Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick and Al went to the orcol bathhouse in the beginning of the day.

The less said about that experience, the better.

But there are a few things to say! The whole place took up a whole city block. The architecture was amazing. Huge waterfalls, deep pools, tile everywhere and almost all of it was artistic, or tasteful, and most of the time both. Public pools cooled the weary under huge almost-oak trees, interior spaces were reserved for those desiring simple gym-type baths. This place was fit for a sultan, or a king, but it was filled with normal people.

‘Normal people’. Ha!

When the predominant people were literally blessed by the Goddess of Beauty and Brutality, ‘normal’ was relative. Sure, there were some dragonkin and incani, and even one wrought, but they only accented the people who made this place what it was.

Don’t focus on the people. You’d only stare and make a fool out of yourself.

…Okay. Maybe you can stare at them just a lit—

NOPE. That guy saw you looking.

To not gaze upon perfection? Impossible! Water glistened on perfect skin, like diamonds in the sun.

Don’t look down don’t look down don’t look dow—

Fuck. He’s looking at you. She’s looking at you, too. And you’re looking at them. Everyone is looking at everyone else. This is uncomfortable. That old adage ‘don’t look down in the gym showers’ is as true at 15 as it is at 50. But come on! It’s really hard to ‘not look down’ when the Perfect People are 8 to 9 feet tall, and their ‘looking down’ is your eye level and no one is allowed in the pool areas while wearing clothes.

Okay. Just. Look at…

Look at that architecture… over there? It’s just so… perfectly distracting!

Don’t mind Erick, he’s just dying in the pool. Falling under until no one can see. He was embarrassed for so many reasons, not the least of which was that he was almost fifty years old and skinny dipping in the public pool was supposed to be culturally completely normal. He wasn’t some kid out to get his rocks off! That was just an unfortunate side effect to a communal swim. At least there was no obvious sign that he was enjoying the experience. He wasn’t 15 anymore, thank god.

… The less said about that, the better.

But Al seemed to find the whole thing hilarious, the whole way through. Afterward, he even had some words of encouragement, “We shall go again another day! We must rid you of this embarrassment.”

“Thanks, Buddy.”

And knowing what Al was packing under his clothes? The less said about that, the better.

There will be no elaboration on that front.

- - - -

Erick walked into the Mage’s Guildhouse feeling a lot better than he had in the previous days. [Cleanse] was no substitute for a nice relaxing time in a lot of hot water and a brisk swim in a deep, cool pool. His clothes were [Mend]ed to perfection, his shoes felt good. His jeans fit him better than they had in years. Maybe all the walking around town was good for him. He might not have been 25 anymore, but he was moving around more these days.

Maybe, one day soon, he could use the public pools and not feel completely inadequate.

Ah, but that day was not today. Today was a day for work!

Erick walked over to the Mend-Cleanse-Light Job Board, with a spring in his step and a smile on his face. He waved to Anhelia at the receptionist desk, and she waved back. The guild was busy today, and the board was full, like it was most days. How did it stay so full? Why weren’t these jobs all gone? This was basically free money.

“Hey, Stranger.”

Erick turned. Anhelia was standing beside him. He greeted her, “Hello, Anhelia. How are you today?”

“I’m doing great. I hoped to see you yesterday but you were absent, and wow, has the rumor mill been active about you.” She smiled. “Planar, huh?”

Erick almost frowned. His good mood took a hit, but he had been through rougher situations than… an entire town talking about him and his daughter? Ah. No. He had never been in a situation like this. Was this going to be a problem? No one had given him weird looks on the street.

Okay. Well. Not many people had given him weird looks on the street. About the same number of people as usual, actually.

“As far as I know, I’m human.”

“Well yeah.” Anhelia laughed. “But not one of our humans.” She must have noticed his concerned face, because she tried to wave off his concern. “There’s nothing to worry about with a tiny secret like that. Honestly, I should have known by your clothes alone; it’s not like you ever tried to hide yourself. But there is someone here who would like to apologize to you, if you’d let her.” She pointed back toward the receptionist area. The incani from the other day was hiding behind the door behind the desk. “Her name is Sizzi Zago. She’s the daughter of the Guildmaster, Master Zago. I don’t think you’ve met her yet?”

