Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.52 (84) (Patreon)

Nick was enjoying watching Nero train. He had initially thought it would be nothing more than a review session, as he expected to be reminded of his time at the Centerpoint Academy. Yet, he found himself admiring the unique curriculum Specialist Howard had created. It was a very bare-bones introduction to spell casting, and Nick found the idea of using the elemental wheel as the foundation for the class, inspired. But, he had to admit that it only worked because of how rare a student Nero turned out to be.

Nero seemed to be able to actually watch individual streams of essence with his psychic field. Typically, mages could only get a general sense of what went on around them in the ethereal plane. It could take weeks before they could learn to recognize the individual streams. But Nero could do it in moments. Nick found it both fascinating and disturbing in equal measure.

Over the past few days, Nick had watched Nero pick up spells like he was reading what the specialist wrote in the air. Not only that, but Nero also seemed to be able to memorize the spell-forms without issue. The worst part for Nick was that Nero seemed to be able to recognize the individual sections which made up the spells. Nick could do the same, but it took him hours of correlative analysis, while Nero just said, ‘Huh? This looks a lot like that part from the last spell. Neat.’ Nick couldn’t help but be a little jealous.

Nick was thinking about how odd Nero was while sitting on a chair at the edge of the training arena. He was enjoying an iced tea from his custom made expanded flask, while shouting out encouragement to Nero. He had to admit, this was the best part of his day. He got to sit down and watch Nero constantly fail. Specialist Howard did an amazing job of always pushing Nero a little faster than he could handle. Nick watched as Nero bounced around the arena, dodging spells while muttering insults and complaints. The smile on Nick’s face was unconscious, and he didn’t even notice he was doing it.

When Nero took a spike to the shoulder, Nick winced. ‘That had to hurt,’ he thought.

Shaking his head in amusement, he watched Nero stand up and rip out the spike while healing himself. ‘What a stubborn jack-ass,’ thought Nick.

He shouted, “Nero, stop being an idiot. Don’t waste your center on healing, that’s what the medics are for. You should be focusing on combat.”

Nick was worried that Nero was getting a little too worked up. If he knew Nero, and he thought he did, the young man would soon do something idiotic and amazing. Sure enough, during the next exchange, Nero managed to overpower the specialist’s control of his constructs and use them against him. ‘How the hell did he do that?’ Nick wondered.

Listening to Nero laugh at the specialist’s pain, Nick frowned in worry. Specialist Howard was a professional soldier, they didn’t typically handle failure well. Unsurprisingly, the specialist responded with several spells overlapped. Wincing, Nick braced himself for the pain Nero would soon be feeling.

He watched Nero drop to the ground and avoid turning into a pin-cushion. But, then Nero did something he had never seen before, he wrapped a construct inside another construct and launched them both at the specialist. ‘That’s diabolical!’ he thought.

Glancing over at Specialist Howard, Nick wondered if the man had noticed. The specialist was looking furious, and his anger and pride were clouding his judgment. ‘Uh-oh,’ he thought.

Nick watched as the specialist refused to dodge and relied on his control to dissolve Nero’s construct. Nick’s worry was justified, as the specialist hadn’t noticed the spike. When it hit the man in the same place as Nero’s previous spike, Nick stood up. Hopefully, the specialist would take a breath and not rise to the insult. Nick kept his eyes locked on the specialist as he heard Nero’s raspy laugh.

But his eyes whipped over to Nero as the laugh cut off abruptly. Nick stored his flask of iced tea into his personal space and rushed over to check on Nero. ‘Did that little shit just kill himself?’ he mentally screamed. Everyone knew that center-over-use could result in permanent death. Nick was panicking while he ran.

He was only 5 units away when a gold flash caused him to stutter to a stop. Nick saw Arch-mage Jennings appear with an annoyed look on his face. The man bent down over Nero and then his hands glowed.

Nick cautiously approached and said, “Arch-mage, how bad is it?”

Jennings didn’t look up, but said in an annoyed voice, “The idiot almost emptied his center. You don’t have to worry though, his soul is damn-near welded into this body. I don’t think he’s in any danger. Although, he’ll be out for a while. What the hell happened? I just got an emergency request to get over here?”

Nick said, “Nero was training in combat casting. You’d be amazed at his progress. He already has a pretty solid grasp on seizing the center of the fight. But I think he got a little annoyed at how the specialist was treating him.”

