Tec Mage Chapter Eight: A Strange Voice

The dwarf was smiling, " right you guys i'm just going to take a break out side", as soon as the dwarf left Atlas realized what was happening, in the agreement with the dwarf he was not aloud to harm him but he could hire others to do his dirty work

"HEY Tiny is that you, don't say your doing the biding of that animal" asked Dracken

The brute on Atlas left looked a bit uneasy maybe the fact that the witnesses had used his name

"Money is money and i want it and need it.. it that simple" said Tiny

He didn't sound like a stupid man just a man that didn't care

The grunt on Atlas right walked towards him, Atlas decide to take the first strike and kicked him in the shin, when the brute bent over to grab his leg Atlas kneed him squarely in the face, the thug fell back onto his ass holding his nose, Tiny was shocked but pulled himself together, he rushed forwards and threw a punch at Atlas

Atlas took a step to the side and blended the punch away from him self so that Tiny was facing away from him, Atlas then shoulder rammed Tiny in to the other guy making him crash on top of him

"KIDS GET OUT OF HERE AND GET HOME QUICKLY" ordered Atlas, as the kids left the shop the thug with blood coming out of his face shouted

"GET OFF ME" shouted the brute while pushing Tiny off

Even though Atlas hadn't been hit he was a much lower level and all his attacks did very little to there hp, the grunt got up and pulled out a club he rushed Atlas, there was little Atlas could do, a wall of meat in the form of a man was charging at him, Atlas decided to use something different, he manifested his mana flare directly in front of the thugs eyes

"FUCK IS THIS?" the grunt lifted his arms to protect his eyes, Atlas moved forwards and pushed the already raised arm in to the grunts face thus hitting him with his own weapon, again the grunt fell on his ass,Atlas turned to meet Tiny but he wasn't ready and received a powerful punch to the bottom of his jaw

You have lost 35hp and have been stunned for 20 seconds

The two grunts had plenty of time to drag Atlas to the forge "Mr Roark has requested that you have a taste of the forge"

This again, thought Atlas

Each one of the grunts had a hold of Atlas hand, but at this point the dwarf had walked in to the shop "what's this, no stop, stop this at once" he whispered the dwarf while smiling, at those words the dwarf nodded to the thugs

Now that the grunts were in control they plunged Atlas hands in to the fire, he couldn't resist but he still was able to activate his mana deflection skill, Atlas hands went in to the forge all the way up to his wrists "arg arg" the pain was bad but still manageable, most of the heat energy was being deflected but Atlas just didn't have enough strength to pull back so he did some thing conciderd crazy he plunged in deeper so the hands of the grunts were also plunged in to the fire

"FUUUU-ARHHHH" both of the grunts were wearing leather gloves so when they removed there hands from Atlas and the forge there hands were still on fire, they shoved there hands in to the water barrel used for quenching, Atlas removed his hands from the forge as soon as the grunts let him go, his hands were in a terrible conditions but still better than the thugs, 3rd degree burns were all over the hands,

Atlas was in a corner, most of his techniques used his hands and now they were almost useless he had to attack before they recovered enough, he made a quick note of his skills, he didn't have a spear and mana flare was for a surprise attack and not much good for anything, magic missile "of course" said Atlas. The grunts had there backs towords Atlas with there hands in the barrel of water, so Atlas started to fire some missiles at them, the first volley pushed them over the barrel and when they tried to get up he fired more, one in the chest to place them down and four on each arm

"CRACK, CRACK"

Tiny and his friend weren't fine both of there arms were broken "ARG MY FUCKING ARMS YOU"

"ENOUGH, DO YOU WANT SOME MORE" Atlas had to stop the grunts ego from taking affect, he couldn't fight for to long and had to bluff his way out

"You said this would be easy" Tiny was talking to the dwarf "just look at the state of us, we'll be talking to the boss about this"

For the first time Atlas saw fear on the dwarf face, who ever this boss was it would seem not to get on the bad side of him, Atlas decide to leave at this point no point staying but as he passed the dwarf he whispered in the dwarf ear "your next", he left it at that he didn't want to explain him self but decide to let the dwarf stew over it

When Atlas was leaving he swear he felt some thing that moved and was soft in the forge but what could it be, for now he had to sort out the dwarf

The first thing he wanted to do was get healed up but the dwarf was taking the piss, every day was a struggle with him, Atlas had to get ride of him so he first visited sergeant Merek

