Chapter 23: Chapter 22

When Alice arrived at the mansion, the guard at the gate quickly waved her through. Clearly, she had been told to expect Alice’s arrival.

After entering the estate, she was directed to a small waiting room, and a maid made her some tea. Alice absently noted that the water seemed to heat itself up and the tea tasted perfect despite having taken less than thirty seconds to steep, but quickly attributed it to a perk. Less than ten minutes later, Illa stepped into the room. She gave Alice a cursory glance, and nodded to herself.

Alice waited a few moments to see if the other woman would say anything, but after a few moments of silence she decided to broach the topic herself. “I have come to the decision that I'm interested in your deal, if you're all right with a few conditions.”

“Oh? What specifically do you want?”

“I want all of the information you have available about the System, as well as about magic. Apart from that, I want materials for research. I want to conduct experiments, but that requires funding and materials.”

Illa frowned. “Allowing you to read through my personal library is entirely doable, but…” She paused for a moment. “The funding for conducting experiments would be quite expensive. What makes you think you’re worth that much coin? Research equipment can sometimes run dozens of golden crowns, and unlike Enchanting there’s no improved visibility around town, meaning I’m not guaranteed to get anything out of it. Funding a private research facility would get you a lot of visibility, but it would be far more money than I’m willing to spend.”

“If you weren’t afraid of losing some of the mages in town, you wouldn’t have made your offer to me in the first place, right? The more active I am around town as a mage, the more it seems like I’m participating in building up the town despite the danger to me. In particular, running experiments is something that would help me level [Scholar], and if I made any discoveries we could use it to publicize my presence. Even if I don’t manage to make any new or interesting discoveries, the simple fact that I’m conducting research in the ‘highly dangerous’ south should be a good way to prove that I’m unworried about getting attacked by any mage hunters, which would be a good way to help send the message you want to the other mages. The fact is that most research requires a great deal of time and a lot of equipment - if it looks like I’m investing a lot of time and energy into setting up experiments that might take weeks or months to complete in Cyra would send a strong message about how safe I feel in the town. Ultimately, I think this is something that helps you as well as me.”

Illa tapped her fingers against the table, seemingly lost in thought. Alice was beginning to wonder if it was a nervous habit of some sort. Finally, Illa came to a decision. “I’m not willing to fund your experimentation directly, and I’m certainly not going to build you a full lab, since the costs are way higher than what your labor is worth right now. Instead, I am willing to allow you to use any magical materials I have laying around as a foundation for your experiments. It will not quite compare to directly ordering new enchanted pieces, but I have a decent collection of minor enchanted objects on hand from my teaching days, and Cyra’s economy is partly built on exporting enchanting materials back north since the mana is more dense here and materials are more plentiful. It’s part of the reason I was able to lure a half-decent [Enchanter] to Cyra in the first place. I think that should still be enough to get you started, yes?”

Alice thought it over for a while, before she finally nodded. If there was nothing that could be done about it, then that was that. And in truth, she didn’t have any particular experiments in mind that she needed any equipment for – yet. Mostly because she was so lost when it came to magic that she didn’t even know what she was missing in order to make an experiment. She was completely out of her depth, honestly. She just wanted to see if she could open up the option for later, since she knew she would ultimately need equipment and supplies if she wanted to experiment more with magic and the System. For now, using Illa’s old enchanted stuff would be good enough.

Truthfully, Alice hadn’t had much of an expectation for this demand being met at all – while Illa’s direct pay couldn’t be called generous by Mage standards, that was only if you didn’t include the fact that Illa had offered to train her, something which apparently cost an exorbitant price in the North. Magic training was expensive – it was why most mages joined the army instead of paying for their education, and the reason Illvaria invested so heavily in their Magic Academies. Illa teaching her and possibly helping her get a recommendation to a Magic Academy could go a long way towards paving her way in the North, if she was interested in joining an academy later.

