A lone horseman peeled into the night, fear etched on his face. The only sounds other than his own ragged breathing and pounding heart were his Horse's muffled footsteps and it's own exhausted snorts. Despite that he urged it ownward. He did not let up, only sparing to glance behind himself a few times. Eventually he saw a pale orange glow of a smouldering campfire, rushing through the undergrowth his horse expertly neared the camp grounds. The ground have been cleared, in the center a nearly dead bonfire smouldered. A dozen or so tents littered the ground, barely seen in the gloom. Littering the grounds of the camp were a few dozen men lounging around. They were dressed in dirty, unkempt leather clothing, padded with cheap armor. They turned to the newcomer.
"Torch?" One of the men growled, "What in the blazes are you doing back here already?" He had a scar over his left cheek and was missing a few teeth, he looked quite annoyed by the newcomer. The man referred to as Torch removed his hood, revealing the same circular scar on his left cheek.
"Look guys, I know, but we got found out, somebody ratted us out!" The men perked their heads at that, and an uneasy silence overtook them.
"...What?" One of them got up and rushed to the largest tent.
The first man spoke again, "What the hell did you do Torch?!"
"Nothin' nothin' I swear! I was staying at those slums like I normally do, but something weird happened."
"What?!" Another man, sporting a short beard and wearing an eyepatch walked up to him "What was so weird?! That you let us get found out?"
"So you know, I was walking and these kids were playing, like a bunch of stupid kids just playing around." He looked behind him, wide eyed.
"Where you followed you bastard?!" The first man held up a knife.
"No way Butch! I don't think I wuz, I didn't hear a single person after me! I swear to me mum!" They were interrupted by the rustling of a tree nearby, looking up they tensed up, then relaxed as they saw an owl staring back at them before flying off. Even as it flew off Butch shook his head.
"Those are bad omens, alert the captain, we'll need to leave."
"Leave? Why? Tell the rest of your story Torch?" The men turned to the new voice, coming out of the tent was a man with shoulder length blond hair, he was a handsome man, square jaw, straight nose, and strong brow, he looked at his men with a cool smile, a circular scar on his left cheek. "What happened?"
Torch swallowed nervously, "W-well boss, you see, I was minding my own business, and the kids bumped into me, and well I just brushed them off, but one of the brats had to start crying, and well I was gonna knock em away but some slightly bigger kid stopped me, he had these real scary eyes boss, like a ghost, like I was looking at a dead child. Well, he spooked me." The man shook his head fearfully, "I woulda ignored it, but then some mages came to the bar I was squatting at, asking about me. So I hightailed it out of there."
The captain smiled cooly, walking up to the man in front of him he smiled jovially. "Oh? Is that all then?" He placed his hand on the man's shoulder, then he turned to his men, "That's all right?" He began to laugh, soon his men joined in on his mirth with nervous chuckling. "That's really funny, but Torch?"
"Yes captain?"
"Didn't I say no drinking on the job?"
"Y-yes…"
"Then why do you reek of alcohol…" Torch widened his eyes, face twisting in pain as he was set on fire. The men backed up fearfully. The captain looked at his men. "Remember what I told you all? I'd be the key to offering you power like my own, because I used to be like you stupid rabble, barely eching a meager life, well, I was always better looking than you rabble. But remember, I'd make it so you talentless hacks would learn magic, you just needed to follow me and do what I said." He turned to his men, "I hate the smell of alcohol, and it weakens your connection to magic, if I want to be able to cast as efficiently as possible, I don't need my mind muddled by your base needs." The men shifted uneasily. "What? Scared of what he said? We simply move out, I would have wanted to gather more of you, but this is somewhat enough I think." As he turned to leave one of the men let out a scream then was silenced. He turned to see one of his men had been knocked out, behind him a teenage girl. She was a pretty thing, with black hair and dark eyes. The captain smirked at her. "Well hello there beautiful."
"Jaxon Vernson, third son of the Vern noble family, disgruntled over not recieving any inheritance and sent to Ceunon to be a knight. Disappeared, until now, you weren't known for having magic Jaxon, what the hell did you do?"