As they were talking, Specialist Howard walked up to them. He had already healed himself, and then cleaned and repaired his shirt. The man looked fresh as a daisy. He said, “I was trying to teach him to dodge while casting. I wanted him to work on paying attention to multiple things at once. But I think I might have pissed him off.”

Nick snorted, and said, “You think? You were standing there, pelting him from across the arena, making him dance like a performer, while you stood there with a smile on your face. Nero’s anger was justified. What I don’t understand is how you let him hit you. You lost control of the fight.”

While Arch-mage Jennings eyebrows rose in interest, the specialist bristled. Specialist Howard said in a tight voice, “I just didn’t expect him to take control of my constructs. We hadn’t covered that yet. I may not have imbued them with a lot of center, but he still shouldn’t have been able to take them over.”

The arch-mage stood up from the bloody body of Nero, seemingly satisfied with leaving the young man as-is. He said, “He actually took over your constructs? That’s amazing!”

Nick smiled and said, “You think that’s amazing, then listen to this. He wrapped a construct inside another construct in order to hide it.” Nick gestured to the specialist and said, “Our brilliant war-mage over there didn’t bother to check and just dispelled the outer shell. He took an ‘iron spike’ right in the gut.”

To his credit, the specialist blushed. But the arch-mage seemed shocked and stared down at Nero’s passed out body. After a few seconds of appraisal, he looked back to the specialist and said, “You actually let him hit you?”

Specialist Howard met the arch-mage’s stare, and said, “I didn’t LET him do anything. The boy tricked me. And let me tell you, his constructs aren’t weak. He pierced my essence shield on his own. I may not have been reinforcing it much, but he still managed to pierce it. His accomplishment was earned.”

Nick smiled at the interchange. Although he enjoyed giving Nero a hard time, it gave him an odd sense of pride to hear two powerful individuals talking about Nero’s talents. The more time he spent with Nero, the more the young man felt like the little brother he always wished he had. His actual family was too annoying. Frowning, Nick realized that Nero was just annoying in a different, more preferable, way.

Arch-mage Jennings broke the staring contest, and said, “Well, the young man is remarkable. You are his trainer, so his accomplishments are yours to share. I’d recommend not letting your pride blind you. I’d bet that he used it against you.”

Nick chuckled and said, “Did it not occur to you two that Nero succeeded because the specialist was ignoring the very lesson he was trying to teach Nero. The man just stood there and didn’t dodge. He didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on in the ethereal plane. And even worse, he didn’t focus on keeping control of the center.”

Arch-mage Jennings and Specialist Howard shared a look, then they both burst into laughter. Rubbing his neck in shame, Specialist Howard said, “You’re right. In fact, you’re both right. I’m going to have to keep on my toes around him. The general warned me that the kid had a tactical mind, but I don’t think I understood what he meant until just now.”

Arch-mage Jennings nodded with his amusement clear on his face. The man then lost his smile and said, “But you both neglected to warn him about the dangers of center-over-use. He could have killed himself while achieving his victory. You need to sit him down and explain how stupid that was. Also, don’t make me come back here. I have other things I need to be doing. I can’t keep coming around here.” Fixing both Nick and Howard with his harsh glare, he said, “I. Am. Busy.” Then with a ‘pop’ and a flash of gold, he vanished.

Nick smirked at the arch-mage’s antics and then looked down at the splayed body of Nero. The young man had blood trails from his ears, eyes, and nose. His chest and back were covered in dried blood, and his pants were ripped up and covered in blood as well. If Nick didn’t know any better, he would have though he was looking at a dead body. Nero didn’t even look like he was breathing.

Sighing, he said, “OK. Let’s get the little lord cleaned up. He can sleep it off while we try to figure out how he stacked constructs.”

When the specialist and Nick bent down to drag Nero off to the side, the specialist said, “You don’t know how to do that? It’s not that hard. You just need to cast two spells simultaneously, then have one of the spell-forms create the construct over the other one. It’s a simple trick.”

Snorting, Nick said, “If you already knew that it could be done, then why didn’t you stop him from spiking you in the gut?… Twice.”

While Nick was holding Nero’s legs, the specialist was holding Nero by his shoulders. They were carrying Nero’s unconscious body off to the side of the arena in order to put him on a bench and clean him up. Specialist Howard grimaced at Nick’s question, and muttered, “Shut up Nick.”

Stifling a chuckle, Nick tried to keep quiet. He really did enjoy watching Nero train.

