The next few weeks were a bit of a blur. The days were spent first training with Rhosha, who continued to teach me various techniques from a sword style she wouldn’t tell me the origin of. At first it had been the Crane and the Osprey kata’s, now I was in the midst of learning the Falcon Kata. Why they were all named after birds was beyond me, but perhaps birds held cultural significance to the creator?

  She also helped me to drive [Meditation] up in levels, instructing me on how to properly meditate at the end of each session. We would take the final thirty minutes to unwind as training with her sometimes led to charged reflexes and she had had students who would react to innocuous things in public with violence. Or so she said. As we would meditate she would try to guide me into picturing our training, our fights, to imagine fighting against her even while trying to calm my nerves at times. It seemed counterintuitive to her reasoning.

  Once I finished at the dungeon I’d head to the forge to make some swords, daggers, axes and other implements of war. Per Rhoshas instruction I wouldn’t even enchant them, letting [Maelstrom Modification] do most of the work. She said I needed to get better at actually forging weapons, that there were a few marks on the ones I presented to her despite them feeling and looking perfect to my eyes. Perhaps that was my bias.

  Orvack had managed to sell both the wind blades and the flame ones that I had given him on commission, netting me several platinum for my efforts. Each week I’d drop off new, cheaper weapons and collect profits and materials for new creations. On the third day of this schedule I managed to breach level fifty in my secondary class, netting me another skill.

  Forgemasters authority

  The forgemaster commands the forge. Manipulate the heat and the bellows without moving a muscle, simply will the forge to heed your command and your will will be done.

  It wound up making the time to complete a project about twenty five percent quicker. Despite Sky helping me with keeping the forge hot and to temp, the control from the new skill was simply not replaceable.

  Once I had this new skill I was easily making two to three medium sized weapons a day, but hadn’t started working on any armor yet. My priority was still in creating my own weapons and I found that most armor would slow me down so it didn’t hold my interest near as much.

  For the full week after the dungeon, Amelia came to visit me at the forge to help me heal, fawning over me as I didn’t take a break despite my injuries. Rose came to visit too, singing a song in the morning for me. Within the week my bones and muscles had been fully mended, any traces of a bruise vanished.

  I didn’t understand many of the words that Rose sang, for she sang old songs with heavy accents, but I enjoyed the songs all the same. I was almost willing to give her coin to sing all day while I worked. Almost. But she and the others had to continue training, and wanted to continue to grow so we could tackle another dungeon. I found myself humming songs from Earth after she left, sometimes even softly singing them as people worked on their own projects around the forge, the hammering of metal forming my background music. I felt my voice was quite nice, as opposed to in my last life where I sounded like a dying record player fuzed with Kermit the frog, but I had no frame of reference. Occasionally, I’d notice some of the others stop to listen to me sing. Some days Rose would stop by still, even after I healed, and watch me as I forged. I pretended not to see her, but sang a little bit louder for her to hear. It was only fair after all, since she always sang for me.

  By the end of that week we entered another dungeon, in fact. It was nowhere near as dangerous as the previous one. It had a recommended level of one twenty, which each of us matched in one of our classes or were close enough to. It was a deep forest dungeon filled with goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and eventually the dungeon boss - an ogre shaman. A magic wielding ogre, though they were still dumb as a bag of rocks. Each of us was able to shine to a degree.

  Eva was able to snipe down all of the goblin and hobgoblin shamans and the stronger foes among them before they could reach us. Rose was able to train in her secondary class, one that was called Celestial Sorcerer. I hadn’t seen her use the skills from it before, but they, as one could glean from the name, were all based on stars, the moons, and even the sun. She was able to conjure shields of light that blocked most attacks, blades of light that cut through many things as well. Due to the nature of her class, it was more powerful in the night and under the moon, but it still worked in daylight as well. Typically she reserved her mana for healing and support spells, but that didn’t stop her from having a class she could use to defend herself when needed.

  Leshal proved his worth on our team as a powerful warrior. He expressed excellent spatial awareness, skilled hammer usage, and was keen to protect even if it didn’t serve towards a sense of glory. He may have been an adventurer but he was not so stuck in the idea of making a name for himself so much as growing stronger at a steady rate, thus he didn’t tend to make stupid mistakes. He was as cool headed as he was coldblooded, and I could see why he didn’t mind breaking free from Ethan Penrose’s party. It seemed like the two vastly different personality types would clash often.

