Dawn felt her knees buckle with fatigue as she looked blearily at the three figures. They were giving her a perplexed, stupid gaze that a person only wears when they come against the truly bizarre. She didn't care. Even the appearance of the stunning girl from last night did little to distract her mind from smacking itself against a metaphorical wall.

Because she had a problem, or more accurately a bad habit that gave her problems.

Now that wasn't really surprising, most people had their vices of discipline. It was just a fact of life that nobody could be perfect, that a person would cut some corners to make their life easier... but there was a reason why certain habits were frowned upon to begin with. They didn't work. A person could manage to scrape by if the stars happen to align, but eventually it would catch up to them. As it had caught her.

So she stared into the distance, lamenting her stupidity as something seemed to click in Bosbies mind and his befuddled look cleared into an intense gaze. He whirled to the teal haired girl and spoke with the urgence of command.

"Xeri, what are we dealing with? Are there any crustacean-like monsters that can reach this high up into the city?"

Xeri blinked before her expression shifted into a mirror of Bosbies own. She bit her lip as she replied.

"I can't think of anything. There are Craglurkers in the Stillwaters... but they are generally immobile, far too heavy to climb through the Pipeways. Anything else? Well—"

Dawn tuned the girl out to dwell on her moronic mistakes. She just couldn't shake the frustration that took ahold of her, even if there was nothing she could have done. After all, what could she have done about a giant spider crab thing? But she should have at least tried something instead of just... forgetting all about it like some ostrich.

"I can't think of anything... Hey Dawn? You—"

Dawn sighed. She was uncannily good at it, ignoring reality that was. So much so that she doubted her sense of object permanence. For her, out of sight was really out of mind. It was something she used to her advantage in the past, and while it used to be fine in her normal life, she was really beginning to understand how stupid this habit really was. Now that crab could be anywhere... she—

"Dawn!"

Dawn jumped, the shout drawing her back to reality. She paled and backed away from the tense trio, her dilating pupils reflecting the glint of their drawn weapons.

"W-What are you doing!? I don't—"

"Where is it?! Take us to where you last saw it!"

The fog began to clear from her mind and she finally understood. Dawn turned to Xeri and nodded.

"O-Okay, it should be upstairs—follow me."

She turned and they followed suit, murmuring what Dawn assumed were skills or abilities as they went. As they reached the hallway Xeri drew up beside Dawn, leaning in to whisper as she scanned the dingy corridor.

"Can you describe it? What are we dealing with?"

"Um, orange? Spidery? Pretty big for a crab but... I don't think you guys need to be this cautious."

She cast around at the heavily armed three as they moved forward, all possessing an intensity to their gaze as if they were about to face death and not some creepy crab. Bosbie, who was armed with a dagger and some weird glowing orb, shook his head as he stalked down the corridor.

"Xeri is our expert on monsters. If she doesn't know what we're dealing with then we need to be cautious. Whatever you saw may seem harmless, but you never know what something could be hiding. Like a bite of venomous acid, or webs as hard as steel; It could possess enhanced strength and speed, or even do some crazy shit like explode on contact... bottom line is that there is no such thing being 'too cautious' with monsters Dawn"

She shivered as they came to the bottom of the stairs and peered with trepidation up into the dark stairwell.

"Yeah... point taken. Maybe I should just hang back then?"

The three nodded and she dropped behind them as they entered the stairwell, the gorillo just barely able to squeeze himself into its narrow confines. The stairs groaned ominously under their combined weight but managed to hold as they came to the floor above.

The room beyond was dark, the only light present filtering through the patchwork of boards that now blocked off the broken windows and door. Gone was the couch of mush, having been dragged and thrown off the balcony by Dawn earlier in the day. Still, the three wrinkled their noses as they came into the festering quagmire that was supposed to be her living area.

"Gods! Now I see why nobody took the place, enchanting atelier or not. Xeri, Hass, have fun searching around in this muck while I hang back to protect Dawn. Remember, don't get separated."

"Of fucking course..."

The mismatched pair grumbled as they trudged away and entered the common room further in. There was a splash followed by a muffled flurry of curses as Bosbie peered around, his eyes flicking between the hammer in Dawn's hand, the fresh timber, and her dilapidated state.

"Busy day?"

Dawn turned to him, grateful for the distraction as she shrugged and smiled with pride.

