– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 97 –
Terry stood with his eyes closed on the training grounds while being surrounded by his mana containers.
He did not move a muscle…
Terry opened his eyes and a spherical mana pulse was discharged from his body.
“Hmph.” Terry frowned at the thin mana concentration.
That’s not much of a discharge…
“How did the wasted earth giant do that?” Terry furrowed his brow.
With inscriptions?
“Yeah, yeah…” Terry grumbled to himself.
Think your normal discharges will be enough to earn the divine hammer inscription?
Terry shrugged.
Do you even care anymore? I feel like you’re wasting your time with this. Maybe you should try something else. Or practice the layered focusing some more…
Terry puckered his lips. “I feel like I am missing something. I want this to work.”
Wishful thinking again.
Terry sat down and retrieved his notebook.
“I mean…” Terry smacked his lips. “A disruption discharge is not like an aspected discharge. Its primary purpose is not to inflict damage on ethereal creatures or something like that.”
And yet it’s one of the few ways in which I could harm an ethereal creature that depends on mana.
“Yeah, but that’s just me and my limitations. The main purpose of a disruption discharge is to make an opportunity to close in on a spell flinger.”
So?
“So, depending on the spell being cast, it would be great if I did not have to hit the casting center or the mage. If it’s just a mana-guiding spell— If I could disrupt the mana shortly before it hits me, then I would not have to waste so much mana.”
Terry shook his head. “Aiming for the caster requires a large amount of mana to travel that far in time. Aiming for the casting centers is like playing whack-a-mole. If there are multiple casters, it would get even worse, wouldn’t it?”
Terry sat down. He tapped his pen on the notebook that laid on the ground and sighed in frustration. “Maybe the inscribed earth giant is the wrong role model…”
No kidding…
Terry searched his memory for other sources of inspiration and twirled his pen through the fingers of his right hand.
“When Dargones burst his nullification-aspected mana, mana-based attacks weren’t even able to come close to him.”
Yes, but in contrast to Dargones, you don’t have nullification-aspected mana.
“Terry.” Sigille had arrived behind Terry.
“Hm… Maybe if…” Terry murmured absentmindedly to himself.
“Terry!”
“Huh?” Terry finally noticed Sigille’s presence. “Sorry, what?”
“Time for lunch,” said Sigille.
“Already?”
“Grab some and then meet me in your room,” said Sigille.
“Uh, okay.” Terry packed up his things.
***
Sigille walked into Terry’s room and closed the door behind her. Afterwards, she retrieved a card-shaped item from her storage and channeled mana into it to create a soundproof barrier.
“What’s going on?” asked Terry.
“I think I saw a familiar bug flying around,” said Sigille. “Open the window. I think you’re the target this time.”
Terry creased his brows perplexedly, but did as instructed.
A short moment later, a dragonfly that was on the larger side flew into the room and landed on Terry’s table.
“Guess my senses were right,” exclaimed Sigille in self-satisfaction.
“What?” Terry tilted his head.
“Impressive construct, isn’t it?” Sigille grinned. “Whenever I urgently require items that are hard to come by in Tiv, my baby sister helps me out. I figure her friend Brynn is the creator. Channel some mana into it.”
Terry became excited. He placed a finger on top of the dragonfly and guided his mana into the small construct.
The back of the dragonfly opened and Terry could see a miniature crafter’s pendant without the usual necklace.
“Normally, they include a letter in the storage,” said Sigille. “Should be sealed and linked to your mana signature as well.”
Terry quickly found a sheet of paper that carried the hand-writing of his aunt Brynn.
‘Dear Terry,
‘I hope this little toy reaches you safely. The next time we have a chance to speak, say something about greeting your old classmates and I will know that you have received the package. Otherwise, I would have to send an army of dragonflies towards you and the imperial censors might get curious about the weird plague of insects heading your way.
‘In any case, I – and everyone else – hope that you are well. You should be smart enough to know this, but just in case: do not tell anyone about this construct. Members of our whanau are, of course, an exception, but still. Tiv is a bit peeved with unauthorized imports of magic items, so be careful.
