Augmented Aspects: Chapter 101 Mallory Part 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 101

Mallory Part 2

Immediately after being healed Mallory left to explore a world that had been mostly lost to her for years. The first thing she did was to get her guild to set up a screening checkpoint, making sure that not just anyone with a high level could come and pester her healer. And the little elf was her healer, that much was a guarantee, at the very least she would make sure she offered the best recruitment package for the little healer. Just her abilities alone were impressive, being in her twenties and able to fully heal someone of her level with seemingly no healing spells. At the very least, she didn’t use any conventional healing spells that she had ever seen. By contrast, it seemed that nearly every spell the girl cast was unique in some way.

While Mallory was well versed in magic at this point, no one of her level lasted as long as she did without having some modicum of understanding of the magics being used around her, she had a hard time pinning the girl down to just one or two schools of magic. She used, Life magic, obviously, but then claimed that she was also using Spirit magic to heal, while that was something no one even knew was possible. Immediately she sent records to get her own Spirit magic users to try out healing, but none could, in fact they seemingly broke down in agony if they tried.

That was when Gwendolyn, one of the three previous graduates of Arcanarus University, and one of the only ones to join a guild, her guild, spoke up.

“It’s possible that she might have developed an entirely new path of magic, by never casting an offensive spell.” Gwendolyn said, forming a hypothesis that we then had to test.

At the same time, that is when Charles Ashcroft, someone who had been in even worse condition than Mallory was taken in to be seen. There he was not only healed but brought back to life. Of course, it wasn’t presented to her like that. Instead, all she got was an immediate message from her Cassandra stating: You need to see your healer immediately <Redacted Comments>.

That was it, the entire message, and that was enough to make all of Mallory’s fears come to life all in the forefront of her mind. Is she being attacked? Is she dying? Did those fools from the upper floors come back down? Did she anger Charles? Or worse did Charles’ butler take out the fact that he couldn’t be healed on the young healer. So many questions raced through her mind, so many doubts that she for a moment almost let her full anger and vengeance guide her. She was willing to destroy the entire town if that was what was needed to protect the girl that had given her life.

Then when Mallory got there, what she found was something most unexpected. The girl that she had been looking for was gone. In her place was some creature that looked all together like a porcelain doll, if you could somehow imagine making a porcelain doll of an already exceptionally pretty elven child that is. There she was, the doppelganger of my healer, her skin the color of the royal dark elves, her hair denoting the same change. But what was most alarming were the eyes.

First, her eyes were no longer covered by those ridiculous Engineering Goggles that they hand out to any would be recruit. Instead, the eyes that now shown were emerald green, but glowed with an eerie power. The power and refinement that they exuded were doubly heightened by the place she was in. In a world of supernatural power and intrigue she somehow managed to glow even brighter than the sun. Just looking at her, it was clear that she was not only of royal blood, but a magical bloodline at that, as even the air around her seemed to be supercharged.

“You okay?” The girl with magical glowing eyes said, as she moved forward to investigate Mallory, a note of concern and fear in her gaze. Concern for the fact that she suddenly came back, and clearly seemed to worry about the health of her recently cleared patient. Then fear at the fact that Mallory had just landed with a devastating impact to the ground outside her Guild Hall.

It was the voice more than anything that made it so the change was clear, “Cass?”

With that the girl smiled in a slightly forced manner, “the one and the only.”

At that Mallory cocks her head to the side for a moment, before moving forward to better stare at the changes that had happened to her Cass. Before she knew it, Mallory’s hands were up and touching the skin of the girl, checking for changes in her skin tone and pressure. These were minor things to do, as most changelings couldn’t imitate the flow of blood properly, but she passed even these tests alleviating the final thoughts that her healer had been captured and replaced by changelings. Then with a slight hesitation she asked the question, hoping to already know the answer. “Darling, what happened to you?”

At that Cass paused, then ran her long delicate fingers through her sweat soaked hair. Hair that still looked silky smooth, despite the amount of water visible. “Oh, yeah, the surgery went a little long and I apparently had a lot of fluids I could sweat out. Not the most pleasant of experiences,” she said somewhat sheepishly.

That was when she saw her Charles alive and well after so long. They had a thing once, back when her husband had died and was in the midst of trying to regain the power he once had. Charles was one of the few people that had joined her in their attempt to drive back the Blight, a seemingly pointless gesture.

Had it not been for Mitch, Charles’ butler, who confirmed that not only had Cass once again healed the man of the Blight, but then had the decency to Resurrect the man so he could be properly thankful of her actions, Mallory might have doubted such a claim.

Then even the Guild Master got in on the act, when he asked: “To be clear, you created that Tier IX spell just now, while you were operating on the patient?”

