Unruly Summon Chapter 4: Training (Patreon)

It's not quite December yet, but I don't really have anything interesting to say about the Erryn's World RPG today, so we'll start the double unruly summon chapters a week early instead.

Stephanie Ricousian, second princess of the Ricousian Kingdom, stalked down the corridors of the royal palace, her hurried footsteps echoing off the bare stone walls. After numerous twists and turns, she reached the guarded doors that separated the western wing from the main building. The pair of knights on duty saluted, then pushed open the doors. Stephanie stepped through without stopping, but did at least spare the guards a thankful nod. The sound of her footsteps cut out as she stepped through, moving from the bare wood to plush carpet.

It took several more branches and staircases until she reached another guarded door. Once more, a pair of knights pushed the doors open, and she stepped through into the conference room beyond. A few of the occupants struggled to mask their disgust at her appearance, but they at least managed to hold their tongues. They all understood the reasons for it, however much it offended their noble sensibilities. Besides, insulting a princess while her doting father was in the room wouldn't have been a great career move.

"Report," demanded her father, King Edward Ricousian. "Were we successful?"

"There were reasons for both optimism and pessimism," she answered.

"Dammit. Give us a straight answer!" snapped Serge. "Will the hero fight for us or not?"

"It is... difficult to say."

"Please explain," requested the king, his voice softer. "We knew this was a risky plan, and there's no harm in treating this first attempt as a trial run. What worked and what didn't?"

"Our attempts to mask our wealth have been successful so far. Likewise, we were able to convince him of our desperation. As planned, we were able to shift him from not knowing us at all to being willing to fight for us by moving in small steps. His obvious interest in magic helped. Furthermore, he had a very strong response towards Mary, and I believe he's already emotionally invested in her protection and well-being. That same response fully displayed the egotistical 'my society is better than yours' view that Minister Dennis predicted, although we've yet to have an opportunity to exploit it."

"Saying 'willing to fight for us' already makes it sound as if he's onboard. What are the reasons for pessimism?"

"Firstly, he seemed nervous and not strongly committed. I'm worried that even quite a small incident could cause him to change his mind. Secondly, he's shown no sexual interest in any of his group of handlers, although I'll admit it wasn't really the situation for it and perhaps we'll have more luck later. Third is my own personal failing; I lack Christine's impressive stoicism or Wendy's and Mary's ignorance of current events, and I'm concerned he's picked up more from my emotions than we would have liked, and now harbours suspicions that we've not been completely honest. Finally, I've already mentioned his strong response towards Mary. His reaction to her admission that she was a slave was even more extreme than predicted. As planned, we managed to placate him by explaining her circumstances, but in the process, it was implied that slave collars are mere identification with no other function. We didn't explicitly lie to him, but even so, when he finds out how they really work... I can't predict what will happen."

King Edward steepled his fingers, resting his chin in his hands. "And your decision?" he asked.

"Pardon?"

"Your decision. Is he usable? If we start training him, he'll quickly exceed the level at which we'll be able to dispose of him without casualties, nor will we have time to train another hero if we delay further. You're the one with the first-hand experience, so you must make the call. Either we continue with his training and put our survival fully in his hands, or else we have him terminated immediately and summon another today."

Stephanie stared at her father in silence. Whatever thoughts were running through her head were known to her alone, but eventually she once again spoke. "He's usable. I'll make him usable."

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I'd started this adventure with the flippant words, 'there's something you don't see every day'. Simon had told me that wasn't unusual, and while events since had proven him right, I couldn't help but feel that those events hadn't quite been what he'd had in mind.

For example, standing in a dusty courtyard in the shadow of an enormous castle wasn't something I did every day. Nor was padded leather my usual choice of clothing, Christine having dug out some light armour from their stores that proved a decent fit. A light wooden buckler was strapped to one arm and in the hand of my other I held a wooden sword, and neither were my usual choice of accessories.

