CHAPTER 35 (Patreon)

I was pleased to settle into a training rhythm. That allowed for a much tighter practice schedule than traveling. Most of the training I did was alone. I was fully enjoying the density of the mana available. This made practicing my kinetic magic way easier, and I was getting quite good at casting the barrier. I was sticking to half an eggshell for now, because I was trying to maximize casting speed and barrier strength. Enough force would break the Barrier and its spell formula. This required me to recast it, continuous or not. I would need to learn to cast it instantly.

I was now adept at weaving the continuous component into the barrier, and I could hold it with minimal mana expenditure. It did still require concentration to hold the spell active, so I still had a lot of work to do with the spell.

Alik and mother were on scouting and information gathering duty. Danek was establishing himself in the market and provided a steady stream of whatever goods we needed. Mostly, I enjoyed the spiced meats and fresh fruits.

Danek was happy but constantly tired. It clearly wasn’t easy for him, because there were a couple of merchants competing for attention with him. It was probably good practice for him, if he wanted to become a merchant himself. Fortunately my infused potions were apparently good enough for him to have a serious competitive edge. My father acted as Danek’s guard, and had even managed to catch some fish in the harbor, which impressed the locals, and allowed Danek to expand his wares.

Overall we were settling in nicely. I thought my training was advancing at a decent pace, until one morning I sat down with Alik in the amphitheater. He had insisted I come to see something.

Gonor and his buddies saw us approach, and they immediately reseated to be further away from us. Alik waved at them, but I wasn’t interested in engaging. Instead I watched a large boy in the middle of the arena fighting with two adult men.

The boy had long black hair that waved around as he wielded a greatsword that he swung around in fierce arcs. He had a muscular frame, red pants and expensive shoes made of black leather.

This was the first time I saw a fight between Classed martial fighters and I realized I needed to work even harder.

“That boy must already have a Class Evolution,” Alik said. “And a special one at that.”

“You don’t say…” I mused.

“To be over level 10 at this age already…” Alik muttered. “He is only thirteen.”

The heavy greatsword swung with impressive speed. He was clearly doing what Alik had been doing in the gauntlet, only this was the difference between a puddle and a lake. This guy was chaining class abilities into a terrifying matrix of sword strikes that made him look completely inhuman. Sometimes a seemingly slow strike would accelerate into a monstrous crushing blow. Sometimes a dodge would make him slide sideways as if he was on ice. Sometimes his parry would wrest the weapon from an attacker’s hand like it was scripted in a play.

To their credit, his opponents had moves too. They made the same kinds of uncanny dodges and sudden lunges and acrobatics that wouldn't be possible without skills and class abilities. And the speed at which everything was happening was staggering.

“So this is how Classed people fight…” I muttered.

“That is called Ability chaining,” Alik said. “You generally want a build where your class abilities complement each other, so that you create a fighting style.”

That was interesting, but it wasn’t the most exciting thing about this young fighter.

I could see that there was a mana formation emanating from the boy and the blade. He was using magic! That made me really lean forward, but I figured this was some kind of active spell he was using. His martial prowess was coming from his class. I didn’t know what the spell was doing exactly, but it was creating a cloud of magic that was tangling with the two adult opponents and seeping into their bodies. I could see the invasive cloud of mana disturb the patterns inside the adults.

“Maybe he has poison magic…” I muttered. “Do you think the adults are moving slower?"

“Huh?” Alik said. “What magic. Look at his moves?”

“Hmph, fine…”

The heavy greatsword moved like a whip. The boy was fast enough with it to fend off two adult men coming at him with sword and shield. The adults were definitely getting slower. Either way, I realized that I could not compete with this speed as I was right now.

“This is what you said by me not being strong enough?” I asked Alik.

“Look at how fast he is,” Alik said. “Do you think you will be able to cast with him moving like this?”

“No,” I admitted. “If I miss, I’m done.”

I would of course have the advantage of preparing a spell or two before our fight would begin. But if he could evade or tank them, I was done for. I would either need more speed or a barrier strong enough to take these monstrous sword strikes.

We watched him silently wear down two of the adults. His face stayed impassive the whole time. Even when his opponents managed to counter attack and nick his arms, he didn’t even flinch. Finally, he executed a finishing move that threw both of his opponents back. One of them looked like he was wounded, but the boy didn’t care.

Then he shouted with a confident, hard voice.

“Next! Two more.”

Two fresh fighters approached him. These ones had spears. It was like the boy wasn’t even getting tired. If anything his greatsword whipped around even faster, like a striking snake, attacking from angles I didn’t think were possible for such a heavy weapon.

