After the test with Mrs. Kaite's sword, Mr. Darius started working me harder. It sounded like he wanted to accelerate my apprenticeship because of the results, and make sure I had as much practice as possible when it came time for my graduation test, which he said should have been in about four years, but may come sooner due to my talent.
None of the items I've made since that day have awarded any experience. I think its because that sword was deemed something that an apprentice couldn't make, and [Craftsman] doesn't give experience to apprentices normally.
I've also been working on my magic every night with Mrs. Jasmine, to great effect. Working so hard unlocked abilities with each aspect, and evolved their respective skills. After around five months or so, I leveled again, gaining even more skill points, and evolving the skills i was having a little more trouble with, like [Understanding] and [Meditation] which actually fused when they evolved, into a much more powerful skill, [Thought Acceleration]. So far, no other skills had merged, but I could see it happening soon. Probably before the next level I gained, seeing as that was nearly a year away now, if I couldn't activate [Craftsman] again in that time.
The chances that I'd be given another assignment like that mithryl sword were probably not too high, but someone with enough money may commission a similar blade if enough people saw hers.
These months had been mostly uneventful, with the most important being Mama's belly starting to get a little bigger. I've learned to cook better and clean up more to help her out, and also because they're good skills to have.
It's inevitable that a few people around town figured out that I was more talented than the others around my age. I was the only blacksmith's apprentice from the last group to reach ten, but I wasn't the only one who practiced magic. Most of those were off on their own in a group learning magic from someone who comes by every year from the closest city, Blackthorn. Apparently the walls protecting the place looked like a big black bramble with gates in it. But, they came by looking for apprentices every year, and if one of the bunch had decent talent, they'd stay and teach them until they were old enough to move to the city.
They had Ms. Jasmine as a guest teacher for those with the fire aspect, and she accidentally let slip that they were apparently behind me in terms of magical prowess. She made a comment about how weird it was to teach at a normal pace, and now that mage was pestering her to introduce us at least once a week. That was about a month and a half ago, but they were very persistent.
That leads to where we are today. I finally agreed to meet with them, under the condition they not spread my name around. I asked Mr. Darius for early leave from the forge to meet at my usual practice ground in the forest, just me, Ms. Jasmine, and the mage, who is apparently a very pretty lady with silvery blue hair in a pointed hat and robes.
"Good afternoon, miss, my name is Amara." I bowed a bit to her in greeting.
"Oh, none of that 'miss' stuff. You can call me Trix. I heard you're pretty skilled with magic. Care to show me?" She seemed a little giddy.
"Uh, sure. What do you want to see? My aspects are fire, light, and earth."
"Show me a basic spell In each please." She took a step to the side and conjured a target for me.
I fired off a low power bolt of fire, aiming for the middle of the target, and hit spot on. Then a weak beam of light to the same spot, followed by a spike of earth.
"Incredible! You didn't even use a focus or focus word? How were your spells so powerful after just a few months of learning?" She was getting almost uncomfortably close as she asked a bunch of questions.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"What is a focus? And why are you calling them spells?" I fired back a few questions as well
"Wait, you don't know what any of that is? What have you been teaching her?" She looked over at Ms. Jasmine with an accusatory glare.
"I only taught her how to control mana, and a few basic ways to manipulate it. She was only planning to use it in her smithing anyways, none of that other stuff is necessary. Foci, and ironed out spells are for mages who plan on using magic as their livelihoods, which she doesnt plan on doing." Ms. Jasmine was a little defensive about that point.
"I'd say it's a waste, but if she's already chosen another path, there's no changing that. But the way you can use magic by only manipulating mana is incredibly surprising. How much mana can you control at once? How big of a spell can you make?" She looked back at me, anticipation sparkling in her purple eyes.
"The biggest magic I've done so far was an accidental explosion in the forge, the night I unlocked my ability to manipulate mana. I sucked up all the fire mana in the forge, and held it in my hands. I pictured it re-lighting the forge, which went out from my mana collection, and it caused an explosion that took weeks to clean up." I was a bit embarrassed about this story, and blushed as I told it.
"So you didn't stop because you couldn't hold more, but because you ran out of mana to collect?" She was getting even closer
"Not exactly. It felt like I would lose control of it if I took more, so I stopped. It felt like it would be too dangerous." I was still blushing, and her getting so close didn't help.
"That's amazing! Though I'm surprised there was enough mana in the area to do that much damage. Unless the forge uses a special flame, like the one in Blackthorn does." She started mumbling to herself.
"Mostly, I've only used my magic to melt ores and metals for work. I dont use it outside that for much. Though, now that I think about it, there are a few things I could use magic for to help Mama out at home." I felt a little bad I didn't think of it before.
"While I'm not going to harp on you about this, I really do think you could do so much more. And I'm willing to help tutor your magic as well, if that's alright with you two. I just want you to meet your full potential, and the more magic you have, the longer you can work towards it." She looked determined, so I was inclined to let her help with my magic training.
"Wait, what did you mean about having more magic giving me more time?" That was something I hadn't heard before.
"Oh come on, there's no way you haven't been taught this already. It's almost common knowledge at this point. Having a higher combination of spiritual stats causes you to live longer, while higher physical stats cause you to age slower. How could nobody have told you this already?" She was bewildered.
And suddenly I had a shocking revelation. The amount of stat points I'd been gaining naturally had already kept up with those my age. In addition to those I had in reserve, I'd have hundreds of times the life of those around me, only growing as I aged. Which would also go much slower once I allocated those points as well. There was now no question that I'd outlive all the people I loved, if I wasn't killed by something. If I wanted a meaningful connection. With anyone near me, I'd have to find a way to get them to the stat level that I'd be at. It also makes me reluctant to use the points before I'm a certain age, to make sure I grow up at a reasonable pace.
"Just out of curiosity, how much does each point affect your life?" I asked a bit sheepishly
"Well, for every 10 points in physical stats, it's something like a 50% reduction in aging speed, and for spiritual stats, a 1.5x multiplier for lifespan. Honeslty, it's nothing too massive until you go above 250 total in either stat section. At that point, you almost become ageless and immortal. Though that's very rare." She said this nonchalantly, and immediately I had an important question.
"Do luck and karma also have the same effect?" I asked nervously.
"Well, nobody has enough of either to know for sure, but I believe so. They are set at a static amount when you first open your {System}, so it could be said that those stats give you a base increase in both youth and life right away. Those with the stats on the higher end have more time to reach their full potential. Why do you ask?" She looked at me a bit suspiciously.
My face paled as I realized that ever since my tenth birthday, I began aging more than 350% slower than before. At the rate I'm going, I wont be physically 18, the age of full adulthood, until I was already nearly 50. I would be in a child's body for longer than some of the adults here would live. And I started having a panic attack.
I hyperventilated and passed out, Ms. Jasmine barely catching me before I hit the ground.