Eryll stood in the field, crossing his arms. Kerii would be arriving in a few days so he might as well spend the time practicing some stronger spells and increasing his own abilities. As A mage Eryll held himself to certain standards. He had to be strong, he had to be able to defend people, innocent citizens, enemies who didn't know better, fellow wizards and animals. Eryll didn't really have anyone to train with, and as a mage capable of casting support cells that made his job a tiny bit more difficult Eryll. Eryll looked around, maybe he should just go find a wild opponent who would either be in need of assistance, or was trying to hurt someone.

As he walked down the path Eryll let his mind drift. He wasn't someone to keep memories kept under lock and key. Then, in the flash of an eye, Eryll was sitting in his house back in Stella, he was 8. "We should go back to Fiore. We can make money there!" He argued. "Eryll is happy here in Stella, you're the only one worried about money." His mother argued. His father paced back and forth for a few seconds, "Stella has a small economy Willora. We cannot sustain ourselves as wizards here. There are few guilds here and they don't serve as a well paying job. Fiore has a great magical economy. We can move there and actually make money! Eryll can meet more wood Elves." He said, his voice was getting quiet. Whenever his father's voice got quiet, he was trying to contain his anger. "Gairuun, there are wood-elves here." She said. Gairuun shook his head, "We're not serving ourselces or our son here staying here in Stella. Willora, I know you love it here, its your home. But, think of out future. Stella is a small country with little infrastructure. In Fiore, we'll have jobs, its bigger, Eryll will have a chance to live a different life. I think we should go." He said. Willora stared at her hands for a moment. "I dislike this Gairuun, we're doing just fine here in Stella. I see no need to leave." She said. Gairuun sighed, "Maybe I want to live close to my family as well Willora?! Do you ever think about that? You have had your parents close almost all the time. I met you in Stella, staying here forever isn't good. We should move. We need a change of scene, you're giving yourself a small view of a large world." He argued. Willora look taken back by Gairuun's words. "So we're bringing family into this now?" She asked. Gairuun sighed, "It's always been about family Willora. You're just ignoring to see that fact." He said. Gairuun clenched his jaw, he was extremely upset at the moment. A tiny Eryll had turned his head from the other room and was peeking into the kitchen where silence now sat as their parents took a break from arguing. "Fine." His mother whispered. "You won't regret this Willora." Gairuun said. His mother laughed bitterly, "Oh, I regret a lot more that saying yes now." She said. At the time Eryll hadn't understood what she had meant, But now, he think he understood what she was getting at. She regretted marrying his father. Eryll didn't blame her, his father had always been difficult, but their family had seemed so perfect in the beginning. But there was a possibility that everything seemed so hunky dory was because Eryll was a small child at the time. A few months later his mother had packed all of their things into a bag and they stood at a dock. Eryll remembers tugging on his dad's jacket and asking why they were taking a boat. To which his father rubbed his head and said it would be faster. Eryll's mother had been very distant that day, she didn't speak at all. Eryll's father did most of the parenting that day. His mother stared wistfully out windows and would occasionally look at Eryll's father. She would try to do it when neither was looking, but sometimes Eryll saw the hate flash in her eyes, the immediately replaced by grief and confusion. His family lived like that for a few days before his mother became somewhat normal again. Eryll's father joined a small wizarding guild in Marigold, it was barely thirty people. His mother joined Blue Pegasus. She climbed the ranks and became an adept magician. After a few months, Eryll remembered hearing his father ask his mom if she had cheated on him, to which she refused. That caused a yelling fight, that's when Eryll noticed that now that he was older they were trying to hide less. That was also the day Eryll started spending more time outside of the house. And then came the day where he got his acceptance letter to the school in Astera. He immediately told his parents who were ecstatic. His parents never hated him, but they certainly didn't like each other. Eryll was to leave for Astera in a few months, the night before he left was that last time he heard his parents fight for almost 3 years. The Fight lasted for almost the entire night. Eryll's father was sure he had found evidence of an affair. Willora called him a fool and told him that he should grow up and join a real guild instead of doing wimp jobs because he was scared to put himself in the face of danger. His father threw a drink at the wall, his mother called him something in Stellan, Eryll didn't remember the word she used exactly but whatever it was it made his father even more upset. The next day, Erylkl got on a train and made his way to Astera. His time at the boarding school had been his happiest. It was there where he had his first kiss. The boy who it was with was now a member of a dark guild. Eryll decided that he wanted to be a mage at that school.

