Chapter 5: Secret SpaceAs my training progressed with Damian, I missed spending my evenings with quiet Helena and havira staff practibsp; Helena was rough around the edges, but as I felt more and more fortable in my new world, the scarred and muscur woman was lookier aer to me. Then again, she was the only woman I got to see on a regur basis.
I met with Damian almost every evening as he guided me on the principles of learning a spell and creating a spell form. He thought I would not learn the dimensional pocket as a spell, but instead utilize my innate ability to imprint a simple spell form on my core to create the pocket spabsp; He assured me that I could eventually create the spell form, as long as my affinity score was over 10. Some people just took lohan others to ma it.
Very few people could learricacies of memorizing and casting spells; it took a high skill iher shaping and memorization of the plex spell forms. It was also going to be a few weeks before a copy of the spell forms could be transported from the Mage College to help guide my visualization. He assured me he had sent the request, and it would arrive.
Damian atient teacher, but he was seemed very bored in his assig as a healer to the training legion. His assistance was invaluable as, at my esting, I had substantial gains in my magical development. My gains were so signifit that the fort’s ander was informed, and he called me before him.
Physical
Mental
Magical
Strength
(+1/+0)
45/79
Intellect
(+2/+0)
28/54
Aether Pool
(+2/+0)
12/22
Power
(+2/+0)
42/82
Reasoning
(+2/+0)
42/59
eling
(+2/+0)
9/55
Quiess
(+1/+0)
27/49
Perception
(+0/+0)
52/60
Aether Shaping
(+2/+0)
6/8
Dexterity
(+2/+0)
27/56
Insight
(+2/+0)
30/49
Aether Tolerance
(+1/+0)
21/50
Endurance
(+0/+0)
56/87
Resilience
(+1/+0)
45/71
Aether Resistance
(+1/+0)
4/19
stitution
(+2/+0)
36/65
Empathy
(+0/+0)
10/21
Prime Aether Affinity
Space
Coordination
(+2/+0)
37/61
Fortitude
(+1/+0)
45/89
Minor Aether Affinity
Time
He looked over the transcribed numbers on a piece of paper while I stood at attention. Then he spoke. “Soldier, how did you make such signifit gains in yical attributes in three weeks?” His icy blue eyes focused on me.
“During our free time after dinner, one of the healing mages had been helping me, ander.” The ander was a very rge man who shifted in his chair, which groaned slightly. He pulled out some more paperwork and read it.
“Do you think you learn to create a dimensional space, soldier? Before you plete the training?” he asked sternly. I had absolutely no idea. I didn’t even know if I was close. I was hoping my ridiculous score in space magic would have helped by now.
“Yes, sir!” I said with fidence, even though it was faked. He nodded and looked at some more papers.
“Okay, you work with the healing mage. Is it Damian?” I nodded. “Work with him in the m as well as the evening. You have the sed daily ditioning phase off. There are three requests for a soldier with a dimensional ste ability or spell. One is from one of the Emperor’s sons.” He looked at me again and focused on my amulet.
“I no longer require the amulet, ander. I have a basiderstanding of Telhian.” I answered his question before it was asked. It would have been embarrassing for him to send someone who couldn’t unicate with his ander.
“You are dismissed. Damian will keep me updated on your progress.” I left the intimidating gaze of the man.
I didn’t see Damian for the two days of oing, but I did much better than I anticipated. I finished 12th in sword ranking, 15th in sword and shield, 20th in the dagger, 9th in hand-to-hand, and 4th in the spear. Although my rankings didn’t improve much, I thought my level of ability had closed the gap with those I had previously deemed far superior to me. I also had a feeling that the ander had tested us with the spear to reward me si was my best on. I still missed out on an essence reward, though.
Damian still had not returned, and I asked one of the es about it. He said the ander had sent Damian to retrieve a spell and would be back soon. I immediately guessed it was my dimensional space spell. As training resumed, there were only 43 of us left. I had been so preoccupied with my own problems that I didn’t notice the cuts from the tablet testing and the bat rankings. We were quickly zeroing in on the desired 30 graduates.
Getting the sed half of ditioning off did not endear me to my fellow legionnaires. The special treatme I had to deal with mgression from multiple dires during bat training. In the four days before Damiaurned, I suffered just as many broken bones, punctures, aions as I had in the previous nine weeks.
Damian appeared one night after dinner while I was exerg by myself he ke. The ke was quiet, and the other soldiers rarely came up there. He waved a pamphlet as he approached. “I got the spell, and a more ret copy at that!” he said excitedly. We spent the evening going over the spell, and Damian expihings as best he could. “I was uo get the simplified spell form, but we work from the actual spell instead!”
The best way to describe a spell was plex geometric math. The spell forms wrote out the formu, and when you funneled your aether stores into it, you got the result. It meant magic had a massive range based on ging a few variables. During the rest of the interim weeks betweeing, we worked on the spell, and I was actually starting to get an uanding of magibsp; It was an obscure uanding, but at least that was something. My progression was not good wheesting rolled around pared to my prior efforts.
Physical
Mental
Magical
Strength
(+1/+0)
46/79
Intellect
(+0/+0)
28/54
Aether Pool
(+0/+0)
12/22
Power
(+1/+0)
43/82
Reasoning
(+2/+0)
44/59
eling
(+1/+0)
10/55
Quiess
(+2/+0)
29/49
Perception
(+0/+0)
52/60
Aether Shaping
(+0/+0)
6/8
Dexterity
(+0/+0)
27/56
Insight
(+1/+0)
31/49
Aether Tolerance
(+0/+0)
21/50
Endurance
(+0/+0)
56/87
Resilience
(+0/+0)
45/71
Aether Resistance
(+0/+0)
4/19
stitution
(+1/+0)
37/65
Empathy
(+0/+0)
10/21
Prime Aether Affinity
Space
Coordination
(+1/+0)
38/61
Fortitude
(+1/+0)
46/89
Minor Aether Affinity
Time
At our ut session, Damian revealed that my scores put me at 28th in my training group. He told me I had dropped four positions from three weeks ago. The good news was the ander was very ied in seeing me learn a space ste spell form. He would be in line for a reward if he produced a soldier with a dimensional pocket.
