“What does a new routine have to do with being in the basement?” Zerine wondered.
After she had finished the rest of her normal training and visiting the dragons with Varino and Ava, who ended up not being able to pass some sort of barrier. Ava had teleported them back to the household, then brought her and Varino to the basement. Varino was happily humming while sitting on Zerine’s shoulder.
“Varino has been here, sense…her accident,” Ava said, giving the spirit a stern side eye.
Varino saw the glance and began to whistle a tune while trying to look innocent. She even began to braid Zerine’s hair.
“What did you do?” Zerine said, trying and failing to hide a smile.
Her words broke the dam. Varino began whistling, chirping, and chiming. All about how she made some explosions that were really pretty and some prank she and another elemental she met did.
“So, since a few days after the party, you’ve been here? And I want a full telling of that prank on the fairies and Gray,” she said.
Varino nodded vigorously.
“Alright, now that is settled,” Ava said, shaking her head with a smile. “Shall we get on with the new training area?”
Varino burbled a question.
“Yes, one she sees it you can talk freely about it as part of the contract,” Ava said. “Speaking of.”
Purple glowing text appeared in front of Zerine. Zerine sighed and formed the contract without asking questions.
“You should read a contract before you form it. You can read contract runes, right?” Ava wondered.
“I can. My instincts also kicked in on each one that appeared front of me,” Zerine said. “It was pretty clear it wasn’t going to harm me or have any weird loopholes. My instinct felt calm or relax?” Zerine shrugged. “That’s the best way I can describe it.”
Ava raised an eyebrow, “Hmm, interesting. Well, just because you trust someone doesn’t mean they are great at contracts or don’t have any mischief planned with a contract. All I’m saying is for you to take time to read it,” Ava said.
“Don’t worry, I will. And will make sure Varino doesn’t jump into one without reading either,” Zerine said.
Varino cheered and patted Zerine’s head.
“Yeah, I got your back,” Zerine said happily.
Ava chuckled and turned to a stone wall and began tapping stones, which would display a purple rune as she touched them. After she was done, a purple magical circle appeared, with runes and sigils spiraling to the center.
“Is that…what I think it is?” Zerine wondered, moving closer to the wall.
“I want to hear you say it,” Ava said.
“Is it a protective entrance to a dimensional space?” Zerine said softly in awe.
Ava smiled proudly, “correct.” she shook her head, still smiling, “not only did you out pass the classes, but got into full-blown magical academy topics.”
“Ai and Vinyáya, the librarian, probably had something to do with that,” Zerine said, inspecting the magical array.
“I will have to thank them,” Ava said.
She placed her hand in the middle of the array. The stone wall shuttered then starting from the center of the array, dark blue spread like ink over the stones. Then a swirling blue vortex opened until it filled the entire circle.
“Let's go,” Ava said, gesturing for Zerine to go through the portal.
“Oooh, this is awesome,” Zerine said excitedly under her breath to Varino as they stepped into the portal.
There was a flash of blue that filled Zerine’s vision, but at the moment before they appeared, she felt a tingle at the back of her neck. The tingle felt like when you think someone was watching you. With another flash, they appeared in a large space. Zerine’s eyes went wide as she took in everything around her.
They had appeared on what looked to be a large tropical island. The sand was a light shade of pink with crystal clear waters. The beach turned into a jungle. She could make out several small mountains above the tree line, the largest of which had waterfalls going down its side, creating a rainbow from the mist clouds. There was a cluster of buildings that would easily add another full compound or two to their home.
She looked behind her as there was a flash and Ava stepped out of a large metal ring that had runes etched in it. A gust of wind made her turn back.
Zara was there in her usual summer outfit. She resembled Shara, her daughter, with her dark brown curly hair that had her cat ears poking out from the top of her head. Her cat-like eyes were bright green. She wore a top that exposed her tone stomach with tight fitting shorts. A leather belt had several knives sheathed, with a short on the other side strapped to the belt and her thigh.
“I thought you would be here earlier?” Zara wondered, her cat tail swishing behind her.
Uh-oh, if she is excited, then this is going to be hard, Zerine thought.
“They visited their dragon friends. Also, Zerine showed off her scythe, knives and sword work. You and Markilo have done great with her training,” Ava said.
Zara smiled, “you worked on her swordsmanship too. But thank you. I’m glad we don’t have to hide our weapon practice anymore. But let’s show her around before the real fun begins.”
