It took Gabe several moments to register that he was no longer in danger. His aura was helping to keep his mind clear and focused, but his heart was still thundering in his chest. He kept glancing around expecting another prowler to leap from the shadows and attack them. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt something touch his arm but it was just Professor Alrik.
“That was your first time in a serious fight?”
“That obvious? I’ve been in fights before, but everything happened so quickly. When I realized we were surrounded by shadow prowlers, I kinda froze. I’m….I’m sorry.” Gabe hung his head down, his cheeks burning red with shame.
He’d told himself he could do this. He knew what taking on this job meant and he’d done his best to prepare for it. And yet, when it came down to it he froze. What would have happened if he hadn’t snapped out of it in time to cast his aura? His role in this party was to heal and support and he’d nearly failed.
“There is no need to apologize Gabriel. You did well given the circumstances. In fact, if you had not identified the shadow prowlers as quickly as you did, I would not have thought to prepare my Luminous Bind spell. With that trapping them to this plane and Aura of Vitality buffing us all, the fight was much more manageable. We should consider this a great victory, only one of us was wounded.”
At Professor Alrik’s words, Gabe was reminded that Drevock’s leg was still bleeding. He’d forgotten since the large man was moving without issue while in Gabe’s aura. He quickly rushed over to him.
“Uh Drevock, I can heal your leg.”
Drevock grunted, which Gabe took to be a yes since he stuck out his injured leg towards him. Leaning down and touching the wound, Gabe cast Repair. A soft green light suffused the injury as the muscle and skin knit itself back together. Normally with a wound this size Gabe would have stitched it closed before healing it, but his hands felt shaky and he didn’t trust himself to do it properly. Instead he just cast Repair once more and the wound closed completely, leaving a stripe of fresh clean skin surrounded by dried blood.
Gabe stood up as Drevock inspected his leg. Apparently satisfied, Drevock turned to face Gabe directly.
“Tank you. Next time, stay focused ven fighting.”
With that the man walked away to where the bag had been set down and dug through it before pulling out a cloth that he used to clean his axes. Gabe made his way back to Simon and Professor Alrik who were looking down into the pit Simon had made. From what he could hear of their conversation, it sounded like Professor Alrik was asking about Simon’s spell.
“I see you have been practicing casting multiple spells concurrently. We likely would have been fine if you had just cast Earthen Pit as the threat they posed would have been neutralized and I could have eliminated them more easily with Ray of Light. It was clever to modify Stone Javelin to have a metallic tip though. Much more effective that way.”
“Thank you Master. I partially overlaid the spellform with a modified version of Reinforce that changed the top portion of the stone into steel.”
Gabe arrived at the pit and stood next to the duo. Hearing Simon discuss his spell, Gabe was even more impressed by what he saw. He could tell from Simon’s furious casting that the spell was complicated, but hearing that he’d modified it mid cast was something he hadn’t realized could be done. He knew that some spells allowed for flexibility in their casting by having parameters that could be changed. His Aura of Vitality was a good example of that. But what Simon had done was less changing parameters and more like inventing a brand new spell.
“Ah, very impressive. Though if my understanding is correct, that would make it practically a tier three spell that you then repeated a dozen times in addition to Earthen Pit. How much mana did you spend on this?”
Throughout the conversation, Simon had a smug self-satisfied expression on his face. However, hearing his master’s question, his smile turned sheepish as he brought a hand up to scratch his head.
“Uh, well about that. Turns out the modification wasn’t quite as efficient as I thought it’d be. So, if I had to guess, using rough estimates of mana output and regen rates, I’d have to say that it took um most.” His voice trailed off slightly at the end.
“I did not quite catch that Simon. Could you please repeat it a little louder?”
“Gah, most of it. I used most of my mana with that spell. But you gotta admit, it was impressive and it got the job done. We don’t have to worry about those damned prowlers anymore.”
“Yes, your spellcraft was innovative and effective. However, you expended nearly your entire mana capacity in one go when it was not necessary. As I said before, just Earthen Pit would have sufficed. I could have taken them out using a fraction of the mana you did and that would leave all of us in a much better position to take on the next threat we encounter. Take this a lesson, you as well Gabriel. Sometimes it is better to cast a simple spell effectively than to cast something flashy or clever. Now Simon, meditate and recover your mana. You will need to fill in the pit before we can leave. It would not do to leave it here where someone else could accidentally fall into it.”
With that proclamation Professor Alrik turned around and walked away, leaving Gabe alone with Simon who was muttering under his breath.
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It took Simon a little over a half hour to recover his mana and fill in the pit he’d made. With that taken care of, the party began making their way towards the wyvern’s nest. They had hoped to make it there before nightfall, but between the prowlers and waiting for Simon, the sun was already making its descent as they set off.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The setting sun cast long shadows through the forest and Gabe kept glancing behind him, expecting to see ashen eyes watching him from the darkness. While he might have been the most obviously nervous, it was clear that the fight in the clearing had the others on edge as well. When they left, Professor Alrik cast an aura spell of his own that he said would illuminate any creature that was trying to sneak up on them. No longer did they keep up a constant stream of light-hearted banter, instead choosing to walk in silence with only the occasional remark on an overgrown root or loose stone in the path
The dense forest soon gave way to a much more rugged terrain with large rock outcroppings and boulders appearing before them. The trail they had been following led to a narrow ravine that cut up the side of the mountain. According to the scouts’ report, they would need to follow the ravine for about a mile before they’ll reach the cliff face that housed the wyvern.
