Omasu was a magnificent place where Bumi had brought together the most important magicians, creating an environment in which their abilities could accumulate and develop — I was, of course, talking about magicians for so-called "attack" and "defence". Blacksmiths and architects repaired, created, and built, while soldiers engaged in combat, which evenly distributed the workload. Moreover, it was clear from history that Bumi had made great efforts to deal with the poverty of his people, and everything within his system worked like clockwork. The question arose: how was this possible? One person couldn't possibly know so much about everything: strategy and tactics, construction and battle, mining, and even the demands and desires of the common people. Or could he?
The Hundred-Year-Old King told me about a couple of interesting places he recommended I visit before heading to my destination, which was the island of Kioshi. I was going to have some fun and learn something, visit the places where the greatest wizard had once been in his glory days — that was the best part. It cannot be said that Boo was born a king and came to power ready-made. He may bear the title of king, which means he is a monarch, but in the eyes of the people of Earth, there is only one heir to the throne, who lives in Ba Sing Se. And in remote places, where a strong hand and powerful magic are important, the leader is chosen as the supreme commander - in this case, he rules several times longer than the King himself, which gives him enormous influence. Well, it was interesting to read the history of the people of the Earth, which Afka brought personally.
The most important thing was how he mastered all his skills. After placing several markers with points of interest on my map, I headed out of the city. It could even collapse or become the target of an attack if I stayed here too long — I'm exaggerating, of course, but even so, I wanted to get out of there quickly before bad luck struck someone else. Exiting through the gate, feeling the shocked stares of the soldiers directed at my back, who had realised who had been in the city all this time, I got on my scooter and headed for the mountains.
"Our destination will be Shen Guan, the fortress city," I said to Afka, who was wrapped around my neck. She resembled a real fox scarf, snorting and snorting at my every word. "One of the very few cities near Omasu that they never managed to capture. Just imagine, it held out for exactly as long as Omashu, even though it's not as high up in the rocks, and as shown on the map, there's also a forest nearby where you can easily hide.
"Fy-fy," there were notes of incomprehension in the sounds.
"We'll figure out the reasons for the existence of such an unusual fortress. Boomi said it would be fun...
***
The journey, which took a couple of days, led us to a completely different environment. Bare, yellow rocks, from which it was extremely easy to extract sand, gave way to green pine tree tops and large mounds with stones sticking out in all directions. This place smelled of moss and wet earth after rain. We were approaching the sea, which could even be seen from a high point, meaning that battles with invading Fire mages had often taken place here - all those huge boulders lying haphazardly on top of each other; piles of fallen trees with their trunks completely broken or even burnt were the result of such skirmishes.
To hold a fortress in such a place... absolute heroism. The Fire people's developed fleet was surely capable of sweeping away most of the coastal villages and outposts, as it was near the water that they had the maximum influx of reinforcements, which could simply overwhelm them with manpower and technology... of course, that's only if the Earth mages didn't take action. Any large detachment could be stopped by a random landslide, a giant wolf pit, or a ton of other traps that I encountered here from time to time. Even in a simple forest, the ground was littered with spikes and abandoned resistance points, which were very well-fortified outposts.
"It looks like it was deliberately destroyed. But what kind of stone is this?" Climbing onto one of the stone checkpoints, the ground in front of which had been burned and the trees smashed to splinters, I touched the wall. I had never been interested in construction skills, although I knew how to build stone houses where I spent the night, but my crude structures were no match for this kind of construction technology. "I wonder why the fire mages don't capture this place and reinforce it with metal?"
"Af! Turning towards the fox, I saw that her nose was pointing at one of the rocks, on which there was a pile of stones... I was logical and quickly realised that magic could be used to create a landslide. In short, the locals had created so many traps that the fire people couldn't even build their steel bastions!
"Boom must have learned construction here," I suggested. After walking a short distance, I stopped on one of the slopes. Before us stood a fortress city, from which the locals were beating the fire people. The tall fortress was made of reinforced stone blocks, with earth mages preparing for defence on the towers, while a beautiful and completely intact stone path led to the city itself, as if mocking anyone who dared to invade.
Excited, I approached the gate guard and waved him over.
But then...
"The way is closed! Suspicious character with a threatening look - if you don't leave, we'll throw stones at you!" The booming guard guarding the gate of the small town raised a stone above my head. Even the sentries on the walls watching us seemed very aggressive and paranoid...
"Isn't this a city? Do you accept refugees?" I managed to shout back at the soldier.
"Who in their right mind would flee from the people of fire on the front lines? This is a military town, only architects can officially apply to this place to protect the coast and trade routes. Are you an architect?"
"Um... I'm a blacksmith.
"Then get lost," the man raised his fists threateningly. The guards stood their ground... probably if they let everyone through, the city wouldn't have lasted so long, but that deprived me of an amazing opportunity to learn about myself and ways to change matter. On the other hand, I already had experience in this.
"Maybe I can help you drive the enemy from your territory?" I rubbed my palms together. With enough effort, it would be possible to clear the entire area in a day or two. But... the guard literally laughed in my face.
"Our traps repel enemies better than any warrior," he said. Well, yes... otherwise the fortress would be under siege. I was beginning to understand that it was not worth boasting about my skills, that it was not my place as a teenage mage to instruct and lead elite warriors of the fifth generation into battle. Although Avatar and his entourage would have argued with that statement...
Turning around before I was beaten for standing still, I went to the trees nearby and sat down on a stump, lost in thought.
