Chương 42: Spatial Mages

"And you aren't afraid someone is going to see you using your magic and think you have a spatial artifact and try to steal it?" Damion asked Arica. Now that he understood she was a spatial mage, though a weak one, she would one day be able to make priceless spatial artifacts. Perhaps she could even make one for him one day.

"Any mage that saw me would understand once I explained. They might be upset I had nothing they could steal. But the number of Spatial mages can be counted on your fingers. Any mage knows that if anything happened to me they would be in serious trouble."

"So, you are considered a national treasure," Damion joked with her.

"I guess you could say that. Other than spatial artifacts, there is one other thing spatial mages are known for, making portals."

"Portals?" Damion was suddenly confused.

"You mean like Realm Breaches?"

"Oh, I guess you do have a good teacher," Arica said, surprised Damion knew about Realm Breaches before she explained.

"No, not like a Realm Breach. Portals that Spatial mages make are travel portals. We can teleport people to places we've been before, once we are strong enough."

"That is pretty amazing," Damion admitted.

"I knew the Spatial affinity was rare, but I did not realize it was that rare."

"You should understand that there are other people out there with the Spatial affinity, but they aren't considered Spatial mages."

"You mean the mages that don't have a high enough talent to be able to make use of their affinity."

"Yep, since it is difficult for them to learn Spatial magic, they instead follow the knight's path. Having a high talent and the Spatial affinity is very rare. Just as rare as S Rank talents."

"How strong do you have to be to make a spatial artifact?" Damion asked.

"If I had the materials, I could make one now, but it would only have a storage space of one cubic meter at most. When I reach B Rank, I should be able to make one that has a storage space of five cubic meters."

"Is that the point it becomes profitable?" Damion asked. He thought even the small spatial artifacts would be worth quite a lot, so he was not clear on when such priceless artifacts became profitable to manufacture.

"At C Rank you could consider it profitable. Two cubic meters of storage is considered the minimal acceptable size of a spatial artifact. But as you might suspect, with spatial artifacts, bigger is better. Few people would buy a C Rank mage's spatial artifact. Anyone that can afford one would just save their money a bit so they can get a larger one." Damion was learning quite a bit from Arica and he felt she was not snobbish as others had led him to believe she would be.

If he was able, Damion would have stayed up all night to ask Arica questions, but shortly after she finished her meal she signaled she wanted to rest, leaving Damion's questions for later. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. In the morning Damion awoke early and was almost finished with his bland rations when Arica stirred. She watched him for a few minutes before getting up herself and eating her breakfast.

Once she was done eating, the two of them packed up their camp and set out to the next marker.

"So which magic academy did you go to?" Damion asked to break the morning silence.

"Erythraean Academy."

"That is in Rubrum right?" Damion asked trying to keep the conversation going. He was curious about the magic schools and eager to learn all the things Ms. Teft had yet to tell him, but he mostly wanted to break the awkward silence the young woman had fallen into overnight.

"Hmmm… Oh yes, it is," Arica said. Damion was realizing that she was distracted by something, but he was not sure what.

"What is it like in Rubrum? I've never been to a White Zone before."

"It isn't too different from Saung. Just bigger."

"That is hard to imagine, Saung is pretty big," Damion said and when he did not get a reaction from Arica he figured there was something wrong and decided to go with the direct approach, ask.

"You seem distracted this morning. Did I do something wrong last night?"

"What?" Arica was startled by Damion's question and then looked at him with questioning eyes.

"Who is your teacher?"

"My teacher? Helga Teft." Damion was not sure why she asked, but he saw nothing wrong with answering her.

"How is it that a knight has an A Rank mage as a teacher?"

"It is kind of complicated. But I'm only a knight because I was hurt when I was young, and an expert put a seal on my magic core. The seal prevents me from learning magic seals until the seal lifts." Damion had a feeling that somehow in the night Arica had gotten wind of something. What she had learned about him was not clear, but it seemed to worry her deeply and Damion decided it would be best to be as honest as he could with her.

"When will this seal lift?"

"It should lift when I turn eighteen. Are you going to tell me what is wrong now?"

"I received a message from my master in the middle of the night. I wasn't supposed to mention it, but I guess I was acting weird so… Anyways, my teacher told me that under no circumstances should I abandon you and run if we encounter trouble."

"I don't understand."

"I told you before didn't I? If we encountered a strong Ferocious Beast I would flee while you held it off."

"Oh, I guess you did say that. I didn't take it too seriously."

"Well don't worry about it anymore. I would like to ask though, you said your seal will lift when you turn eighteen, how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"And you are a licensed adventurer already? Aren't your parents worried about you? And shouldn't you be in school?"

"Of course my parents worry," Damion answered.

"But what parent doesn't worry? I've only taken a few missions and they've all been pretty simple ones. As for school, I started early, I've already finished my schooling and until I can learn magic seals, I can't attend a magic academy, so I'm getting real world experience."

"Real world experience…" Arica seemed lost in thought for a moment.

"The experience you get in three years working as an adventurer will make you more experienced than all the academy students in their final year."

"Experience is good, but knowledge is also good. I hope you haven't taken offense at my questions. I'm just curious about all things magic."

"I understand, I can try and answer your questions, but I'm not a teacher. I'm barely out of school myself."

"Have you ever been in a dungeon?"

"Sorry, I haven't. I don't really have any offensive spells. Going in and clearing Realm Breaches is something offensively oriented mages or support mages do. My spells are pretty much all utility. All my schooling was focused on learning to enchant artifacts."

"What kind of classes do the magic academies have?"

"Well, you know about the wilderness survival course. But that is not until later years. There are classes for magical theory, and classes tailored to the different affinities and of course classes that focus on offensive or defensive uses of magic. Other than magical theory and the survival course, most classes are determined by what affinity you have and what you want to pursue."