17 Chapter 17

The next morning, tired feet dragged it's lazy upper body out of bed like a deflated balloon. Curtis didn't even wake up this early for her job (to the distress of her employers), but she was more than clear on the dire time constraints.

From this moment on, she needed to do everything she could to further his abilities in magic and academics.

With a wave of her hand and a single spell she pulled off the top of her floor to reveal several old books and scrolls stored in it's center.

Picking through them, she didn't really know which one would help the kid the most.

When Tasha failed his spell yesterday, Curtis was actually relieved.

Like any product, spells and rituals had different qualities as well. Even Accolyte ones that Tasha required right now ranged from common grade to those of legend grade.

The difference was that Tasha could learn as many spells as he wanted, but one could only go through 10 rituals during each level.

The ones in the textbook were the lowest of the low, also known as the White Grade, else nobody would be willing to leave it in a text book.

One wouldn't go so far to call those at this grade 'trash' but it wasn't far from it. If one took the ritual spell Tasha attempted as an example, being the most basic ritual spells their augmentation was minimal.

Having Tasha waste one of his ten spots on a White Grade was something Curtis wouldn't allow to happen.

The first ritual in the text book 'Strength Increase Module', a White Grade ritual spell which would give a F Grade strength increase comparable to what a lazy person would gain if they decided to be more active and maybe do something like... 50 push ups a day.

One above this was Yellow Grade, for comparison, the closest thing to 'Strength Increase Module' in this grade was 'Muscle Augmentation Module'.

It was difficult to find anything with exactly the same effects between grades, higher grades meant that there would be more effects added.

'Muscle Augmentation' for example, increased not only the users strength but their endurance and speed as well.

Numbering a total of three effects.

This was how things were graded for most spells up till the third rank which was the Green Grade.

With White Grade holding 1-2 effects, Yellow Grade holding 3-5 effects while green held 6 and above.

Hence even if one didn't have a lot of money, they'd at least save on a Yellow Grade.

The disparity between the first two and the last one was huge, it meant that the limit to a Green Grade ritual was non-existent.

But that was just because nothing could be graded higher than green unless it augmented magical attributes and spell casting which was extremely rare.

One could have a thousand physical augmenting attributes and still be stuck at Green Grade.

There were only three more grades above that which were Blue, Violet and Red

The starting prices of which began at the standard of a 3 story house and ended at...

Well there was no limit really, to how high those prices could climb.

The only draw back from those higher grade ones was that they took way longer to consolidate as part of the magus's core.

But with the increased life span with each level up, the time they lost was negligible.

Additionally, with enough resources, they could cut down the time difference by quite a lot.

And here in her hands, Curtis held several Green Grade ritual spells.

These of course was not the extent of her resources.

With her level maybe getting some Red ones were out of the question, but she had some Purple and Blue ritual spells for acolytes stashed away in there.

It's just that none of them were suited to Tasha.

As a prospective Archmage, Curtis thought she might want to have a personal student one day.

But she also thought that it'd be further in the future, perhaps when she was in her 70s.

And that her student was more suited to her expertise.

Hence all the scrolls and books were of the Earth type or Fire type.

She'd gotten some from the other elements before but traded it off pretty quickly.

And it wasn't as if those things were cabbages, even if you had all the money in the world, there was still a question if you could find anyone who wanted to sell them.

The first ritual was extremely important as it determined the type of mage they'd cultivate towards.

Unfortunately, they didn't have much time to wait and find one suited for him.

Most of the ones enrolling would be much older and probably started cultivating in their families from much younger.

The minimal standard Tasha would have to have to face would be a 5/6 ritual ring Accolyte.

They'd be lucky if he got to 2 rings by the time he was enrolled.

So she decided he was going to have to make do with the ones she had in hand.

He'd get his first ring, and while he adapted it, then she'd find one that fit him better.

After all, it wasn't too late for him to pick his specialization by his 2nd ring.

So out of her stack, she picked two that wouldn't exactly give him a big boost, but wouldn't stray so far from his capabilities.

'Squire's sword-hand module'

Arm strength (B)

Arm speed (C)

Arm Endurance (C)

Upper Body Endurance (D)

Lower Body Speed (E)

Lower Body Endurance (D)

Overall Dexterity (F)

Overall Endurance (E)

'Squire's charge module'

Lower Body Endurance (C)

Lower Body Speed (B)

Lower Body Strength (C)

Arm Endurance (E)

Arm strength (D)

Upper Body Endurance (D)

Overall Dexterity (E)

Overall Endurance (E)

She picked these two according to their previous match. From the lack of his right arm, she'd thought that he'd be more focused on fighting with his legs.

But in that match she found her conjecture about him completely refuted.

His style was very well balanced making his attacks very flexible, to the point that she was caught off guard after she'd thought she'd pinned him.

Seeing that, it made more sense to make him pick from one of the two of these.

If she gave him one that was more focused on one part only, then he'd lose the balance he'd achieved with his body.

Leaving her room she immediately encountered what she would later consider to be strangest thing she'd seen during this time.

There was cooked food on her table.

...

The last time that table had a home cooked meal on it was..

Never.

The landlord at the time threw it in as part of the purchase.

And though Curtis was motivated enough to buy ingredients she thought she'd use her new kitchen to cook.

She never got motivated enough to cook anything.

By the time anyone wanted to propose even borrowing her kitchen.. well, there was no longer a visible dining table for them to use.

Yes, this place was already messy even back then.

The only reason that it didn't look much different when one compared the sea of trash now, to the sea of trash back then was simply because the trash that piled on grew heavy enough to compress the older trash at the bottom.

So, despite everything that has happened and would happen, every time she'd recount this, Curtis would always mean it when she said that it was by far the no.1 weirdest thing that happened to her during this period of turbulence in her life.

A roasted fowl like form sat on her table.

Fat and oil layering it's beautifully browned skin which glistened in the morning light. Contrasted only by a sprinkle of herbs that breathed in the rise and fall of steam that still came from its body.

A piece of it's leg was torn off, the perfectly white frayed strings of meat shone from underneath.

She tore her eyes away from the meal long enough to see that a path had been carved through her living room all the way to the balcony.

A place anybody had only ever seen twice since it was built.

And sitting there, basking in the warmth of the sun, was the boy.

Still as a statue he sat, not even the heave of a breath could be seen from him.

Curtis wondered what it was that he was doing out there.

She snapped a picture with her phone and sent it to Akagi.

[Wut's he doin?]

[The heck should I know?]

[U a psychologist :/]

[I treat humans, don't know what that is]

[Stop joking around :(]

[Stop making the faces, you're an adult, there comes a time you have to stop using emotes]

[Fine, So what's he doing?]

[He could just be relaxing]

[Really?]

[No, He either requires solar power to charge his batteries or he's contacting his alien masters]

Realizing she wasn't going to get a serious answer, Curtis cloaked her phone and looked at him.

While she did that, she broke off a piece of the meat on the table and started eating.

There wasn't much beyond the flavor of the meat itself, but it was cooked perfectly that that alone was enough.

There was a slight saltiness and a slight natural sweetness that melded with the melting fats that washed over her tongue.

After a few seconds of chewing a nice earthy aroma hit the

It felt weird, like he was so quiet he had begun to blend in with his surroundings.

To the point that even wildlife weren't able to notice him.

To prove that point, a Grand Pigeon flitted over from wherever it'd been perched.