time she was eating dinner and planning for future fights, the enchantment had been at work all the time.
By now, her room was filled with mana, by now, it only had two times the ambient mana but that was good enough.
She couldn''t believe how good it felt, though deep inside she knew she would feel better the manaconcentration increased more.
If that was the reason why powerful monsters were drawn towards the middle of the continent, she could understand why.
Every moment she soaked in the mana she felt better.
Without further ado, Mary changed into her nightgown and threw herself on her bed. She was out in a minute.
Chapter 39
Mary was in an unknown forest. The prevalent color was dark green, unlike the light browns and greens in the empire. It looked a lot like how she had heard the far north of her continent was. Way beyond its middle where monsters lived. There was only one confusion, everything was too big. The grass on the clearing she was on looked to be two meters tall as well.
She tried to move, but no amount of struggling accomplished more than a twitch of her arms or legs.
Slightly panicked, she tried look around, something she somehow managed.
She wondered why she didn''t feel the cold of the forest floor.
The moment the thought occurred, she noticed she was being held by a giant smiling down at her.
Instinctively, Mary knew the giant to be her mother.
Something was wrong though, her mother was smiling at her with sad eyes.
She seemed to fight with herself.
Taking a closer look at her mother, she saw someone looking a lot like herself.
Her mother had the same eye color and hair she had.
The differences were stark though, she had slit eyes like a cat, a green tinge on her skin and longer canines than Mary.
She looked exhausted and desperate, and Mary wanted to help her, so she tried to lift her arms and embrace her mother.
That seemed to cause something in the woman. With tears filling her eyes and a shocking display of illusion magic she cast the spell that would enable Mary¡¯s life.
Looking at her mother casting a spell as complex as this while crying made Mary proud and envious. The control the woman had over her mana exceeded even Mary¡¯s. The ease and concentrations she had while casting the spell was in stark contrast to before.
Even the dragonrune of the spell was cast without any problems.
Her mother said something, words Mary had never heard, put her in a basket and took out a manacrystal.
While not particularly rare, one as big as that one was used for very specific purposes. They were gifts to the apprentice once he was a full mage.
Mary watched in awe as her mother used all the mana in it for one spell.
Mary had seen these runes before, they were used for a single person teleportation spell. Suddenly, instead of being surrounded by her mother''s love and a forest, Mary appeared on the doorsteps of what she recognised as the orphanage she had lived in. Her past self started to cry.
Sitting straight in her bed, Mary managed to fully recollect the dream for the first time in her life. In the past years, Mary had dreamt that memory in irregular intervals, though she only remembered glimpses of it so far.
Mary got up before the details left her and quickly wrote down the words her mother had said to her, it was the first time she heard the language.
While she didn''t know the it, her interest in her biological mother had risen after that dream. The words she remembered were the only clue she got, so she made sure to remember them.
The only thing she needed to do now was to find out what language her mother had used and ask the adventurers guild of their records in that land at the time she came to the orphanage.
Mary still vividly remembered the first time she had had parts of that dream. Back then, she had just started to notice the bruises she got while training healed that fast. She had been new in the house of her family and started to warm up to her parents.
Mary woke up with a start. She shortly wondered why she woke until a face came to her mind. It was a person she had never seen before and yet she was sure that was the face of her mother.
At first she was elated, perhaps she could be find her now that she knew her face.
Before she would forget the face, she tried to engrave it into her memory, when she noticed something terrible and made a surge of panic getting hold of her heart.
The woman wasn''t human or elven or of any of the races that owned most of the lands. That could only mean she, and Mary aswell , was a monster.
There was only one thing that humans did with monsters. They killed them.
A deep sadness joined the panic in her heart. She didn''t want to leave the house, over the last months she had started to warm up to the two nobles that were her parents now.
But her parents were human and the empire¡¯S law required them to kill all monsters they came across if they were able to.
Mary didn''t want to die, so there was only one course of action she could take.
Getting up, she quickly dressed and left her room, with a sad look, she said goodbye to her home of a few months and turned to leave.
It was still night so she met noone, the servants would start coming in in a few hours, but Mary would be long gone by then.
She left the mansion through the same door she used to get into the garden to watch the sunrise every morning.
Mary made a beeline towards the walls surrounding the property and arrived there ten minutes later, the maze had slowed her down more than she would have liked.
As there was no good way off the property, she just started climbing the walls, something possible from the inside but entirely impossible from the outside.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Before reaching the halfway point she heard a strong gust of air and could feel tendrils of magic gripping her and ripping her small body off the wall.
She was gently set to the ground. Turning around to see who managed to spot her, she saw the woman she had started to call mother in the last few weeks.
Seeing her face mixed with anger sadness and concern broke her resolve to run away and she broke down crying, all the pent up emotion since she woke up being released at once.
In between her sobs, she felt her mother sit down next to her and start to hug her against her chest.
Ten minutes later, Mary managed to calm down a bit and her sobbing decreased to the occasional hiccup.
¡°You have to let me go, I don''t want to die.¡± She cried.
¡°Why would you die if we don''t?¡±
¡°Because you have to kill me.¡±
¡°I''m pretty sure murdering children is a crime.¡±
¡°But I''m no child, I''m a monster.¡±
¡°How did you get that insane idea?¡± Diane asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.
¡°I''m not human.¡±
¡°You know we don''t care about that honey.¡±
¡°But I''m not elven or dwarven or anything else too!¡±
¡°How do you know that, you don''t know your parents!¡±
¡°I had a dream about my mother. She is a monster.¡±
¡°A dream isn''t reality honey. Dreams are expressions of our subconsciousness.¡±
¡°It wasn''t a normal dream. I know it. The law dictates all humans have to kill or report high evolution monsters as soon as possible. And you are human.¡± She started crying again. Her mother pulled Mary closer to her.
¡°We would never kill you. You are very dear to us even though you were only here for a few months. And I know for a fact that you are no monster.¡±
¡°But I am. I heal faster than any human, need less sleep am stronger fast can see in the dark and overall better than any human my age!¡± She insisted. With a sigh, her mother was silent for a few minutes.
¡°Have you ever heard of the sixteen?
¡°Of course. They were the elite of fathers forces in the north and have vanished since he is in the capital. Why?¡±
¡°They were monsters. Very powerful ones too, each of them was nearly as powerful as your dad.¡± That was the first thing that broke through her despair. She looked up at her mother.
¡°No, someone would have noticed!¡±
¡°They perfected living under humans. And nobody here would have let them if they knew you are right. But things in the north are different, the people are different. While the population of the capital has some bias against other races, the north doesn''t. As its way more dangerous there, there are only two kinds of people there. The ones that want to kill you and those that don''t. At least it had been until your father took over and started pushing back the constant monster incursions.
But the mentality didn''t change. People in the north will glady hide a powerful monster should it fight with them.
Anyways, they were all as powerful as a weak archmage.
They all came in the span of five years asking for employment. Back then we didn''t know, but seeing as they didn''t want much in return, your father figured it out fairly quick. When he did, he came to me for advice, he was required to kill them, but they were became friends over the years and he needed them for an effective defense.
I advised him to ask them personally and only kill them if they didn''t admit it. As you know, there are still all sixteen of them left, so you know how that ended.
WE came to the conclusion that we were like the people we governed, we don''t act on stupid superstition like the most of the citizens in the south.¡±
¡°Where are they now?¡±
¡°Officially, they were removed of our service, but they are still employed for missions in the north, though they went into hiding as some of our enemies could target them to weaken us. They don''t know these sixteen would never come so far south, as they don''t like the atmosphere here.¡±
¡°Tell me more about them.¡±
Back then she managed to calm down enough to come back to the house while her mother distracted her with stories of the five generals of the north.
They hadn''t been real generals, even a grand duke wasn''t allowed to have more than two legions under his command, but got the rank so he could sent them anywhere he wanted without them having problems in the chain of command.
Looking out of her window, Mary saw the sun was about to rise, so she got up and went to the spot where she always enjoyed the rising sun.
Sometimes, Taimanu would join her, but it looked like the lynxkin would be sleep in today,. That was fine for her, she had to contact her father anyways.
She started to cast the spell a few minutes after the sun had fully left the horizon.
¡°Hi dad.¡±
¡°Hey Mary, how are you?¡±
¡°I''m fine, got attacked by one of my teammates and failed my first quest. But that''s not why I contacted you.¡±
¡°You know I can''t let that sit there like that. Are you fine and what happened to him?¡±
¡°I''m fine, you know something as simple as a head wound won''t seriously put me in danger and"
¡°Head Wounds are the most dangerous wounds. Did a proper healer check you?¡± He interrupted her.
¡°Of course, like I said everything is fine. The teammate is dead, he wanted to continue the quest I deemed too risky and knocked me out when he left in the night.¡±
¡°What quest did you do?¡±
¡°We had to capture a hobgoblin for one of the teachers. He was a shaman and had a ward out that warned him so he ran to his tribe.¡±
¡°You made the right decision, one of the eastern tribes is more than your group can handle right now.¡±
¡°I know and so did the rest of my team. He was just angry I didn''t treat my friend, who turned out to be a clanlords daughter, properly. So in a fit of anger he discarded reason.¡±
¡°Your lizardfolk friend has royal blood?¡±
¡°Yep, she said it has been quite some time though.¡±
¡°That''s interesting. I assume you will find a melee fighter that isn''t a lizard than?¡±
¡°Already have. A crazy elf that creates a wooden golem and uses it as armor.¡±
¡°That''s certainly unique. Did you see him fight already?¡±
¡°Nope, but we will be on a quest soon, my team needs to regain their confidence and I have the perfect quest for both.¡±
¡°Keep me in the loop.¡±
¡°Will do.¡±
¡°What''s the actual reason for your message then?¡±
¡°I had that dream again.¡±
¡°The one about your mother?¡±
¡°Yes. This time was different though.¡±
¡°How so?¡±
¡°It ended with me on the doorsteps of the orphanage. And she said something.¡±
¡°That''s new, did you understand it?¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s none of the languages I know. But I noted it down.¡± She told him.
¡°I take it you want me to search for the language?¡±
¡°That would be great.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll see what I can find. Any ideas to limit search?¡±
¡°Could be anywhere on the world, she teleported me here. But I think it was in the far north, beyond monster territory.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll see what I can dig up. Any ideas what changed so you remembered it fully?¡±
¡°One. I recently tripled the ambient mana in my room. If my mother was as powerful as it seems, I think that caused it as the ambient mana is now closer to how it was when I was born.
We also now know I was actually born the day I came to the orphanage. She looked like she came right out of labour.¡±
¡°So you are actually a little younger than we thought. Anyways, I¡¯ll see what I can dig up, I will contact you when I find something, bye.¡±
¡°Bye.¡±
Chapter 40
Mary was bored. It wasn''t like she had nothing to do, there was always work to be done for her classes, but she wanted to do something else.
Originally she had planned to be on the quest by now, but all students were required to stay at the academy as a powerful and aggressive monster had been spotted nearby. Things like that were quite rare, but everyone who wasn''t able to deal with these monsters was required to stay in the academy. The residents of the town and surrounding villages were highly advised to stay inside as well. Two teams had already been sent out to deal with the giant, so they should be allowed to leave within the week.
Mary decided it was high time she continued something she hadn''t done since leaving the orphanage. It was time she restarted viewing the effects her magic had on the world, how it achieved what it did.
Of course she wouldn''t be allowed to do that with any of her offensive spells, but she had plenty others to analyse first. She would have to do weak versions of the aggressive ones in her room or while they were travelling. She started with the spell that was responsible for the success of most of their missions. Casting a small version of the shield that hid their sound and smell she started trying to understand its interactions with the world.
She only had to analyse one part of it though, as she had to manually add the masking of their smell when creating it. That had been surprisingly easy, she only had to rotate the air inside of the shield once it entered it. Afterwards the spell filtered the smells that were not present on the outside and trapped them. The only thing she had to take care of when dispelling the shield was to create a strong gust upwards or they would be showered in a smell that made everyone gag. She shuddered when remembering the first time that had happened.
She didn''t know how the sound was stopped though so she only cast the sound suppressing part of her spell. She did need a few hours to find out its inner workings, but was stumped when she did.
