Published at 16th of February 2024 2:20 pm

Chapter 7. A Mage's First Apprentice

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

"Godfalls. We were so proud when we came up with the name. We thought we had won. It was hubris. A god losing its divinity is bad for them and worse for us. We lost cities, farmlands, minds, and so much more when the bastards entered the mortal plane and claimed a chunk of it as their domains. We invade them we die. We don't invade them and magical beasts sneak out and then hundreds die. The age of the gods is over. The time of man has come. But at what cost?" - Unknown

Kris couldn’t help but feel impressed with Nox’s approach and progress. The young man had undeniable talent. After his duel with Edward, she had questioned the hunters he frequently accompanied on material-gathering expeditions. They sang praises of his archery and butchery skills. Apparently, he also had an excellent eye for herbs.

While Lillin stashed their belongings in her spatial storage, Kris had also sampled Nox’s alchemical creations. She lacked the young man’s toxin resistance and limited herself to a swig of Sprinter’s High and Feline Grace. The combination didn’t burn her throat or stomach, proving the alchemist’s compatibility claim. The effects struck her almost instantly, and she felt noble and lithe. It felt as if she could keep running for days. Kris considered testing another brew but didn’t want to risk the discomfort.

Most alchemists in Ygg limited themselves to recovery and resistance brews. They created buffing tinctures, too. The bulk of the concoctions greatly boosted one aspect but suffered from high toxin build-up, discouraging frequent usage and cocktails. Meanwhile, the potions with compound effects only provided minor empowerment.

Unlike Nox, she couldn’t think of many alchemists who displayed creativity with debilitating creations. Smoke bombs with varying effects were cheap but unpopular since misuse could kill the user and their entire party. The same went for bottled oil slicks. Delvers occasionally carried them to cover their escapes when situations got too hairy for their liking. Smokescreen and Grease cantrips could achieve the same results, and most parties opted for a member who specialized in such effects.

Kris believed Nox’s product had the potential to change the market. Trap Foam would prove especially popular amongst hunters who wanted to capture their prey alive or kill beasts with minimal damage to the hide and flesh. His workshop had more debilitating products with amusing names. Kris lacked the courage to test them, but they tickled her imagination. She knew her decision about Nox was the correct one.

When Lillin joined them on the deck, Nox recruited her to track spell forms. She started by sketching the base script for Slow and made alterations following his directions. He offered only light instruction. Lillin appeared to anticipate his needs and do as needed. Kris couldn’t help but feel impressed about how the pair worked together. She took a step back and left the two to their own devices.

By the end of the day, every cast of Slow created fragments of crystallized essence. Much to Kris’s surprise, he had greater success with Lillin’s gravity locus. The black sphere pulsed in her hand, and the air swirled around it. Nox appeared to struggle with his balance when he approached it. Kris kept a healthy distance, standing over a dozen feet away but could still feel its effects. When he cast Slow, more essence fragments materialized. The locus’s heart remained intact, and instead of falling to the ground, the shards orbited around it.

The following morning, Kris once again woke up at the crack of dawn. She liked to be the first to rise. It let her soak in the sun’s first rays and funnel them into the mature star, rotating in her core. She wanted it to grow bigger so new planets and moons could join the system. Kris needed to improve her offensive potential if she wanted to contribute to the war against the gods.

Mages with the Dancing Lights or Shine cantrip as their star’s focus rarely made it as battlemages. They served as scouts, diviners, or control wizards. Kris wasn’t one of them. She lacked large devastating spells but made up for it with quick, hard-to-avoid magic. It took regular training to keep her casting swift and undetectable, and she liked to do so before the world stirred.

“Good morning!” Lillin surprised Kris when she reached the upper deck.

“Do you have a cantrip or spell erasing your presence? It's generally me that sneaks up on people.” Kris raised an eyebrow, wondering how the younger woman got the jump on her. Her background light-detection spells warned her of all movement in her vicinity. Gravity magic could bend light, but only adept or expert mages could achieve such power. Lillin hadn’t yet reached the rank of journeyman.

Lillin only grinned, nodding at the vessel’s bow. Nox sat cross-legged, shards of black and clear essence glass littered around him.

