Chapter 66, 1/2

Chapter 66, 1/2

Oceanside smelled of stone and the sea, with salt tainting the air flowing up from the Harbor District, as the sun shone down on the bustling city of learning.

Bright cream-colored stone formed open-aired hallways, while bookshops and bakeries hawked their wares to the mid-morning crowd. Towers and apartment buildings loomed, while kids and young adults, laden with books or bags, laughed and joked as they walked from place to place. But not everyone walked. Above the pastel blue or green or yellow or red roofs, some of the older students flew from the balconies of their residences with personal flight wards, or on platforms of Force, to join a secondary flow of traffic in the sky where the paths were delineated by lines of cream-colored light, instead of by the ground and the markings of the stone roads.

Here and there in the air around the city, floated the police and early warning system of Oceanside: cream-colored Robes, floating like sentinels, who watched and waited for trouble. But traffic in the air and on the ground was perfectly peaceful, today. The Robes would not get involved without justification, or at least that’s what Krigea said when Erick asked about them.

Krigea had an answer for everything, as they walked around on a tour of the city, while Erick held only a fraction of the questions. Kiri had her own fair share of queries. Poi even had a couple of inquiries, asking for clarification on a few of Krigea’s answers to Erick’s questions.

They toured the Low Market, where the roads were wide and items of every non-magical kind were sold under tents or in stone alcoves, from clothing to spices, and metal to meat, where voices yelled at each other, haggling down prices from gold to silver, or from 10 mana rads to 5 mana rads; from ‘marks’ to ‘chips’. They traveled through the High Market, where magical goods were kept and traded under the watchful eyes of a Robe every ten meters, and hushed voices spoke over enchanted items locked under glass. Prices were listed in dozens of ‘marks’, meaning 10 mana rads, though sometimes the prices were listed in ‘Quants’; those were the expensive items, because ‘quant’ meant ‘grand-rad’.

They walked through the town, from place to place. Food was sold on every corner, and the smell sent Erick’s stomach rumbling, even though he already had breakfast. The cuisine of Oceanside came from every part of the world; there were fried bugs and grilled fruit, glazed meats and raw fish. Breads and cheeses. Wines and beers. Tea shops sold pastries to a peaceful crowd.

And everywhere, young people walked, or talked, or just lived. Every once in a while Erick saw an older person, but they were usually the ones selling the goods, or making them.

Oceanside was a college town, and Erick loved it. Back when he was Kiri’s age, he had gone to a community college for a few years, but flunked out when sex and beer proved to be more interesting than studying and showing up on test days. It was only in his thirties, while he was taking care of a 6 year-old Jane and completing part-time courses at the local community college, that he scraped together his old college credits and finished a bachelor’s degree in social work. That took years, though; much longer than normal. Erick was only able to take one course at a time. Work, and life, hit Erick hard for the choices he made in his youth. But now, looking all around him, maybe he could make a few better choices. Maybe he had another chance at a proper education. He certainly needed a magical education, at least.

Erick found himself looking forward to the student life.

According to Krigea, the normal course of study that most students were required to learn included World History, Politics, Geography and the Underworld, Religious Studies, Warfare, Monster Ecology, and Basic Magic. From there, the course load bloomed into every other nuance that Erick read about in the course manual back at Windy Manor: Philosophy, Medicine, Engineering, Advanced Magic, all of that.

Erick was skipping those requirements, but maybe he should look into some of them. World History and Politics, in particular, seemed like good things to know. If they had a Cultural Studies program Erick would have to take that, too, as well as a course on Law and Justice, if they had such a thing. Back on Earth, those sorts of courses were part of his Bachelor’s of Social Work, and he used that knowledge almost every day; especially when it came to dealing with the police.

The only time he had ever been hauled before Silverite in a legal sort of way was just after the shadowolf ambush in the defunct Human District. Nothing had happened to him or Jane, thankfully, but ever since that incident, and because of what came later, Erick got the distinct, and correct, impression that Spur existed at Silverite’s discretion. Much of life on Veird seemed to be that way, with benevolent or otherwise dictators here and there, doing what they needed to do to keep their cities intact, but it would be nice to know what ‘law’ actually meant on this planet.

Knowing the culture of some of Veird might not be what was immediately necessary for survival, but it would make Erick happy to not be a such a blundering idiot.

And then the tour was over.

Krigea walked ahead of them, into the square where Erick had set down his [Teleporting Platform]. Trees grew on the sides of the square, but the center was an open, grassy land; a bit of flat space without nearby towers, located in the south portion of the crescent-shaped, mountain city. Other people set down on platforms of their own, or took off, while cream-colored Robes hung in the sky around the airy, unobstructed square; watching.

