Cursed Explorer of the Arcana

No, I refuse to work alongside these three halfwits! I don’t care about their abilities and how good they are, I simply can’t stand their personalities.

Of course, none of my thoughts leave my mouth because I’d like to spare myself the looks that would earn me. And I doubt anyone would listen to a word I say to begin with.

“A squad you say?” The same old man who’s been leading the talks strokes his short beard. Maybe he is the head of the Fist? “I feel like they’d perform outstandingly as solo operatives, no?”

“As true as that is, we all know nobody starts off as a lone wolf, that’s a role only for the strongest and most experienced. Until then… just imagine what they could achieve in the tournaments.” Martha’s words seem to help them make up their minds as the number of nods and satisfied smirks far outweighs the uncertain hums.

After a few minutes of nods and murmurs a man, whose presence is much weaker and somehow restrained, steps forth. Muscular like most of the people in the room as is expected from seasoned warriors even if on the leaner side. He’s also young with blueish-brown hair, one eye covered with an eyepatch and a sharp golden one observing us with aloof curiosity.

I don’t get the eyepatch since from what I’ve heard healers can repair any damage, even inherent ones.

“Nothing we discussed here today is to leave this room, understood?” This sounds like a command to me rather than a question. “These cadets are one of us so teach them, nurture their talent, and soon… they’ll be the best squad to ever march out of the gates of Fort Karon.” He declares. “As for you children,” The man takes a few steps toward us. “remember, you’re not here as prisoners. We offer you protection, education and training with our little side motive as seasoning. In my opinion, training our new generation is the best way to ensure the quality of our troops and you kids will be the ones burning the brightest.” His face stayed devoid of any emotion through his speech, his voice not harsh nor demanding but still somehow… it felt like it would’ve been a crime to even breathe, as I did not.

“We’re done here.” He says and walks back to the desk at the other end of the room looking no fancier than the rest.

The rest of the big shots return to whatever they were occupied with before we arrived which seems to be reading papers or doing fuck all. Nobody needs to tell us how to interpret the order and we’re on our way out even before Martha or Bennett could tell us to move our asses.

Oh, one more thing.

[Identify]

[Warrior lvl ???]

[Warrior lvl ???]

[Ranger lvl ???]

[Mage lvl ???]

[Leader lvl ???]

…

The results might not show right now but this is a prime sport for improving the Skill. I throw one last Identify at the mysterious man before leaving.

[??? lvl ???]

As soon as the notification pops up the man looks up at me, our eyes meet and a shiver creeps down my spine. A tiny smile runs across his face before he resumes reading some documents.

I sigh in relief like never before when we finally step outside of that awful room and the majestic double-door creeks shut behind us.

I hate that room. Never again.

“No need to work yourselves up about what happened in there,” Bennett finally breaks the silence as we continue down the hallway. “they were more curious than anything. Since we expect the four of you to represent us among others in a few years we need to make sure you’re as prepared as we can make you. With that said, your schedules won't be that different from the other kids. You’ll train with the other kids, you’ll attend lessons and you’ll have practice and drills in the evening.”

Then what was the whole point!? Are we just some rare trophy? Compared to those monsters in that room we’re useless. Maybe after five-plus decades, we could scratch their toes but until then…

And the Fist only asks for a few years of service? We won’t even reach the average level here by that time just based on my leveling rate thus far. These people are fucking weird…

“Hey, wanna do something until breakfast?” Victor shoves his face way too close to mine and I almost reflexively hit it.

“No, not really.” I back away.

I don’t even know why I held back, that smirk is almost asking for that punch.

“Don’t even try!” August huffs as Victor’s eyes turn to him.

“That’s it really,” Martha yawns, massaging her neck. “Be good and don’t do anything stupid until breakfast.” She takes a turn and is about to leave us to do our thing before looking back with a flat look. “And don’t do anything stupid after breakfast either.”

This was such a waste of time. I could’ve slept another hour but nooo, let’s do something totally useless because people who scratch their asses all day instead of doing something meaningful are a little curious…

With that said I know exactly how I’ll spend my time and it’s not sleeping. An hour of shut-eye amounts to nothing. Instead, I make my way to the courtyard. Since it's empty right now because it's too early I can use my magic freely, no need to restrain myself to wind.

“Let’s see what else lightning can do?” I ask myself, just for old times' sake.