  The dungeon didn’t provide much by way of loot. At least, not for me. We made some coin off of what we procured, of course, but aside from some shoddy weapons that I could turn to scrap metal there was little of actual use.

  On the third week from the wyrmwood dungeon Rhosha decided to change things up with our training. At this point I was up to level seventy four in Wayfaring Smith of the Tumultuous Maelstrom and was nearing the level cap for Bladedancer. Not all of my skills were keeping up, and my leveling rate of my secondary class was less than I’d hoped due to not making any new enchantments. But the main reason for this shift in my training was that I’d completed the three spells Rhosha had asked me to make.

  __________________________________________

  “Show me your new spells.” She commanded in her domineering voice. She hadn't allowed me to show her the other spells until all three were finished.

  It had taken over five weeks for me to develop these three spells, to perfect them and allow them to maximize their potential. The first, of course, was my defensive spell. Flame Wall. It would conjure a wall of fire taking the shape that I poured into it with my intent and will. This was the first dance that I showed her. I simply performed the footwork, not making any extraneous movements with my sword. Within twenty seconds or so I was surrounded on all sides by a wall of fire that, thanks to my sword's enchantment, did nothing to harm me. Rhosha whistled in appreciation at the wall that rose above my head and slashed her sword through it. Though it did little to stop the physical object, she was forced to back away when the flames licked at her hand, scalding even her.

  “Oh wow. That actually tickled a bit. It wouldn’t be enough to stop me, so it’s a bit limited in its applications, but it is a powerful spell all the same. Let's test it against magic.” Wasting no time she quickly fired off a skill while making sure not to output too much power, given our level difference, and slammed it against the wall. Her skill dissipated against it, unable to make it through. Next she used a spell to fire a spike of stone into the wall, which passed through it with ease. After that I dropped the spell, the drain growing the longer I had it active. This wasn’t a problem with any of my other spells, not so far as I knew, but it made a certain degree of sense. I needed to keep mana pouring into it to keep the fire from going wild, to keep the flames up, and to allow the flames to have even the slightest amount of physical resistance to physical attacks.

  “Good, next spell.”

  I didn’t bother to respond. Instead I just began the next sword dance, the one for a spell I developed based on one of the anime’s I watched growing up. Again, it took about twenty seconds as I wasn’t yet well practiced with these spells, having only used them a few times in training. Once I felt the spell click into place I looked in the distance and poured mana out from my feet into the runic circle, filling it with flame mana. I wasn’t channeling it through my sword just yet, wanting to show Rhosha the power of the spell without a focus.

  Around me, nine plumes of flame came into existence one after the other. They crackled as they hovered around me before launching themselves in the direction I was looking. Each one flew for a good eighty feet and crashed into the dirt, igniting the grass and creating mild explosions that fired dirt into the air. It was as though I had fired nine mini rockets, they weren't quite as potent as a fireball but they would be quite dangerous if a couple landed on the same target. When the dust from the impacts cleared there were a series of craters a few feet away from each other, the dirt glassy and molten.

  “That one was pretty. Seems effective enough as well. Did it cost a lot of mana?” Rhosha asked as dirt stopped raining down. None of it reached us but it did come down fairly close.

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  “Not that much mana. I could probably cast this one eight or nine times without taking a break.”

  “I see. Was that the ranged option or the multiple foes one?”

  “A mix of both, as is the next one. This one can take down nine foes if I can train my accuracy, the other doesn’t really need to be accurate though.” I smiled in excitement. This was why I wanted to do magic. Why, when I was given the choice upon arriving on this world, I chose to be a wizard. Well, I kind of chose to be everything from my fantasies, but a wizard was at the forefront.

  “Show me.”

  Without wasting breath for another retort, I pushed mana through my soles and began the last dance. This one was filled with jerky movements, save for the first few, as it was almost entirely crafted with Frith runes. Only the first five runes were Lexico, in order to allow the spell to remain stable until it needed to burst. The frith runes were both meant to increase the spell's volatility and to make the moment of impact that much more powerful.

