Chapter 16: Arc 1, Chapter 16: Affinity

"I would like these enchantments please," Hotaru handed over her adventuring gear to the armourer, ticking on the paper a bunch of enchantments within her budget.

Fumeko and Asobi stood back, carrying many bags of supplies, a map, water bottles and the like. Fumeko groaned, standing on the tips of her toes to see past them.

In one fling, all she held she threw to Asobi. The magician widened her eyes and caught all of them! "Thud!" By falling over, face first to the ground and letting the items fall on her fallen body as her hat rolled away.

Fumeko popped up, slamming a piece of paper in front of the armourer.

Bald and black mutton chops on his dark skin, wearing a sleeveless white shirt with a towel over his shoulder, "Uhm, what is this?"

He stared at the diagram with a poorly drawn person with what looked like clothes? Or armour? "It's my adventuring gear I want to commission!"

"Maybe let me draw for you next time…?" Jotou squinted at the image.

"Hmph! I'll take my business elsewhere!" Fumeko took her drawing and walked back. "Get up lazy," she nudged the fallen Asobi with her foot.

"Sorry about her. Could you make something like this?" Jotou handed her drawing over.

"Hm, leather-woven cloth, some silver dust within the silk for the legs and hardened leather for the shoulders; maybe add a couple of cloth bracers and you're set!

Your armour would be like Ms Kinoshita's, light and mobile making it not very durable. So, I'll make it highly enchantable and you have a set fit for someone agile and strong."

"That sounds perfect!" Jotou's teeth reflected the sunlight. 'Why am I so happy about this? A custom-made armour like I'm in a game or some LARPing event…'

"Take these ones Jotou," Hotaru suggested the enchantments, "With these, you'll have a set equal to mine which is equal to heavy metal, but with all the defence and none of the weight."

"Well, like Ms Kinoshita's first set from a while back, it would cost you… thirty gold for the armour and each basic enchantment costs two gold, and another gold for every level above basic," math equations floated above his head.

"So, fifteen upfront for the set and another fifteen for the enchantments you want to add on it. Thirty upfront and thirty when it's complete."

"Uh, my budget is fifty…"

Hotaru gave thirty gold to the armourer out of Jotou's share, "We'll do more commissions and be able to pay for it later. If we don't, I'll share my budget to you, don't worry."

Jotou winced, "I don't like to burden other-"

"Take it as a gift for letting me join the party, okay?" Hotaru handled it, leaving Jotou no choice but to nod.

"Alright," the armourer turned into his open-air forge where another man was moving coal into a furnace, "Frester!" Frester glanced, wiping his forehead. "Take these to the Maleficos Ordinate will ya?"

Giving a small wave goodbye, they walked down the roads of Bargain District—bricks faded grey by sunlight, the sea scent not more than a linger.

The people of Kria went about their business around town, empty baskets, some checking their watches over and over. Hotaru kept her ears folded and forced her tail down in the middle of the three.

Asobi stared around her new surroundings, in awe at every crack in a wall. Each of her steps different than the other, one wide the other narrow as she kept up with them by swivelling around.

Fumeko's eyes were focused on a map of Kria—the shape of a leaf hanging off the mainland surrounded three ways by water.

Jotou gave passing glances… Did some people recognize her? Probably not… Her eyes lingered on more horses near stables which she now knew to be 'horsaroaches'…

"What's with all the mishmash of animals? Like the horsaroaches and centicrabs?" Jotou couldn't help but scrunch her face.

Hotaru's ears flopped down more, "Meko, you want to explain?" eyes darting as her palms sweated.

"Hm?" Fumeko looked up, "The hybrids? I don't know, I didn't study biology that much. They just exist; I know they're combinations though," Fumeko dug her nose into the map again.

"Fine," Hotaru's ears went back up, "Well, a long, long, time ago, there weren't 'mishmashes', just creatures.

Part of the Maleficos Ordinate experimented on various creatures in the world, making hybrids of them. Some were for the sake of forced evolution and most for the sake of experimentation.

Safe to say, that division of the Ordinate was shut down, but the creatures they created continued repopulating.

Hence, horsaroaches, centicrabs, buffbats and… part or half-humans," her ears fell again.

Jotou, "Hey, you're fine, okay? If anyone calls you an abomination I'll slice their head off," smirked a little. Hotaru's brilliant blue eyes danced up and locked with the blonde's; a small smile grew alongside her blushing.

"What's a buffbat?" Asobi hopped up in between.

"A bat and a wild boar, I think," Fumeko answered as Hotaru stood up straight, letting her ears prick.

'Ordinate huh?' "I keep hearing the name being said, but what exactly is the Maleficos Ordinate?" the blonde peered to the small fire station.

"They take care of most magical problems and creatures. They have many divisions across the world and one in Kria.

Anyone with an affinity tend to go work for them. They're quite respected and they've got some of the most powerful mages in their ranks," Hotaru went on.

"They're also the other major fighters against the Velatos Case," Fumeko's spoke, but then furrowed her brows—her eyes scanned the ground.

"Affinity? Like you with water? I've heard of that, different elements, like fire and earth, right?" Jotou's attention was drawn to her.

"Not exactly," Hotaru walked alongside, Asobi joined her other side while Fumeko read, quieter than a mouse.

Hotaru put her hand up and water droplets gathered from the air, into a circle, then another circle circled that circle, then another and another;

"Umbrella terms are no longer in use due to too many variations in magic."

The water formed into many small symbols, glowing blue whilst Hotaru winced and contorted her fingers. The circles grew, more circles expanding from the initial ones…

"There're just too many types of magic under each umbrella term to simply say a person's affinity is to any element. You need to know your element to figure out your affinity.

For instance, you could say I'd be classified under water, but my affinity is healing magic that's water-based. There might be someone who heals from fire-based magic.

Regardless, anyone who puts the effort in can do magic. However, the maximum they can do is beginner level spells and not to mention only specific ones, like heat.

Even that's uncommon because if you go past your limit, your natural mana will falter and you could die easily. So, not many tend to practice. Those who do, can only go so far.

However, the much, much rarer chance is to gain an affinity towards a type of magic. It happens by chance really. With such an affinity, there are many spells to be learned and practiced to perfection," the water splashed onto the street before evaporating instantly.

'So, that's how it works? Makes sense why anyone with magic would become an adventurer or go to the Ordinate. Seems really rare… Magic… Now that sounds cool as hell… It's rare though and… I should keep my ego in check…'

Her eyes darted away, leaving the flash of a smirk, "Hm, I should probably say, I kept getting weird electrical shocks in my hair when we fought the centicrab."

"Perhaps you have an unknown affinity?" Hotaru clapped. "We can go to a magic specialist shop to check. Mr Baregout's store should be around the corner. You can try too Fumeko," she turned her head.

Fumeko didn't glance up, hiding her face with the map, "I don't have magic. I tried a long time ago and nothing…"

"There's too many spells and magic types for you to have tried even one percent of them…"

Fumeko looked up, her eyes sharpened, "Listen, I gave up on that little fantasy of mine a while back. If I can't do magic, at least I can watch others do it. If not, I can figure out the sham behind it," she glared to Asobi.

"My affinity is illusion!" Asobi chimed in.

"Alright, is your illusion magic based on light? Or shadow? Perhaps its water-based or your affinity may not even be illusion," Hotaru seeded doubt.

"Uh…" Asobi scratched her head.

"Let's all go check it out, it can't hurt to," Hotaru decided.