by Weiqi Wang
The rest of that week felt really long for the crew. Other than Soarame, who was still interested in making his painting of Snower more like a kitten and less like a pig, everyone else got so bored; until the Saturday Morning.
‘Finally, I’m out!’ Kardiac yelled once he got out of the Libral gate. ‘We should have done this long ago!’
‘Shh… there are people watching you!’ Catheray pointed at a big crowd in front. ‘We are wizards, watch your manners!’
‘Look, wizards!’
‘Young wizards!’
‘Oh my god, a team of them!’
‘We got lucky today!’
‘Wow!’
There was a large group of people standing in the distance cheering at the crew. Most of them were tourists, just like Soarame and Filton when they first got here. Every day, people from all over the world came to the Institute of Libral to visit the gigantic gate, yet very few of them had the luck to see student wizards coming out. After all, thanks to the town zone on campus, most students could easily get what they wanted there and never have to venture out.
As the group walked by, the cheering from the crowd became louder and louder. Everyone was so excited to see the future of the human world. Although the whistles and applauses became more and more intense, the people here were cool and smart enough to control their passion and keep their distance from the young wizards, out of respect.
‘Your Honour, good morning!’
‘Your Honour, may I shake your hand, please?’
‘Please, Your Honour!’
Soarame had seen people respect Scankeen along the way when they travelled here, but he didn’t expect them to treat young wizards like themselves in such a special way too, and he hadn’t been out of campus since Filton left. Thinking of that, he was also wondering how Filton was doing now — he still hadn’t replied to Soarame’s letter.
‘Dear lord, this feels great!’ Kardiac lowered his voice, which was very unusual for him. ‘We look like heroes!’
‘We are heroes.’ Vivarin raised her head, tall and proud. ‘We are the honoured wizards and we are supposed to protect the world!’
‘Your Honour, could you please let me take a quick photo of you? Please!’ An old lady’s voice woke Soarame from his memories. The lady was holding a mamera — basically a magic-driven camera that allowed normal people to use it without the ability to perform magic. A Libral guard was blocking her, waiting for Soarame’s permission.
‘Yeah, sure, go ahead.’ Soarame answered casually.
‘Sir, this is usually not a good idea.’ Hearing Soarame’s off-hand reply, a guard instantly reminded him. ‘Usually wizards don’t like their photos to be taken.’
‘Oh, is that so?’ Soarame was about to deny the request, but seeing the old lady’s begging face, he softened. ‘Can I let her take only one?’
‘Yes, if you really want.’ The guards let the woman walk close to Soarame. A thin crystal chip popped out of her mamera — inside of which there was now a picture of Soarame. Soarame recognised this mamera as being a pretty old style, so that explained why it used the old type of crystal chip that could only store one picture. The newest version of the mamera used a different type of crystal chip in a smaller size that allowed the chip to store a lot more photos and even live scenes. Both types of chips could emit the photo into the air upon the owner’s operation — just like those installed in the Libral Emblems, only that the Libral chips had a lot more functions.
‘Your Honour, may I take a photo too?’
‘Your Honour…’
Seeing that the old lady had succeeded, the rest of the crowd was encouraged and everyone wanted to do it. This scared Soarame; he hurriedly left with his friends and the Libral guards stopped the crowd from following.
‘Ha-ha, Soar, how do you feel?’ The girls were chuckling along the way. ‘You were like a star back there!’
‘Well… wow.’ Soarame took a deep breath. ‘That was unbelievable.’
‘It’s actually more unbelievable than you think.’ Halgon suddenly cut in. ‘In case you didn’t notice, your photo just got sold.’
‘My… what?’ Soarame was choked. ‘Sold? How?’
‘How what?’ Jemario teased. ‘How much?’
‘It can’t be a low price.’ Rodka chuckled. ‘Young wizards’ photos are rare; at least I’ve only seen one so far.’
‘Which is mine?’ Soarame scratched his head. ‘How could she just sell it right behind my back? She shot me only for sale?’
‘No, she must be a poor woman, as her mamera was pretty old. She must be in need of money, although she probably didn’t plan to sell it.’ Halgon said. ‘There were a lot of people bidding for that photo just then, and someone seemed to get it in the end.’
