16 - Making Craters

"Why don't you take him to Practice Field One, while I go get what we need?" Myllo suggested. Without waiting for an answer, the squat, hairy artificers trotted out of the room, leaving Joe and Kendell behind.

"Come on," she explained. "This is going to be fun." Taking his arm, she pulled him along with her. They retraced their way back to her front desk, where she altered her sign. Once she had marked down where she'd be, Kendell led Joe around the edge of the counter to another hallway and then through a large wooden door. This released the pair into a little walled courtyard attached to the guildhouse, which was open to the sky above. The high stone wall surrounding the trapezoid-shaped patio was littered with far too many doors for the amount of wall that enclosed it. The whole space couldn't have been much bigger than a hundred square feet, and yet it had eight doorways, not including the one in the wall behind them.

"That one takes you to the locker room," the skill-savant stated, pointing at the only door on the short left wall. "It's common practice to wash up after training before hanging out in the guildhouse. We've had a few notable holdouts to this rule, but never for long. Adventurers tend to be a pretty creative bunch. That means you don't want to give them reasons to start thinking up their own corrective measures." Kendell covered her mouth and stifled a chuckle. Joe guessed she was picturing one such correction.

She waved a hand at the four in front of them. "These lead to the training fields. Just check to make sure someone is not already working in there before you start your own training."

Lastly, she gestured to three doors on the right. "Those lead to the target range, the obstacle course, and the groundskeeper's barn. That last one I'd leave until you get to know Nard better."

After opening the first training room door, Kendell stopped and listened. She then pointed at a blank slab of dull grey metal mounted on the door. "That should be active if someone was in here, but I find it safer to check. Some people forget to mark the room. It sounds all clear. Touch your badge to the plaque, Joe," the guild trainer stated, still standing in the half-open doorway. When he did, the metal brightened into a polished bronze. "If you see the plaque active at gold or higher, be very careful entering. At our level, we should not be wandering through sessions at that rank."

When she opened the door fully and led Joe in, he was hit by a bit of vertigo. He was standing with his back to a wall that ran for maybe a hundred yards in either direction. In front of him was a long field with two small stands of trees and some structures that reminded Joe of oversized playscapes from the kid-friendly parks back on Earth. Low blocky walls crossed the vast area, cutting it up into uneven territories.

Joe stuck his head back out into the courtyard before returning it to the huge training field. Someone had clearly broken the laws of natural geometry to get all this behind that door. There was no way that just one of these fields fit into the city block that the Adventurer's Guild sat on, let alone four of them. He guessed the door could be a gate that transported him to some other place. Either that or magic was folding space and/or size here. The how was a mystery for another time, though, as Kendell was in the process of revealing more wonders.

The guilder had stepped up to a series of tall but shallow lockers mounted to the wall. She walked down to the third door, swung it open, and whistled. Out of the space that looked to be only a few inches deep stepped a tall wooden construct. It looked like a scarecrow on steroids. Standing at about seven feet tall, its log arms and legs were quite a bit thicker than Joe's thighs. It was still covered in rough bark where clothes would be and bare wood otherwise. The effect made it look like it was wearing a vest and long shorts. The head was regrettably not a pumpkin. It was a solid wooden ball; functional but not nearly as cool.

Three more lumbering lumber golems followed the first one out before Kendel closed the door to stop any more.

"Center field. Make a ten-foot spaced diamond starting at forty feet out," she commanded the four simulacra. As the wooden quartet trudged away to take their places, Kendell had Joe help her set up a table from another of the lockers. He was surprised at how similar the design was to the folding tables he was familiar with.

A few minutes later, Myllo arrived carrying a basket. In it were rolls of scrolls and smaller baskets filled with various stones. "Alright. This should be everything we need. Have you figured out which spell he should start with, Kenda?"

"I was thinking [Hail of Rock]. It is by far the most frequently used of the bunch. Upgrades would be easy for him to get his hands on." She turned to Joe to clarify. "Uncommon is called [Hail of Stones], then [Hail of Slabs] at rare. Epic is named [Hail of Boulders] and the legendary is called [Stone Storm]." Looking back at Myllo, she added. "Both you and I have seen it often enough to easily give us a baseline for his magical strength."

