– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 17 –

Bjorln held out his hand and helped up Jorg over the ledge.

“The best time for harvesting the soothing dew is shortly after the sun has fully risen,” said Bjorln. “We’re still early. Come, let’s sit down.”

They settled next to each other on the mountain plateau. In the distance, they could see the Guardians’ training grounds and further behind, the large silhouette of Arcana Academy.

Bjorln took a moment to order his thoughts and to search for the right words.

“I’m sorry, Whaka Jorgen.”

The statement jolted Jorg from his own thoughts and he looked perplexedly at his father.

“I did not see it before, but I have realized that your ma and I have made a mistake. We try our best, but in the end we, too, are still trying to figure things out. Maybe if we have more children in the future, we’ll know better.” Bjorln paused. “Nah, who am I kidding? We will probably just make different and new mistakes.”

Jorg furrowed his brow but remained silent.

“Sometimes, you spend so much time worrying about one thing, that you completely neglect to fully think through the alternatives. You probably don’t remember much of the time, but when Lori and you got your first examination, your ma and I were nervous wrecks. Every night, we spent hours talking and trying to soothe each other.”

Bjorln lowered his gaze and wrung his hands. “They’ll be able to use mana. They won’t have to live as manaless. We won’t have to see our children die of old age under our eyes. It’ll be fine. Her external mana control will be fine. Even if it is not, we can train with items. We can help. It’ll be fine. They won’t be aspect impaired. Even if, their aspect impairment will not prevent them from following their dreams. We can help. It’ll be fine.”

Bjorln sighed. “Your ma was mostly worried about your external mana control. She thought of herself, her sister, her pa. I, on the other hand, was more worried about aspected mana. My parents were manaless and my side of the family does not have any records about mana users among previous generations. Olgorn and I are the only points of reference. I was fine, but Olgorn…” Bjorln closed his eyes. “I could not bear the thought of seeing one of you grow up like Olgorn did – so sure of what he wanted to become and tormented by the fact it was not meant to be.”

Bjorln took a deep breath. “When we heard the results of your examinations…” Bjorln opened his eyes and looked at Jorg. “That was one of the happiest days in my life. Lori’s external mana control was fine. Your external mana control was somewhat impaired, but your mana was unaspected. With some effort, you could even become a mage proper if you chose to do so.”

Jorg averted his eyes. He felt ashamed for his lack of effort.

“I failed to consider that light tends to throw a shadow. I’m sorry, my beloved son. I only looked at the results as a blessing. I failed to recognize the unique problem it implied for you – a problem that neither Isille nor I ever had to deal with before.”

Jorg looked up at his father in puzzlement.

“Your ma insisted you learn the fundamental healing spells because of her own experiences. One of her companions once died under her eyes when a simple Cure Poison spell could have saved her. Aside from that, we felt hesitant to dictate anything to you. We were tempted sometimes – seeing you pick up one spell after the other, always dropping the practice when it did not yield results quickly.”

Jorg closed his eyes and hung his head. The feeling of shame inside of him welled up again.

“However, we always thought that it was your choice to make. I’m sorry, Jorg. I should have seen it.”

Bjorln gazed into the distance.

“I have thought a lot about our impairments since then and I believe now that for some, the impairments are a blessing as much as a curse. For Olgorn, it was undeniably a curse. Looking at you, I realize that for me it might have been a blessing. As often as you remind me of my brother, in this aspect you are like me.”

Bjorln put his arm around his son. Jorg continued to look down at Arcana and listen.

“Some people always see a path to follow. Olgorn knew what he wanted to become even before he could count his toes. I did not.” Bjorln shrugged. “Not really, at least. Mana cultivation, yes, but I never put much thought into it. I did not have to. My impairments put in guardrails as soon as I was born. I simply followed the path that was available. Limitations are a curse in many aspects, but a blessing in one: They force focus. Olgorn, your ma, your sister, me – none of us had to choose our path. There simply was not much of a choice. Same goes for Whaka Terry.”

Jorg winced at Terry’s name. Bjorln tightened his grip around Jorg and rubbed Jorg’s shoulder.

