บท 131: The Council of Masters
"... had brought in a new contract with the Meccan Kingdom, with an estimated annual net profit of 235,387 gold royals after deduction from taxes and expenses." A loud voice droned on in the massive open hall, where a large circular rough table stood in the middle. Approving claps could be heard from the audience in the hall. Five figures sat in high backed chairs, spaced evenly around the round table, that was stacked with scrolls and documents. "Next on the Agenda, approval of Item #13, the construction of 10 ships of the line..."
Surrounding the five figures in the hall, where a ring of tables which clerks and assistants to one official or another sat and took down notes. On a raised tier above them, was a viewing like a galley were other officials who conduct their day to day businesses. Each of the five figures wore a long coat slung over their shoulders, and they sat listening to the official presenting the Agenda.
"Finally, the last item on the Agenda, the purchase of slaves on the Mainland. Our contact has informed us of a new player in the Mainland, who is willing to provide escort services to the seaside, on the conditions provided." The richly dressed Speaker wearing a gold chain with a gold seal spoke, his voice resonating clearly in the whole council hall. "First, they have proposed a new route through the Uncharted Forest which will change the rendezvous with the ship. Second, they wish to discuss trade with us. And lastly, they requested that should the freed slaves wished to stay behind, we will not force the issue."
The first figure to react sitting on the round table had a white long jacket with gold braids and ornate gold designs on the sleeve cuffs dangled over his broad shoulders. Three gold loops hung from his right earlobes and he rubbed his shortly cropped straw-colored hair as he threw his head back and laughed out loud. His good-looking weathered face split into a large smile as he spoke. "Damn, those Goldrose survivors are good!"
"Tsk, how crude as usual, Fleet Master Dijon," The other member, the only female on sitting at the round table with long raven black hair frowned at the laughing Fleet Master. She looked strictly at the Dijon who just grinned back at her.
"Ahh, relax, Megan," Third Fleet Master Dijon replied, "You just get more wrinkles!"
"Alright enough banter there," A large presence loomed over the table and the one who spoke leaned forward. His ornate jacket draped over his muscular right shoulder and his white spider silk shirt stretched taut against his barrel-like chest. With a mop of greying hair and beard, the speaker continued, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of this deal? Akron? Marshal?"
The remaining two Fleet Masters on the table looked at each other and Akron spoke first. He was a frail-looking elf with silver-blue hair with a crystal monocle over his blue eyes. Despite looking weak, his eyes were sharp and alert. "First Fleet Master, the information we have on the so-called 'Rebels' was that they had defeated the Duke Sturm of Fallowfall in at least two engagements."
First Fleet Master Kose Torke gestured the Fourth Fleet Master Akron to continue while he pulled a small pile of document scrolls relating to the Rebels and opened them and started to skim through the scrolls.
"We estimated less than 10,000 Goldrose survivors had held up at this Pass here," Akron used a long wooden pointer and tapped on a mountainous spot on the table where a map of the New World was drawn on. "They have defeated a force of at least 40,000 Imperial troops led by Duke Sturm."
Dijon gave an impressed whistle as he heard the report. "Damn, they must have a pretty good commander leading them to defeat Sturm."
"That, we do not have much information, but all reports led to the remnants are led by Lord General Joesph Baker and the last surviving royalty, Princess Sherene Goldrose," Akron replied, "Also, there were unconfirmed reports of the rebels had managed to acquire some magical artifacts from some ruins or had contracted a demon, which made them powerful enough to fight against an enemy three to four times their size."
"Marshal?" Kose turned his attention to the silver-haired old man, wrapped in his long jacket like a robe. "Your thoughts?"
Fifth Fleet Master Marshal, also known as the Old Man, cleared his throat and spoke with a rasping voice, "If the Fourth's information is correct, then, working with Rebels will greatly help in our plans in the long run. But..."
"But?" Megan asked, her willowy eyebrows rising up in question.
"It is best not to turn them into an enemy for now," The Old Man coughed, "if the rumors of artifacts are true, it will be wise to trade with them in the hopes for getting our hands on some of the artifacts. But if they are found to be demon worshippers, we have to distance ourselves from them and instead work with the other nations to destroy them."