-----

Day 8’s morning training was everything Nero hoped it would be. He felt like he had grown metaphorical wings. Everything was so much easier. He even managed to complete the rope-walk on his first try.

Captain Angelton had noticed Nero’s progress, and made sure to adjust Nero’s tasks to keep it interesting. Nero went from having to do the very basics, to now having to do a more difficult version. For example, Nero had been doing normal pull-ups, but now he had to pull himself up, then raise himself above the bar resting it on his stomach, then he could drop back down and do it again. He still wasn’t doing the crazy crap the other recruits were doing, but it was a step in the right direction. By the end of the morning exercises, he was just as tired as usual.

Smiling, Nero cast a cleaning spell, then joined his training group for morning breakfast. On the way to the dining hall, they slowly came together. Rose and Nick spent the time talking about some famous person they both admired. Cathleen ignored everything as usual, and just walked next them in silence.

Nero couldn’t help but ask, “I don’t get it. You’re saying that this Madam Humphrey got famous by hosting a show over the link?”

Rose seemed excited about the subject, and said, “Yeah, it’s in the editorial section. She covers trade concerns, and how to understand the pricing structures. Her editorial last year on the expanded caravans was amazing.”

Nick nodded along, apparently in agreement. Nero just looked at them like they were crazy. “So she hosts an educational program on how the trade system works between cities. That made her famous? She can live off that?”

Confused, Rose said, “No, she doesn’t make any money from that. She just does it as a public service. Although she does get sponsored to attend symposiums and lectures across all of Oglivarch. But she usually stays in Dorchester. She is technically a member of House Margrave. She makes her money managing a shipping concern out of gate 3 I think. But she is pretty ‘famous’ I guess.”

Nero shook his head in exasperation. It was like the entire city was treating Bob Ross as a movie star. After reflecting on that thought, Nero couldn’t decide if it was any weirder than celebrating a twitch streamer. He decided that it probably wasn’t, then promptly ignored the rest of their conversation. He only cared about HIS favorite streamers, other people’s were stupid.

By the time they sat down for breakfast, Nero had completely mentally detached himself from what was going on around him. His thoughts were filled with spell-forms, along with a really cool martial arts kata that he was designing. He figured that if the world was going to teach him how to fight, he could at least offer a kata to collective memory of humanity. Nero considered it his good deed for the decade.

“Are you even listening to me?” Nick said, snapping Nero out of his thoughts.

Nero’s fork was halfway to his mouth, and he froze like a deer in headlights. He looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him. Calmly setting his fork down, he turned to Nick and said, “Of course I was listening. I just thought you were talking to Cathleen.”

Nick gave Nero a blank stare and said, “You thought I was asking Cathleen whether or not she was looking forward to fighting herself now that she recently leveled?”

Nero returned the stare and said, “Yes. I thought you were being metaphorical, and I didn’t want to presume.”

Cathleen chuckled, while Rose’s water went down the wrong pipe. Rose started coughing, while holding back a laugh. Nick just shook his head in exasperation. He knew there was no point in trying to get Nero to admit anything.

He said, “Fine. Forget about it. Do you have something on your mind you want to talk about?”

Nero took a sip of coffee, then said, “Not really. Wait… Did you ever figure out anything about my mental projection thing that I do when I meditate?”

Nick shook his head, and said, “Nope. I looked into it, but didn’t find anything. I even checked the mage tower and referenced their archives. The closest thing I could find was a meditation technique for arch-mage’s to categorize their memories. When you’re a thousand years old, there is a great deal of information they have to remember. In order to speed up their recall, they practice ‘mental indexing’ which sounds similar to what you’re doing. However, I think your mental space is a byproduct of your overly-developed soul.”

Nero asked, “Because I’m an old soul.” Nero smirked as if he just made a joke.

Nick didn’t seem to notice, and just nodded. “Yes. Who knows how long you floated around the higher planes before you were pulled down. All that time would allow your soul to change in ways we can’t predict, or even measure without some intensive scans. If you really care, we could hook you up to a ‘delving sled’ and see what we can find,” he said.

Nero shook his head emphatically. “No way. I don’t really care, and it doesn’t matter anyway. The whole thing makes leveling easier, so I’m just going to say ‘thank you’ to the powers that be, and forget about it.”

Shrugging, Nick returned to his meal.

Cathleen stepped in to the conversation by saying, “So Nero, are you looking forward to pushing your new ‘body’ stats?”

