《The Slave Doctor》 Chapter 1 There was nothing around me. Well, what I assumed was me. As best I could tell it was some sort of energy. Maybe. It did seem to change with my emotions, becoming more active when I was angry and more calm when I was calm, so it had to be me, right? Wait. What was that? I seem to...hear something? No, that¡¯s not right. It wasn¡¯t a sound. More like a sensation. Like an inner voice in your head, but you know it didn¡¯t come from you, and also you don¡¯t have a head. Or a brain for that matter. Still, if it was talking about me, that would make me a slave, right? There it was again. Another person¡¯s voice, for lack of a better word. And it¡¯s responding to me? How? Was this telepathy? Did telepathy even exist? Great, random medical exams by people who paid my taxi cab. Nothing weird about that. I tried to not do anything, but it was so boring. I needed to do something to pass the time. I guess I could play a game, but then I¡¯d have to keep track of all the pieces, and I¡¯m not sure I could do that. Singing it is then. I paused a second before I began. Baby shark, dodododo So, you¡¯re a nature god? Gods have money? So, what¡¯s a tier three soul? So, what does that mean for me? Oh, well thank you. So, have you finished you¡¯re exam? If only I was a seven out of ten when I was alive. Not really. As long as I¡¯m not particularly hideous, I¡¯ll manage. Paid to have me abducted, you mean? Sorry. You seem bothered by the idea. I was just trying to get the upper hand in our negotiations. I didn¡¯t mean to upset you. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. So, typical Isekai. I need to go defeat the demon lord, rescue the humanoids, yada yada? You want me to be Moses, and lead your people out of slavery? That¡¯s it? Seems like a small request in exchange for giving me a new life. So, deific politics? Sure, why not. I don¡¯t really like the idea of slavery either, and it beats floating around in the aether for another thousand years. Go ahead and send me down. Boy or girl? I guess so. So is this goodbye, or? Thanks. I didn¡¯t get a response. The next thing I know I¡¯m floating in something warm, like a bath. I had no idea how I got there, but it was comfortable just floating there, rolled up in a ball. I could just go to sleep. The next thing I remember is waking up and finding that my warm pool has been deflated. The walls are pushing up against me, and there is a bit of light coming from below my feet. I squirm to try and deal with the uncomfortableness of the walls pushing against me and feel my feet slide out into open air. Well, I guess I can¡¯t stay in here any more. I stopped struggling and soon I had been completely removed from my cocoon. It was chilly, and before I could assess my situation someone smacked me on the butt. I screamed in response and just kept screaming. I don¡¯t know why, but for some reason it just seemed like the thing to do. Maybe because I was tired? I was wrapped up in a blanket by a middle aged woman with green hair who said something I couldn¡¯t understand before handing me to a younger woman with red hair that was lying in a soaked bed. Not auburn or ginger hair, red hair, like a stop sign. The color was just off enough that I stared at it while the green haired woman handed me to her. She looked at me for a few seconds while speaking more nonsense, but I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I was warm now, and just wanted to sleep. The only thing I remember immediately after that was something being put in my mouth and a warm, sweet liquid going down my throat. All of this while getting snuggled up beside a massive pillow. The next few weeks were a blur, as I woke up and went back to sleep so often that I don¡¯t know what was happening. I do remember being held by that same red haired woman a few times, but that¡¯s it. Some time after that, around the time I started being able to control my arms and hands the way I wanted them, I remember a blue haired child being put into the bed beside me by a woman with hair a slightly darker shade of blue. When I started crying she picked me up and pushed me to her chest. Well, guess my mom has hired a wet nurse, now. By the time I figured out how to crawl I had learned a few words. The woman¡¯s name was Tanya, and the kid she put beside me was Marya, her daughter. Marya was born about three weeks after me, so she couldn¡¯t crawl yet. Still, I made a game out of making Tanya chase me. It was boring being a baby, after all. I needed to do something to entertain myself. Eventually I started being able to walk. By that time I could understand a few hundred words but could only properly say a few. Still, I tried to explore to relieve my boredom and still Tanya had to chase me, carrying Marya on her back. I got good at walking that way, and could even dodge a bit by the time Marya started walking. I decided not to annoy Tanya after that. Now was time for her to work with her daughter. I sat down and colored, finger paints mostly, but I did have some chalk I could draw with. If only this world had invented crayons, then I would have a proper drawing tool. I also started eating solid food, and even learned to feed myself. I considered entertaining myself by eating all of the food I could, but then I remembered something that god said. ¡°No strong predisposition to vices.¡± I think he said. Wouldn¡¯t becoming a glutton go against that? Beside, throwing my food at things to see if it stuck was more fun. I flung some kind of mashed vegetable that tasted a bit like carrots at the wall and was surprised to see that it did, indeed, stick. I laughed in congratulations, but the bald butler seemed annoyed. Right, someone would need to clean that up. I¡¯d have to not do that that often. Eventually I could speak well enough that I could ask someone to teach me to read. Tanya didn¡¯t think she should be the one to do so, but when I pointed out that she would be teaching Marya soon, she agreed to teach us both. I learned quite a bit quicker, and after a few months my mother heard about it and talked to Tanya about it. Three days later, Tanya was moved to the kitchen and I was introduced to a man named Reginald who had yellow hair. Again, not blonde, yellow. Reginald said that he had been hired by mother and father to begin my education. For the next few months he taught me to read more and more words, and I only saw Tanya and Marya when I went to the dining room to eat, with was only twice a day at most. Shortly after that, Reginald began bringing books about various things in the world, religious books, and story books of legends. I really liked the book about animals. One day I saw a person out the window with cat ears and when I called them ¡°Cat Woman¡±, Reginald got a stern look on his face. He corrected me that the word ¡°Woman¡± only applied to people, and told me to use the words ¡°adult¡± and ¡°female¡± instead. When I asked him why, he explained that it was for the same reason you wouldn¡¯t call a prized mare a woman, even though it was an adult female horse. It was then that I realized how far the racism ran in this country. The woman was clearly able to walk upright and think, and only her ears and tail really made her look like and animal, but to them, she was no different than a housecat. Knowing that only education could stop people from being racist, I decided to learn everything I could so that I could teach it to others. I spent all of my time in the library, reading every book I could, with Reginald encouraging me, seeing me as a prized student. He, of course, chose books that he thought were appropriate for my age, but soon the house¡¯s library had run out. It was then that, even though my fourth birthday was still a month away, he showed me a book titled ¡°Introduction to Magic.¡± Normally children wouldn¡¯t start learning magic until they were five, or closed to it, but in my case, he assumed that I had a good enough handle on all of the concepts involved that I could begin even at my age. The book explained that magic was basically the manipulation of mana, something that every lifeform had inside of them. Animals might accidentally learn to use it in a specific way, and monsters might have a talent to use it in a limited way, but intelligent beings could use it in a wide variety of ways. Even the lowest Beastfolk could learn magic if they were dedicated and smart enough, though they usually only learned basic utility spells for serving their masters more easily. There were two main ways to manipulate mana, Detection of a property and Imbuing of a property. Most people only learned to imbue properties, but if you got good at doing both, and had a talent for magic or magical devices, you could combine the two to make very specific spells. One example it gave was the devices nobles used in their castles and palaces which would make a crystal glow if a person stepped near it while wearing a weapon. Basically a magical metal detector. Maybe one day I could learn to do that. The next day Reginald brought out a candle and lit it. He told me to focus on the flame. I did. He then told me to feel a pressure within myself. I pictured myself as a water balloon, and could feel a bit of water inside me. He then told me to try to release that pressure towards the flame while imagining it getting bigger. I imagined a tiny hole in the balloon in my palm, like I put tape over the area and poked a pin in it. I then imagined that the stream was gasoline and shot it at the fire. As soon as I opened the stream, I started to get tired. I only managed to keep it up for a few seconds before I felt the hole that was releasing the gas close again on its on. I started to close my eyes only to notice that the candle flame was at least twice as tall as it was before, but was shrinking. ¡°Congratulations, sir. You did it.¡± Reginald said, and I laid down on the floor for a nap. Chapter 2 Reginald continued to teach me magic for the next several years. While he wasn¡¯t the best at magic, he could teach me the basics. I learned everything I could on the subject. I also started reading up on the subject of alchemy. It seemed that magical items had something called an Essence, which was like a magical property similar to the concepts I had to picture to cast spells. These were different from their chemical properties, though sometimes those would help or hinder the performance of the ingredients in spells or potions. Alchemy was the study of how to use and extract those Essences to produce magical potions. Sometimes that meant combining essences which had a synergistic effect to produce something more useful. In fact, the old way to do alchemy was to combine ingredients which contained essences, mostly plants but sometimes fungi or animal parts, into solutions or salves which would bestow that essence onto the thing it was applied to. This was how apothecaries tended to do their work, making medicinal and sometimes non-medicinal potions and salves. To be recognized as a true alchemist, though, one needed to be able to extract pure essence from a material. Sometimes a material would be difficult to extract the essence from, and sometimes they would contain multiple essences. When more than one was present, they could be linked, making the effects intertwined to such a degree that they couldn¡¯t be separated from each other. The best alchemists could separate any two, and sometimes three, non-linked essences. I convinced Mother to buy me an alchemy set using her merchant connections, and started collecting various ingredients around the palace. I wasn¡¯t allowed to leave the palace grounds, but there were many different essences around to work with even without leaving. By the time I was six years old, I had reached the end of what magic Reginald knew and started studying on my own. I could also make basic salves and potions using the old methods, but I wasn¡¯t a good enough alchemist yet to extract essences, even in impure form. In order to test my potions and salves, I gave them out to the guards, servants, and other palace staff. Occasionally I would receive a complaint or someone would mention a side effect, but overall I greatly helped them. I even used salves on some of the animals and slaves, though the guards thought it was a waste. The ingredients were free, however, so the only thing it cost me was my time. I started asking my father¡¯s court mage for magical advice and eventually he started giving me a lesson once a week, even though it wasn¡¯t his duty. After that I would spend hours at the firing range trying to get my ranged spells to work, drinking mana restoration potions so that I could continue. No matter how much I worked at it, though, only the lightning spell would reach its target, though it had almost no effect, and lightning was known to have a longer range than most other elements. Still, I continued my studies. It wasn¡¯t until my seventh birthday that I managed to break through and get a lightning spell to expend most of its energy on the wooden target instead of losing it. I still had a way to go with fire, ice, and the various forms of kinesis, but I could manage that. Another year passed as I continued to devour all of the knowledge I could in the library. We were starting to run low on books that were appropriate for children, so my mother ordered more of them. I learned that in this kingdom all nobles were required to have both a combat certification and an occupational certification by the time they turned fifteen in order to keep their title. If they failed to do so, their title would be suspended until they received those certifications. This insured that the nobles could support the kingdom and its people both in times of war and in times of peace. Mother was a certified Combat Medic and Merchant, while Father was a certified Magic Swordsman and Blacksmith. In fact, he made all of his own equipment, though he rarely visited the palace¡¯s forge any more. Noble titles were conferred on the children of nobles automatically. Any child of a noble would be granted a title one rank lower than their parent with the highest title until their fifteenth birthday, at which point they had to have certifications to keep it. Because Father was a Count and mother a Countess, that made me legally a Viscount, despite my age. The noble ranks went, in order, King/Queen, Prince/Princess, Duke/Duchess, Count/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Baron/Baroness, Baronet, Knight. The children of knights had special conditions for inheriting titles. If they could achieve both certifications by the time they turned fifteen they would automatically become knights. If they could not, they would lose their noble title. Reginald, in fact, was the son of a knight. While he had no trouble getting his occupational certifications as a Merchant due to his love of reading, he was mediocre at magic, and so tried to learn swordsmanship. He failed the certification test the day before his fifteenth birthday, however, and so lost his noble title. While he did receive the certification two years later when he was seventeen, he no longer had a title and instead became a merchant in his father¡¯s service. When Mother and Father started looking for a tutor for me, however, his academic aptitude and former noble status was able to win him the job over the commoners who also applied for the position. I had started selling some of my potions and salves in town through Tanya, so I had saved up a bit of money by my eight birthday. I was now allowed to go into town, as long as I had an escort, so on my eighth birthday I asked Reginald to come with me into town. I knew mother wanted me out of the house so that she could prepare for my party, so I played along. Once we were in town I looked through some of the stalls, but, aside from a book on the monsters of Doria, written in the Dorian dialect of the Northern Language this country used, nothing really interested me. I saw a few slaves being traded just outside the town wall, but as I watched them through the gate they all looked to be in poor condition. I would have liked to buy one to help them out, but Mother would only accept them if they could help around the house, and these seemed in too poor a condition for that. ¡°The slave merchant is a fool.¡± said Reginald, standing beside me. ¡°How so?¡± I asked. ¡°A slave in that condition is barely able to do anything, and being sick drives down their value. If he was smart he would make sure they were healthy and well fed before bringing them to market, to maximize his profit.¡± I supposed that was true. Even if you just looked at them as merchandise and not people, treating them that way was still wrong. Reginald and I went into a shop so he could buy a new suit but I got bored. After twenty minutes of them talking about the material and cut of the garment, I got up and stepped outside. I wondered over to one of the food stalls to buy some candied fruit when a girl ran into me, knocking us both down. ¡°Sorry.¡± she said, jumping up and running away. Seeing her leave I noticed the tip of a tail poking out underneath her dirty skirt. I stood up and started dusting myself off when three guards ran by. They ran up to the candied fruit merchant and started to question him. ¡°Did you see a fox girl run by here?¡± they asked him. ¡°N..No,¡± the man stammered. ¡°No foxes.¡± he said. Obviously, the guard¡¯s aggressive attitude was scaring him. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°She can¡¯t have gotten far,¡± the lead guard said. ¡°Come on.¡± He motioned to the other two guards and they ran off. I went over to the stall to buy some fruit and heard someone run up behind me. ¡°There you are, master.¡± Reginald said. ¡°I just stepped outside to buy some candied fruit.¡± I said. ¡°Nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± he said, then noticed the state of my clothing. ¡°You are dirty, sir.¡± ¡°I tripped and fell down. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not hurt.¡± ¡°Very well. Shall we continue our shopping trip, then?¡± ¡°Sure, did you get your suit?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I ordered one, but will need to come back tomorrow to pick it up.¡± With that we continued on our way. Reginald bought a few fruits for the kitchen, things that they wouldn¡¯t normally buy, and put them in his magic bag. It only expanded the space, as he was quite strong already, so he had no trouble carrying it all back to the palace. We had my party, and I pretended to be surprised. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and we stayed up late partying. The next day I had a lesson with Leonard, my father¡¯s Court Mage. He further refined my long ranged casting, and, after we were finished, informed me that I was almost at a point where I could try and get my Combat Mage certification. I was already able to cast at least three attack spells at level 4, comparable to a standard steel weapon. I just had to learn a Buff and Debuff spell to pass. As I had yet to learn any detection magic other than the Essence Detection I had to learn for finding Alchemy ingredients, the next lesson he would teach me to use detection magic. This would let me search my environment for specific things, and even improve my long ranged targeting now that I could hold my spells together well enough to travel the distance. He left to get started on my next lesson and I had some time to myself. Wanting to get some physical exercise, I walked into town, not bothering to find an escort. I wouldn¡¯t be gone long, after all. I went back to the candied fruit stall and, after buying my fruit, went and propped against a wall as I ate it. I heard a noise down the alley beside me and looked to where it was coming from, expecting to find a stray animal or a rat. Instead I saw the same girl from yesterday, digging through the trash. As she was too busy to watch for danger, I walked up to her without her noticing. ¡°You know, you¡¯ll get sick eating out of the garbage.¡± I said. She jumped and backed away. ¡°I¡¯m not going to hurt you. Here.¡± I held out what was left of my candied fruit. She slowly reached out and took it. ¡°Thank you.¡± she whispered, then started eating it as quickly as she could. ¡°It¡¯s not good to eat candy on an empty stomach.¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll get sick and throw it all back up. Come on, let me buy you some real food.¡± I grabbed her hand and she let me lead her to one of the stalls selling seasoned, grilled meat on a stick. I ordered one for each of us. The attendant handed both of them to me and, as I turned to hand one to her I saw someone grab her. ¡°There you are, you stupid fox.¡± said the city guard. ¡°I told you we¡¯d get you.¡± She struggled to get away, but he was far stronger than her so she failed. ¡°You know what the penalty is for running away from your master. To the headsman with you.¡± He started dragging her away, and I stepped in. ¡°Can you please get your hands off of my slave?¡± I asked him. He looked at me. ¡°Who do you think...¡± Then he realized who I was. ¡°Oh, Lord Cameron. I apologize. This girl is an escaped slave we were chasing yesterday.¡± ¡°You must be mistaken. Yesterday we were playing hide and seek. Maybe that¡¯s why she was hiding.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. If you don¡¯t mind, can we see her papers to verify the situation?¡± ¡°Are you calling me a liar?¡± I countered. ¡°Uh, no sir, it¡¯s just regulations.¡± ¡°Well, unfortunately, I lost them yesterday when I was crossing the moat back into the city. The wind blew them in there and there was no way I was going to fetch them.¡± Everyone knew that the city moat was where the sewage drained into before flowing away from the city. Only the night soilers and slaves that collected the waste for fertilizing crops would go into it for anything. ¡°Yes, sir, I understand. I assume you purchased her from the slave trader that was outside the walls yesterday?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I responded, and he nodded, releasing her. ¡°In that case, please get her papers reissued as soon as possible.¡± ¡°I will,¡± I said, and the men saluted and went away. I handed her one of the meat sticks. ¡°So, what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Per...Persimmon.¡± she responded. ¡°Are you really going to make me your slave?¡± ¡°Depends. How would you like being a servant in the palace?¡± ¡°Really?¡± she asked, seeming a bit excited. Everyone knew the servants at the palace were treated well. Most commoners would love to have a job there. ¡°Yes, sir. Please. Give me a job in the palace.¡± ¡°Great.¡± I said. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s get you there so you can clean up.¡± As I was headed back, I met Reginald, as he had just picked up his new suit, and told him that I decided to buy a slave from the merchant after all. He was surprised that the man had one worth paying for, but accepted it and we returned to the castle. Once inside I took her to the kitchen. ¡°Marya?¡± I called out, and the girl ran over. ¡°Yes Lord?¡± she asked, noticing the girl beside me. ¡°A new servant?¡± I pulled back Persimmon¡¯s hood. ¡°Yes, this is Persy, or Persimmon. I heard we needed more help around here, so I bought myself a servant. Can you get her washed up and a change of clothes?¡± ¡°A fox?¡± Marya asked in surprise, before catching herself. ¡°Sure. I can do that. Any job in particular you want her to work on?¡± ¡°Well, for now, I was thinking laundry would be the easiest. You can clean, can¡¯t you Persy?¡± She nodded and I continued. ¡°Eventually, I¡¯ll make her my personal servant, but for now get her started helping with the laundry and see how she handles it.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Marya said, then lead Persy off to the servant¡¯s wing to get a bath. With Persy¡¯s new life on track, I went back to my study and started working on my alchemy again. While I could extract the pure forms of some of the easier essences, I couldn¡¯t handle anything complicated. I worked on trying to separate a nutritional essence from a mushroom that also had a poison essence until supper time, failing every time but getting less poison essence with each attempt. When I sat down at the table Marya placed my plate in front of me. She went to stand beside the door in case we requested anything during our meal, and before I could put a bite of the soup into my mouth Father spoke up. ¡°So, Reginald tells me you bought yourself a slave today.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yes, father. There was a slave merchant outside of town yesterday, and I wasn¡¯t sure about the quality, but when I went back today he seemed to have one that was healthy.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t risk someone disrupting things here at the palace.¡± Mother added. ¡°Oh, she won¡¯t disrupt things. I already asked Marya to get her a bath and some clothes, and to add her to the laundry staff. I hope to eventually teach her enough that she can become my personal assistant.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose you are old enough for a pet now, though I wish you had chosen something a bit more normal, like a dog.¡± Mother responded. ¡°You know you¡¯ll have to be responsible for making sure she behaves herself, don¡¯t you?¡± asked Father. ¡°Yes, Sir. I know. That¡¯s why I started her training already.¡± ¡°Very well. Reginald also informed me that you lost here paperwork.¡± ¡°Yes, Father.¡± I couldn¡¯t argue with that, since I never had any in the first place. ¡°Well, make sure you head by the Minister of Slaves and Livestock¡¯s office tomorrow and get her re-registered. We need to make sure our paperwork is in order if we are going to require it of others.¡± ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± I responded. And that seemed to be the end of that conversation. That night when I returned to my bedroom I saw that one of the large pillows my father had bought for his hunting hounds was under my bed. Traditionally, pets slept beside their masters so that the two could bond, though it was weird seeing the tradition being carried out with a person instead of an animal. Still, she had a good place to sleep now, and even a blanket, so I wasn¡¯t going to complain. I started to undress just as there was a knock on the door. I opened it and found Marya and Persy there, Persy wearing an older maid¡¯s uniform that was probably a hand-me-down from Marya. ¡°Sorry about the delay, Master.¡± Marya said. ¡°She was a bit slow getting ready. I¡¯ll draw your bath now.¡± Marya went towards the bathroom and Persy stood there beside the door, not knowing what to do. ¡°Come on.¡± said Marya, grabbing Persy¡¯s ear and dragging her towards the bathroom. Persy yelped in pain, and went with her. I guess Marya didn¡¯t realize that Fox beastfolk had sensitive ears. Once they were done drawing the bath, a task made considerably easier due to the palace being equipped with magical plumbing, the two bowed and left. I undressed and left my clothes in my room before getting in. By the time I finished and got out new clothes had been stacked on my bed, so I quickly put them on and climbed into bed. Shortly after that the girls returned and Marya got Persy into her bed underneath mine. I woke up the next morning to the sound of someone being noisy. Was Persy trying to get things ready and just not being quiet about it? I opened up my eyes and looked to the side of my bed to see Marya half underneath it, trying to drag Persy out of bed. ¡°Trouble?¡± I asked, and startled here. ¡°Oh, Lord Cameron, Sorry to wake you.¡± she responded. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I assume Persy doesn¡¯t want to wake up?¡± ¡°Yes. She is quite a sound sleeper. I¡¯ve never heard of a slave that was.¡± ¡°In that case, I know how to wake her.¡± I climbed under the opposite side of the bed and poked her in the ribs. She squirmed, but didn¡¯t get up. ¡°Suit yourself then.¡± I cast a level one ice spell on the tip of my finger and poked her again. She immediately woke up and climbed out the other side of the bed to get away from me. ¡°Good, you¡¯re up.¡± I said, climbing out from under the bed. ¡°Marya, you have permission to use level one Ice magic to wake her up if you have to.¡± Persy looked terrified at that, apologized once more, then went to get my clothes out. Chapter 3 Over the next year I continued my studies. Magically, I tried to increase the power of my spells, finally getting up to level five a week before my birthday. Shortly after that I was practicing to increase the number of level five spells I could throw when Persy walked up. ¡°Master?¡± she asked, and I stopped firing spells. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked. ¡°Can you¡­ Can you teach me magic?¡± I was a bit surprised at the question, having assumed that she already knew how to use it. Foxes, after all, tended to have a talent for fire and life magic, and most slaves were taught the basic utility spells at a young age to make them more valuable. ¡°Can you use any magic already?¡± She nodded and held up her hand, palm up. She scrunched her face in concentration for a few seconds, and a tiny flame appeared above her palm. ¡°Yeah, that is a level one fire bolt. Can you throw it towards that target, please?¡± I asked, pointing to a target ten meters away. She threw it and it disappeared after about three meters. ¡°Ok, it seems we need to work on your Sustaining and Power. I probably shouldn¡¯t teach you combat magic, though. Slaves don¡¯t learn that style unless they are combat slaves. How about I teach you healing magic instead, and some more utility spells? No one will complain about a slave learning those.¡± ¡°That would be fine, master.¡± After that I spent an hour every night teaching her to heal minor injuries or use buff spells. I gave her and old Core necklace that I used when I was four or five. Cores were from something called a Dungeon Worm the ate manacite ore, the material mithril and orichalcum were refined from. After it ate the ore its digestive system would partially refine that material into a round object in its stomach which would constantly produce small amounts of mana. This allowed them to leave mana rich areas, unlike other monsters. The Core in this necklace was from a relatively young one, no more than three years old, so it only put out enough mana pressure to cast a level two spell with. As she wore the necklace her body would naturally absorb the mana it produced, allowing her to rapidly regenerate her mana up to a pressure of two. This would let her cast low level spells almost indefinitely, and thus train her casting. A few days later I had my ninth birthday party and was given permission to go into town without a servant, as long as I stuck to the nicer parts of town. I used that to start visiting the Healer¡¯s Union and sell them the various essences I managed to extract. As the only ingredients I extracted them from were cheap, none of the essences were above level four, but they were worth a few coppers to a few silvers per vial. I also bought some new ingredients and, once I had sold enough to afford it, a book on advanced alchemy formulas. Using the book as a guide at about nine and a half years old I finally managed to separate a single essence from a magical herb with three essences. As that was the final requirement I needed to perform to get my alchemist¡¯s certification I spent all of my money purchasing more of the ingredient and spent the next week practicing the essence extraction. By the end of the week I could keep two of the three essences intact, while destroying the third. Persy had been practicing a lot lately, and had managed to sustain a healing spell for a few minutes to heal a cut she got while slicing vegetables in the kitchen. As a reward, I took her with me the next time I went to the Healer¡¯s union. When I entered the receptionist looked up from her desk. ¡°Oh, hello Lord Cameron. What brings you here today? Selling more essences?¡± ¡°Hello, Glenda. Yes, I managed to extract two of the three from those herbs I bought, Essence of Light and Essence of Physical Enhancement.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s pretty good. Many of our alchemists would struggle to do that.¡± She took the Essences, measured and assessed them, and paid me. I got almost two gold, 38 silver in total, for all of them, earning a decent profit. ¡°Is there anything else I can help you with?¡± ¡°Yes, actually there are two things. First, I would like a copy of the basic training manual you give to initiates to earn their certification.¡± ¡°You want to learn healing too? Sure, I can get it for you.¡± She reached under the counter to grab one from the stack. ¡°Actually, can I have two?¡± She nodded and grabbed a second one. ¡°That will be four silvers, please.¡± I paid her and handed the one of the books to Persy. It took her a few seconds to realize what I had done. ¡°Wait, for me?¡± ¡°You are doing really well in your magical studies. If you promise to practice every day, then you can have it.¡± She hugged the book. ¡°Yes, of course, thank you master.¡± Glenda looked surprised for a minute, then shrugged. ¡°It is a bit unusual to train your slave in healing magic, but I can see why it would be useful.¡± I nodded. ¡°And the last thing I want to do is register for the Alchemist Certification test.¡± ¡°Makes sense. If you can extract essences that well you will likely pass the test. I can get the paperwork for you.¡± She reached under the desk and pulled out a sign in form. ¡°Just fill this out and I can register you for the exam. You can either pay one silver to take the test on the last day of the month with everyone else, or five silver to register a private testing session.¡± I took the paperwork and started filling it out. ¡°I¡¯ll test with everyone else.¡± I filled out the rest of the form and handed it back to her. ¡°I don¡¯t mind testing with other people.¡± ¡°Most nobles opt for the private testing. You do know that all of the other people that are registered to test that day are commoners, yes?¡± ¡°I know. But I deal with commoners all the time, so it¡¯s fine. I doubt I¡¯ll embarrass myself.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± she said, and signed me up. I had nine days to get ready, so I bought more of the herbs and left. Back at the palace, Persy returned to her duties and I went back to my study to extract more Essences. That night, however, we both pulled out our Healing Manuals and studied together. That became our ritual for the next eight nights. During that time we both mastered the basic Healing spell as well as Reinvigorate, which let you regenerate stamina. Persy also learned the basic Physical Enhancement spell, that slightly improved a person¡¯s strength, dexterity, and stamina, but I couldn¡¯t quite manage to cast it. You had to focus on the entire muscular system to cast it, which was a bit outside what I was used to. She, however, had been working in the kitchen as a butcher so she was used to dealing with the muscular system of animals, which helped her picture it. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Just before noon I arrived at the Healer¡¯s Union building and went inside. The lobby was full of people that looked like they were there for the test. Most were human but I did see a stressed out elf that was feverishly reading his handbook and a dwarf that was meditating while casting buffs on himself. I didn¡¯t know exactly which one, though, as I hadn¡¯t gotten that far in the book. ¡°Lord Cameron?¡± asked a man beside me. I looked over to see that it was the sixteen year old son of the owner of the local book store. I had been in there a few times with Reginald when he bought more teaching materials. ¡°I¡¯m surprised to see you here, sir.¡± ¡°Uh, Thomas, wasn¡¯t it? What are you here for?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m hoping to get my healer certification so I can start adventuring. Working in Father¡¯s shop is boring.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have all the time you could hope for to read?¡± ¡°You¡¯d think so, but Father doesn¡¯t like me reading the merchandise. He¡¯s afraid I¡¯ll spill something on a several-gold book and force him to replace it. So, I¡¯ve been mostly just reading my Healer¡¯s Manual. And you? Are you going to be a combat healer like Lady Starshine?¡± ¡°No I¡¯m not following in mother¡¯s path. Not yet, at least. I¡¯m here to get my Alchemist certification.¡± He nodded. ¡°I have heard that you like to sell Essence Extracts to earn money, so it makes sense that you want to be an alchemist. I only wish I had the talent, but every time I tried it I ruined even the basic salves and poultices. So I went the casting route. I¡¯m much better with a good spell, and my knowledge of anatomy really helps.¡± ¡°Makes since. I might need to read up on that as well. I bought a Healer¡¯s Manual a little over a week ago, but can¡¯t seem to cast even a basic Physical Enhancement.¡± ¡°Oh, that one¡¯s easy. All you need to do is...¡± An instructor came out of the back and he stopped mid sentence.¡± ¡°Ok, everyone, listen up.¡± The instructor said, amplifying his voice slightly with magic to make sure we could hear. ¡°You will all enter the testing room and find your seat. They are in alphabetical order. Your test booklet is already on your desk, but don¡¯t open it. If you open your book before I say to begin, you will automatically fail. When you are done with your written test, bring it to me at the front of the classroom and I will put it away. We use a double-blind method in scoring the tests, so discrimination and showing you favor is impossible. Once you are done, I will inform you of the location for the practical portion of your exam, and you will go there, where another tester will administer that test. Are there any questions?¡± No one spoke up for five seconds, so he continued. ¡°In that case, follow me.¡± The group followed him into a large classroom they use to teach initiates whenever they get a group of them, usually when the military or a Lord recruits enough to make teaching a class viable. I found my seat in the second row. The letter C was also near the beginning of the local alphabet, though not as early as it was in English. On my desk sat a paper book with the cover wrapped all the way around it, so that it would have to be torn to open the book. I had seen this style before, in individual spells you could buy. There were two pencils beside it. I was glad this world had invented those, though they were the size of carpenter¡¯s pencils instead of the number twos I was familiar with. Once everyone was seated the instructor told us to begin. I tore open my book and started reading. The first page simply told me to tear it out and keep it until the end of the exam, so I tore it out and placed it in my pocket. I heard others doing the same thing. Most of the exam questions were on common herbs, fungi, and monster parts. Some covered problems that might arise during the extraction process, and a few were customer service oriented, or were about certain patient conditions that might complicate things, like why it was bad to give pregnant women Regeneration potions. The child tended to absorb more of it than her, which could lead to malformed growth. I finished in about half the time that was allotted and walked to the front, where I handed in my test. ¡°Very well,¡± said the instructor. ¡°Room 3a. Turn left outside the door and you¡¯ll see it about twenty meters on the right.¡± He pointed towards a second door to the classroom, one which didn¡¯t lead towards the lobby, and I left. In the room sat an elderly half-elf woman in a rocking chair. In front of her was an alchemist set and a selection of herbs. The woman appeared to be asleep, so I walked over to her and gently shook her. Her eyes opened slowly. ¡°Yes, how can I help you, young man?¡± ¡°I¡¯m hear to take my Alchemist certification exam.¡± I said, and a look of understanding crossed her face. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. Of course you are. I¡¯m here to administer that test. Follow me.¡± She picked up her cane and slowly walked over to the alchemy table. When she finally got there, she pointed towards the tray. ¡°These are the herbs you are allowed to use for your examination. You need to extract Essences from at least four of them, and use those Essences to create an anti-aging potion for me. Now, I¡¯ve been an Alchemist for over four hundred years, so don¡¯t think about trying to use a placebo. I¡¯ll know if you try. Anyway, you¡¯ll pass if you can at least neutralize half my aging symptoms. You¡¯ll pass with merits if you can brew an actual Age Reversal potion. One of the ingredients has the needed essence, but I won¡¯t tell you which. You can take as long as you want, I¡¯ll just be over there napping while you work. Come and wake me when you are ready.¡± With that, she walked back over to the chair and sat back down, and in less than a minute she was asleep once again. I looked over the ingredients. Some of them were common. Anyone with a decent knowledge of alchemy could mix the anti-inflammatory properties of that one with the pain relief properties of that one, add in a dash of the glaucoma-reversing effects of that one and deal with most of her symptoms. I didn¡¯t want to take the easy route, though. I activated my Essence Detection over all of the ingredients. I couldn¡¯t identify some of the effects of a few ingredients, but I kept testing different, less common effects that I was aware of. Eventually I had identified all but one effect. It was a powerful effect, and was linked to a Regeneration effect, but I couldn¡¯t tell exactly what it was. Knowing what the effect I wanted was, though, I sent a detection thread into the sleeping woman. There I searched the spots of her body where the aging seemed to have the most effect, and detected an effect that was greater there than in the spots where she seemed to have the least effects of aging. Now for the tricky part. I tried reversing the effect, doing the opposite of what I felt the effect would do. I checked my own body for the effect and found that it was much weaker in me, so I knew it had to be a difference between us. That gave me hope that I was on the right track. After reversing everything I could think of with the effect, I focused on that concept and placed it in a thread of mana, telling the mana thread to respond if it detected that manufactured effect. I ran this thread through the ingredients and the one with the unidentified effect responded strongly, a silver flower petal. That had to be the anti-aging one. I carefully extracted the rare linked effect from it, taking an entire hour to do so out of fear of rushing things and messing up the process. At the end of the hour, however, I had successfully extracted the mysterious effect. After that I extracted complimentary effects from some of the others. One was nutritious, so I extracted that essence and added it, to synergize with the regeneration. Another had healing properties, which worked well with the regeneration as well. The last essence I extracted was Essence of Stamina, which filled the body with energy and gave you plentiful energy. I mixed the four essences and knew that after three and a half hours I was finished. After waiting for the mixture to settle, putting mana into it to improve the synergistic effects as much as possible, I carried it over to the woman and woke her up. ¡°I¡¯m finished.¡± I said. She took the vial from my hand and stared at it for a few minutes. Just when I started wondering if she had went to sleep again, she started chuckling. ¡°Yes, it looks like you created a proper potion. Now to test it.¡± She uncorked the potion and, before I could stop her, drank the entire thing. Her body started glowing slightly and, as I watched, her wrinkles started to firm up. The liver spots on her skin disappeared and her hair started to turn brown at the roots. After a minute or so, she stood up. The woman in front of me looked to be in her sixties, instead of her early hundreds like before. ¡°You did a great job, son.¡± she said, then a look of sadness covered her face. ¡°Unfortunately, there is no known way to permanently reverse aging. Even the best anti-aging potions will wear off in a month. This one will probably only last a few days. But for those few days, I¡¯ll feel over three hundred years younger. Thank you.¡± She patted my shoulder. ¡°Now, if you don¡¯t mind following me to the front desk, where we can get the results of your written examination.¡± I followed her back to the front, bypassing the classroom, and upon seeing me Glenda pulled out a test list. ¡°Hello, sir. I am here to pull up your results. Can you give me the page you tore out at the beginning?¡± I reached in my pocket and pulled out the page, then handed it to her. She verified that the tear marks matched the only Alchemist exam book, then sprayed something from a bottle on the page. An invisible mark appeared which matched up. ¡°Yes, this is definitely your book.¡± she said, then turned to the back. On the back page was written ¡°99¡±. ¡°Well, it seems you missed one question, thus failing to get a perfect score, but I can tell by the way Lady Cedar is looking that you did get a perfect score on the second half.¡± She reached behind the desk and brought out a silver card. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, can you please send some of your mana into the card?¡± I did so and it started to glow blue. A long number appeared in one corner of the card. She took the card and placed it in a slot on her desk for a few seconds, then, when it glowed green, she handed it to me. ¡°There, now you are registered as an official Alchemist with the Healer¡¯s Union. You don¡¯t need to join, but as you passed with distinction we would love to have you join.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I want to join any Union or Guild.¡± I responded and she nodded. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind answering a question, though, what does this number in the corner of the card mean? It even has a few letters in it.¡± ¡°Oh, that is your identifier code. Everyone¡¯s is different, so once we share the code with them we can verify your identity at any Healer¡¯s Union office by simply sending a bit of your mana into the Identifier crystal on the desk. No two people has an identical mana signature, so no two people will have the same number. And to pretend to be you by faking the proper signature a person would have to both personally know you and your mana signature and be a master at mana programming, and there are only seven of those on the whole continent as far as I know.¡± ¡°Sounds amazingly secure.¡± I said. ¡°Yes, it is. Unfortunately, the device to perform the test is quite expensive, so only the branch offices have them. For the rest of the world, you will need to show your card as an ID if they ask to verify who you are. Just put a bit of your mana into it and it will glow blue if your mana signature matches the one that activated it. That isn¡¯t as important for nobles, as there are so few of you and you are well known, but for commoners it is quite handy.¡± I nodded and thanked her, then said goodbye to Lady Cedar and left. Once home I showed it to my parents and they ordered Tanya to make me a pie to celebrate. Chapter 4 A week later I decided that it was time to try for my combat mage certification. For that I looked into the two possible places to receive that certification: the Mage¡¯s Guild and the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. My research revealed that, while both require you to be able to cast ranged attack spells from three different elements, as well as a buff and a debuff, the two have slightly different standards for what a basic Combat Mage is. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild prefers mages that can cast more buffs and debuffs, as facing monsters is easier when you have more ways of neutralizing them or aiding your side. The Mage¡¯s Guild prefers mages that can use detection magic, which aids in long range targeting and finding hidden targets. After considering both I settled on the Mage¡¯s Guild. My detection magic was above average, but I still struggled with buffs and debuffs. As it stood, I would have to use Light magic to blind my opponent as my debuff, and cover my arms in stone as my buff spell. The Physical Enhancement spell still eluded me. As I was still unsure if that would be enough, I decided to put it off until my tenth birthday. In the months leading up to that I tried every day to use the Physical Enhancement spell until one day I managed it. I also didn¡¯t cast it evenly on my muscles and tore one of them. As I screamed in pain, Persy happened to be walking by with a basket of laundry. When she heard, she dropped the basket and ran over. Once she reached me she held her hands over the area and I felt a warmth flow into the muscle and soothe away the tear. After thirty seconds or so, my arm was back to normal. ¡°Thank you.¡± I said. ¡°I did what I could to help, Master.¡± she said, bowing, then picked up her basket of laundry and returned to work. I would need to reward her for that. I knew exactly how I would do that. My family had gotten its name, Starshine, because my great grandfather, Father¡¯s grandfather, had discovered a way to convert starlight into mana. Unfortunately, he was assassinated when my grandfather, Father¡¯s father, was only twelve, and was therefore only able to pass down one of his early discoveries, a mithril alloy that, when exposed to starlight, amplified any enchantment the object bore or any spell that was casted through it. Our family earned much of its wealth through our monopoly on ¡°star mithril¡±. The mithril mine in our county had been closed down due to monster attacks almost three years ago, however, so the supply of star mithril was low. Still, I should be able to get a small wire of it and have a jeweler make a ring of it. I went to the family warehouse and asked the man behind the desk if I could get a star mithril wire long enough to fashion a ring. It took a bit of convincing, but such a small amount wasn¡¯t important enough to bother with most of the official paperwork. I still had to fill out a requisition form, as he needed to keep his inventory straight, and pay the set price of one gold coin, but I was allowed to take a ten centimeter wire of it. I took the wire into town to the family¡¯s official jeweler. She had been making all of the jewelry mother had worn since she and father were married, and was the only person who still purchased star mithril to make jewelry, as the price had drastically increased. I asked her to make a simple ring out of the wire and, while she wanted to do something fancy with it, or at least include a jewel, I convinced her that I didn¡¯t want anything fancy. Twenty minutes later she returned my ring and I paid her the five silver her expertise demanded for even such a small job. I slipped the ring on my finger and went back home. The next day I went to town to run some errands and sell my Essences, and when I returned I saw the guards at the main barracks playing with a puppy. Confused, as they didn¡¯t have a dog as far as I knew, I started walking over. As I did one of the newer members tried to pick it up, at which point a trail of fire ran down the dog¡¯s spine as it started to growl. The man dropped the dog and backed up as the other guards laughed at him. I walked up to the Captain of the guards, Sir Philip Quickblade. ¡°Hello, Sir Philip.¡± I said. ¡°Did you get a new pet? I didn¡¯t know you owned a hellhound.¡± ¡°Ah, Lord Cameron, it¡¯s good to see you. Yes, I bought him today. A monster trainer I knew just got him yesterday from an adventurer who captured him nearby, so he contacted me.¡± Cameron was a knight with Magic Swordsman and Monster Tamer certifications. ¡°That¡¯s great. Was he expensive?¡± ¡°Five gold, but if he grows up to be half as tough as a wild one, he¡¯ll be well worth it.¡± I saw that the creature had a collar that was covered in pieces of a Worm Core to substitute for being in a mana poor area. While naturally refined manacite like Cores maxed out at a pressure of five, the hell hound wouldn¡¯t need mana at that pressure for at least another year, so the collar was enough for now. I pulled out a potion of fire resistance and drank it, then went over to pet the hellhound. ¡°Who¡¯s a good boy?¡± I asked him, and he rolled over for me to pet his belly. A few minutes later my father walked by. ¡°Ok, guys, that¡¯s enough playing with the dog. Back to work.¡± he said, and the men started to leave. ¡°Come on, Pancho.¡± Sir Philip said, and the dog rolled over and ran to him. The last day of the month, at around 11 am I found Persy and made her follow me into town. I brought some extracted Essences with me to keep up appearances, and went into the Healer¡¯s Union. We stood at the back of the crowd as the man gave his speech, and when he was done, I motioned for Persy to follow him. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t want to miss your test, would you?¡± ¡°You actually paid for me to take the test?¡± she asked excitedly. ¡°Surprise. I knew you¡¯d been working hard, and have seen you use more than enough magic to pass the test, so I set this up for you. Just come back to the palace when you are finished, ok?¡± She nodded enthusiastically. I motioned towards the last of the people who were leaving the room. ¡°Well?¡± She nodded and bowed. ¡°Thank you, master.¡± With that she followed them out of the room. I walked over to the desk. ¡°Looks like your slave was happy.¡± said Glenda. ¡°Yeah, she loved reading her manual, and she¡¯s really good at healing spells. Hopefully she¡¯ll pass.¡± I sat the Essences I brought with me on the counter, and Glenda rang them up. I returned home and practiced my buff spells. Maybe when Persy got home she could give me some pointers. As I watched the sun set over the town from my study room window I saw Persy run up to the palace. The guards let her in and she immediately came upstairs to meet me. She came into the room, temporarily forgetting that a servant was always supposed to knock, and showed me her Union ID. ¡°I passed.¡± she said excitedly. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I looked over the card. It looked much like mine, only the information was different. It had her name, race, age, and certification earned and at the bottom said ¡°Slave of Viscount Cameron Starshine¡±. ¡°Congratulations.¡± I said. ¡°It seems like I should reward you.¡± ¡°Oh, just being able to get my certification is enough, master. You don¡¯t need to reward me.¡± ¡°Still, you studied hard and even came to heal me when I injured myself while failing a spell, I think you deserve some kind of reward. I know. How about you hold onto this for me?¡± I removed my star mithril ring and placed in in her hand. ¡°You mean it?¡± I nodded, and she held it close to her chest. ¡°Thank you master. I¡¯ll treasure it always.¡± I smiled. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to go eat supper. Do you mind cleaning my study for me?¡± ¡°No, not at all.¡± she said, then ran over to start putting up my various alchemical tools. Several months later, on the last day of the month before my tenth birthday I registered for the Combat Mage certification test at the Mage¡¯s guild. Nothing as exciting as with the alchemist test happened, and I managed to pass easily. I had been able to do most of the casting test since I was seven, after all. The magical theory questions weren¡¯t any harder, as I had covered those in my studies with Reginald even before that. The only thing that even made me think was when I had to prove my Detection magic skills by hitting a piece of iron ore behind a barrier that also had copper, silver, and tin ore behind it. I hadn¡¯t practiced on detecting metals, but I was wearing a steel dagger, so I had something to compare the iron ore to. That test gave me a second ID card which worked much like the first, and even had the same mana signature number, only it had ¡°Combat Mage¡± listed as my certification and the seal of the Mages Guild on it rather than the seal of the Healer¡¯s Union. Now that my noble title was secure, I could relax a bit in my studies. The next two years were spent expanding my magical studies using a Military Mage Training Manual my father had while studying any subject that caught my attention, including magical stones and magic circles. I even read a book on the basics of artificing, though I found the process too familiar to enjoy practicing the skill. I was certain that I had knowledge of electrical engineering in my past life, but hated it. Artificing was too similar to that. Eventually, shortly after turning twelve I reached the end of the Healer¡¯s Manual. I had bought Persy the intermediate level book and she had almost learned all of the spells in it as well. Maybe I should take her to get her intermediate certification too? At the back of the manual were some useful Detection magic spells that weren¡¯t required learning for a healer but were useful. The three that sounded the most interesting were ¡°Relation Sense¡±, ¡°Race Sense¡±, and ¡°Mating Sense¡±. Relation Sense told you if the other person was related to you, or if two people were related if you used it between two others, and the strength of the response gave you an estimate of how closely related they were. Race Sense told you if the other person was the same race as you, with the strength of the response changing based on the different racial heritage. Mating Sense told you if you could reproduce with the other person, or if two people could do so. After learning these three I decided to test them out. First, I used the three on Persy. The Relation Sense didn¡¯t return anything. The Race Sense returned a very weak signal. Maybe she had a human ancestor, or maybe the scriptures were right and beastfolk were the result of humanoid wizards using Awaken spells on their pets and livestock, possibly to make familiars, leaving behind some of themselves in the process. The Mating Sense also returned a weak signal. The book said that meant that it was possible, but would be very difficult or unlikely. I wondered the hall looking for someone else to test it on and found Reginald at his desk doing paperwork. Recently he had been helping mother manage the books of her many business interests, only teaching me once a week, usually about tax or trade regulations. I sent the three strands towards him. Relation Sense was weak. He was born a noble. Maybe we had a common ancestor? He was probably my fifth or sixth cousin, judging by the strength of the response. Race Sense returned strong. We were both pure human. Mating Sense didn¡¯t respond. Interesting. I was wondering if the spell could detect that we were both men, and therefore couldn¡¯t breed. I guess now I knew. It was getting late, so I went to the dining room to get supper. Mother was busy dealing with her businesses, so she wasn¡¯t available. That, combined with the pregnancy and the illness it caused, meant that she rarely ate supper with us. As it was harvest season, Father had been pouring over tax documents, guaranteeing that he collected and paid the correct taxes, so he was still in his office. That meant that I was alone. After Marya put the plate in front of me I sent my three detection spells out to her. Race Sense? Strong response. Both full human. Mating Sense? Strong response, but with a bit of a distortion I didn¡¯t get before. I¡¯d have to look that up when I got back to my room. The Relation Sense was the surprising one. Strong response. That didn¡¯t make any sense, though. I asked Tanya who her father was one time and she said he was an adventurer she was dating, that left town. I knew I had an uncle whose Occupational Certification was Adventurer. Could Marya be my cousin? That didn¡¯t quite work. The book said that cousins almost always returned a medium signal. I thought about it for a few minutes before I realized that there was only one conclusion I could draw. After I finished eating I got up and went to my father¡¯s office. I knocked on the door and when he said it was okay I entered. ¡°Oh, Cameron.¡± he said as I closed the door behind me. ¡°You rarely come to my office. What brings you here?¡± ¡°I need to ask you something. See, I was practicing my detection magic, using ¡°Race Sense¡±, ¡°Mating Sense¡± and ¡°Relation Sense¡± on different people when I discovered something. I used them on Marya, so I have to ask. Is Marya my sister?¡± Father sighed and nodded. ¡°I was wondering how long it would take you to figure it out.¡± He motioned to a seat and I sat down. ¡°I used to not be as loyal to your mother as I am now. I probably took a dozen maids to my bed, which is why we never kept them around for long. Then we found out your mother was pregnant. I tried to stop, but due to the pregnancy she wanted to call things off until after you were born, and we had a new maid, so¡­¡± He paused for a few seconds. ¡°We found out the maid was pregnant shortly after that. Your mother wanted to get rid of her, but I felt I owed her something. I talked it over with your mother and she agreed that Tanya could stay on as our maid as long as I kept my hands off of her and all the other servants.¡± I nodded. ¡°I figured it was something like that. Thank you for telling me.¡± I started to get up but he stopped me. ¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you about a similar topic anyway, and I guess now is the time. You see, I know that you are at the age where you are becoming a man, and well, things are going to start changing for you.¡± I held up my hand. I did not want to receive the talk again. It was bad enough in my first life, and was one of the few memories I regretted still having. ¡°I know what you are going to say, Father, and I already know all about that. I have read almost all of the medical books in the library, after all. You don¡¯t need to give me the speech.¡± He nodded and looked relieved. ¡°In that case, just let me add a few words of advise. Don¡¯t bed the Fox.¡± I coughed in surprise. ¡°What? I wasn¡¯t going to...¡± He interrupted me. ¡°Look, I know why you were using the Mating Sense. I know it wasn¡¯t just to practice your magic. I was curious about girls too at your age. Most men are. And I realize that it seems a bit hypocritical of me to be telling you this now, after what you just found out about me and Tanya, and legally there wouldn¡¯t be an issue as she is your property, but please, take my advise. You know from the test that Beastfolk and humans can have kids together, however unlikely it is. If she were to get pregnant, and if it got out that you had a Beastfolk child our family would be badly damaged by the scandal. The only way to fix the situation would be to terminate the pregnancy and send her far away, maybe even sell her to someone else. I know you¡¯ve grown attached to her, and don¡¯t want that to happen, so please, for her sake and the sake of the family, don¡¯t bed the fox.¡± My face was bright red in embarrassment but I nodded. ¡°Very well father, I promise. Now if that is all...¡± I turned to leave but he spoke up once more. ¡°If things get too hard and you feel like you really need to bed a woman, any of the men in the guardhouse can show you to the good brothel in town. No one will judge you for visiting it.¡± I couldn¡¯t respond, as I was too embarrassed, and ran out of the office and back to my room. Seriously? Why would father tell me I should visit a brothel to deal with my ¡°urges¡±? I was only twelve. Sure, I noticed girls. I might have even had a bit of a crush on Marya before finding out she was my sister. But I wasn¡¯t thinking about THAT. When I got to my room I changed and jumped into bed, not even bothering to take a bath first. I just needed to get some sleep to forget all of this. When I woke in the morning from a pleasant dream the first thing I noticed was that the front of my pants and my sheets were damp. It took me a few seconds to realize why. ¡®Surely not.¡¯ I thought. Had father talking about it yesterday made me dream about it? I wasn¡¯t sure about that, but I was sure that I needed to change before Persy saw. Just as I was getting out of bed Persy climbed out from under my bed. ¡°Good morning master. You¡¯re up early.¡± ¡°Uh, Persy, good morning. This, uh, this isn¡¯t what it looks like. Just ignore it.¡± I tried to cover the area up with more blankets. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s nothing to be embarrassed about.¡± she said, stripping the sheets off of my bed. ¡°I deal with it all the time. I¡¯ve been washing the sheets for the guard barracks for the last three years, even when they break the rules and sneak a woman back to the dorms. This is nothing new.¡± ¡°B..But Persy, you¡¯re only ten.¡± ¡°Beast folk grow up faster than humans. Developmentally I¡¯m the equivalent of a twelve or thirteen year old human girl.¡± ¡°But still, you¡¯re too young...¡± ¡°You¡¯re a twelve year old boy, and you made the mess. Why can¡¯t a developmentally twelve year old girl fix it?¡± I didn¡¯t have a response to that. ¡°Now, how about I draw you a bath and get you some fresh clothes?¡± I nodded and she went to the bathroom to do that. Chapter 5 After my bath I tried to get my mind off of the situation. I focused on reciting all of the magical essences I knew about, as well as all of the ingredients I knew to contain those essences. By the time I was finished it was time for breakfast so I went downstairs. I sat down and a minute later Marya sat my plate in front of me, bending over in just the right way to give me a look at two delicious looking lemons. ¡®No,¡± I chided myself. ¡®You can¡¯t think about that. She is your sister. That would be wrong.¡¯ Still, the knowledge I had gained yesterday hadn¡¯t yet set in, so I had to distract myself two more times before I was finished eating. I thanked her for breakfast, and she bowed, once again giving me a view that I knew I shouldn¡¯t like, but for some reason did. Why did all of the maids switch to that outfit when they grew up? I assume it was for the very reason that it showed things that the masters generally wanted to see. I would need a much more serious distraction if I was to maintain my sanity. Maybe some sort of physical exercise to work off the excess energy. I knew exactly where to find someone to help with that. I went to Reginald¡¯s office and knocked. When he let me in I noticed that he looked tired. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I woke you up.¡± I said. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine. I was just up until four doing paperwork. Can I help you, sir?¡± ¡°Yes, actually. I want you to teach me swordsmanship.¡± Reginald looked surprised. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had any interest in learning physical combat. Besides, I¡¯m not the best teacher for that.¡± ¡°I thought about it, and now that I¡¯m growing up I think I should learn how to defend myself with a blade, even if it¡¯s just the basics. I know you are a good teacher, and have intermediate swordsmanship certification, so you should be good enough to teach me up to a basic certification level.¡± He thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. ¡°Very well, Sir. I shall get ready and begin your training.¡± he said tiredly. ¡°No need to rush. I¡¯ll meet you in the training field at noon.¡± Reginald bowed. ¡°Thank you, sir. Now if you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m going to get a few more hours of sleep.¡± Four hours later, as noon rolled around, I stood in the training field, having already put on the leather armor and a wooden sword that the guard trainees wore. Just as the bells in town started to ring, Reginald walked up, looking properly rested and bathed. ¡°Thank you again, Reginald.¡± I said. ¡°My pleasure, sir.¡± he said with a smile. He must have lost some confidence as I no longer needed him to instruct me. Giving him this job probably returned some of that. He instructed me in the basic forms until the sun started to set, and even though I had brought stamina recovery potions just in case, my arms were burning and felt like wet noodles. ¡°That should be enough for today, sir.¡± he said, barely looking tired for all of the swinging he had to do. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said, then tried to remove my soaked armor. Even the few kilograms of leather was too much for me. Reginald saw that and helped me remove the vest and other parts. ¡°Thank you again,¡± I said as he picked up my dropped sword and returned it to the wrack. ¡°Just remember, sir, that if you let the sweat dry on your armor, it could ruin it. So make sure you clean it before going to sleep.¡± I moaned, and nodded, then walked off, leaving it on the ground. I considered ordering Persy to clean it for me, but realized that the point of making me do it was so that I would learn to properly care for my own armor. I wouldn¡¯t learn anything if I made a slave do it, so I would have to do it myself. Just not now. I went back to my room and collapsed on the floor, not wanting to get my bed sweaty. Persy came in a minute later and, without asking, drew me a bath. I was too tired to even undress myself, so she helped me. I knew that this morning I would be too distracted by the fact that a girl was undressing me to think straight, but now the thought only crossed my mind because I realized the absence of that thought. I had a nice long soak to which she added medicinal herbs, and after an hour I could get out of the bath on my own. I was still sore, but now the soreness was mostly gone and I had enough energy to finish my training. I got dressed and went back down to the training field to get my armor. There, I sat down at one of the tables with a jar of armor cleaning solution and started scrubbing every square centimeter of the leather. While I was working I briefly wondered why people used leather armor here while it was rare in my last world. It only took me a few seconds to figure out why. Once I did, I sent a detection thread into the leather and used my Essence Detection. Toughness 3. Just as I suspected. This leather was made of monster hides, and was as good at protecting you as bronze armor while being far lighter and more flexible. Some knights preferred metal armor, as it still protected better, but this armor was adequate for the majority of city guards, as you were less likely to face serious attacks inside a city. For the next week I met Reginald at the field every day at noon and we practiced until sunset. By the end of the week he had started to spar with me, having drilled the basic forms into me successfully, but my moves were far too clumsy still for him to need to put in much effort. When we were finished, however, he informed me of something. In three days the city guard would be sending a new batch of trainees here to train, and Sir Philip would be training them. I was to join them in the morning for their morning calisthenics and strength training, then, at noon, I would split off from them for private swordsmanship training, as many of them already knew the basics. The next day I arrived at the field and noticed over two dozen people standing there. There was a thirteen year old and a fourteen year old, both children of knights, no doubt hoping to earn both their Guardsman occupational certification and Swordsmanship Combat certification, but I was the youngest one there, and the three of us appeared to be the only nobles. Sir Philip started us off with a jog out the main gate and around the city wall three times. I, of course, fell far behind, and was forced to cast Reinvigorate on myself to not collapse several times, as it was difficult to drink potions while running. After the run we did situps and pushups, requiring two more applications of the spell to keep up. Then we started squats, and he had us don our armor for the extra weight. Over the next month we would slowly be adding more weight to that exercise in order to build muscle mass. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. By noon I was already exhausted, both physically and magically, but Reginald was there to get me. He did, at least, let me eat a proper meal and soak in the bath for a few minutes before we began. Over the next few weeks I continued that routine, always wanting to collapse and relying on potions and medicinal baths to survive. Eventually, though, Reginald said I had enough of the basics down that I could join the other trainees for sparing, as he wasn¡¯t a good match for me. I spent the next two weeks with the group, with Reginald acting as a secondary teacher for the group after lunch. I even attended lectures on proper procedure and the law which Sir Philip gave. We even sparred against Pancho in group battles meant to teach us how to deal with monsters and monster tamers. By the end of the month, I could beat just over half of them in a swordfight a little over half the time. So, I was only an average swordsman, but at least I knew how to properly fight. We all went to the Adventurers guild the day after the last day of training, and all of us passed both the guardsman and swordmanship certifications. I earned yet another ID card, this time with a combat and an occupational certification. We went to a local tavern to celebrate, and after we were done I returned home. As I and the two knight¡¯s sons weren¡¯t yet adults they refused to serve us more than one drink, but I was still a bit tipsy when I returned home. The next morning, Father called Sir Philip and I into his office. There he offered us a seat. Was I in trouble for drinking last night? I was pretty sure he hadn¡¯t said he was against it, even though I rarely saw him drink, and I was pretty sure this country was more like England with its drinking laws, allowing minors to consume small amounts. Weird that I remembered that about Earth. ¡°Thank you two for coming on such short notice. I know that you just finished training, and deserve a day off, but this couldn¡¯t wait. The family¡¯s reserves of mithril are completely empty. We have been buying Worm Cores from adventurers to refine more and make more star mithril, but the supply was unable to keep up with the demand. Without the ability to refill our stores our family will default on multiple contracts, costing us over a million gold, and could go into bankruptcy. For that reason I have no choice but to reopen the mithril mine.¡± ¡°But father, wasn¡¯t that shut down five years ago due to monsters moving into the area and killing most of the miners?¡± ¡°Yes, it was. Which is why I need the two of you to lead a squadron of guards to the mine to clear it of monsters, so that we can reopen it. I waited until now to do this, so that the new batch of recruits could fill in for those that you are taking with you, but we can¡¯t wait much longer if we want to get the next shipment ready on time to deliver it at the end of the month.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± said Sir Philip. ¡°I must ask, though, which of us will be in charge of the mission?¡± ¡°I admit, I did consider giving Cameron command of this mission, but he has no command experience. I want you to make him your second in command for this mission, and train him in how to do the job.¡± Father then addressed me. ¡°I know I haven¡¯t talked much about it, but as my firstborn, and with my only other heir not yet born, you will one day inherit this county and my title. I need to make sure that you can handle the job, so I am going to have Sir Philip teach you how to lead troops in combat. This may be your first mission, but I know you can do it.¡± ¡°But father, don¡¯t you have a brother that has a prior claim?¡± I had never seen my uncle but I had heard him mentioned several times. ¡°Jon was never interested in politics, which is why he left to become an Adventurer. If he inherited the title, I don¡¯t know that he could properly lead the family or the people.¡± I nodded, ¡°Very well, then. I shall try to learn as much as I can so I may one day become a proper Count and head of house.¡± Sir Philip motioned for us to stand. We both bowed, and left Father¡¯s office. Once outside, Sir Philip looked at me. ¡°I will put you in charge of securing our supplies for this mission. You, I, and twelve guards, two of whom will be mages, will be going up to the mines. It will take us a day to get there, so we will need camping supplies and at least three days of provisions. Better make it five in case the battle in the cave lasts longer than we thought.¡± ¡°In that case, sir, do you mind if I bring Persy along as well? The men will probably want properly cooked food and clean clothing, and she is a certified healer, though not a combat healer. She would make good support staff.¡± Sir Philip thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. ¡°If you think she can keep up, you can bring her. Just make sure that she doesn¡¯t become a distraction.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± I said, saluting him. He chuckled and returned the salute. ¡°Strange getting saluted by a noble that outranks me, but I guess I am your superior officer for this mission. Still, I won¡¯t hold it against you if you don¡¯t want to do that.¡± ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± I said. ¡°In that case, when do we leave?¡± ¡°We leave in three days.¡± he said. ¡°I will notify the men to bring their equipment and changes of clothing. You just get the travel gear ready.¡± I met the quartermaster for the guards and spent the next several hours discussing what we would need and filling out requisition forms. I wasn¡¯t happy with the number of potions he was willing to part with, as we were going into danger, but didn¡¯t want to pull rank on him, so I would just make more of them myself. I got full kit for fifteen people, as well as five days of rations each, and packed the bags myself, making sure that I inventoried every backpack before packing them. These backpacks proved how cheap the military was, as they were made by apprentice enchanters and only had level one space and weight enchantments. For every level these properties would become twice as good, so the backpacks had twice the space and weighed half as much as the backpack alone would weigh. Still, it required little magical energy from it¡¯s user, and was actually able to run entirely on the ambient mana if not carried, thanks to the mana compression of the mana gathering circle. Such a circle was even cheaper than a small Core for the amount of mana the enchantment required. After I was done, I carried the bags down to the guard house and put them in the armory, so that no one would be able to steal from them or tamper with them. When I was returning on one of the many trips between the quartermaster¡¯s office and the armory, I saw Persy hanging up laundry. ¡°Persy, can I talk to you for a moment?¡± I asked, and she came over. ¡°Yes master?¡± she asked, tail waging slightly. ¡°In three days I and Sir Philip will be taking a group of guards on a mission and I would like you to come along as cook, cleaner, and healer.¡± ¡°Are you sure about that, sir? I haven¡¯t left the town since you ¡®bought¡¯ me.¡± she knew that I hadn¡¯t actually done so, but had to keep up appearances. ¡°I¡¯m sure. In fact...¡± I pulled two gold coins from my pocket. ¡°I want you to go to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and by two sets of travel clothes, including decent armor for a healer, and all of the supplies you¡¯ll need to do your job for a five day mission. That should only cost a gold or so. The rest is for you to buy the best magic backpack you can find. Don¡¯t be afraid to use my name to get a discount. When you are done, bring it all back to my room so I can go over everything with you.¡± Her tail was wagging quickly now. Wasn¡¯t she a fox, not a dog? ¡°Thank you master. I won¡¯t disappoint you.¡± She left Marya hanging up the rest of the laundry and ran to town. ¡°Sorry about that, Marya.¡± I said. ¡°Any way I can make stealing your help up to you?¡± ¡°Do you want to teach me magic too?¡± I laughed. ¡°Tell you what, I will go to the Healer¡¯s Union at the end of the month to get my Healer¡¯s certification, and will probably register for the test shortly after I get back from this mission. I¡¯ll buy you a Healer¡¯s Guide the next time I go and have Persy instruct you, since she¡¯s a much better healer than me. Will that work?¡± She nodded. ¡°Sure, but I want to learn combat magic too.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I said. ¡°Do well enough with that, and I¡¯ll buy you a Combat Mage Handbook from the Mage¡¯s guild too.¡± She had a huge smile on her face as she bowed and continued with the laundry. Great, now I was going to spoil my little sister. Technically, she was a month younger than me, so it still counted. Three days later, we lined up in front of the palace gate. I had given all of the men a backpack, as well as Sir Philip. All of us wore leather armor made of monster leather for the flexibility, though I had spent seven gold on a suit made of Salamander leather, and therefore had level five protection as well as fire resistance. Persy stood at the rear of the formation with the other two mages. She had managed to buy a used healer¡¯s staff with the money I gave her, but from the poor cut of the large rose quartz at the top of it you could tell it wasn¡¯t the best performing one they had available. Still, it should give her enough of a boost to save a bit of mana. She also wore a different backpack than the others. She had found a used backpack at the Adventurer¡¯s guild that was retrieved from a dead adventurer. She had to clean the blood out of the leather, but at only nineteen silvers it was a steal for rating four space and rating five weight enchantments. It even had a rating one preservation enchantment, though we wouldn¡¯t need it to keep our rations safes on this trip. ¡°Alright, everyone,¡± Sir Philip said, addressing the men as I stood beside him. ¡°You¡¯ve already received your mission briefing. If all goes well, we should return in three days. Now, move out.¡± He motioned with his sword and we all set out for the western gate, the nearest one to the mithril mine. I realized as we left the city that this was my first time outside the city. Maybe it would be interesting. Chapter 6 We ran as quickly as we could back towards our camp. Ahead of me I saw Persy trip and fall over. I spun around and held out my hands Emperor Palpatine style as I launched level four forked lightning into the incoming swarm. Several of them fell over, either dead or stunned, but I didn¡¯t have time to figure out which. I ran over and threw Persy over my shoulder, then made for camp. Once we were back inside the parameter of the ward spells I and the other mages had set up the night before I set her down then collapsed on the ground. My training hadn¡¯t included carrying another person while running. I was also low on mana, as that lightning attack had dropped my mana pressure to three. After catching my breath, I sent out several Detection threads into the surrounding woods. Thankfully it looked like the monsters had called off their pursuit and returned to the cave. Other than them the worst threat nearby was a killer squirrel about fifty meters away. I got up and went over to the Captain. He was holding his arm but I assumed it was something minor. ¡°The enemies have retreated. The only monster I sense nearby that could be of any threat is a Killer Squirrel about fifty meters away. Do you want me to neutralize it?