Yaric had never been soaking wet and so hot at the same time. Skinning the Garmr wasn’t exactly easy either, as their tough pelts took enhanced strength to cut, and even then they had to pause frequently to sharpen the knife. They were halfway through the fourth Garmr when Li Na suddenly skipped off to her horse and came back with her new dagger. Yaric was skeptical when she offered it to him, but it worked like a charm. The rest of the Garmr were skinned in less time than the first one had been.
Of course, everyone was also soaking wet. And hot. At the same time. Sven and Lauren took turns helping Yaric shift carcasses or hold tension in the pelts, but they also spent every second they could at the top of the ridge where a frequent breeze both dried them faster and cooled them off. Yaric eventually just dragged the last two Garmr to the top and finished the job there, this time with everyone helping.
The horses were still uneasy with the smell of blood, so Li Na armed herself with her hammer and led them to the crest of the ridge, but further down, where the breeze kept the smell of the Garmr from reaching them. They still seemed uneasy when Yaric and the others finished up and met with Li Na, but they had calmed down enough to occasionally nip a few mouthfuls of grass. Only Sven seemed unsurprised when the horses didn’t react to the wrapped pelts being loaded onto the them.
“Can’t we just find somewhere dry and camp for the night?” Lauren complained.
No one answered, and there was no discussion on the topic, everyone just immediately began spreading out slightly to find a good campsite.
They crossed a small stream along the way, and since they were already wet, they quickly bathed as they were. Everyone was filthy after skinning all six monsters. No one was willing to leave before they had all the muck cleaned off and the water supplies topped up.
Their earlier bravado had fled after fighting a pack of Garmr, so this time they specifically prioritized a defensive position. They had plenty of water on hand, so they climbed the next hill, went over to the leeward side, and dug a meter-wide, vertical channel into the side of the slope. It petered out after three meters, but it gave them more than enough room to light a sheltered fire.
Everyone got out of their armor and into clean, dry clothes while Yaric got the fire going, and then Yaric took his turn. His armor joined everyone else’s at the crest of the hill, where the breeze would help dry it out faster.
Then Yaric cooked some of the venison he’d caught earlier, and everyone ate until they couldn’t move. Li Na pulled the short straw and had to lie paralyzed in a food coma at the crest of the hill, watching over their armor, though Sven voluntarily joined her. Lauren and Yaric stayed with the fire, staring up at the now crimson sky. Yaric smiled when he saw the familiar silhouettes of giant bats skimming over the trees.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Lauren sighed beside him.
“It wasn’t?”
“Well it wasn’t a great experience, but it was over quickly. And we only had to handle the bare minimum.”
“I didn’t realize my cooking was that bad.”
…
Lauren lazily flung out her arm to swat him.
“You were right you know; this was one of the most straightforward appeals we’ve had. It was nice.”
“Yes,” Yaric agreed. “And it was our first double appeal.”
Both stared at the sky as it darkened to black, revealing glittering lights that flickered through the canopy, while the jumping yellow light of the rebuilt fire shifted to a warm red glow that took over from the dimming sky, providing the only light on the much darker forest floor.
Neither were able to move, they just kept watching the stars above them and the swaying branches between, but eventually they forced themselves to get up and fetch their armor. The narrow chute allowed them to safely hang their armor above the fire, while also helping to channel the heat, while the wide base gave it plenty of oxygen. By now the fire had burned down enough that it was giving off the least amount of smoke it would until it completely died out, and they wanted to take advantage of that.
Yaric waited until the fire had burned down too far to be very effective, removed their armor, and then rebuilt the fire. Both he and Lauren switched places with Li Na and Sven. It was their turn to watch the horses and the air-drying armor.
Everyone felt much better in the morning, and even the horses seemed to be doing better with the reduced riding time. From then on out they took the journey at a much more relaxed pace, focusing instead on their magic lessons.
