I resumed my chores today. Draxkatar seemed pleased that I was back, Beatrice had spent hours talking about how the information I'd given her had sped up some of her more experimental projects, and the Focus Crystal didn't take much to clean, and I took the opportunity to siphon off energy for later use.

Having a Divine spell slot was beneficial in cleaning the Holy Hand Grenade, as I could bless myself and clean it while under the effect of the blessing. When I stood in front of the mirror, though, I was surprised to see myself in the form of an Avarice Fiend. I found myself standing in front of it for a long while, my hand tracing around the edge of the scar on my sternum.

I sighed and worked on polishing the mirror.

"It is a good thing you are not paid by the hour." I looked to my right to see Cier. "The effects of an Avarice Fiend's power do take some time to recover from, and it seems even you have some trouble overcoming it."

I looked at the mirror and kept cleaning it.

"Do you hate me, Rex?" I froze. If he had used his normal tone of voice, I would not have thought much of it, I would have thought of it as being him making sure I wasn't being controlled by the Fiend. But the way he said it, an edge of his voice, a heaviness that I knew only too well.

He respected me enough that the idea of me hating him caused him pain.

"I don't know." I admitted. "On one hand, you acted in the best way for the situation in the best way you knew how. Destroying the crystal was a safer alternative to either of us being ensnared. On the other hand, I was still in control due to the effect of the Contract. Some part of me must have considered it fair enough to keep it." I looked at him. "Right now, I'm just confused, but that doesn't mean I necessarily hate you. I won't complain, but if the time comes when I think what you did was the wrong move, I will let you know, and we will come to terms with what that means exactly." I looked at the mirror again. "I have to wonder, how much of it was you coming to save me, and how much of it was anger at what I did? Did you actually come to help me out of a tough spot, or did you think so little of me that you could not afford to let it happen?"

"I do not know." He admitted. "You are foolish, but you are not stupid. Did you think you could handle an Avarice Fiend? Yes. Were you justified? I cannot be certain. Did I save your life, or did I selfishly tear from you something you genuinely wanted? What I know of Fiends, the chances of you being the one to lead it to a life of good was little to none."

I took a step backward and looked at the mirror, it was clean again. "Thank you." I said as I looked at him again. "You could have let whatever could result happen, but instead you did what you felt was right at that moment. I cannot fault you for that."

I was about to say something else, but there was a loud pounding on the door.

"Is that Lodran again?" I muttered.

"Best to ensure he does not hear you." Cier stated. "He is not as forgiving as my Lady." He approached the door and opened it.

Lodran entered immediately. He spotted me and said, "Oh, you're still alive? My sister is entirely too kindhearted toward filth." No pretext, no subtlety. He looked around the room. "I am in need of something in this room, an amulet passed down through generations."

There was only one thing that came to mind, that being the amulet that allowed one to cast magic at the cost of their own physical well-being. Even wanting to see how stupid he could be with it, I knew letting something as dangerous as that fall into his hands was a terrible idea.

"You mean the one over there?" I asked, pointing in the opposite direction. There was an amulet over there, but it was the cursed holy sigil of Paedon.

"Even a Human is capable of at least understanding something of importance." He said, walking in that direction. I walked over to the cursed necklace and quietly swapped it with my holy sigil of Bahamut, the chain was similar enough that tucking it under my shirt would disguise it. I then moved back to where I stood, Cier stared at me like I was insane, but didn't make any movement or say anything else.

Lodran returned, his expression was one of annoyance. "It has a golden chain, a ruby set into it, arcane symbols?" He said.

"The closest thing that matches your description is that cursed holy sigil of Bahamut." I said, pointing behind me.

He checked it, clicked his tongue, and asked, "Is the security of this place so lacking that such an important family heirloom be stolen?!" He snapped.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Why would an important family heirloom be stored in a room full of cursed items? You may want to check the vault, I believe I saw a pendant matching the description of what you described. Though, Draxkatar might not be pleased at someone poking around in there without permission."

"Whom?" He asked.

"The Dragon." I said. "His name is Draxkatar, Lord Wyrashe."

He clicked his tongue and started toward the door, then he stopped and looked at me. "That pendant you are wearing, show it to me."

I reached down and attempted something I hadn't done since I stopped practicing witchcraft on Earth. I touched the pendant, I channeled Mana, and I willed it to appear to be a holy sigil of Bahamut. This was what was known as a glamour, a spell meant to obfuscate the true nature of something, to make it appear to be something else.

I pulled the pendant out and held it out, Lodran approached and scrutinized it, while I kept the image of Bahamut's holy sigil in my mind.

"There is something odd about this." He said.

"It's got buttfor on it." I replied.

"What is buttfor?" He asked.

"A butt is for pooping, Lord Wyrashe." I said.

