Triple Strength

62. Playing with Fire: Wiremu

The training grounds were outside the wooden palistrade that surrounded the camp and was basically a bare patch of ground with a couple of squads training.

Sergeant Henrik was a grizzled Dwarf and took one look at me limping toward him and then at the bandaged Lieutenant with her two guards and waved us toward the archery range and turned his back on us. Lieutenant started to head there and I stopped her.

“Hold up. What do you normally do to train?” I asked.

“For my Affinity I generally throw Firebolts at the archery targets.” she replied.

“Well that is useless.” I said. “Our first training session is going to be in the cookhouse.”

“You mean the mess? I don’t understand?” she said, puzzled.

“You have an Affinity with fire. I don’t see any fire here.” I stated.

“I make the fire.” she said.

“And that is your first mistake.” I said. “Did you get your Affinity by making fire?”

She shook her head, “I manipulated fire.”

“Exactly.” I said. “For you manipulating existing fire is easier than spending a shit ton of energy creating it. You ran out of energy in that fight. Therefore we need to find ways to reduce your energy cost. Manipulating an existing fire is one way to do that. Plus the mess is warmer and they have food and drink.”

She led the way to the mess and we got a drink and sat at a table. I got a candle so it would look like we were doing something. “First up, I need to know about your existing Classes and Skills. This is both Skills with your Affinity and those without as we need to find a synergy between them.”

She was hesitant at first, but then started, “the first Class I got was Cook. I had a rebellious period in my early teens and went and got a job in a kitchen, and got the Class Cook. Cook only gave three Attribute points a Level and all pre-assigned, but I didn’t care. I don’t think they minded either as almost any starter Class is OK. What I got a lot of flak for, is that I ‘wasted’ my first Perception Skill on Taster. Just before I had to join the Army I specialised Cook into Chef. After I joined the Army I was weak and useless, so they trained me until I got the Warrior Class. It took longer than other recruits but they wanted me to get the Physical and Mental Strength bonuses and learn to fight. They insisted I take Darksight as my second Perception Skill. It is handy, but seriously I can just make light.” she demonstrated making a flame on her hand.

“The Army tries to fit everyone into the same mould.” I said. “You will need to know that mould and fit in, to some extent. But you also need to make your Skills your own. What Skills do you have? Start with the highest and work down.”

“Journeyman: Cooking.

“Apprentice: Herb Lore, Fire Manipulation, Identify, Small Blades, Regulate Temperature, Baker, Taster, Flaming Touch, Firebolt, Butcher, Plant Lore, Elemental Lore, Shield.

“Novice: Animal Lore, Darksight, Sense Spiritual, Spiritual Lore, Monster Lore, Sword.”

“Tell me about Fire Manipulation.”

“Novice is just that, manipulating and changing fire, but only at the source. Apprentice level I can move it from the source and keep it going the distance increases with the Level. Journeyman I will be able to increase the amount of fire at an increasing distance from the source. Master expands on all the above and I can pick up and keep a small flame going all the time at no cost.”

“Regulate Temperature?” I asked.

“Novice it is only my own body temperature. At Apprentice it is items around me. Flames are easiest but other things I touch as well. At Journeyman Level it will mean I can do it without touching at increasing distances. At Master I can take it to more extreme levels, possibly up to melting some metals.”

“Can you cool things as well?”

“Yes, It is the same cost.” she replied.

“Can you freeze this cup of water?” I asked. I did point to her cup of tea, not mine.

She looked like she hadn’t thought of that and touched the tea to try. It was a cold winter's day so freezing was not too far below room temperature. She got it to be very cold, but not quite frozen.

“There seems to be a barrier or something stopping it from actually freezing.” She said.

“That’s good to know. It may change at Journeyman Level, it may not. Fire is normally for heating things up, so there may be a limit. It is good to know and test the limits. We will go to the Weapon Repairer next and see how hot you can make something. Flaming Touch. Is that what you showed me before with the flame on your hand?” I asked.

She nodded. “At Novice I could only set things alight that I touched. At Apprentice I can make flames bigger or smaller and on various parts of my body. At Journeyman Level it can extend to things I am touching.”

“Can you manipulate that flame with Fire Manipulation?” She shook her head. “What about with Regulate Temperature?”

“Hang on,” she said. She made a flame on her hand. I could feel the heat increase from where I sat and then reduce. She was grinning like she had a new toy.

“Great,'' I said, “That will be very useful for close-in defence. How much of your body can you do at once?”

She looked embarrassed, “All of it, but clothes don’t survive.”

I nodded. “Can you just do your hair?” She nodded so I said, “show me.”

She had shoulder length hair and leaned forward so it was falling forward and not touching her clothes and then it turned to flame.

I said, “Don’t stop, Make it hotter.” She did and the ground below her hair started to smoulder. “Ok, stop now. Make a flame with your hand again.” I pricked up a small piece of wood from the fire and put it in the flame. Nothing happened and she was about to say ‘I told you so’, when I said “Make it hotter. Keep going,” It was quite hot and then the wood started to smoke and then caught alight. She stopped her Flaming Touch and the wood kept burning and she used her Fire Manipulation on it.

I said, “You need to always carry some easily flammable material on you, whether it is straw or paper or something easy to light. You also need to practise quickly lighting them and manipulating the flame in your defence. You also need to invest in some flame proof clothing. At least shoulders and arms. Chainmail is a good easy start but there must be better options from Monster materials around. I assume you have good heat and flame resistances?” She nodded.

“We can experiment with Firebolt later, but making a smaller hotter bolt may not cost any more and in fact may cost less than your current bolts. Aiming is still a problem, especially without the bonuses of Farsight.”

“I could actually get Farsight now. Warrior levelled in the fight and I have not assigned the attributes. They were pushing me to Physical Strength and Agility, not Perception.”

“It is your decision, not the Army’s or anyone else's. I suggest you grab Farsight now as you are essentially a ranged fighter and the bonuses will help greatly. I have other ideas as well we can discuss, but practice will have to wait till your shoulder is better.”

“I have done it.” She said quietly as if afraid of being heard.

“Good. When your shoulder is healed, learn the bow. Get the Archer Class if you can. A flaming arrow will be much more efficient than a firebolt as the energy for the movement comes from the bow. Get the arrows hot enough and you will burn through most leather armour. The Skill Longbow will increase the distance and Triple Shot will increase the hitting power. Bow will need to be level 10 before you can get those.

“Try to get the Throw Weapon Skill as well and experiment with different materials and liquids that burn.” She looked puzzled. “Seriously, you are a Chef. You know oil burns. Throwing a pot of oil and lighting it up will be very effective.”

The good news is I got a new Skill from this, Tutor 1 with bonuses in tutoring a person or small group in a Skill.

The bad news was my Spy Class was throwing me warnings. It hadn’t levelled, but Truth Sensing had. Something wasn’t right. I know if I had been asked about my Skills and Classes I wouldn’t have said everything even if they had the best intentions. Maybe it was that, maybe it was something else.

I was very puzzled that she had not been taught any of this. Even the remote villagers used oil to defend their walls and lit it using torches. Surely the Army has had Fire Affinities before. I don’t understand why she has been kept in the dark about this. There must be something in the background causing this. Maybe politics? Enemy interference? My Spy Class has definitely been triggered. Captain Tor is using me to get around some restriction he has been put under. I had better watch my back.