10 Chapter Ten- Mysterious Teacher
'Basic destruction staves, Alteration staves. Those look powerful.' I noted as I looked over three staves in the middle of all. Almost as if the rest were only put there to make these three shine further. The first on the right was a blood-red staff made of maple. Glowing yellow runes and a sharp crystal at the top marking it as an illusion stave.
[Mistress Of Hassildor-A master level Illusions staff crafted to be wielded by the strongest mage of the household. Effect: Able to store three master-level Illusion spells that can be cast once per day at no cost. Illusion spells are cast 50% faster. Boosts the user with plus five hundred Mana.]
'Hassildor... I swear I've heard of that before. Besides, this staff is insane. Not on 'The Staff of Magnus' level but still pretty powerful. Don't piss that lady off is my goal every time I come here now' I decided as I skipped the middle one and observed the obvious conjuration staff.
Probably the most simple-looking of the three staves, at least at first glance. Besides the insanity of it being made of pure gold. No runes could be seen on the outside but the inside of the gem was completely different. Locked inside seemed to be the very center of the typhoon, an eye of the storm. Lightning cracked silently, endlessly.
[Tornadus Thrall-A staff that can only be used by a master of Conjuration. Effect:Summon up to four Storm thralls. Mana used to conjure said thralls will fully return to the user upon the summons death. Adds six hundred to the user's mana pool.]
'I want!' I said in pure avarice as I thought of my chances of making it out of here with it. '-75%' I intoned with a depressed sigh as I moved on to the center staff.
'Now that is something different' I thought as I observed a beautiful staff that was on center display. Made of Ebony, marred with thousands of runes with a beautiful blue gem that was common on most restoration staffs.
[Protector Of The Circle- Blessed by the Divine to execute its will onto the world. Effect:???,???,???,???.]
'What the hell? Why does Aleron have this? Why the hell is it on display? Which divine has blessed it?' I thought as I debated just cutting my luck and making a run for it. The divines scare me more than any of the Daedra after all.
'Kind of like a shitty parent, they might be horrible but at least they care enough to be around and I know about them and what to expect. The mystery of the divines of the 'unknown' is something I'd rather not trifle with. Well besides Akatosh, he's cool'
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you young one….. She's picky about who touches her." Aleron said as he appeared behind me, changing from an aloof old man to giving me a rough stare as he noticed the amount of sweat and the slight shake I had.
"You know what this is?" He asked me in curiosity as he grabbed the staff off the wall and gave it a small twirl.
"No….. just that it's blessed by one of the gods. Is it cool if I just, you know" I said as I slowly backed towards the door.
"That's an odd reaction…. You aren't a Daedra worshiper by chance?" Alenor asked as his eyes didn't leave the staff in his hand for a moment.
"I'm like sixteen, why would I worship one... and uh just so you know, knight Bors sent me here." I said as I made sure he knew that someone important knew I was here.
"Oh, then why react like that? Most would see it as something holy. You're in no danger here, I'm merely curious." He said with what I could guess was an honest smile as he put the staff on its pedestal.
"I know about Daedra, I know nothing of the Divines besides Talos and Akatosh" I said honestly, slightly more relaxed that I wasn't dealing with a crazy zealot.
"Hmm, you're more intelligent than I was at your age. Now what did you need?" Alenor asked as he motioned me towards the table he just left. It seemed Viola didn't stay for the show as she was already gone.
'Seems like he wouldn't stop me if I just left...' Thus a debate began. Sadly my self-preservation lost the debate with my avarice and I sat at the table.
"So I finished that healing spell, was wondering what you were willing to teach?" I asked as he sat across from me.
"You came here at eight in the morning, you came back at five in the afternoon. In between that you managed to stop a bandit for Lucan. So you learned the spell in roughly four to seven hours" he asked me as he raised his hand over the table and two cups of coffee materialized.
"Yeah... Isn't that how spell tomes work? If you buy one you open it and learn the skill, the girl in my cohort can do it the same way." I replied as I took a sip of the heavenly concoction that I didn't think existed in this world.
Seeing that Aleron didn't believe me I raised my hand and it lit up with holy light, making the pain I didn't even realize I was under go away. Especially my stomach where Ryker kicked me ten feet.
"Well, that's interesting.... More on that later, tell me about yourself Cilus. Why do you seek knowledge?"
"Well as of right now it's mainly for survival, I've got to make it to Winterhold, then bunker down so I can consolidate what I learn and make a plan for my future in relative safety. Trying to get through Skyrim as of now is impossible at my current level." I answered completely honestly. He hummed in acknowledgment as nothing I said seemed to surprise him.
"Understandable. A few more questions then. How long will you be here and what's your preferred school of magic?" Alenor asked as he added a few sugar cubes to his coffee and a dash of milk.
"About a week, Bors said he needed somebody who had seen a dragon firsthand to inform Jarl Balgruuf of the new threat. He offered us all training so I was talked into participating or maybe my greed took over" I said honestly as the man coughed and spit out all his coffee at me. Thinking fast I barely dodged out of the way.
