I woke up early the next morning, and simply stayed in my bedroll for a minute. I wanted to think over what Bribis had said last night. And he was right. I was so scared that I would change and Danielle would hate me, that I wasn’t growing. I really felt no remorse for killing the nosferatu and their thralls, but they were trying to kill me at the time. But before that, I had killed all the guards in their sleep. For what? Enslaving me? Bullying me while I had that infernal collar on? Did things like that really deserve a blanket death sentence? Then there was the Adventurer’s guild. Again I had gone straight to killing.

Thinking about it, and not letting myself shove it into the dark corners of my mind, I mulled it over. I had screwed up with the guards. I’m sure there were some that didn’t deserve what I did, and Danielle would have my hide for holding everyone responsible for the actions of a few. Sure, I could always try and argue that they had let the bullying happen, but that was a terrible rationalization. The truth was I hadn’t paid any attention to who was causing me grief. I took my anger out on everyone, and I hated myself for it. Hell, I had even escaped the cage without making a sound. I could have enslaved Bartoss and had him name me the new leader, then fired the rest of those guards instead of killing them.

Hindsight really sucks. But I wasn’t about to let the lesson go to waste. Instead, I would make sure that Danielle and Isabelle would be proud of me. Even if this world’s morals suck, I could still hold myself to a higher standard. The Adventurer’s guild incident couldn’t have gone any other way, no matter how I played it in my mind. Once the first person had forced me to kill him, the rest had to be silenced. I hated having to be that dark, but even if I wanted to be a better person, I still wanted to make it home. Letting a group attack me, and probably frame me for the death of their friend wasn’t something I could let happen. Especially considering the climate that town was in. With a fake hero around, I would have been swiftly and silently executed, my body destroyed.

So what do I do going forward? I know I’m going to have to kill again. All I can do is make it as quick as possible, and make sure it is as just as I can. I was overdue in freeing the slaves I had acquired. They had spent the last two days in silence, fleeing from a city under a mysterious new master who hadn’t spoken to them hardly at all. I was going to try and do it without taking that blasted profession, but if I had to do it then I would. Using that title to free slaves had a nice sort of symmetry to it, and it would throw people off my trail. Who would expect the hero of the gods to be a slave master?

Feeling a bit lighter, I stood and stretched. I headed to get some breakfast, surprised to see one of the demons there. “Good morning. I haven’t caught your name yet.” I said, as I picked up a few hot cakes and a couple logs of sausage.

“This one is called D’vorak master.” It answered in a dead tone.

“Please call me Sean, D’vorak.” I said, before taking a bit of the sausage. It was fantastic, the spices exploding on my tongue. “Anyway, I’ll be riding in the cart with the rest of you today, we have a lot to discuss. Could you let the others know? Thanks.” He seemed slightly stunned, so I simply nodded at him and walked away. Simply telling them I was a different sort of master wouldn’t work, I would need to show them. I downed my breakfast, glad that despite what the majority of our first trip entailed, most of the food products in this world were similar to back home.

As I ate, I started thinking of my family again. Maybe Bribis was right, and thinking things through did lighten me enough, but I could picture them much more clearly. AS I sat there chewing the last bite of hot cake, I pulled out that stone he had given me. Idly spinning it around on its leather string, I started making their images. Things flowed much more smoothly this time, and the images didn’t distort. Smiles that could melt the coldest of hearts, and eyes that shone with love. So caught up with the moment, I didn’t notice the subtle glow of the stone as it spun. At least, not until the image shrunk down and flowed into the stone.

“Well how about that.” I heard, turning to see Bribis and his brother sauntering up with their own plates. “Looks like he finally got it figures out. Told ya.”

“Yeah, yeah. But you didn’t fully explain things, look at that dumb look on his face.” Dramitian answered. He walked over next to me and spoke, “Send a bit of mana into the stone, just a trickle mind you. That’ll be enough to pull the image back out.”

