“Then prepare yourself any way you like,” Mistress Kalina said and slammed her palms together. A giant bubble of mana exploded from her hands and expanded rapidly, only to settle around the house. “I will fortify the house for while we are away. Do not worry about being seen.”

Of all of his preparations he had planned for, Energy harvesting took the most time, so he immediately dove into it. It was only after he was somewhat juiced up and rested from the pains of harvesting, close to ten minutes later, that he called for a handmade artifact from his amulet.

“It’s no work of art…” he murmured as he flipped it in his hands. But then again it wasn’t meant to be.

“But I think that it will do just fine,” Mistress Kalina said. “I see what you meant earlier.”

Tercius nodded, placing the green marble mask on his face. As the insides of the handmade— or was it facemade?— mask was a negative of his face, it was a perfect fit.

The cloak that masked mana was the next item he took out from his amulet, and he immediately placed it over his shoulders, and then he used the hood to cover his short, dark hair. It was a bit too big for him, with the ends that were dragging themselves on the floor.

With that done, he turned to his skill Spring of Crystal Thoughts.

Just for thoroughness, he used the skill to pad his shoulders with a pair of cushions of telekinetic force, adding a bit of size to his frame. If his identity came into question, his greatest shield was that people would already have trouble believing that a child was the one who did it. And if he made sure that his body size looked visibly different, then…

Step Two demanded some spoken words, so he was a bit worried that his voice would be used as a way to track him… Ah well, I will just try to pitch it… Or maybe not… It will easily be noticed… and this persona should be quite comfortable even with the voice of a growing boy…

His new skill hummed with life and activity, layering his entire body with telekinetic forces in the time it took him to think of it. Up, slowly, he ordered, remembering all those times he moved in three dimensions inside the World of Skills. That kind of movement had been a bit strange, at first, but over time he had adapted. He just hoped that his experience there would translate to something here.

As his entire body pressed down on the cold folds of telekinetic force, Tercius looked down. The distance between the tips of his toes and the roof was slowly increasing, but the firmness with which he stood in place seemed so contrary to some part of him…

The skinsuit made of telekinetic wisps was actually a very comfortable levitating vehicle if a little cold even though the clothes he wore, and he had to say that it doubled as an armor of magnificent durability. From the few tests he performed so far, no manner of vibrations got through the wisps to get to his skin. Any time a blow came to hit the crystalic wisps, it was stopped dead. Dagger tips didn't penetrate, and the sharp edges didn't slash into it. A slammed stone that would have crushed his fingers into pulp merely sounded as if slammed against another stone. Testing the durability by slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning most likely destroyed some wisps in the process, but he had no way of knowing for sure. All of these results were probably the result of the way he imagined the interaction between the wisps. To create complex forms— like planes, ropes, and even the bodysuit— the wisps bonded with their fellows and so on ad infinitum. But they were also capable of destroying those bonds if the need arose.

As he made himself comfortable in the levitating suit, he wondered if the mana type that his telekinetic skill produced should even be partially named as a “force” or a “metaforce”. But then again it is capable of producing results that can easily be classified as "work".

He didn’t remember much of what he learned of physics— which hadn’t been much in the first place, he was sad to say— but he was quite sure that work was simply force which was used to move something. Or was it to displace something? What is the difference between “move” and “displace”? Does “displace” imply a use of force? Doesn’t matter… In any case, how is my mana type not adequate to be called a force? At least by that definition, it is… But then again, every skill I have is a “force” by that definition… He sighed, feeling his jittery insides move uncomfortably.

Tercius, you are stalling… he chided himself internally. Get on with it. The night won’t last forever.

"Excellent control with the telekinesis, I have to say. Many a mage struggles for years to learn to use it as you do," Mistress Kalina praised, levitating around him in a circle seemingly effortlessly. "But do you know that the enchantment on that cloak won't work if the main part of the enchantment doesn't have enough skin contact?"

“Main part?” he asked as he came down to land on the roof. While using Mana Manipulation to power the enchantment would lead to significant mana savings— close to half of the mana drained was lost before it was used by the enchantment— but that required focus and attention. In a battle, both were hot commodities.

“That strip of cloth that binds the cloak to the hood and which goes around your neck.”

"Oh, you mean the draining Runes… Oh… well, I suppose so… It slipped my mind…"

Tercius pulled at the side of the hood a bit to see the strip. The moonlight was enough for him to see it. Two strings were at each end of the strip, allowing him to tie the cloak around his neck. The strip was where three layers of cloth were sewn into each other and where a group of interesting Runes were found. Simply from reading them he knew that three parts were intended to act as mana locks— these parts of the enchantment featured many Runic words that he knew meant 'filtering', 'sifting', 'mana', 'storage'— and these three major Runes were placed at even intervals around the collar-like strip of cloth. As he came to understand them, the locking Runes were used to keep a tiny sliver of his mana, effectively barring entry to any mana other than his own to enter. How exactly they did that, he had no idea…

Between the locking parts were also Runic words which clearly signified an intention for attraction and collection of mana in close proximity to skin and mana channels. He knew that these Runes would start their work of collecting his mana as soon as he pulled firmly on the two strings that were used to tie the cloak to his neck.