And now, here he was, walking around two years later, about to start training. His parents were part of the reason that he had become a mage. Both of them had kind of been the worst at times. But their constant bickering is what pressured him to actually go out into the world and learn magic instead of staying in their village and working as some smith of some kind. Eryll much preferred practicing magic over crafting things. Magic had lots of things to do, lots of possibility, while being a craftsmen, you were much more confined to one thing, and Eryll did not wish to lead that life, so he would live a different life.

Finally Eryll's memory train stopped for a moment and Eryll heard something growling in the underbrush.

Wc: 1146
RqWc: 5400
10% int perk

The brush shook, Eryll leaned down and tried to peer through the leaves. To his dismay, he was unable to see what was in there. Going for the next best thing, Eryll grabbed a stick. If he couldn't see it in the bush, he might as well just try and see it outside of the bush. Eryll had the stick and watched the bush. With a gentle poke Eryll scared whatever was in the bush. A snake lunged out of the bush, startled, Eryll flinched away from its gaping jaws. The serpent had a long body, at least six feet in length. Its head went out and came back to a point. "So you're a venomous little sucker, aren't you?" Eryll asked. The snake hissed, coiling up in preparation to lunge again. Eryll smiled. For the time being, this was the best opponent he was going to get. Eryll wasn't going to waste any mana on the snake, he'd save magic for an actual thief or some bear that might try to kill him. The snake shot forth its jaws wide open. Eryll ducked and grabbed the snake by its neck. Then with a forceful movement he chucked the snake at a rock near to him. The snake hit it and hissed again. Its scales turned from their bright yellow to a deep red. A new row of fangs grew out of the snake's mouth, directly behind the original and larger fangs. The snake let out a hiss before moving at a quicker pace. Eryll jumped and tried to kick it, but it was faster and almost bit him. "Are you some kind of demon snake?" Eryll questioned to no one in particular. The snake hissed at Eryll. Eryll smiled, he wasn't going to kill whatever villainous snake this was, It was still life, he'd just disable it. Eryll smiled at the vicious snake. Eryll grabbed a rock and threw it at the snakes head. It connected with a nasty crunch. The snake reeled for a moment. Giving Eryll time to drop behind it and grab it by the head. The snake shook and hissed. Eryll still kept it held firmly. "What kind of snake are you?" He questioned again. The snake gave him a devilish look for a moment. Then in a long hiss shrunk into a small green, non venomous snake. It slipped out of Eryll's grip and slithered back into the bush. Raising an eyebrow Eryll continued to walk on. It was possible that that snake had some sort of defensive mechanism that allowed it to shape shift into something that looked more dangerous. Eryll found that interesting, he'd remember to ask about that later when he got back into town.

His walk through the world continued on for sometime. There wasn't that many more troubles. Eryll thought he saw a bear, but it turned out to be a boulder that looked a lot like a bear. Eryll had almost been ready to cast a spell at that time. But he didn't want to waste any of his mana yet, he wanted to really work up a sweat before he cast spells. To get to this, Eryll decided he should do a work out. Eryll cracked his knuckles and burst into a run. His plan was to run until his legs almost wanted to give out, because then, he would have enough time to do things like push ups and curl ups, all the good stuff.