"Dragons?" Alenor asked to which I nodded. He proceeded to ask where I came from and he seemed slightly more worried that it was Helgen.
"And if I had to decide... I guess it would be conjuration. Summoning minions of evil gods is pretty awesome. But I'm more interested in spell creation than any of the schools themselves" I replied answering his second question.
"I assume you're keen on participating in this training with Bors?" Alenor asked as he finally took a sip from his coffee.
"Yes, he seems like a master swordsman. I'd like to learn the blade. At least to the point that I could practice and improve on my own"
"Alright then, you'll be coming here in the afternoon. Spend your morning on the sword. Granted you passed my test" Alenor countered already making plans.
"Thank you, I appreciate the chance to learn directly from a master" I said honestly as I slightly bowed my head.
"As you can tell I am a master of restoration so the first thing is we must at least get you on the apprentice level before I'll even acknowledge you as my student. Follow me" he said as he got up and began heading behind his counter.
Behind the counter was a lot like Lucan's shop, a pair of steps that led into his living area and what looked like a large storage room further back. We didn't take any of these paths as with a twirl of his hand he dispelled an Illusion. Part of the wooden floor turned into a widening staircase that went downwards.
"Awesome" I said as I noticed how far it spanned. At least two-hundred feet downwards the staircase continued in a mesmerizing way.
"Yeah, it's always impressive when you have two master mages with a load of time on their hands. It took Viola and me about Six years to complete this little bunker" He said with a smile as with another wave a row of torches lit it all the way to the bottom.
"Not even to mention I only own that little plot of land above us, but nobody owns under it?" Alenor said with a smile as we stopped halfway down the staircase and entered an empty room filled with targets and hundreds of enchantments along the walls.
'How many grand soul gems did it take to build this damn place? Why is he running a store if he's loaded like this?' I thought in disbelief as I looked around.
It seemed they used this room for training as it was about four thousand square feet in size.
"Well why don't we get started, Cilus" Alenor said as he took a seat on one of the chairs in the room.
"So uh... How am I going to train in restoration? I don't know any wards to block your spells" I asked in confusion.
"Hmmm, the easy way or the harder way with better rewards? Pick." He said offhandedly as he pulled out a book.
"The harder way," I said. I'm hundreds of years behind some of the horrors in this world. I have to catch up somehow.
Training Quest
The Gladiator Room I
Objective: Become an Apprentice Restoration Mage.
Bonus Objective:???
Rewards:1 Perk Point, 5 Stat Points, Amulet Of Mara.
"Hmmm, commendable. You can't leave this room until you are an apprentice Restoration mage. Every five minutes an enemy from oblivion will be summoned that is close to you in strength." As he said that a pulse of mana was released from him. The runes around us lit with a golden frenzy and I was just standing there with my mouth open in disbelief.
"You have one minute to prepare. I suggest you at least arm yourself" And like a spell was broken I opened my bag in a hurry and pulled out my steel sword, and my five minor health potions. Without wasting another moment I summoned my skeleton archer to position himself a few feet behind me.
While waiting for my mana to regenerate for another summon I readied my staff of Flames in my left hand while keeping my steel sword in my left.
'What would be close to me in strength? I know there are weaker fire Atronachs that could be close to me in level. That would destroy my preparation though, making my staff of Flames useless. At least the skeleton's arrows are soul arrows so they won't be burned to a crisp before they land.' I thanked Akatosh for that small mercy as I readied myself for the first enemy to appear.
"Those are officially banned. Wouldn't learn anything in restoration if you use a health potion" Alenor said as he broke my focus and telekinetically stole my potions from my belt. 'Oh, this old bastard...'
I didn't have a chance to tell him 'Fuck you' as a purple portal appeared about thirty feet away me. A three-foot-tall orange goblin monster walked out of the portal, armed with a small soul dagger and pants.
(Lvl 4) Scamp
'Oh.... I feel so disrespected right now.' I thought as I dodged a weak fireball and ordered my skeleton to fire only when I was out of the line of sight. I dashed in with my steel sword, he seemed just as happy in melee as he sent a swipe of his claws directly at me.
After an easy block I kicked it in the chest, as soon as we separated two arrows hit it in the torso, hoping to take advantage of its stunned state I ran in and decapitated it.
[LEVEL UP +1 Perk point, +5 stat points]
'What? Is it because I hit level five that I got a perk point'
"That was significantly better than I expected you to be.... My apologies, it will be three of them every three minutes." Alenor corrected as I hurriedly pulled up my perk tree. 'Of all the Skills I know, conjuration will be most useful right now, even out the numbers.' Finishing the thought I pulled up the available perks.
Conjuration Perks Available
Summoner's Cardio I-Novice level Conjuration spells cost half the mana.
'Damn nothing new…. But if I take it I could have two summons at all times without worrying about my small mana pool. Screw it, I'll get another one once I complete this quest' finishing the debate I choose the perk and released the summon under my control.
Like that, I was able to wait three minutes before three more portals appeared. At the same time, two portals opened on my side of the field, I smirked and held my sword at the ready to do some goblin slaying.
