With Advanced Divination Magic, Midnight and I were flexible enough to track anything that stood out in some way. The monsters had been pretty easy, a source of magic that didn’t really fit in with the surroundings. Likewise, anywhere with significant numbers of people should stand out. What we wanted to find was a city so that we could see what the demon lands were like. Plus, we had to pick up whatever language they spoke.

  It didn’t seem there were any particularly near the border, though. Unsurprising, given the barren land. Even demons probably had to eat something. It was possible the plant monsters were demons, but if that was the case I was quite skeptical about them having a king.

  As we traveled, there wasn’t much else to do except walk or sit in the wagons and wait. Because of that, I wanted to make our time more efficient as much as possible.

  Figuring out what people could do was tough, but Midnight had spent a lot of time training with different people like I had. The two of us were able to separate, with him focusing on Ramen and Lana- who might soon be remembered by another name- while I dealt with Meter and Ayat.

  I was starting with the magic guy, since it probably wouldn’t take me as long to figure out something for him to do. “What was your second thing called?”

  “Advanced Metamagic Affinity,” Meter explained.

  “Hmm, I see,” I nodded. “They probably do that differently here, with somatic and verbal components. Without you having a familiar, I think I probably only have one thing that qualifies.”

  “I could get a familiar?” he asked.

  “Probably. It might be easier if we had a proper instructional tome, but… Can you feel this?”

  I gathered some mana. If he could feel it, he could probably manipulate mana directly and thus do similar things to myself. Though whether it would be efficient or not was a different matter.

  “Umm, I feel something,” he said. “But it’s kind of fuzzy.”

  Fuzzy would have to do. I reabsorbed the mana without turning it into anything. “I think the best spell here will be Gift, since that properly targets different areas. Telekinetic Hand might result in… divergent motion.” I wasn’t sure if he could directly jump to three targets, but if he did he’d have two of one hand or one hand not tied to anything. “Give me a couple tries to work out how to do this, and I’ll show you how I’d do it.”

  I could cast Gift without bothering to use the components, but it was more costly. Faster, though. I could gather that much mana in a snap, instead of taking a few seconds of chanting and hand signs. I could see this form of spellcasting being valuable for distance spells, but it was kind of impractical for other things. And it seemed that more powerful spells took more time, usually.

  The first time through I wasted the mana after completing Gift. I was just trying to hand Meter and Ayat rocks, but my attempt to triple the mana didn’t work. I had two rocks each, just in case I needed a full complement. I did it again by directly manipulating the mana, and it worked just fine. I got them to hand the rocks back to me, holding the pile in my hand, then did it again.

  I’d used too much mana the first time, probably, but I was expecting the excess to bleed off and be wasted. Even if that wouldn’t normally work with this spellcasting style, my own control should be sufficient if I was above ‘negative’ mana. I had to be able to cast a spell equivalent to rank 3 with modifications when I could do rank 20.

  My free hand moved. We should really test if Gift needed things in hand, or this wouldn’t be practical. Then again, practicality wasn’t the point. Feasibility was.

  There was more mana than I was supposed to have, which required me to be more careful with the hand signs and magical words for spatial stuff. I could have used another month of proper training to figure that out, but Zuresh hadn’t really given us the option. I also figured these kids probably didn’t want to be away from home forever. At least we would be able to inform their families that they were currently safe.

  The extra mana needed a twist to split off into different spells. Two spirals to each of them. Rocks appeared in both of their hands. Ayat managed to catch both, one squeezed in the size of her palm as it fell, but Meter didn’t even try. His hand automatically closed around one, and he didn’t notice the other until it hit the wood of the wagon.

  “Hmm. I was expecting those to go to separate hands. I can probably do that better.”

  Ayat looked down at her hand. “I wish I could do teleportation magic.”

  “Hmm. Did you understand any of those words?” I turned to Meter. “Do you?”

  “Umm…” he frowned. “I don’t know what they mean. But at the same time I do? Does that make sense? They just feel right.”

  Ayat shook her head. “It’s just gibberish.”

  “Then, it probably won’t be feasible,” I explained to Ayat. “But you have potential for agility stuff. Fast Hands might be reflexes, but it could be more.”

  I repeated what I did for Meter a few more times. He was going to be pushing the limits of mana fatigue to use Multicasting, but presumably if he had affinity for it… he’d probably be better. He’d also got to fight something, and everyone said they felt nebulously more powerful. If it was anything like what I was used to, going from level 0 to level 1 was pretty trivial. 5 experience. Honestly if it worked the same way as I expected a semi-serious spar between each pairing should have done it. Maybe some of them would have already leveled during training. It was difficult to say, however. Their status windows didn’t seem to track a level here, and attempting to manipulate them was like asking for false information.

