D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

After shelving the conversation about the best government structure one could strive for was, Kat decided they needed a more light hearted topic. ”Well, you’ve mentioned that training is one of the main prizes people are after in terms of the Tournament. What about you?”

Nixilei nodded, ”It’s the same for my. Apparently the largest information broker in the world is one of the people offering training. The fact that I know so little about them is already quite enticing for someone like me. As good as I am at healing and fighting, spy work is actually what I enjoy the most. I know that one day, Green will grow up a bit more and won’t need me as much. Well, that and Gareth will step into a lot of my roles, he already has. When that happens I want to take over Green’s family spy network and expand it massively…

”Though I also quite like fieldwork. Perhaps I’ll head the organisation for a while, remake it to my standards before passing it off to an apprentice and returning to field work? I’m not certain but I’m very interested in whatever training someone so mysterious has to offer. I’ve even heard rumours they have Healing affinity… which would be great but I’m not holding out much hope really.”

”Why is that?” asked Kat.

”I thought that one would be obvious Kat. Nobody even knows their real name, what chance do I have of actually finding their true affinity? Not only that I’ve also heard they have half a dozen other affinities aside from healing and they can’t ALL be true. Nobody could handle so many. I believe the largest recorded number of affinities in history is five? Yes, five but even that is just from old legends. Four is allegedly possible but I only know of people with three for sure. Well, two really. I think Thyme MUST have three, and I know the Elf King has three…

”But it’s not particularly impressive. He has water, ice, and fog, which sounds good for synergy reasons… but a powerful enough ice mage can make water and fog… and a powerful enough water mage can make ice and fog. Fog mages can’t really make ice… but the point stands… his affinities just mean he has a bit of an easier time branching out. It’s not so much synergistic as it is overly similar.” Explained Nixilei.

[Huh… picking affinities seems a lot stronger than I thought. Perhaps we should ask Nixilei for her thoughts on my choices? We can’t change them now but it would be nice to know ow good they are together.]

”Well… if you don’t mind Lily wanted to ask about her affinities?” Nixilei nodded so Kat continued, ”She was able to pick them when she got her new body, it’s the reason she’s a cat at the moment, her soul is recovering somewhat from the procedure. She chose Paper, Shadow and Space.”

Nixilei’s eyes widened. ”Such a thing… to get a whole new body and new affinities? I wasn’t aware you could even add affinities in such a way. I thought they were bound to the soul… then again if you have the power to move a soul perhaps… anyway, you asked me a question. I… I don’t really know much about paper affinity. I know of no one famous who had it. I’m actually a little surprised it can even be an affinity… but you would know better than me.

”With that being said… Shadow and Space to have some synergy together at least. Shadow can pull off a few little space tricks without Space affinity but… together they can do great things. The most famous instance of a combination Shadow and Space mage was a legendary thief that went around stealing mansions from people. Apparently they cast a shadow so large it swallowed buildings whole before they would be sold to someone else on the other side of the world. No Shadow mage could keep something so large in their shadow like that. You need both. The same could be said of Space mages.

”They tend to have issues interacting with enemy mages unless they are careful. A powerful Space mage might have been able to steal a mansion but they would have to do it by cutting off the mansion and putting it in a pocket dimension people and all. Rather than taking the mansion it would be more accurate to say they sliced the world itself. They’d also need a rather long time to get it done. That’s just one example of what they can do together. What were you hoping to get out of Paper affinity?”

”The biggest reason for choosing paper is that I already have sort of an affinity for it. I love books and have spent most of my early life gathering knowledge,” said ’Lily’ ”so I figured that would help in some way. I’m not sure why but I did. On top of that, I was thinking of using my Shadow affinity to write on the paper, perhaps creating interesting effects that way. Then Space because it synergises well with shadow and I wanted a movement affinity.”

Nixilei tapped the rims on her glasses as she thought on Lily’s words. ”Hmmm… certainly an interesting idea. Considering how rare Paper affinity is, I can’t comment on if mixing it with Shadow will work as you wish it too… but I think it should. Probably won’t be very mana efficient, but… hmm… perhaps if you work in Space as well…

”If you use Space to designate an area as ’yours’ you should be able to change the rules up a bit… and with Paper and Shadow to solidify those rules… hmmm… you might be able to do something truly great with those three… though it will take practice to meld them together and access to all three affinities. Do you have that at the moment?”

”No” said ’Lily’ ”Just Paper for the moment, if I even have that. My soul needs to recover and then I need to be stronger to use all of them. Is there anything I can start doing before that though?”

Nixilei’s face became slightly pinched. ”I… hmm… you put my in a difficult position. Yes… there is technically… but I don’t know about your soul. There is something every novice mage needs to do… but I don’t know if it would be right for me to tell you… I know the temptation of knowledge is great… and to finally be able to use magic… I’ve always had mine so I’m not sure I could resist if somebody told me how to practice even if I shouldn’t… no I know I couldn’t because the trainers had to physically stop me a few times when I first learning…

”Sorry Lily. Without knowing it won’t cause you damage I can’t in good conscience explain where you should start. If I ended up causing you harm… I’d feel rather bad and I’m sure Kat would be rather annoyed with me… and Green would make that odd not quite pout with the ’I told you so face’ she never gets to use because I’m normally right. Yes. Truly a horrible fate I must avoid.” Nixilei gained confidence in her decision not to tell Kat or Lily anything towards the end once she considered the ’consequences’.

[I suppose that’s fine. I’m a little annoyed… but she’s also very correct. I’d make the attempt as soon as she told me, even if it’s likely I should wait till I get a humanoid form again…]

*Yeah probably. Let’s just… ask something else then?*

[Why not ask about why she isn’t going for Healing training?]

Kat relayed the question and Nixilei just gave a slight shrug in response. ”Honestly… healing is a very well-studied field. Plus the world always wants more healers. It isn’t hard to get books on the subject or find someone willing to take an apprentice for a few years in exchange for service or money. Unlike the other more combat orientated affinities there is… I suppose a culture of sharing… mostly. I’m not so foolish as to believe healers can’t attack people, but I do know those spells are kept tightly bound.”

[Yeah I bet a high level healer could give you like… super cancer or something. That would be really deadly]

”What about you though Kat? I doubt you’d ask for training considering you’d have to stay on this world for a while. Plus, I’m not really sure what they’d be able to teach you anyway,” said Nixilei.

Kat was going to give it a moment to think but realised this was a good opportunity to talk about herself, something Nixilei had mentioned Gareth had wanted. ”Well actually, I recently just finished learning how to use these somewhat properly,” said Kat as she pulled out the fans. Kat also wasn’t willing to say she’d learned them ’properly’ because she could still feel that Heartfelt Contract wasn’t complete for some reason.

”Ah, I remember those. You manage to learn them since the last round of the tournament? Who was your teacher?” asked Nixilei curious. The fan wasn’t a common weapon.

”Well… it was the strange slime girl called Mai…” started Kat.