Old… it was only around two weeks ago I left home. Thinking back on my parents, house, and friends doesn’t fill me with as much grief and emptiness as it did before. It still stings and I still think about Mom and Dad every so often but this is just how things are now, I have to suck it up.

Anyway, back to magic! There are two things I’d like to explore a bit more, namely lightning and those white flames. Let’s get lightning out of the way first because the zaps turned out to be incredibly useful. Honestly, if I had to choose an element like any normal Mage, the lowly ones, I would’ve picked lighting no doubt. It’s just ridiculously good and fire is so lame. Everyone uses fire…

So… the charges. According to Savant, this whole electricity thing starts because the charge wants to flow, like when you pour water down a slope. I create the imbalance by bringing the water up the slope, then decide on where it needs to flow before letting it go.

This is where the bridge comes into the picture because the water would just pick its own path without my guidance. A link that connects me and my target even if just briefly, like a canal for the water to follow.

Lastly, there’s the question of how much water. This determines the oomph of the zap and… that’s it, not that complicated really.

Creating the charge is a bit more tricky. It’s like everything around you is a mix of peas and beans and you need to sort them very carefully while taking care of everything else at the same time. After that’s done the rest is quite easy.

Just a second later I have a thin blue spark jumping around my fingers just like those street performers back home rolled the coins in their hands. It was almost like magic. The more confident I get the more complex the path of the spark becomes, soon zipping around me at breakneck speed looking almost like a circle.

It’s almost like a snake…

I try to make the zipping light slow down so I can take a better look, however the speed of the water flowing down the slope is one thing I cannot control. So I just make its path longer and more curvy. Instead of a straight line, the zap moves like a real snake, wiggling in the air. But it can fly, move up and down, and not just side to side, snaking in a spiral.

That’s when I hear the swords rattle next to me. I jump back in surprise, ready to kill whatever just scared the living hell out of me and… there’s absolutely nothing. I still suspect someone to be around just invisible or a metal mage to be messing with me.

After about a minute of looking and waiting, however, I get bored and return to making my lightning snake do the funny dance before biting its tail and repeating the same thing. And the swords rattle again.

“Not funny!” I yell.

This time the swords keep shaking in the wooden racks, moving the whole damn thing without anyone in sight. Just as I abandon my magic and put my hand on my hips to start berating whoever is messing with me, the anomaly stops.

“Wait a minute…”

Make lightning snake, snake coils, weapons rattle. Snake stops, swords stop… Huh?

Next, I pick up a dagger and walk away from all the weapon racks because the ones furthest away seem to be chill about my machinations. Then I do my magic and the moment the lighting does its dance again the knife gets yoinked out of my hand by a strong invisible force.

“Uhm, Savant, explanation?” I ask the Skill quietly, hoping it would enlighten me just like when I learned how to use lightning. Nothing. “Am I using metal magic then?”

Further testing tells me that nope, I have no idea what I’m doing. I can pull and even push things, only things made out of iron really, but other than that… nothing. Needless to say, I get irritated with my lack of progress pretty quickly and instead, just do some Skill training to blow off some steam.

Blasting things while knowing how I actually do it is a lot more fun than blindly hitting my head against a wall. And I can’t even ask anyone for advice, I’m the only one who might have the slightest of clues. Okay, Martha might know a little better how lightning works.

Back to the Skills. Spear works with earth obviously and surprisingly well with lighting. It somehow gives shape to the energy and holds it together without a bridge or any slope, I just need to create the imbalance.

On the contrary Mana Blade is meant for wind and high-pressure water when it comes to throwing a simple blade arc. The rest either don’t have the speed or the… well, matter in the case of fire and lightning. I can also make a sword or a knife with every element I can wield although I doubt all of them are actually useful.

Mana Bolt works with everything, the most basic of them all. A splash of water or fire, a push of air, a high-speed pebble, and of course my zap, except I don’t need to form a bridge. It’s simple, it’s brilliant.

“Now, let’s see that white fire.” I mutter as I probably don’t have much time left until breakfast.

I quickly recharge my mana a second time from the big white stone in the middle of the courtyard before getting to work. Okay, I say work but I very much enjoy this.

