I think for a moment. "I want something that will be good for fighting beasts. I plan on having a career as an Adventurer. Focused on Harvesting and exploring."
He gets up and walks over to the weapons pile. Grabs something and brings it back. I hold out my hand and he puts a long smooth handle into it. A hammer handle.
“Why a hammer?"
"You'll be needing something that can take down a beast without causing much damage to their skins and other useful bits. A strong hammer blow to the head will stop just about anything. Stun them at the very least. We'll get you a small shield so you can protect your off side. The two in combination will be very effective for you. Especially with your Body Enhancement."
I give the thing an experimental swing or two. The handle is long but the head is small, not like those stupid giant hammers you see in movies and anime. This is all business. A heavy piece of metal that comes to a rounded blunt end - like a big ball-peen hammer. On the other side is a short spike. It's heavy, but I'm strong. I get a wicked grin on my face.
I watch the mages at practice. The training halls here have all sorts of targets set up for different types of mages. They’re really quite comprehensive and well thought out.
The thing that I find interesting is the lack of variety in their spells. Fire mages, for example, rely almost exclusively on two types of spells: Fireball and Fire Arrow. Fireball shoots a flaming ball that hits a broad area with intense heat. Fire Arrows look like arrows and fly a lot faster. When they hit they have some penetration power. They can be made to explode on impact, as well.
But that’s pretty much all they have. I’ve asked the senior mages if other things are possible but they just shrug their shoulders. Even when I describe examples, like a flamethrower. They all use Sigils, and Sigils do what Sigils do and nothing else.
I step in to where the water mages are and watch Ettiene for a few minutes. He’s struggling with the same issue I just described. I can feel his frustration and for once I agree with him. We should be able to do more. We need to be able to be more creative.
We’ve got all of our knowledge from Earth. It would be great if we could leverage that in our lives here.
Excerpt from Saki’s Journal
I have gained the ability to manipulate Spirit and Primal energies. I was excited at first, but now I’m frustrated. They’re just so … different … from Mana energy.
I’m sitting in a corner of one of the gardens. It took Penny and I a while to find a Spirit energy spell I could use for practice. I mean, it’s a little bit scary to think about manipulating someone’s thoughts or messing with their soul. Not for a novice like me. Couldn’t be confident in not getting caught doing it.
So I’m working life magic on plants. The spell is called Enhance Growth and is supposed to compel a living thing to accelerate its growth cycle for a limited amount of time.
I can say that I’ve been able to get it to work. Did you know that some plants only live for a few months? Then they die. I had a hard time limiting the time at first. Lotsa dead plants around here, now.
But this spell is nowhere as easy for me as my Mana spells. I need to research the mechanics of this Family Boon. I’m looking forward to using it with Enchantments.
I'm a little punch-drunk from my morning training session. It's been a bit rough and I'm covered in bruises and cuts.
However, my Master’s healing prohibition is still in effect. But I know a cheat. I'm going to get Saki to develop some special healing enchantments. Though hesitation is warranted, as owing Saki favors can be a little bit dangerous. Wouldn't want to get caught up in one of her tater tot experiments.
Oh well, better set aside the pain for now. I grab a stack of thin paper from my stash and sit down at a table in the back. I've been experimenting with new creatures lately. Since I can make anything I fold come to life, I've been experimenting with different designs. Addie told me to prepare creatures for both defense and attack. I guess she's expecting trouble during our upcoming escape.
Frogs, spiders, cranes. Those have been my go-to animals. But I’m trying to think of others that could be useful. Snakes, for example, have potential for sneaking around forested environments. I’ve tried them out in the gardens and almost nobody sees them if they move slowly through the plants.
Butterflies could be fun, too. I mean, who’s afraid of butterflies? But a swarm of butterflies could really mess somebody up. Somehow. I’ll think of a way!
Wasps and bees have the same sort of potential. I wonder if I could make them explode?
Tigers? Bears? Big, tough, and mean. Designed to be weaponized, if you ask me. Any apex predator would be, I guess.
But there must be others. Things that are normally too small. Spiders are just one example.
I wonder if I could fold a termite? I could have them eat the chair right out from under you! Maybe not. Never know until I try, though.
