A Soldier's Life

Chapter 11: Knowledge is Power

Chapter 11: Knowledge is Power

Chapter 11 Announcement This story is on my Patreon, currently 3 chapters ahead. Two more chapters are due by Wednesday to put it five chapters ahead. It is bundled with one of my other active stories: The First World Sphere, which has 30+ advanced chapters and gets 2 chapters a week.

Mateo was coming back from dinner with Felix. They were loud as they hit their own bunks, discussing some card game they were playing during the meal. “Where is the mage?” I asked.

“Still eating. She is down in the common room,” Mateo said. He then advised as I rolled painfully to my feet, “Do not get too close. Mages, even pretty ones, are look, but don’t touch, Eryk.”

“It’s cool. I just wanted to ask her some magic-related questions. You know, between mages,” I said with a knowing smile as I stiffly walked out of the room, wincing with each step.

The stairs were hard, and I almost fell. Fucking Konstantin had targeted my right hip flexor to teach me how to cripple an opponent. The muscle was all knotted, and I rubbed it to get it working when I reached the stairs’ bottom. The common room was mostly empty because it was late, and we had an early start. Renna was studying one of her books at a table by herself, and I sat across from her. She was young. Late teens, I would guess. She looked up at me, making eye contact, but did not speak.

“I wanted to ask some questions about the book you are reading. And here is your disc back. I got it to work, and it was as I expected,” I said, sliding the artifact across the table. She put it in her satchel.

“What questions do you have?” she closed the book and gave me her attention.

“What is in the book? Does it detail the common spell forms you can make from each affinity?” I asked, knowing the title was about all twenty-one magic affinities.

“Yes, it does. Having the associated spellbook does greatly aid in the process.” She pulled out a thin spellbook that I did not catch the title of, “I am trying to learn one of the more difficult spell forms for the earth affinity. It is called hardened rock. Extremely useful in construction. Also paired with the High Mage’s earth-to-stone, it makes trapping burrowing creatures easy.” Renna explained.

“What about the other common spell forms? Like fire?” I asked, slowly getting to the information I wanted to know.

“It depends on your affinity strength. With my high affinity, I will probably be asked to form my fire into wave of flame or flaming meteor. Both are very difficult to learn,” Renna said with a tired voice. “I will not know until I am assigned to a High Mage specializing in fire.” I felt sorrow for her. Even though she was powerful, she did not control what she was learning.

“I am sure you will do it. You have the talent and affinity for it! I mean, you can fly!” I praised her. “What about healing? What are the typical spell forms for that sphere of magic?” I asked. Was I being too obvious with my interest? I needed to know, though. There was a risk of manifesting an ability much weaker than your affinity could manage, so I wanted to reach for the limit. Although, I didn’t know my affinity in healing magic, other than it was over 15.

She opened the book and paged to a specific page. I looked at the writing and was frustrated. I could read it, but my brain was still very slow in translating the script. I would have to puzzle out each word one at a time and then read the sentence like a first grade. Thankfully I had someone to read for me, “The are three tiers. The lowest tier has three options listed here. Mend bone, knit flesh, and diagnose. This lowest tier is for those with affinities under 20.”

I talked to Renna about magic but focused my attention on her, asking her about her life before becoming a mage. With Mage Castille being in earshot, I did not want to give any hints of my specific interests.

Renna grew up in a small village. Her father was a sheep herder, and her mother made wool yarn. She described the long process from shearing to cleaning to sorting to carding to spinning. I pretended to be enthralled with her descriptions and asked in-depth questions about the process. A few hours later, we were at the base of the mountains, where the team indicated they noticed the griffons returning with a kill.

I asked, “If they are already returning with a kill, doesn’t that mean they are feeding their young?”

It was Konstantin who answered my question from the back, “No. Too early in the season. The mated pair take turns hunting while the other guards the clutch of eggs. Justin may be an idiot, but his pathfinder Marius is one of the best. They came early in the season. It should be another two months before they hatch.”

Castille nodded to Konstantin for the information and then addressed the company, “We are leaving the horses here.” A wave of groans came. I was also dreading the climb. “Lucien, Donte, and Benito will stay with the horses.” The horses would also have trouble in the steep climbs and make too much noise.

Donte and Benito nodded and dismounted. I was a little upset as I had been training to be a horse master, but I guess since I carried the company’s potions, I needed to be with the lead element. Mateo helped me pack my backpack for two days as we just wanted the essentials to keep the pack as light as possible. When we started the climb, I had trouble keeping up, not because I was out of shape but because I was so bruised.

Renna was in worse shape than me. She was sucking wind and slowing our ascent up the game trails. On difficult sections, she would use short bursts of her flight ability. It got everyone asking jokingly for a ride. Castille eventually had everyone end the comments as they were starting to border on lewdness.

When we reached a summit, Castille let us eat our lunch. I collapsed hard and devoured my meal. Renna sat with me, but we didn’t talk. We just ate. Orson, one of the scouts, pointed in the distance. A few miles away, a griffon was circling another peak further into the mountains. Damn, that looked so far away.

We descended into a narrow valley, and Orson found a maybe a month-old campsite. I asked him how he determined that. He showed me the fire pit, the decomposition of the shit in the woods, and the regrowth from where the adventurers cleared for space their camp.

We didn’t pause long before heading to the far side of the wooded valley. Konstantin was next to me, and I asked, “Why haven’t creatures attacked us?”

“Our party is too big. They are scattering before us. They are out there. Do not wander off alone,” he lectured me.

I nodded as the valley ended, and we started to make another ascent.