"How about the terms they give?" Kose asked.
"There is not much difference except in sailing time, we do expect to lose a certain amount of slaves to the Forest. If they can deliver the slaves by their route perfectly and we deduct half of the slaves wishing to remain behind, it is still within our expected outcome," Marshal replied. "We also can gain a better understanding with the capabilities of the Rebels if we work with them. I give my agreement."
"Information is key," Akron sounded his approval.
"The rebels want to make use of us to provide more warm bodies for their army I say," Megan voiced her objection.'
"We can bring along a large fleet to the Goblin Sea, on the pretense of fighting goblin pirates and as a show of force," Dijon grinned, "I approve!"
First Fleet Master nodded, "Then it is one against and three yes," He looked at the Speaker and nodded, "We agree."
The Speaker bowed and hammered against the podium and declared, "The Isles will accept the new terms of conditions of the Slave Trade with the Rebels."
------
UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters
"What's the toll this time?" Captain Blake asked Major Frank as they sat in Blake's office.
"We managed to repulse the attack on the mining facilities," Frank reported, "3 deaths and 28 wounded. And also 9 others got hexed."
"Hacked?" Blake gave a confused look.
"No Sir, its hexed, not hacked," Frank replied, "Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn are looking into this matter seriously." Frank handed over his tablet to Blake who started to scroll through the contents on it.
"What the hell is this?" Blake asked in surprise, as he passed the tablet to Commander Ford at his side.
Ford looked at the content and blinked his eyes rapidly in surprise, "Molecular disassembly and reassembly?" The content on the tablet showed several images of bird wyverns, frog-like creatures and Puffball-like creatures with the names and image identity of elves in the Marines.
Frank nodded, "Yes, apparently it is some kind of curse from a goblin spell. It turns living matter into something else, in this case, it turned the Marines into critters of some kind."
"So this hex thing, is it permanent?" Blake rubbed his face tiredly, "What's the diagnostics?"
"Well, according to Magister Thorn, depending on the level of the hex, it could be temporary or permanently," Frank explained, "But in this case, it should be temporary, the affected Marines will return to being huma-, eh, elvish again after a day or two."
"How do we know if they are our men?" Ford asked.
"Well, most of them still had their dog tags hanging over their necks," Frank said, "They were found mostly next or on top of their uniforms and gear, while others had eyewitnesses of something bright green hitting them before they turned."
Blake sighed, he was tired, barely having much sleep and rest, since the attacks from the goblins. "How is their health?"
"Dr. Sharon is looking after them," Frank gave a grin, "It's kinda funny actually, the hexed Marines retain their consciences and intelligence but could only communicate with quacking, chirping and sign language."
"God, this is becoming a zoo," Blake shook his head but he grinned, "Bet you that Sharon is having a great time."
The officers laughed while imagining the short doctor trying to communicate with the animals, just as the door to the Captain's Quarters slid open, and Dr. Sharon herself appeared, "Captain!"
The men quickly stifled their laughter and straighten their faces. Blake gave a cough to hide his amusement and invited Dr. Sharon to have a seat. "What's up? Everything alright?"
"Yes, No," Dr. Sharon waved off Blake's questions and sat down heavily on the chair offered by Frank. "It's like a zoo in my med bay."
"Yes, I heard," Blake gave a small smile at that statement. "How are you coping?"
"Actually it is amazing," Dr. Sharon replied, "Magic that is able to restructure living matter! But that's not really the thing I'm here for." She dug into her oversized doctor coat's pockets and pulled out a large shard of clear crystal.
"Isn't this from the T-Rex boss?" Ford asked as he observed the crystal Dr. Sharon placed on the table.
She nodded and said, "Yup and the test results are out." She pulled out her tablet and transferred the data over to the display screen in the room. "You will be amazed!"
The display screen booted up and showed a schematic of the crystal with colorful graphs and charts. "This has enough power as a micro-fusion core!" Dr. Sharon said excitedly.
"Wait," Frank injected, "Isn't it some kind of mana stone?"
