Mined Games chapter 22

After I got back to the dorm I was torn on what to do. I’d learned a lot about myself, and about my mom, and my dad. Hell, I’d learned a lot about the world. All of that was kind of distant though. Sure, people who knew about my hybrid status would hate me…but they had kind of been doing that already. Now I just knew why.

It did make me curious about Grace though. She must know what I was, but she hadn’t been one of the ones glaring at me or anything. She mostly just ignored me. Was that because my dad worked for her dad? Did she KNOW my dad? I sure as hell didn’t apparently. Weirdly that thought made me smile, like a private joke.

I decided that it was time to work on something that would keep me entertained and distracted. Something I’d been putting off. I was going to learn my first spell. I had job points from when I signed up, and on Alec’s recommendation I’d kept them squirreled away, but now it was time to break open the war chest.

Having been training in Mana Control, I also knew what to get and what to avoid. I couldn’t manage anything with more than three lattices, which meant I almost definitely needed a spatial spell. A conversion function would eat into my other usable features. On the upside spatial mana was stupidly rare, so chances were good they wouldn’t charge a ton for low rank spatial spells.

I had to ask Alec for directions to the spell repository, but he was able to give them without thinking. When I arrived, I expected the place to be completely packed, but to my surprise there was just an old man with long silver hair in a ponytail reading a thick book behind the desk near the entrance, and to my surprise, Cecily.

The redhead heard me coming and turned to see me arrive, giving me a stoic nod of greeting. It was probably my imagination, but I always thought I could see a spark of friendliness in her eyes, despite her monotonous demeanor.

“Hey there.” I said with a wave. “You here to pick out a spell too?” I looked around. “Also I expected it to be busier here. This IS the spell repository. Shouldn’t there be dozens of people in here buying spells?”

The old man closed his eyes, exhaled in annoyance, and then loudly snapped his book shut. “No. There should not. There’s a time limit on how long people can be inside. If you exceed it we start charging you extra points. People don’t come here unless they know what they want. So why don’t you follow her lead and sit quietly while you think about what you’re looking for, and stop bothering me while I’m trying to read.”

I just shrugged. “No need. If you could point me at the tier two spatial spells with three or fewer lattices I’ll be out of your hair.” Or fewer was academic in this case, honestly. No spells at my rank had two lattices. Maybe when you got to those custom lattices that Alec mentioned, but for an Apprentice? Not even close.

Cecily’s head snapped up, her eyes going wide in the single biggest expression of emotion I’d seen from her. “SPATIAL spells? With three lattices? You condensed spatial crystals when you broke through to apprentice? Is that why it took you so long to make it past first circle?”

It wasn’t, but if she wanted to think that she was welcome to, so I just shrugged, brushing past the last question to address the one before it. “Yeah. I’m a space mage. I can only use three lattice spells at the moment, unfortunately, which means I need spells in my native mana type so I can cut out the converter.”

She nodded reflexively. “Of course, I’m here for the same reason.” She stopped. “Wait, no, go back. You condensed spatial crystal and you’re training to be a mage? I knew you were talented at the physical portion of crafting, but if you’re a space mage then that means…”

I grinned. “That I can make Apprentice ranked spatial items? Theoretically. I haven’t managed to make anything yet, but it’s a possibility for sure.”

Biting her lip, she scrutinized me, her face relaxing as she took a deep breath.  “I apologize. I let you see something unseemly. My surprise momentarily overtook my good manners.”

Letting out a groan, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Oh, so close! We almost had a normal conversation. You should loosen up a bit Cece, it’s harder to make friends when you’re so stiff all the time. But since I’m a nice guy, once I can make items I’ll make you a spatial artifact.”

She narrowed her eyes at me when I tossed out the nickname, but when I mentioned the artifact they went wide again in shock. “That is…you mean for free? You aren’t going to charge me some ridiculous price? You could auction an object like that for tens of platinum in Edgebank. You can’t just…GIVE it to someone. Is this a dowry? Are you hoping for a political marriage?”

That made me burst out laughing. It felt good to laugh. “What do they teach you clan kids? No, I’m not trying to win your hand in marriage. I’m eighteen. But if you want one and you already know about it why not? It’s a big deal to you and a small to middling deal to me. Plus you’ve been the least assholish person in any of my classes.”

Weirdly, that made her blush. She looked at me for a long moment and then curtsied. “I am in your debt, should you deliver such a gift.”

Rolling my eyes, I waved her off. “I liked you better surprised. No need for the formalities, Cece, just talk like a normal person. You’re like the only person in my year who speaks to me at all, so just treat me like a friend.”