  While Meter was practicing magic, I worked with Ayat on what “Fast Hands” might mean. “You could try juggling,” I said. “I know that’s not an exciting ability, but it would be a good indicator if you couldn’t before. Later, we can secure some lockpicking stuff from Earth and you can try that out.”

  Ayat made a face. “I was kind of hoping it would help in battle somehow?”

  “We can try that,” I said. I had my non-magical staff, so we wouldn’t even need Stoneskin for protection. Just Force Armor would do. “But it’ll have to be when we’re done moving for the day.”

  Ayat could juggle. Unfortunately, that was already true. “Maybe I can do a couple more,” she said, tossing several stones between her hands. “But I can’t tell for sure it’s different.”

  “One second,” I said, looking over the edge of the wagon. I scoured the ground. Yes, good. One use of Mage’s Reach- far less efficient than Telekinetic Hand but more familiar and more powerful- and I scooped up a number of additional rocks. “Here you go.”

  “... These are all lumpy. And sharp.” Ayat didn’t stop juggling as she looked at them. Not even having to watch… she’d either been very good, or had certainly gotten an upgrade.

  “Sharp will be fine,” I said. “Also, I have the feeling you might be better with odd shapes. If they aren’t all similar weight and size like those ones we first picked out for my demonstration, it should challenge you more.”

  Then there was a rock in my hand. And one in hers. She fumbled as she found herself suddenly juggling one additional object, and soon lost control. But I was pretty sure she could do it.

  I turned to Meter. “Excellent job. Take a short break, then you should try it with four. And then when you can do that consistently you should try it without the rocks in your hand. Sitting in your pockets or on you somewhere might be best.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “... Could that work?”

  “I’m certain it can. But it might be more difficult.”

  He looked pensive. “What if I try putting things somewhere else? Just scattered around where I please.”

  “In that case,” I said. “You’ll probably need to do more manual manipulation. And leave out this word and this sign.” I demonstrated the features I was pretty sure were ‘person’ and ‘grab’. Or some similar magical concepts. If he was still using the former he might not be able to target a space, and the latter would probably need some sort of living target that could grab. Something with hands or a mouth, probably.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any better at this unless Translation fed off of Meter’s understanding. It would have been best if Yamaha or someone experienced were around, even if I didn’t think he was particularly talented. He at least did his best to teach.

  -----

  Midnight had some success with the other two. Specifically, Ramen was learning to use a shield- we’d snagged one of the knight’s back from Extra after learning he had that affinity. It still seemed that only the teens couldn’t leave. Extra members were fine… and didn’t seem to have suddenly developed affinities.

  As for our alchemist, Lana really needed access to more information to do much. Her secondary affinity was mutation, which I could only hope was alchemical related. Either way, we had no way to do anything about it. Though maybe she could eventually figure stuff out. As we came to less barren lands, she had spotted a few random herbs that she instinctively knew about.

  “I can’t tell exactly what they’ll do,” she said. “But I worked with something that felt like this. Spicy?” She made a face. “That’s not the right word, probably. And I wouldn’t want to eat it to test. Anyway, I can also take that one over there-” she pointed and Meter telekinetically grabbed a plant for her, since he was enjoying being able to use magic. “-and put a little magic into its juices to create an acid. I don’t have a ton of extra containers, though.”

  She should learn how to make glass. Or maybe a magical repair spell to recreate used vials? I wasn’t sure how magical her class was in that regard.

  As we fed and watered the horses, it was clear that the plan had been to go back soon after the day we encountered the monsters. We could probably manage another few days of travel, maybe a week, but then our supplies would be running low.

  So we’d have to grab stuff from Earth. Or I’d have to magically conjure food or something. I didn’t want to spend points on that, though, so probably just getting Extra to help prepare stuff would be best.

  Now that we could find a random patch of ground to stand on and spar, Ayat and I were taking advantage of that. Ramen also seemed keen to test his abilities more, tossing his weapons far and asking Lana to toss acid vials at him. It wasn’t my job to tell him that was a risky idea. She handled it herself, reminding him of her limited supply and that even if his shield could take it he couldn’t.

  He did manage to recruit Malaliel to swing her sword at him, though. She was definitely holding back… and he was barely holding on. In short, a perfect training session that pushed him to his limits.

  Ayat never seriously tried to stab me during our spar. She wanted to find ways to use her free off-hand usefully. Catching my quarterstaff was not one of them. Even with Force Armor, some of the impact still reached her fingers. “Ugh. Better not try that again, huh? I’ll break my fingers.”

  “You’re not the type who should try to stop an attack like that. Unless you have a secret third bruiser ability. You want to gently but firmly direct my attack away.”

  She still wasn’t keen on parrying with her bare hand, since most people wouldn’t be using a round staff. I was inclined to agree, though aside from swords it was a fairly viable method.

  “Is it okay if I try strange things?” Ayat said.

  “Absolutely. Go all out.”

