Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 7

Human - American

"That'll do," Nash nodded at my hunched over form. "Take a breather."

"O-okay," I said between desperate gasps for air.

Nash had once again landed one of his signature kicks directly to my diaphragm. I was beginning to suspect that he had unlocked a skill similar to my breathtaker strike. This time, though, I managed to poke my training sword into his ribs before he landed it. With a growing pride in myself I collapsed into a sitting position and watched the countdowns for my cooldowns. It had taken every single one of my non-magical skills just to land that one strike, and it hadn't slowed him down a bit.

I sighed, remembering our first sparring session. I'd managed to unlock breathtaker strike and land it against him. It had stopped the session immediately, but I've pretty much been getting my ass kicked ever since. I'm not sure Nash is aware of it, but he's been getting stronger too. Every time I think I've gotten strong enough or fast enough to match him, he manages to pull ahead. Or maybe he's still just pulling his punches and I'm too inexperienced to realize it. Either way, I'd hate to get into a real fight against him.

"Would you care to try some magic?" Yulk interrupted my thoughts with a toothy smile.

"Sure," I said, looking up at him. "What kind of magic do you have in mind?"

He reached out to help me up, and I took his hand without putting too much of my weight on him. Yulk has a bad back, and sending him toppling wouldn't be very nice. However, he ignored my generosity and pulled me to my feet fast enough for said feet to leave the ground for a moment.

"If I recall correctly you have access to several spells already. Wind Spear, Earthen Dagger, Fireball, Light, Heal, and Minor Heal, right?"

I checked my skills list and nodded. I didn't really get a chance to use most of these spells outside of some quick training that we'd done. None of my spells had even leveled up, and most of them are useless.

Fireball sounds like it would be the best of the spells, but the heat it outputs is uncomfortable to work with. Earthen Dagger would be better if it summoned a sword instead of a little knife. Finally, Heal can magically mend my wounds, but I already have Ten for that. Ten can do it without using my magic, too.

"I'd like to teach you a spell that many have trouble with," he continued. "It's called Ice Javelin. You have to visualize the moisture in the air coming together and forming a magically enhanced icicle."

"Okay," I said as I lifted my arms and aimed at a nearby tree.

I pictured all the water molecules in the air coming together to form the condensation on the outside of a cold drinking glass. I imagined all that condensation moving into the shape of an icicle and freezing, then felt my magic shoot through my arms. The air in front of my fingertips grew cold and mist began to gather together. Suddenly, the mist began to form a cone of ice.

"Nilevaj Eci Tsac!"

The icicle slammed into a nearby tree with enough force to make it shudder.

-Ice Javelin unlocked-

Yulk and I looked at each other, then walked over to the tree. It was pretty thick, my arms wouldn't even fit around it, but the projectile had managed to go through it enough to poke out of the other side. Yulk let out a low whistle.

"Like that?" I asked with a dash of smugness.

"Yeah," he laughed. "Exactly like that."

"Cool, pun intended. So why haven't you tried to teach me this spell before?"

"Because I didn't know it. Olmira taught it to me the day before we left," he said, gesturing behind me. "Took me all day."

I turned and was met with a wide eyed and open mouthed stare. Olmira's eyes darted back and forth between myself and the tree.

"See?" Yulk said to her with a grin. "He's able to learn new things much faster than most people."

"I... yes, I see," she replied. "But how?"

I glanced at Yulk, who returned my gaze.

"The place I come from had mandatory public education," I answered. "So a lot of these concepts aren't new to me. Maybe that's why I'm able to pick things up so fast."

The sorcerous pair stared at me for a moment.

"What sort of subjects are covered by this... public education?" Olmira asked.

"Math, science, social studies, languages, writing, wood shop, all sorts of things."

"Wood shop?"

"My guess would be carpentry, milady. Judging solely by the name, of course," Yulk laughed. "Oh my, Nash is beginning to look impatient. Shall we be off?"

I gave Yulk a confused glance. Ever since Olmira joined us, it seems like Yulk had upped his eloquence. While it's true he wasn't exactly brash before, I don't remember him ever using the word shall. On the other hand, I could be imagining things. Or Ten could be playing with the translations.

I looked toward Nash and immediately forgot about Yulk's odd word choices. His pack was already in the cart and he was practically glowering at us.

"Yeah, let's go," I quickly agreed.

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We packed our things and loaded back into the cart. Imlor gave us a smile and we continued our journey. I leaned into the corner of the cart and accessed my skills list, selecting the option for physical skills.

--

Time Dilation II

Increases the user’s speed to 150% for a limited time

Cooldown: 4 minutes

Dash II

Move forward up to eight feet at 300% speed.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Breathtaker Strike II

A strike that robs your opponent of their ability to breathe.

Cooldown: 45 seconds

Power Slash I

Amplifies the users striking power by 100%.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Slide Slash I

Slide along the ground and strike with 100% amplified striking power.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Preternatural Evasion I

Allows a user to automatically dodge for 1 minute.

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Knife Hand

Hardens a users hand into a knife-like shape. Can apply intimidation to lower level enemies.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 5 minutes

--

The cooldowns for both Breathtaker Strike and Time Dilation had decreased. It was previously one minute and five minutes, respectively. The distance that I can Dash increased by two feet, as well. The buffs weren't as good as I had hoped they would be, but the skills had leveled up faster than I'd expected. I decided to get a look at my spells list, too.

--

Wind Spear I

Summon a spear of wind to strike your target.

Earthen Dagger I

Summon a blade of Earth.

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Fireball I

Summon a ball of fire to strike your target.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Heal I

Heal your superficial wounds.

Minor Heal

Heal your target’s superficial wounds.

