by Phoenix Grey
There was a stack of books on the kiosk to her right. She must be cataloging them, Azure thought as he watched her take one from the pile, open it to examine the contents, jot down a note on a piece of paper, and then move the book to another stack to her left.
"Cheryl?" Azure asked gently as he approached.
Her ears flicked as her large black eyes rose to meet him. "Yes?" she responded in a voice that sounded more like a bleat than words.
"My name is Azure," he promptly introduced himself before holding out the voucher. "Elise told me to give this to you."
She took the voucher from him, her eyes scanning across it. "Wait. Please." It sounded like she was struggling to speak, her mouth ill-formed for it.
Cheryl left her post, and Azure noticed that the bottom half of her was that of a deer, tail and all. Bipedal, her feet were not feet at all but cloven hooves. Questions filled Azure's mind, and he wondered if it would be impolite to ask about her species. He'd never seen anything like her before.
She returned a few moments later with a large tome in hand. It was much bigger than any of the language books Azure had seen before. When she gave the book over to him, Azure noticed it felt different as well. Soft leather covered the hardback beneath. Mostly white, green leaves swirled intricately around the cover, seemingly woven into it. The book was bordered in gold. As for the font, it was less enchanting considering that Azure had seen it before on The Tales of Arun Pervaris, the book that Lonnell had been reading on the Shropshire about one of the last wood elves. He couldn't help but wonder if everything about elves was fancy. There seemed to be a refined quality to both books that he hadn't seen in others.
"Teach. Wood. High. Ancient," Cheryl bleated at him with a smile.
While Azure wasn't one hundred percent sure, he thought he had the gist of what she was trying to tell him. As Cheryl pointed to one of the many tables, sending him on his way, he could have sworn he saw something akin to a blush on her cheeks, though there was no way to really tell since he couldn't see her skin through her coarse facial hair.
"Thank you." He nodded in appreciation before carrying the heavy book away to find a seat and get to reading it.
Azure flipped the cover of Speaking Elvish for Idiots open and began reading the English portion. It spoke of how there were variations of the Elvish language, and that the book contained all of them. There was a brief history, of which Azure had no interest. Elves were extinct now, and aside from their magic and books, he didn't see much of the impact they had left behind.
As with the previous books, the words began to change to the font on the cover. Pressing on, Azure knew he would absorb the understanding of it. And he did. What he hadn't expected though, was the sheer amount of information that entered his brain at one time. It felt like his mind was being vacuumed into the book and spit back out. There was so much to learn. Three variations of the language, not to mention the silent language of spells. Hundreds of thousands of words. So much that Azure was worried he might be losing some of the other languages he knew as he took it all in.
By the time the process ended, Azure felt mind flayed. He stared down at the open book in front of him, panting heavily and clutching the side of the table with both hands. Nausea rolled in his stomach. Like taking in too much food and drink, Azure worried he wouldn't be able to contain it all. Part of him wanted to vomit, but he knew that nothing would come out. The words could not be unlearned.
Lingering whispers danced in his ears as his purchase disintegrated in front of him. No wonder the book had cost so much. He had just learned thousands of years worth of language. It definitely had not been a rip-off. At least that made him feel somewhat better.
Congratulations! You can now understand and speak the language: Elvish. The item: Book: Speaking Elvish for Idiots has been destroyed.
Azure blew out a breath and pulled himself to his feet. Holy shit, that had been intense. Now he was kind of glad he hadn't been able to take his first spell class today. It felt like there was no more room in his brain to learn anything new until he'd had a nap.
With that thought, he smiled at Cheryl as he left the library and headed back to Squall's End.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE REALM – Day 60
After a good long nap, Azure woke feeling refreshed. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to do anything else, so he found himself in the tavern again. This time, he stuck to drinking just water as he Analyzed the people who came and went. He wanted the ability to level so that he could see more about his friends and foes the way that Ferne and Elise had when they had asked him for his credentials. That would likely take countless hours scoping out new people, but Squall's End made that relatively easy thanks to being a port town.
Azure sat in the tavern until he grew bored, then he went back up to his room and laid there staring up at the ceiling. Perhaps napping hadn't been the best idea. He had wanted to be well-rested for his first official day of magic school tomorrow, but sleep wouldn't come easily. The night was mostly spent thinking about where Lonnell was, wondering if he'd actually be able to revive Uden, coming up with jabs to say when they returned, deciding what land magic spell he wanted to learn first, then wishing he would have spent the afternoon more productively by foraging so he could have made up at least some of the cost of tuition. Aside from his extreme mental exhaustion, there had been no good reason for him to waste the rest of the day. He was disappointed in himself.
By the time his eyelids began to grow heavy, sunlight was already creeping in through the window. Azure groaned, rolling onto his stomach and cradling his head in his arms. If he tried to sleep now, he might not wake up in time to attend his first class. Groggy and grumpy, Azure forced himself out of bed and back downstairs to eat breakfast before he had to take off toward Hawking's again.
