Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Setting Moon, Day 82 –

Terry was ascending from the second local dungeon. By now, he had cleared the two dungeons repeatedly and it was beginning to feel like routine work. He knew the dungeon creatures and different floors, both from his initial research and from actual experience.

Honestly, those dungeons had offered few surprises to begin with. His mana touch scouting and mana detection field made it quite difficult for the dungeons to catch him off-guard.

Naturally, that did not mean the dungeons stopped trying.

Terry barely batted an eye when he sensed that the path he had taken down was now blocked. He did not miss a step to simply follow the new opening that led to another path up. He could already feel what was waiting for him in the next room.

More loot. Yay. Terry’s thoughts rang with a flat tone. He did not manage to muster much excitement anymore.

Before stepping over the threshold, he circulated a burst technique and added a torrent of mana to the divine hammer inscriptions at his forearms. He madly dashed into the room and began punching the air. Translucent golden hammers appeared with each punch and they pelted the inscribed earthen hands that were holding magic weapons.

Terry managed to knock a flaming sword out of the earthen giant’s upper hands. Without breaking stride – or his divine hammer use – he was already retrieving the sword with his bidirectional attraction glove and placed it inside his dimensional storage.

Snatching one weapon was nice, but Terry’s primary concern were the two shields the construct carried with its lower arms. It was not the first time that he was fighting one of those upgraded giants. They had a nasty habit of trying to use the two shields to squish the person in front of them. The shields had a mid-range elemental blast attack. However, the most annoying thing about the shields was that they were magic shields.

The earthen giant moved the shields to block Terry from being able to directly get to its core. Unfortunately, the mana concentration in the shields was too high and he had to buy some more time to overpower the foreign-naturalized mana and transfix them.

Terry continued throwing out divine hammers that could match his tertium slabs with their area. Not even the visible progress in his inscription mastery was managing to get through his bad mood.

He summoned a divine barrier to block the incoming keen axe at its handle. He could see that the axe would be easier to transfix than the shields based on its mana density, but he considered it a waste of time. The true obstacle to overcome were the construct’s shields.

Fortunately, the shields were still physical objects and after flicking a few well-timed throwing needles and spells, the shields were trapped in place. If Terry was unable to quickly transfix the object itself, he could still box it in with his own immovable objects.

While Terry used the opening and dashed towards the construct’s chest, he felt the impulse to simply pull the king spear from his back and pierce the mana core. It would be the fastest way to end this fight, but it would damage the core.

Damage the core.

What good was a core in perfect condition when he had no place to sell it?

Terry suppressed the impulse and rapidly transfixed first some additional tertium slabs as cover and then went to work with his keen daggers. He knew the exact location of the core and his keen daggers danced furiously to carve the path. Before the giant could lash out with its last remaining weapon, Terry was already holding the pristine core in his hands.

What good is any of this if I can’t sell it?

Terry scowled while putting the construct’s core into his storage. He suppressed his curses and collected both the magic weapons as well as the inscription base metal.

The local dungeons had stopped being a good exercise for him. They had stopped being a good source of income. It felt like a routine. Like a pointless routine.

Routine was how Terry had often persevered against his troubles.

The routine of looking for new spells to try, even while every single spell he tried would fail. The routine of training his mana foundation even if there would never be another spell to use it with.

The routine of killing ghouls even when every method appeared unsatisfactory. The routine of running from death even when all it promised was more running and more death.

Routine.

Terry had stopped believing that routine would get him out of his current situation. The portal fee had increased again. For the first time since his grind for money had started, he had fallen behind. There was no sign of betterment in sight.

When Terry had arrived in the Freedom Cooperative, he had thought the huge price and even the price increases did not matter. He was capable and he was diligent. If they racked up the prices, he would just have to work harder and smarter to get ahead.

Terry now realized that he had been naive. There was no getting ahead for him anymore. Not to the point of ever purchasing the use of the portal.

He knew that, compared to the manaless locals, he was rich. But he did not care about being rich by their standards. He did not care about being rich at all. He just wanted to get home to Arcana. His supposed richness could not buy him the one thing that mattered. All the things he could buy were things he did not really want.

Pointless.