Just as Yaric expected, his lightning spell was coming along quicker than his augmentation spell was, but augmentation had such a big head start that he was already getting the hang of it. It was just too slow to cast and a little difficult to maintain. Yaric already felt he was ready to test the lightning spell in the Tech Duinn, however.
Lauren managed to master the full augmentation spell by the time they reached the river, and Yaric did the same before reaching Blindfold.
“Catch yourselves another fox?” Greta rasped from the road ahead as they rode through the village, watched by over a dozen locals who had come to watch them ride by.
“Nope,” Li Na replied nonchalantly, reaching back to the pelt behind her as she did. It partially unrolled after only two seconds of fiddling with the bundle, revealing a massive wolflike head that looked even bigger as loose skin flattened against the flank of her horse. The string of claws and fangs added to the effect.
Villagers began to gasp and mutter amongst themselves, with some looking around fearfully.
“They were all the way on the other side of the Scrubs, and they’re obviously not there anymore,” Sven shouted back over his shoulder. “It’s why we were sent there, to keep the area clear of things like these.”
It did seem to help significantly, but there were still groups of excited villagers discussing the large monsters behind them.
“Lina,” Lauren whispered urgently. “You can’t scare villagers like that, you’ll make them think there’s monsters hiding in every shadow.”
“No,” she replied calmly. “We already did the opposite. They insisted they were being attacked by some kind of spirit, and we humiliated them by proving that it was a fox, right in front of everyone. They would have blamed missing livestock and strange noises on foxes from now… and been nervous about reporting possible monsters in case they get embarrassed again.”
“How does scaring them help?”
“I wasn’t scaring them; I was showing them that both sides are real. Not everything is a monster, but there are still monsters out there. They can’t get complacent just because they thought a fox was a monster.”
“Complacent,” Yaric teased.
“That’s surprisingly well thought out, Lina,” Sven acknowledged.
“Scaring that old hag was just a bonus.”
Lauren and Yaric had to hold back a laugh, and even Sven struggled to keep his face straight.
The rest of the ride to Hasver was quiet and peaceful. It was still very hot, but the constant breeze that seemed to blow right down the road was a welcome relief, and the cold water of Hasver’s Run was never more than a few meters away. It was almost idyllic, with insects buzzing in the rushes beside them, the constant sound of water flowing over rocks just beyond, and the nonstop calls of birds from both sides of the road, with kingfishers frequently sitting in trees that overlooked the river.
All of which was only occasionally interrupted by a wind blade mowing through rushes to splash into the river, or the pop of a fireball extinguishing itself on the road surface. But they mostly just rode in companionable silence, working on their spells and occasionally speaking up to point out something they’d discovered while practicing, or something interesting up ahead.
Yaric only realized how right Lloyd was when they booked rooms for the night in Hasver so they could catch the ferry the next day. With the horses brushed down and stabled for the night, their clothes being cleaned for them, everyone freshly washed, and the whole group sitting downstairs enjoying fresh stew and cool, crisp beers, Yaric felt like he was on a break. Traveling could be like time off.
Lauren had a much better time on the ferry, though by unspoken agreement they also spent more time playing games and having fun than they usually did. Everyone was fully aware that part of the reason the Academy gave them regular time off was so people could recover and continue studying hard without burnout. With their time cut short, they were going to make some for themselves.
That included a late night in the game room, drinking and singing along with two dozen other passengers and two people Li Na swore were crewmen on their time off. Lauren was actually disappointed when they docked in East Shore.
The ride back to Lekton was much more focused though, and each evening included slow and careful sparring while trying to maintain their new augmentation spell. They still needed three or four seconds to cast it, an eternity when their opponents could cast the spell near instantly, but there was no point in matching their speed if they couldn’t maintain it under pressure.
Their last night on the road saw them camping beside one of the animal shelters that lined the road at intervals. Sven and Li Na were practicing their new earth spell by firing spikes of rock into what looked like an abandoned termite mound in the middle of the field. Sven was up if Li Na’s continued pleas to go double or nothing were anything to go by.
