As per usual, business is plenty in The Sacred Inventory, especially with the strategic addition of the beautiful maiden and world-renowned princess Lucia, who has recently joined the ranks of the Inventory crew due to her recently sparked love for Luka. And with her entrance into the team, it's only been more lively amongst the customers and the workers.
"Lukaaaaaa~," Lucia said, latched onto Luka's arm.
"You're getting in the way of me reading a highly intellectual plot" Luka groaned, even though he was reading a Picturio, a form of picture book identical to what is known in our world as a 'manga'. "Anyway, what is it?"
"What are we?" Lucia asked.
Luka instantly replied "Manager and employee" monotonously.
"Alsoooo~" she said, in an unnecessarily alluring tone. "What am I to you?"
"A pretty face used to attract customers, primarily male according to the data I compiled yesterday"
The pie chart he showed her deduced that 78% of male customers bought something from the inventory because Lucia was an employee. Considering her renown, looks and charm, it's really no wonder.
"However you're also a very hard worker which is praiseworthy" Luka continued, his nose still buried in his book.
"Awww~ you called me pretty? I love you ~" Emilia said, leaning in for a kiss.
"I'll stop you right there" Luka said, covering Emilia's mouth with the book. "I don't give those out for free"
"Oh…" Lucia said, sadly. "Out of curiosity do you sell your body?"
"It's on the market." Luka responded, monotonously but shamelessly. What Luka has in funds, he lacks in pride. In fact, if he has any pride, he takes pride in the lack of pride he has.
"Noted" Lucia said with a strangely malicious tone of voice.
"Boss!" Zaine shouted.
"Ugh. It's too early for two annoyances. What is it?" Luka begrudgingly asked, as if he was suffering a migraine just being in the presence of the two.
"S-soooo" Zaine muttered "there's a tournament happening over the final seat in the Grand Court of Mages….. I know I'm pretty young and don't have that much experience…. But… I really want to join them!" Zaine said with slight confidence as if finally gaining a bit of backbone.
Luka raised an eyebrow as this statement was brought to his attention.
"Ok…. Sooooo what does this have to do with me again?" Luka questioned.
Zaine was visibly working up the courage to ask this question, which Luka witnessed, visibly puzzled.
"P-p-p-p" Zaine stuttered, which aggravated Luka.
"P-p-p-p" Luka said back, mockingly. "Geez get on with it, man"
"Please teach me how to become a master of magic!" Zaine pleaded.
Luka was about to decline his offer, after all, it wouldn't make him money, so why should he care? Besides, he already trained him a bit from time to time, so he didn't want to put in that much more effort. However, he then began thinking to himself.
"Hmm… now that I think about it, the Grand Court of Mages is a renowned and respected group of elite magicians. If Zaine makes the cut and gets a place in the Court, the Inventory could receive a lot of recognition. Business has almost doubled with just one famous face in our ranks. Imagine two?!" Luka thought to himself, a fiendish grin forming on his face.
"Uuuuh sir?" Zaine said, slightly uncomfortable.
"Fiiiine you win!" Luka responded, with an uncharacteristically happy expression. "I'll teach you how to be a mage. It's the least I can do for my dear employee".
Zaine wasn't convinced in the slightest that Luka was doing it for him. If that man has any goodness in his heart, his agreement wasn't out of that goodness. But as long as Zaine was able to learn magic, he didn't mind.
"All right!" Zaine shouted. "Thank you for your tutelage!"
"I must warn you though, kid" Luka warned. "I've given you some easy work in the past, but my actual training is no picnic. I will break every part of you, then remould you into a sorcerer strong enough to take that tournament by storm! Knowing all this, are you still certain you wish for this training?"
Zaine was hesitant to answer this question, but he had made up his mind.
"I am!" Zaine declared. "I don't care what you put me through, as long as I can get that position in the court, I'll do your training, and pass it too!"
Luka looked at him in the eyes with a straight face. As he did so, saw grit and determination in his eyes. He was both surprised and impressed by this development in the young boy. Although he's barely past 14, the lad possesses great magical ability, however has never really trained. It wouldn't be ridiculous to call him a prodigy in the mystic arts. However, due to not having the right teacher, these skills haven't improved, leaving a treasure trove of untapped raw potential within him. Luka saw this, which gave him another reason to tutor him.
