Studying, training and romance

The next couple of days I spend a lot of time reading and rereading the book Aelbrecht gave me. It is not every day I get to learn ancient Zrephian secrets and their magic is said to have been beyond compare.

After absorbing knowledge from the book, I went to the guild arena to try out my new spells. I was not quite capable to try out the [Wave] spell. It would cause too much hindrance to my guild members due to the large amount of water I need for it. I could try out [Mist]. It is not quite as special like a sudden poof of blinding mist, rather it is a stream of mist I am casting. When used in a proper way I may be able to use this to create a smoke screen. Or if I’m facing a fire mage, I could create a zone where his fire spells are weakened due to the buildup of moisture in the air. But I soon discover the [mist] spell requires a lot of my mana. Either I will have to use this sparingly or I will have to make this spell cheaper to use. Fortunately, the book Aelbrecht gave me will teach me the latter.

[Water lance] is a different story. That one is easy to cast and I can easily get water to swirl around my right arm in the shape of a lance. It doesn’t even require a lot of mana. But when I attack something, the lance harmlessly goes through it and causes no damage. That is no good. I wonder if maybe I can make the lance more effective by making the water swirl faster, but then the spell starts eating more of my mana. Still, the [Water Lance] now at least pushes my target over. I keep experimenting with a faster swirl. When Leona sees me train, she offers to help by letting me use the lance on her sword. It requires a fast speed before I can start deflecting her sword, but it is possible. Though at such a speed it becomes difficult to control the lance while also draining a lot of my mana. Now I see. Those new spells are so mana-expensive that they require me to master casting water magic spells at lower mana costs first. Still, I wonder how many of my opponents will know about the [Water Lance]. I could catch a few of them off guard so I might not even need to use it for a long time.

I of course don’t give up on training my melee combat. I train against all classes, whether they be knights, rogues, mages or clerics and I use all of my abilities. Both sword and magic. I don’t win every fight. Some of them I lose because I run out of mana. This redoubles my efforts to read Aelbrecht’s book over and over again. Reducing the cost of your spells is not an easy thing to comprehend and then I have to train in it too.

I also manage to do a few minor quests, both in the capital and the surrounding farm lands. With the money I get from it I can buy an extra brigandine spaulder from my favorite armor shop. Yes, a third. I remember how Kiara once told me that I should not telegraph to everyone which guild I am in. Especially not when I’m going through the poor section. I would only attract muggers that way. But the custom made spaulder I requested a few days ago, one with the Dark Dragon logo on it, that one I plan to wear during the tournament. Now I am of course nearly broke. I have just 5 silver left and I will need at least 2 to pay the guild fee this month. That should be enough until after the tournament.

Finally, there is also Kiara. She doesn’t come over every night. I’m guessing she wants to keep our affair hidden from meddling individuals. Knowing Helena, the second she figures out Kiara and I are a couple, she’s likely to start giving Kiara some unsolicited advice on how to have better sex. Kiara was however capable of catching Helena bragging about her oral skills and used that as a chance to ask the nun if she always enjoyed the taste of sperm.

“Good heavens, no.” Helena said. “At first I hated the stuff. But guys love it so much if they can cum inside you. So, if you don’t want it in your pussy, you’re gona have to swallow to please them. Either that or up your ass. So eventually I just got used to the taste and now I love it, mmmmm.”

Then, apparently, Helena suggested Kiara to find herself three men and suck off all of them for three mouthfuls of sperm.

Kiara decided to pass on that last part. Instead, she came to me and gave me another blowjob.

We didn’t always have sex, though. Sometimes we just kissed. Just that and nothing else, and that was fine.

Over time, I succeed in making my spells cheaper. My previous spell, [Water Shot] is now practically free to cast, and I can use [Water Spear] more often and [Water Barrier] longer. I can now also create a lot more [Mist], and [Water Lance] is no longer as taxing, but it still becomes hard to handle at high speeds.

Before long the two weeks are up and the tournament is here. My first match is in a few hours. There are 4 small arena’s, one each for E, D, C and B ranks. Due to the large amount of E and D ranks, those matches have already started an hour earlier. But these matches are usually without many flashy stunts and are over pretty quickly. The C and B rank matches have less participants, but are also longer and more exciting.

On the way to the arena, Kiara helps me go over the rules again.

I am not permitted to have any other adventurers help me, so someone like Helena casting an enchantment on me which increases my healing before entering the ring is forbidden. Only my own skills and spells count.

I can use whatever potions I like. So, I made certain to keep 2 mana potions on me.

When my opponent yells ‘Yield!’ I am to stop fighting immediately.

When my opponent has defeated me but keeps hurting me for fun, I can call ‘Yield!’ and the judges will end the match. Should my opponent continue fighting after I have yielded, he will be disqualified.

The most important rule, if at any time a fighter ends up killing his opponent, even if it is an accident, he will be executed as well. I guess that means I should only be afraid of being killed when my opponent is willing to follow me into the grave. I doubt many are willing to do that.

Other than that, everything is permitted. That means I can be creative with my spells and my swordplay, but I should also expect my opponents to play dirty when given the chance and it is possible for me to be wounded.