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Chapter Twenty-four: Training Montage

  Star woke to the sun on her face, and Opal’s tail knocking the wind out of her as it hit her chest.

  “Ooof—” Star groaned, curling instinctively to protect her stomach, “Opal why?”

  Her response was getting kicked fully off the bed while Opal cozied up with Salem.

  “Clingy dragon.” Salem grumbled, voice groggy as she reached up to pet the wyvren’s head, who purred.

  “What am I? Chopped liver?” Star sat up, stretching out her back.

  Salem patted Opal’s side, “Up girl.” Opal layed down further, not budging. Salem groaned, “What is with you today?”

  “Grrf.” Came Opal’s response.

  Salem rolled her eyes as a knock sounded from the door.

  Star was on her feet in an instant, slipping on a veil that covered her face and hair. “I’ll get it.” She quickly made her way to the door, opening it to reveal Zane. Despite the early hour he appeared to already be dressed and ready for the day. In his hands he held a tray where there were two plates of food still steaming.

  “I brought breakfast.” He said, raising the tray up slightly.

  Star grabbed the tray from his hands, “Sweet! Salem, Zane brought breakfast.” She turned back to see Salem drop Opal through a portal onto the ground.

  “I was hoping to talk with you and Salem,” Zane attempted to look around Star.

  Star quickly closed the door more blocking his view into the room, “Give us a minute, we just woke up.”

  Zane blinked before realization hit him, “Oh, oh!” His face flushed slightly, “Of course, I’ll uh, be back later.” He turned and hurried off.

  Star shook her head a little, closing the door. “Well, anyways.” She slid the veil off, placing it off to the side, “So glad we had these handy, hard to see through though.” She set the food down grabbing one of the plates for herself, digging in.

  Salem nodded, grabbing her own plate, eating in relative silence. They finished up breakfast quickly enough, Opal stealing a few bites before Salem gave her her breakfast. Then they got dressed, putting on day clothes consisting of a T-shirt, pants, and jacket, along with their contacts, wig, and mask.

  “I’m not going to lie, wearing all of this is starting to get annoying.” Star commented as she pinned the brown wig into place.

  Salem nodded, “Hopefully not for much longer. I miss being able to just throw on a cloak. This wig pulls at my hair.”

  A knock came from the door, “It’s Zane.”

  “Come in!” Salem called.

  The door opened, “Good morning.” He greeted, “Was breakfast alright?”

  “Yeah, it was good.”

  “I expected it to be delivered by a servant though.” Salem commented.

  Zane flushed a little, “Well, it would have been, but I was hoping to be able to talk about training first thing this morning...”

  “I see.” Salem, the queen of giving nothing.

  Zane fumbled slightly, “So…when do you plan for us to train today?” It was clear he wanted to start as soon as possible.

  “Well, I suppose we can start sometime this morning.”

  Zane’s posture straightened immediately, excitement written all over his face before he schooled it back into a neutral expression. “Well the manor has training grounds on the property, we can walk that way now if you’d like.”

  Salem nodded, “Lead the way.”

  Zane nodded, “Right this way.”

  The walk was quick, though most of it was spent just getting outside. Star swore the place was bigger than her high school. Though she couldn’t be sure considering she hadn’t gone to school in literal centuries.

  “This is where we mages practice for the most part,” Zane explained as he walked into the center of what looked to be just a big, empty circle. “It’s nothing to fancy. Those are the targets we use.” He pointed to a set of blocks at one end of the circle, “My affinities are light, wind, and contract so I personally don’t use them very often. Only when I’m practicing with wind.”

  “How you ever made wind blades?” Star interjected.

  “I have.”

  “Show me.” Salem directed, taking a step back.

  Zane nodded, taking a step forward. He looked to the targets, gathering wind in his palms and condensing it. After a second or two he made a quick slash motion, releasing the wind and sending it herdling towards the targets accompanied by a sharp whistling sound. Salem and Star watched closely as it slammed into the targets knocking a few over and pushing the rest back a few feet.

  “Not bad.” Salem said as she stepped forward absentmindly shortening the distance between herself and the targets, basically teleporting. With a quick inspection the targets had deep gashes and cuts on them, the wood nearly spliting in two in some places. She straightened up, teleporting back to Star and Zane with a single step.

