Deficiencies

  Eliot portaled directly into his room from the streets. In his room, Penelope was sitting on his bed while studying a thick textbook, Henry was nowhere to be seen.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Eliot. Penelope seemed to jump out of her skin and she cast a spell on reflex. The spell summoned a writhing mass of vines with thorns three centimeters in length. The vines wrapped around Eiot with a snap and hung him upside down, the thorns dug into his skin and actually started drinking his blood.

  “Eliot! I’m so sorry!” exclaimed Penelope as she un-cast the spell. Eliot assured her it was ok as she cast as many healing spells as she knew on Eliot in a panic, Eliot was left dumfounded by her skills in supporting, she knew so many healing spells that it took over an hour to cast them all, and she never ran out of mana or showed any signs of mana fatigue at all.

  “Now that I think about it, I really don’t know anything about you, we did only meet yesterday,” Eliot thought out loud after he thanked Penelope for the healing.

  “Well, as you know, my name is Penelope Evergreen. I’m a priest in the Church of Life. There isn’t much besides that.” She shrugged. “That’s not important, where were you and why were you injured when you came in? I mean... besides my attack,” asked Penelope.

  “I was running some errands when I was attacked by some assassins from the Serpentine BrotherHood. I dealt with them, but I need to do something in the long term, they're an underground organization with a perfect track record for assassinations, I don't think they'll just let me go,” explained Eliot.

  Penelope frowned in consternation, “What are you going to do?”

  Eliot just shrugged and said, “I’ll go after them before they come after me.” Penelope chuckled before realizing that Eliot was being serious.

  “I don’t think you can even fathom how difficult that would be for an unskilled no one, like you,” said Penelope exasperated.

  “My thoughts are, take out the big guy, everything collapses, and we can cooperate with the guards to round up the rats scurrying away,” Eliot said plainly, no even flinching when Penelope called him an unskilled no one.

  Penelope sighed before saying, “Right, I think I once heard from prince Henry that common sense doesn’t apply to prodigies, or something equally dumb." Eliot frowned and denied her claims, but knew that the upcoming operation obviously wouldn't be as simple as he was making it out to be. It would take a large amount of time with strategic planning and they are severely lacking in information with no clue as to who put out a hit on Eliot in the first place. Eventually, Henry came back and he agreed to the plan, much to Penelope’s vexation. Eliot was to spend some time gathering information on the streets, Penelope would ask her connections in the church, and Henry would see what the nobles knew. Hopefully, it would leave them with something to exploit, but they weren't very confident in this plan working. The Serpentine BrotherHood was an underground organization, after all, they knew how to cover their tracks. Unfortunately, that was the only thing Eliot, Henry, and Penelope could do.

  Luckily, they were getting stronger each day as they were made to learn a new spell every day in their classes, as well as learning about the nuances of magic. Eliot was knocked off of his pedestal on the second day because he took the majority of the class period just to cast a small ember that harmlessly fell to the floor, it was intended to be a fireball. Eliot walked into class with a fireball’s worth of fire in determination on the third day, but was dumbstruck when he mastered the flight spell on his first try forming the symbols. Eliot was hopelessly lost and turned to his professor for guidance.

  “Ah, I am familiar with what you're describing.” His professor, Professor Lux as they were recently informed, flashed a pearly smile with unfounded charisma. “While it is true that, in theory, anyone with mana manipulation can learn any spell, that is not actually the case for most people. Everyone has a certain affinity, they learn different types of spells at different speeds. The three major categories people have made are defensive spells, attack spells, and utility spells, however, a person’s affinity can be much more narrow. For example, someone who would specialize as an elemental mage usually has an affinity for one or multiple types of elemental magic, but not in attacking spells in general. I think you have an affinity for utility spells in general,” explained the professor.

  Eliot silently nodded his head for a few moments before saying, “I think I understand, thank you, professor”.