“Do you think everyone will have forgotten about the Tournament by now?” Yaric asked Lauren.
They were leaning against the shelter, looking out over the road and onto the gentle waters of the river as it flowed by. Unlike in the Scrubs, here the stars were fully unveiled, filling the sky above them. Even more than that, they were reflected all across the lethargic waters, creating a double band of stars interrupted only by the impenetrable darkness of the far bank. Fireflies danced across the sky and over the waters, casting their warm yellow light that blinked and shifted between both worlds.
“Why would they have forgotten about the Tournament?”
“I mean the whole dragon thing.”
“You really don’t like that name,” Lauren smiled, though it wasn’t a question.
“It just seems stupid. Especially when I lost and everyone cheered like I’d won the whole thing. It’s just… it's stupid.”
“You know you have to get used to having a reputation at some point, right?”
Yaric just stared at Lauren, who quickly looked away.
“Okay, maybe we both do. It doesn’t mean we have to like it,” she offered at the end.
Hooo!
“Yaric, your owl’s here.”
“That’s not my owl.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Li Na said, joining them.
Hooo!
“There’s no point in hooting outside your window if you aren’t there, so it flew up here to hoot outside your campsite,” Lauren continued.
“It’s a different owl.”
“It’s the same.”
“Yeah, the same.”
Hooo!
Sven had just settled down beside Li Na, and Yaric looked to him for support.
“I can’t tell the difference,” he shrugged apologetically.
“First the dragon thing, now the owl thing,” Yaric complained quietly.
“Other way around,” Li Na said. “Your owl moved in long ago, you’ve only been the dragon puppy for a couple of weeks now.”
“How can someone be a dragon, puppy?” Yaric asked.
“We should be asking you that.”
Yaric pulled back his bedroll and began getting comfortable. “See, he’s gone now. Not the same owl.”
“I bet you hurt its feelings,” Lauren replied, also lying down for the night as she spoke.
“Yeah, you rejected it.”
Sven stayed alert, as he had the first guard shift that night. The other three were now comfortably under thin blankets that were treated to keep mosquitoes away, ready to sleep.
“I didn’t reject anything.”
Hooo!
Even Sven burst out laughing while Lauren and Li Na giggled from the other side of the fire.
----------------------------------------
“Anything unusual to report?” the clerk asked them while glancing through their paperwork.
Sven looked at him quizzically.
“New procedure. I need to make note of anything you found unusual, anything suspicious or odd that comes to mind.”
“No, nothing. It was one of the least unusual appeals we’ve ever done,” Sven replied.
The clerk nodded. “I didn’t expect you to have anything, it’s just something I have to ask. Everything is confirmed, you may go back to your duties… or your class,” he said, looking them up and down.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Thank you.”
Sven turned with the others and jogged to get to their next class. Law was almost ending, but they needed to speak with High Mage Sniders about the lessons they had missed. On the upside, at least Law wasn’t one of their combined classes.
They quietly snuck in and sat at the back, where they listened to the last ten minutes of the lesson. Something about why all coins were minted through companies overseen by the crown, which were supervised by arcanists appointed to the position for twenty years at a time. And why the crown could veto the Academy appointee, which Yaric thought was ridiculous. But then again, he’d missed more than an hour of the lesson.
Zahia had four stacks of papers waiting when they went down after class.
“I was wondering how high these would get before you came back,” she said, looking them up and down. “I take it your understanding of the law was sufficient to get the job done?”
“Yes, Instructor,” all four mumbled in unison.
“Then you were lucky. Here, you need to catch up. You might not be so lucky the next time, so make sure you learn this as quickly as you can.”
Zahia dismissed them immediately after, and they ran to catch up with their class. Magic lessons were combined classes, so they really didn’t want to be late this time.
Luckily they caught up quickly, and they were able to walk in with everyone else, clutching their lesson plans. None of them had a Tech Duinn booked, so they couldn’t attempt any of their new spells yet, but Yaric and the others still went with everyone else, in their case so they could book the Tech Duinn for the evening.
