Lilith: Origin of Succubi

The clothing store wasn't as painful as it could have been. The twins were still a bit anxious about picking out clothes for themselves, but they didn't complain about it either. The tailor there, a beastkin herself, was happy to adjust their servant uniforms to look better now that they weren't wearing collars anymore. Morrigan chose a mixture of light dresses and feminine blouses, though she also picked out a few pairs of more functional shirts and pants as well. Torien almost exclusively chose more masculine clothes, but Morrigan convinced her to pick out at least one dress. I was happy to stay out of it and let them choose something on their own without my input.

I didn't really need any more clothes right now, but I was able to ask the tailor's assistant to help me create a leather sling so that I could attach my book to my belt. Surprisingly, it wasn't that odd of a request, though most people use them for spellbooks rather than the Book of Recollections I intended to use it with. While I waited for the assistant to put together what I was asking for, I looked back on that notification I skipped over earlier.

[Illusion Magic has increased from level 5 to level 6]
[Learned Illusion Magic Spell Mirage]

[Mirage - Illusion Magic Spell]
Create a static visual projection. Clarity and the size of the illusion as well as the distance at which the illusion can be cast is affected by Magic Force.

This is one of the simplest descriptions I've come across so far, but I got the impression that it was because of how restricted this magic actually is. I cast the spell and created a small bird in the palm of my hand. If I don't give it much magic the illusion isn't very convincing, it seems the clarity of the illusion affects how see-through the projected image is. Luckily, it seems the magic fills in a lot of the blanks in terms of what I was imagining. I wasn't really thinking of a specific kind of bird or anything but the illusion looks lifelike despite the fact that I can still see through it.

When the description says static though, it means it. Even after moving my hand, the bird stays perfectly in place as if it were perched on nothing. I cast [Echo] on top of the bird to imitate the birds I heard chirping outside. The bird can't move or react to the noise of course, but I can still see potential in combining these two spells. Perhaps if I get a more realistic illusion spell I could make this better.

I had a curious thought and tried to create a simple cleaning ritual circle using the [Mirage] spell I had learned, but it just created an indistinct blob of magic that looked like a ritual circle rather than the structure that I would need to cast it. It seems [Light Scribing] can't be replaced with something as simple as this. It turns out I'm not able to alter the illusion after it's cast either, once the spell is formed it exists until I dismiss it or the illusion runs out of the mana I had supplied it with. The illusion gets more transparent as it runs out of mana as well, the only thing I can alter using my Magic Control is how long it tries to look convincing before it fades. I can either let it burn out slowly, but it becomes much less convincing over time, or let it burn out quickly, which makes it stay convincing for longer but suddenly disappear once it runs out of mana.

It is quite nice to get something like this before infiltrating the slaver's guild but I'm not sure how useful it will be. It might be useful to hide with but it relies on static images that can't be updated. I can keep it supplied with mana while I'm near it but the second I let it go, it has a time limit before it fades. And, all that is assuming it tricks someone in the first place. I notice that my magic senses can spot the illusion right away. Not everyone has [Mana Sense] or something similar, but if they do this is just a waste of mana.

"Ahem, please do not cast spells in the store," the assistant sheepishly said to me.

I dismissed all of the test illusions I had cast and smiled at him. "I'm sorry, won't happen again."

He looked relieved after hearing my reply and placed the leather sling I had asked for on the counter. I looked over it and was happy with what I saw. It was very close to the correct size already and it was fitted with a few straps that allowed me to adjust it to be a perfect fit or let me use it with different books. There was a metal snapping button on one side that let me quickly release the book whenever I needed it. It was exactly what I had been asking for.

After the tailoring service was finished and I purchased all the clothes the twins picked out, as well the book strap for myself, the total ended up being one gold and twenty silver. I was still surprised by how cheap clothes were here but I supposed that if they cost too much more, most people wouldn't be able to afford them. It wasn't like we were buying fancy noble clothes that used expensive cloth. The most expensive part of everything we purchased was actually the leather straps for the book sling.

We left the clothing store with a few more bags but were able to duck into an alley and allow Mimi to slide everything into her spatial pocket. Having Mimi around was pretty convenient even if it was slightly less convenient to ask her for stuff all the time. I could see a highly respected spatial mage getting sick of it pretty quickly, it was nice that Mimi was so happy-go-lucky about carrying everything around for us. I was a little worried that she would get tired of it after a while, but that hadn't happened yet.

After all of our purchases, the twins still chose to wear their servant's uniforms since the outfits also doubled as their adventuring gear. The clothes still technically put them at a lower status than me, but the two of them were also adamant that they saw them as a sign of respect so it was hard for me to talk them out of it. It would be pretty wasteful to commission new armor for them even though these maid uniforms were still in great shape. Plus, I didn't really have the funds to splurge on better equipment for them right now anyway. For better or worse, they would still be wearing their servants uniforms. The two of them also still looked quite attractive in them too...

"Alright girls, last thing on the agenda before we meet back up with Silva, is to visit the cartography guild. I need to take the measuring test and then I can get my certification," I told everyone.

I had gotten directions to the cartography guild from the adventurer's guild earlier so it wasn't difficult to find. This part of the city didn't seem very busy right now since people were so on edge. Tamin paladins and priests were still patrolling the city but none of them bothered us. Several gave us long looks, especially the twins, but either they realized we all had the demon hunter title or they were looking for something else.