The spell didn''t suppress the sounds, it trapped the sounds that entered the air from their side into a small bubble of air that it surrounded with a small void. Without any air to use as medium the sound dispersed in a matter of seconds.
That gave her an idea. If she could remove the air in a certain point in space, she should be able to increase the amount of air in said space as well. Hell, she knew powerful fire mages did the same to their fireballs, they decreased the space a fireball occupied while using the same amount of mana to create it. As far as she knew that had two effects, firstly it increased the heat inside of it and secondly it made for an impressive explosion upon impact.
Without further ado, Mary started testing her idea. It quickly became apparent that she wasn''t able to create a big enough explosion to damage anything while staying mana efficient. The mana increased exponentially with the density of the air. While still staying efficient she only managed to cause a small explosion over a few millimeters. That meant killing stuff with explosions like originally planned wouldn''t happen anytime soon, but she could still salvage the spell.
It was the first spell she leant that would allow her to deal with big groups of enemies. It was also so brutal she would only use it absolutely necessary.
The spell she created would create hundreds of small compressed bubbles of air held together by her mana. Once her opponents breathed them in, the bubbles would lose connection to her mana and use the remaining man up in a matter of seconds. When the air was in their lungs the spell would be unable to sustain itself and explode, tearing her enemies lungs apart. The spell was next to impossible to defend against as well, there was little a breathing being could do to stop it, they needed to breath after all.
I wouldn''t help against someone like her, small inner bleedings like this one were taken care of by her body in a matter of seconds, but the monsters that had such regeneration would not be targets of the spell anyways.
Mary really wanted to test a few offensive spells as well, but casting such spells in the confines of the academy was forbidden. She decided she would try a few weak versions in the confines of her room anyways, if could tone the weakest spells down enough they would only leave a small scorch mark on a wooden surface so there would be no physical evidence on the wall of her room.
Mary left the garden where she had been studying her spells towards her dorm. Like always after her runin with the prince, she had to kept an eye out for his team, they would occasionally follow her but they had yet to try and corner her again. She had to make sure to never take the same way twice, but with the park being as extensive as it was that was no problem.
Entering the dorm a few minutes later, she ascended the stair to the top level and went to her room. She could see her desk was full of books, ever since she had installed the stones that increased the ambient mana in her room she found herself enjoying reading here more and more. The relaxing atmosphere increased her speed of learning significantly while being able to make her relax better than anything else.
She started with a very weak version of the lightning bolt. With the amount of mana supplied it wasn''t more than small spark.
It was frustrating, she knew the spell affected reality in way but just couldn''t seem to see what happened. Mary felt she could be able to perceive what the spell did if she had a finer control over he mana. The only thing she knew about the spell was that it created a current between the point of origin and the target yet she was unable to see what exactly caused the current. Even with spells that boosted her perception beyond levels that would be useable in a fight she was still unable to understand the happenings.
Whatever happened was beyond her ability to perceive and was on a smaller level than anything she managed to feel yet. She felt she would be able to understand it once she advanced the control over her mana once again. It was frustrating really, her mana control had improved to a level where controlling it became near instinctual. Yet it wasn''t enough as she found something that needed an even finer control once again.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
She now understood what her parents had told her when she was young.
¡®You will always find control over your mana lacking. The only thing you can try is to improve it with each obstacle you encounter.¡¯
A week ago, she had found a very good way on how to stem any frustration she had though. She had to concentrate on only that and had to blend out the world completely, but she had finally managed to cast the first part of the easiest dragonrune. A monumental achievement and most people had said it was the first and most important step on the way to become an archmage. First of all, she didn''t need the gem they had been given upon entering the academy anymore. The gem only was there to help them really, it helped you to overcome any limitations on your mana pool if you had enough time to prepare.
Casting the manawell had been the hardest thing she ever had to do, it required two of the dragonrune after all. Now though, she constantly had a spell hovering above her shoulder. A spell which was only there to store any mana she inserted for later use. She could now add or withdraw mana at will.
Being able to cast that rune was one of the requirements for reaching the upper ranks in the adventurers guild as it allowed more control and had a great many uses when fighting intelligent monsters.
They were able to perceive mana a lot like her, so the manashields they formed were always fit for the spell flying at them. The ability to suddenly increase or decrease the power of a spell, would allow the adventurers to waste the enormous amounts of mana these monsters had at their disposal. It was one of the few ways to defeat an opponent with more mana than yourself, make him waste all his mana and outlast him.
A loud bang disrupted Mary''s concentration and the rune dissipated into thin air. Just as she was wondering what had caused that sound, it repeated. Connecting her mind to Starshadow she could see what caused the commotion. Eleven giants, probably the tribe of the singe one that they had been warned about, were standing at the edge of the forest hurling literal boulders at the academies walls. They were obviously trying to haul them over the walls, but had been spotted in time to activate the academies magical protections.
The giants were in for a whole world of pain. You did not attack the town an archmage resided in without regretting it. Not that they would live long enough to regret leaving the mountains, the moment a giant left their ancestral home it would be killed.
A weak assault such as this wouldn''t be able to penetrate the defenses of the walls even if kept up for weeks so she wasn''t worried. At least until a twelfth giant stepped out of the forest. It didn''t have any of the traditional weapons the race used and instead only had a young tree as a staff.
Giant shamans were very rare and very powerful. Their huge bodies were bigger than their normal kin, reaching up to seven meters in height. Being as huge as they were they held enormous mana reserves more than any archmage could hope to match. Their sheer amount of power made finesse unnecessary as they could overpower anyone in a one versus one fight.
Luckily there was only one shaman for every thousand giants and these mainly kept to the mountains they called home. Once in a while one of them started to move in richer lands though, something that ended bloody for the regions they visited until a powerful enough group managed to stop their ramage.
Luckily, this one chose the academy as its first target, something that would prove fatal for it.
Mary commanded Starshadow to fly as high as he could. She would not let her familiar in between a magical showdown if this magnitude.
Starshadow could see the runes etched in the top two levels of the academy come to life as the teachers arrived and started feeding their mana to them.
With the magical might of dozens of teachers the runes lit up the sky. Instantly all paths of retreat were cut off as a wall of earth rose to encompass the monsters. Or it would have or they didn''t have a shaman in their midst. The shaman smashed his staff into the wall in front of him. With the power of his huge body and supported by its magic the wall was smashed into pieces.
Before the academies defenses could attack once again the shaman started his counterattack. Like all of his race, he wasn''t one for subtlety. Shamans usually copied nature, understandable as nature was the most terrifying thing around.This shaman was no different, it copied the two most terrifying things it could imagine. Or a perverted version of them. Fire and lighting were both things nature produced that would terrify anything if they had to withstand it in the mountains.
First, it created a huge ball of fire. The magic expanded until the spell reached five meters in diameter. Afterwards the spell flew towards the protective shield surrounding the academy and exploded in an ear shattering explosion.
The second spell it cast was different. It seemed the world calmed for a moment before it was released. Than a bolt of lighting hit the barrier. It wasn''t one like those Mary used. His spell was obviously inspired by the huge storms that would pass the mountains to the west sometimes. A bolt she had no hope of controlling and that would most likely just kill her. With a thunderous roar, a bolt of lightning with a meter in diameter hit the shield with a crack.
Mary was really glad she sent Starshdow to the other end of the clearing, that spell would have fried him if he was anywhere near it.
Normally the amount of mana used in the two spells would never be enough to damage the protective shields, but they weren''t meant to withstand spells that contained as much mana as these two. The wards were meant to withstand a continuous barrage of attacks that were normally used in sieges.
Before the monster could attack once again, the tower lit up once again. It seemed the headmaster who was probably controlling the defense was done playing around and started to use a spell that was more within her speciality. Water started rising out of all of the wells within the city and the streams of water all closed in on the group of monsters.
The water was met with a simple yet powerful barrier.
That didn''t mean anything though. Beasts as big as these needed enormous amounts of air, so all the headmaster had to do was stop the shaman casting spells and completely enclose the shield in water.
As it turned out, the giant didn''t think the town would be able to mount an effective defense against the two spells as his shield gave out only three minutes afterwards, sealing the fate of his tribe as they were sliced apart by the spell the headmaster cast.
It was a gruesome sight.
Giants were powerful monsters, more than Mary¡¯s group could deal with for now, but as there were twelve fresh corpses out there, Mary sent Starshadow in to eat to his heart''s content, as he always enjoyed new tastes and this one should be to his liking.
Chapter 41
With the giants taken care of all normal operations could be resumed, so a day after the town had been attacked by the small tribe of mountain giants Mary and her team set out to complete their quest.
Enaril had joined them just as planned. After a few awkward hours, it became apparent he fit right in. He, like Mary Taimanu and Dehla wouldn''t accept anything other than being the best. Like them he had plans to reach the leader ranks of the guild within the next two decades.
The quest would be an easy one. Mary made sure to pick a quest that was reasonably challenging while posing no real danger for them. They needed some action to work as a team and this would prove to be both challenging and safe enough to do so. They were hunting a lesser drake, something adventurers of their caliber had no problems with, hell they could kill a normal one by now. Of course a normal one wouldn''t be any challenge, they were going after a plant variant, the most dangerous of the drakeling evolutions.
A week after leaving the academy in the direction of the mountains they finally arrived at the hunting grounds of the beast. Before they entered Mary thought it wise to plan ahead as the tale of the plantdrake that nearly killed her father was in the forefront of her mind.
¡°Alright, we are nearing its hunting grounds. I don''t know how much you know about plant variants of monsters but they pose a far greater threat than even the evolved versions of the other variants. Has anyone of you ever fought a drake?¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°That''s good, because a plantdrake could very well be a different species. Unlike their brethren, they lack any weak points and like all plant monsters you have to destroy a certain percentage of their body''s mass to kill them. Lesser variants reach up to twenty five meters in length and we will have to burn about a fifty percent of its mass to kill it. That will take a while.
Sadly, lightning and conventional weapons are nearly useless against them, a good thing is that Enaril will be able to upgrade his golem with its body as the plants they are made of are way more sturdy than what you have now.
It will most likely try a weaker version of the attack it would do when evolved, trying to drown us in plants while hiding behind the forest. Luckily it still lacks the power to completely do so, so our two wizards should be able to defend us while I will increase the power of Tai¡¯s fire spells and Kaseo will try and cut off the legs of its body with force blades.¡±
¡°How will we find it?¡±
¡°Like we did with the spitting gibbon we will bait it to attack us. Trust me you will know once its attack starts. You all know what to do, let''s go."
Only a few minutes after entering the normal hunting grounds of the beast Mary could spot it moving towards them. It was disconcerting really, how the monster had perfectly blended in the forest without moving.
¡°Incoming.¡± She warned her team.
The two wizards split up, one going to each side of them so they could wrestle the control of the plants from the monster. Like all plant monsters the monster moved slower than any of its other variants. Running would be pointless anyways, as even a slow walk was like sprinting to them due to its size.
It reached them soon enough, and the forest around them started to act up concerningly. Some trees even started to uproot themselves, moving to encase them. After the monster came in view, Mary started channeling certain parts of the air that would increase the power of any fire hitting the monster.
Taimanu started firing a steady stream of fire while Kaseo tried cutting off its limbs. Like she had hoped, the fire¡¯s power was helped along by the air Mary gathered around the monster. The fight wouldn''t be too hard, as the monster still lacked the control over plants their two wizards had so they could wrestle the plants out of the monster''s control once they neared them. If they only had one wizard, the quest would have proven harder as Taimanu would need to burn some of the plants in defense and couldn''t focus on solely attacking like she did now.
Suddenly Mary had an idea. As it was they would need about thirty minutes to destroy enough of its mass to kill it but perhaps she could do more than she thought if she used her new spell. While keeping up the spell for Taimanu Mary created a sphere of air which only contained the air that boosted burning. Afterwards she moved said sphere in one of the holes Taimanu had burned so far and used the spell to ignite a campfire to ignite its flesh.
And ignite it did, the monster''s side literally exploded in an even bigger explosion than anticipated. A part of the monster just vanished, its flesh exploding with a loud boom. With her help, they managed to remove its limbs in no time and ten minutes after the fight started Mary and her team were looking down on the body of the lesser plant drake.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
¡°I didn''t know you were able to cast such a powerful fireball Mary, when did you learn it?¡± Taimanu asked excited as ever.