Jaxon frowned at her words, "Well missy, I'd love to tell you, how about over a cup of wine? And a little som-" That was all he was able to get out before he felt a presence loom into his mind, crashing through his mental defenses before he could even react.
"Slytha" She said as he and his men collapsed. The teen turned behind her. "Why'd you leave me to handle that creep and his men?" Stepping out from the undergrowth were 5 other teens. The tallest, a blond boy with blue eyes and a jovial smile grinned as he cast a light, illuminating the area.
"Come on Nya, we knew you could handle them, besides, you didn't give me the opportunity to say go."
"Oh shut up Morgan." Nya turned dismissively from Morgan's cool smile, she walked up to the quivering man before them, who was surprised he was still alive, he had thought he had been burned alive by his captain. "Alright, Torch is it?" Nya looked down at the man, "How do you know Jaxon?"
"H-he used to be part of the same group as us, we worked for that guy… Uglauw." Nya's face twisted with displeasure, scaring the man even more.
"Did he always have magic?"
"No, no he didn't and he told us he got it from someone, and that we could get it too, we just had to follow him and get him 1000 gold. We were just about ready to leave, we'd gotten maybe 900 of it."
"Yeah, 900 stolen gold from my Uncle's favorite jeweler." Bartholomew was chewing an apple as he looked down on the man.
"We, we didn't have no choice, he killed everyone who said no!"'
"So you just robbed everyone else then."
"I…" Torch looked away.
Nya tutted and opened her pack, taking out hempen rope she began tying his arms behind his back, the other teens did the same to each person, except for Jaxon, who they hogtied thoroughly. Nya looked at them all, "Vakna, maela." (Awaken, silence). Jaxon came to, tied up, he looked at the teens first in confusion, then rage, then fear as he realized he couldn't open his mouth to conjure the ancient language. The other men rolled in fear and anger roaring to be released. They were silenced as a beautiful young teen walked up and conjured flames the size of a grown man above each and everyone of them, they whimpered and cried out in fear as the flames hovered over them.
"Shut the fuck up." The girl's voice was normal sounding, but amplified by magic over the sound of the flames.
"Thank you Venka, you can dismiss it now." Nya turned to Venka, who nodded, clenching her fist as the flames shrank then dispersed, winking out of existence. "Alright, I don't know about the rest of you, but Jaxon's a terrible magic user, he'd be silver at best at our school, and low silver at, that means kids our age could beat him, like we did. So don't try anything funny, or else not remembering how we captured you will be the least of your worries, stand up. None of the men moved, causing Venka to roll her eyes.
"Risa" (rise) The men cried in terror as they were unceremoniously lifted off the ground and carried along, not only them, but their weapons, gear lying around, and even the tents and horses were lifted up and carried along. Venka turned to her friends and allies, "Alright, lets go." They began walking back to the city.
"...You know…" Morgan began, "I didn't realize, normal humans really are powerless before mages, this guy…" He points to Jaxon, "He's trash, yet he caused this much fear in them. But any one of us could handle him in our sleep..."
"So we should forgive Faris?!" Nya turned sharply.
"It's been over a year Nya," Katya began gently, "Everyone else is over it, why aren't you?"
Nya scowled and walked ahead angrily. The rest of the kids said nothing as they continued back to the city.
…
"So, you let him cast his spell."
The kids stared awkwardly at the man looking at them, he was the acting head of the mage academy, Marquise Von Bonheim, a shrewd man who seemed to only express the temperaments of asshole and bored asshole.
"To be fair sir, we had to determine whether he truly did have magical ability."
"I see, and of the men you captured, did any get injured?"
"Well yes…"
"Oh? Who? Wait no, I know, the one he almost killed."
Seya hid her frustration as she spoke. "Sir, the injured party did work for Jaxon."
"And? I require perfection from my students, the fact you managed to crawl your way back to the Pearl position after a few months is suspect enough, but the skill required to do that should mean I can expect you to complete these simple missions flawlessly right?"
"Yes sir, It is our fault he was injured and we apologize, but please, his injuries aren't life threatening, Katya had already attended to him to make sure of that, and we discovered something interesting that I believe you should know."