“I am certain that Olgorn or your ma would have felt liberated if their limitations had been lifted. Olgorn would have become the happiest healer in the realm. Your ma would have become even more outstanding.”

Bjorln took a deep breath. “In contrast, I have come to the conclusion that I would have felt lost without my limitations. Paralysed by all the options. Always second-guessing if I made the right choice. Dabbling a bit in everything. Never committing to anything. Inevitably getting frustrated at my lack of noticeable progress.”

Jorg teared up. Bjorln kissed his son on the head and rubbed his shoulder.

“It’s alright, Whaka Jorgen. We’ll figure it out. We’ll find a path you can commit to. A focus that’s worthy of your time and efforts. Progress follows focus.”

Together, they watched the sunrise over Arcana.

***

After another swing of Terry’s war hammer, the stalactite finally fell down. Terry watched it impact within the ghoul horde.

“Effective, but not efficient,” grumbled Terry. “Not worth the hammering time.”

I believe that counts as a failure. Good for you!

“It’s within expectations.”

That’s not fair. Anything is within expectations if you expect failure.

“I know, right? It’s liberating. Should have done that from the beginning.”

Terry retrieved his notebook and pen from his dimensional bag. “Idea 12 – Unsatisfactory. Too slow.” Then, he returned the items to the dimensional storage. “Next.”

Terry air-stepped to another location. He used his Gravitational Attraction glove to pull one of the ghouls to himself. Before the ghoul came close enough to attack, Terry deactivated the imprint and observed the ghoul falling down. The ghoul was speared by a stalagmite on the floor. It continued thrashing and hissed loudly.

“Idea 13 – Workable for immobilization. Quicker than single combat. Next.”

Terry attracted another ghoul. When it came close enough, Terry deactivated the glove and swung the war hammer. Unfortunately, the hammer’s head was not big enough to crush the ghoul’s skull in one go.

Pity that we didn’t get the model that Tiana used.

“It was meant for cloud badgers.” Terry observed the ghoul’s accelerated fall. He had intentionally batted the ghoul towards a flat area that lacked stalagmites.

*Splat*

Terry’s brows pricked up.

“Hisss.”

Terry frowned. “Idea 14 – Unsatisfactory. Next.”

Another ghoul flew through the air. This time, Terry deactivated the Immovable Object imprints in his boots first and deactivated the glove afterwards. Terry quickly reactivated his boots and stepped around in the air. The ghoul was flying up past him and Terry grabbed a hold of one of the creature’s ankles. He turned the creature in the air and then let it fall – head first.

*Splat*

Terry narrowed his eyes. Only silence followed. “Workable.”

Only if that thing does not thrash around too much on its way down.

“Idea 14 – Somewhat workable. Quicker than single combat.” Terry bit his lip. “Next one is going to take time to prepare.”

***

19 bodies of pus in the net~

19 bodies of pus~

Attract one more to add to the set~

20 bodies of pus in the net~

Terry had attached some of the nets in his storage items along the ceiling. He used his glove to direct the ghouls into the net one by one. In the beginning, it took him several activations. By now, Terry had gotten better at judging the timing and positioning required.

He was also getting increasingly comfortable with the spell’s structure. Since Terry did not have to shape the spell structure himself and only needed to feed additional mana or primers to the imprint, it played to Terry’s strengths. While he still had to watch the imprint carefully, he managed to get an increasing number of activations out of the glove.

In a safe location without any immediate threats or distractions that is.

“Thanks for sharing, Mister Grumpy Pants. Alright, off you go.” Terry pulled a rope and the net tipped. The ghouls inside fell down.

*Splat* *Splat* *Splat*

“One, two, three, four, five. Five fell on the head.”

Not good enough.

“Yeah yeah. Maybe I should really switch to letting the whole bundle fall at once. They would add to the weight and squash each other.”

Or cushion each other. Depends on the perspective. It would also introduce the same issue as the boulder. How will you retrieve the net with all those creatures inside?

“Fair point. I could let them swing full speed against a wall.”

