Chương 5

Learning about Spell Mastery changed things up. Did all spells master at level 10? Were they like Professions if they were complex spells, so I'd get some Apprentice boost like I did for Enchanting? I didn't know, but I knew what I was going to find out. With an extra five Intellect, I had a big boost to my Mana pool. Suddenly all those spells I couldn't cast, or could only cast once before a long wait, wasn't so difficult.

Of course, instead of immediately starting to rush to level up Holy Light, or Conjure Refreshment, I was up in my room with one of my notebooks.

"Even if I level up Holy Light, I'll still get stuck on the next level again, or the one after. So what I really need… Was more spells." I whispered to myself, looking at the numbers on the spells I'd written down in my spell book. Holy Light Lv. 3 was something I could cast now, but would level 4? Probably not. Even doubling my Intellect, each spell level increased a lot for Holy Light. Unlike Mage Light, it was actually a complex combat spell, so to speak. So…

I needed minor spells, as many of them as I could get. I stalled out for a second as I remembered a certain Elf Wizard and couldn't help but laugh to myself. As much as I'd liked to focus on my goal in the future, I'd forgotten that it was the adventure that led to the goal that was the most important. I flipped over a page in my notebook, and stalled. How do I learn new spells? I couldn't just go to the library. Spellbooks weren't handed out to elflings. I couldn't just go out to random caves.

There weren't Mimics just hanging out in dark caves ready to hand out spell tomes. No, if I wanted to learn spells there was only one source. Adults. Asking wouldn't work, well maybe, but not really. I'd probably get a few that way, but what I really needed was a… Transaction… Could I do that? It would probably be a little embarrassing. Ah, but I'm six, who cares if it's embarrassing, I had a goal. I looked around my room. Yep. I could use that… And I had that paint. Perfect.

—-- I kept my chin up as the elves of the village walked past most of them either hiding smirks, or giggling if they weren't as stuck up. But I was firm in my resolve!

"Alah'Dora, what is this?" The question wasn't the first time I'd heard this, so I looked over at Hes'Tara the Priest watchman of the Village, and pointed at the sign that I'd painted.

"Adventuring services." I explained simply, and the man looked from the sign to me, in my adventuring gear, and I could see his lips twitch fighting off the smile. Yes I was cute. I knew this.

"I see. And what sort of adventuring services do you offer?" He asked, fighting off the laughter. I ignored the amusement. Just like I ignored the mockery I would take for this, but sometimes when you're a kid you open a lemonade stand, and sometimes you start an adventuring guild.

"Anything, really. I'll find herbs, mow lawns, clean stables, wash, or clean. Fight Monsters, deliver goods. Whatever someone needs done, is what an adventurer does."

"I see." He said, as he kneeled down to be on my level, and I stuck my chin up higher because I wasn't embarrassed.

"And it says here, you take payment in spells?"

"That's right. An adventurer needs to be a well rounded Elf. So I'll complete any task, but in exchange, I have to be given a spell I don't know in payment."

"Hmm. Any spell?"

"Any spell. No matter how useless, or silly. As long as I don't know it, I'll accept the job." I said, determined. I'd probably be doing a lot of cleaning out the stables I know. No one wanted to do it after all, but I could, and if I could get a spell out of it? Then a few hours doing a gross task was worth it. Hes'Tara grinned a little as he processed what I said, and I could still see him fighting off his amusement.

"Alright. I have a task I could offer a little Adventurer."

"Please register your task here, and we will discuss payment." I offered, pulling out a sheet of paper, and a quill to offer to him, and that broke him, he had to look away, as his shoulders shook for a while before he seemed to get control of himself.

"I need a trustworthy adventurer to collect some flowers for me."

"Please add in the amount, and what kind."

"I'm sure you can get-""Unclear instructions lead to unhappy results." I interrupted him. Pushing the paper across the little plank of wood I'd made into a desk.

"Please register everything clearly, and we can discuss payment." He looked at the paper, his shoulders shaking a bit in laughter, as he leaned over to do just that. I nodded. He was definitely wanting to pick flowers for Ma'Rika. Fair enough.

"You want the Sun Flowers instead of these. Ma'Rika likes them." I told him pointing and he stilled for a second, looking me in the eye which I sent him a blank look in turn, before he crossed out the seven Peonies and wrote in Sun Flowers.

"Very well, this is an easy difficulty task, so the payment is only in minor cantrips. What spells do you have to offer?"

"Ah, Mage Light?"

"Already learned." I denied instantly.

"Hmm. How about a spell that points you towards the Sun Well. Pretty useful for an Adventurer, don't you think?"

"Yes!" I said happily, and wrote that part in myself.

"Please sign here." I demanded and he, still laughing, did just that.

"Contract accepted. Please have the spell prepared, or the time needed to teach it when I complete. The Task." Then I folded up the contract paper and stuffed it into a box, and walked over to the sign and flipped it over. On the other side of the wood sign I'd painted out.

