Chương 11: Learning to See

It took Chadwick a month to finish the first table. With many fishing breaks, each time the frustration, or a fresh headache, forced him to stop. With his eyes finally starting to be under control, Vander gave Chadwick several different tasks he was to complete as breaks before he would start the next table. The first was to start practicing on adjusting muscles on live fish. He had to give them at least twice the endurance, twitch reflexes and strength as they had now.

Each muscle adjustment on its own was reasonably tricky, but to get all three done at the same time was a task that left him mercy killing hundreds of fish, when he got it dreadfully wrong. Some of the fish had their muscles start to dissolve away, some started to spasm uncontrollably and in one alarming case the muscle swelled to 5 times its normal size.

"I still consider it a waste that you kill them as soon as something goes wrong boy. You could try and correct the mistake," commented Vander one day from his usual spot by the campfire.

"Perhaps if it's minor corrections. But I don't want to be causing unnecessary pain. Even if the fish aren't technically real. I'll still know," Chadwick responded. The two had this discussion every so often. Vander nodded at Chadwick's latest rebuttal, "a surprisingly wise statement. I'll drop it. In fact, I might even agree with you now. It's not like there is any rush on time either way. I just detest inefficiencies."

The second task was the promised books of enchanting information and a few extra useful ones he thought would be good. Vander even saw the books Elvera had assigned to him in her messages from the war. He seemed to thoroughly approve of the choices Elvera had made and added those to Chadwick's growing reading list. He also wanted him to continue his study of Sal's book of rune symbols. There was quite a library building up around the rustic campsite. Thankfully it never rained in Vander's memories.

After completing the second table, Chadwick was given a new task to give him longer breaks before attempting the third. He had to learn every single edible, medicinal or poisonous plant by sight. Learn to make traps (something he already had a reasonable grasp at, though his experience was in catching small game, not creating traps that would likely kill a deer). He also had to learn how to disguise himself in the wilderness.

He wouldn't pass that particular course in wilderness survival until he could make a poisoned trap that Vander himself couldn't avoid while searching for a hidden Chadwick. Chadwick had scribed copies of enough books to understand that Vander was trying to give him a complete crash course in wilderness survival. He never asked why though as he was perfectly happy for the breaks and loved the outdoors. He hadn't realized how much he missed it after being cooped up in the tower.

For his new task, he was allowed to use most of the surrounding forest which seemed to have a huge variety of plants and small animals. Vander assured him no forest would normally have all of these different plants and animals in one place, but he never knew where he might end up. So, better to be prepared by experiencing everything he could. One of the perks of Vander having control over the memories contained in the book.

There were certain places Chadwick wasn't allowed to go, but Vander assured him he would get to see them eventually. When he was ready for something harder. Chadwick was certainly in no hurry to get something harder, because he was finding himself increasingly infuriated with the myriad of plants that existed in the forest and was sick of untangling himself from thorny vines that seemed to think he was food. His first encounter with them had resulted in him having to cut hundreds of the plants apart to get free.

The vines he hated the most tended to have harmless looking little green creepers that were hiding in the leaves on the forest floor. Stepping on one would cause the viciously thorny vines to drop out of the trees above and blanket the whole area in an impassable barrier. Usually with Chadwick squished underneath it, getting stabbed by a pile of the thorns. An animal that got caught in one of these and panicked would not last long. At least they weren't poisonous like the flowers that launched little darts.

Telling him how to treat the poison was the only warning Chadwick had gotten from Vander before being told to discover every plant he could and then use the heavy book he had to lug around to identify them. It took weeks before he was comfortable with the dangers of the forest and was able to create traps that would actually catch something. His first attempts at traps were in the wrong place, somewhere the animals would avoid because of the plants, or some clue had given him away and they would step around.

Or the trap was aimed at the wrong size of animal. Something that would catch the little squirrels would get trampled by deer because he picked his location poorly. Once he started to correctly use the environment around him to plan his traps and even use it to his advantage for camouflage. He started to get to a point that he was pretty happy with his woodcraft skills. Nevertheless, it took almost six months before he finally caught Vander in a trap.

It had only been a few seconds since Chadwick opened the book and the Chief Mage was already tapping his foot impatiently.

"The boy should be done by now, see if he's awake and just struggling to adjust or something," said the Chief Mage to Sal. Sal looked dubious but he stepped up close to Chadwick and waved his hand slowly in front of his face. Then snapped his fingers next to Chadwick's ear.

"I think he's still going, Chief Mage," said Sal, giving the book Chadwick was holding a worried look, "did you see where he found that one by any chance?"

"It doesn't matter, even those who spend 2 months in their book are only out for a matter of a second or two," snapped the Chief Mage. Sal nodded, but his eyes never left Chadwick, "perhaps we should have timed him, Chief Mage. We know the ratio of time spent versus what passes here is almost minuscule, but it does exist. Perhaps it even changes for different books." The Chief Mage still just looked annoyed, but eventually conceded, "I suppose it's possible.

We have had almost nothing but elemental mages for quite a number of years. He might just have more to learn than them." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Chadwick was currently midway up a tree and was covered in leaves he had spent hours carefully affixing to his clothes. He was carefully watching through a gap in the small branches as Vander followed his false trail.

Now that he felt he was ready, the game was for Chadwick to head into the forest with a small head start. Vander would hunt him, wary for traps the whole way. Chadwick's role was to find some way to incapacitate Vander, or at least do something that would stop a regular man. This 'memory' version of Vander being rather hard to damage meant that Vander would have to be the judge of whether something would have killed him.

