Chapter 81: Emilia’s Long Day

  The next day, Cassian found Emilia and led her to a training ground set apart from the guards' barracks.

  "New guards often train here," Cassian said. "Emilia, you haven't unlocked physical skills yet, but I sense that time is approaching soon. Perhaps you should speak with Pastor Joren. For now, it would be beneficial for you to learn how to handle various weapons. Not in actual combat, but just how to correctly master the simplest attacks with them. These simple attacks are the foundation upon which future techniques are built. This way, you will be able to use different weapons if the need arises, and you will also learn how to avoid them. Ultimately, this is also strength training to develop your body. When the time comes, this will greatly help you with your skills."

  Emilia was quick to agree and paid 50 silver coins for a personal trainer and access to the grounds. It was a significant sum of money, but Cassian had personally selected the trainer. The price also included the training weapons and the repair of the various targets, so Emilia could simply focus on her training. Boss Titus was still extremely busy, but he said he would come whenever he was free to help with the training.

  "And don't be afraid to use your mana," Cassian added. "We have paid for the most durable weapons and the best targets. Even if you break a few weapons a week, the most important thing is to deliver the strikes with your mana. Otherwise, you will just develop your muscles, which is not bad, but the goal is not for you to become an ordinary guard."

  Emilia quickly introduced herself, then received a badge that allowed her to identify herself and access the grounds. The trainer and Cassian began instructing her on how to attack with a quite heavy sword, which had a core of silver-enriched lead and could channel mana to its tip to be used for some simple techniques.

  Emilia had attempted such strikes with her spear and already knew the basics, yet every strike was quite exhausting. She needed to learn to perform several consecutive strikes before becoming completely drained.

  On one of the grounds, there were men with huge shields learning to absorb blows from a special machine or even from people who had special wooden mallets wrapped in pieces of cloth.

  Emilia also saw an area where there were all sorts of moving obstacles.

  Sandbags hung from the ceiling, moving in different directions, powered by hidden mechanisms. The force came from several windmills, as well as ten large oxen rotating a massive wheel in a circle.

  In addition to the sandbags, there were wooden logs popping out of the ground and walls, wooden sticks with softened tips, wooden balls could be fired from long pipes, several water sources could flood certain parts of the training arena, and specially trained coaches managed the mechanisms. This was a much more expensive ground, and payment was charged by the hour.

  Emilia also decided to try it later, but Cassian told her it was still too early. The mechanisms were quite strong and designed to inflict damage even on adults with various physical skills. Emilia also had a mana-enhanced body, but there was no need to slow down her development with various bruises and accident risks.

  On one of the grounds, a huge man was using two wooden swords and fighting against an entire squad of soldiers. He did not stay in one spot even for a fraction of a second. The soldiers had special swords with paint brushes on their tips, and their goal was simply to touch him and mark him with the paint. He also had such a sword, but he had to mark each soldier at least three times before they were counted as eliminated.

  In one of the enclosures, there was a Troll chained up, covered in numerous scars from old wounds. He was currently eating a huge roe deer, his mouth entirely smeared with blood. He was missing two front teeth, and as he ate, Emilia could hear the bones of the roe deer's ribs and spine crunching.

  Such monsters were used for training battles, but their upkeep was incredibly expensive. The purpose was mainly psychological, to get the guards and soldiers accustomed to the presence of various beasts, as well as to learn some of their weaknesses.

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  "All of this must be very expensive," Emilia sighed.

  "You have no idea. But the mayor and the kingdom are generous, and the army has a huge budget."

  Emilia continued to look around and at one point saw punished guards who had to carry sandbags from one building to another, and on the way back, they carried water, making sure not to spill a single drop.

  "That's both a punishment and training," Cassian noted, observing her gaze. "If they urgently need to move materials or evacuate a residential building. And the water is for fighting fires."

  Emilia nodded, highly impressed by everything she saw. After thinking about it, those 50 silver coins probably weren't that much.

