Never turn down an opportunity for something new. Try everything, firmly grasp every chance you get. Every opening you turn down is an opening you miss out on, one you will never experience again. Life is precious, so never waste a moment regretting a chance you missed.
- The words of the Crazed Wanderer, uttered moments before their death
The end of Raheru — which was the seventh day of the week — signified the start of a three day period with no requirement to attend school. Lino looked forward to the last three days of every week, because it meant he could focus on whatever he wanted to with no distractions.
He assumed that Nerloth would still be up for their lessons, so he left to arrive at the usual meeting place. He didn’t know how long they would be able to go for. Lino would be willing to use the whole day, but he also acknowledged that Nerloth probably had other things to do — say, searching for whatever it was that he had come there for.
Under Nerloth’s guidance, Lino managed to manifest his first shadow tendril. It was a flimsy thing, very small and unstable, but it was a start. He had successfully created solid shadow.
From there, he concentrated on replicating his efforts, and Nerloth’s ability to regenerate his mana proved invaluable. He was able to improve the consistency of his results, and create slightly larger tendrils that lasted longer.
Eventually, though, there was an end to Nerloth’s patience. He dismissed Lino and sent him back to the library. They had spent about twice the amount of time that they usually did there, and Lino inferred that it would be the same for the next few days as well.
After reaching home once again, Lino began to improve his disruptor spell. It took some time, but he managed to make it sturdy enough to go any distance that he would reasonably use it at. He also managed to reduce the mana cost, reaching the book’s standard cost of what it was supposed to use. He was now able to consistently cast it for one mana, over a medium range.
He didn’t have any targets with which he could test it, but Lino was reasonably sure that it would work. He was now able to stop any active techniques opponents had active, and probably cause them to have a moment of panic since they probably didn’t know anyone who could do the same thing. It was a useful ability to have under his belt.
Improving that spell took up most of the day, and left little time for Lino to continue reading through the book of abilities. He managed to finish his first reading of it, having noticed some useful abilities. The shadow tendrils he was learning were listed there, as well as a shadow form of teleportation — Shadow-Step. He also noticed Armour of Darkness, which looked like a different application of solid shadow. Most of those abilities were too high level for him. Once he reached Silver, he might be able to use them with his higher mana pool assisted by his channels.
His meeting with Nerloth on the next day was very much similar to the previous. Lino worked on his shadow tendrils, and he significantly improved his control over them. They were now more akin to a fifth limb rather than a rope taped to his body.
That was his main area of progress, though. He didn’t much improve the mana cost, or the size and power of them. Nerloth said that control was the most important though, so that’s what he worked on.
Near the end of their session, Lino asked Nerloth about the shadow armour he had read about, and why they required a higher level of advancement. The answer he got was pretty straightforward, for once.
“We’re pushing it with the tendrils. It’s hard to do without channels, you’re very limited with where you form then, and they’re weaker and harder to form than they would be. Also — as you’ve clearly noticed — they have a very high mana cost. Most wouldn’t bother learning them at your stage, even where I come from.”
“The armour adds another layer of depth. You need to reinforce the solid shadow so that it can withstand more direct force. With the tendrils, it’s very flexible and they will bend rather than break. You don’t want that with armour. It’s no good if the armour bends around a spear impaled in your chest.”
“You also need another level of control. Even with the effort you’ve put in today, you still need to devote your whole focus towards getting a tendril to remain relatively still, and it continues to vibrate a bit. With armour, you want to be able to cast it once, and then have remain completely still without having to think about it again.”
“On top of that, you’re creating a very specific shape without a mould. You need to follow the form of your body, to at least some degree. Too tight, you suffocate. Too loose, and it falls right off. Those tendrils you’re making? They’re very irregular.”
“Couple all of that with the sheer quantity of solid shadow you’re creating, and you can see why it’s so difficult to form. Elemental armour is generally cast before battle. Very few are good enough to find the time to cast it mid-battle.”
It seemed that Lino had severely underestimated the difficulty of creating Armour of Darkness.
