We enter Straitley through the main gates by showing the guards our adventurer’s license, though we had to go through a bit of trouble as the guardsman mistook me for a blessed doll again.
“Maybe the Krull and Vartan guards were the exceptions for not caring that I might be a blessed doll?”
“Or they just didn’t give two hoots about setting a cursed doll free in their city.”
“Maybe. You’re the one in charge of the trip so what’s the plans?”
“Just the usual, tell the guild we’re here, sightsee for a bit, try the different foods and see what’s in the stores, then find an inn, and tomorrow we eat breakfast before we leave for Gavely and do the same there.”
“Sounds good.”
“You know I’ve always been better at planning road trips than you.”
“Well, yeah, that’s why you’re in charge.”
After a bit more couple-bantering we arrive at the guild, though we did stop at a few stalls on the way to buy some foodstuffs, both ones we’d used up and ones we’d never bought before, some animal parts, vegetables and fruits we didn’t recognise from earth, as well as some things we did recognise, like chicken, some bread to turn into breadcrumbs for things like chicken nuggets and schnitzels, and a few bags of rice, ever since we had those squids in Krull we’ve been craving more Asian food.
* * * *
“Hello! We work for the Eastern lake guild and would like to report our presence.” Says Shiona with a strained smile, she seems to be putting in a lot of effort in getting better with people.
“Yes, could I have your guild card please?”
We hand the guild worker our adventurer licenses which she hands back after a short while.
“All done, later after the guild closes for the evening we’ll use one of artefact to let your home branch know where you are.”
“Thanks, and do you know where we could go to get some sightseeing tips?”
“Yes, in fact we have pamphlets, here.”
She hands us a small paper pamphlet, we wait with looking through it until we leave the guild, you know, so wewont be in the way for anyone..
“Let’s see, this has the locations of a bunch of restaurants, shops of vastly varying kinds such as blacksmiths which deal in weapons and armour, some that focus on foodstuffs, and… Uhh… You know what? Let’s just stay away from the rest of them…”
I hurriedly close the pamphlet to avoid Shiona seeing the parts of the map that say “red light district”.
“Actually.”
Shiona pinches the pamphlet with two of her feathers, yanking it out of my hands and opening the map page again.
“Hey!”
“What? We both know we need someone tanky, and maybe we’ll actually be able to find someone here.”
She shows me the map and points to the circled area which read “black market”.
“Are you sure?”
“Well black market means three things, contraband auctions, auctions where you buy things to expensive to find anywhere else, and slave dealers.”
At first I didn't quite know how to word my doubts of what she just said, but after a few seconds of thinking I giv it my best shot.
*sigh* “... So let me get this straight, you, the person who couldn’t handle killing a goblin due to thinking they were sapient, is willing to buy sapient slaves?”
“...That was then and this is now, besides, I’ve been thinking and preparing myself mentally for anything I thought we might encounter or have to do, such as buy slaves.”
“Really? I mean, it’s commendable, sure… But I still have my doubts…”
“Don’t worry about it!”
*sigh* “Fine, but black market also means they should only be open at night right? So we’ll do it after we’re done with everything else.”
“Alright! Now let’s go get some grub!”
We visit a few of the nearby restaurants and order any dishes which we haven’t heard of before in order to broaden my repertoire and mental cookbook.
“This is good.”
“Yeah.”
Right now we’re sitting at a table right outside a restaurant and eating something that’s like a hamburger but the bread was crispier and it had some condiments I didn’t recognise, so I asked the book to write them down so I can ask people about them later or look them up in a cooking book.
“Check please!”
Since this was the last restaurant we were interested in we move onto the stores, restock any jellies we’ve used as well as buysome more foodstuffs that we didn’t find on the way to the guild, and since it has yet to get dark after we get done with that we start looking through the pamphlet again for what else we could do.
“There’s a library here, and it says this tower offers beginner courses and books in… Wandless magic?”
