A Hard Bargain

"Wow this place is so big"

"Dude I told you, I only started coming last week but it's like a whole other world here"

'To think they'd follow me even here… Should I have headed deeper in?'

But as the newly arrived started walking towards the librarian, the smaller of the duo couldn't help but continue to look around. To the arrays of bookshelves, to the second floor and to the roof. Even to the desks and the many students reading, only stopping short as he witnessed the only one of them looking back.

'Oops', Silas raised a brow at him, he should probably have at least tried blending in.

'Well too late now', so he instead just opened his first book in front of him.

"Ah it's that bastard, hey, hey, look who I found", he started nudging his friend who was speaking to the librarian.

"I'm obliged to tell you to shut up. If you don't I'll have to ask you to leave"

"Watch the crap you speak slave"

The librarian sighed and closed her ledger. A chain jingled as it unveiled behind her neck, her hair shaking out of the way to give a clear view as she stood up. But her height only equaled the bigger of the two. She wasn't that intimidating between the chain locking her in place, and her vacant expression, but her deathly silence spoke volumes of her mood. 

"Man, why do you always have to cause a fuss?"

"Donchu see the collar on her? How dare she talk down on Grismere nobility!"

"You're a fucking dumbass sometimes you know that?"

"The crap you saying nerd? You're dumb, why else would you need to surround yourself with books? Had you not failed you're last tes-"

"Enough", the librarian commanded.

"You will cease speaking, or leave this place"

"Oh ye-umph?", the guy tried to retort only to get his mouth clasped by his friend.

"I apologize, we'll shut up"

"Mm", the librarian narrowed her eyes but nodded, sitting down opening her ledger again.

"Names"

"Mines Tendan, this here… Well do you really need to know?"

"Yes"

"Mmrphhmrph, bwah", he unclasped himself, "don-"

"His's Cyanide"

"I see", she handed him 2 green metal cards, before ignoring him completely.

"Ok~ay, bye", he dragged his friend to a vacant table, the closest he could find lest his friend cause more trouble in their travels.

"Unhand me!"

"Shhh"

"You Shhh"

But his friend only waved as he walked to the books.

"Despicable, the hospitality here is trash", he folded his arms having a fit at his table.

Though suddenly a mischievous smile formed as he gazed at Silas from a distance.

"Hey, weren't you supposed to meet up with Kiyah? Think she'll be awfully moody should you ignore her call", he called from across the room, alleviating himself from his chair.

He strode over to Silas ensuring his intentions remained clear.

"Say, don't think your sister can protect you from me here"

Silas finally gave his attention to him, nonchalantly looking between his prevailing presence, and the librarian he saw glancing at them within his peripherals. But she didn't speak, only standing up once again.

"So you wanna follow me this time, or cause a stupid little fuss?"

'I don't think I'll need to do either', Silas only looked past him, fully devoting his attention to the librarian.

While she stood still, her arm slowly raised to the occasion, her hands unclasping as she reached for him as if infatuated. Though it had to be from an idea of what she'd do, as her eyes started to glow red, the nonchalance on her face, replaced with frustration. 

Small dimples appeared on her face as her pupils turned reptilian for a moment, all this was witnessed by Silas as he couldn't keep his eyes off her. Yet his attention diverted from the strange phenomenon as he deflected a hand from trying to grab him again. Which only promoted a chuckle from his pest.

"Resisting are we? I like th-", his body went flying backwards into the librarians clasp.

"Ahht", the boy didn't even have time to think as he was manhandled, thrown outside of the library the next instant.

He landed face first on the marble floors, had his body not been strengthened from years of arduous training, more than the blood from his nose would have stained the ground.

"You..", the boy finally came to the realization of what happened.

"You dare use magic in-"

Bang

Yet the double doors for the first time in- Well Silas wouldn't have known how long. Yet for the first time he saw the doors close. Locking them inside, and soundproofing them from the outside. They were trapped. And everyone had realized this.

He glanced between the other students that had become distracted by the commotion. Some were furrowing their brows, others expressing panic, but most were unnerved.

Then tilting his head to the other side, Silas found that the librarian was now seated, looking through her ledger, but her face was laced with a frown. And on further investigation, her pupils became rounded again, her tanned cheeks unblemished once more. 

'Did she use spatial or wind magic just now?', he couldn't be sure.

