Hugo had put together a detailed plan for stealing the mana core in Ettel. He was going to pay a riese guard to introduce him to Amir. Then he would pose as a hedge mage and ask Amir to smuggle him into the royal grove, with the promise to kill the king.

Once in, he would have to find and disable the magics protecting the vault. Hugo assumed that a bit of iron dust would help with that, and a smattering of lead as backup. Escape would be difficult, this was their home, with dozens of guards and magics ready to attack when the alarm was raised. He had been considering having Mia come get him with the airship, or have Alexandru teleport him with a ritual.

The whole plan was a waste of time.

The mana core wasn’t in the vault yet. The serpent hydra it came from was still out and about, presumably wondering where all these annoying tribbles were coming from. It would be far easier to just go out and kill the hydra himself. If he timed things right, he could just waltz up and shoot a few bolts to end things.

That was the new plan. He would head out that direction in a few weeks. That way he could track the hydra for a bit and make sure no one killed it before he did.

Hugo smiled and walked into the metal guild for his appointment. He noticed that the receptionist gave him a smile this time. The tunic he had commissioned from Baba must be up to her standards.

“Hello Mister Rebane,” she said, “Please have a seat, they will be with you in a moment.”

Hugo nodded and sat down. He had filled out the forms with his real name, assuming there wouldn’t be any light mages in attendance. He couldn’t use the name Florin Baden, that guy was missing, along with his parents and a respected nox grandmaster.

About ten minutes after the appointment should have started, she sent him back to the office. He saw a fat nox he recognized, sitting with a human all in white, sitting behind a large desk. Hugo sat in the provided chair, noticing that he was sitting lower than the nox now. Silly power games.

“Good afternoon, Hugo Rebane, it is nice to meet you. I am Elder Mncedisi. I run the Tembisa branch of the Metal Guild. This is Milly, our shadow mage,” the nox said.

Hugo gave him a ritual nox bow and her a polite nod. That seemed to make both of them happy.

“We are here to discuss your application to be able to choose mithril on your next rank up. Mithril is a very dangerous metal, not only in its application in runecrafting, but also in its raw form. Can you tell us why you want to fabricate mithril?”

“I like making weapons and armor. It’s a hobby of mine. Ones made with mithril are strong and light. I don’t plan on opening a shop, but I would like the permission to sell my work on occasion,” Hugo said honestly.

“If this is a passing fancy, it might be wise to pick a different element, son. There are many rules and restrictions you would have to agree to if you want our permission,” Mncedisi said.

“I have done my research, I am sure I want mithril. What are the rules I would have to abide by? I assume I need to sell at the rate the guild sets and pay my dues?” Hugo replied.

The nox nodded, “That’s part of it. You will also be required to record every sale and mail in reports every month. You will need to put the interests of the guild above your own profit. We are in this together for the betterment of all.”

Perhaps he saw Hugo’s skeptical face so Mncedisi continued, “The guild might make money, but that isn’t our primary purpose. We are an institution dedicated to the economic stability of the wheel. We guard against inflation and protect everyone from recessions. That’s why you will report your volume of sales and sell at our posted rates. If the prices for vital goods and services gets too high, we will lower the price of metals and that will help drop the cost of goods throughout the wheel. The economy depends on us. So when you join us, you don’t just join an organization of mages, you join the vanguard of civilization. Is that a commitment you are willing to make?”

Hugo did his best not to smile and said, “Yes sir.”

The rest of the meeting was filled with specifics and rules. Hugo just agreed with everything. There was an awkward point where Hugo agreed to indentureship and then corrected himself and paid the ten gold for the license right away.

Eventually, the point came where he needed to make his oath. He raised his hand and repeated after the shadow mage. He felt the black magic wash over him, and worm its way into his mind.

He tried to resist it, to block the spell from taking hold of his mind. It didn’t work. Apparently, a wisdom score of twenty wasn’t enough to resist the oath. Hugo shrugged. He would keep working on it, but next time around he would need to assign a bunch of points to wisdom.

“By the way, could I also get permission to buy lead? Apparently it’s needed to store certain types of monster trophies,” Hugo said.

“That’s a much more dangerous metal, my boy. We don’t call it the mage killer for nothing. That would be another ten gold, a stronger oath, and you would get yourself on a watch list for the shimmer corps,” Mncedisi said.

Hugo took out another ten gold and said, “I’m ready.”

After another oath that he failed to resist, Hugo left the guild with a badge. It had his name, the metals he was allowed to buy and sell, and his level within the guild. He was currently a level one, but he could “level up” by submitting reports on time and passing the random audits.

The badge was obviously magical. It had ornate metal scrolling and softly glowed. Hugo didn’t recognize the metal. He imagined it was one of the high mana metals and only the guildmaster was allowed to use it.

