Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Erick’s first night in his stone house was a lot easier after Al installed proper bathroom fixtures. Having a working toilet, even if it was just a raised hole in the ground with water running across the bottom, was a good thing. No sink or shower, though. Only [Cleanse]. That was probably the hardest thing to adjust to, when it came to living in Spur.

In other, non desert cities, there might be cisterns in every building, or fresh water pumped in from reservoirs; Spur only had extra running water 3 months out of the year. Al would have to go around town and shut off three out of every four water sources in 45 days, when the underground water table usually dropped.

But that was a problem for the future. The people in the Courthouse were already thinking of extra ways to capture Erick’s rain. Reservoirs were already being built; Al had worked on a few of them, in fact.

The next morning everyone went their separate ways. Jane to her guild to do some adventurey stuff and buy kitchen things. Al back to work. Erick went to the Mage guild for some odd jobs and to meet more of the locals. Watching Jane whip out that big [Mend] spell lit a fire in him; his own [Mend] was still almost a thousand casts from level 10.

Erick's jobs took him to the Atriz Household, where the pinkscale nanny Redalia was all too happy to receive him. She was more reserved than normal, and her five charges were the same; they were screaming, playing, until Erick showed up, then they were silent, hiding around corners and peeking out when Erick wasn’t looking. Erick [Cleanse]d their house, and [Mend]ed several broken toys.

Eventually, Redalia confessed, “I cannot believe that you are still doing these jobs, Archmage.”

Erick smiled. “How else would I get to know my neighbors?”

“Still… Thank you for your assistance.” Redalia glanced behind her. Her kids were quietly staring at Erick from around a door. Redalia whispered behind a raised hand, “I don’t have to use The Cage when you’re here. It’s a nice change.”

His jobs took him to new neighbors. To people he had seen on the streets but never spoken to.

His jobs took him to people he knew, but did not know where they lived. Like Anhelia’s house, which was in a mixed district of dragonkin and incani. She welcomed him with a smile and a tray of purple plum cookies, and the task of [Mend]ing a sitting room with glass antique cases that a client had destroyed in anger. She tipped him an extra gold.

Everyone wanted to talk, to chat, to shoot the shit. It was nice. Erick felt like he was really a part of the town. But everyone wanted to know why he was still doing these jobs.

“There’s a lot of jobs on those boards! Someone has to do them.”

“Well that’s alright, I suppose. Here: I just finished making these cakes/pies/cookies, have some.”

Erick didn’t need to eat lunch after his morning of indulgence. Instead, he went straight to the woodworkers in town to buy some furniture. Sleeping on beds Jane made from [Conjure Item] was alright, for a short while, but it was not a long term solution. He needed more kitchen stuff, too, but Jane was going after all that, except for the stove. Al had gifted Erick the stove they had used in their apartment.

Erick wandered down to the working side of the city, near the east gate. Over here the buildings were much larger; the space necessary for larger industries like metal working and furniture making. Erick soon found what he was looking for: A warehouse kind of store with wooden furniture displayed on the outside and half of its land dedicated to [Grow]ing specific strains of trees.

In the middle of the woodworkers store, Erick felt a pang of happiness. He did not realize how happy he would be buying new furniture. There were beds and chairs and tables and everything else to get! And the process they used to make the furniture was also quite captivating. Erick watched workers [Grow] trees and then chop them down, to slice them into planks with metal tools and bring the whole thing together with [Woodshape], which was a tier 2 spell combining [Watershape] and [Grow].

A greenscale man walked over to Erick. “How can I help you, Archmage Flatt?”

“I have no idea! This is all quite fascinating to watch!” Erick paused. He said, “No. Wait. Yes. I came here for furniture. How does that work? I see you have wares for sale, but I’m looking to outfit a whole house.”

“New place? Never been furnished?”

Erick smirked. “The rumor mill is well informed.”

“It’s not that large of a town.” Greenscale smiled, then said, “Either you can pick out what you want and the guys will deliver it to you, or we can come and check the place out and give you an estimate for the whole property. We do everything, from cabinets to beds to sofas to bookcases; any wooden furniture you could possibly want.”

“How much for two— No. Three bedrooms. Three beds like that one.” Erick pointed at a king sized bed, well made, thick and sturdy, like the orcol-furniture at Al’s place. “And some dressers like that one. Probably just six pieces of furniture right now.”

“35 G per bedroom set, which includes a bed like that, one of those dressers, some tables of assorted sizes that can either remain tables or become simple writing desks, and your choice of bookshelves or shelves. Mattresses and other cloth products are not included. Would you be interested in a dining room set, too?”

Seemed expensive, but reasonable. Better than clothing prices on Market Street. He was buying nice furniture, after all. How much did a mattress cost, though?

Erick said, “I am interested in a dining room set, but I don’t see anything I like except your beds and dressers. I’m going to shop around and be back later.”

Greenscale countered, “32 G per bedroom set. Dining room set for 30; draw up any design you want. My people can work with you on site through all the pieces you purchase. You won’t get a better deal in Spur, or a faster job done. We can do the whole thing in a week and move everything there ourselves.”

Erick glanced toward Poi.

Poi nodded, oh so little that it was hard to tell he nodded at all.

Erick told Greenscale, “Sold.”

Greenscale smiled wide. “Half up front, half upon completion.”

Erick scrunched his face. “Is that normal?”

Poi said, “Yes, sir.”

Greenscale moved toward the cashier’s desk, saying, “I can draw up the paperwork right now.”