‘Sadly, this also brings me to another warning. While we would wish for a way to chat freely with you, my little construct isn’t it. While you can instruct it to fly back to me by guiding mana into the two lower wings simultaneously, that should only be done in an emergency. Every flight is a risk and this should not be taken lightly.
‘Similarly, sharing too much current information with you could be disastrous if you have a slip of the tongue during our next supervised conversation. Anyway, it would also be frustrating in that you could not send a reply. So, as sad as it may be, for now, it has to suffice that we are all well and waiting for you to return home.
‘We have all prepared a few gifts for you. The storage bracelet is for Sigille, though.’
Terry paused reading and wiped a happy tear from his eye. He retrieved the storage bracelet and handed it to Sigille.
“Thanks,” said Sigille and checked the contents. “Perfect.” She looked at Terry. “How about you? We want to avoid duplicate gifts after all.”
Terry continued reading.
‘The two wands in the silver box have been mana-crafted by your siblings. They worked hard to finish them in time.’
“Wait, two? Siblings? Plural?” Terry retrieved the silver box and opened it.
Terry picked up the first wand and examined it in mana sight. “Directional lines… Dual imprint?”
Terry chuckled when he recognized the imprints. “Liquify Earth and Harden Earth – this one was definitely made by Lori.”
Terry picked up the second wand. “Extremely fuzzy… directional lines… and Raise Wall? Huh?”
“Something wrong?” asked Sigille.
Yeah, the world is upside down.
“No, I was just surprised. Going by the letter, it seems that Jorg has picked up mana-crafting and even chose to learn new spellwork.”
That’s like two signs of the apocalypse.
“Things have changed already…” Terry mumbled and felt homesick. He sighed and returned to the letter.
‘Samuel has added a purchased wand for the fundamental healing spells, as well as many scrolls. He also insisted on what amounts to a bookshelf on dungeons, spatial anomalies, and the Tiv Empire. The shelf includes Samuel’s own work, too. Do me a favor and ask him to sign one of them. I want to see his face when you do.’
Terry snorted and chuckled. “More learning…”
‘Bjorln has added literal shelves filled with potions and salves. I can tell you the house was smelling horribly at times. Fortunately, he has also added a kitchen full of home-made food and bribed us with some leftovers. There are some chocolate cookies, which I am told your aunt Sigille is quite fond of. You can share if you want.’
Terry teared up a bit and retrieved some of the cookies. He took one for himself and then offered the rest to Sigille. “From Pa.”
“Ooh, I remember those.” Sigille received the cookies with sparkly eyes. “They’re delicious.” Sigille bit into one and then mumbled while chewing. “The cheeky lad always knew how to charm a stomach.”
Terry returned his attention to the letter.
‘Isille has personally selected two new barrier spears that are similar to her own. These are inscribed and not imprinted. This barrier inscription allows you to strengthen the barrier with additional mana, as well as to control the size of the barrier to some degree. It also allows you to move the barrier forward beyond the range of your spear. Anyway, it’s an inscription, so just sink your consciousness into it. Your mana foundation should be sufficient to use it.’
Terry was stunned, and he dazedly retrieved the two new short spears.
“Good stuff,” exclaimed Sigille while munching on another cookie.
“This…” Terry was overwhelmed with gratitude. He clenched his fists and promised himself to train harder. Afterwards, Terry continued reading the letter.
‘The construct and pendant are two of my gifts. I’ve also filled the pendant to the brim with your preferred mana-crafting materials. Additionally, I have added some instruction books for mana-crafting self-study and a spare set of tools. Aside from that, I also wanted to personally craft some items for you.’
“Woah…” Terry subconsciously uttered when thinking of items created by his aunt Brynn.
‘I don’t know if you already had to go through Tiv’s customs nonsense. Therefore, I chose to stay within the realms of plausible deniability and limited myself to effects similar to those you already used. You can find a pair of inscribed fingerless gloves – properly shielded and cloaked. Their inscriptions are identical. I’ve woven together four inscriptions in each of them.
