With my goal now decided, I went around the library searching for various books on runes. There were only books on theory here, but it is helpful none the less. Thanks to those books, although I didn’t learn anything about making runes, I did learn where to go to earn that knowledge.
And so, off I went to the magic guild. The magic guild itself is not a single building, but rather a compound encompassing numerous facilities all tied together in one location. It was more akin to a college rather than an office building to give an example.
Once at the gates though, I came across a certain issue that I had not expected. How would I get in? In the books I read before people would just enter and ask for a teacher, but I guess that wouldn’t be very profitable, seeing as you needed to sign up and pay for any courses you wished to take. Being broke, I of course left and went around like a normal teenager in search of a part-time job.
Other people seemed to of had the same idea, as in front of most every shop on the main road there was a sign saying ‘NOT HIRING’. That instead lead me to wander the side roads and alleys until I found a store that had piqued my interest.
A tattoo parlor. It was nothing fancy, there were no flashing lights nor extravagant signs to mark it’s location, but the curiosity of a tattoo parlor in a medieval city of magic was enough to make me enter.
“What do you want?” A man asked from the counter.
“I was curious about what you did here, so I came to have a look, is that alright?” Deciding to be honest I answered the man clearly, while slowly stepping forward to be able to see the interiour more easily.
“Just curious about my business? Well, suppose I can’t really say no. What would you like to know?” The man stood up from his seat at the counter, and instantly I felt like a dwarf. The man must of been at least 6’10” (208cm) and his hand which he offered for me to shake, seemed to be large enough to palm my skull with.
“Well I was curious about what you use to tattoo with, or how you tattoo.” I said while shaking his hand.
“Well, since I’m currently empty at the moment, why don’t I give you a small temporary tattoo as a demonstration, instead of trying to explain in words.” He said this while pointing towards a chair situated behind a curtain that was not visible when I was standing in the doorway.
“I’m sorry sir, but I don't have any money to pay you with.”
“Don’t worry, a freebie here and there helps draw in customers.” The man said this with a wink as if to say that I should draw in customers in compensation. “I’ll just do a small dagger on your forearm, does that sound good?”
“Yes, that would be nice thankyou.”
While I sat there I rolled up the sleeve of my plain tunic and looked around me. On the walls surrounding the room were pictures. Images of all kinds were situated there, from dragons to girls, from horses to daggers, it was almost like an art gallery was shoved into the room.
While I was looking around though, the man had gone into a cabinet and grabbed an object reminding me of a paintbrush with the bristles replaced with a small blade, too small to be called a knife, yet too large to be called a needle. This tool was accompanied by a bowl of some kind of red liquid, as well as a small bush.
“Alright, hold out your arm and watch carefully.” The man then started to trace a shape on my arm with the paintbrush-esque blade, which as I followed its movements, started to make faint red lines on my skin. These lines started to take the shape of a dagger and after the form was ready, he then picked up the brush and dipped it into the liquid lightly, only enough to wet the tip.
He then proceeded to carefully trace the lines once more, filling it in with this red liquid, until finally the entirety of it was filled. “Now hold still boy, this part may hurt a bit”, And with those words the blade was thrust into the centre of the knife’s design and my health was dropped instantly by nearly 80 points. When he removed it While holding back numerous words that had come to surface I realised that blood as well as a blue liquid both seemed to be coming from the wound, and that my mana was slowly draining one point at a time.
“Sorry about not telling you in advance, but it’s better if you’re not tense for it. Anyways what is happening now is that this little’ tool here punctured into your mana lines and is allowing your blood and mana to fill the design, once it’s full I will patch you up and apply the last step to seal it in. Of course the seal will be temporary and will come off in about a week.”
“So my mana is what makes the tattoo?”
“Kind of, your mana acts as a bonding agent for the dye so that it won’t be rejected by the body, and allows the tattoo to synchronize with your life stream.”
“Synchronize with my life stream? Isn't this just a tattoo?” Curious, I voiced my thoughts as the idea of a tattoo being for anything other than aesthetics never had occured to me.
