When Markus entered Eckbert’s shop, he still had a grin on his face.
The walkway from the entrance of the shop to the counter was surrounded by, if said pleasantly, rare relics of the past and if said plainly, just junk. Well, antique junk, it isn’t all worthless. As Markus walked to the counter surrounded from both sides, it looked cramped.
The old orc sitting behind the counter doesn’t seem to notice Markus’s arrival, engrossed by the paper in his hand.
“Ahem”.
“Huh? Oh, Markus. What brought you here today?”. The orc still seems to be in a haze as he replied automatically upon seeing Markus, as his eyes bulged comically upon finally registering who Markus is.
“HAHAHA! Markus, you’re finally here, I have been waiting for your return, I have something for you here, haha, oh boy it’s gonna be a happy surprise for you”. The overly loud and overly enthusiastic orc got up from his chair to head back inside his shop to get whatever surprise he got for Markus. Pausing on his foot, squinting his eyes a little bit he said quietly to Markus, “boy, will you close the shop’s door, the less people know about the products you need, the better”. Hehe.
‘Weird old man, you could have just asked like a normal person to close the door, without being creepy about it.’ While internally complaining, he did as asked. Although the old orc is not the most social person Markus knows, he is still a trustworthy person. That’s why he keeps coming here.
The orc came back with a big book, “I got this for a big sum, so it’s gonna cost you a bit. But it’s gonna be worth it, take a look.” He still had a big smirk on his face when he handed it to Markus.
With a suspicious look on his face, Markus took the book from the orc. It was very heavy, his hands dipped because of the weight. Reminding him that although the orc in front of him is a mage, he is first and foremost an orc, a race renowned for their physical prowess. Among the sentient races, only giants can triumph over them.
As he began reading the book, he recognised it to be a spell, and from the initial read he learned that it is a spell named ‘Dual mind’, allowing the caster to divide his mind to focus on different things, allowing parallel thinking. ‘But, but… this whole book is a single spell?’ He confirmed it by checking the end of it. ‘ It really is, but why is it so long?’
“Haha! Never seen a spell so long?” Seeing the questioning look on Markus’s face the old orc asked. “ That's a three-dimensional spell. How is it? It’s your first time seeing one right?”
“Really? Yeah, this is the first time I’m seeing a three-dimensional spell. Where did you even get it? I thought there were none in circulation. Are all three-dimensional spells so big?”. Markus marveled at the news. He had never seen a three-dimensional spell. The only spells he had had or seen were one or two-dimensional spells. Three-dimensional spells were deemed too dangerous for the public and they are never sold in a shop.
“I bought it off from someone who came to Ravendel. You’re right about none being in circulation for sale, even this one was sold because it is not potentially dangerous in its effects.”
“But still it did cost a lot”. Eckbert said, pain visible from his voice.
Markus knew the story of Eckbert the Orc mage a little bit, he had picked up clues from their conversations to form a narrative.
He is from the nation of the orcs, had talent for magic but because orcs are a physically intensive race and had no education system to bring up a mage, he had decided to run away from there. And he had searched throughout the continent, ways to gather knowledge and become a powerful mage, finally ending up in this small city. Though from his bearing Markus tends to guess he had not succeeded in his endeavor, he is still only an Iron ranker, not that much rich. As mages tended to be very wealthy people.
“How much was it?”
“150 gold coins.”
‘That is expensive, I don’t have that much with me now.’
Seeing Markus wincing, Eckbert quickly said, “Don’t worry, I’m not asking you for the whole price, let’s share the price, as fellow mages let’s bear the burden of this together as we try to learn together”.
“I’ll only take 90 gold coins, the extra 15 gold for the effort I had put into searching the book and miscellaneous expenses. What do you say?”
Thinking for a while he said yes, “but I’ll pay in installments for four months”. He trusts the orc to not over price him and take advantage of him.
The orc also accepted Marku’s terms. And seeing Markus still marveling at the spell book, he decided to explain a little bit for him.
“Three-dimensional spells aren’t recorded in books, they are recorded in tomes. The complex spell models cannot be recorded on paper, this one is not so complex compared to a normal complexity of a three-dimensional spell”
“Yah, I’ve seen mentions of tomes in books, but I never knew they are used to record spells, and I see what you mean, you can’t really put a three-dimensional spell model into papers, and I can only imagine how complex four-dimensional spells are.” Markus voiced his thoughts.
“The dual mind is usually a two-dimnsional spell, but this one has been fine tuned to keep it running with a low, minimum amount of mana for a long time, that’s why it is so complex now and has reached the threshold for a three-dimensional spell. ”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Even if the spell is not that useful and costs way more than it should, I mostly bought it because it’s not everyday that you get to study a three-dimensional spell.”
“No! This spell might be more useful to me than you thought, if it really needs only a little bit of mana to keep channeling the spell that is, I need to go home and check.”
“Hahaha! Really? That’s even more wonderful if the spell can really be useful, don’t worry about the mana needed for channeling it, I already tried it and it really needs only a little bit of upkeep, you’ll like it.” The old orc laughed gleefully.
“So since we co-own the book, when can I have it?” Asked Markus.
“You can take it now, I tinkered with it already, if I need it back I’ll ask you.”
“Sweet, thanks! I’ll send the money as quickly as possible.” Markus was now visibly happy.
