172 Gold Level Talisman

Startled by Jayde's question, Isha gave Jayde's body a once over. Like Jayde Isha had also forgotten that Jayde would age normally within the artifact. Before this hadn't seen such a huge issue as the previous contractors had all been adults. Jayde had really grown up since she had initially contracted the Proteus artifact, Isha thought.

From a scrawny fourteen-year-old, just barely five foot tall — she had grown nearly eight inches, and no one would believe that the elegant young woman standing in front of Isha was the previous abandoned 'princess' of the Freehold clan. While it had been less than a year since Jayde had contracted the Proteus artifact, Jayde was biologically seventeen years old now.

Isha quickly realized the dilemma that Jayde now faced. While a mage did gain a longer lifespan as they grew stronger, they would only stop aging permanently once they became an immortal. A mage's physical aging would just start to slow down when they became bishops.

Bishop class mages ages at three quarters the rate of lower ranked mages. When a mage was promoted to King level, they would age at half the speed, while Emperors aged at a quarter of the rate. Isha could sense that Jayde was close to breaking through to Knight of the 9th class, but it would still take Jayde time before she entered Bishop class—even with Jayde practicing in the Blood Tower in her spare time.

"Jayde, I am sorry I have let you down—I totally forgot about the side effect of your aging. If only your predecessors had concentrated on upgrading this artifact, you wouldn't be facing this problem now," Isha said smiling bitterly.

"Isha it's not your fault, you did warn me earlier about it—I just forgot. I never asked before, what level does this artifact need to be for me to gain the non-aging benefit?" Jayde asked, recalling the conversation she had with Isha when she first bought the herb garden. At that time Isha had told her that if the Doha Proteus artifact was leveled up enough, she would eventually have a time cheat of a hundred times outside the artifact and wouldn't age.

"We are still a long way off, it is only at level twenty-three that you would gain that perk," Isha said sadly.

Considering how old the Doha artifact was, they should have already been at that level. Unfortunately, most of the previous contractors had been more concerned about accumulating wealth and power in Doha and hadn't seen any benefit to increasing the level of the artifact, as most of the tasks required to increase the level of the artifact didn't benefit themselves.

Until the previous contractor, all of the earlier upgrades had happened due to the increase in the contractor's strength, and most of their achievements were lost due to the punishment the Doha artifact had received because of the last contractor. Jayde was the first contractor who had earned two level upgrades for completing an off-world mission.

Jayde had already discussed taking another off-world mission with Isha, both had decided that Jayde would accept the next task in five months when Damonia closed for their annual three-month vacation. All magical academies closed during this period, it was an ancient tradition meant to give young mages a chance to go out into the world and gain real-life experiences, but few youngsters did that anymore, they took the three months as a holiday to laze around their family estates.

Jayde was disheartened hearing Isha answer, she realized she had been lucky being awarded two level upgrades for the Proteus artifact when she came back from Telia. Jayde understood leveling up the artifact eighteen times was going to take her a very long. Well, it was a long shot, Jayde thought, abandoning the idea of being able to upgrade the Proteus artifact as a way to stop her aging.

"So you do have any suggestions?" Jayde asked referring to her aging problem.

"Well some potions and pills can make you look younger," Isha said.

Jayde shook her head. "Not really what I am looking for," she said. "Although I guess I could use them if I have too, what I really wanted was something that would let me age at the same rate outside of the artifact."

At Jayde's comment, Isha eye's lit up. "I just remembered, the other day on the inter-dimensional market, someone was advertising a talisman that could do something like that," Isha said excitedly.

"Really?" Jayde exclaimed.

"Mm-hmm, but it might already be sold," Isha cautioned as Jayde turned around to rush over to the main entrance to the Pavilion. Isha decided to follow Jayde, by the time he caught up her Jayde had already activated the inter-dimensional screen.

Hearing Isha steps, Jayde looked up. "Hey, Isha do you remember where you saw that talisman being advertised?"

"I think it was under rare artifacts and treasures," Isha said.

"Ah okay," Jayde said as she started tapping on the screen to navigate to the correct section.

Isha was happy that Jayde didn't ask him why he had been browsing through the rare artifacts section, as he was embarrassed to admit that he likes to go 'window shopping' when he was bored. Often he would spend a couple of hours browsing through the numerous items available on the inter-dimensional market daydreaming about the worlds where these items came from.

