Ais settled into the chair in the upstairs study, propped her chin on one hand, thought for a while, and decided to use the wand to speed up Mirror Jump.
The reason she wasn't enhancing the invisibility spell was simple: she didn't have the casting material — "light-drawing dust" — yet. And the invisibility spell required light-drawing dust to be scattered around the target during casting, which meant a wand couldn't substitute for that physical step anyway.
By the same logic, the wand also couldn't substitute for the close contact with a mirror surface that Mirror Jump required — unless the wand itself could serve as a mirror.
One more thing to note: not every reflective surface could serve as a medium for a Witch's mirror magic. A surface too small — like the surface of an eye, or a tiny fragment of broken mirror — couldn't be used. Ais suspected that utilizing such tiny reflective surfaces probably required a higher Sequence.
She picked up the small paring knife and began carving symbolic glyphs and magical markers into the forest sprite branch she'd already trimmed into a slim rod.
About ten minutes later, as the last of the glyphs for Mirror Jump was completed, Ais felt every symbol she'd carved come alive, saturated and illuminated by the branch's own spiritual energy.
"The potion really is authoritative. It promised to turn me into a woman — not a single concession when it did. It promised I'd be a Witch — and it skipped the entire apprenticeship for me."
Ais murmured quietly, impressed at the first-attempt success.
She pulled a compact mirror from her pocket and gripped the new wand. In the next instant, her figure vanished from the study and appeared in the nearest washroom. The compact mirror she'd been holding clattered onto the desk.
"It worked. But when I have a mirror in my pocket and don't want the spell to trigger, I have to physically release the wand — otherwise Mirror Jump will activate on its own."
Even if Ais chose not to select a target, Mirror Jump would still function and teleport her to some mirror at random.
As a Witch, carrying at least three mirror doubles at all times was standard. Looking at her reflection, she muttered:
"This wand is a bit inflexible. Not useless — but not particularly convenient either. And every use draws on the material's spiritual energy. Once that's depleted, the wand can no longer spare me the concentration step."
And since a forest sprite branch — rich in spiritual energy but containing no supernatural trait — would naturally dissipate that energy over time, the carved symbols slowing dissipation couldn't stop it entirely. At most five months from now, the wand would be spiritually inert, useful only as kindling.
"No wonder that woman never bothered making herself a wand. Spend money on materials and then not use it — the whole investment goes to waste."
After experiencing it firsthand, Ais had no recourse but to put the wand in her pocket and pick up the compact mirror she'd left on the study desk, then head out to the Bridgeway District.
But since she'd need to visit places like bars and the East District, the current respectable outfit was a bit conspicuous for the purpose. So Ais stopped first at a cheap clothing shop in Joyewood and spent 1 pound 15 sous on two sets of inexpensive, visibly low-quality clothes and shoes.
Turning herself into the image of a tall factory worker on perhaps a pound a week, and raising her shoe height another four centimeters, Ais slipped away from anyone's line of sight and took a carriage from the Joyewood–East District border to the Bridgeway District.
After a transfer, Ais — both face and clothes now suitably dusty — stepped out of the carriage. She glanced at the distant outline of Beklund Bridge and began wandering the district.
While a 185-centimeter woman in these clothes was a little incongruous, the era wasn't short of families that had started well and then rapidly fallen on hard times. A down-on-her-luck young woman appearing in the Bridgeway District was uncommon but not alarming.
A down-on-her-luck young woman who happens to be a Witch. That was the image Ais planned to project in areas with rougher security.
The one problem was that this kind of implied backstory seemed to excite the district's less-employed troublemakers. Ais had barely walked two minutes before a man considerably dirtier than herself stepped into her path.
"Hey, gorgeous. Still looking for work? Why not come with me?" The man said, poorly concealing his excitement.
He hadn't said it explicitly, but his unconcealed stare and the enthusiastic hand-rubbing left nothing to imagination.
Ais looked at the man, who had never once made eye contact, and didn't bother with preamble:
"If you want me to come with you, you'll need to offer me ten thousand pounds. Want to know why?"
The man first looked pleased, then alarmed, then puzzled:
"Why?"
Ais stepped forward and looked down at him — a man who was at most 175 centimeters — then delivered the attack without mercy:
"If a man is tall and good-looking, I'd go with him for free. But for a filthy, short, ugly scoundrel like you with no money, you think anything less than ten thousand pounds would be enough?"
The man registered that Ais was insulting him as she finished.
"You little—"
The word had barely left his mouth when Ais, moving at a speed he couldn't follow, kicked the back of his shin. This stopped whatever came next.
The kick almost brought him to his knees, but before he could recover, Ais was already at his side and swept his feet out from under him, sending him sprawling forward.
The man caught himself with both hands before his face hit the ground.
And then Ais planted a foot on his back, completing the outcome.
"Seems like restraining a man of ordinary build isn't difficult at my current strength." Ais assessed this while watching the man struggle.
He struggled hard for a while and found that not only was this woman's one foot pressing down with extraordinary force — keeping him completely unable to get up — but she was also impossibly agile, right beside him and yet somehow untouchable.
Not going to lie, having someone under your foot is rather satisfying. After enjoying the spectacle for a suitable interval, Ais saw the man still showing no sign of begging for mercy and increased the pressure before saying calmly:
"Answer me one question and I'll let you go. Where can I get a gun and ammunition around here?"
Pain made the man struggle harder, but the unmovable foot eventually ground him down:
"The 'Brave Men's Bar' on Iron Gate Street! It's the biggest bar nearby — you'll definitely find what you're after there."
The obvious nervousness in his voice was evident — but Ais hadn't really expected a man like this to know a reliable source for firearms. She simply needed a target to start with, so she let him go anyway.
The humiliated man got up and thought very carefully — then ultimately couldn't summon the courage to go back and confront a woman who'd opened the conversation by asking where to acquire a gun.
Back in a public carriage, Ais quickly reached Iron Gate Street. A few steps in, she saw a heavy black wooden door and a bouncer whose height approached hers even with her elevated shoes.
Is this an Extraordinary? That tall? It was genuinely the first time she'd encountered a man of roughly comparable build to what she remembered having. She couldn't help looking twice.
The bouncer, who had been standing his post with full attention, looked back at Ais with equal surprise.
"Hello, big fella. Can you get a gun inside this bar?"
He shook his head promptly:
"I don't know — I'm just on the door."
Author's Note (this chapter):"Hello, big fella. Can you get a gun inside this bar?"
Isn't that a rather bold way to gather information?为龙_Ed: She can't really do subtle anyway. Might as well be brazen — people will assume she's from the Hunter pathway, which lowers the chance they'll suspect she's a Witch. · Hunan · 03-03 04:09