I examine Loranor as I walk up to him—all his fine clothes, his jewelry, and his staff that looks to be made of pure gold with a large blue gem at the top the size of a fist. Purple seems to be the chosen color for space mages based on how much he’s wearing. He’s a human, unlike his Veltark date, whose na I already forgot, but he has piercing blue eyes, clearly deviating from just a standard human. He also stands quite tall, about a head above , with a posture that seems used to looking down on others.
“Don’t seem so disappointed it took this long. You’ve been keeping tabs on . You could have visited anyti you wanted.” I say with as much of a custor service smile and tone as I can manage. “It’s not like traveling across the city takes us very long, and I’ve got better things to do than answer back every letter you send . There are only so many hours in the day, after all.”
Loranor’s eyes focus a little bit more, and then he pauses for a mont, his face shifting subtly, like he just suddenly changed his opinion about . I’d bet an ambitious and powerful man like him hates being blown off like that, like so kind of commoner or sothing. I can tell he’s about to say sothing, but the blue woman next to him speaks first, stopping him.
“I’ll leave you two boys to your little spat.” She turns to Loranor. “Co get if you think you can get him to listen to our offer. Otherwise, I’m going to have a little fun.”
Oh, what is this offer? Did Loranor bring her just to strike so sort of agreent? I kind of just planned to loudly and publicly refuse his offer to join the Spacers Guild, maybe bruise an ego a little bit, and then go about my day, but now I’m at least curious about what he has to say. Maybe I was a little too rash in judging him and his guild. I should at least hear him out. I could be missing out on a lot of money and resources.
Loranor clears his throat, and now his face matches mine, full of practiced politeness. He’s tamping down his feelings and emotions in order to do proper business, respectably. I should be able to do the sa, and yet I let my emotions take over and provoked him in front of everyone. I clear my throat as well, slightly embarrassed at how I just acted.
“Perhaps your companion is right, and we should save any ill will until after we have discussed business.” I say, taking the opportunity to speak first and thus be the bigger man. That should clear from the slight passive-aggressive display I just made, right?
Loranor looks at with the sa politely schooled expression. “I concur. Let us mingle and be rry, and we will et to discuss business in two hours. Is that suitable for you?”
“Yeah, that works. I want to talk here, though, in one of the side rooms. Neutral ground.”
“That is acceptable. In two hours then.” He says as he steps past and into the crowd.
It isn’t until now that I realize how many people were watching that. Almost half of the room is turned to look at and Loranor, with expressions varying from slight curiosity to starting to fight already. Most people seem to lose interest as he walks away from , but a few give encouraging grins and nods for so reason.
As Loranor moves throughout the room, his spatial perception field moves around with him, still compressed under the weight and force of my own. I consider letting up a little bit to give him so breathing room but quickly decide against it. It’s not a question of politeness or rudeness, but one of safety and precaution. Everywhere soone else's spatial perception field is, mine can’t be there, and I have no idea what’s happening in that area. I refuse to let myself be at any kind of disadvantage unless it is absolutely necessary, especially with so many potentially powerful people around.
I look around for the water mage that was teaching barriers earlier, but I can't find him, so I decide to check in on Daniel instead. I find Daniel grabbing a few drinks from a server and teleport next to him. His mana sensing must be getting better, because he stops moving and waits for the instant I start forming the rift that will serve as my exit point next to him. He offers one of the drinks in his hand, but I just teleport one from a nearby server’s tray directly into my hand.
“So, who’s bigger?” He asks.
“What?” I ask back, slightly confused.
“Your dick asuring contest with that guy. Who’s bigger?” He asks again.
“I am. His spatial field is disappointingly small. I’m starting to think that either [Space Control] is ridiculously powerful in comparison to what most space mages here have, or my affinity to space is much deeper than theirs. I need to et more space mages first to really test that, though.”
“So that’s the guy who’s been sending you all those letters? Did he have anything to say?”
