Chương 17

The faint hum of my magic integrating in the Magic Essence filled the back yard as once again I finished creating a Wand. A bit tiredly, I checked the wand, it hadn't given me a point which sucked, and disenchanted it. This had been the fifth one in a row and I hadn't earned even a single pip.

"I think this grind has come to an end." I muttered to the essence in my palm. It was a trusted companion at this point having gone into thousands of sticks. Day after day. The grind continues, and unfortunately I'd been stuck with cheap rather than quick for a while. I rose up and headed upstairs, at least I didn't need to try and grab sticks anymore. I put my Magic Essence away and headed for the enchanting book.

Of course I'd gone through the whole thing by now, and picked out enchantments that sounded good to learn from now on. Unfortunately finding the cheapest enchantments was hard. Magistrix Dax'Rellian, when writing the book, hadn't considered that an important issue. So most of the enchantments were good, even if they were more for beginners but were also expensive. Probably intentional honestly. If someone wasn't rich you don't want them to have the power of enchantment! Or something like that.

So back to the drawing board. Which meant I turned around and headed straight towards Papa. He was thankfully in the kitchen so hopped onto a chair next to him until he noticed me.

"What's wrong Dorah?"

"I'm feeling stuck." I told him honestly.

"I've been making the Magic Wands because I can make them and then disenchant them for the Essence back and then I can practice making another one."

"Hmm?"

"Well… I've done that enough times I can't get anything else out of it. I need a new enchantment I can practice, but everything is expensive."

"It is an expensive hobby. Have you tried making more advanced enchantments?"

"Kinda? But I do want something I can just practice over and over."

"Huh. Well, if you want something repeatable, then… Why not craft Greater Wands?"

"Greater wands." I whispered, because duh, of COURSE I could make better wands.

"What do they need?"

"A Greater Magical Essence. You have enough to make one."

"Wait wait… The book didn't say anything about making Greater Magic Essence!" I complained and he blinked at me owlishly before frowning.

"That's right, the book is meant for novices just learning, they wouldn't give them something so expensive to practice with. Why don't you go grab your Magic Essence, and I'll show you how to merge them?"

"Yes please!" I chirped, rushing back up the stairs and grabbing the little wooden box full of my little flaming lights and bringing them back down.

"You do have more than I expected, and… Well these won't merge." He reached in, carefully shifting the Essence to the side.

"Where did you get these Astral Essence?"

"The flowers. If I let them gather mana they can disenchant into those ones." I explained and grinned at the explanation. They weren't color coded like they were in the game, just feeling different to my senses, and I hadn't exactly had an explanation for what they were called.

"Alright well, that's very good. They can be quite expensive to procure."

"How expensive?" I asked curiously, and Papa to my surprise knew instantly.

"Astral Essence sell on the markets for about twenty silver, they can go down to eighteen during the spring as the tailors will sell their spare stock to enchanters to disenchant for the new season. Some fashion thing." He added obviously not understanding why they would need to make new clothes for a new year instead of just keep selling what was already made. Heh. Papa is right, fashion is stupid, but it provides enchanters stuff so I won't complain.

"Eighteen Silver, huh." I muttered looking at the little flickering lights.

"So the greater essence would be sixty?"

"Yep." He confirmed, then brought out the three magic essence.

"Magic Essence or as some call them Lesser Magic Essence, sell for about ten silver on the market with a similar variable."

"Ten silver." I said looking at my clump of them…

"So I have over a gold here?"

"You do." He confirmed and then brought my attention back to the Essence that he had taken out.

"Now the Essence don't naturally like to combine when they are raw like this, you need to trick them into thinking they are inside an object where they would naturally combine. So you coat them in Mana like so." I sat there eagerly as Papa walked through the process, and I watched as the three Essence turned into one much larger Essence.

"Cool."

"They are actually fairly warm. See?" He said, handing me the Greater Magic Essence. Yep they weren't hot, but had a slight warmth to them. I lifted it up and looked it over. This would help me jump to the next tier if the Lesser Wands had been a metric.