Terry had considered simply bartering with the portal owners by handing over all of his collected dungeon loot. Even though that was apparently an option, that option required a ratified appraisal. Of course, the only licensed appraisers were the traders, who refused to service Terry and that just added insult to injury.

Terry was considered wealthy by manaless standards. By now, his storage items were a treasure trove of wealth looted from the dungeon. Unfortunately, all that wealth was meaningless if he couldn’t liquidate it. With no way to turn the wealth into money or the real object of his desire – the usage of the transport portal – it all felt so pointless.

At some point, Terry had dived into the dungeon for hope. Hope that he would eventually be able to sell the items he collected.

Later, Terry had dived out of habit. It was part of his routine.

Now, Terry mostly dived out of spite. Collecting every single core and trace of valuable items. Using even the last second of his allocated time slot to make sure the dungeon had as little time to recover as possible before the next slot would start. Looking into the eyes of the Dungeon Cooperative delver that would follow him only to discover a very diminished set of rewards. All of it gave him a sort of petty pleasure that made him continue delving.

When Terry left the dungeon, he already expected to see the pair of loathsome elven women. He glowered at them and insisted: “I’m not selling my slot.”

The one thing that Terry had going for him was that he had reserved the time slot for his allotted dungeon quota long in advance. He preferred early shifts and he had naturally reserved the first dive on all those days. Even if the dungeon cooperative figured out that Terry was responsible for the diminished profitability of subsequent delves, there was not much they could do about it.

The quota system might have been put in place by Dungeon Cooperative lobbying, but that did not mean they could easily adjust it. Ostensibly, the Guild was in charge. The Dungeon Cooperative had to lobby to get the system changed and evidently, lobbying was a slower process and took time to catch up with Terry’s pettiness.

“You made that very clear last time,” said the blonde elf from the Dungeon Cooperative.

“No, we are here to offer you a place in the cooperative,” said the brunette elf with an amicable smile.

A new approach then?

Terry raised an eyebrow. He really could not stand those two elves. Friendly smiles that only aimed to mask their true thoughts and motives. He did not feel like being chatty with such people and went straight to the point. “Terms?”

For the briefest moment, Terry could see irritation on the elven faces, but they quickly recomposed themselves and showed nothing but a smile again.

“If you join as a full member, you get to keep forty percent of the sales,” said the blonde elf.

Did they think I wouldn’t notice?

Terry clicked his tongue and shook his head. They had thrown out the same number as last time but flipped the logic. Last time it had been a forty percent fee that went to the cooperative. This time, it was a 40% cut for himself, which meant a sixty percent fee for the cooperative.

That did not even touch on the fact that being a full member also meant that they received the right to change his schedule or to pair him with other delvers that may or may not be incompetent money suckers with whom to split the sales further.

The elven women noted Terry’s expression and the brunette quickly added in an apologetic voice. “Unfortunately, we cannot offer the same terms as last time. We have rules in place to avoid sending the wrong signal to everyone. ”

The right signal appears to be: ‘join us or else.’ Join us fast or you’ll be even worse off.

Terry rolled his eyes and barely suppressed a snide remark. He was getting sick of seeing their smiley masks and walked past them.

“There is also the option of performing a one-time payment to earn back the first-time offer privilege terms.” The brunette elf hurriedly added.

Terry paused without turning around to look at the two.

“Naturally, the amount would have to be calculated based on the number of your previous unsanctioned dives outside the cooperative,” added the blonde elf.

Terry growled and started walking again.

Just another ‘or else.’

That kind of payment might even put him into debt, especially with his current money problem. The longer he refused and continued diving on his own, the worse it would get.

So be it.

The more Terry learned about the Dungeon Cooperative and the more he dealt with them, the less he felt like joining them. The mere thought of submitting to them made his blood boil.

At this point, Terry would rather try his luck on the nightly illicit markets that he had avoided so far. He was not even sure why he had avoided them exactly.

He had technically skirted the law both in Tiv and in Thanatos. Even in the Freedom Cooperative he had already gotten into trouble with the guards and he had not lost any sleep over it.

Nevertheless, the illicit market just seemed different to Terry. Different, because Terry could sense the kind of people hanging around there. The street robber in a suit was just one of the people familiar to him.

He was not worried about the possible danger. He couldn’t sense anything he would have to truly worry about.