  “Wait, I’m not finished,” called Professor Lux with a sheepish smile. Eliot’s interest was piqued and he asked him to continue.

  “It's true that everyone has an affinity, but the opposite is also true. We call that an animus. Unfortunately, your learning speed for attacking spells is a lot lower than average, I think you have an animus for attack spells in general”. Eliot once again froze to register the information, he grew slightly angry and extremely annoyed with the new information.

  Professor Lux tried his best to consol Eliot,"But cheer up, Eliot! It's very rare for someone to have an affinity for one of the three general classifications, and it's almost unheard of for someone to have an animus for a general classification at the same time." Eliot only grew more annoyed at how much more special he was. Eliot thanked his professor before walking off to look for Henry and Penelope.

  “I can never let them know about this,” mumbled Eliot when he thought about the relentless teasing he would go through.

  “You can never let who know about what?” asked Henry from directly above Eliot. Eliot scowled when he looked up to see Henry blocking out the sun. For some reason, he enjoyed flying so much that he spent most of his time in the air. Eliot refused to answer and continued walking.

  Henry flew into Eliot’s path and said, “I won’t let you go until you tell me.”

  Eliot smiled and said, “If I remember correctly, our last duel ended with you losing, so unless you want a repeat of that, drop it”. Henry mirrored Eliot’s smile.

  “Well, I suppose it is possible you don’t remember correctly, you did lose consciousness.”

  “So did you,” snapped Eliot.

  “I didn’t lose consciousness, I fell asleep after we made it to the infirmary,” retorted Henry.

  “Do you want a rematch, then?” asked Eliot, thoroughly irritated.

  “I’ll take you up on that,” answered Henry as he flew off towards the training grounds. Eliot stepped through a portal shortly after and emerged at the Traning Grounds. An hour later, Eliot was exhausted as Henry fought circles around him.

  “I know that you’re a genius, but the only thing you have is your subpar swordsmanship and your portals. Once your opponent adapts to those, you have anything else to offer,” discerned Henry. Eliot was fumeing and frustrated, Henry didn’t get hit by any of his attacks in the past hour, he was tempted to do what he did to win their last duel, but stopped himself when he thought about how mad the Head Master would be. Eliot threw his sword at Henry and told him to shut up. Henry didn’t try to get out of the way, he caught it between his index and middle finger instead.

  “listen, Eliot, you should come to the castle later. You can take something called an aptitude test. After sparring with you, I don’t think swordsmanship is for you,” offered Henry. Eliot took a deep breath and calmed down, apologizing for throwing his sword and took Henry up on his offer.

  A couple hours later, Eliot was escorted to a carriage by a royal guard. The only thing that was different from the regular guard’s equipment was that it was golden and the Crucible family’s crest was carved into the breast plate. After some observation, Eliot also noticed that they all had different weapons, while the regular guards were all armed with pykes. Eliot couldn’t tell if it was actual gold or if it was just colored somehow for appearances. None of the guards spoke to him besides the regular pleasantries and telling him when he arrived. The castle was overwhelmingly huge and extravagant. There were no windows in the carriage, so he couldn’t see it in full, but the small amount he was able to see from being so close made him cross his eyes and crane his neck as he tried to take in the giant structure. Eliot stopped trying and rubbed his temples to stoke the encroaching headache. From some distance away, Henry called Eliot's name while running over in a suit of armor. It looked regular and wasn’t golden, Eliot thought that a prince would have fancier armor, but then he remembered that the prince in question was Henry, and it made sense.

  “The castle is nice,” commented Eliot as they greeted each other. Henry chuckled at that and motioned for Eliot to follow him.

  “Honestly, I know this sounds entitled, but after living my whole life here, the castle is ordinary and bland to me,” admitted Henry. Eliot thought about how different he would be if he were born nobility on the way to one of the many training grounds around the castle.