Ah. The daughter of the guildmaster? He should go accept that apology. He was going to anyway, but that last bit of information made his decision for him. He relaxed and walked over toward the receptionist desk. Sizzi stepped out from behind the door, her face a perfect mask. She walked forward.

Erick held out his hand. “Sorry for getting off on the wrong—”

Sizzi shook his hand one quick time then ran off in the other direction.

Erick stood there, his hand still held out to no one. He slowly retreated, saying, “Uh. Okay?” He turned toward Anhelia. “That was weird.”

She nodded, not smiling. “The incani messed up big time. I only know the barest bit of the vein you struck by coming to Spur, but I’m no rumor mill.” She looked over to the job board. “You should know: ‘destruction’ has been added to the Esoteric Board. Limited time, big pay from the city if you’re good. Nothing if you’re not. If you are good, though, you might be invited back tomorrow. They’re clearing out the human district one building at a time.”

“Clearing the district? Like… leveling the buildings? To the ground?”

“And also digging up the sewer system from below.”

“What spells?”

“Many different ones. And before I forget: we couldn’t figure out how you did that ‘blacklight’ orb, as you called it. So no payout. Sorry.” Her eyes turned hard. “But if you catch wind of wardlight like that in the city, you let me know and we’ll track down whoever might have lied about not knowing how they’re made.” She turned bubbly again, smiling as she sat down at the receptionist’s desk. “You might get a payout then.”

- - - -

Erick did not take a ‘destruction’ job. He had no relevant skills for that.

Though he thought about [Stoneshape] again…

But no. Not today.

- - - -

Two Mend-Cleanse jobs done and two signatures obtained, one of those signatures from the beleaguered Redalia at the Atriz household, Erick arrived at his last job for the day. The day’s last job was at an enchanter’s shop. Erick was expected to spend over a thousand mana mending various things that the owner couldn’t spend the time, or mana, to [Mend]. It had to be done individually, too. No Aurify and Mana Shaping 10 here, not that Erick was capable of that feat anyway, because that might mess up the delicate enchanting on unfinished items.

‘Ulrick’s Unusuals’ was writ in gold upon the air outside of a nice looking, but not too extravagant, shop at the end of Merchant Street, a block from the towering city walls. The shadows were deeper here, but the light orbs were much more plentiful. Erick entered through the front door. A chime announced his entrance.

A voice called out from the back room. “One minute!”

Erick waited, and looked around. The walls of the display room were lined with glass display cases. A double set of waist-high display cases occupied the center of the room. Items occupied those cases, each of the items separated from the next by a foot of space. It was a very repetitive space. This was Erick’s very first ‘magic item shoppe’ and it was almost exactly what he had expected. And yes, the extra ‘pe’ of ‘shoppe’ was entirely necessary, for every single item in this place looked high class and homemade.

There were daggers, chiefly. A lot of daggers. Each of them etched with script, or more accurately, Ancient Script. Erick couldn’t read the Ancient Script, but little plaques in front of each dagger, written in common Ecks, described each dagger’s purpose. A lot of them were simple cutting implements enchanted to never dull, as long as the rad in the hilt remained. A few were firestarting knives; others lit with white light when activated. An array of throwing knives were enchanted to [Blink] back into their provided sheaths. Several of the daggers were casting aids, made to apply specific Mana Alterings to whatever spell was cast using the dagger. A Decay Dagger was priced at 1500 gold, and it was ‘rated up to 50 MP spells, ~50-500 uses’.

That seemed pretty useful. Erick didn’t know about the pricing, though.

Besides daggers, there were wands, all of them made of the same metal and of the same shape. A lot of them were meant as teaching aids; the wands let people play with a spell to see if they liked it, before they bought it with an ability point. Other wands looked like they were more than teaching aids. The wands for [Conjure Armor], [Healing Beacon], and [Treat Wounds], were ornate things, made of thick steel twirled with a lighter material. While the script on those were not visible, the prices were visible.

The prices for everything were printed right there on the plaques, and Erick was beginning to see a pattern.