Erik followed him to the register. “Where would I find mattresses and such?”

“We work with them, all the time.” Greenscale pointed out the front door, to across the street. “The mattresses in the store here are theirs; they have more products you might like.”

Erick smiled wide. “Very good!”

- - - -

Erick spent way too much money.

And then he turned to Poi, and said, “I forgot to buy your stuff.”

“No need, sir. I can furnish my own living quarters; I already have various things I can bring to your home from the barracks.”

“Really?” Erick said, “I feel like I’m using you. It’s not a good feeling.”

“Speaking of, sir. We should drop by both the Farmer’s Council and the Courthouse to finalize some details on your terms of employment.”

Erick grumbled. “You think I’m being used, too.”

“In the same way any responsible member of society is used by the rest of us.”

“Hmm. Well. I suppose that’s not bad, then.”

Erick headed toward the Courthouse.

- - - -

Erick read through the contract for the third time. It wasn’t very long; only three pages of normal sized script. But it was hand written, like all of the books and papers and everything else he had seen on all his time on Veird, and Hera’s handwriting was a bit… loopy. Nice to look at; hard to read.

He set the contract down. He said, “Let me make sure I am understanding all of this correctly: I get paid 20G per day, and then 5% of the taxes gathered from farmland rentals, paid monthly. I am expected to provide 24 hours of rain per tenday week, however the Farmer’s Council decides to split the hours. Meat sales are different, as we don’t know if they’ll be monstrous or not. If they are monstrous, then I will be getting 5% of the profit of all monster meat sales raised on the farms— The deal I already worked out with the Farmer’s Council. If the meat is not monstrous, then that whole system will be scrapped, and all I get is 5% of the farmland tax.”

Hera and Silverite sat across the table.

On his side of the table, Erick sat with Al.

Erick had swung by the Sewerhouse and asked Al to come along, and reading these terms, it was a good thing he did. Al didn’t speak, but he didn’t need to; Erick saw the annoyance written on his brown-green orcol face.

He asked, “How much in taxes does the current growing season generate? How much is 5%, each quarter?”

Hera looked over some paperwork in front of her, and said, “Spur rents 10 by 10 plots of land for 1 silver per day in the water season to anyone who wants a plot of land and proves themselves able to utilize that land for the benefit of the city. The Farmer’s Council currently owns all 922 farm contracts, and they pay Spur 92 gold each day for that privilege, or roughly 8300 gold per water season.

“They make about 20 times that amount, or something like 160000 gold, divided however they divide it among all of their roughly 300 people. For three months of back breaking work, each of those people makes 550 gold on average, or 6 gold per day. But the cost for itinerant farmers to live in Spur is roughly 2 gold a day. So the average take is 380 gold per 3 month season, per person.” Hera paused.

Hera said, “But that’s for the farmers. For you, right now, 5% of Spur’s farmland rental taxes, paid monthly, would be 138 gold. With the expansion of the farms expected to add 5 more 9 square kilometer blocks of farmland, for…” She read over her notes. “A total of about 5400 ten by ten plots, or 540 gold per day in taxes, for a 30 day 5% cut of … 810 gold.” Hera looked up from the papers, and smiled. She quickly added, “As long as things work out like we think they’ll work out, you will get an additional 810 gold per month in addition to the guaranteed 600 you get from the 20G daily pay… in addition to whatever monster meat deals might occur outside of the scope of this contract.”

Erick sat back for a moment.

“Those are certainly a lot of numbers. Thank you for them. But.” Erick said, “I don’t know what sort of deals most of the people get around Spur, but this offer seems a bit low considering I have been working in the Sewerhouse for a while. I know how much that public office creates, and Al’s cut is 25%. 5% in farmland taxes? For 3 more quarters of growing season? How about 25%.”

Silverite said, “You have to understand that Al does—”

“40%” Erick replied.

Silverite said, “What you have to understand, is that you will be devaluing a great deal of that work. Many people will—”

“Fif—”

“No. Archmage Flatt.” Determination steeled Silverite’s voice, “Do not test me on this. Please. Let me finish.”

Maybe he was pushing too hard? Erick nodded, letting Silverite have the floor.

“Thank you.” Silverite continued, softer than before. “If this works, we are going to transition into something more sustainable. What you have to understand, is that you are simultaneously creating a great opportunity, as well as devaluing a current way of life. And I mean that very literally. The 810 gold per month Hera stated is based on current operations. The 1 silver price for a plot of land will likely drop to 5 copper, or less, meaning you would get an extra 400G per month.

“The harvests will come slower and more methodical, with active harvests occurring only during your rain, instead of ripping everything we can out of the land, though I’m sure some of that will still happen. If Spur can become a year round breadbasket of the area, trade routes will open. We’re not the only city out here in the Crystal Forest. Not only are Frontier and Kal’Duresh looking to purchase food, so are many other places. Like Vindin to the far north, and Outpost to the north west.

“We will be transitioning into something better for everyone, and a much higher population. This means Spur will need money to pay people in the Courthouse and the Army, and especially in the Guard. Don’t forget: we’re going to need to protect all that new land out there. Monsters crawl out of the Forest all the time. Spur is expanding, Archmage. This is going to take a lot of money and we are going to get most of this money from farmland revenue, until we can transition to a more stable adventuring-based economy. Please don’t butcher the golden chicken, looking for eggs that aren’t there yet.

“And don’t forget: This entire system might not work. This is a very unstable proposition, because it all depends on one person. This all depends on you.”