"How do I make a Greater Magic Wand?"

"Well first you need some wood…" He trailed off, and I grinned as I plopped the Greater Magic Essence back in the box and stood up grabbing his hand. He blinked at me, as he let me pull him up and out the back yard. He definitely hadn't planned on wandering outside to find a stick with me, but Papa was the best. He was soon smiling as we walked through the back yard, which had an unfortunate issue.

"I kinda found all the good sticks near the house already. I've been having to wander pretty far."

"That is a bit of trouble… Here, let me." He offered, reaching upwards, and his hand squeezed, and mana flowed, shifting to arcane and then…

"Ooh!" I gasped, happy as Papa's magic grabbed a branch off a tree and just tugged it right off. It felt and then I looked at Papa practically buzzing.

"You know a cool spell!? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well… It's not really a spell. It-""Teach me that too? Oh no wait! Papa, can you do it again? On the branch?" I asked, and he quickly shrugged and did so. A glow around the branch as it was lifted up, but I flexed my hand and suddenly the glow disappeared. Captured.

"Hmmmm!" I examined the spell that I had just captured, or rather the Arcane flow. He was right, it wasn't a spell as such, it didn't have an exact structure, but it was more amorphous. Like a half completed spell that still did something, but wasn't quite there. I reached my hand out and wiggled my fingers, trying to alter the mana inside me into Arcane to be able to mimic what Papa had done but…

"I'll need to practice that." I decided, because I didn't have all day to figure it out.

"That was Spell Steal?" Papa asked, sounding interested and I nodded.

"Yep! Because I wrap spells in my own Mana to control them, I can sort of examine them. It makes it waaaay easier to figure out what kind of spell something is."

"No wonder Uncle was always showing up with new spells." He whispered, sounding like a mystery had been solved, but then he shook it off.

"I should send him a letter thanking him for teaching that to you, it seems you've been finding it useful."

"Ah… Maybe not a great idea Papa. He was kinda mad."

"Oh… Hmm… It's the polite thing to do though, isn't it? He can't be mad if we are thanking him."

"He totally can, and probably will… Best to just leave it for now… Maybe thank him another way instead of words."

"Oh… That I can do. Thank you Dorah." He said, reaching out and patting me on the head. Hehe! With a branch good enough, our search was finished and we headed inside, Mama obviously wondering what we were up to was on the porch and gave us both a look as she saw the branch. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Are you trying to make a staff now?"

"Noo! Just a better wand, a more advanced one! Papa is teaching me."

"I see. Alright." Mama said, and as Papa passed her, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He looked really happy, but seemed to have no idea why. Heh. Thankfully the Greater Magic Wand just needed the same structure as the lesser one, and I had gotten very good at making them. Papa watched from the kitchen table, even with Mama glaring at me making a mess, I whittled the wand down, as Mama started placing some food on the table.

"Almost done!"

"I know you'll both be distracted if I stop you, but please hurry." Mama ordered and we both nodded at her tone. When Papa was pleased with the wand, he took the Greater Magic Essence.

"It's not exactly the same as making a lesser wand. It's not just the power, but the way you integrate the Essence into the wood. You did well on the carving, but the better you make it the stronger the eventual wand, usually these end up made out of metal in the city." Interesting. So I could make a stronger wand, by improving my work. Too bad I didn't get a whittling skill by now.

Then Papa walked me through, as he brought the Essence to the wood and in a flick of his wrist, the Essence flowed into the swirling knob at the end and the entire wand flashed with power. This was three times as much essence compared to what I usually worked with. He was right, the method was different, the larger essence, and more power meant I needed to shift the way the mana flowed through the wand.

"Ah." I said, realizing.

"Hmm?"

"I'll need to make another wand first… Best to wait until after lunch." Papa blinked confused until he noticed Mama's stare.

