by Tao Wong
All of it was self-explanatory really, though some of the hints provided by Lily gave me an idea of the kind of training I needed to conduct. Having a zero in any single area was a bit frustrating, though I had to admit I hadn’t actually explored my Mend spell at all. Of course, that line of thinking, that I needed to be a “normal” apprentice with three in everything might just have been wrong. After all, I had spells I could wield without truly understanding them—the equivalent of microwave meals. Perhaps I’d be better off focusing on some other aspects of magic, like Mana Flow. Certainly, if I understood the way my levels worked, part of the reason I’d slowed down in the last week or so was because I needed to be able to physically handle more mana.
I considered the various skills, trying to line them up with the spells I wielded. Perhaps it was time to get a little more experimental…
***
It was dark when I next woke, the only light being the dual glows of laptop monitors, Alexa’s unladylike snoring breaking the silence of the night. It was 3:24 a.m. I sighed as I placed my phone down and sat up, debating if I should go back to bed. A loud, insistent growl that erupted from my stomach answered that question.
“Alexa left some dinner on the counter for you,” Lily said, not looking up from her monitors.
“Ah… thanks,” I said and edged my way cautiously around the room to find it. Pasta. She really liked her pasta. Then again, it was precooked food. After a moment’s debate, I tossed it into the microwave while I surveyed my tiny domain.
Tiny. With three people, it was only good fortune that Alexa and I never spent much time at home. Even so, there was little privacy, a fact that had begun to grate on me. Alexa seemed to handle it better, and Lily, well, Lily just played her games. The past few weeks of hard work had actually expanded my meager savings such that I, for once, had some breathing room. Perhaps it was time to find a new apartment.
As the microwave dinged, I grabbed the hot pasta and booted Lily off one of the laptops, content to do some searching. How hard could it be to find a three-bedroom location in my price range?
A few hours later, the answer was: extremely. Unless I wanted to live in a badly serviced suburb, my budget was unrealistic. While questing was an interesting way of generating funds, it was somewhat unreliable. Especially since a good third of my quests refused to complete payment, citing unsatisfactory performance. I’d have complained, but mostly they were right. I was lucky I was still being hired.
As dawn broke, I finished sending the email enquiries to a few potentials and returned the laptop to Lily while I grabbed the quest papers. Best make the selection before Alexa did. As I perused the papers, I was startled by a knocking on the door.
“Expecting company?” I said to Lily, mostly in jest as I walked to the door. Without looking, I swung it open while I said, “No, we’re not interested in… what are you doing here?”
Instead of the expected door-to-door salesman, I spotted a familiar tall, sour-faced mage with slicked black hair and a cream shirt.
“You used another wish,” Caleb said.
“You here to bitch or destroy more property?” I asked.
“You—” Caleb stopped, drawing a deep breath before he continued more slowly. “I am here to ensure you gain these… levels… of yours.”
“At three in the morning? Seriously?” I asked.
“Is it?” Caleb paused, looking around, and shrugged. “Ah, the trans-temporal spell must have been slightly misaligned.”
I stared at Caleb while filing that piece of information away. “So, you intend to babysit me?”
“No. I shall teach you the basics of magic to ensure your progress,” Caleb said. “I understand you already have a protector.”
“Huh. Didn’t think you were the teaching type.”
“Who is it?” Alexa called out as she stood at the bed, spear in hand.
“The mage who tried to kill me,” I replied.
“Move!” Alexa scrambled forward, spear readied before she slowed down as she realized I was just standing there, talking. “Wait. Tried?”
“He’s too high a level,” I said.
“Oh…” Alexa relaxed and propped her spear against a wall before she walked to the kitchen. “Is there coffee?”
“In the pot.”
“As I was saying, I am here to teach you. Now, get your gear, and we shall begin,” Caleb reiterated.
“Yeah, no,” I said as I turned away and walked into the kitchen. I’d have slammed the door shut, but considering my wishes didn’t include property damage, I saw no reason to taunt him that way.
“Do you know what you’re being offered here?!” Caleb snapped, his voice rising. “I am a Mage of the Third Circle. Apprentices the world over would sell their mothers for a chance to train under me.”
“Is he always this loud?” Alexa asked as she sipped her coffee, eyeing the mage.
“You, Initiate, will be quiet. Or else you will feel my wrath,” Caleb snapped. Almost in unison, all three of us rolled our eyes.
“Can’t do it. She’s part of Henry’s party. If you started a fight with her, Henry would have to join in. So, no. She’s protected too,” Lily said, looking up from her laptops. “Also, you are loud. Can you tone it down? I can’t hear the quest log.”
Alexa grinned at Lily and stuck her tongue out at the mage. I paused, staring at the blond Amazonian before I chuckled. Sometimes, I forgot Alexa was actually quite young still. Of course, Caleb was less than impressed with us, his brows furrowing.
“Are you refusing my offer?” Caleb asked.
“No.” I paused, swiftly considering the matter. Free training, even if it was with someone I disliked, was too good to pass up. And while the wishes weren’t foolproof at safeguarding me, the fact stood that I was unlikely to be any safer staying here than going. “I’ll take you up on it—in the mornings, when Alexa goes to her own training.”
