Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick laid in bed, reading from the training manual Eduard had lent him, while Ophiel clutched the headboard, looking down at the book from over Erick’s shoulders. Erick even read the little guy a few passages, telling Ophiel what Erick expected out of him. When Erick got to the part where the book repeated what Eduard had said, mainly about only having one [Familiar] out for while the [Familiar] was in training, Erick dismissed all but the one Ophiel clinging to his headboard. After that, Ophiel got a lot more attentive, crawling down into Erick’s lap to look at the pages while Erick read. Eventually, Erick fell asleep.

Erick woke up to see the little guy curled up on the pillow beside him, eyes almost completely closed. Erick smiled at him, watching as Ophiel’s big eye at the center of his body struggled to remain closed, but several smaller ones couldn’t help but blink open across his wings, eager for Erick to be awake and start the day. As Erick sat up, Ophiel let out a tiny violin sound, inquisitive and happy.

“You did good, little guy.” Erick stretched. Ophiel mimicked Erick’s stretch, his big eye slamming full open as his wings unfurled to their full, tiny length. Erick pointed to his shoulder. Ophiel happily fluttered to the indicated perch. Erick said, “You know? I haven’t slept the whole night through since I was a teenager. Always an ache or a pain. Or a full bladder halfway through.” He whispered to Ophiel, “Now the bladder waits to wake me up after eight, nice hours.”

He looked out through his window, at the layer of [Crystalline Air] covering his window. He got out of bed and flashed a [Cleanse] into the room, just to freshen up, as he began making the bed, tucking the sheets into the corners with a quick application of Handy Aura. He renewed the [Temperature Ward] into the house, renewing the air conditioning like he usually did in both the morning, and the evening. Once his magic was back up to full, he renewed his [Personal Ward], spending 4400 mana out of his 4440 max, to make a barrier worth 8800 points.

A layer of mitigation wrapped around his body, under his clothes. The [Ward] would remain invisible except when struck, and even then it would just flash a tiny white glow. He was getting good at [Personal Ward]ing.

Erick went over to the bathroom to do his daily routine. Ophiel got left outside the door, but pawed at it until Erick came back out. When Erick came out, Ophiel leapt up, all the way to Erick’s shoulder. Erick laughed, giving him a pet.

It was time to make breakfast! With Ophiel clutching his shoulder, Erick walked downstairs to the kitchen to start.

The sounds of knives cutting across stone plates accented the air, while the smell of cooked breads dominated the room, and coftea flavored the space. It smelled lovely. Rats and Teressa were already eating, but for them it was dinner.

“Good morning!” Erick said. “I still don’t understand how you guys can drink coftea before bed.”

“Morning,” Teressa replied. “We left you stuff to make.”

Rats swallowed a mouthful of pancake, and said, “It helps me relax.”

“I guess,” Erick agreed.

Erick saw the kitchen. It was an organized mess, with a bowl of eggs ready to be cracked into a pan, and a bowl of pancake mixture sitting to the side of a stove already equipped and ready to go; Erick would just have to turn it back on. He smiled, then set about doing just that. As he got the butter out and dumped a helping onto the pan on the stove, he turned the stove on, and said, “Thank you.”

“No problem, sir.” Rats said.

Erick said, “I never really ask you two… But are you comfortable with the night shift?”

“A lot more, now that you have a [Solid Ward],” Rats said. “I tested it out; walked in and out without an issue.”

Teressa smirked, saying, “This is going to be really nice once we get back out there hunting wyrms, eh, eh?”

“Gods yes.” Rats said, “We can probably sleep underground, too. That would be even better.”

Teressa frowned at Rats, but said nothing.

Erick poured pancake batter onto a sizzling, buttered pan, saying, “I was reading about the best practices for raising a [Familiar] and they say that hunting big, obvious targets, is a good way to get them to begin to recognize what I want them to go after. So. I’d like to finish leveling these HP skills and then try to make [Hunter’s Instincts], but after that, I would like to go wyrm hunting again.”