Maybe instead of trying to make realistic creatures, I could design creatures for specific purposes. My design process is pretty straightforward: first I imagine a scenario, for example an ambush by a swarm of small weak creatures. Next I imagine different ways to respond to the threat; in this case maybe something like a spider that can quickly cast webbing to immobilize the attackers. Then I fold an example of that type of creature, modifying it as necessary to make it more effective. In this case maybe a spider's legs and nervous system for mobility with multiple thread producing bodies instead of just one.
Once I have some designs in mind, I then fold them and run tests. Refolding as necessary until I got something I like as a design. Then just fold as many as I think I will need for various scenarios. Individually, I’m weak as a fighter. That’s why I need some friends to back me up!
The major weakness of this method is encountering threats that I haven't imagined and prepared for. So I'm spending a lot of time talking to Kari and Addie to help me think of possibilities. Kari because she's making an extensive study of the creatures we might encounter and Addie because she’s been studying human tactics and fighting behavior.
I see Saki at lunchtime. She does a quick heal enchantment for me without comment. She's pretty serious about practicing her skills so I guess she sees me as a free lab rat. Whatever, I end up feeling a lot better.
Nix and I have been sparring every day for a couple of weeks. He is really getting the hang of it. He still has a lot of problems with fine movements, but his footwork is really good. In other words, he cannot stand up to me in a sword fight but he can move around the field really well. He is becoming an expert at dodging.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Today, though, I am ready to try something new. I am trying to develop a Gravity skill which I call Shackle. The idea is that I catch a part of someone and hold it in place. I am having trouble with the basics, not to mention all of the subtle variations to explore. I have never seen it done in practice, so it is a bit like shooting in the dark.
Today I want to try it in a sparring match. Nix and Keldon are both aware of what I am doing. Nix is moving slowly to avoid injury. We are starting with a simple ankle bind.
Nix steps in to attack and I try to shackle his back foot. Miss.
Miss....
Miss....
Miss....
Gaaahhh! This is so hard!
Try again. And again. And again. Finally I get the timing right once. Ten tries later, I get it again. We spend almost an hour and I get it right precisely seven times. Arrgh. Thank Chaos that Nix is such a good sport.
I will have to practice in my spare time, too. Maybe Nix will make me a golem? Or maybe Tara or Jane would be interested in being shackled for a while?
I awoke with tears on my face that morning. Nightmares plague me sometimes. All relating to feelings of helplessness. I really don't like being a burden to others. I want to take care of myself. I want my friends to be friends not caretakers.
After lunch, I take a walk around the castle with a special friend. My little paper crane.
Moving around using my ESP to guide me is now second nature. As I get more accustomed to it, I'm finding that it's becoming more powerful, more refined. I can sense things farther away and in greater detail. Oddly, I'm finding a lot more hostile auras around me now than I found in the first couple of days. Many times, when people first catch sight of me, their aura changes from green/blue to red. Worrying.
I make my way out into one of the Palace gardens where I sit down on a bench. Holding the crane in my hand, I will it to come to life using my Spirit powers. I'm getting very fast at this. As I pour energy into it, the crane grows in size and takes on detail. It feels like I'm holding a real bird in my hands.
I lean back and close my eyes. Clear my mind and put myself into a light trance. In my mind, I imagine a link between me and my bird. After a few seconds I feel that link snap into place. This much I have been able to do in my practice at night.
Now, with that link in place, I start to explore what I can do with it. I imagine transferring my ESP powers to the bird. At first, it's confusing, like seeing something from two different perspectives at the same time. If I concentrate, however, I can see. As if the bird is my center instead of my own body.
Once that solidifies, I direct the bird to start flying around. Practicing with ESP powers, I have it flit from branch to branch of the trees around the garden. It's kind of weird but it seems to operate half under my direction and half under some bird instinct. Which begs the question of how a folded paper crane would inherit instincts.
I let it sit in one place for a while. Gradually, I start to realize that I'm hearing things through the bird's ears as well. Faintly and with distortion but coherently enough to understand. Technically it doesn't have ears, being a piece of paper and all, but let's roll with it. Wow! Another superpower!
My bird flies back to me as I grow sleepy in the warm sunshine. As I nod off, I feel it crawl back into my pocket.
I stand in an archway and peer into the garden. From this vantage I can barely see one of my old charges. Before we were summoned here, I was the class representative for my home room. The boy sitting there on a bench is Nixon Sordes. I never talked to him much, but I always thought he was a nice guy. Too bad about his handicap.
