Chapter 15: Settling In

It’s been three days since the incident. I already reported it to Mike, our dorm’s warden, and he, in turn, reported it to someone higher. It’s actually surprising how much effort they’re giving this for the student’s security, considering the dangerous quests I’ve posted in the Quest Hall. They’ve been investigating since I told Mike, but…

“Sorry kid, they can’t find anything on the guy. Any kind of tracking spells can’t find a whiff of his scent even in the apartment, so it has to be a unique skill.”

“It’s okay. Thanks, Mike.” Unique skill? Like my .

He massages his forehead as he looked me in the eye, “You ought to be more careful, kid. You haven’t even been here for a week and you’re already causing me a headache. Maybe I shouldn’t have had Kat be your guide.”

“Sorry? I.. uhh… I’ll try not to get robbed again?”

“*sigh* I know, I know. It’s not your fault, it’s just… I’m not supposed to say this right now but I think you ought to know why they’re busting hard on crime recently.” He scratches his chin briefly before continuing, “Well, you’ve probably heard about the peace treaty with the southern tribes right?”

“I think? Wasn’t that like 2 years ago or something?” I struggled to remember what little of the news I watched a while ago.

He grunted and continued, “Yeah, that’s when they started talking about the terms. Trades and whatnot between the nations, that sort of thing. They just finished with the draft of the treaty a few months ago. Anyway, as part of the initiation of the treaty, they’re going to send a few of their clansmen to enrol in the Union in different cities.”

“That’s… interesting. I don’t think I’ve heard that the treaty is finished?”

“Well, watch the news, kid, it’s all over it. Also, I said the ‘draft’ of the treaty is finished. We’re still technically only in a ceasefire. Until the embassies in the capital cities are finished, we can’t exactly say the treaty is in effect.”

I really should watch the news more. I got too panicked, hurrying to finish my alchemy class I forgot the outside world for the last few months… “Okay, so what does that have to do with what happened?”

“It has everything to do with it. I said a few clansmen will be enrolling in the Union. It means we can’t afford to have criminals anywhere near. Imagine what would happen if they’re attacked while the treaty is still being finalized?”

“Ah,” So I guess that’s why they’re cracking down even a small case like mine, can’t risk any incident in the middle of the treaties. But… “Why risk having them enrol here then?”

“They spout bulls##t about it being in good faith and a show of trust or something, but in reality, they’re probably public spies. There’s always an under-the-table deal with everything the higher-ups decide so there’s probably more to the story. But well, now you know why they’re taking your case seriously.” He grunts with contempt while talking about the higher-ups.

“Is it fine to tell me all of this?” I wondered out loud. The things he just told me felt like confidential information, and I’d rather not have assassins killing me in my sleep to not spread information.

He chuckles, “It’s fine, they can’t keep stuff like this under wraps for too long. They’re going to make a public announcement soon, just don’t blab too much before that. Even then, they won’t do anything, they’ll just confirm the rumours eventually.”

Huh, well that’s good. “Thanks, Mike.”

He grunts and goes back to work, whatever his work is. It’s so boring here, I wish I didn’t go this early. Ugh, I guess I should fix my room now. My luggage is mostly still untouched due to both my laziness and the lack of obligation to do so since I don’t have a roommate yet.

[an hour later]

“*phew* That took too long. I think my packing priority was a bit skewed though.” Wiping my sweat, I look at the shelves packed with tools and the crafting materials stashed under the bed, then glance at the almost desolate closet containing only 3 sets of clothing. “Maybe I should buy more clothes.”

I laid down on the bed, bored out of my mind once again. Do I really have nothing to do right now? Kern, one of my familiars, crawls up to me and lays down on my chest. I pat him while checking my connection with the other two to see if they’re fine. Wait this reminds me… I should try out that thing.

“The room’s right here, hurry!” I hear a muffled voice outside the door breaking me out of my reverie. That sounded familiar?

*click* The door opens and an unfamiliar red-skinned hihant accompanied by a familiar blonde deriair comes in with a cart of luggage in tow. Kot snatched another fresher huh, my condolences, guy.

She looks at me surprised before exclaiming, “Raz!”

Raz? “It’s Cas, nice to see you too, Kat.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said hehe.” she sheepishly denies her misnaming me. Suddenly perking up once again, she pointed to the stranger and introduced them. “Oh yeah! Cas, this is Elias, your roommate.”

