Start of a different routine, Part 1

8th of the Second, 4273

Fasnilthar 

I was hiding then, surrounded by trees and some small structures, imitating a worn down shack. Pressing myself against a wooden wall covered by the vegetation's shade, I was controlling sensory extensions for the sake of scouting. Well, not exactly that, this type of magic doesn't work exactly like extra eyes or anything like that. If I had to detail exactly what that felt like, firstly I would point out this doesn't actually interact with my normal senses. Unless I made an active effort to conjure the images my extensions detected I couldn't see them, and I wasn't even able to do that by that point. From a technical standpoint, it's like my surroundings are passed as data to my life core and it gives my brain the gist of things. Like using echolocation, just far more wizard-like. Since my extension magic was activated throughout the woods around me, I could detect my surroundings in full detail, feeling the presence of every obstacle and any moving thing in their range, all so that any hostile could be immediately found and disarmed. 

If I felt like it, I could try to focus the spell into something like counting every leaf around me, but that would burden my concentration too much. This form was among those in Thalgignir that uses up most of the mage's concentration when abused to its limits, though you would have to be crazy to pass it by. It is what enables us to reach our high range, and to do so much faster than the other areas can attain the skill to cast spells disconnected from their main body. I was feeling a tiny bit cold, with how early in the morning this was happening, even so, I grasped the utensils in my hands then even if they made my hands a bit colder. I was dressed for the time as well, of course. 

The items with me were bronze spheres, around the size of an eyeball. It was my favorite type of ammunition for electromagnetic spells, even if those in particular weren't of my usual batch. Blunt weapons of this kind were harder to break than normal throwing ones, so I mostly chose them due to the additional durability. They had been hardened through enchanting magic, so that they could handle more punishment than normal metals would. Still, they weren't quite as heavy or sturdy as the ones to which I was used to, so I needed to handle them with more care, otherwise I would shatter them on impact. These weapons were devoted for training, after all, while the combat sort I used were built to destroy armor plating and break the bones beneath their blows. I couldn't fit them all in my hands, but I had six with me in total. 

"Not a lot of room for mistake, but that's a given. With as few targets as these, if they gave me many more shots I could simply barrage them from here. Welp, now to find the right angle for each." I was at the park close to the new place. At that moment, I was about to engage four different training golems with the ammunition the challenge had provided me with. If one of them found me, it would fire a small beam of light magic. It had little to no weight, however dodging these solely on reflexes would be tough, and any hit would count as my loss. I wasn't that afraid of that possibility though. The targets were neither fast, nor smart, nor well organized, and about 60% of their mass felt like a giant floating target. The golems in question floated around instead of moving in any way connected to the ground, and they were a bit taller than a human torso in height, and slightly longer in length. For this type of terrain, this was the easiest method of making a golem that could move, seeing as otherwise their wheels or belts would get stuck every other fyetrij they moved. Legged ones were rare as a whole (Unless you count the undead) as well, and didn't like unconstant footing a whole lot. 

Each had two different targets in them, the lethal one and the crippling one. A lethal shot would take it down immediately, simulating vital points like the head or heart, and the crippling would slow it down, though it would take two of those to down each target. They floated around at a faster pace than a person strolls, and were looking through the woods around me for my hiding spot. Honestly, a more realistic test would have them immediately heading to the building I was at, considering how much it stood out along the tree lines, but hey, I don't think that was the point of the exercise. The training had started shortly before, and based on my estimation I had less than a minute until they converged on my position. Also, I was told to take it easy on my spells, since my ammo was pretty frail compared to what I usually used. There was no warning in regards to that, though I also usually took care not to try to break these things. They were sturdy, however I didn't want to know the price of fixing one up. 

Which brings me to a nice tangent. Magical technology! Since I have no idea for how long this series will be discussed, it's possible the technology made by socials described here will feel ancient to some of you. Let me go over the capacities for the ones I was dealing with in specific. Firstly, spell usage. The golems used for that training weren't the top of the mortal world or anything, but they represented pretty well the major weaknesses of our current technique in making magical constructs. For one, these models can only utilize two types of spells in their operation. To make them hover, a gravity spell is necessary, as well as to make them move while floating. This was the second biggest burden to the engine driving those things at that point. And secondly, they can use very weak light magic. In terms of potency, it wouldn't get a rank at all considering Laenixir beats that level of power even on initiate rank E. On the contrary, it's biggest feat would be suppressing their own magic to the point it can't damage people in the first place. You could give it an initiate rank C based on that. 