"Ah yes, he claimed that he gained magical powers from someone."
"Yes sir and I believe tha-"
"Oh no, you've done everything I needed, I'll read the rest in the report, you're all dismissed, and I'll be damned if I send you on another mission if you perform this poorly."
Poorly? Venka sent the message to everyone mentally, That fucker! We did the mission perfectly! No one fucking died?! We captured a magic user, and left them all alive for questioning, he should be thanking us not-
Venka! Seya mentally shot back, Don't get caught up, the bitch is trying to get us to lose our temper, no matter what he says we already filed our report, he has no job but to show our results fair and square, and once he does we just need to get in Audience whilst he and Trianna are in the same room or conversation, I know what Jaxon said was interesting you, but we've got to be careful here.
...Alright. Venka's face barely betrayed her irritation as Von Bonheim dismissed them. "I, I really don't like him." She began.
"Yeah, he's not the most pleasant of humans when he's in a good mood." Morgan added, chuckling.
"He has good moods?" Katya asked in shock, they laughed as they continued to their dormitories. Students they passed by looked at them in awe and amazement. Venka smirked as she they looked away.
"To think a year and a half ago we faced expulsion." She sighs.
"Yeah, that was a pretty bad time."
"It doesn't help that Faris…" Nya turned angrily.
"Look, Nya, you gotta let it go." Morgan sighed, exhasperated.
"I'll let it go after he apologizes." Nya didn't look at her friends.
"We haven't seen him since he left Nya." Morgan continued, you can't stay mad like that, it's not good for you mentally, why are you even bringing it up now?"
Nya didn't answer, so they just walked on for lunch.
The cafeteria was a buzz, already rumors had spread about their mission. In order to run missions you had to be the top students and at least in your third year, this was their first mission out and the question on whether they passed or failed hung in the air. As they entered the whispering quieted down as the kids looked at the elite teens, watching to see whether they may betray the secret result. Venka and her friends didn't have any inkling as to whether or not Von Bonheim passed them, but it stressed them out somewhat, if they completed five missions successfully they'd be allowed to take 2 months reprieve, they had planned on visiting Faris, and added searching for whoever supposedly gave Jaxon magical abilities into the list.
They ate in relative silence, afterwards whilst other students went to class they went to the training field.
"Bartholomew, are the combat golems ready?" Morgan turned to Bartholomew, who nodded.
"Yup, I finished fine-tuning them. They'll be twice as strong as the standard advanced variants."
"That's good, wouldn't want it to be easy." They looked on at the golems, 20 of them, of various sizes, some as large as the ones summoned by Namor, and some a little taller than the average man. They were all made from relatively high grade material, and were pumped full of magical energy courtesy of Venka. These golems could take out a small army with little effort, and even one of them had proven able to defeat an entire mid-ranked gold initiate squad. After perfecting their design a shipment of them had been sent of to help in the war effort, they were used sparingly but could continue onwards for a month of prolonged continued use, making them extremely ideal for front line work and rescue operations. The golems activated at Bartholomew's words and looked at the group, awaiting orders.
"On my mark, fight us like we were priority 1 enemies." Bartholomew stated.
"Remember the rules?" Morgan said.
"Yup, we can only use as much magical ability as Namor had two years ago. This is a test of our skills and how acclimated we are to our tools."
Namor had been a benchmark for many students, before graduating, and before Venka and Seya, he was the undisputed most powerful student in the school, unlike most of the other students he had taken his loss with grace and was currently making a name for himself in the war effort. He had a large amount of magical ability for a human, but the training Faris had put his friends through allowed all of them, even Nya who had had the least amount other than him, to surpass Namor's impressive magical ability even before they became third years. Each golem had different abilities based on it's design, the largest golems were known for their extreme toughness, the smallest for their extreme speed. If the school were being honest, in terms of ability and magical prowess they were some of the most powerful normal human mages in Alagaesia. But none of them were 18 years of age, in fact, the oldest, Seya, was barely about to turn 16. But power wasn't everything.
"Remember guys, this isn't about raw power, this is about skill, the only reason we survived that battle a year ago was because they had exhausted themselves fighting Shades, we didn't have our crystals with us, so we can't expect to always have them." Morgan began, "In fact, we have to fight expecting to have them used against us."
