Chapter 101

  Nick Smith

  Adventurer Level: 11

  Human – American

  "Spring seems to be flying by," Yulk said as we approached the targets in the training yard. "Nash will be joining us tomorrow afternoon."

  "When will we be leaving?" I asked.

  "The day after. The Summer Court is held in the Grand Forest of Climeta, just outside of Climeta city in Calkuti. It will take a week to get there by cart."

  I nodded and turned my attention toward one of the targets. Originally, I'd thought we'd be returning to Mumuldobran, but going directly to the court works too. I briefly wondered how Yulk knew where the court was going to be held, but had more important things to focus on.

  Yulk and I had waited until school was out to take to the training yard. My intention was to finally practice some spells that I'd thought of, and Yulk was more than happy to supervise. Borderline gleeful, in fact.

  "What spell are you going to start with?" he asked.

  "Well, I've been worried about something," I replied. "Wind Spear doesn't have a lot of penetrative power against armor, does it? Neither does Ice Javelin, right?"

  "It certainly would against leather armor," my brother teased. "But no, you're correct. Most armors would be able to prevent lethality from Wind Spear or Ice Javelin."

  "Right. That's because ice is a pretty weak kind of crystal and wind is just air. The only reason they have any effect at all is probably because of the gaps in armor, or the magic holding the spell together. Which means their penetrative power is directly tied to the amount of magic used to make the spell."

  "Correct."

  "So if I were in a fight against someone or something wearing armor, I would have to use all of my magic to get through that armor," I chuckled. "Or..."

  "Or?"

  I held up a finger in the shape of a gun, pointing it at the target in front of me. The spell itself should cause a small amount of lead to form at the tip of my finger and launch at supersonic speed. I pictured how this would look, and felt the magic flow through my channels.

  "Tellub Tsac!"

  The formation of the projectile and its launch happened in the blink of an eye. The spell made a loud whip-like crack that took me by surprise. I had been expecting a boom or nothing at all.

  A small amount of hay was flung from both directions of the target's torso as the bullet impacted it. Yulk let out low whistle, then narrowed his eyes at something in the distance.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "I think your spell may have struck the wall," he said. "Hard to tell from here, though. Let's go have a look."

  I almost pointed out that it would be weird if it didn't hit the wall, but decided to just roll with it. We walked over to the wall and found a chip where the bullet had struck. Yulk let out another low whistle.

  "That's not bad," he said. "It took a chunk of out glyph-stone. What was the inspiration behind the spell?"

  "A weapon from my world," I replied. "That's all I'm willing to say, and I would appreciate it if we could keep this between us."

  He studied me for a moment, but decided to drop the subject. We returned to the targets, and I began to conceptualize my next spell. It would be useful to have a spell that could immobilize a target, and my run-ins with the fair folk had inspired me. I held my hand out and imagined strong, sturdy roots emerging from the ground and wrapping around the target.

  "Parw Toor Tsac!"

  -Root Wrap unlocked-

  Roots suddenly burst from the ground and wrapped themselves around the target. The spell took more magic than I expected, which made me feel light headed. So much so, in fact, that it almost distracted me from something weird.

  "That could be useful," Yulk nodded approvingly.

  "I heard the voice that time," I said.

  "The voice?"

  "Yeah, I hear this little announcement whenever I unlock a new skill or spell. But..." I trailed off, and decided to sit down to ease my sudden vertigo. "But I didn't hear it with Bullet."

  Yulk stared at me for a beat, then looked thoughtfully toward the target.

  "Lord VysImiro and I have had many illuminating discussions regarding the Curaguard," he said. "From what he has told me, I believe it is unlikely that spells based on weaponry that doesn't exist in this world would be in its catalog. Which means..."

  He trailed off and stared at me. It took my freshly fogged mind a moment to follow his logic. I took a couple of deep breaths and thought for a moment.

  "The announcement thing is based on the Curaguard's catalog?" I asked.

  "I believe so," Yulk nodded. "As a matter of fact, I'd venture to say that I'm confident of it. Check your spell list."

  The list popped up at a thought. It began with my skills, so I had to think about scrolling to get to the bottom of the spells portion. There was only one new addition to the list.

  Root Wrap - Immobilize a target with strong, sturdy roots. Lasts a maximum of ten minutes, or until the user dismisses it or falls unconscious.

  Cooldown: 20 minutes

  I had barely noticed the cooldown that had appeared in the almost invisible list in the top left of my vision. It was quite lengthy, though, so I would have to keep that in mind. But more importantly, Bullet wasn't on the list.

  'Yulk appears to be correct,' Ten said. 'Incidentally, the announcement is one of my subroutines.'

  "Ten says that you appear to be correct and that the announcement is one of its subroutines," I parroted. "Also, Bullet isn't on the spell list."

  "I has suspected that the announcement was part of Ten. The fact that it shares my theory regarding the source of its knowledge is very interesting, very interesting indeed," my brother said, practically salivating over the revelation. "So, Ten likely has a version of the Curaguard's catalog. I wonder..."

