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Back in town and heading towards the 'Cave', the so-called unfulfilled hero was brooding. For once, not about himself, but about this whole mess he was getting himself into. War. Just a ugly glorified way for kings and boyars to measure their dongs in human lives.
That word conjured an image of an old naked guard in a small flash in Nyx's mind, but he shook the feeling away.
Most of all in the world, Nyx hated this sick authority, anyone even, ridiculing people from bedind their status. His whole life leaving a sour aftertaste in his mouth.
Passing by a wide storefront window, the light looked just right to reflect his image. Kara's image. Even now looking in the mirror was hard on his soul. Making all these people afraid of her, killing while wearing her face, and not his. But dead men tell no tales. Her identity was long gone. Nothing but just another ghost roaming the world.
Back at the inn, the whole wizard party was gathered in the dining room. Amid all the chatter, Nyx saw the lieutenant still around, talking with Dörk. His presence was no longer worrisome, not after he apologized and offered his thanks for... his help earlier and 'good behavior' inside the prison.
Not that Nyx was concerned about his well-being. It was Silvia who was complaining a wee bit about the aura he was ushering in her house, believing he was making everyone walk on knives.
The nonchalant wizard looked my way. "Yo girl, come sit down." he pointed to a vacant seat next to him and George. The innkeeper nods, incurring the offer.
Nyx just takes a seat next to his future guide in their future adventure. Stonehead had joined them snacking on their meal.
Lieutenant Danny coughed to attract the group's attention. He doesn't say anything but pulls something out of his bag... a can of blood. "A donation for a sick individual." he winks. Next he pulls out Nyx's spell book and slides it across the table. "That's because Dörk claims he can do something useful with the stuff. I like the chapter on poisons." he said appraisingly. Nyx took the book but didn't open it, thinking about the possibilities of what else he could use it for.
Dörk intervened. "No worries, there are other ways you can learn spells. Not that I'm against you learning whatever it's through that book, but it feels more like something a cleric would use." he sticks then another forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to teach you a little something before we go. We're not doing anything complicated for beginners anyway."
Dörk cleaned his beard with a napkin and moved to stand up, waving a hand for Nyx to follow him, to which everyone at the table did.
Outside the inn's back, George, Danny, Dörk and Nyx were present in the yard, with Silvia standing in the doorway. Some of the wizards were curious as well, but decided to view from the window.
A little sleight of hand, Dörk conjured a small blade out of nowhere, big enough like a deck card. "This is the simplest spell anyone who can already do magic can learn." Instantly, the blade flies into the wooden target, breaking through and stopping in the wall behind it. "This is called 'Catapult', very useful in and out of battle." he said wryly. He then pulls the small blade back into his hand, presumably by his own 'Call Back' spell. Dörk raised his eyebrow. "I have a scroll with this spell, very useful to sell, but I think you can manage, after all you can create a shield with just a hand sign."
Dörk passed the blade to Nyx, unconcerned about cutting themselves. "You simply just make this hand sign, and eventually it'll become natural." Dörk points to his hand, holding his fingers as if holding a pen. "And then boom." He extends his index finger. "You get this spell done by the time we leave in a couple of hours and you're ready to learn some more on later on. Well, for now. There are many, many other things I could help with." He smiles through his teeth.
The protagonist just smiled and nodded. Finally, something fun to do. He thought.
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Stirring in some dough, Silvia was fuming. "You, and your stories. About heroes. And heroines! EEh!" she scoffed. "I tell you, that girl wants no part in your manly nonsense."
She added a bit of sunflower oil over the batter, beating it further, continuing till the mixture was no longer sticking to the wood bowl, meaning she just had to let it set. "George, dear, put this by the stove."
But from across the counter, Dörk was already on his feet. "It's okay, I'll take it. It's the least I can do when you offered you were gonna make us a little something for the road." Yeah, well, George suggested they leave with a few flat pies each. That meant a lot of work in the few two hours left, but money was good and no one wanted to be left stranded with nothing quick to eat in the trances or wherever the Skybinders were gonna be camped.
Silvia nodded but tensed somewhat at the man's help. "Thanks" She managed to say.
