Chapter 10 – Dangerous training session – part 1

In the morning of the next day, Craydon Crawler went to the blacksmith and next to the carpenter to get the pieces he needed for his crossbow, while Meryda went to their farm with her friends to check how her Monsters were doing and if there were crops ready to be harvested.

While Craydon was back in the kitchen's Guild, putting his crossbow together, Meryda was gathering every crop that was mature with her friends and the Gigantic Spider's help and placing everything in her open waggon.

While the Demi-Centaur siblings pulled the waggon to the City to go and try to sell everything in the market, Meryda and her helpers continued the harvest.

They were halfway through when the siblings returned to get another batch, happily smiling and saying they had already sold everything, and they had even found two outside merchants who wanted to buy all they had.

With the siblings going back and forth between Meryda's farm and the City and everyone else gathering the harvest, they took the entire morning to finish, and after making sure all the animals and Monsters had food and the Emptiness Monster was slowly patrolling around the farm, they returned to the City.

Meanwhile, Craydon finished mounting the crossbow and leisurely went to the backyard to test it. The noise of Vasir Rez and Emid Basson cheering for him every time Craydon hit a target called the attention of the Demi-Cat receptionist, and she came from the back door of the Guild to check what all that commotion was.

Puzzled, she watched as Craydon quickly pulled the crossbow string, placed a sharp feathered dart on it, and shot it against the target that was in the middle of the yard, more than ten metres from him.

She approached the two kitchen helpers and asked in a low voice so that she didn't distract Craydon, "What the heck is that? Some sort of weird bow?"

"Boss called it a crossbow," said Vasir Rez. "We already tried it, and it is very easy to use — way more than a normal crossbow! I can never hit a target with a crossbow, but with that thing, I hit the centre two times out of the five times I tried! It is a bit difficult to pull the string to get the crossbow ready, but he taught us an easier method. Look at what he is doing! He put the front on the ground, placed his feet on that metallic arch, and then pulled back the string to connect it with the trigger. At first, I tried to pull the string by hand, but it was so hard!"

The receptionist watched as Craydon took something small and round from his pocket and saw him hitting the target with something that got stuck against it.

When he was on the target and taking out something with a dagger he had, the receptionist asked, "What did you use? That is not an arrow."

Craydon showed her the round marble he had and explained, "It is a piece of Meryda's Slime that I hardened in the fire. It is just something different that I can shoot with this crossbow, Miss… hum...."

  Puzzled, the Demi-Cat receptionist asked, "What? Don't tell me you hit your head somewhere and forgot my name!"

  "No… Ru… Rusha… Rusha Banei. Sorry, I think I was so focused on this and thinking about what else I could do to improve this crossbow that my mind went blank for a moment."

The Demi-Cat receptionist smiled and gently punched Craydon's left shoulder. "For a moment, you got me worried! So, what do you say if, tomorrow morning, you go with me to the market? I want to buy new jars, and you probably need to buy ingredients."

"I think I can do that. Meryda will probably be with her friends again, and I actually need to buy some vegetables."

"Great, it's a date, then! See you later, beauty!"

She quickly kissed Craydon's right cheek and rushed to the Guild's back door, with him looking at her back, puzzled.

When he was rubbing his cheek, his two helpers approached, and Emid Basson said with a smile, "Careful, boss, or she will get you! She has been trying for ages for you to go on a date with her, and you just agreed with that! So bold of you!"

"No, I just… We are going to the market to buy stuff; that's it!"

"Right, and she will not hold your arm tight or lean her head on your shoulder as you walk. It is kind of surprising to see you agreeing with her invitation. You normally scold her and tell her to go away. I remember you once threatened to punch her if she didn't stop slapping your butt every time she saw you distracted."

Before Craydon could say anything, the Guild Master's voice interrupted them. "Is that your new weapon? And why did I just see Rusha smiling with her face all red? What did you do to her?"

"I might have unintentionally agreed to go on a date with her. She fooled me by asking me to go with her to the market tomorrow morning for her to buy new jars, and she then said it was a date, kissed me in the face, and ran away!"

While checking the crossbow, the Guild Master said, "Well, she was always trying to get you, remember? She is a good woman. Probably a tiny bit too aggressive, but only with you. There are a lot of Adventurers and Explorers who tried to ask her out, but she always refused them by saying she only had eyes for you, and if you didn't want her, she wouldn't choose another man. She tends to argue a lot with Meryda, but that is only because she cares about her, and I think Meryda also likes her. So, how do we use this thing?"

The Guild Master spent a few moments shooting darts against the target, and when Craydon and his helpers left for the kitchen to begin preparations for lunch, he stayed in the backyard.

After retrieving the hard marble from the target, he mumbled while looking at the crossbow, "This is a very interesting weapon and really easy to use. We don't need so much training, like a bow, to hit a target. It lacks in distance, but the accuracy and ease of use beats a bow. I will ask him to go with me to the blacksmith and the carpenter again and make an order for more pieces to make a few crossbows like this one. I bet a lot of Adventurers and Explorers will want to buy one. And probably the City guards as well."

