Chapter 63: Sixty one

It didn’t take Kip long to prove himself a skilled negotiator; the look on Darius’s face when the Dwarf declared we’d be charging a medium grade mana stone per hour of work was priceless. 

“We can hire an earth mage for less than what that would equal in gold.” Corvus announced, with a frown.

“You could,” Kip agreed, inclining his head. “And an earth mage would get the job done in half the time Kadia will take.” 

“Are we done here, then? I’ve got some experiments to work on.” I said, feigning impatience as I pushed my chair back from the table. 

“No, we’re not.” Darius interjected, giving me a stern look, and I shrugged. 

I’d made it clear that I didn’t want to do any of the work the officers showed me on their plans for the encampment, and I certainly wasn’t building the tunnel they wanted. According to Corvus, the buildings we saw on the surface of the Whispers guild encampment was nothing compared to the extensive compound they’d build below the settlement, and near the dungeon. The Whispers even had a large tunnel connecting their two encampments, which the lion hinted would be useful for our own guild. 

The two earth mages hired by the other guild took three days to construct both encampments, and the tunnel. Which was in my eyes an awe-inspiring feat, if the underground encampments were as extensive as Corvus claimed. From what I’d learnt during this meeting, many of the Whispers guild were vampires, with the guild leader Van having turned most of his guild upon their joining to grant them the ability to move through shadows. Considering the guild prided themselves on being information collectors, and thieves, I could see how they’d find such abilities useful even with the drawback of being affected by sunlight. 

“Hiring outside mages isn’t an option,” the guild leader continued, softening his expression as he looked at me. 

“Kadia, we can’t afford to offer you that many mana stones. We also want to avoid bringing in outside mages. Having non-guild mages work on the encampment puts us at risk of details about our encampment being sold to others.” 

“This is too much,” I complained, shoving the piece of paper containing the proposed layout of the encampment at Darius. 

“I won’t have any time for my own work if I have to do all this. What do you need a room that large for, anyway?” I grumbled, pointing at the massive room on the encampment plans. 

Darius looked away from me, shifting his gaze to stare at Kip for several long moments. 

“You joined during the pre-transfer recruitment period, did you not?” The guild leader asked, and Kip nodded.

“I did,” the dwarf agreed. “I’m in a Medi-pod, and all my savings went to pay for my digital life plan. Without a guild bringing me over to Kaledon on their guild membership plan, I would never have been able to make the transfer.” 

“I’d like you to leave while I discuss confidential matters with Kadia,” Darius said, his tone polite, but firm.

“You good, Foxy?” Kip queried, and I nodded, not taking my eyes off the guild leader as Kip left the tent. 

“What’s the room for?” I demanded the moment the tent was empty. 

“The Sarin desert wasn’t always a desert.” The guild leader began, gesturing to Corvus who pulled a map out of his bag. 

“The sand sea, as we call it was once an inland sea, connected to the ocean through a narrow channel.” Darius said, pointing out a section of the map that was covered in water. 

“And the sea dried up when the barrier was put in place.” I theorized, staring at the marker on the map which marked our current location, that was once covered by water. 

“Exactly,” Darius said with a smile, pushing the encampment plans back towards me. “The Whispers guild also have a room like this in their encampment, as do the Arrows in their own encampment closer to the coast.” 

“You’re planning to build ships secretly underground, hoping when the barrier falls this region will once more become flooded with water.” I concluded, the reason for the room being so large making a lot more sense. 

“How are you planning to get the ships out?” 

“An earth mage will need to open up the roof, and raise the stone beneath it to lift the ship up. Or we can allow the room to flood, lifting the ship that way. That is why the workshop is so close to the surface.” Corvus explained.

“We have two guild members training as earth mages in the mages academy in Airus, but they only began training two weeks ago.” Darius added, a grimace forming on his lips. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t recruited, or had an existing guild member train before now.” I muttered, chewing on my thumb nail as I looked over the plans for the encampment with more seriousness now that I knew it wasn’t something being built on a whim, but would serve a greater purpose to the guild. 

“We did,” Roderick said, his voice dark and angry. “All four of our earth mages were poached by various other factions.” 

“Not surprising, I’m guessing with their ability to build through magic, earth mages are in high demand.” 

“Correct, but becoming an earth mage isn’t easy. As with all magic classes, it requires study and training, for earth mages this involves an in-depth study of ‘soil composition’.” Corvus said, making quotation marks in the air as he spoke the last part. 

“Soil composition? As in inorganic minerals, organic matter, water, and air? I guess that makes sense, different regions would have different soil compositions because of the environmental factors.” 

“Right, and all that studying isn’t something most people are interested in, unless they’re like you.” The golden-haired commander quipped, and I glared at him in response. 

“We’d planned on waiting a few months until Fenton and Holín had gotten some more training, and were able to leave the academy to build this encampment.” Darius said, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. 

