“Don’t you think some share of that hundred heavy gold should be mine.” Master Anstrom teased for the thirtieth time.

“I have plans for it.” I said as we walked to the entrance of the dungeon.

“I could use a few gold to fix the damage my apprentice did to their rooms using a negligent fire spell.” Master Anstrom countered.

“I will pay you back for room and board in due course.” I assured him.

“That’s not what I’m worried about, my poor apprentice with a hundred gold burning a hole in his pocket.” Master Anstrom said as he frowned. A particular pungent odor suddenly evident in the air. “Be on your guard and use fire spells. I smell trolls.”

Not two seconds later a rock the size of my head crashed less than a meter from me. Battle began and I suddenly channeled my mana around my self and tried “Divine Barrier” only for a golden glow to envelope me. I cast physical enhancement and drew my sword in one rapid movement. The next moment my sword was enveloped in fire as I commanded “Flaming sword.” I spotted my first troll.

It was an ugly beast around two meters tall. I still being ten, was not only dwarfed by the massive thing, but it held a club bigger than I am. Sharp green features pockmarked by sores. A toothy grin turned into a scowl as it glanced at my flaming blade. Ponderously it made its way forward through the brush and ticket. Suddenly moving its carthorse weight, it swung its massive club in front of it to clear the brush.

“Meteor Strike.” I tested pushing mana out with my hands towards the sky and imagining my mana returning to the ground as a swarm of meteors. Tiny rocks no bigger than my thumb moving at impossible velocity punched through the troll from several angles. The troll was nearly instantly slain but unfortunately that one spell made me quite light headed. I wouldn’t be able to cast it or its like any time soon. I turned bleary eyed to see another troll being incinerated by master Anstrom’s spells.

A third troll was hoisting a boulder. I shouted the only thing that came to mind as I pushed mana out in a lance towards my target. “Disintegration Ray!”

A beam of unimaginable power lanced forth from my open palm to slice the beast from navel to shoulder burning cleanly through it. I passed out. I woke to find a camp set around me, master Anstrom working on one of the troll corpses. It was still daylight, or perhaps the next day? The fire looked recent no ashes built up and I didn’t feel hungry yet so it must be the same day.

“Ah, your up. I need you to come hold this troll’s arm in the air while I drain a few more vials of his blood.” Master Anstrom said casually.

“What good is a troll’s blood, sir?” I asked him as I made my way sleepily over to examine the gruesome remains of the trolls. Both of the ones I had put down showed no sign of recovery, one of which was being used as a reservoir to fill a bucket.

“Troll’s blood is used in limb regrowth and regeneration potions, and as a catalyst for enchantment.” Master Anstrom instructed.

After master Anstrom filled his vials, I stored the whole bucket filled with blood in my storage item. Master Anstrom looked like he wanted to say something but then he just nodded politely. I don’t even know where he got the bucket or the empty vials to begin with but I wagered it was worth asking him. “Where did you get the bucket from?”

“Oh! I made it with wood shaping magic out of a glob of fallen tree.” Master Anstrom took a few more seconds to process what he had done before he realized he should probably teach Andrew the spell and it showed on his face. “The spell is called shape wood and you start by infusing your mana into branches or fallen wood. Once you begin you just shape the wood like clay and then when the spell ends you hopefully finished and have a useful item, in this case a bucket.”

“How long does the spell last.” I asked him.

“About a minute, but it gets longer with proficiency and if you continue to infuse mana.”

I walked a bit until I found a useful looking scarp of bark and I said “Shape wood.” I was able to fashion a rough wooden pot with a lid. Which I then filled with troll’s blood and then stuffed into my backpack. Who knew when this valuable commodity would be at hand again.

“If your quite finished with its blood help me pull a few of these longer canines as proof we killed them for the adventurer’s guild. I doubt they’ll believe a ten-year-old wizard took down two of these beasties.” Master Anstrom said grinning.

After what seemed like a fierce ten minutes of pulling with shoddy wooden pliers made with magic; I finally decided to bash the troll’s teeth out with the pommel of my sword. This was massively more effective at parting a troll from its teeth. When asked if anything else they carried might be of value, master Anstrom replied would you like to search for its bile sac. We stopped talking after that but I got the feeling master Anstrom was amused.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

We walked for an hour before we arrived at the dungeon proper. It was a two-story tavern next to a non-descript hole in the ground around a football field across with a ramp leading down into the earth in a circular fashion. The tavern boasted lively lasses in low cut attire that made me uncomfortable to be in a ten-year-old’s body. There were several adventuring sorts in the tavern and a large man stood behind the bar.