Being at the garrison was a great experience if not for the pain in the hands he would of enjoyed it more, Atlas walked up to the nearest person in a watch outfit, excuse me but can you get me sergeant Merek

"I'm right here" a man in his 40 was coming out of what Atlas assumed was the cells "what do you need

Atlas showed sergeant Merek his hands and explained what happened

"Are you filing a complaint" asked sergeant Merek

"Yes, to be honest i'm just tired of his behaviour and i want him to stop" said Atlas

"First thing in the morning i'll go to Mr Roark" said sergeant Merek

"no, first evidence needs to be collected so if you have the time maybe you could check out the church for people with burned hands and a person called Tiny" Atlas was trying to ask and not demand "if you find him arrest him on charges of man slaughter

"Man slaughter what that, sounds like murder" asked sergeant Merek

"Yes but it's unintentional, it's like some one falling over and hitting there head after being punched in the face

"But your not dead" sergeant Merek

Atlas was wondering how intelligent the sergeant was, it didn't matter as long as his plan worked

"You just have to keep him separate from anyone, put him in jail for 3 days, don't worry he's guilty of GBH anyway" said Atlas

"What's GBH" asked Merek

"General bodily harm, after that i'll come to you and i will ask Tiny some questions if that's fine by you sergeant" explained Atlas "just send word for me, i think it would be ok to leave a message with the training hall instructor, it will reach me

"This is very unusual, but i think i can learn some thing here from you" Said Merek

Atlas then said "ultimately, we need a confession from him but such a hard man will probable know how the law works

Atlas spent 30 minutes more explaining his plans with sergeant Merek

"Right i got to leave but remember call for me if you find him" Atlas said

Atlas went straight home his hands were still sore but he was getting used to it, he had all ready arranged Arc the healer to be there 2 days ago so it would be cheaper then giving money to the church, as he walked though the stone gate that separated the training hall from the dojo grounds he could only see Mary and Kevien "where is Dracken" Atlas asked

"He said he need to get some info and would be back before bed time" explained Mary "don't worry, he can look after him self"

No sooner as Mary said those words Arc was calling out to Atlas "hey there are you ready for healing"

"You seem more confidant today" Atlas pointed out

"Well you see i'm always like this, but because i didn't know what kind of man you were, i had to play it by ear" replied Arc

"Where's your friend Isaac, he still owes me money and one day worth of training" Atlas reminded her

"That's between you and him, i don't want to get in between it" said Arc

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"Fine, i can't hold you to his mistakes, lets get started with healing my hands" replied Atlas

"First the money, 3 silver i think" said Arc

Atlas with a bit of difficulty gave Arc 3 silver and with that she healed his hands

The first thing Atlas wanted was to test out magic missile, so he asked Kevien to fire one at him

"What really" asked Kevien

"Don't worry it won't kill me and we have a healer here as well" said Atlas

Kevien fired off a missile and missed Atlas by a foot, after three more trys Kevien manage to hit Atlas in the arm

You have taken 104 damage

now Atlas could tell how much damage magic missile could do, so he ordered Mary to join in "i'm just going to dodge them for training but i can only take 2 hits then you stop

The rest of the night went to training movement and the kids accuracy and magic missile, near the end the kids were getting in to it

"Go on get him fire some more at him" shouted Kevien, there accuracy was much better and Atlas had been hit twice all ready

"Wait, i can't take any more hits" said Atlas

Mary had stopped but Kevien just carried on, he was in the moment and didn't hear Atlas,

"STOP", Atlas shouted, but Kevien was in some kind of power lust, Mary was running to words Kevien to stop him but the added movement made Kevien instinctual fire a missile at Mary, as the missile headed to Mary, Atlas vision slowed down he was panicking, it was odd even though he was the same speed he had more time to think, just like when your life flashes before your eyes, he could take his time and think his way out, with as much thought he could muster he went thought his options

1: he was to slow to get in the way of the attack and even if he wasn't he would be killed

2: Mary mostly had the same stats as Atlas so she could take one hit at least

3: no weapons or tools that could be thrown

4: mana flare had no physical substance

5: magic missile was to slow but two magic missile could make it

Atlas created two magic missile and fired one into the back of the other, then the world went back to normal speed and the magic missile was flying of to there target, the look on Mary's face was full of surprise but the face of Kevien still didn't notice what he had done