Luka started to smile before putting his hand on his shoulder and saying "Alrighty then! You clearly have resolve. Not giving you my best would be disrespecting you. That being said, your first lesson starts…..now!". As he said that, both he and Zaine teleported out of the shop and when they came out, they were floating on top of a field near the outskirts of the city.
"Alrighty then," Luka said, carrying a visibly confused Zaine about 1000 feet above ground. "Class is now in session so buckle up. We're starting things off with a quiz. What'll happen if I drop you right now?"
This question left Zaine staring at Luka with pure fear in his eyes.
"Uuuuh I'll die?" Zaine answered.
"That's your answer? Then for your sake, you'd best be wrong" Luka responded.
Zaine's expression grew even paler. "Uuuuh what do you mean by-" Zaine's sentence was cut short after Luka let him go, sending him plummeting towards the ground.
Zaine was screaming until he was an inch away from the ground. He shut his eyes, hoping for a quick demise. But when they opened, he was back where he was before, with his cloak being grabbed by Luka.
"Damn. That could've ended poorly if I wasn't here" Luka stated, even though he was the reason it happened to begin with. "Anyway this will keep going until you're able to stop yourself from falling to death, so get serious."
Zaine was confused by this statement. "How am I supposed to do-"
He once again found himself falling downwards. This process repeated for a while.
"Dammit! Some teacher this guy is!" He thought to himself. "How am I supposed to just stop falli-" Zaine stopped his internal monologue and realised something. He was looking up as he was falling and saw something: Luka.
"The Boss! That's it! He's suspended in mid-air, but how is he doing it?" Zaine thought for a minute before realising it.
"Wind! He's using wind magic to levitate, but he has such high control of it he's able to levitate flawlessly as if he's standing on solid ground rather than floating. He's been giving me the answer the whole time!" He thought.
"Looks like he finally put two and two together" Luka said to himself.
Zaine then began to use wind magic to form a wind that circled around him, before controlling it to allow him to levitate and fly. He flew up to Luka to give him the good news.
"I'll be honest, it's shabby work at best…" Zaine said to his tutor. "But I can do it!"
Luka was impressed, even though he didn't show it. "Don't get too cocky" Luka said back. "While you did manage to fly, it's very inefficient, a drawback you yourself have acknowledged. That being said, your next lesson is to fly until you're able to levitate without shaking like a leaf"
Zaine nodded in affirmation, but Luka wasn't finished.
"But to speed up the ol' process I'll be firing spells at you, you are to fly away from them. When you're in a tight situation, that's when you'll figure out the flaws in your current technique"
Zaine's expression changed to fear as Luka began preparing a spell. He immediately flew away.
"Magic limiter: 5000. Just for good measure," Luka said. "Simple magic: magic bullet"
He began firing at the child, making sure to not be too accurate. Zaine, even with the purposeful inaccuracy handicap Luka put on himself, was still suffering hits. He had to think of how to increase speed.
"Crap!" He said "I'm too slow! What do I do?!" The boy thought before coming to a conclusion. "I focus my magic to my feet!" He stopped coating himself in wind and focused all the wind to his feet, allowing him to propel himself forward. However, this speed boost came at the expense of control.
"Hm. He's adapting to this exercise. He truly is a sacred treasure. Now I just have to summon a bit more of his potential" Luka said, slightly increasing the velocity of the shots.
Zaine initial mindless fleeing evolved into tactical manoeuvres. He was without a doubt a prodigy. As he was dodging, he then realised the last piece of the puzzle.
"I figured it out!" He cried in joy. "It's not about where I focus my magic, it's about how and when! I'd I can use my hands or even my back sometimes, I can have levitation at all times, and only when necessary!"
This realisation allowed him almost perfect movement across the sky. In such a short period, he was able to learn a very complex technique which required high amounts of versatility, control and focus. He was a genius, something that even Luka acknowledged.
Luka's firing ceased and Zaine stood there, with perfect levitation.
"I can do it now, Boss! I can-" Zaine was celebrating his victory but noticed that Luka somehow managed to move right in front of him from an exceptionally long distance without him noticing. He was then flicked in the stomach by Luka, sending him flying yards away, he then used levitation to regain his balance.
