A Soldier's Life - 209 - How Do You Like Them Apples

Chapter 209: How Do You Like Them Apples

These essences rolled in the bowl, clattering against each other as they settled. The myriad of colors were hypnotic as the spheres danced with each other, each emitting a faint light. Ten apex essences and six major essences. Zyna smiled at seeing my amazement. “They made the mistake of showing me the last shipment of essences. High Mage Dacian had a representative there and wanted the apex earth essence. Not sure how he learned of it. I hope you approve.”

“Your assistance has been invaluable.” I carefully retrieved the fire essences, two apex and two major, their flame-like forms a testament to their hidden power. “I am truly grateful for your help.” I expressed my thanks to Zyna, placing them on the counter in front of her.

Zyna took them and rolled them in her hand. “It has been a while since I consumed an apex fire essence.” She placed one of the apex essences in her mouth and closed her eyes. She let out a soft moan of pleasure, and her face contorted to mirror her emotional vocalizations. She opened her eyes, and they glowed like a flame burned deep within their depths. She let out a long, contented sigh. Her face was flush.

“Do you want some privacy?” I joked.

Zyna regained composure, but a happy smirk remained. “The feeling of increasing your magic potential is orgasmic,” She teased back. “Your turn.”

I looked at the essences and selected the apex channeling essence. I had taken a magic affinity and physical essence less than a day ago, so this was my only option. I placed the large glossy black sphere in my mouth as it dissolved rapidly, its energy racing through my body. The energy was cold as it flowed through my aether channels, cooling the fire of the aether burn until it was completely gone.

I had lived with the pain for weeks, and suddenly, it vanished, causing me to release a relieved sigh. Zyna studied me as the essence reached its peak. “Did it work?” she asked, slightly confused. I realized that my absorption of the essence took much longer than hers.

“Yes,” I nodded. “The burn faded a lot. I can’t wait to consume these.” I took the two major channeling essences and sent them to my dimensional space. The other two major essences were earth essences.

Zyna explained, “I traded the apex earth essence for the two major earth essences, and this with Dacian’s representative.” She pulled an apex essence from the bowl I had never seen before. I knew what it was as I took it from her hand. The sphere had a lot of depth to it as it appeared multiple mirrors rested inside, reflecting the light of the glowstone. It was an apex essence of space. “I thought that was more valuable to you than the earth essence. It should increase the size of your dimensional space slightly.”

“Thank you. I didn’t think obtaining a rare magic affinity was possible.” I said, storing the mesmerizing sphere.

“Apex essences are the only way for mages to increase their magic significantly. Dacian has always been desperate for any earth that are found. He would have given me his unwed daughter for it.” The fire mage jested.

I looked at the remaining six apex essences. “You got more than said you would.” Four apex quickness essences, one apex essence for power, and one apex essence for dexterity.

“Dacian’s representative was desperate to get the earth essence. Apex physical essences are not as rare as magic or affinity essences, but I thought these could help you.” Zyna replied with a reassuring smile.

“You did amazing.” I reached out and made the essences disappear.

“I have another gift for you,” Zyna said suggestively. I was caught off guard and shifted a little uncomfortably. Zyna laughed contentedly at my discomfort. Zyna had certainly earned some additional compensation, it just felt like I would be cheating on Renna. Zyna finally broke the tension. “You can go to the Coliseum tomorrow at first light. Champion Cassian will spend the day with you.”

I relaxed. “Really!” I almost moved to hug Zyna but thought that might give the wrong impression. “I look forward to it.” We had an amiable meal after that. The meat buns were much better than I thought they would be, and I thought I would add some to my dimensional space if I had the chance to cook a surplus. The conversation focused on the mage aspirants in her classes. Talking about the threats to the Empire, Renna, Flora, or Livia would have killed the mood.

Rather than enter the dreamscape, I continued reading the manuscript on dreamscape amulets. I started to get more and more confused as I read the later chapters. I put it down when I got to the end of the book, which described the various types of dreamscape amulets dungeons produced.

