Chapter 7 - First Adventure

Aurelie and I are preparing for our first excursion, well Aurelie is, I don’t exactly have any items to being along. I see Aurelie pull out an intricate metal rod, walking over to get a closer look, I ask, “What's that?”

She sways it slightly before handing it to me, saying, “This? This is an inscribed wand.”

I play around with it a bit, it's quite heavy, I then ask curiously, “A wand? Does it make your spells stronger or something?”

Shaking her head she explains, “Some do, though they're rare and expensive, this one instead increases casting speed.”

My eyebrows perk up as I focus my gaze in it, I see a dense mesh of unfamiliar and incredibly complex runes, but then I notice a few runes that I recognise, while looking it over I inquire, “How does it work, I can recognise a few of these lesser runes.”

She nods, further explaining, “As you should, basic magic tools work by inscribing external runes into them, they usually have rather general runes that will increase the cast speed of all spells, but there are some obscenely expensive ones that have whole spells imprinted on them.”

Flicking my head up to her in confusion I inquire, “How can external runes be permanently inscribe? That goes against all we’ve learnt.”

She smirks, “That’s because they’re not permanent, the tool will deteriorate over time, those complicated runes you see on the tool are there to slow degradation and keep the external rune around, so when I create my whole external runic structure I won’t have to calculate any of the runes already in the tool. But keep in mind that lesser quality tools such as this one will increase magic expenditure when using the inscribed rune, you channel your mana through all the additional runes after all, that doesn’t mean there aren’t master inscribers who can make this extra mana cost negligible.”

Reluctantly handing the wand back, she then runs to her wardrobe and takes out a black robe with vague inscriptions that reflect slightly when the robe is exposed to light. As she starts changing, I twist around on one foot like a ballerina to give her at least a modicum of privacy, I hear her excitedly say, “Have a looksie.”

Looking back at her I can’t help but feel a little astounded, and envious. Since I’ve come to this world, I feel like my tastes for attire have shifted to this world’s general preference, and for mages, the preference is voluminous robing. Her robe’s sleeves are slim on the upper arms but then expands out freely at her forearm, the upper part of the robes is relaxed around her chest but then tightens are her waist exaggerating her already developed figure. The lower part of the robe spreads out from the hips and freely sways and as she walks a tasteful leg slit shows, but her black stockings make the leg slit obscure, the only clothing item that is slightly out of place is a pair of black boots where one would expect black heels. The outfit is incredibly fashionable and gives her a bearing of mysterious menace, however I can’t help but question, “Will that be ok on adventure?”

She waves me off with a humorous scoff, “It has a few enchantments, one of them being the typical self-cleaning enchantment, I can assure you that creator had utility in mind just as much as vanity.”

Tilting my head slightly I assume, “I imagine enchantments are unrelated to inscriptions.”

“That they are. Now should we be off, Rachel can be such a hard-ass.” She giggles as she straps on a black belt with a few satchels along with a holster for her wand.

We pass by Emilie’s room saying our goodbyes before making our way to the duelling club but we end up coming across Rachel in the hallway, “Ah, I was just heading there myself, this works out, we’ll go together.”

As we walk with Rachel, people seem to steer clear of us, and I don’t blame them. Rachel looks down at me with a smirk, “A bit underprepared, aren’t we?”

I can’t help but sweat slightly under her intense gaze, hesitantly saying, “I uh, didn’t have anything, I can buy stuff once…”

She cuts me off, “Ha, relax, I was just joking.”

I dryly laugh, very funny. She remains unfazed by my fake laughter as her mirth fades and she more characteristically begins explaining, “I looked into any quests that were available, there’s a team waiting on a mage and I’m sure they won’t complain when we hand them two. The quest is to investigate a small magical disturbance in one of the deeper parts of Frostmoon forest, it’s about half a day ride east to reach the edge of the forest. The area is deemed low threat and therefore appropriate for E-rank adventurers.”

We pass by the duelling club’s room, following proper procedure before we set off, leaving academy grounds for the first time in about 4 months. As we walk among the streets in our mage robes, we seem to draw attention, people gawk silently, or whisper to a friend as they point at us and some even reverently bow; it’s surreal. We arrive at a building made of expensive looking dark wood, the windows seem finely made and the interior sounds positively boisterous, I spot a wide array of people in groups coming and going. Strong and tall warriors in full plate armour or heavily padded leather, roguish looking types with cloaks and light leather armour, there is even the occasional mage who seem to be fellow students in their long flowing robes. I peek at Rachel before asking, “Why do all the mages here seem to be students?”

“Why? It’s because this area is a low threat E rank zone, all the graduated mages are either researching or adventuring elsewhere.”