100G or 200G for a sharp knife, a fire knife, or a light knife. 500G or 1000G for a [Blink] knife. The [Conjure Armor] rod was 1000G; there was only one price on that rod. [Healing Beacon] was 500G. Erick didn’t know about the spell used for the first knives, or why the [Blink] knives were one of two prices, but he looked up [Conjure Armor] and [Healing Beacon] in the Script. 50MP for the first, 25 for the second.

Were the item prices just MP cost x 20? Erick would have to go to other shops to see if that was true, and that formula was obviously untrue for the Decay Dagger. There were probably some market forces at work behind the scenes, too; flat costs for magical items seemed… off, somehow.

But, wow! Money, money, money!

“Sorry about— Ah! A human!” A tealscale dragonkin appeared from the back room wearing comfortable clothes, brown leather gloves, a brown leather apron, and brown leather boots. “Pardon the appearance, my curator is out killing shadowolves so I’m running both sides today. How can I help you?”

Erick held his mage guild badge out at the man. “I’m here about a mending job. I understand it’s a thousand expected mana.”

“Ah. Yes.” Tealscale said, “I’m Ulrick Ulrick, and there’s lots to be done. Come with me.”

Ulrick led the way into the back—

The air popped in the middle of the room. An orcol appeared, covered in wounds. She eyed Erick, then saw Ulrick. In a millisecond, she grabbed a pair of huge rads out of a bag at her side, saying, “I need the [Healing Beacon] and [Treat Wounds] rods, right now!” She slammed the fist-sized glittering rads on the cashier counter, then stuck her hand through the [Healing Beacon] and [Treat Wounds] display case, shattering glass, grabbing the rods in a quick second. “Sorry about your shoppe!”

She vanished as fast as she appeared.

Ulrick pointed to the destroyed display case, “[Mend] that first, please.”

Erick was slow to start. As he moved toward the broken glass case, he asked, “Is that normal?”

Ulrick had already gone into the back and returned, carrying two magic rods with him. “Oh? Hmm? That? Yeah. Too often, but she’s a good customer and the adventuring community takes good care of me. If I was actually robbed there’d be hell to pay and I wouldn’t be footing the bill.”

[Mend].

Thick tendrils of air flowed from broken wood and glass on the floor, dissolving them, as the spell flowed mass and structure back into its original position. After the glass case finalized its repaired form, Ulrick opened the case and replaced the two rods that the orcol had taken.

Ulrick grabbed the two glittering mega-rads from the front counter, muttering about ‘needing to add credit to her account’, and walked into the back. Erick waited for him to return, but Ulrick called out, “The job is back here.”

So Erick went behind the cashier counter.

The backroom was a large workshop, twice as big as the front. There were three well-lit wooden desk-like spaces and one entire wall full of what looked like metal filing cabinets. The rest of the space was open walkway, but not much of it, because almost all of the room was occupied by bins and bins of weapons and scraps. Shredded metal and twisted blades. Bent wands and chips of steel. And several bins of metal cubes, nearer to the desks than the scrap bins.

Ulrick stepped up to the only two empty bins in the room. He said, “No [Cleanse] in this room. Pick any of the filled bins, and [Mend] one item at a time. If it turns into a dagger or a wand— anything besides a block of metal, put it in one bin. If it turns into a metal cube, put it in the other. No Aurify [Mend], because I’m always in the middle of making new items and I don’t want you to mess up my work.” He looked around. He said, “I think that’s it. Got any questions?”

Erick moved to a bin. [Mend]. A bent wand turned into a steel cube. He said, “This is the job? I don’t know much about enchanting… How is all this—” He gestured to the room. “How is this the outcome of writing Ancient Script?”

“What you write often contorts the base material, but sometimes it’s salvageable.” He shrugged. “I don’t expect many non-cubes. The job ends after a thousand mana, but if you do more then I’ll pay more, in thousand mana increments.”

It was then that Erick realized he might have a problem.

Mend 5, instant, touch, 10 mana

Touch a non-magical complicated medium sized object and restore it to its prime.

Exp: 80/800

Non-magical.

