Chris woke up to the sound of a scuffle outside near the stables. “Grab it, damnit. This thing is good money!” Chris looked out his window to see several men chasing down Balfor, blades out and ready. Chris grabbed his mask, and leapt down from the window, robe billowing in the wind. “You want in on this action? We found this boar just chil-” He was cut off by punching the man in the face, knocking him across the greenery into a wooden fence.
“What the fuck is your problem? You want all the money yourself or something?! Get him!” A group of seven men charged at Chris, and he dodged past them, picking up Balfor and hoisting him up on his shoulder, “This is my pet, if you attempt anything else, I won’t forgive you!” Chris glared down at the men, and they seemed to have backed away. Chris turned to walk back into the inn, when a sword came slashing down. Balfor took the brunt of the attack, the flesh where it connected splitting open. It snorted out, angry, but it was a little injured now.
“So you guys apparently don’t listen, then I guess you won’t be needing your ears to work.” The guys all around put their swords up ready to attack, “What the hell does that even mean? You gonna cut our ears off?” Chris shook his head, and simply said, “No.”
The men fell to the ground, ears bleeding profusely. Some even fell unconscious. Chris walked over to man he slammed against the fence, the only one he didn’t use sound magic against and simply stated, “You let the people in this town know that if they fuck with my pet Boar I will do the same to them.” Chris leaned over him, imposing his apparent superiority.
The man groaned, “Got it. Sorry.” The man slumped back over, passing out from the pain. Chris injected mana and healing magic into Balfor, and left him in the stables. Chris then walked back inside to the inn and tipped the innkeeper a silver coin for his silence and went back to his room.
He abruptly swung the door open, only to catch an eyeful of Serah half dressed. “Ohh, you’re back. You have fun out there?” Serah didn’t cover herself, she slowly slipped on her adventuring gear, all while calmly talking to Chris.
Chris was flustered on the other hand, “Uhmm, yea I handled it,” he turned away quickly, attempting to flee before she grabbed him without a shirt. “You gotta tell me about what you did to them, I was watching, but I didn’t see exactly why they all just collapsed. Come on, tell me!” She pressed against him.
“I’ll tell you if you stop acting like Harriot, jeez.” Serah just laughed, and quickly threw her other gear on, making it clear to Chris she was just messing with him. “There, are you happy?” Chris nodded, his blood flow returning to normal.
“It was just some sound magic pinpointed to the inside of their eardrums, bursting them and causing permanent damage. They will be able to hear again, probably. Just not as well as before.” Serah nodded and then seemed to have a realization, “You didn’t use an incantation did you? Now that I think about it, I have never seen you use one.”
“I don’t normally need incantations I guess,” Chris held his arm uncomfortably, “I haven’t much since I was a kid.” Serah leaned over, “Ohh, that’s so cool. Do you think you could teach me?” Chris sighed, “Maybe, but you have to listen to everything I say. If you don’t believe it, then it won’t work.”
Serah nodded diligently, “I will, I promise.” Chris looked up at her, “Then while we take a break in this city I’ll work with Alvars in the morning, and you during the evening. Does that work for you?” Serah hugged Chris, “Thanks, I’m looking forward to it!”
With that they headed off on their own. Serah visited the guild to look at possible quests they might be interested in, as well as garnering info of the area, who to avoid, etc. Chris went to Advars, the place was bustling with people of many ranks, even some notable crests on some garments, yet the instant he saw me, he quickly shoed everyone and closed shop for the day. Chris received some nasty glares, and they protested against Advars. They caved in the end however.
“How do you keep business going, treating your customers so rudely?” Chris laughed a little. “By gaining access to the latest and greatest technology of course. Just like now.” Advars pulled out a parchment with a diagram of a sword, layered in several parts, from the internal mana crystals, to the actual blade material.
The basics of the sword were simple to gather, an internal crystal that gathered mana on its own, a simple lever on the sword that when pressed would slide another crystal in place, pulling out of the containment crystal and inputting it into the actual spell crystal.
“I based this off of some holy instruments I have seen. T-They’ve generally had large crystals in some place on the device as to hold enough devastating power. I don’t know if you can enchant the transfer one, or the final one, but I think this design would be at least an improvement over your current design.”
Chris looked over the drawings, and pulled his sword out. He allowed Advars to gather another look. He crumbled the design on the table, and threw it in the fireplace, “Damnit, there are multiple spells aren’t there?” Chris nodded, pointing to the different input points on the handle of the sword, “I input my mana into separate spots depending on the spell I want to cast. Also I don’t think the mana storage is necessary for me, at least not for a spell of this level.” Chris activates his saw blade, holding it for an extended period of time without showing any sign of exhaustion.
Stolen story; please report.
Advars began to shake and began digging through a box full of trinkets and gadgets. He pulled out a device Chris recognized, “Do you know your mana density within your body? Or how quickly you can imbue magic?” Chris shook his head, “I’ve taken them before, but I feigned to be lesser than I really am to avoid unwanted eyes, so I don’t know my real colours.”