‘The first is a bidirectional attraction inscription similar to your Gravitational Attraction imprint. The second is an inscription called radiating light. It can achieve an effect similar to your Blinding Flash imprint. The inscription allows you to control the light’s intensity and keep the light on for as long as you channel mana.
‘The last two inscriptions are among my personal specialties. One is an inertia-lock that will bind the gloves to your mana signature as long as you periodically channel some mana into them. The other is a self-mending and error-correcting inscription that will slowly mend material damage and repair any mana deviations from the original inscription.
‘We hope our gifts will help keep you safe until we can meet again. Stay safe, Whaka Terry!’
Terry sighed deeply and then retrieved his new gloves. He quickly examined them and also showed them to Sigille.
Afterwards, Terry entered the wands, gloves, spears, the storage pendant, and the dragonfly construct into his dimensional bag. Sifting through all the other items and transferring them to his main storage items would take time. As would practicing with his new equipment.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
For now, however, Terry still had a discharge challenge to focus on…
***
“Little Lucas, a moment please,” shouted Sigille, and jogged up to the man.
Lucas turned around with a haggard look. “I’m not in the mood for a quarrel, old hag.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Sigille unperturbed. “How is Little Ruslana doing?”
Lucas’s gaze fell and a deep sigh escaped from his lips. “Not good…” He swallowed. “Our last healing attempts have all failed… and… haaahhh…”
Lucas shook his head while despair washed over his face. “Her illness will require a grandmaster-level healing spell at least, but there is basically no chance that I can request such a healer to come all the way here. They’re all deployed at the frontline or with the royal family.”
“Even if, by chance, one would come to this area, the waiting list is…” Tears entered the eyes of Lucas. “I don’t know what to do anymore…”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” said Sigille. “Here.”
Sigille handed over a scroll and a potion.
“What is…?” Lucas examined the scroll and his eyes opened wide. “I…” His face contorted into a conflicted expression. “Th-thanks, Instructor, but I... I can’t. This isn’t— The waiting list. Others…”
“Don’t give me that crap, lad,” reprimanded Sigille sternly. “You know, for someone that used to rank near the top in theory, you can sure act stupid sometimes. Don’t let Dhruv hear that you are considering declining this gift, or he may trap you in a tree until you grow some sense.”
“But I…” Lucas bit his lip with a conflicted expression. “I can’t just…”
“While I haven’t been your instructor for long…” Sigille scratched her nose with her pinky. “Because you dropped out when you encountered your bottleneck…” Her tone carried a hint of faded disappointment.
Sigille stared firmly into Lucas’s eyes. “Please trust me on this, lad. Take them and heal Little Ruslana. You can feel guilty for failing to put the empire’s needs over your own afterwards if you want, but at least you will be able to live with yourself.”
“...” Lucas pressed his lips tightly together.
Sigille sighed. “People aren’t interchangeable and while those in high positions sometimes have to act as if they were, that is above us.”
Sigille leaned closer to Lucas and caught his gaze. “Down here, the most important thing is that you can look in the mirror without hating yourself. Otherwise, you will break and that won’t help anyone. Consider this gift as luck. You are allowed to accept it.”
“But…” Lucas grimaced as if he was in pain. “But it isn’t right that I can get help just because I am lucky while others— If I had not known you, then— If I use it now and then you might need it later, then…”
“Stop that,” rebuked Sigille. “If I trip in the next dungeon and break my neck, then these items wouldn’t save anyone. Stop construing scenarios in which her life competes with others. I am giving these things to you so that you can save Little Ruslana. You are not obligated to give this up, and if you try, I’m going to smack you.”
Lucas silently put the items away.
“And don’t let me catch you becoming overly respectful or submissive all of a sudden,” said Sigille with a stern expression. “This was purely personal. Nothing to do with Guardian management or policy nonsense.”