While one was an incredibly rare, high tier of magic, the other had to make her an exceptional mage in order to perform such a strong effect. Either way meant she exhibited great strength.

'Guess we're trapped in here with her now', yet like many of the others he only turned his attention back to his books.

No one seemed interested in asking her to let them out. No one wanted to be the scapegoat that asked. So everyone eventually ignored the incident, patiently biding their time. They only carried on with their endeavors, those that had finished it and wanted to leave? Endured it.

'Do I have a protagonist's halo? Why bother doing anything if the people that wish me harm only manage to get sent away by everyone else', he sighed. But the voice of one more entered his ears.

"Holy fuck, what happened?"

'So then what'll happen to him?', he gazed at the skinny boy that stood with a single book in hand, his mouth agape.

But his attention once again caught on to the other. Whereby after a moment of shared silence, said guy started making his way over. Silas only rolled his eyes.

'Here we go again, will I not know peace?'

But as he arrived, he kept his silence. He only pulled up a chair from the same desk and sat down opening his book. It was a little unnerving how relaxed he looked, considering he just invaded his space. Silas had to calm his furrowed brows, easing it as silence continued between them. Over time he almost forgot he was there, his ears only detecting the flipping of his page.

His eyes never strayed from his paper, each flip spanning through intervals of seconds. What he sought was not a sizable amount of information. He'd already read such books only striving for a reminder.

He first skimmed through 'the foundations of a mana heart', the next, 'how to manifest a core'. Soon his entire pile of books sat neatly on the other side of him, the last cementing his understanding of the basics.

'So before I form my core, I should expand the total space to the limit. That much is obvious, but I'll know it by feeling my heart constrict, acknowledging a limit only based on the likelihood of it exploding. Enduring past that and expanding my total bounds will increase the chance the heart explodes in the attempt of advancement… No wonder most mages advance early, otherwise they risk becoming crippled'

'Yet the natural bounds, rather, the natural amount the heart can endure seems based upon affinities. More specifically, multiple affinities increase the rate of mana recovery due to taking in multiple types contained within the air. While the strength of an affinity increases the maximum bounds the heart can endure. Wouldn't that mean those with multiple affinities would make for better body cultivators? They could heal their mana hearts faster with the increased natural rate'

'I suppose that would fare better with people that had less strength overall within each affinity, but more of them. Quantity over quality. Even so, I don't believe many have high percentages, my sister being renowned for having 67% in metal. Mine's 80% isn't it? I wonder if I should reconsider the path of the mage'

But he sighed, 'alas, it ill suits my gift'.

Such a reaction caught a certain someone's attention however, as they found an opportunity to speak.

"Dude, you finished all your reads already? Flew by them in a flash", he whispered leaning towards him, his hand leaning against his mouth directed so only Silas could see.

"If you've read all that, how about you help me out with my book here. The words don't really speak to me"

Silas looked at him for a moment, but then leaned back and remained absorbed in his thoughts.

'Then again the higher percentage of many affinities are likely to overshadow the strength of a singular one. And a singular contrast to many means for a lowered regenerative rate, also making it slower to fill the maximum bound. To increase to the next core the heart must first feel the start of constriction, so a certain amount needs to be reached'

'That means mages would take longer amounts of time to rank up. It means the path to power would be greater, but take me til my 20s to pay off. It means it's certainly not worth it', he needed immediate results to endure his last couple of years.

'Perhaps it was for the best my gift did not suit it', he was about to think about something else, but he saw the boy still observing him patiently from the corner of his eye.

"No"

"Why not? You're not doing anything"

"No"

He closed his eyes, sitting upright. Therein he meditated, his will examining his mana heart. A singular large hole remained in it, the bigger of the 2 he made before still barely healed.

'So it heals at a time, is this changeable? I know little on how to control the mana heart. Perhaps mage classes would have done me good. But naturally it wouldn't have for the me before. No, enough with the fascination for magic', he broke his meditation by shaking his head.

Again, the boy stared at him, "pretty please?".

Silas lowered his gaze to the boys book. 

'Directing mana for attribute gain - A cultivators guide to…', Silas extended his hand for the book.

Blinking a few times, Tendan decided to pass it over. Silas proceeded to skim through it before placing it on top of his pile of books he'd already read. Closing his eyes, he prepared to enter meditation once again.

"No, hey you-"

"Shh", Silas pointed to the librarian with his eyes shut, before lowering his hand and finally dispersing his will once again.

