For the next week, Dagon continued his routine. After the first few days, his body got adjusted to the workload. His speed in completely the tasks went up, although George took this as a sign to add more to it.
His one mile a day became 3, 1000 swings became 1500, and the workouts got harder. George even started adding new moves into the sparring. Everyday that Dagon thought he got better, George would ruin that confidence in the first few minutes of the next day.
It was a long, grueling process, but George was right. There was improvement.
At the end of the first week, Dagon was down to 15 silvers and 25 coppers. It was an expensive week, but well worth it in his opinion.
Raj and Lily didn't take any jobs without Dagon, they were happy with waiting until he was ready. They both had their own training to do anyway.
Raj practiced with the sword every day, while Lily focused on her magic. She hadn't learned any new spells, but the time it took her to cast was improving, along with the amount times she could cast that spell.
After the events of the last hunt, they too were eager to improve.
Dagon woke up the 8th day and completed his morning routine. He had about 4 hours until his next session, and wanted to try something new today.
After lunch, he headed to the training floor. Dagon wanted to learn a spell today.
He found the door with a wand on it before knocking.
Knock knock—!
The door opened just a little before an old man peaked out. He looked like an old homeless person he'd seen on earth a few times. His unkempt appearance wasn't pleasing to look at, but exactly what he expected at the same time. Most old wizards in the literature he read looked exactly like this. Too stuck in their research to care for their appearance.
"How can I help you young man," he asked with an annoyed voice, as if Dagon was interrupting something.
"Hi, I was hoping to purchase some books on fire spells. I don't really have time for a new trainer at the moment, so I hoped to study during my free time," Dagon said.
"Hmm"
The old man thought for a moment before disappearing behind the door. Dagon could here him rummaging around before the door opened a little wider this time.
"I have 3 books on fire spells with me, although they're not for purchase. If you're okay with just borrowing them for a few days though, I supposed that's okay."
"I think this one would be best to start off with," he said as he pointed at one of the three. "Fire casting, its a beginners book for fire mages. It's easier to learn about fire casting in general before you jump right into fire spells in my opinion," the old man said in a matter of fact tone.
"Thank you, that'll do. How much do I owe you sir?"
"Let's go with 3 silvers for the day, it shouldn't take you more than that to get the gist."
Dagon had already heard how expensive the magic trainers were, so he wasn't too surprised at the price of the book. Although it did mean he'd have to take a job sooner than he would've hoped.
Dagon placed the 3 silvers in the old man's hand as he grabbed the book. Once the old man had made the exchange he shut the door and went about his business.
"Well he's not very sociable huh?" Dagon said to himself.
He still had a few hours until the next session, so he went back to his room to read the book.
The book focused on using your magic to create fire. There were no spells outline in the book. It looked to be a cheaper book, used to teach regular people how to use fire magic. People reading this might light their fires and matches with such knowledge, but it wasn't for battle.
There were 2 important bits of knowledge he did learn with the book though. The first was making fire. After about 30 minutes of practice, Dagon was able to set the air above his palm ablaze.
He'd be able to use this for starting fires from now on, rather than spend time trying to make one. It also would help in hand to hand combat if he was ever in the situation, although in this world there didn't seem to be many opportunities for that.
The second was an idea he came up with. What if he would light his sword on fire? He wasn't able to make his idea a reality yet, but he planned on asking the old man when he returned the book.
It wasn't the firepower he was looking for from fire spells, but it'd add a nice touch to his sword fighting.
Most people and animals would be intimidated by a flaming swordsman, at least intelligent ones.
All in all, the book was worth the 3 silvers.
Dagon quickly went to return the book as it was almost time for training.
When the old man answered the door, he was surprised to find the young man back already.
"Is there something you didn't understand young man?"
"No the book was quite simple, it helped a lot thank you," Dagon said as he lit his palm ablaze for the old man to see.
The old man was surprised he grasped it so quickly, he'd actually planned to have the young man borrow it again tomorrow to make some more money, but his plan had failed miserably.
"I do have one question though if you don't mind."
"What is it?" The old man said, curious what Dagon was thinking about.
"Would it be possible to use this flame to light my sword on fire in battle? I got the idea reading the book, but I just couldn't get it to work.
"Ahh I see," said the old man nodding his head.
"I'll tell you what, since you completed the book so quickly I'll give you this lesson for free. It's a simple thing anyway. Yes, it is possible. In fact, you have the right idea, but you're doing it wrong. You're trying to use the flame to cover the sword correct?"
"Yes, but I couldn't get them to go any further than my hand"
"Yes, the problem is the flames born from your magic, so the answer lies in where the magic is. You should try imbuing the sword with your magic first, then lighting the sword."
A lightbulb went off in Dagon's head.
"Of course, why didn't I think of that."
He'd already done it once before but he forgot about it. The bow. The first shot he'd taken at the robbers was because he imbued magic into the bow. If he could do the same with the sword, his swordsman ship would increase dramatically.
"Thank you very much, sir!" Dagon said as he bowed.
"You can call me Leroy, young man. I'm sure I'll see you again," he said as he shut the door once more.
Dagon headed straight for the practice yard, intent on trying out the new idea before training.
Unfortunately, it was harder than it sounded. His first time with the bow was definitely lucky, as he just couldn't get the magic to stay within the sword.
After 30 minutes of practice, he decided his magic control just wasn't enough for this type of work yet.
Yet another thing was added to his daily routine.
Every day after lunch, Dagon planned to focus on moving his magic throughout his body, strengthening his magic control until he could imbue it into his sword.
With only a week left until he had to go on another mission, Dagon went to work.
This week was even harder than the last.
His morning routine was changed to 2000 repetitions of chops, slashes, and cuts. Followed by a 3 mile run.
He'd spend the next 4 hours working on his magic. Forgetting the flames for now, he focused on fine tuning the magic he used. His control over the magic he used skyrocketed.
He remembered a line from a famous magician in a book he read, "A great wizard doesn't focus on power, but control over that power"
After a couple days of practice, he was able to imbue the sword with magic. The sword hummed with power.
The following days, he focused on controlling the amount of power he imbued the sword with. Too much and he would hurt the integrity of the sword. Too little and there wasn't enough magic to cover the entire sword.
It took him until the last day to finely tune the amount of magic needed. He spent the last hour before nightly training that day practicing with the magic imbued sword. The power behind it was astounding. The difference was shocking. He felt as if he could slice a monster in half with no effort.
It was at this moment that he tried lighting the sword aflame. The power halved, as if he'd lost much of the magic in the sword, but now the sword covered in red and yellow flames. The air around it hazed.
Dagon almost jumped in joy after finally realizing his idea, he'd taken a big step on his road to success.
With magic behind him, he had an ace in the hole in case something went wrong. He felt confident no matter what came at him in the forest this time.
Dagon ended his last night of training with a tough sparring session with George before thanking him for all of his help. He knew he'd be gone for awhile, as he planned to spend some time working to build up his coin. Training was expensive, but necessary if he wanted to grow.
If he wanted some new skills, he'd need a lot more money than he had now.