The cartography guild looked like a relatively new building unlike the fancier but worn adventurer's guild. It was made from the same utilitarian stone as most of the architecture in this part of the city. The buildings here all looked fairly similar but the cartographer's guild took up more space than most of the surrounding buildings and it had an enclosed courtyard where people were milling around.

I led our troupe inside and walked up to the front desk. "Hello, I'm Lilith Baphomet, I was told to come meet for my measuring test."

The receptionist nodded and scanned down a book before nodding. "I see you on the list, it seems like the guild master wants to test you himself. I'll go talk with him, please wait a moment."

I looked over at Bella. "I didn't realize he was the guild master of the cartography guild when I talked with him yesterday."

Not long later, Korrim came down the stairs and waved to me when he saw me. "Good to see you again, Miss Lilith. It's a bit later in the day than I expected you, but there's still plenty of time to finish your test."

He led me into the courtyard. "Alright. I have this chalkboard here. I'll tell you where to measure and I'll write down your measurements. When we're finished down here, we can check them against the key and if you're close enough to the correct measurements, we can proceed with your certification."

"Sounds good," I said with a nod. I figure I'll do things the standard way first before testing out my new ritual magic. I measured everything in paces and gave him estimations of how tall some of the walls were. I pointed out an incline and made a guesstimate of how steep it was. The measurements were all pretty unsatisfactory for someone who was used to proper tools but this is how it was supposed to be done at my supposed level.

"That's the last of them, Miss Lilith. I just need to double-check against the key but I'm pretty sure this will be a pass," Korrim told me.

"Uh, before that. I want to talk with you about something."

He raised an eyebrow. "If you're about to bribe me, that would be a really stupid thing to do."

I laughed. "No, nothing like that. I've been experimenting with ritual magic and I wanted to test some of my ritual circles out. They're designed to get more accurate measurements than what we were just doing here. I wanted to prove to you that I could take these measurements your way before I showed you what I've been working on."

"Ritual magic eh? I'm not sure how you would use that for measurements but I'm willing to entertain the idea." Korrim replied cautiously.

"Great! If you don't mind, why don't we go over parts of the test again and we can see how well the prototype rituals stack up."

"Uh, sure. The first one was over here."

He led me back to where we started, it was the distance between two walls. This would be perfect for the distance measurement spell I created for this. I opened the ritual book with one hand and used [Light Scribing] to cast the ritual circle with my other. The man looked surprised by what I was doing but didn't interrupt me. When the ritual finished resolving I used a light pointer to indicate the starting point and dragged a line out from it to indicate the direction. This was a horizontal laser ruler so it spun along only one axis. Once I finished setting it up, I powered the last part of the ritual circle, and a number was spat out with light magic.

When I finished I turned to Korrim who looked absolutely stunned. "You're using light magic to measure how far away that wall is?"

"Well... technically it's ritual magic that casts light magic. I'm using a technique I created to cast it as well, but I can show you the actual ritual circles when we're finished," I replied.

He nodded slowly and took me to a different spot in the yard where the incline was. I was kind of excited about this one because I hadn't had a chance to test the incline measurement circle at the Elven embassy. I resolved the ritual circle with [Light Scribing] again and this time it used two points of light to find the start and end of the ramp before dropping a plumb line and measuring the angle from the first point. It spat out a distance and the incline's angle.

Korrim just started taking me to different spots in the courtyard, even a couple that weren't on the test to see how I would use my ritual spells to measure them. Once he seemed satisfied he nodded and started heading back to the cartography building with only a "Follow me."

When I looked back at my friends who had been quietly following us this entire time, Morrigan looked excited and Torien looked impressed. I don't think Mimi really understood the significance of what I was doing but Bella looked proud of me. The other three had gotten tired of following us around the courtyard so they had sat down and started talking while we were busy. I stopped for a moment to them that we were heading upstairs and that they could wait for us here.

Our group followed Korrim into his office on the second floor and he started digging through a locker behind him with several blueprints. "One minute, I want to check these against the actual numbers."

I nodded and waited around while he fished the right blueprint out and started checking the numbers against it. When he finished his eyes shot up at me. "Miss Lilith... the figures your spells gave, they're accurate... and more exact than this blueprint here. What would it take to get you to sell me the rights to use your ritual circles? You said they were ritual spells right? They weren't a strange application of light magic?"

I was a bit caught off guard. I knew these ritual circles would be useful to him but he suddenly looked like he would murder me if I refused him. "They are... Would you like me to show you how to use them?"

"Very much so," he said immediately.

"Okay, I'll need some ritual chalk, Mimi?" Mimi tapped her chin a few times before pulling out a box from her pocket dimension and handing it to me. Ritual chalk isn't something I've used in a long time but it had enough magic in it to activate ritual circles without damaging things on solid surfaces. It's been sitting in my chest unused for a while, unnecessary since I learned [Light Scribing]. "The ritual circles aren't exactly easy to write but as long as you have a reference it shouldn't be too hard to copy. Can I draw one here on the floor?" I asked.

"Please do, can you explain how it works as you go?" he asked in reply.

"Sure, this first circle only measures horizontal distances that you set up with the point of light and the line you drag out from it..." This trailed into a long conversation as I showed him how each of the circles worked. It was also safe to say I passed my cartography exam...