After we took a short break, I told them everything that I knew about knife fighting, which was probably not enough since I'd never actually been in one, thank god and knock on wood:

“You’re gonna get cut. Expect it. Unless you can make the other guy back off. Unfortunately your both girls, beautiful too, so typical guys aren’t going to want to take you seriously. So prepare to get cut.” “Try to cut the other guy first, and cut him where it matters … neck, neck, arm, arm, wrist, wrist, thigh, thigh, belly. That was the chant my instructor would make me repeat when I was training, each word corresponding to a strike, neck (outside left), neck (outside right), arm (left inner arm next to the armpit), arm (right inner arm next to the armpit), wrist ( left inner arm), wrist (right inner arm), thigh (left inner thigh next to the groin), thigh (right inner thigh next to the groin) and belly (a straight lunge to the belly). He said that if you train for these spots everything else comes easier, plus these were the spots that would bleed a man out quick.” “Once he’s bleeding good, get out and let him bleed out.” “Always stay focused and ready to move. If you ain’t dodging, you’re dying. If you ain’t moving, your crying.” “Keep your body behind the knife, keep your arm with the knife close in, don’t extend it out.” “Keep your other arm behind the knife too. Your free arm can be a shield, but it’s one you don’t want to use! Use it and lose it, but only if you must.” “Knife’s are shiny so they attract attention. Kick them in the nuts while they’re looking at your knife. That said, a nut shot's not that easy. Guys know how to protect their jewels.” “Your knife’s your friend. What do you do with friends? You keep them close! You never throw them away. Never throw your knife!”

They both looked at me with their eyebrows raised and I said, “Hey, he was an ex-Navy Seal. He learned the hard way.” After that, we practiced for about 30 minutes more. It wasn’t near enough to really train them, but, hopefully, it was a start. I showed them two grips, the forward and the reverse and we walked slowly through a fight, backing, circling, grabbing, stabbing, and kicking. We also did some faux katas while chanting: ‘neck, neck, arm, arm, wrist, wrist, thigh, thigh, belly’. The funny thing was, well besides me and two girls chanting ‘neck, neck, …”, was how our practice really emphasized that a knife fight was more about positioning, moving, keeping alert to our surroundings and waiting for the other guy to make a mistake.

Finally, we broke and got some water. “Wow,” I said, “this potion’s excellent! I’d be starving right now if it weren’t working. Sweet!

“Dude!” said Tanya! And then we caught Janet looking disgustedly at us, so we cut it short. “Alright,” I said. “Who’s going to take watch while the other two meditate and work on spells?”

“I do it,” said Janet. “I want to work on my knife fighting and formations anyway. I figure I can meditate while sitting in the rickshaw!” she said.

Tanya and I both sat down and had a brief discussion about what we thought we could accomplish. We both thought that we probably wouldn’t get a major skill like lightning bolt, meteor shower or even fireball. But we hoped we’d be able to get at least some of the other magic skills. Plus we wanted to see if we could increase our spells levels.

We started with the Light spell. It seemed the easiest for our purposes. It only took a couple of seconds to cast and only cost 10 mana without a cool down. We started casting like mad, both of us making the simple hand gestures required, basically pointing at the sky, and saying “Light”. After about 15 seconds, we’d both cast the spell about five times. All around the ground and in the air there were these foggy, glowing yellow balls of light. They looked vaguely like what I imagined a Will-o’-the-Wisp would look like, maybe a bit brighter. Not incredibly bright in the daylight, each one looked like it would be about the equivalent of ten or so candles. The spell also allowed us to place them anywhere in space and on objects as well (I placed one on the end of my machete) provided that they were within about 10 feet or so. Tanya was starting to feel short of breath, kind of dizzy and developing a headache so she stopped, sat down and started meditating to gain back her mana. I had a bigger mana pool, so I kept casting. Shortly after I cast the 13th spell, I got the notification that we were expecting.

Spell - Light - Level 2 - 250 EXP

The light got a little brighter, but that was the only change. I told the girls that it looked like it took 13 casts to reach level two in a spell. I cast it about another 2 times and almost passed out. Serious mana shortage. I dropped and started meditating as well. I did some calculations and figured that my mana pool would almost be back to normal in about 37 minutes thanks to my Titles and the meditation skill. I waited and sure enough in about 30 minutes, it was almost filled up, so I cast the spell another 10 times, but this time I didn’t get the notification, so as we expected, each level in a spell got a little harder to achieve. In the meantime, Tany cast the spell another five times, meditated again, and then cast it three more times and got the same notification that I’d received earlier.

Spell - Light - Level 2 - 250 EXP

She started dancing around and shouting “Wahoo! I’ve got a second level spell and experience points! Who’s bad?” she asked. Then she curled her hands up and pointed her index fingers at herself and said, “That’s right! I’m bad!”

“You be you, girl!” Janet shouted. “Queen of the light balls!”

“Uh huh! Uh huh! Tell it, girlfriend!” Tanya said. “Oh, wow. I’m second level two. Sweet!”

I just kept meditating.

