“Agrona, I don’t see why we need to do this.”

  “I told you, you’ve been too focused on your current path. What better way is there to broaden your horizon than to see what other people have done with your same affinities?”

  The two pressed their way through the crowd, raising their voices to be heard over the noise.

  “I get that, but it’s not like I’ll be able to afford any spells. There’s a reason I’ve kept my hoarding to public libraries. I might be registered as an Explorer, but I’m not exactly getting paid like one.”

  Agrona briefly stopped her charge to turn around and give him an unimpressed glare. It only lasted a moment, but they still managed to get cussed at by several passersby for blocking the road. It was enough to convince Agrona that she needed to continue her advance.

  “Do you really think no one goes there just to see what’s on offer? Most of the people who visit are window shopping. Honestly, how have you never been tempted to just have a little peek at what’s possible if you keep working on your path?”

  “Are you kidding? Why would I torment myself by looking at all the cool things other Travellers can do, while my spells turn me into an encyclopaedia and cure period cramps?”

  While not everyone in the crowd was a dwarf, the vast majority were. It was a strange experience, pushing through such a dense mass of people while being the tallest one in the crowd. Felix could see the emporium long before they reached it, and while he appreciated the fresh air that came from his vantage, it made their progress feel agonisingly slow.

  “Alright, I’ll let you have that one. I wouldn’t want to be in your position either. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to gain from going. Pure affinity spells are rare, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You should still have taken a look at least.”

  Felix let out a frustrated breath.

  “Fine, fine. I’ll have a look. Why is it so busy anyway?”

  Agrona continued to valiantly blaze a trail through the throng.

  “I’m not sure. It’s normally busy, but this is something else. We can ask the people at the emporium. No doubt someone will know.”

  They continued pushing forward, and after what felt like an eternity, they finally made it to the emporium. A large circular stone building with three floors. The walls of each floor bulged outward, making it look like someone had stacked marshmallows on top of one another and then smooshed them down with a triangular golden hat.

  In the divot where each floor joined, a massive golden rope was tied around the building with knots at even intervals. The bottom floor had a short set of gently sloping stairs that led up to the circular entrance. The entrance was framed by two golden tassels of rope, each twice as thick as Felix’s body. A sign above the door simply read, ‘Skill Emporium’.

  Felix let out a whistle. “I’ve seen a lot of styles, but that’s a new one.”

  Agrona merely grunted. “Stop stalling, come on. I still have a surprise for you later, and this could take a while.”

  As soon as they entered, Agrona waved him off. “Go have a look around, I’ll see if someone can tell me what’s going on outside.”

  Felix didn’t need her to tell him. His body already started moving before his mind had time to catch up. Light poured in through gaps in the golden roof of the building, tinting the daylight a warm gold that made the building feel inviting. There was no division of floors. Instead, throughout the structure, what looked like golden dinner plates floated in organised clusters.

  Before Felix knew what he was doing, he found himself standing in a cluster of tiles, arranged neatly in a hemisphere for easy reading. He looked at the closest one, ‘Temporal Speed Burst: Doubles thinking speed for thirty seconds. Proficient users can prepare the spell in five minutes and hold four copies with a standard grimoire.’

  With a start, Felix realised he’d wandered into the section for mind mana spells, and for a moment his heart wanted to race in excitement. This was an actual combat spell. It might not be offensive, but it would no doubt be useful. With his thinking speed being what it was due to his affinity, he’d actually be able to help in a fight.

  When his brain caught up with his racing heart, his bubble of excitement died.

  ‘A spell like this…’

  Carefully feeling the mana of the plate, he sighed.

  ‘Of course it wouldn’t be for a pure affinity.’

  He felt like punching the smug plate, and for a moment, he considered whether he could actually get away with it. Logic prevailed, however, and he managed to contain himself. Just as he was about to turn to the next plate, he briefly considered trying to stop his Inner World from gathering the memory of this place.

  If he had to engrave all the spells he couldn’t have into his mind, then he might actually go mad. ‘Why would thinking faster need anything other than pure mind mana anyway?’

  Felix froze in place and frowned. ‘No, actually, why would it?’

  He briefly let his focus fall into his Inner World, using it to drown out his surroundings. Bringing the full force of his mind to bear, he tried to figure it out, and he came up blank. He could see why that spell was shaped in that way. No doubt, there were advantages to not using pure mana to cast it. No doubt it made sense to create spells that focused on common variations of mind mana instead of rare types.

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  Even so, there was no reason he couldn’t do the same thing with pure mana. The core function of the spell was to speed up his thinking, and thinking sounded like a pretty standard function of the mind.

  Felix scratched his beardless chin. ‘If I spent some time on it, I might just be able to make a spell that did the same thing using a pure affinity.’

  With a gleam in his eye, he started looking at the rest of the plates.

  “Time for you guys to find out why I’m called the devourer of libraries.”

  “Devourer of libraries, is it?” he heard an amused voice from behind him.

  Slowly, he turned around to see Agrona grinning at him. Next to her, a younger dwarven lady in uniform tried to keep a straight face while choking back laughter.

