BXBX NOVEL Chapter 509 508: Fruits Of Our Labor (2)
When we reached the Training Grounds, the sun was beginning its long descent back down towards the horizon, but for the moment the harsh golden light of noon streamed down onto the black sand of the Training Grounds.
There were a few Knights and Saints practicing around the gigantic field of sand, some in pairs and others alone, whilst the black skinned Wolfkin Vienna was practicing with her twin falchions, her muscular body surrounded by arcs of gleaming metal.
Jahi and I found the sparsest area and settled down, sitting in front of one another and pressing our palms together to begin cultivating our mana.
It was a simple procedure, and one that gave a large suite of benefits for us both as we swapped twin orbs of mana between one another.
Being able to hone already potent magic even further would always be a boon, since even the smallest increase could induce large amounts of damage onto our enemies.
Besides, with a better understanding of my mana I could potentially unlock new skills or upgrade my current skills, and that could come in many different forms.
An offensive oriented skill like [Frost of Despoina] or an efficiency related skill like [Chione\'s Blessing]
Something that could increase my damage output or increase how well I controlled my spells would always be beneficial, but to do so I needed to make progress myself to unlock those boons.
For now though, I needed to hone my mana with the bundle of Light Mana that Jahi was sending my way, and that was something that would require all of my attention, lest I damage myself with the harsh mana that the Demoness nurtured within her Core.
When the bundle reached a decent size, we each took one and began to digest the others mana, using it like a whetstone that we ground our mana on and sharpened it; for me, I picked apart the strands of my Ice Mana and individually tuned the Wind and Water Mana as best I could, so that it wasn\'t just my Ice Mana that was getting stronger.
Whilst it was the creation of the combined mana types, honing it all together as one type of mana was inefficient, since the Ice Mana was - in actuality - the sum of its parts.
So, whilst it was slower and more tedious, it was far more helpful to take the time and grind out the imperfections of both individual types of mana and try and work from there.
Repeating that another time, we eventually got up and practiced our spells against the long array of training dummies along the wall - which had been made from an extremely durable material, considering a Saint slung a lance made of stone that shattered against the wall after passing through the dummy and didn\'t even leave a scratch.
As for the dummy itself, the Saint just erected another made from the earth and used that, deciding that the far more consistent dummy made by his own magic would be better to gauge his spells then the dummies themselves.
Anyways, Jahi and I kept things small, both of us deciding to work on spells that we could get out quickly, spells that would be an additive to our close combat style going forwards.
For me, I decided that making a spell that was quick and hard to dodge was important, so I decided to create a spell that just burst from the runes, extremely close range but nearly impossible to dodge.
With Ice Mana, it would be like a grenade exploding in front of me, but the blast was funneled entirely forwards in a conical shape that would catch an opponent off guard.
To be safe, I made variants for the other two elements as well, just in case I ran into an enemy that was immune or resistant to just ice.
My wind version pushed the enemy back and lacerated their chest, whilst the water version was more like a fragmentation blast or a shotgun, sending out pressurized pellets that punctured through the target.
The ice version was a healthy mix of both, relying on spreading frost over my target while also cutting deep into their body.
Jahi, on the other hand, was taking an interesting approach to her close combat spells.
She was creating short swords that she could summon with just a few runes, simplifying the runic sequence as much as she could to speed things up before using that smaller blade to accentuate her great sword, which she could wield in one hand.
Additionally, the Demoness had a knack for throwing those golden swords to give her some range, so that she could jump back and throw it, tricking the opponent with her various moves and keeping them constantly on their toes.
The blade itself wasn\'t anything special, but it was incredibly quick and sharp, so in that regard it was impressive.
Used as a way to cut her enemies quickly as they tried to dodge her main weapon or as a way to create space between them, this was quite the good spell for her, and if she tattooed that to her palm, well...
That would be quite the useful spell in combat, since it would catch her enemies off guard.
After practicing those spells for a little longer, we sat back down and returned to cultivating, creating a rhythm as we spent the day refining our mana and new spells.
We added in some spars as well, keeping them basic as we traded blows and smoothed out our styles, until eventually the sun began to descend below the horizon, turning the sky a brilliant array of orange that was getting lapped up by a beautiful violet.
Leone and Nirinia arrived together, the two finding us quickly and joining us near our space, where we began to talk about the things we did today and shared some ideas for our training, with the Djinn chuckling as she heard our reason behind wanting her present.
With the threat of the Marquess\' words looming over us in the immediate future, she agreed that being prepared would be the best for us, so that we wouldn\'t get caught off guard by whatever she had planned.
It took another few minutes for Anput to join us, but when she did she had two bundles in her arms, each one a long object covered in dark blue cloth to conceal them from us.
Wearing a large grin, she approached us excitedly, her fluffy tail swaying as she looked towards Leone and I, beckoning us forwards with a nod of her head.
"Here, here! Kat, take the top one, Leone, take the bottom one~!"
My bundle was a tad shorter and much thinner than Leone\'s, and it weighed very little in my arms, making me raise a brow as I looked towards my mate, who just grinned excitedly.
"Open them up~! They\'re my gifts to you~!"