[Mend] had leveled to 5 earlier in the day, but Erick still couldn’t do magical items.

Erick said, “I don’t have a [Mend] that can do magical items. Is this a problem?”

Ulrick frowned, but then shrugged again. “Not really. What’s your [Mend] at, if you don’t mind?”

“5, leveled earlier today, too.”

“You don’t get magical mending till 10.” He frowned, saying, “I had hoped that the mender they’d send would be 10, but I get what I pay for. Do what you can.”

As Ulrick moved to a wooden desk in the back of the room, Erick went to work. He activated [Meditation], picked up a piece of scrap, and cast [Mend]. Then he did it again. And again. And again.

Cube.

Cube. Cube.

Cube. Cube. Cube.

Cube. Cube. Cube. Cube. Cube.

Cube…

Erick turned trash into workable scrap, many, many times.

- - - -

Erick had to stop. He was low on mana, even with [Meditation] active and Clarity dropping [Mend] from 10 MP to 8 MP, then 7 MP near the end of his first iteration. Clarity 5 should have made [Mend] 7.5 mana, but there were no half-MP costs and the Script rounded up; either 1 MP was the lowest discrete particle of MP, or that’s how the Script chose to enact magic in the world. Erick bet the second one was the correct answer.

But hey! [Mend] leveled. Though nothing had changed this level, so he didn’t even notice when it happened. [Mend] outside of odd levels did not change. What would happen at level 9?

Mend 6, instant, touch, 10 mana

Touch a non-magical complicated medium sized object and restore it to its prime.

Exp: 30/1300

[Meditation] leveled, too, before this last job, actually.

Meditation 8

You are at Rest while Meditating.

Normal movement, moderate actions. May attack or defend. Damage done or taken breaks Rest.

Requirements: 10 Willpower

Exp: 976/3400

[Meditation] felt close to natural, now. Mend felt better, too, but there was still no variation from creating a cube. Though he had only gone through 600ish mana, it spent pretty damn fast once he got going.

He needed another twenty minutes to get going again. He looked over at Ulrick. The tealscale dragonkin had been turning metal cubes into magical items in the back of the workshop for the last thirty minutes.

When the man leaned back in his chair to stare at the ceiling, Erick saw his chance.

He asked, “Ulrick?”

Ulrick turned. “Done already?”

“Not yet. At 600ish, but I’m going to 2000, and then I’m going to stop. I wanted to know if I could watch you while you work, for a bit. I’m Resting right now and I’ve never seen enchanting before.”

Ulrick looked at him for a moment. “Sure. I can show you twice.” Ulrick pointed to a spot on the floor three feet away from him. “Stand there. Don’t talk. Don’t move. I’ll tell you when you can move again; only then you may ask your questions.”

Erick quickly complied.

Ulrick picked a metal cube from a nearby bin and placed it on the table in front of him, in the center of an array of 5 rads worth 3G apiece. He didn’t seem to care about picking a specific cube; he grabbed the one nearest to his hand. With the metal cube in front of him, in the center of the array, and Ulrick sitting still in his seat, the flow of mana around him changed. Erick could see that change with his [Meditation] active, but he didn’t understand the change.

Ulrick stared at the cube, dancing his gloved fingers in the space around the metal. All at once the rads vanished and the cube deformed like a gelatin splashing. The liquid metal folded into itself, stretching into a wand.

Ulrick began to whisper words in a language Erick had never heard before.

“A bit of here, a bit of there, a bit of all of everywhere, close your eyes and you will see, all the places you can be. A bit of here, a bit of there, a bit of all of everywhere, close your eyes and just you think, all the places you can [Blink].”

Ulrick leaned back, letting the magic settle.

The wand glittered then cracked in half. The two split halves twisted around each other.

Ulrick sighed. He tossed the wrecked wand into a nearby trash bin. He opened a small box kept on the far side of the table and pulled out 5 more 3G rads, and placed them on the enchanting array. Another metal cube was placed in the center of the array. The flow of mana changed, and Ulrick began enchanting again.

