Hello hello! I am back with the last chapter of first Volume I dubbed 'New Life, New World', it is a massive chapter I had to split in 3 parts, I warn you beforehand, second part will have sexual content so be prepared to either blink very often and hard to not see it or wait with anticipation! :D For those that wish to know how the tower looks, I in fact imagined it much like
Spoiler :
Warcraft 3 human magic tower
. Be sure to rate my work, and if possible write a review. After I finish volume 9 and Interlude I, I will be making a Q&A thread, until then feel free to ask anything by mailing, I will answer anything that will not spoil the story. Have a good read! :)
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*Hack*
*Hack*
Wood is split by the axe and falls to the sides.
"Thew, this much should be enough" I say looking at the few meters high pile of wood.
It has been 5 months since I have left the town to live with Shalala in his forest hut.
First I should apologize to the people of Shnell I called them uncivilized, living in a forest hut made of wood with wind blowing all over makes one feel appreciation for the progress that happened back in earth from stone age to medieval/roman times.
To sum it up, it was harsh, no real bed or fireplace, I had to make a makeshift hammock and use a unprocessed bear fur to keep myself warm.
Fire was a commodity too, for it attracts dangerous beasts and monsters, the only times you actually could warm yourself near it was the cooking time.
The 'toilet' we had to use use was a literal shithole a bit away from the hut.
"Haa, remembering it makes me shudder"
All the food you have to hunt or collect yourself, water is taken from the nearby spring, this definitely feels like a stone age gatherer/hunter lifestyle...
"Haa..." I sight remembering the first weeks here, then I look up the structure nearby only to stiffen another sigh.
Beata was true to her word on accompanying and making me her disciple.
Obviously Shalala seemed not that thrilled, actually only this month they became like fire and water, before they ignored each other even dodging one another by centimeters without meeting eyes, is it some sort of racial ability of the elves like 'I pridefully deny your existence' or something?
Well, when we first set off from town I wondered how is she going to live inside the forest, it did not seem like Shalala was going to let her inside his hut.
The answer was much more surprising and spectacular than I imagined.
She freaking summoned a huge 6 meter tall tower, and unlike the wall tower this one was elegant and elaborate, blueish white with elegant lines on outside and the same bright glow on top.
Though, from her words it seems she sacrificed a year of the remaining time she had left, it was obvious from her hair too, it finally became half and half blond-silver, it was not in ugly patches, but in overlapping strands, making her hair look like a crown with a long veil or silver and gold.
It seems like all elves beside the wild ones use magic to produce their habitats.
Wood Elves use their Druid magic to twist living trees to their desired shape, creating extensive treetop cities on the colossal trees in their forests, they ban all woodcutting in their countries for this reason.
According to Beata it was a massive pain in the ass to keep warm while traveling there, fire magic might start a forest fire so was not an option, it seems my Great Grandfather almost died of cold then they were traveling in Falet, they eventually were saved by a warden patrol, that was not spared the passive tirade of insults that Beata flung at the though.
Wood Elves actually use some sort of non-alcoholic sap drink to warm their bodies and keep themselves sharp without sleep for long hours, maybe some sort of super healthy unholy union of coffee and energy drink? Beata was unable to find out how they are producing this drink, a fact that still pisses her off till present.
On the other hand both Ancient and High Elves summon their buildings by making them an almost solid singular stone structure, the only difference is Ancient Elves make them tall(Towers) while High Elves make them long(Longhouses).
Of course normally summonings are done by a group of high mages, not by a singular person. This particular tower according to Beata would be a place that a full fledged Ancient Elf mage would make his home.
It seems that ancient and high elves and those that were given or stole their magic knowledge rank their magic users in these classes according to their ability to use magic:
Novice Mage
Apprentice Mage
Mage
High Mage
Master Mage
Arch Mage
By adding their favored magic to the front(Fire Mage, Water Novice Mage etc.), this ranking however does not include other magic users with different styles of magic use such as druids, shamans, necromancers and the like.
By summoning this tower that granny has all the comfort she wishes, the inside is even better than the tower back in the city. The worst is, neither she nor Shalala allow me to live in there!
Beata says I have to be at least apprentice level to serve my master in personal matters, master my ass.
Shalala on the other hand takes the task of training me very seriously as instructed by father, he is at least 10xharsher than him( Author. He exaggerates :D ) , I must not only procure my own food and necessities, but also the herbs my mother needs, it seems I will have to hunt the pray for the meat we bring her a bit later after I train myself more in the wilds.
I also realized that I seriously miscalculated their capabilities, well Beata was obviously way stronger than me, but I couldn't have known her battle capabilities, while Shalala was some sort of hunter servant of my father, oh boy, how wrong I was...
First of, the tower summoning itself is not something that would take enough lifeforce to shorten your lifespan, it is in fact the glowing thing on top that took most of the power. It is a giant bluish glowing diamond shaped jewel-stone. According to Beata it protects an area of around ~800 meters around from the tower, spewing [Void Bolt] and [Ice Shard] magic spells at hostiles, the magic depends on the summoner it seems.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Beata also revealed some of her own abilities, that is how I came to know the reason for her exclusion in Caeruleus Towers.