"Nice. Just had to make sure you got it." Luka said, in a tone somewhere between joking and congratulating. "Anywho, while you've got that, that was only the beginning. For a lower-rank mage, and even an intermediate mage like yourself, this is a great achievement. But this is a tournament to decide a Court Mage we're talking about here. Advanced mages will be present and if you want to win that seat in the Court, you will inevitably have to face people like that, and they won't go easy on you just cus you're a 15-year-old brat. We've only just scratched the surface here. Once we're done with this you'll be long past the line of Advanced mage."
Zaine looked at him, clearly acknowledging his words. Luka then began to grin.
"Well then, it seems you grasp the situation. The tournament is in about a week. With your growth level, we should be all gravy, even if you only end up a little rough around the edges by that time" Luka said. "Aaaanywho~, let's do this! I'll now teach you multicasting!"
Five days had passed and it was a sunny afternoon. The rest of the Sacred Inventory team came out to see the two through a teleport.
"Luka my beloved~" Lucia chanted. "I brought you two cookies!"
"Much appreciated" Luka said, claiming the basket of cookies from Lucia.
"Hey guys! How's everyone doing?" Viktor asked.
"H-hey guys!" Zaine said, exhausted from his training. "Hey! Stop eating all the cookies, Boss! I want some too!"
"Nuh uh" said Luka, stuffing his face with homemade baked goods.
Zaine used wind magic to steal a handful and eat them all in one bite before Luka could take them back.
"Touché, brat" Luka responded. "Anyway, we have two days left, so all lollygaging, dillydallying and other assorted time-wasting is gonna have to stop now. You've got multicasting, magical arrays and Circle reinforcement down pat. Now it's time for the final hurdle. I will now teach you about the strongest series of attacks a magic can have: Ultimate magic"
In this world, everyone has a certain amount of magic, this is shown in their magic stat. The higher that number gets, the more magic and magic power they have. Each person has their own storage of magic energy. This energy can be utilised and changed in order to do different things: create, destroy and more. These are called spells. While basic spells can be done without any complicated knowledge, higher-level spells require a rune in order to complete. A rune is effectively a set of instructions used to command the magic energy into taking different properties: shape, magical type and such. These are magic circles.
The higher level the spell, the more complex the circle. There are three stages in the hierarchy of how complicated a circle spell can be. Ones that require simple circles are called basic magic. This is so basic that it's never called by name. The tier above is Greater Magic, which requires a more complex circle array. And at the pinnacle of spell-casting, there is Ultimate magic, the greatest magical art a magic user can master. The individuals who can use any type of spell like this are few and far between, people who have more than one ultimate magic spell are very rare, with people who have mastered such a supreme art being even more rare than that. But to get the edge in this tournament, Zaine would have to trespass into the realm of the greats, and learn Ultimate magic!
A day passed and the tournament was drawing to a close. At dawn tomorrow, Zaine would have to go toe to toe with powerful adversaries from all four kingdoms.
"Say, kid…" Luka spoke to Zaine. "Why are you doing all this"
"Doing all of what?" Zaine responded in confusion.
"Going into the tournament, training so rigorously. You clearly have a drive, I just want to know what it is" Luka said, expecting an answer.
Zaine was hesitant to respond, but he eventually decided to explain his motives. After all, Luka, albeit a money grubber, penny pincher, and a greedy dirtbag, was one of the only people Zaine could trust, in light of what they've been through as of late.
"My parents died when I was a baby," Zaine said. This had Luka taken aback, but he didn't show this physically. "I never even saw them. The only one I had was my elder brother. It was me and him against the world. I went into mage school in the hopes of making him proud, but nothing I did was ever good enough for him. In his eyes, I've been nothing but a subpar mage and an eyesore. I joined Viktor's party in the hopes of becoming better, but I either fought weak monsters or got obliterated by stronger ones. But things could be different! If I enter the Grand Court, he'll have no choice but to acknowledge me!"
Luka took some time to process this. "I see" he said. "Look, I don't usually give out compliments for free, but you're an alright kid, and you have a natural talent for magic. The way I see it, you have nothing else to prove to him. But if it's what you really want, I say go for it and shove it in your bozo bro's face"
"Huh. You never struck me as the empathetic type, boss" Zaine said, jokingly.