At the ons ranking, things went terribly. I was essentially ganged up on as my barracks shared information about my habits and weaknesses. I finished 22nd in sword ranking, 25th in sword and shield, 34th in the dagger, 14th in hand-to-hand, and 11th in dual wield. They made of sharing my deficies among themselves—so much for building camaraderie.
We only lost three betweeablet and ons ranking, bringing us down to 37. If it was true that only 30 could graduate, then it was going to be pretty brutal to avoid being one of the st seven cuts. I actually wished I had made an effort to make friends. The problem I had was that everyone was kind of an asshole, and even Helena spurned me for the special treatment I was being given. They were here because they had either itted brutal crimes or wao be at the top of the food .
Fortunately, things worked out for me a week after we dropped our o 37. My dimensional space spell form imprinted. Mentally, it was like a series of gears clig into pce with a slight bout of iion.
I had finally obtained my dimensional spabsp; And it was far more powerful than I imagined. I tested it for the first time, reag into my aether core and pushiher through the spell form. A translut cube appeared, visible only to me, and orieo my person. Acc to the spell description, there was no gravity and no passage of time ihe cube. Even if the space en, I could actively allow objects to pass through the area without pg objects inside. People wouldn’t be aware of the space as only I could see it. It took a lot of mental effort to selectively send objects in the cube’s orientation to the dimensional spabsp; It was easier to just send everything in the spad not think about it separating things out.
There were ives. Keeping the open spae aether, and I had a minimum amount to spend to access the cube—so my pathetic aether attribute of 12 made it somewhat limiting. When I ran out of aether, the space closed no matter what, shearing off the objeot fully ihe cube.
I excitedly found Damian. “It works. I got my pocket space!” Damian’s face showed surprise, followed by joy.
“He is the space?” He asked. My space was a rge cube, teo a side. I knew he would be impressed but decided on caution.
“How big do you think it is? What is a good size?” I prompted a reply.
“A cubic foot would be exceptional! But six cubiches should be enough to get you a messenger position,” he said, anxiously awaiting my response.
I paused. The actual spell book I learned from created a space of about a cubic foot, so my space was about 1000 times that volume. I guessed it had to do with my space magic stat of 98. If I revealed this, would I end up married to some princess? Or would I end up being eo a king transp illicit items for him? I decided to go for the middle ground and keep my true tale for now. “It is just over a cubiaybe one and a half feet to the side,” I revealed.
“We should go to the ander immediately! He will want to hear this! And he will probably test you to firm what you are saying is true.” Damian was boung all the way to the manor aellio hurry up.
In front of the ander, it was as he said. I was tested to firm that I did have a space the size I mentioned, roughly eighteen inches. The ander’s smile grew as everything was firmed with experimentation. I also found out that I was even more fortunate. Because the space was formed as a spell form ability and not a spell, it erma. If I had used a spell, then my link to the space could have been broken with a spell to dispel magic, or if I had been knocked unscious. All the tents would have beeed in that case. Now, the only way to access the items in my space was to kill me, thus g the spell form.
The ander spoke. “The Emperor’s son’s request has already been fulfilled, but the other two requests in the Empire are still open. I will send word of your potential and wait to hear back.” He seemed eager as he started writing the letters. Acc to Damian, the ander was in line for a sizable bonus. He said while writing, “There is great news for you. Once your assig is approved, you will be promoted to full legionnaire uhe Lion’s banner. You will start receiving payments. Of course, we should get you fitted for yionnaire’s gear. You were probably not told, but your sary will be withheld to pay for the gear. Seventeen gold in total.”
My jaw dropped. That was astronomical pared to the 40 silver I owed the farmers. “Don’t worry about it. Yifted a full set of gear on your 5th anniversary. So, if year is intact, you will get the babsp; You will probably earn more than 5 silver and 40 copper per week, as you will also be a specialist. But that will depend on your assig.”
I did the rough math in my head. That 17 gold was over 310 weeks of pay! I didn’t know if I should be angry or not. As we left the ander, Damian tried to soothe me. “Don’t worry. You are allowed to take loans out against future pay, up to 5 silver a week. The equipment payment is just to let you know that it is owned by the Telhian Empire and not yours until you plete five years of service.” That did make me feel slightly better—actually, no, it didn’t. “So keep it in good order and don’t borrow too heavily. The annual i is low, but it does add up.” He finished by g me on the babsp;
Great, I was in an Empire that was aware of how to use pounding i against you!
The day, during training, the ander came out and watched. It was the first time he had watched our particur css, and everyoried to impress him. When my oppo got a head strike oh his pommel, causing a bloody ceration and cussion, the instructor rushed in and reprimanded him. This left roup stunned. No one had ever been reprimanded food, nohal strike. It was, of course, because I was now valuable to the ander. Damaging his little piggy bank was off-limits.
Four days ter, Damian fouer breakfast. “Word just came down. Yoing to be assigo Mage ander Castile.” He didn’t seem too enthused delivering the news.
“So what is the problem?” I asked, worried by his tone.
“She is a bit of a problem solver. She takes on the most difficult assigs. Her legionnaires are top tier, but due to their dangerous missions, they frequently o repce legionaries.” He had a grim look on his fabsp;
God fug damn it! I was assigo the suicide squad!
