Chapter 118 – Mage Armor (I)

The next morning, Jace came into Marin’s room for a quick cleanup and sat down feeling empty inside.

After working for the past two weeks, just practicing Orcish every day non-stop, it was like a piece of life was missing after suddenly passing all of a sudden.

At that moment the door to the room was pushed open and in came not Cormaline but Amy.

“Jess, come look.” Amy said as she entered carrying the chain of her pocket watch in her hand, “You gave this to me last time and the gnome fixed it for you.”

“That fast?” Jace got up and took the watch and looked at it, and while the glass casing was still cracked and grainy, the hands inside were indeed moving, and the time should have been adjusted to roughly what it was now.

“He couldn’t find the right one for the watch cover, but that doesn’t stop you from looking at the time, does it?” Amy said.

“No effect.” Jace said, “This is already so much better than I thought it would be, and I won’t have to keep aiming at the sun when I look at the time, so how can I thank you and that midget master mechanic?”

“Helping each other out.” Amy said, “Can’t say thank you enough, I heard from my father that you’re going to Dalaran, why don’t you buy me a gift or something back, the kind that only Dalaran has.”

“Definitely.” Jess nodded.

“I can wait.” Amy smiled and said, “I’m off to class then.” Jace leaned against the table behind him and looked at the broken pocket watch lovingly, how he looked at it, how he liked it, how he didn’t treasure the original when it was free, but now this one that didn’t cost him anything from start to finish he found precious.

It wasn’t long before Marlin walked in the door and was looking at Jace rubbing around with the watch in his hand and asked, “Did you fix that watch?”

“Masters know about this?” Jace tucked his watch into the gen.

Marin put his own bag down and said, “Amy was mumbling about this broken watch the other day, worrying that that gnome mage from the School of Plastic Energy wouldn’t be able to fix it, does it work now? I’m not optimistic it can be fixed after being messed up like that anyway.”

“It works, exceptionally well.” Jace couldn’t hold the smile on his face, after all, it saved more than a few dozen more silver coins.

He also had no pretentious need for a pocket watch, as long as he could tell the time. Especially considering the trip to the Kingdom of Lordaeron afterward, it should be more important to look at the time at any time.

Marin said, “Looks like the gnome still has it, if I let that watch repair guy in Church Square get it, I guess I’d have to give up on it after one look, when my own pocket watch broke a few years ago, it still didn’t look broken on the outside, and he wouldn’t even fix it for me.”

“By the way, what about your exams? Not going to talk about it?” The mage sat down behind the desk and said, “I’m about to be more interested in you than these books now, Jace Sesso.”

Jace cleared his throat and said, “Master Duchamp has agreed to help me get my ship’s ticket, so later, when it’s time for class, I’ll go wait for him in the Wizard’s Sanctuary and tell him what time I’ve decided to depart.”

“When are you going to leave?”

“The intended date now is the 17th.” Jace said, “It’s said to take 15-20 days to get to Southsea Town, so I’m planning on being a little early since I have to catch up later.”

“It is right to go as early as possible, after all, the war has just passed now and much has not yet settled into a new rhythm.” Marin said, “I knew you would be chosen by him to go to Dalaran, he thought early on that you had a talent for languages, and so did I, Mr. Sesso.”

“I was wondering if you’ve ever considered taking a job in languages in addition to studying magic. For example, digging up ancient lost languages or something, maybe you can help the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary examine a lot of lost spells, ancient secrets or something.”

That’s implying that I don’t have arcane talent, isn’t it?

Jace thought for a moment and said, “These jobs are probably the path that some nobles, children of wealthy merchants would pursue I still want to go down the path of magic.”

Marin pulled out a drawer and took a small box of cookies out and handed them to Jace, saying, “Learning magic would be a difficult path without money, but luckily mages always have a way to save up on their own.”

Jace chewed on the somewhat salty snack and said, “Maybe learning magic will also be a better way to protect yourself and your family.”

“What’s the saying.” Marin said in a teasing tone, “Words sometimes hurt more than swords. Words are also a sharp weapon ah, no less powerful than magic.”

“Might as well ask the person who said it if he’d rather be verbally assaulted or have a knife driven into his heart.” Jace finished, flipping open a novel to pass the time.

Marin laughed out loud, “What confidence, my Mr. Sesso.”

Jace certainly understood when words hurt more than a blade; he’d been hurt by knives in his life and words in his last. Knife wounds hurt like hell for the first few days and were nothing more than a couple weeks apart at best, but words in his last life were still remembered in this life and still felt bad when he thought about them.

But he decided that he would not be hurt by any words in his life. Except for spells, of course, which were out of his control.

“Master, my Arcane Wisdom is able to last for over two hours now, is it possible to learn the spell for Mage Armor now?”

Marin turned his head and said in surprise, “It took you two or three weeks to get Arcane Wisdom to two hours? How many times a day do you enchant yourself?”

In fact the goal is to own it, not a few times.

Jace of course practiced all of it with Saeuno, and so far he didn’t see anything schizophrenic or unconscious about the brat. Of course given the brat’s mental state, it wasn’t too obvious if he was schizophrenic or not.

He said, not too kindly, “I practiced with the sheep of Elwyn Forest, and used it on myself …… just to try out the results, and haven’t used it on myself much.”

Marin narrowed his eyes and asked, “You’re not sneaking onto someone’s farm to cast a spell on their sheep, are you?”

“Absolutely not, I’m all open and transparent.” Jace touched his heart and said, “I can reach over two hours now, it’s from the last time I used Arcane Wisdom on myself when I thought it was about right and then sensed the duration for myself, I think it should be about right.”

Marin said helplessly, “Alright then, let’s see how well you’ve mastered Arcane Wisdom.”

Jace left the table and skillfully recited the spell of Arcane Wisdom, a spell he had recited for I don’t know how many times over the past two weeks, it had almost become subconscious, so it was extremely fast and familiar and very standard.

The general feeling of enlightenment once again filled the space between his ears, and Jace took a deep breath and looked to Marin to ask, “Well, Master.”

“Not bad.” Marin said, “However you learned it, it looks pretty normal. Now sit down properly and watch me demonstrate the mage armor once.”

“Yes, Master!”