Death March — Fixed

“Tek here. Even though I have many encounters with females, they end almost immediately--which is too bad--It’s the face? It’s the face isn’t it?!”

Because of the excitement from yesterday, I could actually fall asleep--which I did immediately after I finished eating dinner.

Today will be a day for reading.

Well, maybe not here, since the room is dark; the small window which lets in light, is too small to make the books readable--it’s too dim. Well, if I’m not mistaken, there’s an open terrace cafe neighbouring this inn.

Let’s eat breakfast at that cafe as well.

The tavern in the first floor of the inn is crowded this morning, filled with people who are all having breakfast and talking about the attack yesterday. It seems that even more people are staying here for some reason.

For some reason, the patrons all seem relaxed, they are speaking about how exciting it is--but there is nothing more; it's almost as though it were an every day occurrence--

Nah, I must be imagining things.

Shaking my head, I walk over to the reception, to give the key to the landlady on my way out.

Martha happily greets me as I come out of the inn, she was standing at the door with fliers.

The gate is much busier than the day before yesterday, with lots of big carriages are going in and out, some pulled by horses--and others, strangely, by slaves.

Taking one last look at the ruckus, I walk to the nearby cafe--it’s slightly further away than what I remember. It seems that the meals are served and eaten indoors, while the open terrace is mainly for drinks and sitting in the sunlight.

Because the inside of the shop is too dark to read, I quickly order some fruit and sandwiches for breakfast--the sandwich has ham on it, and the fruit reminds me of oranges.

Oh yeah, there are three waitresses: a plump redhead who looks to be in her late teens or early twenties, a slender girl with chestnut hair, the last one is a girl who looks like she is around twelve or thirteen with long black hair; they are all working quickly, cheerfully, and very well--I would guess that they have been waitressing here for quite a few years.

Quickly finishing the food, I head out to a seat on the terrace where the lighting is good.

Drawing my attention away, I take the first book out; it is the Introduction to Life Magic book--and I begin to read.

Life Magic is a Magic that isn’t classified under any of the main Magic Elements, which are as follows: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Lightning, Light, and Dark--there are sub-elements such as: Metal, Ice, Mist, Liquid Fire (Plasma), Gravity (Weight)--etc. Life and Death are two Magics that fall outside those Elements, alongside Aether and Nether.

However, this Life Magic is mainly used for daily life.

It is considered weak compared to Elemental Magic--because only a few people seemed to have delved deep enough into it to know of the “Mysteries of the Gods and Creation” as the book says.

In exchange for not having massively powerful attack spells, the MP cost is quite low. Nevertheless, even with many helpful spells for daily life, and the potential--if someone can teach you--most Mages look down on Life Magic. The name for Mages who focus on Life Magic are called Life Mages, and while the name may sound cool, they are looked down on as basically handymen.

Because of this prejudice, there are only a few Human Mages who learn Life Magic--the book has a few passages lamenting this.

It says in the afterword that the prejudice and seeming uselessness of Life Mages only really applies to Humans. Longer living species such as Elves and Dragons can use the Magic to devastating effects--such as the Elven Tree-Shapers who use Life Magic to help awaken Treants in the time of war, to defend them--they also help with building Elven settlements.

“Good morning, Tek!” The cheerful voice of Nadi rings out from outside the terrace, causing me to jump in surprise--

I would have thought that she may be in shock from yesterday, but she looks surprisingly energetic and chipper--she’s strong even for the optimistic, energetic archetype--

“Good morning. How are you feeling?” I find myself smiling as I answer her, her mood is dangerously infective.

“Thank you very much, for your help yesterday--Not only did you save my life, and help me away from a dangerous location--you even sent me back to the Worker’s Guild by carriage, making sure that I was out of the way of danger--Thank you” She smiled at me as she spoke, looking down and slightly embarrassed when she spoke of me saving her life--but soon her cute grin reappeared.

“You’re welcome” I smiled back at her.

Well, since she is here, I decided to offer her the chair across from me.

“Is that a book on Life Magic?” She quickly sits down and peers at the book that I had just finished, and closed; she reaches out and gently grabs it, carefully flipping it over.

“Yeah, I bought it yesterday, hoping to at least be able to use the basics.” Since I assigned all ten skill points to it, the only thing stopping me was a mixture of a lack of knowledge of the spells, and of the chants.

“For Life Magic, I recommend you to practice either Water Spring, or Dry, depending on your main Element. Most books usually recommend Ignition, however you will be in trouble if you accidentally start a fire in town.” She nods with a frown--her actions seem to be carefully chosen for their cuteness, “If you choose Water Spring, then you can store the water in a bucket, but please don’t use the tea cup next to you, since if you make a mistake it will be easy to leave a scratch.”

Do I draw water from the atmosphere?

