Chapter 15 - City days

The city itself was one you would think you would find in a fantasy world. That is to say huge walls and buildings made of strange materials. At the gates which to be honest looked almost comically small in comparison to the rest of the wall we passed through the checkpoint relatively easily due to their identities. Apparently this city was a free city which was not under the direct control of a house but that didn't mean a high house didn't hold some sway within.

I find out that we are going to be renting a place in the eastern half of the city, close to the forest. When we reach the rented place I discover that it more resembles a mansion than something you would classically rent in a fantasy world. We each received our own rooms however I insisted to have three after all I needed a room for the giant cat, tests and actual sleeping. After a few hours of settling in I decided to roam around the city, Flynn insisted to accompany me I agreed only due to the fact he could now apparently melt into the shadows therefor not calling the attention he and I other wise would.

I made my goal for that day to reach a clothing store. Throughout my new life I had been wearing plain clothes and while at the school the quality of the materials went up the plainness stayed the same. So my task for the day was to get some custom clothing with money I had “Borrowed” from my group members...they were rich enough they wouldn't notice.

Find a store was hard, i had already walked into 3 houses thinking they were stores and 2 brothels of which took a large amount of willpower to exit from. I eventually reached the central district of the city, the district which happened to have all the stores, which is something I would have appreciated knowing beforehand. After I reached the district I quickly found two stores which would suit my tastes. One was a huge place with frilly noble clothes and the other was simply called outfitters. I of course chose to take my business to outfitters, purely for the reason that in the other store not a single piece of clothing could be seen without lace.

When I entered I quickly figured out this was a store for those who wished to explore the forest as it had both normal clothes, light armour and camping supplies. As I was looking around at the selection, which didn't exactly have my current taste in clothes which were robes. Fortunately a store sales man came up to me.

“Hello sir, how may I assist you today?”

“Hi, uh, do you have custom clothing option I don't see any clothes that...match my style” I gesture down to my robes. The man nods sagely.

“Yes,yes, come this way we have a tailor”

I follow him into a back room which held numerous stripes of fabric and a slightly raised platform. After we enter he bows and tells me the tailor will be here shortly and then exits the room. After about a minute the tailor came in. His appearance wasnt striking he had silver hair and a feeble frame but what gained my attention was his eyes of which were glowing green, a tell tale sign of a magus. Noticing my eyes as well he paused then gave a light chuckle.

He looked me up and down before speaking.

“You a system mage huh, good to meet ya me name is ben”

“Uh hi, yes hi my name is Cato...System mage?” I was still muddle headed but I caught his little statement about the type of mage I was which was new to me.

His eyes widened slightly then he nodded while mumbling something.

“Yes yes more than one type of mage young one, shall we talk about that later perhaps or do you not wish for some robes?”

“Ah yes, I would indeed enjoy some new clothes as well as the opportunity to speak to a fellow magus” I nodded taking the subtle cue to discuss that subject later.

He began measurements and selecting colours for the robes.

“Do you want the higher quality material used?” He suddenly questions

‘Whats the benifit, better protection?” I inquire

“Depends on how well you can enchant” he replies looking up at me.

“You have materials I can enchant?” I had tried to enchant my clothing before, it ended poorly. The clothing either burned, ate itself like acid was poured on it or grew plants.

“Yes of course, what do think that neighboring forest is full of boy” he grinned at me, most likely enjoying my naivety.

We eventually concluded the measurements and me deciding on taking the higher quality materials. He was kind enough to include strips of cloth for me to experiment with enchantments. I got three outfits. All of them shared the color scheme of blue, black and silver same as my soul colours.

The first outfit was a three piece outfit. It had black jogger like pants which were very comfortable, a silver and black dress shirt with dark blue buttons and a black overcoat with silver highlights with a hood. This was the outfit I wore out of the building leaving the grey monstrosity behind.

The second outfit was low key outfit one for possibly sneaking purposes. It was almost entirely black with some small dark blue highlights. It had many many pockets on it.

The third and final outfit was what I would call the battle outfit. It was made of some types of leather. It held the same colour scheme of the first outfit. Black leather pants and silver black chestplate. The overcoat was made of a cloth but had enchantable metal plates attached to it. I also had black,blue silver vambraces which again were enchantable they had gloves that attached to the vambrace.

I left only after getting the tailors guarantee that we would meet later to discuss his comment on what type of mage I was, this was the first I had heard about the types of mages. As I walked back from the clothing store I realized something, if I was to be able to make enchanted armaments for anyone I would first need to be able to make the base weapon. I could always commission a blacksmith or a tailor but I felt I could make superior goods if I made the base weapon myself. As I was pondering about my future and things I would have to do I heard Flynn growl very loudly and a high pitched female squeal. Stopping in my tracks I looked behind me to see Flynn over a young woman. On a second glance I saw my money sack in her hand. My eyes narrowed and I walked up to her. Now even though I am still very young Flynn was a good intimidation factor, I saw no thoughts of defiance in her eyes.

“I am very sorry my lord please forgive me” To her credit she wasn't crying even with the huge tiger above her.

“Hmm, are you a thief” I asked a redundant question.