¡°The only fire spell I used was the one I use to ignite a campfire with. While we were coped up within the academy I developed a new spell that should work against masses of enemies and I adapted it a little just now. What you saw were the results.¡±
¡°That''s quite the destructive spell, can you teach it to me?¡± Taimanu asked.
¡°Sure, but I will need some time to get the runes, I''m sure one of the teachers will be able to help us with that.¡±
While they had been talking, Enaril had already moved towards their kill. He had seen the beast fight and obviously liked the idea of upgrading the wood his golem was made out of, as he was already out of his old one and busy starting to raise a new one.
As it turned out he had to remove the monsters own mana out of its body first. Otherwise the monsters mana would interfere with his own and make it unresponsive. Luckily they had two wizards to spell things up. An hour later enough of the wood was free of mana so Enaril could begin his work while Galaan continued to remove the mana out of the rest. While the two elves were busying themselves with the corpse Mary and the rest set up their camp and extracted the monster core out of its head. With the apex predator of the surroundings gone the forest slowly returned to life.
Birds that had been silent for the most part started singing again and small game started returning to the area. Taimanu vanished for half an hour and returned with some small rabbits for them to eat. After the camp had been set up and the meat was cooking, Mary started to watch Enaril create his golem.
Creating constructs like that was something she had actually tried when she was a child only smaller and unsuccessful. Watching somebody who specialised in it was fascinating though. Her golems had always just been lumbs of one or several materials that moved only animated by her magic. It had been quite mana extensive so she gave up on it fairly early.
Watching the creation of an actual golem was impressive. The elf didn''t just animate a lump of wood, he used his magic to form a working body with bones tendons and joints. Or a skeleton of a working body as he would used it as armor later on. Upon being asked, he told them the cost to move it would be cheaper when it was more lifelike, even if he sacrificed a little stability for it.
There was a second part why he could move with it as cheap as he could though, from what she managed to see in the battle, most of the movements were done by sheer strength so he only had to make sure the golem moved like he did without really animating it. That would reduce the manacost by quite a bit and would also explain his appearance.
Staying turned out to be the right decision as the elf needed a whole three hours to complete his new golem, they wouldn''t have managed to get too much distance covered in the remaining daylight anyways.
¡°I think we should take as much of its body with us as possible, I''m sure most of the craftsmen in the academy would be glad if we did.¡± Mary said.
¡°And they would owe us a favor wouldn''t they?¡±
¡°Yep, drake wood is quite expensive and I heard it¡¯s quite sought after for weapons like bows or quarterstaffs for its ability to hold mana. We can also sell some of it if any of you need money.¡± She offered.
The quest would pay good enough but most people didn''t have the support her father could offer so she always made sure her team was well off and could buy what they wanted by selling the rarer materials they gathered on their adventures.
¡°I know an enchanter that would probably enchant your golem if we gave him a good amount of wood as well.¡± Mary offered.
Having Enaril join them had several benefits apart from those she had initially thought about, with his golem being as big as it was he was able to carry more than the rest of them combined.
They arrived in the academy a week later. They sold half of the wood they brought with them to one of the merchants in the city. Seeing as the academy had a better supply of monster materials than any city of the same size quite a few enterprising merchants made it their home buying the excess materials from the students and selling it somewhere else. Her father had two merchants stationed here at all time as well, a fact she abused with glee for getting better rates than everyone else.
After selling what they wanted, they checked in with the guild, completing the quest and getting the reward. Mary took Enaril to Thoral after, intending to introduce the two.
¡°Hey Thoral, this is Enaril.¡± Mary introduced the two.
¡°Hello Mary, Enaril.¡± The dwarf greeted. ¡°What can I do for you?¡±
¡°Not much for me, I only want a few new of my enchanted boxes with drake wood. You can do quite some things for Enaril though.¡±
¡°I don''t have any drakewood.¡± He replied.
¡°That''s no problem, we just killed one. I don''t know if you heard about Enaril, but he has a particular style of fighting, and he in in dire need of some enchantments against fire.¡± She said.
¡°Oh, enlighten me.¡±
¡°Well, he sits in this huge wooden golem and hits things and I thought you would be interested in a trade. We have quite some drake wood from the last quest and you have skill as an enchanter. I thought you could enchant his new golem made out of drakewood and we supply you with some of the wood we gathered in exchange.¡±
¡°That certainly sounds like a trade I would be interested in, how big is the golem and how much wood do you have.¡± The dwarf asked, clearly interested in the trade. Understandable, plant drakes even lesser ones were a rare species and usually killed so fast that the students had no time to arrive there before other adventurers.
Chapter 42
Tests sucked. Enaril really didn''t understand the need to test them in all this useless stuff.
Intellectually he knew it was important but still, he had never been one for theory, he very much prefered practice.
Still, he was here and had learnt for the test more than he would like to admit. While his new team leader was only a petite girl, her personality did not match her body at all. She had a certain aura around her that made most people listen to her.
He was sure most people didn''t even notice it, but he could understand why the noble chose to adopt her. People just listened to her. Of course, that was helped by the fact that she always knew what she talked about. He was sure the small human had more knowledge of monsters and general magic than any of their year. Hell, so far any team under her guidance had only failed one quest.
That was quite spectacular after all, all other teams he had been on had botched quite some a few quests.
Mainly because the beastkin and Mary were incredible trackers and could move through the forest effortlessly. Recently, the two had started training them in the ¡¯basic¡¯ skills they needed to know. He snorted. Basic meant the ability to spot the two sneaking up on them without magic and moving through the forest without sound.
He was reasonably confident they all would manage the second one in a few weeks, but the other was impossible. The two seemed to have the time of their lives as they continued jumping out from angles none of the team would have never expected.
And only because they would be splitting up for a two months to visit their families.
¡®We need to work on your perception. As it is, even a goblin could sneak up on you.¡¯ She had said. And then proceeded a hellish training regimen where the only breaks they got were for learning and sleeping.
He also knew she was right. There were situations when it wouldnt be smart to rely on a spell. Furthermore it was always good to be prepared for any eventuality. There were some monsters that would be alerted to their presence by that alone.
At first he didn''t understand that, they would be alerted to that, wouldn''t he and his golem tip them off anyways? But he had been told mana was impossible to detect when moved in the body but was exponentially easier to detect after leaving it.
An hour later, the test was written and they were herded out for more training.
The training was hellish. Kaseo had no idea who gave Mary the idea she needed to teach them how to move through the wood like she and Taimanu did as the two had too much experience for them to have any chances to catch up.
He could understand the perception training, though he very much doubted they would ever need it as long as they didn''t split up. With the unnatural awareness of the surroundings of Mary and the superior senes all beastkin had, he very much doubted that anything would be able to sneak up on them.
¡°Careful!¡± Suddenly a face appeared in front of him.
¡°Oh come on.¡± He said.
¡°I didn''t even try.¡± Taimanu pouted.
¡°You weren''t paying attention.¡± She said and then climbed up the tree she jumped down from and vanished in a few seconds.
He really wondered how the two did it, though he also thought they cheated, there was no way to move like they did without some basic body enhancing magic.
¡°Look at your feet as well!¡± Someone yelled in front of him, causing him to jump again.
Mary rose out of the floor in front of him, her armor and hair losing the leafs and dirt she used to disguise herself.
¡°Oh come on. I even looked right where you where.¡±
¡°Look closer.¡± She said and ran back in the forest
Taimanu was having the time of her life. While going around and hunting monsters was fun, it was also different.
Sneaking up on helpless teammates and scaring them to death in the guise of training was another kind of fun. It appealed her playful nature and she enjoyed herself like she did when playing the same with others of her race. Perhaps a bit more with the others being as inexperienced as they were. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Even better, what they did was really helping the others, even now, only days after their woodland training started, the other were showing serious signs of improvement.
They had to take care to not be seen while sneaking up on them now.
It was actually quite challenging. They had to maintain a balance of sneaking around the others while giving them the ability to see them if they paid attention.
They didn''t tell the others, but they were already ahead of some of the other teams rangers. After all, they explained the mistakes they made at dinner.
She was stalking Dehla as the large lizardgirl tried to sneak through the forest.
She was rapidly improving as her body was made for stalking through the wood just like Taimanu''s. The elves and humans had a harder time as they did not have the same natural help. The lizardfolk had a serious disadvantage for spotting others though. Even humans had better hearing than they did.
Today, she had started dropping on them from above, just as they grew accustomed to them sneaking up behind them.
Mary was waiting for them to cross their pass, half buried in the ground only moving when they weren''t looking at her. Though from what Taimanu knew, the girl was entirely capable of lying still for hours.
Now was the time. Dehla had just started turning around to check her rear. Without making sound, she slipped down the tree only to stand in front of the other girl.
When Dehla turned around and saw her standing there, grinning at her, she jumped backwards and her hands moved towards her weapon on instinct.
¡°Hi there. And bye.¡± She said and climbed back up.
After arriving in the trees again, she stopped and waited for one other teammates to make another sound. Soon enough, she heard Darion mumbling something to himself and set off again.
She really loved the forest, there was no better feeling of freedom that moving through a forest, with all the smells and sounds of life around her.
They were training in the forests surrounding the academy, where nothing was powerful enough to best one of them.
¡°Watch out!¡± A sudden exclamation caused her to nearly jump out of the tree.
¡°Gotcha.¡± Mary said and grinned at her.
¡°Did you use Starshadow to find me?¡± She asked.
¡°Nope, I was also following Dehla and when you just climbed up the tree I couldn''t resist.¡±
¡°That''s not fair, you used magic to do that.¡± She pouted.
¡°Of course I did. It would be impossible to sneak up on you otherwise.¡±
¡°Who of you can tell me how we are able to control mana?¡± The teacher asked.
Mary was instantly bored, the topic was one of the advanced theory things she already knew.
¡®Better help them to get over with it faster.¡¯ She thought and raised her hand after checking if there was anyone else wanting to say something.
¡°Perfect, what can you tell us about it?¡±
¡°Every being has a second set of veins running throughout their body. They are partly incorperal channels ¡°
¡°Alright that''s enough. Yes you are right, we control our mana through manachannels.
How did you get the idea that there is anything physical about them though?¡±
¡°That''s easy, having manachannels wouldn''t make much sense otherwise.
Furthermore it would make monster cores useless.¡±
¡°How so?¡±
¡°Well, if we go with the common theory that monsters start to build cores to increase their capacity of mana, then it would be logical that said cores have actual physical impact on the monster¡¯s bodies.
As I cut up quite some monsters so far, a plant drake being the last of them and did not find any physical proof.
I think the mana channels are unique to every being, it¡¯s only logical that the mana is actually making its way through our bodies while pressing the tissue to the side.
So, once we die and most of our mana leaves the bodies the tissue gets back in place, destroying all proof of them.¡±
¡°That''s a very interesting idea. If you¡¯d agree, you can explain me more after the lesson, but let''s quit theory crafting and get back on track using commonly accepted facts. Do you know the normal theory as well?¡±
¡°Sure, my mom taught it to me.
The amount of total mana you have access to is determined by your mass and the density of mana in your body.
If you are able to cast magic depends. If you have manachannels ending at your skin than your personal mana will be able to leave the your body with some training and enable you to cast spells.
If there are none, than you will not be able to cast any magic other than body enhancing magic.
The output of mana is once again determined by the density of mana as well as the thickness of your manachannels.
The thickness of your manachannels also determines how precise you can be with the same amount of control over your mana.
Dwarfs for example have very thin manachannels and as such are the most precise if slow casters which enables them to be the best enchanters in existence.
Elves on the other side have so thick manachannels that they need to be a sorcerer to be able to cast magic, but have a very hard time casting spells that need precise control.
That also means they have the biggest problems casting any kind of dragonrune.¡±
¡°Thank you very much. The last part is true, but we will do the theory about those later on. Most people are not yet able to cast those after all and learning about them without being able to cast them is of no use.¡±
¡°so ¡¡± Mary started zoning out once more, as the teacher started to give them examples and asked them to try and find their own manachannels. That was something she had done years ago, there was a definite advantage if you knew where mana could exit your body.
Most people used their hands as the origin of their spells as it was intuitive, but had problems once their hands were bound in a way all magic they cast would be directed at them first.