After about an hour, so much for the thirty minutes, we’d planned on spending, my mana was back to normal. Janet had recovered all of her mana by then also, so we all stood around and talked a bit about what we wanted to do. I mentioned that I wanted to get them some practice with the crossbows, explore Mighty Max’s interior, just to see the changes that the girls had talked about and pick up the boxes I'd created and left inside, and I needed to try to figure out the rickshaw. For some reason, now that it was getting closer to time for us to leave, I was getting more reluctant to do so. I don’t know why I just was not feeling it.

Plus that whole food thing. It was really odd to be full and not eat. I kept wanting to eat because I always eat breakfast, but at the same time, I felt full. I mean when you think about it, it’s a huge lifestyle change to not have to eat, all of the shopping or, in our case, gathering, the prep work, the cooking, the eating and then the cleanup afterward. I pulled out the empty potion bottle and just mused about it. If these things were plentiful, what a change they would make to human society. I’d never been married or even really had a serious girlfriend, but I remember back when I lived with my mother, meal times were sacred. We spent them together and, grew closer over the rituals of food. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this shortcut.

Janet looked over and then said, “Yeah, it’s pretty freaky, isn’t it. A bottle and you’re full.”

Tanya said, “I know. It’s just weird. It’s about 11:00 in the morning and I’ve done all of this stuff, more stuff than I normally would have and I haven’t eaten since yesterday’s pizza and I’m full. Thanksgiving full. I am thirsty though.

“Well, I’m just the person that you should be talking too!” and I turned to Janet and said, “Give me your potion bottles.”

I collected them both and set them on the loading dock in front of me along with my own, then tried my “Create Water” spell for the first time. I made the gesture, for some reason, when I was given the class and the spells, all of the knowledge I needed to cast each one of my spells was given to me. Anyway, I made the gesture, my left palm raised shoulder high and pointing upwards toward the sky and clouds, then pulling my hand down toward my waist with my fingers forming a steeple, and said the word, “Water”. Simple, but as it turned out, effective. When I turned my hand with the steeple aimed downward, water started appearing from just beyond the ends of my gathered fingers. I quickly started filling the bottles and then I held my hand over my head and washed away some of the heat and sweat I was covered in. I was able to cool the water a bit and control the speed at which it flowed. I could get it to flow about as much as a bathroom sink’s faucet would produce or reduce it down to the barest trickle.

Both girls came over and said, “Oh, oh! Me next, me next!” while grabbing back their potion bottles and sucking down the water. I looked at them and they commanded, “Shower me now!” so I held my hand over their heads and soaked them down until the water quit, about 5 gallons worth I’d say.

“I love magic!” I said. “I really, really love it!” Both girls nodded their heads in agreement. Tanya said, “I have to get that spell!” Janet said, “I’m not sure if I can get the same spell, but, if I can, I want that one too!”

“Ok, we’ll add it to the list of stuff we need to get done,” I said. “Who's up for practice with the crossbows? After we get finished, I’d like to step inside Mighty Max and see what we can see. Tanya, you said that the inside of the place was changing, I’d like to head inside and see what changes were made. How things ended up, you know?”

They both said that they thought it sounded like a plan, so we got ready for practice. We grabbed the two crossbows, the bolts (I divided them between the two girls - about a 100 each which they stored in their inventories), I grabbed my bow and the quiver of arrows, and some targets that I also had purchased, and we headed out into the field that used to be the loading zone/employee parking lot for Mighty Max.

In the midst of what was now a field, there were some trees scattered around, which was yet another sign of how things had changed, new trees, some of them 40 footers. We stuck the targets to the trees with mana. It was a cool trick. When we were trying to get the targets to stick to the trees by looking for a limb or twig we could use and not finding anything, Tanya picked up the target, held it to the tree and shouted, “Sticky, sticky!” and it worked. She says that she got a notification of a new spell called, “Stick It” which cost about 4 mana points and would stick stuff together until the mana was removed or the objects were forced apart. Of course, then I had to try it, success, and Janet did too, but, she got a different spell called, “Essence Merge” which did about the same thing. Our spell looked as if the target was wrapped around the tree, almost as if it was glued on, Janet’s somehow seemed to join the two objects as if the tree’s bark had somehow grown a target. Then we backed off about 25 yards and I talked about the parts of the crossbow and went over the safety rules of the crossbow again. I showed them how to load the bolts, how to use the scopes and went over the rules again:

“Never ‘dry fire" a crossbow. Doing so will probably break it.” “Use the standard bolts. Don’t create bolts that weigh less or more. Use these bolts. Of course, these bolts are all we have, so, well, easy to follow.” “Keep your fingers out of the works. We don’t need nine-fingered archers.” “Watch what’s around you. Remember Scarface!, sorry John, I whispered to my unlucky, scarred friend.” “And lastly, keep them greased and clean.”

They shot about 25 bolts each and did pretty well too. Their shots were all inside the first or second ring and they even had a couple of bullseyes. I mean we were pretty close to the targets, but still, not bad. I made sure that they learned how to properly load them and I also made sure that they knew how long it would take to load them. I didn’t want them to be trying to reload in a fight when they didn’t have time for it. I also practiced with my bow and by the end of the practice time, the old feeling of mastery had started to come back. Once again, I was putting most of my shots inside the first ring, but I had a few bullseyes or near bullseyes too. It took us about an hour and a half to complete our practice and, by the time we were done, we were all feeling it. The best thing of all is that we only lost 3 bolts and I only broke a single arrow.