Novels2Search
This is no game!
Chapter 9 - Capture The Flag and Magic Specialization

Chapter 9 - Capture The Flag and Magic Specialization

Once again I woke up with the birds singing. I think the lack of curtains and the sun shining in my face really worked to make me get up.

I checked my bed. No Syd.

I checked my shirt. No random cuts.

And finally, I checked the room.

Syd was not here. His bed was still a mess. Remembering some of the thoughts I had yesterday I quickly got redder. Deciding to ignore it, I got up, cleaned my face (I used some Fire Mana, so no cold water today.

Also, got a spell, Warm Wave, a utility spell) and brushed my teeth.

Changing my clothes I went down stairs.

Before eating, I decided to take a bath.

The changing room was empty, and only a handful of monks were in the showers. I took a quick bath, didn’t even go to the hot pool, and just took a cold shower.

Finishing my bath I decided to go grab some food.

There was an awkward atmosphere there. A lot of people were flustered and embarrassed, not able to face their friends. Last night surely made them do some things, huh.

I grabbed my plate (today will only be fruits, bananas, apples and some grapes), and sat down with Piper and Luna.

They seemed fine, compared with the others. Maybe Luna, who was a Demon too, resisted the mist but I didn’t know how Piper seemed this fine.

When I asked her she gave me a wink.

“Little Luna here is my roommate, remember? When she sensed something was wrong she quickly took us away of there.” Pause to eat something. “And you, were you affected by it?” she seemed really interested on my side of the night.

I got redder

“Almosssst. But I managed to exit the monassstary before doing sssomething.” Half lie, I did exited the monastery, but I really did something.

She seemed to believe me, but I could see her pouting a little (damm, gaming fundoshis!)

“The monks said they would apologize after breakfast” said Luna. “It’s better that you finish soon”

I looked at her, no plate in front of her. My curious side quickly took control.

“Luna, I haven’t ssseen you eat yet. Are you eating?”

She blushed. And looked to Piper. And pretended she didn’t look that way. What an easy to read Vampire.

I looked at Piper, scrutinizing her. Obviously looked at her neck. Nothing was there. But maybe biting arteries wouldn’t be a well thought idea. But I did see two small holes on her wrists.

“Oh” was all I said. Luna looked a little redder. Piper looked amused. I went back to eating, not wanting to delve into this situation.

After we finished we went to the fountain. It seems public speeches were given there (the first day I arrived a scolding was going on. Some people had invaded the kitchens and stole some food)

We sat down and waited for everybody to arrive.

The both of them were talking about their pasts. I frowned at this, since I didn’t recall mine and asked if they knew why.

And it happened that they did know.

People who changed their races for Humans and Elves kept most of their memories. Farther from human meant more memories were forgotten. Something about the brains being too different, and taking some time to be able to keep the memories. Currently, the most different from Human was me, but both of them said I would be able to recover them.

People started to arrive. Still embarrassed.

When the head monk arrived (I asked Piper his name. It was Father John. Luna didn’t know too) he started the speech.

It happens that the monk’s rooms were filled with various spells, which protected them from the Purple Aura. Our dormitory, before we arrived, was only used for training, and lacked the spells, since no one lived there. The ones outside protected themselves by purifying the aura around them, but stayed still, to avoid being affected.

The monks actually didn’t know about such spells. And our dormitory was a new building so they didn’t cast such spells.

And about the Aura in itself, there were only tales about it. They considered it was only tales that were told out of boredom. They apologized for their recklessness.

He also said that since tomorrow will be the visit to the village above, he ordered the monks that will be going to buy gifts for us. “Not that it will fix anything” he said. “But maybe it can help recovering from it.”

After finishing he sent us to the training grounds. We still had a world to save in the next months, so we had to train.

The trainer was waiting for us. He was smiling (shivers were felt)

“TODAY WE WILL BE PLAYIN’ CATCH THE FLAG!” this actually sounded funny “KILLING AND MAGIC ALLOWED!” nope, not that funny anymore. “DIVIDE INTO TWO TEAMS, AND WHEN YOU’RE READY WE WILL START!”

Sighing, we decide that the first we will make a human and a non human teams. Just for the felling of WOW it gave doing it this way.

