”The answer is no, Wolfe.” Ella insisted.
“But I haven’t even gotten a chance to suggest anything yet.”
“The answer is still no. If you want to do that, you ask us.” Ella insisted, then blushed when she realized the others had no idea what she was expecting him to ask.
The thought actually hadn’t crossed his mind. Sure the witch was cute, but that was it, just generically cute. With Cassie and Ella around, the number of stray inappropriate thoughts in Wolfe’s mind had dramatically dropped.
“Alright, suggestions other than what Ella was thinking?” Wolfe asked.
“Have her fetch lunches all week,” Reiko suggested with a smirk. The lunch lines were always long since everyone got to the cafeteria at the same time.
Mary dug through her bag and pulled out a pair of fluffy ears on a headband and a tail.
“Can we, please?” She asked.
“Not a bad idea.” Wolfe agreed.
“Anything else?” Wolfe asked.
“Truth or dare extreme edition?” The quietest of the guests, a short and chubby blonde girl suggested.
“Oh, I change my vote. That is good.” Reiko agreed.
The Witch in question looked a bit mortified at the idea, but she could always choose to give the truth, so the game shouldn’t get too out of hand. Wolfe was just planning to scare her, not traumatize the Witch after all.
“Yes, this should be fun. We used to play this game at sleepovers when I was a kid.” Ella said with a smile.
“It is settled then. I am calling in the Favor owed. You will honestly answer questions from and completely fulfill the orders of everyone in the room until the game of truth or dare ends.” Wolfe ordered, and the Witch’s hand glowed with a black light.
“Put on the ears,” Mary ordered, passing them over, and the Witch immediately put them on her head.
“That’s not how truth or dare works.” Reiko reminded her.
“I was testing a theory. He said to completely fulfill orders until the game ends, not just orders within the context of the game.” Mary replied, shrugging off her roommate’s concern.
“You’re evil, you know that, right?” Reiko asked, and Mary giggled.
“I will go first. Truth or dare?” Reiko asked.
“Truth.”
“Who was the last person you kissed on the lips?” Reiko asked, and the Witch pointed to their quiet friend, who was blushing tomato red.
“Truth or dare?” Mary immediately asked.
“Truth”
“Was she a good kisser?” Mary asked slyly.
This time only a pair of head nods served as the answer.
“This game is trouble as adults, isn’t it?” Cassie asked, making everyone else giggle.
“That’s why it’s so much fun. Only a few more questions to go, and it’s all over.” Ella consoled the target of their game.
“Truth or dare?” The quietest Witch asked, still blushing bright red from the revelation.
“Truth.”
“Will you do it again?” The shy Witch asked and got a kiss in return.
“Alright, it’s time to end this game before you naughty ladies get any bad ideas. Once the conditions of my turn are finished, the game will end. You will choose Dare when I take my turn.
Truth or dare?”
“Dare.” The Witch agreed with a fearful note in her voice.
Wolfe leaned in close, so the others wouldn’t hear his instructions and made his dare.
“I dare you to take the Witch on your left back to your room and tell her every secret thought you’ve ever had about her.”
“What did you tell them to do, Wolfe?” Cassie asked suspiciously as the two witches left the room, leaving their books behind.
“I will show you later. Now, are the rest of us playing, or do we have more ideas to study tonight? The idea of a spell circle that could increase your mana draw rates was a good one, and it’s very similar to how a mana storage amulet works, but I think that a set of Talismans to increase spell Affinity would be better, so you can cast spells you don’t have Affinity with more easily.
If you stumble over them, it will slow your progress and keep you from learning truly useful spells in your free time.” Wolfe explained.
“Is that even a thing we can do at this point?” Mary asked.
“It is in the book, so you should be able to, even if it’s not easy the first few times.” Wolfe shrugged.
The Witches flipped through their textbooks until they found the Elemental Talismans, but there was one small problem. Each one needed an Elemental Focus to be used as a reagent.
They only had one Elemental reagent handy, in the form of Flame, but they all had good Fire Affinity.
“Want me to head to the supply room and find something while you work on the circles themselves? They don’t go bad, so we can wait if we can’t find reagents for all the elements.” Wolfe suggested.
Reiko nodded in agreement. “It says here that the circle can have varying affinities if you use different quality reagents, so find what you can, and we will make better ones later. Just enough to pass the exams is enough for this round. There is an excursion outside the Academy near the end of the term, and we can collect better materials then.”
“And bring back enough for the other two. They might have left early, but this is important.” Mary added.
“Got it. I’ll be right back.”
Wolfe headed out into the quiet halls of the dorms, which were nearly empty while everyone studied for the evening.
“Where are you off to so late at night? Two Witches weren’t enough, so you needed a little more action?” One of the security guards asked jealously as Wolfe left the dorm building.
“I’m going looking for the cheapest Elemental reagents I can find.” Wolfe replied, unconcerned about the guard’s envy.
“If you’re open-minded, the supply room has what you need. Ask for the bargain box. It’s only a few credits.” The other guard told Wolfe, then chuckled in anticipation.
Whatever was in the box was likely going to be nasty, but if it were cheap and effective, it would be worth it.
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“Too busy working to spend my riches. I’m actually here for reagents. The study group is making Affinity amulets, and the guard suggested the bargain box to get something from every Affinity at once.” Wolfe explained.
“They’re all from Class A, right? They should be able to make the amulets. The bargain box is ten credits, and it will do them for one attempt per box. But if you spend a bit more, you can get the herbal box for a hundred and fifty, which will be good for ten attempts. Plus, there are no live maggots.” She suggested.
“That’s a much better option. I can’t imagine trying to keep live creatures on an amulet while activating a spell is easy. I’ll take one of the herbal boxes and hope that’s enough to get the job done.”
