The next test was only a few days away. Yesterday Alan had finally managed to combine all three types of mana. It had taken many mentally and physically taxing hours just to reach the point where he could handle three mana pools at once. Trying to get all three to then work together as he wove three diagrams at once was another challenge. It was what he imagined wrestling three anacondas that hated each other and wanted to eat you felt like. It had blown up in his face, literally, on numerous occasions. Much of the furniture in the room had been reduced to kindling from his efforts.

  The breakthrough moment came when he realized that he could change his perspective on the diagrams. When he looked at them it was like being a third party hovering nearby like an invasive drone. He found he was able to change his perspective, similar to flying the drone closer or around it. This allowed him a much greater degree of control.

  This morning he was getting ready to test out the new spell as he sparred with Simon. They had already been at it for a few moments and sweat was pouring down Alan’s face. While Simon was not as fast as Alan, he made up for it with superior strength and a lot of kinetic energy. He hit with the force of a bull elephant.

  Trying to block his massive club was a dodgy proposition at best. Not only was there a chance of breaking the much smaller blades but the force generated by the weight of the club would drive his daggers back at himself. Instead Alan was trying to deflect and dodge the blows. Channeling the momentum away from himself was much easier than trying to stop it. If he could avoid the attacks, using two weapons was a slight advantage against the large two handed weapon since it meant he could easily threaten Simon after the attack passed.

  Throughout their many sessions the big Russian had learned to control his attacks more. In the beginning he would use wild swings that were easy to deflect toward the ground or duck under and would then leave him out of position. Now he had found a rhythm and motion to his swings that kept the momentum in front of him, and didn’t over commit and allow Alan to get inside his guard.

  Their most recent sessions often ended in a draw with both combatants managing only a few hits. Partly that was because they were leery of going all out and causing a serious injury or death. Simon now knew that Alan could heal minor injuries, but a shattered spine or severed limb was more than they wanted to test.

  In the last week they had sparred almost every day and had begun to incorporate magic into their duels. Stone spear and fire bolt were off limits, they were again worried about serious injuries, but after Alan had shown Simon how light bolts could be used to distract opponents he had wanted to incorporate it into his own style.

  Currently Simon and Alan were facing each other in a clearing that was about ten meters across. The trees around them were some type of pine tree, Alan’s identify and herbology could probably tell him more, but he wasn’t focused on them at the moment. Instead he was splitting his attention between Simon’s club and the larger man’s eyes.

  This round began when Simon shot off a series of light bolts toward his chest. Alan ducked to the side, but had already noticed Simon sprinting behind his distraction. The huge club came whistling toward his head and he spun with it, narrowly avoiding getting brained. The club head performed a spin and started to come back around before Alan could bring his daggers in to score a strike.

  Luckily he wasn’t planning on doing that anyway. Instead he aimed his fist toward the larger warrior and cast his new spell. He hadn’t been sure what he was going to get when he combined the cone of steam and his light bolt, but he had been pleased with the outcome. He didn’t think Simon would be so thrilled.

  A ball of water shining through with sparkles shot toward Simon. It burst mere centimeters from his face in a dazzling display of light and colors. His whole body jerked and he retreated a few steps as he shook his head side to side. The intense burst of rainbows had temporarily blinded him.

  Alan used those seconds to hook his leg around the back of Simon’s and push him hard. The already disoriented giant fell over with a crash and his club rolled away from him.

  “That’s one for me I think,” Alan said after Simon’s eyesight recovered.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Spell: Prismatic Orb (Epic). Create a watery ball of lights that explodes in front of the target creating a burst of rainbows up to thirty meters away. Temporarily dazzles or blinds the target, effectiveness scales with intelligence. Mana cost: 20

  Alan reached down and helped pull Simon to his feet. “It’s a new spell I created. It costs the same as a light bolt but is much more effective as a distraction, don’t you think?”

  “Bozhe moi, that thing was intense. I still feel like my eyes are getting cooked,” Simon responded as he picked up his club. “Wait, did you say you created it?”

  Laughing, Alan told him about his accomplishments. His friend was shocked to discover how Alan had been able to incorporate multiple types of mana. As they made their way back to the bathtubs he expressed his dismay. “I knew you were hard at work on something, but this is incredible. At this point there is no way I will win this apprenticeship. I already had few hopes with how well you are able to manipulate mana, but this is a whole new level.”

