Summoned Again?

I slowed my flight and cast the Obscure and Stealth spells on myself and Lady Matricia, just so none of the people below would freak out over having someone fly in like we were. I brought us down to a gentle landing in an alley beside the enchanter's residence. He had an actual storefront with several items on display in the windows. I dismissed the Obscure and Stealth spells, now that we were out of sight.

“You can let me go now.” Lady Matricia whispered. She hadn't pulled up her hood, so her face and hair were easily seen. Her breathing had slowed somewhat over the last minute of the flight as she became used to travelling so quickly.

I gave her Angel's professional smile and her eyes and mouth widened at the same time as she took in a quick breath. Before she could recover, I eased my arms from around her and stepped back, then I waved for her to step out of the alleyway. She let out a sigh under her breath and nodded.

I equipped my armor and then we both walked around the corner and my auto-identifier told me the things in the windows were just minor enchantments and nothing worthwhile. For me, anyway. My own enchanting ability on Earth was actually better than that. In fact, even the weak stat pendants I made once could hold more enchantment power than the things in the window.

I hope it's just the owner scaring away robbers, because no one would want to steal those pitiful items. I thought and opened the door for the head cleric. She looked at me oddly, then stepped into the shop. I walked in behind her and closed the door.

“By the infernal hellscape, can you tone down the time compression?” A man's angry voice asked from across the room. “You're messing up my work!”

“I'm sorry about that.” I said as I filled my voice with as much sincerity as I could. “I'm on a very strict time constraint and I'm trying to save as much of it as I can.”

“Why the hell aren't you doing whatever mission you need to do instead of flying around and wasting the time you're trying to save?”

“I came here to see if you can fix my armor.”

“It's enchanted mithril.” I said and I heard a very loud bang and several light clattering noises, which I had to assume were enchanting tools of some kind hitting the floor.

“What did you say?” The man asked as he stood up from behind the counter. “You can't possibly... have...” His eyes widened as he saw me. “Mithril enchanted armor!”

Lady Matricia stepped to the side as the man hopped over the counter and ran over to me.

He stared at my chest and I could almost see things clicking inside of his head. “What happened to it? Did you beat it with a rock or something? It's mangled!”

“It suffered a rending attack that I barely avoided.” I said.

“I can see the rending right there.” The man said and tapped his fingers on the scratches. “What did you do to put it back into shape?”

“Pretty much what you just said, except it was a giant blacksmith's hammer and the corner of an anvil the size of a carriage.”

The man shook his head. “You've beaten it out into almost the right shape, except you've crushed the runes on the middle layer.”

“Actually, that happened during the attack. I lost part of the protections and spell effectiveness right away.”

“Well, you made it worse. A lot worse.” The man said. “This... if we had an expert blacksmith around... we might be able to save some of it. Once it's forged into shape, mithril is notoriously difficult to reheat and reforge.”

“Is there anything you can do with it as it is?” I asked. “Can you at least tell me the enchantments you just learned from it?”

The man looked surprised and stepped back from me. “I... ah... no, I didn't learn...”

I detected the lie right away and reached out to grab him by the neck.

“Gurrglglll!!” The man mumbled as he choked slightly and tried to pry my armored hand off.

“Damon! Let him go!”

“In a minute.” I said and put the man to sleep. I used the Memory Modification spell and quickly learned the things he had stolen from my damaged enchantments. I also used the Memory Creation spell and changed those memories to only show a basic shield enchantment and not the intricately layered enchantment system the armor actually had.

I also plucked the thought of him making tons of money from making new armors with the enchantments he just stole. I wasn't going to do that and just leave him with the longing and not the means, until I saw that he was going to lie about not being able to fix it and then copy the armor, while giving me back the broken one.

I followed those thoughts to the process and almost kicked myself mentally at how stupidly simple it was to make a copy with the full enchantment on it. It was done in layers, just like the original, except you only had to splice in the new metal with the enchantment parts that were missing. I would only need a moderately skilled blacksmith to melt mithril into sheets to do it.

I sighed and made him forget about the time dilation effect I was causing. I left him asleep and carried him over to his counter and sat him behind it.

“What are you doing?” Lady Matricia asked.

“Removing the evidence.” I said and put the things he was working on back onto the table he had under the counter and then stored his tools and put them back on the desk. “He was going to rob me of my enchantments and then claim he can't fix them.”

“How do you know that?” Lady Matricia asked.

“Couldn't you tell that he was lying?” I asked and looked at the dozen enchanting kits on the rack.

“Yes, but...” She started to say.

