“Heal?” Callum asked. “Do you know how to use it?”
“That’s what I’m doing right now if you’d just stay still,” she said, gently holding his arm in place while she cleaned the wound.
“I don’t mean to be harsh, but we now live in a world where magic is a very real thing and your heal skill could be more than what it seems on the surface.” He stopped her hand and made eye contact with her. “This is going to sound weird, but I need you to reach within to see if you can find any inkling of how the skill might work.” The seriousness in his voice seemed to be grabbing her attention.
“Okay, I can try.” Sally closed her eyes for a moment before speaking again. “You were right. I don’t know how, but I can feel that you are wounded. Give me a moment.”
Callum waited patiently. Sally’s eyes scrunched in concentration, then he felt something. It was an odd itching sensation that came from inside his arm. The feeling wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was unusual. He moved to scratch the itch out of instinct, but Sally’s hand shot out and stopped him.
Her eyes opened, and only because of the dim light in the room, he was able to make out an ethereal green glow within.
This proceeded for several minutes, and Callum intently studied his arm, watching as muscle knit over bone and feeling returned to his hand. He resisted the urge to wiggle his fingers as he was afraid that he might disturb the process.
Sally’s head hung with exhaustion after fifteen minutes of work. Callum inspected his arm and found that it was nearly healed. Instead of being the shredded piece of meat, it had a few minutes ago, it now looked as if he had scraped it on the concrete. It was still slightly inflamed and red, but it was minor at this point.
Sally, however, looked to not be faring as well. Her head was in her hands as she rubbed her temples.
“Are you alright?” Callum asked, concerned she had pushed herself too far.
“I’m fine, just have a splitting headache. That was amazing, though. I had no clue I could do something like that.” Her tone was at odds with what she was saying. It was an impressive feat, but Callum surmised that she had completely exhausted her mana. “I think I’m gonna go lie down now.”
Callum understood the feeling of stretching yourself beyond the limits and didn’t press her any further on the myriad of questions he had about what she had done. He needed to get some sleep as well after that fight with the wolves.
He returned to the room that he had been sleeping in but didn’t want to ruin the mat with the viscera that still clung to him. He curled up and let sleep take him again.
Waking the next morning brought with it the stiffness that could only be associated with sleeping on a wood floor, but a few stretches had Callum feeling ready to take on the day. There was still a lot to do and first on his to-do list was to check the location he had left on his note to the people in his building.
His stretches hadn’t completely cured him of the stiffness, so he settled into a light jog as he went over what he wanted to do that day.
The new settlement still needed wood, and by his estimations, a lot of it. He had purchased four axes initially, but that most likely wouldn’t be enough, especially if they were to grow any. So far, the only way of getting more axes was to buy them with gold, and based on what he had learned, clearing more dungeons would net him more gold. Clearing the dungeons also accomplished another goal of upgrading the town. To do so he needed to claim three more territories.
There was also the matter of his new skill, Basic Magic. He wanted to experiment more with it. The buckler had been a nice addition, but when he had gone to find it that morning, it was almost completely shredded, and even without identifying it, he could tell the magical enhancement had been destroyed as well. It had likely saved his arm from being cut off completely, so if the buckler was the cost for that, he was willing to accept it.
With his tasks for the day laid out before him, he settled on a schedule. After he checked the meeting point, he would return to Ryan to continue learning what he could about magic. He needed to take on another dungeon soon, but he wanted to be as prepared as he could. It would likely be faster and safer if he had magic on his side.
If he managed to learn anything useful, he could most likely get a dungeon delve in after his mana recovered. If he could manage to find one quickly, that is. If he could, then some woodcutting was likely in his future afterward.
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He arrived at the meeting point a few minutes before the predetermined time, though he was not exact as there was no longer a way to tell a specific time. He just hoped the instructions had been clear enough.
The waiting was starting to make him anxious, as the Vipers could have seen the instructions and were laying an ambush for him. He scanned around, looking for hiding spots, and was mostly calm as he couldn’t spot anyone in likely hiding spots.
In the thirty minutes he was there, no one showed up. It could be for any number of reasons, but he would not have the chance to sate his curiosity. He wished he could just give directions straight to the town hall, but if the Vipers found his new home, they would likely attack. That could be disastrous, even if he was there. No one he had seemed looked ready to fight should the need arise.
Sighing, he set off back to the town hall. He wanted to inform Ryan of his plan. The necessity of the situation seemed to be bringing out leadership skills that Callum didn’t know he had.