  Once I finished the spell I looked to the distance, even beyond the small craters I had left before, and raised my hand forming the image of a pistol. From my pointer finger a small bead of fire formed and slowly grew until it was the size of a softball. While it wasn’t necessary to hold my hand out as a guide for aiming, it felt fun and I was never one to shy away from theatrics. Thus, I pressed down my thumb as though it were a firing pin and the small orb of flame rushed away from me, my own eyes barely keeping up with its speed.

  While creating the spell I had realized it would need to move fast in order to take full advantage of its limited stability, trying to keep the orb together would otherwise be straining especially as it flew further away. So I had included a rune or two to increase its speed. It was evident as it rushed away from me in a blink, blowing past Rhosha as she turned to watch where it landed.

  It flew for a solid one hundred and fifty feet, still not as far as I wanted it to go but perhaps it’d fly further while using my sword as a focus. Then it arced and crashed into the ground. For a split second nothing happened and I worried that it wouldn’t ignite. Just as I saw Rhoshas shoulders start to turn toward me, the fireball expanded rapidly. A swirling mass of fire, thirty feet around, exploded outward from the center of the orb, obliterating everything in its path. Well, all of the grass in its way. Once more, dirt was thrown into the air peppering us even from this distance. The heat brushed against me from even a hundred feet and more away, and Rhsosha stood even closer to it.

  It took several seconds for the smoke and dust to settle. It settled slowly and gradually, just the edges clearing up at first. The grass was brown at the very edges but the grass progressively grew more charred. Then the grass was gone, replaced by a steeply deepening crater filled with blackened soil.

  Rhosha whistled. “Nice work. A powerful blast indeed. I was concerned with the second spell, but I think it will work well at range.” She started walking back toward me. “Now show me these spells with your focus. We should determine how much it increases the potency, you need to be aware of every factor in a battle. If you aren’t aware of your capabilities it could easily result in you hurting your allies and not your foes.”

  “Yes Master Rhosha.” I nodded and drew Ignium’s Fang.

  Quickly I summoned the flaming wall. In order for the test to be useful I summoned the wall of fire in the same configuration as before, a circle of flames around me, though the circle was no larger than before its flames burned hotter. I found myself surrounded by an inferno of white crackling fire. Like before Rhosha slashed through the wall with no magic backing her sword. Like before the sword cleanly passed through but she ended her attack early, cursing on her end as the fire lapped at her hand. It probably didn’t really hurt, and was more of a surprise that she could feel it that made her stop, but I was still proud.

  Next she fired a spell at it, the spell quickly dispersing as soon as the flames touched it. It took a slight drain on my mana to keep the flame wall up. As the spell splashed across the surface of my spell I had to focus briefly to keep it held together, else my flames were wont to dissipate and force me to reestablish them. Next it was time for an object to be fired through it, a stone spike. The spike crashed through the fire and sped toward me forcing me to dodge the attack that would no doubt severely injure me. The stone as it flew by me was beginning to glimmer with the heat that it had passed through for mere moments, but it was not so hot as to be red and glowing.

  “Okay, it's much stronger. The spell I used against it was - Oh take it down so we can speak face to face.” My instructor commanded. “Now, it was stronger. I poured more mana into my spell than the first time, a lot more, with the hopes that it would waver. It hardly did. Your mana control is impressive for your level. Show me the next one. But first let me set some targets.”

  She drew into the air with her sword, too fast for my eyes and [Runesight] to keep up. Seconds later nine stone pillars rose from the ground a distance of one hundred feet away. I grinned and waited until she nodded, indicating that I should try my spell. I had no illusions that I’d be able to accurately hit all nine of my targets but if I could hit five at least I would be happy.

  This time as I cast the spell, and as the warm fire mana poured out from my channels, the nine plumes of flame that appeared around me in a sort of half circle were different colors. As I was casting the spell I had thought to be a little bit flashy, and to test another thing in changing the appearance. Instead of each one containing only red and orange flames, they contained a spectrum. Starting at white, the next ones followed the colors of the rainbow ending in a bright purple.

  Flames crackling around me, I theatrically pointed my blade downrange and they launched. The orbs sort of spiralled as they flew, spinning erratically and arcing like a football before they landed amongst the targets. Rhosha, as a contest of skill, had placed these targets roughly ten feet from each other forcing me to spread out the flaming orbs as they flew. As they flew further away it grew harder to aim them, to direct them. I felt my control slipping around the fifty foot mark and hesitantly pointed each of the petals to a target, relinquishing control from that point to conserve my mana.