***
Terry exhaled sharply and then picked up two of his mana containers from the ground. He absorbed the stored mana to fill up his own mana pool more quickly.
These latest discharges aren’t half bad. Think it will suffice? You’re frowning already, aren’t you?
“Hmph.” Terry grumbled unhappily. “I should be able to do better.”
You’re still hung up on the spherical discharge? I thought you had established that the body’s movement helps to speed up mana and unless you can blow yourself up, there is no body movement to go with a spherical discharge.
Terry scowled at the air in front of him. Then, he returned the mana containers to the ground.
“Tomorrow is the last day…”
Terry punched with his left. He rapidly followed up with a side-kick to his back, a step forward, and a punch with his right.
Each of his kicks and punches was accompanied by a disruption discharge that surpassed all Terry had seen except for Bjorln’s.
Terry created an additional refractor for his following palm strike, and the layered focus refractors led to a discharge densely packed with spell slicers.
Terry jumped, leaned back, and quickly transfixed his chest armor in a position horizontal to the ground. Then, Terry punched both arms above his head while kicking with both legs in the opposite direction – two dual-discharges were expelled at the same time.
I believe even Bjorln would be proud of these…
Terry ignored his own complacent thoughts and gathered momentum to rotate in the air and deactivated his chest armor imprint. While still in the air, Terry prepared layered focus refractors in front of the knuckles on both of his hands.
As soon as Terry’s feet hit the ground, he punched with two fists simultaneously to combine the layered discharges into one…
Terry observed the effect that seemed faster and more intense than any disruption discharge he had ever seen. In spite of that, he frowned.
“I’m missing something…”
Give up on the spherical discharge already…
While Terry switched to practicing discharges in rapid succession, Sigille observed his progress from a different location in the training grounds.
“Instructor Sigille!” A short and cheery dwarven girl ran towards Sigille. She was carrying an axe similar to Sigille’s on her back. The axe was nearly as tall as the short girl herself.
“Little Chipmunk.” Sigille grinned.
“Thena! I told you not to run off!” A human woman in impressive robes followed the cheery girl with several other students in tow.
“Hehe, sorry.” Thena smiled sheepishly and scratched her cheek.
“Honestly, I’m surprised you managed to not trip,” teased a taller dwarven boy that carried two one-handed axes on his back.
Thena stuck out her tongue. “Are you worried about me, Clayson?”
Clayson blushed and averted his eyes.
“““Greetings, Instructor.””” A human woman and an elven man greeted Sigille in unison. While the human girl was carrying a two-handed axe like Sigille’s, the elven boy was carrying two short spears.
“Looks like everyone arrived in one piece,” said Sigille happily. “Greetings, Rachel. I hope my students behaved themselves.”
“Like little troublesome angels,” said Rachel, the woman in impressive robes. “Any sign of your disciples yet?”
“They’ll probably arrive on the last day,” said Sigille. “I heard from Palmer that they’ve been busy lately.”
“Woah!” exclaimed Thena when she saw Terry’s latest discharge.
“Who is the new face?” asked Rachel. “Discharge instructor?”
Sigille snorted. “That could be funny, but frankly, I don’t believe Terry is well-equipped to instruct others in that regard. That would be akin to you explaining color to a blind person.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
“Whaka Terry is my nephew from Arcana,” added Sigille.
“Isille’s child?” asked Rachel.
Sigille nodded. “I posed a challenge to him – to improve as much as he can in disruption discharges before the Setting Moon. He learned his first disruption discharge a week ago.”
“Wha— Ouch.” Thena jerked around when she heard that and tripped over her own feet. “Stop snickering, Clayson!” Her face was flushed.
“Seriously?” asked Rachel.
“Seriously,” replied Sigille. “While Terry might serve to provide some inspiration, I don’t believe he would be a good fit to instruct those with bad external mana control.”
“Will he participate in combat practice?” asked Rachel.
“That’s the plan,” replied Sigille.
“Excellent,” exclaimed Rachel pleasedly. “I have a few students that are getting way too comfortable with their current spellwork.”
