Roommate

D finished warding his belongings, both doors, and several general ones for the entire room before finally collapsing back into his new bed. He was still following his train of thought on wards from his earlier conversation. Comparing how different spells and wards were while trying to find ways to improve wards.

First, he reviewed again all the information he had on spells and why they were better. Spells could be prepared and held at the ready to be released at a later time or place. It simply cost the mage a bit of concentration. This was possible not because spells were more versatile but because they were less accurate. In the example, Larian had given him with lighting a candle the words worked like the formula of a ward. While all the enunciations, inflections, etc that were like the various variables that could be added in. But it was much harder to be exact with them compared to placing them in a ward.

Larian said that a mage could light a candle from any point in a room even while moving but if there were a bunch of candles together he was as likely to light all of them as none or a random one. He also had little control over the amount of energy use so he might barely get it to ignite or cause a fireball. The same thing done with a ward could light a specific candle amongst a sea of them and finely control the temperature of ignition but would only be able to do it if the candle wasn't moved and from the point where the ward was placed.

Another difference was for spells was its maximum power was limited by the mage's ability to draw in ether or mana from the world in the time it took them to chant the spell. Once readied they couldn't increase the power. A ward could draw in power as long as it was placed exceeding the limit of a mage by simply taking longer.

What D didn't understand was why a less specific ward couldn't be worked to give a more general effect just like a spell. He did something similar with his concussive wards by just releasing all the stored energy when triggered. It didn't require specific targeting but the ward still had to be localized in space so he couldn't just pick it up and walk away. A ward wasn't tied to the surface it was attached to but the specific location in space it was placed. What he needed was a way to carry a prepared ward around.

There was one solution, enchanted items could do this but they utilized rare and expensive components that were consumed. They were already an option but not really a competitive one for anyone capable of using magic and there were other limitations the catalysts put on the wards.

Rolling over in his new bed D did his best to think of a way to apply some new parameter or formula to substitute for catalysts. Sadly, he had no experience working with enchanting, and neither did Larian so he had little to work with. Yawning D went to sleep hoping he wouldn't be awoken by hunger that night.

**********

During the time he had before the dorms opened up properly D managed to inscribe plenty of wards for all kinds of purposes. From the defensive wards he could utilize to utility ones for many of Larian's plans. Larian praised him constantly for his growing expertise in magic but often complained that he couldn't achieve a similar success with just about any other academic endeavor. He still struggled to read, couldn't cast even simple spells without outlandish backlash, and wasn't making much progress with any of the other preparations Larian was putting him through.

"No no to flirt with a girl properly it is mostly in the body language. Eye contact is also important. Act more confident and can't you do something about that voice? How are we going to make you popular with the ladies if you keep either scowling or looking like a dead fish while sounding like the big bad wolf!" Larian sighed as he struggled to help D with his most recent lessons.

"I don't care about girls." D rasped annoyed.

"Well, not yet but you will! Besides a few romantic trysts are key to an exciting academic life!" Larian sighed. "Fine fine let's work on your hand-to-hand combat again. You need to be able to hold your own when the bullying starts. It will be more dramatic if you completely overwhelm them! Now, remember no turning your hands into claws, no scales, no biting, no acid breath, no poisonous tails, just plain old fists." Larian got into his stance before remembering something else. "No hitting below the belt either! I thought you popped one last time."

D sighed and tried to enter a proper stance, they'd discovered that D was considerably stronger than Larian but the gap in skill made it far from even. Still, so far only Larian had been injured in their sparring matches since it only took one slip up where as Larian wasn't sure even if he went all out he could hurt the boy. D possessed amazing regenerative powers on top of a physically superior body even if he wasn't transforming into his ever-evolving monstrous form.

**********

Other than his lessons with Larian in order to fulfill the arch mage's desire for a perfect academy experience D also started lessons with Rachel to help with his poor reading and writing skills.

"I still don't understand how you can create such complex wards and yet barely read!" Rachel exclaimed more than a little exasperated as she reviewed D's most recent attempts.

"Numbers are easier." D shrugged. He'd rather be spending his time working on his wards but Larian had insisted he accept Rachel's offer. Something about crushing on his teacher being an exciting part of youth or some other nonsense.

Rachel sighed and reminded herself that tutoring the boy would be good practice for when she was a professor. After dealing with him she doubted any other student would be a challenge. "Ok let us start from the beginning…" D was rescued by his favorite ward going off, the one he set to create a cheerful chiming when it was lunchtime. Rachel closed her book sighing yet again as D hopped up. She'd learned that lessons ended when it was a mealtime whether she wanted it to or not.

The day the dorms opened up properly D was reminded of a fact he'd already forgotten. He was to have a roommate. Said roommate turned out to be the son of a farmer and a housemaid named Dean. A talk gangly boy with sandy brown hair and nervous brown eyes that during their first meeting were incredibly wide. Dean had triggered one of D's many wards and was currently pinned upside down to the wall inside their now shared room. D was glad to see the sound suppression component of the ward was working perfectly when he entered the room.

"Right, Roommate." D disabled the ward letting Dean collapse down onto his bed before scrambling to right himself.

"What's going on! What happened! Is this room haunted?"

D gave him the same bored look he would have in another grammar lesson. "No. You triggered a ward."

"A what?" Dean glanced around confused.

D debated on trying to explain but felt it would be too much effort for no return and sat on his own bed instead without response.

"Er, I'm Dean by the way." Looking around nervously Dean stood up and offered his hand to his odd roommate. 'I better try and make a good impression before they find out I'm just a commoner.'

D looked at the hand for a moment before looking back up at the boy. "D"

"What?" Dean looked about awkwardly.

"My name." Calming down Dean noticed the other boy's odd raspy voice.

"You're not a noble?" Taking a better look at him Dean was pretty sure he was no noble.

"No"

Dean grinned feeling better knowing he wouldn't be stuck with some noble for a roommate and surprised another commoner was attending the academy, even if he did seem odd.

**********

Dean was starting to wish he'd had a noble for a roommate instead. D barely spoke and most of what he said was pointing out the various magical traps he'd somehow managed to place all over the room. Dean felt like he was tip-toeing through a lion's den just being in his own room. Plus all his attempts to make small talk had yielded little. In fact, the only good point he thought came out of his odd roommate was that the extremely pretty and young dorm mother seemed to be on relatively close terms with the oddball. She stopped by to introduce herself and then proceeded to give the boy some sort of private lesson. Dean didn't know what he needed to do to get a private lesson from such a beauty but he planned to find out.

For his part D just resigned himself to the new annoyance that having a roommate would be since he couldn't change it. After taking the time to show Dean where most of the wards were or at least the ones he might accidentally trigger but not the ones that he'd only trigger when trying to bother D's stuff he continued with his normal day-to-day life. Lessons with Rachel were cut short by the constant interruption that was Dean. While his lessons with Larian were cut short by constant interruptions needing Larian's attention. Overall the days felt like a waste to D who didn't even get to work on his latest ward. The final straw for how bad the day was came shortly after lights out.

D was curled up in bed when the first pangs of hunger started.