Chapter 25: Choices

I returned to the bakery after I had my fill of cold chicken and spiced apples for dinner. Konstantin was waiting impatiently in the yard. I realized it had been over two hours since he had left the bath before me. I joked, "I thought you had been joking since we had just had a bath."

"Joking? You are the least skilled combatant in the company Eryk. Maybe the entire Legion. If you want to live through a battle, you need to focus. You have chosen the most difficult path for a primary. Dual wielding requires ambidexterity—and the ability to split your thought process. Defend with one weapon while attacking with the other. And then surprising your opponent by switching which weapon is doing which," he lectured harshly.

He tossed my two training short swords. "We will continue to work with two short blades until you have gained competency. Then, we will work with a blade and a parrying dagger. From there, we will work with you on strengthing your ability to split your mind and independently wield any bladed weapon in either hand."

Even though I had been late and he was upset with me, Konstantin was surprisingly patient as we practiced. In the middle of practice, I disarmed my right sword, forcing me to fight with just one sword in my left. I was left-handed and decided to make light of the situation by quoting The Princess Bride. "I have something to tell you, I am not left-handed!" I switched my sword to my right and launched an attack I thought would surprise him. He used both blades to lock my sword down and away and elbowed me in the chin. I bit my tongue and tasted blood.

"What are you talking about, you dolt? You are definitely left-handed. But we are working on correcting it," Konstantin snickered as I spit blood.

"That would have worked better or at least been funny if you had seen the—play," I continued to spit blood to find out the damage to my tongue.

"If you had not been talking, you would not have bitten your tongue when I struck your jaw," he commented while going for water. "Only goude your opponent if you know you are better than them. For now, assume everyone is better than you."

We worked on my ambidexterity. Konstantin admitted he only dual-wielded weapons when facing a monster or a single opponent. When faced with multiple weapon-wielding opponents, he preferred a small shield. However, he did not carry a shield when he scouted for the company due to its added weight.

Sweating and exhausted, Konstantin moved on to the spear. I was just using a staff as Konstantin had me review the basics and make slight corrections. I thought he would have made an excellent instructor at the legion training camp, but I was not going to stoke his ego right now. It was time to learn what I could from him.

I was filthy and exhausted when he released me. He definitely worked me into the dark because I had been late. I spent some time setting up my bed on the tables, more than a little peeved of having my room skunked out by Mateo. I went and grabbed the oil lamp in the room and also confirmed the ogre scent lingered. I thought about sleeping in the other room with Felix, but he snored, and even exhausted, I wanted to study anyway. If anyone caught me with the spell form book, I would profess to finding the book in the bakery.

I had learned spell forms in two different ways so far. The first was the natural way my body innately made it. This happened when I utilized my convergence affinity to squeeze as much out of my first dexterity essence. From my understanding, I grew my attributes substantially from every essence I consumed. Minor and major essences were not supposed to affect potential, but for me, with my spell form, they did. It would be a huge boon as long as I could consume more essences in the future.

The second time I learned a spell form was from the spell book for dimensional storage. The spellbook was very similar to a spell form, just more complex than it needed to be. I also had Damian guide me on the process. Damian mentioned what a true wizard was able to do.

When a mage cast a true spell, they constructed the temporary spell forms in the air with their aether control and manipulation. Each spell required between three and six layers, and then you activated the spell construct with more aether. Damian had told me it was extremely difficult to learn to cast true spells, and few people had the intellect, dexterity, and perception to cast them. Even the translation amulet I had worn was actually six spell runic discs stacked on one another. I could not imagine creating all of those constructs with my mind.

The two books I purchased supposedly simplified spell forms to make learning and imprinting easier. The easiest way to describe the process was tattooing the spell form permanently on my aether core—each affinity could only take one tattoo, and the size of the tattoo was relative to the magnitude of my affinity. There was just not enough space for affinities under ten to imprint a spell form easily. It was possible, but the effect was usually minor.

I reviewed the protection affinity options in the first book. The three spell forms in the book were protection from the elements, aetheric armor, and wind barrier. I started to examine the descriptions of each to see if one was good enough to choose as my spell form. I realized there were more options beyond these. That was because the healing book I purchased and Renna's book had different options.

Protection from the elements was the simplest of the three. It kept the air around your body at a comfortable 70 degrees. Well, it did not say 70 degrees specifically. It just said comfortable, like a dry spring morning, so I filled in the blanks. The description included walking on a glacier or in a desert in complete comfort. The spell even drew a tiny one aether per hour, well, for me that was a lot.

The next spell form was aetheric armor, and it required you to have an affinity over 25 due to the complexity of the spell form if you wished to learn it. This spell form created an invisible skin on the mage that absorbed hits, draining the aether at a rate of two per strike. At least, roughly two per strike. My translation was a bit fuzzy when it came to the math.

The last one sounded useful as I read it. Wind barrier actually hardened the air in a disc shape. It only cost a single aether to cast, and the barrier dissipated if it was strongly deformed. But it could still stop an arrow before breaking. The issue was the barrier took about two heartbeats to form (two seconds) and was fixed in place. It would lose cohesion after about ten seconds as well.

So, should I try to learn one of these as my one spell form for protection affinity? I wish I knew what all my other options were. Aetheric armor sounded useful as a soldier. Life-saving even. The protection from the elements was a great utility spell for a soldier and possibly life-saving. It had cool notes like keeping the rain off you as you walked and drying your clothes if you did get wet. Wind barrier had some cool notes that you could cast multiple wind barriers and make steps to climb walls as long as you didn't run out of aether.

