93 Annual Unboxing

The air inside the bladder wriggled, fighting Galahad's will. He felt like he had a grasp on it and stopped to think for a moment.

'Can I just transition from one element while still holding another? . . . That might work.'

He was just guessing at this point, but there wasn't anything better to try. While switching from conversion to fire, thinking it would the easiest transfer air to a combustion, Galahad felt a surprisingly huge resistance.

'Not gonna work.' He quickly found out. The moment he was about to switch to fire, the hold on the air contained in the bladder was going to disappear.

"I don't know how to do this. I need another magician who has been using it to help me figure it out." Galahad admitted as he let all the mana he was holding onto go.

He tried a few different things after that; heating the water to a vapor, changing the candle fire to air, but he met the same forces of resistance each time.

There was some kind of technique to conversion magic and he just didn't know it yet. For now, it was just testing, so Galahad didn't kill himself over it and released all the mana he'd been circulating around his mana frame.

The air in the room rippled and then went still. Galahad was ready to give up when Regin stopped him from getting up.

"Now hold on, last I checked; magicians were able to control two elements at once if they had them. Let's see how that goes."

Galahad could already feel the headaches settling in his brain, he was not gonna get to spend the day recovering.

After a few hours of figuring out how to manipulate four of his new elements and applying to two at the same time, the tests became a bit repetitive, Galahad quickly lost enough internal mana until the headaches started beating at his head. The only way he could recover was through potions or letting his soul slowly regenerate it. As he was about to say he needed to take another break, he remembered something.

"You wanted me to come early today, but you never told what the reason was."

Regin stopped calculating ideas in his mind and started smirking, not giving an answer. He instead had Galahad follow up the stairs and out onto the lawn of the building.

They were greeted by a clutter of wagons filled with crates all over. In just the small time frame Galahad fell asleep at Regin's workshop, a legion of wagons had arrived on the doorstep.

There was hardly any space for Galahad to move between, especially when he tried to follow the dwarf who simply walked under them.

For once, their differences in height was a disadvantage to Galahad, who too tall to just crouch under the assorted goods.

"What did you get and why did you get so much it?"

Regin popped up three wagons down from where Galahad was, prying open a crate to see the contents.

"It's a seasonal tradition to get all my supplies and new tools bought all at once. A few months from now, I be selling my next round of patents to the kingdom for more research money, which in turn will buy the followin year's new equipment. Ah, here we are!"

After opening six different boxes, he found what he was looking for. Galahad heard metal clattering against one another before the dwarf decided to toss one of the items at him.

Galahad caught it and immediately noticed how light the metal object was. The sleek, metal canister sounded and felt hollow as he examined it. There was some familiarity to the object, but it wasn't until Regin clarified the item, did he remember.

"It's one of 'em highly pressurized air canisters, you'll be needing it when ya get yur friends out of that cavern."

"Oh, thanks . . . but what do I need it for?" Galahad suddenly felt like he was holding a bomb. Recalling the first day he met the dwarf.

The day he arrived, the previous assistant had been carrying one up the stairs and tripped on the last step, dropping the metal canister with enough force to rupture a corner of the container. That rupture resulted in a leak of air magic compressed within to come out violently. Blowing the door open on Galahad's face.

Regin sighed as Galahad had once again, not made the connection on why he needed such an item.

"I'll answer that question with another. How do ya intend to get all those people outta the dungeon? What are ya gonna do about the crystals they're trapped inside?"

*****

In the market district, Terra was still in the same office building she had been working in when she met Galahad. The only difference was she now had the bigger office space that her old boss used to be.

Now she had his old job and much more leeway in the office. It certainly was a change she'd been looking for in her life; now more than ever, the doubt of what she was doing with career was gone.

Terra was currently scrolling through the list of expenses for the neighborhood revival near Diagon's main districts.

'Galahad really helped pick up the pace last night, I can't imagine how much I'd have to spend for movers just to carry out all the materials. They'd raise prices for everything and take their sweet time too.'

Thanks to quick work orders and making deals for the contractors get first priority on moving in, her estimated payments for contractor were worse than the actual result. She couldn't stop smiling at when she sent the scry explaining how much progress was being made to the board.

'I owe Galahad quite a bit for all his help. I just wish I knew what else I can do to repay him. I am sure he is tired of getting paid in food.' She slowed on her expense compiling when thinking about him.

After getting to know him for months, Terra found his company to interesting. He hardly talked about himself, but he had a way of connecting stories and sharing his experience with life indirectly. He seemed like a caring brother with a love of witty remarks.

'Yet . . . He also seems sad. Why do I feel like he is just faking it sometimes?' Terra pondered this, wondering why she kept thinking he was pretending to be different around her.

One thing that never left her mind, a small detail she never asked about, was about the first day they met. He's been travelling and was the spitting image of a complete mess. Then two days later, he was like a whole different person; cleaner, happier, and somehow a bit more althetic looking.

Terra just couldn't figure out who exactly Galahad was, concerning her greatly.

"Um, Miss Zongyu?" Asked a soft voice from the side.

It took nearly three repeats of the sentence before Terra finally broke from her fixed contemplation.

"Ah-what? Yes?" She hadn't realized that she was so focused on the strangeness of Galahad, but quickly recovered. "Did you need something Aron?"

Her new assistant, Aron was a fresh hire that took the job that she originally worked. His sheepish personality reminded her of her little Tasling the first week she got it.

It was terrified of the new environment at first, then after a week, it loved roaming the apartment. She could only hope Aron would learn to be less terrified of her just because she was his boss over time.

"No-no, I don't need anything. It's just, your appointment should be here in a few minutes and I thought it'd be good idea to remind you."

Terra smiled and thanked him for letting her know, seems he was getting less jumpy at everything. She took her Karmic tablet and walked down the stairwell to the lobby.

In the main lobby, a group of men and women wearing suit were cluttered together. It was a shared office building, so Terra didn't know much about who they were or which business that were associated with.

All she knew was the supposed to find her appointment without having met in person yet. She scoured the others who were seated in the lobby without suit, and was about to pull up the name of her appointment, but was stopped.

"Can I assume you're Miss Terra Zongyu?" Asked an accented voice from behind.

Terra turned and met eyes with a blue eyed, redheaded woman with a scar running down the side of her cheek. She seemed to have the same look behind her eyes that reminded Terra of Galahad, she figured it was the look of a dungeon adventurer and kept going without too much thought.

"Yes, I am. Please come right this way." Terra guided her to the levitating crystal platform and attempted to make small talk. Each question was briefly answered and without much follow up.

Terra thought she'd have a hard time figuring out the places to list until the woman began asking her own questions.

"I believe you actually helped an old friend of mine move in around here. His name is Galahad, and I was wondering if you might know where he decided to live."