If I can put a dead body in a bead, I don't see why I couldn't put a living body in one of them. Will the person be able to breathe, though? Can they break out of it? Wouldn't want to be carrying a prisoner in my pocket only for them to break out and rip my pants apart.
This has the potential to go horribly wrong, but if I'm gonna try on someone, might as well be someone trying to abduct me.
I start grabbing areas of space around us as I dodge her attacks. By moving purposefully, I can create the multiple attach points I need, and hopefully get her to stand in the center of it all.
After jumping around and getting some hair tips cut a few times, everything is finally in place. I dodge one last time and pull on my magic threads, causing the space around the Assassin to start folding. She clearly has no idea what's going on and tries to jump back, but since she's already in the spatial distortion, it doesn't help her in any way. An instant later, there's a small bead on the floor containing her.
I hear exclamations of surprise coming from the others. I grab the bead and tell them:
"Let your boss know that I'm open to negotiating if he wants this lady back."
Before they have time to respond or attack, I jump away at full speed and make my way back towards the dormitory.
As I'm jumping from building to building, I take some time to look into the bead I'm carrying. I can't literally see what's in it, but by using the magic threads forming it, I can get a rough idea of what's going on. I still can't sense the magic in my prisoner's body, but I can tell that she's standing in there. She doesn't appear to be moving. I should probably find some place where I can open the bead and make sure she's okay.
I settle on a small alley that happens to be nearby. I drop the bead on the ground and open it, being careful to not break the threads this time. This way, I can close it back immediately if I need to.
The Assassin lady is still in her combat stance. She looks around her, surprised, before asking:
"Do you also have the power to teleport people?"
Teleport? I guess she wasn't conscious while inside the bead. She didn't die and was still in that combat position when she came out, So I guess putting someone in there... stops time for them? I should try it on some food and see if it stays in stasis the entire time or rots away.
Seeing that I don't respond, she continues:
"If you thought that separating me from the others would give you an advantage, you were mistaken."
She points a hand upward, and I start detecting the energy flowing through her body. She's about to cast a spell, but my attention drifts towards a spot on her neck. There's something there that's messing with the energy. It's not a seal, since it doesn't prevent the flow of power through her body, but it's definitely doing something. Her skin there is covered by her armor, so I can't tell if there's any visible mark, but something is going on.
Her spell launches in the form of a bright light that flies up and eventually explodes. A magical flare, I assume. Her power becomes invisible again. I guess she had to temporarily drop the hiding spell to cast this one.
"Now, my team knows I'm here. You're not escaping so easily!"
Well, I guess all that can wait a bit. Now that I know I won't harm her like this, I use my invisible magic threads to close the space around her again, reforming the spatial bead and interrupting her attack. I better not stay here if people are coming, so I pick up my prisoner and start running towards my dormitory as fast as I can safely manage.
I'm not sensing anyone nearby, aside from a few adventurers who are also students, when I enter the dormitory building. I don't feel good about having taken an hostage, but I hope it will allow me to understand why these people are after me.
I go to my room and start getting changed. While I wait for those who tried to abduct me to get in touch, I might as well act like everything's normal. And with my muscles that seemingly keep shrinking, it's about time I start hitting the gym.
I reach the building with the gym available to students, climb the stairs to reach the correct floor, and use my student ID to enter. There aren't many people, but I'm surprised to spot Evelyn running on a treadmill.
Now, since my goal is to build muscle mass back, I should start by lifting weights. I head to one of the stations, position myself... and just effortlessly lift them.
Right, that's going to be an issue. The magic in my body empowers me so much that I would require an extreme training regimen now to put any strain on my muscles. I didn't have that issue when I was level 8, but now that I'm level 80, normal training gear isn't going to be enough anymore.
I hear a soft laughter next to me. I get back up and see Evelyn, who seems to have decided to stop after witnessing my struggle. She's still wiping sweat off her face.
"Is this your first time trying to train after becoming an adventurer? You should know that your magic is going to interfere with the process."
"I gained a lot of levels very quickly. I used to be able to train somewhat normally, but I guess that's not an option anymore."
"Here, use these. They're covered in sweat though, sorry about that."
She hands me a pair of bracelets. I grab them and immediately feel the powerful spell woven into them. She explains:
"These are magic-suppressing bracelets. They'll stop the magic in your body from passively empowering you, making it possible to train on ordinary hardware. Let me know when you're done so I can come pick them back up, and make sure to get your own pair soon if you're serious about training."
I put the bracelets on, and immediately feel the flow of magic within me slow down to a crawl. I feel like I'm back to being a low-level adventurer.
"Thanks. I'll make sure to give them back."
Evelyn smiles and leaves the gym as I adjust the weight to what I used to lift and get back to my training.
Surprisingly, I don't have any issues with the first setup I try, so I add extra weights and finally manage to create a challenge for myself. I would have expected to struggle since I've lost muscle mass, but looks like I've actually gotten stronger, even without my magic. Well, it's likely that my power isn't fully suppressed, so that might skew my perception of things, but I still find it strange. Even if that's the case, I should still be overall weaker than I was a few weeks ago.
Is this a result of the attunement process? I know it's supposed to make me more attractive, so I figured it would give me bigger muscles, but it's true that I don't know what standards enter in play to determine what's attractive or not. With the Witches, it seemed to be tied to the culture they lived in. In my case, it's harder to get a good understanding of what "my culture" considers attractive in a man.
Could it be that whatever standards are in play here make it so my muscles will be small and barely visible? I'm not attracted to men myself, so it's not like I can use my own impressions of what's attractive to get an idea of what to expect. I'll make sure to keep training, and if it has no effect, I'll simply have to accept that my body is being shaped by my power to not have visible muscles.
I'm starting to understand why Ulara said it was unnerving to go through the attunement process.
After having pushed my body to its limits, I remove the bracelets, causing the suppressed magic to start flowing through me again, quickly soothing the pain and repairing my muscles. I make my way back to the dorm, where I take a shower. As I come out and look at my reflection in the mirror, I notice that my whole body appears a lot... smoother? The bumps that my muscles used to form all over it are gone, giving me an appearance very close to the one I had before I started training. Well, I still look a few years older than I did back then.
And the changes barely even started. What's waiting for me in the future?
