Chapter 19

  Option Three

  “Option three?” Madame Bloom asks.

  “Yes, Option three. You take me on as your Apprentice. I begin learning your class, transferring my two current Life affinity Skills to this class that will improve the synergy. I even begin learning the two specialized Mana Skills you are required to teach me, which will all synergize into this new class. I can learn any Skills I want in my Free Skill slots, so long as they are not affiliated with Life magic.” I state, highlighting all of option two’s characteristics. Then after for a moment, I add “but—”

  “But?” Madame Bloom asks, intrigued to this point.

  “You still hire the trainers who will help me learn Improvised Weapons and Music Resonance faster. Freeing up even more Free slots, that I can still use to learn the Skills that I will want.” I state my amendment to Option two, which keeps everything the same, but then adds in the key selling point for option one for me.

  Madame Bloom pauses, seeing her hesitate I press my advantage.

  “Consider this a needed bonus, considering the assassination attempt already conducted from just being chosen for such a position.” All this time, I can feel my Strategy* Skill increasing from just trying to negotiate better terms.

  “Very well Apprentice, let me draw up the new binding contract so that we can begin this process.” Madame Bloom responded.

  At that point, Madame bloom got up and went out to the hallway. Where once again I could see the same coachmen from the other day out standing guard outside the door.

  Almost as if she had been expecting this outcome the entire time. Then again, she had been willing to make a lot of concessions to me over this time. I almost wonder if I could have asked for more, but ultimately decide that this is for the best.

  It only takes Madame Bloom a few minutes to come up with not only our original magic contract, but a document that allows for the amendment of such a binding contract. Again, I don’t understand this world, but it does seem that magic has been fully bureaucratized. Magic contracts, magic amendments to magic contracts. I guess this makes sense, for things happen, objectives change over time. Still, to see it done so clinically.

  The best part, no need for a notary, as the magical system that binds us all acts as the apparent notary.

  “Here is your new contract, complete with the stipulations you requested,” Madame Bloom states, while wearing a pair of large circular glasses that somehow make her appear cutely intelligent the way one might expect a studying elf to appear. Seeing her in such a state, I almost want to let out an awe, but realize that might be part of her ploy. Though at this point, I am less concerned with Madame Bloom being duplicative, and more worried about dealing with the other members of the Bloom household. Particularly after it is revealed that I was chosen specifically by Madame Bloom, due to her family having their own shortcomings. I can almost imagine the constipated look on Ithica Bloom’s face now.

  With Ithica’s discontent as additional motivation, I focus on the contract, and I see the major selling points. I also see that the part detailing my original obligation has been changed.

  With that, I see that it is final, like signing my life away. Which is realistically what I am doing. I am signing away my autonomy for a Class.

  No doubt Madame Bloom might come up with a bigger and shinier contract in the future to further tie me to the Bloom household, but this is enough for now. This all but guarantees I will be working with Madame Bloom, or Master, for the next half a decade at the very least.

  I feel a wave of panic hit me, then after a second I calm myself and realize this is everything I could ask for at the moment. I am still subject to rules of the Bloom household for the next two years regardless. Well, unless I got kicked out of the family, but that is a likely death sentence depending on what caused me to get kicked out. No, this is for the best. At least, that’s what I tell myself as I take the magical pen.

  Then I begin initialing by each of the line items, even noting the change in expectations from cleaning Bloom Park to effectively doing whatever Madame Bloom wishes for an indefinite amount of time.

  Exhaling, I focus my intent on each line. Then once I get to the bottom I sign my full new system recognized name with a flourish.

  Catarine Nadezhda Bloom

  With that one flourish, I feel the world pause, as a wave of magic flows from the parchment and all but shackles itself to me.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Madame Bloom, I mean Master, does the same forever sealing the contract between the two of us and linking our fates together.

  ***

  (Anastasia Bloom)

  My first apprentice in nearly a two centuries, Anastasia thought to herself.

  There was a time when even considering non-Bloom members as her apprentice would have caused outrage. But that was before everything. That was before the infiltrators enacted their grand schemes. Schemes that even now Anastasia had to work diligently to remove.