Smiling, Nero said, “Sure. I doubt it will make much of a difference, but it should be fun.”

Rose asked, “This wasn’t your first body star was it? Why is everyone so fixated on this?”

Nero shrugged, and replied, “I think they just want to get my hopes up. That way they can enjoy watching me get pissed when I fail to see a substantial improvement.”

Cathleen and Nick chuckled, while Rose looked confused. Nero felt bad for her. She didn’t seem to understand the dynamic between Nero them. Rather than explain it, he decided to change the subject.

“How do you like your training? You’re doing archer stuff right?” he asked.

Rose nodded, and said, “Yes. The firing range here is amazing. I even got to shoot an essence bow. But it tired me out faster than I thought it would. I can’t imagine how powerful people have to be in order to use them in the wilds. Normally I use …”

Nero interrupted. “Hold on. What’s an ‘essence bow’?”

Rose raised an eyebrow in surprise, and said, “Essence bows are enchanted bows that channel your center in order to create arrow constructs. They use the ambient essence to create solidified spell-forms. They can be incredibly powerful, but they require a lot of center. People are usually over level 50 before they get to use them.”

Nero was intrigued. He hadn’t really explored the crafting of this world, and this seemed like a good place to start. “So someone created an identity for the bow, and then taught it how to make enchanted arrows?” he asked.

Nick chose to answer the question. “Kind of. I’m guessing from your word choice, you don’t really understand how enchanting works,” he said.

Cathleen snorted a little laugh, as if Nick had just spouted a world-class understatement. Nero shot her a dirty look, then turned to Nick and said, “I read a little about it. But I could use a quick summary of the subject.”

Rose perked up, and added, “I’d like to hear about it too. All I know is what I’ve heard, but I’ve always wanted to know how it was actually done. I never got around to researching it.”

Nick squared his shoulders, apparently happy with the opportunity to lecture. Nero prayed the summary would be brief, but didn’t hold out much hope.

Clearing his throat, Nick set down his silverware. Sounding like a professor, he said, “Enchanting is a complex and intricate art which, at its core, is very personal. The overall goal is to imbue a purpose and history into a material object, with the intention being for that object to serve a specific purpose. To discuss the various methods of enchanting would require more time than we have available at the moment. However, we can touch on how enchantments work, what they actually are, and why they are so difficult. Please hold all questions until the end, as I will probably answer your questions during the lecture.”

Nero groaned, this was his nightmare. He had always hated school, but never more than when he was interested in the subject. It always infuriated him how his teachers could take an interesting subject like ‘how to make something blow up’ and turn it into a boring lecture on chemistry. Instead of talking about the energy required to split covalent bonds, they should have just thrown some sodium into a bucket of water and enjoyed the show.

While Rose and Cathleen listened to Nick droning on about ‘essence manifolds’ and ‘pseudo-identities’, Nero pretended to pay attention. He spent the rest of his breakfast mentally reviewing all the ways he knew how to cause an explosion. After he reached number 10, he realized that he might have an obsession with explosions that he hadn’t been aware of.

That, of course, caused Nero to think about all the things that he no longer cared about, but which he used to think were important. Memes, web-novels, tv-shows, fortnite, his x-box, John Wick, the Cubbies (Chicago’s baseball team), various types of vapes, his bong, and the list went on. Nero was amazed at how much he had changed. None of those things seemed to matter anymore, and he wondered why he used to care so much.

Luckily, Captain Angelton appeared at the entrance to the dining hall, and shouted, “All right recruits, time to get back to work. Fall out to your training rings and get back to work!”

Shaken out of his thoughts, Nero heard Nick say, “We can discuss this more later if you’d like. But that is generally why it requires essence crystals to aid in the enchantment process.”

Rose and Cathleen were nodding, and Nero joined them. As all of them went to bus their dishes and head out to the training field, Nero said, “Really interesting stuff Nick. You wouldn’t happen to have a book that covered the subject from a beginner’s perspective would you? I’d like to review what you talked about. It was really fascinating.”

Nick was all smiles and said, “I actually wrote a book on the subject. It’s a primer for learning enchanting. I called it ‘Enchanting – The how and why’. I’ll be sure to get you a copy.”

Nero managed to hide his cringe while outwardly returning the smile. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. ‘Thank whatever gods they have here that I get to have Cathleen kill me in a few minutes. Otherwise, I’d have to do it myself,’ he thought to himself.