EdgeCases

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 9 — Library Woes, Pt 1

As much as Cale was worried about Leo, he suspected he was the source of much of the minotaur's woes at the moment. He had promised to turn Leo into an archmage, and while he was still certain he could, this was admittedly a complication. One that would take a while to turn into an advantage.

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 8 — Divine Studies, Pt 5

Cale had no idea what the big deal was.

Or, well, he understood on some level what the big deal was. But it wasn't his fault that Colin had decided to pick a "human" name in memory of him and had ascended into divinity as a result. That was just how divinities worked; the very last...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 7 — Divine Studies, Pt 4

Once Cale was sufficiently satisfied that he had produced an awe-inspiring sight (and this trick had always worked on people he was trying to impress before, although he was a little concerned about the expression Syphus was now directing toward him,) he let the flame die out.

His ...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 6 — Divine Studies, Pt 3

Cale wasn't sure what reaction he had been expecting, but it wasn't quite the exasperated incredulity he got. He supposed he couldn't blame his apprentices, though. He'd been holding out on them for a while.

"Finally," Leo groused. "Do you know how long I've been trying to get anyo...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 5 — Divine Studies, Pt 2

Cale would have snorted if it wouldn't have undermined Akkau's lesson; the old dragon was using the exact same excuse he always did when he didn't want to explain something. Ancient magic indeed.

More likely it was some sort of self-censorship enchantment woven into the artifact it...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 4 — Divine Studies, Pt 1

The classroom for Divine Studies was really more of a massive lecture hall, with rows of seats available for nearly every available student to attend. At the center of it was essentially a magically neutral stage, perfect for demonstrating spellwork or performing complex rituals.

Today, the...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 3 — Catching Up

While Cale had technically been aware of the existence of crablins—which were, as the name implied, crab-goblin hybrids of a sort—he hadn't been expecting to learn about them quite so intimately. Which felt like the only word he could use to adequately describe having a pile of them ...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 2 — Dungeon Delving

Leo hated delving.

Mostly because he'd been designated as the group Taunter. He was the largest and lumberingest among them, and apparently the best at drawing undue attention. He also had the greatest defense that wasn't outright offense. Damien could disintegrate anything that attacked hi...

Just Add Mana — Book 3, Chapter 1 — Noblesse Oblige

Cale Cadwell Cobbs wanted to go back to studying at the academy, which was odd enough that he wondered if he needed to get his head checked.

Probably not. This was technically well within his expectations. He just hadn't expected it to wear on him so quickly.

Now, he'd known even goin...

Just Add Mana — Intermission — Realmwatcher's Diaries — Fishing Magic

If there was anything Cale hadn't quite been able to get over, it was the sheer expanse of the grounds that technically constituted Kazix Brightscale's Academy of the Attuned Arts. Not that he was any stranger to how large magic academies like this one could be, and he did understand the...

Just Add Mana — Intermission — Realmwatcher's Diaries — Old Magic

"This is old magic," Cale said.

Flia turned to him and frowned slightly, trying to understand what he meant. "You mean magic from before the thing with Yggdrasil?"

Cale blinked. "What? No," he said. "That's just what I call any magic I don't understand yet. It sounds more impressive t...

Just Add Mana — Intermission — Realmwatcher's Diaries — Moon Magic

Realmwatcher peered suspiciously at the orb in front of her. "You are certain you have managed to lock on to Brightscale Academy correctly?"

"Yes, madam," her "apprentice" said. Realmwatcher glanced up at the other starling, who fidgeted nervously. "...Mostly sure, madam."

Realmwatche...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 49 — The Gift

Cale didn't fall asleep immediately that night. Instead, he sat at the edge of his bed, staring out through the window at the stars burning in the night sky.

It was interesting how those stars differed in every realm. Some realms were expansive, large on a scale that was difficult to truly ...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 48 — Contractual Obligations

Kelegas Thornblight did not particularly appreciate being disturbed.

Of course, disturbances were part and parcel of being a dark lord. Perhaps other, lesser beings would be content to delegate the greater duties of the role to their minions, but Kelegas Thornblight was not among t...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 47 — Aftermath, Pt 4

Cale's apprentices, it seemed, had been busy.

