[Melas] Chapter 87: Doing What You do Best (Patreon)

Important Announcement 1/9/2021, click here to read. 

Reminder: Starting Monday, you no longer have to be a $10 patron to read 10 Melas chapters ahead. The $5 tier will unlock all 10 Melas chapters ahead. There will no longer be any rewards for the $1 tier.

It had been a long year for me; a lot of things had happened thus far. I had fought Monsters and monsters. I had run from my problems and ran head on to them. But most importantly, I had survived.

Somehow, things had always gone my way. Perhaps it didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but it certainly did not end with my death. And while I might not have always been happy for it then, I now felt bliss at my life.

I was free from responsibilities— Gennady had taken me as his ward. Of course he would. He was a kindly man like that, choosing to help bring me here to the Taw Kingdom. He had gone above and beyond to help me, and I appreciated that.

It had been a month since I was granted sanctuary to the country by King Adilet. It was a decree that was not exactly made public— however the most important or relevant people were supposedly told that the ‘Witch’ was now being harbored in the country.  Who that meant— I didn’t really know. Apparently the Prime Minister was one such figure, although I had never met him before.

There was no outcry to the news, which I had been worried was a real possibility for a bit. Now, I felt more reassured, even if I spent my days more adrift. I didn’t have a main goal for the moment. Living here in Jahar’taw was not like trying to get here: I could practice my magic and tinkering, but I wasn’t even actively doing anything else.

“So what you want to do here is set it so that there’s a delay from when you manipulate the mana crystal at the surface, to when it affects the core of it.”

Sevin, the young man from Ginah’s Crew, spoke as he pointed at the spherical object in my hand. I furrowed my brow, trying to see what he was indicating.

“But I did create a delay— that’s why it isn’t just exploding when I’m still holding it in my hand.”

“Yes, but it’s not going to create multiple explosions. It’ll be all clustered up in one spot— which is what your name for it implies, but isn’t actually what you intend, right?”

Slowly, I nodded. I held up the sphere, eyeing it carefully. “I think I get what you’re saying.”

“And if you try and use it as it is now—”

I threw the Cluster Bomb as far as I could. It landed on the dirt ground, dozens of feet ahead. Sevin yelped.

“What are you doing?”

“Testing it—”

The sphere encasing shards of mana crystals blasted out, leaving a medium sized crater where it landed. Then I saw the twinkling mana shards flying through the air. I waited, expecting to see where they detonated. Numerous smaller explosions blew apart the ground even more— but just as Sevin had predicted, it only made the medium sized crater into a larger one.

“You were right,” I said, stating the obvious.

“Of course,” he snorted, rolling his eyes. “The design, while practically sound, is flawed. You need to polish up your fundamental understanding of how tinkering works.”

I was nodding along, then I paused. I looked the young man over and grinned. “You know, you’re starting to sound like Gennady.”

The young man flushed. “Wha— I mean, I should be honored. Master Gennady is a genius inventor and Tinkerer. But somehow, you managed to make it sound like an insult.”

I shrugged. “Take it how you will.”

Sevin shook his head, glancing back at the warehouse. We were standing at the back of it— there was an empty plot of land— undeveloped land. It wasn’t even the grassy fields or farmlands that stretched out all around us. This adjacent plot of land was littered with weeds and holes on the ground. And that was because this was where Gennady would test out his own personal inventions in the past— when he had not been working for the kingdom.

Now, this was our testing grounds. The warehouse was our base of operations. And in a sense, this was our… home.

It was weird, thinking of a place as my home. When I first came into this world, I refused to call anything here my home. It was not my world; it was not Earth. But then my mom changed me— she loved me unconditionally. She raised me with pure love and affection, that my icy heart could not help but thaw. So I called the roof I had lived under ‘home’.

I had almost been against calling this warehouse— this place with Gennady, Ginah, Jack, Lisa, Sevin, and everyone else— my home. But I thought of how stubborn I had been, and how I eventually changed. It made me realize that I did not have to reject the present to hold onto the past.

After all, there was no going back to how things once were. This was how things were now, and I had to live with it and move forward no matter what. I could not escape from what was ahead of me, so I had to face it, even if I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted right now.

I took a deep breath, turning to the young man. “I’ll be going back,” I said, starting past him.