‘Relax Soar, it’s not that bad.’ Vivarin chuckled. ‘If you really are that worried, we can go back and grab it.’
‘No, Soar permitted it. It belongs to the woman now.’ Omifo disagreed. ‘So she has the right to keep it, dump it, or sell it.’
‘So what?’ Vivarin didn’t seem to care. ‘We are wizards, we do what we want and they will obey.’
‘Wow, careful, lady!’ For some reason, Halgon was mad all of a sudden. Staring at Vivarin, he commanded. ‘You take that back!’
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ The girls got between Halgon and Vivarin. ‘Halg, what happened?’
‘Yeah, calm down!’ Kardiac also sensed something very odd. ‘She’s just joking, right Viv?’
‘Yeah… yes.’ Vivarin was scared. She felt the burning anger from Halgon. ‘I didn’t really mean that.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Halgon regretted his loss of control. ‘I don’t know why I did that, I just…’
‘It’s okay, my bad.’ Vivarin apologised back, as she did feel bad for what she had said. For the first time, this aggressive girl became a cute neighbourhood lady, making Omifo feel amazed.
Everyone started to talk about other things and try to forget about the incident. But Rodka was still wondering why Halgon had overreacted, because he had always been such a cool and calm person. Thinking about it, Rodka realised that he had always neglected the uniqueness of this boy — he didn’t speak much, but every time he did, he hit the bull’s eye. Halgon was a wizard himself, but his burst of anger just now basically showed that he didn’t appreciate wizards’ privileges at all — why?
The crew kept walking until they saw a magishop and entered it. There were quite a few magigears of different kinds in the shop — wands and gowns were the most common ones, along with parchments, potions, etc. Besides those, there were crystal balls, mameras and magiphones with similar functions to the Libral Emblem, but they functioned by consuming crystal cubes as a common energy source, just like the magic carriage, for those who were not wizards to use the devices. This particular shop also had a flamesword, named “Burning Sun”; it was a replica of an Epic sword for warriors, with Fire magic perfused into it. If one could afford it, some magishops might even be able to get higher-ranking magigears and even magigear sets, like Undines’ set that Halgon had once mentioned. However, few would really have a chance to see those genuine Epic magigears; most magigears in shops were replicas of them — such as Saja’s necklace ‘Nymph’s Guard’ and Casavin’s boots ‘Trampling of Feriathan’.
Unfortunately, this shop didn’t have anything to do with magimals. But this was normal, as magimals were not common.
‘I know another place to go.’ Rodka was not worried to see this. ‘The biggest magishop in the city is called MagiMax. It should have magimals there.’
Hearing that, the crew rushed to MagiMax, full of bright hope. This attracted attentions from passers-by along the way, and soon enough people started to recognise the famous Libral Emblem on the crew’ clothes and another wave of cheering began to build. The crew was not in a mood for this; they ran all the way to MagiMax, followed by a large group of people who just wanted to see the young wizards. Eventually, the followers had to stop by the gate of
MagiMax, because this magishop was special and had a well-known policy: only wizards were allowed in.
‘Hello there, how lovely you all look!’ When the crew stepped into MagiMax, a figure showed up instantly and greeted them.
‘Wow, what’s this?’ Kardiac was startled. It turned out that the figure was a wooden robot of a man’s size, instead of a real man.
‘It’s a magiman. You’ve never seen one before?’ Rodka answered. Obvious he had been here a few times before, so he even knew the magiman’s name. ‘Hi Blamer, long time no see.’
‘Indeed, your Honour.’ The magiman bowed to Rodka. ‘How can I help you this time?’
‘So magiman means puppet?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking.
‘Yes, it’s a puppet controlled by magic chips in its body.’ Halgon answered. ‘The controller ought to be in this house somewhere.’
‘How smart you are, my boy!’ The magiman turned to Halgon. ‘I’m indeed in this house. Oh, as a magiman I should say, my master is indeed in this house.’
‘You never told me this, Blamer.’ Rodka teased. ‘That’s not fair for an old customer.’
