Chapter 21 I Want One

I had imprinted the cleanliness spell but when focusing inward discovered I had erred. The first evolution at level one was supposed to extend the range from just the body to include the clothes the caster was wearing. Instead, I must have focused subconsciously and forced a different evolution. I had been planning on this evolution for the 5^th or 7^th level of the spell. It was the vanilla aromatics that lasted around an hour after casting the spell. Gareth would roast me if I cast the spell and couldn’t clean my clothes. I had been bragging about it for weeks about how I would never have to do laundry again.

I started to spam the spell hoping to push it to level 2. And I made sure to focus on the correct evolution this time. It took one-quarter of my aether core stores and two hours before the spell hit level 2 and the evolution was correct this time! I could now use the spell to instantly clean up after training, before bed, and on waking up. It was pretty late but I got my light stone and opened the spell book. I had noted a few evolutions I wanted to research and needed to pick my 3^rd. I looked them over and was torn between the mouth cleanse or hair trim. Eliminating bad breath…or…being well groomed and looking good.

I started pushing the spell again. The aura for cleaning extended about 3 inches (8cm) from my body. This meant my bedding and pillows were immaculate after twenty castings while rolling around and they smelled of vanilla. Also, I confirmed that I was able to make old coins shiny again!  I would be able to use this as my excuse when I spent my new coins from now on.  I fell asleep having forgotten all about making coins with my remaining aether stores…not that my aether stores could have made more than a few gold coins.

In the morning I was in a fantastic mood. Rather than reveal my spell I decided to hold the secret until after Gareth and I were both filthy, maybe we would have to run the obstacle course today, this time I would look forward to it and I planned to get extra dirty.

Breakfast flew by, then stretching, and after I prepped some veggie lasagna and a vanilla cream tart for dessert. I rarely made desserts but felt the satisfaction of making something with vanilla. Conditioning today was weight training oriented.  No obstacle course training was planned by Callem this morning. However, after some needling of Gareth about how I could best him on the B course Callem decided we should run the course in parallel. The B course was currently an elevated course through some blinds. Callem usually tossed things at us or fired arrows capped with leather bags at us to distract or knock us off. The very end of the course was a mud crawl though which is why I choose it.

I had a plan that I hoped would get me close. Gareth was up the ladder and into the course a few steps before me even with my best effort. Callem was on him though and projectiles slowed him down just enough for me to catch up going into the rope section. Gareth pulled away again which frustrated me a bit. A capped arrow hit my hip throwing me sideways and letting Gareth open his lead even more. For the rope descent, I just jumped down the 10 feet rather than climb as Gareth had done. I did my best parkour roll to minimize the landing but definitely strained my ankles. We were almost even now as we hit the obstacles in the mud. The final obstacles were a series of eight walls. The area where the walls were was irrigated from the stream to maintain the muddiness. We had to alternate climbing and going under the walls. The walls were just 8 feet tall (2.4m) and had plenty of handholds. Being smaller I was able to get the under quicker and pushed through the mud. The finish was close and Gareth had me by six steps. It had been one of the closest parallel runs I had with Gareth on the B course. We were both caked in mud and mud was in all our body cracks. Gareth was smiling and grinning at me in his victory under his mud mask.

Callem approached and spoke, “Best effort I have seen from both of you in a long time! I assume there was a wager attached?”

Gareth was facing Callem and said, “Storme’s on dishes tonight!” Oh, I forget that bit. It was now a doctrine that if I initiated a challenge and lost I had to do the dishes. If it was Gareth’s challenge and I won he had to do my laundry…which now wouldn’t be that much of a reward. I cast my cleanliness spell and reveled in becoming clean in seconds. Callem eyebrows rose in surprise which caused Gareth to spin and stare at me.

His jaw dropped. I was inhaling the vanilla scent and smiling as Gareth was at a loss for words. “Well, I am off to study…” Gareth groaned in frustration at being tricked.

“Stormy! Wait! Do me! I concede you won! Do me!” I was laughing at his pleading.

“Sorry, Gareth. I would need to invest like four evolutions to clean others and that is not going happen.” I waved as I headed away leaving the pair. Callem said something about giving Gareth some time to clean up and could hear the humor in his voice.

Inside I got some water and then spent time healing up. I had pushed hard on the course and had two minor sprains in my ankles, and a bunch of contusions.  I had dislocated my right pinkie finger climbing the walls and just noticed. I used my mending spell to correct everything in just a few castings. I smiled inwardly as I achieved a new level. It was my lucky day as the mend flesh spell hit level 3 and I set my evolution. I choose scar removal without thinking. My healing didn’t leave scars but it couldn’t remove existing scars…until now. I had a few small ones myself including the large one from the eagle but mainly planned to help mother and father. Mother had three scars on her arms from burns and father had dozens from his training. Well, when I informed them of my magic I would do so.  I had originally planned to select assess other but since my spell could find the injuries I didn’t think it was necessary at this time.  I had plenty of evolutions coming in the future.

I decided to cast the cleanliness spell a few more times to work on leveling it and shortly after that hit level 3 too. I choose ‘mouth cleanse’ for the evolution. It probably wasn’t as useful in a world with magic but dental hygiene was important. I was pretty high on myself right now. Gareth had an impressive athletic physique and ability. I was a freaking mage!

