This is the first revision of the original Chapter 2, streamlined a bit; biggest change is the name of the race mentioned in Chapter 1. I changed it from Sapeni to Urren. Everything from now on will be referred to as such. Thank you.
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Zuria Forest is the largest forest in the land of Merinia. Spanning across three territories, it blankets most of the northwestern quarter of the continent between the western sea and Mount Oya and the Varnot Mountain Range. Buxley and Kura had spent a good portion of the day pushing through the six feet high brushes north of High Tree before finding a clearing to prepare their camp for the night. With a fallen tree leaning on the branches of a nearby redwood as a landmark they dropped their satchels with a thud to take short rest. Taking a sip from his water canteen Kura closed his eyes and held his staff out in front of him, setting the steel-capped end of his walking staff on the ground he began to concentrate on forming a spell. Buxley balanced himself as he used the fallen tree as a ramp to climb to the other tree to take a look at their surroundings as he waited for Kura to set up his usual protection spell. As Kura finished casting the spell, Buxley dropped down from his vantage point before asking.
Kura didn’t need to continue channeling the spell for the protective barrier because he had woven the spell to draw upon the surrounding area’s mana to power it. This way he didn’t need to expend much of his own mana for the barrier. However, the resulting effects of the spell will be weaker than if the concentrated mana from a mage or similar source was used. Additionally, the spell only lasts as long as there is still mana in the surrounding, the larger the spell the more it consumes and the shorter the duration. Since mana slowly replenishes in the environment with the exception of areas with aether, naturally high concentration of mana, this technique is not always available.
“Hunt or rations?”
“Hmm, let's see what’s around.”
Kura rotated his staff and made a motion to tap the ground with the head of the staff which gripped a small green gemstone and generating a soft pale yellow glow. A few seconds later he drew a circle with his staff in the air parallel to the ground. He then lightly knocked the head of his staff on the ground and initiated his magic. A blur appeared around Kura for just a second before returning to normal and the yellow glow increased in brightness by a factor from his staff. Immediately, a swarm of ten luminescent balls of light of the same color floated from the ground and swirled around Kura before they sped out in a circular motion. Kura remained standing and bowed his head slightly as he kept his eyes closed to concentrate on channeling the spell.
Buxley leaned against the tree as he watched Kura’s magic in action. Having been used to this, he waited for several minutes to pass as Kura searched the area for ingredients they’ll be using to make their lunch and supper. He saw the wisps of light roam around in the distance as they casually moved around from one place to another. Everything they sense are reported back to Kura via information. Shortly afterwards the glow from his staff dimmed as Kura breathed out and relaxed before nodding to his cousin. Buxley, having received confirmation that the hunt was successful followed a wisp that came back to lead him to gather up the spoils. The initial action of the search required Kura to keep channeling his mana to maintain the numerous wisps he sent out within a fifty yard radius. Once it was done, he cut of the channeling and let the wisps slowly burn up their remaining mana before disappearing. This freed Kura from having to stay concentrated and using up his mana to move around to find some firewood for the campsite.
The magic Kura used was a highly efficient magical spell that he developed through his efforts of perusing the city library in Bludloft, calling it 'Wandering Wisps.' A combination of a number of 1-ring spells woven together into a complex one that could be cast with minimal effort, as long as there is enough mana. The first ring is for the wisps themselves, which is the most complicated of the three as the wisp needed to be self-contained with its accompanying spells and follow the directions of the caster. The second spell is for identifying life in the proximity. It detects the mana of living animals or beings within a five yard radius of the wisp. The unique mana aura of the living has a different signature than the typical mana that flows in nature. The third spell is known as ‘Feedback Sense’, allowing the wisp to send back information as sights, sounds and smells. The fourth-ring was ‘Arc’, a light-based spell that electrifies the target making it ideal to capture small game.
An extra touch that Kura added in his 'Wandering Wisps' spell was injecting a small amount of his intentions within the mana allowing each wisp to move independently without need for his direct control. This is what brings this low-tier spell four-ring spell to a mid-low-tier spell. Without visually seeing the wisp an animal would be unable to detect it due traces of the surrounding mana Kura had mixed in when channeling the spell thus making it ideal for hunting.