“Not much, just that he has an offer for and wants to chat in about two hours. If he just wants to join the guild or his house, I’m going to decline the offer, but on the off chance it’s sothing else, I’d be a fool to miss it.”
Daniel nods in agreent. “I’ll be nearby. Call on the amulet if you need anything.”
“I will, but he brought a negotiator, so I think he’s serious.”
Daniel and I split up again, with both of us going to find our dates. I’ve been doing my own thing for a little bit now. It’s probably ti to see her. I find her chatting with a few people dressed in various shades of green and walk over to them to introduce myself. Turns out these are mbers of Leaf and Fang, a nature guild that covers a lot of affinities but focuses on those to do with beast taming and plant manipulation. One of them grows a seed into a big thorny rose almost three feet tall before making it wither back down to nothing in a small showcase of their abilities.
Morah and I walk around to a few more such groups, where she always introduces as ‘Initiate Ray Alder, independent space mage.’ I can’t help but get the feeling she’s up to sothing, especially once several of the guilds present offer various jobs and contracts, after they see my capabilities, of course. I tell them to send any offers they have to the Citylord, and she’ll make sure to get them to . I can tell Morah gets slightly annoyed by this, but that’s what she gets for parading around like a show dog.
An hour and a few potentially good side jobs later, Morah and I are intercepted by two individuals. One is a very cat-like woman with short tan fur covering her and a tail swinging behind her. Next to her stands an elderly human man in a simple grey robe, an initiate. He’s a baseline human all the way, with no weird hair or eye color, black teeth, or anything else that could distinguish him from any average Joe from Earth. But there’s also that other initiated planet rrick ntioned, Harran or sothing like that. It also only has humans. Out of curiosity, I check their classes and levels.
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[Level 46 Blade Dancer]
[Level 39 Reflection Artist]
I’m guessing she’s so kind of dexterity-based lee fighter, knives, based on how many small pockets her clothes have. A reflection artist, though? Does he reflect things back? Or does he do sothing to reflections instead? And he’s a higher level than , which is pretty impressive given he looks to be about seventy years old.
If I rember right, the planet this guy is from has two other habitable planets in the sa solar system, and both of them have already undergone initiation and are under the rule of so empire. rrick ntioned that the initiates from this planet were starting out with no mana, just like the rest of us, but that they probably have knowledge of techniques and skills that would give them a big advantage.
Morah and the cat woman must be childhood friends based on how familiar they act with each other, and while they catch up, grey robe and I introduce ourselves.
“Ray Alder, initiate from Earth.” I say as friendly as I can. I’d like to set up a good relationship with all of the other initiates if I can. We’re all in this together from my point of view.
“Harnu Weatherwisp, initiate from Harran.” He returns in an equally friendly manner. “It's always nice to et a fellow trailblazer. How has the initiation treated you so far?” He asks jovially.
That seems like a rude question to ask, but what do I know? He could have been training and studying his entire life for this mont, and in such a case this would all be expected. Huh, when the initiation first happened, this guy would have known what it was, even if he didn't know when it would happen.
“Good, I guess. It was hell for a little while, but then I just kind of got used to it. It's mostly fun now. Sotis it sucks, but healing magic usually makes it better.” I say honestly.
He lets out a laugh at that before responding. “Oh, I suppose it would be hell, taken completely by surprise and dumped here. You've managed to adapt well though, I see.” He points at my mana arm. “And all on your own, I'm presuming.”
“Mostly. I had so help here and there, but most of it is through trial and error.”
“Perhaps we should et together soon and swap stories and ideas. I would be remiss to not hear your perspective of all this.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Sure, but only if you tell about you and your world in exchange. I have a feeling Harran is far more interesting than Earth.”
“Wonderful! Take this and feed mana into it when you want to contact . It will only work within this city, however, so don't take too long.” He leaves after handing a small red mana stone similar to the one in my amulet. A communication device.
