After martial training, and smashing Martin in the face with a giant hammer, Adam had more time in the kitchen. The children’s schedules diverged from his somewhat at this point. In the future, while he was making breakfast they would still be sleeping, or whatever they were up to at that hour of the morning. His morning time in the kitchen was specifically to make their breakfast, as his time after martial training was to make their lunch. His meals were to be eaten sometime while he was cooking.

The kids actually had training at the same time he did, although they had specific instructors for whichever weapon they were working with on a given day. He would need to gather them from those instructors and deliver them to the scholar for the beginning of their class time, while he went to prepare lunch. After serving lunch, they would all return to the classroom for the rest of their daily education. The same pattern would be followed, where he would deliver them to their rooms to study or their next instructor, and he would head to his next stop, magical training.

His magical trainer was named Sam Coldwell. Adam thought her name was quite fitting. She was as no nonsense as her first name, and as emotionless as the cold in her last name. As for ‘well’, he figured it applied to her magical knowledge being as deep and full as a well. If there was only a single word he could use to describe her it would be efficient.

The beginning, middle, and end of each lesson with Sam was exactly the same, every time. Meditation. The start of each lesson was a form of guided meditation where she attempted to talk him through the things he should be seeing and feeling from his mana while he meditated. The second meditation period was pure recovery after spamming his mana channeling attacks until he was empty. This period was actually repeated several times, along with brief periods of her explaining exactly what he was doing wrong and how to improve. As harsh as it sounded, he was making progress, something else she pointed out. The final portion of meditation was a combination of the first and second. By the end of his daily period with Sam, he’d normally have a mana deprivation headache from expending all of his mana several times, so the recovery portion was extended. When he would be back to full functionality, she would once more guide him through his attempts to work with his mana.

The only thing that changed on a day to day basis the brief period between the first and second portions of his training. That time was reserved for discussion, instruction, and study. Or at least that was what she explained to him when he arrived. It was his first day of actual instruction with the woman, but his impressions of her had already been made. The only thing he had added was that despite her no nonsense personality, her power was staggering.

“We will begin with learning the basics of what each of the channeling weapons you can use can do.” She paused to gesture towards the motley collection of items scattered against a small weapon rack. He imagined it was one of the first times that that particular collection was arranged on such an item. “Are these all of the mana based weapons that you can use?”

Adam took a moment to appreciate that she never once stumbled over calling a mop a weapon. He carefully looked over the assorted items, spotting everything they had found so far. “That’s all of them that we have discovered so far.”

Once more he was impressed by her not batting an eye at what he said. He had expected some form of question directed at the uncertainty of his statement, but she just accepted it and moved on.

“Grab one and return.”

He grabbed the nearest one, a candlestick holder. It certainly hadn’t been an item he had anticipated being a mana based weapon, or a weapon of any kind, but it was. Ruth had suggest braining someone with the heavy gold item while they were cleaning them and replacing the candles, and he had instantly been beset by a bout of minor vertigo. After shaking his head, he realized the mouth of the candlestick holder, the place that was designed to hold a candle, was full of fire. The one he had retrieved from the pile was obviously not gold, being an iron piece from the servant’s quarters, but it still functioned the same way.

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Again she showed no reaction to something that most would consider out of the ordinary.

“Show me what you can do with it.” Her monotone voice inspired no confidence, but he still did as she asked. Anytime he had doubts about her ability to teach him something he saw a repeat of her wrecking the training dummies with a flurry of magical bombardment.

The candlestick holder was very different to the broom in its attacks. If he held it in one hand extended straight out from his shoulder it repeatedly launched fast but weak balls of fire straight ahead. Two hands with the stick near his waist poured out a torrent of fire, although it didn’t reach very far. He could also feel that there were other ways to utilize the item, but he hadn’t yet figured them out. Additionally, he could also brain someone with the heavy metallic object, but he expected his magical instructor to not care about that.

After showing her the two attacks he knew the tool had, and explaining his suspicions about there being more she nodded sagely. After a moment of thought she pointed out, “You can also hit someone over the head with it. Many an enemy will forget the items that can be used as a spell or channeling focus can still be a useful melee weapon.”

Or maybe she would care. Mentally shrugging that off, he followed her instruction and started working through the variety of tools he had.

The mop was nearly the same as the broom, the major difference being it used water instead of wind. The other change was that it didn’t have the same slashing attack. Instead, slashing with the handle produced whip that could be used to grab or bind enemies in addition to lashing them. The other attacks, and the shield were unchanged.

The shovel, which he had expected something similar from, had a number of differences in addition to being an earth based channeling focus. For one, it could gather a large quantity of earth around the blade to form a large ball. As a ranged magical attack it was useless, but as a melee weapon it was reasonably decent. It had the benefit of allowing him to modify its weight mid swing, but with his level of skill it was such a small change that it might as well not exist. He could also scrape the blade along the ground, throwing a burst of magical earth forward in a short cone. For the moment the blast was mostly dirt and small pebbles, but Sam explained that as he grew in practice and potency he would be able to increase the number, volume, mass, and speed of the stones. The blade could also produce a more axe like protrusion on swings as well, although it was so weak as to be useless for the time being.

Most of the rest of the things he had found had a number of similarities to what he had already shown her, although there were a few surprises. The largest surprises were for Adam, however. Sam had a number of suggestions.

“If the candle stick holder works, then why didn’t you grab one of the free standing ones? Or a candelabrum? On that same note, why don’t you have a trowel if a shovel works? The same thing goes for a rag and a hand brush. Aren’t they just the small staffless version of a mop or broom? It’s likely that they can be used as some form of weapon as well.”

Adam just stared at the woman. Why hadn’t any of them thought of that? While he was pondering that, Sam just kept going.

“Make sure you find those by tomorrow. And what’s this I hear about a wooden spoon? From the description of the thrashing you gave Martin it sounds like a casting weapon of some sort, or at least ranged. We’ll need one of those next time.”

Adam blinked, realizing he should have thought to show her what he could do with a wooden spoon. He had one in his apron, but she was moving on.

“Finally, you said you felt a little odd with someone of them? Explain, please.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Some of them felt a little… tenuous? Like I could only partially use them, or there was something missing?” Adam was positive there was something different about a few of the weapons, like the shovel, he just didn’t know what it was.

Sam still didn’t show any emotion, so it was difficult for him to tell if she was excited or angry at him for not knowing more. “We will need to look into that. I believe I know the items in question, as there were a few that the attacks were significantly weaker with. I will make a list and we will discuss it in depth at a later time. For now, you will be attacking until you run out of mana. Begin with the…”

It would be a fairly long session, but Adam knew he would come out of it both better, and more tired.