Excerpt from Saki's journal

  I review the spell in my mind. Trying to grasp how the words are intended to direct the flow of Mana. Then I begin to sign, paying close attention to the movement of energies around me.

  With a snap, I activate, and the candle in front of me sparks into flame. I smile ... in dissatisfaction.

  I can do better. I'm wasting energy. Wasting motion. Wasting time.

  I lick my finger and thumb. Snuff out the candle, then pick up my pencil. Make a tick on the page. Seventeen. Only eighty-three more to reach today's practice goal.

  I review the spell in my mind. Trying to grasp how the words are intended to direct the flow of Mana....

  I’m exhausted. Keldon worked me hard today. I was never a physical sort of guy in the old world. I tried to get some exercise but compared to what Keldon’s had me doing here it might as well have been nothing.

  So he’s teaching me to move but he’s also making me move. On this day, though, he doesn’t release me after we finish our training. Instead, he takes me to a small room in a part of the Palace I’ve never been to. The room has a chair, a tiny desk, and a narrow bed.

  “You asked me about training your healing magic,” he said to me. “We start with that today. This is the Palace Clinic. Every person in town is theoretically allowed to come here for healing.”

  “Theoretically?” I ask. “So that means that it doesn’t always happen.”

  “Hardly ever, really. The Palace Administrators don’t really care about the common folk outside the walls. They still come here, hoping that some trainee might be available to help them but it doesn’t happen often.”

  “But it’s happening today!” I’m excited. I learned a little bit about healing magic from the Queen of the Gorgons, but I know I’ve only scratched the surface.

  Healing, like most magic, can be done at a number of levels. At its crudest, it’s a brute force technique of throwing Spirit energy at a problem until it gets solved. The energy will seek to return something to its natural state, so this works. However, it’s very energy intensive and this method will drain out a normal mage’s energy within a few applications.

  I have a lot of Spirit energy within me. Probably more than anyone else in the city of Falsun, which is the capital of the country of Grado where we currently reside. But that doesn’t mean the brute force approach is a good idea, even for me.

  So I’ve been learning more spells to help me get to the next level. Keldon brings me my first patient: a young woman who has injured her hand, losing its ability to grasp properly.

  With a few carefully chosen words and accompanying gestures, I cast my first spell: Scan. This allows me to sense the tissues within her arm. Then I cast another spell: Diagnose. This shows me what is different between what I sense and what the natural state should be.

  From there, it’s easy. As this is not a simple wound, I cast what I think of as the [Heal 2] spell - targeting the specific tissues which need to be repaired and reconstructed. It goes off without a hitch. I have her test her grip and movement. Everything is fine.

  She’s ecstatic! She even gives me a hug! Which I greatly enjoy because she is soft and warm and doesn’t have hair snakes biting me. She smells like beer, pretzels, and cardamom. I’m guessing she’s a barmaid.

  After that Keldon disappears. Shelly, the barmaid I just healed, takes over managing the flow of patients as payment for the healing. I heal a wide variety of patients that day. Nothing too serious, although there are several cases which could have gotten very bad over time. Many injuries, like Shelly’s, are critical impairments to the patient’s life, though. Hard to be a barmaid if you can’t hold a tray. Or be a lumberjack if you can’t bend your knees, etc.

  Most of the people are poor. They all give me something for the healing, though. Even if it’s just a couple of potatoes or a pretty rock (that from a thin little girl who’d accidentally cut off the tip of her finger in the kitchen). It is very satisfying work. Keldon says I’ll be doing it three times a week from now on. And I should expect the cases to get worse once word gets around that I’m available.

  I’m looking forward to it. It feels good to help people.

  I have been so proud of my colleagues. It seems weird to refer to them that way instead of classmates, but that’s the way it is now. We are learning to fight together, support each other, and care for each other. Much more than classmates would ever do.

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  Most of us anyway. The exercise today is precision. I am working with the combat mages to develop their Energy control and usage. “All right, everyone! You’re doing great on your individual targets. Now I want to do a group exercise.”

  I gather everyone around me. “The scenario is this: We are fighting a large monster with high defense. Imagine something like a dinosaur covered with bony plates. Attacks which hit the plates are ineffective. We will need to make precision attacks on a weak point. As a unit, we will be trying to land our individual attacks in sequence at the same exact spot. Any questions?”

