Draith
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Chapter 5 - More Than Spells
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 19:37:18 +0000 UTCDespite my best efforts, I didn't successfully cast Mana Draw until after dinner that evening. Calbern had to practically drag me away from my attempts. It was a good thing he did, because I got it instantly when we returned. I wasn't sure if it was the frustration of repeated failure, or if I'd really been that close, but either way, having the spell functioning was like finishing a particularly challenging engine swap.
Satisfying, but with a rather strong desire to have a shower.
Unfortunately, they didn't use showers in the family compound. I had no doubt someone had invented them, but the Aranor family only used stone lined bathing chambers with an overabundance of floral soaps.
And it wasn’t something Perth knew how to do himself.
Which meant I had to request a bath be prepared for me. It stole away some of my satisfaction, knowing I had to rely on someone else to prepare my bath. Once I had my own home, I had every intention of building a shower.
Which caused me to jot down a note to add the relevant spells to my grimoire. I’d need something for heating the water, primarily. Technically, I should be able to use a gravity feed, though I’d check to see if there was a spell that could be used to either pump or create water.
I paused… water creation would be incredibly useful, but Perth didn’t remember anyone every using such a spell. I’d check, but I also had to spend my time wisely. Now that I had the Mana, the only limit I had to adding more spells was time. While I remained in the compound, I wouldn't need to supply my engraving supplies but that would change once we left.
Spells were absolutely the most valuable thing I could bring with me. And I would only be able to take those bound in my grimoire, until I could build a proper library of my own. Letting an unbound spellbook decay under the chaotic mana-swells of the wider world would be far too wasteful.
I wish I knew more about my future territory, but all we knew was that it was likely to be deep inside the Frigid Peaks.
As I sank into the waters of the bath, I called on my magic once more, creating the simple motes of light on the tip of my finger. With Mana Draw active, I could keep the simple effect active as long as I wanted.
Mana Draw felt surprisingly similar to Nexxa's spell that granted me more mana, except instead of only entering through my hand, mana passed through my entire being. Mana seeped into me much like the warmth of my bath, constantly keeping my Core full.
As I dried off, Calbern appeared. Tempted as I was to head straight to the library, I allowed Calbern to lead me to bed instead.
However, a good night’s sleep did not dull my efforts. The moment I was awake, I made to return to the library. On the way, I spotted Sosa lounging directly in our path. Deciding I had no time to waste with Perth’s brothers, I convinced Calbern to help me slip past him.
After making our way down a back garden path, I snuck under the mighty golem’s mighty gaze before passing by Lady Guniveer’s even sharper one.
The next few days passed in a flurry of scribing. My second spell was another Arcane affinity spell, Detect Mana. When channeled through my eyes, it would create lights that roughly illuminated patches of mana, and their density. It would be critical to get the most out of Mana Draw once we left the mana-rich regions of the interior.
It took me half the day to scribe the spell. While I might’ve had the endurance to weld for hours straight back on Earth, the hand I’d inherited from Perth wasn’t as used to it. About halfway through, my hand started to cramp.
I hadn't removed all my limitations on scribing spell after spell.
But that just meant that my next spell was a healing spell that allowed me to cure the sprain of overworked muscles. The official spell name was "Alzond's Incredible Stress Reduction and Strain Removal Blessing of the Seventh Heaven," but I just recorded it in my grimoire as Minor Heal.
Unfortunately, casting it successfully took me nearly two hours, so I only scribed the two spells my first day. But as my proficiency improved, so did my speed.
I added every first order spell that seemed useful to my grimoire, managing to add four spells per day by the end of my first week since I'd taken Perth's place. These included Eagle Eyes, which allowed me to zoom in my vision, much like the aforementioned Eagle. My first attempt left me blind for several minutes. It was enough for me to hold off experimenting with the rest until after I didn’t have a time limit.
While I'd intended to continue after recovering from the backlash of Eagle Eyes, Nexxa had returned, and with Calbern's not so subtle encouragement, had taken me out to the nearby town of Belten. She'd even gone so far as to forbid me from bringing my grimoire.
"There's more to being a Magus Dominus than spells," Nexxa said as we got out of the carriage.
I tugged at the surprisingly scratchy robe she'd insisted I wear. It was leagues below the quality Perth was used to. Even I wasn't used to something so rough, despite my relative poverty before I came over. Cotton was cheap on Earth. Doing my best to distract myself from the itch, I took in our surroundings. She’d pulled us to a stop in a dark alleyway. Squinting against the darkness, I responded to her earlier comment, "I know. But magic is important."