Advars leaned in, setting the tools on the table, “Are you curious?” He was giddy, curiosity peaking. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt for someone who I’m going to design equipment for me to know my general status as a mage.” Chris sat down in a chair, letting Advars scan him.
Chris noted that his internal mana was a dark gray, a color he had never seen nor read about. Advars nodded, and then had Chris imbue magic for one second as fast as he could.
The small mana bulb shattered, and Advars smiled wildly. “It only took him .43 seconds to break the device, by that calculation his magic output per second is on par with…” Advars turned to him, “Are you from this world? Wait, you have an internal mana organ.” Advars thought for a moment. “Nonetheless, your mana output is that on a level of summoned heroes, and your mana density and quantity in your body is terrifying. You could probably level mountains if you aimed it correctly.”
Chris scratched the back of his head, remembering the chasm he made not trying that hard. Advars continued, “Based on this, there is no need for a mana battery for any devices you use personally unless you plan to level an entire country. Furthermore, based on that complicated spell you showed off, I have no doubt we can work together and create wonderful things.”
Advars grin grew wide. He suddenly paused, “How many spells do you need for your sword?” Chris thought for a moment, “I currently have two that I have any use for.” Advars squinted his eyes, “How many spells do you have for your sword?” he emphasized his annoyance. “Fine, I’ve thought of five, but the last three are not useful unless I want to be made the enemy of the church or the nation.”
Advars jumped up and down a little, bouncing on his toes, “Perfect, give me a while, I’ll try to create a better design.” Chris leaned back into the table, “Don’t you want me to teach you the method for creating holy relic type weapons?”
Advars shook his head, “I have a life to live, and if the things we make together are as scary as you say they can be, then I’d like to be able to throw you under the bus, that some weird mask guy forced me to make him stuff, threatening my life or whatever bullshit they want to hear.”
Chris sighed, “You make a good point, you might get greedy even after I’m gone otherwise. I guess for any device I want, I’ll trade you for two things you need me to make. Sound fair?” Advars sighed, “I really hope you need a lot of gear then, I have a lot of ideas.” Chris laughed some, and finished discussing his ideas, bouncing off of each other.
They decided to make the two spell design first, as they struggled to figure out mechanisms that would allow activation of five different spells. Instead of using the lever to push the suction piece from inactive to active, instead they used it as a switch between the two spell settings since there was no longer the chance of accidental activation since Chris was the battery.
Advars called upon his craftsman friends throughout the city, paying a large amount of money for the project. “Are you sure I don’t owe you any money? It seems you’re making a really good sword on top of the unique switch design.”
Advars shook his head, “I have contacts with some lords that might be interested in the products you’ll help me create, and if you run off I’ll just report you and get your guild license suspended.” Advars shrugged, and by midday his design was complete and his contacts were beginning construction of the pieces of the sword.
“Alright, based on the information I’ve gained from our discussions, I have something I want you to try.” Advars brought out a stone box with some weird magic connections on the inside and outside. Advars pointed to the design, it was only two crystals and a cable, one to collect mana, the cable to siphon mana, and another for the effect.
“Can you use ice magic? I want this box to be cooled down to winter temperatures.” Chris was confused, “What would a cold box do?” Advars shook his head, “I thought you were smarter than that. Have you ever noticed that dead carcasses decay slower in the cold?” Chris nodded.
Advars continued, “If you keep dead meat in a cool box it can be shipped from different places, making it easier to move exotic meats to certain places, and also places where meat is in abundance to places where it isn’t.”
Chris realized how amazing this would be, but came to a realization. “What if it gets too cold?” Advars pondered for a moment, “Then maybe a bit warmer than freezing temperature for a first test?” Chris nodded, and focused on the crystal. Instead of creating ice, Chris used mana to slow down the movements of atoms within the air in the box. Too slow and it would freeze anything in the box, making it difficult to handle, and too little and it would be pointless.
He took a deep breath and focused on one hand testing out how cold the air would be before inputting it into the crystal. The room grew cooler and cooler, until suddenly Chris took a deep breath. Chris next needed to figure out the range of the magic, slowly shaping the cooling mana, until he got the shape down. Finally he stopped, and touched the crystal within the bottom of the box, pouring within it mana, slowly trickling in, and then pulled his head out of the box.
“Alright, let’s wait a while and see if this works.” Advars had watched the entire process, “So it takes the inputting of a spell into a crystal slowly and precisely?” Chris laughed, “I guess you’re in danger now you figured it out.” Advars sighed, “What a simple process, no wonder the book condemns those damn churches.” Chris nodded, and thought for a moment.
“What other ideas did you have?” Advars thought for a moment, “Well if we can cool a box, couldn’t we heat a room without fire, or cool an entire room during the hottest of days?”