Traveling Magic Shop Part 4 (Patreon)

Myst leaned up against one of the buildings and took a minute to catch his breath, feeling like shit despite the fact that he'd only walked two blocks. "I should have hailed one of the carts," he grumbled as he spent his available mana to increase his stamina regeneration, hoping that it would help him get to the school in something approaching a reasonable time frame.

"Hey, mister, are you dying?" a girl asked.

Myst glanced at the busty, blue haired teenage girl that was wearing a purple cloak and black leather sandals then focused on the bright pink scooter that she was holding. "No, I'm just dealing with a curse."

"What type of curse?" she asked as she studied the man with gray hair at his temples that looked like he'd seen better days.

"It crippled my strength and stamina," Myst replied, wondering if she'd let him rent her scooter for an hour or until he managed to get to the school.

"That sucks, have you tried breaking it?" she asked.

"That's why I'm heading to the magic school, it's just taking a bit longer than I was expecting," Myst admitted, frustrated that he couldn't just power through his exhaustion with spite and determination. "I don't suppose you'd let me rent your scooter for an hour or until I get to the school?"

"Can you even stand on it?" she asked skeptically.

"The curse didn't mess with my balance," Myst told her.

"Five silver, a gold if you want me to push you," she told him, not seeing a problem with helping since she was going the same way and it was a conjured scooter so it wasn't like he could steal it.

"Deal," Myst replied as he pulled his coin purse out of his pocket and fished out a gold coin, more than happy to pay a gold coin if it meant he could get to the school in a reasonable time frame so that he could take a break and get out of the sun before he died of heatstroke. "I'll give you more once we're at the Laffer school."

"Cool," she replied as she stepped out of the way so he could stand on the scooter and grab the handlebars.

Myst stepped on the scooter and grabbed the handlebars, doing his best to keep his balance when the girl grabbed the handlebar and started walking.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Fine," Myst assured her, doing his best to hold onto the handlebars since his hands were just as weak as the rest of him.

"Cool," she replied as she started walking faster. "What are you planning on studying?"

"I want to focus on crafting magical items but I'll probably end up learning a little bit of everything," Myst replied, glad that she wasn't moving any faster and that they were on a paved sidewalk as he was having a bit of trouble holding the bars.

"Everyone likes magical trinkets," she agreed. "I've been working my way through Conjuration and Alchemy classes with a bit of Warding tossed in on the side."

"Sounds interesting, what type of classes does the school have?" Myst asked, trying to get some idea of the classes and the student opinions on them before he arrived at the school.

"Lots, it's a college. The classes are generally broken up by departments. Artifice involves creating clockwork devices that blend technology and magic. Alchemy involves the transmutation of matter through alchemical and chemical processes." She stopped when they reached the street and glanced around, wanting to make sure none of the wagons or carts were going to run them over if they crossed the street then continued walking. "Necromancy is about what you'd expect, talking to the dead, animating corpses, and ripping the life out of creatures."

"Does it drive people insane?" Myst asked.

"Hard to say," she mused as they finished crossing the cobblestone street. "Most of the people that lean towards Necromancy are unhinged to start with or have a warped sense of humor."

"Which makes it hard to tell if they'd fucked in the head or just fucking with you?" Myst asked as he went back to watching the people walking down the sidewalk.

"Pretty much," she agreed, fairly sure it was a bit of both. "Mentalism involves interacting with and manipulating minds, everything from sensing emotions and sharing thoughts to erasing memories."

"That's sort of terrifying," Myst admitted, making a mental note to look into mental defenses when he had a chance.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Taking more than the basics will put your name on a watch list. Polymorphism involves changing creatures or things from one form to another, lots of witches pick up the basics so they can turn people into toads."

"Makes sense," Myst agreed, mentally adding Polymorphism to the list of classes that he wanted to take.

"Pyromancy is about what you'd expect, manipulation of fire. Same with Hydromancy for water and Umbramancy for shadows. Divination covers spells and magical devices that find information. The Curses department covers magic with long lasting and usually negative effects. Dimensionalism covers spells that deal with teleportation, space and other planes/dimensions and the Medical classes generally involve healing or anatomy."

