《Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess》 Chapter 1 – The Airship Chapter 1 ¨C The Airship Heavy footfall rings out in the narrow hallway as Johnny runs for his life. ¡°Go undercover they said, it¡¯ll be fun they said,¡± heins to himself as he ducks behind arge pipe, only just avoiding a hail of bulletsing from his pursuers. ¡°Shit! Careful of the pipe you idiots, do you want to bring us down!¡± the captain of the ship¡¯s security team yells at his men. Johnny takes this as his cue, dashing out from his cover and letting a shot go from his pistol into the pipe he just hid behind. With the steam gushing out of the pipe as his distraction, he runs on aiming for the storage rooms. He had agreed to travel to the Modo Kingdom to steal valuable arcane resources from their mines in the desert thinking it was a great chance to gather some merit and maybe finally put his talents to good use. Unfortunately, he severely underestimated Modo¡¯s security and had to make do with trying to steal one of their supply ships. Which also turned out to be a mistake. Who would have thought they¡¯d have a mage too? As he considers his life choices, Johnny turns a corner and spots a sturdy metal door to a storage room nked by two guards armed with dangerous-looking clockwork rifles. The guards notice himing and start raising said rifles towards him. ¡°I guess there¡¯s no need to conserve mana now I¡¯m practically fucked,¡± he sighs as he begins his chant: ¡°Frost and mana dobine, release an arrow that true will fly!¡± He points at the guard on the left of the door as he feels a cold power rush out of him and coalesce into a glistening arrow of blue ice. The arrow shoots forward too fast for the guard to avoid and embeds itself into his throat, instantly ending his life. The second guard notices his partner''s untimely death, he panics and shoots at Johnny who is already prepared with his pistol raised. He releases a bullet into the guard¡¯s head, sending him to join his partner in eternal sleep. The guard¡¯s shot unfortunately hits Johnny¡¯s outstretched arm causing him to drop his pistol. ¡°FUCK!¡± he cries out in pain. Johnny runs to the door and starts to turn the wheel to open it with one hand, which turns out to be as difficult as expected. He manages to get the door open as his pursuers turn the corner at the end of the corridor and he slips through the small gap to escape. The inside of the storage room is piled high with wooden crates lining all the walls. He leans his back against the door to push it closed behind him while grabbing his right hand to stem the bleeding. Johnny pants in ragged breaths as he frantically searches the room for any obvious exits or items to help him, but all he sees are the monotonous wooden crates and metal walls lined with pipes he¡¯d grown to hate through his short excursion to the Modo Kingdom. He hears muffled yells on the other side of the door at the same time as he feels a strong push on the door at his back. ¡°I guess they saw me,¡± he muses while pushing back to hold the door shut. He releases his grip from his bleeding hand and points towards the edge of the door. ¡°By winter¡¯s grasp and icy bond, hold fast my target tight and strong.¡± The same cold power flows through him once again forming a thickyer of ice against the door. He knows it won''t hold for long, but it allows him to move away from the door. He walks to the centre of the storage room and takes onest look around seeing no exit. ¡°Well, I guess this is it,¡± he sighs and sits down watching the door, waiting for the guards on the other side to burst in. He silently steels his will as he gathers all his focus on his heart, or to be more specific, the three circles of power surrounding it. As he gathers all the scattered mana from his circuits inwards. He feels a heat building, screaming to escape his chest. Just then, a loud explosion sounds out and the door blows off its hinges narrowly missing Johnny as it flies into the room. The leader of the ship¡¯s guards walks in through a faint red haze of mysterious symbols fading in the air. His eyesnd on the young man sitting calmly on the floor as if he isn¡¯t cornered. He instantly realises something is wrong as he feels the pressure emanating from the boy and sees the grin creeping its way onto his face. ¡°For the queen!¡± Johnny yells hisst words as his circles crack and detonate. *** Ding! Ding! Ding! Emily wakes up to the usual sound of metal on metal as her rm clock goes off at 7 am. Shezily reaches out and hits it to try and get it to shut up. Unfortunately, she¡¯d made sure it couldn¡¯t be turned off without excessive force when she made it. Urgh, stupid past me. She slowly raises herself up in her bed, then picks up the clock and flips a switch on the back to disengage the ringer. Now fully conscious and unable to go back to the sweet embrace of sleep even if she wanted to, Emily stretches and climbs out of bed. She throws on a pair of in leather trousers and a ragged shirt before grabbing her empty knapsack and heading out of her room. She walks over to the door opposite her room and ms her fist on it repeatedly. ¡°Wake up Anna!¡± she yells at her sister through the door, waiting for a muffled ¡°go away¡± to show she¡¯d sessfully done her job. Why she can¡¯t just ask Herber for her own clock or actually learn to make one herself I¡¯ll never know. She knows she won¡¯t actually say this to Anna because she¡¯d just get an earful about why sewing is so much more useful than clockmaking as she has several times before. As she makes her way into the kitchen to grab breakfast, she is met by a small spindly man with short greying hair, hunched over the table gnawing on a piece of bread, staring at a small watch that doesn¡¯t seem to tick. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that one?¡± she asks, pouring herself a bowl of leftover broth and grabbing a hunk of bread. As she sits down next to him, the man grabs the watch and holds it in front of her while responding. ¡°What do you think?¡± Emily looks at the watch and sees a set of clearly bent gears with a few teethpletely sheared off. ¡°Wow, someone didn¡¯t appreciate your work.¡± Sheughs while taking a bite from her bread. ¡°Clearly! This is what I get for selling a good piece to one of those idiot merchants!¡± he angrily huffs, while reiming the watch and cing it gently back on the table. Herber Coldstone, Emily¡¯s adoptive father, is an avid watchmaker. They live on the outskirts of Eimdon City making a living creating watches for many people within the city, but the merchants are Herber¡¯s least favourite customers due to theck of care they show for his work. Several of the watches he made for them have been returned for repairs in a less-than-optimal condition which upsets the man who cares for his watches as if they were family. ¡°Stop moping already, you¡¯re gonna ruin my breakfast. Anything you want me to look for to get it working?¡± Emily sighs and asks him as she swiftly makes her way through her bowl. ¡°Nah, I should have everything I need already,¡± Herber sighs as he stands up and ruffles her hair. ¡°Just grab whatever you want for yourself. I¡¯m excited to see what youe up with next!¡± Heughs, before dumping his bowl on the side and walking towards his workshop. Herber had begun teaching Emily his craft after she showed an interest when he took her in at eight. Unfortunately, Anna, his biological daughter, was more interested in bing a seamstress than a clockmaker so he was happy to know that his legacy was safe. Emily had turned out to be a star student for him. After only six years she was already almost as good as him. Then for the past year, she has beening up with strange ideas, like her rm clock, and constantly bringing him more excitement. Emily finishes off her food and tosses her bowl next to Herber¡¯s before making her way towards the shopfront to leave, but before she makes it out of the kitchen, she hears shuffling behind her and an exasperated sigh. ¡°I swear I¡¯ve made you much nicer shirts than that one. Why do you still insist on wearing it to death?¡± Anna asks her. Emily nces back at the short girl standing in the doorway to the hallway with her arms crossed in front of her, who res back. ¡°Yeah yeah, I¡¯ll change once I get back. I don¡¯t want to go ruining one of your masterpieces mbering over scrap heaps now do I?¡± she responds sarcastically, while sticking her tongue out, then turns her back and continues out of the door. ¡°Humph, at least you see the value of my work!¡± Anna yells at her retreating back. ¡°Haha, see youter sis!¡± Emilyughs as she walks out of the house grinning to herself. As much as they argue with each other, she loves her little sister and is d she got to join their family. She walks out onto the narrow, cobbled street ncing left then right at the tightly clustered buildings before turning towards the city¡¯s edge to head out. After a leisurely stroll through a few narrow streets, she reaches the five-metre metal wall that surrounds the city. In front of her, set back into the wall, is arge set of sliding doors, nked by a few of the city guards she recognises as Todd and Howard. ¡°Hey Emily, more scrap gathering today?¡± Todd calls out as he sees her approaching. ¡°Yeah, I need some more material to work on my newest creation!¡± She grins as she replies. ¡°This one ain''t gonna blow up again, is it?¡± Howard says as he smirks at her. ¡°That was one time!¡± She blushes as she snaps at the guards, who bothugh. She may or may not have a history of her odd creations going slightly off the rails, like the time she thought it would be a good idea to use some ck powder stolen from the guards to make her own weapon. It caused quite amotion when it blew part of Herber¡¯s workshop up, and she received a stern talking to from the guards and Herber, and now must do her experiments in a separate room Herber gave her to avoid damaging any of his work. ¡°Blowing up once is enough for us to be concerned, kid. Anyway, make sure you don¡¯t take too long, otherwise we¡¯ll switch shifts, and you¡¯ll have to go through the usual check to get back in,¡± Todd winks as he turns around and pulls a lever next to him. There is a loud hissing as a jet of steam shoots out of a set of vents above the doors and the distinctive whirring of gears sounds as the doors slide open. ¡°Sure, see you guys soon!¡± Emily says as she walks out of the city. Once out of the doors, she is met with the dpidated buildings making up the slums outside the city. Emily quickly makes her way away from the walls and starts heading to one of the scrap heaps she frequents, weaving between buildings and people sitting on the streets begging for food. It takes her about fifteen minutes to reach thergest heap in the area. As she looks over the towering collection of old metal and wood debris, she sees arge airship making its way towards the city. Therge construct of metal is beautiful to Emily. A giant wonder of technology formed from a medley of smooth brass, polished wood, and sharp gears. Itsrge canvas fins propel it through the air leaving a trail of steam behind it, while its giant inted balloon holds it afloat. As much as old man Herber hates them, those merchants sure are lucky to get to ride airships like those. Boom! As Emily marvels at the shiping towards her, the side of its hull explodes. A hail of metal fireballs rains down on the slums below and Emily sees what looks like cargo begin to fall out. Unfortunately, she just so happens to be directly in the fallout zone. Well, that¡¯s not good. She thinks to herself as hunks of ming metal start tond around her. Chapter 2 – Amongst the Rubble Chapter 2 ¨C Amongst the Rubble Emily had always thought she dealt well with pressure. Even after her parents died, she didn¡¯t panic. She stole and fought to make sure she could survive in the rough slums. Luckily, she was right. As the ming balls of death start to fall towards her, she is calm. Time appears to slow to a grinding halt as she observes everything around her. The ship detonated five seconds ago. The fragments currently falling are small, big enough to cause some serious damage if they hit but spread out enough for some wiggle room. Thergest fragments have eight seconds before they start hitting the ground. The closest building is over thirty metres away, at least a twelve-second sprint. Too slow. I need something to hide under. Arge wooden door twelve metres away. Too weak. A sheet of steel five metres away. Shit, too many small fragments in the way. A sheet of bronze eighteen metres away. Doable! Time returns to normal as Emily breaks into a sprint across the scrap heap towards her goal. She scrambles over metal and wood hoping she didn¡¯t overestimate herself as she feels small pieces of metal slicing her left side and both arms. She yelps in pain but doesn¡¯t stop, feeling the searing heat from the metal falling around her. She ducks and grabs the edge of the bronze sheet to lift it. It is far heavier than she was expecting, but it¡¯s not perfectly t to the ground. Held up by what appears to be a few broken old chairs, there is a small gap underneath that Emily jams herself into. Loud impacts begin to ring out as she struggles to squeeze herself under the heavy metal just in the nick of time. Panting, with adrenaline running through her veins, Emily listens to the sound of the falling wreckage and hopes the metal will be thick enough to protect her. A few heavy impacts send shocks through her bones despite her protective shield. Several dents hit hard enough to leave bruises. But nothing breaks through. After thirty seconds of cowering with a cacophony of crashes filling her ears, the world goes quiet. Fires are burning all over the scrap heap, but nothing else is threatening tond on her head, so Emily slowly pulls herself free. Cautiously ncing around at the destruction, Emily stands while clutching what she suspects is a bruised rib. A grin creeps onto her face as her eyes are drawn to the falling remains of the ship in the distance. Therge balloon that should keep the ship afloat is aze with the outeryers peeling off. The metal bow of the ship ploughs into the desert sands and crumples, the smooth form folding in on itself and breaking apart. A thunderous p shakes Emily¡¯s core, and arge sand cloud erupts where the main body of the ship crashnds. If it blew up¡­. No one''s gonna miss the pieces, right? ¡°Might as well get somepensation for my injuries!¡± she winces as she begins to climb towards the top of the scrap heap to look for the best pieces to collect. Cresting the heap, Emily scans her surroundings for the cargo boxes she saw falling before. She notices kids from the slums scrambling towards the wreckage to do the same and clicks her tongue. Covering the ground littered with randomly dumped furniture and appliances, she notices several burning boxes shattered to pieces with their contents spilt around them. She slides down the hill to the closest burning pile and stomps it out to reach her bounty. Her eyes shine as she sees expensive looking, albeit damaged now, machine parts covering the floor. ¡°Jackpot!¡± Emily starts picking out the best-looking pieces, looking for any that have fewer dents but ignoring any scorch marks. Shebs through three different piles before she finishes filling her knapsack to the brim. As she¡¯s doing up the metal buckles to hold her bag shut, out of the corner of her eyes a glistening stone near thest smothered fire catches the sun and draws her towards it. She picks up the fist-sized piece of coal-ck rock with small shards of blue crystal distributed throughout. Emily marvels at the rock and gazes into it until she sees small sparks of lightning flowing through it and almost drops it in surprise. Woah, that can¡¯t be normal. I wonder what it''s worth. Some sucker¡¯s gonna miss this¡­. Too bad it¡¯s mine now! Emily grins as she pushes the rock to the bottom of her bag, past the collected machine parts to keep it secure. She congrattes herself as she prepares to leave and stands up, swinging the bag onto her back. But the grin drops from her face as she realises, she made a mistake. Standing five metres in front of her, between her and the slums, are five boys she doesn¡¯t recognise. They look to be twelve to thirteen, slightly younger than her but somerger than her already. All their eyes are solidly locked on the bag behind Emily¡¯s back. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Emily asks, slowly lowering herself and tensing her legs ready to spring at any moment. ¡°That¡¯s a pretty-looking rock you found there,¡± thergest boy in the middle, clearly the leader of the group, grins at her. The other four start slowly moving to surround Emily. ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m gonna be the one selling it, that¡¯s what!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you know the rules? Finders keepers, so back off!¡± Emily growls, shooting off towards the boy directly to her right. The boy she aims for is the smallest of the bunch, shorter than her by a head, and looks startled that she wasn¡¯t scared of the five of them. Emily quickly closes the distance and swings her bag into the small boy¡¯s face, hearing a satisfying thud as he falls backwards onto the metal heap, blood flowing from his nose. ¡°You bitch!¡± the leader of the group yells. ¡°Get her!¡± Emily sprints past the fallen boy, running along the edge of the heap to create some distance from the surprised thieves. She jumps over a few boxes and slides down the slope a little as she starts turning back towards the buildings of the slums. The boys are half as graceful as her, but unfortunately slightly faster, so the distance she gained with her few seconds head start slowly reduces as she continues. By the time Emily reaches the first building, the thieves are only four metres behind her, with the leader, the fastest, in front. She knows that, now they don¡¯t have to scramble over lose scrap they will catch her in no time, so she decides to make things interesting by testing their knowledge of their home. She runs between two buildings onto the rough stone paths and begins weaving into the different alleys. After four sharp turns and a few very tight alleyways, she has lost one of her pursuers. Now she only has two metres between her and a very angry-looking boy. The next alley Emily turns into is a dead end and the boys are finally confident they have her trapped, so they begin to slow their sprint down, only to be confused as Emily continues full speed towards the wall between the two low buildings. Emily springs off one foot and nts the other against the wall, pushing off and stepping up with her back foot to gain maximum height. She catches the lip of the wall with a firm grip and hauls herself up. Turning around panting lightly, she shes a triumphant grin at the stunned thieves. ¡°Later dipshits, thanks for the exercise!¡± She gives them a mock two-fingered salute before turning around, dropping her bag and jumping off the wall into a roll. She picks up her bag, slinging it back over her shoulder and begins a slow jog out into the main street of the slums, listening to the fading sound of the thief leader yelling at hisckeys to boost him over the wall. Emily turns left after leaving the alley and sees the gates two hundred metres away. After a couple of minutes, she reaches it and nces behind her to make sure the boys haven¡¯t followed. She reaches up and knocks on the gate then steps back and waits. The small hatch in the middle of the right door slides open, and a pair of eyes nce around before locking onto Emily, slight shock appearing in them as he sees her state. ¡°Oh hey kid, you alright? That ship looked like it went down pretty close to city limits.¡± Howard asks before turning to his right and telling Todd to open the gate. ¡°Yeah I¡¯m good, a few cuts and scrapes but I¡¯ll live.¡± Emily shes Howard her bloody arms before he steps back and closes the hatch as the doors slide open with the distinctive loud hiss of steam. Seeing the blood and rips on Emily''s sleeves and side, Todd raises an eyebrow as she walks through the gate that he closes behind her. She winces as she adjusts the bag on her back and starts to clutch her left side, which took the worst hit from the rubble. Now that she is back within the city walls and feels safe, the adrenaline runs out, and she feels the pain and exhaustion in full. ¡°Go home quickly and get those looked at. You don¡¯t want an infection or something,¡± Todd urges her. ¡°Sure, Anna¡¯s gonna freak when she sees me.¡± Emily chuckles as she walks away waving at the guards over her shoulder. ¡°Good luck!¡± Howard offers as they go back to leaningzily against the wall. Emily makes her way slowly back along the familiar streets of the city, earning a few curious gazes for her wretched state, but nobody bothers her. She makes it to the front of the old clockmaker''s shop and pauses to collect her thoughts and prepare herself to deal with Anna¡¯s usual anger when shees home bloody and beaten. Though, usually, it¡¯s because of fights in the scrap yard over spoils, not being in the wake of an airship explosion. As she steps through the shop doors, Emily hears the usual half-rusted bell above the door jingle, followed by the rushed thudding of feet against hardwood. Anna bursts into the room teary-eyed, makes eye contact with Emily and, to her surprise, rushes at her. Before Emily can process this new turn of events, Anna hastched onto her, burying her face in her chest. Emily winces as pain shoots through her side from where Anna¡¯s arms are pressed against raw cuts and bruised ribs, but she ignores it and hugs Anna back, patting her head to reassure her. ¡°Jeeze, you¡¯d think I came back from the dead or something.¡± ¡°I heard an explosion and saw a ship going down near where you gather scrap, I thought you might have been hurt!¡± ¡°Only a little bit. I¡¯m fine. The ship itself went down pretty far from the city so only rubble came near us.¡± After a couple of seconds, Anna seems to calm down and slowly releases Emily to step back. She looks her over and pauses at the areas of fresh blood on her shirt. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay? That looks like a lot of blood for only a little bit.¡± ¡°Haha, yeah I kinda made it worse by running from some kids who wanted my loot.¡± Emily scratches the back of her head awkwardly as Anna¡¯s concerned gaze turns into a re at her words. ¡°Why do I even worry about you,¡± Anna sighs. ¡°At least you won¡¯t wear that shirt again now. Come on!¡± Anna grabs Emily¡¯s hand and begins dragging her through the shop back towards their rooms. She opens the door to Emily¡¯s room and pushes her towards the bed. ¡°Sit down and take your shirt off, I¡¯ll be right back.¡± She then turns around and disappears back into the hallway. Emily obeys, dropping her bag next to her bed and then stripping her shirt off before throwing it into a bin on the other side of the room. Anna quickly returns with cloth, gauze, and alcohol. She cleans and wraps all of Emily¡¯s cuts in silence, being careful not to put bandages over her bruised right ribs, before dumping the bloody cloth in the bin and walking to the door. ¡°You should really take more care of yourself and stop worrying me.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll think about it, thanks sis. Love you.¡± ¡°Love you too idiot,¡± Anna huffs while shutting the door. Chapter 3 – The Men in Robes Chapter 3 ¨C The Men in Robes Emily copses on her bed, exhausted from her morning. Well, that was fun. I feel like I could sleep for a week. She lies still with her eyes shut for a few minutes, thinking about what she could have done differently. I really should have started looking for cover the second the ship exploded instead of watching till the debris startednding. That was stupid, I¡¯m lucky I wasn¡¯t caught by anything bigger. Anna would be so pissed if I got myself killed. She chuckles to herself before pulling herself upright with great effort and standing up. She walks over to a set of drawers across her small room. After pulling a clean shirt made by Anna out of the top drawer, she nces in the mirror as she puts it on. She is a mess. Emily¡¯s tall wiry frame looks built for battle, withpact, well-defined muscles. Her shoulder-length brown hair is matted and full of dirt. Her pale white face is smeared with dirt and grease from the scrap pile. Even her eyes look dirty to her, mismatched blue on the right and green on the left, which used to attract many disgusted looks when she was living in the slums. Her trousers are slightly torn and covered in dirt, which causes her to frown, before pulling a fresh pair from the drawers and changing those too. Urgh, I probably should have showered before putting on new clothes¡­ Later, I have better things to do now. Somewhat satisfied with her appearance now, Emily decides to look over her haul. She grabs her bag from the floor where she dumped it, and leaves her room. She walks down the hallway in the opposite direction of the kitchen and shopfront. Passing Herber¡¯s bedroom and the bathroom, beforeing to two doors on either side of her. On the left is Herber¡¯s workshop; on the right is the old storage room Herber converted into hers. She enters her workshop to see a neatly organised mess. The back wall has fourrge wooden boxes with collections of wood scrap, metal scrap, machined parts, and junk creations. The right wall has a few sets of drawers filled with her more sessful inventions. The left wall has a workbench and shelves of tools. On the workbench are a few half-formed mechanisms, centred around a half-finished mechanical bird, and junk that Emily hasn¡¯t bothered sorting yet. Shutting the door behind her, Emily walks over to the workbench and pulls her chair out. She sweeps the bird she has been working on aside and sets herself down on the chair with her bag in herp. She opens the buckles and reaches her hand down past the assortment of treasures to her prize at the bottom. The rock she pulls out is as beautiful as the first time she saw it, its smooth matte-ck and slightly jagged stone holding countless azure blue gems, releasing a faint blue glow and mesmerising her anew. She drops her bag onto the floor and slides her chair up to the workbench before opening a drawer and pulling out her loupe, a small magnified looking ss. She raises it to her eye and gazes through the ss at the blue fragments of what she assumes to be gemstones, looking for the lightning she saw earlier. At first, she doesn¡¯t see anything within, but after a few seconds, she sees a flicker of movement. Lightning isn¡¯t the right word for it. The lightning Emily knows is powerful, embodying destruction and bringing death from the heavens. However, what she sees in the gems is almost calm, weak even. It flickers in thin threads that break as quickly as they form as if they are looking for a path that isn¡¯t there. Instead of the innate fear that Emily felt as a child when she first saw lightning while cowering from the rain in a cold shelter, gazing into the gem, she feels only wonder, and a desire to help break the ¡°lightning¡± from its prison. Emily¡¯s first thought is to break the gems free from the rock holding them. She grabs a hammer and chisel from her tool wall. cing the rock on a thin sheet of steel to protect her wooden worktop, she lines up the chisel''s de with the centre of a section of stone and gives its handle a firm hit with the hammer. DING! The loud sound of metal collision rings out as Emily drops the hammer and chisel before cradling the wrist that was just jarred by the rebound. Note to self, test what strange materials actually are before hitting them with full force. With the revtion that the ck material between the gems is a metal she doesn¡¯t recognise; Emily realises she doesn¡¯t have a way to break the gems free - yet. Hmmm, I guess I¡¯ll set this aside for now and make a few new tools, I do need better metal cutting options than just sheet cutters. Emily stands, picking up the metal chunk before walking over to the drawers behind her. She opens the lower drawer and tucks it into the back corner to hide it from Herber¡¯s prying eyes when hees to check on her. I probably need a name for this thing until I work out what it really is¡­ Let¡¯s call you the lightning stone for now, that works. Heading back to her desk, Emily begins drawing out ns and brainstorming ideas for new metalworking tools as the clock slowly ticks by. *** A few hourster, with early evening light seeping in through the window half hidden behind wooden storage bins, Emily hears a light knocking on the door. She caps her pen and drops it on the blueprint for a prototype steam engine she was working on. She stands and walks over to the door, opening it to see Herber grinning at her. ¡°I¡¯ve finished mymissions for today. That stupid merchant may be unappreciative, but he sure pays well at least.¡± ¡°Is he not one of your regrs? I thought all of them were stingy bastards?¡± ¡°Nah it¡¯s not Gregory, Smith or Harriot. Some new fellow, came by a few months back when he bought that watch. I can¡¯t even remember his name yet!¡± ¡°Humph, some businessman you are.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, theye to me because I¡¯m good, not because I¡¯m likeable. Now enough of this, stop wasting time. Show me what you¡¯ve been working on.¡± Herber ushers Emily back into her room, closing the door behind him. Ever since Emily stopped working daily with Herber a year ago, and moved to work on her own projects, Herber has made sure to check in on her current work once a week. Emily sits back down at her workbench as Herber drags a small chair from the corner, between the wooden storage crates and the workbench. He sets up next to her and eagerly focuses his attention on her half-started blueprint. ¡°What¡¯s this thing? You weren¡¯t working on anything like thisst week, were you?¡± Herber questions, raising an eyebrow towards Emily. ¡°Nah I got bored of the bird, couldn¡¯t work out bncing during flight, I really want to know how those airships do it. This is going to be a small steam engine.¡± Emily grins as she starts her exnation. ¡°I was looking at doing some metal cutting and realised I have no tools that would actually allow me to cut anything thicker than half a centimetre. At first, I thought maybe make a metal-cutting de for my handsaw, but that would require arge amount of physical effort and wouldn¡¯t be very good for close detail work. So, I thought why not make some powered tools? I have a few ideas for the mechanisms to make those work, but first I need a good source of steam.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re designing the engine first before making the fun bits? Fair enough Emi, I like the practical thinking!¡± Herber reaches out and ruffles Emily¡¯s hair. Emily blushes and nces away as she reaches for a drawer and pulls out a different blueprint. ¡°Actually¡­. I already did the fun bit designing these.¡± Emily presents a drawing of two cylinders, each formed of 3 segments ranging in diameter. The outsides of the thickest ends have patterned cutouts that are mirrored inverses of each other. The insides have a series of metal rings and rubber gaskets on the thicker ends, and a barb with an adjustable metal ring around it on the thinner ends. ¡°These are what I call quick-release connectors!¡± Emily deres proudly to Herber as her blush fades. ¡°When one connector is attached to a lineing from a steam generator, it seals the exit with an inline valve that is depressed allowing steam flow only when a corresponding connector is attached to it. All you do is attach sets of these connectors to short tubes running to your tools, and you have a quick and easy way to switch out multiple tools from one steam engine. No more wasting time swapping tubes!¡± Herber falls silent as he stares at the blueprint presented in front of him. ¡°I¡¯ve got to say Emi, this is the most practical and useful thing I think you¡¯ve ever created!¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Emily pouts and res at him for the ill-concealed jab at her creations. ¡°Haha, it¡¯s a good thing I promise! I bet there are plenty of shipbuilders who would pay a pretty penny if you wanted to sell them,¡± Herber encourages. ¡°Nah, it¡¯s way too easy to replicate by others. The second I try to sell them, someone else will open one up and start reproducing them instead of buying again. Not worth the effort.¡± Emily waves off hispliment as impractical, while grinning happily as she ces the quick-release blueprints back into the drawer they came from. ¡°It could alwa-¡° Herber is cut off by the distinctive ringing of the shop door¡¯s bell. Herber and Emily both look at the clock on the desk. It¡¯s almost 8 pm, far toote for normal business hours. They share a nce before getting up and walking towards the shopfront to find out who¡¯s entered. When Herber sees them, he freezes, and Emily barely stops herself from walking into his back. Before she can ask what¡¯s wrong, Herber stands straight and walks forward with purpose. ¡°Good evening fine sirs, is there anything I can help you with?¡± This is wrong, who on Ulea are these people for Dad to get so formal? From the doorway, Emily has a clear view of the four people standing in front of Herber. The man standing in the lead is tall and thin, at least two heads taller than Herber, with thin blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Of the three behind him, two are stout and chubby, a clear sign of wealth in Eimdon, and the third is the same height as Emily with thick muscles bulging through his robes. The robes that all four of them wear, are ck with dark green ents. On their chests are what Emily assumes to be family crests, two intertwined roots, silver for the man in the lead, and bronze for the other three, with dark green leaves sprouting from the top. Oh¡­. What are nobles doing here? ¡°One of our cargo ships was sabotaged and went down outside city limits. We know your daughter left the city to scavenge earlier and expect all cargo that was taken to be turned over immediately. Anything that was on the ship is the property of the Mandrago family. We will graciously overlook your transgression as long as everything stolen is returned immediately!¡± the tall man spits venomously as he looks down on Herber with a cold gaze. ¡°Of course, we had no idea it was your ship! I apologise, sir!¡± Herber bows to his waist before turning to Emily. ¡°Emily, please go gather everything!¡± Emily sees the sweat dripping from Herber¡¯s brow and nods before turning around and running back to her workshop. She burst in through the door, rushing to her desk and digging through the drawers to find arge sack. She takes her bag and pours the contents into the sack before turning back to leave, passing where she hid the lightning stone earlier and choosing to ignore it. She hurries back to the shopfront and hands Herber the sack. ¡°Here you go sir, this is everything we gathered earlier.¡± Herber offers the tall noble the sack, who looks at it in disdain. The muscr man walks past him, takes the sack from Herber and opens it to look in. He nods towards the tall man before throwing the sack over his shoulder and walking out the door, followed by the two short men. As the tall man follows them, he pauses at the door and turns to make eye contact with Herber. ¡°I hope, for your sake, that I never have to return!¡± Chapter 4 – The Experiments Begin Chapter 4 ¨C The Experiments Begin Herber sighs and visibly detes the moment the nobles are out of the shop. ¡°You okay? That seemed stressful,¡± Emily asks worriedly. ¡°Yeah I¡¯m fine, it wasn¡¯t that bad. I could do with a drink though,¡± Herber grumbles, turning and walking past Emily towards the kitchen. ¡°Really? They sounded pretty serious about the whole, stolen property, thing.¡± ¡°Nah, it would¡¯ve just been a quick execution, nothing too bad.¡± The colour drains from Emily¡¯s face at that, as she thinks about the lightning stone still in her room. Herber pauses and turns back as he notices Emily isn¡¯t following him. ¡°You alright Emi? You look a little pale.¡± ¡°Ye ¨C Yeah I¡¯m fine,¡± Emily stammers, hurrying to catch up to Herber. ¡°Wait. That was everything - right?¡± ¡°Haha, yeah of course it was. I¡¯m not stupid enough to keep something stolen from nobles, you know.¡± Fuck! I totally am! Herber narrows his eyes at Emily for a few seconds as she walks past him, then shakes his head and continues into the kitchen. He walks over to a cupboard and pulls out a cheap bottle of whisky and a ss. He calls after her: ¡°I¡¯m gonna start working on dinner. Let your sister know it¡¯ll be ready in thirty minutes or so.¡± ¡°Sure thing. What we havin''?¡± ¡°Since you got your haul taken away, I¡¯ll do some toasted smi sandwiches as a treat!¡± ¡°Yay, thanks Dad!¡± Emily runs back and gives Herber a quick hug before heading down the hallway again. She knocks on Anna¡¯s door lightly. ¡°Dinner in thirty minutes!¡± ¡°Kay!¡± Emily continues to her workshop. Walking through the still-open door, she goes back to the open drawer and grabs a small sack. She walks over to the drawers on the other side of the room and opens one of them to gaze at the lightning stone again. I¡¯ve already hidden this from those nobles once. If they have a way of finding it, I don¡¯t want them to realise it was me¡­ I guess I¡¯ll have to hide it somewhere else for a bit and see if theye after it. After making her decision, Emily acts quickly. She grabs the stone and wraps it in the small sack, then heads back to her bedroom. She walks over to her cab and grabs a stopwatch from the drawer, winds it to twenty-five minutes and drops it into the pocket of her shirt. Opening the window, she slips out into the side street. Emily pulls the window shut, then runs down the street in the opposite direction of the shopfront. She falls into a familiar rhythm of weaving between back alleys and narrow streets, as she heads towards the wall of the city again. She reaches a section with nothing notable other than a few pipes jutting out, and short buildings nearby. She moves along the length, checking the floor for any gaps in the paving. She quickly reaches a small patch of sand where the cobbles are missing. Having learned her lesson at the scrap heap, Emily nces around to check for anyone watching her before crouching down. She drops the sack next to her, and digs out the sand with her hands, quickly forming a small hole. She ces the sack into the hole and piles the sand back in. Standing up, she brushes her hands off on her trousers and kicks the excess sand into the street to remove any evidence of having buried something. Content with the cover-up, Emily ys a familiar game and guesses how long her stopwatch has been going for: Hmmmmm¡­. Fifteen minutes. She pulls it out to check and clicks her tongue. Fourteen minutes and fifty-six seconds, just enough time remaining to get home. She starts to run. She reaches the unlocked window and pushes it open before climbing back into her room. Reaching into her pocket she slowly pulls out the stopwatch and begins counting down without looking at the face. Three, two, one! Click! ¡°Dinner¡¯s ready!¡± Herber calls from the kitchen. Emily nces down at the stopwatch, which is frozen at zero seconds left. Perfect! She grins as she heads out to join her family. *** Ding! Ding! Ding! Emily wakes to the familiar ringing of her rm clock. She springs out of bed and turns it off before throwing on a fresh shirt, trousers, and shoes. Grabbing her half-empty knapsack and walking out into the hallway, she knocks on Anna¡¯s door. ¡°Get up!¡± She yells, heading towards the kitchen before hearing a response. She grabs one ofst night¡¯s sandwiches from the kitchen and exits the shop. Squinting and covering her eyes with the back of her hand as they adjust to the early morning sun, she bites into her sandwich before turning down the side alley next to the shop. Harriot brought some nice ham in this time. She muses absent-mindedly as she walks a familiar route between buildings. Today marks three months since the day the airship, the Hollow Warden as she¡¯se to know it was called, crashed. Three months since the nobles came and threatened Herber for the scraps of the ship. Three months since Emily buried her treasure. If it hasn¡¯t been touched yet, they definitely don¡¯t have a way of tracking it. As she nears the hiding spot, Emily struggles to hold her excitement at bay. If they can¡¯t track it¡­. I can totally use it! She reaches the wall, sandwich long gone, and follows her past footsteps along it. The patch of sand, she soon sees, looks exactly the same as the day she left it. That¡¯s a good sign. As her hope builds, she checks around for observers and sees a few children running along the end of the street. Leaning against the wall above the sand patch, she waits for them to move on, then takes her bag off. Out of the bag, she pulls a small hand trowel, then swiftly crouches down and begins digging. Her heart beats loudly in her ears, a mix of hope and trepidation. Then, she sees it, the familiar brown hue of the cloth sack she wrapped her prize in. A grin spreads across her face as she quickly pulls the sack out of the ground and drops it into her bag, the trowel along with it. Standing up, she pushes the small pile of sand back into the hole, then walks away ignoring the small depression left behind. She nces around once more, and upon seeing no one, breathes a sigh of relief while turning off the street. Looks like I was needlessly paranoid. Ah well, better safe than sorry. A small skip enters her step as she backtracks her route back home. ¡°Hehe, let the experiments begin!¡± *** Upon returning to her workshop, Emily sits down at her workbench and takes out the lightning stone to inspect it. Soft glow, check. ¡°Lightning¡±, check. All the same as before I buried it, good. Satisfied with the stone, Emily begins setting up the tools she¡¯s prepared over the three months of build-up. First, she sets up nine articted mechanical arms, the size of a finger each, attached to a heavy iron base te with iid chunks of tungsten. The arms are a work of art formed from a subtle bnce of gears, springs, chains and dials. Emily mps eight of the arms to equidistant points on the stone, suspending it in the air at chest height before her. Next, she puts on her old and worn leather apron and gloves that Anna made her after her first run-in with ck powder. It¡¯s joined by a heavy metal face mask strapped to her head. Herber had prepared it for her after she mentioned the idea of power tools three months back. With protective gear now on, Emily stands up and walks into the corner that used to house a spare chair for Herber, and in its ce now sits a small steam engine. She flips a lever on top, causing the steel doors to butterfly open. Inside the engine is a preset pattern of coal lining the edges with a wooden cradle in the middle. She grabs a piece of wood wrapped in cloth off her workbench; then douses it in cheap alcohol before lighting it with a match. Tossing the burning log into the centre of the wooden cradle, she pushes the lever back and then sits back down in her seat. The backboard of Emily¡¯s workbench has been modified with the addition of several gauges and dials to monitor the engine. Checking the oxygen levels are sufficient, she reaches up for one of the handles of wood suspended from pulleys above her and yanks it down. When the water level dial reaches three-quarters, she releases the handle. As she waits for the water to reach boiling, Emily pulls out one of her new power tools, a handheld rotary drill. The drill has a smooth, cylindrical body with small tubes pointing away from her hand and arm at the back. The front end has a circr disc coated in fine tungsten powder and adhesive attached with a short shaft to the gears extending past the edge of the body. The back has a metre-long tube of coated rubber with a fully actualised quick-release connector fastened to the end. She presses the connector to a corresponding one fastened to the underside of the workbench and twists to lock them together. Finally, she ces a custom loupe, with an anti-re coating on it, in the ninth arm, positioning it between her and the lightning stone. She then returns to the steam engine for a moment to ce a shovel full of coal on top of the burning wood, to keep the fire burning for longer. Emily calms her nerves as she goes over her n in her head. Start with the smallest fragments of gem and cut out the metal surrounding them. Use the semi-transparency of the gems to gauge the gem''s dimensions from the inside and avoid cutting into them instead. Take it slow, don¡¯t cut a gem¡­ Emily flips her mask down and leans in, twisting the rock in the air, and positioning the loupe to gaze into the smallest gemstone fragment she can see. ¡°You can do this!¡± With one final mental push, Emily presses her foot to the pedal below her and hears a familiar hiss, as steam flows through the tubing to her tool. A jet of steam shoots out of the piping as the rotor spins to life. She holds the drill firmly between two hands and slowly presses it against the metal to the side of the fragment. The drill screeches as the metal is slowly cut away. She traces the drill around the edges of the gem, carefully avoiding pushing too close and nicking it. Once the gem is only held in by a small bridge of metal, she reaches out and snaps the gem off. Setting the gem down to the side, Emily turns the rock to the next smallest fragment and continues her work. After removing all visible gems, the metal is reduced to half its volume. She splits the metal in half, pausing and adjusting her cutting angle when she hears a gem crack inside, before removing the two gems that were buried within. She releases the foot pedal and pulls the handle to bring the water level back up to three-quarters, before cing down the rotary drill and detaching the steam connectors. Emily picks up the sack again and removes the two halves of metal from the mechanical arms, then drops them in. She sweeps the metal filings from her desk into the sack too, before cing it in a drawer. She turns to the eleven fragments of azure blue gemstone sitting in a pile next to her. Each gem emits a small, fractured glow, blocked by the small shards of metal left fused to them. Emily raises her mask and sets a clear loupe into an arm. She inspects each gemstone for any chips or scratches left by the drill and finds eight of the gems don¡¯t have a single imperfection. The three other gems each have a single point from which a small web of cracks grows. Curious, do these gems have weak points or something? I would have expected a lot more scratches even though my hands were steady. Emily pushes her questions to the back of her mind to focus on the next stage of her preparations, the sanding belt. Chapter 5 – Explosive Discoveries Chapter 5 ¨C Explosive Discoveries The second tool Emily had prepared was simple but effective - two rotating cylinders mounted to a heavy metal base with a belt of abrasives looped between them. She connects the belt sander to the steam line and positions the anti-re loupe at a slight angle to watch the material removal closely. She once again starts with the smallest gemstone; in case she damages it. The belt whirls to life as Emily¡¯s foot slowly depresses the foot pedal. As she lowers a gem towards the belt to remove the excess metal still clinging to its surface, a bright sea of sparks flies away from her, towards the wall. She slowly increases the pressure on the belt as more and more is cut away to reveal the gemstone. Suddenly, the spray of sparks dies as quickly as it formed, and Emily feels a strange, unnaturalck of resistance from the gem against the spinning belt. She quickly pulls it away in panic and examines the surface that was in contact with the belt. Not a single scratch! The visible surface of the gem is perfect, no matter what angle Emily looks at it from. Hmmm¡­ Why did three of the gems crack from the metal cutting, but the sander doesn¡¯t seem to be able to scratch one? Does a certain amount of pressure need to be exerted to affect it? Emily moves the gem back to the belt and continues removing the metal until she is left with a perfect teardrop-shaped gemstone, the size of a fingernail. Emily pushes her mask up and switches back to a clear loupe to look closer at the first fully cleaned gem. It¡¯s ss-like and seems to fade from faint azure-tinged at the edges, to a deep sea of dark blue in the centre. A blue so deep it¡¯s almost impossible to gaze past, instead drawing Emily in, forcefully holding her focus as the abyss seems to call to her. Deep in the abyss, strands of lightning creep out, reaching for the outside world but fading away before sess. Tearing her eyes away from the centre of the gem, Emily shudders. For a moment she had lost control of her body, enchanted by the gem¡¯s beauty - and that scares her. The pull she felt from the gem isn¡¯t natural, but not dangerous. She feels this instinctively. The instinct she felt within herself also isn¡¯t natural. She feels this logically. Emily shakes her head and chooses to ignore the strange conflicting feelings that are starting to take root in the back of her mind. She ces the finished gem into a drawer to remove the distraction as she turns her head to the rest. She slowly cleans off all the metal scraps from the uncracked gems, taking a break in the middle to eat lunch when Herber calls for her. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of screeching I¡¯m hearing in there, should I be worried?¡± Herber asks as he takes a sip from the warm broth sitting in front of him. ¡°Nah I¡¯m fine, just doing a bit of metal work.¡± ¡°Really? Because that¡¯s not what your face says, you¡¯ve been ring at that soup like it stole your wife since you came in. Come on, tell me what¡¯s wrong. I may be old, but I can still be of some use you know.¡± Emily raises her eyes from her soup and turns her re to Herber before sighing and rubbing her temple as she considers how to exin her problem. ¡°Say hypothetically, you found an object that doesn¡¯t feel like it fits in the world you know. If you want to find out more about it, and you have a feeling that you should, but also a feeling that you should ignore it because it will invalidate what you know about the world. What should you do?¡± Herber raises a brow at Emily in amusement, but that subsides as he sees the seriousness on her face. ¡°Hmm, so you¡¯re asking if I think you should follow logic to discover more or listen to instinct to stay oblivious?¡± Emily takes a moment to consider and decides it¡¯s close enough, nodding for Herber to continue. ¡°In that case, I say why not find out more? If you think it¡¯s the right thing to do, to hell with your instincts! If in the end, what you find strays from the path you know, you can just ignore it and return to your old ways of thinking. Not all paths are for everyone. Your sister chose to be a seamstress, I chose to be a clockmaker, and you¡­ I get the feeling you haven¡¯t quite decided yet.¡± Emily shifts ufortably at the implication of Herber¡¯s words, but she quietly continues listening to his advice. ¡°We all follow our own path in life, what you learn from it and choose to pursue are exactly that, a choice. Whether that turns out to be the safety of ignorance, or the impossibility of your new knowledge. Whichever you choose to be your truth doesn¡¯t matter, as long as it is your truth, and I believe you can only decide that after seeing both sides of the equation.¡± Herber pauses and finishes off the broth in his bowl before standing up and ruffling Emily¡¯s hair. ¡°Of course, that is just an old man¡¯s ramblings, and you can also choose topletely ignore me,¡± He chuckles as he dumps his bowl in the sink and starts walking back to his workshop. Emily lets Herber¡¯s words sink in, staring at his receding back as she firms her resolve. Not quite what I was asking, but a choice huh? Will I really be able to ignore it if that gem really isn¡¯t natural¡­ Will I even want to? Heh, if I don¡¯t want to, then why even worry about it, that in itself will be my choice. ¡°¡­Hey Dad,¡± she calls out lightly. ¡°Thanks.¡± Herber nces over his shoulder and meets Emily¡¯s eyes. He grins. ¡°I¡¯m d I could help.¡± *** Returning to her workshop, Emily begins her work with renewed vigour. After an hour, all eight of the unblemished gems are thoroughly cleaned of all metal residue. Emily turns her attention to the three that are damaged. I don¡¯t really want to try sanding those, it looks like a little pressure will break them¡­ Well, I guess we¡¯ll see what happens if I¡¯m right and decide what to do with the rest after. Decision made, Emily moves the tworger cracked gems to the drawer with the finished ones and ces the remaining fingernail-sized gem in the centre of the workbench. She grabs a small hammer and chisel, cing the chisel¡¯s de at the point of the cracks¡¯ convergence. With a swift flick of her wrist, a high note rings out followed by a cracking sound. Emily withdraws her hands and watches with rapt attention. The hairline cracks slowly spread across the surface of the gem, more cracking sounds ring out as some fractures meet forming junctions that quickly burst into life, creating an intricate pattern around the gem. Before the crackspletely engulf the gem, Emily sees the lightning within converging on the junctions before spreading out to the workbench. Oh shi- The world goes white. Emily is sent toppling backwards off her chair as a strong force pushes against her face. Her ears ring with the crackling of lightning as she slowly looks around from the floor, letting her eyes adjust to the brightness. As she looks at her workbench, she sees a crackling construct of lightning in a shape strangely reminiscent of the gem she just shattered. Swirling in the air around it is a small cloud of metal filings. ¡°Woah¡­¡± Emily¡¯s mouth drops open, as she is mesmerised by the dance of blue and ck. As quickly as it appeared, the lightning fades, and the metal drops to the desk. Emily remains sat on the floor for a few seconds to process what she just saw. Damn it, that¡¯s just given me more questions than I started with¡­ Emily groans as she stands up, rubbing her neck. Taking her facemask off, she cautiously approaches her workbench and gazes at the scorch marks etched into the wood. Tracing her finger along the marks, she notices a stark simrity between the marks on the desk and the cracks on the gem before it burst. Furrowing her brow, Emily takes out a pen and some paper to make notes. Why did the (lightning?) retain the shape of the gem once it was destroyed? Why did the (lightning?) only go towards the (junctions?) of cracks, not the other gaps? Why did I only feel the explosion on my head? Why did that metal start floating?! ¡°Hmm, well this can be split into three main issues,¡± Emily began saying to herself. ¡°The first two questions are on the strange persistence of that pattern. The force against my face is weird but not rted to the patterns at all. The metal floating is also strange, maybe a strange reaction between lighting and metal? Wait, my face mask is metal! Maybe the force on my face was from that. Okay, so only two major issues then.¡± Emily¡¯s ruminations are interrupted by a thumping on her door. ¡°Hey Emi! Everything all right? What was that noise?¡± Herber calls through the door. ¡°I¡¯m fine, messing about with ck powder again!¡± Emily panics and calls the first excuse thates to mind. Herber opens the door and sticks his head in. He takes in the scorch marks across the workbench and Emily¡¯s apron, then frowns then sighs exasperatedly. ¡°Please be more careful when working with explosives, I thought you said you learned your lesson already¡­¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± she offers weakly while looking away and refusing to meet his eyes. ¡°At least warn me when you¡¯re going to be working with anything dangerous in the future, please? I almost threw the watch I was working on when I heard that bang.¡± ¡°Okay, will do,¡± Emily replies, finally turning to look at him. ¡°Honestly,¡± Herber continues, cracking a grin. ¡°When you started asking me philosophical questions, I thought you¡¯d be doing something more profound than just trying to blow yourself up again.¡± Emily res at him as he chuckles lightly while leaving the room. She turns back to her workbench, letting out a sigh as she looks back at her sheet of questions. Right, let¡¯s start with the easiest of these to work out. The metal movement can¡¯t be investigated without more lightning, so ignore that for now. The lightning retaining the gem¡¯s shape can¡¯t be looked at without breaking another gem, and I don¡¯t want Dad to think I¡¯m getting into a habit of blowing myself up too much, so ignore that for now too. That leaves you. She taps the second question on the list with her pen for a few seconds, then opens the drawer and looks at her collection of gems. She picks out the biggest cracked gem and the most simr clean gem, mounting the two side by side on mechanical arms. She grabs a few more sheets of paper and moves the loupe to look into the cracked gem. Watching closely for the threads of lightning, Emily begins drawing the gem and tracing the paths the lightning follows. After half an hour of meticulous drawing, Emily has three perspectives of the gem on her paper. The pathways disyed across the page are an intertwined mess. They twist and turn, crossing and petering off at random intervals. But a smile grows on Emily¡¯s face as she gazes at them. Six points¡­ The ¡®lightning¡¯ only ever touches the edge of the gem at these same six points, and a vast majority of it goes to one of these points, with more going to the cracked one. Hmmm, they gather the ¡®lightning¡¯ so we¡¯ll call them ¡®focal points¡¯ for now. Nodding at her great naming sense, she calms her excitement and turns to the clean gem. She looked at a cracked gem first to use the crack as an external reference point and now must prove her theory of focal points'' existence on an unblemished gem. An hourter, having lost track of the rotation of the gem midway through her first attempt and having to restart, Emily is sat with another finished diagram of a gem''s internal pathways. Curious, this gem¡¯s the same size as the other but has seven focal points, does that make a difference? She questions while grinning madly at her confirmed theory. Chapter 6 – The Clockwork of Time Chapter 6 ¨C The Clockwork of Time After a few minutes of basking in excitement and redrawing the gem¡¯s core pathways between focal points, Emily decides to amend her notes. Why did the (lightning?) retain the shape of the gem once it was destroyed? Why did the (lightning?) only go towards the (junctions?) of cracks, not the other gaps? - Focal points Why did I only feel the explosion on my head? Why did that metal start floating?! What affects the number of focal points? Size? Strength of (lightning?)? Can focal points be used to extract (lightning?) without breaking the gem? With a few new queries in mind, she decides her order of business. If I want to test metal movement, I need to focus on thest point first, getting ¡°lightning¡± out of the gem. Emily grabs assorted small shards of metals and wood from her scrap bins, dumping them onto her workbench. Moving back to the cracked gem, she begins cing the materials against the visible focal point, watching the lightning¡¯s reaction through her loupe and making notes. The findings of her experiment exceed her expectations. The different types of wood cause little to no reaction in the gem, other than the acacia to which a few tiny threads reach out, but the lightning remains within the gem. Steel and iron give a minimal reaction, and a small amount of lightning does leave the gem, which she sees arcing when she moves the metal away. Bronze elicits no response whatsoever, and neither does raw tin. Raw copper, on the other hand, causes the same amount of reaction as iron and steel. Finally, Emily decides to test the ck metal the gems were encased in. When she ces arge piece of the unknown metal against the gem, she sees a slight reaction within, and a small arc follows it as it¡¯s pulled away. Hmmm, howe the gems weren¡¯t releasing ¡°lightning¡± constantly when encased in this metal? Does the size of the contact point make a difference? Adding that question to her notes too, she cuts off a tiny sliver of the metal and tests again, this time seeing a torrent of lightning flow out of the gem in a solid crackling beam. She tests the shard against other points on the gem and finds that while a few sparks leave from the rest of the gem, only the focal points allow arge flow of lightning. The ¡°lightning¡± seems to struggle to leave through the body of the gem, like it¡¯s resisting the flow other than to the focal points. Emily adds more scribbles to her notes and slowly gets lost in her work. *** Two weekster, Emily finishes summarising her notes excitedly while stealing nces at her newest creation. She ces her pen down while reading the note a final time to confirm it covers everything. Each lightning gem has several focal points along the pathways with the least resistance. ¡°Lightning¡± follows the path of least resistance. Thin metal has higher resistance than thick. The number of focal points varies based on size and the total amount of (lightning?) stored/generated. A bigger gem means more (lightning?) and therefore usually more focal points. Metals have different (lightning?) pull and conductivity, pull draws the (lightning?) out of the gem and conductivity transfers it. ck iron has strong pull and good conductivity. Acacia wood has low pull and no conductivity. Certain metals, iron not copper, can be moved by letting (lightning?) flow around it. One of her original queries remains unanswered, but Emily has answered enough of them to build what she believes to be a functioning machine containing a lightning gem. On the workbench in front of her, sits a delicate ck pocket watch. Its body is intricately lined with thin engravings of lightning streaking across it, its face traced by bronze metallic veins behind a clear ss window. It has three protrusions above it: in the centre a curved link of bronze, connected to a thin chain; to the left is a small, serrated knob; and to the right a small domed button. Emily picks it up, and presses the link on top, twisting it clockwise. There is a small click and the side of the watch pops open to reveal a jagged socket split in half, with eleven bronze dots distributed throughout the walls. She ces thergest lightning gem into the socket, its form perfectly joining with the sharp angles as she closes the two halves together and rotates the link back into ce with another click. Emily rotates the serrated knob counterclockwise till the hands sit at the current time of 7:45 pm, followed by ten full rotations clockwise to wind the internal mechanisms up. She hears the watch tick to life. Step one aplished, make a working pocket watch. I would be incredibly embarrassed if I failed at that step. She watches the clock tick by for five minutes, slowly growing in anticipation to test the mechanism that required the lightning gem to be installed in the watch. Turning it back. Her newest invention, if done right, should be the first pocket watch that never needs to be rewound again. With her intense gaze locked on the watch¡¯s face and her heartbeat loud in her ears, Emily holds down the button on top. Tick! One second passes and the seconds hand moves once. Tick! Two more seconds pass and the seconds hand moves once as Emily frowns. Damn, does it mess with the timings while rewinding? Tick! Three more seconds pass and Emily feels pressure constrict her whole body. She begins to panic. Tick! Four more seconds pass and Emily¡¯s breath gets stuck in her lungs, her breathing stops, suffocated by the pressure. Tick! The seconds hand stops, and the whispers begin. Unable to move due to the strange pressure enveloping her, Emily is subjected to a chorus of voices in her head. Each voice seems to speak at a different pitch and volume, creating a cacophony etched into her mind. The haunting sound is joined by a piercing jolt of pain in the back of her head as if someone has jammed a knife between her skull and her brain. After what feels to Emily like an eternity and an instant all at the same time, the voices stop as abruptly as they began. She is left with only the physical pain in her head and a set of words engraved into her brain. Congrattions Emily Coldstone. We have recognised your ingenuity in mixing your primitive knowledge of technology with magic. For this, we grant you a reward and ask of you a request. For your reward, we name you a Technomancer and give you the Technomancer System to aid in your pursuit of duality. For our request, we beseech you to use your ingenuity to reach the peak of power and save us from our inevitable death. Good luck, [User]. As Emily tries to process the words, the pain subsides, and a strange glowing blue window appears before her eyes. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Wee User {Emily Coldstone} Technomancer system initialisationmenced [Scanning host] _____ She reads the words that appear on the screen, watching them fade out of existence when she¡¯s finished. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Talent detected: Mechanical Genius [Error bnce needed] Talent granted: Magical Genius [System initialisation bonus] Intrinsic talent granted: Magical Engineer _____ ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skills detected: Parkour (passive), Basic Machine Construction (passive), Basic Melee Combat (passive) [System initialisation bonus] Skill granted: Basic Spellweave (active) _____ ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Knowledge detected: Basic Clockwork, Basic Steampower [System initialisation bonus] Knowledge granted: Basic Electrical Theory, Basic Mana Formation _____ ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [System initialisation bonus] Intrinsic equipment created: Clockwork of Time (Ex) _____ ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Initialisationplete] [Begin awakening] _____ Emily suddenly feels an ethereal flow around her in the stopped time. A vague buzzing of power just beyond her reach. The flow of the energy slowly bends, entering her mouth and cycling in ce of the breath that was stopped. She feels the energy spread through her veins and gather at her heart and brain. In her heart forms a vortex of energy, building up heat and gradually condensing throughout its rotations. In her head the energy fades, changing into cold lightning that causes a splitting pain as Emily¡¯s brain is moulded andpressed. The remain space is filled with new growth as her brain bes denser. After a few minutes, the flow of energy around Emily stills, as a burst of power emanates from her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congrattions! First Circle [Magic Circle] formed [Mana stat created] First Stage [Machina Cortex] formed [Machina stat created] _____ The construct around Emily¡¯s heart starts to pump mana through her body, the burning wave of power carving new channels and pathways into her flesh. Meanwhile, her cortex releases a flow of machina into her nerves, sending a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine as her awareness of her own body slowly increases. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Magic Circuit (passive) Skill created: Neuro Net (passive) [Compatible skills detected] [Merging skills] _____ The hot and cold energies collide, swirling together and forming a bnced equilibrium as a wave offort and pleasure spreads through Emily¡¯s body. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Intrinsic skill created: Magic Network (passive) [Awakeningplete] Please call [Status] in your mind to open the system in the future _____ As thest words fade from Emily¡¯s gaze along with the blue window, the seconds hand on the pocket watch held in front of her ticks backwards. Tick! Four seconds pass and space around Emily begins to constrict. Tick! Three seconds pass and Emily¡¯s breath is sucked from her lungs. Tick! Two seconds pass and the flow of mana and machina in Emily¡¯s body resists the external pressure, holding her together. Tick! One second passes and Emily¡¯s perception is ripped to pieces as lights and sounds stretch around and through her. Tick! Tick! Tick! The clock rushes backwards, tearing through temporal tides and pulling along its unwilling passenger. Tick! The watch stops at 7:45 pm as a wave of force bursts out of Emily, sending all the loose papers on her desk flying as a loud crash of thunder rings out from her, spreading throughout the whole city. She sits in a daze, her perception back to normal and the pressure gone, but her mind struggles to process the rush of events that just urred. Hurried footsteps grow increasingly louder before the door bursts open and Herber enters, quickly looking at Emily and taking in the state of the room. ¡°What in Goddess¡¯ name happened here? Are you okay?¡± ¡°Um, yeah. I¡¯m fine, a gust of wind just messed up my notes. Did you hear that thunder? Think it¡¯s gonna rain?¡± Emily quickly tries to deflect Herber¡¯s worry. ¡°Really? It sounded like it came from in here to me,¡± Herber questions before muttering under his breath. ¡°Not quite sure what it could be though, I don¡¯t see anyrge explosion sites in here.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not my fault for once. I thought the skies looked clear earlier.¡± Emily rxes into her lie and shrugs off Herber¡¯s concern. Standing up from her desk, she begins to gather the scattered papers while dismissing him. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything, go back to cooking and stop looking at me like I¡¯m about to blow up the house.¡± Herber res at Emily, trying to spot the crack in her fa?ade. Unable to call her bluff, he leaves with his suspicions unresolved. With Herber gone, Emily sighs and drops back down on her chair, dropping her notes onto the desk unsorted. She brings a hand to her forehead and starts massaging her brow as she tries to understand what just happened to her. What were those strange voices? Who am I meant to save and why should that be my problem? Did it say magic? Magic¡¯s real?! What was it I was meant to say to see that system again? Status? The familiar blue window popped into Emily¡¯s view again, this time containing a concise list of information. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 15 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 330/330 [Machina:] 330/330 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Talents: [Intrinsic] Magical Engineer -Mechanical Genius -Magical Genius Skills: [Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive) -Parkour (passive) -Basic Machine Construction (passive) -Basic Melee Combat (passive) -Basic Spellweave (active) Knowledge: -Basic Clockwork -Basic Steampower -Basic Electrical Theory -Basic Mana Formation Equipment: [Intrinsic] Clockwork of Time (Ex) _____ Reaching the bottom of the window, Emily¡¯s focus lingers on the Clockwork of Time, and the window suddenly changes. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Clockwork of Time] [Rank:] Exclusive (bound) [Description:] The first marvel of technology and magic created by the Technomancer Emily Coldstone and blessed by the will of the universe upon inception. [Effect:] Upon activation, rewind time by up to twenty-four hours _____ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Did I just time travel?! Chapter 7 – Scouring the System Chapter 7 ¨C Scouring the System Clearing the window from in front of her eyes, Emily looks over to the clock on her desk. The clock sits at 7:48 pm, matching the pocket watch in her hand. Yep, that said 7:50 when I hit rewind. This is insane. I¡¯m insane. Staring intently at the Clockwork of Time, she debates testing its function again to confirm her sanity but decides to take a breather and have a look at the mysterious new system instead. Status She calls out in her mind and sees the floating popup appear again. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 330/330 [Machina:] 330/330 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- {Please focus here to expand} _____ The window has changed slightly since she first viewed it, the long list at the bottom now shrunk down until she focuses on it. She tries reaching out to touch the system, only for her hand to pass straight through, staying faintly visible on the other side. Definitely not physical, I wonder if anyone else can see it? Is it being projected in front of me or in my mind? Only one way to find out! She stands up and moves to her bedroom, leaving the watch on the desk behind her as she leaves. Reaching her bedroom, she shuts the door and stands in front of the mirror. Calling out for the system again, which shut the second she lost focus on it, she looks at her reflection and sees only empty air where the blue window should be. Okay, it¡¯s in my mind. I wonder if that¡¯s what the pain in the back of my head was. Emilyys down in bed and stares at the floating window above her. Right, let¡¯s go through this from the top. I just need to focus on something for further exnation, right? She tries focusing on her name only for nothing in the window to change. I guess there isn¡¯t much else for it to say about that. How about my race? This time the window does shift. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Race:] Human [Traits:] Carbon-based lifeform, high adaptability, weak fleshy bodies The mostmon sentient species spread across the cosmos. _____ Spread across the cosmos¡­ I don¡¯t think anything else can surprise me after today. First, I time travel, then I find out there are other intelligent species in space, and now I think about it, I guess magic is real... like one of the stories Dad used to tell us when we were kids. Laughing to herself, Emily focuses on her attributes next. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes] The numerical values to represent the user''s body. All attributes increase with each increase in [Magic Circle] and [Machina Cortex] Some attributes can be increased with meditation, training or elixirs. _____ Thank Goddess there are no surprises here. I wonder which attributes are rted to my role as a technomancer. What is a technomancer? Also, what¡¯s a magic circle and a machina cortex? With her curiosity sparked, Emily reads through the rest of the visible options for full exnations. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magic Circle] The mage¡¯s power organ. A circle of pure mana condensed around the heart that disys a mage¡¯s level of enlightenment. Generates [Mana] and allows mages a connection to the world around them. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Machina Cortex] The mechanic¡¯s power organ. A mechanic¡¯s brain, optimised andpartmentalised by machina, that disys a mechanic¡¯s stage of development. Generates [Machina] and allows a mechanic a connection to machines around them. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Mana] Energy of the universe in its base conceptual state. Through gathering and transmutation of mana, mages can impart their truths on the world around them. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Machina] Energy of the universe in an altered state, fused with a being¡¯s bioelectricity. Through the expenditure of machina, mechanics can empower and connect with their machines or enhance their reflexes and processing speed. _____ All this wording is so weird! Impart their truths!? What is that supposed to mean? What¡¯s bioelectricity? And why don¡¯t health and stamina have exnations, are they just self-exnatory? ¡°Urgh my head!¡± Emily whines and rolls over to bury her face in her pillow. She breathes slowly to try and clear the endless questions building up in her head. Slow deep breaths. Just like Anna taught you. Breath in. Hold for three seconds. Breath out. Hold for two. Breath in. Hold for three seconds. Breath out. Hold for two. ¡°Hhaaaaa.¡± Emily focuses and enters a meditative state. Losing track of time, she begins to feel the ethereal flow around her again. It¡¯s faint this time. If before it was a raging torrent, now it¡¯s a calm brook. Seeing the flow again surprises Emily enough that she almost loses her rhythm and breaks her meditation. The warm sense offort she feels though, instead of the splitting pain she was expecting, calms her nerves. The stream of energy flows around her, gently caressing her body. A small part of the stream enters her mouth, so she allows her focus to follow it and be guided within herself. As the flow hits her lungs it¡¯s immediately pulled to her heart, where it cycles around her magic circle once before continuing to the rest of her body. Through twisting channels and pathways lined with lightning, the energy slowly washes through Emily¡¯s entire body, small strands splitting off intermittently to nourish her muscles and organs. Seeing the energy gently helping her body assuages most of her concerns about the changes she¡¯s undergoing. I think¡­ This is mana... It¡¯s beautiful. Emily takes a pause to empty her mind again and follows the flow once more. Once the flow reaches her cortex, Emily sees the mana undergo a fundamental change. The smooth flow is methodically taken apart, part of it continuing back to the lungs to leave the body, the other part being transmuted into lightning. The lightning shoots back through all the channels she just followed mana through slowly. In an instant, Emily perceives her entire body at the same time. It¡¯s not an overwhelming feeling; instead, it¡¯s a soothing sense of oneness. Her whole body brought together by this strangework of lightning shooting along beneath her skin. I guess this is machina, does that mean bioelectricity is just tamed lightning? Emily¡¯s calm meditation is forcefully shattered as she feels four zing suns of mana entering the building. Her eyes snap open and she shoots to her feet as she btedly hears the doorbell ring. Shit, they know. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Basic Meditation (active) _____ Blinking away the system notification, she quickly heads through the hallway, past Anna¡¯s closed door and into the kitchen. Approaching the door to the shopfront she slows, quietening her steps and listening carefully to the conversation she hears. ¡°-thought you could steal from the Mandrago family and get away with it? What do you have to say for yourself?¡± A voice she recognises as the tall man from before questions. ¡°I swear I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about! We gave over everything we took from the Hollow Warden!¡± Emily peeks through the doorway into the shop and sees Herber kneeling on the floor sweating profusely as the tall man res down at him. ¡°We felt the magical signature of one of our crystals from this shop, there¡¯s no use lying.¡± ¡°What crystals? Also, magic isn¡¯t real, why do you keep mentioning it?¡± Herber asks, visibly confused. Seeing Herber¡¯s confusion, the tall man frowns and turns to one of the short men behind him. ¡°Miguel, is he telling the truth?¡± Miguel steps forward, cing a hand on Herber¡¯s forehead, closing his eyes and beginning a chant. ¡°Heed my words and my blessings of light¡­¡± Strange shimmering white runes begin forming in the air around Miguel¡¯s hand. ¡°¡­with honesty as my guiding might. With lies banished and my conscience clean¡­¡± Thin white lines carve themselves into the air around the runes, forming aplicatedttice of mana. ¡°¡­let the light prevail and the truth be seen!¡± A glowing white light spreads from the runic circle to encase Herber, sitting calmly in the air around him. ¡°Are you hiding our magic crystals knowingly?¡± the tall man asks again. ¡°No!¡± Herber says, his voice quivering in fear as he looks at the supernatural phenomenon urring around him. The white light remains for a few seconds as Emily sits with bated breath, then fades out of existence as Miguel opens his eyes and turns around. ¡°He¡¯s telling the truth, Diego.¡± ¡°I see, in that case, it must be someone else in the shop. We don¡¯t need him anymore, Carlos!¡± The tall man, Diego, says while stepping aside to allow the muscr man behind him to approach Herber. ¡°No one in this shop has your crystals. I think I¡¯d know if my daughters were using magic!¡± Herber says with anger, struggling to his feet. Carlos says nothing, simply approaching Herber, producing a knife from within his robes and jamming it into Herber¡¯s throat in a smooth motion as he rises. ¡°AAHH,¡° Emily lets out a scream in shock before quickly covering her mouth, Herber¡¯s fallen form ovepping with the long-suppressed image of her parents bleeding out in front of her. Not again. Her heart drops, her breath catching in her throat as panic threatens to overwhelm her. ¡°Tsk,¡± Diego clicks his tongue. ¡±Miguel, Jose, capture her for questioning.¡± No, the watch can turn back time, it¡¯s fine, Dad will be fine. I can do something this time! Taking onest nce at Herber falling to the ground, clutching his throat as blood pours out, cold resolve settles in Emily¡¯s gut, dragging her back from the brink of despair as she turns and runs into the hallway with tears streaming down her face. Two pairs of footsteps chase after her, but she doesn¡¯t look back to see her pursuers, focused only on reaching her workshop. She bursts through the workshop door and scrambles to her desk, but instead of seeing the Clockwork of Time where she left it, she sees nothing but her notes and a few scattered tools. Damn it, I left it right here, where did it go? Feeling her panic build, Emily pulls the chair away from the desk and looks at the floor, finding nothing there she nces around the room and sees Miguel and Jose walk in. Taking a deep breath, Emily calms her nerves and calls up the system interface, navigating down to the Clockwork of Time again. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Clockwork of Time] [Rank:] Exclusive (bound) [Description:] The first marvel of technology and magic created by the Technomancer Emily Coldstone and blessed by the universe upon inception. [Effect:] Upon activation, rewind time by up to twenty-four hours _____ Reading through the description, she focuses on (bound). ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Bound items can¡¯t be removed from the user. Upon separation, the item will automatically return to the user. _____ If it returned to me when I left the room, then it has to be in one of my pockets! The two Mandrago mages are two steps into the room, eight steps away from Emily. Emily pats her trouser pockets and finds nothing. Six steps away. She reaches for her breast pocket and finds a familiar shape beneath the cloth. Five steps away. Pulling out The Clock she presses the button on top while ncing down at the time. Tick! Four steps away. It¡¯s 8:15 pm, only thirty minutes have passed since she first turned back time. Tick! Three steps away. Emily looks back up at the two men approaching, now moving in slow motion. Tick! Two steps away. She grins at them as thest of her panic washes away, reced by a calm confidence as she findsfort in the familiar pressure wrapping her body. Tick! One step away, and Jose reaches a hand towards Emily. Tick! The hand never reaches her. Time stops when Jose¡¯s hand is a few centimetres away from Emily¡¯s arm, then begins to wind backwards. Tick! Tick! Tick! Emily watches the men moving in reverse with fascination. Tick! Then space splits around her, and her perception is once again twisted to pieces. Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick! A wave of force once again bursts from Emily along with a crack of thunder, as the clocks hit 7:45 pm. I have thirty minutes to make sure Dad doesn¡¯t die. Hurried footsteps charge towards her workshop as Emily stands up and walks towards the door. The second Herber pushes it open, she dives into his arms and starts crying. Chapter 8 – Lies of Wind and Thunder Chapter 8 ¨C Lies of Wind and Thunder Herber confusedly pats Emily¡¯s back in reassurance as she sobs into his chest. After two minutes Emily has calmed down enough to speak coherently. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Emi? Are you hurt?¡± Herber asks with worry. ¡°I- I¡¯m fine,¡± she sniffles. ¡°I just fell asleep at my desk and had a nightmare about you dying. When the thunder woke me up, I thought I¡¯d lost you too for a second.¡± Herber flinches slightly at her choice of words, releasing a sad sigh as he strokes her hair and holds her tight. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Emi, I¡¯m not going anywhere anytime soon,¡± heforts her. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m not letting them take you. I won¡¯t lose another family. Emily¡¯s sadness slowly fades into indignant anger. She separates from Herber after a few more seconds and smiles at him. ¡°Sorry about that, I¡¯ll be fine now, it¡¯s just a bad dream.¡± ¡°No worries kid. Just call me if you need anything, okay? Even if it¡¯s just another hug. Me and your sister will always be there for you, no matter what.¡± Emily flinches as a new thought forms in her mind. Anna. I have to protect her too. ¡°Haaa,¡± she sighs and sits down as Herber leaves the room. She pulls over a clean sheet of paper. ¡°Right, how can I actually fix this?¡± Amazing n to save my family! Step 1: Find out if anything can be brought across time loops. Step 2: Work out if time loops move my body¡¯s position or not (think so, was sat down again) Step 3: Test if I can rewind past 7:45 Step 4: Can I kill four mages? Step 4.5: Finish looking at the system. Step 5: Can we get out of the city? Step 6: If all else fails, ask Dad. Tossing her pen down, Emily gets to work, calling out for the system. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 15 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 330/330 [Machina:] 330/330 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Talents: [Intrinsic] Magical Engineer -Mechanical Genius -Magical Genius Skills: [Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive) -Parkour (passive) -Basic Machine Construction (passive) -Basic Melee Combat (passive) -Basic Spellweave (active) -Basic Meditation (active) Knowledge: -Basic Clockwork -Basic Steampower -Basic Electrical Theory -Basic Mana Formation Equipment: [Intrinsic] Clockwork of Time (Ex) _____ After reading through the full status page again, Emily takes note of basic meditation carrying over from before the time reset. I guess that means system skills at least aren¡¯t affected by the time loop. I¡¯ll have to test damage to my body and clothes next time I rewind, let¡¯s test discement with this loop too. Checking the time and seeing 7:54, Emily grabs a sharp shard of metal from the scrap box and heads to her room. Leaving through the window, she runs through the city away from her house. After thirty minutes of running, she stops, lightly panting. My body was definitely improved by the awakening, I barely feel tired right now. She brings the metal shard out of her pocket and cuts the bottom of her shirt into slivers, then makes a few small nicks on her left arm. With her tests set up and still out of breath, she activates The Clock and returns to the past once again. *** Thunder and repulsive force return, and Emily finds herself back in her workshop at 7:45 pm. Checking her body, she finds her clothes back in a messy but whole state, and her arms clean of injury. My body returns to its old state and location at the time of return, but skills seem to remain through loops. Is it the system itself that¡¯s travelling back? My memories are too so I''m guessing it''s my cortex? Right, next on the list is ¡®Can I rewind past 7:45¡¯. She presses the button on top of the stopwatch again, reading the time to be 7:45:20. One rewindter, The Clock reads 7:45:06 and she presses the button the second it stops winding back. Nothing happens and after a second, she presses it again only for The Clock to instantly tick back to 7:45:06 with the familiar pressure of time travel missing. Small jumps seem to be easier, can¡¯t rewind back past thest point returned to though, noted. Maybe it just can¡¯t go back past The Clock''s initial creation? Needs further testing when I have more time. That¡¯s it for running away myself. Next is, ¡®Are those four mages kible?¡¯. Herber arrives through her door on time and Emily sends him away with lies of wind and thunder again and settles down to read through the rest of the detailed information her system has. Let¡¯s start with talents. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mechanical Genius] User is a natural-born mechanic. -Grants instantprehension of new mechanics [Knowledge] -Machina strength increased by +50% -Increased aptitude for inventing new machines -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Magical Genius] User is a natural-born mage. -Grants instantprehension of new magic [Knowledge] -Mana strength increased by +50% -Increased aptitude for creating new spells -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Magical Engineer] User {Emily Coldstone} has the unique ability to perfectly merge magic with machines. -Grants the ability to convert between machina and mana -??? _____ Why is thatst one question marks? I guess I¡¯ll have to wait and find out what it does, but what about instantprehension? Does that mean I should perfectly understand anything the system ssifies as mechanic or mage knowledge? Weird, I don¡¯t feel anything different, let¡¯s have a look at my knowledges then. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Basic Clockwork] A fundamental understanding of clocks and clockwork machines. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Steampower] A fundamental understanding of the usage of steam as a power source. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Electrical Theory] A fundamental understanding of the principles of electricity. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Mana Formation] A fundamental understanding of the natural formation of mana. _____ I¡¯m pretty sure I already understand clockwork and steam, I guess that¡¯s why the system said knowledge detected? I don¡¯t know what electrical theory is about, but does mana formation mean I should be able to understand the mana crystals now? ¡°Wait¡­ since when did I call lightning stones, mana crystals?¡± Emily mutters to herself in surprise. As she focuses on the concept of mana crystals, where before in her mind sat a cluster of questions and half-baked theories, now flows a smooth stream of information. Mana crystals are a naturally urring mineral in areas of high-density mana. They can be used as catalysts for enchantments, engravings or spells. Mana crystals naturally form into a runic matrix for optimised energy gathering. Emily grins excitedly at how naturally the information came to her and scrambles to grab her notes from earlier. Each lightning gem has several focal points along the pathways with the least resistance. ¡°lightning¡± follows the path of least resistance. Thin metal has higher resistance than thick. The number of focal points varies based on size and the total amount of (lightning?) stored/generated, a bigger gem means more (lightning?) and therefore usually more focal points. Metals have different (lightning?) pull and conductivity, pull draws the (lightning?) out of the gem and conductivity transfers it. ck iron has strong pull and good conductivity. Acacia wood has low pull and no conductivity. Certain metals, iron not copper, can be moved by letting (lightning?) flow around it. Reading over the note she¡¯s excited by how close her conclusions were to the truth she now knows. Having memorised the note, Emily tosses it to the side, then grabs some clean paper, a pen, and a mana crystal from the drawer. Gazing into the crystal, she begins to write the words falling into ce in her mind. These mana crystals contain lightning-attuned mana. The energy pathways carved through the crystal during formation, allow for smooth mana transfers between the gathering focal points. The number of focal points varies based on the runes that influenced the formation of the crystal. Theplexity of runes increases with the density of the mana they¡¯re formed from. Therger mana crystals store denser mana in greater amounts. Different materials have different levels of electrical conductivity and magical conductivity. Wood has no electrical conductivity under normal circumstances, but some woods, like acacia, have low magical conductivity. Metals all have electrical conductivity, and some metals have low magical conductivity. Most materials, metals and woods especially, can be magical conductors through extended exposure to dense mana, like the ck iron the mana crystals formed in. Some metals are also maic and can be moved by the flow of electrons in a maic field. Electromas can be formed by running electricity through coils of metal. Emily is broken out of her academic trance by the ringing of a bell across the building. Ah, I guess I¡¯m out of time for this loop. That was fascinating and all, but I''m not sure it¡¯s helping my situation. I need to focus more. Taking onest nce at her writing, she activates The Clock once again. *** Now well-practised at lying to Herber, Emily quickly dismisses his concerns about her safety and explosive habits and moves on: Okay, onest section left, skills. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magic Network (passive)] A unique energy system created by User {Emily Coldstone} with thebination of [Magic Circuit] and [Neuro Net]. The mana channels carved into the body¡¯s vascr system to form a magic circuit have fused with the host¡¯s neurological pathways creating a vastly enhanced energy distribution system. -Grants +100% to mana and machina regeneration -Grants -50% mana and machina usage -Grants +20% mental resistance -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Parkour (passive)] User knows how to move efficiently. -Grants +10% to agility when moving across tough terrain -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Machine Construction (passive)] Beginner mechanic¡¯s ability to create machines. -Grants +10% production speed -Grants +20% machine stats -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Melee Combat (passive)] User knows how to fight in close quarters. -Grants +10% strength and agility when fighting at close range -Grants +10% familiarity with fists and melee weapons -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Spellweave (active)] [Cost:] 40 Mana/Hr User can gaze into the truth of runes to form spells. -Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to use mana to experiment with runic matrices -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Meditation (active)] [Cost:] N/A Through controlled breathing and focus, user can gather mana from the atmosphere around them, and increase their understanding of mana. -Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to gather mana -Increases health, stamina, mana and machina regeneration while in use _____ Cool, some of these may be useful. Parkour may help if we try to escape, and maybe I can fight the mages hand-to-hand with meleebat. Carlos looked trained, but as long as I take him out with a ranged weapon the other three may be possible to beat. Emily shivers as she remembers Carlos pulling a knife from his robes and executing Herber with practised ease. She shakes her head clear and refocuses on her system. I don¡¯t think spellweave or meditation can help me right now. I don¡¯t know how to cast spells and don¡¯t have hours to waste in a trance, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever wake up if those nobles find me catatonic. What does the intrinsic before magicwork and clockwork of time mean though? ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Intrinsic] Marker of the truly unique! -Traits that are one-of-a-kind and unique to the holder -Intrinsic races will only remain intrinsic to the original holder when passed on -Some intrinsic skills can be taught and passed on, some remain user-locked -Intrinsic equipment is bound to the creator, unable to be separated from, or used by anyone other than, the user. _____ Okay, I understood about half of that, but it doesn¡¯t seem that important. Emily stands up and stretches before heading to the drawers of finished projects. ¡°If I¡¯m gonna fight four mages, I should go in armed right?¡± She rubs her hands together excitedly at the idea of getting to put some of her makeshift weapons to good use. Digging through the drawers she pulls out and tosses aside countless unrted creations until she finds a few weapons buried at the bottom. As she gazes at the weapons, she calls out for her system on a whim and is surprised by the information windows that pop out to greet her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Clockwork Repeater] [Rank:] F [Stats:] +1 Dex [Description:] A basic handheld crossbow with a six-shot revolving cylinder for quick sessive shots. [Effect:] Fires bolts at a rate of 1 bolt/s -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Single-Shot Hand Cannon] [Rank:] F [Stats:] +1 Dex [Description:] A basic breech-loaded hand cannon, fires a singlerge bullet packed with a lot of ck powder. [Effect:] Fires a single bullet for massive damage. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Telescoping ded Baton] [Rank:] F [Stats:] +1 Agil, +1 Str [Description:] A spring-loaded telescoped 1m baton with a ded end. [Effect:] Extends on button press, good for hitting and stabbing. _____ The system gives a useful breakdown of her self-made weapons. As Emily lifts the crossbow and hand cannon in a hand each, she feels a strange sense of resonance between her and the weapons, a feeling of control spreading through her body. This must be the stat bonuses. Smirking, she attaches the baton to her waistband as she hears the doorbell ring throughout the building. Silencing her footsteps like a predator on the hunt, she creeps towards the shopfront. Time to see what damage I can do. Chapter 9 – Futility Chapter 9 ¨C Futility Approaching the door to the shopfront, Emily tightens her grip on her weapons and listens to the familiar conversation as she waits for the ideal moment to strike. They looked really focused while casting that truth spell, I bet I can catch them off guard if I attack then. ¡°Miguel, is he telling the truth?¡± Diego¡¯s question signals her chance. Holding her breath, she stands and hooks the toe of her right boot around the door and swings it open past herself as Miguel begins his chant. ¡°-and my blessings of light¡­¡± Emily points the crossbow in her left hand at Diego and the hand cannon at Miguel, then freezes. Can I really kill a person? Her split second of indecision costs her dearly, as Carlos spots her and dives towards Diego with surprising speed, throwing the knife from within his robes and yelling: ¡°Watch out! Armed gunner!¡± Shit! Emily pulls the two triggers in panic. She feels a slight jolt in her left hand, and a jarring kick in her right. The crossbow bolt flies past Diego¡¯s head, narrowly missing him as Carlos tackles him to the ground. Miguel isn¡¯t as lucky, a sizeable bullet punching a hole through his chest as he opens his eyes from his chanting in disbelief. ¡°Argh!¡± Emily cries out in pain. Looking down, she sees the hilt of a knife jutting out of her stomach, she drops her weapons and starts reaching for her breast pocket to grab The Clock. While doing so she fails to notice the faint murmuringing from Jose, only realising her mistake as a bolt of ice tears clean through her left thigh. She falls to the ground with tears in her eyes, unable to support her weight on the injured leg. Grasping The Clock, she presses the rewind button and tries to ignore the pain as time slows. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congra¡­ _____ She sees a glimpse of a system message as her consciousness starts to fade. *** ¡°Aargh!¡± Emily is jolted back to attention by a loud, familiar thundercrack. ¡°Damn that hurt!¡± she mutters to herself while rubbing her side and thigh, trying to forget the visceral pain still lingering in her mind. I can¡¯t give them enough time to react like that again. I need to be able to reset the second the fight starts to fall in their favour. After shooing Herber away once again, she continues thinking over the failed fight she just started, remembering the system notification popping up at the end. What was that? System. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congrattions on your first kill! [Reward granted] Sub-system unlocked: Progression _____ Staring at the system message in shock, Emily starts to shake, remembering the look of horror and disbelief in Miguel¡¯s eyes after she shot him. Calm down, he deserves to die. They killed Dad. He deserves it. She closes her eyes and follows her breathing technique to calm her nerves. After a few minutes, her shaking stops and she opens her eyes again. ¡°He deserves death,¡± she repeats aloud to reaffirm her determination. Opening the system again, Emily sees a few changes. The top of the window is split into two sectionsbelled [Status] and [Progression]. There is also a small bell icon in the top right. She focuses on the bell first and a small popup appears. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Notifications] Mute notifications inbat? [Yes]/[No] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Congrattions on your first kill! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skill created: Basic Meditation (active) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Intrinsic skill created: Magic Network (passive) _____ The list continues on, and she quickly realises it¡¯s all the messages the system has sent her. I guess that¡¯s useful if I pass out again. Does muting mean I won¡¯t get system popups in a fight? Can¡¯t hurt to test. She focuses on the mute option, selecting ¡®yes¡¯ instead. Navigating back to the main window, she selects the progression tab. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] First Requirements: -Intelligence 22/35 (Not Complete) -Create 5/5 unique F rank machines (Complete) -Create 0/1 E rank machine (Not Complete) -Learn 0/5 first circle spells (Not Complete) -Learn 1/3 basic magic knowledges (Not Complete) _____ I assumepleting all these requirements will make my circle and stage increase, but why is one of them alreadyplete? It must count the machines I made before I got the system too. Neat! Emily stands up and starts pacing around her room while chewing on her thumb. Not sure how I¡¯m gonna learn basic magic knowledge though, and how can I increase my intelligence? The attributes page said some stats can increase through training, meditation or elixirs, but my meditation skill only said it increases mana and machina regeneration, not the stats. Is that an unspecified trait of the skill or do I need a higher-grade meditation technique? She nces over at the clock on her desk, sees it¡¯s 8:05 pm, and freezes on the spot. Damn, I got distracted again, this isn¡¯t going to help me right now since all the requirements will take time I don¡¯t have. As she berates herself, she clears out her drawers again and looks at the weapons sitting at the bottom. Right, that icicle came quickly, it can¡¯t have been more than a few seconds between me opening the door and that spell finishing. I shouldn¡¯t have assumed all spells would take as long as that truth spell. I need to keep The Clock in my hand at all times, so I can only take one ranged weapon. As she alternates her gaze between the crossbow and hand cannon, her mind drifts back to the dripping hole left in Miguel''s chest. She shivers and picks up the crossbow; clips the baton to her waistband again and shuts the drawer. Emily looks at the crossbow in her hands. It has a bulky rotating cylinder in the centre and a handle running through a few slots on the side used to reprime it and rotate the cylinder after each shot. Swinging the door open like that was a terrible idea. Therge motion alerted Carlos before I even got a shot off. I should try to shoot through the gap in the door instead of making myself a target. With a basic n decided, she heads into the kitchen to await the arrival of her prey. She doesn¡¯t have to wait long: after a few minutes, she hears the shop bell ring and moves to stand by the door. She watches through the crack as Herber gets on his hands and knees to beg his future killers for mercy she knows they won¡¯t give. Her grip tightens on her crossbow as she grits her teeth and resists the urge to shoot before they are distracted. The look of disgust mixed with twisted pride on Diego¡¯s face as he looks down at Herber only serves to fuel Emily¡¯s anger. He deserves to die. She repeats in her head, this time without a doubt, her apprehension washing out of her and her hand steadying. ¡°Heed my words and my blessings of light¡­¡± Miguel begins, and Emily aims her crossbow at Carlos. Twang! The small sound goes unnoticed till Carlos lets out a gargled cry of pain, dropping to the floor with a crossbow bolt lodged in his throat. Diego looks at his fallen nsman, then towards the door Emily is crouched behind. ¡°You dare attack the Mandrago family? Miguel! Jose! Kill everyone in this building!¡± he spits in anger before looking towards Herber with a sick grin and forming a few strange hand signs. Jose and Miguel start muttering as Emily panics and raises her crossbow to point at Jose, to prevent him from shooting ice at her again. She pulls the trigger. Another bolt flies out and Jose points at the ground in front of him. A thin wall of ice springs from the floor just in time to catch the bolt. Emily notices Miguel has stopped chanting and nces towards him. A bright sh of light blinds her. She winces and shields her eyes, dropping the crossbow and reaching for the baton at her waist. ¡°AAAHHHH!¡± Emily hears Herber¡¯s cry of pain and realises she¡¯s already lost the fight. Her vision quickly starts to clear, and she sees a blurry shape closing in on her. ¡°Tsk.¡± She clicks her tongue and presses the button on The Clock. Tick! Tick! She dodges a blurry fist and swings out while pressing the baton¡¯s extension button. The baton springs to full length, catching the man before her in the chin and sending him tumbling to the floor. Tick! Her eyes refocus enough to see past the still-standing Miguel to Diego turning away from Herber¡¯s wretched form. He has six spikes of stone brutally impaled through his arms, still folded legs, stomach, and chin. Emily grits her teeth, overwhelmed by a feeling of revulsion as she is unable to look away from the revolting disy of power due to the pressure holding her in ce. The choking feeling of helplessness wrenches free the locked away memories of her parents'' demise, their mangled corpses shing across Emily¡¯s mind as she returns to the past once more. Tick! Tick! Tick! *** Emily chokes back a sob as time resets, repressed pain tearing strips from her heart as new trauma settles on top. She hits the desk and stands up, using her anger to force the unwanted images from her thoughts. Sick bastard, he wasted time just to torture Dad. When Herber enters the room again, Emily hugs him while assuring him she didn¡¯t blow anything up. ¡°What were you doing beforeing to check on me?¡± she asks after his worries are forgotten. ¡°I was cleaning the shopfront. Why?¡± ¡°No reason. Want me to do that while you start on dinner?¡± ¡°Ha,¡± he rolls his eyes, turning to leave. ¡°If you¡¯re hungry, just say so. I left the broom behind the counter.¡± This time she grabs the hand cannon and baton, hiding the gun under her shirt as she walks past Herber in the kitchen. ¡°The dusting¡¯s done, it¡¯s only the floors left!¡± he calls as she passes through. ¡°Kay!¡± Emily shuts the kitchen door behind her. He¡¯ll probablye in when he hears the doorbell thiste, and Anna will definitely rush over when she hears fighting. I need to end the fight as quickly as possible to keep them from getting hurt. She moves to the side of the door and crouches next to a disy case filled with pocket watches, within a few paces of the door but not in direct sight. She calmly waits for the Mandrago family while considering her options. I can¡¯t give them time to cast spells. Diego can use some form of rock spikes, which will do some serious damage if I''m caught by one, if that icicle is anything to go by. She rubs her thigh, the pain still fresh on her mind as if it actually happened. The prick Jose can shoot icicles or block projectiles with ice walls. Miguel can blind me, and Carlos is skilled with a knife, but I don¡¯t know what magic he uses. I¡¯ll kill Carlos with the gun then go straight for Diego. The door to the shop is roughly kicked open as Carlos enters the room, followed closely by Diego. Perfect! Emily braces the hand cannon against the edge of the disy and lines the barrel up with Carlos¡¯ chest, quickly pulling the trigger while Diego is still close to him. Bang! A bullet flies forward, ripping straight through Carlos¡¯ heart and catching Diego in the shoulder behind him. ¡°Argh! Kill her!¡± Diego screams, ring at Emily and clutching his bleeding shoulder. Emily springs forward, dropping the gun and pulling out her baton. She slices the quickly extending stick towards Diego, slitting his throat as he tries to lean away. He drops to the ground and Emily leaps over his crumpled form, aiming the bloody baton towards Jose¡¯s knee. ¡°¡­hold fast in winter''s grasp!¡± Emily hears the end of his chant and tries to step back, only to be hit with a chilling cold as a wave of frost rushes towards her and locks her feet to the ground. Shit. A fist ms into the pit of her stomach. ¡°Ugh!¡± Emily grunts as she drops her baton, which Jose quickly kicks away. He steps beyond her reach and watches her coldly as Miguel hurries past him and starts chanting over the fallen Diego. ¡°By divine power and the light of the stars, mend all his ills and leave nought but scars. For the strength of this blessing to ensure he is healed, my life¡¯s a small fee and to you it I will yield!¡± Aplicated glowing runicttice of gold and red forms around Miguel and starts pulsing as a twisted crimson light flows out of him and into Diego. Emily presses The Clock¡¯s button and watches in rapt fascination as Miguel shrivels and Diego¡¯s wounds heal. *** Emily once again sets up beside the door, waiting for the moment to strike with all three of her weapons. This is risky, I should really have The Clock ready to activate, but I can¡¯t fight four mages with one hand. I only have two bullets for the hand cannon, and I won¡¯t be able to get to the guards'' post to steal more ck powder in time to make extra, so I have to make them both count. Miguel was able to heal Diego, but it looked like a one-time use, so he¡¯s still not a priority. She calmly waits for her prey with the hand cannon and crossbow raised, a spare bullet for the cannon held between her fingers on the crossbow grip. The door swings open and Carlos steps in again. Emily fires a shot from the hand cannon, ripping a hole in Carlos¡¯ heart and Diego¡¯s shoulder once again. ¡°Argh! Kill her!¡± Diego screams again as Emily releases a bolt from the crossbow. The bolt flies out, sailing past Diego and mming into Jose¡¯s chest, knocking him back. Emily rushes forward, dropping the crossbow and folding open the breach of the hand cannon, dropping the empty casing to the floor as she slides a fresh bullet into the chamber. A blinding light shes, but Emily predicts it, shutting her eyes and raising her hand cannon to fire at the source. Miguel drops, clutching his bleeding stomach as a new hole appears, and Emily opens her eyes again while reaching for the baton at her waist. Unfortunately, she doesn¡¯t predict Diego¡¯s fist connecting with her shoulder, sending her flying sideways into a disy case, shattering it as she tumbles past with a searing pain in her arm Fuck, he broke something. Emily chokes out a breath, the shock of the impact stunning her as she struggles to stay focused and turn to her attacker. Before she can raise herself from the floor, a foot connects with her side, mming her into the wall with inhuman strength, knocking the air from her lungs and cracking something in her chest. She coughs up blood, clutching her chest as she forcefully raises her head, meeting Diego¡¯s rage-filled gaze. ¡°Jose, Miguel, get up,¡± he hisses, never taking his eyes off Emily. ¡°Kill everyone else in this house and heal me for fuck¡¯s sake!¡± Emily looks over in horror as the two nobles drag themselves up from the floor, clutching their wounds but still breathing. How aren¡¯t they dead? Those wounds should be fatal. She notices the bolt in Jose¡¯s chest is only buried to halfway up the shaft, and Miguel is surrounded by a warm golden glow that seems to focus on his stomach, holding back the blood trying to pour from the gaping wound. Damn it, how hard are Jose¡¯s bones? I need to aim for a weaker point, and Miguel can stop his own bleeding, so I need to kill him instantly too. She presses the button on The Clock through her shirt without Diego even noticing, rxing her hold on her consciousness as she falls back through time again. *** Emily returns back to her room, sending Herber away and retrieving her weapons from their resting ce once again. This time, instead of moving straight to the shopfront to set up, she drops her weapons onto her workbench and looks over them with a critical eye. ¡°I need to take better advantage of my surprise attack andnd as many blows at the same time as I can,¡± she mutters to herself, ncing at the clock on her desk and considering how much time she has till the mages arrive. ¡°I don¡¯t have long so it has to be simple.¡± Her eyes fall on the spare ammo for her hand cannon and an idea strikes her. She instantly springs up, rushing around her workshop and gathering a few scattered materials, dropping them onto her workbench beside her weapons. Her hands turn into a blur of creation as she knits together a few pieces of pipe, some gears, and a wire into a strange, twisted excuse for a gun. It¡¯s ugly and crude, stinging Emily¡¯s pride slightly, but it¡¯s exactly what she needs right now: a small, break-action barrel, with a spring-loaded firing pin lined up behind it, attached to a thin trigger wire. She ties a simr wire around the trigger of her hand cannon, before grabbing a few mps from her drawers and hiding the bundle in an empty sack. ncing at the clock on her desk, reassuring herself she still has time, Emily leaves the workshop. She passes Herber in the kitchen, barely giving a response when he informs her about the broom and questions the sack, already nning her firing angles. She steps into the shopfront and quickly locates two solid mounting points on the disy cases, dashing over to the first and crouching down, pulling the hand cannon from the sack and lining it up with the door against the side of a table-leg. Emily pulls a mp from the sack, twisting it shut around the pistol and locking it in ce. She trails the wire to a good hiding spot and drops it, carrying her sack to a second position, raised and more exposed than the first, but also tucked just behind the door when it¡¯s open wide, hiding the trap from an entrant¡¯s field of view. She finishes her setup and settles into ce behind a cab a few minutes before her targets arrive. She takes the crossbow and baton in each hand and raises the former in anticipation. The hand holding the baton also grips the two trap¡¯s wires, waiting to spring them at a moment¡¯s notice. Emily waits with bated breath, a shiver of excitement and anticipation running down her spine as the door swings open. Please work. She waits a moment for the mages to file into the room before yanking on the string in her off-hand and squeezing the trigger of her crossbow. Two loud bangs ring out, covering a small twang and hiss, as the Mandrago mages are hit by a wave of unexpected violence. One bullet tears a hole through Carlos¡¯ heart and Diego¡¯s shoulder, and the other punches clean through Miguel¡¯s heart behind them. The arrow from Emily¡¯s crossbow flies out, mming home into the side of Jose¡¯s throat, causing him to gasp for air and frantically reach up to grasp the foreign object jutting from his breathing tube. A rush of endorphins floods Emily¡¯s system as she springs forward, not wasting any time, unwilling to make the same mistake and be kicked around by Diego again. Luckily, she reaches him before he can fully process the sudden ambush, and shes out with the baton, slicing a line through his throat once more. He copses to the ground, clutching both wounds, as Emily continues on to finish off Jose properly. He reacts to her approach, holding out a hand and trying to mutter a chant, but the obstruction to his breathing makes speech far harder than anticipated, and Emily¡¯s foot soon connects with his windpipe, knocking the arrow free as it gouges a wide hole that lets blood flow freely to the floor. He slumps back, a look of panic, pain, and disbelief contorting his face as he frantically grasps at the wound leaking out thest dregs of his life. His distressed reaction sews a small seed of doubt in Emily¡¯s mind about her ruthless murders, but it¡¯s quickly forgotten as the image of Herber¡¯s defiled body shes across her mind, sending shivers down her spine and almost making her puke. She turns away from the dying man to check on the other three, finding them all lying still, thest of the heat fading from their bodies along with their blood, the shopfront stained with the evidence of her brutality. Emily isn¡¯t given any time to appreciate her sessful n as the door to the kitchen bursts open and Herber steps in, frantically looking around. His eyes lock on Emily, scanning her for injuries, and the tension in his shoulders rxes slightly as he finds her safe, but his concern quickly shifts to confusion and horror as he takes in the bloodbath surrounding her. ¡°What have you done?¡± he hisses as a cold wind sweeps over the city, sending a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine. The doubt and questioning in Herber¡¯s gaze punctures Emily¡¯s heart, but she tries to ignore it, knowing he¡¯ll understand when she¡¯s exined herself. She takes a deep breath to begin, but finds herself frozen. She doesn¡¯t even hear as Herber calls to her again: questioning her actions while growing more panicked at the sight of the dead nobles. She is frozen by her awareness of an immense, sickening presence that has suddenly focused on her. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and the breath in her throat seems to lock in ce, choking her as she feels herself to be the focus of a powerful predator. Like a desert hare stuck in the gaze of a sand stalker, her instincts scream danger. ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± Emily hisses, surprising Herber as he tries to approach her. She spins around to face the door, the cold trickle of machina down her spine helping her regain control as she feels the presence grow more intense, approaching her rapidly. She reaches for her breast pocket, her fist closing around The Clock as the pressure bes unbearable, and a sudden, immense force locks her in ce. What¡¯s happening? Her heartbeat slowly increases, thumping a loud rhythm in her ears as she¡¯s pulled slowly towards the door against her will, sliding through the air without moving a muscle. She¡¯s dragged out into the sunlight, where she sees everyone gathered on the street staring up at a floating man in awe and terror. The man is tall, his presence maderger by the unnatural way he calmly stands in mid-air with his hands behind his back and the small, glittering green orbs of runes floating behind him. He seems to be in his early twenties, with well-kept, golden blonde hair, but his deep, piercing blue eyes betray a wisdom that can onlye with age. The stormy rage in his gaze announces anything but calm and chokes Emily. ¡°Who do you work for?¡± he asks coldly, his voice ringing out in violent waves of sound that vibrate Emily¡¯s head, making her feel nauseous. She opens her mouth to answer, and realises it¡¯s not just his presence choking her. Emily tries to speak and finds her lungspletely empty. She tries to breathe in, but no matter how hard she pulls, her lungs won¡¯t expand as no air will enter them. Her heart beats faster, panic setting in as a dull ache gnaws at the base of her skull. ¡°Who do you work for?¡± the domineering mage asks again, and Emily notices the slight, cruel upturn to his lips as speaks. I can¡¯t speak if I can¡¯t breathe, asshole! ¡°Emily, what¡¯s going on?¡± Emily hears Herber ask behind her, but she can¡¯t answer, nor does the mage spare him even a nce. Finally, the vice grip around Emily¡¯s lungs releases, and she gasps for air before rasping: ¡°No one!¡± ¡°Tell me the truth,¡± the mage says calmly, pulling a hand from behind his back and gently flicking his finger towards Emily, one of the spell orbs behind him pulsing lightly as he does. ¡°Who do you work for?¡± A sudden burst of pain hits Emily as she feels her left arm snap in two. She grits her teeth, hissing out through them but refusing to scream as her gaze fills with rage, a glint of cold electricity racing across her eyes. ¡°She works for me. Can I help you?¡± Herber asks, sweat dripping down his brow and his hands shaking slightly as he steps into Emily¡¯s line of sight. Emily¡¯s blood runs cold as the mage¡¯s eyes flit over to Herber, an irritated scowl shing onto his face for a moment. He doesn¡¯t even deign to respond, simply flicking his wrist towards Herber. Emily watches in horror as Herber freezes in ce and a small plume of dirt sprays up behind him. Slowly, his body slips apart, as four clean slices dissect him. Emily resists the urge to vomit, swallowing her bile as his chopped intestines stter across the ground. Several onlookers scream, and a few are sick, but the culprit doesn¡¯t seem to notice they exist. ¡°Well, are you going to tell me?¡± he practically hisses, his voice cutting a slice out of her ear as it hits her in a burst of wind. Emily forces down her revulsion and raises her head to answer again, stalling for time as she tries to move her fingers to activate The Clock. However, a scream in the shop behind her makes her pause, fear mping her heart as the flying mage nces past her. I won¡¯t let him touch Anna! Emily grits her teeth harder, cracking something as a small burst of machina floods her right thumb, and it slowly creeps down. She squeezes her hand with all her might, forcefully working through whatever spell is holding her in ce as the mage speaks to her again and she doesn¡¯t even hear him. He starts to float down towards her, as the panicked sounds of struggle behind her increase her urgency, but he never reaches her. The Clock finally activates, its ticking slowing to a halt and reversing as Emily rxes, exhausted from the encounter. I can¡¯t kill those four if it means this monster will show up... I can¡¯t win. Chapter 10 – Behind Enemy Lines Chapter 10 ¨C Behind Enemy Lines As time is set back into motion again, Emily grasps her desk, taking a few shaky breaths to calm down. Though the pressure of the mage¡¯s presence, and the vice-like grip of his spells, vanished as she reset time, the fear still coils around Emily¡¯s heart. Her distress is washed away as Herber bursts in, alive again. His voice calms her, although she can¡¯t shake the memories of his violent deaths and she winces as she remembers the look of distrust on his face when he saw what she is capable of. Emily quickly forces those thoughts away, reminding herself they never really happened, as she sends Herber away again, none the wiser to her mental anguish. ¡°I can¡¯t fight,¡± Emily mutters, standing up and opening a drawer on her workbench. She pulls out a small brown pouch. Peeking inside, she sees seven glistening blue mana crystals, the two remaining cracked crystals long lost to her experimentation. ¡°But maybe I can hide.¡± She walks to her room, grabs a small knife from her bedside table, and slips out through the window unnoticed. I have twenty-five minutes till Diego arrives. They seem to being straight to our house every time, but why? Did they pinpoint the location of my awakening the moment it happened or are they sensing my mana anding to us because of that. If it¡¯s thetter, maybe I can throw them off the scent with these. Emily clutches the pouch of mana crystals as she runs down the side street beside the shop. She crosses a few streets, slowing down when shees to the more popted ones to try not to draw attention to herself. First, let¡¯s try spreading them over as wide an area as possible. A few minutes away from home, tucked in a dark alley between two shops, she pulls out a single crystal and brings her knife up to it. Holding the gem away from her body just in case, she repeatedly stabs it lightly, rotating it until her knife catches a focal point, instantly spreading a small web of cracks. The moment the cracks appear, Emily throws the crystal at the floor behind her and runs on, moving away as a sizzling explosion goes off, searing the cobbled street. She changes her direction and continues, trying not to leave an obvious pattern with her home at the centre as she weaves through the winding city streets, setting off several more explosions while ignoring the concerned pedestrians that investigate the loud noises. After emptying the pouch, Emily returns home to check the results of her magical smokescreen. She slips back in through her window and waits in her room with bated breath for the dreaded sound of the front doorbell. Unfortunately, a few minutester, she hears it. Making her way to the kitchen, she opens the door to the shop front and looks in, seeing the expected mages standing before Herber. They¡¯re questioning him in the same manner as usual, seemingly oblivious to Emily¡¯s attempts to distract them. Damn, that did nothing. She quietly clicks her tongue as she activates The Clock. *** This time, after leaving her house with the pouch of crystals, Emily sticks close to home, hoping a denser set of mana signals might mask the location of the original surge. She moves between the buildings on their street, setting off a crystal in every alley she can on either side of their home until she runs out. Then she returns home and waits in her room once more, her foot impatiently tapping the floor as she waits for Diego to arrive. Emily isn¡¯t surprised when she hears the familiar chime of the door once again, already suspecting her n won¡¯t work, but she is shocked when she looks into the shop front and sees Diego¡¯s state. He¡¯s standing before Herber with a look of rage set on his face, spitting out words filled with vitriol while his hands move in a precise blur of motion. Without hesitation, Emily activates The Clock again, turning back time just as Deigo pauses his movements and a shard of rock erupts from the floor at an angle, stabbing a confused Herber through the chest. *** Distractions with the crystals don¡¯t work. They must either be tracking me, or have already pinpointed my awakening. Emily sighs as the fluttering papers around her settle and Herber bursts into the room. She reassures and sends him away again, once again taking the pouch of magic crystals from her workbench and following him out of the room. ¡°Hopefully it¡¯s me,¡± she mutters as she enters her room, shutting the door behind herself and heading straight for the window. She slips out and immediately sprints away, heading deeper into the city to hide amongst the residents. She checks the time periodically, counting down until the mages are set to arrive at her home, and stops the moment the clock strikes 8:15. They should be there by now. Emily ducks into a side alley, passing a few urchins attentively watching a nearby food stall for an opportunity to strike, and settles down in the shadows to wait. She watches the time tick by, only rising after twenty minutes have passed. ¡°That should be long enough,¡± she mutters, standing up and making her way back home. The return journey feels like it takes twice as long as the escape, her heart hammering in her chest as she gets closer, a small hope bubbling in her chest that hiding has worked. However, as she steps into sight of Herber¡¯s shop, her heart drops. The doors to every home and shop within a five building radius, including Herber¡¯s, are standing wide open, and Emily immediately notices the familiar scent of blood hanging in the air. She moves forward, her footsteps slow and heavy, and nces into the closest home. She sees a familiar couple lying in pools of their own blood, the wife clutching her young son¡¯s corpse desperately even in death. Emily activates The Clock again, already knowing the state of her own family. I can¡¯t hide. *** Emily offers to clean the shopfront again and watches Herber leave before taking the crystals from her workbench once more. ¡°I guess I have to try bargaining,¡± she mutters as she pockets the pouch and leaves her room with just the baton strapped to her belt. Arriving at the shopfront, Emily closes the door behind her and makes her way behind the counter, dropping the pouch on it and clutching The Clock in one hand. She sits down on the stool and taps her foot impatiently while watching the door. This is a terrible idea. There is a high chance they¡¯ll kill me for stealing from them, but maybe I can offer myself as a servant or something to get them to let Dad and Anna off if they don¡¯t. Steeling herself with grim determination, Emily maintains a calm front as the door opens. ¡°Hello, sirs. Are you looking for these mana crystals?¡± she asks while opening the top of the pouch enough to let the mages see in. ¡°Yes, we are. How do you know what these are?¡± Diego questions suspiciously, ring down at Emily, while Carlos collects the pouch from the counter. ¡°Ah,¡± Emily squeaks as she realises she said too much, ¡°I ¨C I didn¡¯t at first, I took them from the scrap heap in a lump of metal thinking they were pretty stones. Then after studying them for a while, I managed to draw power from them and realised they were magic.¡± ¡°How does she know about magic? She¡¯s amoner?¡± Miguel questions sceptically. ¡°Miguel, shut up and check her for mana!¡± Diego¡¯s eyes glisten with greed as he listens to Emily speak. Emily gulps and tightens her grip on The Clock as Miguel walks towards her. Damn it! I may need to go back and try again ¨C perhaps open my mouth less next time. At least they seem more curious than stabby right now. Just as Miguel closes in on Emily, the door opens and Herber looks in with a confusion that slowly shifts to horror and fear as he processes what he sees. ¡°Carlos, we don¡¯t need him, deal with it!¡± Emily panics as she hears Diego giving a familiarmand to Carlos. Really? Even if I give them what they want, they still want to kill Dad? ¡°What are you doing?! I gave you your crystals back. It was me who took them. He has nothing to do with this!¡± Diego looks at her with scorn and sneers. ¡°You¡¯re his daughter are you not? The father should pay for the crimes of the child!¡± Miguel roughly grabs Emily¡¯s wrist as she tries to step forward, and tells her: ¡°There¡¯s no point in resisting. Your old man¡¯s already done for, but you may be allowed to live if you prove valuable to the family.¡± ¡°I¡¯m-¡° Emily starts to say something, but chokes on her own words, unsure if she can bear to see Herber¡¯s reaction to them. Her hesitation costs her. She watches Herber attempt to fight back, punching towards Carlos, who smoothly sidesteps his fist and jams a dagger between Herber¡¯s ribs. He steps back and wrenches his de free as Herber coughs up blood and staggers. Carlos gives one final flourish, delivering a quick stab to the dying man¡¯s throat and apathetically watching him drop to the ground, clutching the gushing wounds. Seeing her father die in front of her again, tears well up in Emily¡¯s eyes as a familiar feeling of hopelessness overwhelms her. She¡¯s shocked from her torment when she feels an unpleasant invasive mana trying to enter her body through her grasped wrist. ¡°Urgh, what is that?¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t resist the scan. It will only make this more painful!¡± Emily decides to allow the mana in when Miguel calls it a scan, but she tenses her finger over The Clock¡¯s rewind button just in case. The foreign mana washes through Emily¡¯s magic channels feeling like a cold snake creeping its way under her skin. When the mana returns to Miguel¡¯s hand, he gasps and quickly turns to Diego. ¡°She¡¯s a first circle mage!¡± A wide grin spreads across Diego¡¯s face as he asks Emily: ¡°Good! How old are you?¡± She res at him without speaking. ¡°If you don¡¯t answer I¡¯ll have Carlos go find your sister and ask her,¡± Diego calmly continues, taking a pointed nce towards Herber¡¯s corpse. Emily grits her teeth and tightens her grip on The Clock before pausing and trying to hold back her anger so she can gather more information before resetting. ¡°Fifteen.¡± ¡°Perfect! Has anyone ever taught you magic and how did you awaken?¡± ¡°No one has ever taught me magic. I found those crystals in the wreckage of the Hollow Warden like I said. Then I experimented with them and felt the mana they gave off. From there it was easy to work out how to breathe it in to form a magic circle,¡± Emily exins while watching Diego for any reaction to her words. He narrowed his eyes when I said mana. ¡°How did you know these were called mana crystals?¡± Emily clicks her tongue, realising her mistake. I guess other people don¡¯t get a system to give them information whenever they awaken. I shouldn¡¯t use any magical terms in front of them until they use them. ¡°I just did. When I created my circle, I could tell what mana was instantly.¡± She tries ying innocent to diffuse his suspicion, but it proves ineffective. ¡°Hmm,¡± Diego squints at her trying to read her expression for any signs of deceit. ¡°I find you highly suspicious. But¡­ if you truly are a fifteen-year-old self-awakened, with a strong enough connection with mana to have an instinctual understanding of it¡­ you¡¯re far too valuable to leave here.¡± Emily shivers as a chill runs down her spine at the glint of greed shining in Diego¡¯s eyes. ¡°Come with us and be a vassal of the Mandrago family!¡± hemands. ¡°What?! No way! You killed my father!¡± Emily spits back in anger. ¡°And I can still kill your sister!¡± Emily goes silent and considers her choices. They don¡¯t seempletely dead set on killing my family, so that may work... With a bitter sigh, Emily activates The Clock again. ¡°Only one way to find out.¡± *** After reassuring Herber that the thunder wasn¡¯t her once again, Emily begins a new lie. ¡°You were cleaning the shopfront, right?¡± she asks. ¡°Yeah, why?¡± Herber responds. ¡°Can you go start on dinner while I finish then? Please?¡± Herber blinks in surprise, but nods his head without resistance. ¡°Sure, you getting hungry?¡± ¡°Yep. Oh, and if you hear peopleing in, please leave me to deal with them.¡± Herber¡¯s expression falls, a tired sigh slipping from his lips. ¡°What have you done now?¡± The words stab at Emily¡¯s heart, ¡®What have you done?¡¯ echoing another scene, a scene when those words didn¡¯t indicate resigned indulgence, a scene when he asked the same question in horror and confusion as she stood above the dead bodies of her foes. ¡°Nothing,¡± she says without missing a beat, trying not to let him notice the tightening of her jaw. ¡°It¡¯s just Todd and Howarding to talk to me about a kid that tried to jump me yesterday, nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°That¡¯s odd, they normally just ignore your fighting. Is it a city kid?¡± ¡°Yeah, but don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s just a little roughed up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, Emi,¡± Herber says, ruffling her hair before turning to leave. ¡°Juste grab me if you need help. Oh, and the broom¡¯s behind the counter. All the dusting¡¯s done, it¡¯s just the floors left.¡± He vanishes into the hallway, and Emily lets out a small sigh of relief before grabbing the crystals and following him. She walks into the shopfront again, settling down behind the counter and waiting for the Mandrago mages to arrive. After a few minutes, the door swings open and they step in, their focus immediately falling on Emily and the pouch of crystals before her. ¡°Hello, sirs. Are you here to collect these crystals?¡± she asks with a rxed fa?ade, watching for any small reactions to her words. ¡°Yes, we are,¡± Diego responds, gesturing for Carlos to grab the bag. ¡°How did you know?¡± ¡°I assumed someone would being after themotion I caused.¡± Emily notices a flicker of intrigue on Diego¡¯s face as she admits to causing the thunderp. ¡°That was you? What did you do?¡± he asks before ncing down at the pouch Carlos passes to him. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Emily lies. ¡°I managed to draw out the energy in those crystals and worked out how to form a condensed circle of it around my heart. The moment I finished, that thunder happened.¡± Diego¡¯s eyes light up with greed, and he quickly opens the pouch to look inside, pulling out one of the gems and inspecting it. ¡°Did you cut these yourself? They¡¯re incredibly well done. Where are the rest? There should be eleven.¡± ¡°They were destroyed while I was experimenting with them.¡± ¡°I see. Miguel, check her for mana. Carlos, deal with the other two.¡± Emily flinches at the change of hismand, now targeting Anna as well from the get-go, but she takes a deep breath and opens her mouth to argue. ¡°Wait, they have nothing to do with this.¡± ¡°Of course they do. They¡¯re your family are they not?¡± Diego questions her as Miguel grips her wrist and starts his scan. ¡°No, they¡¯re not,¡± Emily says, schooling her expression and maintaining a mask of neutrality and apathy as her own words carve away at her heart. ¡°I¡¯m not actually rted to them. Herber took me in off the streets. I just work for him.¡± Diego raises a brow, unsurprised but seemingly amused. Carlos pauses, turning away from the door into the kitchen to look at Diego for his orders. Diego makes eye contact with him, and a creepy smile forms on his face, sending a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine. ¡°She¡¯s a first circle mage!¡± Miguel calls, only making Diego¡¯s smile grow, greed dripping from his lips. ¡°How old are you?¡± he asks her, still not giving a verdict on her family¡¯s lives. ¡°Fifteen.¡± ¡°Has anyone ever taught you magic?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Fine. I won¡¯t touch the others in the house then,¡± he says, but the creepy smile on his face only makes Emily¡¯s instincts scream foul y. ¡°Come with us and be a vassal of the Mandrago family.¡± Something¡¯s wrong here. He doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s actually dropped it. ¡°What do you mean be a vassal? I don¡¯t think you need a personal clockmaker, and I¡¯mfortable here,¡± Emily deflects, watching Diego closely. His smile falters for a moment, and his brow twitches, but he quickly attempts to cover it and continue. ¡°If you be a vassal of our family, you wouldn¡¯t need to remain a simple clockmaker. You have talent as a mage that will be useful to our family. We¡¯ll teach you how to use that talent properly: how to cast magic,¡± he says holding out his hand, a light brown mist of mana flowing from his skin. ¡°Also, you stole from us. And destroyed some of our property. It¡¯s only right that you pay if off by working for us. Those crystals are worth more than you could possibly pay for working in a ce like this.¡± Emily¡¯s jaw tightens at his disregard of Herber¡¯s shop. However, the idea of magical education does strike a chord, sending a jolt of anticipation down her spine. I need to progress to kill them. And I need to gain magical knowledge to progress. Why not bend the knee now to cut off their headster? A sinking feeling in her gut holds back the building excitement as she stares at Diego¡¯s off-putting grin. I don¡¯t trust him. There¡¯s definitely a catch he¡¯s not mentioning. Not letting her apprehension show, Emily nods her head. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll join you.¡± ¡°Perfect!¡± Diego beams, turning on his heel and gesturing for Emily to follow. They all file out of the shop, the other mages falling in line without needing amand as Diego leads them through the city: Miguel and Jose on either side of Emily, and Carlos trailing them. Looks like they don¡¯t trust me even after threatening me with my family¡¯s lives. She grits her teeth as she stares at Diego¡¯s back, the temptation to slit his throat for the things he¡¯s done to Herber in frozen time still strong. Emily takes a deep breath quietly before looking around to distract herself, watching as the tightly clustered buildings and cobbled streets slowly turn to smooth paving and expensive-looking mansions. Despite herself, she is impressed by the grandeur, never having been allowed this deep into the city before. The guards that have kept her out be increasingly apparent, patrolling the streets, carefully watching their group and bowing their heads when they see the Mandrago crest. After twenty minutes of walking, the groupes across arge hedge bordering an expansive estate which is disconcertingly green, given its desert location. Diego guides them towards therge ornate gates, shing his crest towards the robed guards standing on duty. The guards open the gate without a word and Emily follows Diego in, admiring itsplicated form of intertwining metal roots, with the Mandrago family crest proudly emzoned in the centre. Stepping into the grounds, Emily pauses and feels a familiar pressure around her. Is this mana? They either built this estate on a mana vein or are burning through mana crystals to maintain this density. I wonder if that¡¯s why there are so many nts here. ¡°Keep moving!¡± Carlos urges her forward with a cold tone. She steps forward as she notices Carlos quietly talking to one of the guards behind her, but she can¡¯t quite catch their words. The guard¡¯s gaze shifts to her, so she looks forward again and moves her hand, checking for The Clock in her pocket to calm her nerves. They quickly move through the grounds ande across an imposing mansion with two expansive wings nking the main building. Emily sees countless servants and guards roaming about the premises, with a few robed people moving around with purpose, being given a wide berth wherever they go. Diego leads them up to the main building¡¯s entrance, which already stands open. Four guards wearing borately engraved armour move forward to stop them. ¡°Halt! State your business entering the main residence!¡± the guard in the leadmands Diego. ¡°I bring a newmoner talent for induction,¡± Diego answers smugly. The guard frowns and presses Diego. ¡°Normal induction can be done in the branch wing. Why bring her here?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a fifteen-year-old self-awakened. I thought the Patriarch would want to see her after induction.¡± The guard is visibly shocked at the response, and quickly nces towards Emily. However, the mention of a patriarch sends a shiver down her spine as her mind immediately associates the powerful floating mage with the title. It¡¯s got to be him. ¡°I see. Take her to the second reception room and deal with her induction. We will inform the Patriarch and you shall be summoned when necessary.¡± One of the guards runs into the building, and the others move to the side, allowing them to pass. Emily shifts ufortably as the gazes of the guards all follow her as she is led into the building. They enter arge room with dozens of hallways and doors splitting off, and an extravagant set of stairs, covered with a deep green carpet, dividing the room through the centre. Their small group quickly passes the stairs and moves through one of the unremarkable doors tucked into the back of the room. The room they enter isrge and inly furnished, with several sofas and a few paintings depicting stern-looking men in robes glowering out at the room¡¯s inhabitants. Emily feels her skin crawl as the eyes of the paintings seem to follow her. ¡°Sit down and wait,¡± Diegomands while taking a seat on one of the sofas himself. Emily picks a seat slightly separated from him and studies the room, avoiding looking too closely at the paintings. Weird, I feel like I¡¯m being watched right now, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s just these paintings. She closes her eyes and begins to meditate, feeling for the flow of mana around her. As she enters a trance, instead of directing her focus within herself like she did thest time she meditated, Emily tries expanding her senses. Her perception slowly spreads, seeing the weaving flow of mana calmly enveloping everything around her, until she reaches a radius of four and a half metres. She watches the mana around her, mesmerised by the natural flow, until she notices a strange break in the current. Focusing on the disturbance, Emily sees aplicated runic symbol carved, with mana, into the painting on the wall behind her. The symbol resembles arge eye: the iris isposed of dozens of runes intricately woven together binding the pupil in the centre, which seems to draw mana in like an endless abyss. Emily tries to focus on the centre of the pupil, but her perception is forced out. She opens her eyes, wincing as she feels a sharp pain in her head, apanied by a warm trickle of blood from her nose. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ User has taken damage from intense mental strain. -20 hp _____ Emily quickly wipes the blood onto her sleeve and checks her status. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Health:] 95/115 _____ Ouch, why did that hurt me? Is it from looking at all those runes or just the mana vortex? That eye must be a surveince spell of some kind, I wonder if the vortex is because it¡¯s sending the mana to a receiver somewhere. Emily¡¯s investigations are cut short when the door to the room opens and an old man with long grey hair hobbles in. The man has the same robes as Diego and his men, his crest bearing silver roots, and he leans on an unsettling ivory cane. The smooth white body of the cane twists at jaunty angles, with several ck runes stretching their way up towards the w-like handle, grasped around an opaque milky white gem. The old man fixes Emily with an intense re the moment he walks in, sending a shiver down her spine. He emanates an aura of death and decay that¡¯s faintly discernible to Emily¡¯s magical senses. ¡°Stand up!¡± Diegomands her while moving over to try and help the old man. ¡°Geh, off with ya brat! I ain¡¯t too old ta walk yet.¡± The man rasps with irritation, waving his free hand at Diego to shoo him away. Emily reaches for her breast pocket nervously, but Carlos notices her movement and quickly steps in front of her and grabs her wrist, interrupting the old man¡¯s approach. ¡°What are you reaching for?¡± He asks in a threatening tone. Damn it, they never noticed me reaching for it before. This old man must be important if they are this on edge. ¡°My pocket watch, it helps to calm my nerves.¡± She nervously responds. Carlos lets go of her and gestures for her to continue while cautiously watching her pocket. He rxes his guard the moment she shes him The Clock and takes a step aside to allow the old man closer. ¡°Kneel child, t¡¯all be over soon.¡± He shes her an off-putting grin. What the hell are they trying to do? That staff gives me the creeps. Emily ufortably lowers herself down to her knees and looks up at the old man. ¡°Don¡¯t move or I¡¯ll turn yer brain ta mush!¡± My brain? Shit. Will resetting save any damage done to my mind? My magicwork gave me extra mental resistance. I¡¯ll have to hope that¡¯s enough to protect me. Emily grits her teeth, unwilling to give up on the hopeful attempt yet as her grip tightens on The Clock, preparing to activate it at a moment¡¯s notice. The old man grasps the body of his cane with two hands and holds it out before him. He shuts his eyes, and his face rxes as he focuses. A smooth chant leaves his lips, surprising Emily at his sudden shift in speech patterns. ¡°With gnarled mind and twisted flesh¡­¡± The engravings lining the cane light up with an ethereal glow. ¡°¡­bend her to our whims and her will suppress¡­¡± Dozens of pitch-ck and milky-white runes form a swirling maelstrom of mana around Emily. ¡°¡­Broken and bound to our family tree¡­¡± An unsettling red mana flows out of the man¡¯s body, coalescing into a single bloody rune and floating to sit at the eye of the storm above her. ¡°¡­control her actions and her faith guarantee¡­¡± A dense pressure settles on her shoulders, crushing her spine and willing her to submit. ¡°¡­An oath forged with no strength to resist¡­¡± The gem at the end of the cane lights up, flooding Emily¡¯s eyes with a viscous white mana. ¡°¡­till the end of her life, it shall always persist!¡± He taps the cane against her forehead, and all the runes gathered in the air rush down, bombarding Emily¡¯s mind and attempting to brand her with their cursed contract. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Mental attack spell detected! Resisting¡­ _____ Emily doubles over in pain and clutches her head. Her circle rotates quickly, and her magicwork goes into overdrive to reinforce her cortex. Her grip squeezes The Clock, but she doesn¡¯t activate it as she feels herself winning the battle. Every rune that attempts to enter her cortex is struck apart by a fierce tendril of machina, then dispersed throughout her body by her mana flow. After ten seconds of writhing in pain, the final red rune breaks against her defences, freeing Emily from the onught of mana. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Mental attack sessfully resisted! Skill created: Mental Fortitude (passive) _____ Chapter 11 – Diminishing Returns Chapter 11 ¨C Diminishing Returns Swallowing down the metallic taste that threatens to escape her throat, Emily blinks away the system messages and stands up shakily. ¡°Does it normally create that much of a reaction? Did it work?¡± Diego asks the old man dubiously. ¡°O¡¯ course it worked ya brat,¡± he growls, followed by a swift cane to Diego¡¯s shins. ¡°That there reaction¡¯s what ¡®appens when a feisty one tries to fight back!¡± Tries and seeds, you old coot! Emily takes a deep breath to control her anger and tries to prevent it from showing on her face, raising her hand to ce The Clock back in her pocket. ¡°Actually, I have a great way of testing. Stop girl.¡± Diegomands. Emily freezes and looks towards Diego with a cold gaze. ¡°Give me that watch.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Emily mutters, instantly activating The Clock. ¡°There¡¯s no way I¡¯m meeting that asshole again without my safety nket.¡± *** She finds herself back in her room, the residual pain from the mental attackpletely gone. She breathes a sigh of relief, reaching up and massaging her brows as she remembers the experience. A question floats to the forefront of her mind. If I gave The Clock over to him and he pressed the button, would I be forcefully reset? Wait, no. The system said intrinsic equipment could only be used by the owner. Shrugging off the thought, Emily opens the system to check on thetest notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mental Fortitude (passive)] User has resisted the mental attack of a stronger mage while suffering mental exhaustion, their will has been proven! -Grants +10% mental resistance _____ Wait, while suffering mental exhaustion? Was the bacsh from looking at that surveince spell that bad? Interesting, but I¡¯m not sure how big a difference these resistances make. I assume the increases from different skills stack, so with the 20% increase from Magic Network, I should be at 30% total now. Will 100% block all mental attacks? She¡¯s pulled out of her questioning as Herber bursts in again. Emily slips into her practised lies, once again going to the shopfront alone to confront the Mandrago mages. She repeats the same process asst time, following them to their estate, but this time she keeps The Clock sped in her trouser pocket the entire time, never giving them a chance to spot it. She meditates while waiting for the elder to arrive, and after gritting her teeth through a gnawing pain, far lesser than thest time, while resisting his spell, she rises and waits for Diego to voice hisints once more. ¡°Did it work?¡± he asks. ¡°O¡¯ course it did! ¡®ow dare you doubt my work,¡± the old man growls. Diego coughs awkwardly and continues. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry for doubting you, venerable elder, your work is as exquisite as always.¡± He bows humbly, not a trace of the haughty attitude he usually assumes. ¡°Gah, ungrateful brat!¡± the elder grumbles while hobbling back towards the door. The moment he leaves, Diego¡¯s arrogance returns, and he orders everyone to sit in silence as he himself takes a seat and starts to meditate. Emily happilyplies, settling back down into a plush seat and falling into her own meditation. After an hour of waiting in silence, a servant enters the room. ¡°The Patriarch will see you now!¡± The man announces before bowing and leading the way out. Emily stands, having felt a minuscule increase in the mana held within her circle. It¡¯s very slow, but it seems meditation grows my circle. I wonder if it will reset with me. She once again finds herself surrounded by the four mages. However, they nowck the air of caution they had while escorting her to the mansion. The group is led to the bottom of the stairs, where the servant steps to the side and bows. They continue up without him and are met by arge borate door, simr in design to the estate¡¯s gate, with an elegant engraving of roots and leaves spanning its surface. Diego pauses before it, gesturing for those behind him to stop, before nervously adjusting his robes and checking his posture. Emily takes a deep breath herself, her hand squeezing The Clock forfort as she braces to meet the terrifying mage again. Therge doors split apart and slowly swing open, without making a sound, and a powerful, familiar presence instantly washes over them. The hairs on the back of Emily¡¯s neck stand up as the group begins moving through the door, resisting the unsettling pressure. It¡¯s much more bearable now. He doesn¡¯t feel angry. The room they enter is a grand reception hall, with towering columns of smooth limestone and banners of the family¡¯s emblem hung above. In the centre of the ceiling is a beautiful crystalline chandelier, covered in glistening golden mana crystals, filling the room with pure mana-dense light. The rich green carpet from the stairs continues through the centre of the room to an imposing throne, carved out of a wood Emily recognises as acacia and upholstered in plush green velvet. Covering the wood are countless engraved runes pulsing with power. I wonder if they have better magical wood or are they stuck with just standard acacia? Seated on the throne with his legs crossed and his chin resting on his fist, is the man Emily expected. His piercing blue eyes, which resemble Diego¡¯s now that she sees them in the same room, send shivers down her spine even without the stormy rage swirling within them. The groupes to a halt a few metres before the throne and the noble mages give a light bow with their right fists on their hearts and their left arms behind their backs. Emily quickly moves to follow and stays silent as Diego speaks. ¡°We humbly greet the Patriarch, Marquess Nics Mandrago!¡± ¡°Rise. Is this the new talent you thought it necessary to introduce to me?¡± Emily shifts ufortably under the intense gaze she feels boring into her as it brings back bad memories. She can still feel the dense mana enveloping the man, calm for now, allowing Emily to rx slightly, but warning of a brewing threat. He has no reason to attack me. ¡°Yes fath-¡± ¡°Do not call me that here!¡± Nics growls as Diego grasps his throat and chokes for air. Emily flinches at the sight. Like that. After a couple of seconds of watching him writhe, the Patriarch releases whatever spell he cast. ¡°My apologies, Patriarch,¡± Diego manages to spit out between choked breaths. How is he casting spells? It doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s doing anything. ¡°This is Emily Coldstone, the daughter of a clockmaker from the city, and the one who stole our lightning crystals. She¡¯s fifteen and already a self-awakened first circle mage. I thought you would like to know about such a promising new prospect.¡± Emily nces sideways, noticing the creepy grin on Diego¡¯s face once again, sending a chill down her spine. No. ¡°She stole those crystals from the Hollow Warden?¡± the Patriarch asks with an edge to his voice, his eyes narrowing at Emily. A sickening pressure wraps around her, this time only stealing her breath, not her movement. She reaches for her throat with her free hand, keeping The Clock held tightly in the other even as her lungs scream for air. ¡°What of her family?¡± the Patriarch continues coldly. ¡°They¡¯re still alive,¡± Diego says, receiving a fierce re from the Patriarch in return and scrambling to exin himself. ¡°She asked us not to kill them, so I decided it would be easiest to get her to cooperate if I didn¡¯t. I¡¯ll send some servants to kill them the moment I¡¯m done here.¡± FUCK! Emily¡¯s expression contorts with rage: lightning flickering in her eyes as she res. The Patriarch doesn¡¯t take kindly to her disy of open hostility, flicking a finger towards her, instantly shattering her leg. ¡°Good. We can¡¯t have mortals stealing from us, so we need to send a message when they try.¡± I can¡¯t do anything. They¡¯re still going to kill Dad. And this time, Anna too! Emily¡¯s teeth crack under the force of her clenched jaw as she¡¯s consumed with seething fury and anguish. She locks eyes with the Patriarch as time starts to wind backwards, searing his enraged countenance into her mind. I¡¯m going to tear you to pieces one day. *** Emily falls back into ce in her room, the paper scattered by her awakening still mid-air. However, the moment the papers settle to the floor, her rage slips away, ice flooding her heart as the gears in her mind frantically whir along a new logical thread. I couldn¡¯t save my parents. I may not be able to save Herber. But maybe I can keep Anna alive. She abruptly stands up, casting aside her chair as Herber bursts in, ignoring himpletely as she paces back and forth, biting her thumb. In the loop where Diego killed Dad after I talked to him, he didn¡¯t kill Anna immediately. The Patriarch only said he needed to send a message, and who better to spread a message than a lone survivor? I just need to try and get Diego to phrase it right, and there¡¯s a chance she¡¯ll live. As a n clicks into ce, Emily finally acknowledges Herber¡¯s existence and looks up at him. He starts in surprise when he sees the look in her eyes, and his concern only grows as her face softens from frigid determination into a bitter mncholy. ¡°Emily, what¡¯s wrong? What have you done?¡± Emily flinches at his words, frowning as the phrase digs into her conscience. ¡°Emi?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to exin this one,¡± she mutters tiredly, reaching up and activating The Clock quickly. *** Emily meets Herber again, back in her usual mask of calm, and sets up to greet the Mandrago mages without telling him not to enter. They enter the shop again, following the same script to a T, until Herber enters as they¡¯re checking Emily for mana. ¡°Carlos, we don¡¯t need him, deal with it!¡± Emily looks away as the dagger is plunged into his throat, allowing herself to look away from a death that will soon be undone. After his body drops to the floor, Carlos makes no moves to head further into the building, and they all wait patiently for Miguel to finish checking Emily. ¡°She¡¯s a first circle mage!¡± he cries after a few moments, igniting the greed in Diego¡¯s eyes. ¡°Good! How old are you?¡± Diego starts the repetitive questioning. ¡°Fifteen.¡± ¡°Has anyone ever taught you magic and how did you awaken?¡± ¡°No one has ever taught me. I found the crystals in the wreck and experimented with them until I was able to extract the energy. Then I just followed my instincts and it worked.¡± ¡°Wonderful!¡± Diego beams. ¡°Come with us and be a vassal of the Mandrago family!¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Diego turns on his heel, striding towards the door. Goddess! He didn¡¯t even question me agreeing to leave with him after he killed my dad. Has anyone ever said no to him? ¡°Carlos, burn the body,¡± he says dismissively over his shoulder. ¡°Wait! Please leave his body so my sister can give him a proper burial. His grave will be a reminder to people not to make the same mistake as me,¡± Emily picks her words carefully, watching for a reaction from Diego. He looks back over his shoulder with irritation, but a cruel glint shes in his eyes that Emily doesn¡¯t miss. ¡°Don¡¯t talk back to me or question my decisions from now on,¡± he says, pausing for a second as a small grin forms on his face. ¡°However, just this once I¡¯ll grant your request, since you areing along so willingly. Miguel, go inform the sister why her father is dead.¡± Miguel vanishes into the building, causing Emily''s heart to beat a furious rhythm. They wouldn¡¯t just kill her now, right? He returns a minuteter, followed by frantic footsteps that send a wave of relief over Emily. ¡°It¡¯s done,¡± Miguel says as he walks in, stepping over Herber¡¯s corpse and joining them as Diego instantly leads them out. Emily gets one look at Anna, standing over their father¡¯s corpse, with a look of horror on her face, before they step out of the shop. Seeing Anna¡¯s anguish, Emily resists the urge to cry as she follows Diego through the city once again. A short whileter, after another brainwashing attempt and a lot of meditating to pass the time, Emily returns to the main hall of the Mandrago family residence. This time, as they cower in front of the terrifying Patriarch once again, the conversation takes a slightly different route. ¡°This is Emily Coldstone, the daughter of a clockmaker from the city, and the one who stole our lightning crystals,¡± Diego informs him with a self-satisfied grin creeping past his fear. ¡°She¡¯s fifteen and already a self-awakened first circle mage. I thought you would like to know about such a promising new prospect.¡± ¡°She stole those crystals from the Hollow Warden?¡± the Patriarch predictably asks, stealing Emily¡¯s breath once again and frowning slightly as she doesn¡¯t react, simply fixing him with a detached stare and rxing her lungs, not even trying to breathe. ¡°What of her family?¡± ¡°We killed the father and left the only other child ¨C a daughter - with the body as a warning to anybody else who¡¯s thinking of stealing from us.¡± The imposing man¡¯s lips twitch ever so slightly at the news, and he releases Emily from his choke hold. ¡°Good! Send a servant to leave a mark on her face. She¡¯ll be a living reminder to those mortals not to touch what¡¯s rightfully ours,¡± the Patriarch announces as a chilling gust of wind flows through the room. Shit. I¡¯m sorry, Anna, but I think this is the best I can do to keep you alive. Emily activates The Clock again, returning back to finally face her father. And to tell him about his death. *** As the pressureing from Emily¡¯s awakening settles, she sits in sombre silence awaiting Herber¡¯s entrance. As she listens to the footsteps approaching, she draws her focus inwards for a moment, checking on her mana circle. The increase from my meditation reset. Of course it fucking did. Herber bursts through the door and looks at Emily. ¡°What in Goddess¡¯ name happened here? Are you okay?¡± ¡°I''m fine, I¡­¡° She hesitates for a split second before sighing and visibly deting as she restarts. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me. Don¡¯t worry. Can you sit down, though, I need to talk to you.¡± Growing increasingly concerned by Emily¡¯s serious tone, Herber walks out of the room and soon returns carrying a chair. He gently pushes the door with his foot, leaving it slightly ajar, and ces his chair down next to Emily. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Emi?¡± he asks with concern. ¡°You know when those nobles came and asked for all the scrap I gathered from the Hollow Warden?¡± Herber¡¯s face falls as he realises the gravity of the situation instantly. ¡°You kept something didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yeah. And I think they can find it now,¡± she replies, her mask of apathy falling away as her eyes well with tears. ¡°Wait, they can find it now? Was that what that thundercrack was?¡± Emily, surprised by how quickly Herber works it out, takes a second to respond. ¡°Uh, yeah it was. We need to escape the city. Can we ask some of the merchants you know to smuggle us out?¡± Emily asks, voicing her final hope to run away from the inevitable. ¡°No. If the Mandrago familyes here and can¡¯t find us, the entire city will be alerted.¡± And the Patriarch may act. ¡°Can¡¯t we try? I can deal with any guards that get in the way!¡± Herber shakes his head, unwavering in his judgement. ¡°There are too many guards in the docks for us to get by unnoticed without having to cause argemotion. The moment we do, there isn¡¯t a single ship there that will take us. No one will risk the Mandrago family¡¯s wrath for the pitiful coin we could give them. We also won¡¯t be able to get anywhere on foot in the desert. Our best chance now is to give them whatever you kept. I¡¯ll im responsibility. Hopefully then, only I¡¯ll be punished.¡± Hearing her father''s resolve to die for her mistakes, Emily breaks, realising she¡¯ll be able to persuade him to try to escape in the time they have. Tears flow from her eyes as she drops her head in her hands and starts sobbing. Herber gets up from his chair and moves forward to pull Emily into a hug. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she whispers between sobs. ¡°Ssshh, it¡¯s okay! It¡¯s not your fault,¡± he calmly consoles while patting her head. Emily stays in her father¡¯s embrace until she hears the shop bell ring out. She pulls away and looks into Herber¡¯s eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you everything before you die, I promise!¡± she swears with determination, taking out The Clock. Herber looks at her with confusion as she wipes her tears on her sleeves, then turns back time once more. *** ¡°What in Goddess¡¯ name happened here? Are you okay?¡± Emily takes a deep breath before answering. ¡°Grab a seat and I¡¯ll exin. We need to talk.