The whole thing was a bit silly. It was obviously a way to artificially inflate prices so formation mages wouldn’t have to work as hard. Hugo didn’t care though. He was just happy he wouldn’t have to look over his shoulder as he earned money for the heists.

He took his mithril/titanium crossbow to the Blue Gauntlet. He offered the bow and a set of instructions on how to replicate it. Hugo didn’t get much traction until he broke her backstop during the demonstration. He quickly sold them for two platinum after that. It made Hugo happy that she didn’t consider the possibility that he had already sold the diagram.

His master plan didn’t have anything for him to do for the next few days, so he spent it earning money. He made another crossbow for the Blue Gauntlet, then he took his design on the road. Knowing that the nox didn’t respect human mages, he went south. The next stop on the shimmer train was Tallinn, but he didn’t get out. There was no way he was going to run around Florin’s home town.

The train kept going and brought him to Reval. He knew exactly where he could sell his work. It was the same three weapons stores that rejected him when he was in his original body. Back then he had been an untrained dropout mage that struggled to fabricate a simple sword. Now he had a revolutionary weapon that every sentinel and harvester would envy.

With his crossbow slung over his shoulder, he walked into Custom Combat. The clerk noticed him and came right over. Hugo wondered if the prompt service was due to great customer service, or if his fancy outfit marked him as someone that could afford the weapons in the store.

“Hello sir, how may I be of service?” the clerk said.

Hugo smiled at him and said, “Hello, I have a revolutionary new crossbow I would like to sell to the owner. I would love for you to see it in action. Is there an archery range nearby?”

“I am not sure if he would be interested in something that complicated,” the clerk said hesitantly.

“It’s a very rugged design. More importantly, it’s a powerful weapon. In fact, take this gold coin. If this crossbow isn’t the most powerful one you have ever seen, you can keep that,” Hugo said and held out a coin.

The clerk hesitated, expecting some sort of trick. Then he shrugged and said, “We don’t have our own range, but we can take customers to the Westview Archery range. I guess you would count. Let me talk to my coworker real quick.”

Hugo smiled again. This was kind of fun. He felt like a traveling salesman. The clerk didn’t trust him, but he would change his mind soon.

The two of them walked towards the western wall. A few minutes later, they arrived at an archery range. There were a variety of targets at different distances, and the western wall was behind the furthest target. That must make it easy for them to collect the arrows that left the range.

“Hey, James. This guy says he has the most powerful bow I have ever seen. You got a lane open we can use?” the clerk said.

“He’s a bigshot, is he? Well come on over here and use our target for runed bows,” James said. He led them to the far right were there was a target a hundred yards away. The backstop was a solid chunk of stone covered with thick bags of sand. The target itself was metal.

Hugo fabricated a standard bolt, standard for him, and said, “Promise you won’t get mad if I crack your backstop.

James laughed, “If you touch my backstop with an unruned arrow, I promise not to get mad.”

Sighting down the scope, Hugo pulled the trigger and made him regret his words. The bolt went through the bullseye, sand, and smacked the stone behind it with a loud crack. The archers in the other lanes stopped and stared at him. Hugo was slightly disappointed, the last time he had done that, the backstop was cracked in half. This was just a small fissure.

“By Demeter’s tits! What was that?” James said.

“An unruned arrow. Well, for crossbows they are called bolts, but it’s pretty much the same thing,” Hugo said.

“How?” the clerk said.

“Like I said, it’s powerful. It’s also accurate up to six hundred yards,” Hugo said. It was actually accurate well past that, but he figured that was impressive enough already. “Why don’t you get your boss? They probably won’t believe you, so I might as well stay here for another demonstration.”

James called a halt to practice, and he went up to inspect the bolt himself. When he saw that it really was just a solid metal bolt, he came up to Hugo and said, “If he doesn’t buy that, I will. I don’t care how much it costs.”

“I am selling the designs so I expect Custom Combat to have them for sale soon,” Hugo said with a laugh. He also tossed him a gold and said, “So you can replace the backstop after this.”

“I guess I will need to. That contraption is powerful,” James said, still dazed.

A few minutes later, the clerk came back with two older women. Both had formation robes on. Hugo nodded to both and said, “Hello, my name is Hugo, and you are?”

“I’m Sandra, I’m this guy’s boss,” the first one said.

“I’m Polina. I own the Laughing Skull. Sandra’s competitor, and sometimes friend. I am just here to see you in action and see if I can figure out the trick,” she said.

“No trick, just cams and gears,” Hugo said.

He fabricated another bolt and shot it through the bullseye. A loud crack rang out over the range again. Hugo was mildly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten it through the same hole in the target. The other archers had given up on their practice and were watching him without getting too close.

Hugo handed the crossbow over to Sandra and said, “Why don’t you fabricate your own bolt so you know there is no funny business?”

Sandra nodded seriously and took a moment to mentally calculate the design. While he was working, Polina sidled up and said, “How does it work? I don’t see any runes.”

