The Soldier Mage 14 Chapter 14

Lucy and Lucius stayed to help Wilfred clean up the room, it was a total mess. Someone had come in and ransacked the place while they were gone. Wilfred's primary suspect was Valery. Seeing as how she had exited the apartment and she had plenty of time to do it as well as knowing that Wilfred was stuck over there.

On top of his belongings being scattered everywhere, much of the furniture was destroyed as well. Wilfred went to see the secretary, Geneve, who had initially brought him to this room and she was devastated.

"Hey, at least you can still make more right?" Lucius tried to cheer him up but it would prove to be an impossible feat.

"Do you have any idea who else would have done this? " Wilfred asked Lucy and Lucius. Lucy answered promptly.

"Well, there are multiple factions in precarious balance at work in Leganon. The n.o.bles are a prime suspect. You already have bad relations with the daughter of a duke, Isabella and the son of a count, Hovard. "

Lucy then laid her hand against her head and thought for a bit.

"I suppose there's also the army and the mage corps. Although they work together, they're two separate ent.i.ties. Word must have gotten around about your weapon, especially when you used it in the fight against Hovard. "

Argh. Wilfred cursed himself. He didn't think about the possible ramifications of that. At that point in time it was personal, he wanted to win no matter what.

"We can't rule out possible spies from foreign nations either. They're likely to keep an eye on the upcoming talent coming from the academy. It's not because both Nansen and Moburi are peaceful with us right now that they don't keep tabs on us. There's also that weird dragon cult, they want to revive the old dragons that used to rule the world. I don't see them stealing your weapons though. "

Hmmm, there was much more to this world that Wilfred hadn't yet learned. He would have to get informed on all these big players sooner or later if he was going to serve as a general in the army. Well, that was his end goal currently but it could change.

"There is another faction. They're very hard to find but you can see some of their propaganda in the city sometimes. They call themselves the Leganon Liberation Front and are aiming to remove the n.o.bles from power. Rumor has it they get some support from the Dwarven Republic, which would like a different form of government to take over here. Plus, if we're busy fighting each other, we don't bother them."

Wilfred was impressed, Lucy really knew a lot about the local situation.

"Wow, you're pretty knowledgeable about all this stuff Lucy."

"Well I have to. I'm a Prince's daughter after all. All this stuff was forced down my throat whether I liked it or not. I did take an interest in other kingdoms though. A lot of the monsters we fight aren't really monsters, they're demi-humans. There's a lot of tribes and species. Some of them even trade among themselves, we're really doing ourselves a disservice by not doing it also."

Wilfred tended to agree with her opinion. Deep down, what most people want is simply a good life for their families. It's the countries that usually spark wars in order to obtain resources and land. Many would say a soldier's job is only to act but there is a moral aspect as well. Even if it is a military order, obeying a command that involves the commission of a crime; such as killing unarmed civilians, is unlawful and naturally one should disobey such an order. Of course, no one is excited to appear in military court to defend themselves about refusing to follow orders.

In a world such as this one, is there such things Wilfred wonders. It appears that in this world the n.o.bles are in charge and that the laws only very loosely apply to them. Would he be forced to commit atrocities? Would they simply kill him if he refused?

Wilfred's thoughts continued to wander on such matters until before he knew it, the cleaning was done.

"Thanks. You were both a great help. I suppose I need to report this, sigh."

Wilfred thanked his friends and bid them goodbye. They would meet later at any rate, there was a small celebration planned for the students who graduated. That night, Wilfred slept with one eye open, unable to shake the feeling the burglars would come back.

Deciding that his number one priority was to report the theft, Wilfred headed downstairs to the Headmaster office right after waking up. Still being early in the day, it seemed that Primus was not yet too busy, simply reading some doc.u.ments at his desk. Knocking on the door, Wilfred proceeded to enter after the Headmaster waved him inside.

"Ah, Wilfred. I trust everything from yesterday is fine?"

Wilfred nodded negatively.

"My guns… the artifacts I created, they were stolen."

"Oh, no, that's normal. You see, magically created items just vanish after the mana powering them is gone. It ranges from a few hours to a few days maximum."

