As it turns out, carrying a 10 Strength Staff was harder than it looks. My arms were weak and shaky by the time I arrived at my destination, the same training grounds that I spent so much time at with Kaelan, so I was a little unsure that 10 Strength would actually be enough. Though, admittedly, I was kind of holding it weird so that might have something to do with it.

Hmm, I wonder if I should get some kind of Staff Wielding Skill… that has to be a thing, right?

I glanced at my Status, wondering what Skills I could try and merge to make space, only to shake my head and make my way into the training grounds. I’ve never been particularly good at planning ahead like that, and I was satisfied with the way my build was heading, so I may as well just think about that if it becomes convenient.

Just as I was making my way onto the fields, I noticed one of the people that works here do a double take at the sight of me, then look at me sympathetically. At first I just tried to ignore them, but as he approached I realised that I might have no choice but to have a conversation with him.

“Hey man, it’s good to see that you’re back on your feet again. I’m sorry about your friend, Kaelan was always around here giving people lessons so it was a real shock when he got killed like that,” He patted me on the shoulder, whilst I just looked a little dumbstruck, “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Let me know if you need anything.” And then he just walked off, going back to doing whatever it is that he was supposed to be.

Well, that was a little unexpected.

I watched the man leave for a moment before I remembered what I was here for and looked around for an open field. The place was a lot more full than usual actually, with over half of the fields being filled by someone or another training the Skills or Stats, and the sound of spells and combat rang out loudly throughout the area.

All of the different Skills on display briefly overwhelmed my senses, and I was only able to regather my bearings when I saw something that took up much more of my attention. In a field close to the farthest corner, I saw Render practising some kind of martial art on a wooden dummy. Oddly, the attacks that I saw tear through a horde of skeletons didn’t even leave a scratch on the wood, and if I looked closely I could see their spikes were still piercing in.

Not that that was particularly important, what mattered was showing off my cool new Staff! With a grin, I crouched down and let Lightning build up around my legs for a few seconds. Any Mages nearby began to look over at me as they felt more than saw the Mana currents change to accommodate my Skill, Mana swirling into me like a funnel.

Admittedly, it wasn’t impressive enough to keep their attention for more than a moment- it’s not like I’m actually doing anything that crazy- but that wasn’t exactly my goal anyway.

I planted my right foot in front of me and leaned forward, preparing for a single great leap, and then felt another pulse of Mana click into place as I passed the five second mark. Without any further fanfare, I pushed against the ground and let my body fly like an arrow towards the far end of the fields.

I must’ve flown nearly ten metres by the time my foot touched the ground, but that only got me around halfway to the other side so I turned my momentum into another, noticeably shorter, jump. And then another, and another.

With the decreasing distance, and the Staff weighing me down, it took me roughly five Strides to reach Render. Speaking of which, at some point they’d stopped their practice and stood out of the way of my trajectory to wait for my arrival.

I slid to a stop beside Render, kicking up a little bit of dust as I did, and slammed the butt of my Staff into the ground to help slow my momentum a little bit.

“Hey Render! I didn’t expect to see you here, doing some training?” The Crown in my Staff sparked with the cyan light of my Lightning, though that quickly began to fade and be replaced with the same faint blue as the other enchanted weapons. Though, when you compare it to my Lightning, it looks a little more turquoise or green.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Yes, it’s been far too long since I have truly focused on my skills so I have taken to training these past weeks,” They glanced around the training grounds, as if only just noticing how crowded it is now, “It would seem that it has become rather crowded in that time, how odd.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s really weird, but hey! Check this out!” I lifted the Staff higher to show it off to Render, who regarded it with curiosity.

“Ah, so this is the Staff of Elements that Finch told me of, how intriguing. It is quite uncommon for a Wizard’s Staff to be made of such heavy materials, though I imagine the iron does wonders for the Mana conductivity,” They held out a hand as if to grab it, but paused so that they could ask, “May I?”

“Oh yeah, sure. It’s a bit heavy though, I’d be careful” With an affirmative nod, Render took hold of the Staff and finally gave me a chance to rest my weary arms.