"No, it's not even close to a mana stone or even a Dragonite stone!" Dr. Sharon explained, "It is pure energy, and unlike mana stones which comes in different flavors, this is neutral."
"Neutral?" Blake raised his eyebrows in confusion, "So what are the difference with it and a mana stone?"
"A mana stone comes with different elemental properties which power that particular magic element," Dr. Sharon replied, "While Dragonite stones are like fossil fuels. This here has no affinity to any elements nor is it a fossil fuel."
"It's pure energy condensed into a crystal form," Dr. Sharon said, "It has enough power to say, fire the ship's main guns or the whole Colony for a week."
Blake sat up straight as he heard that, "Are you sure?" The ship's main guns had been dug out but due to power constraints, it was just sitting there doing nothing.
Dr. Sharon nodded, "I passed the data and a sample over to Chief Matt and his engineers to take a look and do tests, they should come out with a detailed report within a week or so."
"Great!" Blake exclaimed, "At least some good news."
"Well, you haven't heard what they found in the Mutated Silver Dragon's lair?" Dr. Sharon grinned.
Blake looked at Ford who shook his head, "No, I did not have the time to review that report yet," Ford said sheepishly. "Too many happenings going on in this 32 hours."
"Well, they found a bag inside," Dr. Sharon and Major Frank grinned.
"A bag of?" Blake and Ford asked together. "Gold? Silver?"
"Hehehe," Dr. Sharon lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "It's a bag of holding!"
"A what?" Blake and Ford looked confused, "I think I heard or read of it somewhere before..."
"Oh come on, you guys are not fun," Dr. Sharon pouted. "A bag of holding has a dimensional space inside, allowing it carry more than what you could think of." She searched her folders in her tablet and brought the dungeon report up onto the main display.
"Huh?" Blake rubbed his forehead, he felt a throttling headache coming along. "So you are saying this bag can hold more than what it appears to be able to?" He pointed at the screen where a picture of a simple looking light brown colored, cloth sling bag was shown.
"Yes, well, we did find a horde of gold, silver, potions, magical scrolls and even some weapons and equipment inside," Dr. Sharon grinned. "Our own tests showed that it could carry roughly 226 kg of items, not exceeding a volume of 1.2 cubic meters and the bag only weighs half a kg. You can't stuff items later than 32 m by 12 cm into the mouth of the bag and to retrieve an item out, you just have to place your hand into the bag and mentally you can 'sense' what is inside."
"Sense what is inside?" Ford raised his eyebrows, "That's quite unscientific for you Doc."
Dr. Sharon rolled her eyes, "You need to try it to understand, anyway, coming here, science gets thrown out of the window."
"So you are saying this bag allows us to carry," Blake did a quick mental calculation, "over 450 times its weight in small items?"
"Yup, it is a bag of holding after all!"
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Urgh down with flu now...
บท 132: Magic Appraisal
The Academy
Magister Thorn hummed a tune from one of the hooman songs he heard over the 'rad-eo' as he drew out a magic circle on the glossy black obsidian table top. He carefully consulted the flayed yellowed tome as he etched arcane runes carefully on the edges of the magic circle. Once he was satisfied, he carefully wrapped the tome up with a piece of soft leather and kept it back into the bookshelf.
"Now, I have completed the magical formation for appraisal of magical items," He declared to the group of students and observers. "Appraisal of magical items usually involves using magic greater than the item its self, but most of us do not have that much magic power in the first place."
"So what we can do is to 'borrow' the power of our surroundings," Thorn gestured towards the magic formation he drew out earlier, "By using the natural energy that is everywhere, we draw three Magic Gathering Formations linking together to power the Magical Appraisal Formation that on the center."
"It is not advisable to use four or more Magic Gathering Formation to link to the Magical Appraisal Formation," Thorn explained, "It becomes redundant as there is only so much magic in our surroundings for the Formations to draw on."
"Sir?" A 13 year old girl raised her hand up in question.
"Yes, child?" Thorn paused with his lecture as he pointed to the student.
"If the magic item level is higher than the power gathered, how will we be able to appraisal it then?" the female student asked.