'On An Adventure.' And then I grabbed my back and started jogging off to the forest. I pointedly ignored the giggles from not just Hes'Tara but the other elves that had been watching what was going on as well. It's fine. Once I became a normal thing. I'd get plenty of requests. Everyone wanted someone else to do tasks for them on the cheap. Little kids had taken advantage of this forever! Now time to pick some flowers and put them into a cute bouquet for Ma'Rika.

—-- I returned to town not thirty minutes later, a bouquet of flowers in my hand as I hunted down Hes'Tara, I even used some string to wrap the flowers so it looked more official, and not just a bundle of picked flowers. Nice job Dora! Going above and beyond! Eventually I found him at his watchtower, and his face shifted into a delighted smile as I approached.

"Quest complete." I assured him, and then pulled out the contract.

"Please sign for completion." He just burst into laughter at my request, and soon enough I had a piece of paper with a compass spell on it, and a signed Quest contract. I left him to his laughter, and hurried back home. While I could immediately start grinding the spell, it was still early in the afternoon, and I had time to collect at least another spell before it was time to go inside for the day! —-- Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

The sun was going down, but I had to finish my task. Another shovel of Dragon Hawk Poop was scooped up and dumped into a small cart, which thankfully was animated, it followed me around and would go dump the poop.

"I'm impressed." I looked up as I wanted to wipe my forehead, but didn't want to cause I was messy.

"Why?"

"You're so little. When I was your age, they couldn't get me to do classwork, much less spend an hour scooping out the stable for old Kitzy." The elf woman smiled at me, and I just shrugged.

"I took the job. So I have to complete it."

"That's so cute!" Sha'Rina was an ex-ranger. But retired here, She mostly baked and sold that sort of thing, but she still had her old DragonHawk Companion that was a lazy old bird.

"I'm almost done." I assured her, and she waved me off.

"Nah you're done. You've done enough. Why don't you come in and wash up, I don't want your Mother to bite my ear off for sending you home in this state. I have the Timer spell written out, and an extra reward for doing so well." She assured me, and I perked up. Quickly putting the shovel back in its spot I raced after her, spending a bit of time washing up and left Sha'Rina's bakery with a loaf of her sweet bread and a paper with an explanation for her timer spell. She used it to make sure her baking was perfect.

With that I raced hom. Noticing with a bit of awkwardness that my adventuring stall had been looked through. Uh-oh. I opened the front door and heard some shuffling in the kitchen.

"I'm home!" I called out as I poked my head around. Mama was home and she was giving me a look.

"Welcome home." She said a bit flatly as she looked me over. So I walked over and presented myself to her standing up straight shoulders back.

"What's that?"

"An extra reward from Sha'Rina for completing my adventure." I told her. Holding up the bread for her to inspect. The paper wrapping pulled away and Mama nodded before setting it aside and I remained in position. She threw me a salute which I returned and that made her return with some warmth as she leaned down and scooped me up in a hug. She held me tight for a bit before whispering.

"I want you to explain the sign and everything outside."

"Okay." I whispered back and she nodded. Setting me into a chair.

"Let me get something to drink, and you can have some of that bread while you tell me. I know how much you love it."

"Sha'Rina was very nice. It wasn't even part of the reward for the quest!" I gushed a little, quite pleased at the extras.

"Oh?"

"Okay so this is the contract!" I said pulling out the little box from my bag that kept the contracts safe and putting both of them on the table. Mama looked them over as she handed me a glass of milk to enjoy with the bread. Her eyes looked over both of them, and then I watched her put things together.

"If you wanted to learn more spells. I could teach you."

"I know!" I said confidently. Mama knew a few extra spells. She had one that warmed water that was apparently a Ranger spell, good for when they were on patrol and didn't have time for a fire to heat tea and stuff.

"So why do this? Didn't Ma'Rika just teach you a new spell?"

"Mage Light! Yep! I learned it and it was great. Which is why I want to learn more spells too."

"But why this?"

"Cause trading people for spells is a good way to learn lots of them!" Mama sighed, rubbing at her face.

"You haven't done something bad my Light. My little Ranger. I know you're headstrong. That you like to take things into your own hands, but… You've definitely… Made things interesting." She finally said with a sort of sigh. She looked… Upset, but not sure how to say it.

"What's wrong? I just opened up a little adventuring guild… I thought it'd be okay… Did something happen?"

"Like I said my Light, You didn't do anything wrong… It's just you've caused quite a few rumors. Some people still think this we are in the middle of the city and cause trouble."

"Sorry."

"Don't be." She said, shaking her head.

"But I want you to explain what you're doing, so I understand it."

"Okay! I just go on adventures for people, and the payment for them is spells… I want to learn all the spells! Every single one! I got two new spells just today!" I explained showing the two pieces of paper that had spell instructions listed out.

"So I do a task, and it goes into my quest book, and a reward is determined first, and then after I get the reward, which is spells, and everyone is happy."

"Hmm. Just spells?"

"Yeah? What else would I ask for?"

"Money, usually my Light." Mama said chuckling, and I just shrugged.

"I don't need money? If I need some I'll just sell some of the big Sun Flowers I've grown those sell really well. I've even had Ka'Nia asking if I had any more." Mama snorted smiling a bit brighter.

