Chapter 21: Chapter 20: a magical afternoon

I sit in the shadow of one of the trees in the park as I watch Jo practice her mana thrusting. She is doing a mix training with the basic thruster and trying to achieve a better one. Her newly acquired brown leather armor protects all the important parts, namely her knees and elbows. The brown cap that came with it covers her short brown hair, and has probably saved her a couple concussions. I occasionally heal her and give her advice on where to circulate her mana. She is either talented, or highly motivated, because she attentively listens to my advice and manages to implement it over time. It’s kinda impressive, because I mainly guide my magic with feelings and intuition, which leaves my explanation lacking at times. 

After about a couple hours of practice, she is tired and sits next to me to recover. We sit in silence as she drinks the water I gave her and she asks why it doesn’t taste like anything. I explain that it doesn’t taste like anything, because it’s really clean water. She seems confused for a moment before she gets an expression of understanding, before it once again changes to an expression of horror.

“You mean everything I have been drinking so far is dirty?”

“Not necessarily. You wouldn’t consider fruit juice or ale dirty.”

“So, only the water I’ve been drinking has been dirty?”

“I would love to deny that, but maybe… Though not everything that can be considered dirty is bad though. It’s honestly best that you don’t think too much about it until you are able to clean it yourself.”

“It’s kinda hard to not think about it.”

“Think about it this way, It’s been fine so far, right? So, it’ll be fine going forward.”

That last tidbit seems to calm her, and after some more idle chatter, she goes back to practicing.

As she is doing it, a group of people her age comes up to her. They all have about the same amount of mana as her, except the one who appears to be the leader, who has a bit more. He speaks up to her.

“Hi Jo. Why are you practicing mana thrusters? Why expose yourself to that pain, when you can be doing literally anything else?”

“Hi Keth. I do it because it can get me a position as an apprentice for a powerful mage if I can master it.” She answers after getting up from her latest regularly scheduled meeting with the ground. It's kinda interesting to hear her say her motivation out loud. I mean I kinda expected it, it’s just surprising to hear her admit it.

You are reading story princess Zena of Zendor at novel35.com

“If they require you to use mana thruster, they can’t be that good.” He’s kinda right about the basic one, but even knowing the basic one can be the difference between life and death. Feeling slightly indignant at his statement, I decide to get up and join the conversation.

“Hello Keth. I can kinda understand why you wouldn’t like mana thruster, but even the worst one can save your life if used appropriately.”

“Who are you? And why bother with that painful experience when you can just block?”

“I see you don’t favor moving around a lot, but what do you do when you encounter someone stronger than you? They would pin you down as you block their attacks, and sooner or later, your defense will break. At that point, you either run away, ideally with a mobility spell like mana thruster, or you die.”

He looks a little dumbfounded at the bluntness of my statement. Jo chooses this moment to speak up.

“This is Zena, my potential master. She needs me to be able to keep up during her travels, which basically require the continuous use of mana thruster.” She seems to be under the assumption that we always travel that fast, which we don’t. We did it since there was a time limit with the abomination, and honestly it’s more fun to do. So I decide to clarify it.

“We don’t do it all the time. We had a time limit with the abomination that headed toward this city, but we don’t always use it. You only need to be able to use it for a period at a time, though you need to learn to use the spell that’s a step up from the basic mana thruster.” I start to cast the short teleport spell before starting my next sentence. “Also, if you continue to improve it, you can get some pretty good skills, like TELEPORT.” As I say the last word, I disappear from their side, and reappear next to the tree I previously sat under. I also say the last word with a bit more volume, so that they can easily locate me. They seem to be genuinely dumbfounded at my casual teleportation. In most cases 'Dimensional Impulse’ is actually better than the short teleport, since you reach the destination faster thanks to the long startup delay that teleportation has. The primary advantage of teleports is that they can go through obstacles, though it can be risky if you don’t know what’s on the other side. It was actually the startup delay that cost me my match against Jools, now that I think about it. I sit back down under the tree, and let them continue their conversation in peace. It seems that they were students at the academy together, having graduated at approximately the same time. The new group has been working as adventurers, though Jo seems to have been on the lookout for a master to continue to learn from. Having heard my reasoning for at least knowing mana thruster, they actually join her in her practice, with her repeating the things I told her earlier. I don’t mind them joining her practice session for now, though they are definitely not joining my travels. It is a bit disheartening that the academy doesn’t properly advocate the benefits of movement related skills, though It might just be that it teaches the basics without emphasis on anything in particular. I have a meeting with the headmaster tomorrow, so I’ll ask him then.

As it starts to get dark, we decide to head back to the inn, so that we can have dinner with Jools. When we enter the inn, I see Jools sitting alone at a table, with a tankard of ale in his hand. Just as I’m about to sit down at the table with him, he stands up and ask me

“Can we talk in private for a bit?”