My parents and I enjoyed a relaxing carriage ride home to Farfield Village. I had visited home a few times over my years studying, but never for more than a few days. This time was going to be different. I had, after discussing my plans with my parents, been convinced to at least take a month to unwind with the family. Of course, my parents were terrified when I mentioned my desire to become an adventurer. It seems that it’s not exactly a well respected occupation to have here.
Of course, with my parents busy work schedule, it wasn’t exactly the most family oriented vacation as I hoped it would be. Instead it more or less amounted to me babysitting my younger siblings. Matilda, it seems, had retired and now that the Academy was going to stop sending a stipend to my family, they were going to need to really buckle down and get ready for some rough poverty filled roads ahead… Well, they would have if I wasn’t there.
It seems my parents, like most commoners, didn’t quite see the novelty or usefulness of magic. In a small town where nary a wild monster, beast, or demon roamed it only made sense that they had no sense of value in regards to magicians.
The biggest reason for this was the incredibly unvaried and boring spell list most magicians had. Almost every magician in the world, bar an exceptional few, only knew a small library of spells to use in specific situations. I was in the vast minority in regards to my understanding of magic.
Magic has three main parts. The Aria, or chant, is the first. The chant uses English to set a ‘direction’ for the magical power to operate. I’ve learned by trial and error the more vague the chant, the harder the spell is to invoke. The second part is the magician’s imagination. One must fully imagine the effects of the spell in order to bring them about into reality. If the magician’s imagined spell and the Aria differ by too large of a degree, the spell will misfire or fail to cast at all. Finally, there is the user’s allocation of magical energy, or mana if you will. By applying the correct amount of mana to the correct locations in a spell, it’s control, power, and size were all directly affected. Needless to say, if the mana allocation differed too much from the Imagined Imprint and the Aria, the spell would fail as well.
With all that said, though, if one could manipulate the Aria, magical power, and imagined effect, they could theoretically create any effect they so desired with magic. That’s right. There were zero limits. At least, if there are any I haven’t found them yet.
Teleportation magic was possible, though I was too afraid to test it on myself until I found a patsy to use first. Invisibility magic, fire magic… Hell, space and time magic were possible too; I wasn’t ever going to test magics that change something fundamental with the universe, though. What would happen if I try to stop time and I end up getting frozen in place for eternity or some other dumb thing happened?! Not to mention the sheer volume of mana it would take to use spells of that nature. Invisibility alone cost nearly half my available pool.
I realized quickly that healing magics, something this world doesn’t seem to posses much of, are actually rather simple with some basic understanding of human anatomy. I’m no biologist, but even I could heal most wounds rather quickly. Of course, there was a large risk of accidentally changing organs around among other things if I wasn’t careful.
In the end, most cool magics ended up being far too terrifying to mess with for me. Particularly anything that modifies the body. What if I accidentally changed myself in some way and found that I lost all my mana!? Even without these awesome magics, though, I had plenty of utility on something as simple as a farm!
I proved my worth to my father on the first day when I crafted a spell to make his plow automatically till the field on command. I could have just outright plowed the field with my magic, but how would that help my parents out after all? Once I leave, if they didn’t have a way to recreate my magic then they’d end up in a mess! So, instead of taking care of everything, I decided to stick to enchanting their equipment and tools.
I crafted a spell on a needle set in order to create a pseudo sewing machine for my mother. This increased her work speed nearly 100 fold without adding any extra effort on her part. I then enchanted all of my father’s farm tools to make them incredibly lightweight and gave them the ability to “buff” the wielder's stats by a considerable degree.
One downside to magic, though, is the fact that it seems to degrade over time. My enchants are strong enough though that they’ll probably last at least 100 years on their own, so I don’t think my family has to worry… Unless my little brother’s son’s son in the future decides to keep working on the farm here… Or if their tools are stolen. On that thought of theft, I included an enchant that makes it so anyone without my father’s blood relation or his express permission can lift any of the tools I’ve enhanced. I am shameless enough to admit I had a certain God’s hammer from my old world in mind when I designed that spell. Still, it worked rather well.
I think my parents figured out why I had suddenly decided to become over helpful because my mother began talking about how adventurers are nothing but rabble rousers, troublemakers, and deviants at every opportunity. She continually talked about how the Heaven’s Academy offered me a role as a lecturer/researcher too.
I didn’t think badly of her for this. Her mindset isn’t the same as mine, after all. She doesn’t know about the romance of being an adventurer, the joy of hunting powerful monsters with a group of friends, or the feeling of finding hidden treasures or spells! I can’t blame her. How could I? Her reaction and thoughts are only natural for a human living in this world, particularly for a human living in this tiny corner of this world.
Farfield village was, essentially, the southernmost human settlement in the Elderon Continent, after all. South of Farfield was a haughty mountain range that separated the village from the sea. The mountain range itself was home to strange magical beasts, but they never strayed past their territory and were rather generous with humans.
It was far easier to get to the ocean from Caltross due to the river they built their city on. It cut out the only path through the Southern Reach Mountains for nearly 400 miles. It was another reason Caltross held such powerful influence among the smaller townships and lordships in the nearby area. Caltross was the only place where seatrade could come in.
Back in my game days, I had explored most of the Southern Reach Mountains due to rumors of rare potion materials existing there. While those plants did exist in the end, I only ever found two of them. The time spent versus the reward gained was rather lopsided. Spending weeks to find a few rare plants was much less profitable than just grinding regular quests.