Now, time to work on hammering out an agreement for enchanting - which, in retrospect, perhaps she should have brought up first, since Illa had directly mentioned it when she had made her offer.

“You mentioned that you would be willing to pay me extra if I learned a useful skill like Enchanting, right? Does that mean you’re willing to pay for me to learn more about the subject?”

Illa gave Alice a small shrug. “I’m willing to think about it, at least. What specifically do you have in mind?”

“I talked with the Priest earlier and he mentioned that [Enchanter] and [Kinetic Mage] would be good as the final classes for me to pick up. I have the {Outworlder} achievement, so I’m going to get levels in both far more quickly than I normally would, and that means that I’m ultimately going to get decent at enchanting at least in time to make my name as an [Enchanter] somewhat well-known within the town, right? That’s definitely worth at least paying for whatever materials I ruin while I learn the skill, right?” Alice gave Illa a big grin, trying to convince the older woman to agree.

Illa drummed her fingers for another few moments, before she sighed. “You’re determined to make me bleed gold, aren’t you? Fine. I suppose it makes sense. The more [Enchanters] we have, the better, with Eric gone. I will pay up to one golden sun a month for you to learn enchanting, IF you can get Eric’s daughter to agree to teach you.” Alice winced. She had kind of forgotten about Eric’s daughter with her impending possible execution at the courtroom, and then she had been caught up in the chaos afterwards, but now that she thought about it, she had basically looted Eric’s corpse and brought his daughter the news of his death, hadn’t she? Now that she had time to process what had actually happened, she felt pretty bad about the whole thing. Regardless of whether or not the girl was willing to teach her enchanting, she felt it was only right that she went over to at least apologize to the girl for her loss. Unaware of Alice’s internal dilemma, Illa continued speaking.

“Cecilia - Eric’s daughter - is a decade and a dozen levels behind her father in terms of skill, but I only know enough about enchanting to throw together a basic consumable Kinetic Push crystal to knock away arrows if I’m about to get skewered. I can’t teach you the more complex stuff, and you will need a teacher for it. I will also reduce your pay per month from one golden sun to five silver crowns, so you will pay for half of your enchanting education and I will pay half. Fair?”

It was probably the best she was going to get. Alice sighed, and nodded.

“Good. Then, to re-iterate and clarify, what I expect from you is that you will work for me for a period of at least 3 months, and up to a year, with the work period ending whenever the Crown sends out an official response to clear up the [Spies], '[Deserters]',” Illa actually scoffed at that word. “...and [Assassins] running around the region. During that time, I will provide you with one hidden guard while you engage in Mage-related activities around the town, especially those which are more openly visible to other mages and the public. You will primarily be involved in Monster Hunting in safer regions, as well as Construction. In exchange, I will provide you with any research materials I have laying around from my time as a teacher in a Mage academy, room and board, food, basic magic training, and one golden sun a month. Are these terms still acceptable to you?”

“Yes,” said Alice as she nodded her head.

“Then let’s shake on it.” Illa stuck out her hand.

“No contract? I was expecting something of the sort, perhaps officiated by Priest Friedheim.”

“Not every law is enforced by contract, nor every agreement – in fact, it’s actually a fair bit less common for a {Trade Contract} to officiate an agreement. There are always far more agreements being made a week than there are {Trade Contract} uses available from all of the [Priests] in a town, after all. Just because it isn’t backed by a System contract doesn’t make the law any less applicable. But in this case, I think we don’t need an official document backing up our agreement. It would be a mite inconvenient if people knew I was providing you with a hidden guard, after all.” There was a note of amusement shining in Illa’s eyes as she said that.

“Fair enough.” Alice shook Illa’s hand.

Alice had officially accepted Illa’s offer.

* * *

The two spent a few minutes simply drinking tea, as well as settling their nerves after negotiating their agreement. Finally, Illa turned back towards Alice.