“Yes my lord” She looked ashamed but somehow I felt she wasn't.

Frowning I reached out to grab my coin purse, she tried make a move but then again huge tiger resisted her efforts.

“I don't mind releasing you, if you give me something in return” I say with a sudden thought appearing in my mind.

Her eyes narrow in suspicion, rightly so in fact. I suddenly gained the thought of becoming a crime lord, what an easy way to get money. However to discuss the terms of this a more private venue was in order so Flynn picked her up and we returned to the mansion.

Flynn dumped her on the ground in my experiment room and I casted entangling roots and tied her feet and hands, she was fully mortal with only slight strength enhancement so my spell could do so without wasting much of my energy.

“I have a few questions and then perhaps a proposition” I smiled while talking to her.

“Sure short shit ask away” She had a cocky look on her face and I will admit the short shit comment made my eyebrow twitch.

“First your name?” I ask.

“Claire”

“Pleasure to meet you Claire, my name is Cato. My second question please enlighten me on the workings of crime in this city, any organized guild or such?” She frowned slightly at my question.

“No only the big cities have guilds, all we have are a few large gangs and some taverns, why.” She answered, I knew it wasn't a good idea to trust her word but this wasn't the usual circumstance so i elected to believe her.

“Well that throws my further question down the drain, so my proposition. The lack of crime guilds in this city shows opportunity knocking I would like to grasp this opportunity however I need the right connections, do you grasp my meaning”

Her eyes slightly widen then she chuckles.

“As if the city lords would let that happen, anyone who has tried before has been crushed” I take her comment in stride.

“And why is that, by facing strong cultivators? I can destroy them” At this current moment I could not...but in the future. “Besides we would start low key and consolidate our power so worry not” I end with a smile.

“I..I am not sure” She stammered out after a moment of thought.

I frowned slightly then I commanded the vines to release her, but I still kept them powered.

“You can go for now, come back within 5 days if you change your mind, if not I will find another to help me”

She nodded and left the mansion, even if she spread a rumor about me wanting to start a crime syndicate who would believe her. I realized that I had developed a strange attachment to the idea of a crime syndicate but I felt it would be fun and beneficial for me as a magus.

Sighing I look towards my new outfits, I decide to try and come up with some basic clothing enchantments. I take the thick stack of cloth and start to think of ideas. I immediately think of a basic spell that should be on every piece of clothing. It didn't take long to make a working spell model.

I made a two small spell circles with straight line connections. This was to be primarily a earth magic enchantment with a small amount of wind. The Script read “Let the material of which this spell rest become as hard as stone yet as light as air”. I tested it by calling jennifer to help me with testing an enchantment, she was wary as admittedly we barely conversed on the journey to the city, that being said I should probably interact more with the group. We tested the cloth by laying it on the floor and her hitting it as hard as possible with her sword. The cloth held up but because of the test, of which shattered the floor, I realised the second basic spell that I needed to address, a shock absorbing or deflector spell. Thanking jennifer and saying we should talk some more sometime she left. I discovered that this enchantment somehow took power from it surroundings and not me personally, a phenomenon I would look into at a later date. I placed the enchantments on each of my clothing pieces. On the coat I left the enchantment on my left lapel and on the shirt it was right over my heart. The pants I put the enchantment on the right pocket.

I thought about the pros and cons of either a shock absorbing spell or a deflecting one. I eventually settled on an absorbing one making it a two step spell in the process. After some testing and finalization this became my most complicated spell yet. It had multiple spell formations and utilised dotted connections. I began by placing numerous shock absorbing formations made from two circles. The script on the inside circle with straight lines connecting to the outer and the outer having 4 dotted line connections. Each enchantment had three types of mana fire, earth and air. Earth as the grounding and absorption factor, air for the cushioning effect as there may be some of the attack the spell coulnt absorb and finally fire to emulate the force factor. The script read “May the energy of the enemy's attack be taken and stored”. I had these spells on various locations on my clothes as to best absorb any attack. The area of effect was about a foot radius from the spell itself. I spread these spells to various places on each set of clothing. I also made sure the connections were only to the second part of the enchantment for each set of clothing. The second part of the enchantment was a pseudo attack spell, a close range one. It was a two part spell, energy storage and release. All of the energy sent into the absorption spell was sent to the storage part of the spell. The storage spell was designed as a semi circle that held all the dotted line connections which connected to a circle through two straight lines. The script on the circle read “Let the energy be stored within to be released upon the caster's command” This way of writing the enchantment led to me being able to control the output level of the spell. The circle connected to the release spell with two straight lines which was made as a circle then split to four lines which in turn led to four small circles, I intended to have this part of the enchantment on the gloves. The script on the circle read “Let the energy that has come forth be released with wanton wrath and fury”. That finished the spell of which I tested with Courtney. I asked her to punch me in the chest. The spells worked and as her fist hit my chest there was no power with the impact and I felt the storage spell fill up evenly across both vambraces. I then released the power with a simple tap against the wall of which crack as if courtney hit the wall herself.

I would have continued but Adrius walked in saying we had guests, and they wanted to talk to all of us.