I leave as well, since Morah is still talking to her friend and trying to find more initiates. I spend about thirty minutes looking, but it's hard to tell who is and isn't an initiate sotis. I already know all of those from Earth, and Corvax and his family are the only Traxi in Barad. There doesn't seem to be any of the Kryntari, the big mantis things, and I still don't know what the Skrill look like, the race that had enslaved the Traxi on Corvax’s ho planet.
I give up when I see Loranor and the negotiator approaching . I start walking towards them, and we all head to one of the doors at the side of the room. The door leads to a sitting room with a small table in the middle. Once inside, Loranor goes to a control panel next to the door and activates sothing. A field pops into place around the room.
I can imdiately tell that it's just so sort of anti-eavesdropping asure, not any sort of actual defense. I wonder if sothing like this can be installed in the workshop.
“Thank you for eting with , initiate Ray. I think that you'll find my offer very convincing. Please sit down, and we can begin.” Loranor says.
I sit down, and the negotiator picks the seat in front of , while Loranor sits to her right, both of them on a small couch.
“So this is the prick that killed my brother?” The negotiator says this, which causes to imdiately go alert and look at her.
As soon as I make eye contact with her, I realize that I’ve just stepped into a huge trap. Several things happen almost imdiately upon eye contact. The first is that I can feel the mana from so skill manifest itself on the surface of my eyeballs and travel through my optic nerves and into my brain. The second thing I notice is that the skill worming its way into my brain is clearly so kind of ntal manipulation that’s already grasped several parts of my mind, making it impossible for to move.
It feels like she’s implanted so kind of impulse to stay locked in place, and I feel another one forming as well. I slam mana into [Concentration] as a knee-jerk reaction, imdiately putting my mind under an alarming amount of pressure. I fight back against the impulses she sends to the best of my ability, but I’m unable to do more than stay in a deadlock with her, struggling in my chair. A drop of blood starts to drip from my nose, runs down my chin, and lands in my lap.
Loranor takes out so docunts from a pouch on him and sets them on the table along with a pen and a pot of ink. Both the ink on the paper and in the pot are glowing bright red. He looks to his companion with skepticism and a small amount of doubt.
“Are you sure you can convince him like you said? He needs to be willing when he signs the contract, or it won’t work.” Loranor says with growing worry.
Ah, so that’s what that impulse is. They’re trying to get to sign that magical contract. It’s easy enough to fight off since I managed to react before it fully took hold, but I feel it slowly gaining ground.
“Leave to my work, spacer. A mindless husk works just as well for your plans, maybe even better.” She says as more of her mana streams into through my eyes. This ti it feels much more destructive than the commands she tried before, like she really is trying to wipe my mind.
Loranor looks increasingly worried as I start to struggle more and more, and my eyes and ears join my nose in pouring out blood. After a mont's hesitation, he walks over to the door, making sure no one can enter.
The pressure on my mind keeps ramping up, but thankfully the more I use [Concentration], the easier it is to ignore that pressure. I feel my mind start to crack, and I know that if I want to make a move, now is the ti.
I give way to several of the smaller impulses that I've been resisting so far in order to free up so ntal capacity. My hand reaches toward the contract, and I maintain eye contact, all under the orders of soone else, but it allows to push [Concentration] far past the point I would usually stop.
[You have leveled up an active skill]
[Concentration] lvl 18
[Concentration] lvl 19
[Concentration] lvl 20
Due to my heightened state of clarity and [Concentration], I am able to react as soon as the increased skill level allows its limits to be pushed even further, giving myself a slight chance to act.
The first thing I do is sever both of my optic nerves with a few fast bursts of mana, practically blowing the back of my eyes apart. The pressure on my mind drops dramatically as her direct access to my brain has been shut off, and she reacts with surprised shock, realizing her attack failed.
“My turn.” I declare as my left arm starts morphing into a javelin, and I stand up from my seat, several more skills already in the process of being activated.
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