CH760

“Alright, and with that I’ll end here. If you’re interested in learning more about what we currently know about mana modifiers you can find a couple books on the topic I’ve written in the library and if you’re at all satisfied with my little presentation then do me a favour and shoot Myriad a prayer. Otherwise, thanks for having me, it’s been a pleasure talking to you all.”

He got a round of applause for his talk and while a few went off immediately, more instead went to him to pick his brain, wanting the chance to speak some more on the topic of non-affinitied magics and the magic modifiers he and his team had discovered so far, spending another hour on it before eventually they left too, many of them off to do some reading in the library to decide if any of the non-affinitied magics might be right for them, leaving only himself and the guild master Speni in the end.

“I must say, an overall excellent presentation, Ben,” The herring-person told him brightly. “At least among this crowd, I’d say you’ve done an excellent job whipping up some enthusiasm for the topic.”

“Ha, I’m glad it worked out, if the room was full of non-affinitied users then I would have had to basically cut out my first two points altogether. Mind if I ask, I know you guys ask what magic a guild member holds while registering and I’m sure a few likely update their details if they learn more but have you broken that down into a census of what percentage of members hold what magics? I honestly would be pretty curious to see the exact numbers for how many people bother learning a non-affinitied branch.”

From his experience of constantly connecting to anyone and everyone he would pass in the street, he placed the likelihood of any random person holding a magic of that variety as about one in a thousand, though that immediately got significantly worse if he took out the most common non-affinitied branch of enchanting. Drop that and the odds went to one in three thousand instead, though that was still pulling from the general populace. Pulling from an organization composed of people who outright identified themselves as mages was sure to yield better odds, even if it seemed he wouldn’t be able to get a precise answer.

“If I had to guess I’d say it’s less than one percent of our members, perhaps around one in two hundred, but that’s an estimate based on my own observation, not hard data. I haven’t checked the actual numbers for it but your presentation has piqued my curiosity as well. I must admit, I think I’ll give the numbers within our guild a closer look a bit later.”

“Well, should I get the chance to swing by again I’d love to know.”

“In that case, how would you feel about presenting again?” Speni asked him, being clear he was hoping for such a thing. “You did an excellent job inspiring the curiosity of those who were already here and given that’s part of the point of the guild as a whole, I’d love to get you in front of a larger crowd.”

“Ah, I appreciate the offer but doing it again any time soon might be a challenge, the war has me as busy as anyone else. Of course, if we win in the end I’d be happy to take some time to spread some of the virtues of non-affinitied magics.”

“Ah, then I shall have yet one more reason to hope for a good result for the war. Still, I understand. In that case, it was wonderful to have you, Ben. Stop by again should you find the time.”

“Will do, thank you, Speni.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

His task done, Ben made his way back to the shop, feeling rather good about himself while he did. Presenting had been a nice change of pace and given that it was the only type of magic he could access, he would be nothing but thrilled if more mages started training in it, hopefully expanding the field as a whole with whatever discoveries there still might have been to make, along with spells to develop too.