A Jaded Life

Chapter 1344

“Whoa, what happened to you?” I heard Landry exclaim, making me think that Waylon had just entered the small kitchen I had set up for my four guests. They only had limited access to my tower, and they obviously had to do their own chores in their designated area. As numerous people throughout time had done before, they, too, set up a chart to share the work fairly, causing them to eat their meals together, which was why they were meeting up now. Given that I wanted to maintain a certain distance, both physical and emotional, between the foursome and myself, I didn’t join them as a matter of habit. However, I had set up a few simplified scrying constructs in the area, allowing me to listen to their conversations, just in case.

Unsurprisingly, Landry and the rest had noticed that Waylon’s eyes had changed, not that the alteration was all that subtle. Unless one wanted to wear sunglasses indoors, the glowing eyes would always be visible and, literally, eye-catching.

“Got upgrades,” Waylon replied, and I didn’t need to be physically present to hear the satisfied smile on his face. “Lady Morgana didn’t think I’d be able to become a real wizard, but she found a way to let me have some magic,” he explained, his voice soft and filled with gratitude.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Richard, the one with the strongest innate magic, asked, his voice a mix of curiosity and scorn. I wasn’t overly happy with the scorn; I didn’t want my students to become arrogant, especially not those with such meagre talents as his. Sure, he had the strongest magical affinity amongst those four, but compared to numerous other students I had in the past, he wasn’t all that hot. Literally, given that his affinity was to fire.

“I didn’t have any affinity for magic. Lady Morgana described it as a two on a scale of one-hundred, though I have no idea where you all are on that scale. You’d have to ask her. So, no real way to learn magic, no matter how much I’d love to. But the Lady is brilliant, and she did something to let me gain access to the power, though she also told me I’d be rather limited in the possible applications,” he explained, and I could almost feel the joy in his voice. He truly enjoyed this, like a kid in a candy shop or something.

“So, she just made you strong?” Landry asked, some jealousy colouring his voice.

“Eh…” Curious about the exact situation, I shifted the hidden scrying construct a little, forming an approximation of an eyeball, so I could actually see what was going on. In this case, I could see Waylon wave his hand in a so-so motion, while the other three were looking at him with small frowns on their faces.

“I’ve got power, but, as I said, I only have very limited ways to use that power. So far, I can hit things with it. That’s it, nothing more. I can hit and destroy things,” he told them, looking both pleased and a little disappointed with himself.

“So, power but no versatility?” Trenton suggested, getting a nod in turn. “A hammer, but not every problem will be a nail. And you, what?” he paused, his frown even deeper than before, “You can’t, or maybe won’t, be able to expand on that?” he asked, making me nod, despite not being present. It was a fairly accurate summary. Waylon would need a lot of time and effort to graduate from the simple skills he could learn by rote. Unless he stumbled across some way to dramatically increase his affinity for Ice Magic, he’d never be a real spellcaster. Just someone who hits things with magic.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Waylon agreed after a few moments, making me feel just a little bit bad for him. Not that he really warranted it, he went from being completely unable to use magic to having the ability to use a fair amount of magical power, but being unable to truly innovate, which was a major step up. It just wasn’t as good as it might have been, though, given the conditions and circumstances involved, it might also have been as good as it could be.

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I wasn’t sure, and until I found a way to increase the magical affinity of someone artificially, it was as good as it could get.

The conversation among my four students continued as I considered their next lessons. The three relatively talented guys hadn’t received as much training as I’d usually give them, mostly because I was busy. But that wasn’t an excuse, or it shouldn’t be, so I would have to make up for that.

On the other hand, I also needed to continue my experiments on Joshua, check in on the people in Maggie’s community and complete half a dozen other tasks on my continuously growing list, so maybe I didn’t really need an excuse; I had more than enough on my plate to consider it full. And these guys had access to my library, with written lessons and exercises, so they could train themselves, even though I planned to give each of them a few hours of dedicated lessons each week.

And yet, when I continued working, it wasn’t on lessons for the three or on experiments to perform on Joshua, mostly because I already had a fairly long list of those. I just didn’t want to head over to the prison at the moment, not while the atmosphere with my students was still somewhat charged, just in case some stupid manly-macho fight broke out. If that happened, I wanted to be present so I could step on it, or them, and make sure that it never happened again.

No, instead of working on anything I had on my list, I was using a piece of conjured stone to write out a few ideas that might work for Waylon. Things that were simple enough that he could accomplish with his lack of control over the power the symbiote gave him. It wasn’t easy, as I had no real experience. My affinity for Ice Magic was always there; I never had to try using the magic without the affinity. So I wasn’t certain what counted as simple for Waylon, because it didn’t directly map to what I considered simple, or even the order in which the system gave me access to different concepts.

But I had some experience with lesser magical affinities. Even on Mundus, I had experimented a little with elements I had no affinity for back then. Mostly with Water, as the Water Mirror spell had been the foundation of my scrying constructs, so I had tested a few things.

Now, I had to apply the lessons I had learned back then to Ice and consider the implications. It wasn’t easy, but the more I thought and wrote, the more I was convinced I was on the right track.

The result, about an hour later, was a short list of tricks and explanations for Waylon. Some of these spells wouldn’t work for him until he got access to more power by levelling up or increasing his attributes. On others, he would have to work, train up his control and imagination, but I was somewhat confident that he could manage. Probably.

But the work had taken up enough time to have the conversation between my four students end, and their dinner, too. All without incident, raising my estimation of their maturity slightly. It also meant I could head out without worrying too much, so I stepped into the shadows and disappeared.

For a few minutes, I dropped in on Maggie’s community, talking with a few people, sharing a few stories about my students' progress, and even clarifying a few things about Joshua’s disappearance. I had already reported that shortly after my students originally came to Jademoon Tower, but a few hadn’t heard, so I was asked about it. Not that I told the truth, just reported what Landry and the rest had told me, as I hadn’t investigated the area.

All in all, the visit was short, but rather nice.

Then, once that part was accomplished, I stepped back into the shadows, only to exit them above my prison, slowly making my way down. My scrying constructs allowed me to keep an eye on Joshua from anywhere within the prison, so I knew he wasn’t doing much right now, just sleeping.

Which was perfect for me, I had a few experiments that required a sleeping test-subject, especially those dream-experiments. It would be interesting to see whether he was dreaming or whether I could induce dreams in his mind. Maybe I could even find out whether he would remember those dreams, and whether anything I did had any special impact on him.

So many curious little riddles to uncover and disassemble, the human, or maybe sapient, mind was truly a complex marvel. Different from the Soul, but neither was boring. And, to be fair, the body also had its curiosities, especially with the system’s enhancements, allowing bodies to perform physically ‘impossible’ feats.

There was just too much to discover and explore, and far too little time in the world.