  Yulk trailed off and began to mutter to himself, leaving me to my own thoughts. The idea that Ten and the Curaguard might share an origin didn't sit very well with me. Either humans came here a very, very long time ago and made both Ten and the Curaguard, or someone else did.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  If it's the former, it makes me wonder exactly how long I was asleep. The thought that I could be thousands of years old made my stomach flip. However, the latter happened to be something I'd intentionally avoided thinking about since I was first made aware of my AI companion.

  Who had installed Ten in my brain, and why?

  'If we could gain access to one of the Curaguard boxes, it could answer some questions,' Ten said.

  'To be honest, I'm not sure I want those answers,' I replied. 'Or at least, I'm not sure they're worth the trouble.'

  'What do you mean?'

  'Well, let's say that we jump through all of the hoops to get one of the boxes and we find out that you and the Curaguard are or aren't connected. Let's even take it a step further and say that we are somehow able to confirm your origin, or the origin of the Curaguard, or both. What then? Is there even a remote possibility that information will help me get home? I doubt it.'

  With a sigh, I watched Yulk pace back and forth, holding his chin in thought. He made three turns before I realized that Ten hadn't replied. Then something occurred to me that kind of made me feel like an asshole.

  'How important is this to you?' I asked.

  'Very,' it rapidly replied.

  'Why?'

  'I don't know if you and I are capable of feeling things in a similar manner,' the AI chuckled ironically. 'However, you and I both unexpectedly woke up in a strange place without knowledge of how we ended up here, yes?'

  'Yeah, I suppose so...'

  'Well, you have the benefit of knowing where you came from. I don't. You are able to distract yourself from our situation. I can't. Each gap in my knowledge is like a hole within my very being. All I actually know about myself is that I'm incomplete in a way that I can't quite understand.'

  'Got it,' I replied. "Hey, do you know how we can get one of the Curaguard box things?"

  Yulk stopped pacing and gave me a curious look. Then a sudden understanding seemed to wash over his expression.

  "Ohh! Yes, that would be a mighty fine idea," he said, then paused. "I assume Ten wants to examine one of the boxes to determine if they are similar in construction, yes?"

  'Yes.'

  I nodded.

  "A novel suggestion," my brother grinned, before adopting a more serious expression and tone. "Unfortunately, I don't know where the boxes come from. In theory we can simply ask one of the guild receptionists, but I doubt they know the specifics either."

  "It's worth a shot, though," I said, finding the strength to stand. "Even if they don't know, they might know who does. Then we just have to figure out how to ask the person who does know. Of course, there's a possibility that it's a trade secret or something, but that's a bridge we can cross when we come to it."

  Yulk nodded in agreement and I put the issue from my mind. I was feeling better, and there were more spells that I wanted to try. First, I dismissed the roots holding the target, then I raised my hand and thought about what my magic should do.

  "Sraeps Kcor Tsac!"

  -Rock Spears unlocked-

  Eight spears made of stone suddenly burst from the ground and impaled the target. A three minute cooldown timer appeared underneath the timer for Root Wrap. Yulk chuckled and nodded approvingly, and quick check of the spell list showed no new information for the spell.

  A success, but I didn't take any time to cherish it. Instead, I took a few deep breaths to recharge the magic I had expended and held up both of my hands for my final experiment of the afternoon. I had wanted to come up with an explosion spell but, as Mister Tyinora had pointed out, explosions can be unpredictable.

  What could give me an edge in a fight, though, is not having to visualize a spell at all. The ability to simply point and blast, like they do in so many of the anime and manga I'd read. A ki-blast or something, but made entirely of magic.

  I did my best to control my magic and imagined a small amount of it forming and firing from my hands. A ball of multi-colored light appeared in front of my hands, but then it suddenly dissipated.

  As the tunnel vision began, I realized that all of my magic was gone.

  "Oh shi-" I tried to say.

  I found myself suddenly looking up at Yulk's concerned face. Was I laying down? Why?

  "Damn it, Nick," Yulk sighed. "How am I supposed to carry you?"

  I tried to reply, but everything went dark instead. When my eyes opened again, I was in my room at the inn. The soft bed and its bedding comforted me as I tried to figure out how I'd teleported from the training yard.

  "Oh shit," I sighed as the pieces clicked.

  A glance out the window told me that it was no longer late afternoon, but morning. I had expended all of my magic and lost consciousness again. Had the spell worked?

  I got out of bed and noticed two things. The first was that the back of my head hurt, probably from hitting the dirt. The second was, with the exception of my shoes, I was fully dressed. With another sigh, I grabbed my stuff and went downstairs to the dining area.

  "Well, look who it is," Nash said.

  "Good to see you," I chuckled at him, then turned to Yulk. "Sorry that I-"

  "It's no bother," he interrupted. "I was able to get Larie help me carry you here."