And the survivors?

“I could repeat the process. Up here, I could use the boulders as counterweight. The ghouls can’t reach here and prevent me from retrieving the boulder.”

Sounds complicated, though.

“I’ll write it down as Idea 32.”

Suit yourself.

***

Terry dodged a claw. “You know, Alrick Ten, I still feel like I’m missing something.”

Terry’s voice was muffled. He had improvised a face mask with a spare shirt. Terry still had no idea how exactly the ghoul poison was transmitted.

Alrick Ten lunged at him. Terry activated the imprints in his bracers and placed a two-legged kick into the ghoul’s ugly visage.

“Hisss.”

“Come on, again. I need the practice.”

Terry dodged another combination of claws. It felt increasingly instinctual to him to avoid the jerky movements and abrupt attacks. It was very different from the movements of normal folk or even mana-corrupted beasts, but he was finally getting used to it.

“What do I know about ghouls? Any other comment from Instructor Khaled that I missed?”

Terry grabbed the ghoul’s right arm with his own right hand. Then, he rotated his own body while simultaneously kicking into the ghoul’s right knee with his left leg.

“Venomous.”

Terry dodged to the side when the creature lunged at him again.

“Mana corrupted.”

Terry held up his arms. He activated his bracers and dodged by pulling himself up.

“Undead that avoids the sunlight.”

Terry activated the imprints in his boots and looked down at Alrik Ten. On a whim, Terry activated his Blinding Flash glove.

The ghoul hissed loudly and frenziedly snapped at him.

“Hm. Does not seem to affect you much. Or maybe you can get by with smell and hearing? Do undead even perceive the world like normal folk?” Terry squinted at the ghoul. “Do you even rely on your eyes?”

Terry sighed. He found less and less uses for his Blinding Flash glove. He recalled Siling’s evaluation of the grievance toad’s horror ability.

Does not work on constructs or other unlife. May not work on all undead.

“To be fair, I did not expect to fight one or the other when I bought it. It worked well on folk, beasts, and corrupted.”

Terry clicked his tongue. “Undead that avoids the sunlight. Undead. Avoids the sunlight.”

I think you mentioned that already.

“Why specify ‘sunlight’?”

Because they avoid sunlight?

“Yes, but it was Instructor Khaled speaking. He was a stickler for being precise in your words.”

And?

“And for not being overly specific. Why reference sunlight? Do they not avoid other forms of light?”

The Alricks did not do so well with fire. They probably avoid that.

Terry summoned one of his rings that had been aspected with light-aspected mana.

“HISSS!” Alrick Ten clawed at Terry. It even jumped, although only a light hop.

Terry had never seen a ghoul jump before. Terry quickly pulled himself further up and observed the ghoul. The ghoul’s frenzy did not calm down.

Terry stretched out his arm that held the glowing ring. He moved the ring around. The ghoul followed.

“Huh.” Terry threw the ring down. The ghoul ignored Terry and went after the ring without so much as a pause.

Fetch, Alrick Ten! Fetch!

Terry deactivated the imprints in his boots and let himself fall to the ground. The ghoul continued to ignore Terry.

“That is the opposite of avoidance.” Terry was grinning broadly.

Finally. Turns out the seventh circle is the charm. Not six. Six was totally insufficient. Seven. Seven is the sweet spot. Eight would have been excessive, though.

“Thanks, Alrick Ten. You have become my new favorite.” Terry summoned his war hammer. “You have earned your eternal rest.”

Later, Terry returned to his cavern in a good mood. He marked a few ideas that would immediately benefit from the ability to herd the ghouls into a specific location. Terry pondered for a moment and then decided to try Idea 25 next.

However, before he returned to his ideas, Terry checked his side experiment. He had set it up in order to distract himself from his own annoying thoughts—

HEY!

For the side experiment, Terry had decided to interact some more with the only neighbor that was not attempting to kill him.

So far anyway.

Terry still refused to let the slime absorb aspected mana from his equipment. However, his storage contained some mana items that Terry did not care about as much: mana cores or what was left of them. Chips and shards mostly.