  When they arrived, there was a monster of a man stuffed into armor that was screaming encouragement(obscenities) at the training royal guardsmen. They were 250 centimeters tall with muscles bigger than Eliot's head and a collection of scars that he wore like war commendations. Eliot grew slightly nervous and hoped that the person they were meeting wasn’t him.

  “Reltus!” screamed Henry over the man’s shouts. The fear inducing man turned and his scarred face lit up in a smile.

  “Prince Henry, our daily session is over, have you finished your princely duties and come for extra training?” Reltus’ voice was as gruff as his appearance and Eliot shrank in his boots.

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  “Unfortunately, that isn’t why I am here. I want you to put someone through an aptitude test,” replied Henry.

  “An aptitude test? Who do you want me to test?” Henry gestured to Eliot. Reltus walked closer and eyed Eliot up and down like a predator observing its prey.

  “This scrawny kid?” asked Reltus. Eliot smiled sheepishly. While he never compared himself to others, Eliot was scrawny, especially compared to Henry. Henry was sturdy and a good height. Eliot wasn't very tall for his age, average really, but he was still lanky for his height. Henry beamed and veryfied that it was indeed that scrawny kid, probably cracking up inside at the torture Eliot would go through.

  “Alright, usually someone like you would be denied, I bet you couldn’t even pass the test to be a regular guardsman, but since prince Henry recommended you, I’ll bend the rules,” said Reltus.

  “Way to boost my confidence,” thought Eliot pessimistically but nodded with determination in his eyes, he needed to grow and fast.

  “You got some fire in you.” Reltus slapped Eliot’s back. “I’ll take you to Master Lorick, he’s the one who actually does the aptitude test." Eliot inwardly sighed in relief, his knees shaking slightly, hoping that Master Lorick wasn’t as intimidating as Reltus was.

  “Come find me after you’re done, I’ll be in my study, just ask a maid the directions if you can’t find it,” waved Henry goode bye. Eliot waved back and told him he would before following Reltus to Master Lorick.

  Master Lorick was sitting under a tree, located far away from anything else around the castle, with his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap. Master Lorick looked surreal and he gave off a comfortable aura, Eliot felt like he did when he was around Cel.

  Reltus cleared his throat and said, “Sorry to disturb your meditation, Master Lorick, but prince Henry requests that you test someone’s aptitudes.” Master Lorick opened his eyes slowly and the comfortable aura left, leaving Eliot wistful.

  “Sit down,” was all Master Lorick said before closing his eyes again. Reltus patted Eliot’s shoulder and left. Eliot followed Master Lorick’s directions and copied his position.

  “Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Let everything else fade along with your thoughts and relax,” said Master Lorick leisurely. Eliot followed his instructions to the best of his abilities. He struggled at first, not able to let random thoughts leave his head and was still keenly aware of the hard dirt ground he was sitting on.

  “Acknowledge the thoughts running through your head and let them pass you by. Imagine your consciousness sinking into your body and let your breathing be the only thing you know,” coached Master Lorick. Eliot realized that he was going about this all wrong. He noticed that Master Lorick used the word 'let' and his tone was soft and slow. Eliot stopped trying to force it and just let it happen, seemingly accepting something for the first time in his life. Eliot’s ego was gone and his mana was ignored, leaving only his physical being. He successfully entered a meditative state and divulged in the serene, peaceful calm that engulfed him. What felt like only moments later, Eliot wasn’t able to sustain the state and his ego returned, followed by the numb pain that filled his legs. Eliot slowly opened his eyes to see Master Lorick’s intrigued gaze studying him gently.

  “What…… what was that?” asked Eliot.

  Master Lorick sprouted a smile and said, “Congratulations, you just meditated for the first time.”

  “That felt amazing!” exclaimed Eliot.

  Master Lorick nodded, “Indeed it does. Now, let us continue with the aptitude training.” Eliot finally fully came back and realized that several hours had gone by while he meditated. Master Lorick motioned for Eliot to follow as he seamlessly got up and walked off. Eliot hurried to follow and immediately collapsed because his legs had fallen asleep.