Eryll at first began running down the hill he was on. Slowly the underbrush disappeared, and he was back out in the open. The path was rather straight, except for the occasional curve that would appear ever so slightly. The dirt underneath his feet was slightly sandy, which threw him off just ever so slightly. He passed a few more large bear-like stones, and at one point, he thought he saw another one of those shape shifting snakes. Eryll took a double take at that moment and almost tripped over a rock. He stumbled for a few moments before being able to fix his pattern and continuing on his run. After his little mess up, he began to look for a place that he could end his run. There, up on another hill was a rather flat surface that he could practice on. Eryll veered off the path and began to run up the hill. The first little bit of running up the hill, Eryll was reminded how painful running up things was. But that was quickly as he continued to run up the hill. At the top of the hill he could see the horizon. The sun was now passing afternoon and heading into the late afternoon.

Eryll collapsed for a moment, that run had actually been the worst, and even for a wood elf, and wood elves ran faster than normal people. Eryll clenched his jaw and pushed himself back onto his feet and prepared to continue on with his little work out. At first Eryll did push ups, until his shoulders and upper body hurt. Then after that, he lay down on the obnoxiously hard ground and pumped out a few curl-ups. A few as in, until his core hurt. After that he lay down on his back and just closed his eyes for a moment. That work out had taken a massive bite out of him. He almost fell asleep, but he was smarter than that and he didn't, or at least he thought he hadn't. Because, when Eryll woke up he wasn't on top of a hill, he was somewhere dark and musty, surrounded by tiny, green snakes. Eryll grabbed his nose. "How is this fair?" He asked in Stellan. The snakes stirred. Then he heard a girl call out in Stellan, "Is someone there?" She said. Her voice was desperate, "Is someone stuck here?" Eryll called out. Had she been taken by the demon snakes, which was Eryll's guess for what happened to him. Or had she somehow accidentally stumbled into a cave full of snakes that could shape shift. The girl called out, "I've been stuck here for weeks, these snakes. What on earth are they?" She called out. Eryll searched, he still couldn't see her. "I have no idea what they are." Eryll said. His voice dying out in the end. How had she been down here for weeks. Even if she had managed to kill and eat one of the snakes how did she find the water. "Hello?" He called out, this time Elvarin. Eryll's heart sunk when the snake responded in Elvarin, with the same response as the first time this 'girl' spoke. "Is someone stuck in here?" whatever was managing to mimic Eryll's languages was certainly not a human.

1129
1129+1146= 2275/5400

Eryll stood up, a green snake slithered across his foot causing him to junk. "I cannot believe this is happening right now. What did I do to deserve this?" Eryll asked. A voice, one that wasn't human responded. "You're prey, delicious prey. we've been stuck here for awhile, and now we found you today, you'll be a great snack, so please, Why don't you settle down, enjoy, our meal." The voice cooed. "And why should I?" Eryll asked, he wasn't ready to become lunch for a bunch of snakes. "Because, my friends and I are very hungry." The voice said. There was a flash of light for a moment, then, all of the snakes grew into their large red forms, with the two sets of fangs. Eryll swore, He couldn't exactly let himself get killed today. Eryll had gained some move vision now. He had to prepare himself for getting out of this. And now he didn't have to feel bad for beating up snakes. Eryll kicked the one closest to him in the head. The others started moving quickly, preparing to get close to Eryll. Eryll grabbed the one he had kicked in the head and used it as a whip to hit the other snakes back with. Eryll decided that this was the best time as ever to cast a spell. He knew of a spell that would help him get whoever was casting these stupid snake spells, but he would have to know the location of the wizard.

