On Friday afternoon, during Combat Class, Seth dug through the pile of wussticks in the coliseum's antechamber. Most of the students were already filing back into the arena.
Owen wasn't in class today, and it looked like it would be another miserable day for Seth. Gregor, the guy with a thunder power, was in high spirits and was bouncing thunder charged mana balls against the walls. The guy had been boasting the entire time during the physical training portion of class. Without Owen to compete with him, he'd target Seth.
This wasn't working. Seth was years younger than the other students. He was smaller, weaker, and less physically talented. He wasn't fast or nimble enough to make up for his smaller size. Sure, he kept practicing. He did all the drills and gave his best efforts to all the training. But this just wasn't his strength. It would take months or even years to get to where he could hold his own against the others.
After choosing a newish wusstick, he headed out to the arena and summoned a mana ball.
He thought about the fight with the mercenary last night. He needed to figure out a way to beat someone like that now. Owen couldn't stand up to him. Seth didn't think Gregor could either.
Seth could learn spells quickly. That was probably his only skill at the moment. Casting them was still iffy, but he was coming to an understanding with Saben's power. It was almost like asking someone else to cast for him, and showing them what he wanted them to do.
Which was kind of the truth. It was Saben's power, not his.
But that meant he wasn't fast enough at casting. Not for a real fight.
Seth tossed and caught the mana ball in the wusstick. The balls were really easy to make now, and he hardly needed to think about it anymore.
Could he do something like that? Could he make or buy a tool to cast specific spells quickly?
The third years learned how to make single-use enchanted items, like the muffler. Seth also knew of other small things like that, things that purified water, sent messages, or generated heat.
He couldn't think of any that cast offensive spells. Wands or staves might do it, but he didn't know how those worked. He wondered if they were advanced forms of vaults.
Defensive spells could be possible. There were those barriers the Skull Gang used. If he could get a hold of those or, even better, make his own, that could have protected all of them from the mercenary's attacks. That fight would have gone very differently.
He got a rush of frustration from Mau, and looked up in the stands. He was very relieved they were empty today. Only his familiar was up there.
Mau was at the back of the stands, hopping on her rear feet, twisting in circles, and batting at the air. At first, he thought she was doing some type of weird interpretive dance, but then he realized she was probably chasing a bug. He watched her hop and spin and bat at something he couldn't see.
Blaise stalked past him and pulled the mana ball out of her wusstick. She was getting better at managing how much she pulled from her vault. "Professor!" she shouted at Professor Mick. "Teach us how to throw!"
She hurled the mana ball at Professor Mick. It hit the ground and vanished before it got anywhere near him. There was a smattering of guffaws.
"That was terrible!" the Professor announced. "Did you even aim?"
"We need training. I can throw with the stick, but not with my arm. I'm not gonna have this outside class," Blaise said, waving the wusstick. "I want to do it on my own. Show us!"
And just like that, class was diverted from an adversarial contest that Seth had been dreading, to throwing drills and target practice. Thank you, Blaise.
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Seth met Selendrith at the school gate after classes ended for the day. He held Mau's limp form under one arm.
Selendrith frowned at the cat. "Is she all right?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She's sulking about something, so she pretends she has no bones."
"What happened that she's sulking?" Selendrith asked.
"I have no idea. She's a cat, there might not be a reason."
Seth ignored Mau giving him the side eye and flattening her ears. Selendrith noticed it.
"Oh, she is mad. Are you sure she's fine?"
"Yes, she is. She's just dramatic."
Selendrith tentatively reached out a hand for Mau to sniff. "I wish I could have a familiar. She's beautiful."
Mau liked the compliment because suddenly she had enough bones to rub her face against Selendrith's hand.
"When we are catching magic beasts, if you see one you like we can have Professor Isolde bind it for you," Seth offered. "We can keep looking for more to finish the bounty."
Selendrith shook her head. "I can't have one."
Seth didn't press the issue and changed the topic instead as they headed to the Magic District. "I was thinking about single use items and tools that would make casting quicker and easier."
