My Servant System

Even though the wind was battering against my face as the Jackal powered over the sand with frightening ease and relative silence, the sun above us was being an absolute prick as it slowly - painfully crawling through the sky at a snails pace - descended down towards the horizon, emitting that heat that made me feel like I was being baked alive despite all the measures I had taken.

A Mana Cloak made from icy water that bathed my entire body, an enhancer to the wind smacking against me, completely covered in breathable cloth, hydrated and satiated... there was nothing I could do to be more prepared for the desert we were riding through, and yet here I was, miserable and wanting to bury myself beneath the sand to escape the sun’s rays even if that meant actually being baked.

At least I could create an insulated and frosted bunker beneath the sand and away from the sun if I did so, but we couldn’t stop at all right now, not with the sheer amount of information and preparations we needed to deliver and complete.

So I decided to gently guide my Jackal to the side so that I could keep it in pace with her own mount, bringing me level with her and allowing me to distract myself from the brutal heat as I focused my energy instead on overheating my brain.

"Leone!"

Shouting out her name, I watched as the Vampire turned to stare at me curiously, her equally covered body reminding me that - while she was a prolific Fire Mage with incredible mana and talent - she was still a Vampire at the end of the day, and the sun was something she didn’t particularly care for since it hurt her skin after long amounts of time; likely some sort of skin related issue like photosensitivity that was combined with the variation of albinism that their race had.

Either way, she wasn’t doing as bad as I was, but she was most definitely uncomfortable right now, which was why she had been playing around with her magic as she occupied her mind as best she could, though now that I was calling out to her, she focused on me instead.

"I had a couple questions I wanted to ask you, with the first being about those enchanted items they used!"

The wind whipped between us as we made this attempt to chat, and with me amplifying it somewhat, it was a bit difficult to properly hear everything, but with where we were now in terms of strength our hearing was rather good, so separating the background noise and our voices was rather easy.

Something that I was still getting used to, honestly, since I had lived so long with terrible hearing as a human; the wonders of being part dog, I imagine, which was exactly why I had gravitated towards this slightly cheaper, but incredibly adaptable and utility oriented race.

"They had a myriad of elements at their disposal that I don’t think they themselves had inside their Cores, so I wanted to ask how much time we would need to put into creating those Magic Pens for enchanting with all of our elements; the Lightning Mana you and I could create, the Metal Mana that Anput has, and then the Nature Mana that I could make with Anput. Were we close at all, or do we still have a ways to go?"

"Depends on what you want. I have a few ideas that would be rush job experiments, others that need a little more tuning and research, and of course the primary, safer and more guaranteed yet longer method of us just sitting down and working it out to a certain point before conducting tests. If we do rush jobs, I say we only need about... a week tops to figure it out?

The hardest part is keeping the mana from mixing. And this is entirely if we want to do it ourselves; I’m pretty sure those Magic Pens already exist out in the world on a relatively available basis, but of course they’re expensive. Most normal, reusable and adequate Magic Pens cost a dozen gold or so, remember? So a Magic Pen that could store multiple mana types would easily match an alchemy set in terms of pricing..."

That gave me a bit of pause, and I mulled it over for a moment before shrugging as I replied "Let’s do a couple rushed experiments then, when we get back to the Empire. Or we could try it here, I think, right? We just need some Mana Crystals and some mana conductive metals to work with?"

Getting the nod from Leone was a nice feeling since it meant we could begin working towards a different kind of strength, and while it wasn’t one that was necessarily difficult or something that would bolster our foundations, at this point I was sort of done trying to worry about that...

"Next question then! When we were fighting them, I realized that the style they used - if you can even call it a style, really - of making use of a myriad of external items to enhance their own personal strength was rather... well, it was oppressive, wouldn’t you agree?"

Again, she gave me a nod and waited for me to continue, the Vampire curiously staring at me as she wondered where I was going to take this, and after another moment of waiting she just smiled wryly at me for what I said.

"So that had gotten me thinking about ways to improve our own fighting styles, right, and the first thing that came to mind was something that we’ve been facing in abundance with the other Fiends and their Cults; those incantations that they used, they were pretty powerful too, and whilst enchanted items are far more... random in what they can be - and therefore more unpredictable for the opponent - I was wondering if you think merging our more modern magic - Ritual Circles - with the older version of magic - Incantations - together would be a good idea?"

The wry chuckle I got from my lover was an answer in and of itself, but I still needed her to elaborate further so I could see if I was just being rather conceited in thinking that would be easy or if I was being stupid in trying to merge a clearly inferior system with something that was just better.

"So there are a few things I can say to that, all of which have various reasons as to why this would be a... certainly an idea; not a good one, but not a bad one, at least necessarily... Firstly, there’s the obvious; we’ve been complaining about not having anywhere near enough time to actually get our bearing and do the things we want to do, let alone train properly, and now you want us to learn a completely different skill, master it, and merge it with what we currently have?"

Leone wasn’t looking at me like I was stupid, which was nice, but hearing what was only her first point already made me smile back at her wryly as I nodded, realizing that one major flaw I hadn’t really thought about just yet.

"Secondly, there’s a reason Incantations are considered ’old school’ magic, and it isn’t for a lack of power. I mean, those Fiends and their Cults are using powerful magic that could easily kill someone with the same amount of mana used and the same amount of damage done that a spell made from runes would do.

The reason it’s considered an outdated school of magic is simple; shaping your mana with your voice to create a spell is making it super easy for your opponents to create a counter spell, and it eliminates the surprise of casting something. Speaking out ’Fireball!’ whenever I want to cast a simple spell would let my opponents know I was using a certain kind of spell - a projectile - and it would allow them to react accordingly.

Nowadays we use runes, right? Reading spells isn’t hard, yes, but you can hear far better and far quicker than you can see, and you’re a Dogkin. People in general can hear quicker and clearer than we can see and comprehend, so that makes it hard for someone to counteract your magic. That’s the main reason I think this isn’t that good of an idea..."

I went and tried to say something to both agree and disagree with my lover, but she just raised

A hand and moved on to her next point as she kept me quiet, making me pout slightly as she really drilled this home.

"Lastly, the reason it’s a bad idea is simple; mixing speech and written elements together might work, but that’s going to need a really fascinating but complex and somewhat redundant technique to cast something that might just be a few percentage points better, and yes, while just... 5% of something can be a big difference, more often than not it’s not going

To be that important.

So the short answer is no, Kat, for right now trying to merge the two isn’t entirely feasible, not if you have a way to learn, master, and most importantly comprehend Incantations on a deep level in a short period of time, whilst having some more time to combine them together to create a variation of magic that isn’t exactly that much better than the system we’re already making use of today. It is a fascinating idea, and I wouldn’t mind trying it out, but..."

She gave me a shrug and tapped at her fangs, before adding "I have a handful of other magics to try out, my racial powers to worry about, physical training, my alchemy, helping with your enchanting, getting some work done for Anput, researching... my plate is overflowing, and while the other two might be able to fit learning Incantations onto their plates, I just... don’t know if they could manage putting those two things together and getting to that final result without... intense teaching."

That made me grin as I glanced at our two lovers, who were riding just ahead of us with a discussion of their own barely carrying back to us, though the little we could hear showed the

Difference between us as clearly as night and day...

They were talking about how to best improve certain muscle groups for both practical applications as well as aesthetically pleasing purposes, with the predominant focus right now being on what would make them look more appealing to Leone and I.

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