  Felix quickly dove into his Inner World, and with the full force of his mind, he died of embarrassment, wishing the earth would swallow him. ‘In fact, since this is my Inner World,’ he shot a look at the ground beneath him.

  Shaking his head and employing a monumental force of will, he allowed himself to return outside.

  “Did you really just use that spell of yours to run away out of embarrassment?”

  “I thought you couldn’t sense when I use it?” Felix asked with wide eyes.

  “Oh, I can’t tell from the mana, but you always get the same vacant stare.”

  The attendant’s face had started going purple from the strain of trying to hold back laughter. Before the two could continue their banter, she quickly ran off, tapping another attendant and pointing their way before she disappeared out the door.

  Felix gave Agrona his best pleading look.

  “Can we please never talk about this again?”

  “No. But it can wait until we’re home. I take it you found something useful?”

  Knowing it was the best he was going to get, he gracefully accepted the change in topic.

  “Not a spell I can use directly, but I think I might be able to recreate it with some effort. It’s a new direction to look into if nothing else.”

  Agrona nodded. “What’s it do?”

  “Speeds up thinking for a few seconds.”

  “Ah, yeah. That’s not bad, but I wouldn’t waste my time on learning an active spell for that. I’m pretty sure you can speed up your thinking passively, the same way you do with that memory world of yours.”

  “Memory world? That’s quite an advanced spell, you must be quite talented.” A new attendant arrived before Felix could correct her.

  “I’m sorry, it seems my colleague had a bit of an emergency. I’d be happy to help you while she’s away.”

  Agrona nodded at him. “Thank you. I think he’d like to have a look at all of your spells.”

  “All of them?”

  Felix sheepishly nodded. “If you don’t mind, ah, I don’t think I’ll buy anything today, but I’d like to memorise everything you have so I can plan for the future.”

  Contrary to Felix’s expectation, the man’s face lit up after he told him he just wanted to window-shop.

  “Of course, please, I’d be happy to guide you through.”

  Felix tried to hide his discomfort at the man’s enthusiasm. “R-right. Let me get these quick.”

  Turning around, he quickly scanned the rest of the plates and turned back towards Agrona and the new attendant.

  “Alright, we can move on.”

  Somehow, the attendant looked even happier. He quickly led them to the next cluster, and the next one after that. Eventually Felix memorised the whole first floor. Once they’d seen everything there was to see, he led them to a circular stone disc with rails along its edge.

  Opening a small gate, he let them all board before the disc smoothly floated off the ground under his control. At another time, Felix might have enjoyed the show of magic, but after clearing the first floor, he’d already realised just how dumb he’d been for not visiting a skill emporium before.

  Even if it weren’t helpful for his own path, it still told him what he could expect if he ever ran into any hostile Travellers. That alone made it a pretty glaring oversight, but the fact that there he’d found more than one way to improve made it even worse.

  Letting out a breath, he shook his head.

  ‘Maybe it’s for the best, I don’t think I could have spent so much time studying the dark weeds if I knew there were other things I could be doing.’

  Felix frowned. “Hey Agrona, would your path ever lead you away from areas of study?”

  Only after he asked his question did he realise he’d interrupted her as she spoke with the attendant.

  “Sometimes, it’s not as common, but it happens.”

  “Right, sorry.”

  She smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”

  She nudged her head towards him. “There, we’re at the first cluster on this level. Get to reading, little devourer of libraries.”

  Groaning, Felix turned back to the cluster and started doing just that. Fortunately, Agrona fell back into conversation with the attendant, leaving her little time to tease him. He left them to their conversation, interrupting only to signal the man that he was ready to move on. Like that, he memorised the entire emporium in a couple of hours.

  “Thank you so much for visiting, sir. It was a pleasure guiding you around. We look forward to your next visit. Please, feel free to ask for me. I’d be happy to help you again.” The dwarf bowed as they prepared to leave.

  “Ah, right. I will. Thank you so much for your help.” Felix started returning the bow, only to be dragged outside by Agrona.

  “What was that all about?”

  “He thinks you’re an incredibly powerful Traveller and he’s looking forward to the next time you visit, no doubt with a long list of spells you want to acquire for your research.”

  Felix looked at Agrona like she’d grown a second head. “What are you talking about?”

  Starting their arduous push through the crowd again, she answered.

  “Felix, you just memorised every spell they have in there. Think about it. He doesn’t know that’s pretty much all you can do. If you were a regular mage, one advanced enough to memorise an entire building of spells in a couple of hours, how strong would you be?”

  Felix stared at Agrona’s back. “Oh.”

  “Oh, indeed. Now get moving, I didn’t plan for the streets to look like this, and I don’t want to be late for our next stop.”

  “Oh yeah, did you figure out why it’s like this?”

  “A Vermillion Bird is passing over the Highlands. Businesses are getting ready to shut down for a few days in case it gets too close.”

  Felix frowned. “Is it dangerous?”

  “Hmm, no, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s not exactly routine, but it isn’t uncommon either. Nothing that powerful would be dumb enough to attack a Stonehold.”

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