Quest Academy: Silvers, page 9
His warnings fell mostly on deaf ears as students scrambled to find their friends. A few people moved from the front to the back to group up with people they liked. Divinity and Sal moved a little closer to the staff member, who noticed them immediately.
“You two, and you two. Form up and head in. Stick to the left and go clockwise. I’ll hold the rest off for a few minutes so don’t feel like you have to rush.” With that, he winked, and they were off with their new group.
A stifled giggle from their left introduced Sal to a strikingly beautiful girl. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen someone so enchanting, and he felt an incredible urge to make her happy.
“Could you knock it off, Victoria? He’s with me.” Divinity sighed, causing Victoria to jump in surprise.
“Oh, Divinity. Shit, yeah, sorry.”
With a wave of her hand, Victoria deactivated the ability, releasing Sal from its power. His senses returned in full force, and he couldn’t understand why he had just acted like that.
Divinity guided him to their first destination. “You’ve just met Rank #69, Victoria.”
Sal turned and gave her a polite nod. There was a lingering sensation in his mind, but it was fading. She was a pretty girl, yes…but not intoxicatingly so.
Victoria gave Sal an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. I was milking the staff guy for information, and I think you got caught in the crossfire.” Beside Victoria was a male student with a simple smile on his face. Victoria took notice of Sal’s glance and shook her head. “Yeah, don’t worry about him. He’s a plus one in case of emergency. Isn’t that right, boo?”
The smiling student nodded gratefully, and Sal could have sworn he saw traces of drool around his mouth.
Sal shuddered and was once again incredibly grateful for Divinity’s support. A pinch on his shoulder caused him to reflexively reach for it. He turned to see Divinity with a relieved expression.
“Okay, that’s better. This whole plan goes to shit if you’re under her charm ability, because…” Divinity’s smile was wide as she pointed toward a woman standing between two sets of machinery, looking skeptical. “That person right there has the perfect skill for you.”
Divinity didn’t have time to explain, but Sal trusted her. They moved as a group to the first desk, where an aproned man with a bushy beard started to explain how commissions and work orders operated. Sal was going to ask him about getting his door repaired, but Divinity gave him a dig with her elbow.
“I’ll stall us here, while you go on ahead and talk to her. I don’t know what the skill is, but the future you is absolutely dreamy about it. Go on, hurry.”
Sal nodded as he moved over to the second table that held the bored woman. She looked positively regal in comparison to the aproned man. Rather than the uniform he was accustomed to seeing the staff wear, she wore jeans and a flannel shirt with rolled-up sleeves over a tight black vest underneath. It was hard to guess her age, but Sal would have guessed that she was in her mid-twenties. She was leaning against the table like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
Sal had no idea how he was going to break the ice, but luckily, she did it for him. “Welcome to the workshop. If you stayed long enough at the first table, my colleague would have told you what we do here and how we operate. Are you interested in being a Support class, or enrolling in one of our courses?”
The boredom in her voice was so blatant that Sal almost laughed. She sounded so rehearsed that he doubted she’d hear his answer if it wasn’t a stock reply. Before he could say anything, she slid a tablet in front of him. “Please register your interest by signing your name and then move on to the next stage of the tour. Thank you.” Her eyes glanced over to the hordes of students waiting for their turn to get in, and Sal witnessed the last shreds of her soul dying on the spot.
“I was given this by a guild.” Sal placed the Silver token on the table. Since he was in the workshop, he guessed that the Crafting department would recognize the token. Services for guilds typically fell into the Support category.
Her eyes flicked across the token and widened ever so slightly. She picked it up and lifted it into the air. “Forge! Look!”
Sal turned to see a more senior worker squinting at the raised token. If the bored woman was in her mid-twenties, then this man had about thirty years on her. His face finally broke into a grin as he pointed at Sal, as if to say, This guy? Sal had no idea whether he should be offended or if the smiles were mocking in some way.
Forge called over one of the younger workers and gestured for them to take over the woman’s table. “What are you waiting for? Show him around.”
Sal turned back to the woman, only to find her grinning at him. “What’s your name, kid?”
He was not expecting the kid word to sting as much as it did. Swallowing his pride, Sal offered his hand to her. “Salvatore Argento, but my friends call me Sal.”
Rather than shaking his hand, she placed the token back in his. “Hope you don’t mind, but these things are precious.” She wiggled her fingers at him, and Sal noticed she was wearing an interesting set of gloves.
Before he could stop himself, he slipped into the habit of just activating his ability. The gloves weren’t artifacts but were constructed. His brain caught up with his eyes a moment later, and he started to apologize.
But she was watching him intently. “No, don’t stop. What do you see?”
This was his chance. Rather than inspecting her gloves, Sal looked at her with his power. He couldn’t tell what her power was, but he could see her threads. There were some knots, but much fewer than he was used to seeing. The power distribution was controlled, which was really good to see. It meant that whatever ability she used, it had an output that she could control. The threads led to her eyes and fingers…Sal smiled; that wouldn’t be invasive at all.