Opposite me stood Christine, still in the same armour she'd been wearing in the summoning chamber. Her real sword was still sheathed at her side, and instead she held the same sort of wooden sword as me. Regardless of the material of her sword, the fact was that someone wielding any sort of weapon wasn't something I saw every day. Even less so when the weapon was pointed at me.

Mary—who had regained her composure once I agreed to stay, and was once more wearing her gentle smile—watched on from the sidelines. She'd energetically promised to take care of any bruises or scrapes I picked up, which, while nice, wasn't exactly reassuring. I'd rather not get injured in the first place!

And yes, a healer/maid/slave wasn't something I saw every day, either. Even one of the three would have been unusual, let alone all three rolled into one!

Wendy and Stephanie weren't around, Wendy having departed to prepare materials for my first magic lesson tomorrow, and Stephanie off doing nondescript princess stuff.

"Okay, let's begin with the basics," said Christine, beginning my first combat lesson. "If it was anyone else, I'd spend a week going over stances, grips and positioning before even letting you hold a weapon. Heck, I'd have you running laps just to get you used to moving in armour. But you're not 'anyone'. You are a hero. In your world, you may be no-one special, but in this one you are. You don't need any of that cruft. Trust in your instincts and feelings, and let them guide your movements. Now, come at me."

"Uh... Full marks for the pep talk, but saying 'come at me' isn't much of a lesson," I muttered. "What part of that is the basics?"

"Oh? Would you rather I came at you?" she responded, and for an instant, her usual stoic expression was replaced with a smirk.

And then she blurred.

"The hell?!" I exclaimed as I desperately tried to bring my buckler up between the pair of us, but she'd crossed the distance faster than I could react and her wooden blade was already swinging downwards. I caught it on the edge of my shield, but the impact threw me from my feet, and I tumbled backward.

"Are you okay?" called Mary.

"I think so," I answered, climbing back to my feet, only to see that Christine's expression had changed again. This time, she was showing clear shock. She'd gone all day without showing emotion, and then two showed up at once.

"The hell? Those should be my words! What did you just do?"

"Uh... Tried to block you and failed?" I answered, wondering why the knight was suddenly so flustered. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, had I?

"This must be how Wendy felt when you cast Lux on your first try," she sighed, shaking her head. "Mary, from your point of view, what just happened?"

"Uh... I didn't really see much. You were standing over there, and then you vanished. Then you were standing where Master was, and Master was on the floor."

"Exactly. I just used my full speed, using a technique called body strengthening that circulates mana internally to boost my perception and physical abilities. Someone untrained shouldn't even have been able to see me move, yet you not only could, but you very nearly blocked my strike."

... She'd just done something pretty scary to someone who'd never held a weapon before, then. I hadn't had the chance to think at the time, but it was obvious her movements had been way beyond natural human limits. And despite that, I'd nearly blocked it. Then, if I managed to do that circulation thingy... A small smile may have leaked onto my face as I remembered the feeling of casting Lux, directing mana into the palm of my hand, but this time, I imagined it circulating through my body. Pushing my muscles beyond human limits.

"My turn," I declared, and took a step forwards. I barely even felt the impact of my face hitting the floor, on account of the way every single muscle in my body was apparently on fire.

"Master!" I heard Mary shout, followed by hurried footsteps as she rushed over.

"What? Hey!" exclaimed Christine, dropping her sword and rushing over too. "What was that?"

I tried to answer, but my body refused to take orders. I couldn't so much as twitch a finger.

In retrospect, perhaps trying to replicate her body strengthening trick with zero instruction had been a foolish move.

"Parvus Sanatio," spoke Mary, the odd harmonics of a spell invocation echoing around the courtyard. Warmth flooded my body, dulling the terrible burning sensations. "Parvus Sanatio, Parvus Sanatio, Parvus Sanatio!"