Ridiculously busy. A little more than a week had passed, which was apparently enough time for the room he shared with Damien to be completely remodeled, among other things.

They were loaning out access to the Karmian Well labyrinth to wyld...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 46 — Aftermath, Pt 3

Attending classes without Cale there felt... weird, to Damien.

Which was probably a little weird. He hadn't been attending classes with Cale for long, after all. But the man had a way of making his presence felt, and it was strange now to be without it. Even with the other classes ...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 45 — Aftermath, Pt 2

Even before Cale met with the spiderlings again, he decided he was relatively pleased with how everything was going.

Admittedly, he wasn't back with his apprentices yet, and there was a possibility that he was being a little avoidant about it. They were probably worried about him by now, an...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 44 — Aftermath, Pt 1

Cale eyed the corpse of the Red Commander in distaste for a long moment without speaking. He could sense the two spiderling children behind him, trembling and staring in shock. He was going to have to deal with that before he gave himself the time to process everything that had just happened.

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 43 — Red Symphony, Part 4

Torment's Shadow hesitated.

In and of itself, this was strange. Torment's Shadow was not a creature of hesitation, yet it had already hesitated twice. It wasn't sure how long it had been fighting with the Red Commander, but magic came easily to it now in this mana-fused body it had been gra...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 42 — Red Symphony, Part 3

The Red Commander did not understand what was happening.

None of this was like in any of the reports he'd read on Yggdrasil's End. Everything they knew indicated that while he was startlingly capable, but he couldn't cast any spells. Instead, he relied almost exclusively on powerful barrier...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 41 — Academic Revelations

"...and that's why they're all here," Damien finished explaining, hoping against hope he didn't sound too ridiculous. He still didn't know why he'd been chosen as the one to explain everything to the Headmaster. Surely it would've been better for literally anyone else to do it? He was ju...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 40 — Red Symphony, Pt 2

Fortunately, Torment's Shadow had cast [Blistering Physique] before all this. It might not have had the edge it needed without the spell. With it, it noticed the slight give in the air around the Greater Indictment a moment before the swipe would have made contact, and it leapt b...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 39 — Red Symphony, Pt 1

The biggest problem with [To Dance Upon the Web of Life] was the amount of subjective time Cale had to experience. The specifics of the spell were lost to him, though Vital had explained it once before: it had something to do with potential mycelium networks and information trans...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 38 — Temple of Vitality

Cale was almost surprised by how familiar everything in the temple felt to him. It was only to be expected, but the sense of nostalgia was almost overpowering. If not for his knowledge of the Red Commander and what he had done, Cale would have liked nothing more than to spend a few days ...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 37 — Homecoming

Halia of the Golden Sands missed Angus.

She was the matriarch of her clan, but these days the title felt like it meant increasingly little. It wasn't that no one in the clan respected her—they definitely did, and anyone that didn't learned very quickly why she was so respected, aside from...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 36 — Differing Perspectives

"I'm sure you have questions," Cale said quietly after his apprentices finally broke off from him. Flia and Leo both nodded, though Damien seemed less curious and more concerned, and Syphus looked like it wanted to ask things that Cale would probably really not want to answer.

But before an...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 35 — The First Time the Universe Ended

Cale had known this was coming. It had been coming for a long time, really—long before he'd met these particular apprentices. It wasn't even the first time he'd come close to telling the truth about everything. How many other people had he met that seemed deserving, that he wanted to confess to...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 34 — Return to Form

Angus had spent most of his life dreaming about meeting the Wanderer, but in none of those dreams had he ever considered that he might already be dead when they finally met. Or that the Wanderer might be human instead of a lizardfolk, though that was something of a lesser concern. He'd always tho...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 33 — Of Knights and Souls, Pt 4

In retrospect, Cale thought he should have known something like this was coming, considering how many named mythologies had shown up in his newer spell evolutions. He'd been hoping it was just a coincidence, but clearly, it hadn't been.

This was something that tended to happen whenever the ...

Just Add Mana — Book 2, Chapter 32 — Red Weave, Pt 2

The Red Knight felt a foreign magic seize hold of its very existence like the hand of a god attempting to shake something loose. The spell Cale was using was like no spell it could remember seeing—there was nothing of substance for it to block or cut or dodge. It couldn't remember the last time...