CelestialShadow
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Chapter 31 - Having a few drinks
🕑 Added 2023-11-25 14:05:03 +0000 UTC“Being in the Outskirts so long, you almost forget how beautiful the sunset is,“ Villem said to Adion as they closed in on Billford and the last rays of sunlight hit the city.
“Mm,” Adion agreed, but he was more focused on the long shadows caused by it.
The shadow mana is plenty at this time of day, it seems. I haven’t practiced my shadow mana control as much as I should. Thanks to the Wisdom Pills, I have a small amount of Authority over it, just like I have with space and fire.
There is just too much to do. My space powers should be my main focus, and then fire. I also enjoy practicing my water mana control, even if it’s very weak at the moment. I guess I’ll have more time for everything once I get stronger.
“It’s getting late,” Benji said as he also looked towards the setting sun, “We should get a room for the night and leave tomorrow morning.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Sahra agreed.
“Then let’s go to an inn with good drinks,” Rufus said with a smile hidden beneath his big red beard.
Benji smiled and looked at Adion, “What do you say, Adion? Up for a couple of drinks? It will give us a chance to get to know each other.”
“Sounds good,” Adion said and then turned to Villem, “Want to join us? It’s not much to repay you, but the drinks will be on me.”
Villem lightly laughed, “I haven’t done anything worth repaying. But since you’re offering, I’ll try to put a dent in your wallet tonight.”
Adion disagreed but didn’t say anything more about it. He deeply appreciated Villem’s help during the last months. He saw him as a friend by this point and would miss him. He had thought about giving him one of his pills before he left, but that would only put Villem in danger. He wasn’t strong enough to hold on to something like that.
I’ll repay him in the future when I’m stronger.
They soon reached the gate on the west side of the city and entered without issue. Adion opted to pay two silver coins instead of showing his Guild card, as that might reveal his identity. He wasn’t lacking money.
Adion knew he wasn’t rich compared to other mages his strength, but he had managed to save up quite a large amount during his time in the Outskirts so far. He had noticed that the problem with having so much money was that coins weighed a lot. And since Adion always carried his belongings with him on his back, it became a problem. So he spent most of his money on a Diamond beast core of the fire element. It wasn’t optimal, but it would hold on to its value for quite a long time.
Beast cores were formed when beasts died. The same thing happened when mages died, but those weren’t used, at least not publicly. It was beneficial for quicker advancement as one could manipulate the mana inside the core instead of the mana in the atmosphere, where mana was more scarce. But it didn’t last forever. Every time mana left the core, it would refill just like a mana core of living beings did. But the beast core would slowly weaken, and even a Diamond beast core could only refill from the mana in the atmosphere about 80 times before collapsing into dust, which is why beast cores always had a market.
But even if Adion didn’t use his beast core, it would slowly weaken, making it suboptimal to use as a currency. Most rich mages who had a lot of money instead used coins of more valuable metal and jewels than gold. But they were not easy to get as a peak Iron mage without backing, as was how Adion had appeared when he tried to get his hands on them.
But at least Adion’s backpack was lighter, so he was happy. Even if he had to make a loss when exchanging the beast core again.
When they entered the city, they quickly found an inn with good enough drinks for Rufus to be happy. They each got a room for the night and sat down after ordering food and drinks.
“I’ll head to Mint Carriages to book a carriage for tomorrow. That way, we can leave immediately tomorrow,” Benji said as he finished eating, “I’ll be back soon.”
“So, Adion,” Rufus said as Benji left, “You’re a fire mage, right?”
“That’s right,” Adion nodded, “What element do you all have?”
Adion had already felt their aura and knew their elements, but he thought asking would be polite. And he didn’t see a reason to reveal all of his tricks.
“I’m an earth mage,” Rufus said as he lifted his chin proudly, “But don’t think me weak. Even though I might not be able to conjure much earth, I can still manipulate the earth below beasts to gain the upper hand. You should know better than anyone how much those seconds of destabilizing your enemy mean during a fight.”
“That’s true. I look forward to seeing you fight. I’ve never seen an earth mage in battle before,” Adion said.
“Benji and I are fire mages just like you,” Sahra said, “And Lomin is a wind mage. However, wind is famously hard to control, and Lomin doesn’t have good control over it as a faelin. So you should be ready to get hit by some stray wind.”
“Oh? Can you fly?” Adion asked as he ignored the remark of the faelin’s poor control.
“Fly? No,” Lomin shook his head, “I don’t think even a Diamond wind mage has that ability. Even Soul mages might struggle with it.”
“That’s too bad,” Adion lamented, “Well, work hard, and I’m sure you’ll be able to do it. I’m jealous that you will be able to do so in the future.”
“Haha!” Rufus laughed heartily, “Not to dismiss Lomin or anything, but it would be a miracle for any of us to reach Diamond in the future, let alone the Soul stages.”
Adion was baffled when he heard that, “You’re only aiming so low? But you are all still pretty young and already Silver. Why not work hard and aim for the Soul stages?”
“Adion,” Sahra smiled awkwardly, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to advance to Gold, let alone higher stages? There is a reason you get to form a family clan after reaching Gold, after all. You might be a monster that has already reached middle Bronze at 15, but it will still be a challenge for you. Benji and I managed to graduate from Cyalis Academy. We are by no means untalented, but even so, it is getting difficult for us to advance.”
“Oh,” Adion hesitated. He knew he was unusually fast in his advancement, but he also worked hard for it. “Why is it hard?” He decided to ask, “If you meditate consistently, it shouldn’t be difficult to expand your core enough to advance. And if your Will is inefficient, then you just have to temper it.”