“I didn’t even know that was a thing… Well, apart from my feathers…”
“Neither did I, maybe it’ll be a good souvenir for Red? Speaking of, we should probably look for souvenirs for the others too.”
“Yeah, maybe new glasses for Rico? Some tinkering tools for Grizz…”
“How about one of those eye covering beuty sleep masks for Hugh? What about Cathy, Rupe and the quartet?”
“...I’ve seen Cathy glancing at her fur whenever Red’s around, so maybe we can find some cat-kin beauty products? If they’re even a thing.”
“That could work, and Rupe’s been complaining about being kept awake since his arm itches due to him shedding, maybe we could find some medicine to help him fall asleep?”
“Yeah, could you ask the book to write this down?”
We walk towards where we’re going while talking about what we want to give to the quartet and in the end we decide for a pillow for Anne, a notebook and pen for Anna to keep track of her work more easily, since Red’s together with Cathy and they both like magic as much as the other they’ll share the magic book as well as something to shine up Cathy's fur, and a local cooking book for Joanne.
We decided that I would go get the wandless magic as well as take the beginner course while Shiona goes to the library to see what fun stuff she can find, and if there’s enough time left before it gets dark even after that then we’ll switch places, and as for all the other gifts we’ll save those for when we get to the capital to make sure we get the best available.
“But how do we know when we’re both done?”
‘Lizz? Could you come out?’
‘Just put it in the fridge Lizz.’
After that Lizz flies out of the pouch on the book’s strap and lands on Shiona’s shoulder.
“There, Lizz still has the leather armlet that the book gave her so if either of us finishes we tell her and she’ll tell the other.”
“Yeah, that works.”
We wave goodbye and head to places while holding our own pamphlets.
* * * *
“The field of casting wandless magic is very recent and was started in our town of Straitley, that is why you’ll find this to be the only place that offers courses in the subject, and as for the books they would cost even more to buy imported from anywhere else, so please understand why we have such high prices, it takes very long to train new teachers as well as to keep them hired.”
Right now I’m standing in a queue outside a large tower with a single desk and receptionist outside who is explaining what everything costs and why a customer.
“Like hell! Fifty gold for a book and a hundred for a class!? This is a fucking robbery in broad daylight!” *slam* “I demand a discount!”
“Sir, I can’t do that, please don’t make me call the guards.”
“Oh yeah!? Like the guards will get here before things turn ugly for you!”
“Sir please.”
It’s easy to tell that the disinterested receptionist really doesn’t believe the man, she probably doesn’t want to be here, and for all she cares she shouldn’t be either and she was getting really tired of this man.
I slowly push my way past the rest of the people in the line, each of them looking as exasperated at the man as the receptionist and when they see me walking towards the man they smile at me and rather than get angry they even drop a few copper coins to me.
“Excuse me sir?”
“Ha!?”
The man shouted at me like some sort of back alley hooligan as he turned around.
“...Ha?”
However it was soon changed to a confused sound when he actually saw me.
Not really feeling like letting him start monologuing or try to threaten me I grab his leg, submerge him to his chins in the ground and make him launch out sideways into a wall, fast enough to knock him out but not fast enough to damage the building.
The queue cheer and clap for me when I walk back to my spot, this time they hand me a few silvers even, and now the queue starts moving at the pace of a person per ten seconds on average, and then when it’s finally my turn I take out two special iridescent coins, each worth a hundred gold, and hand them to the receptionist, in return I get two wandless magic books and entry through the door next to the desk.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I sit down on one of the many chairs inside the classroom looking place that was right inside on the ground floor, and I put the two books inside the book of knowledge when I’m certain no one is looking, and then I realise something.
‘Cy, are you good at sewing?’
‘I was wondering if you could make a leather backpack that I can put the book of knowledge in, just so that I can put stuff in the book while making it look like I’m using a normal backpack, is it possible?’
‘As long as the end product looks like normal inconspicuous leather. Oh, and please make four holes in it where you would put the straps, that way the books strap can go through those holes and I can still use the little pouch for small things.’