And finally, pathway Runes that were effectively a Runic web that went down the cloak and up the hood and connected everything. So why did Mistress Kalina call that part of the enchantment as the main one? Because of the pathways of mana or because it was the entrance of mana? In his mind, the morphing parts were the ones that should be called the main, because without them the whole thing was basically just a container for mana of a specific signature…

The problem was that he was unable to find any specific Runes where he could see how the enchantment was doing its job, how it was morphing his mana to achieve its effect. The end effect just appeared everywhere at once immediately. The enchantment simply did its job too fast for anyone to follow.

He had been hoping to see the steps in between, slowly, and learn to morph that kind of mana for himself and then attempt to add some of that morphed mana to Stealth while assaulting its first barrier… The skill already had the ability to blend in, albeit a visual type, so adding other types of blending would be just what the skill needs.

Then he wouldn't need the stupid cloak anymore. His back and head were warm already.

“Why is it called the main part, Mistress?” he asked as he made an empty place in his telekinetic armor to let the cloth kiss his neck.

“Because it is that, neophyte.” Mistress Kalina said, unhelpfully. “It’s the center, the beating heart that animates the whole enchantment.”

“But it’s just an enchantment for a regulated drain and distribution of mana…”

“Individually, yes… That is true. But didn’t you notice how much time that drained mana lingers in there? Read in the proper order, one that is usually known solely to the enchanter, as a collective and the Runes tell another story altogether…” Mistress Kalina said and he could hear the smile in her voice.

For a brief moment, he stood frozen, but then the synapses of his brain fired in all the right directions and he almost smacked himself on the stone-covered forehead. I’m an idiot! He thundered at himself.

"Your mastery of Runes is quite good, I have to say. I see that you can understand the interaction between smaller units of Runes and convey what enchantment does…" Mistress Kalina said. "That's something we usually have to teach at the Academy at years five and six—"

But he wasn’t listening to what Mistress Kalina said.

It was right there under my nose… How could I have been so blind? Unless I learn the proper order in which the enchantment was done, and then systematically destroy or somehow nullify them one by one from the last to the first, and observe every step perfectly… This won’t work, will it? There’s no learning spells from enchantments… At best, with a lot of trouble, I could learn to parrot an enchantment… and that's a big maybe.

Right about now, he came to appreciate how useful those pre-made spells were.

That single crystal for Attract Stone had eleven consecutive morphs which the crystal was able to show him simply by allowing his mana to pass through it, repeatedly. On the other hand, it didn't teach him what each morph was good for. What did each do? But then again not every morph had to have a use. Some were there as a shortcut of sorts because getting from one point A to E was not always possible by using a straight line. Sometimes you had to stray deeply into the alphabet and maybe even go a full circle and more to get to E.

But he also saw a side to pre-made spells which he didn’t quite like.

By relying on them, he was like a buyer at Ikea. He essentially bought a crate of parts and created something by using a guide. But he had no idea how to make the plywood, nor how to make that smooth finish, nor how to make the glue that joined them. If he ever wanted true spell mastery, he would have to dedicate a lot of time and effort to each morph individually and discover their uses for himself.

And morphs were literally infinite. A variation of a variation could be made, easily. Morphs that did things to stone, morphs that did things to blood, morphs that did things to mind… Morphs that connected and separated, created and destroyed… According to Mistress Helfira, new ones were made and discovered, then tested and retested daily, back at the Pyramid, until some purpose for them was found.

Since reverse learning spells from enchantments is out of the question now, what was the number two idea to learn from enchantments? Learning to wrestle away the final morph of mana after the enchantment does its job, was it? Hmm… For now, that would be useful for skillmaking, but… The morphs like that will be ruined from the forcefulness, not to mention prone to violent explosions… Maybe I can add a function to Mana Manipulation that enables gentler handling of foreign mana on its next barrier? But how do I go about that? Do I—

“Tercius.” Mistress Kalina waved a hand in front of his mask. “You’re not paying any attention to what I’m saying. Are you nervous?”

He inhaled. “I might be. Just a bit.”

He had planned for this for a few days now. He had the means and the motive and he was confident that he could do this with his current arsenal.

So why did the deluge of anxiety refuse to go away?!

“Is this your first… action of this kind?”

