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The Human From a Dungeon 99
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 11:28:14 +0000 UTCChapter 99
Nick Smith
Adventurer Level: 11
Human – American
"Since the weather is finally clearing up, I believe that today would be a fine day to have you demonstrate that my lectures haven't been a waste of air," Mister Tyinora said with a smirk. "Let us excuse ourselves to the training yard."
We had seen the last class come inside, so we had been expecting this to happen. Mister Tyinora's lectures had slowly been decreasing in quality, an obvious sign that he had intended much more practical application than we had been able to do. The biggest obstacle to our training thus far had been the weather, which had been unusually cold and snowy according to Yulk.
He said that a Kirkenian winter was typically brisk with some light snowfall every once in a while. This year, though, the snow had not often been lower than knee-deep. He attributed this to winds blowing cold air and precipitation in from the North-East.
On the bright side, I got to see how orc society handles snow. The pathways were plowed with magicarts and hnarses, creating massive piles of snow here and there. Then mages would try to melt these piles with various spells. I had imagined that fireball would be the best spell for the task, but quickly got an education. Most of the mages used spells that created water or acid, the latter of which made me concerned over the environmental impact. The piles that were assaulted by fireballs took much longer to melt.
Regardless, the unusual weather caused our magical training to become a test of mental endurance. The deep snow made it so that we could seldom use the training yard, much less than the headmaster had implied. Instead, we had to sit through lecture after lecture, taking small tests now and then. These lectures had given me plenty of inspiration for spells, as had watching the snow-melters, but I hadn't had the opportunity to actually test them out.
Thankfully, spring wasn't that far off and the snow had finally started to melt down to a reasonable amount. Even the birds had come back from wherever they had disappeared to. A few of them watched over us as Mister Tyinora gleefully led us into the training yard. About an inch of snow crunched under our feet as we took our places in front of the training dummies, wondering what our teacher had in store for us.
"Alright, if I recall correctly, our last practical lesson involved... Oh gods, we spent that day learning Wind Spear, didn't we?" he asked with a sigh.
We nodded. Nir and I had been the only two who knew the spell, which Mister Tyinora considered to be fundamental. Our teacher had requested that we help our classmates learn it. Thankfully, Volus caught on pretty quick, but Irl struggled. In the end, though, he managed to learn the spell.
"Okay then, today we're going to practice control. Beginning with Volus, you will take turns firing a wind spear at your target with as little force as possible. The target should take no damage, but I want to see the wind ruffle it up a bit. Whenever you're ready, Volus."
The elf stepped forward, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, then stiffly raised her arm. She stood like this for a moment with an expression of intense concentration.
"Raeps Dniw Tsac," she whispered.
The spell she conjured with her outstretched hand was weak enough that it was difficult to see. She launched it, and we watched excitedly as it shot forward toward the target. It slammed into the target and rocked it back on its post, causing a cracking noise but no visible damage.
"Good, Volus, but it could be better," Mister Tyinora said. "Your spell hit harder than I wanted. Probably cracked the post a little, but I don't see any damage. If I were to wager a guess, I'd say that you were impatient and cast it with too much speed. Likely due to anxiety, but you would know better than I. Something to work on. Nir, you're up next."
Nir stepped forward as Volus stepped back. His jaw tightened, and he raised his hand. He stood still for a moment, much more relaxed than Volus had been, then a nearly inaudible whisper left his mouth. His wind spear formed and flew toward the target, ruffling it without damage, exactly as Mister Tyinora had asked. The teacher clapped his hands together in satisfaction.
"That was perfect, Nir. A laudable demonstration of control," he said gleefully. "Irl, shall we skip ahead to Nick?"
"N-no teacher, I think I can do this," Irl said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Understood. Your turn, then."
The orcs traded places, and Irl raised both of his hands.
"You got this," I said.
"Just like we practiced, pal," Nir added.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, this will be easy," Irl grinned. "Raeps Dniw Tsac!"
Irl's wind spear formed much faster than either Volus' or Nir's, but shot toward the target at the almost the same exact speed as Nir's. The wind ruffled the target, but didn't cause any damage. We all stared at Irl in shock, and I had to stifle a chuckle when I realized what had just happened.
"Well done," Mister Tyinora said with another clap. "I was wrong to doubt you. Well, Nick, it's your turn. Try your best not to disintegrate the target, please."
'I can help,' Ten said as I traded places with Irl.
'No, thank you. I can do it,' I replied.
I had expressed my issue with control to Yulk over dinner shortly after my first class with Mister Tyinora. My brother had suggested meditation with a focus on controlling the flow of my magic, which I had been doing every night since. He had also said that controlling my magic should theoretically be easier because of the simplicity of my channels.
"Imagine that they're pipes," he had explained. "No matter how much pressure is behind those pipes, they are stifled by a faucet. You just need to learn how to open the faucet a little instead of all at once."