  She was fast. Not to a level I couldn’t handle, but if I was providing what I thought was a reasonable threat level it was difficult for me to connect with her. Once or twice I caught her as she tried to move in far closer than necessary- she should have just stabbed me instead of trying to do something fancy. However, as the late afternoon approached evening she began to control my movements better, forcing me to twist out of the way of her attacks. At the same time, her hand flickered out… though I wasn’t always sure what it was doing.

  “I have something I want to do,” Ayat commented. “But you need to promise not to be mad.”

  “Is it dangerous?” I asked. “Don’t stab anywhere near my head.” Technically, I was protected there… but it was still better to not risk something extraordinary happening. Maybe she could slip around the protections at neck level and break through Force Armor. Then I’d have to somehow Gate to a healer while bleeding to death and it would be a whole thing.

  “No, it won’t involve my sword.”

  “Fine, then.”

  “You promise not to get mad?”

  “I can’t guarantee I won’t if you intentionally provoke me. You can call me a dumb brute or something, but I do get a bit touchy if you say the wrong thing about orcs.”

  “No, that’s not it either,” she said sheepishly. “I just can’t tell you or you’ll be ready to stop me.”

  “How about you tell Midnight? He’d know if it would offend me.”

  “Wouldn’t you know what I said?”

  I shook my head. “I’d just know if he thought it was amusing or something. That wouldn’t give anything away.”

  “Okay, I’ll do that.” Midnight did think it was amusing. Or Ayat in general. “He said the first thing won’t be a problem for you… though he helped me realize my second idea would be a problem for me. He came up with a good alternative, though.”

  “Excellent.” I stood at a distance and held my staff at the ready, angled forward. “Come at me, villain!”

  “Hey, I’m a hero!”

  I grinned. “You’ll have to prove it!”

  Ayat had gotten more comfortable with attacking my grip on the staff after a few rounds- and assuring her that even in the worst case I wouldn’t suffer more than a broken bone. With Force Armor and Francois’ gloves, I was quite resistant. If she were using her rapier as her primary goal and trying to maximize danger, I could have used Stoneskin- but here it would just be a distraction. Though she still had to make her attacks serious enough or I wouldn’t go along with her flow.

  She learned her weapon quickly, and it was clear her skill with weapons would outpace me rapidly, with us only having been in this world for a little more than a single week and only half of that had proper instruction. For the moment, however, I was superior enough that I didn’t have to rely on Haste or anything but defensive abilities and my own training.

  When she gave a proper effort to deflect my weapon, I kept my strength limited. However, if she was lazy about it I would gladly jab her in the gut. I doubted I would get any experience for someone of her caliber, but she needed to be aware of when she messed up and a little bit of discomfort should do it. I didn’t break through Force Armor for several hits and she had enchanted armor, so it wasn’t going to be actually painful.

  Her blade was fast and swift, coming for the middle of my torso. I twisted. Ayat followed her lunge and got close enough that I was tempted to switch to a grapple- but she was in and out fast enough I felt justified in allowing her escape.

  What was she doing? That was too close to be safe, an unnecessary extension. She already knew better, which meant she’d been trying something. I couldn’t tell what.

  One round later, I was certain her free hand reached for me as we passed each other. When she picked my pocket I finally understood one of her plans. No doubt she’d seen me pulling things out at various points. Well, it wasn’t all that valuable against me unless she got everything and I didn’t realize it. I could easily pull another baggy of mixed granite and diamond dust out for Stoneskin, and I rarely used other material components. Still, it was a good way for her to train.

  After she had been successful twice, Ayat felt confident revealing her success. “I snagged these,” she said proudly. But she was still clearly looking to me for approval.

  I nodded. “Good job. If you work on that a bit more, people won’t even be able to notice.”

  “Ugh. You knew?”

  “Since your second attempt.”

  She swapped to her second, modified idea after that. Or she swapped between that and picking my pockets. That time, I was honestly uncertain what she was doing until my staff came up short on a swing as my arm unexpectedly strained.

  Ayat pressed her weapon up against my sternum. “I win.”

  “You’d probably do better stabbing me in the belly. Or through the ribs,” I commented as I looked down. I noticed that she’d managed to rebutton my jacket such that the top was attached to the bottom button. It wasn’t a major restriction on my movement, but coming as a surprise it was excellent. “Good job,” I said as I fixed it. It took me longer. “Seems like you’ll make good use of Fast Hands that way.”

  Ayat beamed proudly. That was about where we finished our training.

  The next morning before we set out, Midnight and I tried some Divination. It seemed likely that we would reach the city we were trying to find sometime the next day- and there were already signs of things being different. More plants and a bit of wildlife. No roads yet, but hopefully we could get onto one so that we didn’t look crazy. I wasn’t sure how we might disguise ourselves properly just yet, but we could improvise.