Chapter Fifty Eight
There was only one mage that usually worked at each guild branch and often both guilds would share that one mage. Whether the mage was stationed in the adventurer’s guild or the dungeoneering guild seemed to be quite random, but ultimately the mage was the cheapest and most useless mage the guilds could find as what the mage could do was ultimately unnecessary, only their skill at mana was meaningful.
Regardless of how useless the mage was, he or she would still garner significant respect and status within both guilds and often the mage, having been at the shallow end of the mage status pool, would abuse their position to garner what status and recognition they could even if it was from amongst the most common.
The job offered the mages was one of the easiest and low effort jobs available, but due to the scarcity of mages, it was still well paid and hard to fill. The mages simply had to judge the quality of cores that came into the two guilds so they could be sold for the best price possible, either at auction or as trash because of its poor quality of mana transfer and purity.
The mage for the guilds of the city of Coushar was actually a decent type, if a bit lazy. He didn’t take advantage of his status as mage too much, and simply wanted to analyze the one to ten cores per day and take the rest of the day to himself. Analyzing a core took maybe a minute, with trash cores actually requiring much longer to analyze to get accurate readings but the fastest to recognize. So, once they failed a certain threshold, worthless cores were identified within seconds. A job that paid for a day’s work but was completed within ten to twenty minutes was his dream, if any job could be considered a dream.
When he arrived at the dungeoneer guild, he slouched his way to the office and settled in to do his job. The job originally had the cores coming in as they were bought and he would have to stay throughout the day and evaluate each one as needed, requiring him to be on call and always available.
It’d taken some finagling but he was able to convince the guilds that he would be better suited to be available for other purposes. The fact that these other purposes were much rarer and almost never to happen had nothing to do with why he was offering said services. He chuckled to himself as he settled into his seat, reminiscing about his success in ‘stream lining’ his job. He spent twenty or thirty minutes in the morning and left for the day, enjoying himself around town as was his wont.
He’d spent some of his wealth to secure his wealth, leaving a special alchemically enchanted item at the guilds to contact him in case of emergency, the other of which he kept in his possession at all times. Receiving a prompt from his end of the device would require his immediate attention and return to one of the guilds in all haste. But the freedom to have all his days off was quite worth it. The only annoying thing about it was that it was a single use, and he would have to purchase another. If he was an alchemist… then I wouldn’t have this job, idiot.
He sighed and took a sip of his drink, a morning concoction of dubious origin but he’d taken a liking to it as it seemed to waken him quickly and dulled the side effects of any enjoyable activities of the night before. He stayed in his seat for a good quarter bell before finally pulling over the strong box heavily protected with both mundane, magical, and alchemical defenses. The truly paranoid would add mechanical and chemical defenses as well as no one individual would be able to adequately deal with even two, let alone all defenses. The more defenses one had, the more experts one would need to circumvent the defenses. The guilds did not keep any standard when making the defenses with the only requirement being that at least three were used.
It didn’t matter to him as he had the keys for all three and opening the strong box was simple enough. He popped the top and looked in to find a typical haul of six cores. Slow days had only two, sometimes only one. The incredible days had ten or more, but this was still never enough to feed the incredible demand for cores. The wealthy coveted them for a safe way to raise their children’s power while mages coveted them for their own power. The various craftsmen coveted them for their art, grinding them up or using them wholesale, as needed, in the creation of their great works.
In the end, there were never enough and while he was a mage who enjoyed power boosting artifacts as much as the next, he never had enough ambition to really push himself, nor greed to suck him in. Today, however, almost proved his undoing. The appraisal of the first several cores went as expected. The first core showed obvious damage and cracks throughout its structure and he didn’t hold much hope for it, not even examining it with mage sight. Instead, he simply injected his mana, allowing it to flow into the first core only to muddy and swirl in obstruction as most of it bled out in a burst of meaningless lost mana into the atmosphere surrounding the core. He couldn’t see it, of course, but his imagination offered him what his sight could not and the flow of mana wafting from the core in his left hand and spilling down his palm and over the edges.