"Oh right. After lunch." —---"Liennar! Welcome to the village!" Mama called out, as the two came into the village. A small cart pulled by a Hawkstrider had caught the attention of the village and word had spread. So here we were.

"Felomin! Good to see you!" The older ranger called out, and he looked over at the teenage ranger boy, the grumpy one, that looked irritated about something. It took his father nudging him before the boy responded.

"Yeah, good to see you." He then turned back to the cart and continued to unload it into one of the small empty homes in the village.

"Social one isn't he?" Mama whispered, and Liennar just grinned.

"Right? Perfect for a Ranger." He agreed happily, uncaring that his son was a bit of a grump.

"Do you need help settling in?"

"No no, we only brought the things we needed. It shouldn't take long to get us all unpacked."

"Well at least come over for dinner."

"That I will happily accept!" The man agreed, and the boy slumped as he walked past into the home. No doubt not wanting to deal with people. Poor teenager. —--"So this is the infamous Aran'Alah. You know, you caused me a lot of trouble stealing away the nearest reliable Ranger! But you make her happy so I guess I'll just have to forgive you!" Liennar greeted Papa as we were all settling around the dinner table, and I instantly felt like laughing.

Papa had been distracted and was not aware there were new people in his kitchen, people he had no idea who they were, and he'd just had something nonsensical said to him.

"T-Thank you?" Papa tried as he'd probably only listened to half of what Liennar had said before realizing it was to him.

"Hahaha! I can see why you like him, Felomin."

"Shut up Liennar. Sit down and get some food in you, honestly." Mama grumbled, and both of them were smiling as Liennar's son took a seat and just glared at everything.

"This is the new Ranger for the village Papa." I said clearly, and Papa blinked and nodded.

"Oh that's right, I remember Felomin saying something like that."

"Yes dear. Liennar will be taking up some of the ranges for the next while."

"Ah that's good." He offered, and looked at Liennar.

"I wish you luck, if you need any enchanting done please let me know."

"I'll take you up on that." Liennar agreed instantly, looking half greedy at the thought.

"Enchantments?" The boy asked, and Liennar grinned.

"Didn't I tell you my boy? Aran'Alah here is infamous for his enchantments."

"Liennar." Mama said cutting off what he was going to say and the mans smile shifted into a nod.

"But that's not important. He's very skilled."

"Cool." The boy said, and I nodded.

"Ah that's right. This is my son Cal'Nari. He's working as my apprentice as a Ranger." The boy, Cal'Nari just grumbled at being the center of attention. He really was a grumpy one. —--- I reached my hand out. The spell had taken a lot of work to figure out. Papa really was a genius. Arcane magic was quite good at force, and Mage Hand, as the spell was called was quite the complex spell It was definitely on part with some of the more advanced magics I had access to.

This wasn't a spell that would max out at level 10 for sure. The Arcane power surrounded a rock and brought it up into the air as I struggled to keep my grasp on the magic stable and then I squeezed my hand. There was no noise, or visible sign, but I was compressing the Arcane mana.

"Pray I do not alter the deal further." I whispered darkly as I squeezed the rock with magic.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." I continued grinning.

"What was that?" The noise startled me and I lost control of the magic and the rock dropped. Still no damage. Needed to get stronger.

"Nothing!" I said turning around and seeing Mama looking on from the porch.

"What spell was that?"

"Papa's! He showed me! I call it Mage Hand! I can use some Arcane Magic to lift or hold things… And crush them if I can get it stronger."

"Huh." Mama said.

"I didn't know he knew a spell like that?"

"I didn't either!" I ran over to tell her all about how I had learned it, because Papa was totally amazing, and Mama needed to know just how much! —--"What is this?" I looked up and frowned. Liennar and his grumpy son Cal'Nari were looking over my Guild stand.

"The villages adventuring guild." I said, deciding to be professional.

"You can trade, knowledge, or money sometimes for adventuring tasks you need completed." I explained pulling out my journal, where I had written down the rules for the Guild a long time ago and dropped it on the stand and flipped it around.