He smacked me across the face hard enough that I was actually toppled over and landed directly on the pendant. It hurt, but considering how quickly Lodran was leaving, it seemed my plan worked. I picked myself up just as the door slammed shut.

"How?" Cier asked. "I saw you take it, I saw... How in the names of the Gods did you pull that off?"

I removed the cursed pendant and retrieved my holy sigil. "Before I came in here, I charged up at the Focus Crystal." I said. "This allowed me to have enough Mana to have the equivalent necessary to cast a lesser spell." I looked at Cier. "I cast a lesser glamour, a type of illusion that obfuscates the true nature of something. I knew he wouldn't fall for it for too long, so I set him up for a joke." I put the holy sigil on and healed myself. "And now, Lodran is convinced I used magic on my holy sigil in an effort to make him look foolish."

"Anyone else, and he would have seen through the ruse." Cier noted. "But you are noted to have weak magic, and thus such a feat would normally be out of your league. And were you using the pendant, he would have seen you bleeding."

"I had the right tools for the situation because I figured having a spell at the ready at any time would be beneficial. Especially considering how volatile Lodran seems to be." I looked at the cursed pendant. "Still, as things stand right now, that pendant cannot fall into his hands, the kind of damage he could do with it, especially since he seemed to think we would be kept ignorant as to its true purpose. He was using underhanded tactics to get it."

"I will report to my Lady your clever ruse and request that the pendant be moved to a more secure location." Cier said.

"No." I said. "He cannot come in without permission, the items have been maintained today, and can wait until he leaves. That being said..." I walked up to the armor and gave it a thorough cleaning. "You are going to have to wait until Lodran has left before I can clean you again. If there is any degree of sentience in you, then you can understand why he cannot come into this room again." I stepped away, and for the first time since I'd arrived, the armor moved and gave me a thumbs up. I smirked. "Glad we got that straightened out."

The armor returned to its normally inactive state and Cier and I left.

With nothing else left to really do, I decided to practice with a training sword again. I started toward the garden when Cier caught my arm. I looked at him.

"Training with a sword is a good start, but what of when you are left unarmed?" He asked. "Go get your armor and meet me at the front door."

I nodded and went to my room. After putting my armor on, I walked to the front door, passed by a slightly singed Lodran, who glared at me, and met up with Cier who wasn't much further away.

"I notice you are carrying that cursed mask." He stated.

"It is a part of my armor." I said.

"Good."

He led me out of the manor and into the city. I followed him along the main thoroughfare until we came to the main gates. We were allowed through without issue, and we walked away from the city and onto an open plain.

Cier removed his gloves and his shirt and jacket. I was somewhat surprised to see he was extremely muscular and covered in scars of varying width and length. "Observe." He said.

He clenched his fists as he struck a pose. He punched toward the sky, and a powerful wind blasted me backwards onto my ass. Above, a cumulonimbus cloud suddenly gained a large hole. I gaped.

"This is the full power of my punches." He said. "The strength of a punch is doubled for every spell I forego, and I am able to release the mana as a ranged attack." He flexed and slapped his hand on top of his arm. "This is the ability known as 'Enhancement' and is one of the relatively few abilities that is capable of being taught."

"Are you going to teach it to me?" I asked.

"No." He said. "The way mana interacts with you, as Nash has told me, is that instead of having spells that you can cast per eight hours of rest, you instead passively regain units of Mana, which would be fantastic, if you had the capacity to cast spells of equivalent strength. The increase in power would be negligible, and considering you are already capable of releasing mana as a ranged attack regardless, it would be redundant. No, I am going to train your magic. The way a mage gains more spells to cast per eight hours is through constant practice. As you are now, this training should grant you immediate results."

I nodded. "Alright, so, what do we do first?" I asked.

"I want you to hit me with your hardest. Channel all of your mana into one strike!"

I focused and channeled all of my mana into my fist. I charged at him and struck his gut, which hurt me more than it hurt him.

"Your ability to penetrate resistances can be powerful if you are able to use more Mana at a time, as it is right now, your punch only merely stung. Now, again!"

I punched him again, and his brow furrowed. "It was barely there." He said.

"That's right." I said, scratching my chin. "I regain thirty MU per fifteen seconds, which means it takes me forty-seven seconds to charge to my cap."

"MU?" He asked.

"Mana Units." I replied. "Without a means to constantly monitor how much MU I use for a given action, it will be difficult for me to figure out what all I can do with it. The crystal sphere that did the Appraisal showed me how much I have and how much I was using, but that would be impractical to use at all times."

"There are lesser forms of Appraisal." Cier stated. "Such as rings that display how many spells one has to cast, which most Adventurers use to determine how many spells they have left after combat. They're relatively cheap as well."

I nodded. "That might work for me." I said. "But for now, training."

He nodded. "Training."

I hit him with another full power punch, which again didn't amount to much...