“But with our previous encampment gone, we’ve had to move our plans forward.” 

“Well, if you never intended to stay there anyway,” I said airily in an attempt to gloss over the fact I’d been the reason we’d lost ownership of the encampment. 

“It was our intention to sell that encampment to fund the building of this one. That land will be worth a lot of gold once more people arrive and the settlement grows into a town.” Corvus hissed, but I ignored him and the pang of guilt building in my gut in favour of looking at the encampment plans.  

“Why such a large encampment? I mean, if this area gets flooded, so does all this. It’s a waste to build something this big.” 

“We’ll be moving the majority of the guild crafters here, leaving only those needed in the cities. The Whispers plan on constructing a tunnel from here to Hathus once the settlement grows, with fees for use of course. Once the area floods, we’ll all be on the ships ready to sail.” 

“Is this the secret third guild hall you wouldn’t tell me about?” 

“You remember that huh?” Darius asked with a chuckle, and shook his head. 

“No, we have a location near the coast where we’ve been working on ship plans. However, that area is merely a decoy where our shipbuilders have been practicing their craft in preparation for the real thing.” 

“What if there is no flood when the barrier falls?” 

“We make one.” Corvus said with a grin. “Plan B is to use earth mages to open up the ground in order to flood the area using the aquifer beneath us, and deepen the channel from the ocean. We’re only two days from the coast, and our allies also have ships being built in this region. We’ll join together to ensure we get our ships out.” 

“Are we joining the Arrows and Whispers to build a city wherever we end up then?” I asked, snatching a pen off the table to make some changes to the encampment plans.

“We’re discussing it,” Darius confirmed, lips twitching as he saw what I’d added to the encampment. “I’m not paying for that.” 

“That’s fine,” I agreed, not expecting to be paid for building my own lab. 

“I’ll build the wall, stock yard and these sections of the encampment, which should provide enough living space for everyone here. The ship room, and other living quarters can be finished by the earth mages.” I said, marking each section I was willing to work on. 

“You might want to add the forge to that,” Darius said as I pushed the blueprints back across the table. 

“If Markion wants a forge, he can negotiate with me personally.” I said with a wicked smirk, which got a round of amused chuckles in response. 

“Shall we bring your little friend back to continue discussing labor cost, then?” The guild leader asked, and I shook my head. 

“I’ve already told you what I want.”

“We can’t afford to give you that many mana crystals, and you’re refusing gold. What else would you accept? Are there any Alchemy components we can send people to find that you want?” 

I pondered that for several moments, trying to think of something I wanted aside from mana crystals. I didn’t want weapons, or armor, and any items I wanted I’d already gotten. I’d also written out an extensive list of plants and creature parts I wanted, which I’d posted to the guilds quest board before leaving for the desert. 

You are reading story The Nine Tails of Alchemy at novel35.com

“Transmutation circles, books and anything related to that class of magic.” I said, and Darius nodded, looking thoughtful. 

“We can see if the Whispers have knowledge of any transmutation circles,” the guild leader began, his words trailing off as Corvus tossed a leather journal onto the table.

“I looted this off some little shit-head transmuter in the dungeon a week ago, I figured Noctus would have some interest in it.” Corvus said, and I flipped open the book with interest. 

“This is Nadir’s,” I exclaimed in surprise, seeing the familiar name scrawled on the inner page of the journal. 

“Nadir? Why is that name familiar?” Darius asked, as I looked through the book. 

“He’s the transmuter I met in Hathus, the one who taught me the water circle.” I reminded the guild leader, frowning in annoyance as I saw most of the pages in the journal looked blurred. 

“This is damaged,” I declared with a scowl, throwing it back at the lion. 

“It’s not damaged, it’s protected. This enchantment on the cover is used by the magic academies. It’s used to prevent the spread of academy knowledge to those who aren’t academy mages.” The lion said scornfully, as he caught the book and put it down in front of himself. 

“What a stupid fucking system, how are people meant to learn if knowledge is hoarded by these academies with their excessive fees? Nadir said a month's tuition is five thousand gold. The reason he was at the dungeon was to try and raise money for his next months tuition.” 

“Noctus has been working on a way to break the enchantments, as have many other enchanters. He has reached a point where he can weaken the enchantment to where the text can be read for a brief interval.” 

“How brief?” 

“A little over thirty seconds.” 

I scoffed at that, crossing my arms over my chest in annoyance. They wanted me to slave away for days building the encampment, in exchange for a book that I could only read for thirty seconds at a time? 

“I also have these.” Corvus said tauntingly, placing a leather pouch on the table. 

My ears twitched in response to the sound of something crinkling, and rustling in the pouch as it hit the table. 

“Are those transmutation packets?” I queried, remembering the paper packets Nadir had shown me.

“If transmutation packets are little bits of paper, with what looks like different enchantments drawn on them, then yes.” 

