Madi laughed at Orrin’s threat and pointed at his chest. “If you leave me here, I’ll have to pay to get back. Daniel will send you back right away. I’m half-kidding about asking out Zoe but I am really here for you if you want to talk through anything. Daniel is the [Hero] and is an important figure for the fighting forces we’ve assembled to push back the Horde but Orrin… you’re just as important.”

  Orrin scratched at his neck and turned west. He couldn’t see Dey from where they were but his [Teleport] spell would let them step through the miles in a second. “That’s nice of you to say, Madi, but—”

  “But nothing,” she said, stepping around to get in his face again. “Your help will save hundreds if not thousands of people. My father and the other lords know who you are and how hard you’ve been working for us. Everyone has seen how much of the Pass you helped map by yourself and that’s not mentioning your spell orbs. Leanthun respects you more than half of the people in charge. Maeve and Finley consider you a friend. Putting aside the Anabella issue, Odranan leadership is terrified of being on your bad side. Not the [Hero]. You.”

  Madi rested her hand on his shoulder and waited for him to look her in the eyes. “If you have a problem, we all do. Let me help.”

  Orrin’s mind ran through a dozen things he’d been putting off, ignoring, or hadn’t been able to get to lately and sighed. For all the shit she was giving him about his little crush, Madi was being a friend right now. “I don’t know where to start,” he admitted.

  Madi crossed her arms and tilted her head. Orrin recognized the stance and tried to head off the lecture.

  “I’m serious. I have a lot of points to spend. Both Administrator and ability points but there isn’t a guide to help for my class. There isn’t much you could do to help me with that.”

  “You idiot,” she put her fingers on her eyes and rubbed hard. “I just spend days researching possible spells and skills for myself. Did you forget that you gave me a class straight out of myth? Is there anyone better than me that can understand what you are going through? I spent years plotting my course for [Prism Conjurer] and even longer slowly leveling up. My spell list is a mess. I have to level up spells before I can unlock things I’ve lost. I’ve gained spells that I thought weren’t real.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Orrin admitted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t— Ow!”

  Madi knocked on his head hard. “Don’t be stupid. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy starting over from level one. I didn’t expect this huge jump a few days later either but at least I can help during the Horde attack. We aren’t talking about me though. How many ability points do you have?”

  Orrin checked his status screen.

  “I have over seventy points,” Orrin confessed. “I know that seems like a lot but I’m trying to make sure I get a ward for every type of magic.”

  Madi shrugged. “I’m not judging you, O. You don’t have to spend the points until you are ready. When we get back, we can go over the spells you have and any weak points I can find. I doubt I’ll find anything, though. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

  Orrin smiled. “Thanks, Madi. I am sorry that you lost some of your spells, though. Maybe I can figure a way out to help you get them back.”

  “I appreciate the thought but for everything I lost, I gained more.” Madi held her hand up in the air. Her arm’s shadow cast a long black spot along the grass but around the edges, a hue of different colors shimmered. “I’ve been experimenting and my new class is everything I ever hoped it would be. Give me a year or two and I might even give you a hard time in a fight.”

  Orrin tried to see the mana around Madi. He was getting better at isolating the waves around cast spells but other than the addition of his [Time Ward], he’d yet to unlock more spells.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Madi asked as she dropped her hand.

  “Trying to see the mana around your shadow. I can’t place the magic type,” Orrin explained. “It doesn’t matter. We should get back. We’ve been away for long enough.”

  “What do you see?” She raised her hand again and the shadows crawled again.

  Orrin was about to cast [Teleport] but paused at the quiver in her voice. He studied her for a minute and looked back down at her shadow. “There is light mana there for sure but it moves and seems to be changing into… something I can’t figure out. There’s something else there too but I can’t see it fully.”

  Madi bit her lip and then stepped closer. “Don’t tell anyone. I trust you but nobody else can know. I think I can use shadow magic now. I’ve always been able to curve light into different frequencies but it only affected the strength of the spell a little either way. But now... If I hit the right spot… I can’t explain it yet but I think I can cast different magics. I tried pushing it all the way and the light twisted in a weird way. I splashed a training dummy with light and it was covered in black darkness.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “That sounds powerful. Good for you,” Orrin said, missing the fear in her voice. “I wonder if you could cast that on someone and make them blind.”

  “No, Orrin. Shadow magic is the opposite of light magic. I shouldn’t be able to cast it. If I force a bit of shadow through my spells, I can twist it around and do weird things. My father doesn’t own any shadow magic books. What if he thinks less of me for this?”

  Orrin cast [Calm Mind] on Madi. She stopped hyperventilating and smiled weakly.

  “Thank you.”

