Traveling Magic Shop Part 5 (Patreon)

"Gargoyles," Myst mused as he looked at the seven story black stone apartment building that would feel right at home in Gotham. "I'm going to kill someone if I have to climb up seven flights of stairs."

"It should have a lift," Beth assured Myst as they headed for the doors to their dorm.

"Here's hoping," Myst muttered as he spent more mana to restore his stamina as he'd burned through most of his keeping up with the girls despite his longer legs.

"Are you always this grumpy?" Amy asked, looking forward to seeing the penthouse suite where she'd be spending the school year.

"No, just when I'm cursed," Myst assured her. "I should be fine in a couple of days, less if I can get a way to boost my mana regeneration."

"Mana potions?" Amy suggested. "They're a bit pricey if you have to buy them but the ingredients aren't particularly expensive. Give me a couple of hours to explore and I can probably whip up a couple of potions for cheap as long as you can cover the ingredients and we can get access to a lab."

"I have no problems fucking you for access to a personal lab," Beth offered as they walked up to the door.

"Good," Amy replied with a grin, looking forward to having some fun with her roommate and getting to know her.

"How much for the ingredients?" Myst asked as Beth touched her amulet to a plate on the wall, causing the metal door to swing open with a creaking sound that was straight out of a horror movie and let them hear the organ music that was coming from the pipe organ built into one of the walls.

"Perfect!" Beth said cheerfully as she walked inside and looked around the expensive looking lobby.

"Ride of the Valkyries?" Myst mused as he followed Amy into the lobby and glanced at the naked or half naked students that were hanging out in the lobby studying, playing board games or music in the case of the naked blonde girl that was playing the organ.

"Yep," Amy agreed.

'Infinite monkeys, hitting infinite typewriters,' Myst mused, a touch surprised to run into a recognizable song and relieved that there seemed to be some sound suppression magic on the organ as it wasn't exceptionally loud. He glanced around, taking note of the black marble floors and high quality wooden furniture then focused on the metal and glass spiral staircase near the back wall that circled a giant glass tube that went from the ground to the ceiling and was large enough to fit an entire Weight Watchers support group.

Beth smiled when she saw a naked girl that was sprawled on a coffee table with her legs spread wide while another girl had her head between her legs while being fucked from behind by a guy with muscles in all the right places. "I think I'm going to like it here."

"It's certainly interesting," Myst agreed as a young woman wearing a red satin vest and a bellboy cap walked over. 'No shorts, no panties and a vest that doesn't actually stay closed, yeah, I could get used to this.'

"Welcome to the Blackstone dorm, I'm Sam," the blonde offered. "If you'll follow me, we can get you settled and I'll answer any questions you have about the dorm."

"Sweet," Amy replied.

Sam gave the three of them a smile then started walking towards the stairs with a spring in her steps. "We've got a gym, an Alchemy lab and a pool as well as a private dining area in the back for VIPs. Your keys or amulets in your case should give you access to anything you have permission to access. We have a couple of rules that you should be aware of. Take any fights outside and don't damage the building being the main ones but we also ask that you're at least reasonably quiet in the lobby from nine o'clock Sunday to four o'clock Friday so that people can study. If you make a mess, clean it up or call the staff for help. We have cleaning staff but you'll enjoy your stay more if you don’t upset them by being unreasonable."

"No problem," the group assured her, not wanting to get on the bad side of the staff.

Sam smiled as she walked over to the glass tube. "You'll need your amulets to reach the seventh floor so don't forget them."

"Should be easier than keys," Beth mused.

Sam placed her hand on the metal plate set into the tube, causing part of the glass cylinder to split and twist into an arch. "Everyone in," she said as she stepped onto the large glass disk that was floating in the cylinder.

Myst followed the girls into the tube that seemed larger on the inside. "Now what?"

"Seventh floor, no stops and fast," Sam ordered, causing the lift to start ascending about twice as fast as most elevators. "The no stops bit is a staff perk, but you'll be able to tell it which floor to stop on."

Myst smiled as he watched the floors quickly go past, glad that he didn't have to take the stairs and trying not to think about all the ways the lift could fail and send them plummeting to their doom. Thankfully, it didn't take long before they reached the top floor and found themselves on a spacious balcony with a nice view of the city.

"Looks like a nice place for parties," Beth mused as glanced at the fancy looking bar and grill that was connected to the building.

"It's pretty awesome," Sam assured them. "I was up here last year working the bar, the tips were fantastic."

Amy smiled as she glanced at the large hot tub that was opposite the bar. "This is going to be awesome."

Myst pulled his attention off the collection of three inch diameter brass tubes that formed the railing and looked at the drains under the row of outdoor showers near the hot tub. "I don't have any objections to the occasional party."

"Fantastic!" Beth squealed as she walked over to the railing to get a look at the bay.

'Might as well have some fun while I'm here,' Myst thought as he walked over to the door to the building, looking forward to seeing what the girls came up with.

Amy glanced up at the glass ceiling over the balcony that should keep the worst of the weather off of them. "I love the view."

"You should see the sunsets," Sam told her as she walked over to the door. "Just place your hand on the metal plate, as long as you're wearing the amulet, it should open."

