Emeric insisted that I didn’t need to help prepare for the night, though I did help a little anyway. The look on Donat’s face when I cleaned the cauldron with a tap of my fingers was worth the half dozen points of mana I spent.

The tents weren’t the sort of tents I was used to. In fact, there were little more than canvas sheets with a few holes here and there that had flaps covering them. Ropes strung out between the nearest trees held them up, and little ties on the canvas allowed parts of it to be folded in to form walls around three sides.

It would keep the rain off, if it rained, and the wind too, but that was about it. Still, no weird retractable sticks to deal with, so it wasn’t all bad. I was given a spot in the middle of Valerie and Arianne and a few extra blankets that were less than fresh until a couple of cleaning spells fixed them up.

“Zat’s a handy little spell,” Arianne said as she watched me lay out a blanket to sleep on and another to cover myself. I had my own too, so I would be nice and snug all night. It was like a sleepover but outside and with strangers!

“It’s great!” I said. “I never got to see much magic, so I was super excited when I got my own spell.”

Arianne’s smile was at once demure and extremely amused. “Well zen, do you want to see some more?”

“Yes!” I said before scrambling to my feet and following after her. Magic was awesome because it was magic. Even after using my cleaning spell a hundred times I couldn’t get over how cool it was. “Can you teach me about magic?”

“I can, a little. But zen we must sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day. What do you know so far?”

“Um. I can push magic into stuff, and then I lose some mana. Then things happen.”

Arianne tittered. “I have my work cut out for me, zen.” She walked us over to the edge of the clearing. “Zere are two types of spells... no. zere are many many types of spells, but only two matter for you. You can worry about ze ozers later.”

“So what are the two, then?” I asked. I was bouncing on the balls of my feet as the marsh wizard raised her staff and narrowed her eyes in focus.

“Ze light of my soul illuminates,” she said while making a cupping gesture in the air under the end of her staff. A spark appeared, then formed into a baseball-sized ball of whitish light that began to fall. “Ze will of the world captures.” The light started to dim. “Ze weight of my will determines ze path.”

And just like that the ball stopped falling and hovered in place, releasing a whitish light that was weaker than a torch, but that was pure and clear. “Cool,” I whispered.

“Zat is for the sombrals. Zey dislike ze light,” Arianne explained. “Zat was one type of magic. A spell zat I cast using my own mana by controlling it, zen I tied it to zis place so zat it hovers.”

“So if I chanted like that, would it do the same thing?” I asked. I was trying to memorize the chant just in case. I wanted light balls. I could hang them all over the place and people would comment on them and tell others of how cool Broccoli Bunch’s balls were.

“No, ze chant is to help. Do you know what a... mnemonic is?”

“Like a song to remember something?”

“Yes, zat’s exactly right. Many practitioners use zem. Some have very misleading chants to trick opponents. Zey are just to help you remember and to help you move ze mana ze right way at ze right time. I can cast zis spell wizout because I have been practicing it a lot, but to demonstrate it is easier wiz ze chant.”

“Okay, so you take your mana and then you make a light ball?”

Arianne shook her head, then paused. “Yes. But zat is too simple. Zere is a specific shape ze mana must take. Zere is some leeway, but not too much. Ozerwise ze spell fails. Zat is where ze ozer kind of spel comes in. Skills.”

Arianne tapped her staff to the ground and a clod of mud rose up, then twisted around itself until it took the shape of a small muddy frog person that barely came up to my shin. It wobbled around on unsteady legs, then collapsed into a heap of mud.

“Zat is a golem spell. To cast it would take me a minute. Maybe two, if I want to avoid mistakes. But by using a skill like Earth Magic Manipulation it becomes trivial.” She smiled at me. “Do you understand?”

Right, I knew that using magic skills came with an instinct for it. My cleaning magic was the same way. I didn’t really have to think too hard on it and the spell just kind of formed immediately and worked on the first try. Did that mean that someone without the cleaning skill could use my spell? Probably, but as Arianne said, it would be difficult. I could see why. The amount of mana used in each cleaning spell was slightly different, which probably meant that the spell was a tiny bit different too.

So using skills to cast spells was like having a calculator do the math for you. Or maybe a computer solving your physics problems. Casting it yourself was like doing it by hand. But that meant that you could still do it by hand.

“Wait, does that mean I can learn Fireball?”

Arianne sighed. “Zey always want ze fireballs. No Arianne, don’t cover ze enemy in mud, light zem on fire. Always ze same.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. I might have touched on a sensitive topic. “I think mudballs are cool too. All magic is cool, and you’re a wizard, which means you’re cool by default.”