Opening the door, we become exposed to a cacophony of conversation and people merrily drinking and our entrance seems to prompt interest from a few people. Rachel directs us to a table of four. A man with a severely scarred face and a dour expression along with it, equipped in medium padded leather armour and a long sword strapped to his back; a woman with long chestnut hair in a green cloak and a bow along with a pair of notably long ears; a bulky man in an iron chest plate casually siting in his chair, along with a medium sized shield leaning on his chair and a double sided battle-ax strapped to his belt; finally there’s another man with a shield however he looks more heroic with long black hair, a clean shaven face and a gleaming sword. The dour faced man notices our approach, looking over Aurelie and me before frowning even more deeply than his face naturally does, he crosses his arms in displeasure as he complains in a gruff voice, “You promised a mage, not some snot-faced brats, we can’t be going into the Frostmoon forest without properly trained mages.”

Rachel puts her hands on hips as she blandly says, “I understand your concerns, but we wouldn’t send mages on the field if we weren’t confidant they could perform.”

The man scowls but remains silent, Rachel nods before pushing us forward, “Good, now let me introduce them, this here is mage Aurelie L’Estocq; a shadow and air mage, and here is mage Agnes; a fire and ice mage.”

The woman’s ears wiggle slightly as she remarks in surprise, “L’Estocq, as in ‘the’ L’Estocq. A pleasure to meet you mage Aurelie L’Estocq, I’m Ukfanah.”

The bulky man grins widely as he speaks heartily, “A fine day for new friends ain’t it lassies, great to me ya both. I am the mighty Philippe”

The heroic man raises, professionally bowing, “At your service miladies, I am knight in training, Florian Millet, from Feiroy’s knight academy.”

Sighing resignedly the dour faced man rubs his head in defeat, “Fine, I’m Harold and as the only rank 2 here I will be the team leader, all my orders must be obeyed, understood?”

Aurelie and I nod in agreement, Harold nods back before addressing the whole group, “Good, we will perform some drills today, let you two get a feel for how our team works, and if everything is satisfactory, we’ll set off early tomorrow. Agreed?”

The party murmurs back, “Agreed.”

As Harold’s head snaps to us we respond with our delayed, “Agreed.”

An hour later after receiving our E-rank adventurers license, we’re out of the city with the whole party on a wide clear space as Harold aggressively scolds while we try to perform in formation, “Wrong, wrong, fucking wrong. I knew I shouldn’t have worked with kids, you’re both fucking useless, move there if we have a side engagement… NO no no! Not there, are you two fucking stupid.”

The group was arranged with Harold at the very front, spread to his sides and slightly further back are Florian the knight and Gerald. Further back still are Aurelie and myself who have to constantly rotate with the team depending on theoretical encounters with monsters. We were both sweating our asses off; it’s hard work keeping up with trained warriors. Ukfanah was sitting to the side, her job was to skirt around the enemy acting as she sees fit and also be our scout, so her practice doesn’t really rely much on the ‘theoretical’, only practical experience, which I’m sure she has much of.

As the sun begins to set and an orange glows covers the open fields Harold raises his arm, indicating stop, her turns to us saying, “Hm, your performance is acceptable, not ideal, I could use another week to get you guys up to scratch, but this will have to do, we’ll sleep early tonight then be up at first light, let’s head back.”

As we start walking back, Philippe slaps me on the back with his meaty hands, “A fine job today lassie, I reckon good old Harold was mighty impressed.”

Is he kidding with us? I glower at him, “He certainly didn’t seem like it.”

“Ha, trust me, I know.” Philippe stares back with a wide grin. Ukfanah glides over to us, commenting, “I love the robe mage Aurelie, where’d you get it, it looks like traditional coven attire from the west.”

Aurelie smiles with surprise happily explaining, “And you would be correct, the L’Estocq house descends from the ancient witch covens, we still make our robes with their style sans the hat. I assume you’re from Silverheart grove.”

Ukfanah nods with melancholy, “That I am.”

Aurelie walks up beside her asking, “How’s the war been affecting the elves there? I haven’t heard much from them.”

Ukfanah grows thoughtful as her eyes glaze over before she says, “Mm, I was last there 3 years ago, and all I can say is that it’s not good. The empire has been trying to incite the elves into assisting in the war effort, it hasn’t gone well so there’s been heavy anti-imperial sentiment now. ”

Aurelie tilts her head towards her, casually asking, “Oh? And are you part of that ‘anti-imperial’ sentiment?”

She chuckles dryly, “Goodness no, why do you think I’m all the way here in the middle of the empire!”

Philippe grumbles, “Stop talking politics, please! You’re hurting my ears.”

“We were barely even talking politics” Ukfanah says as she looks at Philippe disapprovingly.

“Barely is still something.”