"You could say that. I got some spare wood for cheap from a carpenter a friend knew. I know the money you gave me was for food but I—"

The atelin waved a lazy hand.

"Don't worry about it, you got fed anyways right? And at least you're putting the money to good use, unlike some layabouts. No, I'm more interested in how this crab got in here. Did it come in while you were working? It looks like you're finished, so how did it...?"

Dawn scuffed a foot as she looked away sheepishly, her voice a whisper as she replied.

"Um, it kind of was already here?"

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"... Come again?"

Dawn glued her eyes to the ceiling, suddenly enamored with the colonies of mold as the monkey gave her a deadpan stare.

"Yeah! So I was checking out the place after I got my keyring thing, y'know? All normal stuff, but this crab snuck up on me in the bathroom. So I ran away to lock it in there and... obviously that should have been enough, right?"

Bosbie just continued his stare and she threw up her aching arms in defense.

"Look, how was I supposed to know that thing would open the door!? Crabs can't do that!"

His incredulous expression morphed into a frown.

"Or it could have just broken straight through the door, but you said it opened the door?"

Dawn nodded.

"Yeah, the door was ajar when I finished up with this and went to bail out the water. I noticed it because I guess I forgot to turn off the light enchantment when I left."

The monkey man drifted off into thought, biting his tail as he glanced to the entrance of the common room.

"So it's intelligent? That's the worst trait to face. Maybe we should—"

Dawn felt herself swaying as she glanced sidelong at him as he debated with himself, finally working up the courage to ask about what had been bothering her.

"So, Hass showed up last night... He was following me wasn't he?"

The atelin paused, his tail twitching before he turned to Dawn with a smile.

"Hm, oh that? Think of it as a... trial run. Something to show you what my protection really means."

Dawn narrowed her eyes, a pit forming in her gut as she looked at the now 'perfectly innocent' monkey man.

"You know, I heard some things about you..."

Bosbie's smile only deepened as he rose an arched brow.

"Oh? Like what?"

Dawn froze, her mouth half open as she forced herself to actually think about what she was about to say. She never got the chance. The gorillo and girl reappeared, shaking their heads as Bosbie broke off and spun to them with a frown.

"Nothing? You're sure you've searched everything? Don't give me that look Xeri, I'm well within my right to ask! So if you are sure, then... maybe it's gone?"

The four stood there in the grey twilight, looking at each other with uncertainty as they waited for an answer. Their only reply was the soft trickle of the rain. After some time, Bosbie shook his head, peering at Dawn as she struggled to keep herself upright.

"Well, there's no point in sitting here and letting you freeze your ass off. Come on, let's get you warmed up."

. . .

Dawn stumbled into the study, collapsing next to the couch that was her de facto bed. Dawn rejoiced as she felt the hot, emberic fire warm her cold and aching muscles. The trio followed shortly after, peering around the room.

Xeri's eyes lit up with joy as she saw the rows upon rows of books. She practically teleported over to a bookcase as the atelin sat opposite of dawn and lit a cigar. His gorillo shaped shadow posted up behind him as he took a puff and raised a brow, indicating piles of tomes sprawled across a low refectory between them.

"Well on to business. I see you were studying. Trying to find what you're missing without me?"

Dawn jumped, shifting her eyes away as the atelin giggled and picked up one of the volumes, paging through it as his eyes flashed with magic.

"Oh, this is good stuff! Say what you will of those stuffy bastards at Ondenwald, they at least know their theory. But it's not as if this is any use to you. You couldn't cast a single cantrip could you?"

Dawn's head snapped up to atelin in surprise.

"How did you know?"

He shrugged.

"These are spells optimized for enchantments, and your natural mana pool is so pitiful that even with a focus you couldn't overcome the cost. But it's more than that—"

He snapped the book shut with a crack, grinning as he presented and tapped on the cover.

"These are commercial spell books and thus the spells within have special... requirements. Take a look at a spell and see if you can figure it out."

"... Okay?"

Dawn frowned as she picked up the tome she had been working on, one that focused on actual spells and not instruction or theory. She concentrated until the world began to shimmer with magic, and she focused on the spell that formed in the air, studying its construction. She couldn't really tell what it did, but she did get a vague feeling of purpose as she traced the outline of the runic geometry. As far as she could tell this was some spell to blow air? It didn't seem very powerful or useful, but she felt like she should be able to replicate it. The problem was there was one part of the spell that was so complex she couldn't make any sense of it. It was the crux of the entire thing... a gate that needed to be opened before she could—

Dawn reeled back as a book smacked her square in the nose. She clutched at her face in pain as Bosbie groaned with frustration.