Ice Javelin I

Summon a javelin of ice to strike your target.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Light

Summons an orb that emits a moderate amount of light until the user dismisses it or falls unconscious.

--

I really need to start leveling these up. Unfortunately, fighting takes a lot of my energy, and Nash is a little greedy when it comes to my training time. I guess that's fair, our current party consists of two magic users, one multi-class, and a fighter. I guess there's also Imlor, but as far as I know he doesn't have any skills that are useful in a fight.

If I were to join Yulk and Olmira in casting spells, that would leave Nash alone on our front line. That's not a good position to be in, even with magical backup. It's too easy to get flanked, and as Nash himself says, if you're flanked you're fucked.

I had to stifle a laugh. Look at me, suddenly an expert in battle tactics. Before I came here, I knew almost nothing about real fighting. I played video games, but not enough to glean anything from them. I also fought in some karate tournaments, but those have rules and regulations to keep people safe. Real fights don't.

The sound of a page turning tore me from these thoughts. I turned toward the sound and saw Yulk reading the book that Imlor had given him before we set off for Bolisir. The Musings of Gralv, a book about the fae written by an imp.

"Is it any good?" I asked him.

"Nope," he laughed. "It's absolutely terrible. His grammar and word choice are abysmal, and it's rare that he spells words correctly. Actually, I'm quite certain that he's found new ways to misspell some of these words. That being said, it's a rather interesting subject given our experiences thus far."

"You mean with the arch-fae?"

"Yes, Algebrun and..." he trailed off and glanced at Olmira.

"And Tits," Nash finished his sentence for him.

"Pardon?" Olmira asked.

Nash and I started laughing as Yulk turned a darker shade of green.

"Well, when I told you about our encounter with the fae, you'll recall that I left out the names that Nick gave them," Yulk explained.

"I named one of them Algebrun, and the other one wanted to be named Tits," I added.

"Oh... I see..." Olmira said.

"Yeah, she was quite the character. Anyway, what's so interesting about what Gralv wrote?" I asked.

Yulk looked thankful at the change in topic, and put a bookmark in between the pages he was reading.

"Well, in this story he spent a summer with the fae and interviewed as many as he could. Eventually, he got curious as to why all of the fae he spoke to were female, and one of the fae revealed that they chose their forms based on many factors. In his case, they were trying to convince him to extend his stay indefinitely and... help make more fae."

"Oh?"

"Yes, though I'm not certain I believe it. He continues to explain the process in which fae couple with mortals in excruciating detail, though it very much reads like a soldier or guard bragging to his friends about a fictional romantic encounter. He then explains that fae are also able to couple with certain magical plants and spirits, which lends a bit of credibility to his claims because this is the method of procreation that those who are familiar with the fae know of."

"So they can make babies with anything?" I asked with fear in my voice. "Is Tits going to cause a population crisis?"

"That's unlikely," Yulk laughed. "New fae cannot be created without the explicit consent of the mating partner. If their partner does not want to create a new fae, even subconsciously, one will not be created. He doesn't explain how this works with plants, unfortunately."

"So what else does he..." Nash started to say before trailing off. "Do the rest of you hear that?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, but after a moment I heard a dull rumbling sound in the distance. We looked around, but couldn't see what was causing the sound until our cart turned a corner. To our right was a forest, and to our left were plains that were being ravaged by a tornado.

We watched the storm in a shocked silence. It was breathtakingly massive, ripping up everything around it. The giant funnel was extending from a large cloud, which was also the only cloud in the sky. I was about to ask if that's normal when Nash stood up, putting his hand on Imlor's shoulder.

"Imlor, get us out of here," he said.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Imlor said, urging the hnarses to pick up their pace.

Nash nearly toppled over as the cart began to speed along the road. He took a knee and we watched the tornado nervously, silently praying that it didn't start coming toward us. Lighting struck the ground near the tornado, and a few seconds later thunder shook everything around us.

"Is that... normal?" I asked. "Do tornados usually appear from a singular cloud?"

"No," Olmira said quietly.

"What's going on, then?"

"I don't know."

"Wait a minute," Yulk said. "Isn't this where we encountered-"

He was interrupted by the cart coming to a sudden stop. Before anyone could ask Imlor what was going on, a loud roar drowned out the sounds of the distant storm. I stood to see what was happening and saw a bear-shaped creature in the middle of the road a few yards ahead of us. Instead of fur, though, it had scales that were completely black. Its claws glimmered like five razer sharp daggers in the sunlight.

I grabbed my sword as it roared again and leapt from the cart with Nash close behind me. We took position in front of the cart, trying to protect Imlor and the hnarses. The bear-lizard rose onto its hind legs and roared once more, louder this time.

"The fuck is that thing?" I asked.

"It's an urzarn," Nash explained. "They're tough. Go for the gut or the throat, don't bother with the chest or head."

"Understood," I said.

Nash charged forward and I quickly followed him. A wind spear flew over our heads and barely missed the urzarn, who dropped to all fours and began charging us. As Nash and I got closer, I used Dash to get ahead of him and swung my sword at the urzarn's neck with Power Slash.

Time seemed to slow down as my blade approached the monster. It looked like it was going to be a good slash, and I began contemplating how I would avoid a counterattack. But as my blade made contact with the urzarn's neck, it suddenly disappeared with a balloon-like pop.

My sword struck the ground and I stood there stunned, wondering what the hell just happened. I barely managed to catch a glimpse of something fleshy heading toward my face, but before I could react I was enveloped in a flower-scented squishiness. Arms locked my head in place as I dropped my sword and began to struggle.

"NICK!" a muffled but familiar feminine voice shouted.