Atlas knew that Kevien was unlikely to stop so he fired a magic missile at his foot, he had to be careful where he hit him because his missile was more powerful than Kevien, as Atlas fired off his missile the first one connected with Kevien's magic that he had fired at Mary, it tore though Kevien's magic attack and hit the side of the dojo, Mary fell on her bum from the surprise of it all but even that didn't wake Kevien up, only after Atlas magic missile had hit Kevien on the foot and pushed him over did Kevien stop

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR" shouted Kevien

Mary was walking towards Kevien, Atlas thought he knew what was going to happen "WAIT" Atlas raised his voice to Mary, she looked stunned again, Atlas asked Arc to heal Kevien, and when she was done Atlas said "Carrie on" with the permission of Atlas Mary hit Kevien in the face with her fist

"Why, what's wrong, what have i done" asked Kevien

Mary was still angry but she walked away with out saying a word

"Are you going to do some thing about that" asked Kevien he was talking to Atlas

"You think i should punish her for doing some thing wrong" asked Atlas

"Damn right i do" said Kevien

Atlas sat next to Kevien and explain to him what just happened

"So that's why i won't be punishing her but will be punishing you", Atlas went on to explain that he wouldn't punish anyone from a mistake but the quickness that Kevien had asked for Mary to be punished was why

Atlas decide that Kevien was not ready for live training and told him to practice his spear movements in the training hall

"But, but i want to be a mage not a spear man" said Kevien

"Go and train the spear your not ready to use magic yet, it takes control and you lost your self to it so very easily" explain Atlas

Atlas went though his pop ups and started to delete them in till he came to a new skill " definition of perceptual chronometer" said Atlas

Perceptual Chronometer

Slows down the perspective of time alloying for more time to think

moment speed is normal but the minds speed is 20% faster

not a passive skill needs to be activated, cost 2 mana a second

Mary went to bed early, Atlas spent the rest of the night practising his mana deflection with the help of Arc

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Next day when Atlas went to the dwarfs place he found him looking hagerd and blotched eyed, he look like he hadn't slept "today i will teach you amour smithing, to learn it doesn't take long but to make the armour takes practices and dedication" He went on to describe the many folds and bossing of the metal, "heating is key to this as well, too hot and the metal becomes brittle when cooled down but not enough and your just wasting your time, after the description the dwarf pulled out a long square metal plate and with in an hour he manage to make a shield, "i can make this in such a sort time because of my strength and skill, all in all armour smithing is the simplest but most time consuming to do and master"

with the demonstration over Atlas and his crew got back to work making the swords, they started to pull out the moulds when they were stopped by the dwarf "Wait, i want you to repair these now", the dwarf showed them about 30 swords "the repair skill is the most usefully skill in blacksmith, because when you finally get the skill you can repair really fast and with out tools" he pulled a blade out and touched it "repair" said the dwarf, the blade had repaired, all the missing pieces and notches on the sword were gone

The dwarf went on to demonstrate the repair skill by first heating the blade to a bright orange then pulling it out and hammering it back in to a smooth sword shape "there, simply as that"

Now that Atlas and the crew knew what to do they each grab a sword, repairing was a easy skill to get, they all had made many swords and repair skill was very similar to it, half way along the day they had finished fixing the swords and received the repair skill

"Great, just the blacksmith skill to go" Atlas assumed that the final skill would be received when all the swords were made

The dwarf was preoccupied and kept looking at his door "i just going out for a bit"

"Wait, Mr Roark you haven't paid us for today or yesterday, i think you should pay us now before you leave" said Atlas

"NOT NOW" shouted the dwarf

"YES, NOW" Atlas didn't know if the dwarf actions was a ruse to try to hurt him again but he intended to get the money before he left

The dwarf was sweating buckets even though he was no longer near the forge

"FINE" the dwarf slammed a small bag on the table and left imminently

"hehehe"?

"WHAT IS THAT NOISE, IT SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE LAUGHING" Atlas raised his voice

".....you can hear me?"???

"Yes i can hear you where are you" asked Atlas

"No one is saying anything" Mary was looking at Atlas like he was crazy

Atlas didn't say anything to Mary but instead placed his finger to his lips while looking at Mary

"I'm right in front of you" said ???

"I can't see you" Atlas protested

"I'm deep in the forge" explained ????

End Of Chapter Eight: A Strange Voices