"That's true. Okay so you're just getting spells?"

"Yep!"

"Okay. Then, I don't mind if you keep doing it, but make sure you tell your father or I where you are going if you have to go out of the village, or if it'll take a long time."

"I promise! I'll leave a note or something!"

"Good. Alright. Now… How about sharing that Sweet Bread?'

"Hehe!" I happily split a chunk off and Mama and I started chowing down as I asked her about her day. All the while I was considering what kind of rumor my Adventure Guild had started? Were people being mean? Saying weird things? In the end I decided I didn't care. Not to myself anyways, but they better not be mean to Mama and Papa. I'll crush them if they are. —-- That night I set to work. A nice cup of Lemon Water, and I sat cross legged in bed and started practicing my two new spells. Compass, and Timer.

Both simple cantrips, but that made them all the better. If I could get them to level 10, that'd be another stat boost! Or something! Compass was actually pretty easy. The Sunwell was connected to all High Elves in a way, making a visual bit of light that would point in the direction was… Simple. Both spells were, honestly. I practiced Compass and within a minute got it, as it really was that simple.

[Spell Learned: Sunwell Compass] [Sunwell Compass 1/10] I was satisfied with that, the rush of knowledge of exactly how to twist my mana to get the result was a relief. It went from needing to control every twist in the spell to knowing how to do it instinctively. I loved learning spells. It made casting them so much easier. Then I put that piece of paper to the side, maybe I'd make a grimoire with all of the spells I learn in it eventually, but for now, I took the next one. Timer.

Another mostly simple spell, but while pointing to the Sunwell was easy especially for a High Elf, our connection to the font of our mana already there, Timer was a bit more complicated. The spell structure needed a sort of complex overlay to make it display the information I needed, and then it had to be smart enough to slowly time down. Then when it finished the spell popped letting the user know it was complete. Literally an egg timer in spell form.

I loved it, and so started working my mana through the complex swirls and patterns that were needed to make the spell smart enough to work. It might be a fairly complex spell for an Elfling, without my previous experience I probably wouldn't have been able to stay focused on it enough to get it working, and then again to actually finish it once. But I knew no matter how difficult if I could do it once, I'd learn the spell, and that would be enough.

Hands held up in front of my face, Mana shifted and turned between my hands as I controlled such an incredibly powerful force. And then it all coalesced. [Spell Learned: Timer] [Timer 1/10]"I did it!" I whispered happily, staring at the timer already counting down from 10. When it finally hit zero, there was a moment where the spell itself dissipated and I laughed as the noise sounded like a little bell. That was cute. I wonder how Sha'Rina had gotten the bell sound as the spell collapsed? Either way.

Achievement getto! Two new spells, now time to really grind this out. Both spells were tiny mana uses, Timer used a bit more, but both weren't much more complicated than Mage Light. So I settled in and started casting Timer. They popped up nearly instantly and I hit my first level up for the spell, before the first Timer ran out. And then the bell sound happened. And then again. I was still casting, but slowly stopped as I realized a problem. Ding! Ding! Ding! Over and over…. I looked warily at the door.

I knew it was coming. I could sense it. The door opened and Mama poked her head inside, and I winced as the bells kept coming.

"Alah'Dorah, what-*Ding! * you doing?"

"N-*Ding! *thing. Just some Ding! Spell practice." I winced at her look, as the Dinging kept going for another few times before all the Timers ended.

"Dorah."

"Yes Mama?"

"Go to sleep."

"Yes Mama." I slipped into the bed pouting a bit, but I could sacrifice an early night despite having the new spells I wanted to continue, you know, to not get grounded. —-- Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! I sighed as finally the last alarm happened and I looked at my stat sheet. [Timer Lv 9 95/100] The extra Intellect was a life saver. Timer had some interesting functions as it leveled up, but for the most part it was, louder ring, or longer countdown.

I was pretty sure I could set a timer for years at this point, and the spell would stick around the entire time even without attention, which was impressive. But in exchange that spell was getting more mana hungry. I sipped at the water beside me and settled in to just let myself absorb mana for a while. I needed to get back to the Adventurer Guild stand soon, but after school, all I really wanted to do was get this spell sorted out. So I was behind the house grinding it out as best I could.

And finally it was almost time. I nodded, Filled with enough Mana I started casting. Once, twice, three times, four… Five. [Timer Mastered] [Timer Mastery: +5 Intellect] It was the same! I'd gotten more Intellect! More Mana! More more more!

"Eeeee!" I cheered, unable to remain sitting. I bounced to my feet and cartwheeled right through the Timers still floating in front of me, laughing in delight as I felt so amazing! More Mana! I was right! I could level up more spells now! I forcefully calmed myself down from the zoomies, despite wanting to run and jump and leap and cheer through the forest. I was an adventurer, I had to be calm. As much as I wanted to just grind out the Sunwell Compass spell, I should get back to work.

There would be time to grind spells tonight when my mana had restored itself, since I was already pretty low anyways. I ran off to head inside. Time to get some more quests!