"That's a decent collection," Myst admitted, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the options.

"You'll get used to it," she assured him. "Most people generally stick with a couple of Departments unless they're trying to pull a Jack of All trades, Master of None approach."

"Not a fan?" Myst asked as he studied the campus filled with towers and stone buildings that he could see in the distance. 'Looks like someone has stone shaping spells.'

She laughed. "I'd rather finish a degree in four years, not forty."

"That's fair," Myst agreed, knowing you had to draw the line somewhere and figured a solid base would let you look up spells in most of the disciplines. 'Here's hoping I can find a bunch of evil mages or spell casting monsters to kill to round out my collection with Whispers of the Damned, then again, I should probably make sure the talent isn't cursed.'

She stopped at the corner when a large well muscled man, pulling a cart filled with laughing naked teenage girls, ran past with a smile on his face, going fast enough that several wheels were in the air.

"Faster!" one of the girls shouted as she cracked a whip several feet above the man's head, causing him to put on the speed.

"Is that safe?" Myst asked.

"Safe enough," the girl with the scooter replied with amusement as she checked to make sure none of the rest of the carts were rushing towards them. "Most of the carts are enchanted so they can't tip over."

"That's useful," Myst agreed as they started crossing the street. "I appreciate the help, the first couple of streets I had to cross weren't this busy, I'd have probably gotten run over when someone got impatient."

"The city has pretty decent healers but you should probably avoid getting run over until you get your curse fixed," she suggested.

"I'm working on it," Myst replied, making a mental note that she hadn't disputed the idea of someone running him over because it took forever to cross the street.

She slowed down a touch when they started having to dodge students as they made their way towards the enrollment area. "By the way, I'm Celestia Blackrock, look me up if you need help with Conjuration or Alchemy classes, my rates are quite reasonable."

"Sounds good," Myst agreed, knowing that making money wouldn't be a problem once he had mana to burn to upgrade people for money. "Thanks for the help, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome, you paid for lunch for the rest of the semester," she told him as she came to a stop at the end of the line.

"Cool," Myst replied as he stepped off the scooter. He pulled his coin purse out of his pocket and gave her another gold and a couple of silver for the help.

"Thank you," Celestia replied as she took the coins and made a motion like she was putting them in a piggy bank, causing the coins to vanish.

"Neat trick," Myst offered.

"It's a cantrip, it lets me store coins in a pocket dimension," Celestia explained. "Do you want to see a better trick?"

"Sure," Myst agreed.

"Now you see it, now you don't." Celestia snapped her fingers and dismissed her conjuration spell, causing the scooter to vanish.

"Conjuration?" Myst asked, making a note to pick up a couple of Conjuration classes.

"Yep," Celestia replied with a smile. "I should get going but best of luck dealing with the curse."

"Thanks," Myst replied as she turned and trudged towards one of the towers across the courtyard. He glanced around the crowd, feeling a bit overdressed as he was wearing jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a jacket while most people were just wearing shorts or shorts and a t-shirt with a cloak. 'Late teens to early twenties,' he mused as he looked around at the people in the line waiting to talk to someone about enrollment. 'Oh, there's a woman in her late twenties or early thirties, so I'll probably be fine.'

"Aren't you a little old to be signing up?" a guy asked Myst.

Myst turned to look at the blond teen that looked like he'd just stepped out of a magazine or movie. "Better late than never."

"I guess," the young man admitted. "What are you looking at studying?"

"Enchanting," Myst replied, not seeing a point in ignoring him as he hadn't been particularly rude and it helped pass the time.

"Better than Necromancy," one of the other guys in line said.

"What's wrong with Necromancy?" an attractive dark haired girl dressed all in black complained.

"They're a bunch of zombie fuckers," the blond complained.

"Exactly," the guy that didn't like Necromancy piped up.

"That's why we have gloves," the girl replied with a shrug, drawing Myst's attention to her breasts when they bounced.

