Focus!

Feel the Aether in my body.

Move it. Let it flow from the core... through my arm... into my hand.

Think about the property of the ball

Move the Aether from your hand into the ball.

As I opened my eyes and saw the water ball floating in my hand. Though I already knew how to cast a water ball, I never really understood the process for it. This time, however, I felt what was going on. I felt the Aether in my body flowing from inside me to my hands. I felt the weird sensation of releasing it into the ball and creating water from it. I still have no clue how this magic actually works but this all piqued my interest. Might as well try to learn more about it when I train this on my own.

As I was creating the water ball and my focus was completely aimed at my inner self, I forgot to move separately with my sister. With the water ball in my hand, I tried to push more aether into it. As I did it became bigger and bigger. I was completely spaced out and didn't hear Kellan calling me until he raised his voice.

"Zeph, that's enough!" Kellan almost shouted.

I stopped the flow of aether and by accident let go of the 2 massive water balls me and my sister were now holden. The splash on the ground flooded half the training hall and we were all soaked.

"Thanks for the shower," Lucian said sarcastically.

"My god, could you not have just stopped when I asked you to?" Kellan said frustrated as he stood up.

"Sorry," I stood there looking guilty. I thought it would be much more difficult but this was just a breeze for me.

When we were all back on our feet, Kellan had put on a serious look.

"Zeph, I want you to be very VERY aware that you are learning things twice as fast but you still have 2 separate bodies. Be... Careful!" Kellen stressed that last part pretty hard.

"The reason for my warning is because you are now mentally able to channel loads of aether into the skills you want to use. But you have 2 bodies under your control and you don't know exactly what the maximum output for each body is. If you overshoot you could find yourself being knocked out in one body leaving you vulnerable. Remember this."

"Ok, I will be careful," I said uncertainly. It was a bit of a shock to know with one wrong step it could mean the death of me or my sister..

"Good. Now, It is about time for you guys to figure out what class you want to specialize in. Though I already know from Lucian, I need to know what you and your sister choose." He said looking at me.

Before our training started 4 weeks ago I never really thought about it. But that isn't surprising as we haven't been trained in combat at all when we were younger and when we lost our parents only trained a little with tag a few days a week. But during our training, we met 3 high-ranking guards and one of them was a battle mage. When I questioned him about it he told me that battle mages have to train for decades to really master their class..

"A battle mage is the toughest class to master. Should you want to pick it up, then there are generally 2 directions you can go. You could choose the close-combat type or the ranged type. The close-combat variant focuses more on using magic to power up yourself and your weapons. For instance, you could give yourself a power boost to be faster or stronger. But you can also charge your weapon with an element or even extend its range.

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The Ranged type is all about the big area of effect or AOE skills. These skills do heavy damage over a large area or even bigger when condensed in a small area.

One thing to keep in mind is that, as a close-combat type you will often choose to carry medium armor types. Those are not so heavy but will impede your movement speed. On the other hand, the ranged type will have light armor and can move in and out of places quickly. Because of this, you need to keep in mind what you will be doing. Loading up heavy magic attacks when carrying heavier armor will make you an easier target as you can't move out of the way quickly enough. But as Ranged you can't get in too close as your spells will take too long to cast for shorter distances from the enemy.

Of course, it is all up to you how you want to do this. You can mix lighter armor and magically enhance it further to keep your movement speed but lose aether faster. Or you could go ranged with the same strategy but cast when far away and blast when closing in. You can be as creative with it as you want." Is what Leo, Kellan's right-hand man, explained.

"I'll choose Battle Mage!" I said confidently.

Kellan looked surprised. "Hmmmm. Are you sure about that? It is a difficult class to master on your own. But learning 2 classes at the same time might be a bit difficult."

I looked at my sister with a smile when I let her answer what I wanted my sister to specialize in. "I will also go for a Battle Mage class," Sis said as confidently as I did.

"Ok, then I take it you already decided on the type of battle mage you want to become?" Kellan asked with a hint of 'I can already guess what it will be' in his voice.

"Yeah," Sis answered. "I will go for the ranged route and Zeph will go for the close-combat route."

"Thought as much." Kellan walked to the armory box that he had taken into the training hall earlier.

"Lucian, This is for you."

Kellan took out a staff that was about as tall as Lucian just under 2 meters. It had a silver color from top to bottom and on top, it was decorated with a pure white crystal inside an arch that went around it 180 degrees Between the arch and the cristal a 360-degree pattern of bars created the illusion of light rays from a star.

"Wow!" Lucian gasped in surprise. "Are you sure I can take this?" he was completely shocked that he could have such an amazing-looking staff.

"Yes, and this staff will help you control your magic. It contains a special crystal that will make it easier to channel your aether with. The staff is also made of a material that is magically enhanced to give your healing abilities a boost as well. Take it and use it well."

Kellan then dived back into the box and pulled out 2 double-edged spears and threw them to me and my sister.

"I saw you guys staring intensely at how Leo was using his spear and how Owen was using his sword. Looking at that, and seeing how mobile you two are, I figured this might be the best weapon for you."

I couldn't believe what we were holding. They were identical weapons. They can be split into 3 sections. The 2 outer sections on either end were a tribal-is blade connected with the middle section. It was black in the middle and where the blades began a dark blue gradient started to move to the bright blue tips.

It was about 1 meter in length and it was beautiful. The weight was also something I did not expect.

How was this thing so light?

"Those weapons have a special meaning," Kellan said as he moved closer to me and my sister.

"Those spears were crafted for your father and mother. Once, a long time ago, your parents and I helped the guards in Stonebridge. At some point, your parents wanted to celebrate their marriage again and your father and I went out to find material to craft these weapons. They were meant to be light and balanced. But I added a powder to it at the weapon smith to add some attributes to it. One of which increases your aether output a bit and grants you a small barrier when you put some aether into its core in the handle."

Kellan looked proud as we put on the belts to sheath the weapon in its clip on our backs, between the shoulders.

For the next hour, we just freely trained with our new weapons when suddenly a bell started ringing outside.

The door to the Training hall slammed open and Owen rushed inside.

"Kellan, the village is being overrun with wild animals and monsters. You have to get out there quickly. I already gathered and instructed the guards that I ran into along the way."

We all were shocked and without hesitation, Kellan called out to Lucian, my sister, and me.

"You three!" he shouted. "Are you ready to pick up arms and defend the town from these feral animals?"

We all looked at each other quickly and nodded.

"Yes! We are!" We said all together.

Kellan could still put a small smile on his face though it was quickly turning serious again.

"Then let's go!"