33 Suns

--- Jon ---

“So what have you got planned for the day?” His ma asked, trying to distract him in the middle of one of their spars.

“Not much.” He shrugged, before thinking of something that might throw his ma off a bit. “Have to meet a couple of girls for something later.”

“What?” His ma blinked just long enough for him to deliver a kick to her side.

“Ying, er, the girl I was teaching self-defense to at camp?” He reminded her. “Well she lives in town and she asked me if we could keep up with the sparring.”

“Uh-huh.” His ma frowned, rubbing at her side before taking another stance. “You said a couple of girls though?”

“Well there’s a… couple of other friends that… join in too.” He explained, redirecting one of his ma’s punches before trying a quick knee to her stomach.

Rather than taking the knee though his Ma caught it before forcing it down to throw off his balance and trying for an uppercut he managed to avoid at the cost of having to roll backwards in a crouched handspring.

“Huh, you teaching them too?” His Ma asked, giving him enough time to get to stand rather than keeping him on a grounded defense.

“Not really teaching, since they all knew how to fight beforehand.” He admitted. “They just prefer sparring with me over their dojos because I’m more… practical I guess? Though that doesn’t really stop them from getting frustrated whenever I take two of them at once.”

“Two of them at once?” His Ma repeated with a smirk. “So you’re saying you can handle two girls at once?”

“Yeah?” He nodded, feeling like he was missing something.

“I really wish you understood how that sounds.” His Ma laughed with a shake of her head.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Ma’s training gained 1XP to Combat and Psych Warfare.

--Currently: Combat Lv. 6 (1/14) and Psych Warfare Lv. 3 (6/8)

---

Studying general affinities was notably different than studying a concept you actually had an affinity for. Whether it be due to some subconscious function that makes it easier to grasp the connections between everything, or just a more solid understanding of material you use more frequently, concepts connected to one’s natural affinities were significantly easier to learn.

Something he’d learned when he’d picked up his understanding of the Concept of [Heat] from DeSade, and was learning again as he tried to understand the Concept of Shadow’s from his Arcane Affinities for an Arcane Apprentice.

The Concept itself wasn’t too hard to grasp, at least once one got past the part about how shadows and darkness are not the same thing. (Which I don’t really get? I mean shadows and darkness are both the absence of light, so is it a conceptual difference in how people see them?)

Regardless of that though he was having some trouble grasping the Concept on the whole, given how it involved using one’s magic to give weight to shadows and then move those shadows around. An idea he semi-understood from when he’d learned the Concept of Moonlight which while related to actual light function differently due to its ability to better carry other Spell Effects in exchange for some of its theoretical solidity.

Unfortunately, he’d never actually used the Concept for more meta-physical magics, which he felt was part of the reason he couldn’t quite understand (how am I supposed to take a non-physical thing and make it physical!)

Glaring at the text in front of him he finally slammed the book shut in frustration, deciding he’d give it another try when he wasn’t tired of running himself in mental circles.

Scene Consequences

A/N: Just a reminder Concepts unrelated to what Jon already knows take more time to learn.

-Gained 1 Progress towards the Concept Shadows. (1/2)

---

“You guys are getting better.” He had to admit, even as he shoved Wolf’s lunge towards the ground and delivered a kick to Ying’s sternum.

“Doesn’t- cah- Argh, doesn’t… feel like it…” Ying gasped as she slowly caught her breathing, and Wolf shook off her tumble.

“Oh, you are.” He assured her. “I’m spending more time on the defensive today than anything else.” (Meaning I’m going to have to start cheating.)

“I guess I am getting a little better at using my claws.” Ying admitted stretching her clawed hand out. “It’s surprising how much dragon style both does and does not help me out here.”

“What do you mean?” He asked curiously, while seeing if he could influence his connection to Pix despite having Wolf summoned.

“Well my more… draconian self seems to have a preference for using my arms and claws to attack, which several of the locks and grapples help with.” Ying tried to explain, before shaking her head. “Unfortunately, I can’t seem to hold the patience for my strikes and punches, my instincts screaming to rip and tear whatever I get my hands on.”

“A conflict of instincts then.” He figured, noting Pix perk up in his peripheral at the same time Wolf gave him a confused look.

“Do you have similar issues?” He asked his canine companion, half to distract her from the ping he’d sent the little fairy and half legitimately curious. “I mean you’re a wolf using a knife, so at least from our perspective, that has to be a conflict of instinct and skill on your part.”

Wolf nodded making several sounds he took as her trying to explain her own experience.

