The spellcasting practice the next day was a lot of fun, even if it was exhausting. The field was set up like archery with targets to shoot magic towards. There were also areas for practicing spells like curse removal and healing and other positive effects. Until we knew how to control our magic, it was far more dangerous than practicing with even real weapons.

I started with Red Magic. Flashy though it was, it was fairly common, and I'd need to stick to a couple of types so as to avoid suspicion from others. I didn't have any real reason to be so paranoid, but no one I knew had more than three affinities so I mostly didn't want the attention. A few people knew already, but I'd have to make sure to keep some of it secret if I wanted to maintain my peace and quiet.

The feeling of weaving mana outside my body was different than it had felt internally. The motions were generally the same, but I had to shoot out the mana into the world first. This seemed like a possible disadvantage and a point where magic could be disrupted. I methodically wove the Red mana into a braid in front of me and pinched it off. A fireball took form where I had woven the mana. I gave it a push towards the target and it ambled towards the target before exploding on impact.

Now I say 'exploding', but it was more like the mana weave coming undone all at once and the Red mana being untethered. It was curious to see. It was different than the magic I'd seen before that looked like auras. Maybe because it was mine? Maybe from training? Hard to tell.

In order to make the fireball fly farther, I tried tying off the fireball and then making a very small one next to it that was untied so it would explode straight away. I succeeded in signing the hair off of my hands as well as sending a quick fireball at the target. There had to be a better way. I'd have to ask the teacher tomorrow if I couldn't figure it out.

The time I had was not enough, so I pushed it away for the time being. Next up was Spearfighting.

Spearfighting was different than Swordfighting in one major aspect: it was a team effort. With a sword, I was able to go after lone targets easily, but with a spear, it took a group of people. However, unlike with the sword, the group of spears could suppress the target completely. It was a way for humans to fight beasts much larger than themselves at enough of a distance to not immediately die. The Giant Boars, for example, were large enough that someone would be in serious danger even with a spear, let alone a sword!

The basic form of Spearfighting was with a spear and shield. That's what we were going to learn for the first couple of classes. The larger pikes and halberds and the like would be covered later. They didn't use a shield and were for fighting the largest monsters.

My first task was to learn how to strike correctly. There were straw targets for us to use our blunt practice spears--poles, really. A perfect strike would allow the blunt end to enter into the straw as our teacher showed us. Anything less would glance off.

I took turns with Dave, who was in the class with me, learning the strike against the target.

"Have you heard about the expedition next trimester?" Dave asked excitedly.

"I think so?"

"Well," he continued after another striking attempt, "we'll be going into a dungeon at the end. I want to beat monsters and get loot!"

"That's awesome!"

"Yeah. What are you going to fight with? I'm going to use my sword!"

"I'll use my sword, too... and maybe magic?"

"How good is your magic? I know Alicia's damn good at healing and ice or whatever. You're the lucky bastard with everything. What are you going to use? Fire? Time? Everything all at once?"

"Slow down! I can't even throw a fireball fast enough without hurting myself in the process. I'm going to try to get my magic good enough to use in a fight, but even the stat boost is worth it, right?"

"I guess. It'd be cool if you could blast 'em, though."

"Less talking and more practicing, you two!" the teacher said right behind us. I jumped in surprise before taking my turn to attack the target. My strike was horribly off and bounced.

"Hmph." the teacher confirmed our lack of practice in his mind.

"I need to practice Black Magic somehow if I'm going to use all of them and the teacher told us we can only practice against monsters."

"The market has live monsters sometimes. You could get one and practice against that."

"Thanks, Dave."

"You got it, James!"

We practiced for the rest of the period. The market was certainly a good idea. I'd need equipment for the trip, probably, so a look through the market was something I'd need to do anyway. I checked with the main office and they confirmed that students were expected to provide their own weapons and armor for the year-ending expedition... apparently something that happened every year for every age.

By the end of the first week, I'd only managed to raise my CON by 1 from the beatings endured during free practice and from the worse ones that the Swordfighting tournament had given.