"Choose:
1 - Continue along the road (Is there any point in entering a military town if you are not welcome there? Find a way to have fun and achieve your goal in another way)
2 - Go to another place of glory (Deciding to optimise your time, you continue to follow the map. You understand perfectly well that you will not open your chakra in this place, which means that you can forget about the abilities you could gain here. You will learn more useful skills elsewhere. You will not learn architecture).
Anubis, as always, rushed to help. However, the options were not particularly varied, and none of them offered to stay and learn. I got to my feet and slowly walked around the town. The inspection allowed me to understand how good the castle, flooded with bright rays of sunlight, was from a defensive point of view. Patrols on the towers kept a constant watch over everyone standing nearby, and the monstrously strong ground near the city prevented such unskilled earth mages as myself from getting underground. The walls were mouth-watering, and the only way in was through the gates. I would have learned more by exchanging a few words with whoever built it, but I had no acquaintances among the "elite."
In short...
"Well, screw it.
If Boomi thinks it's fun to try to figure out a way to get inside, I don't understand him. I only came here to try to figure out how to open my second chakra. Even Anubis clearly stated that there was nothing useful for me inside. I had to follow the stone path back towards the city. Apparently, it was possible to learn something, which was the first option, but the town itself was useless junk.
On the way to the sea, I decided to turn a little into the forest and create a shelter for training. Finding a cosy place on a hill, hidden by trees, I dug a tunnel and furnished it in the most comfortable way possible. It was completely hidden from view, and the walls were very strong and, as I thought, protected by an extra layer of earth on top. Then I sent Afka to find some books on the subject, and as soon as I had a bite to eat, I went for a walk. After all, I had to find some kind of ghostly fun somewhere.
"Ur-ur!
But when I got to the road and walked closer to the sea, I seemed to have stumbled upon something completely different. Sounds resembling some kind of sick creature hiding behind a couple of trees not far from the path. Blinking and squinting, I slowly approached and saw a large and frightening creature with yellow eyes, green scales and a saddle.
"A lizard-toad?" I recognised it only because I had read about the creatures of the earth in Omas's book. The creature was domesticated, as could be seen from the items on its back, but there was no sign of its owner. The animal had clearly been burned on its neck, suffering from the swelling of its toad-like throat sac," I thought. Someone else was suffering.
A shadow fell over my face. The animal saw me and immediately reared up, hissing threateningly a couple of times. But then its paws trembled and its body collapsed to the ground, powerless.
"And Afki is gone... I was unlucky again to let her go so early," I wanted to roll my eyes, but I had to make do with what I had at hand. I unpacked my bag of camping gear and began to pull out the important supplies one by one, reaching the bottom: bandages, high-calorie rations, candles, charcoal, and spare jamonite. Spare filters for my spare dust mask. Here's the main mask, I'll have to change the filters. And here's the cooling ointment for burns at last," I knew it would come in handy! What kind of moron would go out in this world without burn ointment, gauze — in my case, the fabric I was used to having on my face — and a small collection of tools for fighting fire and hot spots?
Over so many years of war, they had come up with many ways to treat burns. The only problem was getting close to the distrustful beast. I had to scoop the sand out of the pumpkin and secure its paws and mouth — like an idiot, I hadn't brought the kit for treating deep wounds and bites from various monsters.
"Boom-bang*
The moment I heard the growl and started applying the ointment, there was a sound coming from the sea. It sounded like the catapults of the Fire People, who had tried to use them against me before, but had never managed to hit me. Now, as I understood, they were shooting at something else. Apparently, another siege.
I hadn't even managed to apply the ointment to half of my neck when someone broke through the bushes, stumbling over tree roots, and ran straight towards me. It was a girl in a dark green dress and light green trousers. The panting stranger froze with a tense look on her face as soon as she saw me. Our eyes met... her gaze fell on me, then on the beast, which I was trying to subdue by any means possible.
"…So, I'm helping him, got it? Don't you dare make me look like an idiot.
BANG*
At that very moment, just a couple of metres away from us, a huge, burning boulder landed, scattering tree branches in all directions. Several large logs rushed straight towards us. I pulled my tentacles out of the pumpkin and stopped the elongated projectiles in an instant.
"How do they know where to hit?
"Eagles. Run! " the girl shouted, grabbing her weirdo by the leash. But we didn't even have time to move away. I looked up and saw several more very unpleasant and large stones, and red-winged birds flying around. I had to let go of the beast's sand leash and concentrate on the target. Clenching my fists, I first fired a precise sand projectile at each of the birds, encasing them in stone. Then, taking up a firm position, I prepared to parry the blow.
"Damn... it's bigger than it looks.
"Build a wall, you idiot!" the girl shouted, apparently realising that we weren't going to run away. So I had to press my feet into the ground, creating a large, tightly compressed monolith.
Bang*
The crashing stone scattered debris in all directions. It stopped the projectile, but we had to defend ourselves from our own wall.
"Did you make it out of cardboard or why is it so useless?" the girl asked in surprise. She was so sincere, so frank, that I was embarrassed and snorted.
"Let's get out of here," I said, raising my hands and causing the ground to bulge so as not to strain the beast. With "tidal" movements reminiscent of the style of water mages, I created a real wave out of the ground, on which we "escaped" from all the shells. "Where are your companions?"
"I was alone, studying the blueprints of the finished outposts," I realised quickly. "An architect. That's the other method Anubis was talking about. Someone who can teach me how to build properly. What luck."
"So why didn't you use your magic to help yourself?
"Maybe because I'm not a magician at all?
Or maybe there's no luck involved at all...
***
Advanced chapters:
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