Brightblade

by Jez Cajiao

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 1 in a new skill: Lockpicking! No locked room, chest or chastity belt is safe from you now!

  I paused for a second, considering the chastity belt comment, then shrugged and got on with the next practice lock. After an hour of fiddling around, I’d managed to level the skill up to level 2 and had opened three of the four training locks. I was ready to try the real thing. I slowly slid the pick into the lock, eyes closed, and felt for the tumblers. At first, I couldn’t feel anything, but just as I was about to give up, I found one. I carefully slid it up and moved on. Finding the second took longer, until I realized it was at a right angle to the first. The third and fourth followed the same pattern, until…CHUNK!

  With an oath, I sat back, looking at the snapped remains of the pick in my hand. The damn lock had shot out a bar that had snapped my pick! My swearing tirade was interrupted by Oracle as I tried to find another pick the same shape and size as the first.

  “Jax, why are you doing that?” she asked.

  “I want to get in here, and I don’t have a key!” I snapped at her, then grimaced and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped: the damn thing just broke my pick, is all.”

  “It’s okay.” she said, landing next to me and peering at the lock. She’d been flying around looking at things while I’d been practicing, but now she was looking the picks over a second time, as though understanding their use at last. “You’ve been using them to try and open the door?”

  “Yeah, no key, after all…”

  “When you have the entire Tower sworn to you, you will be able to open any door with a command, but for now, why not use your magic?”

  “Magic? I don’t have a spell for this,” I said, looking at her askance.

  “Not specifically for this, but you have ‘Identify’, and that gives you information on things like the lock, plus you have high perception. You might be able to adjust the spell….”

  “‘Adjust it,’ how?” I asked, curiosity flaring as I sat back.

  “The same way you changed your Firebolt spell. You channeled mana into it, past what was needed, and changed it into an explosive detonation, right?”

  “Well, yeah, but…”

  “Why do you think you could only do that with that one spell?”

  “Well, I don’t want the door to explode, so…”

  “No, Jax, I mean why only change one spell! You learned Airblade. Most of it was lost, I know, but if we link together and use Identify, combined with some of the bits you remember from Airblade, we might be able to create a mixture of the two!”

  “Finally, another spell? Let’s get to it!” I said, grinning, before I started to frown. “I thought you said I couldn’t learn another spell yet?”

  “You can’t learn another externally sourced spell, but there’s nothing stopping you from creating a new spell based on your knowledge. It’s already yours, after all. You would have to form it, control the mana in it, and name it, but once you’ve done that, it would become a new spell of your own. That’s how all spells were created in the first place. Do you want to try?”

  “Hell yes!” I said, and we got started. Oracle insisted on sitting on my knee, with my head bowed so that she could put her hands on either temple. This left my face tilted at an angle, with my eyes positioned directly over her more than generous cleavage. Awkward. I spent the first few minutes trying not to look, until I realized that this was deliberate on her part. Trying to get a ahem rise out of me. It was working, too. I could see the darker tinge of one small areola peeking out from…. Nope, no, no, no, no, Jax!

  I closed my eyes, forcing myself to feel for my mana and ignore my swelling member. It took a few minutes, but it was helped by the feeling of amusement I could sense coming from Oracle. The little minx knew exactly what she’d been doing.

  “Okay, feel the mana coming from your core, flowing around your body and all around you. Concentrate on the feeling of the air and try to remember the way the mana and air interacted when you learned the spell.” She spoke me to as I worked through it, but her words conjured images and memories as her mind meshed with my own. “Think about how ‘Identify’ reaches out, the way it integrates with its target before coming back to you and giving you knowledge…” As the minutes became hours, we slowly worked through the steps, feeling the weave of mana fall apart time and again, until at last, we were left with a stable construct.

  Congratulations! You have consciously created your first personal spell, Manatouch!

  Manatouch;

  Creates a finger of mana-infused air that can be used to interact with your target at will. Cost of 5 mana per second.

  “Woot!” I crowed, chucking my hands up and grinning at Oracle. “We did it!”

  “We did it!” Oracle cried out, leaping into the air and doing a series of barrel rolls and loop the loops, looking very much like a porn version of Tinkerbell on acid.