By some miracle, he did not have to play the waiting game. Elise was ready to meet with him as soon as he arrived. Perhaps paying for classes had made a difference in how they treated him. Even Miss Ogden smiled when he walked up, which was a nice change.
"Have you decided what spell you want to learn first?" Elise asked him cheerily.
It had been a difficult choice. Each spell had its own merits. But ultimately, Azure wanted the Dirty Move spell first, and not for the reasons that most would think. He had something more mischevious in mind to use it for than combat.
"Excellent," she said before opening a drawer in her desk and pulling out a scroll. When she handed it over to Azure, he hesitated, waiting for further instructions. "Well, open it." Elise gestured to the scroll.
You have received the following item:
Spell Scroll: Dirty Move
Quantity: 1/1
Weight: 0 kg
Mana Cost: 20
Range: 6 feet
Cooldown: Three Minutes
Magic Class: Land
Uses: Blows dirt into your enemies eyes causing blindness for 10 seconds.
Feeling his entire body tingling with excitement from finally getting his hands on magic, Azure unrolled the scroll. There were no words, but on the front, drawn in brown ink, was the picture of a hand, palm out, with dust blowing off of it in whirls. Azure thought he should feel something—that the spell would automatically absorb into him as the language books had, but nothing happened as he stared down at the lifeless parchment.
“How do I learn it?” His eyes darted back up to Elise.
“Stand.” She walked around her desk to be next to him, then continued, “Let's take a walk.” Elise motioned for Azure to follow, leading him outside. When they were about three yards away from the entrance to the school, she stopped and turned to him. “Kneel here and place the scroll on the ground. Place your hand on top of it. This will create a chain from the land to the scroll to you. You will need to absorb the energy of both to learn the spell.”
Azure followed her instructions, feeling that something wonderful was about to happen. Once he was properly in place, his eyes danced back up to
the dwarf for further instructions.
“Now place your other hand on the ground to complete the connection. Close your eyes and feel the power of the land beneath you. Words will come to your mind. You'll know exactly what to say. And then the power of the scroll will flow into you.”
Nervously, Azure did what he was told. At first, all he felt was the coolness of the dirt beneath his hand. Then all of a sudden, he felt a rumbling, though he couldn't tell if it was just within himself or if the entire ground was moving.
“Don't open your eyes,” Elise said firmly as if she could sense what Azure was about to do. “Remain calm as the magic flows through you.”
The rumbling started in the hand that had been touching the scroll, but it soon spread throughout Azure's entire body. He felt as if he was somehow breaking apart, like clumps of soft earth. His veins were no longer veins but vines. There was intense heat. He was baking under the sun. Moisture was sapped from his body as he began to dry into a husk. The feeling frightened him, yet at the same time, he knew it was completely natural. This was the changing of the seasons. The harsh climate of a different location. It was simply what the land did in times of drought.
Instinctively, his fingers dug into the ground. “I came from the land, and to the land, I will return,” he muttered. Uden had spoken those same words to him when they'd first met. Except, he had said they came from the land, referring to the dark sprites they had vanquished in the very first quest he'd ever done where he had to kill something. “With the blessing of Finborh, I bring the land unto me, knowing that I will give back to it on my final day.”
Something changed within him, then. It felt as if a tiny worm had burrowed into his palm from the hand that was touching the scroll. It crawled up to his bicep, making him want to wriggle, but then spread out and disappeared. Suddenly, he knew exactly how to cast the spell. The magic of it was within him. A prompt appeared before his eyes.
Congratulations! New skill learned: Land Magic Level 1. The land gives and the land takes. This has been known for as long as creatures have walked the face of the planet.
Congratulations! You have learned the land spell: Dirty Move. Foes will think twice about getting too close to you after you throw dirt in their eyes.
Knowing that the memorization process was complete, Azure opened his eyes. The scroll lay before him, sans picture. As soon as he lifted his hand, it disintegrated into dust, seeming to sink in and blend with the land.
Again, energy zinged through him, but it was different from before. Before, he had been excited just to know he was about to learn magic. Now, Azure was officially a magic user. Well, he would be once he cast the spell.
“I can't wait to try it,” he said a bit over-zealously as he stood. “Can I cast it over there?” Azure pointed toward the path leading away from the school. There were no people or buildings in that area, so it seemed safe.
“You can...” Elise replied hesitantly, “but you won't gain any experience from it. Like everything in The Realm, experience is only gained through practical application. And the best application is real-world experience.” She smiled before gesturing toward the school. “Let's go back to my office.”
Azure followed Elise inside. She sat down at her desk and pulled open a drawer, extracting a small stack of papers. Taking a few minutes to scan over each, she selected one before sliding it in front of him. “Here. I think this will be perfect.”
He dragged the paper closer to get a better look at it. When he did, a notification popped up.