Then like a little firecracker, the young healer shot back, “well I didn’t exactly have time to stop and read a manual on keeping a spirit tethered to the body, now did I?”

To which the Guild Master replied the only way a man who lost an argument could, “I guess you are right in that you didn’t. Though, you say, you had to tether the spirit to the body?”

“Yeah, I used to crochet, and well apparently that is a skill needed if you want to resurrect people. Who would have known.” Cass said.

Cackle.

At that Mallory began laughing wildly, “oh girl, you are far too much. Mary me, right here and now. I just need you in my life, that much is certain.”

Cass paused, a clear look of confusion on her face. “Is this just to keep me in your guild?”

“Oh yes, well that and more. Girl, you are amazing. Again, come to us when you are free. In fact, let us know if you want someone to power level you, we can help you clear any number of floors on this tower.” Mallory admitted.

Only later on would Mallory begin to question this meeting, as she knew that the Guild Master’s persona was one that could be copied by her Void Healer class. While her Simulacrum Master class allowed her to create a perfect replica of herself. Meaning that later on she apparently could and did do such actions, even going so far as to talk to herself to avoid failing an audit.

In her time, she spoke about how anxious she was at the fact that she was getting audited and then apparently passed said audit.

When Mallory pressed, all the young healer girl did was blush and quickly state something along the lines of, “it wasn’t that impressive. Just some people skills.”

Mallory of course wasn’t buying it, but unfortunately the actual truth of what had happened remains a mystery even now as any messages about that incident get redacted by the system. Even the coded messages get redacted when it is clear they are trying to get around said safeguards. To this day Mallory truly wishes to know the secret used by Cass to avoid getting audited. Also, that was one of the first times she heard about someone actually passing an audit. Sure, many people get audited, in fact that is the number one way that most illegal ventures are shut down. With a one-person con, you almost always get caught, while you can keep a story straight and adapt on the fly, you have a harder time covering all the angles and getting others to collaborate. When you have a two or more-person con, then there are ways to react, everyone has issues, and almost always there will be ways to tell if people are in cahoots with each other, as they will try to say everything is great. Somehow Cass had managed to use her unique classes to pull off the first ever two-person con with just one person, thereby breaking both sets of rules.

After hearing about that little work of ingenuity and finding out that she was a senior informant for the Thieves Guild while never leaving her little Guild Hall, Mallory wanted her as one of her spy masters. Not just as a spymaster, but as the spymaster. This of course was before her little episode, where she stole everything from under the nose of the Legrand Duchess. Mallory had actually gone to that very tournament in the hopes of seeing Cass. There was a time when she noticed a boy with the same bright green emerald eyes as Cass sitting as a servant in one of the luxury boxes. She had thought the eyes were odd, as she had only seen them on one person before, which was why she had stared at him for a bit. But she soon dismissed the distraction, as she focused again on card counting.

When the prize money and experience had originally been stolen, Mallory was annoyed. Only to then get a one-word response from her granddaughter that told her who the culprit was. Cass. That was the only word written down, as apparently all previous messages detailing the full events had been deleted entirely. That was what made her wait and set up observations for when the little healer would return.

Shortly after a certain travelling gift shop was set up by the system as a unique reward for her exploits did she appear. That was when Mallory found out that despite having an exorbitant spending spree at the shop, the little thief had only managed to get rid of half the ill-gotten goods. After that fortunate meeting where it was explained that the bulge in the floor of the second story of the Mage’s Guild was caused by so many tons of gold forcing a bulge in the floor, Mallory couldn’t help but want to help. By agreeing to be an accomplice to a crime, she got her guild ten million dollars and a guild wide Title that showed that they recycled. Again, the creativity of her little healer never ceased to amaze her or cause her to smile.

While Cass’s support for the Maltese Empire is a bit of a future concern, being as Mallory and her guild have invested a lot of their assets in the Legrand Empire, that is something that she is willing to work with.

As for her other eccentricities, like constantly practicing skills while walking, that can get annoying, until Mallory looks at the extreme look of concentration on her face and can’t help but smile as she imagines Cass imitating a duck who is backed up while waving their wings around while walking. Somehow Cass manages to walk like that, while seemingly never looking down at her feet.

After sharing a mental link with her, Cass now completely understands why the girl never seems to fall, despite the weird movements. That girl never gets a chance to look at herself from a first-person point of view, everything is all third person. Worse, she has so much detail that it is ridiculous to comprehend.

