Kori spends the next several hours after cleaning up the sparring area following a more senior mage around as he trekked about Emberscale caverns, on the plus side she got to explore places she had never seen before, on the downside it was done while lugging about a load of tools and supplies that her meager strength is not particularly suited for.
It was worth it though, she got to watch as new air and water runes were inscribed in several of the cave moss farms, these were different runes than she was used to seeing, they combined both elements together in a way that kept the air moist rather than to fill a basin or circulate the air through the ventilation shafts. The senior mage even explained a bit of what he was doing as she worked.
“You see how the two runes overlap here and here? That is the hardest part of the inscription, you need to meld the elements together here.” Pointing to small swirling portions of the rune where the two designs merge, “These elements are very compatible with each other for applications like this, their patterns flow and swirl in similar manners so creating a junction doesn’t disrupt the flow of mana between them. Trying this with Earth and Water or Air and Fire is much harder, it can be done but has a tendency to fail in a volatile manner.”
She continues to inscribe the runes, first with a sharp metal chisel then following with a more precise tool and then inking it with fluids from several jars of foul-smelling concoctions. Kori begins to learn what the mage will need and when, preparing her tools and inks and having them ready before she’s asked. “Well, you seem to be keen on this work, maybe we’ll make an inscriptionist out of you!”
The remainder of the day passes with little change, moss farm after moss farm, apparently, they’re all done in a loop over several days every few weeks to keep things running.
“I’ll ask for you again tomorrow, this work is tedious enough without reminding my helper every second rune that the slug ichor is the pot with the thick clear, yellowish, substance and the drift spores are the white paste…”
The day winds down and they head back to the training grounds, Kori tasked with returning the supplies to the places and marking down how much they had used using scales and weights to determine how much was left compared to what was marked previously. It took her a few tries to get the hang of the scales but once she understood them it became quite easy work.
Reuniting with Plk before they head back to the brood chamber to get their dinner and rest for the evening, as they are walking down one of the corridors near home Kori feels a very odd sensation, the light of a notification blinking incessantly just out of sight as her body feels stiff, her thoughts stutter and go blank, her vision loses focus and the sounds of the cavern around her become a jumbled mess of noise. She falters mid step and nearly collapses as she topples to the side and into the wall. Whatever just happened fades as quickly as it came and she regains her senses and balance, waving Plk’s concern off, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”
“You sure? Looked like you nearly fell flat on your face.”
What the Scale was that?!
With her usual prod of a silent ‘why?’ Kori brings up her notification.
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Wait, what? Two levels? It’s only been a day! Was it the Title? Or touching the Scale? Or are the first levels just really fast?
She straightens up from the wall and looks to her brother, “Yeah, I’m okay, just got my first racial experience, guess I shouldn’t walk and poke notifications at the same time or I’ll get distracted…”
“Oh, right, you only got your status yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yup, always the last of us for everything… What level are you now? I’m not sure how long it’s supposed to take to go up.”
“I got 2 in just a little under 2 weeks, that’s about average, 3 will take another month from what the older apprentices are saying.”
“Oh… That’s slower than I thought…”
Level three takes a month and a half? Maybe the scale just gave me a bunch. They should get all the younglings to go touch that thing… I wonder what my stats are now?
Kori barely resists the curious urge to peak at her status while they’re walking back to the brood chamber, not wanting to walk into a wall or something so soon after using that for an excuse.
Immediately after arriving home she heads straight to her little den and prods her status open. While she doesn’t really have any reference for everything, Kori is pretty sure that her stats, at least on the mental side of things, are not where she’s supposed to be as a level 3 Kobold.
Name Kori Class Locked Level N/A Race Kobold Tier N/A Race Level 3 Job Locked Job Locked Job Level N/A Job Level N/A Statistics Health 80 Mana 120 Stamina 105 Physical Ability Scores Mental Ability Scores Might 13 Wit 20 Agility 20 Cunning 29 Finesse 16 Attunement 21 Endurance 15 Magic 18 Vitality 10 Perception 19 Serendipity 12
Wait, wow, that’s a lot higher… well some of them… that means I got all my racial stats from Kobold and then another 3 each level from Draconic Ingenuity to Wit, Cunning, Attunement, and Magic? That’s like three quarters of another level…
Stolen story; please report.
