by M E Robinson
Eric sighed, “Alright truce, let’s just go back to the way we were supposed to do it," he said, raising his hands in defeat.
“I knew you’d see it my way," she replied with a smile as they resumed the practice.
- Chapter Twelve -
Calyn
“Alright! This ends your training session with me!” Firin shouted, standing at the front of the line of recruits. “If I had my way, none of you would leave here until you had each perfected the basic militia spearmanship and could hold off an orc with your swordsmanship. But the Gods want you to learn by doing, so next you will learn archery and wilderness survival skills from Calyn. Throw your swords back in the barrel and wait here for her to arrive!”
As the last trainee tossed their sword back into the barrel, Firin gave them all a grim smile. “I wish you all luck, and don’t let me see your names on a tombstone any time soon. Even if you otherworlders cannot truly die, the world will not allow you to go against the natural order so easily. Even with the blessings of the Gods.” With those ominous parting words, Firin turned on his heel and left, collecting the barrel full of swords and entering the house, the door slamming shut behind him.
“What do you think this Calyn is going to be like? I hope she doesn’t shout as much as he did, that was seriously annoying.” Astrid said conversationally as they sat down to await their next teacher.
“Mmmmh,” Eric murmured his agreement, sad to lose the sword but glad to be rid of the loud Firin.
“That’s standard training tactics for new recruits, if you ever join the army in the real world that’s exactly how you’ll be trained. Hell that’s how we train new members at my dojo.” Someone else interjected.
Looking around, Eric realized that it was the half-orc who’d spoken, moving over to sit by Eric and Astrid.
“You run a dojo?” Astrid asked.
“Sure do, Phoenix Rise Tae Kwon Do.”
Eric’s brow shot up, “Phoenix Rise? Isn’t that the dojo where the recent provincial championship team was from?” He asked with some surprise. He hadn’t expected there to be such a big shot among this group of trainees. No wonder the man was so good at fighting, he was a master martial artist!
“I’m Thomas Berro. Although if you ever drop by the dojo, they refer to me as Master Berro. Good to meet you,” Thomas said, extending his hand towards the two.
“Astrid,” replied Astrid.
“I go by Kyp,” Eric said, shaking the man’s hand.
“Now where do you think our new instructor’s gotten off to? We can see most of the island from this hill, but I can’t see anyone moving down there,” Thomas observed.
Looking down towards the tiny village below, Eric nodded. There truly was no one below, it was as if the place was deserted. Looking over at Astrid, he was about to say something when he saw that her brow was furrowed and she kept looking towards the willows along the pond.
“What’s up, Astrid?” He asked, looking at the willows himself but seeing nothing.
“Not sure, I feel like there’s something over there. But looking closer, I can’t see anything special,” Astrid reported, still looking towards the pond.
Thomas looked at Eric and shrugged. With a small shrug of his own, Eric was about to turn away when all of a sudden he saw a figure detach itself from the willow tree closest to the stream and make its way towards them.
“I didn’t expect that someone would be able to make me out despite my camouflage, nice going girl,” the figure said in a lilting voice.
As the figure approached, Eric realized just why he had not been able to make her out against the backdrop of the willow trees. She was clad head to toe in a forest coloured garb, with a thin fishing rod in her hand, a bow and a quiver of arrows slung over her back, as well as a hunting knife at her belt - she had perfectly hidden herself from the players eyes. After all, who was looking for a fisherwoman sitting next to the pool when the deafening figure of Firin existed within the hut?
Arriving in front of the group, the woman threw back the hood of her cloak, revealing a tanned face topped by a mane of brown hair that was cropped close to the skull on both sides, revealing her pointed ears. A long scar ran the length of her face, from her left eye down past her lip.
“My name is Calyn and I will be your wilderness survival instructor. I will be teaching you how to fish, set a trap, and cook basic meals over a campfire.” She said, staring at each of the players in turn. “Oh, and of course I shall be teaching you archery,” she said, directing a small smile towards the hut where Firin resided.
“Now archery is useful not only as a way to deal with enemies from afar, but also as a way to secure meals for yourself through hunting. As a result, all of you need to at least learn to shoot a bow. Should you ever be called to serve in the militia, you will at the very least have the ability to be put to work on the walls firing arrows.”
With a wave of her hand, a barrel full of bows, and roughly two dozen quivers of arrows appeared next to Calyn. Eric sucked in a breath - this was a much more exciting method of handing out equipment than Firin had used.
Calling the players to the front, Calyn handed each person a bow and a quiver of arrows. The bow was shorter than the bow Eric had used in the synchronization test, with the limbs of the bow warping slightly under the pressure of the string. Drawing an arrow from the quiver, Eric observed that the arrows were of similar low quality; the only redeeming features he could make out were that they they seemed mostly straight and the stone arrowheads seemed to be at least slightly pointy.
Archery seemed to be about as complex as spearmanship had been under the expert tutelage of Calyn. Eric simply had to make sure the pointy end flew from the bow and hit the target while remaining even further away from the opponent than he had with the spear.