The wizard nodded back. "No worries." He says and places the vat on the tiles between the wall and the stove. "Oh gosh, I ain't had one of these in a while. I still remember my sister making 'em back when our mom was away."
Silvia points to another vat of wood, which Dörk passes nonchalantly to the woman in the chair. "Well thanks for being grateful but it's a lot of work." She shoots a glance at George. Not that she was mad at him, he couldn't make dough to save his life.
The wizard tugged lightly on his beard. "Well then...we can be a little late. No need to tire yourself rushing" He winked. "Besides, the girl needs the practice."
Drinking from his mug of beer, Jerry goes. "How's she doing, sir?" The man among the crowd stood as intrigued as any other person present. The truth being merely a thought, some were a little wery about the girl, but if one of the more senior of the group was confident about the girl and her character, they might as well give her a shot.
Dörk just sat back down at the table. "I didn't explain much. At times it becomes natural, at times you figure out what must happen." He then pulls a copper coin out of his sleeve, catapulting it toward Jerry and jabbing him in the forehead. "If you want Jerry, see what she does. And get back to me."
The young man just nodded. All the while rubbing his forehead.
Another grizzled wizard asks. "So what about this girl, Dörk? Please don't tell me you fell for her." He sips from his tankard, wiggling his eyebrows like a schoolgirl.
Callahan. A bear of a man in stature but full of laughs at heart. To Dörk though, since they'd been in town, he'd been quite silent. "Well, she gots a wicked rack." Dörk says, smiling and rubbing his beard.
Callahan just clicked his tongue at his colleague's shamelessness. They were both close in age, though the rune mage was more boyish but Callahan seemed younger, still sporting brownish hair and a few traces of colored strands on his square chin. "If you think like that she will be the death of you." He said and proceeded to munch on a carrot.
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Nyx could see the blade flying, but... the spell wasn't acting right. The previous fling was an embarrassing lame action excuse. Nyx just threw it by hand in irritation.
Leaving the blade momentarily on the ground, the stone head crouched down, pondering over the process again.
Okay. So a sign. And mana. Just as the ignition flicker. You compress mana and snap your fingers. Just like with 'Shield'. Also making a sign.
Nyx now nibbled one of his fingernails, eyeing the blade left on the ground. Missing, missing but what was missing?
He pauses his chewing, in a moment of clarity his eyes turn from the piece of metal to the thumb held by fingernail with his teeth. A silly smirk breaks across his face, remembering how he fixed his thumb before. Another form of using mana. Just like the 'Call Back' spell. By pushing mana INSIDE THE OBJECT.
Grabbing the blade from the ground, bit by bit he checks the assumption, pushing his mana into it. Just like his weapons, the sharp object maintains energy at a certain level. Unwilling to push any more power, recalling the exploding pencil, Nyx just followed with the sign Dörk had shown him.
Now the energy soaked blade flew gently from the stone man's hand. The spell... was half a success. The blade flew turbulently, yet not powerful enough to pierce the battered wooden target, ricocheting and dropping to the ground.
Nyx had snorted as much his biology allowed. All in his eyes, he was halfway there. Knowing his mana was now inside the object, he tried to activate the 'Call Back' spell, but now even that wasn't working.
With a twitching eye, he grabbed the blade but found no feeling of his mana inside. Was it depleted when I shot it?
Ah. Now I remember. The spell needs first to imprint one object already having a level of my mana, but the 'Catapult' spell already consumed the mana inside.
Standing back on his feet. Even so, this is Dörk's blade. Might be rude of me to brand my own spell on it.
Nyx was about to try again when the inn's door swung open, introducing Jerry. "Hello!" He says and waves to Nyx. The young man was usually among his companions, but he always seemed... not included. Always looking for something to say or do to prove himself. But he didn't look sad.
Just a young man filled with resolve. The golem saluted, nodding at him and cracking a small smile. He follows. "Dörk-san told me to take a look at your progress. Well uh, suggested it." He scratched his cheek. "So.. how's it going, eh?"
In response, Nyx jerks his head towards the wooden target, asking Jerry to follow.
For a second of concentration after, the blade flew in a similarly failed attempt. The cold stone person just turned back to the mage, shrugging at the mediocrity of his spell.