¡± ¡°No, leave it be.¡± said Sir Philip. ¡°Even as exhausted as they are any of the men could take it if it attacks. If it really worries you, though, you can kill it yourself.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like getting rocks dropped on me or chestnuts thrown at me either, but you¡¯re right. It isn¡¯t a threat.¡± I went back over to Persy, who was tending to the wounded. ¡°Getting rocks dropped on you?¡± she asked, having overheard us. ¡°Oh, yes,¡± I said, looking at a dislocated ankle. ¡°They can only manage three kilograms or so, but they like to hunt by hauling rocks up into tree branches and trying to drop them on the heads of animals. If they manage to stun one, they can then bite it¡¯s neck and kill it by exsanguination, feeding the whole family before other predators or scavengers show up.¡± The trip there had been uneventful. There were no monster attacks and we managed to get to the mines well before sunset. We set up in a clearing five hundred meters from the mouth of the mine, in case the monsters were patrolling the area. After everyone set up their tent, I noticed that Persy was struggling, as she was never taught how to do that, so I ordered Taylor, the youngest soldier, to help her. Taylor was part of the same training group I was, so I had spent plenty of time around him. He was the type of person to constantly complain about everything, but you put up with it because he was so good at his job. He was the best swordsman of our trainee group, and one of only two people of our group to get his certification with distinction. Those fact were what got him a spot on this mission, despite being new to the guards. When he finished showing her how to set up the tent a few minutes later, constantly insulting her intelligence while doing so, he once again returned to complaining. ¡°So tell me,¡± he said as she started building a cook fire, ¡°how did a slave get ahold of a star mithril ring? It would cost me more than a month¡¯s salary to get one. Did you steal it, or perhaps do something special to earn it?¡± ¡°It belongs to my master. He is loaning it to me for this mission because he would prefer that we have an extra five percent strength to my healing at night than that he has an extra five percent strength to his attack magic.¡± ¡°Really?¡± he said, as if he didn¡¯t believe her. ¡°Then if you have answers for everything, how about you explain to me why you had to drink stamina potions to keep up with us? Shouldn¡¯t slaves have enough strength and stamina to keep up with us?¡± She didn¡¯t immediately respond, and I was getting tired of his attitude, so I stepped in. ¡°She is a domestic slave, not a combat or physical laborer. The most physically taxing thing she normally does is when she helps Lya muck out the stables at the palace.¡± Other than the Lizard man Chef bought recently to tend his garden, Lya the Cat woman milkmaid was the only other beast person at the palace. Because of that she had started helping Lya with her chores just to spend more time with her own people. ¡°Though, if you prefer, I¡¯m sure she would swap with you. Would you prefer to help in the stables while she does calisthenics with the guards in the barracks?¡± I could tell by the look on his face that dealing with the smell of animal dung that had been sitting for several days was the last thing he wanted to do. ¡°No, sir. I would prefer to stick with my normal exercise routine.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I said, nodding. ¡°In that case, go tend to your armor until supper time. You don¡¯t want it to get ruined.¡± He ran off to his tent and started removing his armor. The other soldiers were giggling at him as he started polishing his boots. ¡°The rest of you should probably deal with your armor too.¡± I said, and they snapped back to cleaning it. I made sure Persy didn¡¯t need anything else to make supper, then removed my armor and started cleaning it. I finished a few minutes after the others, then had the squadron¡¯s mages start setting up a perimeter of wards. We couldn¡¯t manage anything as strong as a barrier, but there were plenty of smaller magic circles that would work as alarms if an enemy came near them, as well as circles that would cause various types of discomfort in monsters, or animals of a specific type. That should keep us safe enough. As we finished I saw that Persy had started handing out bowls of stew to the men. Most of them would then pull out hardtack and mix it in with the stew to thicken it. The wards had built in circuits to draw in the ambient mana, so we hadn¡¯t used any mana in making them other than the tiny amount needed to activate them. I let her feed everyone else, including Sir Philip, before getting a bowl and sitting down beside her. ¡°So, how¡¯s your first adventure going?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°It has been fine, but since we started nearing the mine I¡¯ve started to get a headache. I¡¯ve tried curing it, but it doesn¡¯t seem to work.¡± I thought for a few seconds before realizing the reason. ¡°This is the highest background level of mana you¡¯ve ever had to deal with. It¡¯s probably a high three around here, while it¡¯s around point five at the palace.¡± ¡°But you¡¯ve never been in a place like this either, right?¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯ve dealt with level five mana from a core before, and even level six from raw manacite that had some of it¡¯s mithril extracted. You¡¯ve only dealt with the level two or so that the core I loaned you outputs.¡± ¡°Oh, then do you know how to deal with the pain?¡± ¡°You can try meditating. They pain is caused by the excess mana in the environment forcing itself into your body. If you willingly accept it then it won¡¯t damage you as it enters. That should let you adjust to the higher level more easily.¡± ¡°Thank you for the advice.¡± She said, then bowed slightly, which was strange as she was holding a bowl of stew and sitting down. I got up to talk to Sir Philip. ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan, sir?¡± He put his spoon back in his bowl and sat it down. ¡°We¡¯ll camp here for the night, and head into the mine after breakfast.¡± He motioned towards the setting sun. ¡°Some monsters get stronger at night, and the men are a bit tired.¡± ¡°In that case, sir, I¡¯ll set up the night watch.¡± He nodded and I left to talk to the men. I took the first watch along with Taylor, and assigned Persy to the third watch. That would allow us to have a five-man watch for each shift, while keeping Taylor from being alone with her and giving us both eight continuous hours of sleep. Nothing happened during the night and when I woke up I could smell something cooking. Persy had brought enough bacon for one meal, and I could smell it frying. As I got out of my tent I heard several of the other men commenting on the smell. After breakfast everyone grabbed their gear and checked to make sure their belts were full of potions. Once we were ready we marched up to the mines. Surprisingly there weren¡¯t any monsters near the entrance. Sir Philip looked nervous upon seeing this, and ordered us to be on guard. The first hour of our trip we went down several levels without seeing any monster more dangerous than Blood Bats, Cave Rats, and Spitter Roaches. If this was the worst monsters we would come across, we would have no trouble clearing the place. Shining a magic light on the ceiling, one of the mages noticed that the light circles that were supposed to be down here had all been scratched out. They should have been able to run indefinitely due to the high background levels of mana, much like the wards we set up at camp. This didn¡¯t make sense unless there was some monster down here that was sensitive to the light, though the damage was minor, barely enough to deactivate it. An animal wouldn¡¯t have been so careful, which implies a sapient monster with knowledge of magic circles. We repaired an occasional one in order to mark where we had been, carefully making our way through the mine. Shortly after reaching the fourth level we came across a large room. This had probably been a staging area when the cave was open. Our light couldn¡¯t reach the outside walls as we walked across the room. About halfway across we saw something reflect light in the darkness. Sir Philip threw a small, coin shaped magic light five meters ahead of us and it revealed several large monsters standing there. Some were simply larger versions of those we had seen already, but there were also wolves, mantises, snakes, and cockatrice, along with a goblin holding a staff. ¡°Ok, everyone, back away. We need to leave.¡± said Sir Phillip. We started to back away, but a few seconds later one of the men spoke up. ¡°Uh, sir, we¡¯re surrounded.¡± he said, throwing another mana light over towards the exit. It revealed half as many monsters as we had in front of us, as well as two red skinned ogres. ¡°RUN!¡± I yelled, throwing three level five fireballs into the middle of the ogre¡¯s group. They exploded, sending monsters flying away, and knocking the Ogres over. We ran back towards the ladder and started to climb out. The two mages and I were the last to climb out, as we threw spells into the advancing monsters, killing many of them and knocking others down or out. Some of the soldiers even threw in their own spells before climbing the ladder. One of the wolves was even hit by a soldier¡¯s spell and fell over with its leg outstretched, screaming in pain. Wen made it up the ladder and fled the mines, occasionally throwing spells back at the monsters who pursued us the whole way, only letting us get away when we exited the mine. Back at the camp I pulled on the foot of the man with the dislocated ankle, a loud pop telling me I got it back into place. I left for the other injured people and, after ten minutes or so, all of the minor injuries they had picked up had been mostly treated by either me or Persy. ¡°So, I saw you throw that spell back there and knock down the wolf.¡± I said to the last man as I sealed a cut at his ribs from where he got too close to a Mantis. ¡°Pretty effective. What was it?¡± ¡°Oh, that was called ¡®Leg Cramp¡¯ or, as we called it ¡®Charlie Horse¡¯.¡± ¡°Never heard of it.¡± I had stopped the bleeding and was starting to close the wound. ¡°Only ruffians tend to learn it.¡± the man said, wincing from the pain as I did my job a bit too quickly for it to be comfortable. ¡°I grew up in the city¡¯s slums, and me and my friends used to use it on each other and occasionally others as a prank. I¡¯m just glad I got out of there. I¡¯m the only one of that group that hasn¡¯t served time doing hard labor.¡± I finished with his ribs and got up. ¡°I¡¯ll have to look into it when we got back. Could be a good debuff to use in battle.¡± He nodded, and I left to find the Captain. I found him sitting in front of his tent drinking out of a water skin. ¡°So, Cameron, how are the men doing?¡± he asked as I got near him. ¡°Well, we fixed all of the major injuries. We¡¯re both running low on mana, though.¡± He nodded and I noticed that he was lifting the water skin with his off hand. ¡°Are you ok, sir? You are using your off hand.¡± He nodded. ¡°I wanted to make sure you took care of the men first, but I had to block a club swing from one of the Ogres.¡± He carefully held up his arm, showing me that it was broken. ¡°Even through my shield it did this much.¡± I whistled and called for Persy and she ran over. ¡°Captain¡¯s arm is broken. You think you could heal it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± she responded. ¡°I could probably do so in a few hours, after my mana regenerates, but right now I don¡¯t have much left. Setting the fragments would take too much. My osteokinesis isn¡¯t very good.¡± I nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll set them. You just get ready to heal the fractures.¡± Sir Philip let me hold his arm up and I sent detection threads into the arm. I counted seven fragments. I carefully grabbed each fragment and slid it back into place. I could tell Sir Philip was in pain by the way he squirmed and gritted his teeth, but if I stopped now the damage could get worse. It took me about two minutes to finish reconstructing the puzzle of the bones, and when I was done I signaled Persy to start. I felt the energy move into the bone and slowly knit it back together. A few minutes later the energy ended, but the bone was together well enough to stay together. ¡°That¡¯s all I can do for the moment.¡± she said. ¡°My pressure is too low to use that spell any more.¡± Sir Philip nodded. ¡°Can I use my arm now?¡± ¡°Yes. Just don¡¯t lift anything too heavy. I will finish healing it once my mana is back.¡± She stood, bowed, and returned to her tent to meditate. Sir Philip and I spent the next several hours coming up with a plan to clear the mine. Using the old maps we mapped out a course that would allow us to cover every meter of the floor, killing every monster we came across. It would take several hours per floor to do it that way, but it was the only way to make sure that the monsters didn¡¯t flank us. ¡°So, do you think they were with the rebels?¡± I asked him when we finished. Three goblin villages the next county over had attacked the tax collector when he came to collect and, because they had made a deal with a local bandit group to feed them intelligence on nearby shipments in exchange for keeping the guards away, the goblins had so far avoided the guards sent to pacify them. ¡°Unlikely,¡± said Sir Philip. ¡°This mine is too far from the villages that rebelled. Though, I suppose they could be mining the manacite to pay the bandits or mercenaries.¡± Chapter 7 The next morning we once again set out. This time I had gathered some of the magical plants that were nearby and made a few things to help us. Without my alchemy kit, I couldn¡¯t extract essences from them, but I was able to make a powder which would act as a severe irritant to the eyes and throats of the monsters, and a type of cream that was highly flammable. We carefully made our way down every side tunnel of the first level, wiping out nests of rats, bats, and roaches as we went. We eventually ended up at the ladder going down to level two around lunch time, and stopped to take a break. Not wanting to fill the area with smoke, Persy pulled out a metal plate with a magic circle drawn on it and sat a pot on top of it. After filling the pot with all of the ingredients for the soup, she closed her eyes and touched the edge of the plate. A few seconds later it started to heat up. ¡°Isn¡¯t she going to use up all of her mana doing that?¡± our elf mage asked. ¡°Feel the flow of mana around her.¡± I responded. He closed his eyes and a few seconds later a smile appeared on his face. ¡°She¡¯s channeling the ambient mana into it.¡± ¡°Yep. The background in this area is more than enough to heat the food up, the plate just doesn¡¯t have a circuit to automatically draw in the mana. I¡¯m guessing she got the idea from an adventurer when she went to buy her gear.¡± After eating she used a cleaning spell to clean the dishes, and we set out again. The second level didn¡¯t have any new monsters, though the rats and roaches were a bit larger, and by the time the sun was setting on the surface we had cleared all of the monsters and were setting up camp near one of the two ladders going to the third level. The other one had been surrounded by wards and exploding runes, magic circles which would store large amounts of elemental energy and release it all when an unauthorized creature stepped on it. We had set the trigger to ¡°Humanoids¡±, as we had an elf mage and a dwarf swordsman with us. Persy wouldn¡¯t be able to use that ladder without being very careful to walk around the traps, but it should keep the monsters from coming up that way. We used the same watch schedule as we had before, but when everyone was awake in the morning we realized that we hadn¡¯t needed it. The guards had barely even heard the monsters last night. After breaking camp I and the two mages went down first and made sure the passage was clear before everyone else followed. We then followed the path we had decided on two nights before. This time it wasn¡¯t as easy. The mantises had climbed up the ladder, along with one of the ogres. Several of our fighters were injured by the initial run-in with the mantises, as they managed to drop in the middle of the group from the ceiling, but after that we started searching the ceilings. They tried to repeat the tactic twice more, but we saw them before reaching them and either one of the mage or I would throw an attack at them, piercing their thorax and making them fall from the ceiling. Even the ones that managed to survive that level of damage could then be finished off by the fighters as they tried to recover. Normally, relying on the mages to act as ranged fighters would have left them depleted of mana, but in a cave with a background mana level that now reached into the low four range, we could restore any mana spent on those few weak spells in less than ten seconds. As we neared the last corridor before the ladder, we saw the Ogre standing there with ten mantises and carrying a large dog-sized cockatrice. The bird¡¯s saliva had a paralyzing effect if it managed to bite you, and the spurs on the back of its legs contained a deadly poison. We formed a line, with the fighters in front, mages and I in the middle, and Persy at the back, ready to throw in buffs and debuffs, as well as a ranged healing spell at anyone that was hit. Healing injury without being near a person was slower and used more mana than healing when you could touch them, but she might be able to stop bleeding or neutralize the paralyzing or deadly poisons the bird might use. The Ogre roared and the mantises swarmed at us. I and the two mages hurled fire balls and lightning, managing one spell each before they reached our front line. I would have preferred using a proper shield wall to break the enemy¡¯s attack, but their shields weren¡¯t large enough nor did the men have spears. Still, most of the men were able to get in the first attack against the mantises. Seeing two of the men go down, I cast a physical boost spell on myself and ran into the gap created by their collapse, drawing my sword. While I hadn¡¯t bothered to upgrade my weapon, my upgraded armor managed to stop the attack that got though my poor swordsmanship. This failure to injure me bought me an opening and I brought the end of my sword down on the mantis¡¯s neck, severing its head. I saw the cockatrice jump at the Captain, a move which he raised his shield to block, I reached out my hand, throwing a shard of ice at it. While they were agile fighters, they had poor defense and was currently distracted. The physical attack pierced its side, causing it to stumble slightly. The Captain took the opportunity to stab it under the wing, piercing its lungs and causing it to collapse. With his charge failing, the Ogre decided to join in with the attack. He crashed into two of the men that had managed to defeat their opponents and sent them flying. The Captain and several others turned their attention to him just in time to see him swing his enormous club down at them. I realized why they had chosen this stretch of corridor rather than one of the smaller ones at that point, but it didn¡¯t matter. With the men jumping around trying to dodge his swings I couldn¡¯t get a clear shot. I looked around for enemies, but the other fighters had finished them off. I saw Persy tending to the worse off of the two men that were thrown. I prepared a lightning ball, intending to paralyze him if it didn¡¯t kill him, and after about five seconds the Captain dodging out of the way gave me an opening. I threw the attack and he screamed in pain as the lightning jumped across his body. He fell to one knee, the pain and muscle spasms making it hard to stand, and the Captain¡¯s blade came down on his neck, severing his head and leaving the corridor floor covered in his blood. Seeing that the battle was over, I ran over and started healing people. One of the men that tried to challenge the ogre, the dwarf, had taken a club to the head, so I started trying to stop the bleeding in his brain. Thankfully he was wearing a helmet or he likely wouldn¡¯t have an intact head left. Brain damage was too far beyond my ability to treat, but I could at least stop the internal bleeding. I sent mana into the blood vessels in his head, ordering it to clot the blood anywhere it left the capillaries. I was careful to make sure it didn¡¯t clot inside the capillaries, as that would cause him to have a stroke. When I was close to finishing Persy ran over and took over. She had been studying the Intermediate Healer¡¯s Handbook and, while she didn¡¯t have that certification yet, I had no doubt that she could do most of the more advanced spells. With her taking over and actually repairing some of the bruising in his brain, I set to work fixing broken bones and cuts, sometimes just bandaging the wounds and ordering them to drink a healing potion. They didn¡¯t act quickly, the level four healing potions I providing essentially just making you heal at sixteen times the normal rate, but I couldn¡¯t spare the attention to do much more right now. It took the two of us thirty minutes, with the two mages and few uninjured guards like the Captain standing guard, before we had treated everyone. We hadn¡¯t lost anyone, but the Dwarf, who I now learned was named Solace, hadn¡¯t woken up after being healed, and seven of the twelve men had been injured. ¡°Should we take a break, Captain?¡± I asked. ¡°The healing probably used up a lot of nutrition.¡± he responded. ¡°We¡¯ll take a thirty minute break to rest, and let the mages recharge their mana. After that, we¡¯ll move out.¡± ¡°And if Solace hasn¡¯t woken up by then?¡± one of the men asked. ¡°Then someone will have to carry him. I won¡¯t leave him behind.¡± The men nodded at this, and I saw several of them break out jerky, nuts, or dried fruits, things that were easy to eat without warming them up. Taylor walked over to Persy and I watched him carefully as I popped some candied fruit into my mouth. Stress made people do stupid things sometimes. ¡°Hey, I just wanted to say thank you.¡± I tried to think of why he would say that, then realized that he was one of the two men the ogre had thrown. ¡°When that ogre hit me I thought I was a goner. A rib broke and punctured one of my lungs. But you saved my life. Sure, I¡¯m not at one hundred percent yet, but I¡¯ll manage. So thanks.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. She smiled and said he should think nothing of it, as that was her job. I could tell he wouldn¡¯t just forget about it, though, as he nodded and went back to sit with the other guy that was thrown. Persy and I both managed to mostly refill our mana before Sir Philip ordered us all to stand up so we could continue. One of the men handed me something before we sat out, the spurs of the cockatrice. ¡°Maybe an alchemist can do something with them.¡± he said. I nodded and thanked him, placing them in my backpack. Once I was back home I was sure I could extract the poison, but here I wasn¡¯t sure how I could use them. We made our way through the rest of the level, clearing out the rest of the mantises that we came across and within a few hours we were at the ladder leading down to level four. ¡°Ok, men. Let¡¯s take a break.¡± Several men sat near the top of the hole listening, occasionally hearing animal noises or speech in the ancient goblin language, but no one tried to come up the ladder. We still didn¡¯t cook anything, but we did eat some rations, Persy and I patched up what surface injuries were still left, and then we meditated. Solace had woken up about thirty minutes before we stopped, and he was now watching over Persy and I as we meditated, making sure that nothing harmed the two that saved his life. An hour later, I heard the men start to get up and put on their gear and I got up. I had actually finished refilling my mana a few minutes earlier, but was practicing using the ambient mana to cast Physical Boost, as I still wasn¡¯t the best with it. I was now a few percent stronger and more dexterous than I was before. Hopefully it would come in handy. In battle even a hundredth of a second could mean the difference between life and death. Once we were ready, we lowered a mirror on four strings down the hole. This allowed us to look down the corridor where we were ambushed last time. We threw a few mana lights down the hole, but they didn¡¯t push the darkness back much. ¡°Let me try something.¡± I said. I conjured a ball of light and made it float down the hole and down the corridor. It made it past the branch tunnel and into the room beyond without revealing any enemies. ¡°I think we need to go for it.¡± I said. Sir Philip nodded. ¡°Mages first. Watch the side tunnel.¡± I nodded and jumped down the hole, padding my fall with a quick burst of levitation. I couldn¡¯t manage to fly with it, yet, but I could break my fall with it. I hugged the right wall, watching the branch tunnel on the left, and prepared a lightning ball just in case. The other two mages jumped down behind me, one taking the left and one stepping several paces forward before kneeling. When, after five seconds, we hadn¡¯t been attacked, the others started climbing down. Once everyone was down, we moved forward. My light ball stayed in place and was slowly dimming, as it would be difficult for me to move it or recharge it now that I was concentrating on another spell. We moved past it into the room. Several soldiers threw mana lights around the room, and the other two mages threw lightballs. Soon the entire floor was lit up revealing no enemies. ¡°DO you think they abandoned this area?¡± asked Taylor. ¡°Mages, send your light balls towards the ceiling.¡± I said. The balls flew straight up, revealing several walkways built of old crates and support beams, all of which were covered in monsters. I didn¡¯t hesitate. Seeing the Ogre prepare to jump I hurled my lightning ball at him, catching him just as his feet left the platform. He spasmed and screamed until a few seconds later there was a loud crunch as he landed on the ground, legs and back shattered from the fall. The wolves and cockatrices jumped down as well, and we ignored the ogre as I and the other two mages started hurling spells at the falling enemies. Soon there were three enemies mixed in with us for ever one of us. Even Persy was forced to back up to a wall and cast Sanctuary on herself so that she could dodge the incoming attacks. With the monsters too close to my comrades I drew my sword and charged the nearest wolf. It caught my sword with its teeth and I channeled lightning into the blade, burning it and heating up the blade. Normal steel wasn¡¯t meant to be used like that, and I had no doubt weakened the blade, but I could replace it when I got back to town. When the wolf reeled back from the pain I jumped sideways and sunk the hot blade into its neck, causing it to collapse. I then ran at a cockatrice and swung at it. It tried to dodge, but my blade nicked the side of its neck and ti started pouring blood. I continued to swing as I saw several of my men take blows from the enemy, but after killing five of them I had enough of an opening to try something. I sent multiple detection threads into the walkways above us, using the ¡°Race Detection¡± power I had practiced with. One of them hit something it registered as a goblinoid, so I threw a fire ball to the underside of the walkway where it detected it. The walkway exploded, and I saw the goblin start to fall, only for a strong wind to blow up from the ground and break its fall. I ran at the goblin, throwing fire darts as it was the fastest attack I had, but the goblin managed to dodge. Time to get creative, then. I pulled out the eye irritant I made on the surface and threw it near the goblin¡¯s feet. The goblin screamed and started rubbing his eyes, leaving himself open for the second vial, the flammable sludge. It covered him and I stopped. Time to make the most of a utility spell. I snapped my fingers and a spark of flame flew from my thumb and finger, flying towards the goblin. When it struck, the goblin went up like a candle. He tried to roll on the ground to put out the flames, but the sludge would just reignite once it was exposed to air again. He burned for another twenty seconds before the flames went out and I could hear him heaving in pain. He was covered in second and third degree burns, and most of them were filled with dirt, the only benefit of which was that it slowed the bleeding. I walked over to him. ¡°Tell me, why are you here.¡± The goblin said something to me but, while I recognized the ancient goblin language, I couldn¡¯t speak it. I considered casting a Language spell before I realized that he must understand me. ¡°Are you with the rebels?¡± I asked, trying again. He responded with a four word phrase, two of which I recognized as expletives, before breathing his last breath. I turned around to see that the others were just finishing off the last of the monsters. I looked over to where Persy was healing one of the men that must have gotten bitten by a cockatrice, as he wasn¡¯t moving but had his eyes open and looked like he wanted to. A few had also been bitten by wolves, but they wounds weren¡¯t bad enough that bandaging them wouldn¡¯t be enough for now. ¡°Well, looks like we won,¡± said Taylor, but a sound coming from all around us tried to prove him wrong. From the four tunnels which lead into this one giant snakes and thousands of cockroaches swarmed towards us. I realized that this must have been the goblin¡¯s fallback plan, to swarm us with hundreds of weak monsters. We circled up, placing our backs towards the center of the circle, and the two mages and I started flooding the area outside the circle with area effect spells. I threw fireballs, the elf Ice balls, and the other mage lightning. Monsters died by the hundreds, but still some of them made it through our attacks. The fighters swung at them as fast as they could. The roaches died in one hit, and the snakes in two, but still we weren¡¯t making a dent in them. Occasionally an attack would make it through, and one of the fighters would take a minor injury. It wasn¡¯t long before all three of us mages were channeling the ambient mana directly into our spells, our internal levels being lower than the outside levels, and the movement of the fighters started to get sluggish as the minor wounds piled up and their stamina bottomed out. I wasn¡¯t sure we could hold out for another minute. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Persy was panicking out of terror. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about that at this time. Just as I started to resign myself to death by a thousand snakebites, I saw fire start to surround Persy. It spun in a circle, building upon itself as she poured all her mana into it, then began channeling ambient mana into it as well. After twenty seconds of growth it started moving towards the enemies. I went into the densest group of them, like a flaming tornado. In fact, that was exactly what this spell was. I remembered seeing ¡°Flame Tornado¡± in the Army Mage Training Manual I was reading, but had never learned it. The tornado started going around the outside of the circle in a spiral. Everywhere it touched an enemy they burnt alive. With the enemies thus thinned out, we were able to finish off the rest. A minute of so later, Persy let the tornado disappear and we found ourselves in the middle of a field of charred corpses. The men cheered, but I could tell that some of them were unhappy about the fact that they would be unable to salvage much of worth from the corpses. Traditionally, guards on patrol could keep half of any monster salvage they gathered while on patrol, and as this mission was ordered by the Count, it counted, no pun intended. Now, with all of these corpses burnt so badly, they would have to be content with the mantis corpses from level three, monsters that were worth considerably less. Persy looked like she was in shock from the experience. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry.¡± she just kept saying. I went over to her. ¡°What are you sorry about?¡± ¡°A slave shouldn¡¯t learn combat magic unless they are a combat slave. You told me that, but I still snuck a look at your manual sometimes when you were asleep. I¡¯m sorry. Please don¡¯t punish me.¡± I didn¡¯t know why she was afraid of me. I had never abused her or punished her severely, unless you counted the occasional prank spell to get her to behave, like when I used a light ice spell to wake her up after she first moved in. Maybe she had gotten the idea from Lya? I knew mother abused her sometimes. I grabbed Persy and hugged her. ¡°I¡¯m not mad. You saved our lives. Thank you.¡± She stopped panicking and looked surprised, and a bit embarrassed. ¡°Master, I don¡¯t think this is the time for that.¡± I realized what it probably looked like and released her, a bit embarrassed myself. The other men laughed and several of them came over to shake her hand. ¡°I knew she had a talent for fire magic, but I wasn¡¯t expecting that,¡± said Sir Philip, then chuckled. ¡°Come on, men. Let¡¯s finish up here so we can get back to the surface and have our savior cook us a celebratory dinner.¡± The men cheered, and we got back into formation. Persy and I channeled a bit of the ambient mana into stopping the bleeding of a few men, but no one had serious enough injuries to need treatment. The rest of the tunnels seemed to have collapsed, though. Apparently, when they pulled out the supports to build the overhead walkways, the tunnels were no longer able to support the weight of the ceiling and collapsed. I checked the corpses of the goblin caster and the ogre before we left, just in case they had something on them. The ogre didn¡¯t have anything of value on him, but the goblin had two items of interest, a stone statue of Kulkik, the goblin deity of war, and a staff. Though the wood of the staff had been mostly burnt away, the crystal at the top looked to still be functional. It was an amethyst the size of a fist, and I could tell when I put a detection thread into it that it had been alchemically altered to be a mana storage crystal. One that size could probably improve my mana reserves by fifty percent, perhaps more for Persy or one of the other mages. We discussed it with the others, and they said that, as I killed the Goblin Monster Tamer, I was entitled to his loot. After grabbing the few organs on a mantis that were worth anything, with me advising them that the eyes contained Essence of Night Vision, we left the cave and returned to camp. Chapter 8 The next day we returned to the palace and gave the men the next two days off. Sir Philip and I reported what we found to Father. I even set the two items I found on the dead goblin on his desk. ¡°Do you suspect any link to the rebels?¡± Father asked. ¡°Unlikely.¡± responded Sir Philip. ¡°I believe it is more likely that they were Traditionalists.¡± The Traditionalist movement had been a part of goblinoid culture for thousands of years. It was made up of goblinoids who wanted to go back to the way things were before the invasion of the human and dwarven lands by the Elven Empire forced the nations to assimilate the goblinoids into their cultures. They believed in a ¡°might makes right¡± mentality and believed that the strong should rule over the weak. ¡°I believe that the villages still worship our gods, even if they dislike our government. They allow priest to movve through their territory unmolested. Even the bandits they work with merely demand a toll from the priests for moving through their territory, and if they refuse, take their whole coinpurse instead. That suggests that they still believe in our gods and don¡¯t want to incur their wrath by killing of seriously injuring their messengers.¡± ¡°There is also the fact that Kulkik encourages the sacrifice of sapient beings, especially prisoners of war and the priests and prophets of other gods. If the villagers were followers of Kulkik, they would have kidnapped the priests and sacrificed them to their god, not allowed them to travel freely.¡± Finally reading all of those books on other religions had paid off. Father nodded. ¡°So, just a traditionalist trying to gather his power. Good. The last time there was a traditionalist uprising a hundred and twenty years ago we lost around fifteen hundred troops pacifying them. I received word two days ago that Cerian has laid claim to some of our southern counties and had declared war on us in order to get them.¡± ¡°But they ceded those lands to us sixty years ago after we defeated them. Why would they try to retake them?¡± ¡°Apparently, they had a population boom over the last few decades, and need the rich farm lands in that area to feed their people. We were in talks to export grain to them, but someone in power must have decided that taking the grain farms by force was a better option.¡± ¡°Does that mean that the men will be shipped to the southern border, then, Father?¡± I asked. ¡°Not at this time. The armies of the local counts and their Duke have been able to hold off the invaders so far. Hopefully Cerian will realize how futile the effort is and pull back. The best they could hope for as things stand is a white peace.¡± I nodded and he handed me back the two objects we had found. ¡°Take the statue to the temple and have it deconsecrated and destroyed. You can then take a break.¡± Anyone with the ability to sense mana could sense the divine power coming from the statue, twisted as it was. This allowed the deity who consecrated the statue to track it and use it to extend their influence. The priests would need to call on the power of another deity to remove the power, so that Kulkik wouldn¡¯t be able to use the statue to target them when they tried to destroy it. Meanwhile, in the castle kitchen Persy entered and greeted the Chef. ¡°Hello, chef. I have some things I need to give you. She set her backpack on the floor and pulled out a bird wrapped in cloth that was larger than any turkey. She could barely lift it, but with chef¡¯s help she set it on the counter and unwrapped it. ¡°A Cockatrice?¡± Chef asked. ¡°Very tricky to prepare.¡± ¡°I knew you needed to neutralize the poison by soaking it with medicinal herbs, but I didn¡¯t know which ones, so¡­¡± She reached into the backpack again and pulled out four bundles of herbs, any one of which would sell for several silver. ¡°Lord Cameron showed me which medicinal herbs grew near our camp, and I picked these, in case they would work.¡± Chef looked over the bundles and nodded. ¡°This one neutralizes paralytics and this one neutralizes sedatives. I¡¯ll need both of them, but I¡¯ll dry any of these I don¡¯t use and give them to Lord Cameron once they are ready. Anything in particular he wanted to do with it?¡± ¡°He wanted to throw a feast for the men that went on the mission to the mines, as I accidentally destroyed most of the loot.¡± ¡°Used that flame tornado I saw you practicing, didn¡¯t you?¡± Persy nodded, looking ashamed. ¡°Well, as long as it was necessary, I¡¯m sure they don¡¯t mind too much. I can probably have the bird prepared by noon tomorrow, so how about a lunch feast?¡± ¡°He was hoping for a night time one, so they could drink as much as they wanted. He is even sending me to buy a keg of mead from the tavern once I leave here.¡± The price of honey was quite high in this region, so the barrel of mead would probably cost at least a gold. ¡°In that case, tomorrow night will work. I¡¯ll make sure we have some nice dishes to go with it. Maybe even use some sugar in the dessert.¡± Sugar was another commodity that cost more than most people could afford.¡± ¡°Does that mean you¡¯ll be making your famous pies?¡± ¡°That it does. Please inform Lord Cameron of the plan, then tell Sir Quickblade so he can inform the men.¡± I stopped by the palace shrine before heading to the main temple. Normally, one would go straight to the larger religious building, but the temple didn¡¯t have all of the statues of the gods I had. Notably, I had a statue of the Lord of the Forest, which the temple refused to have, as too many influential people saw it as a sign that they favored beastfolk. Other than the three beastfolk slaves and occasionally father before he went on a hunt, I was the only one that prayed to it. Normally a person would merely be able to direct their prayers through the statue and hope the deity heard them, but in my case, as the Lord of the Forest had left his mark on my soul, I was able to essentially have a telephone conversation with them. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Oh, hey.¡± Said the Lord. ¡°I saw you clear that mine. Good job. I thought at the end that you were finished, but our Persimmon came through for us.¡± ¡°She certainly did. The men even kind of respect her for it. They started treating her more like an equal than a slave on the way back.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to hear. Maybe that attitude will spread among the people. Unlikely though, unless she saves the city. I doubt you called me to talk about how amazing our girl is, though.¡± ¡°Actually, I called to ask about this statue.¡± I went to touch the statue of Kulkik and he stopped me. ¡°Don¡¯t. He might listen in. I¡¯m surprised that brute can even find people dumb enough to follow him.¡± ¡°Probably promises them a lot of power.¡± I responded. ¡°I¡¯m sure he does, but I was referring to how stupid his position is. I know that in nature sometimes you have to kill to survive, or even to defend your territory and property, but sacrificing people just to demonstrate your resolve, including the priests of other gods? That¡¯s just asking for people to hate you.¡± ¡°Still, I¡¯ve met people with a similar attitude, so he¡¯ll probably always have idiots willing to follow him.¡± ¡°Seems so. So I¡¯m assuming you want me to deconsecrate the statue so you can break it?¡± ¡°I¡¯d better not. I don¡¯t think Father has figured out that I have a connection to you, and that would give it away. I should just take it to the temple like he said.¡± ¡°Fair enough. Well, keep me updated on how Persy is doing, ok? Talk to you later.¡± I could feel them cut the connection, so I stood up and made my way to the temple. The next night in the ballroom Sir Philip toasted our success and all of the men held up their mugs and cheered. Marya and Tanya walked around making sure everyone¡¯s mugs were full and changing out the plates of expensive snacks on the banquet table. ¡°So, where¡¯s the little girl?¡± Solace asked me. ¡°I was expecting her to come to the party.¡± ¡°Oh, she¡¯ll be joining us in a little while. She and Chef have been working on something special for the meal all day.¡± Just as I said it Chef and Persy entered through the kitchen door carrying a massive platter. Marya and Tanya quickly cleared a spot on the table and they set the tray there. ¡°What type of bird is that? It¡¯s huge.¡± said Taylor. ¡°A Cockatrice!¡± exclaimed Solace. ¡°I haven¡¯t tasted one since I left home, but I know what they look like.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s why you brought it back with you.¡± said Sir Philip. The others started lining up at the table as Chef started cutting off pieces and handing them out. ¡°Hope you enjoy.¡± said Chef. ¡°The girl and I have been slow roasting it over a fire for the last four hours.¡± Everyone agreed that it was, indeed, some of the best meat they had ever tasted. I got some for myself, and took a bite. It tasted a bit like quail, but with a half mint half rosemary flavor that was no doubt the result of the medicinal herbs he soaked it in to neutralize the poisons. Several hours later, after everyone had recounted every part of the mission several times over, the party started winding down and Father entered. Everyone stopped their discussions and looked at him as he stood on the stage at the end of the ballroom. ¡°I just want to thank all of you for the wonderful job you did at the mines. I dispensed a group of miners early this morning to the mines and they verified that the place was cleared. They will begin mining tomorrow.¡± Several people cheered, and he waited for them to be quiet before continuing. ¡°Because of that, I am giving you all a bonus. One gold per person.¡± They cheered again, and Father came down off the stage. He handed a bag of coins to Sir Philip, said something to him, and left. Sir Philip walked around the room handing a coin to everyone that had come with us. The men looked at the coin like it was precious to them. Guard duty normally only paid a silver per day. That coin was worth twenty days of their labor, a month when you account for days off. Most of them would probably buy something expensive with it, but some would be smart and upgrade their equipment. Sir Philip walked over and tried to hand me two gold coins. ¡°What¡¯s the extra coin for?¡± I asked. ¡°Your slave contributed to the mission, so you get their bonus and payment as well.¡± he responded. ¡°Oh, well, I don¡¯t really need it.¡± I motioned at Persy, who was talking to Solace, and she came over. ¡°Sir Philip here has something for you.¡± Sir Philip gave me a look like I was acting strange, and I shrugged. He shrugged as well, then handed Persy the gold coin. ¡°I¡¯ll bring the two of you your normal pay tomorrow.¡± he said, the went to talk to the others. Persy stared at the coin in disbelief. ¡°Is this really for me?¡± ¡°of course, you did the work. You get the pay.¡± ¡°But, but, I¡¯m a slave. Slaves don¡¯t get paid. We just do what our masters say to and hope our masters give us nice things in exchange.¡± ¡°In that case, consider that the ¡®nice thing in exchange¡¯. You did a great job out there and I wanted to reward you.¡± She started crying. ¡°Thank you.¡± she said. I probably should give her a hug, but with father watching I knew that doing so would just get me another awkward lecture. Instead, I put my hand on her shoulder. After a minute or so, she stopped crying, thanked me again, and left to tell the other servants about it. A few hours later I returned to my room and crawled into bed. Persy wasn¡¯t there yet, so I took my shoes off and climbed under the sheets. With the slight amount of alcohol in my system I went to sleep easily. When I woke up the next morning I noticed that Persy was laying on the bed beside me. ¡°Hey,¡± I said poking her. She woke up groggily and looked at me. ¡°Master?¡± she said. ¡°What are you doing on the floor?¡± Then she realized where she was and jumped out of bed. ¡°I am so sorry, sir. I had no right to share the bed with you. Please forgive me.¡± She bowed as deeply as she could, then winced in pain. ¡°Hangover?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes master.¡± she said, not raising her head. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll just assume you drunk too much and didn¡¯t realize what you were doing. Now, do you mind casting a detox spell on both of us? I don¡¯t know if I can manage it.¡± ¡°Yes, master.¡± she said, then reached out her hand and touched my head. Within seconds I felt the headache disappear, and suddenly had to use the toilet. I hopped out of bed and ran to the toilet as Persy cast the same spell on herself. As soon as I was out she entered herself. ¡°I¡¯ll draw you a bath.¡± she said, closing the door behind herself. I guess the spell made her kidneys work overtime too. A few minutes later I heard the water start to run and got undressed, wrapping a towel around my waist. When she came out I went in and hopped into the bath. After getting out I got dressed and went downstairs. I had the day off, so I ate breakfast and went into town. I swung by the Healer¡¯s Guild, and registered myself for the Healer Certification. I bought a copy of the Healer¡¯s Guide and three copies of the Combat Healer¡¯s supplement, a total of five silver as the supplements only cost one silver each, then sat down to read the table of contents. Most things were spells I had already learned or exercises I could already perform, like the dodge training I did for my swordsmanship certification. I did see two spells that I didn¡¯t know already, however. The first was Sanctuary. It would redirect any physical attack that would hit you, making it less likely to do so. The second was Flash Heal. It sacrificed quality of healing to greatly improve the speed of healing. It was mainly used to heal serious or mortal injuries. It would leave a bad scar, but that could be taken care of later with a proper healing spell. We still had three weeks left before the end of the month, and I was sure that I could learn the two spells during that time, so I asked Glenda if I could register for a second test that same day. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we can only administer one test per person per day due to scheduling issues. If you want to, however, you could pay for a special session.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll just register to take my Combat Healer certification at the end of next month instead.¡± She nodded and I gave her the coin. ¡°Actually, can I register Persy for the Intermediate Healer certification at the end of this month as well? She went with us on a mission and used several of the intermediate spells, so I¡¯m sure she can pass it.¡± I pulled out an extra silver and handed it to her. ¡°Of course.¡± she said and registered the two of us. ¡°All set. I¡¯ll see you at the end of the month, then.¡± she said. ¡°Unless, of course, you have more essences to sell us before then.¡± ¡°Probably will. We picked some medicinal herbs while in the high mana zone, so I should have some good ones. I just haven¡¯t inventoried or extracted them yet.¡± She nodded and I said goodbye, then left. I returned home and found Marya. She was cleaning the ballroom, as several of the men had spilled food or drink on the expensive hardwood floor last night. As I watched she waved her hand at some of the stains and they became a fine powder on the ground that could be swept up. That was a useful cleaning spell. ¡°Hey Marya.¡± I said. ¡°Oh, Lord Cameron. Good to see you.¡± she said, then came over. ¡°What brings you here?¡± I pulled the manual and supplement out of my backpack and handed them to her. ¡°I said I¡¯d get you the books so you could learn magic, so here they are. I also bought Persy and myself the supplement, so if you want to train with us in that area, we can all practice together.¡± She hugged the book to here ample chest and bowed. ¡°Thank you.¡± she said. Unsure what to do, I scratched my head. ¡°We usually study for an hour every night at eight in my room. Come by if you want to.¡± I stood for a few seconds as she nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll let you get back to work.¡± I made my way out of the room. Dang it, I was getting embarrassed just talking to her. Apparently I wasn¡¯t over her yet. Guess I¡¯d better work out. I spent the rest of the afternoon running laps around the city wall, using Reinvigorate whenever I got tired, and didn¡¯t get home until sunset. At least my head was clear now. Chapter 9 I spent the next several days practicing my swordmanship and healing magic. Every night I helped teach healing magic to Marya. She seemed to get a handle on the easier spells quickly, but her mana pressure and capacity were too low to really practice or get an effect the first night. They second night, however, Persy loaned her the Core necklace I had given her all those years ago. I noticed that Persy had a new core necklace, one which was smaller and had a silver chain. As it was putting out mana at a pressure of four, I immediately knew what she had spent her gold coin bonus on. With a source of mana to channel, Marya rapidly expanded her mana capacity and increased her pressure to three over the course of the next week. To increase it further would be quite difficult unless she were to acquire a better core as well. Now that she had enough mana, however, she was able to learn most of the entry level healing spells. At the end of the week I informed Persy that I had signed her up for the Intermediate Healer¡¯s certification. She seemed both happy and concerned about it, as she still believed that she had more to learn before she was ready. In order to help her, I offered to let her practice at the Healer¡¯s Union Clinic. It was set up as a place where the poor could go to get the worst of their injuries treated, even if they only dealt with serious injuries. They allowed trainees to volunteer to work, and in return get advise from the senior healers and practice using their magic in real world situations. I took Persy by there and we went inside. ¡°Slave and livestock entrance is to the side.¡± the receptionist said, pointing to her right. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not bringing her here for treatment,¡± I said. ¡°She has her beginning healer certification already, and is testing for the intermediate at the end of the month. She just needs more practice with the more advanced spells.¡± The woman gave us a quizical look, like she didn¡¯t understand why anyone would train a slave, then nodded. ¡°Can I see her certification, then?¡± Persy pulled out her ID and handed it to the woman. ¡°My name¡¯s Persy.¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s short for Persimmon.¡± ¡°Yes, I can see that.¡± the woman said, before calling someone over from behind the counter, and handing Persy back her ID. The woman motioned to Persy. ¡°The fox is a guild certified healer and will be helping us for the next few days. See if she can handle those two injured sheep, and if she manages to heal them, assign her to the livestock group for the rest of the day.¡± She looked back at Persy. ¡°Do well on that and you might get to work on other slaves tomorrow.¡± Persy nodded and bowed slightly. ¡°Thank you.¡± she said, then followed the other person behind the counter. Persy didn¡¯t get home until after sunset. She looked exhausted. Apparently, the fact that she had a Core necklace was taken as an excuse to use her as a mana battery to recharge all of the other mages between healing pets and livestock. Mana Transference was technically in the intermediate handbook, so she couldn¡¯t complain, but it was a secondary skill that you didn¡¯t need to learn to pass the intermediate certification. I let her use the bath before me so that she could destress. Before sunrise the next morning she set out for the clinic again, carrying nothing but her backpack with some food in it and her staff. Again, today, they had used her as a conduit to recharge all of the staff, and even some of the customers, but at least she got to practice on other beastfolk, so it wasn¡¯t a complete loss. The third day she set out before sunrise again, only this time they had her work on some of the poorer customers, mostly people from the slums that the more well-off healers didn¡¯t like working with. As she had worked in the stables and done laundry for years, she didn¡¯t mind the scent of body odor, even when it was that bad, and was able to treat all of the people they brought to her. At the end of the day the manager called her over. Her help would no longer be needed, as she had demonstrated that ability to perform all of the spells required by an intermediate healer, and several more trainees wanted her position. While I had no doubt that the woman simply didn¡¯t like working with beastfolk, Persy seemed okay with the situation. She had proven to the woman and herself that she was capable of passing the test. By the end of the month I had mastered the two new spells in the Combat Healer guide. I had also volunteered at the clinic, but my experience was much different. The manager treated me with respect and only had me heal rich merchants and lesser nobles. The most serious wound I had to deal with was a stab wound from a duel for the honor of the noble¡¯s sister, which flash heal quickly sealed before I used more traditional healing spells to erase the scar. Apparently, the fact that his sister often snuck out of the house to drink with her multiple male friends in no way implied that she was a ¡°loose woman¡± as the other noble had said. I still had a month before I would need to test for the combat role, but maybe Persy and I could test together. Our two tests went well, with both of us passing, Persy with distinction. For the next week we both volunteered mornings at the clinic to practice our emergency healing. Again, I was sent to deal with minor nobles who couldn¡¯t afford private healers and rich merchants and she was sent to the other wing, where the poor went. At least she was mostly assigned to dealing with people from the slums who got into bar fights this time instead of livestock. In the afternoons, while Persy helped around the house, I practiced my swordsmanship. I had channeled lightning through my sword during the assault on the mine, which was a thing normally reserved for Magic Swordsmen. Maybe I should look into that? I found Sir Philip in the barracks playing cards with some of the men. ¡°Hello, sir Philip.¡± I said. I saw Pancho laying on the ground beside him, so I cast Fire Resistance on my hand and knelt down to pet him. ¡°Hey there. Who¡¯s a good boy?¡± I asked the hellhound as he started waving his tail. He tried to lick my face, but I held up my arm so that he would lick my arm instead. Hellhounds had tiny barbs on their tongues so that they could me easily strip the skin off of their victims, and I didn¡¯t want that to happen to my face. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°No, boy.¡± said Sir Philip. ¡°No licking faces.¡± He looked at me. ¡°Sorry about that. I thought I trained him not to do that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± I said. ¡°I can heal my arm.¡± ¡°So, what brings you here, sir?¡± he asked me. ¡°I was wondering what you could tell me about getting my Magic Swordsman certification. Even if I don¡¯t get it, learning to properly mix magic and sword play will come in handy.¡± ¡°Well,¡± he said, ¡°I got mine from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, while you father got his from the Mage¡¯s Guild. I think the Mage¡¯s guild would probably work better for you.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± I asked. ¡°They are the same certification.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like when you chose the Mages Guild for your Combat Mage certification instead of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. The Adventurers train you to incorporate magic into your sword strikes. The Mages train you to incorporate sword strikes into your magic.¡± ¡°So, two different paths to the same point?¡± ¡°Slightly different end points, but not that far from each other. You are more like your father, with more talent in magic than swordsmanship. So that route will be easier for you.¡± ¡°In that case, after I get the training manual, can you train me? I can pay.¡± Sir Philip looked confused. ¡°You sure about that? Shouldn¡¯t you ask your dad?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s too busy, but I can if you want me to.¡± ¡°Sure. I don¡¯t want to step on the Count¡¯s toes. If he isn¡¯t able to do it, I can.¡± I went to Father¡¯s office and knocked on the door. He said I could come in, so I entered. ¡°Oh, Cam. I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you.¡± There were two large stacks of papers on his desk, which he had to look around. ¡°Hello, Father. I was just wondering if you would be willing to teach me Magic Swordsmanship.¡± ¡°I wish I could, but I just have so much paperwork. Now that the mines have reopened we are getting new trade offers every day. I can barely keep up with all the requests.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that be mother¡¯s job?¡± I asked. ¡°These are official deals, not business deals. More politics than business.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± I responded. ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask Sir Philip? He¡¯s also a magic swordsman.¡± I already had, but I didn¡¯t want to tell him that he was my second choice. ¡°I¡¯ll do that.¡± He nodded and I left. Well, guess I¡¯ll inform Sir Philip. That afternoon I bought the training manual and brought it home to start reading. Apparently, the main skill I needed to learn was to channel the spell around the weapon instead of through it. Iron was one of the more difficult materials to channel magic through and would waste most of the magical energy through heating up. By channeling the magic around the blade you could avoid that. Sure, more expensive metals like silver and mithril could be channeled through more easily, but 99% of blades were made of iron or steel. After that the book mostly discussed different means for directing spells using a sword. You could channel a basic fire spell around the sword, the swing it in a specific way to throw a fire bolt, or channel spells into the ground by stabbing it, making it an area effect. The next day I met Sir Philip in the training field and we started going over the techniques. It took me about three days to learn to properly channel spells around the blade, and another two to learn to swing it well enough to throw a fire bolt by just channeling the spell around the blade. I kept practicing, but I wasn¡¯t able to learn anything else by the end of the month. Persy and I took the same test this time, and I managed to actually beat her in this test. She performed slightly better on the casting portion of the test than me, but I greatly outperformed her on the written portion, getting almost a perfect score. We both got the new combat certification. The next month would contain my thirteenth birthday, so I knew mother would want to throw me another party. The pregnancy was getting fairly advanced, though, so I wasn¡¯t sure she would bother with it this time. She wasn¡¯t the only one that was pregnant though. A few days after Persy and I got our Combat Healer certification Tanya informed us that she was pregnant. Upon hearing this Mother forced Father to drink a Potion of Truth and interrogated him about the situation, but this time he wasn¡¯t the father. That would be Sir Philip. It turns out that they had been seeing each other for over a year in secret, but now that she was pregnant he had proposed to her. Once the wedding was over he would also officially adopt Marya. He knew who her true father was, but didn¡¯t mind as long as Father didn¡¯t try to cuckold him. Because of this, Marya would need to have a combat and occupational certification in just over two years if she wanted to also be a knight. Normally nobles saw getting a combat and occupational certification that were very similar to each other as a way to game the system, but for the child of a knight, especially the adopted child that wasn¡¯t adopted until they were thirteen, it would be acceptable. Because she was going to be a noble, I was allowed to teach her publicly, so I started spending the mornings teaching her, and the evenings training myself. She was still technically a servant, as was Tanya, but as she was going to become a low ranking noble in a little over two years, Father gave her half a day off so that she could study. Maybe he was considering asking her to become a retainer? It took us several months of practice to teach her to cast all of the spells, though she was still operating at three pressure. Increasing your mana pressure was slow if you you couldn¡¯t channel mana at that pressure, and you wouldn¡¯t increase the pressure at all unless you cast spells near your maximum pressure. Without that your mana channels wouldn¡¯t get stressed to the point that they needed to toughen up. Or maybe your body just let the pressure level get higher once it got used to it, like getting used to higher or lower air pressure or the way divers got used to higher water pressure. There were two different theories on how that worked, but they agreed that you needed to push yourself to improve it. All magic classes, including healers, required a minimum of four pressure to get their certification. I suppose I could talk to Persy and see if she would loan her Core to Marya, but Persy had bought that with her own money. I didn¡¯t want her to get the idea that I was using my position as her master to take her property from her. I could use such a necklace, however. One day, after my evening training session, I went to a mage¡¯s store in town. Such places specialized in providing things that mages needed. ¡°Hello, sir.¡± the man behind the counter said. ¡°Can I help you?¡± ¡°I was wondering if you had any Core necklaces?¡± ¡°Yes, sir, right over here.¡± He walked to a glass counter that was full of necklaces. Some were magical amulets, but most either mana storage or mana sources. Among the mana sources were Core necklaces. I looked over those. Some were quite fancy, and some were more mundane, but the actual Core necklaces ranged from a pressure of three to a pressure of five. They also had a decimal place after the main number, and I could sense that those decimals were pretty accurate. They also greatly effected the cost of the necklace. A 4.1 cast less than a 4.2 unless its chain and holding were fancier. The biggest jump was between whole numbers, though. While a 4.8 cost a few silvers less than a 4.9, a 5.0 cost a gold more than a 4.9. I looked over the higher end ones. A 4.8 or 4.9 would probably be best for Marya. It would be close enough to a five that you could reach 5.0 or even 5.1 pressure with enough practice. And it avoided that massive jump in cost. I would get one over five for myself, though a 5.6 was by far the fanciest, highest level, and most expensive one he had. And it cost ten gold. ¡°How about refined mithril or orichalcum necklaces?¡± The man smiled and pulled out a box from under the counter. Inside were three necklaces made from manacite that had some of the mithril removed. There was a pressure seven, a pressure nine, and a pressure 10. Just looking at that one started giving me a headache. The prices went from thirty to two hundred gold. I didn¡¯t even have that much money. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it. For now I¡¯ll settle for those two.¡± I pointed to a 4.9 that had a mithril chain and a 4.8 that had a gold chain. Both had been polished to be as reflective as they could be. The one with the mithril chain cost three gold, and the one with the gold chain cost two.¡± He boxed them up for me and I handed him the five gold. I got home and found Marya. She was setting the table for supper. ¡°I bought you something to help with your training.¡± I said. ¡°Oh, is a new book, or...¡± I opened the box that contained her necklace and showed it to her. ¡°For me?¡± she said with a massive smile on her face. I nodded and she wrapped her hands around my neck and kissed my cheek. That was nice. Wait, was that appropriate with her being my sister? Well, it wasn¡¯t as bad as looking at her chest, at the very least. I put the necklace around her neck and she squealed, then ran off to show her mother, forgetting about her job. Whatever. I had seen the table set plenty of times so I finished it for her. She came out a few minutes later and saw that I had done that, then looked embraced. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to make you do that, sir.¡± ¡°Not a problem.¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m going to go get ready for supper.¡± With that I went upstairs the get changed. Maybe I¡¯d even draw myself a bath if Persy wasn¡¯t around. Chapter 10 The next day all three of us had our necklaces on as we channeled the energy from it into physical enhancement spells. I was already at over five pressure. Five point two according to the scale the necklaces used. But using more mana could still increase my capacity. We could use healing spells, but without actual injuries we wouldn¡¯t really know if we were casting it properly. So we used Physical Boost and the trait specific variants on ourselves, which would give us feedback on if we were improving. We continued like this for several months, mixing in various physical feats and contests to keep it interesting, until the wedding. It was hosted at the palace, with every noble in the city from knights up and many of the city¡¯s richest people being invited. Thankfully Father, as the ruler of the city, was the highest ranking noble, so I wouldn¡¯t have to pretend to get along with higher ranked nobles like when the Duke came to visit us that one time. The main problem was that, as Tanya and Marya couldn¡¯t be expected to clean and prepare the dishes for Tanya¡¯s own wedding, we wouldn¡¯t have enough servants. Furthermore, with this many nobles in the palace at the same time, we would be expected to greatly increase the security as well. And we couldn¡¯t ask proper knights to work security as they were on the guest list. Mother was put in charge of handling the servant shortage, while father would handle the security personnel. Thankfully one of mother¡¯s business investments was a fancy restaurant here in town where the rich and nobles ate from time to time, so she went to talk to her manager. He got the restaurant to shut down for the day and all of the employees to come in to help prepare the wedding banquet and serve the guests. Mother would have to pay them more than their normal wages, but that was a minor issue. The security staff wasn¡¯t solved so easily. Normal city guards wouldn¡¯t be enough for the event. He needed people who knew how to properly handle nobles and the rich, and most of the guards simply couldn¡¯t do that. He pulled a dozen or so men and women, mostly officers, to lead the security that he managed to recruit, but still needed at least two dozen more to have enough. As he was unsure where to go to get more, I suggested we go to the Adventurer¡¯s guild. When hiring people for a job where a specific skill or personality was required, the guild allowed you to interview any of the people they found who might fit the bill and was willing to interview. A week before the wedding Father and I traveled to the Adventurer¡¯s guild to meet the people we had requested. While most of the people that were in the main lobby were the kind that you might hire if you just needed muscle or wanted a specific monster killed, we needed people with class. The receptionist lead us to the back where around fifty people were waiting for a group interview. I was surprised to see several goblinoids and even a Minotaur, though it appeared he belonged to the Dwarf beside him. Adventurer¡¯s sure were a diverse group, but I wasn¡¯t sure mother would allow a two and a half meter tall bull man in the palace. If we hired him and his master, he would no doubt be watching the grounds instead of the guests inside. Father explained the job once again just in case they had misunderstood the first time. They would be responsible for keeping the grounds and the guests inside safe from the time they crossed the gates onto palace grounds until the stepped back off of palace grounds. They would need to conduct themselves in a manner appropriate for the servants of nobility, though they would have some leeway when addressing those who were violent or belligerent. They would be paid five silver for the night. I was surprised to find that several of the adventurers in the group were also nobles or ex nobles, with the later generally being people who failed to get the proper certifications or those that chose to not be part of noble society. The nobles technically could visit as guests, but as they knew no one involved they had chosen not to. Father did hire one Baronet to attend the party as if he were a guest, as it would allow the guards to keep a closer eye on the guests than would otherwise be possible. He also hired the dwarf and his Minotaur, to guard the entrance, as both of their races would project strength to those entering the grounds, making the guests weary of causing trouble. After all, both Dwarves and Minotaurs were known for their incredible strength, though Dwarves were also known as excellent craftspeople. To my surprise, Thomas was also there. I had personally seen how well he handled the rich and powerful while he worked at his father¡¯s book store, and suggested that we hire him. He was hired along with four mages specializing in detection magic, and would be providing medical aid to the guests should they require it, as he was a certified intermediate healer now. We padded out the rest of the guards with another dozen men and women that looked like they could hold their own in a fight, and one stealth specialist who was responsible for working with the detection mages to make sure no one snuck in. The man looked a bit like an assassin from the way he was currently dressed, but we would provide him with a proper outfit so that he could pass as just a member of the city guard. If it was really necessary, he would be allowed to pass himself off as an undercover operative. The day of the wedding Father and I must have greeted a hundred carriages worth of people as they arrived. It was father¡¯s duty to do this, as it was his manor and his retainer¡¯s marriage, but I wished I could be doing anything else. At this point I would be willing to help Chef, Persy, and the restaurant crew in the kitchen. I briefly considered it when I got a telepathic message from one of the detection mages. Someone was currently climbing over the western wall. I excused myself and went over there. When I arrived the assassin had him pinned on the ground. I ran a detection thread into his brain and set it to tell me if he was lying. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked. ¡°Just a reporter looking for a story.¡± he said. The strand reacted slightly. That was only a partial truth. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°I told you, gathering content for a story.¡± Another slight response. ¡°Search him.¡± I said and the assassin quickly did so. He had the normal reporter gear on him, a notepad, a visual recording stone that might be able to capture a dozen images, pencils, a small knife, and a small vial of purple liquid. The later was found under his belt. The notepad looked like it had actual notes in it of various possible new stories. The recording stone was an artificed device, not a stone, but was known by that name because the first one was carved into a stone. It had no images on it. The pencils were normal. I suppose you could stab someone with one if you had to, but the knife would likely do a better job. ¡°What¡¯s in the vial.¡± ¡°Medical tonic.¡± he said. Strong response. ¡°What kind of medicine.¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°I¡¯m not discussing my medical conditions with someone that isn¡¯t a doctor.¡± I pulled out my IDs and showed him that I was both an alchemist and healer. ¡°I am a doctor.¡± I said. ¡°Fine, but I ¡®m still not discussing my medical condition with you.¡± ¡°Is it dangerous.¡± ¡°Only if you count that not taking it at the right time and in the correct dosage could kill me.¡± Another strong reaction. He was definitely lying. If this really was medicine, what I was about to seriously invaded his medical privacy, but he had already lied about it twice, so I was pretty sure it wasn¡¯t. I sent a detection thread into it. I detected several medicinal effects. Essence of detoxification. Essence of pain relief, Essence of Revitalization. All effects you would expect for treating someone with a chronic medical condition. The last one, however, wasn¡¯t. Essence of clotting. Why would he need that? I suppose he could be anemic, but why would it need to be so much stronger than the others? What if the other effects were to remove side effects? Pain and energy loss would be symptoms of both stroke and heart attacks. Not sure what the detoxification was for. Maybe for clearing other potions out of their system? I was going to need to play a hunch. ¡°So, what would happen if I took this?¡± ¡°You would probably overdose. That is a two week supply.¡± Partially true. ¡°And if I only took a few drops?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Strong lie. ¡°Would it kill me?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Strong lie again. ¡°Is this a poison?¡± ¡°Of course not. It¡¯s medicine. I told you already.¡± Strong lies for the first two, but he had told us that. ¡°Who were you intending to poison?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to poison anyone. It¡¯s medicine.¡± Both strong lies. ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll need to bring you in for questioning. But before we do, I need to give you your medicine first so you are fine during the questioning.¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯m ok. It¡¯s not time for that yet.¡± Seems like he was telling the truth. ¡°Nonsense. Taking it a few hour¡¯s early isn¡¯t going to hurt you.¡± I pulled out another purple potion, one which was mostly a detoxifying agent to prevent hangovers and sober up guests if they needed it. If you actually knew a thing or two about potions, it would be obvious that this was a different potion, but he started jerking and trying to break free. ¡°Hold his mouth open.¡± I told the assassin holding him and he tried to pull away even harder. I carefully pulled out a medicine dropper and drew up just enough to put a few drops in his mouth. When I got it close to his mouth he started screaming, and I squirted the whole thing in. The guard released his head and he immediately started trying to spit it out. ¡°Oh, gods.¡± he said. ¡°Why did you do that to me? I was worth more alive.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I said, ¡°You won¡¯t die. It was just medicine.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand. It wasn¡¯t. I was told that if I wanted to see my son again I needed to put that in the punch bowl. I don¡¯t know who they were after, and now I¡¯m going to die.¡± All of that was true, as far as he knew. I guess he wanted to die with a clear conscience. ¡°No,¡± I responded, ¡°You don¡¯t understand. That really was medicine. I switched the vials. All I gave you was something to treat intoxication and hangovers. Good for parties where they¡¯ll be a lot of drinking.¡± I called over one of the officers from the city guards. ¡°Please take this man down to the jail for questioning. He may be the victim of a kidnapping or death threat as well, so look into that as well. If they do have his son, I¡¯m authorizing you to go retrieve him and capture anyone involved.¡± ¡°Yes, Milord.¡± the guard said, then tied the man¡¯s hands behind his back before taking him away. The rest of the night was uneventful. I did need to use some of my sobering medicine on a few of the nobles their to keep them from making complete fools of themselves, but all in all it was a good wedding. A priest from the temple of Aranya, the goddess of fertility, performed the ceremony, and Sir Philip introduced his two children to those that were present, both his adopted daughter Marya and his future child that Tanya was carrying. I could have told them the child¡¯s sex, as the detection magic for that was easy to do, but they didn¡¯t want to know. The food impressed everyone and the band Mother had hired was quite good at their job. The next day, Father was supposed to take the payment for the job down to the adventurers guild, but he had too much of a hangover to go. I handed him the bottle of detoxification and the medicine dropper. ¡°Don¡¯t take more than three drops or you won¡¯t be able to stop urinating for the next hour. I also suggest you give some to mother. I saw her drinking as well, but that isn¡¯t good for the baby.¡± Technically any developmental issues that caused could be fixed with healing magic, but I didn¡¯t want to risk it. ¡°Feel free to use the rest of it on the servants. I hear Chef went a little overboard on that Elven Wine you imported from the East.