Entering inside his mana heart through the gaping hole this time, he finally got a proper view of everything up close. It was an empty space that seemed like a cubic square meter wide, compared to his minimal size. Yet a thin coat of steely rosy mist permeated throughout the space, gushing towards the opened hole that seemed to tear through the sky, revealing a semblance of the beating red heart.

He sat in the center of the small empty space, the place where the torrent seemed to disperse from, more mist seemingly leaking out of nowhere from the place. As he sat there, the atmosphere embraced him in a sort of tranquility. Yet feeling something strange and unnatural, he felt out with his telekinetic hands.

He pulled at something invisible, something that could only be described as strings. He pulled at them, tugging, as if rolling up a hose to bring everything back confined and organized within the small space he sat within. Yet the process was arduous, his strength draining as if pulling on something heavy, resisting in a game of tug-o-war.

As he reeled in this supposed string, mist slowly stopped being expelled from the hole. Instead overtime, it brought more in, as if redirecting the control of the current.

The mist he brought in slowly sparsened around the total combined area, moving depending on his whim. Then he condensed a few strands of the mist, entwining and weaving them together from different parts of the room.

As the mist condensed in a tangible more solid-like form, much like a rope. He then split his will into tiny little pieces, applying them to the end of each rope. His main will that still sat at the center of the room dimmed and shortened as if at the verge of disappearing.

As mist slowly stopped trailing into the room from the hole, he blocked off the current from expelling the mist out, moving around as if there were a wall there. He took the time to finish weaving each rope, totalling to a count of 8. With the process done, he couldn't help but look to the end of each rope, each loosening into the form of the mist before it.

Yet suddenly all the rope ends expelled outwards, shooting towards the opening in the sky. The mist continued to weave into more, lengthening the ropes as each shot out in its own direction. He directed each rope with the shared effort of split wills, navigating them through the heart, as they traversed on their journey through veins to certain parts of the body.

He tried to lead them to locations as accurately detailed from the book he just read. He first directed them towards certain acupuncture points, spanning the lateral side of both arms, 2 strands of the rope trailing along each arm. The last 3 followed a path to the stomach and heels of each leg. It was difficult to coordinate between them all at the same time, yet the technique he used was perhaps the simplest one he had read.

But perhaps it proved too difficult, as the trail he made for his arms suddenly started losing control, wiggling as it treaded forward instead of remaining straight along its trajectory as it had before. The rope of mist suddenly crashed into the wall of the veins, coming to stop immediately. This wasn't where its destination laid, yet it stopped becoming controllable all the same.

Such a distraction was all it took, as his control wavered for those heading to his heel, collapsing before reaching their destination as well. Only the one at the stomach made it, but a single success was not enough. Everything needed to bear its place, and he failed to achieve the desired outcome.

In a bid to start over, he tried to pull back on the strings again, yet this time the opposing force was too much to bear. The mist had traveled too far under his control, the current too strong to reel back in.

Instead he returned all his split wills, reconverginging within his main sat in the middle of the room. Streams of mist followed multiple currents, connecting with the pathways and endpoints his ropes had forged, spreading out from the spot they had inaccurately landed.

But as he observed the mist leave his mana heart, he couldn't help but muse while shaking his head, sighing as it disappeared gradually overtime.

'Once the heart heals I can try again, only then will it naturally cease the pathways, cutting them off so that I may begin anew'

As his will dissipated, he slowly came back to his senses. But on blinking his eyes he could feel certain parts of his body tingling, the veins on his arm emitting a strange pinkish glow from under his skin. He sighed once more as he looked up to find Tendan still peering over at him. 

'It would be nice to test it again instead of waiting…'

"Back to the land of the conscious? Perhaps you're feeling more amicable this time"

"Have you nothing better to do?"

"Not really. You took what better I had left", he pointed to the closed doors, Silas's gaze following.

"Can't really leave either", his finger moved to the book on top of his pile.

"So I'd appreciate having my book back, or better yet if you share the knowledge you've acquired"

Silas tilted his head, slowly emerging his 2 hands, each finger and thumb outstretched.

"What's that?"

"10 points per minute"

"Dude, that's ridiculous"

"11"

"Fucking…"

"..."

"... 7"

"10"

"8"

"9"

"Do I look rich to you? I'm only doing 8"

"Deal"