Ted was embarrassed to say that a lot of the training followed in a similar vein, finding himself slightly less capable than he expected on the parts that he felt more comfortable with, and woefully ignorant in combat. Cam, it turned out, was at least Level 15 in all basic weapon Skills, not just the ones that he had needed for his Class; this was another failing of Ted’s Basic Training. Ted learnt that the Skill Levels came not just with an innate understanding of the weapon, but an increase in speed and strength when using the weapons that couldn’t be replicated elsewhere; for example, Cam could hit a ball much harder with a staff than he could with a golf club, despite them effectively being the same thing, albeit of different length.
He was slapped, stabbed, tripped, and swatted more times than he could count, whether he was using a staff, spear, or defending against Cam’s attacks with the round shield that he’d been given.
On his fifth set of jumps between and up onto boxes he’d breathlessly asked the purpose of the exercise, wondering whether Cam was just testing his fitness.
‘You’re trying to get the Jump Technique.’ Cam had replied, watching Ted calmly from the side of the course. ‘It’s another simple one, but very useful.’
‘There’s a Technique for Jumping?’ Ted asked incredulously. ‘What isn’t there a Technique for?!’
‘Talking instead of jumping.’ Cam said, laughing.
‘So funny.’ Ted said, though he noted that that joke was a sign of Cam slowly coming out of his shell.
‘Anything that can be improved by magic, or that is magic, can most likely be a Technique.’ Cam clarified. ‘Like I said, some are common, some are not. Jump is a well known one, just like your Dash and Break-fall. Drift is slightly less common, though easily learnt.’
Ted leapt again, a near two metre leap from a high block to a low one, landing on both feet. ‘Any tips, then? I’m just getting knackered here.’
‘Focus on each individual movement; the intended landing point, the take off, your position in the air, and how you land; breaking it down and analysing it can help it register. Or I can come and chase you with a pointy stick. Stress and adrenaline tend to work too.’ Cam suggested, helpfully.
‘I’m good, thanks.’ Ted said, pausing before taking his next jump; a near vertical jump up of about a metre.
It took six more jumps before he got a notification of receiving the Jump Technique, and he gained a sudden understanding of how to imbue magic into his jumps to improve accuracy and distance. Cam noticed it straight away, as the ease and height at which Ted jumped improved.
‘Well done, my friend! Good work. Another round of combat, but this time, we’ll do some drills.’ he called out, walking over to pick up a spear.
Ted wearily went over to pick up his own spear, and stood next to Cam, as Cam explained a series of spear based attacks and blocks, similar to some moves that he remembered from his very first day, when he’d gained Spear Mastery. Together they practised the chained moves until Cam was satisfied.
‘Well done! Now, onto the first sphere over there.’ he said.
Ted approached the ball; a blue, metallic sphere the size of a tennis ball, sat on a small plinth at waist height. Cam had told him nothing about it, other than that they were magic, and Ted was expected to ‘counter’ their magic. He had no idea what that meant, but he’d seen enough Star Wars and read enough fantasy books to know that magic worked best by feeling it out, focusing, and believing in yourself. He’d managed to work out how to use the Light spell pretty easily, but this was different; that was a spell that the knowledge of had been gifted to him. This felt like he was supposed to be analysing something with a sense he didn’t know how to use or understand.
He touched the ball, and instantly drew his hand back at the intense cold that threatened to stick his fingers to the ball and rip some skin off. He looked over at Cam.
‘Never touch a magical item if you don’t know what it is. Have you Identified it?’ Cam said.
Well, no, he hadn’t. He’d still not really got used to using it as a standard tool, something he probably had to work on. But it wasn’t likely to give him much information anyway, it never did. He used it anyway.
Identified: Metal Sphere - Magical.
‘It says it’s a magical metal sphere.’ Ted called back.
‘I wouldn’t touch it then.’ Cam warned. Ted couldn’t help but laugh, though tried to smother it.
‘So what do I do?’ Ted asked.
‘You’ve got the Basic Magic Skill. It gives you an understanding of how to use magic, and how to sense it. It’s a magical metal sphere; what can you sense?’
Ted focused, putting his hands over, but not touching the ball. He tried to concentrate on what he recognised as the magic in himself, the slightly melodic, ringing flow of energy through him. When he used the Light spell, it was about pushing that out and forming it into a ball that emitted a glow.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
He tried to extend his senses, to see if he could sense that sense of noisy energy near him. His hands were just inches away, and he concentrated on his sense of magic around his fingertips, where he would normally push to form the orb of Light magic, seeing if he could feel some sort of external source.
Suddenly he felt something; a pain ripping through his hands and fingers, and he realised that he’d touched the orb again. He swore and wrenched his hand back, this time giving himself a small bloody graze on his fingertips.
‘Everything okay?’ Cam asked, walking over to him. He handed him a small pot. ‘Some healing salve. Good for cuts and small wounds. Rub some on your fingers.’
Ted did, and the pain almost immediately went away. As he rubbed the salve in he was surprised to see that his skin was completely healed.