  One of the mages, a boy who used to play varsity soccer, raises his hand. “So we don’t want to hit all at once?”

  “No. That would lead to magical interference between our strikes. So we’ll hammer the target one after another. As we get used to coordinating, we’ll reduce the time between the strikes. We also want to focus on putting the maximum energy into the smallest area. Pinpoint precision! That will get better over time as well.”

  Everybody nods and looks ready to give it a try. I have them count off so they’ll know the sequence and show them the spot on the target to aim for.

  They form up in a perpendicular line in numerical order and we begin. It’s a bit of a debacle.

  Shots go wide, the energy is spread out and diffuse, people shoot too soon or too late. But it’s a start. We work on the exercise again and again until every mage there understands what is expected and has begun working toward it.

  Everyone except Ettiene, who gets pissed off and walks away when it becomes apparent he has the least control of his magic of anyone there. He’s been slacking off from the beginning, relying on his strong Sigil to carry him. He hasn’t tried to learn control and it doesn’t seem like he will start anytime soon. Oh well. Not a problem I can solve since we hold equal rank; even as the liaison for the Summoned.

  Acolyte of Chen Lhun, the Great Beast

  Blessing: Great Hero

  Magic Energy Type: Mana, Spirit

  Affinities: Fiend {Death, Dark, Soul}, Body Enhancement (Speed, Constitution)

  Skill Sets: Liaison (Legacy), Hell’s Kitchen (Sigil)

  Role: Rogue Leader (Acolyte Boon)

  Tara’s eyes glitter as she watches me roll the coin across the back of my left hand. She gasps when it disappears and claps her hands when it reappears immediately rolling across the back of my other hand. Simple magic but it impresses the girls.

  Well, that never actually happened before today, but there’s a first time for everything. I used to spend a lot of time playing with coins and doing contact juggling on earth. It was one of the few things which could take my mind off the pain. And it’s kind of fun.

  “So, you’re telling me that this bronze coin is worth ten copper coins?”

  “Yes. You can get a meal on the street for about five coppers. You can get a night at an Inn with two meals included for about six bronze.”

  “Knowing that helps a little. And one silver equals ten bronze?”

  “Yep. Ten silver equals a gold and a hundred gold equals a platinum. You can buy a house for a platinum. A mansion for about three platinum.”

  I pretend to drop the coin. While she is looking down for it, I pull it out from her exposed cleavage. She gives a gasp of outrage, then spoils it with a giggle. “Perhaps you should look for more in there, my lord.”

  “I think I can find more, though I wouldn’t be looking for coins…”

  She giggles again and follows it up with a long kiss.

  “So is that just here in Grado or do they use the same coins elsewhere.”

  “Oh! That’s everywhere. Every city, state, and country uses the same coins. Though I suppose prices of goods vary somewhat.”

  “Interesting. So who issues the coins?”

  She looks confused. “Issues the coins? I don’t understand.”

  “Who makes the coins?”

  “No one makes the coins. They come from the Dungeons.”

  It is my turn to be confused. “The coins come from the Dungeons?”

  “Yes. Exactly what I said. All the coins come from the Dungeons. As rewards.”

  “Interesting.”

  We are going to need money when we leave. It is part of my mission from Addie to find out about currency. I have a lot to think about now. And lots of calculations to make before we negotiate with Sir Aldo and the Palace.

  With an agonized grunt, I perform my deadlift. My unenhanced single repetition maximum has gone up by fifteen kilograms since I started lifting two weeks ago. Pretty phenomenal growth if I’d been back on earth. I think my Tiny Giant curse boon has something to do with it.

  Today I’m doin’ some experiments. Kari the Tiny Scientist! I want to see how my Body Enhancement relates to my non-enhanced performance.

  So I load the bar up double and juice up my strength. I don’t even need to grunt to lift it. I drop it, take a break and then add another half of the original amount. This causes me some trouble but it confirms what I’d suspected. Strength Enhancement gives about two and a half times the base strength. At least based on the data I’ve collected so far. Which is only about three sets of measurements over two weeks.

  Now I start thinking about how I could test the other Body Enhancements. I’ve been doing some speed testing but don’t have a clue how to test endurance and constitution. Maybe Rio will have some ideas. Or Master.

  But if I ask Master he’ll do something like make me run laps until I die. Then pick me up, bring me back to life and make me do it again. Not my idea of fun. Rio it is!