Erick looked at Al. He wasn’t frowning anymore. Al nodded.

Erick said, “I hear what you’re saying. 10%”

Silverite countered, “7% and no more.” She added, “And keep this close to your heart: if people come here and try to set up a life and you fail them, I won’t be able to save you from a mob of angry farmers. I’ll try, but I won’t be able to. No one will.”

“… Deal.”

Erick held out his hand. Silverite shook it, as Hera made adjustments to the contract.

Silverite signed first. Erick signed second.

Silverite sat back, gently smiling. “Thank you for coming to Spur, Erick. This old city is going to see some major changes going forward. So take care of yourself!”

“Thank you, Silverite.” Erick paused, realizing there was something else to ask Silverite. “Do you know about the [Polymorph] spell? My daughter is thinking about becoming a Polymage.”

She hummed in silent thought.

Erick added, “She took Scion of Balance yesterday, if that makes a difference.”

“Scion of Balance makes a major difference.” Silverite nodded, saying, “Advise her to put all her extra points into Willpower from now on. Polymage is a good Class, if you can navigate the troubles of changing your body into monstrous forms. 25 Willpower is the minimum safe number, but 30 to 35 is a much better range. Does she already have [Polymorph]?”

“I’ll tell her that.” Erick smiled. “And no, she does not. She captured some juvenile mimics from the Forest and she’s taking them to an alchemist, but I’m not sure what happens past that point.”

“I’m sure she can find the relevant people in the Adventurer’s District. How is Poi working out for you?”

Poi was outside of the room right now.

Erick said, “He’s great. Already picked out a room in the house.”

“Would you be opposed to a few more guards stationed in your home?”

Erick felt a chill. “… Do I need them?”

“Only if you want them. Poi was stationed in and out of Ar’Kendrithyst for the last several years; there are more like him who would prefer to have some quiet downtime outside of the Dead City, and yet remain employed in the Army, without having to reposition to the Guard during their leave.”

“I’ll think about it.” Erick stood. “Timetable for rain is still up to the Council, correct?”

“Correct. Good day, Erick.”

“Good day to you, too.”

Erick collected Poi in the hallway, and together with Al, they left the Courthouse.

- - - -

Halfway down the Courthouse steps, Erick asked Poi, “Do you have any friends that would like a… a vacation? I guess? In my house? Silverite put forth that some other soldiers would like some downtime without having to transition out of the Army.”

Poi smiled. “I know several people who would appreciate such ‘time off’.”

“Not too many, though.” Erick frowned. “This is all kinda weird for me and Silverite suggesting I needed more guards is kinda freaking me out.”

“I understand, sir.”

Al nudged Erick. “You’re going to be as rich as me! Stop worrying and enjoy it all, already.”

Erick tried to smile. But instead, he said, “I get the distinct feeling that the one incident Killzone told me about was the only incident that was palatable enough to tell me about.”

Al laughed, then slapped Erick on the back. “You worry too much! But we can do some [Ward] work and get you some of the better [Ward]s. Maybe this will make you feel better? And if not: there is always beer!”

Erick chuckled. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Poi remained silent.

- - - -

The three of them stood outside of Erick’s house, in the vast, open stone fields of the Human District.

Several glittering white spherical [Ward]s were scattered around, alongside several glittering no-color [Ward]s. Al tossed a stone into his no-color [Ward]. The stone caught on gravity and flowed around the spherical space, bobbing back and forth through the air, eventually settling into a hover in the middle of the sphere.

Al tossed a stone into the white [Ward].

The stone bounced right back out.

Al did not yell, but he did speak loudly, “I do not understand how you are this bad at [Ward]ing. I don’t understand how anyone is this bad. This is basic spellwork.”

“I’m feeling some deja vu, aren’t you?”

Al went silent, staring at Erick. Al walked away.

Erick didn’t try to stop Al. He went back to his [Ward] work. Meditation kept his mana higher than it would have been; Clarity ensured the whole endeavor was a lot cheaper than otherwise.

Ward X, instant, short range, 24 hours

Create a Small Ward that can have Minor Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 10 MP + Z

Create a Small Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 15 MP + Z

Create a Special Ward. Variable Cost

Create a Medium Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 20 MP + Z

Create a Medium Ward that can have Medium Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 25 MP + Z

Personal Ward: Any Ward of any type can be made Personal, to move with you. Original Cost x2

Create a Large Ward that can have Medium Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 30 MP + Z

Create a Large Ward that can have Large Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 35 MP + Z

Create a Ward with another Spell attached to the interior. Spell activation based on Z invested into Ward. 100 MP + Z

Your Wards regenerate Z based on your Rested MP regen rate.

Special Wards can be made Permanent. 250 MP + Variable Cost

Minor Effects: Bug Ward, Temperature Ward, Alarm Ward

Small Effects: Visual Disruption, Audio Disruption, Weather Ward

Medium Effects: Area Hostile Visual Disruption, Area Hostile Audio Disruption

Large Effects: Drain Hostile HP/MP, Gravity Ward

Special Ward: Eschew all other effects in order to shape, color, and illuminate a ward however you wish. Skill level at Mana Manipulation determines final outcome. Variable Cost

It truly was an ungodly large blue box.

Erick dismissed the box and went back to trying to making a proper [Gravity Ward]. [Gravity Ward] was a weird kind of magic, and that made Erick hesitant. Usually, when he tried to do weird magic, it worked out for him. It usually worked out too well.