¡± With that I went down to the Guild and gave them their payment. In fact, they had done such a good job that I gave everyone seven silvers, with ten each going to the detection mage that notified me and the assassin that caught the true assassin. I could have registered for my Magic Swordsman certification, but I already had so many certifications at the age of thirteen that I decided to wait. Besides, I was studying from the Mage¡¯s Guild¡¯s manual, and should register there if I wanted to take the test. Over the course of the next year Persy and I trained Marya in healing magic and before her fourteenth birthday she had received the basic healer certification. The next month all three of us went in to get our Combat Healer certification. Mine and Marya¡¯s baby sisters were also becoming friends, though their age difference was a bit more than mine and Marya¡¯s, so they weren¡¯t currently near the same development stage. Still, I¡¯m sure they would grow up to be good friends. Technically, Tanya and Marya still worked in the castle, but as they were now nobility Tanya worked for mother¡¯s company and was studying to earn her merchant certification. Marya worked with her new father, healing the troops that got injured during training and helping him with the paperwork. Mother hired two other mages to fill their roles. I spent the next year teaching Marya the basics of combat magic, but wasn¡¯t sure she could earn that certification as well by her birthday. Having Combat Healer certification was good enough to become a knight, but Combat Mage would be even better. On my fifteenth birthday we had a massive party, though this time we only invited the people I knew. At the end of it I informed them of my latest project. For the last several months Persy and I had been setting up a new business, a clinic. It would be divided into three areas with three different levels of cost and care, a slave/livestock entrance, a standard entrance, and a rich/noble entrance. Persy would work the slave/livestock area, I would work the Rich/noble entrance, and I had hired two people from the Healer¡¯s Union to work the standard entrance, a sixteen year old healer woman and her fourteen year old apothecary brother. I had secretly offered Marya a job working the standard entrance, so she already knew about the clinic, but she had turned me down, not wanting to work as a healer her whole life. She had watched the new guards training at the barracks and thought she wanted to join the guard. This idea totally had nothing to do with the fact that she had fallen for one of the knight¡¯s sons that I trained with. I showed everyone around the two story building I had built for the purpose. Technically, the healer¡¯s union also had a clinic in town for trainees, but they only dealt with serious injuries unless you could pay well, so I shouldn¡¯t clash with them too much. The next morning we went to the clinic and found that there was already someone waiting at the livestock entrance. Apparently, he had heard we were opening today, so when his cow looked sick this morning he brought her over. After opening up, I let him in and he lead in a very sick looking cow. Thankfully I had seen the type of poisonous plant the cow had accidentally eaten before and sold him the antidote at cost for three coppers. I wouldn¡¯t be making a profit in this section, but it would bring in people who needed help and would serve as good advertisement. We had a few customers in the standard and slave sections over the next few days. The dwarf we hired at the palace for the wedding even brought his Minotaur by. The bull man had taken a bad blow when fighting bandits outside of town, and had several broken ribs and multiple cuts. We charged him four coppers for Persy to reset and heal the ribs and stab wounds and for a pain killing salve she applied. The Dwarf also had some injuries, and I convinced him to visit the Standard entrance for treatment. He spent a silver for his treatment, and actually got a pain killing potion for that amount, which worked better than the salve. A few days later we got our first two people in the slave/livestock section looking for healing, slaves not legally counting as people. The farmer was back, only this time he had food poisoning from eating meat that sat out too long. There was also an Orc blacksmith that had dropped an anvil on his foot. He couldn¡¯t afford to go to a proper healer, and the Union clinic would only set the bone enough for him to limp around for the next few weeks. So he had decided to give us a try. With nothing better to do, I had him hold some of the painkilling salve in his mouth and reset the bones in his foot. I could tell he was in pain, but Orcish pain tolerance was legendary. If nothing else, it was the only way he hadn¡¯t passed out when his foot was turned into a flatcake. After thirty minutes I managed to complete the forty six piece bone puzzle in his foot and started healing. This was more uncomfortable than painful, but by this point he wasn¡¯t feeling pain anymore. Maybe I should cut back on the narcotic ingredients in the salve. They were a cheap way to make pain killers, but I didn¡¯t want my patient¡¯s getting high. It took ten minutes of healing to finish with his foot, and I charged him three copper. He was surprised at the low cost, but I informed him that we had waved the cost of the spells as it was good practice for me and the necklace meant I hadn¡¯t actually used any mana. I was sure he would be a repeat customer. Chapter 11 A week later Persy sat behind the desk in the slave area of the clinic counting jars of salve. It was a simple wooden counter with a wooden and woven thatch stool behind it, on a raised platform meant to keep it off the dirt floor of an area that looked more like a sale barn than a hospital. Kanta, the apothecary from the standard area, had just brought her a new supply and was clearing the old ones off the shelf. Salves tended to only have a shelf life of a week or two, so he needed to do this on the first day of every week. As she was finishing the bell above the door dinged and in walked a Cat woman carrying a goat. ¡°Lya!¡± Persy said, jumping up and running over. Then she noticed the goat. ¡°Oh, what happened to blackie?¡± ¡°He and Gray got in a fight over one of the girls, and he got head-butted in the side. The goats are starting to go into heat, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if this happens again.¡± ¡°Ah, that makes sense.¡± she said, then sent a detection thread into his side. ¡°Lots of bruising. And a broken rib.¡± She got up and opened one of the jars of old salve on the counter. ¡°Hey, Kanta, can you help me over here?¡± She stuck the tip of her finger in the salve, and went back to the goat. Kanta followed her. ¡°Can you hold the goat down?¡± She petted the goat and let it lick the salve off of her finger. A few seconds later the goat relaxed and started looking around like it was seeing the world for the first time. ¡°What¡¯s going on with him?¡± asked Lya upon noticing the goat¡¯s strange behavior. ¡°That salve has Devil Grass in it, so he¡¯s intoxicated.¡± Devil grass was a popular narcotic which looked like a type of spikey grass whose end split into three at the tip. The split section contained the narcotic substances. It was a common plant in the nearby forest, and therefore a cheap way to make pain killers. And best of all it wasn¡¯t very addictive, about as much as caffeine, not that they knew what that is. Lya held the goat¡¯s front legs and head, and Kanta held its back legs as Persy used her magic to pop the bone back into place. The goat squirmed a bit, but the pain killing effects of the salve quickly made the pain disappear again. Once it was still again, Persy started healing the damage. The bone fused back together and the bruising disappeared. ¡°I could detox him from the salve, but I have to charge at least one copper per spell, so you should just let him sleep it off. Four copper.¡± Lya pulled out four coppers from her pocket and handed them to Persy. She was given a small budget for buying things the animals needed. ¡°No charge for the salve?¡± ¡°We were about to throw it out, which is the only reason I used it.¡± ¡°Thank you, then. He¡¯d be much harder to deal with if he wasn¡¯t intoxicated.¡± ¡°So, how have things with you been going? I haven¡¯t had a chance to catch up with you recently.¡± ¡°Everything is going well. One of the barons brought by his Tiger coachman and we hit it off really well.¡± ¡°Oh, so does that mean you¡¯ll be having kittens?¡± ¡°Unfortunately not.¡± Pregnant slaves and those with children tended to be treated better, as the children would usually become loyal servants of the master as long as you didn¡¯t split parents and young children. Lady Starshine valued loyalty above all else. Lya would also prefer to take care of her own children instead of the animals. And, of course, the Lord of the Forest encouraged all Beastfolk to have children, as that was the purpose of life. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get lucky one of these days.¡± ¡°And what about you? Found anyone special yet?¡± ¡°It¡¯s only been a week.¡± Persy responded. ¡°And it was only a night with me and Raul.¡± ¡°In that case, no. There aren¡¯t actually that many Foxes in town. I only know of two males, and neither have been brought into the clinic yet.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get lucky one of these days.¡± responded Lya with a smile. Both of the women laughed. ¡°Well, I¡¯d better head back to the palace.¡± said Lya, picking up the goat. Persy said goodbye and opened the door for her, and she left. It was only then that Persy realized that Kanta was still standing there staring at her. ¡°What?¡± she asked. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re looking for a guy¡­¡± she stared at him and he stopped what he was saying. ¡°Right, not appropriate for work.¡± With that he scurried off back to his lab. Persy sighed. Why couldn¡¯t a beast man come onto her like that? -- Kanta smacked his head against the desk repeatedly. ¡°Stupid, stupid, stupid.¡± he said. Of course she isn¡¯t interested in you. Sure, she was probably looking for a beast man, not a human, but even if he was her type, he had nothing going for him. Sure, he was a certified apothecary, but she held multiple certifications as an intermediate healer and a combat healer. She even knew a bit of combat magic, though she wasn¡¯t certified in it. Why would a woman so far out of his rank be interested in him. Most humanoid men would have seen that she was a beastfolk, and only considered her as a brief fling or a diversion at most. Kanta had never been that way. He had been obsessed with beastfolk since he was little, and when he started developing an interest in women all of his thoughts in that way were about beastfolk women. His father found out about him and tried to beat some sense into him, but it didn¡¯t help. Sure, elf, dwarf, and goblinoid women were interesting, as were some human women, but they couldn¡¯t compare to animal girls. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. When that failed his parents stopped showing him any affection, just waiting until he was an adult before they kicked him out for being a pervert, as kicking him out before then would only have the neighbors asking questions. His sister was the only one that still talked to him, and that is mostly about their combined interest in medicine. As his father had put it, he had only the few months before his 15th birthday to either fix his perversion or find another place to live. He had no intention of doing the first, so he needed this job to be able to afford to move out. Persy was his boss¡¯s slave, anyway. He would never allow another man to have her unless he gained something from it. Besides, when he had gotten the job there, the boss had posted rules for employee behavior in the break room, one of which forbid ¡®sexual harassment¡¯ of coworkers and clients. He knew it was put into the rules in case they expanded, but he had almost violated that rule just minutes ago. Kanta then decided that it was time he made something of himself. He would get his Healer certification as well, and maybe even another certification. That way he could go from being paid eight coppers per day to being paid a silver, like his sister, if not more as he would be able to do multiple jobs. He would also get into shape. Women, especially beastfolk women, liked strong men, he was sure of it. Once the day¡¯s work ended he changed clothes into something less fancy than his work uniform, as he didn¡¯t want to get it sweaty, and ran over to the Healer¡¯s Union. He was panting for breath by the time he got there, despite the fact that it was only a few blocks from the clinic. Once he caught his breath, he went inside to buy the manual. Surely the two silver it cost him would be worth it. ¨C As I totaled up the sales for today I noticed something. Most of the current business was in the Standard section, followed by the Slave/livestock area. The Rich area only had two customers today, the wife of a local baron that wanted to look younger, and a knight that was interested in medicinal ¡°male enhancement¡±. When I decided to become a doctor I didn¡¯t expect most of my noble business to be about relationship issues. Thankfully I had purchased a Silver Moon Tulip recently, the same ingredient I used to make the anti-aging potion in my certification trial, and had already extracted the essences. I was quickly able to make her a potion that would make her look five years younger for several weeks. As for the man, blood pressure medicine had been used for that purpose on earth, so I made a weak blood pressure medicine mixed with something to make him more sensitive and something to increase testosterone levels. Either he would become a repeat customer because of how well it worked, or he wouldn¡¯t like it and would never come back. Either way, it got him out of my office today. I still earned most of the money that the clinic was bringing in, as I spent any time I wasn¡¯t dealing with a customer extracting essences from ingredients and selling those that I didn¡¯t need to the Union. Because essences had a shelf life of years if properly stored and prepared, as my stores reached levels I was comfortable with my sales would only increase. ¡°Hey, boss.¡± said Berry, the sixteen year old healer woman, coming into my office. ¡°I¡¯m done cleaning. Mind if I head out?¡± ¡°Sure, here.¡± I pulled a silver from the top of the stack and tossed it to her. ¡°Tell your brother he can come get paid too, if he wants.¡± ¡°Actually, he left as soon as I flipped the sign to ¡®closed¡¯. He was wearing his older clothes, not his uniform, so he¡¯s probably going shopping or maybe heading to a bar.¡± Sometimes Berry worried that her brother might be becoming an alcoholic with as much as he drowned his sorrows. Of course, if she was interested in beasts she would probably want to drink to forget it too. Maybe he¡¯d find a nice human woman while he was out. At this point Father would probably be happy if he fell for an Orc. Even a male Orc would be preferable to a beast. Berry would have kids one day, so the fact that he couldn¡¯t give them grandkids if he was gay wouldn¡¯t even be much of a concern. ¡°Strange that he didn¡¯t pick up his pay first. Maybe he wanted to make sure he didn¡¯t lose all of his money on a bad hand of cards.¡± Berry shrugged. ¡°Maybe. Not sure he plays. More likely he didn¡¯t want to drink it away.¡± ¡°Do I need to give him some sober drops or anti-addiction drugs?¡± I asked. All of my employees were promised full Standard medical care for them and their families as a benefit, though neither my family nor theirs had come by yet. ¡°I doubt it. Might need to give him a drop or two in the morning for a hangover, though.¡± She knew I kept a bottle in my office just in case a client came in intoxicated or with a hangover. ¡°Fair enough. Have a good night, Berry.¡± ¡°You too, Cam.¡± She nodded and left. Most noble employers made their employees use their titles when talking to them, but I let Berry, Kanta, and Persy use my first name and act casual around me. After all, in this business, ceremony between fellow employees could put our patients at risk. I reset the cash boxes with the correct change for the morning and put all of the money in the safe. I had spent twenty gold on this model, and the Dwarf that made it insured me that it was near impossible to break into either magically or physically, as you needed to inject mana through the key and along a specific path in the maze of magical circuits to deactivate the locking mechanism. I put the key¡¯s cord around my neck and walked through the back hallway to the Slave area. ¡°Hey, Persy. Want to get something to eat before we head home?¡± I had been taking her out every few nights since we started building the place. ¡°Sure.¡± she said, putting the last salve jar on the shelf and double checking something on a piece of paper. Inventory, I guess. ¡°Can I suggest that Goblin place in the Southern district?¡± ¡°Goblin again? Not very fancy.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need fanciness if you know how to season the food properly. Besides, I¡¯m still trying to figure out exactly which spices they put on the breading for that chicken meat.¡± I was about to make a comment about a certain Colonel and his fast food restaurant when I stopped myself. I hadn¡¯t told anyone I remembered my past life in another, very different world yet, and I didn¡¯t want it to come out over a dumb joke that she wouldn¡¯t even get. ¨C Kanta sat in his room trying to focus on his breathing. The Healer¡¯s manual said that meditation was a great way to both train your concentration and restore your mana. He needed both, as he rarely used magic and as such, was only really competent with a few utility spells such as Ignite which he used when heating mixtures for salves. His parents had seen him with the manual, but the only response had come from his father. ¡°Probably just trying to impress that Fox at work.¡± he said with disgust. ¡®I most certainly am not.¡¯ Kanta thought, but didn¡¯t say it. Deep down he knew that would be a lie. Sure, he wanted to improve himself and earn more money, but he also kind of wanted to impress her. What is wrong with that? After cycling his mana around his body for several minutes, an exercise which the manual said would increase the speed at which he could expel mana, he tried casting one of the spells in the book, Revitalization. It should just make you no longer exhausted from exercise. After several attempts he felt a rush in his body, like when he ate Koan nuts, a common stimulant. He did a few push ups to test it and, when he started getting tired after a three times he recast it on himself as he laid on the ground. The pain in his arms was still mostly there, but he didn¡¯t feel as tired. The manual said this was because the muscles were damaged as he used them. His mana was getting low, though, so after forcing himself to do two more he started meditating again. He really needed to look into getting a Core necklace. He could probably get a rating two for a silver, and it would let him cast weak spells as much as he wanted until he got good enough to use more energy than it could put out. One he had meditated enough to mostly refill his mana he tried the healing spell. Surely this would fix his damaged muscles. It took him three rounds of meditating and trying to heal himself before he felt the pain in his arms go away. His stomach growled and he got up to go eat something. In the kitchen his mother had already put up the left over food so it could be reheated and maybe worked into something else tomorrow. He didn¡¯t care, though. She often ignored him, so the fact that she didn¡¯t leave him anything out was normal. He took a roll from the table and added some of the pork she had made that night, making a basic sandwich. Normally he would consider just going to the tavern to eat, but he had already spent two silver today on the book, so he needed to be careful with his spending. ¨C The next day Kanta ran into work, using Revitalization to deal with the exhaustion it caused. His muscles were burning by the time he got there, and his mana reserves were virtually empty, but he had managed to make it. Sure he had to leave an hour early and stop to meditate multiple times on the way here, but he had made it. Once inside he went to his office to touch the large Amethyst the boss had left on his desk in case he needed the mana to brew a potion. As he rarely did that he didn¡¯t really use the mana inside, but if it ran low he knew Persy would refill it for him from her own mana. Just thinking about drawing in her mana made him imagine he could smell her. Now that he had drawn in enough that his reserves were once again refilled, he cast healing on himself to get rid of the muscle pain and went to take a bath. Or, more accurately, to scrub himself with the bar of soap they had back there for cleaning wounds and rinse himself off with cold well water. It was fine, though, as it meant he could work out before work. He shook his head to break himself out of a fantasy about Persy walking in on him as he was bathing and dried himself off well enough to put his work uniform on. After that he went back to his office. Persy came by a little while later to check if the crystal needed refilling and was surprised that it did. ¡°Well, I worked out a bit on my way here, and used Revitalization to keep going, so I needed it to refill my mana.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s why you needed to bathe when you got here. I heard you back there and gave you your privacy. Now that you¡¯re done, though, I¡¯ll go check on the animals.¡± Several people had taken to using the clinic as an extra set of stables for their horses and pets, and it brought in a decent amount of money. He almost made a comment about not minding if she saw him, but stopped himself before breaking the policy. He needed to try to keep from saying that kind of thing until he was sure she was interested in him. It was only a matter of time. Chapter 12 ¡°Hey Kanta.¡± I said as I entered his office. He was grinding some sort of leaf in a mortar when I got there, but it was too fine for me to tell which one. I held up the bottle of Sober Drops. ¡°Need any?¡± He looked at me like he was surprised. ¡°I wasn¡¯t drinking last night.¡± he said, looking a bit confused that I thought that. ¡°Oh, sorry. Berry said you left early and were probably heading to the bar. So I kind of assumed you would have a hangover.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve actually decided to drink less. Last night I actually left to go to the Healer¡¯s Guild and get a manual. I want to get my Healer certification so I can be more useful around here.¡± ¡°Oh, that would be useful. I had to loan your sister my Core necklace because she had so many customers yesterday. Having an extra healer on staff would be useful.¡± He smiled when I said that. ¡°Does that mean I¡¯d get a raise?¡± Ah, he wanted to earn more. Makes sense. Everyone can use more money. ¡°Sure, if you are healing as much as Berry and making potions as well, I can increase your pay to, say, a silver and a half?¡± It wasn¡¯t quite the healer and apothecary salaries added together, but it was over double his current pay. ¡°Really? In that case, I¡¯ll do my best to get certified. I managed to cast Revitalization and Healing on myself last night and this morning, so I should be able to learn it quickly.¡± ¡°Those are the most common ones. As an apothecary, though, you probably will have an easy time learning the detection spells. I know I learned them more easily because I had used Essence Detection so much.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t actually use it that much, as I¡¯m mostly working with the same ingredients everyday, but I do know how to use it, so maybe I¡¯ll try learning them next.¡± I nodded and told him goodbye before leaving. Well, back to my lab to make more essences. ¨C Persy was trying to keep busy by meditating when the door to the Slave area was forceably opened and a man came inside. He was wearing leather clothes with a snow-leopard trenchcoat and gaudy jewelry and looked like he was missing a few teeth. It was hard to regrow teeth and treat tooth decay, so she hoped he wasn¡¯t here for that. He held a chain in his right hand and when he tugged on it ten women that were handcuffed together entered the room. Persy counted seven beast women, an elf, a human, and a goblin. ¡°How can I help you, sir?¡± she asked, trying to seem as friendly as she could, despite hating him immediately after seeing the woman and how he was treating them. ¡°I want you to check out these women.¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in females, but I can get one of my male colleagues to give you an opinion if you want.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get smart with me, Fox. I meant a medical exam. I just bought them and I want you to make sure they¡¯re healthy before I take ¡®em to work.¡± ¡°Can I ask what kind of business you do?¡± I asked. It wasn¡¯t strictly necessary to know that, but it would let me know what he considered the most important. ¡°Sure, why not. I run the Bouncing Bunny. They¡¯re my new whores.¡± Great, they had just been bought as sex slaves for the scummiest brothel in town. Why the city guard hadn¡¯t shut them down as a threat to public health, she didn¡¯t know. Not only did they abuse the women working there, but half the STD customers they got in the Standard section had visited there recently. ¡°Very well, sir. It will take an hour or so to finish with the examinations, if you¡¯d like to wait.¡± She motioned to the simple wooden bench near the door. He looked at the bench, then looked back at Persy. ¡°I¡¯m going to the pub, and will be back in an hour.¡± He then turned around to leave. ¡°May I have the key to the chains, sir? I may need to remove them to examine the ladies completely.¡± Not really necessary, but it would relieve some of their suffering, and that style of cuffs tended to chaff. ¡°How about you go find someone free for me to hand it to. I ain¡¯t givin¡¯ control of my slaves to another slave.¡± ¡°Very well, if you¡¯ll wait for a minute, I¡¯ll go get someone.¡± Persy went over to the Standard section to find Berry healing a burn on someone¡¯s arm. When she finished twenty seconds later she motioned her over. Persy quietly told her about the whorer in the Slave area that would only give the key to a free person, and she agreed to come over to receive it. She told her customer that she was finished and collected the money, then put it in the cash box and followed Persy into the next area. ¡°Bout time.¡± the man said, then walked over and handed the key to Berry. ¡°Check to make sure they ain¡¯t pregnant too. Hard to rent out a girl that¡¯s got one on the way. Most guys ain¡¯t into that.¡± With that he walked out the door. Berry smiled at the girls. ¡°Hi, my name is Berry. I run the Standard section of the clinic. This area is too cold for a proper examination, so please follow me.¡± She lead the girls into a large exam room in the standard area that was meant to deal with groups of accident victims. ¡°If one of you would please get undressed and climb up here, we can get started.¡± The girls seemed to respond negatively to the phrase ¡°get undressed¡± but one of them, a Cow girl, started silently obeying. After a physical examination, they ran multiple detection thread through her to check for illness. Other that some bruising on her wrists from the shackles and some malnutrition, she was fine. They checked out the other girls soon after that. Two did have STDs, which were quickly cured with a Kill Virus spell, an intermediate one only Persy knew out of the two healers, but none were pregnant. Thank the gods for that. She didn¡¯t want the girls put through a forced miscarriage on top of everything else, even if she wouldn¡¯t be the one casting the spell. Thinking of something else, Berry left Persy to talk to the ladies as she went to talk to Cam. A few minutes later she returned with ten bottles of potion. ¡°This is a potion of Infertility. If you take it, it will all but prevent you from getting pregnant for five or six months. I talked my boss into giving them to you for cheap.¡± With that she handed them to the girls. They might not be able to stop what was happening to them, but they could make sure that they didn¡¯t suffer as much as they could. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. A few minutes after the girls drank the potions, they were lead back into the Slave waiting area and a few minutes after that the man in the snow leopard trench coat returned, the smell of whiskey on his breath. ¡°Did you fix them up?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Berry, handing him the bill. From the way he looked at it either he hated dealing with money or couldn¡¯t read. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s just a list of everything we did to them. The scans, healing, nutritional supplements, and infertility potions for ten of them, plus two STD treatments, at one copper each, come to three and a half silvers.¡± The potions cost Cam three copper each to make but when he heard who they were for he agreed to the discount. ¡°Infertility potions?¡± the man asked. ¡°You wanted us to guaranteed that they weren¡¯t pregnant, yes? Those potions should prevent that for the next four or five months. Just bring them in again every four months for a checkup and we will sell those to you for a copper per woman.¡± The man nodded. ¡°Finally, a clinic that isn¡¯t trying to rip me off. I¡¯ll think about bringing in my other girls later.¡± He paid the three silver six coppers he owed, got his key back, and lead them out of the building. Maybe the other women working at the trashy establishment he ran could be treated later. It wouldn¡¯t make their lives good, but it would make them less horrible if they were in good health. I was surprised that the man had so brazenly brought all of those women into the clinic. Yes, what he was doing was legal, but only the worst people frequented his establishment, so you¡¯d think he would downplay the situation. Maybe he thought it would be free publicity if he paraded them through the streets, but anyone that wasn¡¯t a complete garbage heap of a person wouldn¡¯t be interested in women in the state slaves were generally sold in. I was pretty sure most of the men in the slums wouldn¡¯t even visit a dump like the Bouncing Bunny, even if they had the money to do so. I wasn¡¯t sure where this man¡¯s clients were coming from. Maybe they catered to some sort of unseemly taste only a few men had? It didn¡¯t matter. I couldn¡¯t do anything about it other than buy the slaves, at which point the man would just use the money to buy more. I could, however, make sure that they weren¡¯t forced to carry their rapist¡¯s child. When Berry told me what happened I quickly mixed up ten long term Infertility potions. Normally, a common woman or man would pay six coppers for one, and a noble a silver, but I told Berry to only charge a copper each, so that the slaver wouldn¡¯t complain about having to pay for them. Once I handed the potions over, I went back to work. There was a pregnant woman with an appointment today. Apparently she was the mistress of some knight who was paying extra to make sure his wife didn¡¯t here about the side woman. Well, as long as the man paid, I didn¡¯t mind a bit of doctor/patient confidentiality, even if this world was a bit more lax with such regulations. An hour later the woman arrived with a green haired woman in her sixties. She looked familiar. I just couldn¡¯t remember where I saw her before. The pregnant woman introduced herself and told me the woman was her midwife. They just wanted to make sure that the baby was healthy. She was already eight months into the pregnancy, but sometimes developmental issues could arise and she wanted them found and, if possible, cured before the baby was born. That wouldn¡¯t be a problem. I took her back to one of the nicer waiting rooms and ran my detection threads through her and the baby. I wanted to make sure she wasn¡¯t suffering any medical conditions which could affect the baby as well. After a few minutes I withdrew my threads. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a package of dried cherries and handed them to her. She took them and rapidly ate them with a smile on her face. The midwife looked at me perplexed. ¡°She was low on a key nutrient that is common in cherries. I was carrying them as a snack, but I knew she was probably craving them, so I gave them to her.¡± The midwife nodded and the woman tried to thank me with her mouth full. ¡°Now, do you want to know the sex of the baby?¡± The woman nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a girl. Should be born with a healthy weight. Might be a bit on the large size, but shouldn¡¯t cause any problems. If it does, however, bring her by and I can do the surgery to remove the baby. If I¡¯m not here, I¡¯ll be at the palace. Do you know how to get there?¡± The woman shook her head but the midwife nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been there before, many years ago.¡± I then realized I where I remembered her from. ¡°Would that be a little over fifteen years ago to deliver the child of Lady Melody Starshine?¡± She seemed surprised. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you could guess that.¡± ¡°Actually, I was that child. I knew I¡¯d seen you somewhere.¡± ¡°You remember your own birth?¡± the pregnant woman asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t know it was possible for someone to remember that.¡± ¡°It is quite rare.¡± said the midwife. ¡°I¡¯ve only heard of a few exceptional people who could remember their own birth.¡± Crap. I gave too much away. ¡°Oh, I only get flashes from then. An image every now and then in my dreams. Maybe Coranya wants me to remember.¡± Surely saying it was a gift from the god of sleep, dreams, and prophecy would cover for me knowing such a thing, right? ¡°Oh, that must be it.¡± the midwife said, helping the woman up. ¨C The next day that same trashy man reappeared in the slave section with fifteen new women. ¡°Same thing as last time.¡± he said. Persy nodded and went to get Berry to get him to hand over the key. Thankfully Berry wasn¡¯t busy. Once he handed over the key, he headed for the door. ¡°I¡¯ll come back in a few hours. I got other business.¡± He left, and they repeated the procedure from the day before. Again, none of them were pregnant, though one of them, a dwarf, had signs of a recent miscarriage. Persy had to fight to hold back a tear, knowing that he must have forced a miscarriage when he found out. Thankfully, as long as the women came in for treatment regularly that wouldn¡¯t happen again. They treated the woman, who seemed to have more injuries than the new slaves, and gave them all the Infertility potion. If this man¡¯s customers were treating them worse than the slave merchant, how horrible were they? ¨C The man returned three hours later to pick up his slave girls. They were reluctant to leave, but knew that they had no choice. Thankfully they at least had some downtime. There were a few more customers that day, mostly people with pets or farm animals, but a few people from the slums came in for treatment as well. As this place charged so little, it was the only place the refugees and the slum dwellers could afford treatment in, though not all of them could. Most of them appeared to have food poisoning, a lung infection, or both. Persy would have to talk to Cam about maybe running a discount program for slum dwellers and refugees. Maybe a one time free checkup? They might be able to convince Lord Starshine that it would keep them from bringing in outside diseases and that more healthy people meant more workers in the city. If they could do that, he might pay for the medical treatments, so they wouldn¡¯t have to take a loss. ¨C It took a few hours, but eventually I was able to convince father that the health of the city and increased number of workers would increase tax revenue by more than enough to make up for the cost of treating them. He agreed to pay three coppers per person that was treated under the free program, though we could only accept slum dwellers and refugees, and only treat them once under the program. Hopefully that would be enough to turn the city around. Though, if I¡¯m being honest, I should probably hire people to clean the slums and refugee camp and sterilize the wells in those area. That would cost money, though, so I would have to treat some of them to earn that money before I did that. Otherwise I¡¯d start taking a loss. The cleaning could be done with slum dwellers and refugees I hired, but I doubt many of them knew the Sterilize utility spell, or they would be using it to clean the area they lived in. I guess I could teach it to them. Maybe the ones that did the best could be trained as extra assistance for my clinic? As I got more popular, the refugees and slum dwellers could fill the need for healers in the Slave and Standard area. I might even get lucky and find someone with experience working for the rich or nobles and be able to train them to help me. ¨C The next day Cam called Kanta and Berry into his office. He informed them about the deal he had struck to treat the people of the slums and refugees, and that the slave section would get much busier due to that deal. They would need to help out in that section if they didn¡¯t have any patients in Standard and Persy still had customers. To that end he handed them each a Core necklace. They were only rated 4.1 and 4.2 respectively, and hung from simple monster leather bands, but they would provide both of them with a source of mana in case they needed it. When Kanta put it on, however, he winced in pain. ¡°Migraine?¡± asked Cam. ¡°Yeah, for some reason I started getting one when you handed me the necklace, and it got a lot worse when I put it on.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t used to the mana pressure and are experiencing Overpressure. Close your eyes and meditate on allowing the mana to flow into you.¡± Kanta did so, and for a moment the pain seemed to spread out and lessen. Fifteen seconds later, though, the pain started to return. ¡°Well that helped for a little while.¡± ¡°Now the Core is trying to push your mana pressure up to its level. It is a 4.1, and I doubt you are up to three yet. This will also cause an internal Overpressure, as opposed to the external one of wearing the core. What you need to do now is to use a spell at the highest level you can manage while also allowing it to flow into you. This is called Channeling.¡± It took Kanta a few tries to learn to focus on two things enough at the same time that they both worked reasonably well. He chose to cast Healing on himself, so he had a slight golden glow surrounding him as he meditated. Unfortunately, all that would do was keep the physical damage Overpressure was causing in check, not prevent the problem in the first place. It did, however, limit the pain somewhat. A few minutes later the spell started to falter again, and Kanta started to look exhausted, so Cam took the necklace off of him. ¡°I think you¡¯ve reached your limit and exhausted yourself mentally. This exercise takes a lot of concentration, so it is good at training your concentration, the image of your spell, and your mana pressure. Eventually, if you do this every day, your internal pressure should go slightly above the pressure of the Core, so maybe 4.2 or 4.3. As you need to prove you can cast a level four spell for any kind of Mage certification, including healer, you can consider this part of you training for that as well. Consider the necklace to be company property, though. You can use them here if you want, even for training when your other jobs are complete or for a little while after hours, but you¡¯ll need permission to take them out of the building.¡± They both nodded, and left to put the necklaces in their offices in case they needed them. Chapter 13 A week later Persy was constantly busy in her part of the clinic, treating the people of the slums first, as they were proper residents of the city and therefore technically got priority with government charity programs, which this was classified as. Berry had been shifted over to that area to help, and I had even hired two temp workers from the Healer¡¯s Union to help them. Kanta was busy making salves and disease cure potions all day, using his mana to maximize the synergistic effects of the ingredients, and didn¡¯t have much time to train. The constant mana use, however, did help him put out mana more quickly, and as he used it at his maximum level and sometimes channeled from the necklace, his mana capacity and pressure were slowly increasing. All this meant that Cam was handling at least half the Standard customers. That was fine as he barely had a few rich or noble clients per day. After half a day of dealing with people getting hurt in stupid accidents due to insufficient safety standards, a merchant came into the Rich area of the clinic with his thirteen year old daughter. Finally, a decent client. ¡°Uh, doctor,¡± he said. ¡°I need a woman¡¯s help with this.¡± ¡°Why? What seems to be the problem?¡± ¡°Well, you see, last night she, uh, had her first, um, monthly?¡± The guy seemed really nervous about this situation. ¡°I don¡¯t really know how to handle it, and I don¡¯t have a wife, or girlfriend, or even a female servant, so...¡± ¡°Sure, not a problem.¡± I went to switch with Berry and she came to help the daughter while I went to help even more idiot blacksmith apprentices who forgot the metal was hot. Berry took the girl into the back to explain things to her, and a few minutes later I heard the bell to the Rich section ding again. I quickly finished healing the man¡¯s burnt hands, put the money in the drawer, and wetn back to that section. One of the two temps could deal with that section after all. I noticed it was the knight from two days earlier. ¡°Hey doc, I was hoping to get some more of that potion. I tried it with both my wife and my mistress and they both liked it.¡± ¡°Wait, you offer that kind of potion here?¡± asked the merchant, temporarily distracted from the issues with his daughter. I sighed. The knight has corrupted this man. ¡°Yes, though they cost two silver each.¡± ¡°Trust me,¡± said the knight. ¡°It¡¯s worth it.¡± ¡°In that case I¡¯ll take one, to try it out.¡± ¡°Two for me.¡± responded the Knight. I went off to make three bottles of two silver viagra. When I got back the merchant was crying as the knight patted him on the back. I listened to him for a few minutes, not wanting to interrupt him. Apparently his wife died five years ago when his daughter was eight. He had tried getting remarried, dating both women that looked like her and women that behaved like her, but due to ¡°performance issues¡± none of the women would stay with him. He did manage to stay with a 42 year old female knight for a while, as she didn¡¯t really care about that failure, as she was unlikely to get pregnant at her age anyway, but when things kind of started working he had accidentally called her by his dead wife¡¯s name. This caused her to leave him, stating that she didn¡¯t want to be with a man that still wasn¡¯t over a previous lover. Because of all of that, he had been forced to try and raise his daughter by himself, and was overwhelmed by this latest development. ¡®This society was way too obsessed with reproduction.¡¯ I thought. That was probably due to the fact that Aranya, goddess of fertility, was a major deity in this country. At least that meant that I wasn¡¯t stuck mixing Infertility potions all day. I handed them their potions, and instructed the merchant how to use it. ¡°I suggest starting with a quarter vial. That should be safe for anyone, even without those issues. Don¡¯t take more than half a vial every four hours, or it could result in damage to your ¡®little man¡¯ or a heart attack.¡± The merchant nodded and a few seconds later Berry exited the room with a much less emotional girl. ¡°I think that¡¯s everything.¡± she said. ¡°If she has more questions, I or Persy an answer them. Just bring her back.¡± The man nodded and paid the three gold for both of them without complaint. Once they left, I collected the money from the Knight and he too left. ¡°I hope things work out for them.¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I would have dealt with that issue if it happened to me three years ago. Thankfully I had a mom to give me the talk.¡± I nodded. ¡°Thankfully I had read all of the medical texts in the palace library and got to skip my dad giving me the talk.¡± She nodded and we headed back to the Standard area. We didn¡¯t get a break all day. Around one in the afternoon I sent Persy out to get us some lunch from one of the street vendors and sent one of the temps to cover for her with the slum dwellers. Once it was time to close the store, I was happy to lock up. A count of the money showed that, even without the 57 people being treated at three copper each, I would still have made more today than any other day. With it, we had a massive profit today. I gave everyone an extra 50% bonus for how hard we worked today, even the temp workers who made an extra 50% over standard employee rates already. I told them to come back tomorrow, then went to do some shopping. Neither of the temps had a core necklace to draw on, so Persy or Berry had to occasionally stop what they were doing to restore their mana reserves. And that was with the amethyst being moved into the standard area for them have more mana to draw on. I spent another two gold on four more necklaces, buying the last rating four cores the shop had in stock, then went by the healer¡¯s union to recruit two more temps. These two had only gotten their basic certification at the end of last month, but they would work. Now, having two temps to assign to the Slave area and two to assign to the Standard area, I showed them back to the clinic, and gave them a tour. Once they knew where everything was, I told them to be there at eight a.m. and finished locking up. Persy was still there, reading some novel that Berry had loaned her, and after locking up we went out to eat again. At least it wasn¡¯t Goblin food this time. I much preferred the Elven cuisine she settled on tonight. The next morning I woke up, got ready, then walked to work with Persy. All four temp people had arrived, as had Berry. I unlocked the door and handed a necklace to each of the temp people, explaining that it was loaner equipment so they didn¡¯t run out of mana, and assigning them to their service areas for the day. I could always move them around if I needed. Just as the first of the slum dwellers started arriving Kanta also entered. He had been running, was wearing a backpack, and was soaked with sweat. ¡°Give me a minute to wash up, and I¡¯ll start making more medicine.¡± he said, then ran into the back. Everyone else got started and a few minutes later he entered his office. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I went back to the Rich area and started working on more Essences. Before I could finish with the first batch a female knight stormed inside and started screaming about knowing her husband was cheating on her. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know who she was talking about. Once she explained that he was the man who sent his pregnant girlfriend over here, though, I kept denying even though I knew who she meant. After all, he had payed an extra three silver for me to tell her nothing. Seeing that I wouldn¡¯t tell her anything, and after being informed that a doctor couldn¡¯t discuss the private medical business of his clients, even if the man or the supposed girlfriend was one, she stormed out of the building. Guess she wouldn¡¯t be a client. I finished the Essence I was working on and started on another when Father walked in. ¡°Father?¡± I asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see you here? Is something wrong?¡± ¡°I just wanted to come by and see how the clinic was doing with the charity program.¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, I hired four temp workers to deal with it. Persy and Berry are kind of in charge of the Slave and Standard areas, so I haven¡¯t really been checking in on them since we opened today, but hopefully with the temps I won¡¯t have to help out today.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Berry?¡± he asked. ¡°Oh, she¡¯s the woman I hired from the Healer¡¯s Union the run the Standard area. I¡¯ll introduce you.¡± lead him into the Standard area and found a busy woman who was setting the arm of a kid that had gotten beat up by bullies as his mom screamed about getting the city guard to deal with the boys. Once she was done healing it and had collected the money, I introduced Father to her. ¡°Berry, this is my Father, Count Virgil Starshine.¡± ¡°Very nice to meet you, sir.¡± she said with her best curtsy. ¡°I apologize for the blood. I just treated a knife wound and haven¡¯t had a chance to change yet.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯ve been around plenty of doctors in battle. Blood doesn¡¯t bother me.¡± He watched them work for a few minutes, then nodded. ¡°Seems like everything here is working properly. Mind if we talk in your office?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I said, and lead him there. ¡°Ah, nice chest. I have an older model of that in my office.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yep, it was expensive, but I think it will be worth it.¡± He nodded. ¡°So, Sir Thomas told me you were selling a special potion.¡± I tried to remember who that was. After a few seconds I remembered that was the knight that had talked with the merchant yesterday. I sighed and rubbed my eyes in embarrassment. ¡°two silver each, and you have to promise you¡¯ll only use them with mother.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t why I was asking. Not that I won¡¯t use them if I need them, but for some reason a lot of the noble men and some of the noble women have been talking about them. Reginald suggested that we make it a special item we export to other cities via your mother¡¯s merchant connections. It appears to be far more effective than any other aphrodisiac on the market, and the rich and other nobles are willing to pay a lot of money for such products. You could probably even increase the price.¡± Probably because I actually had some scientific knowledge of what caused the issues. ¡°Ok, that¡¯s less embarrassing than what I thought you were asking. If you want to resell them, I think we can work something out. How about I sell them to you for a silver and a half each, and you promise to not sell them in the city? That will guarantee me the local market, and you can then make a nice profit on the exports.¡± ¡°No profit percentage?¡± he asked. ¡°I know you don¡¯t have merchant certification, but it¡¯s standard for the manufacturer of luxury goods to get a percentage of the sale price on top of the original price.¡± ¡°We can consider it for later. For now, lets say that the first thousand vial shipment doesn¡¯t have the percentage on it, so that you can get people interested in it and sell it at a lower cost. After that we can work out something based on how lucrative the market might be. In the mean time I can look over the Merchant Manual and see about getting my certification. Or at least hire someone to manage the business for me. That way I¡¯ll know how much I can hope to make for various medical products.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan. Two questions, though. How long of a shelf life do you think they will have, and how long will it take you to make a thousand of them?¡± ¡°They should last for four months with simple packaging, or a year or more if I use the more expensive vacuum and wax method. That will add a few coppers per bottle to the price, but should be long enough to ship anywhere on the continent. As for how long it will take, I doubt I can make more than twenty a day on my own if I have to extract the essences too. I can, however, hire a few temp alchemists and maybe a few apothecaries to do the final mixing and packaging step. With a proper production line, they might manage fifteen or twenty per person per day. I¡¯d probably hire four alchemists and an apothecary in the beginning, as they are cheaper, and make one hundred per day.¡± Of course, I could always increase the number of employees and hire them permanently to save money in the future, but for a test batch hiring five people for two standard work weeks should work. Father nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll send Reginald over to help you set up a workshop and maybe manage it for you. I have no doubt that this product will sell, so setting up a proper studio for a month shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡± I nodded. ¡°Sounds good. I¡¯ll look into buying the raw ingredients and finding alternative sources for all of the essences I will need. Might even put in a mission at the Adventurer¡¯s guild for the plants I need. I¡¯ll mix it in with a lot of other plants I use here at the clinic to confuse anyone trying to figure out the formula.¡± Father smiled. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if you would think of protecting your formula or not. That should be adequate for now, though once you get up and running, your mother can acquire any ingredients you need through her business, so that we don¡¯t risk people finding out exactly what¡¯s in it.¡± The next day Reginald and I left the palace. I let Persy open the clinic, and we headed to the industrial part of the city. There he showed me a small carpenter¡¯s workshop that mother had purchased a few months ago but had to shut down due to the low quality of their goods. All of their employees were sent to work at other carpenters workshops she owned and their signature style of chair was absorbed into one of those shops. Now that the business was closed, I could use it to craft any good that didn¡¯t need special conditions like a forge or extra ventilation. That meant that there would be no issue with me setting up an alchemist workshop here. It would be expensive to set up a large number of alchemist workstations at once, as the standard alchemist lab cost around five gold. More specialized equipment, which may be needed later, would cost even more. Father, however, had agreed to pay for the cost of setting everything up up front on the grounds that he could take those costs out of the first payment for potions. Once I had figured out where everything would go, we set off for the Healer¡¯s union. There we asked about hiring alchemists and apothecaries. Once they understood that we wouldn¡¯t need anyone with an intermediate or advanced certification, they gave us a list of people who were available. As we were hiring them as standard employees, we would need to guarantee them at least one month of employment. If we fired them before then without hiring a certified replacement that would be considered downsizing, which would breach the contract and cost us the rest of the month¡¯s pay. As I was sure that I could turn a profit at this, even if I had to just pay them to extract essences then sell them wholesale to the guild, I signed the contract. I hired the eight best Basic Alchemists and the two best Basic Apothecaries that they had available, and showed them to the workshop. The standard guild contract they were under restricted them from revealing any trade secrets they learned while working for me, which is one reason I hired from the guild instead of from an employment advertisement. I also bought eight alchemist stations, two compounding stations, and two sets of vacuum sealing equipment, along with all of the vials we would need, and had them delivered to the workshop. Once the equipment was set up I explained the process to the workers. The Alchemists would be extracting specific essences from the ingredients I brought them. The apothecaries would then compound the essences together and vacuum seal the resulting mixture in vials. As the Extraction process didn¡¯t use mana but you did need to inject mana into the compounded mixture to maximize the synergistic effects of the ingredients, only the apothecaries might need core necklaces. I told them to get familiar with the equipment and each other while I went to get some supplies so that they could practice. I swung by the Core necklace seller. He was still out of rating 4 necklaces, but I bought a 3.7 and a 3.8 four eight silver and left. Back at the clinic I had two of the temp workers switch necklaces with me, as they were mostly handling simpler injuries and diagnostics which didn¡¯t require high pressure. I then grabbed all I had of the three plants that were used to make the ED medicine and went back to the factory. There I told the alchemists which essences I needed them to extract, but informed them that extracting the other ones in the plants could earn them a bonus. Once they had all extracted at least one of the essences I needed, I gave the apothecaries the necklaces and showed them how to mix and enhance the compound properly. Reginald was standing by watching. While he didn¡¯t know much about alchemy and not much more about apothecaries, he was technically going to be the manager of this location, so he needed to understand the employees. Once we were both comfortable that they knew what they were doing, I left the workshop in his hands and went to the Adventurers Guild, where I put in a bulk mission for a total of one thousand each of seven different plants, three of which were the ones I needed to make the ED medicine. Bulk orders essentially paid the adventurers for each of the items they collected that were above a specific minimum quality, and may pay bonuses at specific levels. The one who created the mission can then come by and pick up their orders whenever they wanted. I needed to pay in advance for all of the materials, but they were fairly cheap to acquire them like this, as Adventurers would gather huge numbers of them any time they found them, knowing that they could sell several hundred at a time. Reginald would just have to come by every day to pick up the ingredients, and then deliver the ones the workshop doesn¡¯t need to the clinic along with any essences they produced which weren¡¯t needed. Chapter 14 ¡°I¡¯m confused.¡± said Persy. ¡°You said you started this clinic to help people, but now you are setting up a workshop to make aphrodisiacs?¡± ¡°Helping people costs money.¡± I said. I had realized that making magical viagra didn¡¯t exactly fit with my plans of helping others, but also knew that the workshop could be a good way of having the rich pay to help the poor and outcast. ¡°Whether I¡¯m hoping to help people myself or hire people, it costs money to get the people what they need. If it didn¡¯t then people would do it just for the good will. I plan on using the workshop to make aphrodisiacs, beauty products, and other things that the rich will be willing to pay for to make money to help out the people in the slums.¡± ¡°I suppose that makes sense. But if that¡¯s the case, why not hire people from the slums or refugees to do the work?¡± ¡°If it was the kind of work that they could do, I probably would, but anyone from the slums with skills have usually moved out. And the skilled refugees usually work in the city and bring the money back to their families, so they are already employed, usually with the guilds. I can try to find the ones that aren¡¯t, but it will take too long. Instead, I was thinking about paying the people to get certifications, then work for me under contract to pay me back.¡± ¡°Why not just pay for the education without asking for any form of repayment?¡± This thought had also come to me in my walk back here, and my knowledge of psychology and politics from my last life had informed me that it would be a bad idea. ¡°There are several reasons. The most obvious is that it would make what money I could raise disappear too quickly, thus severely limiting the number of people I could help. And if I didn¡¯t place limits on such things, people would keep learning, being stuck in an infinite loop of learning new things but never contributing to society with their skills, thus becoming a further drain on resources.¡± It would be difficult to explain to her what a ¡°professional student¡± was, but hopefully that would explain it well enough. ¡°Secondly, people determine the value of something based on what it costs them and how useful it is. If I were to give people free education, asking nothing in return, that would devalue the education, and people would grow to expect it. Thirdly, giving out free education would upset the people that had to pay for their education. Imagine having to sacrifice to acquire something, then finding out that your neighbor was just given that thing. Yes, both of you had to work to learn it, but if you had to work an apprenticeship to learn Healing, then found out that people you already look down on got to learn it without having to work an apprenticeship, you would resent them even more.¡± ¡°I understand that part. One of the temp workers was complaining about how the rich, by which I assume they mean you, didn¡¯t have to ¡®really work to learn it¡¯. They also kind of reminded me of how Taylor treated me before I saved his life, as they were mad that ¡®a mere slave¡¯ was able to easily gain access to knowledge they had to work to gain.¡± In my past life, I knew this conversation would have angered people on at least one side of the political spectrum, but while I could sympathize, this society was far more unstable than where I used to live. I may not know who I was, but I know that we didn¡¯t have slavery, and that refugees and the poor at least had some social safety nets and people standing up for them there, thus making them far more accepted by the majority of society. That and the fact that there was only one species of people on that world meant that, while the knowledge I gained from there was valuable, it couldn¡¯t always be directly applied. Persy went back to the Slave section of the clinic. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t afford to fire the person that looked down on Persy and I, nor was I really sure I wanted to. They were too good of a healer, and their skills were in too short of a supply to get rid of them over something that hadn¡¯t actually caused issues yet. Besides, the best way to show them that they were wrong would be to show them what we could accomplish and had accomplished. With no customers in the Rich section, I started changing some formulas for my potions so that they could be manufactured at the workshop using excess essences which would normally be sold for a fraction of their true value. The formulas were purely theoretical for now, and I would need to test them once Reginald brought me the excess essences from the workshop, but I could at least come up with some theoretical ways to make these potions. I also finished extracting the Anti-aging essence from the Silver Moon Tulip. It had a linked Regeneration essence, but that could easily be worked with to make the anti-aging effect fight the effects of aging more efficiently. Silver moon tulips cost a gold each, and only contained twelve to seventeen pedals each. As the amount needed to make an anti-aging potion was roughly equivalent to one petal, just that essence would cost one to two silvers per potion. This made it too risky to have anyone but an intermediate alchemist extract the essence. Sure, I could do it and only had basic certification, but I have specialized in extracting essences since I started learning about alchemy, as it was the only thing that made alchemy superior to the apothecary arts. I actually had a legitimate patient that day, a knight that got injured in sparring session, but most were there for ¡°relationship¡± issues. By the time Reginald brought the crates of excess essences at the end of the day, though, I had finished extracting all of the anti-aging essence from the Silver Moon Tulip, and had come up with several alternative formulas for each of the things I wanted to produce there. Those included the anti-aging potion, a female version of the aphrodisiac, fertility and infertility potions, and charisma potions. I would work on the more complex ones that helped you improve certain types of skills faster or would improve your stats later, after I had gotten my intermediate alchemist license. I was certain I would need to get it soon if I wanted to continue making high-value potions. I tried several different formulas which only used the excess essences, and a few that used common essences that any alchemist could find easily. It was after dark before Persy came and knocked on the door. ¡°We¡¯re closed now. Do you want me to count the money?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, I¡¯ll do it. I need a distraction.¡± An hour later all of the money was in the safe and we left. The next day was the Day of Coranya. Dedicated to the god of sleep, it was a day of rest for everyone, and even slaves and servants were usually given lighter work loads on that day of the week. This world also had seven day weeks, though their inner moon had a thirty five day orbit and the outer one had a forty two day orbit. I wasn¡¯t sure if the days were as long as Earth¡¯s days, but the year had twelve thirty five day months, each one dedicated to a different element. It was currently the last day of the month of Creation, just before the month of Water in which the rainy season would start. After that would come the month of Ice, then the month of Death. The clinic was mostly closed on Coranya, with only one person, generally Berry, in the Standard section of the office to deal with emergencies. If they needed my help, they could send a telepathic signal to me, though it probably would only send a simple concept due to how difficult it was for her to use. I went with Persy down to the Slum area of the city. There was trash and human waste in the streets, which was leeching into the local water supply from damaged well linings. I sent Persy to all of the wells in town to start casting Disinfect on all of the water as I went around checking for damaged sewer lines and other ways sewage could get into the water table with my detection threads. A hundred years ago, when this part of the city was built, the masons and Earth mages had been careful to route all sewage out of the living areas of the city and to prevent it from contaminating the ground water, but that had broken down. To fix it would have cost the city over a thousand gold, so they had been ignoring the issue. I doubted I would be able to do much more than temporarily patch things, but it should fix the problem well enough that the rain storms could clean the streets and not further pollute the water supply. Maybe by the month of Life, in the spring, I could raise enough money to have the situation properly fixed. I would probably want to have a serious business interest in the area, as without it the disdain the nobles and rich felt for the slum dwellers might be transferred to me as well. With a business interest, however, they will see it as just a way to try and help out my employees or to attract more talent. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Every time my detection threads detected a crack or hole that the sewage might leak through, I used a bit of Geokinesis to solidify the sand or clay in the area into the rock, forming a temporary plug. By the end of the day, I had covered less than a quarter of the damaged areas, and only in one of the least damaged sections. I suspected that I would be working the rest of Water to finish the fixes unless I skipped work a few days to do this. While we were working several people greeted us and thanked us for what we were doing. They even treated Persy with respect. I assume that was because they knew what it was like to be looked down on and used by others, and could somewhat sympathize with slaves. I made sure to bring my own field rations and eat them while working, as food was somewhat difficult to get in this area and of low quality. The few times the people tried to thank me with food I was able to honestly tell them that I wasn¡¯t hungry. When Persy rejoined me around sunset, we went to the mages guild in the nearby Crafter¡¯s district. This was the same district where my workshop was, though it was closed today. There I hired four geomancers for two days each to go through the slums and do what I did that day, looking for and sealing any cracks that might let sewage into the water supply. I had to pay one and a half silver per day to hire them as temporary workers, but I explained to them that many of the slum dwellers that were coming to our clinic had illnesses that could come from contaminated water, and that I wanted to slow the infection rates and possibly stop the spread. This was a good enough excuse to stop the rumors that I was trying to gaining the support of the poor for some nefarious purpose. When philanthropists in the past had tried something similar the rumors had ranged from being the head of the thieves guild to trying to raise an army for a rebellion. As the son of the count, I couldn¡¯t afford to have such rumors be spread, so I told them a half truth. Ultimately, I wanted the people to be healthy, but I did also have a concern that the disease could spread from the slums into the rest of the city. Such a thing had happened a few years ago when one of the slum dwellers had contracted something similar to tuberculosis and had infected a blacksmith, who spread it to his apprentices and customers. For the next two days the geomancers had sealed every crack they could find, and even had time to doublecheck their work. I suspected that they might have missed a few locations, but their work should at least slow things down. Over the next week that theory turned out true, as the rates of infectious diseases from contaminated water plummeted. I made sure Persy and the other healers told everyone to boil any water they suspected of being contaminated, as that would kill any diseases in the water, but due to the cost of firewood, especially with winter soon starting, I suspected that most of them wouldn¡¯t do so. Still, Persy or I would be going to the slums every Coranya for the rest of the month to double check that all of their wells were not contaminated. At the end of the week Reginald brought me the totals for the workshop¡¯s sales. Cost of Equipment: 43 g Wages: 58 s Material cost, reagents: 37 g, 4 s Material cost, bottles: 4 g, 1 s, 8 c Potion sales, aphrodisiac: 75 g Sales, excess essence: 3 g, 5s Total costs: 87g, 3s, 8c Total sales: 78g, 5s Profits: -(8g, 17s, 4c) At this rate we would lose money, but next month we shouldn¡¯t have any equipment costs, thus causing us to earn around 34 gold in profit. The next day Persy and I checked all of the wells in the slums, then went to the refugee sector to do the same. The refugee district only had a few wells, and over a thousand people, who mostly lived in tents. The few buildings were built from wood and mostly rotten, as this was a farming area at one point, and therefore only had barns and simple storage buildings. When the taxes within the city were increased a decade ago most of the farmers moved outside the city walls, abandoning the fields within the walls. This turned the former Farmer¡¯s quarter into a large empty area where mostly homeless people and travelers camped until a few years ago when the southern border was invaded. Since then the refugees had been slowly integrating into the workers of the city, so there numbers were only half what they were when they arrived. Only one of the wells appeared to be dangerous, as there was a dead rat rotting in it, but after we dug it out Persy was able to Sterilize the water. As much of this area was still viable farm area, I wrote down the plot number of one of the more fertile looking areas that didn¡¯t have people living on it, as it was overgrown with weeds and briers, a plot that was against the inner wall. I would need to spray it down with an herbicide to use the soil, but the soil looked very dark and full of nutrients. The plot had once been attached to a set of stables that kept horses for the knights and traveling merchants, and so had been fertilized by horse droppings for years before being abandoned. In order to grow magical plants I would need to either mix manacite ore into the soil or place Cores within the field. The only field that was already mixed with manacite was being used by the camp¡¯s apothecary, an old elf woman that lived in a tent beside the field. She was one of the elves whose aging wasn¡¯t slowed by much, so at around two hundred years old she looked like an eighty year old human. She wouldn¡¯t part with any of her magical herbs, as they were too valuable to the community, but did agree to tend to the magic garden I was considering planting near the wall when the summer got here, assuming I wanted to go through with the idea. Back in town I made a note in my office to visit the city land bureau and check on the cost of the plot. After checking that Berry was doing okay, we went home. Mother, Tanya, and Marya were having a tea party, and Persy and the servants were having a quilting circle while gossiping. I found Father and Sir Philip sitting in the library reading. ¡°I don¡¯t see you two in here much.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s not much to do on Coranya.¡± said Father. ¡°It¡¯s either this or sleep all day.¡± Obviously he couldn¡¯t do that, as people would just think he was being lazy. ¡°In that case, do you two want to play Conquest?¡± Conquest was a board game that had its rules literally set in stone eight thousand years ago when the central continent was controlled by the Precursor empire. Much like weight, material, and value ratios of the coins we used, the rules for its creation and play had been passed down since then. Imagine if someone combined Risk, Settlers of Catan, and a collectible card game and you would have something similar to Conquest. The only thing that kept such a strange combination from varying wildly from country to country was its historical nature, and that nature meant that everyone in the Northern and Southern countries, including the Golden Archipelago and even the Demon continent, played by the same rules with only an occasional house rule popping up. To understand how it worked, the first thing you need to know is that every country controlled the production of all county tiles within its territory, from metal to stone to even the cheapest wood, and those tiles had to match borders with the surrounding ones. Every tile was marked with three pieces of information, the manufacture date, the resource it produced, and the population in thousands of people. The manufacture date was in case you wanted to set the game in a historical era. The resource it produced, either wood, food, iron, or mana, had to be present in that county in sufficient quantity to be a major export. To produce food, you have to have farm land. To produce wood, you have to have forests. To produce iron, you have to have iron mines. To produce mana, you have to have a manacite deposit. For this reason, Father¡¯s county, the only silver tile he owned, had both mana and wood versions, though he preferred the mana version, as it was a rarer resource. At the beginning of the game, all players claimed counties one at a time until all were claimed. There were four unit types, with each one costing five units of their controlling resources to produce. Soldiers used iron, mages used mana, archers used wood, and scouts used food. Each unit type had a special ability. Scouts could move two counties per turn, soldiers could reflip half of their failed coins when in combat, as they had armor, archers got a free roll at the beginning of every engagement, and mages could spend one mana per squadron to heal up to half their fallen troops after engagement. For every tile you controlled, you got one unit of its resource per thousand people at the start of your turn, and could then raise up to one squadron per thousand subjects you had. Ten squadrons could be combined into a century, ten centuries into a millennium, and ten millenniums into a Legion. On your turn you can move each unit up to one tile, two for scouts, and if they are on a tile with an enemy, you can also attack. Each side traditionally flips one coin for each unit, and then loses a unit equal to the one the enemy rolled for after each stage of combat. In modern times we tend to roll dice instead of flip coins, with one to three being the same as tales, and four through six being the same as heads. You can attack as much as you want on your turn. At the end of your turn you and the person you attack must spend one resource of the units type for each squadron that participated in battle, thus making depleting the enemy¡¯s resources a viable tactic, and making it worthwhile to not defend with your whole army. ¡°Conquest is a young man¡¯s game.¡± replied Father, scratching his chin in thought. ¡°I think I was twenty five when I last played it, though I still have my tiles and armies.¡± ¡°I was twenty three at the time, and I think the only reason you quit is because I kept defeating you.¡± ¡°I stopped playing with you because your tactics were dishonorable. Using archers to harass my troops isn¡¯t an honorable way to play. However, if you promise not to use that tactic, I will play against you again.¡± Sir Philip closed his book. ¡°Very well, I shall defeat you using only scouts for offense this time just to prove that I am the better player.¡± Father nodded and got up to get the box of tiles from the storeroom. ¡°I would prefer a fourth player, though. More players make the game more fun.¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll go see if Reginald wants to join us.¡± I responded. ¡°You check on Sir Thomas, and see if he can drag himself away from his women long enough for a game.¡± Everyone, including his wife, knew that he usually spent his time off in bed for a very different reason than sleeping. Why she put up with it, I don¡¯t know. Chapter 15 The next day I arrived at work early to open up and recount the money before the day started. While I trusted Berry to do the job properly, the fact that she had no way to open the safe and therefore had to hide the money box under a pile of clean sheets meant that I couldn¡¯t be sure no one had broken in and stole from it during the night. The clinic was in the Craftsman¡¯s quarter, where most of the city¡¯s factories were so, while it wasn¡¯t the most dangerous part of town, it did have a much higher crime rate than the noble quarter where I grew up. Thankfully, the count was correct, and there were no signs that anyone had broke in over night. Even though we had only been open for a month or so, we had already had one drug addict break in and steal the narcotic pain killers I use in the slave section. After that I bought a stone box to store the intoxicating drugs and ingredients in at night, and sealed it with chains and a padlock. With no customers after I opened up, I started reading over some books that I had Persy pick up for me. The first was the Intermediate Combat Mage manual. With the end of the month coming up I had her register me for the test, so I needed to make sure I knew all of the things in it. I had also had her pick up a copy of the Merchant¡¯s Handbook from the merchant¡¯s guild so that I could take that test in a few months as well. Now that I would be starting a second business, knowing how to run a business would be important. I only had a few customers all day, so most of my day was spent guaranteeing that I knew all that I would need to to pass my test. When I got home, I was told that we had a guest and that I would be required to eat supper with the family. I had Persy draw me a bath and got dressed into something nice. At seven o¡¯clock I entered the room to find Mother, Father, Sir Philip, Lady Tanya, Lady Marya, and an unknown woman with purple hair. She seemed to be no more than a year or two older than me and quite beautiful. ¡°Viscount Cameron Starshine, this is Baroness Samantha Shadowblade.¡± the butler announced. I bowed and took a seat. Percy was dressed in her Maid outfit along with the rest of the staff, and Chef and the two maids we hired to replace Tanya and Marya brought out the food. As we were hosting another Noble, Chef had done his best to prepare a roast duck and several other dishes. I learned through the conversation during the meal that Samantha was in town from the county to the east to try and form a business connection between her father¡¯s import business and mother¡¯s export business. The ongoing goblin uprising had left the nobles of the region short of funds due to decreased tax revenue, so they were trying to find new sources of funding. In this case her father, Viscount Shadowblade, who had earned his noble title by saving the king¡¯s life from an assassination attack, was trying to move goods through the dangerous region, hoping to earn massive profits by restoring the direct trade route. So far he had managed to get two caravans through, but they had lost several guards on each trip. He would need larger shipments, though, if he wanted to afford enough mercenary protection for the caravan to scare away the bandits. After a very nice meal everyone else dismissed themselves, and I took a walk around the estate with our guest. We chatted for several hours about various topics, though the most interesting one to both of us seemed to be magic and how our styles varied. She was a summoner, spirit summoner, combat summoner, and enchanter, the last of which she used to make valuable products for her father¡¯s company and retainers. She demonstrated spirit summoning by making a tiny floating creature appear which looked like a fairy but wasn¡¯t. Spirits were fragments of souls that had only part of the original soul¡¯s personality. In this case ¡®Creampuff¡¯, as she liked naming her spirits after food, was an Id spirit she had given a thoughtform body to. Essentially that meant that all of its actions were based on avoiding pain and finding pleasure. It attached to her soul and fed on her mana and these impulses, making them stronger, and in return let her access powers of the element it was most closely linked to, in this case fire. Its body, however, was made out of mana and would disappear, returning to her, if it took too much damage. As part of the test for becoming a certified Intermediate Spirit summoner was to merge two spirits together, she also had an animal spirit, a wolf, formed from the merging of an Id spirit and the Ego of a wolf that she found. It, however, was the only time she had been successful merged two spirits, and as such she failed to get her intermediate certification. The Wolf was named ¡®Noodle¡¯ and had the elements of Sound and Light. She only summoned it when under threat, however, as it was very protective of its master. After a few hours one of her servants came to get her, and she went home. She was staying at the nicest inn in town, in the nicest room. Her maidservant did inform me that, perhaps due to Creampuff¡¯s influence, she was more worldly than a proper noble woman should be, but that she had invited me to come and visit her at her suite if I wished. I got the feeling that the maid was not surprised by that fact, and hoped that I didn¡¯t come over. For the next several days I didn¡¯t see her, as she was only coming by the mansion and mother¡¯s workshops during the day. As it was a slow day, I decided to take a break at noon and go somewhere for lunch. On my way back I noticed that something unusual was happening. Several dozen men in town were surrounding a woman. As she walked down the street I noticed that she had pink skin, bat-like wings on her back, and a pointed tail, like a scorpion. The men flocked to her and all of them seemed pleased to be in her presence. And why wouldn¡¯t they be? She was a very beautiful woman. Sure she was a few years older than me, but I¡¯m sure Father wouldn¡¯t mind if I took her as a concubine. After all relations with the demons had been amiable recently. I wished I had amiable relations with a certain demon. That seemed to jog a memory. Beautiful Demon woman, pink skin, wings, tail with a barb. It suddenly occurred to me that she was a succubus, a female of the Cambian race of demons. They were most famous for seducing men and leading them to their doom. Too bad. I didn¡¯t mind the seduction part, but I¡¯d prefer to avoid the doom. I tried to focus on a spell, but my mind was filled with thoughts of her and what I wanted to do to her. Gods damn it. I slapped myself and got the thoughts out of my head long enough to cast the spell to reinforce my natural thought pattern. That helped clear my head a bit, but it took a few tries before the image in my head was clear enough to cast it at fifth level and block most of the effect. Now that I was protected I walked up to her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, ma¡¯am, but the use of mind control magic without the subject¡¯s consent is banned in this city. I must ask you to end your influence on these men at once.¡± She smiled and walked towards me. ¡°Are you sure about that, young man?¡± Her chest bounced slightly and her hips swung seductively as a new wave of magic washed over me. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It took a bit of effort to brush the effects away, but I managed to do so. ¡°Yes, quite sure. You are violating the law and I must ask you to stop, or else the city guard will need to be informed.¡± She scowled and spat. ¡°I hate homosexual men.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not homosexual.¡± I responded. ¡°Just using anti-mind control magic. Now, stand down and end the spell before I make you end it.