Chapter 53 Business Partners
I slept like child all day after I came back from the mine. It was a tiring day.
Now now, can’t stay in bed all day.
Morning training, breakfast, fast bath, Jull made me coffee. Damn! This is life.
Today I’ll be meating some new ’friends’ but I still haven’t done my college duty.
Yes, today is the first day for our Mysticism Department.
First class; Teacher Laaneth.
The basics of magical energy, the idea of spell casting, the strong and weak points of mystics, blah blah blah!
I’ll skip class!
These things I was born with them in my head.
I went back to the dorm and directly to the dorm’s library.
They have nothing worthy to read!
Sigh!
What should I do now? I want to research some spells in peace but I reached a bottleneck with some Techniques.
No one here is that knowledgeable about the energy and matter. I remember some Physics from high school but after Law School, I forgot most of it.
Trying not to think anymore, I headed to Nurina’s. Sometimes she has some good ideas that refresh my brain.
"Brat, come here!"
And she is excited for some reason!
"Look at this! I worked on the idea you told me about. You was right, light should not belong to the Illusion School."
She is still excited about that topic! I remember going into an argument with her about the nature of light. Was it Energy, Illusion or Matter? Explaining stuff to her is easy when she stop arguing.
"So, what did you come up with?" I asked about the reason for her excitement.
"Look here, this is a new spell!"
Nurina casted a spell and another Nurina appeared!
"Taraaa! A ’Mirror’ spell."
Wow! She managed to do that?
She must have used the effect of ’Reflect’ and the aspect of ’Light’ with a high class manipulation technique.
"I manipulated it into what you like to call ’Install’ technique."
"F**k!"
I couldn’t help but curse. Still, Nurina punched me.
"You kiss your mama with that mouth!"
"Sorry Sorry! You said you used ’Install’, doesn’t that mean this is an ’Expert’ level spell that replaces something like mere mirrors?"
Nurina opened her eyes and realized it.
"F**k! I was planning to make it official."
Damn! This airhead is back to her crazy spells!
Nurina’s only bad point in magic is her creativity! She may use a Super spell like this for something meaningless. Even though she is a genius, she only makes useful thing when puts her heart into something.
To me who is having a bottleneck right now, this was a blow to my morale. Someone with so many ideas but no mean to reach it and someone who is capable of doing anything but an airhead.
Sigh!
"You sigh too much brat, it’s not a good sign."
"I am in a bottleneck with some ideas!"
"Hmmm! There are some old notes I found gathering dust in the Arcanaeum, they have ideas pretty much similar to yours."
Oh! That’s the Nurina I came to see.
She handed me some old notes and I sat on the side reading.
The notes spoke of the manipulation of Energy, a categorization for the main Techniques of spells.
This is also something I worked on. And whoever wrote that is a genius!
Adding my research to his, we can solve this problem in a way sort.
The ’Technique’ we agreed on were many. We also seemed to agree that ’Spell Techniques’ can be categorized based on the spell level. And once the ’Effect’ and the ’Technique’ are suited for each other, we can manipulate the ’Technique’ at some point, similar how one can cast ’Heal’ with ’Channeling’ and with ’Bolt’ Techniques.
After comparing the ideas for a while, I removed my mistakes and his then reached the last form of the theory.
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The Casting Techniques (Beta)
***
#Novice level:-
-Channeling: Continuous casting, short ranged stream spell, like: ’Flames’ spell. Can be altered to make an effect on the caster, like: ’Heal’ spell.
***
#Apprentice level:-
-Bolt: A high speed bolt, long ranged type spell, like: Fire Bolt. Can be altered to make an effect on the caster, like: Stoneskin.
-Mark: Short ranged form of casting that the caster instead of casting the spell would cast the spell’s rune which can serve for marking locations or planting traps, like: Fire Rune.
***
#Adept level:-
-Blast: Highly focused, average range and speed spell that explodes when it hits the target, like: Fireball, Mass Frenzy, Mass Paralyze.
-Aura: Cloaking the caster or target with the Aura of the certain effect and aspect casted, like: Fire Cloak, and Paladin’s Aura.
-Zone: Also known as Circle, can make an effect around the caster that affects whoever in it, like: Circle of Healing, Muffled Zone.
***
#Expert level:-
-Missile: A highly focused and energized missile of Magicka with the longest range any spell can take, there are no examples for this type in my arsenal but it would take the form of a ’Meteor’ or a ’Shooting Star’.