I don’t know why this surprised me, but they held it with no apparent difficulty.

“Hmm, it is indeed quite heavy. Perhaps you will need a few extra points in Strength to manage it, unless you plan on staying far from combat.”

I shake my head ruefully, thinking about all the times I’d gotten in fights since my awakening, “No, I don’t think that’d work for me. Strength training it is then,” Taking a moment to stretch first, I took the Staff back from Render and planted it into the ground, pondering the issue of Strength training. Until, that is, I get an idea, “Oh! Render, you’re a physical fighter, right? Do you know any good ways to train Strength?”

For some reason, this question made them a little uncomfortable, and they seemed a bit nervous with their response, “Well, I’ve never particularly needed to, umm, train Strength at all… but perhaps you could make use of Lightning Stride? From what I recall, that was quite effective, was it not?”

Something’s odd here, they’ve never had to train their Strength? How could you get so strong without training?

“That’s actually a great idea, I’ll just put my Staff down…” I trailed off and looked around our field for somewhere to put my Staff, finding a weapon rack that should be fine, as I continued to think about that oddity.

Well, if they want to keep secrets then that’s fine, if it was important then they probably would have mentioned it by now.

With that in mind, I decided to just forget about the idea and toggled Lightning Stride to the offensive mode. The effect was instantly obvious, but not nearly as hard as when I first used it. I managed to take a single step with little difficulty, and then a second with not much more. Just like that, with a couple of basically regular steps, I’d managed to generate a decent pool of Mana.

Of course, it wouldn’t be used for anything without being funnelled into an attack, but I could just let it dissipate when I’m done. For now, it’ll just form into a wispy ball of… invisible Mana.

Since when…?

“Hey, Render, can you see this?” I pointed to the insubstantial point in the air (basically an arms length in front of my chest), where I felt some kind of oddity in the air that I could somehow instinctively recognise as Mana.

In response, they just looked at the spot curiously and shrugged, “I cannot detect anything, but I am not well versed in magic. Is that where the Mana from Lightning Stride is collecting?”

I looked at the spot thoughtfully, passing a hand through it a couple times and feeling an odd tingling sensation run through my body, “Yeah, I guess so. It must be Pure Mana or something, since it doesn’t feel like any Affinity I know of.”

“I was not aware that you had Sense Mana, but it is a valuable Skill to be certain. Though, I am unsure if it is necessary for your style of magic.”

“That’s the thing, I don’t have that Skill. I don’t know why I can do this, is it possible to learn without the System?” At this, I got the feeling that if they were visible Render’s eyes would have widened.

“It is possible to develop any skill on one’s own, the System merely recycles the knowledge in your mind to solidify it and allow you to develop further. Of course, magic skills are frighteningly difficult to learn in this manner, which is a large factor in how feared Wizards are in this realm.”

“What’s the deal with Wizards? I kinda thought they were just worse Mages,” Render shook their head and continued talking as if explaining something that even a child should know.

“That could not be further from the truth, the Wizard Path is an exceedingly Rare one, as it requires one to have learnt a Structured spell before Awakening. I’m sure you’re aware of the difficulty of such a feat, so someone managing it at such a young age would make them nothing short of a prodigy.”

I nodded my head, glad to at least know this before actually meeting a Wizard and accidentally insulting them or something, before remembering what was happening before we got so sidetracked. Though, as I glanced back at the Mana floating in front of me, I felt that I’d have to wait a bit longer before getting back on track.

“Oh, the Mana looks different now,” Instead of the previously insubstantial and wispy cloud that was in front of me, I found myself faced with a crackling ball of plasma, “I think it’s Lightning now, but I’m not sure how it would have changed…” I curiously examined all the directions around the sphere, but it didn’t seem to be connected to any of my Mana at all, so I was unsure how it could have been altered.

“That’s curious, but I don’t have any kind of Mana sense, so I cannot provide any input. Perhaps it would be best to begin your training and take the matter up with someone more experienced in this matter. Finch, perhaps?”

“Right, that makes sense. I’ll try to remember that, then.” And with that, I began the first of many steps, determined to at least be able to hold my Staff properly sometime soon.