Chapter 11: Practice Makes Perfect

As Tide made his way down the tavern’s stairs, Tide heard the sound of voices talking in the bar area. He quickly paused and began to go back up the stairs. No one should have enough money to stay in the tavern yet. Tide quickly scooped up Onyx and brought him back into the room.

At the moment it be best for Onyx to stay here. Tide was planning on bringing him back up after eating anyways. Once he finished all his errands he would come back and sneak him back out of town. The question was how he was going to walk out of here without drawing any attention. He could try and wait for them to leave, but that would take too long. The longer he was here the more likely other people might show up as well.

After a minute or two of brainstorming Tide came up with an idea. He quickly went over to where he discarded the makeshift bandages and wrapped a band of it around his finger that held the storage ring. He splashed a tiny bit of water on it which made the blood run down and onto his figure. Now rather than an extremely valuable ring on his figure it seemed like he just had a finger wound. Satisfied that it wouldn’t be spotted he ruffled his hair and made his way down the stairs.

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw that there were three men sitting at one of the tables. Two of them were quite large and had leather armor on. At their waists there was a short sword tucked in its sheath. The third man was a bit skinnier and didn’t appear to have a weapon on him.

Tide was a bit shocked to see how well equipped the men were but kept his face neutral as he began walking to the door. The three men quickly dropped their conversation as the dirty and half naked Tide walked into their view. Tide angled his face away from them so it would be hard to see his face and kept his walking pace very casual and normal.

As he made his way across the room one of the men behind him spoke.

“Hey, who are you?” One of them said.

Tide simply pretended that he didn’t hear the man and continued making his way to the door. He was only a few feet away before he felt a gloved hand grab his shoulder.

“I asked who you were, are you deaf?” one of the muscular men asked while forcibly turning Tide around to face them.

Tide kept his face calm but once he was face to face with the man he quickly changed his attitude.

“You must be an adventurer! I’ve always wanted to be an adventurer, but dad insisted on me keeping the family business as repairmen. Tell you what if you tell me an interesting story of your exploits and give me 15 copper I’ll sharpen and polish your sword.” Tide spoke in a somewhat monotone and fake voice while maintaining eye contact with the man.

The man was instantly confused and perplexed by Tides' offer before frowning. A moment of silence passed over the room before the other masculine man at the table started to laugh. The man grabbing Tide looked back to his buddy confused.

“You fucking idiot, that’s a towny.” The man said in between chuckles.

“Get back over here and finish eating. We have to go hunting today to show the people that we were worth the investment. Stop wasting time with that local.” The skinner man scolded.

The large man turned back around to look at Tide briefly before letting him go and making his way back to the table to eat.

Now unobstructed Tide turned around and exited the building at the same relaxed pace like nothing even happened. Once out the building he walked a bit further down the road and made a turn before letting out a sigh of relief. After taking a couple of breaths Tide was able to calm his furiously beating heart.

He was lucky that it was still early in the trial and people hadn’t figured out all the NPCs' behaviors yet. It looks like the nickname for the NPC were locals or Townies.

He let out a brief chuckle to himself praising his own acting skills as he made his way towards the shopping section of town. Here there were a couple of people moving around visiting the various shops. Tide approached the clothing store and saw that there was no one else inside.

Entering its door, he was greeted by the seamstress, and began to pick out three different outfits that could be worn under armor. He changed into one of them and discarded his ruined trousers. After this he picked out a green cloak that was quite light and had a hood. All together this ended up costing him another 4 silver and 20 copper pieces. Once again, he double checked the store for people before storing the remaining clothes in his ring.

Next up he went to the leatherworkers stand. The man running this store help him pick out a leather chest piece that would help protect his vitals without hampering his movements. Tide also saw a deer skin bag that he could use instead of his bed roll to carry Onyx. After purchasing both for 5 silver Tides funds were running low, but he got everything he needed.

Now he would have to find some way back into the tavern to get Onyx and his meal. Hopefully the guys in there earlier left. As he made his way back towards the tavern, he noticed a pottery store. Noticing the worker molding a large clay pot for grain storage another idea came to mind.

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Tide walked into the store and using his remaining money he convinced the owner to sell him some of the clay he used in the store. Now penniless Tide resumed his return to the tavern. On the way he found an empty alleyway. In that ally he grabbed a handful of clay and held it up to his face.

Tide then activated his elemental manipulation spell sending his mana into the clay. It slowly floated up and began to surround his face. As he continued to use his mana and control the clay it quickly became a thin custom fit mask obscuring his face. He only left holes in it to allow him to see and breathe through his nose.

This would by no means avoid attracting attention, but at least now he could keep his anonymity. Turns out he was worried for nothing the tavern was once again empty. Those guys must have only come to the tavern to eat breakfast. They must have gone to hunt monsters like the skinny man said. Feeling a little foolish for wearing the mask for no reason he took it off and ordered his lunch.