I sighed and stood up to shake his hand, Kern still glued to my chest. “Nice to meet you, hope you don’t mind me being your roommate.” I look at Elias more closely. Like a typical hihant, his skin colour's a shade of red. I also notice tribal markings peeking out the nape of his neck. What’s most peculiar though is his eyes, they’re yellow, closer to gold, and they almost look like they’re glowing. Cool...

He looks at me with a frozen expression, muttering something under his breath. "Elias?" He breaks out of his trance and quickly returns my handshake. He then continues inside looking around the room, glancing every so often at me. I sit back on the bottom bunk, and Kat lays down beside me. “So, what's up, Cas?”

“Nothing much just bored really.”

“Well, you did get here pretty early, classes are going to start soon though so you won't be too bored then. Wanna tag along the tour in the meantime? I’m gonna be his guide today, and I think he has a fresher friend that’ll also be joining later.”

Should I? But if she's going to do something like that again, I'd rather be bored. I reply in my head, but not wanting to be rude I instead answered, “Nah, I don’t want to be a bother.”

“What? He’s not gonna be a bother, right?” Kat looks at my new roommate, who pauses from unloading his luggage. He takes a look at me, then her, then he hesitantly shakes his head.

“See? He’s fine with it!”

I… don’t think he is though. “It’s fine, I gotta do something later so just go ahead.”

“Aww, well, your loss! Stay bored here then, Elias and I will be having fun somewhere else! Let’s go!” She practically pulls Elias out of the room and I give him a smile of pity hoping he survives.

*bang* The door closes and I lay back down in bed. “Well, that was perfect timing, just when I finished cleaning up.” I opened my phone to remove the ‘luggage’ task on my todo list. “Speaking of, I was thinking about something earlier… what was it?”

I feel something move from my chest and remembered Kern is still there. “Ah! Yeah let’s try enchanting you, shall we?” I’ve already asked Uncle Robert what would happen and he has no idea either, so I’m going to test it out.

I grabbed my enchanting supplies from underneath the bed, which basically consists of an engraving pen, a normal pen, and crystal ink. I’m still a beginner at this so my tools are still rudimentary. Uncle Robert showed me his extensive collection of elemental inks, brushes, pens, and stuff I don’t know about.

I had Kern transform into his shield form and put him on the table. I opened up an app installed in the wristwatch, E-moire, which is an enchanting grimoire with all the symbols I’ve mastered. “To think Uncle Robert made this so quickly, I mean I only gave him an idea but he fleshed it out so well.”

I picked a harmless enchantment to test it out, ‘Glint’. It’s a minor enchantment from the magic system that makes the item shinier. It can also be overloaded with magic to produce a tiny beam of light to blind an opponent.

After engraving the character into Kern, checking up on him if he’s hurt every now and then, I grab the brush and painted the engraving with the crystal ink. Careful and slow brush strokes are needed to make sure the enchantment doesn’t fail or malfunction on activation. Minor enchantments aren't too dangerous though, at most they'll fizzle and lose effectiveness.

“Okay, done! Now, let’s test it out.” I fill the enchantment with mana, and Kern gradually looks shinier as I do so.

“It works! I can probal-” Kern instantly loses his shine a few seconds after releasing the flow of magic. “That’s not right?”

I close my eyes and focused my onto the shield, feeling a distinct lack of magic even though I just filled it. I recharge it again to the maximum without overloading it and the same thing happens again, Magic is dissolved as soon as I cut off the supply. “Weird… why’s that happening?”

I look at the engraved character only to find it half gone. “What? Why did- ohh you regenerate… right. Kern, can you try stopping your regeneration?” He sends me a feeling of confirmation and I went to work once again.

[An hour later]

“Why. Won’t. It. Work!” *bang* I banged the table in annoyance. “Just stay in! Why won’t you stay in?!” I’ve tried and failed constantly over the past hour, trying it repeatedly to figure out why Magic won’t stay on the enchantment.

“Breathe, Cas.” I take a few seconds to calm myself. “Well, at least I learned that you can remember engravings, so there’s that.” I pat Kern, now in his turtle form, resting once again on my chest after laying down. “But that’s basically useless since I can’t make them work! Ugh…”

Stein flies in through the window, followed by the now cube-shaped Fels. “What are you all doing? Oh” They cuddle my chest and I get a warm feeling of comfort through our connection. “Ah, I must’ve been broadcasting my emotions through our connection huh. Thanks, guys” I stay like that for a while before getting up and stretching. “Well we can try again later, maybe I’ll test it out on the others instead, I mean Fels can cast Magic I probably should’ve started with him.” Stein and Fels went back into my heart plate and I had Kern on my wrist.

