The next three days passed in a whirlwind of running, staving off exhaustion, and cramming in as much training as they safely could. At Incedis’ urging Pax spent a little time each evening doing his best to understand the puzzle of Kai’s unawakened and chaotic internal landscape. It was frustrating, and Pax didn’t feel like he was making any significant progress. He also couldn’t tell where the problem lay, despite thinking about it for days.
Was it Kai himself and what his future class would be? If he was destined to be a simple worker, maybe that was the problem and Pax would work better with a future mage. Or the problem could be with Pax himself.
Did he need to be a higher-level light mage? Or have more advanced paths of understanding in the various elements? He hoped there would be a few other teenagers to work with once they got to the base, so Pax could understand better and make more progress.
Pax considered pulling Fenix out to ask him about the topic, but could only imagine how angry he’d be to find they were still traveling and hadn’t arrived. Instead, Pax sat down and made a list of things he would test once he had more test subjects available.
He could try to select teens who had an affinity for the various classes. Everyone knew that some classes tended to run in families despite Vitur’s love for random chance.
Any teen that made it to the ruins would likely have a lot of experience fighting, so he could pick a couple of the strongest ones and hope they would Awaken as a warrior. A teen with an affinity for the crafter class should also be easy to find. He just needed to find ones who had parents who were crafters that they’d been assisting since they were young.
Pax didn’t really care about the worker and merchant classes. That just left the possible mages. They were the ones he really needed to find, suspecting that he’d find something different about their internal landscape of mana.
Pax knew he’d likely awakened as a mage because of the spark of light mana he’d had access to since he was young. But what about Amil or even Rin? Why did they awaken as mages? They were street rats with little to no exposure to magic. Though Rin might have some back when she was still part of a wealthy family.
Despite coming back to the issue over the last two days, Pax couldn’t see any way to guess who had a higher chance of becoming a mage. It was frustrating, but probably a good idea no one could make accurate predictions. If the empire could predict classes, they’d likely cull the street kids further and just keep the mages and warriors.
Pax let the topic sit in the back of his thoughts, hoping his subconscious would keep poking at it. He needed a better idea than just checking every teen at the rebel base until he found something that made sense.
At least their magic training had progressed well over the last few days. Thursday was a torturous trial that got even more laughter from his friends as he fought to keep running while small touches of lightning made his muscles seize up and twitch. Thankfully, his Scorching Touch and new Endurance level helped him stay on his feet.
Friday, he’d practiced with the ice that he'd put off until last. It helped that Rin had agreed to train by his side, switching out with him whenever he needed a break to recover.
And she'd been right. The heat in his body produced by the rigorous running made it much easier to handle the incoming cold. He even spent the expensive mana cost during a few breaks to occasionally cast Ice Mirror, paying attention to the spell with his growing understanding of the element.
Around him, the others did their best to handle the occasional hit of spells with diminished power from being stored in the mirror. After some discussion, they’d decided that the simple elemental spells from Incedis’ artifacts would be better for his friends to practice with than Pax’s new ones. Overcharge or Animate Flora wouldn’t be as useful to helping his friends learn about the new elements.
Pax had chuckled with everyone else when Amil tumbled to the ground after his first jolt from the stored attack in Pax’s mirror. Amil hadn't lost any physical functions this time and rolled to his feet with an extravagant gesture like he’d planned the whole thing. He insisted that his understanding was growing, and he'd be unlocking lightning at any moment. It still hadn't happened.
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As for their safety, the warriors, Mage Eldan, and their companions did an amazing job of watching out for the distracted mages. Still, there were a few moments of excitement.
On Friday, Talpa had given them a few seconds of warning of an underground trap set up by an earth-based serpentine creature. Pax had been the one holding his shield and had just recharged it. Mage Eldan and Incedis had stepped to the side, giving them the chance to gain the experience against the level five beast.
Their new levels created a much different result than how they’d fought in previous battles together on the Purge. Together with their growing companions, they destroyed the beast faster than Pax would have thought possible.
New spells and skills flew while their companions' abilities chipped away at the beast's stability and defenses. Even the buffing spells were better, giving them a faster flow of new mana while also healing minor wounds in record time.
Pax barely had time to get off the lightning spell he'd stored. Even being a basic elemental strike from Incedis’ sword, it still jolted through the beast's nerves when it landed and provided just enough distraction for the rest of the attacks to land and finish it.
Pax had looked at his shield in a new light, his mind alight with possibilities, especially if he worked to store the strongest spells he could manage instead of the weakest.
In fact, he figured any of the powerful mages he helped unlock new elements when he reached the ruins would probably be more than happy to charge his mirror with whatever he asked for so he could experiment and practice with it.
If only it would hold more than one spell. But a surprise he could pull out in an emergency was still amazing. And when they had a little more time and safety to experiment, Pax resolved to experiment with teaching his crew to use the mirror. In the worst case, where he was incapacitated, he didn’t want his powerful weapon lying on the ground unused.
It had tipped the battle against the sneaky beast, after all, though they’d have defeated it soon without it, too. Afterward, they’d celebrated by descending on the fallen beast like a swarm of locusts. Everyone had leveled their butchering and skinning to a point where, together, they could harvest everything valuable pretty quickly. Rin, with her Evaluate skill had quickly sorted out the most valuable parts for later sale or trade.
At first, Incedis had wanted to just continue traveling without processing the kill. But they’d made the case about needing the higher-level earth core to power their shelter. Their companions were also giddy over the idea of so much fresh meat and were happy to join in to speed things along. Those who weren't earth-based could still get decent nourishment from the kill, even if it didn't boost their elemental growth.
When Mage Eldan chimed in about the value of the high-level earth-infused leather for the rebel crafters who made armor, Incedis finally conceded. Tyrodon laid claim to the poison sacs and the fangs, and Rin conceded, saying they were of middling value. Pax could only imagine what devious plans Tyrodon had for the items.
Their shelter had worked well to protect them from nightly attacks until the third night. Something flame-based had tried to burn its way down into the tasty treat of people hiding underground. Thankfully, Incedis had plenty of power to fireproof the top of the shelter, which led to a very frustrated beast that finally left them alone once dawn arrived.
Pax slowly figured out the Wand of Sanctuary the more he used it, gaining an extra bit of sleep every night. Staying still while sleeping was a lot harder than it might seem. Thankfully, he was so exhausted at night, the uncomfortable urge to scratch his nose or shift while falling asleep wasn't too hard to ignore.
When he woke up hours before the others, Pax had to concede that Incedis had been right about how valuable the wand was. He'd been using those valuable extra morning hours to study his light manual and to improve control of his secondary elements before he worked on runes with Tyrodon.
After his extra work with the manual, it was now clear that he needed more power to get the next section open. The steady gains he'd made under Incedis' daily torture helped him make visible progress with the testing page. It just wasn’t fast enough for Pax.
One evening, he'd brought out Fenix to ask for suggestions to help him do it faster. The old mage hadn't been happy to find they sat buried in an underground shelter somewhere in the wilderness.
Fenix had taken a quick look at the light manual and given Pax a grouchy encouragement to continue until he leveled his new elemental paths. Then, he’d insisted Pax put his crystal back in his inventory and not bring him out again until he arrived at the light headquarters and could get to work customizing his new lab.
It had been a crazy few days with a mix of huge gains and complete stall outs. At least, he’d gotten some help with the huge decision he’d been worried about messing up. His evolution choices. Everyone had chimed in and given him a lot to think about.