"Gloves?" the young man asked.

"Yeah, for fist fucking the zombies, safety first," she told him with a smirk, causing him to go a bit green.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he blurted out.

"You know how some people have mental issues? I have subscriptions," she replied proudly. "Do you want to know what I do with vampires in the dark?"

"No!" the young man sputtered as he ran to find a different line.

"Idiot," the girl muttered as she watched the guy leave, rather amused that she'd made the line shorter.

"Nice," Myst offered, rather amused that she'd managed to get the guy to swap lines.

"So, I've got to ask, what do you do with vampires in the dark?" the blond asked the girl.

"Pyromancy, lots and lots of Pyromancy," she replied with a smirk. "Same thing with zombies for the record, I just wanted the line to move faster."

"So, you're not a Necromancer?" the blond asked, wanting to make sure before he asked her out.

The girl laughed. "Not yet, but it's on my list."

"Why?" the blond asked.

"Because I've always wanted to be able to fuck the life out of assholes," she replied with a straight face. "Do you want to be my test subject?"

"No," the blond replied then followed the other guy, deciding she wasn't hot enough to make up for the fact that she was obviously crazy and figured the other line might have some girls that weren't insane.

"Idiot," Myst muttered as watched the man head over to one of the other lines that had seven or eight more people in it just so he could talk to a group of giggling girls that were talking about what bards they wanted to fuck, if the bits of their conversation that he could hear were accurate. "Is Necromancy that bad?"

"It depends on the Necromancer. I've got an aunt that uses it to talk to the dead because she doesn’t want them to get lonely, she's a lovely woman that likes to do bake sales for the community," she explained.

One of the girls in front of Myst that was wearing a purple cloak turned around and asked, "What type of bake sales?"

Myst found himself staring at the smoking hot red haired girl in her late teens that wasn't wearing anything save her cloak and her sandals which let him see that the carpet matched the curtains. 'Damn, completely out of my league.'

"Cookies, muffins, donuts, meat pies, you know the usual. She likes to joke about cutting up annoying neighbors and sticking them in meat pies but I don't think she's ever actually done it," the girl in the black skirt assured them.

"That's better than my grandmother, she likes summoning demons and using them as cooking ingredients," the redhead admitted. "You have to be careful what you eat at family potlucks."

Myst pulled his attention back up the girl's eyes. "That sounds like a good way to end up cursed or in the morgue."

She shrugged. "It's an acquired taste and some of them are better than others but I doubt she'd use anything particularly toxic."

"Sounds like you should grab a couple of Divination classes," the girl with a black skirt suggested.

"It's on the list," the redhead replied with a grin as she held her hand out. "I'm Amy."

"Beth," the girl with a black skirt offered as she shook the girl's hand.

"Myst," Myst offered when the girls looked at him. "I'd shake your hands but I'm currently cursed and you'd probably catch something."

"Fair enough," Amy said. "What happened?"

"Cursed magical contract, always read the fine print and check to make sure the borders aren't words in another language," Myst complained as he took his jacket off, tired of dealing with the heat.

"My grandmother got me with that when I was seven," Amy complained. "I was singing yuletide jingles everytime someone mentioned any type of food for a month."

Beth laughed. "That's one way to make sure the lesson sinks in."

"It certainly made me a lot more careful," Amy admitted as she took another step forward as the line got shorter.

"Did the curse last a month because it faded or because she lifted it?" Myst asked, curious how long curses usually lasted.

"She lifted it," Amy replied smugly. "My mother dropped me off with her for a week and went on vacation, Grams lasted two days before she removed the curse."

"Sounds fair," Myst agreed, doing his best to follow the discussion as the girls launched into a discussion about the classes they wanted to take.

0o0o00

"We're not enrolling a pig," the woman behind the kiosk snapped, having grown tired of repeatedly telling the young man that he needed to get a real familiar if he wanted to keep the beast in his room. "Just because you call your garbage disposal a familiar, doesn't mean it's actually intelligent."

