Isekai assassin volume 2.., p.16
Isekai Assassin: Volume 2 (A Gamelit Dark Fantasy Adventure), page 16
My lacking knowledge of magic in this world was starting to become a liability. Because I didn’t know its limits, I kept getting surprised by it.
Though, it’s the only reason I’m still alive at all.
After facing Crescent Thorn head-on, I knew one thing for certain.
Magic and skills were holding the guild back.
It seemed this world’s warriors relied on their gifted skills and magic over their natural talent.
Which, while it made them deadly in their own way, severely limited them in other ways.
I trained my entire life and pushed my body to its absolute limits, but these killers use magic and their skills as a crutch.
A crowing rooster in the far distance told me it was time to get a move on.
But there was one thing I needed to check before I left.
I pulled up my status.
Level up!
Name: Elias McKinley
Age: 29
Race: Human
Level: 3
Exp: 790/16454
Stat Points: 15
Skill Points: 1
Skill List [+]
Stats
Strength: 31
Constitution: 27
Endurance: 37
Wisdom: 25
Perception: 35
Agility: 49
Charisma: 16
Luck: 19
I’d leveled up, which was surprising, but a good surprise after the night I’d had.
Though I wanted nothing more than to play around with my new stats and check out my new skills, I was wounded and in a foreign city with a guild of very, very angry assassins after me.
Level and skills can wait until I’m out of this mess.
Which meant it was time to go.
I threw on a clean shirt, stowed all of my equipment in my dimension ring, and took off from the tanners.
More people were out and about at this time of day than I expected, but from the clothes they wore and the tools they carried, they were farmers and miners heading outside the city to farms and the quarries scattered around Odra.
I went mostly unnoticed as I skirted through the throng of sleep-deprived citizens. By the time I got to the town square, dawn had finally broken over the tall walls surrounding the city.
The square was empty, so I took a seat at one of the benches and leaned back for a moment as the first light of the day bathed me in a warm glow.
Need to get moving, but I’m tired.
The hour or so of sleep hadn’t done much, and my wounds took much of my energy away.
Aless is probably awake by now. But I can’t go back to the inn. Too risky.
While I was confident no one in Crescent Thorn was tailing me, they’d have attacked me already if they were, I didn’t know their allies in the city. Which meant I couldn’t take any chances.
While they may not be working together, ten to one odds the Foxes have some kind of arrangement with Crescent Thorn. I can’t trust them. They probably wouldn’t turn Aless in as a former guild member, but I’m not part of the guild.
Best steer clear of them for now.
There were a lot of maybes, but I didn’t want to risk Aless by going back to the inn when we already had a pre-arranged meeting place.
I just had to wait until the shop opened in a few hours.
And my rumbling stomach told me exactly what I could do to pass at least a few minutes of those hours.
It never failed that when I was injured my appetite became voracious, so I stood, pushed down the pain that accompanied me, and went to find a place that served breakfast.
***
A few hours later, after I spent an hour at a shady hole-in-the-wall tavern and helped myself to two and a half bowls of porridge and some burnt as hell bacon, I found myself in front of a small bookstore nestled away along a quiet street corner.
The sign, which read Magdalene’s, was a quaint little shop with a cherry wood façade and spotless glass. The store's name was embossed in gold over the doorway as I pulled open the door and stepped inside.
A shrill bell announced my presence.
“Welcome to Magdalene’s,” a chipper female voice called from deeper in the shop.
The store was packed with shelves, filled with books that lined the walls and crisscrossed like a maze through the main area of the store. Everything was neat and in its proper place. There wasn’t a speck of dust along the wooden shelves or a spine out of place.
It was crisp, clean, and neat.
I loved the place automatically.
It took me a second to navigate the maze, but I soon stood before a long, wooden counter with even more books lined up behind it.
A cute, young girl stood at the counter.
She looked to be in her teens, maybe seventeen at the very most, but I was betting closer to fifteen from the thinness of her face. Her hair was auburn, and she had dark blue, nearly black eyes.
She glanced up as I approached and plastered a fake smile on her face. “Hello, sir. What can I do for you?”
Seeing such a young person working the counter put me off a little. While child labor was nothing I hadn’t seen before, it was usually exploited child labor.
Here it looked like the young girl tended the shop by herself, which was something I hadn’t seen before.
“Are you Magdalene?”
“Yes! Well, kinda.” She shook her head and stared me up and down. “I’m Molly. Marina Magdalene was my mother, and this was her shop. Plague got her year before last.”
I leaned on the counter. “So this is your shop?”
Molly nodded. “Yep. Well, technically, it’s my pa’s, but he’s busy runnin’ the mines and never had a penchant for reading, so I work the store.” She leaned in close and winked at me. “But that’s just between us. Anyone asks, and I usually tell ‘em that he’s in the back or on lunch.”
I chuckled. “Then why tell me?”
“Because you’re not from Odra. And you carry yourself like a thief, which means you won’t tell the guard or the church about me.”
