Author’s Note: So a longer than normal chapter today. Please enjoy.

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Chapter 26

I slept so well! I went to bed immediately after my bath and supper. As expected of a very high class inn, the bed here is quite comfortable. I hadn’t gotten to enjoy it the previous night, and I probably would have slept even longer if Coa’s screeching hadn’t gotten loud and insistent enough to wake me. I rolled over in bed and looked at Coa, who I had placed on the pillow next to my own. Her eyes were spinning as she looked back at me in return. The tip of her tail was twitching back and forth but at least she seemed satisfied that I was now awake, since she was no longer making loud noises. “Coa, you need to eat less. I understand you’re a growing dragon, but you’re eating five meals a day.” Her only response was to tilt her head at me. I’d really like her to grow up already just so we could communicate. Then again, there’s no guarantee that she’ll be like the wolves in that regard is there? She might communicate in a different way. I’ll just have to wait and see.

I sat up and stretched. I was sleeping pretty much naked, just wearing my underthings. Luckily Myura wasn’t around to see or I’m sure she’d be thinking loudly about how inappropriate it was for a lady to show so much skin. She seems to have really narrow minded views about how nobility should act, which amused me a bit since she’s just a young maid. Especially when she also knows that as a servant she shouldn’t criticize her master. I was starting to suspect that it was possible that the reason she wanted to be my servant so much was because she had been wowed by my display that first night. I had laid on the act rather thick. She might have believed she had found a perfect noble lady to serve. It makes me feel a bit bad for her if this was truly the case since it really was all just an act. I can put up with it for the few more days I’ll be in town.

Let’s see, my plans for today are to chat with witch girl about magic and at some point deliver the goods to Huvreck. I don’t mind letting Myura accompany me to the witch girl’s shop, but I can’t allow her to come with me to see Huvreck. I’ll need to come up with another errand or something to get rid of her for just long enough for me to visit him. That shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe ask her to prepare lunch and then when she’s doing that, go to see him? I think that should work out.

My thoughts were interrupted by a brief knock at the door. “My lady, I have brought breakfast for you.”

I hurriedly got out of bed and tossed on a clean dress before answering. “You may enter.” I turned back to the bed and scooped up Coa before walking over to the sofa like furniture. Myura came in holding a long tray covered in a number of dishes like yesterday. I made sure to feed Coa first, and she ate a lot. I wondered what she actually does with what she eats. She eats so much, but then only excretes out very little every few days. Her inner biology must be weird. I could probably get her examined back at the ship but that would require her submitting to being under a scope. It might look really threatening to her small self.

After Coa was fully satisfied, I finally got around to eating myself. It was delicious. High class inns are the best! I don’t have to waste my food supplies and I still get great food. Truly a win/win for me. I suppose the expense might be considered a downside, but money exists to be spent and I’m not worried about running out anytime soon. Oh, isn’t that actually a bad attitude to have? The adamantite I need is sure to be expensive. On the other hand, I doubt those dark dwarves would ever part with how much I need for any amount of money. I might have to negotiate aggressively. I don’t want to do that if I can help it, but if those dwarves really stand between me and fixing Lullaby then I will take measures to remove them.

Somehow my thoughts have turned a bit dark this morning. I looked at the former plates of delicious food.  Apparently while thinking of the possibility of killing a lot of dwarves I had finished off everything. While it’s good to be ready for the possibility, I’d rather be hopeful that there won’t be too many issues involved with getting my adamantite. It does rely on getting the information from that organization once Huvreck tells me their name. That will take some investigating since all I’m getting is the name. On the other hand, the fact that Huvreck said they operated and had agents in tons of other organizations should mean their base of operations would need to be in the most important place around for those organizations, which would be the capital. My logic might be a bit faulty, but I think it checks out in this case. Of course, I may well end up wrong. They might operate out of a smaller town or something instead, but it’s for sure they have agents working in the capital at least. I am positive that if I poke around in the capital asking questions, that I’ll get noticed and likely accosted by someone, which should get me more information.

For now, let’s get dressed and ready to go to the witch’s shop. She can answer my questions and I can play with a cute kitten. “Myura, I’m planning on running an errand today. There is a shop I need to visit.”

“Please my lady, allow me to run any errand you require. My lady can wait here and relax in comfort.” Myura replied with what I noticed was a very slight emphasis on the ‘wait here’.