Nexxa snorted, shaking her head. "Sure, but you're not going to be able to solve all your problems with a few spells. Not even father can do that."
Rolling my eyes, I waved towards the street. "I'm here, aren't I?"
Shooting me a giant grin before drawing her hood up, Nexxa led the way out onto the nearest street. She quietly moved into the flow of foot traffic nodding her hooded head towards the workers gossiping in front of us. I immediately recognized what we were doing. We were exploring the city in the guise of workers.
I didn't bother pointing out to her that anyone with eyes could tell we didn't belong. The clothes she'd chosen were too rough for how soft our faces and hands were, not to mention the quality of our boots. We would pass for neither field workers or clerks. But I supposed it was enough for a passing glance. Most of the locals preferred combinations of vibrant greens and muted browns. Our own clothes only had a hint of green on them, which seemed to indicate a lower status. Her normal golds and purples would've stood out like a lightning bolt in a clear summer sky.
Which was the point of the humble attire.
Nexxa led me to a public bath first, babbling on about the importance of public cleanliness. For a moment, I wanted to dismiss her concerns. Then I considered Perth's experiences. This would be something he wouldn't have thought of.
So, instead of ignoring her, I took out the journal she'd handed me in place of my grimoire before we left, and started taking notes.
And, much to my chagrin, I realized I knew a lot less about managing folk than I thought I did. I figured all my knowledge from Earth would give me an advantage. And it probably would, once I could incorporate it. But the folk here had existing solutions to problems.
Like the Mana-reclaimation and sewage building.
Located centrally, it was much less offensive smelling than I'd expected. The single story building was, like the library, a stone edifice in an ocean of wood. The simple unassuming building processed the entire town's waste into Nature attuned mana stones, which were then used by the Gardeners.
"So, what spells are they using to break waste down into fertilizer and mana?"
"Uh… I'm not sure. Probably some nature spells and whatever they use to draw everything here. Maybe something related to air? This is all Gardener magic, not storm."
"You know, I can't help but note that this requires magic," I said, unable to keep the smug smile off my face.
"I… that's not the point. The point is that it's a system set up to solve the problem. Not a spell you cast every day. Can you imagine if you had to personally oversee it?"
At that moment a cart rolled by, its top covered by woven vines. It was escorted by several workers who guided it into a waiting dumping point. They all took several steps back before one of them called out.
The wrapping over the cart came undone revealing a nasty mess of rotten food and other nastiness. Even from our position across the street, the smell was strong enough to make my eyes water. While we suffered, the workers had already donned green masks that tightened around their faces. The one who’d been calling out orders waved another one forward. They plunged their hand into a pair of unopened flower buds.
A second later, a massive vine slid down, wrapping around one end of the cart. Then with a slurping sound, the contents were sucked out as the vine moved about like a massive vacuum hose. Several large lumps moving slowly up along the vine were the only indication of the cart’s rancid cargo. Another call from the worker in charge, and the vine retreated. In its place a set of flowers wove their way above the cart. The workers turned away as the flowers started glowing, until the cart was bathed in a brilliant red light.
The heat went through our simple clothing, causing me to break out in a mild sweat. Then the flowers finished, the light dimming once more, only the natural light of the afternoon sun brightening the street.
Only after the flowers had retreated back inside their pods did the workers step forward and claim the cart once more.
Nexxa and I exchanged a glance.
Scratching my chin, I nodded. “You’re right. Casting spells to deal with that every day would be…”
"Horrid. Exactly. Now, let's keep moving," Nexxa said, as I added a note to look up the process to my growing list.
As our tour continued, I ended up sidetracking our progress when I spotted a merchant with writing supplies on display. I had Nexxa buy me several additional journals, since I still hadn't so much as handled a single coin. Perth had never handled money either.
Perth may've had lessons on it, but most of his economic memories were more clouded than an oil filter after fifty thousand miles without a change.
One more thing added to my notes.
With my stationary needs met, I was prepared to head home when a droning sound filled the air.
Before I could ask what was happening, Nexxa had shoved me against the stall where we’d been shopping, sending pencils and notebooks scattering.
“What-“ I started only for Nexxa to interrupt me.
“There’s been a breach. Monsters in the city,” Nexxa snapped out, her arm held in front of me. “Stay here, I’ll deal with it. Or distract it until someone else can.”
I nodded. I could barely summon a wisp of mana to my fingertip. Doubted I’d be up to facing a monster.
Nexxa disappeared in a flash of blinding light. With no sign of said monster, I turned my attention to the stand, helping the merchant pick up his scattered supplies.