Overall, it didn’t look like anything extraordinary, so Sal started to replicate the threads in his own body. He wasn’t going to activate it or power it up, but would instead keep it for before the Skill Registration event. When he came to the point of adding the knots, Sal hesitated. The registration had apparently recognized the difference between power levels from Mend to Restore, which led Sal to believe that the strongest version of a skill would likely result in the best outcome.
With that in mind, he didn’t add any of her knots to his replicated threads and instead created a perfect version of the weave. It had been years since he had done this, but he wasn’t worried. If he was just holding the skill in place for a few moments, nothing bad would happen. Sal finished up his recon, and then focused on her gloves. He didn’t want to resurface empty-handed.
“Whoa, that was fast,” the woman exclaimed as Sal’s eyes returned to normal. “I thought Appraisers took forever.” She lowered her gloves and inspected them before glancing up at him. “So, what’s the verdict? Are they good?”
Her expression was a little guarded this time, and for some reason, Sal felt he should be honest with her. “It’s my first time seeing anything like this, to be honest. I’m more used to antique gauntlets or power gloves, but those are custom-made for Crafting. They were normal gloves at one point, made with infused cotton. Good for added resistance against electricity, but great for negating the conductive metals that were added. From a quality perspective, I’d put them at Uncommon grade, but for a craftsman who needs their precision buff, they’d be closer to a Rare. You’d easily get around $4,500.00 for it.”
Sal couldn’t pinpoint the moment he had slipped back into auction mode, but the shock on her face sobered him up. He didn’t even have time to apologize before she raised a finger.
“What about now?”
Sal’s eyes widened as he saw her power activate. The gloves on her hands glowed momentarily as they took on an entirely new form. Not just her hands, but her entire body began to pulsate with a surge of internal essence. Sal’s eyes shot to her neck and saw that a crystal pendant was fueling the transformation. When the process was complete, Sal was absolutely speechless.
The gasps and cheers from the body of students reached his ears, and an amused smile appeared on the woman’s face. Her jeans and overalls had transformed into a tight armored suit that fully covered her from the neck down. Each of her hands had turned into mechanical claws, with each finger equipped with a different precision tool.
To everyone else, it probably looked like a completely new set of equipment, but Sal’s eyes didn’t lie. He looked at her in complete shock. “How did you make the equipment evolve?”
Her laugh was musical as she deactivated her ability. She took off her gloves and threw them onto a nearby bench. Turning back to Sal, she finally offered her hand. “I’m the resident Crafting lecturer…”
Sal shook her hand, still struggling to understand what he had seen. It made absolutely no sense.
He could still hear the cheers from the students outside. She raised her free hand and gave them a wave.
“My fans call me Upgrade.”
Chapter 11:
Restoration
Upgrade walked ahead of Sal as she gestured at all the different tables in the workshop. She had already told him that she’d give him the personal tour considering it was likely that he’d be spending a lot of his time with them in that workshop. As she walked ahead of him, Sal tried to keep his eyes on the back of her head, or look at the benches she gestured toward. It was increasingly hard to focus after seeing her in the tight armor. Sal finally understood the university’s policy on not giving students form-fitting uniforms.
He had no idea that she was the Hero, Upgrade. She was one of the few Support-class Heroes who managed to get a name, and clearly it was well deserved. One of the biggest distractions on his mind was the weave of power he was holding onto. He had the flawless version of her Upgrade ability and not only that, he’d seen it in use. He needed to understand more about the necklace she was wearing…Was it a conduit? A storage device for materials? He couldn’t figure it out at all.
Upgrade turned around, then laughed. “Hey, do I need to give you something to assess to get your attention?”
“Huh?” Sal’s attention snapped back to her, wondering what he missed.
She put a hand on her hip and gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m going to guess you’re not used to talking to girls?”
Her tone was almost condescending, and Sal felt the need to defend himself.
“That’s not fair. You’re not like normal girls.”
Upgrade tilted her head and gave him a thoughtful look. “Oh, normal? So, what does that make me?”
In his internal struggle to find the right words, Sal gesturing vaguely up and down at Upgrade and blurted the first thing that came to mind. “You look…better.”
Biting her lip, Upgrade brought her hand to her chest and looked away. She tried to stifle the impending laughter but failed. Sal ended up receiving the most sympathetic look she could muster.
“If this is what you’re like with zero teasing…” She took a step forward and cupped her hand around Sal’s chin. “Then what would you be like when I go all out?” Her face was suddenly close to his and a playful grin took shape. “Hmm?”
Sal staggered back and his heart raced. He bumped into a workbench and apologized to it as he turned. Any composure he had remaining evaporated into an air of awkwardness and embarrassment.
Upgrade’s laughter was once again musical as she covered her mouth. Tears formed at the edges of her eyes, and she gracefully swept them away with her fingertips. Her face was a picture of disbelief as she regarded Sal. “Wow. I guessed a little innocent…but, wow.”
A few other workers looked up from their tables, and Sal noticed that more than half of them were women.
Upgrade turned to them and provided context in a conspiratorial whisper. “Our newest Appraiser here is weak to flirtation. So don’t use that against him, okay?”
Everyone in the room stared at him and his cheeks flushed red.
