Chapter 30

I woke up the next morning sore from all of the fighting the night before. My wounds were stinging and I didn’t want to get up. The only thing that got me out of my tent was the smell of breakfast drifting in from outside. It was time to get up. Today will be a busy day. We had a lot of training to accomplish and this would be the first day of Adrian's exercise training. I wasn’t looking forward to that. I had never exercised in my life. You couldn’t really afford to waste your energy when food wasn’t guaranteed in my former life. Sure I had done my fair share of running away from bullies and guards in my life but I had never done it with any conviction. This would be a completely new experience for me. I made my way out of the tent and over to the fire. Adrian was busy like normal working on breakfast. We all sat around while we waited for the meal to be finished. Once he was done cooking everyone made a plate and ate. We finished eating and then made our way over to where we normally had sword practice. Adrian was standing there waiting for us and said. “The first thing we will be doing is running. It is an important skill to have that few realize. It increases your stamina and allows you to fight for longer periods without having a break. After that we will begin trying to manage the weight of my weapons to increase your overall physical strength. Once we are done with that you will begin sword practice again and Devin will take it from there. Any questions? No, I thought not. Let’s get moving.” And with that he bolted off into the forest and we had to hurry to keep up with him. As we ran he kept changing his pace. For a long time he kept us at a slow and manageable jog. Then he would speed up so much that we would have to sprint to catch up. Only to be followed with more jogging and slightly faster running. He kept alternating until he could see that we just weren’t able to keep up any longer.

“Go ahead and take a break. You two have done fairly well for your first time.” We took his advice and took a seat. We each drenched ourselves in cool water and drank as much as possible to try to cool down even a little. We did some stretches to try to loosen up our sore muscles. After a little while it was time to move on to practice with Adrian's massive weapons. He brought out a matching set of great swords and told each of us to take one. They were lighter than the ones he normally used but still were massive and heavy compared to a regular sword. He pulled out his own sword and told us to watch as he performed a set of forms. After going through them a few times he told us to give them a try. They were similar to the forms Devin had taught us but also slightly different. There were more sweeping and large motions built into the forms. Sora and I gave it a try and didn’t have much success. The swords were cumbersome and unwieldy. The weight of them made them very hard to control but he told us to just keep trying. Eventually we would build up enough strength that it would not be difficult after a while. We continued practicing for a while. Eventually it was time for sword practice. Devin walked over with our practice swords and told us to begin practicing our forms. My arms felt like jelly from using the great sword for so long. We worked through the forms over and over again. We had been getting better but we still weren’t as fluid with the motion as we wanted to be. We went through the forms for a while until it was time to begin our sparing practice. We stood across from each other. With a wave of his hand Devin signaled for us to begin. We charged at each other. Working our way through the different forms.

Keeping up with the forms while also trying to land a blow on Sora was more difficult than you might imagine. We had only been learning to fight properly for a few days and it still felt a little unnatural. After we finished the first set we backed off from one another. We then reset and started again. We did this a few more times and began to feel more comfortable with the movements. We weren’t moving fluidly yet but we were making progress. We continued to spar until it was time to stop for lunch. Adrian had long since wandered back over to the cooking fire to prepare lunch. So everyone gathered around to wait for him to finish cooking. Stew was on the menu for lunch. It was the best stew I had ever had, even better than what you could get from an Inn. It was a real treat to be living with someone who had such culinary skills. Everyone ate and then it was time to move onto our next training. It was another magic lesson. We walked over to where Morigan was sitting and when she saw us approach she said. “Today we are going to be trying out some different minor spells to see which magics suit you the best. Some people have a natural affinity to one type of magic or another. We already know that both of you possess the fire affinity but we need to see if you have an affinity for any other types of magic. Keep in mind that just because you don’t have an affinity doesn’t mean you can’t use that type of magic. It will just be harder for you to perform. Like yesterday when we cast the fireball spells on the goblin village. I do not possess the fire affinity but I can still do basic fire magic. It just means I will never be a true fire mage. My affinity is with water as you could probably tell from my blue robes. I also have the wind and earth affinities. So don’t get discouraged if you don’t have a particular affinity. While the hopes of ever becoming a master of that particular type may be closed off to you you may still be able to perform minor magic equal to the fireball spell. I have this device that will light up with your affinities.” She brought out an orb similar to the one used by the adventurers guild. “Just step forward and place your hand on the orb. It will light up with the colors that correspond to the affinities. The affinities are fire, water, earth, wind, dark, and light. There are more obscure affinities like death, magma, and life. Though the orb won’t show those. They are mixtures of two or more other affinities and they don’t appear very often.” Sora stepped forward and placed her hand on the orb. At first it let up with the expected red for the fire affinity. Then green for the wind affinity following that was the bright white light that represented the light affinity.