-Install: Casting the Magicka and making it take a fixed form for a while, like: Flames Wall.
-Augmenting: (Argued) Blending the Magicka with the body to cause an effect from all the body or one part of it, something like ’Power Punch’ (If the aspect of ’Telekinesis’ was augmented).
-Bend: (Very Argued) Not exactly a spell casting but it can be seen as completely dominating certain types of energy and reshaping it according to will, can be imagined in Fire Bending and Free Telekinesis.
***
#Master level:-
-Bomb: Massive explosion around the caster or can be casted onto a target, the range and speed are dependent on the caster, like: Firestom.
-Storm: Wide ranged spell that moves in circles around the caster or in the location he controls it at, like: Blizzard, Cyclone shout.
-Call: Similar to ’Mark’ as the casters launches the Rune away, the difference is that the caster can keep controlling the rune from a far location, can be imagined as droping bomb shells from above.
-Beam: Similar to ’Channeling’ as the caster has to keep casting the spell. Difference is the beam is made of a highly focused energy with an an insane range.
-Embodiment: (Very Argued) Smilar to ’Augmenting’, the caster blends with the energy. Difference is the body of the caster gets altered with the Aspect, ’Become Ethereal’ shout is the basic form of this ’technique’, one can add an aspect to the Etherealness and become the embodiment of the aspect. [A/N: Basically, Lugia Devil Fruits.]
[A/N: Suggestions are accepted in this part, I wracked my brain to come up with this for a whole night, I want it perfect.]
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Whoa! This truly an eye opener!
I now have many leeways to go around the hurdles I am facing.
I don’t want to waste my money on some third rate spells from this college. After all, my spells must reach perfection and ride on top of it.
The senior who wrote these notes earned my full respect! This ’Embodiment’ part was his idea and I copied it like an idiot. I should pay respect to him soon.
Nurina came to me and looked at my journal, she sighed when she saw it.
"Seriously! How can you make such an impressive code you runt? You write it from right to left and the pattern thing you talk about is totally different from the common language!"
"Didn’t I tell you? It’s fro.."
"Anymore past life nonsense and I’ll disown you!"
"..."
"Sigh! You kids give me headache all the time." She looked at the window and said, "I wonder how is Akara blending in Whiterun? Or how is Svidi doing with her studies?"
"You are not worried about Wulfur or Ysolda?"
Nurina grinned, "These two followed you the most! I am worried at what they are doing to the world!"
Ah! She is right.
"Good thing I’ll never make you worried." I said then turned my head to the notes. Little did I know that I would get my head hit by Nurina.
"You little runt! You are making me worried everyday!"
I looked at her while holding my head, but her face was showing a lot of emotions! A lot of sadness was mixed in.
Oops! What have done wrong!
"Nurina! I am sorry!"
She was looking away dejectedly.
"I really didn’t mean it seriously!"
This was the first time Nurina show such face front to me.
I felt that something has gone wrong.
"It’s fine!" She said and turned away.
"I promised your mother... your real mother to give you something one day! I guess this is the time."
Nurina turned around but I couldn’t watch her sad like this.
My body moved on its own.
"Wait!" I said and ran to her then stood front of her.
"You are my real mother! What nonsense are you saying?"
I held her hands and lowered my head to kiss them.
"But your mo..."
"I know Hilda has her reasons to leave me in the orphanage."
"Wha!!! How di!!"
"I knew from the beginning! But whatever reason she had doesn’t make you any less than her as my mother!"
It was a teary moment but thank goodness it was interrupted.
"Nurin... Oh! Bad timing! I’ll just go this way."
"Laaneth!"
"Yes, Nuri.. Ehem! Arch-Wizard."
"Your momery..."
"Completely wiped out! I don’t remember when I came to the tower! Whoa! How am I here?"
Nurina and Laaneth were having a comical conversation so the heavy mood was lifted.
I went back to the desk and took my journal ready to leave.
"Brat!"
Ah! She is back to her usual self.
"This belongs to you! It was passed down from Hilda to Delvin and he gave it to me. You will know what to do with it."
She gave me a red note! It had a strange insignia of a beast roaring and around his head is a mane of fire.
"Fire-Mane?!"
That was not me or Nurina, this was Laaneth!
"The symbol of great clan Fire-Mane, right?"
I was confused!
