16 First Job

Sometime later, I lounged casually on one of the many comfortable sofas inside Etna Volcano. Upon my entry into the manor, I returned to my room and changed my light armor and white robe for a second pair of each. Then, I moved to one of the common rooms with an exit out onto the garden and sat, gazing out at the flowering plants as I considered what magic to work at. Now that I wasn't in the dungeon I gave the thoughts my full attention and eventually came up with a plan. 

First, I decided to invest in obtaining what I considered to be an all-around useful magic, Earth Magic. I suspected that I could develop a spell to rip the magic stones right out of dead monsters' bodies, which would decrease the amount of time I would need to spend stooped and gutting dead monsters. However, it will also give me more manipulation of the terrain in the dungeon and new areas of attack. Overall, I figured it would be nice to be able to manipulate Earth when I am essentially in a large cave in the ground.

Secondly, to increase my destructive capacity, I decided to work on another magic, Explosion Magic, to use in conjunction with my Flame Manipulation. This seemed to be the most obvious choice upon consideration since it naturally increases the lethality of flames and scales up the area of effect. I also hope that by combining these two constantly I can develop the Extra Skill: Explosive Flames over time.

I still felt that this would only amount to kicking the can down the road in terms of my damage output, but this solution is much more timely than trying to form a new offensive-based Unique Skill. Plus, I could always deal with new problems when I get there instead of dealing with them now. After making the decision about my plans, I sat back comfortably and decided to start in about an hour, but it seemed Hephaestus had other plans.

Just as I lay back, Thorin, the man who had recruited me, walked in and approached me with an apologetic smile. "It seems your services are required by the Goddess," he said.

"Delivery?" I asked, standing up and cracking my back with a large stretch.

 "Yep, I'll give you the details on the way." the dwarf said as we moved out the front doors of the manor and toward a waiting wagon pulled by two horses.

As we climbed onto the back of the wagon, I asked my first question, though the wagon's presence seemed to have already answered it: "I assume this pickup isn't in the dungeon."

"Yes, but this is both a delivery and a pickup," Thorin said before explaining, "We're going to pick up some raw ores and materials from one of our warehouses and bring them to Solingen, a smithing city not too far from here. Then, we're going to pick up the weapons and armor they have forged and bring them back here."

"How long will the journey take?" I asked, finding the journey would give me a good excuse to dedicate myself to learning the two new magics I wanted to. 

"It is a six-day round trip with the horses and wagon. I am only bringing it this time in case your magic proves to be insufficient. Future trips you make will be considerably faster if you don't need the wagon. I am also just here since they don't know you yet. I won't come on all these trips in the future, just the first one or two." Thorin explained, laying everything out.

While I knew my magic would be enough, I didn't bother complaining about the wagon. It made sense that they would have concerns about me not being able to get everything the first time. So, I just nodded, and we took off on the start of our journey. Our first stop was a large warehouse on the outskirts of the city, where we stopped and found a large pile of ore, and monster drops waiting for us on the back of three wagons. All it took was a touch to each of the piles, and all the ores disappeared into my storage.

Thorin couldn't help but let out a low whistle, "Handy," was all he commented before we climbed on the wagons and set off on our journey.

Soon, I decided to walk alongside the wagon to stretch my legs and begin practicing Earth Magic without Thorin noticing. As Orario faded into the distance behind us I walked next to the large wagon, just out of view, and began to work. I envisioned the ground just off the path turning soft and permeable so that the rock that that half buried there would sink further into the ground. I tried this a few times and was surprised to find that on only my third try, it actually worked, and I succeeded in learning my first Earth Magic spell, Liquidize, in a fairly anticlimactic way. 

I briefly wondered why this was so much easier than learning any other type of magic. Still, it only took me a few moments to decide that it was because I was only manipulating something that was already there. Unlike with Space or Life Magic there is no complicated envisioning process either. I can see, smell, and touch the earth around me, so of course, it was easier to develop Earth Magic, especially since I am already fairly familiar with magic.

After Liquify, it only took me a few minutes to develop Earth Lock, which solidified and smoothed out the ground around me. After my two successes in a row, I smiled broadly and pulled a magic stone from my pocket, placing it on part of the cart beside me. Then I stepped further away and focused on the magic stone, willing it to come to me through my magic. This spell took considerably longer to develop compared to the first two, but it still proved to be easier than any other magic had been. After about an hour I had developed a new spell that I called Magic Stone Attraction. 

By the end of the day, I couldn't keep the smile off my face, as I had two more spells on top of the first three: Stone Wall and Stone Spike. The first was a pain to practice without being seen, but I managed by sticking to small walls. The second was easy in comparison, and I just stuck to creating small spikes as well. However, with my Earth Magic training more or less completed, I had to wait without doing any Explosion Magic training since that wouldn't be so easy to hide. Instead, I focused on another Spatial Magic called Dress Change to little results.

Eventually, we reached the city, which was marked by plumes of dark smoke venting into the sky from the thousands of forges. With Thorin beside me, getting in was as simple as flashing our identification as members of the Hephaestus familia since the familia has a very close relationship with the city. Entering the city, we attracted a few looks, but we were quickly dismissed due to the empty cart. Then, with Thorin guiding us, we quickly moved through the city until we reached yet another large warehouse where some dwarfs and humans waited for us.

A man in front stepped forward as the cart pulled up and spoke, "Thorin, I can't help but notice that you carry no ore with you. I'll just let you know now that we are not handing over any goods without new ore and supplies." he said.

"Watch your tone with me, Alec. When has the Goddess ever reneged on a deal? We simply have a new man who deals with transportation of goods." Thorin said, gesturing to me.

The man named Alec crossed his arms and inspected me but made no comment. In return, I raised my hand and emptied all the ore and goods onto the loading dock before us. I had to admit that the looks of shock and awe that came after felt good, but I ignored them for the most part.

"Where are the supplies we are picking up?" I asked, causing Alec, who now looked a lot happier, to lead me over to a few covered carts.

Once the weapons and armor were securely in my storage, I turned to Thorin and asked, "Is that it?"

"Yep," he confirmed, "Now we head back to Orario."

"Well, that was kind of anti-climatic for my first official job," I commented as we rolled back out the gate only a few hours after entering the city.

"Anti-climatic is good when transporting goods. I would be more worried if things were hectic and exciting." Thorin said, which I had to agree with despite the boring nature of the journey. 

However, if all it took was a few boring jobs every once in a while in exchange for being part of the familia, that was fine with me. Plus, on the way back, I mastered Dress Change as well, which allowed me to switch clothes and or armor instantly with anything inside my Spatial Storage.

Once we rolled back into the city and dropped off the goods, I decided to spend my time mastering Explosion Magic before heading back into the dungeon and trying to raise my stats.