Chapter 8

I sigh as I look at the Mana that Rachel is trying to manipulate. Its bonds are too loose, resulting in the Magic she’s conjuring to be so weak.

It seems that something is bothering her or else she wouldn’t make such a poor performance. So I decided to halt the training session.

By forcing my own Mana into the spell’s structure, I can break the bonds of Mana that holds the spell together, resulting in a dispelling the Magic.

“Stop.” She turned to me with a surprised look on her face as I say the words.

“What’s wrong?” She asks.

“I should be the one asking that. Your spells were so weak. Your flame wouldn’t be able to burn anything besides a candle wick.” She drooped her head as I tell her the facts.

~ Did I go too far? ~ I started to regret what I said to her.

“I’m sorry. I’m not feeling very well today.”

“I see… Why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve cancelled today’s training.”

“No… I want to learn fast.”

“Well we’re putting off today’s training. We’ll go to the market to get some medicine for you.” I walked towards her as I speak.

“But… We’re running low on money.” I put my hand on her forehead and the other hand on my own forehead.

I had just realized that we really are running low on money as she said that.

“We should still have enough to buy medicine for you though.” We started walking towards the house as we speak.

“We should, but… Medicine is pretty pricey, we might not have enough for food after the purchase.”

“We can just hunt for food.” I shrugged.

“The lands including plants and animals all belong to their respective Lords who rule that section of the land.” She explains as she sat down on the couch. “I would rather not create unexpected troubles.”

“Ugh, you’re right. We can just hunt in Phantasia then.”

“Isn’t that dangerous? Those beasts are saturated with Mana. You said it yourself.”

She’s right. As soon as I found out, I stopped eating meat from them. Too much Mana is bad, it can destroy the body from the inside.

I went over to the kitchen and got her a full glass of water as I ponder on what to do for our money problem.

“Here, drink some water.” I handed her the glass of water. She took it and started drinking slowly.

She started living with me ever since Alice died two months ago. I can’t help but feel that it was my fault that she died. If only I didn’t take so long to kill Daniel, I would’ve been able to prevent her death.

Not even that. If only I noticed that Daniel was a traitor, it wouldn’t have gotten that bad. It’s so maddening that even though Hector and Daniel did those evil deeds, they didn’t have a Devil possessing them or they contracted to.

“So? What are we going to do?” She asks me, pulling me away from my negative thoughts.

“Hmm… We could get a job?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? They’re still looking for the perpetrator for Hector’s death.”

“We should be fine. It’s not like they know who did it.”

“Yeah, but what if there were actually witnesses? They just don’t want to come out with it. What then?” I didn’t know what to say. From what I remember there really shouldn’t be anyone who was there. I just decided to play along with her cautiousness.

“Relax, I know a person that can give us a job. He’s a friend of mine, aside from us, he’s the only one who knows what happened with Hector.” I took the empty glass from her and put it back in the kitchen. “Anyways, just stay here and rest, I’ll go talk with him.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re sick, go get some rest.” I pushed her back down to the couch as she tried to stand.

“Why?! It’s not like I’m dying. Besides, it’s boring not being able to do anything.”

“Still no. I can’t have you worsening your condition.” I turned around and walked away from her.

I casted my Warp spell but before I even noticed it, Rachel was already holding on to my arm. ~ Shit ~ The warp spell was already activated when I regained my composure from the surprise.

~ Damnit. I didn’t think this through. ~

The scenery changed, we were now in an office room. The walls were covered with bookshelves which were filled with books.

The person sitting on his desk that was in front of the huge window looked up at us. His head was bald, devoid of all hair.

He had a fairly muscular body and a caramel colored skin.

“Don’t think you can just leave me alone in that house.” Panting as she tugs on my arm.

A second later she collapsed on the floor. I swooped down to catch her. I then put my arms under her knees and the other behind her shoulders and carried her to the couch in the office.

“Leon. I’ll be using the couch for a bit.” I laid her down on the couch and put her head on a slight incline on the armrest.

She started shivering profusely so I took off my coat and covered her like it would a blanket.

“What’s wrong with her?” I turned to look at Leon for some advice.

His eyes glowed a pale blue. Glowing eyes is usually the sign of a person imbuing Mana to their eyes.

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I recently just found out that body strengthening or manipulation is one of the highest and most dangerous form of Magic. If done right, the caster can grant himself immortality, which is what the Goddess Minerva has done. If done wrong, a slow gruesome death awaits the caster. This is the reason that I haven’t taught it to Rachel yet.

