Chương 187: Chapter 182 - Barrier Nonsense

Three days before the party, Alric was in the courtyard trying to hide his bored expression. The party had reached the pleasant stage where his name was behind it; it was now firmly everyone else's problem. Margaret, however, had remembered that he agreed to learn at least some defensive magic. He had expected the rest of the atelier. Instead, Margaret had arrived alone and dragged Alric to the covered section of the courtyard. Alric swallowed a sigh as Margaret wrapped up her lecture on barrier magic.

"Yes, but why are we doing this alone?" he asked, voicing the question that had been sulking in his mind.

"Because your mana comes in two amounts, ridiculous and absurd. No one would be able to do anything when you're moving so much mana around." Margaret explained with a shrug. Hard to argue with logic like that. Fine. Alric glanced across the courtyard; Brannick was adamantly talking to two women in adventurer's gear, both nodding, while the rest of the men lounged nearby, listening.

His thoughts turned to the other things he wanted to do: speak to Rosa, check on the distillery progress, make yeast for the bakery, but somehow, he'd agreed to learn not to get stabbed. Margaret clapped her hands; Alric turned back to her.

"Alright, so as I explained, barriers of this type only take mana control. You don't need to do complicated visualizations or chanting." She said, regarding Alric skeptically. He shrugged, "Alright, I learn best if you show me how it works first." Alric said, gesturing to the space in front of them. Margaret frowned but raised a hand.

"Mages learn barrier first, it is useful and reliable. Watch," Margaret said, watching his reaction before turning to the space in front of her. Alric watched as her mana came out in a thread; he couldn't see it so much as sense it. It widened like a puffy cloud shape in front of her before it began to gather inward. A blob of what looked like glass formed to Alric's real eyes and spread outward as the mana continued to gather around it. Alric approached it, his eyes wide.

It was about a meter wide, roughly circular. It looked like clear glass just floating in the air. Just as he was walking around it, Margaret let out a sigh.

"You are meant to be watching what I am doing with Mana." She said, studying him.

"I did," Alric said, looking around the disc.

"How does it not cast a shadow?" He pointed to the ground. Margaret looked down at the courtyard dirt, then back at Alric. Alric was moving one hand on each side, studying his own shadow while frowning.

"How can I see this?" Alric asked, frowning at the ground and the disc.

"With your eyes?" Margaret said, letting out a deep breath and tilting her head at Alric.

"No, Margaret. Light is going through it. Look." Alric waved his hands on both sides, as if hoping to catch the shadow in the act.

"How is there no shadow, no distortion, nothing?" Margaret was silent for a moment before she shrugged.

"It's mana." She said, looking at the shield herself.

"Doesn't explain it. Not if I can see it." Alric said, frowning at the shield. Margaret just shrugged. So it's not a lens. Apparently, magic just ignores physics whenever it's feeling whimsical.

"Can you make it smaller? Change the shape? Make it curved?" Alric asked, still frowning at it.

"Uh.. Yes, yes, and yes, but you should learn to make a normal one first?" Margaret said, studying him.

"Nothing about this is normal," Alric mumbled to himself. He leaned forward slightly and knocked on the shield with his knuckles. Solid. No ringing, no sound. Of course not. He put a palm against it and pushed. Margaret stepped back, and the shield moved with her.

"Wait, did I just push you with that?" Alric asked, lifting his hands away from it.

"You pushed my shield?" Margaret said, tilting her head downward and bringing her eyebrows together.

"But you moved?" Alric asked, tilting his head to the side; he pointed at her previous footprints. Margaret spread her feet out wider.

"Yes, we use the word tethered. Try again." Alric pushed on the shield; he watched Margaret's feet as he did so. Slowly, he felt it give ground, and Margaret's boots left furrows in the sand.

"I see, so it can't move on its own? Alric asked, to which Margaret shook her head.

"Could I stand on it?"

"I wouldn't be able to lift you with it, and no, I couldn't use it as a bridge for someone else unless I could lift them," Margaret said. She drew a deep breath.

"They are meant to take strikes from things like arrows, spears, swords, but if hit hard enough, it will break." She gestured with one hand toward the shield.

"I see, but something heavy?" Alric asked, following her gaze. He approached the shield and ran his hand along its edge. It was blunt, slightly rounded.

