Chapter 21: Under the Silver Moon
BOOOOM
Disoriented, I sprang up from my bed as a deafening ear buzzing sound sang through the air.
With hurried motions I equipped all my gear and stormed outside.
The moon hung low, casting pale light over the frozen world. The air was sharp, laced with a haze of frost that clung to everything.
I studied my environment and my gaze landed on Alvins hut— at least what seemed to be the remains of it.
Alvin stood there, his eyes shone as he laughed out frantically.
"Alvin! Are you okay? What the hell happened?"
His head whipped toward me. His eyes gleamed with wild laughter, his whole body trembling with exhilaration
"Nestor! My Magic Core! I unlocked it, hahahaha!" His whole body jolted as he raised a fist and chanted:
"Ice Arrow"
An arrow formed from the freezing air, condensing into an arm-length shard of ice.
He then pointed his index finger towards a tree and the arrow struck almost instantly. The icy impact on the trunk affected a wide area on the wood, making it seem like it was frozen.
I hurried towards Alvin. He noticed me and smiled.
"Cool spell. What happened to your hut?" I asked him, slightly weary because I had just woken up from bed.
His face shifted with uncertainty. "Thanks! What do you mean by what 'happened to my hut'?" He answered
Now it was my turn to look uncertain.
"Your hut is gone! How did that happen?" I demanded, impatience creeping into my voice.
He was silent for a while. His face was then reddened as he said:
"Yeah... sorry. I shouldn't have tried unlocking the Magic Core inside the hut. But it was just too cold outside"
My brows furrowed. Did he mean...
"Does this normally happen when you unlock your Magic Core?" I asked.
"Yeah? Wait... Didn't that happen to you too, when you had yours unlocked?" He vocalized his own doubts about my question.
Silence.
Utter silence seperated our conversation.
"So it didn't happen when you unlocked yours..." Alvin seemed to be in thought
I explained to him how my Magic Core forming process went.
"So what does it imply for me" I questioned.
"I don't really know. I just know that it happend to everyone in my old camp." He replied.
Strange. What difference was there at my Magic Core forming, for me to not release a shockwave, I thought with a complicated face.
"What is your plan for today?" Alvin asked, as he seemingly wanted to move on from the topic.
"I'll practice my dagger throwing skills. Afterwards I'll try to form a circle around my Magic Core"
Alvin's body twitched, his golden eyes revealed curiosity, as he asked:
"Did you find a way to form circles around cores? Great! Could you share your methods with me Nestor?"
My thoughts drifted. Alvin seemed to be eager to improve. His ambition felt vast, like an ocean stretching endlessly into the horizon. He wasn't like Cyrus— a predator in waiting. Alvin was more like a young dragon, ready to reach heights only he could imagine for himself.
He waved his hand in a motion that asked if I was there.
"Sorry, I spaced out for bit." I apologized and continued: "I haven't found a way yet, but I feel like it I am near finding one."
He nodded and told me: "I'll try to. Good luck."
"Thanks" I answered, and turned around to move to my dagger throwing area.
Sweat dripped from my chin, and both shoulders ached—I had practiced with both hands, after all. Now, every time I threw my dagger, it at least embedded itself into the tree, not like before, when the dagger's hilt struck the trunk and bounced off uselessly.
Practising the art of throwing daggers should be something that I will benefit from, as it could get stronger when I unlock Sword Aura in the future.
The sun hung at its highest peak as I stopped practising. My stomach growled, demanding some food, but it had to wait until the evening.
Alvin seemed to have already repaired his hut in record time and was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was inside again while experimenting with circles.
Alvins thirst for power through magic made me affirm my opinion on him as I too wanted to make progress in magic.
I sat down outside on a tree stump. I then positioned myself in the lotus position and took a deep breath. Slowly I began to sense my sorroundings again and felt the elemental orbs again. I willed my own mana to circle around my Magic Core. The mana spun but slowly disintergrated into the surroundings. No matter how many times I tried and with what kinds of mana—enviromental mana, my own Magic Core mana or a mix of them both— the circles never lasted long, as if there was a crucial step I missed. My brows furrowed and my concentration broke. What was missing?
GROWL
My hunger became unberable as I got up. I then took out bear meat from my fridge and prepared the bonfire. Alvin too came out of his hut, sweat und frustration illustrated on his face, and moved towards me with a alot of deer meat.
"Did you find a way to form a circle, Nestor?" Alvin said with hope in his voice.
"Nope, I didn't. It seems like there is something crucial to the forming of the circle, but I have no clue what it is." I answered truthfully.
Alvin didn't seem to frustrated as he said:
"We'll figure it out eventually"
His enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself nodding without thinking.
We talked for a bit before a quesion popped up in my head:
"Alvin, have you started to learn Aldovian yet?"
He looked a bit taken aback as he answered:
"I learned the alphabet, but its hard to memorize all the words"
I shared that sentiment. Practising a language without any way to speak to others was hard.
"What about practicing together from now on, when we eat?" I proposed to him
Alvins expression turned soft as he said:
"Sure, let's do it like that."
We immediatly began to practice with each other, it was only late at night when we both stopped.
Alvin left after saying good night.
I slowly moved toward my hut, inhaling the cold air. The moon hung full and proud, spilling silver light across the land, cloaking everything in quiet magic. I stopped and took my time to look at the moon. It seemed to be slightly bigger then moon from earth. The moonlight soothed my exhaustion away.
I decided to practise my spellcasting a bit before going to bed.
Beneath the moon's watchful gaze, I let my mind drift through ideas for an offensive spell. A fist made out of earth, a blade of wind and the classic fireball were all spells I could try to cast.
But I felt something. I tried to concentrate on that feeling. Words spilled from my lips, unbidden, as if whispered into my soul by something ancient and unseen:
"Moon's Disk"
A perfect gray circle shimmered into being, pulsing with a soft, lunar-blue glow — ethereal and haunting.
The air itself seemed to tense, the cold pulled back as if retreating from its presence.
In a sudden burst, the disk shot toward a tall tree. The trunk was severed cleanly, and the massive shape groaned before crashing to the ground.
Alvin burst out of his hut, eyes wide and face tight with alarm, until they found me — and the fallen tree.
"Sorry," I said, grinning. "Didn't mean to wake you."