If you knew where else you had manachannels exiting your body, you could surprise your enemies and get the advantage needed to win a close fight.
She really looked forward to returning to her team¡¯s training. She had to excuse herself to do this lesson as it was out of her normal schedule, being an advanced course.
Chapter 43
Mary looked back in her room wistfully, the last months of the first year in the academy flew by. They managed to advance to silver rank a few weeks prior, but would be confined there until the rest of her team managed to cast the first dragonrune.
Taimanu had already managed and Dehla didn''t need to, she was unable to cast any magic after all, but the rest would still need some time. Though Mary was confident they would manage before the second year started if they didn''t slack off during the holidays.
Furthermore Taimanu and her managed to train the team in proper woodcraft. They were still nowhere near her level but at least didn''t alert everything listening in a few kilometers of their presence. Today was the start of their journey back and the students of the academy would split up in seven big groups.
One would go to the north towards the former domain of her father. The other six would all travel west and go to the five big cities around the capital as well as the capital itself.
The groups moving north was the biggest one with two hundred students and ten teachers.
The second largest one with one hundred and sixty students and nine teachers went to the capital.
The other groups were about one hundred big. Of course, the students didn''t all come from the big cities, some would leave on the way back or continue their journey once they arrived at the city, the empire was a huge country after all. Of course the price wouldn''t be joining them, his father sent a few mages who would teleport him to the capital once the term ended.
Furthermore several teams chose to use the time they had to go adventuring, something Mary¡¯s team had no interest in. They were ambiguous but they had not seen their family for eighteen months and it was time to return home. Especially Taimanu missed them as the tribal nature of beastkin made them way more connected to their tribe than a human or elf would be.
Taimanu would meet with her tribe at the capital so they wouldn''t have to seperate for some time. They had planned or Taimanu to visit her for a week before though as the lynxkin¡¯s tribe would not arrive before that anyways. She packed everything she needed, her stones, her sword and a few changes of clothes as well as her new armor and all the necessities of life.
¡°Are you ready Tai?¡± She asked as she knocked on her friends door.
¡°A moment please, I still need to pack.¡±
¡°...¡±
¡°Should I help you?¡±
¡°No no I''m fine.¡± Taimanu replied. Ten minutes later the lynxkin left her room.
¡°That''s an awful lot of stuff you have there. You sure your horse can handle it?¡± Mary asked.
¡°Of course. The monster you call horse is able to carry way more. I''m still angry you made us learn how go ride these. Why couldn''t we just stay with the ponies they taught us how to ride on.¡± The small beastkin groused.
¡°You know why. They are weak slow and lack aggression. And we both know you love yours.¡± Taimanu deflated, admitting defeat. When they had returned from their last quest Mary took her team to get horses, they already got lessons on riding in the academy but had to buy a horse for themselves. Most other teams got normal horses bit Mary already had a perfectly healthy great horse and made sure her team would get one too. Ever since then, the times they needed for travelling had decreased significantly just like the random attacks of weaker monsters.
Taimanu had actually chosen the most aggressive and tallest of the horses the stable had to offer. Whenever the small girl sat on her horse she seemingly vanished. That was an illusion though, she had deeper bonds with her horse than the rest of them. That it could carry more than the rest of them because she was as light as she was was just a bonus.
They and a few others of higher years would travel ahead of the main group as their mounts were way faster than those of the main group. It would cut a week or two of the travel time and be way more fun without all of the teachers looking over their shoulders. It was also way more dangerous, crossing the eastern mountains with a group of twenty but that made it all the more exciting.
Apart from her Tai and Dehla only one of the two dwarfs she wanted to join her team were out of the capital. The healer would also be accompanying them and Mary was sure she would be able to get her to join her team over the next three weeks.
¡°Let''s go, we wouldn''t want the group to wait for us now would we?¡±
¡°We wouldn''t.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
¡°You are early, very good. The rest should be here in a moment.¡± The only other noble, the son of a minor Baron in the capital said. Vincent Lionstein was in the fourth year of the academy and quite nice. Normally no other nobles were allowed to join the group but she got a chance as their parents knew each other and were allied. The rest of the group were all kinds of commoners or people from other races that made a living in the capital.
They started arriving at the stables of outside of the town where the evolved mounts were kept over the next minutes.
When they set out one hour later Mary had been introduced to everyone of their small group of twenty. An hour after they started their journey Vincent rode up next to her.
¡°You wondering where the road we are currently using was when you arrived?¡± He asked.
¡°Not really, it was masked by an illusion, I just thought it wouldn''t be all that well received if my group used it.¡± She answered.
¡°You are a ranger then?¡±
¡°I have been trained as one because I love the forest.¡±
¡°So if you only know how to be a ranger but are none, where do you see yourself in a team?¡±
¡°I am a team leader and supply any information my team needs. I also pack quite the punch with both air and lightning magic.¡± She said.
¡°So how good is your awareness, I heard rumors you know everything happening around at all times.¡±
¡°That''s just that, a rumor, I have very good eyes and ears so I am able to perceive stuff most don''t. They also don''t know what to listen for so they ignore it even if they hear or see something that would tick me off.¡±
¡°So you don''t have any supernatural awareness?¡±
¡°Nope.¡±
¡°Make sure to warn us if you ¡®hear¡¯ something.¡± He said with a wink. She would have done that anyways.
¡°Where did you hear those rumors, I thought nobody would really be interested in a first year like me?¡±
¡°Nobody was until you kicked the prince out of the rankings. That gave you quite some fame as most don''t risk angering the asshole.¡±
¡°He should have been faster then.¡±
¡°That''s not what you told him?¡± He asked. Mary grinned.
¡°Of course I did. People like him want to do everything through their social standing. Should he really become emperor as unlikely as that is then it¡¯s better if he already knows not everyone will be intimidated by his birth.¡±
¡°And yet I heard him brag how you always go out of his way on the school grounds.¡±
¡°I''m not an idiot, he had me cornered once and I had to improvise and do a body enhancements to get out. Ever since then I was careful.¡± She said.
¡°That''s wise, he is one of the most nasty and unforgiving people I know.¡± He said. Just as he was about to turn away to talk to others of her year, Starshadow spotted something.
A huge green cat was laying in wait a kilometer down the road. Judging by the muster of its fur as well as its size Mary assumed it was an elder Treecat. These monsters never stopped growing and if left alone would reach anything up to ten meters in length. They were incredibly smart, more so than most monster, which combined with their deadly bodies meant it was incredibly hard to kill them without losing one or two of your team in the process. They were probably just crossing its territory and it felt like eating a human and his horse so it waited for them. It was five meters long and three tall so there was that. While the plants drake had been bigger, this beast was ay more dangerous than the huge monster.
¡°We have a monster incoming.¡± She told Vincent.
¡°What kind of monster are we talking about?¡±
¡°An elder treecat, three meters tall and five long. A kilometer in front of us just next to the road.¡±
¡°Fuck. Exactly what we needed right now. Wait how did you know there is no way you can hear anything that far out how did you know?¡± Mary smiled innocently, she knew he had no time to linger on that question for now, he had to ensure their safety first.
¡°All right we have an ambush right ahead, an elder treecat five meters long. Any suggestions what to do?¡±
¡°We wait for the main group and go through its territory together?¡± One of the other first years called out.
¡°They are a day behind us and I for one don''t want it to come and get us while we wait for them.¡± Vincent answered.
¡°Anyone here capable of a good illusion?¡± Mary asked.
¡°Y- Yes I-I a-am.¡± A small human girl called out, starting to stutter as everyone focused on her.
¡°Illusions are useless against feline monsters, they rely on their nose too much for them to be useful.¡± Vincent interrupted her.
¡°Yes they do, but that also is their greatest weakness.¡± Mary said.
¡°How can a superior nose like that be a weakness?¡± He asked intrigued.
¡°Well, you know how it is you¡± She looked at the nervous girl. ¡°will create an illusion of our group about fifty meters in front of us, can you do that?¡± The girl nodded shyly.
¡°Good, I will go and cast one of the spell I created for adventuring and alter it a bit. Normally the spell marks the smell and sound of my team, but I can alter it to just displace the smell and sound right in the middle of the illusion. That way we won''t lose anyone with the initial attack and if we are lucky we can kill it with before it understands what''s happening.¡± She looked at Vincent as he would have to approve of the plan being their appointed leader by the academy¡¯s staff.
¡°That sounds decent enough. If you can warn us of its pounce so we are ready and everyone can attack with everything we have. Anyone got a better plan?¡± He asked. None had so they started implementing her suggestion.
Instead of moving their smell to the illusion at once, Mary moved it forwards slowly, she didn''t want to tick it off like that.
As they reached five hundred meters until contact the smell was on the same spot as the illusion and her countertrap was ready to be sprung.
Chapter 44
Just as he set out to hunt, he smelled a big group of snacks entering his hunting grounds. Normally he only ate these snacks if they were in smaller groups as they could hurt him if enough of them were bunched up. He needed food to attract a mate though, so he prepared to ambush the group of snacks a little down their way. Snacks were always so predictable, following the paths they created without a fault. Soon enough they were coming his way, having sped up slightly due to his presence.
He got ready to pounce. Looking at the group, something felt wrong. Warily he eyed them and decided on the target he would kill in surprise. Two of them were way more dangerous than the rest. Two small females that did not smell like prey unlike all other snacks. They were the most dangerous of the pack but still young enough they shouldn''t pose that big of a threat to him. He would try and kill the furry one first, it reminded him of himself.
As they neared his hiding spot the unease he had been feeling intensified but he ignored it as even a group as big as this wouldn''t pose a real threat to him. He would need to shift his hunting grounds to dodge the retaliation force that was sure to be sent afterwards but it was time to move on anyways.
As the group neared his hiding spot he prepared, and once they were within striking distance he launched himself out of the forest with a powerful leap right in the middle of the unsuspecting group.
He closed his mouth around his target and leaped back into the forest before he even registered he had been fooled. Without the added weight of the snack and its mount his jump was slightly too long and he crashed into a tree. Yet the miscalculation still brought him out of the dangerzone as spell were launched at the where the group had been before. Looking for the origin of the spells he could see several snacks charging at him with angry shouts.
Were he his young self he would see these as the biggest threat, but age had taught him those that stayed at a distance were the most dangerous. Before they could attack him again, he started charging at his enemies as well, letting out a loud roar.
On the whole way he had to dodge a myriad of attacks. Still, some were so fast his big body being a disadvantage for once. Looking forwards, he could see he was drawing near the charging enemies. Straining his hind legs once again, he jumped above the enemies and their mounts and continued his charce towards the enemy backline.
Just before he reached them one of the other predators finished her first attack. With a loud bang a lightning bolt hit one of his legs. With the current entering his leg it locked up for a critical moment causing him to stumble and slide over the road towards his enemies.
The few moments he needed to get back on his feet were devastating though. He was hit by several spells all piercing his legs and slowing him down further. More importantly he lost most of his momentum to the ground and he was too close to the enemies to build it back up. With a deviant and angry roar, he stared at the small female promising death and jumped in her direction.
Mary¡¯s attack hit the cat with a loud crack. It didn''t seem to expect it as it stumbled to the ground losing most of its momentum and allowing the others to get one attack in before it managed to get back up. Once it did, it stared at her with a glare that promised a painful death. That sent shivers down her back as she saw a rudimentary intelligence that was beyond what most of these beasts developed in those inhuman eyes. She had been suspecting something was up when it jumped above their melee fighters as most monsters attacked the people that ran at them screaming first, instinctively seeing them as the bigger threat.
He obviously had experience to spare and the intelligence to apply his experience to new situations. That arose a worrying assumption in her but she didn''t have the time to worry as the monster charged them one again. She could feel three of the students start to built up a kinetic shield that would stop the beast in its tracks and hopefully give the melee fighters time to catch up.
The monster impacted the barrier with a thud and was thrown back a few meters as the momentum was reversed by the mana the three students supplied to the shield. A barrier like that was a last effort to save your life and entirely unnecessary in a situation like this. While it was next to impenetrable against physical attacks, that worked in both ways. That just meant they were not able to attack with spells that would actually hurt the monster, spells that had their own mass.
The monster got up again and Mary hit it with another lightning, doing no damage but slowing it down a bit as its muscles locked up again. The others flung spells that had no physical component on the monster as well, but to no avail as the thick fur and hide blocked the brunt of the attacks.
