Chapter 6: Learning"So that armor fits? Great, we'll take it!"
"That will be 8 silver."
"Done."
"Uh, is bargaining not a thing here?"
"No time, we need to go!"
"The edge feels sharp enough. It'll do."
"5 silver for the sword, then."
"Here."
"I'm grateful, really, but why are you helping me so much?"
"Talk later. Hmm, ten days of food and water for us should be enough."
"Um, a small notebook and pen would be nice too?"
"Sure, that's fine. Total price?"
"1 silver for the lot."
"Done."
"Ok, now we can talk."
Carlos raised an eyebrow at Amber and smiled, bemused by how rushed their exit from town had been. "Ok. So, to start with, I get that Kindar will be pissed at me, but I don't see how that would make it so important to rush out. Oh, and to bother laying a false trail by circling around to go the opposite direction from where we left Erlen."
Amber raised an eyebrow right back at him as they continued walking. "He'll think you destroyed the dungeon, and he won't be shy about telling that to everyone in Erlen. They'll all think that you destroyed our very own local dungeon. A very weak one, admittedly, but still. The whole town will want to punish you, not just Kindar, and the only way to convince them not to would be to hand over the intact dungeon core."
Carlos paled a bit. "Ah. Oops. Makes sense that dungeons are considered important resources." He sighed. "Thanks for rescuing me from that, then. And that brings me back to my earlier question: Why are you helping me so much?"
Amber chuckled. "That's actually a few different questions combined, isn't it? The first of them being why I'm willing to just skip town so suddenly at all."
Carlos nodded. "Yeah. I was under the impression that Erlen was your home."
"It was. And it sucked. I had no real friends, no one liked me, and everyone got annoyed by all the things I find interesting. People would joke about me reading all the time, ignore or dismiss anything I tried to tell them about it, and make fun of me for aspiring to match archmage Sandaras. Even my mother just didn't understand why I cared about any of it.
"The truth is, I've been planning and preparing to leave for years. I have no idea how many times I've daydreamed about learning magic at the royal academy, and I've been saving up to pay their entry fee. The book you found me reading yesterday was review, studying to make sure I'd be able to pass the exam to qualify. I was already planning to leave in the next few weeks."
"Ah, I see. So that part was fortunate timing for me."
"Yep. The other parts are, let's see, why I'm willing to come with you, and why I spent so much money on helping you. That money came from what I saved for the academy's fee, by the way."
"Wait, you gave up your chance at the academy for me?"
"Yes. At least for now, until I can save up enough again. Please don't make me regret it."
"Um. I'll try not to?"
Amber smiled at him. "Just don't keep important secrets from me anymore, and I doubt it will be an issue. Anyway. You were interested when I started talking about magic theory yesterday. And you called all those idiots back there exactly what they are. Maybe it's sad that this is true for me, but that makes you the most promising potential friend I've ever had."
Carlos gently put a hand on her shoulder. "It is sad, but it's in the past now. And it's a big compliment for me, so thank you."
"Hey, I still feel like I should be thanking you. Especially with the next part I'm about to say."
"Oh?"
"I'm sure I could find some potential friends at the academy. At the very least, it's filled with people who would understand and share my interest in magic. But one: you're here already; and two: at the academy I'd be learning the same magic that everyone learns. With you? You've already told me about two revolutionarily groundbreaking things that I had never heard even the slightest hint are possible! That... I- I don't even know how to express how incredible that is.
"I always planned to go to the royal academy, but plenty of people go there, and the odds of me actually being talented enough to match Sandaras are... not good. It was more of a hopeful wish than a realistic goal. I probably would have ended up a typical average mage; competent enough, but nothing to write stories about. You, Carlos, are my ticket to a real chance at matching, or even surpassing, archmage Sandaras someday.
"And sure, you might reasonably view that as taking advantage of you. But if I become a legendary archmage from this, it will be because we both become legendary archmages together."
Carlos nodded. "That's fair. Good solid reasoning, too. I was worried this might be a poorly considered whim, or something."
"Ha! Ask anyone who knew me back home, and they'd tell you I always have a plan. Always."
"What's your plan right now, then? Surely you didn't stop with just 'get out of town'."
"The next step is very simple." Amber got out the book she'd been reviewing yesterday and opened it to a bookmarked page, showing a familiar written incantation. "You, fellow future archmage, need to learn your fundamentals. See if you can get that glowing light spell to work by the time we make camp for the night."
Carlos glared at his hand, which was still stubbornly refusing to glow, and sighed. He was still missing something, and just repeating the same thing to try again probably wouldn't help. Maybe an idea would come to mind if he came back to it later. [Hey Purple, what exactly were you doing last night? You asked for a position where you could take in some mana, but didn't you have to just leave it all behind again?]
[Was trying solve that. Attach mana, take with. Takes time. Spend one thousand twenty four mana. Attach one mana. Crystal internal bigger. Wasteful if stay, but not stay soon.]
Carlos stopped walking for a moment, stunned. He recognized that number instantly. Nearly any computer programmer would. [1024? 2 to the 10th power? Why that exact fraction?]
[Don't know. Why important?]
[Nevermind. I don't think I could explain it. Anyway, you're going to slowly start having more mana as we keep traveling?]
[Yes. Don't make spend soon. Please. Terribly drained. Take time build up.]
[Only in an emergency, if there's no other option. I promise.]
[Thanks.]
Carlos idly looked around at the fields and occasional trees they were passing, putting matters of magic out of his mind for the moment. Sometimes, the best way to solve a tricky problem really was to just stop trying for a while. When you came back to it later, you'd have broken away from the failed approaches you were stuck on and might have new and different ideas.
An hour later, Carlos finally broke the companionable silence he and Amber had settled into. "Amber, I think I need to revisit your explanation of the four foundations of magic. If I get all four right, that should be all it takes to make the spell work, right?"
Amber nodded. "Yes, the four foundations are all that spell needs."
"Ok. First foundation: mana. Could that be the issue? I'm from another world, do I even have mana?"