¡± A couple of secondster, Herber is back in the same position as thest loop and Emily begins speaking. ¡°A few months ago, when the Hollow Warden crashed, I kept one of the items I found. The Mandrago family now has a way of finding it and they¡¯re gonna kill you for allowing it to be kept in this house.¡± Her voice breaks a little as she pauses, and the colour drains from Herber¡¯s face. ¡°After those guys fr-¡° She stops again when she hears a creaking in the hallway. Focusing, she listens for any more noise. ¡°Is everything alright?¡± Herber asks after Emily stays silent for a few seconds. ¡°Ah, yeah sorry, I thought I heard something. You remember when those guys from the Mandrago family camest time?¡± Herber nods. ¡°Well, I took the item I kept, an ore full of crystals, and buried it by the wall.¡± ¡­ Ten minutester Emily finishes her exnation and sits silently, letting Herber process what he¡¯s just heard. ¡°Ha,¡± he sighs, moving forward and pulling Emily into a hug. ¡°You don¡¯t have to lie to me, Emi. It doesn¡¯t matter what¡¯s going on, I¡¯ll still support you.¡± Emily frowns, gritting her teeth in frustration and pulling away from him. ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± she asks with a hint of betrayal in her tone. ¡°Well, you just told me magic and time travel are real with no proof.¡± ¡°Proof?¡± Emily¡¯s mind spins into motion, and she quicklyes up with a possible way to prove time travel. ¡°I can prove it. Go grab a coin, Dad.¡± As Herber leaves, Emily pulls the mana crystals from her drawer, pouring the pouch out on her desk. She also grabs a sheet of paper, cing it on the desk in front of her as Herber returns holding a small copper coin. ¡°This is a mana crystal,¡± Emily says, handing him one to inspect. He looks closely at the glistening gem, starting with surprise when he sees a miniature bolt of lightning shimmering in its depths. ¡°I¡¯ve certainly never seen anything like it before,¡± he says, looking up at Emily. ¡°But it¡¯s not exactly proof of magic.¡± Emily nods, tapping the sheet of paper. ¡°I¡¯ve written the results of ten coin flips on here. Flip that coin ten times and they¡¯ll perfectly line up.¡± Herber nces down at the paper before sighing and nodding his head. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s see this then.¡± He flicks the coin into the air. *** ¡°And finally, crest,¡± Herber says a loopter, showing Emily the royal family¡¯s crest sitting face up on his hand. Emily silently flips the sheet of paper, revealing the exact sequence of coin flips Herber performed in both this loop and thest. ¡°It¡¯s not a lot,¡± she says without much hope. ¡°But is it enough?¡± Herber stares for a moment in disbelief before nodding his head. ¡°So let me get this straight. You stole these mana crystals from the Mandrago family and created a time machine with them. Then you awakened as a superhuman magic mechanic and tried to fight against the nobles, who are all mages¡­ And this actually happened?¡± ¡°A Technomancer, but yes you have the gist.¡± ¡°Okay, so no matter what you do, they want me dead and you as their servant. But, if they believe Anna can serve as a reminder of their power, they¡¯ll let her live with a scar?¡± Emily silently nods as Herber sighs. ¡°Do you have any idea what they will do after taking you? Are you sure they don¡¯t have a way of finding out about your dual awakening?¡± ¡°They said something about teaching me magic, but other than that I don¡¯t know since I never let a loop go on for too long. I was too focused on trying to save you¡­ Also, I don¡¯t think so? Miguel didn¡¯t realise when he scanned me, and I have no other way of learning more about their capabilities in the limited time left ¨C I can¡¯t go further than 24 hours, remember ¨C except provoking the Patriarch into scanning me himself. But, I don¡¯t want that man anywhere near me in case he stops me activating The Clock, so, I guess we just have to hope,¡± Emily responds dejectedly, disappointed in theck of a clean solution even after resetting time so many times. Herber moves forward and pulls Emily into a hug before continuing. ¡°I¡¯m not going to say this isn¡¯t your fault, because we both know that would be a lie, but I don¡¯t me you. You made a mistake, that¡¯s all. Throughout your life, you¡¯ll make countless mistakes, even with your newfound ability to time-travel, and sometimes you¡¯ll have to live with the consequences. I guess thus us one of those times. All you can do is try not to repeat the same mistake twice. Always remember that I¡¯m so proud of you, and whatever path you choose in the future, if you feel it¡¯s right, I support you wholeheartedly. I love you, Emily, and I¡¯ll never regret taking you as my daughter.¡± Emily sobs into his arms, holding him tight for a few minutes before pulling away. ¡°I love you too, Dad. Thanks for giving me a family,¡± she blurts through her tears. Herber chuckles sadly and gently wipes her eyes before ncing at the time. ¡°It¡¯s eight now and you said theye at around quarter past, right? We should go talk with your sister. You need to say bye to her too, because I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be seeing her for a while after leaving tonight.¡± ¡°Wait really? I hadn¡¯t even thought that far ahead yet...¡± Herber ruffles Emily¡¯s hair before they stand up, gather the mana crystals, and move through the house to Anna¡¯s room, stopping outside the closed door. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go make us some toasted smi sandwiches? Onest treat. I¡¯ll bring her over after I make my peace,¡± Herber suggests. Emily nods and hugs Herber before heading towards the kitchen, to make ast meal that will never be eaten. Chapter 12 – Resolution Chapter 12 ¨C Resolution We¡¯re out of time. Emily stands, leaving the untouched sandwiches on the table, as she hears a bell ring from the shopfront. Her heart lurches as she hears Herber¡¯s footsteps in the corridor, and she struggles to keep herself from crying again. Within a few seconds, Herber hurries into the room and heads straight for Emily. ¡°Pass me the crystals. I¡¯ll do the talking. Just follow my lead.¡± He takes the pouch of crystals from Emily, grabs her hand, and guides her towards the shopfront. Emily hears a shuffling of feet behind them and turns her head to see Anna walking into the kitchen, her face stained with tears. Emily takes a deep breath and regains her calm, holding Anna¡¯s distraught gaze. I¡¯m so sorry, Anna. It¡¯ll hurt, but I can¡¯t lose you too. ¡°Love you Anna, I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can!¡± she calls out with a look of grim determination. She turns around, schooling her expression, and sees four familiar noblemen standing proudly in front of her. Herber bows his head and Emily begrudgingly follows. ¡°Greetings sirs, I assume you havee here to collect these strange crystals,¡± Herber proffers while presenting the pouch of mana crystals to Diego. Carlos walks past Diego and collects the pouch, starting with shock as he nces in and sees seven perfectly cut gems. ¡°I apologise for keeping your stolen property, I told my daughter to keep the crystal ore because it looked valuable. Please spare my children and take my life.¡± Herber continues, getting down on his hands and knees while dipping his head to the floor. Carlos shows Diego the pouch of crystals and he responds with curiosity. ¡°Was it you that cut these gems?¡± ¡°No, it was my daughter Emily here.¡± Diego turns his attention to Emily, who stands next to Herber with her head still bowed. ¡°Raise your head and answer me, child. What happened to the rest of the crystals? There should have been eleven?¡± ¡°Four of them were destroyed when I was experimenting with them to extract the lightning.¡± A familiar look of greed creeps onto Diego¡¯s face, but Emily is already numb to it, simply staring at him with a neutral expression as he calls out to his men. ¡°Miguel, check her for mana! Carlos, give him his appropriate punishment.¡± Emily presents her arm to Miguel, ignoring him and making eye contact with Herber as he raises from his bow. ¡®I love you!¡¯ Herber mouths before Carlos calmly slits his throat. Emily sears her father¡¯s final moments into her mind, barely even noticing the foreign mana creeping through her body. As Herber¡¯s body hits the floor, bleeding out for thest time, Emily looks around the room, a frigid bite in her gaze, seeing nothing but dead men. I may have to go with you peacefully for now, but I swear that, one day, I¡¯ll kill everyone in this room with my own two hands. She silently seethes with rage without letting it show, barely noticing when Miguel lets go of her wrist and turns to Diego with shock. ¡°She¡¯s a first circle mage!¡± ¡°Good! How old are you?¡± Diego grins. ¡°Fifteen.¡± ¡°Did you awaken from messing with these magic crystals?¡± ¡°Yes, no one has ever taught me.¡± ¡°Wonderful!¡± Diego beams with joy, ¡°Come with us and be a vassal of the Mandrago family!¡± Emily res at him in silence and Diego gives a satisfied nod, taking her silence as agreement. ¡°Carlos, burn the body.¡± Diego turns to leave and Emily flinches at hismand and calls out. ¡°Wait! Please leave his body so my sister can give him a proper burial. His grave will be a reminder for people not to make the same mistake as me,¡± Emily repeats, setting up to keep Anna safe. Diego looks back at her with irritation, responding as expected. ¡°Don¡¯t talk back to me or question my decisions from now on. However, just this once I¡¯ll grant your request since you areing along so willingly,¡± he says before ncing back towards the kitchen door. A cruel smile ys across his lips, but he doesn¡¯t say anything else, silently turning and walking towards the door. Emily follows his gaze back and sees Anna, staring at Herber¡¯s body in shock through the partially open kitchen door. Emily¡¯s heart aches as she sees the tears streaming down her face, but she can¡¯t bring herself to say anything. She leaves Anna to her mourning. Bye, sis, stay safe. She turns and follows Diego out. *** ¡°...She¡¯ll be a living reminder to those mortals not to touch what¡¯s rightfully ours,¡± the Patriarch says, sealing Anna¡¯s fate and moving on. ¡°Hmm, she seems to have awfully dense mana for a freshly awakened. Girl, when did you awaken?¡± ¡°A few hours ago.¡± Emily croaks, her throat finally opening up again after being deprived of air, a feeling she¡¯s growing sick of. ¡°I see,¡± he says with a calm nod, all traces of his prior anger washed away. ¡°She¡¯s already had her induction from Elder Santiago, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Then she is loved by mana. You did a good job bringing her in. Have her sent to The Covenant to begin education immediately and have her given the same resources as a member of the indirect line. With this much talent, she should prove very useful within a few years. As a reward, you will be allowed one artefact from the family¡¯s storage.¡± ¡°Thank you for your generosity, sir!¡± Diego bows deeply with a satisfied grin. ¡°You may leave now.¡± With that, the group once again bows with their fists on their hearts, then they turn and hurriedly leave the audience chamber. The moment the grand doors shut behind her, Emily lets out an inaudible sigh, exhausted and ready to leave frozen time and her pain far behind. Diego leads the group back down the stairs, turning his head to speak over his shoulder as he goes. ¡°Carlos, go deal with getting her signed up for The Covenant and send a servant to mark her sister. Jose, show her to where she will be staying. Emily, listen to whatever Jose tells you.¡± They separate after they leave the building through therge entranceway. Diego and Miguel head towards the slightly grander right wing, while Emily follows Jose towards the left. Carlos heads back through the grounds away from the buildings. Emily follows Jose silently into the left wing of the mansion where far more servants are moving around the halls. They quickly climb a flight of stairs and head to the top floor. There, Jose guides her through a couple of quieter hallways until theye across a corridor with four doors spread a reasonable distance apart on either side. At the end sits a fifth door directly facing them. Jose walks to the door on the right at the far end and opens it to reveal a sizable room with a four-poster bed, arge mirror on top of a dressing table, and a grand wardrobe. ¡°You will be staying in this room for now. Meals will be brought to you three times a day and I will have the maids bring you some nightwear and new clothes for tomorrow. The door at the end of the hall is a bathroom. Don¡¯t leave this corridor without furthermands.¡± After giving his instructions, Jose immediately turns back the way they came, leaving Emily standing alone in front of her new room. She looks around the luxurious space, so different from her small room behind the shop. Her thoughts drift to Anna, crying alone in their home with an unknown assanting to harm her. She grits her teeth and pushes the thought away, taking a breath to calm herself. Anna¡¯s strong, she¡¯ll survive. Just stick to the n. I¡¯ll make them pay, I promise, Anna. Then I¡¯lle apologise properly. She steps through the threshold, shutting the door behind her, and walks into the centre of the room. My detection was about four metres on all sides if I remember correctly. It should easily cover the whole room from here. She sits down with crossed legs and her hands resting on her knees, closes her eyes, and enters a meditative state. Carefully she inspects the mana flow of the room around her, finding it denser than in her own home, searching for any abnormalities. She searches every surface twice and finds nothing, so she breaks her meditation and moves to sit at the dresser. I guess the surveince was just for that audience room. They really aren¡¯t worried about me now that they think I¡¯m brainwashed. I could probably escape. The idea is tempting, the thought of returning to Anna, or intercepting the Mandrago servant before they can touch her, is strong. No! The whole point of me being here is to keep Anna safe. If their servant never returns they¡¯ll just send someone else, and what would they do to her if I actually escaped? They¡¯d probably kill her, then what would be the point of Dad¡­ No, stop thinking about that. She takes a deep breath to calm her rising panic, ignoring the slight shaking of her hands. The Patriarch said he wanted me sent to some covenant for training. Fine, teach me magic. Show me how to kill you. Then Anna will be safe. A knock at the door disturbs her thoughts. She looks over and calls out. ¡°Come in.¡± Two maids walk in, each carrying a bundle of clothes. They ce the clothes onto the bed before giving Emily a light bow and leaving without a word. ¡°Wow, what talkativepany,¡± Emily grumbles to herself while getting up and checking out the two bundles. The first pile has a ck robe with green enting and a Mandrago family crest ¨C depicting two intertwined bronze roots sprouting dark green leaves ¨C pinned to it, a silken dress shirt, a pair of flowing ck trousers, and a set of simple underwear. Underneath the pile is a pair of in ck leather shoes. Is a twisted fashion sense a requirement of using magic? Anna probably wouldn¡¯t mind them actually; at least I¡¯m wearing a shirt without holes in, right sis? She wipes a few tears from her eyes and casts her judging gaze towards the second pile. In the pile, she finds a soft silk nightgown, a towel, and a toothbrush. There¡¯s no way you¡¯ll catch me dead in that. She tosses aside the nightgown and carries the pile of robes to the dresser, dropping it on top and taking a seat again. Leaning back in her chair, she yawns and stretches her arms behind her head. Today has been... Why do I feel so tired, given rewinding seems to reset my physical levels? Somehow it still feels like I haven¡¯t slept in weeks. I should sleep. Emily gets up, takes the towel and toothbrush from her bed then leaves her room, entering the adjacent bathroom. It¡¯s sizable, with a toilet and sink to the right of the door, and a full-body mirror to the left. Straight ahead is arge shower. ¡°Damn rich bastards, even their servants'' bathrooms are bigger than ours,¡± Emily grumbles to herself before stripping and stepping into the shower. The warm water washes away the tension from her recent dance with nobility, leaving her bleary-eyed and ready to copse. After drying herself off, she quickly brushes her teeth and leaves, wrapped in a towel and carrying her old clothes. Back in her room, she takes The Clock out of her shirt and ces it on the bedside table. She hangs her towel over the back of the dresser¡¯s chair and copses into bed. Then she shifts around to find afortable position, tangled in the soft sheets, and drifts off to sleep. Chapter 13 – Diving Into the Spellweave Chapter 13 ¨C Diving Into the Spellweave Emily groggily wipes the crust from her eyes and turns over to bury her face in her pillow. Why is my pillow so soft¡­ As the haze of sleepiness slowly lifts, memories of spells and knivese rushing back all at once. She jerks up, her breath elerating, as she puts the broken timeline of her yesterday back together. ¡°Dad¡­ he¡­ it¡¯s okay, he didn¡¯t end up like¡­. that!¡± She shivers and forces back the images of Herber mangled by spikes of rock, or sttered on the floor in a pile of gore, that intrude unwanted on her mind. Slow deep breaths. Focusing on her breathing, she enters a familiar meditative trance, watching the delicate weaving of mana around her to calm her nerves. Time slips away and Emily onlyes back to awareness as she hears a light knocking on the door. ¡°Haaa.¡± Letting out a deep breath, her eyes flit open with a glint of steel that fades as she nces down at her still-naked form. ¡°Just a second!¡± She springs out of bed and approaches the dresser, grabbing the robe from on top and throwing it around herself. ¡°Come in!¡± The door swings open and two familiar maids walk in, one carrying a bowl of soup and a te of bread, and the other an empty ss and a jug of water. After a cursory nce around the room, the maid with the tes looks to Emily and asks. ¡°Where would you like your food, madam?¡± ¡°Ah, over here please!¡± Emily quickly turns around and clears the clothes off the top of the dresser, tossing them onto the bed. The maids ce the food and drink down, pick up her dirty towel, and then bow and head for the door again. ¡°Thank you!¡± Emily calls out before they can leave. The maids turn and give one final silent bow before shutting the door on their way out. ¡°Wow, they really don¡¯t like talking,¡± Emily grumbles and gets dressed before starting her meal. The soup is thick with potatoes, chicken and a green herb Emily has never tried before, reeking of luxury. They seem to treat me well for a brainwashed ve and, from their reactions to my self-awakening, I¡¯m guessing mages are pretty rare. I should be safe as long as I follow orders for now. After finishing her breakfast, Emily quickly heads to the bathroom to shower and brush her teeth, then settles down cross-legged on the bed in her robes. Pulling up her status page, she looks down the list to locate a skill she neglected to use in frozen time: Spellweave. ¡°User can gaze into the truth of runes¡­ Sure I¡¯d love to see the truth of runes, but how do I activate it?¡± Emily mutters to herself and focuses on the skill description hovering in her vision. Something clicks in her mind, and she shifts her breathing pattern a little while willing her mana towards her eyes and cortex. She begins to feel the mana flow around her as in her normal meditation, but this time she opens her eyes too and sees the world anew. The space around her is filled with twisting fractals of colour and texture, constantly shifting and tearing at each other, as if in a relentless battle to beat out theirpetitors and impose their form upon reality. Focusing on one of the sickening patterns, Emily¡¯s perspective bends, drawn into the folds to reveal aplex intertwining of unknown runes. The runes flicker, never remaining in the same shape for more than a few seconds. Emily reaches out her hand and watches as the runes part, avoiding her touch, and then fall back into ce once the obstruction is removed. As the runes move, she sees small twists of sharpness and cold being left in their wake. These are spells. It clicks in her mind then, that these patterns of runes are the matrices mentioned in the skill description. The indescribable folds of mana andnguage before her form the basics of magic. How do I cast them? Those guys made the runes appear with their mana, maybe I could try that. Full of excitement, Emily remembers the feeling of guiding mana around her body to activate the skill and copies it to will her mana into motion. A small tendril of deep, warm blue slowly emerges from her chest, reaching out towards the matrix in front of her. As the mana leaves her body, she senses something shift in the weave around her and sees each of the flickering runes settle on a single shape. So, using mana outside my body stops the weave from moving around? Struck by a sudden idea, Emily retracts her mana and then rxes her focus. Her perception returns to the original dizzying mess of information. She wills her mana out of her body again, and the change is immediately noticeable. All the shapes, colours and textures within her vision stop as if frozen in time, allowing Emily to take in the entirety of the weave for the first time. She is mesmerised, only now appreciating the beauty of the sceneid out before her. What once looked like a raging battle, she now realises is a delicate dance. Each different aspect disyed perfectly melds into its neighbours and not a single one dominates the scene. It¡¯s beautiful¡­ After gazing in wonder for a few seconds, Emily narrows her focus on one of the swirling red patterns and sees another spell matrix appear before her. This one has far fewer runes - only a dozen. She pushes her mana tendril towards the closest rune hoping to move it, but instead, her mana is drawn into the rune. As her mana follows the shape of the rune, she feels a matching mana flow form in her cortex. A faint rune, identical to the one before her, forms in her mind. It¡¯s hazy and hard to perceive, but Emily can feel a faint warmth radiating from it along with the concept of ignition. She continues pouring her mana into the rune, solidifying the one in her mind more and more, until she begins to feel a cold emptiness spreading from her chest. Quickly, she interrupts her breathing and breaks herself out of her trance, returning her vision to normal. The room around her is unchanged as if the mystical experience she just had was a lie. The only thing remaining from the experience is the faint after-image of the rune, still sitting in the back of her mind. The rune only holds a fraction of the rity it did within the weave, and Emily can only understand it to be a form of fire element ignition rune. I see, so I can use the Spellweave to learn runes and maybeter entire spells, but it uses a lot of mana and I can only retain a fraction of what I learn each time. She knows she has discovered more about the rune, but the memories of what she found have vanished. Falling back onto her bed, she opens the system and checks her current status. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Health:] 110/115 [Stamina:] 169/175 [Mana:] 20/330 _____ She frowns, feeling something is off, and checks the time on The Clock. Three hours have passed since she ate breakfast. Weird, I thought Spellweave was only meant to use 80 mana per hour, but it drained 310 instead. It must only give the basic cost to keep the vision of the weave active, and not ount for any mana used manually to learn about runes. Also, why did I take damage? Was the pain when looking at the moving weave actually bad enough to cause mental damage? Emily shivers and raises a hand to rub her chest, but the aching cold is unaffected. Sighing, she sits back up and gets into a lotus pose again. Being drained of mana feels disgusting. At least I can test how fast my meditation works. As she meditates, the cold in her chest slowly thaws, unable to withstand the warm waves of mana being cycled through her circle once again. Three hourster, her meditation is interrupted by a polite knock on the door. Emily opens her eyes and nces at the door. ¡°Come in.¡± It opens and the two familiar maids walk in again, carrying a te of food and more water. They deposit the items on the dresser and take the empty dishes from breakfast before leaving without a word. Huh, I wonder if those two will be the only ones bringing me stuff while I¡¯m here. With her curiosity piqued, Emily climbs off her bed and leaves the room. She creeps to the open end of the corridor and peeks around the corner. Other than the two retreating maids, the hallway she gazes into is devoid of life. A little disappointed, she pulls back from the junction and closes her eyes, listening carefully to the building around her. She hears creaking floorboards, several sets of footsteps and a few doors opening and closing. Emily waits and listens for ten minutes but doesn¡¯t hear a single person speak. Creepy. Feeling slightly unsettled, she returns to her room and sits at the dresser to eat her food while checking her status. My mana is back up to 260 after three hours, so meditation must refill 80 an hour. Oh, my stamina is also full, I¡¯ll have to test how fast that regeneratester. After eating, Emily meditates for an hour more to finish filling her mana, then dives back into the Spellweave. She finds a simple fire spell again, but all the runes she sees are different to the one she began learning in the morning. She checks a few other red folds in the weave, but can¡¯t find the same ignition rune again so instead she decides to learn an ice element rune. The rune she chooses gives off a feeling of slowness. Emily remains in her trance for another three hours, dropping it the moment she feels a familiar emptiness at her core. Instantly, she switches to meditation, which she stays in for a while before opening her eyes and pulling out The Clock to check it: 8:15. Dad died at 8:16. She sits in silence, sadness swirling in her gaze as the seconds tick down. Tick! Tick! Tick! 8:16. Her chest tightens and her hand starts to shake as shes of Herber dripping with blood, or drenched in it, fill her mind. Tick! Tick! Tick! She resists the urge to press the button. To see his face one more time. Tick! Tick! Tick! 8:17. A string in Emily¡¯s heart snaps, as she is consumed by panic. Should I have reset again? Could I have saved him? Was there something I didn¡¯t think of? Something I didn¡¯t try? Then she remembers the Patriarch and the overwhelming power he wields. Dad¡¯s fate was already sealed the moment I stole those magic crystals. It was already toote by the time I made The Clock. The only choice I had was who else died too. Hoping that¡¯s true, she feels a single tear roll down her cheek as ice washes through her veins, the memories of Herber¡¯s demise sinking into the depths of her mind. She sits perfectly still, staring at the ticking pocket watch for three more minutes before she hears a knock at her door. She shuts her eyes and takes a slow breath, before turning to the door and calling for the maids to enter. This time they are carrying another set of in clothes and a fresh towel, along with her dinner. Emily thanks them as they leave, dropping The Clock back into her pocket before forcing herself to chew her meal, barely aware of what she is eating. She turns her mind to magic to distract from the chilling void within, determined to learn enough magic to exact her revenge. It looks like I won¡¯t be able to learn enough runes to form a spell quickly. I don¡¯t know how many different runes there are, and the constant movement of the weave makes it too hard to find the same one again. If only I had some finished spells, I bet I could work out what the runes mean quickly with a little help from the weave. Sighing in frustration, she finishes off her food and gets up, deciding to do some exercise to test her meditation¡¯s stamina regeneration rate. She removes her robe and drapes it over the back of the chair before dropping to the floor and starting to do push-ups, following the short exercise routine she has often done at home. She quickly beats her previous record of fifteen, not feeling her arms give way until she reaches thirty. Woah, I doubled my record. Did awakening affect my body that much? After a short break to regain her breath, she moves on to squats, crunches, jumping jacks and a nk, finding herself able to beat all her previous records by a sizeable margin. Copsing on the floor in a pool of sweat, she looks at her status page. I¡¯m so much stronger, and my stamina has only dropped by 80 after all that. Now to test stamina regeneration. She sits up, not moving to the bed this time, due to her sweaty state, and meditates for an hour. After finishing, she stands up and stretches her muscles, finding arge portion of the fatiguepletely gone. 40 stamina in an hour of meditation? Do I even need to sleep anymore? It seems far more efficient to just meditate instead, though I didn¡¯t notice my stamina going down normally throughout the day so it may not be rted to general fatigue¡­ It also doesn¡¯t seem to drop much from mental strain since experimenting with the Spellweave only cost 6 stamina even though it was so intense it caused mental damage. I think my cortex is to thank for that. Emily yawns and checks the time: 10:14. Never mind, that answers that question. She grabs the clean towel and moves to the bathroom to take a nice long shower and prepare for bed. After finishing up and heading back to her room, it¡¯s already 10:55. She falls back into the soft embrace of sleep, her mind filled with the wonders of magic. Chapter 14 – Leaving Captivity Chapter 14 ¨C Leaving Captivity Emily wakes up just before 7, and sleepily wraps herself in her robes before the maids arrive. They once againe and leave in silence, taking her dirty clothes and delivering a hearty meal. Emily eats while deciding her order of activities for the day. I need just under seven hours for each cycle of Spellweave and meditation, so I can only get two full cycles a day. That leaves me with around two hours for food, exercise, and showering. Let¡¯s do some light exercise after meals to maximise the use of my meditation. Maybe I can improve my body¡¯s stats faster that way. Polishing off the bowl of soup, she enthusiastically gets up and throws on fresh clothes, identical to the ones she was given the day before yesterday. She spends twenty minutes doing a reduced form of her workout, only using up 43 stamina, then sits down on the floor to delve back into the Spellweave. She falls into a routine and two days pass quickly. At 8 pm on the third day of her confinement, Emily is once again pulled out of meditation by the maids knocking at the door. She calls them in, then thanks them as they leave as usual, but this time she is sat with a self-satisfied smile throughout. Hovering in the forefront of her vision is her updated status page. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 15 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 > 23 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 180/330 > 180/345 [Machina:] 330/330 > 338/345 _____ It took about twenty hours of meditation to increase my intelligence by one, and none of the other stats have gone up, so for now I¡¯ll assume meditation just affects intelligence. It looks like each intelligence gives me fifteen mana and machina too. Emily eats her food and moves to do her exercises. Over the past two days, she¡¯s noticed the ability to regenerate stamina through meditation reduces the more she uses it. However, it resets when she sleeps. As she¡¯s getting into position for her final meditation of the day, someone impatiently knocks on the door. ¡°Come in,¡± she calls, watching the door cautiously. The maids don¡¯t normally break schedule, I wonder who it is. The door swings open to reveal Jose standing with a light scowl, staring at Emily. ¡°Tomorrow be up and ready to leave at 8 am, I wille collect you to take you to the airship docks,¡± he says without taking a single step into the room. ¡°Okay.¡± Immediately upon hearing a response, he shuts the door and walks away. ¡°Wow, I can tell he really likes having to deal with me. I wonder where they¡¯re sending me,¡± Emily mutters before pushing her questions away as she falls into her meditation. *** The next morning Emily wakes up and prepares to leave. She says goodbye to the taciturn maids, eats the breakfast they¡¯ve delivered, and then takes a long shower. After the shower, she dresses in her robes and finally puts on the shoes she received on her first day in captivity. Checking The Clock, she sees it¡¯s only 7:38 and settles down to meditate until Jose arrives. After seeing her intelligence increase, Emily has decided to meditate whenever she can, to increase her stats as fast as possible. Twenty minutester, at 8 am on the dot, Jose knocks. This time Emily gets up and moves to the door, opening it instead of inviting him in. ¡°Take this and follow me,¡± hemands, handing her a sizeable suitcase, before swiftly turning on his heels and walking back down the hallway. Emily follows him in silence, making an effort to keep up with his brisk walking pace while carrying her luggage. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d think he was trying to lose me. Is he in a hurry? We weren¡¯t walking this fast the other day¡­ The cause of Jose¡¯s urgency soon bes clear as they leave the servant''s wing. Standing in front of them with his arms crossed, impatiently tapping his fingers, is Diego. ¡°Took you long enough,¡± he says with a clear look of irritation on his face. Josees to a halt and lightly bows his head. ¡°Apologies, sir.¡± ¡°Whatever.¡± Diego turns his attention towards Emily. ¡°You are being sent to join The Covenant of the Blessed, the elite mages working for the Modo Kingdom. While you are there, we expect you toplete a multitude of courses to further yourself as a mage and be a useful asset to the family. You will find a few items to assist you within the suitcase that has been prepared for you. The first is a list of all the courses you mustplete. Those are a requirement, and you may choose any other courses that interest you as long as they fit around those listed. The second is amunication crystal. Always keep this on you and answer it, no matter what, if it activates. Any instructions given over this crystal must be taken as the orders of the family and obeyed. The third is a silver family crest. You may not disy this crest on your person under any circumstances. However, you must present it when registering. Due to the Patriarch¡¯s high evaluation of your talent, you have been given the allowance of an indirect family member as opposed to themoner scum you are. But, you are only given three years to reach the third circle. Otherwise, your resource limit will be decreased again, and you will be punished severely for wasting the family¡¯s money. Once you reach the third circle, immediately report it through themunication crystal and await further instructions. Understood?¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Emily responds, lightly bowing her head as she processes his words. Three years! Is that how long I¡¯ll be away? Is there a way for me to let Anna know? ¡°Good, take her to the airship then return here immediately Jose.¡± Diego walks away the moment he finishes givingmands, and Jose leads Emily towards the gates of the estate. Why did hee and give me that speech himself when he clearly didn¡¯t want to be here? Ah, is this a limitation on their brainwashing spell? The chant Elder Santiago used said ¡®Broken and bound to our family tree¡¯ so maybe only instructions given by direct members of the family must be followed. That would also exin why he told me to listen to anything Jose says the other day and to take orders given over the crystal as orders of the family. As Emily considers the details of the brainwashing spell used on her, Jose leads her out of the gates and back onto the streets of Eimdon City. They turn and head towards the east, along a single, wide and open street. Several guard patrols are out, with clockwork rifles in hand, casting cautious gazes over the connecting side streets as they go. As they move further east, the extensive mansions bordering the road are slowly reced by a multitude of shops. Emily takes in therge ss windows, filled with expensive disys of fresh produce and fine clothing. Since being brought within the city walls, Emily had been forbidden from ever straying onto the main street, so this is her first time experiencing the prosperity of the city. Her experience doesn¡¯tst long, as Jose maintains a quick pace through the slowly growing crowd, and she has to make a concerted effort to keep up. The people in front of them part as they see the Mandrago crest, lightly bowing their heads as they pass. I thought my body had improved, so why is it still so hard to keep up with him? Stupid luggage. Emily is soon distracted by the towering building thates into view. Standing at the end of the main street is a behemoth of metal, spanning half the eastern wall and covered in an array of pipes and smokestacks: the airship docks. Emily¡¯s senses quicken as she hears grinding gears and steam engines running when they get within a few hundred metres of therge entrance. The distinctive mour of people underlies the droning of the mechanical monster, and her fascination only grows as they pass through the entrance. Looking around in wonder, she tries to take in everything. Along the edges of the ceiling are moving tforms, spun by gears, carrying masses of coal and cargo across theplex. Every surface above head height is lined withplicated runs of tubing, weaving together like a fine piece of art, with several mechanics hanging from cables doing maintenance and repairs throughout the hall. The hall itself is a seething mass of people, in a crowdrger than Emily has ever seen before, all busily moving between different side passages, or setting up stalls and yelling out for different people or destinations. As they push through the crowd, Emily glimpses a few small ships past the people channelling into the side passages. Wait, why are the ships this far in? I thought they weren¡¯t allowed to fly above the city¡­ She¡¯s pulled out of her thoughts when she notices a familiar head of salt and pepper hair sitting behind a stall selling various high-quality fabrics. Her gaze locks onto the owner, a chubby man with light wrinkles creasing his face, covering his crafty smile behind a guise of old age. Gregory! I didn¡¯t realise he worked out of the docks. Perfect! I can use him to send Anna a message. Dad always called him a pig who¡¯ll do anything for coin. If I promise him payment, he¡¯ll deliver a letter. Emily reaches up to her chest pocket and activates The Clock, sending herself back into the Mandrago estate. *** She returns to the morning of the day before and quickly falls back into the routine she followed while waiting for the maids to deliver her lunch. When they do, Emily stops them before they can leave. ¡°Excuse me,¡± she says, remaining polite in hopes that they¡¯ll fulfil her request. ¡°Could you bring me a pen and some paper please?¡± The maids nod without a word and leave. Emily settles on her bed, watching the door and waiting to see if they return. A few minutester, one of the maids returns alone with a bundle of paper and a few pens, setting them down on the dressing table for Emily to use. ¡°Thank you,¡± she says as the maid leaves with a bow, settling down before the dresser to write her letter. I can¡¯t seal it ¨C asking for proper letter writing supplies may attract too much attention ¨C so I¡¯ll have to avoid writing anything that may cause Gregory to report me, in case he peeks. She ces the pen to paper before freezing, unsure of what to include in her message. Every word she tries to form is quickly buried beneath a sea of guilt and sadness, and she repeatedly scrunches up and throws away failed messages, d for the quantity of paper the maid provided. Eventually, she settles on a message that fails to convey the weight behind her words, but at least gets across her meaning. She lets out a sad sigh and ces her pen down, raising her hand to rub her brow, gazing down at the paper before her. Dear Anna, I¡¯m sorry I left like I did. I wish I could exin and apologise to you properly, but I don¡¯t have the words to convey my message on paper. I know you¡¯re hurting, but you¡¯re strong. I know you¡¯ll get back up again and keep going. I promise I¡¯m not abandoning you. I¡¯ll be back within three years, and I¡¯ll exin everything then. I love you so much. Never forget that. Love, Emi. Your sister forever and always. Emily wipes a few tears from her cheeks, folding the letter up and cing it aside as she starts on the note for Gregory, her words flowing easily this time. Hello Gregory, We haven¡¯t spoken before, but I¡¯m Herber Coldstone¡¯s daughter, Emily Coldstone. I can¡¯t currently speak to you, but please could you deliver the enclosed letter to my sister, Anna. She should be at Herber¡¯s shop. Hand this note to her as well, and she¡¯ll pay you three silvers. (Tell her to use my savings - she¡¯ll know where they¡¯re kept.) Please nod at me if you agree, Thanks, Emily Satisfied, she folds the second note around the first with the writing on the outside before tucking it under her pillow and ripping up the discarded notes, making sure not to leave any evidence. Satisfied with her preparation, she returns to repeating her actions exactly as before, waiting for the night toe. *** The next day flows the same as the first, and after listening to Diego¡¯s instructions once again, Emily soon finds herself walking through the docks as before. They approach the stall where she noticed Gregory, and Emily slowly drifts sideways, creating a little distance from herself and Jose while carefully watching him to make sure he doesn¡¯t notice. He doesn¡¯t even spare a sideways nce as Emily slips her hand into her robes, pulling out her message and tossing it into Gregory¡¯sp as she passes. He flinches when the folded papernds on him, looking at Emily questioningly as she walks past, but he doesn¡¯t say a word as she pointedly looks at the note. Understanding her meaning quickly, he picks up the paper and skims the message as Emily moves back to join Jose, repeatedly ncing back at the merchant. Before they¡¯re swallowed by the crowd, Gregory looks up, makes solid eye contact with her, and nods his head. Emily lets out an inaudible sigh of relief and turns her attention back to her guide who is none the wiser. He leads her through the main hall, eventually leaving therge crowd behind as they turn into an empty passageway with the Mandrago crest hanging above it. The passage walls are lined with steam pipes, hissing away, and the din of the entrance slowly fades, reced by the hum of machines and the rhythmic tapping of their feet on metal. After a few turns, the passage opens into arge hangar housing a sleek bronze airship. The ship spans a hundred metres of carefully folded and polished bronze ting, with several reinforced ss windows dotted along the side. Several pipes jut out of the sides and bottom, carefully angled towards the rear, along with two small fins on each side, each carrying three propellers. Therge balloon above sags against the gond, partially deted and only given shape by the ball inside. Emily stares in awe at the ship, excited, despite herself, to finally see one up close. They hurry forward and are greeted by a few members of the ground crew, who bow to them before continuing preparations to leave. A hatch drops open midway along the body of the gond. A short, skinny man with long brown hair tied in a messy bun and wearing greasy overalls, walks down the steps that fall with the hatch. ¡°Jose! Is this the cargo you mentioned?¡± he calls out with a businesslike smile while walking over to greet them. ¡°Yes, this is Emily. She¡¯s being sent for education in the capital.¡± ¡°I see, and no soldiers this time?¡± ¡°No, she¡¯s one of ours, no need.¡± With that, Jose turns and walks back towards the passage. ¡°Always a man of few words that one,¡± the man shrugs while turning to Emily, ¡°the name¡¯s Anton, captain of this fine vessel. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Emily!¡± He gives a light bow while keeping solid eye contact, a cautious glint in his eyes. ¡°Nice to meet you, Anton. What¡¯s her name?¡± Emily asks with a smile, gesturing to the ship with her head. Anton¡¯s gaze rxes as he responds: ¡°I call her Calypso. No meaning behind it, just thought a pretty name suited her.¡± ¡°She¡¯s beautiful. How fast can she go?¡± ¡°On a good day, she can push a hundred kilometres per hour, but for this trip, we¡¯ll probably maintain around eighty. Should get to Chroni by morning the day after tomorrow. Come aboard, I¡¯ll show you around before we leave!¡± He heads towards the ship¡¯s hatch; clearly please Emily showed an interest. They enter the hatch into a small corridor leading off to either side, with a sign hanging from the ceiling giving directions. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the crew quarters, so you can drop off your luggage, then head around the facilities and end at the bridge forunch.¡± ¡°Sure, how do youunch from in here, by the way? I thought ships weren¡¯t allowed to fly above the city?¡± ¡°Haha, that¡¯s one of the best bits. I won¡¯t spoil it now.¡± Anton guides her to the right, away from the front of the ship. The narrow hallway walls are lined with pipes, a sight Emily is quickly growing used to, with smooth riveted tes making up the floor. After a few turns taking them deeper into the hull, they walk up a steep flight of stairs ande to a corridor lined with six doors on either side and a sign overheadbelled ¡®Crew Quarters¡¯. ¡°We run with a light crew of only ten people, five for the day and five for the night, so we have a couple of spare rooms here. The day crew are on the left and the night crew on the right. Since I assume you won¡¯t be nocturnal, you can use this room here.¡± Anton opens the door at the far end of the corridor on the left, revealing a small room with a single bed and a small oilmp attached to the wall above it. ¡°I know it¡¯s not much, but you¡¯ll have to make do for a few days, I''m afraid.¡± He awkwardly scratches the back of his head as Emily walks into the room past him. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve lived with less,¡± she responds while dropping her suitcase onto her bed. Anton raises an eyebrow at her words, but quickly shrugs it off before motioning her to follow him again. ¡°Why don¡¯t we start with the engines!¡± Emily finds his enthusiasm infectious as she follows him deeper into the belly of the beast. Chapter 15 – Taking to the Skies Chapter 15 ¨C Taking to the Skies Emily and Anton make their way through the passageways of the ship with Anton giving an animated introduction to the facilities they pass, including the bathrooms, guards¡¯ quarters, and cargo hangars. ¡°Why do you have a separate guards¡¯ quarters and no guards?¡± Emily asks as they continue their tour. ¡°Calypso is a ship sponsored by your family; sometimes we get asked to carry valuable cargo that we aren¡¯t allowed to interfere with. So, we have to keep the guards separate from the crew and closer to the cargo because they don¡¯t trust us.¡± Anton responds with a tinge of sadness in his voice. ¡°I see.¡± An awkward silence settles over the two of them as Emily starts to understand a little about the Mandrago family¡¯s treatment of their servants. I guess they only brainwash themoner mages they bring into the family, but we¡¯re considered members of the family and trusted more than others because of it. It¡¯s no wonder he was cautious when he was first introduced to me if they set guards against him on his own ship. The silence continues until they reach a heavy metal door with arge wheel in the centre and the word ¡®Engines¡¯ etched into the metal. Emily hears a low hum emanating from behind the door. Anton walks up to the door and turns the wheel counterclockwise several times until a loud ng is heard. ¡°Wee to Calypso¡¯s heart!¡± he deres proudly as he pulls the door open. Emily steps into the room and gasps in surprise. Suspended in the centre of the room is thergest and mostplicated steam engine Emily has ever seen. Dozens of pistons and gears are delicately woven together to form a beating heart of power. The hiss of steam and grinding of well-oiled metal y a symphony of life that drowns out Anton¡¯s exnation. Multiple belts move coal through gaps in the walls into severalrge furnaces feeding the engine, and arge tube extends out of it into the ceiling. Emily slowly walks forward, enchanted by the massive construct, and reaches out a hand towards it. Her trance is broken as Anton grabs her wrist and pulls her back. ¡°Woah, careful there! This machine is incredibly delicate and quite dangerous for straying hands. Wouldn¡¯t want you to lose a finger now, would we?¡± He chuckles but doesn¡¯t release his grip on her wrist as he pulls her back into the hallway and closes the door behind him. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ve never seen such a beautiful engine before.¡± Emily blushes and looks at her feet. ¡°Haha, it¡¯s all right, no harm no foul. Are you an aspiring mechanic? I haven¡¯t heard of your family doing much engineering work.¡± ¡°Yes, my father was a clockmaker before the Mandragos imed me, and I learned a bit from him,¡± she answers with a wistful smile, noticing some of the tension in Anton¡¯s shoulders slip away. ¡°I see! We better hurry to the bridge then. I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t want to miss whates next.¡± He begins walking away from the engine room and Emily casts onest longing nce back before following him. I need toe back here alone. On their way back through the ship, they pass a few more core facilities, including the galley and mess hall, but they don¡¯t stop to look at any of them. They soon arrive in an open room with a plethora of dials and gauges, along with several wheels and levers, all surrounding threerge seats. The wall in front of them is mostly reinforced ss, allowing for a clear view. A burly man and a thin scruffy woman are already settled into two of the seats, and Anton moves to sit down in the third. The two crew members turn their heads and cast curious gazes towards Emily. ¡°This is Emily, our passenger to the capital. These are Tony and Ang my crewmates and copilots during the day,¡± Anton introduces them as he starts checking the dials around him and adjusting a few levers. ¡°Nice to meet you both.¡± Tony gives a light nod and silently copies Anton. ¡°Yo!¡± Ang chirps with an amused smirk as she pulls down arge metal contraption from above her seat, cing it against her face. ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± Emily asks while gesturing towards Ang. ¡°That¡¯s a periscope. It uses a series of mirrors to allow us to check all our blind spots,¡± Anton responds without looking away from his controls. ¡°All clear, they¡¯re asking for the go-ahead to start the track,¡± Ang chimes in as she moves the periscope away from her face and looks towards Anton. ¡°Tony, give the signal,¡± Antonmands as he sits back and grins up at Emily. ¡°You¡¯re gonna love this.¡± Tony pulls down on a handle hanging above him, and a loud whistling horn sounds outside the ship. Emily waits with bated breath as silence falls upon the bridge. Suddenly, a loud grinding whir echoes through the hangar. The wall in front of the ship shakes and slowly splits down the middle to reveal a long winding channel through the building. ¡°Woah!¡± Emily gapes at the gigantic sliding door. ¡°Hehe, we all react like that the first time,¡± Ang giggles. The ship shudders, then slides forward as the floor underneath it shifts. Emily looks down through the ss and sees a segmented track tracing its way through the centre of the hallway ahead. ¡°The track carries ships outside the walls so we don¡¯t have to fly within city limits. Most major cities will have a simr system, with a few smaller ones opting to have their docks outside the city if they can¡¯t afford therge-scale construction,¡± Anton exins as the ship makes its way through the channel. After moving a few hundred metres, the narrow channel, only wide enough to fit the ship, opens up into a wide hangar with dozens of simr tracks on the floor. Only a couple of the tracks have a ship on them, some moving into the docks and some moving out. All the ships are facing towards the exit of the hall, where the early morning sun shines through the wide mouth of the hangar. ¡°Do you have tond the ship backwards?¡± Emily asks in confusion. Ang bursts out inughter, causing Emily to blush as she wonders if she asked a stupid question. ¡°Quiet you!¡± Tony growls while ring at Ang, catching Emily by surprise. ¡°Ah, sorry kid. It¡¯s the first time anyone¡¯s asked about that, and you caught me off guard,¡± Ang manages while regaining her breath and wiping tears from her eyes. ¡°You see those circles on the floor over there,¡± she says, gesturing towards the edge of the hanger where Emily sees a series ofrge gears around the end of each track, ¡°those turn around all ships thatnd, before moving them inside.¡± Emily nods her head in understanding while inspecting theplicated mess of gears covering the floor, wondering how long the construction of the docks took with so manyrge machines integrated. The ship slowly slides over the centre of one of the gears andes to a halt. The three pilots begin checking their instruments again and pulling on an assortment of levers and handles. ¡°Hey kid,e over and look through this,¡± Ang calls to her while tapping the periscope above her. Emily cautiously approaches and looks at therge periscope with slight confusion. ¡°My little apology for being rude,¡± Ang says after noticing her apprehension. ¡°Put the ss part there to your eyes and rotate the right handle to switch between views. I¡¯d rmend the top view right now and the bottom as we take off.¡± Emily follows her instructions and looks through the ss eyepiece, seeing the back side of the ship clearly through it. She flips through the different views until she sees therge balloon above the ship quickly increasing in size. The volume of the balloon swells as it rises from its resting point on top of the gond, and a plethora of metal cablese into view holding it down. The balloon grows to its full size within a few minutes, and Emily switches to a view underneath the bridge looking back along the length of the ship. ¡°Detaching connections now, prepare for lift-off,¡± Anton announces with glee. The ship shudders lightly, and Emily sees the metal struts below the ship slowly lift from the floor and fold into hatches on the hull that close behind them. Emily watches in awe as the ship quickly gains altitude and within a few minutes, she sees the entirety of Eimdon city sprawled across the sand behind them. ¡°Woah!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pretty impressive sight, isn¡¯t it?¡± Anton asks proudly. Emily pulls away from the periscope and looks out of the window ahead of her, seeing the vast desert stretch for miles ahead of them. ¡°It¡¯s incredible!¡± Emily nods her head in agreement. ¡°Sure is, kid, I never get bored no matter how many times I see it,¡± Ang agrees with them, and Tony silently nods his head as well. ¡°That¡¯s the main spectacle finished though I''m afraid.¡± Anton turns his seat to look at her. ¡°You¡¯re wee to stay here and watch the view with us if you want. But if not, feel free to have another look around the ship, just stay away from the engine room.¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ll have a wander then return to my room for now.¡± ¡°Sure, oh and food will be served at 8am, 12pm and 8pm so be sure to visit the mess hall on time unless you like cold food.¡± ¡°Got it, thanks.¡± Emily takes onest look through the periscope at the shrinking city, then turns towards the exit while wiping a few tears from her eyes. Bye Anna, I¡¯ll be back soon. *** Emily spends the next two days following her routine of Spellweave, meditation and exercise. She meets the other two members of the day crew at mealtimes and spends a bit of time chatting with them all about their travels, but her mind remains on the engine room throughout. So, at midnight on the second day, she leaves her room. She quietly moves past the crew quarters and quickly makes her way through the narrow passageways of the ship, knowing most of the night crew will be gathered for their midnight meal for the next twenty minutes at least. The heavy metal door offers no resistance to Emily¡¯s increased strength, and she easily slips into the engine room. She approaches therge throbbing core of the ship, reaching out to touch the humming metal. After cing her hand on a smooth metal sheet, clear of any moving parts, she closes her eyes and follows her instincts, slowly pulling upon her machina reserves and letting the cold electricity flow into the engine. Emily draws in a sharp breath as she feels a deep connection form between her and the engine. Her senses expand over therge machine as if it were a part of her body, and a detailed image of it forms in her mind. The image of the engine in her head splits apart as she focuses on it, expanding to show every facet and connection inside. Detailed calctions are performed in an instant, telling her everything she could need to know from the exact materials and measurements to the maximum throughput. Committing the image to memory, she opens her eyes and sees a system message hovering in front of her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Machina scanplete! Blueprint created: Calypso¡¯s Heart Sub-system unlocked: Blueprints _____ She blinks away the system message and focuses her gaze on her hand and Calypso¡¯s heart. I¡¯m currently using a small amount of machina to make a connection with the engine, what if I try pouring more in? With a single thought, streams of azure-blue electricity shoot along Emily¡¯s arm and quickly spread across Calypso¡¯s heart. The entire ship shudders as the heart beats into overdrive, increasing its output of steam. Emily watches the changes with fascination but quickly feels her mind begin to slow down and ache. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Overdrive (active) _____ Ignoring the new skill, she quickly stops channelling her machina and then checks her status page. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Machina:] 19/345 _____ Seeing the sharp drop after only a few seconds of overdrive, she frowns. Damn, that¡¯s expensive. Maybe it¡¯s rted to howrge the machine is. I wasn¡¯t even able to make a connection with the whole ship, only the engine. Also, why do I always stop using mana and machina around 20 points? Is it a mental safety to not fully drain myself? Emily massages her temples while thinking, trying to relieve the pain, but it¡¯s to no avail. She hears hurried footsteps rushing through the corridor towards her and decides it¡¯s time to leave. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got a lot more stuff to look at now,¡± she mutters to herself with a grin as she pulls out The Clock and presses rewind. Chapter 16 – The City of Steam Chapter 16 ¨C The City of Steam Emily sits up groggily in bed and pulls The Clock out from under her pillow. 12:15 am¡­ oh yeah, I was asleep at this time. She tucks The Clock under her pillow again and lies back down while opening the system. The top of the window has once again split, now containing three sections instead of two. First, Emily opens her new skill. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Overdrive (active)] [Cost:] Variable Machina A basic ability of mechanics to utilise machina to improve the performance of machines at the cost of the machine¡¯s lifespan. Depends on the mechanic¡¯s stage, the amount of machina used, and the size and grade of the machine. -Grants variable % increase to machine¡¯s output. -Damages the machine proportionally to the improvement of performance. _____ Emily clicks her tongue and grumbles: ¡°Tsk, what a vague description, it basically gave me no new information.¡± To distract from her disappointment, she opens the new blueprints tab hoping for better news. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Blueprints] Tier 1: -Calypso¡¯s Heart _____ Tiers? This is new. She pulls up the information of the new term and blueprint at the same time. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Technology Tiers] As mechanics improve their skills, they must also improve their technology to fit. Different types of technology are separated into tiers ording to their level of advancement and range of use. Most technologies can only be manufactured by mechanics of the appropriate stage. Tier 1: -Steam power Tier 2: -Electrical power Tier 3: -Electromaism Tier 4: ??? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Calypso¡¯s Heart] [Type:] Steam Engine [Tier:] 1 [Rank:] E [Description:] Arge steam engine for the airship Calypso. Optimised to produce the maximum steam possible while maintaining a low weight and coal consumption. [Effect:] When activated, generates arge quantity of steam and converts a portion of the steam into kic energy. _____ It seems tiers one to three don¡¯t require being the appropriate stage to produce them, since I made an electromaic device before I even awakened. Tier and rank don¡¯t seem directly linked either, since the tier one steam engine isn¡¯t F-rank. I should be able to get the blueprint of The Clock if I scan it, considering I made it, right? Emily reaches her hand under her pillow and grabs The Clock. She shuts her eyes and lets her machina flow into it but feels a repulsive force blocking her. Opening her eyes with a frown she checks the new system message that appears. _____ Attempting machina scan. [Error, item tier too high! Scan failed!] _____ ¡°Tsk!¡± She clicks her tongue and lets go of The Clock. I guess the universe¡¯s interference was strong enough to raise its tier to a point that I can¡¯t fully understand it anymore. I probably shouldn¡¯t ever use Overdrive on it in case I damage it and can¡¯t repair it. Emily yawns and settles down to go to sleep. I think that¡¯s all I can get from this. Shame - I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to make a copy of the engine toplete my stage progression requirement since it¡¯s so big, but at least I know I should be able to find and create something of E-rank with my current skills. She falls asleep with a contented smile on her face. *** The next day passes the same the second time around. However, Emily goes to sleep early in preparation for her arrival at Chroni City the next day. On her third morning on the ship, Emily wakes at 6 am and climbs out of bed. She throws on a fresh shirt and trousers, leaving her robes on top of the open case on her bed, before heading out of the crew quarters to the nearby bathroom with her toothbrush and ab. On her way through the corridor, she runs into Anging back in the opposite direction. ¡°Oh, hey kid, you¡¯re up early!¡± ¡°Yeah, I have a few things I need to go over before we arrive.¡± ¡°Fair y, if you want to see the city from the sky before wend you should join us in the bridge at around 7:45.¡± ¡°Got it, I¡¯ll see you then.¡± ¡°See ya!¡± Emily smiles as she continues towards the bathroom. In her time on the ship, she has talked to Ang and Anton the most, bing friendly with the two due to their easy-going natures and poorly veiled distaste for nobility. Entering the bathroom, she locks the door behind her and then brushes her teeth and hair, d that whoever packed her bag must have known there would be no showers on board, and included dry shampoo amongst her things. When she asked, Anton had exined to her that Calypso is mostly used as a cargo ship, and usually takes trips that require stopping once every two or three days, so a shower was considered a waste of water, unlike on nobles¡¯ personal ships and long-flight public passenger ships. Finishing up in the bathroom, Emily returns to her room. She puts on her robe, and sits down on her bed, staring at her suitcase. She pulls out the three important items and inspects them. The crest is a simple metal brooch with dark green leaves and two intertwined silver roots, identical to the crest Diego wore on his robes. After looking at it closely, Emily finds nothing interesting about it and secures it to the inside of her robes just in case it¡¯s needed when she arrives. Next, she looks at themunication crystal. It¡¯s a small, five-centimetre tall, hazy purple hexagonal gem with several runes engraved around it. Rotating it in her hands she sees twelve runes in total, eight of them unique, whilst a few are repeated. The inside follows a simr pattern to the lightning crystals, being almostpletely opaque in the centre and increasing in transparency towards the outside. Emily decides against injecting any mana into it for fear of activating it. She ces it into a convenient pocket inside her robes. Thest item is a small piece of paper with a short list written in neat handwriting: Required courses: Basic Etiquette Basic Geopolitics Basic-Advanced Magic Theory Basic-Advanced Magic Combat Basic-Intermediate Maths Basic English Any other courses may be chosen at your discretion. Try to attain results as high as possible on all tests for the honour of the family and always introduce yourself as Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago. Hmm, it¡¯s a lot shorter than I expected it to be. Either they expect each of these to take a lot of time or they expect me to take a lot of extra courses. Either way, if it gives me useful skills, I¡¯m happy to follow their education n for now. Emily folds up the list and tucks it into the same pocket as themunication crystal, then checks the time. Seeing it¡¯s 6:35, she decides to meditate, and then head to the bridge beforending. *** At exactly 7:40 Emily opens her eyes and stands up. Taking her suitcase with her, she excitedly walks towards the bridge. I wonder what Chroni City will look like. It can¡¯t be that different to Eimdon right? Anton and Ang have refused to say anything more than ¡®Wait and see¡¯ no matter how many times Emily has asked. Well, I¡¯ve waited. I guess now I¡¯ll see! She quickly arrives at the bridge and steps through the doorway, looking towards the ss wall expectantly. The sight before her eyes instantly takes her breath away. She walks over and stands against the ss in awe. After her first day on the bridge, Emily has spent the rest of her time between her room and the mess hall, not bothering to look outside. Now the familiarndscape of sand she grew up with is nowhere to be seen. Thend stretching out below her is covered in a delicate mix of green and yellow grass, with shrubs and the asional tree dotted throughout. The centre of this new scenery is dominated by a thriving metropolis, spanning several hundred kilometres with metal and steam. Surrounding the city is a giant behemoth of a wall, standing at over a hundred metres tall with dozens ofrge gatehouses dispersed along its length. Inside, the city spans several levels of elevation, at some points reaching above the wall, with buildings and walkways intertwined in a dizzying mix. Thousands of smokestacks stand tall across the scenery, releasing billowing plumes of steam into the air and forming an ethereal, ever-shifting mist that nkets the lower levels. Spreading through every nook and cranny of the city, Emily sees tiny, ant like people bustling through crowds, and severalrge fast-moving machines carrying more of them from ce to ce. On the closest side of the wall, Emily sees a familiar-looking airship dock, with a plethora of openings across the wall holding gears and tracks. Several dozen airships sit on the tracks, leaving or entering the city and Emily sees more of them floating in the sky above. She notices a winding railwork connected to the docks, spanning one of the topmostyers of the city, with several elegant steam trains racing along at high speeds. Following a train with her eyes, tracing its path towards the centre of the city, Emily sees the two most impressive buildings she¡¯s ever seen iming the core of the capital as their own. The first is a massive pce, carved from metal and stone, with severalrge twisting spires stretching up into the clouds. The white walls, with silver detailing, draw a stark contrast to the dark colours spread through the rest of the city. At numerous points around the pce hangrge gs, only just visible from Calypso, disying the crest of the Modo Kingdom¡¯s royal family. Emily recognises the crest from a description Herber gave her a few years ago - a ck oak with two thorny roses twisting up its trunk, one red and one white. The second building is arge ck and silver dome standing near the pce. The dome reaches from the bottom of the city to twice the height of the tallest normal building. Walkways connect to it at a few points, and there are two train stations attached. Strangely, even though there isn¡¯t a single smokestack on top of it, the hazy mist sits several times thicker around its base. Emily is pulled out of her wonder by Anton speaking behind her. ¡°This is why we refused to tell you; words really don¡¯t do it justice.¡± She turns around and sees everyone in the room watching her reaction with a grin. She btedly notices that the night crew are still piloting, with Anton and Ang standing against the back wall watching. Emily blushes and looks back towards the city as the ship slowly starts losing altitude. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s very impressive. You still could¡¯ve told me a bit though¡­¡± Ang and Anton both chuckle at her grumbling but choose not to say anything else. Watching the dock¡¯s openings slowly grow closer, Emily asks the crew a question. ¡°How do you know which opening to go to and that there will be room for your ship?¡± ¡°When we¡¯re doing runs for our sponsor, like this one, they deal with themunication, and we get told where to go in advance. As for normal trips, you saw all those ships hovering just outside the city, right?¡± Anton responds to her. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°We have to do what they¡¯re doing, sit outside and use small drones to deliver messages and ask for permission tond.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you risk running out of fuel?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a general rule to always n to be held up for a day outside your destination and carry enough fuel for that. If not, you can alwaysnd nearby, but you run the risk of beast attacks, so most people are careful to avoid that happening.¡± Emily shivers at the thought, remembering hiding from sand stalkers, when she was seven, after they entered the slums, and other assaults from worse beasts she¡¯d rather not remember. She¡¯ll never forget the feeling of helplessness as she listened to, and watched, children and adults alike being ripped apart after failing to escape their clutches. As Emily dwells on the past, Calypsonds on one of the geared tracks and starts rotating around to face away from the city. The ship locks into ce after rotating one hundred and eighty degrees and stops. After waiting for a few moments and noticing the track under the ship not moving, Emily turns around and raises an eyebrow at Anton. ¡°We need to let the steam out of the balloon before moving in. Let¡¯s go and wait by the hatch, your family will have sent someone to collect you and it¡¯s best not to keep them waiting.¡± Emily nods and follows him out into the corridor, still slightly ufortable with the Mandrago family being referred to as her family. ¡°It was nice meeting you, kid. Good luck in the big city!¡± Ang calls after her with a grin. ¡°Thanks, fly safe!¡± Emily waves goodbye to the crew. As they move through the ship, she feels it shake and hears a low grinding hum from the tracks below, signalling the ending of her time on board. They quickly reach the ship¡¯s hatch and wait for the movement to stop. ¡°Well, it was nice transporting you. I have to say, you are probably the bestpany I¡¯ve ever met from a noble house. Good luck in Chroni and look for us if you ever need to travel again,¡± Anton says with a smile as he offers his hand. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll be sure to look for you if I can.¡± Emily shakes his hand and turns to leave the ship. Anton pulls a lever on the wall as the vibrations stop, and the hatch opens, dropping steps to the floor. Emily steps out of the ship and sees a girl waiting for her, wearing ck robes with white ents. She looks to be around the same age as Emily, maybe slightly older, with long curly brown hair, delicate hazel eyes and lightly tanned skin. Her robes bear a crest with a single silver-stemmed white lily and flow loosely around her petite frame. She smiles widely as they make eye contact, causing Emily to blush. Pretty. Chapter 17 – A Magical Train Ride Chapter 17 ¨C A Magical Train Ride The girl standing before Emily ces her hand across her chest and gives a light bow. ¡°Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Juliana Madonna and I¡¯ve been sent to wee you into The Covenant.¡± Emily quickly regains her wits, a cautious glint shing in her eye unseen. Not a Mandrago? Does she work with them? Or is she unrted and sent by The Covenant? Without pause, she returns the greeting with a bow of her own. ¡°I¡¯m Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago. What house are you from?¡± ¡°Madonna!¡± Juliana says with a smile as she grabs Emily¡¯s free hand and pulls her along. ¡°Let¡¯s go. If we hurry, we should be able to catch the next train!¡± Not a Mandrago then. Emily is too surprised to resist as Juliana hurriedly pulls her across the hangar into a narrow corridor with a shallow staircase. Juliana pauses as they reach the lowest step and turns back to look at Emily while releasing her hand. ¡°Will you be alright on the stairs, or would you like me to take your luggage?¡± she asks with obvious concern written on her face. ¡°Ah no, I should be fine,¡± Emily reassures her with a smile. ¡°My strength increased quite a bit when I awakened.¡± She starts moving towards the steps, but Juliana doesn¡¯t follow. Instead, she looks at Emily with curiosity and asks her: ¡°You¡¯re already awakened? Have you been with the Mandrago family for long before being sent here?¡± She doesn¡¯t know? ¡°Hm? No, they took me in six days ago, I awakened on my own before that.¡± Juliana¡¯s mouth drops open as she stares at Emily in shock, before excitedly grabbing her hand with both her own and hopping on the spot. ¡°That¡¯s incredible! I¡¯ve never met a self-awakened before. You must be really talented!¡± ¡°Wait, doesn¡¯t everyone awaken themselves?¡± Emily asks, seeing the chance to fill in herck of magical basic knowledge. ¡°No! Most kids from noble families like me are taught some basic magical theory from twelve, and then our elders help us awaken when we reach fifteen before sending us to The Covenant. As for kids we take in frommoner households, they¡¯re usually helped by a teacher in The Covenant to awaken after a few theory lessons. Awakening on your own without a proper education is super hard and practically unheard of. The only known self-awakeners in the Modo Kingdom are the King and the head of The Covenant!¡± Wait, they only awaken them at fifteen? I guess it¡¯s probably quite hard on the body of anyone younger if everyone has to go through pain like I did. It sounds like all noble families like to give their children a head start too. ¡°If themoners aren¡¯t self-awakened, how do you guys know who to take in?¡± Emily asks a question that urs to her due to the odd nature of her own circumstances. ¡°There¡¯s a special magic crystal that reacts when it¡¯s close to people with magical aptitude. I¡¯m not sure about the process in other families, but we usually send one of our unawakened servants around our cities a few times a year with one to find any talents.¡± Juliana raises her nose with pride as she talks about her family. She seems awfully proud of kidnapping and brainwashing people. No, actually I don¡¯t know if all families do that. Maybe I just met a particrly shitty one. She seems too innocent to be bragging about that. Then again, there¡¯s no guarantee she knows even if her family does brainwash people¡­ ¡°I see¡­¡± Emily sighs, pressing her doubts down and not letting them show on her face while asking with a sly smile: ¡°Also, weren¡¯t we meant to be racing to catch a train?¡± ¡°Ah! Damn it, we¡¯ll have missed it now.¡± Juliana¡¯s shoulders slump as she begins pouting. ¡°Heh,e on, we¡¯ll just have to grab the next one. You can tell me all about your wonderful family while we wait.¡± Emily scoffs and slings herrge suitcase over her shoulder as she slips past Juliana and starts up the stairs. ¡°Sure!¡± They fall into silence as they continue up the stairs, moving at a rxed pace now that there is no rush. The stairs climb at least forty metres, driving in a sense of scale for Emily. Calypso docked in the middle of the wall so we must be nearing the top by now. Just as Emily starts thinking this, the corridor evens out and she begins hearing people moving about ahead. She drops the suitcase back onto its wheels and walks out into arge hall. The hall has a tall ceiling made of crisscrossing metal beams holding up huge glittering panels of ss. Suspended in the centre of the room is a giant clock, its loud ticking easily heard over the low din of the people¡¯s movement. The hall is long and wide, with fourrge depressions on the floor separated by wide tforms of steel and several arched bridges connecting them. As Emily pauses and looks around, Juliana walks up beside her and starts talking with a smug grin. ¡°You¡¯re from Eimdon, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, why?¡± ¡°It¡¯s your first time seeing a train station then, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Uh-huh, I¡¯ve only ever heard Dad talk about them. Are the channels on the floor so the trains cane in here?¡± Emily asks as she starts walking towards the edge of their current tform. Juliana catches her free hand again before she can walk too far and starts pulling her towards one of the bridges instead. ¡°Let¡¯s get to the right tform, you¡¯ll be able to see the rails better from above anyway.¡± Emily allows herself to be pulled along again, wondering why Juliana can¡¯t just tell her to follow instead of dragging her, but not resisting. They walk through the sparse crowd of well-dressed people and make their way over one of the bridges. As they move over therge depression, Emily looks over the side and admires the uniformity of the steel track below. Juliana notices her interest and asks her a question as they walk: ¡°Do you like trains a lot or something? You mentioned your dad talking about them, is he an engineer?¡± ¡°Ah, no. He was a clockmaker, but he used to tell me about all kinds of machines he¡¯d seen to help mee up with ideas for new creations,¡± Emily responds sadly. ¡°I see. He sounds like he was a lovely man,¡± Juliana says, noticing Emily¡¯s use of the past tense and drop in mood. ¡°What sorts of things did you make?¡± ¡°Nothing too interesting,¡± Emily responds, happy to change the subject, ¡°I was working on a mechanical bird a little while ago. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t quite get his wings right, so the poor little guy kept breaking himself against the ceiling¡­¡± Juliana giggles lightly before looking up at therge clock above their heads as they step down onto the tform. ¡°The next train to the city centre should be here in ten minutes,¡± she tells Emily whileing to a stop at the edge of the tform. They stand quietly, afortable silence settling between them. Emily smiles as she realises this is the first time since leaving home that she has felt rxed around another person. Even on Calypso, she remained cautious towards the crew, since they were sponsored by the Mandrago family, and never lowered her guard fully. Ten minutes pass without a word said, and eventually, a low rhythmic thumping slowly grows closer. As the thumping grows loud enough for Emily to recognise it as pistons, it¡¯s suddenly joined by a loud screeching hiss. Emily flinches at the unpleasant sound. ¡°The brakes are really noisy.¡± Juliana leans over and speaks into Emily¡¯s ear to be heard over the loud sounds. Just as she finishes speaking, therge mechanical marvel rolls into the station and moves past them. Emily admires the long procession of connected polished metal carriages as the traines to a halt. A loud horn res from the front cab and all the doors along the body of the train slide open simultaneously. ¡°Come on, you can goggle from the inside, I¡¯d rather not miss this one too,¡± Juliana pulls Emily towards one of the open doors. They step into the carriage and Emily looks around, surprised by theck of people. The carriage is wide and spacious, with a long corridor down the centre and eight booths, with enough room for four people in each, lining the sides. However, only two of the eight booths contain anyone and there are only three people between them. ¡°Wow, it¡¯s pretty empty in here.¡± Emily muses as Juliana takes her into one of the empty booths, shutting the door behind them. ¡°Well, that¡¯s to be expected. The carriage we are on can only be used by nobles.¡± Juliana takes Emily¡¯s luggage and tucks it under the chairs as they sit down in the plush seats facing each other. ¡°How is that enforced? There was no check before we got on.¡± ¡°A ticket officer wille by soon and check all the booths for our crests. If anyone who isn¡¯t a noble tries to use the front four carriages, they will be forcefully detained, so no one would risk it. Especially considering being a ticket officer is one of the jobs offered to Covenant members to gain contribution. There are some not-so-pretty stories of people trying to sneak into the noble carriages and leaving mangled.¡± Juliana shudders as she speaks. Emily raises a brow with confusion and asks: ¡°Wait, do the unawakened know it¡¯s magic putting people in that state?¡± ¡°Ah, no. Not unless they are servants of a noble family and sworn to secrecy. Most people just think it was physical violence, which seems to serve the same purpose,¡± Juliana responds with an ufortable frown. Emily nods and looks out of the window as she hears the train¡¯s horn again. The doors to the carriage shut, and the train shudders as the slow pumping of the pistons starts again. The view of the station slowly starts sliding by, and as the train picks up speed, they soon leave the building. She admires the passing scenery as the train races through the city. From the high vantage point, she gets a clear view of the sprawling streets and the people busily moving about below. However, the further away she looks, the more her view is obscured by the mist, giving the city an eerie atmosphere. ¡°What¡¯s with the mist? I¡¯ve never seen it in Eimdon before and we had a fair amount of steam output,¡± Emily asks after a few minutes. ¡°It¡¯s an enchantment ced over the whole city. I¡¯m not sure exactly what it¡¯s for in the rest of the city, but it stops pedestrians being able to get close to The Dome.¡± ¡°You can make enchantments act over a whole city?!¡± Emily asks with surprise. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t really know much about it though. If you want to learn about it, there are sses you can take on enchantments and engraving. I¡¯m sure the teachers will be happy to exin what the mist does.¡± I wonder if I could enchant machines to add special effects to them. They continue chatting, with Emily asking about the ces they pass and Juliana happily answering. The train stops at several stations and winds its way closer to the centre of the city until therge ornate domees into clear view. From closer, Emily sees that the body of The Dome is a ck metal, simr to the ck iron that the mana crystals formed in. There are silver beams at consistent intervals all around the structure. As Emily squints, she just about makes out a plethora of runes carved into the silver metal. If the ck metal acts simrly to ck iron, I¡¯d guess The Dome is built to inste mana and those silver beams are what causes the mist spell. Fascinating, I need to sign up for those enchantment sses. As Emily admires The Dome, the train slows down and arrives at the station connected to it. She sighs with disappointment as her view is lost. Turning away from the window, she finds Juliana grinning to herself and staring at her. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing, it¡¯s just cute seeing you get so excited about the city.¡± Juliana¡¯s response causes Emily to blush and look away. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a city so big and well-engineered, and magic¡¯s really new to me¡­¡± she mumbles as the train doors open. ¡°Haha, there¡¯s no need to be embarrassed. We all reacted the same the first time we came here. Unfortunately, you get used to it after a while and it loses its effect. Come on, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll love inside The Dome just as much as outside.¡± Juliana says while standing up and grabbing Emily¡¯s luggage from under the seat. That¡¯s not what I was embarrassed about¡­ Emily shakes her head and stands up to leave, once again finding herself being pulled along as they exit the train. The station they step out into is a lot smaller than the one at the docks, only having a single tform. She nces back at the train and sees that only the front four carriages have their doors open. Makes sense that this is nobles only for the base of The Covenant, not opening the doors for the others is an effective way to stop them from intruding. They make their way towards arge open entryway and step out onto a walkway between The Dome and the station. The walkway has a bronze metallic floor, and the walls are a mix of bronze and ss, allowing Emily to look down into the thick, swirling, ethereal mist below. Approaching The Dome, they reach a smooth silver panel at the end of the walkway. Juliana reaches up to ce her free hand against it while turning her head to grin at Emily. ¡°This is where the real magic begins!¡± Chapter 18 – The Real Magic Begins Chapter 18 ¨C The Real Magic Begins A warm blue glow slowly creeps across the panel, spreading from Juliana¡¯s hand. After a few seconds, aplicated runic sequence can be seen covering every inch of the silver metal. Juliana lowers her hand and the runes pulse twice before the panel phases out of existence, revealing a well-lit white corridor. Emily stares speechlessly at the space the door used to upy. They walk through the now-open entrance, and she feels them pass through a strange incorporeal membrane. The mana density inside is much higher than outside. Emily guesses it¡¯s at least double the density of the Mandrago family estate. She nces back over her shoulder and sees the door phase back into existence as they pass, the runes quickly fading to leave a in silver panel again. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you also have no clue how those work?¡± ¡°Yep! I¡¯m only first circle and those doors are the work of at least a third circle mage. All I know is that they react to the mana signature of the person injecting mana into it. They will only open for those who¡¯ve been registered,¡± Juliana answers cheerfully as they walk deeper into the building. ¡°What circle can you go up to?¡± ¡°It depends on your talent, and no one really knows the exact requirements to increase their circle. However, most people who awaken can reach the second circle with hard work and meditation, and those with good talent can reach the third. Only the very talented gain enlightenment and reach the fourth circle. As for the fifth circle, it¡¯s only a myth, there has never been a known fifth circle mage in the history of Ulea!¡± Emily thinks back to the pressure she felt from Nics Mandrago and assumes he must be a fourth circle mage. Damn, I have to work out how to kill the highest-grade mage within three years. At least my system gives me help on how to reach the next circle. The empty corridor soon reaches an open room with arge magic circle engraved across every surface visible. ¡°This is one of the transportation circles for moving around The Dome. You have to stand inside,¡± Juliana exins while leading Emily to stand in the centre of the room, ¡°and inject a bit of mana into it while thinking of the name of the ce you want to go to. The names of the circles will be written on the map we¡¯ll get you in a bit, so for now just don¡¯t let go of my hand and we¡¯ll move together.¡± Emily watches as the room lights up with mana and space fluctuates around them. She feels a slightly nauseating sensation of being stretched andpressed as her vision fades. Suddenly, her vision clears, and the sensation disappears like a mirage. Emily looks around and sees a room almost identical to thest. However, this one has a closed door instead of an open entryway. ¡°Urgh, unfortunately, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever get used to that feeling,¡± Julianains while looking over to Emily. ¡°Are you okay? It¡¯s normally pretty bad the first time.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine,¡± she answers, before quickly adding: ¡°It was a bit weird though.¡± It was far better than time travel. Juliana nods and walks over to exit the room. ¡°Always try to leave the transportation rooms quickly. There are safety measures, but it''s best not to risk being here when other people try to teleport in,¡± she exins while opening the door and stepping out into a wide hall with several robed people milling about. ¡°This is the information hub. It¡¯s where you can sign up for courses and missions or im any family-allocated resources and contribution rewards.¡± Emily takes in the vast hall around her with slight awe. Behind her is a wall of doors, with several mages walking in and out with purpose. The ceilings are high with several glowing white mana crystals providing clean, mana-dense light to the room. The other walls have several panels filled with glowing words, along with several desks recessed into them. Each desk has a clerk standing behind it, talking to people standing in queues waiting their turn. Juliana pulls Emily towards one of the desks with fewer people queueing while asking her a question. ¡°Do you know which courses you want to sign up for first? You can sign up for moreter, but it would be best to register for a few now.¡± ¡°Ah yes, I have a list of those I¡¯m required to take,¡± Emily says, releasing Juliana''s hand and reaching into her robes. Emily presents the list and Juliana reads it over with a slight frown. ¡°Ew, good luck with that, some of those courses are going to be really boring.¡± ¡°Really? Which ones?¡± ¡°Etiquette and geopolitics. I had a tutor for them when I was little and always tried to hide when they came over.¡± ¡°Why does that not surprise me,¡± Emily chuckles as they arrive at the front of the queue, tucking the list back into her robes. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± the clerk, a man wearing silver robes without a crest, asks with a businesslike smile. ¡°She¡¯s a new member and needs to register and sign up for some courses,¡± Juliana answers for her. The clerk nces at Emily¡¯s crest before pulling out several silver metal tes and magic crystals of varying sizes from under the desk. ¡°Name and family affiliation please.¡± ¡°Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago.¡± He holds a fist-sized green crystal withplicated runic engravings in his hand, injecting mana into it for a few seconds before nodding and cing it down. Then he slots another simr green crystal into an empty socket on the metal te and hands a small clear crystal with no engravings on it to Emily. ¡°Please inject some mana into this crystal to save your mana signature.¡± Emily pushes mana out of her circle into the crystal and watches it change from clear to warm blue. She hands the crystal back to the clerk, and he ces it into another socket on the te. The mana in the small crystal begins flowing out, along the engraved channels and runes, before joining the green crystal, causing it to glow for a few seconds before going dim. The smaller crystal returns to being clear and the clerk removes the crystals from the te before cing the clear crystal and te back under the desk. He then ces the first green crystal he used into a slot on one of the remaining tes and holds out his hand. ¡°Your crest please.¡± Emily nods and reaches into her robes, unclipping the silver crest inside and handing it over. The clerk raises an eyebrow with surprise and Juliana starts beside her. ¡°Wait, you have a silver crest?¡± Juliana asks in clear disbelief. ¡°Yeah, the family said they were allocating me more resources due to my talent and gave me that. Though I¡¯m not allowed to disy it since I¡¯m not actually a family member.¡± ¡°Ah, I guess being self-awakened earns you a few perks.¡± As they talk, the clerk ces the crest into a slot on the metal te and green mana flows along its engravings. When the mana reaches the crest, small engravings are carved onto the back of it, forming a pattern of runes along with the number ¡®50¡¯ appearing clearly in small letters at the centre. ¡°Your crest is used for tracking your contribution points, of which you will get fifty for free every month due to your family¡¯s contribution,¡± the clerk exins while handing back the crest. ¡°You can gain contribution points throughpleting missions on those boards over there.¡± He gestures towards one of the word-filled panels on the wall with arge group of people gathered around it. ¡°Or through selling items, or doing well in sses. Private trades can also be performed by injecting mana into your crest and thinking of the number of points you¡¯d like to transfer while tapping someone else¡¯s crest. You can use contribution points to buy any number of things. You can buy the current list for one contribution point or a token for the market for ten contribution points.¡± ¡°You should get the token, it¡¯s totally worth it. Sometimes people put items up for cheap when they get back from missions so you¡¯ll miss the good deals without it,¡± Juliana advises her from the side. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll buy a token then please.¡± The clerk walks to a wall of drawers behind him and slides one open, pulling out a coin-shaped green crystal. He walks back over and takes out another silver te from under the desk, this one with an embedded green crystal already present. ¡°Please transfer ten points into this,¡± he says while presenting the te. Emily does as instructed, injecting a small amount of mana into the crest and tapping it against the silver te while thinking, ten. The number on the back of her crest reduces to ¡®40¡¯ and the clerk nods with a smile while handing over the crystal coin. ¡°Just inject mana into that and close your eyes whenever you want to see the current contribution market, just remember it won¡¯t update while you¡¯re outside The Dome. Limited items will be clearly marked when they¡¯re posted, and if you send a pulse of mana into the token while thinking ¡®im¡¯, as long as you have enough contribution points, the item will be put to the side for you to collect at one of these desks at your convenience.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Emily nods to the clerk while cing the token into a pocket inside her robes and clipping the crest back into ce. ¡°No problem, just doing my job,¡± the clerk responds with a natural smile. ¡°I assume you would like to be assigned a room now?¡± ¡°Ah, yes please.¡± The clerk picks up the first green crystal again and closes his eyes for a few seconds as it glows with mana. ¡°Rooms B34, B53 and B71 are all currently free, which one would you like?¡± he asks while cing the crystal down and picking up the other green crystal. He used that crystal to check I was signed up to join, to engrave my crest and now to check avable rooms, it¡¯s got to be an information receiver of some kind linked to arger magic inside this building. I assume the one he just picked up is a transmitter since he used it to register my mana signature. How interesting! I wonder why they can¡¯t use one crystal for both jobs when the token does a form of both. ¡°Oh, take room B53! I¡¯m in B51 so we¡¯d be neighbours!¡± Juliana exims, sparking an internal debate for Emily. Why does she want to stay close? Is she really just very friendly, or have the Mandrago family sent someone to keep tabs on me? Hmm, I don¡¯t think they¡¯d feel the need: they seemed very confident in their mental magic... Ah well, I¡¯ll see where this goes for now. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll show her anything I want to hide from the Mandragos. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll have room B53 then please.¡± The clerk closes his eyes and injects mana into the transmitter for a few seconds, then opens them and nods at Emily. ¡°All done, room B53 will now only open for you. Now, which courses would you like to sign up for?¡± Emily pulls out the list again and reads off most of the courses listed. ¡°Can I sign up for basic etiquette, geopolitics, maths, English, and magic theory please?¡± She misses out basic magicbat, deciding it¡¯s best to wait till she¡¯s learnt the basic theory for that. ¡°Sure.¡± The clerk repeats the transmission process again, this time taking a little bit longer than before. ¡°All done, you can check the ss timetable on the board over there.¡± He gestures over towards one of the panels with only a few people standing nearby. ¡°Or you can once again buy an updating course list token for ten contribution points. You can also use this list to sign up for courses in the future in a simr way to the market token.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll buy that token as well then please,¡± Emily answers, enjoying the weird feeling of not having to think about whether she can afford it. The clerk ces the payment b back on the desk as he turns back to the wall of drawers. Emily pays ten more points, and the clerk returns a few momentster with another green token. ¡°There you go, is there anything else you would like?¡± he asks while handing over the token. ¡°Ah, a map of The Dome as well please,¡± Juliana asks, surprising Emily. ¡°Trying to get rid of me already, are you?¡± Emily says with a hint of disappointment. ¡°No!¡± Juliana blurts, ¡°I¡¯m happy to take you anywhere.¡± Emily giggles at her outburst and says with a smile: ¡°Good, I¡¯ll hold you to that.¡± The clerk ignores them and walks back over to the drawers, this time returning with a rolled-up parchment. ¡°That¡¯s one contribution point then please,¡± he says, presenting the payment b for the final time. Emily taps it with her crest, then takes the map and tucks it into her pocket. ¡°Thanks for your help!¡± ¡°It was a pleasure, Miss Coldstone.¡± The clerk bows lightly with his hand on his heart. Emily turns to leave, with Juliana once again grabbing her hand, an action she is quickly getting used to. ¡°Where to next?¡± she asks as Juliana leads her back towards the wall of doors they came from. ¡°Let¡¯s go drop your stuff off in your room and I¡¯ll give you a tour!¡± Chapter 19 – A Guided Tour Chapter 19 ¨C A Guided Tour Emily and Juliana step out of another transportation circle into a long hallway. ¡°These are the B-grade dorms,¡± Juliana exins as they walk. ¡°The dorms and a few other important facilities in The Dome are divided into three grades, A, B and C. A is for direct-line nobles, B is for indirect line, and C is for vassals. You¡¯re the only exception I¡¯ve met.¡± As Juliana talks, Emily inspects the doors they are passing. Every door is a smooth silver panel with no handle and a small number etched into the centre. The numbers started at one and two on either side next to the transportation circle and have slowly been increasing since, with a sizable distance between each. ¡°You¡¯ve been calling this ce The Dome this whole time, but is that really what it¡¯s called? It seems a bit informal for a ce called The Covenant of the Blessed.¡± ¡°Haha, no. It¡¯s actually called The Isle of the Blessed, but most of us just call it The Dome.¡± They soon pass room fifty-one and arrive at fifty-three. ¡°ce your hand against the door and inject some mana into it. It¡¯s just like the door to The Dome.¡± Emily nods and ces her hand against the door. As her mana flows into it, a familiar runic pattern appears and pulses twice before the door vanishes. Stepping into the room, she looks around and smiles at what she sees. The room isrge, with a double bed against the wall to the left of the door with two small tables on either side. In the far-left corner, there is arge desk with several drawers, and in the right corner arge wardrobe. On the right wall, about a metre from the entrance door, there is another door. This one is a simple dark wood with a silver metal handle. ¡°It¡¯s not much, but they¡¯re usable at least,¡± Julianaments after watching Emily look around for a few seconds. ¡°Not much? It¡¯s at least three times the size of my old room at home!¡± Emily objects while walking over to the wooden door and opening it. ¡°Ah, yeah sorry,¡± Juliana apologises with a guilty look on her face. The room behind the door is a small bathroom with a sink, full body mirror, toilet, shower, and an alcove with a strange runic engraving. She notices that both rooms are lit by small white mana crystals embedded into the ceiling. Closing the door and turning around, she sees Juliana sulking by the now-closed hallway door. Rolling her eyes, Emily dumps her suitcase next to the bed and walks back over to the hallway door. She grabs Juliana¡¯s hand on the way past and activates the door again. ¡°Come on, are you gonna show me around or what?¡± Juliana¡¯s embarrassment vanishes, and she excitedly pulls Emily back towards the transportation circle with a silly grin on her face. If she¡¯s a Mandrago spy, she¡¯s an amazing actor: she¡¯s like a cute excitable puppy. Emily chuckles to herself at the thought, her face forming a small grin of her own. *** Juliana takes Emily through a few teleports to different hallways of lecture halls andbs, but they are unable to enter any unless they are there for a ss. It¡¯s only when they reach the magic training halls that Emily¡¯s interest is sparked. ¡°That door¡¯s to the hall for practical sses, but if we keep going a little bit further, we¡¯ll reach the individual rooms,¡± Juliana exins while pulling Emily quickly away from their transport point. ¡°The individual training rooms are another facility split by grade. There aren¡¯t many rooms for the C-grade members, and they don¡¯t even get a gathering array.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a gathering array?¡± ¡°Basically, it¡¯s some big magic circle that gathers arge amount of mana to increase the efficiency of meditation. You have to pay contribution points to have it activated when you go in because it¡¯s powered by The Dome¡¯s mana reserves, but it¡¯s totally worth it.¡± As Juliana finishes her exnation, they walk through a phasing doorbelled ¡®B-Grade Training¡¯ and into another corridor, lined with doors. Next to each door is a glowing set of words on small silver panels. ¡°Each training room has amand spell controlled by the panel beside the door. It will say when the room is upied and can be used to set up the room to the user''s preferences,¡± Juliana says while pulling Emily through the corridor, looking at every panel as they pass. Each panel has the glowing red word ¡®upied¡¯ etched across the centre until they reach thest five doors at the end of the corridor. All five havepletely empty panels next to them. ¡°It¡¯s firste first served for the training rooms unfortunately, but since it costs points to have anything other than a nk room, there¡¯s normally a few free.¡± Juliana reaches up and taps the panel of the closest door as she speaks, sending a spark of mana into it. Instantly, the panel lights up with words. Wee Juliana Madonna Would you like to use the presets from yourst session? Yes / No Juliana selects no and waits for the panel to update. Please configure your session settings: [Environment] [Targets] [Gathering Array] ¡°The settings are pretty simple, you can choose any environment you want, from forests to the ocean. However, anything other than an empty room will cost twenty contribution points as a one-time purchase. You can also choose targets to fight against. in target dummies are free, but any beasts or people will cost from ten points for weak beasts to fifty points for humans. The amount depends on how difficult each one is for the illusion spells to recreate, and you can choose whether you want them to fight back or just dodge. Their fighting patterns and spells can be customised but it will cost extra the moreplicated you make them. And finally, you can choose whether you want the gathering array on or not. It will charge more depending on the density of mana you want, from two points an hour for double the density of the rest of The Dome, to ten points an hour at five times. This ce is a scam really, it drains points like crazy and only the gathering array is useful.¡± Juliana navigates the selections on the panel as she exins. Emily watches on with interest and frowns when Juliana dismisses the functions of the training room. ¡°Wait, why do you think the environment and target settings are useless? They sound just as useful for increasingbat experience as the gathering array is for increasing your improvement speed.¡± ¡°Yeah, but why would I ever needbat experience? I don¡¯t want to fight anyone.¡± Juliana cocks her head in confusion at Emily. ¡°Don¡¯t you ever have beast hoards in your family¡¯s territories?¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re just a small barony on the north coast. Other than the asional spillover from the desert we have very few beasts, and even those are easily dealt with by our knights.¡± ¡°Ah, I see.¡± I guess she doesn¡¯t really have a reason to fight anyone if her family¡¯s territory is safe. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s the basics of the training rooms. Once you¡¯ve selected all the settings you want, it will ask you how long you want, then just tap your crest on the panel to pay and head in. The door will only let you in, and you can use the room for however long you paid for. If you don¡¯t select any paid options, you will be restricted to four hours a day though. Now, let¡¯s go take a look at the library!¡± Emily follows Juliana out of the training room hallway while considering their use. I can use the target settings to get used to fighting mages. I needbat experience if I¡¯m going to fight against the whole Mandrago Family. Wait, do I even need to fight the whole family? I guess I only really want to kill the Patriarch, that bastard Diego, and his goons. They¡¯re the ones that actually killed Da- Emily is pulled out of her thoughts by a light squeeze on her hand, which had begun shaking without her realising. ¡°Hey, are you okay? You look like you want to murder someone,¡± Juliana asks nervously, with clear concern written on her face. Emily takes a deep breath to calm herself, forcing the thoughts of Herber¡¯s death back down, then responds with a light smile. ¡°Sorry, just lost in thought, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Okay, just let me know if you want me to leave you alone. I did kind of drag you along without asking.¡± Juliana¡¯s shoulders sag slightly as she guiltily looks away. ¡°Oh really? I seem to remember being the one to drag you out of my room.¡± Emily grins and leans into her as they reach the transportation circle. ¡°If I didn¡¯t want to be here, I would have told you. So, rx and take me to the library. I¡¯m excited to see what marvels of magic are there.¡± Emily catches a slight blush on Juliana¡¯s face as she looks back over and smiles with relief. ¡°Sure, you¡¯re gonna love it!¡± *** Juliana was right. The moment they step out of the transportation circle, Emily¡¯s eyes open wide as she looks around in awe. The library is massive, spanning a few hundred metres with stacks of books stretching from the floor to the ceiling tens of metres above. The neat rows of books have arge channel down the centre, with dozens of tables varying in size. Half of the tables have mages sitting at them, poring over piles of open books. The room ispletely silent other than the faint rustle of paper as books float through the air, between the stacks and the upied tables. ¡°Woah!¡± Emily lets out a quiet exmation. ¡°See, I told you so!¡± Juliana deres at full volume, causing Emily to flinch and worriedly nce at the nearby mages. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about being too loud, all these tables have a sound-isting barrier around them.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Emily questions while focusing on a nearby single-person table. After a few seconds, she begins to see an almost imperceivable dome around it. It shimmers slightly as a book passes through, then settles quickly after. ¡°Do they charge for those as well?¡± ¡°No, I guess they considered studying in silence as one of the few privileges everyone gets. Oh, but the books you¡¯re allowed ess to are limited by your grade. The books on the very top shelves are limited to A-grade mages or anyone who can reach them.¡± ¡°Wait, anyone who can reach them?¡± Emily asks, finally looking back to Juliana after inspecting the room. ¡°Yeah, the flying book system is for ease of use, but there is also the option to search through the stacks for the book you want yourself. They say that if you¡¯re able to reach the top shelves on your own, you¡¯re allowed to read the books there, irrespective of your grade. Though, flight magic is very hard. You have to be at least a third circle wind mage to use it, so it¡¯s not really known whether that¡¯s just a rumour or not,¡± Juliana exins while pulling Emily deeper into the room to find an empty table. ¡°You sound like you¡¯ve been here forever!¡± Emily chuckles. ¡°Hey! I¡¯ve only been here for a year; you can learn a lot in a year!¡± Juliana pouts as shees to a halt next to an empty table with two seats. She sits down in one of them and gestures for Emily to do the same, then takes off her crest and taps it to the centre of the table. Instantly, a thin film expands from the table, passing over Emily and causing a slight fluctuation in her magic circle. As the film passes her, she notices all the sounds from the room cutting off, leaving them in an uncanny silence. ¡°You have to use your crest to activate the table, it registers your ess level when you do. If you¡¯re ever studying with someone of a higher grade let them do it instead so you have ess to better books. Then all you have to do is inject a little mana into the table and ask for a few books like this.¡± Juliana ces her palm t on the table and passes mana into it while saying: ¡°One on basic mana maniption.¡± ¡°Wait, didn¡¯t you say books are limited by your grade? Why can you read higher-level books if someone else activates the table? Is that even allowed?¡± Emily asks as Juliana moves her hand off the table. ¡°Surprisingly it is. You can¡¯t take books out of the library anyway, only make notes. Some A and B-grade mages even sell the right to study with them to make extra contribution points. Not that it matters that much though, the higher-grade books are all even harder to understand. I¡¯m pretty sure all the books I¡¯ve used so far are only C-grade. Then again, I¡¯m only first-circle, so maybe it makes more of a difference at higher circles,¡± she says with a shrug. Just as Juliana finishes speaking, Emily sees a book fly through the barrier above their heads,ing to a halt and then slowly lowering down onto the desk in front of Juliana. ¡°You can also directly ask for them by title instead of topic, so remember to note down the title if you want the same one again at some point,¡± Juliana says while lifting the book and showing Emily the title, ¡®Studies of the Arcane¡¯. ¡°And getting rid of them is my favourite part. Just throw them outside the barrier!¡± She throws the book over her shoulder, causing Emily to wince and follow the book''s flight with a worried gaze, but it doesn¡¯t hit the floor. The second the book leaves the barrier it shoots upwards to five metres in the air, then moves away from them back into the stacks. ¡°Haha, you looked terrified for that book¡¯s safety,¡± Julianaughs at Emily¡¯s reaction, whilst Emily res back. After a few seconds, she rolls her eyes as Juliana continues to grin. She stands up, offering Juliana a hand which she happily epts. ¡°Maybe we should move on before you endanger any more innocent books. Where to next?¡± Juliana pulls herself up, before proudly dering: ¡°Lunch!¡± Chapter 20 – Settling In Chapter 20 ¨C Settling In The canteen is arge simple hall, with tables filling the centre of the room, and a window to the kitchen along the opposite wall to the transportation circles. The tables have a simr soundproofing barrier to the library and offer the ability to request food from the kitchen. The food is also delivered through flight, creating the odd scene of a silent hall with trays of food asionally floating above. Emily and Juliana decide on a lunch of fried meats and eggs on toast while making small talk. After eating they head back to the dorms, finished with their tour. ¡°Thanks for showing me around,¡± Emily says as they stop in front of Juliana¡¯s door. ¡°No problem! I¡¯m d I picked up the mission. It''s not every day you get to earn points and make a new friend. You wanna get dinner togetherter?¡± So she was here for a mission? A little more of Emily¡¯s remaining caution slips away as she responds. ¡°Sure, what time?¡± ¡°Like 7 or 8?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go with 8, I prefer to eatter.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Juliana says while turning and opening her door, ¡°I¡¯lle grab you then!¡± Emily smiles and waves goodbye, walking away as Juliana¡¯s door shuts behind her. Heading into her room, Emily takes off her shoes and leaves them by the door, before opening her suitcase and unpacking into the wardrobe and drawers below. She takes her toiletries, towel, and dirty clothes from her trip into the bathroom. She deposits the towel over a small rail on the wall, and her toiletries on a shelf above the sink. Then she drops the dirty clothes on the floor in the alcove, ces her hand against the engraving, and injects mana into it, keen to see the clothes-washing spell Juliana exined to her over lunch. The engraving quickly lights up with a pale glow, a mixture of green and indigo. Stepping back, she watches as the clothes on the floor float up a few inches and begin spinning around each other while a light spray of water appears to douse them. Once activated the spellsts for twenty minutes, and the clothese out clean and dry. The luxury of not having to handwash clothes makes Emily bitter that magic isn¡¯t widespread. She moves back into her room, leaving the spell to do its work, and checks the suitcase for anything else. She ignores the nightgowns she will never wear but takes out the small leather pouch sitting in the bottom. Opening it up, she lets out a small gasp as she sees five small golden coins. Woah, that¡¯s a lot. I¡¯d have to sell, like, one hundred and fifty pocket watches to make that much. Nobles really are rich. A malicious grin spreads across her face. Very kind of them to give me some starting capital to make weapons with. She pulls closed the drawstring on the pouch and ces it safely into the drawer of the bedside table furthest from the door. Done with the suitcase, she closes it again and ces it beside the wardrobe. Emily sits down cross-legged in the centre of the room. Time to see if they spy on people here. She enters a meditative state and expands her magical senses to cover the room, unsurprised by the immense magical fluctuations all around her. Hmm, this may take a while. She methodically inspects every surface and object in the room, pausing on every mana crystal and enchantment to check for familiar runes from the surveince spells she saw in the Mandrago mansion. After several hours of investigation, Emily opens her eyes, mostly satisfied that her room is secure. She walks over to the desk, where she has noticed several unfamiliar enchanted objects, and finds a note lying on top of it. She sits in thefortable padded wooden chair and picks it up. Wee, aspiring young mage, to The Covenant of the Blessed. The Covenant has great expectations of you and looks forward to your contribution to magical society. Please find a few wee gifts within this desk to get you started. We wish you luck in your pursuit of knowledge. The moment she finishes reading the note, it bursts into mes. Startled, she drops the burning paper back onto the desk and watches as it disintegrates, not even leaving ashes behind. ¡°Huh, I guess that¡¯s what those enchantments were for.¡± She mutters while looking at the two sets of drawers that make up the desk¡¯s legs. Each set of drawers has three slightlyrger drawers at the bottom and two shallower ones at the top. She begins by opening the drawers on the left, starting at the top and working her way down. Disappointingly, she finds all the drawers to be empty. Moving on to the right-hand side with low expectations, she opens the top drawer to find three items neatly positioned inside. First, she lifts out a delicate feather quill with a vane so ck it appears to absorb the light around it. Around the shaft of the quill is a small silver metal handle, shaped perfectly to be heldfortably between three fingers. As Emily turns the quill in her hand, she counts six unique ck runes engraved around the handle. Why can¡¯t they just use pens? Though I don¡¯t see an inkwell, so I assume its magic will generate ink or something. cing the quill down on the desk and moving on to the next item, she lifts a thick leatherbound book out of the drawer and ces it on the desk in front of her. The cover is nk, so she opens it up to look inside and finds hundreds of nk pages as she flicks through it. A notebook, I guess it would be nice not to have to sort through random stacks of blueprints again. With a satisfied nod, Emily looks at thest item in the drawer. Thest item, a small coin-sized milky white crystal, causes a shiver to run down her spine. With slight apprehension, cautious of how reminiscent it is of the crystal used in the Mandrago family¡¯s brainwashing spell, she raises it to her eye. Rotating it slowly and gazing at theplicated weaving of runes covering its every surface Emily is left awestruck. These runes are incredibly delicate, how long will it have taken to engrave this much on to this tiny crystal? Though they could have at least written an exnation on their wee note so I¡¯d know what it actually does. Ah, unless these gifts are only given to the B-grade magesing from noble families who would already have been told what they¡¯re for. Sighing, Emily ces the crystal down on the desk next to the notebook. She leans back in her chair and taps her fingers against the desk and her chin while considering the gifts. Do I have to wait and ask Juliana at dinner? Wait, what about the system? She focuses on the feather quill while calling out for her system in her head. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Nighthawk Quill] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +1 dex [Description:] A quill made from the feather of a Nighthawk. The runes engraved on the handle absorb the ambient mana released by a mage and channel it into the Nighthawk¡¯s natural ability to convert mana into darkness. [Effect:] Passively generates liquid darkness. _____ After reading the quill¡¯s details and finding them to be as she expected, other than the bonus stat in dexterity, she eagerly changes her focus to bring up the notebook and crystal¡¯s descriptions. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Leatherbound Book] [Description:] An empty book with a leather binding. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Recording Crystal] [Rank:] D [Description:] A mental attributed mana crystal carved with a spell for recording memories. [Effect:] Record up to thirty minutes of the user''s perspective. _____ Emily is disappointed by the in description of the notebook, having hoped for there to be something special about it. But her excitement returns as she sees the recording crystal¡¯s details. Nice! This is probably given for recording lectures. She happily ces the crystal back into the drawer and opens the notebook to the first page. I need to work out my priorities for now. Let¡¯s have a look at what I need to increase my circle and stage first. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] First Requirements: -Intelligence 23/35 (Not Complete) -Create 5/5 unique F rank machines (Complete) -Create 0/1 E rank machine (Not Complete) -Learn 0/5 first circle spells (Not Complete) -Learn 1/3 basic magic knowledges (Not Complete) _____ Emily considers the progression requirements before her and begins writing a few notes. Meditate a minimum of four hours a day. Work out what affects the grade of items. Learn spells (sses?) Work out what current knowledges told me. Learn knowledges (sses and library?) Collect tools and materials for creating machines in my room. Checkmunication crystal, market token, ss token and my crest with the system. Check when sses are. Look through the contribution market. Let¡¯s start with working out what electrical theory and mana formation taught me, there¡¯s definitely more information in my head, but I don¡¯t know what. She turns the page and ces her quill against the paper while focusing on the concept of mana formation in her head. Mana is everywhere throughout the universe. The density of mana in an area can vary based on many variables and some areas can evenck manapletely, though rare and usually sparse of life as a result. Every has channels that mana flows through more easily, these are called mana veins. The majority of mana veins are deep within the, but asionally they stray close to the surface. When a mana vein is close to the surface of the, areas of high-density mana are formed. Sometimes mana veins will meet each other close to the surface in convergence points, forming areas of ultra-high-density mana that can form into dungeons or spawn mana-dependent lifeforms. In areas of high-density mana, minerals and materials exposed for extended periods of time can often gain magical attributes. These can include high magical conductivity or resistance. Along with affecting existing minerals and materials, mana will often crystallise. Lifeforms living within high-density mana are often affected, experiencing extended lifespans and sometimes mutations. New lifeforms are often formed too, ranging from beasts to elementals. The information that seemed hazy when the knowledge was first granted suddenly flows clearly through her mind as she writes. Further details on the variables for mana density, and information on themon and exotic mana crystals and magical materials that can form fill her thoughts. Emily ces the quill down the moment the page is full, while massaging her brows, feeling a light ache as her mind adjusts. Weird, I would have thought that should happen when I was given the knowledge. My knowledge of steam power and clockwork definitely became moreplete the moment I gained the knowledge, but not the other three. Maybe it¡¯s because they were grantedpletely by the system initialisation, and I knew nothing about them before. As the aching subsides, Emily picks up the quill again and ces it against the other open page. I don¡¯t need this much detail written down, so let''s try focusing on key points and see if that activates the knowledge properly. Electrical Theory is the study of the flow of charge, referred to as electric current. In a circuit: V = IR Electrical current flows from positive to negative and takes the path of least resistance. When voltage is generated by a source of energy, or by varying the maic field, it is referred to as electromotive force. The force to move electrons and form current. If there is a maic field and a change in current, a force is produced, referred to as electromaic force. This can also be used to induce a current, as when there is a change in maic field across a conductor, the force that is produced is electromotive force. As she had hoped, segments of knowledge on particles and forces slot into ce in her mind as she writes. Once again cing the quill down and reaching up to massage her aching head, Emily is surprised by a new system notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Knowledge acquisitionplete! [Reward granted] Quest generated: The Four Fundamental Forces Sub-system unlocked: Quests -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [The Four Fundamental Forces] [Rank:] C [Description:] Learn and understand the four fundamental forces of physics Requirements: -Learn 1/4 Forces (Not Complete) Rewards: -Blueprint: Universal Transmitter _____ She stares at the windows before her with a confused look on her face. How am I meant to learn about these fundamental forces when the first of them is something I¡¯d never heard of before today? Maybe there¡¯ll be information in the library. If not I have to hope I can work them out myself. And given that the rating of this quest is higher than the recording stone, I¡¯m probably fine leaving it tillter. Important goals first! Blinking the quest out of her vision and looking back to her notebook, Emily¡¯s expression shifts back to a satisfied smile. Fuelled by her new knowledge, ideas for interesting machines flow into her mind and she is eager to get to work. ¡°If electromaic force requires a maic field, how was I able to use it without a ma on The Clock?¡± Emily asks herself aloud while picking up the quill again. She circles the ¡®maic field¡¯ in thest paragraph on the page and writes a question beside it. Does lightning attribute mana have a maicponent? Nodding, she turns back to the first page. She crosses out one of the lines and makes a note branching off another. Work out what affects the grade of items. -Level of knowledge used? Work out what current knowledges changed. Emily pulls out the two tokens she bought earlier, along with her crest andmunication crystal, and drops all the objects onto the desk in front of her. Finally, let¡¯s have a look at these four before dinner. Chapter 21 – Taking Stock Chapter 21 ¨C Taking Stock Gazing at the four items before her, Emily wills her system into activation. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Contribution Market Token] [Rank:] E [Description:] A mobile terminal for essing the contribution market within The Isle of the Blessed. [Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user¡¯s consciousness to the contribution database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Course List Token] [Rank:] E [Description:] A mobile terminal for essing the ss list within The Isle of the Blessed. [Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user¡¯s consciousness to the course database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Mandrago Family Crest] [Rank:] E [Description:] A crest of the Mandrago family, engraved to allow for the tracking and transfer of ¡®contribution points¡¯. [Effect:] Tracks the user¡¯s contribution point total. When mana is channelled, allows for the transfer of contribution points. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Communication Crystal] [Rank:] D [Description:] A space attribute mana crystal engraved with amunication spell. [Effect:] When mana is channelled, creates a link with a partner crystal irrespective of the distance between them. _____ The descriptions of the tokens match Emily¡¯s expectations, confirming her theory of the clerk in the information hub using crystals to connect to arge data hub. However, the description of themunication crystal catches her off guard, with the rank being higher than she expected after the first three items. Aremunication spells high level? I would have thought the tokens should be higher rank if that¡¯s the case. Maybe space attribute crystals are higher level and that affects it? She quickly adds an extra note to her notebook. Work out what affects the grade of items. -Level of knowledge used? -Level of materials used? I should remember to use the system for information gathering. With no other reason to keep them out, Emily puts her crest andmunication crystal back within her robes, then picks up the market token. Closing her eyes, she injects a small amount of mana into the crystal coin and flinches as she feels a connection being formed with it. A simple interface, simr to the one she uses for the system, appears in her mind. However, this one seems far weaker. She can tell that the connection will be broken the moment she opens her eyes, and the interface will scatter. The interface has three selectable categories, simr to the tabs on her system, ¡®Resource Exchange¡¯, ¡®Product Exchange¡¯, and ¡®Service Exchange¡¯. Looking at the options before her, Emily first focuses on the resource exchange. The words in her mind dissolve and are reced by another short selection: ¡®Mana Crystals¡¯, ¡®Beast Materials¡¯, ¡®Magical Metals and Minerals¡¯, and ¡®Magical nts¡¯. She¡¯s immediately drawn to the mana crystal list, eager to understand the market. This time, as the short selection fades, a long scroble list appears. Along the top of the list are four column titles: ¡®Element¡¯, ¡®Grade¡¯, ¡®Stock¡¯, and ¡®Price per item¡¯. As Emily focuses on each of them, a small arrow pointing up or down appears next to the title. After a few moments of testing, she realises that the arrow facing up sorts by highest value, and down sorts by lowest. Sorting by the highest value element, which sorts the elements alphabetically, Emily scrolls through the list, noting the pricing and stock counts for the crystals being split into groups. Fire, wind, water and earth each cost five contribution points for lesser crystals, ten points for normal crystals and fifty points for greater crystals. Light, darkness and lightning crystals cost ten points for lesser crystals and twenty points for normal crystals, with greater crystals not being sold. While space, metal and mental crystals only have lesser crystals avable for twenty points. Hmm, it looks like they¡¯ve divided the sixmon elements, and even included lightning with light and dark, strange. They don¡¯t cover a lot of exotic elements, there aren¡¯t even nt or sound crystals avable. Well, the stock for the exotic elements is dismalpared to themon, so maybe they don¡¯t disy an element if there isn¡¯t stock. I wonder if rare exotic crystals are among the items Juliana was talking about people putting up after missions? I¡¯ll have to remember to keep checking in on this consistently. Another thought urs to her. Do they even know other elements exist? Maybe the system has given me more information on exotic elements than this world has. I¡¯ll have to be careful with which elements I use till I¡¯m certain. Emily mentally discards a few machine ideas she¡¯d been toying with since she received mana formation knowledge due to theck of crystal avability. Sighing with resignation, she navigates back to thest selection with ease due to her practice with the system and focuses on magical metals and minerals. This time there are only three columns, ¡®Item¡¯, ¡®Stock¡¯, and ¡®Price per kg¡¯, and the list is short, only containing four items. Seeing the short list assures Emily of her assumption that other items are only put up when there is stock. There¡¯s no way they don¡¯t know more than three magical metals and one mineral. Moving on quickly to the beast materials and magical nts, Emily finds these two sections also only include ¡®Item¡¯, ¡®Stock, and ¡®Price per item¡¯. Both lists are much longer than thest one, however, she only spares them a cursory nce, herck of knowledge in either area making them far less useful right now. Moving back to the initial category selection, she focuses on the product exchange next, finding a long list with four columns, ¡®Item¡¯, ¡®Stock¡¯, ¡®Description¡¯, and ¡®Price per item¡¯. She scrolls the list, finding a plethora of magical oddities avable, from the endless ink quills for twenty contribution points to one-time use teleportation crystals for two hundred. However, her attention is drawn towards the mana and healing potions for fifteen points each. Finally, Emily looks through the service exchange. This time instead of a list split apart into multiple columns, each item simply has a title and description. Reading through a couple of the services, she finds a few library study sessions like Juliana spoke about earlier, and even a few direct tutoring offers. But the ones that interest Emily more are the offers of specific magical skills, such as engraving magical tattoos to enhance your body or preparing arrays to protect your room. The offers for these include several materials the customer is required to provide along with the contribution point cost. After browsing the exchange for a while and growing more excited to start learning, she opens her eyes, breaking the connection with the token. She adds two new notes to the bottom of the page before her while crossing off two finished ones. Checkmunication crystal, market token, ss token and my crest with the system. Look through the contribution market. Learn Alchemy. Learn tattoo engraving. Checking the time quickly and finding it to be 7:30, Emily ces the market token into the drawer, next to themunication crystal, and reaches for her ss token. Once again injecting a small amount of mana and closing her eyes, a new menu appears in her mind. Only three categories are disyed: ¡®Avable Courses¡¯, ¡®Registered Courses¡¯, and ¡®Completed Courses¡¯. ¡®Completed courses¡¯ is a dull grey, catching Emily¡¯s eye. However, when she tries to focus on it, the menu remains the same. Ah, I guess grey means unavable then; probably because I haven¡¯t finished any courses yet. She moves her focus to ¡®Avable Courses¡¯, bringing up a long list with three columns: ¡®Course¡¯, ¡®Grade¡¯ and ¡®Prerequisites¡¯. Scrolling through the long list, she sees arge variety of lessons, from history to hand-to-handbat and spell creation. Every course is designated a grade from basic to advanced. Emily quickly skims over the general subjects such as etiquette, history, and geography, all graded as basic. This is in stark contrast to the magic-rted subjects, the majority of which span all three grades, with a few only avable at intermediate or higher and requiring basic courses to register. Emily¡¯s attention is drawn to the hand-to-handbat and alchemy courses. Alchemy is only avable at intermediate and advanced levels and requires the basic courses: ¡®Beast Studies¡¯ and ¡®Magic Theory¡¯ to register. Whereas hand-to-handbat starts at basic with no requirements, and goes up to intermediate, which requires basic magicbat, catching Emily off guard. Do they have a way of using magic for close-quartersbat? I thought most of these nobles would be too stuck up to do that. Maybe I can punch a few snobs while staying fit. With a smirk, Emily registers for the hand-to-handbat course by focusing on it till the menu changes to a prompt asking her to confirm her registration. The moment hand-to-handbat disappears from the list, she opens her eyes and picks up the quill again. Learn Alchemy. -Beast studies first. I can look at more coursester, first I should get through the ones I¡¯m already signed up for. She quickly pulls up the token¡¯s menu again, this time going into the ¡®Registered Courses¡¯. The six expected courses appear in a short list with four columns, ¡®Course¡¯, ¡®Current Grade¡¯, ¡®Highest Grade¡¯, and ¡®Modules¡¯. All six courses are at the current grade of basic. Etiquette, geopolitics and English all have the highest grade of basic, with maths and hand-to-handbat going up to intermediate. Magic theory alone is the only course Emily is currently registered for that goes up to the advanced level. This is also reflected in the module count for each course. The three basic limited courses all only have one or two modules each, but Maths has three and hand-to-handbat has six. However, far outstripping all the others, magic theory has twelve. Curious, Emily focuses on magic theory and watches the list before her shift to a detailed screen on the course. The twelve modules of the course are split into two groups. The first group is a group of four, all of which must bepleted before she can advance: elemental selection, chants, natural mana formation and mana maniption. The second is a group of eight: the sixmon elements, plus ice and lightning. Here, she only needs toplete one to advance. These modules are disyed before Emily in a scattered chart with the two groups bundled together. As she focuses on each module, it expands to give the time and location of the next ss. Emily checks all of her courses and finds that her next lesson is elemental selection in two days. Opening her eyes, she ces the course list token down in the open drawer. Two days until magic lessons start¡­ I guess I can use this time to draw up some ideas for an E rank machine. I¡¯ll probably need to leave the dome to buy materials though, maybe I should ask Juliana to show me around the cityter. As she begins pulling the map out of her pocket to look it over, she hears a knocking at her door. ¡°Speak of the devil.¡± She tosses the map onto the desk and stands up to leave. Guess I can ask her now. *** At dinner, Juliana eagerly agrees to show Emily around the city in ten days'' time when neither of them have any sses. The next two days pass by quickly, with Emily and Juliana meeting up daily to eat meals. Emily spends the rest of her time meditating, spellweaving, and drawing up blueprints in preparation for her trip out into the city. On the morning of her third day in The Dome, Emily eats breakfast with Juliana before her first lesson. ¡°Why don¡¯t you ever seem to meet up with other friends?¡± Emily asks a question that has been on her mind over the past few days while taking a bite of her toast. ¡°Ah, most of my friends are away from The Dome on missions at the moment, and the ones that aren¡¯t are all too busy studying,¡± Juliana answers with a grumpy pout that makes Emily chuckle. ¡°Speaking of, your first ss is today, isn¡¯t it? You¡¯re not gonna start ignoring me too, are you?¡± ¡°Nah,¡± Emily snorts and rolls her eyes at the huge puppy dog eyes Juliana uses to emphasise her question, ¡°as long as I still need to eat, I¡¯m happy to match schedules with you to havepany.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Juliana responds, smiling with smug satisfaction. ¡°But you should probably get going now if you want to reach ss on time.¡± Emily pulls out The Clock to check and finds it¡¯s already 8:50, ten minutes left till her ss starts. ¡°Yeah, I should,¡± she agrees while standing up and collecting her notebook and quill from the table in front of her. ¡°I¡¯ll see you at lunch.¡± ¡°See youter!¡± She turns with ast wave to Juliana and walks towards the transportation circles to leave the cafeteria. A short dimensional jumpter Emily finds herself walking through a hallway with significantly more foot traffic than she is used to seeing in The Dome. Passing by her on either side are dozens of robed mages with varying colours enting their robes and differing crests on their chests. Arge majority of the crests bear silver or bronze ents, with only a few people wearing gold. Of the people she sees with golden crests, all of them have two or three silver and bronze crests following them closely like protective guards. Emily quietly makes her way through the hallway and soones to a stop in front of arge dark wooden door with the glowing words ¡®Elemental Selection¡¯ emzoned on the silver te in the centre of it. She raises her hand and grasps the smooth silver doorknob. Twisting it, she pushes the door open as a grin spreads across her face. Time to y with magic. Chapter 22 – The First Class Chapter 22 ¨C The First ss The door creaks open revealing a grand, open room, with vaulted ceilings and a beautiful crystalttice at the centre, emitting a refreshing white glow. Directly to the right of the door is a lightly raised dais with a short podium and a wide ckboard. Emily notices the dais is empty and assumes the teacher must not be here yet, so she turns her attention to her left. Stretching out to fill the room are five rows of raised desks, with an empty channel through the centre. upying these desks are four other people, sitting across the front three rows. Emily¡¯s attention is quickly drawn to the loud chattering from the only two sitting together. Sat in the middle of the front row on the right-hand side of the room are two short scruffy kids with messy ginger hair and matching bronze crests. The boy is talking without stopping for breath to the girl sitting to his right, who Emily presumes is his sister. Pulling her attention away from the noise, she looks at the boy sitting close to the door in the second row. He¡¯s a short, gloomy-looking boy with a bronze crest, staring at the book open in front of him without ncing up at all. Sitting in the row behind him, closer to the centre of the room, is a tall girl with a stern look on her face, calmly watching Emily as she walks in front of the desks. On her chest, proudly presented by her upright posture, is a silver crest. As Emily reaches the aisle in the middle of the room, the loud scruffy boy looks over and calls out to her. ¡°Hey! Come sit with us!¡± Emily raises an eyebrow in amusement and nces at the girl next to him. Seeing her pleading gaze, Emily asks a question. ¡°You gonna talk through the lesson as well?¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t worry!¡± the boy responds with a toothy grin. Well, I do need to talk to some othermoners to work out if they were brainwashed too¡­ With a light nod, Emily walks down the row and takes the seat next to the still-silent girl, who nods in appreciation with a relieved smile. ¡°I¡¯m Tom Valentine of house Dahlia and this is my sister Hester Valentine, also of house Dahlia. Nice to meet you,¡± Tom says while extending his hand towards her. ¡°I¡¯m Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago, nice to meet you too,¡± Emily smiles, cing her notebook and quill on the desk and shaking the small, mmy hand she is offered. ¡°How long have you been here? We got here two weeks ago but this is the first time I¡¯ve seen you in magic theory lessons. We¡¯ve gone to chants, mana maniption and formation courses already too and you weren¡¯t there, so I guess you probably only came in thest week, right? I''m right, aren¡¯t I?¡± Emily is slightly taken aback by the wall of words presented to her, and before she gets a chance to respond, Hester speaks for the first time. ¡°Calm down dumbass, you¡¯ll scare her off.¡± Hester''s strong words and fierce re surprise Emily even more than Tom. ¡°Is he always like this?¡± she asks Hester with a chuckle. ¡°Kind of, he just won¡¯t shut up sometimes. He¡¯s talked non-stop since we were selected,¡± Hester turns back and answers with a tired sigh. ¡°No wonder you looked so desperate; I would have thought you¡¯d be used to it though?¡± ¡°I used to be able to avoid him most of the time. But now I¡¯m kind of stuck with him since we need to go to the same sses.¡± ¡°Hey I¡¯m not tha-¡° Tom starts toin but instantly shrinks back when his sister aims another re at him. ¡°What did you do before being selected?¡± Emily asks while holding back augh at the siblings¡¯ antics. ¡°We helped Dad with running his museum mostly. Tom did tours and I worked the reception, so he talked at the customers, not me. What about you?¡± ¡°I helped make a few clocks for my Dad¡¯s shop, but mostly I just made stuff for myself,¡± Emily responds with a sad tone. Hester notices and pauses for a second. Tom, however, doesn¡¯t and excitedly asks a follow-up question. ¡°Your dad¡¯s a clockmaker? Cool! Do you have any siblings, do they make clocks too?¡± Emily notices a quick movement under the desk, and Tom squeals out in pain, doubling over and reaching for his shins. ¡°Sorry,¡± Hester says apologetically, ignoring her brother. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Emily says before answering Tom with a slight edge to her voice. ¡°He was a clockmaker, and I have a sister called Anna. She wants to be a seamstress so no; she doesn¡¯t make clocks.¡± Tom¡¯s eyes widen as the point finallynds, and he frantically apologises. ¡°Oh sorry, my mouth kind of moves faster than my brain.¡± Before Emily can respond, the door to the room creaks open and she turns to look. A tall, young-looking woman with short, wavy golden hair steps into the room wearing silver crestless robes. ¡°What¡¯s with the robes?¡± Emily asks quietly. ¡°Mages working as staff aren¡¯t allowed to show their family affiliation to show their impartiality,¡± Tom answers her eagerly. The teacher walks up to the dais and grabs the chalk next to the ckboard. The room settles intoplete silence till the rhythmic tapping of the chalk begins. Emily watches with bated breath as arge diagram is drawn on the nk te. She quickly recognises the diagram as a twisted version of the basic elements she knows. The teacher draws a set of three concentric circles. The centre is split in two, with ¡®Light¡¯ written on one side and ¡®Dark¡¯ written on the other. The second circle is split into four: ¡®Earth¡¯, ¡®Wind¡¯, ¡®Fire¡¯, and ¡®Water¡¯. And the final circle is in four matching segments with thest: ¡®Metal¡¯, ¡®Space¡¯, ¡®Lightning¡¯, and ¡®Ice¡¯. Outside the circles, ¡®Mental¡¯ and ¡®Sand¡¯ are written. ¡°Basic elemental theory!¡± she deres, levitating the chalk up to write the words across the top of the board as she says them. ¡°I¡¯m a third circle mage, Jenny Forsythia, and this is the topic I specialise in.¡± She turns to face the desks and slowly looks over their inhabitants. ¡°I see all five of you are new, so what can you tell me about elemental theory?¡± The hand of the tall girl sitting alone instantly shoots up, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. After a light nod from Jenny, the girl begins speaking. ¡°Elemental theory is one of the coreponents of our magic system. The world around us can be split and categorised into several elements that we focus on replicating to cast magic. The two fundamental elements are light and dark. Also known as the elements of creation and destruction. The fourmon elements are fire, water, earth, and wind. And their higher forms are lightning, ice, metal, and space. Outside of the ten main elements are exotic elements like mental and sand. Every mage has a natural affinity with certain elements and will find it easiest to progress while focusing on that element alone.¡± ¡°Very good, what is your name?¡± Jenny asks while pping lightly. ¡°I¡¯m a first circle mage, Alexia Hawthorne,¡± the girl replies while crossing her hand over her chest and bowing her head lightly. Jenny nods and ces her hand on the podium before her. ¡°Five points to Alexia Hawthorne.¡± As her words fall, the podium glows for half a second before returning to normal. ¡°d to see the Hawthorne house¡¯s education standard hasn¡¯t dropped.¡± Jenny breaks her focus away from Alexia as she continues. ¡°As Alexia so kindly put it, elemental theory is one of the coreponents of our magic system. Along with the study of runes and chants, the study of the elements themselves is a fascinating topic that I unfortunately don¡¯t have time to go into in this lesson. All of you are here today for the purpose of realising your own elemental affinities, and to do that we will need to go through a process some of you,¡± she pointedly nces towards Alexia, ¡°may already havepleted. But I would still like you to follow along with me so I can see your results in full, I may have further insights that may help you. So, first-¡± Jenny is cut off as the door to the hall swings open violently. Tworge, stocky boys walk in with scowls set on their faces. Emily notices two different silver crests on their chests. ¡°Ah, Jeremy, Kyle, how kind of you to grace us with your presence just as I finish my introduction. I¡¯m d to know you two have at least learned something from my lessons.¡± Emily raises an eyebrow at the obvious venom in her tone and at theck of reaction from the two young nobles. Ack of reaction until Tom breaks out inughter, and they turn their res on him, Hester, and Emily. Oh great, I should have sat alone. Emily doesn¡¯t have long to regret her decision as Jenny starts speaking again. ¡°Anyway, moving on from that interruption, can all of you pleasee down here and line up on the dais please.¡± Emily stands up and walks along the row, with Hester and Tom following her closely, then makes her way down the aisle. Still ignoring the uninterrupted res of Jeremy and Kyle, she joins the forming line on the dais in front of Jenny, cing herself beside Alexia. ¡°To work out your affinity, we are going to use the tried-and-true method of trial and error. I¡¯m going to get all of you to build up your own mental image of each element and attempt to manifest them. We will then judge, from the results, which one you should focus on. Those of you who have done this before, ignore me and use your established image. The rest of you listen to me and I will help you build yours. Once you have a solid image, try to push mana into it to attempt the manifestation. First, I would like everyone to stand in afortable, neutral stance with one hand in front of you, palm up.¡± Jenny demonstrates and waits for everyone to copy her. ¡°Good, now close your eyes and empty your minds.¡± As Jenny pauses, Emily closes her eyes and takes a deep breath through her nose, holding it for a few seconds, then exhaling slowly through her mouth. After ten seconds of silence, Jenny begins speaking again and Emily focuses on her words, shutting out the sounds of breathing around her. ¡°We will start with fire. Picture a me, big or small. Focus on its colour. Is it orange? Red? Neither? Watch it move, watch it sway and flicker. Is it strong and deadly, ready to extinguish all life? Or is it fragile and delicate, ready to go out with a slight breeze? Feel the heat emanating from it. Does it scorch? Or simply give warmth? How br- ¡° Emily listens to Jenny¡¯s questions and starts to picture a small me at the end of a match. With twisting hues of red and orange, burning strong against the wind with a light warmth. Hmm, no. Matches get blown out, that¡¯s not right. She clears her mind again and tunes out Jenny¡¯s words. Fire. What is fire to me? A tool for warmth? Light? Cooking? Shaping metal? AH! An image shes through her mind of a behemoth of metal, brought down from the sky by a roaring inferno. Focusing on the idea, a small spark forms in her mind. The spark starts a small dark orange me, so dark it¡¯s nearly red; burning steadily and controlled. A small silver piece of steel is ced in the centre of the me, and it bends, forming around the metal to swallow it whole. Slowly the me begins to grow, lightening in shade with the metal. As the two reach a light orange hue, a wind is introduced. The wind pushes against the fire, but the fire doesn¡¯t yield. Instead, it consumes the wind and grows, slowly beginning to form a vortex around the metallic core. As the speed of the me grows, so does its intensity, until the metal in the centre glows a searing white. Piece by piece the metal is torn apart, joining the me in its motion, and forming a familiar dance of orange and white. Emily wills her mana into the vortex and opens her eyes to stare at her hand. Floating above her palm she sees a small flickering white and orange me. She smiles and moves her hand up to try to touch the me, but the moment she moves, the me disappears like a lie. Just as Emily is beginning to feel disappointed, she hears enthusiastic pping and looks up. She meets the eyes of Jenny, who is staring at her with a wide grin. ¡°Incredible! To think you¡¯re already able to manifest an element so clearly. You¡¯re going to be an incredible fire mage. What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago,¡± Emily responds slightly taken aback by Jenny¡¯s passionate reaction, but still remembering her formal introduction and bowing with a hand across her chest. She notices Jenny¡¯s gaze darkening for a split second at her introduction, but her expression returns to normal almost instantly as she turns and walks back to her podium. What was that? Did I do something wrong? She looks at the other students in worry and sees a mixture of shock and confusion on their faces. I guess not. Unless they also don¡¯t know what I did. As she begins to calm down, Jenny¡¯s next words hit her like a bucket of cold water. ¡°Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± Chapter 23 – Magical Genius Chapter 23 ¨C Magical Genius Jenny sees the looks of confusion on some of her students'' faces and begins to exin her reasoning. ¡°I can see some of you are confused with my point allocation so allow me to exin. What we are attempting right now is elemental manifestation. The difference between this and casting a spell is theck of a runic form. When we cast spells,¡± as she speaks, she raises her left hand and a glowing red matrix of runes appears above it, ¡°we form a specific matrix of runes, formed with a set of precise calctions, and imbue it with a mental image.¡± The centre of the matrix expands and a fist-sized ball of mes forms, crackling and flickering in a controlled manner. ¡°When doing this, we can substitute a solid mental image for a chant that forms the mental image for us. In this situation, the actions and properties of the spell are mainly controlled by the runic form you use, with little room for change unless you have precise mana maniption.¡± Jenny dismisses the fireball and raises her right hand before her. ¡°However, with elemental manifestation, there is no matrix or chant to assist you in image and control. Because of this, you must form an incredibly detailed image, and consider many small variables that will affect it, to manifest even a small mass of pure elemental mana. This leads to most beginners only being able to form wisps of an element.¡± Above her hand, small red sparks appear, flickering in and out of existence weakly. ¡°We judge affinity based on how dense these wisps are. However, Emily here managed a full manifestation on her first attempt!¡± The sparks in her hand shoot towards the centre and condense into a small flickering orange me. ¡°It takes most mages getting to the third circle to form a full manifestation with their main element, hence why I believe this is an achievement worthy of praise.¡± Emily sees her peers nodding with understanding and feels a budding sense of pride. I guess the system was right in calling me a magical genius. ¡°Right,¡± Jenny says with a p, gathering everyone''s attention again. ¡°I¡¯ve seen all of your attempts at fire so let us move on to water next.¡± She once again gets them all to close their eyes and listen to her questioning them about the element. Emily pictures an orb of clear water in her mind and attempts to manifest it. However, this time she only manages to conjure a mass of blue wisps. I think I spoke too soon. It¡¯s weird though, my image of water feels just as clear in my mind as that of fire but it doesn¡¯t manifest the same. Is this what affinity means? As the ss moves through the elements, Emily struggles with wind and earth as well, only conjuring faint clouds of colour for each. While she is feeling disappointed at her inability to replicate her first sess, Jenny sets the ss a challenge. ¡°Now for the fundamental, exotic and four higher form elements, all of them are a lot more difficult for a mage to grasp, even if they have an affinity for it. Because of this, my interference would just be detrimental to your growth, so I¡¯m going to give you all a challenge instead. For the next ten minutes, anyone who manifests an element other than themon four will be given twenty points. This excludes Jeremy and Kyle since you¡¯ve had many attempts at this already. Begin!¡± Ignoring the grumblinging from the end of the line and shutting out all external stimuli, Emily closes her eyes and raises her palm. Without a moment''s hesitation, she decides to try lightning. Since manifesting fire earlier, Emily couldn¡¯t help wondering if herck of ability to manifest other elements was due to ack of understanding instead of aptitude. To test this, she chooses to attempt lightning, the element assisted the most by her system-given knowledge and real-life experiences. As Emily focuses on the concept of lightning, three things spring to mind. The first is the memory of her first time breaking a mana crystal; the zing matrix of lightning violently crackling and pulling along a floating ring of metal has been fixed in her mind since. The second is the delicate and orderly flow of electrical signals flooding her body even now in the form of the esoteric lightning called machina. The final piece to tie the two seemingly disconnected ideas of lightning together is her theoretical knowledge of electricity. In thepletely nk space within her mind, Emily starts by picking two points. At both points, a small iron ball appears. One ball she pictures with a strong negative charge, and the other positive. As she increases the difference in charge, the gap between the two balls begins to shake and a bolt of lightning shoots between the two balls. The streak of lightning collides with the receiving ball and vanishes as quickly as it appears. However, Emily maintains and keeps increasing the difference in charge. Lightning keeps striking and very quickly the gap between each strike narrows to the point of bing indistinguishable. All that remains pictured in Emily¡¯s mind is a fierce spear of lightning. Flowing in a controlled yet violent manner, with wildly grasping branches shooting off into the charged space around it, the spear distorts everything around it with a powerful electromaic field. Emily pushes a steady flow of mana into the image, instead of trepidation or excitement, all she feels is a serene sense of calm. Completely confident, Emily trusts the instinct telling her that her interpretation is correct and opens her eyes. Floating above her hand is a small stream of lightning. Compared to the power and violence of the image in her head, the manifestation is pathetic. However, neither the grin that spreads across Emily¡¯s face, nor the feeling of satisfaction at her sess are diminished in the slightest. The system notification that appears along with it only acts to add fuel to the fires of her joy. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Hidden-Questpleted: Magic? More like physics! [Magic? More like physics!] [Rank:] E [Description:] Use your understanding of physics to manifest an element. Requirements: -Manifest 1/1 Element (Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic knowledge: Basic Particle Physics -Chain-Quest: True Magical Genius #1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [True Magical Genius #1] [Rank:] D [Description:] Living up to your title of technomancer, you have manifested an element using your understanding of physics! But are two manifestations truly worthy of a magical genius? Requirements: -Manifest 2/3 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Not Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Material Science -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Kinematics _____ Emily winces as a flood of knowledge settles in her mind. Reaching up and massaging her brows, she considers the application of the new information she has. I think with this I should be able to manifest wind if I consider it a movement of the air. Why did I never stop to wonder what was transferring charge though? The metal in my lightning image wasn¡¯t urate, I should just consider it a point of charged water vapour in the air. Wait a second, if the manifestations have to be on my first attempt, does that mean I can abuse time travel to have another go? ¡°-mily! Emily! Are you okay?¡± Jenny¡¯s concerned voice snaps Emily out of her ruminations. ¡°Ah, yes. Sorry, I¡¯m fine, just a little distracted,¡± Emily responds while lowering her hand from her face. ¡°Good, congrattions on manifesting a higher element! Truly a talent blessed by the Goddess herself.¡± Jenny walks back to her podium quickly and grants Emily her reward. ¡°Twenty points to Emily Coldstone! Right, that marks the end of our time for today.¡± She walks back to stand in front of the group as she continues. ¡°I would like all of you five to go to the information hub and im a spell for an element of your choice. The Covenant allows each new mage a single first circle spell for free and then after that, you will have to pay for any others. Emily, I believe you should choose a fire spell, it¡¯s best to focus on your simpler element first to get used to spell casting. Alexia and Hester, you should focus on water. Tom, earth. And Nico, fire. By our next lesson in two weeks, I would like you all to attempt to learn and cast your spell. If you seed by the next lesson, you will pass this module. If not, you can keep trying or swap elements,¡± Jenny finishes with a smile, before turning to the two boys at the end of the line and speaking to them with disdain. ¡°As for you two, I will see you again in a fortnight. Try spending less time punching each other and more time in the library. If you fail toplete this lesson two more times, I have now been given permission to revoke both of your rights as mages and send you home.¡± Turning back to the rest of the ss, her smile returns. ¡°You¡¯re all dismissed!¡± All the students give a light bow with their right hands across their chests, which Emily quickly copies, then start moving towards the door in silence. So, is this quest really telling me to time travel just to show off? I¡¯m not against it, but it seems a bit odd for the system to care. Stepping out of the ssroom, Emily turns to head towards the transportation circles but gets stopped but a hand on her shoulder. ¡°That was crazy! You¡¯re like, super talented!¡± Tom practically shouts while Emily turns around to face him with a frown. ¡°Thank you, but could you try not to deafen me please.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry.¡± As Tom scratches his cheek in embarrassment, Emily pushes his hand off her shoulder and begins to turn around to leave. ¡°Are you going to the information hub now?¡± She pauses at Hester¡¯s question. If I¡¯m going to rewind anyway, I may as well see if I can get a load of spells for free. ¡°Yeah, you?¡± ¡°Same, let¡¯s go together.¡± The three of them start walking side-by-side down the hallway. ¡°That was really hard though, I barely got a reaction for earth. How did you manage to manifest two elements so well?¡± Tom asks after a few moments of walking in silence. ¡°I just thought of a time I¡¯d seen the element and simted its formation,¡± Emily replies without much thought and looks over to see a confused look on Tom¡¯s face. ¡°What do you mean simted its formation?¡± ¡°Well for fire I started with a nk space, then pictured a spark growing into a small me. Then I added a bit of metal to the me and pictured them both heating up till the me melted the metal. I also thought of the wind blowing against the me and how it would react. After the metal was melted, I was left with my image of fire and that¡¯s it.¡± Tom¡¯s look of confusion grows as she speaks. ¡°Why did you include metal when trying to form fire?¡± ¡°I once saw an airship explode and the memory of the burning ship was my main reference for fire, so I thought it fit. Also, I heat metal to form it when making things, so it was the best way for me to picture it. After all, Jenny told us to form our own image so I thought rting it to something I¡¯ve done or seen in the past would help.¡± A look of realisation spreads across Hester¡¯s face as she listens too. ¡°I was just trying to picture the elements alone, it never urred to me to think of a past experience with them. Thanks, Emily!¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯m surprised Jenny didn¡¯t say something simr.¡± ¡°Ah, you should probably call her Miss Forsythia by the way. Most mages teaching here don¡¯t like being called so casually.¡± ¡°Oh sure, it feels weird to call her Miss though. She only looks like she¡¯s twenty.¡± ¡°She¡¯s probably around a hundred years old though,¡± Tom joins in again, finished dealing with his confusion over elemental manifestation. ¡°Wait what?¡± Emily asks in disbelief at his im. ¡°Didn¡¯t you know? Mages'' life spans increase with their circle.¡± Emily shakes her head, so Tom continues to exin. ¡°Weird. We had this exined to us when the mages from house Dahlia tried to persuade us to join them. At first circle there isn¡¯t much difference, only having a slightly improved body, but you should still be healthy till one hundred years old. The second circle doubles that to two hundred years. And at the third circle, you can live upwards of three to four hundred years.¡± ¡°What about the fourth circle?¡± ¡°Sorry, they didn¡¯t tell us because they said it wouldn¡¯t matter to us, though I guess for you it might.¡± I¡¯ll ask Julianater then. ¡°It¡¯s alright, can¡¯t expect you to know everything. Also, did you say that house Dahlia persuaded you to join? You weren¡¯t forced?¡± ¡°Forced? No, they came and told us we had the ability to be mages and asked us to serve them as vassals and in return they¡¯d send us to The Covenant for training. They¡¯ve treated us very well, were you forced?¡± Hester and Tom both wait for Emily¡¯s response with looks of concern. ¡°Very much so. Those assholes tried to use a brainwashing spell on me. Luckily, I was able to resist it, but house Mandrago seems to do that to all their vassal mages. I¡¯m d to know it isn¡¯tmon practice.¡± The horrified looks she sees directed at her calm her suspicions a little. ¡°Stop looking at me like that, I¡¯m fine. Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± Emily rolls her eyes at the siblings with a small smile as she steps into a transportation room. These guys are alright, I¡¯ll talk to them again next time. Chapter 24 – Her First Spell Chapter 24 ¨C Her First Spell Arriving at the information hub, Emily, Tom, and Hester all step out of the transportation room into the open hall. Emily walks towards a counter without anyone standing before it. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± the female clerk behind the counter says with a friendly smile. ¡°I¡¯m here to im a spell?¡± Emily questions, unsure of the exact answer to give. ¡°Sure, what is your name?¡± the clerk asks while pulling a receiver crystal out from under the counter. ¡°Emily Coldstone.¡± The clerk closes her eyes and injects mana into the crystal. After a few moments, she opens her eyes with a nod. ¡°Your first spell will be given for free, what element would you like?¡± ¡°Fire please.¡± ¡°Sure, one moment please.¡± The clerk turns around and walks to the bank of drawers behind her, opening a few before returning with a sheet of parchment and a silver b withplicated runes and a few crystals of different colours embedded onto its surface. She ces the b onto the counter with the parchmentid carefully on top of it before injecting it with mana and closing her eyes. The b lights up with a blend of blue, green and red, as red letters slowly bleed through the page. After ten seconds of channelling, the clerk opens her eyes and removes the parchment from the b. Carefully rolling it up, she hands the parchment to Emily and picks up the b. ¡°Will that be all?¡± ¡°Yes, thank you.¡± Emily steps to the side to allow Tom ess to the counter as she unrolls the parchment to take a look. Before she finishes opening the parchment, the clerk calls out to her. ¡°Ah, please don¡¯t look at spells in public areas. While that¡¯s only a first circle spell, it¡¯s bad practice to risk letting another see it.¡± Right, don¡¯t do that next time. Emily stands idly, waiting impatiently for Tom and Hester to finish as a realisation strikes her. I don¡¯t need to keep up appearances if I¡¯m going to reset, do I? With her mind made up, Emily quickly walks back towards the transportation rooms, leaving Tom and Hester confused. She makes her way back to her room and settles at her desk with the spell parchmentid out before her. Unravelling the paper, Emily finds a simple magic circle drawn. The circle has five runes around its inner edge, some held within circles or other geometric shapes. Throughout the circle are several lines woven together in interconnected arcs, connecting some of the runes. At the top of the paper, the name ¡®Burning Hands¡¯ is proudly written, and at the bottom, the chant: Coat my palms with the fires of unrest and sear my enemies with burning flesh. Yikes, that sounds stupid. Do I have to say it every time I cast? Choosing to ignore the chant for now, Emily stares at the magic circle in detail, memorising the runes and their cement. The moment she finishes, a new system window pops up. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Burning Hands Sub-system unlocked: Spellbook _____ She quickly opens her status page and finds a new tab at the top. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Spellbook] First Circle: -Burning Hands -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Burning Hands] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 30 Mana/cast [Description:] Summon ayer of mes across the palms for ten seconds. _____ It didn¡¯t record the chant. Noting the peculiarity, she shoves the thought aside and begins focusing on the spell to try and activate it like a skill. After a few moments of focusing on the spell, she realises that nothing is happening. What was the Spellbook for then? I can already remember the spell, though I guess it was like this with the blueprint tab. I¡¯ll have to work out how to cast the spell myself. Considering Jenny¡¯s emphasis on mental images, Emily closes her eyes and pictures her orange and white mes. Imagining the mes coating the palm of her hand, she says the chant aloud. ¡°Coat my palms with the fires of unrest, and sear my enemies with burning flesh.¡± Opening her eyes, she sees her bare hands before her without a change. Okay so the chant itself doesn¡¯t do anything. Runes it is. Focusing on the spell name again, the magic circle instantly appears in her mind. Willing mana into the mental picture like with manifestation, she feels her mana leave her body through her hands and opens her eyes. Floating in the air before her is a blue, faintly glowing matrix of runes and lines. Waiting for a few moments with an expectant gaze, Emily is disappointed when the construct does nothing and copses as she stops supplying mana. I could have guessed that wouldn¡¯t work. I probably need the runes and mental image. Shutting her eyes again, she pictures a me-covered palm. Holding the image, she starts thinking of the spell¡¯s magic circle. Pushing mana into both concepts at once, she feels a stronger flow of mana and opens her eyes to see the spell¡¯s runes forming in a zing, white-tinged orange before her. As she watches the runes slowly solidify from a translucent haze, she notices the edges of the runes fraying and losing their shape, and the lines between them breaking and reforming constantly. Worriedly she shuts her eyes again and focuses on the two images in her mind that had begun to fade. After twenty seconds of channelling mana, she feels the flow stop and opens her eyes to see her palms covered in a thin sheen of shimmering mes. Excitedly, she reaches forward and picks up the spell parchment, smiling with glee as it ignites and quickly burns to ashes. ¡°I cast magic!¡± She moves her hands around and watches the faint ming trails left in their wake. Ripping a few pages out of her notebook and watching them burn too, Emily is disappointed when the mes vanish. Wait that was only about five seconds. Frowning, she opens her status to check her mana. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 323/345 _____ Hmm, it was meant to cost 30. Leaning back in her chair, Emily bites her thumb. Is thatck of mana usage from my failed first attempts, the final spell failing, or something else? Wait a second. Struck with an idea, she checks her system skill list and pulls up the description of a skill she has been ignoring. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magic Network (passive)] A unique energy system created by User {Emily Coldstone} with thebination of [Magic Circuit] and [Neuro Net]. The mana channels carved into the body''s vascr system to form a magic circuit have fused with the host¡¯s neurological pathways creating a vastly enhanced energy distribution system. -Grants +100% to mana and machina regeneration -Grants -50% mana and machina usage -Grants +20% mental resistance _____ Reduced mana usage! However, it¡¯s still using more than 50% of the spell cost. To confirm her suspicions, she follows the same process and casts Burning Hands again. She checks her mana when the spell fades away after six seconds. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 303/345 _____ Itsted slightly longer that time, and it used 20 mana. I guess the failed attempts were using up mana then. Makes sense, I am moving mana out of my body, I just didn¡¯t think to check during ss. But does that time and mana cost difference mean I¡¯m failing to cast the spell correctly, or just not casting it perfectly? Emily picks up her quill and begins scribbling notes into her notebook. Need mental image -Can be assisted with chant? Need runes drawn -No known shortcut Current casting time is too long to be useful in a fight. System gives ideal? results from spell cast, try to match system description before using. Gazing at the notes and tapping her fingers on the desk, Emily drops her quill. First, let¡¯s test using a chant and no mental image. If it lets me use the spell properly, I may have to swallow my pride for a bit till I learn how to mentally multi-task. She begins casting the spell again, this time holding the magic circle in her mind and pouring mana into it as she speaks slowly: ¡°Coat my palms with the fires of unrest¡­¡± Burning orange runes spring to life around her hands. ¡°¡­and sear my enemies with burning flesh.¡± Her palms ignite with mes. However, the orange of the mes is a noticeably duller hue, and the white streaks are missing. Emily moves her hands around and also sees theck of shimmering trail. To her pleasant surprise, the spell fades after eight seconds and a quick nce at her mana likewise gives hope. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 286/345 _____ So, chanting removed the interference of my mental image with the rune formation, at the cost of a much weaker mental image. Preferably I¡¯d want a way of simplifying the rune formation so I could keep theplexity of my image, my original fire seems much stronger than this. Looking back down at her notes, her eyes are drawn towards her word choice on the second statement. Need runes drawn Drawn? Could I draw the runes with my hands instead of in my mind? Emily holds up her right hand with her pointer finger out and pushes a steady stream of mana into it. Moving the finger slowly, she draws out the shape of the first rune; a small grin growing as she sees the mana burned into the air before her holding its shape. Finishing the first flickering rune, Emily draws a small circle around the rune and sees it solidifyingpletely as she does. Continuing in the same stroke, she draws therge circle to encapste the whole spell and sees the rune¡¯s border solidify in shape too. Good, it¡¯s holding together. After a dozen seconds of careful drawing, Emily holds her hand to the centre of the finished circle and maintains a small mana flow as she forms her mental image of the spell. Feeling a small connection form in her mind, the circle ignites from the centre. As soon as the mes reach the outer edge, the circle begins rotating and fades out of existence as a dense burningyer appears over her palms. She reaches for her notebook to test, and instead of ripping out a few pages, her touch instantly ignites a dozenyers of paper. She quickly releases the book and waves her sleeves over it to extinguish the mes, saving the rest of the book from being destroyed. ¡°Haha, now this is magic!¡± She gleefully chuckles to herself, staring at the glittering trails left behind by her fingers as she weaves them through the air. This time the spell fades after a full ten seconds, and Emily leans back with a satisfied grin. The spell appears as if it¡¯s meant to be built in parts. Every time I finished one stroke, it held together its predecessor. Is that how it¡¯s meant to be cast then? Now that I think about it, whenever Jose or Miguel cast spells, the runes always formed around them in sequence and were already coloured with their element. I guess picturing the whole magic circle at once is probably quite difficult when they get moreplicated. Leaning back over her notebook, Emily grabs her quill and moves to a page not stained by ash. In the centre of the page, she draws Burning Hands¡¯ magic circle. cing the quill down next to it, she holds both her hands over the first rune and curiously begins trying to line her fingers up to form the rune. After a couple of seconds, she manages to find an odd position with her thumbs bent inwards and touching, and her pointer fingers t against each other. Her middle fingers are crossed, with her right ring finger curled under her left, tucked into her left palm. Her right pinkie is in line with her middle finger, and her left is curled, forming a circle with the right. Holding this odd shape in front of her, she pulses mana through each finger that forms a line of the rune, ignoring those that ovep with others. The rune forms across her hands, and with a light flick of her wrists, it floats to hover above her hands. Moving quickly, she unravels her fingers and sys her hands with thumbs and pointer fingers joined to create a circle. With another quick pulse of mana and a slight gesture upwards, the circle rises and sets itself into ce around the rune, holding it together. Grinning, she moves her hands apart and rotates each in a half-circle with a small flow of mana out of her palms. Bringing her hands back together, Emily pauses before the next rune, unsure of how to continue. She stops supplying mana to the circle and lets it fade, then picks up her quill and draws a diagram of the first rune¡¯s hand sign. For the next few hours, Emily gets lost in creating and optimising hand signs and movements for all of the runes and lines within the magic circle. A couple of hours after ignoring Juliana¡¯s knock on her door for lunch, Emily sits back, gazing with a satisfied smile at the list of hand signs drawn on a page before her. Bringing her hands up, she starts forming a mental image of her palms on fire as she quickly weaves her hands in a delicate and precise dance of gestures and shapes. After nine seconds, she ps her palms together, and the glistening orange and white magic circle around her hands roars to life. Pulling her hands apart, she sees her sessful spell burning away happily. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Basic Gesture Casting (passive) _____ Ignoring the system pop-up and watching the mes till they fade; Emily nods her head and grins at the full ten-second duration. Perfect, if I can memorise these hand motions and turn them into muscle memory, I should be able to cast this spell in five or so seconds! Chapter 25 – Chantless Casting Chapter 25 ¨C Chantless Casting Emily brings up her system, checking on her remaining mana and new skill. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 200/345 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Basic Gesture Casting (passive)] User can proficiently weave hand signs and gestures together to form basic magic circles. -Grants +10% casting speed when forming up to third circle spells with the hands. _____ Her mana doesn¡¯t surprise her, having fallen exactly 15 since she checked it before casting Burning Hands. Over the past few hours, she noticed her mana was increasing slowly whenever she wasn¡¯t actively casting a spell, recovering over 30 of the points that she spent. However, the skill does surprise her a little. Increases casting speed? How¡¯s it going to do that when casting is making the hand signs? To test, Emily quickly casts Burning Hands again and this time finds performing the required movements feels slightly more natural and only takes eight seconds. Happy with her new skill, Emily checks the time. Upon seeing she still has two hours till Juliana should arrive for dinner, she decides to test manifesting other elements again. Closing her eyes and clearing her mind, she pictures the air around her. Imagining the tiny particles floating everywhere, she applies a small force to one and watches as it moves forward and collides with another particle. Another particle behind it is pulled into the space it left and soon a small chain reaction grows, with more and more particles of air forming a wave of motion. Slowly she increases the force applied to the particles and grows the light breeze into a gale of energetic particles. Pushing mana through the image and out into the space in front of her, Emily opens her eyes and grins at the formless fluctuations she¡¯s created. Good, I have one manifestation more to show already. Moving on, she attempts to manifest water, earth and metal again, yet still can¡¯t quite grasp a solid image for them. After failing to manifest any other elements, Emily does some exercise and showers while waiting for dinner time. At 8 pm on the dot, she hears a familiar knock on her door. Opening the door, she smiles and greets Juliana. ¡°Hey, how¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°It would be going better if you didn¡¯t ignore me at lunch. I know you only had one lesson this morning, so you were totally in!¡± Julianains while ring at Emily sulkily. Giggling at her friend''s cute antics, Emily walks past her while saying: ¡°Sorry, I got my first spell earlier and was really focused on trying to cast it, so I didn¡¯t even hear you. Is there any way I can make it up to you?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Juliana grabs Emily¡¯s arm and hangs off it as she stares at her sceptically. ¡°Well, if you didn¡¯t ignore me on purpose, I guess I¡¯ll forgive you if you let me pick dinner.¡± ¡°Haha, sure. We can have whatever you want,¡± Emily agrees easily, d Juliana epted her lie. *** A couple of minutester, Emily and Juliana are sitting at a small table in the cafeteria with arge selection of finger foods spread between them. Emily happily digs in, filling her te with an assortment of breads, meats, and vegetables, as Juliana asks her about her day. ¡°Wait, two full manifestations?¡± ¡°Yeah, I can actually do three now, but it took me a little while to work out the third, so I didn¡¯t show it in ss.¡± ¡°Wow, I knew you were going to be talented, but that¡¯s ridiculous.¡± Seeing Juliana¡¯s shock makes Emily grow excited aboutpleting her quest. If three elements are enough to surprise her this much, how will she react to four or five? ¡°Oh, by the way, I was talking to some ssmates earlier about mages¡¯ lifespans, and they didn¡¯t know how long fourth circle mages live. Can you tell me?¡± Emily asks, drawing Juliana out of her surprised stupor. ¡°Hmm? Sure, fourth circle mages normally live about five to six hundred years. They¡¯re lucky, I want to get to a high circle so I age slower! Apparently, higher circle mages stay looking like their prime till they¨C ¡° Juliana pauses her excited exnation as two people step into their table¡¯s sound barrier. Looking over with an annoyed frown, Emily sees Tom and Hester smiling at her as they approach. ¡°Hey Emily, can we join you?¡± Hester asks before freezing when she looks over at Juliana. Emily raises an eyebrow at her reaction, then looks to Juliana for a response. ¡°Sure! I don¡¯t mind.¡± Juliana cheerfully agrees. But I do¡­ Emily grumbles internally as the siblings sit with them. ¡°I¡¯m Juliana Madonna, first circle, lovely to meet you.¡± ¡°Hester Valentine of house Dahlia, also first circle, nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Tom Valentine of house Dahlia, ditto, why are you hanging out withmoners?¡± Tom doubles over in pain after asking his question, and Emily looks at Hester to see her ring at her brother. He should really look into shin protection. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Juliana asks with concern. ¡°Just ignore him, and sorry about him asking such a rude question,¡± Hester responds while bowing her head. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine, and to answer, I hang out withmoners because I don¡¯t see a reason not to. We¡¯re all people, right?¡± Juliana¡¯s innocent smile seems to catch Hester off guard, as she stares nkly back at her without responding. Seeing their interaction, Emily narrows her eyes andes to a quick decision as she goes back to eating. I¡¯ve changed my mind; I¡¯m not talking to these two till my final reset. Half listening to the conversation happening around her, Emily eats in silence until Tom directs a question towards her. ¡°How did your spell learning go? Has the great genius already learned a spell?¡± Emily wonders if he meant to insult her, but his expectant gaze says otherwise. ¡°Yeah, I have,¡± she answers offhandedly, looking back down at her food. The table goes silent, and after a few moments, Emily looks up again. All three of her friends are staring at her with shock. ¡°Did you manage to cast the spell already? Can I see?¡± Juliana asks excitedly. ¡°Sure, are we allowed to cast spells in here?¡± ¡°It¡¯s only first circle, so it should be fine. There are no explicit rules against casting spells anywhere in The Dome, only a rule not to damage the building or harm other mages outside of training.¡± Hearing Juliana¡¯s response, Emily nods before cing down the slice of bread with pepperoni and cheese she was eating. Leaning back in her seat, she brings her hands up before her under three expectant gazes and begins casting. Weaving together her hand signs, she finishes casting after eight seconds and presents her burning palms. Tom and Hester both look surprised, while Juliana is staring at her with her mouth hanging open. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Emily asks as she traces shapes in the air with the burning trail left by her hands. ¡°That was chantless casting! Also, why is your fire so pretty?¡± ¡°My fire¡¯s an odd colour because my mental image was metal-eating mes. And yeah, using the chant made the spell too weak, so I worked out how to draw the circle with hand signs, freeing up my mind for a solid mental image.¡± ¡°Amazing, chantless casting of any form is considered a huge advantage and a difficult skill. Can you teach me?¡± Juliana asks while shing Emily a set of puppy dog eyes. ¡°Sure,¡± Emily smirks in response. ¡°Can you teach us too? That looked so cool!¡± Tomments excitedly. ¡°Tsk, how about you ask me again when you¡¯ve learned how to cast a spell normally.¡± Emily goes back to eating and the meal passes quickly. After finishing, Emily and Juliana say goodbye to the siblings, whom Juliana confirmed to be twins during their conversation, and head back to Emily¡¯s room. They pick one of the simplest of Juliana¡¯s wind spells and go through the same process of drawing out the spell form, which Emily quickly memorises, adding it to her Spellbook. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Air st -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Air st] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 20 Mana/cast [Description:] Fire a st of wind from the palms. _____ As she looks with satisfaction at the new spell, a thought urs to her and she asks: ¡°Is it okay for you to show me this? I was told not to show my spells to other people.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, this is the free spell they give you for wind, and it¡¯s not like I ever want to fight you, so what problem is there in you knowing how my spell works?¡± Juliana¡¯s carefree response clears her doubts and brings a small smile to her face. They spend the next few hours working out which hand signs and gestures to use. Unfortunately, Juliana fails to memorise them all by the time they finish. ¡°This is so much harder than you make it look, my fingers just get tangled,¡± Juliana grumbles. ¡°Haha, you just need practice. Though fun as this was, we may need to do something else next reset because I¡¯m not sure how many times I can teach you the basics before I get bored.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Emily silently smiles at her confused response and pulls out The Clock. Pressing the button, she sits through the familiar feeling of being pulled through time and finds herself lying in her bed nine hours before her first lesson. *** Nine hourster, Emily opens the door and steps into the ssroom. This time ignoring Tom¡¯s attempts to grab her attention, she walks to the third row and sits alone. The lesson progresses the same as the first time, however Emily avoids the res of Jeremy and Kyle as Tomughs at them. The first major change happens after Miss Forsythia asks them to attempt to manifest wind. Emily summons a small formless gale which catches Miss Forsythia¡¯s attention. ¡°Well done, Emily! A full manifestation of two different elements is a rarity, especially when this young. Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± Miss Forsythia calls after stepping back and cing a hand on her podium. Emily thanks her with a polite smile, while expectantly opening her system. However, to her surprise, her mission still sits upleted. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [True Magical Genius #1] [Rank:] D [Description:] Living up to your title of technomancer, you have manifested an element using your understanding of physics! But are two manifestations truly worthy of a magical genius? Requirements: -Manifest 2/3 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Not Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Material Science -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Kinematics _____ Why isn¡¯t it finished? Do I have to do all three manifestations in this reset for it to count? Blinking away her system with slight annoyance, she returns to focusing on the lesson. As Miss Forsythia finishes going over themon elements, the second major change urs. The moment she finishes setting the ss a challenge to manifest a higher or exotic element, she directs all her attention towards Emily. ¡°With your affinity for fire and wind, you may have a chance with lightning, give it a try,¡± she advises with a small smile. Emily raises an eyebrow, but quickly thanks her and closes her eyes to focus. Following a simr image tost time, except now recing the metal orbs with charged water vapour, Emily once again manifests a fizzling bolt of lightning above her hand. ¡°Very good! Come with me.¡± Miss Forsythia shes a gentle smile and motions for Emily to follow her as she walks back to her podium. Emily pauses, feeling a familiar rush of information flooding her cortex. After a few seconds, her mind settles, and she blinks the system windows away without looking at them. I¡¯ll checkter. She catches up and stands to the side of the podium as Miss Forsythia ces her palm against it and says quietly: ¡°Twenty points to Emily Coldstone.¡± From up close, Emily sees the detailed runes covering the top surface light up and pulse with a soft green hue. As the light fades away, Miss Forsythia looks back to Emily and speaks to her quietly so as not to disturb the rest of the ss. ¡°Have you received any formal training beforeing here?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°I see, and has house Mandrago given you any resources on manifestation to help you?¡± Emily notices a slight edge to Miss Forsythia¡¯s voice as she says house Mandrago. ¡°No,¡± Emily says, then letting her curiosity get the better of her she continues. ¡°Why would those scumbags ever help me?¡± A look of shock and intrigue spreads across Miss Forsythia¡¯s face at Emily¡¯s words and she quickly nces over at the students still standing in a line with their eyes closed. Seeing they didn¡¯t hear, she calms down a little and looks back at Emily. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be able to insult them¡­¡± She curiously taps her fingers on her chin while considering Emily. ¡°Stay behind after ss and chat with me, it¡¯s not safe with so many extra ears.¡± Emily nods and walks back to join the line of students. Looks like I¡¯ve found who I can talk to about their brainwashing practices. She settles back into ce, impatiently waiting for the lesson to end. Chapter 26 – Jenny Forsythia Chapter 26 ¨C Jenny Forsythia ¡°You¡¯re all dismissed!¡± At Miss Forsythia¡¯s call, everyone gives a bow and begins filing out except Emily, who remains standing in ce. As they leave the room, she sees Jeremy and Kyle look back and fix her with a re. Damn, I guess I can¡¯t avoid having problems with them. Finally, Tom steps through the door and lets it shut with a loud thud behind him, leaving Emily and Miss Forsythia standing together in silence. ¡°So, Emily, why don¡¯t you tell me a little about yourself and how you ended up here,¡± Miss Forsythia says, walking over to the desks and taking a seat. ¡°Sure,¡± Emily agrees while taking the seat next to her. ¡°I lived in Eimdon city working for a clockmaker. An airship of the Mandrago family crashed one day when I was out in the scrap piles, and I found a magic crystal in the wreckage. I obviously didn¡¯t know what it was at the time, so I took it, did some experiments with it, and ended up awakening as a result. The Mandrago family came and found me soon after, forced me toe with them, and then attempted to use a spell to brainwash me. Then they sent me here. That about sums it up.¡± A look of anger spreads across Miss Forsythia¡¯s face as she listens to Emily¡¯s ount. ¡°Those shitty excuses for nobles!¡± The air around her begins heating up, causing Emily to flinch back. She¡¯s this angry about the edited version? Noticing Emily¡¯s reaction, Miss Forsythia quickly calms herself down and apologises. ¡°Sorry about that, I should be setting a better example.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. What was that though Miss Forsythia?¡± Emily asks with a look of eager curiosity. ¡°Please, just call me Jenny. You¡¯re making me feel old,¡± Jenny says shing a gentle smile. ¡°That was me losing control of my anger. As we grow in circle, our control of and connection with mana also grow, which leads to phenomena like that when a mage feels strong emotions.¡± ¡°I see. Why are you so angry?¡± Jenny sighs and begins to exin with a sad tone: ¡°Many years ago now, I was amoner growing up in a small territory of the Hawthorne family. I was approached by a member of said family, and told I had magical talent. The family treated me well and sent me here to learn. As I grew, I made a lot of friends with othermoners who had been brought in like me, and even started dating.¡± A small smile grows on her face as Jenny reminisces. ¡°However, unfortunately, our happiness couldn¡¯tst. One day my partner suddenly said she had to leave for a dungeon with the heir of the family she served. The dungeon was estimated to require third circle mages, but she and the family¡¯s heir were only second circle. I told her not to go, but she said she had no choice.¡± She silently wipes a few tears from her eyes as her sad expression morphs into a look of seething rage that strikes a chord in Emily. ¡°She died in that dungeon. Afterwards, I was allowed to go through her belongings and found several letters giving her orders. The family backing her didn¡¯t have any third circle mages and wanted to use her as fodder to help their heir gain the resources to be one. Knowing this, when I reached the third circle, I requested to separate from the Hawthorne family, so they didn¡¯t get dragged into it if I got punished. I gained my own noble title in return for fifty years of service as a teacher here and, after being given the name Forsythia, the first thing I did was purge the offending family from this kingdom.¡± With a look of grim satisfaction, the shimmering heat surrounding Jenny slowly fades. ¡°It should have ended there. However, when I was going through the family¡¯s records, I found information on how they¡¯d been using mental magic to control all themoners they brought in. When I returned here again afterwards, I started checking with my students and mymoner friends, and found arge portion of them gave strange reactions when questioned about the noble families backing them. Since then, I¡¯ve been looking into mental magic to try and find a way to break these rotten nobles¡¯ control, but my search has yet to bear fruit.¡± Jenny goes silent, giving Emily some time to process the flood of new information. I knew it wasn¡¯t just the Mandrago family. I¡¯m not sure if I can trust this woman, but the fact that she was willing to talk about this is promising. ¡°You said that you tested a lot of students, right? Do you have a list of which families I should watch out for?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s one hundred per cent urate, but I can write it out for you if you¡¯d like?¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Emily passes Jenny her notebook and quill. After a couple of seconds scribbling, Jenny hands back the notebook with a dozen noble families written down. Reading over the list, Emily lets out a small sigh of relief, thest of her caution towards Juliana washing away. No Madonna family! ¡°Do you know if the noble students from these families know what they¡¯re doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯ve tried to avoid asking any questions directly to family members that could draw suspicion. I don¡¯t want to risk turning half the nobles in the kingdom against me yet. However, given the way they act towardsmoner mages, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they know,¡± Jenny answers with obvious disdain for her students. Emily nods, then asks a question she suspects she knows the answer to while narrowing her eyes at Jenny. ¡°Now, why did you approach me and tell me all this?¡± Jenny smiles as she answers. ¡°Simple, you¡¯re a vassal of one of the families I know do brainwashmoners, yet you were able to freely insult them and clearly hold them in contempt. One of the major tells of brainwashed students is being unable to insult their ¡®masters¡¯. So, of course I would be curious as to why you weren¡¯t brainwashed: as you confirmed yourself, they tried and failed.¡± Jenny¡¯s eyes light up with intense curiosity and excitement. ¡°So this is a great opportunity! I¡¯ve mentioned my fruitless research into mental magic. This is mostly due to the knowledge being considered taboo and being illegal in this kingdom. I¡¯ve failed to find much, other than scraps of knowledge buried in the library, but if you still remember the process and can talk about it, I can finally start some proper research!¡± Emily silently considers what to do. I don¡¯t really want to gather too much attention from the other families while I¡¯m here, and I don¡¯t have much of a reason to help. But, it would probably leave a bad taste in my mouth if I ignored innocent people being brainwashed and sent to their deaths. Besides, maybe I¡¯ll get the chance to learn mental magic if I help her. ¡°If I help you, can you guarantee that no one will know it was me that helped so they don¡¯t target me if you do seed?¡± ¡°I swear upon the name Jenny Forsythia that I will never tell anyone about your involvement in this,¡± Jenny says solemnly, with her hand on her heart. A small smile slips onto Emily¡¯s face as she watches. ¡°Fine, what would you like to know then?¡± ¡°Great! Could you please recount to me the entire process of their attempted brainwashing?¡± Jenny asks while tapping her wrist. Immediately, a faint lc mana spreads from within her robes and a book and quill appear on the desk in front of her. Shocked, Emily looks closer and sees the outline of a bracelet holding a glowing purple crystal within Jenny¡¯s robes. Seeing Emily¡¯s curiosity, Jenny chuckles and pulls back her sleeve. ¡°It¡¯s a spatial storage item. They¡¯re quite hard to make, only a skilled mage specialising in space magic can produce them, but the convenience totally makes it worth the price.¡± Gazing at the exposed bracelet, Emily sees four bands of intertwined metal, two silver and two ck, with delicate runes engraved across every inch of their surface. The four bands are curled around a purple crystal and each of the runes closest to it glow with the same lc hue. After giving Emily a few moments to inspect the bracelet, Jenny drops her sleeve and opens her notebook. Seeing her expectant look, Emily begins recounting her run-in with mental magic. She exins every detail she saw, from the elder''s staff, to the order of the runes breaking against her mental defences. ¡°Is that everything?¡± Jenny asks with a slight frown. ¡°Yes, why? Is there a problem?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m honestly surprised you can remember so much. It¡¯s just everything you told me about this points towards breaking the spell being even harder than I had hoped.¡± She sighs and leans back in her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Emily silently waits for Jenny to collect herself and exin properly. ¡°Have you been to any lessons on chants yet?¡± ¡°No.¡± Emily shakes her head. ¡°I see. To put it simply, this spell seems problematic from the wording of the chant and the state of the caster. You said the elder looked decrepit, right?¡± ¡°Yes, his back was crooked, and he looked shrivelled.¡± ¡°Then I suspect it¡¯s not his age that makes him look old, it¡¯s probably a limitation ced on the spell to make it stronger. Mages don¡¯t visibly age past their prime until they only have fifty to sixty years left on their lifespan, unless they do it intentionally. And when a mage does age, they usually don¡¯t gain deformities, due to having a far greater vitality than a normal person. You see, when making spells, most chants are just used to give a mental image. But there are some where the words of the chant are used to designate rules and effects on your spell. For example, this part here,¡± Jenny underlines the first passage from the chant written into her notebook, ¡®With gnarled mind and twisted flesh¡¯, then she scribbles down a note next to it as she speaks: ¡°This probably strengthens the hold of the spell, at the cost of deforming its caster. However, this is bad news because the rest of the spell¡± - she underlines thest two lines of the spell, ¡®An oath forged with no strength to resist; till the end of her life, it shall always persist¡¯ - ¡°can be interpreted as: the target will be given a chance to resist, however if failed the spell shallst till the target''s death.¡± Emily nods in understanding before leaning over and underlining: ¡®Broken and bound to our family tree¡¯. ¡°Then this would exin why a blood member of the family came to give me instructions when they were sending me here. Does this mean it¡¯s impossible to break the spell?¡± ¡°Goddess no! Nothing is ever impossible, especially with magic! If I were multiple circles above the caster then it would be rtively easy even with the extra strength from the conditions, but otherwise, it just means I will need a more perfect counter spell and possibly a lot of resources.¡± ¡°Okay, is there anything else you need to know from me, or is that all?¡± ¡°That should be all. I¡¯ll let you know if I think of anything else I need to know. Thank you for your help.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯m happy to do it.¡± Emily stands up and starts walking towards the door. ¡°Oh, and Emily,¡± Jenny calls out to her before she leaves. ¡°While it¡¯s great to be cautious when dealing with someone you don¡¯t know well, you should work on managing your expression better. I easily spotted the moment you decided to use me, and so will most experienced mages.¡± Looking back at Jenny¡¯s knowing smile, Emily blushes and bows lightly before stepping through the door. *** Back in her room, Emily sits down at her desk, dropping her notebook down in front of her along with a new spell from the information hub. Well, that was embarrassing. I thought I was better at hiding my thoughts, but I guess living a long life among so many nobles will make you adept at reading people. I¡¯ll avoid having that chat again with her till my final reset. Hopefully I¡¯ll y it better then. Shaking her head and putting her talk with Jenny behind her, Emily opens her system to look at her quest notifications. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Chain-Questpleted: True Magical Genius #1 [True Magical Genius #1] [Rank:] D [Description:] Living up to your title of technomancer, you have manifested an element using your understanding of physics! But are two manifestations truly worthy of a magical genius? Requirements: -Manifest 3/3 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Material Science -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Kinematics -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Chain-Quest Generated: True Magical Genius #2 [True Magical Genius #2] [Rank:] C [Description:] Three manifestations down, three more to go! Requirements: -Manifest 3/6 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Not Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Waves -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Thermodynamics -Skill: Basic Metalworking (passive) _____ Seeing the increased manifestation count on the second part of the quest, Emily grins and mutters: ¡°Ha, guess I need to show off again!¡± Chapter 27 – Showing Off Chapter 27 ¨C Showing Off After dismissing the chain quest notifications, Emily decides to check her other ongoing quest. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [The Four Fundamental Forces] [Rank:] C [Description:] Learn and understand the four fundamental forces of physics Requirements: -Learn 3/4 Forces (Not Complete) Rewards: -Blueprint: Universal Transmitter _____ ¡°Thought so!¡± Grinning, Emily opens her notebook to a random nk page and begins writing: Electromaic Force ¨C Basic Electrical Theory Strong Nuclear Interaction ¨C Basic Particle Physics Weak Nuclear Interaction ¨C Basic Particle Physics Gravitational Force ¨C ? I¡¯m certain these are the four fundamental forces, but I don¡¯t understand gravity enough for it to count yet. I have some scraps of information from kinematics, but only how to use it in rtion to projectiles. Wait, isn¡¯t this knowledge great for making weapons? Continuing her notes, Emily jots down a simplistic breakdown of her new knowledges to help her process them. Kinematics ¨C Forces, Projectiles, Momentum, Motion Material Science ¨C Material Properties/Composition, States of matter, Fluid Dynamics Yep, kinematics is definitely helpful for weapons! I should try making a gun again, this time it shouldn¡¯t require anywhere near as many tests blowing up in my face. Material science will help a lot too. I can¡¯t believe I never considered the stress explosions ce on the metal of the gun before. It¡¯s no wonder my creations degraded so quickly. Nodding to herself happily, Emily drops her quill and picks up the spell scroll from the desk. I can make ns for weaponster. For now, let¡¯s make the most of this knowledge toplete my quest! Opening the parchment, Emily sees another simple magic circle, chant, and spell name. Within a few seconds of reading, a new system notification pops up. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Stunning Touch [Stunning Touch] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 20 Mana/cast [Description:] Sends a pulse of lightning into a target upon contact. _____ Satisfied, she tosses the spell parchment aside and begins considering which elements to manifest next. Water should be easy now that I understand fluid dynamics, and ice as well since it¡¯s just the solid form of water. I think metal should be doable too. Though I¡¯m not too sure since metal is a wide term; I suspect that¡¯s due to their limited knowledge of exotic elements. They should count it if I focus on manifesting steel, right? Hmm, earth might be possible too, but it may take a while to work out whatbination of minerals, water and air makes it up. I don¡¯t think I can do light or darkness yet. I¡¯m still in the dark, heh, on those two. And that¡¯s the same with space. With a choice made, Emily begins her work on manifesting elements. After only fifteen minutes of meditation, she manages to manifest a small, clear orb of water and a shard of ice. ¡°Two down, one to go.¡± Next, she attempts to manifest steel. Ites a lot easier to her, and after ten minutes she conjures a small chunk of glistening silver steel. ¡°Missionplete! Now for the challenge.¡± As she expected, manifesting earth bes a solid roadblock for her. After a full hour of focus, she finally manages to conjure a small mass of dirt above her hand. ¡°Ugh, Goddess I thought I¡¯d never get that. Whoever decided earth should be amon element deserves an air st to the head!¡± Grumpily dismissing the mass of dirt, Emily sits back in her chair and stretches. ¡°I need a break.¡± Just as she mutters this to herself, she hears a knock at the door. ¡°Perfect!¡± With a small grin, she stands up and leaves her room to join Juliana for lunch. *** After spending the rest of the reset practising gesture-casting spells and theory-crafting weapons for her advancement requirements, Emily once again finds herself standing in a ssroom manifesting elements. She surprises everyone in the room with a plethora of different conjurations as usual, with even Jenny seeming shocked at the sheer quantity of her affinities. As she manifests ice, her system notifications alert her to a new questpletion. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Chain-Questpleted: True Magical Genius #2 [True Magical Genius #2] [Rank:] C [Description:] Three manifestations down, three more to go! Requirements: -Manifest 6/6 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Waves -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Thermodynamics -Skill: Basic Metalworking (passive) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Chain-Quest Generated: True Magical Genius #3 [True Magical Genius #3] [Rank:] B [Description:] You¡¯ve sessfully marked your right as a magical genius, now can you achieve the impossible? Requirements: -Manifest 6/15 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Not Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Fields -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Biology (human) -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Chemistry -Talent: One With The Elements _____ Ignoring the familiar feeling of new knowledge being filed into her cortex, Emily looks at the new quest with dissatisfaction. Fifteen elements? That¡¯s more than the Covenant seems to be aware of. I think I may have to give up this quest here. Ignoring Jenny congratting her, Emily quickly manifests steel, watching her quest tick up to 7/15. Maybe if I manifest different metals? I¡¯ll test that next loop. What about my new knowledges. Focusing on the new information in her head, Emily quickly sorts through for anything that could help manifest a different element. Thermodynamics is useless here. The only element it could help with is fire and I can already use that. Waves can definitely help with light, and possibly darkness since that¡¯s an absence of light? But that only takes me to nine elements, I need six more. Space is too abstract, I get a feeling I will have to look outside of physics for that one, but that will take too long for this unless I want to keep looping for weeks of experimentation and research. The lesson finishes with Emily still stuck in her thoughts. She leaves the ssroom quickly, ignoring Jenny¡¯s attempts to get her to stay, and visits the information hub to grab another spell. By the time she settles back down in her room, Emily hase to a disappointing conclusion. ¡°I think I have to give up here.¡± Sighing and copsing in her chair, she epts her defeat. No matter what she considers, she can¡¯t find a way, other than different metals, to reach fifteen elements without introducing new elements to the Covenant. Needing a distraction, Emily pulls up her new skill. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Basic Metalworking (passive)] User knows how to form metal to their will. -Grants +10% production speed when working with metal -Grants an instinctive understanding of how to best process metals _____ Hmm, why is this ssified as a skill instead of a knowledge? To test, Emily focuses on the concept of metalworking and finds no information rising to the front of her mind. Confused, she instead tries thinking about processing a raw chunk of iron into an ingot, and immediately the processes required for smelting and shaping the metal sh through her mind. Ah, I see. This is more an application of my knowledge than new knowledge itself. With a small, satisfied nod, she moves on to the new spell before her. Following the process of opening the parchment and memorising the contents, the new spell is quickly added to her Spellbook. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Grease [Grease] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 30 Mana/cast [Description:] Spray a burst of slippery liquid in the direction of the caster¡¯s gaze. _____ Emily raises a brow in confusion while staring at the new water element spell. How odd. I guess it¡¯s water-rted, but the other starter spells have been so basicpared to this. Quickly brushing aside her confusion, and deciding she¡¯ll look in more detail at her spells once she¡¯s collected every element¡¯s starter spell, she focuses on finishing off her manifestations. Light proves more difficult than she expected, taking a full hour to form a stable mental image. ¡°Tsk, this new knowledge is great and all, but I think I need to do some tests with it to fully understand everything.¡± Clicking her tongue, she dismisses the shimmering waves of light twisting together above her hand. As if to prove her point, even after spending the next three hours trying, she fails to manifest darkness. Dropping her head onto her desk, drained from her repeated attempts, Emily checks her mana levels. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 48/345 _____ Figures, I think I have to give up on darkness for now. Let¡¯s test copper then meditate for the rest of this reset, I¡¯m exhausted. Sitting back up, she closes her eyes and follows the same process for manifesting steel, but this time picturing a chunk of copper being formed. As expected, she sessfully manifests the metal, however, her instincts tell her it¡¯s still the same element as steel. Whatever, I¡¯ll find out tomorrow. *** The next reset, Emily cycles through all her elements again. After the fourmon, she summons lightning, ice, light, and steel. Then, while ignoring her ssmates¡¯ disbelief around her, she manifests copper. Checking her system quest, she sees 8/15 marking her failure. Thought so, it feels the same as steel and the system counts it as such. I¡¯ll just reset until I have a free spell from each element then move on. Disappointed, she epts her inability toplete the third stage of her chain quest and begins the slow process of repeating the same day over and over again with no changes. After three more resets, she runs into a problem. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Miss Coldstone, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t give you a spell for an element you can¡¯t use. Miss Forsythia has already registered your affinities, and while the list is long, it does not include darkness. Please choose another element,¡± the clerk behind the counter tells her with an apologetic tone. Shit, I didn¡¯t think this would be an issue since they asked us which element we would like, but I guess full confirmed manifestations has limited my choices. ¡°Fire then please,¡± Checking the spell after returning to her room, she finds the same burning hands spell. ¡°Tsk, guess I¡¯ll have to live with one of each element.¡± Once again resetting at the end of the day, this time around Emily doesn¡¯t manifest any elements in ss and sessfully ims a darkness element spell. She repeats this again to im a space spell,pleting her collection of all avable free spells. Finally, she resets onest time to live out her day correctly. *** Walking into the ssroom, Emily walks straight towards Tom and Hester. ¡°Hey! Come sit with us!¡± Tom calls out for the tenth time. ¡°You gonna talk through the lesson as well?¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t worry!¡± Tom shes a toothy grin which Emily mirrors as she settles down with the twins. A few minutester when Jenny is done with her exnation, she invites everyone to the dais again and Emily happily skips down to im her contribution points. Time to show off! Fire. ¡°Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± Water. ¡°Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± Wind. ¡°Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± Earth. ¡°Ten points to Emily Coldstone!¡± After the first four elements, Emily looks at her ssmates to see them staring at her with familiar shock on their faces, and two equally familiar res of hatred and envy from Jeremy and Kyle. ¡°Incredible Emily! Truly a talent blessed by the Goddess herself. Do you think you can attempt any other elements?¡± As expected, Jenny quickly derails the lesson to focus on Emily after this disy. ¡°I can try.¡± Emily smiles as she closes her eyes and cycles through the rest of her elements. Light. Ice. Lightning. Metal. Opening her eyes at the end of her disy, Jenny ps for her enthusiastically. ¡°Outstanding! Three higher form and one fundamental element. Have you had training beforeing here?¡± Jenny questions as she walks back to her podium again. ¡°No, Miss, I¡¯ve never been taught a thing,¡± Emily lies on a technicality with a smile. ¡°Good, then for that unbelievable disy¡­ One hundred points to Emily Coldstone!¡± A collective gasp breaks out across the line-up of students. As all of them stand in a stupor and Emily basks in the stares of envy with a grin, Jenny approaches the students again. ¡°Would anybody else like to try their hand at another element?¡± she asks with a knowing smile. Pausing for a few seconds and hearing nothing but silence, she dismisses the ss, advising each of the new students on which elements to focus on. She asks Emily to stay behind afterwards, to which Emily agrees this time before waving Tom and Hester out while promising to talk againter. ¡°So, Emily, why don¡¯t you tell me a little about yourself and how you ended up here?¡± Her conversation with Jenny flows simrly to the first time till the end. ¡°No problem, I¡¯m happy to help.¡± Emily stands up and starts walking out, waiting with bated breath to see if Jenny calls her again. ¡°Oh, and Emily.¡± Hearing Jenny¡¯s call, Emily clicks her tongue silently as she turns around. Damn, I thought I hid my reactions better this time! ¡°If you ever hit a roadblock in your magical studies or need help or advice on anything else, my door is always open. I¡¯m in room S118. I¡¯ll make sure The Dome has you registered as wee in the staff dorms,¡± she says with a kind smile, catching Emily slightly off guard. ¡°Ah, thank you, Jenny,¡± Emily says, matching her smile. ¡°See you next lesson!¡± She bows her head lightly before stepping out. Sess! Chapter 28 – Moving On Chapter 28 ¨C Moving On Before heading to her room, Emily visits the information hub to collect a free spell just in case Jenny checks which spell she chose. Finding Tom and Hester have already left, she quickly gets a duplicate copy of Burning Hands and goes back to her room. Settling back down at her desk, Emily looks at her Spellbook. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Spellbook] First Circle: -Burning Hands -Air st -Stunning Touch -Grease -Earthen Detection -sh Freeze -Iron de -Light -Touch of Decay -Switch _____ She looks at her extended Spellbook with a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. It¡¯s great that I collected all these spells, but half of them seem kind of useless or redundant because of other spells. Like Iron de, all it does is summon a small knife, why waste mana and casting time when I can just carry a knife? And I don¡¯t think I need Burning Hands if I can cast Stunning Touch, surely electrocuting someone will take them out of a fight faster than just burning their skin. ¡°Urgh, did I waste my time? At this point, I should have just created my own spells!¡± Emily¡¯s growing anger fizzles out as her throwaway words spark a new idea. ¡°Why don¡¯t I? I have a lot of reference material now after all,¡± with a grin and new motivation, she opens her notebook to the first page. Learn spells (sses?) -Create spells Wait, that was a goal for a reason. Remembering her original purpose, Emily checks her progression requirements. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] First Requirements: -Intelligence 23/35 (Not Complete) -Create 5/5 unique F rank machines (Complete) -Create 0/1 E rank machine (Not Complete) -Learn 5/5 first circle spells (Complete) -Learn 1/3 basic magic knowledges (Not Complete) _____ Happy at thepletion of one of her requirements, she flips to the next nk page and begins drawing magic circles. Squeezing four magic circles onto each page, Emily fits all eight spells she can cast onto a single double-page spread. Looking at the circles together, she begins to spot a few small simrities. These two runes are repeated across these spells, maybe the runes to designate touch? And this one is used in both ice and water spells, maybe an elemental crossover? This one has more connecting lines¡­ Scribbling notes down and analysing the spells before her in fine detail, Emily falls into a focused trance, ignoring the passage of time. At 7:59 pm, Emily looks up from the messy notes before her. She leans back in her chair and stretches, before standing up and walking to the door. cing her palm against the smooth panel, she injects a small amount of mana as usual and grins as the door vanishes to reveal Juliana standing with a look of surprise on her face and her arm raised about to knock. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Emily says casually, tilting her head to the side with a look of concern. ¡°Ah, nothing,¡± Juliana quickly brushes off her surprise before switching to a grumpy pout. ¡°If you were able to predict when I would open the door, why did you ignore me earlier? I know you only had one lesson this morning, so you were totally in!¡± ¡°Haha, nothing gets past you, does it?¡± Emily giggles, still not tired of having this same conversation with Juliana. ¡°I was doing some testing with the new spell I learned earlier, can you ever forgive me?¡± she asks with a silly grin while presenting her arm. ¡°Hmph.¡± Juliana hangs off her arm while responding with a stronger pout. ¡±Don¡¯t ignore me again and let me pick dinner, then maybe I¡¯ll consider it.¡± ¡°Haha, sure. Whatever you want,¡± Emily happily concedes as they leave. *** ¡°EIGHT ELEMENTS?!¡± Juliana¡¯s scream would have drawn the attention of the entire cafeteria if it weren¡¯t for the sound-isting barrier around the tables. Emily nods and smiles silently, revelling in Juliana¡¯s stunned silence. After a few moments of staring at her shocked face, Emily can¡¯t take it anymore and bursts out inughter. ¡°You¡¯re messing with me, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± Wiping tears from her eyes, Emily raises her hand and starts summoning the elements. Thanks to her practice, forming simple mental images of the elements has be increasingly easy for her, so she quickly disys fire, lightning, metal, water and ice. ¡°I can also do earth, wind, and light, but they require a little more concentration.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really amazing.¡± Juliana¡¯s honest praise brings a blush to Emily¡¯s face. ¡°Next you¡¯re going to tell me you can cast spells already.¡± ¡°Ah, actually I¨C ¡° Emily pauses as Tom and Hester step into their sound barrier. Clicking her tongue in slight annoyance, Emily looks over at the twins. ¡°Hey Emily, can we join you?¡± Hester asks before once again freezing as she sees Juliana¡¯s crest. Emily silently looks to Juliana, expecting her positive response. ¡°Sure! I don¡¯t mind.¡± Emily returns to eating, ignoring the repeating conversation until she¡¯s pulled back in by Tom. ¡°Oh, by the way, why did Miss Forsythia want to talk to you?¡± ¡°Nothing much, she just wanted to warn me about Jeremy and Kyle¡¯s clear animosity, and let me know I should go to her if I ever needed any help,¡± Emily casually brushes off his question. ¡°I see. Did you go collect a spell afterwards?¡± ¡°Yep, I can already cast it too.¡± All three of her friends nod with little response, causing Emily to frown. ¡°You don¡¯t seem surprised.¡± ¡°You just told me you manifested eight elements on your first attempt, learning a spell in a day seems pretty mundanepared to that,¡± Juliana says with a cheeky grin. ¡°You¡¯ll still show me though, right?¡± Emily rolls her eyes and raises her hands in front of her. I¡¯ll just have to show you something more shocking then, won¡¯t I? With practised grace, she weaves together a set of hand signs and in four and a half seconds, a fiercely burning me coats her palms. As she had hoped, Juliana is sufficiently surprised by her disy. ¡°That was so fast! How did you learn chantless casting already? And why¡¯s your fire so pretty?¡± ¡°My fire¡¯s an odd colour because my mental image was metal-eating mes. And using the chant made the spell too weak, so I worked out how to draw the circle with hand signs, freeing up my mind for a solid mental image,¡± Emily gives her standard response while distractedly drawing patterns in the air. ¡°Amazing, chantless casting of any form is considered a huge advantage and a difficult skill. Can you teach me?¡± Emily exaggeratedly considers for a while with her hand rubbing her chin, enjoying Juliana¡¯s puppy dog eyes. ¡°Sure, I could never say no to that face,¡± Juliana grins triumphantly as Tom cuts in. ¡°Can you teach us too? That looked so cool!¡± ¡°Tsk, maybe if you learn a spell by next lesson.¡± ¡°Aww man, that¡¯s way too hard,¡± Tomins, grumpily slouching in his seat with his arms crossed. The othersugh at his disy and return to their meal. *** Later that evening in Emily¡¯s room, Emily and Juliana are sitting together on her bed with Juliana¡¯s notebook open between them showing a familiar Air st spell. After an hour of Emily guiding Juliana through the hand signs she¡¯s already memorised, Juliana sits back with a groan. ¡°Urgh, how do you do this so easily? My fingers keep getting tangled.¡± ¡°Haha, giving up already?¡± ¡°No! I just want a little break,¡± Juliana grumbles sulkily. Emily smiles and sits back as well, happy to stop staring at spell forme for a bit. Juliana breaks the silence a few minutester with a question. ¡°Hey, Emily?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Why did you seem so annoyed at Tom and Hester joining us earlier?¡± ¡°Ah, you noticed?¡± Emily reacts sheepishly, scratching her cheek slightly embarrassed to be seen through so easily a second time. ¡°It¡¯s written all over your face if you¡¯re looking close enough!¡± Juliana grins smugly. ¡°Oh?¡± Emily raises a brow and leans forward with a smirk. ¡°You¡¯re watching me that closely, are you?¡± Juliana¡¯s eyes go wide like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar and her entire face flushes bright red. ¡°Haha, to answer your question,¡± Emily starts, saving Juliana from her embarrassment, ¡°I just don¡¯t really like being bothered when I¡¯m eating. Bit of a habit from when I was young.¡± ¡°Really? Why are you okay eating with me then?¡± ¡°That¡¯s different, I agreed to eat with you beforehand. They just walked over when we were already settled.¡± ¡°Aww, and here I thought I was special,¡± Juliana teases. ¡°Of course you are! You think I¡¯d agree to teach any random mage my craft secrets?¡± Emily says with mock solemnity. They both start to giggle. Once they¡¯ve calmed down, Juliana asks another question. ¡°Hey, what do you mean a habit from when you were young?¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Emily pauses awkwardly, considering if she should say anything. Remembering Juliana¡¯s genuine response to Tom asking why she hangs out withmoners, she decides to be honest. ¡°Well, when I was really young, like before I turned nine, I used to live alone in the slums.¡± A look of horror dawns on Juliana¡¯s face as Emily continues. ¡°Getting food was quite difficult, sometimes I stole, other times I got lucky and found discarded food in the trash. But whenever I did have food, I¡¯d hide while I ate. If any of the other kids, and even some of the adults, found me eating, I¡¯d either have to fight, run, or give up my food.¡± Juliana moves forward, pushing the notebook between them aside and pulling Emily into a hug. At first, Emily freezes. But after a few moments, she wraps her arms around Juliana and rests her head on her shoulder, rxing as she keeps going. ¡°After Dad had taken me in, I ate my fill, but I guess the habit kind of stuck with me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so horrible,¡± Juliana says tearfully. ¡°No child should have to fight for food.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I lived, didn¡¯t I? Besides, I was one of the lucky ones. At least I got out.¡± Emily goes silent, enjoying the warmth and contact for a short while before they separate. As Juliana pulls back, Emily reaches up and wipes the tears from her face while chuckling. ¡°Jeez, I thought you were meant to beforting me.¡± Juliana blushes and starts to apologise, but Emily waves her off with a smile and changes the subject. ¡°Right, wanna get back to learning gesture casting?¡± With a nod from Juliana, they pull the notebook back and continue their lesson. *** The following morning, Emily wakes up and checks her ss list to find she has an etiquette ss at 9 am. After a quick morning shower, she heads over and waits in front of Juliana¡¯s room to go breakfast together. Walking into the cafeteria, with Juliana once again hanging off her, Emily spots Tom and Hester sitting together at a nearby table without any food, waving them over. ¡°Want to eat with them?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Juliana cheerily agrees, dragging Emily towards them before she can change her mind. They sit down together, briefly exchanging greetings with the twins before ordering food. ¡°Really? Eggs on toast?¡± Tom questions his sister disapprovingly. ¡°It¡¯s a good meal!¡± ¡°We can have whatever we want though! Live a little.¡± Emily tunes out the two bickering and turns to Juliana. ¡°Do you have any sses today?¡± ¡°Yeah, I have a wind specialist ss today at two. What about you?¡± ¡°Etiquette at nine,¡± Emily says, receiving groans from all three of her friends. ¡°What?¡± she says, turning to look at the twins rejoining civilised conversation. ¡°We have etiquette too,¡± Hester says with a look of resignation. ¡°That bad?¡± ¡°Yes, ourst etiquette lesson was so boring I almost fell asleep!¡± Tom exims dramatically. ¡°Correction, you did fall asleep. I had to wake you up three times,¡± Hesterments dryly. Sensing the start of another sibling squabble, Emily looks to Juliana to be the voice of reason. ¡°I agree with Tom on this one, I fell asleep during my etiquette tutoring at home.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what I expected,¡± Emily sighs, rolling her eyes at Tom and Juliana. Soon their food arrives, with arge tter of toast in the centre of the table and an assortment of toppings on each of their tes. Eating and making small talk, with Emily mostly focusing on her food, the time passes quickly and soon they are all getting up to head out. ¡°Good luck with your lesson, you¡¯ll need it!¡± Juliana says happily, giving each of them a hug before they separate at the entrance to the transportation rooms. ¡°Thanks, see you at lunch,¡± Emily says before walking into a transportation room with the twins. One spatial shiftter, and the trio make their way towards a lecture hall. The room they enter looks identical to the one in which they had their elemental selection lesson. Emily would have believed it was the same room if it weren¡¯t for the extra thirty seconds of walking it took to reach it. ¡°Where do we want to sit?¡± Emily asks the two ss veterans. ¡°The back,¡± they both answer in unison, eliciting a chuckle from Emily as she heeds their advice and walks to the back row. Settling down in their seats, the twins continue an argument they were having about the correct number of pillows to sleep with as Emily silently watches the door. Over the course of the next five minutes, before the ss starts, the only other student who enters is Nico, the gloomy-looking boy Emily saw but never talked to in her first lesson. At 9 am on the dot, the door opens again and a short, rotund man with slicked-back grey hair and a thick handlebar moustache walks in with purpose and a straight back. Stepping up to the dais, he turns to the ss and announces proudly: ¡°My name is Edward Penniset, second circle mage, and I¡¯m here to teach you scum the most important lesson you will learn in magic society, etiquette!¡± Fuck. Chapter 29 – A Trip to the Library Chapter 29 ¨C A Trip to the Library ¡°I¡¯m sorry for judging you, Tom, you were right, that was awful,¡± Emilyins as she walks through the hall with Tom and Hester after ss. ¡°Told you so.¡± Tom grins smugly. ¡°Goddess, I hope the other required sses I have aren¡¯t that bad.¡± ¡°What else do you have? We probably have more crossover,¡± Hester asks eagerly. ¡°Geopolitics, maths, and English. Oh and I¡¯ve signed up for hand-to-handbat, but that was a personal choice.¡± ¡°We have geopolitics and maths too. Are you literate?¡± ¡°Yes, why?¡± ¡°Then skip English. Apparently it¡¯s a very basic course to make suremoners are literate, so it will bepletely useless to you.¡± ¡°Ah, I see, thanks.¡± Emily nods, grateful for Hester¡¯s advice. I¡¯ll have to look into dropping the courseter. Reaching the transportation rooms, Emily says goodbye to the twins and heads back to her room. A couple of minutes after returning to her room, a system notification pops up. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Chain-Quest failed: True Magical Genius #3 _____ Checking the time, she sees it failed exactly twenty-four hours after she left the ssroom yesterday. Dismissing the notification with a nod of understanding, she swiftly returns to her spell-creation experiments. A few hourster, Emily closes her notebook with a sigh. ¡°Maybe I was a bit overzealous: I still don¡¯t understand what these lines and shapes do.¡± Sitting back in her chair, she opens her status and stares at her progression page while biting her thumb. Should I set this aside as a side project and focus on progression first? Maybe learning some magic knowledge will help, I¡¯ll go to the library after lunch. With a decision made, Emily moves to her bed and sits down cross-legged to meditate. *** ¡°Why do you have your notebook with you?¡± Hester asks while drinking a spoonful of her soup. ¡°I¡¯m going to the library after this to do a bit of research. Wannae?¡± Emily says, taking a bite from her wrap. ¡°Sure, I want to look at a few books on spellcasting too. I¡¯ve made no progress so far.¡± ¡°I¡¯lle if I can I piggyback on your ess level,¡± Tom says excitedly. ¡°Sure, but what do you even need it for?¡± ¡°I want to see what history texts are limited to nobles only!¡± Emily stares at Tom with exaggerated surprise. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m just surprised you gave an intelligent answer.¡± ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not dumb!¡± Tomins as Juliana and Hesterugh at Emily¡¯s response. Wiping tears from her eyes, Hester adds to the conversation: ¡°He may look like that, but he¡¯s actually pretty good at history. There¡¯s a reason he was the one dad made give tours.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± Ignoring the twins bickering again, Emily looks to the sulking Juliana and asks her a question. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Nothing, I just wanted to go with you guys, but I have a stupid lesson after lunch.¡± ¡°Haha, you can join us after your lesson. I¡¯ll be there for a while, even if these guys leave quickly.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Juliana asks, her eyes glistening with expectation. ¡°Would I lie to you?¡± Emily says with a grin. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m probably going to want your advice on what to research anyway so I¡¯ll be d for yourpany.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± Juliana cheers, bouncing in her chair with excitement. How does she have this much energy? ¡°Hey Emily,¡± Tom calls over, finished arguing with his sister, ¡°What are you going to spend your points on by the way? You got loads yesterday.¡± ¡°Wait, how many did she get?¡± Juliana asks while Emily considers her answer. ¡°One hundred and forty!¡± ¡°Woah!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not really sure,¡± Emily finally answers. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought about it till now. Maybe I¡¯ll use it in the training rooms.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a great idea, you could get like seventy hours in a gathering array with double mana density for that much.¡± Juliana enthusiastically nods at Emily¡¯s idea. ¡°Gathering array?¡± Tom asks. ¡°Ah, sorry. Those are only avable in the B-grade training rooms,¡± Juliana says sheepishly. ¡°Tsk, never mind.¡± After finishing their lunch, Juliana gives each of the trio a hug and leaves on her own as they head towards the library. Walking into the giant room, they pick a small table, with easily enough room for four people, and sit down. Emily takes out her silver crest from her robes and taps it to the centre of the table. As the invisible sound barrier covers them, Tom ces his hand on the table and makes his request. ¡°B-grade history texts.¡± Emily raises an eyebrow at his request. ¡°Wait, you can ask for books by their grade?¡± ¡°Yeah, this library request system is really helpful. You can ask for books by grade, topic, author, length, pretty much any requirement you can think of!¡± Tom grins proudly as he answers. ¡°He spent over an hour making weird requests when we first came here to try and trick the system,¡± Hester adds dryly. ¡°Hey! You weren¡¯t meant to talk about that!¡± Tomins with a slightly embarrassed blush. ¡°Haha, nah I respect that, thanks for the information,¡± Emily chuckles and pats him on the shoulder. Ignoring Tom¡¯s smug gloating to his sister and the booksnding in front of him, Emily ces her hand on the table and considers her first request. Before I look at spell creation, I think I need a solid base on the elements. ¡°Five C-grade elemental theory, Five B-grade elemental theory.¡± After waiting for a couple of seconds, two neat stacks of books build up on either side of her. Picking up the first book from the stack on her left, she reads the title, ¡®Elemental Fundamentals¡¯, before opening it and reading it from the start. Flipping through the pages and absorbing the information presented, Emily quickly dismisses the book as useless. The entire book centres around the theory of each element being locked to a designated personality type andpletely contradicts Emily¡¯s ability to use so manypletely different elements. Taking a few quick notes on the personality traits given for each element just in case, she turns slightly and pushes the book through the barrier, letting it be carried away by the flight magic. Emily repeats this process with the other four books from the first stack, making notes on a few barely useful scraps of information and finishing in only thirty minutes. Moving onto the first book of the second stack, she reads the title ¡®Basic Elemental Theory¡¯, then notices the author ¡®Jenny Forsythia¡¯. Slightly surprised, she opens the book with higher expectations. Reading through the first few pages, a small smile grows on her face, and she quickly begins making notes. The book follows simr principles to those Jenny spoke of in ss but goes into far more detail on each element, with examples of their natural appearances, along with theirmon magical and non-magical usages. It also looks at the links between each element, going as far as creating links between what mages of Ulea call ¡®Higher form elements¡¯, and seemingly unrtedmon elements, like lightning and wind. She has some interesting ideas that are closer to the system¡¯s knowledge. I¡¯m excited to see if she can work out mental magic from my exnation of the brainwashing spell. Emily smiles as she moves on to the other books in the stack. Halfway through reading the fourth book in the stack, a system notification appears along with a familiar yet different feeling of information filling her head. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Magic Knowledge learned: Basic Elemental Theory _____ Instead ofpletely new knowledge flowing in, the information Emily spent the past hour and a half learning expands and self-corrects until a new understanding of the elements is born in her mind. Jackpot! Smiling, Emily checks her progression requirements and sees basic magic knowledges sitting at 2/3. Now I just have to work out what else constitutes magic knowledge. I¡¯ll talk to Juliana about it when she gets here. For now, let¡¯s look at magic circles. Removing the elemental theory books from the desk, Emily makes another request. ¡°Five B-grade magic circles.¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯re done with those ten already?¡± Hester looks up from her reading and asks Emily with obvious confusion. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°How can you understand all this technical mumbo jumbo so quickly?¡± she asks incredulously. Emily tilts her head in confusion at the question. ¡°But it¡¯s all perfectly straightforward, what is there to not understand?¡± Hester narrows her eyes at Emily¡¯s answer before sighing and looking back down at her book as she mumbles: ¡°Damn genius!¡± Wait. Emily quickly opens her system and pulls up the description of her Magical Genius talent. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magical Genius] User is a natural-born mage. -Grants instantprehension of new magic [Knowledge] -Mana strength increased by +50% -Increased aptitude for creating new spells _____ Does the instantprehension of magic knowledge help me understand technicalnguage or something? All these books seemed perfectly easy to read bute to think of it, Juliana did mention only using C-grade books so far, and all those C-grade elemental theory books seemed far too simple to me. Blinking away the system with a new appreciation for her talent, Emily starts reading the books on magic circles. After sinking into her research for another hour, she is startled by a sudden voice over her shoulder. ¡°Whatcha reading?¡± Jumping a little, Emily looks to the side and sees Juliana leaning over her with a wide grin. Letting out a breath and rxing, she exins: ¡°I¡¯m looking into magic circles because I was trying to create my own spell earlier but couldn¡¯t understand what the lines and shapes within the magic circle were for.¡± Juliana moves to sit on the seat beside Emily. ¡°I see. So you¡¯re doing something ridiculous again.¡± ¡°When isn¡¯t she?¡± Tom mutters quietly, barely looking up from his book. ¡°How is this ridiculous, isn¡¯t it normal for mages to make spells? How else do you guys get all your spells?¡± ¡°Yes, but not normally first circle mages. We stick to buying spells from the information hub. After all, the spell creation course is intermediate grade for a reason.¡± Emily quickly notes the name of the book she was reading, before getting rid of the stack next to her. ¡°What does the course grade have to do with it?¡± ¡°While it¡¯s not enforced, most basic courses are for first circle, intermediate for second, and advanced for third. So, you doing something considered an intermediate course is weird!¡± ¡°I see,¡± Emily easily epts Juliana¡¯sment before changing the subject. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m trying to work out what subjects I should be researching at the moment because waiting for sses is taking too long. Can you help me work out the general topics I should be focusing on? Please?¡± ¡°Sure! I¡¯ll do my best,¡± Juliana says happily while opening her notebook. After thirty minutes of going over her notes and trying to split everything Juliana has learned over the past year into specific subjects, Emily is left with a short list in her notebook to focus on. Natural mana formation Elemental theory Chants Mana maniption Meditation techniques Reagents Arrays Runes ¡°That¡¯s pretty much everything I can think of,¡± Juliana says while leaning back and stretching. ¡°As long as you have a working meditation technique and focus on your element though, quite a lot of that isn¡¯t needed. But I hope it helps.¡± ¡°It¡¯s perfect, thank you!¡± Emily says with a wide grin, giving Juliana a quick hug before turning back to the table to request more books. I¡¯m not sure if it will be considered a magic knowledge but let''s look at meditation techniques first. I don¡¯t know if what I¡¯ve been using is any good: it¡¯s just a random way of breathing Anna taught me to calm down. ¡°Five B-grade meditation techniques.¡± Once more, a stack of books forms on the desk next to her, and Emily picks up the first one, ¡®The Channels Within¡¯, and starts to read. The book immediately grabs her attention as it goes into detail on the internal mana circuits each mage forms, and how to use a rhythmic flow within them to increase the amount of mana gathered and even passivelypress mana before it reaches the magic circle. Her notes are slowly filled with more information, with each book having slightly different views and opinions from thest. With every book she reads, Emily streamlines her notes and begins forming ideas for a new meditation technique. Picking up the final book from the stack, Emily raises an eyebrow at the odd name, ¡®A Study on Magical Beasts¡¯. Why did I receive this when I asked for books on meditation techniques? Opening the book, she reads the first page. Magical beasts are creatures who have been exposed to vast quantities of mana since birth. Unlike mages, their usage of manaes naturally, and their development in power ispletely passive. Through this study, I aim to understand the methods beasts enact to draw in atmospheric mana even in motion, to supplement my own growth. First, we shall start with a zing Smander, a rare creature I found when travelling to the volcanic region in the south of the Lerus Isles¡­ Emily swiftly devours the book, before looking at the author and requesting any other texts they produced, along with more resources on general meditation techniques. With her focus fully on her research, time flows smoothly until a system notification interrupts her. Chapter 30 – Technomancer’s Breath Chapter 30 ¨C Technomancer¡¯s Breath ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ General Knowledge learned: Internal Energy Collection _____ Emily closes her eyes and focuses on the information in her mind being restructured and borated on. She¡¯s surprised as information on machina and the Neuro Net flows in and connects to her understanding of mana and magic circuits. However, the point that gives her the most shock is the information on magical beasts'' passive mana collection being woven in as well. Opening her eyes after the information settles, she opens the system and pulls up the description of her new knowledge. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Internal Energy Collection] An understanding of active and passive collection of atmospheric energy, and its conversion into and containment of unique energy types. _____ A wide grin appears on her face. ¡°It might work!¡± Excitedly, she moves to stand up before noticing Tom and Hester are missing from the table. Pausing and remaining seated, she looks to her side and sees Juliana looking at her quizzically. ¡°What? Where are the twins?¡± Emily asks while closing her notebook and dropping the open textbooks out of the barrier. ¡°They left about an hour ago. They said goodbye, but youpletely ignored them.¡± ¡°Ah, whoops.¡± Emily awkwardly scratches her cheek. ¡°Also, what might work?¡± ¡°I said that out loud?¡± Emily asks, flushing red with embarrassment. ¡°Yes, you did,¡± Juliana giggles. ¡°Urgh, I¡¯m too used to being alone. I was looking at creating a new meditation technique because what I¡¯m currently using can barely even be called that.¡± ¡°Cool! Are you going now?¡± Juliana asks, tossing the book she was reading behind her and standing up. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m gonna head to the training rooms and test in a gathering array,¡± Emily answers, standing up too. ¡°I¡¯lle with you; I have some spare points to burn right now!¡± Juliana grabs her arm, and they leave the library together. After a quick teleport and a short walk through a few hallways, they find themselves in front of two empty B-grade training rooms. ¡°Meet out here at 8 to head to dinner?¡± Juliana asks as she ces her hand on the panel beside her chosen door. ¡°Sure, see you in a bit.¡± Emily watches Juliana vanish through the door before turning to her own. Raising her hand and injecting a small flow of mana, text appears on the panel: Wee Emily Coldstone Please configure your session settings: [Environment] [Targets] [Gathering Array] Ignoring the first two options, Emily opens the gathering array settings. Selecting five times density for a cost of ten contribution points per hour, Emily steps into the training room. The door shuts behind her and she looks back to see a small silver panel beside it with a point total and exit button. The room itself is a nk twenty-metre by twenty-metre cube with white walls and a grey floor. In the centre of the room, Emily sees arge magic circle with aplicated mass of runes that she can¡¯t even begin to understand. Walking over, she moves to the centre and sits down. The magic circle activates the moment she settles in the centre, and she feels a pressure building around her. Reaching out her hand, she moves it around, feeling resistance as if moving in deep water. Focusing hard on the air around her hand, she sees a slight shimmering haze being disturbed by her movement. Interesting. I guess atmospheric mana bes visible if you focus enough of it in one ce. Refocusing and trying not to waste the time she¡¯s paying for, Emily sits up straight, with her shoulders back and her chest forward. Her legs are crossed, with each foot resting on top of the opposite thigh. Linking her fingers and cing her thumbs t against each other, she rests her hands on her legs and shuts her eyes. Taking a deep breath in through her nose over four seconds, she holds it for three. Releasing the breath from her mouth over five seconds, she pauses for two. Repeating this breathing pattern, she focuses internally on the movement of the mana and machina through her Magic Network. At first, the movement of her internal energies is aplete mess. Random bursts of machina fire from her cortex along her internal pathways, and mana releases from her magic circle in rhythmic waves, shing with the travelling machina. Slowly, she calms the subconscious movements of energy to a lull. Then she focuses on her cortex and releases a mass of machina down her spine. As the energy spreads to the base of her spine, she releases it, all at once, into every connecting pathway that once made up her nervous system. She lets it flow to every inch of her body, filling every limb and organ before joining what once made up her vascr system, before flowing back to her cortex, carrying extra atmospheric mana with it. Repeating this a few times, she slowly forms her machina into a natural rhythmic pulse before focusing on her magic circle. Timing it precisely with the rhythm of her machina, she releases a mass of mana at the same time as a pulse of machina, guiding it through her old vascr system and collecting atmospheric mana on the way out. The two energies meet and briefly mix, before separating as her mana joins with the old nervous system and returns to her circle. Emily repeats this process for a few more cycles but frowns as she feels like she¡¯s missing something. Breaking her trance and opening her eyes, she opens her status window and stares at it. It didn¡¯t count as a new meditation technique yet. What else can I try? Looking at the hovering window in her vision, her attention is drawn to her unused talent. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magical Engineer] User {Emily Coldstone} has the unique ability to perfectly merge magic with machines. -Grants the ability to convert between machina and mana -??? _____ Wait, convert between machina and mana? An idea strikes her, so she closes her eyes and falls back into her trance. After a few more minutes of carefully controlling her energy flows, she reaches the same point as before. This time, as the machina and mana both saturate her body and start to mix, instead of drawing them back in, she pulls upon the idea of conversion. The two intertwined energies suddenly seem to connect and merge before a change takes ce. What was once mana bes machina, and what was once machina bes mana. The two energies then separate and flow back to their respective containers. Emily feels something click in her mind, and, as if reacting to her enlightenment, the gathered atmospheric mana around her begins to quiver. The mana is drawn towards her and seeps through her electrically charged skin, supplementing the two delicately merged energies at the point of conversion, andpressing them little by little. With each subsequent cycle of release, merge, exchange, and recall, Emily¡¯s mana and machina both increase in purity and density by a marginal amount. Emily remains in her meditation till she feels an hour and forty minutes have passed. Opening her eyes, she releases one final breath from her mouth and watches the expelled air shimmer and distort like the heat haze in her home city. She sees the electrical currents flickering across her skin fade and slowly stands up. Stretching with a feeling of invigoration, she feels a slight change in her body and opens her status, hopefully, to check it, along with the notifications she ignored while in her trance. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 15 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15 > 16, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 23 > 24 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 360/360 [Machina:] 360/360 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skill superseded: Basic Meditation (active) Intrinsic skill created: Technomancer''s Breath (active) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Technomancer¡¯s Breath (active)] [Cost:] N/A A unique energy collection technique created by User {Emily Coldstone} to maximise the benefits of a technomancer. Through controlled breathing, internal energy movement, and the effect of exchanging between esoteric energy types, user can gather atmospheric energy and use it to refine their body and increase their understanding of mana and machina. -Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to gather energy. -Refines the user¡¯s body and internal energies, and increases health, stamina, mana, and machina regeneration while in use. _____ Emily grins happily at the messages before her. Nice! My intelligence increased again, and this time my dexterity increased too. I don¡¯t know if my old meditation technique helped at all, but this one definitely improves my other stats! Unfortunately, trying to copy the passive gathering method of beasts only helps draw mana towards me, I still can¡¯t use this while moving. Stepping out of the centre of the gathering array so it deactivates, Emily moves her body about to feel the changes brought by one point in dexterity. Hmm, I don¡¯t feel too different, maybe slightly more in control of my fine motor movements? To test, she quickly weaves together a spell and finds her hand movement to be slightly faster and more precise than before. Thought so, dexterity affects my control of my hands and my hand-eye coordination. A very useful stat for gesture casting and making things! Ecstatically walking up to the door, she looks at the panel beside it and sees a charge of eighteen points. Too happy to care about the cost of her session, she presses the exit button and steps through the door after it opens. Seeing Juliana standing in the corridor waiting for her, she steps forward and pulls her into a hug, lifting her and spinning her around while crying gleefully: ¡°It worked!¡± Juliana giggles at Emily¡¯s enthusiastic greeting. After a few moments, Emily lets her down and blushes slightly in embarrassment. ¡°Hehe, I assume it went well then?¡± Juliana asks, smiling while she grabs Emily¡¯s arm and starts pulling her towards the exit. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve now created my very own meditation technique that also works to refine my body!¡± ¡°Wait really? My family¡¯s technique only refines my mana, can you teach me yours?¡± Juliana asks, shing her usual puppy dog eyes. ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t think it would work for you,¡± Emily says, trying to think of an excuse and remembering the visible electrical currents when she used it. ¡°You have to have a strong lightning affinity.¡± ¡°Aww.¡± Juliana visibly detes at Emily¡¯s words, making her feel guilty for getting the girl¡¯s hopes up. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ll show you whyter. You¡¯re still up for more gesture casting lessons, right?¡± Emily asks, feeling the desire to cheer Juliana up. It works: Juliana looks at her, eyes shining with expectation. ¡°Of course!¡± *** After a quick dinner with the twins, where Emily apologises for ignoring them earlier, Emily and Juliana return to her room to continue their private tutoring. ¡°Show me your new meditation technique!¡± Juliana requests eagerly while taking a seat on Emily¡¯s bed. ¡°Okay.¡± Emily sits down on the floor in front of her, with her legs crossed and her hands in position. Closing her eyes, she activates her skill and feels her energy flow quickly fall into rhythm with her breathing. The reactions within and outside her body feel more muted than they did in the gathering array, but she continues for ten seconds before opening her eyes and looking at Juliana¡¯s astonished reaction. ¡°That¡¯s so cool! You were all sparkly!¡± Emilyughs at Juliana¡¯s description as she stands up. ¡°What does it actually look like? I can only see the aftereffects when I break my trance, and it was far less dramatic now than when I had higher density mana around me.¡± ¡°Well, your skin lit up with small sparks of lightning, and I could see your veins glowing underneath. Also, your hair went crazy! I can see why you said I wouldn¡¯t be able to use it, I assume that lightning everywhere is what¡¯s refining your body?¡± ¡°Pretty much,¡± Emily agrees, not wanting to tell her the full truth about machina. They move on quickly and continue Juliana¡¯s practice with gesture casting. After a few hours, Juliana leaves, hugging Emily and promising to collect her for breakfast in the morning. Emily then spends the rest of her day meditating before heading to bed. *** The next morning, Emily wakes up at 8 am and checks for the day''s sses, finding she has geopolitics in the morning and hand-to-handbat in the afternoon. Sweet, I get to beat up some nobles! She cheerfully gets out of bed and showers, before getting changed and brushing her teeth. After she finishes her morning preparations, she sits down at her desk and checks The Clock to see how long she has till Juliana should arrive. Finding that she still has five minutes, she pulls up her status to review her recent changes in full and pauses, staring at the open screen in disbelief. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 15 > 16 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 16, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 24 [Health:] 115/115 [Stamina:] 175/175 [Mana:] 360/360 [Machina:] 360/360 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Talents: [Intrinsic] Magical Engineer -Mechanical Genius -Magical Genius Skills: [Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive) [Intrinsic] Technomancer''s Breath (active) -Parkour (passive) -Basic Machine Construction (passive) -Basic Melee Combat (passive) -Basic Spellweave (active) -Mental Fortitude (passive) -Overdrive (active) -Basic Metalworking (passive) Knowledge: -Basic Clockwork -Basic Steampower -Basic Electrical Theory -Basic Mana Formation -Basic Particle Physics -Basic Material Science -Basic Kinematics -Basic Waves -Basic Thermodynamics -Basic Elemental Theory -Internal Energy Collection Equipment: [Intrinsic] Clockwork of Time (Ex) _____ ¡°Today¡¯s my birthday?!¡± Chapter 31 – The Art of Geopolitics Chapter 31 ¨C The Art of Geopolitics ¡°You okay Emily? You¡¯ve been kind of out of it since I came to get you earlier?¡± Juliana asks with a look of concern while eating a spoonful of her oats. Emily looks up from the toast she is half-heartedly pulling apart. What do I even say? ¡®Sorry, just a little confused because I didn¡¯t even know today was my birthday but the mysterious voices in my head told me when I checked this morning.¡¯ Oh, or maybe ¡®Sorry, just feeling a bit depressed that it¡¯s my birthday and half my family is dead, and I can¡¯t contact the other half for fear of them being killed too!¡¯ Sighing, she reaches up to wipe the tears that threaten to spill from her eyes. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s my birthday today and I¡¯m feeling a little depressed that I can¡¯t see my family.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Juliana seems at a loss for words, choosing to silently take Emily¡¯s hand under the table and give it a supportive squeeze; a gesture Emily appreciates as she ignores the ufortable feeling of Tom and Hester giving her looks of pity. They all eat the rest of their breakfast in silence, only speaking again as they prepare to leave. ¡°What lessons do you have today?¡± Juliana asks while releasing Emily¡¯s hand and standing up. ¡°I have geopolitics now and hand-to-handbat after lunch. I can¡¯t wait to beat someone up,¡± Emily responds with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood she killed. ¡°Geopolitics actually isn¡¯t that bad, maybe listen for the first ten minutes at least before you knock the teacher out?¡± Juliana responds in kind, getting a chuckle out of Emily. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll consider it.¡± Juliana hugs all three of them, giving Emily a few seconds of extra attention, before waving goodbye and stepping into a transportation room. ¡°Right, let¡¯s go too,¡± Emily says to the twins, heading towards her first lesson of the day. *** Once again, the only ones in the ssroom are Emily, the twins and Nico. The teacher who shows up is a small man with greasy ck hair and crooked sses. ¡°Hello ss, my name is Theodore Eleocharis, second circle mage, and I¡¯m here to teach you all the fascinating subject of geopolitics,¡± he says while turning to the board and raising his chalk. ¡°As I¡¯m sure you all know, our wonderful of Ulea is a sphere. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool and should reconsider their education carefully.¡± ¡°Ha, I like him.¡± Emily hears Tom mutter under his breath, making her chuckle. ¡°We estimate our to have a radius of about five thousand kilometres and a surface area of about three hundred and fourteen million kilometres, an easy answer to reach if you know simple maths. This area is covered by roughly sixty per centnd mass, split between the three major continents.¡± As he speaks, Mr Eleocharis draws fourrge blobs on the board. In the centre is arge, top-heavy mass. To the right is a chunky mass in line with the top half of the first, and below it is a small stretched-out mass with a disconnected blob below it. ¡°The first is the Keban continent.¡± He points to therge mass in the centre. ¡°This continent is where we live, and it makes up around seventy-three per cent of the world''snd mass. Next is the Dennari continent.¡± He points towards the secondrgest mass. ¡°This continent makes up around twenty-one per cent of the world¡¯snd mass. And that leaves the Lerus Isles down here, with only six per cent of the world¡¯snd mass.¡± He points to the two small masses in the bottom right of his diagram before turning back to face the ss. ¡°Now, what can any of you tell me about these continents?¡± There is no reaction from the students, and after a couple of seconds, Mr Eleocharis sighs and opens his mouth to speak again. But before he can say anything, Nico tentatively raises his hand. ¡°Yes?¡± Mr Eleocharis asks sharply. Nico flinches and lowers his hand before saying quietly: ¡°Um, most of our has a dry climate.¡± ¡°Good! Anything else?¡± Mr Eleocharis asks in a gentler manner. ¡°There is only one rainforest on our, The de, it¡¯s on the Keban continent to the south of Chroni. Also, there are three main forests, one in the far southwest of Keban, one directly west of Chroni, and thest one is in the northeast of Dennari,¡± Nico continues, slowly rxing more as he speaks. ¡°Very good, Mister?¡± ¡°Nico Robinson, first circle mage of house Hedera sir.¡± Emily frowns as he answers. They were on Jenny¡¯s list; I¡¯ll have to avoid him. ¡°Five points to Nico Robinson, can anyone else tell me anything?¡± Mr Eleocharis rewards Nico with his points at the podium while looking over to Emily¡¯s group. Emily considers for a moment before raising her hand. ¡°Go ahead, and introduce yourself first please, you should all get into the habit of introducing yourselves the first time you answer a question in a ss with a new teacher.¡± Why weren¡¯t we told that in etiquette? Never mind, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Mr Stick-Up-His-Ass assumed we were all stupidmoners who would never give useful input. ¡°Emily Coldstone, first circle mage of house Mandrago. There is a volcanic region in the south of the Lerus Isles and arge desert to the north of us on Keban.¡± ¡°Good, there certainly is.¡± Mr Eleocharis turns back to the board and begins adding to his diagram. ¡°This entire ind here is a volcanic region which spreads to the seabed around it.¡± He draws a small cracked open mountain in the centre of the disconnected ind. ¡°Forgive my poor drawing, this is geopolitics, not art.¡± ¡°Then as provided by Nico, we have a rainforest here.¡± He sections off a small segment in the southeast of Keban touching the coast, drawing a water droplet in the centre. ¡°And forests in these ces.¡± He sections off the southwest quarter of the Keban coast, a bubble just below the centre of the continent, and the northeast quarter of Dennari¡¯s coast. Drawing a small tree in each of them. ¡°Now as for deserts, Emily told us about therge desert in the north of Keban.¡± He draws one line horizontally across the centre of the continent, and another to cut off the top tenth. He draws a small curly wind symbol in the centre. ¡°How is that a desert?¡± Tom voices Emily¡¯s internal thoughts quietly next to her. Mr Eleocharis turns his head and fixes Tom with a re, clearly having heard hisment. ¡°Not art, if you have a better symbol, I¡¯d dly use it. No? Didn¡¯t think so,¡± he rapidly fires off before turning back and continuing without pause. ¡°But what she didn¡¯t mention, is the other two major deserts on Dennari.¡± He draws a line from the edge of the northeast forest to the far southwest coast, and another slightly higher up to the centre of the north coast. Afterbelling both sections with his totally-not-desert wind symbol, he gestures to the thin empty strip curving through the centre of the small continent and dividing the northwest desert from the other regions. ¡°Now, can anyone tell me what these sections are?¡± Nico raises his hand again and answers when prompted. ¡°Arid grasnds?¡± ¡°Good!¡± He draws a grass shrub on the strip, as well as on the main body of the Lerus Isles and the bare centre of Keban. ¡°Now, there is one final major biome on our. Do any of you know where and what it is?¡± As Mr Eleocharis looks back again, this time it is Tom who raises his hand. ¡°Oh, what a surprise, the artist wants to contribute.¡± Tom clicks his tongue and grumbles out his response: ¡°Tom Valentine, first circle mage of house Dahlia. Is there a mountain range somewhere in the west of Keban?¡± ¡°Yes, there is,¡± Mr Eleocharis agrees with a nod while turning back to the board. ¡°There is a mountain region right here separating the southern forest from the rest of the continent.¡± He sections off a small strip between the two forests on Keban and draws a mountain in the centre. ¡°Right,¡± he says with a p while turning back to the ss with a wide smile. ¡°Now that we have established our world map. What resource do you all think fuels tensions across borders?¡± Nico raises his hand and Mr Eleocharis nods for him to speak. ¡°Metal?¡± ¡°Nope, anyone else? Feel free to call out, there aren¡¯t exactly a lot of us in here.¡± ¡°Fertilend?¡± Hester offers, joining in for the first time. ¡°A good idea, but not quite, Miss?¡± he asks with an irritated tone. ¡°Hester Valentine, first circle mage of house Dahlia,¡± Hester quickly adds in response. ¡°Mana veins,¡± Emily says with conviction. ¡°Yes! A perfect answer Miss Coldstone. Five points to Emily Coldstone,¡± he says, cing his hand on the podium. ¡°The most valuable resource a country can fight for is mana veins themselves. While different mana crystal types will be formed depending on the region, the most consistent indication of value is the number of mana veins within a territory. Let¡¯s now break this map down into the different countries, and then we¡¯ll look at where their important mana veins are and what they produce.¡± Turning back to the map, he starts drawing dividing lines. First, is arge line curving from the northwest of Keban, a third of the way along the top grasnd strip, through the centre of the desert, the central forest, and curving to horizontally split the rainforest. The right-hand side of this line isbelled as the Modo Kingdom, and the left as the Morzea Republic. He circles the entirety of the Lerus Isles andbels them as Lebard. Then finally he splits Dennari in half from northeast to southwest,belling the northwest as New Denntimo and the southeast as the Denros Kingdom. Emily draws out the map from the board onto a double-page spread in her notebook, along with marking down the capital cities of each as Mr Eleocharis continues. The lesson soon ends after a brief overview of the mana-dense regions. ¡°That¡¯s all we have time for today. I look forward to seeing you all in two weeks when we look at the current tensions between New Denntimo and Denros. If any of you would like to do some reading in advance, I¡¯d suggest looking for ¡®The Fall of Denntimo¡¯ by myself, in the library. Dismissed!¡± Bowing and leaving the ssroom, Emily and the twins head towards the transportation rooms together while chatting about the lesson. ¡°The artist. The artist! Goddess, he was so rude for no reason,¡± Tom whines. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you liked his snark?¡± Emily chuckles. ¡°That was before the snark was turned on him,¡± Hester joins in. ¡°Urgh, you two are the worst!¡± Tom speeds up and walks ahead of them with a scowl. ¡°Aww, don¡¯t be like that. Maybe doing some drawing will calm you down,¡± Hester calls after him before breaking out inughter with Emily. As the two of them calm down, Hester turns to Emily and asks: ¡°Got any ns before lunch?¡± ¡°Nah, I think I¡¯m just gonna head to the training rooms and meditate for a bit.¡± ¡°Got it, see you at lunch then. I¡¯m going to go pacify the child.¡± ¡°Haha, good luck.¡± Emily gives a small wave and steps into a transportation room alone. Making her way to the training rooms, she finds the only unupied room and selects the same settings asst time. Sitting down in the centre of the gathering array she attempts to clear her mind. However, her thoughts keep going back to her family. Damn, I¡¯m wasting points. I should have only chosen double density. With her mood dropping further, it takes her twenty minutes to fully empty her mind and begin using the Technomancer¡¯s Breath. *** Two and a half hourster, Emily leaves the training room twenty-eight points poorer. As she walks towards the transportation rooms to go to the cafeteria, she checks her contribution points on the back of her crest: ¡®128¡¯. I should use these more sparingly. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll get a chance to earn arge batch more. She enters the cafeteria with a scowl, in an even worse mood than this morning. Spotting Juliana and the twins, she walks over and drops down next to Juliana, dumping her notebook onto the table. ¡°You okay?¡± Juliana asks her worriedly. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, I just wasted a load of contribution points because I couldn¡¯t focus on my meditation, that¡¯s all,¡± Emily answers sharply, shaking off the hand Juliana offered for support and immediately regretting it as she flinches back. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s not your fault,¡± Emily apologises with a sigh. ¡°I¡¯m just in a bit of a shit mood and I don¡¯t think meditating was the right choice.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, you drew a map in geopolitics, right?¡± Emily nods, d to change the subject. ¡°Want me to add my family¡¯s territory to it?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Emily agrees and opens her notebook to the map she drew, handing Juliana her quill. As Juliana starts drawing, Emily adds: ¡°Oh, and I used solid lines fornd borders and dotted for-¡° She stops as she realises Juliana has already finished drawing a solid line around everything. ¡°Ah, sorry!¡± Juliana looks up with panic. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I guess it adds character?¡± Emily says questioningly. ¡°As the resident artist, I¡¯d say it totally improves the piece,¡± Tom adds to the conversation, having embraced his new nickname, probably to avoid his sister¡¯s ribbing. Emily and Hesterugh at hisment as Juliana looks at them with confusion. Maybe spending my birthday with these guys isn¡¯t so bad. This is a poorly realised version of the map Emily drew! (Don''t judge me too hard, I''m not an artist and this was mostly to help me visualise while writing) Chapter 32 – Hand-to-Hand Combat Chapter 32 ¨C Hand-to-Hand Combat After finishing lunch, Emily quickly drops off her notebook in her room and makes her way to the training hall. Finding the door to the hall already open, she walks in and sees a wide-open space with racks of weapons on the walls and packed dirt on the floor. In the centre of the room, she sees a dozen students standing together in a group, looking at the most intimidating woman Emily has ever seen. She is tall, at least a head taller than Emily, with short spikey brown hair, shaved at the sides. She¡¯s wearing tight brown leather trousers with bootsing up to her knees. Over her white linen shirt is a leather harness holding arge greatsword to her back, and underneath Emily notices a set ofrge, barely concealed muscles. As she turns to look at her, Emily sees a rough scar across the woman¡¯s closed right eye. Her remaining eye is a fierce green, the intense light in it matched only by her manic grin. ¡°Ah, our new recruit!¡± she calls out in a rich booming voice. ¡°Sorry, am Ite?¡± Emily asks, certain she arrived on time. ¡°Not really, I just like everyone to be here slightly early so we can start on time. Nowe over here. What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Emily Coldstone,¡± she answers while approaching therge woman. ¡°Nice to meet you, Emily. I¡¯m Agnes Olea, third circle. Just call me Agnes though, I don¡¯t like formality in my ss,¡± Agnes says while offering Emily her hand. Emily gives a firm handshake, which only seems to make Agnes¡¯ smile grow. ¡°Have you received any martial training before?¡± ¡°No, but I have a little experience fighting with my fists and knives.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Agnes turns to face the rest of the ss she was ignoring, and Emily notices Jeremy and Kyle standing amongst the group ring at her with excited grins on their faces. I guess they think this will be a chance to beat me up. A malevolent smile forms on Emily¡¯s face. Well, they can try. ¡°I want all of you to warm up then pair off and practice the grappling drills I was teaching youst week. Remember, this is a test of technique, not strength. I don¡¯t care how much stronger than your opponent you may be, control yourselves so everyone gets adequate practice!¡± ¡°Yes, Miss!¡± the whole ss calls out at once, before dispersing and following her instructions. ¡°Now as for you, I¡¯d like to test your starting level, so I know what to teach you. Get rid of your robes and warm up, then we¡¯ll spar a little.¡± Emily nods and drops her robes on the floor behind her, then she starts moving around to get warmed up. As she does, she looks around the room and sees the students have moved a fair distance away to give her and Agnes space. I wonder if they¡¯re being considerate, or if they¡¯re scared of her. Once warmed up, Emily looks over to Agnes and sees her standing with her arms crossed, watching her expectantly. ¡°Ready? I want you to try andnd a hit on me. It doesn¡¯t matter how. just try with everything you have to strike me. Understood?¡± Emily nods and raises her fist before her while spreading her feet into an even stance. ¡°Good, begin!¡± The moment she hears the signal, Emily springs forward, quickly closing the gap between her and Agnes. Stepping into arm''s reach, she nts her front foot and lowers her body as she pivots forward and throws a twisting punch towards Agnes¡¯ gut. As her right fist stretches forward, Emily feels a small burst of strength and speed from her meleebat skill activating, elerating her punch slightly. Agnes lets out a small exmation as she takes a step back and sweeps her left arm down, sending Emily¡¯s punch off wide. Emily uses the momentum to spin around and leans down further, reaching for the ground with her left hand as she sends her right foot towards Agnes¡¯ chin. Agnes smoothly catches her ankle and pushes it back to send her off bnce. nting her right hand down as well, Emily cartwheels back to upright and pushes forward again. With her carefree attitude gone, Agnes raises her open hands before her with her legs spread apart, ready to intercept Emily¡¯s charge. Just as she steps within range, Emily tosses a handful of dirt into Agnes¡¯ face and steps forward to deliver a strong straight kick to her gut. Raising one hand to guard her eye, Agnes shoots her other hand down to catch Emily¡¯s kick. Before her hand connects, Emily retracts her leg and twists, sending it curving down into Agnes¡¯ shin. However, Agnes reacts in time and leans onto her back leg, lifting her front leg to meet Emily¡¯s. Hooking her toes around Emily¡¯s ankle, she catches the kick and then flicks her leg out with enough force to send Emily tumbling to the floor. Rolling away, Emily quickly gets back to her feet. She starts circling Agnes, with her fists still raised, slowly moving closer. Once again getting close enough, Emily moves her left hand as if to throw more dirt. However, the moment Agnes raises her hand to guard her eye, Emily retracts her empty left hand and throws her right fist straight towards Agnes¡¯ exposed chest. As Agnes realises her feint and starts moving her free hand to defend her chest, Emily opens up her right hand and catches Agnes¡¯ arm while swinging her left fist down towards Agnes¡¯ front leg. Her fist connects with Agnes¡¯ thigh just as Agnes¡¯ foot connects with her chest, knocking her t on her back, coughing. As Emily catches her breath, Agnes steps forward and offers her a hand up with a grin. ¡°Well done, that was a very good use of feints and your environment. Not many people would have the guts to throw dirt in their first spar,¡± Agnes says as she pulls Emily up with ease. Emily blushes slightly while quickly defending herself. ¡°You did say to use everything I had to strike you.¡± ¡°Haha, that I did. And you even managed to seed, just at the cost of taking a hit yourself,¡± Agnesughs as she steps back and takes off her harness, cing it, along with the heavy sword, at the edge of their space. ¡°You clearly think very well in a fight. Aiming for my stomach on both your first engagements worked well for making me slightly slower to react when you went for my leg on the third. Your use of feints to try and draw me into your pace was very good too and would probably have worked on a physically equal opponent. You also did a great job using the momentum of your failed attacks to keep up the pressure. However, you tunnel-visioned too much onnding your own attacks and didn¡¯t notice when I started hitting back. I¡¯m sure you could have avoided that kick since I matched your speed with it. Let¡¯s try again, but this time remember to watch for any counterattacks.¡± They repeat the same exercise half a dozen times, stopping every time Emily takes a hit for Agnes to give her feedback. After the first attempt, Emily fails tond another hit and begins to get frustrated. Lying on her back panting again, Emily looks over at Agnes offering her a hand up. ¡°You got reckless on thatst one, let''s call it there for today.¡± Emily starts to object, but Agnes cuts her off. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, you did great. No one else in here could give me that much trouble now, let alone on their first lesson. I¡¯m just stronger, faster, and have a lot of experience. Catch your breath, I¡¯ll go grab you a partner to talk you through the grappling drills we were doingst week.¡± Patting her on the shoulder, Agnes walks off as Emily checks on her stamina. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Stamina:] 132/175 _____ Hmm, sparring was a higher drain than my workouts. Is it affected by both the level of exertion and focus throughout? Would that make sense with it not draining from mentally strenuous tasks though? Maybe I¡¯m using muscle groups I missed with my workouts. Emily ends her mental questioning as Agnes returns with someone. He¡¯s a thin boy around Emily¡¯s height, with long blonde hair tied up in a bun, crystal blue eyes, and a confident smile stered on his face. ¡°This is Oscar Salvia, he¡¯s one of my best students so I think he¡¯d make a good sparring partner for you.¡± The smug look on his face only grows as Agnes speaks. ¡°Oscar, as I said before, teach Emily here the basics I went overst time and have a few spars before I get you all to switch partners. Good luck.¡± With that, Agnes collects her sword and leaves to go inspect the rest of her ss, leaving Emily and Oscar alone. ¡°Nice to meet you, Emily. I¡¯m Oscar Salvia, heir to the Salvia household. You haven¡¯t received formal training before, correct?¡± His family wasn¡¯t on Jenny¡¯s list, but he seems like a prick. ¡°Yes, none at all,¡± Emily responds dryly. ¡°I see, in that case, I will start by exining what grappling is. Grappling is the act of using throws, trips and sweeps to bring your opponent to the ground, then using submission holds to take control of your opponent''s body and limit their movement. For example, say I was going to punch you, how would you react.¡± As Emily rolls her eyes at his long exnation, he suddenly springs forward, releasing a right jab towards her face. Reacting quickly, Emily steps forward and to the left, narrowly sliding past his iing fist as she lowers her body. Hooking her right arm up and around his chest, she sweeps his front leg out from under him and ms him down into the dirt. Following him down to the ground, Emily quickly pulls his arm back and wraps her legs across his front, holding him fast in a solid armbar. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I think I¡¯d probably do something like that,¡± Emily responds smugly as Oscar struggles to escape. After a few moments of failing to release himself, Oscar taps Emily in surrender. However, failing to understand his intent, Emily holds fast until she feels him starting to go limp. The moment she releases him, he scrambles away and gasps for breath. Standing up while massaging his red throat, Oscar looks at Emily sheepishly, his smug grin reced by a look of acknowledgement and a hint of caution. ¡°Sorry for that. Anges told me to try attacking you the moment we began when I asked if I really needed to be the one to teach you,¡± he quickly apologises, before muttering under his breath: ¡°Though, I would prefer if you epted my surrender sooner.¡± Wait, that¡¯s what the tapping meant? Emilyughs at his embarrassed response and to cover up her own blunder. ¡°Well, am I worth teaching now?¡± ¡°Yes, that was a great takedown. Have you really not had any training?¡± Oscar asks while rubbing his right shoulder, clearly still slightly in pain. ¡°Nope, I have fought quite a lot though, and submissions are a great way of getting someone to give up something they¡¯ve taken.¡± ¡°I see, that should make this easy then. In ourst lesson, we went over¡­¡± Oscar proceeds to exin all the content the ss covered in their previous lesson, with short breaks in between to test the moves as both the aggressor and defender. By the time Agnes asks everyone to switch partners, Emily has a solid grasp of what to do and says goodbye to Oscar on amicable terms, forgiving him for his earlier aggression. After a few partner switches between students Emily has never met before, Agnes calls everyone back to gather in the centre of the room. ¡°Good work today everyone, most of you are showing great improvement. Next week¡¯s lesson will be on daggers so remember to wear clothes you don¡¯t care about. Dismissed!¡± As she¡¯s leaving the ssroom with the rest of the students, Oscar approaches Emily. ¡°Hey Emily, if you ever want to spar, give me a shout. I¡¯m in dorm A19 so juste knock on my door, and if I¡¯m not in, leave a note or something on the door.¡± ncing at his chest, Emily sees a tall gold-stemmed purple flower on his crest. So that¡¯s what he meant by the heir of the Salvia household. ¡°Sure, I¡¯m in dorm B53,e knock on my door whenever you want your ass kicked.¡± ¡°Haha, will do,¡± Oscar chuckles as he walks off towards the private training rooms. Wow, he¡¯s diligent. I want a shower after that lesson, not more training. Praising Oscar internally, Emily heads back to her room. After a nice long shower to soothe her aching muscles, she leaves her room with her notebook and knocks on Juliana¡¯s door. Juliana quickly opens it and greets Emily with surprise. ¡°Hey!¡± she says, throwing her arms around Emily and pulling her into a hug. ¡°What are you doing here, it¡¯s not like you toe see me before dinner.¡± Wincing slightly and tapping Juliana¡¯s shoulder to ask to be released, Emily responds: ¡°I just got done with my hand-to-handbat ss and didn¡¯t want to sit alone again. Can Ie do my work in here?¡± ¡°Sure, you¡¯re wee in my room whenever!¡± Juliana says happily while stepping aside to let Emily in. Chapter 33 – New Threads Chapter 33 ¨C New Threads The next few days pass quickly, with Emily only having sses in basic maths and chants, both mostly redundant. Soon, their agreed-upon day arrives, and Emily and Juliana leave The Dome together in the morning after breakfast. Juliana asked the twins if they wanted to join before they left, but both opted to stay behind. Standing next to each other in the station, Juliana asks Emily about their goal. ¡°What is it you¡¯re looking for?¡± ¡°I need to find metalworking tools, materials, mechanical parts, anything along those lines. I¡¯ve been tinkering with some ideas I¡¯d like to make. Also, I need to grab some spare clothes, I need something to wear for my hand-to-handbat sses since we¡¯ll be practising with des in two days.¡± Ha, Anna would be proud of me for looking after my clothes. Her bitterness towards the Mandrago family swells as she pushes away the thoughts about her sister. ¡°I know a ce where we can get you some cheap clothes! As for the technical stuff, I think I know where to go, but it may take a little looking around to find what you¡¯re after,¡± Juliana says enthusiastically, interrupting Emily''s thoughts. ¡°Oh? Is that from your weaving?¡± Emily asks. ¡°Wait, how did you know?!¡± Juliana asks with shock as her face flushes red. ¡°Haha, you didn¡¯t close your drawer when I came round the other day. Besides, what¡¯s wrong with weaving?¡± ¡°I mean, nothing¡¯s wrong with weaving really. It¡¯s just, people would normallyugh at me for doing it myself.¡± ¡°Are these people possibly stuck-up nobles? I think it¡¯s sweet.¡± ¡°Yeah, they are. Thanks,¡± Juliana says with a shy smile. After a few minutes offortable silence, a loud screeching enters the station as a train pulls up. Climbing in, they find an empty cabin and sit down. Chatting and watching the city, they remain on the train as it winds deeper into theplicated mess of buildings, away from the docks Emily arrived through. After thirty minutes, Juliana informs Emily that they have arrived at their stop, so they dismount the train into a bustling station. Taking her hand, Juliana guides Emily through the crowd towards arge set of sliding doors. They join a queue to exit, waiting as the doors periodically open and then shut again quickly, with long pauses in between. ¡°Why don¡¯t they leave the doors open?¡± Emily asks, growing impatient. ¡°This is an elevator. It¡¯s like a small room that moves up and down to carry people to different levels of the station.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Emily¡¯s eyes light up with intrigue. ¡°Why weren¡¯t these used in the docks?¡± ¡°There¡¯s an operator inside that deals with the controls. The port your ship pulled into was a lower-value private port, so they don¡¯t use these because of the extra manpower needed.¡± Emily nods in understanding as they arrive at the front of the queue. The door before her is slightly set back into the wall to conceal the mechanical workings, with a small numerical indicator above, slowly ticking down from six. ¡°Is six the number of levels here?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s different based on which region you¡¯re in. I think the highest number of levels is ten, but that¡¯s normally around the outer districts. The further into the city you go, the less ess you¡¯ll see to lower levels.¡± I wonder if that¡¯s due to the mist. It was very dense near the city centre, and I can¡¯t imagine people would be able to navigate it. After waiting for the elevator to tick down to level zero, it quickly begins to increase before the doors slide open when it hits six. As the inside of the elevator is revealed, Emily is slightly disappointed by the in metal room she sees. The only point of interest is the man standing to attention in a neat ck, white, and red uniform, with his hand resting on arge lever jutting out of the wall next to a control panel of valves and gauges. Juliana pulls Emily into the elevator and to the side, the other people from the queue filing in as well, giving them a small berth as they do. Emily questions this for a moment before remembering the noble family crests boldly disyed on their robes. The moment the room fills, the operator pushes the lever down from the middle position and the doors let out a loud hiss of steam as they slide shut. The elevator shudders slightly as the low hum of smoothly oiled gears kicks in. Waiting for a dozen seconds in silence, Emily touches her hand to the wall and lets out a small stream of machina. A connection forms in her mind and she sees theplicated gears and pulleys, lowering the metal cabin down along a set of rails. As the operator flips the lever back to neutral, she watches in close detail as a set of gears click and whirr into motion, pulling a series of wires that start the quick deceleration of the cabin. The moment the elevator stops, a set of cylinders extend from the shaft walls, locking the cabin in ce as a pair ofrge pistons pull the door open. Finished understanding the elevator¡¯s workings, Emily pulls back her machina and reintegrates it into her system by quickly cycling the internal energy movement of Technomancer¡¯s Breath. She smiles at the small trick she worked out yesterday while messing about with her meditation technique. What an interesting system, I wonder if there was anything I could use pulleys and rails like that for¡­ Oh, maybe that could work. Struck by an idea, Emily makes a mental note to draw up a blueprint when she gets back and turns to focus on Juliana talking to her. ¡°We¡¯ll be getting out on floor three. The shop¡¯s only a couple of minutes from here on foot.¡± Emily smiles and nods while returning to plotting blueprints in her head. Juliana soon pulls the distracted Emily out of the elevator, and they make their way along the wide twisting walkways, winding through the tall stacks of buildings. Emily quickly notices how unnaturally clean everything is, not a spec of dirt in sight as a light, near imperceptible, mist envelopes her. I think I should sign up for Enchanting sses: this spell is fascinating and there has to be another feature other than cleaning. Who would waste this much mana for that? A couple of minutester, Juliana turns towards the entrance of a small shop tucked into the entrance of an alleyway. Emily observes the shopfront, noting the steel door and windows embellished with polished bronze ting. The window houses a set of mannequins in various styles of dress, and above it hangs a woven sign in a bronze frame proudly stating: ¡®Threads¡¯. ¡°Here we are, Threads!¡± Juliana beams with pride. ¡°Cute shop,¡± Emily says with a small smile. Jumping happily, Juliana pulls her through the door, calling out as she does. ¡°Auntie, I¡¯m back!¡± Emily looks around the racks of clothing on disy in the open front room, as she hears shuffling and hurried footstepsing from deep inside the shop. A few momentster, a kind-looking middle-aged woman walks into the room, arge smile lighting up her face the moment she sees Juliana. ¡°Young miss! It¡¯s so good to see you again,¡± the woman says as she approaches and pulls Juliana into a hug. ¡°Hehe, it¡¯s good to see you too Auntie. Has business been going well?¡± ¡°Well enough dear. I can even afford to send some funds back to Eliza. Oh, and who might this be?¡± she says with surprise, finally noticing Emily standing beside her. ¡°Ah,¡± Juliana cries, pulling away from the hug and turning to Emily to give proper introductions. ¡°This is my friend Emily from school. She needs to get some workout clothes forbat sses, so I brought her here. And Emily this is Auntie Annie. She used to live in Candim, my territory¡¯s capital. Her sister runs a sister store there, pun intended, where I used to buy all my weaving supplies.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, miss,¡± Emily says with a light bow. ¡°Please none of that, just call me Auntie. I¡¯m so d to know the young miss is making friends. I was worried she might get bullied you know.¡± ¡°Auntie!¡± Juliana cries with embarrassment, getting a chuckle from Annie. ¡°Haha, sorry dear I¡¯ll stop teasing you now. Was it training clothes you said you wanted? Wait right here, I have just the things!¡± Annie looks Emily over briefly before turning and quickly making her way deeper into the shop. Emily and Juliana wait as Annie moves around the room, and even out of it once, gathering items of clothing. When she returns, her arms are full of fabric, with a pair of shoes bnced precariously on top of the stack. ¡°Here you go, take a look at these,¡± she says, cing the pile down on an empty surface nearby. Emily steps up and begins inspecting the clothes, with Juliana watching eagerly over her shoulder. The shoes are a pair of simple leatherbat boots, with bronze eyelets and stitching. The linen shirt underneath is loose and long-sleeved, matching Emily¡¯s size when she holds it up to check. The trousers are tight-fitted leather, simr to Agnes¡¯. At the bottom of the pile is a long, white bandage. Emily raises a brow and looks to Annie for an exnation. ¡°The shirt is just one of my standard long sleeves, nothing fancy, just something you won¡¯t mind ruining. The trousers are a good choice for resilience, they¡¯re slightly cut-resistant, so they¡¯llst you longer than a in fabric choice. Your shoes don¡¯t look the most robust so I thought you might like a better pair for fighting in. As for that cloth, that¡¯s a favour I¡¯d like to ask you. I¡¯m assuming that you¡¯re using normal bandages to wrap your chest during exercise?¡± Emily nods. Annie continues: ¡°You see, recently, a new nt fibre from The de has be avable on the market and I wove it into that bandage there. It¡¯s very soft and slightly stretchy so I had a few ideas on how to use it, but it¡¯s difficult to work with so I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s actually worth it. Could you use that instead while training and give me some feedback so I can make a decision?¡± ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t help.¡± ¡°Great! Thank you, would you like to try those on before buying them?¡± ¡°Yes please.¡± Annie guides Emily to a small room in the back of the shop with a full-length mirror and a rail for hangers. After Annie leaves her alone, she shuts the door and quickly changes, leaving out the bandage wrap for now. With her new clothes on, she moves around the room a bit and does some stretches, finding the trousers to be far less restrictive than she expected, barely limiting her mobility. The shoes arefortable and grip the floor well, the rough tread on the bottom a wee change from the smooth bottoms of her normal footwear. With a small, satisfied nod, Emily changes back into her normal clothes and leaves the changing room to find Annie and Juliana mid-conversation. Noticing her presence, they stop talking and turn to face her expectantly. ¡°Well? What do you think?¡± Annie asks promptly. ¡°I think it¡¯s disturbing how well you measured me with a nce.¡± ¡°Haha, I¡¯m a seamstress child. If I couldn¡¯t do that, I¡¯d be disappointed in myself. But what did you think of the clothes?¡± ¡°They¡¯re good. They fit well and restrict my movement a lot less than I expected them to. How much do you want for them?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t possibly charge the young miss¡¯ friend,¡± Annie waves her off, causing Emily to frown. Just as Emily starts to argue, Juliana speaks first. ¡°Auntie! You can¡¯t do that. What about if I buy them for her?¡± ¡°But then I¡¯d be charging you, young miss.¡± ¡°And when have I ever agreed to take anything for free?¡± Juliana asks smugly, sure of winning the argument. ¡°Haaa, fine,¡± Annie sighs and gives up quickly, obviously having had this argument before. ¡°It¡¯s one silver for the shirt, three for the trousers, and six for the boots.¡± ¡°Good! We¡¯ll take five shirts, two pairs of trousers and the boots then please.¡± Annie leaves to collect the extra items and Emily turns to the grinning Juliana. ¡°Um, I can pay for myself you know.¡± ¡°Nah it¡¯s fine. Think of it as a little gift from me,¡± Juliana says with a smile, pulling out a pouch of coins to pay. ¡°Save your money for your mechanical stuff, let me treat you!¡± The corners of Emily¡¯s mouth curl up and she thanks Juliana with a hug. Annie soones back with a small hemp bag containing the extras Juliana asked for along with a few spools of thread. ¡°There you go, that¡¯s twenty silver total then please.¡± Juliana pays and they both say goodbye and turn to leave the shop as Emily ces the items in her arms into the bag as well. ¡°When you have feedback, eithere back yourself or tell Juliana for when she visits. Good luck with school!¡± Annie calls as she waves after the pair through the still-open shop door. ¡°Will do, thanks, Auntie,¡± Emily says while waving back, bringing arge smile to Annie''s face. Chapter 34 – Machineworks Chapter 34 ¨C Machineworks After leaving Threads, Emily and Juliana make their way back to the station and onto another train. This time the train carries them deep into the eastern district of the city, into an area full of smokestacks andrge industrial buildings. When they leave the train again, they travel down an elevator to the ground floor and make their way out onto the dark streets. Walking along hand in hand, Emily looks up at the mess of winding walkways above, partially blocking the daylight and giving the streets an eerie feel with the wisps of ethereal fog drifting around her feet. ¡°It really is weird,¡± Emily starts, drawing Juliana¡¯s attention. ¡°Considering how dark and secluded these streets feel, they are far too clean. It makes everything feel unnatural.¡± ¡°Yeah, the lower levels are quite unpleasant. It¡¯s why they¡¯re cheaper,¡± Juliana agrees, herment gaining them a few nces from passers-by. Upon noticing the gazes, Emily properly observes the people around them. The street they are on is a lot quieter than anywhere else Emily has seen in the city so far. Only a few dozen people can be seen at once, and most of them are moving around quickly with hooded cloaks concealing their forms. ncing down the side streets they pass, she sees several hunched forms gathered, watching the people passing from the safety of the shadows. ¡°Are you sure you know where you¡¯re going?¡± Emily asks as she notices a few people scurry off into side alleys at the sight of them. ¡°This area reminds me of home, and that¡¯s not a good thing.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not certain. As I said, I haven¡¯te here before, but I know there are some machinery shops around here somewhere,¡± Juliana answers uncertainly, not seeming to notice the tense atmosphere. ¡°I guess we can only look around then.¡± Emily pulls Juliana closer to her and walks on at full alert. Following the twisting road for a short while longer, Emily notices the people around them slowly fade away as they enter a stretch of darker road, until they are the only ones left on the main street. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she stops dead in her tracks. ¡°Well shit, can¡¯t say I didn¡¯t expect this,¡± Emily mutters. Juliana looks at her, confused, for a second, but before she can question her, a dozen people appear from the side alleys and surround them. Emily feels Juliana start to shake slightly and squeezes her hand, turning to give her a reassuring smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll deal with this quickly.¡± Handing Juliana her bag, Emily releases her hand and steps forward to confront the group. The entire group are wearing dirty and torn rags. All of them appear gaunt and pale, several of them sporting bloodshot eyes, their sneers revealing rotting teeth. A man in the centre of the group, presumably the leader, steps forward and pulls a small flip knife from his pocket. ¡°Let¡¯s make this easy, girls. Give us your fancy clothes and coin, then we¡¯ll let you go,¡± he jeers while brandishing his de. ¡°I¡¯ll make it easier,¡± Emily says with a cold look in her eyes. ¡°Get the fuck out of my face and I¡¯ll let you live.¡± The man and his cronies break out in uglyughter. ¡°You hear that, boys? Littless thinks she¡¯s scary!¡± the leader cries out, looking over his group. The moment the man looks away, Emily springs forward, quickly closing the gap between them. He flinches as she approaches, caught off guard and raising his de in an attempt to react, but he¡¯s a moment toote. Leaning to the side of his outstretched arm, Emily twists and delivers a strong elbow to his chest. The man staggers back as Emily grabs his wrist and twists it, forcing him to drop his knife. Catching as it falls, she swiftly jams the knife down into the man¡¯s thigh before pulling it out and stepping back as he falls to his knees. Emily reaches out and grabs the man¡¯s hair, flipping the knife and holding it to his throat as she looks up. She slowly makes eye contact with each of the man¡¯s cronies before her, while carefully keeping her body between Juliana and her victim. Seeing the fear in their eyes, Emily cleans the knife on the man¡¯s shirt then drops him and flips the knife in. ¡°Now get out of my sight,¡± she growls before turning around. The group scurries to leave, making a run for it the moment Emily turns. The few closest run over to grab the copsed man and pull him away while whispering frantically. ¡°The bitch is crazy man! Look what she did to Danny,¡± ¡°Do you wanna get us killed man? Shut up!¡± Emily ignores thempletely, walking up to Juliana with a proud smirk that drops as soon as she sees Juliana¡¯s fearful face. Shit, did I go too far? Is she scared of me? As she steps closer, Juliana doesn¡¯t react, so she gently reaches out to take her hand. Emily feels her still shaking and silently squeezes her hand to reassure her as she guides her down the street. After moving a few hundred metres, they turn onto a new street with slightly more sunlight passing through the overhead gangways. Emily turns to face Juliana and pulls the trembling girl into a hug. She silently strokes her hair while waiting for her to calm down. After a couple of minutes, Juliana¡¯s quaking stops, and she pulls away to properly face Emily. ¡°D- Did you kill him?¡± she asks with a concerned quiver in her voice. ¡°No,¡± Emily reassures her with a smile. ¡°I didn¡¯t puncture anything vital, so he¡¯ll be fine if they stop the bleeding. He¡¯ll probably think twice about ambushing young girls in the future though.¡± Juliana smiles slightly at herment, visibly calmer than before. ¡°Let¡¯s go, I think I see some workshops further down the street,¡± Emily says while lightly pulling Juliana into motion again. They walk down the street in silence for a couple of minutes before Juliana nervously asks a question. ¡°Did you need to be that violent?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, yes,¡± Emily says with a sigh. ¡°When dealing with people like that, if you try and talk your way out, you¡¯ll just rile them up more. The most effective method to force them to back off is a show of brutality.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Juliana responds, obviously disappointed. A few minutester, they chance upon a building with an open shuttered front and arge sign above saying ¡®Machineworks¡¯. ¡°This looks hopeful!¡± Emilyments while walking closer to get a good look into the shop. She seesrge piles of metal sheets and rods scattered haphazardly throughout the shop floor. Lining the walls are an assortment of tools and machines, some she recognizes and most she doesn¡¯t. In the centre of the room is arge metal structure holding up a hulking smooth body of metal with a set of chains and tforms. The loud grinding screech of metal on metal can be hearding from under the structure, and as Emily enters the shop and gets closer, she can see a person¡¯s legs sticking out from under it. She releases Juliana¡¯s hand, leaving her gawking at the machines covering every surface, and approaches the person lying on the floor. ¡°Excuse me,¡± she calls, waiting for a response. After a few moments and no change, she calls again, shouting this time: ¡°Excuse me!¡± The grinding noise stops and the person on the floor shuffles around for a few seconds before quickly sliding out from under the metal structure. The man that¡¯s revealed is a young-looking guy with short ck hair and a scruffy beard full of metal filings. Seeing Emily, he raises a brow and stands up off the metal sled he was lying on. ¡°Wee to Machineworks. Haven¡¯t seen you around here before. The name¡¯s Ed, how can I help?¡± he says while wiping oil off his hands with a dirty rag. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Emily,¡± she says, shaking the hand he presents before answering unsurely. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if this is the right ce for it, but I¡¯m looking to get some tools and materials for making machines.¡± ¡°Sure, I can get you anything you need,¡± he says with a confident grin. ¡°I assume you¡¯re buying this for yourself, right? You got much experience with metalwork?¡± ¡°A fair amount. I apprenticed with a clockmaker then started making a lot ofrger things on my own after.¡± ¡°Cool, how big are you looking to go with your setup? Full workshop, or no?¡± ¡°Not quite, I don¡¯t have enough room for a full workshop at the moment. I only need to be able to make things up to a metre or so in size, with more of a focus on detail work for now.¡± ¡°I see, in that case, I have a few suggestions.¡± Ed proceeds to guide Emily around the room, pointing out and exining several different machines to her and Juliana, who joins them, having be bored looking around cluelessly. Emily considers all the given options and creates a mental shortlist of her purchases as they go. By the end of their trip around the room, she has half a dozen machines of varying sizes, and twice as many tools, in mind to buy for her dorm, along with arge number of different materials and pre-machined parts. When theye to a stop back in the centre of the shop, Emily lists off the items she¡¯s decided to buy and waits for Ed to add up the prices. ¡°That wille out to a total of three gold and forty-two silver. Where would you like them delivered? You can take some of the smaller stuff now, but therger machines will be close to impossible to move on your own,¡± Ed says with an amused grin as he sees Emily¡¯s look of shock at hisment. ¡°Fuck, I totally forgot about actually getting it to the dorms. Can we even get stuff delivered to The Dome?¡± Emily asks Juliana in a slight panic, having be too caught up in the excitement of having the money to buy tools instead of making them. ¡°Hehe, yeah, we can,¡± Juliana giggles at Emily before turning to Ed. ¡°If you give me a piece of paper, I¡¯ll write down the address of the delivery building.¡± ¡°Sure, give me a moment,¡± he says walking off into a side room. Juliana turns to Emily while he¡¯s gone and continues to exin. ¡°Forrge items, you have to get them delivered to the delivery building along with your name and dorm number. Then as long as there is free space in your dorm, they will teleport the items in for a small point charge. How else do you think I got my dresser into my room?¡± Emily nods as she remembers therge, ornate dressing table set up in Juliana¡¯s dorm room. ¡°I¡¯d guess it will be around fifteen points if we take everything small enough to carry with us now,¡± Juliana adds with a thoughtful tone. ¡°Thank Goddess, I thought I¡¯d have to work out how to lug this stuff onto a train for a second.¡± Emily breathes a sigh of relief at both the ease of receiving her tools, and Juliana treating her normally after her shock earlier. A few momentster, Ed returns and Juliana notes down an address along with Emily¡¯s full name and dorm number. Emily quickly memorises the address over her shoulder, just in case she needs morerge deliveries in the future. Emily then pays for her purchases, handing over four of her shiny golden coins and receiving fifty-eight silver ones as change. Then, with a slight pain in her heart at the rapid reduction in her newfound wealth, she and Juliana leave the shop, bidding Ed goodbye and promising to return if they need anything else machine rted. They make their way through the dark streets again, with Emily on high alert and sticking as close to Juliana as theirrge bags of tools will allow. Luckily, they make it back to the train station and onto a train back towards The Dome without issue. Sitting opposite each other in a closed-off train booth again, Juliana frowns at Emily. Noticing her gaze, Emily raises an eyebrow and waits for her to speak. ¡°It¡¯s just¡­¡± she sighs and looks down dejectedly before continuing. ¡°Thanks for earlier. If you weren¡¯t there I-¡° When Juliana cuts off, and starts to shake again, Emily stands and moves onto the seat beside her. She ces an arm around her friend and pulls her in to lean against her, where she can rest her head on Emily¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Hey, you wouldn¡¯t have been there if you weren¡¯t helping me. It¡¯s only natural that I protect you,¡± she reassures Juliana while gently stroking her hair. ¡°It may not be much, but I can promise that whenever I¡¯m with you, I at least won¡¯t let you get stabbed in some random back alley.¡± I¡¯ll even turn back time if I have to. ¡°Though, I can¡¯t promise that you won¡¯t get your ear talked off about metalworking tools in some random machine shop,¡± she adds afterwards, drawing a small chuckle from Juliana. ¡°Thanks, Emi,¡± Juliana quietly whispers a bullet into Emily¡¯s heart before rxing into silence for the rest of the train journey, leaving Emily¡¯s head and heart raging in a violent storm of emotions. Chapter 35 – A Sleepless Night Chapter 35 ¨C A Sleepless Night That evening, after meeting up with the twins for dinner, all four of them return to Emily¡¯s room. ¡°You guys get fancy magic doors? No fair,¡± Tom grumbles as Emily injects mana into her door. ¡°Wait, you guys don¡¯t?¡± she asks, stepping through the doorway. ¡°No, we just have normal wooden doors with handles and a lock. We have to carry keys around with us all the time.¡± ¡°Sucks to be you I guess,¡± Emily says distractedly, staring at therge, sealed crate taking up most of the free space in front of her. ¡°Woah, how much did you buy?¡± Hester asks incredulously, walking around to inspect the crate from all sides. ¡°A fair amount. I need a lot of tools for what I want to do, I don¡¯t really have enough space here,¡± Emily sighs, jamming a thin piece of metal into a gap in the crate to pry it open. Dropping the lid of the crate to the floor and pulling apart the side walls, arge jigsaw puzzle of metal parts carefully slotted together is revealed. Seeing the exposed machines, Emily grins with glee. ¡°Thanks for agreeing to help me set this up. I don¡¯t think I would have been able to manage alone.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Juliana chirps happily. ¡°That¡¯s what friends are for, right?¡± Tom and Hester agree with her and approach the crate. ¡°Where do we start?¡± Tom asks. ¡°Well¡­¡± Emily sets about guiding the group to take apart the carefully stacked pallet, moving the machines to specific points along the walls. Halfway through the set-up, as they mount a steam generator the size of Emily¡¯s torso into the corner, Hester asks a sensible question. ¡°How exactly are you nning on running a steam generator inside a sealed room?¡± ¡°Ah, there are three parts to that answer,¡± Emily starts excitedly. ¡°First, these rooms arepletely sealed, as in no air can get in and out when the door is shut. So how do you think we can breathe right now?¡± All three of her friends pause what they are doing, leaning on various surfaces as they turn to face Emily. ¡°Magic?¡± Tom says sceptically. ¡°Exactly! One of the enchantments ced on these rooms must be cycling breathable air into the room, so I¡¯m pretty sure even if I did burn coal in here, I¡¯d be fine. But I don¡¯t really want to risk that, so my main solution is going to be magic as well.¡± She quickly moves to her desk and picks up her notebook, flicking through to one of the pages on spell creation research. ¡°See, when I was looking at creating spells, I decided to look into runes a little bit to try and get a basic understanding of what I was working with. When I did, I looked at a few spells and the engraved magic crystals I own. Through that, I found this rune.¡± She shes her notes towards her friends, pointing to a rune circled in the middle of the page. ¡°This rune was present on all of the magic crystals, and I think it¡¯s a simple activation rune. Obviously, I¡¯ll need to go to the library and read some books on engraving first, but I think if I carve this rune onto a fire crystal, I should be able to use it to boil water and form steam without burning coal. This also should fix the third problem of supplying water if I use a water crystal in the same way.¡± She looks up at her friends with a manic grin, watching the cogs turn in their brains as they consider her n. Hester is the first toe to a conclusion and speak up. ¡°I guess that does seem feasible. I assume you¡¯re relying on the venttion enchantments of the room to remove the excess steam?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m hoping they will be efficient enough. If not, I¡¯ll have to work out how to use ice crystals to condense the steam after it¡¯s run through the system. It won¡¯t be impossible, but it will slow me down a lot and cost more points, so I¡¯m hoping the venttion¡¯s enough.¡± They continue moving the machines into ce, finishing emptying the crate soon after. Tom and Hester move to the door after, ready to leave for the night. ¡°Thanks for the help, guys!¡± Emily says gratefully, waving them off at the door. ¡°No problem, happy to help,¡± Hester says with a smile. ¡°Just show us when you make something cool,¡± Tom adds with a wave. Emily smiles and turns back into her room, facing Juliana who has stayed behind. ¡°It¡¯s gonna be pretty boring to watch, I¡¯m just going to be installing pipes and tubing for a while.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, watching you focus is fun and I can always go grab my weaving stuffter to keep me entertained,¡± Juliana cheerfully responds. Emily shrugs and returns to her impromptu workshop. She gathers various pipes, tubes, and fittings along with a hacksaw and a file, moving the collection of items to the sturdy new workbench in the middle of her room. She takes a tube and measures the distance and bends required to connect the firstrge machine to the steam generator, then fastens the tube into the vice on her workbench. She cuts the pipe to size, uses a file to remove the metal burrs left by the saw, and then fastens it to the generator with a bolted-shut pipe fastener. Repeating this for the next run of pipe, she falls into a smooth rhythm, only breaking her focus once in the middle to let Juliana out then back in again to collect some things from her room. After a few hours, Emily sits on the edge of her bed admiring her hard work. Lining the walls of her room are several bronze pipes, connecting every machine together. Between each machine is a valve with a pressure gauge next to it; and barbed fittings are positioned at various points to allow Emily to connect tubes to the system. I¡¯ll have to make some quick-release connectorster to streamline it a little. But it¡¯s looking good! Satisfied with her work, Emily looks to the bed behind her, seeing Juliana¡¯s sleeping form curled up underneath the covers. I can¡¯t believe she fell asleep while I was cutting metal. She must be able to sleep through a hurricane. Smiling to herself and chuckling silently, she grabs her notebook from her desk and carefully leaves the room. She makes her way down the empty corridor, noticing its dimmed lights, still on to allow visibility, but different to show thete hour. One quick teleportter and she¡¯s walking down the central aisle in the library, surprised by the number of tables still full. Sitting down at an empty one-person table, she ces a hand on the wood before her and makes a request. ¡°Three B-grade and three C-grade on mana crystal engraving.¡± After the books arrive, Emily reads through them quickly, making notes on their contents and forming a simple idea of how to achieve her goal. She orders another set of books, this time on refining mana crystals, in order to gather as much knowledge as possible so she doesn¡¯t waste time or points needlessly experimenting. An hour after arriving at the library, she stands up with purpose and leaves through the transportation rooms. Walking out of another transportation room, she looks around the deste hub and picks one of the only two open counters to go to. Behind the counter stands a tired-looking woman with long dishevelled hair, a pair of sses sitting crooked on her face, andrge bags under her eyes. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± she asks with a lifeless gaze that begs to be left alone. ¡°I¡¯d like to buy five lesser fire and five lesser water crystals please.¡± The clerk nods silently and ces the payment terminal on the counter before Emily. Then she turns to the wall of drawers behind her and takes out ten rough fingertip-sized gems, glowing with a mix of enchanting crimson and cobalt hues. Emily taps her silver crest to pay, watching her total reduce by fifty, ticking down to ¡®63¡¯. ¡°Will that be all?¡± the clerk asks with a sigh while handing over the ten shards of fire and water. ¡°Could I also buy a kilogram of ck iron and a kilogram of white iron please,¡± Emily requests apologetically. The clerk stares at her silently for a few seconds before sighing again and turning around while gesturing loosely towards the payment terminal again. Emily taps it again, reducing her points by a further twenty-five. Ouch, money goes as quickly as ites. I may need to look at taking some side jobs if I want to mess about with mana crystals more. Maybe after I reach second circle. For now, I¡¯ll just reduce my experimentation if ites to it. The clerk returns with two small fist-sized chunks of white and ck metal, handing them over and gazing at Emily with a silent question. ¡°Thank you,¡± she says with a small nod, turning around to leave the hub, leaving the poor woman alone. Returning to her room, Emily ces her magical supplies on her desk, taking only the white iron over to her workbench with her. She ces a small tray under her vice to gather the valuable metal filings and cuts off a small sliver. Using a set of files, she slowly fashions the white iron stick into a small cylinder with a sharp point and grooves tofortably fit her fingers. After a light sanding and rubbing down with a damp cloth, she returns to her desk with the new metal pencil, files, and a pair of flip-down magnified lenses. She opens her notebook, then takes one of the fire crystals and ces the rest of the crystals into a drawer along with the ck and white iron. Staring at the notes on crystal refining, she lifts the crystal along with a small delicate file. Gazing through the lenses hovering before her eyes, she carefully runs the file along any specs of remaining ck iron or imperfections on the gem, gathering the removed powder in another tray. After twenty minutes of delicate filing, she is left with a small glittering gem, void of any visible imperfections. I don¡¯t have the tools to try cutting it right now and I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s big enough to have a stable core. This will have to do for now. cing down the file, she picks up her white iron pencil and lets out a small flow of mana into it. Seeing the ethereal blue glow envelop the metal, she grins before stopping her mana flow and flipping her notes to a page on runes. Taking a final look at the activation rune, she takes a deep breath and steadies her hands. Pushing mana back into the engraving tool, she gently touches it to a clear face on the gem and starts carefully drawing the rune. As the tool¡¯s tip passes along the smooth surface of the gem, the mana within cuts deep, leaving behind a solid blue glowing line. The activation rune slowly forms on the crystal, however after Emily finishes drawing half of it, the crystal begins to heat up and vibrate. Microscopic cracks begin to spread from the engraved lines and the integrity of the crystal quickly decreases. Shit. Recognising the imminent copse of the crystal, Emily drops the engraving tool onto the desk and remembers an excerpt from one of the books on crystal engraving. Should a mana crystal begin to lose integrity, a detonation of the stored magic power is imminent. The best method to ward against the detonation is to have a containment array prepared. However, should a crystal copse without proper preparations made, the safest solution is to form a barrier around it with mana and attempt to smother the detonation. This method should not be used if at all possible due to¡­. She brings her hands together, holding the crystal in her palms, and pours mana into her palms. The moment a sealed bubble of mana forms, she feels an intense force pressing against her mana and frantically pours in more power to maintain the seal. A few excruciating secondster, the pressure disappears, and she opens her hands to reveal the finely powdered remains of a crystal. She lets the powder fall into the tray below and wipes her brow with a sigh. Damn, what did I do wrong? I don¡¯t think the shape of the rune was wrong, maybe too much mana? Does the element of my mana matter like with spells? As she considers her failure, she pulls up the system to check her mana. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 133/360 _____ Wow, that was a lot. I can see why there was a warning about using this method, a normal mage would be drained by that. With a single thought, Emily¡¯s machina pours out of her cortex, shifting form as it flows down her spine. The new mana settles into her magic circlefortably, bringing a smile to her face. Good, let¡¯s try again. She pulls another fire crystal out of the drawer and sets about refining it with a file before engraving it. This time, as she lifts her engraving tool to the gem, she pulls upon her understanding of fire and imbues elemental mana into the tool. The smooth silver metal heats up slightly as a warm orange glow forms around it. Drawing the rune onto the gem again, this time she finishes eighty per cent of the rune before the crystal starts to destabilise. She follows the same process of smothering the detonation with her mana and letting the powdered remnants of crystal fall into the tray below. So, matching the mana¡¯s element helps but doesn¡¯t solve the issue. Less mana this time. She refills her mana again, reducing her machina stores to only twenty and not managing to fill her mana all the way. I only have enough in me for one more failure, I¡¯ll meditate after this. After refining a third gem, she reduces her mana output while engraving and manages to finish the full rune. Grinning wildly, she moves over to the steam generator and opens the front grate, cing the crystal into the empty coal chamber. Time for the moment of truth. Injecting a small amount of mana into the engraved rune, she watches as the air around the gem shimmers with heat. She can¡¯t help the smallugh that escapes as the temperature gauge on the generator shoots up. Chapter 36 – Claws Chapter 36 ¨C ws Quickly deactivating the crystal, Emily returns to her desk. She pulls out one of the water crystals, along with a new collection tray, and follows the same process as before to engrave the activation rune. After crumbling the first gem due to using slightly too much mana, she looks at her system mana and machina values before deciding to meditate for a while. Filling up her resource reserves swiftly thanks to the Technomancer¡¯s Breath¡¯s increased efficiency, she soon returns to carving crystals. This time she seeds with the water crystal on her first try. She moves back to the steam generator to test, cing the water crystal into the centre of the empty water tank and activating it. The moment she does, water pours out of the crystal, quickly filling the tank. Realising a slight problem, she reaches her arm through the water to deactivate the crystal before the tank overflows. I should modify this generator first. Making a quick decision, Emily turns around and walks back to her desk again. Turning her notebook to a nk page, she begins drawing up blueprints. After a short while of nothing but the sound of a quill scratching on paper, Emily looks at the blueprint before her in satisfaction. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Blueprint created: Steam Source {Gen.0} [Steam Source {Gen.0}] [Type:] Magic Steam Generator [Tier:] 1 [Rank:] F [Description:] A simply remodelled steam generator running on mana crystals. [Effect:] When activated, generates steam _____ It¡¯s not E-rank, but it will do for now. Standing up, Emily grabs the chunk of white iron from the drawer and takes it to one of the new machines, arge block of iron with an exposed jagged de suspended vertically in the centre. Leaving the white iron on the machine¡¯s cutting tform, Emily quickly moves to the steam generator, opening the heating chamber and reaching in to activate the fire crystal within. The moment it activates, she retracts her hand and shuts the chamber, watching the heat and pressure readings increase in the system. Returning to therge machine again, she reaches for the steam valve on the back to turn it on before pausing. Turning around, her gaze falls on the mass in her bed, rising and falling in a slow rhythm. She slept through a hacksaw, but it¡¯s probably mean to test her with a bandsaw. Turning off the steam generator again, she sheepishly returns to the bandsaw to take the white iron back. As she reaches out to take the metal though, a thought urs to her so she continues moving past it and ces her hand on the bandsaw. Releasing a spark of machina, a familiar connection forms with the saw, and a full three-dimensional breakdown of its internal workings quickly settles in her mind. Looking at the delicate mix of gears and belts within, Emily decides to memorize the machine''s blueprint for future reference, and the moment she does, a system window pops up. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Blueprint created: Steam Bandsaw [Steam Bandsaw] [Type:] Tool [Tier:] 1 [Rank:] F [Description:] A basic bandsaw powered by steam [Effect:] When activated, cuts through any material held to the de. _____ Convenient, it seems to respond to my will with blueprint creation considering I didn¡¯t get the elevator blueprint yesterday. I should take a trip into machineworks at some point and take scans of all the tools there, maybe reset afterwards so I don¡¯t have to exin anything to Ed. With this thought in mind, she happily moves around the room, taking scans of all her new machines and saving their blueprints for future use and modification. Settling back at her desk after, Emily opens her notebook to another nk page and lifts her quill. Now, time to create my masterpiece! Filled with excitement, she pulls on her ideas from her trip to the city the day before, and her new bank of knowledge from the machines in her room, to start drawing a new blueprint. Several hourster, after agonising over the design and even restarting several times, she¡¯s left with a pleased grin and a new blueprint sat in the notebook before her. It¡¯s not perfect, but for a first prototype, it¡¯s good enough! I should be able to get it done in time for my ss tomorrow if I work fast. Checking the time, she sees there are still a few hours left till Juliana should be waking up for breakfast. Unwilling to disturb her sleep, Emily settles on the floor at the end of the bed and falls into the spellweave. *** A couple of hourster, Emily returns to her room alone after breakfast, having told her friends she will be unavable till tomorrow morning. ¡°Right, time to get to work!