"You mean attacking someone in the middle of the night, Mistress? No. Wait. Does a preemptive attack count as a defense under these circumstances? Am I attacking or defending?"

“Oh my…” she said with a raised brow. “You’re still quite new to this, aren’t you?”

“Well… ‘new to this’ is not the combination that I would use to describe myself in this context… ‘lacking enough practical experience to feel comfortable while doing it’, maybe?”

She laughed. “Since our verbal agreement prevents me from helping you directly— unless I’m saving your head of course,” she said with a smile over her lame attempt at a joke. “How about we take another ten minutes so that I can give you some advice?”

“Yes please, Mistress.”

“Alright then. And if you have any questions, you can ask them as well.”

***

***

***

A lot of what Mistress Kalina advised was a variation of what Lux and Septimus had advised over the years and it ranged from what he was supposed to do with his body— keeping a steady breath, especially when you feel your heart pumping away— to what he was supposed to do with the environment— try to be informed of at least the basic building layout before entering it.

What was the goal and which were the ways that would accomplish this goal, she asked him finally.

He had already gone over most of these by himself, in his planning process, but by bringing all those sharpened ideas to the forefront of his mind now, dispelled a lot of that inner turbulence that he had had.

“I’m ready, Mistress.”

“Then good luck.”

He nodded and called for Amber to come to him. The first order of business was sneaking over the Inner Wall of Nurium and into the District of the Nobles.

Amber climbed into his arms and then Tercius jumped from the roof of his home. Instead of falling, he glided towards the gate slowly, his telekinetic bodysuit actively resisting the pull of gravity. Before he went any further, he used the cloak to hide his mana presence. One never knew when someone capable of sensing him was around and then he activated his Stealth. Immediately, he felt as if he had fallen into some dark mire. His Mana Sight saw a dark mana cloud surrounding his body like a sludge, going over his clothes and shoes, attaching itself like grease to every part of him. Hells, it even settled onto the telekinetic bodysuit and his cloak.

Stealth [20]

The sounds you make are muffled by a medium amount as you blend into your surroundings by a small amount, while the skill is in use. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of use by a small degree.

Looking from the side, Tercius’ cloak cover slowly gained the dark colors of his surroundings in just the right amounts. He was not a chameleon— not even close to one— and people would notice him easily especially if he moved in the open, but if he were to move in the shadows or find a good spot to stop at for a few moments and allow the skill to blend him into the surroundings…

The skill was particularly useful because no sounds that he made while moving were heard by anyone other than him.

This just showed another good side of skills.

He was using Mana Sight, Spring of Crystal Thoughts, and Stealth together and he didn’t have to worry about their interaction one bit. Unlike spells, skills had perfectly defined mana boundaries from level one which meant that no manner of mana interaction existed.

With spells, it was the other way around. It was his job to maintain that separation actively with Mana Metamorphosis and not allow any spells to mix. When different mana types from those spells came to interact… explosions were the most common result and sometimes the most desirable result, according to Mistress Helfira. If it didn’t explode, then you had a new type of mana at your hands, one which you had no clue what it does.

Tercius held Amber tightly to his chest, as he sank into the darkness of the nearby houses. Lurking through the darkest of shadows, he went from his home all the way to the north side of the town, while actively avoiding the rare passersby which he stumbled onto. He had chosen the north gate on purpose since it saw the largest on-foot traffic pass through it.

With the closed northern gate of the Outer Wall of Nurium in sight, he took a few moments to get a purple leaf with a particularly potent aroma from his amulet and rub it vigorously onto his shoes, pants, and sleeves. Purple Pitcher, was the name that the mage who sold it used. It was a carnivorous leaf that attracted insects with its sweet, sweet smell, and then folded them into itself.

Amber’s sleepiness was immediately dispelled when she caught a whiff of what he had.

Can I get a little? she asked, licking her nose to wetness.

I’m not sure if you should, little one. This plant is not from around here… he answered back through the link, leaving Amber sad. She understood poisoning, at least.

These leaves were a part of a collection he got for Rona. He had thought that maybe Rona could use them as insect control around the house, if she managed to grow them in the Sogean climate, but now that she wasn’t here…

Every once in a while, Tercius tried to see if he could spot Mistress Kalina but nothing became of it. For all he knew, she was using some farsight spell to observe him from the other side of town. It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea how Mistress Kalina ‘saw’ Runes… She couldn’t very well smell them, could she? Maybe she has a spell that grants an effect similar to Mana Sight? Hmm…

He pondered those questions as he used one more flower to seed the area around the gate with the sweet smell. Avoiding the occasional patrolling duo counted as an exercise of what was to come. Amber felt his desire to stay quiet and stealthy and she followed suit while wondering from whom they were hiding.

