Chapter 80: Not a Sadist (Patreon)

The Dahn surfaced in the early days of the Last Dragon War after being discovered and Bonded by Daulf Dragon Slayer, Chosen of Illunia. Since then, largely theorized to be due to the events of the war itself, pocket realms of more varieties have made themselves known.

-Pocket Realms, From Theory to Fact

—

Discussion amongst all the PREVENT students for the remainder of the week was centered around the impending dungeon trial. Few saw it as the opportunity Kole viewed it as, and many students contemplated skipping. Skipping, it seemed, was frowned upon, but didn’t result in an immediate expulsion from the class, though the loss of the grade made passing the class with a skip difficult, and a team wouldn’t look kindly on a member who left them down a man.

Kole shifted his focus to preparing for another extended time in the dungeon that week. While he had never ridden a horse before, he expected it would be difficult to study actual books—unless he knew Theral’s floating disk spell to act as a movable desk. So, he instead planned to focus solely on Thunderwave as he traveled. In preparation for this, Kole studied the books Theral had recommended and even found a few more on the topic of pathing traditional wizarding spells deep in the unlit corners of the library.

Kole arrived at WIZ 105 in high spirits. He hoped that Professor Underbrook would go over more spellform construction theory, and if he was being honest he was proud to show off his work.

His good mood was dashed when he heard Gray’s voice while he was still outside the hall.

“Yeap, Master Kilgan sent me the letter this morning. I start private lessons with him next week.”

Kole managed to keep his groan of frustration internal as he walked into the room and sat without making eye contact.

“Oh yes,” Gray said proudly, answering a question Kole didn’t hear. “he was very impressed by my swordsmanship and thought my Ice sorcery had potential.”

Kole had heard of Kilgan and he thought he’d met him at the mixer, but he couldn’t remember anything about the wizard. He wracked his brain trying to remember when an idea struck.

He pulled out his spellbook and began to write, and as he did, the details came back to him. As soon as he wrote “Master Kilgan” on the page, the little he knew about the wizard came back to his memory. The wizard was in his forties but had premature graying hair. He was a spellsword who specialized in movement magic and had a sorcerous affinity for the Font of Barriers. The wizard was part of an adventuring team Kole hadn’t learned the name of but knew this because they occasionally competed in the hardball circuit. 

Well, that’s useful, Kole thought to himself, once more glad he didn’t seem to have a page limit on the book. Such trivial uses of the ensouled artifact wouldn’t be worth the use of a page otherwise.

Kole pretended to study his spellbook as he avoided looking in the direction of Gray and his audience. As the only two first years in the class, most of the students in the class were older than Kole and Gray, and either weren’t going for the adventuring track and didn’t need a mentor or already had one.

“Good afternoon class,” Professor Underbrook said from the front of the classroom where he’d suddenly appeared. “Let’s talk a little more about spellforms.”

And just like that, Kole’s good mood started to come back.

***

Kole listened intently to the lecture on spellforms, but was a little disappointed, and he didn’t learn anything new. He enjoyed the challenge of applying his spell crafting knowledge to a new frontier—even a useless frontier—but it appeared his understanding of the topic far surpassed the introductory lessons Underbrook was giving. 

“Turn in your notes on your plans for your offset gates on your way out, I’ll review them and get them back to you Thursday.”

***


“You’ve never ridden a horse before!?” Zale asked in disbelief when Kole mentioned it offhandedly at dinner.

“We don’t have them in Illandrios,” Kole said. “It can’t be that hard? Right?”

The fit of laughter Rakin broke out in would haunt Kole the rest of the week alongside his aching muscles.

***

Kole went with Doug to the gardens after dinner, that the young demonkin spent a frustrated couple of hours pounding into Kole everything he was doing wrong. It felt odd to Kole, for the normally passive Doug to be so assertive on the topic.

“I see why Pale Oak kicked you out,” Doug said, after having Kole demonstrate alone the first time.

“I can’t be that bad, can I?” Kole asked.

“I’d have said no before but now…”

“Really?”

Avoiding eye contact Doug said,

“We better not waste any time.”

***

Wednesday morning at morning practice, Kole found Zale waiting for him, but she wasn’t dressed in her normal sparring clothes, instead, she wore tighter-fitting clothes that offered less maneuverability.

“What’s going on?” Kole asked confused, looking for the others. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Don’t worry about them,” Zale said with a mischievous smile. “We are going to teach you to ride a horse.”

Zale led Kole to another practice yard where students trained in mounted combat. This yard was far larger than the one he normally used, and two brown horses were waiting for them. Kole wasn’t familiar with horses, but in his estimation, they were… definitely horses.

“I, uh, like the color?” Kole said unsure what else to say when Zale gestured proudly to them.

Zale laughed at what she thought was a joke and began to instruct Kole on how to mount and dismount the large animals.