Krigea turned back to Erick, saying, “I hope that helped to orient you.”

“Thank you, Krigea,” Erick said. “It was nice being a little anonymous, too.”

Kiri murmured, “Someone should have noticed you.”

Poi said, “They did. And then they purposefully looked away when the Robes looked at them.”

Kiri went, “Oh.”

“Yup.” Erick said, “I noticed them.” He looked to Poi, adding, “Some of them, anyway.”

Poi smirked.

“I assure you—” Krigea stressed, “Oceanside is one of the safest cities in the world.”

Poi said nothing, as tendrils of thought continued to radiate from his head.

“I think so, too.” Erick’s eyes dropped from a floating Robe, to a gaggle of kids walking past, each of them joking with each other. Half of them were human, the other incani, with a short orcol to round out the group of seven. “I’ve seen a lot of human and incani getting along on the tour. It’s nice to see such a thing. Not much Quiet War here?”

Krigea said, “Not usually.” She asked, “Is there anything else you wish to do today, that I may assist with?”

Erick looked up at the sky. The sun was directly overhead. Normally at this time Erick would be occupied with raining on the farms, but that task would be postponed by 5 hours while he lived in Oceanside. Almost the entire day was his, and his alone. It was nice.

Erick asked, “Poi? Kiri?”

Poi shook his head. Kiri did the same.

Erick gazed up, to see Central Tower amid the other, smaller towers. He would be giving his lecture somewhere up there, tomorrow. It was a massive structure, a city block wide, twenty stories tall, and one of three. Balconies adorned the sides of all the towers; open-air platforms of stone that served as the entrances to each floor of the buildings. People flew in and out, on organized trails of light that snaked across the whole of the sky.

The other two main towers of Oceanside were North and South, both of which were currently mostly out of sight.

Erick pointed at Central, asking, “Up there tomorrow, then?”

Krigea looked to the tower Erick indicated, saying, “Yes, sir. That’s the one.”

“Then we can leave that for tomorrow.” Erick said, “I want to learn about Mana Sense. How would I go about learning this skill, here?”

Krigea nodded, then pointed to the tower left of tomorrow’s destination, one of the smaller ones, saying, “Then we should go there.”

- - - -

Erick stood in an airy stone room with a private, small balcony, that extended west from the tenth floor of the tower. Far below, the crescent crater arms of Oceanside stretched out before him, laden with city and stone and people, encircling the dark harbor waters. Bright sailing vessels plowed those waters, in and out of the harbor.

The room around Erick was rather spartan, with a few knickknacks on pedestals on the perimeter of the space and nothing else; stone spheres and little pyramids. The kick-up of the manasphere, as it struck the city, spilled into the room, though, like a second breeze, laced with possibility; a pleasant companion to the salt already on the air.

Poi and Kiri stood around the room, both of them perfectly patient. Krigea stood to the side of the balcony. Erick continued to look out over the waters of the harbor while Ophiel clung to the railing, enjoying the breeze, letting his wings flutter loose and easy to tangle in the wind. It was a very nice day.

The door to the room burst open, a small woman already saying, “Sorry! Sorry! I took longer than I thought I would!”

Erick turned, smiling, saying, “Don’t worry about it. I’m the one imposing, here.”

The woman was almost a pure white incani, with pale skin, white hair, and white horns, but her eyes were bright red. She looked older than Erick, but not by much, while her strong bearing and nice tan and brown, though dirty, clothes, told the story that she had been in a garden, planting, just minutes ago.

Erick introduced himself, “Erick Flatt, of Spur.”

The woman’s red eyes sparkled like rubies as she smiled, saying, “Professor Rue Downs! Uh! Archmage, sir. It’s nice to meet you.”

Krigea stepped forward, saying, “The Headmaster wishes for this juncture of minds to go well, but he knows that it might take more sessions than one to impart the wisdom of Mana Sense. He has instructed that a bargain of trade would be prudent, even if this exchange is just a few questions.”

“I accept,” Erick said.

“Me too,” said the woman. “Please, call me Rue.” Rue added, “Archmage.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Erick, then, for me, please. Thank you for taking time out of your day, Rue. When I suggested this idea, I did not expect to take someone out of their life like this. I especially did not expect to be placed on the same level as people who had gone through schooling for all of this. It’s very weird for me to refer to a professor on a first name basis.”

“Nonsense!” Rue added, “Erick.” She said, “Okay so—” She turned to Krigea. “A bargain of trade? Really?”

