(Path of the Dragon Mage: Exiled) 39. Corvus's Future 2 (Patreon)

Note: Hoping for the next advanced chapter to be tomorrow but it may be Monday. Either way, by the time I've hit the official launch date at the 31st we'll be four (or more!) chapters ahead of Royal Road, and everything else will be loaded up. Yay.

Corvus stared down at the thin, beautifully crafted knives. In his mind's eye, he was already thinking of ways he could improve the weapons. Using the Ever-Flame rune, he could heat the metal until it was malleable enough to smooth out the decorative etchings and carve in runes. Sharp, for example. If he ever found a rune that delayed activation, he could link it with Stay. Imagine having a knife that could not be unstabbed. 

But…

"These are…" He struggled with himself for the right phrasing so as not to throw Larissa's generous gift back in her face.  Delicate and not intimidating were the words that came to mind. "I couldn't keep them within plain sight," he said as diplomatically as possible. "Not like a sword or machete. Half the value of a weapon comes by preventing a confrontation."

"What you're saying is that these are underhanded women's weapons," Larissa said bluntly. 

"I didn't—"

"And you're absolutely right." Lifting one arm, she rolled back her sleeve to show several of the thin, needle-like type which were strapped to her upper arm. "I suppose you could carry a sword at your belt, perhaps swinging down low if it will make you feel better."

Then, moving so fast she was a blur, she struck at Corvus.

He didn't realize that he was cut until it was already done. Then he was left staring stupidly at the back of his hand which had a deep bleeding scratch across it.

He jerked back. "Hey!"

Only then did it start to sting.

She smiled. "Imagine if this women's weapon was laid across your throat, or your eyes. Or if it was poisoned. A pretty weapon can still kill."

"I didn't say it like that," he grumbled, then took a deep breath to reign in his temper. He knew this was an argument he did not want to continue for the sake of his sanity… and his health. 

Instead, he dipped the nail of his index finger in the blood seeping from his wound and sketched out the rune for Knit Flesh. Out of all his medically-based runes, this was the one he had by far the most experience with.

The rune was drawn a little lopsided seeing as he was doing it with one hand, but this was a simple rune — meaning it was more forgiving than Shield or Ten Elements of Life. 

He activated it and skin on either side of the shallow cut healed instantly.

Larissa watched with intense interest. "That's a nifty trick."

Corvus nodded. "If you get injured, come find me at Solt's Estate. Tell him you have questions for me about the dragon's escape from the village and bring a couple of good bottles of wine. He'll look the other way."

"I may do that," she allowed. "If I'm ever foolish enough to get hurt."

Corvus nodded and glanced down at the knives. Time to make smart decisions. "Would you please teach me to use these?"

"Of course I will." She smiled. "Why do you think I was taking you this way?"

* * *

She led him to the other side of the field. There was a lone tree stump half Corvus' height and nearly as wide as a banquet table. The size alone made it unusual enough, but there were simply no trees in this part of the land. Only massive stands of sagebrush. The stump itself was very old — weathered from years, perhaps centuries of sun and the occasional rainstorm. 

Larissa must have noticed Corvus staring. "I've found a fair few of these stumps. This isn't the biggest."

"What happened?" He wracked his brain for the history of this part of the kingdom, but aside from Queen Parken's last stand, there wasn't much. It was… rather backwater.

"Who knows. They say this whole plain used to be verdant and green with forests. But that was a long time ago. Now, stand here."

She directed Corvus to stand about fifteen paces from the stump. It was clear she meant him to use it as target practice. He sized up the tree stump as he would an opponent.

"Such a serious face." Larissa tisked.  "Now, take out the knives."

He rolled the fabric out to reveal three sets of three knives each.

Though Larissa faced straight ahead, she pointed down to the knives accurately. He wondered if she "saw" with her eyes at all. 

"These are the three basic types you will be working with. The kunai are the ones with the handle. They are the heaviest — good for stabbing if you're in a pinch." 

He couldn't help noticing that kunai meant for stabbing had a delicate tracing of ivy worked along the handle.

"The second set is double-bladed knives," Larissa continued. "As you can see, they have blades on either side, which makes them excellent for a rotation throw — meaning the knife is spinning through the air."

These had wild roses along the mid-point that extended to the base of both blades.

"The last ones are needle-point knives. These are also thrown, but without adding a rotation." She paused as if considering. "They're useful for lockpicking, too, if you ever grab that skill."

These had no frilly additions, but were made of a silvery-blue metal that seemed to glint in the low light.

Larissa bent and plucked one of the kunai from its holder. "I had a feeling I would run into you again, so I picked up these practice weapons. Notice how the edges are blunt? Only the tip is sharpened, which is all you need right now."