“If you choose Dry, you can practice using wet clothes that have been placed on a hanger.” Nadi finished her speech, then she carefully looked over me, “That’s right, don’t you have a staff? You can’t really use Magic without a staff--well, the Priests and Priestesses are different, but that’s because of their God or Goddess.”

Hmm?

There’s such a restriction?

Come to think of it, the Mages from before did all carry fancy looking staves and the woman in the white coat also had a rather plain looking wooden one on her back.

“But the soldier I rescued cast Magic without a staff?” I look at Nadi closely, trying to make sure that she wasn’t joking with me.

When my intent gaze lingered on her face for a little while, Nadi lowered her face with a deep blush; her hands, which were resting on the table, began to move in almost subconscious gestures as she twined and released her fingers.

“You saved a soldier?” She looked up again and smiled, “Of course you did--but that’s not the point--ahem,” She cleared her throat, her eyes met mine--I could tell that she was about to start explaining, because of her now serious expression, “Weeell, it’s possible that they may have had another Invocation Tool.”

“What’s an Invocation Tool, and how is it different from a staff?”

“An Invocation Tool is usually something like a ring or other accessory, which function like a staff and help with activating Magic. It’s effect is slightly lower, and it is usually quite expensive--However, like I said--you will need to use a staff if you use Life Magic; for the full explanation, you would have to ask a Mage, but from what I know, it has something to do with not belonging to the Element system--and a staff provides enough assistance to bypass this restriction.” Nadi looked embarrassed as she said that she didn’t know the full explanation.

As expected from the Human Wiki--the one-woman-encyclopedia: Nadi.

Well, she would probably hit me or be mad at me if I call her that.

Hmm, a staff, huh?

There are various types of Magic Wands in my storage--but the effects are much too strong to use without immaculate control, it scary. If possible, I’d like to get a lot of practice with weaker items first.

But the Magic Shops in the town plaza probably won’t be operating for a while, so I wonder where I can get on.

“Nadi, do you know anywhere I can buy a short staff?”

“Well, there is the Magic Shop in the central plaza--but as expected, it’s closed. Hmm--Well, I think you can buy one from the Alchemy Shop in the West town.”

I quickly ask Nadi the directions to the Alchemy shop from Nadi, to which she happily answers--and I find it on my map.

“Well, thanks again, and good luck Tek! Feel free to ask for me at the Worker’s Guild if you need it!” Nadi spoke in an excitable tone, quickly waving one small hand as she hopped the wall and walked off, going back to her work.

Now that it is approaching lunch time, the customers in the shop have rapidly increased.

Since I had finished reading the Life Magic Introduction book, I decided that it was time to leave.

***

Before leaving for the Western Area, especially after how much Nadi had made sure to drill into my head that it was a dangerous place, I made some preparations; I took out a dummy purse, which I tied onto the rope belt I had taken from storage, and placed twenty copper coins into it.

Within ten minutes of entering the Western part of the city, the contents of my dummy purse is gone, the bottom of the purse is cut and the contents are no more.

I’ve passed through an area where they’re selling what looks like daily necessities, and the number of suspicious looking shops begin to rapidly increase in number.

Sexily dressed women, and evil looking men wander around.

In the center of the West Area is a large square--the Alchemy shop is further ahead.

Street stalls line the square selling cattle, and birds, both dead and living; they compete with each other with loud shouts and showy signs.

Standing at the entrance to the square is a rather fat merchant, he is announcing something about the slave market, which seems to be open for three days, starting tomorrow night.

When I look carefully, there are boys and girls with slave collars on their necks, they are standing in line with the cattle--half of them seem to be hurt and most of them, especially the girls, have dead eyes.

Even the cattle look healthier than them.

I had the urge to buy them all, but it’s only for self-satisfaction, so I stopped myself. It’s not the end, even if I were to buy them and then release them--they would fall back into slavery because of a lack of money or job.

Sighing and looking down, I walk past them and leave the square--the side street that I am now walking down is lined with brothels.

For some reason, the Alchemy shop seems to be located in the middle of this street of brothels--it is highly likely that there is a high demand for drugs.

I wonder if it’s thanks to Nadi’s advice of always walking in the center of the street, and showing no signs of nervousness or weakness, that I managed to arrive safely at the Alchemy shop without being dragged into an alleyway.

Opening the door, I speak, “Good afternoon, are you open for business?”

There’s a dwarf standing at the counter inside the shop--let me say this, it’s not a cute dwarf girl, but a one meter tall old man. Is he a gnome? Or maybe a hobbit?

My Heads-Up-Display says that he is of the Fairy Race, and looking closer, I see that he is an Earth Fairy (Gnome).

“If’n yer just window shopping--go away!” His voice was gruff, his thick eyebrows moved as he narrowed his eyes.