What would have been a treacherous journey in the dark was made much easier with the help of magic. Between Professor Alrik’s Nightvision spell and Simon using Shape Stone to smoothen out their path, Gabe found that he was able to let go of some of the tension he’d been carrying since the clearing.
He’d been frustrated with himself after freezing up during the attack. After leaving the clearing, when not looking for prowlers in the shadow, he replayed the fight over and over again in his head, trying to think what he should have done. The obvious thing was to cast Aura of Vitality right away. His buff spell really helped Drevock after he was injured. If he’d cast it right when they’d noticed the creatures, maybe Drevock wouldn’t have been injured at all.
When he’d only known Repair, his role in a fight was always reactionary. He would wait until someone was injured before he could act. That wasn’t the case anymore. Now that he knew more spells, spells that could be cast before a fight began to help his party, he needed to be more proactive.
Gabe had also realized that he’d completely forgotten about his enchanted ring. Granted, he was glad he didn’t waste the charges on a fight where they weren’t needed but using it hadn’t even crossed his mind. It was only going to get more dangerous when they reached the wyvern’s nest and enter the tunnel system. If he was going start pulling his weight more in the battles to come, he needed to stay focused and make the best use of his spells and equipment.
His ruminations were interrupted as he walked into Simon, who’d stopped at a signal from Drevock. The apprentice glared at Gabe who sheepishly mouthed the word “sorry”. Up ahead the ravine they’d been following veered off towards the right and on the left was a massive cliff face that was cut at such a perfect angle it seemed unnatural. Whatever force had cut the mountain must have done so ages ago as the wall of stone bore the rugged scars of time, a tapestry of weathered rock etched with the passage of time. Windswept divots, sculpted by the ceaseless barrage of the elements carved sinuous hollows into the cliff face. Numerous caverns dotted the rock, their shadows masking what lies within them.
Professor Alrik spoke an incantation and a bolt of golden light flew from his hands and outlined one of the caverns. Turning to face the others, the old gnome pointed towards the glowing light.
“According to my Illuminate Pathway spell, that is the cavern we seek. The location and description match what the scouts reported. All that is left to determine is whether the wyvern is in there. I could cast another spell to see if there are any living creatures within the cavern, however I fear that if the wyvern is in its nest, my spell could enrage it and provoke it to attack. We arrived here much later than originally planned and even with my magic, I do not think a battle in the darkness would be to our advantage.”
Professor Alrik looked around at the others to see if anyone disagreed with his assessment. When no one spoke up, he continued. “If we are in agreement, then I think the most prudent thing to do at the moment is to retreat back the way we came to get some distance from the beast and find a suitable location to set up camp.”
Gabe was glad that no one was pushing for them to check out the cave right away. As much as he wanted to redeem himself for freezing up earlier, being honest with himself he knew he wasn’t ready for another fight so soon. Hopefully they would be able to enter the cave when the wyvern wasn’t there, but he knew better than to get his hopes up.
The group walked back along the ravine for a little bit before reaching an area that was mostly flat and where there was a small copse of mountain ash trees bursting with bright red berries. At his master’s signal, Simon began casting a series of spells. The ground around them smoothened out completely and walls of stone rose up to form a simple square building. One of the walls continued to grow until eventually folding over to form the roof.
Despite having magic of his own, Gabe was amazed watching Simon’s spell take effect. While he knew the value of his spells, they were relatively simple. Simon’s magic was on a completely different scale. He was able to literally shape the earth around him. As much as Gabe respected Professor Alrik, if he was honest with himself he thought Simon was the more impressive spellcaster. Maybe once he was taking on apprentices of his own, he’d be willing to teach Gabe more formally. Being able to modify spells on the fly would be incredible and maybe he would even be able to teach Gabe how to unlock additional mana nodes. According to Professor Alrik, Simon had been able to unlock his mind node relatively easily.
Gabe resolved to ask about the process for unlocking mana nodes tomorrow. As much as he wanted to get started on it right away, the events of the day were taking their toll on his body. All he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. He was about to do just that when he noticed Drevock off to one side moving through a series of motions. Some of the forms reminded him of the battle stances in the book he’d bought, but others seemed too impractical for use in a fight.
Not wanting to interrupt the man, Gabe walked over to Professor Alrik to ask him about it. As he’d hoped, the professor knew exactly what Drevock was doing.
“Recall that when we were talking about different casting methods, I mentioned that Vidjeun casters guide their mana threads with their bodies similarly to Edortian casters but they do not limit themselves to just using their hands. Vidjeun casting requires the use of the entire body and oftentimes the forms are adapted into a fighting style. Drevock is currently moving through the battle forms of his people. While he generally does this every evening as a way to center his thoughts, tonight it serves the additional purpose of refreshing his spells.”
“Refreshing his spells? I know he cast something during the fight with the prowlers, the orange light gave that away, but I don’t see any light now. Is he casting something different?”
“Yes and no. Vidjeun casting is unique in that each group that uses it has their own approach to casting spells. This is why Vidjeun casting is one of the most difficult to learn. You cannot simply take what you already know and apply it to a new spellform. For Drevock, his ‘brand’ of magic if you will allows him to store spells within his soul to allow for instantaneous casting later on. How they accomplish this is a secret of his tribe and as such I do not know much more beyond that. I just know that after he casts, he needs to replenish his stored spells before they can be cast again.”
Once again, Gabe was amazed by just how varied magic was. After this mission, he resolved that he was going to learn as much about magic as he possibly could. Seeing Drevock going through his forms inspired Gabe to practice his own. He thanked Professor Alrik and then retrieved his book of battle stances and began going through the motions as slowly and deliberately as possible. If worse came to worst and he had to fight a wyvern tomorrow, he’d be ready.