¡± she exims excitedly while casting her gaze across the new machines waiting to be used. She turns on the steam generator and grabs the white iron, taking it to the bandsaw. Finally flipping open the valve on the back of the machine¡¯s body, the suspended de tears into motion. Carefully, Emily raises the white iron to the de and slowly pushes it through, cutting off a thin strip. After cing down the remaining hunk of metal, she splits the strip in half widthways and then turns the saw off. She moves to another machine, this one appearing like a miniature workbench with arge abrasive disk jutting halfway out. Twisting the valve at the back of the machine, Emily watches the disk spin to life. cing one of the metal strips onto the metal surface in front of the disk, she slowly presses it against the disk, watching as the uneven edges are quickly cut away to reveal a smooth, squared side. She repeats this four times, making the strip into a neat cuboid, before angling the metal and sanding the end down into a point. After doing the same with the other strip, she shuts off the steam valve and moves back to the generator, taking a handheld drill from under the workbench with her. She connects the drill¡¯s steam hose to a barbed fitting next to the generator and lowers it to the centre of the heating chamber before pausing. If I try to drill into the chamber without lubricant, I¡¯ll kill my drill bit. She quickly closes the valve connected to the drill and opens the heating chamber. Reaching in through the intense heat within, she deactivates the fire crystal and removes it from the chamber. Leaving the chamber open to cool down, she moves up to the water tank, removes the crystal within, and drains all the excess water. After checking the steam gauges for their pressure and finding it high enough to use her drill still, Emily quickly weaves her hands together, casting the grease spell. Only supplying a small amount of mana, she just coats the bottom of the tank with the liquid before ending the spell. Satisfied with her preparations, she turns the drill back on and carefully drills a hole through the tank to the front face. She repeats this in the heating chamber, then she collects a set of files and carefully files the hole into matching the shape of her two white iron nails. Sliding one of the nails into the hole and nodding in satisfaction at the snug fit, Emily moves to grab welding tools as a thought urs. Can I use fire magic to weld? Happy to test her theory, she holds the nail in with one hand while slowly drawing burning hands¡¯ magic circle with the other. As the spell activates, she focuses itpletely on one hand, managing to prevent the other from igniting at all. Raising her orange glowing hand, she carefully traces the connection between the nail and the generator with rapt attention, smiling as she sees the metals quickly fuse, forming a neat seal. Perfect! It looks like the strange metal-eating properties of my mental image affected the properties of my spell without any need to change the magic form! She quickly moves to the second nail before her spell runs out, firmly securing it in ce as well. Finally, she reces the fire crystal in the heating chamber with the activation rune facing down, touching the point of the metal nail. Then on the outside of the chamber, she expectantly sends a spark of mana through the nail. To her relief, the crystal inside activates instantly. Good, it worked. Now I just need to add proper fasteners to hold the crystals in ce and I can move on to creating my new toy. I¡¯ll need to make a quick trip back to Threads for some leatherworking supplies too¡­ Emily excitedly gets lost in her craft, losing track of time as her blueprints be reality. *** The next day at 8 am, after another sleepless night, Emily¡¯s focus is broken away from inspecting thepleted creation before her by a familiar knocking pattern on her door. She opens it with a tired smile on her face. The moment Juliana sees her, her eyes open wide in shock. ¡°Emi when was thest time you slept?!?¡± ¡°Before we went into the city together,¡± Emily answers with a slightly guilty tone, aware of her state. The heavy bags under her eyes and the unkempt state of her hair clearly give away herck of self-care during her creation process. ¡°Do you have any lessons today?¡± Juliana asks while taking her arm and pulling her towards the transportation rooms. ¡°Just hand-to-handbat in the afternoon.¡± ¡°Good, then after breakfast you¡¯re taking a nap!¡± Juliana says firmly, allowing no room for argument. Emily cracks a small smile and silently nods her head. *** That afternoon, after sleeping the morning away, Emily enters the training hall fifteen minutes before ss is due to start. Looking around, she spots Agnes standing at the edge of the room, looking over one of the weapon racks full of short des with her signature greatsword missing from her back. Walking over to her, Emily calls out eagerly: ¡°Hey Agnes, can we spar quickly? I have something I¡¯d like to test.¡± Looking over her shoulder at Emily, Agnes raises a brow and asks calmly. ¡°With daggers or not?¡± ¡°I¡¯m already armed, so grab whatever you want,¡± Emily answers with a cocky grin, enjoying the look of confusion and intrigue that grows on Agnes¡¯ face after she looks Emily over and fails to spot her weapon. Agnes turns back to the weapon rack, and quickly takes a dangerous-looking de, half the size of Emily¡¯s arm, into her hand. They both move into an empty space and face each other while lowering into theirbat stances. Agnes stands with her free hand raised before her and the dagger in her other hovering around her chest pointing towards Emily, and Emily stands with her feet spread apart and both hands raised before her, open and empty. ¡°The spar ends when either of us calls it off, or one of us can¡¯t fight back,¡± Agnes says slowly, her gaze narrowed on Emily. The mages in the hall notice their stances and all fall silent, turning to watch theing fight with interest. Upon seeing Emily nod in agreement, Agnes smiles and calls out: ¡°Begin!¡± while leaping forward to close the distance. Watching Agnes approach, Emily releases her breath, focusingpletely on the de quicklying towards her as her perception slows. Seeing a slight twitch in Agnes¡¯ wrist, Emily puts her faith in her new creations and raises her right forearm to guard the side of her face. As she predicted, Agnes sends her knife in an arcing line towards her face, and the quickly moving de ms into her raised arm. All the watching mages look on with anticipation, but instead of the sound of flesh being cut as they expected, they hear the harsh sound of metal scraping against metal. The de cuts through Emily¡¯s sleeve, exposing the bright glint of metal underneath. While absorbing the impact with her arm, Emily thrusts her left hand forward in an open palm towards Agnes¡¯ chest. Agnes notices but doesn¡¯t move due to the difference in reach between her knife and Emily¡¯s palm. The moment her arm reaches full extension, Emily lets a grin creep onto her face as she hooks her pointer finger around the wire attached to her thumb and pops her hand backwards. Agnes'' instincts warn her just in time and she leaps back as a de fires out from Emily¡¯s sleeve. Looking down, she sees a small bleeding cut on her ribs, and a manic grin forms on her face as well. ¡°What an interesting weapon,¡± she mutters quietly before shing her knife down towards Emily¡¯s chest. Emily deflects the knife with her exposed de while stepping forward to close the distance between them, her wrist de¡¯s reach still slightly shorter than Agnes¡¯ long knife. Unwilling to give up her advantage, Agnes keeps attacking Emily while stepping back. Struggling to close the distance, Emily gets caught by a few shallow shes and chooses to take a step back. Circling Agnes from a distance, Emily decides that catching Agnes by surprise is no longer possible and quickly engages the second wrist de. With both des extended to their full twenty-five-centimetre reach, she quickly steps forward and thrusts her right hand towards Agnes¡¯ chest while driving her left up and towards her ribs. With the flick of her wrist, Agnes deflects the first de as she steps forward to meet Emily. Before the second de can make contact with her, she swiftly reaches her free hand forward and knocks Emily¡¯s arm, sending her stab wide. Emily tries to recover her arms but soon freezes as she feels the cold steel of Agnes¡¯ knife against her throat. ¡°I give,¡± she says with a small sigh. They both rx and separate with matching grins. ¡°That was a good spar, and those des are fascinating,¡± Agnespliments her while staring at the exposed metal through her cut sleeves. ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily says proudly while bringing her hands up to reset her weapons and gazing at their system description. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [ws {Gen.0}] [Rank:] F [Stats:] +1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Agil [Description:] A set of basic spring-loaded wrist des. [Effect:] Provides armour to the forearms and extends des from the wrist when activated. _____ She grabs a small groove on one of the des and pulls it down while pulling on the release string with her other hand until it slidesfortably back into its housing. As the de bottoms out, she lets go of the release and a small click sounds as the de locks into ce. While retracting the other de, Emily notices a low murmuringing from all around and looks up to see everyone in the room crowded around her and Agnes, talking to each other while stealing nces at Emily. ¡°Tsk,¡± Agnes clicks her tongue with a frown before muttering something under her breath and stomping her foot on the ground. As her foot ms into the ground, the earth shakes and walls of dirt shoot up to form a dome around both of them. The noise from outside cuts off the moment darkness falls over them. ¡°There we go, now we can talk in peace,¡± Agnes says casually. Kind of hard to talk when I can¡¯t see you. With a frown, Emily quickly weaves a few hand signs and casts light, tossing the formed ball of glowing mana up to the peak of the dome. ¡°I see the rumours about your magical talent weren¡¯t exaggerated after all,¡± Agnesments with a sly grin, staring at the glowing ball of light. Whoops, I forgot to chant¡­ Ah well, I¡¯m not nning on hiding my gesture casting. ¡°What can I say, I¡¯m a girl of many talents,¡± Emily responds casually, ying off her mistake. ¡°Speaking of, can I see your weapons?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Emily agrees easily, pulling back her right sleeve to reveal the mechanisms below. From her elbow to her wrist is a fitted leather bracer, fastened with a set of straps at the side. On top of her forearm are two thin tes of smooth titanium with a split down the centre, covering a collection of springs and wires underneath. The wires follow a few small channels around her arm to join the underside, where a delicate metal housing conceals the des within. Extending from the end of the housing is another small wire, connected to a ring on the thumb without enough tension to activate The ws unless the wire is pulled upon by something else. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful, did you make them yourself?¡± Agnes asks while carefully turning Emily¡¯s arm over to inspect the entire weapon. ¡°Yes,¡± Emily answers proudly, happy to have someone appreciate her work. Finishing her inspection, Agnes releases Emily¡¯s arm and looks her in the eyes, her emerald eye glowing with the fierce light of passion. ¡°I want you to make me a set,¡± she says, raising her hand and gesturing for Emily to wait when she starts to object. ¡°I like to collect unique weapons like those, don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t sell them on or reveal how they work to anyone else. And in return, I¡¯ll give you some private lessons to teach you how to use them properly.¡± The moment she offers to help, Emily thinks back to their spar. I could use the help, I¡¯ve never dual-wielded weapons before, let alone ones awkwardly in line with my arms. Considering it for a few moments, she soon agrees with a nod. Ah well, these are only the prototype anyway, it can¡¯t hurt to make her a pair. ¡°Perfect, I look forward to teaching you more,¡± Agnes says with a wide grin that sends a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine as she drops the earthen dome around them. Oh Goddess, what have I got myself into? Chapter 37 – Brawl Chapter 37 ¨C Brawl Later that evening, with a set of new cuts and bruises adorning her body from her private lesson after ss, Emily shows The ws to her friends at dinner. ¡°Woah, that¡¯s so cool!¡± Tom fawns over the weapons. Hester spares them a nce, as Emily exins the internal mechanism, but she doesn¡¯t show much interest. Juliana frowns slightly when they are first revealed, but still listens intently to Emily¡¯s exnation. ¡°...springs are under the tes on the back because I n on changing that system a little after I work out a few issues.¡± Emily finishes answering all of Tom¡¯s queries and pulls her sleeves back over the ws before turning to start eating. They eat infortable silence for a few minutes until Juliana leans in and whispers to Emily. ¡°You know, Emi. I¡¯d prefer if you showed me one of your clockwork birds instead of weapons.¡± ¡°Sorry Jules,¡± Emily chuckles apologetically. ¡°I really enjoy making weapons, so I¡¯m probably not gonna stop. But I promise I¡¯ll make you something less violent at some point.¡± ¡°Jules?¡± Juliana questions softly, staring at Emily with wide eyes. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re gonna give me a nickname, it¡¯s only fair,¡± Emily responds while sticking her tongue out. Juliana giggles lightly and smiles as she returns to eating, quickly distracted from her concerns over Emily¡¯s crafting habits. *** Returning to her room alone after eating, Emily sets about making a second set of ws. As the sound of steam and grinding metal fills the room, she thinks over her priorities for the foreseeable future. I need to start signing up for more sses soon. Before I can take the ws or Steam Source to E-Rank, I need some lessons on engraving and possibly spell creation. She nces over at the trays of powdered mana crystal. And maybe alchemy before I mess about with those... *** Emily spends the next two weeks bncing meditation, tinkering with her machines, spell creation, and lessons. She signs up for Engraving and Beast Studies, the prerequisite to Alchemy. Her first engraving ss turns out to be redundant, as she¡¯s given a brief exnation on the subject before being handed a list of books to read before she can join the ss in their next lesson. Beast Studies, taught by Mr Eleocharis, is more useful. They look at sand stalkers, a familiar beast to her. To her surprise, she finds out that sand stalkers actually have a use in alchemy, with their tendons being a semi-valuable magical reagent. She also attends herst Elemental Selection, where she is given a pass and sent off one hundred points richer by Jenny after disying her gesture casting of burning hands. She follows up by passing Etiquette early afterpleting a short, written test, using the contents of a few textbooks she memorized to avoid the boring lesson. Her uneventful two weekse to an end as Emily walks into her fourth hand-to-handbat lesson fifteen minutes early, as has be a habit now, to find the room empty other than Jeremy and Kyle. Both have their weapons on them, but she thinks nothing of it, walking towards a corner of the room to get warmed up. ¡°Well well well, if it isn¡¯t the prodigy herself,¡± Kyle says with a condescending sneer as they slowly approach her. Emily looks up at the two, unamused. ¡°Aww, was your little ego bruised by me passing the lesson you¡¯ve been stuck in for months?¡± she responds to their animosity in kind. ¡°Silencemoner scum,¡± Jeremy spits on the floor at her feet as he speaks. ¡°What gives you the right to speak back to your betters?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, talent and mental acuity you¡¯re clearly missing?¡± Jermy¡¯s face turns bright red, and he takes a step forward. Emily lowers her stance, ready to strike the moment hees close. Kyle quickly grabs his friend¡¯s arm and pulls him back lightly. ¡°Not yet,¡± Kyle hisses before turning back to Emily. ¡°Now, we wouldn¡¯t want anything unsavoury to happen here, would we?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I quite like where I was going,¡± Emily says with narrowed eyes, still holding abat-ready stance. ¡°You see, a few weeks ago you showed off a very peculiar set of weapons.¡± Emily recognises the familiar glint of greed in his eyes as he speaks. ¡°Our families would like to know who made those for you. If you tell us now, we can end this easily without any¡­ issues.¡± Emily snorts at his demand. ¡°Well tough shit, I¡¯m not telling you a thing,¡± she sneers, poised and waiting for them to attack. ¡°Ahh, what a shame. The hard way it is then,¡± Kyle says with a sigh, releasing Jeremy¡¯s arm and giving him a small nod. ¡°Boys! Fuck her up!¡± Jeremy calls out as he advances. Out of the corner of her eye, Emily spots two bulky students she doesn¡¯t recognise walking into the hall and closing the door behind them. Juliana said no magic that harms students, right? Damn, this may be difficult. Releasing a deep breath and focusing, her perception slows down as her targets approach. Jeremy steps in to throw a punch, and she ducks below, avoiding it by a fraction of an inch. She jams an elbow into his ribs as he passes, knocking him to the floor coughing. The moment she starts to rise though, a sword is thrust towards her face. Reacting quickly, she tilts her head to the side and leaps back. Reaching up, she touches her cheek and feels a wet warmth on her fingers. Are they actually trying to kill me? Looking between the blood on her hand and Kyle¡¯s sword, Emily feels rage bubbling in her chest. ¡°I guess the great prodigy can bleed!¡± Kyle jeers. His two cronies help Jeremy up and then begin to surround Emily, each drawing a weapon. Jeremy takes the spear off his back, and the other two carry a sharp mace and a double-sided axe. Emily springs forward, attempting to take the initiative and strike Jeremy before he can level his spear, but the mace-wielding brute reacts in time, swinging for her legs and forcing her to step back. She feels a tingle run down her spine and leans over backwards, watching an axe sail through the air where she once stood. nting a hand on the ground, she pivots over, delivering her foot into the face of her attacker. He stumbles back with his nose bloody, giving her enough room to right herself. As shends and prepares to push her advantage, a foot flies in and catches her in the side of the ribs. Stumbling to the side and gritting her teeth through the pain, she leans to avoid a sword sh to her torso. The de lightly grazes her exposed ribs, and she responds in kind,shing out towards Kyle¡¯s hand and engaging the w¡¯s release mechanism while pouring a small stream of machina into it. The long, thin de rockets out, cleanly severing two of his fingers. Kyle drops his sword and screams in pain, alerting his friends to his plight. Their momentary loss of focus aids Emily, as she turns and bolts towards Jeremy, keen to remove the threat of his spear¡¯s range. Sliding in past his guard she shes her de towards his chest, but he reacts just in time, swinging the back of his spear down and catching her in the shin. She falls as her foot is swept out from under her, before following through into a roll to avoid a falling mace. Ignoring the searing pain in her shin and ribs, she swipes her other hand towards Jeremy¡¯s back leg on her way past, extending a machina charged w as she does. The de rips through flesh, leaving a spray of blood on the dirt as she rises and looks at her handiwork. Jeremy cries out in pain and tries to take a step back, only to fall as his foot doesn¡¯t respond to him. Emily grimaces slightly at the sight of his foot hanging limp, the back tendonspletely severed, but quickly regains her focus as another de sails towards her. She brings up both hands, catching the axe head between her two des, twisting them and letting the axe fall harmlessly past her. She uses the thug¡¯s momentum against him, stepping in as his heavy weapon falls and sliding a de against his exposed forearm, digging deep till she hits bone. He grunts and drops his weapon. Handling the pain better than his masters, he continues fighting andshes out, sending an elbow into Emily¡¯s arm. The weight behind the blow sends Emily staggering sideways towards an iing mace. She twists to avoid the worst damage, getting caught with a ncing blow against her shoulder. She feels a pop and excruciating pain re through her arm along with a stream of blood leaking from a set of gashes, but she ignores it and turns to face her other assant. To her surprise though, Kyle is back on his feet as well and holding his sword in his left hand with a hasty bandage wrapping his right. ¡°You bitch, you¡¯ll pay for this,¡± he growls through gritted teeth. ¡°Haha, maybe, but I suspect it won¡¯t be today.¡± Emily takes a few deep breaths to consider her attack options before bringing her hands together resolutely. I really hope this doesn¡¯t count as attacking with magic. Wincing at the pain in her shoulder, she quickly weaves together a set of hand signs while closing the gap to push the offensive. As she steps into range, a fist and mace close in on her from either side. Hoping her gamble pays off, she steps to the side, avoiding the mace but taking the fist to her gut. As the impactnds, she releases a pained grunt and pours as much mana as possible into her spell before tossing the gathered ball of mana in front of her. She closes her eyes and wraps her healthy arm around her attacker¡¯s fist. All three assants cry out in pain as her spell bursts in a radiant shower of light. Emily opens her eyes soon after, seeing them all clutching their faces, or trying to in the case of the man whose arm she has pinned. Making a quick decision, she releases his arm and shes her de down his inner forearm, disabling hisst working hand and stepping away as he copses with a scream. She rushes the other two before they can recover, delivering a kick to Kyle¡¯s chest and sending him tumbling to the ground, dropping his sword. The mace wielder manages to react as Emily focuses on him, raising his mace and sending it careening towards her with poor aim, his sight still hampered. The mace falls harmlessly past her with a slight twist of her torso, and she ruthlessly drives a w up through his exposed armpit. She watches with a sadistic grin as the bloody de tears its way out through his shoulder before she rips it back. Ignoring the wailing mess of a man as he falls, she releases a small sigh of relief and turns to face Kyle. He looks up as she approaches, growing pale and scrambling back to escape her. She smiles with satisfaction, seeing fear where earlier there had been nothing but haughty pride. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± she asks tilting her head. ¡°I thought I was going to pay for this.¡± She crouches over his defenceless form, stepping on his healthy hand as she does. ¡°Well? Where is your scary noble house to protect you now?¡± she asks as she raises a w above his chest, savouring the way he squirms in panic. Before she can move though, the door to the training hall swings open. She looks over and sees Agnes walking in with a crowd following her. ¡°Why was that door closed?¡± Agnes calls out, looking around the room and pausing in surprise when she sees Emily surrounded by fallen students. Emily clicks her tongue in disappointment as she makes eye contact with Agnes before driving her de down into Kyle¡¯s thigh. He screams in pain, drawing the full attention of the ss as Emily whispers a final warning. ¡°Try something like this again, and you¡¯ll lose more than a few fingers.¡± Standing up, she wipes the de on her shirt and begins making her way towards her teacher. As the adrenaline from the fight starts to wear off, she begins to limp slightly and winces at the pain she feels all over. Getting closer to the group, she sees a mix of fear and apprehension towards her, with only Oscar and a few others showing no reaction other than approval. ¡°What happened?¡± Agnes asks directly. ¡°Those assholes decided it was a good idea to attack me when I said I wouldn¡¯t sell out my weapons source to their families,¡± Emily responds bluntly. ¡°I see,¡± Agnes scoffs, ncing towards the four copsed forms with disappointment. ¡°Sit this lesson out and go deal with your wounds. Do you need help with your shoulder?¡± ¡°No thanks, I¡¯ll just ask a friend to help. Could you help me put my ws away though?¡± Emily asks, not tempted to try to push against springs given the state of her arm. Agnes nods and helps retract the des on Emily¡¯s wrists with practised ease. ¡°Good job,¡± Agnes says quietly. ¡°Looks like you put our lessons to good use.¡± She then turns to face the fallen nobles with scorn: ¡°Get out and stop bleeding on my floor.¡± Emilyughs as she turns to leave. The crowd quickly parts to let her pass, but just before she steps out of the room, Oscar puts out a hand and lightly stops her. She looks at him with a brow raised in slight annoyance, waiting for him to speak. ¡°If you need a healer, look for Fionn on the service market. He¡¯s sponsored by my family, so I¡¯ll let him know to give you a solid discount if you want.¡± ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll look for him if I need it,¡± she responds briskly with a small, grateful smile before quickly leaving. I¡¯ll be fine with some disinfectant and sleep. Jules isn¡¯t going to react well though, is she? Chapter 38 – Patched Up Chapter 38 ¨C Patched Up As she walks through the B-grade dormitory, Emily takes a nce at her status. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 16 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7 (8), Dexterity 16 > 17 (18), Agility 12 > 13 (14), Vitality 8, Intelligence 24 > 27 [Health:] 108/115 [Stamina:] 126/180 [Mana:] 386/405 [Machina:] 401/405 _____ At least that fight provided some useful data to process. I can feel the effect of my stat increase more clearly after my agility increase. I reacted faster to attacks than I didst week, and I think my flexibility is slightly better. My hand signs are getting easier too. That¡¯s definitely an effect of dexterity. And I was sessful in overcharging my light spell! The sudden burst of light was very effective, I¡¯ll have to remember it in the future. A frown forms on her face as she focuses on the resources at the bottom of the floating window. What¡¯s with my health though? I have several cuts, bruises, and a dislocated shoulder but it¡¯s only dropped by 7. I guess none of them are life-threatening. Maybe it only decreases with more severe injuries. With a small sigh, Emily clears her head of distractions and raises her hand to knock on the door she has reached. She hesitates for a moment, ncing down at her sorry state before knocking three times. It¡¯ll be fine, just say, ¡®Hey can you pop my shoulder back in for me?¡¯ and she totally won¡¯t overreact¡­ Hearing a shuffling on the other side of the door, she starts shifting from side to side, regrettinging to Juliana already. The door fades from existence to reveal a smiling Juliana. ¡°Emi! What are-?¡° She stops as she notices the dried blood on Emily¡¯s cheek and slowly looks down. Seeing Emily¡¯s torn clothes, stained red in several ces, and the unnatural way her left arm is sitting lower than her right, Juliana quickly grows concerned. ¡°What happened to you? Did you start a fight?¡± ¡°Hey, why do you assume I started it?¡± Emily asks with a small chuckle, wincing as it disturbs her wounds. ¡°Didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°No, but I did end it. They¡¯ll think twice next time.¡± Emily sees disappointment in Juliana¡¯s eyes. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my fault,¡± she rushes to exin. ¡°Jeremy and Kyle brought two of their goons to try and force me to reveal the source of my ws. When I wouldn¡¯t tell them, they attacked me. With weapons.¡± Juliana¡¯s expression shifts to outrage, then concern as she surveys Emily¡¯s injuries. She quickly ushers her into her room. Emily walks over to Juliana¡¯s desk chair and sits down. ¡°Can you pop my shoulder back in? Then I can deal with the rest.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Do you even have any medical supplies in your room?¡± Juliana asks while walking into her bathroom. ¡°No,¡± Emily confesses. "So, what¡¯s the n?¡± Juliana calls back. ¡°I¡¯ll take a shower, then go to bed once everything stops bleeding.¡± ¡°Bad n,¡± Juliana scoffs, returning to the room with a sizeable wooden box. Seeing Emily sitting on the chair, she frowns. ¡°Why are you sat there? Move to the bed, it¡¯ll be morefortable.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to make your bed dirty.¡± Juliana rolls her eyes and gestures towards the bathroom with her head as she ces the box down on the bed. ¡°It¡¯ll take twenty minutes to clean the sheets, stop being dramatic and get over here.¡± Emily relents and stands up, wincing in the process, before walking over to sit on the bed. ¡°Why do you have medical supplies anyway? I wouldn¡¯t think you got hurt that much.¡± ¡°Well¡­ you¡¯re alwaysing back from hand-to-handbat sses with cuts and bruises, so I thought it would be a good idea in case you got hurt badly,¡± Juliana admits with a blush, looking away and refusing to make eye contact. ¡°Aww, that¡¯s so sweet,¡± Emily coos. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m very sweet,¡± Juliana says, sticking out her tongue. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see what we¡¯re working with.¡± Juliana kneels in front of Emily and starts undoing her shirt. Emily blushes and looks away as she does. Why am I so embarrassed? I wasn¡¯t like this when Anna helped me. The thought makes Emily¡¯s heart ache, so she quickly tries to clear her mind and focus on following Juliana¡¯s instructions instead. She gets Emily to slide her right arm out of the shirt, before gently peeling the fabric away from the gashes on her left. Dropping the bloody shirt to the floor, she grimaces at Emily¡¯s state. Her left arm hangs limply at her side from her mangled shoulder. Two deep gashes run outwards from her corbone, still seeping blood. Her ribs are bruised a deep purple on both sides, with a small slice running along the centre of therger bruise on her left. Her right bicep also sports a small bruise, but Juliana quickly dismisses it as not needing any treatment. ¡°Right, how do I do this?¡± she asks while looking to Emily for help. ¡°Why do you assume I¡¯d know how?¡± Emily responds with a teasing grin. ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to be joking!¡± Julianains with a pouting re. ¡°You¡¯re the one who asked for help, so I just assumed you knew what to do already.¡± ¡°Haha, sorry. Jokes help distract from the pain,¡± she says apologetically. ¡°But yeah, I¡¯ve done this before. One sec.¡± Emily shifts to lie on the bed with her left arm on the outside. Thinking back to the day she took a bad tumble off a scrap pile, she remembers Anna¡¯s actions clearly. ¡°First, take my wrist and slowly move my arm out to a ny-degree angle from my body. You can remove the w if it¡¯s in the way.¡± She lies waiting, trying not to think about her sister, as Juliana slowly undoes the leather straps and pulls the weapon off her arm before gently moving it into position. Juliana¡¯s look of gentle care and concern oveps with Emily¡¯s memories of Anna and she closes her eyes, fighting back tears as they begin to form. ¡°What next?¡± she hears Juliana ask. ¡°Pull it slowly away from me until you hear a pop or me screaming,¡± Emily responds with a hollow chuckle; the attempted humour failing to stop the images still forming behind her eyelids. ¡°You may have to brace yourself against my ribs though.¡± She feels Juliana¡¯s knee gently press into her side, barely noticing the pain it causes, and a slow pressure starts building in her arm. As the pressure builds, so do the memories of Anna. When a small pop sounds and a jolt of pain res in her shoulder, she¡¯s unable to choke back the sob that leaves her mouth unbidden or the tears that flow freely down her face. ¡°Oh Goddess, sorry, did I do something wrong? Does it hurt?¡± Juliana asks in a frantic panic. Opening her eyes, Emily looks over to her and tries to exin. ¡°N- no. It¡¯s not you,¡± she chokes out between sobs. Looking unconvinced, but relieved as Emily manages to sit herself up, Juliana carefully lowers Emily¡¯s arm to rest in herp before moving to sit down on her right. She gently pulls Emily into a hug, cing one arm around her waist, careful to avoid any injuries, and using the other to pull Emily¡¯s head to rest against her chest. Emily rxes into her embrace and continues crying for a few minutes. After her tears stop, she remains still for a few more minutes, enjoying the feeling of Juliana¡¯s fingers running through her hair. Reluctantly, she lifts her head and looks at Juliana. ¡°Sorry about that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Juliana responds softly, surprising Emily as she reaches up and gently brushes the tears from her cheeks. ¡°Does it hurt? ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s not that. I can handle pain.¡± ¡°What then?¡± Emily bites her lip in indecision. ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me if you don¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°No, I do want to tell you,¡± Emily says with a sigh, finally making her choice. ¡°However, maybe we should stop my bleeding first.¡± Juliana gives a small smile, standing up and pulling her medical kit back over. As she starts pulling out bandages and cloth to clean the wounds, Emily begins to speak. ¡°I guess I should start at the beginning. A few months ago, in Eimdon, one of the Mandrago family¡¯s airships went down outside the city in the scrap heaps. I was nearby and went to dig through the wreckage, where I found an uncut mass of lightning mana crystals.¡± She pauses and winces slightly as Juliana ties a bandage around her ribs. Keeping her exnation as close to the truth as possible while avoiding mentioning The Clock or the system, Emily continues while Juliana cleans and dresses the gashes on her shoulder. She pauses her exnation briefly when Juliana takes a clean cloth and wipes the blood from her face. ¡°Perfect,¡± Juliana says with a small grin as she finishes, causing Emily to blush and look away. Juliana closes her medical box before sitting down next to Emily and wrapping an arm around her waist again. Emily leans her head on her shoulder as she continues. ¡°My awakening sent out a pulse of mana. It was like a beacon to the Mandragos. When they arrived at the shop, they took back the mana crystals, then slit Dad¡¯s throat for stealing their property.¡± Juliana lets out a small gasp and tightens her grip slightly. Tears of sadness and rage fall from Emily¡¯s eyes as she keeps talking through slightly gritted teeth. ¡°They then realised I was a self-awakened mage, and told me that they¡¯d let my sister, Anna, live with only a scar if I became their vassal. What choice did I have? I went with them. Once they got me into their mansion, they tried to use mental magic to brainwash me.¡± Juliana pulls away slightly and turns Emily¡¯s head to face her. ¡°They brainwashed you?¡± she asks with a mixture of concern and anger written on her face. ¡°Ha! No. They certainly tried though,¡± Emily chuckles lightly while reaching up and taking Juliana¡¯s hand from her face and into her own as her grin turns malicious. ¡°I was able to resist their spell without them realising. And I swear that once I¡¯m strong enough, everyone who had a part in my father''s death and keeping me apart from my sister will pay the price in blood.¡± Juliana shivers and recoils slightly at her words, causing Emily to panic internally. Shit, was that too much? I don¡¯t want to scare her. Her concerns disappear as Juliana responds with a sigh. ¡°I can see why you are so intent on making weapons then.¡± ¡°Yeah, I need to use everything I can to make sure I can get in and kill those responsible without killing myself.¡± Juliana nods in understanding before changing the subject. ¡°Where¡¯s your sister now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Home, I hope. They¡¯ve got no reason to bother her. She¡¯s not a mage. You reminded me of her earlier actually. She used to get cross with me too, before she patched me up.¡± ¡°Ah, so I remind you of your sister?¡± Juliana says with disappointment as her face falls, and she starts to release her grip on Emily¡¯s waist. Emilyughs, then winces before pushing the pain to the back of her mind. She releases Juliana¡¯s hand and reaches up to caress her face, smiling at the obvious hope returning to her gaze as she does. I hope I¡¯m reading this right. Emily steels her nerves and slowly leans forward. ¡°Only in the fact that you care for me,¡± she says softly, her heart elerating as her nerves try to force it out of her chest. ¡°I certainly don¡¯t see you as a sister.¡± To her immediate relief, Juliana smiles and leans in to meet her, their lips joining together in a soft kiss. Juliana¡¯s grip on Emily¡¯s waist tightens, pulling their bodies closer together before their lips part. ¡°How do you see me then?¡± Juliana asks with anticipation, a light blush on her cheeks. ¡°As a girlfriend?¡± Emily responds with slight apprehension. A bright smile blooms on Juliana¡¯s face. ¡°Good.¡± Emily joins her in smiling, as they lean in for another kiss. Chapter 39 – Ascension Chapter 39 ¨C Ascension A few hourster, Emily and Juliana leave the dorms to head to dinner. Emily¡¯s heart feels a little lighter, relieved to have finally talked to someone about her pent-up rage. Juliana is wrapped around Emily¡¯s right arm, the left hanging in a makeshift sling Juliana made her while Emily was icing her various bruises. As they walk through the cafeteria, they quickly spot Tom and Hester sitting together and make their way over to join them. ¡°What on Ulea happened to you, and why does Juliana seem so happy about it?¡± Tom asks incredulously as they sit down. ¡°Haha, two different questions,¡± Emily responds with a grin. ¡°I got into a fight before my ss.¡± ¡°Wow, they really did a number on you,¡± Hesterments dryly, focusing on the sling. ¡°You should see the other guys.¡± The twins bothugh before Hester turns her attention to Juliana. ¡°And why are you so happy then? I would have thought you¡¯d be upset about Emily getting battered, even if she¡¯s not.¡± ¡°We¡¯re dating!¡± Juliana chirps with a grin, ignoring Hester¡¯s secondment. Tom looks slightly shocked, ncing between the two of them seeking confirmation; whereas Hester nods sagely. ¡°About damn time. You¡¯ve been all over each other since we met.¡± ¡°Hey! It¡¯s not my fault Emi¡¯s so oblivious!¡± Juliana cries. ¡°I¡¯m not oblivious.¡± Emily¡¯s words are met with three unimpressed stares. Thinking back on it briefly, Emily remembers Juliana¡¯s incessant need for physical contact and repeated use of any excuse to spend time with her. She decides not toment further. ¡°Anyway,¡± she says with a slight embarrassment. ¡°Are you guys ready for the test tomorrow?¡± Her question is met with three groans. ¡°You can¡¯t seriously expect us to pass basic maths after only six lessons, right?¡± Tom asks while dropping his head onto the table. ¡°Why not? I¡¯m pretty confident I can pass it after only four lessons, so it should be fine for you,¡± Emily says with a sly grin before settling her gaze on Juliana. ¡°As for you, you should have passed ages ago! Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t know that you were skipping sses before I came here.¡± Juliana blushes and looks away, refusing toment. Rolling her eyes, Emily makes a suggestion. ¡°Why don¡¯t you guyse over to my room tonight and I¡¯ll help you revise?¡± Everyone at the table perks up immediately, looking at Emily with gratitude. *** Following Emily¡¯s tuition, she and Juliana are the only two to pass basic maths. Tom fails miserably, and Hester narrowly misses the mark. Juliana scrapes by, doing justice to her several-month advantage. Emily achieves a perfect grade, adding to her reputation as a prodigy within The Dome. Given the state of Jeremy, Kyle, and their friends after their fight, nobody else is inclined to challenge Emily. It takes a full week of recuperation before they return to ss, where they give Emily a wide berth, not even daring to re at her across the room. As a result, two months pass without incident, and Emily rxes into her new rtionship and spends her free time inventing spells, weapons, and armour. Sitting in her room one morning after an intermediate maths ss, Emily stares at a newly finished creation before her, along with a series of system windows. She grins. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [ws {Gen.1}] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +2 Str, +2 Dex, +3 Agil [Description:] A set of magical steam-powered wrist des. [Effect:] Provides armour to the forearms and extends des from the wrist when activated. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 16 [Magic Circle:] First Circle [Machina Cortex:] First Stage [Attributes:] Strength 7 > 8, Dexterity 17 > 19, Agility 13 > 16, Vitality 8, Intelligence 27 > 34 [Health:] 120/120 [Stamina:] 200/200 [Mana:] 510/510 [Machina:] 510/510 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skills: [Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive) [Intrinsic] Technomancer''s Breath (active) -Parkour (passive) -Basic Machine Construction (passive) -Intermediate Melee Combat (passive) -Basic Spellweave (active) -Mental Fortitude (passive) -Overdrive (active) -Basic Metalworking (passive) -Basic Mana Maniption (passive) -Basic Runesmithing (passive) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Knowledge: -Basic Clockwork -Basic Steampower -Basic Electrical Theory -Basic Mana Formation -Basic Particle Physics -Basic Material Science -Basic Kinematics -Basic Waves -Basic Thermodynamics -Basic Elemental Theory -Internal Energy Collection -Basic Alchemy -Basic Array Formation -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] First Requirements: -Intelligence 34/35 (Not Complete) -Create 5/5 unique F rank machines (Complete) -Create 1/1 E rank machine (Complete) -Learn 5/5 first circle spells (Complete) -Learn 3/3 basic magic knowledges (Complete) _____ So close, all I have left now is meditating till my intelligence reaches 35! Excitedly, she stands up and leaves her dorm room, heading to the training rooms. I haven¡¯t earned many points recently; I may have to burn the rest of them to progress quickly. I guess it¡¯s time to start looking at taking some missions after this. Arriving in the B-grade training hall, she finds an unupied room and selects a five times density gathering array. Entering the room, she sits down in the centre of therge array and activates the Technomancer¡¯s Breath. She slowly draws in mana and cycles it through her system, feeling a mounting pressure build in her magic circle and cortex. A few hourster, she feels something click, and a strange sense ofpletion fills her. Opening her eyes, still in a trance-like state, she reads the system notifications before her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Progression requirements met. Would you like to begin stage ascension? [Yes]/[No] (Warning, it is rmended that User finds a safe area with a high mana density to ensure the best results of ascension) _____ The moment she selects yes, the pressure inside her bursts and the mana in the array rushes into her. Violent tendrils of searing lightning tear through the air around her as she begins to levitate. Focusing on the internal movement of her energies, she watches as mana gathers in a vortex around her first circle, slowly condensing. Her saturated cortex starts to vibrate before a burning pain hits her as it begins topress. The only thing preventing a scream from leaving her mouth is the machina that spreads through her body, immobilising her and distributing the pain as her Magic Network changes as well. Her vision changes, the room around her falling away to reveal a cosmic stream of energy, simr yet different from the Spellweave. Glistening constetions surround her, some pulsing with power, others shattering into scattered remnants. She feels her connection with the mana around her deepening, and two conflicting senses of control and helplessness fill her at the same time. The vision fades as her ascension enters its final phase. The pain slowly starts to diminish as her cortex settles, and the vortex around her heart solidifies into a rotating circle of pure mana. The two link their cycles again, sending a wave of relief and pleasure through her body. The mana around her settles, and the lightning fades, leaving her sitting on the floor with her eyes shut, twitching as she limates to the changes in her body. That was intense. She stretches her fingers and slowly moves her arms, feeling a deeper connection with her body and a finer control over her movements. The energy saturating her body feels far more powerful than before as if it¡¯s undergone a qualitative change in density and purity at the same time. Opening her eyes, she grins at the changes, about to look at her system¡¯s notifications. I think I could get addicted to this. Then she freezes as she notices the oddity of two perfectly synced voices in her head. Why am I thinking double? Taking a deep breath to prevent herself from panicking, she closes her eyes again and gathers her focus on her cortex. Watching tiny streams of machina run through folds of organic matter, an instinctual understanding of her current state quicklyes to her. Disable internal monologue of core two. Set core two to assistive processing. Opening her eyes again, she looks at the system windows before her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congrattions! Ascension sessful. [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 16 [Magic Circle:] First > Second Circle [Machina Cortex:] First > Second Stage [Attributes:] Strength 8 > 12, Dexterity 19 > 32, Agility 16 > 25, Vitality 8 > 13, Intelligence 35 > 54 [Health:] 190/190 [Stamina:] 315/315 [Mana:] 3240/3240 [Machina:] 3240/3240 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sub-system updated: Progression [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Second Requirements: -Intelligence 54/75 (Not Complete) -Create 1/5 unique E rank machines (Not Complete) -Learn internal casting (Not Complete) -Create 0/3 second circle spells (Not Complete) -y 0/1 third circle beast (Not Complete) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hidden-Questpleted: Ahead of the Times [Ahead of the Times] [Rank:] E [Description:] Ascend to the second circle significantly faster than the norm on your. Requirements: -Ascend within three months of awakening (Complete) Rewards: -Sub-System: Notebook _____ Woah, that¡¯s a lot of stats. And a new sub-system? Navigating her system, she quickly pulls up the new notebook tab. The window shimmers and turns a darker shade of blue, bing slightly harder to see through, as a nk spacebelled ¡®Notebook¡¯ appears. Well, that¡¯s disappointing. At least I can move my important notes out of my notebook and remove the security devices from my room. A new thought urs to her. Actually, since this is part of the system it shouldn¡¯t reset with time-travel, right? I take it back ¨C not disappointing at all. Taking onest breath of the dense mana in the gathering array, Emily stands up to disable it. As she rises, she feels an odd dissonance between her perception and her body. Frowning, she reaches for her breast pocket to check The Clock. Staring at the timepiece¡¯s face, she watches the seconds hand tick and quickly realises the issue. My perception of time is off. I¡¯m processing things too quickly, so it feels like time is moving at half-speed. Assistive processing off. The moment she sends the mentalmand, the strange feeling disappears, and her perception returns to normal. That will surely be helpful in the future. With a slight skip in her step, she quickly moves to the internal control panel in the training room and disables the gathering array. She watches her point count on her crest decrease to ¡®84¡¯ with sadness, confirming her resolve toplete a mission soon. Before I leave, I should check for any extra information the system will give me after my ascension. I still have ten minutes till Jules should be back from her trip to Threads. Why don¡¯t I test what this second core can do? Core two, search the system for any post-ascension changes. Less than a secondter, she feels a smooth flow of information transfer between her cores. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Machina Cortex] The mechanic¡¯s power organ. A mechanic''s brain, optimised andpartmentalised by machina, that disys a mechanic¡¯s stage of development. Generates [Machina] and allows a mechanic a connection to machines around them. Split into two [Cores]. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Cores] Each core that forms a mechanic¡¯s cortex is an individual processing unit, capable of performing billions of microprocesses per second. Each core carries a number of [Threads], equal to the number of cores currently formed. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Threads] Individual parallel processes a core can use at once. _____ Each core should have two threads then. Wait, does that mean I can do perfect silent casting now? Excitedly, Emily raises her hands in front of her and begins trying to form the mental image and magic circle of burning hands at the same time. Unlike her failed past attempts, a glowing orange and white magic circle forms above her hands and soon begins to rotate, fading away as a sheen of mes appears across her palms. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Perfect Silent Casting (passive) [Perfect Silent Casting (passive)] User can proficiently form a mental image and magic circle simultaneously. -Grants +10% casting speed when casting spells mentally. _____ I guess gesture casting is kind of obsolete now. Wait, is it? She tries silent casting again, this time while trying to perform a few basic martial forms Agnes taught her and finds herself tripping over her feet as her focus falters. The spell still forms, but much weaker than before. She tries it again, this time while weaving together gestures and trying to form a mental image, she finds herself able to perfectly follow her forms while casting the spell. ¡°So, one of core one¡¯s threads is handling the mental image, and the other is handling body movements which includes the gestures,¡± she mumbles to herself while cutting off the mana flow to her hands, ending her spell early. Gestures still have their uses then. Now to test out multicasting. With a grin, she stands still and lifts her hands in front of her, palms facing away. Core two cast air st. After giving themand, she quickly silent casts burning hands, watching the two magic circles form on top of each other. The constructs of mana meet but never join, and as they both start rotating, ayer of fire forms on her hands before being shot forward a few metres. Her eyes light up with joy and expectation. ¡°I can double cast! And it also looks like I can mix spells in the process.¡± She proceeds to test mixing gesture casting and silent casting, managing to perfectly cast two spells while following her martial forms. With a grin, she moves on to mixing spells, finding a few intriguingbinations that she adds to a mental list for further investigation. After finishing her tests, she checks her mana pool. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 2916/3240 _____ I can cast so many spells now, but double-casting so many first-circle spells at the same time still adds up. Happy with the results, she starts to leave while pulling out The Clock. Seeing twenty minutes have passed since she was meant to meet Juliana, she freezes on the spot, a chill running down her spine. Shit, I got too engrossed in my testing. Actually, how would The Clock react to my ascension? If I reset, will I keep the skills I¡¯ve gained since? I guess so because skills seemed to transfer with me¡­ Only one way to find out. With a choice made for the sake of research, and definitely not just to avoid upsetting her girlfriend, Emily presses the button on The Clock, watching as time slows to a halt. As time winds back, she feels more than she ever has before, yet still fails to glean any information from the gap between time. Instead of a sudden jump to twenty-four hours prior, she finds herself shifted to the centre of the gathering array, having just finished her ascension. I see, I guess my ascension marks a point of no return. I¡¯ll have to make sure I¡¯m careful when I progress in the future, I couldn¡¯t bear getting stuck in another inescapable situation. Emily shivers slightly at the thought while standing up. Checking the clock again as she deactivates and pays for the array, she confirms she still has ten minutes till Juliana returns. ¡°Better take no chances this time,¡± she mutters, leaving the training room to make her way back to the dorms. Chapter 40 – The Invitation Chapter 40 ¨C The Invitation As she makes her way through the hallway back to her dorm, Emily is bothered by the nagging feeling that she is wasting her second core. It seems kind of counterproductive to have an entire second consciousness that I¡¯m just not using most of the time. Do I have any calctions or mental simtions I need to do? Maybe designing some blueprints? She arrives at her dorm as the ideas spin through her mind, opens the door and copses onto her bed. Staring at the ceiling, the feeling only grows until she has had enough. Urgh, maybe I should meditate to clear my head. Wait, that¡¯s it! The gears fall into ce in her mind, and she sits up before sending amand to her second core to activate Technomancer¡¯s Breath. Immediately, her breathing falls into a regr pattern and she feels a slight fluctuation in the atmospheric mana around her as it is drawn into her skin. Looking inward, she sees her energies mixing and converting smoothly, following the usual process of Technomancer¡¯s Breath. She moves to stand up and walks around her room, feeling the energy-gathering technique continue in the background. Jackpot! It doesn¡¯t feel as effective as focusing on itpletely and falling into a trance, but I¡¯ll still be improving my stats without any visible signs. She freezes as an idea forms. Wait, can I send one core to sleep while keeping the other awake to avoid sleeping? She adds that test to her mental list forter as she hears a familiar three-beat knock. Opening the door with bubbling excitement, she shes a proud smile at Juliana the second she sees her. ¡°I did it!¡± she deres proudly. Juliana¡¯s face lights up in understanding and she quickly steps forward, wrapping Emily in a tight hug. ¡°Congrattions!¡± The excitement in her voice almost matches Emily¡¯s, and after holding the embrace for a few moments, she pulls back slightly and nts a soft kiss on Emily¡¯s lips. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you progressed so quickly. Actually, that¡¯s a lie: I totally can!¡± she says with a light giggle, causing Emily to roll her eyes. They separate as Emily pulls Juliana into the privacy of her room. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just have to try harder to surprise you then,¡± Emily says with a cheeky grin. ¡°Oh Goddess, what have you done now?¡± Juliana asks while settling on Emily¡¯s bed and waiting for her to continue. ¡°To start, close your eyes and focus on the mana in the room. Tell me if you notice anything strange.¡± Juliana follows her instructions, and after a dozen seconds, she lets out a small gasp. ¡°How are you doing that? You¡¯re moving around while gathering mana.¡± ¡°Yep! I¡¯ve managed to work out how to use my internal energy movement technique passively,¡± Emily beams with pride. Juliana opens her eyes and looks at Emily with her signature puppy dog eyes. ¡°Can you teach me?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible. Sorry.¡± Emily¡¯s heart aches as she watches Juliana¡¯s excitement turn to disappointment. ¡°It¡¯s using the ability to perfectly multitask that I¡¯ve been practising. I was just learning it for silent casting, but I realised if I split my focus, I could reproduce the internal energy movement needed for my meditation technique while moving. It¡¯s not perfect and not as good as in meditation though.¡± ¡°Wait, does that mean?¡± ¡°Yep, I can silent cast now!¡± Emily holds out her hand and casts iron de, a small glistening silver knife silently forms in the centre of a magic circle and falls into her hand. Juliana ps lightly before asking a follow-up question. ¡°If you learned to multitask through practice, doesn¡¯t that mean I could too?¡± ¡°Maybe. I think it may be something that some people just can or can¡¯t do, but we can definitely try.¡± *** An hourter, they head to the cafeteria to meet their friends for dinner. They see Tom, Hester, and Ivor, a vassal of Juliana¡¯s family and their senior at The Covenant, sitting at a table waiting for them. Ivor is a second circle mage who has joined them for meals since returning from a trip back to Madonna territory to see his family. He and Emily have be close. He is mute, onlymunicating through signnguage, having lost his ability to speak following a childhood injury. The tall, stocky boy immediately focuses on Emily as they approach, raising a silent questioning brow as she sits down. Emily signs to him quickly and he smiles, reaching out and patting her on the shoulder lightly before turning back to the food in front of him. ¡°What did you say?¡± Tom asks quickly. ¡°You should learn to sign,¡± Emily tells him. ¡°Easy for you to say. Most of us can¡¯t learn a newnguage in a night.¡± ¡°You could learn some words in a night.¡± ¡°Just tell me what you said,¡± Tom persists. ¡°Oh, just that I reached second circle,¡± Emily responds casually, struggling to suppress a smug grin. ¡°Huh, I thought it might be something impressive.¡± Tom sulks as he casually orders his dinner, before doubling over in pain as Hester delivers a swift kick to his shins. ¡°Congrattions,¡± she says, not sparing her brother a nce. Emily and Julianaugh at Tom as he sits back up and congrattes Emily properly. ¡°You know, my offer still stands,¡± Emilyments with a sly grin. ¡°No!¡± Tom exims. ¡°If you make me shin pads, you¡¯ll make her steel-capped boots and then she¡¯ll go for my knees!¡± ¡°I would,¡± Hester agrees, sending Emily and Juliana into aughing fit. Even Ivor¡¯s shoulders silently shaking up and down. Their conversation moves on after Emily and Juliana order their food and begin to eat. ¡°Have you picked up any second circle spells yet?¡± Hester asks curiously. ¡°Or made any?¡± Tom adds quietly. ¡°No, I¡¯m running low on points and don¡¯t think I will be able to afford any right now. I¡¯m thinking of heading to the hub after this to look at picking up a mission first.¡± ¡°Oh! Guard duty on trains is pretty good if you manage to snag it before someone else. It pays rtively well and is apparently very easy,¡± Juliana jumps in. ¡°Maybe, I¡¯ll see what¡¯s avable.¡± Making small talk, their meal passes quickly, and soon Emily is standing up to leave for the hub. After giving Juliana a goodbye hug and agreeing to meet upter, she¡¯s about to walk away when she feels a light tap on her arm. Turning her head, she sees Ivor looking at her, a silent question on his face. ¡°Sure,e along big guy.¡± Waving goodbye to their friends, the two of them enter a transportation room together. ¡°Why¡¯d you want toe? You looking for a mission too?¡± He nods and quickly begins signing. ¡°Yeah, I need to gather some more alchemical reagents, so I either need to earn points or head into The de.¡± ¡°Got it. I should be joining you soon in Alchemy by the way. I finished memorising the beastpendiums Mr Eleocharis gave me so I should ace the test next lesson.¡± Ivor looks at her aghast while signing a frantic message as they walk towards the mission board. ¡°Already?! There were like ten books there. Your mind freaks me out.¡± ¡°Haha, thanks big guy, I¡¯ll take it as apliment.¡± ¡°I wish you wouldn¡¯t call me that,¡± he objects. ¡°Aww but why? You¡¯re so big and cuddly!¡± she says with a grin, throwing an arm around his shoulder. ¡°If you really don¡¯t like it though, I will stop. I don¡¯t wanna be an ass.¡± He shakes his head lightly with a small blush. The big guy¡¯s too shy to admit he likes it. As sheughs to herself internally, she hears a familiar voice calling to her from behind. ¡°Emily!¡± She releases Ivor and turns around to face Oscar. He¡¯s surrounded by his group of friends, three boys and two girls with silver crests. Following them meekly are five bronze-crested boys and five girls, all their crests matching one of the members of Oscar¡¯s main group. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± Oscar asks ncing between her and Ivor with a teasing grin. ¡°A friend? A boyfriend?¡± Emily rolls her eyes at his jab. ¡°If you want me to knee you in the chin, you could just ask. You know I have a girlfriend.¡± Oscar chuckles. However, a few members of his group shoot her disgusted sneers. Ignoring them, she asks Oscar a question. ¡°Why are you with so many people?¡± ¡°We¡¯re here to register a small expedition into The de. The real question is, why are you here? As far as I¡¯m aware, you haven¡¯t taken a single mission since joining. What changed?¡± ¡°I reached second circle, but I¡¯m too broke to buy any spells so I decided it was about time I started earning points.¡± Oscar¡¯s face lights up with excitement at her answer and his friends stare at her with shock. ¡°Well done! I knew you were good but reaching second circle in three months is incredible. Do you want to join us on our expedition? I¡¯ll give you a spell as a sign-up bonus if you do.¡± Emily raises a brow cautiously at his overly generous offer. ¡°Why are you so keen to get me to join? Will I still get a split at the end or is the spell my full payment?¡± ¡°Why am I so keen?¡± Oscar asks with a small grin. ¡°Emily you were my equal in hand-to-handbat when you got here, and in thest two months, you¡¯ve developed so much that I can¡¯t hope to best you. Also, you¡¯re a magical prodigy, managing eight perfect manifestations on your first try and reaching second circle within three months. If I didn¡¯t show at least this much sincerity when asking for your help, I¡¯d bring shame to my household.¡± Emily freezes and blushes slightly at his answer. She nces over at Ivor as he starts signing to her. ¡°You trust him?¡± ¡°Him, kind of,¡± she signs back, unwilling to admit her distrust of Oscar to his face. ¡°His friends, not at all.¡± ¡°I¡¯lle too. I can get what I want from The de anyway.¡± Emily nods at him gratefully before returning her focus to Oscar who watches them with intrigue. ¡°You know signnguage?¡± ¡°I picked it up to talk to Ivor. It¡¯s good practice for gesture casting too.¡± Oscar nods thoughtfully while muttering to himself: ¡°Maybe I should learn.¡± ¡°Anyway,¡± Emily says, pulling the conversation back on track. ¡°I¡¯d be happy to join you if Ivor cane too. He¡¯s also second circle and needs to collect materials from The de for his Alchemy studies.¡± ¡°Of course, the more the merrier,¡± Oscar says with a wide smile, presenting his hand. Emily shakes it before gesturing to the mission board with her head. ¡°So how do you sign up for an expedition?¡± ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t need to use the mission board for it. I only came over here because I noticed you and was curious. Come with me, I¡¯ll show you now.¡± He guides Emily and his group over to one of the counters and informs the clerk that he would like to register an expedition into The de. The clerk asks him a few cursory questions about how deep they n on going, their goals for the expedition, and how long they n on staying, before getting every participant to add their mana signature to the application. With Oscar now registered as the expedition leader, they move to a clear space in the room to continue their discussion. ¡°The application should be approved within two weeks, and we n on setting off in two months. In the meantime, I¡¯d advise you to register for magicalbat sses. They¡¯ll help you understand how we¡¯ll be doing the majority of our fighting. Then in a month, I¡¯ll arrange some practicebat as a group. Other than that, you don¡¯t have to worry about anything other than your own equipment. I¡¯ll organise the supplies and travel; you just need to show up.¡± ¡°Got it, I was going to sign up for magicbat sooner, but some of my friends told me the basic course was just practising casting quickly and under pressure, so I thought it would be obsolete for me.¡± ¡°You should never underestimate how important it is to be able to keep your head in a tense situation. Though, from what Jeremy and Kyle have said, it sounds like you¡¯refortable with casting spells mid-fight,¡± he says with a sly grin. ¡°Anyway, what type of spell would you like? Let me know now and I¡¯ll get it to you in a few days.¡± Emily considers for a moment. I¡¯ve already had sess with creating a first circle attack spell, and I have plenty of first circle spells I canbine to fight with. Maybe I should get something for defence? ¡°Can you give me a defence spell?¡± ¡°A great choice! Of course I can. What element?¡± ¡°Surprise me. You seem to know my affinities well,¡± Emily says with a smirk. Oscar coughs and looks away awkwardly. ¡°It¡¯s only normal to keep track of promising new allies,¡± he says quickly, only making Emily¡¯s smirk grow. ¡°Oh, also as for profit, all spoils will be collected at the end of the expedition and divided between all surviving members. If you don¡¯t want any of the items we collect, there is also the choice of leaving them with me and I¡¯ll pay you the equivalent in points.¡± Emily nces at Ivor: seeing him nod in agreement, she agrees to Oscar¡¯s n. ¡°Sure, sounds good to us. See you around.¡± Giving Oscar a wave goodbye and ignoring the group of nobles surrounding them, Emily and Ivor leave towards the transportation rooms. ¡°Thanks for speaking up back there and offering toe with. I know you don¡¯t like signing in front of others,¡± Emily says, giving Ivor¡¯s shoulder an appreciative squeeze. ¡°It¡¯s okay, J wouldn¡¯t let me hear the end of it if I let you go alone.¡± ¡°Haha, yeah she probably wouldn¡¯t.¡± Chapter 41 – Flammable Preparations Chapter 41 ¨C mmable Preparations Emily returns to the dorms and spends the rest of her evening rxing with Juliana and filling her in on the nned expedition. The next morning after breakfast, she sits at her desk ready to start her preparations. Reaching around the back of the desk, she pushes in a small loose panel. After hearing a light click, she moves to the front, pulling a key out of her robes and inserting it into the keyhole on the bottom right drawer. Twisting it sets off a series of clicks and thuds, and after waiting for five seconds, the sounds stop and she opens the drawer. It slides open to reveal her notebook, surrounded by a series of mechanisms and a fewpartments: one filled with ck powder; another with powdered fire crystals; and thest with a rough mix of the two. Emily smiles with satisfaction as she admires the booby trap she set up to protect her ideas after Kyle attacked her for the ws. The fight made her realise it was a bad idea to carry around a notebook containing all her ideas, not to mention a more advanced knowledge of physics than anyone else seems to have. Guess I¡¯ll never get to find out how big the explosion would be. I wonder if it would have vapourised the desk or my entire room. Since she has acquired all her knowledge about raw powdered crystals from textbooks and talking to Ivor so far, she doesn¡¯t have an urate guess of the power of her makeshift bomb yet. Closing the drawer carefully on the explosives, unwilling to test such a dangerous mix herself in the small room, she lifts the notebook out and ces it on the desk before opening her system, navigating to the new nk sub-system. How do I write in this? Maybe through focusing on it and thinking about what I want to write? This would be a lot easier if I could physically interact with the system. Lifting her hand and swiping through the window with irritation at that thought, she is pleasantly surprised when the window moves with it. ¡°I can touch this one?!¡± she excitedly cries out. Grabbing the corner of the window to confirm, Emily tries moving the window randomly and finds it responds to her touch. She can¡¯t feel anything, the window remaining a projection within her mind, but the fact that she can physically interact with it at all intrigues her. Now if only I had some way of changing its size and shape. The moment the thought urs, the window freezes in space and, as her hand keeps pulling the corner, it stretches. It responds to my thoughts? Of course, the rest of the system does too, so why am I surprised? Grinning, she sets about testing the usability of her new ethereal notebook. Through a mixture of thoughts and gestures, she finds herself able to easily manipte the window. By resizing and duplicating the window, and creating folders for different notes, she forms the sub-system into a virtual suite for notetaking, spell notation, and blueprint design. She¡¯s even able to ovey the virtual notebook on top of her physical notebook to write into both at the same time. With the ability to instantly copy down anything she sees and add to the notes with a simple mentalmand, the plethora of features leaves herpletely satisfied with the new addition to her system. After setting up the notebook to her liking, she copies all her current physical notes into a folder, then rips them all out and burns them to a crisp with a quick cast of burning hands. For the sake offort, she quickly machines a piece of iron into a small pen that perfectly fits her hand. Testing it, she oveys a virtual page on her notebook and starts writing with the iron pen. Words appear on the virtual page and she gets the feeling of writing normally, but the actual notebook remains nk. Perfect! Now I can take notes normally if I want and no one will be able to see them. Pleased with her new toy, she clears the page and begins nning. ¡°What do I need for this trip?¡± Tapping her chin with her pen, she starts considering the destination. ¡°I probably want some more equipment, maybe I can use this as a chance to make some of the E rank machines for my progression.¡± cing the pen to the page, she starts writing a few ideas down. Boots? Armour? Explosives? -Bright light for disorientation, was effective against people Ranged weapon? Second circle attack spells Better detection methods for in dense foliage -Thermal vision? Spell or machine? Method to remain guarded against Oscar¡¯s friends at night? cing the pen down, she stares at the list thoughtfully. This is all I can think of for now, maybe I¡¯ll ask Jules for other ideaster. She grabs the note off the page, cing it in the air before her and splitting each line to form new notes within a folderbelled ¡®Expedition Prep¡¯. Picking randomly, she selects explosives to develop first. I can either go purely magical with fire crystal powder, purely physical with ck powder or stay with a mix of both. First, though, I should probably test the potency of each to see what I¡¯m working with. She fishes out a few small pouches from one of her drawers and goes through the process of safely opening her security drawer again. She fills the pouches with the assortments of powders before closing the drawer, tying the pouches to her trousers belt loops, and moving to her workshop area. Grabbing a few small empty metal cans, cloth rags, and pure alcohol, she leaves her room to head towards the training rooms. On the way out she runs into Juliana in the corridor, returning from her morning lesson. ¡°Hey Emi,¡± Juliana chirps, pulling Emily into a hug. ¡°Where are you off to?¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting my prep for the expedition with a bang, I¡¯m going to the training rooms to test explosives.¡± ¡°Haha very funny,¡± Juliana responds dryly. ¡°What about starting with something to prevent yourself from getting killed?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s on my list,¡± Emily says with a grin, already confident in The Clock¡¯s ability to keep her alive. ¡°Do you have any other suggestions though? I¡¯ve got defence, offence, and detection on my list already.¡± Juliana pauses to think for a few seconds. Emily watches her face scrunch up cutely as she does, resisting the urge to pinch her cheeks. ¡°Have you thought about cleaning? You said you were nning on staying for up to a month, right? I can¡¯t imagine going that long without a shower,¡± Juliana finally says with a shiver. ¡°Good idea!¡± Emily smiles, adding ¡®cleaning¡¯ to her notes. ¡°Thanks, Jules.¡± Giving Juliana a quick kiss, Emily starts walking away backwards. ¡°I¡¯ll see youter. Let me know if that cute little head of yourses up with anything in the meantime.¡± Juliana sticks out her tongue in response, though it doesn¡¯t stop Emily from noticing the slight blush on her cheeks. With a small skip in her step, Emily makes her way to the training rooms only for her mood toe crashing down when she finds them all upied. ¡°Damn it, I¡¯ll have toe backter.¡± Grumpily she turns around to leave, but as she exits the B-grade training room hall, she bumps into an unexpected face. ¡°What¡¯s got you upset? Did your training not go well?¡± Oscar asks cheerily. ¡°No,¡± Emily says with a sigh. ¡°I wanted to test some stuff but the training rooms are full, so I have toe backter.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Oscar¡¯s grin grows. ¡°I just so happen to have a spell here with your name on it and I¡¯m on my way to a training room now. Would you like to join me and do your testing there?¡± He touches his delicate ne, suddenly producing a full-sized scroll and offering it to Emily, who is more interested in where it came from. She quickly scans Oscar¡¯s jewellery with her system. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Dimensional Storage Ne] [Rank:] D [Description:] A finely crafted ne holding a lesser space crystal engraved with a simple storage spell. [Effect:] Creates a one-metre cubed pocket dimension, essible through the holder¡¯s will. _____ I want one of those. She reaches out and takes the spell scroll without noticeable dy, thanks to her mental processing speed, and tucks it into her pocket forter. ¡°Wait, do you mean to say that you can bring other people into your training room?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have offered if I couldn¡¯t. So, you interested?¡± Emily stares at the proud noble as she considers. Should I do my explosives testing in front of him? I don¡¯t want it to be public knowledge that I¡¯m the one making my weapons since the Mandragos may hear and ask for some too¡­ But he¡¯s shown distaste for them before, so I don¡¯t think they¡¯re allies. Maybe I could sell him some creations in return for money and contribution points. I¡¯d have to swear him to secrecy; let other people think I gave up my source? Can I trust him? It would be a good way to gather money¡­ ¡°Sure, but only if you can keep a secret,¡± she says deciding to rewind this day if it goes poorly. ¡°Of course, I swear on the Salvia name that nothing I see henceforth shall be spoken of to a living soul,¡± he says dramatically, cing his hand on the family crest resting above his heart. Emily rolls her eyes. I wonder if his inted noble pride actually means anything. ¡°Come on then, lead the way.¡± He smiles and obliges, leading her to a nearby door, deeper into the corridor than the B-grade rooms. Stepping through a phasing door, they find themselves in a long, grand hallway, with high ceilings and a plush red carpet. ¡°How do they even fit this stuff into The Dome?¡± Emily mutters in disbelief. Oscar looks at her with a brow raised. ¡°You don¡¯t know? The Dome itself is only a fraction of the facilities. The rest of The Isle is an undergroundplex spanning most of the city.¡± Emily opens her eyes wide in realisation. Of course! Why wouldn¡¯t they spread under the city when even the ck market does? ¡°Oh. I¡¯m honestly slightly embarrassed I didn¡¯t work that out,¡± she says sheepishly. Oscar chuckles lightly and continues guiding her down the hallway. After a few hundred metres and only a couple of doors, they reach a door with ¡®Salvia Family¡¯ boldly embossed in the centre. ¡°Here we are,e on in.¡± The door vanishes as Oscar approaches, allowing both of them to pass into a cavernous space. Unlike the dull white void that makes up the B-grade rooms, the room that greets them has smooth patterned stone flooring. Surrounding them arerge stone pirs stretching up to the high ceilings above. Hanging from the ceiling are severalrge chandeliers coated with glowing dots of bright warm light. ¡°Fancy!¡± Emily mutters with a small, impressed whistle as she looks around. ¡°Really? It¡¯s quite empty right now,¡± Oscarments with a sly grin, clearly enjoying showing off. ¡°Ha, yeah, it¡¯s empty,¡± she says with a dramatic eye roll. ¡°But it¡¯s ten times the size of the B-grade rooms. They really spoil you, don¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Indeed, they do. The A-grade rooms are directly sponsored by the family that owns them. My family paid an exorbitant amount of resources to have this room so it better have enough space and features to make it worth it. Now, go ahead and test what you want to, I¡¯m curious now that you¡¯ve made me swear secrecy.¡± Emily nods, walks into an open space between the pirs, and crouches down. Pulling the first pouch from her waist, she opens it and pours a small palmful of pure fire crystal powder. cing the powder on the floor, she walks back twenty metres and calls Oscar to her side. ¡°Stay back, I¡¯m not sure how vtile this will be.¡± Pointing a finger at the powder, she quickly double-casts air st and burning hands, focusing both spells on just the tip of her finger. A small orange and white spark forms and quickly flies out, soaring through the air andnding in the centre of the mass of powder. Instantly, the powder reacts to the mana and explodes, releasing a searing wave of heat. ¡°What was that?¡± Oscar asks her. Ignoring himpletely, Emily quickly walks over to view the aftereffects of her test. Upon closer inspection, she finds the floor cracked at the epicentre and only lightly scorched towards the edges of a three-metre radius. Adding the results to her notes, she moves to another empty spot and measures out a palmful of ck powder. Returning to a safe distance, she repeats the process of firing a small spark at the pile and watching for the results. Instead of an explosion, the pile simply ignites and violently burns for a few seconds before going out. Grinning, Emily pours out a handful of the powder mix, already predicting the results. This time, the moment the spark hits the pile, it explodes in a fireball, flinging burning powder out and scorching everything within five metres. Noting the results again, she ces three metal cans on the floor and pours the same amounts of the powders into each. Taking a cloth rag, she sends a spark of machina into a w, activating the magic crystals embedded and shooting the de to full extension. ¡°Do you always wear those?¡± Oscar asks, surprised. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Oscar thinks for a moment then nods. Emily uses the de to slice up the cloth and dips each strip into alcohol beforeying them over the lip of each can, ensuring they touch the top of the powder mixture within. With another small spark of machina, the w¡¯s de vanishes back into its housing. Closing the cans¡¯ lids, she uses burning hands to weld the cans shut other than a tiny gap for oxygen to reach the rags within. Smiling at her prototypes, she looks up to see Oscar staring at her in awe. ¡°You made your weapons yourself, didn¡¯t you?¡± Chapter 42 – Arms Dealer Chapter 42 ¨C Arms Dealer ¡°Yep! I was a mechanic before I was a mage and I don¡¯t intend to stop now,¡± Emily says proudly, gauging Oscar¡¯s reaction as she does. He nods thoughtfully, pausing for a moment before asking: ¡°Why would you reveal this to me? The state you left Jeremy and Kyle in suggests you would rather not tell others.¡± ¡°For one, you didn¡¯te and threaten me to find out. Also, your reaction to seeing my talent was to try and entice me with benefits, which interests me. I¡¯m in need of money and contribution points to keep my studies and crafting going, for that I¡¯m willing to sell some of my creations and you seem like the best choice for that.¡± Her answer brings a smile to his face as he considers her implied offer. ¡°I see, so you want to sell items to me but have it remain secret that you were my source. You¡¯ll gain resources and get rid of some unwanted attention because people will believe I know the source of these new weapons too.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Emily responds with a smirk while walking away to set up her makeshift explosives. cing the can containing fire crystal powder down next to a pir, she looks back to Oscar. ¡°Get behind a pir. If this works as intended, it will be a lot more dangerous than before.¡± He nods and quickly ducks behind the closest pir. Seeing this, Emily does the same and peeks out, pointing at the cloth fuse with a finger and casting her spell. After the cloth catches alight, she quickly ducks back and listens for the detonation. A few secondster, she hears a loud pop. Looking around the pir, she finds the can broken apart in molten shards that are spread a few metres around the point of detonation. Disappointing, it seems to have just melted the can, not built-up pressure. Frowning, she moves on and ces the can with just ck powder on the other side of the same pir. Lighting it with low expectations, she sits with her back to the stone and waits. This time, she hears a loud bang and sees several shards of metal fly past her, bouncing off the surrounding pirs and even embedding in a few ces. That¡¯s better. With a grin, she moves around to inspect the can¡¯s remains and finds the base of the can scorched and cracked but mostly intact, with the walls blown apart. Make the final product round. She adds to her notes and starts cing down the third can as Oscar approaches. ¡°If you¡¯re willing, I would like to buy whatever you¡¯re making from these tests. That was simr to the military¡¯s hand grenades, but I feel mana from it! It will definitely be helpful against low-level beasts.¡± Emily nods. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll need a few days to refine them though, then I¡¯ll show you some of the finished products. Now, on to thest few tests.¡± She ces down the mixed can with high expectations, moving to the other side of the pir again with Oscar following her. Igniting the fuse, she waits with bated breath. Another bang rings out, and she sees several pieces of molten metal fly past. Moving out to inspect the wreckage, she notes that the metal didn¡¯t travel as far as with pure ck powder, and several pieces were heated so much they just sttered against the floor. However, each piece still contains a small trace of fire element mana. Perfect, all I need to do is tweak the ratios a bit and I¡¯ll have a magical explosion in a can! Maybe I can test mixing in different metal powders to see if they affect it? And switching out the fire powder for light should achieve the sh I want. Satisfied with her tests, for now, she stands up and turns to Oscar. ¡°That was all I wanted to test today. I¡¯lle knock on your door once I have some finished products to sell.¡± ¡°Sure, I look forward to it.¡± *** Back in her room, Emily puts aside her weapon tests for a moment to pull out her new spell scroll. Unfurling the parchment, she¡¯s met with a magic circle far moreplicated than any she has seen before. Wow, that¡¯s a pretty big difficulty jump from first circle spells. With a slight frown, she sets about memorising theplicated twisting of shapes and runes on the page before her. After a few minutes of focus, the spell is safely tucked away into the storage within her mind and a system message appears to confirm her efforts. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Wind Barrier [Wind Barrier] [Circle:] Second [Cost:] 20 Mana/second [Description:] Summon a dome of wind to protect the caster. _____ She stands up and moves to sit in the centre of her bed, the only spot in the room with enough space around it to cast the spell without interfering with loose materials and tools. Closing her eyes, she pictures a twisting dome of sharp gusts on one thread as theplex magic circle is formed by another. Pale green runes fill the air around her as arching lines of mana trace the space in aplex three-dimensional weave. Finishing the spell after a dozen seconds of focus, the runes and shapese to life, twisting around each other and joining smoothly to form a nearly imperceptible barrier of shimmering wind around her. Emily reaches out to touch the barrier and finds her hand easily able to pass through it with no resistance. To test, she quickly grabs a pillow beside her and tosses it across the room. Good, it doesn¡¯t impede anything leaving the barrier. With a satisfied nod, she cuts off the spell¡¯s mana supply and watches the winds dissipate. I¡¯ll have to do some other testster to work out how well it deflects spells and projectiles. Moving back to her desk, she files away the spell for further testingter and returns to her explosive creations. Now, let¡¯s try making a few powder mixes to test. I want to use as little crystal powder as possible in each to save contribution point cost... *** After passing the rest of the day with experiments and prototyping, Emily sits on her bed ready to perform one final test. Time to see if this will really work. Core two enable internal monologue. Core one sleep. Instantly, she feels a strange ufortable buzzing in her mind as something changes. The feeling disappears after a few seconds and she¡¯s left sitting on her bed without feeling much different. Looking inward, she finds half of her cortex lying dormant. Perfect! My primary consciousness smoothly switched cores and I can still function fine with only one. Pleased with her test¡¯s sess, she settles into meditation to pass the time till her offline core is fully rested. Six hourster, Emily is pulled out of her meditation by a light buzzing. It looks like six hours are needed to fully rest one core. Core two sleep. That¡¯s a little annoying, I¡¯ll need to go for a few hours where everyone¡¯s awake with only one core. It may be a little dangerous to walk around The de while not at full performance, but I can always rewind if we hit trouble. With a light shrug, she gets up to continue working on her other preparations before breakfast, happy to have ticked off one of the items on her list already. *** A few dayster, Emily takes a morning trip alone into the depths of the city. Exiting the train at the furthest eastern station she can, she steps into the quiet station with barely any people around. Taking the almost empty elevator down tenyers, she steps out onto the ground-level streets and pulls her hood down over her face. She quickly walks away from the station, not making eye contact with the groups of vagrants gathered on street corners, nor the people in rags begging for change. She frowns as she looks at the wretched state of the city¡¯s less fortunate dwellings; the buildings falling apart yet still in a better state than those outside Eimdon¡¯s walls. After walking along the quiet streets for half an hour, winding further into the depths of the slums, she ducks into a side street and approaches a heavy wrought iron door. Raising her hand, she ms it against the metal in a rhythmic beat. Four fast taps. A three-second pause. Two beats. Half a second pause. Two beats. A two-second pause. Three fast taps. Stepping away from the door after the final tap, she watches as a small peep-door slides open in the middle. ¡°The ck oak¡¯s roots spread far and wide,¡± a gruff voice on the other side of the door states clearly. ¡°The shade of its branches can¡¯t hide the rot within,¡± Emily answers quickly. The peep-door slides shut with a ng, and she hears a series of clicks and grinding gears before the door slowly slides inwards. She quickly steps forward, moving past the guard without a word and walking down the long flight of stairs that greets her. The passageway is narrow with low ceilings, and the walls around her are made of smooth ck bricks without any discerning features other than the torches fixed every few metres. Descending for a few minutes, the passage eventually opens up to reveal a vast hall, with bright burning lights hanging high above. Filling the room are several tented stalls and small buildings, with cloaked figures quietly ducking in and out of the entrances, careful not to draw any unwanted attention. Emily smoothly joins them, following a remembered path through the crowded alleys. She soon reaches a small building with guns and des proudly disyed in the windows. Stepping in through the threshold, she¡¯s met with a strong aroma of smoke and booze. She walks past the racks of weaponry and approaches the man slumped at the counter. ¡°Hello,¡± she calls lightly in an attempt to gain his attention. Receiving no response after a few seconds, she kicks the counter jolting the man awake. ¡°What?¡± he asks with obvious displeasure. I wouldn¡¯te here either if Ed had given me any other options for buying ck powder. Shame it¡¯s not legal to sell it in Machineworks. Keeping her own displeasure off her face, Emily responds in a neutral tone. ¡°I¡¯d like to buy a barrel of ck powder.¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you again,¡± he says with a creepy grin. ¡°Sure, give me thirty silver and I¡¯ll throw in some helpful information for free.¡± Emily frowns at his suggestion, his grin giving her a bad feeling. She silently produces thirty small silver coins from within her robes and drops them onto the counter. The man turns to a door behind him, unlocking it with a small key from his belt and walking in. A few momentster he returns with arge barrel held on his shoulder. Moving around the counter, he ces it down next to Emily. ¡°Before you leave the market, check out the tent of The Crystal Skull.¡± Emily listens to his cryptic advice as she easily picks up the barrel and begins to leave. ¡°I¡¯ll have a look.¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± he says with an unsettlingugh as she leaves. She starts wandering through the market looking around with a mixture of caution and curiosity. What on Ulea was that about? A crystal skull? I¡¯d rather not spend a second longer here than I have to. If I don¡¯t find it after one trip around, I¡¯m leaving. Slowly traversing the stuffy underground streets, Emily observes every tent she passes, looking for the so-called crystal skull. As she¡¯s about to give up, she spots an odd structure in the corner of her vision. Moving closer, she finds a white tent with ck embroidery above the entrance, showing a crystalline skull with a dagger through the top. ¡°I guess this is it,¡± she mutters to herself unsurely as she parts the entrance and steps in. As she enters the tent, she smells a strange, sweet scent that sends an ufortable chill up her spine. Sitting in the middle of the tent is a gentle-looking woman with long wavy brown hair and piercing green eyes. On the small table in front of her are several incense burners and a small collection of noble crests. Seeing the crests, the majority bronze with a few in silver, immediately sets warning sirens ring in her mind. ¡°Hello cutie, what would a young mage like yourself need from my little store?¡± thedy asks with a kind smile, her words confirming Emily¡¯s fears. ¡°What would an unawakened like yourself need with those crests?¡± Emily asks back while reaching up to take The Clock into her free hand. ¡°These little things?¡± thedy says, tilting her head like a fox watching its prey. ¡°Nothing much. They¡¯re just a few hunting trophies.¡± With a calm nod, Emily steps back through the tent¡¯s entrance and quickly moves towards one of the stairwells out of the market. That dick set me up. She reaches the base of a stairwell without issue and rushes up the narrow passage. Listening carefully as she climbs, she soon hears slightly off-beat steps echoing her own, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. As she reaches the top of the stairs, she finds the guard missing and the door locked shut. cing The Clock back into her pocket, she reaches out to cast a spell but finds her mana movement sluggish. With a frown, Emily shuts her eyes and looks inward, finding her mana flow hindered by the remnants of the incense from the tent. Sneaky bitch. She clicks her tongue as she floods her system with machina, burning out the contaminant. Opening her eyes after the momentary pause, she casts her spell, creating a magic circle with a mixture of burning orange and frigid pale blue that appears against the door¡¯s locks. The circle glows and rotates as the mechanisms inside the door momentarily glow scorching hot before being rapidly cooled back to room temperature. A harsh crack rings out before Emily slides the metal bar out of the way and pulls the door open without resistance. With the footsteps now loud and hurried, no longer trying to cover their advance, Emily quickly exits the stairwell and closes the door behind her. cing the barrel down off her shoulder, she raises both palms and quickly casts burning hands. She moves both hands to the edges of the door and melts the edge till it fuses shut. Good luck following me now. She grins in triumph as she picks up her barrel and runs off into the slums. Chapter 43 – Duel Chapter 43 ¨C Duel Stepping into an empty train booth, Emily ces her barrel on the floor in front of her and settles into her seat, finally rxing her guard a little. That was close, they almost caught up to me before I got the door open. Luckily my new spell worked wonders. She grins slightly as she pulls up the spell in the system and the notes from when she made it. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Thermal Shock] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 40 Mana/cast [Description:] Quickly change the temperature of an object in contact with the caster¡¯s hand between extreme heat and cold. _____ New spell, base: burning hands and sh freeze. -Take contact target runes from sh freeze, and blend effects. Alternate effects. Thermal shock: extreme changes in thermal stresses causes mechanical failure. -Change to channel instant of instance cast? Shattered a heavy mechanical lock. Little to no visual damage on the door. Hot then cold was better (door cool to touch afterwards). Shorten heating cycle slightly (reached temp 0.14s before cooling started). Finished adding to her notes about the spell, Emily sits back in her seat. Her smile vanishes as she contemtes the table of crests and what they mean. What did she mean by ¡®trophies¡¯? Are they killing The Covenant¡¯s mages? It must¡¯ve been going on for a while. Why haven¡¯t they warned us about danger in the city? And why did that prick arms dealer tell me to go to that tent? Is he working with them, or was he trying to warn me? It¡¯s got to be a pretty big operation if they removed the guards from all the market¡¯s exits just to get me, so maybe they are all in on it? With a frustrated sigh, Emily reaches up and rubs her brow. Whatever, I¡¯d better ask around in The Dome and I¡¯ll be extra careful next time I go back there. Worst case, I can just kill them all or reset and avoid them if that¡¯s not possible. Should I reset so they don¡¯t realise I know about them? I still need the ck powder, so I¡¯d have to go back anyway. Is it worth repeating yesterday¡¯s ss for? It was really boring. I don¡¯t really care that they know. If they attack me again I¡¯ll just kill them. *** That afternoon, Emily heads to a new ss with her friends. They arrive at the familiar training hall, except this time ¡®Basic Magic Combat¡¯ is written on the open door. They enter and find groups of first circle mages gathered, but no teacher. Walking to a free spot, Emily, Juliana, Tom, and Hester continue chatting as they wait for the teacher to show up. ¡°Is it okay for you to be in this ss? Shouldn¡¯t you be going to intermediate instead?¡± Tom voices the question on everyone¡¯s mind to Emily. ¡°I¡¯m going to ask if I can be moved up a ss as soon as possible,¡± Emily responds casually, not seeming worried about her chances. ¡°It¡¯s up to the teacher whether I can or not though, since I technically need to pass this to join the intermediate ss.¡± ¡°Good luck, Emi. I think that may be harder than you think,¡± Juliana says gloomily. ¡°Why? Is the teacher strict?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that Mr Campan¡¯s strict, but he is a nobility purist,¡± Hester answers for her with obvious disdain. ¡°Oh great.¡± Emily¡¯s heart drops just as the doors to the hall m shut. Looking over, she sees a tall man with short blonde hair and a well-groomed beard proudly walking into the centre of the hall. The room falls silent as he slowly casts his gaze around, looking for something in the crowd. The moment he makes eye contact with Emily, he calls out with a clear baritone voice. ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t themoner prodigy herself. Finally deigning to grace us with her presence.¡± She hears a few chuckles and nces towards them, seeing Jeremy and Kyle standing with a small group. However, they quickly avert their eyes the moment she looks at them. Cowards. ¡°I apologise, Mr Campan, I simply got too invested in my other studies and identally neglected your ss,¡± Emily quickly tries to feign humility, unwilling to be stuck in this ss due to the teacher¡¯s wounded pride. He scoffs at her half-hearted excuse. ¡°At least you know your ce. I assume you would like to be moved up to Intermediate Magic Combat as fast as possible?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°In that case let me give you a little test. Come stand in front of the ss.¡± He gestures for her to approach, and all the mages slowly form a circle around him. Emily obliges and walks into the centre, ignoring the gazes following her. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the basics. In a duel between mages, what are the two most important aspects that will decide victory or defeat?¡± ¡°Casting speed and elementalpatibility,¡± Emily quickly answers without pause. ¡°Yes.¡± Mr Campan nods with slight disappointment. Did he really think I wouldn¡¯t prepare for a quiz? ¡°Why is that so?¡± Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Emily exins clearly. ¡°The difference in casting speed will dictate who finishes a spell first and gets to go on the offensive. If the mage with a slower casting speed chooses to cast an attack spell, they will be at an immediate disadvantage for the rest of the fight, so it¡¯s sensible to first start with a defensive spell if you believe your opponent is faster than you. As for the mage¡¯s elements, there are naturally good and bad matchups. A water mage will struggle to break past an earth mage¡¯s defences but will find it easier to smother a fire mage¡¯s mes. This means that before the fight even starts one of the mages will already be at an advantage.¡± Though that won¡¯t mean much if you just approach someone and use physical attacks to interrupt their casting. ¡°Exactly! You seem to have at least read the textbooks for this ss. Now, why don¡¯t we test your casting speed? Pick any spell of your choice and start casting on my mark. Ready? Now!¡± he calls abruptly, barely giving her any time to prepare. Ignoring his obvious attempts to show her up, Emily raises her hands and quickly weaves together a set of hand signs. A glowing electric blue magic circle forms around her hands and begins rotating within three seconds. ¡°Done,¡± she says casually, raising one of her hands and tapping the air before her, sending small arcs of lightning out a few centimetres. It is a neat trick she has worked out by targeting the air molecules around her with the contact-based stunning touch. A few murmurs break out in the crowd around her. Mr Campan raises a brow for a second before schooling his expression. ¡°Silence!¡± The murmurs in the crowd die out almost instantly. ¡°Very good, I will admit you¡¯ve done enough to pass to the intermediate ss. However, before you move up, we should see how you handle yourself in a duel,¡± he says with a sly smirk. ¡°Since you are already at the second circle, it would be unfair to make any of your ssmates duel you. So instead, I will have to test you myself.¡± Emily clicks her tongue at his obviously unfair treatment. She hears a familiar voice muttering about it and nces behind her to see Juliana watching her with concern. She shes her a reassuring smile before turning back to her teacher turned opponent. ¡°Sure, that seems fair. What are the rules?¡± ¡°First! We start ten metres apart,¡± he says turning around and gaining distance from her. ¡°Second!¡± He spins back to face her while raising his hand to reveal a single copper coin. ¡°We begin casting the moment this coin hits the ground.¡± ¡°And finally, third!¡± Heunches the coin into the air between them while bringing his hands together. ¡°The first person tond a magical strike on the other''s body wins. I¡¯ll only use second circle spells.¡± The moment he finishes speaking, Emily brings her focus wholly to the coin spinning quickly towards the floor. Bringing her hands together, she sends a mentalmand while formting a battle n. Set core two to assistive processing. The coin slows its rotation in her perception till she can read the face each time it turns. I don¡¯t want to reveal double casting yet: it¡¯s better to keep a few cards hidden for now. Silent casting alone should be enough to catch him off guard. The coin lowers, only a few centimetres off the ground as Emily sends a small spark of mana into a crystal within her robes. He saw my casting speed before and was still confident in starting this fight so he¡¯s probably able to cast faster than me. Defence it is! The coin hits the floor and Emily¡¯s hands instantly burst into motion. Her fingers glide over each other, forming aplicated dance of light as pale green lines and runes fly into ce in front of her. She stares straight ahead at her opponent as a solid mental picture of a protective gust takes shape. Mr Campan ms his hands together the moment the coin falls, a prideful grin stered on his face as he moves his hands in an exaggerated motion. He curls his fingers together in a twisted rotating motion, then gathers them together into one ball before throwing his hands towards Emily with fingers syed. A glowing red orb of fire forms between his hands, roaring loudly as it flies out. Emily¡¯s casting finishes just in time, her arms sweeping wide, spreading the formed runicttice before her to surround her body and shift into a twisting orb of safety. The fireball ms into her barrier, bursting apart as its mes are carried away by the wind, spreading to join the rotation until the individual strands of fire are snuffed out. ¡°Tsk,¡± Mr Campan clicks his tongue in irritation. ¡°Impressive to be able to put up a barrier fast enough to block my fireball. Let¡¯s see how durable it is!¡± This time as he begins his gestures, Emily has her focus split on maintaining her barrier and watching him. Weird, where are the runes of his spell? He doesn¡¯t seem to be forming any. With her brow furrowed, she watches as a new fireball forms between his hands and flies at her barrier. The fireball explodes against the wind again, blocking her vision for a moment before being ripped apart. Disable assistive processing. Core two, maintain the wind barrier. With her main consciousness freed up, Emily focusespletely on watching Mr Campan cast another fireball. She sends a small flow of mana to her eyes, slightly enhancing her ability to see the flow of mana around him. A faint shimmer appears in the centre of his chest as he gestures, before flowing down his arms and out of his palms the moment the fireball forms. Satisfied she has gathered enough data on his casting method, Emily stops focusing on him the moment the third fireball hits her barrier. The orb of wind holds strong. However, as she looks at her mana, she notices it decreasing slightly each time the barrier is hit. Damn! I can¡¯t keep this up forever. I need to go on the offensive. Moving on to the second stage of her quickly forming n, she breaks out into a sprint, running forward to close the distance between them. The barrier follows her, draining her mana slightly faster but never letting her stray from the centre. A fourth fireball hits the in-motion barrier just as Emily steps within four metres of Mr Campan. Realising that Emily¡¯s barrier is about to hit him, Mr Campan starts backing off while twisting his fingers around and waving his hands in wide motions. Emily is two metres away, with her barrier only a metre from hitting her opponent, as a short, metre-wide wall of fire rises in her path. Grinning, Emily instantly drops her barrier and silently casts iron de, forming a mental image of a short, thin de. The small metal object drops into her hand and she raises her arm behind her, arcing her back and building up as much tension through her body as possible. Firmly nting her front foot, her arm violently snaps forward, sending the de ripping through the barrier of fire as easily as air. The small de flies straight towards Mr Campan¡¯s face. His eyes widen in surprise, and he tilts his head to the side in the nick of time as the de sails past, slicing his cheek on the way. He looks at Emily in rage. However, it quickly changes to confusion when he sees her standing rxed, as if the fight is over already. Some of the students begin pping, and the apuse spreads until most of the ss is congratting Emily. ¡°That was a conjured de,¡± Emily states smugly, clearing the confusion from Mr Campan¡¯s gaze. ¡°I see,¡± he says ufortably before stepping forward with his hand outstretched. ¡°Well done, you pass this ss. That was a fine disy.¡± Deciding not to embarrass him further, in case he changes his mind, Emily quickly shakes his hand while lightly bowing her head. ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± As the ss begins to quiet down, Mr Campan continues calmly. ¡°You are dismissed now. I shall see you in the morning intermediate ss starting next week.¡± Emily bows before turning to leave, walking past her friends and giving them a smug wink as she goes. The moment she passes them, her grin falls away to reveal a grim scowl. Now it''s time to ask about missing mages. Chapter 44 – The Crystal Skull Chapter 44 ¨C The Crystal Skull Leaving the training hall, Emily sends a small spark of mana into the crystal within her robes to end the recording, pleased that she¡¯d had the presence of mind to take the recording crystal to the lesson with her. After checking The Clock quickly, taking note of the time, she heads towards the transportation rooms, lost in thought. I can review the fight and work out how he cast without a magic circleter. As for finding out who¡¯s collecting crests as trophies, my best bet will be Oscar and Jenny. I¡¯ll go to Jenny first since she¡¯s been here longer. Stepping into the teleportation circle, Emily thinks of the teacher¡¯s dorms while injecting mana. After a quick discement, she finds herself in an unfamiliar hallway. A lush crimson rug stretches down the centre of the long corridor. The ceilings are arched, with decorative patterns carved between the glowing crystal lights. Each door is two metres of silver metal with a name and number etched delicately in the centre, separated by at least fifty metres from the next. The first door starts at ¡®101¡¯ and Emily slowly walks down the empty hall until she arrives at ¡®118¡¯, Jenny¡¯s room, without spotting a single person. I guess the teachers don¡¯t like roaming the halls much. I don¡¯t often see them between sses either. It¡¯s slightly unsettling. Clearing her thoughts, she reaches up and knocks politely, hoping Jenny¡¯s in. After a dozen seconds, as Emily¡¯s hope begins to die, the door fades from existence, revealing Jenny standing before her with a raised brow and a quizzical smile. ¡°Emily, what a surprise. Pleasee in,¡± she says lightly while stepping aside. Emily enters the room, looking around with curiosity. To her right, as she steps in, are a few sofas arranged around a low coffee table and a burning hearth set into the wall. Inside, she sees a small red magic circle carved into the ground with a few small red crystals powering it. Moving her gaze away, she looks to her left and sees a small kitchte with a counter and a few raised chairs in the centre. It¡¯s a lot more homely than I expected. Unsure what to do, Emily awkwardly looks to Jenny, who walks past her into the kitchen. ¡°Take a seat over there,¡± Jenny says while gesturing towards the firece. ¡°Would you like any tea? Coffee? Hot Chocte?¡± ¡°Um, tea please,¡± Emily answers as she settles down on one of the soft sofas. Looking around, she notices three doors leading further into the residence. All of them are dark wood with silver handles, the same as the bathroom door in Emily¡¯s own room. After a short wait, Jenny walks over carrying a tray that she ces down on the coffee table between them as she sits on a sofa herself. ¡°It¡¯s a simple herbal tea. Sorry there¡¯s not any choice: I don¡¯t drink tea myself. There¡¯s milk in the jug and sugar in the bowl if you¡¯d like. As for the cookies, help yourself!¡± Jenny cheerily exins as she takes a sip from her own mug, containing a dark brown liquid that Emily assumes to be coffee. ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m honestly surprised you even have a kitchen in your room.¡± Emily pours some tea into her cup and adds a small drop of milk as she speaks. ¡°Haha, yes. A small bonus of teaching here, I guess. We get to customise our rooms, and I wanted a kitchen since I enjoy cooking. I even baked these biscuits myself,¡± Jenny answers with a cheeky grin while taking a bite from a chocte chip cookie she has dipped in her drink. Maybe it¡¯s hot chocte. ¡°Anyway, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?¡± Emily considers the question for a moment, unsure how to approach the topic of the trophy collector without mentioning the ck market and her ownw breaking. She wants to focus on getting answers not answering questions. I guess I can skirt around the issue at first and see how she reacts. ¡°I just wanted to ask you a question.¡± She pauses to take a sip of her tea before continuing. ¡°Have a lot of mages gone missing within the city?¡± Jenny flinches slightly before responding. ¡°Are you asking about recently, or in general?¡± ¡°Both.¡± ¡°Well, there haven¡¯t been a lot recently. In fact, we haven¡¯t had a disappearance for thest three years. But yes, we do have the asional vanishing mage. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°I was in the city this morning,¡± Emily begins, watching closely for Jenny¡¯s reaction, ¡°and I noticed somebody following me.¡± Jenny ces her mug down with a slight quiver that Emily wouldn¡¯t have noticed if not for the enhanced eyesight from her awakening. She knows something. ¡°At first, I assumed it was just a normal mugger. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I was attacked for my money on the lower levels. However, when I allowed them to follow me into a deserted alleyway, they used some strange incense that blocked my mana flow. I was able to defend myself thanks to my hand-to-handbat training, but it seemed like a targeted attack, and I can¡¯t help but wonder if it has happened to others before.¡± Finished setting her bait, she calmly sits back and takes another sip from her tea as she watches Jenny hesitate before speaking. ¡°Yes, that would make sense for the past cases as well.¡± Jenny nods solemnly before continuing with a sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about it myself, but there have been certain¡­ rumours¡­ around The Dome for a while about a group of mage killers acting within the city. I¡¯ve seen a few of their victims myself, all of them appeared to have been killed with a close-ranged weapon. I did always wonder why they didn¡¯t defend themselves with magic, but if the killers had inhibition incense that would exin a lot.¡± ¡°You saw a few victims? Did they still have their crests?¡± Emily asks without a thought. ¡°No, they didn¡¯t. How did you know that?¡± Jenny narrows her eyes at her. Whoops. I probably shouldn¡¯t have asked that yet. Ah well, I think that¡¯s everything she¡¯ll tell me anyway. ¡°I just guessed,¡± Emily calmly states. Jenny nods slowly, her look of suspicion still present. ¡°Interesting guess. Anyway, I¡¯ll inform the other faculty members about this and submit a report to my superiors about the worrying use of inhibition incense. They will likely visit you within a few days to ask for a more detailed ount.¡± Not if this conversation never happened. ¡°Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Emily,¡± Jenny continues. ¡°Is there anything else you would like my help with?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s all. Thank you for your time,¡± Emily says politely while standing up and bowing her head. ¡°Nonsense! I told you toe to me for anything, especially if you¡¯ve been attacked in the city.¡± Jenny stands up and walks with her to the door. ¡°Be careful out there, I¡¯d advise not travelling into the city alone from now on.¡± ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll keep your advice in mind.¡± Leaving her words of thanks behind, Emily swiftly makes her way through the corridor back towards the teleportation circle. That just leaves asking Oscar. He seems to be keeping track of things happening in The Dome. I¡¯d be surprised if he didn¡¯t know something about these mage killers. Stepping through the teleportation circle, Emily once again arrives in a new corridor. Simr in design to the staff apartments, the A-grade dorms also boast a plush red carpet and stylish ceilings. However, the scale of the hallway is reduced, and the doors are all closer to each other. She quickly makes her way down the corridor, passing a few people before she arrives at room A19. After a few firm knocks, the door vanishes, and Oscar greets her with a smile. ¡°Hey Emily, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I want to ask you about something. Can Ie in?¡± Oscar raises a brow, but still steps aside and quickly ushers her in. The room is twice the size of hers, with several pieces of expensive-looking furniture and a few doors leading to side rooms. Emily quickly chooses arge sofa and drops onto it, facing Oscar as he walks over to sit opposite her with obvious curiosity. ¡°So, what do you want to know?¡± ¡°What do you know about mage killers in the city?¡± Emily asks straightforwardly, unconcerned about skirting around the truth like with Jenny. Oscar¡¯s eyes narrow instantly, glinting coldly as he focuses on her. ¡°Why are you asking?¡± ¡°I went to the ck market earlier and was baited into entering a tent with a crystal skull embroidered on the front. Inside, I met someone with a collection of crests from Covenant mages. They used inhibition incense to try and kill me. I want to know who they are and why they¡¯re killing mages.¡± Oscar rxes slightly, leaning back in his seat and cing his head on his fist as he nods. ¡°I see, and are you asking this personally, or as a mage of the Mandrago family?¡± Emily narrows her eyes slightly and tilts her head in confusion. ¡°Personally, but why would that matter?¡± ¡°Well, if you were asking this for your family, I wouldn¡¯t answer,¡± Oscar replies with a derisive grin, surprising Emily with his shift in demeanour. ¡°Of course, your family would be able to tell you themselves if they weren¡¯t so greedy.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Oscar looks slightly surprised by her question. ¡°Don¡¯t you know? Your family can¡¯t give you information on the mage killers because they haven¡¯t had a mage within The Covenant as staff or student since they sent theirst members on a suicide mission into The de ten years ago. Everyone knows that the only way to gain information from within The Dome and capital is to leave a member of the family as staff in The Covenant. It¡¯s justmon sense.¡± I didn¡¯t know, but it¡¯s nice to find out they have no way of getting information from within The Dome anymore. ¡°Okay, ignoring my family¡¯s ipetence, are you willing to give me any information or should I leave?¡± Emily asks, breaking Oscar out of his mockingughter. ¡°Oh sure, I¡¯d be thrilled to help you!¡± His quick switch to a beaming smile sends a slight shiver down Emily¡¯s spine. ¡°The group you ran into refer to themselves as The Crystal Skull, quite an obvious name from their emblem. They popped up in the capital about thirty years ago now, five years after thest truce was signed with Morzea. They¡¯re a group of highly trained individuals who kill low-level mages in training within the kingdom, but mostly focused on the capital. The royal family has tried to get rid of them a few times, even putting together a squad of third circle mages to capture a few of their members three years ago, but they always spring back up, like the weeds they are, whenever they get wiped out. Unfortunately, they had several contingencies in ce to kill themselves before revealing much information as well, so we didn¡¯t find out much.¡± He pauses for a moment to let Emily process everything before continuing. ¡°Now, as for the information we do know, they aren¡¯t mages, and kill purely with traps and close-quartersbat. Hence why hand-to-handbat is such a popr lesson these days: it makes it far safer to travel within the city if you know you can defend yourself against them after having your magic blocked. They also have ess to a plethora of magical oddities, like the inhibition incense you mentioned, and we don¡¯t know their source. However, I suspect that they are trained and supplied by Morzea for the sake of weakening us during peacetime.¡± Emily nods thoughtfully for a moment before asking: ¡°Wasn¡¯t ourst peace treaty meant to end the wars for territory on this continent?¡± ¡°Ha, is that what they told you in geopolitics? No, the peace treaty was only set tost one hundred years. It may seem like a lifetime tomoners, but to us mages it¡¯s only a temporary ceasefire to gather strength.¡± ¡°I see. Thanks for the information,¡± Emily says absentmindedly, considering the consequences of Oscar¡¯s words. If they exclusively fight in close quarters, I should be rtively safe. The thought of war brewing is troubling, but it¡¯s still seventy-odd years off, so I¡¯ll toss that to the back of my mind for now. ¡°Why are you so willing to tell me all this?¡± ¡°I feel like it¡¯s in my interest to stay in your good graces,¡± Oscar replies smoothly. ¡°By the way, are the explosives ready for sale yet?¡± ¡°Not quite, I have the ratios finished now, but I still need to design and make my final prototypes before I can sell them. Give me two days and I¡¯ll show you my final test before we can decide on a price and how many you want.¡± ¡°Sure, I look forward to it!¡± *** Emily spends the evening designing her explosives, then the next day doing spell creation tests. Carefully watching the time as she does, she pulls out The Clock and resets at the exact time she left her magicalbat lesson twenty-four hours prior. With her inquisitive conversations wiped clean, she finds Oscar and lets him know about the final test in two days'' time, before returning to her room. Finally, she has time to review her recent magical duel. Chapter 45 – Done Deal Chapter 45 ¨C Done Deal Sitting at her desk, Emily pulls out the recording crystal from within her robes and raises it to her eye. Spinning it around, she locates the correct activation rune and channels a small burst of mana into it. The moment the rune lights up, she shuts her eyes as a small screen appears within her mind. The screen slowly ys out the entire fight from start to finish, and Emily carefully analyses Mr Campan¡¯s casting. He appears to be using a different form of gesture casting to me. When I create gestures, I form the magic circle with my hands, but I¡¯m certain those odd motions he makes don¡¯t form any runes. Maybe he¡¯s recing the mental image with gestures? I can see how that odd finger movement could be mes gathering into a ball if I stretch my imagination. ¡°But that still doesn¡¯t exin the magic circle being missing,¡± she mutters to herself, standing up and beginning to pace while chewing her thumb. The magic circle has to be formed somewhere, that¡¯s certain, unless he¡¯s using elemental maniption to form his fireballs. But where? Out of habit, Emily opens her system and begins flipping through recent additions in her notifications using her second core to look for anything relevant whilst her primary core continues her contemtion. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Notifications] Mute notifications inbat? [Yes]/[No] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skill created: Perfect Silent Casting (passive) [Perfect Silent Casting (passive)] User can proficiently form a mental image and magic circle simultaneously. -Grants +10% casting speed when casting spells without a vocalponent. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sub-system updated: Progression [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Second Requirements: -Intelligence 54/75 (Not Complete) -Create 1/5 unique E rank machines (Not Complete) -Learn internal casting (Not Complete) -Create 0/3 second circle spells (Not Complete) -y 0/1 third circle beast (Not Complete) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skill granted: Basic Runesmithing (passive) [Basic Runesmithing (passive)] User is experienced in the art of creating and using runes. -Grants +10% rune creation chance -Grants an instinctive understanding ofbining runes up to the third circle. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Magic knowledge learned: Basic Array Formation [Basic Array Formation] A fundamental understanding of connecting runes together to form long-standing arrays. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Skill created: Basic Mana Maniption (passive) [Basic Mana Maniption (passive)] User has fine control over external mana use. -Grants +10% efficiency and control over mana outside the body -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Magic knowledge learned: Basic Alchemy [Basic Alchemy] A fundamental understanding ofbining magic and magical materials to produce magically charged by-products. _____ Most of the information is useless to her. However, her core gs the progression requirements on the old notification and alerts the primary consciousness of it. Wait, learn internal casting? Is that what he¡¯s doing? In that case, the magic circle is forming inside him somehow. Is it dispersed through his body? No, it would make more sense for it to be focused on his circles. Pausing in her steps, Emily drops to the floor in a meditative position with her legs crossed and her eyes shut. Her second core forms and holds the mental image of her wind barrier while her primary consciousness focuses solely on delving deep within herself and gazing at the circles of power around her heart. The outer circle is in a state of constant movement, its mana flowing freely out into her body and then being drawn back soon after. The inner circle on the other hand is a sereneke, unmoving and undisturbed by the turbulent flow of its neighbour. Emily wills the inner circle into motion, the mana held within almost instantly forming the intended shape, twisting together to be half of theplicated workings of the wind barrier spell. Emily excitedly moves to control the outer circle, but as she tries to bend it into shape, the unpredictable motion of her mana flow pulls it back to normal. After trying a few times, stopping whenever she feels excessive resistance for fear of a magical bacsh, Emily opens her eyes with a sigh of disappointment. Damn, I can¡¯t get my second circle to work with me on this. It feels impossible to form the still-growing circle into shape. Wait, maybe it will only work with spells of a lower circle: after all, the system only made it a requirement once I had multiple circles. Also, Mr Campan is a third circle mage and only used this casting for second circle spells, I don¡¯t actually know if he casts third circle spells the same way. With the new idea, she closes her eyes and quickly forms her first circle into her favourite testing spell¡¯s magic circle, burning hands. The moment her mental image forms and her circle spins into shape, mana flows smoothly out of her circle, through her arms, and ignites her palms. ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± she cries excitedly, gazing at her hand as a system notification pops up. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill created: Internal Casting (passive) [Internal Casting (passive)] User can proficiently form theirpleted magic circles into matching level spells for speed casting. -Grants +10% strength of spells cast internally. _____ First progression requirement,pleted! *** Two dayster, Emily and Oscar arrive at the Salvia family training room. This time the room is set as a nk space with nothing but a thick steel te jutting out of the floor In one of the corners. ¡°I took the liberty of setting up the room for the test. I thought it would be safest to have something sturdy to stay behind just in case,¡± Oscar proudly exins. ¡°That¡¯s reasonable, these things are gonna be pretty nasty if they work like intended,¡± Emily responds excitedly. They both move to stand behind the metal te before Emily unclips one of her creations from her waist. Raising it up, she takes onest look at the system description. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Low-Grade Mana Grenade] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +1 Str [Description:] A mixture of magical and physical explosives packed together for handheld destruction. [Effect:] Explodes dealing massive magical and physical damage to everything within five metres. _____ ¡°I call them mana grenades, or MG for short. To use them, either pull out this small pin on top and release the handle as you throw or inject a small burst of mana into this activation rune,¡± she exins while holding out the small, patterned metal ball in her hands. She rotates it to show the handle going down one side, with a small metal pin holding it in ce near the top. Next to the handle¡¯s mounting point on top, is a small rune carved into the metal. ¡°The main damage should spread five metres from the point of detonation, but there will still be shrapnel flying out further so gaining cover after throwing is advised,¡± she continues excitedly as she tears the pin out of ce and lobs the MG fifty metres away. Oscar quickly ducks behind the metal sheet, but Emily casually steps behind it without worry. ¡°You have five seconds after activation to get to safety.¡± He res at her cheeky grin for a moment before opening his mouth to respond. ¡°You cou-¡° his words are cut off by a loud bang ringing out through the open hall. Looking to the side, Emily sees a few small, red-hot fragments of metal embedded into the floor and walls near them. That range is amazing! With a maniacal grin, she steps out from behind the cover to inspect the damage made by her new toy. Oscar follows her, full of curiosity and excitement. The damage increases in severity as they near the epicentre. At fifty metres, the floor and walls are decorated with a few shards of metal. By twenty metres, the floor is filled with still-glowing shrapnel, vibrating with the heat of mana. At five metres, the crater starts; a scorched depression with the point of explosion at its centre. Oscar whistles, impressed by the damage. ¡°Wow, that did as much damage as a fireball!¡± ¡°It was eptable,¡± Emily says casually, her beaming grin failing to hide her own pride and excitement at her creation. ¡°How much do you want for them?¡± Oscar asks eagerly, ignoring her attempt at humility. ¡°Not so fast, I have another test to show you first.¡± Emily turns and walks back to the cover, with Oscar in quick pursuit. ¡°First we need the control test, stand a few metres away from me and shoot the metal sheet with this once my barrier¡¯s up,¡± Emily exins while handing Oscar a small, ck, six-shot revolver from a holster on her leg. He raises a questioning eyebrow at her but doesn¡¯t say anything else as she walks away to stand behind the cover. The moment she¡¯s out of view, Emily quickly casts a wind barrier, forming it to cover the metal sheet as well. ¡°Ready,¡± she calls out, waiting for Oscar to do his part. Without hesitation, he raises the gun in his hand and fires a shot at the spinning dome of wind. The bullet flies towards the twisting winds. The moment it touches the barrier, it¡¯s deflected from its intended path and flung into an awkward orbit, hitting the ground harmlessly. Emily drops the barrier a few momentster, casually stepping out and gesturing for Oscar to join her. ¡°The wind barrier is particrly good at deflecting projectiles, but slightly weaker against direct magical attacks.¡± ¡°Obviously. Why are you exining the spell I gave you to me?¡± Emily rolls her eyes, taking back her pistol. ¡°Wait a second, I¡¯m getting there.¡± With both of them concealed by the metal cover, Emily casts her barrier again. This time with a few gestures to not reveal too much to Oscar, her vignce being raised since their discussion about The Crystal Skull. The moment the barrier is set up, she unclips another grenade from her waist and injects a small burst of mana before throwing it lightly over the barrier. The grenadends just beyond the barrier and rolls to a stop a dozen metres away. Emily holds her breath in anticipation. This time the explosion is muted by the winds around them, barely sounding louder than a small pop. However, just as loud as ever they hear the loud screeching of metal on metal. Oscar¡¯s eyes widen in surprise as he realises what just happened, and Emily enjoys his look of shock while dropping the barrier and stepping around to check the damage. On the other side of the cover from them, they find shrapnel dug deep into the solid steel, having lost its magical glow. ¡°How did the grenade break through the wind barrier?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a mix of magic and physical objects so they can breach barriers specialised in one or the other!¡± Emily cries out proudly. Oscar nods silently, looking between Emily and the grenade¡¯s aftermath with awe and a hint of fear. I wonder how scared he would be if he realised I could make a revolver punch through barriers. Keeping her insidious thoughts of her past tests on her own barrier to herself, Emily continues to the most important part of her sales pitch: the price! ¡°Now, how much do you think they¡¯re worth?¡± she asks with a teasing grin. The moment money is mentioned, Oscar focuses solely on her, his apprehension falling away to reveal a hint of greed. ¡°My understanding is that you want to deal in a mix of contribution points and money, correct?¡± Emily gives a small nod, waiting with bated breath. ¡°In that case, how do ten points and two silver each sound?¡± Emily silently considers for a moment, not revealing her excitement over the price at all. ¡°Add two more points and fifty copper, and you have a deal.¡± Oscar quickly agrees with a smile, reaching out to offer a handshake and seal the deal. Emily happily obliges while celebrating internally. The production cost is only six points and fifteen copper! Selling weapons is great! ¡°Can I ce an order for twenty of these by the start of the expedition?¡± Oscar asks. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll bring them to you when they¡¯re finished. Now, let me do onest test for myself before I leave,¡± Emily says with a sinister grin as she looks at him. Her gaze sends a shiver down Oscar¡¯s spine, but he quickly agrees and moves to take cover. He only seemed slightly scared earlier and his fear quickly turned to greed. Let¡¯s see if we can fix that, I¡¯d rather have him too scared of me to try anything in The de. She unclips the final grenade from her belt and pulls her arm back to throw it. Pouring a strong stream of machina into it, she activates overdrive and pushes in two hundred points of her esoteric resource. The grenade¡¯s uneven edges begin sparking with electricity, forming arcs to her fingers and sizzling in a dangerous build-up. Using arge amount of strength, Emily fires the grenade to the opposite side of the room and then quickly ducks behind the shield. Making eye contact with Oscar, she grins and sps her hands over her ears just as a deafening explosion goes off. Oscar flinches and quickly covers his ears as well, shielding them from the powerful soundwave toote. Shrapnel rips past their barrier, trails of fire and lightning mixing as they impact the walls all around, a few hitting their metal cover with enough force to create small dents visible on the other side. Everything calms down after a few moments, no sounds left in the room other than Oscar¡¯s pained moans as he sps his ears, and a slight buzz from the dozens of charged metal shards wasting thest of their energy. Emily steps out to observe the carnage with satisfaction. Walking over, she sees an eight-metre crater filled with metal shards nted in the slightly molten earth. A sixty per cent increase in damage dealt. That¡¯s pretty good! She turns to look at Oscar. Seeing his gaze of apprehension and horror, she smiles happily. ¡°Thanks, this has been really helpful. I¡¯ll get your grenades to you as soon as I can!¡± He nods absentmindedly as he walks with her to leave the training room. ¡°Are you selling thatst grenade you used?¡± he asks with a neutral tone, clearly already expecting the answer. ¡°Nope! That¡¯s a personal model,¡± Emily answers with a sly grin as she steps through the door into the corridor, leaving Oscar staring at her receding back in lingering fear. Chapter 46 – Alchemy 101 Chapter 46 ¨C Alchemy 101 A couple of dayster, Emily and Juliana walk through the cafeteria hand in hand to join their friends for breakfast. They find Tom and Ivor sitting together in awkward silence and sit down to both of their relief. ¡°Where¡¯s your sister?¡± Emily asks Tom as Juliana orders them food. ¡°I think theb for your next ss,¡± he answers unsurely. ¡°She left a note on my door this morning saying that she grabbed one of theb assistant missionsst night and she won¡¯t be joining us for breakfast.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a shame,¡± Juliana says disappointedly. ¡°At least she¡¯s earning points though. What about you, Tom? You nning on taking a mission any time soon?¡± ¡°Maybe. It¡¯s hard to find anything easy on the mission boards without them being taken the moment they¡¯re put up.¡± ¡°What about joining herb gardening with me? It¡¯d be nice to see a familiar face there, and Miss Hawthorne told us the other day to bring a friend if we wanted since she needs more helpers.¡± Tom goes silent, considering the offer for a bit. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re asking him to join you and not me,¡± Emily puts her hand on her heart and feigns offence as Tom thinks. ¡°You know you¡¯d be my first choice if you weren¡¯t so busy already,¡± Juliana teases, sticking out her tongue. Emily chuckles and focuses on her toast as it arrives in front of her. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll garden with you,¡± Tom finally answers, to Juliana¡¯s delight. ¡°Great! My next slot is tomorrow before dinner, meet me in the herb garden at 6.¡± With their ns for point earning decided, the group eat their breakfast over light conversation. Finishing her food, Emily checks the time and realises it¡¯s time to leave for her ss. She stands up and gives Juliana a goodbye hug and a kiss before leaving the cafeteria with Ivor for her first alchemy lesson. ¡°What are we going to be doing today?¡± Emily asks Ivor excitedly as they walk through the hallway towards the practicalbs, happy to finally join the ss after memorising so many textbooks on beasts in preparation. ¡°We were meant to be learning to brew basic healing potions, but it may change with you joining,¡± he signs back uncertainly. ¡°I hope not, I¡¯m excited to see how potion-making works.¡± ¡°You may still, but I¡¯m not sure. When other people have joined, we normally cover the basics in their first lesson.¡± His response kills her excitement. They soon approach a door with ¡®Intermediate Alchemy¡¯ written in the centre. As Ivor pushes it open, Emily sees theb behind it and lets out a small gasp of admiration. The room isrge, with dozens of worktables set up. Each table is identical, with a neat setup of pots, ssware, and arge cauldron to the side. Several mages are already standing behind their table, casting nces towards the door as they hear it open. I wonder if Hester helped set these desks up. Emily follows Ivor in, and they both make their way to two of the tables near the front of the room. Ivor picks a table next to a girl with messy hair, sses, andrge eyebags. Emily instantly recognises her as the clerk from her nighttime trip to the hub. ¡°Hey, nice to meet you again. I¡¯m Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago,¡± Emily greets her with a smile. ¡°Ah, the one who can¡¯t order everything at once,¡± the girl says with a tired nod. ¡°Anka Zaluzian.¡± Emily blushes slightly at herment. ¡°Sorry about that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, you aren¡¯t the worst I¡¯ve dealt with,¡± Anka dismisses while slowly looking between Ivor and Emily. ¡°You two know each other?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Ivor signs with a nod. ¡°She¡¯s J¡¯s girlfriend.¡± Emily is slightly caught off guard by him answering for them and says nothing before Anka responds. ¡°I see,¡± she says without much reaction before turning back to face the front without another word. I guess they get along. Emily joins them, standing in silence for a few minutes as a few more ssmatese in. At the exact moment the clocks strike 9 am, the door opens again and a tall, thin woman with long flowing crimson hair steps into the room wearing familiar silver robes. Silence falls as she walks to the workstation facing the ss. ¡°Good morning ss, today we are joined by a new member, so we shall be doing a quick overview of the basics before we attempt any brewing,¡± she says to the ss with a stern tone, setting off several displeased groans across the room. ¡°Noints, or else I¡¯ll give you a pop quiz on desert herbs.¡± The sounds of dissent from the students are instantly cut off by her threat. ¡°Good,¡± the teacher says before turning to Emily. ¡°Wee to my ss Miss Coldstone. I¡¯m Aileen Myrtle. You should address me as Mrs Myrtle. Now, Mr Eleocharis has told me good things about you, so I trust you should have no issues with me only giving you a brief overview and some extra reading for after ss.¡± Emily silently nods in confirmation, causing the corner of Mrs Myrtle¡¯s lips to curl slightly. Satisfied with Emily¡¯s response, Mrs Myrtle looks at the ckboard on the wall behind her and flicks her wrist towards the chalk at the base. As if following silent orders, the chalk jumps up into the air, hovering at the centre of the board awaiting further instructions. Mrs Myrtle turns back to face the ss and begins her exnation, her hand lowered to her waist and dancing a fine, calcted performance as she speaks. ¡°Alchemy is the art of experimentation,¡± her words are apanied by the rhythmic scraping of chalk on stone. ¡°For every potion, concoction, or transmutation that you see, hundreds of hours of work have gone into fine-tuning the processes, contents, and quantities required for the perfect end result. Through alchemy, we seek to fully understand and realise the potential of magic. Many of you here will never go beyond the bounds of simply recreating known recipes, yet you shall still be called alchemists. Why is this?¡± She casts her judgemental gaze around the room, with every student whose eyes she meets shrinking back. Under this tense atmosphere, Anka raises her hand. ¡°Miss Zaluzian?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll still be called alchemists because even without creating new recipes, brewing existing recipes takes vast amounts of knowledge, fine mana control, and a precise eye for detail that mostmon magesck.¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Mrs Myrtle says with a proud smile. ¡°Even those of youcking talent in this field, are leagues above those who have never set foot into a concoctionb. Never forget that!¡± ncing around, Emily sees most of the students in the ss rising with their backs straight and their chests pushed out proudly. I think I¡¯ve just found a group with arger sense of inted pride than average nobles. Silentlyughing to herself, Emily turns back to focus on Mrs Myrtle as she continues. ¡°Now, who can tell me the first step of brewing any known potion?¡± The room quickly fills with raised hands, and Mrs Myrtle picks one at random. ¡°Gathering ingredients,¡± the boy from the middle of the room answers. ¡°Correct! The first stage for brewing a potion is gathering the ingredients. Most of theponents making up a potion are magical materials, from metals and crystals to herbs and beast organs. When gathering materials, be that through purchasing them or going out and finding them yourself, always strive to use the best quality ingredients you can. Beast organs should be cleanly cut from the corpse and stored without contamination, herbs should be harvested carefully to not damage their roots. Never ept subpar ingredients unless you want your potions to be of low quality, an affront to the title of Alchemist.¡± She pauses to look around the room, making sure her point hasnded. I guess their sense of pride is useful if it leads to better potions being sold¡­ ¡°Now, whates after you¡¯ve gathered all your ingredients?¡± This time a small girl at the back of the room is selected to answer. ¡°Preparing your catalysts?¡± ¡°Wrong, anyone else?¡± Mrs Myrtle says with a hint of disdain. Several hands fall at her admonishment, and she selects a girl on the front row to answer anew. ¡°Preparing yourb.¡± ¡°Quite obviously. How can you expect to brew anything if you don¡¯t have the appropriate tools?¡± Emily can¡¯t help but silently agree with Mrs Myrtle¡¯s statement. ¡°When preparing yourb for a concoction of any type, look through your recipe at all the intended stages and n exactly which tools and containers you will need. Then gather all of them and set them up in an orderly manner. Never clutter your workspace with unneeded objects to maintain afortable workflow, and always n your actions in advance,¡± she says before gesturing towards the worktables set up before each member of the ss. ¡°Look towards our setup for sses as the gold standard. Each time we have brewing practice, your tables shall be set up in a manner that I approve. Now, once you have yourb set up appropriately, you can then move on to preparing your catalysts and ingredients. The exact preparations to be performed vary depending on the recipe and ingredients you are using, but the general rule is to prepare all catalysts to their final stage before you touch your primary ingredients or your separating agent. After your materials are ready, what is the next step?¡± This time, only a couple of hands are raised, including Ivor who gets chosen to answer. ¡°Set up any needed arrays,¡± he signs to Mrs Myrtle, who nods in agreement. ¡°Yes, setting up any needed arrays. This once again varies vastly from potion to potion, but most brews will require some form of stabilisation or control array. Thetter can be ignored if you have fine enough mana control. Then nextes the most important part of your entire process, the brewing itself! The general rule is as follows:bine your primary ingredients in a fluid of some form, be that simple water or another magical ingredient itself, and apply heat or cold for a certain amount of time. Then mix in your catalysts and manage the reactions that follow, never allowing a catalyst to be fullybined, hence ruining your potion. Finally, add in your separating agent and fully remove both it and the catalyst, leaving you with a finished brew.¡± Finishing her exnation, Mrs Myrtle turns to look at Emily. ¡°Did you follow all of that?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good, in that case, I shall now return to my nned ss, brewing a basic healing potion.¡± The scratching chalk pauses, a full breakdown of Mrs Myrtle¡¯s brewing instructions written out on therge ckboard. The chalk flies up to the first line, ¡®gathering ingredients¡¯. ¡°You should all have done your homework, so who can tell me the ingredients required for a basic healing potion?¡± Emily joins the rest of the ss in raising her hand, having taken the liberty of reading several alchemy textbooks in advance. Mrs Myrtle sees and raises a brow slightly while pointing towards her. ¡°Go ahead, Miss Coldstone.¡± ¡°Two stalks of wyrmroot, the blood of a nymph, and powdered light crystals.¡± ¡°Good.¡± The chalk springs to motion, writing Emily¡¯s answer. ¡°Now can anyone else tell me what¡¯s special about this recipe?¡± She picks a random student from the middle of the room again. ¡°There is no separating agent.¡± ¡°Yes, and can anybody tell me why?¡± This time only Anka and Ivor raise their hands. Emily looks at them curiously, not knowing the answer herself. ¡°Miss Zaluzian?¡± ¡°Crystals are often an outlier to the catalyst rules. When light crystals are used as a catalyst, they boost the effects of healing potions without contaminating them, so they can be left in.¡± ¡°Good, five points to Anka Zaluzian,¡± Mrs Myrtle says with a hand on the base of the ckboard, revealing a set of runes carved beneath, as the whole board momentarily lights up with the glow of mana. ¡°The second step has already beenpleted for you. Please take a moment now to familiarise yourself with the equipment on your tables, I expect you all to use the correct tool for each step without me having to tell you. Now, to process our catalyst you will each need to take the light crystal provided and powder it using your preferred method. I will give you five minutes, start!¡± The room quickly fills with the sound of rustling robes and ceramics clinking against each other as the students hurry to grind up the light crystals. Emily looks over her worktable and finds a single small glistening white crystal next to two jars filled with blood and six thin brown roots with ruby-red veins tracing their bodies. Taking the crystal in hand, she picks out a small ceramic ramekin and holds the crystal in the air above it, between both palms. Carefully, she creates a smallyer of pure mana across her palms, before slowly moving her hands apart, holding the bubble of mana in ce with her will and focus. The small crystal floats freely within the bubble as Emily uses her second core to send a small burst of light attribute mana into the crystal. Instantly, the crystal starts to glow brighter and vibrate. She pours mana into the supportive bubble, careful not to add too much at once until the crystales to a halt. Then, under the curious gazes of a few other students who are distracted by the bright light, the crystal breaks itself apart into a fine powder. The powdered crystal falls, in a thin glittering stream, directly into the ramekin below. To finish off her preparation, Emily grabs a small set of bncing scales and carefully divides the crystal powder into three equal portions before looking around and seeing a few students looking at her strangely. Confused, she looks to Ivor and sees him standing with his crystal in a mortar and one of his hands holding the side, injecting mana into it, lighting up the array carved around its outside. His other hand holds a pestle that he uses to delicately crush up the crystal. I see, the array on the mortar stabilises the crystal in the same way as my mana bubble, but without asrge a mana cost. I wonder if I could create an unattributed spell to perform the same function, or does it need to be in the form of an array to work? Emily turns back to the front and waits patiently for Mrs Myrtle to continue guiding the ss, ignoring the murmured conversations around her about her strange preparation techniques. Chapter 47 – Alchemical Aspirations Chapter 47 ¨C Alchemical Aspirations ¡°Time¡¯s up!¡± Mrs Myrtle shouts, silencing the room and pulling everyone¡¯s focus back to her. ¡°That should be enough time for even the slowest of you as long as you¡¯ve been paying attention properly,¡± she says while casting a nce at a few students still shamefully crushing crystals. ¡°Now, on to preparing our ingredients themselves. You all have it easy today, as the nymph¡¯s blood doesn¡¯t need anything doing to it, and the wyrmroot has already been cleaned so you just need to prepare it. We shall be preparing enough to attempt brewing three times, so please take six stalks out of the storage jar and grab your cutting tes.¡± Emily follows her instructions, grabbing the smooth white stone sheet and cing it in the centre of the table in front of her as she pops the lid off the wyrmroot¡¯s jar. A rich earthy aroma hits her the moment the seal on the jar breaks, followed by a soothing calm spreading through her body. Ignoring the effects of the root, she pulls out one of them and ces it on the te. ¡°Now, you are going to take your preparation knife, and slowly split the veins from the root. Be very careful not to cut the veins, if you break a vein, you will spoil the entire root and be forced to throw it away. Once you have separated the body and veins of the root, leave the veins whole and pulp the body, being careful to keep the sets of prepared veins with their original bodies unless you want an imbnce to ruin your potion. If you need an example, watch me do it once first: if not, start when you are ready,¡± Mrs Myrtle says before looking down at the root before her and raising a small silver knife with immense focus. Emily watches her slowly bring the knife to the edge of the root, before carefully tracing it along the side of one of the red veins. She slowly guides her hand down the length of the root without a single quiver. After reaching the bottom of the nt, she lifts her knife back to the top and traces it along the other side of the vein. By the time she reaches the bottom again, the vein is practically falling from the root. Seems easy enough. Emily grabs her own silver knife and carefully cuts out all of the roots. Her hands smoothly follow her will, without a single vibration or variation from the intended path, a testament to her vastly improved dexterity. cing the loose veins together on an empty tray, she grabs an empty mortar and pestle, grinding up the root¡¯s body before cing it in an empty ramekin next to its veins. She repeats this process with the other five roots in the jar, only having her focus broken once when Mrs Myrtle starts moving around the room to inspect the students¡¯ preparation. Upon seeing Emily¡¯s controlled and fluid motions, she gives her an approving nod before moving on silently. After twenty minutes, everyone in the ss finishes preparing their roots, and Mrs Myrtle returns to the front of the room to continue guiding them. ¡°Next, we move on to preparing our cauldron¡¯s arrays. Can anyone tell me which array or arrays we will need to use for this potion?¡± Several hands shoot up, and Mrs Myrtle picks a random boy in the back row. ¡°Just a control array. There are no unstable ingredients in the recipe.¡± ¡°Good! He¡¯spletely correct, nymph blood and wyrmroot are both magically weak ingredients on their own and don¡¯t have any major conflicts, so we can mix them without the need for any form of stabilising array or agent,¡± she says while moving to stand in front of therge cauldron next to her desk. ¡°We will, however, need a control array to help us manage the reaction since most of you won¡¯t have the refined mana control to do without yet.¡± She lifts the lid of the cauldron and turns it to show its insides to the ss, revealing aplex weaving of runes carved onto a silver panel within. Emily stares at the magic circle, awed by the density of engravings. That¡¯s got to be a third circle array at least, there¡¯s over twice as many runes as in my second circle spells. Can second circle mages even activate that? ¡°All of your cauldrons have these flexible arrays mounted in the lid. Some of you have used these before, but if you haven¡¯t, you can activate the appropriate section by channelling mana into the correct point on the outside.¡± Mrs Myrtle flips the lid and points to several small silver dots snaking around the edge of it. ¡°Each point will have a small letter carved next to it to show what it activates. C is the basic control array. If you haven¡¯t used one of these before, please have a y with it now to familiarise yourself with it before we begin our brewing.¡± Upon being given permission, Emily follows most of the ss in moving over to her cauldron and tracing her finger around the outside of the lid. Quickly locating the small engraved ¡®C¡¯, she ces her finger over the corresponding white dot and pours her mana into it. The moment her mana saturates the array, she feels an ethereal connection being formed and watches in fascination as her vision splits, as a strand of mana stretches down into the cauldron allowing her to see inside. The odd change in perception, being able to see outside the cauldron with her eyes and inside with her mana, makes her feel slightly dizzy, but she adjusts after a few seconds. Curiously, she moves her mana around the inside of the cauldron for a bit, experiencing a strange feeling of disconnect with the strand. How interesting, it feels like themands to my mana are being dyed and having small variations removed... It¡¯s artificially removing unstable motions that would upset the brewing! This may have been helpful before I practised controlling my mana enough to develop the mana maniption skill, but it feels limiting right now. Pulling her finger away, she breaks her connection with the array before cing her hand t on the top of the lid. Shutting her eyes, she directs her mana to flow out of her palm, forming into a pure strand on the other side and reaching down into the body of the cauldron. She performs the same motions as before, confirming that she has better control without the array. I guess I don¡¯t need to use it then. Though, I¡¯m not quite sure how to view inside using mana alone, so I might have to use it anyway for now. Her testing is interrupted when Mrs Myrtle ps her hands to draw everyone¡¯s attention back to her. ¡°Right, that¡¯s enough time to familiarise yourselves with the array, now it¡¯s time to start brewing!¡± She gathers the prepared materials next to her cauldron while exining the brewing process to the ss. ¡°You should already know this recipe by heart, so follow along as I demonstrate. We start the process by pouring three hundred millilitres of water into our cauldron and starting the fire beneath.¡± Emily follows her instructions, measuring out the correct amount of water and pouring it into her cauldron. Then she bends down and ces a hand on the logs held in a small chamber underneath. With a small burst of fire-charged mana, the logs ignite, and she quickly retracts her hand before standing back up. ¡°While we wait for the water toe to a boil, measure out two hundred millilitres of nymph¡¯s blood and bring over your prepared wyrmroot.¡± Emily pops the lid off of the jar of blood and carefully measures two hundred millilitres using an empty ss measuring beaker. She then ces the beaker and two portions of veins and pulped root at the ready on the edge of the table next to the cauldron. She watches the water intently as the surface begins to shake. ¡°Now use your own judgement and add the nymph¡¯s blood the moment the water starts to boil, then rece the lid,¡± Mrs Myrtle calls out before fallingpletely silent with the rest of the ss and watching her own cauldron carefully. A few small bubbles start to rise to the surface of Emily¡¯s cauldron, but she holds off on adding the blood. A few students around her rush to add their blood and she scoffs at them internally. The heat isn¡¯t evenly distributed so most of your water isn¡¯t even boiling yet, idiots. The bubbles in her cauldron quickly multiply until the calm of the surface is broken by a raging torrent of activity. Reacting quickly, Emily pours the beaker of blood into the roiling waters. The viscous fluid swiftly overtakes the cauldron, dying the water a crimson hue as they seamlesslybine. After emptying the entire beaker, Emily ces the lid back on the cauldron and starts a mental timer. Two minutes. After the repeated ttering of heavy metal lids dropping into ce settles, Mrs Myrtle addresses the ss once more. ¡°For each stage now, never remove the lid for more time than is required to add your next material. We will leave the nymph¡¯s blood and water to boil for two minutes before we add the pulped wyrmroot body. After that, give it a thorough stir with mana for thirty seconds, then add the veins and a third of your powdered light crystal. Finally, fully incorporate and manage the reaction of your ingredients for thest four minutes! Don¡¯t let one overtake the other since this potion requires a careful bnce. Good luck.¡± Her final words fall as Emily¡¯s mental timer finishes. Emily pulls the lid off slightly and drops two ramekins of wyrmroot pulp into the mixture. Dropping the lid back down instantly, she ignores the light red steam that escapes and ces a hand on the top of the cauldron while shutting her eyes. She reaches a small tendril of mana down through the lid and begins stirring. After thirty seconds pass, she grabs the wyrmroot veins and moves to ce them into the cauldron before noticing theck of crystal powder within her reach. Shit, this will set my timings off. As quickly as she can, she steps away from her cauldron and grabs a ramekin of light crystal powder. She opens the lid and drops the two sets of veins in along with the powder, before cing it down again and connecting to the control array. She watches in rapt fascination through the strange split perception as the glowing crystal powder and ruby wyrmroot veins break down into the violently bubbling crimson mixture, spreading a glistening tint of light through the mixture. Forcing herself to focus and ignore the beautiful sight, she pushes the mana tendril down into the brew and begins to stir again. The viscous fluid resists her control, and as time slowly ticks by, she starts to notice bubbles of extreme dark or extreme light forming impurities throughout the mixture. Each time she notices a problematic bubble forming, she quickly reaches for it and pops it with her mana tendril. However, the speed of impurities forming soon overwhelms the reaction speed of her tendril, and by the time her four minutes of brewing are up, she¡¯s left staring at an uneven mess of colour. With a disappointed sigh, she cuts off her connection with the control array, lifts the lid, and pulls her cauldron off the active fire, looking inside at the failed potion. The viscous red fluid maintains an unappealing appearance, as small off-coloured blobs float about freely. ¡°That¡¯s attempt number one done,¡± Mrs Myrtle calls out while lifting her own cauldron and pouring its contents into a small ss bottle. ¡°Did anybody in here seed on their first try?¡± To Emily¡¯s surprise, not a single student raises their hand in response to the question. Wait, no one seeded? ¡°As expected. Clean out your cauldrons and try again on your own. This lesson only ends when you have tried all three of your attempts so don¡¯t rush and take care in your work,¡± she finishes before stepping away from her table and beginning to move through the room to watch the students work. Emily pours the unpleasant-looking contents of the cauldron into a waste bin before quickly cleaning it out with some extra water. Filling it with three hundred millilitres of water again, she ces it back onto the fire before moving all the required ingredients to the edge of the table, this time making sure not to miss anything out. She follows the same process again, following the precise timings needed, and as she adds the veins and light crystal to the mixture again, she takes a slightly different approach. Dismissing the control array, she ces a hand on top of the cauldron lid and shuts her eyes, pushing a mana tendril down into the brew without assistance. Stirring the contents, she focuses on feeling for mana within the mixture. After a minute or so, at the same point where she started to see coloured bubbles, she starts feeling dense points of mana gathering. Thought so! I can use mana density to work out where the impurities are without seeing the mixture. With great speed and control, sheshes out with her mana tendril, bursting apart any impurities before they can fully take shape. The second four minutes pass, she pulls off the lid and is greeted by a burst of light crimson mist and an enticing sweet smell, along with a system notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Quest generated: Alchemical Aspirations [Alchemical Aspirations] [Rank:] D [Description:] You¡¯ve joined the world of alchemy by following a known recipe. Now be a true alchemist and create your own! Requirements: -Create and sessfully brew a new unique potion (Not Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Chemistry _____ Wait, only a single knowledge for a D-rank quest? It¡¯s either a really useful knowledge, or this system¡¯s unfair. As she processes her new quest, she takes a ss bottle from the table and pours the healing potion from her cauldron into it. Putting the cork into ce, she happily marvels at the bright crimson liquid with glittering sparks of light mana flowing through it. ¡°We have our first sess! Congrattions, Miss Coldstone,¡± Mrs Myrtle says from behind her, catching Emily by surprise. Emily turns to face her and thanks her with a smile. Mrs Myrtle urges her to try herst attempt before handing her a list of books for further reading, wishing her luck, and leaving to continue her job. Chapter 48 – Introductions Chapter 48 ¨C Introductions Emily finishes her lesson and then wastes the day, resetting twenty-four hourster to gain more free practice brewing and to check for a first-try quest. Upon realising there is no quest, she spends a few resets trying different methods of injecting mana and machina to stir the mixture and remove impurities. Machina has no effect on the process at all, and the moment she tries to disperse her mana within the mixture, it contaminates the process and ruins the careful bnce she has formed. However, she does realise that she can create an independent strand of mana with each core to help. A few weekster, she finds herself returning to Oscar¡¯s training room once again, this time set up as a in grey and white hall, reminiscent of the B-grade training room''s default setup. Today is one of her few free days, without any of her new intermediate sses, and Oscar has gathered the expedition group to practise their coordination. Standing to the side as they wait for thest few members to show up, Emily and Ivor have a silent conversation alone. ¡°Weren¡¯t you meant to have hand-to-handbat sses right now?¡± Ivor signs worriedly. ¡°Not anymore, A passed a few of usst week so I¡¯m moving up to intermediate sses now. They¡¯re in the morning instead, but she told me to wait a week before joining since today was a bad lesson to start on apparently.¡± Ivor nods before ncing ufortably at Oscar, who has kept a close eye on both him and Emily since they entered. ¡°Are you sure about this? He¡¯s been acting weird for a while. Is this safe?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Emily answers with a grin. ¡°He¡¯s currently slightly scared of me since I showed him these.¡± She moves a hand to her chest and lightly taps one of the grenades hanging from a bandolier. Ivor shivers slightly and nods in understanding, remembering Emily telling him about the contents of the dangerous weapons she carries so casually. ¡°That¡¯s reasonable then. As long as he won¡¯t attack us, it¡¯s fine.¡± Their silent conversation stops as the three final group members walk into the training room. Looking around at the group, Emily notices how all of them but her, Oscar, and four of the bronze-crested vassals are still only wearing their standard robes. Oscar has a silken purple robe with golden stitching. As he moves to the centre of the room it ps open slightly, and she sees an intricate weaving of runes concealed within. The four vassals, two boys and two girls, are both without robes. Instead, they are just wearing simple trousers and shirts while carryingrge, oversized bags on their backs. As for Emily herself, while at first nce she doesn¡¯t look much different, underneath her robes are several pieces of newly finished battle gear. Her shoes are an E-rank pair of ck, knee-high leather boots that grant her an extra four strength and two agility. The soles are an aggressive-looking ck metal, with a few small gears visible on the sides. With a slight burst of mana or machina into the magic array held within, a stream of steam can be released to activate the internal mechanisms to adjust the treads on the bottom. When activated, small sets of metal spikes extend out of the sole to give more traction or deal increased damage with sweeping kicks. The feature that caused her the most grief to include, though, is the small earth crystal integrated into the side of the heels, which powers a spell for increasing the weight of the shoes at will. With a single thought, she can nt her feet for more stability, or deliver a kick with devastating force. The ck metal spreads in thin tes up her shins, providing a little added protection without much weight. Her trousers remain unchanged, still a simple durable leather pair. However, strapped to her right thigh is a custom-made six-shot revolver. While being a failure in Emily¡¯s eyes, since it only met F-rank, the gun is a delicately machined mass of ck metal thatfortably sits in her hand, so she can¡¯t reallyin. Around her waist is a belt with several pouches and a few ss bottles attached. Most of the pouches are filled with ammunition for her pistol, a few of them being unique by-products of her research, and a few being standard. The others contain a couple of magic crystals for powering spells or arrays in a pinch. The bottles contain a few basic healing potions, brought along as an extra precaution. Her torso is wrapped in sleek E-rank body-armour, which sadly didn¡¯t count towards her progression requirements, but provides her with an extra five vitality. The base of it is a shirt made from the stic nt fibres she tested for Auntie Annie, dyed in ck and given as a gift for helping test the fabric. There are several form-fitting sheets of thin titanium ced over her vital areas, and several runic engravings trace her body¡¯s curves, forming the two passive enchantments of the armour. The runes all flow to meet four small magic crystals sitting at the base of her neck. Two are wind element, solely dedicated to reducing the armour¡¯s weight to a barely noticeable burden. The other two are earth and metal element, thetter being a rare find Emily spotted on the contribution market, working in tandem to reinforce the metal tes against physical and magical attacks. Finally, lying across her chest armour, barely visible through the opening in her robes, is her bandolier of assorted grenades. Some simple mana grenades, and some a new design containing a mix of ck powder and powdered light crystals, with eight thin channels carved down their sides. As hees to a halt in the centre of the room, Oscar ps his hands to grab everyone¡¯s attention and calls for them to group up. ¡°Right, everybody, we leave for The de in three weeks, so until then, we will meet up like this once a week to practise formations andbat together to make sure everything goes smoothly. To start with, let¡¯s introduce ourselves and our specialities so we all understand what everyone is capable of. I¡¯ll go first,¡± he says with a confident smile as he looks around the group. ¡°I¡¯m Oscar, second circle, and I¡¯m a wind mage. I specialise in barriers and long-range attack spells.