“It’s not a simple shopping errand Myura. It’s more in the nature of a consultation. I will need to go myself.” I answered back.

“Then please allow me to accompany my lady!” Myura insisted.

“I do not mind.” Myura smiled instantly at my response.

Myura helped me get dressed, though I noticed she was a bit disproving of my chosen apparel. It was plain that she didn’t think my adventurer like clothing fit my station. She would much rather I wear that fancy dress like I had that first night. I merely told her that that dress wasn’t proper for wandering around the city in. That explanation satisfied her, but she still wasn’t happy. To be honest, I kind of agreed with her. I’d really need to look into getting some different sets of clothing and possibly one outfit that actually was armor. My current outfit looked fine to travel in, but it didn’t really give the appearance of something a proper strong adventurer would wear. It looked like pretty normal clothing outside the dress and boots that looked like they were leather. Plus if I chose the clothing myself, then I’d at least be able to choose some things I liked rather than always wearing what Lynn gave me. I especially looked forward to getting some pants. I was used to the dresses and skirts and short shorts that Lynn always put me in, but still some pants would be nice. I did used to be a guy you know!? I mentally sighed. I don’t really feel much like a guy anymore.

Ahh, damn it, this isn’t the time to start getting depressed! Today is the day I’m going to learn more about magic. Be excited me, not sad! With these thoughts I left the inn with Myura in tow and with Coa happily asleep around my neck.

It didn’t take long to reach witch girl’s shop. Myura was looking confused that this store would be my destination. Like the previous day, there were a few women in the shop but there was also a male adventurer that seemed to be buying something too.

Witch girl saw me and waved me over. “Hello! You’re here early! Why don’t you go into the back and then upstairs. I’ll be with you in a little after I help these customers. Nirvi is already up there so feel free to play with her.”

I followed her directions and went into the back. The backroom had a large cauldron in the middle of the floor, a smaller cauldron on a table in the back, lots of jars on shelves and barrels all over the floor. Supply and production room I suppose. The stairs were to my left so I went up and opened the door at the top. This room was basically a living room and kitchen. I didn’t see a bed but I did see another small staircase on one side of the room, so maybe her bedroom was up there. The small basket containing the kitten was on the floor next to a chair, so I went over and crouched down to examine her closely since I hadn’t done that the day before. I think the witch said it was a girl anyway. Based on the appearance, I’d say she was about two months old? Not an expert on estimating animal ages.

That didn’t matter though. I picked up the adorable kitten and sat down in the chair with her in my lap and started petting her. She roused slightly and started purring. Coa wasn’t happy with this state of affairs and started rubbing against my face like she was saying give me attention too. I brought her down to my lap with the kitten and starting stroking the both of them together. What a blissful state to be in! Let’s forget all my troubles and just enjoy these two purring pets.

Sadly, it was not to last long because Myura spoke up. I had almost forgotten she was even here! “Umm, my lady, forgive me but what was the reason for coming here again?”

I glared at her and she quailed in response. She ruined the moment! How could she ruin my cuddly time!? I tried to recapture that bliss but it was not to be. I was honestly surprised that she had said something though. I figured that would have counted as criticizing her master wouldn’t it? She’s not being as loud with her thoughts today, but let’s switch classes and see if I can get some kind of idea what she’s thinking. I switched Hunter out for Beastmaster and Ranger for Empath. Empath will probably come in handy for the magic lesson anyway.

Oh, she’s just upset that I would be staying in this kind of humble place. She really is a bit too uptight about appearances. It feels like she might cause a scene, so I kind of regret bringing her now. If she does, I’ll just have to tell her to leave. Magic was more important than her feelings.

I heard steps coming up toward the room so obviously witch girl was coming. She threw open the door and surprised Myura who was still acting a bit cowed after my glare. “I finally got rid of all my customers and closed the store so now we can play! Oh, you started without me I see.” She was looking at the two pets lying on my lap.

“You said I could, so I went right ahead. Was it okay to close the shop though?” I asked.

“No problem, no problem! If I didn’t close the shop there would be no chance of playing, since I’d be constantly helping customers. I’m usually pretty busy and I’m also open almost every day so closing for one day won’t hurt anyone. They’ll just have to visit some other shop for once.” She replied, waving off any possible complaints.

