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A few days later, Emily is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the testing area in Earnie’s workshop, surrounded by scorched metal scrap. She’s wrapped in a mesh of crackling lightning mana with her eyes shut, delicately manipulating her energy with each minute twitch of her outstretched hands.

The loose mana slowly forms into twisting runes and complex geometries, initially covering an area two times the size of her body before slowly shrinking. The construct seems to solidify more as it gets smaller, the crackling instability fading until a fist-sized, sky-blue marble of power floats in Emily’s lap.

Her eyes snap open, a small, satisfied smile curling her lips as a new system skill pops into her vision.

ˉˉˉˉˉ

[Basic Condensed Casting (passive)]

User can calculate and form balanced spell orbs to hold prepared spells for casting.

-Grants +10% calculation speed when condensing spells up to third circle.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Quest generated!

[Unique Casting]

[Rank:] D

[Description:] You have learned a casting method usually exclusive to fourth circle mages, now truly make it your own.

Requirements:

-Create 0/1 unique casting method based on Condensed Casting (Not Complete)

Rewards:

-Elixir Recipe: Eel’s Blood

_____

Emily’s eyes scan over the new quest as a deeper understanding of her new skill clicks into place in the back of her mind.

“Create a unique casting method?” she mutters, blinking away the system window and staring at the floating orb before her. “I guess this isn’t as helpful to me as it would be for a normal mage thanks to my cortex.”

She floats the spell orb up into the air and activates it, unleashing a single lightning strike on a metal pole a few metres away.

The spell orbs are easy to maintain after formation, but it comes at the cost of cutting a lot of the manual control I would normally have over my spells, and it limits my flexibility even more. This would only be helpful if I wasn’t capable of perfect multitasking, since I can already form and hold multiple spells at once despite the high mental load required.

Emily stands up, pulling several mechanical pieces from her belt and weaving them together absentmindedly as she heads back up to the main production platform to continue chewing through the new challenge, never sparing a glance as her age ticks up by one in her system status.

***

Early in the morning on the tenth day of the seventh month, Emily leaves Earnie’s workshop and heads to the company’s headquarters again. She approaches a receptionist and asks about her contract details.

The receptionist digs through their drawers before handing over a hand-held device brimming with mana. It looks a little like a thick sheet of paper and, when she injects her mana into it, Emily receives a flood of information directly into her mind that she quickly sorts into her memory banks.

“You’re a little early, but your squad mates should be here within the next fifteen minutes,” the receptionist says, glancing at the clock on their desk as Emily hands back the briefing terminal. “Please find somewhere to sit, and we will bring them over as they arrive.”

Emily nods her thanks to the receptionist and leaves to find an empty table. She settles down watching the door, ignoring the muttered conversation of three mercenaries sitting nearby, trying to encourage their friend to approach her.

Five minutes later, a familiar face, Ice Petal, walks through the door. She heads towards the reception counters where she’s quickly directed towards Emily. The moment they make eye contact, the young mage waves off the receptionist and heads over on her own.

“Hello again,” Ice Petal greets, taking a seat beside Emily with a small frown creasing her brow. “Do you know what we’re doing? They only told me I was being assigned to a combat squad. They wouldn’t say anything else.”

“I know our objective, yes.” Emily nods calmly, looking over at a tall man being led towards them by a receptionist. “But I believe we should wait till everyone is here.”

Ice Petal follows her gaze, looking over at their next squad mate. He’s over a head taller than the receptionist guiding him, and he’s wearing a set of worn, sand-coloured robes covered in battered metal plating coated in tiny, engraved runes. In his right hand is a thick wooden staff with delicate runes engraved along its body and a refined earth crystal mounted at its tip. Emily can feel the telltale fluctuations of a second circle mage emanating from him as he doesn’t even try to conceal his mana, proudly leaving it on display.

“Wow, I didn’t think I’d get to be on a team with The Savage Moon,” he says, flashing Emily a grin as he drops into the seat on her other side, not sparing the receptionist that led him over a second glance.

