Chereads / The Artificer's Apprentice / Chapter 10 - The bare minimum

Chapter 10 - The bare minimum

It took a little while for everything to make sense again, Alice looks around still a bit out of it, the blankets are gone and the ground around her seems to be burnt up, she's about to ask a question but then she feels it. A wave of nausea hits her like a truck, her eyes bulge out, in a panic she quickly crawls away a couple feet and pukes on the grass, she felt a little better after that but the pit in her stomach is still there.

Isaac: "Yeah sorry about that kid, had to get that stuff out of you" Isaac shakes a small jar he has as he chuckles and stands up "You're going to be a bit sick for a few more minutes, but still though i should congratulate you"

Alice looks up at him with as much of a glare as she can muster at the moment before she covers her mouth as another wave of nausea hits her.

Isaac: "Right, well kid, you are now at the very minimum requirements to be considered a tier one mage, how was your trip by the way?"

Alice manages to stand up, though her legs are shaking quite a bit she leans against the carriage "Uhm.. there was this orb, it was cracked so I broke the shell off, i-is that what was supposed to happen?"

Isaac: "Eh, yes and no? whatever you saw in there was just symbolic, it didn't actually happen but looks like you have a much better flow of mana now."

Alice looks down at her hands, she can see the aura radiating off of her, remembering the tinging from before she focuses on that feeling. With not too much effort se finds that she's able to cause the aura covering her to flare up or die down like the flame of a lantern, she's so enraptured by this that she completely forgets about her nausea.

Isaac: "Excellent kid, you can control your mana well, when it radiates off a person or object we call that aura, and now finally..." Isaac raises a hand and snaps his fingers, a nearly white flame bursts from his open palm as he holds it there "We can exercise that, and that is what is called magic... or spells, either way kid you ready to learn your first one?"

Alice looks up at him with a bright smile, she nearly falls over as she runs up to him and nods "Oh hells yeah! so what kind of stuff am I going to learn now?"

Isaac: "Well, you are an infuser and a sorcerer, now we need to figure out your affinity, you're going to make your own spell, I recommend you making one that comes natural to you, later on you can step outside your affinity and evocation type."

Alice: "My own spell... " She gazes off into the distance as she thinks of the possibilities "So how do I find out my affinity or whatever that is?"

Isaac nods as she heads to the back of his cart and starts shuffling through his stuff again "So affinities are your classical elements, water fire blah blah you got your life, death, pure, and then the combinations of all those things"

Alice: "Huh... okay I kinda get it I suppose, like would water and fire make steam or something? that one honestly sounds a little bit lame"

Isaac pulls something out of the back and walks over towards Alice with a rather large candle which he places on the ground in front of her "There are no weak elements kid, it depends just how creative you are with what you have, now, run your mana through this candle and let's see your results"

Alice looks a bit puzzled but she complies, she sits down and puts both her hands on either side of the wick. She lets out a long drawn out breath as circulates the mana in her body, the aura around her skin starts to focus and grow around her hands, enveloping the candle's wick, she holds this for a few seconds but nothing happens.

Isaac: "C'mon kid you gotta give it more juice than that don't wimp out on me now."

Alice glares at him before looking back down to the candle, her hands are starting to shake a bit but she takes another deep breath and pushes it further. As she grits her teeth and pumps out more mana into the wick, the grass around her flatten as the force of pressure builds and blows out in a radius around her. Beads of sweat drop down her forehead, her arms ache, she can barely keep up this output, just before she feels like she can't hold this anymore the wick flares up into a large burst that startles her into stopping the flow of magic. She stops and blinks a few times as she looks at the candle, a long blue flame trails out that occasionally crackles and pops with sparks, near the base of the wick it's a nice pure white, Isaac leans in inspecting the flame and nods.

Isaac: "Well alright lightning and life huh? sounds about right for someone impulsive and stubborn"

Alice leans back feeling exhausted, now both her arms and legs feel weak "Eugh... why was that so difficult it's just a stupid candle, also screw you for that I'm not either of those"

Isaac: "Spoken like a stubborn and impulsive person, well anyway keeping your aura doesn't take much effort but increasing the output and focusing it is something you're not used to yet kid"

Alice: "So then... lightning and life huh? so I can zap things and heal stuff or something?"

Isaac: "Like I said that is up to you, but remember you're an infuser, your magic works better inside of things, you're also a sorcerer which means your magic is best used for simple and quick things"

Alice gets up and thinks to herself a bit for a while "I think I'm going to think on this, plus I'm exhausted, starving, and apparently I was out of it for the whole day... I think I'd rather just get something to eat and rest to be honest..."

Isaac nods and actually smiles a bit too "Kid if you just wanted to try my cooking again you can just say so but... you did alright today so think you earned this break."

Alice helps Isaac prepare the food and even changes the recipe a bit with a few things she has picked up from watching Rose cook in the bar. They eat together and even talk a bit for a while though Alice makes the mistake of asking him about runes and circles while she thinks of ideas for her own spell. Isaac goes off on a long tangent about spell circles, runes and enchanting for quite a while, looking up as the campfire starts to die down to find that Alice has fallen asleep at this point. He sighs a bit as he stands up, carefully picks up the sleeping girl and carries her over, placing her inside the carriage and putting a blanket over her. Isaac steps out and sits in his chair again, pulling out another parchment he writes another letter and sends it off as it vanishes in a flash, he lays back in his chair and looks up at the stars for a while, deep in thought as he thinks about the next day.