The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

Making the base Rings wasn’t hard. It would also be their first lesson in Infusing Magic, which was going to make their jaws drop when they discovered Burning goldweight = fabulous magical powah.

Artifice was a powerful field for a reason.

I had my feet kicked up and was watching the screen that Burt, who was our best computer nerd, had all wired up. I was still working out the Weird Science of naturally Energized materials they used to power everything with magic instead of science, but it worked mostly the same way as I recalled from pre-Fall Terra-Luna. The axis of Weird Rotations was just a wee bit different, but that was what sample E-Materials were for.

The boys were all gathered around to watch as the posting from the Hunter’s Guild winked up.

The Five Novice spells of the Light Element, as discovered by Lady Fae, will be offered at The Lighthouse, beginning tomorrow.

Please click for more details.

That went to the link which described the spells and their effects, complete with videos of them being Cast and employed. The cost of $1000 per spell, plus $50 to the Hunter’s Guild for processing, was noted, and the scheduling link was attached.

You needed a valid Hunter’s ID to apply, and a Hunter Guild account to pay. The first four hours, i.e., 240 Slots, were bid on, with the highest bids going first, minimum of $1010. The remaining 760 Slots were first come, first serve, with only one spell per day per ID, ID to be presented when claiming your Spell.

It took only a minute before the first first-come appointments were frantically put into place for the first five days. Site traffic began to spike not ten minutes later, the astute grabbing the first-come appointments, and then the major players began to bid on the early slots.

It took only another fifteen minutes for the first-come slots for the first five days to fill up, and soon enough the following days were filling up like someone was pouring water into them.

“Top bid for the first day is already up to a hundred thousand,” Glenn muttered in disbelief. “It’s tomorrow! How are they all going to get here?” he exclaimed.

“If they can afford that, they have their ways,” I noted calmly. “Not our problem.” I pointed to the side, where our revenue was running on a separate app.

It had already broken sixty million, and was only climbing. The boys could only stare at it rising, and rising, and rising...

“If someone gets in the way of me and my money, I am definitely going to blast them!” the Mick swore firmly, and everybody nodded along with him.

“Can you really shut it down with just a thought?” Red asked carefully, shaking his head as the money grew crazily, already to nine digits and rising.

“Yes. If anyone tries to seize it, control it, abscond with them, or deny them, I can send the Scrolls to dust with a thought.” And mark anyone silly enough to do so for my personal attention!

It turns out Artificing was a crapload easier and faster here in some ways, especially with Typeless Mana. You simply had to adjust the items to compensate for the extra power flows, and build complex Formations that could hold the energies, interlinking the systems.

I had craploads of Typeless Mana. It was literally impossible for a native mage to manipulate!

Some people were already trying to find the address of The Lighthouse, of course, and they would. But the place was closed and wouldn’t open for business until the morning.

They were going to find the workers there very interesting, indeed. Goldweight and spells...

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“What? It’s not responding!”

Under the eyes of his buddies, Ken Trebec pushed magically at the brick wall of The Lighthouse where the spells were to be displayed one more time. They were the first to discover the building, and wanted to get inside and see what there was to see. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be there, which meant they couldn’t go in, look around, and take any pictures.

Well, they could, they just had to be inventive. Unfortunately, the brick wasn’t responding to his Earth Magic at all.

Others would certainly be arriving quickly, ready to form up lines, no doubt. So, Ken had the bright idea of forcing a hole open, running around inside quickly, exiting... and maybe making off with a souvenir or two, since nobody happened to be there to stop them.

The brick, however, had other plans, and simply had not responded at all to his magic.

“It’s just brick!” he protested angrily, irked that his magic had failed. He was an Adept, forcing his way through brick was literally as easy as water. He reached out, put his hand on the wall, and pushed again, applying his magic directly.

For a moment, he had an impression of a great empty void ahead of him, totally empty of magic, and then his magic – ALL of his magic! – suddenly erupted out of his Stars, bursting right out of his skin as it drew a howl of agony from him, and poured into the plain red brick in front of him!

The feeling of having his magic ripped from him so quickly was horrendous. Ken collapsed to the ground as the wall of the building glowed brown and gold, white and yellow, and then slowly faded back to red clay once more.

His friends dragged him back and away from the wall after his hand was released, too scared to touch him while his magic was snaking out of the pores in his arm and pouring into the wall.

They were dragging him away from the building as the Hunter security team drove up, having watched this entertainment from the side street, just to see what would happen. They parked in the Reserved for Staff lot and got out lazily, watching the young mages drag their friend into their van and drive away hastily. Chuckling, they got the chairs out of the back of the van, then spread around the building to make sure it wasn’t vandalized before the opening tomorrow.