Three days later we arrive at the edge of the forest, it suddenly appears as a long line of trees that eerily contrast with the hilly fields we were walking through. The three are tall and dark, the leaves swaying oddly with the wind, as if the forest is waving at us, emanating a foreboding feeling. We enter the forest and I feel my magical sense tingle slightly. We fall into a loose formation on Harold’s hand signal, Ukfanah runs off to perform scouting in our immediate vicinity.

After a few hours I hear ruffling in some bushes, not a moment later an arrow shoots through my vision in where the movement was, a low squeal echoes out. “Shit! Deep forest moles, get ready.”

Florian and Philippe heft their shields up, a slight tremor runs through the trees before a large amount of disgusting moles with brown wrinkly skin run out into the opening, Harold sternly commands as he draws his two handed sword, “Mages!”

I break from my bewilderment and cast a lesser shield, I then try to dual cast but find my loudly beating heart and rush of anxiety keeps throwing off my concentration. My unease only increases as the large mass of moles creepily approach with their gross little legs. Arrows are already firing from some moving obscure location, not too long later the monsters descend upon the warriors. I finally manage to cast my first spell after about 5 seconds, a weak fire missile shoots out from my hand, bursting through a mole and finishing off a second one behind it before fizzling out.

I begin casting again, but I can’t help but feel debilitating dismay as I watch the moles already start to overwhelm the warriors and get past, nearing myself. Suddenly a large cascade of wind disks slice through any monsters that dare near me. A shadow clad wraith moves around the backlines, efficiently slaughtering any moles, blood and guts littering the grass. I regain confidence to resume casting, working on getting my casting time and perfection back to my peak as I fire off simple fire magic missiles, missing a fair number of shots, but the ones I do hit cause a satisfying explosion of blood to rain from the destroyed mole. However just as I feel to be getting into a groove, the combat ends; the last dregs easily cleaned up by Harold.

I collapse to the ground shivering in a mix of exhilaration and fear but also mana exhaustion, I feel large droplets of sweat coalesce by my brows. I probably would’ve died if Aurelie wasn’t here, or at least got injured, I now understand why new mages have such a high death rate, I didn’t perform even half as well as I would in training. Harold looks at Aurelie, praising, “Damn mage L’Estocq, that was some good shit, you should’ve told us you were experienced.”

Aurelie shrugs, remaining silent as she sits to meditate. Philippe looks at me, remarking, “Not bad for your virgin fight lassie, poor start but you brought it back.”

I look down darkly, but Florian nods at me encouragingly, “Yeah, you did quite well, there are people who do a lot worse on their first fight, at least you helped.”

Phillip comments, “Yup, I know new lads and lasses who piss themselves in their first encounter with monsters.”

Suddenly Ukfanah appears from the bushes, “I’ve scouted everywhere nearby, we should be safe for now.”

Harold nods, “Good, I don’t sense any cores from the moles, so we’ll steer clear from these corpses and set up camp, we’re too drained to continue walking any further today.”

Later that night our group surrounds a crackling fire as a gutted mole corpse cooks on a makeshift skewer, Harold gravely says, “Remember, keep conversation quiet, I’m going to get some sleep, I’ll take last watch, you guys sort out watch amongst yourselves.”

Harold walks into one of the tents, leaving the rest of us to relax around the fire as Florian cooks the mole. Philippe starts, as he looks at me with his usual grin, “So how did you find your first fight?”

I mull over it for a moment before slowly explaining, “It was terrifying but invigorating at the same time. I admit that was rather euphoric when my spells connected. Although I missed most of my shots.”

A look of understanding dawns on Aurelie’s face as she says, “Mm, that’s one of the biggest hurdles for mages, juggling movement, casting, and aiming. But you’ll get it with time and practice.”

The fire loudly crackles, cutting into our conversation before I look at Florian who is monitoring the cooking mole, I ask, “So Florian, you’re a knight in training, is that similar to us, you attend an academy and go out to do some adventuring work to get experience.”

Briefly considering the question, he speaks, “Not… exactly, knight trainees generally train in dedicated squads, it’s rather rare to have knights such as myself do adventuring work directly.”

“Oh, then why are you out here?” I inquire as my head tilts slightly.

“Because he’s a bloody battle maniac.” Philippe suddenly intrudes. Florian shakes his head in hesitant disagreement as he turns the spit, “I wouldn’t say so, I simply believe training in true combat is far more productive than training in safety.”

Ukfanah speaks out, “Florian I think you’re burning it, don’t you think it looks ready?”

“Hm, is it? Well, I suppose so,” He takes the meat off the fire and cuts it awkwardly with a knife before handing us greasy pieces of meat. I munch it down, expecting an unpleasant taste, but instead treated to a rather relishing meal. The food itself tastes average, but I can feel a small amount of mana inside that slightly replenishes my mana pool and I’m sure even increases my mana pool by a miniscule amount. After we all silently devour our food, Ukfanah insists “Alright guys, I think it’s about time we sleep, goodnight everyone.”