A feminine voice spoke. “Impressive, isn’t he?”

We turned to look at a girl behind us. She was very beautiful. Long dark blonde hair and soft olive skin, that shone in the sun. Her bright green eyes were fixed on the battlefield, and her athletic body held a poise that spoke of dignity and grace. She was wearing a tunic of fine cloth, a fabric certainly from abroad. I noticed an amulet of blue stone dangling from her neck. I used my Mana Sight and found I recognized it.

“It’s you,” I said. “You were one of the guards.”

“She was?” Alik asked, still staring and blinking dumbly at the beautiful girl.

The girl cocked her head at me with wide eyes. “How can you tell?”

“I recognize the amulet,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I had it hidden.”

I just shrugged.

The girl clearly wanted to say something and press the issue. But that didn’t seem like an interesting topic, so I took the lead and gestured at the arena. “He is using some kind of magic. Do you know what it is?”

“Not everything,” the girl said. “Just that it's a corrosion type magic. It slows down his enemies and saps them.”

“Interesting…” I muttered. “He is emitting the effect in a cloud around him. I didn’t know people on the archipelago even did magic.”

“How is he…?” the girl asked and turned to Alik.

“He is a magic freak,” Alik said. “Hi. I’m Alik. You’re beau— I mean, who are you?”

“I am Veena of the house Salakin,” the girl said proudly and tossed her hair.

“You— you are a Salakin?”

“Indeed!” Veena said with a smug expression. “I am glad you recognized the name, Alik, even though you are from a smaller island.

“Do you know anything about magic, Veena?” I asked, still observing the magical cloud around the boy fighting in the arena.

“You—” Veena sputtered. 

Alik shrugged apologetically. “He doesn’t know about the Salakin.”

“Hmph!” Veena said. “Of course I know about magic! I am from the noble family governing the city.”

“You do?” I said and turned to offer a hand. “Very nice to meet you. I am Luka.”

Alik groaned as Veena looked like she wasn’t sure if I was messing with her. Eventually she took the offered hand and shook it carefully.

“You really don’t know who I am?” Veena asked. “I’m rather important, you know!”

“Should I?” I asked. “Anyway, that’s not important. Tell me about that guy’s magic. How is he generating the effect?”

Veena looked like she had a bone stuck in her throat. “You— I—”

Then she harrumphed and sat down. “Hmph. Fine! I will let this insolence slide this once because you saved my— I mean the lives of my guards.”

“Right,” I said without removing my eyes from the boy wielding the greatsword. It seemed Veena wasn’t going to tell me about magic, so I wasn’t really that interested. “You’re welcome.”

“I watched you during the monster attack. You are very impressive for one this young,” Veena said. “Is it because of your obsession with magic?”

“Something like that,” I said. “But he is impressive too. He could even be stronger than me.”

“That is Ranok of the House Belator. A level 10 Dreadknight. He is favored to win the Silver Sea Tournament, which is a problem.”

“Salakin and Belator. These are not islander names,” I said.

Veena smiled. “Quite. Salakin has governed this city and the archipelago for centuries. My family is a lesser branch, but the main branch is beyond the Silver Sea, on the continent of Baros, which is tier 1.”

“Tier one?” I asked and turned to Veena.

“You have heard of it, I see,” Veena said and preened after finally getting my attention. “Yes, everything there is stronger. Monsters are more powerful, everyone is higher level, and most people know some magic.”

“Are you from tier 1 as well?” Alik asked in amazement as he scooted closer to the girl.

The girl politely but clearly moved away on the bench the exact distance Alik had crossed. “No. I was born here. We are a lesser branch of the family. Our job is to govern the island, facilitate trade, collect taxes and funnel that to the main family while we keep a cut.”

“I see,” I said. “And this Belator family. They are from the mainland too?”

“They are the rivals of our main family,” Veena said angrily. “Our little archipelago isn’t even valuable to the main families. But they planted a side branch family here fifteen years ago to gather influence. Then a year ago they brought him here and using that gathered influence made him a citizen, so he could participate in the Tournament. This was all a political play, carefully planned. They are looking to win the tournament by using him. He has had training on Baros. If they win, they will have enough influence to oust my house, and become the governing family.”

Ranok struck down the spearmen in a swift set of blows, even wounding one of them. They were sparring with live steel which I found rather horrible. Then he demanded two more opponents.

