by Dakota Krout
“Oh. Um. Thank you… Daisy. That is great news and way faster than I expected this to happen. Where is he? We need to discuss details about that project. Nice to meet you.” Joe nodded at her and started to walk toward the temporary headquarters the guild had set up.
Daisy’s previously neutral face now displayed a frown. She grabbed Joe’s arm and yanked him back hard enough to cause damage, catching him entirely off guard. He almost fell, only able to catch himself thanks to his mind working furiously to tell him where to put his feet. “Did you not just hear me? I’m your superior in the guild, so if you need to talk to Aten, you go through me and I set up a meeting if I deem it necessary.”
Well, that was enough of that. Joe poured a thousand mana into the activation of Exquisite Shell, remaining silent for a few seconds as it settled. When he was fully armored, he looked directly at her once again and tried to speak calmly, “Daisy, please let me tell you something. You share a name with my ex-wife, who annulled our marriage while I was in a medically-induced coma. This makes me predisposed to disliking you. Now, I try not to hold names against people too much, but if you put your hands on me like that again, there will be serious consequences that I do not think you will like at all.”
“Look, I don’t care how self-important or popular you think you are. Sparkly or not, you are going to follow the rules,” Daisy chastised him severely.
“Who made these rules, Daisy? Was it Aten who told you that I couldn’t talk to him? Did he really not want me to talk to him? Or just maybe did he want you to meet me so that you could help facilitate details and keep things running smoothly?” Joe demanded calmly. This had been a trying few days, and he was not going to deal with petty garbage like this so early in the morning. He was reaching his breaking point though, and she needed to back off.
“That doesn’t matter, lieutenant.” Daisy’s voice was filled with venom. Joe didn’t know his guild rank until now so that part was nice at least. “I, Major Daisy, am telling you that your behavior isn’t going to work anymore, and I have full authority to cut off your wages and hit you with command debuffs until you get the picture. You won’t be able to bother Aten, or anyone else, until you get with it.”
“Well, that’s fun.” Joe took a deep breath and stepped to the side, moving away from her. “Why is it that when someone gets a tiny modicum of power, it goes right to their heads? Aten had told me that you were a nice person and to look forward to meeting you. I feel pretty bad that you act like this; it makes me trust his judgment less. Get out of my way. First warning.”
At that very moment, Aten was frowning as he tried to figure out where the slew of reputation loss notifications was coming from. He and the highest-ranked guild officers gained and lost reputation within the guild all the time, and this helped them keep track of how the guild was doing as a whole. Typically, it was fairly stable, so this was concerning. When he saw that the notifications were from Joe, he wasn’t overly concerned. At first. Then he saw that he was losing huge swaths of reputation with the erratic man. Aten’s eyes widened as their ranking went from ‘Ally’ to ‘Friendly’ in the span of about half a minute, and it seemed to be spiraling lower. He bolted out of his meeting, ignoring the confused shouts of the board members.
“I told the other officers that you wouldn’t listen. They said that you were ‘eccentric’ and ‘fun’ but you would listen when I told you to do something.” She scoffed and a glow appeared on her hand. “I knew I was right. Command: attention!”
Joe halted in place, his back going rigid as he was forced to stand at attention. A timer cut in half appeared in the corner of his vision. 5… 4… “Second warning. This is really the way you want to do things, huh, Daisy? You asked for it.” As soon as he was able to relax, he turned around and prepared a shadow spike.
Spell failed! By the guild charter, you cannot willingly and intentionally attack a guild member in good standing.
“Obviously, this is the way I want to do it. Command: attention!” Daisy was smiling sweetly at him, but all Joe saw was a smug brat who had never had power before. “Are you going to stop bothering Aten now?”
“Last. Chance,” Joe growled as the command spell began to wear off again. Aten’s notifications told him that his reputation had now dropped to neutral with Joe, and he was frantically looking through the coffee area he knew Joe was prone to hang out at during his free time.
