by Roharp17
Sarah looked confused and alarmed, saying, "Lady Deluge! She is from a noble family. We can't refuse her, she will ruin us. If she mentioned a friend that could only be another noble. Having two women of that class showing off your mothers bags would cause demand to hit the ceiling. Which bag was that, unless your mother makes something specifically for someone it goes out for sale! Maybe I can catch up to her and give her a discount... maybe 300 triplets," Sarah mumbled while heading for the bags.
Smiling inside at how well this was going, Danny looked alarmed and described the bag to her. Handing her the sextet, Danny looked properly chastised and said, "I'm sorry Sarah, she really wanted it and you were busy with that scary lady so... I only sold it for one." Danny ducked his head before continuing, "I will make sure to ask you next time, I'm sorry. I will go help daddy..."
Having seen his father go around back of the store with his cart Danny went to help him unload. Sarah meanwhile, just stood there staring at the sextant with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.
A lunch time Sarah tore his father away from his repair project to watch the store. She took Danny out for lunch and a special treat and praised him on the excellent job he did. That night she bragged to the whole family about what he had done. His mother was the most pleased with him and overjoyed that her craft was sold to such a high ranking person.
Sarah put Danny in charge of restocking and selling his mother’s wares. Under her close supervision, of course. For a few months his mother's bags and other items were in high demand. The family's profits increased and soon there was a backlog of requests as his mother couldn't make new items fast enough.
Danny overheard Sarah speaking with his mother one night. Sarah said that members from some of the richer merchant families would visit to see the rumored little genius who sold his mother's wares with skill far above what his age should allow. She said she had received a few hints from these visitors. The merchant family representatives showed great interest in securing a future marriage interview for one of their families' young daughters, and her future Trio. Sarah politely told them she would be happy to discuss this with the rest of her Trio before making any decisions.
They both giggled and started whispering after realizing they were being so loud. Danny couldn't help but feel dread knowing they probably were planning his future right now. He knew, based on their personalities that they would listen to his opinion on such matters. He also knew if an opportunity for an excellent family connection presented itself, he would be pressured into taking it. He considered playing dumb and getting worse with sales, but that cat was already out of the bag. Better this than his magic and the government snatching him away...
Danny was pleased when his mercantile skill, trade, advanced to Journeyman. All those years working retail in college, and before he could got the job at the lab, really paid off. He was given knowledge on purchasing, specifically in bulk. He guessed this made sense, as his knowledge and experience tended more towards the selling side of business. All the haggling and persuading (and maybe a little deceiving with white lies) gained Danny more insights into the human language.
He was pleased to gain Journeyman level in the language skill diadem (spoken). His smile fell as he learned many swear words in his new language. He had gained the skill after a lengthy sales pitch with an older woman, from a family the rich merchant class, who decided in the end not to buy anything at all. As the knowledge of the foul words filled his mind, Danny turned to look out the front door and the people passing buy. A look of complete confusion crossed his face as he thought of those grand sorcerers all those years ago. Probably giggling like little boys as they infused the crystal with every cuss word they knew. "Daft elements damned old farts...," Danny said under his breath, with just a little bit of humor.
Just leaving his earth armor on didn't appear to advance his skill. So he tried moving it away from his body to include other objects. During lulls in customers, he would stretch the field around his body out. The field shaped itself around his clothes so why not other objects. He would touch an object and the magic armor field would deform and reach out, like someone pushing on the inside of an inflated balloon. Intent and not just focus, seemed to play a large part in magic. His first attempts had him stretching and pulling the armor. Trying to force the field to a shape he wanted didn't cause the effect he wanted. Then one day he touched an object and stretched the magic armor out a little, then imagined the object being included. His total mana dropped and stayed there, not going up. He was excited, but when he moved his hand away, to punch it the air, his connection to the magic armor left him. As his total mana started rising again, he realized he or what he was touching had to be in contact to share the magic armor. Looking back at the object with his mana sight, he saw a mana shield was still in place! But as he kept watching the shield slowly dissipated. A temporary affect was better than none.
While restocking and straightening inventory, he took to experimenting in how many physically touching objects he could chain with his magic armor. He found it was dependent upon the total size of the objects and his maximum mana. It was during these experiments he came across an anomaly. One of the larger leather backpacks would never accept the shield, regardless of how much he tried. He cast his mana out in a bubble around it and was shocked when he couldn't get his mana near it. He stretched out a thin layer of mana, and cast air scanning, only to find a vague fuzziness where the backpack shout be. Danny didn't want to get his hopes up as he reached out with his hand, while activating mana sight. He released all the mana he could push through his small mana lines. The mana was rebuffed from the surface of the backpack, dissipating into the surrounding air. This was great, but his mana was like a trickle compared to the tsunami that the ancient key produced. He noticed the leather looked different than what his mother normally worked with. He immediately inquired about the backpacks odd coloring. Sarah said it came from a particular variant beast in the swamps to the far north. The leather was praised for its durability, and if properly maintained was waterproof. Sarah told him that his mother’s skill in leather craft had advanced to where she felt she was ready to start working with this new leather.