‘Thanks Cy.’
I start paying attention to the rest of the classroom and see that it’s already mostly filled up with robe wearing wizard and scholar looking people, though that’s still just sixteen people, and then an old spindly bearded man in a plain robe enters the room and stands next to a blackboard at the wall of the classroom which all the desks are facing.
“Now then, I had heard what happened in the line outside so I’ll skip right past introductions and right into the actual lesson.”
The entire classroom cheers, claps, and whistles in happiness.
“As you know the way that magic normally works is by using a processed magic crystal, something to hold the crystal, and the user’s energy. Before we start learning how to cast wandless magic you will first need to know the specifics of how a wand actually works, that way you’ll know what you need to replace on your own for every part of the wand we remove, and eventually you’ll be able to do it all on your own without any outside support. Questions?”
“…”
“Very well, then before we begin let me just say this, we’ve received word that people over in Eastern lake city are developing a new type of wand, or specifically a magic staff, as the higher ups realize that the new staffs may help propel wandless magic as well each of you will be given a special discount coupon that will reduce the cost of another class session to ten gold, however it will only be valid if the staffs do indeed help us advance our craft. Questions?”
“Will the books also be discounted if you add more stuff to them too?” Asks one of the people sitting somewhere behind me.
"Yes, there are still many elements which we do not know how they work, so in the future if you trade in your old books you get a discount for new ones."
The whole class breaths a collective sigh of relief.
“Now then, a wand works by having a magic crystal attached to a piece of wood, it can be different materials however wood is the one with the best effectiveness that’s still easy to get your hands on. Now look at this.”
The man takes out a chalk and starts drawing on the whiteboard while holding a book very like the ones I just bought.
He’d drawn a single circle.
Next to that he’d drawn two circles connected to each other by a line.
Then he drew a triangle with a circle in each corner.
He then did the same with a square and a pentagon, and then just wrote “Etc. Etc.” after the pentagon.
[http://i.imgur.com/CUEcfEj.png]
“This is what the inside of a wand looks like. Each of these circles can be fitted with a command for what the spell will do. The books sold outside have a full list of what the commands look like. The more commands your wand has, the more energy you have to push into it for it go all the way through the magic circuit and actually have any effect, and if the crystal attached to the gem isn’t high quality enough it will shatter if you pour in too much energy, so that means low quality crystals can only be used for low circle spells. Also since higher quality crystals have higher energy capacity it means that you can make even low circle magic strong since you’re able to add much more fuel to the fire so to speak. Questions?”
“Low circle magic? And where does the actual crystal element fit into this?”
The old man takes out a long stick from within his robe and starts tapping the drawing on the blackboard in the middle of the circles he’d previously drawn, as though counting them.
“Oh.” Responded the scholar embarrassedly.
“As for where the element of the crystal fits into the circle scheme.”
He then draws a second circle around one of the already existing circles in each formation.
[http://i.imgur.com/0QlLJil.png]
“This is the first command of each spell, the spells starting point, this is what the crystal adds to the spell scheme, the rest is made by whoever enchanted the wand. Questions?”
“...Do you think you could shorten it down a bit? Makes it easier to take notes…”
“Sure. In short, the crystal is the starting point and it adds the element of the spell, after that the rest of the spell commands are adjusted and created by its enchanter. The better the crystal the better the energy capacity, and the better the energy capacity the better the spells. I believe that’s the gist, anything else?”
“...”
“Good, now as for how to use the magic without the wand, we will be working our way backwards and remove what the wand does step by step and do it ourselves. Could someone tell me what the first step would be then?”
Feeling I’ve been able to somewhat keep up I raise my arm, however at first he doesn't seem to see me so I make a stick of solidified air and hold it upwards, this finally catches his attention.
"Yes? I can't quite see you but the small fellow holding a stick."
“The last part would be the last command in the scheme right?”