Teressa clapped her hands together. “Yes!” She added, “This time I show you how to hunt a wyrm for real. The last time was a misstep. A one-in-a-hundred wyrm.”

Jane finished yawning as she walked into the room, saying, “I’ll go, too.”

Erick said, “Sure. But this time I’m going to try sending out Ophiel in all directions. Speed up the process to a single day. Maybe...” He asked, “Unless you’d like to spend a night out there?”

Teressa said, “I would, actually.”

“I liked camping on the sands,” Jane said.

“Underground is good, and multiple nights is better.” Rats said, “The city is nice and all, but… I like the Crystal Forest. It’s really nice this time of year.”

“How bad does it get outside of water season?” Erick asked, cracking eggs into a bowl.

Rats said, “So very dry. Hotter, too. Followed by chill and dry, then the occasional snow elemental drifting across the desert at night, then we’re back to damp-dry and cool.” He added, “You showed up at the best possible time.”

Erick smiled, and said, “About the hunt, and the raining schedule... After a few normal days, there’s going to be a few days of heavy rain, but after that, we’re breaking for two days. No rain. We can leave that afternoon on that day, okay?”

Teressa laughed, saying, “Sounds great!”

Rats said, “Last time was a bit scary, but with a nice [Solid Ward]… this would be good.” He added, “And underground.”

“This is too much, Rats.” Teressa scoffed at him, saying, “You must feel the wind and smell the smells! Not coop yourself up like some chicken at night. You are a warrior of Spur! Act like it.”

“Yeah yeah.” Rats pointed his fork at Teressa, saying, “I prefer my nights to be spent indoors, please.”

Erick smiled as he flipped fluffy white pancakes and stirred bright yellow eggs, each in their own pans full of sizzling butter.

Erick’s mana was full again, so he recast [Crystalline Air] across the whole exterior of the house for 4200 mana. He renewed the [Alarm Ward]s as breakfast continued all around him. Ophiel watched the whole time.

Jane took the first round of new food, after making new coftea. Poi showed up after that and took the next round. Erick finally got to eat his own food, but he made more and set it aside for Kiri; the sixth person of the household. After breakfast, Poi went to the sunroom to telepathically communicate with whoever he always talked to, while Teressa and Rats each went to their own spaces in the house, to wind down for their bedtime. Jane went her own way; she briefly said that she was ‘going out for a few days’ and ‘not to worry’. Erick didn’t press, but just smiled as he watched her leave the room. Jane came back into the kitchen after several minutes, with her bag on her back and a smile on her face. She hugged Erick goodbye; Erick watched her leave the house. His eyes watered, but no tears fell.

Kiri eventually came into the kitchen, as Erick was cleaning up the mess.

Erick smiled, setting the plate onto the table with his Handy Aura, as he pulled the syrup and salt and butter back out of the cold box, saying, “Good morning, Kiri! Coftea is made. Here is breakfast.”

Kiri looked down at the plate, then up at Erick, saying, “Thank you.” She sat down, then glanced to the window. The sky was still pink with sunrise. She looked down at her food, and took up her utensils, saying, “I feel that I did not stress something important yesterday. Your methods to magic are obviously working, but any spell with more than one line of text makes it very hard to use that spell to make higher tier magic.” She said, “You can consider anything with four or more lines of text to be end-of-the-line magic.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Something to keep in mind.” He added, “[Exalted Storm Aura] feels like an old man, unwilling to move outside of his garden. So what you said jives with what I already know.” He looked up a few of his other spells. There was one huge outlier. “[Ward] doesn’t feel like that, though.”

Kiri smirked, saying, “[Ward] is special. And so is [Summon Ophiel]. The first because that’s just how it is. The second because to make something out of that spell would create a living being.” Exasperated, she added, “And unless modern magical training is a complete lie, [Crystalline Air] should be end-tier magic, too.”

