Chapter 4: Why Are Red Goblins Brown?Well, the following day, we learned we were just taking our training on the road. Our destination was over a hundred miles away. My squad had two woodsmen, two instructors, and two mages assigo us, but they all rode horses. Meanwhile, we spent our time at the fast march with heavy backpacks, leather armor, spears, swords, and shields.
Wheopped, we were either eating or ons training. Sleeping outside was not fuher, as the temperature dropped ht, and our packed bedrolls were made of thin wool. We even had to spend 4 hours on night watch duty. The woodsmen and instructors schooled us in those duties. I spent my free hours with the woodsmen as well. Helena was iher squad, traveling a separate route, so I could not get additional staff practibsp; The woodsmen showed me basic camping skills and some fing skills.
There were six pnts I came to identify as edible, filling, and nutritious. Two were roots that had bulbs that could be found year-round, but you o peel and then boil them. Two were nuts from trees, a little unon, very bitter, and made your urine very pu. Using the urio pee around your campsite at night would keep most wild animals from your camp. The st two edibles were sap from shrubs; both were very sugary. You had to be careful just to drink the sap from the hollow stem, as eating the stem would give you massive cramping and diarrhea. We didn’t see any wild game on our outings, but one of the woodsmen did show me how to identify game trails and animal passing.
It took five days to reach a farm that had been attacked. The mages and instructors rode out to question the inhabitants of the farms nearby. We got a ce to rest, but I walked the nearby woods with the woodsman who had been instrug me. We found trails with small humanoid prints. We were lucky as it hadn’t rained and washed away the evidenbsp; The woodsman guessed the farm had been attacked by six to eight of the red goblins. We identified the dire they had left in by the trail of chi feathers and footprints.
Soon, the mages returned with the instructors. The family that lived at the farm had moved to a neighb farm for prote. We headed out with the two woodsmen leading the way. The going was slow, and I ut on the left fnk, ten yards out, since I was slightly better at moving quietly. Another soldier walked the right fnk. The two woodsmen and two of our best soldiers were in the arrowhead. The main body of the force trailed 50 yards back with the horses, mages, and our trainers, ready to support.
One of the woodsmen hand-signed a trap to the lead element. We all stopped and waited. It was only two heartbeats ter that all hell broke loose. Two goblins I didn’t notice broke from my left less tha feet away, more attacked our ter. My first thought was that they looked more brown than red, and then I got my wits about me. I interposed my sword and got ready to react.
I deflected the wooden spear aimed at me and put the attag gobliween me and the oblin. This would give me only one foe for a short time. I tried to bash the cloblin with my shield, but it had already backed away. The oblin began to circle, and sounds of bat erupted from our ter and right fnk. I figured I would o hold out for 15 seds for our main force to close in. The two goblins I faced were 120 degrees apart and attacked in a coordinated lunge.
Using my shield, I cleared the spear on my right. The sword in my left hand mostly deflected the other spear. It cut my armor near my ribs, not reag my flesh, but I was able to move forast the spears. Now, between the goblins, I swung my sword in a short, powerful arc, clipping right-hand goblin’s head and taking a k of the skull with the hit.
Using the swing’s momentum, I came around quickly to face the oblin with my shield. I saw anger and fear mixed in its human-like eyes. It hesitated, so I pushed forward, defleg the spearhead down with a shield and using my sword to hack at its arms. I took off one of its hands, surprising both of us. As the goblin froze in shock, a quick ssh to its neded its life. This all took less tha heartbeats. I sed the left fnk, looking for other threats. Seeing nothing, I turo help the ter.
One of the woodsmen was on the ground with the two soldiers, and the other woodsman roteg him. At least eight goblins had them surrounded, with moblins ing to assist. The main force was still about 30 yards babsp;
My training was to fall in and support the ter, but looking at the cirg goblins, I rushed the fnk. I started a heavy run and used my shield to barrel into one goblin, driving it into another. Unfortunately, my feet got tangled, and I went down in a mess on smelly goblin limbs. I felt a pain in my ass and assumed I had just gotten a spear in my left ass cheek. As I rolled away, I was able to sm the hilt of my sword into the eye of a goblin on the ground, crushing its orbital cavity. I had to release my shield or risk getting stu the ground iangle.