No, it was something else.

Terry simply didn’t like the idea of placing himself on the same level as those criminals. Mingling with them in their establishments seemed like accepting them, or like accepting himself as part of them. He did not like that thought at all.

Unfortunately, he might not have any other options left.

Deep down, Terry wasn’t even sure if the illicit markets were really an option. He assumed that there would be horrendous fees on sales as well. Fees that he could not afford if he wanted to make headway towards the portal use.

A part of him already wondered if leaving the city and trying his luck sidestepping the forbidden zone with its volcanic thunder might be the better option after all. If he could hold out against the blood-thirsty martial sects long enough to spit out a proposal of barter or bribe some of them with all the dungeon loot he had no use for, perhaps…

He had only stayed in the city because he had believed it was the faster way to get home. Now that his belief had been shaken, he might have to reconsider his options outside the city. One way or the other, he was just passing through.

However, that was a consideration for later. Terry first had to uphold his promise of acting as Daisy’s bodyguard at the masquerade ball that crowned the city’s big celebration. He was not looking forward to that at all.

Just imagining being surrounded by people in masks made Terry’s skin crawl.

During his return trip to the city, he could hear the brass instruments of yet another celebratory marching band parading the streets. The big festivities had lifted the overall mood in the city, much in contrast to Terry’s own mood that had never been worse ever since his arrival.

***

“Are you really going like this?” Daisy pouted at Terry with more than a bit of disappointment. She herself was wearing an elegant dress of silver and violet. Her face was hidden by a mask of silver with black feathers.

“Definitely.” Terry was wearing his regular equipment with all its battle marks and ill-matched colors. Although he had extended the shadow fabric from his magic brooch to cover most of it as a cloak, he knew that he was not going to blend in.

Good.

He didn’t want to blend in. From what Jasmine had said, plenty of representatives from the influential cooperatives would be there. From everything Terry had experienced in the city, he suspected he would not enjoy their company. The other half of the guests was made up of politicians, which did not inspire much hope in Terry either.

No.

Terry did not want to mingle. He wanted to follow the lead of his aunt Sigille and his cousin Matteo. He made sure that the shadow fabric did not cover the throwing needles at his legs. He wanted to display visible weapons. He even placed the uncloaked king spear at his back.

Tonight, he aimed to seem as bad a company as possible. He was in no mood to attract any flies. He just wanted to get the evening over with and ensure that Daisy got home safe. A last promise to fulfill before he might leave this dead end city forever.

After they were out of the secret tunnel, Terry would also drop his own mana cloaking and prevent his mana from feeding the cloaking necklace.

He did not want to mingle.

He did not want to sniff around.

He did not want to pick any fights or sides.

He did not want to fix whatever was going wrong with the city.

All Terry hoped for was to convey that it was a bad idea to mess with Daisy and, by extension, with him. Have a quiet – if mildly annoying – evening and return home. First to his temporary home at the inn, then to his real home in Arcana.

“Why do we have to take this tunnel again?” asked Terry. The secret tunnel forced them into a detour compared to directly leaving through the Flower House’s main entrance. It was only ten minutes or so, but he was simply not used to wasting time in this manner. It seemed pointless.

“Alexander asked us to,” replied Daisy faintly. There was a slight pause and then she spoke up with more excitement. “What kind of music do you think they’ll play?”

Terry did not have to see her face to imagine that her eyes were sparkling. He had heard that tone of voice before during the story time hours with Brandon. He could not understand her excitement, but did not want to spoil her mood either.

Unfortunately, his honest face had evidently already betrayed his lack of excitement. When she looked at him, he thought to read a slight trace of disappointment in her eyes yet again.

Terry wondered if he should have worn a mask after all. Not for himself, but perhaps to avoid ruining the mood for everyone whenever his honest face leaked his real thoughts about the whole masquerade idea. However, even now, he could not bring himself to take the idea seriously.

Perhaps it was more than just the bad experiences with martialists and the ambivalent feelings he still harbored for his misleading truths in Thanatos. Perhaps it was just him projecting the figurative act of lying onto the literal masks as symbols. Terry would not be able to explain all the reasons for his resentment. He just knew that he found the whole masking up idea loathsome.

“Air is clear,” declared Terry. No one was outside the secret exit.

