The job was pretty simple. Just as I had predicted, I could use Gravity to make moving things around really straightforward. Sure, the client had a ton of boxes and other things he had to carry from one side of Ring Three to the other, but I could deal with it. Plus, it was a good workout for my stamina.
“It’s alright,” the client said. I still didn’t know his na and wasn’t bothered enough to ask. “You can take a break for the day. We can finish up tomorrow.”
I swiped off so sweat from my brow. It had definitely been a workout. So much so that, after finally stopping for the day, I received a nice little notification.
[ Rank Up!
Your Vitality Attribute has risen by one Rank.
Your Path of the Newborn Star has risen by one Rank.
Vitality: Iron III
Path of the Newborn Star: Iron IV ]
“Then I’ll see you around the sa ti as today,” I said.
“Assuming you don’t get lost.” The client’s face was still severe, unless I was misreading his expression, but his words were light. “Again.”
“Uh, that might be a given.”
He snorted. “Here, take this before you go.” I accepted the glass bottle of light green liquid. “Sothing to help you cool down on the way back.”
“Thanks.”
As I walked back to Ring Four, I took a tiny sip of the drink. It looked like mountain dew, but it tasted more like liquified grass. Which was weird because I hadn’t seen any grass on this sun-forsaken world yet. At least, none that was naturally green. It was cool though, so that was comforting after the long day of work.
I didn’t drink the rest of it. Instead, I Sacrificed it.
A part of had kept wondering if I could say any old thing and the Weave would consider that good enough for an activation. So I just said, “Thanks again, Mr. Client.”
It worked.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Item of Moderate Gratitude. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward: Rank gain hastened by 2x for 1 Attribute until next rank [Assignable to Any Attribute] ]
Huh. So a reward similar to what I had received from Sacrificing the packets the grateful woman had given . Last ti, it had been Strong Parental Sentint. Now, it was Moderate Gratitude. It was interesting how the Weave overwrote the properties of the item being Sacrificed when there was so sort of emotional component attached to it.
I assigned the reward to Power. As my highest Attribute, it would need the most effort to grow, which ant I’d be saving the most ti by increasing its rate of growth.
I did get lost on the way back. That was fine. I got to et another cult, which was interesting to say the least.
It wasn’t like I had stumbled upon another temple dedicated to another god. Instead, I found several cultists handing out pamphlets on a busy street. Most people, none of whom were human like the three cultists, ignored them completely.
“The land blesses you on this fine day, citizens of Zairgon,” said one guy.
“Praise be Nyf!” said a woman, leaning towards a passing Rakshasa who was trying to pretend he couldn’t hear anything. “Praise be Zairgon! Under the auspices of this land that supports us, that raises us, that holds us above the grasping reaches of the Pits.”
The loudest voice belonged to the youngest of the group, a girl who looked younger than . Almost as young as the young Scalekin who had helped the little girl against the Thralls, Sreketh. “The Cult of the Earth would be delighted if you attended our little ritual in three days, on the fifteenth of this month! The Cult of Nyf invites you. And you. And yes, you too! And—definitely not you.”
The last had been directed at as I had passed them by, and I blinked.
“What did I ever do to you?” I asked.
“You’re the new one in the Sun Cult, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I am? I an, I am. But also, I’m famous?”
The girl scowled at . Unlike her two companions, who were dressed in robes not that different from mine except for their green-and-brown sche, the girl’s robes were almost black. She was also ard. Heavily. “Don’t get a big head, newbie. Unlike you dolts, we at the Cult of the Earth like to keep track of things and stay abreast of developnts.”
Rude as she was, she actually had a point there. I had been so focused on getting myself and my life going, I hardly knew a thing about the other cults. All I knew was that the way Aurier acted about them, it almost sounded like we were in so kind of gang-like turf war against them. No wonder the girl was lowkey threatening .
I pointedly looked around at the people passing by. “Shouldn’t you go back to focusing on inviting people to your little ritual? You’re going to lose your audience.”
The girl looked like she wanted to cut down with that big sword at her waist, but she was unfortunately restricted by the fact that we were in public. “And why don’t you go back and keep crying about your failed Sacrifice. Stop wasting our ti and scram, you punk.”
