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Baptism 1.2

I put aside the question for now. It wasn't something I had to make an immediate decision on. There were plenty of things I could do just by myself, and I didn't necessarily need followers to get more mana. I just had to build more altars, and put them in other places to gather mana for me.

The only problem was that I was already out of money and materials. But, there was a potentially way to solve that using my power.

With the one altar, I already had enough mana generation to cast several low level spells each day. I could cast [Heroism] about three times with one day's worth of mana generation, I estimated.

Yeah, [Heroism] was a low level spell. I felt really amazing under its effects, but I knew objectively it wasn't that powerful. It made me stronger, faster, more durable, more skilled, and a probably whole bunch of other things I didn't notice yet, but it didn't make me superhuman, from what I tested today.

That was probably why it didn't cost much mana.

I could also just build up my reserves for something bigger. There didn't seem to be any limit to how much mana I could store in my soul, or maybe I just hadn't hit it yet.

As it is, there were a few spells in my [Spellbook] I simply couldn't cast until I had a much bigger reserve, including [Champion Investiture]. It apparently needed a colossal amount of mana—about an entire month's worth. I obviously wasn't going to be casting that anytime soon without more altars.

Anyways, my thoughts went back to solving my money problem.

I placed a candle on each of the candleholders on my altar, then took out a lighter and lit them up.

Then I carefully laid a white table cloth on top of the offering plate, and put some iron filings over the cloth.

I let my palm hover over the iron filings and began to concentrate. There was no chant for this process.

"Transmute!"

I poured my mana into the alchemical reaction. The mana drained way faster than I expected, and I ended up using about eight hours' worth, I estimated, before I stopped myself.

Light shone from underneath my hand and it was quickly over. The filings were still there.

Did it fail? I felt a wave of crushing disappointment. Without this, I was going to have a terrible time increasing my mana generation.

Wait—I saw something glimmer in the filings.

I bent down to take a closer look.

My eyes went wide when I noticed the small specks of reflective yellow among the filings. Disappointment turned to shock and awe.

I had almost been expecting myself to fail. I mean, turning iron into gold? That was the dream of all alchemists for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

How could my power just let me do it so easily?

I quickly went into the kitchen and got a weight scale and a small measuring cup. Then I went back to my room and carefully removed the iron filings, scraping the gold dust off of it as best as I could.

Before long I was staring at the number on the scale.

2.2 grams of gold.

I already looked up the approximate value of gold at the library before. Each gram was worth about $30. I did the calculations in my head quickly.

If I sold this to a pawn shop or something, I probably wouldn't get the full value, though I didn't know how much. I was obviously also losing some of it because I couldn't gather the gold dust together efficiently. Some had probably dropped or stuck to the iron filings still, too small for me to see.

But if I could generate 2 grams of gold for mana equal to one-third of a day's generation, I could be making $180 per day. $5400 a month. Well, excluding the cost of the iron. But I mean, iron was dirt cheap in comparison. These filings cost me less than ten bucks. Plus, my power informed me that I could make the gold without the iron. Without anything at all except my mana, in fact. It would just be a lot less efficient.

But making over five grand a month all of a sudden?

How much did my dad make again? I was pretty sure he didn't make much more than that, if that at all.

I sat there for a while just imagining what I could do with all that money. First I would buy more materials to make more altars. Then I'd look into buying precious gems to decorate the altar better, so that its efficiency rose. Finally, I'd use the additional mana income to make more gold, repeat and profit.

It didn't have to be a lot. There were all sorts of capes out there and I probably wasn't the only person who could make gold somehow. So there were probably controls over that kind of thing, people in the government watching for it. But all I needed was to be able to make enough gold to build more altars. Even without gems, the altars worked fine, and wood plus silver was cheap enough in comparison to gold that money wouldn't limit me anymore.

Then a sudden thought sent me crashing down.

What if it wasn't real gold? Even worse, what if it was some kind of magical gold that had weird chemical properties and would instantly out me as a cape if I tried to sell it?

I had to find out.

Since my dad wasn't home yet, I could go out on my own without any fuss. I put on a big hoodie and covered my face in a scarf and sunglasses. Then I took poured the gold dust into a small plastic container.

"Buyin' or sellin'?" The middle-aged balding man sitting on his stool behind the glass counter asked me with narrowed eyes that ran up and down my profile. I would have thought he was checking me out except for the fact that I was totally covered and obviously rather suspicious and I was ugly enough that nobody ever checked me out anyway.

"Selling," I said in a slightly muffled voice behind my scarf. Although I said that, I was planning to sell right away. I only had the two grams with me, and who was going buy that? I just needed to check whether the gold was real, and I needed somebody with the right tools and experience. I mean, I could eventually test it myself if I ordered all the stuff I needed online, but I'd have to ask for money from dad, and I didn't want to do that. Once I got it tested, I could decide what to do after, and just say that I had more, if the shop owner thought it was too little and I seriously wanted to sell.

"Let's see it then," he gestured to the counter space in front of him.

I carefully walked up and took out the container with my gold dust from my pocket.

He looked at it with a frowning face. "The fuck's this? Glitter? I don't buy glitter here."

I was so glad my scarf covered up my face, because I was sure it was completely red with how embarrassed I felt. "N-no, of course not!"

"I ain't a dump for random shit you pick up on the streets or leave lying around the house. This is a pawn shop, you hear? I take valuable used things you don't need anymore—valuable."

"This is valuable! It's—"

"You know how many idiots come in here every day thinking they can cheat me with bullshit hocus pocus garbage? Too many. Too fucking many. I don't have time to hear you give a story about how this is some ancient extinct bird poop," he said, shooing me away.

