Lightning Magic was a lot harder to aim than I thought it would be.

  As I charged up the bolt of crackling electricity in my hands, I imagined ensuing destruction happening in a generally forward direction from my current point of view. But when I released my hold on the magic, it shot forward for a few feet before dropping sharply to hit the ground and disperse harmlessly, though it did cost me quite a few burnt roots even with my Fire Resistance. The only deviation from that was when I shot it straight up in the air, where it arced across the sky until it escaped my line of sight. The advanced Domain of Awareness still had a boundary, after all.

  I kept playing with my new magical skill, thinking of different ways to use it. The only thing I could think of was using it as an attack magic. It would work really well against someone wearing metal armor.

  “Metal armor… Oh! That gives me a great idea!”

  I reached down into the earth and separated a few chunks of iron. I used them to create a few nails of varying sizes, which I kept buried a few inches beneath the ground. I then tried firing off a few more lightning bolts, and they were automatically diverted to the closest iron lump, regardless of their size.

  “Okay, so if I want any semblance of accuracy, I either need to be very close to the target, the target needs to be wearing metal, or I can hide a lump of iron near them and shoot at them from the opposite side. Hopefully, the target will be caught in the middle of the bolt and take some damage.”

  Satisfied with the potential for success in using my new magic skill, I moved on to trying one of the other skills I recently earned: Sound Magic.

  The big reason I’m excited for this magic is that in order for me to talk to someone before I had this, I had to connect my mind to theirs. It felt invasive and rude to be capable of hearing their innermost thoughts. I suppose that did help with the whole elf thing, but still. I’d rather not have to resort to mental incursions for the most basic of interactions.

  And with this in my arsenal, that’s no longer the case. At least, when I get good enough at it. As of right now, I can only create pops and shrieks of sounds, and controlling the volume is difficult as well. But I’m also getting better by the minute. Heck, by the time the sun rises, I might be able to actually produce words!

  The last word Loki would use to describe his night was restful. At first, he had trouble falling asleep so close to the course of such ominous magical force, but he managed to close his eyes for a few minutes.

  Those were the only few minutes he had, though. Soon after, the clap of thunder sounded through the night, followed quickly by a second and then a third. The next hour was littered with a multitude of waves of thunder. If he didn’t know better, he would say that they were in the middle of a severe storm, except the sky was perfectly clear, save for the sparse whisp of the occasional cloud.

  The thunder went on steadily for a full hour, after which there was a short period of rapid-fire claps, then nothing. He was cautiously relieved to finally get a chance to sleep after that fiasco, but then the weirdness of the forest only intensified.

  As Loki lay his head back down after looking around to see if the others were concerned (which they weren’t; three of the brutes were dead asleep, and the other two were on guard duty, but drinking from wince skins without a care in the world), he heard a popping sound, like someone overinflated a bladder and it exploded (don’t ask Brom how he knows what that sound is; Loki thought it was a good prank, but he remembers the pain of his wrist from having to write an extended essay on why he shouldn’t scare armed individuals).

  The popping sound continued for not even half as long as the thunder. Thankfully, it was a lot softer in volume than the thunder was, but unfortunately, it was quickly replaced by a shrieking. It was entirely possible that there was a banshee in the forest. For the first time this night, one of the men on watch duty started looking around.

  The shrieking went on and off well into the night. It eventually shifted tones from a female sounding shriek to a more masculine one, and the sound went down to almost a baritone. About an hour before sunrise, the shrieking stopped completely. The silence was almost deafening.

  For the last hour before the sun finally came up, the group was met with wave after wave of orcs. If Loki didn’t know better, he would think one of these idiots had used a monster lure to gather them all together.

  After the second wave of orcs, the entire group was woken up to help deal with the third and fourth groups, which came at them almost at the same time. The party mechanics and large number of monsters netted them a nice bit of experience, though.

  Nobody was able to get back to sleep after that, so the group broke camp. Two of the men he was with started working on building the fire back up to get breakfast going, while the other three broke down the tents and other gear. It was all quickly stored in a magic bag held by the leader of the group. When the meal was prepared, enhanced with fresh orc belly bacon, they all ate and got ready for the day ahead of them.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Alright, Loki,” the leader of the Axe-a-lot-els started, “as the master of magic that you are, your main purpose is in finding out the effects of the fog. We’ll be guarding you while you do what you must, then we plan on heading further into the forest to check things out. If we can find the cause of the fog, assuming it’s not natural, we’ll dispatch it. If we can’t, then at the very least, make note of where it is for someone else to take care of it. Does that sound amenable to you?”