“What’s a variant beast?”
Sarah stopped working on something at the counter and turned to him while looking hesitant for some reason, “Beasts, Danny, are normal creatures that have… grown stronger than their normal counterparts. They are usually much larger, stronger, and faster. The beast that this leather came from was a beast variant. They can use a specific affinity.”
Danny was shocked as no one had told him about this yet. He was seriously getting resentful towards this whole cultures avoidance with sharing knowledge. If he had even heard about such creatures he would have asked more questions. Now that he had an opportunity he did.
Danny discovered that it usually took whole military squads to take down a single beast, and a platoon would be needed to take down a variant. This was why the leather used was so expensive. Fortunately these creatures were very large so there was usually plenty of material to be gained from them. Danny was going to guess that grown stronger referred to them unlocking their sanctuaries. How an animal would do this a new puzzle. The variants sounded like beasts that had unlocked their mana.
“Sarah, where do these beasts live, are there any in the town?”
Sarah shook her head, and thinking Danny was scared squatted down to hug him, “No Danny, there are no beasts in the city. They do live outside the city, in the areas that haven’t been cultivated by humans. They do attack some of the rural farms and villages from time to time, but that is what the military is for. You don’t have to worry about them attacking Diadem as we are near the center of the human country.”
Danny smiled at her reassuringly so she would quit thinking he was scared.
Danny visited his mother early that afternoon while she was still working and asked to see some of the new leather. She showed him the piece she was she was working on. Danny praised her w
ork and gave her a list of new requests for commissions that came in. When the prices for her items kept rising, and the demands for new and specific items grew, his family decided to get an apprentice for her. The young girl, was from a major merchant family. Her mother wasn't the head of the family, but an artisan that joined in a Trio with a major merchant's daughter. Since professions usually passed from mother to daughter, the family had pulled some strings at the girl’s academy to get her in with the renowned leather crafter, Danny’s mother. Danny learned that girls at the academy spent part of their last years there under an apprenticeship. While Danny's mother had to take time to train the girl, once she found where the girl could best help, work proceeded at a faster pace. His family also received an important connection to this prominent merchant family.
Once the girl found out who Danny was, she would take time to tell him about her sisters and how pretty and kind they were.
Danny was polite and responded, as expected, but he couldn't help wondering, *What was wrong with the people in this culture? Everyone was already talking about marriage options and I am just a few months away from turning six.*
A note from Roharp17
Added paragraph on Danny's attempt to reconnect Gary to source. Thanks Qanelin.
Edited
Chapter 14
By the time Danny was six, he had devised a plan for escaping the damage of the ancient key. He had quit sleeping in his mother’s room a few years back and was given a room he technically shared with Gary. Gary, of course, only used it when he came back on holidays.
Late one night Danny crept downstairs and slipped into his mother's work shed. He didn't dare use a light, so with air scanning he located a stack of the special leather his mother now used. Using his hands, he located the thinnest strip in the pile that was long enough for his purposes. He grabbed a few of his mother’s spare tools she kept in the back and fled to his room. Heart pounding he made it into his room without waking anyone up.
From his basket in the corner, as a toddler, he had watched his mother work on the leather countless times. Trying to copy what he had seen her do, he first he used an old blanket and cut it into a pattern he thought correct. After a few more cuts he finally giving up and grabbed a second blanket. Danny finally completed a pattern for what he wanted. He hid his work and tools under Gary's mattress during the day. Only at night would he have the time and privacy to work on his project.
When he was finally done with it, he was embarrassed to realize it looked like a leather girdle. Well, an ugly leather girdle. It went from the bottom of his ribcage to right above his waste. The hardest part was getting the top to not show a line across his chest. Running a strip of leather that had to be cinched was the answer to that. He needed something that wouldn't be noticed. It also dug into his left armpit and at other different points along his side, but he couldn't see it under a thick shirt. He also gained his first level in the crafting skill called "Leather Crafting." Danny had expected more levels as this was no small work. Apparently this sing skill was the sanctuary’s way of giving its opinion on the quality and expertise of his work.
Unsure if the back was visible, he decided to give it a test run. He put it on and spent the whole evening with his family, sweating bullets.
“Danny, do you feel alright?”
Danny whipped around, and barely managed to school his reaction before his mother could see it, “Yes, I am fine.”
Danny’s mom looked at him skeptically, “Danny, is your stomach alright?”
Trying to rack his brain for a good excuse, he questioned where his high intelligence went, “Yes mother, I feel fine?”
His mother stopped what she was doing and walked over to him and whisper, “Honey, do you have gas? Do you need to go make a poop?”
Mortified, Danny turned to see his whole family watching the exchange. Well, except Barb. She was looking at the fireplace and trying not to laugh.
“Mom, I am just tired, I am going to go to bed early.”
Still not convinced his mother gave him a gentle hug, as if that alone would release the massive buildup she suspected lurking in her son, “Goodnight, sweetie.”
