"Well, there's a bunch of greedy adventurers that are coming to get some loot," I told Kazuyran. "I'm going to dump some monster corpses here that don't have magic cores, you tell me if I drop something too valuable so I can pick it back.
He voiced his agreement and I put myself to work. I dropped three hundred and fifty cooked monster corpses and retrieved twenty. Not enough to be a stampede but also not too little to get people mad.
They would be angry, but not to the point of rioting.
"Now, let's go deeper. We need to find you an alternate exit," I said. "Or a place to hide while things cool down upstairs. Right now, they'll want to find a culprit."
I left only the monsters' bodies behind. Karaxnoss's body was in storage along with the others. I might need to travel around to sell these bodies. Or process them myself and sell the materials through a trading company. Or better yet, use the damn materials for my own trade professions.
Yes, the latter seems like the sound option. I'll turn my house's basement into a slaughterhouse.
I went down a tunnel that is a dead-end and find a convenient nook on the roof. There I dug the stone further and expand a chamber. Putting the debris in the storage also helps me clear it faster. After that, I dumped some amenities for Kazuyran. A cot, mattress, and blankets, a barrel of drinking water, provisions for a month. After I was sure he's well settled, I departed.
I sensed people inside the tunnel, moving around the first three hundred meters as if they were searching for something.
I shifted back and donned my clothes. When I was ready, I walked up the tunnel like a Sunday stroll.
People were butchering the low-value monsters I left behind and taking the parts back to the surface on hand pull wagons. Nobody noticed me in the dark tunnel. I waited for a wagon to pass and jumped on the back.
I broke the surface with my legs dangling from the back of the wagon and humming a silly tune.
"There she is!" It was Cedric's voice.
"Rosie! Are you crazy? Why did you go into the tunnel?" Karina asked slash scolded me.
"The guild master wants to see you, Rose," Cedric declared. "She's not happy."
I sighed and shrugged. "The city is saved. Why isn't she happy?"
"Come. I'll go with you," He offered.
I sensed a powerful presence next to the guild master in my {Soul Sight} as we approached the open-air command post of the ramparts above the gatehouse.
"Ah, there she is," guild master said. "Miss Honorcoin, meet archmagister Baldric."
"Honored," I said with a smile, not facing the person. I sensed some magic around me but it was harmless. I didn't react to it.
"She's really blind, Adonia," the old man said. "But level sixty-three. That's amazing."
"Yes, she was level eleven when she registered less than a month ago," the guild master which I assumed was called Adonia by her intimate friends, reported.
"It is an impressive rise in levels, especially for someone so young. Tell me, girl. How did you accomplish that?" The mage asked.
"Like everyone else," I said with a slight shake of my head. "By killing a lot of things. Thousands of them."
That conversation could've looked like anything but it was an interrogation. This guy was seeing if I was any danger to him or the country or whatever bullshit he was pledged to defend. Then he would either offer me an apprenticeship or some equally stupid task. I had to skip town but my parents were at the Eleon village. They had my surname, it would be easy to find them.
"What is your class, child?" He asked me with the same voice as if he was inviting me to his black van.
"[Sorcerer]," I replied.
"But you already ranked up. What specialization did you pick?"
"I'm not comfortable disclosing that."
And I think I should allocate my Exp now, while I had time. I might need the boost. I had two point two billion Exp, enough to raise my levels by three.
----------------------------------------
> You reached Manaborne Sorceress level 15
>
> You gained 1 perk.
>
> You reached Ghostsight Eleon level 14
>
> You gained 1 perk.
>
> You reached Spirit Jeweller level 13
>
> You reached Fae Enchanter level 13
>
> You gained 96 Skill Points.
>
> Attributes above the cap were redistributed.
>
> Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
> Strength 28 - Dexterity 33 / 35 - Endurance 29
>
> Mind 31 - Willpower 31 - Charisma 31
>
> Magic 120
>
> Ego 120 - Luck 120 - Soul 120
>
>
>
> HP 774,562
>
> MP 7,149,600
>
> SP 3,159,000
Finally, I have ten million to spare. Maybe I can break one easy curse. I needed to recharge the batteries, anyway.
I picked my racial perk,
> Slippery Body & MInd (very rare): Effects that restrict, bind, or control your body and/or mind have their effectiveness and/or duration reduced by 50% and are 50% easier to escape.
When it was time to pick my Class perks, something odd happened. I selected {Improved Mana Siphon} but a message popped up. I smiled. Then I picked another down the perk tree.
> - The synergy between your traits and your luck caused the following perk to be awarded for free!
>
> Improved Mana Siphon (ultra rare): You draw in residual energy from spells cast by others (never your own) in your Wellspring radius.
>
> Intuitive Retroanalysis (very rare): By absorbing a spell's energy, you have a chance to learn how to cast it.
I used the Skill points on repurchasing the enchanting Skills I'd used in fusions and some others. The knowledge of dozens of spells - including what people call weapon arts - flooded into my mind along with the residual energy from the combat at the stockades. It included some mind magic this guy is casting on me surreptitiously.
----------------------------------------
"You see, Ms. Honorcoin, sorcery is troublesome because sorcerers have little control over their magic," he spewed his bullshit.