“Should I be excited or terrified?” Zerine wondered, following the two.
Varino burbled a laugh, then chimed as she flew on a cloud ahead of their group.
“So, both, perfect,” Zerine said dryly.
They brought Zerine to the largest of the buildings. It had a rather plain exterior made of dark wood with no windows. When they entered it, Zerine gasped. The space was large and open. It had sparring areas and an assortment of what turned out to be workout machines. She watched as a visiting uncle she barely knew started using them.
“This is where you will spend half your time,” Zara said, gesturing to the space.
“And we will set a routine for the machines, but Varino let’s go. You and I need to go some training,” Ava said.
Varino sighed, but waved to Zerine before following Ava towards one of the open sparring areas.
“So, you will be fighting dummies and people. We aren’t going to be holding back, so magic will start being used in your bouts,” Zara continued. “As for the machines, we are going to have you build more muscle. The better shape you are in, the better off you will be when you get your crest. But it’s not like you're out of shape, so we will cycle through sets of muscles groups like we have before, but this time with the machines. On to the next the building,” Zara said right as there was a rumbling of thunder as Ava demonstrated some spell that, to Zerine’s dismay, she had missed.
“Come on, it always gets loud when those two start throwing lightning around,” Zara said.
They went from building to building that had facilities mostly focused on magic. They had concentrated affinities to such an extent that ambient magic itself had shifted to the affinity. The affinity density helped with focused training and to create a deeper connection to it. From what Zara said, they helped with willpower and magical control as well, so all the benefits. She hoped one day soon she would be able to use those spaces.
Then it being Zara, she made them start running along a dirt path that led further into the jungle.
“H-how did this get made?” Zerine asked between breaths as they ran along. Running felt a bit more difficult, but maybe that was because she never did great at distance running.
“Some Iridesium-ranked Trevel made it. This is the reason why the household compound is so small. It only has what is needed to make it a home and an appear like we train there. This is the real treasure and where the powerful train,” Zara said, leading them up a path with an incline.
Zerine swore softly as her breathes became more labored.
Zara laughed.
“The air here is artificially thinner, so it’ll feel like you're running along in the mountains. It sucks, but you’ll be happy you do this once you get used to it,” Zara said.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“If I ever get used to my lungs burning like this,” Zerine panted.
They kept running and running. At this point, Zeirne’s throat burned, her legs burn, hell everything burned. There were even aches coming from her left elbow and knee. She had fallen when she tripped on a rock scrapping both on the ground.
Zara had pulled ahead and called back to her, “I’m going to run ahead and meet you at one of the obstacle courses. So, see you in a bit,” she said cheerfully, then quickly moved ahead till she was out of sight.
“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me. An obstacle course after this!?” Zerine panted.
She kept running as fast as she could go, but she was fairly certain that a tortoise could keep up with her. Twenty-five minutes later, the paths incline hadn’t, thankfully, increased. She could hear the rumbling of a waterfall getting louder. She turned a bend to spot Zara waiting on a large plateau that had a massive pool of water fed by several waterfalls. As she got drew closer, she noticed there were marks on a tree where a knife was currently sticking out of. Zara clearly had been using it for target practice.
“Oh good! You were a bit faster than I expected. Only by a few minutes, but still a good start. We are going to do that run every time to the different obstacle courses. Even if you're not training with me, Markilo, Gary, and your mom will have you do this, too. Like I said, you will get used to it,” Zara said as the knife stuck in the tree flew to her hand.
Zerine had her hands over her head, breathing hard, trying to control her racing heartbeat. Zara gestured with an arm at the area behind her.
“Behold, Gauntlet One or The Wash, as we call it,” Zara said.
Behind her was a sequence of obstacles that Zerine could only describe as a fucking nightmare. A path went out in the rushing water where there were climbing walls, moving platforms, jumping obstacles, and who knows what fresh hell waited for her.
“When you can do this without falling off, then we will add targets you will have to hit, while dealing with increased difficultly from new obstacles. Oh, so you will have to bring your bow and throwing knives when that happens. If you fall off, we have a net that will catch you, so we don’t get thrown off the cliff. And before you ask, we will return anything you lose in the water.”
“I hope you have a healing crystal or elixir because I feel like I might get hurt,” Zerine said.