"Warriors with warhammers are there mostly to fight mages, if one hit the shield, I'd go flying." She gestured vaguely to the wall behind her. So, spears work because all the weight is on a tiny point. This thing spreads out the impact. Unless the impact is big enough, in which case, congratulations, you're airborne—"The use is narrow, but it's best at deflecting spells, arrows, spears, and swords, but if a warrior is that close to you—" Margaret said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Then you already have a problem. I get it," Alric said, nodding at the shield. Still, standing there and taking a hammer to the face seemed unwise. Maybe try angling it. Or running. Alric put one hand on the other side of the shield and blew; the air and cold passed straight through. He frowned again.

"Can you make one inside something?" Alric asked, glancing across at Margaret, who simply shook her head. Alric nodded while frowning.

"It's not perfect, Mister Alric, but it does beat being stabbed. If you done, it's time to try make one." She said, tilting her head, but she had a grin. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Fine, fine, fine. Can you show me again?" Alric asked, moving to view it from her point of view. Alric watched her make the shield multiple times.

"Alright, now release your mana, just a bit though." She said, gesturing to the space in front of Alric. Alric nodded; he lifted his hand slightly and released just a little mana.

"Less," Margaret said with a frown. Alric withdrew a bit.

"Less." He withdrew some more.

"Less." Alric withdrew a bit more and gave her a frown.

"I lose more than this when I sneeze." He said, his gaze passing from where his mana sense told him his mana was and Margaret.

"I hope not, now spread it into a circle." She said, pointing at it. Alric shrugged and did as he was told, taking the small amount and spreading it until it was about a meter wide.

"Alright, now squeeze it," Margaret said with a smile and nodding to what Alric considered a mana pizza. He began flattening it.

"You're making it flat. You need to squeeze it." Margaret said, her gaze flicking back and forth. There's a difference? Alric pushed hard, trying to remember the glass-like surface and pushing it into itself. The mana changed shape but did little else.

"You thinking too hard about it, just force it together," Margaret said, gesturing to it. She repeated forming the shield for Alric, pausing where he was and performing the next part slowly. He frowned at it, turning back to his own; he focused less on the shape and more on just willing the mana together. A faint, thin, clear patch appeared in front of him.

"Oh." He said, staring at it. He pushed more mana into it until it formed an oval, squiggly disc. Alric stared at it with a wide grin; it looked like a window made from melted ice. One side bulged outward, the bottom was thicker, and lumps dotted it everywhere. Alric checked, and it didn't cast a shadow. Margaret walked around it. Alric waited.

"It's technically a shield; you seem to learn best when doing so, so you should feel this," Margaret said, bracing. She pushed on the shield. The force came through immediately; he felt it pushing against his whole body. It didn't hurt, but it was obvious. Interesting.

"Again," Margaret said. Alric nodded; he found he could not recover the mana from it. He had to let it dissipate. The mana drifted away, no longer responsive. Alric watched it go. The second shield was easier. Still ugly, still lumpy, but at least it didn't look like it needed urgent medical attention.

"Can I make it curved now?" Alric asked as he dismissed his second shield.

"Not yet, just get it flat for now," Margaret said with a shrug. Alric tried again, curving the mana pizza just a bit. The shield promptly split down the middle. Margaret looked smug. Alric decided he hated that look and focused on keeping it flat. By the twelfth attempt, it was passable.

"Alright, to make it curved, you need to make the thickness the same across the shape. Watch." Margaret said, holding out a hand. She made the mana pizza, then bent it slightly before solidifying it. Alric nodded and tried; he got it on the fifth attempt.

"Alright, let's see if I can make this useful," Alric said with a quick grin to Margaret, who frowned. Using his mana, he shifted it into a bowl shape; the first broke, but the second held. The smile grew bigger; Margaret looked more suspicious. Alric dismissed that and made what he really wanted; he took the bowl shape, removed the bottom, and had it form.

"See?" Alric said with a grin and pointed to it.

"It's... a cone? With no bottom?" Margaret said, glancing from the shield to him with a raised brow.

"It's a funnel, so this area. You can pour liquids into this top part and it will—" Alric began, gesturing to it with a big grin.

"You just wanted this to move beer around?" Margaret said, tilting her head and her mouth hanging open.

"Yes, see this will be fantastic for moving liquids from barrels and—" Alric began. Margaret stared at the ground and slapped her forehead. Loudly.

"What?" Alric asked, his grin faltering under the weight of Margaret's despair. Margaret let out a loud sigh.

"This is meant to be defensive, to save your life?" Margaret said, her head tilted downward.

"Well, that's hardly my fault. It's useful. Wait—this thing can stop liquid, right?" Alric's eyes widened with the dawning of dangerous ideas.