Eryll had out his hand. A small, blue magic circle appeared just above his palm, which was facing up. Eryll's pupils began to glow silver. He loved that aspect of his magic, that little aesthetic extra. A ball of water 4 inches in diameter began to spin just above Eryll's palm. Eryll pointed it at a group of oncoming snakes. The ball picked up speed momentarily before it spat out and connected with a few of the snakes. The snakes flew backwards. This wizards spell clearly followed the idea of quantity over quality. Eryll climbed up the side of the cave. His arms screamed in protest, because he just had to work out before he was kidnapped by a psycho with snakes. When Eryll was finally out of reach of the snakes he began to look around the cavern to see if there was some weirdo with a snake. "Who on earth is there?" Eryll called out again. For a moment there was no response. Eryll was about to give up when a small little light lit up and a voice echoed throughout the chamber. "I am." The voice spoke. Eryll smiled. He balanced himself on the outcropping he was on and prepared to cast his next spell. Whoever was there, was within 15 meters. Eryll angled his palm just a little bit above the area from which the weak light had originated from moments ago. A blue magic circle, 1 meter wide, appeared above Eryll. A stream of water shot out from the top, it was about 3 feet in diameter. The stream traveled in arc before crashing down onto the origin of the light with B-rank magical damage. "Take that, whatever you are." Eryll said. The snakes shivered for a moment. Then they all dissipated into dust. Eryll, now very confused, jumped from his outcrop and landed on the floor, sending snake ashes everywhere. Eryll had a momentary sneezing fit before he began making his way through the disintegrated bodies of dead snakes towards the origin of the light. When Eryll got there he found that there had been an obelisk of some kind, but Eryll's spell had smashed it. "So you were what was somehow creating and controlling the shape shifting demon snakes. Eryll leaned down and picked up a piece of what remained of the obelisk. There were runes of some kind, they weren't elven, or  human. They looked like they had been scratched in there, the workmanship was shotty, this had been done quickly. Eryll took a piece of the obelisk. Eryll looked up. He could climb up this wall, or he could just walk up it. Eryll smiled.

Eryll would snap his fingers. His pupils would glow silver and a blue magic circle would appear underneath his feet for a few moments before leaving. Water gathered around Eryll's feet. Eryll stepped onto the wall. Walking on a wall was the weirdest thing. Especially with magic. You didn't feel like you were being dragged back down, your body supported itself, it was like walking on a whole new plane. As Eryll got farther up the wall he could see a small tunnel that looked like it went up and out. Maybe that was how the snakes got him in here. They pushed him down a tunnel and let him fall from the ceiling. "Fucking snakes." Eryll cursed. He liked nature, but he would have a hard time recovering from his experience with the talking obelisk and its accomplices, the shape shifting demon snakes.

The tunnel was a tight fit, but once inside, Eryll deactivated his wall walking spell and began to climb up through the windy tunnel. As he crawled, Eryll thought of how he would explain the story of being kidnapped by demon snakes and a obelisk. Eryll pushed it out of his mind. He still had more spells to use, so he might as well focus on getting out of this musty snake pit and back into the real world so he could train some more and continue on with his life.

Once he got outside of the pit he stretched and cracked his back. It was nice to be out of the cave, which Eryll assumed he had only been in shortly. Because the sun hadn't moved yet, which was a good sign. Eryll looked around, now he had to go find someone in need of being helped, because he wanted to practice some of his buff spells. There weren't a lot of people round. Eryll closed his eyes. He focused for a moment, he wondered if his legs were ready for another round of running. He found it kind of funny that after being kidnapped, he was returning to running and training, this is what he called determination. Eryll cracked his knuckles and prepared to get ready his n ext bout of running. His legs would really want to kill him after this. Eryll could not belive that he was convincing himself to do this work out again.

Eryll began to run, looking for any possible living human that may be in the area. If he couldn't find any of those he could probably look for animals fighting and give the one that was failing a little extra boost to help it survive longer.

1134+2275=3409/5400

spells used (750/900):

Eryll continued to run for some time. He finally stopped when his legs gave up and he actually collapsed on the ground. Maybe Guild Master Shahbaraz's tests were actually good for something, other than to torture the people in his guild. Eryll cracked his knuckles, he needed to rest for a moment, let his legs recuperate from running, escaping a snake infested cavern then running again. Eryll leaned back against the rock. He wasn't going to go to sleep this time, he wouldn't let snakes kidnap him again. Eryll placed his hands on his back, then he arched his back. His spine cracked all the way up. Eryll laughed, that was a good one. He typically did not get full back cracks.

As Eryll sat, letting his legs rest, he spent time thinking over his spells. He had cast the two offensive spells, eclipse and crater. Then early, he had cast his supplementary spell, murus deambulatio, which allowed him to walk on walls, that was how he had manged to escape. Eryll also had a few, weaker supporting spells that would make people stronger and more durable. The only other stronger supporting buff spell he had, he just hadn't used it yet. It was a much stronger supporting spell then the others he had learned at the moment. So if he found someone who needed his help he would use it on them, that would hopefully give Eryll and idea just how strong it was.

