Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

Alex sat at one of the long tables under heaters at the Voss Estate. Of the five people here training at Elana’s place that morning, Alex was the only one to completely monopolize a table and sit for most of the day.

In my defense, I’ve made some tremendous progress.

Alex placed his hands firmly on the table and pushed himself up to look at his sketches, which were spread liberally across the wooden tabletop. While Alex didn’t consider himself to be one of the brightest students, he felt that if it meant he could learn magic, he was willing to stubbornly grind through learning material until he got something through his thick skull.

As if to emphasize the point, Val gently head-butted him and made a chittering noise within his head.

“Haha, yeah, yeah.” Alex laughed and gave him a gentle pat before pushing the wyrm away. A louder call followed, and Val resumed his idle loops around Alex’s chair.

The patterns are really starting to make more sense.

He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders while stretching his back. Deciding that he needed a break, he walked away from the table and wandered over to the mats where Olivia was currently sparring with one of the other new Peacekeepers.

As he watched the two practice, he tried to observe how they fought. Both were fast and light on their feet, and they both used daggers.

“Who do you think will win?” A voice asked from beside him.

“Oh, John. Hey. Hmm, I’m not sure; they seem similar to me.” Alex answered noncommittally.

John Riley, as tall and handsome as the first time Alex met him, chuckled. “It might seem like that, but watch them move. They both want to fight in really different ways. Watch how Ian lunges and stabs. He uses his Agility for explosive speed. In contrast, Olivia uses her Agility to keep a center balance and almost dance away. Her way is a lot harder to do, and for most people, his is more effective. It’s always been that way in a brawl, even before the System. Unless you have a lot more fighting experience than the other person, the aggressor is usually at a big advantage.”

Now that the older man pointed it out, Alex could see the difference in the way that the two moved. Olivia kept her back straight and her feet seemed to sweep across the ground, where the other man, Ian, seemed to crouch and spring with power.

Alex was thankful that it was pointed out to him. Since he now knew what he was looking at, he saw Olivia’s victory for what it was- inevitable. She patiently waited until Ian committed to another full-on rush and countered him by manipulating his momentum. Her two practice daggers both found vital points the next moment.

“Ahh shit. How do you keep doing that?” The boy said. His voice was quite nasally, and even though his eyebrows looked severe, he had a friendly smile on his face.

“You just keep charging at me, and I have the speed to react in time. I doubt John could do the same. Don’t worry, Ian, keep doing what you’re doing, but maybe when fighting someone like us, just slow it down a bit, yeah?” Olivia said as she extended her hand to help him up.

“Yea, he is slow, huh?”

They laughed and shook hands before stepping off of the mat. John called out to Ian, challenging him. “Hey, Ian. Get back over here. Let’s see if you can get away with that with someone ‘slow’ like me.’”

Olivia approached Alex as he watched the two men banter and begin wrestling before they could even grab practice weapons.

“Meatheads, all of ‘em,” Olivia said. She smiled at Alex, “How’s your research going over there? I was beginning to wonder if you’d just come all the way out here for a bigger table.”

“Eh, I feel like I’m getting a grasp on it. I’m so close, I can feel it.”

“Aren’t you tired? We looked over those designs for hours yesterday.” Olivia asked.

“I love this kind of stuff. Before all the Awakened nonsense, I’d spend hours zoning out while drawing. In my mind, I might be able to turn drawings into actual magic circles soon.” He answered.

Wouldn’t that be pretty fucking cool.

He smiled to himself.

“Yeah, that’s pretty fuckin’ cool,” Olivia said, barely paying attention to their conversation as she looked toward the two wrestling on the mat.

His head turned to her sharply, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

Across the yard, yelling interrupted his thoughts, and most of those in the training area turned toward the huge house that belonged to Elana Voss.

“…you know that I don’t care. I will get it if I really want it. You won’t stop me.” Rylan Voss’s words came through the crisp afternoon air. His tone was full of conflict and confidence.