"I don't know, you doing fine though. I'd say practice, but I suspect you will for—" Margaret began Thunk!

"Use it for all kinds of other things, so you'll get enough practice." She said with a sigh; she glanced over at Alric, who was looking for where the thunk sound came from. Her shoulders dropped further. Alric was looking at one of the women Brannick had recruited; he had met her once vaguely, he recalled, mostly because of the scar on her chin. She held a crossbow and looked across at a target. Alric followed her gaze, a little high and left of the target.

Alric glanced back to her; she was using a glove to pull the string back. What bothered Alric was not that, though; it was the men behind her. They were sniggering.

"We done?" Alric asked. Margaret shrugged, nodded, and waved him off toward the guards, possibly hoping he'd be their problem now. Alric grinned and headed that way; Molly fired again, this time hitting in the center; the men still sniggered, which caused Alric to frown. Molly began reloading again.

"Someone mind telling me what's funny?" Alric asked, earning wide-eyed glances from the group.

"Uh… It's nothing, Mister Alric. It's just—" One of the guards who was sniggering earlier began.

"It's cause my crossbow is on the small side," Molly said, hefting it upward, "Our boy over here likes big spears cause it's the only big part of 'im." She shrugged and gave him a bored expression. Alric, however, had slapped a hand across his mouth; a strange sound escaped him. Brannick had nearly the same reaction but bit his fist, and both their shoulders shook. Alric tried to breathe through his nose; Brannick made a wheezing sound that made the whole thing worse.

The nearby sniggering guards were in similar states. Molly held her crossbow up and grinned at all of them. Eventually, Alric managed to stand up straight, though he still couldn't look the insulted guard in the eye. He took a breath.

"Alright, so what's this about?" he asked, pointing at the group.

"It's the crossbow, Mister Alric. She's on the small side, cause I like to fire her more than once." Molly explained, patting the stock affectionately.

"Oh?" Alric asked. He gestured to the target with his chin. Molly took aim; the thump sounded again. This shot pulled further left, and Molly frowned. Molly put the front of the crossbow on the floor; she reached forward, grabbed the string with both hands, and pulled it back. She grunted with effort as she drew the string back. Got it hooked and lifted it again. Alric glanced at her hands; she wore fingerless gloves, and there were many small red lines on her fingers from where she pulled the string back.

"And, a bigger one?" Alric asked, looking at it.

"They hit much, much harder, Mister Alric, but they are hard to span." Brannick explained with a vague wave, "If people use heavy ones, they sometimes have an assistant to load them."

"Alright, let's get one. I'd like to see, get something decent, not ceremonial or such." Alric said, nodding. He glanced around at all the guards blinking at him. Brannick, however, seemed more used to Alric doing things on a whim and arranged it. Alric himself tried to load Molly's crossbow and barely managed. When the crossbow arrived, it was much larger than Molly's and much heavier. The stock was thick, darkened with oil, with reinforced metal pieces along many sections. It had no screws anywhere.

The front was what caught Alric's attention first. The curved parts were dark; Alric had expected steel. He tapped one with a fingernail.

"That's horn?" Alric asked, looking up at Brannick.

"Some, but sinew, glue, some wood," Molly answered, gesturing to her own smaller one.

"No steel?" Alric asked Molly directly. She shrugged and shook her head. Brannick answered, "Dwarves make them from steel, expensive though, hard for any of us to load." Brannick shrugged as he said it, regarding the crossbow skeptically.

"Show me how you load it?" Alric said, handing it to Molly. Molly simply grinned and handed it to Brannick, who sighed. The soldier who bought the crossbow handed Brannick a bundle of leather. The bundle of leather turned out to be a chest harness. Brannick put it on quickly. Finally, he put his foot through the metal brace at the front. He hooked the chest harness to the string and leaned back. Alric could see the veins in Brannick's neck popping as he pulled it back into place.

The string passed the small nut; Brannick used a hand on the stock to guide it, then leaned forward again. His face was puffy and red.

"That's awful," Alric said. Brannick nodded, Molly looked smug.

"Isn't there a better way?"

"You get these… things with ropes… they go on… the end… it's a mess… normally done… to load it… for someone else." Brannick explained, making a few gestures with his hands that Alric didn't understand.

"I see, may I?" Alric asked, reaching for it. Brannick stepped out of the front loop and handed it to him. Molly passed Alric a bolt; he inspected it briefly before putting it into the groove, being careful not to hold the trigger. Alric eventually lifted it, aimed, and noticed a new failure.

"Where's the sight?"