The dreamscape amulet I had was a variant. Most dreamscape amulets let you create whatever environment you want, while mine was fixed. The trade-off was those dreamscape amulets reset when you left. Most dreamscape amulets also usually had a much larger space to create in, about the size of a small city. I was limited to the lost orc dungeon, which appeared to be smaller than most such amulets.

At least my variant remembered what I had manifested in prior visits. These types of dreamscape amulets were called recall dreamscape amulets. There was a warning under the description of the recall amulets. If a recall dreamscape amulet were ever brought back into a dungeon where it was found, it would disappear as you passed through the entrance. The dungeon would then leave a small reward chest for the carrier of the amulet for returning it.

The implication was clear but not stated. The dungeon took back the amulet and rewarded the carrier for whatever they left in the memory of the amulet. The dungeon was using this type of amulet to explore the outside world. Of course, the text had warnings about returning such amulets to the dungeon of origin and that they needed to be turned over the Collegium Scholarium as they were extremely dangerous. The book implied that dungeons could use the information, evolve, and become more dangerous.

I laughed aloud as the text noted the Empire would fairly compensate for the delivery of such artifacts and that they would be destroyed. In fact, it was required to turn in such dangerous artifacts for the well-being of the Empire. As of right now, everyone thought Zyna had my dreamscape amulet, but they were not aware of its type.

I would have to be careful never to return this amulet to the dungeon that created it. It was too valuable a tool to lose. The dreamscape amulets were sought after by scholars as they helped learn, retain, and puzzle out information in your sleep. Learning complex spells for mages was their primary purpose. I was surprised that it did not mention anywhere in the text how quickly you could improve your combat skills. Then again, most soldiers never learned to manipulate their aether. The authors of the manuscript probably left it out on purpose, too. Scholars and mages would not want to compete with soldiers for time using these artifacts.

I placed the book in my dimensional space. I had organized the space, but it was still crowded, with a quarter of my space taken up by the books I had accumulated. I needed to free up the space and page through some of the remaining books. I couldn’t sell the impressive collection, or it would reveal too much and draw unwanted attention. Maybe I could hide it somewhere?

I walked the suites, considering my options as I checked every space. I wanted to have the space freed up before Cornelius came for me. I settled on a deep storage closet. I cleared the back out of the closet and looked at the stone walls. I used my earth speak to visualize the stone structure and nodded to myself. I checked to make sure Zyna was not about and removed the large black wood desk, settling it at the back of the closet. I then stacked all the books from the dimensional space on it in large towers, clearing out my space. The books I had not paged through remained in my dimensional storage—about one hundred, all on Elven smithing.

I had enough free space to remove a foot of the wall of stone at the back of the closet. I smiled happily as the large aether investment didn’t cause a raging fire through my channels. The mass took almost two-thirds of my aether to move. I now had a roughly eight-by-eight-foot wall, about fifteen inches thick.

It took a little work to place the wall perfectly in front of the desk and tomes; moving the wall out bottomed out my aether, but the task was complete. Only a thin seam on the left and ceiling gave a hint of the secrets concealed behind. One day, I could reclaim the stash. I could also use the secret treasure as a chip in the future. I should also be able to move objects in and out of the secret room by utilizing earth speak and the range of my dimensional space.

I sighed as I hated losing the beautiful black desk. I had hoped to use it as a workstation or for my growing alchemy skills. Instead, I would have to use the tablet reader or create a slab with my dimensional space. I spent some time filling the seams with dirt. The fit was tight enough, and the wall heavy enough that it would not wobble, but I wanted to conceal it as perfectly as possible. Also, the more air-tight the room, the less deterioration the books should have. They were already fairly fragile.

I spent more time than I should have and even reorganized the store room to conceal the wall further by moving shelves and old furnishings. I was covered in filth as I moved to the baths around midnight. I took a quick shower and was off to rest. If I was spending the entire day tomorrow at the Coliseum, I would not see Renna. Maybe that was a secondary benefit for Zyna, but I was probably overthinking her jealousy.

I entered the dreamscape, added ten new books, studied the purify self spell form, and then practiced against the ankhegs with Maveith and Konstantin as allies. We progressed to the giant spiders and finished fighting elite orcs and pathfinders.