Regardless, he continued to look through A Collection of Various Abilities and picked out some potential new techniques that he thought he could use in the future. Some new ones that caught his eye were One With the Darkness, Speed of the Flickering Shadow, and Night’s Camouflage.
They all looked really interesting, but Lino decided to the learn them at a later date. For one, they all required him to at least reach Silver before he could use them, and Lino also wanted to improve the abilities he currently had before taking the time to learn something else.
He also hadn’t forgotten what he had learned about enchanting. He needed to find something with a high mana capacity. Ideally, he would use a precious metal — there was a reason the stages of magical advancement were named Silver, Gold, and Platinum — but they were expensive so Lino didn’t think that he would be able to get a hold of them.
Instead, he decided to ask Nerloth to cut off the roots of a tree next time he went out to the forest. Roots were the next best option, they were the name of the lowest stage for a reason as well after all. Wood carried mana well because it used to be alive, and life was what created and used mana. Roots were the most mana-heavy part of the plants.
Lino was sure that he could find a sharp rock to carve the runes with, and so he was sure that he could have a good twenty or so wooden tablets with a charge of the disruptor spell, ready for release at a moment’s notice.
And so that was how, the next morning, Lino found himself asking Nerloth for an axe.
“You want… what?”
“An axe, I need it to cut some roots to carve enchantments into.”
“I mean… sure, I’ll give you a couple minutes before we start.” Nerloth reached into the box he always carried and pulled out a hatchet. It looked just small enough to fit through the opening of the box he pulled it out of, but the handle seemed too long to have fit.
Lino grabbed it thankfully and quickly cut away some of the top roots of the closest trees, being careful not to take too much from a single tree. He left the roots in a pile together and handed the hatchet back to Nerloth, who put it away back into the box.
Lino felt that he accomplished a lot during that session, using his improved control of shadow tendrils to start creating longer and broader ones, with greater potential for creative motion. He managed to get one to act as an arm temporarily.
He definitely noticed the increased difficulty of controlling something larger, and Nerloth promised that they would work to improve his control further the next day. He was grateful now for all the time he had spent doing so previously.
After that productive session, Lino packed the roots so that they were protruding from the top of his backpack, and headed home. Upon his arrival, he started work on chopping them into smaller pieces. Using a sharp rock that he had picked up earlier, he split the thin wood into hand sized pieces.
He referenced A Basic Guide to the Differences Between Various Forms of Magic and began to carve the runes for holding a spell and releasing it later. Using the same sharp rock, he managed to finish one of the small tablets in about ten minutes. After finishing the mundane part of the process, he immediately began filling the runes with mana, and then cast the disruptor spell into it. Enchanting all of those tablets would take multiple refills of his mana pool, so he wanted to make sure that he didn’t waste any time with hi mana sitting at full with none of it’s natural regeneration.
He was pleased to see that as far he could tell, the enchantment had worked. There was no way to know for sure, but when he extended his magical senses to the tablet it felt distinctly full. Lino took that as a good sign.
He used the rest of the day to enchant the rest of the tablets. He was most often waiting on his mana pool to refill. He could carve runes faster than his mana would refill, so that was aways what was holding him back.
The tired urge to sleep was a firm reminder that the next day was a Khonsheru, and the start of a new week. He would be required to attend school. Additionally, it was last day before Nerloth had said that he was going to leave Ramaat. The foreigner had been immensely helpful and Lino didn’t know how to say thank you. There wasn’t much Lino could do that wouldn’t be immediately outclassed, so Lino decidedly to simply say thank you on it’s own, and work hard. He had a feeling that that would be appreciated more than anything else.
Lino also wished that he could continue to receive the benevolent lessons he had been given. He had briefly considered attempting to follow Nerloth out of the town. Then he had realised how stupid that was. There was no way in a million sun cycles that he would be able to go undetected, and Nerloth could just teleport him away.
Lino was very surprised when Nerloth was the first one who brought up the topic that Lino had been meaning to.
“So, uh… I’ve found what I was looking for. I’m going to be leaving later today.”
