My exclamation had Arlun jerk himself awake. The effect was temporary, the second the sound had passed Arlun was back in his trance. But it did get the attention of one nurse.

“Your highness, why is it that you felt the need to interrupt the healing?” The nurse asked. From the looks of it, he was not in too good a condition either, haggard shoulders and a general air of tired irritation surrounded him. But suffering did not enable a person to inflict more suffering on another.

“Before I answer that question, perhaps you would like to tell me why you felt the need to tire Arlun to the point of death?” I asked

The nurse frowned, his forehead creasing in forced concentration at even that little amount of thinking. A sign of a person so tired that their mind avoided even thinking.

“I do not know who gave you this inaccurate information, your highness but Arlun is not dead, merely a bit tired. I hope tha-” The nurse said before I interrupted him

“Shut up. You clearly know nothing about how a mage casts and refuse to listen to those that do. The state Arlun is in right now is known as the Fallen Cast. It is a type of Casting that comes instinctively to mages under the threat of death.”-the nurse’s eyes widened as he tried to protest but I waved his protest away- “

It doesn’t matter that you didn’t threaten him. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t mean to do it. What matters is that Arlun felt that he was being threatened. Threatened enough that he entered this cast. And every minute he remains there he gets closer to death.”

“Even if stopped now he may go to sleep and never awaken. So just get yourself some sleep. You’ll need the energy for tomorrow.” I replied and then promptly knocked the nurse out with a Mana push.

I really needed to get Air and Water, using pure mana to cushion the blow and the nurse’s fall was a complete waste. I then turned to the patients and said, “I am sorry that your healing got delayed, I’ll try to heal who I can but healing is not my affinity. I fear the others will have to wait for a while.”

One of the patients, one missing, turned towards me, a process that was clearly painful and said, “Do not worry about us your highness. Us freaks have gone through these battles before! Waiting a few days is nothing. If we lose our healer here, who's gonna fix my leg when I lose it again?” The man laughed, a clearly fake laugh that still seemed to motivate his fellow patients.

Soon enough the room was filled with exclamations of ‘yes, yes’ and ‘we can wait a bit’. At least that went well. I then lifted Arlun up and laid him down on one of the beds. There was no cure for the Fallen Cast, only rest could perhaps cure it.

Time to try and heal people

Three hours later, still Alforien

As expected, I could heal only about a tenth of the patients. But at least I could do something. Judging by the fact that the Council hadn’t come running the second they found out that I was awake implied that they had no intention of deposing me just yet.

They did get to me eventually though. But of course they couldn’t all come togethor so I and everyone had to wait for them to come one by one. Apparently the other tents were either too small or too busy for the briefing to be held there so it was being held here in teh healers tent.

After the final commander had arrived I said, “ So, this has clearly been a harrowing day. SO we need to find out what we did wrong and how to get better. Because make no mistake. It will only get worse. Ignoring the fact that we shall have to spend the next few days in the Woods of Eltemar, the Woods of Arnile still await us beyond. And even beyond that stand the Valurien Mountains and Iselgaurd itself. While Iselgaurd is something only I will face, all of us will face the rest. And as we are, we nearly fell to the weakest of the threats. So tell me, commanders of this army, why did your men die?” I said.

“Your highness, as the commander responsible for guarding the camp, I apolagise. I take full responsibility.” The commander of the 9th Battalion said.

“And there is the first mistake. Mine this time. Only one battalion was in charge of security. A more balanced assignment of guard duty would have made for more guards. Commander, your battalion by its very nature is susceptible to such spells. Alcohol is their first vice after all” I said “Who’s next?”

Over the next few hours we compiled a list of things that could have been done better.

Assigned more than one Battalion to security, preferably all Been more alert over all Implemented more discipline Established protocols Implemented a no drinking policy Cast wards Planned better

THere was significant pushback on the 5th policy but in the end the commanders had agreed to implement it. Even the 9th Battalion who had never even protested it. Perhaps they were feeling guilty?

And I had absolutely no idea how I was going to implement the 6th policy given that I was already short of mana…to that end I had a few notifications to sort through

Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]

109 (-3)

Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]

163 (+2)

Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]

102 (0)

Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]

113(0)

Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]

133(0)

Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]

140 (+2)

Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]

137 (+3)

Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]

140 (+21)

Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]

135 (+11)

Fire[One of the greatest sources of Light and Heat in the universe, you have Greater Affinity for Fire]

97.44% (+0.30%)

Earth[Essential for life, earth is what renders things solid, you have a Greater affinity for Earth]

99.87%

Mind[The consciousness and its relation to reality, you have Lesser affinity for Mind]

17.35%

Chaos[Everything shall be anything but what it should be, no thing shall remain as it should, you have a Lesser affinity for Chaos]

21.76% (+2%)

Grandmist[The base substance that all subatomic particles are made off, you have Lesser affinity for Grandmist]

27.39%

Space [The building block of dimensions, you have an Outrageous affinity for Space

199.998%

Time[A mysterious force, you have a Minor affinity for Time]

01.15%

Will [The force that propels you through life, you have Minor affinity for Will]

9.81%

Force[The building block of Kinetic interactions, you have Minor affinity for Force

9.81%

…my first affinity increase! I did not know they existed! Would be nice if I didn’t have to see the entire explanation for just a 0.30% increase but oh well!...Wait, is that a +2% behind Chaos?...missed that.

Now for the last one.

Title gained! [ Mana Killer] : A Mage of such knowledge that he created a spell that burns the very core of spellcraft itself, the Mana. Mages find themselves facing severe debuffs when within the spell’s area of effect, the strength of the debuff depending on the Mage’s dependency on ambient mana. All spells cast are also weakened, this effect decreases with the amount of mana within the spell.

…Why was there another? Wasn’t that the last…

Through actions beyond the ability of most of your peers you draw nearer to the crossing to completion. Shall you, Alforien Arlford, accept this quest?

Will you be the first to complete your class this cycle?

Beware, while completion multiplies the rewards gained, failure shall penalise them.

Yes/No

So…a gamble with the mysterious rewards from class completion as the bet and the System as the competitor. So, what were my odds?