<~> Chapter 218Korrim had been staring at the ceiling for almost five minutes now, just pting the ritual circles I showed him.

  Eventually, I had to break the silence so I cleared my throat. "Excuse me Korrim, but uh..."

  He looked back down at me and frowned. "Sorry, I became lost in thought. These ritual circles you developed could ge a lot about how we do things. I am a little unsure how everything will py out with something this moal ging our processes. How long did it take you to develop these ritual circles, it couldn't have been easy to e up with such a brilliant way of measuring. Light magic? Who would have ever guessed?"

  I shared a gh Man before putting a serious look on my face. "Truly, you don't want to know."

  He nodded. "I see this being your life's work. I'm honored you chose to share these circles with me first. Setting aside maps, this could ge a lot about the stru industry as well."

  "And about my measureme?" I pressed.

  "What? Oh yes, that's what you came here for." He leaned ba his chair. "Hmm... rather than giving you a field mapper certification as we discussed, I'd be willing to make you a journeyman cartographer instead. That's quite the jump uhe circumstahough stricter and more accurate measuring teiques are all you would normally learn as an apprentice since your draftsmanship is already s. In addition t with the adventurer's guild on dungeon mapping, being a journeyman would let you work in other fields like stru and surveying as well."

  Torien tapped my shoulder and looked like she wao say something. I nodded and motioned for her to speak. Her eyes widened, likely expeg me to lean over for her so she could whisper in my ear. When I didn't relent she licked her lips and turo Korrim instead.

  "With all due respect Guild Master Korrim, I hope you don't mean to trade Miss Baphomet's circles for a journeyman lise. As you said yourself, it has the potential to be much more valuable," Torien said.

  Korrim sighed and shook his head. "No, of course not. I would love to but I'm just as aware of their value as you five are." He tapped the desk with one hand in thought. "I will offer you one hundred gold after more experienced journeymen and masters have an opportunity to test your ritual circles, provided they are as effective as they appear to be. I give you ten gold today as an advance, and the rest in installments ohey have had some time to work with them and provide some feedback. I have this paid through the adventurer's guild. How does that sound?"

  Torien having already stepped into the iator's role tio speak for us, "What about exclusivity? Is that sum for the monopolization of this new measuring teique?"

  Korrim almost looked offended by the question. "Gods no! I would rather you make a simir deal with the local masuild. That's why I'm happy you came to me first, you're allowio not get boxed out of this new development. No, the one hundred gold would be as a perma allowao use this ritual magic, as well as develop it further and make modifications without reprisal from the king's courts."

  Torien g me and I gave her a small nod. "That sounds fihough you have better tacts with such people. Would you be willing to make further iations on our behalf? We're more ied in adventuring and we're leaving town soon. If you could make simir deals at a favorable rate, and spread these new measuring teiques to other professions, it would help everyone."

  He leaned ba his chair and looked at the ceiling. "This makes things a bit easier on me in some ways but quite a bit harder in others. It would be useful to be in trol of this magic's spread, though this will require a lot of leg work on my part. How about a ission rate if I'm going to be involved?"

  Torien smiled. "That would be perfectly acceptable. How—"

  "Two-tenths," he said cutting her off.

  Torien's smile faltered. "That rate is quite rge, much higher than the average for a deal broker of this kind. Oh," Torien tered.

  "Aye, but I'm not normally a broker," he replied. "I'm a busy guildmaster believe it or not, my time is valuable and this takes time away from my other duties. If I didn't believe this was worth the effort, I'd be ahat you even asked me to do something like this. Two-tenths."

  Torien's face turned ral. "We're both aware how valuable this is and how valuable other professions having this ritual magic would be for you. If we dropped this iation and didn't spread this measuring ritual, you would be more inveniehan we would. Though, I do aowledge that this isn't your normal responsibility, so why don't we settle on three-twehs." Fifteen pert I quietly calcuted for myself.

  "Bah, fine. Your servant there is quite aggressive, you're lucky to have her," he said to me. "Is it still acceptable to gh the adventurer's guild or do you have a bank at? I have them put the money on your ledgers and send you copies of the tracts through letters."

  "The adventurer's guild would be preferable," I stated. Last thing I wao do was deal with opening a bank at on top of everything and this sounds more ve for me. Though I'll have to inquire if the guild takes fees or anything.

  "Good. I'll have my assistant draft up a tract while you mark dowual circles for us onto this sheet of part so that we copy them. I'll be right back." He said before standing up and leaving the room.

  Torien gave a huge sigh of relief and looked at me with nervous energy. "Was that good?"

  I patted her on the shoulder. "That was great Torien, much better than I probably would have done. I... holy didn't realize how big of a deal this would be for them."

  She nodded. "I hadher, though perhaps I should have." I shrugged in response.

