[Faron Wavecleaver]

Faron gave his force sword a few extra practice swings, getting his blood pumping while they waited for Professor Toomes to return from his monster-finding hunt. They had approached closer to the trees, peering into them in the hopes they could find out sooner.

At first, Faron didn’t think much of the curse wizard. He seemed reasonably confident when teaching, but had a tendency to get distracted by tangents, scrambling to get back to the lesson in time for everything to get covered.

Then he showed up to the Adventuring club, supposedly as an elite-ranked adventurer. Faron was skeptical at first, but Sir Thorne acknowledged his skills, so Faron followed suit.

Peter’s stupid idea to extract Professor Toome’s epithet from the man by fighting him rather than something more reasonable, like asking around at the adventurer guild, did manage to prove to them just how large the gulf between students and an elite-ranked adventurer was. He played with them, not even casting spells as he broke whatever formation they devised, dodged, deflected, even caught the projectiles they used, and counterattacked with fist and whatever training weapons he stole whenever they tried closing into melee.

He eventually explained, after their fourth attempt, that experienced curse wizards can cast a blessing on themselves and make it inactive without removing it entirely, a method of magically augmenting soldiers used by Crusand’s Hex Warriors. Master wizards created the blessings, while the warriors knew just enough to generate mana and guide it into their blessings. There were apparently many ‘shortcuts’, as he called them, to gain magical power beyond studying, and most of the good ones end up being used in one army or another.

This made sense. Anima may rely on a mixture of mage knights, formations of cooperatively casting mages, and heavily enchanted ships for their military, but most countries didn’t have quite as much magic to work with, and a lot more manpower. It’s fortunate that Anima’s terrain, being an island, made invasion via overwhelming numbers more or less impossible.

Now, should he shape a force sword, or a spear? Force swords were superlative cutting implements, and would be good against many of the monsters Professor Toomes informed them of. Force spears, on the other hand, were excellent herding tools, the mana’s nature making it shove more than pierce. Well, sometimes it blows a giant hole into whatever you stab instead, but that’s usually a preferable outcome. According to Sir Thorne, the only real choice when it came to choice of weapon in shaping magic was thrust, smash, and cut. There was some nuance, but for the most part all thrusting weapons worked the same within the same mana type, whether it’s a spear, arrow, or dagger. So Faron listened and trained himself in the standard Anima military examples: The short spear, the mace, and the longsword. His mother tried to convince him to learn the harpoon, the war club, and the cutlass instead, but he wouldn’t disrespect Sir Thorne by using different weapons than he did, elven culture be damned.

He’ll wait until the monster shows up. If it was a large beast, the spear would be better. If it was a swarm of Swoopers or some fast beast, the sword would be superior. He wasn’t quite used to the explosive power of the force club, and if he tried it would likely detonate at the wrong time. It would be better against smaller or more lithe targets if he could, though.

Peter’s voice cut through his musings. “We’ve got this. We’re strong, and Teach said we were ready.” He stretched vigorously. His next words had even more bravado. “Just make sure you get some monster before I defeat it all first!” Ah. he was trying to encourage them. It was unnecessary, but the girls shifted their weight too, gripping their weapons and preparing their spells.

The boy of no notable bloodline may be deluding himself into thinking that he was their leader, but it was times like this where he proved that he took that duty seriously. It was why Faron indulged him in that belief. He focused further on sensing the approach. His vigilance was rewarded, as the sounds of cracking branches and the pounding of feet reached his ears. Whatever Professor Toomes was looking for, he found it.

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[Illivere Oathsworn]

Mr. Toomes has been gone for seven minutes thirty-two seconds. At his demonstrated speed, accounting for forest density, he should have been able to search 35-40% of the forest’s area, depending on the search pattern.

The Verdigis Forest was a well-maintained monster hunting location, with quests every ten to twelve days to cleanse the area of monsters so alchemists can harvest the magical ingredients within. Ms. Riversong mentioned that she doesn’t take office hours on those days, so the last one was yesterday. Therefore, the monster population would be minimal.

Nevertheless, the odds of him not having found a monster by now is low. Illivere readied her bow, ready to focus her mana on enhancing her aim and reflexes at a moment’s notice. Possibilities include Titan’s Deer, Serpent Vine, maybe a Screamer? Barbed Bear would be improbable, but possible. Illivere hoped he didn’t draw in a swarm of Swoopers.

Peter fidgeted, as he was prone to do when waiting. Illivere tried to tune him out. But it was so difficult to focus, with Hanna’s invigoration curse bolstering their endurance. Normally, focus was something Illivere had in plentiful quantities, but her muscles didn’t normally twitch like this!

Mr. Toomes has a documented habit of letting his students run into non-dangerous problems themselves rather than warning them, was this a test? Did he add extra time to his search because he assumed they’d use augmenting curses the moment he left?