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I passed my days in Farfield fairly peacefully. I ended up helping the town out with some simple things such as digging a new irrigation canal and such, but it wasn’t anything too serious. The other villagers were quite happy though. Hopefully I’ve implanted a better opinion of mages in their hearts.
Finally, after a month had passed, it came time for me to leave. I had a comfortable amount of reserve money, but I opted out of riding a carriage. I have legs and I intend to use them. Walking every day on my journey was just one part of the training I planned. It wouldn’t be very good it I arrived at the Frontier as weak physically as I am now. While my magic is great, all it would take is a slightly fast monster to tear me from limb to limb.
Magic certainly couldn’t undo bodily harm, after all… Well, maybe it could, but the mana needed and the time to create such a spell with all the necessary testing would be absurd. I certainly was not going to offer myself as a guinea pig. One screw up and I could accidentally turn myself into an undead or something.
My parents were still adamant about me staying, but they weren’t able to stop me. They knew they weren’t able to stop me, too. To them I may be a 10 year old child, but inside I’m far far older. While I cherished my time having a family, I also missed my independence. The open road was softly calling to me. My thirst for adventure needed to be quenched.
And so I left. I packed several days worth of food and water in a pack and started walking towards Caltross.
Of course, this first trip taught me a very valuable lesson… Walking long distances sucks. Well, if I didn’t have magic it would suck far worse though. I easily cured any blisters, fatigue, and such with magic. I even enchanted my cloak to increase my endurance.
The road was long and dusty. The warm weather continually parched me and I ravenously attacked my water supply. Thankfully, even as arid as the weather was, water was still abundant in the atmosphere so I could refill my canteens through magic.
The second major problem of walking the road quickly popped up as well… It was boring. With no companions to talk with or things to do, I ended up silently thinking of new spells or ways to test spell concepts.
It took me about a week and a half on foot to reach Caltross. I was making great time, all things considered. Still, the trip was only three days by carriage… Was this bullheaded resolution to walk across the continent nothing more than a waste of my youth in the end?
No.
I could not afford to waver. My determination was far too sound for that.
I stopped at the small inn that I had stayed at with my parents all those years ago and rented a room for three days. I had decided that, after the agonizing journey here, it would be far nicer to have a bed under me for a change. That’s not to say I was uncomfortable camping outside. I was able, with magic, to make rather appropriate campsites for myself… But it’s still a matter of principle, in the end. There is just an intrinsic difference between camping out and staying at an inn.
I ate a rather hearty meal and slept soundly on the night of my arrival.
My greatest mistake, though, was not hiding my face or identity. Staying in an inn where the innkeeper knew my face and name was foolish. I was rather famous in Caltross, after all. The speed of rumor was also something I hadn’t experienced much, considering my lack of contact with others. I woke up the next morning to the jabber of a crowd. It seems a gaggle of students from the Academy were lined up outside the inn, waiting for me for some reason.
I found myself scowling while looking out the window at the gathering. I recognized quite a few of the children, and even a few professors were mixed in here and there. I wasn’t about to let the paltry gathering outside ruin my morning though. Using magic I cleaned myself from head to toe before doing the same to my clothes. I quickly dressed myself in my traveling tunic, trousers, and cloak and made way for the lower floor of the inn.
The innkeeper gave me an odd glance as I descended the stairs… As did the rest of her patrons.
“I’m sure you’ve already seen, but there’s quite a group out there looking for you, little Sam.” Said the woman as she quickly brought out a plate with my breakfast on it. I sat down at one of the tables and started eating without replying. I’m certain the annoyed expression on my face was rather clear. “Seems like they all want the same thing, too. They want to know how to do that disappearing spell you pulled off at your graduation. I had to beat them out the door with my broom to keep them from crowding my business,” said the woman as she poured a glass of orange juice for me. It was a far cry from the coffee I had been hoping for, but it did satisfy my sweet tooth.
“They will get no such thing from me,” I replied coldly before finishing my meal. It was the truth too. Spreading an invisibility spell around would be the epitome of dumb. Just imagine how much power such a thing could have in the wrong hands. I was truly regretting my mischievous nature at the graduation ceremony. It wasn’t like me to do such a thing. I wondered if, perhaps, my mental age was reflecting the age of my body. Such a thing seemed farfetched... but also quite possible.
“Well, you can go and tell them that yourself. I’m not going near them. With a bunch of magicians in one place, no telling what could happen. Just know if my inn gets damaged in any way I’m holding you responsible,” said the innkeeper. She herself wasn’t necessarily a cold person, but having a riotous crowd outside her establishment had her on edge. “And if you skip out on the bill, I’ll charge it to your parents.”
“You should charge it to the stupid Academy,” I replied under my breath before standing up. I quickly brushed a few crumbs off myself and readied my mind. It was going to be annoying to face this crowd, but I had a plan. “Oh, and it looks like I’m going to be leaving your inn today for good. I originally paid for three days, is it possible for me to get a refund for the two I’m not…”
“No refunds,” interrupted the woman with a smirk.
I sighed and grumbled under my breath. Then, I started casting spells. I had originally planned on dispelling the crowd… But considering the innkeeper’s rudeness, I figured I’d let her deal with it on her own.
Grumpy because I had planned on resting for three days in the city, I set off for my next destination. On a midsummer day on the outskirts of Caltross, in broad daylight, Samuel Telven vanished without a trace.