Inari’s Gift

Several times over the next few hours, someone would rush in and grab a pile of bandages that had been sterilized, or dump off damp, freshly rinsed ones.  Time passed in a blur as she moved cloth through the cycle of boiling and then dumping it into the clean pile.  After a while, Peldor left, leaving her alone, though the quantity of work coming in had also dropped by then.

Eventually, Kelly came by and told her to stop and follow her.  A short walk later, they reached a surprisingly modest room on the third floor, finding a bearded, greying man sitting behind a desk covered in paperwork.

“So you are the one who claims to have something you can teach me, hmm?” he spoke as he noticed Cera’s entrance, with Kelly departing.

Cera gave a slight bow before nodding and stating, “I’m confident at least one of the things I know will be new, possibly more.  Should I start with the definitely new one, or work my way up from the less impressive?”

The man paused for a moment before replying, “Let’s go with the less impressive first.”

Cera nodded again and set her bag down before forming an intense flame like a blowtorch, explaining, “Fire is a combination of fuel and oxygen, and the more oxygen you mix into the fire, the cleaner and hotter it burns.  Oxygen is a component of the air that we need to breathe, so simply mixing more air into your flame works well enough.  It does, however, burn a lot more mana as fuel this way.”

“I see.  That’s interesting, but not enough in my opinion,” he stated with a light frown.

Once again, Cera nodded, having expected that much, then formed a scalpel out of ice, keeping her grip on the magic as she handed it over, keeping it from melting, as she stated, “In this case, I’ve spent a lot of time working with crystalline substances, and found that ice can be made extremely pure if you control the formation properly.  With the right alignment, impurities are pushed out of the forming ice instead of staying within, allowing much stronger ice, which also allows making extremely sharp blades.”

“That is quite interesting, and I can see how sharp it is, but again that isn’t terribly impressive,” the head remarked as he lightly ran the scalpel across a piece of paper, watching it slice through with ease.

Ready to move on to her shields, Cera smiled before asking the man to focus on mana-sight.  Once he indicated he was prepared, she quickly formed her ‘metallic’ style shield, moving it to the side.  Once it was safely away from anyone, she then formed and threw a spike of ice at it, which promptly blunted the ice before it fell.

Before he could give his feedback on that shield, she created several more layers, like the one she had previously shown Falron, and explained, “This multi-layered shield is able to stop far more than a normal shield, though it also uses more mana.  It first blocks weak impacts, such as wind, bugs, or rain.  Then it slows whatever makes it through.  Next, the more solid portion blocks as much of the impact as possible, and the final part slows anything that manages to make it through.  I would offer for you to test it, but we’re inside, and I’m not absolutely confident I can block anything a more experienced person can throw at it.”

The man stroked his beard as he nodded, stating, “I know a few people who would be quite interested in that, and I will gather them for you tomorrow, as it looks quite impressive, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Cera smiled at this and bowed again before thanking him, then continued, “I also have two other tricks, one of which I can’t really display easily, but I can swear in a truth zone is accurate.  I’ve found that if you very carefully and slowly inject mana into your body, you build up a tolerance for it, and can eventually store multiple days’ worth of your regeneration inside your flesh.  This can be incredibly useful if you don’t normally use everything, and occasionally have instances you need more than you can normally hold.”

She then began forming a mana construct designed to produce an orb of light, then explained, “This method of using magic allows the usage of external energy, as well as eventually keeping the magic going without any conscious effort, though that takes some practice, especially as you have to mentally enforce the qualities of energy used in the construct, as each needs specific properties to function.”

After letting him get a look at that design, she shifted into a more complex shield projector and demonstrated how it could rapidly form a full-body shield while also using less energy than normal.

“Now both of those are worth some serious money, I must say!” the leader exclaimed in surprise before he promptly gestured at empty space, focusing intently.

Cera spun up a manasight spell and watched as the man swiftly replicated the design for the light spell, though it took him multiple attempts before it functioned properly.  She was also able to spot mana flowing into his hand, then back out, then even less moving inside.  He then took a moment to attempt to replicate the shield, asking for advice before finally succeeding.

“Now, if I recall correctly, you had just over nine copper, correct?” he asked as he focused back on her again.

With a nod, Cera stated, “I currently have nine copper and a steel, with a few iron reserved for food tonight.”

The man stroked his beard for a moment before replying, “I’ll tell you what, give me five copper and I’ll cover the other five in exchange for what you’ve taught me.  The others won’t pay as much, but I’d like to get on your good side and can afford it.”

Cera bowed again to the man and quickly pulled the coins out, amazed at the deal he’d given her, and thanked him, “That is a far better deal than I expected, even in the best case scenario.  Thank you immensely, and you certainly have succeeded.  I will do my best to aid everyone.”

The next words, however, terrified her, “And you should probably get better at hiding yourself.  No one else seems to have noticed, but I can see a faint image of a quite large tail behind you.  If I’m directly asked, I’ll have to tell people about you.”

Her eyes went wide as she realized he’d known about her this whole time; then, since he already knew, she pulled her tail around to hug it comfortingly.

He laughed before telling her, “Don’t worry too much, I highly doubt the others will notice.  But you still need to get better.  I trust you, but many others would not.  You wouldn’t be trying to join my guild if you had ill intent, you’d be found out quickly, after all.”

Cera nodded, then slowly let go of her tail and let it sink back behind her.  After sighing, she shook her head and grabbed her bag.

“Thank you for the warning, though I’d have been happier not knowing that you knew,” she responded slowly, trying to avoid her voice going out of control.

The man chuckled again before remarking, “At any rate, I realized I didn’t introduce myself since I wasn’t sure if you’d be staying or getting banned.  My name is Kannon.  How about you?  And I’ll get your medallion for you tomorrow.”

After taking another deep breath, Cera answered, “My name is Cera, and thank you again.  I’ll come back in the morning.”

She then bowed to the man again before leaving the room and following the route back out, then headed back toward her temporary home.  Considering the amount of money she had left, she considered simply going elsewhere, but she didn’t want to waste what she’d already spent since she paid for the room in the morning.

Arriving back at the inn, Cera spent another five iron on more soup and water before retreating to her room for the night.

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