“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Stanley said to Bob. Jack’s brother tried to visit, but Jack had been already dragged out by Stanley. Bob had decided to join. Stanley continued.

“You are too young.”

Bob rolled his eyes. “I’m only two years younger than Jack. I’m coming with you.”

Stanley led them away from the center of headquarters, toward less impressive buildings. There was a soldier every meter on the walls, and headquarters area spanned two kilometers. It could be easily calculated, than two thousand soldiers from headquarters always stood on the walls. Adding two more shifts, over six thousand soldiers lived here. This place was a small town. Total population was even greater, as there were also hunters, crafters, and some merchants.

Stanley led the trio through streets inhabited by soldiers. Houses were less impressive here. Hunters had better houses. Stanley stopped before a large house, which was located on a border of the headquarters’ town.

“We are going in.” Stanley went in, and brothers followed. The first thing Jack noticed was a strange smell.

“What is that smell?” Bob asked.

“Alcohol.” Stanley replied. “Come with me. I will buy you a drink.” Jack looked around. The room was very spacious. There were men and women there. Some of them drank, some were talking over some stones. In a corner of the room, Jack could spot a few couples having sex. There was even a woman who had sex with two men at the same time. Jack had never thought something like that possible before.

Stanley bought drinks for them. Liquid smelled like a whole room, just stronger. Jack took a sip and coughed.

“You don’t have anything like this in the countryside, right?” The selling drinks guy joked.

“I want some too.” Bob pleaded.

“I’m not paying for you. Buy something yourself.” Stanley replied.

“I don’t have money.” Bob said, but Stanley just shrugged. “Not my problem.”

“Fine! I’m going to win anyway!” Someone shouted. Jack was interested and listened. “But I want you to show your breasts when I win!” The previous guy continued to argue.

“Why would I?” A woman asked. “I still have money, unlike you.” The man mumbled something under his nose and tossed something on the table. The woman did the same, and jumped in joy afterwards. The guy scowled in frustration and took off his loincloth.

“Everyone around the table laughed, and the man was angry. He jumped on the table. “I have nothing to be ashamed of!” He shouted and started showing his genitalia. Jack thought the guy was crazy and drank a bit more of the foul liquid.

“Why would someone buy something like this?” Jack asked Stanley.

“It’s helping with having fun.” Stanley said lightly.

“Just drink it. It’s like a medicine. The taste is foul, but the effects are nice.” He merchant selling alcohol praised his wares. Jack just gulped it all at once, he wanted it to be over.

“That might have been too much for him, though” The merchant said.

“Bro, can I borrow some money from you?” Bob asked.

“I don’t think you should drink this.” Jack replied with coarse voice.

“No, no.” Bob denied his accusations hastily. “I was going to play with these people. “ He pointed at the group with the dick showing guy. “They are gambling. I think I can win some money!”

Jack frowned. “It is stupid. You should just train more and hunt monsters for money.” Jack denied his request. “Why those people would even buy this stuff and lose their money with gambling?” Jack asked Stanley. “I know soldiers are getting pain some small salary, but they should save money to invest in the future and buy some equipment. “

“I don’t think they want to level that much.” Stanley replied. “They would rather have fun.”

Jack thought it was stupid. ‘Where is Bob?’

“Hey. Can I play with you?” Bob asked.

“Hello little one. Do you have money?” An older guy asked.

“No.” Bob said sadly, but quickly added more with enthusiasm. “But I can show my dick!”

The group laughed. A girl about twenty years old went forward. “Do you want this big sister to see your dick?” Bob turned red. She patted Bob’s head. “So adorable little boy!” Jack was embarrassed for his brother and turned around away from the group. He hoped nobody would find he was blood related to Bob.

“Don’t tease little boy!” Someone from the group said. “Half of us don’t have any more money anyway. We can play a few rounds without a wager.”

Jack wished Bob would concentrate on training and leveling more. Bob was only at the level 12.

“Are you not going to have fun?” Jack asked Stanley.

“I have brought you here to cheer you up, not to have fun myself.”

Jack didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t going to spend money. He wasn’t going to play with girls. That would remind him of Lillie. The world was spinning. His vision blurred. Bob was playing with money. Someone must have lent him money. Jack groaned. Bob was going to make debts.

Jack concentrated on the game. It was a bit hard. They were tossing a cube with a different image on each face. It seemed a correct image was winning the game. Jack had to save his brother.

“Bob, you can’t borrow money for gambling.”

“Don’t worry bro, I’m going to win.” Bob tried to reassure him. Jack groaned in his mind. Now, they knew he was related to Bob.

“Yeah. Let your brother play.” Someone said. Bob lost. Jack groaned.

“I still have some money! I’m going to win the next round!”

Jack thought about the game. Someone with enough agility could easily cheat. Well, his brother had to win. These idiots were spending their money on alcohol anyway. It wasn’t a bad thing to cheat, and win some money, right?