“Look at her.” Leon gestured to me.

I imbued my eyes with Mana and looked at her. I saw her Mana in such disarray. A normal person’s Mana would usually be calm, but hers is now like a torrent. The structure of the Mana that’s rampaging inside her is much similar to Ice Magic.

“Ice Magic?” Did she attempt to cast Ice Magic and failed? I will question her later.

“Looks like her Magic backfired on her. Most likely she tried to cast Magic that is beyond her own skill.”

I never taught her Magic that was beyond her. She might’ve seen me cast them but I never taught her how.

“What do I do?”

Leon gives out a chuckle. “Relax, she just needs to drink medicine that calms her Mana down and she’ll be fine in a few minutes.” He snapped his fingers and a man wearing a butler uniform opened the door. “Quick, bring me medicine to calm the Inner Mana.” The man rushes out of the room to obey his orders.

Just a few seconds later and the man came back with a white pill and a glass of water. He handed them to Leon who took them. “Here you go sir.”

“Thank you, you may go now.”

The man left the room after doing a bow.

Leon handed me the pill and the glass of water. I crouched down beside Rachel and set down the glass of water. I started lightly shaking her. “Rachel, wake up.” Thankfully, she’s not a heavy sleeper so she woke up with just that.

“Hmmm… What’s going on?” She asks, her voice groggy.

I helped her sit up. “Here, drink this. It’ll help you get better.” I handed her the pill. She nodded and put the pill in her mouth. I then brought the glass of water to her mouth and slowly poured it. I helped her lay back down on the couch.

“Thank you Leon. I didn’t know what to do.”

He chuckled. “I’ve never seen you so frantic.” Embarrassed, I started scratching the back of my head. “So? What were you here for?”

In the background, I can hear Rachel shuffling on the couch. “We’re running low on money. I was hoping you could help us.”

“Ah… How about you work as Contractors? It’s pretty convenient to be one. You can get jobs at any city that has established a Contractor’s Guild. It’s perfect for you too, since you can just accept a job anytime you want.”

That is very convenient. Most of the cities in this world will have a Contractor’s Guild set up so there’s no problem with this.

I looked over to Rachel who was now sitting up.

“Are you okay with this?” I asked her.

“Yeah. Being able to decide when to take up jobs is very relaxing.”

“Excellent.” Leon clapped his hands and when they parted, two blank cards made up of diamond appears.

“Uh… Diamond?” Diamond is the hardest mineral in the world. It is also very rare. Needless to say that by holding a diamond card makes it known to everyone that you are an important person to that organization.

“We’re not exactly trying to be noticeable here.” I said to him.

“No problem, I’ll just give you a diamond card and an obsidian card. You can just use the diamond card if you want unrestricted access to anything.”

“Hmm…. Sounds good.” I took both of the cards and so did Rachel.

“You just infuse your own Mana to it and it will automatically fill out the information. Of course, any information you don’t want anyone to see, you can just alter them or block them out.”

I nodded and let my Mana infuse with the cards. All my basic information appeared. Gender, height, weight, hair and eye color, age, how many contracts I’ve completed and lastly, what rank of Magician I am.

The cards say that I am an ArchMagus. Which cannot be right because to be one, you have to be personally appointed by the Goddess and as far as I remember, I have not met the Goddess at all. The ArchMagi are the most powerful Magicians only below the Goddess. The only ones I know are Leon, Claire and Gabriel. Supposedly, there are about twenty of them which makes them severely outnumbered by the Demons.

I changed that rank into a Sage, as there is quite a numerous amount of them.

“Alright, now for your first contract. It’s something east.” Leon handed us a piece of paper. On it, it says the job details.

“Guard a caravan coming out of Lumeris?” I thought it was a weird request since Lumeris is about a week away on foot. How did this request come to here when it could have been put up in Lumeris where it was closest?

“The reward is pretty high… Ten thousand silver coins.” Rachel said. That is an unusually high reward for just guard duty.

“Do you know anything about this?” I asked Leon.

“No, I only put up the requests sent by the clients.”

“Whatever, we’ll take this.” I didn’t care about the details; the reward was stupidly high. And if it was just guard duty, it’ll be easy.

“Oh, keep that paper. Show it to the clients and they’ll know you’re from us.”

I stood up, preparing my spell to leave the room. “Chris.” Leon called out to me.

“We’re just about ready.” I squinted my eyes at his words and gestured towards Rachel.

“I see… Well, good luck on your first job.” I nodded to him. I took Rachel’s and warped us back to my house in Atna.