  I sat doulled out some ink I had started to carry around regurly. I opened my book of recolles and began to meticulously copy the ritual circles onto the part, rge enough to be able to easily refereer. I'm not sure how they will choose to use these, since I find random map makers uo be able to copy these on the fly, but maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. Journeymen and Master cartographers may be able to copy these reliably, but what about less experienced draftsmen? Maybe they will carry some prewritten circles on wood sts or something, though that might be a bit wasteful. [Light Scribing] would naturally be the best choice for this kind of thing, but I feel a bit differently about spreading that information at this point. If it were applied toward demon summoning magic, that would be unfortunate. I'm not really sure what to do about that, and right now this magic is my only personal edge outside of my raw stats and abilities to transform people, so I'd rather keep it somewhat close to the vest for now.

  Korrim came back with his assistant, a handwritten tra thick paper, and a small bag of gold. I handed him the pleted circles drawn onto the part and he nodded. "What is the maximum range on these circles?" he asked.

  I tilted my head. "I have hought to test that," I admitted. I tapped my and thought back to the ritual circle pos I used. "I think it probably wouldn't go more than 50 yards at most."

  He furrowed his brows. "That's a weirdly specifiumber... Er, well, if that's the case then this magi't suitable for nd surveying, only really useful fetting accurate measurements of structures. That's fine in itself but something more useful for surveying would also be very beneficial for us. If light magi be used in this way, then perhaps it could be applied to long-distance maps as well."

  The auto-transtion magiy title often did weird things when transting measurements to others and I didn't think to say it in their units.

  "I'll sider it," I promised. "It would probably require starting from scratch with different pos, I'm not sure how easy it would be to duplicate that with ritual magic."

  "Would learning light magic be helpful?" he asked. "I've never seen anyone use light magic to cast rituals before and you seem to know a lot more light magic than anyone I've ever heard of, even mages."

  I shrugged. "It could be but I don't know. I was noticed by Sorsette for creating that magid I haven't taught it to anyone else yet. The measurement stuff I developed myself as well, so I don't think there's any specific light magic equivalent to it. Anyone learning light magi your field would probably get the usual stuff uhey were specifically experimenting with it like I am."

  Korrim nodded. "I was afraid of that. Still, perhaps if this ritual magic bees as widely adopted as I think it may be, the system may begin to offer measuring light magic to new people learning the skill."

  I looked at Man who smiled and nodded. "Things like that have happened before," she told me.

  Torien handed me the tract. "Everything looks good, I was looking over it while you two were talking. I'm not a scribe that specializes in tracts or anything, but everything looks good to me."

  I skimmed it. Legalese hasn't yet gotten out of trol in this world so it was quite uandable for a traothing looked out of pe either so I nodded in agreement. It covered the permission to use the ritual magic for the cartographer's guild as well as the guild master to act as my agent to spread it for a fifteen pert cut of any deals he makes. I picked up my pen again and scribbled my new signature across the bottom of the page and ha to him. He began to sign it and I was given a sed identical copy to sign as well. Before photocopiers, it looks like it was easier to just create two duplicates. When I finished with that one he sighe copy as well and handed me the inal one I signed.

  "Your servant said that you were leaving town soon. Is that true?" he asked.

  "Yes, within the week. Likely in a day or two from now. Sihe cartography traini faster than expected I already picked up a job to take a mert back to Traehall. I still have some obligations with the guild master there so I'm trying to get them over with."

  "I see. It's a shame, the capital is the heart of the kingdom. I wish you would have had more time to explore it, though sidering you're staying at the Northern Greens' embassy, your circumstances must be plicated."

  "Unfortunately, they are," I agreed, deg to leave it at that. "Not that the atmosphere has been very weling for our kind since we've arrived here."

  Korrim sighed and nodded. "Our idiot of a king is a moron. Inviting the Tamin churto his city to basically run things is going to e bad bite him. Sooner rather thaension is high iy, it's fortuhat you have been able to stay out of it using your es with the elves. I'm afraid to go anywhere he southern quarter after the riot the other day."

  "Things are looking rough iy, that's why I'd like to be far away from here when things boil over."

  "Well, I'm gd the one smart enough to develop these new ritual circles has a sense of self-preservation. That's not always on for those who are reized by the Goddess Sorsette. Take care of yourself, Miss Lilith Baphomet, and friends."

  Reizing the dismissal, roup all started to file back dowairs and out of the guild, now ten gold richer. I suddenly felt less bad about blowing so much at the book store but at least I've built my reserve back up a little. A boon I wasn't really expeg. I actually feel like a bit of an idiot for not sidering the actual value something like that would have. I was just trying to create something useful and see if people liked it. We grabbed up Raya, Sibyl, and Tenna and headed back to the embassy.

  I shook my head and refocused my thoughts. Now that most of the other chores are do's time for something that has been making my stomach twist in ay all day. It was time to meet with Sophin and discuss the Order of Lilith.

  Saine

  Hello! Mai updated! After all this time their mission is plete. Torien got a oment of stepping into the role of iator for Lilith, something she's not fond of. Not much else to say with this one, I hope you enjoyed reading!

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