It had already been a week since they initially set off from Mauershein, and she was damn tired. The good news was they were finally almost out of the mountains. It was just a few hours ago that they turned a bend on the mountainous trail and the foot of the range came into view.
The mountains terminated into a hilly grassland coated in overgrown grass. From the height advantage of the mountains, she could see the town far off in the distance even through the rain. It looked like a tiny little nub of darkness on the golden hills. She had noticed it the past couple of weeks, but she could make out details far away even without her glasses. Only a blind man wouldn’t be able to see Quinn’s excitement at her vision returning. It was her dream to see without assistance ever since she lost her far-sight at a young age.
The nub soon disappeared as the sun began to set above the darkened skies. The light, although still able to walk by, was fading at a slow but steady rate. They probably had thirty minutes at best before the path would be too dark.
The caravan was still trucking along as it had been the past seven days, ignoring the inclement weather and harsh winds that blew up the mountain’s sheer face. Some of the carriages had changed slightly. They weren’t terribly dirty thanks to their driver’s near-religious use of Cleanse, but some of them had to replace wheels here and there.
The caravaneers themselves, however, had changed quite a bit. At first, there was this sense of nervous excitement in the air. The past week had damaged that strong vibe and most people exuded weariness and boredom. Her athyrn senses revealed that there was also some nostalgic longing amongst the travelers.
Quinn could see mud caking most of the walker’s legs. Indeed, even her own and Mikeal’s were covered in the earthy sludge. She had long learned it wasn’t worth hitting herself with Cleanse until night had come. Anything she cleaned would just get dirty, after all. It was simply a waste of mana to her and most other people. Thankfully, the strong scent of burnt ozone and fresh rain drowned out most of the stench coming from the dirty group. Most. Some of them reeked to the heavens from a couple of days without Cleanse, but those few had already been moved to the back.
She pulled her mottled gray sagen tighter around her head to block out the harsh rain from flowing into her clothes. The rain had picked up over the past couple of hours, and she was already dead tired from trudging through it. Getting soaked would only make matters worse. Thankfully, she had gotten quite good at blocking the rain since her first couple of days in this world.
Harsh clanks came from her back, causing Quinn to twist her head to the side. The knight from before’s plate armor clattered against itself as his mount stepped into a divot of the ground. A barely suppressed curse erupted from his mouth as he looked around at the poor state the pathway was in. It was quite creative and not something she would be able to say with a straight face. He rode a creature quite different compared to the horses that pulled the carriage.
From the best she could tell, it was an odd mix of a lizard and a horse. It was about the size of the other beasts of burden but there were more than enough differences to differentiate the two. It was coated from head to toe in murky brown scales. Curled horns sat along the creature's head as several sharp spines sprung from head to tail. The only barren spot was where the knight sat on a saddle. Its face in particular looked quite draconic and its eyes gleamed with a feral intelligence. She had seen the creature before in her book of common monsters. Its name, however, eluded her.
The knight and his ward, a rather posh passenger carriage, had moved up the lines of the caravan a day ago to directly behind and abreast of her walking position. The new position allowed her to pick up on quite a few things about the strong knight. Namely, he had a bad attitude. Even though he was mounted, he seemed even grumpier than the people walking as he constantly let out a series of curses that could make even a psychopath blush.
He wasn’t the only knight protecting the carriage. Three other knights, one similarly in plate armor, were also surrounding the carriage in a sort of square. The two not in plate armor looked to be the knight's squires, though they were also riding on separate lizard mounts. She had been confused by their presence at first but had long learned from Mikeal about the particular VIP traveling with them.
To find out who it was, Quinn only had to look at the insignia engraved on the carriage's black walls. Two red scythes were engraved crossing over just below their blades. According to Mikeal, it was the crest of the Scyzen family. The Scyzen family were the only archdukes in the entire Halis Empire and were known for their brilliant generals and masterful swordsmen. The family had quite the moniker; the reapers of the storm.