While I have 5 affinities - 4 personal and 1 bloodline, she has 6, the maximum amount possible to mortals - 5 personal and 1 bloodline.
Beata revealed me her personal affinities, but not the bloodline, possibly that is a secret of national level.
She has: Water, Air, Nature, Void and Essence affinities, through which she learned Ice Magic(Melded - Master), Spirit Magic(Melded - Expert) and Void Magic(Common - Master).
Apparently, without affinity you can learn magic only up to Advanced level and it is very cost inefficient, you can only meld your magic if you have two affinities - Major and Minor.
Major Water + Minor Air = Ice Magic
Major Nature + Minor Essence = Spirit Magic
Spirit magic is also the reason of her exclusion. It is the magic Shaman use, as such considered distasteful to the 'refined' tastes of the ever prideful Ancient Elves.
I think that thinking tarnishes all the effort she made to master this magic, taking a youth of your dear friend, traveling hundreds if not thousands of kilometers to kingdoms of wood elves and easlander humans simply to unlock her potential is an exemplary feat, and only to be met with disdain from those that can't reach master rank even if they claw at it for hundreds of years...
She however calmed my anger by claiming those years were the best in her life, traveling the world with my great grandfather was not only danger and hardship but an adventure of great fun. It seemingly made my family from the mothers side grow from local merchants that only put their tent into a marketplace into one who has many foreign trade routs of exotic goods and has many shops nation wide.
This however made maintaining such extensive operation a hardship that lays on the shoulders of my grandfather, making him somewhat bitter about basically everything, especially that goes along the lines Bea- of Ancient El-.
When I asked he to show how powerful her spells can be, she channeled a spell for some good ~20 minutes and unleashed an area spell [Sub-Zero Implosion] that reduced a nearby forest to shattered icicles.
Shalala was not amused, in fact he burned with visible silent anger, and then I say visible I mean literary, his body outline was producing a visible glow, go 7-ball fans!
In the morning we found that the doors to the tower was blocked by the shattered remains of various frozen animals. Too bad for the work it must have taken to collect all those pieces of eyeballs and flesh, as Beata simply levitated from her balcony laughing at the sky. That made someone reach his second form of glowing, I almost her a mental call "HA!!!" and "Cell!".
Now talking about Shalala I came to a different sort of understanding. While originally I thought he was some unimportant outcast that father helped out of his good heart, It was soon obvious that was not so.
If not Master, his skills in stealth and bow is at least Expert, not one in all my time I accompanied him on hunts has he missed his mark, felling beasts in one arrow.
I saw his blade mastery only once, when a bear took us by surprise after we hunted down a huge boar(I now think he intentionally let it get close to show such things might happen in wilds and how to deal with them). Shalala fought(played) with it for almost a half an hour.
To tell the truth I was mesmerized. it looked like a dance with a blade, a battle-dance. He deftly avoided all the attacks the bear made and in the moments of chance cut its ligaments, ending it by decapitating the bear that was already unable to move an inch.
In retrospect it is a very brutal and cruel way of fighting, but it is geared towards fighting with a small team of comrades that can support you, defeating the crippled opponent, much like parties of adventurers in games. There are no adventures in this world, no guilds or such, all the people I asked about such things laughed at me(yes, even the stoic bunch like father and even Shalala, that was the only time I saw him laugh).
They said the closest thing to them were mercenaries or treasure hunters, both groups may become bandits then on hard times, Beata even called me stupid, as no country would allow an armed group of such influence and numbers to exist internally.
I compared his fighting style with father and came to an unexpected result, if fighting close up, father would have a 60:40 chance to win, but if fought at distances of further than ~200 meters it would be 80:20 Shalalas win, and that is a fully geared father against Shalala in his usual leather armor, iron weaponry and simple wooden hunting bow. I suspect he keeps his real gear in the massive metal chest in his hut, it is under 3 locks and feels like mana comes from it, probable enchanted.
"Egil, that is enough firewood, it is time to hunt for the usual delivery to the lady, come."
Haa, Shalalas words nudge the greatest pain I carry since I left my home, even if I whine and complain all this training and the effort Beata and Shalala put in training me makes me happy.
The greatest pain and sadness I feel for my mother, in one fell swoop both her husband and child were taken away, leaving her all alone, to put salt on the would most of the townsfolk distanced themselves from her after that fake riot fiasco.
I would have urged father to take her to the den of hungry wolves(men) that is the fortress or come to live with Beata in her tower if not for a peculiar group of people. To my surprise it was not the so called friends of mother that came to her help, but those who burned with envy and competitiveness between comparing their own children against me, asking incisively about my progress I tell her on my weekly deliveries, when mother asked why they do this and why they are not afraid of me the women actually told her they considered me abnormal from the beginning, so what if my eyes were now different or I looked like I had a permanent sunburn. That actually made me crack up from laughter.
Another group that became a pillar of support was none other than town guards. After my impressive race they started to show respect to me and till this day courteously helped my mother with any task requiring raw strength.
"Don't daydream, grab your gear."
"Yes, I am going..."
Well every time I get to check up on her makes me happy, father only gets a chance once a month, in winter may not get even that.
I rush in the hut to grab my bow and go to the thick woods.