Saturday was market day. That wasn't to say that there was no market any other day, but not every store or booth was open on other days. Saturday was my best chance to find gear and anything else that might be a specialty item, like the live monster in a cage.

The market, as always, was a sea of people all buying and selling almost anything. I hadn't been since I'd gone with Dad. My parents weren't fond of us kids going there. Too many people, too much chance for us to get lost, injured, or anything else bad. I understood even if it was highly frustrating. Still, just thinking about them made me sad. With all of the focus on studying and practicing, I hadn't seen them in nearly five months.

I spent about two hours in the morning surveying the market. I was able to find an ok quality steel shortsword for 2.5 large silver, a wood-and-leather shield for 5 small silver, loose-fitting cloth armor for another 2 large silver that I hoped would give me room to grow for a couple of years, and an iron helmet for 1 large silver. I'd still need boots, gauntlets, gloves, a backpack, mess kit, rope, bedroll, and many other smaller, necessary items.

I had seen live monsters at the hunters' booth. Ther were seriously expensive. Even a small biter was 4 large silver. I bought it so I could practice my Black Magic and learn more about its anatomy. That afternoon, I got to practicing Black Magic.

The biter looked like an enlarged and enraged rat. It was about two feet long, tail included and half a foot high. Its eyes glowed strangely with an aura similar to what I'd seen from other people's magic. I didn't know what that meant. Maybe it was just how monsters were or maybe it was using some kind of magic for a spell. I hoped it was the first.

I made a tri-weave of Black Magic and directed it into the biter before closing it off. The biter slunk back into a corner of its cage and whined in pain. I had no idea what the magic spell had done beyond what I had been told. The teacher had said that the basic Black Magic spell was a curse of phantom pain. To the recipient, it felt like your joints were on fire even though no actual damage was done to the body. it could be resisted if the intelligence and wisdom of the target were high enough, however.

I used the monster to practice curse removal and healing as well. I poked it with weak versions of every kind of magic... electric, time, ice, and earth.

Milestone: Learned how to see mana

INT +1, WIS +1, FIN +1

I quickly checked my status, and sure enough, there was a new skill called Manavision at level 1. I looked at the aura surrounding the eyes of the monster. It looked like a colorful kaleidoscope tainted with a lot of black sludge. I had no idea what that means, but I confirmed that the monster was not trying to cast a spell, and itself looked to be a spell or under a spell. I didn't know enough either way.

To test out my sight, I combined Red and Black into a curse and put it into the biter. Instead of the braid of magic that I had seen before, it looked much more like a single strand of mana with flecks of red on a black background. The pattern of the red on the black was consistent. This curse, I observed, caused the biter to start attacking the bars of its cage.

Rage? I guessed.

I probed the monster with another curse, this one with Blue instead of Red. The biter froze. its eyes moved but its body was stiff. perhaps this one was freezing or something like that. I checked my MP and only had about 10 left at this point. Even with resting in between, I didn't have much in the way of staying power for magical fights, it seemed.

I used about half of my remaining mana to do a weave of Blue with a strand of Orange. This created a strengthened ice lance and I used to stab the biter. it died immediately.

Level 4

All Stats +1

Just from that?

I'd fought a lot of matches the last few months with no level gains so I must have been close. Still, it came as a surprise. I could feel the power I gained just from killing that monster. I could imagine how much would come from something bigger or from the hordes of biters that would come sometimes.

I sighed and opened the cage. When the magic dissipated and the ice disappeared, I was able to take a closer look at the monster. I'd hit its heart directly with the attack. Internally, it was relatively untouched. I used the sword I'd bought to crudely cut the monster apart. Below its stomach was a round ball that matched the ball I'd bought. It was a monster core! Like the other biter's core, this one looked red and black... but there was more to it. Now that I had Manasight, I could, for lack of a better term, see the monster core for what it was: a jumbled mess of Black and Red mana along with something that felt more potent.