Emily fixes the man with an unimpressed stare and doesn’t respond. His grin falters after a few seconds of silent pressure, and he lets out an awkward cough.

“I’m Sandman, C rank,” he says, pushing out his chest as he says his rank and tries to cover his blunder. “I special-“

Emily turns her gaze away from him before he can continue, looking towards the next man being guided towards their table as Sandman trails off into uncomfortable silence.

This must be Pretty Boy.

The man is clean-shaven, with closely cropped hair and a dazzling smile. He’s around the same height as Ice Petal and he’s chatting enthusiastically with the woman leading him.

He has a simple set of reinforced leather armour covering him from head to toe, with several revolvers strapped to his legs and two short sword handles peeking over his shoulders. Emily can feel his weak, first circle mana signature, but he’s attempting to hide it, unlike Sandman, carefully keeping his mana circulating within his body.

“Thank you for your help!” he says, patting the receptionist on the shoulder. “You have to cook something for me next time I’m back, that sounds wonderful.”

“My door is always open. I’m sure my grandmother would love to have you round,” the receptionist replies with a slight blush, bowing her head and turning to leave.

“Hello there,” the man says as he finally turns his attention to the group sitting before him, making eye contact with Emily and flashing her a wide smile. “I’m first circle, Pretty Boy, D Rank. It’s an honour to be on your squad,”

He pauses, his eyes flicking almost imperceptibly over towards Sandman.

“Emily,” he finishes.

Did he hear our conversation before?

Emily narrows her eyes slightly, but nods and gestures for him to take a seat regardless. She turns her gaze away as Pretty Boy settles down, looking back towards the door as he leans over and starts asking Ice Petal about herself.

She half listens to her squad making small talk, with Sandman quickly making friends with the enthusiastic Pretty Boy next to him, only holding up a hand to silence them as a stern-looking woman is led towards them.

She stops at their table and swings a hefty weapon that looks familiar to Emily off her shoulder, leaning it against her chair as she nods to Emily and sits down.

“Second circle, Whistler, C Rank,” she introduces herself.

“Emily, third circle, and B rank,” Emily responds to no one’s surprise, gesturing towards the long, wide-barrelled, handheld cannon against Whistler’s chair with her head. “Is that one of Earnie’s?”

“Yes,” Whistler says, the corners of her lips curling up ever so slightly.

Emily nods and falls silent as the rest of the squad introduce themselves to the newcomer, casting several spells and wrapping their table in a barely visible film of wind that completely cuts them off from the sounds filling the rest of the hall.

The glowing green magic circle floating behind her draws the full attention of her squad, along with several curious gazes from other mercenaries nearby. Emily notices the watching eyes and raises her hand, releasing a flood of silver mana that seeps into the thin wind barrier, forming dozens of shifting runes before solidifying into a thin half-dome of metal, lit by a small glowing light that floats from Emily’s hand as well.

Her squad mates fall deathly silent, watching the display of magical prowess with a mixture of expressions and waiting for Emily to speak.

“Now that we have some privacy,” she says - pulling a map of Dennari from her belt and laying it out flat on the table - “Let’s go over our contract. We’ve been tasked with heading into no-mans-land in the East Woods. There’s been a spike in activity from Denros around here.”

She reaches out, a thin purple mist flowing up her arm from her belt and solidifying into her quill, and circles a section of the forest.

“We need to work out why, then make sure Denros doesn’t gain anything from their efforts. We have transport ready to take us over now, but does anyone need any time to prepare?”

She looks around the table, receiving only confident head shakes.

***

“You know the drill,” Emily says to the experienced mercenaries on her team before her gaze lands on Ice Petal. “We’re on foot from here.”

She leads them out of the docks, finding the city much quieter than Liberte with few people roaming the open streets without a weapon of some kind. Whistler and Ice Petal both walk quietly on either side of Emily, keeping close as Sandman and Pretty Boy follow behind them chatting.