Caleb’s lips thinned, obviously unhappy with the result.
“I still need to go and do quests to level up.”
Provided with a fitting excuse, Caleb could only nod. “Very well. Let us begin.”
***
A short walk later, I was seated in an open-plan office that consisted of a whiteboard, a pair of chairs, and a desk that faced the board, being lectured to by Caleb. Caleb had taken all of fifteen minutes to ascertain my current level of ability and knowledge before waving me to the seat behind the desk. I didn’t do particularly well considering it was still in the early hours of the morning and my coffee had only just kicked in.
“Right then, it seems you are entirely ignorant about the world that you have entered,” Caleb said. “We will endeavor to rectify that immediately. To begin with, do you understand why the supernatural world has chosen to hide itself from the mundane?”
I shook my head, and Caleb just huffed.
“Of course not. In truth, the question was misleading. We have not chosen to hide; humanity has chosen to ignore us.”
“But the glamours and illusions—”
“Are for convenience’s sake. Humanity has no desire to deal with orcs, elves, dwarves, or more. They have made this very clear numerous times in the past. Now, those who refuse to hide their visages are dealt with by the appropriate government agencies or otherwise relegated to the outskirts of society,” Caleb said. “This process began in the early 1500s and was hastened by the globalization of trade. The Mage Council itself formed during that period as mages across the world met for the first time and the threats we had to deal with increased in proportion.”
“Threats?”
“Yes. Threats,” Caleb said. “Like your ring, the Never-Ending Gourd, the kris of Hang Tuah. The attacks by the maricoxi or the dokkaebi. Until we banded together, individual mages often found it difficult to deal with these new threats as we had no cultural knowledge to draw upon. Incomplete or incorrect as it may be, this knowledge often holds a glimmer of truth.”
> “But you haven’t explained why the council was put together,” I said, and Caleb huffed.
“I would if you would stop interrupting. Do you know how often those with magical ability are found? One in ten thousand. Of those, maybe one in ten have the ability to become true mages. If it were not for the fact that magical ability is passed on genetically, we would have died out long ago,” Caleb said.
I quickly did some mental math, coming up with about sixty thousand mages in the entire world. It seemed both extremely high and yet really low. After all, at that rate, a city like mine would have slightly above twenty mages at best. When I turned my attention back, I realized Caleb had continued speaking.
“… safeguard knowledge, watch for other-dimensional threats, and deal with rogue agents,” Caleb said. “We are not policemen or other guardians in general. There are numerous other agencies—both official and unofficial, like your Templar, that undertake such tasks. However, experience has shown that certain magical items and artifacts cannot be allowed to circulate in the general public.”
“Like the ring,” I said, and my lip twisted wryly. “Okay, lecture over. Are you actually going to teach me magic, or are you going to bore me with history till I give the ring up?”
“You—” Caleb stopped and drew a deep breath. “Fine. Let us begin with your Light Spell.”
While I wasn’t particularly happy to go back and practice such a basic spell, I had to admit it was better than getting a history lesson.
Hours later, as I hurried back to the apartment to grab a bite to eat before we went questing, I had to admit that Caleb was a decent teacher, even if he was constantly surprised by what I did and did not understand. Learning magic from Lily and my own experiments had been a hodgepodge affair with some basic magical knowledge missed. Of course, we didn’t cover as much as I had expected since Caleb was of the view that anything that should be covered would be covered. In exacting detail.
Chapter 14
The next day, Caleb was waiting for me at his office at our scheduled time. It was actually kind of nice to leave with Alexa in the morning, having something better to do than practice my magic alone. She, of course, was off reporting and training with her people.
“We will split your lessons into two components. My lectures about the world and theory of magic and, secondly, your practical spell usage,” Caleb said the moment I walked in.
“Uhh…” Caught flat-footed, that was about the only word I could utter.
“I will not have any say that even a failure of a student like you was not trained properly by me,” Caleb said. “If this is unacceptable, we may call this experiment to an end.”
I grimaced before finally nodding. Fine. As much as I hated boring lectures, I had to admit his practical knowledge and ability to pick out what I were missing was particularly helpful.
“Good. Now, if you are to learn magic, you should at least understand the underpinnings of it. There are numerous branches of magic, but to be a mage, one must have a least a basic understanding of it all. It is that broad understanding of magic that separates a mage from other groups like your alchemist friend,” Caleb said.
I found a seat while he was speaking, content to listen and remember and take the occasional note. Thankfully, I had a very good memory for important things. However, don’t ever ask me to remember your birthday. That was what electronic calendars were for.
“Now, within magic, there are numerous paths—enchanting, evocation, and alchemy being the most commonly accepted major paths.”
“What about warding?” I asked.
“A subset of enchanting. The most basic form of enchanting in fact,” Caleb said. “Once you grasp the basics of all three, you may begin to combine them into more complex spells or rituals.”
“Rituals are hard?”
“No. A good ritual is actually easy to understand and cast. However, to understand and manipulate the workings of a ritual requires understanding of all three paths of magic. It is why the Mage Council recommends that rituals be taught later,” Caleb said.
