As the lesson progressed, Mike managed to sneak two more Identify spells into the spell book, getting the complete Torch and a few scattered others. He was delighted to see that he had learned forty percent of Fireball. With just another lesson, Mike knew he could master the iconic spell.

  Mike also realized he was enjoying the training. He had figured out how to write out Identify in the language Aric was teaching him, but he decided to keep that spell hidden. Mike couldn’t be sure that the ability to absorb knowledge through it was unique to him and not part of the spell itself. It was a generic ability of the spell; he did not want to hand that power over to the slave masters of Chilt.

  Several hours into the lesson, Aric’s head snapped up. He dropped the chalk he was holding and stared off into space. After several seconds, he nodded. Mike opened his mouth to ask what was going on but stopped when Aric gave a deep sigh.

  “My father has need of me. Let us wrap up your training while my familiar returns.” Aric started placing the papers and chalk back in the box. “We shall continue this tomorrow.”

  “I look forward to it Master. I have learned much today.”

  Aric looked at Mike, studying him. He nodded. “Yes, you did well.” The young wizard sounded almost surprised, and Mike had to swallow a sarcastic remark.

  “This study was very in-depth master. Not only did I learn some of the symbols and runes of spell writing, but I figured out the Torch spell as well.” Mike cast the spell as he said it, illuminating the area around them in a bright white light that banished shadows. It reached the walls, but its light was fading at that range. Aric’s eyebrows rose as Mike channeled mana into the spell.

  “Very surprising.” There was a pause as Aric stopped cleaning and turned towards Mike. “I… believe I underestimated you. My father’s summon is an obviously potent, vital combatant. You… I think you will do well with us.”

  “Thank you master.” Mike maintained the spell until his mana pool emptied. With the spell reserving mana for Bandit ending an hour ago, he had allowed it to fill back up. The headache from the last casting of Identify hadn’t faded yet, and the growth of his mana pool intensified the pain. But he was getting stronger.

  “We’ll work on exercises to grow your mana, if that is all you can maintain.” Aric picked up a loose sheet of paper and wrote a few notes. “Grow your mana. Get alchemical tools. Enchanting too. See if we can find tutors for that. Anything else you can think of?”

  Mike faked hesitation, not wanting to be too eager. He knew exactly what he wanted.

  “Combatants. Not the great matches with much on the line, but something to train with.” Mike hurriedly continued as Aric’s eyebrows rose. “I have a spell that shoots a mystic dart that Haliard believes I can incorporate into the combat arts he is teaching me, but I cannot use it as part of that training. I cannot pull that punch master. Yet.”

  “Yes, that is an important part of training. We will need a different room, and a dedicated summoner…” He trailed off as he wrote a few notes. “Good idea. We shall see to it.”

  “Thank you master.”

  “Wait here for my familiar,” Aric said as he tucked the note paper into his spell book. He clasped it to his belt and continued towards the door. “It will escort you back to the barracks.”

  “Yes master.” Mike paused, not sure if he should continue. Still, courtesy never hurt. “Have a good night.”

  Aric paused, coming to a stop. It was momentary, and he exited the room without saying anything.

  “Hmm, I thought we were bonding. Oh well.” Mike sat in the empty room, waiting for the wizard’s familiar. He wasn’t surprised when the drone came back several minutes later. “Lead the way!”

  The path he and the machine took back to the gladiator barracks was different than the first one. Mike was excited to pass the garden room again and get a peek at it, but it never showed up.

  There were no servants about as Mike moved down the hallway beside the drone. He took the time to review what spells he had learned from Aric’s spell book. In addition to finishing Conjure Idun Berry through an Affinity bonus, he had learned Conjure Water spell as well.

  Conjure Water Level 1

  Spell, 2 Mana per Second

  One cup of pure, clean water flows from your hand per second.

  Mike wanted to test it now, but he didn’t want to reveal his powers. There were also a few more combat oriented spells that he did not have the mana to cast quite yet. Conjure Idun Berry took almost all of his current mana, coming it at a whopping ten mana per cast, just as much as it took him to summon Bandit.

  Mike sighed, knowing he would have to take the time to sort through and categorize all the spells he knew. Getting the information from both Eric and Aric’s spell books had given him dozens of spells, though the vast majority of them were not yet fully learned.

  I need to get access to the father’s spells again. I need to complete the collection before we leave. Mike started casting Torch, holding it for a second, then letting it drop. His mana drained quickly, but he didn’t let it empty. It would be easy to do, to let it grow, but he was watching how quickly it regenerated. By his estimates, it took just over four seconds to restore one mana. At his current rate and mana max, it took him just under a minute to go from empty to full.

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  This was fast enough for what he was doing now, but he knew that it would get worse. Mike currently could see spells that cost hundreds of mana, with channel costs in the dozens of mana a second. To hit those numbers, he would need to upgrade his Stats, not just the mana pool itself.

  The drone left Mike as he entered the doorway to the gladiator barracks. He conjured an Idun Berry and tossed it in his mouth, enjoying the taste and sensation of fullness. Ahead of him was darkness as the night fell across Slide. There was the faint noise of conversation coming from the cafeteria that the men used as their common room, but he ignored it and went down the other hallway, outside. He wanted fresh air and silence before he got back to the other men.

  Mike had always enjoyed nighttime strolls as a way to clear his head. The dark became a comfort to Mike even before he left high school. He would often stay up late to find time for himself, the rare moments that were not given away to work, school, or family. Wandering aimlessly with no purpose was him defying the structure he felt trapped in.

  The physical and mental exertion he had done today drove Mike to seek that calm. He had enjoyed it, much to his own surprise, but he still needed those few stolen moments of respite where he controlled his own life.

  Where he wasn’t a slave to anyone.