“Hey, Emily,” Pretty Boy calls out. “Do you have enough rations? If you need to collect any more, I know a great shop near here.”

Emily glances over her shoulder as she replies.

“I have plenty. Do you not?”

“No no, I’m fine,” he says, waving his hands and tapping the drawstring pouch at his waist. “Just trying to make conversation.”

“Um,” Ice Petal says quietly, looking at Emily with a nervous expression. “I… I don’t have that much food prepared.”

“Didn’t I ask if you needed time to prepare before we left Liberte?”

“Yeah… but we didn’t have trouble with food at the Outpost, so I kind of forgot…”

Emily rolls her eyes but doesn’t pause her steps.

“It’s fine. I have enough to support you until we kill something. You know how to butcher beasts at least, right?”

“Yes!” Ice Petal says, relaxing the tension in her shoulders. “Thank you.”

Emily nods and ignores Sandman whispering to Pretty Boy about her unfair bias, turning the corner and stepping into view of the thick wooden wall surrounding the city, formed from huge, uniform tree-trunks growing into each other.

How did they manage that? Do they have a way to alter trees' growth with magic?

They pass through the wall’s gatehouse without any problems, their identities as mercenaries making the proceedings easy. On the other side, they are immediately greeted by a sea of trees stretching off into the distance.

Emily drinks in the scenery, finding it strange to see so many trees without thick fog obstructing them. She takes the lead, stepping into the forest while turning to walk backwards so she can address her squad.

“We should be pretty safe until we get closer to no-man’s-land. However, we should still be prepared for combat just in case. None of you have scouting capabilities, do you?”

Everyone shakes their heads, confirming the information Emily received from the company.

“Okay, in that case, I will provide our only detection for approaching enemies,” she says, reaching into her belt and pulling out several of her scouts in their closed, egg-like forms. “I’ll keep an eye on our surroundings and alert you to any danger should it come.”

She tosses the eggs up, sending a stream of mana and machina into them, causing them to unfurl into two birds and a spider under her squad mates’ curious gazes. The birds take to the skies, flapping their fine metal wings and disappearing between the trees while the spider falls to the ground and scurries away ahead of them.

“What are those?” Pretty Boy asks, his eyes glowing with overflowing curiosity.

“My scouts,” Emily replies with a small approving nod. “I can see through their eyes to watch for anything nearby. The birds currently have heat vision, and the spider is using a modified form of Earthen Detection.”

“Earthen Detection?” the handsome man tilts his head at the spell name.

“It’s a common spell in Modo,” Emily says, quickly realising the gap in common knowledge. “Tracks vibrations through the ground to find people.”

“Fascinating!”

“Very. Now, as I was saying,” Emily says, pulling the conversation back on track and stepping over a large root. “If I spot danger you need to be able to take your positions quickly. Sandman, you’re on defence.”

The man camouflaged for the wrong battlefield puffs his chest out.

“Of course,” he says confidently. “Nothing will get past me!”

Emily nods, turning her gaze on Whistler.

“How’s your tree climbing?”

“Passable,” the woman responds.

“Then as long as you aren’t actively under fire, go up and find a good shooting angle.”

“Understood.”

“Ice Petal, you’re to save your mana. Stick close to Sandman and use your spells to tie up the enemies’ feet, but otherwise, use your gun if you can.”

“Okay,” the small mage nods, disappointment flickering briefly across her face.

“And Pretty Boy,” Emily says, looking at the man smiling back at her. “Those swords aren’t for show, right?”

“Of course not. You won’t find another merc in the company better with them than me!” he says, copying Sandman and pushing his chest forward before cracking a grin and winking at her. “Well, other than you I suspect.”

“Then you’re moving forward with me,” Emily says, not batting an eye at his comment. “We try to end the fight before Whistler needs to shoot if we can.”

“Got it. They won’t know what hit them!”