Mystra's POV:

As I close my eyes, I imagine my armor flowing into the hilt of my sword and forming a blade.  I focus on all the times that I had sharpened my blade , getting an edge that was sharp, but not so much as to dull after the first hit.  I open my eyes and I look at my hands, success, the sword is there.

I look at the Chieftain and notice the shock on his face.  I know that I do not have the strength, speed, or stamina to beat him now.  I have only one option, I most use the final combo, the culmination of all the forms.  It is mastering this combo that earn me the title of blademaster in my former life.

I close my eyes and begin to relax the muscles in my body, I must be as agile as possible for this.  I hear the Chieftain roaring about me being a fool and charging at me.  I wait til he is just a few steps away from me and open my eyes.

I quickly charge forward beginning the combo.  As I pass him, I can feel my body beginning to fail, but I have succeeded in the combo.  Though even as I succeed, I can feel the muscles in my body ripping.

As I finish the combo, I know I did a massive amount of damage, but was it enough.  My body is in so much pain right now that I can not even control it any more.  I try to move, but all that resulted in was me coughing up blood, right before I pass out.

As my vision fades to black, a bright light suddenly flashes before my eyes and when I open them, I notice that I am somewhere else.  I appear to be in some kind of trophy room or museum, every direction I look I see various creature's heads mounted on the walls and random artifacts in display cases.  

As I am turning around looking, I finally notice Tymora standing off to the side watching me look around.

Tymora "When I suggested becoming an adventurer, I did not mean to go and almost get yourself killed on your first adventure."

Mystra "Well I did not expect to have this much trouble with this new body and what happened to me?"

Tymora "First off, when you collapsed I pulled your consciousness to my domain to have a little chat with you, so right now you are in my domain.  Secondly, you are the GODDESS OF MAGIC!!  You just tried to pull of a technique that only those that destined to be a blademaster because they were blessed by the god of warriors, Tempus."

Mystra "So I have the knowledge and understanding of the technique, but my body will never be able to perform it.  Are you saying that I have no choice but to rely on magic?"

Tymora "Now you are getting it.  No matter what you do, your body will never be able to handle the higher level techniques without damaging you."

Mystra "Hmm, well while I have you here, can you explain divinity to me?"

Tymora "Divinity is a god's ability to be a god, to simplify it.  It allows a god to perform miracles, to provide aid to their followers, to change reality around them, and to access their domain.  Once you get stronger as a god, you should be able to travel to and from your domain.  Anything else before I return you?"

Mystra "Last question for now, Is there a way for me to contact you to answer questions?"

Tymora "Hmm, I try to watch you as much as possible, but I still have to watch my followers as well.  So the best way would be to take your adventurer's license and call out to me, I will respond as soon as can.  With that answered, I have to return you to your body."

As she finishes speaking, everything fades to black and the next thing I know I hear people calling out to me.  I open my eyes and see my party all standing around me, with Cole performing healing on me.

They all sigh with relief and after a few more minutes of healing help me to my feet.  Even though Col.e healed me, I can still feel the internal damage that my body suffered unleashing that combo.  They quickly begin asking me what that final attack was and how I did that with my armor and sword.

I make up so vague answer about the armor and sword being a magical item gift from my teacher and the attack being a forbidden final technique that I should not use except as a last result and that I am not suppose to talk about to people outside of the school.

They buy the answer, but I can still see a questioning look in their eyes.

We quickly loot the corpse and take proof of our kills.  After a quick search of the last bit of the mine reveals nothing but a small camp for the goblins, we start to head out, grabbing the loot that we left behind on the way out.

After exiting the mine, we head back to the city and guild to turn in our quest.  When we get to the guild, we inform them of the completion and turn in the proof of our kills.  They take our license and update them for our quest completion and then hand Ben a bag containing the reward.

Apparently, we are getting more of a reward than originally expected due to getting a bonus for the shaman and Chieftain.

After we sell the loot, my share of the loot is 5 gold.  Everyone seems to be amazed that we made so much from the quest, until Ben reminds everyone how close we came to dying and that this should have been a 'D' level quest.

We then head to adventurer bar and celebrate over a meal.  After the meal, I split up from the party to get a room.

As I am leaving them, Ben calls out to me and tells me that they would love to party with me again, but I should take a few days to recover.  Even they are going to take a few days to rest and prepare for the next adventure and if I want they are going to try for another quest in three days and if I want to join them, to meet them here for breakfast then.