An hour later, Kole limped out of the changing room, unsure how he would be able to get through the rest of the day. He was used to feeling sore, but at least in the past the aches had felt earned. 

I thought horseback riding was supposed to make travel more pleasant. He thought to himself and thought he might much prefer walking.

“So how did he do? How many times did he fall?” Rakin asked eagerly at breakfast.

Zale looked from Rakin to Kole and smiled proudly.

“Zero times, he actually did pretty well for a first time,”

“I did?” Kole asked at the same time Rakin asked “He did?”

Zale nodded, and Kole felt a disproportionally large sense of pride.

“Bah,” Rakin said, disappointed, but not angry. 

“If it makes you feel any better, everything hurts,” Kole offered.

“I’m not a sadist,” Rakin said, but it did actually seem to cheer him up a bit.

***

As Kole moved to enter the greenhouse where his alchemy practical would occur, Pale Oak stood outside the door greeting the students as they came in.

When she saw Kole, her eyes narrowed.

“Good morning,” Kole said, trying to project confidence.

“Do you have proof of your lessened incompetence?” she said, ignoring Kole.

Kole produced a piece of bark Doug had given him as ‘proof,’ and he sensed Pale Oak’s disapproval lessen slightly as she took it and examined it.

“Doug was not on the list of students I gave you,” she said, somehow getting that from the piece of wood.

“He’s a friend,” Kole explained. “We are on a team for PREVENT.”

She warmed a little more at that.

“Assuine be praised, he should keep you from committing any atrocities when you go out into the field.”

“I assure you, I have no plans whatsoever to ever harvest any plant if I can find any excuse to avoid it.”

Kole went into class, and Pale Oak came in later and gave everyone their instructions for the practical. They would each be given a pixie coriander plant and were to harvest the leaves, seeds, stems, and roots, each following the techniques explored thus far.

While Kole knew he didn’t perform well, he was fairly certain he hadn’t committed any crimes against nature and was really hoping his written classwork would be enough to see him pass.

Maybe I can sign a contract promising never to attempt harvesting herbs? He wondered as he considered his options.

He received his essay back as he turned in his mutilated herbs and the full marks he received gave him some hope he would pass.

Likewise in history, he received full marks on his quiz, Gromck even called him out by name as he passed the papers back and praised him for his insightful views on the impact of the introduction of magically enhanced grain on the then-nomadic orc tribes.

“Cheater,” Zale mouthed as she glared at him over her own respectable if not perfect score.

***

That night, the Forsaken gathered in the library to prepare for their dungeon stint. From the brief, they knew to expect a three-week journey through feralkin-infested territory.

“Kobolds,” Rakin spat the word out. “Nasty little buggers.”

 “It could be goblins,” Zale offered.

“Nasty little buggers,” Rakin repeated.

“Gnolls?” Doug said, joining.

“Nasty big buggers.”

“Bogles?” Zale said,

“I think we can safely say Rakin’s not a fan of feral kin,” Kole cut in.

“Nah,” Rakin said, “I don’t mind lizard kin.”

“Don’t those live in the swamps?” Zale asked.

Rakin nodded.

“You haven’t ever been to the swamps,” Zale said.

Rakin nodded again.

“And I don’t ever plan to,” Rakin said proudly. “Live and let live.”

“You’ve encountered all those then?” Kole asked. “Gnolls, Bogles, Kobolds?”

“Aye.”

“How?” Kole asked confused. “Didn’t you spend the last 10 years in the monastery? Is the mountain infested?”

“Aye, but I traveled with me foster ma for a few years when I turned fifteen.”

“You aren’t fifteen?!” Kole asked, surprised.

He’d assumed the dwarf was the same age as the rest of them.

Rakin let out a belly laugh that sounded a lot like his exclamations of “Bah.”

“He’s twenty five,” Zale answered Kole on Rakin’s behalf. “Dwarves age slower and their adolescence starts at twenty.”

“Oh,” Kole said, thinking.

After a moment he turned to Zale “Wait, are you like thirty? Elves age slower too, and voidlings don’t age at all.”

Zale glared at Kole.

“Do I look thirty?” she asked, the correct answer very clear in her tone.

Rakin’s laughter increased as Kole gave his denial.

“No! That’s why I’m surprised that you’re thirty!”

“I’m not thirty! I’m fifteen!” Zale shouted at Kole.

“I’m thirty,” Doug said, raising his hand from the side.

Everyone turned to him, speechless, laughter and anger forgotten. The silence was broken when Doug couldn’t contain his grin, and they all broke out into laughter this time.

When they settled down, Kole had a thought.

“I think I’m going to be sixteen next week, if you count the time in the dungeon.”

“Does that count?” Zale asked.

“I don’t know. I grew taller, right? It’s got to count.”

They got further sidetracked as they theorized how they all tried to do that math and determine how old they each were with the dungeon trips factored in. Needless to say, very little preparations were made for their trial that night.