Standing, I backed toward my panions. The odds were better now: six goblins and four of us. The goblins had notiain force, and the goblins ing to reinforce suddenly screamed, “Flee,” and turo run. I only uood the goblin speech because of my amulet. The six goblins bolted. I pursued and cut down one immediately with a diagonal ssh across its babsp; I took down a sed sloblin that had a limp and then paused, realizing I was alone. I had fotten my training and pursued the goblins due to my surging adrenaline. I backed up auro the main forbsp;
The mages came and healed the injured woodsman and our minor injuries. I had a puncture in my ass cheek and had bled a fair amount, soaking my pants with blood. My pain tolerance was high from the training, but getting the healing from Damian and drinking some fluid rept was still a relief. Looking at the goblin bodies, I felt mildly ill. I had killed a sapient being. But I did not have long to dwell as the instructors quickly had us moving.
We soon formed a double deep line and moved forward. Ten mier, we came to the goblin camp. Twenty or so goblins were pag up what they could. Seeing us approag, they fled. We charged when ordered. I killed two more in the chaos, but they were both clearly females. The mages shot lightning at a few goblins that had gotten too far away for us to engage in melee. In all, maybe three goblins mao escape.
Then, one of the wizards took out a rge runic shield and tried to suck esse of the goblins. It was fasating to watch as the rge device ced on the body and blue wisps coalesced on the device to form a sphere. O of five gave a minor essenbsp; In total, he collected five essences from 27 goblins.
I was quickly assigo assist two woodsmen in trag and killing the escaped goblins. Two other soldiers came with us. After six hours of pursuit, we mao get only one goblin; the woodsman had us return in the moonlit night. The moon on this world was much rger thah, and its strong blue light made it feel like stant twilight.
We had been gone for over ten hours. I was exhausted and had bruises and numerous chafe marks on my flesh. However, I had no time to rest, and was debriefed by the instructors upourning. I got yelled at for my reckless and undisciplitacks in the initial tabsp; After being told of all my errors multiple times, I was able to retire and quickly fell asleep after eating some leftover cold stew.
I was able to sleep until mid-m, mostly because the woodsman had asked not to be woken before then, which meant the three soldiers who apahem got the same treatment. I ate three breakfast portions. While I ate, I was o one of the mages. We got into a versation, aold me about the loot they collected. “The big haul was four minor dexterity and one minor strength essenbsp; The goblins had about sixty copper s and some iron tools.” He indicated the pile that had been assembled while I was hunting the goblierday.
Damian added, “The s and tools will be given to the farmer so he repe of his livestock.”
“Is that the only way to make essences?” I asked him, indig the runic shield by the e.
The mage tapped the shield. “Yes, densing life force from living beings or ret corpses. The collectors are expeo artifibsp; You are lucky I wao e out here and stretch my riding legs.” He had a self-satisfied aura that was easy to dislike.
“Could it be used on a human as well?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
Both mages gave me a strange look, though Damian did answer, “Yes. Some cultures believe ing the essence of your defeated foe is yht. Others believe it should be passed onto their children, and others think they he strength to succeed ierlife in Pluto’s realm.”
“You said it could be used on live beings,” I said to the first mage.
He seemed unfortable with the question. “Do they not have collectors in your nds? Or you just from some mudhole in the wild!” He stood and walked away, taking the collector with him.
After he was a distance away, Damian answered my question, “When used on live creatures, it has a much higher probability of f an essenbsp; It was outwed ielhian Empire and is now only used to execute criminals.” He poi the mage. “He used to work in the big cities doing the exeg. He has probably killed dozens of men with that collector i decade. Ripping life force from a living person ges you.”
I nodded in uanding. I had not quite e to grips with killing goblins, though it helped that they looked more monstrous than human. But as a soldier, I was going to have to eventually kill another man. I was not looking forward to that day.
I turhe topiagic. “ you tell me more about the magic affinities?”