¡± She gave me a grin like a cat gives a mouse and out of the corner of my eye I saw something swing at me. I dodged out of the way, rolling to avoid her tail. If it had gotten me she would have injected me with endorphins, making me feel too good to fight her. Several men stepped forward to defend ¡®their¡¯ woman, and I stood back up. ¡°By order of Viscount Starshine, if you aid this criminal in her attack on me, you will be arrested for treason along with her other men.¡± I announced. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because none of them wanted to share her or if they didn¡¯t want to risk being charged with treason, but the men ran. All but one. I heard someone run up behind me and scream something about not letting me lay my hands on her as I sidestepped his sword swing. With him off balance I was able to land a solid kick in his stomach, causing him to drop his sword and collapse in pain. I quickly picked up the sword and used it to parry a second tail swipe at my throat. She screamed in pain and jumped backwards and I cast the fastest spell I knew. I held my hand towards her and fired of a level five force blast. It hit her in the chest with enough force to crack several ribs and throw her backwards into a food cart before collapsing. Now that she was unconscious I felt the pressure on my mind lift and the man on the ground realized what he had done. ¡°I am so sorry, my lord. It was never my intention to threaten a noble. She did something to me, and I couldn¡¯t help myself.¡± He prostrated himself on the ground, begging for mercy. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Succubi are know for luring men to their doom and making them their slaves. It seems you got the worst of it.¡± I motioned for him to stand and he did so, once again bowing in the more formal asian, or in this world, ancient style. ¡°Thank you my lord. I won¡¯t forget your kindness.¡± I nodded. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me saying so, sir, you have quite the kick. If you would like a place to practice, I own a gym where you can spar with people of a similar skill level.¡± ¡°You teach martial arts, but attacked me with a sword?¡± ¡°I have heard of how you are a skilled mage, as you just showed. Against mages, attacking with a weapon is usually the best strategy. I just didn¡¯t know that you were also a swordsman.¡± ¡°Yeah, I got my Swordsmanship and Guardsman certification when I was twelve. I don¡¯t have much of an opportunity to use it.¡± Someone from the city guard finally got there, and I handed him the man¡¯s sword. ¡°Make sure you put a mana draining collar on her before she wakes up. I can then heal her and wake her up. You should hurry, though. I broke several of her ribs and might have punctured a lung.¡± The man ran off and returned a minute later with two female guards, a Knight and a commoner, who put the collar around her neck. It drained her mana down to a pressure of one and dissipated it into the air, so that any spells she use used would be too weak to do much. Once the collar had finished its job I set her ribs and started healing her chest. It was quite a nice chest, but I was able to avoid staring at it as I healed her. Thankfully none of the ribs had done much more than scratch the outside of her lung. After I was finished there, I used Flash Heal on her tail. Someone else could fix that later. She awoke and tried to cast the spell on the men in the area again, but we were all easily able to resist her, even the martial artist she had enthralled earlier. They stood her up and I walked over to her. ¡°You will be taken to the city dungeon where you will be charged with multiple accounts of unauthorized use of mind control and the attempted assault of a noble. We can provide you with legal council should you require it, however if you are found guilty you will be responsible for paying the lawyer¡¯s fees in full. Do you understand the charges and your rights?¡± She spat in my face. ¡°Correction. Actual assault of a noble. Take her away.¡± I wiped the saliva off of my face with my sleeve and watched as she and the man she had enthralled were lead away. He would probably be interrogated to get his testimony against her, but if he faced charges it was unlikely he would receive more than a week of labor cutting trees or mining, as his actions were the result of being controlled. I returned to work and explained to my employees how I had been delayed. So many beautiful female employees. Sure, I had promised Father that I wouldn¡¯t bed Persy, but one of the other women would be fine, right? Berry was quite beautiful after all. I almost started to ask if she wanted to see what a noble man¡¯s bedroom looked like when I stopped myself. When I had started this company one of the first employee rules I had put in place banned sexual harassment. Even if I was still ¡®energized¡¯ by the effect of the succubus, I needed to control myself. If I wasn¡¯t over it by the time I got off of work there were some very nice brothels in the area. I had never visited one before, as I had preferred focusing on my studies of magic over my studies of women, but given the circumstance I might need to. I worked for the next five hours, having to push the thoughts about women out of my head every few minutes. A few minutes before closing time, however, Samantha visited the clinic. ¡°I just finished touring your workshop.¡± she informed me. ¡°I must say, producing luxury consumables for the rich and nobility is a good business model. No doubt you will become quite popular in certain circles. I did have a few questions, though.¡± I nodded. ¡°Then let¡¯s go back to my office and discuss the matter.¡± She followed me there and we sat down on the couch. After I poured her a drink, some good wine I had bought for putting clients at ease, she started. ¡°The first question I have is about your aphrodisiac. I only heard about male clients that used it. Does it only work with men?¡± ¡°There is a different version for women, however, as it is more expensive to produce and the market is much smaller, I only produce it in small doses.¡± ¡°In that case, do you mind showing me?¡± I nodded and got a sample of both drugs. ¡°This is the female version and this is the male version. They are different colors, so they aren¡¯t hard to tell apart. You or your partner should only take half a bottle every four hours, though, or you risk injuring yourself.¡± ¡°Would you be willing to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product?¡± I know what I hoped she meant by that, but surely she didn¡¯t mean it like that. ¡°Like, with customer reviews? I haven¡¯t put the female version into wide enough production yet, but I can hand out samples if you want such reviews.¡± ¡°No, I meant personally.¡± She lead towards me and I realized how amazing she smelled. Like roses and lemons. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I should do that. I believe this is Creampuff¡¯s effect on you.¡± She leaned over to my ear and whispered. ¡°I can be your Creampuff if you want.¡± Ok, that definitely wasn¡¯t misunderstood. She was definitely interested in me. ¡°Uh, in that case, not here. I don¡¯t want to risk an employ seeing, and here you are a customer. You did, however, invite me back to your suite the other day...¡± She smiled. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s head out.¡± I nodded and grabbed two other vials off the shelf. ¡°Infertility potion.¡± I said, handing them to her. She nodded and put them in a magic bag on her waste. I went to the Slave section and handed Persy the key. The room was empty except for her and it was almost time to leave anyway. ¡°You can lock up tonight, and Berry can count the money. Just insert the key into the lock, inject the key with level four mana, wait at least three seconds, and then turn the key, or it won¡¯t unlock. You don¡¯t have to do anything special to lock it. Give me the key back when I get home. I don¡¯t know when that will be.¡± ¡°Heading to the tavern with friends?¡± she asked. I had done that twice since opening, but always after locking up. ¡°Something like that.¡± I went back to the Rich section to meet Samantha and we left. Two hours later we both lay drenched in sweat on the floor of her bedroom. ¡°I...think we should...have started without it.¡± I said while panting. ¡°Me too.¡± She breathed a few more times before continuing. ¡°We¡¯ll have to try not using it tomorrow.¡± ¡°Tomorrow? In that case, why don¡¯t you move somewhere nicer. This room is nice, but it doesn¡¯t compare to the guest rooms in the palace.¡± ¡°Are you inviting me to move in with you?¡± I smiled. ¡°At least until you have to leave town.¡± She laughed. ¡°I¡¯ll have my maid pack up my things, then.¡± Chapter 16 When I arrived home I went to my room to find Persy waiting there. ¡°Welcome back.¡± She walked over to me and held out the key, then sniffed the air and smiled. ¡°Seems like you did a lot more than just have a few drinks.¡± I took the key and put it around my neck. ¡°I didn¡¯t say I was going out for drinks with a friend.¡± ¡°Still, I take it you had a good time?¡± I gave her a smirk. I knew she was just joking. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll tease you about it whenever you find a man.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll just have to find a woman.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to tease you even more.¡± She giggled. ¡°I know it¡¯s been a long day, but do you think you could prepare one of the guest rooms for a friend I offered one to? You can have tomorrow morning off if you need it to get the room ready.¡± ¡°A Lady friend?¡± I gave her a knowing smile and she smiled back. ¡°How about I draw you a bath first so your parents don¡¯t smell it the second they get within twenty meters of you, then start on the room?¡± I nodded, and she went into the bathroom to start my bath. The next day went really well. We finally managed to finish giving checkups to everyone in the slums that had signed up for a free exam, and would be allowed to start seeing refugees now. The incidents of waterborne illnesses from the slums had greatly decreased, and the mages I had hired had finished their job, so the water should stay clean at least until spring, when the paving could be properly repaired by the Mason¡¯s guild. I had even gotten several rich or noble guests today which weren¡¯t looking for relationship aids. When I arrived home the butler was waiting for me. ¡°You father wishes to speak with you in his office.¡± he said, and I nodded. He lead me to Father¡¯s office and knocked, announcing my presence. When Father invited me in the butler opened the door and then closed it behind me. ¡°I see you invited Lady Shadowblade to stay in the palace. Does this mean that you finally found a lover?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. Is that a problem?¡± He smiled. ¡°Not at all. I was just surprised it took you so long. I had one at thirteen and your mother had one at fourteen. With yours being a baroness, no noble would care if she got pregnant or even if you married her. I would recommend that you try to avoid having a child until your businesses are more stable, though.¡± He walked over to the office¡¯s liquor cabinet and poured us both a shot of whiskey. ¡°Congratulations on finally being a man.¡± I took the glass, tapped it to his, and swallowed it. I nodded. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about being a grandfather yet. Long term Infertility potions only cost four coppers to make and work for at least three months if a woman takes them.¡± ¡°Good. You can¡¯t properly devote yourself to being a father with your businesses not being stable. I know when your were born I had to take over your mother¡¯s business so she could spend time with you. I didn¡¯t have a merchant certification, though, so I couldn¡¯t handle it, and she had to return to work just to keep the business from collapsing. I wasn¡¯t there for you when you were little, and I just want to make sure don¡¯t make the same mistake.¡± Father looked sad thinking about it, so I put my hand on his shoulder. ¡°I know you didn¡¯t do it on purpose. And I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be an excellent grandfather one day. Just not now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ready for that, and not just financially.¡± He nodded. ¡°Good. Now I just need to make sure your mother doesn¡¯t start pressuring her for grandchildren. She always wanted to have more kids, but with your sister being so young she knows this is the only chance she¡¯ll have for grandkids for over a decade.¡± ¡°Yes, please don¡¯t harass her about that. I don¡¯t think she wants to be a mom yet either.¡± We had one more drink, and he told me to go greet my girlfriend. We left the office and he went to go find mother as I went to find Samantha. She was in her room and, as soon as I entered, she kicked out her maid, saying that she wanted to ¡°talk in private¡±. We both know she was interested in more than just talking, but I played along and said goodbye to the maid. The second the maid closed the door she started untying her blouse. Well, I guess I knew it was coming. Thirty minutes later we both got dressed, with me helping her tie her blouse. We would need to go to supper soon, but we still had a little while to talk before then, so I started the conversation. ¡°So, what can you tell me about summoning?¡± ¡°Which kind? Spirit or physical?¡± ¡°Either. Honestly, enchanting is also interesting.¡± ¡°Not as much as healing or combat magic.¡± I hugged her from behind as we set on the bed. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll make you a deal. I¡¯ll buy a book on one form of magic you know, you buy a book on a form of magic I know, and we can teach each other at night. We can even go to the Mage¡¯s guild in a month or two and take our tests at the same time.¡± ¡°Hopefully the studying won¡¯t turn into something more personal too often and keep us from studying.¡± ¡°Three months, then?¡± I joked. ¡°No, let¡¯s say two at the most. If we let ourselves push it back just so we can do...that again, we¡¯ll never learn. I had to do the same thing when I was learning spirit summoning or I would have let myself get distracted too much.¡± ¡°So you had another man then?¡± ¡°Multiple men, not that it¡¯s any of your business.¡± She showed me a silver bracelet she was wearing. ¡°Level 4 infertility enchantment. Haven¡¯t taken it off except to clean it since I made it at thirteen.¡± ¡°No wonder you know what you are doing.¡± She smirked. ¡°You¡¯re a good student. And hopefully you¡¯ll be just as good when I¡¯m teaching you skills that you can market in polite company.¡± ¡°But what if I want to become a palace debutante? I¡¯ll need to learn those skills too.¡± She slapped me with a pillow and we both laughed. After supper we both visited the Mage¡¯s Guild where I bought a book on Basic physical summoning and she bought one on Basic combat magic. We returned home where we spent the next several hours just sitting in the library together reading our books. Apparently, summoning was developed by the Precursors around the time they all but disappeared, and some historians even believed that it may have been the cause of their genocide. It was essentially an inversion of teleportation, finding a valid target and bringing it to you instead of taking a designated target near you and sending it to another location. It could have a huge number of filters added to it, what the manual referred to as ¡®white lists¡¯ and ¡®black lists¡¯, to control what it would summon. One of those filters could even whitelist a specific creature or object you were familiar with to bring something specific. After that the book went into detail about magic circles and how to whitelist or blacklist something, and I started getting bored. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Noticing that Samantha had already went to sleep, I closed our books and carried her to her room. The maid, who I learned was named Charlot, thanked me for carrying her back and helped her into her night clothes before putting her to bed. I spent the next day at work trying to study my Intermediate Combat Magic manual. I had mastered most of these spells when I was studying the Army manual, but there was only one spell I hadn¡¯t managed yet, the ability to knock a target unconscious. Most people would consider this no different than the standard sleep spell that intermediate healers learn, but it was quite different when you looked into it. The sleep spell was the magical equivalent of singing them a lullaby. This was the magical equivalent of hitting them in the head with a club. It was a more sure way of knocking them out, but came with a severe risk of serious injury or death. There was even a warning in the book that it could cause serious brain damage and even kill the target. Unfortunately, you could only really practice on a living, awake target, unlike most of the spells. Persy had already run into a few victims of mages that practiced the spell on their slaves, then brought them in for treatment afterwords. I wouldn¡¯t be testing it on an intelligent being, though, even if I was invited to a martial arts studio where getting knocked unconscious via a blow to the head was normal. I would instead do what they would do in the test should they test this particular spell, and use an animal. If I practiced on the livestock at the slaughterhouse, the worst I could do was severely brain damage an animal they weren¡¯t ready to slaughter yet. At lunch time, rather than go to a restaurant, I grabbed something from a food stand and walked over to the slaughterhouse. ¡°Lord Starshine, what brings you here?¡± asked a middle aged man that was wiping blood from his hands with a rag. ¡°I was wondering if I you would mind letting me practice a spell on your animals. I need to practice a knockout spell, and I need a living, awake target to practice on.¡± ¡°I take it you¡¯re taking your Intermediate Combat Mage test in two days, then?¡± I nodded. ¡°In that case, you aren¡¯t the first to think of practicing here. We normally give a mage one chance per animal just before we kill them ourselves, at a cost of one copper per attempt. And, of course, if you accidentally hit an employee or bystander, you have to cover their medical bills. With you owning a clinic, though, the second part shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡± ¡°If I hit anyone I¡¯ll have my employee in the Standard section treat them.¡± ¡°I prefer the Fox!¡± shouted a Weasel man from nearby. ¡°She¡¯s hotter than that human woman.¡± One of his coworkers slapped him on the back of the head, but he smiled at his own joke. ¡°Fine, if I hit you, I¡¯ll get Persy to treat you.¡± The owner nodded. ¡°Very well, we¡¯ll go and grab the next one. You can pay at the end.¡± By the time lunch was over I had knocked out seven of the twelve large animals they brought up, and all of the chickens, geese, and ducks. The man gave me a discount on the small animals and charged me an even silver. Thankfully I hadn¡¯t hit any of the employees. I went back to the clinic and found Persy in the Rich area rubbing the feet of the pregnant woman from a few weeks ago. Her midwife had come with her. Apparently the midwife was worried because the woman was starting to feel pain in her abdomen but the midwife didn¡¯t believe it was time for the birth yet. After a few minutes her feet stopped hurting enough that we could lead her into an examination room. There I ran test threads throughout her and the baby¡¯s body, and even physically examined her. She didn¡¯t appear to be having proper contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions were rarer here than on Earth, but they did still occur. ¡°I believe they are false contractions.¡± I said putting the sheet back over her. ¡°They aren¡¯t very common, but they can happen, especially as you approach the end of your pregnancy. And it appears that the baby will be here in one or two weeks.¡± The midwife nodded. ¡°Thank you.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ve never had this happen with any of my patients.¡± ¡°None of them thought they were going into labor before they actually were?¡± asked Persy. ¡°Well, this one Elf woman did, but she was only twenty two, so I thought she just lacked the experience to really know.¡± Full blooded elves weren¡¯t considered adults until they were twenty five years old, so it was understandable that the girl didn¡¯t know anything about it. The rules about getting certifications by the fifteenth birthday still applied to them, though, which meant that most full blooded elves that were born to nobles were effectively trying to get certified at age ten, and I didn¡¯t even manage that for both my certifications, even though I was something of a prodigy in the kingdom. This meant that pure elf nobles were quite rare in the kingdom. They paid and left, and I thanked Persy for stepping in for me. ¡°Not a problem.¡± she responded. ¡°I¡¯ve had to do much grosser things that rub a woman¡¯s feet before. You would be surprised how much puss I dealt with in the slum dwellers group.¡± ¡°I¡¯d actually prefer to not know.¡± She nodded, and left for the Slave section. That night Samantha and I met in the library to read our manuals once again. This time, we actually asked each other questions instead of just reading. Samantha explained to me the basics of magic circles, which I had skipped in my combat mage studies because they were slow to set up and therefore unsuited for battle. I had learned enough about them from the healing manuals to keep up, but I was by no means an expert. She told me that they would be important when learning enchanting as well, eventually teaching me the basics of whitelisting and blacklisting things. Apparently that was done by designating traits, which could include essences, something I was quite familiar with. After that we went to the training field where she practiced putting out pulses of mana, a technique which went completely against the slow, meticulous way her other forms of casting used mana. As a combat mage, though, she would need to draw out the mana and fix it with an image in less than a second, so I told her we would be practicing that for at least thirty minutes a day until she could manage a level four spell in less than a second. ¡°Is that even possible?¡± she asked, and I raised my hand towards the target, firing a fire bolt into its face almost too quickly to see. She nodded. ¡°I guess it is.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m not around, you can always ask Persy for advise. She may not be as fast as I am, but she can manage a few attack spells.¡± ¡°Yet you haven¡¯t got her proper combat mage certification.¡± ¡°She doesn¡¯t want to be seen as a combat slave, as she sees them as inferior to a domestic slave for some reason. She can still hold her own in a fight, though, so the certification doesn¡¯t matter. Maybe one day, if I think I¡¯ll need more combat help, I¡¯ll finish her training, but for now focusing on her healing is good enough.¡± She nodded and we went back to practice. She taught me the basics of magic circles the next day night, which I was was sure was to avoid having to practice her spells, but as soon as we were finished with my practice I drug her out to the practice field to do her practice. I may have had to bribe her with sweets, but I got her to practice. The next day both I and Kanta had to take the day off to take certification exams. He went to the healers guild to take his Basic Healer¡¯s certification, and I went to the Mages guild for my intermediate combat mage certification. Apparently he had found it quite easy to learn most healing spells, as he was familiar with potions and salves which duplicated the effect and could simply focus on imbuing the essence of those potions into the magic. Once he got his mana pressure to a point where he could cast level four spells reliably, he succeeded on casting the spell within two or three tries. My test was fairly normal until I got to the final spell test. I and a mage from the city guards were standing in the testing field when they brought out two pigs and two chickens, putting one of each in two different pens. ¡°Your final test is to knock these animals out. You pass as long as you knock out the chicken, but will get extra points for knocking out the pig as well. If, however, you kill either one, it will count as a failure. This is to prevent you from simply overcasting the spell to make sure you succeed. The point is for it to non-lethally take down an enemy. If we wanted the enemy dead, any of a hundred other spells would do the job.¡± We nodded and the mage guard stepped forward. He held his hand towards the pen and closed his eyes. A few seconds later the chicken collapsed, but the pig stumbled then stood back up. He took a deep breath and a few seconds later, the pig collapsed. A test administrator walked over to the pin and checked on the pig. It was laying on the ground seizing. ¡°Overkill. Severe brain damage.¡± The man said, the tester, then waved his hand at it. There was a loud pop as the pig¡¯s neck was snapped and it stopped moving. I stepped up next and sent two detection thread into the animal¡¯s heads. The chicken¡¯s mind was obviously much weaker than the pigs, but the main use was to properly gauge how much was needed to knock out each one. I converted them into targeting threads and split a Knockout spell proportionately with their mental strength. This technique was rarely used to split spells due to the amount of concentration it required, but during the test that didn¡¯t matter. Both animals collapsed, and when the tester went over to check on them, both were unconscious with no signs of brain damage worse than what would give them a bad headache. ¡°Slower than I¡¯d like, but succeeded on both accounts.¡± We left the testing area and both handed over our cards to have them upgraded from Basic Combat Mage Certification to Intermediate Combat Mage Certification. I returned to work and worked the rest of the afternoon, helping a few clients in my section before closing. When it was time to close up I invited Kanta out for celebratory drinks. He had also passed his test and would now be paid a silver and two copper per day as he was doing more than just healing patients. An hour and thirty minutes later we were having a chat and a few drinks when a tiny creature with wings flew in, saw me, and flew over. ¡°Creampuff?¡± I asked. The creature held up a hand to stop me, picked up my shot of whiskey and chugged it. She burped, and started speaking. ¡°My lady demands that you return home and stuff her like a sausage.¡± Kanta snorted and I looked at her in disbelief. ¡°Can you please not talk like that in front of my friends?¡± ¡°Her words, not mine.¡± she said, picking up my half full beer and chugging it as well. The whiskey seemed like too much, but I had no idea how she could drink half a beer. ¡°Still, your can whisper it in my ear or something.¡± ¡°Whatever.¡± She looked at Kanta. ¡°I know I¡¯m good looking but I think you¡¯re a bit big for me.¡± Kanta lifted his beer to hide his face in embarrassment. ¡°Oh I get it, you just like the wings. That¡¯s pretty freaky, my man.¡± He tried to hide his face again and she took the opportunity to steal his whiskey as well. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t judge. You do you. I¡¯m just not real and too small even if I was real, so you¡¯re barking up the wrong tree.¡± I shook my head, and threw the money for our drinks on the table. ¡°Come on you perverted fairy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a fairy, I¡¯m a corporeal Id spirit! Learn the difference!¡± I ignored the annoying little spirit as I walked home, ignoring her shouts of indignation until she finally gave up and passed out on my head. Chapter 17 The next morning I was sitting in my office when I heard the bell above the door ding. I looked out to see Marya helping her mother in. ¡°Lady Tanya?¡± I asked. ¡°What brings you here? Did you injure yourself?¡± ¡°Not exactly.¡± she responded. ¡°Can we use a room?¡± ¡°Yes, of course. Right this way.¡± I lead the two of them to one of the nicer rooms and helped Lady Tanya onto the exam table. ¡°So, what seems to be the trouble?¡± ¡°Well, this morning I had a very sick stomach, and vomited. And now my right breast is starting to hurt. I¡¯m not sure if I pulled something, or.¡± she started to pull down her blouse but Marya stopped her. ¡°Mother! You can¡¯t just show your breast to another man.¡± ¡°I shouldn¡¯t need to see it, unless there are physical symptoms like bruising or stretch marks that might not be detected with my threads. Though it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t seen it before, even if I was two or three at the time.¡± She looked at me with a confused look. ¡°You remember when you were two or three?¡± I shrugged. ¡°A few flashes. Like running away from you while you carried Marya on your back just to mess with you.¡± ¡°You were doing that on purpose? Do you realize how stressful that was?¡± ¡°I was bored, and wanted to play tag. But I stopped when you needed to start teaching her to walk.¡± ¡°I guess you did. So, about my case?¡± ¡°Sure, let me run some tests.¡± I held my hand over her abdomen and ran five detection threads into her. After about ten seconds I found a possible cause. I double-checked by holding my hand over her chest and, sure enough, my suspicion was verified. ¡°Well, I know what¡¯s wrong with you. You¡¯re pregnant again. About a month and a half. Your breast is hurting because, for some reason, you are already producing milk on your right side, but not the left. You¡¯ve been through two pregnancies already though. I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t realize that when you missed your cycle.¡± ¡°Well, Philip pulled a muscle in my back when we were...¡± Marya gave her a surprised look. ¡°Uh, doing calisthenics, and I took a healing potion around that time, so I assumed that was why I missed the first one. And the last should have been a few days ago, but I thought I was just running late.¡± A known effect of healing potions is that, if taken just before the start of a woman¡¯s cycle, it lessened or nullified the symptoms, so that was plausible. ¡°In that case, there isn¡¯t really anything for me to do, other than to give you nutrition potions and tell you the baby¡¯s sex.¡± Nutrition potions both contained large amounts of vitamins, minerals, protein, and complex carbohydrates, and would make your body absorb them more efficiently for the next several days. ¡°I¡¯ll take the potions, but I don¡¯t want to know the child¡¯s sex yet. If I figure that out I might become obsessed with preparing for the baby. I definitely got like that with my first two girls.¡± I nodded and got up to go get the potions when Marya followed me out of the room. ¡°Can I talk to you in private for a minute?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± We went to my office, where I stored the potions, and I asked her what she wanted to talk about. ¡°Can you test me as well?¡± she asked. ¡°You just want a physical? Sure.¡± I ran my hands over her as she sat on the couch, checking throughout her body for anything wrong with her. No muscle, bone, skin, organ, or any other issue that I could see. She was in perfect health, though their was one organ that wasn¡¯t exactly how I was expecting it. ¡°So that¡¯s why you wanted me to test you. Congratulations. You¡¯re pregnant. I¡¯m guessing the father is that quarter elf knight you¡¯ve been flirting with? Judging by the child¡¯s racial traits...¡± I was expecting her to celebrate, but instead she started crying, and I was pretty sure it wasn¡¯t out of joy. I sat down beside her and hugged her for a minute or so before she stopped crying enough to talk. ¡°We snuck into the barracks one night when he was on duty. It only happened once, but when I went to talk to him the next day, he said he had no interest in talking with me again. He discarded me like used wrapping paper. And now...¡± she motioned to her stomach. ¡°What am I supposed to do? I don¡¯t even have a job.¡± ¡°About him running away the second he got what he wanted, I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s not illegal, even if it does make him a piece of trash. I do know that the courts take child support seriously, so you can get at least enough to raise the child from him if you sue him for it. As for a job, however, even though you¡¯ve already turned down working for me as a healer, I have an idea for how to employ you.¡± Both she and Lady Tanya had gotten merchant certification so that they could get a job, but mother refused to hire either of them as she never really liked them. So Lady Tanya, with her cooking certification, got a job managing a chain restaurant for a merchant company. Marya was still looking for a job. ¡°If you can meet me tonight after I get home we¡¯ll go talk to Reginald and see what we can do.¡± She sniffled a few times and dried her eyes. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Sure, anything for my little sister.¡± I said, then realized what I had said. ¡°Uh, I mean because we were raised together, you¡¯re like a little sister to me.¡± She smiled. ¡°I know what you meant. About a month after you started teaching me magic I told mother that I thought you were really cute, and she explained to me why pursuing you would be a very bad idea, informing me who my biological father is.¡± I nodded. ¡°I figured it out when I was practicing my detection threads on you. I went to confirm it, and Father lectured me on the same thing. At least Tanya didn¡¯t suggest you visit a brothel.¡± ¡°Lord Virgil really suggested that?¡± ¡°Well, he thought I was desperate when I said I tested you and Persy with Mating Sense.¡± She smiled. ¡°Understandable.¡± We stood up and I went to the counter and pulled out an eight by eight box of nutrition potions. ¡°Take these with you. I want you and your mother to take two per week until two weeks after birth, ok? When you run out, just tell me or Persy and we¡¯ll bring more of them home with us.¡± She nodded. ¡°How much do I owe you?¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°The checkups were a silver each, but the potions are free for anyone that needs them.¡± Marya paid the two silver from a nearly empty coin purse and we left the office and walked back towards the room Lady Tanya was in. ¡°Most of the ingredients come from flour, vegetables, fruit, beans, herbs, or even dirt. The only thing that costs more than a few coppers is the essence of digestion, which is only a silver for enough to make hundreds of potions. Alchemy students make these just to practice, because they are so cheap to make.¡± ¡°That does sound pretty cheap.¡± she said as we opened the door to the room. ¡°What sounds cheap?¡± asked Tanya. ¡°The potions I gave her for you to take. They can be made for a copper or so per batch of sixteen, and sell for four per copper at any alchemist or apothecary in town, so I gave her sixty four of them.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, that is cheap.¡± I helped Lady Tanya stand up and she started reaching for her coin purse. ¡°Marya already paid. You get home and get some rest. Hopefully the potion will stop the morning sickness.¡± She nodded and the two of them left for the palace. That night, after supper, Marya and I visited Reginald in his office. I knocked and he let us in. ¡°Ah, Lord Cameron, Lady Marya. How can I help you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s actually about the workshop. I know that both my business and mothers will be growing with Lord Shadowblade sending caravans through here regularly. I was wondering if you might need some help managing the workshop.¡± I motioned to Marya to indicate who would be his aid. ¡°Not at the moment, though I do have a suggestion. I much prefer the bookkeeping aspect of management to the personal interactions. Lady Marya, on the other hand, excels at the personal interactions. I can tell by the way she interacts with the servants.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just because I used to be one of them, and can relate to them.¡± ¡°Which is my point. Might I suggest that I return to working for your mother full time, and Lady Marya takes over the management of the workshop?¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked. ¡°I believe I was paying you more than mother was.¡± ¡°You were, but I am willing to sacrifice the extra few coppers a day if it means I can dedicate myself to charts and mathematics.¡± I nodded. ¡°Very well. In that case, do you mind visiting the workshop tomorrow morning?¡± I looked at Marya and she nodded. ¡°Then Marya will come by the workshop early tomorrow morning so that you can introduce her to the team and what they are doing there. Once she is comfortable with the team, you may switch jobs.¡± Reginald bowed. ¡°Thank you, Lord Cameron.¡± The next morning Samantha, Marya, Persy, Carolin, and I left the palace at the same time and decided to swing by the stables on the way out. Lord Philip had insisted on sending Pancho with Marya to protect her for her first day of work, and Samantha and Carolin had business in town, as they needed to secure more product for Samantha¡¯s father to move when his caravan arrived in a few days. Pancho ran out and jumped at me as I quickly cast Fire Resistance on my whole body. I fell to the ground, pinned by him, and he started licking me, the flames on his head just inches from my face. ¡°Come on,¡± Marya said. ¡°Down.¡± The two meter tall Cerberus got off of me and I knelt down and started to pet him. ¡°Doesn¡¯t that hurt?¡± asked Samantha as she watched me pet the flaming neck of the monster. ¡°Kind of warm, but only like tea that¡¯s a bit too hot. If you want to pet him, I can cast Fire Resistance on you too.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid Muffin will get mad if she smells another monster on me.¡± she responded. ¡°Muffin?¡± asked Marya, and Samantha nodded. ¡°My combat summon monster. Do you want to meet her?¡± Samantha held her hand towards an empty patch of ground and an illusory magic circle appeared there. It started to glow and a creature that looked like a panther with a silver streak down its back seemed to phase its way through the ground. When it reached ground level Samantha ended the spell. ¡°Is that a razor-claw? It¡¯s so cute!¡± Samantha nodded and Marya knelt down to pet it. The two meter tall pet closed its eyes and laid down, a look of contentment on its face. ¡°Can I pet her too?¡± asked Persy, walking over, only for the monster to open its eyes and stare at her. ¡°Uh, Lady Samantha? What is she doing?¡± ¡°In the wild, razor claws hunt foxes as their main food source. She trying to figure out if you are a meal or person.¡± ¡°Can you please let her know I¡¯m not a snack?¡± ¡°I could tell her you¡¯re my pet. Hey, Cam, can I have Persy?¡± ¡°Depends on in what sense you¡¯re are asking that question. I¡¯m not transferring ownership, but if you meant something perverted, that¡¯s up to Persy. I¡¯m not so jealous that I would mind if you bring over another woman occasionally.¡± Carolin shook her head at the indecency of the suggestion and Persy blushed. ¡°This time I was just talking about ownership. Too bad. I¡¯ve never made a pet contract with a beast person. Maybe I can buy one and try it.¡± Persy looked relieved when she said the first part. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to send her back if you don¡¯t mind. She is pretty taxing on my mana reserves when outside of a mana rich area. I¡¯m actually having a stable near the mithril mines watch after her for that reason.¡± Marya nodded and stood up, and Samantha sent the monster back to its stall. Persy looked disappointed at not getting to pet the giant cat, but quickly wiped the look off of her face. ¡°We should probably get going Master.¡± she said to me, using an honorific she only uses when annoyed at me. ¡°The clinic will open soon.¡± ¡°Right, well, shall we go?¡± With that we left the palace gate and entered the noble quarter. A week later Marya took over as the full time manager of the workshop at two silvers per day. She did make one change, however. The apothecaries that were mixing the potions were having to stack and move the crates, and even load the wagons when Mother¡¯s company sent someone by to pick them up. She wanted to bring in a cargo handler and, as it wasn¡¯t a high skilled job, suggested that I buy a slave for the job. I suggested that we hire someone from the slums instead, but she didn¡¯t like the idea. The issue was Trade Secrets. The employees had the condition that they not reveal the formula for any of our potions to anyone as a legally binding part of their contract, as they were directly involved with making it. It was unlikely, however, that a cargo hauler would even sign a contract, much less one that prevented them from talking about their job. A slave, on the other hand, is bound to not reveal their master¡¯s secrets by a magical contract, and the Trade Secrets counted as their master¡¯s secrets, especially if their master owned the Trade Secret. So after work we talked to a reputable slave dealer that had come into my part of the clinic a week ago. Sure, it was for ¡°the potion¡±, for a night with his mistress, but he paid without excuse or bargaining and I didn¡¯t know another slave merchant. We told him that we were looking for a cargo hauler and possibly a security guard, as I would like someone to watch the shop at night. Marya added that she wanted a young woman that could work as a wetnurse for her so she could return to work sooner, which meant that, for nutritional reasons, the slave would need to be a humanoid, goblinoid, or human-like beastfolk. After looking through a thick folder of slave documents, he brought out two pages with full body drawings of the women, including nude ones. I knew that it was because most young female slaves were at least occasionally expected to perform ¡®other¡¯ duties, but ignored those particular drawings. The first woman was a brown haired, tanned skinned nineteen year old Cow beastfolk. Her only animal features were two large forward curved horns and a tail, the horns being the result of her father being a Minotaur. She had also inherited the Minotaur¡¯s fabled strength, so she was perfect for the role. Marya, however, didn¡¯t like the fact that she had horns, as that could endanger the baby. The cow woman had Swordsman certification as she was originally trained as a caravan guard like her father, and was currently in training for her Spearmanship certification as well. This was one reason the slave dealer was known for selling high quality slaves, he was willing to get them certification training to increase their value. The second was a criminal slave, a one and a half meter tall, black haired stocky twenty three year old half human half dwarf refugee. She had broken into a food warehouse and stolen a huge amount of food for the other refugees in her group, using a magic backpack, and been sentenced to two years for her crimes. She was currently working in the mithril mines, but would be transferred here once sold. Marya much preferred the half dwarf woman. As far as the merchant knew here only certification was as an Adventurer, as that was the identification card she had on her when arrested, but she refused to tell him about any other certifications she had. Marya and I talked about it for a little while and decided that I would buy both. The Dwarf woman would live at the workshop, sleeping in one of the storerooms that were used for storing lumber when it was a furniture workshop, and the Cow woman would live in the clinic, sleeping in one of the extended stay patient rooms we hadn¡¯t needed yet. That way, they would be able to work during the day and stay there for security during the night. It took him three days to get the women ready for transfer, as he needed to have the dwarf woman brought here and wanted to finish the training of the cow woman. When we returned, though, we saw them in person. The Cow woman was named Cena, and the Dwarf was named Hogan. ¡°So, I take it you¡¯re expecting me to service you at night?¡± the half dwarf snarked. ¡°You bloody nobles and your...¡± she grabbed her head suddenly and stopped talking. ¡°I already have a girlfriend, so no. Instead, we¡¯ll have the two of you working in my businesses and staying there at night to provide security. I take it the slave contract is why you got a migraine?¡± ¡°What do you think?¡± she snapped, but I could tell that the pained look on her face was lessening. ¡°Her victim was a noble,¡± said the slave merchant, ¡°A knight. Which is why she targeted that warehouse. She hates nobles. So a restriction against speaking poorly of nobles was added to her contract.¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, we aren¡¯t all sorry excuses for a lifeform. Some of us treat people well, even our slaves. In fact, I¡¯ll let you talk with Persy, a Fox woman I¡¯ve owned for seven years. She¡¯ll tell you how well I treat her.¡± ¡°Please, we both know why men buy Cat and Fox women.¡± ¡°She was six and I was eight when I bought her, and I did so because I needed a maid. And I haven¡¯t laid a hand on her since.¡± ¡°You mean it?¡± asked the Cow girl. ¡°My last master, well, he wasn¡¯t the worst, but sometimes he drank too much and I was available, so...¡± ¡°If you wish, I¡¯ll sign a magical contract with both of you that I will allow you complete freedom in choosing your sexual partners. I made Persy the same promise, as well as a promise that I wouldn¡¯t hit her unless she betrayed me, and I¡¯ve held up my end of the agreement.¡± The short humanoid woman shrugged. ¡°We¡¯ll see. So, can we get the transfer over with? I¡¯m tired working in the mines. I¡¯d much rather haul cargo and work security. Being underground gives me the creeps.¡± I ignored the seeming strangeness of a Dwarf that didn¡¯t like being underground and nodded for the ceremony to begin. Five minutes later ten gold was exchanged, and I was their new master. We brought them back to the clinic, where they spoke to Persy for over an hour, then to the workshop, where we showed Hogan what her job would be. Now they would know where both of the locations were in case we needed them to deliver anything. We also took them by the Palace and introduced them to the servants, in case they were every assigned here, and I took Cena with me to the clinic while Hogan went with Marya to the workshop. Special Chapter 1 As I sat in my office the bell above the door rang. In walked a heavyset man in nice clothing. Probably a merchant whose business was doing well. No one active would be more than slightly overweight, no matter how much they loved fine dining, and his clothes meant that he had plenty of money. ¡°Can I help you sir?¡± ¡°Yes, I have a rather...unusual condition that I¡¯d like to talk to you about. Could we go some place private?¡± He was probably just a homosexual man from the Holy State of Renalt, where sex with others of the same sex was illegal, or had a serious thing for beast girls like Kanta. Here, however, no one cared about the first, and the second would just start rumors. Still, if he was a merchant, reputation would be super important to him. ¡°Sure, come into my office.¡± The man followed me back to the office and I closed the door behind us. He sat on the couch but looked extremely nervous, continuously looking around for several seconds like he thought he was being followed. ¡°Is there any way you can prevent eavesdropping?¡± he asked. This man really didn¡¯t want anyone to learn his secret. ¡°I¡¯ll pay the secrecy fee.¡± I nodded. I had learned the Silence Field spell from the intermediate healer¡¯s manual, as privacy was extremely important in many cases, but it used too much mana to do it all of the time. ¡°Sure.¡± I said, closing my eyes and releasing the spell at level five. I would need to continuously channel the mana from my necklace to keep the spell up, as it would fail or weaken to level four if my mana pressure dropped below four. ¡°I¡¯ve cast the spell. The sound will get more muffled the further it gets from us, and at five meters we won¡¯t be understandable.¡± Even at the two meters that separated us I probably sounded like I was slurring my speech. I sat down on the couch across from him. ¡°So, what do you want to talk about.¡± ¡°I have a rather¡­ strange desire, sexually. I¡¯ve tried dealing with it, using the brothel, but...¡± Pretty much what I was expecting. So, was he paying for a bunny girl every few days or did he find a male one willing to not talk? A bunny man? I motioned for him to continue. ¡°I...I¡¯m only interested in young girls. It was fine when I was your age, as my wife looked young for her age, but the older we got, the less attractive I found her. And now that she¡¯s thirty, I just...it doesn¡¯t work down there, no matter what I do. No matter how kinky things get.¡± ¡°So you like them a bit young. I assume you mean thirteen or fourteen?¡± It was technically illegal to have sex with someone more than two years younger than you if they were less than fifteen, but most guards tended to overlook it if the younger one didn¡¯t lodge a complaint. The man shook his head. ¡°Nine or ten.¡± I coughed in surprise. I was not expecting that. Yeah, that was definitely a problem. ¡°Even worse, my daughter turned nine a few weeks ago, and now every time I look at her I can¡¯t help but notice how beautiful she is a bit too much.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t...done anything to her, have you?¡± ¡°No, of course not. I¡¯m even sleeping at the office so that I¡¯m not tempted. But I can¡¯t avoid my own daughter for too long. A girl needs a father in her life.¡± I nodded. ¡°So, can you fix me?¡± I thought for a moment, trying to remember everything I had learned about pedophilia and sexual attraction and how to treat bizarre sexual attractions. Unfortunately, the only successful methods I had read about were basically brainwashing. What if he brainwashed himself, though? There was one possibility I had read in a book on banned toxins. ¡°I only know of one thing that might work, and it¡¯s going to be very difficult to do.¡± ¡°Anything you can do will be welcome. I¡¯ll pay any price.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°That¡¯s not the problem. The ingredient is from the country of Usux, in the southern rain forest. Possession of the plant is considered a high crime, on par with high level poisons. That is because it has a rather unique effect.¡± I paused for a minute and leaned closer, so that he could hear me better. ¡°It breaks your sexuality.¡± The man looked perplexed. ¡°What do you mean ¡®breaks¡¯?¡± ¡°I mean that as soon as you come under its effects you will be overwhelmingly attracted to the first thing you see that your mind sees as a valid sexual partner. Animals, men, women, children, dolls, even trees if the thought enters your mind. It was banned almost two hundred years ago when an enemy dipped their arrows in the toxin and everyone that was shot tried to rape each other, sometimes to death. After it wears off, however, the attraction will remain, but without the power. Everything you are attracted to after that point will be quite similar to the one thing that fulfilled your desire at that point.¡± The man looked shocked that I would suggest such a thing. ¡°Why would I want that?¡± ¡°If I mix a weak potion with it, then the power of the attraction will merely be at a level where it is difficult to resist. The aphrodisiac effects shouldn¡¯t be any worse than the standard one I sell.¡± The man nodded. ¡°So, you want me to use it with my wife, so that she becomes the only one I¡¯m interested in?¡± ¡°Well, in its weaker form, you¡¯ll probably also be attracted to women that look similar to her, but since she is thirty, I doubt you will have any desire for any woman under her mid twenties.¡± ¡°That is good enough. How quickly can you get the ingredient?¡± I shook my head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I do know someone who trades in things that aren¡¯t exactly legal, but I doubt a man whose bread and butter is stolen jewelry will know where to get it. It will take some digging to find someone who does.¡± I only knew the man because I needed mithril for a few projects, as father wouldn¡¯t provide me what I needed to try and make a better Star Mithril. I hadn¡¯t really succeeded, only finding an alternative formula that cost even more to make, but I still knew where he worked, assuming he hadn¡¯t been arrested and indentured to hard labor somewhere. The merchant nodded. ¡°In that case, let me get you my information. Please contact me as soon as you have the ingredient. I will pay any price, even if you want my company in exchange.¡± This man was desperate. It was good for him that I didn¡¯t take advantage of people in desperate situations. It took a week for my black market contact to locate a member of the Assassin¡¯s Guild who was willing to get me a blue chaos flower. The monster plants were known to grow in one location on the continent, even though there had been several attempts to destroy all of the plants and wipe the species out. Somehow, however, they always seemed to come back in the core of that swamp. No one outside the Guild knew that the true reason for this was the Guild replanting them. The Assassin¡¯s guild weren¡¯t willing to accept coin, however. They wanted a potion, one that would temporarily boost a person to extreme levels of power at the cost of their own life. It would take a talented alchemist to make the potion. Though it wasn¡¯t a particularly hard potion to make, extracting the essences needed to make it was quite difficult, as they needed to be almost perfectly pure to work. The Guild had learned of my ability to extract Essence of Anti-aging, a comparably difficult essence to extract, and thought that I might be able to do the job. The only concession I could get out of them was that it wouldn¡¯t be used in this country, but it was enough to insure that my actions wouldn¡¯t destroy something I cared about. So one afternoon, rather than going home to my girlfriend, I stayed at the office, extracting the needed essences. She wouldn¡¯t like that, but it was the only chance I had to cure the merchant. It took an extra five hours of work before I was finished with the extraction, and when I was done I locked up and went home. Samantha hated that it took me so long to get back, but I got her mind off of it quickly when I followed her back to her room. The next day the Assassins sent by a wounded business man that did business with them to pick up the potion, a man who then sent a servant to leave a special package at a specific nearby dead-drop location. Obviously, the potion had more value for them than the flower. Retrieving the flower that night when I ¡®had a drink before going home¡¯ I returned it to my office at the clinic under the guise of needing to use the bathroom after a night of drinking. The next day I spent several hours carefully extracting the Essence of Sexuality, then, mixing only a single drop into a batch of potions, I put one potion into a special case along with a female aphrodisiac potion and a page detailing exactly how dangerous it was. The rest of the potions and the rest of the essence went into a steel box, then into a hidden compartment in the safe. I definitely didn¡¯t want anyone accidentally using it. Even if the rest of it spoiled before I could use it, that was preferable to a single one of those potions being stolen or misused. I sent a letter to the merchant, informing him that I had made the medicine he requested, and that he should come by. That night, just before we closed, the merchant showed up. He gave me five gold, despite my insistence that he didn¡¯t owe me that much, and I spent the next hour explaining to him how to properly use it. The man returned home, where he carefully removed anything person shaped from his bedroom, including mirrors that would let him see himself, and banned all of his servants from coming near that room until he personally met them to rescind that order. His wife then entered and they locked the door before each taking their own potion. Three hours later, an exhausted man stumbled into the dining room and demanded water and something good to eat, soon to be followed by his equally exhausted wife, demanding the same. Chapter 18 A week later it seemed that Cena and Hogan had settled into their new jobs. Cena had been assigned by Persy to take care of all of the animals that had been boarded in our stables, as many of them were sick or about to give birth. When she wasn¡¯t doing that, she was inventorying the warehouse or moving salves and potions around. I noticed Kanta checking her out on more than one occasion, but as long as he doesn¡¯t start harassing her that¡¯s between the two of them. He had gotten kicked out his parent¡¯s house a few days ago on his fifteenth birthday, and moved into one of the cheaper apartments in this part of town, and it would probably do him good to take his mind off of it by going on a date, assuming she also wanted to. Hogan was mostly moving cargo into the warehouse when it was delivered, moving potions there whenever a crate was filled, and loading those potions into the backs of wagons whenever mother or one of our other buyers came for a pickup. I had went over there a few days ago and found that someone had went over the entire building with the Cleaning utility spell. The Carpenters that had previously used the building as a furniture workshop until Mother decided it wasn¡¯t making a profit smoked like a chimney throughout the day. Usually you wouldn¡¯t want to smoke near sawdust, as it was too flammable, and the dozens of burn marks around the shop testified to the fact that they had almost burned the place down multiple times, but had managed to put it out every time. A week ago the scent of tobacco was part of every board in the building, but now it smelled like pine sap and the herbs the alchemists extracted essences from. I much preferred the new scent. Hogan told me that she had cleaned the place like that because, while she also didn¡¯t like the scent, she was mostly bored. As the only one there at night and nothing to do, she had taken to cleaning to just pass the time. As a criminal slave, and not a lifetime slave, she wasn¡¯t used to having nothing to do at night. I offered to buy her a training manual if she wanted to study, and she shrugged. ¡°Having a book to read and skills to practice would at least pass the time.¡± While she knew most of the utility spells that everyone tended to learn, she didn¡¯t like magic, so none of the books I had would interest her. I hadn¡¯t actually had a book for swordmanship or guard training, after all. Instead, she asked for a book on Martial Arts or Physical training. The Adventurer¡¯s guild sold basic versions of both, so after spending the two silver I brought both of them to her the next day. This act earned her trust a bit, as I¡¯d shown that I actually cared about my slaves being bored and let them make their own choices, so she shared something else with me. She didn¡¯t have the money to cover all of her living expenses. While normally a refugee would survive on two silver per week or a bit less, and Marya had based her living expenses on that, she was spending twenty coppers a week on food, leaving her only four per week for things like soap and clothing. She had opted to spend three of those on a bar of soap, washing her only set of clothing every night, setting them by the fire place to dry, and going to sleep naked. I knew that people with excess strength, especially those with active physical jobs, needed a lot of calories and protein, which is why she needed to buy so much food. Her meals every day consisted of protein and carbohydrates extracted from food that had started to go bad and cheap vegetables, mostly root vegetables, as they were the cheapest at this time of the year. I gave her a silver and told her I would talk to Marya about increasing her budget to three silvers per week, about what a low skill worker at a shop would earn. It was more than refugees or slum dwellers needed to live, but they usually didn¡¯t have super human strength and physically active jobs. Two days later I went over one morning to do a surprise inspection and noticed that she was wearing a new dress, so she must have decided that daily laundry was the first thing she needed to fix. Well, new was a bit of a stretch. It was probably bought at a second hand store in order to save money, but at least it was new to her. It also looked really cute on her, so I was certain that she would have no problem getting a date if she wanted one. I told her that she looked good in it and she seemed to have the same idea. ¡°Out of curiosity, boss, what¡¯s your policy on bringing guys back here?¡± ¡°I¡¯d prefer that you didn¡¯t, since it means that he has access to the store while you are distracted. It could be used to steal from us.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t he be quite distracted as well?¡± ¡°Sure, but all he needs is a friend to follow him and they can rob the place blind while you are too busy to stop it. Best to go to his place or an inn, that way you can just wear your key while you¡¯re busy and no one can take it to rob us. Just don¡¯t be gone at night for more than an hour, as it gives them time to break in.¡± She nodded. With her love life now sorted and the place running well, I went back to work. I sat down and started reading one of my training manuals, but fifteen minutes later the door was pushed open hard enough to slam backwards and Sir Philip helped one of his men inside, both of them covered in blood. Several more streamed in behind him, and I could hear people in the standard area as well. -- Persy¡¯s point of view: I was sitting behind my desk explaining to Cena the basics of cleaning wounds when the door was knocked open and a man carried in an old Fox beastkin. I ran over to the patient and noticed that he had been stabbed through the left shoulder. Then I realized that I had seen this beastfolk seven years ago. ¡°Grandfather?¡± He looked at me with bad eyes that couldn¡¯t have been made any better from the blood loss. ¡°Per..Persimmon?¡± I nodded as Cena arrived with one of the wound treatment kits that we kept behind the counter, with prearranged bandages, wound cleaning supplies, pain killer, and even a needle and thread, though I rarely needed the last one. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked as I poured water into the wound to flush out any dirt or debris. I could have used cheap alcohol to clean the wounds if I needed to, but I could do that with a spell as well, and it was both cheaper and less painful. ¡°Bandits hit our caravan.¡± Said the human man that brought him in. ¡°One of them came for me, and he jumped in the way. Can you help him? I can¡¯t lose my best driver.¡± ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll have him back together in no time.¡± I replied. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ve got other employees I need to see to.¡± He patted grandfather¡¯s right shoulder. ¡°You stay here, Wally. I have to see to the others.¡± Grandfather nodded, trying to ignore the pain of someone working on his shoulder, and the boss left. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°So, you¡¯re Persy¡¯s grandfather?¡± asked Cena, trying to distract him. ¡°Uh, yes. I take it you¡¯re her co-worker?¡± Cena held out her hand. ¡°Cena. Master bought me last week to help with the heavy lifting and security, so I guess you can say that.¡± Grandfather looked at her outstretched hand and, noticing that she had held out the wrong hand, she switched hands. He shook it. ¡°Nice to meet you. Name¡¯s Walnut, but everyone calls me Wally.¡± Cena nodded. I was busy working on the wound so I couldn¡¯t be distracted with questions, but that didn¡¯t mean the patient couldn¡¯t. ¡°So, I take it you two got sold to different people seven years ago? Slave trader split my family as well. Haven¡¯t seen my dad since I was eight, though his old boss did buy me for four months to see if I could do as good as a caravan guard. A cow girl that isn¡¯t even an adult doesn¡¯t really intimidate folks the way a Minotaur does, though.¡± Grandfather looked a bit saddened at being reminded of how we got separated. ¡°Yeah, I tried to flee with her over the border when she was five along with several other beastfolk. Got caught by a patrol a kilometer from the border and, since they didn¡¯t know who to send us back to, they sold us for ten silvers each to some traveling slave merchant that happened to be passing by. He just cast new permanent slave contracts on all of us and hauled us off to sell to anyone that wanted to buy us.¡± The standard slave contract that was used on beastfolk about a month after birth, once they were strong enough to survive the initial pain, had a standard cost of ten silvers no matter who cast it, so the man had a gold invested in each of us slaves. ¡°I got sold for five gold to a traveling merchant that the slaver met on the road, he assigned me as a driver, and I¡¯ve been working for him since. Not sure what happened to Persimmon, though.¡± I had managed to stop the bleeding and was about to start the healing when Cam yelled for me and Cena to come to the Rich area. I slapped a Flash Heal on his shoulder to seal the wound, promised to return, and ran though the warehouse to the other side of the building. There I saw over a dozen injured guards. Most had relatively minor injuries comparable to Grandfather¡¯s, but one unconscious man had a blood-soaked and dripping bandage wrapped around his middle. Someone must have gotten a lucky swipe to his guts. ¡°Cena, hold down his shoulders. Someone else hold down his legs. This is going to hurt, but it¡¯s the fastest way to treat him.¡± Cam ran into his office and came back out with a bottle of whiskey. As Cena and a guard with a bandaged leg held the man down, Cam removed the bandage and the room was immediately filled with the scent of opened bowels. I almost threw up at the sight, but I managed to hold it in. He condensed water from the air to wash out all of the waste that he could, the mess covering the floor, but he didn¡¯t seem to care. He then sent several detection threads into the man¡¯s abdomen. ¡°Damn.¡± he said. ¡°Not only did they open his intestines, they nicked his bladder and liver. He poured half the bottle of whiskey into the man¡¯s wound, causing him to wake up, scream in pain, and start trying to get away. Luckily Cena and the other guard held him down. Cam then washed it out one more time with conjured water. ¡°Persy, I need you to start working on the liver and bladder. Don¡¯t be afraid to use Flash Heal if you have to. We can fix the scars later. I¡¯ll start fixing the intestines.¡± With that we got to work. He held the two sides of the cut together with his fingers and cast a small Flash Heal between his fingers, a technique called Flash Suture. Once he was sure the whole cut had been reconnected, he started carefully moving down the line, using normal healing spells to make to two sides mend together properly. Once the two of us were finished he poured the rest of the bottle of whiskey into the wound, causing the man to scream in pain again, and washed the wound out. He sat down and, by the way he seemed unable to focus his eyes, I could tell he was close to mental burnout. Not having many customers meant that he hadn¡¯t had to channel that much mana for a while, and channeling took a great amount of mental effort. ¡°Persy, do you mind stitching him up? I can check for infection once I recover.¡± He got up and went to his office, where I was sure he was going to collapse on his couch. I Flash Sutured the wound closed and closed the wound enough with normal healing that nothing would get in it. ¡°I¡¯ll treat the rest of you now, if you want.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t going to finish treating Jonz?¡± Asked one of the other guards in irritation. ¡°He¡¯s out of the water, and mostly just needs rest and to recover his blood.¡± I motioned for Cena to put him in a recovery room. ¡°Once I treat your wounds and recover a bit I¡¯ll go over his wounds again with a proper healing spell so he doesn¡¯t scar. For now though, you guys are at more of a risk than he is, since your wounds need cleaning and many of you are still bleeding.¡± Berry came into the room with two Temp workers, apparently having treated all of the people in her section, and I asked if they would help treat these wounds. Soon the four of us had cleaned and healed all of the wounds and I sat down behind the counter to relax. Just as I was about to go to sleep, someone came over to me. ¡°Thanks for that, Persy.¡± said Sir Philip. ¡°I know you are at your limits. Anything I can do to help?¡± I opened my eyes and noticed Cena walking down the hall carrying a warm bowl of broth. Cam must be hungry. ¡°Mostly I just need some rest, and I¡¯ll be all good. This is the worst case we¡¯ve had since opening, and we had more workers when we were doing medical exams, so that wasn¡¯t as mentally taxing.¡± Healing spells used the energy in Mana to fuel the division of cells. Proper healing spells made sure the cells divided properly, and didn¡¯t grow into scars. Flash heal, however, used a lot more energy but didn¡¯t care how the cells divided as long as they did. It could cause tumors if overused, and was well known for causing hideous scars. While all of the detection threads we used during the medical exams tested our abilities, it was hard to compare to the massive amount of concentration ten minutes of channeling level five mana required. Compared to that, healing all of the other wounds were easy. I had been Flash Healing most of the animals that were brought in, so while my mana reserves were probably larger than Cam¡¯s, my concentration couldn¡¯t compare. ¡°Well, in that case, I¡¯ll come back by tonight before you close up to check on Jonz and settle the bill. I need to talk to the Count about what happened.¡± With that, Sir Philip motioned for the men to leave and one by one they got up to head back to the barracks. I¡¯m not sure when I dozed off, but I woke up to Cena shaking me. ¡°Hey, Persy, your grandpa and the merchants are about to leave, if you want to say goodbye. They should be in town for a few days, though, if you want to rest. I heard the boss saying he was going to rent them all rooms at the Inn so that they could rest after what happened.¡± I got up and ran outside to see grandfather climbing into the front of the cart so that he could drive them to the Inn. I ran over and gave him a hug which caused him to wince a bit in pain. ¡°Easy, I¡¯m not going away yet.¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ll be staying in town for three days, so I¡¯ll come by later, ok?¡± I nodded as I wiped the tears from my eyes. ¡°Sure, I¡¯d like that. We have a lot of catching up to do.¡± As he started to leave I heard another driver, a dog man, speak to him. ¡°Is that your Granddaughter? Not bad looking. Is she single?¡± Grandfather gave him a mean look, but I could tell the man only did it to mess with him. They were probably good friends, as they were the only two beastfolk I saw in the caravan, and were used to teasing each other. As it was time to close up, I went back inside to start setting things back where they needed to be. ¡°Thanks for taking Cam a meal earlier, he must have been hungry after that.¡± I told Cena, and she gave me a weird look. ¡°I didn¡¯t take Master a meal. I took the patient Jonz a meal. He was weak and needed nutrients to finish healing and make more blood, so I gave him a nutrition potion and a bowl of broth. I hope that¡¯s ok. I know my job is to feed the animals and not the patients, but...¡± I nodded. ¡°We put his bladder and intestines back together well enough for him to eat, but I¡¯ll check on him just to make sure. As tired as we both were, we may have messed up.¡± I went into the room to find the man sleeping and sent several detection threads into his abdomen. Luckily we hadn¡¯t made any mistakes and the food and potions had mostly been absorbed by his body. I closed the door quietly and went back into the lobby to find that Cena had mopped the floor and started scrubbing the furniture in the Rich section with her Cleaning spell. Realizing that we should make sure blood didn¡¯t dry on the nice furniture, I joined her. We could probably get it out after it dried, but I didn¡¯t want to take a chance with a chair that probably cost more than I did. After all, Cam told people he paid one gold for me and that chair was probably worth at least that new. Though, as skilled as I was now, I was probably worth ten. Honestly, I found maid work relaxing. ¡°The patient was fine, and was sleeping. Do you mind keeping an eye on him tonight?¡± I asked her. ¡°I don¡¯t want him to wake up and not be able to find anyone. Just sleep in the chair in his room or on the floor.¡± Cena nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t mind that, though if I¡¯m not going to get a comfortable bed tonight, I want something out of you.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I asked, cleaning the blood off the seat Sir Philip had set in. As he was covered in blood, the chair was too. ¡°It didn¡¯t seem like your grandfather told me the whole truth about how you got split up. So how about you tell me the real story?¡± Chapter 19 Seven and half years ago, Persy¡¯s perspective: ¡°Grandfather!¡± I shouted, seeing the wagon pull up and running as fast as my tiny legs could take me. He had jumped out of the wagon by the time I got there, so he bent down and picked me up, giving me a big hug before sitting me down. ¡°So, did you get me anything?¡± ¡°You sure are a greedy little girl, aren¡¯t you? How about you help me with the horses and I tell you about my trip to the city.¡± Spring harvest had just finished on the crops we had brought in, and Grandfather had went with the other farmers to the nearest town to sell all of the preserved food that mother and Grandmother had made from it. I held the reigns of the old work horse and lead it into its stable in the barn. We might only own a single ten year old plow horse, but it was so well trained that I could probably climb on its back and ride it, even as small as I was. Though that would mean that I could actually reach its back. The only way I could do that would be to get it near the ladder going up to the hay loft and climb off the ladder onto it. ¡°See anything cool in the city?¡± I asked him. Grandfather always had good stories to tell about the city and all of the strange people living there. In our village, however, we only had a bunch of Beastfolk, mostly Foxes and Cats, though their was a Wolf family that served as our butcher and hunter, and an old Dwarf woman that worked as a smith. I didn¡¯t know why she moved into the village, as we didn¡¯t have much work for her to do. Grandfather said she was re-tired, but she looked like she had plenty of energy to me. As he took the bit out of the horse¡¯s mouth, a job he still wouldn¡¯t let me do, and started wiping it down, he told me about all of the people he saw there. There was a rally tall man called a Giant, that he said was like a really tall human, but I¡¯d never seen a human. When I told him that, he tried saying it was like a dwarf, but twice as tall, but that would just look weird. Maybe it was like the difference between a pony and a horse? The town mayor¡¯s kid had a pet pony, and one time she let me ride it. He also told me about getting to visit the palace, where the Count¡¯s chef bought some of mother¡¯s fruit preserves to serve with breakfast. A Palace was like a big, fancy house that rich people lived in. He said that he¡¯d love to work there, because that would mean our family didn¡¯t have to farm and could eat well, but I thought we were doing ok. Once we were done and I¡¯d finished dropping down some hay from the hay loft into the horse¡¯s pen, grandfather and I went inside. Mother and Grandmother were almost finished with supper, so I helped set the table. Once we were done we all sat down, thanked the Lord of the Forest for the deer father had shot today, and started eating it. Deer meat was so yummy. I started telling everyone about all of the cool things grandfather found in the city, then realized something. ¡°Hey, you never told me if you got me anything.¡± ¡°Persimmon! Don¡¯t talk with food in your mouth!¡± mother fussed. Grandfather finished chewing and swallowed. ¡°Yes, I bought you something, but no, you can¡¯t have it. Your sixth birthday is in a week and it¡¯s a birthday present.¡± I pouted. I liked it when he brought me things. But since it was going to be a birthday present, that meant it was going to be bigger, right? That cheered me up. After supper I helped Mother and Grandmother clear the table, then sat in front of the fire to practice my magic. Mother was a talented apothecary, and she promised to teach me how to make potions if I learned to sense essences. For that, though, I knew I had a lot of work to do. I kept practicing until I was out of mana, then, barely able to keep my eyes open, I went over to my bed and climbed in. Grandfather woke me up. ¡°Come on, Pers, we need to go.¡± He got me out of bed and made me put on my shoes and grab my coat. ¡°But grandfather...¡± I heard someone scream in pain outside and stopped talking back. I quickly grabbed my stuff and he picked me up. He ran out the door and I saw father blocking someone¡¯s spear with his woodcutting ax. Mother was beside him, throwing spells and potions at people. I saw her throw a vial at a man in armor and when it hit him he screamed in pain as his skin started to melt. Grandfather made me look away and we went into the barn where he put me on the back of the horse, then hoped on behind me. ¡°Hold on good, Pers.¡± he said, then kicked the horse, getting it to run out of the barn. I looked to the side as we left the barn to see the spearman stab Father. ¡°Father!¡± I yelled, and the man noticed and called out to his friends. Two of them ran over and jumped on the backs of their horses, which had saddles, and chased after us. Their horses were faster than ours, and soon one man fired an arrow which our horse¡¯s leg, causing it to tumble. Grandfather grabbed me and rolled, protecting me from the fall, but as we got up the three of them threw some sort of spells at him and his legs and back seized up, causing him to collapse in pain. I ran over to him but one of the men ran over and slapped a collar on each of us. When Grandfather started to regain control of his legs, they stood him up and walked us both over to one of those caged wagons you would haul chickens or pigs in, the made us get inside. There were several wagons like that and as we sat there, I saw them grab various people from the village and throw them into cages too. They only seemed to throw other foxes in ours, though. ¡°I can¡¯t believe how easy this is.¡± said one of the bad men. ¡°All these foxes and cats so close to the border. Just waiting for us to come by and take our pick.¡± ¡°Get back to work!¡± yelled a man in slightly better armor who carried a sword. ¡°Their forces will be here at any minute. Fill up your wagon and head for the border.¡± ¡°Farin scum.¡± muttered grandfather. I didn¡¯t know much about the world, as teaching me geog...geography wasn¡¯t that important at my age, but I did know that our village was in the eastern part of the Beastfolk Kingdom of Ridalia, where our ancestors had taken on several bad groups of ogres, trolls and orcs, befriending the goblins and some of the ogres and orcs in order to build towns here. We were only a few kilometers from the border, whatever a kilometer was. These men must be from Farin, the country to the east where Beast people were treated as slaves. ¡°Even still in uniform. Are they deserters or a raiding party sent by some lord?¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± said a nearby soldier, who drove the butt of his spear into grandfather¡¯s face, giving him a black eye. I had learned a basic healing spell, even though I wasn¡¯t very good with it yet, so I went over to grandfather and tried to use it on him. As soon as I started releasing my magic, though, the collar seemed to heat up and pain filled my body, worse than any injury I had before. ¡°Oh, look at that. Little girls thinks she¡¯s a mage.¡± he started laughing, so it tried to use my ignite spell on his hair. Again the collar seemed to get hot and I started hurting. ¡°Don¡¯t think she¡¯s very smart, though. Cute enough that some perverted noble will pay money for her, though.¡± He laughed again and walked off. ¡°Don¡¯t use magic, Persimmon.¡± said grandfather quietly. ¡°The collar hurts you if you do. Let your magic build up, though. You can even meditate and draw it in if you want. Just nothing outside yourself. I¡¯ll find us a way out of this.¡± As I sat there, watching them grab more people and shove them into carts I saw one of the men drag two women into the village square where they were parked, a red haired fox woman and a silver haired dwarf woman. I realized at once that it was Mother and Mrs. Nerris, the blacksmith. ¡°Problem Sir.¡± the soldier said, and one of the other men turned around. ¡°Saw the fox go into this woman¡¯s house, but she swore it was just her inside. I broke in and saw this Fox closing the root cellar.¡± Most houses had inside doors to the root cellar, as you couldn¡¯t go outside when their was snow on the ground. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The man picked up Mrs. Nerris by her hair. ¡°Tell me something, woman. Why would you risk your life for a fox?¡± Mrs. Nerris spit on him and he threw her to the ground. ¡°Damn Dwarf.¡± he said, wiping his face with his cape. ¡°If you were younger, I¡¯d let my men have their way with you for spitting on me, but as old as you are, only Squin would touch you.¡± He pointed to the smiling man that drug her over, a man with burns on his face. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong with that man. But we¡¯re in a hurry, so I can¡¯t even hand you over to him.¡± Squin looked a bit sad at that. The man drew his sword as she started to pick herself up off the ground. ¡°For the crime of assault against a noble, I sentence you to death.¡± He swung his sword down, and Mrs. Nerris¡¯s head came off, spraying blood all over him and mother. ¡°Damn it. I hate getting blood on my uniform.¡± He went over to pick up Mother. ¡°Seriously Squin? Do you know how much she was worth?¡± ¡°She burnt half my face off. Bitch deserved it. Would have had my way with her as well if I had the time.¡± ¡°Well, at least she was pretty before you worked her over. Now, if she doesn¡¯t get medical treatment, we¡¯ll be lucky to sell her as a manual laborer.¡± The leader sighed. ¡°Throw her in the cart with the other foxes. I¡¯ll have the medic go over her once we¡¯re back over the border. Hopefully he can salvage something, though I doubt he can regrow teeth. It¡¯s coming out of your cut.