Since rune magic has the prerequisites of a spell engraved into an object, casting a spell is almost instantaneous after the spell is initiated by a specific action dictated by the instructions within the engravings. The runic character, once drawn or engraved, can be activated by infusing or performing the movement specified. Kura had carved his own walking staff so he had set the rune’s parameters himself and set the activation settings to when he tap the ground with the head of the staff. Rune magic requires very specific commands and requires an understanding of the all the parts of the spell. A multi-ring rune-based spell is still easier cast compared to a traditional spell. There were many runes Kura carved into his staff all set up as the foundations of his often used spells so he can weave the more complex ones without starting from the beginning saving time in case of a pinch. With his current knowledge and experience two and three-ring spells can be cast within seconds as he had just done with his wisps. Space and quality was limited on the staff so most of the cumbersome spells were left out, such as spells like the protective barrier he had casted beforehand. The exception being ‘Wandering Wisps’ since it is his favorite spell to use.
Buxley came back moments later, his hands dyed with the blood of a rabbit one of Kura’s wisps took down. The rabbit had already been bled out and gutted on the spot but Buxley brought it back to the campsite before skinning it.
The protective barrier Kura had set up was a low-tier five-ring layered spell set within a hundred meter radius. The first layer masked their mana signature while a second one that puts a shroud over them, hiding all senses from detecting them. The other layers contained a warning spell in case someone walked within the perimeter. A redirection spell which twists the surrounding area so that anyone unconsciously entering would end on the other side without ever seeing the two of them. And finally the physical barrier itself occupied the last ring. It was one of two five-ring spells that Kura was able to find in all the books he read at the Grand Library and since beginning the journey with Buxley had used it every time they make camp in the wilderness.
The sun had set by the time they finished cooking their meal. Changing their plans a little to preserve some more food for the coming weeks, they ate their rations for lunch and saved the rest of supper. The pale grey moon had risen above the trees enough to provide a bit of moonlight within the forest. They silently ate their meal, listening to the forest before laying out their bed rolls to end the night. Just a thin layer of leather and stuffed cotton consisted of their bed roll making it easy to roll up and light to carry. It was as comfortable as they could get sleeping out in the cool and damp forest ground. Even though Kura had set up the barrier, they still took turns sleeping so there is always a person on watch.
It was something Buxley suggested, it was the basics of patrolling he learned during his time at the Bludloft training academy before he left with Kura on their journey. Since Buxley was primarily accompanying Kura as his guardian, he discussed a number rules with Kura to increase their safety. While Kura is only ten years old, Buxley is six years older and had graduated from the Junior Scouts at ten years old before attending the training academy for additional training into the Accordian military. However, Kura had planned with Buxley that as soon as he graduated from his intermediate training they would begin their journey and had been planning ever since.
The next morning, just before dawn, Kura lightly shook Buxley’s shoulder to wake him up. Being a light sleeper, he immediately came to and helped Kura clean up their campsite and prepare to leave. In order to familiarize themselves with the forest, they had stopped earlier yesterday to rest. Now that they spent some time to attune to the area, they get a better sense of direction to where they’re headed. Without word, they quickly packed up and stepped out of the clearing towards the north.
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Two figures sprinted through the forest, jumping over vines, bushes, and fallen logs. With their speed and agility, they practically flew along the forest ground, frightening critters before they knew what happened to them. Their cloaks fluttering about made their silhouettes indistinct and almost blended in with the scenery. After a while the two began to slow down and before long came to a walking pace.
“That went pretty well. The buff lasted about as long as before.”
Kura took out a pocket watch, a small gem gave a soft blue glow on his palm as he held it.
“Roughly two hours. How are you feeling, cousin?” Kura responded.
“Not tired at all, feels like that tweak you made to the spell worked out great,” Buxley said. He did some stretching as he replied to check his condition after the movement they just did, “It almost felt like we went twice as fast compared to the previous spell.”
“Many thanks to that Scout Leader, can’t believe I finally get a chance to see that amplification rune.”