Lino nodded. He had known that already.
Nerloth took a deep breath, then continued. “Do you want to come with me?”
Lino’s eyebrow’s shot up, and the area around him might have gotten a little bit darker. “What? Really?”
This was nothing that he had ever imagined. Why would Nerloth be the one to suggest that? Lino didn’t think Nerloth could find a use for him, their relationship was mostly one way with Nerloth helping Lino.
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“Well, yeah. I admire your determination and what you’ve done with a bad situation, kid. I think I could do a lot with someone like you. In half a century you could be a great asset to me.”
Lino didn’t miss the real implications of the offer. He would be indebted to Nerloth, and be in his service to help him with whatever he needed, or whatever his end goal was.
But a life with respect, power, and an equal chance was better than a life of discrimination and forced weakness, no matter if it was in service. Lino held no attachment to this town, and he would be glad to leave it behind. There was no doubt in his choice.
“I am honoured to accept your offer. Thank you.”
Nerloth’s expression and mannerisms shifted to be more confident. Lino hadn’t noticed before, but he must have been nervous. “Well then, I’m sure you have belongings you would like to bring that you haven’t got on you. Can you meet me here again at twelve bells?”
Lino frowned slightly, wondering why Nerloth didn’t just teleport them to his house and back, so that they could leave before the next bell. He wasn’t in a position to question, though, so he nodded. “Yeah, that’s great.”
Then Lino was falling again.
* * *
“So, where are we going?”
Nerloth answered Lino’s question quickly and clearly. “The closest major settlement to here is a city called Hydralt. We’ll go there first before I move on back to my home.” He paused, remembering something. “Oh, and what I said about there being danger in my homeland and running from it? I made it up, your elders listed it as one of their conditions for my entry. I didn’t want to make a fuss with them.”
That wasn’t much of a development for Lino. There had always been something sketchy about it, he knew something was up. He supposed that it made sense for the elders to discourage searching for new lands. They were probably thousands of kilometres away and most would die before reaching them.
“Can’t you just teleport us there? Or, at least, outside the walls?”
A hint of frustration touched Nerloth’s tone. “It doesn’t work that way. I would need to set up a safe location or an anchor, otherwise we could end up encased in solid rock. Also, Hydralt is about a thousand kilometres away. I don’t have the mana to take three people and supplies that far in one shot, and accuracy decreases with range as well.” He paused, thinking of something, then frowned. “And we are outside the walls.”
“Wait, what? Isn’t this the same place we’ve been all week? I thought it was supposed to be incredibly dangerous in the jungle?”
“Well, yes, it’s dangerous to someone like you. But to me, no. Besides, you can avoid the most dangerous stuff by just going around whatever beast or grove of trees it is. It’s easy enough for me to clear out a small area for our training.”
“Huh.” Nerloth did seem to be far more powerful than anyone Lino had seen. Most of the people in Ramaat probably also had far less knowledge about the area and where they were going, so it made sense that it would be perceived with increased danger for them.
Lino’s mind turned to the other issue he had noticed with Nerloth’s answer. “Why did you say you couldn’t teleport three people that far? There’s only two of us.”
Nerloth proceeded to ignore his question in favour of moving further towards a small shelter with a strange fabric-like substance as an external. He stopped a few meters from it and picked up something from the ground. “Ah, here we are.” He called out to someone inside “Meyrin, did you finish packing everything up?”
Lino had thought that Nerloth had come alone. “Who’s Mey—“ Lino was interrupted as a girl of similar age to himself emerged from the shelter, answering Lino’s question for him. “Uh, hi. I’m Lino, nice to meet you.”
She seemed surprised to see him, but not in the way you would expect. She looked… annoyed. “Of course you would be the type of person to accept grandpa’s offer. Abandoning everything you know for one measly chance.”
How rude, Lino thought. To an outsider, it might seem that his decision was a bad one, but in Lino’s situation it was a no-brainer. He was offended that she seemed to be so against his decision, whether it was because Meyrin disliked him or just couldn’t understand his motives.