“Why’re you two up?” Kris asked. “He’s not going to succeed without adequate rest.”

“Nox passed out straight after dinner,” Lillin answered. “Then he poked me awake half an hour ago, claiming he’s nailed the spell.”

“I don’t think he has.” Kris focused on her mana sense, reading the energy radiating from the boy. “The spell may have grown more efficient, but it's not ready for his core yet.”

“Maybe you should help him.”

Kris shook her head. “He needs to do this himself. Nox is in unexplored territory. I wouldn’t know what to say. He needs to feel the flow of mana in his core and figure out how to adapt the spell form to it.”

The mana radiating from Nox crested, and more crystals materialized in his hands. They were as clear as glass and clinked on the wooden deck as they fell.

“He’s almost there,” Kris commented. “It’s your turn next.”

“I already have Gravity as my star’s focus, and my first planet gives me access to spatial manipulation.”

“What do you plan to do next? I could—”

“Once my star ascends to its next phase, I plan to add a planet focused on Manipulation,” Lillin replied. “Save your mentorship for Nox, though. I appreciate what you’re doing for us, but I don’t want your guidance. I have a plan for my mana system, and it's a solitary journey. I’m only here for Nox.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I’m only trying to help.” Kris threw up her hands, feigning surrender. “As long as you’re supporting us against the gods, I won’t interfere in your life or magical growth. You’re plenty powerful without my interruption already.”

“Thank you.”

Even though Nox had signed an apprenticeship agreement, Kris didn’t know him on a personal level. Lillin was even more of a wild card. She had taken the pair under her wing, but she didn’t trust them. It was too early to expose her arcane secrets. So, despite her love for routine, Kris chose to skip her daily exercises.

The crew spilled onto the deck as dawn passed, forcing the trio to relocate to the vessel’s rear. Nox continued his attempts at evolving his core, and Lillin observed. Despite her scholarly interest in the creation of a brand-new focus, she eventually got bored of watching her new apprentice. A woman smoking against the rails caught her attention. Kris hadn’t spent much time fraternizing with the crew, but she recognized her as the first mate.

As Kris approached the woman, something felt off. Normal human beings made constant minute movements. Muscles twitched, chests heaved, eyelids blinked, and they swallowed saliva. Light bounced off all surfaces within line of sight and then seeped through Kris’s skin. Her channeled spell processed the absorbed light, making her aware of everything going on in her vicinity. She felt nothing from the first mate. The woman didn’t move at all.

Instead of approaching the first mate directly, Kris walked to the railing six feet to her left and looked at her directly. Her blood ran cold. A long, almost transparent tentacle hung out of her mouth. It extended over the railing and disappeared over the vessel’s starboard side.

“Cloud Hunter!” Kris yelled, calling on her magic. Mana flowed from her star into the first planet in her system. When she raised her left hand, the palm glowed red. After a couple of heartbeats, the tentacle sizzled and broke just over her navel. The appendage fell, disappearing over the side. Meanwhile, the first mate collapsed like a sack of bricks.

Kris dashed to her side and wrapped both hands around the tentacle still sticking out of the first mate’s mouth. The woman’s throat spasmed. Kris didn’t let up and continued her gentle attempts at extraction. Lillin suddenly appeared at her side, carrying a gravity orb in each hand. A tentacle solidified between the spheres when she thrust them forward, stretching and wrinkling. As the material warped, the light flowing through it danced, making the appendage easier to see and for Kris’s magic to detect. When Lillin pulled the gravity orbs apart, invisible forces ripped the tentacle to shreds.

The crew jumped into action. Most of them retreated below deck, and two stood immobile like when Kris found the first mate. The captain, a man, and a woman sprinted to the stunned individuals. Lightning crackled around one’s hands while the other two inflated like muscular balloons.