Damian smiled a into teag mode. “There are three rarities of magion, unon, and rare. Eae has seven affinities for a total of twenty-one known magical affinities. Eryk, both of your affinities fall into the rare rank.”
“What are the rare affinities?” I leaned in close to listen.
Damian smiled as he listed them: “The seven rare affinities are space, time, dispt, materialism, void, worlds, and vergence.”
He shifted to face me. “Space is primarily the ability to create pocket dimensions. Time is limited trol over time, usually speeding or slowing time around the mage. Dispt is the ability to teleport. Dispt mages are extremely rare and valuable in the Empire; they operate the portals in the rger cities.”
Damian paused to take a drink. He still had my attention when he tinued. “Materialism is summoning objects from nothing, but it breaks the sed ant of magic that objects ot be created from nothing. There is a lot of debate about whether the objects are summoned or created. Void magic is eliminating something from existenbsp; It is extremely rare magid ah its affinity is sent to the Mage College in the capital for study. Now, world magic is the ability to move between pnes. Traveling the os like a great adventurer!” He dwelled for a moment on the idea of traveliweears.
“Finally, vergence is the rarest of all the rare magibsp; It allows a mage to draw mana from the enviro, specifically at ley line vergences. Essentially, the mage could have an infinite well of aether uhe correct circumstances, and thus wield tremendous power!” Damian finished with a fre of his hands, standing to leave. “Eryk, I know your stro affinity is spabsp; I do not want to get your hopes up, but if you successfully plete the legionraining, the ander is sideriing you to see if you learn the dimensional pocket. Since you have a low potential iher shaping, you would have to imprint the spell form on your aether core to learn it.”
“What exactly is a dimensional pocket?” I asked.
Damian nodded and tinued, “It creates a private space from which a mage put and pull items. They are usually small, but even a legionh a small space could be enlisted as a royal messenger. But do not get your hopes up. When I get a tablet, we see if your affinity for space magic is at least ten.”
Damiaerated my poor ces. “Most people have affinity ratings under five in their primary affinity. It is one of the reasons they have not checked you. They assumed you would have been evaluated in your homend and, if you had any potential, would have utilized it. I have not told anyone you have never beeed.” I was twenty-five, and Damian had said it was on for people in the capital or a rge city ielhian Empire to have all their affinities checked wheurned fifteen. Damian was called away to attend to an injury.
I was gaining a lot of bes from my friendship with the mage. That he was willing to keep my secrets was a massive boon, along with the preferential healing he gave me. Unlike most of the other men, I had no scars from all the healing I had received while training.
It was a few more days before we packed up auro the training camp. We had no lu log moblins. The instructors said they probably crawled down a hole to breed for the winter, and he would have to e back agai year. We learhe other squad had killed 48 goblins and lost three of their members, who rushed into the oblin camp. After returning, we had two days off aested again oablet.
Physical
Mental
Magical
Strength
(+2/+0)
44/79
Intellect
(+0/+0)
26/54
Aether Pool
(+1/+0)
10/22
Power
(+1/+0)
40/82
Reasoning
(+2/+0)
40/59
eling
(+0/+0)
7/55
Quiess
(+2/+0)
26/49
Perception
(+3/+0)
52/60
Aether Shaping
(+0/+0)
4/8
Dexterity
(+1/+0)
25/56
Insight
(+1/+0)
28/49
Aether Tolerance
(+0/+0)
20/50
Endurance
(+5/+0)
56/87
Resilience
(+1/+0)
44/71
Aether Resistance
(+0/+0)
3/19
stitution
(+4/+0)
34/65
Empathy
(+1/+0)
10/21
Prime Aether Affinity
Space
Coordination
(+1/+0)
35/61
Fortitude
(+4/+0)
44/89
Minor Aether Affinity
Time
I made modest gains for myself—but Damian said I was doing well, and as long as I didn’t get myself killed, I would graduate. For oing, I finished 11th in sword ranking, 18th in sword and shield, 22nd in dagger, and 7th in hand-to-hand. I realized that two of the men killed had been ahead of me in the rankings, ter learning that they had done something foolish like myself, rushing aloo bat with multiple foes and no support.