Terry examined the current state of the buffet he had laid out before. He compared the leftovers with his notes. He did not trust himself to remember everything.

Good call.

“Picky little thing,” muttered Terry. “No interest in any of the monster cores. More of a construct core aficionado. This is not what I would have expected.”

Yeah, all the cores taste the same to you!

“I did not taste any mana cores.”

If you say so.

“At least it did not touch the grievance toad’s core. That would have been somewhat worrying.”

Disturbing. Don’t dress it up in euphemisms. It would have been deeply deeply disturbing.

“I thought aspect beings fed primarily on aspected mana.”

Maybe you haven’t offered the right aspect?

“The elementals are single-aspected at the first rank. They only develop secondary aspects at the second rank – if at all. All the slimes I’ve met so far have been single-aspected.”

Have you considered that maybe you haven’t offered the right aspect?

“No, never thought of that before.”

I thought you did not like lying?

“I make exceptions for sarcasm.”

Good for you.

“Pity that I can’t test the arcane aspect. Tiana carried the core of the purplemist lynx.”

Yeah, the others would have been thrilled to have you feeding it to a dungeon creature.

“Fair enough. While we’re on the topic of enough – enough of this.”

Terry laid down some more construct cores. He had used cores from a fake goblin, a shield legger, and a spike creeper before. This time, Terry picked a core from a vacuum cannon, and a shard from an earth warrior.

Afterwards, Terry left to test his next idea.

***

“Any news?” inquired Miguel.

“Sadly, no,” replied Jorg.

The two were sitting in the relaxation area of the training grounds.

“Gellath will probably be a bit late,” said Miguel. “Their therapy group was traveling today – guided practice missions. He’ll be happy to see you again.”

Jorg smiled. “How is he doing?”

“Much better. Trauma counseling helped a lot. I don’t think he’s the type to bottle things up and it seems to work in his favor now. Last time we met, he even inflicted his humor on me again.”

Jorg chuckled.

“First time in my life that I was glad to hear one of his anti-jokes. Freeze therapy will probably take a while, though. We three won’t be going back to mission work any time soon.”

“I don’t mind as long as we can meet up. How is the tracking curriculum?”

“Ah well.” Miguel shrugged. “Turns out coldfire isn’t all that suitable for tracking magic. Who would have thought, right?” Miguel smiled wryly. “Not as if my mana control would have allowed me to cast the spells even if there were any.”

Miguel shrugged. “Anyway, nothing fancy so far. Mostly the old-school stuff. I can breeze through there, because Pa had already taught me a lot in that area. Last session was great, though. They showed us something I did not know before – something that I could teach Pa. That was nice.” Miguel smiled in reminiscence.

“Later, they will introduce me to suitable mana-crafted items that can make up for my lack of spells. Then, I just need to save some coins.”

“Hopefully, we can help you there with mission work.”

“Hopefully. What about you? How are you going to use the time? Continue to abuse the weight-controlled items in the physical exercise area?”

Jorg shook his head. “I’ve asked Lori to help me learn the Raise Wall spell. I’ll also join mana crafting lessons with Auntie Brynn.”

Miguel’s eyes nearly popped out of his eye-sockets. “Wait, what? You never mentioned an interest in mana crafting before and…” Miguel pointed at Jorg. “You volunteered for spellwork?”

Jorg nodded. “I asked my family for advice. I thought about what I really wanted and I—” Jorg clenched his fists. “I never want to feel like— I never want to see one of my companions being trapped and surrounded again. If I’m not fast or strong enough to reach them quickly, then I need to find a way to keep them safe until I can reach them. I want to focus on ranged defense and mobile barriers.”

Jorg lowered his gaze and looked at the table. “T-Terry was able to use his imprinted items to block that giant. He was able to block at a distance. He was able to block for Lori and me. I want to be able to do something like that, only at a distance that would have helped Gellath. I want to be able to hurl an item that raises a barrier around my friends. Something to protect them.”

“Phew…” Miguel forgot to blink. “Maybe I shouldn’t call you knuckle brain anymore.”

***