“Rylan, just come back inside. We can-”

“No, Elana. Enough. I’m leaving. I’ll talk to you later.” Rylan turned and stormed down the stone stairs. He shot the group a condescending glare before disappearing into the garage.

Elana bent her head and covered her face with her hand. Her shoulders could be seen lifting through a deep breath and she squared her shoulders before shaking her head toward the departing car.

She nodded tersely to the group before turning and walking back inside the house.

“Wow, he’s such a prima donna,” Olivia said in a completely neutral voice.

Several snorts could be heard from Ian and John from where they’d been frozen mid-wrestling. That devolved as they fell back onto the mats with laughter and let go of one another.

Alex couldn’t contain a slight grin either.

“Hey, you two better knock off that laughing and get back to training. Until you can beat me, you had better keep at it.”

“Aw, come on, Olivia. When I hit level ten and get my class, too, I know it’ll be a closer match.” Ian complained.

Olivia has her class already?

“Excuses,” she said before turning and walking toward the table Alex had been working at. Val was sniffing around the top of Alex’s bag.

“Val! Get out of there. You already had one this morning.” Alex called as he ran past Olivia to protect his wallet.

Olivia laughed as she approached, and Val flew over to her and spun around her head a few times.

“I swear, he’s going to be more expensive than any spell I can find on the Auction House soon. He’s eating one or two Mana Stones a day! That’s crazy, forget making enough to make a steady living.” Alex let his shoulders slump in mock defeat.

“Aww, come on. Look at the little guy, he’s so-”

“Cute? You want him?” Alex grinned evilly as Val seemed to understand what was happening. “I’ll sell him to you for five, no four Mana Stones!”

An indignant keening could be heard in Alex’s mind as Val wobbled back and forth in the air.

Olivia laughed and grabbed her sides, “Don’t tease the poor guy like that. Look at him!” She reached out and patted the little wyrm’s head.

He smiled and held his hand out, which Valtherion promptly swam-flew over to rub the side of his head against the open palm. The teeth that stuck up from his underbite brushed against his palm, but they weren’t so sharp as to hurt from such minor contact.

“Anyway, I didn’t know you hit level ten. Congrats, that’s big!”

Of course, you didn’t know, moron. You guys spent the entire day yesterday looking at your new companion and all your shiny new rituals. You didn’t ask about her at all.

“No big deal. I’ve been an Awakened for almost a month now. So, I’m actually going pretty slow.” Olivia shrugged and just continued to look at the drawings on the table.

Man, she seems so calm and unfazed by everything. Where does all of that confidence come from?

“So… what was it like?” Alex asked.

“Hm?”

“Hitting level ten, picking a class. What was it like?”

Olivia paused for a moment and tilted her head to the side while looking up at the rafters. “Well, I’ve been reading most of what I can relate to picking a class. It wasn’t much different than others have reported. I had a few options based on my life and how I’ve done things as an Awakened so far. The System confirmed that you can change your class later, but you know how it is.” She shrugged, “The System is really vague on a lot of things. While I got to see the class name and a brief description, I didn’t know what abilities I’d get. It does tell you what the main stats are, but not exactly how many you’ll get. I did see an article written by one of those Guild representative sources that always seem to be weirdly accurate… They said that Common Classes only get two Stat Points from their class per level. From there, it's doubled for each subsequent rarity.”

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“Stat Points? We won’t get the free points at each level anymore?” Alex asked, feeling panic begin to rise in his chest.

“Not quite. You’re talking about Free Points, right? Stat Points are different. You get Free Points every time you level, and it’s always the same. But Stat Points are something you get related to your class. For example, my class gives me eight Stat Points each time I level. That happens every level while I have this class, regardless of where I put my Free Points.”

Alex settled down at that.

Wait a second…

Alex pulled up his Status Window after Olivia finished explaining the difference.