“Anyway, time to head to the smithy.” I’ve started part-timing on a smithy since yesterday. I greeted Mike on the way out of the dorm and headed straight towards town, munching on rocks and fruit for lunch along the way.

“Kent?” A familiar face greets me as I enter the smithy. He looks up from the arrowhead he’s sharpening on the grinder. “Oh, Cas right? You work here too?”

“Yeah, I started yesterday. How come I didn’t see you then?” I grabbed an apron and clocked in using my plate.

He continues grinding casually while answering, “I had a fresher to guide yesterday, so I couldn’t come. She's a D'varf too, you'll probably get to meet her later. Anyway, I finished my quota early I’m just popping in now and then grabbing extra cash.” The smith we work at pays on a quota basis, it doesn’t matter how long you work as long as finish the quota. Clocking in is more of a security thing.

“Kent? We have a customer?” A burly Sprigg, the guy that hired me as soon as I applied, comes out from the back room wearing a blacksmith’s attire and carrying an intricate sword. “Ah, no it’s the new kid. Boss wanted to see you when you came by the way.” A Sprigg blacksmith... never thought something would seem odd after more than a decade here.

“Did she say why?” He shakes his head so I just shrugged and headed straight back. The back ‘room’ is actually a gigantic workshop, a lot smaller furnaces, anvils, and an assortment of machinery and tools are all round with a big circular furnace right in the middle.

*clang clang clang* A petite figure is hammering on an anvil next to the big furnace. She’s our boss, another D’varf woman with short black hair, toned body covered in dark red rock plates, and eyes with the same colour as the furnace coals. I approach to see what she’s working on. Woah, all those hammering and she’s making such small dents on that metal...

“You wanted to see me, boss?”

“Shush!” She ignored me and continued working on the knife-shaped lump of metal with undivided focus. Shrugging, I just went to my station and started working. I never actually realized how many mundane stuff smiths make like kitchen utensils and farming tools. Kitchen knives, forks, spoons, all that stuff is my quota. No swords and hammers just like normal fantasy settings.

*clang clang clang*

A few kitchen knives later, the hammering from the middle finally stopped and the sizzling sound reverberated throughout the room. I dropped my work and approached her while she was quenching the blade.

“Well, that was a load of work for such a boring blade. Look at this, see how plain this is?” I she practically shoved the deadly blade on my face as she said that. “Hours of work, for this! If I didn't owe that a##hole a favour I wouldn’t even think of making this…”

“What is it?” I ask while looking at the blade more closely. It’s amazingly plain, like the most ordinary of ordinary. But it looks flawless, perfect even. She hasn't even sharpened it yet but that could probably slice rock.

She turns to me with a disgusted look on her face, as if the answer to my question is as vile as it gets. “It’s... a kitchen knife. Anyway, enough about that. Why are you here?” She tucks away the blade into a prepared container on the side.

A kitchen knife? “Uhh, you called for me?”

“Ah yes, the new kid. Sorry, I couldn’t see you yesterday, I was busy with something else so let me introduce myself. I’m Shana, the owner.”

She offered a handshake which I immediately took, “Cas, nice to meet you.”

Name: Shana(???)

Race: D'varf

Title: ???

Classes: ???

Considerable Danger, engagement is not advised.

Fake name, huh. “Well, now that’s done, get back to work.”

What? “Uhh… was that all?”

“Yeah, I mean treeman over there should’ve finished your paperwork right?” I nod and chuckled a bit at her endearing nickname towards the Sprigg. “I just wanted to introduce myself, he says it helps with worker morale or some s##t.”

“Okay?” She waves me off and goes into the front with the ‘kitchen knife’ she just made. Well, that was something.

I focused on fulfilling my quota, thinking I can probably laze around when classes start. Treeman comes by now and then to check on my work and advise me on how I can improve it. I still don’t know what his name is, everyone just kinda calls him ‘Treeman’.

I’ve also begun working on a side project, trying to reverse engineer the candy press and my other tools so that I don’t have to buy new ones if they break. The day quickly went by and it was already afternoon. I clocked off and said goodbye to Treeman, heading towards the town centre to eat.

[a few minutes later]

*munch munch* “You really like these huh.” The old man manning a kebab stall voices out while casually cooking up more. I've been eating these for dinner for the past few days. Screw a balanced diet, this stuff is delicious.

“Yeah, the sauce you put on the meat is amazing, old man! Where'd you get it?”

“Thanks, kid, it’s a family recipe. Maybe I'll give you the recipe once you've bought a thousand of these” He chuckles as he lathered the meat with the sauce before grilling.