Callum picked up the pace on his way back, eager to get on with his busy day.
Ryan was an easy man to find, as the first place Callum checked was the room they had used to practice magic the previous night. Not wanting to disturb the man’s focus, Callum settled down and closed his eyes, trying to feel the flow of mana again.
It came much faster this time. However, it was different as instead of pulling the mana into him, he was feeling how it flowed around and through his body. It seemed to concentrate in one area, in the center of his chest. That was the well where his mana was stored, but how could he access it.
He wished he had his buckler, as then he could use it to observe the flow of mana, but he would have to do without. The way the mana had flowed from him into the buckler had been a vague notion, but he sought to replicate it.
He tried pushing and pulling on that wellspring of power, but it was very metaphysical. He toyed with that method for a few minutes before something occurred to him. The buckler had worked as a vacuum, seeking to equalize a pressure differential between him and its store of mana.
With that in mind, he opened his palm and imagined a vacuum, trying to force the ambient mana in the atmosphere away. Some kind of guiding force assisted him and allowed him to create this pressure differential.
There was a space of no mana taking up a sphere resting on his hand. It wasn’t visible, but Callum could sense it. He sensed that the mana within him sought to correct the difference and fill the space.
He could feel the pressure difference, and guided his mana into the void, controlling the flow. Having experienced running out of mana before, he was not eager to feel that again.
Half of his mana had filled the void when he ended the flow. It took some effort to do so, as once it started flowing, stemming it was difficult.
Keeping his eyes closed, Callum observed the mana with that sixth sense that had been developing. His first assessment was that it required some measure of willpower to keep it contained. The second was that it didn’t match the environmental mana. It felt like him, which made some sense as it had come from him.
The final observation he made was that there was no texture to it. This observation was a bit more nebulous as he couldn’t place why he felt this way. It was simply something he knew.
Some commotion came from the main room, and that was enough to break his concentration. The orb dissipated and his shoulders hunched in frustration.
Superimposed on his closed eyes, notifications appeared.
[Basic Magic: Novice 1 → Novice 2]
[Basic Magic: Novice 2 → Novice 3]
He had gained two levels of it just from that? It had gone that way for his first session practicing with his blade, so it made some sense.
Opening his eyes, he saw Ryan staring intently at him.
“That was impressive. It took me much longer to draw out my mana like that, much less hold it in a stable form.”
“I had more help. Thanks to you and that buckler I had, I learned a lot quickly,” Callum said, trying to stay somewhat humble.
“Still, no less impressive to actually do it.”
Callum nodded and settled back down to recover his mana before calling an end to the session. He wished he had more time to dedicate to it, but that time may come after the settlement was well established.
His next order of business was a decision he had been putting off. Would he specialize his One-Handed Weapons skill, or would he keep it as is? He kept coming back to his baseline being increased, and that was the most tempting part.
It had only taken him a couple of days to get the skill where it was, though that was not without difficulty. Now that he knew a little more, that trade-off seemed worth it. He had no clue where a skill maxed out if it did, but to get back to his current level meant his skills were more effective and that was worth it.
Callum stepped outside and selected the specialization. He would likely need some room for what came next.
[Skill Specialization: One-Handed Weapons → Rapier]
He then pulled up his status page.
[Status: Callum Green]
Duellist Level 7
HP: 90/90 MP: 90/90 SP: 135/135
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 23
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 9
Wits: 16
Resolve: 2
Skills:
Rapier:
Rank: Novice 2
Proficiency: 50%
Riposte
Blade Dance
Identify:
Level: 2
Proficiency: 20%
Basic Magic:
Rank: Novice 3
Proficiency: 30%
Everything looked as he expected it to, though he was getting a bit disappointed that his Endurance and Resolve were lagging. There was nothing he could do about it for the moment so he ignored it. His dexterity was climbing higher, but it seemed there was some level of diminishing returns as he didn’t feel like he was gaining as much tangible benefits.
Next, though, was why he had stepped outside, and gotten himself some space away from things as well.
He settled into his fighting stance and found it more natural than he had before. Each rank had provided him some insight into how he was supposed to be fighting, but this was different. His feet fell naturally into position; his sword felt balanced in his hand.
He started with a few thrusts, testing to see if anything major was wrong with his form. Unfortunately, it was, and he set about correcting the mistakes until he was confident.
Then, he began the work in earnest.