“What’s wrong master?” Elendria asked one morning. We were about a week out from Three Rivers, I wasn’t quite sure. The days of training had blurred together.

“I’m losing my mind.” I chuckled. “I’ve got everything I need for elementalist, except for one novice tier shadow spell. I just can’t think of anything.”

“GOBLIN RAID, RIGHT SIDE!” A guard’s shout interrupted us, and the convoy slowed to a stop as the defenders jumped to the ground.

“Gareth, Malcom, Tibus, Valien, and Crastus! Guard the left side and watch for a flanking attack!” Bribis called out calmly from on top of his carriage. As he ordered us around, he was enveloped in a red glow. His words carried farther, and his orders seemed clearer and like they were great suggestions.

“Sean, you helping us on defense?”

“Yes sir.” I called back.

“Great. I want you and Carrigan to position yourselves a third of the way from each end of the caravan. When the goblins reach the halfway point, launch an airblade at them, stomach height.” As we went to get into position, he continued with his orders. “Miss Elendria, after they launch their attack, would you set us up with an ice wall using your rampart ability? Waist height should suffice. Archers, prepare to volley. When the airblades strike, I want your volley landing.”

“Alright Sean, we’ll release on my command.” Carrigan called out to me. “Angle it so that it is moving slightly toward the center, we aren’t going to kill many. Our job is to bunch them up.”

“Ready when you are, just give the word.” I called back.

“Right. On three. One. Two. Three!” We launched our spells, and stepped back to let Elendria set up her defensive wall.

“Archers, ready! And, LOOSE!” Bribis called out, and a small volley of arrows gently arched over the empty grassland at the goblins. Two seconds before they were going to hit, skills activated and the arrows split into multiples. Then the airblades struck. The leading edge of the goblins, and some of the secondary line screamed in pain as they tumbled to the ground, tripping up the lines behind them. In the havoc of the tumble, the arrows were deadly.

“Mages, conserve your mana for now. Archers, pick your targets and fire at will. Cease fire when they break and run.” Bribis ordered, and we sat back to watch the archers work. They were relentless. Nobody used skills, they were just that good at range. Arrows flew at nearly one second intervals, moving down the line of archers. The goblins lacked armor, and most lacked shields. Their momentum spent, their numbers whittling down, and almost zero chance of reaching even a hastily entrenched enemy broke them. Of the nearly fifty that had charged out of the tall grasses, fifteen were hobbling away. None were unscathed.

“Excellent work everyone! Elendria, go ahead and let your rampart go. Carrigan and Sean, if you would guard the contingent as they retrieve arrows and proof of extermination from the vermin, we will be on our way shortly.”

We took off at a jog, six guards accompanying us. “What’s the proof of extermination?” I asked Carrigan.

“Vermin monster species like goblins always have a small standing bounty. You have to have two ears for proof, but that’ll get you five copper per pair.” I nodded at his explanation, and let the guards do their grisly work. They were methodical, cutting ears and arrowheads out as swiftly as possible. Most of the goblin gear was trash, and was simply left in the field with the bodies. In less than five minutes we were heading back to the caravan and back on our way.

“Shouldn’t we have, I don’t know. Buried the bodies?” I asked Carrigan.

“Nah. Goblins are monsters, though some of the more intelligent as they do have a form of language. Some predators will enjoy a free meal, and there isn’t nearly enough dead there to worry about them rising again as undead.” He said. I still felt a little bad about it, until he explained a bit more. “Stop. They aren’t like us. Had they emerged victorious, the women would have been kept for breeding and the rest of us would be destined for a stewpot. They don’t deserve a proper burial.”

“Come here master, you need a massage.” Elendria said as soon as I returned to the wagon. Shrugging my shoulders, I sat down in her lap and leaned back. She was right, and I wasn’t about to argue. Instead of starting with my shoulders, she started at my temples and gently traced around my eyes and forehead. It was blissful.

“Now, while I do this, explain what novice spells you have.” She gently ordered.

“Sure. Darkburst. Blinds people using darkvision. Dark missile. Simple magic missile imbued with dark mana. Imbue element, dark. Pretty self explanatory. And Overlook. Makes uncommon items seem common, and common items seem worthless.”

“I see. A fair mix, which is good. Offense and debilitate your enemies, as well as a single utility spell. And you’ve been having issues with another one?”

“Yeah. I’ve got all the other tiers already maxed out, but they won’t give me the bonuses until I complete the novice tier.”

“Of course not.” She chuckled. “Now, you’re probably thinking of some great and terrible spells to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, am I right?”

“Partially. Probably. Yeah.” I eventually agreed, and she started massaging again once I finally admitted what she already knew.

“That’s a fine way to go about things, but those spells will never fall into the novice category. You need to think simple. Why not simply summon a shadow where there shouldn’t be one?”

“Hmm? Well, yeah. I could do that, but what good would it do?” I asked.

“Misdirection.” Gareth spoke up from the other side of the wagon. “Say you’re hunting a thief, but there are six extra shadows coming from behind corners. Or you see a dark shape move out of the corner of your vision, and immediately turn to see what it was. Put them on yourself to break up your outline. There’s a million different ways they could be useful.”

“Master?” Elendria asked after a while.