As for why only four guards protected such an important family instead of an entire entourage? MIkeal also helped here. According to him, the one traveling in the Scyzen carriage was most likely Weis Scyzen, the hated daughter of Archduke Scyzen. Apparently, the Archduke’s dislike of his own daughter was so well known that even Mikeal, a student from Magin, knew about it. Mikeal suggested that the protection of the VIP was poor due to the Archduke's hatred.
She found it interesting at first but stopped listening to the illusionist as soon as he started talking about rumors and relations between Archduke Scyzen and the other nobles of Halis. It was an incredibly bland subject that she ignored in favor of further study of magic. Quinn didn’t pay attention to politics in her world, much less would she here.
In better news, her experiments had gone well. Her attempts to make an actually usable gravity spell had led her to the second tier. It wasn’t that a useful tier-one magic was impossible, rather she was better off getting more bang for her buck at tier-two. She coined her new idea as ‘Gravity Lift’. The core concept was to reduce the weight of anything affected by at least half. The initial creation period had gone rather well, and she was looking forward to testing it.
She also made progress with her other spells. The full runic formula for Wind Blade was now firmly lodged in her brain. Quinn was only waiting for the caravan to stop so she could test it out. Then, the plan was to use the insights from the hopefully successful cast to further study Gravity Lift.
She had managed to cast the other level-one spells a while back. Magellan’s Drink was alright, but it was only super useful situationally. It did, however, introduce a modifier she hadn’t seen in the books. It was a rune that, as best she could tell, made an effect permanent. See, unusually items summoned - like water - disappeared after the mana sustaining them ran out. The rune in Magellan’s Drink seemed to overcome this somehow. Unfortunately, none of the books held the rune, so she couldn’t look up the exact meaning.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Breeze’s Edge didn’t do much in her testing. Probably because there was nothing for her to cut that her knife couldn’t already tear through. That wasn’t to say it was useless, rather that she hadn’t found a use yet.
Quinn had begun trailing her mana through her veins after the first couple of days. She found that it helped increase her control over the weighted substance as she trailed it through her body - not too fast or too slow. It may have seemed simple, but she had already knocked a whole two seconds off of the fifteen it usually took her to cast Cleanse.
Aside from her magic studies, her athyrn control had grown substantially. She could cast Mistwalk on one of her limbs for a whole seven seconds before the toll became too much for her to bear. She also gained a far better perception of her limits thanks to her continuous efforts with athyrn. It had been a long time since she passed out due to overexertion.
Speaking of long times, Quinn suspected it would take a long time to gain the ability to use Mistwalk to its full extent. It had been a week of constant practice, and she had hit a wall in her training. She just couldn’t seem to control the athyrn in a larger area, i.e. her torso. Progress had all but halted, leaving her slightly annoyed.
Ding!
The bell rang once more as night fell. They had stopped a mere ten-minute walk from the foot of the mountain. A murmur went about as the caravaneers set up camp for the night. A common accord was reached; surely by tomorrow, they would arrive in the hills surrounding Hardtenbach. The excitement in the air was nearly palpable as the hundreds of people made themselves busy.
Quinn didn’t follow the normal nightly routine she had picked up. Instead, she worked her way back up the mountain trail. She skillfully weaved her way through the masses of people and carriages. A quick word to the guard and she was soon nearly three hundred feet up the path.
Tonight was the night she would test her new magic capabilities. Or at least her theorized capabilities. Quinn still wasn’t quite sure if she could even cast a tier-two spell. It mattered not; the answer would be revealed soon enough anyway. She sincerely hoped she was capable of the more advanced magic.
The ex-scientist glanced around superstitiously, noting the closest person to her was a guard on the edge of the carriages. Then she pulled at the mana hidden in her heart. Her control, trained through her recent practices, easily allowed her to shove a portion of her mana toward her outstretched hand. The heavy substance flowed easily through her veins, following the path of gravity as it gathered in her palm.
She closed her eyes in concentration and a purple-black ring appeared over her palm. Then another encompassed the first as ultra-thin chains linked the two together. She immediately felt her mana take a hit at the inclusion of the second circle and supplemented it with more. The entire magical construct was slightly larger than her hand.
