World Sphere - 68 - Storme's First Masterwork

Chapter 68: Storme’s First Masterwork

The week turned into a frenzy of worried students. Conditioning became a week of light games and challenges. The instructors didn’t want us to be mentally or physically tired for the real challenge. We needed to pass certification for our primary and secondary weapons. We also had to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in our classroom studies. That meant answering questions from our instructor until they were satisfied.

For my staff proficiency, Elora required that I not use any spellcraft for assistance. This irked me, but it showed me how I had started to become reliant on my spells in combat. There were dangers out in the Sphere where aether went wild, aether sinks that could drain a mage’s aether in seconds, and aether dead zones where no aether existed in the natural environment, so your core would not refill.

The aether sinks were especially dangerous as they were almost always a new dungeon, establishing an entrance and pulling in the unwary traveler. This process could take a hundred years or more. I was surprised I had remembered that detail from all of Gareth’s ramblings at the meals about how fascinating dungeons were.

Fortunately, I managed to complete my staff exam on my first attempt. But Elora ruined my joy by whispering to me. “See you tonight at Twin Rocks.” I assumed that meant I had a second part to my staff testing, this time using my magic.

Mera passed her qualification, but Fera didn’t. She still had eleven more chances. One each day for the remaining eleven days of classes. Elora mentioned that if Fera failed all of them, she'd have to spend the break at the academy honing her skills. I doubted it would come to that. The instructors weren’t looking for perfection, just proof of effort and competence.

My saber qualification was with Callem. Even before the test, I knew I was going to fail. The evaluation felt arbitrary. Without being allowed to use my spells, I had no real chance against Callem. All I could do was work hard enough to meet whatever bar he had set. That didn’t happen on day one. About half the students failed with their primary weapon, and nearly eighty percent failed with their secondary.

Things didn’t ease up after. In spellcraft, Selina had requirements for each person to pass. Most of the class still needed to imprint their first spell. I had to imprint my current spell, which I thought was completely unfair. I learned multiple spells during the term, including a tier 4 one. The good news for me was that the lesser restoration spell was in the healing sphere, which I had a tier four affinity for. Two weeks was about the amount of time I estimated I would need.

Artificing class was more pleasant. Instructor Aethon just wanted me to complete four enchanted artifacts. I could do that with my metal-shaping ability in one class, but I would draw it out over the course of the week. Mia only needed to finish one simple working device.

Most of my time would be spent helping her as she was still having trouble with the exacting nature of the runes. You needed at least three runes for a working device, and they had to intersect at the correct points when you overlapped them.

I had a chance to talk with Aldon about next semester. I wanted to practice all the common runes I would need to outfit my restaurant, bakery, and apartments at the Shiny Platinum. I also wanted to start getting familiar with the runes for skyships.

The heating runes for stoves and ovens were simple, and I could duplicate them from the books. The walk-in freezer, roof water condenser, and one-way viewing glass would need some practice. I was excited about the second term of artificing. I considered I might be the best artificer in all of Skyholme, but needed to show restraint or the nobles would take too much notice.

After dinner, we took a written test covering the post-dinner lectures we had received about Skyholme’s history and law. I had not listened too intently as my mind had wandered to more important things. If this test had been multiple-choice, I probably could have done well, but it wasn't.

When I got only 27 of the 50 questions correct, Gareth was quick to grab a sheet and announce to everyone in the dining hall that Storme Hardlight was in fact, not perfect. I didn’t mind his display. It just irked me that he had passed the test by getting 45 of 50 correct.

Both the twins passed the test and soon cozied up to me. “Storme, you can come to our room, and we can help you study every night till you pass.” This, in turn, irked Gareth. He was still mending his relationship with the twins. I thought this might be an opportunity for me to do the same, as they had grown distant.

“I would love to get your tutoring,” I replied with a smile. I planned to sneak out to Twin Rocks right after the lessons and not return to my room that night. That way, Gareth would think I spent the entire evening in the twins’ room.

That night, we studied on Mera’s bed with a twin to either side of me, with the door closed. Reviewing Skyholme law and history was boring, but we covered every question I got wrong and why.

We then switched to helping the twins with their spells. Both twins were working on the privacy spell. Late at night, I slipped out their window, explaining I was going to go get extra training with Elora and Elijah. After I explained why I was sneaking out, they were totally on board with tricking Gareth into thinking I slept in their room. Mera said if I wanted to, I could sleep in her bed when I was done training and not head to Callem’s farm. I politely declined her generous offer but they would leave their window open if I changed my mind.

