Chapter 21

  “Spell books,” Julz started right back up, “You will need an Intelligence of fifteen to even comprehend the inner workings of higher magic.”

  “Fifteen?” Kopius repeated in frustration.

  “Fifteen what, lad?” Cici asked, having finished his rounds about the store.

  “I have to have a fifteen in Intelligence before I can start learning my Branch magic.” He replied in annoyance. “That’s what you’re saying, right?” Kopius asked the goat lady.

  “Yes,” Julz confirmed.

  “That’s right!” Cici agreed a second later. “I never had to learn the higher magics. There should be something about that in one of those books you got. That—Manabolism.”

  “Yes. That is the best book for beginners,” Julz added. She looked over Kopius again but this time was more discerning.

  “I’m new here,” Kopius said before Julz could start to ask questions.

  “I am starting to understand that.”

  “Where do you hail from?” Faunz asked.

  “Earth.” Kopius responded. “Heard of it?”

  “Like dirt?” Faunz inquired.

  “No, but, well yes,” Kopius stumbled. “It doesn’t really matter. SO, if the scroll is weak flame and it sounds like the tomes are medium strength; what do you get from the spell book?”

  He wanted to keep things on track and was rarely in the mood to think about home. The focus needed to be on the present and that was difficult in its own right. Any reminiscing about the place he was trying to get to just made it seem that much farther away. There were enough distractions; he didn’t need to add to it.

  “With Flare, you could cast a concentrated beam of fire as far as your mana pool will allow,” Julz replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “One would have to level the spell through use and practice, but there are little to no limitations.”

  “Wow. Okay.” Kopius responded, impressed. “You’re saying that, if I had an infinite supply of mana I could cast a beam of fire across all of Metem?”

  “Setting aside the impossibility of a never ending reservoir,” Julz began, “there is more to mana than just the amount you have. You really should read that book. I will say this though; mana can be purified, concentrated, and condensed.”

  “More bang for your buck,” Kopius said absently.

  “Higher potency for less volume,” Faunz clarified.

  “That’s basically what I said.”

  “We have one Air Elemental spellbook,” Julz interrupted, holding up one of the other large books. “Shock Treatment has a few applications, all requiring touch. I also have an Air magic spellbook bundle for Push, a defensive spell that knocks back anyone within a certain radius.”

  Kopius’s current frame of mind had him leaning towards any magic spells he could get his hands on. He was unsure what Shock Treatment was but he would take it. Push sounded really cool yet, he wasn’t going to get giddy about it until knew its limitations. Cool things were usually restricted somehow, like they could only be used once a day or every twelve hours or something in that vein. It was designed to stop someone from spamming their magic. Like in this case, Kopius would be able to create a permanent shield that would jettison anyone that got too close.

  “What do you mean by bundle?” Kopius inquired.

  Julz removed the fire items from the counter and replaced them with a similar set and another large book. She laid them out as if to display them like jewelry.

  “For our customers under the minimum Intelligence for spell books, which is most,” she added with a sympathetic nod. Faunz also gave him a look of knowing sincerity. “There are still options. For a reasonable price, you can purchase the Scroll of Push to learn the weak version. Next you use the Tome of Push so that it can reach level five. Then, when you have achieved a personal level of fifteen you can absorb the Spellbook of Push to which you are the only limitation of its power.”

  “And start off at level five?” Kopius asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But it’s Air magic.” Kopius protested, looking between the two.

  “Yes,” Julz answered, “an Air Elemental can wield both where an Air mage can only consume Air magic. Elementals are niche, rare to a certain degree. You’re lucky.” Kopius coughed as though he had gagged on saliva. Lucky wasn’t his thing, at least not traditionally.

  “This would be the same for, like, a water mage and a water elemental?” Kopius asked after he gathered himself.

  Both of the goats nodded in agreement.

  “Okay. What about that one, Shock Therapy?” Kopius asked, pointing at the solo book.

  “Shock Treatment,” Faunz spoke up to correct him.

  “For that,” Julz picked up, “You can read that ahead of time. You will have to wait until level fifteen to be able to cast it though and it will be at level one.”

  “But there is no cap?”

  “No what, sir?”

  “No limit, no max. I can just keep making it stronger.”

  “Yes sir, of course you are correct,” Faunz answered. “Again, mana plays a role as well.”