“Well, yes. It was obvious for me. That town wasn’t really much of a home to me.” Lino’s reply was blunter than it might have otherwise been.
“It was a great option.” Nerloth said pointedly, sending a firm look at his granddaughter. He raised his eyebrow, waiting for something. His earlier question still hadn’t be answered.
Meyrin was somewhat more dejected in her response to the unspoken question. “Yes, I’ve got everything in the storage cubes.”
“Good.” The shelter they were standing in front of folded in on itself and zipped into the device Nerloth was holding. “I’ve a got a series of clearings set up to teleport to that I made on the way here. But, I can’t quite go the whole distance between in one jump, so we’re going to be walking for the best part of a day while we wait for my mana to recover, then we’ll teleport to the next ring. I’m going to need you two to work together—” he shared a look with both of them, lingering on Meyrin for a little longer “—to take care of anything in our way so that I don’t have to use up unnecessary mana. It should be a good training exercise as well.”
Lino was a little worried about that. He didn’t know how powerful Meyrin was, but based on Nerloth’s power and her age… high Silver? Low Gold? He couldn’t imagine that she would be any higher than that. Surely no one could be more powerful than that at his age, even if he assumed Nerloth was somehow Diamond. The best of his age group were only around the middle of Silver.
Even if he assumed she was Gold, he didn’t feel confident that they could hold off much. Nerloth had said it was dangerous for people like him, which Lino took to mean those in Ramaat. The top twenty percent were Platinum there.
“Are you sure we can handle it?” Lino asked.
“I can always step in if I need to. Just means we’ll need to walk a little further.”
With that reassurance, Lino reluctantly set forward.
With their magically enhanced bodies, the three of them managed to cover about thirty kilometres in the remainder of that day. It was largely uneventful with the only small hiccups being the appearance of some small… things that could only be described as monsters. They were an amalgamation of different body parts, looking reptilian in some parts and mammalian in others. They were easy to deal with, though. Lino’s disruptor spell seemed to incapacitate them for a lengthy time, and Meyrin could somehow just kill them instantly if she touched them.
Lino had really thought that the wilderness would be much more deadly than this, but he supposed that Nerloth and his granddaughter had mapped out and chosen the best path on the route in the opposite direction.
Their surroundings gradually became more and more tropical, with temperate forests giving way to a more tropical jungle. The thick canopy would have made it difficult to see, if not for Lino’s enhanced eyesight.
The exotic berries, fruits, flowers, and leaves were all beautiful. They covered the ground and the air as far as the eye could see, resulting in a multicoloured paradise.
…Or at least on the surface. Lino had been informed that many of the plants were poisonous by touch or ingestion, and to avoid them if he could. It was a shame.
As they crossed an unseen barrier, Nerloth stopped them both. “Alright, we’re in range of the first safe point. Meyrin, get ready with the tent.” He chucked her the device that their shelter had folded in to.
Lino emerged from the grey void to find himself standing in the centre of a circle that had been cleared of plant life. Around the edges Lino could see that all signs of the previous temperate forest had given way to the wetter tropics.
Behind him, he heard the small pop of displaced air as the ‘tent’ set itself up. Lino didn’t know what a tent was, but it seemed pretty handy — almost like a portable house.
He stepped inside, and was surprised to see the relatively small structure open up into a moderately sized family home. Nerloth and Meyrin were already there. They were standing in what looked like the kitchen, and Nerloth had already begun preparing a meal of some sort.
“You two, unpack the food supplies. Check if we’ve got some rice.” Nerloth directed them to open up a cube that Meyrin was holding.
She walked over to him, and motioned towards a doorway made of fabric. “Come on, I’ll show how to unpack things from storage cubes into the temporary crates.”
“How do those things work anyway?” Lino thought he had seen Nerloth use other devices that stored items that were too big too fit in their container, but he didn’t know how to actually use them.
“Just press your finger here and say either store or retrieve… whatever you want to store or retrieve. It’s pretty simple. At the moment we’ll need rice, salt, the deer meat, some spices…” Meyrin’s voice trailed off as she considered the different supplies they would need for the night.