¡± Emily can¡¯t help the small grin that creeps onto her face at his introduction. No wonder my implicit threat worked so well; I proved that I could kill him through his speciality! Oscar turns his head to a short boy with a stern frown standing to his left, gesturing for him to introduce himself next. ¡°Enzo Dianthus, second circle, earth mage, control spells.¡± The moment he finishes his brisk introduction, the tall boy with a beaming smile and fiery red hair standing with his arm around Enzo¡¯s shoulder jumps in. ¡°Dante Hibiscus, second circle, fire mage specialised in area of attack spells.¡± ¡°Cormac Anemone, second circle, darkness mage specialised in debuffs,¡± the final silver-crested boy states calmly, his gaunt face and sizeable eye bags making Emily question if he has ever seen light in the first ce. ¡°Nora Anemone, second circle, light mage specialised in healing,¡± a short, expressionless girl next to Cormac continues. ¡°Mia Poinsettia, second circle, water mage specialised in barriers and control,¡± the other silver-crested girl introduces herself before directing a cold gaze towards Emily and Ivor. The group all turn their focus on them next, with only Oscar and Dante not disying clear displeasure at their presence. ¡°Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago, second circle, I use several elements but mostly focus on fire and lightning. I specialise in close-quartersbat and area destruction I guess,¡± she says calmly while ncing down at her grenade belt. ¡°This is Ivor Juric of house Madonna, second circle, he¡¯s an earth mage specialised in single target attacks.¡± Ivor nods silently in agreement, causing the group¡¯s displeasure to visibly increase. Unconcerned by his group¡¯s reactions, Oscar turns to the gathered vassals and gestures for them to begin introducing themselves atst. ¡°Bianca Ianni of house Hibiscus, second circle, I¡¯m a wind mage specialised in long-range attacks.¡± ¡°Matteo Caprio of house Poinsettia, second circle, fire mage also specialised in long-range attacks.¡± ¡°Erin Moore of house Anemone, second circle, water mage specialised in short-range attacks.¡± ¡°Be Angelico of house Dianthus, second circle, water mage specialised in barriers.¡± ¡°Fionn McCarthy of house Salvia, second circle, another light mage healer.¡± ¡°Callum Gavin of house Salvia, first circle, I¡¯m a space mage but I specialise in close-quartersbat.¡± The six vassals in robes speak first, following the example of their family members and giving a short exnation of theirbat type. Thest of them catches Emily¡¯s attention: she recognises him from hand-to-handbat sses but is surprised by his element. I never knew he was a space mage. I¡¯ll have to keep an eye on him. Maybe I¡¯ll get some ideas on how to cast switch. She furrows her brow slightly at the thought of the space spell she collected but still cannot cast properly. As Emily focuses on Callum, the four mages carrying bags introduce themselves. ¡°Maeve Boyle of house Salvia, first circle, fire mage with no specialisation.¡± ¡°Cian Gavin of house Salvia, first circle, earth mage with no specialisation.¡± ¡°Ricardo Milos of house Dianthus, first circle, wind mage with no specialisation.¡± ¡°Linda Doria of house Ulex, first circle, earth mage with no specialisation.¡± Emily nces between Callum and Cian, unable to spot any family resemnce between the two boys. Are they actually rted? ¡°Great! I hope you all have good memories so this doesn¡¯t be a weekly urrence,¡± Oscar says after they all finish, holding a light, joking tone that elicits a few politeughs from his silver-crested friends. ¡°First, we shall cover our basic travelling formation. After we get dropped off at the edge of The de, our entire expedition will be on foot with danger lurking around every corner, so we have to be alert and prepared for battle at all times. Maeve, Cian, Ricardo, and Linda will be carrying most of our supplies so I would like them to stand at the centre of the formation. Nora and Fionn, you will go with them as well.¡± The four robeless mages listen to his instructions and move to stand together in the middle of the group, surrounding Nora and Fionn without instruction, everyone easily understanding the importance of protecting their healers. ¡°We then need people designated for defence on each side. For this, I want Mia to the left of the carriers¡¯ group and Be to the right. Although you can¡¯t use barriers, Enzo, your area control will help prevent us from getting surprised from behind, so I want you there. I will take the front.¡± As the four defensive mages move to stand in ce, Oscar looks at the rest of the group thoughtfully. ¡°The rest will be more flexible and if anyone else has suggestions on their positions go ahead and speak up, if not I¡¯ll split our forces evenly,¡± he says while looking around calmly. Seeing ack of response from the waiting mages, he nods with a small smile and keeps going. ¡°Fine then, I want Bianca and Matteo at the back with Enzo. You should be able to support the front still with your range if we run into trouble. Ivor and Cormac will join the left nk, and Erin and Callum will join the right.¡± As everyone moves to stand in their designated ce, Emily and Dante are left standing alone out of formation. ¡°And that just leaves you two to join me at the front, with both of your firepower we should easily be able to clear our path,¡± Oscar says with a grin while clearly focusing on Emily. Emily nods calmly while asking a question. ¡°What about detecting enemies? It seems a bit odd to just putrge-scale power in the front without the ability to work out what we¡¯re walking into.¡± ¡°Good point! Does anybody here have any strong detection spells?¡± Oscar suddenly turns and asks the group, having overlooked this point in his preparations. Nobody says anything and Oscar quickly grows disappointed. However, after a few seconds of silence, Ivor raises his hand. ¡°How does your spell work?¡± Oscar asks him immediately. Ivor looks past him to Emily and quickly signs a message. ¡°He said it detects vibrations in the ground. It works better when he¡¯s stationary but can still be used as an early warning system,¡± Emily trantes before adding input of her own. ¡°Oh, I also have that spell, but I¡¯m not great at using it so I¡¯m going to work on something better before the expedition.¡± ¡°That should be fine then, let me know when you finish. For now, we¡¯ll keep this basic formation and ask Ivor to use his detection periodically as we move. Is that okay?¡± Ivor nods his head in agreement. ¡°Sorted! Thanks for thinking ahead, Emily,¡± Oscar shes her a grateful smile. ¡°No problem. It makes my job easier if I know what¡¯sing to attack me.¡± ¡°Haha, fair point. Let¡¯s put our formation to the test then shall we,¡± he calls out excitedly, looking over the group as his smile stretches into a grin. ¡°Training room, change setting to The de test one!¡± The moment the words leave his mouth, the entire room starts to shake slightly, surprising everyone as they start looking around. Emily sees the distant in white walls start to fade, being reced by a horizon and skyline that she knows can¡¯t actually exist in the underground space. The ground beneath their feet shifts, turning from smooth grey stone to soft, damp earth, before grass and bushes begin to grow from nothing. As the shrubs reach their chests, suddenly tall trees begin rocketing out of the ground, shooting to tower dozens of metres above them and partially blocking the artificial lights above. Emily even tastes the air gaining a hint of humidity and a natural earthy smell as a low fog rolls in to surround them. As the shaking subsides, Emily looks around in wonder at the drastic changes and hears the faint sound of branches snapping and leaves rustling, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. ¡°This is a training mode set up by past members of the Salvia household who have been into The de. Both the environment and the enemies have been modelled to give as realistic a training exercise as possible,¡± Oscar says quietly, only just loud enough to be heard by everyone. ¡°Enemies?!¡± Maeve cries out in shock from the middle of the formation. The moment she does, a long, fast-moving object shoots out of the trees ahead of them. Core two, assistive processing. With a singlemand, Emily¡¯s perception slows to a standstill, and she gazes at the long dark red object stretching past her towards Maeve. With a small grin, she reaches and grabs the object, stopping its advance before giving it a violent yank. Arge dark green frog flies out of the trees towards her against its will, pulled by its tongue, and Emily quickly stabs her free arm towards its head. With a small spark of machina, her w shoots out and impales the creature, stopping it dead in its tracks, itsrge dark eyes zing over within moments. Assistive processing off. ¡°Yes, enemies,¡± Emily says quietly, dropping the beast''s disintegrating corpse to the ground and turning to look at the horrified expressions of her teammates. Chapter 49 – Trial Run Chapter 49 ¨C Trial Run The group falls into silence, all of their focus on the corpse of the giant frog slowly dissolving into nothingness. No one says a word until their silent surprise is disturbed by Oscar speaking again in a hushed whisper. ¡°As you can see, from the moment I activated the training mode we have to be incredibly cautious, like we¡¯re already in The de. There are still a few core differences between this and the actual environment that you should keep in mind. First, it may be raining, but that¡¯s not simted because of the amount of extra mana draw it would require from The Dome. Second, the space we can use, while distorted by the spatial enchantments in the room, is still limited. That means, all the beasts in here will be within a limited range and react to sound even faster. Finally, the unpredictability of The de can¡¯t be replicated. No matter how well we do in this simtion, never drop your guard once we¡¯re in there for real.¡± His words send a ripple of understanding through the group, the quickbat encounter working to drive home his points. ¡°Now, treat this as the real deal and let¡¯s get moving.¡± Finished giving his speech, Oscar gives Emily a light nod and begins silently marching forward. Drawing in her exposed de with a small burst of machina, Emily follows his example and slowly begins pushing forwards through the loose foliage. The gathered group quietly do the same, no one daring to stray too far from the pack. As they quietly move forward for a few minutes, Emily¡¯s eyes never leave her surroundings. She carefully observes the crowded shrubs and nts filling the lower level, and asionally casts her gaze up towards the sheltering canopy above. The dense blend of green and brown along with the light humid haze seems to cause objects to blur together into an indistinguishable mass only a few metres away from her. Her focused observation soon bears fruit, as she spots a flicker of movement in ayer of branches far above. Silently, she raises her hand whileing to aplete stop. A low murmur spreads through the group as people notice her gesture and cautiously follow her unspokenmand. Silence falls over the gathering again as everyone waits with bated breath while looking around in fear and agitation. Ignoring the panicked reactions of most of themoner mages, Emily keeps her gaze high above while signing a request to Ivor. ¡°Scan for enemies.¡± She notices a couple of branches shaking unnaturally on either side of their group and slowly reaches down for her revolver while waiting for Ivor¡¯s response. Ten seconds and three more noticeable movementster, Emily hears a light thud and nces over to Ivor. ¡°Unknown number, above.¡± Damn, vibrations don¡¯t help enough with enemies above. I need to finish a vision spell before the expedition. With a light nod, calm determination settles over Emily as she quietly alerts the group. ¡°An unknown number of enemies above, prepare your barriers.¡± The moment they hear her words, Mia, Be, and Oscar begin chanting in hushed tones. Ignoring them, Emily unclips her revolver and slowly raises it to face the sky. Watching intently, she waits with her finger on the trigger. The instant she sees a flicker of movement, her hand whips into position, squeezing the trigger and sending a machina-charged bullet spiralling into the canopy above. The crack of gunfire is soon followed by a pained screech and a shape falling into the bushes a few metres away from her. Before Emily has time to celebratending her shot, four angry cries ring out in harmony, alerting her to the positions of their ambushers. She moves her gun to aim at another beast, but four jagged dark brown spikes fall fast from above and her vision is quickly impaired by the thin barriers of water and turbulent wind that form to protect her. The moment the barriers cover every group memberpletely, several fast-murmured chants break out as the others finally feel safe enough to counter-attack. Frowning slightly, Emily drops her hand, holstering her gun before silently casting two spells. No one will notice double-casting if I cast one spell internally and another externally! A shimmering silver magic circle appears above her hands, with a small, wide de taking shape in the middle. The de stretches to a few inches long, and a ring twists into being, in ce of the handle. At the same time, a long, thin steel wire forms that she deftly weaves through the de''s ring using her innate control over the forming spells. With her makeshift weapon conjured in less than two seconds, she looks upwards, focusing on one of the faint shapes darting between branches high above, raining sharp objects down on the group. The magic circle around the de fades, starting a one minute timer till the de and wire vanish due to ack of mana. With the wire held firm in her left hand, she holds the de in her right and draws her arm back to full extension while internally casting a third spell. Her arm arcs forward, sending the de sailing through the protective barriers and up towards their overhead attackers. Her third spell finishes and a pulse of lightning enters the wire in her hand. The de sails past her target, mid-jump, but the creature collides with the wire, and is fried by electricity. It tumbles uncontrobly to the ground on the left nk of the group. Emily pulls hard on the cable, drawing the de back in while Ivor moves to confront the fallen enemy. Not sparing him a nce, Emily repeats her attack with another stunning touch spell, dropping another assant to the ground on the right of the group. Before she can try for a third, Dante sends a flurry of ming petals into the sky, hitting thest two enemies and dropping them to the front. Emily turns her focus to the grounded foes and sees two small brown monkeys, covered in several smoking burn marks, rising to meet her with savage expressions as they hiss, revealing their sharp fangs. Taking a deep breath to calm her unsettled nerves, Emily dismisses her metallic conjuration and raises her hands before her. With surprising grace and coordination, the two monkeys leap forward to confront her, one swiping for her legs and the other her head. Emily steps forward, ducking under one attack while bringing her leg up to meet the other with a kick. With a small pulse of mana into her boots, a dull brown glow surrounds her lower leg as it impacts the iing wed hand with devastating force. The monkey¡¯s hand is flung out of the way as Emily¡¯s foot continues past to smash into its unprotected head. The monkey crumples to the ground, unmoving, as Emily deactivates her boot¡¯s weight control and springs backwards to correct her stance before leaping towards her remaining confused foe. The monkey tries to fight back, but Emily slips past its wild swipes with practised ease and delivers a decisive blow to its heart with an outstretched w. Leaving its corpse alone, she quickly finishes off the other unconscious enemy before turning to watch her group deal with the others. As she does, she starts channelling earthen detection with her second core for good measure. She sees Ivor standing silently above the disintegrating corpse of a monkey with its skull pulverised, a heavy-looking rock lying next to it, dripping with blood. The final monkey is battling Erin and Callum. One of its arms is missing, sliced clean off by a de of water from Erin, but it stands strong, challenging Callum¡¯s approach with its other arm outstretched. A shimmering purple magic circle surrounds Callum as he moves in, shaking in sync with his chanting, and his raised sword swipes swiftly towards his opponent. The monkey seems to sneer at him in defiance as its instincts judge the sword sh to be too shallow to reach, but Callum ignores it andmits to his attack. A fraction of a second before his de misses, the glowing purple magic circle stretches out before Callum and stutters to life. Emily blinks once, and Callum¡¯s de cuts clean through the monkey¡¯s throat, sending its head flying off. Incredible! The space between them shrank the moment he cast his spell. What a useful element, I definitely need to spend some time looking at it when this is over. She pulls her gaze away from her groupmates and looks towards a bush where her earthen detection spell keeps informing her of small vibrations. Moving towards the bush, she gazes in at the monkey crawling towards her despite the hole through its stomach and both its legs hanging limply behind it. Wait, these are rocky howlers! I don¡¯t think they would be this driven to keep fighting. Aren¡¯t they meant to be cowards? Shaking off her concerns about the training''s uracy, she finishes it off before returning to the group. ¡°Pause training,¡± Oscar calls out into the room, receiving a loud beep in return and causing the forest around them to fall silent. ¡°Good job everyone, that was an eptable first encounter. Does anybody have any feedback or suggestions to give?¡± Cormac raises his hand, grabbing everyone¡¯s attention before turning his cold gaze on Emily and speaking out. ¡°Your gun is too noisy. Are you stupid? Why do you think we don¡¯t send armed squads into The de already?¡± Oscar quickly nces towards Emily with a conflicted frown set on his face. ¡°You¡¯re right, it was too loud,¡± Emily easily agrees to his venom-filledint, surprising Oscar and Ivor greatly. ¡°Let me fix that.¡± Pulling her revolver from its holster, Emily pops out the cylinder and drops the bullets into her palm. Popping open a few pouches on her belt, she puts away the standard ammunition and pulls out six rounds with a small wind symbol carved onto the sides of the casings. Deftly loading the six new bullets, Emily flicks the cylinder back in, pulls back the priming hammer, and raises the pistol to aim beside Cormac¡¯s head. Before he can react, she pulls the trigger and a low pop rings out sending the bullet silently past Cormac¡¯s cheek, tond in a nearby tree with a low thump. ¡°There we go, that should be quiet enough,¡± Emily smirks at his stunned silence as she slips her pistol back into its resting ce. Cormac¡¯s shocked countenance slowly morphs into that of rage as he processes what she just did. Before he can start an argument, Oscar silences him with a scowling nce. ¡°Enough of that, are there any other pieces of helpful feedback we can give?¡± he asks, casting a pointed nce at Emily and emphasising the word helpful. ¡°I have something,¡± Emily replies calmly, ignoring his silent reproach. ¡°We should possibly work out some hand signals or something so we can alert everyone to problems without making much noise. It would also be helpful for situations like that if someone else could understand Ivor¡¯s detection reports and say them out loud without me having to look away from the enemies I¡¯ve spotted.¡± Most of the group nod and voice their agreement, while a few of the noble mages begrudgingly look on in silence. ¡°Good idea, I¡¯ll work on a full set of hand signals and write them out for everyone before next week''s training. I expect you all to memorise them and I will be testing you before we leave for the expedition. Anything else?¡± Oscar looks around, waiting a few seconds for a response. After hearing nothing, he restarts the training simtion. They continue moving forward in their formation, pausing every few minutes to allow Ivor time to scan their surroundings for threats. After half an hour, and half a dozenbat encounters, the group walks into an empty clearing with traces of exhaustion evident on their faces. Emily on the other hand guides them with a rxed gait, appearing fresh and alert. She nces at her mana and machina as her second core maintains an earthen detection spell in the background. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 2856/3420 [Machina:] 3414/3420 _____ My resources are barely falling with the repeated use of first circle spells. Though keeping earthen detection up for so long has definitely made a dent¡­ Her thoughts are interrupted by a ping in the back of her mind from her second core. Instantly, she raises a hand to halt the group as she drops into abat-ready stance while reaching for her pistol. Bringing her detection spell to the forefront of her mind, she focuses on the feedback and feels several dozen points of vibration entering her detection range, surrounding the group, and slowly encroaching on their position. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue in irritation before informing the group. ¡°We¡¯re surrounded, there are at least twenty enemies.¡± The sound of chanting soon fills the clearing as everybody prepares for battle. The air hangs heavy over the group as the fog grows denser, rolling in and blocking their view of their surroundings. Shit, I can¡¯t shoot in this. Emily quickly holsters her gun before bringing her hands together in front of her. This is as good a time as any to test out my new spell. With an excited grin, she begins building a magic circle in the air before her, ignoring the glistening sky-blue runes that dance into life and focusing on a point twenty metres away where she feels clustered footfall moving closer. The air around her starts crackling with power and the hairs on the back of her neck raise in anticipation. As the closest vibrations reach ten metres away, the pulsing spell is prepared. Unleashing her creation upon the world, she proudly deres her first second circle attack spell¡¯s name. ¡°Bolt!¡± Chapter 50 – Explosive Lessons Learned Chapter 50 ¨C Explosive Lessons Learned The harsh crack of thunder fills the clearing as a zing bolt of lightning tears through the space before Emily, searing everything in its path. In a split second, before anyone can even blink, the point twenty metres away that she was focused on is connected to her hands by the bolt, forming a void in the fog. Through the newly cleared path, she spots two cat-like creatures that she instantly recognises as fog cats, a jaguar-like creature known for hiding in magically formed fog to hunt. Or at least, what¡¯s left of two fog cats. Both of them are lying unmoving on the ground. One with its head deformed and smoking, ck scorch marks covering its snout to the base of its neck, with the rest of its body still hidden within the mist, having avoided the worst of the spell. The other wasn¡¯t so lucky: lying in the centre of the lightning¡¯s path, its entire body is scorched and still twitching, thanks to the residual electricity from her spell. While marvelling at the results of her spell, Emily doesn¡¯t forget to warn her group mates of their assants in advance. ¡°It¡¯s fog cats!¡± she shouts while pulling two grenades off her bandolier. ¡°Bianca,e help me clear the fog! The rest of you keep them away until we finish,¡± Oscar instructs calmly. ¡°With pleasure,¡± Emily says with an evil grin, charging both grenades full of machina and tossing them deep into the fog near clusters of movement. ¡°Cover your ears!¡± Following her own advice, Emily blocks her ears with her hands as she starts preparing a second bolt. Two thunderous booms sound ahead of them, and several crackling shards of metal fly past the group. One of the shards hits Dante, cancelling his prepared spell as he cries out in pain and clutches his thigh. Okay, maybe I shouldn¡¯t be charging those with machina so close to friendlies. Unconcerned by her friendly fire, Emily turns away from the front, where she no longer detects any movement, and checks on the group. The two nks are handling themselves fine, surrounded by thin barriers of water, they throw small spells and sh sharp des at any shapes that try to emerge from the fog, forcing them to back off. However, Matteo and Enzo are obviously struggling to maintain the back without Bianca¡¯s help. Noticing their plight, Emily dashes to the side, breaking formation and crossing into the fog while focusing on the fast-approaching vibrations at the back of the group. The moment she has a clear shot past everyone, she raises both hands before her while activating the shimmering magic circle that awaits hermand. Another bolt of lightning rips the fog apart, scorching a line through three more fog cats. Emily ignores the falling bodies and turns to face the multiple sets of footsteps charging towards her from hidden within the mist. She turns to face them while slowly backing towards the group, but before she can move very far, a shape springs at her from the fog. Ducking to avoid therge cat, Emily shes a w against its stomach, splitting it open from throat to groin. She rises as two more cats leap at her, sidestepping one and meeting the other¡¯s skull with her elbow. With a clean swipe from her w, the downed fog cat is quickly executed as she keeps her focus on the concealed creatures still circling her. These things would be a bitch to fight if I wasn¡¯t channelling a detection spell right now. Emily tracks thest cat with her finger, quickly shooting an air burst towards it. The spell flies past the cat¡¯s head, taking some of the fog with it and revealing the prowling form within. She draws her revolver and nts a bullet between the cat¡¯s eyes before turning and running back into formation. The moment she arrives back in ce, she looks at the gift Oscar and Bianca prepared for the fog cats with intrigue. Both of them are standing facing each other, with their arms outstretched and connected to arge spell construct holding in a massive ball of wind mana between them. Oscar is muttering a long chant alone, while Bianca stands silently, her face pale and sweat dripping from her brow. Oscar¡¯s chant soones to an end as he calls out the final line loudly: ¡°Oh winds of change, sweep away deceit and clear all in my range! Airspace im!¡± As he shouts the name of his spell confidently, the giant magic circle before him glows an iridescent green as it springs into life, twisting around the ball of mana and constricting. After shrinking for a second, the spell bursts, throwing out violent winds and blowing the surrounding fog back. Emily shields her face from the wind while activating her boots to hold her firmly to the ground. A few secondster, the winds die down and she nces around to see the trees clearly, an area of around fifty metrespletely cleared of fog. Emily smiles slightly, quickly scanning the clearing, counting ten fog cats left alive. No longer hunting in their favoured environment, the cats are quickly eliminated by a couple of well-ced spells and bullets, putting an end to their surprise ambush. With the danger gone, both healers rush out from the centre of the formation to tend to wounds. Nora heads to the back of the group to help Matteo with a nasty gash across his chest, meanwhile, Emily watches Fionn take a look at Dante¡¯s leg, feeling slightly guilty for her slip-up. Fionn ces his hand on Dante¡¯s thigh, covering the bullet wound with his palm. A resplendent golden glow pours from his hand, entering the wound and illuminating it, so that the shrapnel¡¯s path is visible through the surrounding flesh. ¡°Lucky, the shrapnel passed clean through. This is an easy fix,¡± Fionn says calmly, shing Dante a kind smile. Dante doesn¡¯t respond, too focused on taking deep breaths to cope with the pain. Fionn starts a long chant, a matrix of golden runes forming around his hand and covering Dante¡¯s thigh with golden light. Emily watches with fascination as the hole slowly closes itself, growing healthy new flesh to rece the old. By the time Fionn has finished, the hole has vanished. The only signs that the injury ever existed are the bloodstained rips left in Dante¡¯s trousers and Fionn¡¯s slight exhaustion. ¡°Sorry about that, I shouldn¡¯t have used grenades that close to the group,¡± Emily apologises, offering a hand to pull him up. ¡°It¡¯s fine, mistakes happen. That¡¯s what these trial runs are for after all,¡± Dante responds calmly, grabbing her hand and standing up. ¡°Those were some fine explosions though,¡± he adds with a slightly crazed grin. ¡°Haha, thanks.¡± Emily turns to move back into ce as Oscar ps his hands, calling the group¡¯s attention. ¡°Training room, end test!¡± The illusion of the forest surrounding them flickers before vanishing, leaving them standing back in the in white and grey cube. ¡°That will be all for today folks. I would like everybody to return at the same time next week, and the week after, so we can get some more practice in. Also, on the evening before we leave, my family will be hosting a banquet in our capital mansion to wish us all luck. I do hope all of you will attend. It should be a wonderful evening.¡± Oscar finishes speaking andmands the training room to leave the door open as the group slowly disperses. Ivor and Oscar both approach Emily. ¡°Hey, Emily,¡± Oscar starts, appearing slightly unsure about what to say next. ¡°Would it be possible for you to not-¡° ¡°Throw explosives so close to the group, right?¡± Emily finishes for him, finding his meek attitude in front of her amusing. ¡°Yes, thank you,¡± he says with a relieved sigh. ¡°Also, I know Cormac was rude, but please don¡¯t threaten people like that again. I don¡¯t want my expedition party falling out before we even leave.¡± ¡°I make no promises, but I¡¯ll try to be less hostile,¡± she agrees half-heartedly. ¡°Thanks,¡± he nods with a tired smile and turns to leave, walking a few metres before pausing and looking back over his shoulder with a crafty glint in his eyes. ¡°Please extend a banquet invitation to Miss Madonna. Her attendance is most wee.¡± Did he just invite Jules to stop me from causing problems? Frowning slightly, Emily shakes the thought away and turns to the two remaining boys. Giving Ivor a small nod of acknowledgement, she focuses on Dante, who hasn¡¯t left yet and is watching her intently. ¡°Yo, what¡¯s up?¡± She asks, tilting her head slightly. ¡°Ah, sorry,¡± he says without conviction. ¡°I just wanted to ask about your explosives.¡± He grins, gesturing towards the grenade belt on her chest, ¡°Those are grenades, right? They don¡¯t look like any standard Modo or Morzea military models. Did you buy them from overseas, or are they custom orders?¡± Emily¡¯s slightly taken aback by his questioning and freezes for a moment. How much should I reveal? He seems to be part of Oscar¡¯s faction so probably won¡¯t spread the word... ¡°Yeah, they were a custom order,¡± she says, settling on half-truths. ¡°They pack a lot more punch than the usual.¡± ¡°I can tell. That shrapnel was nasty, wouldn¡¯t usually burn or disable my leg like that. What do they put in them?¡± ¡°Wait, what do you mean by disabled your leg?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t know? The moment it hit me, my thigh locked up and wouldn¡¯t respond for a few seconds.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Emily mutters, biting on her thumb as she breaks down his feedback. The burning was from the fire crystal heating the metal. Was the disabling effect from the leftover machina? I guess flooding someone¡¯s system with my own bioelectricity would interfere with their internal signals. Snapping herself out of her thoughts quickly, she gives Dante a dismissive answer. ¡°Sorry, not quite sure what that is. My source is quite secretive about their products. If you want to buy some though, ask Oscar. I gave him the contact details.¡± She passes off the problem to Oscar, before adding with a small smile: ¡°Though, with your spells I¡¯m not so sure you need them.¡± ¡°Thanks, they¡¯re wonderful, right?¡± he asks excitedly. ¡°They¡¯re certainly pretty,¡± Emily agrees, thinking back to the flower-themed mes Dante threw around wantonly inbat. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, is the flower motif part of your mental image or the spell form?¡± Dante pauses at her question, scratching his head while scrunching his face up in thought. ¡°Hmm, I guess it can¡¯t hurt to tell you if Oscar likes you enough to invite you on our expedition, it¡¯s kind of an open secret anyway. It¡¯s a mixture of both! You were using silent internal casting earlier, right?¡± Emily nods, slightly surprised he was watching her closely enough to notice and recognise her casting method. ¡°Then I¡¯m sure you understand that a spell can be made with either a chant or a mental image. Well, the chants for my family¡¯s spells all include flower-rted imagery, and from a young age, we¡¯re taught to form a mental image that rtes fire and flowers. It¡¯s to the point now where even my normal fire spells take on slightly floral shapes! As for the spell form, I¡¯m pretty sure it includes runes for shaping it, but I don¡¯t really understand it enough to tell you for certain. Sorry, but I¡¯m sure you understand that I can¡¯t show you.¡± ¡°No that¡¯s plenty. Thanks for even answering my question.¡± ¡°No problem, that¡¯s what teammates are for, right?¡± His silly grin returns as he offers her a fist bump. ¡°Haha, sure.¡± She returns his fist bump, turning to talk to Ivor before remembering something and calling after Dante. ¡°By the way, if you buy any grenades, don¡¯t try opening them! They detonate if you try to reverse engineer them.¡± He nces back and gives her a thumbs-up. I wonder if Oscar ever tried? I never mentioned that to him. Chuckling to herself quietly, she finally turns her attention to Ivor. ¡°Sorry about that. Who would¡¯ve thought I¡¯m so popr?¡± Ivor rolls his eyes at her before gesturing towards the door and signing a question. ¡°You ready to leave?¡± ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go.¡± *** That evening over dinner, Emily invites Juliana to the expedition banquet. With much excitement and an enthusiastic hug, Juliana agrees to go and starts nning a trip to Threads to get dresses made for them both. Emily falls into a final crunch of preparations for the expedition. She works on several new spells and machines, goes to sses, and remembers to spend time with her friends and girlfriend. She even adds meditating on the concept of space to her busy schedule, with little sess. Time flows by quickly, and soon Emily finds herself standing in a dress before her bathroom mirror, ring at the reflection staring back at her. The dress is a striking electric blue, matching the pale lightning magic circles that are quickly bing her forte. It¡¯s sleeveless and falls to sit just above her knees, covering the small pouch strapped to her thigh holding The Clock and a few small knives. Her arms are covered up to the elbow with matching gloves, and covering her legs are thebat boots she refuses topromise on. Anna would hate me wearing these with a nice dress... Too bad she¡¯ll never know. With a smug grin, she leaves her room and goes to knock on Juliana¡¯s door. After a few moments of waiting, the door fades to reveal a sight that leaves Emily standing in stunned silence. Juliana appears before her in a long, pale yellow gown that highlights her flowing brown hair and eyes. The shy smile on her lips as she looks at Emily expectantly forms butterflies in Emily¡¯s stomach. ¡°What do you think?¡± Juliana asks, waking Emily from her stupor. ¡°I think you look beautiful,¡± Emily responds, offering Juliana her arm. ¡°Aww, thanks Emi. You look very pretty too,¡± Juliana says with a dazzling smile while wrapping herself around Emily¡¯s offered arm. ¡°At least I feel like I could move around properly in this,¡± Emily mumbles with a light blush. ¡°No fighting tonight! However, if it¡¯s moving to dance, I¡¯ll allow it.¡± Emily scoffs, pulling Juliana towards the transportation room to begin their trip out of The Dome. ¡°I¡¯ll try my best.¡± Chapter 51 – The Banquet Begins Chapter 51 ¨C The Banquet Begins Emily and Juliana board the train alone, Ivor having insisted oning separately, and settle down, side by side, in a private booth. As the train slides out of the station, they quietly look out over the city, framed in the golden light of the setting evening sun. The mist around The Dome shimmers with a pale ethereal glow, curling around the nearby buildings and flooding the city with its presence. ¡°Did you ever ask about what the mist does?¡± Juliana asks softly after a few minutes. ¡°Yeah, I asked a few weeks ago in enchanting,¡± Emily answers eagerly. ¡°It¡¯s a supermassive array under The Dome that was set up when The Covenant was created. It fulfils three major functions, the first is one you already know, confusing unawakened people that try to get close to The Dome and turning them around. I assume it¡¯s some form of illusion, like the training room enemies. The second is cleaning the city, an extra function requested by the royal family to keep their capital looking nice and shiny. Thest is tracking. The array detects all movement within the mist and especially gs mana signatures to help spot any mages trying to infiltrate the city. It¡¯s got to be an incredible array; I wish I could go see it.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you?¡± ¡°No. The teleport down to it is limited to only trusted members of The Covenant who¡¯ve separated from their family and sworn a mana-bound oath of loyalty to The Covenant.¡± ¡°Aww, that¡¯s a shame,¡± Juliana says with a downcast tone, reassuringly squeezing Emily¡¯s hand. Emily nods silently, falling into her own thoughts on the matter. I may not be able to see it now, but maybe if I seed in casting space spells I¡¯ll be able to teleport into the array room to have a look when I reach third circle. I¡¯ll probably set off their security systems, but they¡¯ve got to be weaker from inside The Dome, and I can reset after memorising the full array. They sit infortable silence for the remainder of the trip. After the train pulls into their stop, they disembark the train and Emily is slightly taken aback by the opulence of the revealed station. The tform is made of polished white stone, with gold metallic highlights tracing the edges. The ceiling is far above, an archedttice of stained ss, forming a breathtaking kaleidoscope of colours on the white stone below. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡± Juliana says, drawing Emily away from her appreciation. ¡°Mmm, it is.¡± Emily nods in agreement. ¡°Have you been here before?¡± ¡°Yeah, I came here with my mum once for a party.¡± Juliana starts pulling on Emily¡¯s arm, which is once again linked with hers, guiding her to an exit. They leave the station and step onto a long, winding gangway nked by daunting behemoths of metal. Each hulking block reaches out of the dense, swirling mist below, all the way up to the gangway on the top level of the city. All the loweryers are industrial and robust looking, with few windows and dozens of pipes jutting out and dropping smog into the lower levels of the city. In stark contrast, the top level of each metal structure is upied by an expansive garden, filled with vibrant greens and bursts of other colours in the form of carefully maintained flower beds and fruit trees. The gardens are filled with the city¡¯s mist, but it¡¯s so thin it¡¯s almost imperceptible, giving the gardens an unnatural, otherworldly atmosphere. Sitting in the centre of each garden are vast mansions, each styled in different woods and stones to show the personality of the noble house that owns it. Emily and Juliana stroll past the mansions, admiring the stunning gardens, and soon arrive at an open gate with the Salvia crest embossed above. Standing on either side of the gate are mages Emily doesn¡¯t recognise, wearing ck robes with purple ents and bronze Salvia crests pinned to their chests. As they approach the gate, one of the guards reaches into his robes and Emily feels a faint fluctuation of wind mana. ¡°Wee to the Salvia house, please enter at your leisure,¡± the guard says while removing his hand from his robes and bowing lightly. I guess he just checked our identities. With a small nod and a few words of thanks, Emily and Juliana step through the gate onto a stone pathway leading through the garden to the mansion. The walk takes them several minutes, and Emily sees dozens of servants tending to different areas of greenery as they go. ¡°They have so many servants just gardening,¡± Emily mutters with a shocked tone. ¡°Yeah, the big noble families like having lots of servants for everything,¡± Juliana tells her with a slight frown. ¡°All of the levels below us are for their servants and storage.¡± Emily¡¯s eyes widen slightly as she considers that; a building spanning tenyers of the city, only filled with servants. The sheer scale leaves Emily speechless. ¡°Crazy. Does your family not have a lot of servants?¡± Emily asks after a few moments of silence. ¡°We do, but these families are just excessive. Who needs dozens of gardeners? Our garden is the same size as this, and we only need ten!¡± They arrive at the main double door to the house as Emily giggles at Juliana¡¯s outburst. The doors are once again standing open, this time with four mages standing guard and six normal servants in simple ck suits and dresses waiting for guests on either side of the doors. The mages silently cast their gazes over the two without any reactions, and one of the servants steps out with a deep bow. ¡°Miss Madonna, Miss Coldstone, please allow me to guide you to the banquet hall,¡± he requests politely, waiting for a response without raising his body. ¡°That would be wonderful, thank you,¡± Juliana responds in kind. The servant rises without another word and turns swiftly on his heels to lead them. They don¡¯t have to move far, walking through a single long hallway and arriving at arge, closed set of double doors. They are forged from a smooth white metal and embellished with several jewels and runes, even having a few wind crystals slotted into a pattern around the centre. The crystals glow slightly, their mana flowing into the surrounding runes and maintaining them as the servant raises a hand and presses against the doors. The doors swing open without a sound, and instantly Emily hears a flood of noise. The open doors reveal a vast hall, with a dozen crystalline chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, all adorned with light crystals, flooding the room with pure white light. The floor is filled with tables, each surrounded by six chairs. Standing around the tables are mages from The Covenant dressed in expensive-looking dresses and suits. Some of them Emily recognises, most she doesn¡¯t. The servant who had been guiding them steps to the side and bows again while gesturing for them to enter. Thanking him for his help, Emily and Juliana walk into the hall and look around for Ivor. A few of the mages turn to them as they enter, most turning away, uninterested, after seeing the new entrants, and only a few having stronger reactions. Ignoring the judgemental gazes of their peers, Emily spots Ivor standing alone at the edge of the hall and starts pulling Juliana towards him. Before they can reach him, they are interrupted by Dante charging over, wearing a deep crimson three-piece suit and dragging an unhappy-looking Enzo along by the hand. ¡°Emily!¡± he calls out with a wide grin as he approaches. ¡°d you could make it.¡± ¡°Nice to see you too. It appears you may be the only one who is,¡± Emilyments wryly, aware of the increasing attention from Dante¡¯s shouting. ¡°Ah, who cares about them. They¡¯re all boring anyway.¡± ¡°What, they don¡¯t carry enough explosives for your taste?¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Dante agrees, noddingpletely seriously, drawing a small chuckle from Emily. ¡°Anyway, what¡¯s with him?¡± Emily asks, gesturing towards the still-scowling Enzo standing behind Dante with her head. ¡°Ah, right. Enzo wanted to speak to you!¡± Emily raises her brow inquisitively while focusing on the small boy. Reluctantly, he steps forward. ¡°I never thanked you for helping me on the first day of our group training. Thanks,¡± he mutters quietly, giving a small bow at the end before trying to step back again. Dante throws an arm around his shoulder, stopping him from retreating, as Emily stares at him in slight shock. A light elbow into her side from Juliana snaps her out of it. ¡°It¡¯s alright. I was only doing what I should.¡± ¡°The little guy¡¯s been meaning to thank you for weeks, but was too shy without my assistance,¡± Dante states proudly, receiving a re from Enzo in return. ¡°Don¡¯t call me little, and I wasn¡¯t shy. I just never found the right time to say anything.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s true, though, you are little,¡± Dante says while tilting his head in honest confusion. Enzo sighs tiredly, giving up on the argument. Emily resists the urge tough at them, changing the topic instead. ¡°I should probably introduce you guys. This is Juliana Madonna, my girlfriend. And, Juliana, this is Dante and Enzo.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nice you meet you two,¡± Juliana says, bowing her head lightly. Enzo silently nods at her in response, his signature scowl never leaving his face. Huh, maybe he just doesn¡¯t like people¡­ How the hell did he end up friends with Dante? ¡°Nice to meet you too! What element do you use? Do you have any explosive spells?¡± Dante asks excitedly. ¡°Wind. I¡¯m only first circle so I don¡¯t know many impressive spells, and I don¡¯t think my element is very useful for explosions,¡± Juliana answers with a mix of embarrassment and confusion. ¡°Tsk,¡± Dante clicks his tongue, looking towards Ivor, who has approached the group while they were talking. ¡°What about you, Ivor, do you have any fun earth spells?¡± Ivor simply shakes his head, crushing Dante¡¯s hopes. Dante turns his disappointed gaze to Emily, and she lets him down before he even has a chance to ask. ¡°Nothing new that would interest you. I¡¯ve been more focused on utility since we started training. Well, unless you count fl-¡° Emily is cut off by a sharp noise ringing out through the hall. Everyone in the room turns to look for the source, finding Oscar standing at the far end of the hall on a raised stage wearing a smart ck and purple suit, and holding up a ss and spoon, the source of the harsh sound. ¡°Weedies and gentlemen. Now that everyone has arrived, please find a seat and settle down. The servants wille round to take your orders once everyone is seated.¡± All of the groups in the room slowly begin picking their tables, sitting together in their small cliques and calling over their other friends to sit with them. Noticing the tables all seat six, Emily asks Dante and Enzo if they would like to join her, Juliana, and Ivor for the meal. They both agree, and they all settle around the closest table. Chatting together for a few minutes, all of the tables in the room are quickly filled, but a few stragglers are left without a ce. One of those stragglers approaches Emily¡¯s group. ¡°Hey, can I sit with you guys?¡± Linda, one of the first circle luggage carriers on the expedition, asks while nervously fiddling with the skirt of her dress. ¡°Of course!¡± Juliana says with a smile. Letting out a sigh of relief, Linda takes the seat between Ivor and Enzo while introducing herself to Juliana. ¡°I¡¯m Linda Doria of house Ulex. Thanks for letting me join you.¡± ¡°No problem! I¡¯m Juliana Madonna. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, don¡¯t you already have people to sit with? You are a member of this expedition, right?¡± ¡°I am, but I¡¯m only going to carry luggage. The Ulex family doesn¡¯t have any mages within The Dome at the moment, but they are allies of the Salvia family so Oscar is looking out for me by bringing me along. Most of the other vassal mages are sitting with their family members,¡± Linda answers, pointing out a few of the tables with nobles and vassals seated together. ¡°I see, that¡¯s nice of him.¡± ¡°Yeah, Oscar¡¯s lovely!¡± Linda says with a slight blush. ¡°Oh,¡± Juliana spots her blush and starts asking her more about Oscar. Emily tunes their conversation out, turning her attention to the steady stream of servants, wearing identical ck suits and dresses, entering the room through small side doors and approaching the tables, some pushing silver, wheeled trolleys with sses and bottles of sparkling wine. They spread around the room, so a single servant is positioned behind each guest. As they wait, a wine waiter sets up a ss before each person, while another stands motionless beside each table with the trolley. Emily turns to the woman standing behind her. ¡°Hello Miss Coldstone, what would you like to eat tonight?¡± ¡°Is there not a set menu?¡± Emily asks in surprise. ¡°Not at all. We can make you whatever you would like.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Emily considers her options for a few seconds. Whatever I want? My first thought of food for celebration is a toasted smi sandwich, but that¡¯s not really noble banquet food¡­ Ah well, they said whatever I want. ¡°Could I get a toasted smi sandwich please,¡± Emily asks, to which the woman simply nods, asking for a few details on the dish before giving a deep bow and turning to leave. The hall slowly empties again, each mage having ordered their meal, and the servants waiting with the drinks trays spring to action. Pulling the bottles of sparkling wine out of their buckets of ice, they pop the corks in sync with practised motions, and move around the table, filling everyone''s sses before stepping back. The low chatter in the room falls away as Oscar once again knocks on his now full ss, standing on the stage and drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Thank you, everyone, foring. Please allow me to make a short speech.¡± Chapter 52 – Dancing Chapter 52 ¨C Dancing ¡°I¡¯ll keep it short since I¡¯m sure none of you want to hear me prattle on for too long,¡± Oscar starts, receiving several subdued chuckles from the gathered mages. ¡°We¡¯re all here today, as friends and allies, to celebrate the wonders of exploration and discovery. Tomorrow my little group and I shall be travelling into the unknown, braving the dangers of The de to bring back new knowledge and resources. As with all trips into that Goddess-forsaken forest, it will be fraught with danger. Death shall loom over our heads at each turn, and some of us may not make it back alive. However, through our sacrifice and hard work, we will bring forth innovation and hope. We will delve further into the mysteries of the arcane and find new discoveries to push us all forward in our paths as mages. So, I ask all of you here today to raise a ss. Raise it in hope and encouragement. Raise it in celebration and expectation that our trip shall bear fruit. Wish us all luck that we may return unharmed, and cheers, to the pursuit of knowledge!¡± Everyone in the room raises their sses to match, with Emily following suit. ¡°To the pursuit of knowledge!¡± everybody echoes in unison, before taking a sip and returning to their private conversations with newfound energy. Emily lowers her ss with slight confusion, turning back to her table. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I was expecting, but that was surprisingly sombre.¡± ¡°Haha, I guess this is the first time you¡¯ve been near an expedition group, right?¡± Dante asks. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Other than trips into the edges of The de, which barely qualify as expeditions, most journeys end with the deaths of at least seventy per cent of the participants. It¡¯s only expected that thest celebration before is treated as a send-off for the dead.¡± ¡°That makes sense,¡± Emily agrees, nodding in realisation. ¡°You don¡¯t exactly seem too worried?¡± ¡°Of course not! If I die, I die. My family are warriors first, mages second. We¡¯re trained for battle from the moment we can walk. I¡¯m just following my destined path. If I get to blow up some beasts while I¡¯m at it? Then bring it on!¡± Emily scoffs at his s¨¦ attitude. ¡°To each his own, I guess. I don¡¯t have any ns to die any time soon.¡± Danteughs at her response but doesn¡¯tment. Emily turns her attention away, looking towards Juliana and seeing her staring back with a look of concern. She reaches out, taking Juliana¡¯s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze as she speaks again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, Jules. There¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m letting some random beast kill me off. I¡¯ll be back before you even realise I¡¯m gone,¡± she says with a gentle smile, meaning every word. Juliana¡¯s anxiety doesn¡¯t seem to decrease as she grips Emily¡¯s hand tighter. Noticing this, Ivor reaches over and taps her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll protect her with my life,¡± he signs calmly. His reassurance only seems to worsen Juliana¡¯s mood, her face dropping into a scowl. However, before she can argue, Emily breaks out inughter. ¡°Yeah right, big guy. If you think I¡¯m letting you die anding back alone, you¡¯re dead wrong. Can you imagine the scolding Jules would give me? We¡¯re both making it back, even if I have to drag you away by the scruff of your neck and kick everyone else to the wolves.¡± Ivor rolls his eyes, but a small smile still creeps its way onto his face. Juliana nods sagely, before adding her own warning. ¡°If either one of you dies, I¡¯ll work out how to summon your dead spirits back so I can tell you off properly!¡± Emily giggles at her mock threat, feeling her grip loosen but not release. They move on from the depressing topic, returning to casual conversation as they wait for their food to arrive. Juliana only releases Emily¡¯s hand when the side doors to the hall open again, and dozens of servants file into the room pushing wheeled carts of food covered in silver cloches. Emily recognises the servant who took her order in the crowd, walking in a straight line towards her table. She moves to stand behind Emily again, lifting the te of food off her cart and cing it on the table in front of Emily. She steps back, leaving the cloche on and waiting. All conversation in the room slowly dies as everybody waits in anticipation. The moment thest te of food is ced down, all of the servants step forward in perfect sync and dramatically lift the cloches off the food. Emily grins slightly at the sight that greets her, tworge hunks of still-steaming bread filled with slices of fresh smi, surrounded by a luscious green sd. Before touching her food, she looks around the table and takes in everyone¡¯s choices. Juliana has several tters of bread, meats, and vegetables set out before her. Ivor has a bowl of steaming stew, filled withrge chunks of beef and peppers. Linda has a deep dish filled with neatly stacked slices of various vegetables, creating a pretty spiral of colours that holds Emily¡¯s interest for a few moments. Enzo has a te filled with long noodles of pasta, topped with a creamy white sauce over a couple ofrge chicken breasts. However, Dante¡¯s meal is the only one that makes Emily¡¯s jaw drop and draws the attention of the entire table. His te has several crispy potatoes ced in a ring around arge hunk of meat, arge hunk of meat that is currently zing in blue fire. What the hell? Is that even a real dish or did he just ask them to set a steak on fire? ¡°If I were you, I¡¯d just ignore him,¡± Enzo mutters tiredly to the group, clearly used to his pyromaniac friend''s antics. Laughing slightly, Emily decides to heed his advice and digs into her food. Their meal passes with a pleasant atmosphere, with everybody at the table making light conversation, tactfully avoiding mentioning their uing expedition. After everybody has finished their food, and Emily has helped Juliana finish her tter, the servants return to collect their empty tes and take dessert requests. They make peaceful conversation as they wait, and soon the servants return with their sweet treats. Everyone chooses something normal, Emily opting for a mixed fruit crumble, but Dante doesn¡¯t. He instead has a small ming cake with ice cream inside, a baffling choice to everyone around the table other than Enzo, who ims it¡¯s a normal dessert in the Hibiscus march and is actually very nice. After everyone tries a bit and is forced to agree, they soon finish eating. The servants once again clear the table, then start requesting everyone leave their seats. They then quickly set about removing the tables from the hall, clearing the floorpletely before returning carrying assorted trays of drinks. Emily stays with her small group, watching in interest as six well-dresseddies and gentlemen appear on the stage, from a small door tucked behind it, carrying instruments. They settle into ce on the stage and begin ying some soothing music that quickly fills the hall. Is there a sound amplification spell on the stage? Curious, Emily excuses herself from her friends, who all separate to mingle with the other mages in the hall. Linking her arm with Juliana¡¯s, she heads towards the stage to get a closer look. After getting close enough, she sees the stage set up in a circr fashion, with a simple glowing green magic circle carved into the floor. ¡°Are you interested in our array?¡± a voice asks from behind. They turn around to find Oscar standing with a proud smile, holding a ss of bubbling alcohol as he watches them. ¡°Oh, hey Oscar. Yeah, I¡¯m a little interested. Why are you guys only using a temporary array?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t use the capital mansion¡¯s hall enough to justify setting up a permanent one. We can fill this circle with two lesser wind crystals and itsts for a full day, whereas the permanent version we have set up, in the main event hall of our territory¡¯s capital, uses ten crystals and the array is far moreplicated to carve.¡± ¡°Wow, given how excessive this banquet is, I wouldn¡¯t expect you to choose the cheap option for anything,¡± Emilyments with a teasing grin. ¡°Magical resources and mundane resources should always be considered with different outlooks. Never waste resources that can be used for progression, even if it¡¯s to leave a good impression on your allies,¡± Oscar answers withplete sincerity, surprising Emily. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s a very sensible opinion,¡± Emily mutters quietly. ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s lovely to meet you again, Juliana,¡± Oscar says, bowing his head lightly. ¡°I hope you¡¯re enjoying our little celebration.¡± ¡°It¡¯s wonderful. Thank you for being such a warm host,¡± she responds with an amiable smile. ¡°The food was lovely. Now all I need toplete my evening is to convince Emily to dance with me.¡± ¡°Haha, well I wish you luck on achieving your perfect evening.¡± He nces towards the musicians and flicks his hand towards them. ¡°I hope you enjoy, here¡¯s a little helping hand.¡± As he starts walking away to rejoin the crowd, the music shifts from a faint background hum to a clear, rhythmic melody. A bright smile blooms on Juliana¡¯s face as she looks at Emily. ¡°It sounds like he just gave us the perfect music to dance to.¡± Emily freezes, a light blush spreading across her cheeks as she awkwardly avoids making eye contact. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to dance,¡± she admits quietly, forcing Juliana to lean in to hear. Juliana¡¯s smile only grows as she takes both of Emily¡¯s hands in hers and starts pulling her towards the centre of the room, where everybody has cleared space, and a few couples are already locked together in a slow waltz. ¡°That¡¯s fine, just follow my lead and I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll pick it up quickly enough.¡± Unable to argue with Juliana¡¯s excitement, Emily soon finds herself ufortably standing in the middle of the dance floor with no clue what to do next. Ah well, worst case scenario, if I embarrass myself too much, I can always reset and practice dancing before trying again. Her silent decisionpletely calms her nerves as she allows Juliana to guide her. She ces one of Emily¡¯s hands on her shoulder, moving her own freed hand to Emily¡¯s waist. With their other hands sped firmly out before them, she leans in and gives her instructions on how to move and hold herself. ¡°Keep your back straight and stay close to me. We¡¯re going to step in time to the music, try to maintain the same distance from me at all times. When I step forward with my left foot, you step back with your right and vice versa. Just stay rxed, enjoy yourself, and try not to step on my toes in those shoes if you can. Ready?¡± Emily nods, only slightly regretting her shoe choice, and Juliana moves. ¡°Back right, side left, right to left. Forward left, side right, left to right.¡± Juliana slowly goes through the steps, telling Emily exactly how to move as they go. After a few repetitions, Emily slowly growsfortable with the movement. ¡°Good! Now we speed up a little. One two three, one two three, one two three.¡± As Emily rxes into the dance, their motion grows smoother and she begins to enjoy herself. Her smile grows to match Juliana¡¯s as they spin around the floor in time to the music, unconcerned about anything other than each other. After a while of slow waltzing, the rhythm of the music changes and Juliana guides Emily in a new set of movements, moving faster and with more purpose. They continue to enjoy themselves as the music shifts a few more times throughout the evening, and at one point a wee system notification pops up before Emily. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill learned: Ballroom Dancing (passive) [Ballroom Dancing (passive)] User knows how to dance to ballroom music. _____ The moment the notification arrives, she blinks it away and instinctively corrects her form. This time when the music changes, she doesn¡¯t need Juliana¡¯s instructions: she smoothly switches form and step pattern on her own. They continue dancingte into the evening, only stopping as the music starts to wind down and people begin to leave. Emily follows the crowd, guiding a tired Juliana out of the mansion and back through the garden by the waist. The train on the way back is far busier, every booth in their carriage being full, and Ivor chooses to join them in theirs. They sit in silence the whole way back, not bothering to make conversation as Juliana struggles not to fall asleep on Emily¡¯s shoulder. When they arrive back at The Dome, they bid farewell to Ivor before he steps into the transportation circle to move to his room. Emily and Juliana do the same, before slowly walking through the hall back to their rooms where they pause without entering. Juliana turns to Emily, burying her face in her shoulder as she pulls her into a tight hug. ¡°Please be safe,¡± she whispers weakly. Emily smiles a sad smile as she wraps her arms around Juliana and starts stroking her hair. She¡¯s really not cut out to be a mage. After a few minutes, Emily pulls away slightly, tilting Juliana¡¯s face to look at her and gently wiping a tear from her cheek. ¡°I¡¯ll be back before you know it. Study hard in the meantime, otherwise Tom and Hester may end up beating you to second circle.¡± ¡°Haha,¡± Juliana lets out a small giggle. ¡°I¡¯ll already be second circle when you get back, just you wait.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you will be,¡± Emily whispers with a smile, leaning in and cing a soft kiss on her lips. Emily separates from their hug, cing her hand on the door behind her before turning and taking a step through. ¡°I love you.¡± Emily freezes as she hears Juliana¡¯s confession. ¡°I love you too,¡± she answers truthfully before the door reappears, sealing her in her room, feeling more alone than ever before. Only one chapter for release tomorrow ;( Chapter 53 – Dawn of The Expedition Chapter 53 ¨C Dawn of The Expedition The next morning, Emily wakes up early to finish her final preparations. She takes a shower and makes her way over to her prepared workbench. She carefully goes through the process of gearing up, fastening leather straps and securing weapons as she looks through all of her equipment¡¯s system windows. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Combat Boots] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +4 Str, +2 Agil [Description:] A pair of knee-highbat boots with adjustable treads and weight. [Effect:] Provides power and armour to the lower legs. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Revolver] [Rank:] F [Stats:] +2 dex, +1 Agil [Description:] A simple six-shot revolver. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Body Armour] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +5 Vit [Description:] A sleek, form-fitting upper torso armour. [Effect:] Provides armour to the chest that defends against magical and physical attacks. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [ws {Gen.1}] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +2 Str, +2 Dex, +3 Agil [Description:] A set of magical steam-powered wrist des. [Effect:] Provides armour to the forearms and extends or retracts des from the wrist when activated. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Low-Grade Mana Grenade] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +1 Str [Description:] A mixture of magical and physical explosives packed together for handheld destruction. [Effect:] Explodes dealing massive magical and physical damage to everything within five metres. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Low-Grade Light Grenade] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +1 Str [Description:] A mixture of magical and physical explosives packed together for handheld distraction. [Effect:] Explodes releasing a sh of sound and light to disorient enemies. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Earrings of Istion] [Rank:] E [Description:] A set of magical earrings designed to protect against harsh sounds. [Effect:] Upon activation, creates small barriers of wind that block high-volume sound waves. _____ She smiles as she hooks the delicate green teardrop gems into new holes in her ears. The Earrings of Istion are the pinnacle of her array engraving practice. The small earrings hold an intricatebination of runes carved into the silver metal housing the small wind crystals themselves. By carefully stripping down wind barrier¡¯s magic circle and utilising a few new runes discovered within The Spellweave, she has seeded in creating small barriers that dampen harsh sounds, protecting her ears from the violent bacsh of her weapons and spells. Emily throws on a set of specialised robes to cover her battle gear. The robes were given to her by Oscar. The outsideyer is waterproof and glistens with a glossy ck sheen. She settles down at her desk as she does a final review of her stats, newest spells, and progression requirements. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 16 [Magic Circle:] Second Circle [Machina Cortex:] Second Stage [Attributes:] Strength 12 (18), Dexterity 32 > 34 (36), Agility 25 > 26 (30), Vitality 13 (18), Intelligence 54 > 59 [Health:] 190/190 [Stamina:] 320/320 [Mana:] 3540/3540 [Machina:] 3540/3540 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Cleanse] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 40 Mana/cast [Description:] Quickly removes external impurities from the caster''s body and equipment. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Infra-sight] [Circle:] First [Cost:] 3 Mana/minute [Description:] Channel fire and light into the caster¡¯s eyes to allow sight of infrared light. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Bolt] [Circle:] Second [Cost:] 220 Mana/cast [Description:] Fire a short bolt of lightning from the caster''s hand -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Flying lightning] [Circle:] Second [Cost:] 280 Mana/minute [Description:] Conjure an electrified wire and de. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Second Requirements: -Intelligence 59/75 (Not Complete) -Create 4/5 unique E rank machines (Not Complete) -Learn internal casting (Complete) -Create 2/3 second circle spells (Not Complete) -y 0/1 third circle beast (Not Complete) _____ ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll y a third circle beast on this trip,¡± Emily mutters to herself as she nces through the open system windows. ¡°It can¡¯t be that hard.¡± Her eyese to rest on her current stats and a small frown forms on her face. Strange, it seems to have counted my boots, armour, and the ws, but not my revolver or grenades. Curiously, she reaches for her revolver while keeping her eyes locked on the stats page. The moment her hand slides around the smooth ck handle of her gun, she feels a link form within her mind, and the stats before her eyes jump up. I see, so I have to wield certain items to get the stats increase. Releasing her hand from the gun, she focuses one of her active threads on maintaining the link with it and notices the stats bonus remains. Pushing harder on the link, she lets a small stream of machina connect with it and watches in fascination as the gun lifts out of her holster. A smile of realisation spreads across her face as Emily guides the gun to hover next to her body, facing forward and ready to fire. The stats increase stays if I¡¯m actively wielding the weapon with my machina too! She lowers the weapon back into its holster, ncing at the reduction in her machina stores as she does. My control was shaky, I¡¯ll have to train to do this at some point to reduce the excess wastage. Emily stretches her arms above her head before dismissing the system windows and standing up. ¡°Right, I should get going.¡± *** Emily meets Ivor in the cafeteria to grab a quick meal before joining the rest of the group. ¡°Where are we meeting everyone?¡± Ivor asks after finishing his porridge. ¡°Oscar told me to catch a train over to the southern edge of the city. The meeting point should apparently be obvious.¡± ¡°How helpful.¡± Emily scoffs in agreement, shoving thest bite of her toast in her mouth as she stands up. ¡°You need anyst minute gear before we leave?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m good,¡± he signs with a shake of his head, ncing down ufortably towards a small bag at his hip holding a few grenades supplied by Emily. ¡°Rx, they¡¯re not gonna go off by ident. My work isn¡¯t that bad.¡± Emily rolls her eyes at his nervousness and pats him on the shoulder as she walks past. ¡°Come on then. They may be shit instructions, but we should still follow them.¡± *** Their instructions turn out to be better than expected when they reach a stationbelled ¡°Southern Edge¡± and step off the train to see their expedition group gathered and waiting by one of the elevators. Dante bounds out from the group to meet them as they approach. ¡°Hey! You finally made it.¡± ¡°Are wete?¡± Emily frowns slightly and swiftly pulls The Clock from a pouch at her waist. The Clock reads 8:46 am, erasing her concerns. ¡°No, you¡¯re fine. We¡¯re still waiting for a few others too,¡± Dante reassures her with his signature grin. ¡°Anyway, you excited to finally fight some real beasts?¡± Emily smirks at his enthusiasm as they join the rest of the group. ¡°Yeah, I do have a new toy to test after all.¡± ¡°Speaking of new things to test, did you finish your tracking spell?¡± Oscar calls out as he walks through the group towards Emily. ¡°I said I would, didn¡¯t I?¡± Emily turns to face him, her eyes igniting in a vibrant orange glow as she casts infra-sight. ¡°Interesting, how does it work?¡± ¡°Skipping the specifics, it allows me to see heat signatures. I can¡¯t see through objects, but it makes it very easy to spot warm-blooded creatures through small gaps in foliage.¡± ¡°That¡¯s perfect! You¡¯ll be our main scout then. We¡¯ll still stop periodically to allow Ivor a wider range scan, but you will be our main defence against ambushes. Of course, we¡¯ll stop to give you breaks for regaining mana, is that alright? How long can you use it at a time while still safely having enough mana to fight?¡± Emily doesn¡¯t respond immediately, taking a moment to consider her answer. Once I¡¯ve activated it, I only need one thread dedicated to maintaining it. I can leave my second core focused on using Technomancer¡¯s Breath at the same time, then my mana won¡¯t decrease noticeably. It will drain normally when I rest one of my cores, but I have enough mana to keep it going for those twelve hours without issue, unlike a normal mage. I probably shouldn¡¯t reveal that though, or they may notice my passive mana intake... ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s a pretty low consumption spell, if I stick to internal casting I can keep it going for eight hours before needing a break.¡± Oscar nods at her with a mixture of gratitude and surprise. ¡°That long? If you¡¯re confident, I won¡¯t argue, but please do let me know if you need an extra break at any point.¡± Emily lightly waves off his concern and he quietly walks deeper back into the group, muttering to himself about rest timings. ¡°Sheesh, that guy needs to take a break,¡± Dante chuckles from beside her, standing with his arms behind his head. Emily rolls her eyes and finds a spot to lean against the station wall while they wait for thest stragglers to show up. After twenty minutes, everyone who should have arrived has. Linda is thest one to arrive, apologising profusely for missing the train and showing upte, which earns her several disapproving res from several nobles. Oscar calmly waves off her worries, but the twitching of his eye as he does gives Emily the feeling he isn¡¯t as calm as he lets on. The entire group piles into the elevator they were blocking, the doors closing them all in as the worker at the controls starts it up. Nobody speaks in the enclosed space, tension filling the air as they finally set off on their trip towards their half-expected demise. When the elevator finally arrives at the ground floor, the doors slide open to reveal a stationary fleet ofrge metal carriages on wheels. Emily curiously inspects their transport, noting the way the vehicles are divided in two. The back halves are open and spacious, clearly designed to carry a group of nobles: whereas the front halves are bulky and enclosed, holding what Emily can only assume to be steam engines for powering their movement along with a single driver. ¡°Everybody please make yourselvesfortable in a car,¡± Oscar calls loudly from the head of the group. Emily, Ivor, Dante, and Enzo exchange a few nces, silently agreeing to travel together before picking an empty car and slipping in. The car easily fits the four of them, with plenty of space to lounge across the plush seats within and watch the outside world through the clear ss windows. Oscar remains outside, watching the cars fill until nobody is left, before walking to the car in the lead. The moment he disappears inside, a loud whistle sounds and the six cars roar to life. Emily sends an unnoticed stream of machina into the vehicle to watch its ignition in detail. She sees coalnding in the enclosed firebox and watches as itbusts and evaporates the nearby water. She senses the tightly wound coils of metal in the engine slide into motion, their delicately machined tolerances allowing a near-perfect transfer of energy into the pistons. She memorises the intricate workings for future reference, ignoring the system popup of a new blueprint added and withdrawing her attention from the scan. Emily ignores Dante and Enzo¡¯s conversation as the cars start moving, choosing to quietly watch the streets roll by instead. The motorcade slowly makes its way to the base of the city¡¯s southern wall, approaching arge, heavy steel gateway that opens to reveal a gaping maw of metal, over ten metres wide, that tunnels through the wall to a small gap of light visible on the other side. The vehicles all charge through, unimpeded, not even slowing for a moment as the guards lining the entrance barely spare them a nce. The long tunnel is dimly lit by grated coal ovens lining the walls, the sound of grinding gears and flowing steam their onlypany. They soon reach the tunnel¡¯s end, barrelling out onto a packed-dirt road heading south. Emily watches the city slowly fade into the distance, as they roll through the open grasnd, before settling back in her seat and returning her attention to her peers. ¡°-stupid though. There¡¯s no way I can even cast a spell of that magnitude, why are you so worried?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just saying, pay attention to your surroundings more. You set so many trees on fire during practice!¡± She raises a curious brow at Dante and Enzo¡¯s surprisingly heated argument. Turning to make eye contact with Ivor, she signs a silent question. ¡°They been at this for long?¡± ¡°Since the tunnel.¡± Smirking, she turns back and adds fuel to the fire. ¡°You know, grenades are a great alternative to fire spells. Far lower chances of starting forest fires.¡± Instantly, both boys turn on her, yelling in objection to her statement forpletely different reasons. Emily chuckles to herself quietly. This trip will be fun. *** Just over six hourster, the cars roll to a stop on a t expanse overlooking a vast forest before them. The de spreads across the horizon, filling Emily¡¯s sight as she steps out of the car. Dense foliage lies before her, rain pours from the clouds above, disappearing into the leaves, absorbed by the dense fog that eerily fills the forest floor. ¡°That¡¯s creepy,¡± Emily mutters under her breath, staring at the clear-cut divide between The de and the ins beside it. The divide between the two biomes is starkly defined: the trees, rain, and even the fog of The de all abruptly stop, refusing to encroach on their neighbour. As Emily stares intently at the unsettling sight, she notices wisps of movement flickering in the haze. Casting infra-sight, she watches several small heat signatures move to the edge of the treeline before quickly disappearing too far into the depths for her to see. ¡°Everyone, gather around!¡± Oscar calls loudly, pulling Emily¡¯s attention away from their destination. ¡°This is thest safe rest and real food we can have until we finish our expedition. Maeve, Cian, Ricardo, and Linda will distribute food, so settle down and gather your strength.¡± Emily finds a spot to sit on the grass with Ivor, tactfully avoiding Dante and Enzo who she has riled to the point of ignition on their journey. She watches as the four luggage carriers unload a cargo-filled car and carry sandwiches around the group. As they reach her, Linda hands her a smi sandwich with a smile. Thanking the girl, Emily looks out over the horizon, enjoying the exotic view as she lights her hands in a burst of fire to toast her food. Chapter 54 – Into The Glade Chapter 54 ¨C Into The de After finishing theirte afternoon lunch, Emily and most of the expedition members rx on the grass staring into the distance. The group have varying expressions while gazing at what most likely amounts to their imminent grave. Most of the vassal mages seem nervous, almost certain they will be theing coteral damage, whereas the nobles hold an air of confidence and anticipation, clearly excited about the potential resources that await them. Emily herself has a mixture of excitement and intense curiosity stered across her face, looking forward to fighting beasts and discovering the secrets of the mysterious forest. ncing to her side, she sees Ivor staring out into the distance with a look of grim determination and eptance. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, big guy? I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d be so worried. Haven¡¯t you been into The de a few times before?¡± ¡°I have,¡± he signs his agreement, shifting ufortably and refusing to make eye contact. ¡°But, the groups I came with were only here to gather some of the moremon herbs and kill small beasts. We stayed around the outer edges and certainly never tried looking for an entrance to The Crystal Waters.¡± ¡°Ah, I see.¡± Emily nods, falling into silent contemtion for a few moments. I should have realised from Oscar saying that his family didn¡¯t have enough data to design a training room for The Waters¡¯ environment, that expeditions this deep are umon. I could rewind and get Ivor out before we even set off this morning... ¡°Hey,¡± Emily says softly, pulling Ivor¡¯s gaze to her before signing a question. ¡°You sure you want toe? It¡¯s not toote to go back you know.¡± He immediately shakes his head, fixing Emily with a stare far more passionate than she has ever seen from the shy boy before. ¡°I¡¯m nervous because it¡¯s deeper than I¡¯ve gone before, but I want a chance to see The Waters and discover new ingredients!¡± he signs with certainty. Emily smiles at his drive for discovery. ¡°As long as you¡¯re sure. Also, I meant what I saidst night. We¡¯re both getting through this alive, no matter what. Just make sure you have my back.¡± Not like I really need it. Oscar approaches as they chat, dropping down onto the floor beside them. They both greet him, and he responds cheerfully before his face falls into a serious expression as he looks at Emily. ¡°I just wanted to check onest time, are you sure you¡¯re alright heading the group?¡± he asks. ¡°Yeah. What¡¯s with the sudden concern?¡± she responds with a raised brow. ¡°I just wanted to make sure before we go in. I do have a conscience, you know. I feel a little bad making such a young mage stand in front of me.¡± ¡°Sheesh, I can¡¯t be that much younger than you guys. How old even are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m twenty-five,¡± he answers with a smile, standing up and patting Emily on the shoulder. ¡°None of the otherbatants are below twenty.¡± Emily is surprised by his words, looking over to Ivor who¡¯s grinning at her. ¡°And here I thought you were the old one.¡± ¡°Told you twenty is young,¡± he signs back with glee. ¡°Right, everyone into formation!¡± Oscar shouts, moving to stand between the group and The de. Emily raises her fist towards Ivor. He grins and bumps it, nodding confidently, before they both stand up. ¡°Well, talk to youter,¡± Emily casually says while walking forward to join Oscar. She wordlessly settles into ce, looking back over the quick-moving mages behind her. The four luggage carriers in the middle all haverge fabric bags double their size on their backs, all traced with lightly glowing, purple runes. Are those spatial bags? They have to be: we¡¯re meant to have tents after all. After everyone has reached their position, Oscar gives Emily a small nod before shouting: ¡°Move out!¡± They all start moving as one, trekking out into the open field as the cars start their engines and begin driving back to Chroni. As they reach the border of The de, Oscar taps Emily and Dante¡¯s shoulders before raising a hand silently and signalling for a scan. Everyone halts their steps, turning their focus to Ivor standing with his eyes shut. Emily and Dante are the only exceptions, both keeping their eyes ahead, Emily¡¯s glowing a pale orange. Emily¡¯s visual check of the forest floor produces the same result as Ivor¡¯s, both finding nothing. However, her scan of the canopies looming above reveals half a dozen small birds watching their approach. Gesturing to Oscar to wait for a moment, Emily summons a small iron de. Taking it firmly between her fingers, she pulls her arm back before whipping it forward, sending the de directly into the chest of one of the birds. As the dead bird falls limply to the ground, the others take off in rm, flying further along the periphery of The de. Whoops, I guess none of them are dangerous. Signalling all clear, Emily moves forward after another tap on the shoulder, flipping her hood onto her head. They step foot into the treeline, and are swallowed by the dense fog and heavy rain, vanishing from the outside world. Steadily they creep forward, maintaining a constant pace as they continue forward into the unknown. After ten minutes of moving, with Emily watching for enemies ahead the whole time, Oscar signals for another earth scan, this one done by Enzo, who revealed that morning that he¡¯d learned the spell to help reduce Emily and Ivor¡¯s loads. When they find nothing nearby, they continue walking. They repeat this pattern over and over, stopping a couple of times when they spot nearby movement, but not encountering a single attack. At just gone 10 pm, theye upon a small clearing. They halt in the centre. Ivor runs another scan, but finds nothing. After Emily confirms no sign of heat in the trees, Oscar pulls out six white iron stakes, wrapped in dull green runes with a single lightless wind crystal embedded in the top of each. He keeps two while dividing the others: two to Emily, and one each to Bianca and Ricardo. They split, going to separate edges of the clearing and stabbing a stake into the ground. Emily ces her hand on the stake and instantly begins pouring wind attribute mana in, igniting the runes and crystal in a sh of colour. After dumping a few hundred mana points into the stake, she stands up and moves to another point, nting another stake and filling it with mana too. She stands up and walks over to rejoin the group as Oscar finishes filling thest stake, and a faint green hexagonal magic circle forms around them. Emily notices a few of her groupmates breathing sighs of relief once the array is set up and a familiar sound-isting effect takes hold over their surroundings. ¡°Good job today everyone. We¡¯ve made good progress towards our goal. If we keep moving at the pace we did today, we¡¯ll make it to The Crystal Waters¡¯ entrance within the week. Carriers, distribute the tents and let''s set up camp for today. Emily, you¡¯re on watch till camp is done,¡± Oscar swiftly instructs, and everybody moves as one to follow. Emily moves to sit at the outer edge of the clearing, dropping her activation of Technomancer¡¯s Breath and casting both her detection spells at once. With her second core pulsing earthen detection periodically, she stares out into the forest around them, enjoying the dull hum of rain falling on her hood as she scans for life. Ten minutester, Oscar walks over to join her at the edge of camp. ¡°Hey, do you want first, second, or third watch?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with first, just bring me some food and I¡¯ll stay here,¡± Emily says casually, not feeling remotely tired. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll ask Ivor,¡± Oscar replies, turning on his heel and trudging back towards the gathered tents. Time to rest. Core two, sleep. Her second core falls dormant, and Emily starts deactivating infra-sight every five minutes to send out a pulse of earthen detection. Ivor soon brings her a small pasty, heated with Dante¡¯s help. He passes her the food before wishing her luck and heading to his bed, preparing to take second watch himself. The rest of Emily¡¯s groupmates disappear into their tents to sleep soon after, leaving Emily out alone. A few hours pass with no signs of movement in the eerie forest, then forty minutes before the end of Emily¡¯s watch, she senses faint movement a hundred metres away. Maintaining earthen detection from the second she spots it, she slowly stands up and walks around the outskirts of the barrier, checking all other sides for more enemies. Once sure nothing else is sneaking up on the camp, Emily returns to her original position and feels the creatures have approached fifty metres closer. Now she can count their footsteps. Four small quadrupeds moving slowly towards me. They areing in a straight line towards the camp. Their direction sealing her choice, Emily steps through the barrier and creeps forward into the trees. She moves out to the side of the encroaching threat and switches to infra-sight once within ten metres of them. Four glowing bundles of heat are revealed, and Emily recognises their small forms to be ocx, a weak catlike magical beast that uses a thin sheen of water on its fur to slip past attacks. Easy. Emily steps back, repositioning herself to stand behind the four unsuspecting cats. Dropping infra-sight, she silently weaves together flying lightning. A long, shimmering silver wire forms, wrapped around her right arm from the elbow to the wrist, where it seamlessly connects with a sharp, ded metal dart. Staring straight ahead, her arm whips past in a sh, throwing the dart into the back of an ocx. The moment the de connects, a quiet crackling light rips along the wire, flickering across the beast¡¯s fur and dropping it to the ground in an uncontroble spasm. Emily yanks hard on the wire, tearing the de clean and letting it sail back behind her. With an elegant twist, she bends the dart''s momentum, sending it shooting through the air into a second beast. This time, the ocx notices the iing projectile just before it''s struck, managing to let out a pained squeal before passing out from the shock. The other two react quickly, spinning to face Emily with their fangs bared. Emily grins back at them, pulling her weapon back into her hand. The two cats spring at her, and she takes a step back while throwing the dart out to her side, then swiping her arm forward in an arc. Before either cat can touch her, the dart shes past. It catches one in the front legs, cutting them to pieces and disabling it with a shock, and cleanly slices the other''s throat. Emily calmly moves between the fallen beasts, stabbing the dart through each one¡¯s head to finish them off. She then forces open their mouths and cuts out their tongues before skinning a patch on one of their backs and wrapping the tongues up in the slick fur. It¡¯s a shame we don¡¯t have the space to carry whole hides. Emily walks back to camp clutching the most valuable magical material from the ocx in her hand. She settles back down in her previous position, dropping the wrapped-up tongues on the floor beside her. Thirty minutester, Emily wakes up Ivor and warns him about her encounter. ¡°Be careful, there are some small ocx bodies about forty metres out from camp in that direction,¡± she signs, gesturing towards where she left the corpses. ¡°They may attract other beasts, so be on guard.¡± As he nods in acknowledgement, Emily turns and heads towards the tent the others set up for her. Reaching the entrance to the small, pitched tarp, she pulls open the p and steps in while casting cleanse on her entire body. Feeling a shiver of cold pass over her, she holds her arm outside the tent and watches a murky flush of water drop from it to the ground. This spell was a wonderful idea. Thanks Jules. With a warm smile, she sets the bundle of tongues down on the floor outside before letting the p fall closed, blocking out the rain. Sitting down on the soft pad left in the centre of the small space, Emily closes her eyes. I don¡¯t trust everyone here enough to sleeppletely, but I will still be able to react if someone approaches while I¡¯m meditating! She falls into the rhythm of technomancer¡¯s breath and silently gathers mana through the night while pondering theplexities of space. *** Six hourster, Emily¡¯s meditation is broken by a mana signature approaching the entrance to her tent. The p is pushed aside as Enzo peeks his head in. ¡°Time to break camp,¡± he informs her before ducking back out. Emily quickly follows him, grabbing the bundle of tongues from the floor as she goes and heading towards the small gathering of people at the centre of the tightly packed tents. Three hours left till core one wakes up. I¡¯ll have to be slightly more on guard for a bit. Emily sits down next to Oscar, silently watching the luggage carriers unloading food from their packs and handing it to Dante and the other fire mages for heating. After a few minutes of waiting for her turn to eat, Emily¡¯s curiosity gets the better of her, so she absentmindedly pulls up the system windows of the carriers¡¯ bags. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Temporary Bag of Holding] [Rank:] D [Description:] A bag with a temporary spatial expansion array installed. [Effect:] Holds a freely essible, five-metre cubed pocket dimension. _____ Her brow raises in surprise as she reads the description. ¡°How do those bags hold so much? I thought low-grade spatial storages were only a metre or so,¡± she asks Oscar, pointedly ncing towards his ne as she does. ¡°You¡¯re thinking of permanent holder-locked storage. There are a few differences, one is that personal dimensional items like my ne can be essed freely by the holder, summoning items from within them to their hands with just a thought. Whereas items like those bags are bound to a specific opening on the object. Anyone can ess their contents if they have ess to the opening. The second major difference is permanent or temporary. Both my ne and each of those bags used one lesser space crystal each to make, but those bags will be out of energy in a month, whereas my ne willst forever.¡± ¡°I see, and the parts of the enchantment used for summoning items from the void will use more mana too,¡± Emily mutters. ¡°Exactly!¡± ¡°What are you going to do if the bags run out of mana before the end of the expedition? Isn¡¯t there a chance we¡¯re here for longer than a month?¡± ¡°In that case we have Callum to help refill them until we get back,¡± Oscar answers calmly, gesturing to the mage in question eating on the other side of the group. ¡°Or, who knows, maybe by the time that happens you¡¯ll suddenly tell us you¡¯re a space mage as well!¡± Oscarughs at his joke while epting a portion of porridge from Cian. Considering her progress in her meditationst night, a small grin forms on Emily¡¯s face. Maybe I will. Announcement I''ve written a little statement to address some issues with earlier chapters which I will eventually be rewriting: Spoiler Having now received quite a fewments on how I wrote chapters 10 and 11, in which Herber dies, I thought I should offer a response. The main criticism I¡¯ve received is that Emily gives up too easily. A number of readers have expressed the belief that she should have kept going, using her time-travelling ability to keep resetting until she¡¯d worked out a way to save her father¡¯s life. There are a number of reasons why it was never possible to save Herber, and why it isn¡¯t usible for Emily to have tried harder, but I realise that those reasons aren¡¯t clear enough in the text. So, here¡¯s why¡­ When Emily first created The Clock and awakened, she was overwhelmed. She may be very smart, and quite mentally mature for her age, but she is still only fifteen. In a very short time period, she discovered that magic, time-travel, and gxy-spanning civilisations were all real. On top of that, she repeatedly witnessed the traumatising death of a loved one, and was faced with an enemy that seemed unbeatable, having watched theme back from near death. Faced with all this, she didn¡¯t respond rationally. She became emotionally shut-down and impulsive, ending the looping quickly. She didn¡¯t have the resilience, nor the mental capacity, to calmly problem-solve the situation. Once she made her decision, with Herber¡¯s blessing, she suppressed her feelings and distracted herself with magic and mechanics, all with a view to one day exacting her revenge on her powerful enemy. I realise this wasn¡¯t clear enough, and I am nning to rewrite some of my earlier sections to ensure that the emotional impact and distress is properly described, so that the choices Emily makes are more believable. However, I work full-time and write as a hobby, so I may not find time to do that for a while, as I¡¯m focussed on progressing the story at the moment (and there¡¯s a long way to go). However, I do want to exin that Emily¡¯s decision was not a mistake on my part. When I do my rewrites, I won¡¯t change the oue. Herber can¡¯t survive and Emily can¡¯t escape. I¡¯ve worked through every possible scenario that is usible, given Emily¡¯s knowledge at the time (including anything she could extract from people close enough to reach before each loop ends), and escaping with Herber and Anna alive is impossible. On top of theck of supplies in the shop to make proper weapons, she has hard caps on the abilities she could develop in such a short time. Importantly, she can¡¯t improve her cultivation whilst in frozen time. The events around Herber¡¯s death are important to Emily¡¯s character development. When she eventually reflects on this properly, the fact that she acted on emotion instead of logic will be a huge source of regret to her. And she will reflect on it: the event may have passed, but the emotional processing will take a while. Arge part of the motif I¡¯m building around Emily is that she makes mistakes, processes them, and tries never to repeat them. Whether that¡¯s being overwhelmed, letting anger control her, or even bing a victim of her own arrogance, Emily will repeatedly make mistakes that lead to longsting consequences that she has to live with, but she wille out of it stronger. Herber¡¯s death waspletely inevitable from the moment Emily awakened. But that is a fact Emily won¡¯t be able to confirm for a very, very long time. As a first-time writer, I¡¯ve been both grateful and excited by the number of people who are enjoying Emily¡¯s story. I am learning as I go along, but, like Emily, will do my best not to make the same mistake twice. [copse] Chapter 55 – Battling Through The Forest Chapter 55 ¨C Battling Through The Forest Emily¡¯s recent endeavours in learning about space have brought her small gains in her meditation. Before leaving The Dome, she read half a dozen books with different perspectives on the topic, filling a folder in her notes with ideas, from which she has started to form her own theories. The culmination of her efforts so far has been conjuring a thin mist of purple wisps when attempting to manifest space. Unfortunately, even with the small reaction from the element, she hasn¡¯t seeded in casting the simple switch spell yet. ¡°How was watchst night? I hear you had some trouble?¡± Oscar asks, breaking Emily¡¯s thoughts, after a few minutes of eating in silence. ¡°It was fine. A small group of ocx approached us, but they were easy enough to deal with. I¡¯m honestly surprised we didn¡¯t run into any other beasts yesterday. Your training exercise made it seem like this ce would be crawling with them.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll admit, we¡¯ve got the beast numbers tuned up a lot in the simtion. It¡¯s more simr to the depths of The de than the outskirts, but it¡¯s good to be prepared just in case!¡± Oscar responds resolutely. Emily nods along, finishing her food and standing up. ¡°I¡¯m gonna drop my spoils off with the carriers then go join Enzo keeping watch.¡± Oscar waves as she leaves, before turning to rest of the group and asking them to start breaking camp. Emily escapes the chore, instead returning to her job as a scout, sitting at the edge of their clearing and staring into the surrounding forest once again, this time without the calming rap of rain on her hood. Their camp is dismantled with no issues, everyone following their predetermined roles with ease. Within twenty minutes of sitting down, Emily is called to collect the barrier. She quickly moves from point to point, pulling the metal stakes free from the ground and shattering their temporary haven. She soon joins the gathered formation and hands the six stakes back to Oscar. He nods his thanks before giving her the silentmand to move out. The group lurches into motion, leaving behind their perceived safety as they plough deeper into the forest. The first hour of their day goes smoothly, and their earthen scans only reveal a few harmless beasts nearby that are too weak to risk approaching the pressure of the mages¡¯ collective circles. However, an hour and a half after breaking camp, Emily holds up a hand to halt the group while staring up. The flicker of red leaping past her vision confirms her worries. ¡°Above, count unknown, minimum three,¡± Emily quickly weaves a set of predetermined hand signs, alerting the group to her discovery. Instantly, everyone reacts to her information, dropping into prepared stances and rapidly weaving their spells. The hum of quietly muttered chants fills the group, unsettling their stalkers and causing one to reveal itself. A small brown monkey drops into Emily¡¯s sight, swinging past from a branch while throwing something at Dante. He also spots the enemy, a grin spreading on his face as he sidesteps the approaching shard of rock. ¡°Howlers,¡± he calls quietly, alerting the group to the identity of their attackers. He raises a hand to point at the Howler before it can disappear back into the canopy, a bright red magic circle forming in the air before him. A single, burning, crimson hibiscus flower stalk forms in the centre of the circle, its petals and pistil aimed at the monkey. In a swift motion, the flower¡¯s petals fold down, twisting around the long pistil and forming apact projectile that tears forward in a violent vortex of force. The spell rips through the monkey¡¯s head, burning a hole clean through. As the limp body falls, the group rushes to finish theirbat preparations. Emily uses the time before the fighting starts to pull out her revolver, loaded in advance with silent wind bullets. She maintains infra-sight while scanning for movement above, waiting for the others to be ready. Within moments, barriers of wind and water pop up to protect them as everyone holds spells at the ready, waiting for their enemies to reveal themselves. Emily raises her pistol above her head and fires a shot into the trees. A shrill screech sounds as a howler drops to the ground, bleeding, beside the group, a bullet hole in its leg. Reacting quickly, Erin sends out a whip of water, splitting the howler in two. Emily maintains her focus on the foliage above. Every time she sees a hint of movement and heat, she releases a silent shot at the overhead adversaries. She reloads the revolver once, firing ten shots and bringing down six howlers. Each enemy she fells quickly dispatched by her teammates, moving together like a well-oiled machine, the fruits of their training obvious. After thest howler is finished off, the group falls into silence, awaiting Emily¡¯s next signal. After a minute of staring into the canopy and spotting nothing, Emily waves away the group''s caution, their breaths of relief audible as their barriers fall. Emily reloads her revolver before sliding it back into its holster. She drops infra-sight, opting to channel earthen detection as she waits for the group to harvest materials from the howler corpses. It doesn¡¯t take long for them to rip out the monkeys¡¯ ws and fangs, and they quickly set off again, distancing themselves from the bodies. The rest of their morning is rtively quiet. They run into a small group of ocx, but Emily and Dante wipe them out before the group even have time to set up barriers. Come midday, they find another small clearing, just too small to fit the whole group into. Emily, Enzo, and Ivor, the three scouts of the group, all split up, taking their food and settling down separately in the nearby forest. Ivor and Enzo both sit on the floor, while Emily takes off up a tree, using branches and the spikes on her boots to scramble up while holding a parcel of meat in her teeth. Sitting back on afortable branch, Emily opens up the loosely wrapped ocx meat harvested from their earlier kills. She holds the meat up, slowly cooking it with burning hands as she looks out into the quiet treetops, concerned about the smell spreading. I get that it reduces the burden on our rations, but could we at least save cooking raw meat till our final stop of the day? Pushing back her slight irritation, Emily maintains her vignce. Her worries prove unwarranted, as their lunch break passes without a single beasting into detection range. Emily climbs back down to the ground and rejoins the group as they continue on their nned path. Halfway through the afternoon, rain starts pouring again, slowing down their advance as the ground bes waterlogged. Emily waves off an offer from Oscar to stop and let her rest, using the excuse that she stopped scanning during lunch when Ivor and Enzo were both on watch too. They reach the secondrge clearing of their trip slightlyter than expected, setting up their istion array at 10:45 pm. The tents go up quickly in the same cements as before, and everybody disappears inside after receiving their rations for the evening, leaving Emily sitting alone in the rain once again. Her watch passes quietly, and she switches out with Ivor after exactly three hours. However, the night doesn¡¯t pass undisturbed. At some point during the third watch, an hour or so after Emily has switched her sleeping cores, a rush of motion outside her tent jerks her to attention. A hand roughly tears away the p to her tent, and Enzo peers in, his frantic eyes making contact with Emily¡¯s and telling her all she needs to know. ¡°How many?¡± she asks, springing up and pushing past him out of the tent. ¡°I don¡¯t know. At least ten though. They are quadrupedal andrger than ocx, but I can¡¯t tell what they are yet,¡± Enzo hurriedly exins. ¡°They¡¯ve been stalking along the periphery of my detection range for about ten minutes now.¡± ¡°And they haven¡¯te closer?¡± Emily questions while activating earthen detection and running through different possible beasts in her mind. ¡°Yeah, they moved back every-¡° Enzo cuts off as he and Emily both notice the approaching enemies¡¯ current positions. ¡°They¡¯re well within your detection range now, aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± A smile creeps across Emily¡¯s face at his confirmation. ¡°It¡¯s mudscraps,¡± she says confidently, breaking out into a sprint towards them. Enzo¡¯s eyes open wide in realisation before he runs to catch up. ¡°You stop them escaping through the ground. I¡¯ll kill them all,¡± Emily gives short instructions before falling silent as she runs through their barrier. She switches to infra-sight the moment they breach the barrier. They silently weave through the trees, fast approaching the group of suspected mudscraps, then Emily spots the first heat signature through a gap between the trees. Crouched in the open, a few metres ahead of her, she sees a hunched creature, with disproportionate legs, the front two double the length of the back, and a long snarling maw. Ugly fuckers. Emily sneers as she leaps forwards, trusting Enzo to block the mudscraps¡¯ habit of swimming through the earth. Her arm stretches towards the wolf-like beast¡¯s face, but instead of fighting back, the beast drives its head towards the ground. Its snout hits the floor and bounces back, startling the creature. Emily¡¯s w slips out, easily splitting the mudscrap¡¯s head from its body. She throws a thumbs up towards Enzo before turning to another nearby heat signature and pouncing. They repeat the pattern with Emily diving for a beast while Enzo hardens the ground around it. They kill eight, who fruitlessly try to fight back having realised their magical escape is blocked. Finally, the other four realise they can¡¯t win and turn to run. A few strikes from flying lightning and the battle turns still. Emily turns back towards camp walking past the dead beasts without sparing them a nce. After she and Enzo re-enter the barrier, they both sit down at the edge of the clearing. ¡°You not going back to sleep?¡± Enzo asks her quietly. ¡°Nah, no point, there¡¯s only an hour or so till I¡¯d have to get up again anyway.¡± ¡°Fair. Thanks for helping me out, I wasn¡¯t too sure it was safe to run off on my own to check on what was scouting us.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯d rather you came and woke me up than let any valuable beasts run away,¡± Emily reassures him, before muttering disappointedly: ¡°It¡¯s a shame it was mudscraps though.¡± ¡°Hah, yeah. What a waste of effort,¡± Enzo grumbles with her. ¡°Still, are we not going to grab their skulls at least?¡± ¡°I know they have a bit of value, but do you really want to clean them? Let¡¯s just wait till Oscar wakes up and tell him about them. If he thinks they¡¯re worth the bag space, we can get Callum and Cian to deal with it.¡± Enzo raises a brow at her before cracking a grin. ¡°I see your point. Best to leave that kind of work to the professionals.¡± Emily nods sagely. If they didn¡¯t want to strip corpses for us, they should never have told us they were a butcher¡¯s sons. Emily and Enzo chat quietly for the rest of thest watch. When Oscares over to greet them in the morning, after a brief exnation of why Emily is up already and what happened, he also decides the mudscrap skulls aren¡¯t worth the effort. ¡°Yeah, just leave them. We should get moving quickly though if their corpses are nearby. Don¡¯t want to be here when the scavengers show up,¡± Oscar says resolutely, leaving the scouts as he heads back into the camp. Ivor shows up with Dante a few minutester, carrying breakfast. The four of them eat while the others break camp. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be helping them?¡± Emily asks Dante after a few minutes, gesturing into the clearing with her head. ¡°I would, but it¡¯s important we have enough people on watch when there¡¯s arge number of fresh corpses near us,¡± Dante replies seriously. Emily is slightly taken aback by his thoughtful answer, until Enzo dispels her belief. ¡°Yeah right! Emily would be enough on her own if something happened. You¡¯re just avoiding doing the work.¡± ¡°I have no clue what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Dante looks away, refusing to make eye contact as he continues eating. Once ready, the group set off again without trouble. As the now empty clearing fades into the fog and they march on in silence, Emily detects several sets of footsteps approaching the corpses they left behind. Good, they aren¡¯t interested in us. Confirming none of the steps areing towards the group, Emily ignores them and switches back to watching their advance with infra-sight. *** They slowly push through The de, killing and harvesting any beasts that approach them, falling into a tense routine. As the days pass, on their fourth full day in the unsettling forest, the group¡¯s fears rx slightly, and quiet, muttered conversations apany their advance. In the mid-morning of their fourth day, Emily is standing at the front of the group, looking at the dull, heatless hues of their surroundings with boredom while Ivor runs his earthen detection. The mana around us is starting to get denser. It¡¯s at least fifty per cent denser here than on the outskirts and we¡¯re running into more beasts each day. The fog is also getting thicker by the day. Does this mean we¡¯re getting closer to the depths? Her absentminded ponderings are disturbed by a tapping on her shoulder. Turning her head, she sees Oscar staring at her with concern creasing his brow. ¡°We need your help.¡± Chapter 56 – Unseen Pursuit Chapter 56 ¨C Unseen Pursuit Emily turns to fully face Oscar, taking in his nervous shifting as she waits for him to borate. ¡°Pleasee trante for Ivor. He¡¯s trying to tell us something and my signnguage isn¡¯t good enough to understand him properly.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Emily agrees, stepping past Oscar to approach Ivor. Ivor makes eye contact with her as she walks up, and she instantly notices the confusion in his gaze. ¡°What¡¯s up, big guy?¡± Emily signs as shees to a halt before him. ¡°I think something¡¯s following us,¡± his first sentence sends a shiver down Emily spine as she nces into the fog concealing the trees behind their group. ¡°What do you mean think?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve felt something odd thest three scans I¡¯ve done. I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s the movement of a beast: it doesn¡¯t feel like footfall. At first, I thought it was nothing, so I ignored it. But this time I¡¯m certain I felt something moving in our wake, even if I still can¡¯t tell what.¡± Emily frowns and activates earthen detection after his exnation, focusing her senses on the trail behind them. Standing with her eyes shut and her full attention on the scan, she notices a faint buzzing near the edge of her detection range, but it vanishes the moment she feels it. She keeps her attention on the area where she felt the buzz, but finds nothing after a minute of watching. ¡°There¡¯s something there for sure. I wouldn¡¯t even have noticed it if you hadn¡¯t said something. But whatever it is, it stopped moving the second my scan reached it,¡± Emily says with concern, turning to Oscar. ¡°It¡¯s able to sense our earthen detection. How about I go out alone and have a look?¡± She taps her eyes, activating infra-sight and letting its warm orange glow convey her intent. Oscar frowns at her suggestion. ¡°No way am I letting you set off alone.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll still be within detection range: you can get Ivor and Enzo to watch my back from here. I¡¯m faster than any of you, and if something happens, I can defend myself for long enough for you all to reach me!¡± Oscar looks unconvinced, but acquiesces with a sigh. ¡°Fine. It¡¯s not like I have any better ideas, and I sure as hell don¡¯t want an unknown beast following us.¡± ¡°Great,¡± Emily says with a grin, setting off towards the back of the chattering group. ¡°Also, if you don¡¯t want things following us, maybe shut them up.¡± Leaving Oscar to consider her suggestion, Emily takes off back along their path. She dashes and weaves between trees, approaching the area where she felt something amiss. Coming to a standstill, she looks around for any warmth in the area and finds nothing. She pulses earthen detection a few times, attempting to find the buzzing again, but nothing shows up. As the eerie silence of the forest closes in around her, Emily frowns and scours the area, pushing bushes out of the way and searching for anything out of the ordinary. After five minutes of searching to no avail, she heads back to rejoin the group. She breaks through the fog, emerging next to Matteo and startling him as she passes. Ignoring his grumbledints, Emily walks up to Ivor and Oscar, informing them of her fruitless search. ¡°Nothing?¡± Oscar asks dubiously. ¡°Yep, not a leaf out of ce. Whatever¡¯s following us is either a ghost, or so good at hiding we¡¯ll never find it.¡± Oscar¡¯s face twists in a confused mix of fear and anger. ¡°Shit. We keep going. Whatever it is, it will have to reveal itself to attack us. You guys stay on guard.¡± Emily shrugs at hismands and returns to the head of the group. He¡¯s not wrong. As long as we¡¯re careful, we should be fine. I can always reset and check again once we know what we¡¯re looking for. They continue, heading deeper into The de. The rxed state the group had fallen into vanishes, with the fear of the unknown once again hanging over their heads. Everyone keeps moving, sticking to the formation as usual, but several people repeatedly cast anxious gazes behind them, checking for phantoms in the fog. By lunch time, they have run into three more small groups of beasts, and the odd tremors following them persist. As they take a break to eat, Emily, Ivor, Enzo, and Dante, set up at the edge of the group, facing the unknown pursuer. ¡°Should we really keep going?¡± Enzo asks with his signature scowl. ¡°Why not? If a beast wants to attack us, we¡¯ll just burn it!¡± Dante confidently answers. Enzo rolls his eyes at his friend and turns to Emily for a reasonable response. ¡°As much as the pyro¡¯s answer was stupid, he¡¯s not wrong. It¡¯s like Oscar said: whatever¡¯s following us will have to reveal itself if it wants to attack us directly.¡± ¡°Yeah, but you¡¯ve noticed our encounters with beasts increasing the further we go, right? What if whatever¡¯s following us is smart enough to coordinate the beasts and it¡¯s giving away our position?¡± ¡°Ha. If it¡¯s that smart, we¡¯re already dead! It would have to be at least third circle for that, and a third circle beast that good at hiding is a death sentence,¡± Dante says dismissively. ¡°Okay that¡¯s fair.¡± Enzo sighs. ¡°But still, that doesn¡¯t mean it won¡¯t wait till we¡¯re exhausted to attack.¡± Emily and Ivor nod at his words. ¡°True. We¡¯ll just have to stay on high alert then,¡± Emily agrees. ¡°What¡¯s got you so concerned though? You don¡¯t normally strike me as this nervous?¡± Enzo flinches slightly, staring into the fog while shifting ufortably. ¡°It¡¯s hard to exin. Something about whatever¡¯s following us just feels wrong.¡± He turns to face Emily as he continues. ¡°You¡¯ve tried detecting it, haven¡¯t you?¡± Emily nods silently, wondering what about the scans is making Enzo so nervous. ¡°Well, you remember how I couldn¡¯t tell what the mudscraps were?¡± ¡°Yeah, they distorted earthen detection.¡± ¡°Yeah, well this thing is doing something simr. I didn¡¯t notice it the first few times I scanned it because it¡¯s scarily subtle, but it¡¯s not going still every time we try to locate it. It¡¯s distorting the scan somehow to stop information getting to us. The mudscraps changed what the scan read by messing with the earth they stood on, but this thing¡¯s messing with the spell itself.¡± Dante puts an arm around his shivering friend, to reassure him, while looking to Emily and Ivor. ¡°Have you guys not felt this?¡± Ivor nods in agreement, and Emily frowns. ¡°I haven¡¯t. Give me a moment. Both of you stop scanning if you are.¡± After receiving two nods, Emily shuts her eyes and channels earthen detection with her full focus. She watches the outskirts of their path, feeling around for the buzzing she felt before. She locates the problem area quickly, so she focuses on feeling exactly what signals her spell is sending back to her cortex. The returned information is faint,ing back to her as a blur, not providing the usual rity earthen detection offers. It feels weaker, fragmented even, as if the intended return has been ripped to pieces and sent back in a jumbled dump of data. The information dead zone, as Emily chooses to designate it for now, covers arge area, a circle of ground at least fifty metres across,pletely indecipherable to her magical senses. Opening her eyes again, she nods to her friends. ¡°Yeah, I see what you mean. There¡¯s a dead zone where I can¡¯t gather any valid information. I¡¯m not sure what it is. Maybe a high level earth spell?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Enzo shrugs, standing up and gesturing towards the shifting group behind them with his head. ¡°I just hope it reveals itself soon, otherwise we won¡¯t sleep soundly tonight.¡± They set off again. Emily, walking at the head of the group, distractedly consulting her knowledge of magical beasts to try and work out what¡¯s following them. The afternoon is long. They¡¯re attacked every hour, sometimes multiple times an hour. Emily runs out of silent bullets a few hours before they make camp, switching to throwing conjured des at enemies above instead. By 9 pm, the group is exhausted, everyone having used up over half of their mana reserves, when Emily calls for them to stop again. ¡°How many this time?¡± Oscar asks tiredly, to which Emily raises her hand asking for silence with a look of concern on her face. Well that¡¯s not good. Flickering in the fog, Emily spots a catlike form before it steps back and fades into nonexistence. ¡°Fog cats!¡± she hisses, dropping infra-sight and double-casting earthen detection. In sync, four scans fill their surroundings, mapping the footsteps of their approaching foes on all sides. ¡°Twelve in front, six to the right,¡± Emily says, almost wincing at the numbers as she waits for Enzo and Ivor. ¡°Six on the left nk,¡± Cormac vocalises for Ivor. ¡°Eight behind,¡± Enzo warns. ncing back, Emily sees her groupmates¡¯ faces falling in despair. With a sigh, she makes eye contact with Oscar. ¡°How far off is our next camp?¡± ¡°We moved slowly today. An hour without interruptions. Two at our current pace.¡± Nodding, she turns back to the front and reaches for her bandolier. ¡°Use grenades, then move quickly. We can¡¯t waste thest of our mana here, we won¡¯t even reach camp.¡± Then, before he can respond, Emily charges two grenades with machina and lobs them far into the forest ahead. ¡°Shit. Carriers, three grenades to the back and sides!¡± Oscar shouts hurriedly. The luggage carriers scramble into motion, reaching into their packs and producing grenades to hand to the mages beside them. ¡°Brace!¡± Emily calls out while sending a small stream of mana into her earrings. Two loud bangs rip through the group, drawing a few yelps of pain from those too slow to cover their ears after Emily¡¯s warning. Emily herself feels the thundering sound in her chest, but all she hears is a muted pop. A few shards of shrapnel fly past them, but none hit the group, most embedding themselves in the dense trees between their detonation point and the group. Emily reactivates infra-sight, checking for any approaching fog cats while her teammates fumble to use their grenades. She spots a few crumpled beasts lying between trees, their heat bleeding out onto the floor around them. Six weaker bangs go off around the group. A few shards of shrapnel are caught in the water barriers protecting everyone, further adding to the defensive mages¡¯ burden. ¡°Check for movement!¡± Emily calls, nowpletely unconcerned about making more noise. She sets off two earthen detection scans herself, finding three fog cats still moving in front of the group and two on the right. ¡°Three on the left.¡± ¡°Five still behind.¡± Clicking her tongue, Emily nces at her resource reserves. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana:] 2150/3540 [Machina:] 3153/3540 _____ I can easily manage alone. ¡°Everyone stay on the defensive, I¡¯ll deal with them,¡± Emily says before sprinting into the fog ahead, unconcerned about the group¡¯s reaction. Dropping one of her earthen detections, Emily¡¯s hands quickly weave a set of hand signs as she runs. A pale blue glow envelopes her as aplicated magic circle forms around her. She carefully positions herself, lining up the footsteps of the fog cats in front of the group. She halts in position, mming her hands together to finish forming the spell then pointing her right arm out, lining up her enemies with two fingers. ¡°Bang,¡± she mutters with a grin, as the magic circle around her zes to life with the crackle of electricity. A bolt of lightning tears a path through the fog, ripping the magically enhanced haze from existence. Three of the fog cats fall to the ground, smouldering, as Emily quickly pulls out her revolver. She tells her second core to switch from earthen detection to infra-sight as she brings the gun up to bear. The air before her is filled with dissipating heat, but she still easily spots the final fog cat on this side, quickly racing towards her after her shy attack. A single pop and crack signals the cat¡¯s demise as a lightly crackling bullet flies from the barrel of Emily¡¯s gun into the beast¡¯s skull. Front clear. Emily turns on her heel, dashing towards the right nk of the group where the fog cats have closed in on her group. She sees two cat-shaped red forms stalking the edge of the barriers, throwing themselves against them periodically and fading back into obscurity after each failed strike. She raises her gun. Two machina-charged trigger pulls fell the beasts as she continues circling the group to approach the left nk. Three shots left, three cats. Lining up her firing angle, Emily pulls the trigger three more times. Two more cats drop, but the third reacts in time, jumping suddenly as Emily shoots. ¡°Tsk.¡± Emily clicks her tongue, dropping the revolver into its holster and charging forwards. The fog cat, realising its cover is useless against Emily, races to meet her. At thest moment before their collision, Emily tilts her body sideways, slipping past the cat as her hand shes out, slitting its throat with her w. Emily continues moving, cleaning the w with a small spark of machina then retracting it again. As she rushes to the back of the group, Emily¡¯s hands move with mechanical grace, blurring through the motions of another spell. Flying lightning forms around her right arm as she reaches herst five opponents. All five turn to look at her, and, as if in recognition of the ying of their pack mates, switch targets and move to surround her. Emily takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly through a manic grin. Time stretches as she watches the first cat leap towards her. She whips her weapon, stabbing the cat through the eye with a shocking impact. With a quick twist, she rips the de clean and sends it flying backwards, shing past another attacking beast and paralysing it with a spark. The other three beasts reach her, coordinating their attacks as they bite and w at her legs and throat. With acrobatic ir, Emily springs up, spinning in the air with flying lightning¡¯s wire trailing behind her. The wire brushes past the beasts, stunning them with lightning before the following de shes them to pieces. Emilynds in the centre of the three bleeding beasts and calmly stands up. She tosses flying lightning into the head of the cat she only stunned, before dismissing the spell. Leaving the corpses behind, she rejoins her group, finding them standing together tensely, with the defensive barrier mages panting in exhaustion. ¡°Everything¡¯s dead,¡± Emily calls as she retakes her ce at the head of the formation. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get the fuck out of here!¡± Chapter 57 – Things That Go Hiss in The Night Chapter 57 ¨C Things That Go Hiss in The Night The rest of the evening travel is slow and painful. While using grenades helped to clear the group of fog cats and get them moving faster, it also inevitably draws in more beasts. Emily and the mages with ranged attacks quickly dispatch anything that approaches them, pushing through groups of five or more attacking beasts at least every ten minutes for the first hour. They reach the next clearing to set up camp three hours after fighting the fog cats. A few group members sit in the centre of the clearing, sping deep gashes and waiting for the healers to regain enough mana to help. Everybody else rushes to set up their tents so they can sleep. Emily hunkers down at the edge of the clearing, watching the forest in the direction they came from. Oscares over as the clearing starts to settle, carrying food for Emily. ¡°Hey, you sure you¡¯re still okay to take first watch?¡± he asks while casting nervous nces out into the foggy surroundings. ¡°You¡¯re probably the most exhausted one here.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine.¡± She waves him off. ¡°My spells are mana-efficient. I still have enough left in the tank to keep watch for three more hours. I may have to wake people up to help me fight if too many beasts attack though.¡± Oscar nods and stands up with a yawn, too tired to question her any longer. ¡°As long as you¡¯re certain. Get help the second you need it, okay? I don¡¯t want any stupid deaths due to exhaustion.¡± Emily waves over her shoulder as he leaves, not taking her eyes off the treeline. Her glowing orange eyes remain fixed on the darkness, with only brief pauses for regr earthen detection scans. An hourter, Emily¡¯s concerns are confirmed as she feels a familiar dead spot in one of her returned scans. Damn! She watches for the next two hours as no beasts attack, but the dead zone slowly circles their camp. It never moves closer than fifty metres, and no matter how hard Emily tries, she fails to extract any helpful data. At the end of her watch, Emily wakes a still exhausted Ivor and informs him of the dead zone¡¯s return before heading into her tent to rest. She falls into meditation, quickly refilling her drained resources and returning to near-peak condition. Emily remains in a trance until the end of Ivor¡¯s shift when she drops her focus as her second core wakes up. Before she can re-enter meditation, she lets off a quick earthen detection just in case, and a chill runs down her spine. The dead zone that once traced the edge of the camp, now covers it. Emily stands up, cautiously opening her tent and stepping out. She nces around, the murky gloom of the night drawing in like a noose around her neck. Activating infra-sight, Emily walks through the tents to the edge of the camp, looking for Ivor or Enzo on watch. Finding no one sitting where she left Ivor earlier, she walks the perimeter. Halfway round, she spots him. Lying in a pool of his own blood, slowly bleeding thest heat of his life onto the forest floor, is Ivor. The colour drains from her face as she sees him, and Emily rushes over. She deactivates infra-sight as she turns him onto his back, grimacing at the state of his body. His arms are both bent at unnatural angles, and his throat is ripped clean out. Emily grits her teeth before taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, crushing her emotions as her logic reassures her. It¡¯s fine, I will reset in a minute. First, I should find out what our stalker is so I can find it next time. She closes Ivor¡¯s eyes as she stands up. ¡°See youter, big guy,¡± she signs to his corpse as she walks into the gathered tents. Emily approaches the closest tent first, pushing open the p and cautiously gazing in. The tent¡¯s upant is Nora, one of the group¡¯s healers. Unlike Ivor¡¯s violent demise, Nora¡¯s was peaceful, with just a single two-fanged bite mark on her neck and ck veins spreading from it across her body. Her body seems shrivelled as if all the moisture has been drained from her. Inspecting the bite closely, a picture of their enemy quickly forms in Emily¡¯s mind. Two fangs, spreads venom, hidden from thermal detection - it¡¯s a snake. Is it earth attuned? It would make sense that it could mess with our scans and drain moisture, but it would have to be third circle to distort our scans like that with just earth spells. If that were the case, it could have attacked us head-on. Standing up, she leaves the tent and starts checking on others. The number of dead keeps growing. From two to four to nine. As Emily opens the ninth tent, Oscar¡¯s, she finds almost exactly what she expected. Curled around Oscar¡¯s sleeping form is a long, thin, pitch-ck boa. Its skin shimmers in a strange way, seemingly vanishing at the edges as if forming into wisps of shadow. Darkness element, of course! The gears finally click into ce in Emily¡¯s mind as the snake releases Oscar¡¯s neck from its jaws and turns to hiss at Emily. Swiftly, she steps forward, driving a w down into the creature''s head before it even has time to react. The snake drops to the floor, dead, as Emily rises. ncing at Oscar, who has been violently thrashing from the moment the snake released him, Emily sighs as she pulls out The Clock. ¡°You really did drag us on a suicide mission, didn¡¯t you?¡± *** ¡°We need your help.¡± Emily turns to face Oscar at the words she has been waiting for all morning. ¡°Pleasee trante for Ivor. He-¡° ¡°Sure!¡± Emily interrupts, cutting him off before he can finish. Repeating the same conversation with Oscar and Ivor, she quickly gets their agreement and sets off into the forest after her prey. Knowing infra-sight won¡¯t be of any help, she keeps earthen detection running, heading towards the information dead zone. Upon reaching it, she lifts a hand before her and casts light, raising the glowing ball of white to float above her head. The light shimmers in the fog, banishing the shadows around her. ¡°Let¡¯s see you hide now,¡± she mutters quietly as her predatory grin grows. Carefully, she moves through the dead zone, checking the ground near tree roots and under bushes. After a few minutes of searching, she spots a flickering ck outline. With one quick movement, Emily steps forward,shing out with a w and cleanly severing the snake''s head. She pulls up the system window the moment the corpse drops, not having bothered before, knowing the system doesn¡¯t work on living creatures. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Shadow Boa] [Rank:] E [Description:] A snake that dwells in the depths of shadows, striking its foes from the dark and killing them with its life draining venom. _____ Interesting, I¡¯ve never heard of you before. She takes the long corpse and slings it over her shoulders, carrying the head in her hand as she returns to the group triumphant. Her odd quarry receives a few strange nces from her groupmates, no one recognising the beast. Oscar and Ivor approach her immediately. ¡°Is that it?¡± Oscar asks dubiously. ¡°Yep,¡± Emily says, dropping the snake on the ground before him. ¡°It¡¯s some kind of darkness element snake. I think it was using a magical draining effect on the detection spell to distort it.¡± Ivor nods thoughtfully at her im as Oscar crouches down to inspect the beast. ¡°That¡¯s an interesting find. I haven¡¯t heard of a snake like this before. We may be the first to discover it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m quite interested in researching it more myself,¡± Emily says while staring at the mysterious flickering flesh of the shadow boa, still trying to hide itself from the world even after its death. ¡°Would I be able to pay some of my contribution from this expedition to take its corpse when we get back?¡± Oscar looks up at her with a frown, but it quickly switches to a look of helplessness as he rises and speaks. ¡°Technically, Ivor was the one to find it, and you were the only person to contribute to killing it. So, I think it¡¯s only fair that you two receive ownership of the corpse.¡± Emily is slightly surprised by his response, ncing at Ivor who signs a quick question. ¡°Research it together?¡± She smiles and nods at him, before returning her focus to Oscar. ¡°Thanks. When we finish our research, we¡¯ll send you a copy as payment for helping us transport the corpse.¡± I can always leave out some details if I find anything useful. ¡°Thank you. I¡¯d appreciate that.¡± Oscar smiles at her offer while signalling for a carrier to collect the corpse as he returns to his position. Emily returns to the head of the group, satisfied. The rest of the day goes much as expected, running into dozens of beasts and slowly battling towards their resting point. They handle the repeated encounters better, no longer worried about the looming threat following them, and by the time they reach their camping ce, they don¡¯t have any serious injuries. The night passes smoothly too, and the next morning, Emily leaves her tent to find everyone still alive and Ivor waiting for her with food. They settle down at the edge of the clearing to eat while keeping watch. After a few minutes alone, Oscares over to talk to them with a pleased smile on his face. ¡°What¡¯s got you so chipper?¡± Emily asks as he sits down next to them. ¡°We¡¯re making good progress.¡± ¡°Really? It felt like we didn¡¯t move that much with all the fighting yesterday,¡± Emilyments with doubt. ¡°We nned for that much resistance at this point. If we keep up the predicted pace today, we should reach The Crystal Waters¡¯ entrance by nightfall! And without casualties as well! This trip will be a resounding sess as long as we don¡¯t run into too much trouble in The Waters.¡± Emily narrows her eyes at his confidence. Half the group would be dead right now if I wasn¡¯t here, and we haven¡¯t even reached The Waters yet. He¡¯s letting his guard down too much. ¡°Let¡¯s see. If we run into any more beasts today than we did yesterday, we may end up with casualties before we get there.¡± Oscar seems to calm down slightly at her words, his excitement fading as he nods at her. ¡°You¡¯re right. We should still be careful. But be a little proud of us,¡± he says, standing up and patting Emily on the shoulder. ¡°And yourselves. This expedition wouldn¡¯t have made it here this smoothly without both of you.¡± Emily watches his back recede into the tents before turning back to Ivor. ¡°He¡¯s a little odd,¡± Ivor signs, making Emilyugh. ¡°Yes. Yes, he is.¡± I can¡¯t tell whether he¡¯s pretending to be kind to achieve something, or if he¡¯s actually just nice. I guess that makes him a good noble. After finishing their breakfast, and waiting for the camp to be disassembled, Emily takes up the lead again, guiding the group further into The de under Oscar¡¯s instructions. The morning is much the same as the evening before, with gatherings of beasts attacking in waves, slowly grinding down their mana reserves. Emily notices Oscar giving more directions the longer the day goes. At one point just before lunch, after returning to the group after ripping apart a gathering of pop toads, a froglike beast with a tendency to blow themselves up when they feel threatened, Emily notices him holding a strange metal device. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± she asks quietly as she appears from the fog beside him. Oscar starts slightly, grasping the trinket tight as his shoulders jump. ¡°You¡¯re back,¡± he whispers with an audible sigh of relief. ¡°This is a Guide Pose; it always points to a specific attuned mana crystal. It¡¯s how we¡¯re finding The Waters¡¯ entrance. The first time my family found it, they marked it with this crystal so we can return whenever we like.¡± ¡°I see. Does this crystal only link to one Pose? Or multiple?¡± ¡°Multiple. We have a spell for linking new Poses to the same crystal. Why?¡± ¡°Does your family sell them by any chance?¡± ¡°Only to our allies.¡± ¡°What, do I not count?¡± ¡°You¡¯re still a Mandrago,¡± Oscar concludes, his tone making it clear the conversation is over. Huh, I guess that¡¯s a touchy subject for him. If I need toe back, I¡¯ll have to hope he¡¯s loosened up a little. Or I can just steal one. They continue following the pose, stopping for lunch soon after. They are attacked once, as they eat, by a small group of rocky howlers, but Emily quickly dispatches them with flying lightning before they can interrupt her groupmates¡¯ meal. The afternoon travel quickly takes an unsettling turn as, a few hours after setting off from lunch, the beast attacks fall off and an unnerving quiet settles over the forest. The fog slowly grows denser and the group has to reach out and hold each other¡¯s robes to maintain awareness in their formation. Late-afternoon, as the light breaching the canopy far above begins to dwindle, Emily turns her head and asks Oscar a whispered question over her shoulder. ¡°We haven¡¯t run into anything for the past hour. Was this expected as well?¡± ¡°Yes. This is a good sign. Fewer beasts means we¡¯re getting closer!¡± She nods and turns back, which is when she sees it. The fog ahead of them is roiling, swirling violently in a wall of motion. ¡°Are we-?¡° Before Emily can finish asking about the phenomenon, Oscar interrupts her with a cheer. ¡°Yes! We made it!¡± A wave of relief passes through the group at his cry. ¡°Go ahead, Emily. As long as you see no enemies ahead, this area is safe,¡± Oscar reassures her eagerly, impatient to see the goal of his trip. ¡°Sure, there¡¯s nothing ahead,¡± Emily says as she steps forward, excited to see The Waters¡¯ entrance herself. With her breath held in anticipation, Emily steps through the shifting wall of fog into the unknown beyond. Chapter 58 – The Complexity of Space Chapter 58 ¨C The Complexity of Space A small gasp escapes Emily¡¯s lips as she gazes at the scene before her. The roiling wall of fog falls away after a metre to reveal a wide-open clearing broken only by a fewrge trees, whose canopies stretch wide overhead, blocking a clear view of the sky. The fog seems to pause at the boundary of the space before being pulled down and flowing along the ground like a thick carpet. In the centre of the clearing, is a crack in the earth. It stretches a few metres wide and over ten long, with dense fog flowing into it like water, clinging close to the surfaces as it drops. Emily¡¯s groupmates break formation, parting the fog on either side of her as they emerge into the clearing with stupefied gazes. After a few moments admiring the mysterious crack in the ground, Oscar breaks everyone out of their daze. ¡°This is it everyone. Wee to the entrance to The Crystal Waters!¡± Several muttered conversations break out at his words, so he quickly regains control of the group, obviously reeling in his own excitement at the same time. ¡°Calm down everyone! This is a very exciting moment, but let¡¯s get our arrays set up properly before we rx too much.¡± The palpable excitement of the group is barely held in as Oscar quickly pulls out the sound barrier¡¯s stakes and divides them up. With practised motions, they ce the stakes around the clearing, forming a bubble of surety around themselves. The moment the barrier is formed, the barely suppressed excitement of the group explodes as everybody gathers around the crack to look in. Emily joins them, gazing into the dark recess in the ground. She sees the faintly recognisable membrane of the sound isting barrier spanning the entrance, preventing sound from travelling inside. Upon closer inspection, she realises that the crack isn¡¯t just a hole. Though obscured by the dense fog resting on top of it, there is a path descending further into the depths. It starts off at ground level with a sudden half-metre drop onto a gradual slope that disappears into the billowing fog and darkness below. Oscar addresses the whole group as they gather around. ¡°We shall set up camp here for today and move into the cave system in the morning. Make the most of being in the open. This will be thest time we see the sky for a while.¡± Everyone slowly disperses, ambling through setting up camp, the usual urgency gone, having stopped far earlier in the day than normal. Emily, Ivor, and Enzo settle down together at the edge of the clearing. After chatting for a while about the mysterious entrance, Ivor and Enzo exchange a nce before both turning to Emily. ¡°You should take a break for a little bit,¡± Enzo says. Emily raises a brow with curiosity as he continues. ¡°You¡¯ve been scouting at the front all week: you¡¯ve got to be mentally exhausted, right?¡± ¡°Not massively. I¡¯m quite resilient.¡± Emily shrugs. Enzo sighs, while Ivor rolls his eyes at her. ¡°Just take a break for an hour to eat. We don¡¯t need all three of us anyway,¡± Ivor signs. I guess I can use this as a chance to talk to Callum... Smiling at her friends¡¯ concern, Emily stands up, patting them both on the shoulders. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll take your offer then. Thanks. Try not to annoy each other too much!¡± she says as she turns and walks towards the main camp. All the tents have already been set up, and Emily finds the majority of the expedition group gathered together eating. Before she can join them, Dante approaches her, carrying a mass of bread and meat in his arms. ¡°Hey, Emily! You here to grab food? I was already on my way.¡± ¡°Yes and no. Ivor and Enzo told me toe and rest for a bit.¡± ¡°Wow, they managed to convince you to rest? Should I be reporting them for using mental magic?¡± Rolling her eyes at him, Emily grabs some food out of his arms and walks past. ¡°Yep, they¡¯re masters of the brain now, so why don¡¯t you go ask them to work out what¡¯s wrong with yours?¡± she calls teasingly over her shoulder as she leaves. Chewing on a hunk of bread, Emily scans the group for Callum, frowning when she can¡¯t find him. Instead, she approaches Oscar, who¡¯s sitting at the edge of the gathering, chatting with Fionn, Cian, and Linda. ¡°Hey,¡± Emily calls as she gets close, interrupting their conversation. Fionn and Cian both give her polite smiles, and Linda gives her a friendly wave, her greeting unaffected by the heavy bags under her eyes. Oscar raises a brow with curiosity and Emily sighs, predicting his next question. ¡°Why are you over here?¡± ¡°Ivor and Enzo persuaded me to take a break,¡± she says, quickly continuing before Oscar canment. ¡°Where¡¯s Callum? I wanna talk to him?¡± Oscar looks shocked at her inquiry, but still answers quickly. ¡°He¡¯s in his tent, third on the fourth row.¡± ¡°Got it, thanks.¡± Emily nods and turns around. ncing at the shoddily organised tents, she quickly works out which counts as the fourth row, heavily judging whoever managed to blend the fourth and fifth rows together. They had one job! If I did my job this poorly, we¡¯d all be dead... Shaking her head free of superfluous thoughts, she walks up to Callum¡¯s tent and calls for him. ¡°Hey, Callum! You in there?¡± She hears light shuffling inside, then the front p is pushed aside as a scruffy head of ck hair is shoved through it. ¡°Emily?¡± Callum asks with slight confusion, brushing crust out of his eyes. Was he asleep already? We¡¯ve only been here for like half an hour. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°Sorry if I¡¯m bothering you, but I wanted to know if you¡¯d be willing to talk to me about your element,¡± Emily says apologetically, remembering how many bodies he¡¯d had to dismantle today because of her. ¡°Why are you interested?¡± he asks dubiously, standing up to full height, looming two heads above her. ¡°Well¡­¡± Emily raises a hand before her, gathering her current understanding of space and attempting to force a manifestation. Faint purple wisps flicker to life above her palm, glistening before Callum and instantly wiping away his exhaustion as his eyes open wide in shock. ¡°I¡¯m having a bit of trouble with it and wanted to get some fresh perspective.¡± ¡°I¡¯d be happy to talk to you. I haven¡¯t met another space mage yet! What do you want to know?¡± Callum rattles off excitedly, his sudden shift taking Emily by surprise. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go sit down somewhere first. I have another fifty minutes on break, so we have plenty of time.¡± Callum agrees with her, so they make their way to the edge of the clearing, opposite Ivor and Enzo. ¡°Is it okay to sit at the edge of the camp like this?¡± Callum asks slightly nervously as Emily drops to the floor, leaning against a tree on the border of the barrier. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine. Enzo and Ivor are both on watch right now,¡± she says dismissively, waving her hand towards the dense fog wall behind her. ¡°They¡¯ll know if anything approaches.¡± Callum nods and sits down in front of her, waiting impatiently for her to start asking questions. ¡°Right,¡± Emily says, opening a notepad window in the corner of her vision. ¡°First, have you done research in the library into spatial theory?¡± ¡°Urgh, I¡¯ve tried,¡± Callum groans. ¡°I read a few books about it, but they¡¯re all so vague and seem to barely say anything.¡± Emily nods at his assessment. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve read a lot of them. They have some useful bits of information, but it¡¯s sparse and they often end up repeating themselves and spiralling down the same point for an entire book.¡± ¡°Exactly! I found Elemental Quandary more helpful, and that¡¯s not even a book about space!¡± Emily raises a brow, noting down the book¡¯s name. ¡°I haven¡¯t read that one. What does it talk about?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. It¡¯s pretty basic,¡± Callum says, awkwardly scratching his cheek. ¡°It simply talks about the best method for understanding your own element being creating a connection with it through meditation. A pretty standard concept! It doesn¡¯t say anything special.¡± I see, so what I was already attempting then. ¡°I see. Well, in that case, could you show me your manifestation?¡± Callum nods, closing his eyes and bringing both of his hands out before him. Emily watches patiently, and after a few moments, the mana before Callum erupts in purple light. The wisps of purple mana are denser than Emily¡¯s attempt by at least fifty per cent. Also, unlike Emily¡¯s efforts, the wisps are full of energy, erratically shifting. Gazing at the cloud of energy, she watches as a quickly moving wisp seems to pop out of existence. Strange, I¡¯ve never seen manifested elemental mana vanish like that. It normally fades and disperses slowly. She leans in to look closer as the purple light fades and disappears. She looks up and makes eye contact with Callum staring down at her in slight confusion. ¡°Sorry, I saw something interesting. Could you maintain the manifestation for ten more seconds for me?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± He shrugs, closing his eyes and focusing again. The cloud of purple energy reforms, so Emily watches closely. Again, she sees a few wisps blink out of existence. However, she also spots the opposite. Several wisps appear out of seemingly nowhere, forming with momentum already. No, actually they aren¡¯t appearing and disappearing, they¡¯re teleporting! The realisation hits Emily as she observes a wisp blink away and reappear a few centimetres away while still travelling with the same vector of motion. She watches this process repeat with several different wisps until the cloud fades again. They always reappear at the instant they vanish. There isn¡¯t any dy at all. I guess it¡¯s not like travelling through a tunnel of mana between points like I guessed. There would be at least a fractional dy then... ¡°So, what did you see?¡± Callum asks. Emily bites her thumb as her brow creases in thought. ¡°Your manifested mana was teleporting.¡± ¡°Well, yeah. That¡¯s pretty obvious. It¡¯s space magic: of course it teleports,¡± Callum says slightly disappointedly. ¡°Mine doesn¡¯t, though, and that¡¯s the problem I¡¯m trying to work out,¡± Emily says with an irritated scowl. ¡°Could you exin to me what you¡¯re thinking of when you attempt manifestation?¡± Callum frowns, scratching the side of his head as he thinks. ¡°Yes? I don¡¯t really think that much though, so it probably won¡¯t help.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. Anything helps.¡± ¡°Okay. So to start with I clear my mind. Then, I feel for everything around me. It¡¯s kind of hard to exin, but since I awakened, I can sort of just feel where everything is within a few metres of me.¡± Emily frowns and notes down his heightened spatial awareness as he continues. ¡°Next, I try and focus on two fixed points in front of me and push them together. I can feel space sort of stretch as they connect, so I focus on that feeling and hold it as my mental image.¡± He finishes, looking at Emily to see if she gained anything from his words. Emily sits in silence for a few moments, staring at the pages of notes floating in her view. Two points, connected by mana, strong force to bend space, instant transmission... With thoughts and theories swirling around her mind, Emily shifts her posture into meditation stance and closes her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she releases it and empties her mindpletely. First, two points. In the nk canvas of her mind, Emily paints two stationary purple orbs. They sit a fair distance from each other, with nothing but empty space between. Next, mana. Both of the orbs take on a purple glow as Emily imagines mana building up within them. Now, apply a great force. The orbs keep gaining mana, maintaining the same size but ballooning in density. They vibrate with immense power as they pull on the space around them, but both remain rooted steadfast. Finally, bend space. The orbs both begin to distort, pulling out into cones as they reach for each other. The space between them shakes and twists, distorting as it¡¯spressed. The two points connect,pleting Emily¡¯s mental image with the distance between them both vast and non-existent at the same time. Pouring mana into the mental image, Emily opens her eyes as power bubbles within her. Ignoring Callum¡¯s gobsmacked expression, her gaze is drawn to the distorted space before her. She sees two vortexes of twisted reality, resembling those in her mind, but formed from folds of space instead of abstract purple shapes. Emily instinctively knows the points are connected, even though thepressed space between is invisible to the naked eye, a new sense of awareness budding in her core. Through the centre of one of the points, she sees a slightly twisted perception of the view from the other. ¡°Finally!¡± she cries with joy, dropping the manifestation. ¡°Incredible! Was that a full manifestation just from what I said?¡± Callum asks, with a defeated look on his face. ¡°Yes. Thank you. Your input helped me finish my mental image,¡± Emily says, bowing her head slightly in gratitude. ¡°If you want, I can exin to you what I did to achieve it?¡± Callum hesitates for a few seconds, before sighing and shaking his head as he stands up. ¡°No thanks. It was nice to talk about my element with you. Not many would show any interest, but I think I¡¯ll stick to trying to feel out the element myself. I don¡¯t know why, but I get the feeling that, if I let someone else help me now, I¡¯ll never reach fourth circle.¡± Emily smiles and waves goodbye to him as he leaves, respecting his decision to follow his own path. I don¡¯t have a way to repay him at the moment, but I¡¯ll make sure he and his brother make it out of this trip alive. Turning away from Callum¡¯s receding back, Emily focuses on her new sense of spatial awareness. An odd understanding of the surrounding space fills her, more in feeling than in thought. To try and process it, she shuts her eyes again and focuses on the sensation. The first thing she notices is the conflictingck of objects upying the space, yet constant present force. Following the force, she notices how it pulls on her as well, holding her down to the ground. Gravity. She realises the source quickly. Reaching into a pouch on her belt, Emily pulls out a normal bullet. She throws it in the air, watching with fascination as it¡¯s pulled back down. A constant force acting to hold us to our. She looks closer at the object in her hand, drawing on her new spatial senses with curiosity. Everything else falls away in her perception. She tosses the bullet up again with her eyes shut, feeling space distort as it moves, watching the way the world pulls on it. As it falls back into her hand, she notices a flicker of distortion as itnds. Intrigued, she looks closer at the connection between the object and her hand. She sees a faint, almost non-existent, force acting between the two, pulling lightly on the fractional space between. Lightning strikes in her mind as the dots connect. Gravity, a constant force between objects with mass. Gravity, a force that acts on all within a certain radius with a constant value, forming a field that pulls all together, that connects everything. Gravity, the force of space. Chapter 59 – Cave Diving Chapter 59 ¨C Cave Diving As the realisation falls into ce in her mind, so does a new flood of knowledge. Information flows in, filling holes of awareness in her mind and reinforcing her fundamental understanding of physics. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Mechanic Knowledge learned: Basic Fields -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Questpleted: The Four Fundamental Forces [The Four Fundamental Forces] [Rank:] C [Description:] Learn and understand the four fundamental forces of physics. Requirements: -Learn 4/4 Forces (Complete) Rewards: -Blueprint: Universal Transmitter _____ As the new knowledge settles into ce, a fresh blueprint appears in Emily¡¯s mind. Her jaw drops open in disbelief as she feels the information filling her cortex, and she quickly pulls up her system blueprints to confirm. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Blueprints] Tier 1: {Please focus here to expand} Tier 4: -Universal Transmitter -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Universal Transmitter] [Type:] Ultra Long-Distance Broadcasting Array [Tier:] 4 [Rank:] C [Description:] A high power data transmitter designed to broadcast information across dozens of light-years. [Effect:] When activated sends a programmed message across all open transmission bands. _____ ¡°Tier four,¡± she mutters quietly as she stares at the window. Reaching up, Emily massages her brow as she processes the unexpectedly dense information. Capacitors, resistors, actuators, circuit boards. There¡¯s so many ways to use electricity I never even considered! I can see why steam is the lowest tier possible. Hmm, I¡¯ll need more space and infrastructure to make most of this. I can¡¯t make anything this small without better tools. Sighing, Emily stands up and heads back into camp. ¡°I can think about thister. I can¡¯t make anything here anyway.¡± She returns to watch with Enzo and Ivor, excitedly showing off her new space magic by casting switch a few times. The clearing is attacked twice by a few small groups of beasts as the sun starts to fade, but they are easily dealt with, and Emily is soon left alone on watch as the others turn in. She settles into the now instinctual pattern of earthen detection and infra-sight. However, after only half an hour, she feels movement heading towards them from within the crack. Slightly nervous, she moves towards it, dropping down onto the slope and walking forwards into the abyss below, leaving thest rays of the moon above. The movement grows close enough for her to make out the approaching enemies¡¯ shapes in her stark thermal vision. Emily sees three small humanoid creatures, with hunched backs and long arms scraping along the floor behind them, making their way up the slope towards her. Ugh, groglers. Her brow falls into a scowl at the sight of the grim monsters, a word far more befitting than beast. Emily clearly remembers reading about them in preparation for alchemy. Their eyes are a semi-valuable magical catalyst, but they themselves are known for their brutal killing methods, choosing to rip their prey¡¯s limbs apart before feasting on their entrails. I just have to make sure they can¡¯t get close. Calmly, Emily weaves a spell in her mind, and flying lightning appears from a dazzling magic circle curled around her right arm. With a practised motion, she whips the dart forward, her eyes tracking the motion of her target in the dim light of the flickering weapon, and her spatial awareness faintly alerting her to their position. The dart punctures the throat of the first grogler. The other two nce at their fallen brethren, before hissing and scrambling forwards on their small yet surprisingly nimble legs. Before they cross half the distance to her, Emily has already pulled back the dart, curving its wires around her body as she redirects it and sends it sailing back into another foe. As the final grogler charges onwards, Emily doesn¡¯t bother retrieving the dart: instead, she simply tosses the wire off her arm and takes a step back. Though she doesn¡¯t see it clearly, her spatial awareness res and lets her feel as the grogler swipes for her, missing entirely and grabbing the loose wire. Instantly, a spark of lightning tears out of the wire, lighting up and immobilising the monster. Emily shivers at the sight as she quickly moves forward to drive a w through its throat before it can recover. ncing down into the cave, she pulses earthen detection just in case. Certain nothing else is close, Emily quickly moves through the grogler corpses, choosing to use the fast-fading heat from their bodies instead of a light spell to save herself from the sight of them. She decapitates all of them, before kicking their corpses back down the slope into the unknown and climbing back up to the camp. By the time her watch is over, the collection of grogler heads next to her has grown to ten, each head housing six to ten grotesque ssy white eyes with no eyelids to hide them. She leaves the heads behind at the entrance to The Waters and moves to Ivor¡¯s tent to wake him. He climbs out to greet her as Emily casts a small light spell, floating a wisp of light above her hands tomunicate with. ¡°The cave has groglers.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Ivor signs back with a disgruntled look on his face. ¡°So, night attacks now?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Emily confirms with a sad nod. We got lucky that there aren¡¯t many nocturnal beasts on the outskirts of The de. These caves are going to be a nightmare for watches. We may have to switch our system. ¡°Good luck. I left heads outside the crack. Wake people if you need help. Watch your mana closely.¡± After he agrees to her advice, they part ways and Emily heads to her tent to rest. She spends the rest of the night breaking apart the universal transmitter blueprint into its smallponents, slowly solidifying her understanding of them and gaining ideas to implement in her own designs. As dawn breaks and the camp slowlyes to life, Emily leaves her tent, feeling refreshed, with both her cores ready for action. She heads to the centre of the camp, where everyone is gathered around a small fire Dante is tending, and sits down next to Oscar. ¡°You want to switch how watches are done, don¡¯t you?¡± he asks the moment she sits down, before she even has a chance to speak. ¡°Yep. You talked to Enzo and Ivor already?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t need to: I saw the heads,¡± he responds with a grim look. Emily raises a brow at his unexpectedly strong reaction. ¡°Were you not expecting groglers?¡± ¡°Nope. This is a bad sign.¡± Oscar pauses speaking as the carriers bring around some freshly cooked ocx, only continuing after they leave. ¡°The Salvia family haven¡¯t sent an expedition to this entrance in around five years now. But, two years ago, we did sell a Guide Pose to one of our allied families, the Poinsettias. Their expedition never made it back. Not a single survivor. We were hoping it was just ipetence that got them killed, but seeing groglers here when thest sessful expedition here never saw them? Not a good sign at all.¡± ¡°Oh well, I guess things just got a little more interesting,¡± Emily shrugs. ¡°It¡¯s not like we can¡¯t kill them.¡± She fixes Oscar with a grin which he returns after a few moments. ¡°Let¡¯s start with better night watches from now on. How about switching to two people at a time: one with the ability to scout; and one who can create light?¡± ¡°Sure. I don¡¯t need anyone else on my watch though.¡± Oscar frowns at her and opens his mouth to argue, but she raises a hand to stop him. ¡°I talked to Callum yesterday and finally made a breakthrough.¡± She closes her eyes and manifests space. Opening her eyes again and looking at Oscar through the distorted reality between them, she continues. ¡°One of the benefits of finally understanding space is an increased spatial awareness. I can basically see anything close to me with my eyes shut. Fighting in the dark is easier than ever.¡± She drops the manifestation and waits for Oscar¡¯s shock to fade so he can respond. ¡°Okay, as long as you¡¯re certain you¡¯ll be safe. I already feel like we¡¯re making you do too much.¡± Emily shrugs off his concerns and they continue discussing the best options for night watch as they finish eating. After everyone finishes, they begin breaking camp, and Emily joins Enzo and Ivor as they wait at the entrance to The Waters, with Callum and Cian nearby, removing eyes from the disgusting grey grogler heads. They wait in silence, all staring into the darkness below with varying emotions. Soon, the entire group is packed up and waiting behind them once again, ready to brave the depths of the unknown in the pursuit of knowledge. ¡°Right, everybody, today we finally enter The Crystal Waters,¡± Oscar says just loud enough to be heard, but not shouting now that the sound barrier has been taken down. ¡°As you¡¯ve already seen, we¡¯ll probably be running into groglers quite quickly, so keep your guards up and be prepared for anything as usual. This is our target, so we will start taking breaks to gather materials. Please alert everyone if you spot anything worth gathering. Let¡¯s go!¡± He nods to Emily, and she turns with a grin, hopping down the small ledge and stepping into the pooling darkness below. They slowly move down the solid stone slope, ufortably cing each foot forward into the unknown, since the ground is obscured by fog. They quickly find themselves in darkness as the light fades unnaturally quickly. Only a hundred metres in, Emily can no longer see the fog swirling around her ankles. She raises a hand to signal for light before realising it can¡¯t be seen and lowering it, d for the cover of darkness to disguise her blunder. ¡°Light!¡± she calls back quietly. She hears a muttered chant from the centre of the group before a spark of golden mour floats to sit above their heads, illuminating the group along with a couple of metres ahead and behind them. Emily frowns slightly at the cut-off. Thought so. Just like the fog from outside is a magical phenomenon that¡¯s hard to clear, the darkness in here is too. Nheless, she starts moving forward again. Their steps echo out into the cave, returning with the faint sound of dripping water and mixing with the hiss of their quiet breaths. Emily¡¯s steps fall calmly in rhythm, fully confident in the footing before her due to her spatial awareness, but her teammates¡¯ footfall is irregr: most nervous about not being able to see the ground, and a few even tripping asionally on imperfections in the rock below. After ten minutes of walking, theye across a split in the path, with one tunnel continuing straight, and the other branching off to the right. ¡°Which way?¡± Emily asks Oscar as they halt at the impasse. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he answers to her surprise. She turns away from the front to re at him. He raises his hands catingly with a helpless expression on his face. ¡°I told you thest sessful expedition here was five years ago, right? Well, the tunnels down here move over time, so I have no clue if the path they tookst time will take us anywhere.¡± ¡°Of course they do,¡± Emily says with a tired sigh, turning back to the front. ¡°Then we just pick one and run with it, right?¡± ¡°Yep. They both continue down.¡± ¡°Straight ahead it is then.