¡± Squin threw her over his shoulder and carried her over here and, after opening the cage, threw her inside and locked the door again. I went over to see what happened to mother and immediately noticed something was wrong. She was asleep, her chest was purple, and her face was all messed up. She had a black eye, was missing several teeth, and her head was bleeding. I thought about trying to heal her, but remembered grandpa¡¯s warning. Instead, I took off one of my socks and stuck it to her head to try and stop the bleeding. Grandfather hugged me as I cried. The cart started out and traveled for about an hour before we pulled into a small fort and stopped. The big doors closed and everyone got out of their seats. ¡°Look here, boys, we brought you some entertainment!¡± yelled Squin, getting a mean look from the leader. ¡°Not you, Squin. You and Hari are going to transfer the slaves to the jail cells. Merchant should be by tomorrow sometime to brand them, then you can buy yourself one if you want. Until then, I don¡¯t want you touching them.¡± ¡°But Sir.¡± Squin said, and the man cut him off. ¡°After what you did to that one I¡¯m not letting you be alone with them until you own them. Understood?¡± Squin nodded. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± he said sadly. ¡°Come on, Hari. I got one you need to heal.¡± He came over and opened the door. ¡°Come on, Fox. You want to get healed, don¡¯t you?¡± After a few seconds he slapped mother¡¯s foot. ¡°Hey, I said get up.¡± Hari giggled. ¡°I think you knocked her out. Might need some medical attention.¡± ¡°Shut up. Damn alchemist burnt my face. Of course I punched her in hers.¡± he grabbed mother¡¯s leg and pulled her to the back of the wagon as Grandfather held be back. Hari looked her over. ¡°I think you punched her a bit too hard. She¡¯s dead.¡± I grabbed grandfather and started crying again. ¡°Damn it.¡± Squin cursed. ¡°I was hoping to buy her. Now the captain¡¯s going to take her cost out of my pay. You know how much a Fox girl in good condition is worth?¡± He continued to complain as he picked her up and laid her to the side, but I didn¡¯t care. My mother was just killed and they only cared about money? I barely even knew what things were worth, but even I knew people were worth more than money. They told us to get out and grandfather picked me up, then climbed out. ¡°She able to walk on her own?¡± Hari asked Grandfather. ¡°If she¡¯s injured I can fix her.¡± ¡°She can walk fine. She just found out her mother, my daughter, is dead.¡± He looked at mother¡¯s body that was laying to the side. ¡°Understood. Just don¡¯t blame me, ok? I wasn¡¯t there to fix her when Squin messed her up. If I could have, I would have.¡± Grandfather was still angry, but he nodded, and went to the jail cells. ¡°Seriously man? You¡¯re treating him like a POW, not a slave. You¡¯re not hoping to buy that little girl are you? That¡¯s kind of messed up.¡± ¡°Of course not. Being nice to them occasionally makes them work harder and be less likely to try and escape. Besides, if there¡¯s a slave revolt, now he¡¯ll likely slap a collar on me and make me cook for him instead of slitting my throat like he would with you.¡± I cried myself to sleep in the overcrowded jail cell, curled up with grandfather for warmth where the one bed was being used by a pregnant cat woman. A few hours later, however, Grandfather woke me up again. There was a Panther man wearing black clothes at the door of our cage. He unlocked the door and our collars and whispered for us to be quiet. He and his partner had knocked out half the camp, but there were still guards. Once he was finished unlocking all of the cells his partner would open the gate and we and the other prisoners could escape. A minute later he motioned for us to follow him and we left through the front door of the jail, the man behind the desk passed out on it. Just as we got to the big door that had been opened part of the way, one of the men spotted us. ¡°HEY! THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING!¡± He ran over to the front of the mess hall and started dinging the bell as loud as he could. The Panther Man threw a Dagger into his back and he collapsed, but we were told to run for the border and not stop until we met our soldiers or entered another town. Grandfather picked me up and started running. I don¡¯t know how long we ran, but the several people were using their magic to keep going. I started to try and use Healing on grandfather, since I didn¡¯t know the spell for getting energy back yet, but he didn¡¯t seem tired. He must have used his own magic. A few minutes later the Panther man caught up with us, with the pregnant woman on his back. Panthers were known for their speed and stealth, but carrying another person meant that he also needed to use his magic to keep going. As we reached the road that ran near the border we ran into a caravan camping out there. We were all exhausted from running, so even though they were all humans, dwarves, and goblins, some of us wanted to stay and accept their offer for a place to rest. The panther man told us we needed to keep going, but they insisted. When he started to leave, a goblin mage threw a spell at him, knocking him down. ¡°We would have preferred if you just accepted our hospitality and let us drug your soup. You would at least have a full belly. But now you¡¯ve got to do this the hard way.¡± All of the men drew their weapons and, with the group being exhausted and filled with mostly women, children, and the elderly, we weren¡¯t able to put up much of a fight. They forced us all to step one at a time into some sort of magic circle one of their mages made, with any of us that refused, like the Panther man, being knocked out and thrown into the circle. When you stepped into the circle, though, he would say something and the circle would glow, making you glow and hurt all over, like every part of your body hurt, but your head most of all. After that the mage would tell you to leave the circle and if you refused your stomach and chest started hurting like you got kicked by a horse. At least that¡¯s what grandfather said it felt like when he tried to not obey. The man then reset a few items around the outside of the circle and made another person step inside. Once everyone had the spell cast on them, we were told not to go more than twenty meters away from the camp and given not-drugged soup. I wasn¡¯t sure how far twenty meters was, as I was bad with distances and could barely count to twenty, but I found out when I got too far from camp while looking for a place to pee and my stomach started hurting really badly. We were given basic tents to set up, some of them having holes in them, and told to get some sleep. You could tell who was trying not to sleep by the screams. The next day we were told to climb in the back of the wagon and the wagon took us north, towards some town called Starshine. A few days later, Grandfather told me happy birthday, but I didn¡¯t feel too happy about it. They only gave us basic food, so it wasn¡¯t long until we started to get weak. The Panther Man, who I learned was named Grin, told them about the woman he was carrying being pregnant, so they gave her enough to eat, but none of the rest of us. Seven days into the trip our wagons met another group on the road. The people in charge of both started talking, and a few minutes later they came to look us over. The merchant seemed interested in buying the Cat woman until he found out she was pregnant, then sighed and bought Grin and Grandfather for his business. After that we parted ways and finished our trip to the city. The Wolf woman from our village, name Mimi, started looking after me after grandfather was taken, and even let me sleep in her tent after the men from the camp left to let her sleep. A few days later we made it to Starshine. There was an argument at the city gate, something about a type of money called ¡®entry tax¡¯ that the caravan master didn¡¯t want to give up, so we parked beside the moat and the master and some of his men went into town to advertise that they were selling slaves. It smelled like a bad outhouse here, and most of the men from the caravan stood far away from the wagons because of the smell. After most of them had stepped away, Mimi whispered something to me. ¡°I¡¯m going to distract them. I want you to run.¡± She didn¡¯t tell me where to run to, so a few seconds after she got out of the wagon and approached one of the men acting like she was in heat I jumped out of the wagon and ran across the bridge into town, mixing in with a group of Adventurers that were returning. Not knowing what to do, I stood there, looking around. That didn¡¯t last long as two big men that were dressed similar to the people that attacked our village started screaming at me to stop. When the pain didn¡¯t start I knew I could disobey them, so I ran. I bumped into a boy with red hair, but I got up and kept running. I managed to get away and sleep in an alley that night, covering up with an old tarp someone had thrown out. The next day I found an old hooded coat someone had thrown out, hid my tail in the back of it and looking around town, pretending to just be a normal child. I figured out that if they didn¡¯t see my ears and tail they would assume I was a human child, not a Fox. Unfortunately, anyone I asked for food would just call me a street rat or tell me to ask my parents. I almost corrected them that I was a Fox, not a Rat, but I stopped myself. I also didn¡¯t have parents to ask. I saw both of them die. I sat down between two buildings to cry and one of the city guards spotted me. I ran and, just as I started to lose them my stomach started to growl. I hadn¡¯t had anything to eat today, but there was a restaurant just down the road that smelled like it had good food. Since I didn¡¯t have money to buy anything, I looked through the garbage can out back, where they threw out all of the food people ordered but didn¡¯t eat. Mother had told me that I should always clean my plate, but apparently the people here didn¡¯t tell their children that. Just as I found some kind of sandwich that looked good, a boy in nice clothes told me I shouldn¡¯t eat out of the trash and offered me a piece of candied fruit. I obviously preferred the taste of fruit, so I took it. He then lead me to a stall where they sold some sort of yummy smelling meat on a stick. As the man was getting our food ready, though, a guard came over and tried to take me. Something I didn¡¯t expect happened, though. The boy lied to him, and said I was his slave. Was he just trying to take me, so he could treat me like garbage like the merchants treated us? That didn¡¯t make sense, as the merchants would never buy us delicious meat on a stick or candy. After convincing the man to go away, he offered me a job in the palace. I remembered what grandfather said about working in the palace and accepted. He told the older man he met and his parents that he bought me from those merchants, and his parents accepted me. He then introduced me to Marya and Tanya, and told Tanya I would be working for her. The next day he took me to some fancy office where the man did a small magic circle ritual, then placed a drop of mine and the boy¡¯s blood on a piece of paper. A weird shiver went through my body but it didn¡¯t hurt like the last magic circle. He handed the boy the rolled up paper and we left. I told him about how much the magic could hurt, but he promised me that he would never use it against me or hurt me any other way unless I did something to hurt him first. I agreed. Chapter 20 ¡°Damn, that¡¯s a rough story.¡± said a the tiny fairy, sipping from a glass of whiskey half the size she was. Persy jumped in surprise, then caught herself. ¡°Creampuff? What are you doing here? Have you been listening this whole time?¡± She noticed the bottle sitting beside the tiny being. ¡°Where did you get the whiskey?¡± ¡°You know who I am, my mistress sent me to find your master, yes, and I stole it from his office when I saw that he was asleep on the couch.¡± Creampuff took another sip. ¡°Oh,¡± said Persy, silently standing there for a few seconds. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to tell her, are you?¡± ¡°Of course I am. She loves a good story.¡± Persy looked sad at that. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re worried because you are from Ridalia, instead of a hereditary slave like the Cow? If anything that will make her like you more. She was born into it. You were kidnapped and forced into it.¡± ¡°Why would that matter?¡± Persy asked, confused. ¡°Because, Ferin is at peace with Ridalia, border raids aside. I¡¯ve even heard that they were in talks for a trade agreement and ceasefire. My mistress wouldn¡¯t want me to say why, but lets just say that the rebellion isn¡¯t the only threat to this country. If you and your grandfather are citizens, even ones that have been away for a while, a peace treaty may mean that you need to be set free. For that matter, the country may have to find all of the slaves like you and free them. You¡¯ll be banished back to Ridalia, so you don¡¯t violate the law, but but if it secures a ceasefire, it will be worth it.¡± ¡°So, she doesn¡¯t want to have to do the paperwork?¡± ¡°Does anyone like doing paperwork? Well, other than Reginald. He¡¯s weird. But no, she wants what¡¯s best for the people, regardless of which country they are from. And a lasting peace is what¡¯s best.¡± The fairy flew up and picked up the half empty bottle. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to wake the boss up and go home. My mistress will get mad if I don¡¯t get him home.¡± With that, Creampuff flew back to the office, leaving the two beast women alone. They had finished cleaning the floor as Persy told her story, so Cena decided to start supper. She asked Persy if she wanted to stay, but Persy had things to do at the palace, and turned her down. The other employees had already left. With the boss asleep from the day¡¯s exhaustion when the day ended, they left and would collect their pay tomorrow morning. Cam came out of the office with Creampuff on his shoulder, and Persy grabbed her stuff and followed them home. Two days later Persy came to his office during a lull in customers. ¡°Cam? I want to ask you something. Can I go with Grandfather when he leaves?¡± Cam looked at her and tilted his head. ¡°Are you sure? Legally I¡¯d have to make the Caravan master your manager for the trip, and I don¡¯t know how well he would treat you. You may want to ask your Grandfather how he treats female Beast folk, just to make sure you won¡¯t be forced to service the men.¡± ¡°Sure, I can ask.¡± She hadn¡¯t thought about that, as she¡¯d gotten used to the way Cam treated her, but most caravans only brought women with them as workers or harlots. She was certain she wouldn¡¯t be beaten, as the master seemed to treat Grandfather well, but Grandfather was a man. ¡°I just want to spend time with him. I haven¡¯t seen him in years. You can tell them that I am there to work as a healer in case they are attacked again, and to watch over your goods.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind you going. I just want to make sure you¡¯ll be safe. Kanta is pretty good, so I can have him take over the Slave area.¡± ¡°Assuming he keeps his hands off of the female patients.¡± ¡°He¡¯s been pretty good about that recently. I think Cena¡¯s been pulling his attention.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve noticed that.¡± said Persy, giggling. ¡°Let¡¯s just hope he doesn¡¯t start making offers to buy her.¡± ¡°Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?¡± Asked Cam, then realized what he said. ¡°I meant that figuratively. She¡¯s already interested in him, so he wouldn¡¯t gain much by buying her. That said, if she wants him to buy her, and she¡¯ll still work in the shop, I wouldn¡¯t have a problem with it. I¡¯m sure he¡¯d treat her well.¡± ¡°He¡¯d probably spoil her.¡± Persy said. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll get back to work. Grandfather should come by this afternoon after they have all of the goods ready for shipping out tomorrow, so I¡¯ll ask him. Assuming he thinks its safe, I¡¯ll arrange for his master to come by tomorrow morning for the transfer.¡± Cam nodded and she returned to her area. The next morning Cam, Marya, and Samantha said goodbye to Persy, dressed in her full adventurer¡¯s gear, as the wagon pulled away. The workshop was the last place they had loaded goods for the caravan. Samantha had checked her father¡¯s caravan over with all the care she could, and given the wagons clearance to go. Cam had given Persy a book to read during her journey, the army combat mage training manual. Now that their preparations were complete the caravan headed East, into the Free People¡¯s Land, what the goblin rebellion called their territory. The rebels had been freeing hereditary slaves anywhere they go, even freeing a few criminal slaves. Their forces, however, had managed to take all of the area it could, and were now spending all of their resources trying to hold that territory. After the Caravan left, Cam returned to the clinic. He had already assigned Kanta to cover the Slave and Livestock section, so he could get back to his studies and his few customers. A month later, Cam finished drawing the magic circle on the page of his notebook, looked at it and smiled. He had easily passed his Merchant certification at the end of last month, but was struggling to learn to use magic circles he needed for the summoning Samantha was teaching him. In all the other fields of magic he had studied magic circles were optional. They gave form to the magic so that unskilled people could cast the spells, and gave you a feel for the magic so that you would have a concept and mental image necessary to cast it without the circle. But Summoning magic needed circles for the same reason contract magic did; the concept involved was just too complicated. While contracts required that every agreement and retribution be encoded, summoning circles required designated areas, targets, and criteria for the object or creature, including whitelists and blacklists for properties. Finally, however, Cam had managed a simple summoning circle. Range, about a kilometer. Target, plants. No criteria, whitelists or blacklists. Those could be added later if he succeeded. Maybe he could manage this without the circle, but for now he would use it. He laid the paper on the desk and started feeding it energy. After ten seconds something appeared and he stopped sending in energy. It was a dandelion, roots and all. Probably came from a sidewalk crack outside. If someone was growing it for its minor nutritional or medicinal properties it would have been owned, and one of the first rules of summoning was that it was much harder to summon an owned object, and it got harder the closer the person was connected to the object. The reason was complicated, but basically it came down to a person subconsciously transferring some of their mana into an object when they claimed it as their own. This tied it to their mana signature, so in a way the object became a part of them. And the closer they were to the object, the more mana the object contained and the more a part of the person is was. He took the medicinal and nutritional parts off of the dandelion and threw the rest away. The good parts he sat in a drying rack in the warehouse and left them there. In a few days they would be ready to be turned into salves or to have their essences extracted. Cam hadn¡¯t used such ingredients since he was a child, so he¡¯d let Kanta have them. The important part was that he had succeeded. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Now to alter the circle. ¡®Instead of plants, lets limit it to a specific part, maybe nuts.¡¯ He thought. He activated it and a partially sprouted acorn appeared. Well, it was technically edible, but lets limit it to just edible nuts. He flipped through the chart for common filters, found the symbol, and added it to the whitelist. Now every nut it summoned must be edible. He tried it again and got another acorn. Cam was a bit annoyed. Yes, they were technically edible if you soaked them and removed the tannins, but they weren¡¯t edible as is. He rechecked the symbol, fixed a few minor errors that let things that were once edible or could be made edible slip through, and tried it again. A single wheat grain appeared. Better. The difference between a nut and a grain was fairly small. He worked on it for a few more minutes before he heard the door ding and went out to the front of the store. A sweaty man in dirty clothes stood there panting. ¡°Emergency message, sir. Bandits hit the caravan. The Rebels captured several of our people, including your slave, and stole our cargo.¡± Cam poured the man some ice water from a nearby pitcher. ¡°Breathe. Have a drink. Now, do you know where they took them?¡± The man quickly drank the water, then shook his head. ¡°Probably one of their settlements. The three slaves will probably be set free, but I don¡¯t know what they¡¯ll do with the others. Please sir, you need to help us.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± I gave him two silvers. ¡°Here. Go get a room, some sleep, and some rest. I¡¯ll get everything ready tonight, and you can lead us back to where they were taken tomorrow.¡± ¡°Do...Do I have to sir? Last time a minotaur attacked. I barely escaped.¡± ¡°If you give me the information, I can leave you here.¡± I got a map of the area, and the man showed me where they were attacked, marked the nearest village, and showed me where our troops were located, as I would have to convince them to let me pass through the line. The Merchant had shown that he was working for a noble, and as I was a noble they would probably let me through, but that might not be enough as someone was recently attacked. I thanked him, gave him an extra silver and wrote him a letter for the inn, saying that I would cover his room and board fees until I returned. He had some savings, but he would need to wait here until I returned so that he could rejoin whatever I could salvage from the caravan. I told my family my plan. I had gotten the Shrine of Keshan, the god of health, son of Aranya, goddess of Fertility, to stamp my Healer¡¯s Guild card and mark me as an official healer of the church. Those with that mark had a duty to heal everyone, regardless of who they were, and were famous for going into war zones to heal people on both sides. As I wasn¡¯t a priest, nor did I have the god¡¯s favor, I would be the lowest rank of healer, a hireling, but that would allow me to pass through the lines to visit the goblin camps, and even the goblins would respect me enough to let me pass through freely as long as I treated their people as well. They even gave me a Sunflower patch to put on my clothes, the sunflower being His symbol. When I told Samantha about this, she demanded that I take her with me. She argued that, as she was in charge of overseeing the merchandise, it was her responsibility to try and get the people and merchandise back. I explained that I couldn¡¯t take her with me to the goblin villages, as she would likely start a fight if she found the merchandise, and she agreed to stay at the front and help them fight against any aggressive expansion by the Goblins. The next morning, I bought a backpack and filled it with my alchemy kit, all of the medicine we had in stock, and several new books from the various guilds. I got a copy of the manuals for the Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced healers, Merchants, Adventurers, Combat healers, and Apothecaries. I tried to avoid any manuals that could be used for combat, which is why I got the manual for Apothecaries instead of Alchemists. While a skilled Apothecary could make poisons from plants within their territory, Alchemists could use plants from their territory to extract essences of poison and fire, which could be used to cause much more damage. The Adventurers guild mostly taught survival skills and about common plants, animals, monsters, and fungi that were useful or in demand. These manuals could be used to barter for the return of our people and things, and wouldn¡¯t be a risk to any of our troops. I bought a wagon and horse to pull it, as well as some basic camping gear for two people. As I was heading out there anyway, I decided to load the wagon with food to sell it to the troops at the front or the villages I was going to. It would take less than a day to get to the Front, so I wouldn¡¯t need the camping gear before getting there, but I couldn¡¯t be sure that the rebels, I mean ¡°Free People¡¯s Land¡± would let me stay in their villages, or would even have rooms available at the inn. The next morning we set off. Samantha and I talked or read while the traveling, switching who was driving every few hours, stopped to cook something around mid-day, and made it to the military front in the late afternoon. When we were stopped by a lieutenant upon approaching the base, we introduced ourselves to the officer and told them that I was there to provide medical treatment and Samantha was there to help defend the border. We were introduced to the Captain and I was asked to help treat the men in the infirmary, while Samantha was escorted to the quartermaster¡¯s tent to negotiate for the supplies we brought with us. The infirmary had several dozen men and a few women laying in it. Most were patched up well enough by the doctor that was stationed here, but he was only a Basic level healer, so he didn¡¯t know all of the tricks. I offered him the Intermediate Healer¡¯s Manual, on the grounds that he give it back tomorrow morning before I left. ¡°Why do you need the book when you already know everything in it?¡± he asked. ¡°I bought it new to trade with the Free People.¡± I said. ¡°They kidnapped a few traders I¡¯m associated with a few days ago, so I¡¯m going to try and negotiate for their release. I didn¡¯t know if they would be willing to accept coin, as few traders come through the territory, and I didn¡¯t want to provide them with anything that could help them train or equip their troops, so I brought manuals. Them learning to treat their own injured and sick people doesn¡¯t hurt us, and puts less stress on the doctors on both sides.¡± ¡°You¡¯d think so, but in my experience, those in charge base their decisions on if there are enough bodies to throw at the enemy. Them being able to help their people might actually make them fight harder and field more troops.¡± I nodded and looked over the wounds of the patients. Most of the cases were either disease of infection, though one man was here because he lost his arm yesterday in a skirmish and is still unconscious from the blood loss. ¡°Unfortunately, I don¡¯t know the spell to regrow missing body parts yet, but I might know how to help with blood loss.¡± I pulled out the Advanced Manual I was skimming through on my way here, and found the spell I remembered. There was a ¡°Blood Regeneration¡± spell that sent energy into the bone marrow to make it produce more red blood cells. It was pretty complicated and slow, but I was sure I could do it. I went over to the man, focused on the image of his bone marrow making more blood cells, and started channeling mana into it. Thirty minutes later, I was getting light headed, so I stopped. I only managed to restore half of what he needed to wake up. I had to find a better way to do this. I went outside to rest for a few minutes and think about a solution, and saw Samantha walking towards me. Actually, she might be able to help with this. When she got to the medical tent I stood up. ¡°Just the woman I was hoping to see.¡± ¡°So you want to go ¡®rest¡¯ too?¡± she asked with a wink, but I shook my head. ¡°Maybe after supper. For now, I want to see how much you learned about healing magic.¡± She looked disappointed. ¡°Well, I might be able to handle a basic healing spell, if you want.¡± she said, shrugging. ¡°Do you need that much help?¡± ¡°Actually, I was specifically referring to healing magic¡¯s versions of magic circles. I want you to draw a magic circle for me, and feed it mana.¡± I showed her the diagram in the manual. ¡°You¡¯re much better with magic circles than me, so I want you to copy this onto a wooden panel, maybe half a meter to the side, so that we can just feed it mana. I can cast the spell, but my efficiency isn¡¯t the best.¡± She stared at me for a few seconds. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll help you. We went inside, grabbed the top of a crate that was almost empty, and she got to work filling the cracks and gaps between boards with clay. If they remained, they would act as defects in the circle either preventing it from working or lowering its efficiency. After all of the gaps were filled, she used a utility spell meant to dry clothes or yourself after getting rained on to dry the clay. You wouldn¡¯t want to use it for making pottery, as the clay would dry too quickly and develop small fractures, but for a test magic circle it was good enough. While I spent my time draining infected wounds and cleaning them with a Disinfection spell, as the wounds were already closed, Samantha drew the magic circle in special chalk she always kept with her that was made by compacting chalk powder with a mithril based salt to greatly improve its mana conductivity. After ten minutes of work and double and triple checking her work, she fed a bit of mana into it and the circle glowed slightly. ¡°Well, it¡¯s ready, if you want to try it.¡± The doctor and a nurse lifted the unconscious man and Samantha slid the board under him. Then she fed the circle mana and he started gaining red blood cells at more than three times the rate he gained them during his treatment. When he woke up a little over nine minutes later, Samantha nodded. ¡°Seems like it works. I¡¯ll need to make you a more permanent version if you are going to keep it around as a magical tool to deal with blood loss. If you¡¯re going to do that, though, I might as well make you ones for Healing, Kill Bacteria, Kill Virus, and Disinfect too while I¡¯m at it. That way any mage on the base can help you.¡± Seeing that this was going to take more time then I would have here, as I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning, I gave her all of the healer¡¯s manuals to copy the circles from onto paper, so that she wouldn¡¯t need the books. The doctor could do the same tonight if he wanted, and I would just pick up the books before heading out tomorrow. ¡°They really should keep these around as reference materials,¡± I said, as I copied the spell circle for an Automatic Bonesetting spell from the Advanced manual after finishing with the treatment of the men. I had a pretty bad headache, and was really tired from channeling so much mana, but I could still help. The ¡®pencil¡¯ I was writing with was actually a mixture of clay, charcoal, and copper power I got by completely filing down a copper coin with a file I borrowed from the base¡¯s Smith. It was technically illegal to deface the money supply, but as I wasn¡¯t doing it for counterfeiting, it was only one copper, and I was a noble, I doubted I¡¯d even hear a complaint about it. I had rolled it into coils within loose woven cloth left over from some bandages, and used the spell to dry it. What resulted was a passable magic pencil, despite the fact that copper had terrible mana conductivity compared to mithril. ¡°You know the military. Never spend a copper you don¡¯t have to, even if it could save lives or win the war.¡± replied the doctor. Obviously, he¡¯d been dealing with how certain stingy nobles could be with their military finances. I¡¯m sure father wasn¡¯t like that, though. After I finished with the circle, I took a bone from the leg of a chicken from the kitchen, broke the bone, and laid it on the circle before feeding it mana. The bone started to mend for a few seconds before cracks started to form on it and I had to stop. Not sure if it was a lack of materials or a flaw in my circle, I sprinkled some bone meal I made by grinding up some of the smaller bones with a mortar and pestle onto the paper and tried again. This time the cracks healed completely, but the bone was slightly weaker than before I started. I added more bone meal and fed the circle more mana, and this time the bone returned to normal. ¡°Ok, I finished the auto bonesetting circle.¡± I said, handing it to the doctor. He had finished copying the blood production circle to another page, so he could keep a reference for all of the needed magic circles here. I set a bowl on the page, added a bit of water, the chicken bone from earlier as it was uncooked, and a nutrient potion that I had brought with me. He fed the circle mana and over the next minute the liquid in the bowl turned into thick chicken blood. Chapter 21 The next morning I collected my books and headed off into the Free People¡¯s Land. Five hours later I pulled my wagon into the town square of one of the villages. I saw many old and young people and a few sick people, but very few people healthy adults. After getting out of the wagon an elderly Orc came over to me and introduced himself as the Headman of the village. As they only seemed to have forty to fifty people, they weren¡¯t even big enough for a mayor. ¡°Master Gronf,¡± I said, bowing my head slightly. ¡°I have come to offer free medical aid to the people of this nation, and to locate a captured trade caravan and its people.¡± ¡°I heard that there was a group of traders captured about a week ago. I haven¡¯t seen them or their goods, though.¡± Gronf said. ¡°Our settlement is too small to receive much in the way of relief supplies. Your best bet would be to try some of the larger settlements near where they disappeared.¡± ¡°Do you know where that is?¡± I asked. Maybe I could narrow down my search. Gronf shook his head and started coughing violently. After thirty seconds or so it stopped and he put away the handkerchief that he held over his mouth. I saw some flecks blood on it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but the rumors didn¡¯t say where they were captured.¡± I nodded. ¡°In that case, can I ask you to inform the villagers that I will treat or do a checkup on anyone who wants me to. If I don¡¯t finish today, I¡¯ll stay tomorrow as well.¡± Gronf nodded and went to start rounding up people. I unpacked a field medical tent I borrowed from the front and started trying to set it up, but it was designed to be set up by a two person team. After fumbling getting the poles to stand up for the third time a thirteen year old goblin boy ran over and helped me hold the posts, dropping his spear. He introduced himself as Gronf¡¯s great grandson Gril. Apparently he would be allowed to join the military in a few months when he turned fourteen, but for now he had to stay behind and protect the village from wild animals and monsters. By the time we had the tent set up people were starting to gather around. The first one to enter was the headman. He had some sort of lung infection, so I was able to use Disinfect on his lungs and cure him. I was able to treat most of the people like that, but some had broken bones that I needed to set. Apparently, about half of the elderly had brittle bones. I handed out nutrient potions to everyone and kept healing them. Malnutrition was a big issue here, so I left them several crates of nutrient potions, telling them to drink one per week, so that their malnutrition would be solved. There was a serious food shortage in this country. After several battles during the summer many of the nation¡¯s crops had been burned by Farin¡¯s troops. By then it was too late in the year to replant most things. Most of their food now came from hunting, but the wildlife was becoming scarce. I stayed in the town that night, being given an extra room in Gronf¡¯s house, and set off the next morning. Two hours down the road I found another village, this one having around three hundred people. There a middle-aged Goblin man who was missing a leg from the knee down greeted me. I introduced myself and was allowed to set up my tent to help the people. This time it took the rest of the day and until after sunset the next day to treat everyone, by which time I was exhausted mentally and physically. I gave the Mayor enough nutrient potions for everyone to have two, though. I was almost out of them, so I would have to collect all of the ingredients to make more while I was on the road. Once I was certain that everyone that I could treat was treated, I set out for the largest town in the area. It was actually outside of what was once father¡¯s county, but only by five kilometers. I traveled until it was almost sunset, stopping every thirty minutes or so to gather the better nutrient sources I saw. Seeing an abandoned mine along the forest path, I stopped, started a fire on the flatted tailings pile, the safest place to build a fire in the woods, and set up what I had to make massive doses of nutrient extract. I hadn¡¯t found many good sources of protein, but luckily I had a solution for that. As the water started heating up to the point where I could extract the vitamins from some of the shrubs and grasses I had picked in the grassy areas, I used one of the few earth utility spells I knew and vibrated the surface of the nearby dirt. Insects and worms swarmed out of the ground, and I quickly picked them up and filled a jar with them. After filling two jars, I checked the water. I was using a large clay jar about twenty liters in size to make these extracts. I brought it so that I could water myself or the horse if there wasn¡¯t a stream or lake nearby, but now I was using it as a massive pot. Once it was at the correct temperature, about as hot as a good cup of tea, I threw the plants in and smothered the fire. The coals could keep it in the proper temperature range, and if it started getting too cool I could add a stick to the top to heat it up again. I then set up my tent and built a second, smaller fire to heat up some instant soup rations. They were basically bits of meat, dehydrated animal stock, and dried vegetables. This world also had something like hard tack and something like pemmican for emergency rations, but this tasted the best out of the options. As my soup finished I heard a voice from nearby. ¡°Smells good. Mind if we have some?¡± From the greeting, I wasn¡¯t sure if I was just dealing with hungry hunters or if they were bandits. ¡°I only made a single serving, but I can make more for you and your friends if you want.¡± When I said that, six men stepped out from the darkness, one human, one dwarf, two boar-men that looked like twins, a wolf-man, and a two meter tall Ogre. ¡°Sound¡¯s good.¡± said the human. He must be the leader. ¡°You making a potion or something?¡± he asked, pointing to the large jar. ¡°Pretty much. I¡¯m an alchemist. Lots of folks around here look malnourished, so, while I don¡¯t have enough food to feed them all even a single meal, I can make nutrient potions from some of the local ingredients so that they get the most out of what food they do eat.¡± The Human looked at the Dwarf, who shrugged. The wolf man, however, seemed to be nodding. ¡°That made sense to you?¡± he asked the man. ¡°Yeah, it does.¡± said the wolf man. ¡°I used to give those potions to my pregnant sheep, back before my farm was burnt down by those Farin bastards. If he¡¯s making them for us, he¡¯s a good guy.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Look at how well off he is. He¡¯s probably a Farin merchant or noble.¡± said one of the boar men. ¡°Is that true?¡± asked the human. I nodded. ¡°I am Viscount Cameron Starshine from Starshine city, son of Count Virgil Starshine, Lord of the city. I am also an intermediate healer, a combat healer, and an alchemist, and am here treating the people of the area on behalf of the followers of Keshan.¡± The Boar man looked angry at my statement, but the Dwarf held him back. ¡°He may be a Farin noble, but he¡¯s at least treating us like people.¡± ¡°Treating you like people maybe. Everyone knows they hate us beast-folk.¡± ¡°Not me,¡± I responded, pouring more soup mix into the pot of water. I had poured the rest of the soup into a bowl and set it over to the side, otherwise it would overcook. ¡°I¡¯ve always treated beast-folk like anyone else.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re telling me you don¡¯t own any beastfolk slaves?¡± he asked. ¡°Actually, I own two, but I treat them the same as my human employees.¡± He snorted in disbelief. ¡°Really? So you take advantage of your female employees and beat your male employees?¡± The other one said. ¡°I¡¯ve never laid a hand on either of them, either in the physical or sexual sense. In fact, I promised all three of my slaves that they would have complete freedom to choose their own sexual partners, and that I would never hurt them unless they betrayed me. Even if they do, I doubt I¡¯d beat them. If it was bad enough, I¡¯d probably just reassign them to the worst labor at the palace until I could find a descent replacement master to sell them to.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a damn liar!¡± the first boar man said and jumped at me. I stood up and stumbled backwards and his brother and the dwarf held him back. ¡°Calm down, Geral.¡± the Ogre said. ¡°We don¡¯t know that he¡¯s lying. Maybe he is one of the decent ones, even if he is a slaver.¡± ¡°There are no decent slavers.¡± Geral said. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not a good person because of it, but if I didn¡¯t buy them, someone worse probably would have. At least with me they are no worse off than any servant or worker I might hire, which is better off than most beast-folk have it in Farin.¡± He just stared at me after that. Fifteen minutes later, the soup was done, so I removed the pot from the fire and picked up the rest of the soup from before, pouring it in and mixing it in to warm it up. ¡°Ok, go ahead and get some if you want.¡± I said, getting myself a serving. ¡°Don¡¯t have any bowls you can use, but you can have the rest of the soup.¡± The men pulled out various cups and bowls, mostly made of wood, and started ladling out soup. I ignored them and checked the large pot. As it was ready, I tied a cloth over the top of other pots and started straining the mixture. After several pots, it was fully strained, so I rinsed out the pot and added some more of my stored water. To that I added the insects and worms, and started warming the water up again. I needed to get the water to a low boil, then let it cool down to room temperature. Normally people without alchemist or even apothecary training would make these things in huge batches, as it was a simple process which simply took a long time, but now I had to do all of the steps myself. The men finished eating while I was doing this. The Boar man might not like me, but at least he trusts me enough to eat food I prepared. Though that might be because I ate out of the same pot. ¡°So, you¡¯re feeding people bugs now?¡± The human asked me. ¡°Good source of protein.¡± I said. ¡°If you want, I¡¯ll drink a final potion in front of you to prove that it¡¯s safe to drink after I finish.¡± He shrugged. ¡°It would help, though I¡¯d like to take some of it with us once you¡¯re done. That¡¯s the only decent meal we¡¯ve had in the past week. We ate a few small animals we caught, and foraged a few wild plants, but they¡¯re getting a bit scarce this time of the year.¡± As it was early winter, most edible plants were dead. I nodded, and continued to watch the fire under the large jar. It was three hours later, after I boiled a kilogram of flour mixed with sand from the mine to get the calories, minerals, and Essence of Nutrition I needed. Once they were ready, I mixed some of each mixture into smaller pots while channeling mana into them to enhance the effects. I drew the magic circle for alchemy on the side of the pot, as I could use the boost in efficiency for such a large batch, and after four batches I had forty liters of nutrient potion and about fifteen liters of extra ingredients. The main limiting factor had been the protein, but it was late at night so I didn¡¯t want to stay up and make more. After I was done, I pulled out a shot glass from my backpack, which I brought along with the bottles of ¡®medicinal¡¯ whiskey, and downed a shot of the potion. It left a weird taste in your mouth, like it was bitter and had a decaying leaf in it, but it was safe to drink. ¡°Well, it¡¯s done.¡± I said, washing it down with a shot of whiskey. ¡°Tastes like burnt tea, though.¡± I handed the shot glass and whiskey to the human bandit. ¡°Go ahead and have a shot of it yourself if you want. It will help you get the most out of the soup.¡± The Wolf man took a shot of it and coughed. ¡°Why does it taste so bad?¡± he asked. ¡°I drank one of the ones I bought for one of my animals once and it tasted like mint tea, not this.¡± ¡°I had to substitute a few ingredients. It still should work eighty percent as well as the other one, though. Feel free to wash the taste out of your mouth with a shot of whiskey, though. Just don¡¯t drink the whole bottle. I brought it with me to clean wounds, so I still need it.¡± With that, I entered my tent and climbed into me sleeping bag. Sure, they could attack me in my sleep, but I had to take the risk that they wouldn¡¯t. They hadn¡¯t attacked me already, despite their six-to-one advantage, and while I wasn¡¯t sure that Geral wouldn¡¯t try something, the others would probably keep him in check. The next morning I found out that I was right, as I woke up to everyone but the dwarf sleeping around the campfire. He was walking around the camp¡¯s perimeter occasionally swinging his battle ax in the air out of boredom. ¡°Oh, hey, Lord Starshine. Don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯m just on watch.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to call me that. Out here I¡¯m just Cameron. Cam¡¯s fine too.¡± I did a few stretches. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have much planned for breakfast, but how does flatbread and bacon sound?¡± I had brought enough bacon for a week of breakfasts, but with six other people, that used it all up. An hour later, after we all ate breakfast, they all climbed in the back of my wagon along with the cargo, mostly my rations, camping gear, and what medicine I brought with me. They claimed it was to keep me safe on my journey, but I suspected that either they just wanted me to feed them or they still didn¡¯t trust me, possibly both. That afternoon we made it to Manasource City, the largest city in the region. It had been built in the middle of a small manacite deposit, and traditionally produced mithril, orichalcum, magical ingredients, worm cores, and occasionally baby monsters which could be adopted. ¡°This is one of the few places where they can still grow more food than they need, as they have magical devices to grow it even out of season.¡± said Jery, the human leader of the group. ¡°It isn¡¯t enough to fill everyone in the kingdom¡¯s stomachs, but they¡¯ve been getting a lot of immigration because of it.¡± The city was run by a half-goblin, half human man named Governor Manasource. He was formerly a Baron, the son of the previous Viscount Manasource and his Goblin mistress, but when the rebellion mostly secured its territory three months ago the three most powerful supporters the rebellion had were essentially upgraded to governors of their regions. In terms of political power they were on par with a Duke, but in terms of military strength, they were on par with a mid-level Count like father. The treaty the three Governors signed, on top of agreeing to free trade, travel for citizens, and mutual defense against outside invaders, stipulated that once they had five Governors and all of them had a certain minimum of military strength and land, they would select a king from among the five governors to run the military and guards only, essentially serving the role of Marquis. They would receive half the troops of every governor, which the governors would continue to cover the expenses of, and would take over the duty of fighting outside threats. Until a king was chosen, though, all decisions which affected the whole kingdom must be ratified by all governors. All of this was explained to me by Bom, the Dwarf of the group. Apparently he loved politics and talking, and that other guys were only happy that he talked to me and not them. After waiting in line for thirty minutes we pulled up to the gate. ¡°So the church sent us a healer finally?¡± the guard asked, pointing to the Sunflower that was painted on both sides of my cart. ¡°About damn time. We¡¯ve been asking for two years, but for some reason, even though the gods aren¡¯t supposed to take sides in the affairs of mortals, the church refuses our request.¡± I suspected that it had something to do with them upsetting the priests of Farin when they started freeing beast-folk, as the priesthood had been teaching for over a hundred years that beast-folk were inferior creatures to humanoids and goblinoids. But I kept my mouth shut. After telling him I was there to treat people, gather information about the attacks on merchants, and resupply, the guard nodded and let us through. Chapter 22 Once we were inside the city the men left my wagon. Apparently they planned on resupplying and taking a few days off before leaving again. As I was there as a healer, I drove directly to the Healer¡¯s Union. When I entered, a well-endowed goblin woman behind the desk greeted me. Apparently, they also preferred hiring attractive women as receptionists to lure in recruits. Unlike in Starshine City, though, the healers here were either all in one of the classrooms learning the various skills or at the guard barracks, practicing their healing and dodging. According to the receptionist, over ninety percent of recent graduates were joining the military, leaving only ten percent to deal with the sick and injured civilians. As I was at another healer¡¯s guild, I tried to purchase more training manuals, reasoning that I could leave them in the villages I passed through in case anyone wanted to learn healing. Unfortunately, they were out. All of the printing presses in the city were busy making military training manuals for the recruits. They had managed to schedule the printing of another thousand copies each of both the combat healer¡¯s manual and the basic manual, but it would be at least a month before they started printing, and at least a week after that before the first lot of one hundred were received by the guild. I checked in with the shrine of Keshan that was here in the Union, and informed them of what I had found while traveling here. Unfortunately, the people I had helped were actually better off than the people in most areas of the nation. The further you got from this city, the harder it was for people to feed themselves, as this city was the only food exporter in the nation. For that reason, most merchants purchased food here and sold it to other cities or settlements in the area. There was only so much this shrine or the temples in town could do, so they were sending people here to the union to learn healing to help deal with the sick and injured civilians and were occasionally buying food to send to the worse off areas of the country. This gave me an idea on how to help the people. What if I opened an alchemy factory in this town as well, only it specialized in making nutrient potions? That would go a long way towards relieving the food shortage. The local priest liked the idea, but warned me that a foreign noble opening a business in the city, especially a Farin noble, would require meeting with several government officials. I offered to donate the money if he wanted to start the company, as, because he was a citizen of the city, he would face fewer regulations, but he turned me down. People would question where he got the money and if they found out it was given to him by a Farin noble, even one that was here as a healer, he would be suspected of treason. He told me where the minister of commerce was working, and suggested that I start there, so I thanked him and headed over. The minister loved the idea of my business, but unfortunately he could only issue business licenses to people of the city, not foreigners. He instructed me to talk to his boss, the minister of Internal Affairs. The meeting with him lasted longer but essentially ended the same way. He could issue allied and neutral foreigners business licenses, but as they were currently at war with Farin, he couldn¡¯t grant me a business license. The only one who could do that was the Governor, and I would have to make an appointment to talk to him. I talked with the governor¡¯s assistant and set up an appointment for the day after tomorrow at two in the afternoon, so I had time to kill before the meeting. As I would need to refill my food supplies before leaving the city, and could purchase food to take to other settlements, I went by one of the food wholesalers in town. None of them had any food left for sell, however. The way the businesses worked, the city, food vendors, restaurants, and food factories got priority on purchasing any food that was produced; the city because they needed to fill the emergency food stores in case they were under siege or there was another food shortage here, and the other three because they sold food here in the city. Only after all of those orders were filled would the wholesalers be allowed to purchase what was left for export. I checked with all seven wholesalers in town, but only the last one had any good news. He had arranged to purchase all of the excess gabo that one of the larger farms in the city were producing. Gabo were kind of like sweet potatoes on earth, but with a few exceptions. They required a mana pressure of at least one to grow, as they were technically a magical plant, grew to maturity in less than a month, and, though they produced yields comparable to potatoes every time they were harvested, they tasted too bitter even after cooking and their leaves were only edible for most animals and some of the more animal-like beastfolk, like minotaurs. For that last reason, the leaves and dead plants were almost always sold as animal feed instead of people feed. The gabos that were harvested were usually used to feed slaves and prisoners, but with the food shortage the poor had also started eating them. The fact that humanoids and goblinoids lacked the enzyme to break down a toxin in the leaves didn¡¯t prevent them from being used in potions, however. The extraction process, after all, would separate out the toxin, or, if I could find certain other medicinal or magical herbs to add in, could destroy the toxin, allowing more efficient extraction of the vitamins and calories from the leaves. He was willing to purchase large amounts of dead plants and sell them to me if I wanted them, but I would need to tell him before the crop was harvested in one week. Otherwise, all of the plants would be sent to the fields near the outer wall to be used as pig and cow feed. While I didn¡¯t have permission to set up a business yet, I could rent property in the city for personal use. The city guard would be told about it, as I was a foreigner, and a citizen of an enemy nation, but as long as I didn¡¯t break the law they wouldn¡¯t stop me. I talked to a company in the factory district that built rental workshops and factories, and found out that they had several breweries that shut down due to the inability to get grains and/or fruits to turn into alcohol. As a result of their inability to find another client to rent it, I was able to rent one of those fully furnished breweries for only one gold per month. They warned me that without a business license I wouldn¡¯t be able to hire anyone to work there, but there weren¡¯t any laws forbidding me from making potions there by myself or even selling them afterwords, as freelance potion making was allowed so that those apothecaries and alchemists that operated outside of businesses could still earn a living. I wasn¡¯t planning on selling most of these, however. I arranged with the wholesale vendor for five tons of gabo leaves, about what I thought I could personally process in the next month, to be delivered to the brewery. After that I checked in with several local apothecaries to see what they had in stock. All of them had been purchasing large amounts of material to extract nutrients from it, including all of the food that was too poor quality to legally be sold, so they lacked those ingredients, but they had plenty of the herbs I needed to neutralize gabo toxins. After all, it¡¯s only normal use was to neutralize poisons, and few of the medical problems in town were people were being poisoned, other than food poisoning which was a bacterial infection. I bought several kilograms of the needed plant, then went to the adventurer¡¯s guild. What I needed most was Essence of Nutrition, as it made the body absorb all of the nutrients and continued to make food more digestible for around a week after consumption. Most sources of that Essence, however, were food products, which is why I used flour to extract it last time. Gabo did contain it, as well as a large number of calories, but I was planning on buying them as food, and I didn¡¯t want to use a food source as a source of the Essence unless I had to. There were also a few inedible plants, including magical and monster varieties, which contained it. If I could get the local adventurers to gather those ingredients, I would have a source without having to destroy food. The local guild informed me which plants were available in the area around the city, and after checking some of the dried samples from the area, I settled on three of those plants. As the essence was almost equally available in all of them, I asked the guild to get me ten kilograms of the dried herbs, any mixture was fine, and paid one gold per kilogram in advance. I had entered the city with twenty six gold, some silver, and some copper, but had spent two gold on first and last month¡¯s rent, one for the five tons of leaves, three for the herbs at the apothecary, and ten here, leaving me with only ten gold left. I hoped I could get the license soon, though if I didn¡¯t I could still sell the potion. I would just need to get a license if I wanted to sell in bulk. As it would probably be two days before the herbs were delivered, I hurried over to the apothecary¡¯s store where I had bought the herbs before they could closed. I asked if she could sell me protein extract, as it was the one ingredient I still needed, but she shook her head. The best source of protein extract was the corpses of the animals they slaughtered, but the extraction process could only be done near the outer wall where the tanners were, due to the smell. For that reason, she never kept it in stock, as she couldn¡¯t produce it here. As it was already past sunset, and therefore most of the businesses in town would be closed, I would have to look again tomorrow. After unloading my wagon into the brewery I had rented, I went to the tavern. The food was pretty basic, and I didn¡¯t buy meat because it cost extra, but it wasn¡¯t bad. They had even figured out a way to mix certain herbs in with the mashed gabo to make it taste decent, though it still wasn¡¯t good. I slept in a cot in the office of the brewery, and the next day I headed out to the outer wall. The smell was almost overpowering, but luckily I knew a Death magic spell to weaken my own sense of smell. I don¡¯t think this was the way debuff spells were meant to be used, however. Once I was there I quickly found someone who was lowering a stripped pig carcass into a large metal vat while his employees wer dumping buckets of entrails in the vat with it. ¡°Hello,¡± I called out, and once the man had started the fire under the vat with a quick spell, he walked over. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°How can I help you?¡± he asked, eyeing me suspiciously. My robes, even though they had the mark of Keshan, were a lot nicer than you would normally see in this part of the city. ¡°I was hoping you could sell me some protein extract.¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m planning on making a large amount of nutrient potions and distributing them to the malnourished people in the area, but I don¡¯t have enough protein to make it.¡± He nodded. ¡°Well, I can provide you with what you need, but it won¡¯t be cheap. I currently sell it for a silver per kilo to the folks in town.¡± In Starshine it only cost three or four coppers per kilo. Food prices really were getting out of hand. ¡°And do you charge the same for the Carb extract?¡± It would mostly be fats and oils, but I could use it to bulk up the calorie density of the potion. ¡°Eight coppers a kilo on that. How much do you want.¡± I negotiated with him for a while before we settled on eight coppers per kilo for the mixture before he separated them. The last step was to separate all of the fats from the proteins, and that was a slow process if you wanted to get fairly pure extracts of both. As I was using both, and could even use the extra minerals that got left behind in the mixture, I just bought it before the separation step. This meant that I could get thirty kilograms per gold. I bought sixty kilograms at two gold and promised to come back for more if I got a license to open my factory. Thanks to the magic backpack I had brought with me, I had no trouble carrying that much weight. With my ingredients now procured I headed back to the brewery and used a bit of the extract to mix up the last of the materials I had prepared two nights ago. Once I was finished, I took my fifty five liters of prepared potion, loaded it into the back of the wagon, and headed to the poor part of town. The people in this part of town weren¡¯t as malnourished as in the villages, but I gave each one that wanted some a glass of water with a shot of the potion mixed in. I didn¡¯t have any potion bottles and only had one shot glass, but I could distribute it like this. A little after noon I ran out of potions, so I started healing people. Some of the injuries were broken bones from the malnutrition and some were poorly healed injuries. They looked like they were healed by a mage at some point, but due to the large amount of nutrients healing requires the wounds hadn¡¯t healed properly. Now, with the nutrient potions in them, the healing would probably work better. Some time after sunset I told the people that I was tired and would be back tomorrow morning. I bought some food from a street vendor and went back to the brewery. I would only have five or six hours to heal everyone tomorrow before the meeting, so I went to bed early to recover from the day¡¯s events. After eating breakfast the next morning, mostly flat bread I made with some of my three kilograms of remaining flour, I took my tent back to the refugee district of the city and started healing the people again. As most of the people there had a nutrient potion yesterday and at least one meal since then, the healing worked even better than last time and by noon there were only a few people who I couldn¡¯t treat due to malnutrition. I promised everyone that I would do my best to bring by more nutrient potions as soon as I had made more of them, then packed up my tent and left. Many of the people looked disappointed that I had to go, probably because I had helped them and their families so much in the last two days. Once I was packed up I took my tent back to the brewery, then went to the public bath house. I brought my nicest set of clothes with me, though I hadn¡¯t brought anything too fancy because I was traveling. I also carefully used the Cleaning spell on my robes, as I would be wearing that over my other clothes like a labcoat, as it was tradition so that people could identify those working for Keshan to do so that they weren¡¯t confused with an enemy combatant on the battlefield. No one would attack a healer, especially one working for Keshan, as they were neutral in conflicts and attacking them risked inviting the god¡¯s wrath. I arrived at the castle at one thirty and was escorted to the waiting room by a servant. There were two other merchants there who were hoping to negotiate some sort of special deal in working with the government, one wanting tax breaks and the other wanting a contract allowing them priority purchasing on food in exchange for them bringing back iron and steel from another city in the country, but from the way they were acting they had likely been waiting there for quite some time. I explained to them that I had an idea for a business that would help solve the food crisis in this country, and they seemed concerned. If I was being pessimistic, I would think that they were putting the large profits of food exports above the lives that were being saved, but when they saw that I didn¡¯t share there opinion on how good relieving the food crisis would be they assured me that they had merely not thought about the people outside the main trade routes that I had mentioned, and how bad the shortage must be for them, as they didn¡¯t have the opportunity to buy more food. I seriously doubted they would actually send trade wagons out to those other villages, though, as the profit margins in selling to them would probably be too small to justify it. Once I was called to meet the governor, I explained the situation to him and how the potions could solve it. He had never seen one of those potions, or faced a food shortage, and was looking a bit plump, so I had to explain to him that it would allow the people to survive without having to eat as much, thus making what food they had last longer. He raised the possibility of having everyone drink one once a week to lower the city¡¯s demand for food and improve exports, and I explained that, while that might be possible, that method was rarely used due to the cost of food being so low normally. The potions also weren¡¯t very palatable so, while people in need would gladly drink them, most people wouldn¡¯t like doing so. In this situation I would also have a hard time supplying everyone in the city or country as the local supply of materials to make them would run out after making enough for around a hundred thousand people per month. This city had over two hundred thousand people living in it, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to export any to the other cities or settlements if it was all used here. The argument wasn¡¯t seeming to get to him, but when I brought up the possibility of exporting the potions he perked up. No wonder the merchants were having a tough time talking to him. They wanted to improve their own financial situation in a way that helped the country, but not him personally. I explained to him about how I was making luxury potions in a factory I owned in Starshine, including infertility and aphrodisiac potions, and he loved the idea of opening up such a factory here. I brought him back around to the nutrition potion and he offered to become a guaranteed client, essentially signing a contract with me to have his personal company buy one thousand liters of potion per month at half a silver per liter, totaling twenty five gold per month. He would then send them to the other two major cities to resell at a copper per dose, more than doubling his money. That was a bit much to charge for one, but such an agreement would allow me to open my factory and distribute them all across his territory, if not the country, so I agreed to it. I brought up that, while I could start making those other specialty potions once the adventurer¡¯s guild brought me the materials and I had hired enough people for the job, there were some of those potions already in the country if I could just find them. I explained to him about how the trade caravan was attacked and all of its goods and people captured, and he brought in one of his military advisors to ask about it. Before long he had tracked down where the goods and people were taken and told me where that was. Apparently one of the nearby towns of eight hundred people needed more farmhands to clear their fields, so that they could be planted when the spring got here, so the POWs had been sent there to work as farm hands. It wasn¡¯t long before I had agreed to sell any recovered potions to the governor at the caravan¡¯s cost, and in exchange he would grant them permission to pass through and trade non-strategic goods within his territory. As they mostly had exotic foods, magical trinkets, those potions, and some luxury clothing with them this time, I was sure that would be fine. Selling luxury goods in this city might not be as lucrative, but I was certain that they could sell food here at a high enough margin that they would turn a decent profit, and the ability to travel would let them get to the Farin and allied country counties on the other side of his territory where the real profit was. The only taxes he asked for in return was one ton of food or ten gold per carriage. That was pretty expensive as far as trade tariffs went, but a ton of cheap food only cost four to five gold in Starshine, so they could get through at half the cost if they brought food. Now that I had permission to open my business and a guaranteed customer, I went to the healer¡¯s union to hire some employees. There were only two available that met my needs, a seventy year old male human apothecary that had retired, but was now working part time to help feed his grandchildren and their children, and a thirty year old female alchemist that got caught making illegal intoxicants and selling them in the slums. She currently had seventeen months left on hrer sentence, so I could buy out her contract for four gold and have her work for me. I ended up getting both of them, putting me down to five gold, as I paid the old man two weeks in advance to manage the place for me. I planned on staying until the first batch of potions were finished, selling the Governor his requested amount, and taking the rest with me along with all the gabos my wagon could fit to the town where the caravan people were. I picked up my herbs from the adventurer¡¯s guild and introduced my new manager, as he would be putting in the requests later, and brought them back to the brewery. There the alchemist and I modified the production method to work with a still the brewery had sitting in the back and extracted all of the Essence of Nutrition from them. The next day I ordered another ten tons of gabo leaves from the bulk vendor as well as three gold worth of gabo, as that was all the gold I had left. When the leaves came in we extracted all of the nutrients we could, making sure to add the poison neutralizing herb, and were able to make just over eleven hundred liters of potion. We still had a large amount of gabo extract sitting in one of the storage casks, and enough Essence of Nutrition for another three hundred liters, but lacked the protein extract to use it. I delivered the potion to the Governor¡¯s business, and was paid, then used that money to buy ten gold worth of protein/carb extract and had my manager pay the guild another fifteen to gather more herbs. Ideally we would buy a small farm and have someone grow those magical plants there, but for now there were enough wild plants around to fulfill the need. One of them was essentially a magical weed, after all, so it was unlikely that our operation would use up the local supply and if it started to do so someone would start farming them just to sell to us. With everything set up properly, the next day I loaded up the hundred liters of potion we made in the first batch and went by the bulk vendor to get my three gold worth of gabo. With that finished, I told my manager that I would try to return in a week or so, but he would be in charge of selling any excess production to the people or merchants who wanted to export it. That would be the money he could use to cover expenses. Though I would prefer if he donated at least one hundred liters per week to the people in town, he didn¡¯t need to if it cut into the profit margins by too much. While the process of making nutrient potions didn¡¯t produce any secondary Essences to sell, when I got back we could get started on the more complicated job of making infertility and aphrodisiac potions, which could be sold to the governor¡¯s company for a profit and make many others which could open up other secondary products in town. Even as a noble of Farin, no one would care if I did business here as long as it didn¡¯t help them in the war, which those potions didn¡¯t. Technically the nutrient potions did help them, as it relieved the need for food which was limiting their efforts, but no one would complain too loudly about an agent of the church doing things that mildly harmed the military¡¯s efforts. Chapter 23 Thankfully the bandit group that rode in with me didn¡¯t follow me out. I didn¡¯t have that much food left for myself, so if they did demand I take them, we would be eating gabo. I traveled all day, not seeing any animals along the way. Either the area had been over-hunted, or the animals had anticipated the snow that just started to fall and were in hiding. As the snow started to pile up, my horse had to slow down, and I didn¡¯t make it to the town of Ironsource until the sun was already setting. I paid the stable to look after my horse and protect the wagon, then went to the guardhouse to ask about the POWs. The Dwarf man that was on duty didn¡¯t seem to want to help me but informed me that, indeed, there was a caravan seized by them, and all of the wagons and employees had been brought here. After the slaves were released, the men were indentured to work on some of the farms here, though one of them did manage to escape before they got him here. Anything of immediate value in their carts were seized and distributed to the people, but the luxury goods and strange potions were just put in a warehouse. I explained to him my agreement with the Governor, and he sighed. He didn¡¯t like having to release prisoners, but he wasn¡¯t going to argue with a governor¡¯s orders. He had someone escort me to the farm where the men were being held. There was a lot of noise and conversation coming from the barracks they were it, but the manager of the farm let me enter. The men were sitting around eating. They didn¡¯t recognize me at first, but when they saw the healer¡¯s robes I was wearing their memories seemed to come back. ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t you the owner of that clinic in Starshine? Persy¡¯s master?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me. I came to an agreement with the governor of this territory to release you and for you to pay certain taxes and bring in certain goods. Speaking of Persy, though, is she here?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, women aren¡¯t allowed in the men¡¯s dorm.¡± said one man, before another punched him on the arm. ¡°Not sure where she is.¡± said the man that punched him. I¡¯m pretty sure he was the caravan master, but he¡¯s dressing like a farm hand now. ¡°Robert and Wally stay here as paid farm hands, so they¡¯ll be here later.¡± Right. Robert was that Dog-man. I had forgotten his name. ¡°Persy stayed and helped with the animals for the first few days, but then she started healing people in town and I haven¡¯t seen her for four days now.¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll go talk with the farm manager and see about your release.¡± They waved, and I went to the main house. There I explained the deal with the governor, and the manager explained that it would take the farmhands another week to clear the land of tree stumps and stones so that it could be planted when the spring gets here. With the snow on the ground, it will be hard to find the stones, but clearing stumps should still be possible. Unfortunately, they were supposed to be released immediately. The manager sighed and signed the papers. When I returned to the barracks the two beast-men were there handing out packages to the men. ¡°Ah, Sir Starshine.¡± said Wally when he saw me. ¡°What brings you out here?¡± ¡°I actually just got these guys released. We just need to get Persy and grab the wagons tomorrow morning and we can head back to Starshine.¡± ¡°Oh, about that.¡± he said, setting down the packages. ¡°Persy isn¡¯t actually in town.¡± Many of the men looked surprised at this. ¡°You see, she was healing people in town when a midwife showed up from a nearby village and said that she needed a healer to treat one of the women in the village that was having a really bad pregnancy. She left four days ago, and isn¡¯t back yet.¡± I rubbed my eyes. ¡°She always was the kind to run off to help people. At least the countryside around here is safe, and the crime rate is remarkably low. I doubt anything happened to her, she probably just got caught up healing people and lost track of how many days it¡¯s been. I¡¯ll head out tomorrow morning.¡± Wally nodded. ¡°What about us? Now that you freed these guys do we need to come with you?¡± ¡°Do you not want to?¡± ¡°Actually,¡± said a former caravan guard, ¡°I don¡¯t particularly like pulling stumps, but the people really seem to need it. And we don¡¯t really need to go with you to just go pick her up.¡± ¡°You want to stay here?¡± I asked, confused. ¡°As paid hands, but sure. Just for the next few days, until we finish clearing the stumps.¡± ¡°And the rest of you?¡± I asked. ¡°Well,¡± said another man, ¡°staying here and earning some coin for a few days sounds better than following you on a pointless trip going the wrong direction.¡± Several others agreed with him, including Wally and Robert. With them preferring to stay for the few days I would be gone, I talked to the manager again. With no outside trade, there was more than enough coin in the town¡¯s coffers for the men to get paid for the next few days. I swung by the Healer¡¯s Union in town, an apothecary/doctor couple¡¯s store that mostly treated mining accidents, and offered them some nutrient potions to hand out. The apothecary countered by asking for Essence of Nutrition, so I taught her how to extract it from some of the inedible mushrooms that grew in the mines. It was a fairly basic Essence extraction, but a slight change was needed from the textbook mushroom example that she had available. That essence was the reason you needed an alchemist to make the potion. Now that she knew enough about alchemy to properly extract the essence and make the nutrient potions herself, she offered to let me sleep in her son¡¯s old bedroom. The next day I got my wagon from the stables and set out for the settlement where I was told Persy had gone to. About three hours later I pulled up to a palisade wall manned by a Minotaur, a Satyr, and a twin goblin men with crossbows. ¡°Halt.¡± said the Minotaur. ¡°Who wishes to enter the village?¡± ¡°I am Viscount Cameron Starshine of Farin, here as a hireling of the church of Keshan.¡± I said, handing him my documents, mostly the pass issued by the shrine of Keshan and my Healer¡¯s Union card. ¡°I come offering free medical care to all that need it.¡± The Satyr spit. ¡°Falin noble. We heard of you. Though I don¡¯t know why she would still want to talk to her old master. She said you¡¯d come for her, but she didn¡¯t say anything about you working for the church.¡± ¡°Oh, Persy talked about me? Well, I didn¡¯t used to work for them, but signed up because I figured if I was coming to rescue some people, I might as well heal all of the sick people along the way.¡± ¡°Plus it gets you free passage through the territory.¡± said the goblin on the left. ¡°That¡¯s true. The only bandits I came across insisted they were there to protect me and ate my food, but they didn¡¯t attack.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± said the Minotaur. ¡°You can enter, but don¡¯t cause trouble.¡± He handed me back my documents. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Oh, I won¡¯t. One thing about working for the church is that I have to be on my best behavior.¡± I put my documents away, thanked them, them had my horse go through the now-opening gate. The town was pretty small, maybe one hundred and fifty people here in total. I parked in front of the local apothecary¡¯s office, as this town was too small to have a doctor or a Healer¡¯s Union, and started setting up for the healing. As I was working on setting up the medical tent by myself, a goblin boy of maybe seven years walked over. ¡°So, are you like miss Persy?¡± he asked. ¡°She fixed my broktened arm.¡± ¡°Yes, actually, Persy and I learned healing together, and she works for me. How do you know Miss Persy?¡± ¡°She and Mama are helping aunt Tulip. Aunt Tulip is going to have a baby, but it¡¯s hurting her.¡± I stopped what I was doing. That sounded serious. ¡°Can you take me to them?¡± The boy thought for a few seconds, then shrugged. ¡°Ok.¡± Then he ran down the street. I chased after him, but he stopped only fifty meters away in front of a house with a woman moaning inside. As he couldn¡¯t open the door I opened it for him. ¡°Mama, I found another healer man.¡± he called out and a goblin woman poked her head out of the kitchen to see me. ¡°Fancy one, too. I take it that sunflower means the church sent us a priest to heal our sick finally?¡± ¡°Actually, I¡¯m just a doctor that signed up as a hireling at the Healer¡¯s Union Shrine in Starshine. My name¡¯s Cameron.¡± I held out my hand. ¡°You mean the Cameron Persy talks about?¡± she asked. ¡°As far as I know.¡± I said shrugging. ¡°She works at my clinic in Starshine.¡± ¡°Imagine that, a noble came to my house to treat my sister.¡± There was a scream of pain from the neighboring room, and she ran over to check on her sister. ¡°Acorn, go play outside.¡± she called as she ran into the room with me following. Inside the room was a goblin woman that was clearly in labor laying in a bed. The fact that Persy was constantly healing her meant that this birth wasn¡¯t going as planned though. ¡°Cam? What are you doing here?¡± asked Persy, still channeling mana into the spell. ¡°I¡¯ll explain later.¡± I said sending my detection threads into the mother. I quickly found the issue. The child had horns, and one of them had somehow grabbed the wall of her womb. ¡°The child is half Minotaur.¡± said Persy. ¡°It¡¯s horns are abnormally large, though, and are getting hung inside her.¡± ¡°The gate guard? Shouldn¡¯t he be here?¡± ¡°No, his brother, who¡¯s away on a mission.¡± The woman screamed again. ¡°Right, well, the contractions resulted in the tip of one horn penetrating the uterine wall. I¡¯m going to have to do surgery to remove the child. Have you learned how to stop labor yet?¡± Persy shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s an advanced spell. I haven¡¯t learned it yet.¡± ¡°Me either. Well, this should work.¡± I held my hand towards her and suddenly she stopped moving. ¡°What was that?¡± asked Persy. ¡°Relax. It¡¯s an intermediate combat spell that paralyzes opponents by making all of their muscles relax. It will make it hard for her to scream, so we¡¯ll need to monitor her pain levels, but it should also stop the contractions for now. Do you have any surgical equipment?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve always used my dagger if I have to cut a patient open.¡± ¡°This is too sensitive for that and I didn¡¯t think to bring a surgical kit.