“Gimme.” I demanded, making a grabbing motion with my hand outstretched towards the bag. 

Opening the bag, Corvus slid one of the paper packets across the table towards me, and I snatched it up in a quick motion. The paper packet was square, no bigger than two inches, and consisted of a folded over bit of paper which had been glued together with something solid sealed within the paper. 

The fool actually put the activation phrase onto the front. I thought with glee, as I saw the words ‘Fire Strike’ written on the paper. 

“Are they all different?” I asked, as I ran my fingers over the words. 

Nadir told me that because the circles needed a catalyst to activate, battle transmuters would make these paper packets with the catalyst inside. Thus there was no need to go digging through pouches during fights looking for things like feathers, stones or whatever it was the circle they were using required. 

“There are six different types, and a few of each. I thought they were some kind of enchanted talisman, but I couldn’t get them to activate by saying the phrase or pushing mana into them. I’ve opened one, it was filled with sand, and there are symbols drawn over the inside of the paper.” Corvus said, placing a hand protectively over the pouch when he saw me looking at it. 

“Circles need the correct type of mana to activate them, which requires a transmutation amulet. The amulets allow a transmuter to change their mana to the correct alignment. When I transmute sand, I use mana that is aligned with the earth element, when I make glass, I use earth and fire.” I explained, reaching for my own amulet and lifting it up for the lion to see.

“So, all we need is a necklace like yours and we could use these?” Corvus asked, eyeing the amulet I wore with interest. 

“According to Nadir, a transmutation amulet is crafted by each transmuter and is something that took him a month to create. It is attuned to their core, and can only be used by the one who made it.” I explained, releasing my amulet. 

“Then how did you come by yours?” Roderick questioned, and I looked at the red scaled Draekin in surprise, having forgotten he was there.

Glancing at Darius who gave a nod of his head, I responded to the Draekin. 

“Trismegistus, the god of Alchemy, Astrology and Transmutation, bestowed it on me after I gave him a grimoire in offering.” 

“We’re getting off track,” Darius said, cutting off Corvus who was about to ask another question. 

“Kadia, will you accept the book and these transmutation packets as payment?” The guild leader asked, and I hesitated, before shaking my head. 

“It’s tempting, as I really want to learn more circles, but,” I trailed off, eyeing the lion in anticipation, waiting to see if he had anything else to offer. 

Come on, flea bag, I’m sure Nadir had more on him than that. He’s an adept level transmuter from what he told me, so he surely had more than just a journal and those single use packets. 

“That's all there was,” Corvus said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at me with an unblinking gaze. 

Meeting the lions stare with one of my own, I re-crossed my own arms, determined not to leave this tent without every scrap of loot he’d taken from Nadir. I had been contemplating killing the other transmuter in Hathus, even scouting out the location of his tent with plans to sneak inside and hit him with a poison dart, but in the end decided against it. Nadir hadn’t needed to give me the information he did, and he’d shared the water circle with me after being given it by Trismegistus. I’d wanted to keep a good relationship with my fellow transmuter. Something I wouldn’t be able to do if I killed him, and looted all his stuff. 

Ten minutes later, I left the command tent, carrying a book and two pouches. The first pouch was filled with dozens of square paper packets, the second contained flat stone discs, each with a transmutation circle on the outside and what I guessed would be a catalyst hidden inside. 

“So, how badly did they screw you?” 

“Huh?” Confused, I looked up from the stone I was admiring to see Kip approaching. 

“They got rid of me so they could talk you down on cost, what’d you agree to? You stuck to our plan, right? Nothing less than ten medium grade crystals.” 

“Er, not exactly.” I said, biting my lower lip. 

“How many mana stones did you agree on then?” 

“Well, that, er, none.” I mumbled, looking away from the Dwarf who was gaping at me with a mixture of shock and horror. 

“Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have left.” The dwarf moaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. “I thought you’d be able to handle them, you seemed so determined. I didn’t think they’d be able to break you down so easily.” 

“They didn’t break me down,” I exclaimed indignantly, holding up the transmutation stone for him to see. 

“I got this, see, much better than a mana crystal.” 

“An enchanted rock?” The dwarf asked unenthusiastically. 

“No, no, it’s a transmutation stone.” I informed the Dwarf who snorted. 

“Enchanted, transmuted, it's still just a magic rock, and not the kind you were meant to be getting. I swear, if you start selling potions for beans instead of gold, I’ll have me a brand new fox fur coat.” 

 Why would I sell something in exchange for beans? Well, maybe I would if they’ve got alchemic properties. I mused, as we headed towards my brothers tent.

 

You can find story with these keywords: The Nine Tails of Alchemy, Read The Nine Tails of Alchemy, The Nine Tails of Alchemy novel, The Nine Tails of Alchemy book, The Nine Tails of Alchemy story, The Nine Tails of Alchemy full, The Nine Tails of Alchemy Latest Chapter