  Master Lorick glanced back to the helpless Eliot and commented, “That is common for the first few times. In the future, try to flow to your feet instead of moving abruptly, it is more natural that way.” Eliot acknowledged his words and tried his best to be patient while his legs roused from their inactivity.

  Master Lorick led Eliot near the training guards and over to a weapons rack. Master Lorick picked up a bow staff and slowly went through motions, spinning it around his arms and attacking an imaginary foe. Then, he passed the bow staff to Eliot. Eliot did his best to copy the motions, barely succeeding without dropping the bow staff. Master Lorick traded it out with nunchucks and did the same thing. This continued until they went through most of the weapons on the rack. After, Master Lorick picked out two bow staffs and handed one to Eliot before getting into a battle stance. Eliot didn’t know any forms or stances, so he just copied what Master Lorick did. Master Lorick flew forward and swung his bow staff at Eliot. Eliot blocked it and prepared to counter. Master Lorick spun the bow staff around his arms and immediately transitioned into another attack, stopping Eliot’s attempts to attack. The third attack came too fast for Eliot to dodge and Master Lorick’s bow staff slammed into his stomach before spinning and hitting his side. Eliot took a couple more blows while he was left unable to defend or even breathe from the impact to his stomach. Master Lorick nodded and returned their bow staffs to the weapons rack, switching them for curved daggers. Eliot took some time to collect himself before grabbing the daggers and standing up. The daggers felt uncomfortable and off in his hands, making him lose after a single exchange. Only after repeating the process with nunchucks, a sword, and a scythe did they stop. A distressed frown settled on Master Lorick’s face as he looked at Eliot, exhausted and beaten while lying on the ground.

  “None,” said Master Lorick.

  “None?” asked Eliot.

  “You have an animus with most of the weapons in the armory, and the few you don’t have an animus with are barely any better,” explained Master Lorick with a bitter expression on his face.

  “What? That’s a joke, right?” Eliot responded in disbelief.

  “I’m afraid not. Perhaps you should just focus on being a mage,” advised Master Lorick. Eliot was shocked to his core. He has an animus in attack spells and he can’t use any weapons.

  “How am I supposed to fight if I can’t hurt my opponent? At his point, I’m just a glorified support mage! Not that the work they do isn’t important and appreciated, but that isn’t what I am supposed to do. What happened to me being a genius? What happened to being Karl Favish’s discipulus?” thought Eliot in anger. Eliot did his best to keep it bottled, not wanting to explode in front of Master Lorick.

  “Thank you anyways. If prince Henry asks where I am, tell him that I’m going on a short trip and will be back in a couple of days,” Eliot thanked Master Lorick before stepping into a portal and disappearingg.

  “Wait, there are still more things we can try!” Master Lorick called out, too late for Eliot to hear.

  Master Lorick sighed and muttered, “What a hot-headed boy."

  Eliot appeared in his room at The Arcane University of Everveil. He quickly shoved his belongings into a bag before meditating, not the type of meditating that Master Lorick taught him, but the one he discovered on the caravan to refill and grow his mana.

  “I’m going to have to give this a different name now, so I don't confuse them,” thought Eliot, still heated. Twenty minutes later, Eliot got up with a mana pool two times larger and focused on creating symbols. Eliot jumped through as soon as the portal formed and threw up the contents of his stomach on the other side while gasping for air. His soul screamed in pain and he spent an hour gathering his strength. Eliot looked around with a frown when he was done, the experience was getting easier to deal with each time.

  “Great, I landed in a forest, I HATE forests,” growled Eliot as he stomped on a branch and reduced it to splinters. A bush rustled and a bear parted its way into Eliot’s vision.

  “I know you can’t understand me, but leave or else I’ll kill you,” warned Eliot as he continued walking past the bear. Obviously, the bear roared in challenge and swiped its paw at Eliot.