  The sun hadn’t fully set when he emerged from the doorway and sat on the steps, but it was on the far side of the mountain from this balcony. Mike found himself in shadowed darkness as he stretched his legs out, feeling the exertion of the day settle into the muscles. It was a pleasant sensation, and he performed other stretches as he waited for darkness.

  Ten minutes passed in silence as Mike twisted, relaxing. A faint chill crept out of the stone around him and seeped into his aching muscles. He leaned back on his elbows, eyes closed as he rejoiced in the sense of freedom he felt.

  “If they catch you out here, you’ll be in trouble.”

  Mike didn’t open his eyes at Haliard’s statement. He smiled and kept stretching as he answered.

  “That is part of the fun, isn’t it?”

  “Usually I would agree with you, but remember how we are trying to hide the fact that the spell binding us to their will is over?” Haliard sat beside Mike, shifting into a more comfortable position.

  “That is a…” Mike trailed off as he finally opened his eyes, gazing up into the night sky. He bolted upright, staring into the night.

  “How different is it from your world?” Haliard asked gently.

  Mike was silent for several seconds, looking for traces of familiarity in the sky. He knew Slide wasn’t his world and had thought he had come to terms with it. But this was too much. The large moon he knew so well was absent, which didn’t surprise him.

  What surprised him was how much movement there was.

  There were no stars that he could see. Every light up there was moving, however slightly. Complex structures dotted the night sky, illuminated by lights over them. The largest of them was the size of his thumbnail at this distance, which meant it must have been massive up close. Others were long and thin, covering vast distances until he couldn’t make them out anymore.

  Focusing on one light out of the hundreds he could see, Mike followed it as it zipped from structure to structure. It had to be moving faster than he could imagine to cover those distances. In a minute, it crossed from the largest structure across the sky until it was out of sight behind the mountain.

  “Very,” he finally answered Haliard, dropping his eyes to the stone at his feet. “Very different.”

  “Did your people make it into space?”

  “We went to our moon. There were a few probes that went further and sent information back, but no people.”

  “Did you ever make it up there?” Haliard sounded wistful. Mike looked over to see him staring at the sky, knees to his chest with his arms folded over them. Haliard looked old enough that the pose should have given him trouble, but Mike was familiar with the strength and flexibility of his trainer.

  “No. The rockets are very expensive. You must be rich to do that.”

  “Rockets, eh? Did you all use…” Haliard paused, searching for a word. It took him a few seconds before he snapped his fingers and continued. “Orbital mechanics! That is it.”

  “Yes.” Mike leaned back to study the sky again. The lack of familiarity was still disturbing, but there was beauty up there. Patterns, movement, colors, all of them changing and shifting. There were people outside of Delvemont.

  Mike swore he would meet them.

  “Falling sideways really fast,” Haliard shook his head, disbelieving. “So weird when you think about it. Of course, it doesn’t work here.”

  “Why not?” Mike had gone through a fascination with space as a teen and knew a bit about the theory behind it. That had fallen away as life got more demanding, but he could find a book somewhere and pick the hobby back up. It would be much easier now.

  “Slide is flat.” Haliard tone implied it was the most obvious thing in the world, but he picked up that Mike was confused when the younger man turned toward him baffled. “Didn’t Bradiac explain that to you?”

  “I think he might have skipped that part,” Mike answered with a rueful laugh. “How big is it?”

  Haliard laughed. “I’ve crossed more of it than anyone I’ve heard of, and I haven’t seen an end. If it is the place where the multiverse’s trash ends up, it might never end.”

  He paused, staring up into space beside Mike. He drew a deep breath and stood.

  “Maybe one day I’ll find it. Maybe that is my purpose.” Haliard stuck his hand out. Mike gripped it and together they got him to his feet. “Come, it is bedtime. We want to be in before they lock the doors.”

  “How does the sun work? I saw it moving overhead…” Mike was baffled, deep in his own thoughts as they headed back to their room. The rest of the men were already in their beds. “Gravity too, how does that work? And—”

  “Someone may know the answers to these mysteries, but it isn’t me.”

  “But…”

  “Will you summon up Bandit for me?”

  Mike cast Conjure Ally, focusing in such a way that Bandit manifested in his arms. While the badger wiggled into a more comfortable position, he thought about using the rest of his mana to let his capacity grow but decided against it.

  My head has already had enough done to it for one day. Aloud, he asked Haliard why he wanted Mike to conjure the badger.

  “How did that work?”

  “I don’t know,” Mike had to answer. He thought for a moment he might have an inkling about how the spell truly functioned, but it drifted away when he focused on it.

  “And yet it worked. Let this be a lesson to you.”

  Mike and Haliard went silent as they headed down the bedroom hallway. The rooms were soundproof, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Mike set Bandit down when they entered, who ran directly towards Mike’s bed. The animal leapt to it and curled up, nose to tail. It was so cute Mike had to laugh.

  “You know what, my friend?” he said to Haliard as he went to drink and wash his hands. “One day, I will find the answers out.”

  “Is that so?” The old man was already stretched out in bed, hands behind his head.

  “Yes.” Mike dried his hands and lay on his own bed after nudging Bandit out of the way. The badger crawled up and nestled around Mike’s head, making a noise that was not that different from a purr. “That will be my purpose. To figure out how this place works.”

  “A good purpose.” Mike heard Haliard shift and twist, deeper in bed. “How will you go about it?”

  “I will milk the Bluringtons for whatever training they can provide. And you, I guess. Then, once I can’t go any further, we run. You, me, the other men once I free them. We find a way out.”

  “And then where do we go?”

  Mike smiled as he closed his eyes and rolled over. “And then all of Slide will be before us, and we go where we want.”