¡± I looked at the pregnant woman¡¯s sister. ¡°I¡¯m going to need the sharpest filleting knife you¡¯ve got. If you don¡¯t have one, go ask the butcher or a chef. Just hurry.¡± The woman ran out of the house, and I looked at Persy. ¡°So, I¡¯ll get to work cleaning everything. You make sure she isn¡¯t bleeding internally.¡± I flipped up the blanket and started cleaning the sheets and the woman¡¯s side where you could see the bulge created by the baby¡¯s head pressed against her, including the tip of the horn. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± she said, and got to work. ¡°So, why was the sister in the kitchen when I got here? Getting hungry?¡± ¡°I had her boiling sheets. She¡¯s a midwife, but she had nothing to do and was getting anxious, so I gave her something to do.¡± ¡°And how were you planning on delivering the child with these complications?¡± ¡°I was just going to keep healing her as the sister delivered it. I didn¡¯t know their was a horn caught in her, just that it was having a hard time getting out, so I figured it was like a baby just having a big head. I figured I¡¯d help her through the pain with a spell or two and keep her healed up until it passed. Which reminds me.¡± She cast another pain resistance spell on the woman. ¡°Unfortunately that would have killed the patient, but we caught it now. You really need to work on your detection threads. The contractions are probably what caused it to punch through the wall, but you should have double checked when the pain got worse.¡± ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± she said. The sister ran into the room with a sharp knife and I switched to sterilizing the my hands and the knife, even running a fourth level fire spell over the blade to make sure no germs survived. ¡°Ok, Persy, you ready?¡± Persy nodded and I made the first incision. It was delicate work, and I had to recast Relax at a lower level on her to keep her from moving from the pain, but I got the horn untangled and healed her up in less than an hour. ¡°Congratulations, it¡¯s a girl.¡± I said, handing the green-skinned baby with a cow face to the mother after tying the cord. I spent the next several minutes cleaning the blood off of the sheets with a quick cleaning spell. I didn¡¯t cast it at too high of a level due to the exhaustion of concentrating on the surgery, but it was enough to make the sheets look clean even if they weren¡¯t. Once she had enough energy to stand her sister could change the sheets. The sister thanked us both and shook our hands. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to thank you enough.¡± she said. ¡°Not a problem.¡± I said. ¡°I do need to get back to my wagon, though. Please come by the tent in a little while, so I can perform a proper medical examination and give her some nutrient potions. We need to make sure she doesn¡¯t have malnutrition issues after surgery or while nursing, as that could mean that there isn¡¯t enough milk for the baby.¡± She nodded and agreed to bring her sister and the baby by after they had a nap. The healing meant that they didn¡¯t need to recover from the ordeal more than the exhaustion it caused. Persy left with me, leaving it up to the sister to teach the first time mother how to deal with a newborn. The first thing I noticed was that, while my stuff and the potions hadn¡¯t been touched, most of the gabo were gone and Acorn and another child were in the back of the cart stuffing some into a bag as a woman shoved several into her apron. I shook my head. I was planning on giving them away anyway, so they can take them, I just wish they¡¯d have asked first. There was no way they were going to get equally distributed like this. ¡°I was planning on giving these away anyway.¡± I said. ¡°So if you haven¡¯t gotten any, get in line and you can have them. Just please ask next time. I might have needed to ration them if there weren¡¯t enough.¡± I pulled my backpack out from under the seat and shoved an armful of gabos into it, so that the pregnant woman would have enough. ¡°Hey, Acorn. You want a job?¡± ¡°What kind of job?¡± he asked. ¡°I want you to give everyone that asks for them ten gabos. Can you do that?¡± ¡°Sure I can. I can count. How much are you paying?¡± ¡°How about a copper and this?¡± I said, pulling out a small bag of dried cherries I had brought with me. ¡°Fruit in advance?¡± he asked. He¡¯d make a good merchant one day with the way he negotiated. ¡°Sure.¡± I said, tossing him the bag. There were probably only another hundred or so gabos in the back of the wagon, but I wanted to somehow make sure no one was hording them. Who would fight a seven year old over such a thing, especially when I hired him? ¡°Ok, people, listen up. Ten per cusomer.¡± he called out, getting everyone¡¯s attention. He had probably heard some merchant say the same thing at one point and was copying him. ¡°Get in line. I¡¯m in charge here.¡± The seven people that were coming to clean out my cart lined up and he counted out ten gabos for each of them. Persy helped me set up the tent, and soon she was doing checkups on the females of the village inside the tent while I was doing checkups on the males of the village behind the tent. It wasn¡¯t exactly private, but at least the people in line couldn¡¯t see us. I also got a bit of practice with telepathy, asking single or few word questions and getting a yes or no response from the men. It was still fairly difficult for me to encode meaning into a mana thread, but for basic concepts like ¡°Pain¡± and ¡°Where¡± I was good enough. The process was supposed to be similar to imbuing an effect on one, but making it a concept and not an effect was the hard part for me, so it seemed more similar to detection threads, which deal with concepts. Acorn soon ran out of gabos, and I promised him another copper if he passed out shots of nutrient potion to everyone in line, after I explained what it did to everyone, and made sure everyone I checked had some as well. I would leave the rest with the apothecary to hand out when I was gone, but Persy and I were both busy checking out patients so we couldn¡¯t do it. The people in this village weren¡¯t that malnourished, but I wanted them all to have some anyway. After sunset, I paid Acorn his two coppers and walked him home. ¡°Mama, look! I got a job!¡± he yelled, running into the house. There was a banging noise in the kitchen and his mother stumbled to the kitchen opening. ¡°Oh, a job huh?¡± she said quietly. ¡°How about you stay quiet so your aunt Tulip can sleep and tell me about it.¡± He enthusiastically told her how I paid him with ¡°candy and some money¡± to hand out gabos and a potion as his mom picked up a chair that had been knocked over. I explained to her that it was two copper and a bag of dried cherries that I carry because I love dried cherries, and pulled the gabos out of my backpack, placing the thirteen of them on the kitchen table along with a little over a liter of nutrient potion that was still left after giving the rest to the apothecary to hand out. ¡°I figured you were really tired, so I set you some aside.¡± I pointed to the potion. ¡°I want you to drink a shot of this, then give one to your sister every week until it runs out or goes bad.¡± Since I hadn¡¯t packaged it properly I didn¡¯t know how long it would take to spoil. ¡°She¡¯s still eating for two, after all.¡± The woman, who was named Rose, nodded. One of the farms volunteered to let me leave my horse and wagon in their barn, and the mayor loaned us a guest room at his house. One guest room for both of us. Not that it was a problem. Persy and I had been sharing a room since we were children. The problem was that we couldn¡¯t treat it as a bunk bed because this bed didn¡¯t have an ¡°underneath¡±. It was solid all the way to the floor. ¡°Well, this might be an issue.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think this is what your father meant when he told you not to ¡®bed¡¯ me.¡± she said, removing her shoes. ¡°Now hurry up and take off your outer clothes. You¡¯re not going to sleep well if you sleep with that coat on.¡± Soon I was wearing simple linen pants and a shirt that people wore under their main clothes, with shorts under that. It looked like what farmhands or other manual laborers wore, but they would cover these clothes with a thicker, heavier, clothing made of the same material. Then I had to climb into bed beside a woman that I used to have a crush on. Nothing weird about that. Thankfully we were so exhausted that no anime hijinx and misunderstandings could occur, even if she did steal all of the covers. Chapter 24 The next morning we left for Ironsource and arrived around noon. It was much warmer than yesterday and the few carriages that had already traveled down the road had caused tracks to melt through the snow. After pulling into the city we went to the farm where all of the men were out pulling stumps in the field. Persy greeted everyone and hugged her grandfather, then we returned to the town square where we set up the tent and started treating people. The men at the farm had agreed to help until all of the tree stumps were cleared, after all, and that would take at least another two days. At least this city had a doctor¡¯s office, and the doctor allowed Persy to use his office to examine the women in private while I took the tent this time. I didn¡¯t have any Nutrition potion to hand out, but this town seemed to have enough food, even if the variety was limited. They were, after all, only a day¡¯s journey from Manasource on the trade route to several other cities. We were offered free rooms at the local inn that night and, while the meal wasn¡¯t fancy it was at least filling. On the second day a Fox man that looked to be in his low twenties came in for an exam. As there were no women waiting in line at the moment, Persy was sitting beside the line and they started flirting. He stepped out of line to talk to her, so I examined several other men before an old orc woman showed up and Persy had to go. This forced the guy to the back of the line. Still, he got to flirt for thirty minutes and Persy seemed interested, so I guess he didn¡¯t get that bad of a deal. I did, however, make sure to check him really well for STDs during his exam, just in case things went beyond flirting. That night Persy left the Inn shortly before supper and I didn¡¯t see her until we were setting up the tent for the final day of examinations. ¡°Fun date last night?¡± I asked, and she blushed. ¡°I guess.¡± she said sheepishly. ¡°That Fox guy I saw you flirting with yesterday?¡± ¡°Oh, you saw that?¡± ¡°Everyone waiting in line saw it. None of us cared, though. You made a cute couple. Too bad we have to leave tonight.¡± She thought for a little while. ¡°Speaking of that, can you examine me before we get started?¡± I stretched a magic thread between our brains and encoded one concept on it. ¡®Pregnancy¡¯. She nodded and did the same. ¡®Worried¡¯. ¡°I don¡¯t think an exam will answer the question yet. As soon as we get back to Starshine, I can, though. That should be enough time for things to be more obvious.¡± She nodded, looking a bit sad, but continued setting up for the day. ¡°So,¡± I changed the subject. ¡°When did you learn telepathy?¡± I had gotten the idea from the Advanced healers manual, which suggested it as a way to talk with mute or weak patients, though the spell was still too complex for me to use correctly. I didn¡¯t think she had access to that book, and I knew the Army Training Manual I gave her didn¡¯t contain it. ¡°Oh an Elf woman-of-the-night I treated at the clinic used it to tell me her symptoms, as they were embarrassing. I asked how she did that, and after I treated her she gave me a lesson. I¡¯m not very good yet. I can only send one concept at a time, no actual words, as those are harder.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not much better. I can only manage two. Maybe we can practice on the way home.¡± ¡°Sure, that sounds good.¡± Now that everything was ready, we set up some collapsing fabric chairs and sat in front of the tent. ¡°So, learn anything from that Army Training Manual?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes actually.¡± She reached into her nearby backpack and pulled out her staff and the book. ¡°I managed to cast all of the fire ones,¡± she said, shooting a jet of flames out of her hand. ¡°I also managed a few of the Death magic spells. Can¡¯t really demonstrate without a lifeform to test them on, but I hit one of the bandits that attacked us with a necrotic bolt.¡± She mimed casting a spell with her staff. ¡°His shoulder turned black and he couldn¡¯t use that arm anymore. The pain also slowed him. Of course, once we were captured I had to heal it. That was really hard to do, since necrosis ignores weaker healing spells. I had to cut the skin off and use Regeneration to grow it back. Thankfully it didn¡¯t rot the muscle. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to just cut that off.¡± ¡°Maybe next time, as a healer, you should use non-lethal spells. Maybe Relax or Constrict to alter their muscles if you want to use Death spells. Though Convulse is easier to pull off.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t see those in the manual.¡± ¡°Oh, they¡¯re in the intermediate Combat Mage manual. I¡¯ll show you when we get home.¡± An elderly couple walked up and we each took one of them for an examination, ending the conversation. Most of the people in town that wanted our service had come by on one of the previous days, so today was going pretty slowly. We only had fifteen or so clients that morning, but shortly after noon the men from the farm walked up. ¡°We finished up out there at the farm, so we¡¯re going to check out the town for the rest of the day.¡± said the caravan master. ¡°But first, do you mind giving all of us a checkup?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Sure. Who wants to go first?¡± Wally stepped forward. ¡°Want me to check you out, Grandfather?¡± asked Persy. ¡°I¡¯d prefer your friend do it this time.¡± he said, pointing to me. I nodded. ¡°Follow me.¡± He followed me into the tent and, once we were inside and I closed the tent flap, I touched the Muffle magic circle that was sowed into the wall of the tent and fed mana into it. That was one advantage the medical tent had over a normal tent. You could feed mana into the rune sowed into it to prevent people outside from hearing what happened inside it. There was also one to prevent detection threads from passing through the tent and one which distorted light passing through the tent, so people couldn¡¯t see inside. ¡°So, I¡¯ve muffle the sound leaving us so no one can understand us. What didn¡¯t you want Persy to find out?¡± He looked a bit embarrassed. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not normally into this, but it had been a while, so...¡± He explained to me how they partied last night with some of the other farm workers, and how he got drunk and was hit on by a middle aged orc woman. One thing lead to another, and he ended up back in her room, where he had a really good time. I nodded and scanned him. ¡°Lots of bruising, a cracked hip, and your arthritis is acting up. Looks like she went a little wild.¡± ¡°Worst part was that we had to finish the last of the stumps this morning with more than just a hangover.¡± I smiled. ¡°Well, lay down. This won¡¯t feel as good as last night, but it should heal you instead of breaking you.¡± ¡°Good, I don¡¯t think I could take any more, and I¡¯m not into guys.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. It took almost fifteen minutes to finish healing everything. His arthritis was a long term condition that would come back, and his bones were more brittle than they should be, probably because he was in his late fifties, the equivalent of a mid-sixties human. I could give him a more permanent treatment for those once we got back to the clinic. The rest of the checkups went quickly, as none of the others had anything worse than blisters and hangovers, so we were finished within an hour. Robert tried to flirt with Persy, somewhat crudely while she was examining him, but she mostly ignored it. He was in his mid thirties and apparently not her type. The men partied again that night and we left the next morning, gathering all of our carriages and what was left of our trade goods from where the city guard stashed them. They had taken all of our food and useful items, but the luxury goods, potions, and most of the magical trinkets were still there. Persy rode with me rather than her grandfather so that we could practice our telepathy as we rode. She had over a week to catch up with him, after all, so they didn¡¯t have much to talk about any more. When we arrived in the late afternoon, Persy and I were both mentally exhausted but could manage three concepts each and even emphasize them or question them, the equivalent of putting an exclamation point or question mark on the end of a sentence. It was the first step in speaking with words instead of concepts. We parked the wagons in front of the Governor¡¯s storefront, and I went inside. It was almost closing time but, as the manager had been briefed on my arrangement with the governor, he accepted the goods and paid us, promising to send the governor the sample he asked for at once. I kind of felt sorry for the governor¡¯s mistresses, given my experience with the potion¡¯s effects. I asked them to send samples of the female version as well, just in case. The Caravan Master also negotiated with them and managed to offload most of the luxury goods. After we had left he looked at his books. ¡°Well, we almost broke even on just the potions, but the other goods didn¡¯t sell too well. I¡¯ll have to leave them out of the next trip. Food is also really expensive here, so I¡¯ll only buy the three days worth that we need to get back to Starshine where I can properly restock. Lord Shadowblade won¡¯t be happy with how small the profits are, but given the risk that was involved and the fact that thanks to you we¡¯ve mitigated that risk, we should earn much better profits next time.¡± I nodded. ¡°I think you can probably turn a nice profit just bringing in food, even if you sell it here where the price is only doubled. In the outlying villages the margin would be even higher. Even something cheap and easy to acquire like rice should sell well.¡± ¡°I was actually considering that. This country lacks the setup to grow rice, so it would be something new to their diet, though not something unfamiliar, as they had access to it until a few years ago.¡± Most of the rice in this region was grown in the more tropical southern countries, though some was grown in the wetter areas of Ferin as it was one of the few crops that grew well in flood zones. The men decided that they would start their night of celebration by thanking the gods at the temple before blowing all of their money at the bars and brothels. They could pull more out of their Merchant¡¯s guild account once they were back in Starshine, after all. And given how rare and expensive alcohol had gotten, they probably would be able to spend four days earnings in one night. We put the wagons in the stables and walked to the temple. All of the gods of the Ferin pantheon were represented there, plus a few more. While most of the men found a priest of the God of Commerce to thank his for the profitable trade and for rescuing them from captivity, something I was pretty sure fell under the domain of Soquan, god of justice, Persy and I made for the statue of the Lord of the Forest, though we would need to thank Keshan for his aid in helping so many as well. The priest of the Lord of the Forest was a Deer Beastfolk, and very animal-like in his appearance, as if a whitetail deer stood on its hind legs and put on clerical robes. He did have humanoid hands, and presumably feet, however. ¡°Greetings.¡± he said, bowing slightly. ¡°It is not often we get a healer or a human visiting us.¡± He tilted his head and looked at me. ¡°Very unusual. My Lord has granted me the ability to see the souls of people, so that I may judge their intentions, but something is off about yours. Not just that it is stronger than most, or that you bare his mark, but like you have, or had, more than one life. Very unusual.¡± Persy looked at me a bit surprised. ¡°Only a high ranking priest or a prophet would normally have the mark of the god they serve, but you seem to be neither, and you work for Keshan, so if you bore the mark of any god it should be his. Most unusual. Do you know why this is?¡± I knew exactly why that was, but I couldn¡¯t just come out and explain it. Just then I felt something stir within my soul. I asked the deity. There was a slight pause. I nodded. ¡°I would like to pray about it.¡± I said, careful not to lie. ¡°That is true. Very well. Follow me.¡± He lead the two of us into a room with a large statue of a chimera of a man. The body appeared humanoid, but the head was of a boar, it had deer antlers, the right arm was from a wolf, the left from a fox, and it had the tail of a squirrel, dressed entirely in leather and leaves. ¡°If you will please touch the statue and begin praying, He will hear you.¡± I reached out my hand a split second before Persy and the world went white. I opened my eyes and saw a person that looked almost identical to the statue pacing the floor of a log cabin I was standing in. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you look like the statue.¡± I said. ¡°I took this form because of the statue. It makes it easier for mortals to recognize me, since I don¡¯t really care about my physical form. But, we have a problem. You weren¡¯t supposed to be recognized.¡± ¡°He¡¯s your priest, you could just order him not to speak about it.¡± ¡°In his case, yes. But the fact that he can do it means that other priest probably will soon as well. With the war coming, many gods are doing what I did and giving their priests spiritual sight, as it lets you see through illusions, see if people are good or evil, if they lie, and see ghosts and spirits. He just happened to be the first priest you came across.¡± ¡°Interesting power. Is their any way to fool it? Wait, war? Between the gods?¡± That could be very bad for the mortal races. ¡°Only by changing your soul. And the war is between the Northern nations and the Demon Empire, though their gods might get involved, which would mean we would need to as well.¡± He paced for a little while thinking. ¡°I could probably convince Keshan to give you his mark and accept you as a priest. That would help hide my mark and he is accepted in Ferin. The only issue is that having two divine marks on your soul could stress it a bit. I may have to remove mine just to not destroy your soul. And if I¡¯m going to do that, I may as well remove it now.¡± ¡°Why not make me your priest or prophet? Wouldn¡¯t that mean that the priesthood accepted me?¡± ¡°Things might have changed a lot since I sent you down there, but I¡¯m still not well liked if Ferin due to my association with Beastfolk. I think we need a second opinion. Someone we can both trust.¡± He waved his hand and a fox woman appeared beside me. ¡°Persy?¡± I asked, and she looked around in shock. ¡°Cam? What am I...¡± she then saw the chimera man in front of her and collapsed to the ground, bowing. ¡°My Lord. I am not worthy.¡± ¡°Stand up.¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t ask that you grovel before me. You are a loyal member of my pack.¡± She stood. ¡°Understood. May I ask why you brought me and Cam here?¡± ¡°You can. I wouldn¡¯t normally bring a soul to the Great Forest until they die, but we are in need of the opinion of someone we both trust.¡± He had me explain how I remembered my last life in another universe, and how he chose me to help his people. He then explained the situation with soul sense and the war, and how his plans were being disrupted. Persy listened to both of us then thought about it before speaking. ¡°It isn¡¯t a perfect solution, but I think the only solution is for you to make him a priest or prophet.¡± Priests and prophets could both access powers within the domain of their deity, using the divine energy held within their own soul to cast divine magic, aka miracles. The difference was that a priest needed to pray and expend divine favor each time to cast those miracles, whereas a prophet had access to all the abilities all of the time. This created a semi-permanent connection between the souls of the prophet and the god, the mark I already had, but limited most gods to having only one prophet at a time. The Lord of the Forest nodded at her statement and looked at me. ¡°In that case, you realize how much risk this puts you under, right? They might accept her as my priestess as she is beastfolk and a slave, but a human noble of their kingdom will be a threat.¡± ¡°I do, but I think the other gods will assume that I am already your priest or prophet anyway when one of their priests sees my soul and reports it.¡± He nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯m not half-assing this. Cameron Starshine, I hereby name you my personal representative on this planet, my prophet. Feel free to contact me at any time. And Persimmon, Daughter of Ivy, Daughter of Walnut and Peach, you have prayed to me many times since you were a little girl, even before you came to Ferin. I ask that you look over my new Prophet and keep him safe, that you aid him in his mission to improve the lives of beastfolk everywhere. I name you as my priestess, and confer on both of you the Soulsight, on top of the knowledge of how to use your new divine powers.¡± I felt a rush within me as Persy and I started glowing. After the glow stopped I looked at Persy and activated Soulsight. She was beautiful, if a bit more fox-like than her normal appearance. I also looked at the Lord of the Forest, but he/she was just and indistinct vaguely humanoid shape. I knew at once that the physical body they now used was just a costume they put on to interact with us. ¡°Wow, this is amazing.¡± Persy said, then looked at me. ¡°I see what the priest meant with your soul being weird. It¡¯s like the edges are poorly aligned, like your soul was cut out and glued over your body instead of being a part of it. Quite strange.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s one reason your memories need to be erased when you reincarnate.¡± said the god. ¡°It makes the soul less compatible with the body, and less likely to bond properly. I actually had to tweak a few minor things to make this body accept you. Nothing noticeable, I hope.¡± I nodded, then turned off Soulsight. ¡°So, before we return, is their anything you can tell me about the war?¡± I asked. A second war would cause all sorts of issues. ¡°I can tell you a few things. The Demon Emperor invaded several coastal towns until he managed to capture Sharkport on the northern coast. He has since turned it into a beachhead, replacing the Baron in charge with one of his many sons and brought in massive armies. They have started seizing towns and villages in the area, leading to the Northern nations signing ceasefires and mutual defense pacts with each other. Ferin is even in secret talks with Ridalia and two of the governors of the Free Peoples to sign such a treaty so that the three nations can focus on defense and driving off the demon army.¡± ¡°I think I remember someone talking about that last part.¡± I said. ¡°You said the demon gods might get involved?¡± ¡°By proxy. If a god enters into a mortal battle, it will upset the other deities, and they might cause the gods to fight directly. That could destroy the mortal world. Instead, we fight by proxy. We send priests, holy warriors, and sometimes prophets, to fight in our stead. Mortals at least have a chance against them.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± I replied. With the conversation over, the god nodded and waved his hand, and Persy and I found ourselves back in the temple. Chapter 25 ¡°You guys done praying?¡± asked one of the caravan guards. ¡°If so, let¡¯s go party.¡± They had earned a bit of money while working as farm hands, but with the current cost of alcohol they would probably blow all of it tonight before we left. Still, we¡¯d be back at Starshine in two days, at which point they would get paid, so it wouldn¡¯t matter if they spent everything they had on them. ¡°No, I¡¯ve still got some praying to do, after which I think I¡¯m going to check on my local business and go to sleep.¡± ¡°Come on!¡± one of the other guys said. ¡°There¡¯s a brothel in town that¡¯s full of elf girls.¡± ¡°I have a girlfriend that I¡¯ll meet in two days. I¡¯m good.¡± ¡°Aw, come on.¡± he responded. ¡°I¡¯m sure Lady Samantha won¡¯t mind. Hells, if we asked she¡¯d probably j...¡± he let out a pained sound as the caravan master elbowed him in the stomach. Not that he was wrong. If we weren¡¯t together she probably would join them. Still, you didn¡¯t talk about your employer like that. He made a quick attempt to see if Persy wanted to join, but actually accepted when she turned him down, and the group left. I noticed that Wally and Robert were going with them. Once they were gone, the Deer-man priest came over to us. ¡°My Lord just informed me of your status, sir prophet. He asks that I teach the two of you to use the power he has granted you.¡± I nodded. ¡°I just need to thank Keshan quickly.¡± I said, and he held up a hand. ¡°While it is acceptable for you to work with another deity and their followers as long as your goals align, it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for either of you to pray directly to another deity. I will ask one of the priests of Keshan to thank him on your behalf. Now, if the two of you will follow me.¡± He turned and went through a back door and we followed him into a room in the basement. ¡°This is the training room where all of the newly appointed priests and priestesses learn to use their divine powers. While your powers work a bit differently, I shall teach the priestess how to perform miracles, and will have to hope that you learn something as well.¡± He taught Persy a few official prayers that he knew would produce certain results, but reminded her that those were not the only prayers that would work. She could pray for any effect that was in his domain. There were also specific blessings that she had to learn, as the people would ask for them, such as the Hunter¡¯s Blessing which helped you track and stalk prey. For The Lord of the Forest, his domain covered many plant and animal based abilities, including controlling them and temporarily granting abilities animals possessed, though at a stronger level if you willed it. As he also controlled The Great Forest, a neutral afterlife which everyone qualified for at death, we also had some power over the souls of the deceased, at least enough to speak with them if they were there or hadn¡¯t yet traveled to an afterlife. While a priest couldn¡¯t resurrect the dead, we knew that The Lord of the Forest had done so in several stories, especially where their children were concerned, so the priest suspected that I could do so if I had enough divine energy. I found that using the abilities I had been granted was similar to spell casting, with two differences. The first was that it was more limited. Instead of just focusing on an effect and feeding it mana, I had to figure out how the effect I desired tied into his domain and which plant or animal I was drawing it from. Secondly, the powers drew from my soul¡¯s pool of Divine energy. I didn¡¯t have large reserves of mana compared to most mages, but I had less than half as much divine energy. And while Persy had larger mana reserves than me by about half, her pool of Divine Energy was only ten percent as large as her pool of mana. The advantage, however, came with the fact that divine magic always produced the maximum effect possible, and it could only be resisted by divine energy, allowing it to bypass armor or mental resistances. Priests and prophets, however, naturally resisted harmful effects due to the use of divine energy filling their bodies with it, and every creature with a soul would instinctively attempt to resist such powers with their own divine energy, so it wasn¡¯t always the instant kill you might assume it to be. Persy and I practiced casting miracles for the next few hours, using only tiny amounts of divine energy each time, until the priest stopped Persy. ¡°That should be enough for now. You understand the basics, but if you continue you risk annoying the Lord and getting a twisted or opposite version of what you ask for. And while Lord Cameron doesn¡¯t have to worry as much about that, the Lord can tell whenever you draw on his powers and may grow annoyed at you if you do it too much. Like a child asking a rich parent for money, they won¡¯t care at first, but if you annoy them too much they may cut you off temporarily.¡± With that, we left the temple. It was long after sunset, so I took Persy to the brewery. The indentured woman was there, as it was common practice to house indentured servants in the business where they worked, but we didn¡¯t bother her too much as I explained to Persy what I was doing there, and how I would expand in the future. After that, we went to the nearby inn and rented two rooms, even though the innkeeper kept insinuating that we only needed one, ate supper, and went to sleep. The next morning, after spending what money I had left on food, we set out for the border. We traveled all day, pulling into a village just as the sun started to set. It wasn¡¯t the first village I visited when I got here, as we were taking a slightly different path, but they seemed just as bad off as that village, if smaller. I knew that we only had a day before we reached the border, so I cooked a massive pot of stew for everyone, including the villagers, and Persy and I gave everyone checkups. After everyone had been treated and fed so that they would have the nutrients to continue I handed all but two meals worth of food for our men to the mayor. It would only feed them for two or three days, but it was all I could do for now. We slept in a barn that night, as the buildings were too small for us to stay with any of the villagers, and set out the next morning. By the time we made it to the border the sun was already setting. The men came out to greet us, and took us to the mess tent to get something to eat. Samantha was there, apparently using up their small supply of alcohol in a drinking contest, but when Creampuff notified her that I was back, she excused herself from the contest, grabbed me, and drug me back to her tent. Three hours later I managed to drag my exhausted self into the mess hall to eat some left over bread, the only thing that was left. After eating two meals worth and washing it down with a large amount of water, I thanked the chef, then headed back to her tent. Apparently I wasn¡¯t going to get to sleep in my own tent tonight if I got to sleep at all. The next morning I was up with the sunrise. I may have cheated last night and used a bit of divine magic to call on certain aspects of rabbits to make sure she gave up first and let me get some sleep, but at least I got to sleep. After a tame breakfast, she explained to me that she had went out on patrols with some of the men and got in a skirmish with a group of bandit-mercs. Thanks to her pet razor-claw Ferin¡¯s troops won the battle and managed to capture or kill the others. Those that survived were healed and are currently sitting in the jail, the one permanent structure they¡¯ve built due to the lack of lumber in the area. Once we set out, she promised to take them back to Starshine, where they can stay as POWs. Normally that would mean indenturing them to hard labor until the war ended or someone negotiated for their release, but as we were currently in peace talks with the Free People¡¯s Land, they would simply be held in a detention center, like criminals awaiting trial. That might have been the only engagement with the enemy since I left, but it was enough for the men to respect her and accept her as a fighter and not just a noble that wanted to play soldier. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The prisoners were placed chained in the back of our wagon, and several troops that were overdue for leave were assigned to join us to escort them back. The caravan would be staying in Starshine for only a few days before setting out again to continue the trade route, but now that they knew what they would have to pay in tariff and what goods were worth trading, the caravan master was certain that they would start turning a nice profit. I would send as many nutrient potions as I could, as well as any infertility and aphrodisiac potions I could spare along with them to increase that profit, and in exchange they would travel around a bit handing out two nutrient potions per person in any village they came across, though in the beginning they would also be selling as much food as they could in those villages. The soldiers could return to the border with them when they left Starshine in three to four days. We didn¡¯t set out until noon and didn¡¯t arrive at Starshine until sunset. After dropping the prisoners off at the local guard barracks Persy, Samantha and I left for the palace. As it was on the way, I decided to drop by the clinic. Only Cena should be there, as they normally closed at sunset, but he could look over the books and supplies just to make sure everything was going well. The first thing I noticed as we got close was a sound like an angry bull coming from near the Slave section. Was one of the livestock upset about something? We entered the attached barn to see what was going on, but all of the animals seemed fine. Seeing this, Samantha seemed to realize something and started smiling, but I wasn¡¯t sure why. I opened the door into the slave section to see if the sound was coming from in there, but as soon as I stepped into the front I found the source of the sound. Kanta had Cena bent over the front counter. Sam burst out laughing, causing Kanta to stop out of surprise and pull his pants up. ¡°Uh, boss,¡± said Cena as she ran in front of the counter to hide, ¡°What brings you here?¡± As Cena frantically searched for her clothes, despite half of them being on the opposite side of the counter, Persy¡¯s face glowed bright red from embarrassment at what she just saw and Samantha continued to laugh. I rubbed my eyes. ¡°I came by to look at the books and to make sure everything was ok. Before I can get here, though, I hear a bull snorting inside and thought one of the animals might be destroying the barn.¡± ¡°That was just me.¡± said Cena, standing up now that she had a shirt on. Judging by the fact that her pants and undergarments were on the counter, having been thrown there by Kanta as he hurriedly picked them up off the floor, that was all she was wearing. ¡°I know that now. Unfortunately, the people in town don¡¯t, and I doubt you want to go announcing it to clear up the situation.¡± Finally, at the thought of having to tell others why the noise was happening, they started looking close to as embarrassed as Persy was. ¡°Sorry, boss.¡± said Kanta. ¡°I didn''t realize we were being that loud.¡± I sighed. ¡°Please just keep it down in the future. The walls aren¡¯t very good at blocking sound. Also, she has a bedroom for a reason.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Look, just use the cleaning spell to scrub everywhere you two have been carrying on before tomorrow morning, okay? I¡¯ll be here tomorrow morning to check the books.¡± With that we left, begin sure to go through the barn where we were certain we wouldn¡¯t find our coworkers in compromising positions. When we got back to the palace we had a proper meal, prepared by Chef, and father even let Persy eat at the table with us as it was a celebration of our safe return. After finishing, I said goodnight to everyone and went to bed. I would assign Persy one of the servant¡¯s quarters tomorrow. She had been willing to keep sleeping here and just vacating the room any time Samantha came over, but now that things were getting serious with Sam, and now that Persy had found a man of her own, if only for one night, we needed separate rooms. Otherwise I might walk in on her recreating the Kanta/Cena scene with one of the male servants or the slave of a visiting merchant. Samantha came over that night but, while she wanted a repeat of last night, she was too tired to repeat it tonight. Apparently my divine cheating had solved the problem temporarily but created a bigger problem in the process. The next day I returned to the office and started having Kanta help me mass produce nutrient solution. Judging by the bags under his and Cena¡¯s eyes and the fact that everything in the clinic was meticulously clean, including my office and the couch in it, they had stayed up quite late in order to make sure that the place was free of evidence of their indiscretion. I ignored that fact, however. A clinic needed to be clean, and the office wasn¡¯t the place to get your freak on, as they said in my last life. Three days later we sent a thousand liters of nutrient potion, sixteen thousand vials, to the workshop to be given to the caravan before they set off. Once they set out with the soldiers on leave and a squadron of reinforcements, I finally had a chance to examine Persy. She was happy to find out that she wasn¡¯t, in fact, pregnant. Relieved actually. Apparently she had a moment of clarity the morning after and realized that she didn¡¯t want to have a kid yet. There was just too much going on in her life right now. After she told me this, I handed her an infertility potion. It should protect her for up to one cycle, but she could have one for free any time she thought she needed it. I also gave one to Cena, just in case, and had her offer one to Hogan, as it would be too embarrassing for her if I did so. Now that everyone had gotten their hormones in check, things went back to being somewhat normal. We saw patients and sent a thousand liters of nutrient potion out with the caravan every time it left the city, about every two weeks. I hired an extra two apothecaries at the workshop just to make them, and arranged with the priest of Keshan and the other priests to have the temple pay for the cost of making them as a form of charity. The city was starting to take in refugees from some of the countries to the north, and they told stories of being driven from their homes by demon-beasts and armies of devils. We also sent a thousand liters per week to the refugee sector as charity. All of the charity potions we were making proved to be good publicity, and we extended the workshop to make other potions. Now, instead of just luxury potions, various medicinal potions were also being produced in the workshop, from sleep potions and painkilling potions to health, mana, and stamina recovery potions. Most of these were being shipped north, where the merchants sold them to our allied armies, but some were being used locally by trainees. The scare caused by the now-public demon invasion meant that many of the people had taken to learning combat skills. The various guilds around town had sold large numbers of training manuals on all of the combat classes, and couldn¡¯t keep up with all of the people asking for training. That gave me an idea for earning more money. First, I bought twenty copies of every basic combat manual that the guilds had and ten of the intermediate ones, taking them to the palace and storing them in the library. This cost me several tens of gold and we already had copies of many of these books, but I wanted a complete set for the next step. I asked father for permission to start a training center. Normally training would be done by guilds, as they had a proven history of producing quality trainees, and only the guilds and a few government bodies could certify you as having learned the necessary skills. If I started a training center, however, I wouldn¡¯t be able to certify anyone, as I didn¡¯t have that proven history. So, we made a few modifications to the idea. I would send everyone I trained to one of the guilds for their certification tests making sure that those that signed up knew that they would have to certify elsewhere, and I would only be responsible for making sure they had the skills to pass their tests. Also, as I would be hiring large numbers of combat certified people, I would need to register as a mercenary group. Otherwise I would be suspected of raising an unauthorized private army. My status as a noble, and the son of a landed Count at that, would mean that there was no legal issue with me running a mercenary company. My company would officially be given orders to deal with bandits and out-of-control monsters in the county. Technically, the Adventurer¡¯s guild would normally handle the monsters and the city guards would deal with the bandits, but the recent civil unrest caused by the war had increased bandit activity, and the large number of Adventurers being sent to gather rare materials for the war and war equipment had disrupted the monster¡¯s habitats and taken adventurers away from stopping them. Soon the Great Oak Mercenary Company was born and was offering services in combat training. The name was a reference to the Lord of the Forest, but most only saw it as a symbol of our strength. I hired several retired adventurers and soldiers to teach the classes, and rented an office in the slums to house all of my training manuals and act as our headquarters. Due to how cheap our lessons were, the fact that we let trainees borrow our manuals, and the trainee loaner equipment I had bought and was letting the trainees use, we got in massive numbers of people, turning out a group of thirty basic trainees of every type every month, and a group of ten to twenty intermediate trainees of every type per month soon after that. The equipment might be garbage that any of the craftsmen of the town that took pride in their work considered failures, but it worked well enough for basic training. Persy revealed her status as a priestess of the Lord of the Forest, and, while it caused a bit of a stir at first, people soon adjusted to her holding a service every Holy Day in the Refugee district. Many slaves, not all of them beastfolk, and many refugees came to her services and soon she started performing miracles occasionally. This got her officially recognized as a priestess by the temple, though they still looked down on her for her race. Still, she could collect donations and do charity work without raising suspicion, and by the time spring got here her followers were even talking about building a shrine in one of the abandoned buildings in the nearby slums. You might think that the fact that her followers were slaves and refugees would severely limit the amount of money she could raise, but when the official treaty was signed with the Free People¡¯s and Ridalia, merchants and tradesmen started to flow into the country who saw the Lord of the Forest as a respected member of the pantheon, and were willing to donate large amounts to building a shrine in the city. While the law still required that all Beastfolk within the country be slaves, a position which stood even with the treaty in place, many of them brought in beastfolk as criminal slaves, or were non-beastfolk who lacked prejudice against them. We even got a few beastfolk merchants in town, though legally they were temporarily indentured to a human, elf, dwarf or goblin that was the caravan master for the duration of the trade run. It was a legal loophole that upset many of the more racist traditionalists, but they could do nothing about it. Chapter 26 For the next several months we went about our normal business, healing anyone that came to the clinic, making potions in my workshops, and training people in self defense. The military hadn¡¯t begun conscription yet, but Father had received an official letter from Celine, one of the Northern countries that the Demons were invading, via the king¡¯s court, asking if he could send troops to aid in the war. Without an official treaty, however, his forces wouldn¡¯t receive much benefit from doing so, other than looting rights and maybe pay, so he wasn¡¯t sure what to do. My own mercenary group had trained over a thousand people since it was founded, not including many of father¡¯s soldiers, but it was unlikely I could get even a fraction of those to join us in battle. We had over one hundred members, mostly people from the slums who signed up to work for us in exchange for training and steady pay, but they were only enough to keep the bandits and monsters in check, not to fight a war. Still, if I received a request from a nation wishing to hire my forces, I might accept. With the ceasefire between Ferin, the FPL, and Ridalia, commerce had now picked up and the FPL was no longer experiencing a serious food shortage. Many of the people had turned to mining, with the area I had been to being dominated either by the manacite mines of Manasource, or the iron mines of Ironsource, though when spring arrived they had planted massive fields which would no doubt insure that they no longer had to import food once harvest season got here. The trade caravan had started moving small amounts of luxury goods into the country, though the refined minerals out of the two cities generally were the best export due to the war. My own factory in manasource was still producing large amounts of nutrient potion, though, rather than being used to relieve malnutrition it was mostly being shipped north where it was used to relieve the symptoms of blood loss and provide the nutrients needed for healing. The luxury potions I was producing, while lucrative, took too much of the time of alchemists and apothecaries, and therefore I wouldn¡¯t be expanding my production into Manasource. Instead I had started producing mostly the same potions I produced in Starshine, stamina, health, and mana recovery potions and painkillers. Due to the prevalence of magical plants in Manasource, however, I was also able to make several resistance potions of various types, selling them to merchants going to the invaded countries at a large profit. I expanded both of my production facilities, bringing the Starshine one to thirty employees and the Manasource one to twenty employees. Due to a shortage of skilled people in Manasource, I sent twenty copies each of the basic apothecary and alchemist manuals to my factory, and had them use the manuals to train new employees, giving each one a manual so that they could get their certification and paying for that certification if they worked for us for a month afterwords. In my free time, I had taken to studying magic circles. I still didn¡¯t like them, but I had done enough electrical engineering and a bit of programming in my last life, so I was good at them. It was through those that Samantha had taught me monster summoning. Once she was certain I could summon one properly, having me practice by summoning wild animals in the barn, then selling them to the butcher, I drew the circle for temporarily summoning a monster. This was more than twice as difficult than permanently summoning one, as it left a teleport spell on them that would send them back if you ended the summoning spell, but the extra complexity was needed for safety. Once I finished drawing the circle, this time on the wooden part of the floor instead of the dirt so that it was more stable and efficient, I doublechecked that my tamer¡¯s kit was full. These kits contained treats and tools for convincing an animal or monster to join you. Once I was finished verifying it, I knelt down and started feeding the circle mana. I channeled mana from my necklace as the spell searched for a creature fitting my whitelist, in this case, a mount. I was good enough at combat, so for my first one I would get a creature I could ride, which would come in handy should I have to travel. After a minute, though, I felt the spell find something. It was powerful, but resisted the summoning. I could tell that this creature was strong willed, and therefore probably picky with who it would serve. Still, it was only a level five creature at most, or else I couldn¡¯t connect to it with a level five spell. Through the circle I could start to detect some of its thoughts. It didn¡¯t like mortals. Mortals had turned their back on nature, and were unworthy. Impure. After five minutes of constant struggle, I started to grow mentally exhausted from both channeling and the battle of wills with this creature. So I used my trump card. I used the Command Animals ability of the Lord of the Forest and injected half of my divine energy into it. There was a flash, and something appeared in the middle of the summoning circle. The creature looked like a pale white horse, as tall as a warhorse, but with a spiral shaped horn between its eyes. ¡°A Unicorn?¡± whispered Samantha in shock. Such creatures weren¡¯t unheard of, but most of the ones you saw were either captured as babies or half-bloods which were part horse, making them easier to tame. The only ones that came from the wild as adults were usually beaten into submission by a strong opponent, and therefore a shell of their former proud self. This one, however, was a true wild unicorn. Through the link formed by both the summoning circle and the command spell, I could sense that it had gained respect for me. I didn¡¯t know why. The Command had only forced it here, not forced it into my service. The summoning spell included a section which allowed you to communicate with the creature telepathically, as you couldn¡¯t summon sapient beings without a contract which specifically allowed them to be summoned, due to a feature of summoning that allowed sapients to instantly break the spell. The books on the subject didn¡¯t say why, but I suspected that it was an automatic use of divine energy which defended them. I got the sense that the Unicorn had sensed the source of the power that called it. It even had a soul, though a level zero soul, thus meaning it would never become truly sapient on its own. It knew that I had some tie with the Lord of the Forest, though it didn¡¯t know how I was tied to him. After staring into my eyes for over a minute, it laid down. I carefully walked over and touched its nose, and it moved it around a bit so that I would pet it. I scratched the top of its head, and it closed its eyes and lowered its head, at which point I continued to pet it. ¡°The contract.¡± said Samantha. She was right. Even if I bonded with this monster, I would be unlikely to summon it again without a contract which allowed me to find it at any time. I held out my hand and cast the simple Contract spell, and I felt it accept the deal, essentially recognizing me as the leader of its herd. I released the summoning spell and it disappeared, and instantly I felt the drain on my mana stop. ¡°Good job. Your mana regeneration will improve in time, so that you can constantly provide it with the mana it needs and keep it permanently summoned. For now, though, I would let it live in the wild while I let my mana regenerate. I summoned it again with the proper monster summoning spell an hour later but, even though Samantha said it was tradition, I didn¡¯t give it a name. Somehow it felt wrong to give this wild creature a name, and it appreciated the gesture. Still, I summoned it every night to pet it or brush it, and it seemed to like that. During that time there were two interesting customers. One night at the clinic, after finishing with my unicorn for the day, a man came into the Rich area and asked me to come see his master at the estate he had rented. Normally I didn¡¯t do housecalls, but the man with an extremely tall collar that covered his entire neck except the throat offered me a gold coin if I did so. I couldn¡¯t turn down so much money, so I followed him to the place. His master was a rich merchant with investments in many other merchant companies, so he could easily afford such a fee. The first thing I noticed was that all of the windows were covered in thick curtains capable of blocking out all of the sun¡¯s rays. It was nearing sunset now, so it was understandable that his master didn¡¯t want to be blinded by the sun shining in his window. Once the man dug out a key and unlocked the door to let me enter, he locked it behind me and escorted me to his master¡¯s study. This house appeared to have a massive study attached to a library, and there were books there in many languages, including Precursor and Demonic, languages you rarely saw outside museums or major libraries. Father¡¯s library, for example, had only a single book in Demonic, which none of us could read without the use of the Translation spell. I was disappointed when I learned that it was just the journal of a Noble demon that plotted a coup against his father. As the client, named Lord Damian, turned to face me I noticed a few things. His lips had tiny traces of blood on them, and his skin was extremely pale, yet he didn¡¯t seem to be short of energy like an anemic person would get. The man actually wanted my help with with a pain in his side. I supposed it could be appendicitis, but when I sent a detection thread into him I couldn¡¯t find one. Strange, had it been removed? Appendectomies weren¡¯t unheard of in this world, they were just extremely rare as appendicitis could be cured with magic. I searched around a bit, and found that, while several of his organs were strangely shaped or slightly larger or smaller than I expected, they were all there. Only his liver and kidneys were starting to shut down. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I informed him of this and asked about his diet. It was possible it was the result of some kind of longterm illness like cancer, but I hadn¡¯t detected any tumors and most of his other organs were working properly. He summoned his chef, who told me about what he normally ate. It was incredibly rich food, but he didn¡¯t seem to be overweight. I did notice that his chef was a human slave, but that wasn¡¯t that unusual for a rich merchant. Many of them preferred slaves to employees, as slaves were bound by their contracts to not harm or betray their masters, and often to not disobey. In fact, I noticed that everyone in the house except me and him were slaves. They all wore high-collar button up shirts or dresses. It was a strange choice for a uniform, and most of the slaves had the tops of their shirts or dresses unbuttoned, revealing a slave tattoo, a form of slave contract which was rarely used in Ferin outside of beastfolk due to its permanent nature. There was one more test I had to check. I ran a detection thread into his stomach. There was blood there, but strangely not his own. There was also the remains of a steak dinner, and it contained trace amounts of a pungent herb native to this region which most rich people had stopped using for seasoning due to the toxins it contained. ¡°Well, I think I figured it out.¡± I said. ¡°Chef, have you been using a pungent herb with eight teardrop shaped leafs in a clover-like shape?¡± ¡°Yes, one of the men at the market sold it to me shortly after we moved here and the master loves it. The merchant called it Fireleaf.¡± I nodded. ¡°The problem with Fireleaf is that you shouldn¡¯t use much of it at a time. I¡¯ve only tasted it twice in my life, both times at noble banquets, and most rich people don¡¯t use it in their cooking. That¡¯s because it contains a toxin which damages the liver and kidneys, which is what¡¯s happening to your master.¡± He looked stocked, then knelt and started apologizing while saying ¡°it didn¡¯t know¡± several times. The master raised his hand to strike him, saying that he had threatened his master¡¯s life, but I interjected. ¡°Normally, this would take several healing spells to fix, and could take over a month to purge the toxin from your body, but I think there is another way to fix it.¡± ¡°And what would that be?¡± asked Lord Damian. ¡°From what I have read, Vampires heal rapidly given enough blood.¡± Damian looked at me in shock. ¡°So you figured out what I am. Are you going to report me?¡± There was a bit of a threat behind the question, but I ignored it. ¡°I keep the medical information of my clients secret, especially when they pay me well. As long as I don¡¯t have a reason to think that you were sent here by the Empire to spy on or sow discord in this country, I am not obligated to tell anyone.¡± ¡°But you are a noble. Surely you must report a member of a foreign nation operating inside your border.¡± ¡°Only if I suspect that you are our enemy. Outside of that, you are free to conduct your business as long as you follow the law. Though I¡¯m sure my father¡¯s intelligence operatives already know who you are, and haven¡¯t moved to stop you.¡± He nodded. ¡°So, what gave me away?¡± ¡°Pale skin, the curtains which blocked the sun, the fact that all of your slaves wear collars to hide the holes in their neck, there were many hints. Still, like I said, nothing says that you can¡¯t conduct your business here.¡± He nodded again. ¡°So, I just need to drink more blood?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if you can survive entirely on blood, but yes.¡± ¡°We can. In fact, eating food is entirely optional. I mostly do it because I like the taste.¡± ¡°Good, though I don¡¯t know if your slaves can provide enough blood for that. Humans can only really produce half a liter per day reliably. You might want to order animal blood to supplement your diet, if you can digest that.¡± ¡°Yes, of course. According to the history books, at one point my people almost entirely fed on animals, before we met another sapient race. It will need to be fresh, but I will send my chef out to get some at once.¡± He stood and bowed, and I returned the gesture. I was given two gold coins and guided out of the manor, with the promise that they would come to me in the future if they had need of my services. A week later the second notable thing happened. A human man entered the rich section helping a cat woman walk. At first I thought he had simply used the wrong door. Many people brought their slaves to the clinic, as this was one of the few places in the city where slaves could get decent treatment. Something about the way he helped her, though, told me that he cared for her. Once inside he helped her sit down and I walked over. Both of them were wearing travel clothes made of monster wool. It was quite durable, and even offered some protection against attacks. And it was expensive. Father and mother both had winter coats made out of such a material. ¡°I¡¯m told you¡¯re the best healer in the city, and that you don¡¯t discriminate based on race.¡± the man said. I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m the best, but I don¡¯t discriminate. Everyone will be treated well here, though if there are financial issues, I¡¯ll have to use the Standard or Slave treatments. They work, but they aren¡¯t exactly comfortable.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t have any trouble paying, I can assure you.¡± he said, then motioned towards the cat woman. ¡°My name is Bart, and this is Peony. She has a bad case of cancer which no one else has been able to cure. And she is my wife.¡± I nodded. ¡°Then I take it you aren¡¯t from around here. Ridalia?¡± He nodded. ¡°Thought so. This country would never recognize a marriage between a human and a cat-folk. Do you know why they haven¡¯t been able to treat it?¡± Cancer was fairly common, usually resulting from an overuse of healing potions. While it required specialized spells or potions to treat, it could be cured by most Intermediate healers or alchemists. ¡°They used the standard treatments. Some use Death magic to kill any cell in her body with uncontrolled division. Some empower the tissue around it to reject it, so that it is starved for nutrients. We¡¯ve also tried various potions that do one of these. It seems to go away, but within a few days it¡¯s back.¡± ¡°Strange. I haven¡¯t heard of cancer coming back after the treatment succeeds. Unless she¡¯s been using healing potions?¡± He shook his head. ¡°I have a few level twos and threes in case one of us is injured, but from what I¡¯ve heard those have almost no chance of causing cancer.¡± I nodded. Usually you didn¡¯t risk developing cancer by using anything below a level six. ¡°Well, I can try again. Maybe I¡¯ll see something.¡± We helped her into an examination room and I sent several detection threads into her. The cancer seemed to only be attacking her reproductive organs. As I was better at Life magic, I empowered the healthy cells to reject the cancerous tissue. Soon, I sensed that the tumors were dying. Strangely, though, they were releasing some sort of energy into the surrounding tissue as they did so. The energy seemed similar to mana, but stronger and more pure. Then I realized what it was. I hadn¡¯t used it in over a month, since I summoned the unicorn, and this was slightly different, but it was definitely Divine energy. I continued to watch after the cancer was completely gone, and a minute after it was gone new tumors started to grow from the surrounding tissue. ¡°Tell me,¡± I said. ¡°Have you angered a priest?¡± ¡°Why would you ask that?¡± Bart asked. ¡°Because the tumor is already growing back. No natural cancer would come back like that, and no magical cause would act without you having a spell cast on you. I can only assume that you were cursed, either by a priest, prophet, or deity.¡± Peony looked at her husband and nodded, a tear in her eye. ¡°It all started when we were going out to eat at a restaurant in Brisalt, the capital of Ridalia. A man came in wearing a fine suit. He was seated at the table beside us. I didn¡¯t think much of it, until he came over and sat at our table uninvited. He told me that I was a beautiful woman and that he had to have me. I informed him that, not only was that inappropriate, but that I was there with my husband, who was sitting beside him. He said that my husband can join if he wanted. I told him in no uncertain terms that we were not interested and that he should leave us alone. He told me I would regret turning him down. That night I woke up in pain. At first I thought I was just having cramps, but my time of the month was just two weeks prior. So we went to the doctor the next day and he told me I had ovarian and vaginal cancer.¡± I nodded. ¡°Do you happen to know this man¡¯s name?¡± ¡°Zolia.¡± said the husband. ¡°At least, that¡¯s what he told the waitress that he left the restaurant with, even though her shift wasn¡¯t over.¡± I nodded and closed my eyes in prayer. ¡®Is he a priest?¡¯ I asked. ¡®A Prophet?¡¯ ¡®Worse.¡¯ Answered the Lord of the Forest. ¡®He¡¯s a minor deity under Aranya. He¡¯s supposed to be a fertility god, but I think he just uses that as an excuse to sexually harass people.¡¯ ¡®Then what should we do?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t fight a god. ¡®The cancer keeps coming back because he used divine magic to give it to her, which mana can¡¯t break. If you use divine energy to cure it, though, it might go away permanently. It depends on how much he put into it, but you can at least weaken it.¡¯ ¡®Unfortunately, I can¡¯t reveal myself as your prophet.¡¯ ¡®You don¡¯t have to. Persy can also cure her.¡¯ I nodded and thanked him. ¡°Persy, can you come in here?¡± I called out. ¡°You¡¯re having your beastfolk slave treat her? I thought you didn¡¯t discriminate.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t. I believe this is a divine curse, and Persy happens to be a priestess of the Lord of the Forest.¡± They looked at Persy in shock as she entered. ¡°Only a miracle can cure a curse of that nature, so I¡¯m going to ask her to treat you.¡± Peony nodded and started to cry. ¡°To think, we would receive a miracle from god.¡± I took Persy to the side and explained the situation to her, including the fact that this was a curse put on her by a perverted minor deity, so she shouldn¡¯t hold back. Persy nodded, and walked over, taking the woman¡¯s hand. She began a prayer for healing, and as she finished a golden light flowed across Peony¡¯s body, restoring her health. I knew that that light was just Persy¡¯s divine energy, and that she was putting all she had into this. When Persy was out of energy, she started to collapse, and I caught her and picked her up, laying her down on another bed nearby. ¡°I¡¯ll have to examine you again tomorrow to make sure, but I believe you are cured now.¡± They both started crying and hugging each other. A few minutes later, Bart asked me what he owned me. I had only cast one spell, and usually only charged one silver per spell in this section, but he told me that wasn¡¯t enough. I tried to turn him down several times, but he wasn¡¯t having it, so I suggested an alternative. ¡°Actually, Persy and the Lord of the Forest are the ones that healed you, so they should be the ones that you thank. And Persy happens to be raising money to build a shrine to him in the slums.¡± The next day Persy found that someone had anonymously donated ten gold coins to her shrine fund. Chapter 27 Twenty year earlier, Goldport, trade city within Celine: A seamstress walked down the street, heading home from a long day of making dresses. While she was in her thirties, she had no husband, as he had been a sailor and had died when a storm came through last year, presumably sinking his ship as he and the rest of the crew were never seen again. As she entered the trade district, one of the more run-down parts of town, she heard a baby¡¯s cry from an alley. While this part of town wasn¡¯t as poor as the slums, the people here still struggled, so it wasn¡¯t unheard of for them to abandon a child. Still, any temple would accept a child if you gave it to them, so it made no sense to abandon them like this. She entered the alley, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be using that sound to ambush people, and saw a newborn laying on a pile of garbage, what looked like discarded clothing that would probably be recycled into toilet cloth once someone from the slums came to gather it. She lifted the baby up, and when the cloth fell away from its head she noticed that it had horns coming out of its temples. As the baby was still crying she felt of its head. It felt warmer than she would expect. Did it have a fever? She couldn¡¯t leave a baby here in a trash pile, especially when it was sick, so she took it to a clinic. The doctor was about to close up for the night, but upon seeing the baby he decided to take one more customer. Upon seeing the horns he asked what race the baby was, but when she told him she didn¡¯t know as she found him abandoned in an alley, the doctor nodded and sent a detection thread into him and used Race Sense. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a boy. Half human, half something else I¡¯ve never detected before.¡± he said. ¡°So, is he part ogre? Troll? Ogres have horns, and sometimes so do trolls.¡± The doctor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve seen Ogres and Trolls before as patients. I¡¯d recognize that feeling.¡± ¡°Beastfolk, then? Many of them have horns, and since his are curling forward I¡¯d guess goat or sheep people.¡± Again, the doctor shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯ve treated a lot of beast folk, and many animals when I was in training. I¡¯d recognize that too. I think he¡¯s a devil.¡± ¡°Devil?¡± She asked, looking at him. That kind of made since. From what she¡¯d heard, mostly rumors surrounding the merchant ships that visit the city from the Demon Empire, Devils are on possible result when a demon mates with a humanoid. ¡°Could be a Demon beast, but I doubt it. From what I¡¯ve heard, demon beasts obsessively go after their demonic Overwhelming Desire. While the behavior of children might be different from the adults, they are still almost impossible to control. And he seems too well behaved for that.¡± The demon races are born with an Overwhelming Desire, which guides their actions, but also have a very strong willpower which lets them control when they pursue it, allowing for delayed gratification. When a Demon mates with a humanoid, though, there are three things that can happen. The child can inherit both the desire and the will from the demonic parent, and will be accepted as a Demon even if they have humanoid blood. The child can also inherit the desire, but not the willpower, causing them to become obsessed with fulfilling that desire, with no concern for their well being or that of the people around them. These are called Demon Beasts, due to lacking reason, and are generally executed for the sake of safety if they don¡¯t learn to control themselves before causing serious injury or death. The children can also not inherit the desire, and may or may not inherit the willpower or racial traits of the demonic parent. Those are called devils. ¡°There are several brothels near where you found him. My best guess is that a human woman that works at one of those accepted a merchant from the Demon Empire as a client, and got pregnant. But after having the child, she decided she didn¡¯t want it and abandoned it.¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t she just leave him at the temple, then?¡± ¡°She probably didn¡¯t want anyone knowing that she had a devil for a child. Even though we¡¯ve been trading with them for thousands of years, some priests still like to act like demons are evil. In my experience, they aren¡¯t any worse about sinning than the other races, they just don¡¯t bother hiding it.¡± She thought for a little while. ¡°So, is he sick?¡± The doctor shook his head. ¡°Some Demons just naturally have a slightly higher temperature than humans, as do some children. He¡¯s fine. In fact, now that you¡¯re holding him, I haven¡¯t heard him cry once.¡± She nodded. With many members of the church feeling that way about demons and judging devils based on that prejudice, it probably wouldn¡¯t be safe to hand him over to the church. That was probably what his whore mother thought, and she had hoped someone would find him. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine there are many devils in the city.¡± She said. ¡°I only know of three. There¡¯s a half cambian that¡¯s indentured to a brothel in the red-light district. There¡¯s a half Vampire, a dhampire, that¡¯s been a business woman in this city since it was founded two hundred years ago. And there¡¯s the boy.¡± Cambians are the race which Incubi and Succubi are part of, and those are their words for Male and Female. ¡°He isn¡¯t one of those, is he?¡± Once again the doctor shook his head. ¡°Nope, I¡¯ve met both of them, as part of my business as a doctor you understand, and he isn¡¯t either of those races. My best guess is that he¡¯s part Noble Demon.¡± Unlike with humans and other races, Nobles were a specific race on the Demon Continent. The had the Overwhelming Desire for power, and that desire leads them to control everything they can while seizing all of the resources they can. The captain of the merchant ship was most likely one, as many of them become merchants in order to acquire things. The woman nodded. ¡°So, how much do I owe you?¡± The doctor shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not going to charge you. After all, he isn¡¯t your child.¡± The woman nodded and left, then took the boy home. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Thankfully, demons require a less strict diet than human children, because he was fine with goats milk. Tomorrow she would see if he could eat mushed vegetables. As she had no family in the city, she took him over to her neighbor¡¯s apartment and showed him to the woman before explaining the situation. ¡°Let me get this straight, Bee. You found an abandoned devil child and decided to adopt it, even though you are a widow and have to go to work every day?¡± Beatrix nodded. ¡°I just couldn¡¯t abandon him.¡± The neighbor sighed. She had to quit here job at the shop where Bee worked when her daughter was born, and hadn¡¯t been back yet. But she, at least, had a husband to bring home money. ¡°And I assume that means you want me to watch him during the day.¡± ¡°I can watch your daughter some nights in exchange. That way you and your husband can have some alone time.¡± The woman sighed. ¡°Fine, but you are buying his food.¡± Bee nodded and, after the children got used to each other, she grabbed the boy and started to leave. ¡°Wait, before you go, can you tell me his name? I can¡¯t just call him ¡®boy¡¯.¡± Bee thought about it for a little while and smiled. ¡°Lawrence, after my husband.¡± With that she held Lawrence close to her as she returned home. As she was putting Lawrence to bed, he smiled at her and she felt that he liked her, and wanted to form a contract with her. She had to sign a magical contract when she got a job at the shop, mostly agreeing that she wouldn¡¯t disclose their secrets, so she knew what this felt like. Without a text with the terms written out, though, she didn¡¯t know what he was asking for. Still, he was just a baby, and he likes me, so he was probably just trying to formalize the adoption. She accepted. When she woke up the next morning, Lawrence asleep beside her, she felt stronger somehow. It didn¡¯t seem to be physical, though. After feeding him and eating something herself, she took Lawrence to her friend and went back to work. When she got started, she discovered what was different. Today she was assigned to mending clothing. When mending garments, you needed to clean the garment first in case something on the fabric was weakening it or might interfere with the stitching. This was done with the basic Cleaning spell that most people learned as a child, and when she started to use it on the dress she had been given casting the spell was much easier than before and didn¡¯t drain her as much. She was able to clean five dresses today instead of her usual three. When she got off of work, she knew she had to learn about why she was able to do magic so much better. Before going home, she went to Library and found a book on Contract magic. The Library allowed anyone to read the books there, as long as you treated them properly, obeyed the rules of the library, and didn¡¯t need to take them home. Only certain people were allowed to do that, and they had to pay to rent them. The book had a special chapter on Demon contracts. It explained how demons used contracts far more than other races, since they trusted each other less, and that sometimes they would try to work in clauses that were in their favor, so you should always look over a contract with a demon. It also covered a special situation. Noble demons had the ability to naturally form a contract with other beings, intelligent and not, that made the target their servant. In exchange for loyal service, the servant would get a share of the demon¡¯s abilities and the demon would get a share of the servant¡¯s, though this didn¡¯t work on abilities the demon got from other followers unless they used the ability enough to make it their own. Bee put the book back on the shelf and went home. Due to their high willpower, demons tended to have larger mana capacity that humans, and the skill with which you can use magic is determined by experience and willpower. She had literally just been using the gifts of her master. Well, if that¡¯s how he wanted things to be, so be it. Parents pretty much were the maids and caretakers of their children until they got older, so such an arrangement would be fine for now. She returned to her friend¡¯s home only to hear the woman gushing about how he had seen her scrubbing the floor, and had managed to copy her by using the Cleaning spell on a small area. Bee just smiled, said that he must be a gifted child, and took him home. For the next several years he continued to learn at a rapid pace. She had taught him the basics of magic from a children¡¯s spell book when he was three, even though most children learned it when they were four or five. He quickly picked up the concepts and soon learned Telekinesis, a simple spell that Beatrix had never bothered learning. It was only a few weeks before he had the concentration to hold a spell for minutes, no doubt because of his high willpower, and only a month before he could hold it for hours. He then learned to make light come out of his palm and to cast the basic healing spell, adding those to his list of spells that included Telekinesis, Telepathy, Ignite/Extinguish, and Cleaning. When he was five a man from the mages guild offered to take him as an apprentice. Usually that wouldn¡¯t happen until the child was seven or eight, but, because Lawrence liked the man, she agreed. The man taught Lawrence all of the basic things that children needed to know, like history, religion, science and math, as well as magic and soon Lawrence was able to use several basic spells. It was two months later when Beatrix learned that Lawrence had made a second contract with his teacher, which is why he could learn so quickly. It didn¡¯t matter, though, as Lawrence could make that decision for himself. He received his first certification when he was seven. Soon after that he started running into a nine year old boy from the slums. The boy was half elf, half imp. While the boy always bullied him, he continued to want to hang out with the boy because he was the only other devil in town. The boy¡¯s name was Trax, and every time that Lawrence would do a job for someone with his magic, Trax would insist that he should help his ¡®family¡¯ out by giving Trax some of the money, which Lawrence always agreed to. By the time Lawrence was sixteen he had become a master at combat magic, an average summoner, an average enchanter, and an intermediate healer. Trax had become a pickpocket, catburgler, mugger, and arsonist. Lawrence still tried to help his friend and, after Trax was indentured to the docks as a cargo hauler, Lawrence got him a training manual for a swordsman. Trax loved the gift. He studied it every day, and when his contract ended he got got Lawrence to pay for his certification test and passed. He joined the Adventurer¡¯s guild and used the money he earned to become a magic swordsman, putting to use the fire magic that he inherited from his Demonic parent. Lawrence got a job working in the Duke¡¯s court, instructing the Duke on magical matters and teaching the Duke¡¯s son combat magic and his daughter summoning. Trax found his dad on a ship in the harbor and they reconnected. Two years ago, a fleet from the Demon Empire Navy pulled offshore and demanded that the city surrender. The Duke refused and the ships fired on the city, using magic weapons built on the Demon Continent and spells from their mages. Once the city was softened up, they sent ships into the harbor to land troops. The gate to the rest of the city was locked and barred, and the guards at the docks fought bravely to the death. Lawrence supported them from the wall, hurling spells down on the invaders. He didn¡¯t know why but, despite the fact that most adventurers jumped at the chance to defend the city, partially because it paid so well, Trax hadn¡¯t joined them. Lawrence assumed he must be conflicted. Since he met his father he¡¯d been learning everything he could about his family, culture, and the Empire. He probably didn¡¯t want to have to fight ¡®his people¡¯. Lawrence, on the other hand, didn¡¯t care that he was a devil like many of the troops he killed. He had people he had to protect, like his mother, teacher, and the duke¡¯s two children. Something inside him told him that they were important to him, almost like they had a special bond. After a few minutes, however, the guards inside the gate came under attack. Assuming that the enemy had managed to get someone inside, he went to deal with the situation. He saw Trax cut down a guard, then bring his burning sword down on the wooden beam that held the doors shut. Around him were his adventuring party as well as several members of his old gang, all of which had gotten inspired by Trax to get their certification, most of them joining the adventurer¡¯s guild afterwards. Seeing Lawrence, the thugs attacked, and Lawrence had no choice but to fight. But soon, as the Demon Army entered the city, Trax called them off and tried to talk to Lawrence. He explained how they didn¡¯t belong among humans, how they could become heroes of the Empire. For some reason Lawrence had never felt a bond form with Trax like he had with the other four, and he was grateful for that fact as he threw a fireball into the middle of the invading army before casting a teleport spell to return to the castle. Now that the enemy was inside the gate, it was only a matter of time before they seized the city. He would find his mother and teacher, and they would escape the city with the Duke¡¯s children and any refugees they could safely take. Surely the capital would be safe. Modern day: A wooden carriage bearing the mark of Duke Goldport pulled in front of the offices of the Great Oak Mercenary company. A hooded man carrying a fine wizard¡¯s staff stepped out of the seat and his apprentice, a fifteen year old blonde man, jumped out of the other side. ¡°So, this is the Mercenary company we¡¯ve been sent to recruit?