Chapter 727

Thyme had completely restructured the room now that Tournament was wrapping up. Kat’s team were sitting at the back of the stage and all three other teams had their balconies back, looking down at the wooden stage. Thyme stood in the front with a Tophat, golden teeth, and a dress. The beard really threw out the look. The outfit actually looked good otherwise, it matched Thyme’s thin build, emphasising the curves they’d given themselves. Long green hair cascading out from a large blue Tophat and matching blue dress.

Then Thyme just added in a massive white beard that would make Gandalf jealous. It was also an obviously fake beard. Kat could SEE THE STRINGS that held it on Thyme’s face. Kat didn’t understand. Everything else melded together really well. Why did Thyme feel the need to throw a wrench into things? The answer was ‘why not’ or ‘because it’s funny’ of course, but Kat was too busy try to understand the mind of an insane person.

Lily was curled up on her lap and having similar thoughts. They were sharing their observations back and forth across the bond and neither of them were any closer to simply accepting that this was just how Thyme was.

“Welcome, to the best and final part of any tournament... the AWARDS CEREMONY” Thyme’s voice boomed out with a particularly feminine lilt to it. It didn’t help answer the question of the beard at all. “For the second round, I’ll be offering everyone a prize up to a certain value. They can ask for anything, though money is of course always on the table. Who wants to go first?”

Thyme turned around to look at the five winners. Green was asleep, Lily was purring, Kress looked ready to jump out of his seat, Gareth was thinking it over, and Nixilei... well Kat couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She either knew exactly what she wanted but was waiting patiently, or was disguising the fact she had no plans for this.

“Kress, you can go first!” said Thyme, not mean enough to pick on Kress specifically two rounds in a row. After the quiz fiasco with Kress, it would have felt like bullying.

“I’d like a new set of armour please,” said Kress in the most polite way Kat had ever seen from the young man. He’d asked, politely, like a normal human being. Something that seemed to be a rather high bar for Kress.

.....

Thyme frowned at the question though, and it wasn’t until they started speaking Kat understood why. “Ok, that’s fine, but what kind of armour? Do you want it to protect against stabbing? Slashing? Blunt force trauma? Do you want it to be enchanted? If so..., what do you want the enchantments to do? Do you want it leather like you current attire or would you prefer something sturdier? Chainmail? Plate? Maybe lighter and go for an expensive cloth? You’ve not really given me much to work with Kress,”

Kress’ mouth made an ‘O’ shape. Kat thought it wasn’t terribly surprising. You couldn’t just get better things, you needed to make trade-offs. *I wonder if he actually had a picture in his head? Or if he was just hoping for some nebulous idea of better armour without a proper plan. Neither would surprise me. I feel like Kress should know better... but this is a big moment so maybe he got excited and forgot?*

“Um... leather please, around the same weight I currently have or just slightly heavier... um... probably just all around decent armour? I don’t think mine is set up to counter anything specific really. If you can enchant it... just a basic sturdiness or repair maybe, if you could fit that on without burning out the material?” Offered Kress after a bit of thought.

Thyme nodded, “Ok, I can offer you your choice of self-repair moonbull leather armour. It’s not much sturdier then your current set but the self-repair is obviously a big step up. I don’t know I’d recommend it because it really isn’t that much stronger otherwise. Still, it is an option and if you find yourself needing to patch up your armour regularly in the field, it’s likely the better option.

“On the other hand, I have some hellbat, no actually demonic relation, leather armour. It’s a good deal sturdier especially with a durability enchantment laid into it. It’ll take a good beating against most things but blunt force will travel through it a bit easier than your current set. It just isn’t good for it. Additionally, this kind of leather, while not particularly precious, is quite rare still because you live in the wrong area of the world for it. That might make repairs expensive,”

Kress thought the question over for a good few minutes and still didn’t have an answer. Thyme said, “We can let Kress think about it. Who wants to go next? Gareth perhaps?”

Gareth gave a glance over to Nixilei and Kat who gave him maxing shrugs. Neither were in any rush. Seeing this Gareth huffed a bit but looked to Thyme again. “Hmm... would an expanded bag be within the budget?”

“Certainly. Would you like to have it in a larger but more fragile backpack shape? A smaller ring based pocket dimension that is rather sturdy, or a purse. Sort of a medium option. You’ll receive whatever has the largest size in the category you’re interested in,” explained Thyme.

“How big is the ring? It sounds like a good idea for emergency supplies and what not,” asked Gareth.

“Um... hang on...” Thyme mumbled before summoning a small chest. It was about knee height for Kat, 50cm wide and 150cm long. “About this size? It can shift its dimensions around to fit things better, but it could hold this chest and no more. To keep items organised it makes little barriers around each item separate. If you did that though it loses a little bit from the max size. Not permanently of course. Just... hmm... ok. Say you want to put in 100 marbles. You could stick a sack filled with them in no problem, but if you put them in one by one you might only get 95 in.”

Gareth nodded and said, “Ok I’ll take the ring,” Thyme nodded and threw a small ring over to Gareth. It was a plain band that looked to be silver, though considering the magic involved was certainly just a coating. Gareth caught the ring with ease and lobbed it over to Nixilei just as fast. Nixilei raised an eyebrow but didn’t give any further comment, simply slipping the ring onto her finger and grinning when it resized itself to fix perfectly.

“Well I guess Nixilei is next? Excellent excellent, what shall our brutal rule setter be seeking?” asked Thyme.

“I’d like a new dagger. Sharpest you have. I don’t care if it’s sharp from enchantments or the material. Repair is appreciated but sharpness takes priority. Weight limit is up to twice my current dagger but extra weight is not desired, simply tolerated,” explained Nixilei succinctly.

Thyme didn’t even ask for confirmation, he simply threw a dagger at Nixilei (in the sheath of course) without any additional fanfare. “Now... seeing as Green is still asleep, I’ll ask Kat. What would you like?”

*I’m getting a spellbook for you.*

[Kat! I didn’t do anything at all. I just slept for most of it and watched your fights like a TV show.]

*Lily. I don’t really need anything, and if I did, which I don’t, I’d still prioritise this. Not only do I want to get a cool gift for my adorable girlfriend, this will make you a lot stronger. We don’t have a way to get you a teacher and this seems like a good stopgap.*

[Fine. Let it be known though that you will be subjected to cuddles and a LOT of kissing... with tongue. As soon as I get my human... or well... humanoid body back I will be holding nothing back!]

*Good.* Lily was trying to make it sound like a chore for Kat, an overstepping of Lily’s boundaries. It really wasn’t and Kat had no complaints. She resolved to do this more often. “I’d like a Paper Affinity Spellbook if you have one,” requested Kat.

Thyme nodded and pulled out a small tome, looking no larger then a 200 page novel. “This is the only one I have. It is larger on the inside then it looks. It goes all the way up to 5th circle but can only be read by Paper mages,” said Thyme handing the book off instead of just throwing it.

[Wait... can you ask why this is allowed? 5th circle... that’s a LOT Kat.]

Kat repeated the question and Thyme gave a shrug. “Well... yes and no. See, 5th circle books are normally quite rare and valued, especially for common or powerful affinities. The thing is though, we’ve only had one Paper mage to reach 5th circle in our entire history. They’re just so rare for us. Despite that, as a Paper mage... making paper isn’t exactly an issue.

“So they produced millions of copies of that book you now hold. As I said, it can only be read by Paper mages and they aren’t rare at all. I was actually given 200 copies personally before they left on a journey. Nobody knows if they’re still alive or not. Age won’t have gotten them... but the world can be dangerous and they weren’t really a fighter. Mostly a spell researcher. Take good care of that.”