Once they were back in class they were able to work on their augmentation spells. Yaric didn’t think it would be as effective without also trying to spar, but Sven had the idea of trying to cast a shaping spell at the same time as augmenting themselves.
He was right. Yaric properly messed up for the first time when he tried to heat the air and augment himself at the same time. He’d failed to cast the spell before, of course, but he’d never failed partially, before, and he immediately noticed how his grip on the table tore painfully at his skin. Muscles, bones, and tendons were all augmented successfully, but nothing else. The danger that could result from an incorrect casting was also immediately apparent.
From then on, they all made sure to augment themselves first, and only then begin casting a shaping spell. It was good practice, and Yaric made sure to note it down in his list of exercises for the spell.
They were left alone for the most part, but that changed during lunch.
“We had our first appeal while you were gone!” Kaylin exclaimed. She placed her tray at their table and joined them, along with the rest of the group she had been assigned to for appeals. “Kaeden even caught a shoplifter!”
“It was just someone stealing trinkets from an open-air stall,” Kaeden said.
“We got extra credit!” Kaylin continued, still excited. They’d obviously returned very recently.
“What was the job?” Sven asked.
“We had to help clear a collapsed cellar and try to salvage anything we could. There were dozens of undamaged barrels in each corner, but we had to get all the stone up the stairs before we could get to anything. Anton secured the ceiling while we dug out the stone.”
“I was the only one who could reach,” Anton said.
“Where did you guys go?” Kaylin asked.
“A village near Hasver’s Run. They sent an appeal claiming a spirit was killing chickens, but it was just a regular old fox,” Li Na replied.
Kaylin and her friends seemed to think it was a lot funnier than the other four did, but everyone was still amused.
“Does that happen often?”
“It’s supposed to,” Lauren answered. “So far it’s usually the other way around for us. We keep thinking it’s less than it is.”
“It’s probably better this way around,” Kaylin said, nodding sagely.
No one disagreed.
“We better get going,” she added. “We’re in the bestiary again today.”
With that knowledge they all finished their meals and hurried through the campus. They were still covering the undead, so no one had expected the lesson to be held in the bestiary, and they hadn’t even asked. There were undead on campus, but only a very limited number of species were kept within Academy grounds.
The seven of them made it with enough time that they had to wait a few more minutes for the class to start. Lorelle waited patiently the entire time.
“Before we start today, I need to warn you. The undead creature we will be studying is one of the more common ones. As far as undead go, anyway. We’ve already learned that mental attacks are far more common amongst monsters than amongst arcanists, and I hope you’ve all come to realize that this is especially true for the undead.
“It’s been theorized that this is due to their dietary requirements. As an entire category of creatures that are dependent on the life force generated by others, it is perhaps unsurprising that they are especially adept at manipulating or affecting the minds of their prey. They feed off the life force that powers that mind, after all.
“Today you will experience an attack that is well-known as one of the easiest to shake off. It is not pleasant, but after today you should be able to weather a sustained attack with very little trouble. Come along!”
Lorelle led them around the bestiary toward the undead, which was in the most isolated section other than the Cut itself. A glass cage impregnated with softly glowing runes was sitting on a trolley, waiting for them. Inside was a hideous bundle of pale grey skin, writhing and turning on itself.
A head suddenly popped out of the mass. Two large, milky eyes opened as the pile of skin rolled over to reveal a vaguely humanoid mass of wrinkles, though Yaric took note of the second pair of smaller arms that sat below the regular pair, this one with far too many fingers and long talons that looked like they would latch on and never let go.
“This is a Myling. They generally work together, but they are not particularly hard to kill, even for unconnected. The way these creatures hunt is by luring unsuspecting victims out into the dark, where they are ambushed from behind. Myling will try to latch onto your back by grabbing between the shoulder blades. If they fail, they will immediately release their hold and try to retreat. That doesn’t happen often though, because of their other ability. Brace yourself,” she warned.
