After being manhandled in front of everyone, Lee is in a bad mood. “Neia, stop fucking dragging me.” Neia stops and whips her head around to look at Lee with indignation, only to see that he is gesturing around him. She looks around at the multitude of Elves on the stairs staring at her dragging a Human around angrily.
She lets go of Lee instantly and turns to him with an almost fearful look. “I am sorry. Please forgive me, anger was clouding my judgment.” Taken aback Lee looks around like someone is playing a prank on him. There’s nobody on earth willing to backpedal that fast. Is something wrong? He begins scanning the crowd around and sees the eyes of the nearby Elves. They are blatantly staring at Neia with contempt. Okay, something is most definitely wrong.
Initially pissed off himself about being dragged around like a child, Lee drops the issue considering there is some weird Dark Elf thing going on. She was the same way towards Ruven in the forest. “It’s okay. You are forgiven.” He starts to wave at the nearby Elves with a forced smile. “Everything is fine, be on your way.” Slowly the Elves around begin to continue on their way, still looking at Neia in a mix of contempt and disgust.
Well this is quite the fucking day already isn’t it. “Let’s go to my house and talk a little bit in private.” Neia, almost white as a sheet, well, as white as her gray skin allows her, nods.
Once they arrived at Lee’s house, he lets Neia in and they both sat at the small table. ”So, you wanna tell me what the fuck that was about?” Neia looks away at the wall and just says. “Not really.” Lee raises an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure? I can go ask someone on the street they would know.” A chair goes sliding across the room from the speed at which Neia stood. She looks at Lee with a pleading look. “Forget any of what just happened. Please. You are asking about things that will affect not just me but yourself. I am sorry about my anger. Please let it go.”
Lee is brainstorming what the fuck that means when Neia speaks again. “You did not listen to my advice in the forest, and I did not listen to my own when warning Ruven. Let us not continue this line of thinking.” Lee looks at Neia and sees that she is visibly upset. Upset at herself.
Today can’t get much worse. *Knock knock* Fuck. Lee get’s up and answers the door. The person knocking was a very short and young female elf in a white robe, she stood a tad under Lee at 5 '10 and looked to be in her late teens. Unlike most Elves he has seen, this one has dyed her hair purple. “Good day Mr. Barnes, My name is Penelope Crow, might I come in for a moment to speak?” Lee, having given up for anything good happening today, just nods and opens the door for her to enter.
She walks over and takes a seat next to Neia, all three chairs now occupied. “Hello Neia, It’s wonderful to see you once again.” Penelope slightly nods her chin in greeting. Neia forces a smile in her upset and foul mood. “Hello Penelope. It has been awhile, how are your studies going?” “Just fine, thank you for asking. Mr. Barnes, if I may, might I request for a private discussion.”
Just fucking great, now I got some posh elf going to ask me for a favor, most likely one I can't refuse. I feel it in my bones.
“I would prefer she stay as we have unfinished business to discuss.” Lee says trying to get out of this inevitable favor. She nods, “Very well, I am here today on behalf of my father, Tiberius Crow. He wishes to invite you to his home for a small dinner party at 8PM, tomorrow. What do you say?” Lee looks towards Neia for a little help. Neia just sighs. Apparently, not getting any help in this situation, Lee replies with. “I’m afraid I do not know your father or what he represents. Can you give me a little bit of information about your family?”
Penelope seems to smile a bit. “Of course, how rude of me to presume. My father is one of the wealthiest in this city. He owns most of the land the businesses are built on. We are also a fine family of mages, I myself am quite a distinguished individual.” She wrinkles her small nose.
“I see, and what business does a man of your fathers caliber have with me? I’m afraid we have little in common.” Lee assumes this is about him healing a bunch of people, and someone rich and powerful needs a “Cure all” visit.
Nodding, she glances at Neia then back to Lee, “We would like information on your Glacial element.” Well that is unexpected. “You do realize the person who gave me said element is sitting right next to you correct?” Lee decides to ask just in case she somehow didn’t know this obvious information. She wrinkles her nose once more, “We are aware, she does not wish to speak of it. So we have come to you to broker a deal. We are willing to pay handsomely.”
Lee glances at Neia once more and she is just stone faced with her head tilted back staring into the ceiling. This bitch… “I’m afraid that if Neia has declined to offer information, that I, being a beneficiary of hers, should decline as well.” Penelope nods slowly, “I see. Well, it was nice to meet you.” She stands and holds a hand out to shake. Lee grabs her hand to shake and she has an iron-like vice grip. “Good day.” She bows gently and leaves Lee’s home.
After a few moments of watching Penelope leave, he turns his head to Neia. “Don’t really wanna talk about that one either I suppose?” Neia sighs once more. “They just want to know the sensed feeling of it. It’s not even that big of a deal to be honest. I just don’t like her that much.” It appears that both Lee and Neia are fed up with the day.
“So, I have some questions about magic now that it has been brought up. How does someone combine two basic elements into an advanced one?” Lee decides to start brewing his healing spell idea. “Advanced isn’t too hard to get, it’s just figuring out what elements make what. You have to know the end goal in order to succeed. For example, the Cold element we have is Water + Air, or Air + Water, doesn’t matter, but if you don’t know what you’re trying to make then you won’t be able to make it. You get a vague sense with Mana Sense of what’s happening, but you have to go through trial and error most of the time.”