"Probably better than using a skeleton key," Myst said thoughtfully as he placed his hand on the metal plate, causing the door to open and reveal a room with a black marble floor, leather furniture, several well made bookshelves, and a kitchen. He walked into the room and stopped when he noticed that the wall to most of the bathroom was glass, giving everyone in the room a nice view of the showers and reminding him that the place was built by a bunch of perverts.

Amy smiled as she walked into the apartment and saw the glass wall. "At least we can't see the other half of the bathroom."

"There's that," Myst agreed as he glanced over at the beds scattered around the room, set up in a way that the light from the nightlights wouldn't bother anyone thanks to the bookshelves blocking the light but you wouldn't have much privacy either as the silk sheets were just shy of transparent.

Sam followed Beth into the penthouse suite and gestured towards the kitchen. "The stoves work via magic, just turn the dials and the metal plates will heat up, please don't use the stove for alchemy, there isn't enough ventilation."

"Don't worry, my grandmother would tan my hide if I did something that stupid," Amy assured her, thinking about the alchemy lessons she'd had growing up.

"Excellent," Sam exclaimed. "That makes things easier. There's a message stone next to the door that you can use to hire various types of room service and a list of prices. Feel free to drop your dirty clothes down the laundry shoot, you'll get them back in two hours."

"Cool," Beth replied, glad that she wouldn't have to haul her dirty clothes back home on the weekends. "Is there anything else we need to worry about?"

"Everything else should be easy enough to figure out," Sam assured them. "Best of luck getting settled in and if you need anything, you can usually find someone with a staff vest in the lobby or the dining area."

"Thanks for showing us around," Beth told her.

"No problem, it's part of the job," Sam told her.

"Is tipping acceptable?" Myst asked, not sure how the culture viewed tipping except that working the bar had netted her a lot of tips.

Sam laughed. "Tipping is always appreciated but not expected unless we're doing something extra, like helping move something, letting one of your friends in or cleaning up a mess."

"I figured I'd ask, I'm not from around here," Myst explained as he fished a couple of silver coins out of his coin purse and handed them to Sam. "Is that enough?"

"Generally, if we're doing something that our job covers, you can get away with tipping us a couple of coppers. If we're cleaning up a mess or helping you move something, you should give us at least five copper to a silver depending on the mess. You shouldn't ask for change though, it's considered rude. Do you want it back?"

"I'm good," Myst assured her, not really worried about the money as he had a couple of ideas on how to make enough to cover a couple of years worth of tips.

"I'm certainly not going to object to getting paid in silver," Sam replied as she stuck the silver coins into her vest, causing the coins to vanish. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll let you get settled."

"Thanks again," Myst told her, feeling pretty happy about their choice of dorms.

"Which bed do you want?" Amy asked once Sam left.

Myst glanced between the three beds, two of which were near the floor to ceiling windows, giving the person a 'great' view of the bay. "I'd rather have the bed that isn't by a window."

Beth glanced at the bed that had a nice view of the glass wall that showed the showers. "Is that because you want to watch us in the showers?"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see you naked in the shower but I'm not a fan of heights and I'd rather not get woken up at the crack of dawn by that evil entity known as the sun," Myst explained.

"Same," Beth agreed, wanting to avoid getting woken up by the sun.

"Cool," Amy said as she headed over to the bed that would give her a fantastic view of the sunrise. "So, what's first, shower, sex, or comparing class schedules?"

Beth glanced at Myst. "Pretty sure we'd kill him."

"He could watch," Amy mused as she worked on putting some of her stuff in the drawers and her a couple of books on the shelves.

"Pretty sure we'd still kill him," Beth argued as she headed for the kitchen.

"I'm willing to risk it," Myst replied as he walked over and sat down at his new desk, figuring he'd claim the desk with a better view since Beth hadn't objected to having the other window view.

Beth sighed when she opened the cupboards and realized they were completely empty which meant they'd have to make a shopping run if they wanted to get snacks or cook anything. "So much for the outgoing students leaving the basics."

"Would you trust anything they left?" Amy asked.

"Point," Beth admitted as she checked the enchanted ice box, finding it empty as well.

"We should probably pick up some snacks and something to drink at the corner store on the way back from picking up our books," Amy suggested.

"Works for me," Beth agreed as she walked out of the kitchen.

"Can I talk you into picking up my books and some snacks for me?" Myst asked hopefully. "I'm about ready to collapse and doubt I'd make it there and back," he admitted, wishing he didn't feel like shit.

"A couple of silver should give you enough snacks to last half the quarter and we just need your class schedule and a note to pick up your books since the school uses magic to duplicate the school books, they're free," Amy told him.

"Maybe five silver for the ingredients for the mana points," Beth suggested.

"Thanks," Myst replied as he took a gold coin out of his coin purse and set it on the desk next to his class schedule. "I appreciate it."

"No worries," Amy assured him, not seeing a problem with grabbing Myst's books for him since she had plenty of room in her magic bag and he did indeed look like shit.

