Thorin’s forte had always been his ‘spirit’ as his primary stat and ‘acuity’ among his sub-stats. The former was the representation of his soul strength and spell-related capabilities along with other aspects. While the latter determined his reflexes, vision clarity, nimbleness, and his mental sharpness. So, his pick of the rings leaned towards them as well.

  “We can afford two rings each,” Thorin said.

  “What about saving for the blueprint and the artifact then?” Quin asked. “We’ll have to start from zero again.”

  “Let’s get the rings for now,” Clay said. “Since transferring points isn’t feasible, we’ll have to save for much longer anyway. Till then, the rings can brave us through.”

  “Passive boost like them will be good to have even when we have proper artifacts,” Thorin said.

  “Yeah, let’s choose,” Clay said. “I think I’ll go with a spirit-booster ring and a resistance-booster ring.”

  “I’ll pick a vitality-booster and a speed-booster,” Quin said.

  “Then I’ll choose a mana-regeneration booster and a spirit-booster as well,” Thorin said.

  “Should we be getting two spirit-booster rings?” Clay asked. “Will it not be redundant? If we really need it, we can just share it.”

  “Sharing a ring in the middle of a battle will be hard though,” Thorin said.

  “It’ll be fine,” Clay said. “If we must get another one, we can come back and buy one again after saving points for a week or so. You get the spirit-booster for now. I’ll change to acuity-booster since I have my artifact to make up for the lack of damage.”

  “Alright,” Thorin said. While the three talked, the girl at the counter had ignored them and focused on sorting through a pile of parchments. So, he knocked on the desk with a hello and asked her to get them the rings. She completed the transaction for them, albeit with a roll of her eyes and a grumble, and the points they’d accumulated dipped down to zero again.

  The thick rings that carried a series of spell arrays on their mirror-black surface soothed their pain of loss, however. When they sat on Thorin’s fingers, he felt the almost tangible boost they added to him, as if he could touch the enhancement.

  The channel that his vessel used to regenerate mana went into overdrive. It hungered for the threads of mana lingering around him. The same was true for the spirit-booster too. It not only enhanced his abilities related to the spells and the arcanas but also the specialties he’d gained recently with his class. If he cast his strongest spell right now, , he could outperform his yesterday’s self by a good margin.

  “Looks nice,” Quin commented after he savored the rings. “I thought they would be uglier.”

  “If you don’t have any further business, please get out now,” the girl at the counter said and took back the register. “I have more important things to do.”

  “You would look so pretty if you just kept your mouth shut,” Thorin quipped then scuttled away with his cousins before her reddened face exploded.

  ……

  After their patrolling shift for the day, when they rested in the shack with a hearty lunch down their guts, Thorin played with the new spells and the ideas he had for them. For his Paper Arcana, the best approach was to match it with his Temperature Arcana. He bought

  and

  based on that thought. Along with the

  that he’d mastered to the scholar-level, he intended to fuse them with and to create more competent spells with higher damage.

  He also had some plans for his spell. It was his strongest offensive spell right now. But it also consumed its toll to manifest that strength. It made the spell a one-shot attack that nearly took all his mana. To gain more control over it and reduce the burden, Thorin intended to create a weaker version of the spell. The spell he bought was for this purpose.

  They were all ideas just on the paper for now though. After all, he’d yet to even learn how to create fusion spells. The ‘How to’ book they purchased would take them time to learn and master.

  And it did. As the three cousins continued their routine of meditation, learning spells, and patrolling for the guild, months went by. The construction work for the street market had proceeded without a hitch so far. But because of its expanding nature, the area that the Magi now patrolled extended outwards. Thorin’s team finally saw fresh signs and tracks of Faes during their shift.

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  The talk among the Magi raised this point, that the guild was gradually thrusting them into the heat of the battle. The frontline where the middle and the late stages Magi of the street market fought the Direwolves was now much closer to their patrolling grid. Yet, all that the talks ever amounted to was a grumbling crowd and a nonchalant guild. The early-stage Magi continued to patrol, and the guild maintained its silence.