So it was a team with the three Humans, the Dwarf, ten Elves, and the reptilian (not a human, I know, but we wanted to split evenly)

On the other team was a mess of races: five Lust Demons, a Vampire, an Imp, four Orcs (they were happily shouting For the Horde!), an Ent, two Beastman, and a Siren.

We had the advantage in brute strength, but the best magicians were on their team. Tough it will be hard to cast spell inside the forest, our group had more ‘freshman’ too.

There was a river dividing the forest in two. The flags were placed at the top of two small hills. The objective: catch the flag and cross the river. Magic was allowed (except for chants and above), killing was too.

Everybody took out their weapons. We decided to leave the protection of the flag for the Demons, and to Luna and Piper. Their racial skills would serve as good distraction. The main attack would be made by the jocks club, and I and the Catgirl would be in charge of delivering information through the party chat about kills and the enemy information.

Yes, party chat. When the groups were formed a blue screen appeared to everybody, listing us as party members. The crosses above my team turned blue, and the opponent become red. This world was truly game like.

When the Demons released their aura, everybody quickly moved from the area. We really didn’t want an encore of last night. Luna and Piper moved to higher grounds, where Piper would snipe the targets with her longbow. Luna would be using Mana Sight to prevent Piper from quickly dying from spells.

Well, since I’ll be just a scout, I decided to put my weapon away. I would climb the trees and scout from up there (some tree had branches that crossed the river).

And so we started.

I quickly used my high leveled climbing and acrobatics skills to quickly reach the battle scene.

It was movie-like. The clang of steel, the explosion caused by magic and the combatants shouting.

They were fighting inside the river, with water reaching their calves. Urg, bad place, slippery and hard to move.

I crossed the river and sighted the three pure mages they had. So I decided to go for stealth kills.

Grabbing my dagger, I moved over to where a Human was casting his magic. The Elves had heightened senses, so killing him would be quicker. I waited for him to begin channeling a spell, when he would be too concentrated to notice his surrounds.

When the spell began to form I jumped down, stabbing his head. Fatal hit.

Without waiting for him to disappear, I quickly climb up.

The interrupted spell exploded. I smiled. This would help to cover his death.

One down, three more to go.

The next one was an Elf. And he was already in alert. Maybe seeing the name of the human I just killed disappearing from the party list made him worry.

It didn’t help either, when an arrow hit the other mage in head. Piper was really a sniper.

I went above him. But he moved. Annoying, he should let me kill him quickly.

A sudden crack on the branch I was standing made me jump to another. Just in time.

The branch was incinerated by the mage. The one who cut it was the reptile, wielding an axe.

He probably was protecting the Elf, and noticed me when I jumped on that branch. The mage had found me too. It was two against one.

Cursing my luck, I jumped into the reptile. He defended, using the broad side of the axe as a shield. Just what I wanted.

I used it to jump back, giving me some impulse, and running to the mage. He was startled and quickly cast an ice shard at me.

I avoided it. And got close enough of him. He took his dagger out too, and parried.

I smiled at him.

I used my other hand to keep the wielding one in place, and projected my mana.

I cast out all the fire mana from around him, making him freeze. Unfortunately, I was next to him, so my heat was removed too.

While we both were freezing, I hoped that taking the mages out would help us.

He died first. I made sure of it. Didn’t want him to be warmed up after I died. The Lizard hadn’t reached us yet.

And then, I died.

----------------------------------------

“Child, you are dying too much” said the white goddess.

I was back to the snowy landscape. But this time, I was once into human form

I looked at her “Does I have another question”

She smiled and nodded.

“Who was I?” a question that today have come back to my mind.

She looked I little sad. “You were Matthew Johnson, 19 years old, brother of Melina. Your mother died when you were young. When you finished middle school you went to a live alone. Your sister went to another.” The light surrounded me.

“Our time is over, again. Now, the cycle restarts”

And I was blinded by the light.

----------------------------------------

I woke up on the cold stone. Naked. Again.

Sighing, I looked around.

The mage first mage I killed was already up, dressing. The one who died of a headshot was putting his clothes on. The one I killed freezing was taking his clothes from a Human.

He brought my clothes to me.

“Who won?” I asked.

