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Chapter 8 Presents and Joining the Guild

Chapter 8 Presents and Joining the Guild

We had a dinner party and everyone watched me open birthday presents. It was a lot of fun, especially opening the three identical golden wrapped boxes from Beph, Lena, and Lilin. They had each gotten me some extraordinary things. I even ended up having to guess who gave me what. Mom and dad decided to even make a game out of it. It took me a while to figure out as there were nine possible combinations of who gave what but I finally did. Beph gave me a mana compactor. They are pretty expensive because only one company makes them and keeps the processes pretty secret, but nevertheless, they are extremely useful especially since I am a full-fledged mage now. Mana compactors allow the user to store and compress mana over time. This mana can be explosively released at one time or drawn from the stores like a battery. Basically, it allows me to either increase the potency of a single spell or allow me to cast more spells continuously. It even has the added benefit of slightly increasing the efficiency of energy absorption. She said it was to help me be able to summon Cal for longer. Honestly, I should have guessed this one the fastest. Beph loves Cal the most of the three, it might be partly due to her foxkin lineage. When we were younger, she and Cal (Shiba form) would run around and play together in the woods, so much so that I often used to joke that Cal is as much Beph's familiar as mine.

Lena gave me a infinite storage bracelet, which is enchanted with space magic [storage],space magic [compact], time magic [freeze], and mind magic[ sort]. The amount that can be stored and taken out isn't really infinite and is proportionate to the soul energy poured into it. It's often used by adventures (once they can afford one) as even a green class soul skill holder can store a medium-sized house and with all of its contents. She said she got it for me because I am a scatterbrain and often lose things. She also joked that maybe now my room won't be such a mess. Maybe after I figure out baseline concepts of magic circles and combination magic, or at the very least if I learn how to enchant things on my own, I could start my own company to make infinite storage bracelets.

Lilin gave me a soul ring. I have no idea how she got the money to afford one, and even more so to give it to me. Soul rings like my soul pendant help focus soul energy and even has a stacking effect with my pendant. However, that isn't all. Soul rings can be used as soul vessels for summoned or contract creatures can be used to store and compact mana (less efficiency of a mana compactor), and can often be enchanted with up to two other magic spells. Sometimes soul rings are used in place of engagement rings because they can be enchanted with the spirit magic [promise], but Lilin said she was able to enchant it with life magic [cure] and life magic [twice]. When activated [cure] is a red level healing magic that cures mild poison, mild paralysis, and heals small wounds. Together with red level blessing magic [twice] which doubles the effect of a spell it can cure moderate poison, paralysis, and non-fatal injuries. So if I store mana into the ring, it's basically an automatic recovery method until the stored mana runs out. Plus I can still activate the effects manually myself too. So much care and thought went into Lilin's gift that I was almost moved to tears. She was blushing really hard when I thanked her so much. Beph kept nudging me and Lilin together while laughing. She even joked that we should just get engaged officially. That must have really pissed Lilin off because she turned bright red, and started yelling and hitting Beph. Not that I would mind actually being engaged to Lilin. She is beautiful, smart, caring, and amazing in so many ways. But I'm lucky enough as it is to be seen as a brother by her and Lena, and allowed to remain so close to her. Maybe one day I will have a fiance, I just hope Lilin and whoever she may be get along.

After the party, I went upstairs to my room. Rei had sent me a book for my birthday. Principles of Enhancement and Enchanting. Did she suspect I would become a mage beforehand? Well, this is perfect since I wanted to learn about enchanting and magic circles beforehand. Enchanting works by engraving the magic circle of a spell into an object. Then a seal on the magic circle is added to protect the artifact from the backlash of the spell. Finally, a conversion piece is added. This allows the artifact to take in soul energy and convert it to mana. However, this step isn't needed for artifacts that will only be used by mages because they already have skills to increase the efficiency of converting surrounding energy into soul energy into mana. I don't want to make the same mistakes I did when trying to figure pseudo combination magic so I send Marquis Richards a quick text.