We took seats and ordered ale and stew. It was a lively place for being in the middle of forest outside the capital. A minstrel played an instrument I was unfamiliar with but it had many strings and could be banged like a drum. A small man in a black cloak sat at the table nearest the bar.

“That halfling is an information broker, see how much he wants for a map of the dungeon.” Master Anstrom instructed me.

I walked over to the black cloaked halfling and made to ask the question but before I could he answered me “Five large gold coins.” In a high-pitched trill.

I looked back to master Anstrom who held up one finger.

“One gold coin.” I replied

“Four gold coins.” The he trilled

“Have a nice day, I’m sure someone will part with a copy of their map for a single gold coin.” I answered and made as if to leave while holding a single newly minted gold coin.

“Fine, fine, a gold coin buys a map.” The halfling said morosely handing me a rolled parchment after I offered the gold for his inspection.

I walked back to master Anstrom holding my new prize.

“He would have gone to ten silver, but I figured it was worth you learning a lesson.” Master Anstrom was laughing at me.

“I just over paid by ninety silver coins?” I asked him.

“For that you can secure room and board for a few years on that by the way.” Master Anstrom was delighted to teach me currency at my own expense.

“I hadn’t meant for you to start at one gold my boy, but at one silver coin.” He instructed me.

“Great, now I only have-…

I blurted out that much before master Anstrom not so subtly elbowed me to interrupt.

“Boy don’t go talking about how much you may or may not have in such a public place” Master Anstrom chided me.

I was a bit pissed he’d just cost me so much and was lecturing me now, but I remembered having ninety-eight more gold coins and around seventy silver, so the pain of the loss was somewhat lessened.

“My apologies master.” I told him.

“Let’s talk about your performance with the trolls.” Master Anstrom began. “You killed two, and that’s mighty impressive for one so young as yourself. Quickly too, I’ll add. But you used two spells you’ve never used before and taxed your body beyond its limits.”

“But damn weren’t they impressive.” I said.

“By Marda’s great bouncy tits, they were boy but you can’t do that again. Practice only spells you’ve used before in a situation like that or you can get yourself into real trouble.” Master Anstrom instructed.

“But what if my life is on the line?” I asked.

“You put your own life on the line casting spells you know not the limits of.” Master Anstrom stared at me as he jabbed his fingers repeatedly into the table. As if he were ticking away each-time he had to make the same argument.

“We won though, against three trolls.” I said trying to lighten the mood.

“Besides you got lucky both of the things you called out were functional spells. What if they weren’t and you were slain only a moment later.” Master Anstrom lectured me.

“What if I’m pretty sure it’s a spell, but I don’t know how powerful it is, I still need something to test them on.” I asked him.

“The dungeon we are going to enter tomorrow will probably hold a large number of solitary entities. It will be an excellent place to test out new magic.” Master Anstrom instructed.

“Didn’t you just say not to cast new magic without practicing it first?” I asked him.

“Tomorrow will be an exception as the monsters don’t roam very far from where they are stationed so dispatching them one at a time is comparatively easy. In the battle with the trolls our lives were on the line. If I hadn’t managed to dispatch mine shame on me, but what if one of yours had survived while I was still fighting only to feast on your unconscious body? Or what if I was slain and then you were slain also?”

“I’m sorry master Anstrom.” I said solemnly.

“Besides I need you to describe the new spell-forms you used and the key words so we can properly add to the collection of magic you’ve discovered.” Master Anstrom said eagerly. Already back to his focus on magic. “I wonder if I can cast either of those spells. It’s been an age since I’ve added anything to my repertoire.”

I spent the rest of the evening eating and drinking weak ale until we merrily retired to our rooms. The next day was Dungeon Day. Something I had fantasized about in my past life was coming to fruition in the real world. It was only a beginner ranked dungeon incapable of changing but still, it was a dungeon and I was going to fight monsters.

I spent about an hour reviewing the map which detailed tunnels, monsters, traps, riddles, guardian monster sightings, treasure locations, safe rooms, and the boss room. Most of the monsters were either some form of slime ooze gel monsters or Kobolds. The ooze family of monsters I was familiar with from video games and plenty excited to test magic against. The Kobolds are semi-sentient though and I wasn’t sure I wanted their blood on my hands.

I was glad as I drifted off to slumber that the troll’s weren’t like popular table top games able to regrow a lost arm in moments. I also wondered if the troll’s blood in my pack would make up for the loss of ninety silver to the information broker.

I remembered buff spell names in a tide before slumber took me. Clarity, Enlightenment, Conviction, Fortitude, Valor, Temperance and so on. Tomorrow was fit to be a fun day of trial and error.

I wondered if I was discovering spells or authoring spells as my eyes finally closed.