Kura and Buxley was discussing the high-mid-tier two-ring spell called ‘Speed Boost’ that gave its target the ability to move faster than normal. Typically, it would require the caster to expend their own mana to maintain the spell because it drains its energy too fast to be sustained by mana in the environment. When Kura had observed Scout Leader Arnas’ rune equipment, he had noticed a rune of amplification for physical boosts which increased the effects of a spell while using the same amount of mana. Kura had adjusted one of the spells they used in their training and it worked wonderfully. Not all mages are able to do that, only rune mages or magic scholars have enough knowledge in runes to understand a spell by looking at it. In order to be a rune mage, one needs to have the innate ability known as ‘Mage Eye’ or know the spell with the same name, allowing one to see magic in colors and naturally occuring symbols. Kura is one of those with the innate ability and thanks to his Leveren blood, had been immersed in the study of magic since birth. Amplification runes on equipment are rare since it requires high quality materials to make use of it and it has never shown up in any of the books he read, only mentioned.
Letting Kura take the lead, Buxley pulled out a map from inside his cloak and studied it carefully. Mumbling briefly, Buxley carefully secured the map back inside before giving Kura a pat on the shoulder to indicate switching places again.
“I’ll keep in mind our pace today, unless we have to go around anything, we should reach the river in about a month. Once we pass the river, we’ll have to start climbing upwards. There’s not much to go on after that.”
“If finding some Salvarrosi ruins in the middle of the forest was easy, we’d have more books on them,” Kura said. He went through the motions to cast ‘Wandering Wisp’ and created three balls of light and sent them floating around within a hundred yard radius of them. It’s easy to maintain the spell without constantly infusing mana if it was only a few of them. Unlike before when he had used them to hunt, these wisps were only three ring and have just their sensing ability and feedback so their distance could be increased and maintained without the high expenditure of mana.
“Right, well we’ll have you take lead with your little ghosts once we get there.” Buxley said.
The Salvarossi was a people that had suddenly disappeared three hundred years ago, leaving behind quite a few texts and a few survivors that were living in other cities at the time. The Salvarrosi had enchanted these books to hide secrets that only someone that has Mage Eye could see. The low number of people in Merinia with that ability attributed to the reason why there were so few people able to discover these secrets.
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Three weeks have passed since they first set out from High Tree. Besides the occasional beast they came across, their time in the forest had been uneventful. Their packs were steadily bulging from the forest plants they harvested and proof of their successful hunts. They would reach the river at any point now. Suddenly, Kura halted and took a knee, whispering to get his cousin’s attention.
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“Something ahead?” Buxley asked. It wasn’t the first time this happened, and at this point he could tell something’s amiss based on Kura’s action.
“We can’t see it through the brush but there’s three beings up ahead,” Kura replied.
“Should we move around them?”
“No, wait, I think they’re fighting. Let me check,” as Kura said that, he cut off the mana to the wisps and recast a new one with natural mana so that the beasts instinct won’t pick it up. It moved quickly through the forest in a straight line, disappearing with a puff of light through the trunk of a tree and appearing back out on the other side as it shot ahead in the direction of the river.
A minute later, “This is troubling,” Kura whispered.
Buxley looked inquisitively at Kura waiting for him to continue.
“A grodling, a vanter and a Leveren.”
“Walked into a bar?” Buxley couldn’t help himself.
Kura just gave him an eye before continuing, “Leveren’s laying on the ground. Looks like the other two are facing off to see who gets him for lunch.”
“Root and kill?” Buxley suggested the plan, if the two beasts were occupied with facing each other, they might be able to take the initiative and take them out.
Kura nodded and began to focus before channeling a low-tier 2-ring spell, “Hidden Movement”, masking their mana signature and from the senses, this would allow them to rush ahead without making a sound or being detected by the instincts animals pride themselves with. With it cast, they made their way ahead.
It took them a minute to arrive at riverbed where the three were at. Hiding in the bushes right before the clearing, Buxley dropped his pack and prepared himself to attack. The grodling and vanter were still staring at each other, lightly stepping around in a clockwise manner waiting to see who makes the first move. The grodling was an ursine with ape-like features, its bearish face was scrunched up as it growled and tried to intimidate the vanter. The vanter was feline in nature, with a black sheen on its fur, the dark grey stripes vertical along its body was the only markings it had. Likewise it was snarling with fangs bared at the grodling that had intruded upon its territory. One was a predator that travels around at great length to catch its prey, the other a viciously territorial beast. The Leveren had fallen by the river with a large gash on his back, unmoving.
Kura began to chant his spell, at this close a distance, he couldn’t take advantage of the runes that contained the “Root” spell that he prepared. The slightest movement and even with ‘Hidden Movement’ and the bushes, the predators will take notice. The two of them still had the advantage of surprise.