Erick couldn’t help but smile. Then he strung mana through [Crystalline Air]. A gentle, fractal light flowed from his hand, endlessly complex, but perfectly balanced. Erick stopped channeling, and said, “It feels harmonious. To add something else would disrupt that harmony. So I think you’re right.”

Kiri smirked, then frowned. She said, “I might be right, but not for the reason I thought I was right. The spell should already be too complex to add something else… But looking at it from another angle… [Crystalline Air] is already in harmony. Disrupting that harmony would disrupt the magic already there.”

Erick said, “Tomay-to tomah-to.”

Kiri scrunched her face, then said, “I don’t understand that, but I think I understand… something.”

- - - -

After breakfast, Erick took Ophiel out to the desert, back to the platform where he made spells. He was still reading through the book Eduard had given him, but he had read enough to decide to run Ophiel through a few of the [Familiar] evaluation tests laid out in the beginning of the training tome.

Erick walked across the orange sands outside the platform, the brilliant yellow sun beating down from the cloudless, blue eastern sky. Wind flowed down from the north; dry and warm, curling into Erick’s loose shirt and airy pants, drying out the little sweat that begun whenever Erick stepped outside.

Erick used [Stoneshape] to raise large hoops from that orange sand, into the air. The hoops were five meters wide, but thin enough to break if Ophiel happened to slam into the stone. Ophiel watched from Erick’s shoulder, eyes blinking open, but lazily; he had seen this sort of thing before. It wasn’t very impressive.

Erick paused for a moment, marveling how a bit of magic had become routine.

Magic! Routine!

Erick laughed, saying, “Magic is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

Poi watched from under the shade of the platform. It was just him and Erick out here, right now; everyone else had stuff to do. Even Kiri was working on her own magic, in another part of the forest.

Erick raised a dozen more stone rings into the air, all different shapes and sizes. A square, a triangle, an oval. Some were raised on two pillars, some on three, some on one. When he was done, the final count came out to 20 rings.

From the stone platform, Erick looked out over his creations; they would serve.

Erick was telepathically connected to Ophiel this whole time, explaining to him what was to come, and what he was doing with the rings. Now, with the setup complete, it was Ophiel’s turn to make magic.

Erick turned to the little guy on his shoulder, and sent, ‘Go ahead and fly through the large ring, then come back.’ Erick then sent Ophiel an image of the largest ring, and an idea of what Erick wanted him to do.

Ophiel blinked up at Erick, unmoving, except to paw with his tiny hidden claws at Erick’s shoulder.

Erick hummed.

Erick raised a bird perch from the platform, small and slender, and controlled Ophiel to move him onto the perch. The little guy leapt from Erick’s shoulder, onto the perch. He latched on to the stone with his lower wing-talons.

Ophiel whined, flutes and cellos; he sent Erick a wordless desire to be on Erick’s shoulder.

Erick sent back, ‘After we’ve trained for the day.’

Ophiel paced on his perch, whining.

Erick felt a sinking feeling. He really should have trained Ophiel better. He should not have used him on a battlefield. He had already planned training him every day, but the true need of such a thing failed to reach him until now.

Erick pushed that sinking feeling aside, and sent the image of the large ring to Ophiel. When Ophiel didn’t move, or even look out into the desert to see the large ring right in front of them, Erick took a gentle control to Ophiel, and pointed his gaze toward the large ring.

Ophiel must have realized what Erick wanted at that; Erick let go and Ophiel leapt into the air, racing toward the ring. He flew into the ring then turned right around and came back… to Erick’s shoulder.

Erick let it happen. As Ophiel’s wings touched Erick’s shoulder, Erick patted his head.

And then he put Ophiel back onto the perch. A pat on the perch reinforced the idea of staying on there, maybe. Erick sent Ophiel an image of Ophiel flying through every single ring, in order, and then being able to land on Erick’s shoulder, and go home.

