Chapter 1065

As it turned out, negotiations were not the only thing Maggy was quite good at. After coming to an agreement in regards to the magic lessons, I decided to set up an actual small annexe, something bigger than the simple cottage I had prepared for Jack and his Search Group One and as I was working my, literal, magic, I got to talk to my prospective students for a bit, one of whom was Maggy.

Contrary to expectations, Maggy hadn’t just joined their group as a negotiator, leader and the possible utility of our prior acquaintance, she had come here just as the others, to learn. Darkness Magic, to be precise, with a massive focus on Shadows and concealment, making me wonder just what her class was. It sounded like some sort of spy, which made a bit of sense now that I was thinking about it. I hadn’t even learned the name she had been using as a Traveller, nor had I seen anything on the forum about her exploits, the only interactions we did have were thanks to introductions from others. It could also explain why she was acting so forward, it could easily be a mask to conceal a conniving and cunning woman beneath, a spy nobody would suspect. Which likely were the best spies.

Few would instinctively suspect a somewhat loud, slightly obnoxious and almost infuriatingly cheerful woman to be some sort of spy, at least not in areas influenced by Western media. The conditioning was that spies should be suave, drink Martini, shaken, not stirred, and ready to seduce people at the drop of a hat, or that they were utterly ordinary and boring, not standing out in the slightest. Contrary to that, she projected that slightly ditzy facade to keep people from trying to look underneath it, at least that was my current thought. I might be utterly wrong about it and simply imagine things where there were none, but given that this obnoxiously cheerful woman wanted to learn Darkness Magic? It was suspicious and my suspicions were partially confirmed when I used my Soul Magic to get an idea of her affinities. Darkness Magic was her strongest affinity, standing out by a lot, while the rest was far below par.

The rest of her group was an interesting mixed bag. Their levels ranged from non-existent for the two kids to a guy who was already in the high sixties with a fairly even spread between those. Granted, only the children were below level twenty, so not a truly even spread, but it was close enough to one. Curiously, the two fighters who had come along with their group also wanted to learn magic, though they admitted it was of a lesser priority to them, they simply wanted to increase their repertoire. Not a bad idea, though I made a mental note to focus on the actual pupils, as I only had so much time in the day.

“The two children, how old are they?” I asked Maggy after I had put up the shell of a teaching building, complete with a couple of rooms for the students.

“Liam is twelve and Sandy is thirteen, why? Both have a good head on their shoulders, some decent attributes and, most importantly, they have an affinity for magic. I’d rather they learn and experiment here, hopefully under your guidance, than to have them try things on their own and get in over their head,” she explained, her tone and demeanour complete and utterly serious, making me nod in faint approval. She was probably right, somebody with the talent would want to experiment, I certainly was experimenting all the time, even if, at times, I should know better. And getting in trouble due to experiments, well, that was an old hat to me, both here on Terra and on Mundus, I had managed to get myself into a wide variety of trouble, thanks to my drive to figure things out.

“Which is a wise thing to say, but that’s not really what I was asking about, or rather, what I’m worried about,” I admitted, letting out a sigh, “For the next part to make sense, I’d like you to answer something for me. How old do you think Luna is?” I asked, knowing that Maggy and her people needed to know the truth to be able to make informed decisions in the future. Luckily, I had already discussed what to reveal with Luna, meaning I wasn’t breaking any trust by telling them.

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For a moment, Maggy looked at me with a bit of confusion in her eyes, before thinking about it until she answered, “I’d think she’s a young teenager, so somewhere between thirteen and sixteen at the most.”

“Not quite. You see, I met her a little over a month after the Change when things were getting really bad. The dead had risen, most supplies had been scavenged and it was obvious that this was our new normal now. Hope that the world would return to the way it used to be had died, leaving many adrift,” I paused for a moment when I noticed that Maggy’s eyes had turned distant, making me think she was remembering those bad times.

“We, that is, Silva, Lia and I, stumbled across a group of survivors on the brink of collapse. Limited food, no water supply, they were in serious trouble, and yet, despite that trouble, they did their best to protect a few children who had survived the Change and everything else, although most of the children had become orphans. One of those children was a scant six-year-old, far too young to be on her own, let alone in the situation we found ourselves in.”

Now, Maggy’s eyes were going wide, already anticipating where the story was going, “I took that child in, especially as I noticed a distinct talent within her, a talent I wished to nurture. The child, in turn, wanted to be strong and stay with me, something I accepted, so I decided to see if we could get her some levels, hoping that the attributes from the system would help her survive,” there was another pause, as I thought back to those days.

“It worked, though not in the way I had anticipated or hoped. Instead of having her body grow up normally and naturally, the system accelerated the process to an untold degree, making it mature within weeks instead of years. Her mind kept pace, though I believe that’s only partially thanks to the system, the rest is thanks to her patron Goddess, Lady Hecate, who taught the child in her dreams, using the fact that dreams are not bound by the normal flow of time to her advantage,” I finished my explanation to a now truly flabbergasted Maggy. Though, given that the story involved Deities, time-dilation and a whole lot of death and bad memories, I shouldn’t be surprised at her discombobulation.

“So, levels force people to grow up?” she asked, reducing the lesson to its bare minimum.

Waving my hand in a so-and-so motion, I tried to clarify, “I don’t think it’s growing up, necessarily, but more a case of attributes being bound to your physique, at least in part. Sure, some of the attributes are purely systemagical, I certainly don’t have the muscles to lift as much as I currently can, at least assuming my muscles work like those of humans. Not actually sure, I never studied these fibres in depth and I certainly won’t cut myself apart to see if elven muscles are more like those of chimps or something,” I shrugged before continuing.

“But there also is an actual physical component, as in, higher attributes change your physical body. Or, in this case, mature the physical body so it can accept the power imparted to it by the system.” I could see that Maggy was thinking about its implications, especially in the long term, at a societal level.

“What do you think this will do to Luna? I mean, she turned from a child into a teen, without any time to get used to the changes or learn or anything?” she asked, obviously not having thought it fully through.

“She learned, thanks to Lady Hecate,” I reminded her, “But that’s an utterly special case. I don’t think it would be healthy to have children gain any levels unless the situation is of a kind where they either fight and gain levels or die. Because if they are dead, the entire question becomes meaningless.”

“True, children shouldn’t be involved in fighting anyway,” Maggy groused, though I could see that it was partially thanks to the lingering morals from a different time. “I’ll talk about the problem with others, though I hope you’ll still be willing to guide the two kids, I’m a little scared of what they might do otherwise,” she admitted, a small grin on her face.

“Please don’t mention Luna’s name in your explanation if you can. I’d prefer to keep her details under wraps but I felt it necessary to warn you, so you can avoid running into that kind of trouble,” I asked, getting a nod of acceptance in turn. Hopefully, this would help their society in the long run.