Fork This Life!

Chapter 38: Words Of The Earth

First things first, I discard the thought of reading books about the elements I’m already learning. I could possibly get ahead of the content that I will learn in classes, or learn things outside the content, but then what would be the point of going to those classes?

Better to learn something that I won’t learn in the classes but will supplement my understanding and magical skills. Plain magical theory? No doubt it’ll be partially explained in classes, but furthering my understanding of magic itself could only be beneficial. Still, to focus on just that, especially if I were to do it for the entire term, would get somewhat boring.

There are quite a few books in the general section that could be interesting, studies on monsters, metals, herbs, the system itself, locations, worlds and history. Some of them would definitely be helpful to peruse, but much of it would only be useful once I leave the academy. I think that, at least for now, I should focus on matters of magic.

Jald mentioned during the class… Terran. Literally, a language of the earth. And if there’s Terran, let me see… Yep, there’s Aquan, Ignitae and Aerus as well. Even Luxia and Tenebrio. All named in Latin… Again, a language from Earth. It doesn’t make sense, especially as I haven’t heard mention of the Latin language since I died.

Wondering about it isn’t going to find me any answers, though. Best that I focus on the here and now, rather than pondering on the worlds and their intricacies.

It could be interesting to learn one of these languages, and it would increase the effect of my magic in that element. I suppose the question now is, which one? Water, wind and darkness are ruled out simply because I’m not learning them right now. So, earth, fire and light are my options. I suppose the best thing to do would be to have a look at each of them, see which is simplest to start with.

So, I take out a book each on Terran, Ignitae and Luxia, lay them out on the table in front of me, and slowly start to read through each. As I flip the last page of Luxia shut, I frown internally. It doesn’t look like learning a language will be as simple as I had thought, even with a perfect memory. Memorising the vocabulary is a large part, sure, and I could do that. But most important is the grammar and sentence structure. Nothing can substitute that sort of thing but practice and analysis of examples.

Because of that, I decide to start with Terran. Of the three, it’s the most straightforward. Each word has one meaning, and as far as I can tell, each meaning has one word. It even feels… I don’t know, clear-cut?

Having decided that, I put all three books away and head back out of the library. I have a basic vocabulary, and there were plenty of simple sentences in there to learn from. Now I need to practice writing the characters, pronouncing the words, and attempting to formulate my own sentences, and for that I need a more private environment than the library will provide.

Laying in the grass, in the midst of this endless forest on this world that I don’t know the name of, I speak the words aloud, repeatedly. The only actual vocal example of Terran I have is the single word that Jald spoke in class. Apart from that word, all I have are pronunciation spellings listed next to the respective words. As such, it’s one of the most ambiguous aspects of the language for me.

“Gerald? Is that you out there?” A voice calls from inside the house.

“Yes, It’s me.” I call back.

The door opens, and Dreyer steps outside and takes a deep breath of air, sighing happily. “Bit of a surprise to see you outside. I thought you’d be spending every waking moment in the library.”

“I’m trying to learn Terran. You know, practicing the pronunciation and whatnot. Library wasn’t the best place for that.” I reply.

He looks around. “You don’t have any reference materials? A Terran dictionary?”

“Yes and no.” I say. “I read one in the library. I have a perfect memory, so reading through something once is usually enough to memorise the contents.”

“Wow.” He nods his head appreciatively. “That’ll come in handy.”

“It has its ups and downs.” I say before admitting, “But it is pretty useful. Anyway, I’m just having trouble with some of the pronunciations. I don’t suppose you know Terran?”

“I do, actually. What words are you having trouble with?” He asks.

“Sorry Gerald, But I’ll have to call it here for today. I’ve got some things to prepare for my next lesson.” Dreyer says, stretching.

“No problem.” I reply. “Thanks for helping for as long as you did.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He waves a hand. “But one last thing. I don’t know if you’ve done much research into the different quirks of casting with different languages, but Terran and the other elemental languages are very specialised towards their respective elements. Try to cast a spell of other elements, or from outside elemental magic, and it won’t be very effective at all. If you’re planning in the future to cast spells that use multiple different types of magic, you’ll want to find a more generalised language. Common isn’t too bad – it’s not really good for casting any sort of magic, but it’s not bad at any magic, either. But you might want to look into that at some point.”

“I will, thanks.” I say appreciatively.

Dreyer heads back inside and through the portal.

Meanwhile, I decide to keep practicing for a while longer. My next class isn’t until midday tomorrow, and the sun is only just setting…

Wait… I’m on a different planet, so the orbits, and therefore the day-night cycle, should be different, right? I head through the portal, and out into the courtyard.

