Week Passed

There were many problems solved within Visa City which had resulted in many people being saved for the time being but the crisis was not yet over.

Where certain things were resolved, more weaknesses and cracks in the foundation of the city began to be exposed one after another.

They could not be repaired or replaced right away so most of the city officials and the Seshat Familia had a lot of work on their hands.

Recruitment ads were placed around the city to fill the vacant positions.

The alchemy building had been left without a true owner after those in charge of it had been convicted of many crimes.

In order to overcome the loss of such an important position in the city that dealt with so many illnesses and casualties, the surrounding herbalists, alchemists and doctors that did not have involvement in the crimes or were a part of a smaller businesses had been brought together to form a new association.

There were more than enough research papers and materials left over to provide the renewal of such an organisation but many still needed to be approved before they were released.

Most of the materials related to illegal or immoral practices had been confiscated and were destined to be destroyed or locked away so that nobody could lay their eyes on them or make use of them again.

While everyone was busy rebuilding, Mallory was spending her following days visiting the best places known for their cloth, leather, wood, stone and metal crafting abilities so that she could gain more experience with item crafting.

In between those, Mallory was kept busy with producing talismans that were made on ordinary paper and some strips of different cloths and leather to test their durability or usages limits.

One week had passed since she had reached level two but she could feel the growth of her own combat abilities along with her magic.

While she was kept very busy, Mallory had made a little time to continue her studies of magic and curses.

A knock came at her door as she was flipping through a book casually so she stood up and opened the door. "What is it?"

One of the members of the familia which she did not know that well had passed over a small box then turned around to leave. "This arrived for you. See you later 'little witch'."

Mallory showed a little irritation on her face but accepted the box before closing the door. "So annoying.. and I did so much to be seen as an anti-witch or as a priestly figure."

It had been a week since she levelled up and her adventurer identity or alias had been discussed amongst the familia and some of the higher ranked people in the city.

Their first impressions on Mallory and the items which she had been selling or handing out had lead to her current alias being the most popular among the many different suggestions.

Apotropaics have some similarities with witches in the way they can make various magical amulets, perform rituals and use magic so it was very easy to be mistaken as one.

Mallory had been given an alias based on that misunderstanding even though she wished to have a name which better suited her abilities that were to provide protection.

She had wished for a type of alias which could lead to her being known as a guardian or protector but she had no choice but to accept her current alias.

There could have been much worse aliases that were suggested for Mallory so 'little witch' was not the worst possible one among what could have been given to her even if it did annoy her a little.

Mallory reached into the opened box then removed what was inside, a stone was in her hand which she placed on the ground which had been carved and painted into an eight pointed star magical circle.

Mallory kept chanting the same phrase in her native language repeatedly. "Purify! Purify!…."

Many talismans were laid out at each point of the star which lit up and the light covered the whole area within the circle.

Through further experimentation with the various pointed stars and different magic diagrams, Mallory had improved upon her magic circles and talismans to allow them to work more efficiently and have a better effect.

The eight pointed star represented purity, strength and protection so it fit well with her current needs while allowing more talismans to be placed on each point.

The magic circle was much more stable and could contain far more energy than before as it made the pure white light surround the stone within it.

The stone gradually lost its slightly dirty and corrupted appearance and slowly became clear as the energy inside was glowing a little.

Once the energy had dispersed, Mallory picked up the stone then slotted it into the section of Valis. "A purified magic stone that comes from a monster equivalent to a level three is really different."

Once Valis had the magic stone replaced with a better one, the connection to it had increased and she could feel that her magic could flow through it freely.

Compared to the regular operation of magic which she had adjusted to with practice, it was much smoother once she held Valis like she had a magic staff in her hands.

Instinctively Mallory could feel that she could send her magic down Valis towards the magic stone and refill the used up energy which she could not do so easily with the lower grade magic stones.

If she wished to recharge that energy then usually it would be a requirement to remove the magic stone then send her own magic into the stone before putting it back in place or a new magic stone would have to be inserted but the higher level and higher purity of the pure level three magic stone provided a more efficient method.

The level three magic stones available outside of Orario were far less but that did not mean that they did not exist, some were in circulation within the city and outside so it was still possible for Mallory to get her hands on one.

The raising of her prices combined with the increased buyers purchasing them had helped Mallory to gain a large enough amount of wealth to afford at least one level three magic stone.

Meanwhile somewhere within the city, there was the figure of two men who were walking around in a carefree manner.

One of them came to a stop and then leaned over to pick something up, Swaine showed a smile on his face then showed what was in his hand to Franco. "I got another one."

Franco rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "I still cannot quite understand why Mallory has asked us to do this everyday but it seems that you have been the only person to actually find this many."

To test the luck of Swaine and gather more Valis coins which had been dropped on the ground, Mallory had sent both of them out on the task to secure more materials for her amulets.

The skill of Swaine increased his luck the more he trusted in Mallory so it had been activating every so often to provide him slightly lucky encounters or protection from misfortune.

To make use of it, all he had to do was walk around the city and he could encounter all kinds of things but in the smaller cases, it would be finding something he was looking for or something he needed.

Finding some discarded or lost change on the ground would be considered as something that only required a little amount of luck but to Mallory, they were valuable resources to make more protective magic items.

Swaine revealed a small smile then bragged as he clenched the Valis coin in his hand. "Hm.. you are just jealous of my luck."

Although he was not too aware of the skill he possessed or the effects, Swaine had found that he had been getting luckier in his daily life.

While playing card or chance games for fun or for Valis, he had been winning a lot more than he had before and it was much more obvious since his recent record in gambling was very poor.

The amount of losses Swaine had suffered had left him with a couple of debts to pay off to different people so he had tried to reduce his visits to such places.

It did not matter much because he had paid off those debts through his mercenary days and decreased his visits but in his recent visits, he had started to leave with more Valis than when he had entered even if the amount was not that large.

It was a welcomed change for Swaine who lost so much and had poor luck.