Meanwhile, Kris successfully extracted the tentacle from the first mate’s throat. The woman threw up clear slime, rolled onto her side, and burst into a fit of violent coughs. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and her body seized. Kris left her alone and thrust her palm towards more tentacles slithering over the vessel’s edge. Her palms once again glowed red, and the appendages wrinkled. Two of them burst into flames while the rest retreated. She cursed under her breath. Because of the almost transparent body, the Cloud Hunter was naturally resistant to her light-based attack and detection spells. It alarmed her that the crew weren't better prepared for such a possibility. The extra cargo forced the vessel to fly at a lower altitude than usual, but that was a poor excuse.

A deep, long boom thundered in the clouds below the vessel. It sounded like a giant tuba in the hands of a musician with enhanced lungs. The call quaked and halted when Lillin dropped her gravity orbs over the edge. Then the clouds parted, and a giant clear dome parted from the sea of white and gold. Tentacles grew out of its edges and underside. Many clung to the hull while the rest chased the people still on deck.

Kris pointed her palms at the creature as it leveled with the vessel. It maintained altitude but drifted away from the railing. Lillin threw her gravity orbs at the beast, but her spells fell short.

“Damn it!” Kris swore. “It’s outside my range. Captain! Can you hit it?”

“No,” the man called back. He pointed at the first mate, lying at Kris’s feet. “She’s our head gunner. The beast got all our ranged casters.”

“What about whoever is maintaining the air bubble and propelling us?”

“Can’t spare them. We’ll suffocate and lose stability without the bubble. Propulsion is the only reason the beastie hasn’t got us yet.”

“What do we do—”

A luminous blue projectile shot from the airship. It struck the beast and dented the clear hide but failed to penetrate it. The indent popped out a second later, leaving no imprints. Another projectile struck the creature a second later, and the results were no different.

Kris’s eyes darted to the magic’s source. It was Nox. The young man stood on the bridge’s roof, holding a bow of solid mana in his left hand. The weapon’s limbs grew out of a metal rod that came with the long glove. All the runes, stones, and spell shapes on both pieces glowed with the same light as the bow. He touched the rod with his right and drew the arm back. A mana arrow grew extended between the rod and the glove. It lacked the bow’s solidity. Mana vapors blossomed from the unstable projectile. He released the arrow, and the results didn’t differ.

“You need to crystallize the mana!” Kris yelled. “You won’t penetrate the Cloud Hunter’s head otherwise.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Nox called back.

“Just mix it in with your mana’s natural Slow effect,” she replied. “Don’t think about it too much. Feel and execute!”

Two more arrows flew from the bow without achieving the intended effect. Meanwhile, the Cloud Hunter’s tentacles pulled a stunned crew member and the man trying to help him overboard. The transparent appendages pulled them under the dome, and they disappeared into the clouds.

Tentacles came for Nox, and Lillin raced to his side, moving with almost inhuman grace and speed. Kris guessed the young woman used gravity magic to make her body lighter. Gravity orbs shredded the appendages. She paused and approached her friend. Lillin spoke in Nox’s ear, and Kris failed to hear the message over the chaos. Before she could provide further guidance, a powerful tug pulled her off her feet.

A sneaky tentacle had wrapped around Kris’s ankle. It pulled her over the railing, but she successfully wrapped her arms around the thick wooden banister. Her detection spell continued to feed her information about everything happening around her, but Kris ignored it all, focusing on clinging to safety. Despite its size, the Cloud Hunter lacked strength. It excelled at ambushing foes and capturing the unbalanced. It failed at overpowering Kris’s death grip.

The light emitting from Nox’s bow turned almost blinding. Kris’s mana sense told her there was more at play than just increased mana investment. The Slow cantrip’s mana intertwined with the new Crystalize Essence spell’s energy. Then a whistling projectile shot past her and struck the Cloud Hunter. A giant explosion boomed behind Kris, and the tentacle holding her ankle went slack. Lillin appeared, standing over Kris a moment later, and pulled her over the railing.

The two women collapsed in a heap, panting. Nox was by their side a moment later. He kneeled next to Kris and pried the now-white tentacle from her leg. He grinned when their eyes met. Beads of sweat covered Nox’s brow, and his hands exhibited a slight tremor which often accompanied excessive mana usage.

“I did it,” he said. His tired eyes and tone betrayed his pride. “I’m an apprentice now.”

Share