I was right, the sun is at a different position in the sky than it was on the other planet. That’ll be a problem. It’s not as simple as a difference in time zone, in all likelihood the two planets are orbiting two different suns at different distances and different speeds, and rotating about their axes at different speeds. I don’t have the time, knowledge or patience to calculate something like that!

I need a clock. A plain and simple mechanical clock. Or a magical clock that doesn’t rely on things like the position of the sun, I suppose. Well, strictly speaking, I don’t need a clock. I can just check through the portal every now and again, after all. But it would be nice. I suppose that’s something I can think about in the future. For now, I’ll just keep in mind that there’s a time difference.

“Careful, careful!” The teacher tuts. “Plenty of people burn themselves their first time casting fire magic. I can heal you without problem, but needless to say the burn will still be painful.”

Even before his words finish falling from his scaly lips, someone yelps as the fire they create burns just a bit too close to their fingers.

The teacher takes long strides towards them, gently cupping their hands in his. A pale flame flickers around the hands of the student, but instead of a cry of pain, they let out a sigh of relief. The teacher inspects the student’s thin fingers, asking, “Are you alright?”

Shaking their head, the student wipes a tear from the corner of their eye surreptitiously. “I can’t do it.”

“Of course you can!” The teacher reassures them. “Plenty of wizards burn their hands their first time doing fire magic. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

The student looks up at him tearily. “Did you burn your hands?”

“Well, I’m a draconian. Our hands don’t really burn unless the fire is very, very hot.” The teacher says, showing the student his scaled hands. “Look, let’s try it again, together.”

The teacher slowly coaxes the student through the process as I look on, a small tongue of flame drifting in front of me.

Fire. Source of life. Harbinger of death. Harsh. Comforting. Hypnotic – and my first spell with offensive applications in deadly combat. Simply turn up the heat, add in some ranged capabilities, and it’s deadly. Simple, yet effective. Well, as soon as I learn how to do either of those two things. Plus, I need a better way of managing spells than keeping them constantly tethered to me with a channel of mana. Air is not an efficient mana conductor, and nor is it a consistent one.

Fluctuations in conductivity can easily cause the inexperienced to undercompensate when they need more mana and overcompensate when they need less. Well, it’s not really a problem as far as I can tell in larger spells, as the fluctuation in mana relative to the existing mass of mana is rather small or even negligible, but with smaller and more precise spells I can see it becoming a limiting factor.

With something like a fire spell, overcompensating with the amount of mana you’re infusing in the spell can literally mean it blows up in your face. Well, that’s probably an extreme example, but I think it could happen.

After the class, I head outside to the courtyard. Waiting there are Iueia and Lamar, with the interesting addition of Spark, the fairy from yesterday’s light magic class. All of us happen to have the afternoon off, so we had decided to make it one of the times we would get together and chat.

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” I ask.

“Pretty good. How was your fire magic class? Can you cast fireballs now?” Iueia asks in reply, eyes shining.

“Not quite.” I reply, intoning ‘fire’ to create a small flame before snuffing it out. “Just a basic bit of fire for now. Turns out it’s quite dangerous learning fire magic, and the teacher spent a fair bit of time healing people and helping them safely cast.”

“But that’s not a problem for you, right?” Lamar asks. “I mean, you’re metal. You can’t burn.”

“Little fires probably can’t hurt me, no.” I agree. “But if it’s hot enough, I can melt, and even if not, heating and cooling metal can sometimes weaken it, so even I need to be careful around fire.”

“Wait, wait, wait… Is this fork talking!?” Spark exclaims, zipping over to me and knocking on one of my tines. “Why is no one else freaking out about this?”

“That’s Gerald. He was in our light magic class, remember? On the desk left of mine.” Iueia reminds him.

“How was I supposed to know that was a person!?” Spark throws his little hands up in exasperation. “I just assumed that someone was having lunch there and left it behind! What in the world?”

“I get that sometimes. Doesn’t help that I don’t talk much.” I say with a little amusement.

“How do you talk? How do you fly? Heck, how do you see?” Spark rapid-fires questions at me, eyes wide.

“I talk through this magic tool on me, see through the other magic tool, and fly using telekinesis.” I reply.

“telekewhat now?” Spark says, looking at me blankly.

“Telekinesis.” I reiterate. “The ability to move things with your mind. Imagine it like an invisible hand is raising me into the air.”