“Yes.” Krigea said, “This is the price the Headmaster has set for situations such as this.”

“Which is fine.” Erick asked, “Anything you’d like to ask me, first?”

Rue instantly said, “I want to attend your lecture tomorrow. This is all I ask. In exchange, I will assist you in training your Mana Sense.”

“... Okay?” Erick agreed, “Sure. I’ll agree to that.”

Rue smiled softly as she breathed in, then out. She said, “Thank you.”

“It only took my people a few hundred years to get to the knowledge I gave out.” Erick said, “With magic, it might take you far less to reach the same level. Though the Infinitesimal Ban is going to provide a very hefty block to most possible Particle Magic.” He added, “Y’all are going to have to do things the hard, non-magical way if you want to get past the sky, anyway. From my understanding, the manasphere is too thin up there to be workable.”

Rue smiled wide, saying, “I know. Isn’t it marvelous?” She quickly added, “I always tell students that some things are better done when magic is left at the door. Most of the stronger alchemical properties of many, many plants are only achieved when the plant grows naturally, in their preferred environment.” She said, “We might even be able to reclaim the Lost Planes.”

“The other planets?” Erick asked.

“If there’s a manasphere on them, at all.” Rue said, “Oh, sure. It’s going to be very hard work, but—” She said, “That’s two centuries away, at least. But it’s nice to dream. Maybe my great grandkids will be able to set foot on Yoril or Paal.”

Erick smiled. “Maybe.”

“Ah!” Rue looked around. Everyone was looking at her. She said, “My head is already in the clouds. It’s just that you grow up listening about people just casually visiting other worlds and you want to do this, but you can’t— Ah! That’s a topic for another day.”

Erick smirked. He liked Rue. Unless she was secretly planning on killing him, Rue seemed like a good person to know.

“Let’s begin!” Rue conjured two large, mostly solid pillows onto the floor of the empty room. She folded her legs, taking an instant, apparently comfortable seat on one of the pillows, sitting with her knees forward and her feet under her butt, saying, “Places to be, both for you and for me, no doubt.”

Erick gladly took a seat on the other pillow, though it took him more than a second to situate himself. When he was seated, with his legs outside of the pillow and his hands on the pillow, he realized that Rue was a lot more flexible than he was. Erick missed the effortless ease of having a young body, but Rue wasn’t young at all. Maybe she had just kept her flexibility in tune as she aged, in a way Erick just never had time for. He needed to get that ability back, and sparring with Kiri did not cut it.

He needed to do, like, yoga, or something. Maybe they had yoga on Veird? They had something, for sure; Erick just needed to find out what it was.

Rue asked, “How versed are you in the ideas of Mana Sense?”

“Almost zero.” Erick added, “Everyone I ask says that they’re either not proficient, or it’s like [Detect Magic], but different, or that it’s difficult. I only know one person who can do it back in Spur: Mage Ramizi Fieldsend.”

Rue smiled. “I must confess, I was likely tagged for this honor because I am the one who taught Ramizi. He told me something like this might happen, but I did not expect it to be today. Life just happens like that, sometimes.”

Erick had wondered when the first signs of whatever Ramizi’s hand in matters would show.

Erick said, “Ramizi is a good kid.”

“I’m happy with my Class.” Erick said, “I don’t know how easy it’ll be for others to get, though. If Jane’s Polymage Class Quest is anything to go on... Particle Mage is going to be very difficult.”

“I’m just a basic Healer,” Rats walked into the room, yawning, saying.

“Juggernaut, here,” Teressa added.

“Good morning, Rats,” Erick said. “I’ve heard of Juggernaut before. But what’s a ‘Healer’? It sounds very basic.”

Teressa giggled.

Rats eyed her, as he said, “Healer is basic. Some Classes start off basic, only to be upgraded later after you’ve decided your truth.” He added, “Most non-religious healers you meet are ‘Healers’ because advancing to a final healing Class means picking a god.”

Teressa chuckled, eyeing Rats, asking, “Still can’t pick a god, can you?”

Rats said, “I could just get ‘Doctor’.” He mocked himself, “Doctor Rats! Has a nice ring to it.”

Erick smiled, as he channeled mana across the ocean, to Ophiel.

He suddenly realized that there was something vital here; something important that needed to be understood. How, exactly, was he able to channel so much mana across such a large distance? Why the increased cost to keep the spell working like it should work? Was it a function of the physics of magic, or a restriction of the Script?

But that was a problem for another day; one where he wasn’t so new at the process, and wasn’t about to puke every time he breathed.

