Chapter today is a bit shorter, for i don't want to start new thread and then suddenly end with cliffhanger. i will also start fixing mistakes of first chapter right away.

I was meditating at a verge of the forest alongside with Ruby. I was trying to raise its level and Ruby was trying to get an affinity in order to perform a summoning magic. Will it work? I have no idea. Well… meditation is actually very complex process. Of course while performing it you have to wipe out all of your feelings and thoughts, but it’s barely a first step.

As your mind is empty you have to… “look” inside of yourself… I have no idea how to describe it in any other way… but you see everything, every mana vein, every single thread that connect your body… and mana that flows inside. You have no idea what kind of peace embraced me when I was meditating… then, step by step you saw more and more, but not inside. Every small life form around was like tiny spark glowing it the dark. Even as I saw only for a meter all around me, it was enormous amount. Every tiny bit of grass, every ant, they were glowing like burning forest in the darkest night.

We were told to practice as Hanna and her friend were talking inside of the hut. Even as he has said that war is about to start, it still looks like we have from few months to even over a year. The tension on the boarder were getting stronger, oh between who will this war break? Between The Neira Kingdom (the one I am living right now) and … oh boy wait, I don’t want to twist anything “The Kingdom of Light blessed by Goddess of Purity under the order of Prophetess”… or Holy Kingdom for short. Reason? You want official or unofficial? Well, both of them then… it would be both because Neira is supporting mages, has pretty few magic facilities on its ground, is a nest of wickedness, for mages are being tempted by forces of evil and by abusing their powers bla bla bla…. Burn it all. The other one? Economic. The Neira Kingdom is on the way between one of lesser Dwarven Kingdom-City and Holy Kingdom. As dwarves has no magicians at all (some basic rune enchanters, but they were barely considered as mages) and has great industry and huge deposits of all kinds of minerals, gems, metals and so on, they were one of best possible economic allies that Holy Kingdom could has. Did dwarves liked Holy Kingdom then? Nope. They barely like anyone who was a non-dwarf… okay, they don’t even like each other, but business is business and they have their needs to.

And Neira? It was putting taxes on every merchant walking through its territory. It was completely normal, but if holy kingdom can pay, or not pay and even strengthen its position on politic arena then what will it chose? Oh, Neira was not an easy piece of cake, but who cares about possible losses? Prophetess definitely did not.

So, what does it means for us - the one pretty far from front line that is about to form? It will be ugly, I know, but it means moneys! Aha, how much such things like recovery potions, empowering hex bags and so on will cost? Answer is: more while there is a war going on. I am thinking about spamming my hex bag creation… oh, by the way it is difficult, even more then I thought. It’s not like if I will raise my level of it by 5 or so I will always create one. It’s more like value of attribute rise will increase, and a chance of success will slightly increase too… but it’s not like I will be able to mass produce them as I want. The only good thing about those is that I get skill exp even as I fail… less but it’s always something!

My first luck hex bag? I gave it to Ruby as thanks for teaching me. Maybe it will slightly help her while her attempts to create one…

I was sitting there for an hour. The leveling of meditation is hard. I get about 10% for 30 minutes. Aha, it’s 61,3% now thanks for our pseudo healing session with Christ.

I stood up. Ruby opened one of her eyes and looked at me with question.

- I will practice my fire magic for a bit now, I don’t want to be completely helpless while I would be attacked – I answered question she never asked

- Don’t you have this mana burst… or whatever you call this spell?

- Aha, it’s pretty strong, but I don’t want to dislocate my fingers or break my wrist every time I will be in danger – I said with smile without a bit of happiness – nor blowing my friends away.

She didn’t say anything about that… but honestly, all those small fire creation gave barely any exp… I mean it has raised nicely in past 4 days… but I am not that patience… there is a difference when I am hunting and waiting for a moment to strike and the situation when I have to repeat same action over and over again… well, at least in this world it is always giving a benefit…

- Ruby… How good you are in your water magic? – yes, you know what I want to do

- Better then you in your fire – she said with smile. Her eyes where sparkling as she was raising from the ground. Looks like someone want to show who is better here, huh? I don’t mind. Not as long as I will get stronger. – prepare yourself, and don’t hold back. I’ll go easy on you…

Okay.. that attitude is slowly getting on my nerves. But she is magician longer, and level 9 on top of that… oh I didn’t mention it till now? At the other hand I couldn’t appraise Hanna there was only a race of human with red skull at the end of notification. And as I tried to appraisal a skull the notification says:

[Dangerous Individual detected.