"I can talk to Wilbur just fine and he can beat me at chess," the pudgy teen, that looked a bit like his pig, complained.

"Fuck it, 49B," the woman said as she waved her hand over one of the large skeleton keys, causing "49B" to appear on the key, not particularly impressed that the pig could beat the idiot at chess. "Enjoy your stay at the Laffer School of Magic."

"Thank you," the kid told the woman then left with his knee high pig.

"Please tell me that you don't have any weird pets," the woman complained as Myst and the girls stepped up.

"No," Beth and Myst replied at the same time.

"Do sisters count if they're only occasionally visiting?" Amy asked.

"No," the woman replied with a smile as she put three amulets on the counter. "You've had a chance to skim the student handbook and sign the appropriate waivers, namely that you don't hold the school responsible for student behavior and that you understand that breaking the rules can result in punishments, expulsions, or being used as a test subject if you do anything terminally stupid. Do you have any questions?"

"No," Myst and the girls told her, having found the rules reasonable or at least tolerable for a free magical education.

"Excellent," the woman replied. "You're already doing better than the pig fucker. Speaking of pigs, I have an upgraded room that you might be interested in."

"Upgraded?" Amy asked.

"If you'll recall, the student handbook mentioned the crystal balls that we use to generate income. Normally, this doesn't include the basic barracks style dorm because of various laws and regulations but we're allowed to offer upgraded dorms that include permanent scrying charms."

"In other words, we'll get better rooms if we agree to let you scry us in them?" Beth asked, not particularly surprised since she'd seen some of the recordings of the college being sold. It was actually part of the reason she’d been attracted to the place.

"Basically," the woman agreed.

"What do you have for upgraded rooms?" Amy asked, wanting to avoid dealing with a bunch of roommates if she could help it.

"I have single rooms but you'd have to share a bathroom with everyone on the floor and the showers are like gym showers, no stalls and there are scrying charms in the showers. I also have a couple of slots for double rooms that come with bathrooms but your roommate would be 'randomly' assigned," she warned them, making quotes with her fingers when she said randomly. "We also have some dorms in the catacombs but you'd need to sign a waiver and you'd have to deal with a couple of perverted ghosts."

"Do you have anything else?" Beth asked, not particularly a fan of the rule that basically resulted in freshmen having to stay in a dorm.

"We have a couple of doubles that have private bathrooms but the scrying charms are everywhere and you'd have to volunteer at least ten hours a quarter for the art department that involves public sex," the woman warned them.

Amy shook her head. "No thanks, I'm not fucking some old bastard because he paid the art teacher."

The woman glanced at Myst. "Speaking of old men, we also have a penthouse suite that comes with access to a pool, enchanted sheets and a high quality gym as well as a private jacuzzi and showers but it requires three people, one of which has to be an older man."

"Does it require sex?" Beth asked.

"No, but you'd get access to an alchemy lab if you and your girlfriend have sex and free meals in the cafeteria if you're fucking him while being recorded which beats the basic meal plan," the woman pointed out. "I suggest grabbing the room while you can, the view is spectacular."

Beth glanced at Amy then looked at Myst. "What do you think?"

"You seem nice enough and you have a sense of humor, that's better than getting stuck with some random asshole, I've seen that show, they intentionally try to stick people together that will clash for ratings," Amy complained.

"I'm not going to object to having access to a nice room and reasonable roommates," Myst told them.

"We'll take it," Beth said.

"Excellent," the woman said with a smile as she gestured at the amulets on the counter and used a touch of magic to assign the room. "Put your hands on the counter and I’ll select your classes based on your talents, classes will start Monday and an adviser should be available tomorrow if your best talents don't line up with what you want to take."

Myst and the girls placed their hands on the counter in front of them, causing the woman’s eyes to glow for a second before she filled out several pages of parchment and passed it to them along with their amulets.

"Enjoy your stay."

"Thank you," Amy told the woman then headed toward the dorm.

"Thanks," Myst told the woman then followed the girls struggling to keep up, looking forward to relaxing and learning magic… once he’d gotten this damn 'curse' lifted!