Catching him proved tricky because Vander was actively looking out for traps, and was very skilled at tracking Chadwick. Easily able to find Chadwick, even when he gone through creeks or across solid rocks. Chadwick was also forbidden from using magic during the challenge. Chadwick's body was almost unnaturally still and he had to force himself to sway a little like the branches around him.

After he applied what he learned on the fish muscles to himself, he found that he had the strength of a full-grown man and reflexes like a cat that was dodging snakes. It took a while to work up to this, but the results were amazing. The changes meant that he had no problem climbing up the tree he was currently in, or any other numerous ones in the forest. And he could sit for hours where he would have been trembling or fidgeting before.

He had done those changes to his muscles gradually, but he suspected he would have a hard time when he came back out of the book and none of what he had done here followed him. The shock of going from his current strength and endurance, to that of a regular boy, was bound to be hard to deal with. Vander had said that there was several other affinities that could do similar things to improve their bodies. Particularly the healing ones. But none could do it as well as a particle mage. And none could do their eyes.

That Vander appeared to be in excellent physical for his age shape made much more sense to him now. If he could do the same thing to his muscles, and presumably was even better at it than Chadwick, he could easily rival Bothe the lumberjack for raw strength, while only having the physique of a professional messenger that ran all day. Chadwick even suspected the man was much older than he looked. He had only read things that hinted at it so far, but he was pretty sure the symptoms of aging could be altered.

Chadwick watched and held his breath as he saw Vander take the final step into his trap. Vander stepped on one of the green creepers that were hidden under the leaves. Chadwick's trail appeared to go straight through those leaves, but he had carefully dodged the little creepers that would set off the nasty vines hidden above in the tree tops. Vander snorted as the vines started to move. He jumped to the right and said, "you will have to do better than that boy."

But, as Vander landed six feet to the side, he spotted the dozen poison barb spitting flowers that he hadn't been able to see before. The flowers he hadn't seen at all, until it was too late. Six little puffing noises sounded and Vander actually started to laugh before saying, "not bad boy. Six of those would bring down a horse. And I still don't see you. I couldn't even retaliate before the poison would get me. Assuming I was a normal human that is. Pass."

Chadwick swung out of the tree and landed behind Vander, clapping with excitement, "I finally got you!" Vander just grinned evilly, "you might think so boy, but that just means you are ready for the next task. And you might wish you were still enjoying this lovely forest very soon." Chadwick thoroughly agreed after the first day of his new task.

Chadwick spat out a mouthful of gravel, the last rock had come flying at his face and he only managed to break it up into small enough bits that he wouldn't get any broken bones when it hit him. It didn't stop him getting a facefull of gravel.

"So, tell me boy, can you see the rocks?" Asked Vander who was casually sitting on a log next to the fire and thumbing through a book.

"You finished the third table, surely you can see a simple rock." Chadwick groaned, but didn't look away from the three pillars that had been firing rocks at him. He had heard Vander say this so many times he was getting an overwhelming urge start throwing things.

"I really could use some better instruction here," said Chadwick, still trying to dislodge a particularly stubborn rock that was under his tongue.

"I've given you everything you need boy, it's up to you to see the solution," said Vander infuriatingly calmly as Chadwick got smacked with another rock he wasn't quick enough to smash apart. Chadwick sighed, he had been at this for almost two weeks and had tried everything he could think of. Though this was the first time Vander had actually said something different.

After the initial instructions that he wasn't allowed to move and simply had to destroy the rocks before they reached him, Vander's only hint was, "you can see the rocks boy, just destroy them." Another rock flew out and Chadwick split it into as many small chunks as he could, so he just got peppered with a bunch of single lumps instead of one teeth-shattering brick. What was he not seeing? Why did Vander keep reiterating that? He decided to try something he hadn't been willing to before.

Instead of putting any effort into stopping the rock that was coming towards him, he sunk his vision down into the structure of the rock as far as he could go. He had a moment of panic as the rock flew towards him, but shoved it down and focused on smaller and smaller elements inside the rock. His new vision was getting a workout. What was he looking for that he hadn't seen? The rock got closer and closer, it was coming straight for his face. These were the ones he hated the most.

A few bruises on his legs was something he could handle. But getting gravel in his ears and eyes was getting tiresome. He ignored the desire to dive out of the way and focused harder. His eye started to twitch. The rock getting closer to his eyes seemed to even help his ability to view the underlying particles. A bare inch before it hit his face, Chadwick thought he found something deep within the structure of the rock. But then panic won and he spun his face to only receive a glancing blow.

Vander looked up with a frown, the rules forbid Chadwick dodging. Chadwick stepped out of the circle, which deactivated the rock-throwing device and then dusted himself off, "I saw something deeper. A crystalline geometric structure." Vander shook his head, now looking more amused, "It still makes my head insist something is wrong when I hear such large words come from such a young face. So, are you going to do something with your new discovery boy?" He gestured back to the circle.

Chadwick nodded, the rules were that if there was still daylight, and he could still stand, back into the circle. But this time he felt far less reluctant. It still took three more almost-direct hits from fist-sized stones before he realized what he needed to do. The last stone just turned into nearly invisible dust right in front of his face. The dozen stones after that didn't even make it halfway to him.

Chadwick went from his alert crouch to just a relaxed stance as he disassembled stones from their very structure. The crystalline matrix inside them was just detaching and no longer holding together. Pulled apart by a tiny application of power.

"About time boy," said Vander, standing with a smile. He approached and held out a book.

"Sit and read while you continue destroying the stones. This needs to become second nature. Then we move onto harder materials."