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I thank him for the offer and promise that if I am able, I will join them then.  I then head to counter and rent a room for the week.  Since I am rank 'F' the room is fairly cheap and when I get to it, I can see why.

It is a barren room with a small bed with a small chest at the end of it.  I take off my gear and place it in the chest and then get in bed and quickly go to sleep.

The next morning, I head down to the bar to get some breakfast.  It is fairly busy and after sitting down to order, I finally notice why.  I was so exhausted and my body needed to recover so much that I slept in clear til lunch.

When the waitress shows up, I order lunch instead of breakfast and when it arrives I quickly eat it.  I then exit the bar and head to the front gate to talk to the mage there.

Once there, I see that yet again the two old men are fast asleep.  I approach the tent and wake them.

Robert "Back again so soon and I see you got rid of that useless armor from before."

Mystra "Yes, and I have come to take him up on his offer to teach me magic."

Old man "That was quicker than I expected, I figured it would be a lot longer before you realized the wonders of magic,.  Though I realize that I forgot to introduce myself last time.  The name is Andre and I am an elemantalist of the fourth circle."

He then goes on to explain that there are two types of magic-divine and arcane.  From those we have the three principals of magic-Attack, Support, and Recovery.  These are more finely divided by scale and characteristics into circles.

He follows the school of elementalist and therefore specializes in elemental attack and support magic.  

Andre "First things first, you need a spellbook.  There are two ways of getting one, creating your own spellbook or by using someone else, either through buying, inheriting, or finding it.  Luckily for you, I happen to have a beginner's spellbook, but it only contains the first circle level of spells, so you will have to replace it fairly soon."

He searches in the tent for a few minutes and then hands me a small book.  He then begins another explanation of what he is going to teach me.

Andre "There are five levels to mastering a spell. One-Casting from a book, Two-Casting without a book, Three-Controlling the power level of the spell, Four-Controlling the quantity or size of the spell, and Five-Reducing or removing the cast time.  For the first lesson, I want you to learn the Firebolt spell and be able to cast it without the book, next you will need to learn to control the mana flow to the spell and increase and decrease it to make it bigger or smaller.  Come back when you accomplish that."

I go over to the side, while Robert and Andre go back to sleep.  After looking through the book, I find the firebolt spell.  Same as before, I succeed on my first try.

I quickly verify that I can cast the spell without the incantation and after a few cast, I figure out how to control the output.  When I cast the spell, I just focus on how big I want it and send just enough mana to make it that size,  So if I want a small one, I just imagine a firebolt the size of a pebble and allow only a small amount of mana to flow to it and for large, I found out that when imagining a firebolt, it fails if you try for anything bigger than about the size of a person's head.

After practicing a few more times, I go and wake up Andre.  He quickly wakes up and is surprised that not only have I completed the first two tasks in such a short period of time, but that I do not an incantation.  

After a few test to verify my mastery, he gives me my next task.  I need to take ten candles and simultaneously cast firebolt for each of them and light them.

I head into the city and buy a small box of candles, I then head back out to the same spot as before and arrange ten candles in a semicircle in front of me.

I try a couple of tricks for increasing the quantity, such as imagining multiple firebolts when casting, but it just makes the firebolt bigger.  

It was not the next morning when I was eating breakfast with a fork, that I figured out the trick.  I just imagine casting a firebolt from the tips of each of my fingers and when the mana flows, I have it get separated by my arms and finally by my fingers.  

It takes most of the morning to work on increasing the number, it actually became fairly easy after increasing the number to four, but then I ran into the problem of aiming.

After spending most of the afternoon working on it, I had yet to work out aiming more than a few at a time.  As I wrap up for the day, I decide that I will take a short break and go on the quest with Ben's group tomorrow.  Maybe if I use it in combat, I might figure something out.  Worse case I will have my sword with me to fight in case I have problems in combat.

A/N:  Thanks for the comments from last time.  I had not realized that I was swapping back and forth from Mystra and Mystera.  I will be going back and fixing it to Mystra.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I did not mean for the magic lessons to take so much.  In my notes, it looks so small but actually writing about it takes a lot.  The next chapter will have her using it in combat and finishing up the lessons and beginning the journey into becoming a god.