‘Oh no, please don’t feel that way.’ The magiman bowed again to Rodka. ‘It wasn’t me; it was this gentleman that told you that. Plus I think you always knew it anyway.’
‘Ha-ha, but I never saw you in person.’ Of course Rodka knew the owner of the magiman was always in this house; he even knew his name was Max. Max was also the owner of the magishop. Max seemed not to like meeting people, so Rodka had never had a chance to see him — but this was not totally abnormal among wizards; many high-level wizards tended to avoid social interactions and save up the time to do their own thing.
‘Why is the puppet named Blamer?’ Omifo whispered to his friends.
‘It’s just a nickname for all the puppets.’ Obviously, Max had overheard Omifo through the magiman. ‘If I make mistakes in person I have to blame myself, but if I use a puppet to do so, it is the one to blame.’
‘So it’s like a play-house game?’ The crew was startled by Max’s childish style. ‘How many Blamers do you have?’
‘Oh, look around you.’ As the magiman instructed, the crew realised there were quite a few magimen spread around the place. Preassembly, they were left in readiness in case there were more customers than one magiman could handle.
‘That’s impressive.’ Rodka walked forward. ‘Max, do you have magimals here?’
‘Call me Blamer.’ The magiman looked at Rodka. ‘If I remember correctly, this is the first time that you’ve asked about magimals.’
‘Yes, because I have never seen them here before.’ Rodka looked around. ‘Not even now.’
‘Of course not. Magimals are not as easy to keep as magigears, and they need to be fed every day.’ The magiman said. ‘Customers are always interested in seeing them, touching them, and sometimes even feeding them weird stuff; but very few people can actually afford them. So, after they successfully killed two of my magimals with their weird food in the past, why would I still show them here?’
‘Oh! I’m so sorry to hear that.’ Dileys was surprised to hear the sad story.
‘It’s okay.’ The magiman walked towards a corner of the house in shadow. ‘If you want to see them, follow me… but do you plan to buy any?’
‘We will see what you have first.’ Rodka winked at his friends. ‘We are especially interested in those born out of eggs.’
‘Egg-born?’ The magiman muttered. ‘This way then.’
‘Wait, are you sure we want to go in there?’ Jemario pulled Soarame’s arm. ‘It feels wrong.’
‘Well, this is the biggest magishop, in the downtown of Cylone City, and we have this many people.’ Soarame held Jemario’s hands. ‘It’s okay, I’ve got you.’
‘It’s okay, I’ve got you.’ Kardiac gave Soarame a big thumb up, then turned around and said the same thing to Catheray, only to receive a punch in return. ‘Ouch!’
The crew chuckled and followed the magiman towards the corner. A bland door emerged in the wall, and a staircase was hidden behind it. Rodka pondered a bit and looked back at the crew, confirming that everyone had agreed to enter, and then walked into the hidden space.
‘Oh my god… look at this!’
The crew were astonished as they arrived in the basement through the staircase. There were hundreds of eggs in different colours and sizes, sealed in big crystal showcases, sitting on a number of giant tables. Obviously, MagiMax did not just own some magimals; it actually owned a lot of them.
‘Holy…’ Even Halgon, as a family member of a magimal dealer, had to marvel. ‘What rankings are these magimals when they are fully grown?’
‘These are relatively low.’ The magiman answered. ‘All of them are Novices or Adepts when they become adults.’
‘Okay, I think we are looking for one on the higher end.’ Although Rodka said this, he was still shocked to see all these magimal eggs at once. ‘Do you have any?’
‘I can get you eggs of Barons, but can you afford it?’ The magiman turned around and looked at Rodka.
‘No, but can we just look?’ The girls asked. The crew looked at each other — there actually were Baron-level eggs! How unbelievably exciting!
‘No, I’m sorry.’ The magiman answered right away. ‘You do know what you are asking, don’t you? Barons can’t just be seen whenever people want to; not even for future geniuses like you. I’m very sorry.’
‘Do you mind showing us some live magimals, then?’ Omifo asked. ‘Like those that you feed?’
‘Of course.’ The magiman seemed to attempt a smile. ‘This way please.’