We were also tested in dual-wield sword skill, whione of us were familiar with. Somehow, I finished 11th. I liked this style because I could use my quiess to alter which hand was defending and which was attag, and surprise my oppo. I also found from all the training I was slightly ambidextrous. One of the trainers said I had the mentality for a two-on style. Unfortunately, they only taught it here so we would be familiar with it when fag an oppo wielding two ons.
Three had been dropped after ability testing, and another five were cut after oing. This left 46 of us. The strahing was that we actually started f bonds. Putting our unit against a on foe had broken down the walls of petition against each other. I don’t know if that had been pnned, but it made life in the barracks more bearable for me.
We had light training as our instructors had to travel to the army camp. We were not told the reason. Forty-two of the forty-nine instructors left for two days. Only forty returned, and even Damian was in the dark as to why, but he assumed they were taking and of units to reinforce a fort.
During the lighter training days, I had the opportunity I was waiting for. Damiaedly said the estate had a magic affinity tablet. They were expensive, and this one was only going to be here for two days, as it was on its way back to the Mage College in the capital. He spired t it to the ke so I could check my ability in the space affinity privately.
His offer almost sounded like a trap, but I agreed. Damian brought the tablet and said, “I have figured it to dispy rankings of all the rare affinity magibsp; The tablet only dispy the on, unon, or rare magie at a time.” He showed me how it was set to do so.
“Are you going to see my scores?” I asked as he carefully handed me the tablet.
He seemed to sider and, maybe judging by my ay, said, “No. You keep the information to yourself.”
“Then why are you helping me?” I said with fusion.
He seemed unfortable. “I’m a bit of a loner. You’re the first soldier in my time here who actually made an effort to befriend me. You’re a det person, unlike most of the men and women who e here to be a legionnaire.” Well, score one for me for not wanting to die.
I looked at the tablet. It was much fahan the general ability tablet. “Just like charging the amulet, push your aether into this se,” Damian indicated. I did as instructed and looked at my scores. It took time, as I barely had learhe written nguage. It was simir to Latin, but it took a while to transte word by word in my head.
Damian likely thought my tration was due to disappoi. I looked up and asked, “What do the scores mean?”
Damian pursed his lips like he was about to break the bad o me. “True mages usually have three or four affinities over 60, typically in the same rarity category. The average person only has one affinity, with a score around five. The higher the number in an affinity, the more power expoially. Ten being base, and the reized minimum to demonstrate power.”
“So any magic affinity uen is essentially useless?” I asked, looking at the tablet again.
Damian nodded. “A score of twenty is twice as strong as a score of ten. From there, the real power starts. A score of thirty is four times the retive power of ten. Forty is eight times. Fifty is sixteen times. Sixty is thirty-two times as strong.”
I interrupted to finish for him. “Seventy is sixty-four times as strong. A score of eighty is one huwe as strong.”
Damian held up his hand to stop me. “Correbsp; But maybe only one in 25,000 people have any affinity over seventy. Maybe one in 100,000 have an affinity at eighty. Scores of y are unheard of and are two hundred fifty-six times as powerful as a ten! Maybe 1 in a million would have an affinity at y her!”
“How do I clear my scores?” I asked. He showed me, and I did so and handed him back the tablet. “Why was this tablet here?”
“A peasant girl was found with powerful elemental affinities. She was flying over the forest! you believe that? I heard she had fire, air, water, ah all at 72! you imagine how powerful that girl is going to be one day?” Damian said excitedly. He asked the question solemnly. “So you? Is your space affinity over ten?”
I nodded, and his eyes brightened. “Excellent! We start w on learning the dimensional pocket spell if you want. I show you all the tricks I learned in my time imprinting spell forms.” He was extremely excited about the opportunity to pass on his knowledge.
After Damia, I recalled my scores. He had never asked me what they were, but the numbers were burned into my memory.
Space
98
Time
90
Dispt
61
Materialism
9
Worlds
88
Void
22
vergence
74