Mallory now knows the merit she purchased was Angel’s Sight, a merit that even at the first Tier of it, will cost you five merit points. When she was asked to confirm by her granddaughter about the Tier rating that Cass had, both her granddaughter and Cass’s own daughter both had their doubts about it being Tier V. Only after she absentmindedly showed the merit in its entirety did the questions from her daughter and granddaughter finally end.

It wasn’t until later that Mallory realized the cause for concern. Mallory’s granddaughter was only able to purchase up to the second tier of the merit, while Cass’s daughter, the person who shared fifty percent of her genetic code was only able to purchase up to the third tier of the merit. In both cases they were hesitant to get the merits, given that they could only get a fraction of what Cass could from her own. Though after having experienced the full force of the perceptions offered by a Tier V, Mallory was fairly certain that this might not be a bad thing.

For a moment Mallory almost wondered about making the suggestion that both try to first purchase the Child flaw, which would automatically start their base Attributes at 1, meaning they would have more time to mentally grow into the power of the merit. In a way, that might make sense as to why Cass could get the fifth tier of such a powerful merit. But realistically she felt that this would only further complicate their chances at joining. That was the thing, with the two now undertaking the joining process, it was clear that Cass’s daughter would be joining the game shortly. Then their time here in the tower would likely have to come to an end.

Flash.

Mallory watched as a second golden glow enveloped Cass. Cass who now sat in a waterlogged set of clothes, surrounded by empty water flasks that had been filled with the mana rich water of the tree, along with a few random barrels that Mallory had on hand. The rum that the barrels had was a great distraction as she thought about how to broach the subject of their children joining the game shortly.

Seeing the flash though, Mallory knew that Cass had gotten her Doctorate. Honestly Mallory felt that such a feat seemed rather easy, but then realized this was likely the most impressive spellcaster that she had ever seen in this world and that if anyone deserved to be a Doctor of Magic, it was her. Still, there was something about just being in an elevator and using that to fast track your way to tower bonuses.

Not wishing to snoop by seeing the Healer’s newest title, Mallory decided to ask instead. “So you are a doctor now?”

Cass nodded, it was clear she still felt sort of like she cheated to get her title. Though again, she had to have an insane level of understanding of magic to find the cheat, making the argument circulative at best. Rather than having to give another pep talk, she decided to ask the obvious question, “so what do we get for floor 200?”

This was a fair question to ask, as the elevator was still going up, and while they had clearly just passed floor 150, they were on this ride until floor 175.

“Two things. The first I will get to write down my magical theories, and if they are accepted they will be published and from what I can tell be made canon for all mages.” Cass begins.

At that Mallory just nods, her mind trying to comprehend that as a feat. “So you will literally get to create new fundamental principles that could not only define, but forever change the course of magic on this planet?”

“And get them published, where I would apparently get a certain number of royalties per publication.” Cass admitted.

“I take it there is a catch?” Mallory hedges.

“What? No, no catch. At least not one that I can tell.” Cass states, a slight tone of worry to her voice.

“So what is the second thing then?”

“Second thing?” Cass pauses, and turns her head to face Mallory, but her eyes don’t quite line up exactly. That is something else that Mallory now is able to notice, the way the eyes don’t necessarily line up. While they face the same way, there is an inherent balance that people do with their heads, to align their sight to be the same level as the person they are looking at. If someone has their head slightly turned to the right, then the person who locks gazes with them will also turn their head subtly to the same direction to make it so the eyes are on an even plane. Cass doesn’t do that, while most people will automatically adjust their eyes to match the other person’s Cass doesn’t do this, something she only recently became aware of.

“Yeah, you said you get two things as a reward?” Mallory questioned, forgetting her notice on the way that Cass has seemingly learned to hide her blindness to the world so well, for so long. Honestly if Mallory had never shared the vision with the woman for so long, Mallory doubted she would have ever found out. Only now that she knew, did she begin to notice slight oddities that hinted at her being truly blind.

“Oh, I get quite a few actually, experience, a new magical tier, the book publications, but then there is this last one.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“What is it?”

“Oh, I can perform Magical Enhancement Surgery.”

“Magical Enhancement Surgery?” Mallory parrots back.

Shrugging, “I don’t know either, but it does sound pretty cool. So are you with me to floor 200?”

Hearing that, Mallory pauses, as she had been hoping that they could get out of here before then to go meet her daughter. But then figured one last run couldn’t hurt. “All right, but this is the last one. Well unless you find another magical elevator shaft that takes us up to floor four hundred.”

Chuckling.

“I wish.”

“Me too.”

Then there was an awkward silence that over took the two. Finally, after a long moment Cass asked, “everything okay?”

At first Mallory wanted to dismiss it, but then figured she should come clean. “Yeah, well sort of. After we get to floor 200, we both might need to leave…”