My jog out to Twin Rocks had me thinking about next term and what enchanting work would be needed on the skyship. I had the manual to build a skyship like the Wind Splitter, but I was already thinking of improvements in my head. I heard fighting ahead as I approached and rushed to help.

I was extremely disappointed to find Callem, Elora, Elijah, and Gareth engaged in combat. It looked like Elora and Gareth were holding off the other two. Gareth yelled while blocking two quick strikes, “Stormy, we couldn’t wait for you any longer and got started!” 

Gareth had a grin on his face the entire time as the fight finally ended. Everyone was breathing hard, and the fight was intense. Callem looked at me and said, “Hope it’s okay, but Gareth wanted to join us.” I nodded absentmindedly.

“Storme, you can heal everyone, and we’ll set up the pairings for the next round. Since your saber skills are weak, why not just use that weapon tonight,” Callem said seriously.

I healed everyone, and found there were quite a few serious injuries. Well, if Gareth was going to spoil my secret training, then I was going to spoil his sense of superiority. The first pairing was Gareth, and I paired against Callem and Elijah.

The saber was a much more limited weapon for me. I had a shorter range and took longer to recover from strikes. I quickly fell to Callem, even after directing both my aether shields at him. I didn’t see how Gareth had fared, but he fell as well.

I healed our painful injuries, and we went again and again and again. Every time it was Gareth and I paired against a pair of the masters. I wanted to oppose Gareth so I could surprise him with my lightning reflexes spell, but the opportunity never happened.

Obviously, Callem had some type of plan in place. Gareth and my teamwork slowly improved, and we started communicating better. I started using my aether shields to protect him. We developed a short verbal code for when I used an aether shield to protect him, which had a great effect. In one match, I used both aether shields to protect Gareth’s flank from Elora, allowing us to attack Callem simultaneously. Gareth got a killing blow, shocking everyone.

After our small victory, the gloves were off, and the masters beat us every time with better coordination. I think Callem was pushing me to reveal my lightning reflexes but I was too stubborn. I wanted to save that reveal for a fight with Gareth.

Finally, I said, “I have had enough.” Gareth and the weapon masters were having a grand time, but it had been over three hours, and I hadn’t had a break. Normally these sessions would be a 20-minute jog out here and two hours of training and instruction. This session was well past three hours, and they highlighted my inadequacies with the saber.

“The saber is such an inferior weapon to the staff! I should be using a sword with a two-handed grip and a heavier blade. You are just beating my light weapon aside and forcing me on the defensive every engagement.” I sat down and healed my recent wounds.

Callem smiled, “About time you realized it. Elijah, you win the bet. He thought you would figure it out the first day. I thought you would be stubborn and take at least three. Elora gave you a week because she thought you would just practice harder.”

Elora scoffed, “Yeah, and you were twice as hard on him as you needed to be. If you built the intensity slowly, he would have tried to adapt.”

Elijah added, “Real combat doesn’t give you a chance to adapt, Elora. He needed to stop wasting time on that steel twig. He has grown at least two inches and put on 20 pounds of muscle this term. He needs a bigger weapon, and it was a decision he needed to make on his own.”

It was true. My body was filling out, and I was almost 6’2”, still five inches shorter than Gareth. Working with the heavy staves, my wrists were strong, and my forearms were well-muscled. Elijah added, “I would suggest the two-handed axe, but you have spent too much time learning the sword forms. You can’t switch to using a shield due to the hand gesticulations of your spells. So I suggest….” Callem had given Elijah a look to shut up. He wanted me to determine my next weapon myself. I knew a dozen different sword types and had practiced sparingly with most.

The hand gesture of the aether shield was simple, similar to tossing a small net with my off hand. I couldn’t do it with a sword so heavy it required me to always have two hands on it. Callem and everyone waited for my decision, and I disappointed them, “Thanks, I will think about it.” I cast my cleanliness spell and walked back toward the barracks.

I could hear Gareth asking for more sparing practice. Since he had gotten the hasten dream ability, he had lots of free time at night. He usually spent it reading and studying his dungeon books. I didn’t have that luxury and needed a good six hours of sleep. Today, I would be lucky if I got five.