  “I’ll take it,” Kopius concluded, not caring for any further explanations. “You guys will show me how to zap it in, right,? How to learn it, imbue it or whatever?” Kopius made gestures at the scroll while whistling and humming sound effects to drive his point home. The two shop owners bleated with glee and agreed to help in any way possible. Kopius appreciated the enthusiasm but attributed it to his Speakeasy and the large purchase he was about to make.

  The wall of weapons was not as impressive as the wall of books and scrolls. There were a myriad of spears, swords, axes and warhammers yet they all looked well worn, beaten, rusted; or all three. Dented shields were to one side leaning against the barrels of leather goods and to the other side was a large table filled with a multitude of knives. Most of it looked like it needed a good smelting.

  Kopius, who read somewhere that one could never have too many knives, stepped up to the table and examined the blades. The weapons came in all shapes and sizes. Some looked like hilted metal talons while others had needle and/or spear points. The more he looked the more shapes presented themselves and the harder it was to focus on any one knife.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He felt fine with his two swords, now that they were going to get sharpened, so he largely ignored the store's inventory. With three more slots available on his harness, he wanted a blade or two for day-to-day purposes as well as some added offense.

  Cici had struck up a conversation with Faunz in the background and Kopius could hear the chalkboard being put back to use. Eventually, he stopped trying to guess at what everything was and started to use his brain i.e. his ring of identification.

  Most of the blades just came up as ‘Blade’ with no other information. It wasn’t until he picked one up that looked straight out of a ninja's armory–a kunai–that a more traditional information box appeared. Though Kopus didn’t try to remember the name of the weapon itself, he recognized it nevertheless.

  He paused at the description and looked on the table until he found its twin. The top half of the weapon was a thin, elongated pyramid or miniature obelisk. The bottom half had a slender, cylindrical handle wrapped in dark leather. The whole thing was capped off at the end by a ringed-pommel, large enough that Kopius could twirl the weapon on his finger. It all measured ten inches in length and one inch at the widest point.

  Where normally a kunai was a multi-use item, meant for anything from digging holes to being a crowbar to killing folks, the one in front of him had well defined edges that were meant for cutting and slicing; not blunt force. Though the two blades were as sharp as dull humor, he could picture them very useful after spending some time in his Harness of Sharpening.

  It checked off a lot of boxes for Kopius: they were light weight; the knives felt strong, durable; fit in his grip comfortably and–if someone could teach him–they were designed to be thrown. He twirled one on a finger and fancied himself as Doc Holiday for a moment. They gave him a sense of versatility so he picked up the pair.

  Welcome to the party guys, Kopius thought to the knives. He moved the twin blades next to the magic books and then pointed to an item behind the counter that had first caught his eye when they had entered the shop.

  It was another pyramid shaped object. This looked like it had been created by four thin, equilateral triangles all connected on the inside edge of their slender width. Inverted grooves ran the length of each connected side and all of the four tips looked like the nose of a football instead of a single sharp point. Each of the four, triangular-planned sides were different colors of crystal or gem… or glass maybe, Kopius couldn’t tell.

  All of them had the same inner design of a small centered circle with three connected lines drawn to each tip of the respective triangle. When Faunz held it to the light, the inside looked hollow, but that could have been an illusion. It gave him strong Magna-tile vibes from his youth.

  “That’s an adventure for fool’s, lad,” Cici remarked when Faunz placed the multi-colored crystal pyramid on the counter in front of them. Kopius had removed his earmuffs due to Cici sounding like he was far away.

  “How so?” Kopius asked, picking up the item for a closer inspection.

  “That there is only one half,” Cici huffed as if the subject had hit a personal sore spot. “You need the other half for it to work! And let me tell you, that is no small feat. Not only do the colors have to match–exactly, mind you–but that little symbol on the inside needs to be the same as well.”

  “Sounds like you have a story there,” Kopius said with a smirk. Cici just shook his head back and forth but everything else about him said ‘yes.’

  “THIS IS A CONCENTRATED OCCULT METAPHYSICAL APPARATI,” Julz announced.

  “C.O.M.A?” Kopius said after reattaching his earmuffs and then repeating the title of the device in his head a few times.

  “You have heard of this?” Julz asked enthusiastically. Her glee was short-lived after Kopius answered.

  “C.O.M.A. is the common name,” Faunz added. “It’s too long otherwise.”

  “How does it work?” Kopius asked, his eyes transfixed on the item.