The problem with [Gravity Ward] is that he didn’t want to accidentally create a miniature black hole.

Erick whispered a small prayer to Rozeta, “Rozeta, if you can hear this, I do not want to create a black hole. Do not let this happen.”

[Gravity Ward].

A glittering white sphere appeared in front of Erick. He waited. He watched.

Success! No black hole!

Erick picked up a stone and tossed it into the sphere.

It fell through the sphere and clattered against the ground. Nothing else happened. He threw another stone into the sphere. More clattering. Again, nothing. More stones indicated that the [Gravity Ward] might look like it was there, but it wasn’t actually doing anything at all.

Hmm.

[Gravity Ward].

He tossed a stone into the new [Gravity Ward]. This one caught on something and gently fell up, then hit the top of the [Ward] and fell back down. The stone proceeded to roll across the edge of the spherical [Ward] until clattering back to the ground.

Erick chuckled.

Al was angry that Erick couldn’t work a proper [Gravity Ward]. Possibly more angry than he had been when Erick failed at lightwarding, weeks ago, the day after the attack on the Sewerhouse.

Erick couldn’t work [Gravity Ward] properly, but magic was still truly wondrous. He had cast both of his most recent [Gravity Ward]s with the basic idea of ‘pulling everything toward the center’. Whatever changed from the first to the second, or through the 7 he had made previous, was beyond Erick. He thought he had done every single one the same, but apparently he hadn’t.

Thankfully, though, nothing like a black hole had formed. That would have been terrifying. The whole [Gravity Ward] experience was kinda terrifying enough as it was.

Maybe he should move on to something else for a little while. He hadn’t tried wardlights any time recently. Those had been fun. Now he had [Ward X] and a whole lot more experience with magic. Maybe this time would be different?

Now… How did this go? Have an idea and flash out 50 mana, quick as a whip?

[Special Ward].

A brilliant white, head-sized orb appeared in front of Erick, spilling radiance across the orange and yellow stone ground. Erick smiled at the lightward. It worked. It worked, perfectly.

[Special Ward].

Another brilliant white lightorb appeared. Good. Good. Let’s try for something slightly different.

[Special Ward].

A brilliant sunlight orb appeared, a replica of the sun above, done in miniature. Erick looked as close as he could without blinding himself, but could swear that there were eddies of yellow-orange light on the lightward’s surface, and maybe even miniature solar flares.

[Special Ward].

Another sunlight orb.

[Special Ward].

Another sunlight orb.

“Ha ha! I got it!”

… And now for something slightly more different. Erick focused on the same process, but smashed the idea with a shattering hammer at the last moment.

A shattered sunorb appeared, fractal at the edges and glittering sunlight in all directions as it gently moved around itself, like some kind of crazy three dimensional kaleidoscope. It was even better than the one he had accidentally made during his failed lightwarder test; this one moved upon itself!

“I love it.” Erick said, “This is amazing. Good job, Magic.”

One more test to go. Erick focused the color blue, then took a mental step to the left, away from the reds and yellows, toward the shorter wavelengths of light, just past the visible.

[Special Ward].

A pale blue orb appeared, misty and insubstantial. He looked at his tunic; no glow. Erick realized the problem. The sun was high in the sky—

“No wait! No problem at all.”

[Stoneshape].

Erick pulled up a clump of stone and formed it into a thin sheet, dense enough to block the sun, wide enough to block a lot of light. One clump didn’t go very far. So he brought up four clumps and turned them into more stone sheets. He held them around himself and the blue orb, blocking out a lot of the sun.

“Success!” Erick cackled with laughter, “I did it!”

His off-white tunic was glowing in the light of the blacklight orb. Erick pushed the stone sheets into the ground and stepped away from his blacklight orb. And then he scratched his head.

It could be a fluke.

He looked at the lightwards he had made. Every orb came out exactly how he wanted. But to be sure, he created another blacklight orb, and another fractured sun ‘orb’. They appeared, exactly how Erick wanted them to appear.

Something had changed. It was a lot easier to make the kinds of lightwards he wanted. Maybe it was all the practice he had gotten in with his daily personal absorption [Ward]. Maybe it was the fact that [Ward] had reached level 10. Something had changed, and Erick had no idea what.

“Whatever! It’s magic! Magic can be mysterious. It can have secrets.”

Erick liked it that way.

[Gravity Ward].

Erick threw a stone into the fresh [Ward]. It lazily caught on some hidden current and drifted toward the center, to rest there. To outside observers it looked like it was hovering, but to the rock, it probably seemed at rest.

Ah!

That’s a better way to think about it. No black holes here. Just higher potential energy on the edge of the [Ward], and 0 potential energy in the center. Let’s not touch any thoughts of ‘gravitons’ or ‘the higgs particle’.

[Gravity Ward].

This time the rock he threw ‘fell’ straight to the center of the gravity ward, and after wobbling for a bit, stayed there, looking to all outside observers like it was hovering.

“Cool.” Erick said, “Now Al said to try with a Mana Shaping to bring the ‘center’ of the well to a point easy to reach from outside of the [Gravity Ward]. I also need to be able to designate specific objects.”

Erick watched the flow of mana, imagining it catching only what he wanted caught, and bringing those objects to a point at the edge of a warped [Ward]. Mana moved through the air as Erick began to cast.

Mana Shaping.

[Gravity Ward].

A cone with a rounded bottom appeared, the cone point pointed at Erick. Erick walked to the side, studying the space with Meditation active. Streamers of mana were flowing through the weird cone [Ward] and stopping at the point.