"Yeah, I bought some of that empathy stuff the other day" Luka joked back as they shared a laugh. "Seriously though, don't get used to it"
Luka simply had to let that be known.
"Moving on, time for one last try at that Ultimate circle. Go on." Luka insisted.
Their training continued. Day turned into night and before anyone knew it, it was the day of the tournament. Magic broadcasters were broadcasting the event across the four kingdoms. And of course, the Inventory crew were there. Zaine even had a new look, with a now black wizard hat and robe with a dark blue accent, rather than the blue they were in before. Additionally, he had a new, enchanted staff. With these, he had the confidence to walk in and take the challenge ahead.
Luka and co watched from the audience as the tournament began. Battle after battle Zaine blitzed through the competition. Until it was the final round. This was a drawn-out battle with both sides throwing out different tactics, but Luka knew Zaine just wanted to lure his opponent into a false sense of security, something he advised before. His enemy then prepared an Ultimate Magic attack. This shocked the audience.
"No good!" Rebecca cried.
"Oh no no no, Rebecca. In fact, quite the contrary" Luka said. "This is perfect!"
Zaine then began to smile, in an uncannily similar manner to his master, before doing the unexpected: running towards him and punching him in the face with an attack aided by physical enhancement magic, a magic he learnt himself after witnessing it firsthand from Viktor.
"Mages use magic first and foremost, even an idiot can tell you that! So what do you do? You do the unexpected and sucker punch the guy right in his noggin!" Luka shouted.
"Greater physical enhancement magic: Decimation Fist!" Zaine cried as he launched the punch that ended the round, and secured his place as the victor of the tournament.
"Amazing! He took advantage of the focus a mage needs to launch ultimate magic and used an unexpected attack, winning the battle!" The announcer shouted. "Congratulations Zaine, you have earned your place in the Grand Cour-"
"I think not" a voice said as a tall. Black black-haired man in a dark blue cloak walked towards the announcer's stand. It was none other than Zagritz Beldamond, the head mage of the Grand Court of Mages. "Zaine. You are forbidden from entering the Court of Mages!"
Everyone was in shock by this, especially the Inventory members.
"Hey, what gives? He kicked his ass fair and square!" Luka shouted.
"Agreed!" Exclaimed the others.
Zaine began to show an expression that no one in the Inventory had seen on his face before: one of pure anger.
Zaine uttered words that shook the colosseum itself: "What's the meaning of this….Elder Brother!"
Shock filled the air and even the sharp-mouthed Luka lost his voice in all this, remaining silent.
"Zaine. You believe that this riffraff would get me to maybe change my opinion?" Zagritz said in a monotone voice. "Don't make me laugh. Do you think you're strong now or something? Know your place. You're nothing. You're a worthless, third-rate magician. That's all you are, and all you ever will be"
Zaine's anger slowly started turning to sadness, he was holding back tears, wondering if maybe he was right. But then, something happened.
"Oh, so that's your angle here?" Said the voice of someone who somehow made it in front of him, facing Zagritz without anyone even noticing he got there. It was none other than Luka. "You don't want to let him in because you don't think he deserves it after literally meeting the entry criteria? What a joke!"
Zagritz looked down from above, wondering who he was and how he dared to stand up to him. "Who are you? This is none of your business, fool" he told Luka.
"I'm just the owner of a shop, it's Sacred Inventory in case you wanna go. Also, since this is my apprentice, I'd say it is my business, fool" Luka said. "That being said…. Zagritz, I challenge you to a duel!"
Everyone shouted in disbelief.
Zaine was baffled "boss… you don't have to"
"You wish to fight me?" Zagritz questioned.
" I do wish to fight you, but I won't" Luka said, much to everyone's confusion. "The one who will defeat you….will be him" he said, pointing to Zaine.
Zagritz took some time to process this before saying "I'm alright with fighting this trash. I'll show you why you don't belong in this group or as a mage"
Zaine stood up before asking Luka "Boss… do I have permission?"
"Yep!" He replied with a wink. "Go ham, brat!"
Zaine began to levitate as his large magic energy presence was felt by everyone present. Zagritz was surprised by this.
"You hear that, big bro?!" Luka shouted. "This time, it's no holds barred!"