“Now.” Kura whispered and waved Buxley forward. The spell had already taken effect. Buxley had only seconds before the beasts realize they were being attacked and pull themselves out of the instant mire.
Buxley leapt over the bush and dashed forward with his enmak held horizontally in one hand. As he came up to the back of the vanter closest to him, he jumped upwards with the “Strength Boost” from his weapon. Pointing the weapon directly at the tailbone of the vanter, he drove his weapon into its back with deadly precision, instantly paralyzing the beast. Pressing onward he dragged his weapon out as blood sprayed out from the wound and knelt on top the vanter’s head as he smashed the sharp pommel of the enmak on the its skull as he used it to push off. Landing nearby the grodling currently struggling free from the mud that had sucked its legs and hands in and refused to let go, it made a reactive snap at Buxley as it sensed the danger closing in. Its eyes flashed in understanding as it saw the vanter laying in front of him, this person in front of him can easily end his life if it couldn’t get out of the trap. It began to violently thrash around trying to prevent Buxley from getting closer.
“Arc!” Kura said with enough volume for Buxley to hear. A flash of lightning struck the grodling with a thunderous boom. With the smell of burnt flesh rising out Buxley lunged ahead to take advantage of the opportunity that Kura created. With the weapon’s natural weight and its reinforced edge, it pierced the grodling’s head entered the skull with ease. The large eight meter beast froze for an instant and dropped like a rock shaking the area. ‘Root’ is a spell that took the surrounding into account, in this case, it used the mud over the riverbed as the base to let the two beasts sink in before solidifying, securing their feet and hands and preventing them from move around much. With the grodling weighing close to a thousand pounds, it sunk the furthest of the two and had greater difficult to get out of the trap.
Breathing out, Buxley looked at the still body of the Leveren laying by the river. The battle may have lasted less than a minute but he had expended more energy than needed to end the fight quickly. He walked to the body that had a large gash along its back.
“Hmm, were we too late? He looks dead.”
“Not yet, cousin, I still see his mana signature, it’s there, but barely. Check the area and prepare some aid, I need to look for the spell.” Kura said.
“Got it,” Buxley replied as swung his enmak down diagonally to flick the blood from his blade, he scanned the area briefly before going back to his pack in the tree line to gather some supplies.
Meanwhile Kura had kept his satchel on the entire time finally dropped his pack to dig out a large blackened-leather bound book. Sitting cross-legged he opened up the book and recited a spell. A warm purple glow encompassed the book as runes starting appearing and flashing around it. Similarly colored letters began appearing over the embossed-letter leather pages of the book. Once the spell was finished, Kura began flipping through the book to another page. The book was something he created himself, having taken several years of painstaking effort of crafting the iron stamps to emboss the letters into the high quality leather pages. Mixed with arcane dust infused into the book itself, it was a common artificer and blacksmith technique used to make magical items. The book was originally a copy he made of the ‘Legend of Salvarros’ but with the ‘Book Storage’ spell he was able to combine numerous books into one. The ‘Book Storage’ spell was the same spell the people of Salvarros had used to hide their secrets in the books they left behind. After studying magic for so long and having found several examples to go off on, Kura was able to understand the spell to copy it for his personal use.
Kura found the page that contained the healing spell he was looking for. He wasn’t familiar with this spell so he had to use it as a reference. The disadvantage of being a rune mage is their difficulty in traditional casting which is common for most mages. By being surrounded by runes, there is something unknown that prevents the rune mage to cast magic voicelessly as traditional mages do. Two different paths to magic, but it isn’t like it’s impossible to do both, its just more difficult when taking both paths. With the time and effort required, most mages opt between one and the other. With the availability of libraries limited to the large capitals of each territory, there are more traditionally aphonic mages than there are rune mages and subsequently magic scholars. As a rune mage, as long as they have all the runes of a spell they can cast it successfully even if they don’t fully understand it. This allows even people without the ability to cast magic to use these spells.
Kura went to the Leveren and Buxley, tapping Buxley’s shoulder to indicate he was ready. Buxley had quickly finished the initial treatment by stopping the bleeding. He had been waiting by the Leveren’s side for Kura to finish the rest. Kura knelt down and sat on his heels as he began the spell. The head of the staff pointed over the center of the Leveren’s body, a mix of brown, green and yellow light particles began flow around Kura and the fainted Leveren after the spell was cast. Floating around like dandelions in a summer breeze they gently popped into existence and disappeared with a blink. One with Mage Eye would be able to see the lavender circle of runes slowly rotating around Kura and the Leveren as it happened.
