Soul of a Human

After witnessing Mor's magic ability, Gorn reevaluated his training plans. He decided that the most important thing for the young Soul-kin was experience. He let the two boys earn combat training by fighting against each other, and with the permission of Cutter, he gave both of them some pointers on how to improve.

However, in Mor's case, it was confusing because every other time, the boy's fighting style would change, and he would make completely different mistakes. When this happened, the boy seemed to have a strategy and plan from the start of the fight until the end. This, of course, was when Mor and the human switched so both of them could train and get experience.

Elly, on the other hand, was happy to watch the boys fight and had to give Jorgen some more credit for his well-toned body. She thought maybe giving this boy a shot was an almost genius move. Her little enjoyment didn't last because Lize had other plans and dragged her daughter away for "scout training," meaning training her back muscles to draw heavier bows, stealth exercises, and lessons on tracking, first aid, and whatever else was important.

Another part of Ice-kin training was survival training, like how to make camp and start a fire, which for Mor was easy enough, and knowledge about monstrosities the other hunters had encountered. And again, for Mor, this was no problem at all. After all, he was very intelligent, and even after exhausting training days, he could easily follow the "lessons". Jorgen had it worse. He wasn't made for sitting around and listening, and with the exhaustion came sleepiness.

But every time he dozed off, lulled into sleep by Lize's explanations, the woman would wake him with a smack from an arrow shaft. Elly did reasonably well, but the demanding physical training of her mother made her also inattentive and gave her the same treatment as Jorgen.

All of that together filled Mor's day to the brim. In the morning, it was dueling against Jorgan and sometimes Gorn, who would easily overpower the two aspiring hunters. Then, lessons with Lize, and until dinner, it was free time, which, of course, for Mor and his human companion meant magic training.

°You know, we really should find a way to use those bones instead of simple rocks.° The human stated.

°And how would we do this? Rock throw is routed in earth magic, and those bones are not earth.° Mor asked.

°I know. I thought instead of depending on a direct magic connection, we should try an external factor, like wind magic.° The human explained.

°I don’t understand.° Mor stated.

°Well, it's the same principle as pushing air out from your lips to whistle or spit.° The human said. °Only with more force.°

°Continue.° Mor said, still not completely grasping the concept but getting intrigued.

°I'm thinking about something like a blowgun or even the stronger air-gun.° The human continued. °You take a hollow tube with a fitting projectile and then blow into it with as much force as you can. But we will subsidize blowing with wind magic.°

°So we need to get a hollow tube?° Mor asked, and the human affirmed that.

Finding something the human thought was fitting was more challenging than Mor had expected. He couldn't go to the blacksmith, and asking Lize and Gorn also led to no success. So Mor depended on searching for someone who might have what he needed or could make it. After spending a whole day searching, he found what he wanted from Drop. The loudmouthed hunter listened to the boy's explanation and asked if the material the tube was made out of would be important, which Mor denied after confirming with the human.

In the end, Drop gave Mor a straight hollow bone he got from a flying monstrosity as payment for a hunt in his youth. The only reason he had kept it was because nobody had any use for it except crushing it into splinters and forging it into weapons, which Drop didn't want to do because it still had some sentimental worth.

After he had listened to the boy's explanation of why he needed such a tube, Drops' interest was peaked. As someone whose main duty was to support his team, a simple ranged option was very tempting. Ultimately, both of them worked together to make the Soul-boys' vision a reality, also getting some wooden projectiles to try it out.

With that quickly done weapon, they had some minor success, sparking Drop's imagination on how to make the weapon more efficient. Still, he didn't want to try reworking the "tube", but at first tried to modify the ammunition. In the end, though, the effect was too weak for Drop to consider it a viable option in a monstrosity hunt. You would need to hit a vulnerable part of the monstrosity to hope it would feel the effect, which was extremely difficult in a hectic hunt. However, after Mor had asked to keep the rudimentary weapon, Drop had gifted it to the boy, for showing him something interesting.

°Well, that was not very successful.° Mor said. °Blowing out the projectile is not effective.°

°Of course not. This is all about pressure. You can only speed up the projectile with the air in your lungs and generate only as much pressure as your muscles allow. But if you force a bunch of air down that tube, with a burst of magic, you have made the first air gun.° The human explained, but still Mor wasn't wholly convinced.

In the end, they decided to try again the next day and test the human's theory. If it works, then it will be another low-energy-demanding option for their fights. Saving energy was of the utmost importance if they wanted to make the long journey to the closest Soul-kin Isle without running out of magic and then dying.

Mor was under no illusion about this necessity because he knew the monstrosities would not give him much time to recuperate his magic energy. It was more likely that the closer he got, the more numerous the attacks would become. At least if he could trust the Chief's evaluation and having no source other than the Ice-kin to draw information from, he had no choice left but to do so.