“So… It’s magic?” Spark asks, still staring blankly at me.

“No, it’s a psychic ability, based on the…” I notice his eyes entirely glazing over. “Uh, yeah, you can think of it like that, I suppose. So, what have you guys been doing today?”

“Practicing with light magic.” Iueia says excitedly, casting a ball of light before his mana runs out again and it fades away. “It’s just so cool! It’s like a candle, but I don’t have to worry about it burning the house down! And it’s so bright!” He exclaims.

…Do you have experience with accidentally burning the house down?

“It’s pretty good, right?” I agree. “And this is only the basic stuff. Imagine what we’ll be able to do a year from now.”

“I’ll be able to cast illusion magic to make me look like a large, muscular man!” Spark says with great zeal. “…What? It’d be fun.”

As Iueia and Spark discuss with great excitement all the awesome spells they might be able to cast a year from now, I can’t help but notice Lamar isn’t really paying attention and is looking off towards the east. “What’s up, Lamar?” I ask.

“My dad’s setting sail from the port some time this afternoon. I thought I might be able to see the ship from here, but the wall’s too high.” He replies, a little sadly.

The academy, of course, is surrounded by barriers, both magical and physical. It ensures the safety and privacy of everyone studying here, but it does hamper the view from the lower floors somewhat. There are a few balconies up high, but they aren’t accessible to students. There are windows, I suppose. Most of them are small, though, and there are other tall buildings in the city that would block the view. Again, the windows high enough to provide an unrestricted view are off-limits to students.

Heading through the city to the docks would take quite a while, as well, not to mention I’m not exactly familiar with the laws practiced there, or what parts of the city to avoid. Not a problem if I’m on my own, but if I’m with others, especially when they’re young, I want to know a bit more about the area. All that really only leaves us with one acceptable option.

“There’s a mountain a bit to the north-west of the academy that should have a good view of the port and the sea.” I offer. “But it would be a fair hike.”

“I’m up for a climb if the others are.” Lamar replies, looking a bit brighter at the idea.

“Sounds like fun!” Iueia says. I hadn’t realised he’d been listening.

On the other hand, Spark definitely hadn’t. “What now?” He blurts quizzically. “What are we doing?”

“Gerald says that there’s a mountain near here that we can see the sea from.” Iueia explains.

“Alright then, let’s go!” Spark exclaims.

“Are you guys sure?” I ask, a bit concerned. “It won’t be an easy climb.”

Iueia shrugs. “I climb mountains sometimes. I’m fine.”

“I grew up climbing rigging. Does that count?” Lamar asks.

“Uh… I can fly.” Spark notes.

“If you’re sure.” I say. “Do you have food and water?”

“We have some food, now let’s go already!” Iueia exclaims.

“Alright, let’s go, then.” I say, suddenly realising that I sounded like someone’s mum.

Shutting my mouth – metaphorically speaking – and lead the group to the north gate of the academy. Now that I think about it, this will be the first time I’ve actually left the academy since I enrolled, not counting brief times in that forest world. It’ll be good to get out for once, I suppose.

I lead them out and onto the plain outside the academy. The city itself isn’t far away, no more than a couple stone throws away. Close enough that I can see part of it, but far enough that I can’t see all of it.

Now Gerald, you might be thinking, what about monsters? Surely you aren’t planning to lead a bunch of kids with little combat potential and less experience into a place filled with monsters?

Of course not!

You might remember that this academy is pretty much the center of all magical learning on the whole planet. Now, there are plenty of people learning constructive things like healing, alchemy or artificing, but there are also plenty of people learning magic for the sake of combat, similar to me. These people need practical experience with their magic, and monsters are pretty much the best way of doing that. It’s not uncommon that students will go out, alone or in classes, to hunt them.

Not to mention that the city itself has a predictably powerful mage division, and there are frequent patrols to prevent unlawful activity and reduce monster numbers.

With the two combined, there are rarely strong or numerous enough monsters to pose a threat. And if we somehow get terribly unlucky and a monster happens to come after us despite me being able to see it from 1,700 metres away and alter our route accordingly to avoid it… Well, I’m more than capable of taking it out.

Now, let me see… According to the map I looked over in the first section of the library, the mountain we’re aiming for is part of a range that runs pretty much parallel to the coast. With the academy and city as points of reference, I can estimate with a fair degree of accuracy that it’s in this direction.

“Say, you were worried about us getting tired on the way there,” Spark remarks, his wings fluttering as he weaves through the air, “but how long can you fly for, Gerald?”