This unit has same rank as user but is over 15 levels stronger

Avoiding aggressive behaviors is advisable]

So our Hanna is stronger that she says she is… she is over 200 years old in the end…

[User was challenge on friendly duel

This kind of duel is not life-threatening, but some injuries may occur.

This kind of duel is used to determined the position of two individuals among themselves, or used as practice

while friendly duel skill exp is generated 25% faster]

Oho, I have just found a good thing… Looks like I will ask Ruby for duels about at least once a day…

We have stood in front of each other. I was forcing my mind calm while Ruby was smiling in mocking manner.

I generated small fire bolts in my hands and threw them one after another 4 times. Ruby raised a water shield. It don’t even show any kind of damaging as my fire hit it and vanished. She was about to say something, maybe joke about me. But those little bolts did their job. After hitting water, a steam raised in front of Ruby limiting her eye sight. I have all time needed for me to gather my 20 mana… in both hands… then I forced both of those into one… crap it is instable! Way to instable… please my dear fire bolt! Go be instable somewhere else! As I thought about if I throw it at Ruby direction… crap. Did I overdo it?

Not at all. The bolt was in the middle of way as Ruby could see again, as only she noticed the spell she start throwing a small water balls (very small about half fist sized) at one side of the bolt. Huh, size of mine? A big one. About 40cm in diameter? As water start hitting side of my spell, it started to lose its trajectory, and it hit the ground 6 meters behind Ruby after it missed her is safe distance.

She looked at me, smirked, then she nod with recognition and start casting her offensive magic. Ts, as fire mage I will have hard time vs water one. I knew Ruby has smaller mana pool, Hanna herself said it, but I don’t want to win a fight by simply dodging while waiting as she will get tried. It won’t help me to improve myslef. Oy, those are a ice shards, are they? You kidding me? She s not going to throw them at me? I hope not. There is a difference between some burns and being impaled by god damned ice needles! Fuck, she did throw them at me!

Let’s try same trick as Ruby did. Shitload of tiny fireballs. I barely get in time to shoot them down in midway …

[You have received 9 damage from water/cold source]

I have miss one… FUCK! It’s sticking out of my shoulder! There hasn’t been much damage, but the area it hit wasn’t a fatal one… and she threw a really few of them! If I wouldn’t defend myself from most of them I would be turn into ice hedgehog! You are brutal Ruby! Or not, she does not look like she intended to do so

- Maybe we should stop here? We should treat that wound..

- I am okay, it did hit no artery nor vital spot. I won’t be given rest time in battle plus I was already wounded worse… - I tried to convince her. It didn’t work judging from hers face but she kept going… she restrain herself to blocking now….

FUCK! Why am I so useless? I am sure that she was holding herself back from the very start, yet I still get hurt! I am just lacking both defense and hard offensive power. I can throw spells only in line or in vertical parabolic, while trowing bolt to the front and up while giving it less momentum. In certain point in the air it would stop raising and start falling. Those were not enough to break even through her basic shield, for I simply can’t control the fire as I already cast it. Not to the point of using it in battle.

How to attack her while having as limited patterns of attack as I have at the moment? Something ding inside… not, it was not notification now! I just got an idea. Don’t know if it will work, but what’s the better time to check it out if not now? Ruby saw my difference in behaving.

I started condensing mana in both hands.. th, it will barely be enough to finish this move. then I will be done. I have once more connected my hands creating a flame that was shaking violently and threw it in parabolic trajectory. Then immediately I started creating another condensated fire in my right hand, and my left hand was shooting small balls one after another, to disturb those that she sent in order to stop the grant fire bolt. As my another bolt was fished I shoot it away, but not at Ruby, but above her. Those 2 bolts collided with each other creating pretty big explosion, that shattered the Ruby water shield and pushed her on the ground. Oh, she was unhurt, it was but a shock wave that was emitted and disturbed her balance.

I have almost no mana left. The headache hit me next. And notification about mana exhaustion. I had to sit on the ground. And I fainted. Looks like this whole mana exhaustion is pretty dangerous. Note for future me: don’t deplete your mana to fast.