After some time browsing through the long list of treasures and artifacts Jayde finally found the talisman that Isha was talking about.

[Do you have a low-level artifact? Need to stop aging? I have the perfect solution. A GOLD level talisman binds a contractor physical body to their homeworld. No need to worry ever again about aging. An added benefit has two teleport positions. 100m3 spatial space available for storage. Certified by: Rare Artifacts Division, Proteus Open Market. Price: 10,000 points]

Proteus Open Market? What the hell is that? Jayde wondered.

"Isha what does this ad mean by 'certified by Rare Artifacts Division, Proteus Open Market'?" Jayde asked turning to gaze at Isha.

"Cough, I never bothered telling you about the open market Jayde since—well you can't access it yet," Isha said looking decidedly uncomfortable. "The open market is a separate dimensional space, where contractors of artifacts ranked level ten and above can meet and trade."

"What? You can't be serious?" Jayde asked in disbelief.

"Uh-huh. It's quite a large space, with numerous shops, restaurants and taverns, and so many different species from all the different dimensions," Isha said, his eyes reflecting a faraway look as though remembering the place.

"You been there?"

"Yup," Isha said giving Jayde a small, sad smile. "The open market is the only place where guides and trainers from all the different Proteus artifact can also enter and intermingle."

"Incredible," Jayde breathed.

"Yeah, it was," Isha said softly.

Isha soft statement made Jayde realize how much Isha and the trainers of the Doha Proteus artifact had lost when they had been punished due to the mistakes of the last contractor. Jayde was eaten up by curiosity about what the previous contractor had done to warrant such a harsh punishment, but Isha, White, and Green refused to talk about it.

"So this talisman being certified by the Rare Artifacts Division means that it is legit?"

"Absolutely. The Rare Artifacts Division is renowned for its high standards."

"Hmm, okay," Jayde said going back to the advert being displayed on the screen. "But ten thousand points shit that is expensive," she mumbled.

Jayde and been saving up all the points earned for the past couple of months to upgrade her space as well as the herb garden. She had made even more points since she had started to sell her potions instead of basic herbs, and she had been awarded extra points in the Blood Tower. She had just enough points to buy this talisman, but afterward, she would be broke again.

"You should buy it," Isha encouraged, noticing the conflicted look on Jayde's face. He knew just how hard Jayde had worked creating so many potions to sell to earn enough points to upgrade the herb garden and her own space.

"Besides now that you are learning how to refine pills, once you start selling those on the market, you will earn back these points in no time."

"Yup, you right," Jayde said, pills were a lot more valuable on the inter-dimensional market.

Jayde still could not prevent herself from wincing when she selected the buy button and observed her healthy point balance drop back down to fifty points. It had taken Isha over three years to accumulate so many points on Jayde's behalf, and Jayde had created hundreds of potions to sell as well. It was rather sad that all that effort was spent on buying one small talisman.

Well, I am just going to have to work hard at becoming a pill refiner, Jayde thought as she waited for her newly acquired talisman to be delivered.

A few minutes later the systems pinged announcing the arrival of Jayde's purchase. Reaching into the slot, Jayde removed a small chest. Looking at the intricately carved wooden box in her hands, Jayde lifted the top. Inside lying on a bed of velvet was a golden bracelet, a green jade-like stone was embedded into the middle of the bracelet. Lying next to the bracelet was a separate green jade stone. Two pieces of parchments were rolled up neatly lying vertically under the bracelet and stone.

Removing the two small scrolls, Jayde opened the first scroll. It was the authenticity certificate from the Rare Artifacts Division, detailing the properties of the talisman. The second scroll contained instructions on how to use the talisman.

According to the instructions Jayde had to bind both the stones to her using her blood and magic. The loose stone had to be buried deep beneath the earth of the planet she wanted to attach herself to, and she once she wore the bracelet her aging process would be bound to the place where the stone was buried.

After replacing everything back into the box, Jayde would bind the stones to her when she returned to her small cottage at the school. After bidding Isha farewell, Jayde returned to her cottage. Now that she was broke again she wanted to start practicing her pill refinement so that she could replace the points she had just spent.

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