Quinn opened her eyes to see her mana circles flickering wildly in time with her rapid heartbeats. In. Out. Slowly, but surely, her heart began to calm as she practiced breathing. The magic circle stabilized and became a constant shade of purple just as she had expected. She made a mental note to get better at keeping calm but otherwise focused the entirety of her attention on the magic.
A single squiggly rune began in the first circle, followed by three others as they took up space. Any learned Wind Mage would recognize the first circle’s runes as being the same as Breeze’s Edge. The first circle was rather easy since it was a magic that she already memorized. The true difficulty came in the second circle of purple mana.
Once she was done with the first circle, she moved on to the next. A slight difficulty arose as she had to pull the mana up through the chains and into the second circle. Still, though, that was within expectation thanks to Mikeal giving her tips. A pattern emerged as she engraved the next eight runes. The wind rune appeared at the top and bottom of the circles, followed by three other runes on each side. The runes were in sets of four with the first one always being the element.
Every single rune caused her heartbeat to grow just a bit unsteadier. The forced intake and outtake of air helped calm herself down. Slightly. Her overwhelming emotions, however, caused not only the circles to shake but also her entire body. She felt as if she had drunk several energy drinks as she practically raced to finish the last set of runes. And a race it was. Every second longer amped up the instability as if she was holding her bow taught and not firing.
Then she released her hold on the circles.
The magic circles suddenly spun, pulling against the chains, the mana flickering violently the entire time.
Quinn’s heart fell into her throat as the magic circles suddenly faded from sight and the runes warped ever so slightly.
And then… a burst of wind flew from her left palm. The wind, only visible by the rain in the air warping unnaturally out of the way, accelerated in a boomerang shape. It sliced a groove about as long as the mustached knight’s longsword in the rocky mountainside. The entire cluster of rocks she had aimed at shook as the wind cut a section at least a foot deep into the stone.
The displaced rocks clattered against the mountain trail, but she couldn’t hear them. Her ears were entirely overcome by the sound of her heart as she watched the spectacle in pure excitement. She had done it. She had done it!
To be honest, Quinn had next to no expectations about casting a tier-two spell on her first try. Her confidence, already tiny to begin with, had been crushed upon hearing it took Mikeal ten attempts to cast a tier-two spell his first time. She was ready to cut her losses and run at the first hint of Mana Reversion.
And yet here she was! She could officially be called a mage now! The raw joy in her heart couldn’t be contained as laughter spilled out of her throat. She eagerly jumped towards the mountainside, running her hand along the deep groove in the rocks. And she wasn't even that drained! She could probably even cast the spell five or six more times before she would have to take a break.
“Congrats!” Quinn froze as she heard a voice and a slow clapping sound from behind her.
She slowly turned around, a blush rising to her face at being caught so unawares. Atamai and Willa had snuck up behind her at some point and were politely clapping. “Um, t-thanks.”
Willa faintly smiled and clapped a few more times before stopping in time with Atamai. Atamai laughed as she approached. “Well, welcome to mage-hood! I can’t believe you were just a scared village girl a couple of weeks ago, and now you are a big bad wind-slashing machine!”
“I-I don’t know if I would go that far…” Quinn shrugged, but couldn’t keep the smug grin from her face.
Atamai laughed and slapped a metal-clad palm across her shoulder. “Well, congratulations nonetheless, Quinn.”
The newbie mage smiled brightly as her heartbeat finally settled down to a normal tempo. “What are you two doing here? I’ve barely seen you since we set off.”
“Ugh! Don’t remind me… dumb work drains all my time…” Atamai kicked a stone off the side of the mountain. “Speaking of, Sir Schel sent us to find you.”
A flash of confusion worked its way through her. No matter how she twisted it, she couldn’t quite pinpoint why Arnz Schel would want her. “A-any Idea what for?”
The mechanical-clad woman flashed a cheeky smile. “Nope! He just told us he wanted to see you…”
Quinn threw her shoulders back and adjusted her sagen to better cover her face from the rain. “Then lead the way.”