¡± They continue in a straight line, ignoring the branching path and walking for just over ten more minutes before they run into a three-path split. Seeing another choice so soon, Emily shrugs and chooses a random path, confident that her perfect memory will allow her to retrace their steps whenever she chooses. Unfortunately, just as she goes to step on the path, Oscar taps her on the shoulder and gestures towards Ivor. He¡¯s standing with a hand up, asking to pause, with his eyes shut and a dull brown magic circle glowing around his feet. After a few moments, he opens his eyes and starts signing a message frantically. ¡°Six groglers on the left, four ahead, three on the right, and five behind.¡± ¡°Shit, why are they coordinated?¡± Oscarins while directing everyone to battle stations. The whole group moves back slightly, setting up in the tunnel before the paths in front of them split. Emily and Dante confidently stand at the front, bracing themselves and preparing for the iing foes. ¡°If only this cave was narrower, we could wipe them out in one go,¡± Dantements quietly after finishing his preparations, arge red glowing circle floating before him. ¡°Clearly, you need more explosive spells,¡± Emilyments dryly as the groglers step into her infra-sight. ¡°Of cou-¡° Dante is cut off as Emily releases the magic circle she prepared, sending a bolt tearing through three of their oing assants. Dante looks to the front as well, frowning as he can¡¯t see the monsters yet. Trusting in Emily¡¯s judgement, he releases his spell anyway, a flurry of ming petals shooting forward and bombarding the darkness before him. The bursts of red light up the tunnel, giving the group glimpses of hunched grey forms, staring through ssy white eyes as they scurry towards them. Two of the monsters at the front of their charge copse, overwhelmed by fire. The remaining eight attack on, but a wave of dark glitter bursts from Cormac, standing behind Emily, making them stumble as their energy quickly fades. Emily wastes no time, finishing a conjuring of flying lightning as her teammates hold the groglers back. She quickly begins cutting down enemies from the safety of Oscar¡¯s barrier, and the monsters soon fall to the shing electric de, a flurry of ming petals, and a few orbs of water that burst their skulls. After the front calms down, Emily nces to the back of the group and sees five dead groglers sticking out of the fog, half-submerged in the ground by a spell from Enzo, either scorched or cut to pieces. ¡°I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d have to deal with more groglers this morning,¡± Oscar mutters quietly as they take a moment to rest and harvest the spoils of their fight. ¡°Why not?¡± Emily asks curiously, watching Cian popping out another eye. ¡°Well, after you killed somest night, Ivor only had two more attacks, and Enzo one. I thought that¡¯d cleared out those near the surface.¡± ¡°Fair y. I¡¯m notining though. These things are easy enough to deal with as long as you don¡¯t let them get close.¡± She kicks an eyeless corpse aside, walking back to the front of the group. ¡°I¡¯d be happy to wipe out the lot of them.¡± Chapter 60 – The Crystal Waters Chapter 60 ¨C The Crystal Waters After iming all of the groglers¡¯ eyes, they continue delving further into the cave system. With fog swirling around their ankles and darkness encroaching on all sides, their journey continues its winding descent. They encounter a few more groups of groglers, and dealing with them bes a well-practiced routine as they head deeper into the earth. A few times, they run into dead ends - rooms with no other paths out and, often, grogler sleeping holes scratched into the rocky walls. At around 1 pm, they halt their march to eat lunch, gathering in one of the dead-end rooms with only one exit to watch. After sating their hunger, they continue on, retracing their steps to thest branch and choosing another route. They fight through more monsters, running into a few creatures they were expecting from their training. A few small groups of fire-spitting bugs attack them, but they are hard countered by their water barrier mages, making them easy to defeat. The enemy that Emily finds most interesting though, are half a dozen moles. They prove to be a pain to fight, thanks to their ck iron ws that tear through most immaterial spells, giving her a small challenge in a hand-to-hand fight. Unfortunately, the majority of their fights stille in the form of groglers, and by the time evening hase, everyone shares the sentiment of never wanting to see one again. ¡°I swear if I see another one of those fuckers, I¡¯m blowing up the entire cave system!¡± Dante angrilyments as he and Emily finish off thest inhabitants of a dead-end cavern. ¡°If you could, you¡¯d have done it already,¡± Emilyments with a chuckle. The rest of the group files into the room, grabbing the bodies and helping move them into the empty tunnel they just left, to form a macabre barricade. ¡°Think of it like this: every grogler you kill, without damaging their heads, will earn you a few points.¡± Dante grumbles his reluctant agreement as they separate: Emily moves to sit in front of the cavern¡¯s entrance; and Dante joins the rest of the group as they arrange sleeping bags. Enzo and Ivor join Emily, the three of them happily enjoying their scouts'' privilege of not having to help set up camp. ¡°Is it safe to start that in here?¡± Ivor asks Emily after a few minutes, ncing back at the campfire Dante is building in the centre of the room. ¡°Safe enough,¡± Enzo answers for her, having picked up enough signnguage in their time together to understand Ivor. ¡°It¡¯s just like with all the fire spells we used in our fights. These may be caves, but the dense mana makes it almost impossible to choke ourselves in here.¡± ¡°I¡¯d be more worried about it spreading the smell of cooked meat than it choking us,¡± Emily adds quietly, watching a hunched figure approaching quickly through the long, straight tunnel. She stands up as Enzo and Ivor both frown, exchanging nces before shutting their eyes and quickly scanning the tunnel. As they notice the foe too, they stand up to help, but Emily waves them off and walks forward alone. ¡°It¡¯s fine, it looks like a lone grogler. I can deal with it.¡± She steps out into the darkness, leaving the camp¡¯s barrier and raising an arm before her. A glowing cerulean magic circle quickly spins to life, crackling with power and releasing a bolt of lightning the moment the grogler steps within twenty metres of it. The small monster¡¯s head is roasted on the spot. ¡°Whoops,¡± Emily mutters as she turns back. ¡°This is going to be a long night.¡± *** The night passes slowly, with bodies gradually building up in the tunnel. After Emily wakes Ivor and Fionn for their watch, she moves to sit in the corner of the cavern on a sleeping bag to meditate, and sessfully increases her intelligence by one an hour before everyone starts to wake up. Camp is broken quickly, everyone eager to escape the slowly building stench from the nearby pile of corpses. They continue their descent, weaving through the tunnel system with purpose, only stopping to collect monster parts or a few herbs growing along the edge of their path and in the dead-end caverns. At lunch time, Emily and Ivor sit together at the front of the tunnel where they¡¯ve halted, Oscar having made the decision to simply stop moving, since they haven¡¯t seen a split in their path for thest hour. Enzo and Dante are covering the back together. ¡°This sucks,¡± Ivor signs dejectedly while chewing on a bite of his pasty. ¡°If I¡¯d known The Waters was just a dark tunnel full of Goddess forsaken monsters, I wouldn¡¯t have been so excited to see it!¡± Emily chuckles quietly before signing back to him. ¡°It has been kind of disappointing so far. O said that we¡¯ll see why it¡¯s called-¡° Emily stops abruptly, her head jolting to look down the tunnel ahead. An ufortable chill runs down her spine as she activates infra-sight and quickly checks for life. The tunnel is as empty as it was when they sat down, so Emily silently switches to earthen detection to see further. Finding nothing with the scan, she frowns and turns to Ivor. ¡°Did you just feel something?¡± she signs quickly. After Ivor shakes his head, Emily stands up. ¡°One second,¡± she mutters, turning and walking through everyone towards the rear-guard. ¡°Hey,¡± she calls out lightly as Enzo and Dante turn to watch her approach. ¡°Have you guys noticed anything odd over here?¡± ¡°No?¡± Enzo answers unsurely, shutting his eyes and running another scan just in case. A few momentster he opens his eyes again and shakes his head with more certainty. ¡°Nothing. Why, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I guess it was nothing, I just got an ufortable feeling like something was wrong. I can¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary at the front though.¡± ¡°Weird. We¡¯ll keep an eye out,¡± Dante says with a frown. ¡°Your instincts have proved unnervingly urate up to now. These tunnels give me the creeps.¡± ¡°Why are you taking my bad feeling so seriously?¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯ve detected a lot of attacks before Enzo and Ivor, so surely your instincts for danger are good, right? I don¡¯t want to be caught unawares in these tunnels, they give me the creeps.¡± Emily nods, turning to head back to Ivor. The rest of their lunch break is quiet. Too quiet. As they prepare to leave, Emily notes that there hasn¡¯t been a single grogler attack since they stopped. ¡°Odd, we normally would have seen one or two of them, if not a group in that time,¡± Oscar responds to her concerns. ¡°This may be a good sign. Maybe we¡¯ve cleared out most of them now?¡± ¡°Hmmm, maybe,¡± Emily responds with a frown, the ufortable feeling still churning in her gut. They continue down the tunnel, and after twenty minutes of walking, theye across a small cavern. It¡¯s is filled with small flowers, their petals dimly glowing in a cerulean hue, holding back the darkness and revealing six different paths branching off ahead. The fog swirling between the glowing petals draws Emily in, but as she stops to inspect the nts, Oscar cries out behind her. ¡°I was told about this!¡± Everyone turns to look at him, awaiting an exnation for his outburst. ¡°These flowers are luminis. They grow in caverns in the finalyer before the real Waters begin. We¡¯re close!¡± Excited mutterings quickly spread through the group. Oscar lets them rx for a few minutes before spurring everyone on to collect some luminis. As the group packs their dimensional storage with the flowers, Emily, Ivor, and Enzo survey the paths they can choose from. They move between each entrance, running earthen detection and letting Emily look around with her thermal vision. After checking each tunnel and finding nothing out of the ordinary, they gather with Oscar to debate their choice. ¡°Does it make a difference?¡± Enzo asks Oscar. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Since we¡¯re so close to The Waters themselves, all the tunnels should reach a river,¡± he responds with a relieved smile. ¡°Okay, so just pick randomly again?¡± Emily questions. ¡°Yep. How about we enter the second from the left?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± They all agree to Oscar¡¯s suggestion, having no reason not to, and everyone slowly gathers together before the entrance. Once thest carriers have slung their freshly herb-stuffed packs onto their backs, Emily sets off down the dark slope. ¡°How deep do you think we are?¡± Dante asks after thirty minutes of walking, the group¡¯s concerns about travelling sound long since lost in the winding tunnel system. ¡°I don¡¯t know. We¡¯ve got to be at least a kilometre down, right?¡± Emily responds, considering the multiple ups and downs they¡¯ve done through the tunnels. ¡°Two I think,¡± Oscar joins in from behind. ¡°A third circle earth mage reported after an expe-¡° he halts his speech as the sound of running water reaches them, a wide grin spreading across his face. ¡°We¡¯ve arrived!¡± Emily nods, speeding up their march to see their goal a little sooner. Their hurried footsteps carry them through a few twists in the tunnel and a couple of minutester, the tunnel opens up into a stunning sight. Before them is a wide, open cave. The walls are lined with shadows, but in the centre is a five metre wide glistening river. The water is a beautifully vibrant pale blue that emits a faint light, just like the luminis. Fog drifts in from the connecting tunnels, flowing along the ground to meet to water, blurring the river¡¯s banks and creating he illusion of a cloudy sky. Along the ceiling above the water, Emily sees several glittering crystals pouring out magical light. Emily lets out a sigh of admiration as she marvels at the enchanting scene. ¡°The Crystal Waters,¡± she mutters quietly, breaking the collective stunned silence. ¡°It¡¯s certainly a fitting name.¡± Taking Emily¡¯s words as their cue, the group separates, spreading out to explore. Emily turns to Ivor before moving, throwing out a teasing question. ¡°So, big guy, does this live up to your expectations?¡± He grins at her and nods, and Emily smiles in response as they walk closer to the water. Emily watches the dense fog swirling around her ankles as she approaches the river¡¯s bank, being careful not to overstep and fall in. She stops at the water¡¯s edge, bending down to look, mesmerised by the enchanting movement within. The water itself appears to be crystal clear with a light blue tint, but a couple of inches below the surface, the fog holds together, flowing downstream. ¡°Whoa!¡± She reaches out, dipping her hand in and disturbing the flow, watching as the fog rises to the surface, reaching out of the water before falling back in and settling as she removes her hand. Her attention is quickly stolen by a system notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Chain-Quest generated: The Abyss: Everything Flows To [The Abyss: Everything Flows To] [Rank:] D [Description:] You¡¯ve reached the magical underbelly of The de, The Crystal Waters. Now discover where The Waters end. Requirements: -Find the destination of The Crystal Waters'' flow (Not Complete) Rewards: -Skill: Flow (passive) _____ Emily¡¯s eyes widen slightly as she reads the quest. The abyss? How ominous. Not sure Oscar and the others would be up for adding this quest to this expedition. Maybe I¡¯ll sneak off alone for a day to see if I can reach The Waters¡¯ end before resetting. She stands up, drying her hand with a quick cast of cleanse, before turning to take in the rest of the tunnel. The crystals in the ceiling are all various tones of blue, white, and gold. As she looks closer, she bes sure they are mana crystals. They feel weak though. Not even enough mana to qualify as lesser. Her gaze falls on the cave walls and the unsettling way the shadows cling to them, refusing to be banished by the ethereal light filling the space. She shivers slightly, the shadows reminding her of the ufortable feeling still present in the back of her mind. With an irritated sigh, she turns her attention back to her group mates and frowns slightly as she sees several of them drinking from the river. ¡°Is it safe to drink this water?¡± she calls to Oscar. He nces over from his current task filling a fewrge containers with fog filled water - to casually dismiss her concerns. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s actually very good for you, due to the mana content. Drink as much as you want.¡± She turns away as he continues his work. and nces at the several dark gaping holes in the walls. Emily walks along the water¡¯s edge, careful not to go far enough to lose sight of the group, and counts the holes in the wall. She counts five on this side of the water, and three on the other. Why is nothing attacking us? Surely there are creatures in this bright tunnel somewhere. She shakes her head and walks back towards the group. She stops suddenly in her tracks, as her instincts scream and the ufortable feeling in her gut grows, at the entrance to one of the side tunnels. She fixes the tunnel with a re, casting infra-sight and earthen detection to prate the intense magical darkness. She finds nothing and clicks her tongue. Casting a nce back towards the group, she spots Ivor staring at her inquisitively. ¡°Felt something odd, checking just in case,¡± she signs to him quickly. ¡°Be careful,¡± he signs back before she turns away and dashes into the darkness. She maintains her two spells as she runs, watching the path closely for any signs of danger. Half way through the tunnel, she finds a small group of four groglers that attack her the moment she gets near. Dispatching them quickly with flying lighting, she leaves their corpses behind and continues on. The tunnel ends when it opens up to reveal the cavern filled with luminis again. ¡°Weird. Is there something wrong with this room?¡± She surveys the room again, looking closely for any discrepancies. She drops infra-sight, casting a light spell and filling the orb of light with mana, illuminating the entire room clearly. Slowly, she walks around the perimeter, checking for anything on the walls. Finding nothing, she makes her way through the flowers, checking for any monster tracks. She¡¯s about to give up when a sh of crimson catches her eye amongst the sea of blue. Stepping closer, she leans down and inspects a luminis flower, its glowing petals spotted with half dried blood. ¡°None of us were bleeding!¡± Chapter 61 – Silence Chapter 61 ¨C Silence Emily looks closely at the flower, utilising her enhanced eyesight to trace the direction of the smear. It points into the tunnel entrance before her. A familiar chill runs down her spine as she gazes into the darkness beyond. Time to find out what¡¯s creeping me out. Standing up with firm resolve, she steps into the tunnel with an orb of light following above and earthen detection watching the path ahead. She quietly creeps through the tunnel, scanning the floor and finding a few small stters of blood close to the start. As she descends further, she finds small bits of blood smeared on the floor and walls, until she stops finding any at all. Emily¡¯s caution increases twofold five minutes after seeing thest drop of blood. However, as she continues walking, her caution slowly morphs into confusion as her instincts calm slightly. She finds nothing at all in the tunnel, and soon rounds a bend to see the weing light of The Waters. Stepping back into the river¡¯s wide tunnel, Emily looks around confused, still feeling the odd difort in her gut. How did that lead into here? Nothing could have entered here without being spotted by the group in the light. She sees the group sitting together thirty metres down the tunnel and starts walking towards them as she pushes the feeling of anxiety to the back of her mind. There¡¯s definitely something else in these caves with us, but I¡¯ll just have to wait till it either approaches us or leaves us alone. As she reaches the group, Oscar, Ivor, Enzo, and Dante all stand up and walk over to meet her. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Oscar asks. ¡°You were gone for a while there: we were starting to worry.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. I think something¡¯s following us again, but I only ran into groglers,¡± Emily answers with a slight scowl. ¡°Wait, you saw something?¡± Enzo asks. ¡°No.¡± Emily shakes her head. ¡°I just have a gut feeling. I followed it and found blood in the cavern we came from that definitely wasn¡¯t there when we left. It led into one of the tunnels that came straight here, so I have no clue where this thing went, but there¡¯s definitely something out there.¡± ¡°Why are you so sure it didn¡¯te in here? Maybe it passed without us seeing it,¡± Oscar suggests with a frown of his own, ncing up the tunnel cautiously. ¡°Some of the blood was wiped on the wall around one and a half metres off the floor. Whatever it is, it¡¯s not small. You¡¯d definitely spot it.¡± ¡°Ah, that makes sense.¡± He nods solemnly, not liking the sound of a human-sized monster stalking them. ¡°Let¡¯s get moving then. Best not to hang around here for too long.¡± He turns on his heel and heads back into the group, calling for everyone to get in formation and prepare to move. ¡°I told you your instincts were good,¡± Dante says proudly. ¡°You¡¯re not meant to be happy I¡¯m right about this,¡± Emily says rolling her eyes. ¡°What¡¯s going on? I thought the tunnels gave you the creeps.¡± ¡°They do! But I much prefer knowing I have a target to blow up than feeling scared of nothing!¡± Emily shakes her head and walks past him, towards her ce at the head of the group. The others follow her, and, after one final check, they set off downstream. Travelling through the bright cave proves far more peaceful than the rest of their trip so far. They don¡¯t encounter a single beast or monster. The river appears lifeless, and nothing steps into the light from the shadowy tunnels joining it. However, this peace only serves to unsettle the group. As night falls outside, the glow from the river beside the group fades. The crystals on the ceiling dim to release no more than a light shimmer, only illuminating a few centimetres around themselves. And the shadows. The shadowse alive, reaching out from the connecting tunnels and swallowing the cave in darkness. As they set up camp in the evening, Emily approaches Oscar at the edge of the sound isting barrier. He¡¯s standing on the border of Nora¡¯s glowing light spell that illuminates their camp, ring at the shadows fiercely attacking all light in the cave and forming a disconcerting image of motion in ce of the still night. ¡°There¡¯s meant to be more living here, isn¡¯t there?¡± she asks quietly, joining him in watching the shadows. ¡°Yes,¡± he agrees reluctantly, ncing over his shoulder cautiously before turning to Emily and talking quietly. ¡°We¡¯re meant to spend a week going deeper then head back, but honestly, I¡¯m starting to have second thoughts. This feels wrong. First, the groglers, then whatever you felt following us, and now this!¡± Emily nods silently, reaching out and patting the stressed mage on the shoulder. ¡°Well, it¡¯s your expedition. Make whatever choice feels right for you. If it helps, I think those things are all connected.¡± He nods at her words, sighing and turning to return to the others. ¡°They probably are. We¡¯ll keep going. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find some answers further in.¡± Emily watches him leave before turning back to the darkness. She sits down on a nearby rock jutting out of the ground, ready to stay there till her watch is done. Ivor brings her some food, once the camp is set up, then heads off to sleep. The camp quickly falls into darkness as Nora dismisses her light spell and everyone climbs into their sleeping bags. Emily is left alone, listening to the silence of the night with only one core awake, maintaining her vignce as she watches for approaching enemies. Her infra-sight and periodic earthen detection pulses pick up nothing, continuing the peace of the daytime. However, an hour into her watch, she spots a flicker of movement in the distance. At first, she thinks it¡¯s just the roiling shadows and ignores it. But then, she sees it again. She rubs her eyes before focusing on the darkness, tuning out the moving shadows. After a few more minutes, she sees it a third time, and this time she catches what it is. Two dim, ssy balls of light that sh past her vision in the distance before vanishing into the night. A chill runs down Emily¡¯s spine, and her instincts begin screaming once again. She activates infra-sight, waiting for the next sighting, but sees no heat as the orbs appear briefly again. Then, she switches to earthen detection, holding the spell on full power until the creature reveals itself. The orbs flit past her vision again, but her spell doesn¡¯t show even a slight disturbance. She clicks her tongue and prepares a light spell instead. Forming the magic circle in her first circle but not casting it, she waits with bated breath. The instant the orbs appear again, she releases the spell, tossing the ball of light into the air before her and pouring in mana. Light floods the cave, banishing the shadows back to cling to the walls. Unfortunately, as the darkness recedes, so does any sign of the creature. The cave is empty. Emily keeps the light spell running for five minutes, before giving up and releasing it, plunging the cave back into darkness. Am I just seeing things? As a seed of doubt buds in her mind, the two orbs reappear. This time though, instead of moving quickly, they remain motionless, staring back at her. Are those eyes? As the realisation sets in, Emily rises, preparing to fight the creature. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the eyes vanish again. She sits back down and stays on high alert for the rest of her watch, but nothing else moves around her. After waking Ivor and Fionn, she warns them about what she saw then settles on top of her sleeping bag to meditate. *** The morning arrives, made obvious by the sudden explosion of light recapturing the cave, and they once again break camp and set off to follow the river. Ivor and Enzo both report spotting the creepy eyes watching them at some point in their shift, so the group remains on edge for the whole day, carefully walking around every tunnel entrance they pass and repeatedly sending nces behind them. All conversations are quietly whispered, and every noise echoing through the cave sets off a buzz of nervous chatter. Their caution proves unwarranted though, as they still don¡¯t encounter a single enemy. They do, however, find a few lesser water crystals, at the edge of a small hole in the wall that appears as if torn into the earth by a set of ws. They carefully harvest and pack the crystals into their dimensional storage, along with a few magical herbs they find lining the water¡¯s edge. Night falls, and Emily is once again left alone in the darkness. She watches her surroundings, anticipating the re-emergence of the eyes. For the first half-hour of her watch, everything is still, but before she can wonder if their pursuer has relented, a haunting screech echoes through the one-way sound barrier. The screech is high pitched and drawn out, scratching against her ear drums and sending a shiver down her spine. It slowly fades into the background, but the damage is already done. Several members of the group jump up from their sleeping bags, scrambling to prepare for an impending attack. Emily ignores them, scanning the cave and bracing for an attack herself. They wait ufortably, but the expected enemy neveres. After ten minutes, the group slowly starts climbing back into their sleeping bags, trusting Emily to alert them if anything happens. Silence falls again, but after only a short wait, another screech wakes everyone. Emily casts her gaze around the cave again calmly, clicking her tongue when she finds nothing. It¡¯s ying with us. Shit! If it has enough intelligence to do this, it¡¯s probably third circle. Emily¡¯s face falls into a scowl as she looks back at the mages ufortably sitting up in their sleeping bags and unsure of what to do. ¡°Go back to sleep. Try and ignore the screeches: I¡¯ll alert you all properly if we¡¯re attacked,¡± she calls out, reassuring them. Most of the mages heed her advice and slide back into their beds, but Oscar leaves his and approaches her. She watches his glowing orange form approaching, fumbling slightly in the dark. ¡°Hey,¡± he says as he sits below her on the ground. ¡°Go to sleep,¡± she responds curtly, turning away from him to watch the stirring shadows. ¡°I will. But first, I¡¯m going to sit through your watch with you. You¡¯ve realised too, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re being yed with.¡± A small light suddenly erupts between them, and Emily abruptly snaps her head to it. ¡°Ah, sorry, didn¡¯t mean to startle you,¡± Oscar says with a sheepish smile, gesturing to the glowing crystal candle he¡¯s activated. ¡°I thought it would be nice to have some light.¡± Emily sighs, releasing her building frustration and nodding. ¡°Thanks.¡± Their conversation ends there, and they listen to the silence of the cave as they gaze out into the oppressive darkness, now wing at the edge of their small bubble of light as well. A dozen minutester, the silence is once again broken by a screech. Several of their groupmates stir, but none get up. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue. ¡°We¡¯re gonna be in no state to fight tomorrow if no one sleeps. Do you have a way of making this barrier two-way?¡± ¡°Yes, but we won¡¯t be able to hear anything approaching.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, our main detection methods are visual and extrasensory. Besides, we have two people on each watch now, so one person can check outside the barrier every now and then without being picked off before they can alert the group.¡± Oscar nods in reluctant agreement and stands up. ¡°Fine. Each one of the barrier¡¯s stakes has a secondary activation sequence. Just deactivate them like normal, then use three short bursts of mana instead of one long pulse.¡± Emily stands up and conjures an orb of light. ¡°Take your candle and we¡¯ll go opposite ways, meet at the other side.¡± They both set off around the camp, deactivating the barrier when Emily uproots the first stake, before reactivating each stake again. They glow a deeper green when turned on this time, and as Oscar finishes thest one, a lightly shimmering barrier bubbles up around the camp. They return to their original resting point, and Oscar sits down again. Emily instead walks to the edge of the barrier and sticks her head out. She hears nothing but familiar silence for a few seconds. However, as she starts to pull her head back, a distant drip shatters the silence. That¡¯s new. Emily pulses earthen detection and locates the drip a hundred metres back upstream, falling on the rocks at the entrance to a nearby tunnel. She pulls back into the barrierpletely and nces at Oscar over her shoulder. ¡°I hear something. Stay here.¡± She steps out of the barrierpletely, leaving the radius of Oscar¡¯s candle and being swallowed instantly by the shadows. Ignoring the now familiar feeling of pressure as the darkness copses around her, Emily carefully makes her way towards the faint dripping, keeping her guard up. When she arrives at the source, she drops earthen detection and casts a light from her hands. As the spell illuminates the tunnel in front of her, she sees a limp grey arm with the hand enveloped up to the wrist in the roof¡¯s stone. Nothing is attached where the owner¡¯s shoulder should be. The violently torn flesh oozes dirty redish-brown blood into a small pool below. Emily quickly checks her surroundings before staring up at where the arm joins the wall. She examines the stone and sees an odd ripple like pattern surrounding it. Did it soften the stone like mudscraps do with dirt? Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud shouting from the camp. ¡°Hey!¡± she hears Oscar yell. Instantly, she spins on her heel and bolts towards the barrier. She switches to infra-sight as she runs, finishing casting the spell as she bursts through the barrier and into Oscar¡¯s haven of light. Her eyes snap to Oscar¡¯s startled form, scrambling to mber up from where he was sitting. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What did you find?¡± he asks quickly with fearful concern. Emily freezes at his question, her scowl deepening in confusion. ¡°Wait, why did you shout to me?¡± Emily ignores his questions and asks instead. ¡°What are you talking about? I haven¡¯t left the barrier.¡± Chapter 62 – Slaughter Chapter 62 ¨C ughter A chill runs down Emily¡¯s spine. ¡°You haven¡¯t left the barrier?¡± she asks, unable to keep a slight tremble from her voice. ¡°No, I stayed in here like you said. Why?¡± Oscar responds, nervously ncing past her into the darkness. ¡°I came back because I heard you yelling for me.¡± Emily dismissively gestures for Oscar to sit back down before turning away and approaching the edge of the barrier again. Leaning her head through, she waits while dismissing infra-sight and preparing another light spell. After a few minutes of silence, she hears her own voice in the distance: ¡°We¡¯re being yed with.¡± Her eyes follow the direction of the voice, where she spots two glowing eyes staring at her twenty metres away, wrapped in shadows. Light emerges from her hand in an instant, and she flicks it towards them. As the glistening orb flies forward through the darkness, the eyes vanish before it reaches them. Emily pulls back into the barrier, clicking her tongue as she turns to face Oscar again. ¡°Creepy fucker,¡± she growls, anger recing fear as she moves to sit down. She turns her re on Oscar, after settling back on her rock, and sees him struggling to work out what to say. ¡°It can copy our voices,¡± she exins with a small sigh. ¡°Well, actually I think it may be able to mimic things we¡¯ve said. First, it shouted, hey, in your voice. Then just now it said, we¡¯re being yed with, in mine.¡± ¡°Wait, but those are things we¡¯ve said inside the barrier.¡± ¡°Yeah, it can probably hear through it somehow.¡± ¡°Shit.¡± Oscar¡¯s face drops into a frown and he falls silent. Emily looks away from him, staring into the surrounding darkness and restarting her pattern of infra-sight and earthen detection, despite how ineffectual she knows the spells are against their tormentor. The rest of their watch passes in tense silence, as Oscar takes on the role of periodically checking outside the barrier. They wake Ivor and Fionn and warn them about the changes to the barrier and the creature¡¯s twisted entertainment before retiring to their sleeping bags. Emily sits on her sleeping bag in meditation form again until dawn arrives and light fills the tunnel once more. The group is noticeably slower to get moving, with several members sporting sizeable bags beneath their eyes, their exhaustion building despite their improved physiques. They silently pack away their sleeping bags and eat a meal before leaving to continue downstream. They pass a few more harvested mana crystal outcrops and gather a couple of herbs, but the long march slowly wears on their tired minds. The only sound apanying their journey is the light sound of running water, as everyone is too tired and on edge to start conversations. The monotony of the march is finally broken mid-afternoon, when they reach a fork in the river, heading off into two simr caves. After a short conversation between Oscar, Emily, and Dante at the head of the group, they decide to follow the fork to the left, removing the need to cross the water. They continue on until the light starts to fade again, at which point they choose a spot a fair distance from any tunnel openings and set up camp. The wind mages of the group recharge and set up the sound barrier, opting to make it two-way from the start this time, and the rocky floor is soon filled with sleeping bags. After everyone has eaten and copsed into their sleeping bags, exhausted and ready to rest for the night, their nightmare begins. Emily sits at the edge of the camp, in a small bubble of light with Oscar, staring into the distance with infra-sight. An hour into their watch, she passes her bored gaze over the empty cave before her and almost doubts her eyes when a faint, glowing orange form creeps into view. ¡°Oscar,¡± she whispers harshly, rising from the floor into an alert crouch. ¡°I see something.¡± He springs up to join her, and both of them approach the edge of the barrier. Emily forcefully wakes her sleeping core, preparing for the worst-case scenario. With a few swiftly woven hand signs, Emily conjures a thin steel cable and hands one end to Oscar, while maintaining its magic circle. ¡°Stay here and wake the camp if I pull on this.¡± She waits for him to nod in agreement before slinking out into the darkness to meet the approaching form. The orange figure slowly grows bigger, and she starts to make out its shape. The creature isrge and humanoid. Moving forwards on all fours in an unnatural rhythm, it scrambles a few dozen paces before pausing and frantically jerking its head around as it checks the path before it. Emily recognises its eyes instantly as she gets closer, their hollow, ssy gaze unsettling and unforgettable, but what shocks her is its emaciated limbs and frame. The creature¡¯s arms and legs are long, stretched-out imitations of the human form, with thin bony fingers and gnarled ws. Though hard to make out in the darkness with only the creature¡¯s general shape visible, Emily is almost certain she can make out its individual ribs as it rotates its torso while stalking forward. Emily slows her approach as the distance separating them reduces to twenty metres, raising a hand before her and pointing at the monster. Dismissing the steel wire¡¯s magic circle, setting it on a sixty-second timer before it vanishes, she starts forming a bolt. The air around her crackles as a glowing sky-blue magic circle lights up the darkness. You like to copy things? Copy this! The spell roars to life, a bolt of burning sma connecting Emily¡¯s hand and where the monster should be. A chill runs down Emily¡¯s spine when the creature vanishes from her sight a split second before the spell releases, and she sees a sh of heat dropping into the ground as her bolt passes over it. She frantically checks her surroundings, bracing for the monster to burst out from the rock below. Nothing happens and, as she starts to pull on the wire in her hand to alert the camp, it falls limp. Her head flies round to check on her groupmates, only to see the creature¡¯s hunched form standing over Oscar, and the sleeping mages scrambling to escape their sleeping bags. She breaks into a sprint back towards the camp, watching in horror as the monster drops Oscar to the floor, limp and unmoving, before turning and leaping suddenly across the camp,nding on another mage. Emily drops infra-sight as she passes through the barrier, her eyes falling on Oscar¡¯s bloody corpse, lying sprawled over the rocks with an eternal scream etched on his face and his eye sockets bloody and empty, where the monster forced its ws into his skull. Her attention is quickly pulled away by the sound of tearing flesh and panicked yells. She keeps moving, heading towards the sounds while preparing a light spell with her second core, and weaving her hands together to summon flying lightning. Before she can release her light spell, Fionn throws a ball of golden light into the air, illuminating the entire campsite. The revealed sight freezes Emily in her tracks, and her blood runs cold. She finally sees the monster in full: its gaunt grey skin is stretched unnaturally over its bony figure, and it stands a solid two metres tall on its long legs. It¡¯s standing in the centre of a pool of blood and several bodies lie scattered around its feet, missing eyes and limbs. sped in its thin ws it holds an unconscious Matteo, bleeding from the head, and lifts him to its nightmarish maw, unhinged and hanging open to reveal a set of jagged teeth. Emily quickly spins flying lightning¡¯s dart around to gather momentum before releasing it towards the monster¡¯s head as it tries to bite down. The ded dart ms into the creature¡¯s forehead, but instead of punching through like Emily expects, it bounces off. A spark of lightning flows out of the dart in the moment of impact, but the monster simply growls as it bites down into Matteo¡¯s throat and rips it out. It drops Matteo¡¯s corpse, turning its re to Emily while chewing. Shit, flying lightning just bounced off its head! It reacted slightly to the shock though, and it dodged bolt earlier. She dismisses flying lightning as the monster grins at her, then a small arrow of water impacts its side, and it takes a step back but otherwise shrugs off the spell before turning towards its origin. Emily reaches down and pulls her revolver from its holster as the monster leaps at Erin, pinning her to the floor and grabbing the sides of her head. Emily rapidly unloads six shots into the monster¡¯s back, watching as they unsurprisingly crumple and fall away uselessly, doing little more than irritating the creature. Popping open the cylinder and tilting it to drop the empty cartridges to the floor, Emily reaches for a pouch on her belt and pulls out some bullets with small mes engraved on the casings. She loads them into the cylinder while she watches on in horror as the monster slowly presses its hands against Erin¡¯s head, seemingly enjoying her screams of pain as her skull cracks and folds inwards. Emily finishes reloading and brings her gun to bear again as the monster looks around the campsite at the mages either casting spells or scrambling to get away. This fight¡¯s fucked already. I may as well see how much damage I can do to this thing before I reset. She pours machina into her revolver, activating Overdrive to the maximum. The smooth ck metal erupts in crackling blue electricity as the hammer ms forward with a bang. Emily braces the gun with both arms, and it kicks back with a vengeance, but a thin streak of electricity still traces a line between Emily and the monster, connecting with its shoulder. The monster screeches in pain as a burning hot bullet embeds itself deep in its flesh. It turns its attention to Emily, crouching to pounce. Shit, it didn¡¯t even go all the way through. How tough is this thing¡¯s skin? She corrects her aim and fires a second shot at the monster¡¯s face, but a brown glow envelops its head and the bullet only scorches its skin. It springs forward and Emily ducks, rolling to the side and shing out with a machina-infused w. The de slides against the monster¡¯s taut skin, barely drawing a thin line of blood, and its arm shoots out, catching Emily in the calf as she tumbles away. She raises the revolver with one hand while trying to stand back up, but the pain in her calf causes her to flinch and send her shot wild. Dropping the gun with a grunt as it strains her wrist, Emily¡¯s instincts re, and she listens to them, taking a stumbling step back and barely avoiding an iing swipe. As she falls to the ground facing the creature, she begins weaving another bolt to throw at it. The monster advances, but before either of them canunch an attack, a flurry of ming petals pelts the creature¡¯s torso. It howls in anger, swatting away the mes and turning its lightly scorched body to look for its attacker. Dante tries to duck behind a nearby rock, but the second he moves, the creature spots him. It snarls as it leaps at him. Emily tracks it through the air, frustratedly finishing her spell as she watches the grey streak fly past Dante, narrowly missing him as he ducks out of the way, copying Emily. Unfortunately, he doesn¡¯t fare as well at dodging the creature¡¯s follow-up, receiving a wed sh to the chest. Dante crumples to the floor clutching his gaping chest wound, and Emily raises her hands to point at the creature as it advances to finish its kill. A crackling roar sounds, as a blinding line of light connects Emily and the creature. It stumbles back with a pained cry as heat and voltage assault its senses. A triumphant grin spreads across Emily¡¯s face as she looks at the boiling, ckened skin on the monster¡¯s chest. des and projectiles can¡¯t prate its skin, but it¡¯s weak to fire and lightning at least. She starts preparing a second bolt as the creature reaches forward, grabbing Dante¡¯s crumpled form and pulling him to its mouth. Her grin falters as the monster takes a bite of Dante¡¯s flesh and its skin visibly bubbles, regenerating to its old grey pallor. A few projectile spells fly in and crash against the creature, from a few of the surviving mages, but they only serve to anger it further. Shrugging off thest shard of rock that hits its temple, courtesy of Ivor, the monster shrieks an infuriated wail before disappearing into the stone at its feet. Everyone freezes in ce, frantically looking around for any signs of the monster¡¯s reemergence. Quiet falls over the campsite, only broken by low mutterings as everyone prepares new spells. After almost a minute of waiting, caution slowly turns to confusion. ¡°Did it run?¡± Ricardo asks, nervously stepping towards Ivor, the closest second-circle mage to him. As if to answer his question, the ground below his foot erupts as arge grey shape violently rips through him. The burst of motion is so sudden they almost don¡¯t react, but Emily predicts its movement and targets the ceiling in front of it, releasing another shocking bolt. The bolt catches the creature¡¯s hand, scorching it ck, but as it touches the ceiling, it quickly sinks in, dodging her group mates'' follow-up attacks. Emily clicks her tongue, lowering her arms and looking around the campsite. She sees dead bodies littering the ground, countless limbs haphazardly strewn about in pools of blood. Only eight of her teammates remain alive, either quivering in fear, copsed on the ground, having epted their fate, or shakily standing their ground, gritting their teeth through their exhaustion. Pulling The Clock from its pouch, she presses the button as the ground below her erupts. Tick! A w rises between her legs. Tick! She leans back, avoiding the gnarled spear. Tick! The monster rises to her eye level. Tick! She meets its grim smile with one of her own. Tick! Time stops. Just you wait, I¡¯ll tear you apart limb from limb by the time I¡¯m done here. Tick! Tick! Tick! Space tears around her, and Emily passes out as her senses are overwhelmed. Chapter 63 – Struggle Chapter 63 ¨C Struggle Emily wakes with a jolt, finding herself lying on the cave floor in a small bubble of light with Oscar crouching over her. ¡°Are you okay?¡± he asks worriedly. ¡°You stopped talking, and when I turned my candle on, you were already unconscious on the floor.¡± Emily sits up and looks around, rubbing her brow. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± She waves off his concern while trying to understand what just happened. Argh, it feels like I just had five new knowledges crammed into my head at once. I think I need to tune down my spatial awareness when I reset: the spatial distortion caused by The Clock is sickening. She sits up, epting an offered hand from Oscar to pull herself to her feet. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, just identally overloaded my mind while trying to scan the nearby caves,¡± Emily casually lies as the pain in her head finally recedes. ¡°Ouch. If you need to rest, just let me know. I¡¯m sure Enzo and Ivor wouldn¡¯t mind taking on an extra hour each.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she says dismissively, observing the state of their campsite. The barrier is still set to one way, and from a quick check with infra-sight, she sees most of the camp still half-awake in their sleeping bags. I came back just after he joined me. Damn! It¡¯s a shame I couldn¡¯t change the barrier before everyone was set on edge by the screeching. Looks like we¡¯ll have to deal with a little exhaustion in our fight no matter what. ¡°You have a way of setting this barrier to block sound both ways, right?¡± she asks Oscar, already knowing the answer. ¡°Yes, but we won¡¯t be able to hear anything approaching.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We have two people on each watch. Just send someone out every now and then. I don¡¯t think anything¡¯s gonna attack us till our follower has had its fun.¡± Oscar looks unconvinced, so Emily points out: ¡°It won¡¯t matter what we hear: nobody will be fit to fight anything if they¡¯re kept up all night.¡± Oscar reluctantly agrees and they set about resetting the stakes. After finishing and returning to their watch position, Emily sticks her head out of the barrier but can¡¯t hear anything. I guess it¡¯s not time for the drip yet. She pulls back in and sits down on a rock to wait the creature out. Oscar takes on the role of checking for sound, and after fifteen minutes, he pulls his head through the barrier and turns to Emily with a look of concern. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s a problem or not, but I hear a dripping that wasn¡¯t therest time.¡± Emily nods, standing from her rock. ¡°I¡¯ll go check it out. Wait here.¡± She runs out of the barrier, confidently heading towards the dismembered arm while carefully looking around for the monster. As expected, she sees nothing, and a few seconds after arriving at the arm, she hears a call in Oscar¡¯s voice behind her. Returning to the barrier, Emily waits just outside in the darkness, not yet letting Oscar know she¡¯s back. I have no clue what that thing is, even after all the books I¡¯ve read on beast studies. I¡¯ll give Oscar some of the details I gathered before resetting and see if he has any clue. ¡°Emily?¡± After a few minutes, she hears Dante¡¯s voice in the distance, and takes that as her cue to re-enter the barrier. The second she steps through and into the light, she sees Oscar standing with a glowing magic circle surrounding him. ¡°Are you okay?¡± he asks with slight panic as she steps into view. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡± He breathes a sigh of relief as he dismisses his prepared spell. ¡°What took you so long? I was starting to get worried.¡± ¡°The monster attacked me,¡± Emily answers calmly, walking over and taking her seat. ¡°What was it? Is it dead?¡± Oscar asks eagerly. Emily shakes her head, crushing his hopes quickly. ¡°I have no clue. I¡¯ve never read about anything even simr before.¡± ¡°Hmm, can you give me a brief description? My family has some tomes on creatures in The de and The Crystal Waters that aren¡¯t publicly known in The Covenant, so I may be able to help.¡± ¡°Sure. It¡¯s humanoid, with grey skin and long limbs, a bit like an oversized grogler. But, it only has two eyes, and its mouth takes up half its face.¡± Oscar frowns as she continues. ¡°Maybe a ghoul?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, it can mimic things it heard us say, and its skin is bullet and de proof.¡± ¡°Hmmm.¡± ¡°Also, it used earth magic and rapidly regenerated damage when it ate some grogler flesh from the corpse it used to make the drip.¡± Oscar considers for a few moments before shaking his head while giving Emily a sceptical look. ¡°I can¡¯t think of anything either. Howe you¡¯re here alone andpletely unharmed if it was so strong?¡± ¡°I was able to damage it with bolt. I think it¡¯s weak to fire and lightning, and then it left me alone.¡± ¡°I see. What a strange monster.¡± Emily nods in agreement before falling silent. Well, if he knows nothing about it, at least we get to discover a new monster. The rest of their watch passes without any problems, and they soon hand over their duty to Fionn and Ivor. Emily spends the night¡¯s meditation formting ns to hunt the monster and, by dawn, she¡¯s decided how to deal with theing confrontation. The day flies by, with no changes from her first time around. They choose the same path when the tunnel forks and, as the light in the tunnel starts to fade, they pick the same spot for their camp. Emily breaks the pattern by calling the group¡¯s attention to herself. ¡°I think the thing following us is going to attack soon.¡± The moment her words are out, the group break out in panicked conversation, some believing her and others sceptical. ¡°How would you know?¡± Cormac asks, his voiceden with exhaustion and a hint of spite. ¡°Shut up and don¡¯t question your scout,¡± Emily fires back quickly, silencing his arguments with a fierce re. Turning away from him, she offers a reasoned lie to the rest of the group to convince them she¡¯s telling the truth. ¡°Most of you won¡¯t know this, but that screech you heardst night was just the start of it. We made the barrier two way after, so you could get some sleep. And when you did, it kept up its games, trying to draw people away from the group, probably to pick them off, possibly just to mess with us. It set up severed arms in the tunnel entrances nearby to make noises, and it can imitate people¡¯s voices, making us think someone¡¯s calling for help. You know I¡¯ve been able to sense it, even before we knew it was there, and now I can feel iting. Last night was about weakening us. Tonight is about finishing the job.¡± Nervous chatter spreads as information held only by the night watch is revealed. It gets louder and louder until Emily draws her revolver and fires a shot into the ceiling, instantly silencing the group and drawing their fearful attention back to her. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you this just to scare you. I told you so you understand what we¡¯re dealing with. The creature is stronger than we are, and probably just as clever. If we¡¯re going to be the ones toe out of this alive, we need to get our shit together and handle it like mages. This is a new monster we¡¯ve never seen before. Don¡¯t fear the unknown, look forward to dissecting it to further our knowledge after we kill it.¡± Emily looks over the group, nodding in satisfaction as she sees them calming down, greed and excitement filling their eyes where fear once dominated. They¡¯re pretty easy to control. I¡¯m definitely making Oscar do this if I have to reset again though. After checking The Clock and seeing she has fifty minutes left till the attack, Emily starts exining the monster¡¯s traits while directing the group into action for her nned strategy. They settle in, gathered together, with the carriers and healers in the centre of the group, ringed by everyone else in a simr fashion to their marching formation, the main difference being Matteo joining Emily and Dante at the front, with Cormac begrudgingly just behind them. They stand together in silence, quietly munching on some rations to help restore their energy, as they wait for their challenger to arrive. Time crawls by as Emily watches the cave behind them with infra-sight, revolver in hand, and soon spots what she was waiting for. Slowly approaching from the distance, a familiar hunched form slinks into view. ¡°It¡¯s here,¡± she quietly alerts her group. In an instant, a dozen chants start as Emily watches with bated breath as the monster approaches. Then, fifty metres from them, the creature pauses, standing up to its full two metre height and ncing around in what Emily assumes to be confusion. Why isn¡¯t iting closer? ¡°Where is it?¡± Dante asks after finishing his spell preparations. ¡°It¡¯s fifty metres in front of us. It¡¯s stopped moving.¡± Barriers of wind and water spring to life, surrounding each member of the group individually. They wait for a minute, their anxiety growing in the darkness as Emily silently watches their enemy. ¡°Should we attack?¡± Matteo asks, nervously shuffling from side to side. The moment he moves, the monster¡¯s head snaps towards him, and Emily feels a shiver run down her spine as it vanishes from her sight. It sees motion. ¡°Split!¡± she screams, jumping away from Matteo. Everyone reacts to her words quickly, separating from their tightly bunched group. However, Matteo isn¡¯t so lucky. Almost in sync with Emily¡¯s cry, the ground below him erupts as a grey blur shoots up, ripping open his stomach in one clean sh and spilling his bowels to the floor. Emily tumbles out of her panicked escape, quickly bringing herself back to her feet as she raises her revolver and charges it full of machina. The monster leaps on Cormac the moment Matteo¡¯s corpse hits the floor, and Emily fires a shot into its back. The bullet sinks into its spine, but the beast simply cries in pain and rips Cormac¡¯s throat out with its teeth. Light suddenly fills the cave as Fionn and Nora both throw glowing golden balls into the air. A few of the mages flinch, their eyes struggling to quickly adjust to the change in light, but the monster is unaffected, tearing through Ivor as Emily tracks it and fires another shot, into its leg this time. It stumbles slightly, but once again ignores her to continue ripping people apart. Damn it, I won¡¯t be able to do enough damage to kill it like this. Tossing her revolver aside, Emily starts casting bolt, watching as more of her teammates are torn to pieces. Why isn¡¯t it attacking me? I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s dealt damage so far, and it was definitely getting annoyed by attacks and targeting the attackersst time. A few magical projectiles fly at the creature as she casts, and Emily watches as it shrugs them off with a barely irritated snarl. Two more mages die in the seconds it takes for Emily to cast her spell, their defensive barriers barely slowing down the monster¡¯s ws. The water barrier around Emily vanishes as Be dies, but she ignores it and releases her attack. As the scorching light burns some of the creature¡¯s grey skin ck, Emily notices a change in behaviour. Its head snaps round to face her as it drops itsst kill, a monstrous grin stered on its face. It leaps towards Emily, and she ducks under its ws while raising her own to its passing stomach. A machina-charged pop apanies a de extending and tracing a thin line along the creature¡¯s skin. Itnds and turns on its heel, leaping at her once again, this time aiming its ws towards her feet. Emily sidesteps the swipe, sending her boot into the monster¡¯s head while activating the weight-increasing enchantment. She hears a heavy thud as her foot connects, but the monster¡¯s head glows brown in anticipation, and it only flinches as the heavy hitnds. Emily deactivates the enchantment as she leaps back to avoid another wed swipe, bringing her hands up and sending another bolt into her assant. Her bolt hits it at the same time as a burst of mes flies past her, smashing into the creature a split-second after her spell. The monster is engulfed in smoke and fire, and Emily takes a moment to nce over her shoulder, seeing Dante standing with his signature mad grin. Unfortunately, his happiness is short-lived, as an enraged shriek sounds behind Emily. Her head whips back around to where she sees the monster hunched over with lightly scorched skin, coated in the glow of earth mana. Shit, that barely even hurt it. The monster sinks into the ground before any more attacksnd, and Emily begins looking around the group with infra-sight. She spots the creature as it emerges from the ground behind Dante, leaping up with a snarl. Dante avoids death by diving to the side, but the creature severs his left arm from his body at the shoulder. He cries out in pain, falling to the floor and clutching his bleeding stump. I¡¯m gonna have to reset anyway, so I¡¯ll send you off with a bang, buddy. Taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, Emily reaches for her bandolier, ripping off a mana grenade. While she charges the grenade full of machina and starts its countdown to detonation, she reaches for The Clock with the other hand. The monster grabs Dante by the throat, lifting him up to eye level and slowly squeezing the life out of him with sadistic glee. Emily flings the crackling orb of explosives at the creature as she presses the button on The Clock and activates her protective earrings. Time starts to slow as a thundering boom fills the cave, burning shrapnel fills the space and cuts into rock and mages alike. Several shards fly past Emily, and one hits her in the stomach like a punch, bringing searing pain. She winces as time freezes, and thest sight she sees as her movement halts is the monster ring at her, Dante¡¯s corpse blown to pieces in its hand, and its arm discoloured by blood and burns. Well, at least it did some damage. Pain and information overwhelm her as Emily is once again flung backwards in time. Chapter 64 – Sacrifices Chapter 64 ¨C Sacrifices ¡°Argh,¡± Emily groans, raising a hand to rub her brows as The Clock stops reversing. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Oscar asks as light springs from the candle in his hands. ¡°Nothing, just a slight headache.¡± She waves off his concern again. Feeling shrapnel pulling itself out of my stomach is definitely a feeling I don¡¯t want to relive. I¡¯ll wait a little longer to reset next time I¡¯m hit. I didn¡¯t even realise that would happen and it stopped me being able to tune out the spatial distortions. Shaking her head free of the unpleasant memory, she takes a deep breath and starts analysing the failed fight. That thing went into a frenzy at the start of the fight, but, after killing five people, it started focusing on attacks that hit it. Why? Was it the number of people killed, or the number of people left that mattered? It may take a few loops to work this thing out. If we¡¯re going to kill it, we either need to kill it instantly, before it can start using its defensive spell, or drain it of mana first. My grenade barely scorched its arm through that shield. Releasing her breath in a long sigh, she nces at Oscar. Should I tell him about it again? No, let¡¯s try going down a different fork this time and see if it still attacks us. Then do a few tests for the next loop if it does. ¡°You have a way of setting this barrier to block sound both ways, right?¡± *** After following the monotonous process of reliving her watch and morning, Emily makes no changes till they reach the forked path again. ¡°Let¡¯s just follow this path. There¡¯s no reason to cross the water when we don¡¯t know where either path leads,¡± Dante says impatiently. ¡°Actually,¡± Emily interjects before Oscar can agree. ¡°I have a bad feeling about that path. I think it would be best to try the other way.¡± Dante and Oscar both raise a brow at her, but before Oscar can add to the discussion, Dante changes his opinion. ¡°Let¡¯s cross then.¡± ¡°Wait, just like that?¡± Oscar asks incredulously. ¡°I trust her gut.¡± ¡°Okay, the other path it is then,¡± Oscar agrees, seeing no need to start an argument. He turns to the rest of the group, clearing his throat before giving them instructions. He gets the carriers to hand Emily their spatial bags and first sends across one attack and one defence mage, Dante and Mia, to be safe. After they reach the other shore safely, Emily throws the bags to them one by one as everyone else swims across in pairs. After a couple of minutes, Emily and Oscar bring up the rear, entering the waterst. As she swims across, Emily sticks her head under the water, watching the swirling fog below and around her. I wonder how deep it goes. Bringing her head above the water again, she turns to Oscar with a grin. ¡°Back in a sec!¡± Without waiting for his response, she dives down, disappearing into the underwater fog. She swims down a few metres before breaking through the fogyer and entering an unsettling current of living shadows. The pitch-ck water continues for several more metres before she hits the slimy riverbed below. Disappointedly, she swims back to the surface, breaking out of the water thirty metres downstream of the group. Woah, that current is strong. I didn¡¯t even realise it pulled me so far. She approaches the shore, pulling herself up onto the rocks and walking back to her group mates. A quick cast of cleanse as she walks removes all the water from her body. ¡°Please don¡¯t disappear like that without proper warning,¡± Oscarins with a frown. ¡°Sorry, I thought I felt something below us so I wanted to check it out,¡± Emily lies with a dismissive shrug. ¡°I see,¡± Oscar says with a sigh. ¡°Did you find anything?¡± ¡°No. False rm.¡± They spend a few minutes waiting, as everyone dries themselves or gets a more elementallypatible mage to help, then start moving downstream again. The new path is much the same as the other, and the rest of the afternoon passes quickly. They set up camp as usual, and everybody heads to sleep while Oscar and Emily remain on watch. Emily watches the cave behind them with infra-sight, and like clockwork, an hour into their watch, the monster creeps into her vision. Location doesn¡¯t matter then. Standing up, Emily walks to the edge of the barrier. ¡°Our tormenter¡¯s here,¡± she informs Oscar before stepping out into the darkness and pulling out two grenades. It¡¯ll probably go to ground before these hit. She charges them full of machina and cooks their fuses before hurling them in quick session with her full strength while slipping behind a rock for cover. The first grenade shoots in a straight line to the monster¡¯s feet, detonating with a bright sh three metres away from its target. The monster screeches in pain but easily slips into the ground before the second grenade reaches it and explodes uselessly in the air. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue and turns around, seeing the creature leap from the floor below Oscar. Weird. Why didn¡¯t it target me? Shaking off the thought, she sprints back into the barrier, pulling out her pistol as the monster drops Oscar¡¯s corpse and leaps into the camp. She raises her gun, ignoring the monster and turning it instead on one of her sleeping group mates. Three shots ring out as Emily quickly puts down three first circle mages. Then she turns her focus and barrel to the creature while throwing an orb of light into the air. The monster finishes ripping Nora apart and nces around at the mages scrambling to get intobat positions. Emily fires thest three bullets in the chamber into the monster¡¯s back. The creature lets out an irritated snarl and turns to leap at her. Okay, so it starts responding to attacks if there are thirteen people left, not just randomlyshing out. Dodging to the side, Emily tosses a light grenade up behind her while activating her protective earrings. It explodes in a blinding sh, the channels carved into the side bursting open with a loud, disorienting bang. The monster shakes its head with a growl before locking its gaze onto her. Thought so. The light didn¡¯t affect it, but the sound did. ¡°Enzo!¡± she shouts while sidestepping an arcing sh of the creature¡¯s arm. ¡°Try to stop it diving into the floor on my mark.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± After hearing his response, Emily extends a w, charging it with machina and shing at the monster¡¯s side. She catches its ribs, then ducks under a wild swipe. She thrusts her other hand into the passing arm, charging the retracted w with machina and pushing the extension mechanism for a bit of extra kick. The stab knocks the monster¡¯s arm wide, but only leaves a small nick, half a centimetre deep. Their intense exchange continues with Emily narrowly avoiding the creature¡¯s rapid swipes, struggling to keep up, even with her equipment¡¯s stat boosts, and taking a few shallow shes to the arms and sides. ¡°Iing!¡± she hears Dante cry and instantly drops, rolling backwards. A flower of mes explodes against the monster¡¯s side, but Emily notices the monster flinch at Dante¡¯s cry and a thin film of brown coats it before the impact. Clever fucker. It¡¯s paying attention to ourmunication. A small grin forms on Emily¡¯s face as her cortex fires off signals rapidly, a ning together in her mind. Onest test and I think I know how to kill it. The creature growls in irritation, locking onto Dante, as he tries to move behind a nearby rock, and crouching for a leap. Its change of focus reveals an opening to Emily, but instead of attacking directly, she tosses a light grenade above it. ¡°Enzo, now!¡± The monster reacts to Emily¡¯s cry and the crackling grenade sailing above its head by sinking into the ground. However, it halts suddenly with its ankles submerged, looking down in confusion. The grenade detonates, causing no damage, but Emily watches through infra-sight as the creature sinks into the floor a split secondter with its defensive spell active. It can¡¯t see the differences between my grenades. Good! ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she hears Enzo shout and turns to look at him, seeing him panting in exhaustion. ¡°I could only stop it for half a second.¡± ¡°If you had Ivor¡¯s help, could you hold it for a full second?¡± Emily asks him, ncing back to the monster plunging its thumbs through Dante¡¯s skull. ¡°Probably, but I¡¯m spent!¡± he responds, despair dominating his tone as he watches his friend being brutally taken apart. ¡°Perfect!¡± Emily activates The Clock, returning to the past. *** The Clock¡¯s reversed ticking stops as Emily finds herself back on watch with Oscar, sitting in the pitch ck. She smiles at theck of pain, finally managing to shut out the information overload from time travel. Oscar turns on his candle, lighting up a small area around them, and Emily turns to face him. ¡°You have a way of making this barrier two-way, right?¡± They reset the barrier and then wait for the monster to make its move. When she hears the dripping arm in the distance, Emily once again checks it out before waiting a while to return to the barrier. After stepping back in, she lies to Oscar about the monster attacking her and gives him a loose overview of its traits, missing out information about its frenzy to reduce their numbers to thirteen since she has no way of exining how she found out. She manages to inform him of the creature¡¯s healing ability by lying about it eating grogler meat though. The longer her exnation continues, the more Oscar¡¯s face falls at the severity of their situation. ¡°How are we going to kill something we can barely harm, that can freely travel through every surface surrounding us, and move faster than any of us?¡± he asks with a defeated tone. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I think I have a n,¡± Emily reassures him with a grin. ¡°Really? What is it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll exin when everybody¡¯s awake. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to attack us tonight and I¡¯m still working through the details,¡± she says, tapping her brow to emphasise her point. ¡°Can I leave exining about the creature and getting everyone on board to you?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± He nods confidently. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ll make sure everyone is prepared to listen to you when you¡¯re ready.¡± The night passes quickly. In the morning, Oscar repeats Emily¡¯s exnation of the monster while reassuring the group that they have a n to deal with it. Emily waits till lunch time to exin said n when everyone is gathered around and eating. ¡°First, Oscar, do you have anymunication crystals?¡± she asks Oscar before starting, thest test she wants to run depending on his answer. ¡°I don¡¯t have any spares. But, me and Fionn have a linked pair.¡± ¡°Perfect. The first stage of the n is to send away those who won¡¯t be of any help. We don¡¯t want extra bodies for the creature to eat. Fionn and Erin will escort all first circle mages to split from us and go through a different tunnel to try and get out of the creature¡¯s detection range.¡± A few displeased grumbles are heard, but Oscar quiets them with a re, showing his support of Emily¡¯s n. ¡°We¡¯ll keep in contact with themunication crystals. Fionn should be able to provide light to navigate back to us after the monster is dealt with, and Erin can help defend the group. We haven¡¯t seen anything in these caves for a while now so you should be safe,¡± Emily continues, reassuring the scared first circle mages. Nods of understanding and eptance spread through the group quickly. ¡°Now, as for the rest of us...¡± Emily exins her n, watching as a spark of understanding spreads through the group and hope lights up their eyes. ¡°...and if that doesn¡¯t finish it, well, we¡¯ll just have to improvise. Any questions?¡± A few queries are brought up, but they soon finish their meal and set off downstream with newfound confidence. When they reach the fork in the river, Fionn and Erin lead their group down the right-hand path while Emily continues down the left with their mainbat force. They check in on each other periodically through the rest of the evening until they reach a good area for the fight, with severalrge stgmites proudly protruding from the floor. Then themunication crystal goes silent, next to be used by the group that spots the monster. They spread out. Emily stands in the open, in the middle of the cave, and everyone else picks a stgmite or rock formation to crouch behind. Emily looks around from her position and, seeing no exposed mages, gives the all-clear and they settle down to await their prey. After ten minutes, the light in the cave fades, and Emily mentally starts a countdown till the beast appears. It should be here soon. Let¡¯s hope this works and I don¡¯t have to sacrifice some teammates. Though, it would be more odd for us to make it back with no casualties. Emily¡¯s thoughts are interrupted when a familiar orange form slowly creeps into view. ¡°Light!¡± Emily calls the moment she sees it, holding her breath in anticipation of its first move. Nora tosses a golden ball of light to the roof of the cave, illuminating the space and revealing their enemy immediately. Everybody holdspletely still behind their cover, and Emily watches the monster creep forward, ncing around in confusion. As it crosses thirty metres, Emily moves to test it. Its head snaps round to face her, staring into her soul with its ssy white eyes. Are you gonna attack me? Emily¡¯s tension rises and she braces to leap out of the way. The creature smiles and snarls at her, a vile mix of blood and saliva dripping from its gaping maw, before dropping into the floor. Emily springs into motion, leaping forward to avoid an expected attack from below, but nothing happens. Silence falls over the cave. Emily looks around frantically before calling to Oscar. ¡°Has it gone to them?¡± A couple of seconds of quiet mutteringter, Oscar calls back. ¡°No.¡± Shit. What¡¯s it doing? Is it leaving us alone because there aren¡¯t enough people? Emily holds her tension while running earthen detection just in case. As her scanes back empty, the cave starts to shake. The floor, walls, and ceiling all start to quiver, beginning as a low rumbling that barely disces the dirt on the ground, and building into a violent storm of movement that has Emily struggling to stand upright. She nces at her group mates, sees them stumbling in their hiding spots, and realises the monster¡¯s n. Well fuck, it¡¯s trying to make us move! At least I know I can make it waste mana on arge-scale earthquake spell. She watches it burst from the ground below Enzo and rip him to pieces before screeching at full volume, bathing in his blood as it leaps at its next target. ¡°Haaa,¡± Emily sighs, pulling out The Clock and pressing rewind. ¡°Sacrifices it is.¡± Chapter 65- Trial and Error Chapter 65- Trial and Error Emily sits on a rock in the darkness, contemting theing fight. I have to let some people die, but it matters who. Ivor can¡¯t die for obvious reasons, same with Enzo and Dante. I should make sure Oscar survives so I still get paid properly after this, and I owe Callum for his help with understanding space, so I¡¯ll keep him and Cian alive. She raises a hand to her mouth, biting her thumb as she taps her foot and stares into the ether. I should make sure we don¡¯t lose Matteo since he¡¯s one of the three of us who can damage the monster, and I should keep the casualties among barrier mages and healers low. I can lose one or two, but that¡¯s pushing it. She sees a flicker of heat creep around the corner, approaching the group atst, and stands up while calling: ¡°Light!¡± Two golden orbs of light shoot to the ceiling, illuminating the cave and revealing the prepared mages lying in wait. Emily makes eye contact with the monster, holding its unsettling gaze as she waits for it to start its ughter. The creature snarls in anger as it sinks into the floor, and Emily grabs a nearby stgmite for stability. The violent shaking begins, and the group is thrown into disarray. Emily scans through everyone¡¯s hiding ces, waiting for the sacrifices to die. Suddenly, the ground below Ricardo bursts open as the monster¡¯s gnarled ws rip up through him. He¡¯s split in half, from groin to shoulder in an instant, raining a crimson flood on the creature as it rises fully from the ground. One down. Emily watches quietly, carefully observing the creature¡¯s every move to try to predict its movements. It turns from the corpse of the weak luggage carrier and leaps between two stctites hanging from the roof, digging its ws into the stone to hold on as it corrects its angle and leaps again. It drops onto Bianca, pinning her to the floor as it sps her head and slowly drives its thumbs through her eye sockets. Her pained shrieks are quickly ended, and the monster drops her corpse before ncing around and sinking into the floor again. Two down. The shaking slowly begins to reduce, allowing Emily to release her support and walk into the open to have a clearer view. She spots the monster a momentter, her eyes finding Maeve when she screams out as the monster rips her right arm off. It casts aside the limb before stabbing its hand through her stomach and ripping out her intestines. Three down. The monster turns on its heels, crouching low and springing in a sudden leap at the nearest mage, Cian, before the shaking can finally stop. Damn. Emily frowns as the creature bites into Cian¡¯s throat and rips it clean out. I¡¯ll see who else it kills before resetting. Hopefully, it will attack different people if I swap some of their positions. The monster leaps back up to some stctites, rotating its head around to locate any moving people. Seeing a change, Emily calls out. ¡°Cormac, slow it down!¡± He follows orders, leaning out from behind his rock cover and pointing his hand at the monster as a flickering ck magic circle forms before him. Instantly, the creature¡¯s focus snaps to him, and it leaps down from the ceiling. It springs forward, closing the distance to Cormac and mming its hand into his head. Cormac cries out in pain, the magic circle he¡¯s been forming breaking to pieces as he loses focus. The monster catches him with its other hand, raising him to eye level and slowly applying force to either side of his skull. Cormac struggles, kicking and scratching frantically at the beast as unbearable pain floods his system. After a few moments, his skull pops, spraying blood from his features as his limbs fall like a puppet with its strings cut. ¡°Let¡¯s try this again,¡± Emily mutters, activating The Clock. *** Once again sitting waiting for the monster to appear, the group are spread through the cave in a slightly different order. The creature approaches and ignores Emily once again, diving into the floor and starting the shaking chaos. Maeve is the first to die, ripped to shreds tomence the massacre. Next falls Oscar. Again. The Clock runs backwards. *** Ivor is eviscerated; The Clock runs back. *** Cormac is split in two. One down. Mia is disembowelled. Two down. Linda has her brain pierced through her eyes. Three down. Fionn has his arms ripped off. Four down. Shit, that¡¯s one barrier and one healer gone. Matteo gets his throat ripped out. Fuck! The Clock rewinds. *** Emily stands, staring at the approaching monster with a firm scowl set on her face. ¡°I swear to Goddess. If I have to live this boring fucking day one more time, I¡¯m just killing five people myself,¡± she mutters quietly before calling for light. The monster springs into action, swimming through the ground and shaking the cave. It bursts from the ground, ripping Bianca in half. One down. Then, it leaps away and carves out the insides of Ricardo¡¯s skull. Two down. Next, it tears Nora¡¯s throat out with its teeth, causing one of the orbs of light floating above to dissipate. Three down. The creature sinks into the floor again, and Emily hopefully scans the room for its next target. The wall behind Linda ripples, and a grey streak bursts out, cleaving her head from her torso in one go. Four down. Poor girl, at least that was the most painless death I¡¯ve seen it give. The shaking subsides, but a few mages are still scrambling back to their hiding spots as the monster finishes its swift kills. Its head swivels, looking for a new target, and Emily holds her breath hopefully. It springs into motion, grabbing Cormac and lifting him as it crushes his head again. Five down. Finally! With a relieved sigh, Emily pulls out her revolver, already loaded with her specialised bullets. The ck gun crackles with machina and kicks back hard as a searing hot bullet flies into the creature¡¯s spine. It screeches, biting a chunk out of Cormac¡¯s corpse before dropping him and turning to face Emily with a sneer. Predictably, it leaps for her, and she ducks to the side to avoid it, shing out with a w as she does. ¡°Matteo! Dante! Burn the bodies! Everyone else, follow the n!¡± Emily yells as she parries a sh of the monster¡¯s ws. Murmured chants fill the cave as the mages go on the offensive. Matteo and Dante both locate the bodies of theirpanions and aim sts of fire at them, burning their flesh to ash. Meanwhile, Be and Oscar surround Emily with barriers of wind and water, tightly wrapping her clothes in a protective sheen of armour. Callum, Cian, and Maeve gather the dropped spatial bags of theirpanions and hide at the edge of the cave, careful not to be spotted by the monster. Emily holsters her pistol and distracts the creature, ducking and weaving between its attacks. Any attacks that get too close to her meet the resistance of her ws or the two barriers, giving Emily the extra fraction of a second she needs to avoid them. Their sh ends in a stalemate after a few exchanges, but as the creature keeps endlessly shing, gnawing and leaping at her, she silently prepares a spell. A pulsing de of water impacts the creature¡¯s head, knocking it to the side but otherwise not harming it. The monster turns towards Erin, snarling at her and revealing an opening to Emily. She releases a bolt at point-nk range into the monster¡¯s leg, scorching its skin. It screeches and turns back to her, restarting their previous engagement. She begins casting another bolt while holding off the monster¡¯s frenzied attacks. ¡°Ready!¡± Matteo calls out from somewhere behind the monster. Emily grins, activating a light grenade still attached to the bandolier with her machina, causing it to detach, and flicking it up between herself and the monster. She sends a small stream of mana into her earrings and shuts her eyes as the cave fills with light and sound. She opens her eyes the moment the light fades and sees the creature howling in anger with a burning patch on its back. Utilising its distracted state, Emily pulls out her revolver again and fires two charged shots into the newly burning flesh as it turns to look for Matteo. It turns back to face her, leaping forward again, and Emily drops into a roll, holstering her gun as she does, and passing under the creature. As she skids back onto her feet, she notices the brown glow covering the monsterpletely as it furiously snarls at her. Perfect! Now for stage two! Emily continues dodging the monster¡¯s attacks, fighting back as much as she can against the stronger and faster opponent. Tentacles of water reach out from the barrier surrounding her, courtesy of Mia. The tentacles wrap around the creature and pull against its barrier, draining its mana slowly. Matteo and Erin keep sending a rain of fire and water against it, and Emily uses every chance she can to sh apart the barrier with her machina-charged ws, pushing them to the limits with Overdrive, and finding them surprisingly effective at damaging pure mana barriers. The onught of attacks continues for a while until the mages start to run out of mana. ¡°I¡¯m out,¡± Matteo shouts, panting with exhaustion and copsing to the floor behind his cover. ¡°Me too,¡± Mia calls. ¡°Same,¡± Erin joins in. ¡°I can only block two more attacks,¡± Be shouts with slight panic. ¡°I have five left at least,¡± Oscar says with a slight quiver, unable to hold a touch of panic from his voice. Emily rolls to the side to avoid a leap and pants slightly as she makes a decision, the stress of the intense battle taking its toll. ¡°Dante, start now, I¡¯ll try to finish off its mana,¡± she yells, sting the creature with a bolt. Dante starts a long,plicated chant, and arge, burning red magic circle slowly forms behind him, pulsing with heat and power as dozens of runes and geometric shapes wind around each other. Emily nces at her ws, seeing dents and scratches covering them, and several tears in the bracers. Time to y with explosives. She retracts the ws, reaching up and grabbing a mana grenade, charging it full of machina. She pulls a bullet from a pouch at her waist with the other hand, pouring in a small amount of spatial mana, to bypass switch¡¯s touch requirement, before flicking it behind the monster as it swipes its ws at her again. She quickly prepares switch while calcting the bullet''s position. The moment it reaches far enough and is perfectly concealed by the monster¡¯s body, she uses her machina to activate the grenade with a shortened fuse and casts her spell. A purple glow envelopes the grenade, and it vanishes, a bullet appearing in her hand instead. The grenade detonates, catching the monster in its st radius but avoiding Emily. Its brown barrier flickers and dims slightly, and the creature howls in anger. Its attacks increase further in intensity, and it quickly removes thest of Emily¡¯s defensive help from her teammates. She starts trading injuries for bolts and well-ced grenades, using switch to make sure the creature only ever sees the light grenades go off, wearing down the monster¡¯s barrier slowly. Her body armour tes are chipped and dented in return, with some gashes appearing on her skin through the gaps between, and one of her boots has the spikes ripped off the bottom from a bad collision with the creature¡¯s ws. ¡°Ready!¡± Dante calls atst, after a few minutes of preparation that have left Emily alone against the beast. Hearing his signal, Emily starts the final barrage. She baits her antagonist so it leaps for her, then leans back and tosses herst light grenade up so the monster passes under it. It bursts with a shocking pop, the loud sound causing the creature a moment of disorientation that sends it tumbling to the ground as it fails tond properly. She grabs herst two mana grenades, charging them full of machina and tossing them into the air on either side of the creature while hoping they don¡¯t harm her too much. The monster sees the mana grenades, but doesn¡¯t dive into the floor, only registering them as light grenades. She raises her hands before her, the crackling cerulean magic circle of bolt forming in the air as she fills it with as much mana as possible. Got you! I hope this is enough. I only have a couple of bolts left in me after this. Thunderous sound fills the cave as two grenades and one spell go off at the same time. The glowing hot fragments of metal from the grenades whizz past, several digging into the monster¡¯s barrier, and two hitting Emily in the leg and left bicep, punching small holes clean through. Shit! They missed the bones at least. The monster howls in anger, looking far worse for wear. The brown sheen covering it has faded to a barely perceptible flicker. Its skin is covered in small cuts and scratches, trickling blood from most of its body, with several patches of ck burned skin king off. Emily nces at Enzo and Ivor, seeing both of them with their eyes shut and their hands pressed to the floor, sweat dripping from their foreheads as they focus. They aren¡¯t out of mana yet, but they definitely stopped it from diving then. I hope they can hold through Dante¡¯s attack. As if reading her mind, Dante activates the magic circle in front of him, releasing undting waves of power. The air around it twists, as burning red petals of fire form in the air, being pulled to the centre in a swirling vortex of mes. The monster senses therge gathering of mana and starts turning towards the source, but Emily quickly pulls out her revolver with her uninjured arm, charging it with machina and sending three shots into their attacker. The powerful kickback strains her wrist, but Emily ignores it and fires a fourth shot as the creature leaps at her. The fourth shot misses as she twists to dodge its swipe, so Emily drops the gun and ps her palm against the monster¡¯s side while casting bolt again. She rolls away as electricity flows across its skin, before skidding to her feet and turning to watch the fireworks. The vortex of fire before Dantepresses, forming a sharply pointed giant flower of crimson aiming straight at the creature. With a single loud burst of force, the flower rockets forward, instantly drawing a glowing line between Dante and the monster. It tries to dive into the floor to escape, but Enzo and Ivor pour thest of their energy into blocking its attempt. The flower hits the monster¡¯s chest, engulfing it in a raging inferno as it bursts. Emily sees the initial impact shatter the monster¡¯s barrier, then the creature disappears in a st of red. The sound of the explosion echoes off the cave walls, reverberating around and filling the space with its power. Emily feels grateful for her earrings as she feels the thunderous vibrations deep in her chest. Dante copses in exhaustion before the fire can fade, too drained to even look at the aftermath of his attack. Ivor and Enzo fall with him, leaving Emily alone as thestbat-capable mage. Please be enough. The smoke and fire slowly fade, revealing a scorched ck figure standing in the centre of a small crater. Emily takes a step forward and then pauses as she sees two ssy white eyes snap open, staring back at her with unbridled fury. Emily throws aside her tattered robes, lifting her hands out to the sides and extending the ws. ¡°Fine. I said I¡¯d tear you limb from limb. Let¡¯s do this,¡± she snarls as she advances. A glowing cerulean magic circle forms around her as her arms ignite with the crackle of machina. The monster growls and lowers its injured body to pounce, and Emily breaks into a sprint to meet it. Chapter 66 – Wendigo Chapter 66 ¨C Wendigo The ckened monster leaps at Emily, its skin cracking as it does and revealing the writhing grey flesh beneath. Emily drops into a slide, passing under the creature and hitting it with a bolt as she goes. The spell smashes into the monster, ripping into its flesh and drawing out a pained screech. They both right themselves and turn to face each other before shing out. Their ws meet, ncing off each other and causing sparks. Emily presses the attack, sending violent swipe after violent swipe at her opponent while preparing another bolt, noticing the creature¡¯s attacks speeding up as it goes. Sweat drips down her cheek as she narrowly avoids a stab to the face, lifts her w and shes it down the inside of the monster¡¯s forearm. Its arm quickly retracts, whipping past and shing a deep groove into Emily¡¯s shoulder. Emily quickly backs away, releasing her bolt on the back step and smashing the creature in the leg with it. Shees to a halt a few steps back, panting as she tries to ignore the many pains now covering her body. The creature moves back, slowly circling her with a slight limp. She nces at her system resources while taking a breath to calm herself. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Health:] 173/190 [Stamina:] 204/320 [Mana:] 279/3600 [Machina:] 343/3600 _____ My injuries aren¡¯t that bad, but I¡¯m running low on resources. I need to finish this soon. The monster leaps forward, and Emily steps to the side, driving one of her ws deep into its shoulder as it passes. The w gets lodged deep in the creature¡¯s flesh, and Emily is pulled backwards by the force, twisting her arm awkwardly. ¡°Fuck!¡± she cries, retracting the w with a spark of machina and tumbling to the floor. The monster turns back to her, pouring blood on the ground as it limbers over. Emily tries to stand up, but it reaches her and shes at her face before she can. She quickly rolls to the side, raising her mostly uninjured arm to point at the creature as she casts bolt again, sending a crackling beam of sma into its jaw. The blow rips the monster¡¯s lower jaw off, sending a flood of blood down its neck and exposing the roof of its foul mouth. The monster gargles out a screech and slowly hobbles closer to Emily. It raises its w slowly to strike at the same time as Emily retracts the w on her healthy right arm and quickly drives it up towards the monster¡¯s head. Her palm makes forceful contact with the creature¡¯s teeth, splitting open her palm as its arm starts to swing down, and she fills the w with everyst drop of machina she has before releasing the extension mechanism. The de rockets out, breaking its housing and shooting upwards in a ze of machina. It rips through the scorched, softened skin and fries the creature¡¯s brain in a fraction of a second before blowing out of the back of its head and continuing into the cave roof above. The creature¡¯s arm falls limp on Emily¡¯s chest,nding heavily and pressing the metal tes hard against her skin. ¡°Urgh, that¡¯s gonna bruise,¡± she grumbles as she lets her arms drop beside her, closing her eyes and basking in the pain and tired ache of her muscles, a mad grin stered on her face. The cave goes quiet, the peace only disturbed by the gasping breaths of her groupmates and the quiet shuffling of the first circle mages as they approach the battle scene again. After a couple of seconds to regain her calm, Emily opens her eyes and pushes the monster¡¯s corpse aside as she stands. Fionn approaches her with concern as she rises. ¡°Are you alright? Sit back down and let me help.¡± Emily nces down at her injuries before nodding and settling down on a nearby rock ¡°Thanks,¡± she says as Fionn crouches next to her, cancelling his spell illuminating the cave and cing his hand on her bleeding leg as he starts channelling a golden spell. She tunes out his chanting, turning her gaze on the scorched ck corpse of the monster, just visible in the dim illumination of his spell. Time to see what you are. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Wendigo] [Rank:] E [Description:] A twisted creature born from a human mage falling to cannibalism on cursednd. They prowl the cursednds they inhabit, gathering offerings to further the spread of corruption. _____ Cursednd? Are all of The Waters cursed? Or is it just part of it? Also, cannibalism? Does that mean it ate thest group, or was it formed from them? How long have The Waters been cursed? They should have a record of it if it¡¯s been here for a while, right? As Fionn slowly knits together Emily¡¯s wounds, their groupmates start to gather, recovering slightly from their exhaustion. They stand around the corpse under the light of Oscar¡¯s candle, staring listlessly at the creature that tormented them and killed some of theirrades. ¡°How repulsive,¡± Oscarments dryly, kicking the corpse before turning to the two living luggage carriers. ¡°Can you two pack this into a bag please.¡± They quickly get to work, lifting the corpse and carefully lowering it into the opening of one of the spatial storages. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Oscar asks, turning his attention away from the corpse towards Emily, jolting her out of her thoughts. ¡°I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s just a few scratches.¡± She waves off his concern, wincing slightly as Fionn moves his hands to press against her twisted shoulder. Oscar nods before turning to address the rest of the group. ¡°We lost some people today,¡± he says calmly, a hint of sadness in his tone. ¡°Their sacrifice will be remembered, and they will be given a proper send-off once we return to Chroni safely. Now, as unpleasant as it may be, let¡¯s clean up the area a little and set up camp. I think we could all do with some sleep.¡± The tired mages quietly separate and follow his orders. Matteo, Dante, Cian, and Callum use small mes to find their way to the smouldering corpses of their groupmates, picking them up and dropping them into the flowing water. Everyone else, bar Emily and Fionn, take sleeping bags from the storage packs and set them up in a small, tight formation inside the sound barrier Oscar sets up. Their setup soon finishes, and Oscar looks over the exhausted faces around him. ¡°We¡¯ll switch to more traditional watches for tonight to let our scouts rest.¡± He nces pointedly at Emily, allowing no room for discussion. ¡°Cian, Callum, and Maeve will take first watch.¡± He hands Callum his magic candle before walking to his own sleeping bag. Everyone takes that as their cue, moving to get some sleep themselves. ¡°There we go,¡± Fionn says, stopping his casting and wiping his brow. ¡°That¡¯s all I can do for you. The flesh wounds have been closed, but that shoulder may take a few days to go back topletely normal, and the deeper parts of the shrapnel holes will have to heal naturally.¡± ¡°Thanks. Will my healing potions help at all?¡± Emily asks, gesturing to the vials on her belt while realising she was too focused on fighting to drink them when she got hurt. ¡°Unfortunately not. They would have done the same thing as my spells ¨C stopped the bleeding and closed the flesh wounds ¨C but you¡¯d need something stronger for deep wounds.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Emily pushes herself up, ignoring Fionn¡¯s offered help. She walks over to an empty sleeping bag and crashes down. Before sleeping, she opens her system and checks her progression requirements. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Second Requirements: -Intelligence 60/75 (Not Complete) -Create 4/5 unique E rank machines (Not Complete) -Learn internal casting (Complete) -Create 2/3 second circle spells (Not Complete) -y 1/1 third circle beast (Complete) _____ Jackpot! It was a third circle beast. With a happy smile, she rxes, shutting her eyes as she lets one of her cores shut down for the night, still refusing to sleeppletely. *** Emily meditates for six hours before joining the final watch of the night, her exhaustionpletely gone. She sits with Dante and Fionn, quietly chatting in the dimness of the cave. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, could I ask you a question?¡± Fionn says to Dante after a lull in the conversation. ¡°Sure,¡± Dante responds while impatiently tapping his foot. ¡°How did you cast such arge spell? It felt far more powerful than a normal second circle spell.¡± ¡°Oh, that?¡± Dante responds excitedly with a grin. ¡°That¡¯s my family¡¯s signature spell, Hibiscus Burst. While the version of it I cast is technically second circle, it¡¯s based on a fourth circle spell my dad made. It¡¯s designed to work as a group ritual spell, like Oscar¡¯s airspace im, that big spell he used in training against fog cats, but I used it alone by pouring all of my mana into it.¡± ¡°Interesting. I wonder if there are any ritual healing spells,¡± Fionn mutters. I¡¯ll have to look into ritual spells when I get back. It¡¯d be a great weapon if I could use my second core to prepare a massive spell like that inbat. Light slowly starts to fill the cave as the daytime glow returns to the glistening water, and the crystalse back to life, beating back the shadows. Dante excitedly looks around and starts to stand up as dawn breaks. ¡°Are we going to start waking people now?¡± he asks. ¡°No,¡± Emily responds with a judgemental stare. ¡°What?¡± ¡°We set up camptest night. Those who took watches have only slept for four and a bit hours so far. It¡¯s only right to let them rest more, so we¡¯ll set offte today,¡± Fionn calmly exins. ¡°Urgh,¡± Dante groans, dropping back to the floor dejectedly. ¡°But I¡¯m so bored.¡± Emily rolls her eyes at him, turning away and running earthen detection. She¡¯s surprised when she feels a flurry of movement approaching them from some dark side tunnels. I guess the wendigo was the reason we haven¡¯t seen any groglers for a while now. Are they linked to this curse too? ¡°Look alive, buddy,¡± she says, patting Dante¡¯s shoulder and standing up. ¡°We¡¯ve gotpany.¡± Dante shoots up to join her with a grin. ¡°Finally!¡± They both move upstream, following Emily¡¯s scan and leaving Fionn behind to watch the camp. ¡°Try not to make too much noise.¡± ¡°Got it. Burning not exploding!¡± Emily drops her detection as she feels the groglers approaching the cave and conjures flying lightning, spinning the dart beside her in anticipation. The sound of hurried footfall fills their ears and soon the small grey monsters burst out of the darkness. Flying lightning shes forwards, ripping through the first enemy¡¯s head with ease, a split second before a rain of ming petals smashes into the front row. Emily whips the dart around, picking off the creatures screeching in pain as their skin sears ck. Dante casts his spell twice more before Emily finishes slicing and puncturing those that are left, leaving the dark cave entrance sttered in brownish-red blood and littered with half-burnt corpses. ¡°What a fun way to start the morning. I never thought I¡¯d be so happy to see groglers again.¡± Dante chuckles, turning to look at Emily with a satisfied grin. Emily makes eye contact with him, unable to hold back her own smile. ¡°It certainly gets the blood pumping. Although, this was a lot of groglers in one go, considering we haven¡¯t seen any for days.¡± She looks over the piled-up bodies and counts fifteen creatures. Her grin morphs into a small frown as she turns back to the camp. ¡°Come on.¡± *** An hourter, they wake everyone up and prepare breakfast. Sitting around a small campfire eating, Oscar rearranges the moving formation. ¡°Maeve and Cian will still carry a bag each. However, Callum and Fionn will also need to take a bag from now on. Ivor will join the front, and Erin will join the back: there¡¯s no point leaving you at the sides until we leave these caves.¡± He pauses and looks around, but nobody disputes his arrangement, so he takes a deep breath and then continues. ¡°Now, I knowst night was stressful, and we lost some good friends.¡± He pauses to look around again, taking in the mixed reactions of the group, mourning from a few, but indifference from most. ¡°But we still need to move onwards. We¡¯ll continue downstream for three more days, then turn around and head back.¡± The rest of their meal passes quietly, and after eating they quickly pack up, tossing out the excess tents they no longer need to create space in their bags, and leave to continue downstream. They follow the river, sticking left at another fork, and after two hours of moving, Ivor¡¯s scan returns something. ¡°Over twenty, small, behind,¡± he quickly shes out some hand signs, and everybody starts preparing for battle. ¡°Groglers?¡± Emily asks him while conjuring flying lightning and turning her thermal vision upstream. She sees him nod out of the corner of her eye, and starts walking around the group with Ivor and Dante. They reach the back as a small grogler bursts out of a side tunnel. A singlence of fire shoots forward, impaling the monster and burning its torso to a crisp. A flood of groglers follows, filling the cave with grey. Emily spins up her weapon as the monsters close the distance, and the moment they step within range, several spells fly out. Heavy rocks, des of water, spears and petals of fire: the groglers are pelted by the elements, while Emily¡¯s glistening silver dart shes through them, ripping them apart. The enemies are quickly dealt with, covering the cave floor with their dirty blood that slowly flows into the river, temporarily dyeing the water red before sinking below the fog, never to rise again. With the groglers dead, they take a break, to harvest their eyes, then continue marching downstream. They¡¯re attacked twice more before lunch, and another two times after. By the time they stop for the day, the attacking mages are running low on mana and exhausted again. Emily settles at the edge of the camp alone, returning to their normal watches now that the wendigo is dealt with. She sits upstream of the camp, having noticed all the grogler attacks during the day came from that direction, as if following a n. We¡¯re definitely being pushed further in by these grogler attacks. I guess it can¡¯t have been the wendigo coordinating them. Maybe we¡¯ll find out what it is as we go deeper? If not, it¡¯s going to be a pain to fight our way back out through hordes of coordinated groglers. Emily sighs as she stares into the surrounding darkness, excited by the idea of a new discovery, but starting to grow bored of fighting the small grey irritants. ¡°I miss Jules.¡± Chapter 67 – Horde Chapter 67 ¨C Horde The next day is a slow trek, ignoring splits in the path and following the river onwards. They are attacked from behind by a few small groups of groglers, but the attacks are less frequent than the day before. They find a few more herbs, including a sizable harvest of wyrmroot tucked into an alcove along their path. They also find a sparse outcrop of light crystals, but otherwise the day passes without intrigue. The final day of their delve into the depths of The Waters brings a new bag of problems though. A few hours into the morning, a chill passes down Emily¡¯s spine. What¡¯s following us this time? With a frown, Emily starts channelling earthen detection as she walks. She looks behind them and finds a group of groglers in pursuit, which doesn¡¯t seem out of the ordinary at all. Ignoring them for now, she sends her perception into the side tunnels near them and finds a few more groups of groglers, walking in parallel with them, further into the depths. Strange! Why aren¡¯t theying to attack us? They¡¯re definitely close enough to detect us. She runs her scan over the tunnels a few more times, but only finds groglers lurking near them without approaching. Even the group behind them, which keeps increasing in size as more monsters show up, doesn¡¯te closer. ¡°We¡¯re being surrounded by groglers,¡± Emilyments calmly. ¡°Surrounded?¡± Oscar asks sceptically. ¡°Yeah. There¡¯s arge group behind us and a lot of small groups in the tunnels nearby, but none are approaching us.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Oscar frowns, halting their march and turning to Ivor for confirmation. Ivor and Enzo both run scans,ing to the same conclusion as Emily. ¡°Shit! Why are they acting so weird? I thought that monster was controlling them,¡± Oscar questions Emily, anger and desperation mixing in his gaze. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It looks like they¡¯re trying to push us deeper, though, so we¡¯ll probably find out soon. If not, we can just kill our way out. Rx, it¡¯s only groglers, I can deal with them all myself if necessary.¡± Emily calms him down while pushing for them to continue onwards, her curiosity growing. He¡¯s starting to lose it. I guess losing nearly a third of his expedition in one night probably wasn¡¯t great for his confidence. Oscar takes a deep breath then releases it, letting his tension flow out. ¡°You¡¯re right. Sorry, I should be keeping a calm head to lead properly. Let¡¯s keep going. We turn around tomorrow morning anyway.¡± They restart their march, with tension once again spreading through the group. Nothing happens till mid-afternoon when they arrive at a three-path split in the river, with new banks rising from the water to line the middle path up ahead. They try to walk towards the left-hand path, following the pattern they¡¯ve now established whenever they¡¯re faced with a choice, but as they get closer, Emily¡¯s spots dozens of heat signatures lurking in the darkness at the edge of the path. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of groglers,¡± she mutters to herself before turning to her groupmates. ¡°Enzo, Ivor, status check.¡± Hearing hermand, both mages shut their eyes and send out scans. Everyone else starts preparing spells for their visitors. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± Enzo exims, the colour draining from his face. ¡°There¡¯s about fifty behind us.¡± ¡°Roughly thirty ahead, twenty on the middle, and none on the right,¡± Ivor signs, gesturing to the three paths ahead. Nervous chatter breaks out in the group. ¡°Should we run?¡± Cian asks fearfully. ¡°We can¡¯t fight that many while surrounded,¡± Erin adds. ¡°Maybe we should follow the path without any of them. Then we only have to deal with them on one side?¡± Enzo suggests. ¡°Yes,¡± Oscar nods while starting to break formation to head towards the empty path. ¡°We should run.¡± Emily reaches out and grabs his shoulder, staring at him with a scowl. ¡°What¡¯s with you? It¡¯s just a bunch of groglers. We can beat this many easily.¡± Oscar pauses, looking into Emily¡¯s eyes in confusion for a second before shaking his head and regaining rity. ¡°You¡¯re right. Why are we so nervous?¡± He walks back into position, straightening his back and giving outmands. ¡°Mia, Be, help me set up a barrier topletely block the back for now. Enzo, slow down any thate from the middle path. Ivor, make him a temporary bridge to reach it. Erin, Matteo, start picking off those behind us. Emily, Dante, wipe them out.¡± After a few murmured agreements, everyone starts their chants, waiting for the monsters to approach. Why are they just watching us? Will they not attack until we try to go down a path they don¡¯t like? It¡¯s quite obvious they¡¯re trying to force us onto the right path, and Oscar almost did what they want. Emily frowns before shaking her head and pushing her concerns to the back of her mind. ¡°If you¡¯re noting, I¡¯ll just have to attack first,¡± she mutters, before exchanging grins with Dante as they both move towards the grogler filled path. Flying lightning forms, wrapping around Emily¡¯s arm to form a silver sleeve of coiled metal. The moment her footnds in the entrance to the path, the groglers burst into motion, rushing out of the shadows to attack her. A flurry of burning petals flies past, bursting against the front runners of the group. Emily spins up flying lightning before whipping the dart forward through the chest of the nearest grogler. She pulls the wire back quickly, spinning with the momentum of the metal projectile and sending it back in a sweeping arc. The wire wraps around one of their attackers, shing several others as it tightens around the soft grey flesh, stunning them all with arcs of lightning. With a quick tug and a drop of extra mana, the wire rips the grogler to shreds, slicing through flesh and bone with ease. As the dart flies back towards her, a grogler gets close and swipes a disproportionately long arm at her. She raises her right arm to block, catching the monster¡¯s hand with the coiled wire of flying lighting. A spark of lightning stuns the creature, and Emily extends the w on her left hand, shing its throat quickly. She steps to the side to dodge another monster¡¯s swipe, directing the returning metal dart into the unsuspecting creature¡¯s back. She spins again to start the momentum of her weapon, delivering a heavy spinning kick to another grogler¡¯s head as she does, splitting open its skull. All distractions fall away as Emily performs an acrobatic dance of magic and metal, blitzing through groglers in a maelstrom of violence. With the help of Dante¡¯s mes, they quickly clear the tunnel. Emily wipes some dirty brown blood from her eyes as she turns back to check on the group. Covering the cave behind them is a short wall of wind and water, with arge horde of groglers pressed up against the other side. Spells fly through the barrier every few seconds, slowly reducing the enemy numbers. Emily turns her attention to the middle path, looking past Ivor holding up a bridge of stone, signs of exhaustion evident on his face. She sees just over twenty groglers struggling to move forward through soft, mud-like rock, and Enzo standing between them and the bridge, his hands pressed to the floor, surrounded by a glowing brown magic circle as sweat drips from his brow. Seeing the grouped up groglers unable to move, an idea urs to Emily. ¡°Enzo, hold them for a few more seconds and I¡¯ll deal with them. Dante go help out the back.¡± ¡°Got it!¡± Dante replies with glee, sprinting towards the group while starting another chant. ¡°Please be quick,¡± Enzo grunts through gritted teeth. Emily runs past Ivor and over the bridge, spinning up flying lightning while pouring in extra mana and focusing on sharpening the wire. She releases the full coil around her arm, passing Enzo to take position in front of the gathered monsters. ¡°Duck!¡± she calls while spinning. Flying lightning extends, shing in an arc of crackling silver. It sails over Enzo¡¯s head, and ms into the groglers. In a single, swift motion, the wire continues past without resistance. As Emily slows her rotation, she looks at the aftermath of her attack, seeing twenty groglers split in half and bleeding out on the floor. With a manic grin, she quickly whips the dart between the few remaining monsters before turning back to look at Enzo. His eyes are wide in shock, but as Emily runs past him he quickly shakes off his stupor and moves with her to join the rest of the group. Ivor dismisses the bridge the moment they cross and runs to join the fight too. Emily dismisses flying lightning as she approaches the wall of magic. She starts casting bolt, while lining up a shot, she releases the spell and watches the beam of sma tear through ten more monsters. It¡¯s more mana efficient to use bolt repeatedly. That little trick with flying lightning cost me almost five hundred mana. Totally worth it though. Her grin remains as she sends another bolt through the monsters. They¡¯re too stupid to realise lining up is a bad idea, and after a few more spells, they are wiped out. The barrier mages drop the wall, and everybatant other than Emily pants in exhaustion. ¡°Right,¡± Oscar says after regaining his breath. ¡°Let¡¯s pause here for a bit to regain our mana before we move on. Cian, Callum, can you two harvest any usable eyes please.¡± The two brothers start moving through the corpses while everyone else finds a spot to sit down and meditate in, their recovery aided by the dense mana surrounding them. Emily sits down on a rock at the edge of the cave, sending out earthen detection to check for any other groglers nearby, still feeling ufortably on edge. I thought the groglers following us was what was bothering me, but they¡¯re all dead and I still feel something¡¯s wrong. ¡°I¡¯m starting to think you¡¯re the scariest monster in here,¡± Enzo says as he walks over, distracting Emily from the empty tunnels around them. ¡°How¡¯d you realise?!¡± Emily asks in mock surprise before giggling as Enzo rolls his eyes and sits down. ¡°I¡¯m serious though. You¡¯ve been using detection spells all day, then you used a conjured weapon to fight. I know conjured objects don¡¯t exactly drain a lot of mana normally, but there¡¯s no way you weren¡¯t dumping extra into it to be able to slice so many groglers in half in one go. You then threw out plenty more spells after, and now you¡¯re running more detection spells without a single sign of exhaustion! How do you have so much mana?¡± Enzo rants, a mix of curiosity and confusing bleeding into his tone. ¡°Ah.¡± Emily is taken aback by his questioning, unsure how to answer. She pauses to consider. Can I tell him anything? It doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯ll buy the efficient spell excuse. Well, there¡¯s no chance he¡¯ll tell the Mandrago family: he¡¯s too close to Oscar and Oscar showed obvious disdain for them. Also, I like him. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m likely to need to fight him any time soon and he¡¯s already suspicious, so I may as well tell him a little. Emily lets out a sigh before ncing around and making sure no one¡¯s within earshot. ¡°It¡¯s down to a few things, but the main one I can just show you. Focus on the mana around me right now.¡± Enzo obediently shuts his eyes and focuses on the mana around Emily who sits, with Technomancer¡¯s Breath active on her second core, waiting for him to notice the oddity in the surrounding mana flow. After a few seconds, he opens his eyes in surprise. ¡°You¡¯re drawing in mana without meditating?¡± he asks incredulously. ¡°Yeah. My meditation technique is unique, I¡¯m able to keep part of it active while moving around as long as I split some of my focus for it.¡± ¡°I see.¡± He nods thoughtfully. ¡°So, you just have to make sure you¡¯re only casting one spell at a time while you do it.¡± It¡¯s Emily¡¯s turn to be surprised as she listens to him muttering to himself. ¡°Wait, you know about my double casting?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t exactly try to hide it,¡± Enzo says, surprised at Emily¡¯s surprise. ¡°We were all watching when you fought that monster, and you were definitely casting bolt while using another spell to coat your weapons in lightning. It¡¯s pretty obvious that you can double cast.¡± Of course! They don¡¯t know about machina so it will look like another spell to them. Whoops! I never even considered that. ¡°Ah, yeah. I guess I haven¡¯t exactly been hiding it on this expedition.¡± ¡°Anyway, thanks for answering my question,¡± he says as he stands to go and meditate. Emily waves him goodbye and returns to her surveince of the surrounding tunnels. They are all empty, all of the nearby groglers seeming to have died in the prior fight. She spends the rest of the break sitting at the edge of the group, periodically scanning for any approaching enemies just in case. Soon, everyone finishes gathering mana and they get back into formation. ¡°Which path are we taking?¡± Dante asks before they set off. ¡°I say we find out where they were trying to lead us,¡± Emily suggests confidently, her hand resting on The Clock¡¯s pouch at her hip. There¡¯s no way I¡¯m leaving without working out what was controlling them. I wonder if it¡¯s rted to the curse. Frowns spread through the group, but as Emily opens her mouth to persuade them they disappear. ¡°Sure, for the pursuit of knowledge, right?¡± Oscar says with a smile. ¡°Yeah, for the pursuit of knowledge.¡± Emily turns around and leads the group forward. Well that was weird. They changed their minds too fast and too easily. Is something affecting their minds? Maybe that¡¯s the curse too. They cross the water, this time swimming to avoid draining all of Ivor¡¯s mana. They then continue downstream on the other side. The path remains the same as the other until, an hour in, they step into an unnerving cave, which halts them in their steps. Emily looks from therge, openke of water in the centre of the cavernous space to the scattered magic crystals to the piled up bodies, and the blood smeared walls surrounding them. ¡°Holy shit!¡± Chapter 68 – The Lake Chapter 68 ¨C The Lake Emily shakes herself out of her stupor, the ufortable feeling in her gut growing ever stronger, and runs earthen detection to check the cavern for threats. Her scanes up empty, so she slowly walks in further to take in the room fully. The space is huge, the ceiling rising tens of metres above, filled with writhing shadows. The beautiful, glistening blueke in the centre of the room spans at least fifty metres at its widest point, and has a dozen or so metres ofnd between the banks and the walls on every side. There are several breaks in the floor as the river runs into and out of theke in multiple streams from nearby tunnels. But, unlike in the surrounding tunnels, most of the cavern walls are free of shadows, lit up by scattered magic crystals strewn on the floor. Gazing at the magic crystals draws Emily¡¯s attention to the bodies contaminating the otherwise enchanting view. Lining theke are the decapitated corpses of groglers, carefully arranged so their headless stumps bleed into theke. Their heads are all impaled on stgmites near the walls, whererge smears of blood are wiped. Emily frowns in disgust at the gruesome disy, pushing down and shutting out the traumatic memories of Herber that it brings to the surface. Was the wendigo doing this? They¡¯re too fresh to be thest expedition group. Why would the wendigo do this though? Unable to remove her attention from the revolting sight without answers, Emily pulls up the record of the wendigo from her system notifications. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Wendigo] [Rank:] E [Description:] A twisted creature born from a human mage falling to cannibalism on cursednd. They prowl the cursednds they inhabit, gathering offerings to further the spread of corruption. _____ Offerings? Was this some disgusting form of ritual sacrifice or something? Was it nning to do this to us after killing us? It did seem to enjoy torturing people as it murdered them. Maybe this is just its sick game. Shivering at the thought, Emily finally tears her focus away from the bodies dirtying the water with their putrid blood, looking towards her groupmates. She finds them all crouched at the water¡¯s edge, kneeling in the fog and scooping water from theke with their hands to drink. Emily grimaces at the idea of drinking the filthy water, no matter how inviting it looks. Wait, why do I think the water¡¯s inviting? Emily¡¯s scowl deepens further as she feels an itch in the back of her mind, telling her something is wrong with that thought, but she can¡¯t work out what. Weird. I definitely don¡¯t want to drink it at least. ¡°Hey, Oscar!¡± she calls, tearing his attention away from the water. ¡°What¡¯s the n?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll stay here to gather all these magic crystals and any eyes that are still fresh. Then, we¡¯ll stay here for a bit to rest and head back in a few days.¡± His answer sets off warning bells in Emily¡¯s mind, irrespective of the glint of greed in his eyes at the mention of the magic crystals. Why does he want to stay here for a few days suddenly? We were meant to be turning back tomorrow. ¡°Why stay here for a few days?¡± she questions apprehensively. ¡°We¡¯re all tired from the trip in. This seems like a good ce to fortify for a few days of proper rest,¡± he responds with a smile. Emily exaggeratedly points to a nearby corpse dangling over the water¡¯s edge. ¡°What about that makes this ce feel like a good ce to rest to you?¡± Oscar follows her arm and frowns, seeming to finally notice an issue with his n. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re right. We¡¯ll have to dump all those bodies and heads in the water to make it a little more pleasant.¡± Something¡¯s wrong. Is something controlling them? Something in this cavern? Maybe there¡¯s something in the water? They do seem oddly drawn to it, and none of them should be happy drinking from it. ¡°Got it. I¡¯m gonna go have a look around. I don¡¯t feel anything nearby, but be careful and make sure Ivor and Enzo check every so often. You guys should start cleaning this ce up if you want to stay here,¡± she encourages Oscar, hoping to give the group something more productive to do than drinking the dubious water. He nods, agreeing with her and turning to start ushering the group into action. Good, this should at least keep them distracted for a bit until I work out what¡¯s going on here. Emily turns to walk along theke¡¯s edge with purpose: her groupmates¡¯ strange actions only making the ufortable feeling in her gut grow stronger. She looks at the crystals on the floor as she passes, most partially concealed by the swirling fog. A few of them are cracked, making them too unstable to be of much value, and none seem naturally formed in ce. Was the wendigo collecting crystals from nearby tunnels? It would exin the deposits we found that looked like they were ripped apart with ws. Is that also part of its ritual? Emily starts drawing a mental map of the crystals as she goes, trying to work out if there is a pattern being drawn with them. She soon runs into one of the connecting streams of the river, flowing into theke, and steps in to swim across to the other side. After pulling herself up onto the bank, she continues forward while casting cleanse. She passes more dead groglers and magic crystals: the more of them she finds, the less she believes their position is nned, since none of them seem to join into a coherent pattern. She crosses another connecting stream and arrives at a section of the cavern where the walls are devoid of magical light and there are fewer corpses around. Only a few magic crystals have been dropped near the water on this bank, as if the wendigo was avoiding it intentionally. The living shadows spread from a depression in the wall, reaching halfway to theke where they¡¯re pushed back by the water¡¯s glow. Emily approaches the shadows, holding up her hand and casting light to part them. As the darkness recedes, an unsettling sight is revealed. Spread across the wall of the cave is more blood, but instead of the random wed handprints dragged across the stone, the blood forms words. ¡°Hey!¡± she shouts back to her group. ¡°You guys should see this.¡± She moves closer to the wall, approaching the scrawled writing, studying the words and trying to decipher them. Searching through the dizzying mess of intersecting lines and blurred letters, Emily locates the words she thinks started the cave writing. Close to the middle, she finds a few blood-free sentences, etched into the rocks with clearly defined lines, even spacing, and coherence. This was written by an earth mage. It looks more moulded into the stone than cut. This expedition was doomed from the start. We were so confident when we reached The Waters without casualties. We should have turned back when we saw those damn groglers. ¡°Was this thest expedition? Or does this go back further than them?¡± Emily mutters. Did they start writing this to leave a record for the next group to get here? ¡°Woah!¡± ¡°Holy shit!¡± Emily¡¯s distracted from her thoughts by the disbelief flowing from her groupmates as they arrive behind her. She turns to Oscar, gesturing to the writing on the wall and asking him a question. ¡°This was written by someone on a prior expedition. Any idea who?¡± ¡°If it was thest one. Probably Ro Poinsettia. He was the leader, a third circle earth mage,¡± he answers without looking away from the unsettling writing. Third circle earth mage? Emily raises a brow, turning back to look at the wall. Could he not kill the wendigo? Or was the wendigo him? She continues reading the cleanly cut sentences. We lost Maria and Dom on the first night. We should have turned back. We lost Adrian, Sandra, and Cedric on the third. We should have turned back. We lost Jenna on the sixth day. We should have turned back. No mention of the wendigo. Were these losses just from groglers? Strange, why couldn¡¯t a third circle mage handle a few groglers? ¡°Hey Oscar, was Ro abat mage?¡± she asks. ¡°Not at all. Ro was a brilliant alchemist, but he wasn¡¯t a fighter. He mostly specialised in defence and mobility. He would have been reliant on his teammates to kill things.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Emily mutters. That would exin not beating the wendigo if it was already here, but not groglers. Am I overestimating third circle mages? Or were their minds being influenced as well? We didn¡¯t seem affected inbat, but maybe that¡¯s because I seem affected less? Moving on, she reads thest of the well-defined words. We were swarmed on the eighth day. I lost Mark. Why didn¡¯t I turn back? We barricaded ourselves in here on the ninth day. We¡¯re surrounded. Most of us are wounded. We can¡¯t turn back. I¡¯m hungry. We¡¯ve been here for two weeks. We ran out of supplies yesterday. At least we have theke¡¯s water. They were swarmed too. That only happened to us after the wendigo was gone. I think it¡¯s safe to assume this was written by the wendigo. Or, rather, the man who became it. ¡°Do you recognise any of these names?¡± Emily asks Oscar, pointing them out. ¡°Yes, I do. Mark is probably Mark Poinsettia, Ro¡¯s partner. Maria may be Maria Ashfallen, she was amoner healer the Poinsettias sponsored. I don¡¯t remember the other members of the expedition though.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Emily moves on, locating some sentences carved into the wall with jagged lines. The lines are cut far shallower into the rock, and smears of blood are evident in each, as if roughly scratched into the stone with bloody nails. I haven¡¯t eaten in four days. Ron died. Without a healer, there was nothing we could do. I¡¯m hungry. We dumped his body in the water so we don¡¯t have to see it. Hungry. Six more in the water. We aren¡¯t speaking. Looks like they also follow the process of dumping their dead in the water. Wait¡­ Would we usually do that? ¡°Hey, Oscar. What¡¯s the usual practice with corpses of teammates on an expedition?¡± He flinches slightly at her question, as a few of their groupmates looking at her with frowns, but answers anyway. ¡°There isn¡¯t really an agreed upon option, but it¡¯smon practice to either burn them or drop them into the river down here.¡± Her concern rxes slightly at his answer. Okay, so that may just be a coincidence. Or maybe how this curse started if the water really is the problem. She casts a nce back at theke, the brightly glowing pool with darkness looming above seeming far more ominous than it did when she first took in its beauty. I¡¯ll have a lookter. With a shake of her head, she turns back to decipher more blood-etched words. Two more gone. Four left. So hungry. They won¡¯t stop looking at me. Hungry. Three left. So hungry. We spoke again. Two left. Nine in the water, four alive. There were thirteen left when they sealed themselves in. Is thirteen significant to the curse, or was Ro reducing our group to thirteen simply a random choice on his part? Emily¡¯s eyes linger on the repeated reference to his hunger as she tries to understand the meaning behind the words as they slowly lose coherence. They stopped talking for a while since he seemed to be getting paranoid, then spoke again when there were two of them left. Hmm¡­ No. The reference to hunger stops for that line. Did they eat the third? The system description did say a wendigo forms from a cannibal. Her eyes slowly trace the remaining words on the wall. The fa?ade of sanity falls away as every other word is purely written in blood, all attempts to leave a permanent record gone. I¡¯m alone. I¡¯m alone. Alone. Alone Hungry So hungry Hungry The words descend into madness, ¡®Hungry¡¯ being repeated again and again until the words lose form and turn to smeared w marks. Emily feels a twinge of sadness at the story told by the bloody wall: of a man slowly losing everything, even his humanity, as he sumbs to suffering and madness. Is this what¡¯ll happen to us if we stay here? ¡°What¡¯s the n from now on, Oscar?¡± she asks to be sure. ¡°I already told you. Didn¡¯t I?¡± he says giving her a strange look. ¡°We¡¯ll collect everything in here then rest for a week or so before heading back.¡± Emily scoffs, turning towards theke. Yeah, right. I¡¯ll be damned if I let us stay here and slowly cannibalise each other. He wants to stay even longer now, and he doesn¡¯t even seem to realise. She angrily approaches the edge of the water, dropping her robes to the floor and sitting down to pull off her boots. Ivor walks over as she stands back up. ¡°What are you doing?¡± he signs while ncing questioningly at her bare feet. ¡°I think there¡¯s something in the water, so I¡¯m going to have a look.¡± Ivor frowns, but nods and pats her on the shoulder before wishing her luck. ¡°Be careful down there.¡± ¡°Sure thing, big guy,¡± Emily replies with a smile, her academic interest overpowering her anger, before turning to gaze out into theke. She pauses before leaping in, noticing the irony in her actions. I wasining about them drinking the water, and here I am about to jump in. Ah well, Ro may have missed his chance to turn back. But I always have that option. She rests her hand on the pouch holding The Clock, before diving in. Chapter 69 – The Curse of Hunger Chapter 69 ¨C The Curse of Hunger Emily kicks away from the shore, swimming through the glittering blue water and watching with begrudging wonder as the fog just below swirls around her, reaching out of the water in creeping tendrils as she disturbs the surface. She swims out to roughly the centre of theke, casting infra-sight and checking below for enemies. She treads water for a few seconds, ncing around for a hint of warm colour under the water but finding nothing. Here goes. Taking a deep breath, she releases infra-sight and plunges down, descending below the thinyer of fog and entering the darkness below. She casts light as she swims, creating a white orb that pushes back against the darkness surrounding her, but struggles to have much effect, even with the extra mana Emily pours into the spell. After a few seconds, she gives up and epts only having a few metres of visibility. She descends lower and lower, and the temperature of the water drops from refreshing to bone-chilling as she nears the bottom. She pauses as thekebedes into view, decorated by dull white bones. I think I found Ro¡¯s teammates. She swims down to the bones, inspecting the mismatched limbs scattered about. She tries to move on, but out of the corner of her eye, she spots a flicker of movement, so she pauses and looks around. Seeing nothing, she quickly casts infra-sight again, checking for a warm-blooded enemy but finding nothing. Weird, I definitely saw something move. She turns to leave, but once again sees motion out of the corner of her eye. This time, she¡¯s certain one of the skeletons was moving. They are dead. Right? She goes back to inspect a few bones. But, even with a full magical scan, she doesn¡¯t find anything. She feels pressure build in her chest from theck of breath, so she shakes the distraction away and turns to continue. Moving on, she follows a natural depression towards the lowest point of theke. On the way, she finds a few human skulls resting on the bed, staring up at the world above that they¡¯ll never see again. Darkness fills their eye sockets unnaturally and, even when Emily aims her light in, the darkness clings, as if fused to the bones. The further she follows thekebed down, the more the water around her, within her small haven of light, shifts from dark blue to a faint red. And the further she descends, the more certain she is that the skulls are watching her. The mounting pressure in her chest builds, so Emily makes a split-second decision after spotting motion at the edge of her vision again. I can¡¯t go further. I need to surface. She turns upwards, making a break for the surface. As she rises through the dark water, the chill seeping through to her bones slowly fades and, when she surfaces, gasping for breath, the chill has all but vanished. ¡°That water¡¯s deep. Maybe I should take a break and try again tomorrow,¡± she mutters before freezing, breaking her rhythm and almost sinking under the water again. Why did I give up so quickly? And why am I suddenly happy to hang around in this cave? I¡¯m following the same path as Oscar. The thought worries Emily, bringing a scowl to her face as she gazes down into the depths below. I should definitely be able to hold my breath for longer. And why did I keep seeing motion? I need tomit to going further and ignore all distractions. ¡°Hey, Emily. You okay?¡± Dante shouts at her from the shore. ¡°Yeah, just catching my breath!¡± she yells back, keeping her eyes on the water as she steels her resolve. She reaches under the water, taking The Clock out of its pouch and holding it firmly in her hand. Taking a deep breath and calming her heart, she gives The Clock onest squeeze for reassurance before diving back down into the water. She slowly kicks down through the darkness, descending into the unsettling unknown below. Once again, as she approaches the bottom of theke, she starts seeing flickers of motion at the edge of her vision. Ignoring them, she ploughs onwards, reaching the point where the water shifts to red. The pressure in her chest starts growing again, as if she needs to breath, but she recognises it as false and pushes through. Soon, she reaches the deepest point in theke and sees a small, head-sized pitch-ck hole surrounded by thick, swirling red. How ominous. She approaches the hole, attempting, unsessfully, to shine light into it. Damn. I can¡¯t see in, but I can feel it alright. It¡¯s powerful. That¡¯s got to be the source of the curse. All these bones and blood just scream cursed. She hovers over the hole for a few seconds, the pressure in her chest hurting, and a small voice in the back of her mind screaming for her to turn back. Ah, what the hell. If I lose my arm I can just reset. She shoves her arm into the hole, reaching down until her shoulder presses against thekebed, but she still doesn¡¯t find an end to it. She grasps around in the dark, searching for any signs of the curse¡¯s source. Then just as she¡¯s about to listen to the voice and pull out, something presses into her palm. A frigid chill bites her hand, and a system notification appears in her vision. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Mental attack spell detected! Resisting¡­ Mental attack sessfully resisted! _____ Thought so. It counts as a mental attack. No wonder I wasn¡¯t affected as much as the others. She tightens her grip on The Clock, just in case the attack gets worse, and pulls her arm out of the hole. She gets an odd feeling of weakness as she pulls it out, as if the unknown object is sapping her strength. Freeing it from the oppressive darkness, she opens her hand and gazes at her find. It¡¯s arge, two-inch-long jagged white tooth with tiny ck and red channels of cracks running its length. The tooth seems to ooze malevolent intent, sending Emily¡¯s instincts into overdrive and emitting a chill so cold she starts to shiver. The bloody water around her seems drawn towards the fang, slowly changing the centre point of its swirling motion to her palm. The voice in the back of her mind starts telling her to let go and leave, but she ignores it. She shuts her hand tight and, with no reason left to stay, swims for the surface, leaving behind the bloody water that tries to follow. After breaking the surface and gasping in fresh air, Emily treads water in ce and raises the tooth out of the water to get a better look. The moment she opens her hand again, the shadows on the ceiling seem to stretch towards her, trying to reim the strange object. With a frown, she calls out to the system in her mind, pulling up an information window. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mensacus] [Rank:] D [Stats:] -4 int [Description:] A shard of the abyss given form, imbued with the curse of hunger. [Effect:] Converts death into corrupted mana that drives nearby organisms to the depths of hunger. _____ Jackpot! It really was the source of the curse. I¡¯m taking this for myself! They don¡¯t know anything about it. If I hide it, they¡¯ll never know. She stares at the system window with a satisfied grin that slowly fades into a slight scowl. Hmm, minus intelligence. No wonder holding it makes me feel weaker. How am I supposed to sneak it out of here if it makes it harder to fight. I guess I can probably make do with weaker spells. As long as we don¡¯t run into another third circle beast, I¡¯ll be fine. The main problem will be the mental influence. It¡¯s starting to annoy me, and they¡¯ll struggle to function if it follows us. She reaches up with her other hand, rubbing her head as the small voice in the back of her mind still screams for her to release the Mensacus. I need some way of sealing this if I¡¯m gonna take it back. There¡¯s some ck iron in our spatial storages which may help if leaking corrupted mana is the issue, but I need to get it there unnoticed. She sps the Mensacus between both hands and forms a bubble of mana around it. The chill reduces slightly, and Emily feels the draining feeling of weakness reduce but not disappear. The voice gets a bit quieter, so she nces at her attributes to check. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (13), Dexterity 34 (35), Agility 26 (27), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (58) _____ The reduced values as a result of her damaged gear makes her frown, but the reduction in intelligence is promising. Good, it¡¯s half the expected reduction. Hopefully the others won¡¯t feel it now. She shrinks the bubble of mana as small as possible, moving the Mensacus to one hand and swimming back towards her groupmates. Emily arrives at the shore and pulls herself onto drynd again as Ivor questions her. ¡°Did you find anything?¡± ¡°Yeah. There was a strange skull at the bottom of theke leaking ck mana. I destroyed it, so hopefully that will stop the groglers,¡± Emily lies. ¡°Well done,¡± Ivor signs as Oscar walks up behind him. ¡°We¡¯ve finished gathering everything valuable on this side, so we¡¯re going to move on,¡± he announces. ¡°I don¡¯t know about you, but I¡¯d rather not set up camp next to the mad writing on the wall.¡± Emily raises a brow at his difort. ¡°Fair point. What¡¯s the n from now on by the way?¡± she probes. ¡°I swear you¡¯ve asked me this already,¡± he responds with a smirk. ¡°We¡¯re going to set up camp here for the night and head back tomorrow.¡± ¡°Good. I can¡¯t believe you wanted to stay here for a week.¡± ¡°What do you mean? I never said that. Why would I want to stay here for a week,¡± Oscar says confusedly, ncing at the bodies surrounding theke. ¡°This ce gives me the creeps.¡± Huh. He doesn¡¯t seem to remember what he said under the curse¡¯s influence. Oscar turns and moves away, directing members of the group to head around theke to continue their harvest while Emily puts her shoes and robes back on, drying herself with a quick cast of cleanse. She uses one core to maintain the mana barrier around the Mensacus the whole time, slowly draining her mana. She joins the rest of the group, helping them gather resources while kicking every grogler corpse into theke to erase the gruesome disy. As she ces crystals into the storage bags, she takes out and pockets a w of ck iron. Eventually, the light fades from the cavern and they set up the sound barrier and their sleeping bags, settling down for the night. Emily sits alone in the dark using earthen detection to monitor the breathing of her groupmates. It¡¯s an hour before thest of them fall asleep. Finally. She stands up, walking away from the barrier and sitting down thirty metres away from the group, just to be safe. She ces the Mensacus down next to her. The moment her hand leaves the mana bubble, it bursts, releasing the fang¡¯s malevolent aura into the cavern. However, at the same time, she feels her strength return to normal, her mana flowing smoothly and unhindered. Interesting. She tests lowering her hand back down towards the cursed tooth, finding her intelligence reducing whenever she gets within a few inches of it. The debuff applies while I¡¯m close to it, not just when I¡¯m touching it. Noting the oddity, she takes out the ck iron. Casting burning hands, she heats the four inch long w in her palms and starts moulding it into shape, ttening it. She dismisses the spell and picks up the Mensacus, ces it in the centre of the t te, and recasts burning hands. Gently, she presses the metal closed around the tooth, melting it together and sealing the cursed object away. The moment thest gap is closed, the chill from the Mensacus reduces to a bearable irritant. The voice in her head vanishes, freeing her from the worst of the burden on her mind. With a nce at her attributes, Emily notes the partial sess. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (16), Dexterity 34 (35), Agility 26 (28), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (59) _____ It¡¯s not perfect, but it should hold until I get back and research proper seals. She happily drops the partially-sealed cursed tooth into a pouch on her belt and returns to her watch. Time slips by, and soon Ivor relieves Emily of her duty, so she copses on top of a sleeping bag to rest. As she lies still, about to enter meditation, a question creeps into her mind. Where did the Mensacuse from? Her eyes snap open, and she turns her head towards theke, sitting beyond her vision in the surrounding darkness. Where did that hole lead? She opens her system notifications again, reading over the cursed tooth¡¯s description. A shard of the abyss given form. The abyss? She looks back further through her notifications, at the quest she received upon arrival at The Crystal Waters. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [The Abyss: Everything Flows To] [Rank:] D [Description:] You¡¯ve reached the magical underbelly of The de, The Crystal Waters. Now discover where The Waters end. Requirements: -Find the destination of The Crystal Waters'' flow (Not Complete) Rewards: -Skill: Flow (passive) _____ Does that mean that hole leads where I need to go? It¡¯s too small for me to swim through. I¡¯ll have to try running deeper into the tunnels alone tomorrow. But if I can¡¯t reach it now, I know the Mensacus is rted to it somehow, so, maybe if I study it, I¡¯ll get some ideas about what this Abyss is in advance. Emily shuts her eyes and rxes, growing excited for the return to Chroni, and falling into steady meditation. Chapter 70 – Return to Sunlight Chapter 70 ¨C Return to Sunlight The night passes peacefully without a single attack, and the next morning they break camp early to start their trek back. Before they leave, Emily separates from the group without a word, leaving them behind as she sprints out of the cavern, following one of the paths downstream. She cuts her way through several groups of beasts as she gets further away from theke, but even as her stamina drops and she starts to feel fatigue setting in, after running for almost twenty-four hours straight, she still finds nothing but more winding tunnels and an endlessly flowing stream. Damn, I guess I¡¯ll have toe back again to finish my quest. I¡¯ll run my own expedition before I leave once I reach third circle. Sighing in disappointment, she resets time back to the morning by theke. Unaware of her journey further into the deeps without them, the group sets off, leaving an emptier cavern behind them, having collected most of the crystals and thrown all the bodies and heads into the water. The writing on the wall, they don¡¯t touch. They retrace their steps, heading upstream and back towards the surface with tension hanging over the group, fear of a repeat of thest horde of groglers present in everyone¡¯s minds. They run into a few fire-spitting bugs and iron-wed moles on the first day of their travel, filing into the well-lit tunnel from the dark side passageways. The fire-spitting bugs are eviscerated by Emily¡¯s flying lightning and a few well-ced water des. Their attacks harmlessly burst against the group¡¯s water barriers. The iron-wed moles once again prove fun for Emily, as she charges out from the rest of the group with flying lightning swinging and quickly dispatches them all. The rest of the first day marching along the water¡¯s edge is quiet. This pattern repeats as they get further from theke, with norge, coordinated attacks. A few dog-sized acidic centipedes show up on the second day, and Emily is forced to stop using flying lightning when the first one she cuts open melts the weapon. Instead, a few bolts and ming projectiles from Dante reap their lives. On the third day, they spot a patch of vothral weed, a small blue stalk imbued with strong water elemental mana, growing on the other side of theke. They cross the water to collect it, but several shimmering des of water shoot out from the depths below, shredding Dante and Mia to pieces. Emily resets once, and this time before letting anyone into the water, she shoots two bolts in, filling the water with electric mana and frying several piranhas, that float to the surface dead. They continue onwards, and it¡¯s not until they enter the dark, waterless tunnels connecting the surface and The Waters on the evening of the fifth day that they run into groglers again. When they reach the small junction room filled with luminis, a small group of ten groglers rushes them from the tunnels. They rip them to pieces with ease, and find no others nearby, assuaging the group¡¯s fears that they might signal another coordinated offensive heading their way. Afterwards, they settle down for the evening in the flower-lit room. As everybody sits to eat amongst the flowers, Emily chooses to sit alone by the entrance to the tunnel to the surface, silently staring out into the darkness ahead. ¡°You excited to head back?¡± Oscar asks, approaching from behind her, carrying food. ¡°Of course,¡± Emily responds with a grin as he sits beside her. ¡°I have new things to research and toys to make. Also, I miss Jules.¡± Her grin fades to a bittersweet smile. ¡°Haha, yes,¡± Oscarughs. ¡°It¡¯s nice to have something good to return to.¡± Emily raises a brow in surprise, before switching to a teasing grin. ¡°Who do you have to return to?¡± ¡°My family,¡± he says with cheer. ¡°This expedition will be a great achievement for us, thanks to you.¡± ¡°At least you know who it¡¯s thanks to,¡± she responds with a smirk. ¡°Seriously though,¡± Oscar says with a solemn gaze. ¡°Thank you for keeping my head on straight back there. I¡¯m not sure what came over me, but I was giving up way too fast. It¡¯s not a good mind-set for a leader. You¡¯re the main reason we¡¯ve made it this far at all, let alone with this few casualties. I know you won¡¯t really be getting a fair cut for how much effort you¡¯ve had to put in, but I¡¯d like to offer you my proper thanks.¡± Emily watches him in silent surprise. ¡°The normal procedure when a member of an expedition dies is to split their share: half to the family running the expedition, and half to be divided between the surviving members. I¡¯d like to give you half of my family¡¯s share.¡± ¡°Are you allowed to do that?¡± ¡°Yes. No one in my family will argue with me when we return.¡± Emily scoffs at his confidence, but thanks him with a grin. ¡°Thank you then. Always happy to have more funds and research material.¡± ¡°You deserve it for keeping us safe.¡± He rises, patting her on the shoulder, as he heads towards his sleeping bag. ¡°Let¡¯s hope we get back without more troubles.¡± *** The night passes and they continue through the dark tunnels away from The Waters. They run into a few bugs and moles, but Emily and Dante deal easily with them at the front of the group. They sleep again the next night, simply stopping and setting up camp on the path, fighting off a few bugs in the night. The next day they step out through the entrance to The Waters, rising through the crack in the earth to meet sunlight, finally pulling free from the clutches of the oppressive darkness. ¡°Finally!¡± Dante cheers, matching the sighs of relief emanating from the rest of the group as they step into the rain. ¡°It¡¯s certainly nice to see the sky again,¡± Oscar agrees, while pulling up his hood to cover his head. ¡°Let¡¯s set up here and have lunch before we continue. We¡¯ll have a long fight ahead of us once we leave the rtive safety of this clearing.¡± Everyone nods in agreement, remembering the many fights they had in thest days of their journey through the forest. They spread across the clearing, some sitting in the open, enjoying the cooling rain on their faces, and some leaning against trees, sheltering under the canopy¡¯s cover as they eat. Emily, Ivor, Dante, and Enzo settle at the edge of the fog wall, facing in the direction of their return. ¡°How did you two be friends?¡± Emily asks a question that has been on her mind for a while, ignoring the water trickling into her robes through the rips left behind by the wendigo. ¡°Our mums are close!¡± Dante says proudly, throwing his arm around Enzo¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Unfortunately, they are,¡± Enzo grumbles with a sigh. ¡°The Hibiscus march and Dianthus viscounty border each other and have friendly rtions. Our mothers were in The Covenant at the same time and are still close. They often meet up and they used to bring us along, so I was forced to put up with him from a young age.¡± ¡°Haha, you love me really!¡± Enzo rolls his eyes and refuses to respond, drawing chuckles from Emily and Dante. They eat in good spirits, enjoying the sunlight dripping through the canopy along with the rain. Soon, they finish eating and gather together in formation again, adopting the same formation as in the caves, except Ivor returns to the left nk, and Erin moves to cover the right. They step out through the fog wall, re-entering the dense mist of The de. A few hours into their march, they run into their first enemies since the tunnels. Emily spots six glowing orange figures darting through the trees towards them and quickly alerts the group. Before they even finish preparing barriers, an ocx leaps out of the foliage at Emily. She deftly sidesteps the attack, her left arm shing out and slicing the cat¡¯s head off with a machina-infused w. A wind barrier covers her as the second cat springs towards her and she knocks it aside with an elbow to the side of the head before finishing it with a heavy boot stomp, crushing its skull. Emily finishes summoning flying lightning as her foot falls, and the dart quickly whips between the four remaining beasts before they can attack, ending the assault. Weird. They were incredibly aggressive. She puts the thought to one side as they move on swiftly. However, within the next two hours, five more sets of beasts rush them. They move quickly, beelining for the group the moment they enter range, with four of the five arriving before the group manages to spot them with earthen detection. After the fifth group, Emily realises what is probably the cause. The Mensacus is still leaking some of its influence. I guess reducing it to only minus one intelligence wasn¡¯t enough to keep it from affecting the nearby beasts. That¡¯s gonna make this trip back a pain. They push onwards, the number of beast attacks slowly ramping up as they move away from The Water¡¯s entrance. Come nightfall, the rain lets off for a bit and they set up tents in a small crater, with banks of earth partially concealing them on all sides. Emily takes her food and settles on one of the banks, looking out into the forest. Her groupmates sleep soon after, and she¡¯s left alone in the faint light of the moon as it creeps through the canopy above. Twenty minutes into her watch, she spots movement outside the barrier and moves to meet them. Small, brown shards of rock fall down from above. Emily dodges them with ease, letting them drop past harmlessly while weaving hand signs to summon flying lightning. She whips the weapon into the darkness overhead, her precise attacks ripping through the howlers, aided by her spatial awareness and keen eyesight. As thest howler tries to flee, she sends flying lightning through its chest and turns back to the camp with a frown as its body drops to the floor. This is going to be annoying. I wish I could just sit in the trees and shoot them. Sparks go off in her mind, and she re-enters the sound barrier and approaches a tree hanging over the camp. She springs up the trunk, utilising the spikes left on one of her boots to help her, quickly approaching the top edge of the barrier. Stopping before she breaches it, she settles down on a branch, overlooking the crater, that is lit by a beam of moonlight. She perches with one leg crossed over the wide branch, and the other hanging down. Pulling out her revolver, she ces it on the leg in front of her and stares at it. If I shoot it within the barrier, the beasts outside will only hear the sound of the bullet flying through the air. It will be enough to scare them nearby, but it won¡¯t pull extras from far away. However, it will wake everyone inside the barrier. She unhooks one of the green teardrop earrings from her ear and hooks it onto the trigger guard of her revolver. Touching a finger to it, she carefully injects mana into the mana pathways of the gem, forcing the mana within to flow in reverse and activating the engraved spell. A small, shimmering barrier forms around the gun, barely perceptible to the naked eye. Emily raises the gun to point at the sky and rests her finger on the trigger. Please work. She squeezes, releasing the hammer to drive home and fire. A hissing pop sounds from the gun, audible but quiet enough to ignore, and a bullet flies out, leaving the barrier and getting lost in the clouds. Perfect! A satisfied smile spreads across Emily¡¯s face, and she disables the earring before reloading the revolver andying it down in herp to wait. Forty minutester, Emily spots a group of six fog cats, weaving towards the camp through the mist fifty metres out, and sits up, alert with an excited grin. Maintaining infra-sight, she carefully activates the earring in reverse again, then raises her gun towards the first cat. She takes a deep breath, lining up the barrel with the cat¡¯s skull. She charges the revolver with machina before slowly releasing her breath while squeezing the trigger. With a faint pop and a bright sh, a bullet flies into the trees, ripping through one of the feline stalkers. Without a moment''s hesitation, Emily moves on to the next target, taking another breath and releasing it with a squeeze. With another pop, a second cat falls. She lines up her third shot, the bullet ripping through another cat¡¯s throat. Her fourth shot misses as the target notices its dead packmates and jumps erratically, but the fifth puts it down. The moment the fifth shot leaves the barrel though, Emily¡¯s instincts re and she follows them. She flicks the gun to the side slightly and pulls the trigger without a thought. Her sixth bullet flies out, punching through the torsos of two cats jumping past each other, dropping them to the floor unmoving. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Skill learned: Basic Shooting (passive) [Basic Shooting (passive)] User knows how to use ranged weapons and firearms. -Grants +10% dexterity and agility when fighting with ranged weapons -Grants +10% familiarity with ranged weapons _____ A calming feeling of familiarity washes over her as she adjusts her grip on her revolver. Her slightly tensed wrist rxes, and she slides her finger out of the trigger guard to rest it on the side. She pops open the gun¡¯s cylinder, dropping the empty casings and quickly loading six new bullets. She moves the leg that is crossed over the branch, drawing her foot in and raising her knee to create afortable firing tform, and rests her gun against it while looking out into the forest with a smile. I was wondering if I¡¯d get a ranged version of my melee skill at some point. These earrings worked like a charm! All those shots and I didn¡¯t wake anyone. Maybe I¡¯ll work on a properly silent gun when I get back. It could be a useful method for assassinating a mage. I bet I could hit them with a silent bullet before they could put a barrier up, and with this, I don¡¯t need to waste as many wind crystals adding them to the bullet¡¯s propulsion mix every time. She silently deactivates the earring on the gun and watches her surroundings, waiting for more targets to wander into range. The night slowly ticks by, and she continues picking off approaching beasts from the trees. Half an hour before the end of her watch, she starts to run out of bullets. Fourteen shots left. I should probably save some for if I need them on the rest of the trip. One final test. She spots three pop frogs hopping closer, glowing a warm orange in her thermal sight despite being amphibians, and loads two bullets into the cylinder while standing up. Stepping forward, she drops from her high perch, deftly bouncing between a few branches as she falls near silently to the floor. She checks her stats as she rushes forward to meet the frogs outside the barrier. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (16), Dexterity 34 (36), Agility 26 (29), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (59) _____ She bursts through the trees, arriving a few metres in front of the frogs. She raises her revolver to point at one and watches her stats changing ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (16), Dexterity 34 (39), Agility 26 (32), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (59) _____ One muffled hiss and the first frog drops dead. She springs forward, turning the gun on another frog while extending her w into thest. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (18), Dexterity 34 (39), Agility 26 (34), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 (59) _____ She pulls the trigger as her de sinks into the frog¡¯s soft head, finishing the fight and letting her added strength flow out of her. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue as she wipes her de and turns back to the camp. ¡°The bonuses don¡¯t stack for the same stats but instead take the highest boost. Ah well, it was worth a shot.¡± Returning to the camp, she sits on the bank of the crater again and waits out the rest of her watch. Ites to an end without any more encounters, and she wakes Ivor and Matteo to watch together due to the number of encounters she¡¯s had. After briefly warning them, she settles down in a tent to meditate through what¡¯s left of the night as the rain starts to pour again. Chapter 71 – The Curse’s Influence Chapter 71 ¨C The Curse¡¯s Influence A few hourster, Emily gets up early to join Enzo and Dante for the end of their watch, helping them deal with the slowly increasing number of beast attacks as the sun rises. She stands up, pulling her battered w free from a razor-fanged wolf¡¯s head as she looks at the corpses surrounding her. Are theying from deeper in to attack us? I don¡¯t remember running into any razor-fangs on the way in. She moves between the corpses, severing heads to take back to camp for harvesting. Dante closes the distance from where he¡¯s been flinging spells and starts helping her, using a knife from his belt. ¡°There¡¯s going to be a lot of fights today, isn¡¯t there?¡± Dante asks as they gather the decapitated heads in their arms and start walking towards the barrier. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re gonna have our work cut out for us.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Dante grins and starts humming a happy tune. ¡°Psycho!¡± Emily chuckles, rolling her eyes at him but unable to hold back her own grin. I guess I¡¯m no better. I¡¯d rather fight the whole way back than have a boring trek. They cross the lip of the crater and are hit by a wall of sound as they enter the barrier. The sound of movement, loud conversations, andughter mix with the patter of rain, drowning out the sickening squelch of knives on fleshing from Cian and Callum. Emily and Dante approach the brothers, dropping their bounty into the boys¡¯ to-harvest pile. ¡°Thanks,¡± Cian chirps at them, holding out a bundle of meat tied together with string to Emily. ¡°We prepared some fresh meat for you!¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily says with a small smile as she takes the food. Cian visibly blushes as she does and, as they walk away, Dante turns to her with a teasing grin. ¡°Looks like you have an admirer.¡± Emily says nothing, fixing him with a deadpan stare until he can¡¯t hold back hisughter. They approach Enzo and Ivor, sitting on the bank of the crater and sit down with them. Emily separates the meat and hands half to Dante before casting burning hands and cooking two portions for herself and Ivor. They eat their breakfast quickly as the rest of the group breaks camp, finishing at the same time as the sound barrier falls. They leave their seats and join the group to continue their journey back. They spend two days fighting their way out of the rainforest, felling hundreds of attacking beasts. Their third day bes oddly peaceful halfway through the night, and they don¡¯t encounter any creatures until, at midday, they face an onught of different beasts attacking at once. Emily does her best to wipe them out quickly, but is hampered by the trees providing cover to her enemies. Then, after one too many mistakes, Oscar dies to a mudscrap, attacking from below, before Emily can end the fight. She resets, returning to the second day, and mindlessly relives the trek until night falls. As she¡¯s sitting on watch, staring out into the darkness, waiting for thest attack of the day, she starts questioning the horde. Why did so manye at once? I thought the Mensacus was just making them more aggressive, not coordinated like the groglers. She reaches down and touches the pouch holding the cursed tooth without a thought, and is surprised as she feels a frigid chill emanating from it. She opens the pouch and pulls the small ck iron lump out. It¡¯s stronger than when I initially sealed it. She frowns and turns the metallic mass in her hands, spotting a few microscopic holes leaking dark ck miasma. Is the curse eating through the metal? I need to check. She gets up from her watch point and moves back into the camp. Finding one of the spatial bags, she opens it up and reaches around inside for another ck iron w. Closing her hand around her prize, she closes the bag and puts it back before returning to the edge of the camp. Taking the ck iron w between her hands, Emily casts burning hands and slowly forms the w into another seal before cing it down on the floor in front of her. She takes out the sealed tooth again, and checks her stats while holding it. Thought so, it¡¯s back to reducing my intelligence by two. She casts burning hands and slowly traces the edge of the melted seal, revealing the Mensacus to the world again. Built up ck and red malevolent mana pours out of the metal the moment arge hole is made, and Emily pulls the tooth free. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Mental attack spell detected! Resisting¡­ -5 hp Resisting... Mental attack sessfully resisted! _____ She grits her teeth at the strength of corruption that hits her in a wave, but other than a slight aching in her cortex, it soon fades. Looking into the opened seal, the tooth still looks and feels the same, but the metal housing it is uneven, as if eaten from the inside. It¡¯s been corroding the seal. This corrupted mana is really strong to be able to destroy mana resistant metal like that. Instead of feeling discouraged, this result only fuels Emily¡¯s desire to analyse the tooth closer. I wonder what would happen if I exposed a normal mage to that corrupted mana... Pushing aside her dangerous thoughts for now, Emily ces the Mensacus into the new container and seals it with burning hands. She drops the sealed tooth and the half eaten metal into the same pouch forter, and looks up to see four figures creeping towards her through the fog. She rises and walks forward to meet them, casting flying lightning and feeling the familiar weight form around her arm as she does. With clean, practised motions, pulling on the influence of her dancing skill more than she¡¯d like to admit, Emily gracefully winds the weapon around the four unsuspecting fog cats, stunning them before pulling the wire taut and slicing them to pieces. Turning away from the bloody mess, she returns to her position at the edge of the camp, waiting for the morning toe. *** The next morning they once again encounter no beast attacks but, as they push through the shrubbery, cutting away at bushes and low hanging branches, a low rumbling starts in the distance. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Dante asks, ncing between Emily and Ivor. I guess the Mensacus has already spread its influence. Maybe I should try resealing it sooner. If I reset now I still can... But this fight was fun and we should be able to get through it without casualties if we just prepare a little. ¡°Sounds like a lot of beasts,¡± Emily says with a grin, her decision made as she turns to face Oscar behind her. ¡°Let¡¯s back up to the clearing we saw ten minutes ago.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± he agrees easily, trusting Emily¡¯s judgement and turning to instruct the rest of the group. ¡°Turn back and make for the clearing we just passed!¡± Everyone follows withoutint, havinge to respect Emily enough not to question her judgement. They quickly retrace their steps, moving away from the faint cries of angry beasts pursuing them. The rumbling grows louder, as their enemies gain ground despite their quick decision to retreat. By the time they reach the clearing, Emily¡¯s able to clearly make out hurried footsteps in the distance. ¡°Set up for horde defence!¡± she calls over the noise. ¡°Use individual barriers, if there are pop frogs we don¡¯t want to lose our only defences.¡± We don¡¯t need to repeat that mistake. The barrier mages all voice their acknowledgement before starting their chants. ¡°Enzo, focus on blocking mudscraps. Ivor, help him! Carriers, throw me any grenades left in your bags then ditch them and prepare to help.¡± Emily ignores everyone else preparing around her after giving out instructions, keeping her focus on the forest before her as she feels several unprimed grenades flying towards her from behind. With a few quick tendrils of machina, she grabs the explosives and pulls them to her bandolier where she clips them in ce. I should sell people weapons then use them myself more often. She activates infra-sight and watches the forest ahead for approaching foes. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t dump machina into the ones I sold Oscar or he¡¯ll realise I never made better grenades for myself. This will take a little more finesse. She takes one grenade in her hand as she waits, pouring a trickle of machina into it and stopping just before it starts crackling with electricity. A few secondster, silence falls over the group as they finish their preparations, several magic circles floating in the air around them, awaiting activation. Everyone listens with bated breath to the rapid footsteps and violent snarls growing closer. Emily spots several flickering orange forms approaching between the trees, both on the floor and in the canopy above. ¡°They¡¯re here! In the trees and on the ground!¡± she calls out before throwing her prepared grenade towards the biggest cluster of movement. Without hesitation, she tears another grenade from her bandolier, before the first has even detonated, and charges it with a bit of machina before sending it out as well. Her teammates spot the enemies and start unleashing their spells, bursts of colour filling the forest as explosions and pained screeches sound out deeper into the trees. Emily fast runs out of grenades and drops infra-sight to start charging up two bolts at once, pointing them at different angles to clear the forest before her. A razor-fanged wolf leaps from the bushes towards her throat as her spells finish, and she waits till its jaws are a few centimetres from her before releasing both her spells at once, watching two beams of sma rip through the wolf, along with the trees and beasts behind it, with glee. A thin, formless armour of wind forms around Emily as the crackling after effects of her spells fade. She turns her head, sporting a manic grin, and nods her thanks to Oscar while weaving together hand signs to summon flying lightning, dodging a rock projectile slung at her, and preparing another bolt with her second core. The treeline bursts with motion as rabid beasts surround them, bounding forwards through the shrubbery to attack. Emily shes flying lightning across the first attackers to step into the open, firing bolts past them to fry the forces building up behind them. Her armour deflects several shards of rock raining from above and, having now created a small pile of bodies that will slow down the ground beasts¡¯ advance, she casts infra-sight and starts flicking flying lightning into the rocky howlers above. While she¡¯s focused on shing and puncturing every flicker of heat above, an ocx springs over her temporary blockade, aiming for her throat. Before it can connect, it¡¯s smashed to the side by a heavy rock from Ivor. Emily ignores it, having felt Ivor¡¯s attacking in advance, and finishes driving a hole through the chest of thest howler in front of her. As the monkey falls to the ground dead, joining itsrades, she hears a loud screech high above. They¡¯re here! ¡°I¡¯ll deal with the sky, cover me!¡± she yells, looking up to see a small group ofrge, ck birds, that she recognises as sominal bombers, circling them while holding pop frogs between their talons. Trusting Ivor, Dante, and Oscar to cover the front, Emily reaches for her thigh, pulling her revolver out of its holster and raising it to the sky. Charging the gun with machina, she lines up a shot and squeezes the trigger. A bullet tears through the air, punching clean through a frog and the bird above. She adjusts her aim, taking another shot, but the birds notice theirrade¡¯s death and react poorly. They panic and start flying erratically. Two drop their payloads at the edge of the group, and Emily¡¯s shot misses its mark, ripping through a pop frog¡¯s leg, missing the bird still clutching it tight. ¡°Look out above!¡± she yells as the frogs fall. Luckily, the spark of machina in her bullet jolts the injured frog awake, temporarily breaking it free from the sedative being secreted from its carrier¡¯s talons. On instinct, the moment the frog regains some control, it registers danger and detonates. The explosion rips its captor to pieces and shreds the wings of the surrounding bombers, sending them all tumbling to the ground on top of the group. Shit! Multiple explosions go off around the group. Emily avoids the worst of it, but as she holsters her gun and nces at her group, her heart drops. Ivor is lying on the floor without a barrier, clutching his scorched and bleeding left leg. Mia is beside him, sitting up on the floor looking disoriented and confused, but otherwise unharmed, and a few metres from them is Fionn, lying unconscious, bleeding from the head. Blocking the advancing beasts nearby are Callum and Cian, shing away with swords but slowly bing overwhelmed. ¡°Damn it, they just had to hit the healer!¡± Emily growls in frustration. ¡°Take over the front for a sec.¡± Receiving a grunt of acknowledgement from Dante, she leaves the front line and makes a break for their injuredpanions. Whipping flying lighting at a few mudscraps closing in on Callum and sending a bolt through the beasts near Cian, Emily reaches for her belt and pulls off two vials of healing potion. She tosses one to Mia as she passes. ¡°Give Ivor this!¡± Her words seem to jolt Mia out of her confusion, as she catches the vial and frantically nods, scrambling over to the fallen mage. Emily keeps going, dropping into a slide as she reaches Fionn andes to a stop next to him. She grabs his head, opening his mouth quickly and dumping the potion in. The small split running down the back of his head leaks blood onto her hands, but she sees it starting to close over quickly under the influence of the potion. For good measure, she pulls out herst potion and pours it down his throat as well beforeying his head down and standing up. Fionn¡¯s eyes flutter open as Emily splits an approaching razor-fang in half with a violent whip of flying lightning, taking some of the burden from the Gavin brothers. Noticing he¡¯s awake, Emily turns to return to the front. ¡°Heal yourself and Ivor,¡± she calls over her shoulder to Fionn, receiving a silent thumbs up as he instantly starts chanting. After returning to the front, Emily continues cleaving through and scorching the approaching beasts, dealing with at least sixty per cent of their numbers herself as the battle slowly winds down. The outpouring of beasts from the trees reduces until only a few injured strays remain, only to be quickly ripped apart by metal or magic. With the fight over, everyone copses in exhaustion. Dante falls to the ground on his back beside Emily, so she sits down next to him, an ecstatic grin fixed on her face as she rides high on the thrill of battle. Dante looks up at her and chuckles. Emily notices his matching expression andughs before bumping his raised fist. ¡°Those were some great explosions,¡± she says as their fists part. ¡°Thanks, but I can¡¯t hold a candle to you. I never even thought to drop pop frogs on my own teammates!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t think to? Or didn¡¯t have the ability to try.¡± ¡°Ah! You got me!¡± They both break out inughter, enjoying themselves, unconcerned by the pools of blood and corpses surrounding them. Chapter 72 – Triumphant Return Chapter 72 ¨C Triumphant Return After resting for a few minutes to catch their breaths, the group starts preparing to move on. Callum and Cian harvest usable materials from their prey, assisted by Maeve, while the others take turns meditating to regain their mana and helping to strip corpses. Emily, though, watches their surroundings. She pulls out the sealed Mensacus to check it after a few minutes of observing the quiet trees. The seal still seems solid, the cursed object only leaking enough corruption to reduce her intelligence by one. She uses burning hands to open the ck iron lump anyway, just in case, and releases another flood of corrupted mana. Woah, that¡¯s a lot of build-up again. It did say it converts death, so I guess killing so many beasts near it caused that. She reseals it, hoping that it¡¯ll struggle to find enough fuel to weaken the metal again, given that most of the nearby beasts are already dead. An hour after the fight¡¯s end, they finish resting and harvesting their victims, deciding to leave some of the less valuable materials behind, having filled their spatial storages. They gather together once again to continue their march. The rest of the day passes quietly, with only a couple of small beast groups attacking them. The night is also calm, returning to the same still quiet it was on their way into The de. The next morning they set off into the noticeably thinner fog, getting closer to the edge of the unsettling forest. They run into a few beasts, but Emily and Dante deal with them easily before they trouble the rest of the group. However, an hour after they eat lunch, Enzo gs an oddity in his earthen detection scan. ¡°There¡¯s a small group of people ahead fighting some beasts,¡± he says with surprise, looking at Oscar. ¡°Really? Let¡¯s go check it out. Stay quiet and don¡¯t get spotted until I give the signal though.¡± He nods to Emily, so she quickly sets off a scan to locate the people before leading the group towards them. They creep forward, carefully stepping over dry branches and slipping around bushes to avoid making noise as they close the distance. Within a few minutes, Emily starts to hear the frantic sounds of battle, so she drops infra-sight to get a clear view of the fight. Standing in a small formation, with their backs pressed together, are five mages. In the centre of their formation is a sixth, lying on the floor and bleeding profusely from a deep gash across his chest. Surrounding them are ten mudscraps, held off by arrows of fire and des of wind. Three of the mages, a short man with messy brown hair, a tall woman with an ashen, dirt-speckledplexion, and a short woman with long matted ck hair, all cast attack spells frantically. They¡¯re panicking. Emily looks to the other two, a tall man with a nasty-looking scar running across his left cheek from his lips to his ear, and another tall man with a dirty blonde ponytail. The scarred man has his hands pressed to the floor, sweat dripping from his brow as he blocks the mudscraps¡¯ ground diving, and the blonde man maintains a thin barrier of water around them all. Emily turns her head to Oscar, expecting him to suggest helping them, but is surprised by his expression. His face is cold and indifferent as he watches the small group struggle and, when he notices Emily looking at him, he silently signals to retreat. Raising a brow, Emily looks back at the group, focusing on their crests. They bear two different designs: one has five wide, green petals surrounding dozens of small silver or bronze stamen-like petals; and the other has five pale blue petals spiralled around a silver or bronze star. Ah, I see. A knowing grin spreads across her face as she turns around and creeps away from the struggling mages. Good luck house Hellebore, ally of house Mandrago. The other members of their group follow Oscar¡¯s instructions without question, although a few with slight hesitation, leaving the suffering mages to their fates. They move quietly, apanied by the sounds of spell chants and tearing flesh, not speaking until the fight leaves their earthen detection radius. Once they¡¯re clear, Maeve breaks the silence. ¡°Why did we ignore them?¡± she asks quietly from the middle of the group, clearly unnerved by their actions. ¡°Didn¡¯t you see their crests?¡± Oscar asks in return. ¡°No.¡± Maeve and most of the group members behind Oscar shake their heads. ¡°I see. They were mages of house Hellebore and Periwinkle. The Salvia household has no friendship with those two households, so I saw no reason to help them.¡± A wave of understanding spreads over the group as almost everyone seems satisfied by his answer. Ivor nces uncertainly between Oscar and Emily, but seeing her say nothing, he holds back his curiosity. Quickly moving on from the distraction, the group continues walking through the outskirts of The de. They only run into a couple more beasts before nightfall, and calmly set up in a small clearing as the light above starts to fade. Sitting alone at the edge of the camp, enjoying the faint moonlight falling through the trees along with a light drizzle, Emily turns her head as Ivor approaches her carrying a hunk of meat. Handing her the food, he sits down next to her and asks the question he¡¯s been holding on to since earlier. ¡°Are you okay with ignoring those mages? Aren¡¯t you allies?¡± he signs with confusion. Emily scoffs at his question, reaching down and resting her hand on the pouch holding the Mandrago¡¯smunication crystal, which they¡¯ve still never contacted. ¡°I was never told to help the family¡¯s allies, and if I don¡¯t say anything, they won¡¯t know I ever could have,¡± Emily answers with a dismissive shrug. ¡°Okay.¡± Ivor nods, dropping the subject. ¡°We should be leaving The de tomorrow. Are you looking forward to getting back?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about you,¡± Emily says, stretching her arms behind her head. ¡°But I¡¯m looking forward to getting in a real shower again.¡± Ivor silently chuckles while nodding in agreement. They chat for a bit about their ns when they return to The Dome before Ivor stands up, patting Emily on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m going to head to sleep then. Good luck,¡± he signs, turning towards the tents. ¡°Sure. Sleep tight, don¡¯t let the mudscraps bite!¡± Emily says with a grin, receiving an exaggerated eye roll, that she can see through the back of his head, in return. She chuckles while turning back to gaze out into the forest. I wonder if Jules will really be second circle when we get back. A warm smile spreads across Emily¡¯s face at the thought, and the rest of her watch slowly creeps by, the next morninging far too slowly. *** The next day they break camp early, excitement and anticipation filling the group. Emily stands at the edge of the clearing, as everyone else finishes packing away tents, looking back into the depths of the magical forest. I do want to get back to my workshop, but I¡¯m gonna miss this mana density. She takes a deep breath, looking at the stats that increased during her meditationst night and enjoying the refreshing feeling of mana filling her lungs. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 12 (16), Dexterity 34 > 35 (36), Agility 26 > 27 (29), Vitality 13 (16), Intelligence 60 > 61 (60) _____ ¡°We¡¯re ready. Emily, help with the barrier please!¡± Oscar calls from the centre of the clearing. Tearing her attention away from the forest, she follows his request, gathering all of the barrier stakes and bringing them to him at the head of their formation. They set off into the trees, marching with light-hearted chatter as their caution slowly starts to slip. They don¡¯t meet any beasts through the morning, and as the sun sits high in the centre of the sky, Emily steps out of the treeline into the open ins beyond. It feels like a weight is lifted from her shoulders as she leaves the concentrated mana within The de, and her groupmates behind her all let out sighs of relief. ¡°Congrattions, everyone!¡± Oscar says, walking out ahead of the group and turning to address them with a wide smile. ¡°Well done on surviving an incredibly sessful expedition into The de!¡± Everyone cheers, and Emily smiles, joining in with the infectious atmosphere. After letting them celebrate for a bit, Oscar calls for calm again before continuing. ¡°I called for our transport this morning, they should be arriving soon. For now, let¡¯s settle down and eat some lunch.¡± They move further away from The de¡¯s border just in case, and sit down together with some more ocx meat. ¡°You know what else I¡¯m looking forward to?¡± Emily asks as she takes a bite from the tender flesh, practically tasting the mana infused into it. ¡°What?¡± Dante asks as all of her friends turn to look at her. ¡°Eating something other than cats again.¡± ¡°Haha, true,¡± Dante chuckles. ¡°I certainly won¡¯t miss this aspect of the trip,¡± Enzoments, looking down at the meat in his hands. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone will disagree with that one,¡± Oscar adds dryly. Emily gasps exaggeratedly with mock horror. ¡°You mean ocx isn¡¯t your favourite food? Given how much you made us eat, I was sure it was.¡± Everyoneughs, and Oscar cracks a grin, joining in with Emily¡¯s act. ¡°Damn, you realised? I guess the cat¡¯s out of the bag.¡± The group all groan at his pun. ¡°I just can¡¯t get enough cat meat. You know, we actually had enough rations left to never eat any, but I just couldn¡¯t resist!¡± Lunch passes enjoyably, and soon a motorcade rolls into view. Emily notes the reduced number of carsing to collect them, clearly already informed about their missing members. As everyone else notices too, the jovial atmosphere fades. Realising this, Oscar chooses to address the deaths of theirpanions. ¡°While this trip was a resounding sess, we can¡¯t forget the sacrifices made along the way. In a few days, the Salvia family will be hosting a proper wake to show respect to our fallenrades. Attendance isn¡¯t mandatory, but I¡¯m sure it would mean a lot to the families of those lost if you all chose toe. Now,¡± he says with a p, moving on from the depressing topic. ¡°Let¡¯s get loaded into these cars and get back!¡± The cars soone to a halt before the group, the drivers stepping out and opening the doors to wee the mages aboard. Emily, Ivor, Enzo, and Dante once again climb into a car together for the return journey, mirroring their trip out. ¡°Wake me up when we get there please,¡± Enzo says to Emily and Ivor, purposefully not looking at Dante sitting next to him. ¡°Sure,¡± Emily nods with a smirk, watching Dante exaggeratedly feign offence. They sit in silence, and Emily watches The de slowly fade into the distance through the window as the motorcade trundles onwards. No one speaks in their car for the duration of the trip back, all lost in their thoughts or sleeping to pass the journey quickly. Soon, Emily¡¯s attention is drawn towards the metal behemoth rising up in the distance, Chroni. The tall wall looks daunting from below as they quickly approach. When they reach the base of the wall, they stop and the car¡¯s engine is turned off at the entrance to the ess tunnel. Emily knocks Enzo and Dante¡¯s feet, waking them from their slumbers as she watches Oscar alight from the front car through the window. He approaches the guards blocking the entrance to the city, speaking to them for a few minutes. They fall silent, but Oscar doesn¡¯t move to re-enter his car. Did something go wrong? Emily starts shifting forward in her seat, preparing to leave if needed. A minuteter, a young-looking guard in loosely fitted body armour runs over. His clockwork rifle is swinging from a sling hanging loosely over his shoulder and, in his arms, he tightly sps a silver metal b with several green magic crystals embedded in the surface. He presents the b to Oscar, who ces his palm against it and injects mana. The glow of mana envelopes the b for a second before it fades and the guard nods at Oscar, saying something Emily can¡¯t hear. Oscar says something to them before turning and returning to his car. The cars all start their engines again and drive forward into the tunnel through the wall, the guards stepping out of the way to let them pass. They drive quickly through the fiery underbelly of the city wall, passing the burning coal fires powering the mechanical workings hidden within the metal monster surrounding them. The repetitive hiss of steam and the grinding of gears wees them back to the noise of the city. A small smile parts Emily¡¯s lips as she sits back and enjoys the mechanical hum. The cars leave the tunnel and continue deeper into the city, sooning to rest before the same elevator their journey started at. Everyone disembarks their transport, and Oscar gathers them all before the elevator doors. ¡°We¡¯re almost done, and then I¡¯ll release you all to finally get the rest you deserve. But first, we need to divide the loot!¡± Excited chatter breaks out among the group and Oscar has to hush them to continue speaking. ¡°It won¡¯t be long. We¡¯ll head to the Salvia estate and divvy it up there. Now, everyone make your way orderly into the elevator and let¡¯s make a good impression!¡± He turns and gestures towards the elevator as it opens on his cue. Emily frowns at his choice of words. Make a good impression? Are there people waiting for us in the station? Everyone files into the elevator, but Oscar reaches out and stops Emily before she enters with everyone else. ¡°You should wait next to me. Honestly, if it weren¡¯t for keeping my family¡¯s face, I¡¯d make you stand in front of me.¡± Emily groans as his words confirm her suspicion. ¡°Who¡¯s waiting for us up there?¡± she asks, unamused. ¡°Just a few allies,¡± Oscar responds with a smug grin. ¡°When I sent for transport, my family spread the word of our triumphant return. After all, we¡¯reing back from one of, if not the most sessful trips to The de in thest twenty years! It¡¯s only fair that we have a proper wee back.¡± ¡°Fair y,¡± Emily concedes as the elevator doors shut and they start rising. The group chatters excitedly behind them, but Emily waits in silence, staring at the closed doors ahead. Wait, did his family spread the word to their allies, or the entire Dome? If it¡¯s The Dome then maybe... Her thoughts are cut off as the doors slide open before her and a slow apuse greets their entrance. Emily and Oscar step out of the elevator, side by side, and as Emily nces around at the crowd, she sees a streak of hazel barrelling towards her out of the corner of her eye. Turning with a grin, she opens her arms wide as Juliana rams into her at full speed. She giggles while spinning Juliana around to kill her momentum, holding her tight. A few moments after they stop, Juliana releases her and pulls back, frantically looking her up and down, going slightly pale as she sees the tattered state of Emily¡¯s robes and the armour beneath. ¡°Are you okay, Emi?¡± she asks with concern. ¡°I¡¯m fine, Jules. I told you we¡¯de back safe,¡± Emily answers with a warm smile, pulling her back in for a kiss. Chapter 73 – Display of Pride Chapter 73 ¨C Disy of Pride As they separate again, Emily and Juliana¡¯s attention is drawn by an awkward cough next to them. They turn to see Tom and Hester staring at them. ¡°We didn¡¯t even get to say hi,¡± Tom says with a teasing grin thatsts until his sister clips him round the back of the head. ¡°Wee back, I hope the trip was fruitful,¡± Hester says with a smile as if nothing happened. Emily grins at their antics. ¡°It was great! We went deep into The Crystal Waters and I even got to fight a third circle beast.¡± Tom, Hester, and Juliana all look at her with eyes wide in shock. ¡°What do you mean you got to fight a third circle beast? You wanted to?¡± Juliana asks narrowing her eyes. ¡°In my defence,¡± Emily says, raising her hands catingly. ¡°I didn¡¯t go looking for it. It was already hunting us, I just killed it.¡± ¡°You killed it!?¡± all three of her friends cry, ncing to Ivor behind her for confirmation. After he nods with a proud smile, Juliana sighs and looks back to Emily. ¡°Fine, I guess I can¡¯t really me you if it was hunting you.¡± Emily goes to respond and is cut off by the loud screeching of brakes as a train rolls into the station. Everyone gravitates towards the tform¡¯s edge. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re leaving,¡± Emily calls over the noise, wrapping an arm around Juliana¡¯s waist and slowly following the crowd. They join everyone waiting at the train doors, before entering and finding an empty booth for the five of them. After they settle down and the train slides into motion, Juliana leans into Emily with a shy grin. ¡°I know it¡¯s not as impressive as killing a third circle beast, but... Notice anything different?¡± Emily looks at her slightly confusedly for a second before her eyes open wide in shock as she focuses on the unconcealed magical auras around her and picks out Juliana¡¯s. ¡°You reached second circle?!¡± Juliana nods proudly. ¡°Amazing, well done!¡± Emily says happily, pulling her in for a hug. Juliana giggles, snuggling into her chest and enjoying the praise. ¡°Congrattions,¡± Ivor signs once Juliana sits back up. They catch up with each other, chatting about the expedition and the lessons they missed, as the train races towards the noble district. When it stops, they follow the crowd out and through the winding gangway towards the Salvia estate. Arriving at the estate, the doors are wide open, lined by servants guiding the gathered mages into the main hall. They file into therge room, crowding around the stage as Oscar walks up onto it, gesturing for the expedition¡¯s members to join him. Emily and Ivor leave their friends for now, stepping up onto the raised stage. Emily stands beside Oscar, and Ivor joins the others in lining up behind them. Once everyone is in ce, Oscar raises his hand to ask for silence and the noise in the hall quickly dies down. ¡°First, I would like to say thank you for the warm wee back,¡± he starts with a wide smile, receiving a small apuse. ¡°I won¡¯t speak for too long. There will be plenty of chances to regale you with the details of our journey after letting you see our discoveries. But first, I would like to give proper thanks where it¡¯s due.¡± He turns to Emily and she groans internally, predicting where he¡¯s going. Can we not skip this? I just want to get paid so I can take a shower and sleep in a real bed. ¡°I speak on behalf of myself, my family, and I believe the rest of the expedition group.¡± He pauses and looks at the lined up mages behind him, receiving nods of confirmation from all. ¡°When I say that if it weren¡¯t for Emily here, all of us would be dead. Her calm headedness and ability to take charge and direct us to victory when the situation calls for it is admirable and we¡¯re truly grateful for what you¡¯ve done for us. Thank you!¡± He finishes by cing his fist on his heart and bowing his head to her: showing the highest respect a mage of The Covenant can give. All of the group behind them copy him, bowing in thanks to Emily, who looks at them calmly but unsure of what to say. The crowd before them give her a round of apuse, the most enthusiastic psing from Juliana, Tom, and Hester, then Oscar rises from his bow and saves her from having to say anything. ¡°Now, on to the fun bit!¡± Excited chatter fills the hall as Oscar gestures for the carriers to bring their bags forward. They ce the four spatial bags at his feet, as he taps his foot, sending a burst of mana into an inactive array on the floor. Thin lines of blue and green mana light the floor below them as a refreshing breeze rolls over the stage. What¡¯s that for? ¡°First, we will start with beast materials and corpses.¡± He turns away from the audience and quietly says to Cian, Callum, Fionn, and Maeve: ¡°Please leave the snake and monster corpse tillst and take out all materials.¡± They follow his instructions, flipping open the ps on their bags and pulling out wrapped up bundles of ocx skin holding tongues, pop frog galldders, razor-fanged wolf and rocky howler fangs, and more. Piling them all up inrge mounds of magical flesh. Oh, to stop the smell bothering his audience. Emily inwardly scoffs as the carriers finish creating a pile of over a thousand grogler eyes that sends waves of shocked gasps through the audience. They finish emptying their bags of beast materials and step back. Oscar shes a satisfied smile, giving the audience a few moments to properly appreciate their collection before nodding for the carriers to continue. Fionn approaches his bag, everybody¡¯s attention focusing on him as he reaches his arms in and pulls out the shadow boa¡¯s long, flickering ck body along with its head. Gasps and murmurs of intrigue spread through the room as he steps forward and hands the snake to Emily. ¡°This is a beast that started following us a few days into our expedition,¡± Oscar addresses the crowd, their mutterings quickly dying down to hear his exnation. ¡°We don¡¯t know much about it, and Emily here dealt with it before it could cause us problems, but we believe it to be a newly discovered species!¡± Excited chatter fills the room, and Emily notices several gazes filled with greed looking at her quarry. ¡°I think it¡¯s only fair that Emily should have the right to name this new beast. Please, do the honours,¡± he says to Emily, stepping aside to leave her alone in the crowd¡¯s focus. The system already named it though. Has it been discovered before, or did the system choose? Maybe it¡¯s well known somewhere else in the gxy, I may as well use the same name. ¡°Shadow Boa,¡± she deres, holding up the corpse for all to see clearly. After a round of apuse, she lowers the corpse and Oscar approaches centre stage again. ¡°And finally, the ultimate prize of our expedition. A never-seen-before monster that dwells in the depths of The de in The Crystal Waters beneath.¡± He gestures for Callum and Cian to bring the wendigo corpse out. The audience¡¯s anticipation is palpable as the brothers reach into a bag together and slowly pull out a ckened humanoid corpse. They pull it out by the feet, revealing the scorched and mangled flesh of its legs first. Disgusted chatter floods the room as the wendigo¡¯s torso is revealed, a grotesque mix of ckened skin, grey flesh, and spattered red blood. As the monster¡¯s head is finally pulled free of the bag, disying the flood of blood down its neck and twisted ps of roughly torn skin and muscle where its jaw should be, along with the violent hole ripped through its brain, the hall falls silent at the disyed brutality. Revelling in their shock, Oscar continues with a proud smile. ¡°This creature had the strength of a third circle mage and imed several members of our group, but after a great struggle we killed it. Once again, the greatest contributor was Emily, so I believe it best she names it as well.¡± This time, he simply turns slightly to look at her, not stepping aside at all. I guess he sees this one as more of a team effort. Emily scoffs internally before calmly stating the name of the monster. ¡°Wendigo.¡± The moment the words leave her mouth, intense apuse and excited chatter fills the hall. While the audience is distracted, Oscar gestures for a group of servants waiting at the side of the hall to collect the beast parts from the stage. ¡°My family¡¯s servants will count everything up precisely and value it, someone will find you tomorrow to discuss your payment properly,¡± Oscar quietly addresses the expedition group before ncing at Emily. ¡°I¡¯ve already informed my family of your extra cut and they agreed without resistance. Also, the shadow boa, as you so aptly named it,pletely belongs to you and Ivor, along with all credit for its discovery. I would advise you research it thoroughly and submit your findings to The Covenant for extra contribution, but it¡¯s up to you to decide if you want to.¡± Emily nods as he turns his attention back to the audience, a self-satisfied smile appearing on his face again. ¡°Quiet please!¡± Silence quickly descends over the audience at his words. ¡°Finally, we have herbs and magic crystals.¡± Without prompting, Cian, Callum, Fionn, and Maeve start pulling a collection of magical herbs from the bags. The herbs they gathered are pitiful inparison to the beast parts, only a few small piles of luminis, wyrmroot, vothral weed, eartworn, and a couple of other uninteresting finds. The audience quietly watches, unimpressed. However, their eyes light up with greed as the carriers start unloading magic crystals. They pile up water, light, earth, and even a few metal and ice crystals. They easily collected over three hundred crystals, ranging from lesser to even a few coveted greater crystals, from the wendigo¡¯sir, not including the cracked ones left in the bags for now, in case they burst. ¡°We gathered these¡­¡± Emily tunes out the rest of Oscar¡¯s speech about the crystals and herbs, waiting impatiently for his disy to end. Would hein if I just walked out? Luckily for Oscar, he finishes speaking before Emily can act on her impulsive thoughts. ¡°¡­once again thank all of you foring and supporting our endeavours. The wake will be held in three days, but for now I think all of us would appreciate sleeping in real beds again, so I shall end it here.¡± He lightly bows his head to the audience, as they give him one final apuse, then turns to the expedition group behind him. ¡°We¡¯re done now, right?¡± Emily asks before he can speak. ¡°Yes.¡± The moment he confirms, Emily moves, walking past and patting him on the shoulder. ¡°Cool, see you around.¡± She steps off the front of the stage and quickly slips through the audience, approaching her friends. Ivor, Dante, and Enzo all follow her off the stage, leaving Oscar awkwardly to dismiss the rest of the group. ¡°Let¡¯s head back, I can¡¯t wait to get some real sleep,¡± Emily says with an excited grin as she takes Juliana¡¯s hand and starts guiding her group out. *** They catch a train back to The Dome, stepping into the artificial, mana filled halls once again. Tom and Hester say goodnight at the transportation rooms, and Enzo and Dante bid them farewell once they arrive in the B-grade dorms. Emily and Juliana walk through the familiar hall to their rooms together in silence, enjoying each other¡¯spany. As they arrive in front of Juliana¡¯s room, they stop, and Juliana buries herself in Emily¡¯s arms again. Emily giggles, running a hand softly through the smaller girl¡¯s hair. ¡°You know, I do kind of want to sleep,¡± she says after a few minutes, when Juliana doesn¡¯t appear to make any move to separate. ¡°Can¡­ Can we stay like this for a bit longer?¡± Juliana asks in a small voice, not moving her face from where it¡¯s pressed against Emily¡¯s shoulder. Emily opens her mouth to respond but freezes when she feels Juliana shaking slightly. Each barely perceptible quiver drives a dagger into Emily¡¯s heart, and after a few seconds of intense internal debate, she relents and suggests something she¡¯d been avoiding. ¡°Hey, Jules?¡± she asks tentatively. ¡°Do you wanna stay with me tonight?¡± ¡°Can I?!¡± Juliana¡¯s head snaps up, holding Emily¡¯s gaze, her eyes sparkling with excitement, pulling on Emily¡¯s heart strings. ¡°Sure,¡± Emily says, raising her hand to stroke Juliana¡¯s cheek. ¡°Just give me some time to shower and get changed.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Juliana chirps with a smile, leaning in and kissing Emily before releasing her and happily skipping to her room. Emily sighs, ignoring her confused emotions and opening her door, slipping into the weing space beyond. Her room is just as she left it, an orderly mess with piles of metal offcuts, tools that aremonly used together arranged in small collections, and a few unfinished projects sitting on the workbench. A small smile forms on her face as she rxes a little in thefortably familiar ce. She takes a deep breath, enjoying theck of dust in the air, even after being uninhabited for a month. ¡°You just can¡¯t beat the smell of a workshop,¡± she mutters to herself, finally moving from the doorway. She walks over to her workbench, dropping the shadow boa corpse on top and pulling a small rolling seat out from underneath to sit on as she slowly extricates herself from her battered battle gear. With each piece she removes, she feels a little connection break and a fraction of her strength fade. She shivers slightly as she finishes taking off thest of the metal from her body. I¡¯ve gotten too used to wearing all of this. Now it feels weird to be so¡­ squishy. Looking away from her exposed skin, Emily stands up and carries her belt over to her desk. She opens the drawer with aplicated lock and drops the pouch containing the Mensacus into it. As it leaves her person and her intelligence returns to normal, she feels as if a small itch in the back of her mind, that she never even noticed, has vanished. I need to seal that properly tomorrow, I don¡¯t want my room bing cursed grounds. She pushes the drawer shut and takes a shower, emptying her mind as she enjoys the warm water pouring over her head. After finishing, Emily dries herself with a quick cast of cleanse and puts on a fresh shirt and underwear before copsing on her bed. She lies in the soft sheets for a few minutes until she hears Juliana¡¯s three beat knock at the door. She slips out of bed and lets Juliana in before returning and inviting her to join. Juliana crawls under the covers, snuggling in close and pressing her face into Emily¡¯s neck. Smiling, Emily wraps her arms around her and closes her eyes. They lie in silence for a few minutes, only hearing the sound of each other¡¯s breath until Juliana speaks. ¡°I was scared you know,¡± she whispers weakly. ¡°I didn¡¯t know if you¡¯d being back.¡± Juliana¡¯s arms tighten around Emily¡¯s waist as her words tighten around her heart, reigniting the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions she managed to suppress earlier. I¡¯m going to have to leave her at some point. She¡¯s too kind to be a fugitive with me after I¡¯ve killed the Mandragos. That¡¯s going to break her heart. I don¡¯t want to upset her. I really like her. Fuck, I shouldn¡¯t have let myself get close. The mounting urge to scream builds up, clogging the back of her throat, making breathing harder, and her heart starts to beat faster. Tears form in her eyes as a dizzying mix of love, anger, confusion, sadness, and dread swirls in her heart. Emily starts to notice a quiver in her fingers, and the air fills with static as the mana around them bends to mirror her distress. You¡¯ll scare her. The moment this realisation hits her, Emily floods her system with machina on instinct. The cold energy quells her emotions, bringing a sense of calm disconnect as her heart rxes back into a steady beat. She kisses the top of Juliana¡¯s head, then reaches up a steady hand and starts stroking her hair to reassure her, unable to give promises of security she can¡¯t keep. Juliana slowly rxes under Emily¡¯s touch, and her breath soon falls into a steady rhythm as sleep takes her. Emily soon follows, allowing both of her cores to rx and fall asleep together for the first time in a month, and releasing her machina¡¯s hold over her mind. Chapter 74 – No Rest for the Wicked Chapter 74 ¨C No Rest for the Wicked Emily groggily drags herself out of bed, slipping on a pair of trousers and leaving her room. She walks to the kitchen, grabbing a slice of bread from the counter before continuing through to the shop front. Stepping into the room filled with the familiar sound of ticking clocks, Emily frowns as an odd scratching starts at the back of her mind. Ignoring it, she shakes her head and looks to Herber, standing in the middle of the room and watching the door. ¡°Dad?¡± she calls questioningly, approaching him and tapping him on the shoulder. He tilts his head and she freezes as she meets his cold, lifeless eyes, their ssy hue setting off warning signs in her mind. She stumbles a step back as he turns, revealing the line of red drawn across his throat, gushing blood and slowly turning the floor around him into a pool of death. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Emi?¡± he asks with a twisted, gargled tone. She takes another step back, choking out a sob as Herber¡¯s expression slips into one of confusion. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Emi?¡± he repeats, taking a step forward. ¡°You did this.¡± A sharp spike of rock erupts from the ground, spearing Herber¡¯s front foot and holding it firm. ¡°You killed me,¡± he says, taking another step and once again having his foot pierced by a pointed stgmite. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she whispers quietly, retreating further and finding the wall suddenly pressed to her back. She reaches for the door handle but finds it missing. ncing over her shoulder, she finds a solid wall with no escape. ¡°What have you done?¡± Herber asks as he tries to step forward and falls to his knees when his feet won¡¯t move. Two more spikes of rock burst out of the ground, ripping through his legs. ¡°What have you done?¡± he repeats mindlessly, as iftching onto her weakness, leaning forward and reaching out to her as more rocks tear through his stomach and arms, pinning him in ce. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Emily sobs, sliding down the wall and drawing her legs into her chest, hugging them as his brutalised figure looms over her. ¡°What have you done!¡± Herber¡¯s mindless confusion morphs into a seething rage as blood pours from his wounds. The blood trickles down the spikes, joining the pool on the floor and slowly rising, filling the room. Emily cowers against the wall, trying not to listen to his hateful words while repeatedly apologising. The blood pool creeps up, surrounding Emily and holding her down as it rises. When the blood reaches her chin, Emily is forced to raise her head to try and breathe, meeting Herber¡¯s gaze as she does. The second their eyes meet, all of Herber¡¯s rage fades like a lie, being reced with a kind, loving smile. ¡°I love you,¡± he mouths as the blood swallows them both. *** Emily wakes with a jolt, cold sweat running down her back, her breathing quick and panicked. rity returns to her as she feels Juliana shift in her arms, pulling away and looking up at her with tired confusion. ¡°Emi?¡± she asks, a sleepy croak in her voice. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just a bad dream,¡± Emily says, more for herself than her girlfriend. Nodding in understanding, Juliana pulls Emily in, stroking her hair in reassurance. Emily rxes, pushing away the unpleasant dream and enjoying Juliana¡¯s attention. After a few minutes, she pulls away, sliding out from under the covers and checking The Clock on her bedside table. It reads 8 am, so Emily stands up and stretches before grabbing some clean clothes and hopping in the shower. By the time she returns, Juliana is sitting up in bed, rubbing the crust from her eyes. ¡°Morning,¡± she says with a yawn. ¡°Morning,¡± Emily replies with a smile, walking towards her workbench to equip the ws out of habit. Ah, I need to remake these. Maybe I should make them a projectile weapon as well, it worked well when it happened identally against the wendigo. Mentally creating a note for the ws¡¯ next iteration, she turns back to face Juliana who has climbed out of bed to approach her. ¡°I¡¯m gonna go shower and get dressed,¡± Juliana says, wrapping her arms around Emily¡¯s neck and leaning into her. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m not going to join you for meals today because I have some stuff I need to deal with from the expedition, but I¡¯ll see you in the evening.¡± ¡°You bettere see meter.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will,¡± Emily replies, leaning down and cing a kiss on Juliana¡¯s pouting lips. Leaving the room with Juliana, Emily heads towards the transportation room at the end of their hallway. She takes a quick dimensional jump to the library, letting her spatial awareness out fully as the transport circle activates, feeling a dizzying rush of information flood over her. It¡¯s tooplicated for me to understand still, but it doesn¡¯t hurt like time travel. Filing some notes on the experience into her spatial understanding folder, she finds an empty table and settles down. ¡°Ten B-grade, sealing spells and arrays,¡± she requests after activating the table, starting her research for the morning. Emily pores over several books, filling a folder with notes on different sealing methods and possibly useful runes. Come lunchtime, she shuts thest book on the table before her and drops it outside the barrier, letting it fly back to its ce in the stacks. ¡°That¡¯s enough for now. Now I need to study how the tooth reacts to different mana types,¡± she mutters to herself, stretching her arms over her head and standing up to return to her room. Emily returns quickly and takes the Mensacus out of the drawer. She opens the ck iron container she made, releasing the tooth¡¯s miasma into the room. I hope The Dome¡¯s rooms are well sealed enough for this not to affect anyone else. Emily ces the two empty shells of ck iron in a drawer forter study and leaves the cursed tooth alone in the centre of her desk. ¡°Right, let¡¯s start with themon elements,¡± she mutters to herself, cing her hands on either side of the Mensacus. She uses her second core to create an orb of unattributed mana around the experiment, then starts forming a strand of fire mana from her left hand, reaching into the protective dome. As the strand of glowing, white-speckled orange grows closer to the Mensacus, it meets resistance. A hazy ck and red mist of mana seeps from the fine cracks running along the tooth. It reaches up to the fire mana and begins a battle for dominance, fiercely tearing at the mana that tries to burn it away. After a few seconds, Emily dissipates the strand of fire mana, noting the Mensacus¡¯ reaction. Fire worked well against it, but not enough to overpower the corrupted mana without using arge quantity. Next, she does the same test with earth mana, finding it slightly resistant to the corrupted mana¡¯s decay, but unable to do any damage whatsoever. It¡¯s quickly beaten back and forced out of the protective bubble. As Emily is about to try water mana, she hears a knock on her door. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue in irritation, standing up to answer. Why couldn¡¯t he have sent someone when I was in the library instead of interrupting my experiments? Opening the door, she¡¯s slightly surprised when Oscar greets her instead of a servant. ¡°Hello, Emily. Are you free to talk about your payment?¡± he questions with a wide smile. Emily nces back at the cursed tooth on her desk. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have cursed objects lying around if I let him in. ¡°Sure, gimme a sec,¡± she replies, letting the door shut in his face and turning away before she calmly returns to her desk. She quickly presses the tooth back into its ck iron shell, sealing it inside again and dropping it into a drawer. She looks around at the other scattered projects on work surfaces as she returns to the door, deciding none of them necessitate hiding. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± she says as she opens the door again and steps aside. ¡°Come on in.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Oscar says amiably as he enters. ¡°I arrived unannounced.¡± He casts his gaze around her room in intrigue, taking in the mess of pipes and metal. ¡°I won¡¯t lie, it does feel odd to walk into a mechanic¡¯s workshop in the middle of The Dome,¡± he says with a smirk. Emily scoffs, walking past him and pulling out the wheeled stool for him to sit on before settling down in herfortable desk chair facing him. Oscar takes the offered seat withoutint, a wide smile never leaving his face. ¡°Right. To state it clearly, you will be receiving thirteen point six per cent of the expedition¡¯s loot.¡± Emily whistles at his words. ¡°Haha, yes. It is a sizeable share. If anything, I don¡¯t believe we¡¯re giving you enough. But, unfortunately, I can¡¯t push much more without upsetting the rest of the expedition or my family. However, if you would ever like any help from the Salvia family, simply give me the word and I will try my utmost to assist you. We¡¯re in your debt,¡± he says, lightly bowing his head. Or you¡¯ve realised I¡¯m far too valuable and want to keep me close. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll consider it, if I ever need help.¡± ¡°Good. Now, before I give you a point value, would you like any of the resources we gathered? Everyone is entitled to up to an eighteenth of the actual resources we gathered should you want any of them.¡± Emily considers her needs for a moment before replying, ¡°Could I have five counts of each beast material we gathered, other than those we only got a few of, I¡¯ll take whatever I can from those. Then five of eachmon lesser crystal we gathered along with as many ice, metal, and light as I¡¯m permitted?¡± ¡°Sure! In that case, I¡¯ll have those deliveredter today and I¡¯ll transfer the rest of your payment now.¡± He reaches for his crest, dramatically tapping it, releasing a small burst of wind, before stretching his hand out for Emily¡¯s. She obliges, taking her silver crest from within her robes and tapping it against his hand. She watches the number on the back of her crest soar up, increasing till ites to a halt reading ¡®1840¡¯. Emily can¡¯t help the satisfied grin that forms on her face as she reads the amount. Perfect, this is enough to start recreating interesting items from the market. ¡°If you would like the full breakdown of the harvests and how we valued them just let me know,¡± Oscar says, pulling her attention away from her crest. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll trust your word,¡± she responds with a smile. I don¡¯t care that much even if he did cheat me. I¡¯m not going to be using these points normally anyway. This will be plenty tost until I reach third circle. ¡°Wonderful! Now, would I be able to ce an order for...¡± After a quick discussion about selling him some more grenades, Emily waves Oscar out of the door and returns to her experiment, unsealing the Mensacus again. She next tests water and wind mana, finding both utterly useless against the corruption. Thest of themon elements she can utilise is light, which burns away some of the corruption like fire, but it gains less ground than fire did before it reaches a stalemate with the corrupted mana. Fire and light. I already know it can eat mana-resistant metal, so testing metal mana is pointless. Next, she tries lightning mana, finding almost the same result as light. ¡°Okay, so it deals poorly against light and heat. I should be able to make this work,¡± she mumbles to herself while reaching a strand of purple spatial mana towards the tooth. She watches with intrigue as the two seem to pass through each other, the corruption only burning the spatial mana a fraction of a second before it makes contact with the tooth. How interesting. I¡¯ll have to study spatial mana¡¯s interactions further. She notes that down forter before standing up and walking to the steam source in the corner. ¡°I should update you soon too,¡± she muses, running her hand along the smooth metal top of the primitive magical steam generator with intimate familiarity. A spark of machina spreads through the machine, igniting the magical array within and breathing life into her workshop with the hiss of steam. First, she takes a fresh chunk of ck iron from her materials collection, selecting a piece an inchrger than the Mensacus in all dimensions. She heats the metal in her hands with a quick cast of burning hands. I should make some better spells for manufacturing. I could definitely design some for better-targeted heating and shaping if I put in a little time. Brushing away the thought, she brings the glowing hot metal to one of herrge machines, passing it through two heavy-duty rollers and forming it into a sheet a few millimetres thick. Next, she pulls a sketch, detailing the Mensacus¡¯ exact dimensions, from her system notebook and oveys it with the metal. She moves the sheet between a few machines, cutting and pressing the metal until it forms a perfect shell to snugly fit the tooth. Letting the metal cool, she tests the tooth¡¯s fit, sliding it in through the open top. ¡°Perfect!¡± she says with satisfaction. Moving on, she brings up another virtual image of the tooth, this one showing the finework of cracks covering it. If I¡¯m right, the meeting points of these cracks should be focal points for the mana release of the curse. She probes the tooth with light mana, finding it to be a nice bnce between aggression and submission for her tests. She repeatedly pokes with a strand of light mana, noting points that give more or less resistance, quickly picking out the focal points with the strongest corrupted mana release. Thought so. It¡¯s just like working with a magic crystal. With her theory proven, she oveys the virtual image showing the strongest focal points onto the ck iron shell. She takes the shell to her drill press and carefully cuts ten fine, tapered holes through the metal. Once satisfied with the holes, she tests the tooth¡¯s fit again, making sure all of the focal points line up correctly before grabbing a chunk of white iron. She leaves the tooth in the shell, closing the top and sealing it shut before melting the white iron into a liquid form in a small crucible and pouring it over the ck iron. She uses metal-attributed mana to carefully guide the molten metal into the holes, filling thempletely and making solid contact with the tooth within. The glowing molten metal slowly spreads across the cold ck surface, seeping into every gap she left and sealing the tooth in. She lets the metal cool, holding it in ce with mana until it turns solid enough to keep its form, before carefully applying water and ice mana to quickly finish it without weakening the material. After a few minutes of careful work, she sits back and stares at the glistening white ovoid before her, feeling the malevolent mana leaking from it with a satisfied grin. ¡°Done. Now onto the sealing array!¡± Chapter 75 – Research Chapter 75 ¨C Research Late in the evening, Emily drops her head on the desk, growling in frustration. ¡°Wrong again,¡± she whines into the hard wood. Her attempts so far to create a sealing array have provenpletely fruitless. Having begun by testing with a fire crystal and two attributed streams of her own mana to figure out the bnce of light, fire, and lightning needed to best restrain the baleful aura of the tooth, she used the result to try to weave together a tri-element seal. However, the first twenty-fivebinations all failed, even though they each required over twenty minutes of painstakingly carving tiny, intricate runes and geometric shapes onto a test te of white iron. ¡°You know what they say, twenty-sixth time''s the charm,¡± Emily grumbles as she sits up, staring at the test te, covered in faintly glowing lines filled with crystal dust. She frowns as she pulses mana through the te, forcing the crystal dust to dislodge so she can brush it off. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue. ¡°I already need to use The Clock and it¡¯s only my first day back,¡± she mutters, frustrated at the materials she¡¯s wasted with her experiments. Shaking her head, she starts injecting metal mana into the white iron, forcibly pushing mass back into the empty space created by the engravings. The small te of metal soon returns to being a nk te, so Emily picks up her engraving tool again, pressing the pointed tip into the metal. She pours a steady stream of unattributed mana into the tool and starts the slow process of drawing another array. Her steady hand flows through the motions, changing the nk metal te into a miniature work of art. After she¡¯s happy with the engraving, Emily ces down her tool and reaches for three ramekins filled with fire, light, and lightning crystal dust. Carefully, she sprinkles the dust into the channels on the metal, filling certain runes with certain elements, mixing the powders at some points and keeping them separated at others. Thest particles of crystal dust fall into ce,pleting the test piece and releasing a small pulse of warm mana. Pushing aside the containers of dust, Emily takes a deep breath to calm her expectations and lifts the ovoid of metal and tooth above the te. ¡°The moment of truth,¡± she mutters as she ces it down in a prepared groove at the centre of the array. The moment the two white iron surfaces make contact, the ck and red mana leaking from the Mensacus is pulled downwards into the array and small streams of multicoloured mana reach up. The warm glow of fire meets the miasma first, biting at it and forcing it to halt its advance. The bright wave of light behind draws in the miasma, pulling some of it past the fire¡¯s line of defence and smothering it. Then, the cold crackle of lightning assaults the miasma, ripping it apart and mixing with it, pulling it helplessly into the array. ¡°Yes!¡± Emily cheers with delight when she sees the corrupted mana sessfully blend into her design. Finally, it worked! Now I have a sealing array that fuels itself using the object it¡¯s sealing! Grinning madly, she leans back in her chair, satisfied. After enjoying her achievement for a few minutes, Emily calms down and considers how to save resources. I need to reset to save all the crystals I wasted testing, but I don¡¯t really want to have to remake the metal shell for the seal. I¡¯ll wait till tomorrow before I reset then. I can use the rest of today to look at how the corrupted mana affected ck iron. She pushes the sealed Mensacus aside and pulls the chunks of decayed ck iron out of the drawer, preparing to study them. ¡°Ah.¡± She pauses. ¡°I should probably spend some time with Jules, or she¡¯ll be knocking on my door and I¡¯ll have to deal with a grumpy girlfriend for the rest of this loop.¡± *** The next day Emily resets with a notebook full of extra information on sealing arrays and corrupted mana. She returns to the moment the white iron shell around the Mensacus finishes cooling. ¡°Right, time to do this for real.¡± She grabs her engraving tool again, along with three empty ramekins and three mana crystals of different elements. She quickly destabilises and disintegrates all three before setting about the gruelling task of carving her array design onto the glistening white ovoid before her. She pulls up the design in her notes, pulling the shape and stretching it from a t ne to perfectly wrap the egg of metal, then starts tracing the lines with extreme precision. Slowly and carefully, she forms the dizzying matrix of angles and shapes into the metal, without making a single mistake, her steady hand never slipping and her focus unrelenting. After forty minutes of careful engraving, she pulls back and inspects the pattern onest time before giving a satisfied nod. Finally, she fills the engravings with crystal powders, bringing the seal to life and trapping the cursed tooth¡¯s influence. She smiles once the seal isplete, picking up the warm-to-the-touch metal egg and checking her stats. Her intelligence remains the same, signalling her sess. ¡°One cursed object dealt with!¡± she says proudly before a greedy grin slips onto her lips. ¡°Now, time to learn about spatial enchantments!¡± While looking in the library for sealing spells, Emily also checked for information on spatial storage items, seeing if she could make one for herself. However, she found none of the books in the B-grade section held any information on the runes and arrays needed to actually make spatial items. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Checking the time so she won¡¯t reset to beforepleting the seal again, Emily pulls her market token out of the desk drawer. Browsing through the options, she selects a few different types of storage items and ces orders for them, draining her points quickly. Her points fall below two hundred after buying five spatial items of varying prices, so she stands up and leaves her room, heading to the hub to collect them. The clerk that serves her gives her a look of confusion mixed with envy as she collects her purchases, and she soon settles back in her room to inspect the items. Rubbing her hands together in excitement, she ces the mostplicated storage item in the centre of the desk. It¡¯s a thick bracelet with a body made from a mix of ck and white iron, simr to Jenny¡¯s but far less artistic. Also, unlike Jenny¡¯s, it has four lesser space crystals embedded around it, allowing for arge space within. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Spatial Storage Bracelet] [Rank:] D [Description:] A bracelet containing a holder-locked pocket dimension. [Effect:] Allows the user to freely ess a seven-metre cubed pocket dimension. _____ ¡°Hmmm, it¡¯s the same rank as Oscar¡¯s temporary bags. I guess the size of storage space is what determines rank?¡± Emily mumbles, ncing at the other items on her desk and finding all of them only ranked E. ¡°Yeah, thought so.¡± Turning her focus back to the boringly named bracelet, she closes her eyes and probes it with her magical senses. She follows the mana flow from the crystals through the surrounding runes, observing the strange twisting of space and mana. However, as she inspects the spell, she starts feeling a burning pain in her cortex and her perception is forced back. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ User has taken damage from intense mental strain. -20 hp _____ A trickle of blood runs down her chin, which she quickly wipes while frowning at the bracelet. ¡°Damn, I was hoping that wouldn¡¯t happen,¡± she mutters with a sigh, pushing the bracelet aside. ¡°I hope these aren¡¯t all above second circle.¡± Emily tries the next storage item, a D rank holder-locked ring, and receives another bacsh. ¡°Ah, fuck!¡± She sps her head as a splitting pain runs through it and blood drips from her eyes. It takes ten minutes for the pain to fade, and she decides not to try another item without healing first. She moves away from her desk, settling down on her bed and meditating for a few hours, letting the flow of mana and machina slowly soothe her damaged cortex. Her health rises quickly, much faster than when recovering from physical injuries, and soon she returns to her desk to try again. Let¡¯s work from the bottom up instead. Emily grabs a small silken pouch with a glistening purple crystal attached at the drawstring, and threads stitched around it to form runes. Well that¡¯s an interesting alternative to engraving. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Small Storage Pouch] [Rank:] E [Description:] A drawstring pouch containing an expanded space. [Effect:] Holds a freely essible, one-metre cubed pocket dimension. _____ She focuses on her magical senses, falling into the inner workings of the twisted space within the bag. She receives no resistance from the item this time, andfortably falls into a trance of observation, tracing the weavings of the spell and filling her notes with fresh data and runes. After extracting every piece of useful information from the bag in a passive state, she starts observing it while passing items in and removing them, analysing the process in detail. It takes a full hour for Emily to be satisfied with her notes from the pouch and to toss it aside. Next, she tries the next lowest rank item, an E-rank holder-locked ne with one-metre squared of space. As she starts investigating it, she starts to feel pushback, although not as forceful as with the others, but she still can¡¯t fully analyse the spell¡¯s workings. She clicks her tongue in frustration, but still spends an hour trying to skirt around the bacsh. Emily¡¯s fascinated by the changes in rune form that binds the item to a single user. She extracts as much information, about the runes involved and the changes made to them, from the ne as possible. After finishing with it, she nces at thest item on her desk, a D ranked pouch. I think this is gonna hurt, but only one way to confirm. She closes her eyes and pushes her magical senses into the bag, but feels immediate, violent pushback. Instantly, she withdraws her senses, opening her eyes to a slight ache in her head, but only a few points of damage. ¡°Okay. So, anything D ranked and above is too advanced for me to analyse right now. At least I know I can pull out before receiving the full bacsh even on higher ranked scans. I just have to recognise the signs of it happening quickly,¡± she mutters to herself disappointedly. ¡°There go my ns for making expensive spatial items. I guess I¡¯ll have to move on to spells sooner than expected.¡± Emily¡¯s disappointment doesn¡¯tst long, as the moment she thinks about collecting more free spells, she quickly bounces back. She spends the rest of the reset designing and testing spells for a spatial storage item. She activates The Clock again the next day, returning to a few seconds after finishing the Mensacus¡¯ seal. She leaves her room, making her way back to the hub. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± the clerk behind the counter asks as she approaches. ¡°How many first and second circle fire spells do you sell?¡± Emily asks back with an excited grin. *** The next morning, after finishing her business in frozen time, Emily joins her friends for breakfast. They eat as Emily tells them about the expedition in detail, and as they¡¯re all getting up to leave, Emily stops Ivor. ¡°Hey, big guy. Are you free to look at the shadow boa today?¡± she asks excitedly. ¡°Sure!¡± he signs back with a smile. ¡°Should I book ab for us to use for a few days?¡± ¡°Ah, you can do that?¡± Emily asks in surprise. ¡°Yeah. Thebs are open for private research for a small daily fee.¡± ¡°Oh, cool. Let me know how much it costs, and I¡¯ll pay half. Shall we go after lunch?¡± ¡°Sounds good. See youter,¡± Ivor signs before stepping into a transportation room. Emily waits for a few seconds before entering the empty room herself. I guess I can work on my creations for the morning then! Actually¡­ I should probably look at my ss schedule again and work out which lessons I still want to go to. ¡°Urgh,¡± she groans at the thought as she warps through space. *** Once again back at her desk, Emily pulls out her ss list token and injects some mana, opening the menu in her mind to browse. She navigates to the current ss tab and reviews her timetable. I think I¡¯ll skip today¡¯s magicbat. I want a little more time to process which of these new spells I actually want to integrate into my fighting. I¡¯m not too sure the ss will be very helpful for me from now on. I think sparring with Agnes would be a better way to spend my time. I should find a way to get her to give me a few hours a week again, then drop magicbat. She sits back, biting her thumb as she contemtes and taps the fingers of her other hand rhythmically on the desk. My next lesson with her is tomorrow, so I can try to talk to her then. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll want a spar after my return from The de to see if I¡¯ve improved, and I have a lot of new toys to try out. She smirks at the thought of her newly filled spellbook and navigates to the avable courses tab next. Let¡¯s see¡­ Artefact crafting sounds interesting: an intermediate or advanced ss that requires engraving, magic theory, and beast studies. It could be useful for messing with the Mensacus. I¡¯m signing up. She registers for the ss straight away and notes the next lesson will be in a week. Alright, next is arrays. I should probably go to at least one lesson to see if it''s different from my individual research, but I don¡¯t think it will be that helpful. Spell creation... Hmmm¡­ Yeah, that could be useful to see their method. The two sses are added to her list, and she closes out the course list, satisfied for now. ¡°Nothing else looks interesting,¡± she mutters to herself, turning around and staring at the damaged equipment on her workbench. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get some repairs done so I can be at my best for Agnes tomorrow!¡± Chapter 76 – Deals and Promises Chapter 76 ¨C Deals and Promises The next day, Emily heads to the training hall slightly early, hoping to run into Agnes before the ss starts. Luckily, Agnes is there when Emily walks in, doing some warm-up before sses. ¡°Emily! I hear you¡¯ve be stronger?¡± Agnes calls the moment she sees her enter, forcefully halting her heavy sword mid swing. Emily pauses for a second, confused by her words. ¡°What have you heard?¡± she questions. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know,¡± Agnes says with an excited grin. ¡°Just that you basically fought an expedition into The de alone, and used double casting while doing so.¡± Huh. I guess some information has spread from the expedition. She didn¡¯t say anything about my passive cultivation, so it seems Enzo didn¡¯t give me away. Emily¡¯s lips part into a matching grin as she drops her robes to the floor and starts warming up. ¡°You could say I¡¯ve learned a few tricks. Wanna test them out?¡± she taunts. ¡°Of course. You have five minutes.¡± Emily takes five minutes to get her joints loosened, an action she does more out of habit than necessity. She found during the expedition that she never had issues bursting into high octanebat from apletely rxed state, but she still follows the habitual motions ingrained from months of sparring in lessons. As her five minutese to an end, Emily faces Agnes, waiting for the tall woman to spring into action the moment her time¡¯s up. Agnes doesn¡¯t disappoint, drawing her oversized greatsword and levelling it at Emily. She quickly approaches before driving her foot into the floor, a glowing brown magic circle appearing at her feet. Her sword falls towards Emily with oppressive force. Emily predicts her attack, lowering herself and springing sideways to avoid the de, knowing better than to try blocking it. The sword ms into the ground with a thunderous impact, leaving a small crater where Emily just stood. Emily smirks as a green magic circle appears at her own feet, conjuring a swirling gale around her legs. She bursts forwards, thrusting a w towards Agnes¡¯ right shoulder. Agnes manages to get the hilt of her sword between Emily¡¯s fast extending hidden-de a fraction of a second before it bites her, knocking it aside. She leaps back a few steps, appraising the spell on Emily¡¯s legs. ¡°Speed enhancement. How interesting.¡± She spins her sword in her hands, taking the hilt in both and driving the de into the ground. Unwilling to give her time to prepare, Emily speeds forward, quickly closing the gap between them. As her de approaches Agnes again, she suddenly feels heavy weight pushing down on her shoulders, slowing her approach back to normal. Agnes pulls her sword out of the new magic circle on the floor and shes it wide at Emily. She¡¯s forced to back off, abandoning her stab to escape the wide swipe. She quickly chooses another spell and starts weaving her hands together in aplicated twisting pattern while sidestepping another vertical sh. A blistering sword of fire appears from a bright orange and white magic circle, and Emily grabs the handle instantly. I hope she¡¯s only using a practice sword. As Agnes¡¯ sword approaches again, Emily raises the ming sword to sh with it. The swords collide, the metal one sliding through the fire and meeting only a little resistance. Agnes frowns at theck of impact, watching Emily herself sliding under the sh. She draws back, confused by Emily¡¯s new spell until she nces at her sword. She sees the orange me clinging to it still, eating away at the metal until the edge starts to lose shape. ¡°Ha,¡± Agnesughs, tossing her sword aside and raising her fists. ¡°Nice spell. What else have you got?¡± Emily follows her lead, retracting the ws and cancelling her ming de. Agnes cancels the spell increasing Emily¡¯s weight, a dark silver circle forming behind her, pouring out a silver light that wraps her closely. Emily flies forward, weaving more hand signs and forming a crackling blue magic circle around her fists. She drops low as she approaches, sliding closely under a punch from Agnes and driving her fist into her stomach. However, the oue is not what she expects Emily¡¯s spell, lightning punch, an uninspiringly named second circle spell she bought, crackles across Agnes¡¯ skin, failing to disable her. Agnes takes a single step back from the impact and closes her arm around Emily¡¯s, trapping her in a close-quarters engagement and destroying her speed advantage. Emily drops her speed enhancing spell, wind rush, and quickly casts rock body, an earth spell for increasing sturdiness. Her body is enveloped in a brown glow as Agnes¡¯ free fist drives into her side. Emily lets out a grunt and lifts both her feet, wrapping them around Agnes¡¯ throat and pulling her to the ground. She tries to constrict her legs around Agnes¡¯ windpipe, but finds her neck as hard as steel. Shit, it¡¯s a metal version of rock body. Let¡¯s see if my fire works on it. Emily ignores another fistnding against her liver like a steel hammer, sending shooting pain through her enhanced body. She silent casts burning hands, quickly lighting her hands up in a ze. Agnes flinches as Emily¡¯s ming palms press into her skin, burning through her enhancement. She taps Emily¡¯s side, calling for a break. Emily relents, releasing her grip around Agnes¡¯ throat and backing off to stand up. She offers a hand to Agnes, who happily takes it and pulls herself up before patting Emily on the shoulder. ¡°Good spar! You have too many different spells. It¡¯s getting hard to beat you without using my third circle spells.¡± Emily smiles at thepliment, before freezing as an idea urs to her. ¡°Why don¡¯t you use any speed enhancing spells?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± Agnes responds with a shrug. ¡°Unlike you, I can only use two elements. I¡¯ve looked into clothes and items with speed enhancements, and I use them when I¡¯m taking a fight seriously, but they aren¡¯t that strong, and no one here does good speed Tattoo engravings.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Emily says, scratching her chin exaggeratedly. ¡°What is it?¡± Agnes asks with a sigh. ¡°Nothing. I was just thinking. Your metal enhancement spell made you resistant to lightning, right?¡± ¡°Yeah. It makes it harder for lightning mages like you to fry me.¡± ¡°Then couldn¡¯t you get lightning tattoos so strong they¡¯d usually harm you, if you aren¡¯t a lightning mage, and use that spell to protect yourself?¡± Emily asks. ¡°Ha, if I could, I would. The only lightning mages I know in here at the moment are you and Jenny. You¡¯re only second circle, and I asked Jenny about it, but she¡¯s no good at engraving. Doesn¡¯t have a steady enough hand.¡± Emily smiles widely at her answer. ¡°Why don¡¯t I give you tattoos when I reach third circle?¡± Agnes scoffs at her and raises an eyebrow. ¡°You that confident you¡¯ll reach third circle?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Emily says with a nod. ¡°I reached second circle in three months, and I¡¯m confident I can reach third in a couple of years, and I¡¯ve already looked into tattoo engraving! Also, I have a very steady hand, as I¡¯m sure you can tell from my creations. I just haven¡¯t done any on myself because I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll stay second circle for long enough to make it worth the pain I¡¯ll go through when removing them.¡± Agnes hears her out and can¡¯t help but nod thoughtfully by the end. ¡°Sure, if you reach third circle I¡¯ll happily pay you for some tattoos then.¡± ¡°How about we make a different deal?¡± Emily asks with an innocent smile. ¡°What do you want?¡± Agnes asks, narrowing her eyes and not believing Emily¡¯s smile for a second. ¡°Nothing much. Just set aside some time every week to spar with me, and when I reach third circle, I¡¯ll only charge you for the materials to do the tattoo.¡± Agnesughs at her offer, suspicion vanishing from her gaze. ¡°Sure, I¡¯m happy to spar with you. I¡¯ll set a three year limit on it though. If you don¡¯t reach third circle within three years, I¡¯ll stop setting aside time for you,¡± she says, offering her hand. What¡¯s with people telling me to reach third circle within three years? Emily grasps her hand and shakes it. ¡°Deal.¡± *** A few dayster, Emily and Ivor have an alchemy lesson, which sparks an idea in Emily¡¯s mind about their current analysis of the shadow boa. I need to create a new potion toplete Alchemical Aspirations. The shadow boa is a creature never seen before on this. Surely if I make a potion using it, it will be a new recipe. She spends the rest of the lesson ignoring Mrs Myrtle¡¯s lecture and filling her notes with ideas and calctions to form new potions. After the lesson hase to an end, Ivor starts to make his way towards theb that they¡¯ve paid for together, a small room with all the utilities they need for potion preparations, just down the corridor from the lessonbs, but Emily parts ways with him to grab materials. She rushes back to her room, an excited skip in her step, and collects all the beast materials from the expedition into a small spatial storage item she¡¯s made. It¡¯s a simple drawstring pouch with a unique spatial array woven into the fabric, allowing only Emily to open it. It isn¡¯t quite the same as summoning the items to her hand, but she has to be satisfied for now since she couldn¡¯t glean the full workings of holder-locked storage. Emily smiles warmly at the woven runespleted after Juliana¡¯s tutge. It had been a fun evening learning to wind thread through the fabric in secure, visually pleasing patterns. It only took a little instruction for her dexterous fingers to take over and dance a nimble rhythm of creation. I think I can see why you like sewing, Anna. She next grabs her market token and opens to browse the beast materials section. She scrolls through, searching for a few materials she theorised have highpatibility with the shadow boa and winces at the prices. Seventy points for a single dawn moth wing? Fifty for amerax livers? Ouch. No wonder it takes normal alchemists so long to work out a single recipe. She buys up as many materials as her points will allow before heading for the hub to collect them. Finally, she joins Ivor in theb, her spatial pouch heavy with materials. ¡°Hey,¡± she calls as she steps in. ¡°I¡¯m gonna try creating a new recipe from the snake.¡± Ivor looks at her with surprise, before ncing at the harvested jars of bones, flesh, and organs in the centre of their workstation with concern. ¡°Are you sure we have enough materials on this corpse to seed? There¡¯s a high chance we waste all of it,¡± he signs at her, a serious expression on his face. Emily smiles at his caution. He¡¯s less timid when alchemy is involved. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m confident we¡¯ll seed,¡± she reassures him with a confident smirk. ¡°Besides. Even if we don¡¯t, we¡¯ll gather a lot of useful data from the failed experiments.¡± Ivor relents under her reasoning and agrees to help her. She unloads her storage pouch across an empty work surface in the smallb and Ivor starts in surprise. Emily simply begins dividing them into different collections for different recipe attempts, mixing elements, creatures, and nts in different quantities. She assigns some of the collections to Ivor to prepare while taking over the rest, cutting, pulverising, and powdering magic crystals to add to the mix. Various containers quickly fill the surfaces of the room, and by the end of the day, they have almost everything they can prepared in advance. Ignoring thete hour, they both continue into the next day with their first experiment. They stand on either side of a cauldron, several measuring instrumentsid out within arm¡¯s reach for keeping track of the material within once the lid is closed. Emily starts by pouring in a jug of water and bringing it to a boil. The moment the calm of the water¡¯s surface is shattered, she adds in a few drops of the snake¡¯s venom and a small measure of nymph¡¯s blood. Ivor quickly closes the lid, and Emily raises a small handheld magical instrument for detecting unstable mana fluctuations close to the cauldron. The golden crystal at the end of the instrument stays silent for forty seconds before sparking to life. At forty-two seconds, the cauldron starts to shake and the glow from the instrument bes blinding. Half a secondter, the cauldron spews dark, foul-smelling gas from the top, and Emily ces down the scanning instrument. ¡°Add catalyst between forty and forty-two seconds,¡± Emily states clearly for Ivor, making a note for herself in her system notebook. They wait for the unpleasant gas to dissipate before pouring out the cauldron and starting again. This time, exactly forty-one seconds after adding the venom and blood to the mix, Ivor lifts the lid and Emily tosses in two untouched dawn moth wings and a sprinkling of light crystal powder. They shut the lid again, and Emily ces her hands on top of the cauldron, sending two strands of mana down into the mixture and slowly stirring it. She starts to sense impurities forming as the reaction within kicks into motion, but they spread so quickly that she doesn¡¯t have time to eliminate more than a few before the concoction fails. A burst of foul mana spews from the lid again, marking another failure. ¡°The reaction failed too fast. We need a stronger light to counteract the vtility of the venom.¡± Failure after failure, they work through the day, tirelessly working towards a goal that feels hopeless the more their stocks of shadow boa parts dwindle. As they approach twenty four hours from the end of their alchemy lesson, they run out of materials. ¡°At least we got some data,¡± Ivor signs, his shoulders slumping in exhaustion and disappointment. ¡°If only we had enough to keep going for a few more days. Some of those looked promising.¡± Emily nods, reviewing their results with a calm smile. ¡°You¡¯re right. We should seed soon.¡± She activates The Clock, so they can try again. Chapter 77 – Toil and Trouble Chapter 77 ¨C Toil and Trouble Emily pours two hundred and fifty millilitres of water into the empty cauldron before her. She sprinkles in a touch each of powdered light and wind crystals, turning the water a sparkling pale, lime hue. The fire beneath the cauldron quickly brings the water to a boil, and Emily drops in five strips of shadow boa flesh, fifteen fine, ck scales, and two stalks of pulverised luminis. Ivor stirs the mix as she deposits materials and, the moment she finishes, they shut the lid again. Exactly three minutester, they crack it open and add in a few pieces of pop frog galldder and a drop of the snake¡¯s venom. The moment the ck venom hits the surface, Ivor drops the lid back into ce and Emily lowers two tendrils of mana into the potion. She uses one to stir it, fullybining everything as it all starts melding together in a violent magical reaction, and the other to disburse pockets of impurities building, allowing them to be devoured by the violent fire mana incorporated into the mix. The reaction continues until, after exactly four painstaking minutes and twenty-three seconds, Emily removes her magical senses from the mixture and opens the lid. Ivor tosses in a whole ocx tongue, and Emily quickly drops the lid back into ce. They wait with bated breaths for a few seconds, both holding high expectations for this attempt. They feel the roiling mana within the cauldron calm, and Emily receives a system notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Questpleted: Alchemical Aspirations [Alchemical Aspirations] [Rank:] D [Description:] You¡¯ve joined the world of alchemy by following a known recipe. Now be a true alchemist and create your own! Requirements: -Create and sessfully brew a new unique potion (Complete) Rewards: -Mechanic Knowledge: Chemistry _____ A new flood of information fills her mind. Woah. This seems helpful for refining my alchemical method. I can definitely weaponise this knowledge too. She sets her second core to exploring every corner of the new knowledge for future use and keeps her main focus on her achievement. They lift the cauldron off the heat, and Emily takes the lid in her hand. ¡°The big reveal,¡± she says with a grin, pulling it up sharply. A faint, shimmering ck mist rises from the cauldron, sliding down the edges and releasing a cool, weing scent. Emily looks past the mist into the centre of the cauldron at the swirling liquid, a shimmering mix of ck and grey that ys tricks on her eyes. She pulls on the system for the information about herpleted potion. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Brew of Faint Presence] [Rank:] E [Description:] A potion based on the stealth powers of the shadow boa. [Effect:] Upon consumption, reduces the presence of the consumer in the perception of others. _____ What a terrible name. Can¡¯t I rename it since I made it? She tries willing the name of the potion to change, and it shifts on the screen before her from ¡®Brew of Faint Presence¡¯ to ¡®Brew of Imperception¡¯. That¡¯s a bit better. She nods, turning her focus to its effect. How strong is the effect? Only one way to find out! She turns to Ivor, who is gaping at the potion with his mouth wide in shock. ¡°We really did it,¡± he signs in disbelief after making eye contact with her. ¡°Sure we did,¡± Emily says, knowing he won¡¯t get to enjoy the achievement for long. ¡°Want to see what it does?¡± He nods enthusiastically, so they prepare a set of vials and scoop the liquid out into them, leaving a shrivelled ck tongue in the bottom of the cauldron. Ivor grimaces at the grotesque sight. ¡°How did you even think to catalyse the reaction with the boa¡¯s own venom? I would have thought you¡¯d want such a vtile material as the base,¡± he signs curiously as Emily picks up one of the finished vials, swirling it before the light to admire the ethereal blend of colours. ¡°Just call it a spark of inspiration,¡± Emily responds with a wink. ¡°Besides, it wouldn¡¯t have worked if you hadn¡¯t worked out the right separating agent.¡± Not wasting any more time, Emily throws her head back, gulping down the contents of the vial without hesitation. The potion tastes strange: it barely has any vour, only a slight salty tang, but it makes Emily¡¯s tongue go numb. The magical concoction is almost instantly absorbed by her body, and a strange change takes ce. Emily feels a buzzing numbness spread across her skin in a wave, and looks down at her hands. She watches in fascination as the colour seems to flow from her skin, turning from a pale white, with bursts of colour around old scars and callouses, to a uniform dull grey. She grabs a handful of her messy brown hair, that now hangs in the middle of her shoulder des, and pulls it into her vision to check. It has also turned a strange greyish tone. Ivor starts looking around startled as she admires the potion¡¯s changes. ¡°I¡¯ve lost you!¡± he signs frantically, intriguing Emily. She reaches out and ces a hand on his shoulder, and his head instantlyes to a halt, making solid eye contact with her. ¡°What happened exactly? Exin it to me,¡± Emily says calmly. Ivor nods before tapping her hand to tell her to release it. The moment she does, Ivor¡¯s eyes shift, fixing on the space beside Emily. She watches carefully as the mage seems to put his thoughts together before signing an exnation. ¡°When you drank the potion, I watched you changing colour. The second you finished changing, I blinked, and you vanished. Then you touched me and I could see you again. When you aren¡¯t touching me, I can still feel your mana signature though, but it¡¯s suppressed. I would think you¡¯re a strong first circle mage at most from it.¡± Emily nods thoughtfully at his exnation, though Ivor can¡¯t see it. ¡°Can you hear me still?¡± she asks without touching him. He nods immediately, his eyes flitting towards her voice then drifting away once she¡¯s silent again. So it suppresses my presence. If I actively do something to increase it like make noise, and I suspect cast spells, it weakens the effect, with physical contact breaking itpletely. He seems to be looking away though, so maybe the spell is forcing him to keep me in his periphery and not register me as there? To test her theory, she steps in line with Ivor¡¯s eyes and watches as they naturally shift sideways to never look straight at her. Neat, this will be very useful for moving around unnoticed. Trying to stand in front of him a few more times, he doesn¡¯t notice at all, so Emily moves on to her next test. She casts infra-sight, keeping her eyes shut to avoid leaking their magical glow. ¡°Can you see me?¡± she questions, receiving a light tap on her shoulder in confirmation. She dismisses the spell, next channelling machina into the repaired ws hidden in her sleeves, stopping before injecting enough to cause sounds. This time, Ivor doesn¡¯t react. Interesting, so using a spell with no obvious visual effects breaks it, but not using machina. She pulls up a sleeve, revealing the weapon beneath, and increases the quantity of machina, turning the w into a crackling conduit of electricity. Following Emily¡¯s expectations, Ivor reacts, zeroing in on her position again. ¡°I think I have a solid grasp of how it works now. Can you drink one please so I can test it against some detection spells?¡± Emily asks while flooding her system with mana and machina, cleansing her of the potion¡¯s effects. Ivor nods and grabs a vial, pouring it into his mouth. Emily watches him lose colour and vanish. Even when looking for it, she barely notices her eyes shifting away from him. That feels weird. I know what I¡¯m doing, but I still can¡¯t stop myself. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d notice either if I wasn¡¯t looking for it. First, Emily casts infra-sight. As the shades of heat in the room reveal themselves to her, she tries to spot Ivor. Though she finds herself still unable to see him, Emily does notice small fluctuations of heat near where he¡¯s stood. ¡°Infra-sights a failure. I can see some disturbance, but not enough to know what it is unless I know what I¡¯m looking for,¡± she tells Ivor while dropping the spell. Next, she pulses earthen detection and asks him to move. Once again there are a few small fluctuations, but not enough to seem like a person. ¡°Good. Now finally light!¡± Emily releases a sparkling white orb of light, pumping mana into it and filling the room with light. This one does change something. Emily sees Ivor¡¯s shimmering outline appear. He¡¯s still hard to spot, but definitely recognisable as a person if you look straight at him. Okay, there are some limits, but this will be very useful, especially if no one knows about it. Sorry, Ivor, but I don¡¯t think I want anyone else to know about this potion. With her decision made, she reaches into a pocket in her robes and activates The Clock. *** Emily goes straight to theb with Ivor after ss, not collecting any materials this time. They instead spend the rest of the day doing a few final tests on the shadow boa¡¯s parts, confirming information Emily already knows before writing up their final report. They also write a copy of their report for Oscar, which they bundle up with a small sample of the snake¡¯s flesh. After finishing their study, they decide to split the corpse, with Emily then buying Ivor¡¯s portion off him for thirty points since he doesn¡¯t have a use for it. They both leave satisfied and, after dropping off the report at Oscar¡¯s dorm, Emily returns to her room. The next day, Emily has an Artefact Crafting lesson in the morning. The lesson is taught by Elias Hawthorne, and Emily finds the lecture on the importance of matching opposing elements to bnce artefacts interesting. However, it repeats some of the same points and theories she has already learnt from her reading in the library. I¡¯ll keep going for now, but I may end up dropping this ss if Mr Hawthorne doesn¡¯t give me anything more useful. Midway through the afternoon, at the same time as she finished making the brew of imperception the day before, Emily is sitting in the library reading about ritual spells when a system notification interrupts her focus. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Warning! Quest requirement for [Alchemical Aspirations] unmet in final timeline. Pleaseplete requirement: -Create and sessfully brew a new unique potion (Error) _____ Emily frowns at the strange notification. And pulls out The Clock to nce at the time. What¡¯s this? Error? I wonder if it¡¯s because I reset time, haven¡¯t brewed the potion in this timeline, and it¡¯s toote now to reset to before I got the reward. She bites her thumb, dropping her book and drumming her fingers on the table as she contemtes the notification. It doesn¡¯t say there will be any punishment if I don¡¯tplete it again. Can the system not take the reward it already gave away? Interesting! Let¡¯s leave it twenty-four hours and see what happens. I can always reset to now if something goes wrong. She dismisses the notification, continuing with her reading as time ticks by. A few hourster, Emily rises, stretching her arms behind her head and dropping thest books from her desk out of the barrier to be reimed by the magical stacks. ¡°Time for dinner,¡± she mutters as she steps out of the barrier. A few steps down the aisle between the shelves of books, someone wantonly tosses a book out of their barrier, and it catches Emily in the side of the head with its corner. Emily flinches, raising a hand to rub her temple in irritation. She ignores this and moves on, reaching the transportation rooms just behind a small collection of other mages. After a rare, short wait to enter an empty magic circle, Emily finds herself in the cafeteria. She nces around, quickly locating her friends and moving to join them. On the way, a full tray of food flying over her head shakes as it shifts to avoid a returning tray, dripping gravy onto Emily¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Eugh,¡± she groans, casting cleanse as she slips into the barrier around her friends¡¯ table. ¡°Did food just drop on you?¡± Tom asks incredulously. ¡°Apparently,¡± Emily grumbles, annoyed that such an umon mishap would happen to her. ¡°I didn¡¯t even think that was possible,¡± Hesterments. ¡°I¡¯ve just been hit in the head by a book in the library too,¡± Emily tells them, rolling her eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve what?¡± Tom asks, even more shocked. ¡°That definitely shouldn¡¯t happen.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been cursed,¡± Juliana says with a teasing smile. ¡°Who¡¯d you upset this time?¡± They allugh and Emily half-heartedly joins in, distracted by a forming idea. Is this rted to the system¡¯s warning? Am I going to be super unlucky till I brew the potion again. She scoffs at the thought, pushing it to the back of her mind to enjoy her meal with her friends. After eating, Emily and Juliana leave to spend the evening together. On the way out of the cafeteria, though, as they¡¯re walking arm in arm, one of Emily¡¯s boots engages out of nowhere. The mechanisms inside whir into motion, flicking the sharp spikes on the bottom to full extension suddenly, catching Emily off guard and causing her to trip. ¡°The hell,¡± Emily mutters with a frown, ring down at her feet. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Juliana asks, steadying Emily to help her stay upright. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡± She uses a spark of machina in an effort to retract the spikes, opting to extend the other foot¡¯s when that fails. ¡°I repaired my boots after the expedition, and apparently I made a mistake, that¡¯s all.¡± I checked them with a machina scan though. There¡¯s no way I made a mistake. They head to Emily¡¯s room, but as they pass Juliana¡¯s room, they find a mage waiting for them. ¡°Juliana!¡± The tall, spindly man runs over the moment he notices them. ¡°Thank Goddess I found you.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Marco?¡± ¡°Margaret and Boris are both out of contact outside The Dome, and today is mandrake harvesting day! I can¡¯t gather them all alone. Please help me,¡± he begs pitifully, falling to his knees in the hallway before them. Juliana looks conflicted for a few moments, looking between Marco and Emily, before letting out a sigh. ¡°Sorry, Emi,¡± Juliana says as she turns and gives Emily a hug. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll just fix my faulty shoes while you¡¯re gone.¡± They part ways, Juliana leaving with Marco to go help in The Dome¡¯s herb gardens, and Emily slipping into her room alone. She sits down at her workbench and removes her boots with a scowl. Was Jules having to leave the influence of the system as well? Is it gonna keep annoying me until I listen? Frowning at the thought, she performsprehensive scans of her boots with machina, quickly discovering the source of her issue. A small steel pin that was holding one of the spikes¡¯ tensioning springs in ce has snapped, torn clean in half. ¡°It must have been damaged during the expedition and I didn¡¯t notice,¡± she mutters, taking the boots apart and removing the pin. After extracting the failed part, Emily fires up the Steam Source and gathers a few materials to machine a recement part. As she¡¯s cutting a steel rod to size on the bandsaw, she hears a loud metallic crack. Acting on instinct, Emily ducks, narrowly avoiding a shard of metal that flies out of therge machine¡¯s body. The saw peters out, slowly losing its momentum and gaining an unpleasant screech as the internal mechanisms keep partially working. Emily quickly deactivates the steam flow, closing a valve to the machine before turning off The Source. ¡°Was that the system too?¡± she questions slightly nervously, ncing at the fragment of metal chain, now embedded in her belt sander, that almost took her eye out. ¡°This is going from annoying to dangerous.¡± As if to answer her question, another system notification pops into view. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Warning! Quest requirement for [Alchemical Aspirations] unmet in final timeline. Pleaseplete requirement: -Create and sessfully brew a new unique potion (Error) _____ ¡°Fine,¡± she growls. ¡°I don¡¯t want to know what it¡¯ll do next.¡± Chapter 78 – No Pain No Gain Chapter 78 ¨C No Pain No Gain Emily immediately sets to work, clearing her workbench before taking out potion making supplies and setting up. She collects the potion materials from shelves and her spatial storage, gathering them in preparation. She carefully follows the same process as with Ivor, quickly forming the dangerous mix of venom and flesh. However, as she counts down the seconds to the final step and reaches out to grab an ocx tongue, her sleeve catches an empty beaker and knocks it over. The beaker shatters, showering the tongue she prepared in ss shards and ruining her brewing attempt. ¡°Urgh,¡± Emily groans. ¡°What a waste of materials.¡± She pulls out The Clock and presses rewind. *** Returning to the evening of the previous day, the first thing Emily does is check her system quests. The requirement on Alchemical Aspirations remains errored out, as she expected, so gathers supplies and tries again. This attempt fails even faster, when the imperfections in the mixture form slightly too far apart one too many times, ruining the mixture when she fails to destroy them all. ¡°Third time¡¯s the charm,¡± she mutters with resignation as she activates The Clock again. *** Her third attempt bears fruit, and she manages to brew the potion without any significant issues. Breathing a sigh of relief, Emily checks her quest log and finds the requirement on Alchemical Aspirations has been satisfactorilypleted again. She continues with her evening, cautiously waiting for something bad to happen again. The night passes without issue, though, and she cruises through the next day without running into any of the same annoyances as before. In the afternoon, she reces the pin in her boot, before it breaks, finding a small scratch across its midpoint that was the failure point. The scratch was too small for her to even register as an issue in her previous scans, and she¡¯s certain it wouldn¡¯t usually fail so dramatically. Then, in the evening, Marco never appears, so Emily and Juliana pass the evening together happily. *** Time in The Dome moves slowly for Emily after the expedition. She signs up for a few different courses of study but discovers most of them to be unhelpful and that it¡¯s faster to explore the subjects with her own research. She soon runs out of interesting sses and spends most of her time gathering information in the library or experimenting with spells and machines in her room, finding endless interest in observing the Spellweave. Her progress in meditation slows down drastically after leaving The de, and even with the help of the training room¡¯s high density mana gathering array, she struggles to increase her intelligence stat. After four months, she starts spending the majority of her day focusing on meditation, and even takes on a few strange requests from Agnes, to make her some non-conventional weapons, to help alleviate her boredom and restlessness as she runs out of new things to grab her attention. She spends a lot more time with her friends and Juliana, celebrating together when Hester reaches second circle ten months after awakening, a sizable achievement for amoner mage. When Emily¡¯s seventeenth birthday arrives, she spends the day in meditation and experimentation as usual. But, in the evening, Juliana drags her out of The Dome to visit a restaurant together for dinner. Eventually, Emily enjoys the fruits of herbour. Three months after her birthday, on the tenth month of the year five hundred and thirteen, whilst sitting cross-legged in the centre of one of the training rooms, her intelligence finally hits 75. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 17 [Magic Circle:] Second Circle [Machina Cortex:] Second Stage [Attributes:] Strength 12 > 15 (21), Dexterity 35 > 40 (43), Agility 27 > 31 (36), Vitality 13 > 14 (19), Intelligence 61 > 75 [Health:] 220/220 [Stamina:] 380/380 [Mana:] 4500/4500 [Machina:] 4500/4500 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Second Requirements: -Intelligence 75/75 (Complete) -Create 5/5 unique E rank machines (Complete) -Learn internal casting (Complete) -Create 3/3 second circle spells (Complete) -y 1/1 third circle beast (Complete) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Progression requirements met. Would you like to begin stage ascension? [Yes]/[No] (Warning, it is rmended that User finds a safe area with a high mana density to ensure the best results of ascension) _____ Emily grins at the system windows floating in her vision. ¡°Finally!¡± she cries gleefully. ¡°I wonder if I¡¯ll get another reward for progressing to third circle only a year after reaching second.¡± Letting her excitement flow out of her, she takes a few deep breaths, settling again in the centre of the gathering array and clearing all unnecessary thoughts in preparation for the oing pain. After a few minutes of quietly gathering mana and calming down, her heart is still, so she agrees to the ascension. Instantly, the pressure inside her bursts like a dam. Pulses of machina flood her system and hold her still for the pain toe. The mana around her vibrates with power as she¡¯s slowly lifted into the air, wrapped in a cocoon of lightning. Emily grits her teeth, trying to remain conscious as pain overwhelms her mind. Mana ceaselessly flows into her, mixing with her internal energy flow and forming two vortexes of wild, unrestrained energy around her heart and cortex. She¡¯s unable to appreciate the power flowing into her though, as her attention is heldpletely by the all-epassing torture assaulting every fibre of her being. Emily feels her muscles burst, her skin rip, and her bones shatter. The dizzyingbination of sensations and pain wears on her mind as she silently wishes for the experience to end, unable to control her body to even release a scream. FUCK! THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN BEFORE! A chorus of consciousness screams in her mind, but she doesn¡¯t even notice the duplicated internal monologue. Still held in the grasp of misery, Emily bears witness to the world falling away around her once again. The enchanting cosmic stream of energy that¡¯s revealed to her fills her with a sense of wonder and more pain, as her mind races toprehend its workings and extract every scrap of understanding it can. As the ethereal vision starts to fade, something clicks in her mind. The internal screams for the suffering to end vanish as all her physical pain is numbed, and she focuses on the sense of control brought by understanding a fraction of the cosmic wonder revealed to her. She pulls on the cocoon of crackling mana around her, feeling more connected to it than ever before, dragging it into her body to elerate her ascension. She guides the energy through her body, splitting it between her cortex and circles, condensing the energy into them. Her cortex finishes first,pleting its remodelling and reeling in the violently flowing machina filling her body, forcing the energy back into a calm but powerful flow. She focuses all the remaining energy on her heart, increasing the rotation speed of the mana vortex around it, pulling the energy into a condensed ring. The moment her third circle clicks into ce, Emily emits a wave of power, revealing her new strength to the world. A loud thundercrack sounds, echoing through the halls of The Dome and out into the city around it, announcing her sessful ascension. Emily slowly falls to the ground, still holding her lotus pose as she observes the changes within her body, reconnecting her cortex with her pain receptors. Her eyes snap open, machina dancing across her gaze as she lets out a slow breath, crackling with the power of lightning. I probably shouldn¡¯t ever use it in a fight, but it''s helpful to know I can cut off pain now. She notices the new voices in her head, four internal monologues where there should be one, and quickly disables them. Set core one as primary consciousness. That should do it. She smirks at the new method for managing her cores that she instinctively understands after reaching third stage. Excitedly, Emilymands her inactive cores to show her any important new information in her system, and several system windows pop into her vision at once. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congrattions! Ascension sessful. [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 17 [Magic Circle:] Second > Third Circle [Machina Cortex:] Second > Third Stage [Attributes:] Strength 15 > 20 (26), Dexterity 40 > 64 (67), Agility 31 > 50 (55), Vitality 14 > 17 (22), Intelligence 75 > 118 [Health:] 270/270 [Stamina:] 520/520 [Mana:] 15930/15930 [Machina:] 15930/15930 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sub-system updated: Progression [Progression] [Circle/Stage:] Third Requirements: -Intelligence 118/180 (Not Complete) -Upgrade [Basic Mana Maniption] to [Intermediate] grade (Not Complete) -Create 0/1 unique D rank machine (Not Complete) -Complete 2/3 C rank quests (Not Complete) -Kill 0/2 fourth circle mages (Not Complete) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Insight gained! [Skill upgraded] [Intermediate Spellweave (active)] [Cost:] 200 Mana/Hr User can gaze into the truth of runes to form spells. -Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to use mana to experiment with new or known runic matrices. _____ ¡°Woah!¡± Emily¡¯s mouth falls open as she stares incredulously at her stat increases. Almost 16000 mana. That¡¯s insane! No wonder third circle mages can cast ritual spell level attacks repeatedly. Though, my strength and vitality don¡¯t appear to be increasing much. I guess it¡¯s not surprising, I¡¯m already physically stronger than Agnes when she doesn¡¯t use enhancement spells. I don¡¯t think mages bodies are affected very much by their cultivation. The improvements to my agility and dexterity seem toe from my mechanic progression. Otherwise, they¡¯d both probably be just as low too. Flexing her fingers, she feels the fine control enabled by microscopic streams of machina that allow her to control her every move. She feels as if she can control each muscle twitch through the nerves that seem almost too closely entwined with her muscles and tendons. Hmm. That¡¯s weird. This jump in dexterity is incredible, but I almost feel like my movements are too smooth. It doesn¡¯t feel like my fingers move like a human¡¯s should. It almost feels like all the muscles and bones have been moved and reshaped to flow perfectly. Are my ascensions changing me that much? She slowly moves her focus up her arms, flexing and stretching everything, adjusting to the drastic changes in her body. She stands up while working through every joint and muscle in her body and, as the feeling of incongruence fades, she starts to appreciate the alterations. The strange inhuman mix of subconscious grace and calcted movements brings a bubbling feeling offort: scratching an itch in the back of Emily¡¯s mind that she never even knew was there. With a satisfied smile, Emily finally acknowledges the rest of the system windows. ¡°It seems reaching fourth circle will take a while. It took me over a year to increase my intelligence by twenty-one, and now I need to increase it by another sixty-two! Not to mention it was getting harder to increase towards the end. This alone will probably take at least three or four years,¡± she mutters to herself,pletely motionless other than the rhythmic tapping of her fingers on her thigh. She brings her other hand to her mouth, biting her thumb as one of her cores begins drawing on Technomancer¡¯s Breath to fulfil her goal of cultivating. Leaving my cores working as secondary consciousnesses is useful. I didn¡¯t even have to make a conscious decision to meditate, they just decided what was best on their own. Now, finally, we have this Spellweave upgrade. It costs more to use, but being able to experiment with known matrices is new. She sits back down within the gathering array, happy to keep using points on the high mana density. Shutting her eyes, she pulls on her skill, activating it and revealing a new sight. As opposed to before, where the skill guided mana to her eyes and cortex, instantly revealing the mystical weave around her, instead the mana flow from the skill pauses on just her cortex. Even with her eyes closed, her sight opens up to reveal a nk expanse of empty space. So, this is the Spellweave now. She follows her knowledge of the skill, pushing mana into her eyes and opening them, returning to the familiar twisting fractals of colour that she associates with the weave. I can still use the skill like before. Having confirmed this, she releases the mana in her eyes and shuts them again, returning to the nk expanse. Let¡¯s try burning hands. The moment she thinks of the spell, the intimately familiar magic circle rises to the forefront of her mind. As she remembers the circle, arge, glowing copy burns itself into existence before her mind¡¯s eye. Woah. That¡¯s new. She admires the zing construct, focusing on one of the runes. Element designation. Fire. Understanding of the rune flows into her mind, forming a closer, more intimate connection with it, just like before. However, this time, the connection is far more concrete and immediate. Emily can tell that when she drops the skill, this time the connection and understanding will remain. She quickly runs through all of the runes in the spell, tracing the lines that connect them and the shapes that epass them, rapidly improving herprehension. Once she feels like she has gained everything possible from the spell, a thought urs to her. It said experiment with, right? Surely, I can do more than just learn about the spell. Following this thought, she reaches out with her mind, pulling on one of the elemental designation runes. The spell reacts to her will, the rune floating free of the construct and dissipating. Immediately, the warm orange glow of the spell fades to a pale shimmer. Emily watches with interest, before pulling out the other fire-based rune and watching the construct take on the neutral blue hue of mana. She pulls on the memory of a cutting ice rune that she discovered in the weave before and wills it to form in ce of the missing fire runes. The spell shifts, taking on a pale icy glow and letting off a sharp, frigid air. As the new spell solidifies into ce, Emily feels a nagging in the back of her mind. She focuses on the feeling and pushes more mana into her cortex. The image of the spell spins to life, twisting in ce as it tries to activate. After a few seconds, the delicate bnce of the circle crumbles as several lines intersect, and the entire construct crumbles. The experiment fails, and Emily opens her eyes, but she doesn¡¯t show a hint of disappointment. Instead, her face breaks into a wide smile. ¡°This will make spell creation interesting.¡± Chapter 79 – Changes Chapter 79 ¨C Changes Emily closes her eyes again but pauses before diving back into the Spellweave. Since this is only pushing mana to my cortex for experimenting on known spells, please tell me this works. Sub-cores, learn all first circle spells using the Spellweave. Instantly, three of her four cores buzz to life and mana and machina pour into her cortex before spreading throughout her entire system as her expanded mental processing starts tearing through hermand. While her cores follow her instructions, Emily watches her mana level slowly decrease. It¡¯s a drain, but it''s only small. Splitting her thoughts in two directionspletely, in a manner that feels alien yet all too natural to her at the same time, she uses one thread in her primary core to watch her mana level and internal flow, and the other three to restart The Technomancer¡¯s Breath that stopped when she gave her cores a newmand. The mana that rushes into her body from the surrounding array instantly overpowers the drain of her skill, filling her reserves and slowly expanding them. Woah! My meditation technique wasn¡¯t upgraded, but it appears my ascension naturally increases my mana intake and generation by a lot. She smiles happily at the change, basking in the warm embrace of mana. After twenty minutes, the activity in her cores fizzles out. To test the results, Emily raises a hand and thinks of the light spell. In a fraction of a second, a dazzling orb of white light spins into existence in her hand. ¡°That was fast,¡± she mutters absentmindedly, feeling an odd sense of connection with the spell as if she¡¯s been casting it daily for years. ¡°Strange. I almost feel as if I could just¡­¡± One of her sub-cores bubbles with mana for a few seconds, before passing three runes to her primary consciousness. Emily bends the light spell¡¯s magic circle, reforming three of its existing runes into the new ones supplied, and with a quick switch of mental image, the orb before her changes. The glowing white is quickly burned from the centre, being reced by a flickering orb of ethereal orange mes. Emily excitedly passes her other hand through the mes and feels no heat. I just changed the element of a utility light spell to a violent element without changing the effect! Does this mean I could heal with fire? Or create light with earth? What are the limits? As her excitement for the topic grows, one of her cores starts ying in the Spellweave to bring her answers. Emily moves on, leaving the question as a background task, and stands up to test her new strength. ¡°Let¡¯s do this properly,¡± she says with glee, walking to the training room¡¯s entrance and leaving. She adjusts the settings before walking back in, finding a wide, empty space with ten mages standing in a line before her. Each mage has a nk set of white robes on, and all of them have a smooth, white, featureless mask in ce of a face. ¡°Disperse!¡± Emilymands. The training dummies follow without question, spreading out evenly in the room. ¡°Activate defensive spells!¡± Ten different magic circles appear around the dummies. A multitude of elements are used, from rocky armour to bubbles of fire. Emily starts by pointing at the closest dummy, wrapped in a protective sheen of water. She rapidly casts bolt, forming the magic circle of the spellpletely within her own circles. The spell tears a line through space towards the dummy, ripping through the second circle defensive spell with rtive ease. Internal casting of second circle spells, check. The training dummy disintegrates into particles, surprising Emily a little. ¡°It still had enough power to destroy one of these?¡± she mutters incredulously, lining up her hand with another dummy and sending a burningnce of fire into it. The mingnce bursts against the stone armour covering the dummy, ripping the rock together in the process and shredding the dummy with rocks and fire. I see. Increasing my mana purity and density even makes weaker spells drastically stronger. ¡°Line up and stack barriers!¡± she orders the dummies, nning for onest magical test. Emily stands before the line of dummies, each providing some form ofrge-scale cover to protect themselves from her. She closes her eyes for a moment, drawing on a carefully refined mental image: produced after hours of research into the bows still used with terrifying lethality in the Lerus Isles. A massive circle is carved into the floor around her, burning its way into the world in an orange-and-white glow, the white far more pronounced than with Emily¡¯s normal fire spells. The circle quickly fills with runes, before they leap from the ground, drawing zing arcs as aplicated matrix of movement wraps around her. A shining white bow of light forms in the air before Emily, condensing till it appears as a milky-white crystal, with a blisteringly bright arrow of orange fire nocked and ready to shoot. Emily feels her mana draining, close to a thousand points flowing into the spell as the bow slowly draws back and the centre of the arrow forms a glistening white core of molten metal and light. ¡°zing Arrow of Light!¡± Emily announces proudly as the circle bursts with power and the tension in the taut bow¡¯s limbs is released. Even with her enhanced reactions and eyesight, Emily struggles to follow the motion of the arrow as it flies out of the bow, releasing a cracking sound as it tears through the air and impacts the first barrier within an instant. Meeting little resistance, the arrow burns through the first barrier of fire, punching a hole clean through the torso of the dummy behind as it continues its flight. The arrow draws a line of burning light, tearing a path through every barrier in its way and only dying out as it buries itself into the chest of the seventh dummy. ¡°Seven barriers in one go!¡± Emily mutters happily. Though some of them were poor matches. Those fire barriers would have put up no resistance. Also, it took far too long to cast. I need to learn some real third circle spells. It''s a shame that I can¡¯t cast a second circle ritual spell with internal casting though. Why is that? She begins casting the spell again, watching the circle being carved into the floor around her once again as she considers. Ritual spells work by temporarily manifesting an array, turning the ground or air around you into a conduit to hold arge amount of mana, more than a normal mage at that level can handle in one go. Emily¡¯s mana flows quickly into the magic circle from the new, unstable circle around her heart. I see, since I¡¯m using more mana in one go than second circle spells would allow, I can¡¯t hold the spell in two circles. They don¡¯t have enough mana throughput to build up or discharge thatrge an amount of mana at once, causing the spell to be unstable. She cancels her casting and lets the spell fizzle out around her with a hint of disappointment in her eyes. That¡¯s a shame. I¡¯m probably going to have to get rid of burning arrow after spending so long on it... Maybe I can remake a third circle version? Emily takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly to calm her racing thoughts, still slightly adjusting to her once again increased processing speed from the ascension. Four threads on each core, and each thread is more powerful. I¡¯m going to have to start consciously matching my processing speed properly to the world around me. Wait. Am I? She pauses for a moment, quickly building a n in her mind and confirming the validity based on her new instinctual understanding of her cortex. She shuts her eyes, drawing her focus inwards and picturing her cortex as four orbs of light forming in her nk mindscape, each orb representing one of her four cores. One of the orbs quivers before elongating into a shining humanoid form, and Emily¡¯s perception joins to the form smoothly. She looks down at the form¡¯s glowing hands, gazing closer and seeing a smallwork of neurons, all sparking with light. Good. This should make things easier. Though it uses two threads on my main core to maintain such a detailed rendering. She reaches out for the core managing Technomancer¡¯s Breath¡¯s passive use, drawing it into primary focus in the space and splitting it apart into four separates of light. First, we need one thread to maintain the energy cirction. I don¡¯t need one for maintaining the breathing anymore: my body seems to be doing that naturally now. Then one of these threads will be designated to manage the other cores¡¯ workflow. Next, one of these threads will manage the primary consciousness¡¯s perception: limiting the current thread use based on processing demand or danger. It should keep me running at normal human speeds unless I¡¯m actively trying to work something out quickly, or engage full assistive processing with all cores if I¡¯m in danger. The gaze of her virtual form falls on the final thread within this core. Let¡¯s link this thread to that one. Thisst thread will constantly watch my magical senses for threats and oddities in my surroundings and alert me if needed. This core will be designated the control core and will remain on these tasks unless needed inbat. As she finalises her choices and releases the core to return to the view of all three, she sees the other two cores kicking into motion, both working on different projects within the Spellweave. Good, now my cores should be getting utilised properly in downtime. For now, I¡¯ll use them all as much as possible. But in the future, if it''s needed, I can set the control core to manage a rotating sleep schedule to keep me permanently awake. Emily opens her eyes, leaving her mindscape and returning to a view of the training room. Right, onest test before I leave here. She pulls out The Clock, staring at the seconds hand ticking by. Full assistive processing. The seconds hand stops. Emily watches it, counting seconds in her own perception as she waits. Three secondster, the hand moves. It has only increased by a little. I guess I¡¯ll need a lot more cores to make it seem like time¡¯s standing still. Return to designated tasks. Time returns to normal, and Emily tucks The Clock back into her breast pocket. She turns towards the door and strides out of the training room. ¡°Let¡¯s go surprise Jules,¡± she mutters with a grin. *** Unfortunately, when Emily returns to the dorms, Juliana is absent. Shrugging off her disappointment, she enters her room and decides to take a shower while she waits for Juliana to return. She strips out of her equipment and enters the bathroom, freezing as she sees herself in the mirror. Was my skin always that smooth? She leans into the mirror, looking closely at her face. Her skin is pale and smooth, without a single imperfection or visible blemish. My e scars are gone. Wait, my scars! Eyes widening in a moment of panic, Emily¡¯s gaze falls on her exposed torso. Instantly, she sees the scars tracing her form. Running her eyes down from the small jagged line across her shoulder, a gift left by Jeremy and Kyle¡¯s attack, to the particrly pronounced mark from her left hip to her belly button, a record of a particrly close encounter with a knife-wielding adult in the slums, she lets out a sigh of relief. ¡°Good,¡± she mutters, rubbing her fingers fondly over the cut. Taking a step back, Emily strips offpletely, taking in her current state with a critical eye. Her skin ispletely smooth and blemish free all over, the only signs of the life she¡¯s lived being the scars and calluses that remain. Even the light hairs covering her body have vanished, leaving her smooth to the touch. Her muscles are taut and well defined, and her face and proportions, while hard for her to judge, seem to have changed as well. Is my ascension improving my body aesthetically as well? Is that intentional or just a side effect? I¡¯d lean towards intentional, since my freckles are missing but my scars remain. If it was a side effect, I would have thought it would remove scars first. Instead, it¡¯s like it got rid of the bits I didn¡¯t like, but kept those I do. Either way, I¡¯m certainly happy with the changes. With a small grin, Emily stops admiring herself and climbs into the shower. She takes her time, enjoying the warm water washing over her body. After climbing out and drying off, she hears a three-beat knock at the door. She throws on a shirt and underwear before opening the door for Juliana. Juliana pulls her into an immediate hug, but as she pulls away to look at Emily, a small frown creases her brow. Emily keeps a neutral face, tilting her head in confusion as Juliana leans in to look closely at her. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You don¡¯t think I¡¯m pretty anymore?¡± she asks in a teasing tone. ¡°Ha,¡± Juliana scoffs, narrowing her eyes. ¡°If anything you¡¯re even prettier. What did you do?¡± Emily¡¯s lips part into a sly grin as she releases her mana, letting it flow freely from her body. Pressure crackles in the air around them, revealing the power hidden within Emily¡¯s robust frame. Juliana¡¯s eyes open wide in disbelief. ¡°I reached third circle,¡± Emily says, snapping Juliana out of her shock. ¡°Congrattions!¡± she cheers with glee, pulling Emily into a kiss. Emily giggles after they separate, pulling Juliana further into her room and away from the door. ¡°Wait, was that thunderp you then?¡± Juliana asks, dropping into Emily¡¯sp on her bed. ¡°Yes. My ascensions seem to cause amotion when they happen. Do you think there¡¯ll be any trouble?¡± ¡°Probably not. It was weird that a magical effect like that managed to prate The Dome, but I would have shrugged it off if your ascension didn¡¯t happen to line up with it. Anyway, what¡¯s your n now then? You¡¯ve been waiting for this for a while, right?¡± Juliana asks while rxing into her chest. ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily nods, running her hand through Juliana¡¯s hair. ¡°I have a deal I made with Agnes that I need to follow through on first. Then, I¡¯m gonna n another expedition into The de.¡± Juliana¡¯s grip tightens at her response. Emily sighs, reassuringly patting her girlfriend¡¯s head. They sit in silence for a few minutes until Juliana speaks again. ¡°I¡¯ming with you.¡± Emily starts slightly at the statement, surprised by the firm certainty in Juliana¡¯s tone. ¡°Are you sure?¡± Emily asks, leaning back slightly to look at her face. ¡°Mm huh.¡± Juliana nods, looking up at Emily with tears in her eyes. ¡°You¡¯re going to be leaving afterwards, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Emily¡¯s words catch in her throat, the sadness and resolve in Juliana¡¯s gaze driving a wedge into her heart. ¡°Haaa,¡± Emily lets out a deep sigh, dropping her head to rest on her girlfriend¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You knew?¡± ¡°Of course I did,¡± Juliana says, running her hand through Emily¡¯s hair as tears roll down her cheeks. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Emily whispers, unable to hold back her own tears. Chapter 80 – Digging for Information Chapter 80 ¨C Digging for Information A few hourster, Emily and Juliana walk into the cafeteria for dinner. A calm air of resignation hangs over them as they take a seat at the table with Ivor and Hester. ¡°What¡¯s up with you two?¡± Hester asks, quickly noticing their mood. ¡°Nothing,¡± Emily lies, unwilling to tell her the truth and quickly changing the subject. ¡°Where¡¯s Tom?¡± ¡°He was meant to be joining us. I left him in the library like an hour ago poring over a study about the fall of the Rostan Empire.¡± ¡°The what?¡± Juliana asks in confusion. Hester visibly detes at the question. ¡°Some empire that controlled half of the Keban continent before Modo and Morzea formed. Please don¡¯t ask him, I don¡¯t want to hear about it again.¡± As if sensing her fear, Tom steps into the table¡¯s barrier the moment she finishes speaking. ¡°What are you guys talking about?¡± he asks as he sits down, causing Hester to jump and look at her friends pleadingly. Emily chuckles silently, choosing to help her out: having been on the receiving end of Tom¡¯s rants enough times to feel pity. ¡°Nothing much. I was just saying that I¡¯m nning my own expedition soon.¡± ¡°Oh cool! Can Ie?¡± Tom asks excitedly, while Hester and Ivor look at Emily questioningly. ¡°Yeah. I want to go into the depths of The Crystal Waters now that I¡¯m third circle,¡± she answers with a sly grin. All three of her friends start in surprise, looking at her in disbelief. ¡°Already?¡± Hester asks ¡°Yep!¡± she answers proudly. ¡°I would show you, but I¡¯d rather not flex my pressure in here. For certain reasons, I don¡¯t want to announce my ascension, and I¡¯d prefer you don¡¯t tell anyone.¡± Tom and Hester look confused, but both agree to silence before shutting their eyes and feeling out the auras near them. Ivor narrows his eyes at her, but nods with a look of understanding. ¡°Well done,¡± he signs, without even checking her aura. What does he know? I¡¯ll askter. ¡°Thanks.¡± Tom and Hester soon open their eyes again and congratte her. ¡°When are you nning your expedition for?¡± Hester asks, moving back to the original topic after her surprise has passed. ¡°And who are you inviting!¡± Tom adds eagerly. Emily chuckles at his enthusiasm. ¡°You can join if you want, Tom. I¡¯m looking to set off in a month, and I was nning on inviting you guys, Enzo, and Dante.¡± ¡°Wait, is that all?¡± Hester asks dubiously. ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily answers confidently, receiving doubtful looks from three of her friends. Ivor on the other hand, simply nods along with her. Juliana turns a questioning re on him. ¡°Why are you supporting her?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a monster. She¡¯d be fine alone,¡± he signs calmly, drawing a snort from Juliana and a giggle from Emily. ¡°What did he say?¡± asks Tom, causing Ivor to shift ufortably. ¡°Learn to sign already,¡± Hester says, clipping her brother around the back of the head before looking back to Ivor. ¡°What do you mean she¡¯s a monster?¡± Ivor seems to freeze up, ncing between the siblings awkwardly. Emily sighs and takes over. ¡°He means I¡¯m a good fighter and I have enough endurance to survive an expedition alone. I¡¯m mostly inviting you guys so I have someone to carry my bags and forpany.¡± Ivor nods along, but her friends don¡¯t seem convinced. ¡°How about this? I¡¯m sparring with Agnes again in two days. Why don¡¯t you guyse watch, and you can judge for yourself if an expedition with just the seven of us is safe?¡± They agree to her suggestion and proceed to ask her questions about her ascension over dinner. Afterwards, Tom and Hester separate from them to return to their rooms, but Emily drags Ivor into the B grade dorms with her and Juliana. They quickly return to their rooms where Juliana, who¡¯s helping in the herb gardens early in the morning, says goodnight and leaves so she can sleep. Emily and Ivor step into her room alone, settling down on the chairs facing each other. ¡°So, why do you think I¡¯m hiding my ascension?¡± Emily signs curiously. ¡°You¡¯re not on good terms with your sponsor, are you?¡± Emily silently shakes her head, appreciating him choosing not to call them her family, and waits for him to borate. ¡°Thought so. Your reaction to leaving their allies to die made it pretty obvious. So, if you¡¯re not on good terms with them, then you probably don¡¯t want them knowing you¡¯ve reached the point where you can legally separate from them. Right?¡± ¡°Almost. They won¡¯t be worried about me separating. However, they sent me here with the goal of achieving third circle. So, I suspect when they find out that I¡¯ve reached that goal, they¡¯ll either call me back or try to give me orders. I still have some things I want to do here before I leave.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Ivor signs back, nodding thoughtfully. ¡°Why are you on bad terms with them? If you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡± A small smile creeps onto Emily¡¯s face at his consideration. ¡°Sure. So, basically...¡± *** The next morning, Emily makes her way to the library after breakfast. My spar with Agnes tomorrow should give me a good idea on where I stand against third circle mages. I¡¯m ny per cent sure I¡¯ll win with ease if my strength at second circle is anything to go off of. But, the Mandrago Patriarch is fourth circle. If I want to kill him, I need to get some ideas about the difference between third and fourth circle. She sits down at a random table, activating it and making a request. ¡°This probably won¡¯t work. All B grade books on the fourth circle.¡± Emily waits for a few moments, but nothing approaches the table. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue as she stands up. ¡°Thought so. Any knowledge on the fourth circle will be locked to A grade students. I could ask Oscar to let me piggy back on his ess, but where¡¯s the fun in that.¡± She walks into the stacks, passing into the empty corridors towering high with books, an excited grin stered on her face. Time to put my babies to work! She reaches into the spatial pouch at her hip, pulling out a ck and silver metal egg, two times the size of her fist. Injecting a small spark of machina, she watches as the egg cracks. A small hiss sounds from the egg as a repetitive ticking starts and the cracks spread. Quickly, the metal butterflies open, revealing a delicate mass of gears and mechanisms within. tes of metal slide over each other, clicking into ce and connecting together to form a mechanical bird sitting on Emily¡¯s finger. The centre of the bird glows, the magic crystals within shining through the cracks, and aplicated three dimensional magic circle, woven into the mechanisms to give the bird pulsing silver veins, spins to life. Emily connects a small string of mana to the creature, linking it with one of her cores. The bird spreads its wings, pping twice and taking off to perch on her head. Emily checks the link, seeing two threads being used up: one for watching the surveince array showing her the bird¡¯s perspective; and the other for controlling the bird¡¯s movement by converting the end of the mana string into machina and adjusting the controls within. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Bird Scout] [Rank:] E [Description:] A small remote-controlled mechanical bird with an integrated surveince array. [Effect:] Rys information to the connected mage. _____ It¡¯s a shame I don¡¯t have the setup to make fine electronics yet. I could have made these fully independent if I did. Ah well, I can look into that after dealing with the Mandragos. She reaches into her pouch again, pulling out another small mechanical orb. This one sprouts eight long legs, each with a small spiked w at the end for climbing. The mechanical spider scout drops from her hand,nding with barely a sound and scuttling up a bookcase to her eye level. Good, the spiders don¡¯t have issues climbing these shelves. She pulls out three more birds and another spider, activating all of them individually and ensuring their connections are stable. She drops to the floor in a meditative pose for thest two, as she gives up control of her body to her control core, just in case, while focusing on her small minions. The four birds take flight, rising to the topmostyers of the stacks and shooting off to a different row each. The spiders mber up the shelves, reaching the topyer on either side of the narrow corridor of books. Emily slowly moves her creations along, reading the spines of the books they pass and ignoring anything that seems unrted. After a few hours of searching through thousands of books, one of her birdses across a book titled: ¡®Rising to the top¡¯. Interesting. It¡¯s in the A grade section, so maybe it¡¯s about ascensions? Emily opens her eyes, sending the bird¡¯s connection to the control core to manage its motion as she stands up. She follows the string of mana connected to the bird, stepping back into the mage-filled aisle between the stacks and walking down a few rows. She quickly finds the bird pping its wings in ce, hovering in the centre of the row staring at a book. She positions herself below it, as the bird shifts forward, ces its ws on the top of the spine, and frantically beats its wide, metal wings. It takes a few seconds, the bird not having enough power to easily move more mass, but the bird pulls it free, sending the book tumbling into Emily¡¯s waiting hand below. The bird lowers down to perch on her head as Emily sits down and flips open the book. After skimming through the first few pages, a frown creases her brow. It¡¯s just some mage¡¯s autobiography. She flips through to the end of the book, finding it ends with an afternote from the noble¡¯s son about how great his third circle father was. ¡°Tsk. Useless.¡± Emily tosses the book aside and shuts her eyes to focus on her scouts again. Her search continues for most of the day, her mind processing thousands upon thousands of book titles, building an urate map of the stacks¡¯ upper levels as she goes, since several titles interest her for further research. After twenty long hours of searching, reading every title and checking every book that looks like it could be rted to ascensions or the fourth circle, a strange book catches Emily¡¯s eye. The spine of the book is traced with lines of wear, the leather binding cracking and king away. The title is dull and faded,pletely unreadable. None of the other books here show any wear. I assumed there was a spell keeping them safe given how poorly everyone seems to treat them. Why wasn¡¯t this one protected? Emily opens her eyes, rising to her feet again and slipping through the stacks towards the hum of mechanical wings. Both spider scouts mber across the ceiling to join her as she arrives in the row with the old book. She moves them to either side of the book and uses them to pull it out carefully, holding it between them as they scramble down to present their prize. She slips down onto the floor cross-legged and walks the spiders into herp. Gently, Emily lifts the book off the small spiders¡¯ mechanical arms, absentmindedly petting one as she looks over the tattered leather cover. The leather is a dull brown, with hints of the rich crimson it once was left in a few patches. The title on the front is barely readable, and it takes Emily a few seconds of close observation to make out two words: ¡®Gaius Longaeva¡¯. Emily slowly opens the cover, finding neat cursive scrawled across the weathered pages within. Arthur won¡¯t stop talking about the witch in the woods. He ims she uses magic and casts spells. Apparently he saw her lighting a fire with her bare hands! I don¡¯t believe him. But I want to. He said he¡¯d take me to see her tomorrow to prove it. A diary? Why is there a simple diary in the A grade section. Who is Gaius Longaeva? Gripped by curiosity, Emily flips through the pages: taking in the story of two young boys learning magic from the friendly witch in the woods. By the time she flips the cover closed, all three of her birds are perched motionless on her head and shoulders, her full attention having been drawn into the strange tale. From the young boy¡¯s writing, Emily is able to gather some interesting details. Gaius Longaeva and Arthur both lived before the start of the current calendar in the age of the empire. The diary covers from their awakening with the help of the kinddy in the woods, to their battles as members of the empire¡¯s army, ughtering beasts and people to further the empire¡¯s glory. However, throughout the course of their journey, Arthur repeatedly tells Gaius about his desires to tear down the emperor and start a new regime. His wistful dreaming doesn¡¯t lead anywhere in the course of the book¡¯s events, but a few of the things he says throughout catch Emily¡¯s attention. ¡°Weird. Everything quoted as Arthur¡¯s words just don¡¯t make sense together,¡± Emily mutters, cing the book down on the inactive spiders in herp and biting her thumb. ¡°There¡¯s something off about Arthur. He seems to flip-flop between hating the empire and singing its praises, yet somehow manages to convince Gaius to hate the empire by the end of the diary. His words don¡¯t fit the result.¡± Emily falls into deep contemtion, her mind full of questions. Who are Gaius and Arthur. Why are they important enough for a simple diary about them to end up on the A grade shelves? What about Arthur keeps bothering me? He reads like two different people. Emily¡¯s brows furrow at that thought. What if he was? She flips back through the diary, looking at every reference to Arthur with a critical eye. At least half of the sections quoting him, every point where he praises the empire, seem disjointed and separated from the surrounding text. The disjointed sections all seem to be written with slightly neater handwriting, as if someone else is trying to mimic the surrounding writing. ¡°Some of these were changed. But why?¡± Why would someone change the contents of this diary? Was it Gaius, or someone else? Does it serve a purpose? Emily opens a nk page in her notes and starts writing down every section she thinks may have been changed. After filling the page with quotes, she reads them over together. ¡°Start running Gaius, we¡¯re nearly to the great capital!¡± ¡°Where would you rather be from? You can¡¯t beat the Empire.¡± ¡°You surely know the Goddess blesses our great emperor.¡± ¡°Found you. How dare you insult the emperor before me!¡± ¡°Me? Of course I¡¯d die for the Empire!¡± ¡°Follow me! For the Empire!¡± ¡°The sun never sets on the golden Empire!¡± ¡°Numbers mean nothing against our glorious Empire! Charge!¡± Her eyes open wide as she spots the message hidden within the quotes. ¡®Start where you found me. Follow the numbers.¡¯ Chapter 81 – Legacy Chapter 81 ¨C Legacy ¡°Follow the numbers,¡± Emily mutters, trying to process the message. ¡°Which numbers? Page numbers?¡± She flips back through the diary from the start, noting next to each quote what page it was on. Fourteen, twenty-six, thirty-two, forty-one, sixty-five, sixty-six, ny-eight, one hundred and fifteen. Okay, let¡¯s see where these lead me. The bird on her head flickers to life, pping its wings and quickly rising to the gap the diary has left in the shelves above. ¡°Start where you found me,¡± she mutters as the bird starts flying to the right, counting books. ¡°These birds are so useful. I should remember to give Jules a kiss for reminding me about them. Maybe I can modify them to use thermal vision too to make scouting easier on our expedition.¡± Emily gets up and follows beneath the bird as it goes. She quickly finds the fourteenth book along, a random study on the element of fire, and pulls it from the shelf. It drops into her waiting hand below, but Emily barely notices. Instead, her attention is taken by the glowing purple rune revealed on the shelf beneath. Oh? Spatial runes? She quickly sends another bird back to the diary¡¯s original position, and finds a simr rune now glowing in ce. A grin grows on her face as she turns her focus back to the first bird and continues counting along. Book after book, Emily plucks them from the shelves, revealing glowing runes beneath. After reaching the end of the row, she moves to the shelf below and continues counting, but when she pulls out what she hopes is the fifth book in the sequence, there isn¡¯t a rune underneath. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue, seeing the rune in the diary¡¯s space vanish as well. ¡°Shit. I need to reset it.¡± Unwilling to wait for the books to return to the shelves on their own, which she¡¯s found they do after ten minutes when removed from the shelves manually, she walks over to where the spiders are sat on the floor and uses them to carry the books back into ce. After they are all reced, she pulls them out in order again. This time, when Emily reaches the end of the row, she drops down a shelf and moves along the length of the row to continue counting from the far left. This time when she pulls out the fifth book, she sees a rune light up beneath. ¡°Nice!¡± She keeps going, following the sequence. Soon she reaches thest book. Standing directly below it, her bird plucks it from the shelf, and the rune beneath pulses. The shelf rumbles, and Emily steps away, watching as a crack appears before her. The shelf spins in on itself, folding into the space behind it and opening up to reveal a swirling purple mass of mana, emanating pressure and destabilising space around it. ¡°Woah!¡± Emily¡¯s eyes open wide as she feels the space around her quiver under the influence of what she presumes to be a portal. ¡°Where do you lead?¡± A curious glint shes in her eyes, but she holds herself back. Before stepping into the unknown, Emily recalls her scouts, deactivating them and curling them back into balls of metal. She ces them all back in her storage pouch and pulls out The Clock, holding it firm in her hand as she approaches the shimmering air. She reaches out with her spatial awareness, feeling the dizzying maelstrom of space overwhelming her as she gets closer. Oh? Is this a fourth circle spell? She frowns and gives up trying to understand the spell, instead reaching forward and pushing her empty hand through. Her arm vanishes up to the elbow. When she pulls it back, ites out unharmed, so she takes a deep breath and steps into the unknown. Her vision shifts as she passes through the portal, and her eyes are blinded by light. Emily flinches in surprise and looks around the small space she finds herself in. The room is only a few metres across, with intricate murals covering the walls. The ceiling is only a few metres high, with several glistening light crystals illuminating the room. In the centre stands a plinth, holding a small, purple book covered in gold embellishments. Emily takes in the room, finding her eyes being drawn to the walls instead of the book. She approaches the wall closest to the portal, finding writing at the base, underneath an image of two men standing side by side on a castle wall overlooking an army charging towards them with swords and shields. ¡®Gaius Longaeva and Arthur Modo at the battle of Herder¡¯s Keep.¡¯ ¡°Arthur Modo... The first king of Modo,¡± she mutters, realisation washing over her. So it¡¯s the diary of the first king¡¯s childhood friend. No wonder it was considered A grade. But who is Gaius? She walks along the wall, taking in a glorified depiction of Arthur and Gaius rising to the top of the Rostan Empire and bing the Emperor¡¯s sword and shield, before heading a coup to topple the old regime. Thest few images show Gaius and Arthur stood above The Dome and Chroni¡¯s castle respectively. ¡°I see. So Gaius was the founder of The Covenant.¡± Nodding to herself, Emily turns to finally approach the book. She checks the smooth, white stone plinth below first, looking for any magical traps. Only after finding no magical traces on the plinth, other than a preservation spell, does she reach out and pick up the book. It¡¯s small and thin, with what looks like only ten or so pages within the rich, purple leather binding. The gold etching draws attractive patterns, but doesn¡¯t give Emily any hint of the book¡¯s content. Gently, she flips to the first page and reads. Well done onpleting my test. Whether through luck or intelligence, you have met my minimum qualification. I am Gaius Longaeva: founder of The Covenant and fourth circle mage. I leave behind this book with my ount of the first to fourth circle in hopes that someone else will break the shackles and rise to the fifth circle. I don¡¯t know if the fifth circle really exists. But I want to believe. Emily grins happily as she turns the page. Perfect! An ount of the ascension to fourth circle is more than I could have hoped for. Her smile only grows as she flips through the pages, making notes tracking Gaius¡¯ observations andparing them to her own. After twenty minutes of carefulparison, Emilyys down the book while giving her condensed notes onest look over. First circle: Fully awaken magical senses. Small mana pool. Weak, mostly contact, spells. Second circle: Small mana pool. Range and power increase. Third circle: Moderate mana pool. Passive regeneration and power increase. Vast improvement in the Spellweave. Fourth circle: Large mana pool. Range and power increase. Start developing subconscious use of magic. Perfection of the human form. ¡°I need to kill fourth circle mages if I¡¯m to be one, so understanding their power is crucial. It looks like the biggest problems will be subconscious casting and the raw power gap. If I can¡¯t kill them quickly, they¡¯ll cast defensive spells and there¡¯s a chance I won¡¯t be able to break through them. Looks like making the Whisper was worth it,¡± she mutters, smiling at the thought of her newest weapon sitting in her storage belt while turning back to the portal. ¡°Thanks, Gaius. If you¡¯re still alive, I¡¯lle give my thanks properly once I¡¯m fifth circle.¡± Emily activates The Clock, returning to the morning of the day before. *** Emily finds herself sitting on the floor in the library, with all of her mechanical scouts still scouring the stacks. She recalls all of them, cing them back into her storage pouch and leaves the library. Instead of heading to her room, Emily decides to take advantage of having set a reset point in the morning and heads to the information hub. She approaches a counter, waiting for the mage in front of her to finish buying some magic crystals. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± the clerk behind the counter asks. ¡°I¡¯d like to buy some third circle spells,¡± Emily says with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. We can only sell third circle spells to third circle mages.¡± ¡°Oh? Why do you think I¡¯m not third circle?¡± Emily asks with a raised brow. ¡°You only have a bronze crest,¡± the clerk answers curtly, clearly unimpressed by Emily¡¯s questioning. ¡°No family keeps a mage in The Dome as a vassal after they reach third circle. They either bring them in closer to the family, or the mage separates to form their own house. Now, please either purchase something else or move along so I can serve someone else.¡± I see. So most families will try to deepen their rtionship with a newly risen third circle vassal mage to stop them leaving. I guess he specified in The Dome because of families like the Mandragos, who keep third circle mages as vassals in their territories. A small sneer parts Emily¡¯s lips at the thought as she projects the pressure of her circles outwards, letting her dense mana bend the air around her. The clerk and a few nearby mages gasp and look at her with shock. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry,¡± the clerk scrambles to apologise, dipping his head towards Emily. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m newly ascended. Now, can I buy some third circle spells please?¡± ¡°Yes, of course! One moment, can I have your name please?¡± the clerk asks while grabbing his database ess crystal. ¡°Emily Coldstone.¡± He starts slightly at her name, a reaction Emily easily spots. Oh? Does he know me? Has my name spread that much outside of my sses? Chuckling internally, she waits as he closes his eyes and scans through the information The Covenant has saved on her. Having asked her ssmate and nighttime clerk, Anka, how the clerks¡¯ crystals work, Emily watches curiously as he scans a bank of information about the mages within The Covenant: including everything from theirpleted missions and points given in sses, to their elements and past purchases. She scoffs to herself, knowing he has signed a magical contract forbidding him from using the ess for his personal benefit, an agreement Emily can see several methods to work around. ¡°Nine elements,¡± the clerk mutters quietly in disbelief as he opens his eyes. ¡°Sorry about that wait. I¡¯ve confirmed the elements you can purchase from. However, I¡¯m sorry to say, we only sell third circle spells for the fourmon elements.¡± ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue in frustration. ¡°Really? How many of those do you sell?¡± ¡°Only one of each,¡± the clerk offers apologetically, shying back from Emily¡¯s scowl. I guess I¡¯ll have to make most of my spells without references from now on. ¡°Ah well. Give me all of them then please.¡± The clerk flinches at her request, looking as if he wants to crawl into a hole and hide. ¡°What is it now?¡± Emily asks with a tired sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you have enough points for that. Each third circle spell costs one thousand.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s fine,¡± Emily says with relief. ¡°That¡¯s just one more rewind. Give me the fire and wind spells for now please.¡± The clerk looks slightly confused by herment, but quickly moves to follow her request. He ces the payment b before her, letting her transfer two thousand points and draining her stockpile to near empty, before turning around and grabbing several items from the drawers behind him. He sets up arge parchment on an inscribing artefact, cing several crystals in to set it up and burning the first spell into ce. He repeats this for the other spell before handing bothrge parchments to Emily. She thanks him and leaves, heading back to her room. Sitting down at her desk, she ces the two oversized scrolls in front of her and unfolds the first. As the crimson writing within is revealed, Emily¡¯s eyes open wide in appreciation. ¡°Woah! What a beautiful magic circle,¡± she mutters. The magic circle on the parchment is massive, with close to a hundred runes and dozens of intricately woven shapes slotting together to form a mass of colour. There are several equations written along the sides of the page: used for calcting the correct angles and sizes of the different sections of the circle that need to be formed in three dimensions to work. The equations change the circle based on several oddly specific variables, like the intended mana input, size, density, and even rotation of the spell. Fireball. Such a simple concept for such aplicated magic circle. Emily pores over the parchment, memorising every line, rune, and equation as usual. After ten minutes, a system window pops into view. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Spell memorised: Fireball [Fireball] [Circle:] Third [Cost:] 1500 Mana/cast [Description:] Summon a ball of mes to wield at will. _____ Emily looks up from the scroll with a smile. 1500 mana is 300 less than zing arrow. Ritual spells really are just inefficient attempts to replicate higher circle spells. I¡¯ll have to rework the arrow into a proper third circle spellter to keep using it. She shuts her eyes, focusing on the new spell and casting it. Arcs of mana shoot from her body, forming into a rotating orb of glowing orange around her. Runes form in a twisting matrix as the crackling orange and white glow fills the room. Emily¡¯s eyes flutter open as she finishes thest calction, cing a few runes into ce and pulsing mana through the magic circle. The spell churns, rotating andpressing, shrinking down and morphing into a burning orb of searing hot orange and white fire hovering in front of Emily. The orb is the same size as Emily¡¯s head, but the powerpressed into the small, dense mana construct makes the air around it quiver. After admiring the spell for a few seconds, Emily dismisses it, dispersing the gathered mana. She turns to the second spell, unrolling the parchment andmitting the contents to memory. Soon, with wind slicer added to her spellbook, she rewinds time again. *** Emily returns to her room again with two more spell scrolls held in her spatial pouch. As she sits down at her desk and pulls them out, she considers her drawstring storage pouch. ¡°I can upgrade you properly now that I¡¯m third circle. I¡¯ll have to work on something to let me carry all the supplies for our expedition. As much as I told Tom he¡¯s invited to carry my bags, I¡¯d rather have my supplies easily essible for me,¡± Emily mumbles to herself before returning her focus to the scrolls. The first one is a water spell named cascade: arge scale area denial attack spell. The second is an earth spell called tremor: the spell the wendigo, Ro, used to cause small earthquakes in The Waters. Hmm. They¡¯re all attack spells. I guess I¡¯ll have to work on my own defensive spells from scratch. ¡°Now,¡± she mutters, ncing down at her pouch-covered belt as she pulls out The Clock. ¡°Let¡¯s gather some data to improve you!¡± Chapter 82 – Proof by Combat Chapter 82 ¨C Proof by Combat The next day, Emily leads her friends towards the training hall after breakfast. They find Dante and Enzo waiting outside the hall¡¯s closed door, Emily having invited them to watch as well in her final loop of the day before. ¡°Hey,¡± Dante calls as they approach. ¡°Why did you want us here?¡± Emily grins, deciding to keep her ascension secret for a little while longer to surprise the two mages. ¡°You¡¯ll see. Just watch my spar and I¡¯ll exin properly afterwards.¡± Both of them shrug, greeting Emily¡¯s other friends as she pushes the door open. Inside the room, Agnes is alone in the centre of the wide-open training space, swinging her sword to warm up. ¡°I was wondering why others were waiting outside. Decided to bring an audience today, did we?¡± Agnes calls over, not turning her head or halting her practice swings. ¡°Of course! I needed someone else to see me crush you,¡± Emily taunts back, walking over and dropping her robes to the floor as she turns her head back to her friends. ¡°Stay at the side of the hall and watch.¡± Without waiting for them to acknowledge hermand, Emily turns her focus back to Agnes, stopping a few metres away and watching the woman closely while also doing some warm-ups out of habit. The two of them have a silent agreement to warm up before a spar, but to start at any point after they¡¯re both in the room. Emily¡¯s gaze never leaves Agnes as she gets her joints moving, watching her every muscle twitch in anticipation of an attack. Looks like I¡¯m initiating today. Without any warning, Emily subtly points her right arm at Agnes. A loud bang sounds, followed by a harsh hissing, as a de shoots towards the one-eyed mage. Agnes smoothly raises her sword and deflects the attack, before stomping down, activating a spell to weigh Emily down and slow her movement, before springing forward to close the distance. With a small burst of machina, the reel attached to the w¡¯s de instantly halts, and Emily pulls her arm to the side, sending the de in a wide arc around her as she bends backwards. Agnes¡¯ de sails over her, and Emily nts her hands on the ground behind her head as both her legs rocket up towards Agnes. Agnes rotates to avoid one of Emily¡¯s legs while driving her elbow down into the other. The two limbs smash against each other, flesh against flesh in a dull thud of impact. Reacting quickly, Agnes moves to grab Emily¡¯s now stationary leg, but the de finishes its arc, wrapping around Emily¡¯s arms and approaching Agnes¡¯ feet. She leaps back to avoid the sweeping wire, breaking their close engagement and allowing Emily to spring off her arms, back into her feet. ¡°Those things are so annoying. Are you sure you won¡¯t make me a pair?¡± Agnes asks with a grin, slowly circling Emily and staring at her exposed arms. The ws have undergone an upgrade since Emily used them in The de. The back of the bracers each holds a small reel of steel thread and a metal crystal underneath the protective tes. Each de¡¯s housing has been reworked to allow them to detach at will and, toplete the ws¡¯ transformation into a ranged weapon, there¡¯s a small sliding rail depositing caps filled with gunpowder in the back of the housing to allow repeated shots. ¡°Sorry, the second generation isn¡¯t for sale!¡± Emily answers with a smug grin, crouching down and digging the balls of her feet into the floor. ¡°Also, you may want to switch spells. This isn¡¯t the right choice anymore.¡± As the words leave her mouth, wind wraps around Emily¡¯s legs, and a blue magic circle forms behind her, filling her body with lightly crackling lightning. Though the two second circle speed enhancements don¡¯t work perfectly together, the enhancement they give together, added to her strengthened agility, make Emily a deadly weapon. She dashes forward, leaving a zing trail of lightning behind her as she appears before Agnes in an instant. Agnes¡¯ eye opens wide in surprise as she barely gets her sword between her abs and Emily¡¯s knee in time. The air around them quivers from the impact as Agnes slides backwards several metres, gritting her teeth. Emily stands calmly, a mad grin on her face as Agnes rubs her stomach with a frown. ¡°You got faster again. How?¡± Emily simply stands in silence, waiting for her to realise. As if on cue, Agnes narrows her eye for a few seconds before letting out a chuckle of disbelief. ¡°You¡¯re unbelievable! I thought I was being harsh when I gave you three years. It¡¯s barely been one!¡± Agnes spins her sword around and drives it into the ground before her, standing with both hands resting on the hilt. ¡°I stand no chance now with second circle spells, do I?¡± Emily shakes her head. ¡°Nope. I¡¯ve already formed a connection with most of my useful ones in the Spellweave too.¡± ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll show you why they call me The Iron Valkyrie then.¡± Emily happily waits as the extra weight from Agnes¡¯ spell vanishes from her shoulders. Arge, silver magic circle spreads from Agnes. Everyone watches in fascination as shimmering liquid metal armour spreads across her skin. The armour curls around her head, wrapping it and hardening into a winged helmet with one eyepletely covered. As the spell nearspletion, the back of the circle pulses brighter, and the armour on Agnes¡¯ back bubbles before sprouting a wide pair of metallic wings, with hundreds of delicate, sharp feathers. Emily sees Agnes¡¯ still exposed mouth stretching into a manic grin, simr to her own, and quickly starts casting more spells. Both ws are wrapped in glowing orange magic circles, and she lets machina pour into them as well. Both mages finish their preparations at the same time and spring forward to meet each other. Emily still moves faster than Agnes by arge margin, but as she extends her arm for a fast strike, a metallic wing sweeps down to meet her. The harsh grinding of metal on metal rings out as Emily¡¯s de nces off theyered feathers, leaving a deep burning gash. Agnes¡¯ sword rises from below while the other wing cuts across from the other side. Emily¡¯s forced to disengage to avoid the dual strikes, leaping backwards while aiming her other w at a gap between the wings and firing the de. The wings of Agnes¡¯ armour react faster than the mage¡¯s body, curling together to close the gap and block the shot. Unbothered, Emily yanks the de back before Agnes can attempt to cut the wire, a trick she¡¯s pulled before. As the de flies back past Emily, she drops the other de from its housing and starts spinning them both around her, forming a mesmerising whirlwind of metal, fire, and lightning. Her arms move so quickly that the flying des turn into a blur. Utilising the immense momentum, Emily startsshing out with the des, forcing Agnes on the defensive and carving chunks in her armour. They fall into a stalemate for a few seconds, Emily sending out dozens of shes a second, each with the force to cleave a man in two, and Agnes skilfully deflecting them with her wings to take minimal damage. Agnes breaks the stalemate first when she manages to drive one of Emily¡¯s des into the floor before she can pull it back. The moment the gap is exposed, Agnes charges forward raising her sword for an attack and trusting her wings to defend her. Her sword swings down, shing through the wire of the still-free de before sharply changing angles and sailing towards Emily¡¯s body. Emily simply grins, and steps forward to meet the sword before suddenly dropping from Agnes¡¯ vision. Agnes has no time to react as Emily rapidly pivots on one foot, spinning around and driving her heel into the Valkyrie¡¯s chin. The metal spikes sticking out of her boot crumple the ps of metal guarding Agnes¡¯ face, and she¡¯s sent tumbling backwards to the floor, her spell falling apart. Emily cancels all of her spells and pulls back the de stuck in the floor, slowly rising to stand, rxed as Agnes groans and tries to push herself off the floor. Agnes¡¯ arms give way beneath her, and she hits the floor with a grunt before rolling onto her back and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Emily walks over, reaching into her storage pouch and pulling out a healing potion. She arrives beside Agnes and sits down, passing the copsed woman the potion that she dly gulps down. ¡°Urgh,¡± she groans as she sits up, rubbing her chin. ¡°Damn, that was fast. I didn¡¯t even see you moving at the end.