Chapter 68: The Strong Get Stronger

Sen’s room had become a sort of social space for his friend group, so instead, they went to the room Ano had been assigned. As a top-ranking student of another school, he’d been given a luxurious fourth-year room. It was about half the size of Sen’s customized room, but single occupancy. A wide assortment of pillows of various shapes and sizes covered the enormous bed in the center of the room. The comforter atop it was blue, and Sen realized Ano had more of an attachment to the color than just his hair and eyes. There was a dresser with one drawer open, and Sen quickly noticed Ano had filled it with his outfit of choice. Pajamas. Though lately he’d started wearing normal shirts and pants around, Ano clearly had a preference he wasn’t indulging in of late. 

The blue-haired boy noticed him looking. “I do miss them, but Laurette’s been fussing at me more often lately. It’s always ‘how can you sleep all day you lazy bum?’ and never ‘how are you today you lazy bum?’” He sighed dramatically. 

Sen approached the bed and opened his temporal space. With a quick flick of Ano’s hand, the pillows scurried away to make room for Sen. He pulled out their items and sat them gently on the bed. 

Tutor sighed in Sen’s mind to show his disappointment. [Man, I really wanted those calodosian rings. Can you imagine if I could leave your head and float around? How cool would that be!]

That was the exact reason Sen had refused that artifact. 

Ano stepped up. He grabbed the long blue rod he’d chosen. It was technically more of a magic weapon than an artifact, but many times the difference between the two categories was a thin line. It was about two feet long, and Ano took a few steps away so he wouldn’t hit Sen, and then swung it wildly. He smiled, satisfied with the weight. 

“What’s it do?” Sen asked. Ano had consulted him on a few different items, but this one he’d decided to keep as soon as he saw it. 

He whistled, and the large pillow that usually floated behind him appeared from under the thick pile of pillows on his bed. Sen knew he’d sent it back to the room, so they’d be more sneaky in the high-grade artifact collection, but he hadn’t thought much more about it beyond that. Without a word, the pillow unzipped itself, and Ano tossed the large stick inside. Ano snatched the pillow from the air, and feathers poured out, piling on the ground. With a smirk, he started swinging the pillowcase around. “Ever put gold pieces in a sock and swing it around? Look at this!” The pillow moved with dangerous speed and radiated magical strength. 

“Wouldn’t anything heavy work just the same?” Sen asked.

Ano deflated. “Um…I guess that’s true, but…hm. It was blue. I really like blue.” 

Sen noticed the pillow didn’t have a bar shape in it. It just looked like a heavy weight. “Wait, did it change?” he asked.

Ano perked up. “Yup! I can shrink it or make it longer. So if I want to fight with a staff, I can now, or I can use brute pillow mode! I think that’s what I’ll call it. Oh, or maybe the sleeper! Because if you get hit with it, then that’s bedtime for ya! Ya know?”

[We should’ve spent more time helping him with his choices. For instance, if we advised him to get calodosian rings...]

“What’s your other item?” Sen asked, ignoring Tutor. 

Ano smirked. “That one I’m pretty proud of. Remember how I told you my sleep paralysis demon swapped places with me? I figured it must have other abilities I don’t know about. The problem is, I can’t really train with him. I’ve just always called on him to help me fight from time to time. But it’s wasted potential as things are now. So I got this!” He held up what looked like a dream catcher. “He only comes out at night, right? Well, unless I summon him to fight. But this is a dream artifact! He lives and feeds on my dreams. This artifact lets you train your body and mind while you sleep. It says you shouldn’t use it every timeyou sleep, but if it works the way I think it does, I think I could train with him inside my head. I mean, think about it. If he grows stronger watching me run through fields of flowers or fighting magic pirates, how much stronger would he be feeding off of dreams where I’m training?”

[Are we going to skip past the field of flowers and pirate dreams? Please say no.]

That…surprisingly wasn’t the worst idea. Using sleep time to train would be effective for someone who was…well, usually asleep. The fact that it specifically said you could train mind and body meant he could actually train his muscles overnight. Sen wondered if it applied to stats as well? Could Ano grow stronger by simply fighting nightmares? The potential was endless. “I think that was a good pick for you, Ano. Keep me updated on how things go. I’m curious if your demon will really grow stronger from that. But honestly, I can see it working,” Sen admitted.

Ano pumped a fist. “I was hoping you’d say that! Good! So anyway, what did you grab, boss man? Anything good?”

Sen chuckled. “Of course, I wouldn’t waste my time otherwise.”

He started by examining the first of his items. It was an exciting find, but it didn’t carry quite the same newness that the others did. He’d had something similar a thousand years ago, and losing it to the time artifact had been an enormous loss for him. It’d been like watching a thread of power snap before his very eyes. That artifact had been slightly larger than this one, but he found the more compact version more appealing. It would be easier to carry it on his person, rather than in his temporal world all the time. 