“One of the fundamental points of our agreement was that I would teach you magic, yes? I have some time free today, since I’m still waiting for some people to send messengers back to me. Unless you have something else planned?”

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“No, now would be a great time to start working on my Magic. What should I do?”

“Before we go any farther, let me see what you’re able to do so far.” Illa looked at the tea pot, and a moment later, the teapot lifted itself up and delicately and carefully poured another serving of tea into Illa’s cup. The movement was elegant and graceful, and the casual ease with which Illa manipulated the objects around her was something Alice immediately envied.

“Do your best to pour some tea into your own cup.” A moment later, the maid reappeared again, and before Alice had time to realize that she had even been gone, the maid deposited several cleaning rags on the table. The cleaning rags then lifted themselves up and drifted onto the table and floor, ready to soak up any spilled tea.

Alice concentrated on the teapot. Lifting the teapot up wasn’t too difficult for her at this point – she had practiced a lot with moving objects. However, lifting it up only enough to raise it above the cup, before tilting it to the side without spilling any tea, was something she had no familiarity with. Hence, when she was trying to tilt the teapot without spilling it, she fumbled, nearly dropping the teapot. A moment later, she lost control of it, and tea and the teapot both nearly crashed back towards the table. Illa easily caught both with a flick of her mana, gently guiding it back to the top of the table.

On her second try, she messed up, applying too much mana. Instead of dropping the teapot, the teapot became airborne, flying towards the ceiling before Illa stepped in and caught it. Several drops of tea nearly splattered on Alice, but Illa caught the drops of liquid and guided them back into the teapot. Although, Alice noticed that Illa didn’t actually catch all of them. Perhaps 2/3rds of the liquid was saved, but the last third of the pot of tea instead splashed onto the towels. Alice gritted her teeth and looked at Illa, who, if anything, seemed amused. A moment later, she gestured towards Alice.

“Try again!” She said cheerfully.

Alice tried to pour a cup of tea with the teapot over and over again. On the bright side, it was good for her Skills - her Kinetic Magic related skills were all getting some decent levels out of this. On the downside, failing over and over again was frustrating.

Thirty-two tries later, she managed to successfully pick up the teapot with exactly as much force as she needed to. She tried to tilt the teapot towards the cup, but accidentally overcorrected, spilling some tea onto the floor. By this point, after struggling to precisely manipulate her mana for so long, she was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded, her mind and magic seed straining themselves to keep up with her new demands upon it. Illa laid a hand on Alice for a moment, and the effects became… easier to avoid focusing on. They weren’t gone, but Alice could feel that they weren’t as big of an influence on her thinking now.

“All right, that’s enough for me to at least get a rough estimation.” Illa nodded. “You have practically no precision at all, and no real training of any sort, but at least you learn quickly.” She looked directly at Alice. “You look kind of low on mana for now, so I’ll just do one last check and we’ll move on. Come with me.” Alice followed her to another room, which was more obviously set up for training.

Alice looked around, and saw a variety of equipment. A lot of it seemed to be meant for physical training, like something she’d see in a gym back on Earth, but there were other things she couldn’t make heads or tails of, which she assumed meant that it was built for either training specific skills or enchanted. Or just somehow optimal for raising Attributes? She had some guesses, but no confirmation.

“Push on that metal block with your magic as hard as you can. This is the last magic-related test.”

Alice did so, and was surprised to find that even though the block seemed to be rather small, only the size of her fist, it was incredibly dense. She struggled to push it forward, and only managed to move it a few inches before it stopped moving entirely. She heard Illa mutter a few things that Alice thought were numbers, and then Illa turned back towards her.