Finally, Eryll's legs felt better. Eryll pushed himself up. If his legs could groan, they did, "I guess no running then." Eryll said to himself. He couldn't say why he had said that out loud, but it just felt like the right thing to do at the moment. Eryll closed his eyes, letting the wind blow in his hair for a moment. After taking too long of a break, Eryll made his way to start training again. If he couldn't find an animal to help, then he would just have to make a substitute.  

Eryll set to work making a rock structure that looked kind of like an snowman made out of dirt, a dirtman per say. Eryll had the dirt man made up all nice. Now was the time to try something out. Eryll held up his hand. A Blue magic circle appeared underneath him. Eryll's pupils turned to the familiar silver that they became when he casted a spell . A thin sheet of water appeared in front of his hand. 6 inches long and 6 inches wide. The sheet then moved from Eryll's hand to the dirtman, where it expanded around it entirely, then seeped into its surface. If Eryll's spell worked properly, as it should have, he should have given the dirtman a D-rank constitution buff. Eryll wasn't sure if buff magic would work on non-living things, but for his sake, he hope it did. Eryll then walked to the dirt man. Pulling his fist back, Eryll prepared to punch. Then, on release, Eryll let his fist slam back into dirt man, who went falling backwards, his mid boulder shattered. Eryll sighed, it didn't seemed to have worked that well, which meant Eryll would have to find two fighting organisms to apply his buff to if he wanted to see it in action. It was still good that he had gotten to use one of his other support spells.

Eryll, now able to walk at a normal pace, began to search around the wilderness. He was looking for something that was fighting, a wild boar and a predator maybe? A fly and frog? Eryll let out a little laugh at that last one. He was not going to find a Frog and a fly here. Eryll continued on his search for any organism that was in the middle of a fight. At first, Eryll thought he had a shot when he saw a mountain lion stalking a deer. But before Eryll could apply the buff to the clearly doomed deer, the mountain lion pounced and started to consume the deer. Eryll sighed and continued on with his search. After a while, his legs finally began to get better. They weren't running grade yet, but they were close.

Finally, Eryll finally found two organisms that were fighting. A wild boar and another wild boar. Eryll assumed they must have been fighting food or a mate, but Eryll saw no other boar around. So Eryll was ready to cast his spell on the one who was clearly losing. It was a tiny bit of a violation of the laws of natural selection, but Eryll wanted to know how well this buff worked. Eryll snapped his fingers. His pupils began to glow silver for at least the 4th time today. A blue magic circle appeared under Eryll. A small teardrop appeared in between Eryll's fingers. Eryll then pointed the teardrop towards the losing Boar. On contact, a small little black, half circle tattoo appeared on the hind leg of the animal. Just then, the other boar smashed its head into the other boar. The boar stumbled around for a moment before reorienting itself. The boar that was now losing slammed back into its opponent. Eryll watched the battle go on for a few more moments. The boar Eryll had helped won the fight. The other one limped off in defeat. Eryll assumed this must have been a territory dispute. Eryll snapped left the range and the spell ended. Now that his body felt up to a little more exercising he decided that that was the next, and final step to his training that day. It had been a somewhat interesting time so far today.

Eryll paused for a moment, breathing in the pure scent of nature. He would leave soon, ready to go, Eryll closed his eys, delving deep into the scent of nature. He would be ready to go in a moment. For a moment he would pause and just take in nature at its finest.

