Awaken. Arise, Hero. The world is on the brink of falling into a spiral of chaos. Only you will be able to bring balance back to mana. Dark forces have already begun their campaign to bring about the end of days. You must grow, fight, and become the Hero you are destined to be. Awaken. Arise, Hero.
Cooper scratched his face with a back paw. He had fallen asleep in a delightful smelling wagonful of cabbages. While he could still use a little more sleep, some lady nearby would just not stop talking. The cabbage cart had worked out pretty well, talking lady aside, he would have to remember that.
Last week he accidentally slept in Old Lady Broom’s garden. The broom that was her namesake had made for an unpleasant awakening. Today, he felt refreshed. He got up and did a big stretch. Before jumping out of the cart to start his day, he picked up his trusty ball. It wouldn’t do to start the day without a nice ball.
The cart he had slept in was in the market row, one of his favorite haunts. The purveyors were just getting their days started, and Cooper wandered over to visit Biscuit Man. It was important to start the day with the right nutrition, and Biscuit Man always came through with some breakfast for Cooper.
“Back again, yeh mutt?” The baker said, turning to Cooper.
Cooper dropped his ball so he could respond to the insult. He was no mutt!
“Woof!”
“Alright, alright. You don’t need to take that tone with me young man.”
He gave Cooper a head scratch, which was appreciated and accepted as an apology. Biscuit Man rummaged around in a crate from his bakery. He pulled out a hard loaf of bread. He tossed it to Cooper, who started munching on it gratefully.
“Alright, my furry friend. You best get out of here. I don’t need to scaring off my customers. Shoo, shoo.”
Cooper grabbed his ball and headed off, he had more to do today anyway.
* * *
Gregory’s first few days on the road with Olivander had been a lot harder than he thought the would be. To him, the magician had seemed like a laid back, though powerful, person, who like taking things easy and living life to the fullest. Now Gregory knew what he really was. A monster.
“Come on Gregory. Those pushups aren’t going to do themselves!”
Gregory scowled at the man. They had passed through a small village just south of Demering yesterday. Gregory had visited there many times throughout his life, often going with his dad to sell cattle. The market had been smaller than Demering’s, but there was less competition in town too. Yesterday’s trip had been a little more frustrating.
Olivander had planned a trip into the village because he needed a few things, but he left Gregory at a farm just outside town. Why at some random farm? Oh, because he promised the farmer there that he could have his squire chop firewood for three hours.
Today Olivander was showing off the purchase he had made in town—painting supplies. He was working on a landscape painting. Meanwhile, Gregory struggled, pushing himself to the limit.
Gregory’s arms shook, barely managing to get himself off the ground again. Sweat rolled down his nose, and all his muscles begged for some rest. When he finally made it back up, he looked up to see Olivander making a flourish with his paint brush.
“This is coming together nicely,” Olivander said.
“I’m…so happy…for you,” Gregory said, gasping for breath.
“Thank you, Gregory. Why don’t we take a short break.”
Thank the sweet gods above. Gregory thought, collapsing to the ground immediately.
No part of his body didn’t hurt. Between the wood chopping, the pushups, the morning runs, and the sword stance practice, Gregory was a little surprised he was still alive.
“Now, you might be asking yourself,” Olivander said, conjuring a chair for himself to sit on, “what is on today’s agenda?”
“I really haven’t.”
“Immaterial. On today’s agenda, is a break!”
A spark of hope kindled in his heart. He resisted the urge to become excited. Olivander could be cruel and seemed to make a hobby out of smashing his hopes and dreams.
“What kind of break?”
“So suspicious. A real, actual break. I’ve booked us some travel. You’ve been doing a great job in your training, and I think you’re about due for a rest day. Now, I don’t want you getting too excited. You’ll still be doing your morning run, and some minor other training, just to keep things loose.”
“What kind of travel?”
“We’re meeting a caravan. It’ll take us to the next town. We’ll get in tonight, and leave with the caravan in the morning. We’ll go with them as far as Serin. I’ve heard some interesting rumors coming out of the area, and I want us to stop.”
Two days. Two days of not having to walk miles after his body was broken and weak. Tears welled in his eyes, and he blinked them away.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“That sounds nice, thanks, Olivander.”
“Don’t thank me, just keep up the hard work.”
He did get a chance to take a break in truth after that. Olivander showed him some stretches to loosen up after pushing himself so hard. Then, blessedly, left him alone.
They had to walk a couple miles, but compared to the previous few days, it was easy. They met up with a caravan at a fork in the road.
“You Olivander?” the caravan leader asked.
“I am. This is my squire, Gregory. We’ll be joining you on the way to Serin.”
“You have the coin?”
Olivander produced two golden coins. It was a small fortune, and Gregory was a little surprised he had paid so much. He knew the man was no longer broke. After defeating the wyrm, Gregory’s dad had insisted on paying Olivander half the money he had contributed to the guild contract reward.