“What does he train in?” asked the axe-wielding woman.
“His style hasn’t settled yet,” replied Sigille while moving her lower lip forward in thought. “He has been instructed by my little sister and her husband – core focus on dual short spears and unarmed combat. The two are well-suited to instruct those topics.”
Sigille weighed her head from side to side. “While he also has a basic foundation in dagger and knife techniques, he seems to lack practice there.” She scrunched up her face. “Apparently, they even included dual dagger techniques for some reason I can’t fathom.”
“Dual spears?” The elven man piped up.
“You can try, but I expect it will be more suitable for Terry to train with my personal disciples,” said Sigille.
“Is he as good with his weapons as he is with his discharges?” asked Clayson, who followed Terry’s practice with amazed eyes.
“Not even close,” said Sigille with a snort. “But his ambidextrous wielding is advanced, and he is getting good at changing his rhythm.”
Sigille eyed her students. “You can all try a match, but then you should declare it to exclude mana use.” She gestured towards Terry. “As you can see, his mana foundation is more than a bit out of the norm and he can make good use of it in his balanced state.”
For a moment, everyone silently followed Terry’s rapid succession of disruption discharges.
“I mostly want my disciples to demonstrate to him the edge that comes with knowing proper burst techniques,” said Sigille. “You and Terry still have to learn those.”
“What is he doing?” asked Thena curiously. “Why did he stop? He’s just standing there.”
Sigille narrowed her eyes.
“It looks as if he is gathering mana around himself,” murmured Rachel. “Now, he’s rotating it around himself… Wait, are those…?”
Sigille’s eyes opened wide.
“Well, that’s new…” muttered Rachel appreciatively.
Meanwhile, Terry was making deep breaths and concentrated on rotating his mana around himself while placing several focus refractors outside his body. With the funnels placed to receive, compress, and accelerate the rotating mana further with each rotation.
Terry had given up on his disruption pulse for now because he had not found a way to increase the density and velocity sufficiently in the scope of a single discharge. However, while practicing his layered discharges, he had wondered if he could achieve a similar effect for a spherical or at least a field-like application like Dargones’s bursting.
The mass of rotating mana that was moving turbulently through his external focus refractors was the solution that Terry had come up with.
Terry opened his eyes and observed the mana while continuing to speed up the mana by controlling it to increase the pressure through the funnels. He had to periodically pull on his mana in order to keep it close to his body while pushing it through.
Okay… First drawback, this stuff is obstructing my mana sight. Like looking through glowing, tinted glass…
Terry ignored his intrusive thoughts and focused on getting the hang of the rotation and the timing to supply new mana into the gaps after compression.
Eventually, Terry could see spell slicers appear sparsely and then more densely packed.
Terry could not help but smile.
Don’t get too happy now. You still need to move with this thing or it will also turn into a mana waste.
“But I can at least reclaim and harvest the mana whenever I need it,” mumbled Terry. “It’s still close enough to me.”
Much use that will be when someone fires a crossbow at you while you are grinning inside your little mana bubble.
“Fair point…” Terry closed his eyes and slowly took a step forward while trying to move the mass of mana with him and adjust the rotation to a new center.
***
Terry was standing on the training grounds while the sun was slowly setting.
He pulled back his right arm and imagined the three refractors that he wanted to layer on top of each other. He moved his mana and punched forward.
The mana accumulated in his arm. It got further compressed by the first refractor in front of his knuckles. It traveled fast towards the second refractor, where it got compressed further until it finally hit the third focus refractor and a narrow wave of dense spell slicers rushed rapidly forward.
Now!
Terry had picked a point in the distance and as soon as the mana had reached it, Terry clenched his teeth and concentrated on reclaiming as much of the discharged mana as he could manage in a breath’s time.
Falling tide…
Terry inhaled and pulled his fist back while some of the discharged mana travelled back to him, where he tried to absorb it into his body again.
Terry held his breath and lunged his left fist while discharging mana and exhaling.
Rising tide…
Now!