“Your last chance. Command: front leaning rest position, move!” At her words, Joe dropped down into the push-up position. “Gimme twenty, and we’ll try this again.”
Joe had already decided on his next course of action. He finished the push-ups and stood up, taking a deep breath. “Alright. I tried to be nice, Daisy. I’m done with you. System! I claim my right to leave the guild under subsection six, paragraph thirteen, clause four!”
Calculating… checking recent conversation history… checking recent spell usage. Checking game log. Confirmed! Three warnings given… Confirmed! ‘Abusive relationship’ clause activated. Contract destroyed! You have left the guild ‘The Wanderer’s.
Guild alert: The Wanderer’s guild has lost 2000 reputation with Ardania! They no longer meet the requirements to remain a Noble Guild and will have that status revoked unless they are able to gain 1573 reputation in the next 72 hours.
Achievement unlocked: Leaving the wrong guild the right way. The guild failed you, but you knew your stuff and were able to make a clean break! You have shown that you won’t be pushed around; you are made of sterner stuff than that! You have gained six ranks in skill: reading. You have gained 150 exp. +3 Constitution.
You have revoked fast-travel rights to members of the guild ‘The Wanderer’s.
“I. Am. Out.” Joe growled into Daisy’s shocked face, shoving her out of the way as he walked toward the gates. He left the town, walking directly toward the shrine… and the fast-travel point that it contained.
~ Chapter Thirty ~
Joe was still fuming as he walked into the Mage’s College almost an hour later. He stalked down the hallway, making five right turns and walking into the contract preparation classroom. Just like the last time Joe had been here, a head poked up above the shelves in the back and Master Slender smiled and walked over. “You came back! I thought I had scared you off.”
“Not at all, Master Slender.” Joe showed the man a weary grin. “A few things came up, but I hope you won’t mind picking up where we left off.”
“Not at all. Come in, come in.” Master Slender grabbed a few things from a nearby cabinet and got down to teaching. Joe was an apt student, and soon, they were pressing freshly made paper, bottling new ink, and sharpening raven-feather quills. By the end of the lesson, Joe was feeling better, had gained six ranks in the skills offered by this course, and one in his scribe skill; he was even a bit ashamed by how he had handled things with the guild.
“Something on your mind?” Master Slender gently inquired.
“Nothing that I can’t talk to the other person about.” Joe smiled half-heartedly at the Mage. “Well, I’ll see you another time?”
Master Slender nodded. “I’m sure we will, but you have learned almost everything there is for me to teach you at this level of class. You’ll need to register for the advanced course to learn more. Though, there is one last thing. I see that you are level ten; have you learned how to combine skills?”
“I have.” Joe opened the menu and waited for instructions. “I’m guessing that we combine these three together?”
“Excellent. You know what’s going on. Sadly, there is more to it,” Master Slender told him. “You also need to learn the skill ‘Magical Material Creation’ and combine that as well as your scribe skill. Obviously, this is the hardest step because, well… our students have been exclusively Nobles for decades and were able to toss the needed funds to initiate the combination right away. Frankly, there is no point in registering for the next level until this task has been completed.”
Joe nodded sharply, fr
ustrated with the wait but understanding the need to have the pertinent skills. “I can see how that is an issue for most people. How do I go about learning the ‘Magical Material Creation’ skill?”
“You’ve been a great student, and you have gotten through the class in record time so I’ll teach you the skill for free if you want to learn it now. I’m not a Master of the skill, but I’m… passable.” Master Slender didn’t wait for an answer, simply pulling over a jar of the ink they had just finished creating. “We are going to use ink because, for some reason, people tend to be able to imbue liquids with mana much easier than other substances. It is just as easy to do it with anything, but…” he shook his head to show his disappointment at the general lack of comprehension that others exhibited.