Katya rolled her eyes, Morgan gave that spiel every time they they got ready to fight or train with a handicap. It was helpful advice, though it wasn't anything really different from what Faris had them do. The golems stood to their full height.
"So, can we break these ones?"
"Well, fine, they're returns anyways."
The 6 stopped talking after that as Bartholomew signalled the Golems who began lumbering forward. The first two, colored blue dashed forward, creating deep furrows in the ground as they launched towards them. The all leapt out of the way save Bartholomew, who wasn't part of the fight and had cleared the way already. The blue golems gave chase, only to be pushed back by the children casting a spell in tandem. "Thringa!" (Thrust). The golems were pushed back into the ground just as Nya shot two arrows in rapid succession. The arrows struck the golems but instead of bouncing off they stuck to them.
"Verma! Sharjalvi iet adurna"(Heat, move my water) Katya yelled as the arrows, which were made of ice, melted and seemed to seep into the golems got up quickly, attempting to rush up. "Svell!" (Ice). Only to collapse as their legs cracked and popped, the water had seeped to their joints, and gotten into the moving gears, popping them open and and destroying it's foundation, when the golem coiled to leap up it put too much stress on the weakened joints and they broke. As the golems collapsed a bolt of lightning struck down, destroying one, the second was broken as Nya crashed down on it, fist first. Before it could put itself back together she grabbed the crystals, tossing them to Katya who quickly dispelled their enchantment and used them to fuel a barrier, just in time as the large golems crashed into it. "The barrier will last 10 seconds!"
"That's more than enough time!" Morgan smiled, "In two seconds, release the barrier the-" Before he could finish the barrier was released and the rest of his friends leapt out of the way as he yelped and rolled forward, he slipped on a glove as he rolled forward out of the golem's encroaching fists and dropped several metal spiked orbs. "Sharljavi!" A light hum emanated from the odd circular contraption in the palm area of his glove, he pulled out a metal baton, pulling it to reveal it was actually a segmented hollow steel staff. "Vardi," (protect) Morgan warded it to withstand the blows he was to use it for and charge a golem, his stick striking it across the face, the staff sparked at the tip as it connected, releasing a sharp charge of electricity. Morgan twirled the staff, striking again, a bit harder this time and smiling as the electricity broke through the golem's armor, frying it's insides and melting the crystal within. He pulled out his staff and turned to his friends. Who had no trouble taking down their respective golems.
Nya crushed each one like playdough, she activated her physical enhancing sparingly, waiting till the last second to unleash an explosion of strength and speed, these bursts kept her from expending too much energy whilst also achieving close to the same results, this had been her answer to her somewhat lacking magical stamina compared to Katya and Morgan.
Katya had realized whilst she could use barriers to protect herself, her enemies could be caught within them, invisible, solid constructs created by magic, they used more energy compared to simply holding an enemy still, but when it came to beings capable of unleashing large amounts of power, keeping them off balanced by keeping only a few parts from moving was her best option, even as she did that she commanded the minute moisture in the air to gather within the three golems she subdued, eventually it was enough that she could see minute droplets dripping from their arms, gathering them together she froze them, nodding as their arms cracked off from the pressure. She'd noticed that a reinforced shield had broken over the winter when some water got into it's cracks and froze, so she put that to practice. The best part was that it drained less of her stamina to freeze the water than to try and pry it open normally. As the golems struggled to get up she unsheathed her blade, striking fast and quick across its body, launching spray of the remelted water into the gashes she created, allowing them to seap inside before freezing them again, and melting, and freezing, and melting, and freezing over and over until the golems broke apart simply through movement.
Seya's body had acclimated, and through training with the twins she was able to move almost as quickly as her white haired form without having to resort to that power, when she activated her form and her eyes flashed gold now, she seemed to simply disintegrate anything that came her way. She allowed a golem to strike her, knocking her back dozens of feet, laughing as she had leapt with the blow to lesson the damage. The golem fell forward as the blade she stuck to it's chest extended outwards and hooked itself down to the ground, charging back Seya pierced the hard iron exterior, grabbing the crystal and crushing it.
