They were walking and talking for hours. It seems that the plan was for Gilliam to get some tutoring at the academy. Angela wasn't super happy about using her father’s name as it sort of devalued her own achievements but in this case it was too good to not use. Since her father had been a teacher at the academy a long time ago before he went into hiding, she still had some possibilities there.

Explaining that though there is an entrance exam for those who are not pre-approved through the proper channels. And since Gilliam didn’t have a proper benefactor he would have to get through the exam.

“Don’t worry, it’s simple and from what I’ve seen I’m sure you can pass it with your telekinesis alone. You’re also a Heptagon mage, so I’m sure you would get a scholarship even without my help” This was explained in a tone hinting that it was common knowledge.

“Heptagon mage?” Gilliam asked, he guessed it had something to do with him being able to use all seven elements but it didn’t quite register.

Angela started explaining, using her finger to simulate numbers and points in the air.

“How many elements you can use will put you in a class of mages, this class is based on shapes and their corners.

There is the Dot-mage that can use one element. Then there is the Line-mage, they can use two elements. The Triangle mage can use three... And you see how this goes. The amount of mages of each class drops dramatically the higher in the list we go. There are the most of Dot mages, second most of Line mages... and so on.”

Using her hands and fingers to draw the shapes in the air when mentioning them, and emphasising group sizes like if she were holding different invisible spheres between her hands.

“Now, the order goes Dot, Line, Triangle, Square, Pentagon, Hexagon and Heptagon. This should be explained better to you at the academy but in general, the more elements you have the more powerful you are and the easier magic comes to you. Me as a dot-mage struggled more learning spells that will come... super simple... to you...” her tone of voice went into envy territory as she compared them, her face dropping a bit at the same time.

Through shaking her head and continuing she pulled her out of it. “Many will not even believe that you exist, before I met you I hadn't even heard of a Heptagon mage. There were probably a few but I haven’t heard or read about anyone before now.”

This put Gilliam on a weird pedestal, he got that he was a rare commodity based on earlier explanations but with more detail this just made it worse.. Or better.. Depending on how you looked at it.

He liked attention to a certain level just like the next guy, but he didn’t like intense attention. Given the weird mixture of noble, mage, fancy mage and everything he was becoming, this... Was kind of weird. On one hand he liked it, on the other it felt weirdly daunting, like he had something large to live up to.

Deeper detail than this she didn’t want to get into, so she didn’t teach him wrong. Given that she was as limited as she is and didn’t have any interest in the mage laws and politics, she was mentally elsewhere for most of the classes.

Instead they started talking about other things, like the fact that there is a dome around the world that was apparently a well known, proven and tested fact. The problem was that people didn’t know what was on the other side. Considerable time, effort and funding has gone into investigating this but no holes or openings into whatever outside world there might be, was found. Mages have tried flying along the roof of it, scrying was done and, well, actual effort has been done with this.

The weirdest part is that there are two confirmed meteors that have landed, during night the stars are visible as is the sun, but if you go close to the wall you cannot clearly see through it.

Gilliam didn’t have any good answers but it all felt made up, though as he thought that he was currently playing with making some magical wind to blow some leaves along the road... So perhaps his thoughts on what’s made up and not weren’t exactly perfect.

“Let’s set up camp for the night.” Angela suddenly said and started veering off the road.

Gilliam was a bit unsure, there was still a lot of time left before it became dark.

“Isn’t it a bit early?” he added to her, though uncertain he still followed her as she headed for the treeline.

“We need a little time to set up camp, if we don’t want to use the food we have with us we need a bit of time to hunt. All of this is better before it’s dark”

She had plenty of points, though they could make a fire, it was not exactly something you hunted in, and once it got dark everything they wanted to hunt was going to be in hiding as well.

He nodded to her statement and simply added a “Ah, that makes sense!” as he followed her into the woods.

The forest was not exactly a jungle, they left that behind half a day ago, but there were still some hints of the jungle vegetarian. A tree here and there, some recognizable bushes and the like. Other more bark’y trees had taken over as the dominating vegetation but it was clear they were still in jungle-range. Wildlife and nature had apparently spread seeds quite the distance, all things considered it was somewhat interesting to see.

Angela set up camp like a pro, it was clear this was not her first time doing this. Gilliam on the other hand, struggled a bit more. They didn’t have a tent to pitch but they used a piece of stitched and waxed leather as a tarp of sorts, Angela showed him how to hang it up, making sure it was tight but also having an angle to it so if it rains it will fall to the side and not pool up.

She showed him how to stack the fire, where to place everything and practical information as to what leaves were good and bad to wipe with.

Gilliam wanted to make a comment about the latter but.. This was vital information if you considered the effects of accidentally using a bad leaf.

Once the camp was set up it was time for hunting.

