“Arghh! Why would you add flames?! Are you training me or turning me into a roasted dinner?” I screamed indignantly at my mentor, finding a spot to hide behind and heal myself.

I channeled the Vitae I collected earlier, converting it with my Life Attunement and watching the severe burn marks on my arm and leg quickly vanish. The clothing I was wearing, however, was completely ruined. Thinking back to before the “training” started, it was no wonder he told me to strip down to my undergarments. I refused to show any remorse over the decision, it would only please the sadistic bastard even more.

“If you didn’t want to be burned, you should’ve looked more closely at your surroundings. That rune trap wasn’t even cleverly placed.” the voice of my mentor commented from the edge of the training yard.

There were many things I could’ve responded with, but I chose to keep my mouth closed for now. It was best to get this over with quickly rather than complain. Peeking out from the lone tree, I searched around for any more surprises. I could’ve used my Water Attunement to create a surface that would vaguely reflect my surroundings, but that would be a waste of Vitae at the moment. I couldn’t wait to go through my Foundation Establishment so that my core could produce usable Vitae on its own.

The training yard was an area just outside the town walls, created specifically for new Adepts to safely train their skills away from the majority of the populace. There were, of course, a few others located near the Divine Hall and the Garrison, but this one had the most privacy. However, you do have to submit a petition to use it, as all Adepts are supposed to be carefully watched.

Seeing nothing obvious in the area of arranged trees and stones, I carefully sneaked from my hiding place while preparing to blast a torrent of water. The goal of this exercise was to find a series of targets and strike them with my magic. Two main obstacles were stopping me from doing that, the first being the hidden traps spread across the field and waiting for me to trigger them. The second obstacle was that there were also targets that I shouldn’t attack, symbolizing the allies I was supposed to support in a battle.

My dream to join my older brother in the Imperial Army was something I would never give up on, but I didn’t want to nor have the ability to fight with a sword. Life and Water weren’t naturally suited for hard attacks either, at least not in the early Stages. If I didn’t want to be relegated to being a backline healer, I had to find a way to incorporate my Attunements into combat. I was making great progress in that as well, but my mentor liked to follow a harsh and grueling training plan.

I felt something push against my ankle as I stepped forward, followed by something snapping to my left. I instantly convert some of my Vitae into Water and create a barrier that stops one of the arrows from piercing my shoulder, but it’s not big enough to stop the second and third ones. I dodged out of the way, but they still grazed my arm and side. I stifled the scream of pain that was about to come out of my mouth.

“That is another fifteen points deducted from your score! The extra five because you wasted some of your Vitae.”

I let out a quiet scoff but grudgingly agreed with them. The healing earlier cost a large portion of my gathered Vitae, and the water shield had now brought me down to about ninety percent. It was only the third spell I’d cast since this started, and I was already down by a tenth of my resources. Someone who has spent as much time training as I have shouldn’t be this inefficient.

I checked my injuries, but I determined they weren’t worth spending Vitae on and just wrapped them in some bandages. Now that I knew what to look for, I started to see a few more wire and rune traps in my immediate area. I wouldn’t disillusion myself into thinking that was all of them, not with the mentor I had.

I then remembered a certain spell I had been working on, something I was saving for the right moment to reveal. It was still a work in progress, but I had practiced enough to have reasonable efficiency and control. Kambiz would probably still call it a waste when he saw it, but I pushed that annoying thought out of my mind.

I gathered and channeled a very large amount of Vitae, slowly converting it into Water while still keeping a mental connection to it. Instead of fully condensing it, I had it spread out around me in a fine mist. I kept the mist within my sensory range, about six feet from me in any direction. That was another thing I liked to gripe about since the range isn’t as far as it would be for a Gifted. Being born with a pseudo-core rather than gaining one later in life offered a huge advantage that I would never have.

Vitae was draining from me steadily, but I had enough control and understanding that the cost wasn’t too harsh. Wherever the mist touched, it sent a rough form of information directly to my mind. The images were barely discernible, but it was enough for me to make out vague details. I had to do this quickly, not only to preserve my Vitae but because using this spell for too long gradually forms a splitting headache. I once tried using this with my Life Attunement, and the results of that test are something I never wanted to repeat.

My movements became more sluggish than before, as I had to concentrate on the spell. The return for that was detecting the traps with even more frequency, stopping most of them from triggering. There were a few rune traps that were set off by the presence of my spell, but I was able to easily dodge them thanks to the added distance. Another great benefit to this spell!

Finally, I came upon the first set of targets. There were three of them, and they were all spinning in the air so that the target was sometimes out of view. An effect generated by my mentor’s Air Attunement and some runes inscribed into them.

Not wanting to let my Vitae go to waste, I came up with the idea of condensing a portion of the mist into three small orbs of water. Grinning and gloating to myself at the countless clever uses of my spell, I aimed the orbs at the targets and released them. With steadfast accuracy, all three targets are hit and promptly fall to the ground.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I quickly moved on before they were even struck, confident that I succeeded. The next two areas were mostly the same, though some targets had a different design that showed they were on my side. After that, the difficulty increased.