How cold.

“I’d like to buy a short staff, do you have any in stock?” I keep my tone level, so as to not aggravate him even more.

“Hmm, a Mage, eh? There be cheap, expensive, and a single really expensive one--which do you want?”

“Please show me both a cheap one, and an expensive one.”

The shopkeeper grinned and walked out from behind the desk, and took both a wooden and a copper staff from a barrel.

The short staffs looked like oversized wands from Harry Potter, they were around a meter or so in length, almost as tall as the gnome; normal staffs were usually two to two-and-a-half meters tall, so they were short staffs.

I stare at each of the staffs and their special abilities are displayed on my Heads-Up-Display. The wooden one has Magic Activation Support: +3, Magic Area-of-Effect Expansion: -2, and the market price is four copper coins. Next was the copper one that was beside it which has Magic Activation Support: +3, Magic Focus Support: +2, and Magic Area-of-Effect Expansion: +2, with a market price of three silver coins.

To be frank, even if I can see their special effects--I don’t understand what the differences are.

While the copper staff seems to have better performance, but the wooden one looks more like something that a Mage would have--so I buy that one.

The shopkeeper looks displeased, probably because I bought the cheaper one.

While I’m here, I may as well buy some potions.

I am struck with an idea--why not see if I can learn Alchemy.

“Do you sell manuals and tools for Compounding and Alchemy?” I ask him.

The shopkeeper suddenly begins to laugh, a rather scary smile spreads across his face--he probably thinks that I’m an easy mark.

According to what the shopkeeper lays out, the ‘beginner’s set’ is comprised of: Introduction to Medicine Compounding, Big Book of Poisons and Antidotes, Illnesses and Their Treatments, five sets of Compounding tools in their expensive looking cases, a set of tools for harvesting medicinal plants, and a set of chemical mixtures.

“These are all!” He spoke with a grin after finishing piling all the items on the counter, a bead of sweat ran down his forehead and disappeared into one of his extraordinarily bushy eyebrows.

Am I being tested?

There was also a tool for imbuing Magic into the finished mixture, but its status read: Imbue Magic Type: Fake--all the others were genuine.

“Well, it looks good, except for that,” I point to the fake tool, “it’s not to my liking--”

“Oh? That is used to separate the genuine learners and the amateurs who don’t understand a thing.” His smile changes to a slightly happier looking one, and while I can’t see it from his face, he seems to have warmed up to me.

This time he takes out three of the same tools.

One is decorated to look high-class and expensive, the second looks like it has been well used, and the final one is both cheap-looking and fake. The high-class one has been enchanted with a Magic that makes it emit a green glow as I hold it--it goes without saying, the expensive one is fake.

“Then, I choose this one.” I picked up the well-used tool.

The market price is fifteen gold coins, eh?

At any rate, does a beginner Mage, who only comes in to buy a cheap short staff usually have the kind of money required for buying something like this?

“I see, so you chose that one--If you have this one, then you won’t ever need to upgrade to another, well--beside raw materials, even after you become a veteran Alchemist” Now the Gnome was actively smiling and sounding rather happy as he spoke.

“How much is the beginner set?” I ask, looking at all the books and items sitting in a pile on the desk.

“Ten gold coins”

Eh?

Isn’t that two-thirds of the market price?

The shopkeeper laughs when he sees my face, “Just as I thought, lad--you have the appraisal skill!”

He looks proud with his guess.

I don’t have that skill, according to a quick scan of the log.

 

>>Skill: Appraisal Acquired.

 

Well, let’s not argue back.

“Is it really okay, such a large discount?”

“Yeah, if’n someone as capable as you studies Alchemy, I will be proud.”

After paying the old gnome the required gold, but before picking up the beginner’s set, I move to place the small staff through my belt--causing the old man to laugh.

“Lad, use this.” He held out a strange contraption that looked like the loops of leather separated by some strong looking rope, they had buckles on them.

After looking at it, I figured out what it was meant to be.

Quickly looping the top loop around my rope belt and securing the buckle, I hold my small staff and secure it with the other two leather straps, buckling them up; while this would help hold my staff off the ground, it would require some getting used to so as to not tangle my legs--it could be quickly used in combat, pushing the enemy back or raising a barrier by pointing it while it was still secured--giving me time to take it out.

“This comes free with the staff.” The old man grinned, and I could see that the normal price was around three copper, which means the old man wasn’t losing much more money.

With a polite nod, and a word of thanks, I pick up the beginners kit in both hands--as expected, it doesn’t fit in my backpack.

While holding the books in both hands, I decided to return to the inn, and leave the shop after thanking the shopkeeper; the things that I wish to do increases even more.

I will try to learn Alchemy after I have learned Life Magic.