  “I don’t know why I got so lucky with my skills, but it does seem to be an unfair advantage.”

  Simon placed a hand on his shoulder. “This new world we live in will not be fair. But we humans must look out for each other. Do not feel bad about any advantages you get, use it to lift us all. Now, let me run into my room quickly, I left my towel hanging to dry.”

  Alan watched him walk to his room but suddenly called out. “Wait! Don’t move.”

  Simon froze and looked around to try and spot what was wrong. He could tell from Alan’s tone that this was not a joke. Alan cautiously approached him while scanning with his aura senses. There in front of Simon’s door was an accumulation of mana. From the stairwell he had been unable to notice anything other than a bundle of energy that didn’t belong.

  Now that he was closer he could see that it was a spell diagram. It was made from dark mana and had no resemblance to the only dark spell he knew, shadow bolt. It was also much more complex than that spell, the many twists and turns were almost too complicated for him to even pick out.

  “If I had to guess, this is the same thing that got me when I left my workspace weeks ago. It is a dark spell of some kind and if you step on it, that could be the end of you.”

  “Do you think Ezra is trying to eliminate the competition?” Simon asked.

  “It could be, maybe he gave up on me after I survived his first attempt. Let me try something.”

  Alan slowly reached out his hand toward the mana infused stone. As it got closer he could almost feel the mana begin to flow faster through the diagram, there was an eagerness to it like it wanted to be released. As he moved his hand back away from the trap the energy slowed down again. Next he took his beating stick out and extended the tip toward the stone. He sensed no change in the mana even when he touched it to the stone.

  “It somehow can tell when a living thing touches it versus an item,” he told Simon.

  “Should we tell the Master?”

  “Maybe, but let me try to diffuse it first. We won’t always have a Master there to help us. This is a good learning opportunity. See if you can watch what I do.”

  This might be a foolish risk, he had almost died last time, but this new life would be full of dangers and he needed to take every opportunity to grow stronger. He also felt that he would be better able to deal with it after his many advances and knowing what was coming ahead of time. He bent down and again pushed his hand closer to the trapped stone. He could see the mana spinning faster and faster. Just as he reached the point where it seemed like the diagram would activate he paused. This next part would be tricky.

  He would need to form some kind of connection with the trap. He had learned the danger of mixing mana so he would have to match the energy. Sending out his own tiny tendril of dark mana he noticed no reaction from the spell. He pushed it forward until it was almost touching the thick vein that made up the diagram. Getting ready to start casting his healing spells in case this all went wrong, he pushed it that little bit further and it suddenly fused with the larger strand. Still there was no reaction from the trap.

  “I think I can see something,” Simon whispered.

  Alan didn’t even bother to respond, he was too focused on what he was doing. Now that he had a connection to the diagram he started pulling energy from the spell through his tiny strand, and then into himself. At first he was worried the foreign mana would have some effect on him, but it quickly diffused into his mana pool without any kind of reaction. The spell form, however, was noticeably thinner than before.

  He kept draining until suddenly the spell must have passed below some threshold and was no longer able to hold itself together. With a flash of energy the entire diagram collapsed and the mana dissipated. Luckily the sudden end of the spell didn’t seem to have any effect on Alan.

  Simon whistled, “would you look at that.”

  There was a black splotch on the dark stone. Tapping it with his small club he didn’t notice a difference so he ran his hand over it as well. Even to his aura senses there was nothing different about the stone.

  “I think it’s ok, it seems to be cosmetic. You said you could see something while I was working, what was it?”

  “There was some kind of glowing construct. I only noticed it because I sensed a string of energy from you connecting with it. It looked a little like the spell forms we have been working with.”

  “That’s incredible Simon. It sounds like you are learning to see the mana outside of yourself.”

  “You think?” He stared off at nothing for a moment, a sure sign he was checking a Network screen. But then the Russian shook his head. “No new skill yet.”

  “It’s still a start. Maybe soon you will be able to sense those auras. I have heard that it is very rare to achieve that this early.”

  “Who did you hear this from?”

  Alan tried to explain Tamee, but once again the Master’s decree against talking about their tutorial experiences kicked in. After a few seconds with his mouth open he closed it and shook his head.

  “Sorry, can’t talk about it. But now that it’s safe, you can go get your towel.”

