Chapter 48 (Patreon)

The second month of the semester ended with a gross profit of hundred-and-fifty gold coins. Twenty of which went to Annabelle for repayment towards her investment. He paid Pudge the same for his time and use of his beasts. Unlike cosmetics, live subjects were essential for testing contraceptives. The brew was nowhere near ready for human trials. Nox didn’t want to scar someone permanently or inflict damage that needed thousands in healer fees.

After paying the glassmakers and more equipment, Nox only had fifty gold coins for himself. He needed new regular clothes and a decent outfit for delving. Nox intended to put the rest toward materials for his promotion to adept. His energy costs had also shot up. He expected to save more than ten gold. It would take forever to save up for the Artisan’s Arm unless he scaled up his operation and expanded his client base outside of campus. Things would turn once Nox emptied his stocks. He had mass-produced the product and had plenty to sell. It was now a matter of outreach.

“These are amazing!” Michelle exclaimed after trying his samples. “Are you sure about giving me a discount on more? I don’t want to put you out.”

“There’s got to be some benefit to putting up with us,” Nox told her. “Just do me a favor and share some of it with your peers. I’ve got clientele everywhere on campus except the research department.”

“Do you really have buyers everywhere?”

“Currently, there are only small pockets everywhere, but I expect it to spread through word of mouth. Annabelle is doing great work bringing in more orders from the dungeon studies and war mage department. Professor Das shared samples with his colleagues, but the artisan students aren’t showing much interest. I guess they’re more hesitant to spend their coin.”

“The researchers might be more of the same,” Michelle said. “We spent most of our time locked in laboratories or researching in the library. What’s the point of makeup when you spend all of your time in dark rooms or between the stacks?”

“It doesn’t mean they have to skimp on skin and hair care. Just slip into conversation, please? You don’t have to sell anything for me. Just spread the word. If anyone follows up for contact, tell them where to find me?”

“And where is that? Do you have a shop? Do you have a set location for people to find you? Or reliable means of communication?”

“No,” Nox replied. “Perhaps I should invest in a box at the mail office.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“That’s another expense.” Nox sighed.

The number of Oakheart retainers on campus increases. They cornered Nox and Lillin between classes and questioned them again separately. Lord Oakheart didn't show up for the interrogations, and his followers got more aggressive with the questioning. Neither Nox nor Lillin wavered, and their stories remained the same. They still had no information regarding the abductions or rift evolutions. Nox was surprised when they questioned him about the assault, too. He didn't think it was common knowledge. Afterward, he felt more eyes on him after classes and on break days.

Intermediate Dungeon Combat got more difficult. Professor Wolfhammer appeared to have taken their initial win as an insult. He added obstacles to the field, making it difficult for Nox to get a clear shot. They kept Annabelle from expanding her spear to its full length as well. The pillars reduced the effectiveness of Lillin's gravity spheres, and Ernest had less room for maneuverability.

The party rose to the challenge and adapted. First, Michelle altered her brother. She reduced the bulk around his chest and shoulders, narrowing his monstrous frame. His massive arms lost some mass, too but gained incredible flexibility. They appeared almost elastic at times, and for brief moments joints bent the wrong way. The range of mobility made sense, given the masses of finger-long tentacles under his skin. Nox guessed they formed the bulk of Ernest’s musculature. The giant man grew faster and more stable. He got hit less frequently but took longer to recover when he did. However, dents and breaks fixed themselves faster every lesson.

Michelle appeared to prioritize recovery over defense. It felt as if she grew more trusting of the party after each lesson and scaled back the layers of under-skin armor. Ernest appeared happier with the changes too. He occasionally spaced out between combat sessions. The helmet remained on, but Nox could still see his eyes thanks to his brew-enhanced vision. They looked lifeless whenever Ernest went unresponsive. Nox wondered whether the larger man’s spells drew energy from his phylactery, and the container needed time to recover between fights, resulting in the catatonic states. Apparently, he had a lot of weaponry and magic hidden in his body, but Michelle refused to remove the limiter on them for ordinary lessons. They'd expose what Ernest and she really were. Both siblings saved their best for delving.

Lillin stuck close to Ernest during combat and didn't hold back with her gravity magic. It barely had any effect on him, and at close range, the summoned hammer wielder couldn't interfere with them as easily. Nox's hypothesis proved correct. The weapon interfered with Manipulation spells. Lillin countered the issue by simply not using them.

The growing competence of the vanguard and control mage was countered by greater challenges for the rest of the party. Professor Wolfhammer made the fights even more difficult for Nox and Annabelle by increasing the number of wolves. The man denied it, but the creatures felt faster and more durable than previous versions.

The pair had no choice but to fight more defensively. They couldn't afford to stay close to Ernest and Lillin either. The summoned man almost always looked for opportunities to turn his hammer on Nox. Ratra's Bow and channeling spells through it demanded a lot more concentration than the rest of the party’s magic. Having to deal with increased numbers and bone-shattering bludgeoning attacks made Nox's life significantly harder. On the bright side, his defensive spells grew stronger. Nox added mode sides to his triangular defense and also created a version with multiple layers. Triggering slowly more than once had a cumulative effect, making the wolves vulnerable to Annabelle’s enchanted spearhead. Her skill at locating weak points increased, meaning she could dispatch individual wolves swiftly. During every six-hour class, the party defeated their summoned opponents at least twice, placing them above the class average.