  A poison pill.

  That’s what the Necrotins offered. For there is a certain degradation of magic that comes when only the same strands of Magic wielders are able to reproduce, eventually their lineages produce duds. That is people who cannot even touch the source that all magic derives from.

  Their family had been on the decline, and at that moment, when the Necrotins came with their plan, it sparked a rebirth of the lineage. Suddenly long dormant strains of the family became alive once more with the ability to access the source. Which at the time was a blessing. Then when those once dormant family strains began coming alive and once again adding to the main family’s magical tree and heritage, it was all a blessing.

  Problems were not noticed until much later.

  The primary concern was the lack of Life mastery. But at the time going from nothing to anything was considered a win. The other key concern was that the Bloom Bloodline, that is the original Bloodline heritage got lost or mutated as time went on. Forcing the family to forever stray away from the powers that had made their family great.

  Worst of all, somewhere along the way, the point of pride of the Bloom household, or at least a part that Anastasia saw as a point of pride, Bloom Park was condemned.

  Pride is a sin, Anastasia is well aware of its cost. Yet, despite knowing its seductive ways, she could not help but feel that her family’s loss of Bloom Park was an even worse act to suffer from.

  As part of her self-appointed penance for her arrogance, for not seeing the malicious machinations of the Necrotins, Anastasia made it a habit of forcing her drivers to drive past Bloom Park each time they were out. That way, she could go and see the way rot and decay had taken away everything they once stood for.

  For a moment, it was all too much.

  In her mind she had identified a number of troubled bloodlines. Johny Bloom was chief among the issues, as he was too powerful to remove outright, but too volatile to keep. Worse, his high affinities in Death and Spirit magics made him yet another festering cancer waiting to further destroy house Bloom.

  Then, just when things seemed like they were at their lowest, she saw her.

  A pale mousey fully awakened monster of house DiVoratore. Just seeing her caused rage to build up within Anastasia, everything about her spoke to what was wrong with the world. Her purple soul sighted eyes, her awakened shock white hair, and that annoying purple blazer that all but screamed she was a valued member of the DiVoratore family.

  “Stop the cab!” Anastasia called out as she quickly left the cab and knew that today she would do something to fix her fate. To fix the state of house Bloom.

  While she couldn’t fix everything that was wrong with the house, she could start here. She could start with her.

  Moving quickly, Anastasia didn’t even notice the moment she used Life infused Enhancement magic on her body to speed up and catch up to the perpetrator. She didn’t notice the way she easily jumped and scaled the fence and began quietly stalking her prey. This time she was going to catch a DiVoratore in the very act of desecrating her park.

  That was her goal. That was the soul reason she left, to take one fully awakened DiVoratore scum from being allowed to move about freely. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be a start. While she would likely get out within forty-eight hours, it would be forty-eight hours that the DiVoratore knew they had erred. An example written up in the court of laws for the rest of the world to see, and a solid case that this was not the first time their family had done so, just the most recent.

  Yet, not everything is as rotten as it seems.

  When she jumped the fence, she saw the girl doing something impossible. She removed the trash.

  That’s right, the girl, clearly wearing the colors of biggest nemesis to their house was doing the exact opposite of what their house traditionally did. Rather than defiling the world around her, she was making it better.

  Seeing that, Anastasia then used her Legendary Analysis skill, Soul Analyze. Yes, a skill that required access to be able to slot at least one Spirit Magic aligned Skill. Ironic, considering that she was now the largest crusader on trying to purge Spirit Aligned casters from the Bloom family. Here she was a hypocrite and a heretic all in one, using a heretic Skill to see the nature of this girl.

  And what she saw amazed her.

  A personalized Skill that had never been heard of. Granted it was a Unique Skill so it not being heard of was not entirely unexpected. However, with most Unique skills there are variants, or roots to other known Kills. Just as Necrotic Fireball is a variation of the old Fireball Skill and was originally considered Unique before the Necrotins made it part of their lineage. It still showed the root and the variation.

  This skill however was at one moment completely undefined and yet, seemed to clearly state its intended purpose.