“Yes, good. As this… Whatever you are just said the first step is to remove the last step of the spell scheme and try to create it yourself, so I will be handing out incomplete wands and you will try to create the last command of it yourself, and don’t worry, even if you fail it’s a special wand that won’t become anything dangerous.”
The man then pull out his own spell wand, and when he uses it wands start flying from beneath his desk, one to each of us.
“This wand is simple, it creates a small flame, as for the command you will add it’s this.”
He then draws a filled in circle on the blackboard.
“Put this inside the second command circle and the flame will materialise in the shape of a ball, and once you’re done with that we’ll move onto the next step.”
At first I’ve no idea how we’re even supposed to add the command, however then Cy chimes in from the book and explains, turns out the other scholars had already taken a precursory class in enchanting to learn this, but I had a first class enchantress in my head to help out a bit so I got through it.
* * * *
With a bit of guidance from Cy I channel energy into the wand much the same way that I do to the telepathy bangle and-
*fwoosh*
-right above the wand a ball of fire takes shape, looking around I see that I’m apparently the last one to do it.
“Good, now that you’ve all shown you can handle enchants here’s the next part.”
He then uses the wand he used to give us our wands before, this time he takes all the wands back and hands us new ones.
“Next you will be making this.”
He erases the filled in circle from the blackboard and in its place he draws a circle with a line going through it, this one looking an awful lot like a road sign.
“I’m sure you all know that there are different kinds of wands, the ones that are focused to a single spell and the ones that are just focused to an element. The ones you just made were ones for a single spell, this means you can't exchange the commands for new ones and they're forever mere fireball conjuration wands, but now we’ll be making ones of the second kind by putting this command in the scheme, after this command has been put into a wand you can still put another command at the same place again, however it will turn back to this after one use. This means that it will take more energy since you have to make a new ommand everytime you use it, however you can choose which commands you want to use, and as you can exopect this makes the wand more flexible, try it now.”
And with the help of Cy I’m able to get through it yet again, though this time it went a lot faster since I knew a bit about it now.
“When you’ve put the variable command into the scheme you are to try and fill that variable with the command for ‘ball’ which you used before and use it.”
*fwoosh* x16
Above the seats of every scholar a ball of fire appears for a second.
“Now, if you look at the scheme again you’ll see that the command has reverted to the empty variable, feel free to keep this wand at your desk for the rest of the lesson in case you feel you need to practice more enchanting.”
“Uhm!”
One of the scholars is waving their hand.
“Yes?”
“Err, what does this have to do with wandless magic casting?”
*sigh* “You should already realize this, but it's good you asked so you don't fal behind.”
He then uses his own wand to give us each a low quality fire crystal, the same kind that we’d been using on these wands we made.
“The next step is to hold these crystals and try to create the command on your own,before you had the handle the crystal was attached to to focus the scheme into, however now you have to do it without anything to hold it, and trust me, the leap between using an element focused wand and no wand at all is a long one, which is why you need to have that wand next to you to practice. That is why this has been important, and now you can easily practice the command on the wand you already have if you feel you’re doing it wrong.”
‘Hm? Is this new to you Cy?’
‘... So that means I have to do it myself…’
Right then the teacher talked again, as though he was sent from the heavens.
“For those who don’t understand how to put the command directly into the crystal, that’s the thing, you don’t. You use the air around the gem as a substitute for the handle, so you try to enchant the air with the commands, however due to air being a gas the schemes will dissolve the moment you stop pouring energy through them.”
Hearing the teacher’s advice I tried to move my energy through the air and shape it in the form of the two circle magic scheme with the crystal in one of the circles and the ball command in the other, this ended up being much easier for me than for the others due to some of my skills already requiring me to channel energy through air, like Solidification and Risen Apparition, and then I poured a final push of energy into the whole scheme and out came a fireball.
*fwoosh*
“Oh? Well aren’t you a fast learner.”
“Err, was I not supposed to do that?”