“Hmph, I guess that would be something the more wild part of our peer group has to deal with.” Ying smiled petting Wolf.

“Heh, yeah…” He chuckled weakly.

(His left arm was pinned by the Mad Wolf pulling at his arm as it tried to tear through his jacket and arm both. His knife and his axe were on the other side of the clearing lodged inside of their respective targets. Leaving him both unarmed and down an arm as he kept the Corrupted Corpse at bay with his free hand, until something in him finally snapped under the stress of the day.

Growling and half feral, he shoved Corpse back a step before ripping his arm out of the Mad Wolf’s jaws, grabbing onto the Corpse, and biting into its throat as the taste of rot and copper filled his mouth.)

“The wilder part…” He swallowed, immensely glad that non-magicals needed to drown in the Black Waters to be Corrupted by them.

Seeing that Ying and Wolf were distracted -something he wanted to be himself- he glanced at the watching Pix before tapping the side of his head, covering his eyes, and putting a finger to his mouth in quick succession. And by the time the other half of their (pack) had turned back to him, the little fairy had already deciphered his message and given him a nod.

“How about one more round before we call it a day?” He told them, trying to ignore the bitter taste memory had brought to his tongue.

“I suppose one more round wouldn’t hurt.” Ying shrugged, before glancing at Wolf. “Will you be fighting Wolf?”

Their canine companion gave her own growl of agreement.

“Wait, don’t you want Pix to heal your wounds before we fight?” Ying asked, noticing the few scrapes and bruises he still had from their previous round.

“Oh, she’s already done her job.” He smirked at the grinning little fairy behind his two vict- sparring partners.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Sparring with everyone gained 1XP to Combat, Contracting: Summons, and Psych Warfare.

--Currently:

---Combat Lv. 6 (2/14)

---Contracting: Summons Lv. 4 (7/10).

---Psych Warfare Lv. 3 (7/8)

-*Ying Skill Level Up* Draconian Combat Lv. 4.

---

Sitting down at his desk while Pix napped on his bed, he began trying to work at his first real ‘Contract’ the affair proving more difficult than he’d initially thought.

The initial idea was similar enough to a mix of both his Script Craft and Enchanting that he had a relatively easy time inscribing the mystical half of the Contract into the paper he was using. Or that’s what he thought at first at least.

At a certain point he realized that forging a ‘Contract’ was essentially enchanting the paper to give off two separate Spell Scripts under a given set of circumstances. Something he didn’t entirely understand given how most of his research revolved around creating singular and independent spell effects with each art.

What’s more from what he could tell the Penalty portion of his Contract would essentially invert whatever Concept he ran through it, which in itself went against a fair amount of what he understood about using his magic.

Still even if the rules were far beyond the majority of what he understood, his actual understanding of magic itself was good enough that he had a vague idea of just how the Contract would work on whoever signed it.

First his ‘Payment’ of [Hunter] would give the signer a boon making them ever so slightly better at all things conceptually related to hunting. Though given how much the Concept covered, he didn’t think the bonus would actually be all that noticeable.

On the other hand his ‘Penalty’ of [Moon] would make it so that if the signer went back on their end of the deal they would gain a curse making it harder for them to focus and act at night. Of course since the curse was tied to the moon this meant it’d be stronger on nights closer to the full moon while being almost unnoticeable under the new moon.

As he put the final details on the extremely complicated Spell Circuit, he proceeded to flood the Contract with the sizable amount of magic necessary to finalize the Contract. A process that gave the impression of burning the circuit into the paper before slowly fading from sight and leaving a blank sheet of paper behind.

“Is… is that it?” He frowned, looking the unassuming piece of paper over as he’d spent the last two hours painfully working on. “I was expecting more…”

He could feel the magic flowing through the paper, but it was almost as if it was dormant.

(But why wouldn’t it be active…) He vaguely remembered the Contracts he’d seen laying around DeSade’s study and realized. “I have to actually write out a Legal Contract don’t I?”

He could already feel his inner free spirit dying to the demonic chains of bureaucracy.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Contracting: Dealmaking

--Currently: Lv. 3 (1/8)

-Spent 5 MP forging Contract.

-Made Contract: Hunter’s Boon, Moon’s Curse. (F-Rank)

--Whoever signs this Contract gains a small boost to all [Hunting] actions for a day, so long as they fulfill a simple action, should they fail they shall lose their bonus and take a penalty to all actions under the moon -doubling near the full moon, and halving near the new moon- for twenty-four hours.

--Costs 1 MP to seal this Contract.