  “Not bad at all.” She confirmed.

  Zane gaped at her looking back and forth between her and where the targets lay. He looked split between confusion and awe.

  Salem grimaced slightly, recognizing the look. “It’s a simply trick.” She tried to play it off.

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  Zane looked ready to disagree before shaking his head, thinking better of it. “Right, of course.” He didn’t sound like he quite believed her searching her expression for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

  Salem tugged her mask up slightly more, “What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with my help?” She prodded, changing the topic. She probably should have asked that first, maybe she could have avoided whatever that was.

  “Well, I’ve hit a roadblock. I can’t seem to be able to push my level up anymore.” Zane began to explain, “I’ve tried the usual tricks, practicing every day, exploring different ways of using my affinity, meditation, but nothing’s worked.”

  Salem hummed and Star could see the gears turning in her head. If she hazards a guess, she was likely thinking back to how she got over her own road bumps back in the day. Star grimaced slightly to herself, remembering the little island. Opal interrupted her musings by knocking into her side.

  “Can you show me your stats?” Salem continued her conversation with Zane as Star pushed Opal back.

  “Well yes, I suppose…” A window flickered into view.

  Current Skills:

  


      
  • Mana manipulation [81]


  •   
  • Mana: 1,550/1,620


  •   
  • Mana regeneration [82]


  •   
  • Mana regeneration: 14.10% per hour.


  •   


  Affinities [3]

  


      
  • Wind [82]


  •   
  • Light [80]


  •   
  • Contact [80]

      


        
    • Contract upkeep: 25 mana per hour


    •   


      


  •   


  “How long have then been stuck like this?”

  Zane sighed, “Nearly 8 months now. They’ve barely budged since hitting level 80.”

  “But they have increased.”

  “Yes.”

  Salem considered this for a moment, “Have you tried working with others?”

  Zane frowned, “I’ve learned from others, yes.”

  “No, I mean using your magic in tandem with someone else’s.”

  “I’ve used wind to boost a fire spells. Why?”

  “You're not getting hung up because of your power or control, you’ve demonstrated you excel at both.” Salem explained, “I ran into the same problem as you once upon a time. I managed to get over it by combining my abilities with Star’s in turn boosting both of us.” That was getting past the level cap but I’m sure the same principles apply.

  Zane seemed to think this over, “How does that work?”

  “My theory is that it’s just the next step, once you reach a certain point process slows down to a crawl. The only way of improving at a reasonable rate is coming up with entirely new ways of training or training aspects you haven’t before.”

  “How exactly do I go about combining magics?”

  “That’s the kicker isn’t it. It’s not the easiest thing. You have to understand not only your own magic but also your partner’s magic to some degree.”

  “Can you show me?”

  Salem nodded, “Yes let me get Star, Star!” She looked over just to see Star and Opal rolling around in the dirt. Opal snapping at Star while Star smacked her away with a stick. “Star, Opal!” She snapped at both of them. They froze, looking over slowly. Seeing the look on Salem’s face they both dropped the stick.

  “Yes?” Star asked with an innocent smile while Opal sat politely. Together they looked as if they hadn’t just been fighting.

  Salem stared at both of them before shaking her head, “Come over here, Zane wants to see an example of combined magics.”

  Star headed over, “What are we making?”

  “Just something basic.”

  “Right, well let me pull up my gambling addiction.” Star pulled up the gacha system, visible only to her at that moment. “This thing is a blessing and a curse.” She tapped A tier.

  Current points: 242,056

  Points generated per day: 75,000

  [Exchange]

  Exchange:

  Magic tier:

  


      
  • F tier: 5


  •   
  • D tier: 10


  •   
  • C tier: 30


  •   
  • B tier: 120


  •   
  • A tier: 600 [1]


  •   
  • S tier: 3600


  •   


  World tier:

  


      
  • Mortal tier: 500


  •   
  • Earth tier: 2,500


  •   
  • Heaven tier: 25,000


  •   


  Spirit tier:

  


      
  • Liminal: 100,000


  •   
  • Spectral: 500,000


  •   


  Current points: 242,056

  Total cost: 600

  [Accept]

  She hit accept and three objects materialized dropping into her hand, “Looks like we got a ruby, crystalized branch, and gold ingot. We can make a magic staff with this.”