He looked embarrassed, putting his hand on his head. “I managed to go through the battle on the river and arrived at your clothes, together with Clare.” He looked to his side “two of the Demons were dead, by some magic. So I went against three while Clare took care of the other” he looked at me, expecting me to give up on knowing. I didn’t. He sighed “I managed to kill all three of them in a strike, but destroyed the flag in the process. Since the objective was to capture the flag, we lost. And, the trainer didn’t have another flag, so the play ended.”

I looked at him. Three Demons. In one strike.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

This guy was truly the hero character. Even with his clumsiness.

“So, they ordered me to wait for the guys to be reborn and give them their clothes” he said. A lot of lights began to form in another table. “One is coming, I have to go. Bye!” and went his way.

I looked at the rebirth process, while putting my clothes on. It was interesting. The light danced around the table, and suddenly concentrated in one place. It seemed to crystallize, and began forming the body. It was an Elf, didn’t know his name.

Since the training had ended, I decided to go train my water manipulation. The trick I used against the mage gave some clues about how to obtain other proficiencies.

I went to the fountain.

I formed a Water Sphere and brought it to me. Sitting down, I analyzed it.

I looked into the ball, and saw it had some Fire and Earth Mana inside of it.

I slowly removed them. The ball didn’t change in any way.

Opening my eyes, I was surprised to see how much it had changed.

It was almost see through. And emitted a faint glow. There was also a new panel.

For completely cleaning the Water Sphere, you gained a new spell: Mana Water

Mana Water Sphere – Elemental Sphere SeriesYou can summon a ball of mana, mimicking the effects of pure water

It corrodes most of the materials known by mortals

Congratulations!You acquired the title: Water Mage

Water MageAllows you to rapidly cast water spells.

Water spells are more powerful.

“Wow”, was all I could say.

This is awesome!

I let go of Mana Water Sphere, and casted Water Sphere.

It was really quicker!

Before I had to wait over two minutes for it to be completely cast. Now, it only took some seconds! For a bigger sphere!

Testing really gives advantage!

I sat down again and tested my other idea.

I made two Elemental Spheres, one with fire, and the other with water.

Casting both of them was hard, as I had to make sure to don’t add any unwanted mana. I used Mana Sight, to make sure I was only using the mana I wanted.

After completing both, I slowly tried to fuse them.

There was a small sizzling soung. And the mana completely changed.

I was startled, so I let go of the mana I have created. It had a gray tone. It spread across the area, making it hard to see. I have formed steam.

Congratulations!You have acquired Mist Proficiency

I looked at the panel, agape.

I wanted to create boiling water, but created a new proficiency. It was hard to stop the laughing from coming (my chuunibyou side was never this happy)

After the laughing passed, I trained with this new mana.

It was similar to Air Mana, but a lot denser. It was easier to control.

I even managed to cast a Mist Sphere spell.

The bells rang when I was training casing multiple Spheres of mist.

I still had to make all the steam go away…

Well, I will just concentrate all in one magic sphere, and ask Minerva what to do with it.

It was a rather interesting morning.

----------------------------------------

The lunch went normally, people had already forgotten last night incident. I got some awkward stares, for walking around carrying a spell. But they didn’t say anything.

I sat with Broox, Piper and Luna. Luna had a food plate in front of her.

“What happened?” I asked Broox.

*grunt* “She lost a bet, now she have to eat”*grunt*

She didn’t seem to be liking it tough. But managed to eat all.

It was these little things that made you wonder if these were the people who will save the world.

“And why are you carrying a spell around?” *grunts*

“Tried sssome new ssspellsss. Didn’t know how to disssperssse though.”

*grunt* “That’s why I don’t train much magic. Don’t have the patience to try and get it.” with a shrug, he went back to eating.

After lunch people started to go out. Another day with the druid, it seems.

We went upstairs to start the class.

Sister Minerva was a little flustered. Don’t know why. After she created a mini storm inside the room when we asked what she did yesterday, well, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

“Today we will start a specialization program. Don’t worry, if you hadn’t manage to acquire the basics mana, you probably don’t have a good affinity with it. Training affinity takes too long, so I let this part of the training for the druid.”

She asked what each of one would pursue.

Luna wanted an ample magic arsenal. She decided to sacrifice powerful spells to have more variety. “Don’t know which one I’ll need later” was her reasoning.