  I immediately started using the ‘Manatouch’ spell on the lock, feeling around inside and building up a far more accurate mental image of the interior. I tried to pick the lock with the spell, but after a few attempts, I gave up and used the pick in conjunction with it. Between the two, I soon felt the lock give way and began opening the door.

  Congratulations! You have reached Level Four in your skill, Lockpicking! No locked room, chest, or chastity belt is safe from you now!

  “This is awesome!” I crowed as the door slowly swung inwards, the darkness of the room beyond hardly hindering my DarkVision enhanced eyes. The room within was surprisingly large. As I climbed to my feet, ignoring the aches and pains from crouching on cold stone for so long, I looked around in stunned amazement.

  The room covered nearly a quarter of this floor, if I guessed right, and had huge floor to ceiling windows on one side, with a small balcony and a pile of rusted remains outside, suggesting a table and chairs had once stood there. The room itself had a huge bed against one wall, a chest of drawers and wardrobe, and a writing desk complete with ink and quill and a sheaf of papers. Against the opposite wall to the bed, next to the writing desk, stood a chest. An honest to goodness treasure chest-looking thing, even if it was cliché. All the furniture, bar the chest, was sagging, half collapsed and disintegrating in one way or another. A thousand and more years of decay had really done a number on it all. The inkwell was unsurprisingly dry, the quills felt like they’d snap at a touch and the paper…well it pretty much collapsed into dust as soon as I touched it.

  I went to the chest, sweeping the dust from the floor and sat before it, spreading my picks out and using ‘Manatouch’ again. This time, I felt something else besides the lock, and after careful examination, I backed away and moved to the side. There was a tiny needle embedded in the metal of the lock. I could feel something wrong about it, and as I concentrated information began to build up.

  Trapped Chest

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This chest has been enhanced with a magical spell, and a trapped lock. It is unknown what will happen if the trap is triggered: an explosion that blows up the room, an alarm, a horrific smell that offends your friends and colleagues? Only one way to find out…

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Rare

  Yes

  48/100

  1/1

  “What do you think, Oracle?” I asked her, and she flew down, landing lightly on the ground to peer into the lock. I half reached out to pull her back, then reminded myself she was literally made of mana, making her incorporeal at will. She was probably at far less risk than I was.

  “I don’t know Jax, maybe try to pick it from a distance?” She suggested, backing away.

  I thought about it, and then moved in closer. I’d learned the skill ‘trap making’ earlier, after all. It was probably the only reason I knew the needle was there, so I spent some time looking the rest of the chest over. After another hour,
I was convinced I knew how the chest had been trapped. A simple hook had been attached to the tumbler, so as soon as the lock turned, it would release the needle. If you had a hand directly in front of the lock, you were in trouble, but if not, there would be no real issue. That left whatever magic I could sense about it. After spamming ‘Identify’ and backing away to the other side of the room by the door, I started using ‘Manatouch’ again. I’d learned all I could from passive observation, so it was likely best to get on with it.

  The first step was unhooking the needle from the trigger. That took three tries, but eventually, it came loose, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Next was the magical field I could feel around it. I used my spell to ‘feel’ around the edges, slowly finding areas where the spell seemed to sink into the chest, and others where it reached out, waiting.

  Hours passed as I slowly examined it from every angle, until I finally found what I was looking for. A small section of the chest, on the rear, near the ground, that linked to the spell. I took a deep breath and, using my new spell, I pressed it. A loud click resounded around the room, and the magical field vanished, sucked inside the chest. A new notification began blinking, and I opened it, discovering that I’d been automatically muting others while I worked.

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 1 in a new skill: Magical Lockpicking! No locked room, chest, or chastity belt is safe from you now! (This is a subskill of Lockpicking and has increased your overall skill in Lockpicking by 1.)

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 3 in your skill: Trap Making! Try not to catch yourself in these diabolical creations. Now that would be embarrassing!