'No, you don't understand. My room was flipped upside down, everything was taken apart and they've stolen two of the four artifacts I had made!"

Primus's eyebrows raised and his eyes narrowed.

"What!? Can you show me the ones you have?"

Wilfred took out the two guns he had on him, deciding to keep them with him at all times now. He still had the Colt Anaconda and another he had experimented with on a slow day, an HK MP5 submachine gun. Obviously, the stats from this world were very different than on earth as these fired magical energy as bullets. The concept of damage was also a bit different here. Getting shot by one of these in either the chest or head would almost mean death unless treated immediately, in his world anyways.

However, it seemed that an overall Health Points system calculated the life of people here. Would that mean a shot to the heart would do the same as one to the hand? Wilfred had many questions but no real way of answering them, not yet anyhow.

Wilfred deposited the weapons on the desk and Primus examined them more closely, turning them up and down and casting an [Inspect] on them.

[Artifact Weapon]

Colt Anaconda, Lv35

ATK: 322

DEF: 4

DUR: 24

Ammo: 5/6

Effect: Fires a pure magical bullet, non-elemental. Can fire 6 shots before you must recharge with mana.

[Artifact Weapon]

HK MP5, Lv28

ATK: 196

DEF: 8

DUR: 16

Ammo: 20/30

Effect: Fires pure magical bullets, non-elemental. Can fire 30 shots in full automatic fas.h.i.+on or semi-auto before you must recharge with mana.

"Hmmmm, very interesting. Also very dangerous. I cannot stress how important it is that you do not simply...well, let them fall into the wrong hands. I will have to teach you a spell."

Primus opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out an empty scroll. Taking a quill and dipping it in ink, he etched some symbols on it and casted a spell, [Deconstruction]. He then handed the scroll over to Wilfred.

"Now, please read this so you may learn the spell."

Wilfred looked curiously at the Headmaster.

"What? You can learn spells this way? Why doesn't everyone do that? What will I learn?"

"The paper is specially made for enchanting, we can't do this all the time. I am doing it now because to let you keep creating these weapons is too dangerous. You will learn the spell [Deconstruction], it allows one to destroy magical items, permanently."

Wilfred was about to question Primus when he interjected.

"However! It is much harder to destroy something not only made by pure magic, but with physical components, such as that trinket from yesterday that miss Isabella owned."

"And what happens when I destroy something?"

"Well, it returns to its original state, Mana."

Wilfred took the scroll and opened it up, reading the symbols etched on it. At first, it did not make much sense, some meaningless scribbles with no purpose until he took it all into view and the symbols started glowing. Wilfred felt a tingle in his spine, a bit like when one listens to music and gets those little gooseb.u.mps in their backs.

Looking at his status afterwards, Wilfred could see he had gained a new skill.

"There, now try destroying one of these."

Grabbing the Colt Wilfred felt a small tinge of regret. He didn't want to destroy it. He could always recreate it he supposed. Sighing, he held the gun and activated his spell.

"[Deconstruction]!"

Swiftly, the revolver began dissipating into small blue flakes, lifting in the air and settling on Wilfred. As the process ended, Wilfred felt a large rush of energy from deep within him.

"Woah, what is this?! I feel like...supercharged. Like electricity is running through me. It's not painful but I think I could lift a mountain."

Primus simply nodded.

"Yes. When you deconstruct a pure magical item, such as a summoned sword, you get a portion of the mana spent creating it back. The amount of mana needed to destroy something you did not create will outweigh any recovery from destroying it."

Wilfred's eyes shot open wide, realizing the implications of this.

"Wait, so if I had 20 of these, I could destroy them and use them like... mana batteries?"

Primus looked at Wilfred perplexed.

"What? Can you make sense, what is a battery?"

Opening his status window and looking at his own stats, Wilfred smiled.

"Just a.n.a.lyze me, you'll see."

Wilfred Lamarche [Lv. 7]

Health: 60/60

Mana: 7034/6068

Str: 7

Con: 10

Agi: 8

Dex: 6

Int: 52

Wil: 45

Wis: 54

Lck:???