“Of course, I got you covered, but try to not get hurt. Raith would kill me, or Kelly would…or both…yep both would kill me,” Zara said, making Zerine chuckled. “Catch your breath then go try it,” Zara replied with a grin.
Zerine took a running stance at the start of the obstacle course, which started out on the dirt path. She closed her eyes, taking a slow breath in, then let it out just as slowly. A gong sounded, and she took off running along the path. She leapt over four ditches, each one getting larger than the last. Then hopped over several chests sized wooden fences. This time, as she ran, the dirt path turned into wooden platforms leading over the rushing water. She avoided swinging wooden pendulums.
Up until now, her pace was fairly quick, but slowed to halt as she got to the moving platforms she had seen earlier. But what she hadn’t seen was that this section had an assortment of extra additions meant to make her either fall off a platform, get washed away, and lose her grip. She made it about halfway through that section before a rotating wooden arm slammed into her gut tossing her into the water. She spluttered, getting to the surface in time to get dragged over the edge of the cliff.
She couldn’t see any net! Was it removed for some reason or what? With a coughing scream, she fell a few feet before landing on the net.
Oh, Bernard’s spider familiar made the net. Couldn’t see even if I tried, she thought.
Zerine coughed some more, recovering from getting gut punched, while also coughing up water she had inhaled.
“Hey not bad kiddo,” Zara called down to her.
There was a howl of wind and Zerine blinked, finding herself standing next to Zara. Water dripped off her as Zara looked her up and down.
“How are the ribs?” she wondered.
“Fine, that sucked, though. I will have a good bruise,” Zerine said, then pulled up her soaked shirt. Both looked at her stomach, where a red line was already starting to appear.
“Sure, looks like. Oh, look at that Travis and Sarah Trevel. Just what you need, an example to have a as goal. Let’s watch,” Zara said.
Before Zerine could answer, the world whirled as the wind howled. Zerine stumbled, but Zara’s firm hand gripping her shoulder steadied her. They were standing on a platform that gave them a complete view of the obstacle course. To Zerine’s dismay, she had only made it around a quarter of the way through.
Two elven young adults were standing near the start of the obstacle course, looking their way. One was male with dark green hair and blue eyes, while the other was female with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Zerine had seen them off and on, but this explained where they spent most of their time. Zerine hadn’t interacted with the other Trevel families that lived in the compound. In total, there were four, including hers. One family had children ten years older than her, the other had two that were approaching eighteen years old and were about to show just how much Zerine had to go to keep up. Travis and Sarah Trevel never interacted with the younger children, but they were the ones that all the other parents would point to and say follow their example. But Zerine was excited to see just how well they did at the course.
“Travis is eighteen, and Sarah is seventeen. Both are in early E-rank, so their physical strength isn’t more than yours,” Zara said, waving to the two to start the obstacle course. “They chose to take extra years to prepare for the exams and trials. The magical academy is what Travis is going for, while the northern adventurer academy is Sarah’s. Use their times as a goal. If you don’t match their better times, then you will not be going to adventurer’s trials when you are sixteen for that early admittance.”
Zerine whipped her head to Zara, eyes wide.
“Yes, the next two years are going to be hell to prepare you. And we are all eager to make it even more challenging,” Zara said with a predatory smile.
“Sounds fun,” Zerine replied.
A gong sounded, and Zerine watched. Instead of dreading the coming years, she was excited to see what would come next. She finally felt like she was getting closer to her goal of becoming an adventurer. These two would be her gauge and goal to beat someday. Nothing would get in the way, and she wouldn’t give up.
That was how she felt till Travis completed the course in under fifteen minutes, while Sarah completed it even faster at just over thirteen minutes. They even had to shoot targets with their affinities. Travis shot stones at the targets, while Sarah cast balls of green fire. Each time they landed a hit, a bell rang. They never missed.
Well…shit. That is…hmm, challenge excepted, she thought firming her resolve.
“Round two for you. Then we run to the next one and will do some weapon practice, too. Oh, by the way, you will spar Travis and Sarah without magic and with it later this year, so there is that to look forward to,” Zara said cheerfully.
“When do they go for the exams and trials for the academies?” Zerine wondered.
“Don’t worry, there is plenty of time to beat the living crap out of you,” Zara teased.
The world shifted again, and Zerine found herself standing at the start of the obstacle course.
***
“Just to let you know, I have a book dedicated to your injuries for both Ava and Raith to look over,” Kelly said, healing buried ribs making Zerine wince.
