Chapter 9

Social Butterfly

Janus was surprised that he didn’t spot Pella or Devon at the Delver’s Guild. Especially Pella. It seemed like she wanted to spend every waking moment improving.

Maybe they’re just practicing somewhere else. I guess she doesn’t make things explode… yet.

“Hey, Janus!” someone called out from behind.

Janus recognized the voice as one of his friends from Bear Station College. He was really having bad luck getting through the station plaza without someone bothering him.

Turning around, Janus spotted his friend. They were wearing a simple black t-shirt paired with some heavy duty work pants. From his pants, a series of tools were hanging off various loops. Below his curly brown hair was a concerned expression.

“David. How are you doing?” asked Janus.

“I’ve been doing fine, but I should be asking you the same!” David answered. “I didn’t have class when that dungeon popped up on the rail line. I heard you were there?”

“I was on the sub-train when it happened, but I was lucky. I don’t really like thinking about it, to be honest.”

“Yeah, man. That’s understandable. I just wanted to check in since we can’t meet up on campus right now. I was going to send you a message, but this is better than that.” David ran his fingers through his hair.

“I actually have a class that moved to Crow Station right now. I’ve been pretty busy with that. Actually, I should probably get going…” Janus was eager to get back home. Socializing was a bit of a drain on him.

“No, yeah, of course. I hope you’re doing well. I’ll see you around.” David said and waved. He turned towards one of the vendors in the plaza and started walking.

Janus continued on his way back home. He didn’t have many friends and David was a good guy, but Janus preferred to spend a lot of his time alone. A good book was usually all the company he needed.

He was lucky that Devon basically never spoke to him, and Pella wasn’t all that chatty either. They seemed more focused on training than socializing.

-

Janus spent the night thinking about his new ability and what he could do with it. He was starting to understand what Dario meant when he called [Mana Manipulation] special.

He still struggled to move mana around, but condensing it was easy. Being able to close the mana within a hard shell was a great solution for his movement problem.

He could only move condensed mana a few inches before his concentration broke. If he wasn’t good enough with [Mana Manipulation] to move the mana he controlled, he could just toss it with his hands instead.

I wonder how long until I figure out mana movement. When I push mana into a person or weapon, it seems to stay in them until it dissipates or enhances one of their attacks. That’s the case even if they move.

He wasn’t sure why mana floating freely was so much more difficult to control.

There was still a couple hours left of the night before Janus needed to sleep. He spent the extra time picturing a spar with Devon in his head. Dario had said that they would be sparring again tomorrow and Janus intended to be ready.

-

The sparring field was nearly empty in the morning. A lone healer stood by the entrance to the Delver’s Guild.

Janus decided to go inside, to see if Dario was there yet. Inside, he saw Dario sitting on the counter tops of the office island in the middle of the room. Surrounding him was a small crowd of delvers.

At a nearby table, Janus could see Pella and Devon. They looked like they were waiting for Dario to finish… whatever it was he was doing.

Janus made his way to the table and took a seat. Listening in. The others gave him a glance before turning back to Dario.

“And so there I was, missing an arm. The other guy wasn’t much better off, though.” A couple of the delvers snickered. “He was out of shit to throw at me. All of his ghouls and zombies were dead. It was just me and him. I did what had to be done, ya know? If I didn’t take the guy out, there was no telling how much damage he would do. I haven’t seen another [Necromancer] since the stations were built and I hope one never gets down here.”

Word must have gotten out that Dario was here in Crow Station. I was wondering why people weren’t crowding over him from day one.

“Sorry to cut it off here guys.” Dario looked to the table and saw that all three of his students were present. “I’ve gotta get back to work.”

Dario slid off the counter top and the crowd started to break apart. The murmur of conversion filled the halls.

Dario had reached their table and took a seat before saying, “Alright guys, we’re gonna get a couple hours of spars in. A full rotation this time. Each of you will face the others in at least a few rounds one on one.”

Janus wasn’t sure if he should feel excited or not. He never expected that he would be looking forward to a fight. The feeling was unnatural. He couldn’t help but notice the other delvers were glancing over at their table every once in a while.

“I was hoping it’d be a couple more days before people started to realize who I was.” Dario said.

“That, uh, might be my fault. I asked the clerk where you were the first day I showed up here.” Janus replied.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now.” Dario held up his right arm and a man in an apron showed up shortly after. They exchanged a few words and the man left the table.

“He’ll bring us some tea. The caffeine will do us good.” Dario said.

The group remained at the table until their tea arrived. Dario silently sipped his, looking at each of his students in turn.

Stars, this is awkward. Should I say something? No. Definitely not.