  Finally, the expanding stretch of their patrolling grid met resistance. The influx of the Direwolves into the safe zone had not only troubled the guild and the rogue Magi, but the Faes living there also lost their homes. Some fled away from the market while the others ran towards it. On the day the year saw its first snow, a patrolling team met the latter. Someone died on that team.

  The simmering water boiled over.

  The grumbling Magi packed the guild’s administrative hall in the market, voices raised in angry complaints. But the guild’s manager came out and silenced them all in one wave. He was at least a late-stage Sequence-0 Magus. Besides the pressure he drowned them under, he also used the contract they had all signed.

  Though it hadn’t bound them, the terms mentioned the risks of the task in clear words. So, if anyone dared to breach the contract, the penalties and the permanent ban from the market aside, their whole team would lose all the contribution points they’d earned so far. To make sure someone didn’t exchange for anything and flee afterwards, the guild even locked the rewards list for the time being. No Magus of the security department could use those services. In the end, the crowd trudged back home with their backs bent and shoulders slouched. Their raging march that they’d come with now scraped the paved street with despaired steps.

  “Should we just leave?” Quin asked as the three watched the horde of Magi recede out of the hall.

  “We’ll lose all that we’ve earned so far,” Clay said.

  “That’s exactly the mentality the guild’s betting on to control us,” Thorin said.

  “Even if we know that, we can't do anything,” Clay said. “Not unless we’re willing to give up on it all and walk away.”

  “I was sure you would be the first one to suggest leaving,” Thorin said, chuckling.

  “I do want to,” Clay said. “But I also don’t want to work for others for free. I want what we deserve.”

  “We should’ve just left when it all started,” Quin said.

  “Then we wouldn’t get the chance to buy all that we did,” Thorin said.

  After several months of saving, Quin had finally bought the book that introduced the basics of an Artificer and the blueprint of a storage bag. Though he’d yet to enter the threshold of a beginner.

  ? Thorin had used a chunk of his savings to order a set of custom-made chained blades as well. It cost him an arm and a leg. Therefore, he had to settle for the most basic form of the artifact. Except for durability, ease of use, and a rapport with mana, it had no other function. Nevertheless, he felt complete with his familiar weapon by his side at last.

  “You guys already bought what you wanted,” Clay grumbled. “I’ve yet to get anything. I lose the most in this situation.”

  “You said you didn’t want anything for the time being yourself,” Quin said. “You should’ve got some potions at least if nothing else.”

  “Spending points on consumables isn’t a smart thing to do,” Clay said. “We can either buy them with mana shards later or wait for Thorin to start learning how to brew them.”

  Quin shrugged. “You can't buy even those consumables anymore,” he said. “Well-deserved comeuppance.”

  “Piss off!” Clay kicked the back of Quin’s leg and dropped him to his knees.

  “With how things are escalating, we might see ourselves on the frontline very soon,” Thorin said as Quin got up to quarrel with Clay. “We really do need to consider leaving.”

  As they bantered back to the shack, Thorin let his smile vanish and trailed behind his cousins. He clutched his heart when they didn’t notice and hid his grimace while the pang in his chest settled. Though they hadn’t hunted any Faes since they started the patrolling job, they still met some Ghosts here and there. However, since several months ago, eating these Ghosts stopped mending his heart. The mortal Ghosts were useless to him.

  Now, he only hoped it was as Clay had said. That if he devoured Ghosts of the Magi’s levels, his heart would heal again. He would regain his peak lifespan. Thus, when the guild locked their contribution points and forced them down, his desire to leave and head to the battlefield ‘Southern Whispers’ soared. If he talked to his brothers about it, they would support his decision for sure. He clenched his fist and decided to have a chat tonight.

  Yet, as they made up their minds through the night, the situation worsened. The next morning, the guild shut the exit of the market. The news was already making the rounds. The Silverfield Guild had attacked the Greysnow Guild. Their target was the flourishing street market that was about to grow even more.

  ?

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