¡± The apprentice rested his right hand on the hilt of his sword and rubbed the pommel with his thumb in thought. As a noble, the boy had been encouraged to learn to use a sword, but he had only started on the path of a magic swordsman two years ago when he had to flee his home. ¡°Yes. The son of the count of this city, Viscount Starshine, started it a few months ago to train the locals and has been having them fight monsters and bandits since. Your father has ordered us to recruit as many fighters as we can, and I think this group fits the bill.¡± The two stepped inside the office, not even bothering to tie up the horses. The horses were the master¡¯s subjects, after all, and would never disobey him. ¡°Hello.¡± said the Master, bowing slightly to the muscular woman behind the reception desk, ¡°My name is Sir Lawrence Faststaff, and this is Peter Goldport, son of Duke Marcus Goldport. We wish to speak with Viscount Starshine about hiring your group.¡± Chapter 28 Lawrence¡¯s perspective: It took almost an hour for Viscount Starshine to arrive at the mercenary office. Apparently he also ran a clinic in town and was tending to a customer. I¡¯m not sure if that proves his dedication to being a healer, a lack of dedication to running a mercenary company, or simply a lack of desire to speak with me. When he arrived and introduced himself he brought a Fox woman in middle class clothing with him. From my understanding, all beastfolk in Ferin were slaves, so it was strange that he had brought her along. Perhaps she was his assistant? ¡°Greetings, Viscount Starshine.¡± I said, then introduced myself. ¡°I am Sir Lawrence Faststaff, and this is my apprentice, the eldest son of Duke Goldport of Celine, Peter Goldport.¡± He bowed. ¡°Sir Faststaff, Count Goldport. What can I help you with.¡± At first I was confused with his addressing Peter with a noble title, then I realized what the issue was. ¡°Oh, he isn¡¯t technically a Count, as noble titles work a bit differently here than in Celine, but we both represent his father. The Duke has asked us to recruit mercenary units from the northern nations to help retake the territory he has lost. I have come to ask that your forces join us.¡± ¡°Understandable.¡± he said, then motioned towards a back office. ¡°Come, let us discuss it in private.¡± We followed him to an office where he motioned to one side of a conference table. Strangely, both he and his slave sat on the other side. Quite unusual to allow a slave to sit with you. After a goblin woman brought us drinks, including bringing the slave tea, he spoke. ¡°I believe the first thing to settle is that my unit is quite small. I have only twenty full time troops here, in order to train others. There are another eighty or so that we hire for temporary assignments whenever we need to attack a bandit or monster lair, but one hundred troops isn¡¯t enough to fight a war.¡± ¡°I understand that you specialize in training warriors, which is why I have a proposal. We would be willing to pay for the training and recruitment cost of up to two thousand troops, as well as the cost of food and wagons to get them to Fort Garlow, our staging ground in Celine. We would then give you the right of salvage and capture of any enemies you may face.¡± The Viscount seemed to think for a few seconds. ¡°And what if that doesn¡¯t earn us a profit, or even cover our operating costs, like wages and food? Should I remove my troops from your territory, or will you cover my costs? And what about the non-combatants, like healers, smiths, and cooks?¡± I noticed the slave taking notes. That meant she was well educated. It seemed that he had found the problem with such a method of payment. The gear salvaged from soldiers would quickly flood the market and its price would drop, as would the price for demon and devil slaves, especially considering that they could only be kept indentured until the war ended, and no one knew when that would be. That meant that buying an indentured POW¡¯s contract was highly speculative. ¡°We lack the liquid funds to provide you with monetary compensation, due to the large number of mercenaries we must hire and the necessity of abandoning our main vault when we were forced from the city, but once we retake the city we can pay you double your expenses.¡± He nodded. ¡°War is quite unpredictable. We can not be sure when or even if we will retake Goldport, nor do we know its condition when it is retaken. The Demons may very well sack the city before letting us retake it, capturing all of the citizens as slaves and absconding with anything of value. And I doubt you can guarantee that your king or anyone else will guarantee the Duke¡¯s loans. So, I have an alternative method of payment in mind. Put up your land as collateral.¡± The Fox woman looked impressed, but the Duke¡¯s son and I were surprised by the idea. While it wasn¡¯t unheard of for a noble to hold land in multiple countries this usually occurred as a result of their territory being split during a war. Furthermore, Celine and Ferin were over a thousand kilometers apart, with Ferin being on the border with the Southern nations and Celine being one of the Northernmost countries. I could understand a second or third child of a noble looking for land in another country, as they were unlikely to inherit, but as the firstborn child, and son of the Count he would no doubt inherit this city and county. Asking for land made no sense. ¡°My Lord, I don¡¯t know if that is possible. Your territory would be split across a vast distance, so it would be difficult for you to split your attention between them. You would be forced to allow a subordinate to administer the territory in your stead for most of the year.¡± ¡°You misunderstand. I am not asking to swear fealty to multiple kings. I am asking for the land to become collateral which I can sell to another noble if you fail to pay me back within, say, ten years? My father is quite healthy. If the war goes quickly, I will recover my costs long before he dies and I must inherit.¡± I nodded and thought for a minute. ¡°That is possible, however, only a single county within the Duke¡¯s domain has yet to be captured, as it holds our strongest castle town and over ten thousand troops, Fort Garlow. Such a payment could only be made in land that you capture from the enemy.¡± ¡°That is acceptable.¡± he said, then nodded and stood. ¡°I¡¯ll have Persy write up the contract and you can come back tomorrow to sign it.¡± He reached out his hand towards me. At first I didn¡¯t recognize what he was doing, then I realized that it was a sign of goodwill adopted from the Southern Nations called a Handshake. I grabbed his hand and felt a detection threat enter my hand. I quickly hit it with one of my own and he smiled. ¡°So, if it isn¡¯t too personal, I have a question. Why is a devil fighting against the Demon Emperor?¡± The Fox, who I assume is named Persy, looked surprised at the revelation, but Lord Peter looked more surprised that he had figured it out. Determining someone¡¯s race that quickly required quite a bit of skill with detection threads, after all. ¡°I know nothing of the Emperor or his nation. I grew up in Goldport and swore loyalty to the Duke. They are not my people, nor will they ever be unless they decide to remain behind as the Duke¡¯s subject once we reclaim the land. I am surprised that you determined that so quickly.¡± ¡°I am a healer. I always check for the race of the person I am treating, at least since I met a vampire who needed my help. Some treatments must change depending on race and bloodlines. I suspect that Persy could have done it faster than me, though.¡± The Fox woman nodded. ¡°More skillfully, if not more quickly. You likely wouldn¡¯t have detected my thread until my tests got a bit invasive.¡± I gave her a quizzical look. ¡°I am in charge of the animal and slave section of the clinic. As such I have dealt with a far larger variety of species than Master Cam. And due to the lower quality pain medicines I use in that section, I have learned to be much gentler with my patients.¡± I nodded, then Lord Peter spoke up. ¡°Do you also work for the mercenary group?¡± he asked, pointing at the Oak Tree necklace she wore. ¡°The mercenaries actually have access to free standard treatment at the master¡¯s clinic, but sometime I am on standby during sparing sessions if the healer trainees lack enough skill to be useful. But this is actually a symbol of my god. I am a priestess of the Lord of the Forest.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°A real Priestess?¡± Peter asked and she nodded. ¡°Then we would love it if you accompanied your master to the battlefield. There have been reports that several Demon priests are among the demon troops, and if their gods are lending their aid, we will need the aid of our gods.¡± I looked at him with a stern look on my face and he realized that he probably shouldn¡¯t have said that. ¡°That is, of course, not yet public knowledge, so I would appreciate if you don¡¯t tell anyone else yet.¡± Viscount Starshine nodded. ¡°Understood. You are my employer now, so I wouldn¡¯t think about revealing your professional secrets.¡± That was good. Even if putting such a clause in a contract with a fellow noble would cause us to lose face with other nobles, he understood the situation and would obey. And he didn¡¯t even ask for more pay in exchange. The land we put up as collateral must be more valuable to him than we thought. The next day we were presented with a contract. We would pay for the training, recruitment, basic equipping, and travel of up to two thousand troops, and after officially joining the war he would be given salvage rights for all enemy troops he fought, and enemy troops he defeated. Should he fail to double his costs in seized value, he would also be allowed to hold onto any territory he personally seized as well as a portion of any land he helped seize, based on troop contribution, and hold it as collateral for up to ten years after the end of the war against the debt. At the end of that ten years, either we would have to pay for the land or he would be allowed to sell it to any lord of Celine for up to the total amount of the debt. The only way he could keep the land for more than fifteen years after the war ended was to swear fealty to one of the other lords of Celine, with a minimum rank of Count, as he is currently a Viscount. Peter, Lord Cameron and myself signed the contract, and the magical energy held within it flowed into us, binding us by its terms. There were several loopholes on both sides, but it was acceptable. After that, I handed Lord Starshine a bag containing one thousand gold. Anyone could train and hire a soldier for ten silver, but the travel costs may be more than that. He thanked us and we left. We would be waiting in town until morning, then setting out for the next mercenary company. Cameron¡¯s perspective: Well, it looked like I was officially part of the war, now. I had told my father about the recruitment last night, and he had approved of my decision. He knew this was a possibility when I created the company, but didn¡¯t think it would happen this soon. Celine must be desperate. Mother just started crying, saying that she didn¡¯t want her son to go off to war. I reminded her that I wouldn¡¯t be leaving for at least a month, and she nodded. That seemed to relieve her worries a bit. The next set of certifications would be happening in five days, and I was participating to get my Artificer certification. It had been a tough decision to learn that, as I still had bad memories of tracing electrical circuits in my last life, but it seemed to fit me better than Enchanting. Not that I wasn¡¯t also an Enchanter, I just hadn¡¯t gotten my certification yet. Much like how I knew most of the spells in the Advanced Combat Mage manual, but had yet gone to take the test. I might have to pay for a special session next month so that I can get all three certifications before I leave. For now, though, I would talk to the recruiter here. They would have over nine hundred people taking their certification exams in five days, and if we could recruit them we would only have to train another one thousand one hundred troops. After I talked to them, and they promised to try and recruit anyone that they could, I set out to my other business. After all, while Duke Goldport would be covering the travel costs, I would need to get them there on my own, then be reimbursed once I arrived at the fort. Their sales had topped two hundred gold in profit last month, and they were on track to earn over three hundred in profit this month. That would certainly help. I would need to travel to Manasource to check on my profits there, though I was sure they wouldn¡¯t be as large as those here. There was another possibility, though. I could ask Duke Manasource for permission to start a mercenary office in his city as well. It would be unlikely that I could train a group of mercenaries next month, but the month after that shouldn¡¯t be a problem. I could also recruit out of work mercenaries and former bandits from there. With the peace treaty being signed, most of them were probably out of work, and with most monster populations being wiped out during the food shortage they wouldn¡¯t even be able to find work as an adventurer. If I got permission, I would offer the same thing my people offered the recruits from here, five silver if you provide your own weapon and armor, or a set of chest armor and a basic weapon if not. A standard monster leather chest piece cost five silver new and an arming sword, mace, spear, mages staff or bow cost two silvers. And if there was a shortage of monster leather, a chainmail shirt cost six silver as it took an apprentice three days to make each one. Two days later, during her weekly sermon, Persy told the people of the slums that she was leaving for the North to help stop the Demon invasion. When they asked if they could come with her, she notified them that, while they would need workers while in the field, the Great Oak Mercenary Company would be starting the training of a new group of trainees on the first, and that they would be willing to recruit anyone that passed their certification, including equipping them and giving them the training for free. Word got around and when the first day of the month got here the mercenary group had over two thousand people try to sign up for the training, seventy percent of them being from the slums. As Samantha¡¯s caravan was setting off on the second, I decided to ride with them to Manasource. I had told her about my mercenary group heading north and she soon decided that she would send several wagons with me, loaded with medicines and other supplies that were in demand by the armies. It would take us almost two weeks to get to the fort, four weeks if we couldn¡¯t find enough wagons and horses to carry all of the men and supplies and were forced to march the distance. She, however, saw that here caravan could more than triple its investment with each trip, and that there would be a massive army traveling with her wagons, thus insuring that her people would be perfectly safe. She also wanted to go with us on the first trip, so that she could see firsthand what the situation was like up there and what could be traded both ways. I suspected that the demons and their equipment would be the most common thing sent back. I arranged for her to find us the horses, wagons, and supplies we needed to move and provide for at least two thousand five hundred people in exchange for protecting her caravan. Before we left I had an idea for a way to help morale. First, I went to the storehouse in the palace and purchased mithril and Star Mithril. While the normal Mithril went for only one gold for a half kilogram ingot, the Star Mitril was sold by the wire, and came out to over ten gold for a half kilogram of wire. I bought an ingot of mithril and five gold work of Star Mithril wire, then had an idea. ¡°I have a question. I know that Star Mithril requires almost pure mithril.¡± The vendor looked uneasy, but confirmed that statement. That was the only thing that was known publicly about the production process, as the palace produced enhanced Orichalcum ingots, manacite that had most of the mithril extracted. ¡°If you want to learn the production process, you¡¯ll have to discuss it with your father.¡± he responded. ¡°Oh, I know that. What I was wondering, though, is if I could buy enhanced Orichalcum here as well.¡± I held up the Worm Core that was hanging around my neck. ¡°This thing has been useful, but if I¡¯m going to war I really should increase my mana pressure.¡± ¡°Oh, yes. I can sell it to you. What pressure are you looking for?¡± If I concentrated I could feel mana radiating out of the storeroom, but they likely held the ingots in some sort of magical device that used most of the mana, making it bearable for normal people. ¡°We have up to pressure ten here, but I can get you up to fifteen if you are willing to come back tomorrow. There are just special procedures I need to go through to get it.¡± Fifteen pressure was as high as you can safely go. At sixteen chemical bonds start breaking down from the pressure and only pure materials can be near it. In fact, only one piece of pure orichalcum existed in the world, in a museum. It has a pressure of seventeen point eight and is held within a magical forcefield which it powers by itself, and anything which enters the containment circle must be pure materials, like iron or mithril. Moving it requires a two meter long pair of tongs. High purity Orichalcum was only really useful for powering magical devices that needed a lot of power. ¡°I don¡¯t really know. I was hoping to get amulets made of the material, but I don¡¯t know who in town can do that.¡± I told him about the woman who made my Star Mithril Ring, and said that I was considering asking her to do it. ¡°She is capable, but if you want any engraving done you¡¯ll want to take it to an artificer.¡± He gave me a list of five in the city that regularly bought Orichalcum or mithril here. As it was as expensive as the Star Mithril, I ended up buying only half an ingot. I needed to save as much money as possible. Now eleven gold poorer I went to the jeweler. I gave her the mithril and Star Mithril and told her what I wanted, and she assured me that they would be done by the end of the month. I paid her her five gold in advance, then went to the artificer. I was actually a beginner artificer, so I had some idea of how to do what I wanted, but I knew I didn¡¯t have the skill to do it myself. There I ordered that two amulets be made with the enhanced orichalcum, one for me and one for Samantha, then paid the five gold it would cost to make them and left with the same assurance the jeweler had given me. I was certain that if I hadn¡¯t brought them the materials I would have paid far more in total. Another ten gold poorer, I locked the rest of the gold in my safe and went home. I wanted to be well rested for tomorrow, as we would be setting out at dawn. Chapter 29 The next morning I said goodbye to Samantha as the caravan of ten wagons pulled out of town. She would need to find at least two hundred and fifty wagons and horses to pull them. The standard trader¡¯s wagon could haul two tons of goods, and required two horses or oxen to pull them. Normally you wouldn¡¯t bring oxen with you if you were moving troops, but food might become and issue, and oxen made great sources of food. You could fit twelve people and their supplies, not including food, into a wagon, and most military units were divided into twelve person squadrons. They probably wouldn¡¯t like riding all day, but we would stop every four hours to let them eat, use the bathroom, and stretch their legs. This meant that two thousand troops would require at least one hundred and sixty seven wagons, though we would need extra wagons for the service personnel we would need to bring with us, like smiths and cooks, and their equipment. That would mean that we would need at least two hundred wagons, plus another fifty or so wagons just to carry enough food to last us a month and a half or so. All in all, it would take a lot of logistical work to get the troops ready. And thankfully she was doing that for me in exchange for escorting fifty to one hundred trade wagons to the warzone so that she can trade up there. The Mercenary group did have several quartermasters, though, among the support staff, so they would be working with her. The merchant¡¯s guild had plenty of people trained in Warehouse Management that could be hired. As I didn¡¯t know any reason I would need to conserve my mana, I decided to get in some practice. I wouldn¡¯t be able to increase my mana pressure until my new necklace was finished, as I was already slightly above the pressure of my current Core necklace, but I could work on some of my techniques and my overall mana capacity. After all, I would be riding my unicorn while we were on the battlefield, as its healing abilities were too useful to avoid, and I needed the mana to keep it summoned. The larger your capacity, the more reserve you would have before the pressure gets too low to maintain a summon. And, up to a point, the amount of mana your metabolism produced was based on your total capacity, so if you doubled your capacity you would double the rate of regeneration from burning calories. This meant that you would need to eat twice as many calories, but soldiers also had to eat more when in heavy fighting, so it wasn¡¯t a problem. One useful spell I rarely used but which was needed on the battlefield was a shield spell. It essentially let you cover the entire body of a creature in a field of mana which will block damage. The spell¡¯s performance was on par with a set of armor with the same Toughness rating, so a level three spell was on par with a standard set of leather armor, and a level five was on par with a nice set of leather or steel armor. As my maximum pressure was currently at five point six, I would be maintaining a level five shield as long as I could, and letting it drop down to almost a level two before cutting it off. Based on how much mana the necklace put out, I should be able to maintain it at level five until I became mentally exhausted. At least, that would be true as long as nothing hit it. In actual combat the spell needed more mana to restore its strength, so it could use up your reserves quickly. For the first day I sat in the back of the wagon meditating, though they knew that if they needed my help they could just get my attention. By the time we stopped for lunch I was starting to get a headache from the concentration, but I hadn¡¯t needed to use my own internal mana for the last three hours, as the necklace produced slightly more than the shield used. The initial activation of the shield was the worst, as essentially charged the shield from zero to one hundred percent, but that was all of the usage my internal mana saw when I went back to meditating after lunch. I only managed to maintain it for another two hours, even after the break, but that should be enough practice for today. Obviously, I had enough mana pull it off, but more capacity and therefore more regeneration wasn¡¯t a bad thing, especially when I would need to use far more in battle. I could still do physical exercise tonight, as it was just my mana that was low, but I couldn¡¯t do so until the carriage stopped. With nothing else to do I started a conversation with the driver. Apparently in Mansource there was a large market for leather, certain medicinal and magical ingredients, and finished magical trinkets. They tended to export manacite, other magical ingredients, and occasionally refined iron, as Ironsource was producing more iron ore than they needed for their economy. As for the tax, enough food has come into the country that it is no longer in demand, so they have been bringing in more trade goods and just paying the ten gold tariff, as they would earn larger profits that way instead of hauling food. That night I summoned my unicorn and lets it hang around camp for two hours or so. Any time I felt my mana reserves get almost too low to maintain the summon I channeled the mana from my necklace into myself, refilling my reserves. Technically, it could stick around if the pressure dropped to four, but it would be weakened, which would annoy it. If you had worked with and developed a relationship with a monster for long enough it might tolerate that for short periods of time, but I didn¡¯t yet have a strong enough relationship with my unicorn for that to work. That meant that I needed to stay at or above five pressure, so that it could receive mana at the proper pressure to remain at full strength, or it would return to where I summoned it from. I had two ways to fix that, which I would implement once the jeweler was done with my amulet. The next day I decided to push myself by keeping a shield around myself and the driver. This used mana faster than I could regenerate it, and by the time my mana pressure stabilized it was barely above four, with me channeling everything I can from the core, which I now held in my hands so that I could completely surround it and absorb all of the mana from it. That wouldn¡¯t be necessary if I was good enough at the channeling meditation, as my body would drain the higher-pressure mana from it before it could leak out, but I was a bit behind on my practice. Hopefully I could at least reach a point where I could carry on normal activity other than additional magic while channeling. Once I started getting a headache after two hours I stopped. Not knowing what else to talk with the driver about, I pulled a book out of my backpack. Other than the Artificing and Enchanting books I had already read, I had only brought the training manuals that a branch of the mercenary group would need, so I had already learned the magic in these books. With nothing else to do, I worked out a weight reduction circle for the cart and drew it on. Without the proper materials, I couldn¡¯t properly add an artificed device to his cart, but I could make it work well enough for a few hours, until the chalk overheated and destroyed itself. Well, technically it wouldn¡¯t get very hot at all, but if you overtaxed a magic circle it would either become more efficient in spots, unbalancing the device and making it less efficient overall, until the power source wasn¡¯t enough to keep it running, or it would drop in efficiency in certain spots, directly wasting more mana. Chalk circles tended to rapidly do the second one for anything over level three, and the only power source I had was this necklace. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m going to try something back here. If it works, it should make the cart much easier to pull.¡± The driver acknowledged this, and I removed my necklace, laying it on the circle in the area meant for a power source. Soon it started to glow and after about five seconds I noticed that the road seemed much bumpier. After being bounced around a bit, the driver asked for me to turn it off, so I removed the necklace and the ride got reasonably smooth again. He then explained to me that the carts had a shock-absorbing system to make it ride better. Lessening the weight meant that those springs could bounce the cart higher. In order to make it work, the springs would need to be adjusted for the lighter weight, which he couldn¡¯t do while they were on the road. I briefly considered making a spell that lessened the force of gravity on the cart, so that the springs wouldn¡¯t be pushed on as hard, but I without seeing how the shock absorbing System worked I didn¡¯t know if that would make things worse or better. Since a modified version of the weight reduction circle of a magic bag didn¡¯t work, and the space expansion was too dangerous to try outside a container, I decided to try enchanting instead. My backpack had a level three weight reduction and a level three space expansion effects woven into it, but I didn¡¯t want to risk damaging it by studying its construction. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Enchanting basically took a magical essence and transferred it onto an object, making it grant that property, or part of it, to either itself or the wearer. For example, the essence within a healing potion could be transferred onto an earring to make one that constantly slightly boosted healing rate. It would have a much weaker effect than the potion, unless the person could provide it enough mana to make the effect work, so that particular enchantment was only really used by mages to avoid bleeding. Some things, like magic weapons, would instead use the mana of the user to produce effects, like covering the blade in flame. And then there were things like Sam¡¯s Infertility Bracelet, where a weak effect would slowly accumulate due to long-term use of the item but no valid spell target to become a stronger effect. Technically, with females, the effect would only activate if they had released a viable egg cell and kill it, thus making pregnancy impossible. Because it only needed to do that every month or so, however, the effect can just build up until needed. With a male it would work differently. The effect would be constantly active, killing off some percentage of sperm cells, thus lowering but not removing the chance of pregnancy. That is why men favored potions or the blessing of the goddess of lust, which killed all such cells for an hour or more, but women could just use an enchanted item. I didn¡¯t have any essences with me, and I couldn¡¯t properly extract them, so I wouldn¡¯t be able to make more until I got to Manasource and my company. This left only a precursor to both enchanting a artificing, scroll making. While pieces of paper were a common form of scroll, the word specifically referred to any single use magical spell which used a magic circle to trap the effects of a spell. One could use a scroll by damaging the magic circle, thereby releasing the effect. Paper was common because it was cheap, but its durability was so low that accidental release of the spell was common. More durable ones used wood or even metal to trap a spell, though metal foils were also somewhat dangerous to use. There was a bit of skill required to make the effects target what you want upon release, which is why scroll making was a separate branch of magical object production, but it wasn¡¯t really difficult enough to demand its own certification, instead being part of the background of artificing and enchanting. Artificing was first developed as a way to make the effect reusable by feeding a circle mana, and enchanting was developed as a way to give an object the desired spell instead of it just holding the spell. I pulled out a bit of magic ink, normal ink with powdered mithril in it, and tore a page from my notebook for a piece of paper. I quickly drew the spell catch circle on the page, powered it, and shoved a level two light ball spell into it with enough mana to stay lit for five minutes or so. I then did the same with another sheet of paper, this time taking the time to optimize the catch circle so that it only worked on ball-shaped light spells. This time when I powered it up the catch circle used far less mana. I also stored an identical light ball spell into this scroll. After we stopped for the night and I had worked with my unicorn I released him and gave the driver both scrolls. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, can you use both of these? I want to verify that anyone can use them, and make sure that I didn¡¯t mess something up in making them.¡± I also wanted to make sure that limiting the effect to save mana didn¡¯t weaken the effect, though I might need to wait longer to see if that happens, as the circle will feed on the spell trapped inside it if the initial energy is used up, making scrolls a perishable item. He activated them both and, while the non-specific one did last three seconds longer, the result wasn¡¯t exactly conclusive, as I might have just put slightly more mana into it. The next day, around noon, we arrived in Manasource. The caravan leader paid the gate guard the tariff, as we hadn¡¯t run into any patrols, and was given proof of that in the form of a stamp in his official log book. I agreed to meet them here in one week, as that was how long it would take them to sell their wares, look for new deals and load up the new merchandise. We hadn¡¯t stopped at any smaller villages this time because they were being serviced well enough by the local merchants. I immediately went to the palace and arranged for a meeting with the governor to discuss opening up a mercenary branch here. Once the peace treaty was signed, I was able to bring in military goods, which included training troops and making proper medicine. His secretary set me an appointment for tomorrow morning. I then went to my brewery. After greeting the old man in charge, I looked over the books. Since the peace treaty was declared the demand has had a massive shift. The importation of food meant that few people needed nutrition potions locally, so for a few weeks the sells plummeted. Then news of the war became public, and a new market was opened, sending it north, as nutrition potion was also used to restore blood to those that had lost it. Several merchants had bought up all that they could produce and taken it north, where they sold the supplies to the militaries of Celine. The luxury potions were also selling well, but I arranged for enough ingredients from a local apothecary for a large batch of level two healing potions and a batch of level three mana potions to be created. They would need to either hire temporary workers to bottle it, or do it themselves, which would be difficult to accomplish between the other products. The materials to make level four mana potions also existed here, but the adventurer¡¯s guild would have to have them collected, so I wasn¡¯t sure how quickly we could get them. Still, I could go by the guild tomorrow after meeting with the governor. I might need to hire instructors from there anyway. The next morning I cleaned myself well with magic and put on the best clothes I brought with me before going to the palace. There I was shown to a room with two other merchants waiting in it. They were playing some sort of board game. I introduced myself. They were surprised to see a Ferin Noble coming here, but had met many Ferin merchants in their travels so it wasn¡¯t especially strange. After I explained to them that I already owned one business in the city and was hoping to open another, my presence there made much more sense. The Governor had been rapidly expanding the city¡¯s production and trade capability, so any merchant that he had done business with before and still trusted would be welcome to open another business. After ten minutes the older merchant, a jewelry trader interested in setting up manacite refinement facilities, left to talk with him and I was left talking with the thirty year old orc livestock merchant. He had hopes of starting a ranch outside of town to breed cows and sheep, but needed to purchase several square kilometers of grassland to expand to the size he wanted. This was above the normal limit of what a commoner could purchase, so he would need to either get the Governor¡¯s permission to buy the land, or would need a noble partner that he could lease the land from in exchange for a cut of his profits. I told him that, while I was certain the Governor would see the value of his business, if he couldn¡¯t work out a deal with the governor I would be happy to talk with him about purchasing land and leasing it to him. After all, livestock would be a very lucrative market for the next few years, as most of the country¡¯s livestock was slaughtered for food before the peace treaty was signed. After the livestock merchant left an elf woman entered the room. She wanted to build a temple. Normally, that wouldn¡¯t be a big deal, but the deity she served was the Merchant God, having come from his island city-state off the East coast. As the Merchant God had founded the merchant¡¯s guild and selected its first head, opening up a temple which would offer training in trading and investment, as well as function as an import/export business for the other temples, would greatly conflict with the Guild, so she would need the Governor¡¯s backing to avoid conflict. I suspected that with a large enough bribe she would be able to get her support. The Merchant God believed in market competition, so if the Guild tried to block her to enforce their current monopoly on training, she would also have religious reasons to censor them. Eventually I was allowed to go talk to the governor, and we opened the conversation by discussing the workshop and how well it was doing. His company had earned significant profit exporting what the workshop had produced, so when I brought up the possibility of producing healing and mana potions he loved the idea. We quickly worked out a deal for him to buy a set amount of each for export. He wanted a monopoly on sales outside the country, but I convinced him to let my mercenary company buy as much as it needed, as well as letting us sell to shops in town that will sale them to users, thus securing my ability to use the potions I made and to earn money locally by selling to clinics, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and apothecaries. Getting him to accept me opening a branch of the Great Oak Mercenary Company here was much harder to do. Essentially, because the war with Ferin wasn¡¯t that long ago, he was weary that I might be training his own people to fight against him. I ended up promising to either remain neutral or fight on his side in any conflict against him or this nation. He wanted me to specifically agree to fight for him, but I realized that would mean that I wouldn¡¯t be able to take offers from other lords if, for example, the Demon Empire made its way this far south. That would allow him to barely cover my expenses if I continued to fight, as he would be the only one I could work for. Eventually, however, we agreed that I could open a company branch in the city if I agreed to train his own troops for half the normal rate. He would still have to cover equipping them, but that was less than anyone else would charge. Once I got set up we would need to contact his chancellor to arrange for a group of city guards to come by for training. Once we had proven ourselves by training the guards, he would start sending actual soldiers. He suspected that the Demon Empire would find its way this far south eventually, and wanted to be ready when they arrived. Chapter 30 After the meeting with the Governor I informed my manager about the deal to sell the governor healing and mana recovery potions. He decided to hire two new people to help deal with it. Unlike my other workshop, the large batches that were produced here meant that that we needed fewer employees outside the bottling portion. Still, we would be expanding greatly, so I met with my landlord to rent a second abandoned brewery next door and instructed the manager how to make large batches of healing and mana potions. It wasn¡¯t as delicate as extracting essences, as the materials didn¡¯t need to be refined as much, but making them in large batches did mean than one problem could ruin a hundred gold worth of product, so if he hired someone to make this they would need to be careful. He hired several new people that day and the next, setting up the new brewery as a healing/mana recovery workshop, and gave them two full time employees to bottle the product. All of these new expenses came out of the profits for the workshop, and I left the remaining eighty-seven gold in the coffers to cover expenses later. Such as paying for the level four healing potion ingredients that I had the Adventurer¡¯s guild start gathering for me that afternoon. While I was at the guild I worked on hiring ex bandits and mercenaries to work for me and train troops. I even met Jery and his group of bandit-mercs. Apparently, they had joined up with the guild after the peace treaty was signed, as had most bandits and ex mercenaries, as the governor had given them all pardons in exchange for fighting on the country¡¯s behalf in the war. Once he heard that I was hiring he and his entire group asked if they could sign up. They seemed to be down one member but when I asked about Geral, the Boar man on his team, he told me that they had fought one skirmish against Ferin before the treaty was signed, and Geral was killed. I had talked to the receptionist and arranged to rent the training fields in order to test people. First, the archers would compete in trying to hit the targets from long distance, then the Melee fighters and mages would fight a tournament, divided by weapon. First would come the mages, who would be restricted to level three spells to avoid serious injuries. Yes, a level three spell could kill, but it was unlikely if they were wearing leather armor, which most of them were. Next would come the spearmen and polearms, then the maces and blunt weapons, then the swords and axes. Everyone would be restricted to hardwood weapons so that they didn¡¯t seriously injure each other. Several healers would also be attempting to join my company, but they would be waiting on the sidelines and competing by earning points by treating injuries. I discussed it with the guild master, and we decided to change the venue. They had arranged for the guild to feed all of the contestants in exchange for holding the contest in the town¡¯s coliseum and being able to keep the money from the sales. Public fights were once a major attraction in the city, but after the war started the fight stopped. The Guild was able to rent the arena as a secondary training facility, but even they rarely used it. For that reason, I would pay them to loan practice weapons and armor to the people participating in the tournament and would agree to hire the best performer in each category. I also offered a gold coin for the winner in each category. The tournament would be held the day after tomorrow, as they would need a day to get the field set up and publicize the event. It was about four in the afternoon when I left the guild, coinpurse much lighter, but I set off for my landlord¡¯s office anyway. There I told them what kind of building I was looking for. They didn¡¯t specifically have any training fields, but they did have one place that might work. Just outside the inner part of the city was a large field that was once used to train monsters for sell to others, usually the rich or adventurers who were looking for battle pets. It had several large rooms inside for training animals, as well as a large, stone fenced area in the back for training mounts to be ridden. It was perfect for what I needed, so I paid the first month¡¯s rent of ten gold, then spent the next several hours cleaning up what I could, mostly offices and a few of the training rooms. They were large enough that I could put down training mats and put a weapon¡¯s rack along each wall. I could then assign one room to each weapon type. The field in the back would have training dummies and targets, for the archers and mages to fire at and for the melee fighters to attack once they got good enough. I had remembered to ask the Adventurer¡¯s guild where they got their training equipment from, and they referred me to a carpenter in town, so that¡¯s where I went the next morning. The place was quite large, and the dwarf in charge seemed to have over a dozen apprentices. He agreed to stock the place with training equipment and, after I paid twenty gold up front for the equipment he had in stock, I told him where the Company headquarters was. I returned and cleaned another room, this one with shelves for storing equipment, and when I was done I put all of my training manuals on the shelf, not including the Artificer and Enchanter manuals I brought with me, as those weren¡¯t really meant for troops. One day I might open a workshop here to make magical equipment, at which point I could leave some here for those employees to use, but not now. Once the carpenter and his apprentices arrived with all of the stored equipment they had in case the Adventurers guild or someone else ordered it, I showed them around. I assigned a room to swords, axes, maces/hammers, and polearms, and healers, and might assign a second if I got enough recruits in any category. The field in the back would require practice dummies. I would have to provide practice bows and arrows, as well as training armor, but mages could cast with their hands, so at least I didn¡¯t need to buy staffs or wands for all of them. Once they knew where to set everything up I went to the merchant¡¯s guild. I would need a manager to oversee everything, as I wouldn¡¯t be around. I should also hire a few receptionists. The manager I ended up hiring was a middle aged human that actually used to run a warehouse. He had a few employees that handled cargo, and was good at inventory management, but he wasn¡¯t a perfect fit. The two receptionists were actually twin goblin women that had just turned fifteen. Goblins tended to have multiple births more often than any other race, other than Orcs, who often have several male children at a time. They were identical twins, though, and the orcs all tended to be fraternal twins. It seemed that they had went through the customer service training together and just wanted to work together. While I was sure it would be confusing for the people here, I decided to hire them anyway. They immediately got to work cleaning and the manager got to work inventorying everything we had in stock, namely the equipment the carpenter had sold us and the training manuals in the ¡®library¡¯, as well as a few pieces of furniture that were left by the last owner. I gave him the last twenty-three gold coins I had to cover expenses until the first batch of trainees paid, keeping only the silver and copper in my purse, and told the manager at the brewery to loan the mercenary group money if they needed it and the brewery could afford it. I wasn¡¯t sure if the mercenary company would earn enough to break even the first month. After all, even if you only paid the teachers a silver a day, that was still a gold per month, or twenty silver, thus requiring twenty trainees each just to pay them. And on top of that you had equipment, rent, and the pay for the receptionists and the manager. They would probably need thirty trainees per month to break even, if not more. I was willing to run at a bit of a loss, though, if it meant establishing the company. The next day I got to the arena at eight in the morning. The tournament wouldn¡¯t start until ten, but I wanted to make sure that everything was ready. I met with the organizer and saw that most of the contestants were already there. The healers were checking their medical supplies and other supplies. After all, you didn¡¯t always need a spell, and even when you did, other things would be useful. Several of the contestants were stretching or testing their practice weapons. If this was a normal tournament we would be using real weapons and relying on the healers to keep the men alive. As this was a test for a job, however, they would be using training weapons. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. By ten o¡¯clock the stands were mostly full and the trumpets sounded the start of the tournament. The manager of the stadium announced the names of the contestants along with their assigned number, so that everyone could identify them by the numbers pinned to their backs. This announcement was done through a magical device that simply amplified any sound that hit it, so everything he said was loud enough to be heard across the arena. First was the archers. We had thirty nine contestants sign up, so they all took turns firing at the target. Any that missed the circle were disqualified and the scores of all of the people were recorded. This continued until there were eight archers left, with the four with the best score going into the finals. Once this was done, four of the targets started moving, having been animated by a low end golem spell. There the four of them all shot one arrow at their golem and the one that was the least accurate was kicked out. This continued for two more rounds until one woman, an Ogre, won by getting a bullseye against the other archer, who was just slightly off. Then the mages stepped up. There were nineteen participating, so three of them needed to be eliminated to make it an even bracket. They were each taken to the golems from the archery contest and told to fire five spells at the targets. Each attack that hit was scored for accuracy and power, and the three with the lowest total scores were eliminated. After that it was a standard single elimination tournament, with each mage fighting another one picked at random. The winner was an elf that managed to knock his last opponent out by blocking his attack with a shield, then casting grease under his feet and pushing him out with telekinesis. He definitely had some skill, and knew how to look for weaknesses and improvise. He would make a great instructor assuming he knew how to teach. The melee battles were all the same. After the extras were eliminated by having everyone launch five attacks against a golem dummy and scoring them on power and accuracy, they fought a standard single elimination bracket of either sixteen or thirty two people. The only one that really shined was a human swordsman, a duelist, who didn¡¯t move from his place during any of his matches and was only hit once by an orc that was too strong for him to block. All of the winners received one gold as a reward from the guild, which I paid them when renting the arena, and loaded a carriage for the Company headquarters, along with the healer that scored the most points. She was a hyperactive squirel woman that always ran out to meet the injured person if she could. She might have to learn to keep her head down, but she had the most skill out of everyone. I beat them to the company building simply because they were delayed by having to change, and in some cases bathe, and when they arrived I greeted them and introduced them to the manager and receptionists. I showed them the library, as small as it was, and their respective training areas, then let them ask questions. The biggest one was when the rest of the equipment would get here. The manager assured them that the carpenter was working on it, and would be finished supplying them within the week. The manager had gotten large numbers of basic bows and leather armor from a warehouse that had a lot excess equipment salvaged from the last war, and the carpenter was making the other wooden weapons, including arrows. It might not be enough for everyone in the beginning, but they could share the weapons when not using them and wear the armor every other day until he could acquire more. The next day trainees started signing up. I simply watched as they were either tested to see which weapon suited them best or sent directly to their weapon of choice. Twelve of those that signed up were blunt weapon fighters sent by the city guard captain, so we would be paid later for their education. As the trainees started coming in the teachers started handing out equipment for them to practice in or directly began a lecture, though that was mostly the Elf mage Triston who had them start meditating while holding two spells at once. Most of them couldn¡¯t do it, as they only knew utility magic and maybe a few other practice spells, so he taught them shield and fire bolt and, once he was sure they had the ability to use the spells, he instructed them on how to balance the two spells. This was something I was struggling with as well, so I sat at the back and kept a fire bolt in each hand while channeling the mana from my necklace into a shield. Making two copies of the same spell wasn¡¯t as hard as casting two different spells at once, but judging by the fact that Triston was holding fire bolt in one hand, lightning bolt in the other, while levitating and keeping a shield around himself, he was definitely better than me in this area, even if I was better than the trainees. When the trainees started to run out of mana I realized that I should get them a box of cheap cores like I did at my other facilities. I volunteered to let all of them channel enough mana from my necklace to recharge, and this started a lecture on how to channel mana and how to do so safely from a source with a higher pressure. Triston hadn¡¯t intended to teach that until they started to increase their pressure, but he did agree that it let them keep going a lot longer today, as beginner mages tended to have far more concentration than mana capacity. I handed my necklace to Triston, so that he could use it to train them, as I wouldn¡¯t need it anymore once I got back to Starshine and got my amulet, then asked about buying them all cheap mana cores. He agreed that it would let them practice their mana capacity and channeling, even when not here if he let them take them home, but capacity tended to grow faster when you used up all of your mana, essentially the same as how stamina increased faster when you worked until you were exhausted rather than if you drank stamina potions to never get very tired. Still, they could be useful tools, so he would ask the manager about getting some. With nothing much to do until it was time to leave, as I had finished with all of the work I came here to do, I joined Triston¡¯s classes until it was time to leave. By the time I left I could also manage four simple spells at once, though Triston informed me that in actual combat it would be harder to maintain concentration. For that reason, he doubted I could manage more than three in an actual battle. I had also managed to increase my mana capacity by ten percent or so from fully depleting it before using the necklace to recharge. That would be my new training strategy in the future. It took us three days to get back to Starshine. By the time we arrived there were almost two hundred wagons parked in a field outside the city walls. Each wagon had a number painted on the side so we could keep track of it. Driving was a common enough skill that we could just assign a wagon and horse to each squad and let them handle the care of the wagon and horse. The horses were in a nearby pasture, two hundred and seventy horses and twenty seven oxen so far, though the rest would be ready by the end of the month. I went straight to the clinic upon arriving. It was after closing time but this time Cena was alone. After checking the books I left for home. My parents were happy to see me, but after greeting them I was immediately drug away by Sam. Only my insistence that I needed to eat first got her to pause. The next morning I went back to my own room for a bath and change of clothes, then went to the jewelers before heading into work. They had finished my amulet, but not quite the second one I was having them make for Sam, so I decided to come back in a few days. Maybe after Holy Day. I hadn¡¯t actually been back to the slums since I had cleaned it up before winter, so maybe I would accompany Persy when she went there day after tomorrow morning. I then checked out the other jeweler, the woman that I gave the mithril to. She was finished with her order. She handed me a box of twenty five mithril rings and a box of twelve star mithril rings. Each one had the Great Oak stamped on the top of it. I went to the clinic and locked them in my safe before returning to work. I went with Persy to the slums and it seemed the people loved her. She had purchased an old shop there and it was being remodeled into a chapel, which is where she held a service. That day she healed several people, one of them an old woman with cancer, via a miracle. While she could have cured her with magic, it would have taken much longer and likely have used more mana than she had in reserves. A miracle was much more impressive. My observations there gave me an idea. I had been making scrolls with magic ink that could store a mana based spell. Was it possible to do the same thing with miracles, occasionally called Divine Magic? As Persy had been dealing with some of the other priests at the temple, I decided to ask here. Once Persy was done talking to the people I asked her. ¡°That would be a sacred artifact.¡± she responded. ¡°I heard that in the past some sacred scrolls containing divine power existed, but because they were single use they were used in emergencies. Now, none are known to still exist. All sacred artifacts that currently exist are either enchanted or artificed. There has been some study into the artificed ones, but while they can duplicate the design, it doesn¡¯t seem to work. They are obviously missing something. Priests and saints can use the originals by just feeding them divine energy, though. But not the fakes.¡± ¡°In that case, can you get me the information on these attempts to make sacred artifacts?¡± ¡°Sure, I think they have a copy of the records of some of the attempts at the temple. Not everyone there likes me, but enough of them do that I can probably get you a copy.¡± Chapter 31 The last two days of the month I went to the Mages guild. I had to pay for a special testing session for my enchanting certification, but the Artificing certification was at the same time as the others. By noon on the last day of the month I had two new certifications. The number of certifications I had was a bit much, but the more I looked into magic the more I found that interested me. In my last life I had done the same with science and technology so it wasn¡¯t surprising, but here it was as if I was a professional college student. I would be taking a break from learning magic for now, at least, though that was only because I was going to fight a war. I had hired two more healers from the Healer¡¯s Union to fill in for me and Persy at the clinic while we were gone. Berry had taken a course in management, so I had made her the manager for now and moved her to the rich area, with the Slave and Standard areas being taken over by two past hires. Kanta and Cena had gotten much closer over the last month, but while she visited his house occasionally, the fact that she was needed to protect the shop meant that she couldn¡¯t move in with him. Maybe when we got back I could find a way to solve that issue. Depending on how the war and the country¡¯s relationship with Ridalia went, after we drove the demons back the laws around Beast Folk might change, allowing me to free her so they can get married. Even if they didn¡¯t, if I was certain it was what they wanted, I could sell her to him and have her just work at night or, if I didn¡¯t mind how it looked, just loan her to him as a job benefit. That would allow them to live together, at least. At noon the last day of the month I went over to the Mercenary Company Headquarters. Every one of the troops were lined up in the field behind the office, separated by company. The best performers had each been given eleven troops to command and been promoted to Sargent. Every twelve Sargents had a Lieutenant above them. I had several Captains under me, the ones that were in charge of the training here, but, while eventually there would be twelve Lieutenants under each of them, we didn¡¯t have the numbers to do that now. After all, that would require 1728 soldiers of the same type, and we only had 2100 or so soldiers in total. Instead, the Captains of the Healers and Scouts had one Lieutenant each, the Captains of the Mages, Archers, Macemen, Spearmen and Axemen had two, and the Captain of the Swordsmen had three. There were a few men who brought horses, hoping to act as messengers, but they only had four Sargents, with one company each assigned to me, the Captain of the Scouts, the Captain of the Mages/Healers, and the Captain Swordsmen, who was responsible for seeing that the other melee weapon captains got to use the messengers as well. After a brief inspection of the troops, with their starter equipment, I went to inspect the wagons and horses. Some of the men were wearing chain mail, though it looked like most of it had been assigned to the Swordsmen and Axemen. We had likely overtaxed the supply of monster leather in the city, making the swap necessary. Each Sargent had been assigned a cart and they were already loaded and in the field. Any people we weren¡¯t able to fit into companies would be remaining behind, the number one student in each class taking over the training of new recruits. The rest of them would handle the day to day operations of dealing with bandits and monsters, as well as patrolling the streets between cities. We also had fifty supply wagons which would be pulled by oxen as a way to bring more meat with us, and twenty wagons of service personnel. Most of the service personnel had been recruited from the slums or Refugee districts, following their priestess Persy into war. I was pretty sure some of those ¡°services¡± were blessed by the Goddess of Lust Mikan, not to be confused with her brother Mekan, god of games. Still, those services would at least keep them from harassing the locals when we passed through towns. There were even a few dozen beast people mixed in with our troops, and a few in the service personnel. Most had been sent in for training by their masters, as they would receive certification training for free and we would cover all of the slave¡¯s living expenses so they wouldn¡¯t cost the master anything unless they died. A few, however, had been purchased by the Mercenary company in the beginning, when they were earning a nice profit but had a manpower shortage. One of those beastmen was a Minotaur whose Master, a Dwarf, had joined the Ax team along with him. They looked familiar, but I wasn¡¯t quite sure when I had met them. Maybe they were former Adventurers that stood out? We allowed the mercenaries to take the rest of the day off, but they had to tell us where they would be in case they weren¡¯t here by seven thirty. We were leaving at eight and we needed to be able to send messengers to get them if it looked like they were going to be late. I was sure many of the men would show up tired or with hangovers from visiting brothels or getting drunk, but they would be riding on wagons so as long as they were here they could sleep it off. After the inspections I talked with all of my Captains. To each one I gave a Star Mithril Ring, also wearing one myself. I also gave them mithril rings for each of their Lieutenants. This would mark them as officers of the Great Oak Mercenaries. The rest of the rings I would carry with me and would give to the reinforcement Lieutenants as they arrived. Hopefully I wouldn¡¯t need to hand out another Star Mithril ring to a replacement Captain. After that I gathered most of the money from the treasuries of the Mercenaries, the Workshop, and the Clinic. When I got home I paid back Samantha for all of the goods she had gotten for us, over a thousand gold worth. I had less than a hundred left after that. We had a special supper, treating it as a celebration that I was headed off for the front, and after supper I presented Samantha with the gift I had someone make for her. It was an Enhanced Orichalcum necklace with a pressure of ten. The magic circle engraved on it had a five pointed star design, with a large ruby in the middle. The circle was designed to charge up with the mana of the necklace and, if she felt afraid, activate a shield around her body. Due to the amount of material used there wasn¡¯t enough mana being produced to keep a level ten personal shield active the whole time, but with the ruby storing a large amount of mana the amulet can keep the shield running for almost five minutes before it has to decrease to a level nine shield, assuming it didn¡¯t have to block an attack. As long as she remains scared the amulet will try to keep the shield up no matter how weak it becomes. The field of battle was a dangerous place, after all, and I didn¡¯t want to risk her getting injured. This was radically different than my own amulet. Mine simply measured whether or not I was absorbing mana from it, and if I was, to feed me more at whatever the next higher pressure was. It could go as low as pressure five, which was my current limit, though I had been practicing a bit at the training field and practicing riding my unicorn, trying to keep it summoned as long as possible. The necklace barely provided enough to keep it around, so as long as it was around I would get very little benefit from the necklace outside of a special horse that can help heal people. Thankfully my mana pressure was up to five point nine from the training, and I should be able to get it up to at least six and a half by the time we get to the fort. The next day we set off at exactly eight o¡¯clock. We had to send messengers out to pick up over two dozen men and women and haul them back here, many of them asleep at brothels or taverns. Only two didn¡¯t want to come, but when the messenger reminded them that they had signed a contract to serve for a six month minimum unless released, they reluctantly said goodbye and came along. I took the lead of this group and started riding North. Every day we stopped at lunch for the men and horses to rest and eat and every afternoon near sunset we had the scouts find us a large open field to camp in. We checked attendance every morning just to make sure, but none of the people went AWOL in the middle of the night. Whenever we got the large towns or cities we would camp outside of it at night and set out in the morning. As the men were only riding for most of the day we only had to pay them two coppers per day, but the small amount of money I had wouldn¡¯t cover that if they were paid on a daily basis, so I decided to pay them on the last day of the month. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It took us fifteen days to get to fort Garlow, at least one day being because of heavy rain and muddy street. When we finally arrived, though, I told them who I was and they let me inside to speak with the commander. They wouldn¡¯t allow my men to enter until they had received an order to do so, though, as they needed to be weary of spies and saboteurs. I rode my unicorn to the keep and climbed off. He was smart enough to know not to run off, and the summoning gave us a weak telepathic connection in case I needed to order him to do so. Once inside the keep I met Duke Goldport. Sir Lawrence and the Duke¡¯s son Peter were also there. Apparently they had finished their recruitment trip and returned to help in the war. Peter and his father were both wearing full Mithril Plate, and Lawrence appeared to be wearing monster silk robes and carrying a high-end staff with a Common Fire Dragon Core on top of it. That should greatly increase his fire magic. I had considered buying a monster silk robe myself, but as I would be fighting on the front lines with my sword I had instead gotten a fine steel sword and a full set of Salamander leather armor, like the chestplate I had when I was younger. It had cost me fifteen gold for the suit and one for the sword. There was also a man in even finer black silk robes there, wearing level fourteen Enhanced Orichalcum amulet. I put my hand on my chest and bowed my head slightly. ¡°Viscount Cameron Starshine of the Great Oak Mercenary Company reporting in, Sir.¡± The Duke nodded. ¡°Duke Goldport of Celine. This is Duke Deathbringer of the Magocracy of Theos. And I believe you have met my son and Sir Lawrence.¡± He motioned to the others in turn. Before I could speak up the second Duke did so. ¡°Forgive my interruption, but where I¡¯m from Noble titles are given based on ones achievements in the field of magic. Tell me, what certifications do you have that would support me treating you like a viscount?¡± Duke Goldport looked interested, so I answered the question. ¡°Advanced Combat Magic. Advanced Alchemist. Intermediate Healer, with combat certification. Beginner Merchant, Swordsman, Artificer, Summoner and Enchanter.¡± Duke Deathbringer nodded. ¡°That is more than enough for a Viscount. Many Counts don¡¯t even have so many magical certifications. Very well. You are more than qualified to join this discussion.¡± Apparently they were in the middle of a meeting about the demon¡¯s advance. They had solidified their hold over the towns in the area and would likely be moving towards the castle in less than a week. The officers here were hoping to find a way to break their advance. They only had around four thousand troops here in the fort, but the demons would be sending at least ten thousand. While that would be enough to hold the castle, they were recalling troops from the surrounding area to insure a victory here. My arrival had given them more options, though. I gave them a breakdown of my troop types. Most of my troops weren¡¯t ranged fighters, so their usefulness in a siege would be limited. But, if we could force the demons into a land battle we could weaken them before they got here. Duke Deathbringer suggested that I leave my mages here while I take the others out to harass the demons. I countered with leaving the archers here. The Mages would be extremely useful in field combat to control the enemy¡¯s movements. We would be returning before the castle was assaulted anyway. Duke Goldport agreed and told me where the demons had captured. While he would prefer if we didn¡¯t raid his towns and villages, as the people would have to pay for it, I should be able to find some supply wagons or smaller groups of soldiers to attack near those villages. Once the meeting was over, the Duke gave permission for us to enter the castle. It was actually quite large. While it was called a castle, I would describe it as more of a castle town, with over five hundred people living here, not including the troops that were staying here. They didn¡¯t have proper housing for us, but they did have a large field where military drills would be held, so we were allowed to set up there. Only my Captains, Samantha, and myself were given actual rooms, with Samantha and I sharing one. She had sold most of what she brought with her to the quartermaster upon arrival and picked up gear from the demons to bring back with her when she returned. She mostly took armor that was too damaged to use, as she could get it for salvage prices. Most of it was made of mithril or a mithril alloy for the mana conductivity, which let it be easily enchanted. Most of the enchantments were gone, though. The Duke was running a bit light on coin, but as he had promised to cover our travel expenses he offered us salvaged equipment instead. I let the men choose the equipment, as their current equipment wasn¡¯t the best, and made a note of who took what so that the value of the equipment could be taken out of their pay later. Most of the mages got a staff, wand, or other magic item. The demons had extensive mithril mines on their continent, and most of them had some sort of magic other that utility spells, so many of them carried magical foci and items. The next day I set out with my army, minus the archers. They would be staying here to practice with Duke Goldport¡¯s archers. Duke Deathbringer had only brought people with magical ability, so what few archers he had used magical equipment and buff spells, and therefore didn¡¯t really compare to the non-magical archers I and the other Duke had. While Deathbringer¡¯s men numbered around two thousand, like mine, he had brought all magical troops, so they would be far better than mine in battle. He was apparently going for quality over quantity. I hoped to one day do the same, but as I only had a month and a half to prepare two thousand troops, I had to settle for low skill level. That low skill level ended up costing me. About eleven AM the next day I found a group of four hundred demons and devils outside a village. They had a large number of slaves in their camp, all young, most female, and none of them demons or devils. They had likely captured them from the villages in the area to entertain their troops. After the scouts reported this, we came up with a plan. They appeared to be cooking, which meant that they would be eating soon. Once they started to relax we would launch long range spells into their camp, catching them off guard. We could then wait for them to get to us where they would have to face over a thousand front line troops. After the battle started, however, I realized how bad the plan was. Most of the opening volley of magic missed its target, only doing damage because most of the mages had used area-of-effect spells. One of the slave cages was hit with a fireball, burning the women inside alive. Many of the demons and devils that were hit also ignored the fire attacks. Apparently they had Imp blood, because they all responded with much more accurate fire magic, hitting our front lines and immediately killing over a hundred people. They ran at us and most of the mages panicked, their spells flying off wildly in different directions. Thankfully, most of them had switched from fire magic. I had to do something to deal with the enemy fire magic, though. As they neared our front lines I threw three level six tornadoes in the middle of their advance before they got to us. Our front line, including myself, clashed with them and, as the tornadoes were too distracting and/or kept getting in the way of a clear shot, most of them ran to attack rather than continue to use magic. This didn¡¯t save many of my people, as they seemed too slow to block the demon¡¯s attacks. For every one of their people we managed to defeat they took down three of us. It was only the fact that we outnumbered them five to one that manged to win us the battle. After the fight was over, I took the scouts and macemen to check their camp. The only demons and devils we found were service staff. Apparently, the three succubi and one incubus they had in their camp wasn¡¯t enough, so they had captured slaves to use for that purpose, something the Cambians disapproved of. They were losing business to the slaves, after all. I knew that slaves were often used for that in Ferin, but they were either criminals or Beastfolk, who were usually mistreated no matter who owned them and were usually born into it. These were innocent men and women that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. Technically, so was Persy and her grandfather, but they were an exception. Once we cleared the camp we released the slaves. The dead ones and the ones that had died to friendly fire would be given to the village. The others would be given a choice to either go with us or be left at the village. As most of these were from the village, only a few chose to go with us, mostly because they wanted revenge. The demons and devil service worker that we captured would be taken prisoner until we figured out what to do with them. Most of their fighters had died, and our healers had a hard time fixing everyone up enough that they could travel, so only a few dozen of their troops were still alive, the rest bleeding out before they could be treated. Those that lived were all taken as prisoners of war. Overall, we had lost 538 people in that skirmish, versus 392 demons and devils. We definitely needed more practice. We returned that night and told what had happened. The POWs were taken to the castle¡¯s dungeon until they could be indentured and sent off. As they were our prisoners, we would be paid for them, minus the gold for the slave contract. The Duke had already made a deal to send all POWs to the manacite mines to the south so that they can improve their equipment, so I let him take them. The four entertainment staff we had captured were allowed to work here on the grounds that: 1) They use infertility potions or magic items. No one wanted to risk producing a Devil child during the war. 2) They don¡¯t do anything to harm the human side of the war or help the Demon side. This includes draining the people here enough to impair their ability to work. The four of them agreed, and a small building in town was provided for them so they could start a brothel. Chapter 32 That night we held a funeral for all of the people we had lost. We had lost over a quarter of our troops in a single engagement despite our superior numbers. Persy, as our resident Priestess, conducted the funeral rites and after all of the bodies were placed on the rows of massive funeral pyres she lit each one with a flash of divine magic. Technically, fire wasn¡¯t part of the Domain of the Lord of the Forest, but as she was a Fox, animals which naturally have an affinity for fire. She essentially gave herself an enhanced form of that affinity through a miracle and it¡¯s prayer known as ¡°Creature¡¯s Trait¡± and used an ignite spell to fake it. The Lord of the Forest chose to let her do it, though he was a bit annoyed. After the funeral was over, I gave the men the rest of the night off, with training scheduled for the next day. Persy and I would be spending the next day preparing the personal belongings of those that died to be shipped back to Starshine. This would include the armor and weapons. I thought about keeping them and giving them to new recruits, but no one will want to use the equipment of a person that died in their first battle. Many of the recruits would take it as if I was cursing them. The Captains would be spending tomorrow and any spare time they had to write letters of condolence to the families of the deceased, placing them in the boxes with their belongings. Thankfully I hadn¡¯t lost any captains and only one Lieutenant, so the command structure was intact. The next day all of the troops spent the day in intense training. The equipment we had gotten from the demons would be handed out to the troops in lieu of payment, and since it was worth several gold, as level five toughness mithril alloy armor, and more if it was enchanted, they wouldn¡¯t need to be paid in coin for several months. Our smiths quickly repaired what equipment was damaged and I knew that we would be much better equipped the next time we went out. I was certain that we had went into battle too quickly and poorly prepared, so I sent out two scouting companies to learn what they could about the enemy troops and their movement. Leaving only one scout company in the castle to act as messengers, I took my personal company of scouts out into the field and gave each of them two level six scrolls containing AoE spells. I had finished with the personal effects of the deceased at around five PM and spent until midnight making these scrolls. Technically, the magic ink I had brought with me was only good for up to level five spells, but as these only needed to last for less than twenty four hours, they would last long enough. We rode to where we knew enemy supply caravans had been before and waited, hiding behind a hill. In case they were trying to detect magic, the only magic we used was the few detection threads I sent out to detect when someone went by on the road. I had even unsummoned my unicorn, just in case. At around three in the afternoon I detected some movement and looked over the top of the hill. There were, indeed, seven wagons heading towards Goldport on the road. The last two carts were even massive cages, carrying over a dozen slaves in each. I warned the men to be careful not to hurt the slaves and cast ¡°Storm Call¡± to darken the sky. They slightly picked up their pace, expecting rain, and once half the carriages had passed, we popped up from behind the hill and unleashed spells upon them. Six random level six monsters appeared in the middle of them, and six tornadoes circled around them, targeting their guards. Then six fireballs flew at them as six chain lightning spells were unleashed at the guards. I focused on pouring energy into the Storm Call, and by the time the last of the scrolls were torn to release the trapped magic, the first drops of rain had fallen. Only seven of the enemies had survived the attack, one driver and six guards that were at least partially injured. Only two summoned monsters had survived. I had made sure that the Chain Lightning wouldn¡¯t target allies of the caster, but as the summoning spell I had used to make the scrolls did nothing to insure that the monsters would be friendly to the summoner, they were just as hostile to us as to the demons, so they were attacked by the lightning as well. I flung a few lightning bolts at the demons as the scouts launched arrows at them, and when three of the guards ran at us we charged. Unlike when they sent out raiding parties, The demons didn¡¯t send their best people to guard caravans, so we managed to defeat them with only two scouts being injured. One monster, a Blaze Claw Bear, had survived with heavy injuries, so I threw a lightning bolt into its chest, stopping its heart before it could attack us. As the rain started to fall faster, we ran over to the wagons. The demons were using a kind of large bird monster called a Razor Beak to pull their carts, kind of like an Emu but with an iron beak and the ability to spit poison. They were well trained, so once seven of our scout¡¯s horses were tied to the backs of the carts, we threw the bodies of the demons and monsters into the backs of the carts, with me casting strength enhancements on four of us so we could lift the bear, and set off back for the fort. Due to the heavy rain and the extra weight we didn¡¯t arrive until after dark. Thankfully the storm only reached a few kilometers from where we had ambushed the caravan, so we hadn¡¯t had to ride in it for more than a few hours. When we arrived back at the fort we took the animals to the stables, released the slaves to move into the city, and started unloading the supplies. The monsters were sent to the cook tent, as monsters were usually edible and they would best know how to harvest the useful and valuable parts. The demons were stripped of their gear and thrown into a mass grave about three hundred meters outside the walls. The gear was distributed to the troops if it was in good condition and sent to the craftsmen for repairs if it wasn¡¯t. Samantha was planning on heading out in the morning, so she had loaded all of the men¡¯s personal effects onto the wagons we were sending back with her. I would have my personal scouts escort her to the border, as she didn¡¯t hire any protection for her caravan on the way up here, but once they reached the border they would have to turn back and she would have to hire guards. A few troops did leave with her, about two dozen who had lost limbs in the fight against the demons. The only way Persy and I had to heal them was with Divine Magic, and we didn¡¯t have the power to completely regrow a missing limb in less than a week. Instead, we did what we could to make sure that they wouldn¡¯t be in pain and sent them back to Starshine. There they would receive a bottle of level ten regeneration potion, the lowest level that could start to regrow lost limbs but which cost five gold each, and would be able to take a job as a trainer at the Company if they wanted to do so. I wished there were ways to help those that had died here, but while, as a Lord of an Afterlife known as the Great Forest, the Lord of the Forest could allow us to resurrect those whose souls he possessed, he refused to do so. They had lived their lives and now must reenter the cycle of souls, only taking a brief, thousand year, detour to the Great Forest. It was a neutral afterlife that was available to all, but as no one was allowed to rule over others and magic was restricted to level five there, few people chose such an afterlife. I would send money to each of the families that lost someone, but I didn¡¯t have enough on hand. I did, however, tell the Company to send the families of the deceased the full amount for the last month the person served, a gold coin. This, along with the gear they were sent, would hopefully prevent them from suffering additional financial hardship from the loss. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The next day, as Samantha set off, we received word from some of our scouts that the demons were approaching from the North. They had over twelve thousand troops, most of them appearing to be melee fighters, but around a thousand were dedicated mages. They should be here by tomorrow around noon. As it wouldn¡¯t be safe to wait any longer, I told Samantha goodbye and they left. They would return with more trade goods and any troops I was transferring up here in a month, but if we were still under siege at that time she would wait near the border. My scouts would also be staying there, only coming into the country long enough to harass the demon convoys and engage in a bit of guerrilla warfare like we had earlier. I was going to spend all day creating scrolls so that we could launch a massive number of magical attacks at the enemy when they attacked, but Duke Deathbringer had a suggestion. While he knew little about how artificing worked, he was a certified Intermediate Enchanter, and had enchanted much of his men¡¯s gear himself. He told me about a method of enchanting called ¡°Bulk Enchantment¡± and suggested that I might be able to use that to create large amounts of scrolls more easily. The method basically split an essence across many different objects, giving all of them the desired effect, but requiring a much larger input of mana in exchange for less essence use. This method was why all of his men had almost identical enchantments on their equipment. After we worked out how to do that with a group of scrolls he and I got to work creating scrolls to be charged. With a large amount of mithril and its alloys we upgraded the ink to work with up to level ten spells, and started drawing scrolls. Most of my mages were recruited for the task as well and, even though half of the scrolls weren¡¯t good enough to actually catch the effect, with me and one of the Duke¡¯s wizards doing quality control it was only a few hours before we had over two hundred scrolls which could catch a fireball. I used a fire spell to soften a scrap of mithril alloy almost to the point where it would completely melt, then used it like a crayon to draw a two meter charging circuit on a stone platform near the training fields. Once it cooled, I had two of my men place the crate of scrolls in the middle of the circle, then, as my mages were busy learning to make scrolls, several of the Duke¡¯s wizards helped me charge the circle, which in turn charged all of the scrolls. To catch a spell the scrolls had to be charged with at least the same pressure mana as the spell it would be catching. As I hadn¡¯t worked a pressure amplification method into this circle, that meant that I would need to put pressure ten mana into the circle. So I cheated a bit. I removed my necklace and, as it wasn¡¯t being worn, it started releasing its mana at a pressure of just over ten. I was getting a massive headache from the exposure to mana at a pressure that much higher than my own, but I did my best to channel the mana into the charging circle. It started glowing blue, but the scrolls barely responded at all. Then the other mages joined it and the scrolls started glowing brightly enough to light a room. That¡¯s when the Duke came over. He created a blue fireball in his hand that was over a meter across, and, instead of throwing it, which would cause the powerful attack to be split into 200 parts, he simply lowered it until it touched the top of the crate. As soon as a scroll touched it, the scroll started absorbing the fireball, making it shrink and causing the Duke to put more and more mana into trying to maintain the spell. After a minute or so of that, however, the Duke¡¯s mana pressure dropped to below ten, and the scrolls stopped absorbing the effect. They wouldn¡¯t be damaged, however, as they already contained a more powerful version of that effect. He ended his fireball and we ended the charging of the scrolls. We now had a crate of two hundred level ten fireball scrolls. All of us decided to take a break as the effort had taken a lot out of us. I was probably the most effected, though. I had managed to maintain the channeling for the entire minute and a half it took to do the job, but blood was currently pouring out of my nose from the strain. Such a forced effort was the equivalent of trying to bench an extra ten kilos when you were already worn out and at your limit, and I¡¯m pretty sure I had suffered an aneurysm as a result. We would need to do it several more times, though, if we wanted to win the upcoming battle with minimal casualties. So, once again I cheated. I told them that I was going to go to my room to lie down and rest, but when I got there, instead of sleeping, I focused on the regeneration ability of many lizards that was part of His Domain, and fed some divine energy into it. Soon my brain and blood vessels were completely healed and even the soreness from all of the riding I had done for the last few weeks was gone. Now that I was at perfect health, I stopped the miracle. If anyone asked how I did it, I would tell them that I am a healer, so I healed myself. I put back on my necklace to replenish the mana, which was feeling a bit low for some reason and closed my eyes. I was awakened by a servant telling me that they were ready to charge another group of scrolls. The first thing I noticed after getting up was that my magic seemed much stronger. I analyzed my strength for a few seconds as I walked towards the training field, and noticed that my mana pressure was somewhere in the high sevens. After the next charging session I might go up to above eight. The only thing I could think of that could have caused that was channeling so much pressure ten mana. There was also the possibility that fully recovering from the ordeal had made my pressure increase even faster. I might have to test that by having Persy channel from the necklace and then heal herself with a miracle. The next lot of scroll charging was much easier. The Ten pressure of the necklace caused me a headache, but this time it wasn¡¯t at migraine levels. These scrolls were all charged with a Chain Lightning spell, and when we were finished I was merely tired instead of completely exhausted. This time I simply put on the necklace and let my mana recharge. Sure enough, my pressure had increased greatly, though this time only to seven point nine. We did one more round of scroll charging before sunset, this time a Tornado spell. That brought me up to eight point one. Now that we had six hundred level ten spell scrolls, the rest of the mages who weren¡¯t part of the daytime scroll making crew could use the circle to charge scrolls for the rest of the night. Many of the scrolls that weren¡¯t good enough this morning were rejected because of relatively minor mistakes, like missing or extra lines. They would spend tonight correcting these and charging them with level eight spells, the minor mistakes weakening what could be done with them. I had also taught several mages the magic circle for the random summoning I had made scrolls of for the scouts. Tomorrow they would make as many of those as possible and I would mass charge them before the enemy got here. That way we could release hundreds of monsters into their ranks when they began their attacks. The Duke hadn¡¯t learned Summoning, so he hadn¡¯t been able to cast it at level ten so we could get some truly powerful creatures to slaughter our enemies. Still, level eight was pretty good. The level six bear we had killed had Toughness five hide, and the leather worker in town was currently tanning it and the other four of five toughness hides from the ambush. A week from now he will have made two sets of leather armor for us from the bear hide to give to our scouts or mages, people who wouldn¡¯t be able to function properly in metal armor. After that he would work though the rest of the hides. If we sent level eight monsters against the demons we could probably end up with at least level seven toughness leather armor, like my Salamander set I was currently wearing. The next day, by lunch, we had distributed one of the level ten scrolls to each of the melee fighters on the wall, as well as over a thousand level eight and lower scrolls. Each scroll had what it was written on it in both Ferin and Theosian script, as the dialects were a bit different, which meant that the men shouldn¡¯t cast the spells wrong. Still, anyone important was going to stay off the wall until the scrolls were finished. Those scrolls included over one hundred and fifty level eight summoning scrolls, made by holding a summoning circle around the scrolls, and over a thousand level four to six spells of various types. One mage had even decided, due to what I assumed was lack of sleep, to mass enchant Mass Dysentery on thirty seven scrolls. Hopefully it would work as a distraction, at least. While the idea of throwing in low mana non-lethal spells was a good one, surely Mass Blinding or Mass Sleep would be better. The Mage who became a God: Chapter 1 In the late twenty first century the scientific community of Earth finally managed to narrow down what Dark Matter and Dark Energy were, patching a major hole in their scientific theory. Soon the method to convert between the two and normal matter and energy was discovered, leading to the creation of two key devices. The first of these devices was Bulk Matter Converters, which created tons of matter or antimatter of a type designated by the one running the machine, ending material shortages. The second was Dark Matter Generators, which converted Dark Matter or energy into electricity or heat to power society. These two devices lead to an age of prosperity for humanity in which no one lacked anything needed to live, as it was so cheap that you could live a comfortable life on the equivalent of an hour of work per week or less. Humanity started expanding into the solar system, the cost of space travel and living on other worlds now being no more than the equivalent of ten to fifteen hours of unskilled labor per week. The population exploded and by the end of the twenty second century the solar system had a population of over one hundred billion. It was then that humanity created two means of faster than light travel. The shear density of mass possible with dark matter and energy, and the ability to convert it into negative matter and energy, allowed the creation of Alcubierre drives for traveling the star system. The ability of dark matter and energy to leave the normal three dimensions was used to create hyperdrives, which could temporarily push an object out of three dimensional space and make it instantly reappear in another location. These were used to explore the nearby systems and, when Proxima Centauri C was found to have native life, a biology research colony was founded there. This kicked off a wave of interstellar colonization as every system within twenty light-years and most within fifty were colonized. Soon into this wave of colonization it was discovered that exposure to dark matter and energy could cause those things to bond with a human body. Humans which were connected to hyperdrives for their superior control over machines started displaying abilities comparable to Bulk Matter Converters and Dark Matter Generators. Within the body of these people the two Dark sources would find a balance and these people, with enough concentration and knowledge of what they were doing, could create objects and energy from it. The dark matter or energy would then flow into their body from outside, replenishing it to just above its previous level. The difficulty of doing this properly, however, resulted in many people damaging or mutating themselves or others, or cooking themselves or others from discharges of heat or electricity. Due to how dangerous this phenomenon was it wasn¡¯t long before almost every world required that anyone with more than a milligram of Dark Matter or a joule of Dark Energy inside of them receive training for how to properly control their powers. These people became known as Mages, and were divided into Alchemists, who used Dark Matter to make matter, and Elementalists who used dark energy to make energy. Soon, a group arose on Earth, calling itself the Agents of Purity. They claimed that mages were evil, that the use of dark matter and energy twisted them, and that they were dangerous to society. They used the early struggles and accidents of people learning to use it, as well as the growing number of Mage criminals, to draw in the people of Earth, the most populated world with a population of over forty billion. The hysteria grew and a few decades after their appearance they began taking over every government on Earth either by getting their member in positions of power or by convincing those in power to support them. They even got the leaders of several major religions to agree with them, from saying that Dark Matter was from hell or demons and that it could only be used safely in machines, as they lacked souls, to simply arguing the poorly supported medical theory that it drove people insane and made them commit evil acts. In response to this a Mage terrorist group arose which swore to defend all mages from persecution. They managed to kidnap millions of people in what some called a false flag attack and force them into the containment areas of Dark Matter Generators and Bulk Matter Converters, flooding their bodies with these resources, in hopes that those people would choose to become mages. The Agents of Purity, instead, offered them cybernetic implants which could use Dark Energy as a power source and allow them to get their revenge on the terrorists that abducted them. The Cybernetically enhanced forces were able to crush the terrorists, thus ensuring that the mage threat was at an end. Once they had control of Earth, and banned the use of Magic, formerly known as ¡°Biological manipulation of Dark Matter and Energy¡±, the Agents of Purity built star ships to bring their beliefs to the other colonies. They quickly expanded to all of the Solar colonies and sent their ships through hyperspace to appear above the worlds of the extra-solar colonies. As none were even close to strong enough to stand up to the military might of Earth, they surrendered to the demands that all mages be handed over and that anyone found to be infected with dark matter or energy in the future would be given cybernetic implants, which the Agents of Purity gave them the schematics for, to control that power and allow them to put the power to proper use. The mages of the various worlds had no choice but to build, buy, or steal hyperdrive equipped ships of their own in order to flee their worlds, traveling as quickly as they could to the furthest expanses of space. The Agents pursued them and, though the ships with mage navigators could jump further and more accurately, the shear number of ships the Agents could send after them meant that the mage refugees never had more than a few years before they were found and attacked. -- I ran through the halls of the underground based, dodging the terrified people in the hallway. As I passed, a woman stopped me and begged me to explain why they wanted to kill her five year old son just because he was born with Magic. I had no answer. Sometimes humans were irrational creatures who only sought to destroy that which they didn¡¯t understand, and therefore feared. Pulling myself away from them I continued on my rapid journey. While, at this depth, you couldn¡¯t hear the bombardment above, I knew that without our defense shields the weapons of the AoP fleet that had followed us here would reach us within hours. It was only through the efforts of our generator mages, exhausting themselves channeling Dark Matter into our generators, that the shield remained active. Still, it was only a matter of time before they breached the barrier and landed troops. They had appeared in orbit only seven hours ago and begun executing an orbital bombardment of our base any time their orbit brought them over the horizon. With their fleet leaving no gaps in their orbit for us to escape through, only my project could allow us to evacuate in time. I had developed a way to send people and supplies through hyperspace without a ship, having them appear at a specially created device at another location. With the help of hundreds of small automated constructor ships, sometimes called Von Neumann probes, which would spread out into nearby star systems, we would build bases with such devices in random locations throughout the galaxy and maybe even one day in Andromeda and the other nearby galaxies. The Teleportation device could then be used to move people to an exponentially increasing number of new bases, ensuring that we managed to escape. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. The problem was that we hadn¡¯t received encrypted confirmation of such a base being complete from any of our constructor ships. We had no choice but to try and buy enough time for one of them to send us a confirmation. Which my assistant just informed me had occurred mere minutes ago. I pushed my way past hysterical civilians and into my office. ¡°Report,¡± I said. ¡°We just got a signal from ACS2-5-3-4.¡± The code meant that it was the forth constructor ship built by the third constructor ship, built by the fifth constructor ship, built by the second constructor ship we sent out. ¡°It verifies that it has completed stage one of the Colony base protocol and is ready to receive its first one hundred settlers.¡± ¡°I hope it can support more than that. I¡¯ll send it at least five hundred. Better to risk that some live in poverty as it struggles to expand than that they all die here. Round up a group of five hundred colonists and send them into the teleportation chamber. I need to speak with the mayor and get the shield power redirected to us.¡± My assistant nodded and I phoned the mayor. It took some convincing, as I was essentially asking her to throw away the rest of the population in order to save the five hundred. In the end, however, the shear desperation of the situation coupled with the fact that the mages powering the reactor would soon be exhausted meant that she had no choice. In order that some may live, many must die. She ordered all military and security personnel to the most likely positions the enemy troops would enter at, and ordered the energy be transferred. I watched as the energy stored within the teleportation device grew. It would activate automatically when it had enough energy to successfully teleport the people. The energy soon reached sixty percent, but I noticed that the rate of energy input was quickly dropping. The Reactor mages must have been near their limits already. Soon I began hearing gunfire in the hallways and the return fire of hundreds of spells, ranging from accelerated matter to fire, lightning, ice, sound, lasers, plasma, and other energy based attacks. I knew it was only a matter of time before our forces faltered. They had tens or hundreds of thousands of troops to send at us. We had hundreds of defenders. ¡°There¡¯s a problem, sir.¡± said my assistant. ¡°The energy inflow has stopped.¡± I checked the screens and verified that the energy input had, indeed, stopped. ¡°We are only at ninety percent. What are we going to do?¡± We could remove some of the mass, and therefore people from the circle to force it to work, but if we did that they might turn violent. ¡°The only thing we can do. Turn on the backup generator and channel all of its output into the circle. I¡¯ll power it myself.¡± ¡°But sir, no one can channel that much dark matter. You¡¯ll die.¡± ¡°If I don¡¯t, everyone here will die. Just do it!¡± I shouted and ran for the Generator¡¯s interface room and shed my jacket and shirt as I went. The most efficient way to transfer dark matter is to circulate your blood directly through the device and for that purpose I had connecting ports on my chest which went directly to my major arteries. Once in the room I laid down on the exam table looking chair and pulled out the cables, plugging them into the ports in my chest. Blood started to circulate through the dark matter exchanger on the device, then back into me. The reactor began generating a small amount of power in the megawatts range as my body naturally drew in dark matter to replenish that which was missing from my blood. When I was a Generator Mage as a teenager this was the way I operated such devices, going into VR simulations for the next twenty four hours as soon as I was set up properly. Now I, as the most powerful Elementalist in the colony, could drastically improve on this. I closed my eyes and began meditating, drawing in Dark Matter hundreds of times faster than I would naturally regenerate it. I let my mind grow clear of all the distractions around me, including the battle taking place nearby, and soon all I knew was the flow of Dark Matter. -- The Assistant watched as the energy input grew rapidly, eventually topping the output of all the other generator mages combined. They knew that the man connected to the emergency generator would burn out soon. The human body hadn¡¯t evolved with Dark Matter, and therefore would become more damaged the more of the substance that it was exposed to. Because of that he had minutes at most before his body gave out and he died from shock. He didn¡¯t care, though. All he cared about was saving his people. It was a heroic act that, should an afterlife actually exist, he would no doubt be rewarded for. Who knew, maybe in a few minutes he would find himself in the halls of Valhalla, drinking beer with Thor. The assistant watched as the energy reached ninety nine percent. It was almost time. Perhaps the boss¡¯s sacrifice wouldn¡¯t be in vain. Before it reached one hundred percent, though, the door exploded inwards and the assistant jumped in front of the screen to keep the enemy from seeing what was happening. ¡°What are you trying to hide, mage?¡± a man¡¯s voice said from within his power armor. ¡°I was watching porn. If I¡¯m going to die, I might as well go out happy, right?¡± ¡°Move aside.¡± he said, raising his rifle. The Assistant guessed that the only reason the man didn¡¯t fire was that he didn¡¯t want to destroy equipment that could contain valuable intel. ¡°I¡¯d better not. I was watching some pretty messed up stuff. You wouldn¡¯t want to see it. Could scar you for life.¡± ¡°I said MOVE IT!¡± the man yelled, hitting the assistant in the side of the head with the butt of his rifle. He looked at the screen only to see a shirtless man cycling his blood through a generator. ¡°Stop him.¡± the man ordered and two soldiers ran to the neighboring room. ¡°Too late.¡± said the Assistant as the meter reached one hundred percent. -- From a familiar shift in the darkmatter around me I knew that the teleportation had succeeded. Five hundred lucky people were now safe in an unknown location that not even the AoP could find. Now I just needed to shut down the flow of darkmatter and join the battle, taking as many of them as possible with me when the damage caused by overexposure to Darkmatter killed me. For some reason, however, I couldn¡¯t shut down the flow. Somehow, this rate, over a thousand times my normal maximum recharge rate, had become my new normal. Thinking quickly, I started using a Dark Matter Shielding technique which was meant to protect against any spell an enemy might throw at you. If done correctly, it would block one hundred percent of the darkmatter and energy that got near me, depleting my reserves while blocking more from flowing in. I twisted dozens of strands of darkmatter into cords around me, rapidly sending them out of my feet and bending them to reenter me through my head. Soon, a toroid of darkmatter flowed around and through me, causing any dark matter that came towards me to be deflected away. Soon, the level of darkmatter in my body started dropping. When it got too low, however, my control started to slip and enough managed to flood in to mostly refill my reserves. My reserves started to fluctuate like a sine wave, though I was learning how to do this more efficiently, and with every cycle the reserves were slightly lower than the one before. Suddenly, in my state of meditation where the influx of dark energy into my brain greatly slowed my perception of time, I felt something hit my right abdomen, then shortly afterwards my right lung, then my right shoulder, then my right temple. Suddenly I could no longer feel my body as I only seemed to be conscious during times of high dark matter reserves. Somehow, I started to leave my body, floating above it. At least that was a phenomenon I was familiar with the idea of. More surprisingly, however, the darkmatter continued to flow through me as I had ordered it to, despite the fact that I no longer had a body. Could the manipulation of Darkmatter be a supernatural phenomenon? I didn¡¯t have much time to think as I lost consciousness. I only got flashes of what happened after that, flashes which become briefer the longer I was in this state. First, I was above my body. I could tell by my ability to still sense the interaction of darkmatter and energy with the physical world that the door was blown off of the generator room and two people with toddler-like levels of darkmatter in their bodies were pointing guns at my corpse. Then I was within the rock. Though I could sense the darkmatter around me, it was calm this far from people and equipment except for that which swirled around me. Then I was on the surface, seeing multiple landers near our surface airlocks. Then I was in space, seeing several ships orbit near me. With every flash, however, the physical world seemed to fade, like a fog was coming over it. The last of the physical world I remember was somewhere in deep space. The Mage who became a God: Chapter 2 ¡°Hey, come here, you need to see this.¡± A Reaper friend of mine said, barging into my living area. Buildings and land didn¡¯t exist here, outside of a physical universe, but I was able to create a reasonable facsimile of them within the three dimensional pocket I had created where my will controlled what existed. While we had grown up in the same training group for new gods, we had taken different paths in life. They had chosen to be a Harvest Reaper, a god which collected souls from the Aether and brought the ones powerful enough to become gods to training groups and the ones which didn¡¯t have enough power to gods that owned universe so that they could be given a body and become conscious. I had chosen to try and become one of those Physical Universe gods, maybe one day moving to a physical universe or, if I was strong enough, creating my own physical universe. For now, however, I was just studying everything I could on the subject. I followed them to where dozens of deities were floating around in at least seven different dimensions. ¡°See, what did I tell you? Have you ever seen anything like it?¡± In front of me was a three dimensional mass of aether and divine energy. The two things swirled around the mass in a toroid shape. If it wasn¡¯t for my studies of three dimensional physical universes I wouldn¡¯t have remembered what that shape was called, but I remembered mostly because I had recently studied magnetic fields. ¡°Any idea what it is?¡± I indicated that I had no knowledge of the topic, what mortal bipedal beings would call a shrug. ¡°Looks almost like a soul in the middle.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a soul like that.¡± said my friend. I suddenly realized why mortals wanted names. It made referring to a specific person much easier, especially when they couldn¡¯t just transfer information about the subject when talking about another. Maybe I¡¯d pick one and see if my friend wanted to do so as well. I would need one if I joined a universe with sapient lifeforms anyway. And probably a gender too, though that wasn¡¯t necessary in all cases. ¡°It seems unstable.¡± As we watched, it seemed to grow and shift, becoming a more powerful version of a soul. ¡°Did we just witness a soul upgrade? That is a rare phenomenon, and it appears to already be fairly high grade, making it an even rarer phenomenon. I doubt we¡¯ll see this again within the next million years.¡± The deities here moved to three dimensional positions around the strange soul. It was radiating out vast amounts of mana, and, even though it couldn¡¯t be used for everything, having stores of mana meant that you could save yourself the stress of manipulating divine energy and aether to get what you wanted. I and my friend floated there for some period of time until I saw something strange happening in the weird soul. It again started to destabilize, then grew in size and power. ¡°Ok, this is strange.¡± said my friend. ¡°The soul shouldn¡¯t be upgrading this fast.¡± ¡°How long should it take, then?¡± I asked them. ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly. Maybe a few million years? Usually upgrading occurs because a soul slowly manages to accumulate aether and incorporate it into themselves. This one is somehow purposely drawing it in.¡± ¡°Could it be some Sage trying to Ascend?¡± I asked, only to get the equivalent of a bewildered look. ¡°Sometimes a mortal will, through meditation, learn to draw in aether or divine energy and incorporate it into their soul, eventually upgrading it. This process is usually known as ¡°ascending¡± and is used by them in an attempt to become gods. Even that usually takes hundreds or thousands of years per stage. I¡¯ve been here less than a tenth of a year.¡± ¡°Most unusual.¡± We kept watching, drawing in what mana we could, and a little over a tenth-year later the soul started fluctuating again. ¡°We really need to watch it this time. Who knows what we might learn if we can figure out how it is upgrading itself?¡± We watched intently, using all of our senses to gather all of the information we could. I even altered my perception of time with a bit of divine energy, studying exactly how the soul fluctuated. A few years of subjective time later it started to condense, compressing the aether it had gathered and becoming a god-like soul. If it was just a soul, we could take it to a training center and earn a billions of mana for our trouble. With that vortex around it, however, I couldn¡¯t risk getting close enough to grab it, as it would strip aether from my own soul now that it was on the same level as myself. ¡°It became a god?¡± asked my friend, bringing me back to standard time. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right and it is ¡®ascending¡¯.¡± The mass then started moving. Its recent upgrade had allowed it to be at least somewhat conscious outside of a physical reality, and now it moved erratically across the different directions. The dieties which had gathered around it chased it, hoping to gather more than the few million mana they had already gotten from it, but it just moved in even stranger ways to try and avoid them. Eventually the chase lead to it colliding with a three dimensional physical universe. The deities figuratively sighed and left. That universe in particular was being watched over by the Supreme Deity that created it, and wouldn¡¯t let others in without permission. ¡°Well, looks like the fun is over. Back to work.¡± said my friend, then left. ¡°Guess it is,¡± I said, making my way back to my domain. -- Xirkos entered the holding room. They had sensed something trying to enter their universe and it had been automatically rerouted here. The space held no matter or energy, being just an expanse of space to hold intruders, but with the void floated a baby, a male humanoid child with golden skin. It made no sense. If no matter existed here, yet a body of matter did, then that could only mean one thing. This child created its own body once it entered the space. And only a god could do that. Most interesting. He had never had a new god soul enter his universe by accident, and this one appeared to already be able to convert Aether into matter in quite complex patterns. They would have to keep an eye on this one. The problem of not having a place or the desire to raise a child came to Them, however. How would They solve this issue? Well, there were mortals on some of the worlds within Their universe that worship Them. Surely they would have the means and desire to raise a child if They asked. Xirkos found a world with a large humanoid population, and looked for one of Their followers. In a temple on top of a mountain was a monastery, and within it was a monk who was currently praying to Them for understanding of their purpose in life. If this man wanted purpose, They would give him purpose. Quickly forming a place where the mortal could survive and taking a humanoid appearance, Xirkos brought the monk to the waiting room. The man immediately collapsed to the ground, prostrating themselves before their Deity. ¡°Arise.¡± commanded Xirkos in a gender neutral voice. ¡°I have brought you here because you seek purpose in life, a mission to bring your life meaning. Here is that purpose.¡± Xirkos handed the monk the boy. ¡°But my Lord, Lady. I have never raised a child. I have trained children, orphans on behalf of the monastery, but never one myself. I am not a father yet.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Either honorific is fine. Now you are a father. You are to adopt that child as your own and raise them as you see fit, to the best of your abilities. Just know that the child is special, and may do things that you do not understand. Know that I will be monitoring the situation, so if you need advise, you need only pray.¡± The monk bowed, being careful not to harm the child. ¡°As you command, my deity.¡± Xirkos waved their hand and the man and child disappeared back to the monastery. This should be interesting. ¨C ¡°Monk Ghido?¡± asked the head priest upon hearing a baby cry in the most sacred part of the temple, the room of statues. ¡°Where did that baby come from?¡± ¡°It was given to me.¡± said the monk, trying to grasp the weight of the situation. ¡°Given to me by Xirkos themselves. I was ordered to adopt them, and raise them.¡± He looked down at the golden skinned newborn, tickling it with one finger to try and quiet it. ¡°I have no intention of leaving the monastery, but for now I must leave to see to his needs. Excuse me.¡± With that, he left the holy room, the other monks staring in either disbelief or surprise. After all, why would the Supreme One grant a child to one of their youngest members, one who only joined the priesthood less than a year ago? By the end of the day, however, Ghido had found one of the pregnant nuns to act as a wetnurse, and had a crib from the orphanage moved to his quarters. This nun had devoted her life to Aranya, goddess of fertility, and as such her vow included having as many children as possible. Such nuns always acted as wetnurses for the orphanage, and now they would act as such for the child of a monk. No one knew what race the child was, but they didn¡¯t care. Even the lowest beastfolk would be raised with care here, as the monks guiding them along their correct path in life, teaching them anything they needed to know. This child learned quickly, speaking its first word at only a few months and learning to walk by its first birthday. Soon after this, the child was given the name Brin and allowed to play with the children of the other holy men and women, as well as the orphans. There he mastered many games, and was soon able to hide better than any of the older children, only losing hide and seek because he was too slow to get away once spotted. His skill and talent made the other children jealous of him and one day at the age of two, as he slowly made his way down the stairs to the basement gym, a six year old boy pushed him. He tumbled down the steps breaking several bones and cracking his skull. The boy who pushed him begged for forgiveness, but was locked in his room, the size of an average jail cell, with only bread and water to eat and drink. There he would remain until Brin recovered or died, at which point he would either make amends or be handed over to the town guard of the nearby town for punishment and likely indentured servitude for his attempted murder. It was a harsh punishment, but one that was necessary to maintain the order and justice demanded by Soquan, god of Justice. Ghido used what healing magic he knew to set the bones and several other holy men and women also did what they could, but the boy wasn¡¯t waking up. If only the vow Ghido had taken hadn¡¯t banned the use of mana cores, he might have had the energy to fix all of the damage. Maybe, because of the lack of healing, the blow to the head had caused too much damage and he would never wake up? Ghido cried himself to sleep at the boy¡¯s bedside, begging Xirkos for answers. Xirkos didn¡¯t respond. The next morning, however, a small hand shook him awake. ¡°Father Ghido? Are you ok?¡± He looked up to see Brin staring him in the face. ¡°You, you¡¯re alive! And Awake! Truly my prayers have been answered!¡± He picked Brin up and hugged him hard enough to threaten to break his bones again. Realizing this, he set Brin down. ¡°You must be hungry. Come, lets go to the kitchen and get you something good to eat. Brin wasn¡¯t really hungry, but he went anyway. For as long as Brin could remember, he was only hungry when he wanted to be, which mostly mean when others wanted to hang out with him. After breakfast he was lead to an exam room where a doctor from the city had come to examine him. Brin laid there and let the man run all of the tests he wanted, then the man took Ghido out of the room to talk to him. ¡°I can find nothing wrong with the boy.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± said Ghido, breathing a sigh of relief. ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand. Even the best healing leaves behind traces, like microscopic scars that need to heal on their own. I should be able to tell which of his ribs were broken, where his skull was fractured, which organs and which part of his brain was bleeding, and all the other injuries. Those signs just simply aren¡¯t there. It¡¯s as if he was healed by a miracle, though this monastery has no prophet, and even the saintess cannot yet use magic. And there¡¯s another anomaly.¡± ¡°Something in his physiology?¡± guessed Ghido. ¡°No, not exactly. I normally check the sex, race, species, and bloodline traits of all of my patients, as those things may make certain treatments work better or differently. I didn¡¯t get any of that information, though, other than that he was a boy.¡± ¡°You mean he isn¡¯t an elf or half elf? I had assumed so, as only some high-born elves have golden skin.¡± ¡°No, he isn¡¯t an elf. I¡¯m not even sure he¡¯s a humanoid. Even if he was a Precursor, or a Moira, or a Giant, or a Goblix, the ancient ancestor of humanoids and goblinoids, or a Blix, the humanoid branch ancestor, I should have gotten something that gave me a hint. I got nothing.¡± ¡°A homunculus?¡± The creation of sapient life through magical growth was banned in most nations, but occasionally you would hear of an evil wizard attempting it. ¡°Again, no. I would get some response from the race the evil wizard had used the tissue of. There was nothing.¡± I nodded. ¡°Very strange. If he¡¯s healthy, though, there shouldn¡¯t be any reason he can return to his normal life, right?¡± The doctor shrugged. ¡°As far as I can tell, yes. He is fine to return to his normal life.¡± Monk Ghido nodded and the two returned to the room. ¡°Well, the doctor says you¡¯re fine, so you can go play if you want to.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± Brin said, jumping off of the bed that should have been too tall for him to attempt a jump from, but not injuring himself. ¡°Thanks, Father, Mr. Doctor.¡± Before he could open the door, however, the Doctor stopped him. ¡°I do have one question for you before you go. Do you have any idea why you healed so quickly and completely?¡± Brin shrugged. ¡°I just didn¡¯t want to be sick.¡± With that he opened the door and ran off to find some other children to play with, ignoring the stunned adults in the room. ¡°Do you think he might have healed himself?¡± asked Ghido. ¡°Not with magic. Even a level fifteen spell cast by a master would leave behind those micro scars.¡± ¡°Could he be a saint or prophet?¡± Ghido told the doctor the secret of how he had come to have the boy. The doctor shook his head. ¡°It is possible, and would explain why Xirkos handed you the boy. I don¡¯t have the ability to see soul marks, though, as I only deal with the body. You¡¯ll have to ask the high monk about that. I believe he¡¯s the only one around here with that ability.¡± Ghido nodded, thanked the doctor, and left. The monastery paid him a set amount per month to be on standby, so he didn¡¯t need to be paid. For the next two and three quarters years everything went well. Brin just seemed like a normal kid. That was until he was taken to begin learning magic with the other children that were around five years old. Monk Tanno, a Master ranked Combat mage, told them about how everyone was born with mana inside of them, and could learn to control it. When you were born, your mana pressure was the same as your mothers. Once you left her body, though, it started dropping until it equalized with the environment. He demonstrated this by placing a cup with a hole in the bottom in a bowl, and letting the water leak out into the bowl, equalizing the levels. Once you could use mana, though, the level inside you would be able to increase above the background pressure, allowing you to cast more powerful spells. This he demonstrated by taking a potion vial, turning it upside down in the bowl of water, only allowing a little water inside, and lifting it so that the vacuum within the vial raised the water inside above the level of the water in the bowl. He set a candle in front of each of us, lighting it. ¡°Now, I want you to try and feel the pressure within yourself, to feel how it flows through your skin and into your chest while also leaking out across your body. Once you have the image, I want you to take some of this mana and send it into the candle flame, willing the flame to grow. It may take you a while, but I¡¯m sure you can manage eventually. Everyone has this ability.¡± Brin smiled internally. That was it? He had known about mana for years. While he had played with it inside of himself years ago, it was one of many, and in his opinion, one of the worst energy sources he felt around him and in him. Still, that was the task he had been asked to do it, so he would. He broke off a drop of mana from the lake within himself and sent it into the flame, ordering the flame to grow. A jet of flame shot up half a meter tall and extinguished itself as it burned the wick to ash before it could draw in enough wax to sustain the flame. The children looked amazed, but not as much as Monk Tanno. A few seconds later, he came over to Brin and had him stand up. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Nothing wrong. He just happens to have higher mana pressure than most people, that¡¯s all. See.¡± Monk Tanno quickly shaved the candle, relit it and made the flame grow just as much. ¡°See. The practice is just a poor match for him. Now, please continue practicing as I go find a more appropriate form of practice for Brin.¡± He lead Brin out of the room and to the magic practice area. ¡°So, tell me, Brin. How tired did that make you? Do you feel like you are ready to pass out?¡± Brin shrugged. ¡°Not at all. I can do that a million more times.¡± Monk Tanno scratched his head. ¡°Really? In that case, why don¡¯t you try this?¡± Monk Tanno conjured a fire bolt, and Brin copied. Tanno conjured a fire ball, and again, Brin copied it perfectly. It seemed that any basic or intermediate spell using fire, ice, light, or electricity that he did, Brin copied it perfectly. It wasn¡¯t until he started using sound and illusion spells that Brin struggled. Brin¡¯s illusions were badly distorted and his sounds muffled. Brin seemed to have no ability to use mental or kinetic spells like rock bullet or water ball. ¡°Good. I have found your limits. In that case, please come here at noon every day except the day of rest and I will personally train you. You have surpassed everything I wanted to teach you in that class, and I can teach you the utility spells in private, so there is no need for you to continue coming to class.¡± The Mage who became a God: Chapter 3 For the next year, Brin came to the training field every day that he was supposed to, learning a new spell on most of those days. By his sixth birthday he had learned every spell that Master Tanno knew, and they had begun sparing. The rules for these sparing sessions were simple. You could use as much magic as you wanted on yourself, but you must only attack with magic. No physical attacks that were non-magical were allowed. So, while Brin was fast enough to land a punch if he boosted his strength and dexterity, that wouldn¡¯t be allowed. All physical combat was to be covered when Master Varris, a Tiger beastfolk and the strongest martial artist of the monastery, chose to begin his training. Unfortunately, Master Varris was off at the northern border, defending it against the latest military push by the Demon Empire. No one knew why they were attacking, as they had an entire continent of their own, but they had seized several counties belonging to this nation along its northern coast, and the Sati Monastery was asked to help take them back. The fight began with Master Tanno throwing area of effect attacks at Brin. He had learned that Brin was fast enough to dodge most direct attacks he saw coming, so Tanno had resorted to area attacks that were harder to dodge. Brin was forced to use wind or explosions to push himself off of the ground, then weave and dodge to avoid incoming attacks. When he saw an opening Brin fired three fire bolts and a rock bullet at Tanno, though only one of the fire bolts seemed to hit him. While he could have used larger or flashier spells, he preferred saving them for when the enemy least expected them, and this opening wasn¡¯t large enough. The fire bolt impact had stunned him enough for Brin to remove the friction from the ground under Tanno¡¯s feet, an effect which was amplified by him also smoothing the rock with Geokinesis. Tanno was surprised at first when he learned that Brin could even alter the physical properties of matter, something he had taken years to learn, but as the child had already learned most of his spells before that, he realized he shouldn¡¯t be surprised. Tanno slipped, but was able to roll out of the effected area and stand back up in time to avoid a Mana Bolt the size of his head. Brin often used raw force attacks like Mana Bolt for their speed, so Tanno was half expecting it. As Brin ran at him, Tanno lit the ground around him on fire, forcing Brin to jump high into the air. As the child cleared twenty meters, Tanno fired five magic missiles at the boy, sending four to his left side and the other one on a stealthy course behind him. Brin was forced to use Force magic to shift his coarse in order to avoid the homing attacks, only to be hit in the back of the head with another one. The split second of pain broke his concentration on the spell that would have let him land safely, and he face planted into the ground. The fact that he always placed a Physical Defense shield on his entire body was the only thing that prevented serious injury. Tanno quickly ran over and placed the end of his staff against the back of Brin¡¯s head. ¡°I yield.¡± said Brin, the got up and dusted himself off, seemingly unharmed from the fall. ¡°That was a nice trick, Master Tanno. I completely missed the one that was behind me. Thank you for the lesson.¡± He cupped his hands in front of himself and bowed. ¡°Not a problem.¡± said Master Tanno, doing the same, ¡°Sparing with you has made me a far better combat mage. Who knows, it another decade I may make Grandmaster.¡± Brin chuckled. ¡°In another decade I might be able to beat you.¡± ¡°Oh, I suspect I have no more than another year before I take my first loss to you. Now, if you don¡¯t mind, can I check your mana levels?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Brin said, standing still. Tanno ran his hand over Brin and smiled. ¡°Still level nine after those spells. May I ask what your maximum pressure is?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I never measured it. Here, let me refill my reserves and you can check again.¡± A golden aura briefly enveloped Brin, then was sucked into him. ¡°There, I¡¯m full.¡± ¡°You have an ability to instantly refill your mana reserves? How does that work?¡± ¡°Its hard to explain. Let¡¯s just say that there are other forms of energy other than mana, and I can convert one of those.¡± ¡°Like chemical?¡± That was where much of the mana within humans and magical animals came from, as the body could use chemical energy to recharge depleted mana particles. ¡°It isn¡¯t chemical, but something like that.¡± How was he supposed to understand the two other sources of power he had, not including the ability to manipulate atmospheric ionization, heat, and radiation using them? He didn¡¯t even fully understand the energy form that he could use to refill mana reserves. ¡°Interesting. I¡¯ll have to research that.¡± If it could instantly restore all spent mana, it would be invaluable in battle. Tanno held out his hand and ran it over Brin. ¡°Just over eleven. No wonder that fire bolt hurt so much. I¡¯m still at twelve, and I¡¯ve been trying to raise it for over two hundred years.¡± Brin nodded. ¡°So, you said there is someone here that you wanted to introduce me to?¡± ¡°I did. I think I found you a sparing partner other than myself. I taught her as well, and while her pressure is still ten, she has far larger reserves than you do.¡± Tanno motioned for Brin to follow and he followed the master to a fancy part of the monastery. As he knew the Cleaning utility spell and hadn¡¯t even broken a sweat during the sparring session, there wasn¡¯t even a need for changing or bathing. This wing of the monastery was where the Grand Library, the Room of Statues, and the rooms for all of the high ranking officials and visiting nobles were. The floors were tiled with marble, and the walls were painted with elaborate murals of scenes from Scripture. When they reached one of those rooms, Tanno knocked and a girl¡¯s voice told them to come in. They entered and I saw a yellow haired human girl of seven years old. For some reason, Brin thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, the difference between her and the other girls that were here like the difference between the cold gray granite of the wing where he lived and the vibrant murals of the hallway outside. ¡°Lady Celest, this is Brin, the most talented trainee here. Brin, this is lady Celest, the Saintess.¡± Upon hearing her title, Brin took a knee. ¡°No you don¡¯t have to do that, I was just blessed by the gods with the power to do some special things, and will use it to serve them by one day driving out the invaders.¡± Brin stood up. ¡°Then I wish to join you on your mission.¡± ¡°But you are only six.¡± ¡°And you are only seven.¡± She smiled and nodded, then looked at Tanno. ¡°So, I take it you brought him here so that he could become the first member of my party?¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Tanno shrugged. ¡°I wasn¡¯t thinking of that at the time, but if it is what he wishes then I have no objection. I brought him here to be your sparring partner for the next few weeks. I am needed on the front, so it will be at least a month before I return. During that time, I want you to practice with him. His magic is a bit stronger than yours at the moment, but he has poor reserves. By the time that I return, I want your pressure up to at least eleven, and I want his reserves to be as large as yours are now.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± said both of the children in unison. ¡°In that case, please grab your gear, princess. There is a special training field a few kilometers from here that I want the two of you to travel to, preferably by running, where you can practice.¡± ¡°Running? But you know I hate exercising.¡± said the Saintess. ¡°I also know you need to. It¡¯s hard to fight if your stamina is too low, and you can always run out of mana and be forced to retreat, not to mention having to dodge enemy attacks.¡± The Saintess sighed. ¡°Fine, step outside and I¡¯ll change into my outdoor clothes.¡± The two males did so, and she closed the door. After a few seconds, Brin spoke up. ¡°I heard you call her princess earlier. Does that mean she¡¯s a bit spoiled due to her special status?¡± Tanno shook his head. ¡°No, I was being literal. She¡¯s the daughter of Prince Boran and his second concubine. They gave her to us to raise when they found out she was the saint, a duty I have taken seriously ever since.¡± ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that legally make her a duchess? After all, if I remember the way noble titles work from my lessons...¡± ¡°Technically, yes. When she reaches the age of fifteen she will become a Duchess, even being recognized in Farin, where they require certifications to maintain noble title, as she is a healer, mage, combat mage, alchemist, and several other jobs. But she all but gave up her noble title when she joined us, as the title of Saintess is equal to that of King or Queen. Though perhaps one day she¡¯ll be a queen as well, after she marries a crown prince.¡± Celest opened the door wearing a robe made of fine silk, a necklace that sparkled with mana, and carrying a wand of monster wood. While Brin didn¡¯t know anything about the monsters or their material the wand and robes were made of, he had heard descriptions of refined manacite, and how it put out pressure eight point four mana, which he could detect the necklace doing. No wonder she had such large reserves, when she could channel from such a necklace to never get below that pressure. ¡°You¡¯ll both need to take a backpack with your supplies if you got into the field, but for now, this is fine.¡± They both followed the Master out of the monastery and fifteen minutes of jogging later they were at a large platform built into the side of the mountain. ¡°This field is larger than the one at the monastery, and has a barrier around the outside to prevent you from leaving it from anywhere but the gates. That will prevent you from blasting each other over the edge. Now, I will leave the field and watch your first sparring session.¡± Tanno left the field and once the Saintess caught her breath the two squared off, standing on one of six black tiles around the hexagonal field. ¡°Begin¡± he called out and Celest opened with a massive fireball. Brin simply boosted his dexterity and strength and dodged it, allowing it to harmlessly fly off the side of the mountain behind him. She continued to fire targeted spells at him, all of which he dodged. The only time she even clipped his shoulder was when she fired a light beam at him. As it traveled at the speed of light instead of a few hundred meters per second like the others, he only had the aiming and charging time of the spell to dodge it. This gave her a way to deal with him and soon she only used light spells to attack him, landing a few glancing blows but not one serious enough to be declared a winner. When Brin started seeing signs that she was becoming mentally exhausted from the effort he flung a single spell, removing friction from under her feet. She instinctively stepped backwards, only to slip and fall on her back. Brin ran over and, before she could stand, stepped on her chest. ¡°The winner is Brin.¡± said Tanno, not being surprised at the outcome. While the Saintess was a better mage, he had combat experience. Brin took his foot off of her chest and helped her up. She touched the back of her head and her fingers came away with blood. ¡°Oh, you hit your head.¡± he said then a pulse of blue light washed over her. Suddenly all of her exhaustion and injuries were gone. ¡°You can use ¡®Full Recovery¡¯? I thought that was a Grand Master spell.¡± Brin shrugged. ¡°Something like that, but not that.¡± Master Tanno came over. ¡°You¡¯ll find that Brin has several unusual abilities that can¡¯t be explained. His Full Recovery ability is just one of them. He can also instantly recover mana reserves.¡± ¡°Very unusual.¡± she responded. ¡°Have you checked the library for any mention of such abilities?¡± Tanno nodded. ¡°I have, but I found nothing. It is possible it is just a natural power he was born with, like a unicorn¡¯s healing ability, but I don¡¯t think he is a sapient monster.¡± ¡°Me either. I would guess a half elf, like yourself. Still, there are some rare bloodline traits out there. Maybe he has dragon or Troll blood.¡± ¡°Are you just going to talk about me without my input?¡± asked Brin, and Celest apologized. ¡°I didn¡¯t know it would upset you. Aren¡¯t you curious where you came from?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see that it really matters. Even if I was a half troll half dwarf with dragon blood, would you treat me any differently?¡± Celest shrugged. ¡°I guess not.¡± ¡°See, it doesn¡¯t matter, now lets get back to the monastery. Nun Gertri is cooking supper tonight and she is an amazing cook.¡± With that, Brin started running towards the monastery. Celest attempted to keep up, but it was only by constantly channeling Revitalize through her necklace that she managed to not exhaust herself. Still, by the time she got there, every muscle in her body seemed to be on fire from the acid buildup. ¡°There you are, slowpoke.¡± Brin said, slapping her on the back. A wave of pain went through her from the blow a split second before a wave of blue energy washed away all of her exhaustion. Now she felt stronger and full of energy. Could he really wipe away all of the downsides of exercising without wiping out any of the benefits? That could let her train quite quickly if it was true. They went inside and entered the mess hall just as Gertri came out pushing a cart full of smoked meats. Another year passed with Brin and Celest racing to the training field every day. When he would inevitably beat her there, he would heal her, they would fight, and he would win eighty percent of the time. Still, she won often enough that he continued to gain combat experience. After he healed her of any injury she received during training they would then run back to the monastery and do physical combat training with Master Varris. Celest was by no means a fighter, but through practice she became competent with a staff and spear, and was able to fight on equal footing with about half of the recruits from the orphanage. Brin, on the other hand, was able to fight on equal footing with master Varris. With the restriction that one could only use magic on themselves and all damage must be physical and non-magical, both of them had taken to enhancing their bodies to the limit of their abilities and protecting themselves with anti-physical damage magic, then hitting each other with punches or claw strikes that would destroy boulders and take down trees that were hundreds of years old. Brin won his first match when, as Master Varris overextended himself with some of his claw strikes, Brin slid between his legs and punched upwards, causing Varris to collapse from the pain. He healed Master Varris immediately, but was scolded for using such a dirty attack. He countered that he was told to win any way he could, and got off with a lecture and a promise not to do it again. The next day, as they were heading out, an emergency meeting was called. The Saintess, and by extension her only party member, were asked to sit in on the strategy meeting. It seemed that the demons had broken through the northern lines and were attacking a city North of here. Master Tanno was there, trying to break the siege, but they needed to get the full Sati Holy Army, eight hundred and thirteen fighters, priests, monks, and mages, to the city quickly if they were to save it. Every strategy, from using carriages commandeered from merchants, to clearing out the nearby stables for horses, to trying to use what dragon mounts were available to move people a few dozen at a time could get them there in time. That¡¯s when Brin spoke up. ¡°I can do it.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a time for games, boy.¡± said an army captain the king had sent as liaison. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t underestimate him if I were you.¡± said the head monk. ¡°He has many abilities we haven¡¯t yet learned to duplicate. If he says he can teleport that many troops in time, then I believe him.¡± ¡°Fine, but I want proof.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll give it to you.¡± said Brin. ¡°Meet me at the training field I¡¯ve been using in one hour.¡± With that there was a rustle of wind and he was gone. ¡°Did he just teleport out of the meeting?¡± asked the captain, and the head monk smiled. An hour later, the commanders arrives at the training field. An elaborate magic circle had been drawn on the ground in magic chalk, a material only used for temporary ritual casting. The mages among them started looking over the circle, but to the best of their knowledge the circle made no sense. It seemed to either be the scribbles of a child or based on a radically different magic circle theory than they had learned. As they looked it over the lines glowed slightly and a chill went down their spines. Something had definitely disrupted the flow of mana in the area, causing many of them to shiver. ¡°I also had that that reaction when he first used it on me to prove it would work.¡± said master Tanno, standing in the middle of the circle with Brin. ¡°But we don¡¯t have time to debate how it works. Just know that it does, and that the demon¡¯s next assault will begin in less than an hour. Please bring as many troops as you can here as quickly as possible. It looks like it¡¯s about to rain, and I don¡¯t think the chalk will hold up for long after it does.¡± Ten minutes later over a hundred soldiers arrived at the circle, with others already on their way. They stepped into the circle, being careful not to smudge it, and Brin extended his hands towards it. The circle gave off a faint purple light and there was a ripple through the mana of the area as the forces disappeared, only to reappear in the center of the castle¡¯s courtyard over seventy kilometers away. Over the next hour he managed to send all of the troops there, and when he was done he stumbled over to a bench to sit down, exhaustion evident in his movement. ¡°To think a seven year old boy has so much magical energy.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t magic.¡± said the High Monk. ¡°That was something else entirely.¡± The Mage who became a God: Chapter 4 The next day the high monk called Brin into his office. ¡°Yes, sir?¡± asked Brin. ¡°I want to talk to you about what happened yesterday.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry for interrupting the meeting sir, it just seemed that I had the only way to get the troops there in time, so I had to speak up.¡± ¡°Oh, that was fine. Because of your actions we were able to break the siege of the city and drive the demons back to the main lines. You saved thousands of lives. I want to know how you did it, and how you knew you could.¡± ¡°Honestly, sir, I don¡¯t know. I just knew that I¡¯d done something similar before, that I had spent over a decade making it work, and had used it to save people. I know that doesn¡¯t make sense, as I¡¯m not even a decade old yet, but I know it¡¯s true.¡± The high monk nodded. ¡°Tell me. Do you know what a Reincarnate is?¡± ¡°I think I read about them in my studies. Sometimes a person¡¯s memories don¡¯t get completely erased when they get another chance at life, and they remember things from a past life. Do you think that is how I knew how to do that from yesterday, that I¡¯m a reincarnate?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the only explanation I can thing of.¡± Brin nodded. ¡°If that¡¯s true, then I would have to be a magical researcher in a past life. That¡¯s the only way I could put together such a circle from memory. Maybe even a Precursor.¡± ¡°Only that circle wasn¡¯t magic, nor was it based on any principles of magic circle construction that we have learned. And because our magic circle knowledge is an extension of the system the Precursors used, it is unlikely you are a reincarnated Precursor either.¡± ¡°But if it isn¡¯t magic, then what is it?¡± The high monk thought for a minute before speaking. ¡°Do you remember telling Master Tanno one time that your ability to recover mana instantly came from converting another type of energy you can¡¯t explain? Was it this type?¡± He held out his hand and a flame sprouted in his palm. I was about to say that that was just mana, when a second type of energy joined with the mana, drastically improving the effect. The fire almost disappeared, turning blue around the edges with a white core. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. What is that. When I try to name it, my mind wants to call it ¡®shadow energy¡¯ or something close that I can¡¯t quite think of.¡± ¡°That is called Divine energy. It is called such because at one point we thought that only the gods could manipulate it. That was until a god taught us to manipulate it as well. That is the special power which the Saintess is currently being taught to use. And I believe it is the energy you used to activate the teleporter yesterday.¡± ¡°Yes, it was. Can you teach me to use it?¡± ¡°Perhaps. Your reserves seem to be far greater than any of ours. After you left yesterday, we had the Saintess try to activate it, as she is the only one here who can infuse pure divine energy into objects. We only tried to send a single person, but she was only able to fill it about half way before she exhausted herself.¡± ¡°I designed it for ease of use, not efficiency. If you want me to build you one the Saintess can activate and send maybe four or five people at a time, maybe even including the ability to switch destinations, I can do so. It will just take time.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary, though I appreciate the offer.¡± he sighed. ¡°Very well, I shall teach you what I know. The rest, you and the Saintess will have to learn in the library, as there is no one here with a strong enough soul to teach you. Now this is something that you would normally only learn once you properly joined the monastery, but...¡± He explained to Brin that the manipulation of divine energy required one to act from the soul and not the body. It was a difficult thing to learn, but every intelligent being could theoretically do it. Souls were divided into tiers. Every sapient being had to be at least tier one, though some animals had a tier zero soul. About one percent of people were tier 2 or above, about one percent of those were tier 3 or above, etc. The high Monk was a tier 4 soul. The tier of your soul determined what you could do with the small amount of divine energy in your soul. At tier one you could only transfer it to another soul, usually a deity. This was essentially what prayer was, sending divine energy to the god you prayed to. At tier two you could infuse your body with divine energy, rapidly healing wounds, improving health, fighting poisons and disease, etc. This is what he originally thought my Full Heal effect was, though he now knew that it wasn¡¯t. This was the tier Master Varris was at, and he used this to great effect in battle. At tier three one could infuse their mana with divine energy, improving its power and efficiency. This was the tier Master Tanno was at, though he rarely used this to improve his magic, as his reserves of divine energy were quite low. At tier four one could connect to one or more souls, using the connection to resonate with them, essentially transferring meaning without telepathy or speech. While the High Monk could do this, he rarely did so as he considered it to be far too intimate for casual use. You could also transfer divine energy along the resonance. Above that, he knew of only a handful of people, a southern monk named Pakku, who could infuse divine energy into magical items to improve their effects and make them bypass defenses, who was a tier 5. Luckily he was a pacifist and only used it to force healing on people who refused. Of course, the Saintess was a tier 7 soul, and they suspected that Brin was as well. He asked that Brin come to the Room of Statues, where the gods could bear witness to a ceremony which could measure the strength of a soul. Brin agreed and soon he was laying on an alter, surrounded by monks and sacred relics with the High monk leading a long, repetitive prayer over him. He highly suspected that all of this ceremony wasn¡¯t necessary, but kept that to himself. Once they were finished Brin felt a massive amount of mana surge into him from all of the relics. He felt like he was split into two, a physical Brin and a non-physical Brin. Of course that was true. Not only did he know that souls were real, but he remembered going through something similar. Was it eight years ago? Nine? Surely it wasn¡¯t more than a decade. He was now no longer fully connected to his body, so he reached out and found that he could move independently of his body. ¡®Please don¡¯t move your soul too much.¡¯ Brin felt from somewhere. He instantly knew it was the High Monk using his Soul Resonance to talk to him. ¡®If it is out of place when the ceremony ends your soul may not properly reconnect to your body.¡¯ The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. He knew that wasn¡¯t true, that he could force his body to rejoin him no matter where he was, but he let it go. ¡®Fine. I¡¯ll practice later on my own, though.¡¯ Brin told him, laying back down and trying to align with his body as accurately as possible. A few minutes later the ceremony started to end and he felt his soul start to reconnect to his body. Eventually he found it hard to tell where his soul ended and his body began. There were a few places where they were out of alignment by a fraction of a millimeter, and he focused on those places. ¡°It may take a few days before you feel like your body and soul are fully connected again.¡± the High Monk said as he lay there. ¡°Just take it easy and things will adjust. Focusing on the pleasures of life, instead of the spiritual may help as well.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. I can fix the problem.¡± Brin said. He ordered his body to rejoin his soul and it subtly shifted, reconnecting himself but also causing him great pain. ¡°Ouch.¡± he said, quickly healing himself. ¡°Next time I¡¯ll shift my soul to match my body. The soul is far more flexible.¡± He noticed that every monk other than the High Monk and Father had left. The High monk looked at him in surprise. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had the ability to independently move your soul and body.¡± he said. ¡°Neither did I until they were separated. So, what did you find out?¡± The High Monk bowed. ¡°You are a tier eight soul. The only beings I know of that tier are demigods and gods, and I am not so conceited as to think that a god resides in my temple.¡± Father stepped forward. ¡°I haven¡¯t told you about how I came to adopt you yet. I was praying one day to Xirkos for a purpose in life, when They took me to Their domain and handed me a child, you. They told me to watch after you, to raise you as best as I could as if you were my own son. So I adopted you. Now that situation makes sense to me. If Xirkos had a child with a mortal, and something happened to that mortal, they would need someone to raise the child. I am honored to be trusted by the Supreme One with the raising of their child.¡± He bowed to Brin. ¡°Please get up, Father.¡± Brin said. ¡°Even if I am a demigod I¡¯m still a child and your son. I need you to be there for me. To teach me, not to grovel before me.¡± ¡°Truly wise, oh great one.¡± said the High Monk, bowing to Brin as well. ¡°Don¡¯t you start bowing either. If you can¡¯t find it within you to treat me as a student, as you promised to do, then treat me as an equal, a fellow scholar in the study of the tiers of the soul and divine energy.¡± The High monk nodded. ¡°I can do that. So, let us begin your lesson. Please meditate. Feel your soul and the energy within it. The divine energy which you have already used¡­¡± A week later Brin was sitting in the library with the Saintess, reading papers on the soul, divine energy and the theory behind it. ¡°So, I haven¡¯t figured out how to infuse divine energy into this knife yet.¡± He dropped the Fire enchanted blade on the table. ¡°Have you figured out what power we should have at tier six?¡± ¡°Two possibilities. One is that you can do the tier two thing, but on others. The other is that you can do the tier three thing, running your spells directly off of divine energy. I seem to have two reputable sources, one from an elven god about three thousand years ago, and one from a saint around two thousand years ago. Both could do what they claimed. I am inclined to believe the saint, that it is the tier two thing, as the god could probably do both of them.¡± ¡°What if it¡¯s both?¡± Brin asked. ¡°I can think of how to do both of those things if I wanted, and I¡¯m only tier eight, so only one higher than the saint.¡± ¡°But the god might have been tier eight and the other ability just be the one for tier eight.¡± Brin sighed. ¡°Then there is only one way to solve this. I¡¯m going to teach you both.¡± And two weeks later Brin¡¯s idea was justified. It turned out that the actual ability at tier six was to directly manipulate pure divine energy instead of having to mix it with mana, and it was a simple step to go from that to either infusing it into others or directly manipulating it into spells. Once they figured out how to do that they spent hours throwing divine energy spells off of the mountain. The barrier around the training field only prevented creatures from leaving it, not spells, so they were able to throw ridiculously powerful and efficient spells for several minutes before even Celest¡¯s meager reserves were depleted. ¡°You know, the power of those spells kind of remind me of stories of level fifteen spells, how they had many secondary effects, only combined with how Holy magic can bypass defenses. Did we figure out how to use holy magic without drawing on the power of a god?¡± ¡°You know, I think we did.¡± They laughed at this fact. It was no wonder that saints were said to be on par with priests and prophets. All three could use divine magic, only the Saint drew on their own energy, not the energy of a god. Now that they had figured this out, making the tier five ability work was easy, as they could just use pure divine energy to power the dagger instead of having to work an odd mixture of the two into the mana circuit. They learned to use the mixture too, however, as it might be necessary at some point. Maybe it was more efficient at low energy levels? ¡°So,¡± said Brin the next day as they met in the library. ¡°Can you tell me what the tier seven power is now?¡± Celest thought for a moment. ¡°I was told not to tell anyone this, but the tier seven ability is the ability to consecrate objects.¡± Brin was shocked at this. ¡°I thought that only gods could do such a thing.¡± ¡°I did too, which is why I¡¯m not allowed to tell anyone, but I have learned to infuse a tiny fragment of myself along with my divine energy, into an object. I can then extend my senses or my power through that object, just like the gods can do with their consecrated statues. I¡¯ve only done it with combined mana and divine energy up to this point, but now that we figured out how, I should be able to do it with pure divine energy. Furthermore, as the items are considered Sacred Relics, they will have all of the abilities such objects have, like being immune to pure mana spells, and amplifying any mana spells cast through them by one the object accepts. I actually consecrated the wand I used when I first met you, though I only got a ten percent or so power boost. My guess is because it used a combination of mana and divine energy.¡± Brin watched her deconsecrate her wand and consecrate it with pure divine energy. After that he tried the same thing with a pair of gloves and, after a few tries, managed to succeed. Now he had a cheap pair of goatskin gloves that were also, somehow, sacred relics. The other monks would hate this if they found out. Thankfully, they would also believe the lie that they were merely enchanted with a spell enhancement effect, and that he bought them from a merchant in town. Even if he hadn¡¯t been to town in over a month. He should probably visit the town on the next rest day. ¡°So, Brin. Now that we have everything figured out, what can you tell me about the tier eight ability?¡± Unfortunately, Brin didn¡¯t know the answer. Five years passed as Brin and Celest studied and practiced together. The war still continued, but the demons hadn¡¯t managed to break through the lines again, so they were able to live their lives peacefully. A few things happened during that time. First, Brin and Celest passed their Adventurer certification and went out whenever they felt like it to kill monsters and sell the valuable parts of their corpses. Neither of them needed help, as they were among the strongest adventurers the city had, but they still went out to kill monsters together the day before every rest day, earning enough coin to buy some actual gear, not just the hand-me-downs from the monks and nuns. Brin had deconcecrated his gloves, instead consecrating a silver ring. It was much easier to convince the other adventurers that someone had put an amplification spell on a ring with a small mana core on top. Second, they had continued their training and before long even Celest could defeat almost all of the orphans that trained there. She, of course, used either physical enhancement powered by divine energy or the tier two version of it, but she got good enough with it that by the time she was twelve she was regularly beating Dwarves and Minotaurs at the adventurers guild in arm wrestling. The third important thing was that Brin discovered how to see souls without tearing them from the body. To insure that it wasn¡¯t a fluke or the result of some special ability, he taught his father and High Monk, and within a few weeks they could both see their own souls. With another week of practice they could see the souls of people nearby them, though their range was always inferior to Brin¡¯s. Shortly after his twelfth birthday some of the twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year old boys came by his room on a rest day. ¡°Hey Brin. Do you want to come to town with us? I promise, it will be fun.¡± The boy had a strange smile on his face and his soul had a wicked grin. ¡°Depends. What are you going to do?¡± One of the boys leaned close to make sure that none of the girls or nuns heard him. ¡°We¡¯re going to the brothel.¡± he whispered. ¡°Ah,¡± Brin said. ¡°In that case I¡¯ll pass.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± the boy asked. ¡°What, are you into guys? Because I¡¯m pretty sure they have some of those too.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m into girls, it¡¯s just that you guys really need to learn to see souls. I¡¯ll teach you if you want.¡± ¡°And what does spiritual abilities have to do with renting whores?¡± asked one of the fourteen year olds. Brin could tell he was just acting tough for his friends and was actually curious. ¡°Imagine you¡¯ve got a woman in bed, naked.¡± All the boys nodded. That¡¯s exactly what they wanted. ¡°Now, imaging that she removed her makeup and behind it was a rotting corpse, infested with maggots. That is what the souls of most of those women look like. Even the best look malnourished to the point that they might die at any time.¡± ¡°Now I want to learn to see souls even less.¡± one boy joked, and the others agreed. ¡°If you really want to find a decent woman, go try and seduce one of the nuns of Aranya. Lots of the monks here do just that, though they don¡¯t tell us about it. How do you think they keep getting pregnant?¡± Sure, the nuns didn¡¯t have the healthiest souls, but slightly to plump or too skinny, or malformed was far better than they would find at a brothel. There was only one woman here that Brin was interested in, a woman whose soul was as beautiful as her body. That was the Saintess. But she had sworn a vow of chastity that would last until her wedding night, a symbol the signified her devotion to let nothing stand in the way of her mission. And she was destined to marry a prince or duke, not a monk or even demi-god friend.