“A bit of here, a bit of there, a bit of all of everywhere, close your eyes and you will see, all the places you can be. A bit of here, a bit of there, a bit of all of everywhere, close your eyes and just you think, all the places you can [Blink].”

This time the metal stabilized in the air, arcs of teal cascading around the metal form from hilt to tip. The wand slowly fell to the table’s surface, but Ulrick was still focused. Nothing was happening. The ambient mana looked stable. But…

After a minute, Ulrick leaned back, sighing, smiling. He turned to Erick. “Worked that time.” He picked up the wand. “[Blink] wand. One charge, but it can hold 50, which is as good as you can get without spending thousands on better metals.” He set it aside. “I’ll leave the charging for later. Any questions?”

“How do you learn Ancient Script? Was that rhyming and then casting the spell at the end? Is all enchanting like that? What’s with all the little rads?”

Ulrick laughed a little. “You truly haven’t seen this before, have you?” Ulrick stood, then walked the other way, toward the filing cabinets. “I’ll just...” He pulled one out, then shoved it closed. He opened another, but that one wasn’t it either. “Where is...” He looked up, then down. He opened one more— “Ah ha! Found it.” He pulled out a text book. He handed it to Erick. It was a textbook on Ecks to Ancient Script, along with the common laws surrounding the practice, as enforced by the Mage Guild. “Bring it back whenever. It’s an old textbook, but it’s still good.” He looked around. “You won’t be able to finish this all today, anyway. Just get as far as you can.”

While Erick began leafing through the textbook, Ulrick went back to work enchanting metal cubes into… flip flip flip… According to the textbook… Ah!

… 500 gold hunks of metal, according to the textbook’s pricing formula.

Well. Not exactly. A single wand of Blink, fully charged, cost 500 gold, like Erick had theorized. But with a bit more reading, the truth behind that cost was a lot more complicated than the spell MP x 20. Items with only one charge —freshly made magic items— were 1/10th the fully charged price, with partial charges costing—

“So? [Mend]?” Ulrick said, smiling at him.

Erick was back to mostly full MP. He put the book into the shoulderbag Jane had bought him.

Cube.

Cube. Cube.

Cube. Cube. Cube.

Cube. Cube.

Cube…

He hit 1000 mana spent on [Mend], and kept going. He Rested a bit, watched Ulrick make two more [Blink] wands, then went back to [Mend]. Before he hit 2000 mana spent, [Mend] leveled again. It wasn’t much more useful to Erick, but it was nice to see progress.

Mend 7, instant, touch, 10 mana

Touch a non-magical uncomplicated large object and restore it to its prime.

Exp: 10/2100

Because of Clarity, he was only spending 7 mana per 10 [Mend] experience gained. It felt nice to go further on the same tank of gas, but also like he was cheating experience. It wasn’t a real problem, though. Erick would hit his experience cap whenever his skills stopped leveling, and that would be that. He didn’t want to get into any monster fights ever again.

He wasn’t sure of the math, but Jane had been sure that he could expect to get to level 14 or 15 without killing monsters, if he spent the rest of his points on base stats. If he bought skills that gave experience, he could go a bit further, but not much.

And another thing! Clarity made getting to 2000 actual mana spent take quite a lot longer! Thankfully he hadn’t put [Mend] as a favored spell, or this job would be impossible.

Or just take a whole lot longer.

Ulrick was walking through the room when Erick finally finished.

“Done!”

“2000 mana?”

“Yup! Maybe a little more.”

Erick wobbled to his feet and pulled the work order out his shoulderbag. Steadying himself on the nearest bin of cubes, he handed the work order to Ulrick, who instead of signing it, pulled a clear stone from his pocket.

“Have you spent at least 2000 mana mending this trash into cubes, and not one of them turned into an item?”

Erick said, “Yes. I have spent over 2000 mana mending stuff into cubes, and not one of them turned into anything other than a cube.”

Green glow.

Ulrick put the stone away and took the paper, signing it big and bold, and twice. He handed the paper back to Erick, as he looked around. Over five trash bins had turned into a little over three cube bins. A far cry from the whole back room. But still, progress.

He said, “You’ve saved me quite a lot of mana and exhaustion. Too bad you already have a teacher or I’d want to swipe you up myself.”