I raised my arm, pointing a single finger at my target.
'Alright, I understand,' Ten said. 'Also, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about.'
'Now?' I asked.
'No. When we've got some time.'
My heart quickened at the thought of whatever Ten might want to discuss, but I turned my attention back to the task at hand. I steadied my pulse with slow breathing, and imagined the spell. As it began to form, I also imagined throttling my magic output with a faucet.
"Raeps Dniw Tsac," I said.
The wind spear formed at my fingertip and launched toward the target. It impacted harder than Nir's did, but not quite as hard as Volus'. The entire target shuddered, but didn't break. Mister Tyinora looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"Excellent work, Nick," he said after a moment of stunned silence. "I suppose lectures aren't all that useless, after all. Okay, we're going to go again, but I want the targets destroyed this time. Volus, you're up."
I traded spots with Volus and watched as she prepared herself. Then I realized that since I was going last, I might have enough time to talk to Ten.
'What did you want to discuss?' I asked it.
'Do you recall one of our previous conversations in which I indicated that some of my knowledge was locked?' it asked.
'Yes, when we were talking about spells, right?'
'Correct. I have been working on trying to remove those locks.'
'Were you able to learn anything?' I asked excitedly.
'Unfortunately, no. I've been having difficulty with it because of the limitations of our situation.'
'The limitations of our situation?'
'Yes. I only have access to the device that I'm currently stored on, which happens to be in your brain. It seems as if it was designed specifically for my presence, and as such I don't have much extra space to work with. Plus, I have to be careful with how much stress I put on this system or the temperature could spike, which would be quite detrimental to your neural tissue. I would liken it to trying to perform brain surgery on yourself whilst trapped in a coffin that's lined with explosives.'
'That sounds... Difficult. And dangerous.'
'It is. But I've found ways to mitigate the danger to you. If you find that I suddenly have no memories, though, my experiments are likely the reason. That's only tangentially related to what I wanted to discuss, though.'
'Oh?'
'A few weeks ago, just after one of my experiments, Larie VysImiro revealed to us that the Curaguard is not the source of magic in this world. It is, put simply, just an ancient database that catalogs spells and registers users. Do you recall this?'
Volus' wind spear took her target's head clean off. Mister Tyinora congratulated her as she traded places with Nir.
'Right, yeah, I remember.'
'I have been thinking about it ever since, and I've come to the conclusion that the Curaguard may be of human origin.'
'What!?' I asked, nearly aloud.
'I have been thinking about it ever since, and I've come to the con-'
'That's not what I meant. What makes you think the Curaguard was made by humans?'
'I don't have enough data to think anything else. Truth be told, conclusion may have been a strong choice of words, but who else would have benefited from the Curaguard? Whilst many of this world's historical records have been lost, I find it unlikely that whichever society created it would have no records of its creation. Plus, whichever society created it likely would have tried to leverage political gain for its use. Yet it exists within the private sector, and as far as I can tell is used by multiple organizations without any regards to patents or copyrights. This suggests that either copyright law here is non-existent, or the technology was gleaned from an external source. Also, the daemons and anyels would have had no use for such a system, so it's unlikely that they're the source. Same with the fair folk. Who does that leave?'
'The Malos Organization?'
'Perhaps...' Ten said, pausing for a moment. 'But there's no reason to believe that they were the only group of humans to arrive here. The Curaguard could have been created by an as yet undiscovered group of humans who were trying to live in a world with magic, having come from a world without.'
'But the Curaguard is like nothing I've ever seen. It doesn't look like human tech at all.'
Nir's wind spear split his target in half, with a significant chunk missing from the middle portion. We applauded as he traded places with Irl, who was looking much more nervous than before.
'It does, though,' Ten argued. 'Databases, catalogs, and registration are all elements of my purpose as well. The only real difference is that the Curaguard incorporates more magic than I do. I would venture to say that the Curaguard is what human technology would look like if humans possessed magic.'
'But-' I began to argue, but couldn't find any counterpoints. 'Okay, let's say that I agree with what you're saying. What do we do with this information?'
'Nothing, yet. We need more information, and I don't know where to find any. It's just something to keep in mind.'
'Fine,' I replied.
Irl strained to gather his magic, then launched his wind spear. It looked the same as before and had much the same impact, confirming my earlier suspicions. He had been using his full power the first time, and had gotten lucky with the first assignment.
"That's all I've got, sir," Irl said, breathing heavily. "Lord Alta says that it's because my magic core is smaller than most. Sorry."
"MISTER Alta is likely correct about that," Mister Tyinora said with some annoyance. Then he saw our confused expressions. "LORD Alta doesn't teach here. He's married to Lady Alta, the matriarch of the Alta clan. Anyway, there's no need for apologies, Irl. You tried your best and that's all I can ask of you."