“That sounds pretty convenient.” Lino was blown away. These people seemed to have much better methods for doing everything. He moved closer, and, in a quieter voice, asked a question that had been bugging him all day. “Is the forest normally that… tame?”
Meyrin didn’t look up to reply, still writing a list of all the things she wanted. “No, not usually, but on the route we have mapped out it’ll never anything a well trained Platinum and a Root can’t handle.”
“You’re a Platinum?” That was a crazy revelation. Lino had been imagining that she was Silver or Gold, and Nerloth a Diamond or maybe just beyond that. But if she was Platinum then that meant…
“Yeah. It’s not that unusual.” Meyrin seemed intrigued by his reaction.
Lino was still in shock. “There must be something different about the outside. Where I come from, not everyone reaches Platinum in their life.”
She raised an eyebrow at his statement. “Wow, you really are all weak, huh? Most people in ‘the outside’ reach at least Diamond. Amethyst is not unusual, Ruby is rare but not unheard of, and there will probably be one or two Falsemages in every city.”
Lino was speechless. He didn’t even know what half of those names meant.
“I suppose only being at Root isn’t as bad as I thought then.” She was slightly apologetic, appearing to reassess him.
“Yeah, I’m only slightly behind the average of people my age.” Lino was distracted in his response. He could see now why she had been sceptical of him at first. If someone only halfway through Root had been chosen for special tutoring, there would have been quite a bit of uproar from young talents and their families.
They proceeded to converse further while organising the supplies they would need, and grew more friendly. Soon they were all sitting together eating a warm stew, looking froward to comfortable beds.
Before sleeping, Lino attempted to draw in some mana. He noticed that it was slightly easier, but nothing that would justify the difference in magical ability that had been described to him. Maybe the town he grew up in was something of a dead zone when it came to ambient mana, and it would become easier to progress further out?
Lino wasn’t sure, but he could only hope that he would be able to the reach the high stages that Meyrin had said were normal.
Before falling asleep, Lino thought of Tingrath, his guardian for all that he could remember of his life. It had been… difficult to leave behind that familiar home.
In the end, though, he knew it was irrational. Tingrath had his own family to love, and he was a practical man. He would understand Lino’s choice. He had taken Lino in all those years ago for similar reasons, using the extra money to support his own endeavours.
The note Lino had left behind held his reasoning, and professed his thanks for the care he had been given. He held no hard feelings towards Tingrath, merely the town as a whole.
* * *
The next morning, Nerloth spoke to them both while they digested some porridge that had been surprisingly quick to make. “We have a couple hours now to focus on magical progress. Today, I will be guiding Meyrin. Lino, you can stay inside or watch us while we work, or whatever you prefer. Tomorrow we will switch places.”
They both nodded.
“After that, we’ll set off again. I would have liked to keep on going constantly, but it’s important to maintain your spiritual organs to make sure that they remain healthy.”
Lino moved off to his assigned room and attempted to improve his control over larger shadow tendrils. He succeeded on reaching the same level that he had with the smaller tendrils, and also managed to slightly reduce the mana cost of maintaining them. Lino was pleasantly surprised with his progress.
It wasn’t long before they were up and moving again. The tent packed up quickly into a small ball, taking everything inside with it. It did have a maximum capacity though, which was why they had had to move some of it into the storage cubes when leaving on the first day.
The day started like the previous. They hiked through the jungle, making steady progress. But then, Meyrin stopped them. “Something’s following us. It’s Diamond, about a kilometre away.”
Lino briefly wondered why Meyrin had been the first to sense it, but quickly dismissed the thought. He needed to focus on what was going on, not question everything.
“Good.” Nerloth smiled. “I see your spiritual detection range has improved.”
That answered Lino’s unspoken question — he was obviously treating it as a training exercise.
“Do we need to do anything?” Lino asked.