Lorelle lifted a sliding panel on the glass cage, uncovering a set of small holes bored through the glass. Nothing happened for a moment, and people had just started to murmur amongst themselves when the Myling shifted.
Yaric, Lauren, Li Na, and Sven had all met this same creature before. They’d been introduced by two Arch Wizards, so they already knew what was about to happen.
A haunting, terrible cry sounded out from within the box. Not the cry of a monster, but the cry of a baby in deep distress. There was something about it that wasn’t quite human, but it still activated the instinctive response that most people had. Rescue the baby.
The magic component set in over time. It grew stronger with each passing second, and many students started throwing worried glances at each other. Some started shaking their heads, others clutched their chests. Li Na was frowning, despite having been through this before. One by one everyone began sitting down heavily.
Everyone besides Yaric, who was trying to move to the side without being noticed.
“I was told you would likely be immune,” Lorelle said, talking directly to Yaric and sounding amused. “You may stand this one out while everyone else sits.
“Now, the feeling you are all experiencing is guilt. The cry creates the feeling of deep guilt and then continues to amplify it. It also increases your weight, but not physically. It’s almost an emotional weight, weighing you down mentally until you can no longer stand. Myling will usually wait until you are in this condition before they attack, and as you can see, defending against them would not be easy right now.
“Thankfully, this attack is exceptionally easy to overcome. All you have to -.”
“It wasn’t me,” Li Na hissed, unable to wait any longer. She sprang to her feet. This time she looked genuinely guilty when she saw all eyes on her. “Sorry.”
“No no, that was very well done. Everyone needs to follow Novice Jakobson’s example.”
Lorelle looked down at the nearest student.
“Do you feel guilty?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! It’s that Myling, it’s making… oh. It’s gone.”
Lorelle looked up at the class. “It’s that simple. You simply need to deny any wrongdoing. Reaffirm your innocence, and the spell will break. There’s nothing else to it.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“I did nothing wrong!”
Lauren and Sven had already joined Li Na beside Yaric, as they had already learned how to break the spell. The rest of the class started talking to themselves, with many of them shouting. More and more students were standing back up until everyone was back on their feet.
“The biggest reason for this practical lesson was this, learning how to withstand their attack. Some things need to be experienced. However, now that you know what to do…”
Lorelle opened the slider again, and people began gazing at the box in horror. One by one they snapped out of it, shaking their heads if not their whole bodies afterward.
“Good. Now you need to learn how to kill these nasty little monsters. This won’t be a practical as the Bestiary likes keeping their creatures alive, but if you all gather around here, I can show you a simple trick for how to kill a Myling if you ever come across one.
“You see their oddly shaped body and mishappen limbs? Or the oversized eyes that try to plead with you? Ignore all of it. Myling have one rather significant weakness, and that is that no matter what angle you look at them from, their most vital areas are always in their center of mass.
“Any attack you make should be made at the very center of all this… nastiness. Attack the middle and you will kill them very quickly. Another, more minor weakness, is their mobility. They can climb exceptionally well, and they have the ability to periodically leap great distances, but they are very slow over any appreciable period of time. If you need to clear these things from dense brush, or someplace with a lot of cover, just burn everything. Fire will kill them just as well as a blade, and they won’t be able to stay ahead of the flames for long. It’s always better to sift through ashes for dead Myling than it is to hunt living Myling in dense cover.”
The class took it in turns to surround the glass cages and gag at the hideous creature, but they all wanted to see for themselves. Everyone wanted to be certain that they would know how to kill one if they came across one that wasn’t sealed away in a tank.
Yaric and his friends took their turn too. The tests the Arch Wizards had done hadn’t included instructions on how to actually kill one of these things. All they’d learned was how to throw off the mental effects of the cry. And that Yaric was immune.
