"anyways, we still have a lot of time to kill." I continue.

"Yeah, that's true. Guess the best option is to pass the time by training." S proposes.

As much as I don't care for fighting... I understand that if I'm gonna keep pace with S, I need to get stronger. I'm sure that, one day, there'll be a fight I wont be able to run away from. I'll need to prepare for that.

"That works. The usual place?" I ask.

"Right on." 

Once again, S and I headed to our usual spot near the woods. It's comforting to know that no matter how far we travel, S and I will always be able to return to this spot. Well, anywhere, really, but I find this place to be the most comforting.

S starts doing simple movements to get himself warmed up. Y'know, jumping in place a bit, spinning his arms, working his shoulders, just stuff to get himself psyched up, I presume. After he finished his quick warm up, he took a deep breath, thrust his arm forward, and started casting bursts of sand out of his arm. I guess he's just brushing up on magic a bit. Maybe working on control or something? I dunno.

Anyways, I ought to get started on my training, too. First, I'm going to reach my hand out and try to emit magic. Last time, I just let a little bit out, but this time I'm gonna try to let it out with a bit more force. Last time, short vines of darkness came out. I couldn't discern a purpose for them at the time, but they seemed to want to grab on to something. This time, as I shot out more magic, the vines came out with more force, far faster. They were thicker, too, and were laden with spikes. Their range was still pretty limited, just a little over half my arms length. As I moved them, they seemed to naturally coil, as if they wanted to crab on to something. I played with it for a little while, and eventually I just ended up coiling it around my fist. I was careful not to be pricked by the spikes, however. 

"What're you thinking those are for?" S asks, still doing his own training.

"Not sure. They seem to want to grab something, though." I respond, staring at my vines. 

"I don't envy whatever they get a hold of. Those spikes look like they mean business." 

Actually, the spikes somewhat intrigue me. See, despite my natural instinct that pointy thing means danger thing, for whatever reason, I don't really get the sense of danger from these. Like, my fists or my finger nails could realistically be instruments of harm, right? But they don't feel dangerous, cause, y'know, to me, they're just part of my hands. I feel the same way about this. It's just a part of my body. So, with that in mind, what if I just...

I take a deep breath, and I tighten the vines grip on my hand, thus allowing the spikes pointing downward to pierce my flesh. 

"AAH! What- why?!" S exclaims in surprise.

I can't help but grin. It's just as I figured. I don't feel a bit of pain from this. Though my hands to feel... different. I can't quite place it, but it feels like something new is there. Even without that, though, this seems useful. The spikes aren't damaging me at all, but I'd wager that it'd be a rather unpleasant experience for anyone else to get pricked. I'm not particularly strong, so my fists by themselves wouldn't be all that damaging, if I ever had to resort to fisticuffs. But, with these spikes covering my fists, I might stand a fighting chance. 

"Dude, you're scaring me, what's going on?" S asks, confused. Well, from his perspective I just stabbed myself and started grinning, so that confusion is warranted, I suppose.

"Uh, just figuring out this magic thing. I think I might've just gained a means of attack, though." I respond. 

"Really? Nice!.. but, uh, that doesn't hurt, does it?" 

"Doesn't hurt me, at least, but I'm hoping that it'll hurt whoever's on the receiving end of it." Well, in truth, I'm hoping that I never have to actually use it, but...

"Yeah, you basically turned your hands into a mobile cactus." 

"Y-yeah..." That's a weird way to put it, but, sure. Actually... "Well, I think there's more than that."

"Oh? That sounds fun. What is it?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I feel like there's something there." 

"Try throwing a punch, see what happens!"

"Well... alright." I face towards the open plain, and S stands a bit behind and to the left of me. I don't think it'll be all that powerful, but caution is important when dealing with unfamiliar things. 

I take a deep breath. Alright, lets do this. I think back to old action movies and sports stuff that I'd seen forever ago. I was never too into adrenaline pumping stuff like that, but I have seen bits and pieces. I guess I'll mimic a boxer, or something. I get into a fighting stance, and... punch.