"Combat items," Selendrith said.
"Yes. I don't know what's available, or what I could use."
They walked in silence for a little bit before Selendrith answered. "There are several things we can do. The problem is that offensive items that can be used by anyone are forbidden within the city, so getting them will be more difficult. Items that only a wizard can use requires a certificate."
"If I wait for my certification, I'll already be able to cast anything the tool would let me do," Seth said.
Selendrith nodded. "And the materials for combat spells can be expensive. They tend to use more mana than most utility usage items, so they require specialized materials with mana to work. Some materials will let you put the mana in and will store it for a short time."
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Seth nodded. "Like the muffler. You make one, and it'll last a week or two until you activate it, and then it's good for an hour or two."
"Exactly. A muffler is just a Quiet spell cast on mana infused wool and string, with a delayed activation. You can do that with just about any spell, if you can find materials that are compatible with the spell," Selendrith said.
"Do you know how to make those already?" Seth asked.
"Some things, yes, most things, no. To make something, you need to be able to cast it. My grandfather is also a student of the 10,000, but he wants me to work on my own library and not his. He says I'll know and understand my spells better if I earn them all myself."
Seth almost stepped into the gutter when he turned to look at her. "So the spells we owe you for the vault training can be almost any spells?"
Selendrith smiled and shook her head. "No. Because the crutch belonged to my grandfather, and I owe him spells for borrowing it."
"He would make you pay for using it?" Seth asked.
"To teach someone else, yes. He is running a business, not a charity, as he likes to say."
They walked in silence again for a little bit and turned down one of the footways.
"Do you think you could help me make Wind Blade items? Or a Barrier?" Seth finally asked.
"Why would you want items for things you can already cast?" Selendrith asked. "That seems like an expensive waste of materials."
"During the fight last night, I couldn't cast fast enough. Those moments of gathering focus and intent, as well as casting, took too long. By the time I'd cast, Owen had been stabbed. Before I could adjust the spell or cast again, I'd been hit too."
Selendrith considered that. "The activation of items will be faster for us right now. As we become more familiar with different spells and become experienced with different levels of casting, that may not always be true. For now, we'd need to keep an eye out for materials we can use."
"Like what type of materials?" Seth asked. They both had a materials class, but it was mostly memorizing what the materials were and how to identify them, not how or why they were used.
Mau decided she wasn't boneless anymore and climbed up to his shoulder. Seth guessed she was interested in the conversation.
"I'm not sure for some of it. My grandfather mostly uses different crystals and stones, with some metals, because they are readily available around here and hold mana well for a long time. Most of what he uses comes from the Below or is produced in the Mana Wells. Another source for materials is magic beasts."
Mau shivered. Seth wondered what she was thinking.
"You mean like the horn your ring is made of," Seth said, indicating the ring she was wearing that was made from the same horn as his amulet.
She touched the ring. "Yes. This was especially precious material from a very powerful beast." She eyed his coat where his amulet would be. "You are very fortunate to have found it."
"I'm grateful to your grandfather for the healing rune he put on it. I've used it very often."
"You should use the protection on it more often then. You won't need the healing so much. If you have any more, I'm sure my grandfather would be willing to add more runes to your amulet in exchange. There is still room on it for more carvings."
Seth had honestly forgotten about the protection. "I'll think about that." Could he add Wind Blade to the amulet? Would that be a good idea, considering how often he emptied it using the healing rune? "About the protection. How is that different from the Barrier spells?"
"It's a much higher tier, for one. And a more complex spell. It protects you from outside harm. It doesn't produce a shield like a Barrier, or a mana skin like Flexible Barrier. It's more powerful but also more limited because it can't be used to protect anyone else."
They reached the carver's shop and went inside, the bell clanging as the door shut. Selendrith indicated to Seth to have a seat in the comfy chairs by the fireplace, and went to the back to make tea. Her grandfather was talking to a customer. By the time Selendrith came back with the tea, her grandfather had finished and closed the shop.