Morigan was watching the lights of the orb and said. “Fire, wind, and light. Not a bad combination. The fire for attacking and the wind for speed are a very good combination. The light affinity usually displays itself with some form of healing magic. That would be a great asset to any adventuring group if you could learn healing magic. Considering adventurers are always ending up injured. It would save your group from having to rely on potions for healing. Alright Alex it’s your turn. Step up and place your hand on the orb.” I placed my hand on the orb and waited to see what it would reveal about me. The first wasn’t the red that I had anticipated but the black of the dark affinity. Following that was the expected fire affinity. Then it flickered through blue and brown to represent water and earth and then for some reason it resumed the black of the dark affinity. It lingered there until I removed my hand. Morigan once again commented on the affinities displayed. “Dark, fire, water, and earth. That is a unique combination. Dark is very rare and considering how the orb acted you must have a very strong affinity to the dark. You may have a problem controlling both fire and water at the same time, but the fire and earth affinity play rather well together.” Sora looked a little jealous that I had one more affinity than she did but it wasn't my fault. I didn’t choose my affinities. I was a little concerned about the dark affinity. Why was my affinity so strong? Oh well, there was nothing that could be done about it. “Now that I know your affinities I can help you guys learn some spells I’m familiar with. It’s good that we share the same affinities among us. I’ll start by teaching Alex water magic and of course wind magic for you Sora. Does that sound alright with you guys?” We both responded in the affirmative. “We will start with the simple water ball and wind blade spells. They are the most basic spell for each of those affinities.” She brought out some spell books for us to read through to get an idea of how the spell should work. She left us alone so that we could study the books. I opened mine and the basics of it were to distinguish the different affinities from each other in my mana pool. I need to focus on the water affinity and then it will coalesce into water in my hand. It was similar to using the fireball. I needed to form the water into a compressed ball. It would probably take a while to figure it out. It wasn’t like with the fireball spell book. I didn’t get the knowledge directly imprinted into my mind this time. So it would take a little trial and error.

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Though I did have a little practical knowledge to lean on to help me. Since I had used a spell I knew how it should feel. I focused on the pool of mana inside my body. I could feel the mana but I had no idea how to focus it into the different affinities. After a while of practicing I hadn’t even managed to form a drop of water. Sora had had similar luck. She, like me, was having trouble distinguishing the different mana affinities from one another. When we asked Morigan what we should try she just said practice until we got it. Which wasn’t much help. Though it was getting late so It was time to go eat some supper before turning in for the night. After supper it was time to stand watch. Everyone hoped that the goblin menace had been completely dealt with but we still needed to be cautious. After my watch was done I collapsed in my sleep roll. The night passed without incident and I awoke feeling sore but also refreshed. I walked out of my tent and over to the fire and waited for breakfast to be served. After yesterday’s training I was going to need it to get through the day. Everyone gathered around and talked for a while. Once we finished eating it was time to start training. Today we once again started with a run. He would stagger his pace to make it harder for us to keep up. After that he had us do a variety of exercises like push ups, sit ups, and jumping jacks. By the time he was done with us we already felt miserable. Then it was time to begin weapons training. He handed us each a sword and told us to go through the forms just as we had done yesterday. They were a little easier since we were more familiar with the moves and the weight of the sword but it was still very difficult. We did those moves until mid morning.