To produce these effects, most of those thing's bodies had to be used up to store the magical energy needed for them to work. And though they produced a small amount of magical energy, the generation was slow to the point they needed charging stations, just to make sure they could be put to use through an entire day. If around 55% of their capacity would be used for that, I would say 25% of the space would be taken up by the structures turning their essence into the spell types I just described. The remaining space was the part of the thing that commanded the application of its magic, as well as the space in which their means of detecting living beings was placed. They had some capacity to detect sound, as well as to identify living creatures based on their heat signature, and operated under a few simple commands. 

If on standby mode, they would automatically float towards the charging stations they were registered to. If on training mode, they would enter the areas designated to each, and look around for signs of movement and direct sight of a living heat source (seeing a person through walls wouldn't trigger this imitation of perception). Once detecting a living thing on the ground, they would shine briefly before shooting the previously described shot. If a different golem got hit, they would also try to search around the area that caused their friend's "demise". They specifically looked only on the ground because though the areas they were used in were blocked off from ground critters, the odds of birds entering that place weren't null. And although most of the production of these golems came from social research, the intelligence of them only worked because of borrowed technology from the Azure Sage. As simple as its operation was, the computing part of the thing would normally be as big as the rest of its body, if Lady Telphilicallys hadn't offered her hand to compress this model's cognitive center more. 

I don't think I need to explain why these didn't compare well with living mages. It didn't even take a human that much time to achieve all of their abilities, and a soul packs up all the needed structures without technically using any literal space. Not to mention the discrepancy in capacity for magic essence. Considering we've recently been living through a lot of acceleration on the development of magical technology, I have no idea what these may sound like to someone living 100 or 200 years from now. Still, in the lack for a literal window to the future, we always have the option to compare our tech with things made entirely by Lady Telphilicallys. Many scientists of this type love saying that the easiest way of imagining the future is just looking at the stuff the Azure Sage can already build that the rest of us can't. The exemple for the comparison will be something commonly used among the sisterhoods, which we referred to as Eyes of Reason a few times already. I'll put their specs in a parenthesis* though, in case hearing this much is already enough context for you. Now, returning to my thoughts as I got ready to throw down with those things. 

(*Eyes of Reason for starters were way more intelligent, despite being smaller than a human hand. Those things could operate based on more complicated and less clear commands, like scout, encircle the targets, patrol through a region, or find me a good angle to a target. After receiving the command they would then process the situation to find the best way to execute the order. Being that their main magical ability is linking to a mage through extension spells, effectively making them a mobile, somewhat thinking extension, and they reduced the difficulty of concentrating on the form, even. Combined with the fact those things constantly floated, they not only covered one of the perks for the described golems but also did so with less space and while executing on a far more difficult spell form, and at higher rankings as well. Never mind all of the customization those things can go through. And despite their blatant superiority as a type of golem, unlike the training golems I've mentioned, Eyes of Reason were put through mass production. Any emblem bearer specialized in Thalgignir could be expected to constantly walk around carrying between 8 to 30 of those things at any given point in time. Almenar being an extreme example of someone trained to use them, as at this point in the story she could control 46 of them at once.)

"Hmmm, with six shots, at least two hits will need to be in the lethal zones. Unless I miss a shot, but I'm not so rusty as to worry about that. Missing at this range would be embarrassing for someone on my stage, and I have a new junior to be an example too, even if neither are here to watch me. Can't falter at such a simple task, else my ability to teach should be brought further into questioning. No point in overthinking things either way." This wasn't the only training zone in this place, but not all of them gave you moving targets. 

Generally, practice with golems or familiars needed to be reserved ahead of time, and I had actually already made mine for that day before even meeting Chiaisei. I had planned to do this after the introduction period was over, and we generally needed at least a few days in advance to find a timeslot. That training ground in particular was meant for mages who used physical projectiles of most kinds, and some forms of energy related spells, like light magic or Thalgignir thermal control or electric control. The basic rules are altered slightly depending on the field of the mage training in them, though. 

As an example, earth casters don't really have to work with weak spots, to account for the fact a spell by an earth caster hits hard enough to down a target with any direct hit, but their challenge also involves more opposing golems. That said, I was restricting myself only to using magnetism for that particular challenge, since allowing myself to use freezing, light, conjured missiles or electric control would take away the restrictions of ammunition for this round. Without any limit on ressources, taking out four foes moving at those speeds and without the protection of barriers would be a breeze. And though the rules didn't restrict me from casting barriers personally, for the goal I had as of then, I felt permitting that would make the training too simple. The guild is far too lenient when offering the bases for these challenges. If I didn't make things harder, this type of reservation wouldn't have been worth its wait. 