“Thank you, both of you. I was overthinking it. That’s a brilliant idea, and a brilliant adaptation of a spell Gareth.” The rest of the afternoon I spent working on a Create shadow spell. They started out amorphous, but gradually got better. At level 3 of 5, I could copy the outline of most objects. I was having trouble bridging the gap until I saw the change as the day wore on. I needed to adjust my shadows based on light sources. When I started making them different shades of grey when there were multiple light sources, and lengthening or shortening them based on light angle, I managed to get that final jump up to level 5.

“Congrats on your success.” Gareth chuckled when I let out an enthusiastic whoop of joy. “We’ll have two reasons to celebrate tonight I guess. After any successful defense, Bribis pulls a little something out of storage for a celebration. Especially when we do it with no casualties.”

“It’ll be a welcome change from those rations we had to go back to.” I said, smiling. Tonight was going to be a good night. While I thought about that, I went over some of the notifications I finally received. I changed my secondary class to elementalist, as any experience earned by the class for novel use of magic would also be applied to any of its new subclasses. I was torn over the best part of my new status though. My mana had surged to 1,260 while my three new subclasses no longer counted towards unfinished classes. Then again, did I really have to pick one?

Completed title

Bonus

Novice Shadowmancer

+1 int, +50 mana

Apprentice Shadowmancer

+2 wis, +100 mana

Journeyman Shadowmancer

+2 int, +1 wis, +2.6 mana recovery

Novice Elementalist

+1 int, +50 mana

Apprentice Elementalist

+2 wis, +100 mana

Journeyman Elementalist

+2 int, +1 wis, +2.6 mana recovery

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 32

Titles:

Escaped Slave

Chosen of Ariana (hidden)

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Attributes:

STR – 6

AGI – 5

DEX – 7

INT – 27 (+15)

WIS – 28 (+15)

CON – 8

END – 10

Health: 90/90

Mana: 1,260/1,260

Health regen: 0.057/min

Mana regen: 20.47/min

Class: celestial sorcerer (1,350/10,000)

Available classes: slave, aeromancer (200), photomancer (200), shadowmancer (0)

Secondary class: Elementalist (175/1,000)

Unfinished classes: 3/10

Profession: none

Available professions: none

Secondary profession: none

Level: 17/25

Exp to next level: 86%

Dinner that night was worth all the weeks of rations. Bribis had apparently had several choice loin cuts from a pig like creature that he pulled out, along with a few rashers of bacon. The loin was coated in seasonings, and then wrapped in the bacon and cooked. A few grilled vegetables went perfectly with it. It was spooky how quiet the camp was, as everyone concentrated on savoring the exquisite taste of the meat after so many bland meals. Half an hour after everyone had finished, Bribis stood up on a log and called for everyone’s attention.

“Today, we celebrate a victory. Yes, it was just a goblin raid, but that doesn’t matter. We emerged victorious, and more importantly without injury. This calls for a celebration. So without further ado, I have these two barrels of ale for our enjoyment.” He hopped down, revealing the two barrels already tapped and ready to fill cups. The entire camp lit up in cheers, and the celebration got going.

Several cups later and people were dancing and singing around the fire, simply having a great time. Bribis and Carrigan had decided to pace themselves, and were simply sitting on one of the carts and enjoying the show. I noticed several of the guards also remained fairly sober, but that let me cut loose a little more than anticipated.

As the night wore on, and inhibitions were lowered, several members started singing raunchier songs. I had managed to survive and deflect several attempts to get me to sing a song from home, though around my sixth beer I gave in. Seeing as drinking songs were the song of choice, I started out with The Drinking Bone, followed shortly by Rounds with Jose Cuervo. Though nobody knew what tequila was, everyone started laughing and joined in when the song lost count and started counting again.

As the night blurred on, my ego got the best of me. While singing what I thought was an all-star performance of The Drunken Scotsman, I used my mana hologram to act out the entirety of the song. The daring of the girls, and the Scotsman’s reaction had everyone roaring, and that’s all I recalled of what was a much needed night of cutting loose.

Well a Scotsman clad in kilt, left a bar one evenin’ fair.

And one could tell by how he walked, that he’d drunk more than his share.

He fumbled ‘round until he could no longer keep his feet,

Then he stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the stree.

Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh! Ring di diddly I oh,

He stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street.

About that time two young and lovely girls just happened by.

And one says to the other with a twinkle in her eye,

“See yon sleeping Scotsman, so strong and handsome built!

I wonder if it’s true what they don’t wear beneath the kilt?”

Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh! Ring di diddly I oh!

I wonder if it’s true what they don’t wear beneath the kilt?

They crept up on that sleeping Scotsman, quiet as could be.

Lifted up his kilt, about an inch so they could see.

And there behold, for them to view, beneath his Scottish skirt

Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth!

Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh! Ring di diddly I oh!

Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth!

They marveled for a moment, then one said we must be gone.

Let’s leave a present for our friend, before we move along.

As a gift they left a blue silk ribbon, tied into a bow

Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show.

Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh! Ring di diddly I oh!

Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show.

Now the Scotsman woke to nature’s call, and stumbled toward the trees.

Behind a bush, he lifts his kilt and gawks at what he sees.

And in a startle voice he says to what’s before his eyes,

O lad I don’t know where you been, but I see you won first prize!

Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh! Ring di diddly I oh!

O lad I don’t know where you been, but I see you won first prize!