I exited the dreamscape to find Zyna standing by the door. I shouldn’t be surprised the mage had bypassed the locks. “I was going to remove the amulet from your hand soon. It is just past sunrise, and you do not want to be late.”

I stood quickly, making the amulet disappear and ignoring her trespass. “I am sorry. I got caught up in something in the dreamscape and lost track of time.” Zyna frowned and looked like she wanted to advise me. I preempted her, “You don’t need to warn me about becoming infatuated with the false reality. I was practicing my weapons craft.”

“Well, dress how you will. I will escort you through the city today,” she said, grinning at the turn of roles. “Ignis had your resin-hide armor dropped off a short time ago.”

I walked with Zyna to the common room to find the armor. Ignis had repaired all the damage to make it appear new again. I realized she had put a lot of effort into the restoration. The only evidence of the damage was on the inside of the cuirass where the arrow had punctured it.

The sheath made for the orc blade was simple, but the materials looked costly. Zyna confirmed my appraisal, “Dyed yeti hide. Half the weight but twice the strength when impregnated with resin sap. If it had an edge, it could be used as a sword itself.”

“She was trying to give me a fair value for the book,” I mused aloud, studying the sheath. Zyna nodded in confirmation. “Can you get it to Renna today? Tell her lessons to follow.” Zyna nodded.

I dressed in the resin-hide armor, and we crossed the upper city to the Coliseum. There was palpable tension in the streets. It looked like the First Citizens remained cloistered for now, as the normally bright, flashy clothing was missing this early. It felt like Zyna was dropping me off for school as we reached the entrance. “Just ask for Champion Cassian. They should bring you straight to him as he is expecting you. The lesson ends at sunset, so don’t let him cut it short. It was not cheap.”

“Thank you, Zyna. Can I repay you for the lesson?” I offered.

“Who said you haven’t already paid for it?” She smirked. “When you are finished, call a patrol to escort you back to the Mage College. I am certain your enemies will learn you are here if they don’t know already.” She indicated the pairs of Imperial Legionaries walking the street.

“Will they leave their patrol to escort me?” I questioned.

“Just tell them you need to meet Chancellor High Mage Zyna at the Mage College. They will escort you.” She retorted blithely.

I entered the structure through the gates, leaving Zyna behind. It wasn’t long before staff questioned me about why I was there. They asked respectfully due to my legion armor but were definitely annoyed I was interrupting their work. I addressed the two who had approached me. “I have a training session with Champion Cassian the Red.” They looked at each other doubtfully, so I added, “Chancellor High Mage Zyna arranged it.” That seemed more plausible to the two.

“Follow me. Vectus, you can clean up the wine vomit of the third mezzanine.” The other man groaned as I was led away. We circled around to the far side of the Coliseum and across a small courtyard to an attached apartment complex.

“They live in the Coliseum?” I asked, but not really expecting an answer.

“Most gladiators couldn’t afford to live in the upper city, so the First Citizens sponsor most with an apartment here and supply gifts to keep them happy.” The man said as I followed him into the structure.

A massive three-story white marble lobby had stairs leading up to sheltered balconies. He pointed to one balcony, “There.” He then hurried off, not waiting to see if Cassian was in his apartment.

I climbed the stairs and knocked. The black-haired gladiator opened the door naked. His chiseled frame looked confused. “I am expecting someone legionnaire. Whatever your business, come back tomorrow.”

“I am your business today. Chancellor Zyna arranged lessons for me today.” A look of realization ebbed into his face.

“Oh, I thought it was sword lessons with Zyna! Pardon my confusion. Most of the time, a First Citizen arranges lessons, it is for my shorter sword. We can still spar with our shorter swords; I don’t mind.” Zyna had probably set me up as a joke.

I shook my head, “No, I am interested in combat training.”

He shrugged, looking me over carefully, “Well, if you change your mind at any time, let me know. Give me a few minutes, and we can head over to the gladiator yards.”

Champion Cassian strutted off, and I could imagine Zyna having a good laugh at my expense right now. Still, I was going to get as much out of this combat lesson as possible.

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