"…"

I stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. The shop was empty of other customers. How did he not have time to let me say anything?

"I-I'm not—"

He sighed and tossed something at me. I caught it by reflex. It was a dollar coin. "What?" I asked, not understanding.

"Kid, this is the best I can do. I've got to live too. Times are hard on everybody. Go back home, girl. Whatever reason you got for runnin' away, it ain't worth it. I've seen your lot more than a few times now. It never ends well. Trust me," he said.

There was silence for a few seconds. I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. How could this guy just assume that I was a runaway? The shame and anger mixed together until I was sniffing and shaking. The worst part was that I could even imagine what he said. That kind of thing couldn't be too rare in Brockton Bay, and I completely messed up, getting intimidated as if I was desperate even though I really did have something valuable.

"I'm sorry I can't do more. I really am," he said with a real pitying face. It'd have been better if I thought he was trying to scam me. Damn it.

I handed the coin back to him with a trembling hand, and took my gold dust back without a word. I didn't trust myself to speak without breaking down.

Then I turned around and ran out of the shop.

I ran without any direction in mind. I just wanted to be alone. When I found an alleyway, I ducked in and stumbled to the wall.

I took my sunglasses and glasses underneath off, and wiped the tears from my eyes. My scarf was already wet and disgusting.

I was a loser. A failure. I couldn't even do something as simple as selling gold to a pawn shop without messing it up horribly.

God, why was it so hard to talk to people? Emma was right. I was just a loser that nobody could ever like—just pity, maybe, because of how pathetic I was.

"Hand over the money, and you won't have to get hurt," a voice came from behind me.

I turned to see a couple of dark blurry figures. I quickly put my glasses back on and they turned out to be guys in black cloth masks wearing hoodies and carrying baseball bats.

"I-I don't have any!" The fear in my voice was painfully obvious. I stepped back and stumbled again. I didn't have enough mana to cast another [Heroism]. Even if I did, the chant was too long. I'd never finish it in time, and the same was true of my other spells that I did have enough mana for—not that I'd even want to out myself as a cape.

"Don't bother denying it. We saw you coming out of the shop. Must have sold something good. Your parent's wedding ring, maybe?"

The two of them came closer and cornered me.

"I-I didn't sell anything, really! He didn't want it!" I squeaked out.

"Dumb bitch, you don't realize what kind of situation you're in?" One of them smacked his baseball bat against his palms in a threatening motion.

"Please, I-I r-really don't have a-any money!"

"Tch."

The punch came without warning. I gasped and clutched at my gut. It hurt so much! I couldn't even think anymore, my head was nauseous and I felt like throwing up. My back slid down the wall to the ground, and my knees hit the ground together.

The container in my hand naturally fell to the ground when I let go of it to grab my stomach.

"What's that?" The other guy picked it up. He opened it and poured some out onto his palm, showing it to his partner in crime.

"Huh…looks like angel dust. This bitch must have gotten the good stuff instead of cash," he said.

"Nah bro, isn't it too bright for that?"

"The fuck do you know? Gimme that." He swiped some of it and put it to his nose, snorting it in.

"Dude, couldn't you wait until we're done here?"

"Shit, this ain't TH man, it's not anything!" He coughed and blew his nose.

"Should've known, dude. No one ever said he was a dealer." With that, he tossed the plastic container away and shook the gold free from his hand.

I watched helplessly as my hope for the future was thrown away like yesterday's trash.

"You fucking useless bitch. Got scammed and don't even know it," he said. Then his hands came forward to grab me and I panicked. I tried to slap them aside but I wasn't strong to begin with and another punch, this time to my face, broke my resistance.

His hands patted me down and flipped out every pocket on me, finding nothing.

"God damn! Nothing!" He got up in frustration and the heel of his foot came down on my side as I was laying on the ground.

I yelped and curled into a ball.

The other guy shook his head as if freeing himself from a daze, and rubbed his nose. "Seriously? Nothing? Damn. Hey, it's a girl though, right? Maybe we can have some fun with her instead."

My eyes widened and I desperately scrambled aside, but the pain at my side and the dizzying nausea stopped me from moving more than a couple of feet.

"Fuck that. She doesn't even look like a girl. I'm done here, bro, you do whatever you want," the other guy said and left.

The guy who tried snorting the gold gave me a second look before shaking his head. "Yeah, guess not. Ugly whore…"

Soon, I was left in the alley with just the sound of my own sniffling and whimpering.

Saved by being too ugly. Another day in the life of Taylor Hebert.

I lay on the cold concrete, crying to myself.

I'd never amount to anything. How could I have ever thought about being a hero? It was just a fantasy. A delusion. I looked at the specks of gold dust splattered on the ground.

Glitter. That's what it really was, wasn't it? It was probably already on the filings before and I just didn't notice.

Oh valiant warrior—ha…haha...I was such a dork. Making up chants and casting spells. Acting like some kind of veteran all day…

Everyone knew that magic wasn't real.

Mana?

Must've just been an upset stomach or something.

What was I supposed to tell dad about my puffy and swollen face?

A few minutes later, I tried another spell.

"Soothing light of life, take away the pain. Flower in the stream, floating bubbling strife. In the fall you crumple and in the spring you [Heal]!"

The pain receded, my face went back to normal, and I sprang back up.

A/N: Poor Taylor. One day she will be a mighty Wizard, but for now she is really weak. Actually substantially buffed from how you start in the game (takes several months to cast one spell), but still very weak.