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Chapter 137 - Paint Away the Pain
🕑 Added 2024-09-22 20:00:05 +0000 UTCThe only sound that could be heard was that of Nate’s Brush of a Thousand Paints swishing back and forth against the canvas before him. It had been a few days since he had been kidnapped, and though the feelings and memories of the experience were still raw, he was already recovering. It both helped and hindered that Kiri had been watching over him like a mother hen. Even now she sat in his room, doing her economics homework. Frick was nearby too, diligently working on completing the barrier bracer. It should be finished before the end of the day which filled him with a sense of relief.
“Why are you taking Economics, anyway?” he asked.
He continued to paint as he waited for an answer. His new enchanted paintbrush was an absolute wonder, letting him swap between paints with ease and cleaning off the paint with just a small thread of mana. The scene before him was cast in yellows, oranges and reds. The torture had reminded him of the Fourth Hell, which had been a horrible experience as well. So he painted demonic caricatures of his captors burning in the hells for their crimes. He wasn’t sure if it was healthy, but it made him feel a little better and the caricatures bore little resemblance to those who had taken him. Caroline was a purple demon, trapped within a runic circle, looking broken and bleeding. A demon in red, melting in a pit of lava was meant to be Fabien. The painting was almost done which was good timing as they had a class shortly.
“Because you weren’t going to,” answered Kiri, staring intently at the page before her.
That answer got Nate’s attention and he turned to look at his best friend, a confused scowl on his face, “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to be rich. I mean, even ignoring the things you create, we’re on the fast track to being Guild Platinums. Guild Platinums are rich. The good ones are filthy rich, like Lord Evindal. We were always going to end up wealthy. Getting into the Royal University is just going to make it happen faster, and I knew you weren’t interested in managing it, so I thought that it could, you know, be my contribution. Handle that crap so you could focus on your art and crafting,” Kiri explained. “But figuring out the compound interest on an investment is doing my head in!”
He smiled brightly at her explanation and at her frustration. Walking over to join her he read over the problem in the book. Had he been back on Earth, without his mana enhanced intellect, he might’ve been stumped as well. But his mind was capable of serving up memories from Earth and leaning forward he wrote down the compound interest formula for her, before filling in the variables with the question in her notebook so that she could see how to apply it.
With a grin he went back to putting the finishing touches on his painting while Kiri processed the solution.
“It’s that easy?” she finally asked. “How do they not know this?”
“They probably do,” he replied. “You’re in the Intermediate course right? Maybe they want you to do it the hard way first, to try and get your head around the idea, before they teach you how to do it quick and easy.”
Kiri grunted in response, “Yeah…that sounds like the Professor.”
“It’s important to know the why as well as the how.”
“Oh by the gods you sound just like him,” groaned Kiri, but he could tell she was just joking.
With a few final strokes the painting was done and after cleaning and putting his enchanted paintbrush in his spatial storage he turned around. Kiri was clearly close to being finished so he started collecting his things. The puzzle box went into storage first, followed by five bars of rare grade metals each with a different affinity. His paranoia was still sky high and he wanted a tool, even a lesser one, for every occasion. Caroline’s Sigil Tome went next. It had been a fitting repayment for his suffering. Most of the Sigils were only Initiate or Novice quality, but where they lacked in quality they made up for it in quantity with almost two hundred of them available. A smattering of Apprentice tier were in there as well, a few of which he already knew. The crowning Sigils however were the ten Journeyman and Master tier Sigils.
Metal Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Life Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Fear Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Love Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Calm Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Smell Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Space Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Fire Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)
Sound Sigil (Quality: Master)
Soul Sigil (Quality: Master)
The new additions were welcome, some an upgrade to his existing knowledge, some completely new. The three stand outs were the Master tier Soul and Sound Sigils, along with the Journeyman tier Space Sigil. With those, he was going to create wonders. But first, he was going to create ironclad defences. He would never lose the ability to teleport again. Not against anyone who wasn’t a God, anyway.
Seeing Kiri was starting to pack up he asked, “Ready for class?”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Kiri replied, jumping up and joining him as he exited the room. Frick waved as they left, his Familiar had been relatively quiet since his capture. He wondered if the Spirit blamed himself or something. Nate didn’t think his presence would have made a difference. They would need to have a chat later.
“Are you sure you’re still okay with us going on this Dungeon run?” asked Kiri as the pair crossed the manicured grass of the University grounds.
