Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

On my day off I spent my morning swimming in the lake that fed the showers at camp.  I had made sure it was ok before I headed up to the lake and one of my trainers confirmed it.  There was a watchtower up there and he said I should just remain on the banks under it and I would be fine. I was sitting on the bank, admiring my fit body and one of the mages came down to the bank with a fishing pole.  Looking up I noticed it was Damian.  He had healed me many times and was usually the one who charged my amulet.  We started talking while he fished and I questioned him about magic and spells.

He was very patient and educated me as best he could.  In order to cast a spell a mage had to channel mana into a construct.  He took my amulet and pulled it apart showing it was actually 6 thin discs stacked together.  Each disc had dozens of runes.  With the discs stacked in alignment, they made the complex construct for the translation spell.  He reassembled the disc and recharged it for me since the charge dissipated when he disassembled it. 

I asked if someone could cast spells without a construct.  He said usually a person could force their primary affinity into a spell form, and sometimes their secondary as well.  Beyond that it was difficult and the effects were generally very weak.  This type of spell form was not a construct but actually more of a talent forcing a person’s aether to their will.  Only one effect per affinity could be made in this way.  He demonstrated this by having a flame ignite on the tip of his index finger.  He said fire was his seventh strongest affinity but since this effect was so small he managed to create it.

Truly learning spells required a mage to form constructs with his aether.  He said most spells had 3-6 layers so I person needs to form all the layers and then charge to mana through the construct to cast the spell.  Only about 1 in 1000 mages can do this.  That was why most mages used devices like my translation medallion.  The construct was already there so they just needed to supply the aether. 

Damian used constructs as well.  He couldn’t create layer spell forms so wasn’t a castor.  His healing was actually his secondary affinity and it relied on his innate spell form.  He had eight different effects from his top eight affinities which he bragged was impressive.  Most mages could only generate effects from their top two affinities.

I asked about Aether shaping exercises to improve my own aether ability and he gave me two simple ones to work on.  They were focused on meditation and visualization.  I thanked him and returned for dinner since I missed lunch while I was out swimming.  I planned to double up on my calories. 

I kept my routine over the next 3 weeks and was finally able to manifest mana with the shaping exercises Damian had imparted.  It was difficult and mentally taxing.  My exhaustion didn’t help me the following day during morning fitness training so I needed to temper my efforts.

The next wave of testing was upon us and I was actually very curious to see my results.

 

The tester raised his eyebrows while writing down my new stats in the log.  I again sneaked a peak at my magic stats and saw a great improvement.  My next goal was to be able to charge my amulet by myself.  I was now able to communicate in the common tongue without the amulet now but my vocabulary was still limited.  I found out the amulet cost 20 gold and when I graduated it would not be going with me so I needed a good grasp of the language before then.  Six more were cut after the tablet readings bringing our number to 68.

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Testing did not go as well as I had hoped.  I finished 23^rd in sword ranking, 30^th in sword and shield, 25^th in dagger, and 7^th in hand-to-hand.  We were also tested on spearmanship for the first time and I finished 3^rd.  All of the practice with the staff and Helena had greatly helped.  Helena was the only woman left in the barracks and she was constantly harassed now.  She was not in threat of getting raped because if she was the man would have been executed the next day.  She just had to deal with constant ‘requests’. I would have helped her but I was outnumbered and didn’t want attention on me.  At night some men had taken to sharing in each other's company without a willing woman present. That was not my preference and I hoped maybe after I graduated I could find a woman. I used the intense training to keep myself distracted.

For finishing 3^rd in the spear competition I was awarded an essence! This was announced after three more men were dismissed, bringing our number to 65.  I was worried as I was called to choose my essence.  In the office of the high captain, I was asked which stat I wanted a minor essence for.  I thought about my shortcomings in combat. My speed and agility are what cost me the most.  So I needed to choose quickness, dexterity, or coordination.  My lagging stat was dexterity so I decided on that.  The essence was a blue glowing pearl.  The high captain said all I needed to do was swallow it.  I swallowed and felt electric shocks in my veins and nerves for a few minutes.  After that, I did not feel any different.

We had a day off again and I hoped to meet the mage Damian again at the lake shore but he never came to fish.  I spent the next 3 weeks backing off of my magic training and getting more rest to focus on my weapon skills.  I couldn’t afford to slide down in the rankings.  After being at the camp for 12 weeks I went confidently to the tablet testing for the first time.  I knew I had made ground on some of the others and I was looking forward to weapon testing. 

I was happy to see my quickness improve by 4 points.  My potential even increased by one point.  The tester recording my data seemed to pause when he got to my quickness…he went and looked at my past reading and today’s a few times before continuing to copy my stats to my records.  My combat skills had improved significantly so I was looking forward to the ranking combat.  I wasn’t surprised my magic barely improved.  I usually just played with mana while I was taking a shit now.  I had to stop my nightly sessions as the fatigue the next day affected my training.  I didn’t pay attention to people being pulled out but noticed only 58 beds in the barracks were filled when we returned and were preparing for the sword ranking portion of the testing.  With our numbers reduced the testing was only going to take two days this time.

I finished 15^th in sword ranking, 19^th in sword and shield, 22^nd in the dagger, and 5^th in hand-to-hand.  It was mostly thanks to my improved speed.  Having trained with the same people for so long it caught them off guard. We were also tested in the polearm for the first time and I fished 11^th.  I wished I would have earned another essence but I didn’t.  If we had tested on the spear I would have had a shot but there were just too many guys ahead of me in the hierarchy.  Only the bottom 2 soldiers were cut this time leaving 56 of us.  So after 12 weeks of the 29-week training cycle, almost half of our number had been eliminated.  Helena hadn’t been cut but she was near the bottom from her results.  I talked to her about it and she wasn’t concerned.  She let me know female legionnaires were rare and that if she made it this far she was probably going to make it and get assigned to special duty guarding a minor female noble related to the ruling family.

We had another off day and I ran into Damian fishing.  We talked for a bit and I asked the mage how people were eliminated by the tablet testing and combat rankings.  The tablet was up to the commander.  Usually, it had to do with poor progress or effort in training.  From the combat ranking, he said the 3 soldiers with the lowest summed scores were cut.  But also the top 20 performers in the prior weapon ranking would be safe from the prior testing.  So if you did well in the weapon combat you could save yourself from being eliminated based on your stat progression. 

I asked Damian if he knew how I ranked.  He thought for a bit and said 25^th or 26^th in the stat pool rankings.  At least 3 weeks ago he thought that was where I ranked.  For the weapons testing I had moved up to 16^th this testing.  I was actually the talk of the estate as I jumped like 12 places.  This was good news as it meant I would be safe from getting cut no matter how I performed the next cycle. I didn’t have hopes of climbing much higher as there were about 20 men in the barracks that I counted as superior to me.  We didn’t talk for a while and the mage fished and caught two decent-sized fish.

I came up with some more questions.  I didn’t have this opportunity often and my fellow soldiers were mostly ignorant.  They were also assholes for the most part.  It wasn’t like a normal army where camaraderie was the goal.  This unit was about improving and outdoing your fellow soldiers.  I asked Damian what a typical gain between readings was for people. 

He looked contemplative and said between 10 and 14 was normal after the first 3 weeks then 6 to 10 each of the following testing periods.   I was doing ok then.  I might have even moved up faster than most.  I thought I had improved by 13 or 14 points in this last period. 

Damian also had some insider knowledge for me.  The soldiers in my barracks were going to be divided into two squads and sent out to patrol the western farms.  There had been some red goblin attacks and they decided we could use the change of scenery.

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