Bandit Attack, Part 5

"Well…" Owyn thought for a while, thinking about how to best explain this. "As you, of course, know, to use a spell you need to have enough Mana, as well as a picture of what you are trying to do, in your mind."

"Of course," Gerald nodded. He learned that long ago.

"Basically, the mindset is very important if you want to be successful, and even a slight interruption can make the spell misfire or completely collapse… So some people came up with the idea of using longer chants. They are usually short catchy songs or poems, with rhymes, so they are easy to remember," Owyn explained.

"A mage should then train in peace using these chants to master the spell. Then, if at some later date the situation became chaotic and he was under stress, the familiar chant would help bring the mindset under control, making it easier to cast a spell."

Gerald listened to the explanation with much interest. He stroked his chin as he spoke out loud, "Interesting... So then the words that you spoke to trigger your spells could be changed for something else?"

Owyn nodded, stating, "Definitely! But I am having problems shortening my chant for the Stone Javelin. If I remove words from my chant, the casting time increases instead of decreasing… I am a failure as a mage." He smiled awkwardly.

"One of the marks of a good mage is if he can cast a spell with as few words as possible, while still keeping the consistency at 100%. Of course, the cast time has to be fast as well."

'Ah!' Gerald suddenly came to a realization, 'I have been using something similar to achieve this effect. Just instead of using extra words to accompany my spell, I used body movements! And I didn't even know it!' He remembered all those times when he was waving with his hand or fingers to direct his Stone Bolts.

The realization deepened his interest in magic even more.

Both Nina and Owyn were at about the same level of competence. They both had problems using short chants quickly as they required more active thinking to cast a spell. Trough the conversation with them, Gerald came to know that that was quite common in the kingdom.

The almost instant casting, like what Gerald was capable of, was almost unheard of in this world. Only the geniuses, from the wealthy families who could afford expensive teachers, were capable of similar feats.

Most young mages had to study at a public academy, and if they didn't understand something, or couldn't keep up with the professor, well, that was their problem.

Many left the academy after a few years because they couldn't keep up. Instead of wasting time and money on something they couldn't follow or understand, many decided to get a job by either becoming a mercenary, join the Warrior's Guild, become a soldier, or learn a useful craft.

The merchants usually came from a family with a rich background, usually a less successful son of some small Lord. The starting capital was something the commoners just couldn't afford after all.

The few that decided to continue as a mage, like Owyn and Nina, usually joined the Warrior's Guild because they didn't have many other choices. Luckily for them, they at least had magic staves that helped them with the Mana problems that many young mages faced.

Usually, mages had to spend most if not all of their money on expensive equipment to be able to sustain the Mana cost of their spells. That oftentimes came at a cost to their armor and clothes.

Gerald could now more easily understand why he saw quite a few people with nice jewelry and staves, as well as wands and rings, walking around with simple wool clothes. Turns out the mages had the same problems he himself faced. Money was the biggest obstacle in their path.

Although his money situation somehow resolved itself for now, he knew that he will have to work hard to continue getting stronger. He currently only had gems for two Elements and he stole the Fire Sword from Adelard, so that didn't really count. Who knew if it might bring him more trouble with the Serrell family in the future.

There was one thing that bugged him for a while now. How could he sense and use Mana so naturally? People in this world usually had to train for quite a while to be able to sense it, but it seemed like he had a natural gift for it.

Though he didn't really like that explanation. There had to be something else going on, but he couldn't come up with any useful theories at the moment.

The journey after the attack went quite peacefully, there weren't any more incidents that happened.

Gerald placed his wooden box on the wagon; he was getting tired of carrying it on his back for such a long time.

When the last sun rays were about to disappear behind the dense trees, the group quickly set up camp and lit a small campfire to warm themselves. After a quick dinner, everyone went to sleep quite early. They were exhausted from the frantic day and did not feel like chatting.

This time it was Sera's turn to be on the night guard first and Gerald was the last one. He would be on guard in the early morning hours just before everyone else woke up.

'Perfect! Now I can sleep without worry,' he thought and wrapped himself in his cloak, found a clean place to lay down, and floated away to the land of dreams.

A good while later, when the sun was yet to rise, someone gently nudged Gerald and woke him from his sleep.

"Wake up, it's your turn to guard now." It was Kera, the Silver Phantom Archer, who spoke with a gentle voice.

Gerald slowly opened his eyes and removed the cloak. He sat up and yawned while stretching his body. "Alright, I'm up." He rubbed his sleepy eyes and stood up. Seeing her job done, Kera quickly went back to her place, trying to get some greatly needed shut-eye for the remaining hour before dawn.