Uriel wanted to be a pure Fire Mage. He really liked to play with it, and didn’t got to train his other spells. But he wanted signs and spells, since he planned to fight on the front rows.

Torrik said he would only pursue enchanting. I was surprised that he didn’t plan to be a fighter to protect this world. Instead he wanted to be a craftsman, and help the people develop some defenses. Sister Minerva told him that she would search for a Master Enchanter, and he could leave the class, if he didn’t want to participate.

He exited the class.

I asked for Water and Mist magic.

She didn’t seem surprised with our answers. In fact it seems she had already figured out what each of us would want.

“Since you had decided on what magic to follow, we will now make you more attuned to such spells. We will create Elemental Shards and put it into your bodies. This way, it will be easier to use your spells.”

She made us summon the Elemental Spheres of the elements we had chosen. I was quite help to know that bringing my Mist Sphere all the way here wasn’t in vain.

Luna got to be surrounded by a lot of spheres. It looked like she wanted to impersonate a solar system. She didn’t like the joke though, and I spent some minutes dodging various spheres of random elements, until she calmed down (the Cool Beauty was no more).

To create the shards we need to muster a great amount of mana. It was especially difficult with Air Mana (according to Luna) since she had to solidify something that in essence was opposite to solid.

Solidifying Water Mana was not that hard. Now, Mist Mana took lots of time. By the time I had finished it, Luna had already formed her shards, and Uriel was doing the next step.

The next step consisted in putting the shards inside our mouths and taking the mana inside ourselves.

A little advice from Uriel. Don’t put scorching stones inside your mouth without mentally preparing for it (I would still avoid it though, even if mentally prepared). He said he almost gave up on spot. Luna take it easier than him, since the other mana balanced the hotness coming from the Fire Shard.

Mixing both Water and Mist Mana was easy as drinking water and breathing. Except that I didn’t select an area for them to occupy, losing all the mana, and had to do the whole process again (another lecture from Sister Minerva after this mistake)

The second time I was more careful, and decided to inject them in a hand, each. Now, whenever I looked into my hands with Mana Sight on, I saw a grey and a transparent light in each hand.

After this, Sister Minerva taught us several magic. To Uriel, since he wanted to be a close fighter, she only taught the Fire Clad spell. It made weapons acquire the blessing of fire, being coated in flames. He could also use it on himself. And she taught him the Flamoj Sign. At the end of the training, he was able to coat his hand in fire, and throw flames into the enemies. Minerva said that, with training, the sign would have an increased reach and get even hotter.

To Luna, she taught the Bolt Series, spells that had a true combat significance. They moved quicker than the spheres, and caused abnormal status.

And me, I had to learn both Water Clad and Water Bolt magic. And she taught ways to attack with boiling water or freezing water. She also taught me a Mist Spell that would summon mist around me and one that would distort a target sense of depth. It seems I’ll really be able to obtain the Illusion Spells I wanted!

Or, at least, some optical illusion tricks…

When we went downstairs to have dinner, we were told that the others were still training with the druid, since he wanted to improve their affinity with Dark Mana.

So on the dinner were only me, Luna, the Lust Demons (except for the succubus that trained to be a mage and Uriel, who usually took a bath and just after he would eat), three Orcs and Torrik.

The bath time also was awkward, since the monks were putting up a barrier to stop the Twin Moons creating another Moonlit Purple Aura.

The showers that usually were crowded with monks looked deserted. It didn’t help that Syd asked me to help him wash his back, as the others, who usually helped him, had already bathed. (Though I did got him to teach the cleaning magic, so I got that going for me)

The thoughts of yesterday night still clouded my mind. And he even offered to wash my back in return.

When he asked why I was getting so red, I simply answered it was the heat.

When we returned to the room I was still redder than usual, but just jumped into my bed.

I really needed a good sleep.

----------------------------------------

Author Note:

Aaaaaaaaaand new chapter!

And more magics! Yay!

I'm planning a small... upgrade... for Gyp. Don't know when it will occur, or even if it will occur. (You will have to continue reading MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

And currently 25 followers! Only 5 to go, before I make a Side Story (not including the Valentine one)

And TWO rates (and quite high, too)! Don't know how to (or even if I can) visualize who rated but thanks for your time!

So, for the 25 followers, Thanks for following!

Thanks for Reading!