Felix came down to use the privy on the first floor, "Crap, Eryk, get some sleep and stop reading about the First Legion." He did his business, and I switched the books in case he checked on his way back up. He went back upstairs, never checking what I was actually reading.

I decided if I had to choose one of these, it would be aetheric armor. I wanted to see if another mid-tier protection spell form was better for me before committing. From my experience, it would take me four to six weeks to learn it, and I was not sure if I would have the time or privacy to do so. I switched to books to look at the healing affinity spell forms.

This book offered three; self-healing, body cleansing, and boundless endurance. These were different from Renna's book. Boundless endurance was the easiest to learn. The spell form utilized fat stores in the body to quickly replenish the muscles. This would be a terrible choice for me. Not only did I have little body fat now, but I had also consumed three apex essences of endurance. The body cleanse was very tempting. It removed foreign objects from the castor, including poisons, disease, and cleaning your bowels. This was basically a chance to never get sick. I remembered you needed to have symbiotic bacteria in your gut for healthy digestion. The text did not address if these bacteria were unaffected by the spell effect. The problem was that the spell form suggested having at least an affinity 35 in healing to learn it. My affinity was only 19.

The last choice, self-healing, suggested a minimum affinity of 20. The healing was limited to the mage and could not affect others. Damian's healing ability could heal other people but only soft tissue. But it looked like this version could heal soft tissue and bone. It was exactly what I wanted for my healing affinity. Maybe it was selfish to not seek an ability capable of healing others, but I didn't care. The extent of the healing determined how much aether was needed.

Mateo stumbled into the bakery, back from his watch, and I swore at my idiocy. It was almost morning, and I had spent the entire night translating and reading. I was caught in the excitement of possibilities. Mateo ignored me and climbed the stairs. I put the book away and got comfortable for my thirty-minute nap. Konstantin came stomping down the stairs with Felix and woke me. I rolled to a standing position and started to dress. Konstantin said, "Breakfast first and then to the wall. You have the first shift and the rest of the day off."

Breakfast was cold rice and beans with a sweet got sauce. It was the same food as the regular army as our kitchen was being moved to the estate this morning. Although the other men in my company complained, I joked the food was not too bad. It had nice contrasting textures, the rice was a little gooey, and the beans a little crunchy, but at least the thick sweet sauce covered it up.

When we reached the wall, Konstantin was in charge on the wall for the eight of us. I was shocked to find two of our company's archers, Pavel and Regis, were holding a competition. They had set up three dummies out away from the wall. Each of us would get twelve shots. The loser of each round would have to go and retrieve the arrows. Konstantin was the best archer among us but was not participating. Was there any weapon Konstantin was not good with?

The contest started with a lesson on the short bow, how to properly string the bow, and care for the composite short bow made from glued layers of horn, wood, and sinew. Pavel showed us what made a good bow and how to inspect arrows for damage and then gave us a ten-minute lesson on shooting. Everything was too well rehearsed for this to be an impromptu session.

I guessed right when Konstantin announced, "There are seven of you, and we have six extra bows in the Legion. The six of you with the best shot will carry a bow while stationed on the wall; the remaining man will be the runner for arrows." This was not a great incentive, so he added, "And the best shot today will be given a pouch of the seasoned griffin jerky."

I had not sampled it but heard it was excellent, and by everyone's sudden focus, the game was on. Each round, we would shoot ten arrows each. And there were going to be twelve rounds total. An arrow in a straw dummy was one point. An arrow in its centerline was two points. The centerline was a red stripe painted from head to groin.

The dummies were fifty yards out and spaced about ten feet apart. Felix went first, earning seven points. Pavel was second, earning eleven points. Whether or not it was fair to have the archer participate in the contest was not up for debate. I was third. My first shot hit the dummy in the center of the head, and everyone whopped in praise. Then I missed my next nine shots. I gripped that I was left-handed and forced to use a right-handed bow but did not receive any sympathy as twenty minutes later, I was trudging out in the sun to collect eighty four arrows.

As the second round began, I noticed Konstantin and Regis giving advice. This was not some light-hearted competition. They were finding the most proficient members of the company to be archers on the wall. My turn came, and I scored five points, still the worst among everyone. My draw fingers were also slightly numb, and I wished I had one of the special gloves the archers were using.

I improved in the next rounds, scoring 6, 6, 8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 9, 10, 8, and 8 points. Only when I scored ten points points by getting two arrows on the centerline did I mercifully not have to go and retrieve the arrows as I tied with someone else and was given a reprieve. We then spent time as a group inspecting each arrow for damage before packing them for the next watch. They were going to have the same competition to find the most competent archers. I was not selected to be one of the bowmen, but Pascal won, and he shared his griffin jerky.

I headed back to the bakery. My clothes were soaked with sweat and dust from all the work I did collecting 924 arrows. Granted, most were in the dummies, but my hands were raw and full of splinters from pulling them out of the straw. My left shoulder blade ached from pulling the short bow one hundred and forty-four times, and the calluses on my fingertips were peeling off from new blisters forming underneath. Maybe it was a good thing I was not selected to be an archer for the wall.

Mateo had been to the baths in the morning and was coated in perfume. We still joked we could smell ogre ass on him, but we decided to let him come with us for a drink with some of the other men in the company. Konstantin said we would be moving into the villa late tonight, so it was going to be an early dinner in the tavern rather than eat the army food. I gave the old woman five coppers and my two dirty clothes on my way to meet the others. I was dressed in clean linens. I only wore a belt with a dagger and my coin purse. In my purse were twenty-seven copper and three silver. More than enough to enough the evening. If the pattern held, tomorrow would be a long march to patrol the swamps.

As we headed to the tavern, my companions were Firth, Mateo, Felix, Wylie, and Kolm.