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The second was better with much fewer cracks which did lead to most mana bleeding out but a small and useable stream of focused mana poured out in a tight beam that he could feel piercing through his other hand. The beam was quite focused and actually had a decent range as he stretched his hand almost the width of his body before the beam lost focus and simply eddied into a swirl that washed over his hand instead of thrusting into it with strength. Huh… decent. grade B but very low power… maybe useful for a craftsmen of some type. Low power output but certainly very focused and useful for delicate work. His excitement got the better of him and he even tried to express intent, but found it rebuffed, as always. He didn’t know why he did it. Cores that accepted expressed intent were so rare that they belonged only to the greatest of clans. Regardless, this was one of the best cores he’d received in the past year and he actually spent a good half bell just playing with it. It was rare to have such an excellent, if limited core, to work with. Maybe I should purchase it? Would be worth it in some way, and if not, I could easily get my money back by reselling it.
He set that core to the side before picking up the third. Huh… different core? Not one I’m used to seeing… looks like a slime core. And so… perfect! There… no cracks! He stared at it in shivering expectation for a bit before he quickly opened his mage sight. Usually, such expenditure wasn’t ever worth it, but to see such a perfect core made his entire being shiver like a struck bell. His mage sight engaged and flooded the core, surrounding it and revealing what his eyes had noticed: perfection. But it was a perfection that was even greater than … how… how … it is even perfect to mage sight! There should be SOME micro cracks or damage!
He took control of his breathing, a single long breath he exhaled slowly before he decided to press his mana in. His mana entered easily enough but nothing was happening at all. A dud? Impossible! Is the… He pressed more of his mana in, but felt nothing. No mana wash over his left hand, no excess escaping, no obstruction or loss. He turned the expected core output towards his left and then shouted in shock when he felt the mana punch through his hand like the fist of an Ancient One. He cut the power from the core and froze in fear, his thoughts struggling but unable to comprehend. His eyes flickered back to the core before breathing deeply in fear and allowing his mind to clear. He passed in the tiniest amount of mana his control could, then sent a simple intent.
The core burst outward, a wave of mana that washed across his whole body. He gulped. He froze. He stared. For a very long time, he didn’t move, simply staring at the core. Suddenly, he began to play, bursts of mana escaping the core in strange shapes, forms, intents, and purposes, each perfectly replicated as he wanted. He shocked turned to glee and he began giggling, absolute joy erupting from him without control.
* * *
The guild master of the dungeoneer’s guild of Coushar had been attempting to remain patient as she was irregularly awash in tsunami’s of mana, washing over her at random moments, although her frustration mounted more each time another wave of mana interrupted her. Judging by the direction of the mana, it was coming off to her right a bit. If she had to judge, it was the mage in his office. While she knew he was a bit of a slacker, he was honest and did the job the guild wanted diligently thus she did not want to irritate him, but when the last wash burst through even larger than the last, she stood up and slapped her desk.
“What is that damn mage doing!?” she shouted in anger as she left her office and headed towards the mage’s office. Another wash of mana even as she reached to mages office proved the origin and she didn’t offer a polite knock, slamming open the office.
“What do you think you are doing, mage?!”
The man jumped at the loud noise of his door slamming against the wall. He looked at the guild master, a bit surprised before he giggled and did something with the core in his hand, releasing another wash of mana through the room.
“It’s perfect!” the mage giggled.
“What?”
“It’s perfect. The core is perfect!” he laughed again, glee obvious in his voice.
The guild master froze in consternation for just a moment, then initiated a movement skill to the door, arriving at her fastest possible speed before glancing out both ways then shutting the door so quickly that most would not have even seen her head sticking out the door. She arrived back at the mage’s side almost faster than the mage could realize and ripped the core from his hand.
“Stop spraying mana everywhere! Call for the strongest guards.”
The mage laughed but nodded, “Yes, guild master.”
The mage left quickly for the guards but the guild master found herself staring in awe, stunned as much as the mage had been. There really was only one option. There was no other way. They would be found and known too quickly; too easily. It would have to go to a grand auction in any one of the major cities and out of this guild as quickly as possible.
* * *