"Gods this is why I hate new mages, always making everything about magic. Use your fucking eyes girl, your normal eyes!"

She glared at the monkey, the magic flickering out before she glanced back to the tome. It was filled with footnotes she had barely registered before. She squinted at the warbling text as she read aloud.

"Puff~ Creates a gentle, localized breeze that blows in the direction of the caster's choice. It may be—"

"Ugh, and this is why I hate academic mages. Always trying to jerk themselves off over the most mundane shit. Skip to the end, it should be around there."

"—will not function in any pocket dimensions or spaces otherwise separate from natural air currents. Any use of this spell, be it casting, ritual, enchantment, or any other form of evocation has a material cost of two gold pieces for the privilege of using a spell crafted by the association of—wait, there are fucking royalties?!"

Dawn gaped down at the spellbook in disbelief as Bosbie cackled with crazed laughter.

"Greed knows no bounds! Some bastard at some point actually managed to make a spell anchor that acted as a small scale teleportation matrix and it's been this way ever since."

"So are all spell books like this?"

"Yup, but you need spells if you want to enchant anything... which brings me to my proposal. Listen, there are only a few good ways to learn magic, and none of them are particularly good."

He held up a trio of fingers, ticking them off with his tail as he spoke.

"One, apprenticeship or academia; one of those requires you to slave away for a person and another to slave away for an institution. You will only learn anything useful by the time you are old, decrepit, and tenured. Two, reaching into the mysteries of arcana, or in other words, guessing blind and trying to figure shit out for yourself; it is the path of the genius and the suicidal fool alike, a path that is as likely to kill you as it is to give you... mediocre results. That leaves only one good option, the option for the desperate fools that need power in the shortest and cheapest way possible—"

He blew out a cloud of smoke and it shifted into the form of a timberwolf. It mimed a howl before it charged, kicking up tufts of smoke as if it were running through snow. It circled and disappeared above Dawn's head as Bosbie gave her a mock bow.

"Wild magic! For what is of the wild is freely given... as long as you can survive to take it that is."

Dawn retched, waving the trails of smoke away as her brows crossed.

"Wild magic? How would I even learn something like that?"

He steepled his hands as a lecturer would and cocked his head.

"Tell me, where do you think wild magic is found?"

"... In nature I guess? But I don't see how that answers my question."

The atelin rolled his eyes.

"That is the answer! Where else are you going to learn wild magic but in the wild?"

He indicated his eyes as they began to glow anew.

"Do you think every time a monster uses an ability fueled by mana they just... ignore the rules of magic? No. While monsters don't use spells in the strictest sense of the word they still have to follow the same basic laws, the same rules of construction. All you need to do is to watch and learn... but obviously that's easier said than done. I don't want you turning into paste, so that's where she comes in."

He jerked his head and Dawn looked over to see Xeri, barely restraining herself as she perused the collection of books, her eyes filled with longing. She turned, doing a double take as she realized the whole room was focused on her and Bosbie rose with a stretch.

"Okay! That's my job done, I'm really only an expert in magic and... unrelated matters so I'll let Xeri handle all the nuances of my proposal on the adventuring side of things. Later!"

Both Dawn and Xeri turned to Bosbie in horror.

"You're leaving?!"

Their voices cried out in unison as the atelin made for the door.

"Yes? In case you've forgotten Xeri, you wasted an hour of my life. I have a schedule to keep so you get to deal with this yourself. Just don't forget to tell her about the cost... Anyways, have fun you two!"

They scrambled to follow after a moment of stupefaction but it was too late. The monkey man howled with laughter as he entered the hall with his hass trailing behind, moving with unnatural speed out of her shop. They stood in the hallway watching as the door clicked shut and the shop returned to silence once more.

"Gods, I hate that stupid monkey."

Dawn turned and met the girl's eyes that stood beside her. Dawn backed away, her body growing stiff with dread as her memories of the night before flooded back into her. She broke out into a sweat as she relived her horrendous attempt of seduction with a sober mind. Dawn's eyes darted away in shame as she forced herself to say something—anything to break the painful silence.

"U-Um, hi! Fancy seeing you here huh?"

She swallowed hard as Xeri narrowed her eyes. This was going to be a long day.