“Tattoos, depending on their dye, design, and designer, will have different effects on a person’s life. For some it is an increase in the ability to regain mana, others find it lets them talk to others easier and with more effect than before.”
‘So they’re like status buffs that can be ingrained onto a person for a long time’, Finding the lack of a drawback weird I asked the man what could or does go wrong with them.
“Well firstly there is the idea of rejection from the dyes. If the dyes and your body don’t react well then you could suffer some nasty drawbacks like blindness or having your mana slowly drain. There is also certain negatives with most designs, you design should increase reaction speed to attacks coming towards you, but in exchange people will tend to avoid you and might even fear you. Lastly there is the thoughts of the artist. If the artist has strong thoughts or emotions going through his head while he carves the person’s skin, then those thoughts might be ingrained into the design as well, which can leave all kinds of effects.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
While he told me the list of downsides to tattoos, he was slowly clearing out the excess blood and mana from the tattoo, as well as applying the seal.
“There you go. it seems like you children of the gods do receive tattoos just like any other person.”
“Wait, was i some kind of guinea pig for you!?” Astounded that the good will that I had thought came from this man, was rather a veiled experiment being performed on me, I ended up yelling at the man.
“Yep”, Without a single thought the artist answered me and grinned from ear to ear at my face,”By the way Mr. Guinea pig, I’m Ezos, and you are?”
“My name is Pride.”
“Pride eh? Interesting name you have there.”
“Thank you, I take great pride in it.”
While giving me a look like that of a dead fish, Ezos sighed and sat down, seemingly disappointed in my amazing pun.
“So Pride, what is it that you children of the gods wish to do here in our realm?” Ezos asked me this in a way to seemingly shift the conversation away from my linguistic abilities.
“All of us children are here for our own various reasons. Some seek fame or wealth, yet others seek carnage and destruction. Some prefer the idea of exploring the world, and yet still some seek out arts and culture that cannot be experienced in our realm. Myself though, I just wish to enjoy myself, although I do have a goal set in mind for the time being.”
“And what, might I ask, is that goal?” Ezos asked me this while sitting down back into his chair behind the counter.
“My current goal is to save up money to enter the magic guild, and to then learn more about runes.”
“Runes eh? Most of that magic stuff just goes over my head, but Runists I will admit, always seemed to be like comrades to me.” Ezos said this while looking up towards the roof. For a while silence persisted until he spoke up once more. “Listen Pride, you seem like a nice enough fellow, so why don’t you work here? I need some help with this business, and you need cash, so why not kill two birds with one stone?”
I was not expecting this kind of offer to come in from a business that i had just stumbled into, and if not for the slight smirk on Ezos’ face, I might of instantly said yes, rather though I asked,”What would the job require me to do?”
“hmm, you don’t seem to fall for the same trick twice then. What I would have you do is learn to make tattoos, gather materials from the area around us, pick up deliveries, as well as be my personal experiment. Sound good?”
The last bit there caught me off guard, but the fact that we will revive if we die, and that I might not get another offer prompted me to say a quick, “Yes”, and with that a window popped up in front of me.
New Job Acquired
You have accepted a job change to ‘Apprentice Body Artist’, as such you have gained the following changes:
+20 Dexterity
+5% Growth for skills related to tattoos
+More respect from citizens in professions related to the arts
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Body ArtistryUncommon10.00%By engraving the body with specific tools, an artist may create special effects associated with the design and dye used. Skill affects chance of positive effects, duration of tattoo, allowed dyes, as well as strength of the effect.
With a new job and skill now being added to my repertoire, I began my work as a body artist, well I wish that was how it went, but my alarm inside the Gate went off and with a quick explanation that I would be back soon, I left the Gate and returned to the real world.
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Hello once more! This chapter contains some hints towards Pride’s future and finally introduces his first skill. Once again the window is thanks to Sieghard’s guide. If you have any suggestions or comments please post them and be aware that while I will try to get a new chapter out daily, I have exams coming up soon, so I might have to slow down for a bit. Thanks for reading by the way, and the review I received was much appreciated! :D