I paused at her assessment. Her eyes were sharp, sharper than I’d given her credit for when I first saw her. I’d let my bias that she was just a child influence me.
Just going to blame my exhaustion and wounds for that little lapse.
“You’re quite clever. But how do you know I’m not a thief?”
Molly shrugged. “Most thieves who look to rob me don’t use the front door. Though if this is a new scheme to lower my guard, I must say, the Foxes have really slipped. Besides, you smell like burnt flesh and salve, and the way you’re breathing tells me that you recently got into a fight.
“Most thieves don’t get into fights. Which makes you Crescent Thorn, so you get a discount like the rest of the members.”
I whistled. “You’re something else, y’know that?”
“Of course.” She beamed at me. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, what can Magdalene’s booksellers help you with today?”
“Magic,” I said, leaning heavily on the counter. “I need all the books you have on magic, and I was told you sold spells here as well.”
Molly’s eyes lit up at my words, likely at the payday she was about to get. “Of course, valued customer. Please take a seat at the tables in the far corner,” she said, thumbing to my left. “It’ll take some time to get your required items.”
I turned and nestled against the far wall were a small group of tables with enclosed lanterns for reading.
Sitting down sounded like one of the most pleasurable things I could imagine at the moment, so I did as she requested and went to the tables.
My full belly and exhaustion were enough that when I sat down, I was asleep in under two minutes.
What must have been a second after I closed my eyes, someone shoved me awake. I looked up as Molly shook my shoulder softly. I shot up and then immediately calmed down as Molly chuckled.
“Sorry,” I said with a yawn. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
She smiled. “That’s quite all right, you aren’t the first to take a nap in my store, and you certainly won’t be the last.” Molly motioned to my left, where a stack of leather-bound books sat. “I gathered up all the books that deal with magic for you. Six in total, but it covers most of the broad strokes of the subject. For an in-depth study, however, you’ll have to head to one of the mage academies, but they’re…selective.”
“Elitist?” I asked.
“That’s one word for them.” Her pale lips turned up in a smirk. “I prefer assholes, but elitists works in polite company.”
I chuckled as I sat up and stretched, wincing as my wounds burned as I worked the kinks out of my muscles. “When did they turn you down?”
Molly just smiled. “In any case, your total for the six books comes out to two hundred and forty-eight vahn. Once you’ve paid for them, we can move on to the scrolls.”
Smart kid. The scrolls are obviously much more expensive given the amount I paid for the water spell.
I opened my dimension ring and pulled out a heavy burlap bag filled with vahn. I took out three hundred vahn and handed them over, paying extra now in the hopes of getting a steeper discount on the scrolls.
She took the money, one coin at a time, carefully counting it and recounting it before she took one in her mouth and bit down. After a second, she nodded softly and stowed the money in her own ring.
“Thank you for your patronage, valued customer.” She turned back toward the counter. “I’ll be right back with a list of the scrolls.”
Then she was gone, back to her domain, leaving me with a large stack of books that I didn’t have the time to read right now.
I stowed the books in my ring, took out a small vial of recovery potion, and downed a third of it, hoping it would continue to speed up my healing. I didn’t like the thought of working in the city while wounded.
The burn wound is painful but manageable, but the knife in my bicep severed some muscle tissue. I need to let it repair itself before I take on the fucking bishop.
Weilin having me kill his own bishop.
If that wasn’t irony, I didn’t know what was.
I shook my head and leaned back to wait while the potion worked its magic.
Molly returned about twenty minutes later with a large roll of parchment in her hands. As she got to my table, she moved the lanterns aside and unrolled the scroll.
She then used the lanterns as paperweights and placed her hands on the table as she leaned over it and looked at me.
“Okay. Given your profession, I made a list of all the spells that would be relevant to you. Though I recommend only acquiring four or five at once.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Because even learning spells takes a toll on your body. It’s slight, barely even noticeable, but if you learn too many spells at once, you get mana backlash as your mind tries to absorb all the different spells at the same time.” She paled and shook her head. “It can be lethal in some extreme cases.”
I nodded. “Alright. Don’t push things. Got it.” I rose from the chair and bent over the table to go over the parchment. “I’m afraid I still don’t know all that much about magic. But it seems like you do. So what would you recommend for someone in my…profession?”
Molly glanced up and beamed at me. “Figured you’d be stubborn and prideful and wouldn’t accept my recommendations. I’m glad to see I was wrong.”
“Yeah, well, after getting struck by lightning, I’m willing to admit when I’m out of my depth.”
She just chuckled under her breath and turned back to the table. “Well, then I guess organizing the spells that would suit you wasn’t a waste of time after all.” Molly pointed at the parchment where there were four columns with words going down the scroll. “The categories in order are offense, defense, healing, and miscellaneous. I recommend one from each to start you off with, and you can add more later.”