She bit her lip uncertainly. “I’m…not very good with people.” She admitted with embarrassment. “Being formal is easier. I make fewer mistakes.”

“Well.” I said with a smile. “I have one friend in the world, if you don’t count my black market crystal dealer, so it’ll be a learning experience for both of us.” I held out a hand. “Let’s do this the formal way then, just to start you on the right foot. I’m Caleb Rourke, but my friends call me Cale.”

She smiled wryly. “I’m Cecily Ardane. Apparently my friends call me…Cece.” She said the word with a small grimace, like it tasted bad but she was getting used to it. I just grinned at her.

The old man cleared his throat. “You know, I started timing you when you made your spell request. Your little meet cute burned through about five minutes of the hour you would otherwise have had. Each.” As we turned on him he smirked at us mockingly. “Do you really have time for glares? The spatial spellbooks are in the third row on the left hand side of the case in the back right corner.”

I looked at my new friend wryly. “Catch you after we finish Cece, good luck!” I bolted into the library, headed for the back where the old man had directed me. I didn’t know if an hour was too much or too little time just to look at books, but I doubted they would set a time limit if it wasn’t useful.

Finding the right book case took longer than expected. Apparently the directions were VERY necessary, because none of the books were labeled on the spine. If I hadn’t had specific idea where they were I might not have found the damned things in a week, much less an hour.

Sitting down I started pulling out books to flip through them. This was the Apprentice floor of the library, so tier two spells were the only things down here, but not all tier two spells were created equal, as I’d been learning. Spatial magic was VERY complicated, requiring anywhere from five to ten lattice structures in most cases.

It took me about twenty minutes to narrow down the books to ones I could actually learn. Three spells. Blink, Push, and Bluff. They were all extremely limited spells, with only three lattices, even without the converter, they were only able to do a few VERY specific things, and space was a complicated and delicate mana type, requiring LOTS of instructions to function.

Blink, the most basic and well known spatial spell. Most people thought of blink as just popping all over the place, but if that spell existed it wasn’t the Apprentice ranked one I was holding. Basically the blink spell could teleport you forward ten feet, specifically ten feet in the direction you were looking. You couldn’t stop early, change direction, or reorient. You used the spell and bam, you were ten feet in one direction.

Push was similarly expected. A strong shove in any direction (one of the lattices of the spell was directionality). It was sort of like telekinesis, but much more limited. Useful in a variety of situations, but not ridiculously so.

The last spell was a doozy. Bluff was…impressive. Basically it used unstable space to deflect a blow. It was useful, practical, and VERY effective. It was also much more complicated to use in real life because the spell needed to be deployed in front of a spell or attack before it landed. You had to see the blow coming to Bluff it, and you had to see where it was coming from.

All three were amazing magic. Teleportation, moving things with my mind, deflecting attacks. All powerful and useful skills to have. I desperately wanted a spell to practice, and I wanted something combat effective. Knowing what I was and how much people hated me, raw magic power didn’t seem like enough anymore. I needed to learn to use it. I was going to register for some of the combat classes with the Guild Guard, but I needed a useful piece of magic for those.

After weighing them all though…I knew which one I wanted. Blink. It was overdone, every spatial mage wanted to teleport based on the books I’d been reading on my element as I trained but…EVERY spatial mage wanted to teleport. Including me. It was so cool. Sure it was kind of limited in scope, but I could still work with it. And it required much less complex application than the other two.

Putting the Bluff and Push books back, I waffled a little bit more before finally turning to head beak out to where the old man was waiting. As I walked, I flipped through the book. Complex instructions on the exact methods of shaping the mana to create the lattices, notes on potential pitfalls and mistakes, warnings on ways the spell could go wrong. The book was packed with information, all written in VERY small letters.

Despite that, I couldn’t have been more excited. I was going to get this down before I started my combat classes. I had to talk to someone about signing up anyway, maybe Tanya, but regardless, I had a project to work on, and one I was excited for. The book had a one hundred written on the inside cover, so I knew the point value, and I passed it to the old man without further ado.

He took it from me and rolled his eyes. “Blink. How original.” At my wince, he smirked slightly. “I’m messing with you kid. It’s a useful spell. Classics are classics for a reason.” He wrote something down in a ledger and passed it to me. “Bring the book back after you learn the spell and we refund you ten percent of the job points.”

As I nodded my acceptance, Cece came out of the library, carrying a stack of five books that must have been spells in her element. I wondered if they were cheap or if she just had way more points than I did. I waited for her to finish and then gave her a hopeful smile. “Don’t suppose you’d want to study together.” Her own smile in response was bright enough to make me glad I asked. It was going to be pretty cool having a new friend.