Meanwhile, Diya's Spell Weaving class finally started mana storage and amplification. The former script proved necessary for the former. Storage involved trapping arcane energy in a loop of runes and spell shapes with a controller gate, ensuring the energy stayed contained. Meanwhile, the amplification script increased the speed in the loop, packing more energy into each unit of mana. The process continued until the controller gate's parameters were met. Then it opened the loop and fed the supercharged stream into the rest of the spell.

As Nox started developing the final version of his Shaping spell, he added more gates throughout the spell structure, getting better control over the flow of energy. Then he added amplification scripts between the Micro Shaping and Multi Shaping sections and then again between Multi Shaping and Macro Shaping. The spellform again ended up cluttered, and he would need a few weeks to simplify it, but he felt good about the development. In fact, he found himself enjoying Spell Weaving without any impossible deadlines hanging over his head.

The new techniques also proved valuable in alchemy, and Nox started making progress on the brews for his adept license. He still had a long way to go, but he hoped to reach the target before the start of the next semester. He planned on delving during the break but also planned on setting aside ample time for alchemy. After all, he and Lillin needed to pay the following term's tuition and also expand Noxian Brews' client base beyond the University campus. Doing so with the adept tag attached to the company would only help the business.

As an adept, he would also get the clearance to legally purchase materials containing void, chaos, and starfire essences. Strict regulation kept journeymen and below alchemists from getting their hands on dangerous elements. Misuse could result in catastrophic consequences for the artisan and everyone in their neighborhood, if not the entire city. Nox would need to acquire several materials necessary for the promotion through the university. This meant there would be a record of everything he used, and people could track his creations and, worst of all, have the means to figure out his recipes.

The more Nox got entangled with the production department, the more he learned about its cutthroat nature. Competing artisans would steal from one another and register patents first, stealing months, if not years, of work. Once something was registered with the United Artisan And Researcher’s Guild, the magically created records became permanent. Nox had heard changing them was near impossible, and the offended artisan would need to rely on local powers to punish the offender and figure out compensation.

Time spent with Annabelle outside of class and training sessions increased considerably. She started dining with Nox in the paupers’ cafeteria. It drew surprised stares from the regulars. People of her social class also shot her surprised looks whenever they saw her exiting or entering the building.

Even though Nox often felt tempted, he didn’t broach romantic topics with the woman. He was just as happy spending time with the woman. Annabelle had spent most of her life locked in subservient daughter and sister roles. Then Victor forced her into the position of dutiful fiancee. Nox understood that she needed time to be just her. He didn’t have much time for romance due to his schedule and current ambitions. If he got desperate for carnal release, he could always visit the taverns outside of campus. Pudge and Lillin had become close friends and visited them regularly together. They often invited Nox to tag along, but he rejected the offer.

Nox got to know Annabelle on a deeper level. The young noblewoman told him about memories of her late mother, her favorite handmaids, and tutors while growing up, and her interests outside of magic. He couldn’t help but feel astonished by her sharp mind and unique view of the world.

Their conversations got him thinking about topics he often pushed to the back of his mind. Nox wondered about how Ratra’s Bow had spent almost two decades in the vault without anyone picking it. Annabelle got him questioning the curious conditions around which Kris approached him with an apprenticeship offer just after his mother exiled him. Annabelle didn’t say the exact words, but she got Nox to question Queen Mercer’s role in everything.

“People in positions of power have to make difficult decisions,” Annabelle told him. “My father occasionally treated me poorly because he knew preferential treatment would draw Victor’s wrath. As the heir, he has backing from the maternal side of the family and our grandparents. Punishing him was always difficult because of the number of people speaking in his defense.

“Then there were times Victor and his loyalists would leave the estate to explore some southern beach or to visit a distant festival. Father and I would end up in the Oakheart castle alone, and he’d display tenderness, and I didn’t think possible from the stoic Lord Oakheart. It took me forever to figure out the contrast in behavior, but I understand now. He wanted to ensure my life wouldn’t be completely terrible after he was gone. Don’t get me wrong. Some of the things he let happen are inexcusable, but he’s human at the end of the day. We almost make as many mistakes as the gods. I’m not telling you to forgive your mother for everything she has done. Just consider it all from another angle.”

The conversation frustrated Nox. It wasn’t because it sounded like Annabelle was defending Queen Mercer. Instead, a lot of what she said sounded plausible. Nox wondered whether his mother had placed Ratra’s Bow in the vault after their private meeting. He questioned the possibility of her sending Kris to meet with him and orchestrating the banishment so Nox could attend Woodson University without any powers in the kingdom protesting. The Mercer and Gedge families despised Nox’s existence, after all. They acted as if he didn’t exist, but in reality, wanted to keep the queen’s firstborn under constant surveillance. Now, as a banished man, he was no threat to the empire’s stability.

Then Nox pushed idle thoughts out of his head, reminding himself of the near-two decades of negligence. He struggled to believe Queen Mercer cared about him. Mou was the only mother he knew, and he could think of no one better to fill the rule.