Jerry was wrapped up in the whole endeavor. His eyes followed from the motion of her shoulders to the flex of her hand and the flight of the blade. "Eh... not bad." He cleared his throat. "Half an hour and already halfway through." Followed to slap his palms together. From inside his coat pocket he pulls out a copper coin and copying the spell, hits the target.
Is he teasing me?
Giving Nyx a confused look, Jerry just chuckles. "Oh no sorry. Dörk-san just asked to observe." He then leans against the wall, grabbing a smoke and lighting it with his bare fingers.
Nyx just frowned. It seems his trick was a common thing for people to do around. I quess I can cross that off my 'spell' list. He thought somewhat sadly when everyone was showing off his most used spell.
A little shy because of his bystander, he tried again. And again. Till it was already getting lame. It's just won't fly smooth... AAAh! Thankfully, Nyx was only shrieking in his head, not gesticulating out his emotions in front of Jerry.
------------30 minutes later------------
Bursting through the door outside, Dörk shows himself. "Oh sorry. I tripped." And he dodges a wooden spoon from Silvia. "I tripped, I swear!"
Both Jerry and Nyx giggle at the old man's amused antics. "Just shove it you two." He says before pulling out yet other cigarettes for himself, Jerry and Nyx, just as a gesture to make him feel included. "Well?" he takes a puff and initiates small talk with Jerry.
Jerry, holding his between the lips just waved his hand. "She caught the first step, but now she's stuck halfway there." Nyx glared at Jerry, upset for being ratted out but that's that. The advanced wizard calls the blade back to him, smoothly sweeping the air and landing in his hand.
Nyx still stares at the two of them like a toddler. "Okay, okay. I'll give you credit. Usually the first step is more complicated. The simple fact that you figured it out is cool." Dörk chuckles halfway through. "Now, the next step is like this. Do you know what magnets are?"
A bird chirped in the distance showing how quiet the scene was. Nyx puffed on the cigarette offered earlier, listening to the man but all of it coming out the other ear.
Jerry just raised an eyebrow. "Really sir?"
Dörk only laughed embarrassed. "Fine, fine. My bad." He rubbed the back of his head. "It's a form of iron oxide.... a strange combination of iron and air. It can stick to different metals, especially other in high-iron. BUT they hate sticking to each other. Occasionally. That's all."
Nyx just shrugged and shook his hands in confusion, cigarette in mouth.
"Right, that doesn't explain the spell. Long story short, push more mana into the object and equates the mana inside your sign." He explains a little helplessly, following up to have the blade slice the target's head off.
Now Jerry had intervened. "You know how guns work, right?" That gets a nod from Nyx. "And fireworks?" that one just waved from side to side. "Well when you fire a gun, you have to fill the barrel with explosive powder and a bullet. And fire. And the bullet flies."
"No shit, great Baltazar." comments Dörk.
Jerry cringed, but continues. "Well so, let's say your mana is the gunpowder, and the gun is your hand. The bullet has no mana at all. The fireworks are backwards. Filled with gunpowder, your mana, and activated by a little spark, also your mana."
The golem kept his hand on his chin. I see.He did not.
Jerry continued. "The idea is... it has to be some from both sides some, energy, and making themeselfs release out." At that, Dörk nodded in agreement. "The blade blew off when you did your sign ....."
He couldn't biologically have a headache, but the two men were certainly twisting his head in all sorts of ways with rambling explanations. The golem just gave way and hit the pavement backwards. Now tracking the sky.
The wizards were just crashing into each other. "My head hurts from just looking at her." Dörk said, rubbing his head. Jerry nodded. The aged wizard had sat on a crate and Jerry just sat on his butt next to Nyx. "Jerry's analogy couldn't be more on point. Eh... guess we'll have to wait and try again. Maybe after a break, or maybe once we get there."
Jerry crossed his hands. "I think the stress will provoke a positive response, sir?"
"Maybe, I don't know.." the wizard sighed.
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The chatter between the wizards, was in few words, identical to Dörk and Jerry earlier. Half instructions and half answers. Like the directions for the Catapult.
But Dörk told him what to do. Just dip your hand a little more, and then make the sign.
When both Dörk and Jerry got fed up of failure, the three retired into the inn. A few minutes before their big departure.