D.E.M.O.N.S: GETTING SUMMONED WEEKLY ISN'T SO BAD

— Kat —

Before they left the tent, but while everyone was getting ready Kat had one question… prompted by Lily. “Why not use the enchanted water remover more often? Or like something with an umbrella enchantment? Assuming that’s a thing,”

“Because we’ve got a cheap shit one,” stated Kress.

Nixilei slapped him lightly on the arm but sighed and admitted, “While crass he’s not entirely wrong. The version we have needs to recharge. It also isn’t entirely safe to be used on the regular, what with it pulling water from the eyes and skin as well. As for umbrella enchantments? They get rather pricy unless you want them to protect an unmoving spot.

“Something in how the enchantment is made makes it much, much harder to use on the move. It’s considered one of the major enchanting challenges for young enchanters to undertake. The person who works out a cheap, easy, portable umbrella enchantment will soon find themselves one of the richest individuals on the planet,”

“That’s… odd…” said Lily as she transformed. “From what little I know about enchantments that’s really not how it should work,”

Nixilei shrugged, “I haven’t looked into the problem myself. From my understanding the issue is that when you summon the ‘umbrella’ above the device it will simply remain there even if the device is moved, or it will tear itself apart in a spectacular fashion. The closest thing people have to an umbrella enchantment is a floating bit of cloth that is enchanting to repel water and follow behind someone but it’s still got a speed limit and at Rank 2 we already exceed it.

“Though… after this experience it may be worth looking into purchasing one of the expensive ones. It’s not worth using a first place prize on it… but if we come last it might be something to ask for…”

“Wait so everyone gets a prize?” asked Kat.

“Yup. Everyone still in the contest is going to get something rather spectacular… it’s just a matter of how good at this point. There’s a large difference of course, but even coming last at this point would be enough for the team to request noble titles, or some extremely powerful equipment. Obviously the main prize is tutelage under the exceptionally skilled. Especially when that usually comes with a new set of equipment as well,” explained Nixilei.

“Why?” asked Lily. Curious as to why learning stuff would give you free armour.

“It’s in part a prestige thing and in part tradition,” explained Gareth. “From a prestige standpoint it’s ‘unacceptable’ for an apprentice of someone so powerful to have weak, or ill suited gear. Traditionally though? Gear was considered the least the tournament could hand out, and they weren’t always able to pull in suitable masters.

“In the past it wasn’t such a big deal so people were less interested in teaching the winners, and often times the runner ups. So… the committee would put in a good word and make a request, but regardless of if it was accepted the winners would still get a full set of armour. Which back when this all started was considered a huge leg up.

“Plenty of those armours given away in the first dozen or so tournaments are locked away in family vaults now. My own sadly doesn’t have any, but back then having a full suit of proper enchanted armour was a big deal. So much had gone into the war effort that everyone was a bit burnt out… and well… a lot of the enchanters ended up dead as well in covert action,”

“I understand,” said Lily. “I can see why that would start up a tradition and I can even see why the mentors would keep it up after they were more likely to accept the post. Does anybody ever ask for anything else though?”

“A few times,” admitted Gareth. “There have been a few nobles that ask for renovations of their main keep into a veritable fortress, a few people who used the win as a chance to get a nice place in a safe area to retire and have kids. There was… even one rather famous instance of using their win to ask for a noble assassinated. Though that was quickly banned outright afterwards…”

Kat winced, “I can imagine the nobles weren’t happy about that sort of thing…”

“I bet they weren’t,” agreed Gareth. “But it was actually the assassin’s guild of the time that lobbied for it. Someone lower down the totem pole accepted the payment for the job and then failed at it. The woman in charge, known only as ‘The Delicate Spider’ was apparently NOT happy. She killed the target, the person who accepted the payment, and the one who asked for the assassination. Then instituted and official ban on using the tournament to request assassinations as it was ‘against everything the tournament stood for’.”

“I suppose that makes sense… though why did you say ‘of the time’?” asked Kat.

“Because the assassin’s guild in question got destroyed,” explained Nixilei. “They ballooned into a large organisation because of the war and continued for quite some time afterwards… until they were destroyed by Ulf actually. Well, it was announced and recorded that Ulf dismantled the organisation but nobody really believes that. Most people think he folded them into his own private spy organisation,”

“And… is that likely?” asked Kat.

Nixilei shrugged, “Eh who can say. Ulf has historically been a great king and having…” Nixilei glanced around. “and having met that ‘completely random farmer’ recently I have to say he seems like a pleasant person to be around… but he was definitely strong enough to break them. It’s entirely possible he took out the organisation, or perhaps he acquired it. Honestly I’d guess that they were getting too big and he worked with The Spider to pretend to destroy it while simply cutting out a lot of the chaff.

“It was long before we were all born though, so that’s all supposition these days. Ulf wasn’t exactly forthcoming about the details of the operation for historical preservation. It was a matter of the kingdom’s defences at the time. Though… any direct quotes from him do seem to imply he didn’t kill many of the assassins at the very least so make of that what you will,”

“Is that someone you’re interested in learning from,” smiled Kat. “Surely if this spider was strong enough to run the organisation she was at least Rank 4. Do you think she’s still around?”

Nixilei nodded, “Probably yes… and I am unsure. I suppose it would depend on what sort of magical affinity she had. I’m a spy, not an assassin and I understand the difference quite well… even if I can manage the latter in a pinch. Perhaps I should shore up that deficiency in my skillset but in truth? I’m not that interested in kill sentients and I do not wish to make myself better at the task. It would just mean more unsavoury work for me.

“My plan is to either go for a renowned healer or a world class spy. Though in truth the spy angle is more tempting. There is only so much you can learn from a powerful healer that just abuses their Rank. Nor can I really learn the advanced spells without ranking up myself. Spycraft though? That is universal and I’m sure that I am nowhere near the peak,”

“I guess healer spells are a bit different then others right?” offered Lily.

Nixilei shrugged, “I wouldn’t really know. Perhaps? General healing spells can get you through a lot and the more specific ones can do more harm then good if you don’t know what you’re doing. Though it does allow you to heal ‘above your weight class’ so to speak. Perhaps if there was someone who knew how to do high level healing enchantments? Alas I know of no one with that skillset and I am not an enchanter anyway,”

“What about everyone else?” asked Kat. “Lily and I will probably ask for space magic training for Lily. Perhaps from Thyme if they’re cool with that.” Lily gave a firm nod to indicate that Kat was correct, that was the prize they’d agreed on.

“I’ll probably ask for Artema to train me. Not just in the use of the bow, but in like statecraft stuff as well. The political connections I’d get from being her apprentice are well worth it even without training and she’s considered to be one of, if not the best archer currently alive,” answered Green.

“I don’t know,” admitted Kress. “I was looking for strength before… but now? I might ask for a nice place for myself. Though… probably not. With more strength and power I can make enough money to buy such a place. No idea who I’d get training from though…”

“I’m not certain either,” admitted Gareth. “I have a shortlist of a few different people but I’m considering beseeching Oditr for an apprenticeship. The sort of work she’s doing is interesting to me. It would give my lands a leg up, and perhaps help me out in the field. Though… I’m really not certain of my choice nor do I know if she’d accepted. Rulers have often turned down apprentice in the past, so it’s almost expected,”

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