“Don’t mind Upgrade. If you give her an inch, she’ll take a mile…” A slender guy appeared with a friendly grin. He wiped what looked like green demon blood from his hands before offering one of them to Sal.
“You’re an Appraiser, yeah?” When Sal shook his hand and nodded, the man fished out a small stone and held it aloft between two fingers. “Fancy giving this a go? If you do, I’ll teach you the best way to make Upgrade lose interest in you.”
Sal turned his head to where Upgrade was laughing with another woman while looking over in his direction.
“Deal,” Sal muttered as he activated his eyes. “I’m Sal, by the way.”
The stone was a core. They came in a lot of different shapes and sizes, but neither of those factors mattered when assessing its value. It was about how much magical essence was stored inside it, and how refined it was. Sal only knew the basics about essence, and would never claim to have any expertise regarding the refining process, but he knew values inside and out. The stone had a series of carvings that were obscured by the guy’s fingers.
“May I?” Sal reached for the stone.
With no hesitation, the guy let him take it. “What do you see, Sal?” he inquired quietly while using his free hand to usher the other workers closer.
Taking a steadying breath, Sal rotated the stone in his fingers. His eyes were picking up details that he’d never have noticed by sight alone and cross-referenced them with troves of stored information in his brain.
“It’s a core, at least Rare in quality but lacking in essence storage. Smooth detail shows me that it was refined by a novice who didn’t know its value, which resulted in essence leak from these ridges here. That reduces the value of the core to about a fifth of what it should be. But then there’s the attempt at making it self-replenishing. I say attempt, because instead of a self-replenishing rune, the etching is an absorption rune. The result is a useless item that can only absorb a person’s attention, like an unwitting Appraiser, perhaps?”
Sal glanced up at the man. “So would you like to take it back, or would you like more details on how much you’ve fucked it up?”
Silence fell across the room and Sal turned to look at the assembled workers. He should have controlled his temper. These people were Heroes, staff and seniors at the university. Upgrade’s face was absolutely priceless, though.
Sal gripped the core in his hand. He had everyone’s attention now, so why not use it? If he was going to work with these people, he wanted their respect. Reluctantly, he relinquished Upgrade’s power as he pulled up the familiar threading of his mother’s ability. The only change that he made was the removal of his mother’s knots. He was going to use the ultimate version of Restore, which was overkill. Was he being petty? Maybe. Did he care? No.
He turned back to the guy who had handed him the core. “Actually, let me fix it for you.”
Sal threw all his power through the thread and focused on the item in his hand. The core glowed white as it pulled on the magic in his fingers. Each of the grooves reformed into its original state, but Sal kept the etchings intact, refining them with essence that he guided with his eyes.
Gritting his teeth, Sal checked his work with his Appraisal and made a final adjustment before releasing the power. The core was no longer small enough to hold between his fingers, and he cupped it in his hand. Maybe it was the exhaustion of using the Restoration ability at full power, but Sal was in no mood to keep a jovial tone to his voice.
“Rune etching and refining are supposed to add value to an item. This core would be classified as Rare in its original state, but with the addition of a correct self-replenishing rune and no leakages…it’s closer to Epic grade.”
Upgrade was over in a flash and took the item out of Sal’s hands. With a single touch to her pendant, she transformed one hand into a precision claw and inspected the core with a variety of different tools. “Francis, I need eyes on this now. Gosia, check the leaks!”
Sal glared at her. Did they not believe him? Had they brought him into the workshop to tease and humiliate him? If his Appraisal skill wasn’t so high, he likely would have been caught in a trance, with his attention being absorbed. Would they have just laughed at him?
He looked at Upgrade one last time, making sure that he had her skill memorized completely. The weave came to him much more fluidly as it was his second time preparing it. Everyone was engrossed with the newly restored core, and Sal had had enough of the workshop and its workers. He’d register the Upgrade skill and he wouldn’t need to rely on any of them…he had his own personal workbench back in the dorm room.
He didn’t know whether it was the exhaustion talking or his insecurity, but he had no desire to stay there and wait for them to critique his work. He steadied himself against a workbench for a moment then walked back to his cohort. He needed to find his group.
***
“It’s actually a fucking Epic.” Upgrade breathed heavily as she triple-checked the item. “Gosia, how are we looking?” With a single thumbs-up from the other side of the core, Upgrade got the confirmation she was looking for. “Really? No leaks? Amazing…What about you, Francis?” Upgrade turned and saw her rune expert staring at it in disbelief.
“It’s…perfect.”
Upgrade nearly danced on the spot as she canceled her ability. There was no way in hell she could afford this with her salary, but she had to find a way to have it. It far surpassed the core she wore around her neck. Her ability started to prompt her with blueprints of all the different ways the core could be utilized in her designs, but she pushed them away and tried to concentrate.
She couldn’t believe she had witnessed a student—a new student—break through the Broken Core of Attention Deficit while Appraising its flaws perfectly. That alone was enough for a mic drop, but he fucking Restored it with pinpoint precision, and corrected the attempted runes? Upgrade thought back to the moment that his eyes glowed and his hands became instruments of light. It was the most incredible thing she had ever seen.