Calyn’s teaching style differed drastically from Firin’s. Where Firin had been loud and brash, fixing their mistakes with loud yells and nudging their arms and legs into the proper form, Calyn was much more subdued, offering quiet tips that never failed to improve the results of those she spoke to.
Moving from trainee to trainee, Calyn approached where Eric, Thomas, and Astrid stood, firing arrows downrange at their targets. Astrid seemed to have entered a world of her own, uncharacteristically silent as she fired her bow. Thomas was much more animated, swearing as his arrows veered off target, hitting the sides of the target or soaring past altogether. Guess he’s not amazing at everything, Eric thought.
Launching arrow after arrow at the targets that had appeared, Eric once again found himself entering the state he had found himself in back when he shot the bow in the synchronization test. Exhaling slowly, his vision zoomed in upon the target, his focus alternating between the tip of the arrow and the target. As he released the arrow, it almost seemed like he could tell where it would land before it even struck the target. As the time passed, the number of arrows that Eric landed in the middle of the target grew higher and higher.
Similar to the spear training, each time he shot an arrow, he could feel himself making slight improvements to how he fired it. Adjusting his shooting stance, the alignment of the arrow, and how he held the bow, his accuracy rose slightly with each shot.
From afar, Calyn’s eyebrow raised slightly, “It looks like we have a natural archer,” she muttered to herself as she watched Eric land his third arrow in a row neatly inside the bullseye.
“Pay attention to your stance,” she murmured from behind where Eric stood, nudging his legs slightly further apart, forcing him into a more stable position. With a grateful nod, he memorized the stance and continued to fire.
Observing Eric for a few more moments, Calyn then turned to look at a few other players. While most were able to at least hit the target, there weren’t very many with the potential to become rangers, even that half-orc who’d excelled at the spear and sword exercises wasn’t doing great. No there weren’t really any other talents. Well except for one, she thought.
Calyn wat
ched as Astrid sent another arrow directly into the center of the bullseye. Her lips quirked up; while the half-elf might have been a natural, this was true talent. Every arrow she fired sailed true, despite the shoddiness of the bow and the arrows. A solid cluster of arrows stood out from the bullseye of her target. This otherworlder would do well, she thought to herself as she raised her arms to signal the end of the archery training.
“Alright! Archery practice is over!” Calyn announced. “Please collect all the arrows you fired and place them back in the quiver. You can just toss the bows back in the barrel but please hand the quiver to me. And yes, that includes the arrows you shot downhill, Mr Half-Orc,” she said to Thomas with an amused smile.
Grumbling, Thomas left to collect the arrows that had flown past the target as the rest of the trainees put the arrows back in their quivers and handed them to Calyn. Waiting patiently, Calyn stood silently next to the barrel of bows until Thomas returned and handed her his quiver, tossing his bow angrily into the barrel.
“Now that you’ve all learned archery, we’ve finished the combat portion of the tutorial. Next I shall teach all of you how to survive in the wilderness of Nasvencia. This world has danger lurking at every corner, which means that it’s considered courteous if you know how to avoid killing yourself before it can get to you.”
This got a laugh from the assembled trainees. Calyn smiled briefly before continuing.
“The main skill I shall be teaching you is how to fish. So without further ado let’s get started!”
- Chapter Thirteen -
Cloudview Tower
True to her word, Calyn quickly set herself to the task of teaching them each how to create a fishing line, bait the hook, and cook the fish they caught using their lines. Afterwards she was replaced by a brand new instructor who taught them the basics of herb identification, another who taught them how to perform basic metallurgy, and one who taught them the common etiquette of the world of Nasvencia. From each instructor, they also gained new items: a small pack full of survival gear from Calyn, a few herbs that could heal minor wounds, and a bronze knife, useless in battle but good for gutting fish and other small tasks. As they finished the class on etiquette, their instructor brought them down from the hill towards the large stone tower that could be seen towering over the rest of the village. It was here that they were greeted once again by Calyn, who quickly signalled for silence.
“Behind these doors is the only true mage in the village. It is he who will be teaching you all how to use basic magic. A quick warning though: anyone who does not treat the mage with the respect he deserves will quickly find themselves tossed out. You have all learned the basics of etiquette so I expect you to treat him as best you can,” she said in that lilting melodic voice of hers that seemed to lull you to sleep.
Shaking his head to snap out of it, Eric followed Calyn inside and up the narrow stone steps of the tower.
Once at the top, they were greeted by a pair of large wooden doors. As Calyn moved to open the doors, time seemed to stop. Not metaphorically, but literally, as if all of existence had suddenly ceased to continue forward, and had instead frozen itself in place. Straining to find the cause of the disturbance, Eric almost jumped out of his skin when Eleanor appeared in front of him.
“Eleanor?” he asked incredulously.
“Yup!” She responded happily.
“What are you doing here?” Eric asked, wondering if any of the other players could see their own faeries.
“Well it’s time for you to choose if you’d like to keep system assistance on, or turn it off for greater freedom,” Eleanor explained.
“System assistance?” Eric asked in a puzzled tone.
“Yup, did you notice how it seemed you instinctively knew how to fire a bow or use a spear?”
“Well yeah, but I was kind of hoping that was just my natural talent,” Eric responded with a wry smile.
