The people of this world called Druids Greenseers; they possessed the most powerful abilities a Druid could have, but also something Druids would not normally possess. They called it greensight.
Greensight was the ability to have prophetic dreams, which were called green dreams. Someone with greensight dreamed like anyone else, but green dreams were different, filled with symbolism, images, and metaphors that foretold future events.
The meaning behind a dream was not always obvious, but the dreamer would experience its fulfillment as events unfolded. These dreams were said to concern either the dreamer or someone else, but the dreamer could tell the difference.
Greenseers could also dream of their own deaths. Skinchangers were believed to possess this ability as well.
I had never had a dream like that, and I did not know whether I would have one again.
The reason I had stopped practicing my elemental magic was that I could not learn any new spells. I had thought I could turn the trembling ground into some sort of earthquake spell, but it had not worked.
Almost all my elemental magic could only reach thirty centimeters in diameter. Even my wind magic only worked at close range. It now had decent knockback, and I thought it could even cause minor bone fractures.
My fire magic had become lethal as well; it could now cause a small explosion on contact with a target.
The earth balls and ice balls could only reach twenty centimeters. They would not grow any larger, so I gave up on them for the time being and began focusing on familiar spells, swordsmanship, and archery.
I could use chantless magic just as I had in the lord's solar, but only for things like blowing wind, making the ground tremble slightly, and enlarging flames. I called these minor magic; I could not cast real magic without chanting.
The contracts with my familiars gave me some buffs, which sparked an idea.
Could I create buff spells? So I spent a month creating two buff spells.
I called them Aspect of the Cat and Aspect of the Bear. Basically, they were speed and strength buffs.
They did not give me much of a boost, but it was a start. They could only increase strength and speed by about 0.3 points each.
It had been almost a year and a half since I had started practicing magic. Being able to create these buff spells but unable to use more advanced, more powerful magic made me realize a few things.
Magic had three aspects:
The first aspect was mana; without it, you could do nothing. A spellcaster was no different from an ordinary person; it was the fuel for every spell.
The second aspect was control. This was the ability to control mana and keep it within the body. This was what people called magical talent.
The final aspect was intent. It might seem the same as control, but it was not. I could move my mana around inside my body, or I could say a magic incantation, but if I did not want the magic to activate, it would not.
If a spell were a car, the gasoline in its tank would be mana, the road it traveled would be control, and the driver would be intent.
Without these three things, a car could not travel smoothly from point A to point B without any damage, and these three aspects also came from different places. Mana came from nature, control came from the body, and intent came from the soul.
If you thought about it carefully, it was easy to deduce why I could not use more advanced spells.
There were two possibilities: either my control was insufficient or my mana was, and I believed it was the latter.
I thought that once I had enough mana, I would be able to use second-level spells. My connections with Bo and Erebus grew stronger with each passing day.
I could now communicate with them; it was less like a real conversation and more like sharing sensations and sight.
This was far more advanced than talking to the animals I controlled.
As my mana increased, I discovered that my soul space was growing too. Previously, my connections with Bo and Er Erebus had occupied eighty percent of my soul space, but now they only took up around seventy-eight percent. I could not feel any difference, but the Identification Skill could.
My strength and speed had also improved a little. I now had 1.6 points of strength, 1.7 points of speed, and 33 points of mana.
After my punishment ended, I continued to devote the most training to my mana. Each day was much the same.
Three hours of mana training in the space, one hour of physical training, two hours of sword training, and five hours of rest so I could replenish my mana, followed by another three hours of mana training in the space. Then I would spend an hour at the archery range and, finally, two hours in the library reading everything I could find.
But when Robb and Jon came to me pouting because I no longer played with them, I had to play with them; every other day, I skipped physical training and played with the children of House Stark.
I did not sleep for eight hours at night, since I slept or meditated during the day. I would sleep for only five hours before waking up.
Now that I had two loud alarm clocks, I could get up whenever I wanted. All I had to do was buy a timing candle and light it before going to sleep, and Bo and Erebus would wake me when it burned down. I decided to train like this as much as possible, giving myself no chance to slack off.
Sometimes Rodrik would come to me because I was not practicing swordsmanship as much as he wanted, but I always gave him the same excuse.