The following days pass much the same as her first day of apprenticeship, even weeks in she has yet to receive the [Meditation], or [Mana Sense] Skills, and it has only reinforced her general dislike for the practice. Sitting still for hours, no talking or questions, trying to follow the slow, monotone voice of whichever senior apprentice happens to be leading the group that day. To Kori it feels less like training every day and more like punishment. She now sits apart from the group at the rear, relegated there by both her fellow apprentices and the guide, so that her swishing tail and occasional grumblings and mumblings, do not break their focus.
The number of other apprentices joining in on the meditations dwindles as the days go by and they pick up both the skills they’re working on. Eventually even Plk moves on to the teachings on [Spell Shaping], leaving just Kori and a few others, including Ury, listening to the guided mediation, though the others are all working on attaining [Mana Control] rather than sense.
Staff training continues to be a source of catharsis, working out the frustration after a morning of attempted meditation. Kori has even managed to get a second point in that skill. Kori’s levels and added skill increase closing some of the gap between her and Ury physically, their spars continued to grow in intensity, Kori finding herself on the losing end just as frequently as not.
The instructor did eventually have to separate Kori and Ury unfortunately, forbidding them from sparring and having them skip over each other in the rotation. While they were well matched opponents, their ‘enthusiasm’ came a little too close to injury a few too many times to ignore and being a bit disruptive overall when they start getting into it.
Chores actually became one of the bright points of her day, several of the inscriptionists having taken to her as a helper and requesting her. She gets to spend the afternoons exploring the caverns with the senior mages as they go between the various areas to create new runes or reinforce existing ones. While the others are cleaning or doing things like collecting slime from dead slugs, which were easily as long as her arm, brought in by the martials patrolling the tunnels.
It’s during one of these days over a month in that everything changes for Kori’s mage training, whether because of familiarity or for having achieved her fourth level of Kobold is hard to say, but this day, she notices something. The slug ichor seems different than usual, less vibrant of a yellow, less shine to its surface, “Rune Etcher Lom, I think somethings off with this pot of slug ichor… I’m not sure what though…” As she continues to stare at the pot, “It’s like it’s missing something…”
Lom turns and looks at Kori focusing on the little clay pot of slime, trying to hide a slight smile “Well, what do you think is missing? Think hard on your answer.”
Kori continues to stare, “I’m not sure, it’s the right colour, it seems to be the right consistency, but it’s just… off… I wish I had another pot to compare it to…”
Lom reaches into his robes, almost as if he was prepared for this, and pulls out a second clay pot holding it out to her while he takes the lid off.
The slug ichor in the second pot looks identical visually, but still seems more vibrant, more right, than what she’s holding. “I’m not sure… yours looks the same, but this one’s lacking a… Luster? It’s like mine is dead and yours is vibrant and alive… it…” Kori’s eyes widen.
This pot, it’s inert… it’s lacking the one thing that makes it useful for runes…
A light begins to blink at the edge of her vision.
“It has no mana!”
She knows what the little light is going to tell her already, even before she prods it with her usual question.
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“I just got [Mana Sense]! But I thought you had to be meditating, to do that ‘haze of smoke’ stuff to learn it?” Kori quirks her head as she thinks about that last part.
Lom’s grin breaks onto the rest of his face. “Finally! It took you long enough. Honestly with as much as Elder Ylst talked you up I expected you to pick up sensing mana right off the bat. That pot you have there expired ages ago, it’s completely lost it’s mana, had to let it sit on a shelf open for nearly a week to get it that far gone. You were always paying so much attention to the runes and our inks while we worked that the other inscriptionists and I figured you might finally notice. Still took three days of swapping it for the good stuff before handing it back to you for you to finally get it.” He chuckles as he explains.
“Wait, you’ve been trying to get me to learn [Mana Sense] this whole time? I thought this was just busy work…”
“It’s both, everything an apprentice does is training, even if it’s just training you to navigate the Clan’s home or about the duties of a mage. “Lom shakes his head, a toothy grin still spread across his muzzle. “Every now and then we need to take a different approach with an apprentice, help them find mana a different way if the meditation isn’t working. And it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t working for you Kori. You were a better helper than most so the inscriptionists got together and told Elder Ylst we’d help.”
“Oh… Thanks… I guess I really don’t get the whole meditation thing…”
“Yeah, like I said, we noticed, I think even the martials probably would have noticed. Gonna have to come up with something else for teaching you [Mana Control] too, if you couldn’t even pick up the [Meditation] skill it’s not likely you’re gonna get far with the whole ‘breath in the haze of mana and feel it flow through your body’ part either.” We’ve got a few ideas, but for now, congratulations on finally earning [Mana Sense].