“As I was saying, take the ink and try to suffuse it with mana. Really pack in the power until it starts binding to the ink.” The professor handed over the jar with an expectant expression. Joe took the jar without hesitation and tried to create a sheath of power around the entire thing like he did when upgrading his mana manipulation skill. Once there was practically a shell of power humming around it, he started pumping power into a tiny hole that he had allowed to exist.
Fifty mana. One hundred. Two. Two fifty. At three hundred mana, the entire bottle was vibrating hard enough to hurt Joe’s hands. Master Slender coughed lightly, forcing Joe to divide his attention. “Joe, perhaps I should step in here. There is plenty of mana in there now, far more than is needed. Just hold it in place and allow the mana to merge. I’m not a fan of magical ink flying around and splashing across my books.”
Joe closed the hole he had been holding open, and after a few seconds, the material started to glow. First, the ink turned from black to a midnight blue, brightening and seeming to boil. Then the glass of the container shifted subtly, actually shrinking a bit but becoming much sturdier. Master Slender nodded in appreciation. “Excellent, excellent! Not many are able to imbue glass; it is notoriously stubborn and takes a huge amount of fine control as well as dense mana. Now, very carefully open a hole and let any remaining mana leak out. A very small hole, mind you, or this effort will be wasted.”
Mana rushed out of the opening Joe provided, hissing like a pressure cooker with a leaky valve. When the flow dropped to a normal level, Joe opened the hole wider and eventually removed the shell of mana entirely. He picked up the bottle, and it slipped out of his hand like a greased egg, its tighter molecular bonds leaving the surface almost frictionless. Joe watched in horror as the glass fell to the stone floor… and bounced.
“Imbued glass is very hard to break.” Slender chuckled as he saw the obvious relief on Joe’s face. “It is also expensive and the base version of ‘warded glass’ which is one of the hardest man-made materials. That you can imbue glass at your level is impressive in its own right; you could make quite the living providing imbued glass for enchanters.”
“As fun as making slippery glass is, I’d rather be able to make a final product on my own.” Joe carefully picked up the bottle he had dropped, handing it over to the professor and acknowledging the notification he had waiting for him.
Skill gained: Magical Material Creation (Novice IX). Having a huge amount of raw mana and no real use for it tends to lead to dangerous experiments. That’s how this skill was originally created! Sounds perfect for you! Increase density of mana matrix by 1n% per skill level.
“This is pretty cool. Is there an actual use for it though? Beyond the glass you mentioned?” Joe read over the details one last time before opening his menu and selecting to combine all of the skills. Three, four, five skills. Each time he added another, the cost doubled. Joe looked at the eight hundred gold this was going to cost him, his finger hovering over the button. “Anything else I should know before combining these?”
“Tons of uses for the glass, from weapons, to armor, to architecture.” Slender did a double take and gave Joe a strange look. “You can afford to do this right now? That’s… well, frankly, it’s unexpected.”
“Not trying to throw this in your face or anything, but… I was given a hundred platinum for–*ahem*–helping the previous Archmage… retire.” Joe felt no need to mention the hundred thousand plus gold still in the bank.
“Ah yes… that would do it…” Slender thought a moment. “No, nothing else to note, and with these skills, it doesn’t matter in what order you add them in. So go for it!”
“The order you add them can impact the results?” Joe shook off the statement and pressed ‘combine’.
Time until skills have combined: 60 hours.
“Also, by the look on your face, you saw how long you need to wait for your new ability.” There was a wry smirk on Slender’s face. “Just one of those prices that we pay to progress. Yes, the order of combination greatly changes the outcome in many cases. This can lead to new skill formations, titles, and… classes. Yes, skill combination is the easiest and most accurate method of gaining rare classes. I’m sure you have unlocked the option to gain a new class when gaining skills, and this is no different.”
“I see.” Now more than ever, Joe wanted to complete the amazing ritual he had found. His ring felt hot, like the blueprints were trying to call his attention to them. After regaining the skill ‘Magical Material Creation’–he had to pay this time but was happy to find out that he could indeed relearn lost skills–Joe thanked Master Slender and promised to return soon for the next level of his class.
