“Give me some of your blood.”
In response to Coal’s words, I pulled out the small dagger tucked into the sash of my robes. Even though I’m used to it, I still couldn’t help but wince when I dragged the edge across my palm.
Although I avoided looking at Coal smear his own palm with my blood, the scene was still vividly there within my head. Once he was done, I took a piece of cloth from my bag and placed it over the wound to staunch the bleeding.
It still hurts, but I had more important things to look at. It wasn’t just me, all five of us there looked on with close attention.
With his blood-covered right hand, Coal processed to make a series of hand seals. When I watched carefully, the seals that represented various parts of the spell could be made out.
All five fingers flared back from the lowest joint, curving the rest of the way - like the way one imitates a claw with their hand. His palm faced forward. Yes, this seal was one that I don’t think a single person wouldn’t know; the initial hand seal for Blood Law spells.
His pointer and middle fingers then aimed straight, one atop the other, palm facing the ground while the other three fingers were all withdrawn. This indicated that the spell had just a single target.
The following seal split the two fingers apart, palm now facing forward, and with the thumb that was extended beneath them formed a triangle along the tips of his three fingers; a small triangle, since the distance between them was not much. If three lines were to extend from those tips, they would bound the region in which the target was located.
In this case, within that region was a small human-shaped dummy made out of the dirt of the earth, which had a coarse texture. A texture I was very familiar with.
Each seal lasted less than a second, and there was more than ten of them. Just a slight lapse in concentration, and my ability to tell what each was was gone. But I still knew which seals were meant to go after each other one.
Upon finishing the rest of his hand seals, the blood - mine - on Coal’s hand began moving. It rapidly took the shape of a small conical spike that then launched forward at a high speed; fast enough that it became a red blur to my eyes. It impaled the earth dummy right in the head, punching a hole through that quickly became vacant and visible as the blood melted back into a liquid.
Even though the hole was small, I doubt that matters. Whether it's a hole the size of a finger or one the size of a fist, I’m pretty sure either of them would lead to death if a real person had been hit.
After successfully casting the spell, Coal stepped back while breathing a bit heavily. He wasn’t physically exhausted, but mentally so - there’s more to casting a spell than just the hand seals, after all.
While he took a short breather, he told us, “The rest of you can try now.”
Having gotten permission, I stepped forward to stand in front of another dummy. Thankfully, only Coal used my blood for his spells, so other than that, I only had to use it for my own. Even better, the blood didn’t have to be too fresh, so the remnants of my earlier cut would suffice.
Like a shadow of Coal’s prior motions, I raised my right arm and grabbed my elbow with my left hand to stably brace its position.
Then, I mentally reached out for the core in my navel region that was not innately open for humans. As my mental senses entered it, I was able to ‘see’ a small pool of liquid, slightly red in color; nowhere near as deep red as blood. Specifically, this liquid was called faint ruby essence, but I’ve never seen a ruby, so I can’t really say if they are alike or not.
The pool of essence only filled a portion of my essence core, but this was its limit. If one were to split the core’s volume into 100 parts, then the liquid only fills up 47 of them. In other words, my core’s capacity was 47%, and no more than that could be held within it.
This was my aptitude as a Sorcerer, and anything from 30% to 54% was D-Grade aptitude. But such a pitiful amount was barely enough to be a Sorcerer. As for why, well…
I urged the faint ruby essence out of my core and into the thin, immaterial pathways that connected my entire body together - the meridians. Under my control, the essence followed a specific path through my meridians, all the while I shifted my right hand into the initial seal.
Although the hand seals are necessary for casting a spell, they aren’t the key. Rather, the essence of a Sorcerer was what made it possible.
This spell was simply known by the name of Blood Spike. But in the technical terms for Sorcerers, it would instead be a Blood Law material singular single-target control spell. The name is complicated and long, but makes perfect sense as I go through the process of casting it.
Blood Law, since that was the Law that the spell used. Material, because it needed to draw upon someone’s blood to be cast. Singular was not a specific designation, but rather just the default of any spell. After all, spells each have a single effect, and generally perform said effect only once.
The essence flow within my meridians started from my core and ended within the palm of my right hand. Then, I shifted into the next seal, the first to signify that this was a single-target spell. Each and every seal required a specific pathway for my essence to flow through before I could continue onto the next.
The start of a spell was always the easiest part. Each part has a time limit to completing it, lest the seals prior fade away before the spell is finished. For one or two seals, that wasn’t a problem, but the more seals that were within a single section, the harder it became.
When they’d first taught us the spell-casting steps, I’d heavily underestimated how difficult it could possibly be. But it’s something that can only be truly understood once you’ve tried. Now, I can see that the comparison they’d used - writing with one hand while wrestling someone with the other, all the while trying to sing a song - could only compare to a portion of the difficulty.