Today he's looking a little bit cool. With the styles of clothing they have here and his black eye patch, he looks quite the rogue. Especially since he's dressed all in black and has black hair. To be honest, I’m feeling an odd attraction to him. It’s easy to forget, given our circumstances, but I am still a teenager.
As I watch, he pulls a paper figure out of his pocket. That brings back memories of watching him fold all sorts of different origami figures in class. He has an incredible skill and I can't imagine how he makes such precise folds without being able to see them.
He holds the figure up. It's small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. I gasp when I see it begin to glow a soft green color. It slowly grows in size and stands up in his hand, grasping his ring finger in its claws. I can see now that it's a white crane about two and a half feet tall.
It slowly spreads its wings and flaps them gently. Then with a rustle of feathers - how did a paper crane get feathers?!? - it launches itself into the air and flies in a circle over the garden before coming to rest in a tree branch. I get the weird feeling that it's watching me.
I stay there a while longer as the bird flits from branch to branch. I hear a clock chime and reluctantly withdraw. I'm late for training.
What an interesting boy.
Penny and I have been doing research into Demons. My initial thought was that the whole Demon Lord thing was a fabrication. An excuse to summon a group of Heroes for the Kingdom of Grado to take advantage of. That’s only partly true, however.
Demons exist. This is a fact. They occupy an area north of Grado which they call Mlkh-nee and we call the Demon Lands. There is a portal to the original world of the Demons (called Molokh) at the center of Mlkh-nee. They can move more or less freely between the two worlds.
Demons don’t seem to like Emulgren much. They come here to Harvest from the Hexes and Dungeons within their territory. And occasionally they will venture to Hexes around the edges of their territory. They can’t stay outside their borders for long because they need Demonic energy to survive. Demonic energy comes through the portal and its density pretty much defines what is Demon Land and what is not.
Now here’s where the truth gets shaky. There is a Demon Lord. This is true. That is the title given to the administrator of the Demon Lands. Emphasis on administrator. They’re not a war leader.
Someone, however, is leading raids on human settlements around the Demon Lands. Doubtful that it’s the Demon Lord. Probable that it’s some kind of a Demon Warlord, though.
I don’t think we’ll be able to puzzle it out from here.
"Get out of the way! What the hell are you guys still doing here, anyway? I thought they got rid of you."
That was the Great Hero Ettiene. Aka the Great Dick. I'm walking toward the library when he almost runs into me coming around a corner. He brushes past me and is gone before I can think of a response. Did I mention he's a dick?
Anyway, I continue on. Addie asked me to come to the library to learn how to meditate.
When I get there, I'm surprised to sense that Faiella, the ambassador from Ronsun, is there as well.
Everyone exchanges greetings. Then we get down to business. Faiella is apparently an expert in meditation and self-hypnosis. She smells like a breezy summer day. Addie and I get comfortable in a pair of armchairs and she starts talking us through a meditation exercise while Penny watches.
It amazes me sometimes how much of language is based on visual imagery. That's a bit of a digression. I only mention it because I'm constantly having to substitute non-visual terms into her guiding monologue. It's a bit distracting and makes it harder to achieve the proper focus.
I do, eventually, get into a mental state that seems to me like it's the right one. Once I was even able to sense my objective, the Library of the Aedificium. Just briefly...
When Faiella brings us back, I can feel Addie's excitement. She must have had more success than me.
Jane appears out of nowhere and serves us tea and snacks. Penelope sits right next to me. She smells nice, like snow and magic. I don’t get the same feeling of power and distance in person like she has in my dreams. After a while, Addie drags me off on another mission.
After dinner, I sit everyone down in comfy chairs and teach them how to get to the Aedificium's Library. My objective with meditation training that morning had been to learn how to get there myself. Which turned out to be fairly easy. 'Cause I'm a badass vampire.
Just sayin’.
Once I knew how, it was easy to work out a hypnotic trigger that I could give everyone else. All it took was one group session and everyone made it there.
We find ourselves sitting around a metaphysical table in the Library of the Aedificium. Gotta find a shorter name for that. We spend some time discussing the experience and then move back into our physical bodies.
That's how I'm calling it anyway. Don't really know what the behind-the-scenes mechanics are so just suspend your skepticism and roll with it.
Tara and Jane confirm that we hadn't said or done anything while our consciousnesses were away. In other words, we can talk all we want when we’re out-of-body but no one will be the wiser.
The others practice their techniques a few times. All systems go.