Erick picked up a stone and tossed it into the [Ward]. The stone hit the edge and flowed through the space well enough, but it started whipping around as it got closer to the cone’s point. It flung out of the [Gravity Ward] well before it reached 0 potential energy.

Erick looked at his mana. He was kinda low. If he had Scion of Focus, he would already be full; he wouldn’t need to stop to Rest. But he had enough mana left for two more spells. Maybe he could solve his [Gravity Ward] problem now that he knew what to aim for.

Erick experimented with cutting the personal gravity of everything in the space to a lot less than what they actually had, to make them practically weightless, so that they moved slow enough to not fling themselves out of the [Ward]. He combined this with the differences in potential energy from the outside edge to designated sink, to be as little as possible, so that there would be no stones or anything whipping around.

[Gravity ward].

Erick threw a stone into the [Ward]. The stone caught, and slowly flowed down to the designated catch at the side of the [Gravity Ward]. But something didn’t feel right. He had to test this [Gravity Ward] with other objects, but all he had were rocks. He had to improvise.

Haoock—ptew!

Erick spat into the [Ward]. His loogie caught, and sunk down to the gravity sink.

“Ah. Not exactly what I wanted.”

That [Gravity Ward] worked out well enough, but it caught everything, and thus it was a failure.

And with that thought, Erick created the next [Gravity Ward] with the idea of focusing on decreasing the mass of everything with a specific gravity, like only light things turned near-weightless, or only heavy stone turned near-weightless, and thus only those specific things were slowly drawn to the designated 0 potential energy well in the [Ward].

[Gravity Ward].

A blue box appeared.

Gravity Strainer, instant, medium range, 65 mana, 1 hour duration.

Conjure a large, freely moldable space where specific objects turn near-weightless and fall to a designated point.

“Ah ha!” Erick said, “I got it, Poi! [Gravity Strainer].”

Poi said, “Very good, sir.”

Erick threw a stone into the [Ward] he had just created. The stone floated to the sink.

He hocked another loogie into the space, and his spit just fell right through.

“Success!” Erick paused. “Ah. Hmm.”

He realized he was still missing something else to complete his apprenticeship with Al. His [Cleanse Aura]. But his [Cleanse] wasn’t even 10 yet.

… It wasn’t even level 8 yet. It was almost there, but not quite. [Mend] wasn’t even 10 yet; it was only 8.

… He could work both of those later.

Right now, he had to go shove [Gravity Strainer] in Al’s face. Bad at [Ward] work? Bah! Look at that fractured sun lightorb. Look at that blacklight orb. Look at this [Gravity Strainer]! Bad at magic? Bah! Al was a bad teacher!

… Erick was probably a bad student, too, so… There’s that.

- - - -

Erick sat down on a stone stool, on one side of a stone table. Al sat on the other side.

Al stared at Erick’s spell. He had been making adjustments to the kitchen when Erick walked in; creating counters and a cold box, a dining table, making the sink a bit bigger and sturdier, a hood for the range and a stone oven space to put a heating [Ward] inside. Now he was just reading Erick’s spell over a few times.

Eventually Al dismissed the spell, saying, “This is the best version of the spell you could possibly have gotten. People try for years and never achieve this. Mine only works on rads because that’s what I was going for. Your spell can do anything.”

Erick whipped out a shattered sun lightward, saying, “And I figured out how to make these things. And this, too!” He whipped out a blacklight orb. Inside of the house, even with smaller light orbs in the corner of the stone room, the blacklight made Erick’s shirt glow. “I’m going to take them to the Mage’s Guild and see who wants to buy one. Anhelia expressed great interest. Ah. I need to get lightward certified, first.”

Al laughed. “You’re really motivated, aren’t you?

A sudden bout of melancholy struck.

“Yeah. I am.” Erick said, “It’s all because Jane’s… Rather more motivated than I thought possible. I didn’t expect her to take [Cleanse] and [Mend], too, and then surpass me so easily. She whipped that reconstruction spell out with practically no effort—” He paused. He said, “Ah. No. That’s wrong. She earned that herself. Not like she unlocked [Mend] at level 10, or Mana Shaping at 10, either. I’m just a bit jealous, is all. And I worry that I won’t be able to keep up with her… That she’s leaving. That she won’t be safe out there on her own.”

“Like how she constantly worries about you?” Al smirked. “It’s kind of cute, really.”

Erick scoffed. “She’s going where I can never follow. I’ve made as much peace with that as I feel is possible. I just didn’t expect her to jump up to level 32. And now she’s talking about turning into monsters? It’s all a bit much, Al.”

Al shook his head. He said, “The early levels are easy. Crystal Mimics are all around level 30. The way levels work is that it’s very easy to get to a plateau because certain monsters are naturally certain levels, but very hard to get much higher than that. Jane likely killed one mimic in the beginning, and if she did it herself, jumped all the way up to 24.” Al looked at Erick. “For your own concerns, you only need to kill two or three Mimics to be a lot safer than you are.”

“I might not be as safe as you, or Jane, but I certainly feel a lot better these days, even with all this craziness with the rain and Particle Magic.” Erick looked to the door of the kitchen. “Having Poi around helps.”

Al smiled. “I remember you jumping in fright all the time!”

“Ugh. Yes. Thank god that’s… Mostly gone.”

Al laughed.

Erick almost laughed, but then he had a thought.