Then Devin brought us the practice swords but he also had one. He said to us, “Attack me at the same time. Before you ask yes I’ll be fine if you both attack at once. So come on, give it your best shot.” He backed away a few paces and motioned for us to come at him together. We rushed in and tried to use everything we had learned to fight against him. It was a losing battle. He was just so much better than we were. He batted our swords away with ease. There was just nothing we could do against him. He finally got done toying with us and quickly disarmed each of us. He looked at us and said. “Try again.” So we picked up our swords and went after him again. We tried everything we could think of. We tried double teaming and even separated to attack him from the front and back. Nothing worked, it was like he had eyes in the back of his head. It was as if he could see every move we were about to make before we did it. He disarmed us again and called a halt to the training. “Alright. That's enough for right now. I wanted to get a feel for how you were coming along and you are both doing pretty well. Now go have some lunch and then go try to find Charlotte in the forest again. Be careful to watch out for traps.” I felt like arguing that we weren’t really doing that well but I knew my protests would be fruitless.

We made our way over to the fire and sat down to eat a couple of sandwiches and drink some water. All of this training really was taking it out of us. We rested for a while and then it was time to begin our search. If last time was anything to go off of we were in for quite the surprise. We each paid much more attention to the things around us. Not wanting to fall into a trap or be pelted with blunt arrows. We took our time making our way through the forest. She had to be close. She was probably watching us at that very moment. I noticed some footprints on the ground and we decided to follow them. They led to the base of a giant tree. I hadn’t had much practice climbing trees. It turned out I didn’t have to as Sora leaped up and climbed high into the branches. I tried to follow her but it just wasn’t meant to be for right now. I followed her progress from the ground. She was getting far away from me and I was trying to also keep a look out for traps. It dawned on me that there could be traps up in the branches as well so I yelled out to Sora. “Hey, make sure you are keeping a look out for traps in the trees. We don’t know how many traps she may have set.” She answered in the affirmative but kept moving just as quickly. Jumping from tree to tree. Searching the branches for any sign of Charlotte. She eventually disappeared from my sight. I tried to catch up but it was no use. She had disappeared. I tried to scan the trees to see if I could find her when an arrow impacted my back. I hurt pretty bad but I spun around quickly to see if I could find where it had come from.

Nothing moved. Everything was absolutely still. That was when an arrow hit me from the other side and then I heard the sounds of Sora screaming. I ran in the direction of the screaming and that was a mistake. Because I hadn’t gone very far before I felt a tug at my leg and I was pulled off of my feet by a rope and left to dangle from the tree branches. She had managed to catch us both again. I didn’t know what trap Sora had found herself in but I was betting it was similar to mine. Charlotte dropped down from the branches above me and said. “It’s admirable that you wanted to help a team member in need but you can never risk the safety of the whole group by charging forward recklessly and not paying attention to your surroundings. Now let me get you down from there.” She turned my way and with an arrow strung she shot my rope and I fell to the ground. “Ouch.” I pulled myself off of the ground. She waved for me to follow her and we eventually came across Sora. Who just as I had been was dangling from a rope. Instead of shooting her down she climbed up and gently released her. “What gives? Why does she get the gentle treatment when you just let me drop?” Charlotte said. “At least she can climb trees. Plus us girls have to stick together.” I thought that was crap but I couldn’t really argue. I guess climbing needed to be added to my list of skills to learn. We made our way back to camp and Charlotte told everyone the story of Sora and I dangling from the trees which got a laugh from everyone. We were all becoming quite the group now. With a little more training hopefully we would be able to head out on another adventure.