  “As Mr. Beo was alluding to,” Julz jumped in, “these are created as two identical halves. To have one without the other is of no use. They are without purpose alone.”

  “I take it you don’t have the other half?”

  “They never have the other half, lad,” Cici spoke up. “Not these folks, per se,” the big guy clarified, “shops in general. There are people who would pay a barrel of coin to have both halves.”

  “Can I just get a thorough explanation about this thing?” Kopius looked between all three of them with some eyebrow raising. When it looked as though Julz would continue the role of teacher, Cici blurted something first.

  “Use your ring, lad,” Cici reminded him. Kopius mumbled something under his breath and used the ring.

  This information window had slight differences from the likes of any weapon or item he had identified so far. Instead of a written out description there were two bolded words the same way that a hyperlink might be on a wiki page. He focused on the first of the two bolded words, ‘Load,’ and much the same with the Attribute chart, a smaller window popped up with more information:

  “This C.O.M.A. consists of four, single use yields. Type of yield is determined by the color of the crystal. Color is representative of the infused Branch magic. This C.O.M.A. is housed with the following colors: light green, purple, blue, pink. Must be retrieved after each use.”

  With no further explanation of the colors forthcoming, Kopius moved to the next bolded word, ‘Usage.’ A window popped into his field of view. With another twist to the virtual displays, instead of text explaining something, there were animated, step-by-step illustrations as though he were about to assemble some Ikea furniture.

  The first panel showed two identical, pyramid-shaped halves of a C.O.M.A. rotating to show all sides. The next panel had a nondescript person holding a piece in both hands, the same color–red–being highlighted. The third instruction showed the individual joining the like colors, the pieces appearing to glue together into a kids-sized football shape of sorts.

  Directly next to the third panel was an almost exact duplicate, except this one they were trying to join two different colors together and it had a giant line running through as if to indicate, ‘not like this.’

  The fourth panel had the person twisting the device until all of the other colors aligned. Second to last had the device glowing like a bright sun and the final window of instruction looked like the item was being thrown a far distance.

  “This looks pretty cool,” Kopius admitted, turning the geometric shape in his hand. He guessed that, if he had the other half, it would be just under six inches in length and two and a half inches at its widest. That is some pretty specific info there buddy, Kopius noted to himself. That’s the Measure Once asshole, remember that? He nodded to himself and appreciated the possibility of another throwing weapon in his arsenal.

  “What does it do though?” Kopius finally asked, breaking his attention from the object.

  “It depends on the colors.” Faunz offered.

  “That’s what the description says,” Kopuis followed up. “Do you know what the colors mean?”

  “There are many,” Fanz replied, shaking his head.

  “Have you been to Stoneclaw?” Julz butted in.

  “Not yet.”

  “If you get there,” she warned, “look to the eastern peaks; there used to be four.”

  “And?”

  “Ask Mr. Beo of the Fourth Claw,” Julz said with a smirk. He looked at her for a moment and then over at Cici.

  “Hey, what’s the, uh, the Fourth Claw?” Kopius asked the big man.

  “The Legend of the Fourth Claw?” Cici said with a chuckle. “The story goes that one of those fancy items right there crippled the eastern peak of Stoneclaw during a great battle. A battle involving some parties you may be of interest in. To shorten this, it is said that the peak was brought down by a purely Earth infused C.O.M.A. to ensure a massive retreat.”

  The slight chill that ran through Kopius’s body was enough to give him the hint that the Val-jin were one of those parties. His pessimism also concluded that the retreating party were not the Val-jin, all while marveling at the destructive power of the C.O.M.A. The two goats nodded their agreement to Cici’s assessment, adding to its wow-factor.

  “Pure C.O.M.A. 's are very unique; very rare,” Julz added hastily to reset expectations. “Most are four colors, which dampen the yield.”

  “Still significantly powerful,” Faunz contributed.

  Julz nodded in agreement.

  “But,” Kopius started to protest, “without the other half, it is basically a paper weight. Yeah?”

  “This is true,” Faunz replied with some concern.

  “We have a map,” Julz announced, holding up a rolled parchment.

  “Is that a map?” Cici perked up.

  “A map paired to the other half,” Julz offered with a head nod.

  “That seems awfully convenient,” Kopius added sarcastically.

  “Is it a map, lad?” Cici asked more eagerly.

  “She says it's a paired map, whatever that means.”

  “Did she now? How long have you had this, loves?”