Stabbing the squat little thing wouldn’t be a problem, just looking at it made Yaric want to do the deed right away, but it might be more difficult if it was leaping around in the dark.
‘It might be more difficult, but I’d still do it!’
The disturbing creature was wheeled away while the lesson continued on their breeding habits, preferred environments, and even their maximum sustainable density. The fact that it had occurred before made Yaric shiver, particularly that it had happened over a long enough period for arcanists to be certain that it was the highest sustainable density. As usual for any predator, that was determined by prey. And Myling specialized in hunting humans, elves, and dwarves.
Their rather morbid lesson was followed by woodwork, which was a very welcome relief for the students who took the class. Yaric felt only pity for those who had to run off for Cultures and Customs classes. Woodwork went so well that Yaric was sure he would finish one of the cabinet doors before the end of the next class.
What he was really waiting for though was his time in the Tech Duinn. He’d spent days perfecting his lightning spell beyond where he felt ready to test it, and he was eager to give it a go. Having been on the receiving end, he knew just how overwhelming it could be. A near-instantaneous attack with incredible power.
“Good luck,” Lauren whispered as she opened the door to try out her own spell.
“You too.”
Yaric stepped into the dark room and moved to the chair, settling himself in and making sure he was comfortable. It wasn’t exactly pleasant in the beginning, so he took a deep breath to calm himself, let it out slowly, just like he practiced for archery, and placed his hands on the brass fittings.
The pressure was immediate, but Yaric reached out almost as quickly. They soon connected and the pressure dropped to an insistent push. A little uncomfortable, but bearable.
Wasting no time, Yaric immediately began creating the spell form. Sink after sink was interwoven and layered, carefully spaced to ensure the arcana discharge would arrive in one massive pulse.
Then he began forming the components for the lightning, the anchor, the discharge direction, and the shielding. Only once everything was formed did he start connecting everything.
There were no warnings.
Yaric began channeling arcana into the spell, eager to see how it would work out. And then he channeled some more. And some more. And yet more.
It took 8 seconds of constant channeling to charge up the spell. The spell worked perfectly, blasting a thumb-sized bolt directly into the simulated target with near-perfect accuracy.
But it took 8 seconds to charge. He could form the spell in 6 seconds, and that seemed far too slow as it was, but another 8 seconds just to power it up?
Even worse, he could push down the time it took to form the spell just like he’d done with every other spell he practiced. Some were barely a second now. Those just took hard work, but the charge time was limited by how much arcana he could channel. That also improved over time, but he was far more limited with what he could do.
Creating a spell was like learning a new technique for his sword. In the beginning, you had to focus carefully and move slowly, staying conscious of your foot placement, your weight distribution, how you moved your waist, the position of your elbow, the angle of your blade, and a hundred other things. But it all becomes natural with practice.
Improving his channeling speed was more like training his muscles so he could put more power behind said technique. You could do it, but the gains were gradual and consistent over time. And once he doubled the amount of arcana he could channel, he could charge up the spell in only – 4 seconds! It would still take 4 seconds to charge the spell.
All he could do was keep channeling so he’d gradually get faster… but maybe not.
Yaric tried the spell again, but this time he carefully started channeling as soon as the sinks were created. He failed multiple times, unable to create the complicated spell while also charging it, but he finally got it right on his eighth attempt.
It still took 6 seconds to form the spell, but he finished charging it only 4 seconds later. Only.
The rest of his time in the Tech Duinn was spent casting the spell over and over, and while he got fairly competent at charging the spell as he created it, he never managed to cast the spell in less than 9 seconds. Even that was something he only accomplished twice.
Yaric wasn’t sure how he felt when he exited the Tech Duinn. He’d managed to cast the spell, and quite successfully too, especially when taking into account the last-minute modifications he’d made.
But the spell wasn’t what he’d been expecting. It had all the power, speed, and accuracy he’d hoped for, but only after charging. Before then he’d be a sitting duck.