Erick smiled, folding the paper and putting it into his bag. “Al’s a good guy but there’s not much to do after the attack, so it’s odd jobs for now. If this job is still on the board tomorrow, I might come back.”

Ulrick smiled. “You do that.”

Before he ushered himself out of Ulrick’s shoppe, Erick realized he had a question. “Say, Ulrick. I noticed no stat boosting items out there. Are those not worth making? You seem pretty high end, but I just don’t know. Al said I should look into some basic boosting items sooner or later, is why I’m asking.”

Ulrick took a moment to answer. At first he looked maybe-angry, but that quickly changed into gruff determination. “I’ve got an established customer base and I like what I do. There’s money to be made in items like mine and people don’t expect them to last forever. But all those plus Strength and plus Willpower belts and crowns? They always break at the worst possible time, because they always break when they’re stressed.” He waggled his gloved claw. “Mark me, don’t go buying some plus 30 Willpower crown and expect it to last more than 3 or 4 mana pools.” He paused. He relented. “A plus 30 Strength belt, though? That’s useful. For one battle. Maybe two. Enough to save your life, I admit. But no matter what, if you get into basic enchanting, someone is going to die because the item you sold them gave them too much unearned confidence. You don’t want those bodies on your conscience. Enchanting might make you a lot of gold, if you’re good, but that’s not what real enchanting is about. Real enchanting is about saving lives on battlefields you’ll never see.”

Erick thought about that for a moment. It was good advice.

A chime rang from the front room. A voice called, “Hello? Ulrick?”

Erick took that as his cue to leave. He went out into the front room first, then bowed out of the shoppe, saying, “Thanks for the advice, Ulrick.”

Ulrick waved him off, already talking to a pair of dragonkin customers.

Erick turned in his three jobs to the Mage’s Guild; direct deposit, all three. The first two for 4 silver and 5 silver respectively, and the last one for 10 gold, twice. Enchanting gigs were nice, though Erick could already see why they paid out so well, and why the jobs weren’t snatched off of the MCL board as soon as they appeared. It was exhausting work! But he already knew he would go back tomorrow. 10 gold was 10 gold, and 10 gold twice over was even better.

That would happen tomorrow, though; today was done, even if the sun was still in the sky. Erick went to the Sewerhouse and [Blink]ed to the top floor’s landing. Dinner would come around soon enough, but until then, sleep! He glanced at his status before he crashed on the living room couch. One day soon he could ignore the passive skills, but for now, it was nice to see the numbers go up.

Oh. He had gained a base level, too, and… Ouch. Look at that level requirement. At 14400 exp to next level, Erick might already be staring at the mountain.

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 11, Class: None

Exp: 610/14400

Class: -/-

Points: 7

HP

90/90

150 per day

MP

576/576

576 per day

Strength

9

+0

[9]

Vitality

15

+0

[15]

Willpower

20

+0

[20]

Focus

20

+0

[20]

Favored Spell waiting!

Favored Spell waiting!

Spoiler: Spoiler

Jane was probably already skill-experience capped. That girl of his was driven.

… But whatever! Sleep now! To Rest, to lie down in slumber. Such a wonderful thi...ng…

… z… zz… zzZZzz…

- - - -

He woke to the sounds of people talking downstairs, and the smell of cooking meat. Night had fallen not an hour ago. The sky outside was still vaguely bright. Footsteps touched upon the stone floor.

“Oh good. I was just about to come get you.” Jane walked over to him. “Dinner’s almost ready. Have a good sleep, Dad?”

Erick rolled upright. His eyes didn’t focus.

“Hey?” Jane looked at him. There were two Janes. “Dad?”

He shook his head. “I’m okay. Just out of it.” He stared, and there was only one Jane. “Too much mana spent today… something like 3000? More than that.”

Jane helped him to his feet. “That’s a lot. Savral is back; that’s part of my day. He’s downstairs cooking, actually. His team was recalled. The shadowcat hunt might be a lot worse than anyone thought.”

While Erick had been groggy, ‘worse than anyone thought’ woke him right up.