When Adam, Chloe and me got back to the church rectory, the stew was ready to be served, and keeping warm by the fire. It was getting a little late now. Lysander and Emi had already finished eating and were hanging out in the drawing room. Adam grabbed a bowl of stew and scurried away upstairs, saying goodnight. He'd likely had enough of hanging out with weird, sexually aggressive pervert-girls for today.
I zipped off to the kitchen to get some food for myself. Chloe's slave gruel from that morning gave her the nutrients and energy for the day. Apparently, she wasn't even hungry. Once again, I was tempted to join her on her slave gruel diet, it sounded convenient. Maybe tomorrow. I grabbed a bowl of tasty stew for myself, then went to the drawing room to join my friends.
"Hello Tyler," Lysander waved. "How was your day."
I told Lysander and Emi about my day. I talked about healing like a madwoman, raising my Holy magic, meditation, and mana manipulation skills. I also told them about healing girls at the brothel and getting a fifty silver pay bonus from the madam.
"That'll help us considerably," Lysander said.
"Does that mean I can get some clothes that are less terrible?" Emi asked. Her current dress was… a little juvenile, to say the least. It made her look like a ten year old.
"Yeah, I'll be buying some new clothes for me and Chloe soon, we can find something for you too," I said.
"I'm content with my robe, though a spare would be helpful. Perhaps some underwear? This robe chafes my nipples."
My own nipples were fine in my dress, I glanced over at Chloe with her rough sackcloth shift. She hadn't breathed a word of complain. But yeah, that would probably feel like a cheese grater on her sensitive places. But Chloe was a good girl, and I doubted she'd complain about it to me unless I specifically asked her about it. The Madam was right, I'd have to get her some better clothes soon.
"Yeah, we'll have to take a shopping trip soon. Madam Orchid suggested a place." I said. "Wait, Lysander, does this world even have bras? Did they have those back in medieval times?"
"The modern bra was introduced in the late nineteenth century. Before that, corsets were common in high society going back to the sixteenth century. Dresses designed to cup and support were probably commonplace before that, though archeological evidence of such is scarce, textiles tend to deteriorate. In any case, it matters little. Endowed as I am, I don't need anything complicated. All I want is a tight undershirt with soft fabric that won't rub. Only Chloe and Maddie are big enough to need to worry about proper bras."
"Hey…" I grumbled, massaging my modest chest. Lysander was probably right. I was pretty small compared to the Chloe-Maddie boobie squad… But it was still annoying of her to point it out so bluntly.
"We also might want to look into renting a room at a boarding house," Lysander suggested. "I'd rather not rely on Father Jordan's charity for too long."
"I'm not proud of being a mooch, but shouldn't we accept the help we're being given, and use this money to buy some necessities?" I asked.
"Seconded," Emi added. "If we're going to keep leveling, we need to head out into the forest again. I'd rather have some hiking gear, survival supplies, and proper shoes before then."
Lysander shook her head, "If we overstay our welcome, Father Jordan might start to ask favors from us, or start dictating how we should behave. If we're relying on him for survival, we wouldn't be in a position to refuse. He might ask us to work regular safe jobs as villagers, keeping us at a low level while increasing Ash's level. I don't intend on remaining helpless. I plan on reaching level thirty as quickly as possible and gaining the [Archmage] class. It has access to some very potent sounding magic schools."
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"Yeah, I guess you have a point." I sighed. "Still, we should at least stay here until Ash returns. Maybe we can earn some more coin in the next few days."
Lysander nodded, "Yes, agreed."
"Oh! I got a new spell," I said, cheerfully changing the subject.
I conjured an icosahedron, a ball shape made out of twenty triangular sides, like a d20 dice. I made it soft and squishy. I tossed it to Lysander, and she caught it, inspecting it.
"[Hardlight Construct]," she said appreciatively. "I was going to suggest that one for your next natural magic unlock."
"You know it?" I asked.
"The church library has a book describing all known Tier 1 and 2 Holy spells. This one stood out to me as being particularly potent. You can adjust the material's properties, can you not?"
"Well, I can adjust hardness and elasticity at least." I said.
"Can you add inertia?" Lysander asked, with a wicked grin.
Now that was a devious idea: Conjure a bullet already in motion. I couldn't make mechanical parts, or… maybe I could with separate spell castings for each movable member in an object, but I couldn't make any sort of motor to drive it… But could I create something that was already in motion? I tried. I let my existing construct vanish, and created a new one. This time, I conjured a soft ball. I tried to imagine it as already moving, as I created it.
The ball appeared in midair, and fell to the ground. No momentum. But was that true? The planet was rotating, so if it truly had no momentum, it would fly away in whatever direction was opposite the planet's rotation. This was a relative momentum. Relative to what?
This time I tried creating the ball, but defined its starting position with respect to my hand. Then, I swung my arm forwards and cast the spell. The ball poofed into existence, midair in front of me, and since my hand was moving, the ball flew too. It bounced off the wall, as if I'd thrown it, but I hadn't needed to touch it.
I explained to Lysander how it worked.
"Can you define your starting point relative to something else? Or does it have to be your body?"
I tried it out, conjuring a magical ball on the coffee table. I tried to define it specifically, as relative to the coffee table, but it didn't work. I could tell that the ball's momentum was still connected to me. It seemed to default to my centre of mass, somewhere around my navel, if I didn't specify another valid point on my body as the origin.
Maybe it was only able to affect living targets? I created a magical top hat, using Chloe's head as the origin point. It didn't work. The hat was conjured relative to me, Chloe moved a tiny bit while the magic progressed, and that made the hat intersect her head. That apparently caused the spell to fail.
So, no magically making handcuffs or blindfolds appear on somebody at a distance, or summoning a chunk of hardlight inside their heart or throat to kill them instantly. Boo!
I tried again, this time touching Chloe. It worked. I could make the hat appear on her head perfectly, even if she was moving as I cast my spell. Useful! I found that the whole, intersection issue wasn't unique to people either. If I created something that intersected something else, the spell failed. I supposed it used air as the ingredient, turning air to hardlight, and hardlight back to air. Creating and dispelling things didn't cause pressure waves or vacuums, after all.
I told Lysander my findings. "That's still incredibly versatile," she commented.
"So what about you? How did your research go?" I asked.
"The church's collection of books was not extensive… most of what they wrote was on the subject of theology and morality, topics that I consider to be low priority for the moment. There were a few books on System lore, as it's called. Those were informative."
"Oh? Find out anything interesting?"
"The spell lists were most informative," Lysander said. "It was a description of common spells, including recommendations. First and second tier magic has been well mapped, though for third tier and up, less is known."
"That sounds helpful. How many spells do we get anyway?" I asked.
"You could learn as many spells as you want, once your relevant magic Skill reaches max level." Lysander explained. "Spellbooks are rare and expensive, but if you had access to enough of them, you could eventually learn every known spell."
"But I also learn a spell at level one, four, and… seven, I guess?"
"One, four, seven, and ten are the skill levels for which a mage will learn a natural spell," Lysander finished. "The level one spell is always the same for everybody. For the other three, the mage can consciously influence what spell they get. The level ten one is special, there are certain powerful spells that can only be naturally gained at that level, as a sort of capstone ability. It's good to chose a powerful spell for your level ten, since natural spells are generally quicker to cast than those a mage might learn later."
"Okay, so what's a good Holy capstone spell then?" I asked.
"It depends on the mage. The text recommends that prospective priests and support casters should go for Bless. It buffs a single stat of the caster's choice by twenty-five percent, and lasts hours. For you, however, you might consider the Lesser Angelic Aspect spell."
"Oh? What does that do?"