Then a scream came from across the street. It was quickly joined by another as a full sized minotaur came around the corner, bellowing at everything in sight. It shook its bull-shaped head, then charged at a man in red. Luckily, the man tripped, and the minotaur slammed into the wall.
While it was stunned, the man escaped behind it.
“Come on Nexxa,” I muttered, looking around. A boom from a few streets away, followed by several more roars told me she’d probably be busy for a bit.
What had she said? “Distract it till someone who can deal with it shows up,” I mumbled to myself, ignoring the stall keeper’s questions as I ran out into the street.
There was only one bit of magic I had at my disposal. With a surge of will, I pushed my mana to the tip of my finger, urging it to turn red. I had no such luck.
Even though I hadn’t turned it red, either the mana or the fact I was running towards it, got its attention. The minotaur swung its head around, letting out another roar before charging blindly towards where I’d been standing a second before.
I huffed out a long breath as I rolled to the side, rubbing at my scraped knee. Distracting it wouldn’t work for long. I’d neglected to consider how out of shape I was when I’d made the decision.
It was when I spotted the waste cart that I had an idea.
“God, this is so stupid,” I grumbled as I stood up. I took one of my notebooks and threw it in the minotaur’s face as it turned towards me. I didn’t wait to see if that bought me any time as I darted up the street towards the mana reclamation plant.
Thumping footsteps told me the minotaur wasn’t far behind me.
As I got close to the plant, I started yelling, repeating the phrase used by the foreman. “Incoming waste, prep for extraction!”
One of the nearby workers jerked their head up. Then they saw the monster chasing me, and, perhaps wisely, decided it was over their paygrade.
Thankfully, the supervisor came out to investigate who’d been calling out such outrageous lies. He stood there staring as I ran towards him. It was only as I bumped into him on my way towards the giant vine that he snapped out of it, calling out orders as he ran into position.
I held up my hand, the blob of mana still glowing. And I confirmed that’s what the minotaur was focused on, its wideset eyes shifting as it sniffed the air.
Then it lowered its head again.
I didn’t wait, grabbing hold of the vine as the minotaur approached. Unfortunately, the mana-reclamation plant wasn’t designed to suck up charging minotaurs, so the supervisor’s first attempt to grab it failed. I nearly fell off the vine as it whipped back around for another attempt.
As I was dangling there, my eyes met one of the minotaur’s. That was enough to get it to scream in rage.
And that meant it was standing still long enough for the vine to slap down on top of it, sucking it inside. When the vine blooped outward underneath me, I finally lost my grip.
While I was thankful that supervisor broke my fall, his grumbling implied it hadn’t been on purpose.
“Well, that could’ve gone better,” I said as I offered him a hand. “You okay?”
He waved me off, grumbling about not being paid enough to deal with unscheduled deliveries and heading back into his office.
I lingered by the mana reclamation plant for a few more minutes, until Nexxa reappeared in a flash of lightning.
“Perry? What are you doing here? Someone said there was a minotaur rampaging in the area.”
“Yeah, uh, it kinda stumbled into the mana-reclamation,” I said, waving towards the giant vine.
“Stumbled, huh?” Nexxa asked, crossing her arms as she floated closer, sparks dancing beneath her feet.
“It might have been chasing me at the time,” I admitted, with a shrug. “Now, I think I’ve had about enough of the city. What say he go home?”
“Sure, I got what I needed. Plus I should pick up a nice bounty too. Too bad there’s no proof you disposed of the minotaur,” Nexxa said, staring at the still slightly bulging vine.
“Not important,” I said, waving it off.
As I climbed into the carriage, thoughts of the minotaur were already fading from my mind. There was just too much to do to worry about a scrap where I didn’t even get injured. Though I did make a note to check into what was required to make my own mana-reclamation plant. Just in case.
By the time we returned to the family complex, I'd filled two journals and started on a third.
Calbern was waiting, as distinguished as ever in his four piece ensemble. "How was your outing, master Perth?” he asked, his eyes going wide for a second when I climbed out.
"Eye opening," I replied as I handed him the second journal, earning a laugh from Nexxa.
I waved her off as I returned my attention to Calbern. "You're going to be joining me in the library."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, there's way too much to learn. So, you're gonna help," I informed him. My old man might've been a miserable bustard, but he knew how to delegate the work. A lesson I'd long since learned for myself.
"I see," Calbern said, squinting as he attempted to read my notes. Which, I'll admit, weren't the neatest. Neither Perth nor I had ever had particularly neat handwriting. "I shall require assistance… translating this."
"Fair 'nuff," I replied already leading the way back to the library. It was time to deal with something far scarier than a minotaur.
Logistics.
