CH14

Once they arrived at their destination Ben set out what he was thinking. “The staff you currently have is the last one Falk gave you right? You should probably save it for emergencies. For now do you mind trying the ones I made and tell me how they feel?”

She looked at her staff hesitantly before stringing it over her back and grabbing the one Ben was offering and gave it a look over.

“The design is pretty plain and it feels rough, are you sure it will hold up?”

“No clue, but that’s the one I finished before my level went up, the two I made after should be better.”

She raised the staff in front of her and concentrated, forcing mana through it to bring together her spell. Ben watched in anticipation, anxious to see whatever she would bring forth. He had seen a few smaller acts of magic in his months here, but it looked like she was preparing something big.

All at once the ground shook as chunks of earth were pulled from it and coalesced into a rough ball in front of her, about two meters in diameter. With a swing of her staff the ball flew… for a couple meters, before falling to the ground and collapsing back into loose dirt.

It was a little disappointing but when he turned back to her the problem became obvious. Towards the end of the spell the staff had shattered into slivers of metal.

“Useless.” Her frank evaluation hurt a little, but there was no mistake his work didn’t live up to the task.

“So the first one didn’t work out, we still have two more.” He told her with forced cheer. “Maybe you could use a smaller spell this time? We shouldn’t need something like that for hunting scrells.

“I can’t,” she muttered under her breath.

“Sorry what?” He hoped he misheard her, but that dream was dashed.

“That’s as small of a spell as I can do okay! Have a problem with that?” she yelled at him angrily.

He couldn’t even notice how defensive she was with how much was going through his head. That’s as small as she can make it? Is that what they meant when they were talking about how much mana she has? Hey Myriad are you around? What am I supposed to do about this?

<Hmm well I guess I can see why she goes through so many staves. She must have incredibly high mana but low skill level. She wouldn’t have any control to go along with it, I doubt she can even use magic without a staff.>

“Mind showing me what you can do without a staff so I have a reference.” He asked, hoping Myriad was wrong.

To his relief she started gathering her power without argument, though she looked unhappy about it, and started to use her magic. Loose dirt tens of meters around them rose into the air. Then promptly fell to the ground again.

“…Was that it?”

“Got a problem with that?”

“Nope, just thinking is all.”

Do you think either of the other staves will work?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

<They should at least be able to properly fire one spell… I think.>

Not reassuring.

“Okay I have to ask, how many shots would you say you get off with Falk’s staves before they break?”

“…I don’t see any relevance to the question.”