Venka dodged the golem's strikes by a hair's breadth, moving in between them to get them to strike at each other. "Ramr!" (strong). Anytime a golem struck another one she enhanced it's strength just enough to cause a slight dent, that grew bigger, and bigger, until the golems' armors began to show minute cracks. Venka then allowed moisture to seep into the golems, and plugged up the holes, the golems' movements were slightly more sluggish as they were weighed down, but Venka wasn't done.
"Cold isn't it's own force, but rather an absence of heat in comparison to adjacent areas. So when you cast a spell to freeze something, where does the heat go? You think you are adding cold energy, which magically you very much are doing, but you are hurting yourself and expending more energy than you need to, instead of imagining cold spreading, imagine heat leaving the area, so that you can use that collected heat for another source." This was the principal to Bartholomew's prized ice and fire golems that Faris helped him design.
Venka had slowly been gathering the heat from the sun, her own movements, and her friends' movements, combining that with the magic she was allotted to use she began to heat up the golems on the inside, she had sealed them up to keep the heat she was generating from escaping, she had also shoved in some of that purple soldier powder, this combined with the heat and pressure caused the golems to burst apart at the seems.
Morgan nodded, proud of his friend's hard work, he commanded the balls to launch forward, hitting the golems and he extended his gloved hand. "Kveykva!"(Lightning) A torrent of electricity extended from the gloves, arcing towards the balls which released their iron payloads rapid fire into the golems. "Thringa!" (Thrust), using the momentum of the launch the iron spikes pierced throughout the golem, the electricity still arcing in them caused them to heat up, melting and warping the places they pierced into. The golems ultimately fell, broken down. Bartholomew walked up, grumbling about how long it would take to fix before getting his own custom golems to carry the wreckage away.
"Good job guys." He stated, smiling.
"You should join us next time Bart." Venka grinend, "You need to be more combat ready."
Bartholomew laughed, over the year and a half the fear those shades placed him under had been the key to him trying to get into shape, he had taken to learning swordsmanship and light physical sparring, he still wasn't the fittest student, but he at least made a successful transformation from what he had been before. "My golems are combat ready enough, I just need to be fit enough to cast spells on the fly. Besides, I'm still not a front linesman."
Morgan chuckles, "As it is, this was a resounding success, our tools work almost perfectly, I can't wait to turn in the data and get the tweaked improvements."
Bartholomew grinned, "Yeah yeah, anyways hand me your tools and let me take it then."
"Actually, it's time you introduce us to your friend." Morgan says, "He's really skilled, and honestly, the way he's been able to respond to what we needed improving in in the tools makes me feel like their a part of our group." The others nodded, Bartholomew blanched somewhat. "I mean he's shy, real shy."
"Nonsense!" Nya smiled, "We should at least say hi once, I wanna thank him personally." She admires her bow. "This thing is amazing, I didn't know you could make a metal bow, and that it'd be this light."
Katya patted her sword, "The runes he put in, while they do nothing by themselves, they are much like those enchanted crystals or your golems, they have their designated task, it's really easy to gather water for spells."
Morgan grinned, "And I have no idea how the spinning of metals generates electricity, but it's a good deal better than my simple yellow corundum static electricity generation, and those enchantments to reduce friction to keep it moving almost indefinitely…" He laughs, "I feel we're insulting him by not visiting."
"He's master Gurant's apprentice right?" Nya said, "We know where he forges, he's real famous."