You need precise control in your hand seals and essence flows, you need force to get the essence flowing at a fast enough pace, and you need synchrony so that the two parts of the spell occur in sequence.
Of course, I only have time to complain to myself because I already failed. I could perform the seals just fine - I’m not like some of the other kids whose fingers weren’t flexible. But also having to change and complete so many essence flows in the span of maybe five seconds was impossible for the current me.
Upon failing, I could feel the wound on my palm be torn apart by the backlash. It’s a good thing that this is just a small spell, since apparently the stronger ones could blow someone to pieces if they fail to complete it. Though, the power of such spells is obviously worth the risk.
While watching Flint, Dark, and Grass - Dust had failed after fifteen seals - continue with their casting, I looked at the essence within my core. The faint ruby lake had lost over a fifth of its essence - 10% of the total, to be exact. This was the reason why they were ahead of me in progress, while I still failed within the first seven seals each time.
It’s been three months since the aptitude ceremony where over two hundred kids like us had our essence cores opened and aptitude measured. The more essence your core could hold, the more suitable you were to be a Sorcerer, since you could cast more spells in one go.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Coal was a B-Grade, with an aptitude of 79%. Not only did it mean that he could try casting Blood Spike seven times in a row, having a higher aptitude also meant that his essence recovered faster. Being able to practice the spell so much more often, how could he not be better than me?
It wasn’t just Coal, though. Flint, Dark, and Grass all had C-Grade aptitude; 55% or more and less than 75%. Each of them was also able to practice more than me. As for Dust, even though she was a D-Grade like myself, she had enough essence to cast the spell five times in a row.
It didn’t seem like much, but as time went on, the advantage it gave to her over myself only got larger and larger. And three months was enough for that to happen, let alone the size of the gap between me and the C-Grades or B-Grades.
Not to mention the A-Grades. They’re probably already at the next stage by now…
In the end, I couldn’t be compared to any of them, and I had no issues with that. Although it’s a shame that I couldn’t become a strong Sorcerer, it’s not the end of the world. Coal and the others might treat me somewhat harshly, but that’s just how life is; the strong standing over the weak.
If anything, I don’t mind their treatment of me - at least they let me stay around them. Being alone was fine with me, but everybody craves interaction to some degree… and I’m not an exception to that.
Once the wound on my hand had turned into more of a dull ache, I got back up and went to try casting Blood Spike once more. How stupid is it, that even if you fail to cast the spell, the same amount of essence gets used up as if you had successfully cast it?
In the end, I finished my four attempts around the same time as the others finished all of their casts - mostly successes, with a couple failures. Even though my attempts were shorter than theirs, the wait for the pain to fade enough to try again extended the time enough.
The only good thing about today is that I managed to perform seven of the seals for the first time. I’ve been making progress slowly but surely. At least I can look forward to the turning point mentioned by the teachers and the others - when your skill at essence flows reached a point that the time limit no longer stood in the way of casting, but rather your control over the flows.
“Alright.” After I’d cast the mere four spells I was able to, Coal was ready to wave me off. “Shadow, you can go now, I won’t be needing any more of your blood this time around. You really are just like a shadow, you know? Always standing right behind me, you might creep me out one of these times!”
The others laughed at his words, and even I smiled somewhat helplessly. Although I don’t know the original reason for my name, he wasn’t wrong to say that I do act like that. I’m silent and tend to follow behind people in general, not just him.
Although, I wasn’t ready to head back home yet, so I just shook my head and went to sit down in the shade next to the other two girls. Dust and Grass were chatting about something - some guy, I think. The name in question sounds slightly familiar, but I can’t remember anything about him.
I just let my body fall back against the ground and stared up at the Sky Above.
As I lay there, I couldn’t help but think for the millionth time why my mother named me Shadow. My hair was ash-grey, so it couldn’t have been that - not like she would’ve been able to tell when I was born. It couldn’t have been about my eyes either, since they were a blue even more faint than the sky.
Mom… I can’t even remember her face anymore. All that’s left is a faded memory of warmth in her arms. Why? Why did you have to leave me alone?
I don’t want to be a shadow. I would’ve liked to be a moon, shining so brightly in the sky, coming and going as I please. But I trust Mom. My name must be for a reason.
At some point, I guess I closed my eyes. But I could still tell that someone was now standing over me, since the light got darker. When I opened my eyes, I saw Coal standing not above me like I’d thought, but slightly off to the side.
He was looking at me, and when he saw me acknowledge his presence, he spoke. “Shadow, is the wound on your hand still open? I want to try casting Wound Heal.”
