Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

He took a breath. “Every monster I bind to an item takes up some of my mana while it’s bound, much like it would for a Summoner. That means I can’t just manufacture tons of items like an Enchanter. And unlike a Summoner, I can’t just spend mana to summon one or more copies of a monster as much as I want. I’ve only got the one monster in each item.”

He tapped the swords at his side. “I can release the monsters temporarily to fight, but if they get hurt, they actually get hurt. They’re not simulacra. The bond to the item affords them a degree of protection, since they can retreat back inside, but they can die.”

Sera made a ‘hmm’ noise, stepping closer to Derek. “Would it be possible for me to bind copies of the monsters you’ve imbued your items with?”

Derek nodded. “Technically possible, yeah, if I let them out for a bit. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. Delsys is a Citrine-level monster, and Tavare is Emerald-level. You could still make contracts, but your summoned versions would be much weaker, much like what happened when you summoned the karvensi. And, moreover, I think you have too many bound monsters already.”

“What do you mean?” Sera folded her arms.

“I saw you binding everything you could in that Survival Match. That was brilliant, by the way.”

Sera stood up a little straighter at that statement.

Derek kept talking, though. “But you shouldn’t hold onto that many bindings long-term. You know how many creatures I’ve got bound? Four. And I’m an Emerald. It’s not worth taking up the mana to bind that many things to your attunement, especially when you’re just getting started. It does make you more flexible, of course, but you won’t have enough mana to actually deploy anything if all of it is being eaten up by contracts.”

Sera sighed. “I’d love to get rid of some of my weaker contracts, but some of them are mandatory for my classes. And the ones that aren’t mandatory — things like the ones I bound during that match — are ones I’d want to keep. I’m not exactly going to have a lot of opportunities to bind something as strong as a wyvern elsewhere.”

Derek’s eyes widened. “You managed to bind the wyvern in there? I don’t think I even noticed that. That’s pretty impressive, kid. I agree that you should keep that one. But if you’ve got as many bindings as I think you do, I’ll bet you could hit Carnelian right now if you just release some of the ones you’re not using. And getting yourself a shroud would be far more useful than having a little more summoning variety.”

Sera blinked. “Mana being used up by contracts doesn’t count toward my attunement advancing? That…makes a lot of sense, actually.” She glanced from side-to-side. “You know what? This is more important than classes.”

“Slime, I release our contract.”

“Goblin, I release our contract.”

“Imp, I release our contract.”

I turned my attunement on, watching Sera briefly shimmer as she spoke each line, and then a crimson aura burst around her as she spoke the final words.

“Huh.” I mumbled. “Congratulations, Sera.”

She grinned brightly at me. “Wish I’d known I could do that, I probably would have done it weeks ago. Think I should get rid of the ogre?”

I shrugged. “Depends on if you think you’ll need the muscle.”

“I’ll hold onto it for now.” Sera turned to Derek. “Thanks for the advice. This feels… amazing.”

I felt a brief pang of jealousy that Sera’s attunement level had exceeded my own, but it was mixed with relief. If Derek decided to betray us, I wanted Sera to be as powerful as possible. A Carnelian wasn’t going to be able to handle Derek on her own, but every bit of extra power helped our chances of surviving.

“Just wait until you hit Sunstone. It gets better and better. Okay, enough from the two of us. Corin, what’ve you got?”

I patted the sword at my side. “I’m just a Quartz-level Enchanter. I have a basic magic sword with transference runes, nothing to brag about. Aside from that, I have a demi-gauntlet that can fire bursts of gray and transference mana and a stronger-than-average shield signet. I also have a device for measuring mana levels, but I don’t think it’ll be particularly useful in the tower.”

I didn’t mention the return bell, the book, or the Jaden Box deliberately. Derek was being friendly, but I still didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.

“Oh,” I added, “I also am borrowing Professor Orden’s ring of regeneration.”

I was a little worried that she’d want it back, but it was worth mentioning. I didn’t think we had any other healing, as far as I was aware.

She nodded. “You can hold onto that for now. You’re more likely to need it than I am.”

“That’s about it for me. Most of what I can contribute is normal supplies. Oh, I did bring a flask that generates water and a cloak designed to keep the wearer warm, in case we end up camping.”

“Both good ideas.” Derek nodded. “You should stay as far from combat as you can if you don’t have a shroud yet. The improved shield sigil is a good idea, but it’s far from perfect. Orden, you want to go next?”

“Sunstone-level Enchanter. I have a variety of useful devices, but I’m not going to list every one of them.”

I frowned. “Aren’t you also a Summoner?”

Orden wrinkled her nose. “Where’d you get that impression?”

“All the teleporting?”

She shook her head. “Ah. I can see why you might presume that, but summoning and teleportation are similar, but not identical. Extremely powerful Summoners can teleport, but I can’t claim to be one. I do have a second attunement for that purpose. I’m a Wayfarer. It’s a Dalish attunement focused exclusively on mobility and teleportation.”

That answered a lot of questions, but it raised a few others. Nothing I needed to worry about immediately, though.

Orden folded her hands. “I suppose it’s safe to assume I will be able to teleport us short distances within the tower, but I require an anchor to teleport to. A person or object I’m familiar with is best. I may or may not be able to teleport us out of the tower if we are in a dangerous location. It depends on if the room we’re inside is currently sealed. You should not expect me to be able to provide us with a reliable escape.”

I nodded along with that answer. I had my return bell in case of emergencies, but it had similar restrictions.

Orden turned to Jin. “I believe you are next, Jin.”

“You may know that I carry two pistols and I am capable of using them with a degree of skill. I have several other basic items of Corin’s design, mostly focused on illusions and detection.”

Derek nodded. “Sounds good. What’s your attunement?”

Jin clenched his jaw. “Apologies, but I would rather not say. Professor Orden is aware of my situation and my reasoning.”

I frowned at that. I’d been assuming he was keeping his attunement concealed because he was in Spider Division, but this situation was potentially dangerous. That seemed far more important than a training exercise.

Orden nodded to Jin and turned to Derek. “I can confirm that Jin has a good reason for keeping his attunement private for the time being. Jin, if the situation is desperate enough, you may need to use your attunement regardless.”

Jin dipped his head just slightly. “I understand.”

Still being painfully mysterious, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Given Jin’s encounter with Katashi, I was beginning to wonder if Jin might work for Katashi directly. Katashi was the patron visage of Dalenos, after all, and Jin had claimed to have the surname Dalen. Since he’d insisted he wasn’t royalty, that left several other options — and being a government agent or a servant of Katashi were both options that made concealing his abilities logical.