…It was a logical decision, if it was. Mr. Toomes was unusually rational, Illivere noticed. One of the manifold benefits of being born from a memory spirit was a sense of when mind-aspected mana was doing things in the area, and Mr. Toomes… stank of it? It was something Illivere had never sensed before. While he did occasionally have some minute mind magic going on as he entered class, probably referencing some lesson plan from a memory spell, even when he didn’t, there were… echoes of it. That wasn’t normal, in Illivere’s experience. It was too faint to be an affinity like her own, but she had no frame of reference on what it could mean.

Mr. Toomes almost certainly knows what the residue is. The ease he shows in speaking about the soul in academic terms during tangents shows more about his grounding in the subject than the basic lessons he’s teaching.

Peter started on some pointless words, distracting the group for irrelevant reasons. Illivere was about to ask him for silence, but then Faron noticed something, his long ears twitching as he tensed. Illivere drew three arrows in preparation, nocking one and idly testing her bow’s drawstring. The Strengthen curse that Peter passed around was still there, making the draw seem ten pounds lighter. Rapid firing should be easy, with that advantage. She had discarded the staff she had brought from home during these exercises, instead enchanting a copy once she learned the necessary skills. It wasn’t as good, but she couldn’t manage to tag Mr. Toomes with it anyway, so the inferior enchantments were irrelevant to the purposes that she put them to. Her archery skills were superior, anyway.

Mr. Toomes leapt from a branch onto the field, all smiles. Illivere wasn’t fooled for a moment. He had something planned. She would be ready.

-----------------

[Hanna ????]

Hanna couldn’t believe it. Were they ready for a monster? She didn’t think so. The Professor was nice, when he was teaching curses, but when he was training them to be adventurers? He became so mean… insisting on adding an extra lap every time they took laps, criticizing every little thing about the magic exercises, and when their bodies were exhausted? He just zapped everyone with life magic and told them to start all over again. At random times, he tossed a big dart that he mocked up into a Swooper at one of them, as ‘awareness and reflexes training’! Who does that? What’s worse, every time he did it in sight of Professor Thorne, the old guy just nodded approvingly, and now he’s started doing it too!

Peter had kept bothering the Professor about fighting a monster over the last week. Was this The Professor’s revenge? Where he pits them against a monster that was way too strong, then rescues them at the last minute? He wouldn’t even need to worry about injuries, he could heal them personally! Hanna’s mind filled with the possible messy deaths they could get from the various species of monster the Professor had taught them about.

It’s all for The Forest Father, Hanna. Professor Giltblade is going to a lot of trouble to make sure you can get strong here. Monsters that you’d find here in Anima are weaklings in comparison to what needs to be faced, so ready up!

She touched up the Invigorations she had on the team. Hanna checked the newly sharpened throwing knives, enchanted by Illivere for extra acceleration. She checked the vials of life mana, the nightroot infusion practically glowing to her senses. Converting alchemically provided mana was supposedly difficult, but Hanna didn’t find it any harder than converting her natural mana so she could store it in her mana heart. Illivere could do it too with the mind mana infusions, so it was probably just another “bloodline” thing.

The group was oppressively silent as they waited for the Professor. Even Peter remained quiet, his normally exuberant energy snuffed by the dread of facing a real monster. After the moment stretched on, he started giving everyone a pep talk. It was nice of him to do that, but monsters were… monsters. They weren’t ready…

Faron tensed up, and Illivere did the same right after. What did they… Oh! The Professor was back! And he’s alone, without any monsters. What a relief. He must have not found any, which didn’t make much sense but Hanna was too busy being happy to question it. He started talking, but Hanna didn’t pay attention, taking deep breaths of relief.

Suddenly, a monstrous bear shot out, it’s body covered in thorny vines that whipped to and fro as the monster moved, jumping onto the Professor’s body and crushing him into the dirt. The monster roared in triumph as the only thing between it and the very tasty students was dealt with.

Oh no…

-----------------

[Peter Wood]

Peter swallowed thickly as Teach leapt into the woods, easily mistaken for flight, but they knew better now. They were totally ready. The Teach said so.

It’s not like he’s lied to them before. Like saying he’ll leave them be while instead going to get a pile of Swooper dolls to toss at them. Were they really that dangerous? Teach explained that the Swoopers that attacked weren’t real in the same way most monsters were, but instead echoes of the Swooper Flightmaster, who had the actual magical core that all monsters had and created more copies whenever it had enough mana to. Diving at people beak first at suicidal speeds was just how that monster killed people.

“Monsters don’t have an innate way to coordinate, as they don’t speak or use mind magic to communicate.” was one of Teach’s lessons on the subject. “Some do, and even more have distributed consciousnesses like Swoopers do. If you ever saw multiple Swooper Flightmasters in a single battle, you’ll be able to see the difference.” Peter thought it was kind of cool, having one mind in multiple bodies. “But most of them will attack anything another monster is attacking in a fit of opportunism, only fighting each other after all other non-monsters have died. Swoopers in particular are both local to this forest and are some of the most opportunistic bastards you can find.” Forcing everyone to run ten laps every time someone fails to deflect or block the Swooper dolls was still unfair. He throws more during the laps!