I had an idea of what kind of sword I would upgrade to. I wanted a two-handed slashing weapon, as that was the familiar style with the forms I had learned. That meant a katana-style blade. The blade would be heavier than a typical katana and slightly longer to take advantage of my arm length and height. I would have to make some variations and test them out over the next few days.

At the barracks, I noticed the twins had left their window open for me. It was a nice gesture, but I didn’t need to utilize the entrance since Gareth had found me at Twin Rocks. I set my alarms and privacy and passed out after dropping some platinum coins into my dimensional space.

At breakfast, Freya sat across from me, a smile splitting her face. “Storme, I have worked out seven supply contracts. The Gaskils will have their cows in two weeks, and committed to start shipping two hundred pounds of beef and two hundred pounds of chicken breast meat every 3rd day. The third day is the cheapest transport day according to father. Your quotas for flour, eggs, and butter….”

Freya’s organization and promptness in completing the task impressed me. She seemed eager to impress, and succeeded. I moved her to focus on the bakery supplies. Before we could begin receiving meat, I needed to artifice the walk-in freezer. I told Freya she was doing an excellent job.

Mia, who had listened in on the conversation, leaned in. “You are starting a restaurant in Aegis City?” 

“I am heading there on the 7th day. Do you want to come and check it out?” I asked, not looking at her as I ate my cold omelet I had ignored. Since I had spent most of the breakfast talking with Freya, I hadn’t eaten much of anything and was famished from last night.

I had hoped to hire some staff when I went to Aegis City on the 7th day. Some company not named Gareth would be welcome. Hopefully, Isla found me some candidates for the restaurant staff.

Mia was beaming as she accepted. “That would be great! I will get a skyship token.” Mia was gone before I could offer to pay for it.

During combat training, I continued to work with my saber. Most students were working on their failed weapon certifications. Some were retaking it, and others were just practicing to take it again. Training was more chaotic than normal as the instructors traveled among us and helped or tested where they could. I was planning to forge some new test weapons tonight, so I just focused on practicing the sword forms.

The rest of the day went well, but Freya checked in at lunch and dinner. She was meticulous in her planning and attention to detail. She confessed it was due to the responsibility of being given such a large sum of coin. She thought it was Callem’s coin and not mine. I wouldn’t dissuade her if that would help her do a better job.

That night, I crafted four different blades resembling katanas. I was confident mine were thicker and wider than an authentic katana. These blades were all for practicing at Twin Rocks, helping me determine which blade length suited me best and to begin getting used to a two-handed style.

During classes and at Twin Rocks, Callem and the other masters were very patient with me. Callem helped me refine the best blade for me, and my techniques began to transition over. Usually, I would spend two hours at Twin Rocks and leave Gareth with the masters. It was fun for them, as they tested and improved their skills against each other. The only point I missed was leveling my lightning reflexes spell. That was fine, as I needed to make platinum coins anyway to finish the Shiny Platinum. I was still looking forward to my big reveal to Gareth.

Mera learned the privacy spell first. She had a very small amount of aether but eagerly cast the spell over and over to work on evolving it. Fera learned the spell two days later, and the twins were now officially both mages. I offered to bring them to Aegis City to celebrate, and they accepted. They were excited to see the building that Gareth was gushing about.

Callem informed me that the dungeon crew of Lana, Talia, Remy, and Sammie would be coming to Hen’s Hollow from the sixth day to the seventh day to train with Selina, Elijah, and him. That meant Aelyn and Gareth would also be training with them. Gareth was excited when I told him, but Aelyn wasn't as thrilled that Gareth was joining them.

On fifth day, I gave Wynna 36 platinum coins while everyone else was at the bathhouse. The following day, Isla retrieved 35 of the coins from Wynna, maintaining the pretense that Callem and Wynna were funding the warehouse conversion. I had been lucky not to attract the attention of the Triumvirate families with the exception of Loriel.

I didn’t train at Twin Rocks on the sixth night with Gareth. Instead, I was in the artificing classroom. I sealed the door and set up privacy screens and alarm spells. I was going not only to make myself a new blade. I started by creating incorporating tier four aether crystal into mithril wire. I didn’t have a lot of mithril, just a small coin in size, but I was planning to embed the wire in the sword. I coated the thin mithril wire in gold.

I had tried and failed to create adamantine, the best insulator, but I had no idea what it looked like, so I couldn't form a mental image. I would need a sample before I could try my hand at creating that ridiculously precious metal.  