  Then they landed. I heard stones crack and saw dust fly into the air surrounded by flames of various colors. Smoke rose from the plains in the near distance and I strained to see if they had each hit their target. I waited in anticipation, stopping myself from rushing ahead to see it with [Portent]. Finally, the dust began to settle after a minute or so and I could see. To my disappointment of the nine that Rhosha had created, six still stood. Beside them were small craters, though they were larger than before.

  “You will need to work on your aim but the spell has potential. What did you do to change the colors?” Rhosha said after waiting for the dust to settle.

  “I simply willed it as I cast the spell. Wanted to see what would happen.” I smiled a little bit at the praise.

  “I see. It may seem miniscule but that does drain excess energy. If ever you are in a fight where you need all the energy you can get, refrain from adding superfluous effects, understood?”

  “Yes Master Rhosha.”

  “Great. That being said, it made for a fun show. Now show me your fireball again.”

  I nodded and began the sword dance, filling the runes with even more flame mana, my reserves beginning to run dry. This would be the last spell I’d cast for a fair while, each of these spells taking more out of me than I could handle with such succession. It took around fifteen seconds for me to cast it, a veritable age on the battlefield.

  Once it was cast I debated on whether to hit the targets or test the range. In the end I decided the range was the important part and we could train accuracy some other time. With that I raised my sword toward the endless horizon and watched as flames trickled along the blade to meet the point, then began to congeal into an orb of condensed heat. This was not a trick I applied to the spell, but how the orb tended to naturally form, be it from the tip of my finger or the point of my sword. I counted three seconds before the condensed orb was ready from the time I activated the spell, then willed it forward as fast and far as it could go.

  The white orb of pure heat and fire, like a miniature sun, shot forward. I could hardly track it with the sun shining down on us. In my periphery I saw as Rhosha tracked it with no issue, all the way from its apex to its end. Soon enough the small star fell back to the plains and rested for a weary second. Then, heat blasted out and earth shot into the air. Rocks, dirt, it all flung into the air and even came back toward us. This time the orb had flown a solid fifty feet further and upon its creation formed a thirty foot diameter sphere of inferno before it died down.

  The ground around it was a crater and scorched. Small fires lit the six inch tall grass and spread slowly from it. I turned toward my teacher proudly before stumbling a bit, catching myself before I fell.

  “Sit down. You’ve used too much mana.” Rhosha said in a tone that broached no arguments. “Now, you are almost level seventy five in your smithing class, and have almost reached the cap in your main. What level is [Compendium Actualization] at?”

  “It's at level seventy four, Master.” I sat cross legged, having sheathed my sword.

  “I see. You will want to start training it more. Have you ever attempted to cast multiple spells with it at once?”

  “No, Master, though I have thought it a possibility.”

  “That will be the next thing we train in between sword forms. I’ve taught you three thus far, yes? The Crane, the Osprey, and the Falcon?”

  “Yes Master Rhosha.”

  “Good. Next I’ll teach you the form for the Griffin. Before that, how is [Meditation]?”

  “Level seventy Master. I still haven't been able to visualize a past fight. It’s difficult to concentrate on such.”

  “I see. Now that you have completed your spells for your fire style, I want you to do something similar for wind spells seeing as you have the weapon. Also, when you smith you may resume crafting with enchantments. You have what, two months left to prepare for the tournament? I believe you should be able to make it to level one twenty five by then if you create some powerful artifacts. Lastly, every other day you are to work on [Runeweaving] for a minimum of six hours.”

  “So, to clarify, every other day I’ll work on smithing or weaving, along with the two hours [Meditation] practice from before?”

  She confirmed and then we were off to teach me the basics of the next kata. The Griffin techniques shifted from more graceful techniques to those you’d expect of the wrathful. They were violent as a lion would be violent, and they were powerful. They also contained several useful footwork techniques that would allow me to evade attacks with wider movements, unlike the Crane techniques that would have me dodge with the least effort or distance.

  We also began working on training [Actualization] whenever I recovered enough mana to do so. I wasn’t able to cast multiple spells at once just yet, but I was building my experience with the skill ever so slightly with each cast. I was confident that I’d be able to cast a few five rune spells together soon, but it would be a strain.