From the north gate of the Outer Wall, he used the main street to get to the north gate of the Inner Wall. The large gates were closed, but a pair of guards that kept careful watch could let people in through the smaller door at the side. He wouldn't be going in through there, of course.

He ran a hundred meters to the left of the gate, closely hugging the darkness of the wall and the houses that crowded around it. Looking up at the wall with his Mana Sight, he followed the patrols on the wall and when he deemed their position as far enough, he started climbing up with the occasional help from his telekinetic bodysuit. He made sure to get plenty of contact with the wall, both using his footwear and palms to leave enough smell.

One thing that surprised him was that while he had focused on marking the wall, the patrols had once more moved too closely for comfort. He had to wait for close to ten minutes hugging the crenelations of the ten-meter-high wall until those guards once more moved. He could have used Stone Shaping to move through the stone wall, but that would be defeating the purpose.

This was meant to be an example.

Running across the top of the wall was easy but instead of climbing down the other side, he jumped feet first at the last moment, much to Amber's alarm.

She meowed, but his Stealth cloak nullified the sounds. The light flapping sound of his actual cloak was the only sound he made in his downwards move, and that was only when the cloak moved away from the mana mire that Stealth offered. Taking control of his telekinetic bodysuit, his freefall was slow and as soon as he touched the ground, he crouched down and surveyed the wall above him in search of anyone who might have seen him do that stunt.

He heard music, laughter, and some muffled sounds from the manor right in front of him and he saw flickering torchlights coming from there, but other than that… nothing. No shouts of alarm from above, no bells ringing, no arrows whistling, no frenzied barking, no sound of galloping hooves. Good. That was good. As he let out a breath of relief, he smiled under his mask. This was… exciting.

Objective: Make your way into the Inner Wall is complete. Tercius thought. Objective: Find the Hideout is a go.

A quick Rune later and in his hand, a small metal container appeared. He opened it and turned his attention to Amber. Do you remember this smell?

After a single sniff, she assured him that she did. He closed the container and stored it back.

Can you smell it around here?

No…

If you catch a whiff alert me, he instructed as he moved along the wall, heading west.

Unlike the crowded outer wall, where tightly packed one and two-story houses were the norm, inside the inner wall there was a lot of space with green grass, bushes, and trees and as soon as he was able, he slid into the foliage that surrounded the nearby manor. He knew that most nobles kept canines around their properties, mostly chained or led by a guard on a leash, so approaching too much or lingering for too long was not advisable.

But for now, he was safe. He settled himself between the bushes and used his Mana Sight in its new form.

From Mistress Kalina, he knew that the flunkies were “amassing”, which to him translated as a large number of mana signatures in one place. As one wandering eye left him to rise high above, Tercius immediately saw that the manor in front of him was full of humanoid mana outlines. Considering the music and the laughter, he would say that a party was in progress.

The manors to the left and right were almost empty compared to the one before him, each with around a dozen humanoid mana signatures. Servants, most likely. The noble population of Nurium counted about a hundred people, most of them of the petty nobility or exiles sent to the middle of nowhere from more important places. At least, that was what Lux had told him. The more important the Nobility was, the closer to the Capital they were and Nurium was as far as you could get from the Capital.

His wandering eye allowed him unmatched surveillance from high ground, and he found two potential sites where the flunkies could be, excluding the underground Garrison in the center of the Inner Wall, which was teeming with too many outlines to even count. But the flunkies most likely weren't there. If that Commander had two grains of salt in her head— and she must have at least that much, considering how high she climbed in the military chain by her own effort— then she knew that she could choose one side, Lux's or this other Lord's, or stay neutral and hope for the best. Considering that she never approached his family after those people started harassing them, and the fact that joining either side would antagonize the other and make her life more difficult, she was probably trying to stay out of the way. That was why he didn't even attempt to contact her.

And he couldn't really blame her. This was probably way above anything that she had agreed upon with Lux.

In one place there were around four dozen mana outlines closely grouped together, while in the other held around three dozen.

Running helped him move rapidly, while Mana Sight was used to scout ahead for any patrols. The ease with which he was moving inside the arguably most secure location south of Zuros had him ill at ease if a little excited for it. During his sneak, the closest any patrol approached him was at fifty meters.

Once he approached his first target, Tercius let Amber have a go at sniffing at the paths that led in. The little creature was small, stealthy, and most importantly quick and a holder of a high-level skill that could catch weeks-old plant smells. Around the first manor, she found no trace of the familiar smell.

Near the second site, ten minutes later, Amber almost immediately informed him that she caught the familiar smell on the cobbled road and Tercius knew that he had located his target.

Objective: Find the Hideout is complete, he thought as he gazed at the low, decorative wall and the torches that lit the manor beyond it.