Dwelm's reputation among the citizens of Oddtown is mixed - a good kind of mixed. Some remember him as that special drinking buddy who always brought good stories, a few adventurers have received his teachings, all dragons that work or worked on heating forges known of him and their opinion is usually along the lines 'Joyful,' never once had they seen Dwelm frown which for most was something good, a man that life can't take down is uplifting after all. That is what most think.
Nixhibzy isn't 'most' as she knew Dwelm for who he truly once was. "The hell is your lazy ass doing in my forge!?" A dwarf with a charcoal black beard tied with pink ribbons, smudges on her face, an iron helmet with bull horns adorned her head, and an odd name with an equally odd work ethic, each of her tools was treated like they were fragile babies, they reflected the faintest light, and it wasn't just her hammer, but her entire forge was like that. Pristine unlike how she looked. Dwelm honestly didn't know how she kept her forge so clean, maybe it was her magic. "Quit staring at my tools you old fart!"
"Ohoho." Dwelm moved past the dwarf and her entire head was redder than the fire of the forges - Dwelm gently opened the door and was surprised, there was a red dragon with a dip of golden scales mixed in with a tail tip made of gold, his head was smooth with a small bump where his horn will grow at the center of his head, he was sitting on the counter, now it wasn't the dragon that surprised him since most younglings do tend to get jobs at forges but what had beaten his words out of him was the white cat sith with dark stripes brushing his scales. The dragon took no time to jump down from the counter avoiding any eye contact, the cat sith seemed a bit upset at that though.
Out of that odd scene, the insides were quite the usual of a forge, weapons displayed along the walls, and a barrel full of long swords stood at the corner of the room although more niche weapons were sitting on glass cases, like the Kusari-fundo, Kpinga, and Chakrams. Nix busted the door open, "Do you think this is your house, fuck face?!"
Dwelm just stared at her and then asked, "Can I borrow-"
"No! We open in the next hour!" Nix said, the dragon put his claws on his head while the cat sith sighed and put her brush down, "Now get out!"
"C'mon Nicksy~"
"Don't 'NiCkSy' me trashman!"
"Now, we could do it if what he wants is simple-" The cat offered but was quickly shut off by the stare of her boss.
Dwelm chuckled, "See, I will even pay double!"
"Gah! Fine! Zhay, heat the forge and you tell me what in the underworld you want at this hour!" Nix shouted while rushing toward the counter where the cat sith wasted no time to pass the hammer to the angry dwarf, while the dragon rushed outside to heat the forge.
"Melted iron, there's a dent in my crossbow-"
"For fuck sake, I'll charge you a silver just for bothering me!"
=====
The magic tower is a center of research on the various effects Magila has on the body such as the development of the true self that leads to the birth of new spells or how the awakening of a magic nature work, this place is a ground of research where only those acknowledged by the king or the archmage can ever hope to set foot into, but there wasn't anything about paws.
Besides being a place of research, the magic tower was also a storage unit of dangerous artifacts - not powerful, but dangerous. Royal guards are the overflowing topping of the cake, it is what makes the magic tower truly work without fear of thieves or ambitions of nobles, so one can only imagine their surprise as someone suddenly teleports there with a huge chunk of metal. Guards in shining steel armor surrounded the chunk of metal and consequently Lulu on top of it. There wasn't a great stir as the area of the local Pine citizens as the whole block is secured by guards daily, Lulu took a short moment to appreciate the gardens grown with magical might, the trees, the grass, and the critters nearby. It was an Oddity as if the whole kingdom developed but left this area full of natural vegetation besides one giant, wide stone tower.
"You come down right now!" One of the guards shouted, "This is a heavily restricted area-"
"Yeah, yeah. Take this!" Lulu threw her distinctive down, the guard promptly caught it before rushing inside. For a few minutes everything went still until the doors opened wide, a person in a purple robe, an elf if Lulu's nose wasn't lying to her, walked out. "The previous head changed?"
The robed person stopped, "He did retire. What brought you here Dawnbringer?"
"Pampkin wants to pinch this cool magic artifact Pampkin found!" Lulu clapped her paws and jumped down, the guards made way as the robed person approached, his palm snow white with each finger wearing a golden ring with a unique gem yet his skin was full of runes - a practice Lulu despised, to make oneself an artifact. "Pampkin is thinking, hm, five hundred gold."
"Three hundre-"
"Taken!" Lulu smiled, "Could you exchange two fifty for four magic augmentation rings?" The robed person nodded then let go of the metal hunk and reached his left hand in the arm, it briefly pierced an invisible barrier before retrieving four emerald rings, Lulu was quick to snatch them. Next, the robed person tapped the ground and a huge amount of small stones floated up from the ground, each in the shape of coins, once more his left hand pierced an invisible barrier and this time a bag was retrieved, then his right hand touched the stone coins and slowly, each became gold. They promptly fell in the bag.
"Is this it?" The robed person asked.
Lulu nodded and not to be rude offered a handshake, and the elf promptly took it. At that brief moment, she could see his eyes, red scarlet, and his pupil sharp like one of a cat, such are the consequences of dabbling with the occult for far too long. "Goodbye then." The gnoll tapped on a strange metallic device on her hip and in a flash, disappeared. The robbed person looked at the distinctive in his hands and sighed, he'd need to put a few identification wards for her next arrival.
====
Maps truly weren't one of Bushy's strengths, she couldn't figure anything out! With a sigh, Bushy rolled the parchment and looked at the stairs, her current worst enemy. Steadily she lifted her staff and tucked it under her arm, took a deep breath, and descended, each step brought newfound pain in her spine and chest - Bushy even thought that her ribs were stabbing her lungs but she gritted her teeth, for a future mage shouldn't be afraid of pain!
At the final step, Bushy nearly collapsed to the ground, sweat beads forming on her forehead but she couldn't stop yet. Bushy was committed after that first step, she wouldn't stop walking until she could finally run and soar to be who she wanted to be. Bushy opened the door and decided to practice right then and there, she doubted that any damage could be done to anything besides the fountain.
The spell, Crushing Zone wasn't a trained spell but instead a natural one so Bushy already knew its full limits and potential - but theoretical knowledge is different from practical. Bushy grabbed her staff and stabbed it into the ground, feeling the natural pull of gravity and mimicking it in a dome, then shaping that dome into a sharp triangle, changing that triangle to a single line increasing the reach manyfold. Any shape was possible as long as she was the center of the spell.
Mana flew from her being to the spell, coursing through her veins and taking the form her true self desired, the power intensified. The opposite was plausible too, but different from adding more power it is harder to keep it stable with less, the sweet spot being a ten times increase, with the minimum being two and the maximum twenty.
Bushy prepared to cast her spell in a single tin but extensive purple line, said line took sharp turns but stopped once she noticed that Tenpao was at the gate watching.