Eager

"There are some things you should know," Famden started to explain. "First off, since that's a categorized Will Stone on there, I didn't have to restrict it artificially with enchantments. That means you won't have to come back every Stage to upgrade it. The second thing, and the most important, is no refunds."

"You keep telling me that, Famden, but why would I want a refund?" That told Fate that the other man definitely didn't notice his wand at work a second ago.

Famden pushed his glasses up with his thumb, giving Fate an unamused glare. "Maybe you didn't hear me when I said that thing is useless. My dad, the owner of this store, had it tested against every Manifestation category, and didn't get any response. Whether you're an Elemental, Universal, or Emotional Mage, or any of the others, that rock is just a rock to you."

'I probably shouldn't tell him about my Manifestation,' Fate thought. "Did I need to do anything else? Didn't you mention a bonding process?"

"That's only for the uncategorized stones. If that Will Stone does work for you, by some miracle of the Empress, you'll be the only one that could even use it."

'Oh, good,' Fate thought. Maybe that would help deter thieves. A Will Stone was a Will Stone, even if it was useless. They could pawn it off to a noble family for at least a couple of thousand Lights.

"Well, then. Thanks, Famden," Fate said, turning to leave.

"Just don't come back for a refund!" Famden yelled across the store as Fate left.

Fate shook his head with a grin when he heard that. 'He really doesn't know.'

Fate plopped down on his bed at the Academy, holding his wand above his head. With a bit of will, he sent Mana into it and activated his Skill. Keeping his back solid so he didn't fall through the bed, he narrowed his eyes and monitored himself with his Mage Sense.

'It looks like it just… reduces the cost? That's good, I guess. My Skill doesn't cost much Mana anyway, but now I can use it twice as long. So that's… around ten minutes?'

He had never tested how long he could sustain his Skill, but he did so now. As he suspected, he could stay intangible for ten minutes with the wand. After recharging his Mana and testing again, this time without the wand, he found that he could only hold it for four minutes.

He let out a whistle. 'So it isn't a decrease of half. It's about 60%, or a 150% increase in time.'

He may not be able to read, but he at least learned numbers before his mom passed. It wasn't something he looked fondly on, however. It was his dad's idea to teach him numbers before letters, an idea he forced Fate's mom to fulfill.

"He needs to know the value of money," Fate's father had said the night he decided the little boy needed to know math. "And to do that, he needs to know his numbers."

Why his dad placed more importance on that than the ability to read, Fate didn't know, but he had to begrudgingly admit that it had made his life much easier. Especially when he became responsible for himself, his dad too busy to care for him.

'Enough thinking about that jackass,' Fate scolded himself, shaking his head roughly. 'I don't ever have to see him again.'

A glance at the time showed that it was almost six p.m. 'I should see if Lady Alessandra has time for some reading lessons.'

Having made up his mind, he stowed his wand in his ring and entered the labyrinth that was the Academy. With help from his Academy-issued map, he found his way easily enough, rapping his knuckles against her office door.

He entered when he heard a "come in," closing the door softly behind him. As before, Alessandra sat behind her desk, her admittedly large breasts cupped by her crossed arms as her thin eyebrows met together in a frown aimed at a paper on her desk. That frustration eased slightly as she saw Fate, but didn't disappear.

"What's wrong, Ms. Alessandra?" Fate asked.

"I have to write a formal request for an investigation into the Guard. The Empress didn't put much weight on the leakage of your armor's recordings, but I'm worried about the Guards' image deteriorating from this. But never mind that; you're here for reading lessons, are you not? I apologize for stalling for so long."

"It's fine. Running an Academy is busy work," Fate said as he sat across from her.

"Thank you for being understanding. Now, you have two options. One, we can do it the normal way. That can easily take months, or years if you don't have a knack for it. It's the safest option, and I have more than enough time for it. Two, you can go into a time dilation room with me and we knock out your reading lessons by the end of tomorrow. You're aware of the drawbacks of such a method, yes?"

"You age according to the time within the room, right?"

"That statement is correct, but it is not the entire problem. We would only be in there for a year at most, which isn't enough to dramatically alter your personality. My main concern is food. As an Apprentice, you still need to eat.

"Part of the cost of the chamber covers enough food to feed a Journeyman for the time they'll be in there, but an Apprentice like you needs to eat three meals a day to stay healthy. You'll have to get the rest of the food yourself.

"So, which method do you want? I'll front half of the costs of the dilation chamber for you, but you'll still need a thousand Lights for the chamber per hour outside, plus at least another hundred for the rest of the food. It's also important to note you won't be able to advance the understanding of your Facet while we're in there.

"That happens to be the reason why it's so cheap. If it was capable of such a thing, it'd easily cost hundreds of times as much. As it stands, the price is only how much it costs to convince a robust Mage to fuel the chamber with their Mana."

"I can afford that," Fate told her with a wince. "Although it's going to hurt my wallet."

'She called it cheap,' he thought to himself dejectedly. 'A thousand Lights an hour, and she called it cheap.'

Considering he'd be getting an essential skill out of it, he considered it worth the trade-off. While reading isn't worth much as a skill in a world like this, where simply being a Mage is enough to make you well-off monetarily, he'd wanted to read since he was a child.

If spending nearly half of what he had left in Lights was what that would cost, he'd gladly pay it.

"Good, that means you haven't spent all of that coin the Empress gave you on frivolous things like most students I know would do. So, is that your choice?"

"To tell you the truth, I've already bought a few books," he admitted. "And I'd like to read them as soon as possible. So yes, I'll go for the dilation room."

"Well, at least you're eager," she said with a laugh. "Come on, let's go get the food before the stores close."