“You don’t need to keep asking,” he replied. “I’m sure.”
It was the third time Kiri had asked him in the last couple of days and they would need to leave for the Dungeon run with Coralie and Flash in the next few days. He knew she was just making sure he was okay, but getting stronger was a big factor in making him feel safer. There was a secondary reason though. They had been informed by the Guild of the nature of the Dungeon they were going to. It was an underwater variant. While that would pose a major issue for a lot of Guild members he wasn’t too concerned and had a plan for maximising his progression. That plan was Frick. Outside of Dungeons Frick using his Skill for enhancing his physical capabilities in the material realm was mana intensive and couldn’t be used for extended periods, since he was using Nate’s own mana. In a Dungeon though, where Nate could simply float around with a mana gathering array constantly recharging mana gems, well, he could keep that up for hours if needed. That gave Nate the opportunity to implement a very simple plan. Frick would do all the fighting, while Nate spent the whole time crafting. Maybe they would trade off if one of the Dungeon challenges was a bit more difficult, but based on the previous High Rare Dungeon they had completed, he wasn’t expecting that. Since his Barrier bracer would be done, he could finish up his plan for his Conceptual Automation gravity runic array.
That left him with his newest project to work on. It had been made very clear to him that until he was a Platinum that he would be at risk in any situation where his enemies could remove or suppress mana somehow. Maybe it would remain a problem even beyond. Who knew if there was some Divinity of Antimages or some other bullshit. That meant he needed a way to fight back against mana suppression and exclusion for enemies who might be a far higher level than him, or more numerous. His solution, as always, was a runecrafted item. He even had the perfect Sigils for it. Mana and Release. It was time to make his first Mythic material with Conceptual Material. If he could make a mythic bar of manerium, carved with a runic array that would allow him to release the stored mana inside, he could flood an area around him, fighting back against mana suppression Skills without having to do anything. The best part was, it would be reusable. He would just have to recharge the material once he was done. That should allow him to fight back or escape any enemies who tried to lock him down via mana. His remaining problem was spatial locks. Space had just become his highest priority Sigil to further develop.
Arriving at the classroom for Mana and Affinities, Kiri slid in next to Coralie with Nate moving to sit a row behind next to Britt. The blonde haired defender gave him a small and hopeful smile which he did his best to return. For obvious reasons he had been a bit distant the past few days and he had appreciated that she hadn’t pushed to find out what was going on. Even so, he knew that probably left the poor girl confused about whether they were still friends and casually seeing each other.
He was about to whisper to her when the door opened and their Professor entered in a flurry of robes, his black moustache well oiled. Professor Karne put a lot of stock in appearance and it showed.
“Excellent. Looks like everyone is here. Before we launch into today's lecture I want to let you know that over a third of you are only a few points away from graduating out of the Intermediate course for Mana and Affinities. Today’s quiz could see you moving into the Advanced class, if you decide to continue with this subject, which I highly encourage.”
With a glance across the classroom the Professor continued, “Last lesson we were going over how it is not just the presence and concentration of mana in an area that influences the formation of affinities in materials, but also natural formations. Someone remind the class what a natural formation is.”
Nate smirked a little at the difference between the various Professors. Had it been Professor Kandel, she would’ve asked the question and then selected someone with a raised hand. Professor Karne on the other hand had already turned away towards the board and just expected someone to pipe up. It ended up being one of the merchants that answered.
“Natural formations are sigils that occur within the environment. They can be small, like scratches on a rock, or large, like the shape of a tree or even water damage inside of stone.”
“Thank you, Mathers. That is correct,” agreed Professor Karne. “When you have these sigils forming due to environmental processes, we call them a natural formation. These sigils will interact with the mana around them, and with enough time, or a high enough concentration of mana, will align materials towards the affinity of the sigil. This can occur far more frequently in plants as some form these natural structures as part of their growth and development. This results in certain plants almost always having specific affinities. Further, this can be used to influence the environment around them. In case we have any aspiring alchemists in the class, this is incredibly important when designing an alchemist's garden. If you wanted shadow-aligned terralo blossoms and not twilight terralo blossoms, then you would need to keep them separated from any plants with a natural affinity for light.”
As he spoke the Professor continued to draw on the board and after a moment Nate realised what it was. The man was drawing the layout for a garden.
