The rest of the week was a slow grind of air skills interspersed with helpful hints from Carrigan. He adamantly refused to tell me, and by the end I was glad. Sure, it got frustrating at times, but I think it also helped build my foundation of knowledge. That, and gave me a sense of accomplishment. Air shriek and air jet required not only modification of the nozzle that the air was heading through, but I also had to change the mana that formed the pressure barrier. The trick was just a bit of pure air mana, keeping it below ten percent. That left the non-elemental mana maintain form and strength, while the air pressure was maintained by the slight bit of air mana.

While air screech was the end of its branch, air jet upgraded to Jetstream. This was at least strong enough to send someone staggering, and was something I felt was worth exploring more. Before I could do that, I needed one more spell to finish apprentice, though I had a though for getting two of them. The first was something defensive, as I lacked anything for that. Carrigan would only tell me that shields and barriers existed, and that they were highly adaptable. Figuring it out was up to me.

Luckily Earth history had plenty of shields to choose from. I decided to go with a domed round shield, and set it to spinning. From my view, I had a miniature whirlpool just outside my arm. I kept the same 10% ratio of wind mana, setting it spinning. The speed at the center was relatively slow, while the edges were nearly screaming they were moving so fast. It also had a solid disk of mana at the center, covering for the slight hole in the whirlwind. That was enough to get me the skill, but I wanted more. A simple air shield would only work on air based attacks, and it wasn’t that great at deflecting physical attacks despite the rotational speed. It needed more, a physical component. So I had some of that air mana pulling along the air as well, and earned my final spell required for the apprentice rank. The best part of it was the deflection properties it picked up, as anything trying to pierce through the shield outside of the exact center was deflected towards the outside edge.

A purely defensive shield though, that just seemed, lacking. Luckily for me, the journeyman spell Carrigan wanted me to learn was one that nearly every aeromancer in stories back home had to learn. Air blade. Get your air mana as sharp as possible, and send an arc of it out to slash into your enemies. This was where knowledge alone couldn’t quite help, as you needed intense practice just to boost your spells. The sharpest point ever created had a point that was a single tungsten atom. So why couldn’t mana, as far as I could tell a form of energy that didn’t really have particles, be sharp enough to slice the bonds between atoms?

Yeah, easier said than done. As of right now I was struggling just to get an air blade as sharp as Gareth’s sword. Instead of making my atom slicing blade, I had to hone the profile of the air blade. I could go with the convex grind, but that would be stupid. I was only using each blade once, so it didn’t matter how strong the blade itself was, or if it chipped. It needed a slicer, and for that I needed a hollow grind. If I had time, two closely placed rollers of mana would perfectly shape the blade before arcing it out. Yeah, as if something like that would happen in the middle of battle. I needed to be able to summon the proper mana shape right from the beginning. Otherwise, well. Bad Things would likely happen. I was only a fan of Bad Things when they occurred to my enemies, not myself.

So, how to fix it. Well, I could easily make the proper edge with my mana manipulation skills, it just seemed that elemental mana wasn’t nearly as effected by that skill as the non-elemental variety. So I cheated. A scaffold of non-elemental mana in the proper shape got swiftly replaced by the elemental variety. It took an entire day to get that down from ten seconds per blade to five. Another day cut the time in half again, but it was far too slow for my liking. Two days and several headaches later, I finally had everything down to a single second to cast the spell, and had removed about 70% of my cheating mana scaffold. The last day was simply brutal, mana draining repetition until I could get the blade formed of pure air mana the entire time.

“Heh, the grasslands must be terrified of your determination!” Carrigan joked on the last day as I slumped down in exhaustion for the fifth or sixth time that day. They were all running together at this point.

“I. Know. But. I. Needed. A close. Target.” I huffed out between words. Carrigan was just mocking that my targets had mostly been the grass at the edge of the road. Close enough to attack, and light enough that there was a visual impact when the blade hit and sliced through.

“I must say, I’m rather impressed with your dedication to this spell. This is what, day four of only working on this one?”

“Yeah.” I replied, finally getting my breath caught up. “I’m right on the edge of it, I can feel it. A few more tries, and I could probably cast it without my crutch.”

“Well, keep at it. I don’t think I have ever seen someone reach mastery over any element in a single week. It seems you’ve also caught the attention of some of the rescued people.” He said, patting me on the back.

“It’s true.” Elendria piped up. “There are a few that are looking forward to trying to teach you other elements. Namely earth and darkness.”

“They’ll have to wait a few days after this.” I said. “I like my shield, especially the improved one, but I still don’t think it’s enough for defense.”

“What are you worried about? Something getting up close and personal?”

“Exactly.” I answered, turning and pointing at him. “You laugh, but at some point shit’s gonna hit the fan, and you’re gonna want your own up close protection.”

“That’s why we always have our armor on.” Gareth chimed in.

“Well, we can’t wear armor.” Carrigan explained. “Prevents us from casting properly. Your chance of screwing up a spell skyrockets.”

“Anyway, I’m trying to pick up the final designs while I wait for my mana to recover.” I said, closing my eyes and trying to relax.

“Still no meditation skill?” Carrigan chuckled.