I brushed my hair out of my face and nodded. “I concur. Besides, learning the ins and outs of four spells is going to be work enough. Adding more to it seems like even more of a pain in the ass.”
Molly nodded. “Exactly.” She tilted her head toward her counter as she rose from the table. “Well, I’ll be over there if you have questions.”
As she left, I perused the first column, which would inevitably be my first choice when it came to magic.
Having more offensive capabilities is never a bad thing. But as I found out, I need to temper my offense with good defense, so I don’t get surprised again.
The offensive section was the largest of the four and consisted of mostly elemental magic.
Fireball was the first spell on the list, followed by Water Bullet, Wind Cutter, and Stone Bullet for the four basic elemental spells.
As much as I loved Fireball, it was very ostentatious magic, and while a lifesaver in a pinch, it wasn’t as useful for stealth and assassinations.
With that in mind, I discounted most of the fire magic, as it all relied on big, powerful attacks that were the furthest thing from quiet—the same for earth magic. While spells like Tremor or Earthen Wall would be awesome to have, they weren’t very well suited for an assassin.
Which left wind and water elemental attacks.
Water was promising as several spells looked to be nearly silent if used properly. I especially liked Water Whip. It created a strand of water that could vary in length that I could use as a whip, but the spell was continuous and malleable. I could think of plenty of uses for a spell like that.
After scouring the list of spells, it was between Water Whip and a wind spell called As Swift as the Wind.
It was an augment spell, which probably should have belonged in the miscellaneous section, but I could see why Molly included it. It used the wind to increase my movement speed and reaction time, and it also boosted all wind-based attacks.
It was kind of like Aurella’s Light, but for wind rather than stealth.
I was torn, but after a time, I eventually decided to pick Water Whip. However, I would definitely be coming back for As Swift as the Wind.
With my first selection down, I moved onto defensive spells.
There were plenty of earth-based spells, but almost immediately, I had my choice.
It was a small, probably not very often used spell that didn’t seem that powerful at first glance, but it was perfect for me.
Passive Protection was a continuous spell that took a portion of my mana to use constantly, but it used that mana to form a small, invisible barrier around my body. If I took damage, the barrier weakened and eventually broke, but it was perfect for surviving a sneak attack.
This spell is perfect, though not very powerful. It doesn’t have to be as long as it keeps me alive for the first attack.
There were a lot of good defensive spells, but none that fit so perfectly for my job as that one. And though there were more powerful versions, I didn’t have the mana to use them.
If I’d had it last night, things would have gone a little differently, but I still would have been forced to flee. There was no single spell that could have let me defeat a room full of alert assassins.
I was confident in my decision, which just left two more picks for today.
Healing was simple. I took the one-tier higher spell simply called Healing. It was more costly in terms of mana than Lesser Heal, but it treated a larger number of wounds, including internal injuries.
All that was left was the miscellaneous spell.
This section was the second-largest section, and there were dozens of small spells that would be useful in one way or another. There was even a spell that mimicked the dimension ring but with a much higher storage capacity. There were many crafting spells that let a person create potions or other items without the need for specialized workstations, but they were exceedingly draining, and I didn’t think I could even use one without using all of my mana.
So, I ignored most of those in favor of the smaller but more useful spells.
I had to give it to Molly, she knew exactly what to choose, and each spell had a good chance of suiting me. But a lot of them were simple things that I didn’t need magic to accomplish. Such as the Flash Grenade spell, which caused a bright burst of light in a small radius. And another that temporarily boosted my stats. There were quite a few like that, which increased my senses or added a small buff as Molly called them.
But out of all of them, there was one single spell that I figured I could make the most use of.
Kleptomania. It allows me to teleport small objects to and from my hand in a small area around myself. And the mana cost isn’t terrible.
With the final spell, I had my selections.
I’d been leaning over the table for close to an hour, and I was stiff as I stood. I rolled my neck back and forth as I walked over to the counter.
Molly was reading a book when I approached but looked up as my shadow passed over her.
“Only an hour, I would have guessed two with how many choices I gave you.”
“Well, what can I say? I know what I want. Indecisiveness is a weakness during battle, so when I make a decision, I usually stick to it.”
She stood and cracked her knuckles. “Alright. Let’s see how you did, but if you chose poorly, I will make fun of you.”
“Only fair,” I replied and told her my choices.
Molly rubbed her chin as she looked up and away from me, lost in thought. “Hmm,” she muttered under her breath. “Water Whip wouldn’t have been my first choice for you, but it’s not a bad choice at all. But you are right that As Swift as the Wind is an excellent spell and one that I highly recommend you obtain at some point. Passive Protection was a superb choice. I wholeheartedly agree with that one.”
I paused, that was the one I’d deliberated the most on, but I understood the benefits of having protection that didn’t need to be cast.
“What is your reasoning, if you don’t mind telling me?”
“Probably the same as yours. The best defense in the world won’t save you if you get caught unawares. Having even a small bit of protection all the time is much more versatile and a much better option, in my opinion.”