“Don’t be afraid, I was just complimenting you. If you feel you have the hang of crystal only magic enough then come here and I’ll tell you how to use it without the crystal fully without bothering the others.”
“Okay.”
Before I head up to the teacher I first keep practicing the crystal only magic for a bit and trying out some of the other commands which I found in one of the two books I’d bought outside, letting me create fire cubes, fire cones, and even fire swords before I feel I’m good enough to learn the next step.
Though to be fair this was probably also made a lot easier due the whole "Every literal fiber of my being is made of energy veins"-thing that Red discovered.
I get off of my seat and walk up to the teacher, fully expecting him to freak out for a second once he actually sees my like the guards did, but instead he just grabs a crystal from his robe and uses handle-less magic to create some sort of barrier around us.
“This barrier will keep the others from hearing what we say, it’s a must for scholars and their teachers. Now before we get on with the lesson-”
The teacher then pulls back the hem of his hood slightly, revealing two pointed elf ears.
“You’re Plush right? Our chief told me about you, he said if I run into you I was supposed to tell you that it’s calmed down back home and they’re ready for you to come visit, when would be good for you?”
It takes me a while to answer but I soon make up my mind.
“Well we have to travel to Logholm first to finish a delivery quest, we should be there in less than a week, how about then?”
“Alright, I’ll tell the chief after I’m done here for the day, now back to the lesson. The final step to doing magic completely wandlessly is to create the magic scheme much the same as you did when you used the crystal, but instead of having the crystal as the starting point you have to make the actual command for the element yourself.”
A single circle magic scheme then appears above the elf teacher’s hand, inside the circle is what looks like a sun, and right in the middle of it a small fire appears.
“I would recommend doing one circle schemes to begin with, the elemental command is much more taxing than even a five circle handleless scheme. After that you can try to add more commands, but if you do make sure to make the elemental command stronger too. As for how to do that it depends on what element you want to use so look it up in the guide book.”
“Alright, thanks.”
He then undoes his magic and I walk back to my seat to practice what he told me about, so first I try to create a one circle scheme using only the fire command, and since I didn’t get to see it for very long I look it up on the book.
*fwoosh*
‘Thanks, now to try the two circle one, let’s see how to make the fire command stronger…’
Looking in the book I saw that in order to make the fire command stronger you just added more sunrays to the command, so when I increased it from a sun with five rays shooting out in different directions to six I tried with a two circle scheme instead of just one.
*fwoosh*
And like when I used the crystal and the wands the fire that appeared this time was ball shaped, however I could definitely feel that this was a lot more taxing than the wands and crystals, when I used them I felt as though I could continue for forever but now I actually felt myself growing just slightly more tired from it.
I mean, it wasn't to the point where I could only use it a handful of times before fainting, but more like I was lifting something heavy, you know, so that I just need to take a few seconds of a breather in between the spells to keep going instead of using it continously.
As for the other elements? They were all pretty simple, the one for water was an ocean with a single wave, add more waves to make it stronger, thunder was a cloud with a single lightning bolt striking the earth below that you added more thunderbolts to, wind was a tornado that you added more layers to, and nature was a tree that you added fruits too. There were many, many more to though, way too many for anyone to memorize without a book.
“Plush was it? If you want to there’s a place where you can practice what you’ve accomplished on the floor above, would you like to?”
“Yes please.”
After practicing for a bit I was told that I had gotten the hang of it and was ready to leave, and when I asked about the others I found out that apparently this was an all nighter class for most people.
All in all I was able to use all the one circle magic without breaking a sweat, however the more circles I made the stronger I had to make the element command, and with every level in the element command the energy needed grew exponentially.
I told Lizz that I was done and she told me that they'd both lost track of time in the library but were also ready to leave, so since it had already gotten dark we were going to meet up outside the black market, so on the way there I practiced trying to replicate the enchantment in my telepathy bangle and wondering if I could actually make the element boosting trinkets now that I had a book that detailed every kind of enchantment, both for wands and trinkets.
While thinking about that I made my way to our meeting place.