Chapter 7 — Training Begins

After messing with the straps and buckles on the fancy black armor for a while, Jarrel found some leather oil and started working it into the leather parts. With the exception of the enameled or varnished parts and the buckles, the armor was mostly leather. Oiling all that was going to take a while—maybe all morning.

Ria had worked her way through some more of the grimoire's introduction, but… it would make a lot more sense if she didn’t have to guess the meaning for so many words. Finally, her patience gave out.

“There’s something I need back at the house, so I’m going to head back and wait for you there. Can you bring the crossbow with you?” Ria asked.

Jarrel made a dismissive wave with his hand. “Sure. This’ll be a while, so I’ll show you how to use the crossbow later. Maybe you could feed Ranger while you’re waiting?”

And with that, Ria was all too happy to leave. She did pause to pry loose and pocket a glowstone for reading at night though.

Ria’s mother thought it important for her children to be able to read, so there was a ‘library’ in the room that her family used to receive guests. Basically, the ‘library’ was a tall bookcase, a writing desk, and leather reading chair with a side table.

Plopping her mother’s dictionary open on the desk, Ria set the beginner tome next to it and got to work, absently rubbing the staff with her left hand while flipping through the dictionary to look up words.

Fortunately, with the exception of some of the magic-related words that the book was explaining in the text, her mother’s dictionary proved up to the task, and Ria was able to finish reading the introduction, gaining a general understanding of what she needed to do to become a mage.

The introduction explained that magical energy exists both within the mage and in the environment around the mage, but before the aspiring mage could learn how to manipulate such energy he or she needed to be able to sense it.

So, her first task involved learning the meditation exercises that would improve her ability to sense magical energies. Which was exactly the content of the first chapter in the book. The first exercise introduced was also the first one listed on the list given by Jeni’s grandmother.

Ria wanted to hurry on and read about the meditation exercise, but decided to take a break and feed Ranger. It would be annoying if Jarrel came back before she got it done.

Jarrel showed up just as she returned, so she timed it right. He was wearing the armor and three of the swords, two normal ones and a huge one. The bow was strapped to his back, the crossbow was in hand, and several quivers were slung over his shoulder. It all made him look quite capable.

The transformation from scruffy woodsman to reliable warrior was a little disorienting, but it was not a bad change.

“You look good in that,” Ria decided with a nod.

“Heh. The armor is a step up from what I was wearing,” Jarrel agreed. “It’s a little heavy but doesn’t restrict my movement too much. Mostly, I just need to get used to wearing it, but there’s still some work needed to make it quieter. No good if noise from the armor spooks what I’m hunting.”

“Makes sense.”

Jarrel handed over the crossbow and two quivers of bolts. “Here you go. Let’s have lunch then head over to my place for shooting practice.”

Lunch sounded pretty good, so Ria set the weapons aside and prepared the same meal as yesterday’s lunch.

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“Learn anything outta that book?” Jarrel asked between mouthfuls of soup.

“Yes. I learned what I need to learn next,” Ria replied with a self-deprecating grin.

“Hah! You’re already sounding like a mage.” Jarrel rolled his eyes, amused. “Well, always good to have a goal.”

“Based on the author’s warnings, this first part might take a long time before I see any noticeable progress,” Ria admitted.

Jarrel nodded sagely. “Yep. Any mage I’ve talked to always says the first step is the hardest.”

Jarrel’s archery practice area was basically a field with two straw and sand filled targets backed by huge hay rolls in various stages of decomposition, each caked with mud at the base. The cloth covers for the targets were colorful and had clearly-defined rings to determine accuracy.

After a few rounds of shooting, Ria began to understand that the materials for the targets and backstop were chosen to deaden the arrow’s impact without damaging the arrow.

“Hmm… we should probably take a break. You’re definitely getting better, but there’s no need to overdo it on the first day,” Jarrel suggested.

Ria flopped onto the grass. The crossbow landing beside her.

Her arms were burning. Cranking that winch to load the bow was really tiring! Jarrel wasn’t much better off, either. After a few shots with Jeni’s grandfather’s bow, Jarrel’s arms started to shake. At least with the crossbow, the arm she aimed with wasn’t the one used winding the winch.

Overall, Ria really liked the crossbow. It had a long range, was easy to aim, and hit the target really hard. The main downside was that it took a lot longer to reload than Jarrel’s bow. Hopefully, she would get faster at reloading as she grew stronger. Good thing she was going to be eating a lot of meat for the foreseeable future.

“Here’s your bolts, Ria. Let’s give it one more round, and then I can teach you something else, or we can call it a day.”

Apparently Jarrel had already retrieved the bolts and arrows while she was resting. Ugh. Forty more shots… her arm was going to fall off.

By the time she fired off the last shot, even her aiming arm was shaking.

Jarrel didn’t look upset when she decided to call it a day. He just told her to take it easy and rest up, that he would be back from checking the traps around dinner time. He even collected the bolts for her before heading out.

After Jarrel left, Ria drowned her face in the bucket of water, drinking huge gulps of water to stave off the exhaustion and summer heat. She regretted it almost immediately as her stomach threatened to heave in protest. Mustering the last of her arm strength, she dumped the rest of the water over her head to wash the sweat off.

She was probably going to have a sunburn from her face down to her shirt collar.

Ria wasn’t a lily-white girl, but she wasn’t as bronzed as the farm kids either. That was for sure! She even occasionally joined the other girls for nude summer swimming at the hidden swimming spot. Naturally, no boys allowed! So, her covered parts weren’t lily-white either.

But! That didn’t mean she wouldn’t burn standing in a field for hours in the mid-day sun!

Ugh.

Hopefully, if she got a poultice on it quick enough, the skin wouldn’t blister or peel.

Crossbow dragging on the ground, Ria made her way home.

Once inside her house, Ria placed her boots on the shoe rack and amused herself by hanging the crossbow and quivers on the cloak pegs next to the door.

Cloak! She was wearing a cloak. She could have used her hood to prevent the sunburn… ugh, but it was so hot already…

Sighing, Ria went to her mom’s dresser and retrieved the burn cream and a silver hand mirror. The mirror was one of her mom’s indulgences after selling a particularly expensive dress to a visiting merchant. That the men hadn’t found it when searching the house was surprising and a bit of good fortune.

With the aid of the mirror, Ria applied the cream to all the red parts, using about half of the jar. At this rate, she was going to have to go pick up more from Jeni’s house.

Ria looked at her face in the mirror. She had pushed the hair that was plastered to her face back to the sides to get it out of the way of the burn cream, but it was still messy.

Borrowing one of her mother’s combs, Ria combed her dusky brown hair into her usual straight-haired style, but then changed her mind and used a fabric hair-tie to tie the back into a high ponytail. This way her neck would be cooler, and with the way she left the sides hanging down, the hairstyle was much cuter than her usual.

Though her future was unknowable, at least Ria didn’t have any complaints about her looks. Her expressive eyes were a rich blue as clear as the summer sky. Her nose was straight and delicate enough. She had a pleasant jawline, soft cheeks, and a nice enough smile. If there were any negatives, maybe her chin was a little wider than the ideal. She liked her face—liked that she was just plain enough not to attract unwelcome attention, but pretty enough to look good when wearing the dresses her mom made.

As for her womanly charms, well… those were a work in progress.

Ria decided that once she finished today’s chores, she was going to change into something light and summery.