He had a thought, which may or may not have been a very important thought. Maybe there was a real reason his magic was weird in the beginning, and worked out a lot better when he was playing around with stuff he knew, like lightning.

“What?” Al asked, “You’re thinking about something.”

“I am thinking about something.”

There was a simple enough test for Erick’s growing hypothesis.

[Special Ward].

A perfectly formed, tiny sun appeared on top of the table, exactly how Erick envisioned. Even the tiny solar prominence were beautifully crafted, arcing away from the tiny sun.

Now for the test.

Erick thought of Jane dying as a monster, of Jane and him both exiled from Spur and left to wander the deadly desert, of assassins' knives in the dark. Of his magic causing horrible destruction.

A cold terror bloomed in his chest.

[Special Ward].

A malformed ball of yellow and purple light flickered back and forth.

Erick breathed a few times, ridding himself of the worst of his cloying fears.

“Hey, Al. Say something nice to me.”

Al laughed. “You have beautiful eyes.”

Erick felt his face flush as fear evaporated under a much more fun emotion: lust.

[Special Ward].

A brilliant sunlight orb appeared.

It worked!

Erick said, “You have nice eyes, too, Al. And fangs. I didn’t think those would be hot, but they are!”

Al laughed, happy. He pointed toward the newest orb. “What was that about?”

“Fear is the mind killer. Apparently.”

Al scrunched his face. “Is it?”

“Maybe not for you, which —if that’s true— is about as unfair as how handsome your whole face is, even scrunched up like that.”

Al smiled.

Erick pointed to the failed lightward, and said, “It’s all rather evident, isn’t it? The first time I tried making lightwards was the day after the attack on the Sewerhouse. I was pretty fearful then. It’s rather easy to call up that fear, even today. With this test I just proved that, for me, at least, magic works better when I'm emotionally primed to work that magic.” Erick added, “It certainly helps that while some things are still terrifying, magic is not one of them. It never was. It’s all rather… beautiful.” Erick looked at Al. “Very beautiful.”

Al smiled. He stood. “Want to see how the Sewerhouse restructure is progressing?”

Erick stood. “Yes.”

- - - -

Poi waited outside the Sewerhouse for Erick and Al to return to the surface.

Erick followed Al down into the depths, the roaring river a reminder of more fearful times. But when Erick arrived at the river room, it was well lit, with light orbs inside the water, too. The river still churned and roared, but it wasn’t a tenth as scary as before.

Thinking about it, practicing magic this close to something that had terrified him, had likely played a great role in mutating his early attempts at magic. He would have to bring up this theory with Zago, or someone else; Al didn’t seem to think it was true.

Erick followed Al past the river room, to a circular room with ten doors. It appeared even Al was planning for the city to expand. The huge vault door wasn’t present, though.

“What happened to the huge vault door?”

Al smiled. “This iteration is a lot more complicated than the old one, though the basic principle still holds. This design was one of the originals; all others came after. Savral and Bacci will know the correct way, but for now, we can just poke into one of them.” Al opened the second nearest door. “All of the correct ones look like this, now.”

On the other side of the door was a short staircase leading down. Light orbs showed the way.

Erick followed Al to a settling pool a few stories down. It looked similar to the pools from before. A wide cavern, maybe 20 yards across, with dirty water rushing into a hemispherical pool maybe 15 yards across and half that deep. A stretch of stone arced over the water; if someone were to cast a [Cleanse Aura] in the middle, they would hit the entire pool.

But the sewer intake this time was a simple tunnel, 1 yard wide. The outflows were hidden below the sides of the rim walkway. The water itself was murky, like always, but there was much less substance to it than the full settling pools Erick had seen before. A layer of [Ward] kept any smells on the other side of an invisible barrier; the air around Erick only smelled of river water, and that smell had followed them from the previous room.

This was all nice to see; the Sewerhouse would once again be open for business. But this wasn’t what he expected when Al suggested to ‘Show Erick the new Sewerhouse’. Erick thought there had been some sort of connection between them. He smiled to himself, and realized that he’d have to be a lot more direct in the future.

Al pointed to the walkway over the water, and said, “Go try out your new spell.”

Aurify.

[Cleanse].

[Cleanse] ticked up to level 8 after three seconds, which was a good thing, because Erick wasn’t going to hit the whole pool on [Cleanse 7].

The water in front of Erick cleared, thick not-air exploding from the pool to catch upon the [Ward] above the water, to then flow away down the outflow. 5 Mana a second was pretty easy considering he had 600 mana. Still, it was a drain, and 5 mana a second was a hefty dumbbell; much more than [Force Shrapnel]’s 5 mana every 2 seconds. Still, he maintained. He stepped onto the walkway, holding onto the rail. He walked to the center, over the pool. [Cleanse 8] would normally hit an 8 yard sphere, but Aurify 2 ‘doubled’ that range.

The point was, that Erick was thankful that his 16 yard diameter [Cleanse] touched every part of the settling pool, as soon as he settled into his spot in the middle of the space. He looked down. The water was crystal clear; pure. Erick smiled.

Rain was a big deal to Spur, but if [Cleanse] ever made it back to Earth…

[Cleanse] on Earth would cause catastrophic environmental damage, because no one would care about the environment anymore, and also solve so, so many problems. Like toxic waste, and CO2 emissions, and pharmaceuticals in the ocean.

Erick looked down at the pure water. Magic was wonderful.

[Gravity Strainer: Rad].