Magic School Quest: Clear a Path
The professors from Hawking's School of Land Magic plan to launch an expedition into the Crypt of the Mystic King shortly. Before they can begin, there are several puddles of poison in the area that need to be removed. That's where you come in.
Difficulty: Very Easy
Success: Clear five poison puddles
Failure: Cancel quest
Will you accept this quest: Yes or No?
“How can I help with this?” Azure asked, not understanding what it had to do with his Dirty Move spell.
“The spell you just learned has more applications than you think. Aside from being good for offensive maneuvers, you can use it to clear some wet surfaces, poison being one of them.” Elise gestured to the quest sheet.
“Oh,” he replied, now feeling that the Dirty Move spell was even more useful.
“Accepting the quest will mark the location of the crypt on your map. You don't need to enter. Just simply clean up around it,” Elise told him.
“There's no deadline,” Azure pointed out.
“No, there's not,” she acknowledged, “but I would prefer you get to it sooner rather than later. If you don't complete the quest before the expedition begins, it will cancel on its own, and I'll have to issue you another.”
“Will you be attending the expedition?” he asked curiously, ready to use the information to segue into his next question.
Elise propped her elbows up on her desk and rested her chin on top of them as if she was suddenly tired. “That's yet to be decided. Though I'm sure you're wondering why I would need you to do this if we're already planning to send a group of experienced mages.”
Azure nodded.
“The truth is, we don't need you to do this. It's simply a useful way for you to practice and apply your new skill. Every time you learn a spell, you'll be given a quest to complete before you can learn the next spell. Some of them will be trivial, like this one. But some may hold greater significance. It really just depends on what the school's needs are at the time,” she informed him.
“I'm going to assume that someone here can cast poison or some other spell that would compliment my Dirty Move spell. It seems like it would make more sense to have the two casters work together to level their skill,” he thought out loud.
Elise sat up, her arms folding on top of the desk. “As I told you before, experience in a skill is only gained when that skill has practical need for use. Two casters casting spells at each other in a non-combative way would not help you level the skill.
“It is important to us here at Hawking's that we send you out into society with real-world application of your new skills.”
For a moment, Azure thought about arguing that he'd rather have a combat quest but then decided against it. The easier the quest was, the faster he could complete it and move on to learning his next spell.
“Once I complete the quest, I assume I'm supposed to come and report back.”
“That is correct. You will report in to Miss Ogden who will then schedule your appointment for your next lesson.”
“Sounds good. I suppose that's it for today, then. I'll get on this right away.” Azure stood to take his leave.
“Good luck out there, Azure.” Elise rounded her desk to walk him to the door to her office. “There shouldn't be many, if any, monsters around there, but I would not go unarmed,” she warned.
“I never do.” He reached to touch the hilt of his sword.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE REALM – Day 61
Once outside, Azure pulled up his World Map. Not surprisingly, the marker for the new quest was in a black area—unexplored by him. It looked to be a good ways away. Azure couldn't tell if there were roads that he could travel to safely take him there, but by the way that Elise had made it sound, he assumed that the crypt was probably hidden in the forest somewhere, as most dungeons were.
He made a few calculations and decided that it would take him an entire day's walk to reach it, which meant he'd have to camp in the forest overnight. That thought wasn't very appealing after having almost died on the main road due to being attacking by bats and shadowlings. There was a pretty good probability that he'd encounter the same...or worse, which meant it was best to go prepared. Fire would be a priority, and right now Azure had nothing to make it with, which meant he'd have to head back to Squall's End to purchase supplies for the journey.
The thought of parting with more cash t
o complete the quest didn't sit well with Azure, but what else could he do? Waiting for Lonnell to return was always an option. There was definitely safety in numbers. But he really didn't want to waste any more time than he already had.
Now he really regretted putting all of his money into a full semester of land magic. The Small Flame spell that Lonnell had really would have come in handy in so many different scenarios. Azure made a mental note that that was the next thing he wanted to learn once he'd finished his land magic classes.
"Not going to waste today like I did yesterday," he mumbled to himself as he left the school, trying to figure out if he wanted to detour to Roselake to fish or attempt to forage the scarce herbs between Hawking's and Squall's End. Knowing that he'd likely make more money from fishing, Azure decided to walk straight when he got to the fork in the road.
Settling down in the same spot he had fished before, Azure pulled out his Starter Pole and baited his hook. It took three casts before he got his first hit. The pull on his line was incredibly strong, and as Azure fought to reel the beast in, he knew he'd be hauling a monster ashore.
The large crayfish's antenna came out of the water before its body followed. By the time the creature was half-exposed, Azure had already dropped his pole. Summoning the magic within him, he cast Dirty Move, clenching his fist to gather dirt from the ether, then opening it and blowing the pile toward the monster. Dirt sprayed into the beast's face. Without eyelids, the large crayfish couldn't cover from the attack. It hissed and stopped its charge, backstepping instead. That gave Azure time to draw his sword.
