NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 6: First Battle
Alicia came every day since then. After suppressing her mana, she tried to fill in the feystone and met the same fate as me. I am a good girl, unlike Teacher Alex, so I gave her the answer immediately, and she managed to fill in the feystone in less than two hours. How come she took such little time when I needed an entire night?
"Well, it is not the standard way to fill the feystone, and I guess it costs you more mana too. Nevertheless, good job on the task. I am glad that you could keep up with the lesson as well, Miss Alicia." Alex was arrogant, but he gave us a fair judgment. I guess his pride prevented him from kicking and mocking us when we gave out results. Is this the attitude of all mages? Alicia certainly didn't behave like him in the web novel when she became a full-fledged mage five years from now on. She still had the demure attitude she has now in the web novel.
"So, what is the correct way to fill feystones?"
"First, you need to learn how to cast spells." When he said that, everything finally clicked. When you cast spells, especially the ones affecting external entities, mana is pushed out from the body. If you cancel or suspend the spells, you could theoretically expel a large amount of mana. Such mana is then absorbed into the feystones.
I merely gazed at the teacher who tried to extend the lesson. Well, I can cast beginner spells already. Let's see how Alicia will fare. Alex went to our barracks, and there he showed a beginner fire spell, Fire Lance. All elements have the same beginner attack spells, such as lance and ball. However, Alicia failed to trigger the spell even after reading the same spellbook as I did, which made me tilt my head.
"Wow, as expected from someone with talent level 8, huh. You made it look easy," Alex said. "I am afraid I don't have anything else to teach you except feystone channeling. I shall return half of your payment then."
"I didn't expect you to return the money at all, Mister Alex."
"Even I have standards, okay. Don't lump me with those money-hungry merchants. We mages produced results! that's why we were entitled to be paid expensively!" He then held his chin in contemplation. "You know, dark magic is often ostracized due to its low power. However, at the hands of someone with magic level 8…."
"Am I strong?" I was excited due to cheat power finally coming my way.
"Nah… I don't think so. No matter what, dark magic has the lowest destructive power among all elements, except wind, if they are on the same level of magical talent." He then shooed me off.
"Ughh. Way to get my hopes up."
"Well, can you cast yet, Miss Alicia?" He then turned toward Alicia, and she still wasn't able to do it even until evening.
"I see. So, this is talent level 6, huh?" I muttered at the speed at which I was learning. I was finishing a course that was supposed to take at least two months in a week. However, Alicia was much slower than I was. If she were able to learn Fireball tomorrow, she would still need to learn Fire Lance, and then Fire Wall, and then Fire Bomb, and then Fire Wall. My course was Dark Ball, Dark Lance, Shadow Tentacle, and Illusion.
As days passed, Alicia's learning became slower, and she grew more stressed. She kept pestering me for hints on her study, but I had already given her all my knowledge. We are different elements to begin with. It has already been more than two weeks, and she has only learned two out of four beginner spells. If she delayed any longer, she would have to pay another two gold coins to Alex. But since nobody was willing to pay, Alex was destined to return home the following week. By the way, using the technique Mister Alex taught us, I could fill 10 feystones a day, while Alicia could supply over 20 stones a day. When I asked if my mana pool was small, Alex only answered that it was because I was still a child. He predicted that I would be able to fill over 40 stones when I turned into an adult if I kept up with training.
"Well, your Fire Bomb is a little weak, but it will do. Congratulations, Miss Alicia. You have done well this past month."
"I still couldn't learn everything." Alicia was downcasted. Alex already stopped teaching me. I wanted to learn more, but he said it was a curriculum for the next grade, and he would need to charge extra should he teach me that.
"For our last lesson, we will venture to the gate and kill some monsters. I heard this county was attacked at least once a week by the monsters. I want Miss Eli and Miss Ali to participate as apprentice mages," Alex said.