Ophiel whined in cellos, deeper than violins. A hint of flutes echoed as he fluttered his wings, unwilling to fly. Erick frowned. And then he employed another technique of the books, for those [Familiar]s who were unwilling to do what you wanted on their own, and who were created with non-standard spells.

Erick stepped into the air with his Handy Aura, then strung [Airshape] through the air, creating a stream of fast moving wind that started from Ophiel’s perch and strung through several rings. Erick hovered into the air stream, flying ahead of Ophiel, beckoning—

Ophiel was already following the wind, trilling in violins, chasing Erick.

Erick laughed as he flew through the larger ring. Ophiel followed. Erick chuckled as Ophiel chased him through several rings, spinning through the dry desert air, catching on Erick’s [Airshape] to propel him forward, faster. Ophiel was soon riding the wind near Erick, as Erick floated through a square stone ring, and then a triangle.

This could work!

Erick made a flight plan, through several of the rings in front of him, then layered [Airshape]s through the space and sent that plan to Ophiel. Ophiel took off, riding the wind, whipping through the rings in order, faster and faster. Erick casually floated back to the platform, watching Ophiel fly through the stone rings. Violins, tiny and happy, played in Ophiel’s wake.

Erick smiled.

Poi said, “That seems to be working.”

“It’s basically a trail of treats the whole way.” Erick said, “I’ll know it’s working when he can do it without the treats.” He added, “Or at least that’s what the book says.”

Ophiel got two thirds through Erick’s flight plan before he stopped and looked around. He spotted Erick by the platform and immediately flew for him. Erick let Ophiel land on his shoulder.

He said, “We’re learning, aren’t we, little guy?”

Ophiel recognized that Erick was talking to him, and trilled out violins, as eyes blinked open and shut across his body. Erick put Ophiel back onto his perch, against Ophiel’s objections, and proceeded to lead Ophiel through the obstacle course again. Flying was great fun, anyway.

Erick didn’t touch down on the platform again for the next two hours. This was great training for Erick, too. Flying was just about the greatest thing since [Cleanse]. Erick whooped and laughed, chasing Ophiel through the stone rings, as Ophiel chased him. Erick bumped into the rings about fifty times with his Handy Aura, but he easily remade them. Ophiel had no such problems.

They only stopped flying around because it was time to rain on the farms.

- - - -

Erick read Eduard’s training manual while platinum rain fell all around, and Ophiel sat on his shoulder.

After the rain, and after lunch, Erick went back out to the training area.

Ophiel hadn’t improved, but Erick sure did. Flying was fun.

Like… REALLY fun. Butterflies in his stomach, the sky below the ground, gravity pulling him down but his momentum shoving him left and right. Corkscrews and barrel rolls through rings of stone, while Ophiel led the way, or followed. Erick laughed as he chased Ophiel. Ophiel squeaked in delight as he chased Erick.

Ten minutes into it, Erick called to Poi from ten meters up, saying, “Poi! What’s your flight spell like? Want to join us?”

“My stomach is not as robust as my spell, sir.” Poi said, “I prefer the ground, thank you.”

They flew around for hours. Erick gave out before Ophiel did; the [Familiar] was a being of mana, a machine, able to go on forever with zero rest, or need for food or water. Seeing that fact play out before him was a bit of a wakeup call. But Erick still thought of Ophiel as a pet; a companion. A defender. Hopefully, Ophiel could become all of that, and more.

But that was enough flying around, for now.

Back home, Erick burned through most of a wand of [Rejuvenation], healing himself as he burned through HP to level his skills. None of them were level 10 yet, and Erick wasn’t capable of pushing himself like Jane could push herself. The second he started to feel stupid with Health Fatigue, he stopped.

After a day of middling progress, and easily imagining a scenario where doubling the length of time he could use [Hunter’s Instincts] would keep both him and those around him healthy and alive, he decided to go ahead and buy Precision.