Inari’s Gift

After her night of poor sleep, Cera decided to take the day off and just rest and work on her damaged spirit some more, the task seeming to be eternal.  Her increased mana stores meant she could make far more progress now than before, however.  Although it had stopped increasing her mana before, it had now gone back to doing so, for some reason or another.

Thus, the more mana she put into healing, the faster she gained more mana, allowing her to heal even faster.  After a nap, she resumed her work until dinner time, then had a large meal before paying for another day, wondering if she should just pay for a week or more at a time, though she’d been told it was fine to do it daily, and there was no discount for early payment.

The following day, she went to work with the healers for half the day, earning roughly as much as she spent on food and room for a day.  Afterward, she headed to the mages’ guild with the goal of reading more of the books on magic.

She was surprised, however, to find a note that several of the people she’d taught a bit before wanted to learn more from her, and were offering good money to have her teach them more.  After a little consideration, she had the doorwoman, who shared her name as Ann, inform the other mages that she was willing to spend the evenings teaching, starting next week, with the condition that they not spread her teachings for a year.

While she did want her knowledge to spread, she was wary of it being spread to the capital and removing her chance of trying to use it as leverage to pay less to join the academy there.  Now that she’d left her own note, along with a mention that she’d be by daily, she resumed her original plan of spending some time learning more magic.

In the end, she didn’t learn too much new, but there were alternate methods of casting things she already learned from Falron, which helped her understand more of how magic functioned on this plane of reality.  She also learned that she could indeed add books of her own to the guild, and that she’d receive half the money that was spent on them by others.

As such, Cera decided on picking up a fair amount of paper and a nice pen the next day, once shops opened again.  Following a nice dinner, she headed to bed, mind whirling with thoughts on how to describe her shielding methods and knowledge.

The next morning, she found herself shocked at the price, however, finding that it cost five copper and three steel for the supplies.  She was certain she’d make more than that, however, and paid without complaint.

Her time at the hospital only earned her two and a half copper, despite using a significant amount of mana healing, because she only spent a few hours there.  She then headed toward the mages’ guild, finding that three people had already agreed to her conditions.

Cera spent a while thinking and discussing with Ann, and they eventually decided that a copper per person per day would be a fair price, which meant that even if no one else joined in, she’d make nearly as much per day of teaching as she did per full day of healing.

She did, however, remember that most people weren’t as crazy as she was, and would want days off much more frequently, so she couldn’t just rely on teaching people.  So far, she’d been working practically every day in order to save up as much money as possible.

After a few days where she spent most of the night writing her book on shielding, nine people had agreed to her conditions, and she began to sort out how she’d go about teaching them.  She then spent the rest of the week at home writing, aside from short visits each day to the mages’ guild to keep in touch.

This left her running relatively low on money, sitting at eleven iron, six steel, and nine copper, ignoring what was in the bank.  Once she finished her relatively small book on basic shielding, at least to her, she resumed her normal work at the hospital within the healers’ guild, now with a significant amount of saved-up mana.

The first day back, Cera was lucky enough to find multiple people with broken bones that she could heal, and earned five copper and two steel despite only staying until noon.  As she’d finished her book, she requested that several copies be made, and signed her original book before sending it back to Falron.  She also planned to send the first signed copy to Kannon, the head of the healers’ guild in Duskhill, as thanks for his help.

She assumed that, soon, the book she sent Falron would become incredibly valuable, given that it was the original, signed copy of a revolutionary set of knowledge.  She also stated to Ann that she’d sign ten other copies that would belong to the mages’ guild.

Cera also learned that since she contributed a valuable book to the guild, the fees for reading books at the guild were waived for her, though borrowing was not changed.  As such, she decided to spend as much time as possible reading.

Two days later, it was time for her to get started teaching, and she found herself quite pleased with making so much money in a sustainable way.  After accepting the nine copper, she began going over the basics of shielding, such as how most people ignored below themselves, allowing a skilled attacker to strike from below if they had spells that could pass through the earth.

For that matter, a simple spike of earth could be cast at a distance, though apparently few were capable of that, likely due to not believing it was possible.  She then went over how different designs of shield worked, and why each would be used.  What shocked her students most, however, was when she began going over offensive shields.

Cera explained that it was possible to create shields that reflected attacks, potentially even amplifying them on the way out.  Following that, she described inward-facing shields that could be used to contain a target.  Due to the disbelief in these shields, she offered a demonstration, having two people layer their shields before a third cast a moderately powerful wind blade at her shield.  The resulting reflection nearly destroyed the combined defenses of the others.

She then had a volunteer encased in a containment shield and had her try to break free, which took several minutes, even with Cera barely supplying the shield any power.  Her students then admitted they had been unsure about her teaching being worthwhile, but that they were now convinced.

The following day, the guild had finished making copies of her book, and she was able to sign ten copies, as she’d said she would.  There were also several unsigned copies that she was able to borrow during her training sessions.

For the day’s training, she began providing example shields for them to copy and helped the mages correctly reproduce them.  The next was layering multiple shields for better all-around protection.  Since that was all for the week, she resumed her reading time for the other days.

Next week, she found herself with quite a hefty pouch of coins and headed to the bank, depositing thirty copper, bringing her saved total to seven brass and three silver.  She then swiftly made another nine copper as she returned to the mages’ guild to begin teaching again.

For this week, she went over numerous ways to break shields, and how to prevent it from happening to your own.  After the first lesson of the week, Cera also decided that it was possible to just teach, rather than healing people every day.

As such, she checked in with the healers’ guild, finding that they wouldn’t hold it against her if she stopped coming by so often, and decided to only come by once a week.  This left her only working four days a week, instead of previously working almost every day nonstop.

She did, however, have another incident.  On her way out, she accidentally let someone brush up against her tail, but this time, unlike so many prior instances, they didn’t brush it off as being closer than they thought.  It took several minutes to get them to stop trying to figure out what had happened, with them grumbling as they left.

The following day, she avoided the healers’ guild and went straight to the mages’ instead.  After several hours of reading, her students showed up, and she began a demonstration of what she’d gone over the day before, effortlessly disabling every shield the others could create and letting them attempt to do the same to hers.  Unsuccessfully, of course.

Another day gone by, she again only went to the mages’ guild, and, come teaching time, began finally sharing more information on her method of creating and using mana constructs to keep spells ready to cast instantly and with very little mana.

As the next day was one she wouldn’t be teaching during, she finally returned to the healers’ guild, and luckily, the person who’d brushed against her tail seemed to have forgotten about it.  Seven and a half copper richer, she headed back home for the day, having forgotten about going to the mages’ guild for the day, though she was sure they wouldn’t mind.

Three more days passed with little of interest occurring as Cera spent her time reading and practicing magic.  Before her next lesson, she decided she would also write a book about her mana constructs, though this one she’d be keeping private until she went to the capital, finding that the mages’ guild was willing to keep it hidden away for her until then for a one-time fee of one brass, which she immediately paid in advance.

After three more days of teaching, Cera found herself with a considerable amount of copper again, and headed to the bank once more to deposit another forty.  This left her carrying fourteen iron, a steel, and nine copper.  Within the bank, her balance was one brass and four silver now, enough for a few months at the capital’s academy, though less than she was willing to go there with.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!