Terry repeated the exercise that he had come up with the day before after his disruption field had turned out to be way too difficult to move around. While Terry had not completely given up on the disruption field yet, it would require more time than he had in this challenge.
Only a few hours remaining…
Terry repeated the exercise without stopping. He had discovered that it also helped him improve not only in external mana control, regeneration, and discharges but also in the aspect he had wanted to train the most recently: reach.
Terry did not notice that his exercise had already drawn several spectators that were observing him from a distance.
“You weren’t kidding around, huh?” muttered Palmer.
“Not even a little bit,” replied Sigille. “That’s his progress after a week.”
“So? What will the boy earn as a reward?” asked Rachel.
Sigille’s lips curved into a smile. “When I told him about the challenge, he asked about the divine hammer inscription.”
“Woah!” exclaimed the short dwarven girl standing next to Sigille like a puppy. Thena was looking at Sigille with sparkling eyes: “Can I also earn that?”
Rachel snickered.
“Little Chipmunk, right now, you could not handle that inscription,” said Sigille while smiling warmly at Thena. “It would make for a useless gift. You all still require items that can protect you now. The only reason I am considering it for Terry is that…”
Another wave of densely packed spell slicers rolled away from Terry.
“Well, that,” exclaimed Sigille. “Even with that kind of mana control, it still poses a challenge that can only be overcome with time and practice.”
“The targeting of the divine hammer inscription differs greatly from spellwork or simple inscriptions,” added Rachel. “Try throwing colored sand into the air to create a picture before the sand reaches the ground. Something like that.”
Rachel glanced at Sigille. “Only suitable for the particularly stubborn types.”
Palmer snorted amusedly.
“I think you meant tenacious, dedicated, and diligent,” retorted Sigille with a wink.
“Did I?” Rachel chuckled. “Anyway, you may want to do something about his performance display before the combat practice. If he keeps this up, the spell flingers will be too intimidated to spar.”
“As long as they feel pressured into improving themselves, that’s fine, too, isn’t it?” retorted Sigille.
“Heh,” uttered Rachel.
“Terry can’t spar with everyone,” said Sigille. “This way is good, too.”
***
It was already dark on the training grounds, but Terry’s figure was still throwing discharge after discharge.
“Terry!” shouted Sigille, who had walked up to him. “That’s enough. Well done.”
“Huh?” Terry was surprised to see Sigille this soon. “Is it midnight already?”
Sigille slightly shook her head and smiled. “No, but I want you to rest well before tomorrow.”
“Here.” Sigille handed over two rolls of what seemed to be silvery bandages.
Terry received the items with a perplexed expression. He examined them in mana sight and could make out densely inscribed runes.
“Are these…?” muttered Terry.
“The divine hammer inscriptions, yes,” replied Sigille. “The inscription is long. Very long. Even compared to other multi-purpose inscriptions. There are more densely packed versions, but they are even more difficult to wield. Also, they usually come on equipment like mine. Metal armor that would not mesh well with your own imprinted septimum pieces.”
Sigille pointed at one of the silvery rolls. “These have the benefit that you can choose where to wear them. However, if I could make a suggestion, I would recommend wrapping them around your legs before putting on the rest of your armor.”
Terry furrowed his brow. “Wouldn’t it be more intuitive to have it wrapped around the arms?”
“Perhaps,” admitted Sigille. “But as I see it, your most pressing issue is movement. Your boot mechanism is… clever. However, I would also call it problematic. It is awkward to have resistance from the coil springs when jumping. It shows in your movement.”
Sigille shrugged. “Most importantly, the entire approach has strict limits. Once your jump strength exceeds the limits of the coil springs, the whole idea breaks down. It is a stopgap at best. Among many other uses, the divine hammer inscription can serve you for air movement long term.”
“Besides…” Sigille smirked at Terry. “If you manage to wield it properly with your legs, I may find another challenge to complete the set.”
Terry nodded excitedly. “Thank you, Aunt Sigille!”
I need to train more…
***