  Zane stared, “What, where—where did those come from!”

  “I have the ability to get a few random objects and, well, it’s a little complicated but bare bones I can spend points to get random objects.” Star explained badly as Salem sat down the object between them. “Salem, I want you to focus on giving the staff a time-based affinity.”

  Salem nodded, “Watch closely.”

  Zane was still reeling, “I, yes, alright.”

  Star activated synthesis slowing it down to a near crawl, showing Zane how Salem’s magic flowed into Star’s intertwining with surgical precision. It was a delicate process. The objects glowed softly as they morphed into each other forming a staff. The glow around the object dimming slowly to reveal the staff as it dropped out of the air into Star’s hands.

  The length of the staff was wooden while the ornamental topper was made of gold, forming a circle with a round ruby gemstone in the center connected to the circle at two points. The gold had small engravings from 1 to 12 like a clock would. As Salem took the staff from Star and pushed magic into it the two connecting points rotated like clock hands.

  Zane’s jaw dropped for what seemed to be the 10th time that day.

  “Do you understand?”

  “I think I do, the concept anyway.” Zane nodded, “I’m sure Prince Mason—”

  Zane paused as he heard clapping. Star turned to see Rebecca and Mason headed their way. Mason nearly jogged over while Rebecca walked with a bright grin on her face, her husband trailing behind slightly.

  “Marvelous.” She spoke as she drew near, “Simply marvelous. You two are quite the talents.”

  Star blinked, thrown off by her sudden approval.

  Prince Mason nodded along, “I never seen anything like it!”

  “Thank you.” Salem responded duly.

  “I will admit I had my reservations about you two.”

  Oh gee, really? Star couldn’t help rolling her eyes slightly, mirrored by Opal watching a few feet away.

  Rebecca didn’t acknowledge either of them, “But that display, well I know skill when I see it.” She took the staff from Salem’s hands, “This design is fantastic, seamless. There’s not even a divot when the wood ends and the gold begins, as if it simply molded together! And you can feel the magic surrounding it. There’s no doubt this is powerful magical item.”

  Zane seemed to puffed up with pride, “I told you they were the real deal.”

  The prince looked at Zane with what Star could only call a sappy smile, “You always were great at picking out talented people from a crowd.”

  Rebecca smiled, “I shouldn’t have doubted you. Though that does bring me to my next point.”

  Star and Salem glanced at each other.

  “I’d like the both of you to come as our guests to Spirit’s ball.”

  “Spirit’s ball?” Star and Salem echoed.

  Zane frowned, “I didn’t think we could invite people to the ball?”

  “Normally no, but I’m sure I can talk my parents into allowing you both as guests. If not, I’ll bring you as my guests!”

  “Wow, wow, slow down.” Star waved her hands, “We don’t even know what this event is about.”

  “You don’t?” Mother and son spoke in perfect unison.

  “No.”

  “The Spirit’s ball is an event held once a year to give thanks and offerings to the spirits.” Zane spoke before his mother could, “It’s a very important tradition, usually one kingdom holds a festival and ball and invits foreign royalty and nobility to join. It’s meant to both appease the spirits and improve foreign relations.”

  “And why do you want us to attend?” Salem asks.

  “Well aside from nobility and royalty attending this event its good practice to invite powerful individuals like yourself to give thanks at the ball.”

  “Can’t we do that from home?”

  “Also, what does ‘giving thanks’ even look like?” Star added.

  “Well, yes, technically but it's bad taste to not attend once invited. To reject the invitation has resulted in retribution from spirits in the past. It’s viewed as the person not caring enough. And giving thanks basically means celebrating and giving an offering.”

  “Ah so we’re being coerced by social convention and divine judgement.”

  Before Zane could refute the statement, his mother cut in.

  “Do you accept or not?”

  Star and Salem stayed silent for a long moment. Thinking it over.

  “Fine.” Star finally spoke up, she had always wanted to attend a ball.

  “You are required to have your hair and face uncovered.” Rebecca revealed. “It’s the one day of the year it’s required, I’m sure you know.”

  “I’ve changed my mind.” Star and Salem spoke at once.

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