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“I’m the punk here? You’re half my size!”
The Earth cultists stopped paying attention to , minus the occasional glares, preferring to go back to their attempts to entice others to their temple. I sighed and kept on moving.
It was interesting to note that the Earth Cult was well aware of the Sun Cult’s attempt to Sacrifice . Of course, it wasn’t like Escinca had made a big deal of keeping it a secret, and neither had I in all honesty, despite Aurier trying to keep mum to so extent. But clearly, the Earth Cult wasn’t joking when they said they tried to stay inford.
Now I actually did want to know about the other cults.
Back at the temple, I reported about my successful day of work and that the client was happy with . So much so that I had even invited him to Escinca’s little fete, though he had ended up declining it. The Elder had requested we spread our invites far and wide, to people we were even mildly acquainted with.
“I t the Earth Cult today, Elder,” I said, expounding on my brief interaction with them and also ntioning that it sounded like a gang war was afoot between the cults.
He wasn’t surprised. “It isn’t really like that. It’s more that we are all struggling for recognition and relevance, now more than ever.” I nodded, rembering one of our first conversations. “So if any cult seems to be getting ahead of the others, there is always the undercurrent of fear that the rest of them are diminished in significance in turn.”
“But…” I frowned. “Faith isn’t that simple.”
“It truly isn’t. Sadly, not many understand that.”
I was a little glad he didn’t go on and ask about my faith. It was obvious the cultists here took their devotion seriously. Even if there weren’t regular prayers, even if they didn’t enforce strict religious rituals and observances, they continued to believe in the existence of the gods their cult stood for and actively worshipped them.
Historically, as I had learned, the gods had been banished well over an aeon ago. Most people weren’t completely sure of as to why, except for so cataclysmic event called the Rupture. Different followers of different gods ca up with differing reasons that led to said event, so of which conflicted with each other and placed emphasis on different parts.
One thing was common in all versions, however—the strongest non-divine beings were involved and the Weave ca about at around the sa ti. It was almost like severing the gods from the mortal place had been an important ingredient in bringing about the Weave.
But despite the gods being gone for so long now, it hadn’t dampened their faith. At least, not for the ones who were in the cults.
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in them. On the contrary, in a world where sothing like the Weave and magic of so many forms existed, it was natural that there would be divine entities abound too. They were probably a lot more real in the tangible sense than any religion I knew from back ho.
And yet, did it matter? When the gods here couldn’t be present and act any better than the gods back ho? Wasn’t it really the sa in the end?
I didn’t want to get too caught up in all that. What I really wanted was to keep focusing on my strategy of growth, on raising the ranks of my Aspects, my Attributes, and my Path. And my mana core too, at so point.
Nevertheless, I helped Escinca prepare for the party. Just one more day, and then we’d be hosting a celebration that was more or less for . It made a smidge nervous. I wasn’t one for parties, and didn’t enjoy group setting in general, especially ones that were so… aimless, like parties. Enjoy myself? I could do that just fine on my own, thanks.
Well, it was less the fact that I was bothered by group settings and more that I didn’t care for eting a bunch of people I hardly knew. If it had been just Escinca and Aurier, that would have been nice.
“Yeah, I’d prefer a smaller get together,” I admitted to my sprite that night. “Smaller is nicer, right? But don’t tell the Elder I said that.”
The sprite weaved and bobbed in agreent. At least, I hoped it was agreent.
“You know what, I think I’m going to call you Enrico.”
Enrico, the newly nad sprite, shimred brightly. I smiled.
I finished up my task of moving a bunch of stuff across Ring Three the next day. It was another long day of work, although not as bad as it had been the previous day. I was a little more economical about it, this ti.
The previous day, my attempts at efficiency had been to weigh down several boxes and furniture and carry them in groups from their origin to their destination. This ti, I took all the remaining ones together. I lowered the weight of every single remaining thing left that I had to move, lashed them together with ropes, and then dragged them behind in a long train.
“You’re essentially replicating what a Locomotion Mage would have,” my client inford . “Not that I think any less of you for your enterprise. Very odd, for a Gold-ranked mage.”