The day finally arrived. When the bell rang, the three of us ran to the gate and rendezvoused at the top of a tower. Unlike a sentry tower from before, this time, we stood at a closer tower, and I could see the goblins and orcs amassing in the forest clearer than before. When we arrived, the battle had already begun. Like a stampede, the monsters kept coming out from the woods, but Brother Zach and his cohorts steadily defeated them.
"Alicia, fire at the troll. If those clubs hit our knights, it could cause a concussion or worse, a broken bone," Alex gave directions while casting several wind blades and fire lances at the target. Wow, I didn't know he was a dual-element mage. No wonder he was so arrogant. Well, if I practice hard, I could be a triple-element mage, too. But my fire and water talents are only at level four. It might take a lot of work to rely on them in lieu of my dark magic.
"What should I do?"
"You can use Dark Lance to hit the goblins at the back. I believe in your accuracy. If you think you can hit the ones closer to the front, you are allowed to fire, but make sure not to startle or hit allies. Alicia, only aim for the trolls' heads. Make sure to aim a little higher in case you miss; we don't want to hit our knights."
A loud boom resounded through the battlefield as Alicia's spell hit a troll right in the face. When the explosion subsided, it was missing its head, and the soldiers cheered. My spells weren't as impressive. When a Dark Lance hit a goblin, it struggled in pain and fell, leaving it vulnerable to nearby soldiers. However, when the same lance hit a larger opponent, it shrugged off my attacks like they were nothing.
"Keep firing! Mages are the ultimate sword of the empire. If we don't kill them fast enough, many knights' lives are going to be in danger!" Alex screamed with passion.
"Yes, sir!" Alicia screamed back in the heat of battle.
They were doing well. Meanwhile, I was unable to put a dent in those trolls. At this rate, I was not much different from a single archer who killed goblins one by one.
"Look! That orc's movements turned strange! It is attacking its own comrade! That troll, too," one of the guards commented.
Instead of attacking directly, I cast an illusion on those trolls, which made them mistake their own comrades for enemies. Then, I simply deleted some of our soldiers from the trolls' view. It turned out well. Once the trolls were out of the picture, the knights could finish off the smaller foes, and the other stronger mages could take care of the distracted trolls.
"Good job! No casualties today!" I skipped over to congratulate the brave knights who defended our territory. "You guys were awesome!"
"Is that your magic, Eli? That was unique."
"I tried new things. Is it good?"
"Hmm. The potential is great. I wonder if we can incorporate it into a new strategy. It's just that we aren't used to it, and we paid too much attention to the distracted trolls, leading to not much increase in our overall performance. By the way, Alicia did great. She took down almost three trolls by herself. Damn it, mages are really important, huh? This much improvement by just adding two high-potential mages. I thought we were going to lose someone from the intensity of the attack today." Zach gave a hard look at our potential. He also lamented how unfair fire mages were.
It was the truth, though. A fire mage was able to kill over 100 enemies in ten minutes alone. But I think Brother Zach put too much importance on attackers. Without the knights, mages would get killed before hitting ten kills.
"I think Brother Zach is also cool! We wouldn't be able to look at trolls or orcs so closely like that!" I said, and he smiled while rubbing my head. Ever since I prevented my mana from leaking out, people's reactions have improved considerably. However, locking mana like that required conscious effort. Sometimes, when I released it unwittingly, people had a greater reaction of fright than usual. Especially, Alicia, she had that one episode where she literally cried because I raised my voice a little. It was a silly fight about which knights were our favorite. I picked my brother, while she picked her father.
"Alicia, if you ever want to play with Eli, you are welcome in this mansion anytime," my father said as the tutoring was complete. Alicia didn't learn everything in this one month, but she still got recognition from Alex. The course was only a beginner course, and it was focused on preventing injuries and filling feystones, after all.
"Yes, Count Shadowstep. I am grateful!" She and her father bowed down respectfully before they left. I was glad I could befriend her. I was hoping that I would be able to meet her again tomorrow.
However, Alicia never came to our mansion again.