We talked for a bit about the food, me giving ideas to make more delicious stuff. I don’t think he’s open to rock-based food though… ugh, rock-kebabs sounds divine.

*bang crash* Something flies into a nearby stall, destroying it and sending debris flying everywhere. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know kid, you better hurry out of here though this looks like trouble.” He quickly packs up his stall and mounts it onto a floating board to drag it along with him. I look at the destroyed stall only to see a bloodied man slumped over the debris. What the…

I was about to approach him when I heard a familiar voice, “Ha! You people dare try to attack a fresher under my protection?!” Kat?!

Looking over, I see her familiar figure surrounded by a bunch of gangster-looking men and women that are backing off slowly. Behind her is my new roommate along with another girl hihant, his friend I assume.

The gangsters started running away and spreading as soon as someone screamed from the roof. “S##t! Guards! Run!”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Kat goes after the guy on the roof, jumping repeatedly in the air. I wanna learn that. I should ask her later if she can teach me.

I ran towards the two freshers Kat was guiding, “What happened?”

The unknown girl hihant immediately became hostile and pointed the staff she's wielding towards me. “Who are you?” Elias quickly puts his hand on her staff and lowers it gently while shaking his head.

“I’m his new roommate. What happened here? Why’d they suddenly- Look out!” Two flew directly at them from a mysteriously dark alleyway on the side. I had Kern change to a shield and made Fels combine with him. Fels actually decreases the physical defence of the shield, however, he can increase defence against magic to an abnormally high level.

The heater shield quickly grows into a big plate shield as I run into the line of fire and stepped backwards to absorb the impact. *bang bang*

I immediately grabbed the two using , activating in the process to boost my mental facilities in dividing focus between shielding them and carrying them. But they both break free of my and Elias rushes towards where the bolts came from.

“Hey!” I ran after him, increasing my velocity again with my skill to catch up. He’s fast!

*thud* “Aghk!” A sound of pain rings out from the alley and I immediately turn the corner to find my roommate holding the perpetrator by the neck. Nodding towards me, he carries the guy on his back and walks back out of the alley. I guess I didn’t need to protect them.

Name: Elias(???)

Race: Hihant

Title: ???

Classes: ???

Minor danger, do not ignore

Fake name... with the benefit of hindsight I actually should've done this earlier. As we got out, a bunch of guards wearing white military uniforms with the school insignia on the back are running around and rounding up the ruffians. “Well, that was something…”

“You there, who are you?” A guard approaches me, hand on his weapon. I fished my hoodie’s pocket for the school badge and presented it to the guard. He nods and grabs the man being carried by Elias before telling us off about vigilantism.

“Cas!” I feel a small and light object latch onto my back, blond locks tickling my shoulders as she hugged me from behind. Like a koala bear.

“Hey Kat, mind telling me what that was?”

“I dunno either, some guy just randomly wanted to kidnap those two so I beat them up.” She says while putting her chin on my shoulder. Since when were we this close?

“Anyway you’re here now, let’s go grab dinner!” She finally gets off me and I turned to face her with a raised brow. “Don’t you have a tour to finish?”

“Ah!” Her eyes widen and she looks around for the two hihants she was supposed to be guiding. “They’re over there Kat.” I point to them and she sprints hurriedly towards them. I followed figured I might as well come along with them.

We walked straight back to school with a couple of guards who accompanied us until we got to the gates. Kat was just talking all the way through, detailing how awesome she was in the fight. I’ve asked her to teach me how to do the double jump thing she does all the time, and she said she can’t teach me yet. Bummer, I could practically fly with that.

“It took you three days. Three. Days.” Mike looks at me with exasperation. “I know it’s not you this time, but man this’ll be a lot of work… ugh.”

“Well, I’m not exactly going around looking for trouble. Why are they targeting those two anyway?”

“Well, remember those clansmen? Yeah, well they got intel on it and they’re targeting any fresher that looks remotely like them.” He massages his head slowly, “And no, I can’t tell you whether or not they are the ‘exchange students’. At least I can’t yet.”

He types something on his computer and then hands me a black tile, smaller than the nail in my pinky. “Here’s a distress beacon, whenever you’re in trouble just power it up with whatever you have. Aura, magic, psy, anything, it’ll automatically send a signal to me along with its location.”

“Uhh… thanks?” I look at the tiny thing, it’s amazingly convenient given its size.

“Just a precaution kid, I have a bad feeling about this semester.” He gets up and leaves with those ominous words.

Well.. there goes my peaceful school life.