“Gotta be more, uh, enterprising at Gold rank,” I said, trying not to sweat.
“Mm.”
I was successful, regardless of the odd looks I got. It was one thing to move a bunch of stuff at a ti, like I had done yesterday. That sort of sight was rare, but not unprecedented. But dragging around what amounted to basically the possessions of an entire house—the client was rich, so even half his possessions amounted to the average of what most people would own as I saw it—like a train wasn’t sothing most people had seen.
A part of wanted to remind them that surely they had seen Locomotion Mages at work. But I had a feeling those mages didn’t tie things together with ropes before hauling them along.
But I was done in the end, and the Rakshasa was happy with my performance. I got another free liquid-grass drink as so sort of weird tip, before taking my leave with the pin that was now attached to the signed letter from the client stating I had completed my job.
I didn’t head to the Mage Guild directly. First, I went to a nearby bank and opened my account. I was happy to provide proof of residency and the bank needed a minimum starting amount to deposit to actually open the account. Thankfully, I had a tiny portion of Kostis’s winnings from the other day, so I had no issues.
And then I went to the Mage Guild to report my success.
“Your paynt will go through the actual mage who took the job,” the receptionist, Silhatsa, said. “So you might not see a deposit made imdiately. Nor am I aware of the specifics of the delegation, as we tend to leave that to the involved mages to decide among themselves. All we care about is this,” she added, accepting the letter with the pin.
“I’ll check in with Master Kostis later,” I said. “Thank you for the help.”
“It’s nothing. rely my job.”
“How do you actually, like, send money to the bank? I an, I know you can just transfer funds from the Guild’s account to the recipient’s account. That’s the normal bank stuff. I’m more asking how you send the ssage to tell them the bank to do that.”
“Well, we are the Mage Guild.” She offered a small smile that bared a few small fangs. “How do you think we do it?”
“Right. Magic.”
I made my fingers do silly exaggerated motions when I said it, which made Silhatsa laugh. That weirdly reminded of Escinca’s request and I invited her to the cult’s fete, which she actually accepted.
“Oh, it’s tomorrow?”
“Oh yeah, sorry.” I rubbed the back of my head. “Kind of a late invite.”
“I will try to make it. I enjoy parties! But no promises.”
“See you later, then.”
It wasn’t that I hadn’t figured that long-form communication would involve so sort of magic. What I was more curious was the how of it. So far as I had seen, magic created by people via Aspects only lasted so long. My Gravity always faded after so ti, and I had to maintain an upkeep of mana if I wanted to keep it going when I was weighing myself down on purpose.
So did that an there were incredibly powerful mages with massive amounts of mana out there in charge of running things like the obviously magical streetlamps?
My thoughts were interrupted by a familiar figure striding towards .
“What’s that I hear about a party?” the Rakshasa in leather armour asked with a smile that was slier than it was friendly.
“We’re having a little celebration at the sun cult,” I said. “To help raise everyone’s spirits a bit.”
“Oohhh! Where’s my invite, friend?”
“When did we beco friends?”
He looked so betrayed. “Oh, co on. If we hadn’t talked the other day, would you have ever gotten yourself that nice little job?” He peeked at Silhatsa, who was busy helping soone else. “Only a friend would help you get a job like that, right?”
“Normally, I know my friends’ nas.”
He laughed. “Call Casvat. There, we’re friends now, right Mage Moreland?” He peered at with growing interest before finally drawing back. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow, pop by your little cult fete. I do enjoy parties too.”
With a few pats on the shoulder that was more forceful than friendly, Casvat retreated. I frowned at him. What kind of a mage was he? He didn’t dress or act like one, but then again, neither did I.
Friend, huh? I wouldn’t go that far. Casvat reminded of the kind of people who took what they wanted and ignored everything else, who would call anybody their friend so long as they were useful. He sounded fake. Plus, I hadn’t actually invited him. He was just going to show up because he felt like it. What an ass.
I caught the tester Ogre, Kliezeg, frowning at Casvat as well. Then he caught my eye. The look we exchanged convinced that I’d need to be wary of Casvat.
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