Ten minutes later, Kura cancelled the spell and dropped in the prone out of exhaustion. A healing spell is taxing in both body and mind, for such a serious wound as with the Leveren’s recent condition, he had to pull the mana from the surrounding elements in order to properly heal the person. If he was a nature element and had a higher capacity for mana he would be able to heal the Leveren by using just his own mana. But he had a dual element of earth and light, and he knew no healing spells from either that could treat injuries of such severity so he had to rely on his book that had a multi-element healing spell.
Buxley came back with both their gear to check on the status of the Leveren as Kura rested.
“How is he?” Kura said.
“Looks fine,” he said as he took off cotton dressing he had put on the Leveren to keep him from bleeding out earlier, “If we hadn’t seen his injuries from earlier and his clothes right now, I’d say he looks quite healthy.”
“Alright, let’s move away from here then,” Kura advised, he slowly pushed himself up.
“I’ll come back to recover the bodies later,” Buxley said, nodding, helping him stand.
“Thank you, cousin.”
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In a small clearing, a campfire was burning steadily, the charred bits of burnt wood contrasted with the newly added twigs and branches. The staccato of cracks sounded as sparks fly upward joining the starry night. A person shifted as he grunted, his weakened body the proof of the three days of running he had experienced.
Strange, he thought, I’m not dead. A common reaction to anyone who were only aware of being struck by a beast before falling unconscious. Looking around, the Leveren saw a young Urren boy sleeping several feet away from him and another Urren, a young adult walking around attentively. The older youth noticed he had awoken.
“Greetings, friend. How you feeling?” the stranger asked, he walked up and stopped by the fire.
He could see the Urren’s face, barely an adult but his demeanor was quite disciplined, having siblings in the army allowed him to see that this fellow had probably participated in one of the training schools. Testing his body, he couldn’t feel any pain besides the exhaustion.
“Thank you, I’m just tired,” he answered, “I assume I have you two to thank for saving me.”
“I helped, but it was Kura who healed you.” The young man nodded towards the sleeping boy by the fire.
He was slightly surprised, not the fact that he was a mage but that he was able to heal him. He had an idea of the severity of his wounds when he was struck. It would have been fatal within minutes if not treated. There aren’t many healers with the knowledge or power that could do that. Each elemental attribute had their own healing spells but also different effect in its ability to heal. With large physical wounds, the best element to use was nature. But then, how lucky could he be that he came across someone able use that to heal him? Understanding that, he was grateful and thus courteous to his saviors.
“Ah, thank you again. My name is Lennox, from Lomin,” he said after his moment of surprise passed.
“Name’s Buxley, that’s Kura, my cousin. You hungry? I’ve made some willow tree bark with mixed vegetable soup in case you want to eat. Best I could do, there’s no white willow around.”
“Yes, I’ll take some. You know your stuff,” Lennox said, looking down at his body, he noticed what he had been laying on, “Uh, what happened to the beast that was chasing me?”
“That was quite unlucky for you wasn’t it? Coming across a grodling and a vanter,” replied Buxley. “You’re sitting on one of them.”
“A vanter too?” he was a bit incredulous. Grodlings and vanters are infamous predators in the area east of Lomin where they’re located at. Caught unawares, an entire hunting party of eight or eleven could fall prey to just one of them. But just now he heard two such vicious creatures were taken down by two youths. If he wasn’t laying atop the hide of one of them, he’d be hard-pressed to believe him.
Buxley chuckled as he saw Lennox’s expression, he passed a bowl of the restorative soup to him. “We had the jump on them. Otherwise, doubt we would have taken them out unscathed.”
Lennox could only nod after the explanation. He still couldn’t get his head around to understanding what happened. He took a sip for taste and nodding his thanks again to Buxley quickly drank the rest. Curious as he is, he was still quite tired, and he felt safe with these strangers looking after him. Placing the empty bowl next to him, he indicated he’d like to have some rest again before laying down to rest. Three days of running from the grodling had sapped him of his mental strength. He quickly drifted to unconsciousness.