Bartholomew looked lost and panicked for a moment before lowering his shoulders, "Fine…"
Faris hammered away at the forge, Gurant looked on with a grim smile as he watched the boy work. He was near the end of his main bit of work. Faris had been working under him for the past year, he had also revealed he was a knight in training in the military academy. Gurant had heard that the boy had lost his magic, and looking at his otherworldly eyes, he could determine it wasn't a misguided rumor. The boy had poured his heart into his forging work, Gurant had enough money that he didn't need to send the boy out to collect tools and such, so he worked with the boy to teach him the basics, and his own advanced techniques. The boy in turn created fantastic plans that the two of them forged together. This was their magnum opus, they worked at it tirelessly, when the boy returned from training he'd be at the forge taking over, he and the old man had formed a rhythm, all that filled them was making the sword. Faris had been able to procure some metals he had been looking for for the making of the sword, metals that had proven very unruly, Gurant had to work with the boy to create a new forge capable of putting out the heat they required. Eventually they formed the sword, if one could call it that. Despite its size not being any greater than a longsword, it was heavy, they had balanced it as best they could but even then the blade was heavy, it was made of several different metals, with an extremely hard but brittle layer in the center, followed by less brittle but slightly softer metals, with a tough steel surface. Each layer had been painstakingly added on, forged at semi different temperatures so that the metals could mix in, then hammered and folded over the first layer. Eventually Faris got help from Bartholomew, who he had been doing a few favors for, and they created a special press capable of compressing materials, and from that they were able to create a hyperdense, almost mythic blade. They had tried to sharpen it, but it broke the stone, iron, and even steel grinding mill, eventually after pulling a few strings they got a grinding mill lined with diamond dust. Even after that it took a month to hone the edge they were looking for, all that was left was oiling and polishing. The blade shined differently depending on the angle of light, and they had polished its surface to a mirror shine. They cleaned it laboriously, making sure it was as perfect as could be. Yet even with it's supposed perfection there was a flaw. It was a fantastic sword, no doubt about it, balanced about 5/16 the way up the blade, a little less defensively balanced as the standard greatsword, and it was sharp and tough, able to withstand a strike from quality steel swords, and even from a hammer, which split after the third blow. The problem lay in its weight. It was a slight bit wider than the average longsword, and a slight bit longer, with a thick mid, but Faris remembered that some of the heaviest swords in his world's medieval history were about 6.1 kilograms or almost 14 pounds at the most, this thing was not that, it was heavier, it didn't matter that the blade was relatively well balanced, it was too heavy for him to swing it effectively, he'd lose control and get himself killed. But it was a fantastic sword, dangerously sharp if used to cut, but thick enough in the center that it would likely kill in one blow. As the fever to create the ultimate sword left him, Faris realized he had made an impressive, but ultimately useless implement, it could withstand blows a normal blade could not, but a magic blade could likely still out perform it, and as it was he wasn't strong enough physically to use it.
"I'm guessing you're realizing we made it too heavy, I was wondering what happened to all our material." Gurant shook his head as he looked at the sword, "My word." He heaved it up, "It shouldn't be this heavy, it's unreal."
Faris shook his head, That blade is too heavy, but, it also shouldn't be possible, it's too dense. Despite the blade's size, it was nearly 30 lbs, yet it was only slightly bigger than a sword known for being 6-7 lbs. While Faris could lift and probably swing it a few times, he'd be very unbalanced. If anything I've essentially created a pretty sledge hammer that you can't grab all of. He sighed as he took the sword and walked to a steel dummy. Stepping back a bit he twisted and swung with all his might, his shoulder joints nearly popped as he smashed through the steal, first warping then tearing through the thing, yet the blade continued, it's momentum keeping it moving as it crashed a few inches into the wall. Pulling out the blade slowly he placed it into a simple wood and leather sheath. The goal of a sword was to be strong, tough, of workable size, and neither too heavy or too light, if it was too light then it'd lack power in the swing, but if it was too heavy it'd be unwieldy, Faris could likely slay anyone if he got a downswing on them, but by the time he brought the blade into the apex of the swing he'd be dead.
Before he could further lament he heard the door jingle, he had been prepared for meeting up with Bartholomew, the teen had told him his old friends were testing out his gear and that he'd bring the gear over for fine tuning. He kept the sword at his side, attempting to sheath it as the door swung open.
Nya walked in her head turned away from Faris, who backpedalled quickly, slipping on thick goggles and a cloth mask covering his nose and mouth. The goggles were designed to be somewhat reflective, and the mask was a request, it morphed his voice, making his words sound deeper than they were, giving the impression he was simply a short man. Bartholomew, Venka, and Gurant knew of this deception, they all called it stupid, but to him it was the best way he could go around avoiding the rest of them. He wasn't ready to face them yet, Bartholomew only because they were only somewhat acquainted and that he was one to never betray secrets.