Arianne shook her head from side to side, a strange swaying motion with the way her neck was made. “Go rest. You’re going to have a long walk tomorrow,” she said before placing a hand on my head and ruffling my hair like a big meanie.

***

I woke up with a jaw-shattering yawn, then stretched my arms and legs out every which way. It took a moment for me to realize where I was, but the strange croaking snores of the girls next to me helped a bunch. A glance out of the tent revealed that the sun was rising and that morning was here and the faint clinks of metal against metal and the crackle of a fire suggested that someone was up.

I slid out of my blankets and searched for my armour and stuff. I had slept in it before but now, with a whole party of strong adventurers around, I felt safe enough to just sleep in my normal things.

All dressed up and ready, I slid out of the tent and stood up tall to take in a deep lungfull of morning air.

“Up already?”

I finished my stretch with a few sways of my hip to get my lower back settled, then bounced on the spot a few times. “Yup!” I said.

Emeric and Leonard were both sitting around the fire while a small metal pan was sitting with a slice of bread on it and a pot sat next to it with what looked like beans boiling merrily away.

“Is that breakfast?” I asked.

“Favourite meal of ze day?” Emeric asked as he stirred the beans.

“I’ve been eating nothing but honey and berries for a while, any meal is my favourite if it’s got neither. Not that I dislike either, it’s just too much is too much.”

Leonard made a croaky-snort. “Unprepared child,” he said.

I sat next to them and waited, tummy growing fiercer by the minute, as breakfast was prepared. It was nice. Emeric filled three bowls up, mine almost to the brim, then he placed some toast atop the bowl and we got down to eating in quiet, only the morning birdsong to accompany my oms and noms.

“We’ll be leaving soon enough,” Emeric said. “I got grumpy here to draw you a basic map and zere are supplies in zat sack over there.” He gestured to a bag off to the side. “Some canned goods, a few little things. Our last loaf of proper bread. Ah, and some hardtack. It tastes awful but it will keep you fed.”

“I... can’t come with you?” I asked. I kept my eyes on my now-empty bowl.

I saw Emeric shake his head from the corner of my eye. “No. We’re not just going to Threewells. The Dungeon there, if it’s still active, would be outrageously dangerous for someone at your level. And we have to move quickly.”

“I can move quickly,” I said.

He smiled. “Nope. You get yourself back to Rockstack. There are some nice folk over there, some will be willing to keep an eye on you, maybe even get you a job. Ask for Julliette, she runs the inn. She ought to have some work for you.”

“If you are dead set on being a fool, then head over to Port Royal,” Leonard said. He handed over a folded piece of parchment with a red wax seal on the front. “My name has some weight there. The people at the headquarters of the Exploration Guild might see something in you if you don’t act like such a foo-- don’t break the seal!”

I froze, fingers caught fiddling with the seal before I let go of it and gave him a sheepish smile. “It’s still attached,” I said.

“Idiot,” Leonard said. “I’m going to wake the others.”

Emeric watched him go, then turned to me with a huge smile. “I think he really likes you.”

“I do not!” Leonard roared, which probably helped in waking all the others more than anything else he did.

“He’s nice under all that gruffness,” I said. “I kind of wish I could come with you, I hate making friends and then losing them right away.”

“You’ll make good friends one day. No worries,” Emeric said. He rooted around in a bag and found another tin of beans which he opened with a casual flick of a knife across its top. “Maybe you’ll start your own party?”

“That would be wonderful,” I said. It would be! Just me and some close friends, heading out on mysterious adventures to discover hidden things. We’d meet dragons and ride them into battle and it would be awesome.

“Wait,” I said. “You have beans that come in tins?”

“Yes?” Emeric said. “They’re good for travelling, which we do a lot of. You can buy them in most guild supply stores. They’re not meant for civilians but they’ll sell you some if you don’t mind the mark-up.”

The others woke up one after the other, some with more alacrity than the rest. Arianne was not a morning person and kind of just flopped next to Emeric until he pushed a bowl into her hands. Valerie zeroed in on breakfast and scarfed it down, then bounced around while undoing the tents and gathering all of their things in a hyperactive hurry.

And then it was time to go. Donat and Pierre, who had been sneaky all night, waited by the roadside. Leonard was deep in a map and Valerie was rubbing a tired Arianne’s back. Emeric reached a froggy hand out to me. “Good bye, Broccoli,” he said.

“Bye Emeric,” I replied right back.

We shook and I waved goodbye to the others as the party formed up and started walking and hopping away.

I swallowed thickly, put on a smile, and got my stuff. I still had a ways to go. But maybe I would see them again. It would be neat to be part of the same group as them, maybe. Time would tell.

Ding! For repeating a Special Action a sufficient number of times you have unlocked the general skill: Friendmaking

I laughed as I set off into the unknown.

***