Getting up, the monster ran at them once again, only slightly slower than before and ran up to the barrier, ramming it with its head and hitting with its paws, each hit causing the three idiots to flinch as parts of their mana was sucked out of them.They wouldn''t be able to hold this up for much longer Mary concluded. She gathered the five students nearest to her and instructed them to start casting a poper barrier, one that wouldn''t try and rebound all physical attacks directed at it and be able to let other attacks out.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Barriers like that were harder to cast but as they dispersed the energy that entered them into the ground they were way easier to hold up. The five seemed to be relieved of someone else taking charge as they did so without complaint even though they were older than she was.
The new shield was just finished as the three others fell unconscious completely without mana.
¡°You can attack again, do it.¡± Mary commanded.
The others complied and started flinging spells at the monster with renewed vigor just as it let out an angry scream as it hit the new barrier. Before they could fire off more than one spells the other arrived, finally having managed to slow down their horses and reverse the charge. A charge they couldn''t use anymore as they would ride right through them if they went with it. Instead they had to dismount and attack it on foot as their horses didn''t not want to go towards the big predator without running.
The seven melee fighters of their group, Vincent among them, crashed into the monsters back before it shook of the first barge of attacks flung its way after the barrier fell. Mary could see Dehla throwing one of the dwarfs on the monsters back while it was distracted swatting away most of the melee fighters. Just as the dwarf was about to hit the monsters back Mary sent another lightning bolt at its face so that it didn''t notice the dwarf¡¯s landing.
It worked just as intended, the monster flinched from her attack and didn''t notice the small being landing on its back. While the dwarf made his way to the monsters back the rest of them made sure to distract it all the while. Luckily the treecat wasn''t that big of a monster. It was among the biggest of feline monsters but they relied on speed rather than endurance. Reptiles were the biggest monsters generally, with true dragons being the largest monsters there were.
The dwarf climbed up the monsters back using magic specifically designed for such actions to get enough grip to not fly off its back while it moved. The dwarf needed two minutes to reach its neck, a long time in a fight. Once he did he stood up and brought down his axe with a yell. That took the treecat¡¯s focus in an instant. It was seriously wounded for the first time in the fight. The hit also stopped its attack on their shield as it noticed the melee fighters were able to deal damage to it too.
Knowing its mass to be superior to that of the people surrounding it, the monster rolled on the ground after it noticed dislodging the dwarf wasn''t possible while its neck was bleeding profusely. The dwarf had to jump off the monster to avoid being squashed by its mass and landed a on his feet a little unsteadily. Before they could react the cat finished its roll and ran at the dwarf, the hate in its eyes paralysing any that could have stopped what was to come. With a single mighty bite, the dwarf lost most of his upper body and his head.
The legs and lower body of the dead body slowly fell to the ground, stopping the noise the others had made until now for the moment they needed to process the death of their companion.
The rest threw themselves at the monster with angry shouts, yet also staying way more careful than before. While the dwarf didn''t have any metal armor, he had been known for such reckless attacks, they would still be in serious trouble if they got caught in between its jaws. With the wound the dwarf inflicted the fight proved to be vital though.
If the monster wouldn''t be losing blood as quickly as it did they would probably be hard pressed to kill it as it was faster than any of them and could easily avoid the ones at the front while keeping those behind it at bay with its tail.
Even though the monster bleeded liters f blood out of its neck the fight lasted near?y a third of an hour after the dwarf died. There were three close calls of someone nearly dying as it suddenly broke the shield with a powerful pounce and lunged at her, something she managed to avoid just in time. After they had the shield back up and running it tried eating two of the melee fighters again, one managed to avoid that just in time while the other got protected by his armor as it had metal that stopped the monster¡¯s teeth from deeply piercing the wound which was promptly healed by the dwarven woman with them.
They were all exhausted and low on mana after they finished killing the monster when Mary sought out Vincent.
¡°You know who we killed?¡± She asked.
¡°I have a guess.¡±
¡°The same one I have I assume?¡±
¡°If you are thinking of the beast of the east than we are.¡± He said.
¡°I am. We got lucky.¡± She agreed. The beast of the east was kinda legendary. It had first surfaced a decade ago, killing an entire caravan of traders and their escort. When the merchants guild had sent out someone to investigate they only found the remains of the caravan without any of the good missing. Further investigation showed a powerful treecat to be the culprit. With a monster that hunted for fun like this one obviously did they had sent out a cobalt ranked team to take care of it. As far as they knew the team of five had managed to track the monster down but were ultimately killed as they were never seen again afterwards. Ever since than the monster had terrorised the entirety of the empire¡¯s east killing everything from normal peasants to powerful adventurers. Over the next decade the guild sent several teams after the monster until they finally stopped as no one had the guts to try and hunt a monster that had killed several upper ranked teams. Afterwards the guild had just set up bounty for whoever wanted to try his luck on the monster. Only one team had managed to flee after confronting it and because of them it was known the monster had a long scar on its upper head.
That they managed to kill it was nothing short of a wonder though their numbers probably had something to do with that as well. They would now have to make a small detour to visit one of the bigger towns in the east to confirm the kill and get the bounty.
¡°Let''s skin it and get going then, I want to be home as soon as possible.¡± She said.
¡°ALRIGHT LET''S SKIN IT, WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE A DETOUR FOR THE BOUNTY!¡± Vincent yelled, instantly becoming the center of attention.
¡°What do you mean bounty?¡± One of the others asked.
¡°We killed the horror of the east.¡± Mary said. The rest of the group perked up, the bounty was sizeable even if split between all of them. As only three of them, Taimanu Vincent and her were nobles they could always need the money.
The others also seemed to be way more accustomed to death as they moved on from the dwarf¡¯s death faster than her team had. She really hoped that the rest of the powerful monsters on their way decided to stay in their dens, one interruption such as this was enough.
Chapter 45
¡°Hi mom.¡± Mary cried, practically flying off Elwood as she threw herself into her mother¡¯s arms. While she hadn''t noticed how much she missed her parents while abroad, seeing them waiting for her arrival made her squeal in joy. She was really looking forwards to a few months of the life the capital offered. Adventuring was fun but nothing was able to beat the feeling of home, something Starshadow seemed to agree upon as he let out a greeting in the sky. Mary seperated herself from her mother and received a hug from her father as well.
She could see the curiosity in her parents eyes as they looked at Taimanu so she decided to introduce her best friend to her family.
¡°Mom, dad, this is Taimanu of the Moonlynx tribe. She is the daughter of the chieftain and my friend.
Tai, meet my parents Diane and Branston Falconbridge.¡±
¡°A pleasure to meet you young lady.¡± Her parents greeted Taimanu who responded in kind, though she obviously intimidated by the huge mansion in the background. The aura her father gae off could have something to do with that as well, so Mary glared at him.
¡°Stop intimidating my friend dad!¡± While her father didn''t stop immediately her sentence had the desired effect of snapping Tai out of it as she had been trained her to resist such things just like Mary. Sadly as of yet both of them lacked the ability to train their team to do the same as they didn''t have the manapools of their fathers.
¡°I''m sorry but I had to test your friend. Beastkin that leave their tribe are rare and only the children of their leaders get trained to resist such attacks while the rest are not so it was the best way to test if she is who she claims. I was told it¡¯s a safety measure to ensure the continued reign of the leaders. I do have to commend your friend though, suppressing something like that after a single sentence is quite commendable.
Now that we made sure you actually are a beastkin noble please excuse my rude welcoming but I do have to make sure my daughter is safe. Come in, lunch will be ready in two hours. Mary you can show your friend around the house. The maids will get your luggage in your rooms, I assume you¡¯ll want her to be near your room?¡± Mary nodded, tugged at her friends arm and started showing her her home.
First she went to show her the room she would stay at in the next days and showed her how to use the stuff in the bathroom. Afterwards they went into the library, something that Tai wasn''t all that interested in as her friend lacked the patience for learning new knowledge Mary had.
Afterwards they had a short visit to her mom¡¯s laboratory and the dining hall. The actual mansion wasn''t really interesting, the outside was.
¡°Where do you want to go first, the maze, falcons or the training grounds?¡± Mary asked.
¡°Maze.¡±
¡°Let''s go. The maze spans over the biggest part of the property, using up over half of the available space. It¡¯s really easy to get lost if you are unfamiliar with the setup, but if you keep two facts I''m not allowed to tell you in mind it¡¯s next to impossible to get lost. Alternatively you can also get a token from the guard captain that will always show you the way to the closest exit to the maze while allowing them to track your whereabouts. Back when I was a kid I always drove my maid in near insanity when I hid somewhere within. But most importantly there is one spot I spent most of my mornings on. I was there every morning since I joined house Falconbridge except three before joining the academy.
Only minutes after entering the maze Mary led Taimanu to the fountain she used to watch the sun rise so many times.
¡°Welcome to the best spot of the entire property, nothing is quite as relaxing as sitting here and watching the sky slowly get brighter while listening to the water splashing down the fountain.¡± She explained. ¡°I think I¡¯ll have to increase the ambient mana in here while I am home.¡± She thought to herself.
¡°I can see why you like the place but are you sure it¡¯s possible for me to get lost in such a small maze, you know we got trained in traversing them if we ever had to go after a minotaur?¡±
¡°I am. The maze will constantly change its layout once someone without a token enters. Alternatively all of my family is included in the enchantment which will automatically open a path to the outside should we so desire. Without it you will never get out, the enchantment will change its layout to trap anyone else within.¡±
¡°And why do you have something like that?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a security measure as the easiest way to enter our property is through the back and so you have to go through the maze. Anyone who enters it that way will be detained until the guards can take care of them.¡±
¡°So it''s a trap to keep any that would mean to harm your family detained disguised as a decadent part of your mansion? Are you sure it''s ok to tell me?¡±
¡°Yep, my dad tested you and said you are ok so I can tell you small secrets like that. Anyways, we can go have fun with the maze later, we only have a little more than an hour left until lunch and I''m sure you don''t want to miss that!¡±
¡°I''m ok to go without every once in a while, my tribe didn''t even eat lunch.¡±
¡°You don''t want to miss this one, the stuff in the academy doesn''t compare to food prepared by a real chef.¡±
¡°Your family has its own chef?¡±
¡°Of course, my dad is a powerful noble and my mom one of the empire¡¯s most accomplished researchers in magic.¡±
¡°Shouldn''t he be more than a baron than?¡±
¡°He was but the emperor wanted to prove a point and so he lost his previous title with his land.¡±
¡°How powerful are we speaking about¡± Tai asked.
¡°As powerful as they get. My dad was the sixth grand duke of the empire. He was solely responsible for governing the whole northern front with only very few other nobles that he used to hold the most important cities.¡±
¡°That''s why there are so many commoners from the north, there are just no nobles living there?¡±
¡°Now that my dad isn''t responsible there are lots of new nobles up there, but they don''t have kids that are old enough to attend yet.¡±
The rest of the tour was over fast and they arrived at the dining hall just in time for lunch. The meal¡¯s quality was just like Mary remembered it to be. Tai seemed to agree as she did not way a single word while eating and had a continues expression of bliss on her face the whole time.
¡°How was your journey?¡± Her mom questioned afterwards.
¡°Quite enjoyable. We didn''t meet anything too dangerous after the first week.¡±
¡°And what happened in the first week? How dangerous was whatever you encountered?¡± Her mom queried with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
¡°We had a runin with an elder treecat after leaving the academy and had to make a small detour to get its bounty. Nothing to worry about really.¡± Mary answered.
¡°Normal monsters don''t have a special bounty! What are you omitting to tell us?¡± There was a certain tone in her mother¡¯s voice, a tone she knew all too well.
¡°The treecat may or may not have been legendary in the east. It¡¯s confirmed to have killed at least seven powerful teams by itself and was suspected to have killed at least double that number.¡±
¡°And you killed it. Congratulations.¡± Her father said with a grin. He probably knew of the encounter ever since they entered the city to claim the bounty.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Her mother was glaring at her for taking the risk of even trying to kill it as she did not believe anything would manage to sneak up on her. A reasonable assumption as long as she stayed above ground. Once she entered a cave complex or sent Starshadow to scout the surroundings detecting enemies got a lot harder. Luckily her dad came to rescue, saving Mary from further interrogation.