“Gahaha!” Rufus roared in laughter and slammed his hand on the table, “‘Just have to temper it,’ he says,”
“Adion,” Sahra looked at him with an amused smile, “It might be easy to temper your Will enough to advance to Bronze. Almost anyone can do as much eventually by going through life. But it gets incredibly challenging after that. You will realize that when you need to advance to Silver.”
“Oh,” Adion thought about it but still didn’t think it would be as difficult as they said. Obviously, it would be hard, but it wasn’t like it was impossible. Plenty of mages had managed to do it. So if Adion just trained hard, he thought he could do it, too.
“I don’t think Adion is convinced,” Lomin said with a smirk as he looked at Adion.
“Well,” Adion said, “It’s just that I already knew it would be hard. But since it’s not impossible, then I’ll do it.”
Lomin looked stumped for a second before smiling again, “I believe you might be wiser than you look, Adion. Your words are well-spoken.”
“I don’t appear wise?” Adion questioned with a troubled look. He thought he was pretty smart, but since he didn’t interact much with others, he didn’t know if people perceived him as stupid.
“Hahaha!” Everyone around the table started laughing at Adion’s concern.
“You don’t, Adion, but that’s okay,” Sahra said as she wiped a tear from her eyes, “I think you’re better the way you are.”
“For what it’s worth,” Villem broke in, “I don’t doubt for a second that you will become a Soft Soul mage, Adion. I would even bet all my money on you becoming the youngest Soul mage in history.”
Adion was a little shocked as he could feel from Villem’s aura that his words were entirely genuine. He didn’t know that Villem thought so highly of him. Adion smiled and thanked him for his words.
“No offense,” Sahra said with a doubtful look, “But you’re only a Bronze mage, Villem. Do you know anything about the Soul stages and how difficult they are to enter?
“I don’t,” Villem answered with a smile, “But I know how difficult it is to advance to middle Bronze. And Adion did that before he turned 15. I also know how difficult it is to sense and control your aura. Adion has been trying to teach me for the past months. His skill in aura control is amazing, and it’s not like he just got it out of nowhere. He started from zero, just like me. Even excluding all that and his amazing Gift, let me ask you,” Villem paused and looked around the table, “Have you ever seen Adion control mana?”
Sahra looked at him, confused, “What about his mana control?”
“Adion,” Villem said and looked at him, “Why don’t you conjure a ball of fire, not using your mana core but the pure mana around us like you showed me,”
“Oh? But are we allowed to do magic in here?” Adion asked.
“It will be alright,” Rufus said, eager to see what Adion would do.
“Yeah, it should be fine if you don’t damage anything, but gathering enough pure mana to conjure a flame will take-” Sahra couldn’t finish her sentence as Adion had already conjured a ball of fire above his palm.
Adion could do so very quickly now that he had practiced the process for a long time. Fire mages could just use the fire mana in their core to conjure up a flame, but Adion didn’t have a fire core, so if there was no fire around, he had to use his Will to change the affinity of the surrounding pure mana and then gather it all to conjure a flame.
“Monster,” Sahra hissed, “Adion, just who the hell are you?”
“What do you mean?” Adion asked.
Villem, meanwhile, was almost on the floor laughing, seeing everyone’s stunned expression. “Hahaha, Adion, do the wolf thing, do the wolf thing!” he said.
“Okay?” Adion then changed the shape of the flame to resemble White as closely as he could. He had been doing stuff like that occasionally just to play around and experiment with what he could do with his flames.
“How!?” Rufus was yelled out in shock.
“Quickly put out the flame, Adion,” Lomin said in a serious voice.
Adion did as he was told without understanding the reason. But soon, he realized the cause of Lomin’s serious expression as he noticed a few people around the room looking his way, whispering to each other.
I’m an idiot. Conjuring fire the way I did was very impressive, but it was all due to my talent and hard work. Other people can do the same. But controlling fire so that it takes the shape of a wolf is entirely due to me having a small amount of Authority over it. To replicate what I did without Authority would take an immense amount of Will.
Fire mages can conjure huge flames from their core, only less than what wind mages can accomplish. But in return, the control of fire is much more complicated than that of water and earth. The Will of the world fights for control almost immediately. Replicating Adion’s feat with such ease might not even be possible for a Diamond fire mage.
“That was incredible, Adion,” Rufus said, “But for someone who wishes to hide, you seem to be doing your best to attract attention.”
“Sorry, Adion,” Villem said with a guilty look, “I shouldn’t have asked you to do that.”
“It’s not your fault, Villem,” Adion said and sighed, “It seems that I’m not very good at thinking things through.”
The whispering around them had started to settle down, and even if people talked about it, Adion would be leaving in the morning. Hopefully, things wouldn’t spread of what he had done.
“But Adion,” Sahra said as she looked at him intensely, “How can you do that?”
“Well, I just practiced a lot. At first, gathering enough mana to conjure up a flame took me a long time. But I practiced doing so every day for over a year, and eventually, I got good enough to do it almost instantly,” Adion answered, “As for how I made a wolf out of the flames, I won’t tell you.”
Sahra sighed, “Hopefully, that is as far as your abilities go. I don’t think I could handle anything more.”
I’m afraid you don’t know half of it yet. Adion thought to himself.
Comments
EsZeus
I think, when I am trying to have his age in the back of my mind, then it makes sense that he is so flimsy and throwing around most of his secrets :D But it still bothers me right now ^^ Thanks for the chapter! :3