“There aren’t any. It’s a pure formation creation. The gears and cams work together to give you a very heavy draw with hardly any effort,” Hugo said.

They didn’t believe him of course, but he let them both use the crossbow. Since the steel they used was heavier than his mithril, their shots both made bigger cracks in the backstop. They gave the crossbow back and whispered to each other. Hugo fabricated six bolts and showed them how fast it could cycle through bolts. By the end of the demonstration, the backstop was spiderwebbed with cracks.

“Alright ladies, this is the full diagram for my crossbow. It costs two platinum. You can buy it together, or one of you can have exclusive rights for this city,” Hugo said, “I won’t negotiate though, two platinum needs to be paid today.”

The ladies tried to negotiate anyway, but eventually they agreed to buy it together. The mages also secured a consultation with him after the sale was made. He was happy to do so, gladly explaining things and discussing the tensile strength of the metals they had access to.

Hugo walked away with so much money. He had more than five platinum now. It would be more than enough to fund his heists. Since he was already in Reval, he might as well start by recruiting his crew.

With a spring in his step, he walked over to the Blue Lion Academy. He had to leave his crossbow at the gate, but soon enough he was inside his alma mater. Lots of good memories here.

Just his luck, he saw his target after only a few minutes of walking. “Mia! Wait up, I want to talk to you.”

She stopped and frowned at him. Hugo hadn’t ever seen her that serious. She must be suspicious of strangers.

“Hey Mia, I’m Hugo. Remember me? I sent you the letter about the attacks on the wall?” Hugo said with a smile.

She took a step back and said, “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t be like that, Mia. We are friends, you just don’t know it yet. Time traveling compatriots. I came to get some help with a project I am working on,” Hugo said.

“I don’t know you,” Mia said.

“Alright, yes. Perhaps I came on too strong this go around. Let’s get to know each other better. Do you have a minute to talk now, or should we meet up after classes are over?” Hugo said affably.

“Actually, the dean wanted to talk to you if you ever showed up. Let’s go talk to him,” Mia said.

Hugo hadn’t planned on involving the dean in the heists, but perhaps he could be useful. He could just lie and say they needed mana cores to stop the shimmer explosion. He nodded and said, “Alright, let’s go visit Dean Artjom.”

They walked in silence up to the dean’s office within the administration office. Hugo wondered why she was acting so cold to him this time around. Last time she had been friendly from the get go. Now that he thought about it, she hadn’t been that nice to him when he was in Cristian’s body either. Maybe she trusted girls more than guys. That was probably it. He would just have to take it slow next time around. Hopefully that would be in his own body, not some stranger’s.

The receptionist sent them into the office as soon as she heard Hugo’s name. Apparently the dean was expecting him.

“Hello Hugo, nice to finally meet you,” Dean Artjom said and gestured to the soft chairs nearby, “Please take a seat.”

Deciding not to sit on the provided chair, Hugo solidified his own chair instead. “Sorry to refuse your hospitality, I am just not a fan of the lead bands in your armchairs,” Hugo said and knocked on the spot where the bands were hidden.

The dean paused at that and said, “I promise not to use those bands, but I won’t take offense. Mia, I hope you trust me enough to sit?”

“Of course,” Mia said primly and sat.

She was acting weird, Hugo thought to himself. She was usually so cavalier, but she was reserved for now.

“Tea?” the dean said and offered both of them a cup.

“None for me,” Hugo said, “I don't have a taste for the stuff.”

“You aren’t making this easy for me,” Artjom said.

“I apologize for seeming rude. Seems like I am a bit off today,” Hugo said, “Let’s talk business today and I promise to be extra polite next time around.” He smiled at both of them.

“Mia, why don’t you start?” Artjom said and picked up a cup of tea.

“Well, I don’t know quite how to say this,” Mia said.

Hugo turned towards her and said, “Don’t worry about hurting my feelings, I know ...”

Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a splash hit his cheek. Hugo looked over to see the dean holding an empty cup. He had just splashed his whole cup of tea on Hugo. Recycling his chair, Hugo stood up and backed away. He threw up three barriers in front of himself and said, “What was that for?”

Dean Artjom just sat there. He turned to Mia and said, “Just wait a moment.”

“Whua?”

Thump.

...

Hugo woke up in a windowless room. He immediately felt his wrists, expecting to feel lead cuffs. There was nothing. That was a nice surprise. He had felt the magic dampening power of lead way too many times by now.

Shortly after he woke up, the dean walked in and said, “Who are you and who are you spying for?”

A few things clicked together in his head. The sentinels and dean had jumped to the wrong conclusion when he couldn’t make the meeting a few days ago. Since Hugo didn't show off his domains, they didn't believe in the impossible. Instead went with the more logical assumption that he was a spy, trying to gain their trust by ratting out the other conspirators.