  Congratulations! You have managed to salvage a magical trap! Do you wish to take (Paralysis Trap)? Yes/No

  There wasn’t a decision to be made at all as I picked up the trap. I examined the small crystal filled with orange and green colors swirling idly, slipping it into a pocket and examining the inside of the chest. I found two potions, a length of cloth, three rolled-up scrolls, and pair of small pouches. As I tipped the first pouch out onto my hand, a collection of rough-cut rubies, sapphires, and a single large jade tumbled into view. The first few were all around the size of my fingernail, while the jade was a rough rectangle, an inch across and three inches long. I slid them back into the pouch and pocketed it. Checking the second, I expected to find coins, but instead found something else. I dipped my hand in and pulled it out, looking in confusion at the sparking white handful of sand I held.

  Firax Dust

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This dust is used in many magical crafting recipes. A few grains scattered across a creation will increase the magical potential and lower the chance of enchantments failing.

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Rare

  Yes

  N/A

  1/1

  I grinned and pocketed the dust. I didn’t know what I’d do with it, but at least it boded well for crafting. Finally, I examined the two potions.

  Mana Boost Potion

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This potion boosts the manapool of the imbiber by twenty-five percent and mana regeneration by 10 points for 300 seconds.

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Uncommon

  Yes

  100/100

  N/A

  Silverbright

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This mixture of ingredients holds no known alchemical properties identifiable at your level, but it glows with a faint, comforting light…

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  ?????

  Yes

  100/100

  N/A

  The mana boost potion would come in handy, but I had no idea what the other one was. The fact that it had been kept in a locked and trapped chest suggested it was valuable at least. I pocketed them both and pulled up the scrolls.

  Scroll of Summon Arcane Eagle

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This scroll will summon an Arcane Eagle construct. This air affinity spirit will last 600 seconds and share all it sees with its summoner.

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Rare

  Yes

  87/100

  1/1

  Scroll of Greater Mapping

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This scroll will create a map of an area as far as the beholder can see, marking places of interest. The greater the distance and number of locations, the less information will be given. This information can be added to an existing map.

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Rare

  Yes

  87/100

  1/1

  Scroll of Soul Trap

  Further Description Yes/No

  Details:

  This scroll will allow the caster to cast Soul Trap on their target, provided an appropriate gem is available. The target’s soul will be trapped for use at a later time.

  Rarity

  Magical

  Durability

  Charge:

  Rare

  Yes

  87/100

  1/1

  All three scrolls sounded good. I could use the Arcane Eagle to find out what was going on in the lands around the Tower, and the Map scroll would explain a lot of the terrain. The Soul Trap, I’d use on the SporeMother, given the chance, and see how it liked being enslaved for a change. By that point, I was utterly exhausted. I checked the one door that led off the unlocked room, finding a small bathroom, as I’d suspected. Once the Tower was reclaimed, I’d probably move into this room, but I gathered my gear and headed back up to the top floor to rest for the night. I locked myself in, leaving Bob to guard the door as Oracle buzzed around to examine the room, and I slept like the dead.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next morning, I bolted awake as Oracle knocked my naginata over with a resounding clatter. I tried to leap to my feet but became caught up in the sleeping bag and fell over. My sleep-addled brain flushed with adrenaline, and I caught Bob staring at me. I summoned a firebolt before I had time to think about it, and only Oracle’s panicked shout stopped me from hitting him in the face with it.

  “Jax! Sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” She flitted across the room to hide behind Bob, landing on his back and peeking around his arm as I tried to figure out what was going on. I took a deep breath and relaxed, recovering the mana and allowing the firebolt to disappear.

  “Damn, Oracle, I nearly shit myself!” I grunted as I heaved myself to my feet, untangling myself and summoning a spring to refill the canteens and wash my face. As I finished, I reflected on how commonplace magic had become to me, to use it without a thought. God, I loved this world.

  “I’m sorry, Jax! I won’t do it again, I promise!!” The note in her voice finally got through my irritation, and I straightened up.

  “It’s all right, Oracle, seriously. Calm down.” I said, looking at her in confusion. There was real fear in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “Are you mad at me?” she asked in a small voice, still half hidden behind Bob.

  “Oracle, come here, please.” I said firmly, holding one hand out, palm up. She flew across the room and alighted on my hand hesitantly. I could feel her tiny feet trembling.