"Why?" Corvus asked.

"Because tonight you will working proper stance, grip, and most importantly: Throwing accuracy."

Larissa walked to the ancient tree stump. Bringing her foot back, she kicked the trunk straight on. 

She was a tiny woman, and the kick did not seem that intense. But there was a sharp crack and when she removed her foot she left behind a sizable divot. 

Corvus's jaw dropped. "How high is your strength?"

"That's what a stat of thirty-five will getcha," Larissa said proudly. "Been adding points to my strength ever since I figured out what attributes are. As far as I can tell, a healthy man in his prime is at around twenty. So, you can see, no one messes with me."

This tiny old lady was more than half again the strength of a healthy man in his prime. Corvus shook his head. "Hasn't anyone noticed?"

"Of course they have. But I've made myself too valuable to the village to lose. Now, enough about me. Let's talk about your throwing stance."

She spent the next few minutes directing Corvus to stand tall and straight back with one foot in front of the other.

"Which is your dominant hand—right, you're ambidextrous. Well, we'll start with the right and switch off. I want you to practice with one knife in each hand. That should trigger your Ambidextrous bonus."

"I still have the Royal Blood penalty," he pointed out.

But Larissa shook her head. "Only if you think of it that way. I'm not teaching you combat. I'm teaching you a party trick."

He was so surprised he stepped out of his starting stance. "What do you mean?"

"Ever seen a circus?"

"No."

"Hmm." Larissa scratched the back of her neck. "Well, knife throwing is used for entertainment. A man will hit a tiny target from far away or spear an apple atop a lady's head blindfolded. That sort of thing."

He grinned. "Are you saying I'll get to throw a knife at your head?"

Her whap across his shoulder was meant to be friendly... but no doubt left a mark. 

"My point is not to think of this as a physical combat skill, but a skill of weaponized dexterity."

"So... we're going to trick the Path system?" Corvus asked. "You want me to hold the knives in both hands to take advantage of my Ambidextrous attribute while thinking of it as a sort of game to avoid the Royal Blood combat penalty."

"Exactly." She nodded once. "And I can see the next question on your tongue. Most skills can be used for combat, in a pinch. You should see what I did to a man once with my knitting skill. Well," she said after a moment, "perhaps I'll save that story for when you're older."

Corvus wondered if perhaps he should have asked to see her menu of stats as well.

"Anyway," Larissa continued. "Take your stance again. I'll show you how to hold the knives. Each set of these has its center point of balance in the middle. Some knives are weighted to one end or the other..."

She went on, lecturing lovingly about various types of knives he could come across in the future. He got the impression she had an extensive collection at home.

"If this works, you'll want to look into a skill in butchery," she said. "There's only so many ways to slice and dice a body. That'll translate into combat without those nasty penalties."

With that, she stepped back. "Okay. Try out your party trick — and do try to have fun."

Fun, he thought sourly. There hadn't been a lot of room in his life for fun. Everyone had expectations for him to be the perfect prince. More than that — they'd wanted him to excel.

He'd tried and tried and all he'd ended achieving was average at best.

But now he had access to the Paths and skills… he could change that. He could grow past who he used to be, like Larissa had. He just had to put in the work.

Corvus let out a long breath and forced himself to think of this not as a lesson (that he was certain he would fail, as he failed most lessons) or a combat drill with a demanding and only mostly sober teacher. No, he was simply learning to throw knives at a target. For... fun.

Unexpectedly, an image of Gwen popped up in his mind. Would she be impressed if he became so accurate he could throw a knife through an apple atop her head?

Well... maybe not her head. What if he missed? What if he accidentally frightened her?

Roan's head, then. He was stout enough to take a miss-thrown knife and Gwen would still be very impressed.

The corners of his lips twitched up, and he threw the knife.

It missed. Terribly. It clattered flat, well wide of the actual target.

Corvus cringed, but Larissa only said. "Again."

He had been stepping forward to retrieving the knife, an apology on his tongue for being such a poor student. At her word, he stopped and remembered he had three of these type of knives to work with.

So, he collected the third from fabric roll, held it in his hand and set his stance to throw.

"Remember to alternate your arms," Larissa said. "Practice evenly to gain that Ambidextrous advantage."

Right.

Corvus switched sides, putting his right foot forward so he could throw with his left. Then, eyeing the target and remembering to have fun, he released. 

The best of what could be said was he came slightly closer to the target. Very slightly.

The third was not much better.

Silently, Corvus collected the knives and started again.

He was on perhaps his fifth round of throwing when, almost by accident, one of the knives hit true. He had over-rotated the throw and it hit handle first — but it struck the target clean in the middle before it dropped to the dust.

