Chương 253: Not Thinking

"Is Phil really the same Snow Hawk that you met at Galen's Farm, on one of your first missions?" Arica asked as she stroked the Ferocious Beast's head.

"Yep. He made quite the journey to find me," Damion answered. Phil let out his own affirmative chirp.

"I read up about your spell. The report said that you can read its thoughts?"

"It's more like a link between us. I can send Phil messages, and he can send me them too. Usually just a word or two. But it is enough for us to understand each other."

"Amazing. Can you cast the spell again? On another Ice Affinity creature, to gain a second familiar?" Damion thought about the question for a moment and reviewed the magic seal in his mind. The spell bound him and Phil together and its increase in mastery was tied to the growth of their bond. There was no way to fit a second creature into the existing magic seal.

It might have been possible to change the magic seal, so it was less of a mutual bond and more of a master servant contract, then he might be able to control more than one creature of Ice, but Damion did not want that type of connection. If he really wanted to have more creatures under his control, a better option was to modify the spell to work with his other affinities.

Damion could only imagine the reaction of the world if he updated the spell for the Holy affinity and then went and bonded the guardian of the Holy Forest, the White Griffin. The more worrisome portion of the spell was that since it bound him and his target, in this case Phil, if the Snow Hawk died, what would happen. From what Damion could tell from the spell, it would reset. Resulting in the spell falling back to F Rank, but with the ability to bond with another Ice affinity creature.

It was good that the spell would not become useless, but Damion was not enjoying the thoughts of what he would do if Phil died.

"The spell is limited to one creature at a time," Damion answered Arica's question.

"To gain another creature, the bond would have to be broken… or you would need a second affinity."

"I wish I could study the spell. I would love to join in on the race to adapt the spell to another affinity."

"Why can't you study it?" Damion asked.

"I can't afford to buy a copy of your spell, and my master isn't much of a spellsmith, so he won't help me."

"You could've just asked," Damion said, summoning the magic seal to his palm. Phil flapped his wings at the sight, while Arica rushed over to look at it.

"I still can't believe you created a t2 spell on your first try," Arica said as she watched the two circles of glyphs interact with each other.

"Get your tablet and record it," Damion told her. He could keep the magic seal summoned all day, but the two of them had other things to work on.

"You really don't mind? But what about your reward for sharing the spell and your royalties from its distribution? Sharing outside official channels could jeopardize your agreements with the Mage Association." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What royalties?" Damion asked confused. He had created the spell as a class assignment. No one had ever mentioned him receiving royalties for his spell or any sort of distribution contract.

"Damion created the spell as part of a class assignment. While he retains his rights to the spell and to do with it as he wishes, so does the school," Elicia explained.

"And you haven't even tried to go to the Mage Association to get exclusive rights? A school assignment it may have been, but those sorts of assignments usually result in spells like Relieve Itching or Cold Skin. Something that can barely be considered a spell."

"I wasn't thinking about rewards when I made it, besides I don't think magic should be hoarded. I think everyone should share all their spells freely."

"Not thinking seems to be your default position," Elicia muttered, turning away before Damion could question her.

"So, what did you get as a reward?"

"200 points for the term. That put me at enough points to get a spell from the school's tier 3 Repository."

"Trading a tier 2 spell for a tier 3, I guess that isn't too bad. Plus, you still technically own rights to the spell, so you could sell it if you wanted, just have to do it at a lower price than Silver Spire is."

"How much are they selling it for?" Damion asked, curious about how much money he was missing out on.

"1 aether coin," Arica told him.

"And the buyers are only allowed to use it for research, they aren't allowed to resell it or teach it to anyone who can cast it. For use rights, they want 10 aether and another aether each time the spell is learned by someone else." Damion paused and looked at Arica. The amount of money she just described was more than the yearly income of many noble families. A single aether coin was worth 1, 000 platinum.

It was the highest value of coins and was usually reserved for the bulk purchase and sale of valuable shipments and items like spatial artifacts and almost always only dealt with by A Rank and S Rank individuals. Some spatial artifacts could sell for several aether, just by themselves. Though, those were usually artifacts that were made by A Rank or higher artificers and had large pocket spaces, usually in excess of 5 cubic meters. Still nothing compared to what Damion had in the ring from the B Rank Iblis.

"Couldn't you just sell a spatial artifact or two to afford it?" Elicia asked.

"I'm only a C Rank mage. The spatial artifacts I can make barely have a pocket space of a few meters. Master says it is a waste of materials for me to make such low-quality spatial artifacts, so I don't have access to the materials."

"Well, I guess that brings us to why I asked you here," Damion said as he pulled the black spatial ring from the Magic System Inventory.

"Wow," Arica said as she looked at the ring in Damion's hand.

"May I?"

"Go ahead."

"What the hell!" Arica shouted as she sent her mana into the ring. Not only did Arica discover the ring had a pocket space of 1, 000 cubic meters, but she also saw the two items Damion had stored inside. A Heavenly Fire Enhancement Fruit and a Heavenly Wind Enhancing Fruit.

"You not only have a ring that can probably store a small city, but you have two Heavenly Enhancement Fruits in there!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot I found those," Damion said. The Heavenly Fire Enhancement Fruit was useless to him since his Fire affinity was already A Rank. The Wind Fruit might have use in the future, if he ever got the Wind affinity.

"You forgot?" Arica and Elicia coughed.

"How can you forget?"

"Well, they aren't useful to me," Damion told her.

"I just stored them away, where I knew they would be safe and… forgot about them."

"Are you going to sell them?"

"I was thinking of maybe saving them as gifts for friends in the future. Or maybe to use to barter with someone."

"You have the craziest luck," Arica told him.

"What makes you say that?"

"You have found how many Breaches now? How many Heavenly Enhancement Fruits? Adventurers normally don't ever find an unknown Breach, let alone Heavenly Enhancement Fruits."

"Yeah, I guess, but they aren't really all that useful. They can boost an affinity, but a fruit that can boost magic talent would be worth a lot more."

"If such a thing existed sure. Low talent can be overcome by hard work. The lower your affinity, the weaker your connection is with your spells. The weaker your spells will be and even channeling your mana into your affinity can be next to impossible. Have you ever met anyone in the school with an affinity under C Rank?"

"I don't think so," Damion admitted.