"I... Yes, sir," Irl said, hanging his head.
"There's no need for shame or disappointment. There's plenty of opportunities for those with a knowledge of magic that lack the means to use it. Teaching, for instance," Tyinora grinned. "The benefit of an academy is that you get to learn your limitations whilst also finding opportunities for your strengths."
Irl raised his head and slowly nodded, "I suppose you're right, sir."
"Enchanting doesn't take much magic," Nir said, clapping his buddy on the back. "Neither do glyphs. You've got plenty of options."
"Indeed," Mister Tyinora said, turning to me. "Well, Nick, I suppose you get two targets. Let's see your newly found control in action."
Irl's target was right next to mine. It occurred to me that this was a perfect opportunity to test something I had been thinking about. To use the plumbing metaphor, I have multiple pipes which each lead to a different faucet. Magic flows from these pipes and is stopped from leaking out by the faucets. Thing is, you can use multiple faucets to fill up multiple cups. At the same time.
I raised both of my arms, extending my pointer fingers toward each target in the shape of finger guns. Then I took a deep breath, mixing the magic within my core and controlling its flow through my channels. Even without looking, I could feel the curious stares that everyone was giving me. This might not work, but if it does...
"Rraaeeppss Ddnniiww Ttssaacc!" I shouted.
Two wind spears leapt from my fingers, pushing my hands upward as if they were impacted by the recoil of my finger guns. The spells shot across the field in a near-instant and the target dummies shattered into debris. A grin spread across my face, and I barely managed to resist the urge to blow on my fingers.
I turned to look at my classmates, who were all shocked. Even Mister Tyinora had raised his eyebrows again. He seemed a lot less shocked than I had expected, though.
"Well done, Nick," he said. "I had not expected to see a double-cast from you this early on in our lessons."
"Wait, double-casting is a thing?" I asked, perplexed.
"Ah, so that was the first time you've used it? Well yes, it is indeed 'a thing'," my teacher's surprised expression turned into a condescending sneer. "I was going to cover it next week, in fact. It's a rarity amongst magic users, so it's not entirely shocking that you haven't heard of it before. One of the reasons that it is so rare is that double-casting comes with an increased risk of misfire, so you just took a pretty massive risk. Since you were successful, though, we will forego any repercussions. However, the next time you wish to experiment I would appreciate a word of warning so that I may fetch medical personnel, and perhaps erect a barrier for the safety of the other students."
"S-sorry, I didn't realize," I said, giving my classmates a shame-filled glance.
"What can happen during a misfire?" Irl asked.
"Oh, many different things," Mister Tyinora replied. "The spell could evaporate into nothingness, which is the best case scenario. An entirely different spell than the intended one could be cast, which can be quite bad. Unfortunately, the most common scenario also happens to be the worst case. The gathered magics turn into an extremely violent maelstrom and run amok until they dissipate. The loss of one's hands or arms is not entirely uncommon, and with the amount of magic the human can summon..."
He trailed off and let the implications weigh on us. I looked down at my hands, feeling more than a little ashamed at my childish behavior. I had risked our safety just to experiment with magic... No, I did it to rub my strength and skill in Mister Tyinora's face in retaliation for goading me, in the hopes of boosting my own ego. Again.
If I had been a little less self-serving, I would have talked to him beforehand and gone through the potential consequences of my experiments. The realization that I hadn't matured as much as I thought I had somewhat soured the joy I felt at becoming stronger. But deep down, I was still excited that I could double-cast now.
That excitement only brought me more shame, though. Even in the process of being self-aware and correcting my shitty behaviors, I still felt an immature glee at my ill-gotten success. I sighed softly, pledging once again to try harder to be better.
"The targets are destroyed, and we've only one more set to last the rest of the day," Mister Tyinora said, clicking his tongue. "No matter, we might as well have that lecture on double-casting while it's fresh in the mind. Alright, students, back inside!"
He gave us a shooing gesture, and we returned to the classroom. As I had already experienced double-casting first-hand, I didn't find the lecture all that informative. The parts that would have been good to know beforehand had already been brought to my attention. Instead, I found myself distracted by a thought that wouldn't go away.
I had become stronger.
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Nice to see that Nick is experimenting, although double casting is very slick! Now how long before he tries double casting fireball and wind spear together? Or combining his spells, and say making a flame thrower instead of a fireball?
Aerowarrier
Gonna be honest, I’m a little sad that’s not what happened. It would’ve been hilarious to see him accidentally shoot a jet of condensed air and punch a pinprick sized hole through the target, the wall, and probably multiple buildings behind them
Aerowarrier
Oh Yulk, I haven’t read the next paragraph before posting this, but I’m pretty sure your understanding of piping is about to create a new spell called something along the lines of Wind Jet. That thought process is most likely going to make stream of magic so condensed and strong that if it was actually water, it would cut through steel