Daisy sent him a quick glance and smiled underneath her mask. She knew that Terry had sometimes performed scouting missions without ever leaving the Flower House. She never really learned about how mana sight worked, but she understood from her talks with Lavender and Jasmine that Terry’s display of scouting abilities were beyond impressive.

They left the tunnel unseen and wandered into the streets of festivities. Once again, Terry was slightly annoyed at having to take a detour around another block before finally choosing a path that directly led to the mana signature of Alexander.

Alexander’s outfit included a mask decorated with gemstones and peacock feathers as well as a tabard to match the colors of Daisy’s dress. The tabard prominently features the crest of the Freedom Cooperative.

Terry suppressed a sigh and took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for the rest of the annoying evening.

On the other side, Alexander was staring breathlessly. Much to Daisy’s disappointment, he was staring at Terry.

Eventually, Alexander recomposed himself. He took Daisy’s hand to kiss it and complimented her dress. Then he glanced at Terry and chuckled: “With your mana on display like that, you might scare the waiters. Try not to blame them if they spill a drink on you.”

Terry only shrugged.

“When I heard that you were acting as my sweet-D’s bodyguard, I had hoped you would dress up for the occasion,” complained Alexander.

Terry furrowed his brow. He was not sure what he had just heard. It sounded like sweetie but with a d instead of a t sound at the end.

‘D’?

Once among the dungeon scavengers, Terry had met a human woman called ‘Dee’. Terry believed that Dee would probably have laughed her ass off at Alexander’s outfit. Either that or she would have tried to scam some money out of him in a card game. The dwarven man Bigsby would probably join to help her and then lose unintentionally.

Of course, Terry realized that it was just a nickname for Daisy. It might have been intended as a sign of affection, but to Terry it sounded off.

Anyway…

“I asked and it’s not mandatory,” replied Terry dismissively.

“Not unless you want to seem like anything but a boor, my friend.” Alexander rolled his eyes.

Terry ignored the jab and asked: “Where’s your bodyguard?”

“Mine?” Alexander chortled. “I’m not so frail, and the largest faction among the attendees will be our Knights of Labor. The permission for bodyguards is mostly for the representatives from the economic cooperatives.”

The rest of the walk to the palace, Terry remained quiet. He ignored the flirty chit-chat between Alexander and Daisy. He focused on scouting ahead.

Along the way, they encountered a familiar old woman handing out pamphlets.

When Tamsin spotted the three, she appeared conflicted about whom to show more disdain for – Alexander or Terry. “Big surprise. Who but a fool would hire a foreigner as a bodyguard? As usual, there is not the slightest trace of foresight from the rebel scum! I’ve seen that man check out the portal fees every week at least! That is whom you want to rely on for protection? A man that can’t wait to get away?”

First she blames me for coming here. Now she blames me for wanting to leave.

Terry ignored the old grouch and continued walking. He was just passing through.

Alexander did not take the bait either. He whispered to Daisy. “The whole city is celebrating and here she is vomiting toxicity like every other day. It would be sad if it wasn’t so annoying.”

They continued until the palace where Alexander informed the palace guards that Daisy was his date and that Terry was her bodyguard. Alexander led them all towards the second floor and into the large ballroom that was crowned with a glittering chandelier.

Terry double-checked the room and building with his mana touch while his eyes drifted over the available snacks. He ignored the judging stares while he picked up a handful of food even though no one else had touched their plates yet. Afterwards, Terry immediately walked out of the dance hall and onto the large balcony to get some fresh air and avoid mingling.

***

“Found you!” Daisy skipped over to Terry who was leaning on the railing of the balcony.

“Am I hard to find?” Terry raised an eyebrow. Throughout the evening, there had been no lack of people pointing or whispering. Once there had even been a shriek when a couple exited the dance hall and joined the balcony only for Terry to enter the range of the woman’s mana sight.

Terry pretended not to notice. He did not want to be noticed either, but he did not think that he was hard to find. He had barely moved throughout the whole night.

“I don’t have mana sight,” offered Daisy as her explanation. She lifted her masked face and spoke in a slightly changed tone. “Care for dance, mister?”

“‘Mister’?” Terry’s eyebrow that had barely returned to its resting position jumped up again.