“Ah… and evocation is the casting of spells from mana, right? Things like my Force Bolt and the Light spell?”
“Yes, exactly. Now, if you’d be quiet, I’ll begin the overview of each path,” Caleb said, glaring at me.
I sighed and fell silent for the moment but made sure to listen. Annoying as the mage might be, he certainly knew his stuff.
***
Within days, we had fallen into our new routine. Early morning, I would make my way to his office, where Caleb would be waiting, a new lesson fully planned out. At first, my constant interruptions derailed the lessons the mage had planned, frustrating both of us. However, once I realized Caleb would, eventually, get to my questions—and if not, he had allocated time for me to ask them—matters proceeded more smoothly. It was on the afternoon of the sixth day that I finally caught up with Lily and had a moment to spare as Alexa was running late.
“Lily, I noticed I haven’t actually gained much in terms of experience lately. But I’m sure I’m learning more from Caleb,” I said.
“Really? How strange,” Lily said, entirely focused on her laptops. However, after so many months living together, I could tell something was not right.
“Lily,” I warned, and the jinn sighed, tapping quickly on the computer to put her games on hold.
“I’ve adjusted your experience gain lately to slow down your leveling,” Lily said.
“Why?” I frowned. “Are you worried I’ll hit level one hundred too soon?”
“No,” Lily said. “Well, not entirely. It’s more to do with your body. Have you noticed you’ve been getting headaches from spellcasting more frequently recently?”
“Yes,” I replied. In fact, I was sporting one right now. “I figured it’s because I’m using magic a lot more these days.”
“You’re partly correct,” Lily said. “Each time I leveled you, you gained a little more access to mana. Partly from the spells and knowledge I provided and, well, partly from me adjusting the limiters. Remember, you had no real natural ability.”
“I remember.”
“Right. Well, you’re now wielding as much mana as an apprentice mage at times, but your body hasn’t had enough time to adjust to it. The headaches are just the symptoms,” Lily said.
“Is it dangerous?” I asked.
“No. I noticed the issue early enough, but until your body fully adjusts to the current levels, I’m slowing down your leveling.”
“So, you nerfed me,” I said, my lips twisting wryly.
“Well, you are the alpha tester for this game. Rule adjustments should be expected.” Lily spoke as lightly as I had, though I could see some of the tension had left her body. As if I would get upset about her taking care of me. My third lesson with Caleb had been about magical burnout, and I had no desire to end up a has been. I’d only just started wielding magic!
“How long?”
“Till you next level?” Lily shrugged. “Depends, but at least a few weeks. And you’ll continue at this slower rate for a while.”
I grunted, unhappy but at least glad to have an answer to the nagging doubt. With this topic exhausted, I went to the pile of quests and flipped through them. I knew Alexa had probably picked one out for me, but I liked to look them over too. It was strange how easily I had given up the responsibility of choosing the quests to the initiate, but in truth, I knew my own caution would have had me choosing lower-leveled quests.
On the other hand, with my current nerfing, perhaps that would have been a better option. Then again, many of the quests we had been doing had more specific financial benefits. It was kind of nice not having to worry as much about my budget, especially with Alexa contributing to the rent.
“Huh.” I frowned, staring at the quest paper in hand. After a moment, I flipped backward and located the other quest note.
“Something interesting?” Alexa said from behind me, ma
king me jump. I growled at her while she looked at me blankly. Though as I turned back to the papers, I saw the corners of her lips quirk up.
“Just more Devil Rats,” I said. “There are two quests, both around the same area. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re near where I fought the first nest.”
“Devil Rats?” Alexa took the papers from my hand. She read through the notices quickly before eyeing the bottom of the paper.
“You know what? Let’s go kill them,” I said suddenly, pulling the papers away from Alexa and handing them to Lily.
The jinn took them from me and, after a glance, put them back down. Within seconds, new quest notifications bloomed.
“I didn’t—”
“You snooze, you lose,” I said happily as I walked over to grab my jacket. After a moment’s consideration, I went back and packed an additional set of clothing, cautioning the spluttering Alexa to do so as well.
***
The large, abandoned concrete office building that was our objective loomed above us as we stepped out of Alexa’s car. In truth, considering a journey into the sewers wasn’t required of both quests, the extra clothing and precautions were probably overkill. But since we had a car to store the bag in, I saw little harm in bringing it along. After all, being less than prepared the first time I’d dealt with these guys had been my downfall.
“I still don’t get why we had to do a rat-killing quest,” Alexa grumbled for the tenth time as she hefted her spear. On my suggestion, she’d brought along a shorter version of her normal weapon. This one barely reached her shoulders.
“Come on, aren’t you Templars all about helping people?” I asked. As the job posting had stated, the key for the warehouse was stored in a small, locked keypad behind a bush. In moments, we had the glass doors, that led into the building open. “Ready?”
Rather than answer me, Alexa strode ahead into the sunlit entranceway. Her eyes darted sideways, taking in the disused and empty hallway before she walked farther in. She only paused for a second for me to finish tethering a Light Ball to her.