NOVEL NEXT Chapter 192 – Commissary
"Did Mage Teft talk to you?" Damion asked Elicia when she returned to his dormitory. He was sitting on the couch in his living room, skimming through a list of books on his tablets, searching for something to read.
"Yes. She seemed rather amused by our plan," Elicia told him.
"Well, it works and has the added bonus of annoying your grandfather and she doesn't have to do anything."
"I wonder if I should have told him that I reached D Rank?"
"If he hadn't noticed by now he obviously hasn't been paying you any mind, other than what he expected of you. Do you think if he knew you had advanced he would not have kicked you out of your family?"
"The thought had occurred to me," Elicia answered as she snuggled up to Damion on the couch. Despite her words and actions, she was struggling with if she had made the right decision and Damion's presence helped reassure her. "Term break is here, what do you plan to do with your weeks off?"
"Well, I don't think Mage Teft is going to let me do a labyrinth run. Even though the second half of the term has been uneventful, she is still a bit concerned the Fontanes or the Thorns or whoever might think they can get an easy spatial artifact from me will attack the moment I leave the school."
"You are just going to spend the time here at the school?"
"I've spent so much time over the last few weeks working on my spell assignment that I haven't been putting in the practice I need to on mastering my spells."
"The reward for your assignment, how many points did you get?"
"200."
"That pushed you over 500, right? Are you going to access the tier 3 Repository?"
"I was thinking of waiting until towards the end of my second term. See if I can earn enough points to open the tier 4 Repository."
"That won't work," Elicia told Damion.
"What do you mean?"
"Points serve as your grades and class ranking remember. Any standard students that earned more points than elite students during the term, will be promoted to elite students for the new term. The points you earn are your standing for the term, at the start of the new term, your points are reset."
"I have to spend them or lose them," Damion surmised.
"Precisely."
"Then let's get to the library," Damion announced as he sprang up from the couch, nearly causing Elicia to fall to the floor. He headed towards the door, Phil quickly flying over to tag along. Damion would have liked to keep saving up his points, but if they expired, there was no sense in letting them go to waste. Elicia followed after, feeling a bit depressed that she had sabotaged her snuggling time.
When they arrived at the library, Damion immediately asked for access to the tier 3 Repository and paid the 500-point fee. Damion accessed the Repository terminal and was shown the tier 3 Ice magic seals that Silver Spire had.
There were three listings, which disappointed Damion, especially the first one, Frost Over, he already knew that spell, curtesy of the Blanche family. The other two spells, Ice Armor and Summon Ice, Damion eagerly pulled up to view their magic seals.
*Ding*
{Magic seal recorded}
[Ice Armor - Active - (F Rank 120 Mana) Coat yourself in ice armor. The higher the Rank of the spell the greater the strength of the armor.]
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*Ding*
{Quest Completed}
[Quest: Learn a Tier 3 Magic Spell – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 1,000 Store Credit]
*Ding*
{Magic seal recorded}
[Summon Ice - Active - (F Rank 100 Mana, 20 Mana p/s) Conjure 1 cubic meter of ice and control it at will.]
*Ding*
{Quest Completed}
[Quest: Learn a Tier 3 Magic Spell – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 1,000 Store Credit]
Damion smiled as the Magic System notifications flashed through his mind. He selected Ice Armor as the spell to learn from the terminal and then turned to leave the Repository. 500 points, but he at least managed to learn two tier 3 spells. The tier 4 level of the Repository would likely be well out of reach for him, getting 1,000 points in one term simply was not possible, and Damion had a feeling the Headmaster would not allow that to happen.
Damion now knew 10 spells, from what he learned from the Magic System in the past, as a C Rank he had a limit of 20 spells. Perhaps it was time to purchase a spell slot upgrade or two. The points he just earned would be enough to purchase the upgrade once and give him an extra 5 spell slots. The question of course was how many more Ice spells he could get his hands on. He already knew all the Ice affinity spells from tier 1 to 3 that Silver Spire had, and it seemed unlikely for him to be able to learn more tier 4, let alone tier 5 spells from the school.
This left Damion wondering if he should start investing in another affinity. He had been putting off the decision since he could not openly use a second affinity. However, if he was lucky and got Spatial or perhaps some other affinity that was not as apparent, he might be able to pull it off. His other worry was, how many spell slots would he need to have for that affinity. The answer to all his worries and doubts of course were credits for the Magic System Shop.
With enough credits he could do anything, which meant he needed to get the System to level 3. If he could convert Magic Cores into credits, all he would need to do is find an easy dungeon and he could grind away on magic cores until he could buy the Anti-Regression Potion. For now, though, Damion had to be content with finishing the quests he had.
"Where is the commissary?" Damion asked Elicia once they were out of the library.
"What do you want to go there for?"
"I still have 35 points. I can't let them go to waste now can I?"
"This way," Elicia sighed. She wanted to spend time with Damion, but he seemed oblivious.
Elicia led Damion to a room right across from one of the entrances of the great hall where they ate their lunches and held ceremonies. When they entered, Damion almost believed he had entered a small artifact shop. There were complete sets of armor on display as well as weapons and other utility artifacts. As he looked around he realized the commissary had everything a student would need to put together a comprehensive adventurer kit.
"Is there something I can help you find?" an attendant asked Damion while he was browsing through the displays. Despite sounding friendly, the young man looked somewhat terrified of him with Phil resting on his shoulder. He could tell the attendant was just F Rank, so he felt the young man's reaction was probably instinctual, after all Phil was a C Rank Ferocious Beast, this poor worker had probably never encountered a Ferocious Beast in his life.
"Don't worry about Phil," Damion reassured the attendant. "I'm just browsing for now. I'll let you know if I don't find what I'm looking for."
The attendant was noticeably relieved he did not have to get closer and stayed behind the counter while Damion and Elicia continued to browse.
There was not much that Damion needed and as he looked at the prices on items, he realized there was not much he could afford. If he had not spent his points on the Repository he would have been alright, able to purchase several items. However, with the majority of items priced at more than 100 points, Damion realized this was another method the school used to trap students into debt.
If they could not afford something, students could buy points by promising future service to the school. Mage Teft had warned him early on about not falling into debt with the school, but he had not really paid much attention to how that might happen. Now he understood. The artifacts here were of top quality. A commoner student that did not know better could easily be seduced into making a hasty purchase only to be trapped in debt with the school for years.
In the end, Damion spent his remaining 35 points on a detailed map application of Argentum and the surrounding areas for his tablet and rations. Of late he had not used many of his rations, except when sharing a lunch with Phil in the meadow, but Damion knew he would need them eventually and it seemed prudent to start stocking up now.
Once back in the dormitory Damion was again faced with the problem of what to do for the next few weeks. Aside from his daily routine, exercise and magic practice, he really had nothing else to pass the time. He wanted to go out and explore, but Mage Teft had asked him to remain on the campus.
Damion tried contacting Ethan and Arica to perhaps live vicariously through whatever they were doing at the moment, but neither one answered. It was the next day with they contacted him back, Arica was steeped in research with her master and Ethan was in the middle of a long-haul shipment between Yellow Zone towns. Without class and without the ability to go into a dungeon, Damion suddenly realized his life had become very dull.