“Well now, this isn’t something I get every day.”
Tahir leaned against the counter of the apothecary he all but ran to after leaving the Redclouds’ building, and watched as the alchemist Callipho Vitalis examined the vials of troll blood he brought to sell. He’d long since caught his breath, inhaling the mixed smell of herbs and chemicals.
“And you collected these yourself?” It only took a glance at Tehir’s shredded gambeson to make the assumption. Callipho shifted a strand of silver hair out of his face to get a better look. “I’m impressed.”
“No, I had help from a gold ranked friend of mine.” Tahir shrugged. He didn’t want to take all the credit for the kill when he very nearly died from a single hit. “I was the one stopping it from regenerating, though. I hope that doesn’t hurt the blood.”
Callipho smiled, and gathered all the vials together. “Not at all. The regenerative qualities will last for quite a while, especially if stored properly. Not that I plan to, though. Better to make use of these kinds of things while they’re fresh.” He picked them up and turned his back to Tahir, working on something behind the counter. Tahir heard the clink of coins. “You’ve come with these at a great time though, Tahir. Theoris had been looking for something like these for an experiment of hers.”
“Lucky me.” At least some good came out of his brush with death. “Where is she, though?” The alchemist’s apprentice usually greeted him when he came in, if he caught her when she worked at the store. He came a late hour, practically closing, so he expected her to be cleaning up for the night or something along those lines.
“Disposing of something out back. Though I suspect she’ll come rushing up here when she hears your voice.” Callipho turned back to the counter, dropping a pouch of coins and adjusting a small pair of round glasses.
“Does she miss our conversations that much?” Tahir joked. His passing interest in alchemy and Theo’s obvious passion for it led to some long talks in the past. To Callipho’s mild inconvenience at them taking place during working hours.
“I believe she’s rather curious about the results of the fortune teller she directed you to.” The alchemist clarified. “As am I. It seemed as if the wind had been taken from your sails the last time I saw you. Come a few days later and you’ve slayed a troll at silver rank. Whatever you’ve heard from Noxulla’s divinations surely had an effect on you.” He slid the pouch of coins forward. “But rather than press you, I'll be content to hear from Theoris later. 40 gold for you. Six per vial and ten more for a requisition.”
“I-” Tahir felt like he could hardly accept a requisition he didn’t even know about, but he already knew he wouldn’t win in an argument over it with the alchemist. “Thank you, truely.” That made a total gain of 90 gold for the mission, almost the same amount as if he’d done it by himself.
“Don’t mention it. I very well couldn’t let one of my best customers go unrewarded for his struggles.”
Before Tahir could tell him he’d come out of the ordeal very well rewarded, he heard a door shut elsewhere in the building, then the thudding of several steps approaching closer by the second. “Was that Tahir!?” A curtain leading to the back rooms of the apothecary flew open, and a blonde figure came skidding to a stop beside the counter.
Callipho chuckled, then started to head toward the curtain Theo just came through. “I think you can handle closing the rest of the shop down. While I’m at it, Tahir, would you like some tea?”
Theo rushed to close the shop down, while having Tahir speak about everything that happened since his visit to the fortune teller of Noxulla the day before. “So you’re telling me you don’t have any affinities,” She had the same warm brown skin as he did, and even a similar golden eye color, of which according to Theo placed them both as having ancestry from the Osni League to the west of Esharia where she was from. She differed in her light blonde hair that held a darker yellow at the ends. “but you’re good at making friends with spirits, or making friends in general, and they can give you some?”
“That’s the long and short of it.” Tahir replied after a sip of warm tea. The two of them sat in a lounge area behind the storefront. Both the alchemist and his apprentice lived on the second floor of the building. “Hard to tell if it’s actually solved my stunted growth for mana and aura, but if I can make a contract with a tier one spirit, that might not actually matter.”
Of course, in order to even invoke a tier two or three spirit, he would need to raise his mana pool significantly. Mana and aura functioned similar to muscles in terms of growth. He could hardly tell the amount of growth from a single fight, but constantly draining his mana and aura led to them growing over time. Life threatening engagements and incredible innovations with the energies definitely made them grow faster, but it took him almost a month of silver ranked missions every other day to realize his pools had barely grown not long after he unlocked the use of aura. Of all the people in Balrech, he’d only told Theo about his issue, thinking she might have some kind of alchemical cure. And while she didn’t, telling her did lead him to a solution of a sort, in the end.