  A Unique Skill with that many question marks, enough for the ten thousand’s place to be filled showed it had room to grow. The fact that she also used it so freely showed that her Mana pool was exceptional.

  Then she saw the part that made her realize, she would do everything she could to get this DiVoratore to join her clan.

  Her potential was at the very edge of the high mediocre range. Had she been able to gain one more Skill slot, she would be classified as a High Magical Potential. From there, the readings didn’t seem to make much sense until you realized what her Personal and Clan specific Skills required. Thanks to her being tapped out on the two DiVoratore bloodline Skills, her full potential as a Spirit master was gone. Meaning at most she would be a disappointment to the biased grand elder of the DiVoratore family. Another key point of interest was that her Trash Skill had to be an Earth aligned magical Skill, otherwise it too should be at seven, the maximum natural rating for Skill slots with the others.

  After seeing her true potential laid bare like that, Anastasia knew she would be miserable in the DiVoratore household. A fact that was quickly proven in the next few days when it was noted that she had to fend for food on her own at Ronaldo’s Pastries, where she apparently had a standing order to get rid of twenty cubic inches of waste a day. Only recently had she begun expanding, showing that she is a hard worker and industrious.

  Truth be told, Anastasia did not know when she realized that Catarine DiVoratore would be her next Apprentice. She just came to that realization organically. The final testament of why she would be the next and likely final Apprentice of hers was that she never asked or demanded everything. With her, she felt she had to earn rewards.

  What type of life had she led as an awakened noble of such a prestigious house to have such a mindset. Then only after having that thought, did Anastasia realize how foolish that question truly was, for she already knew. She had a tough life that she had to claw and scrape her way out of, and still never buckled or bent. Only making her even more endearing of a Class candidate. A Class that Anastasia had almost expected would die off with her. Forever lost to the annals of the Bloom’s once lustrous history.

  These thoughts and more flashed through Anastasia’s mind as she thought back to how she was here, signing a binding magical contract. A contract that would forever link her fate, and the fate of this throwback to the original DiVoratore predecessors, together.

  “One more question,” Catarine asked, now that the contract was finally sealed. Hearing her inquisitive mind come up with the most delicious of questions was always intriguing.

  “Go on?” Anastasia beckoned, ready to see what she would ask next. A barely concealed smile hanging from her lips as she was most excited by this part of her personality.

  “What exactly is the name of this Class that I will be learning?” Catarine asked.

  Chuckle.

  As always, this new Apprentice never failed to amuse her with her insights.

  “Shouldn’t you have asked this before you signed the contract?” Anastasia pressed.

  The girl just shrugged, her newly healed and freshly pigmented skin shrugging easily. Other than the noted burn marks in her clothes, nothing about her appearance would indicate that she was on deaths door not hours ago. Not that even a Necrotic Assassin could kill her, apparently, and that was before she gained the self-learned healing skill.

  “I figured I’d wait until I began learning it from you, but then I realized maybe knowing the name would help with the discovery process,” the girl stated, having far more insight than anyone her age generally had about such conventions.

  “I tell you what. I will tell you the rating of my class that I am offering you,” Anastasia offered. This is normally enough to get any would be student salivating. Yet, once again her Apprentice again threw logic out the window.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Catarine, the Apprentice, declared.

  “It doesn’t?”

  “No, it will be scaled for me anyways, which will only be at most Epic rating at the moment. Or in that same threshold. So four slots, just enough for my two current known Life attuned Skills, and the two Life Attuned Mana Skills you will teach me. The rest I will gain as our partnership continues and my base Attributes increase.”

  Smirk.

  At this, her Apprentice again showed wisdom that even some of her former students and current family elders couldn’t match.

  “Well, if I tell you the name, then aren’t you afraid you might lose some of your vaunted insights?” Anastasia posed, challenging the Apprentice to question her beliefs.

  “Good point, perhaps just tell me what the synergy bonuses do and how they sort of work together and I will work it from there,” she stated, more than questioned.

  Chuckle.

  With that, Anastasia knew that her new Apprentice would make life very interesting.

  “I tell you what…”

  Flaming_pip for the second early release chapter thanks to providing an honest review.

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