I'm not too familiar with how punching feels, but it felt like I was throwing a normal jab, but as I was pulling my fist back, there was a pitch black afterimage following the trail of my punch, which disappeared after a few moments.

"Ooooh! Nice! What, uh... what it do, though?" S asked after my demonstration.

"No idea. It was cool though." I respond with my honest opinion.

"Agreed."

After that, we continued training for a while. S kept working on magic control or something for a while, but towards the end he did something different. He created training dummies out of sand and began wailing on them with his blade, I guess to brush up on his technique. While he did his training, I was throwing punches at the air, and watching the cool visual effect. Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what it does, but I'm content with it just looking cool. It just gives my attacks a bit more 'pizzazz', y'know? 

After our training concluded, we decided that it would be a good idea to go get something to eat, back in town. It was around lunch time, after all.

"Think we should just head back to the inn?" I ask S as I warp us near town.

"I mean, we could, but there's always some street vendors out at this time of day. We could probably get something good from them, as well."

"Yeah, that sounds good." 

Thus, we walked through town, getting food that was probably far too expensive for its quality. That being said, it was convenient, and it really didn't taste bad, either. I ended up getting some sort of fruit smoothie-like thing. Apparently it was made with a combination of ice and wind magic. Neat. S ended up getting a bunch of skewered meats. I warped us up to the roof of some building, and we ate up there, with nothing but the open sky above us. Overall, we had a pretty good time. 

"Well, think it's about time to head to the 'smith?" S asked as we finished our food.

"Yeah, probably." I say, making holes leading us to a nearby alley after I'm fairly sure that nobody's paying attention. Man, a lot of convenient alleys in this place, huh.

Anyways, we made our way back to the blacksmith. This time, the blacksmith was inside the shop, and the forge was unmanned. 

"Oh, hey, you're back." The blacksmith said as we came in. He was just reading something while sitting at the counter.

"Y-yeah. Are they done?" I ask.

"Yep, here they are." He set down what he was reading and reached under the desk, and pulled out the 3 sickles I'd ordered. Awesome! I noticed they were a little smaller than the ones the thug in the alley used that one time, but that's probably a good thing because I have pretty small hands.

"Cool." I said.

"Dee-lightful!" S said as I went to grab the stuff.

"Glad you're excited," the blacksmith began, before pausing for a moment after looking at me. He then muttered "I think..." before continuing. "but how do you intend to carry all these?" 

"Oh yeah. How are you gonna do that?" S said.

Ah crap. I hadn't thought of that. 

"Uh..." I began, but I didn't really know how to continue. 

"Figured. Ordinarily, I'd just have you buy a sheathe or something but, well, sickles are an odd weapon, so it'd be pretty hard to make a sheathe for it... That being said, I do have something for you." He reached under the counter once more and grabbed a small, red, metal box of some sort. "Truth is, I've had this old toolbox sitting around for a while, and, since I have no use for it, I figured I may as well give it to you."

"R-really?" I say in response "are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine. You payed extra, anyways. Plus, you'd be doing me a favor." 

"Why'd you have a toolbox, anyways? Not like any of your tools would fit in here anyways, right?" S inquired.

"It was a gift." The blacksmith said, simply. That kinda makes me feel bad about taking it, but... I can tell he really doesn't care about it.

All 3 of the sickles fit nicely into the box. It was surprisingly just tall enough to fit them. And, on top of that, the toolbox fit almost perfectly into my sweatshirt pocket. I looked a little ridiculous, but, hey, this was incredibly convenient.

"T-thanks." I said to the blacksmith before we left. 

"Think nothing of it. Truth is, I already charged you way t- er, I mean, no problem." He responded.

I elect to ignore he was probably about to say, on account of his previous generosity. Overall, this has been a productive day thus far. I have a better understanding of my magic, I finally have my weapons of choice, and I even have a good bit of cash left over from that job we did earlier. 

I hope this is enough to be ready for... whatever tomorrow becomes. 

Well, that's still a ways away. And, actually, now that I have these, there's one more thing I ought to test.