“How good are you at sneaking around in the forest?” She asked as she made sure her knife was in proper order before sheathing it.

“I have never hunted before and the closest I have gotten to sneak around in a forest was playing paintball many years ago.” he replied without considering the lack of Earth knowledge.

As should be expected, she didn’t know what this was. “Paint... ball...?” She should know what paint was, the barn at Geof’s farm was painted, but the ball and playing part didn’t seem to register.

“Ah... Well... Imagine a war-game where you sneak around and shoot the other team with paint. It hurts a bit but is completely safe, just a ‘us against them’ kind of game.”

He decided to use broader terms and not get into it properly.

“Well, I suppose we’ll see how good you are” She smiled, it seems that she got the gist of it but not properly.

Worst case scenario they had food, so they should be fine. And if it didn’t go so well this round she could always just hunt alone the next day. There was no danger but she seemed to like the idea of Gilliam testing out all the things.

Making a ‘follow me’ nod towards the deeper parts of the forest she started moving, Gilliam wondered how something so white and pale as her could hunt at all. Though with that said white cats do well in non-snow areas so perhaps that’s not going to be as bad as it sounds.

Sneaking through the forest it seems that they were highly reliant on Angela’s tracking and perception, Gilliam looked at the areas that she had investigated and... saw nothing of value. He knew that experienced trackers looked at things differently than normal city boys like himself but it was still weird that she could get any value from the patch of dirt they were looking at, he couldn’t even see a footprint. Though it seems that hushed talking was fine when tracking, so she tried to explain what she was seeing and how she analysed this, though she might as well be pointing on a blank piece of paper, he couldn’t see any of the things she was pointing at.

Though, eventually they did end up finding what looked like a weird and surprisingly large pigeon up in a tree.

Angela let out a dissatisfied ‘tch’ sound “And the one time I don’t have any ranged weapons.” This was in a hushed tone seemingly for herself.

Gilliam had not tested his max range on his magic but he knew he could shoot far. Though shooting with telekinesis was not something he was super accurate with and dialling in the force he was even less skilled with. Meaning he would most likely obliterate it rather than having it be edible afterwards.

But what if he just grabbed it directly?

Stretching out a hand he let his magic extend, more and more, until it made contact with the bird! He smiled a bit as he intended to make this instant. Though he had not been hunting or killing in his past life, something like a bird that was killed for food felt oddly fine, hunger and the situation might have added this.

He managed to aim the mana around it’s head and neck but as he closed his hand to make it quick two things happened.

First he felt an odd resistance, like squeezing against an inflated balloon there was this pressure fighting back. This also startled the bird having it wrestle itself out of the remote grasp and fly away.

Gilliam felt defeated, with all that power he apparently had he couldn’t even fight a bird.

Angela looked at him with a mix of surprise and pity.

“I... might have forgotten to mention this since it doesn’t affect me but using magic on living beings. They will often resist. When you throw fire at them there is nothing to resist as there is fire, but when using mind-affecting spells or physically affecting spells like telekinesis everyone can resist. Like if you use it on me I can just power through, at least in the start.”

She smiled a bit in pity but also a bit at herself for forgetting such an important detail, especially before a hunt.

“So... I’m useless, then...” Gilliam added in a defeated tone. He could shoot pebbles at supersonic speed that would destroy most targets (if it hits) but... He couldn’t take out a dumb bird.

“Not useless-” she retorted. “-just untrained. You can try again on something else, use a different spell or find another way to use it?”

She had some good points, when you fail during training then you try and try again until you learn. Alternatively, where one tool might not work, try another one. He had other elements available, he could also use things differently.

Considering the different possibilities, if something was on the ground he could use earth magic to sort of spear it, if it was flying he could use air magic to blow it downwards. Telekinesis was fun so he might have been leaning towards it because it was fun rather than what was the best choice.

Making a dedicated nod he again started following Angela, she would have to do the scouting here as he probably couldn't find anything if it landed on him.

It didn’t take long before Angela froze in place and made a stopping motion with her hand for Gilliam, a ‘wait’ palm motion towards him was plenty for him to stop.

She put a vertical finger to her lips as she motioned for him to get closer. Doing as told he did his best to sneak around the large tree she was hiding behind and, even when pointing at it he needed a few seconds to actually see the rabbit that was eating some leaves.

She followed up with a smile and an ‘after you’ motion, apparently signalling that he could have another go at things. It was slowly getting dark so there might not be more chances than this, Gilliam steeled his mind.

Again he wanted to use telekinesis, but this time he thought about it more. Like the last thought he had after the bird the earth spearing didn’t feel like a bad idea. Though rabbits had a tendency to bounce like the acrobatic gods they were, what other options did he have?

Water? No, the best he could do there was to shower it gently. Air? He could make a decent gust of wind but nothing that would affect something moving on the ground. Fire? ... Absolutely not, that would probably cause a forest fire. Light was positive in question, telekinesis needed training and Darkness needed contact so, Earth actually sounded like the best.