I had stopped using the mist spell by now, falling below the recommended fifty-percent threshold and gaining a piercing headache for the act. I ignored it, I would have to get used to this and worse for when I became a soldier. Nothing could get in my way.

The spot I came across next had me cursing. Not only were the targets now spinning at random, but they were also moving across the terrain. It took me a minute of carefully watching to recognize they were moving in some sort of pattern, but I didn’t have the patience to discern more than that.

I rushed forward to get into a good position, and was almost caught in another rune trap for my rash act. This trap was different from the others as it came from one of the enemy targets, shooting a stone directly at me. I noticed it fast enough that I was able to dodge and then counter with a water orb, just barely hitting the target.

A gust of wind hit me in the back, not hurting me but throwing me off balance. It put me right in a position to have more flames launched at me, which I dodged by dropping to the ground. I roll over and search with my magical senses for where the attacks came from, finding the one that shot the flames.

I returned the favor by shooting a water orb at it, but I realized too late that it had the same design as the allied targets. The attack landed and the target fell, but so did the rest of the targets in the area. I was stunned into silence from bafflement and disbelief, falling back down and releasing a furious outburst as I screamed and cursed out my frustrations. All of that effort was wasted by one single mistake.

After a minute I started to hear some footsteps coming toward me. I didn’t even bother looking, I could already view the smug smile he was making at me.

“A nice showing, but there was plenty you could improve on. Do you want me to point them out to you?” he rhetorically asks, finding enjoyment in my failure.

“I already know what you will say, I don’t need you to gloat about it to my face.”

I definitely could have worded that to be less juvenile, but I didn’t care at the moment. I was kicking myself over what happened, and the headache I was still experiencing wasn’t helping either.

“I’m not someone who gloats, I only offer whatever training and advice I think you need.” he smiled as he told an obvious lie.

“My parents pay you to teach me what is useful. Anything to get ahead of all the scions of the upper classes who were given this knowledge and training since birth. I am very far behind just because of the circumstances of my birth, and I don’t want to waste time with whatever stupid bit of wisdom you were trying to show me from that.”

I finally lifted my head off the ground to look my mentor directly in the eyes. He was a pure-blooded Rahimki man, with darkened skin, dark blond hair that was streaked with sapphire lines, and golden eyes. He was dressed plainly in a white chiton and long green coat with few adornments on him, but his appearance suggested that he took great care in grooming himself. He was very tall, being a little over six feet in height, but he didn’t look that physically fit. He looked no older than twenty-five, but with the benefits of Core Growth, he could be much older.

Master Kambiz gazed back at me without flinching. It was like a predator staring down its next meal, and I was ashamed to have looked away after a few seconds.

“All that I do is to help prepare you for the world,” his tone was calm and serious, no other inflection making itself known in his voice, “You might be talented and dedicated, but those do not make up for your flaws. Instead of rushing straight into a fight, you should’ve taken more time to analyze your surroundings and come up with a plan. Once more, you should’ve saved that fancy trick for when you truly needed it. You wouldn’t be suffering from such hurtful consequences now if you did.”

I said nothing as I listened to my mentor. The pain caused by my spell was bad enough, but it was going past the first threshold that exacerbated it. Everyone has at least some Vitae in them, and it’s a requirement to function normally. Using too much of it can cause serious problems. While those with a Core might be able to gather more of it from their surroundings, up to a certain amount, it didn’t get rid of that limitation.

I decided that I had done enough wallowing and picked myself up, dusting off what was left of my clothes. The headache was still pounding and piercing into me, but it would dissipate with time and some meditation. Maybe I could use my Life Attunement to relieve some of the pain.

“I can see what you are thinking, so stop it. No healing the damage that you inflicted onto yourself.”

“Fine,” I groused, “Is there anything else I can do until this annoying pain clears up? Why not go over the details of my Foundation Establishment again?”

I smiled at him hopefully, but he waved it away. “Another time, I’ve told you what I can about it. All that is left is training your control to increase your chances of success. I’ll give you an hour to rest and replenish your reserves, and then you’ll restart the course from the beginning. I hope you will learn from your previous mistakes.”

The smug grin returned before my mentor walked away. I grumbled just to make myself feel better and then searched for a place to comfortably rest. As I did, my mind couldn’t help to wander back to Master Kambiz.

I had realized over time that there was more to him than just an independent Adept. People like him were rare but not unheard of. What struck me as completely odd was the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He had claimed to be a former student of an academy but was expelled not long after he formed his Foundation Technique. Most people would have believed that, but the inaccuracies I’ve noticed were glaring.

In the year before Kambiz became my mentor, I secretly did everything I could to find information on Vitae cultivation. I was partially successful, but most of what I found didn’t have any practical application. It was still enough to see through the holes in Kambiz’s story, but I decided to keep quiet about them. If not because of the problems that action would bring, then because I didn’t see any point in doing so.

That decision seemed to have borne a bit of fruit. The ritual my mentor showed me yesterday was very powerful and was something that couldn’t have been something easily obtained. Whatever it was, I didn’t care as long as it wouldn’t hurt myself or my family. Because I don’t know what I would do if it did.