“Can’t calm my mind enough to get it. Always thinking of something.” I replied without opening my eyes. I was desperately trying to remember what the best ways to defend yourself were in the medieval times. After an hour of plotting, I went back to blasting away with wind blades.

“HAH! FINALLY GOT IT YA BASTARD!” I yelled out, sending several blades off in a victory dance. The last one I sent out actually made it the entire half mile to the far grasses, though it just bent them and had lost all sharpness by that point.

“Congrats!” The others in the cart were happily celebrating, though they did keep a slight distance. An entire day of practicing had given me a decent smell, something those cantrips didn’t really help with. At least the further we entered into human territory the greater the chance was that our campsite would have a body of water nearby, allowing me to get a much needed bath.

“If you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna sprawl bonelessly in the very back of the cart. That should keep most of my smell away from you.”

“He did notice, I’ll be damned!” Gareth chuckled, giving me a light punch to the shoulder. “We appreciate it man. You deserve a break.”

And boy did I welcome that break. I had finished another two classes, though my master Aeromancer class only earned 200 experience. That was fine by me, I was more concerned with my new, improved spells. Air blade was now a honed air blade, allowing for better slicing. I would still be improving on the edge, but it would take a while yet. Probably not until I improved my regular mana blades. My bladed vortex shield was a thing of beauty. By controlling the middle portion of solid mana, I could use it hands free for a bit of concentration. The edges of the shield got a serrated blade of mana, and each point had a filament of pure wind mana lashing out from it like an elemental weed whacker. It took 75 mana right off the bat to summon, which did hurt, but it would slash through a twelve-inch log of wood before losing all the wind mana filaments, and the serrated edges would cut through another eighteen inches of wood before dulling to uselessness. A nasty surprise to be sure.

That night was a fun one, at least for the guards. I needed to test a few bits of armor, just to make sure I had imbued the mana with the correct properties. They took turns for two hours smashing plates of mana with hammers, flails and clubs until I got what I needed. Then we switched to a mana equivalent of chain mail, where they went to town. Slashes, stabs, archery, daggers. They held nothing back. Carrigan decided to enter the fray as well, using his own wind blade to test things as well as imbuing the guard’s swords.

That was the first night the former prisoners truly tried joining the caravan, as those with different magics pitted themselves against my mana armors. Shards of ice, plumes of flame and spears of stone assaulted me, but that wasn’t all. Most of the purely elemental effects absolutely shredded my constructs, but that was to be expected. According to everyone, there were two ways to counter an offensive spell. Either block it with the same amount or more of the same element, or overwhelm it with an opposing mana. That wasn’t quite as intuitive as it seemed, as earth could be both weak or strong against fire. If it went more towards solid stone, the fire would simply scorch it without doing much. Water would almost always win, unless the skill was a full tier higher.

The ones that summoned a more physical attack were much easier to block. The stone spears in particular, especially when I went with a knife breaker type armor. A thin plate to shatter the tip, overtop layers of woven fibers to catch the blade. It was designed to allow slight penetration, and it worked wonders.

The next two days, I started putting together my armor. Close to my skin, I had a thin woven layer that simply flexed a bit. If all went to plan, it would never face a blade. Above it were plates designed to shatter, much like ceramic plates in ballistic armor. The breaking would diffuse a bit of blunt force, and the springy layer beneath would only add to that. Above that, was the woven armor that was designed to catch blades. It also had a bit of a cushion against blunt force, hopefully enough to prevent my bones from shattering. Outside that, was obviously plate.

That was over long body parts, that didn’t have to move. Joints simply got a few layers of thin weave, along with chainmail made of mana. I didn’t even have to resort to riveted mail, as each link was a complete circle. I at least knew enough to make it a four in one design, where the central ring was connected through four surrounding rings and at a different angle. With the flexibility of mana, I was also able to decrease the size of the rings. It would take an impossibly fine point to get a successful strike, almost a one in a million chance. The absolute best part, was that mana had no weight. Had I made that armor set out of traditional materials, I would need to be superhuman to lift and move in it. When mages are given chances to prepare, they truly can be unstoppable.

All that protection did have a downside. It took 200 mana to cast it, and while it was active it halved my mana regeneration. That was without it taking any damage at all. Damage really wore it down, but I had hopes that it would decrease the better I got at it. It was categorized as a grandmaster spell.

“You sure you’re ready to test this?” Gareth asked that night. He was stalking closer, having drawn a dagger. “Arm first, right?”

“Yep.” I said, holding out my left arm. Everyone was rather nervous, as there was no real thing as healing magic. Sure, there were alchemical potions that could accelerate healing, but true healing was out of the picture. Well, outside of divine healing. Paladins and priestesses could heal, but it almost always had to occur in a temple or shrine.

“Alright then, here we go!” With that, he slashed down at my arm, only to have the blade glance off with no damage. Grinning, he tried several slashes and stabs, all to no effect. “Heh, not bad! Bribis! Permission to give this a full going over?” He called over his shoulder.

“Avoid the body and head for now, just do the limbs.” He answered, and I was slightly glad he decided to play it safe. I trusted it, but didn’t want it to be tested full on just yet. That didn’t matter to Gareth, as he drew his sword with a savage grin.

