Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 45

“She looks happy.” I whispered, trying to stay quiet to not disturb her. It had been some work to get this all set up. Apparently Hawkstrider breeding was a serious thing in the Capital, and it had taken a long time to find someone willing to pair a Hawkstrider with Chocobo. 

“Your girl was quick.” Belinar offered, half laughing. I’d met the guy through Tira’nore as I’d been unable to find anyone willing to pair with Chocobo. 

But his little ranch area on the outskirts of Silvermoon didn’t just supply the best of the best Hawkstriders, and he’d been willing to bring Chocobo on. 

The matching Blue Hawkstrider male was pacing around guarding her as she brooded. It was actually funny, usually it was the males that brooded the eggs, but she’d been very aggressive in taking her place. 

So there she was. 

Looking more content than I had ever seen her before with a batch of eggs under her.

“As agreed you’ll have the first pick of the brood.”

“Thank you.” I agreed, looking over my girl. She was happy here, and it was sad not to have her, but this was definitely the place she wanted to be.

But I’d be able to select a child from her brood, and more from any future brood as well. Chocobo didn’t want to run around and fight, she wanted to brood over eggs.

So it was a good deal.

It did mean I had to walk through the city a lot more though which was a bummer.

I considered jumping in to go see her, but she was brooding, and being protected by her new boyfriend.

“I appreciate your help.”

“Ah well, I did nothing, you are helping me out. Not everyone wants the real elite Hawkstriders, sometimes people need slower sturdier birds.” He explained and I nodded. 

For every race horse, there were a lot more working horses after all. It made sense. 

Chocobo was never really meant to be a fighting bird. I’d hopefully get something a bit better out of her brood, but if not, the fact she was happy was…

“Ugh.” I groaned and walked away. 

“Alah’Dorah?”

“It’s just frustrating. I really liked that stupid bird. She was supposed to be my mount.” I continued walking cause if I didn’t I was going to want to call her up and race off with her, and she just wasn’t good for that.

—--

I shuffled into the shop cursing myself for letting Chocobo go as the walk across the city was annoying after a long day in the Foundry.

As I entered Tira’nore, nodded at me, as I walked through thankfully there were no customers, otherwise they would smell me.

“When you are cleaned up Miss Alah’Dorah, the Magistrix stated she wishes to see you.”

“Ah thanks Tira’nore, I’ll see her.” I said half yawning as I walked past. Papa was enchanting again. Work in the shop had picked up, and it wasn’t the fancy Atelier stuff we sold to nobles.

More and more deliveries were dropped off that were weapons and armor, and getting them enchanted was now a military matter.

I left Papa to his work, Sha’Narin was working as his assistant again. Anything Papa needed he’d grab so Papa could just focus on the work.

Papa had always been happy to just do it all himself, but I think he enjoyed the assistant that didn’t talk all the time.

Getting up the stairs was a chore, but I headed to my room, and grinned at the already full bathtub. Being smart in the mornings and adding Conjure Refreshments into my cycle meant I filled the bathtub up before I left for the day. 

I peeled out of my tough work clothes that I’d picked up because the play clothes Mama had bought me when we first moved here hadn’t held up super well against forge sparks. And then sat on the edge of the fancy bathtub and stuck my hand in, casting Heat Water over and over. The Cantrip barely dented my Mana pool with Blessing of Wisdom active so I just took a few minutes to properly heat it all, and then I slipped in.

“Oooooh.” I moaned as I sunk into the water. A hot bath after a day's work was a real pleasure. Yet as soon as I relaxed I started considering the situation.

I raised my hand and cast a spell.

The sound of Arcane Reactions rang through the room before a gem fell into my palm.

It was no longer the small Mana Agate. I’d moved past the green gems along with my Apprentice Mastery. 

[Create Mana Gem Lv 22 124/220] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Spirit]

Grinding out the spell was too useful not to keep working on whenever I could. I dropped the red gem on the ground beside the bathtub, I’d pick them up when I was done, but then I sighed and started casting again.