Since I already had figured out their locations and their most likely routes, I started conjuring my spell extensions on the spots I figured might be the best choices for my shots. I created three extensions around the same time. I could handle more at once, but it wouldn't be needed in that case. Considering I also needed to sustain magnetic fields and sensorial extensions, it was best not to go too hard right from the start. A mage should always reserve some of their concentration, so I disliked practicing while using all of it at all times. I chose my first target based on its distance to me, since if I shot down a different golem that one was the most likely to find me immediately, and I was already thinking by then about the second target I would go for. 

As for how I would pick it off, basically, the process had two steps. The first one was to launch a sphere that would rise towards my extension while it looked at its route in flight. Then, trying to determine the starting point of the metal ball, it would look up to see the altitude the projectile would reach, exactly where a spell extension would be generating a magnetic field that would launch the sphere right in the middle of the weak spot on the thing. The hit would then disable it. Worked just as well on action than it did in this explanation. 

"Same trick, always the same results. Making them learn would be too hard, I guess. These things are so damn dumb." Even if the result wasn't surprising, seeing how vulnerable the reactions of that golem left it was almost disappointing. There was still a part of me hoping that one of those days they would react rationally to this blatant kind of bait. And speaking of dumb, the shot I made was angled in such a way that the direction the golem was looking at when it was downed was different than my own. This lured two of the other golems towards that way, while the third, my second victim, headed towards the center I was at since it didn't notice my bait. This was planned, of course. "Things are falling into place so perfectly. So predictable. I wish I got to practice against controlled type golems more frequently" I thought while internally mourning for my next victims. And controlled types are kinds of golems that could be directly influenced by other mages. They still had some of their problems, but lack of knowledge on basic tactics wasn't one of them. It could be argued Eyes of Reason were a mixture of both types, as I had brought them up earlier. 

Observing my second target, I figured there was no need to use an extension to down it. By the time it reacted to me, my second shot would already have been logged into its weak spot. But since the movement I was about to perform required a bit more agility than just sitting and hiding, I felt it was the biggest risk by that point, since I hadn't been practicing physically all that frequently as of then. Maintaining a magnetic control field around me, I moved out of the wall covering me, intent on hiding on its different surface once the target was deactivated. It spotted me while I moved, however since I had already predicted how quickly it would react, the sphere I had prepared was headed straight towards its lethal zone as it detected me. While I divided towards my new cover, it stopped floating and slowly reached the ground, being down by the time I finished hiding again. Since that also meant my next two targets were around the same zone, I was then able to deactivate around half of my sensory extensions, offering me more concentration for different spells. 

"My footwork has seen better days, but I haven't regressed that much. It might be nice to ask Nalfimiria or one of the boys to assist me with some defensive training at some point today as well. Chiaisei, Finarkzir and I are the only ones with unitwide defensive measures at this point, and both of them might have some problems with taking care of that." My logic being that generally you shouldn't put the defensive core of a group in the hands of the inexperienced. Chiaisei was really smart, but she still would need some time to learn. Finarkzir wouldn't be around the group to protect us as well, making me the most likely candidate in case one of the boys needed barrier coverage. As a result, not only was it best to make sure I was ready to assist with barrier usage, however also to try to measure up their abilities to protect themselves individually. Nalfimiria wasn't a cause of worry because she was the strongest between us. The only advantage my barriers had over hers was range and size. The best I could do for her if there was a need was to preemptively detonate any blast-like spell thrown in her direction. "From reserve barrier caster to the main one in a unit. I'll need some time to adapt, though thankfully the pressure should be rather low at first. Everyone here is at least capable of personal defensive magic." I was quite confident that the training match was basically over by then, so I found no issues in thinking about future problems. 

