Village: Chalice

Location: Slums

Shop: The Dirty Wand

They stood in a back alley with a massive sign hanging overhead. Dirty Wand’s only sign swung gently on its hinges under a vent continuously billowing out purple steam. It’s squeaking sound yelled rusted and falling apart with every slide of the hinges. When the sign would fall was anyone’s guess, but Nero was certain it would fall soon.

“It looked just as terrible when I was a filly.” Arturia said.

The door to the shop was heavy, solid, and wide. Its brass handle held on by a rusted nail. Powdered rust covered the ground where other nails rusted to dust. Plastered on the door were iron runes nailed on the door. Half of them lay on the floor trampled by half a dozen hoof prints.

“Is this a whore house? Did you take me here to get my dick wet?” Nero asked. He knew it was a shop, but the name irritated him.

“Sorry, if you wanted your tiny dick wet you should have accepted my offer.” She stomped her hoof in irritation. “This store has more skill pages on magic than any shop in the city. I have some silver to spare. You can pay me back after you register and receive your battle mage license.”

Nero nodded and opened the door. A bell rung before snapping off the door, bouncing off his blood shield, and shattering on the floor. The scent of mildew and sweat punched his sense of smell in the nose.

“I hear the clopping of hooves is that a centaur that entered my shop. Respect me, I the voice of Merlin. Get out of here at once there are no martial skills for your grubby hands. Begone I’m tired of cleaning shit from every corner of my shelves.” The speaker shrieked.

“Grindle you know you haven’t been the voice of Merlin in nearly 200 years. Its Arturia, I’ve brought a friend who has a magic aptitude.” Arturia said with a sigh.

A tall figure with more wrinkles than a pug stepped into the light shining through faded windows. His eyes were wider than coke cans. There was an angle to them Nero wasn’t sure about. It was weird seeing anime eyes on a wrinkly old man.

“Let me feel your mana young man.” Nero sighed and let his mana leak out, his skin ruptured, streams of mana gushed out, and it made a whistling sound louder than the shriek of a tea kettle. The shop lit up completely under the light of his mana. Pages protected by glass lined the shelves by the thousands. Some lay in massive stacks while others were contained in bins. Sheets of black paper saved the sheets from thieving eyes. The were given the respect of records when CDs came along.

The fairy’s eyes snapped open even wider and he screamed and threw himself back. Nero took hold of his mana and it died down.

“You are a reckless and insane bastard. You how are you still alive? That much mana in such a weak body should have exploded a long time ago. Mana control that’s what you need. I have skills for that lots of skills. Yes, they are mostly for children but since this is an emergency, I’ll give you a deal. Buy two skills and you can have a set of seven.” Grindle yelled.

Nero gulped. He could sense this old man’s mana. There was no need to view him through the camera. If Nero’s mana was a grain of sand, then this guy had an ant hill’s worth. He honestly thought the man should be out obliterating the lizards instead of running a shop. Then there was the voice of merlin. Some of the names around here were funny. They obviously came out of Arthurian legend, but Nero assumed they were just picked up.

“That’s great but I need some options to attack and defend too.” The old man nodded.

“There are more options to attack and defend with magic than stars in the sky. If you plan to fight the serpents anti fire, physical, and earth shields are the best. For offense water type skills are the way to go. I have a vast collection but stay away from the gold, red, and black pages. If you learn one of them you might explode on the spot.” Nero looked to Arturia for advice. She shook her head.

“You’re the mage find what’s best suited for you.” The newly dubbed mage made used his two seconds to reach the water section. Attack was always his favorite way of things. It didn’t take long for him to find the skills he wanted.” Of those he managed to bring the number down to three.

Water Lance

Type: Offensive

SATK DMG = SATK + (SATK x (MP/1000) x (skill lv x 0.05))

MP Cost:500 to Infinite

Spout I lvl1 INT skill

Type: Environmental

Attribute: Water

MP COST: 1000/kL

Effect: Natural Disaster – 70% chance to cause nuclear detonation.

Water Spirit I lvl1 INT skill

Type: summoning

Attribute: Water

SATK = SATK + ((SATK x (MP/1000) x (skill lv x 0.05) x INT))/

MP Cost: 1000 to infinite

Time Limit: 1000mp/s

Nero held up the water spirit page and knew it for what it was, a disposable ally that he could use as a distraction. If he had something like this before then he could have distracted the Tyranoroid. All around it was a major improvement over everything. But still he wanted the water lance as well. Nero let out a sigh and took the Water Spirit.

He turned his head to see a fat stack of pages already on the counter. “Isn’t there a skill that could increase my vitality along with my mana?” Nero asked.

“Yes of course. If you have a castle, you’d like to trade for it I’ll swap it for the deed right now.” Grindle said with a chuckle. Nero glared into the Fairy’s giant green eyes.

“Oh, scary if I don’t watch out you might explode and then I’d have to not clean the mess you make.” Grindle said in a deadpanned voice.

“Enough Grindle stop teasing my friend. This should cover the skills.” Arturia slowly counted out twelve thick silver coins. Nero nodded and opened the pages one by one and read them.