I was drifting into warm dream. I hope I deserved some rest…

I woke up in bed inside of the Hanna Hut. This bed was used by sick one for the time of treatment. Was I in so bad condition? Think not. My shoulder was bandaged, and strong aroma of herbs was being emitted from beneath it. Uh?

[The [Fire magic] has leveled up [Fire magic] is now level 2

Your control over fire elements has increased

The power of your fire spells has increased

You have new manifestation: orb of fire]

Someone was talking pretty loud in next room

- What were you thinking? I told you to not use ice magic just on left and right! I know you were curious about how strong it is, but you should be more responsible! And definitely not using it on other human as experiment!

- I know… I didn’t mean to… as only I triggered it, it just happened and I couldn’t stop it! The numbers of projectiles were to high! I didn’t want to create so many of them!

- The mage true power is not how many spells he or she has, not how strong they are, but how they control it… you said… that boy detonated one fire bolt with another? He surpassed his limits of power using trick instead of spell… it would be the same as exploding bolt – a medium class fire spell… to do it, the bolt that is created has two layers, the outside is but merely a cover of fire, its core is another one, violent, that upon contact trigger explosion to both destroy everything it hits and cover it on fire. If your water shield was not that strong, and he was not that exhausted you could be hurt badly too… I have 2 apprentices and both of them are morons. Just kill each other already and I will have all peace in the world – aw that grumpy side of her. She is showing her care of us by complaining.

Now, let’s check what that fire orb is… you are kidding me? just floating fire ball!? It’s spell used as vision source in darkness… it will have some offensive value in future… but now only if someone would walk directly into it… even more as I could barely move already casted one… GUH. The only thing that made my current humor any better were few notifications of Sebastian and Walter hunting some preys increasing both mine and theirs levels.

I have nothing better to do… meditation? 2 hours more and it should level up. Okay, let’s connect it with regeneration boost… why not improve 2 things instead of one if you can?

[You are using [Health Regeneration Boost] in [Meditation] stance

Effects will improve

Mana consumption will decrease]

[The spell [Health Regeneration Boost] is being used on you

you are given +1.8 hp regeneration per 12h]

… it’s slow… I still have no idea what is my basic health regen… I want to improve my alchemy… and hex bags… uh! Um… for a moments… jus to check how much is my regeneration boost improving without meditation… 1.1 hp/12h… it’s low! But if it’s also improving the effects of potions and so… guh, don’t wait for me! I will be healed back in about 4 days!

[The [Nature Healing Magic] has leveled up. [Nature Healing magic] is now level 2

The power of nature based healing spells will increase

The mana consumption Of Nature based healing spells will decrease

New manifestation: detoxification]

[The [Meditation] has leveled up. [Meditation] is now level 2

Intelligence rise by 1

Wisdom rise by 1

Spiritualism rise by 1]

Oh, that is what they meant by mental capability increase with level… good in “late game” when leveling up will be pain in the ass… but 6 hours for rising my stats by 3? and it will take longer and longer. But meditation improves effects of few spells, which is nice.

Hanna checked me after an hour or so, scolded me for being idiot that thinks only about getting hurt, then she replaced bandage, gave me a book about basic alchemy and throw few ingredients on bed telling me to practice hex bag creation as only I get better.

As I was appraising ingredient I was rewarded with another skill up

[The [Appraisal] has leveled up. The [Appraisal] is now level 4

Appraising target will give more information about target

If target is not much stronger then user his hp bar will be revealed

If target is not much stronger then user his state will be revealed

Gives information about creature/plant/object rank]

- How are you – now the Ruby was the one who walked inside. I appraised her… it was instinct.

[Name: Ruby Stormcaller

Level: 9/50

HP: 117/120

Creature Rank: C

Adventure Rank: None

State: Curse [Seal of Four Wings]

[Seal of Four Wings

This curse is used to bond certain magic traits of this state owner.

The Curse is considered as powerful and require long time preparation alongside with rare ingredients.

Currently bonded trait: Affinity [Chaos], Affinity [Nature], Affinity [Water], Affinity [Earth]

This curse was casted by Emma Stormcaller]

- Ruby… do you know someone called Emma Stormcaller – I knew it would be someone from her family..but…

- It was my mother! How do you know her name? I have never told you! Neither did Hanna…

Crap. Now it will get interesting…