Since rabbits tended to bounce a lot as he considered before, why not just plan for it?

The moving of earth spell wasn’t super amazing, he hadn’t tried to make thin needles coming out of the ground before, he had just moved slabs and made holes. Wait, that was the answer! He didn’t need to gamble something and lose their prey, he could do something he had done before!

He focused the energy before he cast it, before he had cast it with a stream of energy that moved the earth incrementally, that would just have the rabbit dart off. But during his testing he found out that if he let it build up first and suddenly released it, like blowing or collecting the air in your cheeks you could let out a stream of air or have your lips ‘pop’, letting out a pulse. The latter worked better here as he could then move the earth suddenly.

He had no idea how much energy to use, so he decided to use a bit more rather than less, just in case. He built it up and up, like charging a camera flash he let it build up a little bit, but not too much; he knew that he had a massive Boundary which could make more than needed. After a short while he felt the energy should be good, pointing his hands towards the target he waited until he ‘felt’ that he had connected with the correct patch of dirt. Then he let the energy go, the mental image was of a hole in the ground larger than the rabbit and deep enough that it cannot jump out.

Making a downwards push like if he was moving the earth manually like sand it seemed to work! Suddenly the dirt was pushed down underneath the rabbit but it was fast, managing to almost bounce out of the hole before it couldn’t hold onto the steep sides and ended up falling into the hole!

Pumping his fist in the air he strangled a “Yes!”, though letting out a satisfied grunt instead.

Angela smiled at his childish glee as she ran over to the new rabbit-pit, not wasting a moment's time she jumped into it, ending up with the ground reaching her chest, bending down and punching once.

It was silent in the pit before she got back up with a dead rabbit in her hands!

Success!

After making sure it was dead she started dressing it, explaining what she did to Gilliam. Though he was... fine... with it, the first few cuts into the cute creature were uncomfortable to look at. But after a few cuts were done and it looked more like meat than an adorable pet, the uncomfortableness faded.

“When possible you want to bleed the prey as soon as possible, if you’re unlucky with waiting the meat might suffer or even go bad.” She started explaining what she was doing and why.

“If you make a few cuts here and here, then do this-” she made sure to do things right and suddenly, almost like magic of her own, she had a rabbit’s pelt in her hands. “-you can get a nice rabbit pelt. A pelt like this, no holes or cuts, can sell for a decent sum.” she added as she continued butchering.

Now that it just looked like meat there was no problem watching her do this. Taking out the guts and as much of the non-meat as possible she just left that in the forest.

“You mind lending me some water?” she asked as she was now less than clean from her fingers to above her wrist.

Gilliam was more than happy to oblige, creating a steady stream of water akin to a tap back home. She proceeded to wash her hands and knife, as well as the worst of the rabbit's skin before picking everything up and heading back to the camp.

She gave him thanks before she started moving.

Getting back to the camp was not a problem... for her. Gilliam would have used more time on this so he was very happy that she was there. Igniting the campfire was easy, fire magic was a blessing. Although he did use a few tries as he started out with a weak flame, too weak to ignite anything, and worked his way up. He decided to be careful rather than setting them both on fire.

In the end they had a rabbit over the fire, Gilliam felt incredibly happy with this as he waited for it to cook, completely ignoring everything else in place of his satisfied smile.

Angela handled the cooking, though this part he could probably have figured out. Not the same but he had grilled plenty of things in his life so this should be doable. Though when possible it’s often better to leave it to the professionals.

An incredibly satisfying meal later, it had grown dark before he knew it. They must have been somewhat close to the equator or something since this place grew dark almost instantly once it started. Nothing the first spell he learned couldn’t help with; the magical light was practical!

“Wait... won’t we get attacked by bandits?” Gilliam suddenly realised as they were getting ready for bed. He might not consider the realism in place of the media he has consumed. The media angled to create drama for the sake of entertainment, but it was still a scary thought.

Angela chuckled. “This is not a popular road, we’re in farm country. We’re also deep in the forest in a random location. There won’t be any bandits here, that’s something to worry about when we get closer to Che’or. For now the most dangerous thing is that you might get poked by wildlife, but even that is too scary to really do anything.”

She seemed completely unphased as she was getting ready for bed, shoving herself in the sleeping bag lined with fur.

Gilliam did feel a bit better about things, he had camped before so the possible wildlife part he was not scared of. They had a fire and if she was this calm about things there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

He tried putting it away and going to sleep, though even as he tried the less he tried to think about it the more he had weird worst-case scenario thoughts about the what-if’s if she was wrong. Every forest sound made him jump, what if there was something hunting them? He didn’t know the local wildlife and...

Eventually he fell asleep but it took longer than it should have.