  Two days later, Trim sent someone to deliver the armor for the novice hunters. It was made of a slightly different hide, and Emilia hadn't worked with it before. It took her a long time to examine it with her mana, periodically drawing small lines in different places on the pieces and diligently recording the results.

  "Surely Master Inscribers have specialized tools and workshops and don't have to spend hours examining every material like me," she thought. "Besides, they were trained exactly in this by Masters at the beginning of their careers, and there was always someone to instruct them on how to understand the materials."

  Emilia sighed but didn't give up. Yes, it would be more difficult, but even small progress was progress. So what if others had advantages? Didn't she have her own little secrets?

  Just an hour after thinking this, however, she encountered her first major difficulty. The monster hide on one of the armor pieces was designed to work primarily with air mana. The creature apparently used it often, and that was why there were thousands of tiny channels suitable for its work with air currents. This, however, presented a very serious problem.

  Emilia tried everything. Finally, she threaded numerous silver wires, but the lines still did not become stable enough. Perhaps if she used more expensive materials, it would have a better effect, but neither she nor the apprentice hunters could afford that.

  Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, grabbed the armor, and headed toward the craftsmen's street.

  "Uncle, Uncle, what kind of hide is this? Here, I have two apples. Can you help me?"

  "Uncle, Uncle, what kind of hide is this? You're not an uncle, you're a big brother? And you're still an apprentice? So what kind of hide is this? You don't like apples? When is the Master coming back... Yes, yes, I'm sorry, Big Brother Apprentice, I'm leaving right away."

  "Uncle, Uncle, what kind of hide is this?" At the third Master's shop, Emilia finally had luck. "Air Squirrel hide? But it must be huge? What do you mean, it's table-sized? It wouldn't be able to climb trees then. How would it be a squirrel? Ah, now I understand. That's why the hide has so many traces of air mana; it uses it to climb trees more easily."

  Emilia continued to wander around various masters and even went into a few shops that sold finished products, secretly examining similar armor with her mana and skills. She had to be careful not to be kicked out, as she looked neither like a hunter nor like a noble with an escort and servants. Perhaps if she bought extremely expensive clothes, she could pretend to be the child of a wealthy merchant or craftsman, but that carried its own risks.

  Emilia finally understood a very simple fact. Far from all hides were worth the trouble of enchanting. This armor would be ideal for air glyphs, but its overly strong aura made the use of other glyphs extremely impractical.

  Emilia sighed, went home, and spent almost three hours recording her observations and ideas in her diary. She missed dinner, and her mother scolded her.

  "Emilia, when you start writing in that expensive notebook, you forget about everything. Look, you missed dinner, and you promised to help your brother with his letters."

  "But Mom, it's still early, I'll help him later."

  "Emilia, look out the window, the moon has long since risen, your brother will be going to bed soon."

  "But Mom, he can already write... albeit with a few mistakes... per sentence."

  "Emilia!"

  "Alright, alright, I'm going."

  Emilia quickly noted down a few last things, such as the direction to continue her thought process and a few reminder notes. Then she grabbed two wax tablets and hurried to her brother's room.

  There, they first worked on the rules of grammar, and then she dictated while he wrote slowly. Emilia watched him and, from time to time, when she saw he couldn't easily remember, she reminded him how he should continue. They worked for over an hour, until finally Kael got tired and went to bed. Before that, Emilia gave him homework for the next day, where he had to try hard to write various well-known sentences.

  He had chosen to write the story of Orpheus and Eurydice—about the legendary musician whose song could tame beasts and move the gods themselves. And about the beautiful Eurydice, whom he loved more than anything. Today he would write about how they met, and tomorrow—about the bite of the treacherous snake and the journey to the realm of the dead.

  Time passed, Kael fell asleep, and Emilia, who drank the special tea every day with the spiritually-rich herb that even Aunt Sylvara paid 1 silver coin per plant for, continued to work late into the night. She only needed four hours of sleep and managed to get an incredible amount done during the remaining twenty hours of the day.