"Thanks," I mumbled, her repeated healing restoring my ability to speak. "But... if it's all the same to you, I think I'll lay here a while longer."

"What happened?" demanded Christine.

"I tried to circulate mana internally, like you described. Yes, I know. That was probably a stupid idea."

"That... That..." stuttered Christine, once again letting emotion into her life. "That was beyond stupid! You could have ruptured your heart! Snapped every bone in your body! Torn your muscles to shreds! Body strengthening isn't exactly a high level technique, but that doesn't mean you can just indiscriminately flood your body with mana and expect everything to work out. You need to carefully match your increased power with increased endurance to ensure your body can withstand the forces. It needs to be carefully balanced throughout your body, so you don't have one leg pushing harder than the other. That sort of thing."

She paused her explanation of just how much of an idiot I was to peer questioningly at Mary.

"I've done what I can, but I don't have the mana capacity to fully heal the damage. He needs bed rest," she answered, not needing words to know what Christine was asking.

"So much for today's training session. We don't have time to waste like this... But perhaps we can take advantage. Mary, you might not be able to draw on much mana, but he can apparently pull in plenty. Enough to cripple himself with, at the least. Teach him Parvus Sanatio and let him get himself back on his feet."

"Okay!" she happily agreed. As content as she seemed to be to simply stand around doing nothing, she approached any task she was given with enthusiasm. "Picture a body in a perfect, healthy state. As detailed as possible; bones, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, organs, skin. Everything. The finer the detail and more accurate the picture, the more efficient the spell. Then picture the mana rushing into your body, healing your body back into that perfect state, and chant the name of the spell. Oh, you do know what things like nerves are, right?"

"Yes," I confirmed, wondering why we were apparently limited in the amount of mana we could use when the spell images involved picturing mana rushing in from outside. That was a question best asked in my magic lesson, though, so I did as I was told. The only issue was the level of detail I could manage. It wasn't as if I was a doctor, and while high school biology had covered a decent amount of basic anatomy, it had been a couple of years ago. Long gone were the days in which I could confidently label a dozen different components of an eye and name every major bone in the body. Nevertheless, I did my best.

"Parvus Sanatio," I intoned. "Huh?"

The lingering burning sensation vanished completely, but I was too distracted by the spell invocation to pay it much mind. I was fairly sure that hadn't been quite right...

"Did he just...?" asked Christine.

Mary nodded.

"Fine. I don't care anymore. Apparently, accidentally casting spells of higher classes than intended is a thing heroes can do now. Are you fully healed?"

"I... think so? What just happened?"

"You cast a standard class healing spell instead of the lower one."

"The image is similar; it just requires more detail," explained Mary. "And the spell name is just the second word of the lower version, so I suppose it's possible to mix the two up if you accidentally put more detail into the image than needed. And if your mana capacity is broad enough. Mine isn't, or I'd be a much better healer..."

Huh. Apparently high school biology was a winner after all.

"Well, since you're all healed, we might as well continue our lesson," said Christine. "Can you stand?"

I made the attempt, but the answer turned out to be no. "Ouch," I said, after face met earth for a second time.

"I thought you said you were fully healed?"

"I thought I was, but when I stood up, I felt really dizzy and nauseous. And now I'm cold."

Despite the warm air and my padded armour, which wasn't exactly the most airy outfit I could have warn, I could feel goosebumps breaking out all over.

"Huh, well, will you look at that. Apparently, our genius hero doesn't have infinite mana after all. Mary, could you fetch a mana potion please? Let's get one of those down his throat, and then maybe we can finally resume our training."

Mary went running off with her trademark enthusiasm, digging into a pile of equipment we'd piled up at the side of the courtyard beforehand.

"Just to warn you, they taste really bad," continued Christine, once the pair of us were left alone. There was an unreadable expression on her face; I had no idea if she was gloating, or remembering the taste of one herself. "Hopefully, the foulness will remind you to not be quite so foolish in the future."