“Hope you’re ready Sean, here I come!” The crowd was cheering me on, as my armor started deflecting strikes. Stabs. Thrusts. Even blows with the flat of the blade didn’t do much. After five minutes of sustained assault, he was running out of gas and my armor had developed a few chips in places.

“Switch out, hammer time!” Someone shouted, and I was facing a different guard with a cudgel. It hurt, quite a bit more than the sword did, but the plates were doing their job and diffusing a good bit of the energy. Three blows to each limb, and the limit of the plates was reached. By that point the plates had shattered into powder, and I had to call things off.

“Not too shabby.” Carrigan said, walking up. “Most mages go for an area dome shield, to protect allies, but this works really well for personal defense. Even if you had taken a full strike from that cudgel, you would have plenty of time to counterattack before he could hit you enough to break through the plates.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.” I said, flopping down. Instead of dismissing the armor, I started trying to repair what I could. The shattered plates got dismissed and reformed, but the rest wasn’t actually too hard. I wanted to eventually get to the point where I didn’t notice that I had it on at all times. Better to practice for assassins and have defenses ready before you actually needed the defense than trying to play catch up.

“A most impressive defense.” Bribis said, appearing from nowhere and plopping down next to us. “What are you planning on after Three Rivers?”

“Not really sure.” I replied. “Honestly, I want to take care of this slave business and get it out of the way in the morning. Then be out of the city by nightfall. I trust our plan to ensure my safety while I’m in the guild, but blackmail only rents silence. I’m sure they will have someone looking for me by the day’s end, if not by the time I leave the guild.”

“Good.” He nodded. “It’s always best to prepare for the worst. If you want, you can come to Shineheart, the gnome capital, with us. It’s at least another two months with our caravan, but we will welcome you.”

“Thanks.” I said. “We should think of some way to send a false trail, but I think that would be a good next destination.”

“Good plan. I’ll have a guard go ahead when we are two days out. My brother is in the city, and can have a caravan stocked and ready to go. We will drop you off, unload, and head out immediately. I’ll leave Gareth with you at the Slaver’s guild. He’ll guide you back.” He waited a few minutes, then added, “Oh. Save the earth element for our trip to Shineheart. I’ll be teaching you. Hopefully you pick it up as quickly as you did air.” With a chuckle, he headed off toward his bedroll.

“See? Told ya to just give him some time.” Carrigan gave me a gentle shove. “He’ll come around. Just, don’t expect him to go easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t.” I said. “He’ll probably want to give me the same treatment you did, make me work through the problems with as few hints as possible.”

“Yeah. That.” Carrigan nodded, before standing up and starting to walk away. “He also likes to throw conjured stones randomly, so be prepared for that. Especially since you have that shiny new armor.” Chuckling at my expression, he headed back to his bedroll. I took the hint, and headed that way myself. While looking over my stats, I had to decide what element to learn next. I still had two more to learn before I could get the lowest of the elementalist titles, and there was only twenty six days before we reached Three Rivers.

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 32

Titles:

Escaped Slave

Chosen of Ariana (hidden)

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Attributes:

STR – 6

AGI – 5

DEX – 7

INT – 27 (+6)

WIS – 28 (+6)

CON – 8

END – 10

Health: 90/90

Mana: 765/765

Health regen: 0.057/min

Mana regen: 12.67/min

Class: celestial sorcerer (1,350/10,000)

Available classes: slave, photomancer

Secondary class: Aeromancer (200/1,000)

Profession: none

Available professions: none

Secondary profession: none

Level: 17/25

Exp to next level: 85%

Updated chapter 11

Class bonuses Earned

Classes

Bonus

(completed) Novice sorcerer (air)

(+1 int, +50 mana)x2

(completed) Apprentice sorcerer (air)

(+2 wis, +100 mana)x2

(completed) Journeyman sorcerer (air)

(+2 int, +1 wis, +2.6 mana recovery)x2

Celestial sorcerer (1,000/10,000)

+250 mana, +4.17 mana recovery

Total complete: 6/50 incomplete: 4/10

Spell and skills list

Novice

Apprentice

Piercing magic missile (5/5)

(air, solar, general)

Minor elemental imbue (5/5) (air, solar)

Mage dagger (4/10)

Multi-missile (1/10)

Gentle gust (5/5)(air)

Air screech (5/5)(air)

Homing missile (1/10)

Lesser telekinesis (4/10)

Featherlight (5/5)(air)

Lesser elemental imbue (3/10)

Air jet (10/10)(air)

Directed air screech (10/10)(air)

Featherlight (3/10)(air)

Vortex shield (10/10)(air)

Journeyman

Master

Mage blade (4/50)

Mana exploration (18/50)

Magic hologram (65/200)

Solar sphere (30/50)

Jetstream (5/50)(air)

Air blade (50/50)(air)

Honed air blade (1/200)(air)

Bladed vortex shield (35/50)(air)

Grandmaster

Skills

Otherworldly solar system (565/1000)

Full mana plate (95/1000)

Mana control (50/500)

Inspect (1/5)

Common tongue (3/5)