I would say I did not want the same thing to happen again, and that I did not want to spar with the other squires before becoming a squire myself.
So I only trained and sparred with the recruits, but even the most talented recruits were no challenge for me unless they were over eleven.
I could now spar with four to six recruits at once, and I felt that some recruits were stronger than most of the squires. That was the advantage of nobility.
It had been a full two years since I had started focusing on my training, and I was now eight and a half. It had been an exhausting year, but I had gained a lot. I had made a little progress in the arcane arts, but great progress in swordsmanship and my studies. I had not made much progress with spells. I still could not use second-level spells, but I had made some progress.
I now had 45 points of mana, and I was more sensitive to mana. I could also sense the sources of mana around me.
Previously, I could sense the heart tree's mana, but I could only guess at its source rather than sense its core. Now I could sense the deep, ancient magic bound to the redwood.
I still could not comprehend the depths of this magic, but I could sense some aspects of it. For example, it contained the elements of earth, fire, water, and blood.
Blood was not an element, but it occupied an element's place in this ritual. I could feel the life and resentment within it. I thought this was what a blood sacrifice felt like. An unwilling living being had been sacrificed for this ritual; a human, and not just any human, but an enemy. That was all I could sense for now.
As for my familiars, they had begun to grow quite large. Erebus was now at least twenty percent larger than any other raven, while Bo was slightly smaller than him. My soul space had also grown through constant training, and I thought I would be able to obtain a third contract in a few more weeks.
As for my martial training, I wanted to learn how to use other weapons so I could predict what my enemies would do with them, so I also began training with a spear and a hammer.
At first, fighting with a spear was really difficult to get used to because it was the complete opposite of sword fighting. With a sword, you wanted to close the distance, but with a spear, you had to maintain your distance, or you would be left with a stick rather than a spear.
Over time, I gradually grew accustomed to fighting with a spear and began to see its advantages in combat.
Then I began using a hammer as well. It was the most difficult weapon to use. Not because it was particularly technical or anything like that. It was difficult because of its weight and slow speed, but it was deadly.
As for my archery, I had become very deadly. I still could not draw a longbow, but I could easily draw a short hunting bow. So I did not have an adult's range.
A longbowman could shoot an arrow roughly three times my best distance.
I could shoot a hundred meters, but I was not accurate at all. I was only accurate at eighty meters, and deadly at sixty. If I wanted to shoot while running, that distance dropped to forty meters.
I was learning how to use many weapons, and I would learn more, but I still liked the sword because it was almost the perfect melee weapon. It was not as cumbersome as a hammer, as difficult to use in tight spaces as a spear, or as short-ranged as a dagger. It was simply perfect.
Because I had made so much progress in my martial training, Rodrik finally accepted me as his squire, but I was different from the other squires.
I did not have to do a squire's chores, only accompany him on assignments. I put my hands on my hips, lifted my head, and said to myself, "It's so hard being this talented." I really liked my skills. I left my room and went to the squires' training ground.
When I arrived, I saw many squires there, practicing their stances or sparring.
I even saw my old friends Hallis and Wyl there. They watched me from a distance, tracking me with their eyes, but they did not dare approach because they knew better than to test me.
Now I was a squire. As long as it was in the name of sparring or training, I could beat them mercilessly without being punished. We had our old friend Eddard to thank for that.
In fact, I had just beaten a thirteen-year-old yesterday, which might also have had something to do with it.
Today I would spar with a fifteen-year-old boy. Rodrik wanted to take me down a peg. He thought I had become too arrogant and conceited. Over the past few weeks, he had only let me spar with boys who would definitely beat me. The boy I would fight today was named Waylan Flint.
He was the older brother of Weyl Flint, the one whose pride and balls had been hurt. I did not much like the way big brother Flint was watching me from the sidelines.
More than two years had passed. Why were they still holding a grudge? It was not as though little Wyl had suffered permanent damage; he had recovered a year ago. We took our positions in the center of the sparring ground; the people around us began stopping what they were doing to watch the match. I took my stance and waited for his attack.
He began circling me, but he only feinted, looking for gaps in my defense. Either he had watched me fight or someone had given him a lot of information, because he began targeting my greatest weakness against older boys. That was my lack of strength compared with theirs.