Teressa said, “Your bedside manner is terrible, Rats. You could never be a Doctor.”

Rats laughed, saying, “I could try! I can carve off a leg as well as the next guy! With [Greater Treat Wounds] I could even regrow it.”

Teressa said, “[Regeneration] is easier to get, you know.”

“Yeah but that spell sucks," Rats said. "The recuperation time is abysmal."

Erick channeled mana, listening to Teressa and Rats talk about doctoring, as he blinked and concentrated.

Rats looked at him. After a moment, Rats asked, “You don’t look so good, boss.”

“Channeling over 12,500 kilometers will do that.” Erick added, “It seems.”

Rats nodded, silently watching him. Now Teressa was watching him, too. Even Kiri was glancing his way.

Erick changed the subject, asking, “What does everyone know about [Gate]? I think channeling mana this far is a part of the spell.” He added, “Probably.”

Rats hummed a little, then sat up, glancing away from Erick. “Sorry. No idea.”

Teressa said, “It’s a portal that takes you from one location to another, anywhere in the world. Distance doesn’t matter.” She added, “That’s all I know.”

Erick said, “Yup. Me too.”

Kiri spoke up, enthusiasm coloring her bright voice as she chopped vegetables on a cutting board, “[Gate] is an advanced form of [Teleport], though it’s not available in the Script.” She said, “I looked up the history of it, and almost every person who was able to produce such a spell found either great success in the Wayfarer’s Guild, or the patronage of a country. All of them were Spatial Mages, though, and were at the top of their careers when they achieved [Gate].”

Erick listened, but mostly he channeled mana across an ocean and half a continent, thinking about the tunnel-like sound he heard from Yetta, and Atunir’s, [Gate].

Kiri continued, “The Class quest to become a Spatial Mage requires that the applicant know at least 5 Spatial magics, but only two of them are in the basic Script. [Blink] and [Teleport]. [Teleporting Platform] is another one that’s easy enough to get. Beyond that, most people looking to become a Spatial Mage go to the Wayfarer’s Guild to learn other, more specialized spells.” She added, “They’re not a very popular guild because Spatial Mage is a nuanced class, mostly all about moving around.”

Erick asked, “The body isn’t destroyed and remade as a part of the [Teleport], is it?”

Kiri laughed, saying, “No! Why would you think that?”

“Just thinking thoughts.” Erick asked, “How do you know the body isn’t destroyed and remade in a [Teleport]?”

Kiri said, “Well... We just do? Uh.” She tossed veggies in the round-bottom pan, ground meat flipping over the veggies as she did. “I’m not sure.”

Rats said, “There’s no soul-work in [Teleport], or body healing. Injuries come along with you. I’d say that’s proof enough that your body is not remade each time.”

“Yes.” Kiri said, “That’s how we know.”

“Okay. I’ll accept that. It’s not a dimensional, either, though.” Erick asked, “Because that’s Banned.”

“I’m not even sure what dimensional magic is.” Rats said, “It’s a Ban, but what does that really mean? What is a dimension?”

“Come on now, Rats.” Kiri said, “This Reality is a dimension. The one before the Sundering was another dimension.”

Rats said, “I’m just challenging assumptions, here!” He added, “All I know is that no one really even tries to work against the Dimensional Ban, but every crazy mage and their brother tries to circumvent the Propagation Ban. Now we got people bumping up against the Infinitesimal Ban, too, with Particle magic.”

Teressa got up, saying, “Too much magic for me. Sorry.”

Rats got up with her, saying, “Fine fine, I’ll stop!”

Rats and Teressa walked off together, out the front door. Poi was still out there, somewhere. The sun shone through the huge picture windows of Windy Manor, coloring everything with warm yellow light.

Erick thought, ‘[Teleport] has to be some sort of quantum tunneling effect. Too bad I have no idea what the heck ‘quantum tunneling’ even means. Maybe Jane would know.’

Erick sat in the sunlight, relaxing, pouring much more mana per second into [Exalted Storm Aura] than [Exalted Storm Aura] said it required, in order to get that mana all the way to Ophiel. It was not a comfortable experience. If he relaxed for even a moment, the silver clouds over the farm would vanish; he knew this, because that’s what happened twice already. A casual check with Ophiel’s [Scry] functional revealed the sky as spotty, until Erick doubled and tripled down, ramping back up to nearly 5 mana per second, on what was supposed to be a 1 mana every 2 seconds sort of spell.

He stretched himself thin, but his regeneration was able to keep up with the draw. Erick looked to the rings on his fingers. He could make some slightly better ones, for sure. That would help with the drain.

