57 Water

After meeting up with Oars, Oars had stood with his arms crossed then let out a sigh. "You magic users are not within my area of knowledge but I have dealt with a couple of less powerful spell casters. How about this? I can help with the part of keeping you busy but I will introduce you to someone.

If your spell is as you described then you need to have someone cast a spell for you. Ahem… be sure to lend them some of your talismans to prevent any injuries during training."

Mallory sat and waited for him to return then an old man appeared by the side of Oars.

Oars started to speak up again. "I am sure you may have met him during your magic studies. This is one of our older spell casters and I will be assisting him."

The old man nodded towards Mallory. "So it is the studious little girl. She has learned a spell already within such a short time. Impressive. You can just call me old Smith, I specialise in water based spells. Oars asked for my help and I thought I would suit this kind of training best for you."

He observed the surroundings and continued. "Fire magic or others are far too destructive so I thought that my magic would be more suitable for this kind of environment and training."

There were many spells that the caster could lose control over or the element that it belonged to could create additional effects to the surroundings.

Fire magic was one of them that could have disastrous effects even if a small flame was summoned and not correctly controlled.

The volatility or difficulty to control those elemental magic spell would not be a good thing to use during the training of Mallory.

A missed spell or a reflected spell could cause a lot of damage to the training grounds or spread further around the familia home.

A lot of the spell casters in the familia had a certain limit to how much they had levelled but that did not stop them from studying, experimenting and using their practice to increase their magic stat.

With the amount of books that were on the shelves all around the Seshat familia, it would be a waste if they were not put to use in some way.

The status only helped to aid those that had been heavily invested in their pursuit of magic.

Not everyone in the familia chose to pursue magic and not everyone may have had the talent to pursue it.

Others chose to use the other books to learn in different areas which led to many of the familia being known as scholars, businessmen, accountants and advisors but it was very rare if any of them had levelled up.

Only the combatants or spell casters that were more active in the familia or the city had been able to achieve level two while Oars was the sole level three.

Among the level two familia members, old Smith was among them and specialised in water based spells that filled two of his spell slots.

He was the weakest level two among the familia but could provide spell support from further away to aid in the defence of the city.

Oars knew him well and had played a big role during his younger years to keep the old man away from harms way.

Not every person was willing to use such masochistic or life threatening training methods to increase their own power like Mallory had been putting her party through so there were many among status holders that casually raised their stats or did not raise them at all.

Some mages would train their endurance, dexterity and agility along with learning concurrent chanting while others would rely on those around them to provide them enough time to complete the chant of their spell.

From what Mallory had come to know about the Familia, there were more than five level twos but not every one of them were in the city.

There was not that great of a diversity of races within the city or within the familia but there were some different races that had settled down in the city or found a place to work.

Due to Goddess Seshat liking cats a lot, she took in many cat people so there were some that had more potential for combat.

Not every single one of them ended up becoming a combatant and had instead chosen to become invested in learning like most others in the familia.

A familia was a place where everyone could gather and be influenced by their familia or gods.

Certain familia were warm places people could call home, others found the surroundings to be toxic and others did not fully integrate with the others in the familia.

The Seshat Familia was a place of learning where there was less restrictions and it was where many could find a good book to read to soothe them or to provide them with a solution to their problems.

There were more dangerous or forbidden books that were kept away from the eyes of the lower ranking familia or those that had less trust placed in them to avoid dangerous things from leaking out or being used but most of everything else was less restricted.

Goddess Seshat was very easygoing and kept to her role as a librarian and the keeper of the books, she was not that controlling of those within her familia and let them decide on their own path once they had gained enough from the books she provided.

The most she did was give some suggestions or guidance to those in the familia so that they could find what they needed or were looking for.

Each person that came along was just like a fresh new story that was just beginning and she did not wish to influence their whole story too much besides giving them the right knowledge that would aid them in enriching their story.

Once the training grounds had Mallory standing at one side and two others on the opposite side, the old man started mumbling to himself in a low voice and Oars ran towards Mallory with a training staff in his hand.

It was very clear that he was not going to hold back and intended to keep her busy.

The agile body leapt to the side to avoid the swing of training staff. "Form.. Form a screen of shining light."

The staff swung around and brushed past her head as she narrowly avoided it but it then turned back around and hit her after she finished the first part of the chant.

The hit she suffered had caused her to lose her place and concentration so she grit her teeth and had to begin again. "Form a.."

She was forced to dodged and was interrupted again then an orb of water formed in front of Old Smith. "Water Orb!"

Oars had more experience working with old Smith she he got out of the way in time to avoid the orb of water that flew towards Mallory.

It was the type of spell that could be used to create water but it could be fired towards others from a distance.

When it had reached Mallory, it hit her on target before the compressed water inside had exploded outward.

The force contained within it knocked her off her feet and she was left on the ground all wet.

The fur on her ears and tail along with her clothes and hair were all wet, the ears of Mallory had pointed downward a little to show that her mood was not that good.

Oars patted her shoulder. "Keep trying. Nobody gets it the first time."

As they were practicing, the interrogation was proceeding and there were some things that were easier to obtain than the rest.

A familia crest had been exposed on the back of the woman that had been captured while the others seemed to be unaffiliated with a familia or they were not officially accepted into the familia.