As Stan and Jen worked to set up the camp, Cal and Ethel had said down across from Onelder. Albert was preparing another meal while Frank continued splashing around in the river.
“Alright, idiot… I mean students.” Onelder had changed his wording quickly after Ethel gave him a death stare. “First, I need to see exactly how you are channeling things now. Cal, can you hit this rock with some of your electricity? As fine a line as you can.”
“Yep, no problem,” Cal said as he focused. He drew his mana into as fine a beam as he could and then fired directly at the rock. He had managed to get it down to about the size of a quarter, which he thought was controlled, considering his usual blasts.
“Is that really the best you can do?” Onelder was looking at him with his single eyebrow raised.
“What? That wasn’t any good? It took me a long time to get my electricity channeling that focused,” Cal responded. He was annoyed, but it did explain a lot of the issues they had fighting the Gryalth. Every time the real powerhouse mages came in, it was over. He then remembered what he had seen Ralth do so many loops ago. “Dammit, Onelder was right. He could do a lot better.” this last part, he only thought to himself.
“Here, watch this.” Onelder used some of the copied mana from Cal to produce his own laser. It was maybe one-tenth the diameter of Cal’s own beam. “And keep in mind I’m not remotely used to using your power. This is just basic shaping training being applied here. You should be able to do much better than me. I mean, this is just basically a laser beam, right? Where’s one of the geeks when we need them? I bet there’s al kinds of weird physics we could work into what you do with it.”
“Alright, how do I shape the mana, then?” Cal thought that he had already been shaping his channeling.
“Ignore how your channels, well don’t ignore them, that won’t work right, but stop focusing on them. Focus on the point of release. Try building a shape in your mind there and letting mana flow only into that shape. And yes, before you say it, this is likely a lot harder than I’m making it out to be, especially at your age. This is normally training for kids.” Onelder explained.
“Can I have one of their teachers instead?” Cal was trying to visualize a small cylinder as he said this.
“Trust me, I’m gentle in comparison. Hell, I ain’t even starving you.” Onelder laughed as he said the second part.
Cal ignored him and focused on building his mental shape. Once he had it firmly in mind, he imagined it in front of his index finger and started filling it with mana. As he pushed the mana into the small shape, he felt it heat it. Was it supposed to do that? Before he could voice his concern, the space in front of his finger ruptured and turned into a tiny explosion hanging in the air. He yelled in pain and leaped back.
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“Fuck, that hurt.” Cal shoved his finger in his mouth, trying to soothe the burn.
“Let me see it.” Ethel had walked over to where he was practicing.
As Cal stuck his finger out, he heard his father burst into laughter in the distance.
“Sorry, Cal, this is just hilariously nostalgic. You and school and random cuts and scrapes, if you ignore the entire context of it all, everything almost feels normal again.” Stan continued gentle laughter.
“Well, the good news is you’re fine. You’ve done far worse to yourself in basically every other training session. So quit whining and do what the annoying man says.” Ethel instructed after examining his burnt finger.
“You heard the lady, get to it, rube!” Onelder barked.
And so he did. This time, Cal tried thickening the walls of his shape and decreasing the size of the area where mana flowed into it. He held firmly onto the mana flow, trickling it in. Finally, after several agonizing minutes, he had it full. He aimed his finger at the rock and released. A much tighter beam of light fired from his fingertip and shot straight through the rock. Instead of exploding chunks away it burnt a hole through it into the ground below. “How’s that?” he asked.
“Not bad, though you aren’t gonna be able to sit and concentrated for minutes at a time in a real fight, you gotta learn to do that near instantaneously if you want any hope of using it in a fight.” Onelder had picked up the rock while he was speaking. He passed it over to Cal to take a look.
Cal looked over the rock and then over at the hole in the ground below it. As much as it pained him to admit it, Onelder was right. Focused lasers were a lot more powerful than exploding balls of electricity, depending on the circumstances. It also used a lot less of his mana pool for that beam, but man did it take time. “So, basically I just need to spend all my free time practicing different shapes for my mana?” He finally asked.
“For now, once you get it down below a second, then we can start working on some other tactics,” Onelder answered.
“Hey guys, what’s a Merlin?” Frank had popped his head back above the water, interrupting their conversation.
“Why do you ask Frank?” Ethel responded without answering.
“Oh well, I swam real deep in the river. There was this big crab, and we started wrestling. It was fun, but after I beat him he motioned for me to follow him, and how could I say no? So he led me to this underwater cave and it was full of air. There was this big slab of stone in the center of it with writing on it. It was hard to make out, but I’m pretty sure I saw the word Merlin, and isn’t he a wizard or something? I remember Bug mentioning him during a game night.” Frank finished to the incredulous stares of all the present humans.