Nya turned to look at him, smiling. "Oh wow! You must be the one who helped us design the weapons and gear right?"
Faris nodded.
"What should we call you?"
Clearing his throat to remove his nerves, Faris spoke again, "...Damien." He was surprised by the overall deepness, it reminded him of his life as Damien.
"Nice to meet you Damien, I'm Morgan." Morgan extended his hand for a handshake, and Damien took it, the 1 and a half years was good on them, they had all grown quite a good bit taller, he hadn't hit puberty yet, so his growth was paltry in comparison. He took Morgan's hand and shook it. Luckily his dyed black hair, while lanky and curly, as tied back in a ponytail, and covered in a smock to prevent burning.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm guessing you are the ones using the weapons I design?"
"Yup!" Katya smiles, "You're a genius, how old are you?"
"Oh me? I'm 34."
"Oh?" Katya's smile strained a bit.
"I'm a dwarf lass. My Uncle decided to send me over to the kingdom to learn a bit about humans. I wear the mask and goggles to protect meself from prying eyes."
"Oh?!" Venka smiled, holding back laughter, "Can we see your magnificent beard mister Dwarf?"
Faris narrowed his eyes, but his voice remained the same, "Sorry lass, I don't know any of ye that well." Venka smirked at his answer.
"Excuse my friend mister Damien dwarf." Morgan smiled embarrassedly, "Our friend's just really curious. Anyways…" He handed his glove, alongside a few sheets of notes, Faris walked around, collecting the tools and notes they put together, smiling under the mask he told them, "Come back tomorrow, these changes are mostly rudimentary."
"That fast?!" Nya grinned, "Thank you sir! See Bartholomew, I told you it would be alright to meet him."
"Really?" Faris glanced at Bartholomew who turned away, embarrassed.
"Sorry Damien, they insisted."
Faris waved them off as they talked and laughed. Soon only he and Venka were left in the rom, she had told them she was going back later and they bid her a goodbye.
"How long are going to keep this up?"
"As long as it takes."
"You know, Nya's shaken about your whole, break down and disappearing act. The others had gotten over it, but she's still pissed."
"Oh? Why?" Faris was surprised.
"I don't know, but it's not good, she'll get herself hurt if she keeps fretting like that, you've got to tell them."
"I…" Faris frowned, "I don't know whether I can, not yet at least." Venka frowned and sighed, "fine." She turned to leave as Faris overlooked the notes, sword on the table and the tools taking his undivided attention.
.
.
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Afterword:
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I implemented a time skip, though it's not as long as people would have thought before. It is still a decent amount. Faris has taken the time to learn some skills he did not have whilst he knew magic. The others have become quite fit, I'd say in terms of physical stamina they are probably able to compete in marathons. And maybe even join the Olympics as contenders for the tryouts. Before you get at me for that, the youngest iron man racer is a boy by the name of Hunter Lussi, who first completed it at 13, and even won the swimming portion at 14 years of age. The swimming portion is a 2.4 mile trek, and swimming is freaking exhausting so you know, it's feasible that they are that talented that constant training can give them that level of fitness. The on record highest world record jump is either some guy at 60 inches, or some guy at 65 inches, or above 1.5 meters. But most basketball players with high jumps due so up to 48 inches (2 feet or a little over 1.2 meters) I compare that to Eragon's jump of 10 feet in Eldest after his blessing from the Blood Oath Celebration, I assume then that you can generalize that Elves are at least 5 times stronger and faster on average than what you'd consider a human in peak normal physical fitness. For comparison's sake, the average jump height for a human nowadays is 16-20 inches. That was likely less back in medieval times without proper nutrition and exercise. Due to peace times and the spreading of knowledge health and overall general fitness should increase for the population, so already talented people with hard work should be decently powerful, the kids are powerful for human mages, especially human children, so saying they have all surpassed Namor, who was a relatively powerful human, who through their team work they did beat before shouldn't be too out of the line. Also, the youngest confirmed completed marathon runner was Jennifer Amyx, who was 5, like omg that's crazy impressive.