<~> Chapter 217The clothing store wasn't as painful as it could have been. The twins were still a bit anxious about pig out clothes for themselves, but they didn't pin about it either. The tailor there, a beastkin herself, was happy to adjust their servant uniforms to look better now that they weren't wearing colrs anymore. Man chose a mixture of light dresses and feminine blouses, though she also picked out a few pairs of more funal shirts and pants as well. Torien almost exclusively ore mase clothes, but Man vinced her to pick out at least one dress. I was happy to stay out of it ahem choose something on their own without my input.

  I didn't really need any more clothes right now, but I was able to ask the tailor's assistant to help me create a leather sling so that I could attach my book to my belt. Surprisingly, it wasn't that odd of a request, though most people use them for spellbooks rather than the Book of Recolles I inteo use it with. While I waited for the assistant to put together what I was asking for, I looked ba that notification I skipped over earlier.

  [Illusion Magic has increased from level 5 to level 6][Learned Illusion Magic Spell Mirage]

  [Mirage - Illusion Magic Spell]Create a static visual proje. Crity and the size of the illusion as well as the dista which the illusion be cast is affected by Magic Force.

  This is one of the simplest descriptions I've e across so far, but I got the impression that it was because of how restricted this magic actually is. I cast the spell and created a small bird in the palm of my hand. If I don't give it much magic the illusion isn't very ving, it seems the crity of the illusion affects how see-through the projected image is. Luckily, it seems the magic fills in a lot of the bnks in terms of what I was imagining. I wasn't really thinking of a specifid of bird or anything but the illusion looks lifelike despite the fact that I still see through it.

  When the description says static though, it means it. Even after moving my hand, the bird stays perfectly in pce as if it were perched on nothing. I cast [Echo] on top of the bird to imitate the birds I heard chirping outside. The bird 't move or react to the noise of course, but I still see potential in bining these two spells. Perhaps if I get a more realistic illusion spell I could make this better.

  I had a curious thought and tried to create a simple ing ritual circle using the [Mirage] spell I had learned, but it just created an indistinct blob of magic that looked like a ritual circle rather tharucture that I would o cast it. It seems [Light Scribing] 't be repced with something as simple as this. It turns out I'm not able to alter the illusion after it's cast either, ohe spell is formed it exists until I dismiss it or the illusion runs out of the mana I had supplied it with. The illusios more transparent as it runs out of mana as well, the only thing I alter using my Magitrol is how long it tries to look ving before it fades. I either let it burn out slowly, but it bees much less ving over time, or let it burn out quickly, which makes it stay ving for longer but suddenly disappear o runs out of mana.

  It is quite o get something like this before infiltrating the sver's guild but I'm not sure how useful it will be. It might be useful to hide with but it relies on static images that 't be updated. I keep it supplied with mana while I'm near it but the sed I let it go, it has a time limit before it fades. And, all that is assuming it tricks someone in the first pce. I notice that my magises spot the illusiht away. Not everyone has [Mana Sense] or something simir, but if they do this is just a waste of mana.

  "Ahem, please do not cast spells iore," the assistant sheepishly said to me.

  I dismissed all of the test illusions I had cast and smiled at him. "I'm sorry, won't happen again."

  He looked relieved after hearing my reply and pced the leather sling I had asked for on the ter. I looked over it and was happy with what I saw. It was very close to the correct size already and it was fitted with a few straps that allowed me to adjust it to be a perfect fit or let me use it with different books. There was a metal snapping button on one side that let me quickly release the book whenever I . It was exactly what I had been asking for.

  After the tail service was finished and I purchased all the clothes the twins picked out, as well the book strap for myself, the total ended up being one gold and twenty silver. I was still surprised by how cheap clothes were here but I supposed that if they cost too much more, most people wouldn't be able to afford them. It wasn't like we were buying fanoble clothes that used expensive cloth. The most expensive part of everything we purchased was actually the leather straps for the book sling.

  We left the clothing store with a few more bags but were able to duto an alley and allow Mimi to slide everything into her spatial pocket. Having Mimi around retty ve even if it was slightly less veo ask her for stuff all the time. I could see a highly respected spatial mage getting sick of it pretty quickly, it was hat Mimi was so happy-go-lucky about carrying everything around for us. I was a little worried that she would get tired of it after a while, but that hadn't happened yet.

  After all of our purchases, the twins still chose to wear their servant's uniforms sihe outfits also doubled as their adventuring gear. The clothes still teically put them at a lower status than me, but the two of them were also adamant that they saw them as a sign of respect so it was hard for me to talk them out of it. It would be pretty wasteful to ission new armor for them even though these maid uniforms were still i shape. Plus, I didn't really have the funds to splurge oer equipment for them right now anyway. For better or worse, they would still be wearing their servants uniforms. The two of them also still looked quite attractive ioo...

  "Alright girls, st thing on the agenda before we meet back up with Silva, is to visit the cartography guild. I o take the measuri and then I get my certification," I told everyone.

  I had gotten dires to the cartography guild from the adventurer's guild earlier so it wasn't difficult to find. This part of the city didn't seem very busy right now since people were so on edge. Tamin padins and priests were still patrolling the city but none of them bothered us. Several gave us long looks, especially the twins, but either they realized we all had the demon huitle or they were looking for something else.

  The cartography guild looked like a retively new building uhe fancier but worn adventurer's guild. It was made from the same utilitarian stone as most of the architecture in this part of the city. The buildings here all looked fairly simir but the cartographer's guild took up more space than most of the surrounding buildings and it had an enclosed courtyard where people were milling around.