I did as he asked, and the two faces popped back up, without any cost of my own. “Bribis, Dramitian.” I said, tear sliding down my cheek. “This is my wife Danielle and my daughter Isabelle. I’m sure they would love to meet you in person.”

“A pair of lovely ladies. Look at the wee smile. She’ll have the boys dancing to her tune in no time.” Bribis said. “She probably already has her daddy wrapped around her finger, no?” He chuckled, slapping my back.

“I’ll admit, she does tend to get what she wants.” I said with a smile. “Luckily for me, she only uses her powers for good. And ice cream.” I belatedly added. That got the gnome brothers chuckling around their breakfast as I put the stone away. “So, which one of you drew the short straw and gets to teach me earth magic?”

“Oh don’t worry about that for a day. We want to give you a day without stress first. Tomorrow Bribis is going to teach you the basics of earth magic. If you haven’t yet, go ahead and unlock the element.” Dramitian said. “I’ll probably teach you a few of the more advanced spells. In a week or so.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be sure to have the element unlocked by the end of the day, thanks.” I said. “Any idea on how long we have until we reach Shineheart?”

“Since we aren’t going to be making many stops for trading, it should be close to a month and a half of travel. Should be plenty of time to boost up your skills.” Dramitian answered.

“Alright. Well, I’m spending part of today freeing the slaves I got, do you guys have any problems with that?” They both flinched at my words.

“I didn’t think you could do that.” Bribis said. “How are you going to do it?”

“Well, I’m going to try it straight out first, but if that doesn’t work I’m going to accept the slave master profession. That should give me the option to free my slaves, according to the person at the Slaver’s guild.” Both gnomes sucked in their breath at the mention of accepting the profession.

“Are you sure about that? You only get a limited number of professions, and people will be able to see the full list.” Bribis cautioned.

“I’m sure.” I said. “Even if the only thing I do with it is free some slaves, that’s worth it. Plus, the people arrayed against us will never suspect a summoned hero to be a slave master.”

“That’s some devious thinking lad, but be wary. If you have that profession, people are going to judge you. Why not hold off on that for now? We can remove the collars, and once we make it out of human lands they will essentially be free.”

I thought about what he said for a second, before answering. “I can hold off on taking the profession, but if we can’t find an answer along the way, I’m going to do it. I couldn’t forgive myself if I had a way to free them and didn’t take it because it would make things awkward for myself.” Bribis smiled at my reply, and Dramitian just nodded. They settled in to finish their breakfasts, and I headed towards the carts. Seeing that I still had some time, I decided to work on unlocking earth.

So. Earth. What does that encompass? Soils, rocks, and gemstones. Such a wide variety, with all sorts of things to choose from. Silicates to form sands on beaches. The rich loams formed from decomposing plant matter in forests. Gray and red clays, some of the most annoying types of soil to shovel. And all the mixtures in between. Rocks. Igneous rocks like pumice, the greasy mechanics best friend. Sedimentary rocks deposited in layers, like shale. Give them a bit of pressure, and a lot of heat and you get metamorphic rocks like slate. Limestone, which could be the necromancer’s best friend. Formed from the remains of sea creatures that have been calcified. Gemstones. The only one I was truly familiar with structure wise was diamond, everyone’s favorite tetrahedral carbon arrangement. Different impurities gave rise to the colors of different gems.

Then there were the crystals. Simple salt. There wasn’t much I remembered from crystal structures, but the face centered cubic was so prominent it just stuck around. Put an atom at the corner of a series of cubes. Each corner it is attached to is the opposite charge. Alternate for as long as you have atoms. But salt wasn’t the only crystal. Quartz, that vibrated so reliably under specific circumstances you could set it to tell time. Amethyst, lapis lazuli, citrine and all the others that people throughout the world’s history thought had special properties. Who knows, maybe they do in this world of magic?