“Well aren’t I great for solving your problem?” Theo said with a cheeky grin. “Still, I’m glad you get to keep using aura. It would have sucked for you to spend all that time unlocking it only to abandon it. In fact- hold on, I’ve got something I want you to test.” She got up from her lounge chair, rushing off toward her lab.
It only took a couple generous sips of Tahir’s tea for her to come back with a dark red potion, which she all but shoved into his hands. “This is an auric recovery potion I made.” She explained to Tahir, while he held the vial of bubbling liquid in his hand. “Well, reverse engineered, but I mixed that one myself. I need you to test it out. It’s safe, don’t worry --I confirmed it myself, but I’d like to get a field test. It works the same as a healing potion, but if you cycle your aura after you drink it, it’ll boost your enhanced healing with aura.”
“That sounds amazing.” Tahir never confirmed, but he suspected Theo had unlocked aura, which he found strange. Someone who didn’t actively use their body and worked as an alchemist would find mana and magic more suitable for the work. That said nothing for the intense physical stress and life threatening situations one had to put themselves in to unlock their aura. Did she have it only for the sake of working on aura-related potions like this? “And you’re just giving it to me?”
It would make her practically the only alchemist in Balrech that he knew that could make concoctions related to aura.
“Yes, for testing purposes. You’d write me a more detailed essay than Callipho if you found something wrong with it.”
She had him there. Tahir gulped down the rest of his tea and set the cup down on the small table in front of him. “You’re the best, seriously. If it works well enough I’ll buy a full set when I have the funds.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Well before however long that takes, I could use someone to come with me to look for herbs in the woods in a week. Callipho’s gonna be going on the trip soon, and my usual escort’s been working a lot so I don’t really want to bother her.”
Tahir wanted to retort that she didn’t mind bothering him when he’d been working as well. He stopped himself and brought a hand to his chest to feel the dull ache of his freshly healed wounds. He didn’t want anyone going into that forest alone if he could help it. “Sure, though I think you’ll want to bother your usual escort to come with. I’ll be checking the collective to see if I can get access to the leyline crossing tomorrow, and then probably rest for the next couple days. So I'll meet up with you when we’re all ready to go.”
“I can work with that. Take the week off, troll-slayer. You’ve earned it.”
###
“The leyline’s access is how much?” For a fleeting moment, Tahir hoped he misheard.
The receptionist at the mage’s collective, the iskarai he remembered from a couple days ago, fixed him with a blank stare. “400 gold pieces for non-affiliated members of the collective. Redclouds included.”
“What does the collective even use it for, to cost that much?” That would cost three times the amount of gold Tahir had on him. Not to mention, the materials for a ritual to summon a tier one spirit would cost 100 gold on their own. At 10 gold per job, he could do silver ranked missions every day for the rest of the month and wouldn’t come up with enough for both. Unless he got lucky and picked up multiple missions with a higher than average payout, and he happened to run into Hurida again. He didn’t feel confident in trying to do gold rank missions by himself, especially after the fight with the troll, and while he’d worked with other people to take on jobs before, he didn’t know a stable party to join that could even split the gold rank rewards with him.
“I’m going to guess your use for it may differ based on that question, but proper exposure to the crossing can increase one’s mana pool.” The receptionist fixed her red eyes on Tahir, possibly with renewed curiosity.
“Okay, then. Thanks for humoring me, I guess.” Tahir held back a sigh and headed off toward the material supply store. He bought the materials for another tier zero spirit ritual, leaving him with 83 gold to work with. For now, he could expect some gold from Callipho and Theo for going with her to gather herbs. That might get him a good jumpstart, but it wouldn’t hurt to start planning ahead if he could help it. To that end, after leaving from the mage’s collective, he made his way toward the Redcloud building to look at the job board.
His mind ran with the possibilities as he approached the building. The spirits he had definitely made him stronger, but he didn’t think he qualified for a gold ranking just yet. He wouldn’t be able to tell if working with the spirits had a tangible impact on his mana and aura pools until closer to the end of the month. The boosts from the tier zero spirits convinced him a tier one would put him over that gap and allow him to qualify, but unless he spent a month finding a leyline crossing he could access without having to pay out to the collective, he had a month of work ahead of him.
