For several days, I questioned local miners and even stopped by the smithy to get some answers about the strange lightning incident. Each time, I described the event with bated breath: the air was pierced by electrical discharges, small bolts of lightning darted between particles, casting reflections on the dust from the crystals. Unfortunately, no one told me anything; people rarely noticed such incidents and could not explain how they occurred. For the harsh earth mages and stubborn crystal mages, this was completely unnecessary information. They were much less interested in the things that sand mages dreamed of.
Yes, sand mages also had their own principles of behaviour and character, and they were based on change and adaptation. We are not as free as air mages, we are still down-to-earth like mole-bears, but we are forced to adapt in order to survive in the conditions in which we find ourselves. For example, it was much easier for me to settle in a cave than for other people, and it's not even about my two years of experience, I'm just used to finding my own approach to everything. A person who has nothing has to struggle to survive, so if they want acceptable living conditions, they have to struggle twice... ten times harder! That's why, when I read the works of my fellow countryman, I felt at home.
A scientist who studies sandstorms must have been a sand wizard himself; the very principle of conveying information spoke to this. Although Afka, to whom I read the book aloud, did not understand how this could be determined. As for the author, he was an unquestionable genius who spent most of his life in sandstorms, observing sand. He saw lightning appear out of nowhere many times, and it appeared below the clouds, and only once did the sand begin to swirl around each other in a much denser cloud. The gusts of wind in the storm had their own character, moving aimlessly, which I was able to feel for myself. So, when the wind brought many grains of sand close together, causing them to rub against each other, a strong static electricity arose.
It was as if wool was being rubbed together, only here everything was happening at completely different speeds and volumes. The force burst out, illuminating the sandstorms with long streaks of electricity. Well... this wasn't a technique that fire mages could reproduce directly from their bodies; they didn't need any friction, but I wasn't complaining. It sounded like something that could enhance simple sand, and I'm always happy about that.
But when I started practising in my own room, where I did all my training, trying to rub grains of sand together, I realised that creating my own version of lightning would be quite difficult. If lightning was needed to attack, immobilise or perhaps stun fish, then training in the speed of sand acceleration was essential. Even a tornado wouldn't help here; you need to press the grains of sand more tightly together to create a closed sphere the size of a fist, in which all the charge will accumulate, at least according to the author of the book. And that's tens of thousands of hours of practice.
Or everything could have been done more simply. Kio's style. The Earth Avatar was a person with simply insanely developed Earth magic, hence her problem: weak techniques that did not require, say, the destruction of a continent, caused her problems. Throwing a small pebble, or even just controlling a handful of sand, was a real problem. For accuracy and to use a small amount of force, she used a fan and a style she developed herself. I had already planned to study her legacy, but the reason why I need it is amusing: if I learn even greater precision and can use small amounts of sand... I will become many times stronger.
I won't need to lift mountains or throw rocks, I'll gain strength with what little I have. Although, that's all in the future. Returning to camp and approaching the task board, I read everything that was assigned for the week.
"Oh, another quartz deposit has been discovered above us," I clenched my fists, preparing to see another training task in front of me. Anubis started giving them to me as soon as I learned how to control quartz, and made me use it properly, like in the old legends from books, following the techniques of General Cheng and Terracotta, which he had recently told the guy who had just left.
The most famous crystal users completely abandoned earth magic in favour of a stronger material. The general literally encased himself in armour, becoming a Crystal Knight who could crush any defence with his body. And Lord Terracotta could control a whole bunch of crystals at once, fighting with them like remote swords.
If he didn't force them to learn how to use crystals or sand, he made them suffer in his huge room. I equipped it for physical training, so to speak. For some reason, the dog wanted me to become taller.
I wanted to copy and adapt these techniques for myself, to become an abrasive mage. However... Anubis shattered all my expectations. The choice I was presented with was much stranger.
"Choose:
1 - Create a new image (The image of the Sand Mage has become more dangerous, and a reward has already been offered for you. You can nip the problem in the bud by creating the image of a pure and unshakeable "Crystal Knight").
2 - Subdue failure (The image you created has been defiled, and you are not recognised as the Sand Mage. You have the opportunity to regain your glory. You will become much more famous).
3 - Break the mould (You have learned to choose less honourable options. History knows many examples of terrible people, and you can try to completely copy the image of a historical wizard. Make people believe that you are the reincarnated General Cheng or the Terracotta Monster).
I blinked in complete confusion. Anubis was acting strange today, as if he was suggesting that I summarise my time here, I thought, until I heard a crack. Right above my head, the ceiling I was looking at began to slowly crack, forcing me to squint.
"They're... developing a new mine there," the people in the camp where I was staying also heard the familiar sound and froze. They raised their heads. Miners, blacksmiths, soldiers, everyone froze, their pupils dilating. We saw the ceiling crumbling.