Then there were the major processes. Things like plate tectonics that would set my knowledge apart in this world. Divergent boundaries, subduction zones, and transformation boundaries where the plates meet. Volcanic hot spots. Calderas. The layers of the planet, how a spinning core gives rise to magnetic fields. Would magnetism fall under earth magic here? Or would it be a higher magic that had roots in several places? As I thought through all the processes and knowledge I had on what I considered would fall into the earth domain, I tried to imprint it into the mana sphere that was hovering over my hand. It took a while, but eventually it changed from a light blue hue to a deep brown.

“Most impressive master! To have summoned earth mana so swiftly!” Concentration broken, I flinched and looked up to see most of the slaves staring at me. One of the gnomes had been the one who spoke, and he was already cowering back.

“Relax, I’m not upset.” I said, trying to get him to calm down. Unfortunately, he must have taken that as an order, and an order that he wasn’t complying with, as he would flinch in pain every few seconds. “I rescind whatever order or perceived order is causing you pain for not complying.” I immediately said, getting a sigh of relief from the gnome.

“Thank you master.” He said gratefully.

“Let’s try this so that there are no more accidents.” I said, reaching toward his neck with the key. He froze in terror, until I spoke, “As your master, I free you. Your obligation has been fulfilled.” And unlocked the collar. He didn’t move for a few seconds, so I asked, “Did it work? Can you look at your status sheet and see if slave has been removed from your classes and titles?”

His eyes unfocused for a second, then slumped in defeat. “I’m sorry master, but I am still listed as a slave.”

“It’s not your fault. I was hoping I could do this right away, but it seems we are going to have to wait a while. At least I can remove your collars, so that you perceived orders will not cause you any pain.” I went around to each slave, unlocking and removing the collars. Most wept silently as they rubbed their necks. “And please, call me Sean, not master.”

“Does this mean that you won’t be giving us orders, Sean?” One of the demons said.

“That’s right. It’s a long story, but I couldn’t leave you behind in that city. Bad things were happening.”

“We know.” D’vorak said. “Alas, we didn’t get our messages out in time to warn our brethren.” He hung his head in shame.

“It might not be all bad.” I said. “The fake hero they are using to raise an army still has to move it, and cross the Straight of Demarius. We will be sending messenger birds with every city we pass through, and you can add whatever knowledge you have to those birds.”

He raised his head and stared at me for a second, then shook his head negatively and hung it again. “I don’t know if it will be swiftly enough. The Straights will not be as big of an obstacle as we fear, for the hero has some form of spatial magic. Wait! Did you call him a false hero?” He raised his head to stare at me.

“Yes. We know for a fact that that person isn’t the true hero summoned by Ariana. Hopefully we can get word of that spread before he ruins the Goddess’ reputation too much.” That got the slaves talking amongst themselves, though none wanted to question how I knew the hero was a fake. Probably realized that it was important information that was on a need to know basis. We got underway, and the slaves were much happier. I was happy to just sit back and relax, letting them revel in the bit of freedom that had probably been denied to them for far too long.

With a sigh, I realized that I had nothing to really do today. I couldn’t free the slaves, and I had already unlocked earth. I didn’t really know any of these people, and given how we were introduced I was uncomfortable trying to get to know them. Well, maybe I should unlock as many elements as possible?

“Elendria.” I whispered to get her attention. “I’m going to try and unlock fire and water while we move today. Can you help make sure I don’t accidentally set anything on fire?”

“Of course Sean.” She said with a smile. “Are you working on spells as well? Or just the elements?”

“Elements only. The next set of spells I’m going to try is earth. I suppose after that will be water, as fire is just too dangerous to try without proper protections.”

“You know, all you have to do is ask. I would gladly encase a practice area in ice for you. I guarantee you would have trouble getting your flames to escape.” She said with a chuckle.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said, and I really would. I’m sure even journeyman level flame spells would be nothing for a frost elf to counter, so that might actually be feasible. Of course, I had to unlock fire first, so that’s what I set out to do.