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Nodding Lee supposes he understands. A little weird but it’s magic, who am I to judge? “So, what are all the combinations for advanced? I’m sure you guys have all of those right?” Neia barks a short laugh. “Nope, still got a few missing actually. Half of what the magical scholars do is try to figure them out. Planning on increasing your repertoire?” Lee nods. “Yes, I’m looking to make a spell but I don't think any of the basics will do what I want. I’m going to the consortium to go view all the combinations to see if they have what I need.” Lee stands up as a means to indicate it’s time to leave his home. Neia stands as well, “Well, todays been shit and I am sorry for my outburst, don’t cause too much more trouble.” Neia leaves and Lee sits down to think.
I doubt I'll only need to make healing spells. I probably need a self defense spell as well. Looking around his room he shakes his head. Yeah, it's not smart to practice here. The consortium probably has a training field or something.
Lee gets up and prepares to go in search of the Consortium of Magical Scholars. Leaving his home, he asks one of the first strangers he sees for directions. It turns out that the consortium is also built into the wall, by where the building he met Elder Sono, is. Unlike that building, this one is much more ornate, still made out of stone, but the stone itself has been etched revealing geometric patterns like the entrance to Neldam. A small flight of stairs later and Lee reaches the large double doors.
The doors open easily and he makes his way into a large lobby. There are a few Elves in robes about, I kinda want to wear robes too, they seem much more comfortable than these pants. Lee looks at his pants, too long for his legs, I still need to pick up the set made for me from that seamstress Sarum.
Walking up to the reception area he waits in a small line. Observing the interior of the place, he notices the many doorways and small booths, not knowing what’s behind the doors, he watches an Elf using one of the booths. The female Elf writes on a piece of paper, afterwards she drops the piece of paper into the booth itself. Are they voting or something?
*Ah hem* Looking forward, Lee see’s he is holding up the line. Whoops. Walking forward Lee asks, “Hello, my name is Lee Barnes. I was told that I was free to research here by Nitis Sindris.” The male receptionist nods, “I was made aware of a Human in our city. Didn’t believe it until now though. Go ahead and go on back, it’s through that door right there.” He finishes by pointing at the closest door to him. “Thank you.”
Lee opens the door and enters a large library. He walks up to who he assumes is a librarian standing behind a desk near the door. Speaking quietly he asks, “I’m new here, I was wondering if there was any protocols to follow, also how do I find the information I am looking for?” The male librarian looks up and lowers his spectacles slightly too look over the top of them. “Ahh! The Human. So nice to meet you.” He flips the spectacles back into their rightful position. “Please only read a maximum of two books at once, place the finished book on one of the many trays around the library, usually at the ends of the shelves. I can help you find the information you seek. What will it be?” He says smiling.
The day is turning around for the better! Smiling Lee says. “I would like a book on making advanced elements, and also a book on the currently discovered elements and what they do.” The librarian nods earnestly, “Easily done, you may find them on these shelves.” He takes a small slip of paper and writes with the tip of his finger. “While I'm here, would you mind me asking what element you're using to write with? I have seen another doing the same thing.” While finishing his writing and passing the slip over, he says. “It’s Dark. I'm making the white on the paper darker. It’s a simple spell, very cheap and useful.” Lee thanks the man, and goes to find his books.
The library is definitely much larger than he thought, he walked for two minutes in a straight line down a row of shelves. Once he reached the shelf he needed one of his books from, he grabbed the rolling ladder and used it to climb up. I wonder if these still exist on Earth? Grabbing his book. He walks another few minutes to get his second.
Finding a little sitting section in the middle of the bookshelves, seemingly being put here as a rest stop of sorts. He sits to read.
A few hours later, along with multiple different books having been read, Lee's brain hurt. “Mental acuity my ass.” Lee grumbles. All jokes aside, Lee does feel the effects of raising his intelligence, he just wishes he had more of it. Lee discovered many things. Apparently it takes little time to get advanced elements if you have higher wisdom. You must know which element you’re going for as well, as if you don’t, then it may be years and years of trial and error.
Lee also discovered a bit of shocking information, when looking up information about levels he found out that roughly only five percent of people ever reach level five. That was interesting enough, but he also discovered that only half a percent of people ever learn magic. One out of two hundred.
But that’s not all! Once someone reaches level five, most seem to fly through most of the early levels from class quests and doing their professions. The average level was apparently in the mid forties. What people consider to be the high level range is seventy to one-hundred and twenty. The highest recorded level in the book was Nitis Sindris, the book read “Nitis Sindris - Over 400.” with the bottom signed by Nitis himself.
As you would have guessed, Lee was not happy that he was around someone who could breathe him into oblivion.
The most important discovery was the combinations of known elements. Apparently, Light and Dark were rare to have, which caused a lot of issues in finding and confirming their combinations. The book did mention that people did have access to some of the advanced elements not listed, it’s just that the consortium didn’t know what they were called or what they were. The book also had some experts and one master element listed by name.
1. Fire + Earth = Magma
2. Fire + Water = Steam
3. Fire + Air = Smoke
4. Fire + Light = ???
5. Fire + Dark = ???
6. Earth + Water = Mud
7. Earth + Air = Dust
8. Earth + Light = ???
9. Earth + Dark = ???
10. Water + Air = Ice
11. Water + Light = ???
12. Water + Dark = Cold
13. Air + Light = ???
14. Air + Dark = Void
15. Light + Dark = ???
CONFIRMED EXPERT: Glacial, Explosion, Ash, TBD…
CONFIRMED MASTER: Cataclysm.