Wound Heal… I want to ask if he’s even practiced it at all, but for one, the backlash of failure wouldn’t harm me at all, only him. More importantly, it’s not like I could say no even if I wanted to.
So in response, I stood up and held out my right palm. The gash in the middle, originally just a small cut but greatly widened by my four failed spells, was under a piece of cloth tied around my hand, but I undid that to reveal the bloody mess of a wound.
The feel of the air hitting the wound stings, but it’s barely comparable to the pain of the original cut. I can, and have, dealt with much worse.
“Say, have you been practicing the spell at all, though?” Dust, innocent as always, looked at Coal and asked the question I’d had in mind. I’m so jealous of how she can be so… happy, despite how harsh this world is. I really do envy her.
Coal’s response was simple. “Just watch.”
The first seal he did was the same initial seal as Blood Spike. They were both Blood Law material spells, so they both obviously started the same way. I also recognized the seal for indicating a single target spell, but those that came afterwards, I had no familiarity with.
The only spell I know the seals for is Blood Spike, and trying to learn more is pointless until I fully master that one. Well, more of an issue is that it’s our first trial as Sorcerers; we’re technically not allowed to learn more spells until we can cast Blood Spike.
I guess it only makes sense that Coal would’ve learnt another spell by now. It has been around half a month since he first managed to cast Blood Spike.
As such, although he was obviously nowhere near the level of skill he had with Blood Spike, Coal’s motions were stable. It made me calm. I know that him failing wouldn’t have any negative effect on me, nor do I know - or really care - why he wants to use it on me. But since he’s trying to heal my injury, I do hope that he succeeds.
The time between each seal got longer, but Coal did manage to reach the end. “Ah!” A light sound escaped my mouth. It’s just, sooooo itchy! However, like the others, I continued to look at my hand.
According to what I know, this should technically be a Blood Law material singular single-target amplification spell. Amplification because the way it healed wounds was through accelerating the body’s natural healing - I only know this because they said that using Wound Heal still leaves scars, and depletes the body’s energy as if it had healed naturally, but all in that short time.
As for why it’s a singular spell instead of a duration one, I don’t know enough about spells to tell.
I feel a bit lightheaded, likely due to that energy depletion thing. But the wound was healed, left as just another faint scar on my palm. Even after balling my hand into a fist, stretching it out, and even shifting into the motions of some hand seals, the wound didn’t reopen.
“Damn, that’s incredible.” Dark’s reaction was the same as mine, but I wouldn’t say something like that aloud. Actually, I prefer to just not speak.
“Hahaha,” Coal laughed - a bit smugly, if I must say so myself, but I guess he deserves it - and shook his head. “I was actually a bit nervous at the end there.”
“Like Hell you were.”
The three guys were messing around, and Grass and Dust kept wanting to and were looking at my hand. “How did it feel?” I just stared at Dust, who’d asked the question.
“I don’t know why you think she’d answer you at all,” Grass giggled slightly. Though she tilted her head - her thinking motion - for a second before adding on, “I’ve looked at the details of that one though, and it apparently feels really itchy.”
“Is that right, Shadow?” Well, since it’s a question I can answer just by nodding, I guess I will.
I barely paid enough attention to keep along with the girls. Internally, my mind was on other things. So Coal’s the first one to be able to cast two different spells? Right, I don’t know why I’d even think it might be different. He has the highest aptitude, and thus the most time to practice.
I can only wonder how proud his parents must be of his accomplishments. Even I wish that I’d have someone who’ll be proud of me when I finally cast Blood Spike. Of course, that would never happen.
Seeing that the sun was starting to set, I bowed slightly to the group - my way of saying goodbye - and walked off. But even still, it’d take me over an hour to walk home, since I heavily dragged my feet. How nice it would be to just live in the library that was open to us trainee Sorcerers, but they didn’t allow us to be there for more than two hours a day; some stupid rule about ‘too much knowledge being bad for us’.
Regardless of the reason, it was unfortunate for me that I had to go home. It wasn’t like I could go stay at any of the other’s places, since their families barely had enough space in their homes.
Although, I was also a bit scared that one of the men there might do something ill-willed to me. After all, despite my short stature, immature, and skinny body, I still am a sixteen year old girl.
For a lot of these people, their only goal in life was to have descendants, and their only pleasure until they died was, well, carnal pleasure.
As I drew closer to home, I reached out for my essence core once more. Of course, it hadn’t even gone back up to 10% yet - no using spell practice as an excuse to delay even further. As such, the door of the house appeared in my view.
Unlike every other home on the street, it stood out for actually having a door instead of just being an opening. In fact, I could see families moving around inside the other homes on the street.
Ugh, I hope I took long enough that father is asleep…