  “Wow, big words for one who doesn’t invest in mental stats,” Loki thought to himself. Out loud, he said, “That sounds reasonable. I should only need but a moment to tell if it truly does disrupt magic. After that, I have a few tests to run. All said and done, I should only need a few hours. When I’m done, you may take charge again of the expedition.”

  The large man nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.

  Loki left his traveling pack where it was on the ground and walked towards the edge of the mysterious mist. Four of the group he was with followed him, the last one staying with their equipment. When he reached the edge of the fog, he reached a hand out to touch it. With a wave of his hand, the fog scattered, but was quickly replaced by more fog that rolled in right after it.

  He pulled his hand back and looked for any evidence of damage. He couldn’t see anything, and his magical senses were too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the mana in the area for him to tell if anything was off.

  Loki poked his hand back into the mist and waved. The air cleared again, and he watched it get filled back in. After a few more moments with nothing happening, he tried casting a spell.

  The very first magical skill that Loki ever learned was Fire Magic. He spent much of his time playing with flames, doing everything he could to learn more about the skill and how to develop it into the fiercely powerful skill it was at now. He had the skill advanced all the way to Rare +3 grade, on the cusp of reaching Epic grade. His next skill upgrade point would be spent on having it cross that threshold.

  This was all to say that Loki was very familiar with his magic and not one to make hapless mistakes. So, when he tried and failed to cast the very basic fireball spell that all aspiring fire mages learn, he was extremely perplexed.

  “The fog definitely disrupts magic. I will now perform my tests.”

  Loki reached to his waist and grabbed his favorite wand from his bag. It was enchanted with the basic fireball spell, the very one he just attempted and failed to cast himself. He pushed his mana into the wand and watched as a spark was ignited and immediately put out.

  He put the wand back and pulled out a notepad. He wrote down his findings before moving on to the next attempt.

  When it came to magical gear, there was a standard amount of mana required to use the equipment properly. If one were to fail to push enough mana into it, it would simply fail to activate. Similarly, if one forces too much mana into the enchantment, it has the chance of having a catastrophic failure, such as the enchantment unraveling or the equipment spontaneously combusting.

  The reason that Loki loved this particular wand, though, was that the enchantment was one of the few designed to accommodate a potential overload, which would allow the fireball it was designed to make to grow in response to the amount of mana put into the wand. More mana meant a larger fireball meant a grander explosion. It was his absolute favorite weapon in his arsenal.

  Loki prepared himself to channel a large portion of his mana pool into the wand. He didn’t want to use too much of his mana, less he not have enough should an emergency arise, but he needed to know if the fog could be brute forced. The only reason he was willing to try was the spark that the wand produced on his first attempt.

  He started the experiment with a small injection of mana, then slowly ramped up how much he was inputting at one time. The wand started off with a small spark, but when he reached a critical juncture for mana input, it grew to a consistent flame. Once he saw the flame, he stopped adding more mana but held control over the mana in the current projectile. Once he stopped the flow, though, the flame shrank and shrank until it disappeared completely.

  He quickly jotted down his findings.

  “Fog disrupts mana, but can be overcome with a large enough supply. Magical equipment not recommended for use in this portion of the forest unless enchanted for overload. Basic casting of fireball spell was disrupted, but the wand allowed for overload. The spell was quickly put out once mana supply was cut off. Attempting alternative magic spells next.”

  Despite Fire Magic being his favorite skill, Loki was actually versed in all the tier 1 elemental magic skills. None had gone past their basic Uncommon grade, though. He mostly wanted them for the boost to elemental magic the Rare grade Elemental Sage title gave. Some thought the title was a waste of skill upgrade points, but Loki thought it was well worth it.

  Loki brought out a waterskin and infused the water within with mana. He then brought it out to use for the water whip spell. It was one of the few he was familiar with from this element.

  The water whip shot out and was quickly unraveled as it made contact with the fog. Loki was able to salvage the water that didn’t get disrupted, bringing it back into his water skin with great care. If he wasted too much more, he would have to bring some water from the ground to boil to refill their reserves.

  “Water whip spell was also disrupted. Noting my lack of skill with the element, the fog seems to disrupt all foreign magics. Attempting Air Magic next.”

  The next two experiments went largely the same as the last one. Both Air Magic and Earth Magic were failed attempts. Once his mana reached the mist’s border, he lost almost all control.

  Loki reported back to the leader of the Axe-a-lot-els.

  “It appears I’ll be useless in there. I’ll keep making attempts to use magic, but I will most likely be unable to cast a single spell within the borders of the mist. Please take that into consideration going forward.”

  The man nodded and turned to his companions.

  “Looks like we’re on babysitting duty. Let’s head in, boys!”

  This mission just got a whole lot more dangerous for Loki. Hopefully, these brutes can get him out of here alive.

  Discord Here!