1002+3409= 4411/5400

spells used (625/900):

Eryll opened his eyes and burst back into his run. His breaths were steady and slow. This was the third time today that he had gone to run. Except when he finished this today, he would take a nap. A nap sounded curiously good. Eryll closed his eyes while he was running. He immediately snapped them back open. Running with your eyes closed was a good way to plummet off a cliff. The path was beautiful and sandy. Eryll was almost lost in the setting sun. Soon the moon would rise into the sky. Eryll enjoyed the moon quite a lot, it was the center of his magic after all. Eryll aimed to finish his run where he found the first shape shifting, demon snake. In the underbrush. Eryll ran back up the hill back to where he had poked the bush with a stick. Eryll stopped and took a little breather. Eryll fell back to the ground once more and started to do some more push ups. The continual up and down felt good. It was a rhythm. Eryll pushed himself to his arms screamed and almost collapsed like his legs did after he ran that second time. Deciding to let his arms survive into the night, Eryll switched into doing more curl ups. He did these until his stomach told him that it would kill him and itself. Eryll finally stopped all of his training and relaxed against the boulder that sat behind him. He was exhausted. Today had been a long day. He had gotten kidnapped. He had some random piece of a destroyed obelisk. He had realized that his parents had kind of hated each other all along. But, in the long run of today, he had succeeded in training some of the spells that he had meant to. As well as strengthening his own spells.

Eryll pulled the little piece of the obelisk that he had kept out of his bag. He ran his fingers over it gently, the little runes were scratchy and felt messy. Not as cleans as the ones you would find in an elven or human shrine. It wasn't dwarven runes or workmanship. A dwarf working this poorly with stone would likely be very upset with themselves. Eryll decided he would look up the runes in a library at another time. he could even ask Kerii if he felt the need to.  She might know something, maybe get him a little bit closer to whoever or whatever controlled the shape shifting demon snakes. Eryll slipped the little slab of obelisk into his bag then slid down from where he had been perched. He began to run again, this time back towards his dorm room, he might as well take a  nap. He felt exhausted and it felt like the next reasonable thing to do.

Eryll's run home felt nice. The cold wind blew on his face. His hair was being brushed back from his face. Eryll made the unconscious choice to close his eyes once again. Eryll didn't snap them open again in time. This time he actually tripped. Eryll stood up, checking to make sure the tiny piece of obelisk hadn't been harmed, which it had everything was safe and sound.  Eryll tied it to his back this time, he didn't want to fall wrong and break the obelisk. When Eryll looked back up there was another shape shifting demon snake. "Fuck me." Eryll whispered. The snake hissed. But this time it didn't transform. Instead it spoke. "Eryll Wyrm. I come as a warning from the masters. Be careful." It hissed. Before it let a worse that Eryll did not like at all. It sounded like a human trying to scream, but it could only come out as a scream. The snake turned to ash and was blown away by the wind. Eryll had no idea what someone had dragged him into. He for sure hadn't kidnapped himself so there was no way in hell this was his fault. If there reasoning was the obelisk in his bag. That was their own damn fault, they kidnapped him. And In Eryll's mind. His reaction was completely allowed. He was allowed to destroy their demon snake controller and then take part of it to figure out what it was. Eryll shook his head and broke back into a run.

His mind felt cloudy for the rest of the night, he had a hard time getting ready for bed. His mind was just far away from his body. Everything felt kind of weird. He had absolutely no idea what had happened to him tonight. He was the most confused out of everyone it felt. He never knew of anyone else who had had a run in with shape shifting demon snakes. Part of him hoped it had been a coincidence, a one time thing. But no, the snakes had to be part of a bigger picture. Eryll finished getting ready for bed and climbed into his own bed. His body was already protesting enough, he had no Idea how much it was going to protest tomorrow after a vigorous session of training in which his legs gave out on him and his arms almost did. Part of Eryll had enjoyed his day, the other part wanted to take it back, not go into the woods today, not meet a demon snake, not get kidnapped.

As Eryll slipped off to sleep he heard the hisses of snakes in his head. At first he thought they were in his room and he had hurriedly turned on all the lights and checked every crevice. But now he knew they were just a sort of after image, just in his mind. Eryll's sleep would be restful, but his dreams would not be, they would torture him just as much. When he would wake in the morning, his heart would be in stomach and he would feel disoriented, not to mention a ludicrous amount of pain. But for now he slept.

1003+ 4411= 5414/5400

spells used (625/900):