The air flexed as a series of gravity tunnels conjured up from the water, like wheat growing to harvest size, their points all joined together in front of Erick’s outstretched hand. Tiny glittering rads flowed up from that water.

A stone bowl appeared at Erick’s side. He looked over, Al had [Stoneshaped] him a bowl. Erick took the bowl and held it under the gravity tunnels, just in time for a stream of powdered crystal and tiny rads to fall into the orange vessel.

After a few more seconds, the rads and dust stopped coming. Erick cut the [Gravity Strainer] first. Once he was sure that was gone, he cut his [Cleanse]. The world swam around him for a brief second, but he held on tight to the railing, and the stone bowl. He blinked. He turned to Al, holding the bowl.

“Success!” he said.

“Success!” Al agreed.

Erick looked at his [Cleanse].

Still only level 8.

Cleanse 8, instant, short range, 10 MP.

Purge an area equal to the level of the spell in meters of all Toxins, Disease, Filth, and Corruption.

Exp: 640/3400

He could pop that out to level 10 by the end of the day, maybe, if he focused on nothing but that. He had done similar stretches with [Grow].

Erick walked over to Al and handed him the bowl.

Al took the bowl, saying, “Too bad you cannot become a Stonemage. I could leave this whole job to you.”

Erick laughed. “You’re not going anywhere on me, are you?”

Al smiled. “No. But it’s always good to have a backup. I approve of you taking more soldiers into your home. The Army is full of strong young men and women.”

Erick sighed. “I wonder how much they aren’t telling me. Maybe I am a bit weak compared to the rest of you, but I can handle truths. At least I think I can.”

“You wear yourself clearly and the people of Spur are all accustomed to fighting monsters; they see that you are not comfortable like they are.” Al said, “But you did not flinch once on the walk down to these dark depths. You are growing.”

Erick laughed. “Maybe I am.”

Erick followed Al out of the room.

Al closed the door behind them, saying, “Mog’s classes will be good for you.”

“Yeah.” Erick nodded. “I gotta go take some of those, too.”

They walked up staircases, but Al stopped just before the river room. He turned to Erick.

Al said, “I don’t do relationships, not since my… I don’t do relationships. I still wish to keep you as a friend, and I hope that you can be content with the same.”

Erick froze. He quickly thawed. He chuckled, saying, “That’s fine. I like you as a friend, too.” He teased, “I’m sorry if I’ve ogled you overmuch.”

Al laughed. “You can ogle all you want.” He flexed a massive arm, and winked at Erick. “We orcol are supremely beautiful creatures. Some of us do not like this fact, but I am not one of them.”

Al was an 8 and a half foot tall muscular man with brown green skin, rugged features, whose flowing desert sultan mobster clothes did not leave much to the imagination. All orcol were like him, in their own unearthly rugged ways. Some flaunted it, others hid it, and right now Al was flaunting. Erick's heart beat hard, and for a brief moment, his hormones surged like a teenager's.

Erick tried not to stare overmuch. He changed the subject, “It has to be magic, right? Orcol always give me funny looks when I look. I try not to stare, but it’s impossible.”

Al put down his arm. He smiled. “It’s the Touch of Aloethag, the Goddess of Beauty and Brutality. We know when people are watching.”

Erick lamented, “All these beautiful people and I can’t look at a single one.”

Al laughed again, loud and boisterous.

- - - -

At the top of the stairs, Al paused again.

He turned to Erick. “If you still feel this way, we might have a date once you reach level 50.”

Erick scoffed, “Level 50!”

Al quickly turned away, adding, “And not before.” He went stock still. He said, “I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget I even said that. We are not ever dating.”

Erick joked, “I don’t knoooow~! Women and men might be throwing themselves at my feet, soon enough. Level 50 might be waiting too long~”

Al looked at him, trying to suppress a smile. “We are never dating, but if you hit level 50 and you still have no one, I might still be here.”

“Why level 50 though?”

A veil of sorrow seemed to fall across Al. He spoke, his voice full of pain, “You burn too brightly, and I am scared of loss.”

Ah.

That was a sobering thought.

Erick nodded, and said, “I understand.”

- - - -

Back home, by himself, Erick began working toward a clearer future.

Poi was there, of course, but he didn’t really count. He just watched out for threats and probably gossiped with his fellow army buddies with [Telepathy], or something.

Anywho! Erick began working toward a clearer, better future, by first leveling all his magic.

[Cleanse] popped to level X after entirely too much mana. Holy shit, he had been neglecting his own future. He was almost at his 5250 cap for the day; he hadn’t been paying much attention to the actual amount of mana he had been spending, but he felt that familiar sluggishness in his bones near the end of leveling [Cleanse]. Exhaustion was coming.

And then, with one more expenditure, a blue box appeared.

Cleanse Aura, short range, 10 MP per second.

Continuously purge all Toxins, Disease, Filth, and Corruption in a 10m sphere centered on you.

Aurify 2 jumped [Cleanse Aura] from 10m to 20m, though that number wasn’t represented in the actual box. There were a lot of things about spells that weren’t reflected in their boxy descriptions. Like [Cleanse], for instance, also cleaned the air, restoring oxygen and doing a whole bunch of other stuff, probably even purging cancer from the body, for all Erick knew. Cancer was a corruption, wasn’t it? Or was it a disease?

Erick asked Poi, “Do you guys have cancer on Veird?”

“What is ‘cancer’, sir?”

“Ah…” How to explain it… Erick tried, “When there are tumors or growths in the body that are not the result of some monster, but just what happens to people, usually as they’re growing older.”

