22: Traveling

Author Note:

I have created a patr eon page. If you want to support my work, please visit it. There you could find 6 chapters in advance for patrons, but only in spanish. Since, thought I have a bunch of chapters acumulated, I still havent translated all of them.

https://www.patr eon.com/finlegost

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After leaving Ozy's store, I headed in the direction of Agustin and Joseph's family store, where I met up with them. As I collected everything we needed to transport, his parents kept giving us advice.

When everything was ready and we were saying goodbye, Sabrina arrived, and with our entire group we left in the direction of the exit of the capital.

Currently, we have been on the road for a few hours, and it is already evening. Joseph is playing with Azur, shooting arrows into the air, which the latter catches without much effort and I look at them amused, infected by the happiness I feel coming from my little companion. While Sabrina and Agustín are talking a little apart.

Joseph makes a ruckus every time Azur catches an arrow in some special way and it seems that this annoys Sabrina, as she tells him "you should be paying attention to the path, instead of wasting your time, what will you do if an enemy appears while you are distracted looking at the sky?

"ohh come on, it's not a big deal. Xelean is watching. Besides, Azur can see a lot more from the sky than if he were on the ground" argues Joseph.

"That's no excuse for YOU to be wasting your time" says Sabrina, annoyed.

"Let it be, Sabri. I prefer him playing around than hear another one of his stupid jokes" Agustín intervenes with a smile.

"you love my jokes! Isn't it true Xelean that my jokes are great?" he asks, looking at me.

"Yeah... Sure..." I say, not to put him off, even though his jokes are pretty bad.

"Why don't you ever support me in my decisions?!" Sabrina asks Agustín with annoyance "I'm sure you're also tired of his fuss"

"yes, but I already told you that I prefer him playing than telling jokes" Agustín blurts out, frowning "can't I give my opinion?"

"Of course, you can give your opinion! I'm just saying that..." Sabrina begins to say and turns away, with Agustín, arguing.

As Joseph watches them amused, he continues to play with Azur as if nothing had happened.

"This is going to be a loooong trip" I say in a low voice, while I look at my friends and sigh tiredly.

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It is the night of the sixth day of travel, and we are camping by the side of the road to eat and sleep. We have three tents that we bought from the guild before our departure. Joseph and Agustín decided to share one. We also bought various ingredients and kitchen utensils, since, although I can carry prepared food in my inventory without it deteriorating or losing temperature, Joseph wanted to have the experience of cooking outdoors.

Joseph is by the fire, cooking, since he is the only one who knows how to do it, while he whistles a tune. Agustin tries to help him and learn in the process, though, at the same time I can see him frowning at Sabrina and me as we practice mana-bending. He doesn't seem to like that only one person in the group knows how to cook.

We are sitting, a little apart from the other two, with our legs crossed in the floor. One in front of the other, while bringing our hands to the front and we make our palms touch.

The practice consists of letting my mana flow from my right hand to Sabrina's, while with my left I receive the mana that she sends me. From time to time we change the direction of the mana flow, becoming my right hand the one that receives and the left the one that emits.

The training is incredibly boring, but Sabrina refuses to teach me any more magic until I improve my control over mana. However, every so often I try to convince her to change her mind.

"this is sooo boring...come on Sabri, we've been practicing this exercise for a month now and my control has improved a lot. Wouldn't you like to teach me how to cast that magic bomb spell you use from time to time?" I say, because I can't stand sitting quietly practicing for another second, even though I know that my 'magical sense' skill didn't level up at all since we are practicing.

"Only if I wanted you to get hurt, or us, in the process" she says with a frown "Who's the teacher here?"

"you" I say crestfallen.

"Then you should trust my judgment a bit more. You don't know the number of times I've seen people get injured by poor mana control. And your case is worse, because your magic is too powerful, despite the poor magic control that you have, and also, you have affinity with fire, which is one of the 2 affinities that are extremely dangerous to practice... The other one is the affinity with earth, before you ask, although it is also the least efficient of all"

"why's that so?" I ask, glad to talk about something interesting, instead of practicing in silence.

"It's quite simple..." she says with a sigh, as if she thinks she has to explain the obvious "Let's take as an example the magic bomb you mentioned a moment ago, what could happen if your control over mana fails when you are forming it?"

"It would explode before its time, right?" I answer briefly, because I know that she is going to expand on the subject, just as she always does when we talk about magic.

"Yes, or it could explode with more or less power..." she says and her voice acquires a hint of enthusiasm "speaking of the most common affinities. If a magical wind or water bomb explodes by mistake, the worst thing that can happen is you get hit by a breeze or a bit of water, in addition to the mana hit. On the other hand, fire affinity mana burns, of course, and earth can do a lot of damage if it's in the form of stones, regardless of the mana hit"

"Ok, and earth is the least efficient affinity because..." I say, leaving the sentence hanging in the air for her to continue.

"because unlike the other affinities, the raw material is not found everywhere... Or if it is, but it leaves more of a mark.... I'm not explaining myself well... Fire, wind and water can get sustenance from the air around us... It would be easier to explain if you had studied some chemistry, as is normal for magicians... Anyway, you're going to have to trust me when I say what I say, it's easier that way or… do you want me to explain the chemical composition of the air?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah, I'd rather believe you blindly… I don't even know what exactly you mean by 'chemical composition'" I say, with a smile "so, the earth gets its sustenance from the soil, right?"

"Yes. The thing is, no matter how much air you use, it won't leave a visible mark. Instead, earth affinity's magic needs something more tangible" Sabrina explains, moving her hand away and grabbing a handful of earth from the ground "so, if a mage uses earth magic it will always leave a mark" she continues, pointing to the small hole she has just created "be it a hole in the ground or in a wall. To avoid it, mages with that affinity always have to carry earth, in order to use magic without leaving marks on the environment.

"ok, I got it. You were talking about normal affinities, what would happen..." I start to ask, but Joseph interrupts us with his typical 'let's eat!!!' signaling that the food is ready.

"We can continue with the conversation later if you want. Now, let's not keep the cook waiting" says Sabrina, getting up to approach the fire.

After a few minutes, we go to sleep and leave Azur standing guard. Since, being a summoned creature, it doesn't need to sleep, eat or drink. So, we don't have to worry about taking turns on guard.