"Thanks," Myst replied as he opened his Upgrade menu and spent all of his mana to upgrade the size of his mana pool, knowing he'd need a lot of mana to fix his health and strength.

"You should probably grab some sleep, it might help," Beth suggested as she picked up the gold coin and his schedule.

"Might as well," Myst agreed as he moved over to the bed and collapsed, finding it less annoying than sitting at his desk and wishing he could sleep through feeling like a goldfish on a bedroom floor but knowing it wouldn't fix itself.

"Let's go," Beth said as she headed for the door, figuring she'd unpack and call her folks later.

Amy quickly finished unpacking then slung her bag over her shoulder and followed her new friend, looking forward to getting her books and learning magic.

0o0o0

"Are you dead?" Beth asked as she walked back into the apartment.

"Not yet," Myst admitted, still feeling like shit despite the fact that he'd managed to increase his stamina by twenty percent in between cat naps to pass the time while he was waiting for his mana to regenerate.

"Good," Amy said cheerfully as she followed Beth into the suite. "We picked up your books and grabbed snacks."

"Anything good?" Myst asked, glad that they hadn't had any trouble with grabbing his books.

"A box of oranges, crackers, two gallons of lemonade, a keg of root beer, and a collection of chips," Beth replied as she headed for the kitchen to unload the snacks and supplies.

"Good enough," Myst agreed as he managed to force himself into a sitting position on his bed.

"I'm a bit jealous that you have a talent for Mentalism, I was looking forward to learning how to send my sister telepathic messages," Amy admitted as she walked over to Myst's desk and started unloading his books.

"Just because you don't have enough talent to get assigned the class, doesn't mean you can't pick up a book and learn the basics," Beth pointed out as she started putting the snacks away, planning on picking up the basics of everything when she had a chance.

"I've tried, it's a lot easier when you have people that can explain things," Amy grumbled, thinking about the various books she'd checked out from the library over the years that claimed to be able to teach her how to send telepathic messages, most of which were completely useless while the rest just gave her a headache.

"At least you have a good Alchemy talent," Myst pointed out, wishing that he'd had enough of a talent to take the class.

"It's easy, you just follow the recipe," Amy replied as she set the basic Polymorphism book on the desk. "Mentalism, Polymorphism, Curses, Enchanting, Dimensionalism, and Medical studies, I think someone is trying to kill you."

"Probably," Myst agreed, glad that he didn't have to sleep since it looked like he'd be doing a lot of reading this quarter. "Can you hand me the Enchanting book?"

"Sure," Amy replied as she dropped the book on the bed next to him, figuring that was easier than handing it to him and having him drop it as it was a heavy book.

"A Master's Guide to Novice Enchanting, Ninth Edition," Myst mused as he opened the book and started reading the introduction.

Amy smiled as she headed over to her desk to unload her books and finish unpacking.

Beth finished putting the snacks and food away a couple of minutes later then walked over and sat down on Myst's desk and propped her feet up on his bed, giving him a good look up her skirt, something he hadn't noticed yet as he was focused on reading his text book. "What do you think about the book?"

"Better than I was," Myst paused when he turned to look at Beth and noticed the fact that she wasn't wearing panties and that he had a nice view of her hairless crotch, "expecting, it actually has a table of contents and a glossary of terms," he finished, not bothering to look away as the way she was sitting had to be intentional and the angle let him enjoy the view and look at her face.

"It's a textbook, what were you expecting?" Amy asked as she walked over, having just finished putting her stuff away.

"Less organization and more rambling," Myst admitted, not sure why he'd been expecting the books to be as bad as the books he'd read about in Harry Potter.

"It's not exactly a hard science because the Enchanter's intent matters to a significant degree but you can predict how the material you're enchanting will influence the resulting magical item which means there are rules or at least guidelines at least that's how an Enchanter explained things at the mage fair."

Amy nodded. "Which is why materials have certain properties commonly attributed to them in various cultures."

"Of course, some of that is just superstitious bullshit," Beth complained, thinking about the idiots that hunted down endangered creatures to use them for enchanting and alchemy. "Also, intent has a large influence on the outcome so it's hard to get accurate results without rigorous testing."

"Speaking of rigorous testing, we should grab a shower and unlock the alchemy room so we can brew some mana potions," Amy suggested.

"Sounds good," Beth replied as she put her feet on the ground and hopped off the desk.

"So, do you care if I watch?" Myst asked, figuring he might as well ask since he didn't want to offend his roommates.

"I'd be offended if you didn't," Beth replied with a wink as she headed toward the door to the bathroom. She stopped at the door to the fancy looking bathroom and looked back at Myst. "I'm sort of joking about being offended, but I do like an audience so please feel free to watch."

"Same," Amy said cheerfully as she took her cloak off and tossed it over the back of the chair.

"Cool," Myst replied as he watched Amy head to the bathroom with a bounce to her steps, making a mental note to pick up some books on the culture so he could avoid unintentionally offending people. He smiled when Beth walked over and turned the water on then turned to look at him and stripped out of her skirt with a bit of a dance. 'Yeah, no one in Westeros could have paid me enough to make selling the book worth it,' he thought as Amy walked over holding a bar of soap and stepped into the shower.