"Why... we did everything we could to prevent a collapse.
"I reinforced the supports myself and inspected the floor.
"This is impossible.
The stern men, who so rarely saw daylight, felt a chill run down their spines.
Was Anubis hinting at something... The stones began to crumble, and with a loud crash, a boulder the size of a dozen metres broke off and began to collapse onto our entire camp. The problem was that most of the boulder was made of crystal. It would be impossible to push it away with our combined strength, or even break it into pieces.
For some reason, at that moment, I forgot about the choice Anubis had given me. I just acted automatically, as I would have done in any other situation: breaking my rings and allowing the jammony to grow along my arms, I used some of the material to create an abrasive. Throwing the long sandy whips sharply upwards, seeing a flash of lightning in the sand for a second, I pulled myself up.
Thud*
I slammed my foot down on a huge rock, instantly releasing as much chi as I could. My increased physical strength allowed me to put much more power into the blow. Quickly dispersed particles of sand appeared in my hands. I transmitted a magical impulse and surrounded the rock with a sandstorm, knocking the boulder out of the way. It crashed outside the camp, causing a violent tremor that accelerated the crumbling of the ceiling.
The new jammite, whose growth I could accelerate, was once again turned into sand. A pillar of tornado appeared and knocked down sharp crystals that could cause great damage to the buildings and equipment inside them. My whips quickly clung to the walls, manoeuvring freely between the giant rocks — I had no doubt that the collapse above my head was my fault.
"Just as I returned to camp. This damn curse isn't just causing problems for me," I gritted my teeth, realising that this wasn't the first time this had happened.
Staring at the cracks from where I had fallen, I clearly understood that this could not have happened in a day; the locals weren't stupid enough to allow such a critical collapse. Not wanting this to cause trouble for anyone else, I dug my long tentacles into the rocks and spun around like a tornado. The long lashes sharpened and formed incredible blades capable of bending at any angle.
The settling dust began to swirl rapidly because of my magical tricks, and I myself became the cause of that beautiful, electric effect.
"No..." I pinned myself to the wall, realising that so many large stones had fallen that I would hardly be able to stop it. No sand would help here.
"Yeah, this is serious," at that moment, a voice came from the lift next to where I was hanging. Feeling that it was not safe to be in the lift shaft, I quickly turned to the people inside, but froze... Hic!
I saw an old man covered in mould, with what looked like a black eye. The hair on his partially bald head stuck out in all directions. His somewhat crazy gaze first swept over me, then focused on the stones. After that... with a couple of small movements of his hands, he threw all the stones away one by one.
Then, simply raising his hands to the ceiling, he clenched his fists. The cracks instantly closed, and the stone became so solid that it changed colour. When he arrived in the lift, he entered our camp as if nothing had happened.
"I came to see the Gemmonite room you made for me," he replied casually to the cloud of silent glances. The monster solved the problem without even breaking a sweat. It was not difficult to recognise him, even though I had never seen this magician before in my life. King Boomy, ruler of all Omasu. The most brilliant magician on earth," Oh, this is bad.
At that moment, his "crazy" gaze focused on several people. He seemed to have an eagle eye, with which he noticed wounds, or rather pieces of a growing crystal in different parts of their bodies. All attention slowly focused on them. We all saw how the crystal began to fuse with the body.
"Ah... ah-ah-ah!" Everyone instantly began to panic. Jemmonite in an open wound... there would have been no problem if it had been removed immediately, but even the wounded themselves did not understand how they had received a couple of scratches, and now they were beginning to crystallise. The guys fell to the ground, writhing in convulsions, while the Tsar stood still. Obviously, no one could do anything.
Shuh*
But I immediately pushed myself away from the wall and landed not far from the guys. My body was surrounded by several razor-sharp tentacles, which cut through people's clothes in a second. I had learned to cut with such precision on beetles so as not to damage anything unnecessary, and with the new blades, I had no problems at all. Keeping my cool, I glanced at Boomer and the people around him.
"Spirit.
My grains of sand were doing the work themselves. They slowly split the quartz and pulled the pieces out. The most important thing was not to let the crystal grow into the veins — in the caves, people worked with their fists, sometimes damaging their hands, but that wasn't as big a problem as wounds to the neck or spine. With a couple of precise cuts, I managed to get rid of the crystals and breathed out. In the end, no one died from my failure. The medics who arrived soon were surprised by the work that had been done and took the guys to their ward. As soon as I got up, I realised that all eyes were on me.
"...
Sure enough... Anubis had offered me a choice. And I didn't even think about it. The people examining me could only see a tall, muscular man — the scars were still there, they hadn't disappeared after the caves with the beetles, they had just been covered by clothes before. Now there was much less clothing on me. I completely resembled the false image of the Sand Mage that ordinary people had created in their minds. Well, not so false after all.
"I think I know you," King Bumi began.
***
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