Why does Laaneth know that name?
"You know them?" Nurina asked.
"Ah! I was invited in their castle once! Clan Fire-Mane is big and ancient. I have a friend from the main family. His name is Tyr. We met before the Great War and participated together in it but he was wounded. After it, his brothers left to Hammerfell and I took him back to Skyrim."
"Doesn’t sound like a rosy tail!" I said.
"Tyr and I go way back, if you need help from the Fire-Manes, just find Tyr and say my name. Even though you look like one of them, I guess you are a bit shorter!"
What’s with that? I am no short at all. I am actually taller than most! What are the Fire-Manes? Giants?
I and Nurina looked at each other strangely. This day is just so full of drama from its beginning.
It is not ending yet for me as I have business to do in the inn tonight.
Let’s just escape before any more drama happens.
Yet no rest for the wicked it seems.
When I was carrying the notes I saw a signature on one of them and due to my curiosity I looked at the name trying to read it. I hope I didn’t.
What was written was ’ Augur of Dunlain’.
"F**K!"
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Sigh!
I hid back in my room cowering myself in my bed.
I want nothing to do with this day anymore!
I want my secretary to rearrange my business schedule to tomorrow.
I have no secretary however! Nor I can reschedule anything now!
But one thing for sure! This day just wants to bite my a$$.
I had two notes on me and my blood pressure was in no shape to read anyone if them today.
One was Hilda’s journal and the other was The Aurgur’s ideas.
Augur of Dunlain, known as The Augur, was formerly a Breton mage who lived and worked in the College of Winterhold.
According to Teacher Tolfdir and Teacher Colette Marence, he was an upstanding mage and advanced student, especially talented in Restoration.
Restoration replace Mysticism at that time as the school that is considered about Energy Manipulation.
Tolfdir says in the game "He was a brilliant student, an accomplished wizard. Delved into magic in a way none had seen before. But, I think, he became too focused on just how much power he could acquire. That’s what led to the accident."
Apparently, it was this acquisition of power that distracted him from magical greatness. A failed magical experiment transformed him into a non-corporeal entity.
That’s so scary now! I just don’t have the right amount of brain cells to process this now.
Let’s leave the two notes for, tomorrow.
Yeees! Good idea! New day new me.
"Sigh!"
"I never thought I would see you in such a state."
Jullanar was doing her training I tasked her with.
Now she is my servant and she lives in the same room as me. My room is on the third floor of the tower and I have a good space. Better than the usual student room from the game.
This room has the same look and furniture as the game’s but was 4×4 meters and had a fancy bed for me and a normal bed for little Jull. Of course there was a divider between us.
"You just don’t understand! Behind that door is the Omnipotent Force of Fate that wants to pick on me all day."
"Heh Heh! By all means."
"Girl! You’ll get beaten."
"Oh! The Great Lord Mage Jon Dare wants to beat up a weak girl! How ruthless!"
"Stop saying weird stuff! You are coming with me as a meat shield tonight. If fate came to bite my a$$ I’ll throw you at him and run."
"You are taking me outside! Will I get to wear the new outfit?"
She jumped from her side of the room lively and jumped on my bed, she was showing some skin but I got used to her these past days.
She was holding a note and writing something! Another crazy poem?
"Yes, you get to wear it. You’ll carry my sword too."
"Yaay!"
What’s going on with her? So cheerful.
"Something good happened today?"
"What? Are you not noticing anything different with me?"
Wait a second!
Isn’t this that question?
Something different?
Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap!!!!!
This is that question when a girl changes some makeup or hairstyle then ask her boyfriend and if he failed to answer then it’s over.
Well! Technically, Jull is no girlfriend of mine but I have to answer that accurately or my morale will take a bigger hit.
Dammit this day is not taking it easy on me at all.
I’ll make it this time!
"Your hair?"
She shook her head.
"You buffed your breasts with some magic or anything?"
She covered het chest with her arm and looked at me with disdain, then shook her head.
Let’s face it. She is flat beyond hope.
"You changed! Hmmm....."
I looked for a while.
"A scar! A scar got healed."
"Yes!"
Oh I did it. Dovahkiin-Sama, Banzai!!
"Congratulations! But how did you do that?"
"Lady Laaneth and Lady Nurina told me about an ointment and I bought it."
"You used your allowance?"
"Mhm!" She nodded happily.