There was no time to truly stop. Always work on something. Keep the grind going. 

—--

“Grandma?” I called out having dropped off the gems upstairs. I came back around to see El’Tela.

Her Drawing room as usual was ornate and fancy, but it had a more lived in feel now. She was sitting on one of her big couches, practically engulfed by the couch as she rested back, her feet up on a footstool. 

“Hm. Come over.” She called out, putting the book she’d been reading aside. I walked over and sat beside her facing her as she looked me over. “How is this job of yours?”

“It’s going good!” I said chipperly. I couldn’t help but feel the evil grin spread across my face.

“No more trouble from the fool?”

“Of course not. He’s still terrified of me. Your letter was more than enough to make sure his contract was treated fairly. I’m earning pay as a regular worker, but you already knew that.”

“I was just checking. Sometimes even after a stern reminder fools might think the attention is off them and try something.”

“Not him. I don’t think he quite knows what to make of me.”

“A foolish girl working in a Foundry is confusing to me as well.” She commented side eyeing me.

No one really understood why the Foundry was important to me, or why I kept going back especially when the little contract I had signed had come around to try and bite me in the ass.

Seriously if the guy hadn’t been so greedy he would have been fine, but Boss Ilinar had been a little too greedy.

So when I’d ended up owing him ten gold for the ‘damaged’ materials, I’d just laughed at him, and had El’Tela write up a letter

Honestly I’d at most caused a few silver in damages over the course of me being there, and earned him a lot more.

Poor guy hadn’t reacted well when he realized I had a Magistrix in my family and she was more than happy to come have a chat with him.

The gold I’d ‘owed’ had disappeared and the contract was over. Then I surprised him by still working the next day.

Making the arrow heads was work, but it had given me a lot of Blacksmithing experience.

And now things had changed. I’d have quit by now if not for the changes. Iron no longer came as pretty bars. We were smelting down iron, or brass, or steel objects half the time. 

Old fences would come in, scrapped brass wall platings. Anything you could imagine that was old scrap was brought in, we were reforging the items, and the different materials and items were giving me XP when I worked through the process so I stuck it out for now.

I’d get to the point of not getting XP at the Foundry and then I would quit, or figure out something else.

But glancing at my stat sheet, for now it was incredibly valuable. 

[Blacksmithing Lv 12 79/120] [Apprentice]

-[Apprentice Blacksmithing: Increased speed of smithing]

“Hmph.”

“Don’t give me that look Grandma. I like smithing, and look at my muscles!” I flexed my arm and the muscles stood out.

“All the time wasted when you could be practicing your magic.”

“Not even I can practice magic all day every day. I need something else too.” I reminded her, a common argument since that first morning I had explained I’d gotten a job.

She had not been pleased, and still wasn’t. 

“But such a thing? I could have hired tutors, or-”

“Sometimes simple is best.” I interrupted her. Sure a smithing Tutor sounded awesome, but I just needed hands on time with a hammer and metal, and the Foundry gave that to me in spades.

“It’s not respectable.”

“Blacksmithing is one of the most important skills in the world, right next to Magic.”

“As if it is even close to magic.”

“Can’t build nearly anything without a good smith.”

She was not agreeing, and I wasn’t going to budge.

“I’ve hit a bit of a breakthrough with Evocation. Want to talk about that instead, or do you want to just grumble at me?” My words, shared in a chipper tone earned me a reproachful glare, but she nodded. 

“Show me.”

I reached out, and Mage Hand grabbed a quill, and paper from the desk across the room, and then I started writing out the changes to the spell.

I looked over the completed spell page, and handed it to El’Tela. She’d be surprised. It had been two levels since I showed her the spell.

[Evocation Lv 18 3/180] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

Evocation was tiring to level, mostly because of the cooldown, but I’d started cycling it in whenever I felt like I could cast it. Mixing it with a Blessing of Wisdom, which was getting draining to cast, and I’d level it as quickly as I could.