¡°So what do you plan to do with your friend?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll show her around the capital. She should get to see the bright sides of our culture as well, not just the small province towns we entered so far. I''m thinking of the theater, the palace garden, the grand plaza and more stuff like that.¡±
¡°Perhaps you should go in the craftsmen district as well, she can get some gifts for her tribe.¡± Her mom suggested. ¡°You can also try and get new armor as yours will soon unfitting for an adventurer of your power.¡±
¡°That''s a good idea, if you don''t mind Tai was going to introduce me to her tribe as well. She always has these stories about them and I want to see a real beastkin tribe for once.¡±
¡°Go right ahead, though only for a small visit.¡±
¡°Only to see her off, I plan to do some research with mom in the next months, I got several new ideas to test out with actual equipment rather than the sorry excuse for a lab that I had access to as a first year.¡± That seemed to wash away the rest of her mom¡¯s anger of not being informed she had had a fight to the death.
¡°So how is your schedule?¡±
¡°I was hoping you could come with us to the courtyard dad, Tai is an ice mage as well and I''m sure you could give her some suggestions of how to improve herself.¡±
¡°Sure I don''t have that much to do right now, I wouldn''t mind helping your friend. At least if she is willing to?¡±
¡°Yes. Yes. I definitely am.¡± Tai squealed.
¡°Great than that''s settled.¡± Mary said. ¡°I can''t wait to show some of your new guards how much they still need to train.¡± She grinned.
¡°Go easy on them. They are good lads.¡±
¡°I always go easy on them I don''t even use magic.¡± She said with an evil grin.
They went towards the training grounds together afterwards. While her father and Tai went towards the magic range Mary started observing the few guards training right now. With the way the personal guard of her father was structured there were always several guards training throughout the day, a fact Mary had abused ever since she had first been able beat some of the less skilled guards in single combat. Like always she first looked for newcomers, they always were the most fun as they underestimated her as the ¡®noble brat¡¯. She was legendary among the whole guardforce for teaching the, the error of their thought.
It seemed she was in luck as one of the training guards was new. He looked quite skilled so this should prove fun.
Emeric really liked his new workplace. He had only been a normal city guard for most of his life with no prospect of advancement so when the offer for a better job came he had been delighted. While he had been a bit hesitant to work for a noble he had been told that this particular noble had the best reputation in the city.
Taking the chance was the correct choice, it had been the best decision of his life. He and another forty nine people had started a hellish training regime. In the first three months they only had physical exercise, determining the best combination of weapons and training how to use them. Afterwards the real training started. The captain of the baron¡¯s guardforce took over and made sure the next five months of his life were miserable. Ten hours of physical exercise a day and an additional three hours for education with only a single day off per week. It had been hell but the pay and food were good enough for him and eleven others to suffer through all of it.
Out of their group only two had been selected to enter the personal guardforce of the lord while the rest were offered work somewhere else, guarding one of the many enterprises their employer had all over the continent.
Now, even though the captain stopped personally training them a ridgid training regime had been ingrained in his very bones and he, together with the other guards was training at least a few hours a day.
Today was such a day once again, he and a few others were training while the rest were doing their duties. He had heard today was the day the daughter of the house would come back, she was well liked with the older guards even though there was a small amount of fear mixed within. He really wondered how that strange combination of feelings came in play.
Suddenly he heard the sound of magic hitting the training dummies so he and his partner stopped their training to see who joined them. They were quite surprised to see the baron himself standing there with a small beastkin nearly hidden by his large frame.
¡°Do you know her?¡± He asked.
¡°No, never seen her myself but perhaps the young lady returned with a friend.¡± He looked at the old guard, the doubt clear in his eyes.
¡°A noble that works with anything other than a human, are you kidding me?¡±
¡°Have you seen the other guards you idiot? House Falconbridge doesn''t care about race at all!¡± His partner snapped at him. ¡°And don''t let anyone hear that attitude, they are picky about something like that. Let''s get back to training, I still want to get some training before you are done.¡± He wondered what the man meant by that but ultimately let it slide as they continued their practice. Within a minute of restarting his partner suddenly stopped, bowed to someone behind him and retreated.
¡°He is all yours Lady Falconbridge.¡± Turning around Emeric could see a stunning looking young girl standing behind him who must be the daughter of the house. He bowed as well.
¡°How can I help you Lady Falconridge?¡±
¡°You see, there is a small thing every new guard has to do with me, I''m sure you wouldn''t mind it would you?¡±
¡°What would you have me do?¡± He asked, sweat forming on his back.
¡°Oh that''s easy, you just have spar with me.¡± He could do that, he would have to make sure to go easy on her, she was just a young girl after all. She already chose her weapon, a normal longsword capable of being wielded with both one or two hands, a good choice for someone small. He himself prefered fighting with a shield and shortsword. While that put him at a disadvantage in reach most of the time he could make up for that with the added defense.
They started three meters from each other, weapons in front of them. He offered to only use his sword but she refused saying he would need all the advantages he could get. He was a little angry at the noble, he saw how they fought and no self respecting guard would lose even at a serious disadvantage. He probably was able to beat her with only his shield.
As they started he waited for her to attack like most nobles would. With no attack coming he went on the offensive, slowly advancing forwards and keeping an eye on his opponent''s shoulders.
Once he was in range he tried a weak shield bash to see how she would react. The bash was avoided by small step to his left, right in his shield and out of the reach of his weapon. As he overextended himself he got a painful hit against his legs as she ripped his shield out of the way.
¡°You¡¯ll have to do better than that, that was a rookie mistake!¡± She teased and danced back out of his reach back to her starting position. Once he signaled his ready she immediately went on the offense. A thrust against his head was stopped by his shield while he simultaneously thrust out as well, hoping to catch his opponent off guard. He didn''t connect though and had to rotate his body to avoid her getting on his blind side again. That was harder than anticipated as the girl was surprisingly nimble, always moving away from his sword, making it hard for him to attack her at all. If this were to continue it would only be a matter of time until he lost that round as well, so he prepared for a lunge.
Once he saw her moving in for another attack he charged forwards. Just as he was about to hit she jumped out of the way to the right, narrowly evading his shield and slashing at his back.
He started the next round with a cry, running at her as soon as the round started hoping to power through her defense with an overhead swing. The attack was narrowly avoided once again, but because he didn''t overcommit this time he didn''t get hit by her counter. It was really frustrating, normally his big stature gave him an edge against most opponents but the baron¡¯s daughter used her small frame to hide behind his shield whenever possible. Following the movements of someone you didn''t see was really challenging.
Suddenly he could see her sprinting at him so he stopped his musing and braced for impact while stabbing his sword in her direction. It didn''t connect and shortly after his shield was ripped down. This time he was hit two times the edge of his shield impacting his shin and the longsword on his shoulder.
Thirty minutes later his whole body hurt. He plopped down on his butt from sheer exhaustion as he had given his all in the fight. Not once did he manage to land a hit on her. It seemed the baron¡¯s daughter and him were leagues apart, she always seemed to know what he wanted to do in advance and prepare accordingly.
Suddenly a hand appeared in his face. He took it and was faced with the girl who used him as a training dummy for that last thirty minutes. She smiled at him.
¡°You are really good, I even had to cheat two times to avoid getting hit.¡± He groaned.
¡°Cheat?¡±
¡°I''m a mage so I just did some basic body enhancement to get the little extra speed needed to get out of the way.¡±
That soured his mood even more, he lost but not against a dedicated warrior but someone who was primarily a mage.
¡°Don''t fret about it, that''s something most of the other guards had to go through as well. See it as a learning experience. There is no way you will be able to beat all opponents by yourself so do it with others. I lose most bouts against more than two guards even if I go all out.¡±
With a last encouraging smile she left to join the baron and the beastkin when he heard someone approaching.
¡°Good job keeping up with her as long as you did. Most of us didn''t even manage fifteen minutes when she first challenged us.¡± His training partner said. ¡°Let''s go to the barracks, the rest of the day is freetime for you. Captain made it a practice after you get beaten up by the lady you have a whole day to relax. Afterwards you go through hell as you are not allowed to lose against your charges. If you thought the basic training was hell, the real fun awaits!¡±
Chapter 46
Mary woke early that morning. She was really looking forwards to the next months. While adventuring was fun and all there was just nothing as interesting as trying to understand how the world worked. First she had a friend to show the capital though.
They started after breakfast. She didn''t need to bring any weapons, the first three districts of the capital were as safe as a city could get and her magic was way more dangerous than her sword anyways.
She was really glad winter was nearing as the heat could get unbearable in the summers. Fifteen minutes after leaving her home they arrived at the grand plaza.
¡°The walls are bigger than the central tower in the academy.¡± Taimanu marveled.
¡°That''s only partially true, the walls on the other side are only fifty meters high, which is easier to accomplish.¡±
¡°That''s quite a lot of guards for a single building.¡±
¡°The royal guard is more of a legion than a guardforce. They do much more than normal legions too. While not official it is common knowledge they control the emperor''s network of spies and much more. They would probably do assassination too if that were required. My father once told me there are currently four thousand official members, bigger than any other legion in the empire.
The two thousand not in the palace are spread throughout the empire, securing important trade routes and protecting his family.¡±
¡°You want to tell me we had a company of royal guardsmen in the academy and didn''t notice?¡±
¡°Not directly, they were out in the forest, Starshadow once spotted them before they set up the illusions that guard their camp right after the prince returned from one of his quests.¡±
¡°Let''s not sour the mood by speaking of that person. Can I see the palace from within?¡± Tai asked with anticipation.
¡°Sadly not. While the palace, or at least the part I was allowed to visit is the most impressive piece of architecture I have ever seen the palace is off limits for all but the most powerful nobles.¡±
¡°Where is the reason in building a palace if nobody is allowed to see it?¡±
¡°Every noble sees it at least once in their live when we have to swear allegiance to the emperor once a year after their eighth birthday and I was allowed to accompany my parents in the last years. You¡¯ll just have to become an archmage and join the empire than you will be able to see it too.¡± Mary grinned.
¡°Not gonna happen, I like my tribe very much thank you.¡±
¡°Thought so, I wouldn''t want to give up my family for the empire as well.¡±
¡°So what are we gonna do now?¡±
¡°How about a visit to the ranger guild? They have this huge obstacle course and are too afraid of my dad to do anything. Yours too once you tell them who you are.¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°The rangers guild has some very aggressive recruitment tactics. If you have a certain amount of skill they will do almost anything to get you join them. If not for my dad I would surely be a member.¡±
¡°Something like that has to be illegal.¡± Taimanu said, horrified.
¡°It is. But the ranger guild is on the border of legality anyways. The empire doesn''t do anything against them as they don''t target officials.¡±
¡°You are talking about assassination aren''t you?¡±
¡°Yep, it''s an open secret a ranger of the guild will do almost anything for the right price.¡±
¡°So it¡¯s not through the guild but personal?¡±
¡°Exactly, but it is clear they don''t discourage it as the parkour even has a city part, something no honest ranger should need.¡±
¡°And they are afraid of your dad?¡±
¡°Yep, they generally ignore requests on the lives of nobles but a group of twenty of them once accepted a commission on his head. Let''s just say it didn''t go all that well for them and the business they lost in the north because of that made sure they would leave him alone for the rest of his life.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
¡°Your dad didn''t seem scary, more like a friendly old man which is stupid because he is quite young.¡±
¡°Oh he can get plenty scary once he sets out to do so. Usually he is happy to solve things without conflict but once someone come the wrong we that someone will regret it. And he is way older than he looks, as you may know your age resets once you evolve.
Here we are, the rangers guild.¡± Mary indicated at the building in front of them.
The rangers guild was a large building, with six stories it stood out even in the second district. Mary strode in with confidence to one of the counters.
¡°Hey there, I would like a run on the obstacle course with my friend here.¡± She said while showing her card to the guy at the counter.
¡°Sure thing Lady Falconbridge, that will be five silver. I assume you know the way?¡±
¡°Let''s go Tai.¡±
They arrived at the obstacle course a few minutes later right on time to see a woman fall in the pond after losing her grip on a rope. Mary grinned, it was always easy to trick some of the newbies to try the hardest course for simple money. It didn''t work on her as she barely managed to finish the course after five tries, to the great chargain of the three rangers that talked her into it.