The rest of the day was normal and I received praise from Wynna and Callem for my progress in my spells. Gareth spent his time trying to convince me to guide my evolutions toward being able to use the cleanliness spell on others. The lasagna at dinner was a hit and so was the tart. Callem was the first to pick up the vanilla ingredient in the tart relating to my new vanilla scent. When we finally got back to our room Gareth continued asking me about the cleaning spell. He wanted to know about my evolution choices. I told him about the mouth cleanse and my planned upgrades beyond. The hair styling, minty breath, extending the time of the vanilla scent, the bowel and bladder cleanse, and then adding various scents beyond just vanilla.

His reply was expected… ”and that is more important than letting your best friend share in your fortunes?” The compromise we came to was that I would buy him an enchanted item to do the same thing as my spell. I fell asleep after doing my aether core exercises and making a few gold coins.

The next few days were not as exceptional. No spell evolutions or spell levels but I did add to my coin collection and finally, the day arrived for Freya’s visit. I was torn between the joy of seeing Freya and getting a two-day break.

Gareth went into town early in the morning and returned with Freya and Monty. Monty was growing rapidly. He was already twice the puppy in just two weeks! We spent the morning playing with the puppy and I showed Freya how to use tiny food rewards to train him. The puppy was smart and soon had learned to sit, stay and come.

Freya had the town gossip on her lips. The carnival was the big news. Apparently, the Yeti had escaped and caused some damage, and injured a bunch of people. The Wolfguard had also arrested three of the performers before the carnival left. One was the elf woman that was the lead in the play! It took me a moment to recall her name, Niserie. That news had Gareth upset as he had been infatuated with her. Mother and father were doing well according to Freya. Father was up for a promotion. Pascal was annoying as he got closer to entering the academy but at least he was nice to Monty. I gave Freya two large silvers for the upkeep of Monty even though I had given mother some coin already. We were still getting paid 5 large silvers a week by Callem and I wasn't going to get the opportunity to spend them anytime soon.

That evening Freya slept in the other bunk in my loft. Monty was desperately trying to find a way to climb the ladder up to her before he calmed down and just kept an eye on her from below. She was a little annoyed that I studied late into the night with a light stone. My focus was on the mend flesh spellbook as I was searching for my ideal level 5 evolution.

The next day was much of the same after we completed our stretching, Freya even joined us. Then we explored the woods around the farm with Monty who was interested in everything, especially treeing the red squirrels whenever they got brave enough to venture to the ground. I was happy to notice the puppy didn’t let Freya out of his sight while we walked.

Freya tried some of the obstacles on the course and determinedly finished each one she attempted. Sometimes with a little help from Gareth or me. There were no good fishing spots near the farm but we went to the small stream and fished anyway. The conversation was now mostly gossip about the town kids. Gareth wanted updates on a few girls in town and Freya was just bragging about how jealous Gwen was of Monty and her successful business ‘empire’.

Freya was making almost a silver every week on her own. Too soon it was time for Gareth to take Freya home. We went and ate lunch with Callem and Wynna and then they left. Gareth was pulling a large cart with tobacco leaves for Edel in town to dry for Callem. Callem mentioned after they left that Sebastian, his mage friend, would be visiting soon to fertilize the fields and do the next round of plantings. He would also be recharging the accelerated growth runic item buried underneath both fields.

I spent the evening opening up the bloodied tome, The Complexities of Aether Creationism, A Qualitative Comparison of Dungeon and Mortal Spellcraft. The author was a pompous scientist and it was difficult to read. The author was infatuated with the powers of dungeons. The book was full of hypotheses that were ludicrous and based on no concrete observations. The few facts that I found were interesting. Only tier four or higher spells were able to create anything out of aether directly. Lower-tiered spells could transmute material but not create matter. The aether conversion rate to matter was also terrible.

A powerful archmage emptying his entire aether core could make a little over an ounce of gold. The author hypothesized that mundane aether creation was super inefficient, like using an ocean to put out a campfire. The author then made some theories about dungeons being 100 to 500 times more efficient than mundane magic. It was based on his equations, which apparently were based on little factual evidence, on how much aether dungeons accumulated to make their environments, monsters, and rewards.

I closed the book. I was over halfway through but I had enough and shelved the book. I did learn that my tier seven 7 metal creation ability was much closer to a dungeon's ability than a magic spell. I made some platinum coins before falling asleep. Gareth was staying with his parents tonight and would be back early so at least the room was quiet. He didn't snore, just breathed really loudly.

In the morning as we were eating breakfast Gareth returned and told Callem his tobacco leaves were being processed by Edel. We soon returned to training and the days blended together. Five days after Freya’s visit the most beautiful thing I had ever seen happened. A copper-paneled skyship came to the farm and landed in the training yard. It was eerily quiet as it flew and moved gracefully like a fish of the sky. It was 60 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 20 feet high. (18m x 12m x 6m). The skyship was enclosed with no top deck like a sailing ship and after it landed a ramp descended in the rear.

A well-groomed older man in an immaculate naval uniform walked down the ramp shortly after. An older-looking female Wolfguard soon followed him in a plain blue civilian dress. Sebastian had arrived and all I could think was I wanted that skyship!