Was that really okay? I guess if she says so. She was the business owner here. She came over reaching for Coa, so I let her have her and she brought Coa up to her face and rubbed up against her. Coa was confused at first but then started rubbing back and purring at this new source of affection.

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The two of us played with each other’s pets for a while before playing with them both together. We were using some cat toys to play with them and it was so cute to watch the kitten and Coa try to snap and catch the dangling toy. Magic could definitely wait just a bit longer. Myura was quiet but she seemed to be working herself up to say something. She wasn’t happy about the lack of respect and the familiarity with which the witch girl was treating me.

After about an hour of playing, the pets finally fell asleep from being tired and we let them curl up together in the basket. The witch girl served some juice that was quite delicious. I wondered if it was something she had made herself because I couldn’t recognize the taste at all.

Apparently, being served some questionable juice was the breaking point for Myura. “Excuse me, but I believe my lady had something important with which to consult with you.”

Witch girl almost jumped in shock. “What!? A maid? When did you get here?”

“I’ve been here all along! You were just too busy playing!” Myura replied. She was being very curt in her response. She was pretty angry and upset.

“Well, why are you here? And who is my lady?” Witch girl perplexedly asked.

Ahh, I guess since she’s never seen me act in lady mode she can’t connect the dots. No surprise there. My normal mode of acting is quite a bit different. I guess I’ll throw her a bone and try to defuse this situation a bit. “She was referring to me. She decided to be my servant during my stay here. It is true that I would like to talk to you about something. I would like some help with magic.”

“Were you a noble or something? Should I be more polite?” Witch girl asked.

“No need. I prefer this much more casual atmosphere.” I replied.

“If you want me to make a love potion or something, I’ll tell you right now that’s definitely out. No matter what kind of stories you’ve read that kind of thing doesn’t exist.” Witch girl said.

“No way! I don’t need that kind of magical assistance. When I said I needed help with magic, I really did mean help with magic. I find myself regretfully ignorant on the topic and I figured that you would be able to help me.” I explained.

“My lady, if that’s all you required, then I could have handled it. There’s no reason to bother this person.” Myura interrupted again.

Wow, Myura was dripping venom when referring to the witch. I was about to reply when to my surprise, witch girl jumped up and spoke herself. “Hey you! I don’t really care for your tone. Your lady just said it was okay and that she came here to speak with me. Shouldn’t you have realized that we’re friends by how we were interacting together! And are you trying to say that you know better than your lady to question her judgement? What you need to do is just sit down and relax.” Witch girl dragged Myura to a chair and pushed her into it. Myura was about to complain but then witch girl deposited her kitten into Myura’s hands. “Play with Nirvi. I think you’re too high strung, you need to pet a cute animal.”

To my surprise Myura actually shut up and her hands started almost unconsciously to stroke the kitten. The kitten was fine with this state of affairs and stretched a bit before getting comfortable in her new spot. Did the cuteness of the kitten triumph over the maid? I hoped so. At least it seemed like Myura was going to be quiet again for a while. Witch girl was nodding, satisfied at this turn of events.

“So the two of us are friends?” I asked.

Witch girl turned back to me and replied. “Of course we are! We are friends in the pursuit of cute and cuddly pets. There is no truer calling!”

“If we’re friends then we should probably actually introduce ourselves.” I laughed.

Witch girl blinked. “Oh, that’s true! We haven’t done that have we? As you probably guessed from the shop name, my name is Fiona. Feel free to call me Fio if you like.”

I smiled. “Alright, Fio. My name is Seri and my pet’s name is Coa.”

“Oh my, how shameful of me that I didn’t even ask for the cutie’s name! Anyway, Seri, you wanted to know about magic, but what exactly do you want to know? From the basics?” Fio enquired.

“Pretty much. My extent of magic knowledge ends at the fact that you’re supposed to attune your inner mana to an element and then draw on the ambient mana to help cast spells. I’ve never done even that though. My mana pool doesn’t seem fully developed yet.”

“Longer lived races can take more time for that to happen. Some elves might take until they are thirty or forty years old for their mana pool to fully settle. Humans or beast races average about seven years after birth for our mana pools, which is about the same level of physical development as the elves. Of course judging by your apparent age you are out of the norm for when it should have happened by.” She was examining me now with a more critical eye. “Some anomalies do come up occasionally so it’s not too big of a deal.”