  Both Simon and Alan were very quiet during breakfast. They had agreed not to tell Master Mazus about it since they still didn’t know who was doing it. Alan offered to help Simon again, but the big man passed since he was excited to practice more to see if he could develop an aura reading skill.

  That suited Alan just fine since he had one more goal before the test. The long casting time of his new light bolt spell was still bothering him. He probably wouldn’t use it during melee fights anymore as his new prismatic orb spell would be much more effective, but he couldn’t leave a job half finished.

  The solution he came up with was that he needed to have light mana already created and ready to use for the spell. It was the process of breaking off the light mana one strand at a time that was the problem. With his increased mana control he was actually able to work on several strands at a time now, but it still seemed inefficient.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The problem was that if he just released the light mana back into his mana pool it would swirl around in place for a short time, but eventually it would get lost among the larger strands of pure mana. He needed a separate place to store the light mana.

  By now he had spent entire days working with his mana pool, exploring its connections to both his soul and his body. What was needed was a small patch that would hold only the light mana. It would occur not between his pool and his body, but more to the side, like a separate pipe that could supply the appropriate mana.

  His first real success came the day before the next test. At first he only managed to segregate a miniscule number of strands of light mana, but they were definitely separated and were prevented from returning back into the larger pool. As the hours wore on he managed to increase the pool until it held enough to count as twenty light mana. This was more than ten percent of his total mana pool.

  The rest of the afternoon was spent testing. He tried casting with the new pool and seeing how his system handled it. The casting was simple, whenever he drew light mana he simply took it directly from the pool. The replacement mana was then created automatically as individual strands were pulled from his mana pool and drawn into the separate area. This renewal process was not fast and the special light mana seemed to refill at approximately half of the rate that the rest of his mana did. He could, however, improve this almost up to normal by focusing his mental energy on separating the mana himself, rather than letting his body's natural processes take care of it.

  He was pleased to find that the casting time for his light bolt spell had decreased to where it took only a fraction of a second again. Because of the size of his pool he could only cast two small light bolts before he would have to wait for it to fill again, but he could get both of those off in under a second total. The results left him feeling like the cat that got the cream as he sat during what would be their last dinner before someone else went home.

  “Tomorrow you will be tested with how well you have improved your spells. You will each cast any spell you have improved in front of us all. Whoever I feel has made the least progress will be sent home, but know that making it this far is an incredible accomplishment given your backgrounds. If you do go home tomorrow, know that you are still worthy, just not enough to be my apprentice” That last the Master said with a smile. They all chuckled.

  “Is there a reward for the person who made the most improvement?” Valori asked.

  “The power your spells have gained is reward itself. Also, the ability to improve your spells as you grow is a must for anyone following the path of the mage,” Master Mazus responded.

  This could give Alan an opportunity to see who had left the traps for Simon and himself. The spell outside of Simon’s room had felt more powerful than the one he had had to suffer through weeks ago. It was not one of the six spells they had access to through the Master’s books, so whoever cast it to demonstrate their growth tomorrow would give themselves away.

  The next morning Simon and Alan were greeted downstairs by Master Mazus before they had a chance to go exercise.

  “Today I would like you to return to your rooms until it is time for breakfast. The trial will start immediately after and I have some things to set up in the field before then.”

  Shrugging they both returned to their rooms. Simon lifted weights while Alan did Tai Chi. It was cramped, but he did what moves he could. With his much improved aura reading he was able to see how the energy moving through his pathways pulsed and swirled as he completed the different moves. The entire process felt like additional cultivation, helping to grow the capacity of his mana pathways but also allowing him to become more intimately familiar with them as well.

  After breakfast the group made their way downstairs. The others seemed a little nervous, but honestly Alan couldn’t imagine being sent home at this point. He felt that his accomplishments had to be greater than at least one of the others. Simon, on the other hand, looked resigned to his fate. Walking through the door it took their eyes a moment to adjust to the outside brightness compared to the much dimmer tower.

  The first thing Alan noticed were the cages. Each cage was in the shape of a cube and was less than two meters on a side. They were made of some kind of bamboo and rope lashing the pieces together. There were at least fifteen cages set up with what looked like goblins in them. The creatures were no more than a hundred and twenty centimeters tall and had a greenish hue to their pebbly skin. Each also had a pair of long pointy ears stuffed full of hair and their mouths were filled with sharp pointed teeth. A simple loincloth covering their unmentionables was the only clothing they wore. Taking a second look, their clothes looked better than his did when he first came to the tower.