I planned to be ambitious with this project. I aimed to try three simple runes, each powered by a tier five aether crystal in the hilt to supply aether. With the money from selling my light globes and ice cream makers, Instructor Aethon was able to get me any supplies I needed from his family's enchanting shops in the capital. The tier 5 blue crystal was small but still worth 500 gold. Since all three runes were linked to one crystal, they would all activate when I activated it. The three runes I chose were hardness, sharpness, and anti-aether aura.

The last was just a countermeasure for someone casting magic against the blade. It meant I could not use my alarm flash-bang spell on the blade, but I was fine with that. The aura from the rune was not strong enough to cut fireballs in half, but might disrupt tier 1 spells if the blade was brought in contact with them. It would drain the crystal in the hilt, but this tier 5 crystal had a large reservoir, and I could replenish it as well.

I spent hours working on the blade and hilt. Since I was burying the runes inside the blade with my shape metal ability, the blade’s appearance should appear normal. The blade was 29 inches in length, and the guard and handle were 10 inches. Tier four aether dust was folded into the steel. I couldn’t obtain tier five dust as the cost was prohibitive for the Aethon family to stock.

When the blade was finished, I etched the runes with the prepared mithril wire. I was making the runes extremely small, and it was slow work, even with my ability. When I finished, I ran the final threads of wire to the aether crystal embedded at the base of the handle. Then, with care, I pushed all the runes in unison into the blade.

I fixed the aether crystal in place and looked over my creation. The last bit would be to get Antal in town to use his bone-shaping ability to finish the handle, and then balance the handle and blade. If I was correct in my estimations, I wouldn’t need to make any adjustments.

I marveled at my work. I had started with the idea of a katana, except it was slightly wider, and the blade’s curve was not as pronounced. The blade shape was probably closer to a falchion, albeit a two-handed falchion. I wrapped the handle tang in leather and practiced with it for a while in the sealed room. I could wield weapon one-handed or two-handed.

Its final weight would be less than five pounds. It would take some time to get used to a heavier blade, as the saber had been just under three pounds. I was too tempted not to try the runes, and activated the sharpness rune and slashed a chair. The wood parted, and the blade lodged in the stone floor. I was shocked at the effectiveness as only powerful blades could cut stone.

By using mithril in the runes, I could overcharge them and not risk damaging the integrity of the weapon. This overcharged sharpness rune of mithril was too powerful. I swore softly. I would only be able to use this blade in actual combat.

After disposing of the damaged chair, I went and made breakfast for myself because I was famished. That artificing session had taken me over seven hours, and I was hungry and tired. I started making raspberry pancakes because they were quick, and I could smother them in butter.

When I had consumed eight large pancakes, I left the dishes and went to find Antal in town. It was still early, but I woke him and his wife, “Master Antal,” I said when he came to the door.

“Storme?  Is someone injured at the Academy? How can I help?” He said after recognizing me. I suddenly felt guilty for waking the man.

“No emergency, just a secret request. Can we go to your workshop?” he nodded and told his wife to go back to bed. I had a good reputation in town, and most would assist me if I asked for something secret. I placed the wrapped blade and a wyvern horn on the table.

“Master Antal, this blade was recently placed in my care.” I unwrapped it and let Antal assume it had been given to me by Callem. “I need the hilt completed with this wyvern horn. I came so you could match the grip to me.” Antal was handling the blade as if it were a precious artifact. It took him some time to finish his inspection, but he eventually put it down.

“It is a beautiful blade. I have never seen a sword like it,” he stated. I put a large gold coin on the table next to the blade.

“Unfortunately, you didn’t see this one either,” I said, and he nodded in understanding. It was fifteen minutes later of watching him work and fitting the grip for me. His ability to shape bone was very slow but he had excellent control.

“I compacted the bone as much as I could,” he said, sweating. I picked up the blade and went through some sword forms. It felt amazing. I put the unused portion of the wyvern horn into my dimensional space. Wyverns were rare around Skyholme, and the horns were costly. This one had cost 20 gold and came from the Aethon’s family shop in the capital. Antal had only used about 20% so I could use it again on future weapons.

I thanked Antal and left. The new blade went to my dimensional space. It was early morning, and the skyship to Aegis City was scheduled to depart in an hour. If we missed it, we would have to catch one in Solaris City. I thought it best to collect the twins and Mia now.

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