A few minutes passed and they had all finished their tea.

“Alright!” Dario stated, pushing his chair back and standing. “We’re starting now. Devon and Janus up first. I’ll spar with Pella. We’ll swap Devon out with Pella after a few rounds.”

The other stood and followed Dario out. Janus couldn’t help but notice a few of the delver’s following after.

Devon was already nearing one of the sparring platforms and Janus had to jog to keep up. He grabbed on of the quarter staffs from the training weapons.

Hopefully I won’t even need this thing.

He had just gotten into position on the other side of the platform when he heard the dreaded words.

“Three”

“Two”

“One”

“Zero”

Before Devon had even reached zero, Janus was already trying to create one of his explosive balls of mana. He had just barely succeeded when Devon started moving.

Janus didn’t have much room to maneuver as he started near the edge of the platform. Taking a page out of Pella’s book, he quickly sidestepped. As he moved, he tossed the small blue ball of mana towards Devon. It landed just to his side.

The explosion knocked Devon off of his feet. He tried to stand back up, but stumbled as he did. Janus took the opportunity to run forward and knock Devon on the head with his quarter staff.

With a crack! Devon was back on the ground. It wasn’t graceful, but damn did it feel satisfying.

Janus felt a sense of satisfaction as he finally got to be the one flagging for a healer.

He looked down at Devon with a worried expression on his face. The redheaded swordsman hadn’t gotten back up.

Thankfully it didn’t seem to be anything serious as Devon was back on his feet after a few moments with the healer.

Janus could see that Devon’s sleeve was smoldering where the mana explosion had made direct contact.

I might need to be a bit more careful about how I use these things in a spar. I know I caught him off guard, but…

“What skill was that?” Devon asked. His usual penetrating eyes staring straight at Janus.

“Uh, it wasn’t really a skill. I can compress mana with [Mana Manipulation] and release it. A second skill allows me to create a hardened shell around that mana. If I release compressed mana within that shell, it creates that explosion.” Janus explained.

Janus didn’t really see a point in lying to Devon. He knew that the tactic would be a lot less effective once Devon was aware of it anyway.

Devon nodded. “That’s what Dario meant then. I think I understand. Let’s go again”

-

Janus lost the next few rounds against Devon. He didn’t want to use his new technique too much because of the steep mana requirement. If he could avoid mana exhaustion, he would.

Instead he tried to use his other techniques. He had almost taken another round off of Devon with a flash of light. Devon had been blinded for a moment, but had still been able to defend himself against Janus’ clumsy attempts to wallop him with a quarter staff.

After his latest defeat, he heard Dario call out, “We’re switching it up. Pella with Janus. Devon with me.”

Devon left the sparring platform and Pella took his place.

“Finally. I saw that trick you pulled on Devon. I want you to try it on me.” She said.

“I have enough mana to use it a couple more times, I guess. If I see a chance to use it, I will.”

Janus didn’t know why she wanted the be blown up, but he wouldn’t say no. He was sure that if Dario thought it was too dangerous, the man would put a stop to their spar.

I guess I’ll count this time.

“Three.” Janus started counting.

“Two.” It was strange to be the one counting instead of his opponent.

“One.”

“Zero.”

Pella didn’t move immediately. Janus had to stop himself from stepping to the side. It would only close distance with her.

She had a small wooden short sword in one hand, but that wasn’t the problem. In her other hand were few weighted sticks. He had already seen her using those sticks as stand ins for her usual throwing knives against Dario.

His strategy with Devon usually revolved around staying as far away as possible, but he wasn’t sure that would still apply when sparring against Pella.

As if to punctuate his last thought, a weighted stick smacked him the the shoulder. Janus didn’t expect it to hurt so much. The shock caused him to drop his quarterstaff.

He only narrowly dodged the next weighted stick by bending over to grab his staff again. Pella was starting to approach and was only holding a single remaining weighted stick in her off hand.

Janus knew he had to stop her from closing. Maybe she wouldn’t be as bad as Devon close up, but he still knew she was better than him.

He decided to just go for it and started forming a ball of mana in the air. Encasing it in a shell, he grabbed it and wasted no time in tossing it at Pella.

It was almost like she knew exactly where and how the explosion was going to erupt. She was already jumping out of the way. Janus was sure the back flip was only to show off.

Once she landed on her feet, she turned and rushed at Janus. He attempted to get the quarterstaff between himself and her, but she simply knocked it away. A sharp pain in his leg brought Janus to his knee. He saw another weighted stick on the ground near his foot.

Before he knew it, Pella’s short sword was smacking him across the face.