They were all Light Element users, and their pay for this first week was getting all five Spells, one early the first day so they knew the procedure, then every other day until they had them all. It meant no cash, but five grand was a pretty good paycheck for sitting around and doing almost nothing, so they were happy to stand around and keep order.

Really, there were tons of Hunters happy to swap guard duty for the chance to get the spells!

“How bad do you think it’s gonna be tomorrow?” Seth McDougal asked Billy-Bob Thornton, the head of their team. Everyone was in camo and light armor, clearly indicating they were on guard duty.

“Well, let’s see,” Billy-Bob drawled. “They got the instructions on the website, nice and clear. They reprinted them nice and clear on the sign there. They reprinted them on each of the stations inside, I think?” He leaned on the window, squinted, and nodded at nobody. “Yep, nice and clear.” He grinned widely. “I think it’s gonna be a total clusterfuck when some rich fucks think the rules don’t apply to them, and they suddenly can’t read.”

“Heard the Chairman himself might be coming down to make sure there’s no problems tomorrow.”

Billy-Bob spat a stream of tobacco juice onto the grass nearby. “That’s a good idea, gonna have to make an example of people who want to show off or throw their weight around. We’ll see if being an Archmage is enough.”

Everyone chuckled, pulling out their phones and checking out the forums, which were totally blowing up over this.

Having to buy your Slot with your Hunter ID meant they were also checking your Element, so basically only Light Element users could buy a slot. You also had to pay for it out of your Hunter Account, which meant people had to open one, and they would be checking your Hunter ID at the door, so you couldn’t hold your spot for someone else. Furthermore, you couldn’t register for more than five spaces at a time, and once you showed up for a slot, you couldn’t register for that spell again, so you couldn’t buy and monopolize a position.

The Calendar was already mostly full for months, save for the auctioned Slots, which closed at midnight before the date selected, so you could be outbid by someone right up until the end.

“Someone bid half a million dollars for the first Laser slot for tomorrow?” Seth called out in disbelief, drawing groans and laughs for everyone. “Oh my God, Lady Fae is making out like a bandit!” It was a valid bid, as you couldn’t bid what wasn’t in your Hunter account.

“Guild is packed with people registering right now. They’ve got a triple shift on duty right now, signing up everyone an’ their mothers,” Billy-Bob said, watching as the first cars started pulling into the big parking lot, driving around it once before pulling out. “Campers should arrive pretty soon. I imagine every Hunter’s Guild in the country is starting to see a flood of people signing up so they can buy the spells.” He chuckled deeply. “It’s gonna be a good quarter for the Guild.”

“You think she’s got the spells of the other Elements? And she’s gonna offer them up, too?” Johnny-boy Smitters asked wistfully.

Billy-Bob just shook his head. “You saw the vids of those soldiers she gave the attack spells to. Are you stupid?” He flicked Johnny-boy’s long-suffering thick head. “She’s got the spells, she’s gonna offer ‘em, because she’d be stupid not to. Where, what, an’ when is her business. There’s already folks looking for her, hoping to get in on things, maybe get the spells early, who knows. The only ones who might have them right now are that KIA team what hired us, an’ they ain’t said nuthin’.

“Now, go get into position an’ make sure some idiots don’t hurt themselves trying to break in, like those punks did.” The Hunters hurried off to their positions quickly, taking their chairs with them, and still looking at their phones.

Billy-Bob wondered if he might be able to work for the mysterious Lady Fae who’d made such a showing against the Bugs as he watched the slowly increasing traffic. Someone was gonna make a lot of money off of this, and someone was going to want to dip their fingers into it.

Well, he just had to do his job. He was told not to risk his life for what was going on here, not that he was of a mind to, but he was going to be as pissed as everyone else if something happened and he didn’t get his spells.

He hadn’t heard who was going to be working the place at all, and nobody was talking about it. Were they bringing in some out-of-towners to staff the place? He knew the airports and hotels were already going crazy with the massive influx of people expected to come in. There’d been a lot of crazyfast construction going up down the road, and suddenly he realized why.

Five thousand visitors a day was a lot of outsiders coming into town, and they’d all need places to sleep and eat, especially if they were going to be here for five days... and since not everyone could get Laser on the first day, it was practically a given that people were going to be here for multiple days.

A lot of bivouacs and campsites were going up nearby in anticipation of visitors who wouldn’t mind roughing it for a few days, while doubtless other buildings with full amenities would follow quickly for those with money who wanted better accommodations. He’d heard the Hunter’s Guild was already organizing a mass cafeteria for visitors, and they’d already bought up a lot of ground in anticipation of renting out rooms, tents, buildings, and other facilities.

Yessir, someone was making and spending a lot of money. He wondered what she was going to do with it all, and kind of laughed. It wasn’t like there weren’t endless money sinks in this world...

Tomorrow was going to be a fun day!