“All right, you’re done with the magic testing bits for now. Don’t use very much magic for the rest of the day - your seed looks tapped out. What was your recovery boost again? Something like 15% from {Baptized by Broken Mana} and then 10% from one of your perks? In that case, it should be… exactly 40 hours to recover to full, if I’m doing my math correctly? 2% of each seed’s maximum per hour at base, then .15 times 2 and .1 times 2 to get .5%, then add to the base to get the final total of 2.5% recovery per hour, then divide 100% by 2.5? Anyway, when you have some more mana, I’ll start running you through some precision training, and even before than you should have enough left for a little fun training exercise if everything weighs almost nothing." Alice swore that Illa had an evil grin, for just a moment, before the expression faded away. "You have good enough raw mana and Mana Conversion Ratio to serve you for now - in fact, they’re above average. However, your control is atrocious. While you’re recovering, I’ll help you with your physical training.”

“Why physical training? Aren’t I supposed to learn magic?”

“Because your physical stats aren’t at 100 yet. It’s not critical for mages to have high physical stats, because we tend to fight with our magic seeds, but when you’re in combat, you’ll be very glad that you’re able to dodge and take a hit. Strength is less useful, but considering how much easier it is to level stats before the second growth penalty all stats face after reaching 100, we might as well get it up to that point before we apply heavier focus to the stats that matter more. In addition, I figure you probably haven’t worked under any sort of [Trainer] or [Teacher] class before, right? Both classes and their variants boost the rate you gain attributes, levels, and skills by varying amounts, as well as providing a lot of other useful Perks to boost training speed. Many of them are simply more useful for higher levels than you are currently at, or require a classroom of students instead of just one, but I’ll still show you the more interesting ones when you actually have the qualifications to interact with them. I will have my books on the System and other Magic Seeds sent over tonight, and you may look them over at your leisure.”

Illa thought it over for a moment, absentmindedly tapping her lip with her finger. “Apart from that, I will be doing some sparring with you, to get you some of the other skills you will want if you are going to have some level of combat readiness. There are several Skills that most brawlers and fighters have which you will want to at least have at a low level, because some of them are quite important. I will probably wait a few days, though.”

“That sounds reasonable to me.”

“All right, let’s see… for physical training.” Illa grabbed some weights and threw them at Alice. “A good way to train all three of your stats at once is with weighted jogging. Therefore, go put the red iron weights over there on and get to it.” Alice put them on, and found that all of them caused her just enough strain to make it difficult to move, but not impossible. Then, as she was instructed to, she began slowly jogging around the room. She was a little surprised to experience firsthand how much her [Strength] and [Endurance] had improved since coming to this world. Now, even though she guessed it probably weighed around 10 or 20 kilograms, she could lift it easily, and started jogging. Alice seriously doubted this would have been accomplishable for her back on Earth - but with her System-enhanced muscles, it was surprisingly doable, even though she was quite unathletic before coming to this world.

About half an hour into her jogging, Illa threw a bean at her head. She didn’t notice it until it bounced off of her forehead.

“What the heck?!” Alice stopped and turned to Illa.

Illa just chuckled. “You didn’t dodge it or stop it with your Magic. You’ve had half an hour, you should have recovered a bit of mana by now!”

“You threw a bean at me! Why?”

Illa snorted. “[Kinetic Mages] are combat specialists for a reason - a [Kinetic Mage] who’s paying attention can stop most melee combatants dead in their tracks by applying some mana to an incoming sword or dagger, and can even push a hail of arrows off-target. Stopping a bean doesn’t cost much mana - you should learn to deal with surprise attacks like this if you want to keep your organs where they belong. After all, unlike an [Organic Mage] you don’t have the benefit of being able to regrow your lungs on the fly if you need to. A [Kinetic Mage] that can’t stop ambushes before they connect is a dead [Kinetic Mage]. Now get back to running! I didn’t say you could stop! You’re only four and a half hours of training away from the [Kinetic Mage] class! Now get to it!”

Alice gritted her teeth. She was already getting tired, but if Illa was going to start throwing things at her, this promised to be a long and annoying exercise in frustration as well.

At least her skills and Attributes were levelling pretty quickly.