“Hmm… You’ve lowered the strain again. And I noticed you still haven’t integrated the changes from the Hall of Theory.”

“Their changes increase the strain of the spell. Mine is better.” I said and El’Tela slowly smirked, as she kept looking at the paper, she didn’t agree or disagree, but her smirk spoke well.

“And how is your Arcane Mind coming?” She prompted suddenly, and I sighed. 

“It’s… Coming?”

“You must work to improve it if you wish it to grow.”

“I know.” I said, and then sighed. Arcane Mind like Arcane meditation took more than just having it to improve, I had to sort of work on the skill, and I hadn’t done it much. 

El’Tela’s after breakfast work had been focusing on seemingly random things. Working less on spell work with me, and more testing my thoughts on things about the Arcane. She had at least been interested in discussing Light Spells, and we’d been working on making new ones with mixed results.

Yet she had found some books that mentioned Elune which I had read through. Most of them were fairly useless, still it was sweet of her.

At this point I think she mostly just liked the company.

—--

I parried and pushed in, Zo’Talana forced to backpedal as I went on the attack

Although he was still much stronger than me, that gap had closed a lot, as I worked hard and grew stronger and taller. It was something I really liked that he kept coming back every once in a while to spar with me.

My shield rang as it blocked a riposte he had tried to slip through and I made him suffer the attempt as I pushed hard with my shield pushing his sword out of position and he had to the do the same with his shield, even spinning to stop my thrust to get his own sword back into position as I’d locked him out of step so badly.

“Distracted.” I stated once, and it was true. While still a monster with his sword and shield, he’d been slower than normal, distracted.

“Perhaps, but no matter how many handicaps I give you, it is not enough.”

“We’ll see. Grunkle.” I said and smiled as he instantly lashed out. He really hated that nickname. We flowed back into it, swords and shields flowing, striking with both, and parrying, flowing blows away from each other. 

“You have yet to find a synergy. It is why you cannot defeat me.”

“Okay now you are just saying random shit.”

“I am not.”

I grumbled at his vague statements as we continued to hammer away at each other.

“Okay then explain it.” I twisted to the side avoiding a thrust through my guard and then slammed my own shield into his. Which rang out and pushed me back purposefully giving me space to regain my balance.

“Spellbreakers are not warriors.” He said, not lowering his weapons as he paced around me. “We are not savage Trolls that rely on the hatred in their heart for power. We are the elegance of the Arcane. You do not enhance your attacks with the Arcane, so you simply can’t overcome my strikes.”

“Do I need to pull out the magic and beat you again?” I reminded him, and he lashed out, once again pushing me around.

“The Trolls will attack with their rage, enhancing their blows. We use Arcane to ensure that every strike is perfect, calm precision. You do neither. You are skilled girl, perhaps the most skilled I have ever trained, and perhaps if you keep it up, you will surpass me, but you do so while crippling yourself.”

“Wait wait wait.” I pushed him back and this time fully stepped back and then. “What are you talking about?”

“Is it such a surprise? You believe that I do not fight with the Arcane just as a mage does? To enhance my blows?”

“No I just… Wait wait wait.”

Rage. The Warrior ability. Not Mana, but the ability to use their enhanced blows, how would that translate to something not a game.

Maybe… Maybe it strengthened their blows.

I looked at my character sheet for a moment.

Strength 27 +5

It had been improving steadily as I worked in the Foundry, and training every day, but it was still slow. Not compared to the massive increases I’d gotten in Intellect.

Or rather my base intellect still leveled slowly, but the modifier kept shooting up.

So then… How do I get strength modifiers? I’d always thought I just needed equipment, but Rage…. Rage was the answer?

Or rather, not. Because I don’t think I could fight like that, and Grunkle had already revealed something else. 

Arcane.

He used Arcane to enhance his blows, instead of Rage.

I’d never noticed, I’d never even caught a whiff of it, so how?”

“How do you do it? I’ve never seen magic on your blade like that.”

“It is internal girl. I do not coat my blade in Arcane and smash someone with it, what are you a savage?”