“Sure sure! No hurry. So why did you come here Markus? Just to check whether anything interesting has come up or for something specific?”
“Ah, I almost forgot about it, I came here for some advice.” Said Markus checking back the closed door. “Ahem, it’s not really within the realm of legal dealings, so I don’t want to burden you if you don’t want that kind of trouble.”
Eyeing the young human suspiciously, asked the orc, “what kind of trouble are you talking about? Tell me about it first. ”
“Ahem, well… I’m looking for spells, real spells, that can do real magic. Like three or four dimensional ones. ”
“And I know they are not so easily accessible, putting it mildly… hehe. Yeah, anyway… I know that the chance of getting real, complex spells in a legal way is practically nil for me if I don’t join the mage society. So… so I wanted to ask, do you know any channels where I can get spells and any kind knowledge… well… uhm you know, illegally.” At the end of the sentence he felt a little bit lacking in air, ‘where did all the oxygen go?’.
‘It isn’t that easy asking someone for help to do something illegal as I thought’. With the influences Markus had from his home world, he has a psychic barrier about breaking the law of authorities, as a normal person should. That is why he is still fidgeting around.
“That is a logical conclusion you have come to if you don’t want to be under the mage society. And I don’t blame you for thinking about that. If you can’t find the spells in a legal way, then find them illegally. Sign..! I’m not gonna lie, even I had entertained those thoughts before.”
Eckbert’s tone was more serious than what Markus had been used to. His face also looked stern. He continued.
“But if you start threading this path, there is no going back Markus. You will have to live in a constant fear of getting caught, it will be a life of a criminal, yes, you will have to live the rest of your life as a criminal. Is that truly what you want Markus in your life?”. At the end of the sentence his voice was high pitched, emotional. Maybe because he feels relatable and had some bad experiences.
“Huh, this… ahem. Mr. Eckbert. You don’t have to get worked up about it. I have already thought about it, I have a plan on how to go about this”.
“Really? What kind of plan could you have possibly thought of. You are just a kid Markus. Even if you are smart for your age, you don’t know how the world works, it is cruel and unforgivable for any tiny mistake.”
“I know that, but just hear me out. My plan is, convincing the world that I’m not a mage.” Markus said with all the seriousness he could muster.
“........ what? That’s it? What the hell does that even mean? HAHAHA! You can be pretty funny at times, you know Markus.” Eckbert laughed at the stupidity or maybe the sheer absurdity of the idea.
Markus waited for Eckbert’s laugh to die down and said, “I know how it sounds, but I can pull it off. With my affinity and my mana controlling skill I can fight an Iron ranker without losing already, if I go around only showing my prowess as a hybrid type, I can convince others that I have chosen a hybrid class. I can-”
“Wait, wait back up, you can already fight against Iron rankers? Boy, don’t lie to me. Hybrid or pure warrior classes get an improvement to their physical stats when they level up to iron rank that, it’s impossible for normal humans to be able to contend against.”
“If you don’t believe me I can show you.” Markus said without backing down.
“Hmm… really now?”
----------------------------------------
Walking back home with a huge book in his hands was not that inconvenient for him as his affinity allowed him to make it as light as possible.
He had the old orc’s promise of help in finding spells, but he didn’t get what he hoped, an already available channel. The old orc said he would search for fellow minded people, to find exchanges that can be done anonymously.
Although the orc may have gotten a little bit too excited after Markus showed him his prowess.
They had moved back into the shop, where there was a small courtyard, the old orc’s house was behind the shop. They had a little bit of a contest there, without Markus using spells, well, he didn’t know any combat worthy spells to begin with anyway. The orc too didn’t know any offensive spells, what he did mostly was shooting mana bolts at him and Markus had to avoid them and get close enough so that he could hit the orc at a melee range.
Which was not hard, considering the orc was only an Iron ranker, he still has not received a class option to rank up to Bronze level. So all his mental energy, mana pool was within manageable level for Markus, he didn’t even have an affinity.
With markus’s ability of manipulating his own gravity, he made some maneuvers that could have only done by physical intensive classes. And finally within the orc’s range he hit him with an oscillating orb, the same technique he used against Ada, just not that powerful.
Though Markus couldn’t damage him, that was where he saw the old orc using a real spell, it was a defensive one. The orc called it ‘Aegis.’ It is an advanced version of mana shield, but many times more powerful.
The orc had gotten it from a mage of the mage society, under contract that he will never divulge the spell model. Markus’ wasn’t exactly sure of the circumstances under which the orc had gotten his spell. It was a regret Markus couldn't learn that spell, it was a pretty good defensive spell.
Now he had to act his part, ‘ the less people know I am a mage better, the main thing about is not being in the radar of mage society, if they deems me as a potential threat or something and monitor me as a person of interest it will be really hard to move around, maybe not now but if I become a powerful mage.’
Markus didn’t like to act like a kid with other kids around, but it will be a crucial step in convincing others that he is not a mage but a training hybrid warrior to spar with other kids a little bit. ‘Make some effort now and your future will be much easier Markus.’
He was on the east side of the city now, most of the poor lived in this part of the city. It wasn't clean as other parts of the city. The road is still a marble road, but it was heavily damaged from here and there. Showing the lack of maintenance of this part of the city as a whole.
As he was walking in thought, he was reminded of Ramen today being absent and Ada seeing him bruised up sometime ago.
‘I’ll go check on him since I’m already here.’