Even then, something could go wrong when he did contract the tier one spirit. More and more Tahir found gaps in the research that he’d read. He considered the possibility that the collective had more readings on spirit magic that held a more comprehensive overview, but the gaps he found in the library seemed like they came more from a lack of experience with the magic rather than keeping the more dangerous aspects of the magic out of the public eye. He’d even found rituals for summoning the spirits. From tier zero to three - a template ritual that one would make minor alterations and use more expensive components to make a more powerful spirit.
He considered what all of that might mean, and in his distraction almost ran into someone coming from the door to the Redclouds’ building. “Oh- sorry Ester.”
Ester Ardalle wore a set of gleaming armor, and even in a ponytail her mane of blonde hair ended at her thighs. Her gloved hand held a mithral pocket watch, denoting her rank. “No problem. Tahir, was it? Are you alright?”
He did appreciate the concern. He hadn’t actually collided with her, but her aura shield combined with that armor probably felt like a brick wall. “Well I’m sorely in need of about 500 gold, but other than that I’m doing fantastic. You wouldn’t happen to need a lackey for a platinum or mithral mission would you? I promise I’d be fantastic at carrying equipment and loot.”
She didn’t respond immediately, but Tahir caught the corner of her lips twitching as she suppressed a smile. “I’m afraid not, but since you’re going around killing trolls, there is a platinum mission on the board you might be able to participate in.”
“Oh, you heard about that? I didn’t exactly kill it by myself.” Gossip in the Redclouds got around fast. Likely from receptionists and managers talking about reports from parties. Depending on how the information was conveyed, it was prone to the warping of the actual events as it passed from person to person.
“I am aware. Most of the guild here is aware of Hurida’s strength, and she herself said she couldn’t have done it without you.” Ester strode past Tahir, walking off to her own business. “Take a look and see if it is something you’d be willing to do.”
Tahir waved goodbye, then walked into the building proper. With how polite she acted and how formal she talked to everyone, he thought she might belong to some sort of noble family. Not that she would confirm or deny if he asked. He didn’t care to pry into her personal life, so he focused his attention on the mission she told him about.
If she recommended it to him, it was probably a platinum mission that took special consideration for lower ranked members, since he normally wouldn’t be able to accept a platinum ranked mission as a silver member. He scanned the job board, looking straight at the section with platinum missions until he found one that looked like someone nailed it up only recently.
To Tahir’s surprise, the mission detailed scouting the forest north of Balrech. Past the farm where Tahir and Hurida killed the troll. Scouting and reconnaissance to find what disturbed the wildlife and monsters of the area were the focus of the mission, so no combat needed even if they found the source. They probably placed it in platinum for importance and how fast they wanted it done rather than danger. It would solve his money issues immediately by itself, but it’d still make for a tidy sum even if he split it with Theo and her other escort.
He made a mental note to thank Ester later; he wouldn’t have even skimmed the platinum missions if she hadn’t brought it to his attention. He didn’t find anything else gold and below that he could work on while he went into the woods, so he made his way back to his inn room to relax for the rest of the day. Well, almost.
He recreated the ritual to summon a tier zero spirit, and, knowing what to expect, went for two of them again. The second ritual confirmed that the first was not a fluke. Dozens of spirits flocked to him once more, and he had his pick of them. While he focused on each one to get a general idea about them, he had the distinct feeling that he was being watched. He looked around in the infinite ethereal space, but couldn’t make out where the feeling came from. He thought it might be coming from the spirits themselves, but he didn’t get this feeling from them the last time he performed the ritual.
Well, it seemed harmless to him for now, so he went ahead with his choices. He performed the ritual with a goal for the spirits he wanted in mind, and he lucked out on the same, or at least similar spirits he saw from last time responding to his call. He picked a spirit of earth, and rapidly after that he picked a spirit of water before the ritual closed. Afterward, he wasted no time calling on their bond with all of them. Making sure to summon them in each combination of two that he could think of. That system shock of conflicting ideals hit him each time, and he had to sort them out in his mind individually, but at least it only happened to him the first time he summoned the spirits in a new combination. Like before, each spirit gave him knowledge of manipulating their respective element. This even gave him knowledge of a spell he didn’t know before; a spell to create water.
Nothing that would push him into the next rank, but Tahir would never say no to the added versatility.
Even though he’d run into another setback, Tahir went to bed with hope for the future. Things were looking up for him.