¡°I see you are taking out a new member again Rokian.¡± Mary smiled at the huge man. Rokian was one bear of a man, over two meters tall with shoulders broad enough that Taimanu could comfortably sit on. He was a damn fine ranger though, one of the few that didn''t take any shady jobs. Mary met him after he came back from a request for her father and had instantly taken a liking to the man. He had tried managed to talk her into trying the obstacle course in the hopes of taking her pocket money.
¡°Mary girl, good to see ya, I thought you were in school? Did they throw you out because of your attitude?¡± He laughed. Mary hit him on the shoulder.
¡°I have holidays you big oaf, I came here to have some fun with my friend.¡±
¡°The little beastkin is your friend? Well small kitty how about a wager? I bet three gold you won''t reach the other side of the course in five tries.¡± Taimanu flashed him an evil grin.
¡°If I manage on the first you¡¯ll stop trying that on new members of your guild.¡±
¡°Ha. Sure thing if you manage the hardest obstacle course in one try! I¡¯ll even give you an extra try because I like your attitude.¡± Mary had her smile. There was no way Taimanu would fail that parkour. The small beastkin had a crazy control over her body and was made for stuff like that.
The course itself was five hundred meters long and you had to manage to cross them in ten minutes. That sounded easy in theory but with the obstacles it was quite challenging.
¡°You have to finish in ten minutes Tai.¡± She said, winking at her friend.
¡°Three ¡ Two ¡ One ¡ Start!¡±
The first part of the course was simple, you had to cross a small pond, twenty meters across by jumping between thing logs ten centimeters in diameter. Each of those was about a meter and a half from the next so you had to do them at once or risk getting thrown off by the magical winds created to increase the challenge.
Taimanu jumped on the first, testing her feeting and then started. There were twenty of these logs sticking out of the water but that didn''t matter to her friend, she easily jumped from one log to the next, ignoring every second log. She crossed the pond in record time and continued on to the climbing wall. She had to ascend an overhang of five meters. It didn''t even stop the beastkin, she jumped once, reached the halfway point and jumped again with her arms just reaching the top.
After hauling herself up she had a few meters of even land to cross after which came a bridge five centimeters in diameter and thirty long with swinging logs and magical winds to be a challenge.
Taimanu had to problem with the small bridge as her pads were smaller than a humans feet and her sense of balance was far superior as well. Even Mary was impressed how her friend wove through the logs without problem, never once stopping her sprint. Next up was a simple two and a half meter all wall without any handholds, something which Tai just jumped over once again.
With one fifth ready Taimanu still had four hundred meters left. This part was less about running and more about strength of arms. First Tai had to crawl through under a low hanging ceiling, something she could do easily enough with her small stature. After another twenty meter sprint through some mud she had arrived at the spot the previous occupant had failed, a thirty meter long pond with some ropes hanging above.
Taimanu cleared it with ease, jumping between the ropes with the agility of a monkey. The rest of the course was no problem for her friend just like Mary thought. All in all Tai needed about four minutes. Mary turned to Rokian whose mouth was still hanging open. She grinned evilly.
¡°Told you you will lose to her, she is a cat beastkin something like this isn''t even an obstacle for her.¡± He groaned.
¡°Played me well there, but you know I will have to report something like this to my superiors don''t ya, didn''t do your friend a good service.¡±
¡°Don''t worry, she is like me, her dad is a chieftain.¡± Taimanu joined them.
¡°I won.¡± She grinned, only a little out of breath. ¡°Why were you talking about my dad?¡±
¡°Just to discourage the guild to force you to join them, they like to ¡®secure¡¯ talent like you. If you have some serious backing or powerful family they will abstain from tha.¡±
¡°So I¡¯d have to join that guild if not for my dad?¡±
¡°Most likely yes.¡±
¡°Ah well, lucky me than. Do they have something challenging?¡±
¡°That was the hardest, most people struggle for years until they beat it, there aren''t many cat beastkin in human cities so having something they call challenging isn''t worth it.¡± Mary answered. ¡°And really all the other beastkin aren''t nearly as athletic as you.¡±
¡°That''s true, so can we visit the adventurers guild perhaps they have something that we two can do to kill some time.¡±
¡°Which one, the capital has four know of, one in the noble quarter for noble adventurers another one in the third for more high end adventurers and another two in the fifth district. I would suggest the third they are the most likely to have something we can do as two.¡±
Chapter 47
The week had passed in a moment and soon enough Tai and Mary were on their way to her tribe. They would meet them two hours from the capital so they started early in the morning. Mary planned to stay for a day and return home once Tai and her family moved on, they would meet again once it was time to return to the academy.
¡°So anything I have to know if I don''t want to grievously insult someone?¡± She inquired as they left the capital.
¡°Not really, as long as you don''t speak with anyone before you meet my father you''ll be alright.¡±
¡°That''s good to know, I take we will go to him directly?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
The rest of the ride passed in companionable silence as they both readied themselves to meet the tribe. The forest around the capital was, unlike any other forest, peaceful. You could move through for hours without meeting single monster, not that there were that many that could do anything against the two of them.
They arrived at the meeting point, a big clearing, just on time to see the tribe come out of the forest.
¡°You don''t use roads?¡± Mary whispered to Tai.
¡°We don''t need to, we don''t have anything that requires wagons so we just go where we want.¡±
That logic didn''t seem all that logical to her but beastkin were different from all other civilized races so she just took it as cultural difference.
Taimanu''s father stood out, a head taller than everyone present with a presence that rivalled her dad''s. His coloration was similar to Tai but the rest was different. His tail was a little shorter and he had considerably more bulk, so much in fact he looked a lot like a normal human if one ignored all the animal features.
Taimanu jumped off her horse the moment they were near him, practically flying towards him, yelling:
¡°I am baaaaack.¡± Loud enough to scare anything within a few kilometers.
Judging by the speed she took off with there was no doubt in Mary''s mind that her friend used body enhancement to be faster yet her father still caught her with ease. As Mary arrived at her friends side she could see the lynxkin pouting at her laughing father.
¡°How could you still catch me, I even used magic.¡± After laughing for a little more he finally answered.
¡°I got ready the moment I smelled horses, I know you. Why don''t you introduce your grinning friend here hmm?¡± He said with a deep rumbling voice.
¡°Sure, she is Mary. How have you been? Did anything interesting happen while I was away? Did you meet other tribes? How is¡± Mary interrupted her by poking her with a small tendril of mana, a signal they had agreed upon should Tai¡¯s old bubbly personality get hold of her again.
Mary jumped off her horse and bowed to the man.
¡°My name is Mary Falconbridge, pleased to meet you.¡±
¡°I am Toranq, chieftain of the Moonlynx tribe, pleased to make your acquaintance young noble.¡±
¡°How did you know she was noble, I never told you?¡±
¡°It¡¯s written all over your friend, her mannerisms, name and pose all cry imperial noble. That''s something you will learn if you live as long as me.¡±
Mary thought about interrupting the two, but ultimately decided against it. Tai''s dad seemed to catch it anyways.
¡°You are free to talk now that you were introduced to me.¡±
¡°Good to know, you know you can ask me anything, don''t you? I¡¯d be happy to teach you imperial etiquette if you ask me, I may not like it but am perfectly capable of teaching you everything you want to know.¡±
¡°You are a strange noble, most imperial nobles I met adore etiquette above all.¡±
¡°You only met capitalbredor southern nobles then. Northerners like my father are a lot more relaxed.¡±
¡°So your father really is the infamous grand duke?¡±
¡°Yes, he is.¡±
¡°It seems I''m in luck than, my daughter befriended the daughter of the most important noble in the empire.¡± Mary laughed.
¡°I''m sure there are a lot of people that wouldn''t agree with you.¡±
¡°You didn''t include yourself.¡±
¡°I didn''t, for all I care the rest of nobility can go bury themselves.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
¡°That''s not what a true nobles would dare say.¡±
¡°There are plenty, you just have to meet the right ones, I''m adopted though.¡±
¡°Oh yes, the Tradition, a curious part of your culture.¡±
¡°I take it you travelled the world a lot?¡±
¡°Oh yes, I did, why do you ask?¡±
¡°Do you recognize these words?¡± Mary repeated what she had heard her mother say in her memory.
¡°I can''t say I know the language I''m sorry.¡± Mary deflated a little, it would have been wonderful if he did. ¡°But the words sound a lot like languages from the far north would, beyond the monster lands.¡±
¡°That''s more than I knew so far, thank you.¡± That was encouraging, if the language actually came from the north she would have to visit a lot less language experts than she had thought.
The beastkin tribe was efficient, they managed to transform the clearing into something livable in less than an hour, something Mary would have thought impossible without magic beforehand. She had been introduced to the rest of the tribe as well, there were about fifty persons present with another ten hunting for dinner.
There didn''t seem to be all that many children and no one present was Taimanu¡¯s age. After asking Mary was told that young beastkin usually left their tribe for a few years to explore the world by themselves. That seemed reckless to her but beastkin were the better suited for stuff like that than any other race.
Taimanu¡¯s mother, Tolisu returned with one of the other hunters three hours after they arrived, carrying the body of a deer with two bites taken out of one of the legs. Tai repeated her enthusiastic fretting but managed to reign in her excitement without Mary''s help. Mary helped with dismantling the deer and they were sitting at a low table of earth soon enough, waiting for their dinner to finish. Meanwhile Tai''s parents started a conversation.
¡°How was your first year outside of our tribe?¡±
¡°It was great. I met lots of new people and my magic is beyond anything I was capable of before.¡±
¡°That''s good to hear, very good indeed. How did you meet your friend?¡±
¡°She smelled my familiar in my room.¡± Mary answered. She got an astonished look from everyone present though the reasons were different.
¡°You and my daughter are of the same age yes?¡±
¡°We are.¡±
¡°How did one as young as you get a familiar?¡±
¡°I was doing my ranger test and found a falcon chick that fell out of its nest and rescued it. We hit right of and he was my familiar a few months later. He already evolved once.¡±
¡°That''s astonishing for one as young as you.¡± The small talk continued for quite some time and soon enough dinner was ready. While not as good as her father''s cook the meal was delicious and Mary was throughoutly satisfied after dinner.
The tribe met around a big bonfire once they finished eating and Mary was asked to tell a story about their adventures. Her story seemed to satisfy her listeners and they gratulated her on the planning she had done to ensure the safety of her team.
It seemed beastkin culture dictated stories must be repaid in kind so Tai''s dad started telling them one of his own.
¡°I was an adventurer once. I left my tribe as every young has to and decided that I wanted to meet a human so searched for one of your roads and waited for one to appear. Only a day after I arrived a team of adventurers found me. I had been waiting in the forest next to the road and was stalking them for an hour before they noticed me.
They thought I was a monster stalking them and ran at me with weapons drawn. I was so shocked that they would attack me like that that the first one nearly killed me, he managed to divert his stab just in time.
After they assured themselves I was no threat they decided to take me to the next city. They thought I was a lost child and didn''t believe me when I told them it was normal for young beastkin to go on a journey to find themselves.
That lasted until the first monster attack, few kingdoms are as safe as the empire and it was quite common to meet random monsters on the road. So when the crazed evolution of a bear came crashing through onto the road they told me to stay back and let them handle it.
I had none of that once I noticed they were rookies and would be killed without my help. Being the reckless youth I was I enhanced my body and charged right in instead of using my wizardry to help them from afar.
I didn''t account for the fact that the monster was crazed by pain already and as such it wouldn''t be fazed by even the most deadly of injuries.
My charge distracted the monster from a deadly attack on one of the humans, it looked straight at me and he was able to dodge.
Once I was in range I jumped on its back and started tearing at its neck, further adding to its rage. While I was tearing at its back the adventurers were forced to retreat a bit as the bear started rampaging around with no possibility to reach me.
In the end it ran for the forest, trying to crush me between a tree and its back. I got of just in time but had a bear charging at me afterwards so my situation didn''t improve. It was then that I remembered my magic. I only had to evade once, which I nearly managed. It hit my arm with its shoulders, sending me spinning and breaking my arm.
By the time I got up it was bearing down on me again and only a desperate jump to the side saved my life.