“I mean, if it worked, yeah. Mana Enhancement is sort of like that.”

“It does not, and Mana Enhancement only protects your blades and does not strengthen your blows, no matter how you might try.” He grumbled at me, and I had a sudden thought.

“Tried it already, and it was no good?”

His eyes narrowed. Yep. He’d definitely tried it. Grunkle Zo’Talana was the sort of guy that he’d use anything to win in a fight.

“Center your mind on the Arcane, and allow the benefits to empower your blows. It is how despite your shield and blade I still stick my blade through your openings. I can see every opening in your defense no matter how small.”

“Yeah but how?”

“Training.”

“Ugh! Stop being vague and annoying and just tell me!”

“I can not, even if I knew. Each must discover it themselves. It is what separates the elite from the chaff. Focus on the Arcane, use what you have learned not just for magic, but to battle as well.” He gave me a pointed look.

So I scoffed at him.

Whatever. Now that I knew I was missing something I could learn it. Rage, Arcane. Different powers that could enhance a warrior.

But I wasn’t going to be a warrior, I was going to be a Paladin.

I felt my fingers tap on my shield as I considered it.

Rage. Rage. Rage! How could I have ignored Rage. 

I don’t think I could figure that out, but I was already working on Light, if Arcane would work, then Light must as well…

Focus on the Light as I fought? 

I breathed in and out, and let my Mana convert into Light, nearly all of it, filling myself with energy that was gathering but already starting to flow away without focus. 

Then I charged. 

Grunkle scoffed, noticing what I was doing and not thinking highly of it. Our blades once more met, and I tried to urge the Light inside me to act.

Practically glowing, my blade spun and slashed out, but his shield was there, and then his body pushed me back.

The feeling of the Light in me faded.

Blessing of Wisdom as always came in clutch though.

I converted the Mana to Light again, and went in.

Shield Bash! I tackled into his shield, staggering Zo’Talana back, but he adjusted and we once more went at it.

Nothing felt like it worked, but the idea was set in my mind, I just needed… Inspiration.

“Enough.” He called out and I stepped back lowering my blade, and there was a mutual understanding, spar was over.

“I’ll figure it out.” I warned him, and he sent me a haughty look. “If I feared you learning it, I would not have brought up your failings.”

“Rude.” I grumbled at him, but he jerked his head, and we headed downstairs. To my surprise he waved me to follow as he went all the way down, and then out the front of the shop onto the main street.

Still half sweaty and wearing our weapons training blades they might be, we got some looks as we headed across the courtyard, the massive area was where the King or the Royal Family would sometimes come out and speak to the people.

I’d watched him from my window actually. As the King spoke about the Troll threat and how the Rangers were now formally a military formation of our people.

To go beyond where the guards defended, and bring our wrath to our enemies.

It was a stirring speech, and would have been stronger if I didn’t already know shit was fucked.

Zo’Talana ended up at a cafe of all places. The fancy place didn’t hesitate to find a seat for us though, welcoming him like he was a regular.

“You come to this place a lot Grunkle?”

He twitched, sending me a glare.

“It is a fine establishment. Order.” He demanded from me, and well since he was buying. The food was good, and we both ended up sort of enjoying each other's company as we ate.

“I’ll be leaving soon. To assist with the defense of the Gate.” His words came out of nowhere as I was half way to bringing a lovely sandwich up to my mouth. I lowered it.

“Be careful.”

“The Trolls will not-”

“Uncle!” I snapped, getting his attention. “If you are there, make sure you have an escape route when they surge over the gate. A dragonhawk, or a Hawkstrider at least. Because it’s going to happen.”

“The gate will hold.” He declared with amusement at my words, but I shook my head.

“No… It won’t. Even if you believe it will, make sure you have a way to get away in case it doesn’t…”

“I will have my dragonhawk with me. Does this reassure you?”

“It does… You might want to talk about an evacuation plan for all the villages behind the gate as well.”

“Perhaps.”