Jack cast small earth kinetic spell on the cube and made Bob win.

“Hey! The dice was moving suspiciously! Someone’s cheating!” One of the players complained. ‘Ups!’ Jack thought.

“I only know some easy fire magic! It wasn’t me!” Bob said.

“Maybe your brother?” Jack wanted to instinctively take a step back, but he tripped and lost balance. He fell on the ground with a loud bang.

All players looked at him.

“This guy is dead drunk! It couldn’t be him!” Someone said. Jack was embarrassed. “How could I lose balance?’

“Let’s play. We will find the cheater sooner or later.” Stanley helped Jack stood up. “Are you fine?” Stanley asked. “I think you shouldn’t have drunk that much at once.”

“I know now.” Jack replied with an effort. The group continued to play, Jack had to save his brother. He sat down, and tried to use illusions this time. Jack couldn’t use the invisibility spell, because he needed to deceive everyone he could look at him. A minor illusion wasn’t so hard. Jack just had to change light routes, so only people playing would see something different.

Light manipulation was complex and hard. There was a need for a large amount of spell vectors, all pulling in different direction, or from different places. Light was easily moveable, but hard to precisely control. This had a good side, as it allowed to create illusions from a larger distance than a different elemental spell. However, illusions required not only complex usage of spell vectors, but also complex calculations to even attempt to create a convincing illusion.

Jack didn’t use illusion much in fights. He wasn’t proficient, and was afraid to test a new tactic in a middle of a fight. He also wasn’t in a good state to do math now, but he tried. Thankfully, the images on the cube’s faces were simple, there were just dots.

Someone tossed the dice and Jack tried to cast the spell, but he was too slow. ‘Damn. It’s too hard. I need to practice on something easier.’ Jack quickly forgot about Bob. A debt wasn’t that important. Jack had to cast some small illusion to practice. He looked around. ‘Something small…’ A man was drinking with friends nearby. When the merchant was selling them more liquor, Jack cast the spell. He changed color of the liquor from transparent to yellow.

“Yellow?” The guy asked. “I didn’t know you were selling new stuff.”

“I don’t know anything about yellow stuff. I only sell normal drinks. The same as always.” The merchant said.

“So, what are you drinking?” One of the drinking person’s friends asked hesitantly.

The guy looked at his drink and retched. He poured out the drink.

“Someone pissed into your wares!” He shouted at the merchant.

“What? That’s impossible!”

Changing the color was easy. Jack thought it was a good attempt. Jack decided for some more complicated exercise. There weren’t many people in the tavern, Jack could only exercise on drinking people, gambling people and fucking people. He concentrated on the last group, or rather, on one man there. It was easy to create an illusion for only one person. Jack made an ass of one of other guys look like a woman’s ass. Other people would only see a distortion.

The man Jack was casting the illusion on wasn’t able to see the other guy’s face. He grabbed the ass and felt it out. The second guy looked over and made a disgusted face, when he saw the man who grabbed him.

“Hey. Don’t touch me there! I don’t like guys.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I thought you were a woman.” The man said confused. Jack continued, but he added more asses to the illusion.

Ding… Your Spell Slinging skill has reached lv. 26

The poor guy looked at other men asses and turned red. He went to the merchant and asked for a drink.

Stanley came over. He had been talking with someone before.

“Having fun?” he asked.

“Yes.” Jack answered. He found a nice way to train illusions, it was fun.

“Stanley, I have made an important decision. Maybe one of the most important in my life.” Jack said half mumbling in a drunken stupor.

“Tell me.” Stanley said.

“I’m going to be the greatest trickster in the history, and will trick countless people in my life.” Jack said proudly. It was a good training, and it was fun.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. You shouldn’t make such decisions when drunk.”

Jack knew he was making some people lives worse, but he didn’t care anymore. They were soldiers, and they no longer strived for higher levels. Jack thought it wasn’t bad they can help him with training. ‘Their lives can have some meaning in this way.’

Jack bought another drink for himself, and that was it. He wasn’t able to remember anything afterwards.

Jack woke up with a terrible headache. He cast life detection spell to check on his body, but there wasn’t much wrong he could detect. ‘My spell is too weak.’ He grimaced and just filled his body with life mana hoping for the best. The effect was small, though it helped a bit. Jack’s opinion on the alcohol changed just now. ‘It has both terrible taste and effect. I am going to never drink it again.’

Jack didn’t remember anything after the second drink, but he was already embarrassed by what he had been doing before that. Jack sighed after a thought. He needed to practice illusions, but it would be better to practice without causing harm. Jack didn’t feel very guilty, though.

Jack wanted to train like always, but he quickly gave up. The hangover was too much and Jack just rested. After the half of the day, Bob came to his house.

“Bro, can I borrow money from you?”

“No. You shouldn’t have gambled.” Jack was irritated, he would rather rest than talk. The topic was also irritating on its own.

“Only a bit! How much do you have?”