"That's why I only use it when extremely necessary."
"You are so young, you have so much untapped potential. You must become my apprentice. Under my tutelage, you'll become the strongest spellcaster in the continent."
Yeah. And he'd have the strongest spellcaster as his servant. Hard pass.
"I'm flattered, archmagister. However, spellcasting is but one among several hobbies of mine. My true calling is to be a shopkeeper."
Cedric sputtered as he tried to cover his laugh. Even the guild master chuckled.
"An [Enchanter], right?"
"I feel like an open book before your wisdom, archmagister. Your information gathering network is impressive."
"Now you're the flatterer. Well, you'll be my apprentice. By {Royal Order}! Ugh!"
I heard a commotion and someone moving fast as cloth ruffled. The guild master was the next person to speak. "Archmagister! Are you okay? What happened?"
The man's voice was acerbic, "You have a Soul score of one hundred and twenty?" He hollered in anger. Probably he saw how much SP he spent in his failed attempt to use a command Skill on me and reversed the formula. I could do the same with {Royal Geas}
The conversations around the ramparts, the adventurers, and soldiers butchering the monsters, all that stopped. Everyone knew that an Attribute's cap was one hundred, and not many knew of the Soul Attribute.
"I think so? I can't see my Status," I lied. That was the only thing I could see. My status windows, glowing in front of me all the time. I felt in one of the old telnet MUD games.
I tested his Soul score using {Assassin's Contract}. He had a score of thirty. I estimate it was around the same score Apricot had. I removed the contract shortly after.
"Great Bundeus!" The archmagister gasped. "You're a--"
I sent it to him telepathically. The geas cost me 1,500 SP and would deal eighteen thousand points of damage per second if he tried to resist.
I could hear him breathing heavily. Trying to evaluate his options.
"I think the Archmagister is strained from staying out in this cold night," I put some pep in my speech. "What do you say, archmagister? Shall we withdraw to a reserved place and talk?"
"Yes. Yes!" The old man got back on his feet, or so I believe by the rustling of his robes and the position of his soul. "Let's use the gatehouse office and talk. This way, Ms. Honorcoin."
At the office, he quickly erected a privacy barrier. It was better than mine so I learned it.
"What do you want, girl? If you are indeed who you seem to be," he said with his vitriolic vein cranked to eleven.
"What I told you. To be left alone. I'll open a shop, sell some enchanted trinkets, and live my life in relative peace."
He laughed, "Do you think the King will allow an independent agent with your level of power alone? Naive child."
"Naive indeed. But not me, the naive person here is you, archmagister. Tell me, were a dragon come to live in the hills next to the capital, would the king attack it?"
I could feel the waves of magic as he mumbled inaudibly and tried to dispel my geas. And I was learning most of the spells he was using.
"You think you are as powerful as a dragon?"
"Maybe? How do you compare yourself to a dragon? How do you compare me to yourself? I can assure you, I'm dozens of times more merciful than one of those assholes, but you don't want neither after your lives. By the way, are you done trying to dispel my geas?"
"Curses!" His facade broke.
"I have a proposal for you, Baldric. I will become your apprentice. You will teach me magic. You will also help me with my projects. I'll keep my shop, I'll practice my craft, even delve from time to time. I might even take on a quest or two sporadically. In return, the dragon will sleep and the Realm will prosper. I promise you that.
"The other side of the coin is that you'll die in this room. You'll die if you break my geas. Then I'll harvest all the juicy Exp in the Royal Palace. Then the Realm will be no more. The dragon has awakened. Which will you pick?"
"Do you take me for a fool?" He was fuming and screaming.
"Maybe? Who is the one stirring a force they cannot even comprehend or measure? Who is the one completely powerless against the other? I may be blind, Baldric. But you are the one refusing to see."
He tried one last spell. Whatever he did, bounced against the limitations of the geas and he fell down, twitching in pain. I used my bardic magic to heal him. Once he recovered consciousness, I asked,
"Who's the one with poor control of their own magic? Now, will you take my bargain?" I triggered {Divine Negotiator}.
He returned to his feet. "I accept your terms."
"Good. Now, shall we go outside and deliver the good news, master?"
----------------------------------------
There was a small celebration. Cedric, Josie, even the guild master congratulated me for "convincing" the grumpy old man to take an apprentice. The week following the failed stampede went in a blur. I got new robes, a couple of maids, moved to a new place in the outskirts of the noble district, brought in Kazuyran to work as my butler - another one off the bucket list: have a combat butler. My house I placed it in a corner of the backyard of my new home. The mansion and its backyard, a bubble of empty space made by the combination of the rear wall from a ring of buildings of which none had windows or anything facing the back was a gift from Baldric.
Speaking of the geased archmagister, he was upholding his end of the bargain. We were master and apprentice, just like the Sith. And like the vicious dark side cult, we were also at odds with each other. I didn't want to but I'd kill him as soon as he broke the geas.
But rumors had a way of spreading. That the archmagister had an apprentice soon was on the people's mouths. And now the King wanted me to bend the knee and swear allegiance. I was scheduled to appear in court to be introduced by my "master" next week.
Sweet. Except not. My luck with Royalty could show itself again.