  “You just couldn’t leave well enough alone,” mumbled Eliot as a portal made the bear’s paw hit itself, leaving a bloody gash on its side. Eliot ran and jumped, sending a fist to the bear’s face. It did little damage but did plenty to annoy the bear.

  “Oh not a fan of my punches? Then how about my kicks?” taunted Eliot as his leg slammed into the bear’s face through a portal. Eliot continued to use his portals to send punches and kicks at the bear’s face. Eventually, the bear had enough and shrugged off the attacks while running at Eliot with an indignant roar. Eliot activated the fly spell and lifted into the air, completely escaping the bear’s range of attack. Eliot thought up a plan, still livid. He created two portals in the air, one a few meters above the first. Eliot fell into the bottom portal and came out of the portal on top, over and over again. After a minute of picking up speed, Eliot switched the top portal to appear above the bear. Eliot smashed into the bear’s back with a crunch. Eliot had no idea if the crunch was from the bear or himself as pain shot up his arm and blood spurted. Eliot concluded that the crunch was from both of them as he became unable to move his right arm and the bear let out an anguishing cry, unable to move any part of its body. Eliot grabbed his sword and put the bear out of its misery. Eliot’s anger was mostly extinguished after killing the bear, leaving him with an uncomfortable feeling assaulting his senses. That was the feeling he always had around the forest and was the reason he hated them so much. Eliot spent some time wandering through the forest while nursing his broken arm and berating himself for letting his anger take control of himself.

  “I have to apologize to Master Lorick and Henry for storming off like that,” decided Eliot. Suddenly, he felt a comfortable feeling tickle at the edge of his senses, like a light in the darkness of the forest. Eliot stumbled his way down an incline and arrived at a large clearing with blue grass and a river parting it. Eliot became ecstatic when he saw Cel sitting on a rock by the river and fishing.

  “Cel!” shouted Eliot as he ran towards his friend, having to jump the wide river and almost failing in.

  “Eliot! What are you doing here?” asked a stunned Cel.

  “I came to visit,” said Eliot when they got close. “I learned a portal spell and used it to travel all the way from Everveil." Cel put down his fishing rod and shook Eliot’s good hand with a beaming smile on his face.

  “Magic really is amazing” said Cel as he studied his friend, noting how Eliot favored his right arm. “I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to see you for years,” admitted Cel.

  "I actually learned the portal spell from the ghost in the graveyard that night. I always knew I could come back soon, but didn’t tell anyone because I thought a surprise visit would be worth it,” explained Eliot.

  “Well it was until you told me that,” grumbled a slightly embarrassed and annoyed Cel.

  “So, how’s it been, is everyone still doing alright at the orphanage?” asked Eliot, trying to change the subject.

  “It’s been really good, everyone at the orphanage is doing great. Elizebeth got an apprenticeship as a craftsman, and your parents are in good health.”

  “That’s good to hear. I was sort of worried that I would come back and hear a dragon attacked the town, killing everyone,” joked Eliot. Eliot noticed that Cel’s fishing rod was bending from a fish and alerted Cel. Cel quickly picked up the fishing rod and reeled in a freshwater snapper. Eliot admired Cel’s fishing skills and his interest was piqued when he saw the weird, wooden contraption that the fishing rod was in. It was a circle barely wide enough for the fish rod to slide through and was connected to two diagonal sticks that was weighed by a medium sized rock.

  “Nice catch!” congratulated Eliot before asking, “What is that?” while gesturing to the peculiar wooden contraption.

  “Oh, that is my fishing rod holder, I made it myself. I also made the fishing rod myself, there isn’t anything fishing related in the town’s market,” explained Cel.

  “Where did you learn to make it? Also, now that I think about it, how do you know how to fish? I only learned about it from an old man in the Metropolis who frequents a bar that I like,” asked Eliot.

  “Someone taught me” said Cel, not elaborating further. Eliot didn’t think anything of it and they started walking back to The Town of Flora while catching up.