"Fascinating," I said, and Kilna looked up at me.
"Have you ever seen magic cast before?" She asked me, and I nodded.
"I have, but it never ceases to amaze me. Do you mind doing that to another one of the documents?" I asked, and she nodded. "I would like to try something while you are doing it."
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and I called for Miles to come in.
"I got the maps for you, and I managed to acquire a bit of platinum, but this still is hard to get ahold of right now. Even before you came, Ned has been buying up a lot of it. Not sure why, but I do know that it makes premium magical artifacts," Miles said as he walked over to my desk. "Do you mind if I lay out the map on the desk?" He asked, and I nodded.
"That is good; how much platinum did you get?" I asked, turning to him, and he pulled out a small necklace in the shape of a water droplet.
"Where did you get one of those?!" Kilna asked with some shock, and I turned back to her.
"What is it?" I asked, and she held up a finger.
"It is a Water Drop Necklace. It is a rare magical item that can absorb and store water. It is said that if you wear this, it can bring you luck in life and give you the power to control water," She said, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting," I said and then turned back to Miles. "How much was this?"
"Nothing. The truth is that not many people will talk to me right now. Word of you has gotten around pretty quick; so many people don't want to work with me or do deals, but I had this in my safe. I was actually waiting for the price of platinum to go up, then I was going to sell it, but I think that you will do better with it," Miles said as he walked over to hand me the necklace.
"Thank you. You are a good man, and in a very short time, those people will be begging to deal with you, mark my words. Spread the map out, and I will see what I can do to replace this with something more valuable to you," I said, and Miles' eyes opened wide, and he nodded, turning back to my empty desk.
I looked down at the pendant and was about to try to absorb it, but Kilna spoke up. "What are you going to do with it?"
"Absorb it," I said, looking at her, but she seemed appalled.
"That necklace would be very valuable in Aquia and Litany. Both countries would pay a small fortune for that!" She said, and I closed my hand over it.
"I don't need money right now, and it wouldn't be safe trying to sell it," I said, and I transformed my hand into a metal grinder and ground it down into a powder that I fed into my core, storing half of the 200 grams. The chain had also been platinum, so that gave me extra, but I didn't really think such a small amount would do anything, but I was wrong.
Time slowed as I was pulled into my core visually, and I watched as my chip at the center of my core started to change. It was like an ice cube melting, slowly getting bigger until it was a sphere. The sphere had a pattern in it, but I couldn't tell what it was.
I was suddenly jerked back to reality, and I could feel the power coursing through me, and I knew that the necklace had been really valuable. I also felt different as my system ran a scan of my body to identify and soon got a report.
[Increase Micro Drone capacity and control: 100->400]
[Increase Fly Drone capacity and control: 25->100]
[Increase Wasp Drone capacity and control: 10->40]
[Increase Sentinel Drone capacity and control: 1->4]
[Computer Language Database has collected 15 Chaotic Energy symbols. 50 are required for a greater understanding of Chaotic Energy.]
[Body Augment: 10% Water Resistance gained from enchanted platinum.]
Good, more bugs and some resistance to water, but the Chaotic Energy was strange. I looked up the definition in my head, and it came up with the basic definition of magic. That meant that my system registered Mana and Chaotic Energy, and learning the writing might help me learn more about magic. My body was made out of platinum, after all, and that was the best thing to make magical items. That stood to reason that I could turn myself into a kind of magical weapon of sorts with enough knowledge.
"Are you alright?" Kilna asked, and I looked at her.
"Yes, just thinking," I said, and she nodded.
"Well, I have done ten documents while I waited. Are you ready to watch me now?" She asked, and I frowned.
"Ten? That fast?" I asked, but she shook her head.
"No, you have just been standing there for the last hour silently. You said you were absorbing it, so we all stayed fairly quiet, but we were starting to get worried, or at least Kyla and I did," Kilna said, and then looked over to Fawna's desk. I followed her gaze to Rax sitting in her place, but then I noticed that Fawna was curled under the desk asleep. "She was getting tired, so Rax took over. I told her that you would sooner have her take a short nap than fall asleep. I hope that is fine?"
"Yeah, I need you all in top shape," I said as I walked over to look at Rax's screen and watched him for a minute before nodding. "Good work. You have a knack for this like Kyla," I said, and Rax nodded.
"This is much easier than sneaking around and using magic, but it is not as exciting," he said, and I chuckled.
"Don't worry. There will be plenty of things for you to do in the future. Being good at this type of thing is something that will be important in the future, and we will be doing most of our work remotely," I explained, and then turned back to Kilna. "Okay, let me see if I can scan the magic as you use it."