The two remaining targets detected my movement and started heading to my direction, likely intent on pulling a pincer attack. Gotta appreciate that they knew how to do that much, considering how tough it was to make those things think. I then started preparing myself for shooting both, firstly by estimating their routes and likely position some seconds from then, so that I could place my spell extension in the necessary spots to bring both down with one sphere each. Having figured that much out, I fired the first ball with the magnetic field around me, launching it above the damaged building that had been my hiding spot. Since there was no roof to the structure, there was some flexibility with how I could direct my ammo from there. Neither target was headed to the building itself though, but instead circling around it, since fitting through the entrances would be difficult for them. This first shot was then launched again by an extension I set up in the air towards a different field I was sustaining, that directed the ammo directly into the weak spot of the target. The fourth golem was closer to me, so hitting it was more straightforward. I simply had to place a single extension in order to get the angle I was looking for, and around the point the first shot was reaching the second extension in its trail, I launched my second projectile. Both targets went down at around the same time. 

"Four shots, simple enough." I thought while looking over the remaining spheres offered to me. "Using the reserves would have made the shots too easy, and barely require that good of an extension placement. I wonder if people are still expected to need these at my stage. Never mind using conjuration, that would remove the challenge entirely. I wish the assistants wouldn't treat me like a rookie by this point, but oh well. Can't complain about moving targets, especially ones that don't complain. I wonder if Sowanar and Senshin are fine with taking the occasional abuse for their teammates… Nevermind, I'll just try it out and figure it out from them. But I wish these time slots gave us multiple trials. Would have liked to try out a tougher one as well, but oh well. Loads of training remain either way. Gotta warm up to each of my fields again." 

I pondered about the exercise and the rest of my training while I left that part of the park. While leaving, I thanked the support crew for that area, as they headed in to check up on the golems and to return them into their charging spots. From there, I headed to a specific shooting zone meant to practice Thalgignir and other long ranged areas, where most of my practice that morning would continue. I made sure to pick a route that was slightly inefficient in distance though, so that I could prolong the jog on the way a bit. While heading there, I passed by quite a few people. Most were coworkers, since mages typically opted to start daily training as soon as possible, but I could also spot the occasional civilian, as well as a patrolling guard every so often. There were sparring rings all over the place in that park, so while on the way I would at times spot some fighting taking place as well. 

In the range itself, there followed a similar pattern. There weren't that many people using it, but quite a few of those there were simply present to accompany those in training. After briefly watching an exchange that appeared to be between a small group of spectators and a mage taking a breather after his practice, I started training myself. I tested my ability as of then in casting each of my main spell types as well as aiming them, some of which required specialized targets to handle. 

My precision was fine. With individual shots, I could still hit at long range with the needed precision. On the barrage target shooting I did miss the center of the targets some times, even if not by much, so it did seem like my aim lost a bit of its edge when tested with pressure. Not enough to worry me, since the difference wasn't that large but it was still worth noting. It would mean incapacitating or disarming targets at long range might result in additional injuries, depending on the target difficulty on a shot. Still, I did think it might be worth warning the others about. It would affect my skill at group suppression, after all. "My barrier casting is medium ranged, so I will likely have to be somewhat close to Sowanar and Nalfimiria regardless. I'll have some time to perfect my firing again." The civilians watching the scene complimented my aim, but I imagined the other mages around likely realized I was a bit off, or at least noticed I was somewhat dissatisfied with the result. Thalgignir is all about precision, so I didn't like the idea of doing anything less than perfectly in regards to it. 

From there, I briefly headed for a shooting range meant for medium spells so that I could try my Laenixir light magic as well, but that part was much easier. Spells that deal directly in energy like light magic are typically a lot easier to aim, since gravity and air resistance don't affect the trajectory as much. Lightning and fire spells are the only exception to this rule, since they typically involve creating a current between the casting point and the target as preparation, and in the case of fire, the air can interfere with the trajectory of the shot and its intensity while it flies. As the designated training area for that was nearby, I also pondered heading towards the barrier combat practice grounds, but decided against it, since it might be more productive to simply train that with the others. Done with that part of my morning, I headed to the exit that was closest to our place. Our backyard was right before the park, so it was only a matter of heading to the closest exit to it and walking for a few more minutes. 

When arriving home, I met our pink friend while she finished out a set of pull ups. She was wearing armor below her knees, and had a lot of weaponry on her as a means of adding extra weight to the workout. Kind of a weird way to add difficulty, but I guess it was a practical choice. Especially since she was expected to fight carrying those same things. Her equipment also seemed to be really heavy, but if that wasn't the case I didn't think it would even work as an additional push for her, regardless. She had almost three times my weight, so naturally her workouts were just a little beyond what I could pull off. When I was entering the backyard she even suggested adding me to the extra weight wouldn't make the pull ups much harder, and I didn't really doubt her.