“Yes, I’m talking to you. Are you here often?” Daisy spoke playfully.

Is she drunk?

Terry knew she wasn’t drunk. He had monitored her movements at all times with his mana touch and she had barely touched the alcoholic beverages. It was a relief, but caused a lack of explanation for her current act.

I don’t get this game and I’m not sure I want to play it.

Terry replied honestly and curtly. “No.”

“Would you care for a dance?” Daisy leaned slightly forward and offered her hand to Terry.

“I don’t dance. I think Alexander would be a better dancing partner.” Terry knew that the man was currently chatting with some of the other guests, but that would not last long. Alexander had already accompanied Daisy for many dances and it never took long for the man to seek her out and offer another invitation.

Daisy lowered her head slightly, but she did not leave. “It’s okay. We can just talk.”

“Happily, but do you mind taking off the mask?” asked Terry in a slightly apologetic tone. He did not mind chatting with Daisy, but he really did not like looking at a mask when speaking to someone. Even if his resentment for the harmless object was irrational, it just irked him and asking didn’t hurt.

Or so Terry thought.

However, he noticed that Daisy seemed to deflate slightly when removing her mask. Even though she had proposed to talk, she just moved next to Terry and also leaned on the railing in silence.

They both looked in opposite directions. While Terry was looking away from the dancing and towards the city landscape and star-filled horizon, Daisy was looking at the couples that danced and mingled happily.

Eventually, Terry realized that he had never seen Daisy be that quiet for that long. Before he could think of a topic to bring up, he could already sense Alexander rushing over. Terry glanced at Daisy with a smile and said: “I think you’re going to get your dance now.”

Daisy first looked at him with confused hesitation before she noticed Alexander coming over. She lowered her head and was about to say something when Alexander interrupted her.

“What are you doing?” Alexander rushed closer. He lifted Daisy’s mask and pressed it towards her. “Quick!” He cleared his throat and added in a calmer voice. “This is a masquerade ball after all.” He leaned closer and smiled charmingly. “I wanted to invite my sweet-D to another dance.” He held out a hand. “My heart quivered when my eyes couldn’t find you. I can’t bear to be away from you.”

Daisy’s mouth opened without saying anything. Her eyes darted from Alexander, to the mask in her hands, to Terry and the mostly empty balcony, and finally to the cheerful laughs and dancing in the ballroom. She closed her eyes and put on her mask. She followed Alexander for another dance.

Terry glanced after the two and inwardly shrugged. He could not see the appeal in the dance and he could understand the desire for masks even less.

***

The night was getting late and Terry was looking forward to the end of this whole masquerade ball. Overall, it had been like he had hoped for: quiet and uneventful.

Terry smiled lopsidedly when he saw some of the palace guards yawn. Evidently, the folks partying had more stamina than the guards that were supposed to protect them.

That was when Terry’s mana detection field picked up something that caught his attention. It was small. Only the size of a bird. Nothing unusual. With such a large balcony opening, the occasional misguided pigeon or swallow was to be expected.

However, Terry felt mana in that area. He felt mana, but he did not see it. That indicated a perfect mana cloaking. Cloaking was not unusual at this party of various important people, but the combination of the size and the cloaking was indeed unusual.

Terry turned around to look at the ballroom. He did not see anything in the location from where he was feeling the mana. He reshaped his mana bubble to move more mana towards the location and get a better impression of the shape and its aspects.

While Terry was gathering more information, he could sense more of such areas appearing. They were not stationary. They moved and then stayed in one location.

They don’t act like animals. Perhaps a change of guards? Night shift? Some bodyguards that only appear now?

Terry did not flinch when sensing pronounced blood and death aspects. Among the locals that dabbled with necromancy and death whispering, such aspects were not uncommon.

Terry might have ignored the invisible shapes that matched bats. He had sensed vampires in the city before and there was more than one merchant that hired them as night guards.

However, when Terry’s mana sight suddenly flipped to purple, he began moving his hand to his king spear.

In the purple layer of his mana sight, Terry saw something spreading from the invisible vampiric bats. It spread towards the purple of the folks inside the hall. Including the person he had promised to protect.

Terry stepped into the hall while keeping his senses on the hidden vampires at the ceiling.

***