Alexei took a bite of his sandwich, for something that was created solely by magic working off of his intent it was an impressive bit of cheese and pickle. [Analysis complete!]Within a single bite of his food, the analysis bar of his power divine shot up from halfway full to completely done. [New Element: Manacule discovered!][New Combination: Empowered Oxygen available!][New Combination: Empowered Hydrogen available!][New Combination: Empowered Sodium available!][Further combinations based on these elements have been unlocked!]Alexei blinked and glanced down at his sandwich. His thoughts came in a rush. When he touched his foci for the first time, that was when this analysis had begun. He’d wondered whether it was some kind of wood, or the magic itself… now he had his answer. It had been the magic, and now he had access to magic at its most base and primal form. Manacules. He’d never even heard of Manacules before. “You okay, Alexei?” Risa asked, “You kinda spaced out the

After getting washed up, Alexei and Neave both spent the afternoon reading by the fireplace. The room that they had been given had access to many things, including a summoning stand that allowed them free reign over the library of the Mage Temple. He’d learnt his lesson about testing anything with magic after the whole sandwich exploding incident, but that didn’t mean that Alexei didn’t want to know a bit more about what he was getting himself into. So, when choosing his book, he’d decided to go with something related to his problem. A bestiary, noting down different creatures and monsters across the ages. The one he had, in particular, was about creatures that were most active before the last major war between nations and he had the yellowed pages turned to that of the Nilbog. Unfortunately, the Nilbog pages didn’t really tell him much more than he already knew. Well, other than the secret to defeating the beast, that was.It was a Goblin class creature that was first born of t

Alexei woke with a start, and for a moment he was ready to lash out at anything that got close, thinking he was still locked in deadly combat with the Nilbog. But as his senses returned to him, he realised that wasn’t the case at all. There was no smell of rust and smoke. No blood coating the walls of the room. No decapitated head of Neave. In fact, Neave was sitting right next to him, his clammy hand wrapped in her tiny comparatively cool ones. “Ah, you’re awake at last,” Risa said from a chair on the other side of his bed. “What…” Alexei tried to talk, but the raspy croaks that came from his throat made it impossible for him to get more than a word out. “Neave, remember what we talked about? Give him water, but only a little bit at a time so it doesn’t overwhelm his throat,” Risa said to Neave. The small foxgirl nodded with a smile and poured Alexei a small glass of water from a jug that sat on a table next to the head of his bed. She brought the liquid up to his

The training rooms of the Mage Temple were, as Alexei was beginning to believe was the case with all rooms, extended to contain more space than their exterior dimensions might suggest. The effect in this space was in fact similar to the effect that he had seen in the Black Market’s fighting ring. An array of tiered seating wrapped around a divot in the ground. As the depth of that divot increased the walls seemed to split outward, allowing more and more space to be taken up by the actual battle space on the floor below. There were two platforms, one on either side of the space, that jutted out from the rest of the upper level that were clearly designed to lower two fighters down to the fighting space. “Take a seat, Neave and I will head down and spar so you can see what she’s already capable of,” Risa said. “Spar? Are you sure?” Alexei said as worry laced his tone. In his mind Neave was still just a young girl, the idea of her fighting against an adult was a worry to him, even i

Since Risa was already buffed up from her fight with Neave the first step Alexei took was to cast his own speed and agility enchantments. He also expected the woman opposite him to engage him in the exact same way that she had engaged Neave, with a volley of magery missiles from afar. He wasn’t disappointed by his assumptions. Risa launched a volley of magery missiles at him that numbered twice as many as she had sent at Neave, and were moving at least twice as fast. Alexei couldn’t help the cocky smirk that came over his face as he gripped his staff in both his hands and burst into movement. He was faster than Neave was, but surprisingly not by much. Her beastkin heritage had helped her a lot in that department. Either way, he was fast enough. As the magery missiles came in he batted each one away with a flick of his staff. Unlike Neave’s wild sword swings, each parry he made with the ends of his foci were precise and thought out. He made short jabs, one side after the other,