“Going to improve your Cluster Bomb design?” Sevin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maybe later. For now, I’ll work on magic. Then— eat.”

Lisa approached me as I dug into the hot meal laid out in front of me. She took a seat across from, plopping her elbows on the table as she rested her head on her palms.

“Enjoying yourself, I see,” she commented, smiling.

I chewed for a moment, savoring the taste of the food in my mouth, before I answered. “Mhm. Food is great— anyone who doesn’t like food is some kind of monster.”

The young woman shrugged. “I like it, but I can live without it.”

I stared at her. “Uh, you can’t. You literally can’t.”

“It’s a joke. A joke.” Lisa waved a hand casually, leaning back on her seat. “So, you wanted to speak with me?”

I nodded, placing the fork down. I had been practicing magic earlier— on my own, in my room. But then I had a thought. It wasn’t one which I had considered prior to this, although that was because this hadn’t been high up in my priority list. Especially since I had spent the last month… relaxing.

I hadn’t been completely unproductive; I just wasn’t actively doing anything.

“I need your help,” I said, facing the young woman.

She cocked a brow. “You know, Melas. I’ve been glad to help you in the past—”

“I’ll pay.” I placed a small bag of coins in front of her. Lisa immediately perked up.

“Of course, what can I do for you?” She tried to whisk it away from me, but I stopped her, raising a finger. She glowered, folding her arms. “Aw, you won’t even let me see what’s in it.”

“It’s 5 gold coins and 18 silver.”

“So 6 and a half gold.” Lisa lost some of her previous excitement. “A regular job, huh?”

I scowled, putting it back on the table. “It’s probably more than I should be paying you for this.”

“And what is this job?”

“It’s not too difficult— I just need you to gather some information.” I took a deep breath as I began to explain myself. “I’ve been practicing my spellcasting, right? But I feel like it has kind of… stalled. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been improving. I’ve even learned how to do this.”

I raised a hand to my chest, feeling the mana flowing through the air; it shifted, forming into a protecting aura around me. It was a thin one— one that fit my body perfectly.

“Woah.” Lisa blinked, staring at me as the magic circle on my hand dissipated. It was easy to pre-cast this spell— and other than being vulnerable to Dispel Magic, it had no downsides to doing so. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“I taught myself,” I said simply. “I saw Saintess Lilith had something like this— a kind of protective aura around herself from her miracles. If I could pair this up with the same kind of mana armor she had too— or some kind of cheaper design— I’d be able to take quite a few hits before I’m even in danger of dying. Obviously, this is far weaker than hers, but this is still better than nothing.”

I had worked on this for a while now; I had given up on trying to recreate a miniature version of the Annihilation cannon which was actually based on a Tier 6 spell. I winced, realizing I just thought of things in terms of Tiers. Guess Sevin is not the only one being influenced by Gennady, huh?

Nevertheless, it seemed that it was indeed a powerful spell, and simply turning it into a weaker spell was no easy task either. As much as I tried to emulate the feeling, I couldn’t just do that. I could teach myself, but it was far more difficult than learning from a book or a mentor. Unfortunately, I had no access to either of them, but I could acquire the former somehow.

“It took me a month, and I learned only two spells. I know it may seem like a lot for most regular spellcasters, but that’s a bit… too slow for me. I know I can learn faster. I know I can be stronger. So I need you to find me anyone in Jahar’taw’s underworld who has access to any spell books. Preferably those on Thaumaturgy, Pyromancy, Aeromancy, or Geomancy.”

Lisa nodded along. “And you want me to get you to meet with the people selling these things??”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t. Because…”

“Ah. The Dark Crusaders.”

“Right.”

We said nothing more. There was no reason to; Lisa knew my history with them. And Taw was a place where the Dark Crusaders had significant influence in the underworld. Far more than where we had come from— Luke’s only Dark Crusader agent had been Bahr, who was acting more out of his own interests than anything.

“I just need you to find these books on my behalf, and I’ll tell you which one to buy. I’ll pay for them myself, of course.”

“These are expensive, you know?” she said, giving me a look. “They’re super expensive. And difficult to find. Probably more illicit than drugs.”

I sighed. “And I’ll give you a cut too.”