“So I just have to wait for it to fully develop?” I asked. I was a little dismayed since I had no idea how long that would take. If I go by the fact that I am technically a modified human, I’d be waiting at least a number of years for my mana pool to actually be usable? I really don’t like the sound of that.

“There are methods to speed up the growth but I wouldn’t recommend them. Usually all the methods harm the long term growth of the mana pool for a short term benefit. As you are clearly one of the more long lived races that isn’t a smart idea. You’ll have more than enough lifespan where that long term demerit would come to harm you.” Fio clarified.

I suppose that was true. Actually, now that I think about it, I had no idea what my lifespan even was! I hadn’t changed physically in over forty years. My body was in the same state as it was when I was rescued from those experiments. I had never matured beyond that. If that was case, couldn’t I end up living forever? I felt myself get dizzy at the thought and rapidly tore my thinking away from that subject and focused back on magic. “Is there any nonnegative methods? You mentioned usually, doesn’t that mean some of the methods are safe to use?”  

“There is a method that might be safer but it requires your body being able to adapt to a large influx of magic power. You’d have to overload your body with magic power and just hope it would speed up your mana pool formation. It’s a very risky method since without a formed mana pool in your body, it would mean your magic resistance would be next to nonexistent too. There’s lots of chances for things to end up poorly. You’re much better off to just wait and let it develop naturally.” Fio explained.

That did explain some things. I did feel like my mana pool growth sped up a tiny bit each time Seran sent those little pulses of magic through me. Basically, what she was saying is that the fastest way to develop a mana pool was to do that but on a much greater scale. I’m not sure how I would go about doing that though. Did I even want to take the risk of trying it? I was pretty confident in my body’s adaptability, but it does sound like this was a significant risk. I can already hear Lynn scolding me if I decide to try it. “Could you take the magic power in small doses? How would you even take in a large influx of magic power like that?” I questioned.

Fio looked like she was thinking about how to phrase her reply. “You could do it in smaller amounts I suppose. It would draw out the process a lot, but it would be even safer. There are potions that might be usable for such an effect. I think it would depend on how far along your mana pool was but it might speed up the process by a number of years at least. Another way would be to go to a magic rich spot to meditate. There are a few spots like that deep in higher level dungeons and around the world. They can be deadly poisonous to people with a small or in your own case no mana pools. Like I said it, depends on how quickly you could adapt to it.”

The potion route definitely sounded safer. “Where would I get potions like that?”

“I could probably brew up a set of them for you. I have the necessary herbs on hand but to replace them afterwards will be expensive.” Fio said.

“So you do make potions?” I had assumed that to be the case judging by the room downstairs. I hadn’t seen any potions in the shop though.

“Of course! I am a Witch after all!” She must have seen the confusion that that sparked because she continued. “Oh. You don’t know the differences between the classes do you?” I shook my head. “I guess I should explain the specialties of the magic using classes next. First, the most common are the Sorcerer and Sorceress. They are the normal spell slinger type. Fireballs and all that. Pretty boring in my own opinion. I will admit to being a tad biased! Druids infuse their mana into plants to cast their spells. They tend to be very limited and useless in a city. It’s not a popular class outside of certain areas. They are very popular in forested regions or for helping farm development. Absolutely never underestimate what they can do in a forest. Next would be Priests and Priestesses. They channel their mana to bestow blessings, which while sounding similar to enchanting is cast on people rather than on objects. They can also use their magic for healing or purifying the undead. Paladins use the same type of magic as Priests. Which then brings me to the last class which is my own and of course the best of the lot! The Witch and Wizard class!” She struck a proud pose.

“Go on already! What does a Witch do?” I said, exasperated at her theatrics.

“A Witch is focused on indirect use of magic. We brew potions which we infuse our magic into for extra oomph! We do all those fancy enchantments you most likely have seen around. The last thing we do are ritual type magics. Rituals can be very complicated depending on the ritual in question but they can have very great effects. Some rituals might take days or even months of continuous casting to get right! Of course we can still throw fireballs or things if we wanted to, we’re just not as good or efficient at it as Sorceresses are. What do you think? Definitely the best class right?” Fio said with another pose.

“Absolutely!” I agreed. It sounded like the Witch class was absolutely the one I was looking for. “Please teach me how to get that class!”