Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 12 | Day 3

And so, after recounting a rather broad tale of what happened, leaving out a few details of course, the magician and I end up sitting in silence for who knows how long while he seemingly broods over the new information. But whether he really believes me or not is unknown.

So I wait. And wait. And wait some more.

Eventually though I get fed up with it, and right as I’m about to speak, he finally raises his head and asks, “May I see the star diagram?”

My eyes widen for a second and I stand up, looking down at the furniture. He gets the idea and we both begin moving it to make room for the thing.

After the furniture is moved to the edges of the room, I open my spatial storage – briefly noting how his eyes widen at the sight of it – before pulling out the star diagram and placing it on the floor.

“It’s really here…” the man mutters, a note of awe in his voice.

I can’t help but stare as the man quite literally kneels down to the floor and bows to the device.

What?

I blink in surprise and even rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing things. But after several seconds, I can’t help but mutter out loud, “What are you doing?”

Without even raising his head, the magician says, “The Kingdom’s Star Diagram is bound to the lifeforce of the king himself. Meaning that if it still exists, so does his majesty.”

Oh.

Well, if that’s all I needed to prove my story, then cool.

I reach down to grab the Star Diagram before stuffing it into my storage space again before the guy can even raise his head to see what I’m doing. And when he does, he just looks confused.

“Well, I did my side of the bargain,” I tell him while tapping my feet on the ground, “it’s time for you to do yours.”

He just stares at me.

“No, we’re not doing that again,” I tell him while raising a hand and snapping directly in his face to snap him out of whatever stupor he entered. “Fulfil your end of the bargain.”

His eyes narrow and he glances at my device coded into my spatial coordinates before glancing at my eyes. Then he sighs and says, “If you were human then I would’ve tried to take the Star Diagram by force.”

I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the blunt way he just said that.

“But that doesn’t mean other cities magicians won’t try just that,” he continues, answering my unasked question.

My brows furrow as I ask, “Why are you telling me this?”

He lets out another sigh and walks around the room, moving the furniture back in place. Then, after finishing, he sits back down and answers, “Because while I would rather have his majesty’s Star Diagram with me, I know that is impossible. Not with your power as a vampire, and not right now. In the future, maybe. But not when you have the advantage in proximity.”

Wow. Blunt.

“Also, his majesty must have let you take it, meaning you have his trust to some extent, and I’d rather see you have it than those other magicians of the kingdom who are busy abusing their citizens for their own gain,” he adds this last part, making me dislike him less.

So he’s both a good guy and greedy at the same time. Good to know, I guess.

Although judging by what he already said, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried attacking me from behind on the way back home.

But wait, would that have any point? Because then he wouldn’t get his part of the bargain.

I can’t help but feel he’s not being entirely truthful about that. That he probably won’t attack me, even with my Star Diagram.

After all, who announces that beforehand anyways?

He lets out another sigh making me wonder if that’s just a habit or something before he looks up at me then indicates his chair, likely signaling me to take a seat. And so I do.

“We had a deal, so let’s get started,” he says while maneuvering his arm in front of him and tapping on a very old terminal – one even older than the one I’m using right now – and makes an empty code script appear. He then begins typing away on it and says, “To start with, Tier III spells are different in that you need to take in mind the type of spell you want it to be, whether mental or physical. If it’s mental, you have to target the brain or the nervous system, and if it’s physical, then any part of the body past the magical membrane.” He pauses to look up at me, only to look back down after seeing that I’m paying attention. I even bring out my own terminal and begin taking notes.

“Keep in mind that everyone’s body has internal magic defenses set up against invading mana and spells, and you have to either avoid or break through those to use your spell inside of them,” he continues, still typing on his terminal to show me what I’m assuming to be a basic program for a Tier III spell. Which is rather complicated. “You’ll have to spend a while studying the theoretical concepts behind the defenses before you try any spells out on a human, since they can really screw with a person’s body and mind if you try a spell and it doesn’t work while active. And if you try one on an enemy without knowing the concepts, then it might do the opposite and won’t even leave a mark on them. Just immediately getting extinguished within seconds of entering their body while also alerting them to your attack.”

Yeah, that would be bad. But I can study my own magical defenses well enough, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

The magician pauses for a second before making a call, asking for some texts to be brought up. He then glances at me again and says, “I’ll give you some texts to take with you as practice materials, but for now, let’s continue the lesson.”

I nod my head in a hurry while still typing stuff down.

It’s about time I make some progress.