The old man sat opposite Seth and laid a box with the affinity bracelet on the table between them. Mau picked a spot on the couch. Selendrith introduced Seth to her grandfather, Wulrind, and poured tea for all of them, including Mau who eyed her cup consideringly. Seth wondered how the cat would drink it and hoped she wouldn't knock it to the floor.
"This turned out to be an interesting piece," Wulrind said.
"It's not an affinity bracelet?" Seth asked, a knot of dread forming in his stomach.
"Oh, it is. A finely crafted one too. It's designed to enhance mana flow, increase affinity, and stabilize mana. And initially I thought that was all it did," Wulrind explained. He opened the box and lifted out the bracelet. "The band enhances the mana flow. This isn't as common in affinity bracelets, most just have this single bead here that increases affinity."
"And the second bead does the stabilizing then?" Seth asked.
"It does. And anyone else wouldn't look further. But not me. Look here." Wulrind pulled out a small pointy tool and popped open the first bead, revealing a second bead within. "Tricky little thing. This inner bead here records mana fluctuations. It has monitoring and stabilizing runes of an exceptionally high tier for their small size. Anything that happens to you magically would be recorded by this. It is a powerful variant."
"So if something were to happen to his talent, like someone tried to steal it like they did Blaise, this would record what happened?" Selendrith asked.
"Yes it would. I think this might be sensitive enough to know every spell you cast, and is cast on you," Wulrind explained.
Seth didn't know how he felt about that. Recording everything mana related? While it felt like Benjamin was looking out for him and would know if someone tried to steal the power, it also felt extremely intrusive. The bracelet would know everything he did with magic.
He wondered at the stabilizing rune. He couldn't think of a reason a normal person would need that, but did know why he would. Did Benjamin know his power was unstable? Would he know why?
"That's… I'm not sure how I feel about that," Seth finally said. He suddenly found his tea unappetizing.
Mau growled, but Seth ignored her.
"I wouldn't like it," Selendrith said. "But then, I'm a very private person."
"If it helps find out how powers are stolen, I think I'm willing to keep wearing it," Seth said.
"I'm not sure you should," Wulrind said. "That's not the only secret." He popped open the second bead to reveal another inner bead.
"What does that one do?" Seth asked as his stomach twisted harder. He put his teacup down on the table. Maybe Mau was right, and Benjamin was behind the thefts.
"I don't know. I've looked up this rune everywhere I can think of. There's no record of it. It's no maker's mark I recognize, and there would be no reason to hide it. It vaguely resembles luck runes, but those have been unfashionable for centuries."
"Luck runes? What do they do?" Seth asked.
"The thing about luck is it can go both ways," Wulrind explained. He leaned back as he sipped at his tea. "You can have good luck or bad luck. There are stories of the holders of luck runes having tremendous good fortune, and also bizarre deaths. Some even say they can attract demons."
"Do I need to worry about demons if I wear this?" Seth asked. That felt far-fetched. The demons were hunted out after the fall of the Flower Empire. The stories of the hunts were carved all over the city.
"I don't think so. While it resembles the luck runes, it isn't one." Wulrind handed Seth a page with the rune image and notes on it. "If you find out more about this rune, please let me know. I'd like to understand why it was used here and possibly add it to my repertoire."
Seth watched Wulrind close the beads and seal them in such a way that Seth couldn't find the seams that opened them. He didn't think the second secret bead had anything to do with Saben's stolen power. Seth already had the power before Benjamin gave him the bracelet. Could Benjamin have discovered that Seth had a stolen power? Or was Benjamin the reason the power was stolen?
"Do you think the bracelet is safe to wear?" Seth asked.
"That's hard to say. The known harm in the bracelet is the invasion of privacy. However, the only way to retrieve the information is from the bracelet. So long as you don't lose it, no one will have access to this information. The unknown harm is in the bead I can't analyze. It might just be some type of maker's mark. It could also be something very different. Overall, this is a complex and beautifully done piece."
Seth studied the bracelet and wondered if he should keep wearing it. He remembered that Benjamin had taken it once to 'calibrate it.' Was he doing this to help Seth, or for some other reason?