This time I got up in time to hide behind a tree and start using the roots around me to obstruct its charge. It lucked out and managed to trip it. Before it managed to get up again I restricted it with as many roots as I could and then killed it by piercing its eye.
The humans came looking for me once the forest got silent, cautiously approaching the site of battle. They found me sitting there, shaking.
I got myself under control fast enough and used my knife to carve out a small part of the monsters flesh to honor our fight. That earned me a strange look but once I explained they what I did they ignored it.
I accompanied them to the city where they sold the materials we got from the monster. I was offered to join their team once they knew I was old enough.
That was how I met the team that would travel with me for the next years.¡±
The tribe went to sleep soon after, leaving Mary and a few others to keep watch of the forest. The story had been interesting but also served to remind her to avoid fighting monsters with anything but her magic. She liked Tai''s parents well enough, though her mom was a bit intense. She didn''t talk much but nothing seemed to escape her notice.
Mary would return home tomorrow. She would take Tai''s mount as well, her father''s stables had enough space and the tribe didn''t seem to want to use ways a great horse could follow. She looked forwards to returning home, her dad had hinted he wanted to discuss something serious.
Chapter 48
Mary entered the capital the moment the gates opened. The beastkin tribe started their day early, they wanted to arrive at a certain camping spot and would have to hurry.
The journey through the capital took an hour, a good deal of that time was spent riding through the fifth district. Even though she only rode along the main road she couldn''t help but pity the poor people that had to live in these conditions, knowing that she didn''t even see the worst of it.
After arriving at her home she took care of both horses she went to her room to refresh herself. A quick shower later she arrived in front of her dad¡¯s study.
He was already at work, planning some new trade route or something, whatever he made up as an excuse this time. After a brief hug she sat down opposite to him and waited for him to speak up.
¡°How was your visit to your friends clan?¡± He initiated the conversation.
¡°Quite pleasant, her dad is really powerful, he could give you a run for your money. The rest of them were really friendly too, they treated me as family the moment I was introduced as Tai¡¯s friend.¡±
¡°That''s good to hear, I will have someone accompany the next time you visit, getting a tribe to trade with you is incredibly hard.¡±
¡°Sure. So, why did you want to talk to me?¡±
¡°Now that you are getting older and actually have some experience I think it¡¯s time.¡±
¡°Time for what, telling me what you really do the whole day?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a part, yes. Do you know why I lost my title?¡±
¡°That''s easy. You got too powerful to remain in your position. The emperor probably feared you¡¯d start a rebellion or something like that.¡±
¡°That''s a part of it, but not all. Every generation has a few nobles that will rise far above their peer but they are usually bound to the imperial family, or the empire, without removing them from power. Contairy, the emperor try their best to make sure they remain in their position.¡±
¡°Yes, but so far none have been a grand duke.¡± She grinned. ¡°There are rumors about treacherous tendencies too. That''s stupid of course, you are just very interested in trade deals!¡±
¡°Huh. You noticed something.¡±
Mary snorted. ¡°Please dad, I''m not stupid. You have hundreds of merchants in your employee, official or unofficial and you don''t hesitate to use experts in for other things, there is no way you actually would take care of those yourself.¡±
¡°You are too smart for your own good.¡±
¡°It took me longer to notice something than I would like to admit. I only thought there could be something amiss when I started talking to other nobles in the academy.¡±
¡°So what do you think I''m planning?¡±
¡°I have no clue, nothing I came up with short of planning a real rebellion actually takes as much time as you are spending, but I don''t think you are stupid. Declaring independence needs a dragon and joining another kingdom doesn''t make sense.¡±
¡°You didn''t even consider I planned something smaller?¡±
¡°You don''t plan small!¡±
¡°That''s certainly true, though that you came up with that so easily is concerning.¡±
¡°Not really, few people know you as I do. So, what did you actually plan?¡±
¡°I don''t plan a rebellion. I have to warn you, what I''m about to tell you will be considered high treason should it ever come to light! You, like all my children, get a chance to live your life without my political ambitious. Do you really want to join my cause? Agreeing to hear about my plans requires that!¡±
Mary pondered about that for a short while, but in the end she never had any patriotic feelings for the empire as she knew she was only treated as good as she was because she looked human while her father didn''t care about such things. Further she was who she was thinks to him, he deserved a bit preemptive loyalty.
¡°I do, the empire doesn''t deserve my loyalty!¡± She agreed.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
¡°That''s a relief, settle down, that will take a while.¡±
¡°Stop teasing me dad, I want to know!¡± She whined.
¡°Are you sure, last chance to opt out.¡±
¡°I am!¡± She replied, a little louder than necessary.
¡°I plan to found a new kingdom, far from any civilisation.¡±
¡°You¡¯d need a dragon to support you if you ever want to be acknowledged by other kingdoms.¡±
¡°That is of secondary concern. If I find one fine, if not that''s not important.¡±
¡°What people? Assuming you don''t have a dragon there are few that would want to join such an undertaking.¡±
¡°Everyone that is able to abide by the rules set, every intelligent being willing to do so is welcomed.¡±
¡°That doesn''t explain why you want your own kingdom, you never struck me as power hungry?¡±
¡°I don''t care about power! I care about civilisation!¡± He said, passion creeping in his voice.
¡°I don''t want to found a kingdom for more power, I had plenty of that as a grand duke! No I have to ensure the survival of civilisation!¡±
Mary did not see what would be able to endanger civilisation as a whole, humans, elves, dwarves, lizard- and beastkin were spread over several continents.
¡°I don''t see that happening, civilisation is spread over several continents, even a swarm of true dragons wouldn''t be able to do much against kingdoms across the ocean.¡±
¡°That''s where you are wrong, the empire and its surroundings are an exception, we are all far more advanced than any other kingdom you will see.¡±
¡°And how does that contribute to me being wrong, saying the empire is the greatest civilisation on the continent while simultaneously fearing for it? I fail to connect the two.¡± She asked, slightly irritated.
¡°Compare the empire to something like Qildorth, a civilisation far above ours. They were in control of an entire continent and had settlements on a few others, yet we still don''t know what caused their annihilation.¡±
¡°They were destroyed by an internal struggle, a magic experiment gone wrong, could be anything.¡± She said.
¡°Did you know there is proof of older civilisations spread throughout the continent?¡±
That took her by surprise. ¡°I thought Quildorth was the first human civilisation?¡± She asked, intrigued.
¡°They were, these ruins were not built for someone with human proportions.¡±
¡°So there were monster civilisations before us?¡± She asked.
¡°Yes, don''t act too surprised, you know you are smarter than most if not all humans, its actually incredible we are the most powerful race in the world.¡±
Mary raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
¡°It¡¯s actually quite the surprise that we are if you think about it, goblins built tribes long before we had our first settlements, there are numerous examples of monsters that should have it easier to build a civilisation. If you look at Oqueron you will notice there are no humans there. If you think about it than its really pure luck that made humans the being we are now.¡±
¡°So let''s assume there is some mysterious force that will wipe out all civilisation every few millennia, what would founding your own kingdom do against that?¡±
¡°We will search for a way to survive it of course. If my guess is correct than that will not happen in a long time and if I manage to convince enough people to join than there should be some results once it happens. Getting as many races to work on that as possible is important as well, we function differently so we can check each other''s results.
¡°If you want people and monsters living together you will have to do quite some work, and probably be far from any other civilisation.¡± Mary said.
¡°That is the plan yes, I have about a dozen teams travelling the world to search for a possible location. You are wrong though, my people don''t have anything against working with monsters, the north is hard to survive without killing anything intelligent.¡±
¡°What do you want me to do then?¡± She asked, he knew his people better than she did. ¡°I doubt you will want me to sit on that knowledge without acting.¡±
¡°Nothing for now, it¡¯s important you finish your academy. Once you have, well my plans will need a decade or two so you can just help the exploration, you will have to leave the civilized lands to truly advance as an adventurer.¡± He said, shrugging. ¡°If you do find a dragon that wants to found a kingdom that''s a bonus.¡±
¡°Oh, you should consider to try and get something as far inland as possible.¡± She said.
¡°Why is that?¡±
¡°Well, I''m pretty sure more powerful monsters would rather join you if they felt comfortable living there and the higher ambient mana will make sure of that.¡± She explained.
¡°How do you know that?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the same for me, I feel quite uncomfortable now that I was in a location with higher ambient mana, I think the more powerful a monster the more ambient mana it wants, I''m not sure why humans are different but you wouldn''t get the really powerful things to leave their homes for something like the capital.¡±
¡°Anything that can be done about that?¡± He asked with a sigh.
¡°Yeah, I had one of the students enchant me something that increases ambient mana, sleeping with it is really relaxing.¡±
¡°So even the academies surroundings aren''t good enough?¡± He asked, surprised.
¡°Yep.¡±
¡°Huh, it seems your parents were far more powerful than I gave them credit for, I will have to search for more inland kingdoms than.¡±
¡°Anything else?¡± She asked.
¡°There are a few things, but none need immediate attention, I''m sure you have enough to think about as it is.¡± That was certainly true, she was sure she would have a lot of questions once she had the time. She was relieved though, she had feared he actually planned to overthrow the emperor, not something that any sane person would try, but something that needed a lot of planning.
Founding his own kingdom, she could get behind that cause, her dad was a lot better than the emperor.
Rewrite
Chapter 1 - Death
I ducked out of the way of the arrow with a curse.
¡°You ok honey?¡± My dad yelled, already running at our ambushers.
¡°Of course!¡± I yelled back, preparing my first shot. The enemies weren''t all that many - perhaps two dozen all in all - so I took time to search for a valuable target. It was best to take out any mages or elementalists first - even one of these could turn the tide of a battle. I spotted none, so I search for the enemy commander.
There. First among those charging at my father and his guards. I allowed myself a grin before loosing my arrow. Unlike the incompetent idiots attacking us I didn''t miss hitting the bastard right in the middle of his chest.
My arrow knocked right through their leaders breastplate - only thin, boiled leather - and he collapsed with a cry of anguish. My dad and the other guards it the bandits frontline a moment later, so I turned my attention to their archers. They didn''t have a leader, so I picked one of the few that actually looked like he knew what he was doing.
My arrow hit his arm right as he was about to lose another arrow, making it fly wide. I smothered a grin - I shouldn''t enjoy killing people. I sighed as I felt an instant arm tugging me back into the safety of our wagon.
¡°MOM!¡± I protested.
¡°Don''t mom me young lady! Get here in this moment!¡± She yelled, pulling with all her strength. I didn''t stand a chance - I was only fourteen and she was an adult, there was no way I could win.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
¡°Come on mom, I didn''t even take my staff!¡± I whined.
¡°You will not risk your life so recklessly!¡± She chided, forcing me to sit down in front of her.
¡°But I wanna, dad didn''t teach me to sit here!¡± I insisted, getting up and opening the door behind her. Getting ready to step out.
Mom stood up, stopping me from leaving the carriage with her body. I froze.
NO! Nono! Nonono!
I saw it happen in slow motion, one of the enemies losing an arrow just as I looked over her shoulder, right at my mother¡¯s back. NO! She couldn''t see it coming, couldn''t duck.
I was flooded by horror, moving to shove her in safety, but I knew I was too slow. Nonono, this couldn''t be happening!
Crack. I could see something flooding my body, yet nothing happened, the arrow continued its flight of death, unerringly, unstoppable. Death.
No! I wouldn''t allow it! I focused everything, my very being on the arrow, forcing it to stop before it hit my mother.
I felt something leaving me, and a wave of intense exhaustion washed over me, but I didn''t let that stop me, my focus on the arrow still.
It was near, barely a meter left.
It stopped midair, and time resumed. I¡¯d never really attacked my mother, so she was surprised by my shove, and fell back onto her bench. I slammed the door shut, collapsing into my bench.
¡°Honey? What happened?¡± Mom asked, confusion visible on her face even as tears started streaming down my face.
¡°I''m sorry, I''msososorry. I won''t do it again. I''msorry.¡± I wailed to my mother¡¯s obvious confusion. She moved towards me anyways, embracing me in the way only a mother could. I clutched her with all my might, relief and deep exhausting warring.
"Nothing happened, no need to worry." She said, trying to sooth me.
I held on tight, like I would be drowning without her. Everything receded, until the exhaustion caught up and I fell asleep in my mother''s embrace.