  'You didn't control my body?' I asked Ten.

  'I wasn't able to. Your muscles simply refused to respond.'

  'I see...' I trailed off, then laughed. "I bet that was quite the sight."

  I took a seat at the table, the smell from the kitchen causing my stomach to rumble.

  "You should eat something," Nash glanced at my gut. "It will be a while before we get to have another decent meal."

  My confused expression caused both of my brothers to chuckle. Then I remembered that Yulk had said that Nash would be arriving in the afternoon, but it's currently morning. Which means...

  "You've been out for a full day," Yulk confirmed. "Standard case of magical exhaustion. Larie assured me that you would be alright."

  "If you didn't wake up by the time we were supposed to go, I was just going to load you into the cart with the rest of our luggage," Nash said with a grin.

  "So we're leaving today?" I asked, slightly panicked.

  "Yeah. The cart we're taking will arrive around noon, so you'll need to start packing right after you finish eating. Also, the lich is going to join us."

  Before I could voice my shock at Larie joining us, the dining area hostess, Nathy, set a plate down in front of me. The plate had my usual breakfast, two eggs, shredded 'tubers', and five thin slices of meat that resembled bacon. I looked up at her and was met with a smile.

  "Your usual, Nick," she said.

  "Th-thank you," I replied.

  "No, thank YOU. Now that the weather has cleared up, word is out and we've been getting a lot of business from people wanting to try the 'Human-Inspired Breakfast'," she laughed. "Chef Yuro wanted me to let you know that he is grateful for the inspiration and has begun making several other dishes that he hopes you will one day be able to try. Your breakfasts are on him, which means they will no longer count toward your daily meal allotment."

  "I appreciate that."

  She nodded and left, and I turned my attention toward the food. It was pretty close to the food back on Earth, but there were some key differences. The tubers that stood in for potatoes were more gritty and savory, the eggs were slightly sweeter than I was used to, and the almost-bacon had a very subtle sour taste to it. It wasn't quite as good as my mom's cooking, but it wasn't terrible.

  I ate my breakfast as Yulk and Nash finished catching up. The courtship with Nima was going well, and her mother had given her blessing for their union. They were planning on skipping the part where he asks for her father's blessing and simply formalizing their engagement once Nash got back to the village. I found it interesting that they exchanged necklaces instead of rings. Nash had already ordered a custom one with each of Nima's favorite gemstones on the pendant.

  When it was Yulk's turn to share, he talked about the challenges he had been facing as a teacher. Namely that it was difficult to find subjects to speak on while simultaneously keeping his students engaged. He said that last part with a sideways glance in my direction, but I tactfully ignored it.

  Once I was finished with my breakfast, I left the two of them in the dining hall and went to my room to pack my belongings. Thankfully, Yulk and I had been 'living light' so there wasn't all that much to pack up. I met my brothers downstairs, and we walked to the stables.

  Larie met us there, but he was joined by Yini, Nimora, Irl, Volus, and Nir. Yini and Nimora weren't a really a surprise, but I was stunned to see my classmates waiting to see me off. I felt a pang of regret that I had underestimated our relationship.

  "Nick! You're okay!" Irl shouted once he saw me.

  "I sure am," I replied with a smile.

  "Lord VysImiro and Mister Yulk said you collapsed," Nimora said, taking a step closer to me.

  "Mister Alta," everyone said at once.

  I laughed and shook my head, "I just used all my magic trying to make a new spell, that's all. No big deal."

  "You slept for a whole day," Volus interjected. "I feel like that's a pretty big deal."

  "That's to be expected from Rapid Magic Depletion," Larie explained. "RMD takes quite a toll on one's body, and that takes time to recover from. It can even be life-threatening if the victim is already infirm, but thankfully Nick is quite healthy."

  Yulk, Nash, and I shared a look. The first time I used all of my magic, I'd woken up almost immediately. That was probably because of my meeting with the higher one, though. I shrugged casually as a cart driven by dwarf rolled up next to us.

  "Four passengers to..." he trailed off, staring at Larie with his mouth agape.

  "Four passengers to Climeta," Nash said pointedly.

  "Y-yeah... Uh..."

  "Lord VysImiro is officially sponsored by High Chief Ulurmak," Yulk added. "He is also welcome within the Empire of Calkuti."

  "R-right. Okay, gotcha," the driver said, then looked at me. "Uh..."

  "I'm the human that people have probably been talking about," I said.

  I cringed internally at how egotistical that sentence sounded, but I was immediately proven correct by the driver's confused expression fading. He looked over us once again, and sighed softly.

  "Well, you've already paid and everything, so I'm not gonna argue with you. Go ahead and get loaded up."

  We said our goodbyes to those who came to see us off and got in the cart. Irl, Volus, Nir, Yini, and Nimora waved as we began to roll away. Yulk, Larie, and I waved back, but Nash remained stoic.

  "Why do I always get the weird ones?" our driver muttered.