  I led our troupe inside and walked up to the front desk. "Hello, I'm Lilith Baphomet, I was told to eet for my measuri."

  The receptionist nodded and sed down a book before nodding. "I see you on the list, it seems like the guild master wants to test you himself. I'll go talk with him, please wait a moment."

  Not long ter, Korrim came dowairs and waved to me when he saw me. "Good to see you again, Miss Lilith. It's a bit ter in the day than I expected you, but there's still plenty of time to finish your test."

  He led me into the courtyard. "Alright. I have this chalkboard here. I'll tell you where to measure and I'll write down your measurements. When we're finished down here, we check them against the key and if you're close enough to the correct measurements, roceed with your certification."

  "Sounds good," I said with a nod. I figure I'll do things the standard way first before testing out my new ritual magic. I measured everything in paces and gave him estimations of how tall some of the walls were. I pointed out an ine and made a guesstimate of how steep it was. The measurements were all pretty unsatisfactory for someone who was used to proper tools but this is how it was supposed to be do my supposed level.

  "That's the st of them, Miss Lilith. I just o double-check against the key but I'm pretty sure this will be a pass," Korrim told me.

  "Uh, before that. I want to talk with you about something."

  He raised an eyebrow. "If you're about to bribe me, that would be a really stupid thing to do."

  I ughed. "No, nothing like that. I've been experimenting with ritual magid I wao test some of my ritual circles out. They're desigo get more accurate measurements than what we were just doing here. I wao prove to you that I could take these measurements your way before I showed you what I've been w on."

  "Ritual magic eh? I'm not sure how you would use that for measurements but I'm willing to eain the idea." Korrim replied cautiously.

  "Great! If you don't mind, why don't we go over parts of the test again and we see how well the prototype rituals stack up."

  "Uh, sure. The first one was over here."

  He led me back to where we started, it was the distaween two walls. This would be perfect for the distance measurement spell I created for this. I opehe ritual book with one hand and used [Light Scribing] to cast the ritual circle with my other. The man looked surprised by what I was doing but didn't interrupt me. Wheual finished resolving I used a light poio indicate the starting point and dragged a li from it to indicate the dire. This was a horizontal ser ruler so it spun along only one axis. Once I finished setting it up, I powered the st part of the ritual circle, and a number at out with light magic.

  When I finished I turo Korrim who looked absolutely stunned. "You're using light magieasure how far away that wall is?"

  "Well... teically it's ritual magic that casts light magic. I'm using a teique I created to cast it as well, but I show you the actual ritual circles when we're finished," I replied.

  He nodded slowly and took me to a different spot in the yard where the ine was. I was kind of excited about this one because I hadn't had a ce to test the ine measurement circle at the Elven embassy. I resolved the ritual circle with [Light Scribing] again and this time it used two points of light to find the start and end of the ramp before dropping a plumb line and measuring the angle from the first point. It spat out a distand the ine's angle.

  Korrim just started takio different spots in the courtyard, even a couple that weren't oest to see how I would use my ritual spells to measure them. Once he seemed satisfied he nodded and started heading back to the cartography building with only a "Follow me."

  When I looked back at my friends who had been quietly following us this eime, Man looked excited and Torien looked impressed. I don't think Mimi really uood the significe of what I was doing but Bel looked proud of me. The other three had gotten tired of following us around the courtyard so they had sat down and started talking while we were busy. I stopped for a moment to them that we were heading upstairs and that they could wait for us here.

  roup followed Korrim into his offi the sed floor aarted digging through a locker behind him with several blueprints. "One minute, I want to check these against the actual numbers."

  I nodded and waited around while he fished the right blueprint out and started cheg the numbers against it. When he finished his eyes shot up at me. "Miss Lilith... the figures your spells gave, they're accurate... and more exact than this blueprint here. What would it take to get you to sell me the rights to use your ritual circles? You said they were ritual spells right? They weren't a strange application of light magic?"

  I was a bit caught off guard. I khese ritual circles would be useful to him but he suddenly looked like he would murder me if I refused him. "They are... Would you like me to show you how to use them?"

  "Very much so," he said immediately.

  "Okay, I'll need some ritual chalk, Mimi?" Mimi tapped her a few times before pulling out a box from her pocket dimension and handing it to me. Ritual chalk isn't something I've used in a long time but it had enough magi it to activate ritual circles without damaging things on solid surfaces. It's been sitting in my chest unused for a while, unnecessary since I learned [Light Scribing]. "The ritual circles arely easy to write but as long as you have a refere shouldn't be too hard to copy. I draw one here on the floor?" I asked.

  "Please do, you expin how it works as you go?" he asked in reply.

  "Sure, this first circle only measures horizontal distahat you set up with the point of light and the line y out from it..." This trailed into a long versation as I showed him how each of the circles worked. It was also safe to say I passed my cartography exam...

  Saine

  Hello! We finally get to the thing that brought Lilith and friends to the capital in the first pce! It took almost three books to get here! This had always been something of a macguffin for her but it was something necessary for the plot to move forward back then and it will be important for her once she returns to Traehall too. I think it's also a good spot to show some of Lilith's iy and i in crafting new spells with ritual circle magic.

  This is also a chapter that really illustrates the strengths and iing things about isekai stories, some of Lilith's strength is just having ideas. She didn't o create the cept of a ser level or a rangefihese are things she ked in her previous world and she only o find a way to recreate them. I've always found the hybrid of magid current day teology iing and I wish more stories did more with them. Thanks for reading, and happy Halloween!

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