Wait, is he going to throw dolls when everyone is fighting the monster? He wouldn’t… would he? He’s the one who said monsters are dangerous, distracting them on their first one would be cruel!

Peter looked at his teammates. Illivere was beautiful as always, cool and collected, but Hanna seemed pretty scared… It was time for some leadership! “We’ve got this. We’re strong, and Teach said we were ready.” There.

Peter bled off some energy by stretching out. He had already limbered up earlier, but all this standing around… Hanna doesn’t look inspired enough, so… “Just make sure you get some monster before I defeat it all first!” Yes, confidence is how you lead. Good job, Peter.

After another agonizing moment of waiting, Teach leapt out of the forest, alone. Peter relaxed, chuckling as he realized there wasn’t going to be any monster fight. “Hey!” Teach shouted. “I knew they were wiped out yesterday, but I swore I could have found something. Ah well, I guess y’all get off easy, today.”

Wait, that was it? What happened to the hell teacher? Peter lifted his weapon, ready to tell him off for scaring the crap out of them wasting all of their time. Before he could start speaking, a giant bear covered in vines leapt out from the forest, leaping further than bears should be able to and driving Teach into the ground so hard the dirt gave way, leaving a mound of dirt.

“Charge!” Peter shouted, crossing the field with steps that were boosted by Strengthen. One of the stupider things Teach went over early in the club’s exercises was teaching them a particular way of running, but when he got Strengthen working… it made sense. With the odd stride, it was a simple matter to adjust to the greater power exerted by the curse-augmented steps. Faron charged ahead, even faster as he shaped a force spear and prepared to attack.

After the disastrous first fight against Teach, Peter had learned better methods of attacking than just magically affixing knives to his fists. Specifically, he learned how to use a pair of axes to attack things that flinging knives at with Move Object won’t work on. With the sharpening Teach gave them and the extra strength his magic was providing, Peter started by chopping at the vines the bear had surrounding it.

Meanwhile, Faron stabbed the arm that was reared back to attack, unbalancing the bear and sending it crashing onto its back.

Illivere and Hanna both filled the bear’s torso with projectiles, the arrows penetrating deeply while the knives cut open large gashes.

Peter attacked the bear’s legs, going for the joints like Teach said to when fighting monsters. After a few seconds of that, the vines of the bear animated suddenly, swinging out and forcing Peter to raise a barrier and back off, dropping his axes in the process. Even Faron backed off as the bear continued to flail with the thorny vines, taking deep, ragged breaths.

After it calmed down, Faron charged once more, deflecting the whip-like crack of a vine with his shield and striking the sluggish bear with his spear, knocking it down again. Three more arrows and another knife from the girls put even more wounds into the bear’s body.

The bear choked on something, spat out a wad of blood, and went still. Peter focused on the mana, and saw the remnants of the bear’s soul dissipate as it died.

The group was silent as they processed what just happened. The monster was dealt with… but at what cost?

The silence was broken by the sound of clapping from behind them, which caused the girls to bolt forward as Faron turned to charge the new opponent. Peter Moved his axes back to his hands, a trick he was quite proud of, while berating himself for not doing it sooner.

Right there, a little dirty but unharmed, was the lying bastard that sent that crazy monster. Peter roared in aggravation as he charged the teacher, who plucked the axes from his hands like flowers, and before Peter even knew what was happening he was on his back, Teach’s foot holding him down.

“So, y’all did pretty good.” The bastard said. “You panicked, of course, but you managed to firm up and engage in combat despite that. Now, any questions?”

Peter has one: What the hell was that? Faron spoke up first, though. “How did you survive the bear falling on you?”

The teacher scoffed. “Please. That thing was tiny as bear monsters go, standard-grade at most. It’ll take more than six hundred pounds of fur to have a chance.” He stomped on the ground, making the ground ripple like water. “Swimming in dirt’s a pretty standard stone magic exercise, I hesitate to even call it a spell. Incidentally, quick tip: for an adventuring wizard, always seek any opportunity to learn new things from your allies, temporary or permanent.” He did that on purpose! That asshole!

Illivere hummed in thought. “I see. One of the Adventurer’s virtues is taking decisive action when things go wrong. This was a test to see if we would rescue you or run away.” Illivere was so smart…

The teacher grinned at Illivere’s intelligence. “You got it. Now that I know y’all won’t crumble the first time things go wrong, I think we can go straight to getting you guys some real quests.” Of course they were ready for that. Time for a payday!

After a pause, Teach waved his hand vaguely. “Well, next week we’ll do that. I still need to teach y’all some stuff before you embarrass me at the guild. Also, the day before, we’ll do another battle, y’all against me. If I don’t see some improvement from today on your skills, we’re not going.” What? That’s bullshit!

“Reasonable.” Ilivere responded. Of course it was, they barely dealt with one monster, a quest could involve multiple. Being stronger was the bare minimum.

He can’t wait!