I knocked on her hed with a finger causing her to hold it in pain.
"Stupid girl! I told you to come to me directly when it’s something about your scar and eye. Did you spend it all?"
She held her head and nodded.
"I’ll buy it for you from now on? Did they say anything about your eye?"
She shook her head! Actually, healing that is much harder.
"Fine! Go gear up now. Let’s hope the rest of this day go easy on me."
She jumped back to her bed and started changing behind the divider.
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The armor she wore was a fit cloth abd steel light armor. That had a hood and a face mask. It was colorful and easy to move it so she doesn’t appear as her fellow assassins!
I took her and went outside the college, the sun was setting and the time drew neerer.
I myself was dressed in an easy to walk in clothes which was called ’The Secret Apprentice Robes’ (from Star Wars).
Part of the plan was to make appearance with the Flame Atronach Horse and so I summoned it.
I rode into the town like that and I attracted a lot of attention. Now, let’s go to the inn.
The ’Frozen Hearth’ was unusually crowded, and many people were singing and making some sort of celebration around the bard. I left the horse outside the inn, and didn’t banish it.
This was all part of the plan. After all, I payed for this party and invited as many people as possible.
The lumberjacks, the miners, the builders and the hunters were all here.
But all were a distraction! Can’t let the Jarl know I do business here.
Elishka saw me and whispered to the old mine owner!
"People! The Mage who saved the mine is here!"
Applause, clapping and some people wanted to invite me for drinks! Elishka and the old man seemed to have accomplished their job well done.
I told them to make a propaganda for me across the town as the Savior Mage who saved the mine alone while riding a Flaming Horse, with an underlined ’no credit to the guards’, as well as announcing that I am the Champion of the Tournament and the host of the party.
Even though the people hardly forget about the grievances against mages, they act well when they receive a favor.
Now as I could free myself, I entered a room with Elishka and Jull following me.
"Okay, everything is ready?" I asked.
"Yes, shall I start?" Elishka asked.
"Of course! First meating!"
Elishka nodded and went outside.
Jullanar who didn’t understand what was going on just picked a seat beside me.
The room was actually a normal bed room for the patrons of the inn but I booked it for meetings tonight.
The door opened again and who entered was the old man of the mine. He was dressed neatly and carried a small chest in his arms.
"Sir Mage! Sir Mage! Hehe, I did as you told. Here is the crystals we mined from before and yesterday!"
The man took the seat opposite to me and opened the small chest.
"Nice!" I checked them one by one!
Soul Gems cam be appraised based on color and wight! These were not any bad.
Most of them were Petty and Lesser soul gems, some were Common and only one was a greater soul gem. That is some harvest.
"Good job! According to this papers we will sign together! You will be my official supplier and I’ll pay you according to the prices here here and here."
Elishka started reading the contract to the man and he was taken aback, I actually paid him fairly and wrote a professional contract with all my spirit as a lawyer.
"Sir Mage! Thank you."
"Good, let’s work together for Winterhold, Old Vekman."
"For Winterhold? Of course. Thank you!"
The man said and left.
"Next."
Elishka went outside and returned with another man.
"This is Borkr, the master huntsman in these parts."
"Wel-met, Sir Mage."
I shook hands with the man and offered him a seat.
"I understand that your work comes with a great risk Mr. Borkr so I won’t meddle in your business a lot. But first tell me, how is your work?"
"it’s not as bad as the miners but I can’t take in many people or everyone will go poaching."
"I understand, how many members is your team?"
"Around ten. We are the official hunters who are only allowed to hunt."
"Hmmm! Do you know how to read?"
"Yes Sir Mage!"
I gave the man a paper and he started reading.
"Which one of these animals do you hunt?"
"Mostly, all of them, except Horkers."
"Do you see these words on the other side?"
"Ah! Normal and Greater things with colors?"
"It is like this, you kill an animal and trap its soul by a magical bow or dagger I’ll provide you with. The soul will go to the gem it fits and the gem will shine brighter...."
I started telling the man about the prices and the soul trapping process also how to do business with me.
He asked some questions but it all went well and another contract was signed.
Now I get the gems and get them filled, the marketing is easy since I have the whole damn college.
The man left with the chest of soul gems and some enchanted daggers.
"Now for the third business partner."
"Third?" Elishka asked as that was not in the plan.
"Yes, it’s you Elishka." I said, "I have a very profitable business in mind."