“That’s all very interesting,” I said idly as I tried to copy the mana patterns that Ranok was emitting. I could vaguely see the shape the cloud took and how the mana interacted within it, but I couldn’t see the structure that generated it. How annoying! 

It would be very hard to reverse engineer this spell, just from observing its effects. That raised an interesting question: Was the spell structure Ranok was using hidden, or couldn’t I just see it?

So many questions… I needed a proper magician to teach me so much.

I figured the spell formation had to be hidden, because I remember having observed an intricate one on the Skill scroll I owned. I sighed. My Mana Sight would soon get to 20, and I would get another Perk. Maybe it could help me out. But until then, the next best thing was this Veena girl.

“Why can’t I see what is generating the spell? Is it a Skill or a magical item?”

“Are you ignoring me?!” Veena snapped.

“Please don’t mind him,” Alik said. “He is just very young, and a little… strange.”

“I’m sure you didn’t sit next to us by accident,” I said. I managed to copy a part of the structure, but it clearly wasn’t enough, and the mana structure destabilized and made a little pop in my palm.

“I can’t believe he is practicing magic while talking to me,” Veena mumbled. 

“Uh,” I said and turned to Alik. “Can you talk to her or something? You seem interested in her.”

“No— I mean yes, but— no!” Alik started to stammer and looked at Veena like she was a tiger.

Note to self, Alik becomes a blubbering mess in front of pretty girls.

“I want to talk to you!” Veena said fiercely. “Will you listen to me?”

“Absolutely,” I said distractedly. “But you need to get to the point.”

“Help me defeat him, and I will reward you,” Veena said.

“Tempting,” I said while looking at Ranok. “But I could just go make nice with him instead.”

Alik drew in a breath. Veena growled and shot up.

“You dare?!”

I gave her a tired look. “Are you trying to win me over or not?”

She bit her mouth shut, closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “What do you want?”

“Magic,” I said immediately.

“Refined mana?” she asked. “How much?”

Hmm, refined mana would help me cultivate. But I would need a lot. Thousands of particles refined. Tens of thousands. This city was multiple times richer than our little village had been, where Elder Piraka had prized a few hundred refined particles. Likely I would need to ask more than she could give. However if she had a branch family on the tier 1 continent… 

I sighed. I wasn’t good at this kind of scheming. I needed Danek or my mother to talk to this bratty girl.

“How important is it for your main family that you keep power here?”

Veena looked at me curiously. “It’s important. If Belator can just take territory from us, it’s very bad for our reputation.”

“Good,” I said, more to myself.

“Good?! What about this is good?! You little—”

Alik calmed her down while I thought to myself. If I helped this girl, maybe I could secure passage towards the mainland and create some kind of relationship with her main family. I would need someone to teach me the ways of the world and establish myself while I searched for Mez’s second ruins and got more powerful…

But this bratty kid was proud and demanding. For all I knew right now the Belator family was the better horse to bet on. The problem with that was of course, that this Ranok kid was the overwhelming favorite, so I had no leverage with him.

Ugh, why did I have to think about politics, when I just wanted to study this Ranok guy’s magic. Where was Danek anyway?

“I will consider it,” I said. 

“Hmph,” Veena said and turned her head. “You are just a kid, and dare speak to me like that.”

“You’re not really helping your case, you know,” I said. I had learned from Danek, that if you had the stronger position, showing disinterest was good. I think it was a good idea to help the Salakin, provided they could offer me what I wanted.

But I wasn’t in a rush. The tournament was weeks away. The best move here would be to let the bratty girl simmer for a few days and wait for her to approach again.

With a powerful combo of greatsword attacks Ranok defeated two more opponents and then he turned to look at Veena and grin maliciously. 

“Looks like I have an audience,” the boy called out with that cold and confident voice. “Enjoying the show?”

“Sea swallow you, bastard!” Veena called out.

“Would you like to sample my blade, Salakin whelp?”

“You are not worthy, Belator,” Veena called fiercely. “You are but dust beneath my sandals, and I will show you this in the tournament!”

“Promises, promises,” Ranok said. “If all you have for me is words, it will be easy to make you my concubine after I win.”

Alik looked horrified and Veena spat at the ground. “You will regret saying that!”

After that she stomped off and before she left the amphitheater she looked at the two of us and scowled at us imperiously.

“If you come with me and meet with my father, I will let you study my amulet. There’s also a few artifacts at our house you can look at.”

I couldn’t help myself. Screw negotiation positions. I’d fetch Danek and let him do damage control.

I bounced up. “Let’s go, Alik.”