Thorn smiled, "Well, that's what I will be touching on now. Just by using Magic Gathering Formations is sometimes not enough, so we have to inject our own magic powers into the array to boost the spell. Another method is to use Mana stones to power the magic arrays or even use a Great Magic Gathering Formation."
"There are also areas where the natural concentration of magic is very high, these areas are of course highly coveted by anyone, and kingdoms and nations have designated them as strategic resources," Thorn explained, "That is why most Appraisal Mages charge an arm and a leg for appraisals of high leveled items and also why most of them are high leveled Mages."
The class broke out in Oooos and Ahhhs as they heard it and the students started to excitedly chattered among themselves, talking about becoming rich by being an outstanding Appraisal Mage.
Thorn smiled at the students and clapped his handed together loudly, "Alright, now we should test this Appraisal Array of mine and let's see if it works!" He rubbed his hands together and retrieved a matte black case from behind his desk.
The students quieten down as they saw the matte black case. The smooth sleek lines and mystical materials of the case were clearly made by the hoomans. The students craned their heads as they watched Magister Thorn slowly and carefully pressed several glowing hooman runes on the side of the case before the case popped out.
What appeared in the foam lined case was an ancient looking sword to the elves in a rough scabbard. Thorn carefully drew the sword out and an old fashioned leaf-shaped blade was drawn. The blade of the sword was wide and fat for most of its length but the final third narrowed into a thin tip intended for thrusting. Spiral patterns were etched onto the surface of the blade while the grip was molded together with the blade from a single piece of iron. Spiral patterns and swirls designs could be seen along the grip.
"This was found in the second floor of the Dungeon by the Marines," Thorn explained as he showed off the sword to the class. "I have done a simple Detect Curse spell on the sword and have found nothing, but anyone with a sliver of magic ability will be able to feel the magic power in this sword."
He then re-scabbard the sword into the rough hide leather scabbard and passed the sword to the students for them to feel the presence of magic power in it. The students excitedly observe and examined the sword, passing it to the next person once they have felt the magic inside.
"To roughly gauge the power needed to appraisal a magic item, you first examine the item, and feel its magic," Thorn continued his lecture as the students look at the sword. "Most of you should feel an overwhelming source of shock from the sword as you magical powers are weaker than the weapon."
The students who had examined the sword earlier nodded and massaged their tingling hands and arms, while the student who was pouring his magical sense into the weapon gasped in surprise and nearly dropped the sword. "As of your magical strength now is not strong enough to handle a magical item of its level, that is why you will feel something like lightning traveling through your bodies. This is a way your body is telling you that your powers are not strong enough to handle the sword's magic."
Dr. Sharon sitting at the rear, pursed her lips as she thought of what Thorn had just said. Does this mean that the elves nervous system has a natural defense against magic their body couldn't handle like the pain is telling the body of injuries? She quickly noted down her theory in her tablet.
"Now who can tell me how magic is classed?" Thorn asked the class and pointed to a boy who raised his hand.
"Magic is classed from Level Zero to Ten," The boy responded.
"Good," Thorn nodded, "How about Mages?"
"Eh, from the number of Magic Circles they can form?" The boy replied.
Thorn nodded, "Yes, how we class magic and the level of Mages is similar. From the number of magic circles. A Mage is classed by the number of Magic Circles, he or she is able to manifest. As each magic circle increases the power of the spell by one fold, but overuse of magic will lead to mana exhaustion, which can be fatal in the battlefield or even have long-term health effects! So remember do not overexert your magic power!"
"So for you all to graduate at the end of three years, you have to be capable to cast at least a Level 2 spell, which you will be needed to be able to manifest two magic circles," Thorn demonstrated by having woven a magic circle in form of him. The blue-white circle glows brightly in the classroom, followed by a second circle and ending at a flickering seven magic circles.
"I am barely at the strength of a 7th Circle Mage," Thorn grinned sheepishly. "Maybe someday one of you will overtake me and go beyond the 7th Circle.