[Spirit Caller] was a small wooden flute, only three or four inches long. It served as a link to the spiritual world. The spiritual world wasn’t like a temporal one. It was a place of life and mana, rather than an empty void waiting to be filled. Temporal worlds were a plane of their own. The spiritual world was an extension of the physical one. Natural magic was everywhere. In the sky above, in the depths of the forest, deep in the ocean, and buried beneath the sand of the desert. Natural magic was powerful and often created inhospitable living conditions for humans, but those same conditions were ideal for spirits. Beings that fed off natural magic. 

If a magician and a spirit formed a pact, or a bond, or some other partnership, they could make a trade of sorts. The magician offers a portion of their own mana as payment for the spirit’s service. The details were between the two of them, but Sen had nearly endless amounts of mana, and he’d contracted with many spirits back in his time. Some of them would’ve moved on when their contracts expired; others may have allowed themselves to fade into obscurity, becoming one with the natural magic of the world. But some he’d formed close bonds with. He’d always fed his favorite spirits handsomely, and they would undoubtedly have the mana they needed to roam the planet, hibernate, or do whatever they wanted in his absence. Without his previous artifact, the [Spirit Seeker], he couldn’t contact them anymore. 

This would change that. 

He wouldn’t be able to call upon them quite yet. He’d need to call a very specific spirit before he called the others. She was something like a steward for the other spirits. She acted as a liaison between Sen and the others. He’d need to expose [Spirit Caller] to natural forest magic to call upon his old connection with her. Once exposed to that form of natural magic, the artifact would memorize it indefinitely, but for now, he didn’t have time to go roaming around the forest. This artifact was a long-term investment, but a worthwhile one. Some of his spirits were…powerful.

Ano stared at the artifact as Sen explained its purpose. He nodded after a moment. “That’s good. More allies in battle are always a positive!” 

His pillow nodded in agreement. Then threw itself at Ano’s face and knocked him to the ground. 

Sen sighed. It was still acting out since Ano had a bad dream the previous night. Ano slammed a fist into it, and feathers flew into the air. 

Sen turned his attention to the second artifact. This one was something he could use now, and he was excited about its potential. The [Living Barrier] artifact was a thin, translucent blue cloth that reminded Sen of pure mana. It was obviously a mana creation, a type of artifact created to house an enduring, physical version of a spell. Something that would persist rather than disappearing after it accomplished its purpose. Items like these were rare, and it often took master magicians a lifetime of refining a singular technique just to produce a single type of mana creation. Whoever had crafted this barrier mana creation had indeed been a master craftsman. The cloth could be worn or stored however you wanted. It bonded to its user, which was Sen, but was highly flexible and adaptable in numerous situations. 

He wrapped it around the sleeve of his arm and activated it. “Living Barrier!” 

The blue cloth spread in an instant to encompass his entire body, stopping at his neck. Not only that, but it interacted with his other wards and defenses, further enhancing them. Mana Protection roared to life under the barrier, and the powers mixed. When the Living Barrier was weakened, Mana Protection would take on the brunt of attacks. When his hybrid stat was at its limit, the Living Barrier could compensate. But that was just one small part of it. 

“Xochi,” Sen called out. The axolotl crawled from a temporal slit and stood on his shoulder. 

It nuzzled against him. 

Sen focused on the mana axolotl and spoke again. “Living Barrier.”

The blue cloth warped and flew through the air, wrapping around Xochi’s body. A moment later, the defensive artifact had put Xochi under its protection. 

Ano and his pillow both looked up from their fight at the glowing Xochi. “Wait, you can use that to protect others as well?” he asked.

Sen nodded. That was the reason he’d gotten it. He had more and more people to protect by the day, and wards were effective but took time to activate. Not to mention that there were people in this world with stats higher than his own. Mana creations could compensate for lower stats as long as you fed them appropriate amounts of mana. He couldn’t test its limits now, but in theory, he should be able to endure attacks from much stronger opponents, provided his mana stores didn’t run out or the living barrier didn’t exhaust itself. The more he used it, the stronger the bond between him and the creation would be. He hadn’t hesitated to take it from amongst all the other things in the room.

Ano stood, brushing feathers off himself as he stood. “So that’s two, what’s the last thing you got?” he asked.

Sen looked at the final artifact. In some ways, he’d saved the best for last, but unfortunately, he was saving that one for later. “That one’s a surprise,” he said with a smile. 

Ano scoffed. “Awh, come on, man! It was just getting good!”

A heavy knock resounded on the door. 

Sen quickly swept his artifacts into his temporal world. Ano flicked a hand, and pillows covered his dream catcher. His rod was still somewhere inside his main pillow, and Sen half wondered how Ano’s face wasn’t bruised from where it attacked him. 

Ano crossed the room and opened the door. Girch stood there, taking up nearly the entire doorframe as he stepped partially inside. “Heard you two were together. Wanted to talk to you,” he said, directing that last part at Sen.

Sen eyed him. They hadn’t been on speaking terms since the ball. It wasn’t surprising. Girch blamed Sen for the fact that his best friend wouldn’t talk to him anymore. So this…was a surprise, to say the least. 

“About what?” Sen asked hesitantly. 

“I need your help. With a favor.”