Bab 32: Field Assignment 3

Jerod and his team settled down for the evening once the sun went down. The students were thankful to have him on the team as they thought they would be eating berries and edible grasses to tide them through the test. Being able to have meat even without the seasonings and side dishes they could have at the school was an unexpected delight.

The team maintained the fire to keep warm through the night and set up a guard rotation. Jerod took first watch with Rich. As they took up a position near the entrance of their U shelter Jerod decided to strike up some conversation to help pass the time.

"So Rich, why did you decide to specialize in dimensional magic?"

"Uh well, to be honest, it has to do with my family. My great grandfather was actually a very talented journeyman mage who specialized in dimensional magic. He was actually one of the mages that went around the kingdom setting up the teleportation halls. He worked hard to provide for his family and left an inheritance for each of his children when he passed away. This dimensional ring is one of the things left behind for my branch of the family. Unfortunately no one else in the family had any talent in magic at all.

The money left behind was slowly depleted and my father not wanting to leave nothing behind for me and my siblings decided to join the army. He was awarded a hereditary rank of Knight for meritorious service. He was happy with that because that meant he could pass down his Knight rank to me or my brother whichever of us takes over the household.

Luckily, last year a wandering mage happened to be visiting the county I live in while I was with my father on an errand to speak with the Viscount that ran the territory. The mage had tripped when walking near me and dropped some items out of his bag. I helped him to collect the items and one of them happened to be a magic stone that lit up when I grabbed it. Seeing this the mage had me hold different stones and each of them lit up in succession. He said I had real talent in magic and that I should attend academy. He was very excited and brought me before the Viscount to explain what happened.

With that the Viscount wrote me a recommendation to enter school here. My father after understanding what was going on spoke to me when we returned home and told me that I needed to succeed in becoming a mage so that he could give his rank to my brother. This way he would have noble status and I would still be treated as a noble. He also started to talk about how our family was in hard times due to all of the money running out and told me that since I had proficiency in all of the elements I needed to learn dimensional magic as soon as possible. If I could do that then I could help to replenish our coffers and maybe even buy some land that our family could run as a small territory if I gain enough merits.

So it took me almost six months of study to finally be able to graduate to an apprentice mage and be eligible for selecting my specialization. I can only hope that I can learn enough about dimensional magic over the next five years that I can help my family when I graduate."

"So you can use all of the elements as well? That's awesome! I guess there aren't very many people that have the affinity for them all like we do."

As Jerod and Rich continued to talk about their lives and magic affinity, a pair of sinister eyes was watching them from an overgrowth of bushes and weeds nearby.

'Yes little humans, keep chatting away while I get closer to your camp. I can smell four more just passed these two. If I can take them out quietly I will be able to feast well tonight.'

The magic beast crept slowly towards the shelter, circling around to stay in their blind spots. It did its best to reduce its presence and meld into the darkness of the night. Slowly it approached a bush that was only around 10 feet away from Rich without being noticed. Making sure it hadn't been spotted and that there was nothing wrong in this situation it finally made its mind up to begin its feast.

"It's hard to say what is my favorite branch of magic. If I had to choose one I would s. Watch out!"

Jerod cast a modified earth spell Earth Wave under Rich's feet. This spell allowed Jerod to move the surface of the ground much like a treadmill. The original Earth Wave spell would send out ripples on the surface and create small ridges typically used as cover against projectiles in the army. With Jerod's modification he could use the spell on the ground near him while standing still to move during combat or while on the run to move faster.

Out of the bushes behind Rich jumped a large wolf almost as black as night. Jerod had a sense of de-ja-vu and was reminded of the scenario with the panther back near his house. This had to be a magic beast and somehow just like the panther it was able to conceal its presence even from Lindsay.

As the wolf neared the little human it was targeting he somehow moved sideways without moving his legs. Being in the air the wolf couldn't change its trajectory easily and made the decision to attack the other little human boy who was still mostly in line with the first attack. The wolf landed heavily on its front paws and as it brought forward its back paws to launch forward it lost traction and fell straight on its snout.

Jerod after using Earth Wave to move Rich to the side cast Frozen Land where the wolf was going to land. Frozen Land was Jerod's first new spell which when using the water equivalent would make a puddle and by using it with ice magicles he could create a frozen spot on the ground making it easy for his opponents to slip. The wolf lost its traction and smashed its head onto the ground causing it to flip forward. Jerod took the opportunity while dodging out of the way of its roll to look at its stats.

Status

Wolf - Magical Beast LV. 5

HP: 195/200

MP: 12/ 40

STAM: 30/40

SPIRIT: 12

STR: 16

AGI: 11

LUK: 5

SOUL ENERGY: 90

'Level 5... I wonder how much experience I will earn after defeating it? We haven't leveled up in quite a while, none of the duels at the school provided any experience points.'

Jerod maintained his calm and prepared for the wolf's next move. It finally stopped rolling and quickly got to its feet. It turned to face Jerod with a snarl and raised hackles. This little human was setting off its instincts. He had to be killed or he would kill the wolf. The wolf circled looking for an opening to strike, some advantage it could take, something to increase its chances of winning.

Jerod watched the wolf circle him looking for an opening. He waited for Rich, who had fallen over onto the ground due to the sudden movement, to make his way into their makeshift shelter. When Rich saw the wolf he was instantly frozen to the spot, he suddenly realized that he almost lost his life and just froze in panic.

Finally when the wolf had circled to the point that Rich was now behind him, Jerod yelled at Rich to get inside the shelter and get everyone ready for defense in the event he couldn't defeat the wolf. With that Rich finally snapped out of it and sprinted into the shelter. With this lapse of focus the wolf took action. Instead of leaping into the air to strike like before it swiped its claws towards Jerod trying to inflict some amount of damage.

Unfortunately for the wolf Jerod had Lindsay to keep an eye out while he spoke to Rich. This was part of Jerod's plan to 'create' an opening that the wolf would exploit to attack. As the wolf swiped at Jerod he countered with a Wind Blade.

(Wind Blade deals -15 damage to Wolf)

This counter attack caught the wolf off guard however it was quick to dodge to the side to minimize the damage received. It had never encountered a human so adept at counter attacking. Thinking on this the wolf started to have doubts on whether it could beat this human or not. By now the other little human had entered their lair and roused the other humans. If the rest of them were as tough to fight as this one it would be too high risk to continue.

As the wolf considered the other humans it caught the smell of fear coming from the lair. The other humans were weak. All it had to do was defeat this one human and it could still have the feast it had planned for the night.