Jack had 53 lesser coins left. It wasn’t much, but it was something. A drink yesterday cost 2 lesser coins. Jack could buy some cheap trinket for 20-30 lesser coins, though such things were useless to him. Jack wanted something better.

“I’m not giving you money for gambling.” Jack said sternly.

“It’s not for gambling! It’s for paying off debt!” Bob argued.

“It’s the same thing.” Jack sighed. “How much do you need?”

“Twenty coins.” Bob said hastily.

“I want you to learn the fire whip. You will get twenty coins then.”

Bob groaned. “I need money now.”

“They won’t kill you. Learn the spell. Go. I need to rest.” Jack threw Bob out. Jack didn’t want to give money, but he thought it would be better spend money. The spell was the same Aleena had been using during rabbits attack. It gave good defense, even against multiple opponents. A caster could still be overwhelmed by being attacked from all sides, though. Jack would rather see Bob master this spell, rather than buy a useless trinket. Bob had to train every day, his low fire affinity was the most handicapping problem. Most mana types had a detrimental effect on a body, but fire mana also burned it. Without high fire affinity, no fire mage could use fire mana much.

Jack spent the rest of the day resting. He started training the next day. His main occupation, excluding standard exercises, was searching for better detection spells. Jack was only able to find a bit better light detection spell, called a telescope spell. The spell moved light in a way, that magnified a far object for the caster. It was only possible to observe things visually, Jack hoped for something like fire, or water detection spell.

The spell had a great range, though. The spell’s location was near caster, but observed location only depended on line of sight and size of the telescope. Jack noted a similar spell could be cast with other elements as well. Air magic telescope worked similarly.

The spell was hard to manipulate. Casting it in a raw version was relatively easy with Jack’s skills, but adjusting the observed distance or size of the spell required a lot of calculations.

Jack also made sure to learn fire, water and air detection spells. He could create a respective mana type creating rune on the ground with his originally trap laying spell. He needed a dozen of seconds to complete a spell, and then he had to wait for the spell to produce enough of mana, but it was doable. It wasn’t a mobile solution, something he could use any moment, but it granted him an ability to detect more stealthy foes.

Over a week passed, the days were getting longer. There were still no replacement team members. Jack supposed it was a result of confusion with his team history. The team had been already dissolved for some time. One day, Aleena came to Jack with a proposition.

“I have a problem and you can benefit.” She simply said.

“Explain.” Jack simply replied.

“It’s a bit complicated. I need someone to run an errand about forty kilometers deep into the exterior. It’s a job for my family. You will get a magic tool as a payment.”

“Why can you do it yourself? Why me?” Jack asked. Aleena bitterly smiled.

“I need to stay here. Also, I’m at the level 25. I want to evolve soon.” Jack frowned. He was surprised she had higher level, but it was reasonable. Aleena had been always trying to a land finishing blow.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to get tangled in nobles’ politics.”

“This is just a delivery. Nothing political.” Aleena assured. Jack wanted to decline, but Aleena continued.

“You should at least ask what payment you would get.”

Jack bit. “Ok. Tell me.”

“It’s fire detection amulet. It has fire crystal as a core, so it’s a quasi-artifact. It’s sending stored fire mana in a detection wave, and receiving the feedback. The engraved runes automatically analyze the feedback information, and they send them to user by manipulating eye’s nerve with life magic. Information about a detected monster contain things like their tier and species, though it’s not extremely reliable. You can also use stored fire energy to blast it at an enemy in a pinch.”

Jack was moved. He needed a good detection spell, but his affinities were no good in that regard. The quasi-artifact could solve his problems, as it would be mobile devise generating fire mana. That was enough, Jack could cast the rest himself, though automation was nice.

It should also be very expensive. A fire affinity caster should need over two hundred intelligence for all these functions.

“Fire crystals should be very hot. Would I even be able to wear it?” Jack asked. The amulet was a bit too good to be real.

Aleena chuckled. “Don’t worry. The fire crystal is tightly isolated. This won’t be a problem.”

Jack had another concern, though. “You know, such a nice reward is both an encouragement and a warning. There would be no reward, if the task wasn’t dangerous.”

“It is dangerous.” Aleena admitted. “You need to go forty kilometers deep into the exterior.” Aleena repeated. “Though the quasi-artifact is not so precious. It’s worth maybe a grand coin, and only because of fire crystal. Without it, the amulet would cost about twenty or thirty coins.”

‘Not much, huh,’ Jack thought sarcastically. One grand coin was worth one hundred normal coins. One normal coin was worth one hundred lesser coins. Twenty coins were about five years of Jack’s parents’ income.

‘Only nobles and very successful hunters can afford such items,’ Jack thought. The offer was very tempting, but Jack wanted at least to know the detail.

“You need to deliver a package to my family member.” Aleena explained.

“Your family lives in the exterior?” Jack half-asked sarcastically.

“Obviously – No.” She said while rolling her eyes. “The situation is a bit complicated, though.”