Combustion is such an essential part of life. It warms us, cooks our food, provides light and scared away predators. Like my dad’s story, fire needs three things. Heat, fuel, and air. Let’s start with heat. A lot of people believe that you need some external spark or a flame to light a fire, but that isn’t quite right. There are plenty of compounds that spontaneously ignite if you reach their flash point. One of the famous book references was Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which paper burns. Paper being the fuel. There has to be something to combine with oxygen to burn, or else you have no fire. Oxygen isn’t picky, however. You can get it to form compounds with damn near everything on the periodic table, the exception being the top four noble gasses. That’s a lot of possible fuels. The last is obvious, as combustion is combining things with oxygen. The most common reaction is organic compounds plus oxygen yields carbon dioxide, water, and heat. Yeah, in a perfect world. In reality, you have partial reactions and side products like carbon monoxide. I briefly thought of trying to add in some of the more fun exothermic reactions, but thought better of it. Those tended to be more, explosive, than sustained flame. Going back to my triangle of fire essentials, I pondered how it would be applied to spells as I tried adding those properties to the mana. The mana itself would have to be fuel and heat, but I could probably enhance my spells by adding a bit of air mana inside to supplement the oxygen requirement. Once I had the basics down, I smiled at the orb of reddish orange mana that was gently radiating heat.

The sudden silence unnerved me a bit, and I looked up to see everyone staring at me, though Elendria was smiling. “Fantastic work Sean. Unlocking two elements in a day, and we still have two hours to go before dinner. I don’t mean to pressure you, but I do have a few gold coins riding with some of the guards on your ability to get water as well.”

“Betting on me already?” I asked with a grin.

“Always.” She replied, and I got a bit uncomfortable with the devotion in her eyes. I knew she would always be willing to help me, after her declarations and the fact that we were able to free her. This, was just a bit too much.

“Well, I would hate to let you down. Let’s get this done!” I said, immediately concentrating on my hand again. I did my best to tune everyone out, but it took a bit.

So. Water. Yet another of life’s essentials, and one of the compounds that almost every chemist has a massive amount of information on. Two hydrogens attached to an oxygen atom at an angle of 104 degrees, the shape slightly deformed by the unbonded electron pairs on the oxygen. If you looked at an infrared spectrum, there is a wide peak that is easily identified as the OH stretching band. The highly polar molecule allows it to dissolve a wide variety of compounds. It expands when it freezes, and forms hydrogen bonds to help stabilize dissolved particles. Inorganic chemists can tell the levels of hydration in certain crystals as well as the oxidation state just by the color of crystal formed. Analytical chemists use water all the time. Dilutions to set up calibration curves, titrations of acids and bases.

But it’s utility as a solvent wasn’t all that we knew of this liquid. And I was sure that properties of liquids would be just as important. How liquids take the shape of their container, and settle out based on density. I wasn’t much for fluid dynamics, but I did understand pressures. How you could increase the pressure on the liquid by sending it from a larger pipe to a smaller one. How the liquid near the walls of the pipe moved slower. Any fisherman could tell you how you could trace ripples back to a starting point to determine where something disturbed the surface of the water. Or how the tail of a fish flicking near the surface would churn the water letting you know you had a near miss.

Water also had surface tension, that leads to so many things. Insects that can literally walk on water because they spread their weight out so much. Capillary action, that let’s water move through certain parts of plants. By the time I had gotten through everything I had done or knew of water, my brain was starting to feel a bit fuzzy. I still had the presence of mind to impart what I could to the mana, turning it from a light blue to a deep blue. So deep it reminded me of the ocean. Finished, and thoroughly spent, I smiled and simply relaxed for a few minutes while the cart came to a stop. I had managed the impossible, and finished three elements in one day. I also just wanted to eat a nice dinner and fall asleep. It might have seemed rude, but that’s fine. I just smiled and nodded at most suggestions through dinner, and took off as soon as I could. For the first time in a while, I had a dreamless night.