Gerald stretched his body some more to get the blood flowing and then looked around the camp. The fire went out and only glowing embers were left.

The surroundings were deathly silent. No sound of birds or insects, no rustling of grass or leaves and even the river was barely making any noise.

The light mist around the camp gave a mystical feeling to this place. The first light from the sun was barely leaking its way across the mountains in the distance, giving the sky a light gray color while dyeing the clouds with a gentle red.

Gerald took a deep breath of the fresh morning air through the nose and slowly exhaled. It was so tranquil that he wished it could stay like that forever.

He sat down on a boulder and took out one of his notebooks, or maybe it would be better to call it a diary?

He opened it where he left it and took out a pen and a small vial of ink. He was writing down his experiences for the last day.

With the lack of any sophisticated technology for keeping track of knowledge, he had no choice but to write it all in a book. All his findings of magic, that was.

Although he had a photographic memory and he remembered everything almost perfectly, he wasn't dumb enough to rely on his brain only. The human mind was oftentimes unreliable, especially when remembering details from the long-gone past.

Writing a book was his form of insurance in case something unpredictable happened and he had to refresh his memory. Although that wasn't likely, he didn't want to take any chances even if there was less than 0.1% possibility of memory loss.

With how this world operated, and the conflict was often resolved with force, head trauma was actually quite common. In fact, he already experienced it when the Hobgoblin's arrow almost knocked him out cold.

He was writing down his thoughts when suddenly, a few birds flew out of the tall grass about a hundred meters away. He squinted his eyes in that direction, but he didn't see anything unusual.

The sun was slowly moving higher and higher, and it would get above the tall mountain peaks at any second now, but still, the light was quite weak.

Gerald kept staring in that direction and then activated his Magic Eyes. The Mana flowing around immediately entered his vision, but there was an anomaly.

Where the birds flew up, a few distinct blobs were slowly moving forward in his direction.

"Damned beasts, not again..." Gerald silently cursed, "Just leave us alone already!"

He crouched down and lightly kicked every sleeping person in the feet. They almost immediately jumped up, but Gerald quickly gestured them to be quiet.

"What's going on?" Sera whispered and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

"We got company… Get ready for a fight." Gerald kept a serious face as he was observing the enemy approaching.

When the rest heard him, they immediately sobered up and the drowsiness was gone. People quickly wore their armor and picked up their weapons, even mister Rulgo took up a sword and hid near his cart, waiting.

Now they could already hear the rustling in the grass as the enemies were approaching.

Gerald suddenly made a confused expression as he stared at the approaching Mana blobs. At first, he thought they were all crouching humans, but now that they came closer he realized they were not.

There were ten humans and the same number of animals. At first, he thought it was a normal wolf, but the beast was much bigger, although still not as big as the Silverback.

Ultimately, the enemy encircled them from the front and they became aware of each other's presence.

The animals slowly emerged from the grass, they looked like a mix between a tiger and a big wolf, with completely black fur, sharp fangs and a bloodthirsty look in their eyes.

The humans approached behind them and they wore an expressionless face as if they had already won. They all wore the same brown armor, a full leather attire made out of individual leather pieces that were combined in a way that made them look like scales.

"Hold on… I saw that before…" Gerald remembered how the red-armored bandits had the same style of armor, just the color was different. "These punks are from the same faction I bet! Fuck, that makes me mad! You think we are an easy target for you to bully?!"

He gripped his Fire Sword tight and lowered his posture, preparing for the fight.

"Oh, hell! Black Wolves! Be careful guys!" Derrick yelled when he saw their opponents.

'So they are wolves after all!' Gerald thought in surprise. It had to be some other species that he didn't know about.

Just as the Black Wolves jumped for the attack, Gerald heard a light rustle behind him. He quickly turned around and saw another one of those bastards sneaking near the wagon. The rest, including mister Rulgo, seemed oblivious to him as they were too focused on the Wolves in front.

What Gerald saw next made his blood boil. That sneaky bastard placed his hands on a chest and gently pulled it in his lap. It was the chest that contained the Swiftness Potions, Gerald's most prized possessions.

Gerald's eyes opened wide and his pupils shrunk as his heart rate shoot through the roof and the adrenaline was released in waves into his bloodstream. If he had a rage meter, it would now reach the maximum value and possibly even explode.

His face turned red in anger and veins on his neck and forehead bulged out.

The roar that came out of his mouth next shook everybody present, including the animals, making them all pause the battle.

"BASTARD… YOU ARE COURTING DEATH!"