Eritance - Chapter 42

The next day I started my new classes. The potions class was interesting. If I had materials I could make all manner of potion that could aid me in certain ways. I was interested mainly in potions that recovered injuries and fatigue. The theory behind it all was what interested me the most. It wasn’t that the materials themselves were especially powerful, alone they wouldn’t do much. However, when mixed with the right combination of other materials they a magical reaction would occur. This was because magic was in all living creatures. Even plants had minute amounts of magic in them, but again it was all about unlocking that magic.

I would definitely find a way to acquire the resources to craft potions in the future. The only problem was it took a lot of trial and error, unless you had the blue prints for a potion already. I wouldn’t learn any advanced potions here. The recipes would be found elsewhere but were always closely guarded secrets.

My stealth class talked about the technique of blending into the surroundings as well as moving silently. By the end of the course I was expected to be able to at least mask my presence in front of people without any training at all.

Finally, my relic control class was the last one I took for the day. This taught me all about how to access the power source of the relic. Of course, this was something I had already been learning how to do naturally, but there were many improvements to my techniques that I could learn. I learned that there were better methods of circulating energy, this improved method would allow me to become more efficient in my use of focus punch.

Curiously though, I learned that while most relic users could eventually learn to do something like focus punch, it usually took a long time to learn. I had been able to do it naturally though. I also learned that you could send out powerful blasts of focused energy from your body, but this would typically be extremely draining, unless you possessed extremely high stamina.

After my classes I rested for a short while and went to the training ground. A total of five students approached me once I had arrived. There were four bronze ranked recruits and one silver rank. They all gave me the 500 points and asked to learn from me. I was thrilled. I had just received 2500 points. I could stop doing the collection missions altogether now!

“What are your names?” I asked them. “Gorn” said the silver ranked recruit, “Shorak”, “Jamal”, “Olaf”, “Gewain” said the four bronze ranked recruits.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. From here on out we will be practicing sword craft. We will practice every week hence forth for four hours together. In this time, I will teach you new techniques that will improve your sword play. I guarantee results”.

With that I began demonstrating the basics of sword craft for them. We started out doing thrusts and stabs. After doing this for a while I had them pair up and taught them how to parry blows as well. I was more than happy to step in and correct bad posture, sloppy arm movements, and strikes that were weakened out of the fear of being hit.

By the time we finished our session they were all dripping with sweat. “Okay, that’s enough for now. We will meet back here next week. You are expected to continue practicing what I’ve taught you on your own time as well. Otherwise, don’t blame me if you forget what you’ve learned” I said as I walked away.

I went to the mission board and looked for missions that involved hunting in groups. There were many monster hunting missions, but I was only interested in finding monsters with high stats. I scanned the list and finally found one that seemed to be at about what I could handle. It was somewhat risky though.

Mission Spine bear clear out.

Details: An underground ruin has been discovered. It has been inhabited by a clan of spine bears. This is impeding exploration of the ruin. It is unknown how many there are, and if there are any elder spine bears in the ruin. The mission will be lead by Commander Aegis. Seeking 15 recruits to join.

Mission start time: 1 week hence

Ranking restrictions: Silver and above

Mission reward 4000 points

Although the thought of an elder spine bear was terrifying, I wasn’t worried. The mission would start in a week. That would give me enough time to learn some of the more basic stealth techniques and keep a low profile. On the other hand, if I used focus punch I could kill a spine bear myself. Finally, it seemed that most silver ranked relic users were able to deal damage equal to or greater than that of the orc chieftain. Working in a group with them should make it relatively safe to hunt the spine bears.

I had heard of commander Aegis before, supposedly she was an extremely powerful magician. I’ll let he deal with an elder spine bear, should the situation arise.

With that, I signed up for the mission and went back to my room to practice and review the lessons that I had had that day.

The next week went by in a blur. A lot of information was covered in the classes, but I was able to get a working understand of the principles behind all of the techniques. I was always so thankful that I had increased mental capabilities now thanks to the relic absorbing Ross’ soul.

While I didn’t yet know all of the things that the class had to offer, I was sure that just having gotten the basic framework down would be considered a success for most instructors. It wasn’t that they weren’t good at teaching, but the courses were all accelerated because we were relic users. They needed us to learn as quickly as possible so that we could go take on important roles in the fight against the emperor.