Zerine had gone through the last obstacle course, which was built on the side of the second largest mountain when she had gotten hit not once, but four different times by spinning wooden paddles.
Kelly was a kind elf that had become a silver-rank last month. Her worried brown eyes looked over Zerine’s body. Zerine was only wearing her underwear bottoms. The rest of her was covered in bruises from an array of different obstacles, Zara’s wood blade, the training dummy’s fists and blade. At least the pain was fading as Kelly’s healing took effect.
“I figured,” Zerine said tiredly.
“And if you keep this up, you won’t be taking the adventurer exams when you sixteen,” Kelly said.
Zerine groaned, “I should have guessed injuries would mean failure, too.”
“Remember, these are just the requirements as long as you don’t get your crest. They will change if you do. Personally, I think you're crazy to go for it at sixteen,” Kelly said, letting out a short laugh. “But I should have already known that when you were reading a book that many adults struggle with back when you were nine.”
Zerine chuckled and winced.
“I know it’s going to be tough. But I don’t want to fall behind others my age. Ouch!” Zerine said. Kelly had flicked her shoulder.
“You finished classes two years ahead of everyone else. You’ve helped the younger children catch up and get ahead in classes. Being behind because you don’t have magic doesn’t mean much when you're this young. But you’re not behind as much as you believe. Sure, physically you are somewhere in the middle, but you will grow more soon and that will change. The physical boost E-rank mages get isn’t that much. I-” Kelly sighed. “I don’t want you to keep pushing yourself too far and ending up like this.” She gestured to Zerine’s bruised body, which was visibility healing .
“Thank you Kelly, I will work harder to not get hurt. And thank you for being honest. It’s… just hard from my perspective to not compare myself to the others and not feel behind.”
“I understand. Just don’t break yourself trying to reach an unreasonable goal you set for yourself when you're closer than you believe. But your healer has cleared you. Have fun with alchemy. Bernard has been eagerly awaiting for this day,” Kelly said, getting up.
“Thanks again,” Zerine said, getting off the bed and putting on fresh clothes.
***
“Energy control is an art form,” Bernard said, striding back and forth behind Zerine as she held a mixing bowl, which was glowing.
Zerine had been tasked with mixing a basic concoction. The effect, you ask? A basic healing balm. This was her third attempt. The first attempt ended with a tiny explosion when Zerine had lost focus causing the energies of the herbs to go out of control. The second ended with a small fireball that covered Zerine in soot because she had allowed for one volatile herb to overtake the others energies.
This time would be the one, she thought, guiding the energies smoothly mixing them. The engeries had syngeries that had taken up until now to sense. Those snygeries were what she needed to guide to make a successful fusion of their energies.
“Once you feel how the energies interact you…you get that,” Bernard said with a grin.
The shining mixing bowl had dimmed, revealing a dark green paste. Bernard leaned over and placed a metal rod into the paste. The rod had tiny runes and sigils carved in the metal.
Hmm, runes for revealing and sigils for…for effectiveness? she thought. Was the rod gauging how good her balm was?
The rod turned a mix of yellow and green.
“Hmm, not bad for your first successful creation,” Bernard said. “Good enough that Kelly could use it, so bottle it up. Now I have some suggestions about your energy control.”
The rest of the lesson was in a word…facilitating. She got this giddy feeling every time she used her willpower to control the energy, and it produced something. It felt like real magic. Sure, ambient magic was…magic, but it was mainly used for telekinesis and mana barriers. All her efforts to create a mana bolt hadn’t resulted in anything stronger than someone giving you a hard poke. Her experiments while trying to mimic dragon breath also failed. So, alchemy felt like she was actually doing something with magic that was productive, and she loved it.
To make it even more exciting, Bernard and told her it would take her years to get to the advanced topics that required her having a crest. This meant as Zerine settled into her new routine, she would be found burred in an alchemy book or other books she got when helping at the temple, all to improve her alchemy and willpwer.
Over the next month, Zerine made steady progress in training and alchemy. She had even introduced Estel and Naro to where Terri, Octra and Fulgur lived. Now it was a normal occurrence for the three to go flying with dragons or do some extra training with them. Zerine had tried to convince the dragons to let her go hunting with them, but they said she wasn’t ready. She had been a bit miffed until she fought a training dummy using magic for the first time.