"This is hilarious!" Liennar said, leaning in and grinning like a loon, while his son just rolled his eyes.

"Be grumpy all you want, but I'll have you know every person in the village is a satisfied customer of the Adventuring Guild! Every task is open, from fighting fierce and terrible monsters, to finding a lost bracelet. The normal payment is new spells, but I know a lot! So if you don't have a spell to offer, I also accept treasure. Sometimes."

"Pfft. Whatever." Cal walked off, and I watched him go along with his father. We both knew where he was going. Him and Sav'Kinara had been seen out behind the school house more than once over the last month. Two teenagers, both of them grumpy and wanting more? Obviously they had clicked. It was cute in a gross gag me with a spoon kind of way.

"That boy." Liennar whispered half laughing, as he obviously knew what was up.

"But back to this, this is adorable! Felomin knows about this?"

"Of course. The Adventuring Guild is a village staple for years now!" I said proudly. Flipping through the journal.

"You can see all the happy customers right here in the quest journal." He looked over and started snickering as the quests weren't exactly masterful quests. Finding lost trinkets, cleaning yards, or whatever else.

"Huh they do give you spells huh?"

"Of course. I've mastered many spells!" I said, while I wasn't bothered by him finding this amusing, he was being kinda irritating with his disbelieving what I was saying.

"So you do chores for spells and stuff? That's interesting. How much for cleaning the house? Cal's terrible at laundry." I frowned because doing laundry was not a good quest, but I shook it off.

"You offer spells, and I'll confirm if they are enough for payment, or if I already know them."

"Heh, alright… How about a spell that grooms your hair?" He said running a hand through his reddish hair and showing it was shiny despite him being out ranging until now. I gave him a flat look.

"Already know it." I said whipping my hair around, the styling spell keeping my hair shiny and gold without any effort.

"Dang. I thought that would work." He muttered, and I scoffed, then he grinned.

"How about a spell to protect yourself and others against poison?"

"What?"

"You want to be a Ranger with your Mama too right? Well I happen to know a spell that slows the effects of poisons. Gives you enough time to get away and find someone to help."

"Why not just get a spell that cures poison?"

"Don't know of a spell like that. So what do you think?"

"Hmm… I'll work on cleaning your home today for that spell, but it'll only be good for one day." I offered, and only when he nodded, did I stop and fill out the quest journal, filling out the terms and requirements.

"Sign here." I demanded and he grinned like he was playing a game and did so.

"Please either hand me a paper with instructions on the spell, or make time to teach me yourself when I'm done."

"I can do that."

"Alright, let's go then." Time to clean this guys little house. Shouldn't be too hard. I flipped my Guild sign and we headed over, and as I entered…

"You don't clean at all do you?"

"Hahaha! I'm not great at it, and Cal is the same." I grumbled at the absolute mess of dishes and clothes stacked everywhere. I'd definitely just been played. Whatever, a quest was a quest. —--"Again!?" I demanded pointing at the older man who was laughing like he hadn't just told me his place was a mess and needed to be cleaned again!?

"I'm not a maid! This is the Adventuring Guild!"

"But if I give you a spell, you'll do it right?" I grimaced, because that was the deal.

"What do you got?"

"How about a spell to heat water? It's a-""Useful Ranger spell. Mama taught me that one." I denied, although it had just been recently. I'd completely forgotten Mama knew that spell. I glanced at my character sheet. [Heat Water Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect] It hadn't taken long to master. Heating Water was easy to practice.

"Ah! I know one, one that your Mama never learned. Create fire." He snapped his fingers and a flame came out of the top of his forefinger. I stared at him blankly, not because that wasn't a cool spell, or one I hadn't learned, but…

"Ouch. Sh-" He cut himself off as he waved his finger and started blowing on it.

"You burned yourself."

"Well you are only supposed to hold the flame for a few seconds." He offered. I just scoffed…

"Fine. Sign here." I grumbled as I wrote out the quest. I don't want to do more chooooores! But numbers must go up.