“G’day, Rufus. Not sure if you can hear me over the sound of the airboat.”
“I can’t hear any airboat. What is this?”
“I had a racial gift evolution,” Jason said. “Humphrey too.”
“Uh, hello,” Humphrey said.
“What happened?” Rufus asked.
“We fought a bronze rank monster,” Jason said. “Well, I say we, but Clive and I mostly watched Humphrey do it.”
“That’s not the case at all,” Humphrey said.
“I don’t suppose you’re in the market for a funky bronze-rank whip?” Jason asked. “We looted it from the monster and decided to sell it and split the proceeds.”
“What were you thinking, taking on a bronze-rank monster?” Rufus scolded. “Tell me everything.”
“You're breaking up, Rufus,” Jason said. “Looks like we're about to go out of range.”
“What does breaking up mean?” Rufus asked.
“What’s that Rufus?” Jason asked. “Ksht ksht ksht.”
Jason closed the connection.
“So,” he said, turning to Humphrey. “What do you think you’ll get from your awakening stone?”
“Should you have cut off your power like that?”
“It was bad reception,” Jason said.
“I’m not sure what that is,” Humphrey said, “other than an obvious lie.”
“I can do the ritual of awakening for those stones you got,” Clive said, “although maybe you should do it, Jason. You could probably use the practice.”
“Works for me,” Jason said.
“Do I get a say in this?” Humphrey asked.
“A ritual of awakening is basic stuff,” Clive said. “It’ll probably be fine.”
“What do you mean, probably?” Humphrey asked.
Clive’s study at the Magic Society campus was like an old second-hand bookstore combined with an antique shop, neither of which had been organised very well. Stacks of papers were stopped from falling off chairs by stacks of books piled on them; strange curios were placed absently on shelves, stands or inside glass cabinets.
“Is this safe?” Humphrey asked, looking around. His eyes could see the invisible magic Jason couldn’t.
“There’s a system,” Clive said unconvincingly as he shuffled through papers. “You know, Jason, the Magic Society would definitely pay you to use your ability for the cataloguing of items and abilities.”
“How much?” Jason asked
“Not adventurer money,” Clive said. “Decent, though.”
“I’d rather fight monsters than bureaucrats,” Humphrey said.
“I think I might be with you, there,” Jason said.
“The Magic Society does important work,” Clive said, still searching through the room for something. “You both have monster record tablets, don't you? What about the essence list tablet? You think they just happen? People work hard to provide the information you rely on to stay alive, but adventurers just dismiss them as dull functionaries.”
Jason and Humphrey looked at each other and shrugged.
“That’s a fair cop,” Jason said.
“I never thought about that,” Humphrey.
“No one ever does,” Clive said unhappily. “Ah, I knew it was around here, somewhere.”
He dug out a magic wand from what looked to be a basket of sticks and led them to a door. Beyond was a room as sparse as the one outside was overstuffed. The only thing in it was a plain metal table in the middle.
“Close the door behind you, please,” Clive said.
From his storage space, he took out the two boxes they had retrieved from the underground complex and placed them on the table. He began moving the wand he had dug out from his study over the first box. Untold years’ worth of muck rose off of it, right down to the oldest filth that had ingrained itself into the metal. The muck drifted through the air to the side of the room, collecting into unpleasant spheres. Leaving the spheres floating in the air, Clive carefully opened the box. Inside, the contents had been kept intact by the box's remnant magic. Clive took out three identical skill books and sat them on the table.
“The condition is good,” Clive said, opening the cover of each to look at the title inside.
“The Way of the Reaper,” he read. “Form one, Way of the Hierophant. A martial art skill book?”
“Yes,” Jason said. “My martial art. Part of it, anyway. There are five forms in total.”
“There were five boxes,” Humphrey said.
“Just this one is the size of a normal skill book,” Clive said. “No wonder they split them up. A collected work would be huge.”
“No kidding,” Jason said.
The second case had another three books, this time the third form of Jason’s martial art.
“You said you don’t know where your martial art comes from, right?” Clive asked Jason.
“That’s right,” Jason said. “My friends know, but they’re keeping it secret for now. Something to do with a contract they took before I met them.”
“I'll do some digging, see what I can find,” Clive said. “In the meantime, how about we get an awakening ritual going?”
Inside one of the Magic Society’s dedicated ritual rooms, Humphrey was standing in the middle of a magic circle, holding an awakening stone in his hands.
“Good,” Clive said approvingly. “You did well, Jason.”
The awakening stone disappeared into Humphrey’s hand. His eyes glowed with swirling blue and gold light as the magic settled into him, then dimmed.
Party member [Humphrey Geller] has awakened the dragon essence ability [Spartoi]. [Humphrey Geller] has awakened 5 of 5 dragon essence abilities.
Party member [Humphrey Geller] has awakened all dragon essence abilities. Linked attribute [Recovery] will advance in conjunction with lowest-rank dragon essence ability.
Party member [Humphrey Geller] has 2 of 4 completed essences.
Ability: [Spartoi] (Dragon)
Summoning (ritual, summon).
Cost: Very high mana.
Cooldown: 6 hours.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Summons three dragon-tooth warriors.
“Finally,” Humphrey said.
“Finally?” Clive asked.
“My storage space power. It equips anything I summon with iron-rank magic equipment, but I didn’t have a summoning ability. My mother kept telling me it would come, but it’s a relief it finally has.”
“Spartoi,” Jason said. “That’s unexpected.”
“You’ve heard of them?” Humphrey asked.
“They’re part of a myth from my world,” Jason said. “Oddly enough, about a guy named Jason. He was on a quest, and to complete it he needed to pass these trials set by a king. One of the trials was to sow dragon’s teeth, and a bunch of soldiers sprung up. He threw a rock at one of them and they got confused and killed one another.”
“Was he the person you were named after?”
“No,” Jason darkly. “I was named after a footy player.”
“I guess you just hope no one throws a rock at them,” Clive said. “Want to try summoning them now?”
“I’ll wait until we’re outdoors,” Humphrey said. “I want to see what Jason gets.”
“Yes,” Clive said, turning enthusiastically to Jason. “The no-ritual awakening. I’ve been looking forwards to this.”
“It’s really not that exciting,” Jason said. “Let me clean this up, first.” He took a cleaning cloth and some alchemical solution from the ritual room’s supply cabinet and wiped the residue of the magical circle off the smoothly polished, stone floor.
“Now,” Clive said eagerly, as Jason put the cleaning supplies away.
Jason shook his head, taking out the awakening stone. It glowed with a white-gold light, like a holy object.
Item: [Awakening Stone of Absolution] (unranked, epic)
An awakening stone containing the power of redemption (consumable, awakening stone).