Joe wandered the halls of the Mage’s College, trying to figure out why he had reacted so poorly to the manhandling that had led to him quitting the guild. He had been through worse–much worse–during his time in the military. Was it just that he had finally had an incredible taste of freedom for the first time in his adult life? Hierarchy and regimented life was all he had known before coming here. Maybe… maybe the military-esk way she had handled things had shaken him worse than it should have. There was no question that he had overreacted. It would have been so easy to wait a few minutes, then talk to Aten or…
You know… it was probably a bunch of things: the fact that Daisy reminded him of his ex-wife, that she was bullying him and he wasn’t in any mood for it, and that he is free in the game and he felt she was threatening that. Beyond the issues with Daisy, he died twice in the last twenty-four hours, he has to deal with snarky messages from the game, he was told he kept bothering Aten and thought that they were friends when it clearly wasn’t true, he doesn't need the income the guild provides… heck, he didn’t even know how much he gets paid for his position! It was probably a bunch of little things that made Joe respond how he did.
Perhaps it had something to do with his breaking into the fifties of Intelligence and Wisdom and having his brain altered. Conversely, perhaps something related to his recently unlocked Mental Manipulation Resistance skill or Psychomancer class was causing some outbursts from resisting the system's mental interference. The only thing he knew for sure was that he didn’t want to be known as an angsty person who was ruled by his emotions. Daisy had certainly overstepped her authority, and the system had agreed to the point that it recognized her actions as abusive enough to destroy his guild contract. Still, he was also in the wrong. Joe hated being in the wrong, even if he was only partly at fault. Alright. Back to the guild. He had some groveling to do.
Of course, just because he was feeling a bit bad didn’t mean he couldn’t drag his feet the whole way. As a matter of fact, he spent an additional day in the city just perusing the shops and wasting time. As much as he wanted to make this right, he also wanted to make them sweat a bit. Gaining reputation with the Kingdom was hard to do. When he finally started wandering to the town square, he could almost picture skid marks along the entire path he walked. The air was a bit blue from all the grumbling and cursing he did, and a few passersby blushed at his language… but he did eventually make it to the square and select the shrine as his destination. Eyelid twitching and fingers cramping, he pressed the ‘accept’ button and vanished from th
e city.
A man appeared in the spot he had vanished from, looking around and frowning behind the mask he wore. His multi-hued robes swished, and a small notepad appeared in his hand; quickly, he traced out a message that appeared on all items linked to it. Contact lost once again. Target neither captured nor eliminated. Returning to base for punishment.
~ Chapter Thirty-one ~
“That was a heck of a thing to do to us, Joe.” Aten’s voice was obviously being tightly controlled. “I know that your contract wouldn’t have destroyed itself if we weren’t somehow in the wrong, but if you would have come and talked to me we could have worked out whatever the issue was.”
“Getting to you was the issue,” Joe explained what had happened, sharing the log of his interaction with Daisy when she denied his words. Aten had an odd look on his face. On one hand, Daisy was a trusted guild officer who had never had a single complaint against her, on the other was proof that not only had she done this but that she was lying about it.
“Daisy, what… the heck? Is this why I’ve never heard anything negative from your people? They are afraid to try talking to me? You’ve been pretending to be a drill sergeant?” Aten looked at the sweet lady he thought he had known for months.
“Of course not!” Daisy was full of righteous anger. “No one else has a problem following the rules!”
“Neither did the Mages in the College, at least not until they were given the chance to be free,” Joe sniped at her. Daisy showed him a rude hand gesture, unintentionally lending credence to Joe’s words.
“Enough already.” Aten fiddled with his menus. “Daisy, your command powers have been suspended for now. We are going to let all of the people in your section know that you don’t have them, and if they have been targeted by you we will know soon enough. If this was the first incident, we will just move Joe out from under you and be done with it. Otherwise, we will have a longer conversation.”