A Jaded Life Chapter 1043

Just the idea of getting lessons was enough to thoroughly intrigue Daniel, to the point that he suddenly resembled Silva when the last piece of roasted at was up for grabs. Just his transition from a sowhat serious student of the writings I had put on the wall into an eager puppy, begging for a special treat managed to break my usually solid poker face and made chuckle.

“What would those lessons be about?” Samantha asked, turning away from Alex’s scribbles about foundational alchemy.

“While I have a few martial accomplishnts, my lessons will be on so foundational magical concepts. I believe young Daniel here has managed to figure out a few tricks of his own, didn’t he?” I told her, before studying Daniel so more, noticing that I couldn’t really tell the affinity his soul had, none of them stood out. In fact, while his overall affinity for magic seed to be fairly high, his elental affinities were only at the level of my own affinity for Earth Magic. Not terribly high but high enough to make the elents usable, if one put in enough effort. But, where I only had the affinity thanks to so of the special traits I had gained thanks to my high attributes, Daniel ca to it naturally, making him sowhat suitable to learn any elental magic I could think of. It would be interesting to see how much he could do if I managed to train him properly.

“And why do you think you can teach him?” Jack prodded, making laugh outright at his question.

“Look around, will you?” I gestured towards the walls all around us, turning as I did, “Just so ten days ago, this was nothing but an empty quarry, partially filled with water and gravel. I broke the rocks from the cliffs, I laid the foundations and I raised this tower, all on my own. All with my magic,” I paused, letting the information sink in deeply before continuing, “All with my Earth Magic. A magical elent that isn’t even among my top five elents. I rely used it because Earth, or more precisely rock, is an excellent building material. So yes, I believe I can teach him a fair amount,” I finished my short explanation, staring into Jack’s eyes, sowhat pleased at the realisation I could see in them and the fear stemming from it.

“Incredible,” Daniel whispered as if talking to himself, as he stared at the tower around us again. Maybe it had only now sunk in that this was all constructed magically, or they had partially denied the reality of it all, I wasn’t sure. But whatever the case, all five of them seed to be suitably cowed at the mont.

“Can you teach more about these diagrams?” Samantha asked from the other wall, her mind apparently still sowhat engrossed by them.

“No, I’m afraid not, they are not made by my hand. You would have to ask my older daughter about them, alongside her companion, Alex,” I explained, just as I noticed another disturbance move through the room unseen, just as I had earlier. Lia was getting quite good with the Shadow Cloak, though she wasn’t as proficient as I was, even without my physical Cloak.

“Could she teach , too?” Samantha pleaded, her eyes going from to the wall and back. I had to hide my grin when the woman didn’t notice the presence right next to her, still hidden in the shadows.

“What’s in it for ?” Lia asked, letting her cloak fall while she was in Samantha’s blind spot, making the woman squeal and jump surprisingly high. She didn’t quite get to the ceiling but for a vertical leap without any running start or preparation, it was an excellent height, good enough to make Luna applaud with a grin on her face. The rest of their party didn’t take Lia’s appearance with as much humour as Luna did, at least Murray, Jonas and Jack looked quite put out by the fact that both Lia and I had managed to seemingly appear from thin air. Or maybe they were simply afraid of what else we might be able to do. Luckily, the lighting on the ground floor was bad enough to partially conceal Lia’s solidly crimson eyes, those would only add to the discomfort these people would feel.

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I wanted them to be intimidated by the power we could bring to bear but I didn’t want them to regard us as monsters and co after us with torches and pitchforks. We would likely win, even against a large number of enemies, but there were no guarantees.

“Don’t do that?” Samantha scread, her voice filled with a mix of anger and sha, making think she was feeling utterly humiliated.

“Screaming at your teacher, that’s not a good thing for a pupil, is it?” Lia chuckled, gently caressing Samantha’s face in a sowhat inappropriate manner. “I might have to chastise you, so you can learn to behave.”

Lia’s words and actions were sowhat out of character for her, making wonder what my daughter had in mind. I doubted she was just ssing with the woman for the fun of it, though I couldn’t rule it out, so she was planning sothing. What, I had no idea, but I was looking forward to finding it out, especially given just how badly Samantha was now blushing and stuttering.

“Sam, everything okay over there?” Jack prompted, looking very much as if he was about to pull Lia away from his teammate, an expression mirrored on Jonas’ face. Curiously, Murray looked on with a stoic and placid expression, as if he would only move if there was a real need.

“I’m fine,” Samantha managed to blurt out, while Lia was pushing even further into her personal space. Quite the accomplishnt given just how close to her Lia had appeared, though given that it looked like Lia was quietly whispering into Samantha’s ears while gesturing to specific parts of the diagrams on the wall, there might be a reason for the proximity. Or Lia just wanted to ss with Samantha, either, or even both, were valid possibilities.

“Don’t expect to provide such close instruction,” I grinned, looking at Daniel whose eyes had been travelling between Samantha and Lia, myself, the wall with the arcane writing and back as if he was trying to figure out what sort of lessons I would provide. Granted, my words were a bit of a lie, depending on his abilities I might have to use Mind Magic on him to pull him into the Astral River which could be considered close and intimate but compared to Lia’s flirting, it was a different type of intimacy.

“The question remains, are you interested in lessons? And if yes, what will the three muscle heads over there do while we teach you? Lessons won’t happen in a day, at least not if you want to actually learn sothing,” I warned Daniel, curious about what arrangents they would propose.

“I don’t suppose you would put us up in your tower?” Jonas asked, after tearing his eyes away from Lia and Samantha. By now, I started to wonder if my influence on my daughter was stronger than I had expected, so of the things Lia did wouldn’t have been out of place between Sigmir and myself. Only that Lia was trying them on sobody she had t a few minutes ago, not that I could really throw shade in that regard, Sigmir and I had been drawn together shortly after our initial eting, too. Granted, there was the connection and link between our souls, sothing I couldn’t detect between Samantha and Lia, so who knew, maybe Lia was simply trying to move fast.

“That depends, I might be willing to let the five of you sleep down here, or I might even set up sothing simple outside if your companions show themself to be worthy pupils,” I paused for a mont, considering the best way to set things up for our benefit. If this Daniel had as much potential as I currently thought, I would likely get multiple levels out of teaching him, sothing I wanted quite a bit, as they would help a great deal on my path to level hundred and the second divide. Given the low levels of these people, I wasn’t about to bet on finding suitable enemies anywhere nearby, if there were, these people wouldn’t travel about as confidently.

“But why don’t you make us an offer? I can teach Daniel here a great deal about elental magic, I might even be willing to give him a few simple lessons on Enchanting, sothing I doubt he’d figure out by himself. However, as you might have heard, there ain’t such a thing as a free lunch. Nor is there such a thing as free education;” I challenged, curious with what sort of offer they would co up with. Hopefully, it would be a good one.