The choice of shape falls on Mana Bolt because it’s the easiest and most stable, helping me hold the magic together while I experiment with the heat. So what did I do last time…

Oh right, gas. Not just any gas, the air and our farts are also a form of gas, this one is what drives combustion, an element… the sixth. It serves as the fuel, I push more air to feed the flames and it takes care of the heat for itself.

With a gentle purr the the air above my palm ignites as my mana fuels the flames and the color quickly changes from bright red to even brighter white. But there’s more. I saw some blue in there last time, a color I associate with cold yet it appeared in the hottest and most primal flame I’ve ever seen.

It was mesmerizing.

I want that again!

“And I have the infinite mana source to do just that.” I grab the massive Hadron crystal and do my magic.

Martha searches the hallways, looking for the little devil as she likes to call Elyssia. The little part is self-explanatory and she's a devil because of her temper and talent. A reckless, haughty, brilliant yet foolish and infinitely stubborn girl who’s incredibly exhausting to cultivate.

She tried to find the four breathing and walking problems to talk about future arrangements, however she only found three. After checking her room and the baths, the two spots the young mage seems to favor the most beside the mess hall a servant informed her of a child wrecking havoc on the courtyard.

“Breakfast should be available already.” She sighs “Why can’t this girl just be like the others? All of them are restless and a bit rebellious but this one-”

Martha’s monologue gets cut short as a sense of wrongness hits her just before the archway leading to the courtyard.

The shadows… they shouldn’t be leaning that way this early. Did Solaire…

Martha cuts her trip short by teleporting onto the courtyard with lighting crackling all around her, ready for whatever the world might throw at her. Yet even the veteran mage is caught off guard by the sight that welcomes her.

A girl standing near the large glowing crystal in the middle of the courtyard, one hand on the stone and the other raised towards the sky. Her eyes are closed, her face scrunched in concentration, and her skin pale with visible light blue veins running beneath it.

Her body is obviously in terrible shape with mana poisoning ravaging her from the inside yet for some reason the little devil seems oblivious to her condition, working on her magic in perfect peace.

Her creation on the other hand is anything but peaceful. The melon-sized ball of fire froths and rages above her with flames of a myriad colors thrashing about like waves during a storm sent by the Gods. It’s hungry, dominating and it’s beautiful.

Martha’s shocked awe is shattered only by something red flowing down Elyssia’s face. A drop of blood escapes her nose, soon followed by many more.

“Elyssia stop that!” Martha shouts for the girl to hear through the quiet whispers of the fire surrounding her.

No answer, no reaction.

Seeing no other way Martha blinks over to the girl’s side and grabs her shoulder to shake her awake. “You’re killing yourself you fool!” She yells into Elyssia’s ears which finally makes her eyes flutter and snap open.

The moment her concentration is broken the heat explodes around them with a loud whistling noise escaping the majestic ball of fire.

“Shit!” Martha mutters and teleports away with the little devil in her embrace just as the devastation is unleashed.

They arrive under the archway with smoke billowing from the old mage’s robes and the explosion flooding the courtyard with light and rumble. Windows shatter and the ground is scorched in a massive radius where the flames were allowed to break free and the culprit…

“Hey, do you hear me? Elyssia.” Martha gently shakes the girl with hazy eyes and body trembling an autumn leaf.

She rummages through all her pockets looking for a healing potion but she doesn’t have any on her. It's useless inside the Fort with all the proper healers in the first place.

People begin to converge on the courtyard. A blast of this scale is not something that ever happens in a place only used by beginners. From the windows all around to the hallways leading to the courtyard armed members appear, ready to defend their home.

“Healer! I need a healer here. There’s no attacker, it was an accident.” Martha shouts but people are a bit too slow to react. “By the Abyss get a fucking healer before she dies you halfwits, NOW!” Her raised voice does result in a woman sliding beside her assessing Elyssia’s condition even before coming to a stop.

“Just what happened here? She in no way can use any magic of the magnitude we heard, especially not with that level.” The woman asks, her name is Freeda if Martha remembers right, checking over Eli’s wounds and assessing her condition. “Those ice blue veins all over her body… Just how many times her mana pool did she use?.” She then turns to Martha as some of the commanders arrive. “What did she do?”

“That’s something I’d like to know as well.” Martha grumbles as she tries to piece together what her newest student has gotten herself into.

This idiot. Should I punish her for being reckless or reward her for those mesmerizing flames?