He was served a hearty goat stew full of vegetables and a portion of uncooked goat as well for Onyx. Once in his room he took the mask off and ate with Onyx. The food was quite good and quite refreshing compared to the cost-effective rations he had been eating for 3 days.

After he finished eating it was time to leave. He once again put on the clay mask and scooped Onyx up into the backpack.

The trip out of the town was without incident. He kept to the outskirts of the town and used another earthen platform to get over the wall. A quick jog later and he was heading back towards the forest.

Once he made his way to a more isolated area with no monsters around, Tide took out onyx out of the bag and placed the little guy on the ground. Onyx, having gained his freedom, began to run around the area as if to show off his top speed.

Leaving the little guy to his own devices Tide began to test out his skills.

He started off with elemental manipulation. He focused on the mound of dirt in front of him and activated the spell. While he did this, he watched his mana bar lose a tenth of its contents. A chunk of dirt began to float into the area and Tide began to move the earth around like he would if it was his mana. It was much chunkier and difficult to control but after a bit was able to move it quite smoothly. After a couple of minutes, the mana in the dirt wore away and the dirt crumbled to the ground.

Up next, he picked up a stone off the ground and did the same. It was a decently sized rock that filled his hand. Activating the skill again he began transferring mana into it. This time a full fourth of his mana was used up to gain sovereignty over the stone. He began the same process of testing the capabilities of the spell. He was able to mold the shape of the rock and made it into a perfect sphere.

Next, he had it float in front of him and begin flying around him. As it began to get further away from him, his control over it began to weaken. After about twenty feet he was only able to move it around in a general direction. Next, he brought it back to his body. Tide had it swirl around him for a decent bit. Once he noticed his mana was beginning to degrade, he pushed the sphere with all his willpower causing it to whistle through the air before smacking into a tree. Its speed shocked Tide, and when it collided with the tree it caused it to dent and splinter slightly with a loud bang.

Tide tested out the water element as well as getting some more of the specifics on its capabilities as well. He would try fire out later when he made his camp tonight.

Next up he put his hand on the mound of dirt and activated elemental augmentation. Mana traveled down to his arm and it began to feel as if his hand was a vacuum absorbing the dirt. After a handful of dirt was absorbed, his arm’s skin began to turn a brownish gray color. Tide closes his hand into a fist. He didn't feel any different. Thinking that it perhaps boosted his defense, he took out his wood axe and pressed his hand up against it gently. Slowly he began to press harder and harder. Tide was surprised how hard he had to push before he began to bleed. This augmentation could stave off weak blows or even soften stronger ones.

Looking at his mana he saw that activating the skill took about a tenth of his mana away and after that it drained what was left slowly. Activating the spell again he tried to absorb more dirt. This time the gray color traveled all the way up to his shoulder where it stopped. Checking his mana again he found that around seventy percent of his mana was gone, and the rest was going down rather fast. Dispelling the effect Tide sat down to meditate and regen his mana back to full.

After a half an hour Tide got back up, checked on Onyx who was chasing down bugs and trying to eat them. Shaking his head, Tide moved on to the last skill. Focusing on the mound of dirt in front of him he activated bind golem. As soon as he did, he felt a massive drain of mana flowing out of him into the mound of dirt.

The dirt glowed slightly blue before it began to shift and form into a semi human shape. Torso was formed first along with the head. Next the arms and legs became defined and eventually small holes in the face began to glow blue.

The small golem stood up and eyes reachedTides chest. It was about three and a half feet tall, almost as wide as it was tall. It was quite stocky and was staring up at him with motes of mana acting as its eyes.

“Umm hello” Tide said hoping to get some sort of response. Much to his disappointment the golem just sat there.

“Jump,” Tide said cautiously, trying to see if it followed his commands.

As soon as the words left Tide’s mouth the little dirt man gave his best attempt of a jump. It only got an inch or two off the ground before it thudded back to the ground.

Tide let out a small chuckle before testing out what the golem could do. He checked his mana quickly and saw that it took eighty percent of his mana to create the guy. He began having the golem do a variety of commands. It seemed to understand direct orders and perform them to the letter. The golem was able to act on his basic intents without verbal commands. Nothing too complicated, but general messages would get across. For example, it could attack a tree or start digging a hole without needing verbal commands.

For verbal commands he decided to give it a name. Eventually, if he had multiple golems giving commands would be confusing if he didn’t have a way to address a specific one. As such he named the earth golem Pebble.

“Pebble, dig a hole as deep down as you can before running out of mana.” Tide commanded before taking a seat and beginning to sit down to meditate. By the time his mana bar had recovered, two hours had passed and it seemed that Pebble had run out of juice and crumbled back into soil. Tide was shocked to discover that it managed to make a decently sized hole about eight feet or so deep before crumbling back into soil.

With this done Tide was somewhat comfortable with his skills, enough to begin hunting some of the starter monsters. Whistling at Onyx to get his attention, Tide began to look for potential prey.