I cracked my knuckles. “Oh, no, we managed to avoid the room she was in.”
He blinked. “You saw her?”
I nodded. “Sure did. But that wasn’t even the scary part.”
He leaned back against a nearby table. “Sounds like you finally have a story to tell me for a change.”
I smiled. “You know what? I think I do.” I paused, considering. “But I’m going to have to leave a few parts out. I’m not supposed to be talking about them.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t have to tell me that, Corin. You just fill those parts in with something more exciting. The story is more entertaining that way.”
“Well,” I pulled up a chair and sat down. “It all started when Visage Katashi asked me to do him a favor…”
It took me a better part of an hour to tell him a heavily edited version of my tale. I talked mostly about the tower rooms themselves — and completely left out the fighting against Orden, Derek, and Jin.
He listened intently the whole time, hints of concern mixed in with peals of uproarious laughter.
“…And now I’m here, alive, thanks to the magic cloak you loaned me.”
Lars folded his arms, nodding with a grim expression. “And your sister, she still can’t speak?”
I took a deep breath, feeling a pang of guilt at my role in that. “Too much scarring. She’s using that regenerating rock I made, but I don’t think it’s helping much.”
“I still can’t believe you enchanted a rock. How’d you do it so quickly? I thought enchanting something on that scale took hours. And isn’t doing something that far above your attunement level a tremendous risk?”
I nodded. “It was a risk, but moving mana felt so easy in the tower. I felt like my attunement was enhanced while I was in there. I’ve never been able to manipulate mana in the air outside, for example.”
“I always felt stronger in the tower, too, but I could never sense the mana like you did.”
I tapped my right hand. “I think this might have had something to do with it, too. Even before Katashi changed it into an attunement, it felt easier to channel mana through my hand. I couldn’t actively draw mana out of the brand, but I think it might have been helping me.”
Lars shook his head. “I still can’t believe you have a gift from Katashi himself. You’ve impressed me, boy.”
“Thanks, Lars.” I smiled. “Couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“Aye. So, now you can start working on repaying me.”
I laughed. “I’ll get right on it. To start with, do you have any more powerful healing items for sale? Something stronger than a ring of regeneration?”
“For your sister, I take it? Nothing like that, I’m afraid. I’d see about talking to a Mender. Even if Katashi couldn’t have helped her right then, sometimes Menders can help with long-term treatment to accelerate natural recovery. Aside from that, there’s always taking a trip to Caelford, but I wouldn’t put your hopes on that.”
“Why not?”
“Ferras only takes on projects that interest her. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people petition her for help with something each year. And that’s if you even get a chance to talk to her — you’d have to find her first.”
I nodded. “I can try other routes first. But I’ll find a way to help Sera, regardless of how much effort it takes.”
“That’s a good spirit to have, lad. Now, can I interest you in something a bit less… divine in cost?”
“Sure, let me take a look around.”
In the end, I didn’t buy anything right then, but I put a few items on my list for the future.
He didn’t have a jump bell for sale, but he did have a single-use teleportation stone that interested me. That was only fifteen silver sigils, so it was reasonable, but I still didn’t have that much money on me.
I was also interested in getting an enchanted dueling tunic. My shield sigil and phoenix sigil both provided a good layer of defense against magical attacks, but I was extremely vulnerable to standard physical attacks.
If Derek had hit me with a clean sword swing, I’d have been dead. I couldn’t keep taking risks like that.
I considered more old fashioned armor — he had some of that as well — but I wanted something that wouldn’t hinder my mobility significantly.
My preference would have been to get a dueling tunic.
Dueling tunics were essentially just cloth, but they were made from rare and valuable materials that provided a high degree of defense, both against traditional weapons and spells. The two most common types were Ironweave and Steelweave.
Neither was actually metallic; they were simply called that because they were difficult to cut. I’d heard that the silk used to make them was from monstrous spiders.
Some dueling tunics were also enchanted for additional protection, like the one that Orden wore.
I considered just enchanting my own shirt and coat, but I couldn’t manage anything particularly potent yet. The runes for hardening a material were the key to making cloth provide any extra protection, and those required stone and enhancement mana — two types I couldn’t generate myself.
Getting a dueling tunic would have been somewhat more plausible. Unfortunately, even the most basic enchanted dueling tunics were about two hundred and fifty silver sigils, more than I’d ever owned. Lars’ most expensive one was seven hundred, and Lars told me he’d heard of ones that sold for thousands.
So, yeah, that was going to take me a while.
Aside from those, I also still wanted a long-distance communication item, but he didn’t have any. I’d have to look into other shops or make one myself.
With my shopping out of the way, I headed to the next place on my agenda — the Divinatory.
I still had a key to the restricted archives. Professor Orden had given it to me when I’d still been working with her. I figured I had at least a few days before someone else remembered that and tried to take it away.
I made it into the restricted section without incident.
I wasn’t the only one in there, though.
An elemental creature floated in the center of the room, her shining blue skin contrasting with her current outfit — a tailored suit in the academy’s white.
She was about a foot above a raised platform etched with a complex pattern of runes. It was some sort of combination of a containment device and power source, but I didn’t know exactly how it worked. Either way, it was definitely what kept her in the room.
She was doing stretching exercises when she saw me enter. She gave me a cheerful wave. “Hello again, Corin Cadence. I am Researcher 437-C. I have an answer to your previous question!”
I blinked, not remembering what she was talking about. “Oh? What’s the answer?”
“You may refer to me as a summon.”
Oh, that. She didn’t like being called a summoned monster. Because it had monster in it.
Makes sense. I wouldn’t want to be called a monster, either. Probably would have gone with summoned elemental in her case? Her choice, though.
“Summon it is, then.”
She visibly brightened. And I mean that in the literal sense — she glowed a little brighter, even without my attunement active. I hoped that meant she was happy? “Thank you, Corin Cadence. How may I assist you today?”
I removed the glove on my right hand and showing her my new attunement rune. “Any idea what this is?”
Her eyes widened to comical proportions, then she knelt down and lowered her head. “I am honored to serve in your presence, Arbiter.”