“If I want to, the rest of my life.” I reply simply.

“But can you fly fast?” He asks, zipping about.

Muttering under my breath, I say, “Theoretically, given that I can experience no air resistance and likely survive in space, and can provide a constant, if small, force upon myself, and given no outside force interfering, I could probably reach near light speed given enough time.” A bit louder, I say, “Yeah, pretty fast, If I need to. I just make a bit more noise if I do.”

“So you’d be up for a race?” Spark proposes gleefully.

“Not really.” I reply blandly.

His face falls a bit, but then he smirks craftily. “Oh, you’re saying that you don’t think you can beat the speed of the mighty Spark! I see, I see.”

I sigh. “Can’t bait me that easily, Spark.”

“I’m confused.” Iueia pipes up. “What bait? We’re not fishing.”

“Spark is attempting to make me angry so that I’ll challenge him to a race.” I explain patiently. “It isn’t working.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.” Spark sulks. “Iueia, you wanna race me?”

“Sure!” Comes the eager reply.

The two go off at high speed.

No fun, huh? I suppose not, not for a little while now. I mean, it wasn’t quite as intense as it sounds, but I did go to hell and back. Literally. Left behind my closest friend, along with everyone and everything I ever knew in that world… Interestingly, I think that probably had more impact on me than dying did.

I’ve been trying to act like I usually do, but it’s hard. What even is normal anymore? Magic and monsters? Demons and undead? Men and gods? It’s madness. Everywhere I turn, there’s something new to throw me off. First the system. Then I’m a fork. Goblins. Adventurers. Magic. Gigantic nope-spiders. Psychics. Ki. Gods. Fighting spirit. Hell itself. Apparently, superpowers. Beings made of air itself, and walking talking bipedal animals. There’s just so much, I can’t even get a hold of what normal is in this world.

Honestly speaking, after what I saw in hell, I’m paranoid – that is, more paranoid than before. Don’t know if I’ll be able to trust people anymore. I’m clinging onto every little piece of information about myself, not letting anybody know anything lest they use it against me, even though the rational part of me knows that I don’t need to worry about it. I keep a constant eye on everything and everyone around me at all times, even the people that have been nothing but good to me.

Socialising with these guys will probably be good for me. Slowly lower the barriers. After all, they’re not going to turn on me.

…Probably.

“I guess we should catch up to them.” I say.

Lamar nods, picking up the pace as I accelerate to match his speed.

We’re half-way up the mountain, and Spark is resting on Iueia’s shoulder, tired from flying such a distance. He’s plucky, but he’s also pretty small. What’s one kilometre to us must feel like ten to him.

On the other hand, Iueia and Lamar are doing admirably, still walking without a pause in their step. Thankfully, this mountain has a path to the top. Otherwise, I think I would have had a heart attack monitoring these guys rock-climbing their way up. I don’t know if I would be able to do anything if one of them fell. Telekinesis might be able to do something, but I don’t know if I’d be able to handle that much weight, even for a moment.

I suppose that means I should add methods of saving people from falls to my magic learning to-do list.

Hm. At the peak, there’s someone already there. A girl, probably not much older than the boys in our group. Looks like an elf, and she’s in the academy uniform. Hopefully there won’t be trouble.

After some time, we make it to the top. Iueia is red-faced but energetic, and Lamar is sitting on a rock, trying to catch his breath as his eyes scan the coast.

“There.” He says, pointing. “That’s the ship my dad’s on.”

I can’t see anything, with either of my methods of sight. The whole city is practically just a small blur in the distance. “So, you said your dad was a ship wizard, right? What sort of things will he be doing?”

“Dad does all sorts. The most important ones, though, are to provide a bit of wind if the ship gets becalmed and lessen the impact of storms on the ship.” Lamar explains.

“He must be quite skilled if he can do that.” I say, impressed.

Lamar nods, and with a hint of pride in his voice says, “He is.”

A few moments of quiet pass, with just the sounds of the wind whistling around the peak.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been up this high before.” Spark sighs in wonder. “It’s like I can see the entire world!”

Iueia and Lamar voice their agreement.

Another few moments of silence pass as the others just gaze out over the sea.

“So, you don’t mind if we share the peak for a while, right?” I ask, directing my voice to our left. “We’re planning to at least eat and sit here for a while before going back down. Might be a bit awkward if you hide behind that boulder the entire time.”

The elven girl behind the boulder in question freezes for a moment before gathering herself and coming out from behind it. “Fine. Just… Please leave me alone.”

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