Instantly, he got an alert.

Ding!

You have learned a new skill: Throwing Accuracy

"I got a skill!"

"I knew you would," Larissa said. "Which one? And where is it categorized?"

"Throwing accuracy, and..." he paged through his skill menu to check and grinned. "It's a basic skill."

Not a combat skill which meant it wasn't subject to penalties.

Larissa punched one fist in her other hand in triumph. "You'll be able to level that quickly if you're cleaver. Always have a rock in your hand — practice throwing at targets at long and short range. You would not believe how useful even a basic skill can become once it's up to Advanced."

"How long does it take?" Corvus asked eagerly. "What are the levels? My Rune Magic skill is stuck at beginner — I got a notification that I have to pass a barrier to get it to intermediate."

She nodded. "That'll happen with your general skills. It's a pain in the rump, but usually worth it. As for the levels—" She started ticking them off on her fingers. "You have 'beginner' one through ten, followed by 'intermediate' one through one hundred. Next is 'advanced' one through one thousand—"

Corvus felt his eyes bulging slightly, imagining the work leveling each one of his skills would involve. The hours—years— of practice. No wonder Larissa had called it grinding.

"And finally, there's 'master'. If there's an upper limit there, I haven't found it. My Temperature Sight is at Master 2333—it was my first Path skill and I've been pretty much using it every day since I was ten, to give you an idea. There's no bonus attached so it's possible to level something faster, but…" She shrugged.

"If it follows the pattern, perhaps you will hit the next level at ten-thousand?" Corvus suggested weakly.

She grinned. "I intend to find out. Too bad skills and levels aren't linked. Imagine the attribute points..."

Corvus didn't say it, but he thought it might be for the best. Larissa was scarily powerful right now. No one should be that powerful.

... A king with his dragon might be that powerful, said a traitorous voice in his mind. Queen Parken and Aquila created this lake while on their deathbed. FireFang burned and breathed back new life into entire kingdoms. You would trust them. Why not Larissa?

He shook the uncomfortable thought away and turned back to the stump. Clearly, he had a long, long, long way to go before mastery. Time to get to work.

* * *

He was only partially successful in his endeavors. Every time his arms grew tired he paused, pricked a finger, and drew a Knit Flesh rune on himself.

He suspected there was something slightly damaging about the process of muscle fatigue because afterward he felt somewhat refreshed. His arms were still tight, but the edge of soreness was gone. 

Under Larissa's patient tutelage, he progressed quickly and his Thrown Accuracy level three at the same time he received a second notification.

Ding!

You have increased your Throwing Accuracy skill.

New level: Beginner 3


Ding!

You have learned a new skill: Knife Throwing (Dual Wield)

He swore and knew before he checked his skill menu what he would find.

"I received my Knife Throwing skill, but it's classified as a Dual Wield."

Larissa was sanguine. While Corvus's throwing accuracy had improved, she had been sitting on the log, her head turned away to watch the field around him. Though he knew, somehow, she still kept an "eye" on him.

"Shame, but there's only so much we can do to trick the system." She hopped off the stump and scuffed at the dirt. Then she snorted. "You have excellent timing, Young Corvus."

"Why is that?"

She turned, a wickedly playful smile stretching her wrinkled face. "Did you ever not wonder why there's no one else around, nor any animal life?"

"We're... off the road, but fairly close to the village," he said slowly. "I assumed we were too off the normal track for travelers and too close to civilization for a wild animal." He stopped as her grin grew. "Or... there's something worse out here. More ratkin?" He looked about. "Or those Jackalope you mentioned?"

She snorted. "Those pests? No, thank the Path we walk on." Then she gestured to the sky. Over the last few hours, the remainder of the clouds had scuttled across the sky. Now it was clear, showing a clear bright moon. Thanks to Corvus’s Night Sight, the moonlight didn't matter to him one way or another. And of course, lack of light meant nothing to Larissa.

"A clear, full moon night like this is perfect for moon scorpions to hunt."

"Moon… scorpions?"

"Yup! They come up out of the ground, and we happen to be standing right on top of the biggest nest around."

As Corvus looked down at his feet, horrified, Larissa pulled a bag from a pocket and tossed it at his feet. It hit with a clang.

"The kunai in there are sharp, and I'll expect them back when you're done."

She waved and with a hop that should have been impossible for a woman her age, easily stood on the large stump. 

Ding!

Larissa has removed you from the party.

"There, now all the experience you earn will be yours to keep. Have fun!"

"Wait—"

The word had barely escaped his mouth before the very ground under his feet began to bubble with hard pinching claws and stinging tails.