Nerloth didn’t look back, keeping his pace while replying. “No, just keep moving. Let it come to us, it will be a good test for the two of you and how you work together. If you play to each other’s strengths I have no doubt you’ll be able to manage it.”
Meyrin thought for a second, then spoke to Lino. “We don’t want it to know that we’ve noticed it, so we keep moving like nothing has happening. I’ll warn you when it gets close.” She hesitated, her green eyes flickering towards Nerloth before focusing back towards Lino. “Will you be able to distract it when it appears? If I can get close enough to touch it, I should be able to kill it.”
Lino thought about it. He had few techniques at his disposal, and they were most likely going to be weak in comparison, but…
He thought that his disruptor should at least hold for a touch, and he had dozens of charges in the enchantments he had made. He could also probably use tendrils to direct the creature away from Meyrin.
After some deliberation, Lino nodded. “I reckon I can probably hold it’s attention for a good five seconds.”
Meyrin let out a heavy breath, then concluded their makeshift strategy. “Alright, that’s our plan then. You distract while I sneak around and get close.”
It’s kinda funny, Lino mused. The shadow is supposed to be the one sneaking around, while the light user is the distraction. Then he noticed a gap in his knowledge. I’m… pretty sure she uses elements that are light aligned? I’ll have to ask tonight.
The plan made sense, though. Meyrin was much stronger than Lino, and would be able to do more damage. She seemed pretty confident, so Nerloth’s training must have helped her enough to overcome the stage difference with strategy, tactics, intelligence, and utilisation of abilities.
Within half an hour, Meyrin spoke up again. “It’s probably about five minutes away now. I’m sensing a low-to-middle Diamond, with affinities for light, stone, and force. Approaching from behind us and slightly to the right.”
That was good. Lino was the rightmost of their group, which meant he would be most likely targeted first, which supported their plan with him as the distraction. Additionally, his disruptors would work best on something that used light. In preparation, Lino took five of the disruptor enchantments from his bag and held them in his hand.
Soon enough Meyrin gave the signal that the beast was close. Lino thought he could feel it too, now. He had never had any training with his mana sense or even knew it existed, but he could feel something different about the air now. It was almost like his back was being watched, but when he turned around there was no one there.
Leaving those thoughts aside, a bulky mammal was now charging at him with the force of a waterfall. Lino swiftly released one of the disruptor spells from his enchantments. The beast slowed for a moment, no longer accelerating and instead decelerating. But before long it was charging at full force again. That was less of an effect than he had hoped.
To combat that, Lino began charging up a larger version of the spell. He used up four of his ten mana, making a much more powerful spell in the fractions of a second he had before the creature trampled him. While he was building up the new spell, he released the remaining four enchantments in his hand in rapid succession.
That slowed it down more, but it was his final spell that slowed it to a pace suitable for a being it’s size. It must have had a larger mana system that was harder to affect, pushing it along at an unnatural pace.
The disruptor spell would have stopped any force magic it was using, and presumably lowered the defence of it’s stone reinforced skin.
It was still moving though, and even with just it’s regular muscles it could still squash him. Lino needed to do something about that. More disruptors wouldn’t help — they only affected magical effects. So Lino tried the only thing he could think of.
Lino used his remaining mana to lash out with shadow tendrils emerging from his chest, causing the behemoth to reel back in pain from the burning sensation it now felt across the left side of it’s face. It wouldn’t do any serious harm, but Lino stood up with confidence to make it look like he had only fired a warning shot.
He was spent, but the beast didn’t know that. The threat of further harm kept the beast from advancing, leaving it in the perfect place for Meyrin to kill it. Having used the previous seconds to get into position, she appeared at the side of the creature, and put a hand on it’s side.
…Which only caused it to turn and prepare to build up momentum in an escape in the other direction.
Fortunately, Lino had already grabbed more of his enchanted tablets out of his pack, and he fired them together with a burst of lightning cast by Meyrin, slowing it down just enough for her to reach it. This time, she was able to succeed in her task. The beast stopped in it’s tracks and fell forward before flopping to the side as it’s motionless legs could no longer support the momentum it had.