  Orrin hesitantly reached out and grabbed Madi’s hand. Their Guild rings clinked together and he noticed a dainty silver ring on her hand as well. “I won’t tell anyone but this is not a bad thing. I’ll find some books when I have a minute and we can work on it.”

  She squeezed his hand back. “I appreciate that.”

  “We should get back,” Orrin said, noticing how close they were. He dropped her hand and shuffled away.

  Madi chuckled and they disappeared from Odrana.

  Orrin unloaded the supplies in the Catanzano’s receiving foyer and Madi ordered people around storing some and moving more to the appropriate parties. Orrin sat in the corner of the room, drinking his second cup of coffee of the day. The entire trip to Odrana wasted an hour and they needed to get back soon.

  Orrin toyed with his status screen and read the same box again. After he leveled all four of his increase stat spells to ten thousand experience, he received a cryptic upgrade option.

  Some of Orrin’s spells earned experience for every point of mana he spent casting the same spell. When Orrin spent the first thousand points of mana on [Increase Will], it moved from level one to level two. However, when his stat-increasing spells reached level three, they plateaued with no additional level increase. Instead, he’d received a one-of-four notification that grew with the completion of the four stats: intelligence, will, dexterity, and strength.

  He’d never received the option to upgrade something without a complete description of what he was buying. Now he had a dilemma.

  Even if I spend fifty points, I’ll have fifty-seven points left. That is more than enough to buy anything I might need on the fly. Madi’s right. I should knock out these things one at a time. My increase stat buffs are my most powerful spells. What if this gives me a way to cast something like [Utility Ward] but without the need to be in my party?

  Orrin hovered over the purchase button.

  “Screw it.”

  “Huh?” Orrin poked the screen, hoping it would give more information. “That’s not the same as the other ones.”

  [Increase Will] increased a target’s Will by one for five minutes with a base cost of five mana points. It said nothing about without return. While it was awesome to find a way to increase his health and potentially the health of everyone around him, Orrin was concerned with the changed wording of this spell.

  “Variable, I understand,” he muttered to himself. “I can spend 50 MP and get a plus five constitution but I’ve never seen without return.”

  He watched Madi giving the last orders about the boxes of plants needed to brew more [Purify] potions.

  Might as well. Orrin cast the spell on himself using the minimum mana cost of ten.

  His constitution went up four, which grew his health points an additional forty as well. This would give him even more shield options for himself and his friends. He hadn’t cast [Utility Ward] this morning and his buffs had worn off while waiting around. If I increase my will and intelligence to a hundred, I can increase my constitution by ten for a single mana point. That is crazy!

  Orrin stood to tell Madi that he’d gone for it. It had worked out. He took two steps and frowned. He waited and watched.

  “Fuck.”

  “Orrin?” Madi swept across the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “I bought a new spell. Have you ever heard of a spell that costs mana variable without return?” Orrin asked, hoping he was wrong.

  “I… I don’t think so. What spell?” Madi waved a courier away.

  “[Increase Constitution],” he answered, ignoring her gasp. “The problem though… once I cast it, I don’t get my mana back.”

  The notification in his status that showed his mana pool was blinking with an exclamation point. It was stuck at four-hundred and ninety.

  “Turn it off,” Madi suggested. “That should fix it.”

  Orrin poked around and sighed. “I can’t turn it off.”

  Madi pursed her lips in thought. “Maybe it’ll wear off? If not in a few minutes, then after you sleep. That’s how your other spell works, right?”

  A swell of hope filled his chest. “Damn, that’s probably it. I was terrified for a minute.”

  The courier hopped from foot to foot behind Madi. She turned and rolled her wrist at him.

  “Lady Catanzano, we’ve received word. The Horde has set camp half a mile from the Outer Wall. Your father and the [Hero] request your presence,” he said. “Do you have a response message?”

  Madi slowly shook her head and the young man didn’t wait around. As he left, Madi turned back to Orrin. “You mentioned once that a higher constitution would affect all the other stats, right?”

  Orrin stood straight in pride. “You listened.”

  “Right?”

  “In theory, yes. I know that it makes it harder to heal for sure. I think a high con stat would make a person harder to do damage to with spells.”

  “What about handling the stress of higher-powered spells?”

  Orrin narrowed his eyes. “It should… why?”

  Madi barely looked at him as she grabbed his arm and dragged him from the house. “Get us to the front. You can buff my constitution so I can cast [Sunbeam] for longer than a few seconds. If the Horde pushes in, I want to cast it with everything I’ve got.”

  Link

  Link

  Link

  Patreon - You can join as a free member for random updates/thoughts/silliness. There are a few tiers that get you anywhere from 20+ to 30+ chapters from what's on Royalroad.

  Discord - (New Forever Link) Come say Hi. First news goes here. Or my random thoughts.

  Facebook