The sword had made its way to Dr. Sharon who drew the blade out halfway and she looked at the dull spiral covered surface of the sword. She frowned and remembered the lecture from Thorn's classes, and closed her eyes. She slowed her breath and calmed her heartbeat, trying to visualize and feel the natural flow of the world, but try as she might, she couldn't feel anything.
She opened her eyes and sighed, maybe it is something to do with the biology of the elves and humans, that's is why humans couldn't sense the mana of this world. She had racked her brains many times in the past, following the scrolls and techniques taught by Thorn but there was still no results.
As she was able to return the sword, she thought of something, maybe she should try yoga or tai chi since both of them do have breathing mantras and techniques. No harm trying, she thought as she does some simple yoga exercises and she slowly took a breath and it moved the diaphragm down and up as she inhaled and exhaled, pushing the abdominal organs forward, and then back inward. But after a while, there was still no response and just as she exhaled out in frustration, a tingle of electricity coursed up her fingertips, making her drop the sword in surprise.
The loud clanking of the weapon made the whole class turned their attention on to her, and she half stood in her seat looking at the sword with wide eyes. "Dr. Sharon, are you well?" Thorn asked in concern, looking at the petrified Sharon.
"I.. I.." Dr. Sharon looked down at the sword and up at Thorn and back at the sword, "I-I think I am alright," She suddenly gave a huge grin, "Oh yes, I am alright," Her eyes shone as she bent down to pick up the fallen sword, "Please continue with the class, sorry for disrupting it."
Thorn looked at Sharon for a while, before nodding and taking the sword back and returning to the front of the classroom. "Now we will test if my Appraisal Array works!" He placed the sword onto the center of the magical formation on the obsidian table and placed both his palms on the top of the Magic Gathering Formations.
"Heed my call, the power of this world, and gather upon me," He chanted and injected his magic into the array, "Magic of the world, lend me your strength!"
The magic formations glowed as multi-colored light motes appeared in the class, the colorful light motes float gently towards the magic formations and as they landed the glow of the formation grew brighter. The light started to travel on the lines drawn on the table and traveled all the way to the center of the array and connected with the Appraisal Formation and lighting it up.
The whole class's attention was all focused on the glowing formation on the table and just as suddenly as the formation glowed, the light faded away and Thorn exhaled out a puff of smoke from his mouth and grinned, "It's done!"
He reached out and touched the sword, injecting a wisp of mental energy into the sword and information flowed into his mind. He smiled and said, "Alright, I have appraised this weapon. It is a Wind Elemental Sword, imbued with arcane energies of the air element. This essentially allows its wielder to engage in ranged combat by casting Air-based magic from a distance."
Dr. Sharon's eyes gleamed as she heard that, what did I felt just now? Was it just an illusion? Did I just successfully touch magic? I need to quickly do more experiments!
The school bell rang and Thorn started to keep his things, "Now, the class is over, for homework, read up Chapter 4 on Effects of Magic on Items. Tomorrow we will be talk about it."
The class rose and thanked Thorn before leaving gathering their belongings and leaving the room, leaving behind Dr. Sharon and Thorn. "Did something happened just now?" Thorn asked as he cleared away the marks on the obsidian table.
"I think I felt magic!" Dr. Sharon grinned widely. "But just a tiny weeny bit!"
Thorn stopped his work and looked up in surprise, "That is amazing!" He started pacing as he thought of all possibilities. "I did not expect you hoomans to able to interact with magic since your race is not from this world."
"Yes, I did too," Dr. Sharon picked up the sword on the table. "We humans should not be able to cast magic in this world. But I managed it somehow." She sat down on the front desk and went through her yoga breathing exercises, putting all her focus on the sword. Several minutes later, she opened her eyes and smiled happily, "I felt it again! Just a slight tingle, but its there!"
Thorn smiled excitedly, "Could it be limited to certain persons? Like not every people have the magic aptitude."
"I need to experiment more on this first," Dr. Sharon said. "In the meantime," She waved the sword, "I am gonna borrow this for a while!"
"Sure sure," Thorn nodded, "You will inform me of your research?"
"Of course," as Dr. Sharon left the classroom, "You will be the first to know!"
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