Skills & Spells: [a.n.a.lyze], [Wind Aura], [Construct Artifact], [Barrier], [Wind Blade], [Deconstruction]

"This means the cost to create one of your weapons is very high. There is actually something similar to this that we mages use sometimes. It's a rather rare crystal named Zoisapite, only available in the Elven territory. By breaking it, there's a release of energy that the user can absorb to increase his mana beyond what he normally can. It's very expensive though."

"So why hasn't anyone done this before? It's essentially free to do; just use up mana one day to use it on a later day. Would be a ma.s.sive advantage in combat."

"That is true but abilities that create something from using only mana are quite rare and most only last a few hours. I would argue that you're likely one of the only mages in the world capable of doing something like this. Also, not to belittle your experience but at higher levels, fights are decided different than what first years do at the academy. It's not simply a battle of who has more mana."

"Hmmm, so it could be very profitable if I sold this then? What if...let's try this. [Construct Artifact]!"

So far, Wilfred had only attempted to make guns since that was what worked. When he tried to do swords or medieval weapons like those Lucius described to him from book, it had always failed. This time, he focused on what a battery was and how it worked. Granted, it was a long time since science cla.s.s but he remembered that chemical reactions, such as acid in car batteries, was what produced electrons and generated current.

Blue light s.h.i.+mmered away from Wilfred's hand and condensed into a black rectangular shape.

Wilfred held it close, turning it around and examining his creation.

"I wonder if it worked. Could you inspect it for me please? I really need to learn that inspect skill one day."

[Artifact Item]

Lithium Ion Battery, Lv22

Mana Stored: 1450/1450

Effect: Can store and retrieve mana from this device by channeling magic either from or to the device.

"Oh, very nice. So this is a battery? Such a strange concept. I do wonder sometimes how you know of these things Wilfred, it is peculiar. Nonetheless, I am interested in this. I would pay you for it. How does 18 gold pieces sound?"

Trying to remember how currency worked in this world, Wilfred did a few calculations and his heart froze for a moment. If 50 Copper pieces made a Silver one and 100 Silver ones made a Gold piece then… this was an astronomical amount! It was like winning the lottery. His family made due with about 30 copper pieces a day for food, this was the equivalent to 90,000 copper pieces! Wilfred accepted in a heartbeat, he could always make another now that he knew how to do it.

"There is one condition Wilfred. I ask that you do not sell any of your creations to anyone else. At least until you've grown older and get a better sense to judge people's character. It would be rather...bad for you if those of unscrupulous morals found out about what you can do. This money should last you until you graduate fourth year, which I do not doubt you will."

"Hmmm, consider it a deal sir. Thank you. And you'll look into the matter of the theft?"

Primus nodded and went to his desk to write a missive about the incident and increase security.

Wilfred left the Headmaster's office and headed for the cafeteria. This was where most students tended to eat and study but they did not refer to it as a cafeteria, that concept was Wilfred's only. Wilfred prefered the calm of the library for studying however. Lucy and Lucius were supposed to be waiting there for him in order to go to the graduation ceremony later that evening.

Wilfred didn't like those huge social gatherings, he prefered a smaller amount of company. Always greeting people, getting stuck in awkward conversations and having to fake being interested in whatever subject the other person spoke about. The only good thing was the food. Parties always had the best food. Wilfred was pretty curious about this world's delicacies and exotic dishes. As barely more than commoners, they always had the same meals. Thankfully this world still had meat and potatoes, some of the new vegetables were alright too.

"Hey, there you are."

A voice woke Wilfred up from his thoughts and he turned around to see Lucy with Lucius tagging along.

"So, how did everything go?" Lucy asked.

He sighed.

"Well, Primus will look into it but they're likely long gone by now."

"Well that's a shame. I remembered something else though, there's another weird faction. They're more like a religious cult but they're interested in specific things. One of them came by my father's estate some time ago with a list. They don't usually cause any trouble and aren't doing anything illegal as far as the King knows so they let them be. I didn't get to see the list but they call themselves 'The Society of Video Games'."

Lucius scrounged his eyebrows and a lightbulb went off in his head.

"Hey! You talked to me about 'video games' the other night. What are they and how did you know about them?"

Wilfred stood beneath the questioning gaze of Lucius and Lucy, unsure how to respond to this.