“Natural formations are one instance of ambient mana taking on an affinity. Someone shout out the other three main causes of ambient mana affinities.”
“Material presence, natural phenomena and unnatural phenomena,” shouted out one of the nobles sitting in a clique on the opposite side of the classroom.
“Correct. We’ll start with material presence, the least pronounced form of ambient affinity. Live near water, there will be ambient mana with an affinity for water. A forest? Wood, nature, life, a myriad of others. Material presence influences mana. Why? Well, to the best of our knowledge, while a Sigil is a representation of a Concept, so is the material represented to a lesser extent. A rock doesn’t contain the same Conceptual weight as the Sigil for rocks, but it still carries some Conceptual weight. Which brings us to natural phenomena. As we understand it there are Concepts that lack a physical property. You know this. Gravity is the simplest example. A force that keeps us from floating away, but to the best of our knowledge, it has no physical properties itself. Yet it acts on all of us. But what about something more esoteric? Power. Power is something we can recognise, I can guarantee you it is a Concept, but it has no physical material. Why do I mention it? Well, for some of you, it may never matter,” explained Professor Karne with a glance at the Adventurers. “But for the nobility, it is very important for a topic we will cover in the Advanced class. Seats of power.”
“That brings us to unnatural phenomena. I won’t explain how unnatural phenomena occur unless you manage to graduate into the Advanced course. What I will do is give you an example of an unnatural phenomena. A battlefield. Depending on if it is ongoing or the battle is long over you might see an affinity for blood and violence or death and decay among others. Now, ignoring that for a moment, material presence, natural phenomena and unnatural phenomena have implications both in terms of development and for combat. Locations will have the affinity of mana influenced by natural formations, physical material, natural phenomena and unnatural phenomena. This is important for developing your own affinities, as we know that by exposure your mana can take on these affinities to an extent. If you want to develop your affinity for fire, you need to expose yourself to ambient mana with a fire affinity, or pay your alchemist some exorbitant fees,” continued the Professor with a smirk.
“The second reason, the one relevant to combat, is that if you utilise spells that make use of ambient mana, your spells will be weaker if the ambient mana has strong affinities that do not align with the nature of your spells. Trying to cast fire spells underwater is going to be beyond challenging. The strength of your affinities will of course be a factor, but you must always consider the environmental factors as well.”
“That brings us to the final point of this lecture. Total affinities. When we measure your affinity, a service the University offers, if you’re willing to pay for it, we are measuring the percentage of your mana that aligns to a particular affinity. That means there is a very obvious cap, which for any of you schooled in even basic arithmetic, is one hundred percent. Constant exposure to mana with an affinity for water will develop your affinity for water over time, however, if you are a fire mage, that is the opposite of what you want. There are ways for handling this, again, alchemy being the most obvious, if expensive, solution. Others are removing yourself from exposure, or making sure you are exposed specifically to mana of affinities of interest. Enchanters make plenty of gold and mana by putting in place enchantments that to some extent, remove affinities from ambient mana in noble villas. While this won’t enhance one’s affinities, it definitely prevents regression. I also want to be clear, this is not a fast process. You are not suddenly going to develop a mana affinity for water after being exposed to the ocean for a month or two. But give it a year or so and it will definitely happen.”
Nate watched as the Professor paused, glancing at the students which he assumed was Karne gauging the class's reaction. When no one spoke up the man clapped his hands together.
“Excellent. Today's quiz will be twofold. Firstly, an alchemist's garden. You will be given a sheet with the layout of an alchemist's garden, a number of plants and their affinities with some details around the strength of said affinity. There will be a list of desired affinities for the garden to produce. It is your job to layout the garden with the appropriate plants to achieve the desired result. The second problem will be a map. It will describe the details of particular locations, weather patterns and some history. You will fill the map in with the affinities you expect to dominate specific locations and your reasoning why. I look forward to seeing if some of you can graduate out of this class today. Good luck.”
Nate sensed the Professor form a small spell in an instant as the papers blew on the wind to land in front of everyone in the class. Leaning forward he looked over the problems and got to work. The Advanced course for Mana and Affinities beckoned, and perhaps he would finally get an answer to why Intent mattered so much for Skill development.
Comments
GoodMornin2U2
Thank you for the chapter ^_^
BloodStorm
I’m here after getting book 1 audiobook. Can’t wait for more of this series