"Exactly my thoughts, kiddo. I knew there was a reason I hired you," he teased. From the basket he had just placed on the table, the korrigan grabbed four identical scrolls and a handful of green stone disks. "Here ya go, Joe. Batter away," he stated, handing the items to Joe and sweeping a hand toward the constructs standing in the field.. "Just make sure to blow on the jade piece to activate the spell."

Joe glanced at the scroll and felt his Spirit engage. He could feel the energy in the parchment just waiting for him to empower it. He held up the jade chip. As he unleashed his mana and will, he blew on the small piece of jade. The soft green stone burst into flames, vanishing into nothingness. An instant later, rocks began to fall out of the sky, seemingly from nowhere.

Unfortunately, Joe had missed a step. A melon-sized stone hammered into the ground just a few inches in front of where the three were standing. Kendell yelped and leapt backwards, with a bound worthy of [Hunter's Pursuit]. Joe followed her, jumping out from under the falling hunks of earth. Myllo swore and tapped his arm before swinging it above his head. A blue shield of hard light manifested on his arm just before a stream of rock began to clank off the barrier.

"My fault, son. Guess you haven't had much scroll practice yet," the little man shouted as the rain of rocks tapered off. "It's a common rookie mistake. Get the aim fixed in your mind first. Then activate."

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"Yeah, but did you see the size of those rocks, chief. That was a common rarity version of the spell. When I cast [Hail of Rocks], I get apples. He was dropping pineapples."

"True. I think I know who I'm going to get to help Nard repair the foundations on the back terrace after Reven's last visit. Try it again, Joe. I agree with Kenda that that was a very promising casting, but we were a bit distracted to gauge it fully."

"Scroll use is pretty simple, Joe," Kendell coached. "Almost every one is written in the same order. At least all the ones we will use today will be. If you find an old scroll or a foreign one, look first. Otherwise, your first thought is where the spell is going to go. Then, how strong do you want the effect to be. This is if you are not going to go full blast. Don't bother adjusting the strengths now. We want to see your full power. Next, acknowledge the component or casting tool. Finally, feed it mana, stamina, or health. Got it?"

"Got it. Sorry about that."

After they reassured him it was not an issue, Joe looked to where the log golems stood.

Target Manikin: Level 10: Construct, Brute, Vigor

With the location fixed in his head, he repeated what he had done the first time. The result was even more impressive when he could actually watch it. There was no rift or hole in the air. Just stones appearing out of nowhere to batter the wooden figures. Chips of bark and wood flew off the manikins during the three or four seconds of magical rockfall.

"I'd say we have our baseline. That lines up with his near-perfect {Earth} affinity," Myllo declared with an impressed tone. Joe couldn't help it as a warm blush of pride filled him. He knew he was a good healer, at least according to the Murrceeans. Yet this man here was saying he was great with this spell. Not just good. It was hard not to let it go to his head a bit.

As Kendell yelled for the battered log target dummies to stand back up, Myllo asked her a question. "Alright, I pulled the higher rarities of the Hail spells. Want to see what he does with an Uncommon? Or run through them all at the lowest level first?"

"Second option for sure, chief. Watching him drop slabs for stones and boulders for slabs will be fun, but let's rule out the losers first."

"Okey doke. You're the savant. What's next?"

"[Flaying Flint] or [Scouring Sands]. I'd like to see how he does without material components."

Myllo handed Joe both of the scrolls in question. Joe unrolled one and skimmed his eyes down the page without touching his mana. He saw they were as Kendell had described. Four blocks of directions were on the small sheet, though they looked like they were written in code. Somehow, the arcane formulas vaguely made sense to Joe. There was a lot about them he didn't quite understand, but he could feel what each 'paragraph' wanted from him.