The guild had not paid out the sum they had put up for the contract, since no one had actually accepted the contract in the first place. Burtrum had wanted to raise hell about it, but in the end, they were just glad the wyrm was gone. Olivander didn’t seem to care either way. Gregory suspected the only reason he took the offered coin was that he knew they wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The caravan leader’s eyes went slightly wide at the sight of two gold coins, but he regained his composure.
“That will do, Olivander, Gregory. Feel free to find a spot in one of the wagons, or just walk with us.”
They found a mostly empty wagon, the driver and just a few stacks of empty potion bottles were the only things on board.
“Alright Gregory, time for some lessons.”
“Lessons? You said we could rest.”
“And we are. It’s very relaxing in this wagon. But I think we have the perfect opportunity to discuss some things I’ve been putting off in favor of basic physical training.”
“Like what?”
“Like magic, for instance. Tell me Gregory, what do you know about casting spells?”
“Uh, nothing. I don’t have any spells.”
“That is the exact wrong mindset. Listen, you’ve leveled up right?”
“Yeah! Finally. I thought the goblins would have done it in the Demering mines, but I barely got any experience from them.”
“That’s because I had given you a powerful defensive ward. With my finger on the scale, you didn’t really gain anything besides some basic, and honesty quite terrible, sword swinging practice.”
“Oh, that makes sense. What level are you, Olivander?”
“In my primary combat class, level seventy-four, but I have several other classes and non-combat classes besides.”
Gregory just stared at him. “How…how long did that take?”
“I’m forty-two years old, so about forty-two years, give or take.”
“I should have seen that coming.”
“You do seem to be a rather slow learner.”
“...We were talking about magic right?”
“Yes, show me your new level.”
Gregory Temerin
Age: 19
Race: Human
Level 2 (16%)
Combat Class: Coward
Non-combat Class: None
Health: 55/55
Stamina: 12/40
Mana: 5/5
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 6
Wisdom: 4
Intelligence: 5
Skill Points: 0
Skills:
Cower
Abilities: None
Spells: None
“Excellent. Just as I had hoped. See that here, you have five mana. You should be able to sense it within you. It will be similar to sensing your stamina reserves.”
Gregory closed his eyes, trying to tune out the bumping of the wagon as it trundled along.
He thought he could sense his stamina. It was normally a dense green ball of energy deep within him. Right now it was faint, with trails of green energy flowing into his weakened muscles. The intense training he put himself through had an extremely negative effect on his stamina recovery in the short term.
He pushed that out of his mind and looked more closely within. As his mind cleared, a blue haze came into focus. It was nebulous, floating in a loose cloud throughout his body.
“I can see it. Why does it feel separate? It’s like it just happens to be there, but my stamina is really part of me.”
“A good question and an excellent observation. Mana is all around us. Your mana pool is the amount of mana that exists in the world that you are able to directly harness. When you use it, you’ve used up two things, mana in the area, and your capacity for influencing mana. You can run out of one and have plenty of the other, but your current mana stat will always reflect the lower of the two.”
“So five mana, what does that mean? I know spells take mana in specific amounts, but what is five mana?”
“The cloud you visualize is that five mana, you can channel it directly. Open your eyes and observe.”
Gregory let go of the vision of his mana, but now he had a better connection to it. He could still feel it within.
“As someone who can now harness mana, you can use it reflexively. This is the primary way it can be used, aside from spells of course.”
With his hand, Olivander drew a circle in the air, with a simple symbol contained within. It was made out of glowing light.
“That’s just mana?”
“Yes, you should be able to do the same thing. Give it a try, focus on pushing that cloud into your fingertip. Try drawing a circle.”
Gregory focused. Again he saw the blue cloud. Then he visualized it flowing up his arm and into the tip of his finger, condensing, and then leaking out.
As he felt it leak out, he opened his eyes once more. The tip of his finger glowed a soft blue. His eyes were wide as he traced out a lopsided circle in the air. A grin split his face.
“I did it!”
“Good job. Now, check your mana again.”
Gregory focused inward. The cloud still suffused him, but it was even thinner than before. Like it was there, but he couldn’t see it as well.
“The visualization you’re seeing is the same for everyone. If the cloud is the same size, but more translucent, then you’ve reduced your capacity. If the cloud is solid and tangible, but smaller, then you have plenty of capacity, but the relative magic in the area is low.”
“That makes sense. So I used up some of my mana total, since I lowered my capacity.”
“Exactly, check your status again, just your basic stats.”
Gregory Temerin
Health: 55/55
Stamina: 13/40
Mana: 3/5
“That drawing used up two mana. Is that a lot?”
“No, it’s barely any. You’ve just touched on your ability to sense mana, so your values are extremely low. In time your pool will grow. It refills fairly quickly as well. So using it for ritual drawing isn’t typically an issue. Now, let’s teach you your first ritual!”