‘Magic.’ he said, unsure if it meant it as a curse or not.
‘Exactly.’ Cam said. ‘Did you feel anything?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Ted said. ‘I mostly felt the pain from touching it. I think I was getting there? I’ll try again.’
He went back to his previous position, this time making sure his hands didn’t touch the sphere itself. Focusing on his own magic, straining to see in his mind’s eye if there was anything nearby, similar.
After a few more moments, he felt like he could sense something nearby. This was an energy like his own, but different; it still made a noise, it still felt like electricity, but it wasn’t the same as his, was off-key. He tried to focus on the feeling of it, using a sense he’d never had before and couldn’t describe as anything other than trying to find a word that was on the tip of your tongue, being able to have the shape of the word in your mind but unable to actually speak it or remember it. He could feel the shape of this magic, a wild, vivid spiky ball just in front of his fingers.
A notification popped up, and he opened his eyes.
‘I could sense it!’ he said to Cam, opening his notifications to see what exactly it was he’d gained. He scrolled through a list of increases that he knew he’d gotten without bothering to check, until he saw the latest Technique.
____________________________________________________________________________
System Message:
Through testing the limits of your senses and your appreciation of the hidden world, you have gained a better understanding of the function of Magic.
You have learnt the Technique: Magic Sensing, Level 1!
____________________________________________________________________________
‘Magic Sensing?’ he repeated, looking at Cam.
‘Well done my friend. Magic Sensing is very important.’ Cam said. ‘There’s more to magic than just pretty lights, you know. It’s difficult to learn new magics if you struggle to sense it in the first place and very difficult to fight it as well. You should make sure to use that a lot; this world is full of magic, and the stronger it gets the better you’ll do here. Combine it with Identify; you should be using that non-stop. If you were at Level 10 you’d have received much more information on this sphere.’
‘I didn’t know that. I don’t know if you know this, but my Basic Training wasn’t really up to scratch.’ Ted said.
‘It had become apparent.’ Cam joked back. ‘Now take a look at that sphere again, using your Magic Sensing. Put more mana into the ability if you’re struggling.’
Ted followed Cam’s order, following the same concentration path that he had before, but now putting the Magic Sensing Technique behind it, using his mana to boost the skill and its sensitivity. Suddenly the sphere was clearly visible in his mind's eye, bright, and full of energy, like a collection of wave signals forced into a shape, none of them the same. He focused further, and the impression of extreme cold came over him.
‘I can sense cold, but that’s it.’ he called back to Cam.
‘That’s pretty much all that’s there. It’s an ice sphere, a basic elemental ball used for training or combat.’ Cam said. ‘Good job. Now, can you counter it in any way?’
Ted stopped concentrating and channelling magic into Sensing. ‘How on Earth would I do that?’
‘Work out what it’s doing, and then see if you can use magic to counter it.’ Cam said, unhelpfully.
‘Well, it’s making things cold, and I have no idea how to stop it.’ Ted responded.
Cam didn’t reply, and just shrugged when Ted looked round. Ted sighed, and decided to try.
Using the same method as before, Ted used his Magic Sensing Technique to find the magic within the ball. With his new skill he looked at it, trying to work out what exactly it was doing, and whether he could see a way to stop it. He didn’t know whether it was just his mind forcing connections, but now that he knew it was an ice sphere, the magic suddenly felt blue and white and frosty, the waves seemingly more spiky as if made of icicles. He couldn’t physically interact with the magic - his hands didn’t even exist as anything except receptacles for magic in his new perception. Maybe he could try and smother the magic with his own? Could he do that? All he could produce himself was light though; would it even work?
The only thing he could do was try. He kept hold of his Magic Sensing whilst also focusing on pushing his own magic out through his palms in the same way he did for Light. Seeing how the spell formed through Magic Sensing blew him away, as he got to see the spell blossom out his hands in pure energy form, syphoning off from the magic in his own body. He could feel the magic, recognise it as his own, and feel its purpose - to provide light - in a way that he hadn’t before.
Despite knowing that all it did was provide light, he tried to use it to cover the ice sphere, pushing it forwards and around the ball of cold magic. He felt the two overlay each other at first, the ball of Light not interacting at all with the ball of coldness, almost literally working on another wavelength.
Without knowing exactly how he was doing it, he tried to change the wavelength of his Light magic to counteract the wavelength of the frost sphere. It was a significant amount of effort, as he forced the Light spell to be something that it wasn’t, whilst hyperfocusing on the interactions between the magics, hearing the energies almost roaring in his ears as his perception sat between them and he tried to force them together.
He heard a voice behind him, saying something he couldn’t hear, so focused on the magics he was trying to intertwine. Something suddenly clicked, and felt like he had found the key to adjusting his own magic to negatively match that of the ball, just as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He tried to react to the hand, but struggled to disengage from the magic perception, struggled to stop the magic streaming from his hands. He felt something start to falter, and then all of a sudden, he was falling over, and the bright energies of the magic around him were going black.