“I wasn't going to be ripped off. I'm trying to save the world here. If you want to tell him that when he wakes up, you can.” I took one of the kits and opened it, read the requirements for it in the popup that my auto-identifier gave me, and sighed. “Dammit, I can't fix it.”

“Why not?” Lady Matricia asked.

“The kit requires a level 25 Enchanter to use it.” I put the kit back and shook my head. “This guy's a real idiot.”

Lady Matricia gave me a disbelieving look. “What makes you say that?”

“He could have kept his mouth shut, did the work I needed him to do, and I would have left.”

“But... you said...”

“I'm not against him making money after I leave. I honestly couldn't care less about that. What I am against is him screwing me over for no reason. He can easily fix the enchantment and chose not to.”

Lady Matricia looked unsure.

“Like I said, you can talk to him later and see what he would do.”

“I have to leave with you.” Lady Matricia said.

“I meant when I leave this world. I'd be waiting several hours if I left you here to ask him one question.” I said and motioned for her to leave.

“He probably has enchantments and things to protect him and stop people from robbing him.” Lady Matricia commented as she approached the door.

“Good point.” I said and used Detect several times looking for things like that. I found six of them, three right by the door, so I stored them and my armor at the same time. “Go ahead.”

Lady Matricia opened the door and nothing happened, so we stepped out and closed the door again. I put the things back and put an arm over her shoulders to lead her back to the alley. Once there, I took her into an embrace and she stared at my face.

“You shouldn't be taking such liberties with me.” Lady Matricia whispered as she put her arms around me. “It's not becoming of a gentleman.”

“Then why is your heart racing?” I whispered back and slowly flew us up into the air. I turned us to the right direction and then thought of something. “Where's the next enchanter?”

“An hour away, even at your speed.”

“They really are spread out.” I said and she nodded. “I might have to risk it.”

“You could pray for help.” Lady Matricia said and I shook my head.

“You know as well as I do that we can't waste his time like that.”

She nodded her head slightly. “What will you do?”

“I assume you know where they are?” I asked.

“Of course. We keep track of every potential asset.” Lady Matricia said. “That's why we know they are dwindling as the years go on.”

“If they are all like the last guy, it's not surprising. I doubt he would trust anyone with his enchanting secrets.”

“That would be a shame. I don't want my world to lose such an important aspect of magic.” She said. “I'd like for someone... or a bunch of someones... to agree with that and actually work to keep it.”

We floated there, in each other's arms and held up by magic, and I had to agree. I had been on a world that didn't have enchanting and it was a much harsher world to do everything on.

“Let's see if we can find someone who will take you up on that offer.” I said.

Lady Matricia looked genuinely surprised. “What do you mean?”

“A quick side adventure.” I said. “At most, I can spare a few hours, then I have to get the other heroes to fight the main force of the undead.”

“We have to cross one of those areas.” Lady Matricia said.

“It won't be a problem.” I said and leaned to the side and took off in the direction she had indicated before. “It might get us some positive attention to use, too.”

Lady Matricia jerked when there was a crack of thunder behind us. “What was THAT?!?”

“An overload of speed.” I said with a smile. “If you move too fast through air, it makes a booming noise, like lightning striking.”

“That's what I thought happened to us!” She said loudly and I laughed. “It's not nice to laugh at a lady.”

“I wasn't, dear lady.” I said. “Lightning wouldn't get through my shield.”

Lady Matricia fell silent, I assumed because she could tell that I didn't lie. We flew for about twenty minutes and the ground below started changing to blackness. I didn't need her to tell me that we were crossing one of the undead horde's paths. I diverted to follow it and she caught her breath, then she stayed quiet... until we reached the back of the horde.

“You're not thinking about fighting them with me in your arms, are you?”

“Thinking about it? No.” I said and gave her Angel's professional smile as I shifted my grip on her to pull her slightly to my side, then added her to a temporary party. “Doing it? Yes.”

I started using my Breath of Fire attack with Holy Cleaning Fire on the undead horde and Lady Matricia let out several nervous squeaks. I wanted to reassure her that we were perfectly safe flying over the undead and looked at her face, only to see that she had fainted.

“Wait until you wake up and see the gains you're going to have.” I said and put my concentration on wiping out every single undead in sight.

Lady Matricia didn't wake up the entire time, even when I tried to wake her to get her to perform an attack.

“Maybe your gains won't be so great if you're just assisting.” I chuckled and took out the heavy metal ball that used to be three cars. I enlarged it to ten times its size and put her hand on it, then threw it. I wouldn't find out if my little cheat would work or not until she woke up and told me about it.

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