Skills acquired:

Beginner Mana Manipulation lvl1 +1 units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Novice Mana Manipulation lvl1 + 10 units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Beginner lv5

Apprentice Mana Manipulation lvl1 +100 units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Novice lvl15

Adept Mana Manipulation lvl1 +1000 units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Apprentice lvl25

Expert Mana Manipulation lvl1 +10k units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Adept lvl50

Master Mana Manipulation lvl1 +100k units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Adept lvl75

Grand Master Mana Manipulation lvl1 +1m units of mana control per lvl. WIS based skill.

Requirement: Master lvl90

Offensive Magic I lvl1 INT skill

Type: Supplement

Attribute Neutral

Effect: +1% SATK x skill lvl

Defensive Magic I lvl1 WIS skill

Type: Supplement

Attribute: Neutral

Effect: +1% SDEF x skill lv

Water Barrier I lvl1

Type: Defense

Attribute: Water Type

SDEF: 10 x WIS x

MP Cost: 100MP/s

Water Spirit I lvl1 INT skill

Type: summoning

Attribute: Water

SATK = SATK + ((SATK x (MP/1000) x (skill lv x 0.05) x INT))/

MP Cost: 1000 to infinite

Time Limit: 1000mp/s

Nero gripped his skull until chunks of hair came free on his palms. Blueprints flew through his mind with more complication than any he’d ever known. Most of all was the water spirit. It was the most complicated skill he’d ever seen. Even World’s Breaker was just simple vibration control compared to it.

“Wow I’ve never met one of my kind so stupid. Are you sure you want to take him to the front? He seems accident prone.” Grindle said.

“He is my mage. Besides, I know he can handle it.” Arturia said.

Slowly, he grew used to the pain. Nothing could make things better, but he’d live with it. Nero held up a hand and will mana to gather to his palm. Sweat beaded down his face while he struggled to pick a drop out of an ocean. The skill told him he should have pulled a drop out by now. It began to loop. He pulled at a drop and it told him a drop should have arrived. Repeatedly the loop continued his will and a program two forces that agreed a drop should arrive.

Another heartbeat later he felt they tiniest of drops pinch out of his mana pool and gather to his palm. From that point he gathered his will and forced the tiny wisp of mana to spin. Soon a tiny ball formed. This was level 1 of beginner mana manipulation.

“Maybe now isn’t the time to train. There’s an inn by the west gate. Lets leave here and rest. I can send a letter ahead of us to register you as my retainer. Nero nodded. The tiny ball hovering above his hand was no larger than a grain of sand. To him it was a promise to gain control over his power.

Undeath clothes dug deeper every second of every day. He could feel days of time he might have had vanish.

Mystical Regeneration I lvl15

Time was all it took for the skill to advance. Soon he’d be a monster. Was that such a bad thing? He was surrounded by monsters. Then he thought about the spider woman and the manticore. What was he missing?

“Arturia, if I became a monster what would you think of me?” She stopped all of a sudden.

“Are you saying you’ll lose all your fur and grow scales?” She demanded.

“No, I’m saying I might not look exactly as I do now.” She let out a huff.

“You are like the fairies then. Don’t worry about your shape. So long as you aren’t a serpent I’ll remain your friend.” Arturia said.

Nero let out a sigh and tried to create a second ball of mana. His first wasn’t committed to remain a ball while he made another. He had to keep a measure of focus on his first orb while making the next one. Before the reached the end the second orb was formed.

Beginner Mana Manipulation lvl2

Nero gave little attention to the large bed Arturia laid herself on. She was out while he sat in a chair and worked under candlelight. All of his focus went to the task. He needed control over his own power.

Beginner Mana Manipulation lvl10

When the sun rose on the next morning ten tiny spheres hovered over Nero’s hand. There was something hidden in the blueprint. The more he learned the more of the picture was revealed. He could have moved on to the next rung, but he wanted to know the secret. He held the ten orbs in his hand and squished them together. His will over his mana forced it to converge and condense. A tiny star lit up in his hand.

Novice Mana Manipulation lvl1

That’s when a realization came to him. He could pick out a unit of mana or ten units. The difference was negligible after using beginner mana manipulation. He pulled out nine units of mana and condensed them. It felt no different than beginner mana manipulation.

Novice Mana Manipulation lvl10

He couldn’t go any farther. It was a struggle to reach for the next level. Nero felt the distance between ten to eleven and it was greater than the distance between one to ten. It was a thousand-mile journey and he’d only just begun.

Exhaustion 65%

Debuff: Exhaustion -50% movement speed

A break in Arturia’s breathing alerted him to her growing wakefulness. Sneak let him creep like an alley cat to the bed next to her.

When he laid against her in the overly warm bed he didn’t know how to feel. How long would it take her to realize, he was using her? What should he do? He didn’t know when she’d grow tired of him. should he enjoy his time with her now or spend this time looking for his next goal? He was lost in a sea of complexity and drowning. If he let her save him would he drown her instead?

Time was against him, he needed to acquire more vitality. Tears flowed freely while he struggled to rest. Rest didn’t come. She was just a tool to help him sprint faster. Maybe if he kept telling himself that it would be true.