…

After lunch, Craydon was in the kitchen, making more wooden darts and filling a quiver. In a belt pouch, he had a bunch of small round marbles made from bits of Meryda's Slime, which was bouncing on the floor near the two Sub-Demons that were sharpening the darts that Craydon and his helpers were placing on the floor next to them.

Meryda came from the main room, picked up her Slime, opened the stove, pulled out her sleeping Salamander, and dashed out the back door, straight to the backyard.

The noise of voices called Craydon's attention, and he went to the backyard as well to check what was happening.

Next to the Guild Master, there were four people. Adventurers, if Craydon recalled correctly, each of them holding a staff of almost their height and a crystal on top with a different colour.

Fortunately for Craydon, he arrived just as the Guild Master was explaining what was going to happen. "Meryda, you can use your short sword, that iron shield, and your two Monsters to defend you and to attack them. They are all experienced Mages and the colour of the Crystal on their staffs can show you the kind of Magic they can use. Red Crystal for Fire Magic, brown for Earth, white for Wind, and blue for Water." He then handed over a staff with a brown Magic Crystal to Meryda while saying, "You can also use this, if you want, instead of the sword or the shield. It's a gift, so you better use it well!"

Meryda looked at the crystal and said, "I have no idea how to use this. I think I have to say something to use the Magic in this Crystal, right?"

"You already forgot? There are specific chants for a specific Spell, and most people use the same chants. There are more powerful chants for more powerful spells, but today we are going to use the most common spells."

"And what if the Magic in the Crystal ends? The spell power has something to do with the size of the Crystal?"

"I already explained this over and over, moron! If the Magic ends, you must wait for the Crystal to gather Magic, and that takes several hours. The size is only proportional to the amount of Magic that Crystal has. Even a small Crystal like the one you have can be used to shoot the most powerful Spell, but it will be depleted as soon as the Spell is created. It is better to use less powerful Spells and complement them with dodging or sword skills to defeat your opponent, and like that, save the Magic in the Crystal."

Meryda put her sword in her sheath and grabbed the staff. She made a few movements with it to get a grip of the weight and asked while looking at the shining brown Crystal, "So, what are the chants I can use?"

"They are not difficult, but you have to remember the words. In a fight, some Mages forget the words, and that is never a good thing. That is why we are training today: for you to get used to fighting with Magic and your Monsters against other Mages. Maybe one day you will have to face a Mage or a Monster, so it is better if you get used to the chants."

He then gave Meryda a piece of paper with the chant, the name of the spell, and what it would create, making her frown while looking at it. He pointed at the paper and said, "These are the Earth Spells you can use, and also that Mage over there with the brown Crystal on his staff. The other Spells are also written in there."

"But… this is kind of weird… If a Mage needs to say this aloud, I can just send my Salamander against them, and they will lose even before finishing their chant!"

"That is why Monster Tamers are considered the strongest Mages that exist. The first sentence of the chant is needed to activate the Crystal, the second sentence is for the Crystal to gather Magic, the third sentence is for the Crystal to get ready to shoot its Magic, and the Spell name tells the Crystal to shoot the gathered Magic in the form of the Spell's name. You need to say all this in the correct order, loud and clear, for the Crystal to work."

Meryda made a frown and spoke, "And for my opponent to figure out what I am about to use. Magic is weird around here! What about chantless Magic? Or whispering?"

"It doesn't work like that, and it is also dangerous. The sentences are there for a reason, because if the Crystal doesn't resonate with the right words, the Spell doesn't happen, or some things randomly happen. There were occasions when a Mage messed up the chant, and instead of shooting a spear of the element he could use, he was hit by a powerful shot from his crystal and got severely hurt."

Hearing that, Meryda gulped, looked at the paper, and read in silence the chants related to Earth Spells, over and over. The Guild Master waited for a while, and he then pointed to a target near a wall in the backyard and said, "What about if you tried the Blast of Rock Spell to hit that?"

"Okay… I need to point the staff to that target while chanting, right?"

"You can point when you shout the Spell's name because before you finish the chant, the Crystal doesn't shoot anything. Some Mages point right at the beginning, others in the middle. It is more like a personal taste, if you ask me."

After a deep breath, Meryda faced the target, and while raising her staff, she shouted, "Thundering frost cloud of the narrowest chiasm! Strength of the bottomless pit! Obey my command!" She then pointed the staff at the target and said, "Blast of Rock!"

In the first sentence of the chant, the Crystal at the top of the staff started to glow. In the second sentence, the glow increased its brightness, and when Meryda shouted the Spell's name, a boulder the size of her head appeared right in front of the staff and blasted to the target, completely destroying it.

Dralro Jic, the Guild Master, was staring at the pieces of the target falling to the ground and said, "That is… heck, I don't even know what to say! Meryda, the last time you tried that Spell, you only made a small marble, and it got stuck in the target! How did you get so powerful?"

"No idea. Maybe because I became a Monster Tamer?"

"That is even weirder! Monster Tamers can only use weak Spells! Most of them can barely use Magic besides Taming Magic!" He then turned to the four dumbfounded Mages and said, "What about if you fight her one at a time? Be ready to deal with the Salamander and the Slime but don't kill them, or she will be sad!"