Poi thought for a moment. He looked in the air.

He said, “Cancer does exist sometimes, but [Cleanse] purges that from the body. You only ever find this strange corruption in certain cultures who choose not to use [Cleanse], but those kinds of cultures abhor the Script entirely. You occasionally find people with this affliction in the Wasteland Kingdoms to the far west. Sometimes they travel here, or to Kal’Duresh, to seek a [Cleanse] from anyone who will not care to trace them back to their Kingdoms.”

“… Cancer. Growths inside the body. You’re sure?”

Poi looked into the air. After a moment, he spoke. “Growths inside organ tissue and bones are the most common, though breast tissue is also high on that list. If there is a growth in the brain it is much harder to treat, because the void left from that vanished growth might collapse the surrounding brain tissue. This outcome is usually more dangerous than the ‘brain tumor’ itself. If the person survives, there are almost always personality shifts.”

Erick started laughing, and he didn’t stop until he couldn’t laugh anymore; tears streamed down his face and his sides hurt. Breathing was hard, but still the laughter came. The entire time Poi was half concerned, half weirded out, trying to get Erick to stop laughing, and asking him if he was okay.

Eventually, Erick said, “I’m fine, Poi! Truly! I’m fine.” He sighed out, giggled once more, then said, “My mother died of malignant breast cancer, years and years ago. I hardly knew my father, but he died of bone cancer well before that. And here’s the kicker! I’m at their age, the age when they died, right now. It should be my turn to up and die on my daughter. But it’s not! Because I’m here, where you can cure cancer with a [Cleanse].” He looked at Poi. “Do you know how much of a relief it is to know that I won’t die of cancer? Of that slow death that robs you of everything and leaves you shitting out the poison the doctors give you, to try and kill the growths inside of you and not kill you at the same time?” Erick laughed again.

Poi said, “I’m sorry, sir. It sounds like your home was a rough place.”

Erick waved him off. “Just different terrors, I suppose. Here, you have to worry about monsters gobbling you up in the middle of the night.” Erick smirked. “But at least you can stab the monsters of Veird to death, or slice them apart with a spell.”

“Almost always, sir.”

- - - -

It was getting late in the day. Dinner needed to be made, but the cold box Al had created was empty. Erick would need to get in the habit of putting a [Cold Ward] in there every morning and evening, but for now, the emptiness was the main problem.

Erick went to the market and got everything he might need for dinner tonight, and for tomorrow. He also got seeds for various vegetables, enough meat to feed ten, a great big iron pot to cook it all in. He was going to make dinner for days, though with Al over it might only last two. Erick also bought two large chef's knives and ordered ten huge burlap sacks of soil. He paid a runner a gold to deliver it all to his house.

Erick followed the cart home. While the runner set the bags of soil by the sandy garden space, Erick started making dinner with strange cuts of red meat, strange herbs, and strange vegetables. He tasted everything before he put it in the pot, of course. He also made sure to chunk the meat and sear it on all sides. When the initial cooking was done, he popped a [Temperature Ward] into the oven space, setting it to what he felt was maybe 350, and placed the pot inside the [Heat Ward].

Even cooking was easy on Veird! He should do this every night.

… Maybe he would.

He looked to the cooking iron pot. Hopefully everything would turn out okay. He had included some bitter herbs that didn’t taste that great, but Poi had suggested Erick put them in. They probably tasted better once cooked.

- - - -

Jane showed up with more food and a whole lot of other things besides. Utensils, plates, knives, pans, pots, tea kettles, cups, bowls. Everything anyone could ever want in a kitchen, she bought then organized in the open stone cabinets. She had even planned on cooking dinner, but she was too late! Erick was already on the job, and the stew was starting to smell good.

Al showed up before sundown, carrying a keg of beer.

Savral came with him, carrying a tray of cookies, followed by Lanore, Gorgush, and Ikawa, each of them carrying something of a housewarming gift. While Savral and Jane exchanged apologies, everyone else dumped their gifts on Erick, which he gratefully accepted. Blankets, bed sheets, pillows, and cushions. A lot of soft things, which was nice. Lanore even gifted him a flower vase, and all four of the adventurers offered to help paint the exterior or interior with permanent [Special Wards].

“You can do that?” Erick asked, admiring a huge blue blanket Ikawa gave him. “This is so soft. Thank you, Ikawa.”

She gushed, “I wove that pillar thread myself!”

Al asked, “You didn’t think I put real gold on the outside of the Sewerhouse, did you, Erick?”

“I thought it was paint! Not a [Special Ward].” Erick ran a hand over the soft objects Savral’s team had gotten them. “It’s all so lovely. Thank you all, for all of this.” He looked toward the kitchen. He turned back toward his house guests. “I made dinner for 10 people, so let’s eat.”

Gorgush rumbled, “Smells great! I’m hungry.”

It even tasted great, to no one’s surprise except Erick’s. He was not sure everything he put in there was going to work out, but it did! And Savral and Jane were talking again, too. Erick did not think that their fight was over, but at least they were civil.

- - - -

The next morning, Erick went to the Mage’s Guildhouse.

He spoke to Sizzi at the front desk, “Guildmaster Zago said to come by when I wanted to learn the prerequisites to the [Fly] spell. That’s what I’m here for.”

Sizzi nodded. She paused. She said, “Her laboratory is at the top of the main tower stairs, Archmage. She has time for you now.”

“Thank you, Sizzi.”