“It might have been, but with system assistance on, everyone gets access to that sort of natural talent. It helps you quickly improve and level up your proficiencies, but you give up a lot of freedom for discovering new skills as you’re forced to learn how to use these weapons and movements without understanding why. It will also be difficult for you to advance your proficiencies past the expert stage”
Eric nodded, “So it’s like being power leveled but losing out on being able to do prerequisite quests?”
“Something like that. You can still create skills and advance your proficiencies if you choose to use system assistance; it will just be more difficult for you to do so as skill creation requires creativity and understanding of how combat works past the basic skills stage. However, many of the beta testers were able to create very powerful skills using system assistance, and many of those who opted not to use it fell behind as combat is an inherently difficult task. Also just because you do not use system assistance does not mean that you will find skill creation easy. It just removes one of the constraints,” Eleanor explained.
Eric pondered, “Can I turn system assistance back on at a later time if I decide I want to use it?”
“Of course, but constantly switching between the two isn’t recommended. You’ll want to try and stick to one or the other. But yes, you may switch whenever you like.”
“In that case, I’ll turn system assistance off for now,” Eric decided.
“Alright, please notify me if you would ever like to re-enable it. You can summon me by saying ‘Eleanor, please come to my aid’,” Eleanor told him with a smile, bowing slightly before disappearing in a twirl of sparkling lights.
Looking around, Eric noticed that while time still seemed to be stopped for Calyn and the world itself, the other players were moving and appeared to be talking to an invisible entity. While he could not hear their voices, he assumed that they must be having the same conversation he’d just had. A few players had already finished, notably Astrid, an older woman who’d excelled at etiquette, a swarthy black haired teen who’d gone all out on the spear training, and a quiet middle aged man who had managed to gain praise from Calyn for his skill with the fishing line.
After another minute, the last of the players emerged from their conversation with their faerie. As they took stock of their surroundings, time once again took hold of their surroundings and Calyn finished stepping forwards to knock on the door.
Boom. Boom. Boom. She gave the door three hard knocks before stepping back and waiting respectfully in front. After a long moment, the door swung open to reveal a large circular room. Light streaming in from large windows on the sides of the tower formed sunbeams, illuminating the dust swirling in the air currents kicked up in the doors’ wake. A door on the far side of the room led out to a balcony where a short man in a voluminous robe stood, gazing out at the brook.
As the recruits walked towards the center of the room, the mage turned and stood on the balcony, awaiting their approach. As he gazed at the mage and what lay beyond, Eric suddenly realized with a jolt why the brook didn’t disappear into the horizon, and why Firin had said that they would need to learn to fly if they wanted to leave without training. The land they were on was actually a floating island, hovering above the clouds. The brook flowed brightly through the middle of the village, its waters sparkling in the sunlight, unhindered by the clouds flowing below. As it reached the edge of the village, it simply flowed off, creating a tiny waterfall to pierce the clouds below.
I guess this really is a fantasy world, Eric thought as he stared dumbfounded past the mage.
“Ahem.” The mage cleared his throat, breaking the silence that had taken hold of the recruits from the moment Calyn had knocked on the door.
“My name is Arthal Moors, Mage of Cloudview Tower. This is Cloudview Tower. It is here that I have been tasked with the impossible job of teaching you the basics of magic, the very foundation of the secrets and forms of the multiverse. All in under an hour. With that in mind I do not mind if you ask questions. However, do keep in mind that I do not subs
cribe to the theory that there are no stupid questions. Stupid questions are very real, and I have found they tend to originate from those who do not think themselves to be shall we say, less gifted mentally. Now I have no tolerance for either the dumb, nor their questions. Is that clear?” Arthal, stared out at the players, his piercing gaze seeming to challenge them to tell him otherwise. Despite his small stature, the power emanating from his body surpassed that of even Firin, causing several players to unconsciously gulp and take a step backwards.
Seeing that no one was speaking up, Arthal continued, “Now the study of magic is the most complex and rich subject in Nasvencia. The knowledge of hundreds of generations of mages of all races, creeds, and even planes has come together to form the current schools of magic. These schools comprise such magical disciplines as elemental magic, gravity, climate, light, darkness, and even divine magic. None of you,” he whirled and spoke sternly towards them. “Shall be learning from any of those schools of magic today. Today we shall be learning the most basic and elementary school of magic, the school that is the foundation of all magics. The school of arcane!”
With a flourish, Arthal threw his hands upwards, a small stick clasped in his left hand suddenly emitting a brilliant glow. As the gathered players watched, a field of brilliantly twinkling stars emerged to hover just above their heads, glowing a brilliant violet with white starlight gleaming from their centers.
- Chapter Fourteen -
Magic
As the stars gleamed brilliantly above them, Arthal resumed his speech.
“This,” Arthal said with satisfaction. “Is Arcane magic. The root of all magics, any magic you perform will be created with arcane magic as its basic form, and given another attribute to fill in the vessel that arcane magic can create. Today however, you will be grasping the basics of using arcane magic.” Pausing, Arthal walked over to a table tucked against the corner of the room where he grabbed a small box. Making his way back he gave the box to Calyn.