Lisa grinned. “Order’s up. You got it, boss.”

“Don’t call me ‘boss’ ever again.”

“Sure thing, Madam.”

I ignored that comment, instead choosing to stand up as I finished my food. “And, uh,” I started, averting my gaze from her, “you say that these books are expensive, right?”

“Yeah, why?” The young woman frowned.

“Uh…” I trailed off, trying to figure out how to say it. I shook my head, deciding just to spit it out. “Do you have any idea how much they might cost?”

She blinked. “Oh, of course. Probably… 50 gold on the low end?”

“50 gold?!” I sputtered. “I can only buy like... two books!”

“Or one decent one,” she added.

I slumped back, sighing. “That’s way out of my price range…”

Lisa deflated. “So you’re not going to be paying me?”

“No, I…” I hesitated. I wanted to get better at magic— I wanted to learn even more. I had to protect myself, in case Lilith was truly alive and came after me again. But I would be broke if I bought all these spell books. If I…

I narrowed my eyes.

“I have an idea.”

“Huh?”

“Lisa, how have you been doing in terms of making contacts in the underworld?” I asked, turning back to her.

“Not too bad. That Dwarf— Gennady— wasn’t too much help. But luckily for me, I am experienced with all these stuff… also, Jack apparently knows a thing or two about Jahar’taw. So he helped a lot.”

“Well,” I said, folding my arms, “if you can find sellers of these spell books, what do you think about finding buyers? It’ll help you build up a client list, and you can get a cut too.”

“Selling them?” The young woman scratched her chin. “I mean, I don’t have anything against it. Maybe Jack might— we’ll have to ask him. But I’m always open to making some gold.”

I grinned. “I guess you’ll be making a lot of gold then.”

Lisa looked me over, at first dubiously. Then her usual smile plastered itself on her face. “I knew it was a good investment to help you!”

“...investment?”

“It’s a joke. A joke.”

Later, Lisa stared at the pile of books I pulled out of my bag and placed on my bedroom’s mattress. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets, and I was pretty sure I could hear the sound of gold coins clattering echoing in her brain.

“If each of these sells for at least 50 gold, we’d be able to make… at least 600 gold through selling them all!”

I wagged a finger. “You will only be earning a cut from it. Let’s say… 10%?”

“That’s too little— 20%!” she protested.

“15,” I said simply. “Take it or leave it.”

“Fine.” She folded her arms, all-too-unconvincingly pouting.

“So it’s a deal then.” I nodded. I glanced back at all the spell books, feeling a slight tinge of sadness knowing that I had to part with them.

They were inanimate objects— books I had stolen off a dead man. But they were the only thing to keep my company for nearly half of my year alone. But I still parted with them.

“Also,” I added, “if you can somehow trade one of these books for another one of a similar school of magic or the same one, then I’d rather you do that then sell them.”

“Wait, where would my cut be then?”

“I’ll pay you, don’t worry.”

She nodded with alacrity. “Sounds good to me then.”

With that settled, Lisa took note of the books I had and headed off. She would find buyers and sellers of these grimoires— these tomes of magic that would circulate through the underworld and probably end up back with the Dark Crusaders. But I didn’t care.

Magic was magic. It was a tool just like anything else. If someone used it to do something bad, it was not because magic was evil or because of these books. It was simply because the person was bad.

And so, I had a deal with Lisa. I was probably going to be paying her a lot of money. And that was fine with me considering our friendship. However there was a problem here that I had to resolve nonetheless.

I didn’t have enough gold for all this.

True, I could pay just enough to scrap by. But I probably needed more gold in the future if I wanted to get more than a handful of books. And I definitely needed more gold in general.

I had taken the last month in stride, being more relaxed than I should have been. But now, I finally decided it was time to act once again.

And, well, as much as I didn’t like doing it, I had to. I was going to do what I did best. I grabbed my repaired mask out of my bag, and headed out of the warehouse, starting in the direction of the Hunters Guild.

I was going to fight.

…

Wait, where is the guild again?

Author's Note:

Due to the passing of my dog and my finals, I'll be taking a week off writing. I had hoped it would only be two updates, but unfortunately my dog had to be put down earlier today at noon. I am not sure when I would be back, but it would be some time next week, hopefully.