Yet another problem for later. Erick looked over to Kiri, who had gone silent.

Kiri set aside the cooked meats she had made, and began to make a dough. Flour, butter, eggs and salt came out of the cupboards and the cold box. With an expertly used [Telekinesis], she combined everything, then kneaded it together. She tucked the white dough into a ball, then aside to proof in an oiled bowl, in a mild [Warmth Ward].

“Smells delicious already, Kiri,” Erick said.

Kiri smiled, saying, “It’s going to taste even better. This is haraah beef. It’s ten gold a pound.”

Erick said, “Oceanside is so damn overpriced. You noticed everything was in 5 gold increments, right? Marks, and other stuff.”

“Chips, Marks, and Quants.” Kiri said, “A magical education is crazy expensive.” She added, “Most students are expected to go out and kill monsters between classes.”

“There are monsters on this island? I thought it was safe?”

Kiri laughed a little, then waved a hand north, then south, saying, “Half this island is full of monsters. There’s a mana river flowing directly against the island from the west, so the monsters on the west side of the island are pretty strong. Levels in the upper 30s. On the east they’re only level 20, or so.” She said, “Striders, Hequals, a lot of slimes, too. Oceanside is full of curated dungeons, kept full of farmed slimes.”

“Uh? Farmed slimes?” Erick asked.

Kiri said, “In a place like Oceanside a lot of mages go out and dig holes in the ground to create spaces and environments for the mana to condense into slimes. Sometimes other monsters move in, but the owners usually try to keep only slimes around. In this way, you know the dungeon, completely, and can farm the slimes for their rads.” She added, “Chips, in the beginning, but in a place like Oceanside slimes with marks will appear fast enough. For grand-rads you gotta go out and hunt bigger creatures, or make a large enough dungeon so that the ecology supports the rise of monsters over level 45.” She said, "Since people are constantly harvesting their slimes, there's little chance for an ooze to spawn. That's always the real danger when it comes to slime farming, but it's a rare occurrence."

"You can do that?”

“Here you can.” Kiri said, “You could probably make one in the Crystal Forest, too. But Oceanside is a closed system. The monsters that live here are mostly easy pickings. The monsters you’d get in the Crystal Forest are true monsters.” She said, “Dungeoneering is big business in places like Oceanside, where the local monsters are all kept under control and the mana concentration is high.”

“Learn something new every day.”

Kiri nodded, adding, “The sewers of Spur are technically a dungeon. It’s just one that's open to the public, where the majority of the rads gathered are from [Cleanse]ing the waters, and the slimes are left as incentive for people to come to Spur to get a start on becoming true adventurers.”

Erick smiled. What was it Jane talked about, with her games? A ‘Dungeon Maker’ ran those games she played with all those people? That was the word for it, wasn’t it? Maybe Erick could become a Dungeon Maker, too.

No. Wait. That wasn’t the word for it. Erick would have to ask Jane after the rain was done—

His thread of mana to the Farms snapped. Erick quickly refocused on the Ophiel over Spur, flooding mana down the line to reestablish the connection. Kiri watched as Erick reconnected, then went back to making her meat pies.

The Ophiel next to Erick, sitting on the headrest of the couch, slowly crawled down, on to his lap, his eyes blinking open in a lazy, quiet sort of way. He trilled in quiet flute sounds. He was obviously in distress. He didn’t seem to be too happy about being stretched this far, either. Erick petted the little guy.

The connection to the farms stabilized, as Erick’s hand touched his [Familiar]. 5 mana a second became 4. Ophiel trilled in tiny violins, as Erick channeled mana across the ocean, guided by the connection already established from him to both of the currently existent Ophiel.

That was odd.

... Erick summoned another Ophiel and sent him [Teleport]ing across the ocean, to hover over the waters somewhere around halfway between Oceanside and Spur. Erick focused his mana through the Ophiel on his lap, to the one over the ocean, to the one over the farms of Spur. A network suddenly came into being, and Erick’s mana drain went from 4 mana a second, to 3.

Erick smiled. This was good. He asked Kiri, “Did you know that you can piggyback a signal from one of your [Familiar]s to the other? I’m raining on Spur right now, and the cost per second has gone from 5, to 3.”

Kiri stared straight at Erick. She frowned. She mumbled, “No. I did not know that.”

Ophiel trilled, louder and happier than before.

Erick patted his wings, saying, “And Ophiel likes the better connection, too. Don’t you, little guy?”

Ophiel gave a solid, affirmative violin sound. Erick smiled.

Kiri muttered, “Dammit. Now I need a [Familiar], too, don’t I?”