  Looking around more he noticed an empty pool that was at least ten meters long and six meters wide. There were a few targets set up at a variety of ranges and some other contraptions to test things Alan couldn’t even imagine. He was a little wary of the goblins, were they going to be using live targets?

  “Welcome everyone. Now that you have learned enough to start upgrading your spells they can begin to change in many ways. I have tried to accommodate as many things as you can think of. Before performing each spell I would like you to tell me how you have improved it and I will set out an appropriate task. Simon, you will be going first.”

  At least he had learned their names by now. Simon went over and discussed his first spell with Master Mazus. When the Master told him his task there was a brief argument. Alan was surprised because the others had been nothing but differential to Master Mazus before.

  “Simon tells me that you all may have some misgivings about using these goblins as targets?” Master Mazus seemed surprised when he asked this.

  “Nope”

  “Yes,” Valori and Alan gave contradictory answers at the same time. Ezra just looked pale. Valori glanced over at Alan before looking back and reaffirming her previous answer.

  “I have no problem with it, these things are loathsome monsters.”

  “I do have a problem with it. What have these goblins done to deserve this? Were they raised in a cage to be used as fodder?” Alan argued.

  “These goblins are prisoners that were captured after they raided a village. They are not innocent and are not considered true sapients as they do not have a soul. Think of them as ugly boars.”

  This did not make Alan feel any better, but he also reminded himself that he was in a dungeon and this was not necessarily the same as reality. It still left a bad taste in his mouth, and at least Simon seemed to feel the same way. He stepped up to demonstrate his spell but had a look of disgust on his face.

  Two of the cages had their doors spring open and the goblins inside immediately scrambled out and took off running. They weren’t running shoulder to shoulder, but they were heading in the same direction. Alan felt Simon begin to gather his mana and tried to focus on what he was doing.

  This was clearly his earth spell as he felt the mana begin to pool. The spell form was created too quickly for him to get a good look at it but he could clearly see the two large stone spears that jutted out of the ground. Whereas previously the spears were about the size of their namesakes, simply made of stone, these were at least forty centimeters across at their base and extended out for several meters before coming to a point.

  One spike of stone appeared in front of each goblin and quickly shot up, impaling them in their chests. A good meter of stone was sticking out the back of each and they both thrashed for only a second before falling still.

  “Well done! A rare version of the spell I would imagine and the separation between the spears origins was almost ten meters. Have you anything else?” Master Mazus called out.

  Simon went over and explained another spell before two more goblins were released. These were each struck by a light bolt. The power of the bolts was nothing impressive. Only one of the goblins even fell over when struck and he quickly got back up. With a snap of the Master’s fingers the goblins were once again back in their cages.

  The Master didn’t seem as impressed as with the first spell. “Hmmm…that can barely be an uncommon version. I see you have duplicated the same improvement on both spells. Well, that is something I guess. Multiple attacks for each spell is useful at least. Ezra, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  This time Alan tried to get closer to watch him cast. Ezra clearly had some kind of dark magic talent and he wanted to see if he could copy his mana handling like he had with Simon’s earth mover talent.

  For his first task no goblins were released. Instead he was aiming at a target sixty meters away. As he felt the dark magic gathering Alan’s senses were exploring the nuances of how he controlled it. He couldn’t try to duplicate it at the moment because Master Mazus had forbidden them from interfering with each others’ trial, including distracting them with their own practice.

  Suddenly a shadow bolt went streaking away and struck the target. The range was impressive, and Alan could also feel that it was more powerful than what he himself could do.

  “Very nice, the improved range allows you to stay safe while bombarding your enemies. What else?”

  His next spell was fire bolt. A goblin was released and suddenly five fire bolts were racing out. The first one blew a chunk out of its chest and a second set one of its arms on fire. Another bolt hit it in a leg, melting some of the flesh and causing it to stumble. The last two bolts met at its head causing it to explode sending little pieces of goblin skull across the grass. Those remaining in the cages started to scream and yell. Several grabbed the bars and tried to pull them apart. A whisper from the Master and a flash of something left a bloody streak on their backs, silencing them.

  He turned back to regard Ezra.“Now that was impressive. Five bolts created for barely more than the cost of two. And that was a nice spread while hitting one target, it would make blocking all of the blasts difficult. There seemed to be some improvement in their effectiveness as well. A high rare or even possibly epic grade I would imagine.”