The crew followed the magiman to another hidden room and saw a number of magimal babies playing around. There were baby wolves, foxes, bears etc., with ages ranging from several weeks to several years. The baby magimals were so cute that they instantly melted the girls’ hearts. Catheray was desperate to stay a little longer when it was time to leave; she was still holding a six-week-old baby bear, not willing to let go.
‘Alright guys, what do you say?’ After leaving MagiMax, Rodka asked the group. ‘This Blamer, or Max, can we trust him?’
‘You mean, should we try to get his help on Snower?’ Soarame asked. ‘How? Just bring Snower to him?’
‘Of course not. We need to first know if he has enough knowledge to help us, before we take any risk. Even the best assessors from my family couldn’t get a clue after I sent them Snower’s live scenes.’ Halgon pondered for a while. ‘But the good thing is I’ve asked them to send me a rare type of magimal egg that they have assessed, and we can use this egg to test Max, see if he’s able to tell what’s in it.’
‘Oh dear! You actually did that?’ The crew was excited to hear this.
‘Yes, I’ll leave you guys here and go get the egg now.’ Halgon lowered his voice. ‘It’s pretty high-end, so keep it to yourselves.’
‘Don’t tell us you have a Baron egg.’ The crew stared at Halgon.
‘People, it’s Baron, not bacon. You think a Baron can be found everywhere?’ Halgon rolled his eyes. ‘Of course not. It’s in Expert rank, level 8.’
Everyone was amused. No one ever expected a higher rank than that; an Expert-level egg was already far too high for young wizards like themselves. Due to a magimal’s stronger instincts, a level-8 magimal was usually more powerful than a Grade-8 wizard. For a group of Novices and Adepts, a level-8 magimal egg definitely sounded like a dream.
‘Halg, you can’t do this.’ Soarame spoke up. ‘It’s too risky.’
‘Don’t say that.’ Halgon grabbed Soarame’s shoulder. ‘It’s not as risky as when you saved me from the beetalbulls.’
‘Well…’ Soarame felt touched by this brotherhood. ‘But…’
‘But what? You don’t want to help Snower anymore?’ Halgon looked around at his friends. ‘It’s the best way I can think of. If Max can tell what it is in the egg, we can then ask about Snower.’
‘You know what’s in the Expe
rt egg?’ Catheray asked.
‘Yes, it’s a special kind and you will love it.’ Halgon smiled. ‘It’s a duckbear — a mix between a bear and a duckbill, so it’ll look almost like your favourite baby bear.’
‘Oh god, that’s so cute!’ Catheray cheered. She actually didn’t know what a duckbill looked like, but all that she cared about was that the mix looked like a baby bear.
‘So it’s egg-born too?’ Omifo asked. ‘Because a duckbill gets born from an egg? Is the duckbill the mother or the father?’
‘That’s a great question, but sorry I don’t know.’ Halgon’s eyes brightened. ‘I think it’s random, but my Dad says that, according to some kind of biological theory, it’s likely that the father is the duckbill and the mother is the bear; that way the baby has the intrinsic features of the father, such as being egg-born, but comes out looking more like the mother. So, I assume the baby will look more like a bear than a duckbill.’
‘Wow, that’s so interesting.’ Everyone marvelled. ‘Your father must be a very knowledgeable man.’
‘So the plan is that we bring this egg to MagiMax and ask for help on its breed.’ Halgon seemed unwilling to talk about his family. ‘If Max can tell correctly, then we move on to Snower.’
‘What if he can’t?’ Catheray asked. ‘May I have the baby duckbear?’
‘Err…’ Halgon was not expecting this, so he choked.
‘Gotcha!’ Catheray laughed. ‘I was kidding!’
‘Well, I was just about to say yes, but now that you’re kidding…’
‘Wait, no!’
MAGIMAX
The next day, the crew reunited and went to MagiMax again. A magiman was surprised to see the crew coming back with a wooden box. ‘What is this about?’
‘We want to know what magimal this is.’ Rodka spoke for the group. ‘Could you help us, please?’
‘Oh, that’s the real deal?’ the magiman looked interested. ‘I can, but there’s a fee for that. 100 gold coins if it’s a high level magimal, 30 if not.’