Walking quickly to his room, he was glad the trial run was over, but wished he could get his dignity back. He had tested the girdle again afterwards and guessed that the only way the ancient key could inject mana into him is if they placed it anywhere else on his body but the leather. Pleased with his success he put it away under Gary's bed.
Back at the store, Danny's mothers wares still continued to sell well, but they were now by request only. Show floor models were kept in the store to display what could be requested. In between discussing what customers wanted his mother to make, and whether they could wait that long to get it back, Danny trained.
He had done everything with the shields he could think of at the moment so he went back to raising earth affinity one more level. This next part was the trickiest thing he had done with mana manipulation so far. When scanning with earth magic he extended what he considered a bubble of mana then activated the spell. The spell affected the entire area from his hand or foot down into the earth and spread out across the mana bubble he created. He had enough control to manipulate the size and shape of the bubble. Currently it affected an area in a sphere almost two and half meters wide. If he trained his scanning spell inside the workshop, the hardwood floor could crack as earth moved up to meet his hands or feet.
Training only a few hours at a time in the evenings after supper, Danny sought the secret to casting magic on a specific part of his mana field. He covered this up by pretending to read a book in the backyard. He claimed he wanted some alone time after spending all day talking to people. He had asked his family for a book on beginner’s alchemy. Since Danny rarely ever asked for anything extra, they were happy to provide this to him. They made a huge ordeal about buying the book and keeping it safe. He wasn’t supposed to take it outside the house, but they agreed to let him take it into the backyard if he put it away immediately when not using it. Danny made the required promises and mollified them.
They were a little confused by his sudden interest in the subject. He claimed it had always interested since seeing the physicians bring medicine. That appeased them enough to see nothing odd about it.
He quickly read through the book once and memorized it. Being six already and not having been trained in meditation, Danny had the sinking suspicion that they did not tell boys or girls about unlocking their mental sanctuaries till after they went to school. His theory was, for boys whose connection to mana was severed, this meant they had nothing to regret since they never got knew what they were missing.
Reading of the alchemy book gave him an introduction to this world’s version of chemistry. He learned the names, descriptions, and properties of common species of medicinal plants and animals in the area. He wasn't sure if the descriptions would be enough for him to spot them. Maybe he could find someone already with the knowledge to help identify them correctly. He also learned the proper way to care for the raw materials. It's not like the games where you just stick the entire plant or animal in your backpack and move on. Some had to be dried, others immediately crushed, while still others needed to be fresh or couldn't be stored at all. Checking his sanctuary, his alchemy skill didn't level, which didn't surprise Danny. He had some knowledge but until he got his hands on working with the plants and compounds, he would have very little understanding.
Based on what he had read, alchemy paled in comparison to magic. Anyone that called on the services of an alchemist was usually poor or had a general fear of wizards and magic. Danny would need access to some alchemy equipment if he wanted to actually try anything. Based on what he had seen so far, plants did not have a connection to the mana source. He suspected if they did have a connection then they could possibly find magic plants that could make alchemy rival a wizard’s power. He asked his parents and they told him what they suspected. There were no known magic plants. Danny figu
red he would stick with magic for now.
Danny’s attempts at compartmentalizing his mana field wasn't working. Just grasping what he wanted took him months of frustration, as he could have been increasing his earth or fire affinities. Countless times he had to reshape the earth below him. It wasn't ever extreme so he didn't think anyone would notice anything more than his butt lifting and falling every few minutes. He never used a lot of mana at a time in fear of inadvertently damaging his home's foundation, and to prolong his training.
He came to the conclusion that what he wanted to do was currently impossible for him. Instead, the solution he came to was to spread his mana out into the now familiar bubble, then mold it like wet clay into the shape he wanted.
This took time but once he had created a shape he could recreate it faster than the last time. The last part of his solution was to pinch the mana between the area he wanted to affect and himself. For earth magic this meant a tiny amount, no bigger than the head of a pin, of earth visibly moved.
His father kept a few planks of rough wood for repairs around the house. Danny grabbed one of these and tried out his solution. The first time he tried it the wood splintered around the hole made by the stone. His second attempt, he first focused on just the wood and creating the hole. He made the mana stream as small as possible then cast stone. Stone rose up and pushed through the wood like a needle. He then expanded the stone around the minuscule hole made. The wood complained but didn't splinter or crack. The reason he didn't just make his mana that way to begin with was that he needed a certain amount of flow to work freely with what he was really doing below the surface. With the stone spike set through the wood into the ground he began to shape the earth below him. Everything worked like he wanted.
Danny was able to repeat this process at the store in a few places where he normally sat on the ground or in a chair. He had to avoid the sewer system, which he found by using his earth scanning technique. Danny spent his free time creating walls or spikes of stone in layers of earth below the store. He also created cavities, which he practiced first at home, so he knew how best to stop the earth from rising on the surface. This was usually done by compacting material below his creations. With this he was able to make it to earth affinity level five before the day of his mana test.