  Ezra’s third spell was an upgraded version of gust. The Master had some kind of flying contraption and the gust Ezra caused sent it flying through the air for over thirty seconds, a definite improvement over the base spell’s duration.

  “I appreciate the difficulty in modifying three different spells, and all in different ways. Although you might see if you can use the modifications in one spell to help you modify a different one like Simon did.”

  Alan was surprised that Ezra didn’t have a fourth spell. He figured that after that last comment he might feel nervous about being the low man and would demonstrate his trap spell if he had it. Instead he stepped back and the Master called Valori forward. Alan once again tried to focus on her mana gathering when she used her fire spell, figuring that she must have a fire talent.

  Her first spell, however, was shadow bolt and she hit three different goblins at the same time. Like Simon, her bolts were not powerful enough to kill them, but all three were knocked down. Her second spell was fire bolt and he immediately noticed how much better she was at handling the fire mana compared to his own control. Now that he was thinking about it, her dark mana control had also been better than his.

  Her fire bolt was more like a fireball. She sent it out at the target sixty meters away and instead of leaving a scorch mark, the entire thing erupted in flames. The master quickly waved his hand and the flames were extinguished, but the target was blackened and you could no longer see the individual rings. There was also a large crater where the bolt had hit it.

  “Most impressive! That was an epic level fire bolt if I have ever seen one. You improved both the range and the power, very nice.”

  That was the last spell she demonstrated so now it was Alan’s turn. His first spell was a light bolt that he cast at a nearby target. The others didn’t notice anything different but the master was mildly impressed.

  “Oh, you increased the mana efficiency and even improved the casting time. Very tricky, although nothing else seems to have changed.”

  Alan wasn’t sure what to do next. His fire bolt had been greatly improved, but he was worried he would have to target one of the goblins. Instead he chose conjure water. He wasn’t able to completely fill the pool, but there were several centimeters of water at the bottom which was orders of magnitude more than the previous maximum amount anyone had summoned. He also caused it to fill with a waterfall that poured the water out over a few seconds rather than as one large globe that simply dumped the water in.

  “Hmmm…This is an interesting improvement. It is not easy to accomplish some of what you have done here. Anything else?”

  Alan went over to tell him about his newest spell.

  “I have another spell, but it isn’t really an improvement, it’s more a spell I created. But it is at epic grade.”

  “What, you crafted a new spell, what is it called?” The Master was so surprised he forgot to keep his voice low.

  “Um, prismatic orb, it sends an orb that temporarily disables an opponent.”

  “Impossible, I know of this spell and you should not be able to learn it from a scroll, let alone cast it at your level. Show me,” he finished his speech with a snap and a goblin was released.

  Alan quickly gathered the required mana and sent the orb spinning out. His reluctance to use the goblins was easily overcome since the spell was non-damaging. This was the farthest he had tried to cast it, and at a moving target as well. However, he soon found his control was up to the task and the orb burst in front of the goblin who started stumbling around waving its arms in front of it, clearly blinded. Everyone’s jaws had dropped, including the Master’s, and they watched as it took the goblin at least six seconds to regain its sight.

  Master Mazus was so distracted that the goblin managed to reach the treeline and disappear before he reacted. A small bolt of light then appeared in front of him before streaking away into the trees. The students heard a high pitched scream from the woods and figured that the goblin was now dead.

  “To think you could weave at least three types of mana while still a quartz mage…” here he paused while he looked intensely at Alan. “Yes, still at the quartz level.”

  He trailed off again and everyone was left looking around. Valori looked dumbstruck while Ezra seemed to be replaying the moment in his head. Simon seemed excited for Alan, while Alan himself was looking at his feet, not sure how to deal with the attention.

  “Well, this changes things. If you can do this already then I have no more need of tests,” and with a snap of his fingers the others disappeared leaving the Master and Alan alone with the goblins. “You had already shown yourself to be a skilled mage, but this proves you are the best of the bunch.” He waved his hand and all of the goblins, the targets, and the other testing equipment in the field disappeared.

  “Follow me inside. We will have a snack and we will have a talk.”

  Quest Complete: Becoming an apprentice

  [Congratulations, you have demonstrated that you are the greatest talent in this group of possible elites. Reward: Title {Apprentice} and 600 dungeon points.]