Realistically, the only real way he’d see any benefit from the spell would be to practice casting while fighting. If he started casting right away, he might only have 6 seconds or so of melee combat before the spell was ready and charged, at which point the fight would be over. But he would need to be able to fight while casting the spell to begin with, and fight well enough that he was still in the competition when the spell was finished.
Lauren didn’t look as disappointed as Yaric felt, but she was clearly surprised when she exited the Tech Duinn a few seconds after Yaric.
“Did you have problems charging the spell?” she immediately asked.
Yaric sighed. “Yes… it takes a long time.”
“That’s a relief – no offense! I thought it was my lower power level, my power level might be too low for me to use the spell in combat.”
Yaric’s face was deadpan when he stared at her in response. “Lauren,” he eventually said, “your power level is above average. And it’s only barely lower than mine. Just because you don’t have a stupid number like the Hammer Happy Hamster, it doesn’t mean your power level is low. It’s higher than most of our class.”
Lauren gently kicked his leg. “Lina isn’t hammer happy.”
“So you admit she’s a hamster?”
“Nnn… maybe? I guess she’s kind of like a hamster running all day on its wheel. Don’t change the subject!”
“What now?” Yaric asked. “The spell needs more power than we can give it. In a reasonable amount of time, anyway.”
“How long did it take when it was used against you?”
“Uhhh… With the spells I was trying to cast, I guess maybe seven seconds?”
“Then that’s what we do,” Lauren said. “We start by trying to get the time down to seven seconds.”
“But we’re limited by charging time. And that was a tenth-year student.”
“So? I bet we’re matching seven seconds before the year is up. We just have to focus on channeling faster.”
“Watcha doing?” Li Na asked, skipping over from the other side of the Tech Duinn Yaric had used.
“Trying to work out how we’re going to use our new lightning spell in a fight,” Yaric said.
“Easy! Blast ‘em!”
“Not so easy,” Lauren complained. “It takes a really long time to charge. Almost ten seconds.”
“Ouch. Try hitting them until it’s ready then? Or poking them, I guess?”
“Thanks Lina, but we’re still working on it,” Lauren laughed.
“Well find the answer quick, I’m working on that spell next week, with Sven. We’ll need to know as well.”
“Your power level is higher than ours,” Yaric reminded her. “You might not have the same problems we’re having.”
“Oh yeah… I can probably just blast ‘em.”
“We’ll see,” Lauren said cautiously. “Don’t get your hopes up. It takes a lot of arcana to power it.”
“What does? The lightning spell?” Sven asked, joining them from the same direction Li Na had come from.
“Yes. It took at least eight seconds to charge,” Lauren replied.
“Eight seconds?!”
“That was my reaction,” Yaric said.
Li Na looked between her friends. “Lloyd likes lightning, maybe we should ask him?”
“It couldn’t hurt,” Sven said.
“I like that idea,” Lauren added.
“Yes, the hamster’s right.”
----------------------------------------
Lloyd was sitting in his residence’s private garden, sipping whisky, when the messenger started knocking on his door. There were multiple reasons a messenger could be there at this hour, but Lloyd was expecting his student to return in the next few days, and his report would certainly be one of them.
Three minutes later Lloyd was settled back in his garden, going through Yaric’s latest appeal.
‘Huh… I gave them too much credit, it wasn’t even a gnome. Damn superstitions…’
Reading further, Lloyd smiled at the description of their lure to draw the Garmr to them. The fight was more orthodox than he’d expected, but it went well, nonetheless. And they took the time to collect the pelts on this occasion. Garmr weren’t particularly valuable, but they were tougher than most would expect. The bones were actually the most valuable, not that they’d known, and it would have been highly impractical to try and bring them back.
Lloyd read to the end and flipped the page over to the blank side in confusion. He went back to the beginning and started scanning each page again, looking for anything he’d missed.
‘No spies or hidden base of operations? Argh… just because they didn’t find something doesn’t mean that there’s nothing there. Now someone’s going to have to go and scan that whole area manually after all.’