A Gentleman's Curse

Arc 2 Chapter 26: Sound Decisions

"Well?" Mr. Terrell asked as Damien sat opposite him where the man's desk lay in the corner of the classroom.

Damien had had to create a chair out of earth to be able to sit when he'd first entered. Mr. Terrell had left him to his own devices for ten minutes as he scrolled through something on his ring. Damien had tried to ask a question one time and received a glare, so he'd sat obediently up until now. Thankfully, it seemed the man was done.

Adrenna was sitting on a desk partway up the aisle, ruminating. Damien had been worried initially that she'd get yelled at for sitting on a desk, but it seemed Mr. Terrell not only didn't care what she did, but liked her; if the way that he had treated her since Damien and she had shown up proved anything, at least. No insults, he didn't blow her off... Just polite conversation. It was staggering to see the professor be genuinely amicable.

"I want to learn the basics of enchantment magic," Damien stated.

"Oh, really? How convenient you decided to come to me," Mr. Terrell voiced sarcastically. "Obviously, Mr. Tearen. What specifically is it you wanted help with?"

Damien opened his mouth only for Mr. Terrell to interrupt him.

"And I swear if you say something general again I'm going to drop you in the lake."

Damien closed his mouth and took a moment to formulate his thoughts before opening it again. "I want to learn a sound canceling or dampening enchantment."

Damien waited for a few tense seconds as the man before him remained expressionless.

Finally, Mr. Terrell nodded. "Hmm. Smart choice. Your ears are something that need to be protected during a fight. In fact, I'd suggest you learn sound magic itself when you get a chance as well. While not exactly offensively useful, it can be one of the best ways to distract an opponent during a duel or a battle at close range."

Damien agreed. And the plethora of sounds he himself could come up with... Just imagining distracting someone with the sound of tires screeching made him a bit giddy.

"Then, I was wondering... well, where you would start when learning... an enchantment that did that?" he asked, voice raising near the end of his sentence.

"Are you asking me a question or questioning your inquiry itself?" Mr. Terrell asked in an irritated tone.

"The first one," Damien stated quickly. "Sir."

Mr. Terrell visibly sighed and rolled his eyes in an overly exasperated manner. Damien began to feel a little bad for even wasting the man's time with his questions.

This was all new territory for him. He'd seen Garrett work and watched as he infused the items he'd been commissioned with spells, but he always did it in such a complex and multi-layered format that Damien could never follow along. Not to mention Damien primarily did things chantless, more by feel than anything. What Garrett would do was a math problem and they'd said his time would be better spent practicing with his own abilities. Which was true, calling upon lightning, air, earth, and even raw mana to a degree felt like he was calling upon a third arm at this point and it was only improving by the day. He just wished he could have had a bit more time to at least try and see how he could apply item enchantment to his own person.

But Garrett was no teacher. He was a provider, and his time spent on his work was supposed to be uninterrupted. Not to mention Damien had been too enamored with shooting things with fire back then anyway.

"There are more than a few that would do what you want spell wise," Mr. Terrell explained, interrupting Damien's introspection. "How far have you gotten on the spell matrix I wanted you all to learn? Show me."