He chose [Flaying Flint] first, as it sounded cooler. Once again, setting his attention on the practice forms in the field first, Joe acknowledged the rest of the scroll. This time, instead of the jade disk, the casting focus of the spell was his hand, which he knew he needed to extend toward his targets.

The second he finalized the spell, a ripple filled the air in front of his hand. Joe looked into the churning space and felt a wave of vertigo spinning against his head. Thankfully, [Iron Mind] shut down the dizziness before Joe's arm moved more than a few degrees off target.

[Iron Mind]: You have Major Resistance against Domination and Confusion effects.

Looking into the gap between worlds was clearly confusing as all hell, which caused Joe to wonder if its presence was a bonus aspect of the spell. Or did the locals know better than to stare into churning dimensional rifts? Regardless, Joe's eyes lifted from the tear in reality to the line of rocky shards that was cutting into one of the manikins.

He could have aimed better to get two targets, but even so, the shredding stream of stones was in the process of mangling the log construct. It tore through its left hip joint, even though he had been aiming at its chest before the void-induced fugue spoiled his aim. His missed placement ended up working in his favor. The joint blew apart in a manner that the center of its chest probably wouldn't have. The shards severed the leg, toppling the wooden golem onto the turf.

"Not bad," Kendell huffed, sounding unimpressed. "For the increased mana cost of [Flaying Flint], I would have expected more. I think he has a better affinity with the Hail spells," the savant stated, cocking her head slightly as she assessed the broken simulacrum.

"Just to get this straight,' Joe interjected. "I have a certain level of connection to a base affinity. And then again to a specific affinity, and then again to the specific spell? Does this mean I could be, for instance, mediocre with {Earth} and {Beast}, but better with {Bone} and even better with some {Bone}-based skill?"

"Yes. Definitely so with the first two," the skill expert agreed. She waggled her hand back and forth as she added, "Less so with the specific skill. But there is some shading of improved connectivity between casters and certain spells. Which is what we are testing for here, since you are looking for a general type of spell. We have a limited pool to test from, so why not try out the whole bunch?"

"Normally, we'd charge you for the scrolls, but consider this our welcome to the guild gift," Myllo offered. "Most folks find the affinity they are best at and just pick the skills they like from it. That being said, there are some who are very particular about the spells they pick. Heavens forfend they choose something outside of the exact best choice."

"You are talking about Kerrig, aren't you?" Kendell asked, smiling broadly.

"Yup," the stout guilder confirmed, shaking his head. Noticing Joe was being left out of the exchange, Myllo pointed at the other scroll Joe was holding and rolled his finger.

For the next half an hour, the three of them watched Joe pound the wooden golems with various earthen attacks. Myllo even ducked back inside to grab a few more options they thought of mid-testing.

In the end, they settled on the one called [Grit Razor].

[Grit Razor] - Uncommon - Spirit: Magically crumble a stone you can hold in your palm into a pile of little flinty fragments, which you infuse with destructive mana. The attack is a wide arc of slashing stone splinters within medium range. The level of damage increases the longer the caster infuses the grit for, ranging from Modest to Median damage, as well as for each skill rank you have with this skill. Cost: Moderate Mana | Range: Medium. {Earth}

This was a less popular spell due to its long casting time. It usually took a few seconds to break down the stone and then another span of seconds to charge up the grit. Five to ten seconds in combat was an eternity, which was a deal breaker for most combat mages.

Yet the limitation was mostly negated thanks to Joe's Superior affinity with {Earth}-magic. As Myllo had a better {Earth} affinity than Kendell, he was their control subject. What took Myllo six seconds to accomplish, Joe could do in under three.

And Joe's damage was so much better. If he did hold for the maximum time of roughly ten seconds, his fan of gritty devastation could tear the limbs off the target dummies in one shot, ripping open their torsos in the process.

No other spell felt nearly as right to Joe either. He loved the simplicity of [Hail of Rocks], the cork-screw effect of [Scouring Sands], the precision of [Flaying Flint], and the craziness of [Stonestar], but he was sold on [Grit Razor] the moment he cast it.

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