¡± ¡°Haha, thanks. Your Iron Valkyrie spell is really cool. Are those wings acting independently, or are you controlling them?¡± ¡°It''s all me. I¡¯d usually use them as extra weapons or to increase my mobility, but my mind¡¯s the only part of me that can keep up with you now, apparently, so they got relegated to defence.¡± ¡°I see. Well, I did promise to help you with your speed issue once I reached third circle, didn¡¯t I?¡± Emily reminds her with an excited grin. ¡°Yes, you did,¡± Agnes responds with a matching expression. ¡°First, though, go deal with your spectators.¡± Emily nods and stands up, turning towards her stunned friends. ¡°Oh, and Emily?¡± Agnes calls after her, making her pause in her steps. ¡°You should find a way to reinforce or protect that wire. It¡¯s too obvious a weak point.¡± With a smug grin, Emily flicks her wrist. A shimmering silver wire shoots from the empty w towards the discarded de on the floor. The wire extends quickly, travelling unnaturally smoothly for a thin wire with no weight to it. It curls around a hole at the end of the de before retracting quickly, pulling the de back into ce in its housing. ¡°I¡¯ve added the option for a magical wire to give extra length, precision, and reparability mid-fight. But, it requires a little more conscious control and adds a trackable magical signature to the de, so I don¡¯t use it by default.¡± She turns away as Agnes nods thoughtfully, approaching her friends. ¡°Well done on reaching third circle,¡± Enzo says enviously as she gets closer. ¡°Congrats!¡± Dante joins in with a cheery grin. ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily says before turning her attention away from the two boys towards her other friends. ¡°So, do you see what Ivor meant now?¡± Tom, Hester, and Juliana all nod, conceding her point. ¡°Fair y. That was terrifying. How did you move so fast?¡± Hester asks with a thoughtful gaze, bringing a smile to Emily¡¯s face. She got over the shock and went straight to trying to understand how I did it. The difference between these siblings just keeps bing more obvious. ncing towards Tom, who¡¯s still staring at her in disbelief, Emily sighs internally. ¡°I¡¯m already faster than most mages should be thanks to my slightly odd cultivation,¡± Emily partially lies, unwilling to reveal the existence of machina yet, even to her friends. ¡°And then I enhanced myself with two spells: wind rush, which just affects my leg speed; and lightning body, which affects my whole body¡¯s speed and reflexes.¡± ¡°Whoa!¡± Tom lets out an exmation. ¡°How many spells can you cast at once?¡± ¡°Quite a few,¡± Emily admits bashfully, not having even considered her multicasting increase since her recent ascension, the use of multiple cores feeling so natural. ¡°So,¡± Emily says with a p, forcing the conversation back on track. ¡°Was that enough to convince you an expedition with just the seven of us is safe?¡± ¡°Wait, an expedition?¡± Enzo cuts in, confused. ¡°Yes. I want to n an expedition to go into the depths of The Waters, leaving in a month.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in!¡± Dante says immediately, drawing a chuckle from Emily. ¡°I thought you might be,¡± Emily says, looking towards the others pointedly. ¡°I¡¯m in,¡± signs Ivor without a doubt. ¡°Same. I wouldn¡¯t miss a chance to make history,¡± Enzo adds with a smirk. ¡°Make history?¡± Tom asks curiously. ¡°Yeah. No one¡¯s ever made it much further into The Crystal Waters than we did on ourst expedition. If Emily ns on going deeper, we¡¯ll probably be going further than ever before,¡± Enzo answers with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. ¡°Howe? Haven¡¯t any fourth circle mages gone further?¡± Hester asks. ¡°As far as I¡¯m aware, only once. Apparently, near the end of thest war with Morzea, there was a third circle dungeon discovered deep in The de and a few of our fourth circle mages went to fight for it. Other than that, they seem to avoid The de.¡± Emily frowns at Enzo¡¯s answer. How odd. Are they scared of The de or something? ¡°Cool! If it¡¯s a chance to be included in an important historical event, I¡¯m in!¡± Tom says cheerfully. ¡°I can¡¯t let this idiot get himself killed, so I guess I¡¯ming,¡± Hester says with a sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be fine after your disy, Emily. But, knowing him, he¡¯ll walk into the open jaws of a beast if I don¡¯t watch him.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Everyone chuckles at herment, and Emily turns to Juliana, thest member of the group yet to answer. ¡°I already asked toe with you. I¡¯m not changing my mind. Besides, that was terrifying! How could you two attack each other so fiercely with real weapons? It¡¯s no wonder you always end up with cuts and bruises,¡± Julianains with a frown, making Emily smile. ¡°Haha. We never aim for vitals, so unless we get really unlucky, we¡¯ll never take more damage than a healing potion and a few days'' rest can fix. Now, I still have some stuff to talk to Agnes about, and need some more sparring to get used to my new strength, so how about we meet up at lunch again and go register the expedition together afterwards?¡± Everyone nods at her suggestion before wishing her luck and moving to leave the hall. ¡°Oh! Enzo, Dante,¡± Emily calls after them before they can leave. ¡°I¡¯m trying to keep my ascension on the down low for now. I would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t say anything to anyone for a while.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Emily nods and waves them goodbye as the training hall door slides shut. She turns back and approaches Agnes. ¡°Sorry to keep you waiting. Now, let¡¯s talk about this tattoo,¡± she says with an excited grin. Chapter 83 – Tattoo Chapter 83 ¨C Tattoo ¡°nning another expedition?¡± Agnes asks with a raised brow, ignoring Emily¡¯s deration. ¡°Yeah. I want to have a look further into The Crystal Waters. Maybe find a dungeon this time if I¡¯m lucky. Why? Wannae?¡± Emily says with a teasing grin. ¡°No thanks,¡± Agnes says with a scoff. ¡°I¡¯m not one for fighting mindless beasts. Though, I guess you¡¯d fit right in.¡± ¡°Ha. Well, this mindless beast needs to design a new spell for your tattoo. So, sit down and tell me about yourbat spells¡¯ lightning resistance.¡± Agnes nods, her face shifting to a serious expression as she drops to the ground. ¡°The main spells I use on myself inbat are steel body and iron Valkyrie. Iron Valkyrie gives the same resistance as steel body does, so you should be able to adjust the spell for steel body.¡± ¡°Got it. Please activate steel body for me then. I¡¯m going to take some measurements.¡± Anges nods and starts casting. Her skin shimmers as a silver glow envelopes her, wrapping her skin and muscles in a metallic sheen of power. Emily walks behind her, dropping down and cing both palms against her skin. ¡°Tell me when the lightning starts getting painful.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Emily casts stunning touch, maintaining the spell and pouring a constant stream of weak magical lightning into Agnes, who doesn¡¯t even flinch as the spell activates. Emily slowly starts pouring more mana in, adjusting the spell to increase the power output. The spell reaches the same strength as a second circle attack spell and Agnes visibly grits her teeth. ¡°I feel it now, but it¡¯s still bearable.¡± Nodding and making note in a nk folder, Emily continues increasing the spell¡¯s power. After a few more seconds, Agnes hisses and taps out. ¡°It hurts now.¡± Emily cancels the spell instantly, letting the crackling lightning fade but keeping her hands on Agnes¡¯ back. ¡°Got it. I have a good reference for how strong I can tune the spell now. Please stay still for a little bit longer and don¡¯t resist my scans so I can take your physical measurements and some measurements of your mana circuits,¡± Emily says calmly. ¡°Wait, why do you need those?¡± Agnes asks in confusion, ncing over her shoulder at Emily. ¡°Well, unlike a standard enchanted tattoo, I¡¯m not just tattooing an already-designed pattern. So, in this case, I can model the spell around your system to give it maximum efficiency by doing things like putting intake runes near junction points in your magic circuits.¡± ¡°What about my physical measurements?¡± ¡°They¡¯d normally take those when you actually get the tattoo and just scale it to you then and there. I¡¯m just making it easier on myself by grabbing them in one go now.¡± ¡°Okay. Scan away I guess.¡± Agnes turns back and goes still. Emily shuts her eyes, first sending a light stream of machina to trace the entirety of Agnes¡¯ body. In a few seconds, Emily has a full three-dimensional render of Agnes drawn into her notes with every dimension she could need recorded around it. Next, she releases a slow stream of unattributed mana, keeping it linked to herself while guiding it around Agnes¡¯ system. It¡¯s a much slower process, as Emily has to adjust the stream constantly to stop it bing so weak it¡¯s dispersed by Agnes¡¯ internal mana movement, or so strong that it¡¯s perceived as an attack. Ten minutester, Emily opens her eyes and lets out a sigh of relief. ¡°There we go. That should be all the measurements I need for now.¡± Agnes stands up, cracking her neck in relief. ¡°Thank Goddess. I should¡¯ve known it would be ufortable to have someone else poking around inside my body like that.¡± ¡°Just wait till I actually do the tattoo. It¡¯s gonna get a whole lot worse,¡± Emily teases. ¡°Now, final question. Where do you want the tattoo to cover? The more skin used the more effective I can make it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with everything but my face, so go wild. Now, let¡¯s continue sparring. I won¡¯t be happy if I don¡¯t hit that smug face of yours at least once before sses start.¡± ¡°Ha, good luck,¡± Emily replies, standing up and preparing her spells to go again. *** Emily returns to her room after finishing her spar with Agnes, who has agreed not to tell anyone about her ascension, something she didn¡¯t even care to question. Emily sets about designing the tattoo for Agnes, spinning together spells in the Spellweave to use as a foundation. Hmm. This is far moreplicated than making a normal spell. It will probably take me a couple of days if I fully devote myself to it. Let¡¯s throw this to my two secondary cores to do in the background. It should be ready in a week if I do that. Come lunchtime, she casts the task to her other cores and heads to meet her friends. Dante and Enzo join them for lunch today, and afterwards, they all head to the hub together. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± the clerk behind the counter, Anka, asks with a dead stare. ¡°Woah. What are you doing here during the day?¡± Emily asks with confusion. ¡°Haaaa. I went over budget this month, so I¡¯m having to take extra shifts,¡± Anka says with a tired sigh. ¡°Please don¡¯t make it worse.¡± ¡°Sorry. I¡¯d like to register for an expedition please,¡± Emily says apologetically. Poor girl. Alchemy is an expensive vocation. ¡°Sure, let me get the paperwork now.¡± Anka turns around, slowly gathering a few sheets of paper and a few magical instruments before returning. ¡°Okay. Now, first, I expect you are the leader of this expedition?¡± Emily nods at her question. ¡°Great. Please note your name, circle, and family affiliation down here then.¡± She ces down a sheet Emily recognises from Oscar¡¯s expedition along with an enchanted quill. ¡°Sure. Just checking, but who gets to see these forms?¡± Emily asks before writing anything. ¡°Before the expedition, only me, the clerk who files them, and the members of staff who approve the expedition. Afterwards, any of the families registered as participating can request these forms along with the results of the expedition. Why?¡± Anka asks as her shoulders sag and the bags under her eyes seem to grow. Her family aren¡¯t close to the Mandragos and she¡¯s far too disinterested to spread information. She¡¯ll probably care more about getting rid of me quickly than how I answer. Making a quick decision, Emily answers honestly. ¡°I don¡¯t want my sponsor family to find out my circle yet.¡± ¡°I see. Don¡¯t worry. The mages giving approvals are all Covenant affiliates and are under contracts not to leak information. Just register with a different family affiliation and they¡¯ll never know,¡± Anka says, pushing the sheet towards Emily. ¡°That¡¯s not against the rules?¡± Emily asks while filling out the sheet. ¡°Nope,¡± Anka responds curtly. Odd. Why do they even give us a chance to give the credit of our expeditions to a different family? They definitely have records of which family we belong to. Emily shrugs and finishes writing, cing the quill down and passing the sheet back. ¡°Done. Next, all of you add your information to this sheet please.¡± Anka hands another sheet to Juliana beside Emily. ¡°While they¡¯re doing that. You fill out this. It¡¯s just simple stuff on when you¡¯re leaving, how long you n on being gone for, and the goals of the expedition.¡± Emily takes the next sheet and fills it out as well, guessing that the trip would take two months. They soon finish the paperwork and hand it over for Anka to submit, signing with their magic signatures. ¡°There you go, your expedition should be approved within a few weeks. Anything else?¡± ¡°Nope. Thanks for your help!¡± Emily says, leaving the tired girl to her work and leading her friends away from the counter to talk. ¡°Who¡¯d you sign up under?¡± Hester asks once they¡¯re clear of the counter¡¯s queue. ¡°The Madonna family,¡± Emily responds with a grin, before turning her best puppy dog eyes on Juliana. ¡°And it would be wonderful if said family could help me out with securing transport to and from The de.¡± ¡°Of course, you don¡¯t want to deal with the boring bits.¡± Juliana rolls her eyes, a teasing glint in her smile. ¡°Sure, I¡¯d be happy to help. Do you need help collecting preservable food as well?¡± ¡°Yes please!¡± *** A weekter, Emily knocks on the door to Agnes¡¯ room early in the morning. After a few seconds of waiting, the door fades from existence and Agnes wees her in. ¡°Come on through. I¡¯ve set up space in my study.¡± Emily nods and walks in, taking in the minimalistic setup of the mage¡¯s room. Unlike Jenny¡¯sfortable, personalised living space, Agnes¡¯ room is in and undecorated. It¡¯s surprisingly simr to Emily¡¯s room before she added masses of machines, just slightly bigger and with more doors leading to connected spaces. Agnes guides her towards one of said doors, opening it up to reveal her study. Emilyughs in approval as she steps in, the room far more in line with what she expected of the woman. There¡¯s a single shelf with a small collection of books ced next to a wide desk, but all of the walls in the room are coated with hanging weapons of various types. From flintlock pistols to spears and bows, Emily can¡¯t help but appreciate the vast collection, recognising a few of themissions Agnes ordered from her. ¡°It¡¯s impressive, isn¡¯t it?¡± Agnes asks with a smug grin, noticing Emily¡¯s interest. ¡°I have more in my practice room. I¡¯ll show them to you afterwards, if you want.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Emily agrees, interested in using some of Agnes¡¯ more exotic pieces that she didn¡¯t make herself for inspiration. Emily turns her attention away from the weapons to the middle of the room, where a small wheeled stool and a low, padded table are ced surrounded by a few secondary tables. She walks over and settles down on the stool, ncing at Agnes, hovering in the door unsure what to do. ¡°Could you grab me some water please while I get everything set up?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Agnes says, leaving the room. Emily turns back to the tables and reaches out, conjuring items from her newly created spatial item. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Utility Belt] [Rank:] D [Description:] A belt of five interwoven holder-locked pocket dimensions. [Effect:] Allows the user to freely ess one hundred and twenty-five square metres of storage space. _____ The belt is a delicate work of magic that took Emily a few days of frozen time to refine. Five of the six pouches on the belt have a lesser space crystal held within, with a simr spell to her drawstring pouch carved on. The leather belt itself has several runes woven in, and another crystal attached in the small of her back, creating a control array that allows Emily to summon items from any of the separate spaces at will, surpassing the size limit on third circle storage spells by sidestepping the issue. The sixth pouch on the belt is left untouched for The Clock, since she discovered it¡¯s impossible to ce the mysterious pocket watch into dimensional storage. The small tables around Emily quickly fill with different jars of beast materials, magic crystals, and a few tools. She starts preparing the ingredients, crushing crystals, pulping beast flesh, and even burning a few items to mix the ashes in with the rest. A little whileter Emily looks up from her prepared salves and inks, the design of which required a stint in frozen time to perfect. Agnes is sitting on a chair at the side watching, having re-entered the room earlier only to be ignored by Emily. ¡°You ready?¡± she asks expectantly. ¡°Yep. Please strip to your underwear and lie down on your stomach. I¡¯ll start with your back,¡± Emily answers without looking up, cleaning up the now empty containers and dirty tools. Agnesplies, dropping her clothes to the floor and climbing onto the padded table. Emily finishes clearing up and looks at Agnes, pulling out a full virtual stencil of the tattoo array andying it over her body. She gives Agnes a once over, checking the tattoo lines up as she expected and appreciating the old battle scars Agnes has kept. Looks good. She reaches for a ck salve in a ramekin next to her and scoops out a healthy portion of the gunk. Carefully, she smears it across the stencil on Agnes¡¯ back, slowly drawing out aplicated mix of lines and runes. Agnes shivers slightly at the cold touch, but otherwise says nothing as Emily works. Emily switches between a few different magical mixes, painting on several colours and textures. After a while, Emily asks Agnes to flip over. ¡°Wait, is that it?¡± Agnes asks confusedly as she turns. ¡°It didn¡¯t even hurt.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles. ¡°No, that¡¯s just me preparing. I¡¯m getting all of your skin prepped before I start tattooing. You¡¯ll definitely know when the real thing starts.¡± She repeats her work on the front, covering Agnes in a dizzying pattern from her neck down to her toes and pushing her underwear out of the way at times toplete the whole pattern. ¡°Done. Onto your front again please. I¡¯m starting properly now.¡± Agnes nods and turns over while Emily picks up a set of thin, hollow white iron needles. She dips each of them into a different ink, thenys them down on a tray next to their respective inks. She keeps one of them in her hand, leans against the table in front of her, and raises it to the centre of the patterns on Agnes¡¯ back. ¡°This is going to hurt. Please don¡¯t resist, and try not to move too much, or this will take a lot longer. Just let me know if you need to bite something,¡± Emily says calmly, herstment making Agnes flinch slightly. ¡°It can¡¯t be that bad, right?¡± Emily doesn¡¯t respond, taking a deep breath and releasing it, falling into a deep focused trance. She lowers the needle to the skin and pours a carefully calcted spark of lightning attributed mana in before stabbing down. In one careful, almost mechanical, motion, the needle punctures the skin, injects a mix of ink and mana, then pulls back. Almost instantly, her hand shifts imperceptibly to the right and stabs again. Emily¡¯s hand turns into a blur, repeating the same motion over and over again without a millimetre of deviation from the intended path, carving a line of magic into Agnes¡¯ body. The mana and beast materials mixed into the ink react with the salve smeared on her skin and burn into the flesh below. Agnes grits her teeth as the mix sears deep into her, forcing herself to remain calm and preventing her mana from fighting back. Emily ignores Agnes¡¯ reaction, not even hearing her gruntedints through her deep trance. Her hand shes between the tray and Agnes, switching needles and mana elements smoothly, growing the pattern slowly. After several hours of nonstop movement, including getting Agnes to flip halfway through, Emilypletes her artwork. She sits back, dropping a bloodstained needle onto the tray and letting out a sigh of relief. Agnes lets out a tired groan, turning her head to look at Emily with minimal movement. ¡°Are you done?¡± ¡°Yep! And, I have to say, I really outdid myself, considering it¡¯s my first time,¡± Emily says with pride, admiring her work. ¡°Considering how much it hurt, you¡¯d better have,¡± Agnes grumbles with more than a little resentment, forcing herself to sit up. ¡°Let¡¯s see if it was worth it.¡± Chapter 84 – Reclaiming Debts Chapter 84 ¨C Reiming Debts Agnes pulls herself up from the table, looking down at herself. She raises her arms, gazing over the closely woven patterns with slight awe. ¡°It¡¯s certainly the mostplicated enchanted tattoo I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± She taps her foot on the ground, releasing shimmering silver mana into the air before her where it coalesces into a full-body mirror. ¡°Woah!¡± A quiet exmation leaves her mouth as she stares at the weaving patterns wrapping her muscles, turning and admiring their spread across her back as well. Emily nods in agreement with a small, proud smile. The tattoo is a blend of pale blue, green, and silver, spreading down from Agnes¡¯ nape to cover almost all of her skin, entuating her well-defined muscles. ¡°It looks great,¡± Agnes says with a satisfied smile, turning to face Emily. ¡°Now, let¡¯s test it!¡± She puts her clothes back on before leading Emily into another room attached to her living space. The room is a miniature version of the training hall they use for lessons, with a packed dirt floor and weapons hanging from the walls. ¡°How do I use it? It¡¯s not permanently active, right?¡± Agnes asks, standing in the centre of the space, facing Emily. ¡°First, activate steel body, unless you want a nasty shock, then simply inject a bit of mana into the activation rune at the top of your neck,¡± Emily says, eagerly awaiting the test herself. Agnes reaches a hand up to touch the back of her neck as a silver glow envelopes her. ¡°Here?¡± she says and the tattoose alive, lighting up with a vibrant glow and sending crackling lightning across her skin. The patterns seem to shift with the lightning, ying tricks on Emily¡¯s eyes as she watches Agnes raising her arms to observe the effect. ¡°This feels weird,¡± Agnes mutters, staring at her hands. ¡°Does it hurt at all?¡± ¡°No. It feels like a faint buzzing in all of my muscles at once.¡± ¡°Perfect. I tuned it as close as I could to your resistance with steel body active, so the difort should fade as you get used to it. It will drain about half as much mana as a second circle boosting spell, so you should be able to keep it up for a while. Just, be careful not to activate it without another spell to increase your lightning resistance. I did make sure it wouldn¡¯t be strong enough to disable you if you do, but it¡¯ll hurt like a bitch and definitely mess you up mid fight.¡± Agnes nods at her advice, flexing her fingers before crouching and feeling the difference in her legs. ¡°Got it. Now for the fun bit. How fast does it make me?¡± Agnes¡¯ eye flicks briefly towards Emily, and Emily¡¯s lips part into a smug grin as she realises what Agnes is about to try. Sorry. But even with this spell you¡¯re... Agnes springs up from her crouch, spinning around and whipping her leg towards Emily¡¯s chest. Emily¡¯s arm snaps up to catch her ankle, stopping the attack dead in its tracks as her feet slide back a few centimetres. ¡°Still slower than me!¡± she finishes her thought out loud, ignoring the stinging ache in her hand from catching Agnes¡¯ metallic foot. Ignoring her taunt, Agnes pulls her leg back and proceeds to throw attack after attack at Emily, who smoothly dodges or counters every blow at high speed. After a few minutes, Agnes stops and deactivates her tattoo and spell. ¡°I should be happy that you¡¯ve given me such an effective speed increase, but I¡¯m honestly slightly annoyed I¡¯m still slower than you. What the hell are you? You didn¡¯t even use magic!¡± ¡°Haha. Well, let¡¯s just say my breathing technique does something simr to your tattoo naturally. Perks of being a lightning mage.¡± She avoids answering the question honestly, skirting around it with a well-practised excuse. ¡°Tsk,¡± Agnes clicks her tongue, but her grin shows theck of malice behind it. ¡°How much do I owe you then?¡± ¡°Not much, only about six hundred points.¡± Agnes nods and holds out her hand for Emily¡¯s crest. She transfers a thousand points, but cuts Emily off before she can object, walking past her and tapping her on the shoulder. ¡°I would have had to pay at least triple to a lightning engraver for that quality of work, if I could find one. If you have aint, spend the extra points on your expedition prep ande back safe. It would be a shame to lose a good sparring partner.¡± Emily smiles and follows her out. ¡°Fine. I can always use more explosives.¡± *** A few dayster, Emily settles in her room for the morning, her weapons spread across the workbench before her. ¡°Hmmm. I need more grenades. I can take loads now I can fill my belt with them. The same with bullets,¡± she mumbles, ncing at her two new firearms. The first, the Whisper, is a long, sleek ck and white bolt-action rifle. The main body is delicately machined from a ck iron alloy, appearing more grey than ck in a few ces, and it¡¯s lined with carefully iid veins of white iron, with a dense swirling pattern wrapping the barrel. The adjustable telescopic scope above is a work of art, crafted from metal and ss, allowing Emily to target enemies from as close as ten metres to as far as thousands. It has several small dials around it to flick between internal lenses and adjust their positions at will. The back of the rifle has a sturdy metal stock with several wind crystals embedded along the side to power the eleration and silencing spells woven along the body and barrel. The top holds afortable leather cheek rest in line with the scope. On the side of the gun, just above where her thumb would rest when firing, is a small switch. It can be flipped between the three firing modes of the gun: safe, where the trigger won¡¯t move anything inside no matter how much it¡¯s pulled; silent, the normal firing mode where only the sound dampening array is activated; full, the power hungry mode with the eleration array active as well. Underneath the gun, sitting just in front of the trigger assembly, is the pride of Emily¡¯s innovation within thest few months, a magazine. Unlike the cylinder fed clockwork rifles of the military, the magazine can hold bullets in a morepact, quick to reload form. The bullets held within are hefty, being slightly bigger than one of Emily¡¯s fingers with the cartridge included, and weighing almost triple that of one of her handgun bullets. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Whisper {Gen.1}] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +4 Dex, +3 Agil [Description:] A sleek enchanted rifle designed for long-range silent shooting. [Effect:] Fires silent bullets over great distance. _____ The second gun is a new pistol, the Spitter. Simr to the Whisper, it¡¯s mostly ck with small grey ents. But, unlike the Whisper, there is only a single wind crystal embedded into the trigger guard. The grip houses a magazine in the bottom, and the firing selector switch on the side also flips between three modes: safe, single-fire, and three-round burst. The wind crystal is only used for the burst mode to chamber rounds rapidly without wasting any power from the shot itself. However, to bnce this, the end of the barrel has a threaded end, and next to the gun is a stumpy ck cylinder of metal with a sound dampening spell carved into it, and the requisite wind crystal for power, for Emily to attach at will. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Spitter {Gen.1}] [Rank:] E [Stats:] +3 Dex, +4 Agil [Description:] A pistol designed for rapid fire. [Effect:] Fires low calibre bullets in single fire or three-round bursts. _____ ¡°Maybe I should pay a visit to the ck market again to stock up on gunpowder,¡± Emily mutters with a malicious grin. ¡°Time to im some debts.¡± She stands up and taps the Whisper, sending it into her storage space, before she straps the ws back into ce and drops the Spitter into a thigh holster, with several magazines attached around it for good measure. *** Emily catches a train out into the city, descending to the lower levels and stepping out into the mist filled streets. She pulls down the hood of her crestless robes, obscuring her face. Ignoring the shifty figures lingering in the side alleys, Emily marches on through the winding streets before ducking out of the way into a narrow gap between two towering metal buildings. She walks past an open shop front selling cheap skewers of indiscernible meat, checking The Clock and noting the time as she approaches a heavy metal door set into the building beside it. I hope the password Ed gave me isn¡¯t a trap. I liked Machineworks. I¡¯d hate to find out he was in on this. She ms her fist into the door. Four fast taps. A three-second pause. Two beats. Half a second pause. Two beats. A two-second pause. Three fast taps. A few momentster, a peep-door slides open. ¡°The ck oak¡¯s roots spread far and wide,¡± a squeaky, high pitched voice says on the other side. ¡°The shade of its branches can¡¯t hide the rot within,¡± Emily answers. A short burst of clicking and grindingter, the heavy door swings open. She steps in, casting a sideways nce towards the guard, noting the undrawn gun at his hip. No reaction yet. Hopefully that means that¡¯s the normal password. She continues down the stairs without a word, heading towards the underground haven of trade. Stepping out of the narrow stairwell, Emily turns and heads straight for the arms dealer she dealt with before. She remains on high alert, observing everyone around her and looking for anyone conspicuous who may be helping The Crystal Skull keep track of her, but finds nothing. So far so good. She pushes open the door to the small weapons shop and steps in, once again being hit by a strong stench of smoke and booze. ¡°You know. It¡¯s a wonder you¡¯re able to cover the smell of gunpowder so well,¡± Emily calls to the shop owner slumped over the counter. He grunts and drags himself up, ring at her. ¡°What do you want?¡± he asks gruffly. ¡°Nothing much. I just want you to answer a few questions,¡± she responds while flipping her hood down. ¡°Why would I-¡° the shop owner starts, before freezing as he recognises Emily, the colour draining from his face. That doesn¡¯t look like the face of someone who was warning me about danger. ¡°Good! You recognise me. That will make this easy.¡± Emily sees with crystal rity as the man¡¯s shoulders shift ever so slightly, his right hand, hidden behind the counter, reaching for something. She bursts forwards, closing the distance before the man can react. With a light spring of her ankles, her legs clear the counter and she slides over to nt a w into the man¡¯s shoulder, knocking him off his chair and pinning him to the ground with her knee pressed against his chest. ¡°Argh!¡± he cries out in pain, reaching up to push Emily off with his uninjured arm. Emily simply catches his hand before he can touch her, holding it still as she looks for what he was reaching for. She sees a double barrel shotgun sitting on a hidden shelf. ¡°Now that¡¯s not clever. I just wanted to ask you some questions, but you¡¯re making this look a lot worse for yourself,¡± Emily says as she looks back down at the man below her. ¡°Now, are you going to satisfy my curiosity? Or do I need to find other ways to persuade you?¡± She twists the de in his shoulder for effect, watching as his face contorts in pain. ¡°Ahhhh! I¡¯ll tell you whatever you want. Just fucking stop!¡± he spits out through gritted teeth. ¡°Why did you send me to The Crystal Skull?¡± ¡°They paid me! A woman came in a few hours after you left the first time you were here and gave me three gold to tell you about their tent.¡± Emily nods, having expected as much. ¡°I see. And what do you actually know about The Crystal Skull?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Emily tightens her grip on the man¡¯s hand, sending a shock of pain through his arm. ¡°AHHH! FUCK! I DON¡¯T KNOW ANYTHING!¡± he screams as something cracks. Emily loosens her grip slightly, and he pants out in relief. ¡°You expect me to believe that? If you know nothing, why did you look so horrified to see me again?¡± ¡°Look, I only know some rumours. Some of my drinking buddies have mentioned that they sometimes go asking around about people, and those people always disappear! That¡¯s all I know. I swear!¡± Useless. ¡°See, you did know something!¡± Emily says with a smile, pulling her w out of the man¡¯s shoulder and drawing it quickly across his throat. She drops his hand and stands up, retracting the w and turning away from his panicked, choking form. She jumps back over the counter, leaving the shop owner to suffer in a pool of his own blood. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m only worth three gold,¡± Emily mutters as she flips her hood back up and steps out of the shop. She takes in her surroundings while walking away, checking for people watching or following her as she moves towards The Crystal Skull¡¯s tent. A minute after leaving the weapons dealer, Emily notices a pair of eyes focused on her. She turns a few corners and, sure enough, a cloaked figure follows. Hello there, stalker. Did the guard recognise me after all? Or were they watching the arms dealer in case I came back? Either way, there are clearly several people here working with that bitch. She arrives at the small white tent and pushes her way in through the front p, ignoring her pursuer for now to see how they react. The sweet scent of inhibition incense hits her nose immediately, but is burnt away by the machina coursing through Emily¡¯s body before it can do anything. ¡°Hello there. How can I help you?¡± the same deceptively gentle-looking woman fromst time asks, fixing Emily with her piercing emerald gaze. ¡°Can you answer some questions for me?¡± Emily asks, keeping her hood lowered over her face. ¡°Well it depends on what you want to know, honey. How about you take off your hood and ask away?¡± Emily flips her hood off, watching surprise and amusement run across the woman¡¯s face. ¡°Well hello again, cutie. It¡¯s not often someone escapes me, and none of them were dumb enough to return. Did your escape give you the confidence toe back?¡± Emily smirks at the taunting question. Before she can respond though, she feels movement behind her and notices the woman¡¯s gaze shaking slightly. Trying to sneak up on a space mage? Bad idea. ¡°It did! And - I¡¯m dying to know - did you think I¡¯d simply tuck my tail and run?¡± Emily pulls out the Spitter and points it backwards over her shoulder, activating her sound-deadening earrings before squeezing the trigger. A bullet tears out of the barrel, ripping a hole through the head of the man approaching behind her. A loud bang fills the tent, and the man¡¯s body slumps to the floor at the same time as the bullet¡¯s casing. ¡°Because that¡¯s not really my style.¡± The woman¡¯s eyes open wide in shock. ¡°Now, would you like to tell me who else here works for you?¡± Instead of answering, the woman grits her teeth, her smile morphing into a fierce re. Before Emily can enjoy the look of anger on her enemy¡¯s face, the woman¡¯s eyes roll into the back of her head and she slumps over the counter. Shit. Emily approaches the woman and pokes her with a w, getting no reaction. She reaches out and pushes her hand through the woman¡¯s thick, wavy hair to press her fingers to her neck. There isn¡¯t a single beat of life left. Really? I hadn¡¯t even started! Chapter 85 – Fox Hunting Chapter 85 ¨C Fox Hunting Emily sighs, looking over the two corpses in the tent and the blood-sttered tarp around them. ¡°Well, shit! I know Oscar said they killed themselves when captured, but I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d be quite that decisive. Was it the gun?¡± she mutters to herself, biting her thumb. ¡°I expected it to take a few resets, given I want to try and deal with as many of these mage killers as possible, but it may be harder to find them all than I¡¯d like. Ah well, I¡¯ll give it a few attempts and see how it goes.¡± Emily starts checking the woman¡¯s body for anything that may lead her to her aplices. She finds several hidden des tucked into the woman¡¯s sleeves and strapped to her body: which turns out to be surprisingly toned, with obvious signs of rigorous training. Inside the woman¡¯s mouth, she finds a cracked, off-white tooth, leaking a ck liquid down her throat. Don¡¯t give them time to grit their teeth I guess. She doesn¡¯t find a single item formunication, but she does find a tattoo of the an impaled skull on the inside of the woman¡¯s left forearm. Huh. Did they really mark their members? That should make it a whole lot easier to confirm who¡¯s with them. Scoffing, Emily turns away from the woman to check the man¡¯s corpse too. She nces at the bloody hole between his eyes, grinning slightly. Nice shot. She pulls back the ck cloak covering him, finding two arm length swords strapped at his hips. The man himself is thin, with apact muscr frame. She finds the same tattoo on his left arm, and two items, one in each trouser pocket. The first is a small pouch of dark, ash-like powder that Emily recognises as inhibition powder, and the other is a small, glowing white crystal. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Inhibition Powder] [Rank:] E [Description:] A magicalpound used for blocking mana circuits. [Effect:] Inhibits the mana flow of living beings third circle and below. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Mana Detection Crystal] [Rank:] F [Description:] A crystal used for identifying mages and beasts. [Effect:] Emits light and mana when within ten metres of a living being''s mana signature. _____ ¡°I see. Did he start following me because this reacted to me? Do they have someone with one of these near each entrance? Or was he just hanging around?¡± Emily mutters while standing up. ¡°It¡¯s a shame the inhibition powder doesn¡¯t work on fourth circle mages though.¡± She sends both items into her storage and leaves the tent, looking around the street outside. Everybody nearby sends nervous nces towards her, but nobody approaches her to question the gunshot. She walks away from the bloodstained tent, disappearing into the ck market. Let¡¯s see if anyone else reacts to my mana signature. Emily walks the alleys, constantly checking over her shoulder for any pursuit. It doesn¡¯t take long for her to pick up another tail. She leads them towards one of the market¡¯s exits, moving halfway up the stairs before turning and waiting for her follower to approach. A hooded figure steps into her line of sight and Emily wastes no time, springing forward with her arm outstretched. She catches the figure by the throat and ms them into the wall. The woman in her hands coughs, her lungs emptied by the force of the blow, and Emily mercilessly grabs her jaw, wrenching it open, breaking something in the process. The sound of the woman¡¯s pained howl drowns out the sound of the small pouch that Emily senses falling from the woman¡¯s hand and hitting the ground. A small dark cloud fills the tunnel for a moment, before fading away. Emily simply ignores it, letting her machina burn out the inhibition powder she inhaled before it can do anything. The woman quickly recovers from her shock and starts reaching for something within her cloak, but Emily drives a knee into her stomach, stunning her again, before reaching into her mouth and ripping out an off-white tooth. The woman screams in pain, fruitlessly struggling against Emily¡¯s grip. ¡°Now that you can¡¯t bite that, how about we have a little chat?¡± Emily says, loosening her grip on the woman¡¯s throat slightly to let her breathe and knocking her hood off to get a clear look at her face. The woman looks young, maybe only a year or two older than Emily, and her face is covered in freckles, her hazel eyes set in a furious re. She has short, messy ck hair, slicked back with grease. The girl closes her mouth, grunting in pain as it fails to line up properly, but says nothing while attempting to reach into her cloak again. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you now, that¡¯s not gonna work,¡± Emily says calmly beforeshing out with the w on her free hand and splitting the girl¡¯s arm open. The girl shrieks in pain, but before Emily can question her, her eyes roll back and she suddenly falls limp. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue, checking the girl¡¯s pulse and finding her dead. ¡°What the fuck did she kill herself with?¡± Emily lets go of her throat, letting her corpse slump to the ground as she looks her over. She sees her uninjured hand, the one she never tried to reach for a weapon with, firmly sped. She pries the girl¡¯s fingers open, but finds nothing. ¡°What?¡± Emily¡¯s eyes are drawn to the ring on the girl¡¯s pointer finger. She touches the ring, running a machina scan and letting out a gasp of admiration at the mechanism within. The ring holds a small capsule of poison with a small, spring-loaded needle, activated by rotating the topyer of the ring while holding the inner, disconnectedyer still. ¡°Fascinating. Maybe I should make something simr for healing potions? I did find it hard to use them mid-fight,¡± Emily mutters, adding a mental note forter. She checks the girl''s body, finding a revolver fastened in her armpit and several knives in holsters on her legs. She also has the tell-tale tattoo of the group on her arm. Just in case, Emily runs machina scans through all of the girl''s clothes and jewellery, finding six other ces with hidden kill switches, half of them engaged. Damn. I can see why they struggled to capture them alive. I wouldn¡¯t have found half of these without a machina scan, so unless you canpletely immobilise these guys, they have a method to kill themselves. Maybe they have a kill-switch inside their bodies somewhere? She stands up, turns away from the corpse, and heads back into the market. She walks around for an hour, waiting for someone to start tracking her again, but no one does. Either they worked out something was wrong and went into hiding, or there were only three of them. Guess I¡¯ll leave for now. At least I have something to do till I reset. Inhibition powder is described in the library, but I couldn¡¯t find the recipe anywhere. Now that I have some, I should be able to reverse-engineer it easily enough. Emily heads back towards the entrance she used to enter the ck market. ¡°Not to mention the mana detection crystal. I need to test it properly to see if the mana released is strong enough to trigger an array,¡± she mutters under her breath as she steps into the secluded stairwell. She walks to the top of the stairs where the same guard as earlier is sitting to the side of the door staring at her. He rises as she rounds the corner, moving to the door and undoing severaltches before sliding a key into the hole and turning it while sliding a heavy metal bar out of the way. He starts pulling the door open. Out of curiosity, Emily reaches up the moment she¡¯s within reach and taps his arm, casting stunning touch. Lightning crackles from her fingers, running through the guard¡¯s body and causing him to seize up. Emily ignores his slight shaking and grabs his left hand as he passes out and drops to the floor. She slides back his sleeve and finds a bare, hairy arm beneath. ¡°So you weren¡¯t working for them after all,¡± Emily says quietly to herself. She drops the guard and walks through the open door into the alleyway beyond. ¡°I used the closest exit to the tentst time, maybe the guard there works for them. That, or they lured away, killed, or paid off the guard. Ah well. I guess I¡¯ll find out soon enough.¡± *** Emily activates The Clock the next day, returning to the alleyway, moments before knocking on the door. She enters the secret password like before and reenters the underground chamber, heading straight for the arms dealer again. She reaches his shop without picking up a tail. Let¡¯s try rattling them and see if they¡¯ll gather. Instead of entering the shop, she walks around the rows of shops and tents for a bit. After a few minutes, she notices a cloaked figure stalking her and heads back to the arms dealer¡¯s shop, stepping inside. Without making a noise to wake the shop owner up, she simply pulls out the Spitter and nts a shot in the top of his head. The loud gunshot fills the room, echoing out into the street. With a sly grin, Emily holsters her gun and summons a vial into her hand. She lifts it, popping the cork and gazing at the swirling ck and grey within. ¡°Good luck finding me now.¡± Emily downs the potion before dropping the vial back into a pouch on her belt, leaving no evidence behind. The colour quickly drains from her skin and she walks to the corner of the room to wait. Her control core disables her unique energy cirction as she does, drawing in her mana to settle in her circles and letting her machina wrap the circles to conceal their presence, a trick she worked out when messing with the mana detection crystal before her reset. The crystal still had a small reaction after she drank the brew of imperception, so she worked out a method to hide from it properly, which even works without the potion. It doesn¡¯t take long for her prey to bite: only a minute after she drank the potion, the door is pushed open by a hooded figure. He looks around the room, quickly spotting the dead shop owner and checking for Emily, ncing at the unresponsive mana detection crystal in his hand every few seconds. He walks around the whole shop, even taking the keys from the dead shop owner¡¯s body and checking the back room. Emily follows him unseen, peeking under his cloak and confirming him as the man she shot in the head. After looking around and not finding her, the mage killer roughly yanks the door open in frustration and leaves the shop. Emily slips out behind him, pursuing him as he weaves between structures, never staying on a well-walked route for too long. He reaches the white tent faster than Emily expected and moves round to the back, pulling away a hidden split in the tarp and entering. Emily walks in directly behind him, so close her breath almost warms his neck, yetpletely unnoticed. This potion¡¯s incredible. I¡¯m basically touching him and he doesn¡¯t even realise I¡¯m here. Emily looks around the space they¡¯ve entered. It¡¯s narrow, with only a few metres between where they came in and a in white tarp wall. The space expands sideways, wrapping around to form a curved corridor. Is this a hiddenpartment built into the walls of the tent? Clever. The man walks straight up to the white wall in front of them as the p Emily entered through swings shut. He leans in close to the fabric and presses his ear against it. After thirty seconds, he lets out a single, high-pitched whistle and waits for a response. ¡°Enter,¡± Emily hears the woman on the other side say clearly. The man wastes no time, pushing his hands into another split in the tent and pulling it wide open. Emily once again follows him through to the main room of the tent. ¡°What is it?¡± the woman asks coldly, turning away from the tent¡¯s entrance to fix the man with an icy re. ¡°It¡¯s Vagrant¡¯s report soon, you¡¯re not meant to be here for another thirty minutes.¡± ¡°I lost a target in the market,¡± the man responds in a monotone voice. ¡°How did you lose a target? Did you let them out of the tracker¡¯s range?¡± ¡°No. I followed them to the arms dealer in the southern sector. They entered the shop, shot the owner, then disappeared. I entered the shop after and looked around, there isn¡¯t a trace of them, and the tracker didn¡¯t respond to anything at all.¡± ¡°Goddess, you¡¯re fucking useless,¡± the woman spits, dismissively waving her hand at the man as she starts turning around. ¡°Go get Stray - she¡¯s at post four right now - and have her take a look. At least she¡¯spetent.¡± The man nods, turning withoutint to leave the way he came in. ¡°Why was I given three imbeciles?¡± Emily hears the woman mutter, with a tired sigh, under her breath as she follows the man out. Three imbeciles? If she¡¯s not counting this Stray in that, I have five targets. She follows the man again as he winds his way across the market. A few minutes after leaving the tent, though, Emily looks down and realises colour is returning to her skin. One vial doesn¡¯tst very long. Unconcerned about wasting resources, she simply pulls out another vial of the brew and drinks it. Her mark never realises a thing and keeps charging onwards, leading Emily straight to his teammate. They get close to where Emily picked up her second tail on thest reset, and the man veers into a narrow gap between the underground chamber¡¯s wall and a small shop to the side of a stairwell to the surface. ¡°Why are you here, Barbarian?¡± a soft voice asks as a cloaked figure emerges from the shadows. ¡°I lost a target, so Fox sent me to you,¡± Barbarian answers in his signature monotone. ¡°You lost them? Ha, no wonder I¡¯m Fox¡¯s favourite. How dumb can you be?¡± Stray, the girl Emily killed in the stairwell,ughs in a teasing tone. ¡°Will you help?¡± he asks, ignoring her taunt. ¡°Tsk. You¡¯re no fun,¡± Strayins before skipping past them. ¡°Sure, where did you lose them?¡± ¡°Arms dealer in the southern sector.¡± ¡°Oh? Where the gunshot came from?¡± ¡°That was the target.¡± ¡°Exciting!¡± They leave the alley, heading back through the market towards the arms dealer. Emily watches both of the mage killers as they dodge through people in a well-practised manner with their heads on a swivel, constantly observing their surroundings. Even the yful Stray avoids being noticed to an impressive degree while maintaining her vignce. They¡¯re certainly well trained. If it weren¡¯t for this potion I definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to follow them like this without being seen, even if they didn¡¯t have the mana detection crystals. They soon arrive at the shop. Both mage killers walk in, and Emily slips in behind them before the door can shut. There are three people in the shop already, who all turn to look at the new entrants with caution. ¡°What do you want? We were here first,¡± a man filling a sack with weapons from the disys says with a cautious re. The mage killers both remain silent, Barbarian watching Stray as she looks around the shop, checking the floor around the door carefully. ¡°They¡¯ve disturbed it too much. I won¡¯t find anything. Return to your post,¡± Stray says calmly, all traces of yfulness gone from her voice as she turns to walk straight back out of the door. Barbarian doesn¡¯t say a word, simply following her out. Emily sticks behind Barbarian as the two part, following him back to a food stall a short distance from the entrance she used to arrive in the market. He sits down to the side of the stall without a word to the owner, who doesn¡¯t even spare him a nce. Well, I know where three of them will be now. It sounds like they all periodically report to Fox, so I should find the other two if I watch her. Emily pulls The Clock from her belt and resets, returning back to enter the market again. Chapter 86 – Murderer Chapter 86 ¨C Murderer Emily steps out of the stairwell into the ck market again, this time using her machina to hide her mana signature from the start. She heads straight for The Crystal Skull¡¯s tent, moving through the streets unnoticed. Arriving at the tent alone, she moves around to the back and slips into the hiddenpartment in the wall. I don¡¯t need to waste any potions to hide until someone elsees back here. She moves sideways, creating distance between herself and the entrances in and out of the space, curving around the tent for a couple of steps before sitting down on the floor at the point where the internal and external walls meet. After settling down, Emily starts summoning her scouts into her hands. She releases two spiders, rolling them both towards the tent¡¯s entrance as they unfurl themselves. They scuttle over to the exit p, holding the bottom open and waiting for their bird brethren to leave. The birds waddle past, moving slowly on their mechanical feet before spreading their wings outside and soaring into the air. Emily directs each of the four birds to find a high perch overlooking each of the sides of the tent, watching for anyone approaching. One of the spiders leaves the p afterwards, scurrying over to the closest building and up the wall, positioning itself in a shadow watching the tent¡¯s hidden entrance. The other spider releases the p and turns around instead, pushing further into the tent and settling out of Fox¡¯s line of sight to watch her. Emily remains still, with her eyes shut, watching the feeds from her scouts calmly, a vial of her potion resting in her palm at the ready. She stays like this for over half an hour, never spotting anything out of the ordinary. A few of the market¡¯s visitors enter the tent in that time, and Fox greets them with a smile, offering to sell crests to them. No one shows much interest, leaving once they realise they have no interest in what she¡¯s selling, but Fox¡¯s gentle smile never leaves her face. Eventually, one of Emily¡¯s birds spots something that draws her attention. Weaving through the market, with a familiar level of skill, is a scruffy-looking man in torn clothes. He has grey hair, and his face is marked by time, appearing to be in histe fifties. Vagrant? He slips between a tent and a building, heading in a straight line towards The Crystal Skull tent. Emily¡¯s bird takes off from its perch, following him from above as he approaches. She drinks the potion in her hand as he steps into the view of the spider watching the hidden entrance, and, by the time he slips into the hiddenpartment, Emily is invisible once again. He repeats the same process as Barbarian, listening for a while before whistling to alert Fox to his presence. ¡°Enter,¡± Fox calls, and he obliges. ¡°Report.¡± ¡°My informants spotted someone who may be a target leaving the nearby station about an hour ago and heading towards the market. But they were moving fast and covering their face, so we have no confirmation,¡± Vagrant croaks, receiving a nod from Fox to continue. ¡°I¡¯ve almost finished spreading my influence into the trading district, but most possible informants are already in the pockets of the merchants, so it¡¯s proving difficult. I think I¡¯ve pushed as much as I can without drawing unwanted attention.¡± ¡°How much control do you have?¡± Fox asks with a re. ¡°About twenty per cent of the homeless poption, and five per cent of the low-ie shopkeepers.¡± ¡°Fucking useless. How many resources have I given you so far, for only twenty per cent control? Do you even have anyone on the higheryers?¡± ¡°I do! I¡¯ve managed to get twenty people on the fifthyer of the district!¡± Vagrant argues, his brow creased into a frown. ¡°That¡¯s passable I guess,¡± Fox sighs, starting to turn back to the tent¡¯s front entrance. ¡°At least I¡¯m staying at my post,¡± Vagrant grumbles, pulling Fox¡¯s attention back as she fixes him with a chilling gaze, making even Emily shiver slightly as she watches through a spider. ¡°What are you saying?¡± Vagrant flinches back, sweat starting to fall from his brow. ¡°I had some of my informants watching, and they¡¯ve seen Lurker straying into my territory again. My territory¡¯s nowhere near her posts so she¡¯s clearly disobeying orders,¡± he scrambles to exin in panic. ¡°What did I tell you about spying on the others?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t do it. It just draws more attention to us and makes me a weak point.¡± Vagrant gulps, stepping back. ¡°Oh? So, I have told you. That¡¯s good!¡± Fox¡¯s face melts into a warm smile as she stands up and approaches the cowering Vagrant. ¡°So, tell me then -¡± she grabs him by the throat, digging her nails into his skin, ¡°Why are you still doing it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± he chokes through her grip. ¡°I¡¯ll kill all the informants with Lurker¡¯s description and stop. I¡¯m so sorry. It won¡¯t happen again!¡± ¡°Good,¡± Fox says, releasing her hand and patting his cheek. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t want to find out what happens when you disobey orders a third time, now would we?¡± Vagrant shakes his head, sighing in relief and massaging his lightly bleeding neck as Fox returns to her seat. ¡°Since you already know where she is, go tell Lurker to report in so I can switch her posts and question why she¡¯s disobeying orders as well. Now, get out of my sight.¡± Vagrant doesn¡¯t waste any time before turning and walking out of the tent. Jackpot! Time to find thest member. Emily stands up, dropping her connection with her scouts and following Vagrant out. He heads across the market before ducking into an exit stairwell. Emily follows him up, the potion in her system deadening her footsteps. She slips out through the door behind him as he steps out into the sunlight again. Vagrant sets off through the city, heading west towards the centre. Emily shadows him, noticing the number of slum dwellers acknowledging Vagrant with greetings as he passes. These must be his informants. He keeps walking for a while and Emily is forced to down several more vials of the shimmering ck potion to remainpletely hidden from the keen-eyed middle-aged man. Eventually, after entering into a better-developed residential sector, Vagrant enters a building. It¡¯s a dingy-looking pub, with a chipped dark blue painted metal exterior and an etched sign saying ¡®The Broken Keg¡¯ above the worn, dark wooden door. Emily keeps close to him, entering the door close behind, careful not to touch him and break the potion¡¯s effect. Vagrant gives the bartender a silent nod before turning to a booth in the corner and marching over. He drops in, ncing around once before turning to the current inhabitant. Emily stands beside the table looking at the in-looking woman sitting there. She seems to be about thirty years old, with short blonde hair and dark brown eyes. ¡°What do you want, Vagrant?¡± Lurker hums in a low, gravelly tone. Emily tunes out their conversation, pulling out The Clock as she watches them. Looks like I have all my targets lined up. The day rewinds onest time. *** Emily heads straight down the stairs into the market, making her way towards Barbarian. She quickly arrives at the food stand he uses as cover and spots him sitting in ce, hood up, watching her approach. She doesn¡¯t spare him more than a nce after confirming his presence, simply walking past him with her mana unconcealed. As Emily expects, he stands up to follow her after she passes. With a smug grin, Emily leads him to the edge of the market before ducking into a secluded alley. The moment she leaves his line of sight, she wraps her heart in dense machina, concealing her mana signature, and waits in the shadows behind arge boiler attached to the side of a building. A few momentster, Barbarian steps around the corner into the alley and looks for her. Seeing nothing, he steps further in, getting closer to Emily. The second he steps a foot past the boiler, Emily slides out with a smooth, practised motion, slipping a w into the side of his neck and closing her hand around his throat, holding the de in ce. Lightning courses from her fingers, locking his body in ce as she pulls him closer. ¡°You like being the ones hidden in the dark, right?¡± Emily whispers into his ear, never letting him see beneath her hood. ¡°Then die without knowing why.¡± She releases her grip on his neck and rips her w forward, tearing out his throat and sttering the walls with blood. Barbarian drops motionless to the ground, red gushing from his throat and painting the floor. Emily crouches next to him, picking his inhibition powder and mana detection crystal out of his pockets before standing up again. She steps over him, calmly walking out of the alley while casting cleanse and removing all signs of the crime from her body. One down. Emily turns towards Stray and sets off across the market again, her magic once more concealed. She quickly arrives at the girl¡¯s hiding spot and steps into the dark alley. She slowly walks forward, approaching where Stray was tucked into a corner before. Seems she doesn¡¯t want to make herself known. Acting as if she doesn¡¯t know better, Emily steps into the line of sight of the figure pressed flush against the wall, trying to go unnoticed. Her arm whips out sideways without warning, sping the killer¡¯s face. Emily¡¯s palm lights up in a burning white and orange before exploding with heat. Fire pours out, wrapping Stray¡¯s head in a silent inferno. Stray doesn¡¯t even get a chance to scream, the intense heat wiping out her consciousness as she feels the searing pain of her nerves melting. Emily takes Stray¡¯s magical possessions from her pockets before dropping her to the floor with enough mana left in the mes to turn her head to ash. Two down. She turns to leave, quickly checks The Clock, notes that she has time before Vagrant arrives at The Crystal Skull¡¯s tent, and heads towards the arms dealer. It doesn¡¯t take long to arrive at the small store. The owner is still sleeping on his counter, so Emily calmly walks over and nts one of the ws into the back of his head. She takes the keys off the corpse¡¯s belt and opens the door behind him. She finds a small storage room through the door behind the counter, with ten barrels of ck powder set up along the floor and shelves of products surrounding them. A small smile parts Emily¡¯s lips as she looks around. ¡°A dead man can¡¯t miss his goods,¡± she mutters while passing spatial mana over the whole room, sending everything not bolted down into her utility belt. Within seconds, the room is stripped bare, and Emily turns on her heel to leave. She leaves the storage room hanging open, with the keys still in the door, and steps back out onto the street. Three down. Emily finally starts weaving through the market towards the tent. She uses the short route Barbarian kindly showed her and quickly arrives at the front entrance to the tent. Before entering, Emily reaches for her thigh and unholsters the Spitter under the cover of her robes. She summons its silencer into her other hand and screws it on before pushing open the tent¡¯s p and stepping in. ¡°Hello there. How can I help you?¡± Fox asks with a smile. Emily doesn¡¯t answer, silently knocking her hood back and watching surprise and amusement cross Fox¡¯s face. ¡°Well hello again, cutie. It¡¯s not often someone escapes me, and none of them were dumb enough to return. Did your escape give you the confidence toe back?¡± ¡°It did! Did killing so many other mages give you the confidence to target me?¡± Emily responds with a confident smirk. ¡°Ha. You¡¯re nothing special, honey. You were lucky to get away the first time. Why did you return?¡± Emily notices Fox¡¯s eyes shifting towards the entrance behind her, her brow flickering in annoyance. ¡°Looking for someone following me?¡± Emily asks, her smirk only growing. ¡°Sorry. But your associates won¡¯t being to help you.¡± Fox¡¯s eyes narrow. ¡°Who says I need them? What can you even do in here?¡± She nces towards her burning incense as she speaks, clearly unnerved by Emily¡¯s confidence. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Why don¡¯t you ask Barbarian? Or maybe Lurker. Though, you don¡¯t seem to like them or Vagrant, so maybe you¡¯ll ask Stray instead?¡± Emily teases. A look of horror forms on Fox¡¯s face, but before she can think to respond to Emily¡¯s provocation, a high-pitched hiss sounds off as Emily squeezes the trigger of the Spitter. A bullet silently bores a hole through Fox¡¯s chest, straight through her heart. ¡°Sorry, but if I gave you time to process that you¡¯d probably crack that tooth. I don¡¯t n on letting any of you go on your own terms,¡± Emily says with sadistic glee. Fox gasps breathlessly, looking down at her chest and the crimson flood slowly painting her clothes. She reaches up a hand and presses it to her chest while looking up at Emily again with intense, seething rage. ¡°Don¡¯t me me,¡± Emily says spitefully, raising her gun out of her robes. ¡°You targeted me first.¡± Lightning flickers in Emily¡¯s eyes as she ces a bullet between Fox¡¯s. Four down. Fox¡¯s brain stters onto the tent behind her before her head drops lifelessly onto the table in front of her. Blood leaks from her skull, pooling around the collection of crests, mirroring their bloody origin. Emily takes a deep breath and shuts her eyes, reining in her anger. After regaining her calm, Emily walks around the table and pulls out the chair from under Fox¡¯s body, which drops to the floor, before sitting down facing the hidden entrance to wait for Vagrant¡¯s arrival. Sitting alone in silence, Emily''s eyes eventually drift over to the corpse beside her, and a small frown creases her brow. I just killed four people without batting an eye. ¡°I even enjoyed it,¡± she mutters in confusion. I swear I should have more of a problem with murder. Have I desensitised myself by killing people during frozen time? I mean, I didn¡¯t really have any problems letting people die on the expedition, but I haven¡¯t actually killed a person permanently yet myself. Wait¡­ Have I? She quickly opens her system notifications and flicks back to the start. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Congrattions on your first kill! [Reward granted] Sub-system unlocked: Progression _____ I got rewarded for my first kill, but I reset time after that and never killed anyone else before the end of that loop. Does it not follow the same rules because it was a system reward, not a quest? Or had I actually already killed someone? I did leave a few people in very bad states before Dad took me in. Now that I think about it, I never confirmed if they lived or died. Emily¡¯s frown deepens. Logically, most of them tried to kill me. But, realistically, can I say the arms dealer deserved death? He didn¡¯t actively try to kill me, just send me towards those who would. Should I not have killed him? The thought of mercy makes Emily¡¯s skin crawl, her stomach twisting into a knot. She shakes her head and leans back in her chair, rxing and shutting her eyes to focus on the hot and cold dance of mana and machina through her body, letting it soothe her mind and calm her emotions. A few minutester, a whistlees from thepartment before her. Emily silently raises the Spitter, her eyes still shut, and fires a shot. She opens her eyes to see Vagrant¡¯s body drop against the fabric, parting the entrance and falling into view with a hole through his right eye and out the back of his head. ¡°Blood for blood,¡± she whispers a phrase she heard a lot in the slums, feeling it resonate with her core and calm the difort within. She lets a smile creep onto her lips again: ¡°I guess I¡¯m just a murderer.¡± Chapter 87 – Gifts Chapter 87 ¨C Gifts Emily stands up, her heart calm with eptance as she strips the two warm corpses lying before her in the tent of their magical possessions. She also takes the inhibition incense, finding a few spare sticks tucked away on a shelf beneath the table, before removing the Spitter¡¯s silencer and holstering it again. She nces at the scattered noble emblems on the table, hesitating for a moment. I may get a reward for returning these, but it will probably garner more attention than I want right now. Deciding against it, Emily leaves, heading to the closest exit and returning to the surface. She makes her way across the city towards The Broken Keg, following the same route Vagrant led her alongst reset. Arriving at the pub, Emily looks in through the dirty windows at the gathered patrons. That¡¯s a lot of witnesses. She scans the booths lining the walls, quickly picking out the one housing Lurker. I¡¯m not hiding my mana signature right now and Lurker doesn¡¯t seem to care. She¡¯s probably not checking her detection crystal. I could use a brew of imperception, but I¡¯d rather not waste those when I don¡¯t think I can get more shadow boa. She turns, looking back at an alley on the other side of the street that lines up roughly with The Broken Keg¡¯s windows. That could work. Emily walks across the street into the alley, finding it empty other than a few piles of rubbish from the homes bordering it. She continues for a few metres, until the alley starts to curve, before turning to face the pub again. She summons the Whisper, its cold grip dropping into her outstretched hand. She tucks the hefty rifle into her shoulder, standing in a bnced, neutral stance, and ces her face against the cheek rest. She reaches one hand up and adjusts the scope¡¯s dials, setting the range and bringing the pub windows across the street into focus. Emily¡¯s eyes glow orange, lighting up the dark alley, as she looks between the gaps in the booths for the heat of Lurker¡¯s body. Found you. Emily smiles a predatory grin as she adjusts her aim. Her thumb flicks the firing selector to silent before she gently squeezes the trigger. The rifle lights up with a green glow and kicks back fiercely, but Emily barely flinches, absorbing the impact, as the bullet tears out of the barrel with a sharp hiss, spiralling through the air in a straight line towards her target. The bullet shatters the window, before boring a hole through the solitary booth¡¯s wall and the head on the other side. It keeps going, burying itself deep into the metal wall in the corner of the building. Emily sees Lurker flop lifelessly onto the table in front of her then lowers the gun, racking the bolt and catching the spinning cartridge it ejects. Targets eliminated. She stores the weapon again and turns to continue through the alleyway, looking at the cartridge in her hand. An idea strikes her, so she pops a de out of a w as she walks and gently carves a crystalline skull with a dagger through the top into the side of the cartridge. She flicks the finished memento up and catches it, sliding it into a pouch on her utility belt as she ignores the panicked screams fading away behind her. *** The remainder of the time before their expedition passes quickly. Juliana insists on taking over the mundane preparationspletely, dealing with food, transport, and shelter for the group, to take some of the burden off Emily¡¯s shoulders. This leaves Emily plenty of time for the rest of the prep, and she soon finds herself sitting in her room, gearing up for another foray into The de. Most of her gear remains the same, but her body armour has undergone a slight remodel. Tracing the spine along the back of the armour now sit eight reinforced ss tubes, filled with glistening red liquid. Each tube has a sleek metal housing that contains an injector system that can be activated with a small spark of machina. Emily finishes fitting the ws to her arms and gives herself a once over before standing up. She throws on a fresh set of ck waterproof robes that she finished enchantingst night, with blue runes woven into the inneryer, and grabs a small, wide-mouthed backpack covered in purple runes, a spatial bag she has prepared for Tom. She walks to the door and opens it to leave, running into Juliana standing with her hand raised to knock. She¡¯s wearing a simplified version of Emily¡¯s body armour, with a weight reduction array and a weakened resistance array, using only earth crystals due to low metal crystal avability, and no injector system. Emily looks her up and down, appreciating the battle-ready look far more than her usual mage attire, and noting the canvas bag held at her hip. ¡°Morning,¡± Juliana greets her cheerfully, throwing her arms around Emily¡¯s neck and giving her a kiss. ¡°Morning,¡± Emily responds with a smirk after they separate. ¡°What you got there?¡± ¡°Weaving stuff. Can you keep it in your spatial storage please?¡± Juliana responds with puppy dog eyes. ¡°Haha, I¡¯ll do you one better,¡± Emily says, reaching into The Clock¡¯s pouch and pulling out a delicate ne. The chain is made of alternating ck and white metal links, with miniscule purple runes carved into the white ones. The pendant hanging from it is a carefully crafted white lily. In the centre is a glittering purple crystal, surrounded by spiralling purple runes spreading out along the petals, and on the back is a second small crystal, recessed into the metal to allow the pendant to sitfortably. ¡°Here.¡± Emily presents the gift with a gentle smile and a light blush on her cheeks. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful,¡± Juliana gapes in awe, her eyes fixed on the enchanting pendant. ¡°Well, I made it for you to wear, so that¡¯s only fitting. Right?¡± Juliana blushes, pulling her hair out of the way as Emily reaches out and wraps the ne around her neck. She fastens the sp with dextrous fingers and steps back. ¡°Inject a bit of mana into it.¡± Juliana wordlesslyplies, and the pendant lights up with an ethereal purple glow that dances around the petals for a second before fading again. ¡°Woah.¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± Emily purrs quietly, watching Juliana lift the pendant and stare at it with watering eyes. ¡°It¡¯s bound to you now. Simply hold an item you¡¯d like to store and send mana into the ne. Then to retrieve an item, think of it and do the same again,¡± Emily exins. Juliana does just that, making the bag from her hand vanish as the lily glows again for a split second. She looks back up to Emily, tears rolling down her cheeks. ¡°I love it,¡± she says, throwing herself into Emily¡¯s chest and hugging her tight. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Haha. You¡¯re wee,¡± Emily says, gently stroking her hair for a few seconds. ¡°But, as much as I¡¯d love to stay like this forever, we should probably leave now. We don¡¯t want to make the others wait for too long.¡± Juliana gives her onest squeeze before pulling away and nodding. Emily wipes the tears from Juliana¡¯s cheeks before wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her down the corridor. *** They meet their friends, all of whom are wearing their own body armour, provided by Emily just in case, in the cafeteria and eat breakfast in good spirits. Juliana proudly shows off her new ne, and Emily hands Tom his backpack, filled to the brim with food and camping supplies, this time including cooking utensils. Enzo notes the oddity of leaving for an important expedition without arge send-off, but Emily simply shrugs it off as unimportant. Afterwards, they leave The Dome together, hopping on a southbound train towards Southern Edge Station. They alight from the train and take the elevator down to the ground floor to meet their transport. Waiting on the street is arge car, twice the size of those used on the Salvia expedition. ¡°Tada!¡± Juliana chirps proudly, skipping out in front of the group to approach the driver, who is standing, leaning against the car¡¯s front. The man looks over as they approach, dropping the pipe from his mouth and bowing deeply. ¡°Hello, Lady Madonna. Are you ready to leave?¡± he asks politely. ¡°Yes please!¡± The driver steps over and opens the car¡¯s passenger door for them. The mages file in, giving the driver a nod of thanks on the way past. Once they¡¯re all in, the driver shuts the door and climbs into the front cab, firing up the car¡¯s engine. The vehicle roars to life and glides forward, the smooth movement in contrast with the violent sounding engine. They could do with better sound dampening. Dante, Enzo, Hester, and Tom chat quietly while Emily leans against the window, watching the streets roll by. Juliana leans against her side, her head resting on Emily¡¯s shoulder with a happy smile dancing across her lips. The car soon arrives at the city¡¯s exit and slides to a halt in front of the guards. Juliana stands up and opens the door, stepping outside and walking over to speak with the guards. Is this a difference in family status? We were able to leave without a single check before. The guards don¡¯t cause any issues, standing aside to let them through after only a brief conversation with Juliana. She climbs back into the car, settling down against Emily again as the car rolls into motion again. Emily puts an arm around her girlfriend and gazes absentmindedly out of the window, her mind distracted by experiments in the Spellweave. They leave the city and drive through the countryside for a few hours, the car filled with excitement and expectation. Emily joins in with her friends¡¯ conversations asionally, including exining how guide poses work and how she bought one from Oscar in preparation; and how he made her sign a magical contract agreeing not to give the pose to the Mandragos, or use it for their benefit, an easy contract for Emily to agree to. However, other than answering a few questions directed at her, she mostly spends the time messing about with spell creation, trying to create some more third circle attack spells. They soon arrive at the edge of The de. They all climb out of the car and thank the driver, leaving him free to return to the city, before settling down for lunch overlooking the mystical forest. Tom and Hester are both floored by seeing the magical hotspot for the first time. Juliana has already seen The de once before, from an airship while passing by, but she still appreciates the view from up close. Tom excitedly takes the chance to use his new spatial storage and pulls out several sandwiches to distribute amongst them. As they all eat, enjoying the view, Emily turns her attention away from the forest and to her teammates. ¡°Hey, Tom,¡± she calls lightly to grab his attention. ¡°Here, take this.¡± She reaches out a hand, summoning an item from her belt and handing it to him. He looks confused for a moment, before realisation shes across his eyes as he nces down at the simr shape fastened to Emily¡¯s thigh. ¡°Is this a gun?¡± ¡°Yep! Since you can¡¯t use proper attack spells, I thought it only reasonable to give you another way to defend yourself, just in case. And since you don¡¯t know how to use a sword properly, I figured a gun was probably the easiest option,¡± Emily exins. The gun she hands him is a boxy ck pistol. It¡¯s far less elegant than Emily¡¯s personal weapons, looking like a lumpy box with a handle, the magazine beneath sitting an inch below the base instead of sitting flush. Tom turns it in his hand, his eyes glowing. ¡°Thanks, Emily!¡± ¡°No problem. It¡¯s yours now.¡± She summons a leather harness and hands it to him as well. ¡°Strap it under your arm with that. It should sitfortably in your left armpit with some spare magazines under your right.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s why you took my measurements,¡± Tom mutters, spinning the harness around trying to work it out. After a few seconds, he tangles the harness while putting his arms in. Hester rolls her eyes before shifting to sit behind him and taking the harness from his hands to help. ¡°It takes the same bullets as a standard revolver if you ever need to buy more. I¡¯ll teach you how to load the mags once you¡¯ve shot it a few times. To fire, just flick the safety up, the switch at your thumb, and squeeze the trigger. Leave it down when you¡¯re not using it, and never point it at something you don¡¯t want to shoot, even if you think it¡¯s on safe. Finally, it should be pretty much silent: so it¡¯s safe to use in there,¡± Emily says, gesturing to The de with her head before adding: ¡°Oh! Just don¡¯t try taking it, or the magazines, apart. There¡¯s a nasty mix of magic and explosives in there for anyone trying to reverse engineer it.¡± Tom pales at the warning, looking up with shock. ¡°Wait. Is it safe to use?¡± Emily scoffs at his question, looking past him to Hester, leaving him to his panic as punishment for not trusting her workmanship. ¡°Have you learned the spells I gave you yet?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve learned protective bubble, cleanse, and a few projectile attacks, but it¡¯s gonna take me a while to finish them all,¡± Hester answers while tightening the straps around Tom¡¯s chest. ¡°Wait, you gave her spells?¡± Enzo asks confusedly. ¡°Yeah, I passed along a few basic second circle spells I bought since she didn¡¯t have enough points to buy them,¡± Emily answers with a shrug. ¡°Wow! Everyone gets gifts but us. I see how it is,¡± Dante says with his hand on his heart in mock offence. ¡°Ha. I¡¯ll show you some pretty explosionster. How¡¯s that for a gift?¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± Dante responds with a grin and a thumbs up, drawing a few chuckles from the group. ¡°Jokes aside, I do have stuff to give you two as well,¡± Emily summons a bundled up robe and tosses it to Dante. She repeats this, giving everyone in the group one. ¡°They¡¯re waterproof and tear resistant. Don¡¯t say I never get you nice things.¡± They finish their food, and Emily gives Juliana onest squeeze before standing up and leading them towards the edge of The de. Before they cross the boundary, Emily turns to face them all, the looming trees standing tall behind her. ¡°Right, this is it,¡± Emily begins with a serious expression. ¡°Once we step into these trees, consider it an active battlefield. I won¡¯t let any of you die, but it¡¯s still dangerous, so stay on your toes and if you spot anything you think may be dangerous please say something immediately. I¡¯d rather have false rms than miss something. I won¡¯t tell you a formation to keep or anything, but try to keep Tom surrounded at all times if possible, and never move further forwards than me unless I tell you to.¡± She falls silent, looking between her friends¡¯ faces. She sees calm confidence on those of the three who¡¯ve been into The de with her before, and a twinge of uncertainty and anxiety mixed with resolve in the eyes of the other three. Grinning, Emily nods and receives six firm nods back. She turns on her heels and steps forward. ¡°Let¡¯s do this then.¡± Chapter 88 – Into the Forest Again Chapter 88 ¨C Into the Forest Again Emily steps into the treeline, her friends close behind, feeling the dense mana wrap around her like afortable nket. She takes a deep breath, appreciating the weight pressing on her shoulders and theck of rain to start their journey, before ncing back at her friends. Dante, Enzo, and Ivor barely react, but the other three show signs of difort, with Tom¡¯s reaction being the strongest. I see. The higher your circle and the more mana you can control, the more at home you feel in areas of high mana density. The slight oppressive feeling I gotst time I stepped into The de ispletely gone for me now. She gives her friends a few moments to adjust before continuing into the trees. As she walks, Emily summons two balled-up bird scouts and tosses them into the air. They rapidly unfurl, pping their wings to stabilise their rotation before floating down tond on Emily¡¯s shoulders. ¡°You made any more like Harold?¡± Juliana asks, referring to the bird Emily made and gifted her for her seventeenth. ¡°Why are you letting them out here?¡± ¡°These guys are a little different from Harold,¡± Emily exins, cringing slightly at her girlfriend¡¯s chosen name for the poor clockwork bird. ¡°For him to work, you have to wind him up, then he¡¯ll fly around for a bit beforending, right? Well, I¡¯m controlling these guys, and they have surveince arrays inside to let me see through their eyes. They¡¯re very useful scouts.¡± ¡°Woah!¡± Juliana reaches out to pet one of the birds as Emily puts her hands into the pouches at her hips, pulling out two dark bronze contraptions with cuboid bodies and four thin, multi-jointed legs. She lifts them towards the birds, under her friends¡¯ curious gazes, and ces them to the scouts¡¯ chests. Immediately, the legs curl around the birds, sping the contraption to their chests and letting out a small orange glow for a second at the connection point. ¡°This attachment - I call it a thermal pack - adds my infra-sight spell to their surveince arrays.¡± The birds spread their wings and take off, disappointing Juliana. Emily sends one of them into the air above the canopy, and makes the other weave between the trees ahead of them, before offloading the control and observation of both to one core and temporarily designating it the scout core. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just include thermal vision in the original surveince spell?¡± Enzo asks as the birds vanish above them. ¡°Thermal vision makes them power hungry. I¡¯m gonna have to refill them every few hours now: without it, I could fly them for a day before needing to. Also, making the array modr like this means I can give them other augments like night vision or mana tracking instead,¡± Emily exins, happy to talk about her creations. ¡°Wait, mana tracking? You can do that?¡± Hester asks. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve been messing around with mana detection crystals to try and add their properties to surveince arrays. So far I can only use it to see rough outlines of mana signatures within short distances of the array though, so it¡¯s kind of useless for the birds.¡± They keep walking through The de, the casual conversation and calm confidence exuding from Emily and the three forest veterans slowly easing the unease of the neers. In the early evening, a couple of hours before they should arrive at the first clearing to set up camp, and a few hours after the start of a torrential downpour, Emily¡¯s scout core alerts her to motion ahead. She quickly focuses on the feed of the bird above the trees, seeing a few faint orange shapes moving towards them a few hundred metres ahead. She sends the lower bird closer before switching focus to its view, stopping at its maximum range from her of just over a hundred metres. The shapes soone into view, and Emily sees three ocx sprinting towards them. ¡°Three ocx a hundred metres ahead of us,¡± she calls over the loud rainfall. ¡°Jules, Hester, Tom, you three deal with them.¡± The three call out acknowledgement as Emily stops and lets them pass her to confront the cats. Enzo, Dante, and Ivor alle to stand next to her, watching the three newbies setting up in silence. Hester and Juliana both start chanting, conjuring a half-moon de of water and a barely perceptible arrow of wind respectively that hover in front of them at the ready. Tom raises his new pistol, bracing it with both arms fully tensed before him. His form¡¯s awful. I¡¯ll have to teach him properlyter. ¡°They¡¯re here,¡± Emily calls out lightly, tracking the ocx with her birds the whole time and never letting them out of her sight. As if on cue, the first of the three cats leaps from the bushes, racing towards Tom. He pulls the trigger, his aim shaking at the recoil and sending a bullet into the cat¡¯s shoulder. At least he didn¡¯t hesitate. The cat tumbles to the ground, groaning in pain. Tom fires a second shot, this time nailing it in the head and ending the beast¡¯s suffering. Juliana and Hester on the other hand, both release their spells at the same ocx, piercing its chest and splitting its head in half. Emily clicks her tongue, summoning a small throwing knife and whipping her arm forwards, sending the de careening into the third cat¡¯s skull, dropping it before it can try to attack the others. All three of her friends turn back to her, Tom triumphantly, the other two sheepishly, embarrassed by their mistake. ¡°Nice try. Tom, well done on not freaking out when the cat approached you,¡± she says, making the boy¡¯s proud grin grow. ¡°However, your form isn¡¯t the best, and you almost missed your first shot. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll teach you a bit once we set up camp and we should fix that quickly.¡± Tom nods, reining in his confidence quickly. Good, he takes advice well. Emily turns to the other two, who shrink back under her gaze. ¡°As for you two, you both reacted quickly and shot urately when you spotted the ocx, but you didn¡¯t coordinate and wasted two spells on one enemy. Don¡¯t worry about it too much, we haven¡¯t worked together before so it¡¯s reasonable to fumble over each other for a bit,¡± she reassures them both, watching their expressions rx a little before asking: ¡°In that situation, who do you think should have attacked first?¡± They hesitate for a moment before Hester answers. ¡°Her.¡± Emily nods. ¡°Correct. Jules should have taken the first cat since her spell wouldnd faster and allow her to start casting again quickly. If you¡¯re ever fighting with a wind or lightning mage, it¡¯s always a good idea to let them get the first strike in since their spells are so fast. These things wille with a little experience in groupbat. As long as the attacks are small, I¡¯m gonna have you three deal with them to practise a little bit while we travel.¡± ¡°That¡¯s reasonable, thanks for the help,¡± Hester says as Emily walks past them to collect her knife. ¡°It¡¯s alright. I¡¯m the one who brought you here without training you properly first.¡± Emily sends the knife, one she stole from the arms dealer¡¯s shop, into her storage along with a full ocx corpse for butcheringter. She simply harvests the tongues of the other two and wraps them in a bundle of skin to keep them fresh. ¡°Oh, and I¡¯ll be teaching Tom how to harvest corpses so he can make himself usefulter,¡± she adds with a teasing grin as she gestures for them to follow her again, drawing a groan from Tom and chuckles from everyone else. *** They arrive at an empty clearing a few hourster, the rain having died down to a light drizzle on the way. ¡°Let¡¯s set up camp here,¡± Emily says, walking into the centre of the clearing under her friends¡¯ watchful gazes. She holds out her hands and summons another item from her belt. Arge metal disc drops into her grip. It¡¯s thick, a few inches tall, and split into eight, even segments, all connected to a twisting dial fixed in the centre. Emily presses a few selector buttons before turning the dial in the centre a half rotation. Then, she grips the disc by the edge and tosses it up into the air. The disc spins up, quickly righting itself in the air to sit t again as it continues spinning. Just after it reaches the apex of Emily¡¯s throw, it lets out a small, harsh hiss as eight anchors are fired in all directions. The anchors drill into trees around them, the wires they¡¯re attached to going taunt and holding the disc still in the air. The disc lights up with a green glow that dances along the wires before spreading out to wrap the clearing in a one-way sound barrier. Dante whistles, pulling Emily¡¯s attention away from the barrier. ¡°Fancy.¡± She rolls her eyes at him. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s very fancy. Now unless you want to sleep in the rain, I suggest setting up camp.¡± ¡°Do you need us to help take watch?¡± Enzo asks, Ivor standing next to him waiting for the answer as well, while Dante, Hester, and Juliana turn to Tom as he starts producing things from his bag. ¡°Yes and no. I¡¯ll need other people to help with watches, but it doesn¡¯t need to be you two all the time,¡± Emily answers while getting out her scouts. ¡°I¡¯m gonna be using detection spells through these guys even when I¡¯m asleep, so I can alert whoever¡¯s on watch when beasts approach.¡± ¡°But won¡¯t you get no sleep then?¡± Ivor signs with concern. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, I can send half my brain to sleep at a time.¡± Emily waves off his concern with a shrug. ¡°So yeah. We¡¯ll put Dante on watch too and cycle between the four of us in two hour shifts. You hear that, Dante?¡± ¡°Aye aye captain,¡± Dante calls back while mbering into a tent and unrolling a sleeping bag. Enzo and Ivor acknowledge her n and move to help set up tents. Emily turns her full attention to her little helpers. She has three birds and one spider, all clung to different parts of her body: the birds on her shoulders and head, the spider on the back of her left hand with its legs wrapped around her palm. She summons three thermal packs for the birds, clipping them onto their little chests, and a much bulkier pack for the spider. The spider¡¯s pack is twice the size of the thermal pack, and contains an earth stone and the runes to add earthen detection to the scout. Unlike the thermal pack, which simply oveys thermal sight onto the existing vision array in the birds, the vibration pack is much moreplicated. It fully reworks the surveince array to remove the visual aspect and focus on building an image through detecting vibrations. With the normal earthen detection spell, the mage who¡¯s casting in recieves basic information on any strong vibrations nearby, and they can use that to infer what¡¯s approaching. But, the new array Emily has designed still does that while at the same time allowing the spider to tap its legs, releasing a small burst of earth mana in the form of an imperceptible tremor, and track the movement of the vibration caused to see its surroundings. Emily drops the spider to the floor, settling it down in the centre of the clearing for best coverage. The three birds spread across the clearing, vanishing into the trees above to watch their surroundings for heat. Finished with her set-up, Emily moves away from the tents her friends are setting up and pulls out the ocx corpse. ¡°Tom, leave Hester your bag ande over here!¡± He follows her instructions, quickly hurrying over to join her. She pulls out a knife and shows him how to skin and butcher the corpse before handing off some chunks of meat to Dante to cook. He happily obliges, setting up a small campfire and grabbing cooking utensils from Hester, who quickly takes over after noticing hisck of cooking skill. Emily moves on to give Tom some light firearms training as the smell of sizzling meat and spices fills the clearing. She finishes her crash-course moments before Juliana calls them over to eat. ¡°Food¡¯s ready!¡± ¡°Coming,¡± Emily responds, watching Tom slide his pistol home smoothly into its holster. ¡°Perfect. That¡¯s everything for now. Practise quick-draws when you have free time to make sure you¡¯ll be able to react to an attack in time, and you¡¯ll be golden.¡± ¡°Thanks, Emily. I really don¡¯t know how to repay you,¡± Tom says sheepishly, scratching his cheek. ¡°You¡¯ve gone out of your way to bring me along, even though I won¡¯t be much help.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles, patting him on the shoulder and walking past him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m just happy to have made some friends.¡± You made my time in The Dome more enjoyable. That¡¯s worth a few hours of my life to help you at least. They join their friends around the campfire, eating the surprisingly tasty ocx meat. ¡°This is so much better than before!¡± Dante says with glee, ripping apart a chunk of meat with his teeth. Emily, Ivor, and Enzo all nod in agreement. ¡°It¡¯s crazy what you can do when you actually bring seasoning. I¡¯m honestly surprised Oscar didn¡¯t,¡± Emilyments, looking to Hester with gratitude. ¡°Thanks for cooking for us.¡± ¡°No problem. Dante looked like he wanted to throw the meat into the fire without even using a pan. I fear for what we would be eating right now if I hadn¡¯t taken over,¡± Hester says dryly, making the pyromaniac nche. ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not that bad!¡± They allugh, and their meal quickly passes. Afterwards, Emily and Hester clean up with a few casts of cleanse, before everyone starts heading towards their tents. ¡°I¡¯ll wake Ivor for second watch, then Enzo¡¯s on third, and Dante¡¯s on fourth. Sound good?¡± Emily asks before they turn in. Receiving nods of approval from everyone, Emily turns towards the edge of the clearing to find a nice tree to climb up, but Juliana follows her. ¡°What are you doing? You should go to sleep,¡± Emily says, deciding against scaling a tree and instead sitting down with her back against one, facing her girlfriend. ¡°Nope,¡± Juliana chirps quietly, dropping down against Emily¡¯s side andying her head on her shoulder. ¡°I may not be able to help much, but I¡¯m at least sitting through your watches with you.¡± Emily smiles and slips her arm around Juliana. She nts a silent kiss on Juliana¡¯s head before leaning her cheek against the same spot and sending two of her cores to sleep, ready to wait out the night. Chapter 89 – Acceptance Chapter 89 ¨C eptance Emily and Juliana sit in silence, enjoying each other¡¯spany, for the first hour of the night watch. Not a single beast approaches their camp and, eventually, Juliana breaks the silence. ¡°Why do you need to leave?¡± she asks quietly, catching Emily off guard. Emily opens her mouth to respond but has to pause for a moment to work out an exnation through the twistings of guilt and grief threatening to choke her again. Juliana notices her hesitation and continues quickly. ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m ming you or anything. I understand the Mandrago family did some horrible things and you need revenge. But, why does that mean you have to leave The Covenant?¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Emily breathes a small sigh of relief, her emotions calming a little. ¡°Since I¡¯m a vassal of their house, what I want to do will be seen as insubordination and betrayal. The royal family and The Covenant won¡¯t take kindly to that. It¡¯s likely I will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment if I don¡¯t flee afterwards.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you tell everyone about what they¡¯re doing and just leave them then?¡± Juliana asks, pulling away a little to turn to face Emily. ¡°I looked into thew about conflict between noble households and if you separate and get granted a noble title then, even if you attacked them unprovoked and killed several of their members, you¡¯d only get a p on the wrist. There¡¯s even a past example of someone getting let off for ughtering an entire noble household right after being granted their title.¡± Juliana¡¯s face scrunches in distaste at the end. Ha, that¡¯s probably Jenny. ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s not that simple,¡± Emily says with a pained smile as she reaches up to push a few stray strands of hair out of Juliana¡¯s face. ¡°There are a lot of households doing the same so they¡¯ll likely support them and try to cover it up. Also, even if I separate from the Mandrago family, it will still be seen as a betrayal if I turn on them afterwards. There will be a lot of pushback from their faction, which will likely make my sentencing harsher than the past cases, and nobody, allied to them or not, will look positively on me assassinating one of the kingdom¡¯s fourth circle mages. Also, they believe I¡¯m brainwashed right now. If I request a noble title, they¡¯ll realise I¡¯m not and will probably expect me toe after them. That, and they could target Anna instead, who they currently have no reason to harm.¡± Tears start to form in Juliana¡¯s eyes as she looks for a way out. ¡°Can¡¯t you go collect Anna, then request a title? That way you can kill them with the least punishment and risk.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not confident I can take a fourth circle mage head-on, especially if they¡¯re expecting me and given time to prepare.¡± ¡°Then wait till you can! You can take your sister to my family¡¯s territory. We¡¯ll happily protect her while you grow, and I¡¯m sure, seeing how talented you are, it won¡¯t take long,¡± Juliana says desperately, her eyes begging Emily to say yes. ¡°And turn the hostility of a marquess on your family as well?¡± Emily whispers sadly. ¡°Would your family go to war for me? Fight the Mandragos, maybe their allies as well, so that I can get revenge? A surprise attack is my best change. The longer I drag this out, the more variables are introduced, and the more dangerous it gets.¡± Juliana falls silent for a few seconds, holding Emily¡¯s gaze with an expression of heartbreak and sorrow. Emily feels herself starting to cry as a hollow, selfish thought gnaws at the back of her mind, weeping for a suggestion she knows will nevere. Did she never even consider the possibility ofing with me? ¡°Is that it then? Are we done?¡± Juliana¡¯s words fall like a de on Emily¡¯s heart, severing her final hope as she wipes the tears from her girlfriend¡¯s cheek with her thumb, her mind alight in a ze of chaotic thoughts. I want to tell her no. I want to say we¡¯ll live long lives and I¡¯ll be back in a few years. But I also don¡¯t think she¡¯ll ever be able to keep up with me. Or want to. I want to fight strong opponents. I want to explore the wonders of magic. I want to go to space. I need to progress¡­ She doesn¡¯t¡­ Emily¡¯s emotions churn and the mana around her reacts to her plight. It bubbles into water, forming a shifting cloud of sadness around the two of them, small artificial raindrops joining the natural drizzle. Juliana doesn¡¯t even notice, her attention fixed solely on Emily. ¡°Yeah. I think so,¡± Emily finally answers, the icy lump forming in her heart once again. Juliana¡¯s barely restrained tears turn into a torrent as she grabs Emily and pulls her in tight, sobbing into her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Emily apologises meekly through her sorrow. *** They cry in each other¡¯s arms for a while until their tears run dry and Emily¡¯s spider spots iing beasts. Her eyebrow creases in irritation as she sends one of her birds to intercept them and moves a hand from Juliana¡¯s hair to tap her back. ¡°There¡¯s somethinging,¡± she says gently while pulling away. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± Juliana nods and releases her. Emily stands up and turns away to walk across the camp. Her bird reaches the approaching foes before she even makes it halfway across the clearing. She sees four mudscraps darting through the trees towards them. Emily quickly arrives at the edge of the barrier, looking out into the forest, dimly illuminated by the light of the moon above. She holds out her left hand, internally casting a spell and conjuring a fine metal bow. It falls into cefortably in her hand, the metal formed perfectly to her anatomy. She calmly shifts into a firing stance and raises the bow, grabbing the string with her free hand. A pulse of mana leaves her circles, forming an arrow on the string as she draws it back. A pale green magic circle wraps the arrow as Emily casts an eleration spell on it. She closes her eyes, watching the mudscraps through her bird¡¯s vision, before shifting her aim and releasing the arrow. The moment it leaves the string, she adjusts again and pulls back for another shot, the bow automatically conjuring an arrow as she casts eleration once again, pushing her casting speed to the limits with the simple second circle spells. Four arrows fly out almost simultaneously, silently carving through the air towards their targets. They cut through the underbrush, drawing a straight line through Emily¡¯s targets. Three of the four arrows fly true, mming into the mudscraps¡¯ heads and tearing a hole straight through them. The fourth though, hits a tree on the way, punching through but meeting enough resistance to knock it off course. Instead, itnds in the ugly creature¡¯s shoulder, embedded down to the tip of the shaft, sending the beast tumbling. ¡°Tsk, the power of the shot was good, but all these trees make uracy difficult. If only arc wasn¡¯t so noisy,¡± she mumbles to herself, drawing back the bow again and sending a fifth arrow, this one unaided by an eleration spell, sailing into the downed creature¡¯s head. Emily turns away from the corpses sending her bird back into position and taking onest nce at the bow in her hand. If I change the arrows to something with less weight and add in arc¡¯s tracking... She adds a reminder to her notebook to continue exploring the ideater and turns back. She returns to find Juliana staring at her, eyes still red from crying, but a lot calmer. Juliana pulls Emily down before climbing into herp andying her head on her chest. Emily hugs her tight, shutting her eyes and rxing. ¡°Are you nning on leaving the day we return?¡± Juliana asks after a few minutes. ¡°No. I¡¯m going to convert anything we get from this expedition into useful resources first. I also don¡¯t have transport sorted out, so I¡¯ll have to visit the docks and ask about it, and I can¡¯t guarantee how long that will take. I hope to leave in no more than a week if possible though.¡± ¡°Why are you in such a hurry?¡± Juliana asks, her tone one of pure curiosity, now that she¡¯s epted Emily¡¯s decision. Emily sighs, leaning her head back and opening her eyes to gaze up at the starry sky above through the gaps in the canopy. ¡°I need to see Anna, make sure she¡¯s alright. I still don¡¯t know how those assholes hurt her, and I didn¡¯t even get to talk to her after Dad¡­ That, and I feel impatient now. I¡¯ve finally reached the point where I actually have the strength to achieve the goal I¡¯ve been working towards since the day I awakened. It was easy to force it out of my mind and not think about it when the finish line was out of sight, but now it¡¯s all I can think about,¡± Emily exins, anger and sorrow seeping into her voice as memories of the day her clock first turned back bubble to the surface of her mind, rising from the deep trenches they¡¯d been forced into. ¡°I see,¡± Juliana says, sitting up and wrapping her arms around Emily¡¯s neck. She shes her a sad, resigned smile while leaning in close. ¡°We have to make the most of the time we have left together then. Hopefully, then you¡¯ll have to think about me instead.¡± She leans in for a kiss, and Emily allows herself to ept the temporaryfort. *** A short whileter, their watches to an end. Emily stands up, lifting Juliana from herp and pulling her towards the camp. They wake Ivor for his watch and then disappear into a tent together. Emily sends her weapons and armour away into her storage space, knowing she can be fully equipped again in seconds, if the need arises. Juliana does the same before they both climb into a sleeping bag and she curls up on top of Emily¡¯s chest. ¡°Goodnight,¡± Emily says, stroking Juliana¡¯s hair. ¡°Goodnight,¡± Juliana mumbles back, quickly falling into sleep¡¯s embrace. Emily smiles and shuts her eyes, diving into the Spellweave to work on a new spell. Once more in the night, during Enzo¡¯s watch, enemies are spotted by one of Emily¡¯s birds; this time three rocky howlers. She simply flies the closest bird over to Enzo,nding on his head once before flying towards the approaching foes. He quickly gets the message and goes to meet them, sending a few fast-flying rocks back at the monkeys and shredding holes in their chests. The rest of the night is quiet. As Dante takes over from Enzo, Emily switches sleeping cores, and, after a couple of hours spell crafting with fresh cores, Dante calls for everyone to wake. Juliana doesn¡¯t stir, so Emily gives her a light shake while sliding out from under her. ¡°Wake up, breakfast time.¡± Juliana¡¯s eyes flutter open at Emily¡¯s words, bringing a smirk to Emily¡¯s face. It just takes mentioning food to wake her. Emily slips out of the sleeping bag and stands up. She summons her body armour back into ce, taking a few moments to adjust how it sits to make it morefortable, before summoning her various pieces of battle gear and fastening them back into position. Juliana rises as she¡¯s gearing up, throwing on her own clothes and armour. Emily helps her adjust the body armour before they leave the tent together, meeting Dante and Hester sitting around a small fire with skewers of meat suspended above it, a barely perceptible drizzle falling on their heads. ¡°Morning,¡± Hester greets them casually as they approach. ¡°Morning,¡± they both say back, sitting down beside the fire. ¡°Sleep well?¡± Dante asks with a teasing grin, ncing towards the tent they shared. Emily rolls her eyes and ignores him, but Juliana throws her arms around Emily¡¯s neck, hanging off her, and responding with a cheery grin. ¡°Of course! Emi¡¯s reallyfy.¡± Hester and Emily giggle at her answer, and Dante chuckles before turning back to the fire, unable to keep teasing Juliana after her honest response. Ivor, Enzo, and Tom slowly join them as the skewers finish cooking, and their breakfast passes peacefully. Afterwards, they pack their tents back into Tom¡¯s bag. Once the clearing is empty, and they¡¯re ready to set off, Emily recalls all her scouts but one. She has thest bird fly up to the sound barrier disc,nding on top and pressing a button. The disc hisses as the anchors are ripped free from the surrounding trees and swiftly pulled back into their housing. The disc drops into Emily¡¯s waiting hands, and she sends it straight into her belt before leading the group onward into the forest. *** They walk on through the trees and fog, with Emily asionally checking the guide pose to make sure they¡¯re going in the right direction. They encounter nothing more than small groups of beasts in their first few days in the forest. Emily has Tom, Hester, and Juliana deal with most of them, to get used to realbat, but takes over whenever the groupsing at them exceed four in number. On the morning of the fifth day, Emily finishes working on her new spell a few minutes before the end of Dante¡¯s watch. Perfect! I finished it just in time to test it in the forest before we enter the caves. Let¡¯s call it... Scattershot! With a new spell in the third circle section of her spellbook, Emily slides out from under Juliana and leaves the tent early. She finds Dante sitting alone against a tree, his hood pulled down low to protect from the violent rain above. With a small flex of her magical prowess, a pulse of water spreads from Emily, forming a thin shield over their cramped camp, packed into a small clearing barely big enough to fit their tents. The water shield blocks the iing rain, giving Dante respite. ¡°Thanks,¡± he says, looking up as Emily approaches. ¡°I wish I had mana to burn on a defensive spell against the rain.¡± ¡°Ha, your defensive spell would burn all the trees around us along with your mana,¡± Emily says with a smirk, sitting down next to him. Dante clicks his tongue, as if all his ns have been ruined, drawing a chuckle from Emily as she casts cleanse to dry him off. They sit in silence after, waiting out thest few minutes till they wake everyone else. When the timees, Dante walks over to where Tom¡¯s bag is left outside his tent and starts getting things out to prepare for breakfast while Emily calls for everyone to wake up, and moves back to her and Juliana¡¯s tent. She pokes her head in, chuckling as she sees Juliana crawl deeper into her sleeping bag. ¡°Wake up, Jules. There¡¯ll be no food left if you take too long,¡± she threatens softly. ¡°Lies,¡± Juliana grumbles, peeking her head out of the sleeping back to re at Emily. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t dare.¡± Emily doesn¡¯t respond, shing her a cheeky grin. Juliana¡¯s cheeks puff out as she finally sits up. ¡°Meanie.¡± Emilyughs, resisting the urge to pinch her cute cheeks, as she turns around: choosing to ignore the quietly muttered promise of revenge. Chapter 90 – New Spells Chapter 90 ¨C New Spells Emily sits down next to Dante as he sets up a small fire using some dry wood from within Tom¡¯s bag and roasts skewers of a razor-fanged wolf he killed during the night. ¡°Wow, you actually butchered something on your own?¡± Emily asks with mock surprise. ¡°It gave me something to do,¡± he grumbles back. ¡°Sitting on watch on my own is so boring!¡± ¡°Wow, bored after a few days. Now you know how we felt after weeks,¡± Emily says with a snort. Their friends slowly start joining them before the food is done cooking, drawn by the smell of sizzling meat. ¡°Did you even season those?¡± Hester asks as she sits down opposite Dante and Emily. ¡°Yep!¡± Dante says proudly. ¡°I used the mix you made.¡± Emily resists the urge tough at his pride over following instructions, focusing on Hester instead. ¡°Did you kick your brother?¡± ¡°Yeah, he should be up in a second.¡± ¡°Good, I didn¡¯t expect waking up to be the biggest challenge on this expedition,¡± Emily says dryly, thinking of their twenty-minute dy yesterday because Tom refused to get up. Juliana walks over as they chat, sporting a mischievous grin. Dante goes to hand Emily a finished skewer, but Juliana steps between them and drops down into Emily¡¯sp with all her weight. Emily ys along, letting out a pained grunt even though the impact barely bothers her as she wraps her arms around her girlfriend¡¯s waist and rests her chin on her shoulder. Juliana takes the skewer Dante was offering and starts munching on it with a self-satisfied smile. Dante gives Juliana a small, amused nod before continuing as if nothing happened. He hands finished skewers to everyone else, purposefully leaving Emily tillst. Emily rolls her eyes, unbothered, and addresses the group once they¡¯re all eating. ¡°We should reach the tunnel down into The Crystal Waters by this evening. We¡¯re probably going to run into a lot more beasts today, and I have a new spell to test, so I¡¯m going to take overbat for now.¡± Nobody has anyints, so they finish their meal and pack up their camp quickly. An hour into the morning trek, Emily hears a faint boom ahead, slightly off their intended path. Pop frogs? She sends one of her birds up above the canopy into the free skies where the mist thins a little. The sight she sees makes her eyes light up as arge smile spreads across her face. ¡°I just found the perfect target for my test. Follow me,¡± Emily says, turning to the right. ¡°What is it?¡± Juliana asks, following close behind her. ¡°A huge flock of sominal bombers!¡± ¡°How big is huge?¡± Hester asks. ¡°About fourteen. No, wait, make that fifteen,¡± Emily says, watching another bird rise from the trees to join the flock. ¡°And they seem pretty agitated, so probably whatever they¡¯re attacking too.¡± Juliana, Hester, and Enzo start chanting, preparing defensive spells, just in case, after hearing the numbers. Emily doesn¡¯t say anything, inwardly chuckling. They won¡¯t get a chance to attack us. Emily stops a hundred metres away from the flock, holding up a hand to signal for her group to halt. They react instantly, falling silent and stopping dead in their tracks. Emily stands still,nding all of her birds and ignoring them to free up threads, two of her cores still asleep. She quickly pulls upon her magical perception, spread by a free thread as she approaches, and begins casting her new spell. She locates all of her targets: fifteen sominal bombers; twelve pop frogs in their clutches; and five razor fangs on the floor below them. She directly brands all of them with her mana, writing a few runes that don¡¯t even qualify as a spell onto each, dividing them into two groups. Glowing green and silver runes flow out of Emily, encasing her in a spinning matrix of letters and geometric patterns within a second. At the centre of the spell, silver mana slowly condenses into a mesmerising metal bow, the limbs twisting out from the handle like a tornado. It¡¯s then delicately wrapped in faint green mana that condenses into shimmering winds that flow through the grooves of the limbs, bursting out from the tips to connect together in a swirling string. Emily¡¯s friends are mesmerised by the beautiful weapon as Emily reaches up her left hand to grasp the handle. It fits perfectly, and she smiles as she raises the bow to the sky, pointing straight at the flock of birds. Her right hand draws back the barely visible bowstring, flexing the limbs back as more mana flows from the spell to condense into a thin, straight arrow of twisted metal. She holds it there for a second, waiting as more mana is poured into the arrow, wrapping it in a violently twisting gale. ¡°Scatter,¡± Emily deres with a wide grin, releasing the arrow. Faster than any of her friends¡¯ eyes can follow, her aerial targets die. Emily is only barely able to watch the path of the arrow since she knows it in advance. It rips through the air, cutting through the few leaves and branches in its way with ease. A few metres away from the flock of birds, the spiralling metallic cylinder at the centre of the projectile bursts. Twenty-seven jagged shards of metal rocket off at different angles, already lined up due to the strange twists in the original projectile. The winds around the arrow split, joining each shard and adding a violent rotation. They fly towards the marks Emily left on the beasts, targeting the skulls of the bombers and the hearts of the frogs. Each one hits its mark, tearing through any flesh or bone in the way. As the first wave of corpses falls from the sky, Emily draws back another shot, waiting for the arrow to charge again. Instead of aiming up or directly towards her targets, Emily points at an odd angle slightly to the right of the five razor-fang¡¯s still ahead, aiming for the longest gap between any trees. Emily¡¯s friends hear a chorus of thuds as the falling bodies hit the floor, and Emily releases the next arrow the moment silence settles. It flies forward before suddenly jolting sideways, winding between the gaps in the trees towards the wolves, and then bursting into five muchrger shards of arrow that all weave their way into the beast¡¯s hearts. They don¡¯t even get a chance to yelp before their chests are pulped and they drop dead. ¡°Target¡¯s eliminated,¡± Emily mutters, lowering her hand and dismissing the spell. The bow bursts into glittering light and a final gust of wind, signalling the end of the disy to her friends. ¡°That was incredible!¡± Tom shouts excitedly, receiving a smack to the back of the head from his sister. ¡°Idiot. Don¡¯t shout,¡± she chides him. He lowers his head sheepishly, and Emilyughs, gesturing for them to follow her as she walks towards her quarry. They walk through the trees until theye across the littered bodies, scattered through the trees, a few frogs and birds stuck in the branches above, dripping gore to the floor. Her teammates let out surprised exmations at the sight. ¡°Did you hit all of them in the head or heart?¡± Enzo asks, inspecting a few of the corpses. ¡°Yep!¡± Emily says with a proud grin, starting to gather the corpses together with her friends¡¯ help. ¡°Scattershot works by marking my targets, then the arrow splits to hit them all. I was considering having a single arrow follow a path through all of the marks, but it would have been weaker per hit after the first few because of the drastic direction changes.¡± ¡°Incredible. I¡¯ve only seen a few third circle mages in action before and I never realised their spells could be so... precise,¡± Enzo says with admiration. ¡°Ha, thanks. Were you watching members of the Hibiscus family by any chance?¡± Emily asks in a teasing tone. ¡°Yes actually. I¡¯ve watched a few friendly spars between some of our siblings,¡± Enzo confirms. ¡°I can¡¯t really me the Hibiscus mages though. My siblings aren¡¯t exactly refined.¡± Enzo¡¯s tired sigh is drowned out by Dante¡¯sughter at thement. ¡°Your siblings are great!¡± he says through hisughter. ¡°So they use big explosions then?¡± Juliana asks with false innocence, smiling yfully. Emily is caught off guard by Juliana¡¯s tone and breaks into a fit ofughter, quickly being joined by everyone else. They gather the corpses together, as Tom starts harvesting the valuable parts and cing them into his bag. Emily gracefully ascends a few trees to fish bodies out of them, before joining him to quickly finish stripping the bodies. It doesn¡¯t take long with a little help from everyone, and they soon finish up and turn to continue their march. Emily pulls out her guide pose to correct their course and, as they start walking, Tom asks her a question. ¡°Why do you have to use that to find the entrance? Don¡¯t you already know where it is? Couldn¡¯t you just plot a course on a map and use apass?¡± Emily looks over her shoulder at him with a raised brow. ¡°Haven¡¯t you done any research on mana-dense regions? I would have thought it would fit into your interests since so many conflicts happened around The de.¡± ¡°No,¡± he responds, scratching his cheek embarrassedly. ¡°I¡¯ve only read a few things about The de in passing. Not many historical texts give much detail on it in the C grade section.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Emily nods in understanding, not having considered his limited ess to knowledge. ¡°There are a few reasons. First and foremost, the geography of The de is constantly shifting: how drastically depends on a lot of factors, and not all of them are fully understood, so we can¡¯t rely on the entrance staying in one spot or predict how it will move.¡± Hester, Tom, and Juliana all react to the information, but the other three don¡¯t, having already heard about it on theirst trip. ¡°Secondly, and probably therger issue,¡± she continues, ¡°Is this.¡± Emily reaches into a pouch at her hip and pulls out an ornate bronzepass, tossing it over her shoulder to Tom. He catches it and looks at the face. ¡°Woah,¡± he mutters, drawing Hester and Juliana in next to him to look too. Ivor, Enzo, and Dante also try to look over his shoulder, not knowing the second reason themselves. The needle of thepass erratically jumps, pointing in several different directions. Some of its jumps happen rapidly in session, and some give long pauses in between, creating an impossible-to-predict pattern. ¡°Simplepasses don¡¯t work in mana-dense regions,¡± Emily exins, holding her hand out to take back her instrument. ¡°Why?¡± Hester asks, earning an approving nod from Emily. ¡°Do any of you understand howpasses work?¡± Her friends fall silent for a few moments before Hester hesitantly says: ¡°The needle is pulled towards the north?¡± Emily sighs, raising a hand to rub the bridge of her nose. I wonder if theirck of knowledge reflects ack of understanding in the kingdom, or education. My knowledge of this is all given by the system. ¡°I¡¯ll start with the basics then. Do you know what mas are?¡± ¡°Metals that stick to metals!¡± Tom says proudly. ¡°Close enough. Think of mas as objects with an aura of attraction around them, like a spell that draws in other mas. The we¡¯re on, Ulea, has onerge aura that will affect all other mas on it. So, to make apass, we ce a small ma,¡± she exins, holding up thepass and pointing to the needle in the middle. ¡°On a pivot, and it¡¯s automatically pulled towards the top of the, aka, north.¡± Murmured understanding spreads through the group. ¡°Why do mana-dense regions affect them then? Aren¡¯t they on the too?¡± Juliana asks. ¡°They are. But, the dense mana here has a stronger influence than the¡¯s light constant aura. So, thepass reacts to the fluctuation of mana instead of the¡¯s aura.¡± Though, I could probably make apass resistant to the influence with the right alloy of maic and mana-resistant metals... She puts thepass away again, returning her focus to their path as she spots a few approaching beasts, probably drawn by the noise of pop frogs going off. She signals for her friends to stop, her mouth stretching into a grin as an idea strikes her. I¡¯ve shown them precision, now time for overwhelming power. ¡°Some mudscraps and ocx areing. Wait a moment,¡± Emily says calmly, casting another third circle spell. A crackling matrix of sky-blue runes flickers to life in front of her. The air around buzzes with energy as a giant orb, the size of Emily¡¯s torso, of violent lightning forms. Emily draws a rune on each of her teammates quickly, excluding them from the spell¡¯s targeting, as the beasts rush towards them through the trees. She holds the spell, watching the beasts through one of her birds and waiting for them to step into range. The five ocx arrive first, stopping a few metres away from Emily, cautiously watching the giant ball of sizzling mana she controls and not approaching. Good choice, but not smart enough. Thest of the eight approaching mudscraps steps within twenty metres of her, and she raises her hands dramatically, putting on a show for her audience. ¡°Arc!¡± she announces, pping her hands together in time with a roaring thunder as she releases her spell. The orb of lightning that was contained by the carefully constructed spell matrix shakes, firing out searing tendrils of sma. The thin lines of lightning stretch out, striking at the trees and beasts around them indiscriminately. Bark is burned ck, leaves and bushes set alight, and the beasts howl in pain. Each deadly limb of mana released from the orb bounces from target to target, not doing arge amount of damage per impact, but not stopping either until they reach a distance of thirty metres from the orb, where they fizzle out. Power pours out of the spell, creating an electrically charged territory ruled by lightning. All of the beasts struck writhe in pain, unable to control themselves as tendrils repeatedly strike then leap away. All of them have been marked. Phase two. Emily moves her arms, grasping at the air in a precise, well-nned manner, like a conductor building up their orchestra into a roaring crescendo. The magic circle around the orb morphs, runes vanishing and being reced, shapes bending and twisting to connect different points in a dizzying, twisting motion as the entire spell seems to shrink around the orb, constricting it and holding in the striking limbs, bringing quiet to the forest again. The orb of sma starts to shake violently,pressing into a glistening ball the size of a fist that starts to buzz in a high-pitched hum. Emily¡¯s movement ceases suddenly, with both her hands sped together, her fingers interlinked, pointing straight ahead. Her friends stand behind her in awed silence, watching the mesmerising disy of mastery ying out before them. The beasts lying around in the trees quiver in ce, unmoving, their skin still crackling with residual lightning even after the main assault has paused. ¡°Arc-bolt.¡± Emily¡¯s voice flows out, mixing with the crackling hum in a chilling deration of death. Emily¡¯s hands rx and part as deafening noise and light fill the forest. A powerful roar shakes her friends to the core as a single, white line is drawn between every beast in the vicinity. The beam of sma only targets the immobilised creatures, instantly ending their lives the moment it touches them as they are struck by millions of volts and an intense, searing heat. The beam hits all thirteen targets before vanishing, leaving nothing but stunned silence in its wake. Chapter 91 – Comfortable Journey Chapter 91 ¨C Comfortable Journey Emily surveys the destruction wrought by her spell with immense satisfaction. The ckened trees are still smouldering as more magical fog rolls in, smothering the small fires she has identally started, making her realise she managed to partially clear it with her spell. Curious. I can clear arge area of the fog with a single dispersed third circle spell. We needed Oscar to use airspace im to achieve even half of this effectst time. I guess that¡¯s the difference in circles showing. She turns away from her achievement and is filled with pride as she sees the stunned looks of disbelief on her friends'' faces, still shocked even after her earlier disy of another equally impressive spell. ¡°Was that enough raw power for you?¡± she asks with a teasing tone, snapping them out of their reverie. ¡°Fucking hell!¡± Dante cries, unable to contain himself as he looks around with a giddy grin. ¡°That was incredible! Do you have any fire spells like that?¡± Emilyughs at his predictable reaction to the more explosive spell. ¡°I have fireball, but I¡¯ve only made a few third circle spells so far, and my only other fire-based one is more single target than area of effect.¡± He nods, his mild disappointment unable to dampen his excitement over such a destructive spell. ¡°It was certainly impressive,¡± Hester agrees, drawing her gaze back to Emily from the excessive damage around them with a curious glint in her eye. ¡°Was that all one spell? It looked like you changed it halfway through without dispelling it.¡± ¡°Good spot,¡± Emily praises. ¡°It¡¯s technically two different spells.¡± She stops speaking as the strong aroma of singed flesh hits her. She turns around, looking at the burning cinders that used to be ocxes and makes a quick decision. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here first. I made a lot of noise and these corpses will be useless to us now. I¡¯ll exin as we move.¡± Her friends all agree, so Emily sets off towards The Waters¡¯ tunnel again, leaving the destruction behind. ¡°At first, when I was designing arc, I was looking to turn my second circle spell, bolt, into a more powerful third circle version,¡± Emily exins as they walk, all of her friends listening attentively. ¡°However, I thought that instead of just sending out a powerful shot in a straight line, it would be better to target my enemies, since lightning spells don¡¯t lose a lot of force even after prating one target. That led me towards targeting in the way I used for scattershot, where I apply a small magical mark to each enemy within my range before casting the spell. But that didn¡¯t feel quite right for the element.¡± She turns around, walking backwards at full pace and facing her audience. She raises her hand, fingers syed, and courses machina through it. Small arcs of electricity jump between her digits, crackling from the base to the tip. ¡°You see, lighting moves in a very unique, erratic way. It likes to move along the path of least resistance, and that means that if you block its other routes, you can get it to do some interesting things.¡± Emily points at Juliana, building up machina at the top of her finger until it bursts. A glowing arc jumps to Juliana¡¯s body armour, buzzing across and dispersing. She lowers her hand as she continues exining. ¡°Living beings are great conductors! So, I decided to create arc, where I simply build up a mass of charge and let it go wild, jumping to the lowest resistance objects nearby and therefore hitting my enemies. But, because I¡¯m continually dispersing a single spell across a wide area, it is very weak. The arcs it shoots are only strong enough to disable a second circle target. So, I went back to my original idea of a single powerful bolt, and thenbined them. They have the same base of a dense orb of lightning, but one is a slow discharge, and one is a singlepressed burst.¡± She pauses, looking over her friends¡¯ faces to gauge their understanding. They seem a little confused by some of the things she said around the path of least resistance, but a general air of understanding sits over them. ¡°How does this rte to you changing a spell you¡¯re casting?¡± Tom asks. ¡°I¡¯m getting to that,¡± Emily says dryly, picking up where she left off. ¡°I designed the two spells with the same base, so the majority of the magic circles are the same. The major differences are the parts for discharge, and the targeting system. Arc applies a small magical mark to all living targets it hits, and arc-bolt targets those marks. So, since the main body of the spells are the same, after forming arc I can change a few small parts of the spell to change it into arc-bolt without affecting the energy gathering andpression sections at all, meaning the gathered mana never disperses. It makes it faster and cheaper to cast two spells!¡± Emily beams with pride, looking at the astonishment on her friends'' faces. ¡°Crazy,¡± Enzo mutters, receiving several nods from the others, confusing Emily. ¡°What¡¯s crazy?¡± Emily asks, smoothly stepping backwards over a knot of roots. ¡°You,¡± Dante responds instantly with a grin. ¡°What¡¯s crazy about that?¡± Emily asks, tilting her head. Juliana sighs, giving Emily a gentle smile. ¡°Emi, that casting method works for you, but it¡¯s ridiculous for most other people to copy. You made those spells yourself, right?¡± Emily nods silently, waiting for her to continue. ¡°Well, most of us haven¡¯t ever made a spell. We memorise magic circles and chants, then cast them. Most of us don¡¯t actually know what each rune is doing. Being able to pick apart a spell while casting it without breaking the magic circle is incredible, and requires an intimate understanding of the spells you¡¯re using.¡± ¡°Hmmm, I see,¡± Emily mutters, considering her words. I guess most mages don¡¯t have my processing speed and ability to perfectly multitask. If it weren¡¯t for my perfect memory and cortex, it would¡¯ve probably taken weeks or months to learn all the spells I know, let alone make new ones. She shrugs, shing her friends a cheeky grin. ¡°Guess I¡¯m just amazing.¡± They roll their eyes at her, chuckling as she turns back to face the front again. They march on through The de, following the guide pose deeper into the mist. Emily spots several more groups of beasts through her bird scouts as they move, but none arerge enough to warrant a third circle spell, so she sticks to less extreme measures, flying lightning and the Spitter, to save the corpses. Ivor and Dante join her in dispatching the enemies, thetter excited to finally fight again afterining about theck of fights so farpared to their first expedition. Late afternoon, as the sun is vanishing beyond the horizon and the shadows of the trees stretch ever longer, they arrive at the shifting fog wall that marks the end of the first leg of their journey. ¡°Woah,¡± Juliana gasps in surprise at the sight of the roiling wall of shifting white, her voice barely louder than the constant patter of heavy rain falling around them. Tom and Hester show equally impressed reactions to the strange phenomena. Emily silently steps forward, vanishing through the ethereal wall to join her birds on the other side. One of them flies down andnds on her head, waiting to be swapped out with a spider for the night watch. Her friends step into the clearing behind her, and all of their attention is immediately drawn to the ominous crack in the earth. The three who apanied Emilyst time spare it a quick nce before looking around the rest of the clearing, checking it¡¯s in the same state asst time. The other three keep their eyes fixed on the crack with wonder, watching the billowing fog rolling down the edges. ¡°We camp here for tonight and head in tomorrow,¡± Emily says, calmly walking out into the open and turning back to face her friends. ¡°We¡¯ll stay here for a little longer than usual to do a few final preparations on the surface, so spread out and set up however you want. Oh, but don¡¯t go into the crack unless you¡¯re fighting somethinging out.¡± She pointedly looks at Tom as she says that, trusting him to look after himself the least. ¡°I¡¯m not stupid!¡± Tom cries in injustice, receiving a doubtful nce from his sister so genuine Emily can¡¯t help but double over inughter. After Emily finishesughing at Tom¡¯s expense, she reassures him it was Hester¡¯s reaction that made herugh, to keep him from being too hurt, then they move to set up camp. The tents are split between Tom, Hester, Juliana, and Ivor to set up, while Enzo and Dante leave the clearing with one of Emily¡¯s birds to gather firewood. Emily casts a water barrier over the clearing, blocking the rain above, before throwing the barrier disk into the air at the centre of the area. She leaves it to set itself up as she positions a spider at the entrance to The Waters. The instant it starts cking its legs, she spots enemies rising from the depths. Without a word, Emily steps up to the edge of the crack and drops in. She walks down, past the lower boundary of the sound barrier and quickly reaches the point where darkness takes over andes to a halt. She slides the Spitter from its holster, summoning the silencer into her other hand and screwing it on as she waits. Five cat-sized roaches skitter towards her, clear in her spider¡¯s vibrational vision. She raises her hand, not giving them time to hurl ming bile at her, and flicks her pistol into burst mode. She squeezes the trigger, a light sheen of machina dancing over the weapon¡¯s body as two bullets fly into the same spot on the first bug¡¯s head, cracking its hard exoskeleton with the first shot and pulping its innards with the second. Before the third shot of the rapid burst leaves the barrel though, Emily flicks her wrist in a precisely timed motion, sending the third bullet into the head of the next bug. Without hesitation, she pulls the trigger again, repeating the same flick after the first shot, killing two bugs simultaneously. Thest two bugs pause and open their mandibles, building up flickering red masses in their jaws. Unfortunately for them, they don¡¯t get to release their attacks before Emily¡¯s gun kicks against her hand again, sending three more bullets down range. The bullets fly through the bugs¡¯ mouths, sending the built-up ming bile back into their throats and ripping apart their insides. They curl up, twitching as life fades from their bodies. Emily sweeps spatial mana over the corpses, moving them to her utility belt as she turns and walks back up the slope while disassembling her gun to store again. She rises above the lip of the crack, meeting with Juliana¡¯s concerned gaze as she stands to the side waiting for Emily. ¡°Is everything okay?¡± she asks as Emily approaches. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Emily responds with a warm smile. ¡°I just spotted a few bugsing to bother us, so I dealt with them.¡± She waves a hand, dropping the five balled-up corpses from her storage and onto the floor. Tom and Hester¡¯s attention is drawn by the action, and they both leave the tents they were setting up toe over. Hester looks excited as she walks towards them. ¡°Are those poisonous?¡± she asks eagerly. ¡°No,¡± Emily answers, raising a brow. ¡°Fire-spitting bugs should be safe to consume. Why? You nning on cooking them?¡± As she asks, she notes the faint smell of cooked chickening from the two bugs she filled with fire. ¡°Of course! We make burgers from desert crawlers back home, they¡¯re good.¡± ¡°I see. Go ahead then, they¡¯re all yours. I¡¯ll show Tom how to strip them now.¡± Juliana and Hester leave them to it and go and help Ivor finish setting up the tents. Emily finds a good rock to sit on next to the tunnel¡¯s entrance and gestures for Tom to join her. They sit down, each with a bug in theirp, and Emily slowly guides Tom through the process of cutting away the hard exoskeleton from the soft flesh beneath before jamming in a knife and prying the individual tes off. ¡°Save the mandibles and any mostly undamaged tes of armour, they¡¯re the valuable materials. As for the rest, gather the flesh for your sister, and get Ivor or Enzo to help you bury the rest. The organs are annoyingly fire resistant so we can¡¯t just burn them,¡± she says after finishing her demonstration. ¡°Got it!¡± Tom says cheerfully, grabbing another bug to get started on. ¡°Do you like butchering things?¡± Emily asks, slightly taken aback by his sudden enthusiasm. ¡°Hmm? No, not really. I just really like bug burgers!¡± ¡°Fair y. I¡¯ll go get her started on those then,¡± she says, picking up the flesh from her finished bug and walking towards their new campfire. Enzo and Dante have returned from gathering wood and piled a few of the dry logs from Tom¡¯s bag in a circle of stones before lighting them. Next to the crackling campfire is a small stone structure made by Enzo, which is filled with damp wood, with open gaps on either end to allow airflow. Juliana is sitting next to the structure, using a basic wind spell to blow the warm air from the campfire over the wood, drying it quickly. Emily hands Hester the bug meat and sits down next to Juliana, wrapping an arm around her waist and resting her head on her shoulder. ¡°Let me take over drying,¡± Emily says quietly. ¡°No. You already do enough,¡± Juliana argues, keeping part of her focus on maintaining her spell. ¡°You need conscious effort to maintain the spell. I don¡¯t. You can do some weaving for a bit if you let me take over.¡± Juliana sighs, giving in to the devil¡¯s temptation and releasing her spell. ¡°Thank you, darling,¡± Juliana says, cing a kiss on Emily¡¯s forehead before pulling out her weaving supplies. Emily smirks, casting a first circle wind spell with barely a thought and letting one of her secondary cores manage it. They sit together infortable silence as everybody fulfils their tasks, the sound of the crackling fire and falling rain mixing together in the clearing to give a pleasant atmosphere. Slowly, everyone finishes their individual tasks and gathers around the fire, waiting for the surprisingly good-looking patties of meat to finish cooking. ¡°Do we have an actual goal for this expedition?¡± Tom asks after a while, growing ufortable with the silence. Emily lifts her head from Juliana¡¯s shoulders, looking around at her friends, all expectantly looking to her for an answer. I guess it¡¯s time to tell them. ¡°We do,¡± she says calmly, a smirk growing on her lips. ¡°We¡¯re heading for the end of The Crystal Waters.¡± Chapter 92 – Into the Caves Again Chapter 92 ¨C Into the Caves Again Emily¡¯s friends all look at her in confusion. ¡°What do you mean by the end?¡± Ivor signs the question on everyone¡¯s minds. ¡°I have reason to believe there is a single set endpoint for all of the streams in The Crystal Waters,¡± Emily answers, receiving several silently raised brows. ¡°What do you guys know about the formation of mana-dense regions?¡± ¡°They form on junction points of multiple mana veins,¡± Juliana answers quickly, having listened to Emily¡¯s ramblings about The de before. ¡°Yep, and if you have a junction of mana veins, what does that mean?¡± Everyone silently considers for a second. Enzo suddenly starts, realisation shing across his eyes. ¡°There¡¯s possibly a single point where all of the mana veins intersect.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Emily confirms with a nod. ¡°But how do you know there actually is?¡± Hester asks. ¡°Couldn¡¯t the mana veins just pass very close by each other? Or maybe even only a few meet and the others just pass by. How can you be so confident there¡¯s a single goal?¡± Emily grins at her questioning. I can¡¯t tell them that the system told me. I guess I can tell them a bit about where I found the Mensacus. ¡°I can¡¯t be certain, but,st time we were here, I mentioned swimming around in ake to try and find the cause behind the grogler hordes, right? Well, when I was down there, I found a hole going somewhere, leaking powerful mana. I took some measurements and I¡¯ve been analysing them in The Dome,paring them to my notes on The de and the rest of The Waters, and it¡¯s led me to believe that that hole leads to a point of massive mana density that¡¯s spreading through the rest of The de.¡± ¡°I see. And you believe that point is the end point of The Waters?¡± Dante says. ¡°Yeah.¡± Emily nods. ¡°So I want to follow the river until we find that point. I have some tools prepared to try and follow that hole back to its origin too. So, as long as we get back to thatke and that hole is still there, we have a great starting point to find the end.¡± Her friends nod in understanding. ¡°That seems reasonable enough. Worst case, I guess we just travel around The Waters for a bit before returning, right?¡± Hester says, serving up the finished bug meat patties. ¡°I trust your judgement. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be able to find your goal,¡± Ivor signs confidently. ¡°Ha, thanks big guy,¡± Emily says with a grin, taking arge bite from her food and being surprised by a juicy burst of rich, mana-dense vour. ¡°Damn. These are really good.¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± Hester says, beaming with pride as everybody digs in, giving equally impressed reactions. As they munch away on their food, they move on from the topic of their goal with newfound confidence in their objective. ¡°I hope we run into some more enemies in there,¡± Dante says after a few minutes, gesturing to the crack with his head. ¡°There have been boringly few fights on the way here. And most of them have been used for training.¡± Emily chooses to ignore his grumbled final sentence. ¡°Yeah, there was an abnormal amount of beasts on thest expedition,¡± Enzo adds thoughtfully. ¡°Do you guys have any idea why?¡± Tom asks. ¡°Isn¡¯t it because you killed most of the beasts in this areast time? Don¡¯t they take a while to gather again?¡± Juliana questions. ¡°This amount is more normal,¡± Enzo answers. ¡°I¡¯ve been on a few expeditions this deep into The de before, and thest trip was the weird one.¡± ¡°Also, magic beasts form quite quickly in The de. Our ughter shouldn¡¯t affect the number of beasts here for more than a few weeks. It¡¯s been long enough to return to normal,¡± Ivor adds helpfully. ¡°I see.¡± Juliana nods, turning her head to look at Emily. ¡°Why were there so manyst time then?¡± Everyone else turns expectantly to Emily as well. ¡°Why do you think I have the answer?¡± Emily asks with a teasing grin. ¡°Because, even if you don¡¯t, you usually have a reasonable guess?¡± Dante says sincerely, making her chuckle. ¡°Well, luckily for you guys, I think I do know the reason. A curse.¡± Her friends look taken aback by her answer, most of them falling into careful thought. Tom, on the other hand, looks at Emily dubiously. ¡°Aren¡¯t curses just stories told to scare kids?¡± he asks dismissively. Everyone turns to look at him with disappointment. ¡°What?¡± he questions defensively, shrinking back under their gazes. ¡°Haaa,¡± Hester sighs, rubbing between her brows in frustration. ¡°This is why I told you to spend less time looking at the past, and more on your magical studies. Curses are just another area of magic. Didn¡¯t you think magic was a tale told to children until the Dahlia family approached us?¡± ¡°Oh,¡± he squeaks, his eyes opening in shock and realisation. Emilyughs at the siblings as Ivor looks at her with understanding in his gaze. She notices and turns her attention to him, gesturing with her head that he has her attention. ¡°Is this rted to the skull you found in theke?¡± he signs. ¡°Yes, it is.¡± Emily nods, remembering the lie she used to cover up the Mensacus. ¡°I think the object I found in theke was cursed. I took a sample and analysed it afterwards, and it was a mix of darkness, ice, and death. I think it was riling up and gathering the nearby beasts to try and kill more things.¡± ¡°How can it be made of death?¡± Dante asks doubtfully. Ah. They don¡¯t know about conceptual elements. Emily frowns at the gap in Ulean mages¡¯ knowledge. ¡°Just like mana can be attributed with an element, it can also be attributed with a concept. It¡¯s far moreplicated, but I¡¯m certain the concept of death was part of the curse¡¯s make-up,¡± she brushes it off, not going too deep into the exnation and hoping her friends won¡¯t ask too much. ¡°I guess that makes sense,¡± Enzo nods, looking unconvinced. They fall silent for a few moments before Tom moves on from the serious topics, and considers how curses and magic becamemon fantasy stories amongmoners if they¡¯re real. They finish eating shortly after and, after cleaning up, Ivor leaves first to rest before his watch, and everyone else soon follows. It doesn¡¯t take long for Emily and Juliana to be left alone, leaning against each other in front of the lightly crackling fire. Their watch passes quietly, with Juliana returning to her weaving and Emily pulling out a few mechanical parts to tinker with to keep her hands busy as she watches their surroundings through her scouts. She leaves twice to deal with a few bugs crawling out of the tunnel, but otherwise, the night is calm. *** The next morning, they have bug burgers for breakfast before breaking camp. Emily recalls her scouts, keeping only a single bird and spider out, before sending the bird to retrieve the barrier disc. ¡°Will that thing even work in the tunnels?¡± Dante asks as it falls into Emily¡¯s waiting hand below. ¡°Of course it will. It¡¯s designed for high adaptability, it should work in all terrain,¡± Emily replies proudly. They all gather before therge crack in the ground, gazing down into the gloom below. Emily sends the spider down the slope andnds the bird on her head, reaching up to pull the thermal pack off. The small legs utch from the bird¡¯s chest, and Emily drops the pack into a pouch at her hip before pulling out another simr pack with a light crystal embedded in the centre. She clips the new light pack to the bird and turns to face her friends. ¡°From this point on, we don¡¯t have a set path anymore. I¡¯m going to try and follow the same route we tookst time to reach thatke again, but the tunnels may have shifted, so I can¡¯t guarantee we¡¯ll get there. I also have no clue how long this will take, so say goodbye to the sun for a while,¡± Emily says with an excited smile. ¡°Let¡¯s go make history!¡± She turns on her heel and steps forward, dropping down the small gap to the slope below and walking forward confidently. Her friends follow closely behind, taking the step down to the slope more carefully and walking with less surety, the swirling mist around their feet making it hard to see their footing. They move down until the billowing fog lining the walls has fallen to cover only the floor, being reced by insidious darkness. The bird still perched on Emily¡¯s head lights up, filling the tunnel evenly with a constant, white light. The field of light fills from wall to wall and stretches out ten metres down the tunnel. The centre of the bird¡¯s chest glows, runes lighting up around the embedded crystal, but it remains dim enough to befortable to look at. They continue down the path ahead of them, Emily¡¯s spider scurrying along ahead to warn them of any threats in advance. Nothing approaches them and, within ten minutes, they arrive at the first branch in the tunnel, splitting off in two directions. Emily pauses, noticing movement down the right path through her spider. She sees two fire spitters crawling along the walls, seemingly eating something. ¡°We¡¯re gonna make a quick detour,¡± Emily informs her friends. ¡°We want to go left, but I see some bugs on the right and I think they¡¯re eating herbs.¡± Nobody argues as Emily leads them down the right-hand path. They quickly start to hear the faint clicking of moving mandibles as they walk around a corner and into view of two roach-like bugs, munching away on a patch of moss. Emily¡¯s enhanced eyes allow her to see the moss in fine detail even from ten metres away. It¡¯s a dense mass of brown and green, with a rippling pattern, like waves around a stone dropped in a pond, as it spreads from a crack in the wall that it seems to grow from. ¡°Eartworn,¡± Emily mutters under her breath, just loud enough to grab the roaches¡¯ attention. ¡°Dante, don¡¯t attack the herbs. Hester and Juliana, you two deal with them please.¡± Dante grumbles, dismissing the spell he has started to form, as Juliana and Hester both begin chanting. The bugs turn to face them, cking their mandibles and hissing in anger at the intruders interrupting their meal. They scuttle down to the ground, their jaws¡¯ hanging open as ming bile builds up. Emily calmly watches without raising a finger, trusting her friends, and recognising Hester¡¯s chant. Two balls of fire are shot towards them, but Hester finishes casting in time. A bubble of water pops up around the group, and the fireballs burst helplessly against it, sending out ripples along the barrier, but otherwise achieving nothing. At the same time, Juliana finishes casting, sending an arrow of wind urately into the open mouth of one of the bugs. It violently curls in on itself in pain, shrivelling up as green blood leaks from its mouth. ¡°Nice shot,¡± Emilypliments her as the second bug notices the death of its friend, and the failure of its attack, and turns to run. Juliana starts chanting again, but the bug scurries into the darkness, leaving the bird¡¯s light field before she can finish. Emily wordlessly taps the floor with her foot, sending two sharp spikes of rock into the bug, one from the floor and one from the ceiling. The rock from below stabs up through the bug¡¯s head, and the one above pins the base of its abdomen to the floor, crushing any resistance left in it. ¡°Damn,¡± Hester mutters, dismissing her barrier. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily says, patting her and Juliana on the shoulders as she steps past them to approach the eartworn. ¡°You made the right choice there. Letting an enemy escape is preferable to your party being severely injured. Especially when our main goal in engaging them was the moss they were eating.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a shame to let it go though,¡± Tom grumbles. ¡°We could have taken plenty of meat from it.¡± ¡°Let it go?¡± Emily questions, shing a grin over her shoulder as the bird on her head takes off, flying forward a few metres to reveal the dead bug, lying in a pool of green blood with two holes carved through it. ¡°Why would I let it go?¡± She turns back to the magical moss, pulling out arge ss terrarium lined with rocks. She opens the lid and ces it down at her feet before conjuring a small de of metal in her hand. Gently, she scrapes the moss from the wall, depositing it in the jar in strips. At the same time, Tom disassembles the two bug corpses with a little help from Ivor. They finish separating them into pieces and burying the organs in the floor at the same time as Emily scrapes thest clumps of eartworn into her terrarium. She seals the top and sends it back into her belt before turning and leading her friends back to the split in the path. They take the left-hand path this time and continue on. Each time they run into another split, Emily follows the same route asst time, trying to guide them towards theke. They run into several groups of bugs, some fire-spitting roaches, and others fast-moving centipedes secreting acid from their skin. Emily sits back, letting her friends deal with them for the most part and only acting to throw up barriers when an attack gets too close to someone. They also run into a group of iron-wed moles, that Emily excitedly moves forward to face, telling her teammates not to interfere. Unfortunately, her improved body renders the moles'' resistance futile, killing her fun. She ughters all five of them, with a single quick sh to the throat of each from her ws, before calling her friends over disappointedly and stripping the corpses of their ws. Emily keeps track of the time on The Clock, and once they reach thete hours of the evening, she steers them towards a small dead-end cavern to settle down in. However, as they reach the entrance to the cavern, following the spider Emily sent in in advance, Emily hears a sudden rush of squeaking and wingbeats. Shit. ¡°Cover your ears!¡± Emily calls back while activating her earrings. Her friends start in surprise but quickly follow her instructions, raising their hands to their ears. A secondter, a loud cacophony of screams fills the cave. The harsh sound makes Emily¡¯s bones vibrate, causing her minor difort, whilst her earrings protect her from the worst of it. Her teammates aren¡¯t so lucky. All of them let out pained exmations as the wall of sound hits them, their hands not enough to protect them. Emily reacts quickly, casting infra-sight as she brings the Spitter to bear. She flicks it into burst, charges it full of machina, and squeezes the trigger twice, flicking her wrist with inhuman speed and uracy to send six crackling bullets into their attackers. The screeching cuts out instantly, silence falling suddenly over the cave, only to be broken by six light thuds as the bodies hit the floor. Emily turns back to her teammates as they pull their hands away from their ears, revealing lines of blood trickling down their faces. Whoops. I should have kept a bird or my own eyes in infra-sight the whole time just in case. I let my guard down too much. Internally berating herself, Emily approaches Juliana, cupping both her ears between her hands and channelling a healing spell, wrapping them with light. Chapter 93 – Ants Chapter 93 ¨C Ants After healing the light damage done to Juliana''s eardrums, Emily gently wipes the blood from her face before moving quickly between her friends and healing them too. Damn, that used more mana than I expected. It feels like I''m wasting a lot to heal people. Do I need a better understanding of the human body to heal more efficiently? It couldn''t hurt. Emily adds a reminder to her notes while turning away from Ivor, thest to be healed. She approaches the dead bodies of their attackers under the light of her bird, hovering in the air in the center of the small cavern. The creatures arerge, with a wingspan slightly bigger than Emily''s, and a lithe torso the size of her forearm. They''re hairless, with gray, stone-like skin stretched thin from their sides to the small ws at the ends of their wings. ¡°Screamers,¡± Emily mutters, walking beside Tom who''s poking one with a knife. ¡°Their skin is hard,¡± he says. ¡°Do we want any bits?¡± ¡°Only their voice boxes. Don''t worry, I''ll deal with these ones. They''re much harder to harvest.¡± Tom nods as the group spreads across the cavern to set up camp while Emily presses an extra button and tosses the barrier disc into the air, letting the anchors burrow into the surrounding rock. The moment it sets up, a sound barrier wraps the cavern, and the disk lights up with a warm glow, giving off a calming light. Emily''s birdnds on her head, and she pulls off the light pack, switching it with a thermal pack, before sending her scout to sit on a cable in front of the exit. Dante sets up a campfire at the same time, which Emily drops down next to start butchering her screamers. She pulls a small knife from her belt and channels the machina into it. The energy crackles along the de, sharpening it as she lowers it to the top of the first corpse''s neck. She slips the de in beneath its jaw and slides it along, splitting the stone skin open to reveal the raw flesh beneath. She cuts away at the muscle and sinew, quickly locating the screamer¡¯srynx and pulling it out. She summons a spare jar and drops the bloody organic matter in, before tossing the harvested body to the side. She repeats this five more times as her friends finish setting out sleeping bags and join her and Dante around the fire. They eat and chat as usual, before turning in for the night, leaving Emily and Juliana together on watch, under the dim light of the barrier disc. Emily nces over at Juliana¡¯s weaving, seeing her pull out a few dried flower petals andy them on top of a wind-imbued rune twisted into the weave. ¡°What are you making?¡± she asks curiously. ¡°Nothing,¡± Juliana responds, quickly covering the rune with her hands and turning a pleading gaze on Emily. ¡°Don¡¯t peek.¡± Emily raises a brow, but after a few seconds of puppy dog eyes she chuckles and looks away. ¡°Fine, keep your secrets.¡± *** The next day, they continue heading through the tunnels towards theke, this time with Emily using infra-sight just in case. Midway through the morning, Emily spots a three-way split in the path ahead through her spider. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue in irritation. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Juliana asks with concern, the rest of their friends tensing up at Emily¡¯s sudden exmation. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily says, noticing their tension. ¡°It¡¯s nothing major. It¡¯s just the tunnels have changed. There¡¯s a three-way split in the path ahead where I was expecting two, and I no longer know if we¡¯re heading in the right direction.¡± ¡°What does that mean then?¡± Tom asks, rxing. ¡°Nothing much. Just that we need to navigate blind from now on,¡± Emily answers, shrugging off the minor setback. ¡°Besides, it may not make much of a difference, since I don¡¯t know how much the tunnels have shifted.¡± They catch up to her spider shortly, and Emily chooses the left route, keeping as close to their original path as possible. They keep winding deeper into the earth, killing off the cave-dwelling creatures that block their path and harvesting a few herbs in their way. At just gone midday, a little after Emily was expecting them to reach the luminisyer, they stop in front of a split in their path branching off at a jaunty angle. Emily pauses uncharacteristically as they reach the split. ¡°Why are we stopping?¡± Enzo asks, confused when Emily doesn¡¯t plow on ahead as at most junctions. ¡°I spotted some movement down this tunnel so I¡¯m sending a scout in to check if there¡¯s anything interesting before we move on,¡± Emily exins, keeping her focus on the connection with the spider skittering off into the darkness. The images being transferred to her, created from the spider¡¯s scans, suddenly expand. The narrow tunnel containing a few wandering bugs opens to a wide open cavern with a writhing mass of movement in the centre, distorting into a blur she can¡¯t distinguish. Hello there. Looks like there¡¯s a gathering of beasts. Maybe a nest? I¡¯ll have to get a closer look. It seems like something is interfering with my detection. Emily turns her attention back to her friends, looking at them with an excited grin. ¡°I think we found a nest.¡± Her friends start in surprise, with various reactions from nervousness to excitement. ¡°Is it big?¡± Juliana asks tentatively, being reinforced by an exaggerated nod from Dante. ¡°I¡¯m not too sure, something is interfering with my detection spell so I need to take a closer look to know. But, there are quite a few bugs in the tunnel to get there, so I expect so. Keep quiet until we know what we¡¯re up against. We may be able to surprise them.¡± Emily marches forwards, followed closely by her friends, who begin chanting as they step off their original path. Flying lightning forms around Emily¡¯s right arm as she pulls out the Spitter with the other, screwing the silencer into ce. The familiar clicking of chitin on rock soon reaches them, before the first inhabitants of the tunnele into view. Three, metre-long ants charge into the light,ing straight towards the group. With a flick of Emily¡¯s wrist, a silver light shes before her, wrapping around the front two ants before ripping them to pieces after a sharp yank. Juliana throws a spell over Emily¡¯s shoulder with a light gesture, cracking the final ant¡¯s exoskeleton and slicing a gash into its side, halting it in its advance. Emily fires a burst into the final ant¡¯s head the moment it stops, killing it before it can make a sound. Without stopping to harvest the bodies, Emily continues forwards, forcing her friends to follow on high alert. Emily spares the corpses a quick nce on the way past, quickly identifying the creatures. Burrower ants? I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d run into these guys outside of a desert. ¡°It¡¯s burrower ants. Don¡¯t worry about making noise, they¡¯ll already know we¡¯re here now,¡± Emily alerts her friends, to Dante¡¯s glee. Four more ants charge out of the darkness towards them as they advance. Emily sends out flying lightning again, this time impaling the front ant clean through the head. She points the Spitter at the next ant, flicking it into burst, injecting a small amount of machina, and squeezing the trigger. Three rounds burst out in a near perfect line, the first cracking the ant¡¯s exoskeleton, the second boring a hole into its head, and the third tearing clean through its torso and out its back, dropping it instantly. She whips back flying lightning and turns her barrel on another target, but a twisting projectile of fire flies past, digging into its head and setting it alight. At the same time, a de of water cuts into the thest uninjured ant. Emily grins at her friends¡¯ coordination, flicking the Spitter into single fire and shooting a finisher into the burning ant in sync with Tom doing the same to Hester¡¯s target. ¡°Good job,¡± Emily praises them, lowering her weapons and moving on. Tom and Hester quietly fist bump each other behind her, drawing augh from Dante and Enzo as they prepare more spells. They walk deeper into the tunnel, closing in on the supposed nest and killing a few more scouts. The nest enters Emily¡¯s magical perception before they turn the corner to face it, and an excited shiver runs down her spine. ¡°It¡¯s a nest alright,¡± she mutters, feeling over a hundred inhuman magic signatures gathered together in organised formations around a pulsing mass of mana. ¡°They¡¯re set up for a siege, and appear to be guarding a vein of mana crystals. Hester, barriers please. Everyone else, prepare for a full force assault.¡± They pause for a moment to prepare, their adversaries already waiting, motionless, for them to approach. Emily reaches up and taps the light pack on her bird¡¯s chest, sending a burst of mana into it to temporarily overload the spell. This should light up the whole cavern. I¡¯ll need to swap out light packs and recharge this er though. The field of light around them quickly grows, filling the entire tunnel and revealing the final sharp turn before the group will be exposed to the ants. Emily draws back the spider from a nearby wall, walking it up her leg and into a waiting hand before copsing it down and sending it into her storage again. She next starts preparing spells, dismissing flying lightning and kicking all of her cores into gear. Mana explodes out of her, giving her nearby friends a sense of danger as a dense pressure pushes down on them, before twisting into a swirling mass of runes as several magic circles form around each other, carefully positioned to not cause interference. Orange, white, blue, and silver mix together in a beautiful blend of colours. Arc forms a contained, crackling orb of lightning over one of Emily¡¯s shoulders, as fireball forms a swirling orb of mes over the other. Her skin crackles with lightning as mana seeps into her muscles, enhancing her speed, and the final silver circle freezes upleted, waiting to throw up protections with a moment¡¯s notice. With infra-sight still active to assist in differentiating targets, Emily turns back to sh her friends a confident smile. ¡°Let¡¯s go crush some ants.¡± Her friends smile back, even Juliana and Tom giving confident nods as they steel themselves for theing battle. Emily continues down the tunnel, quickly turning the corner and seeing the narrow pathway start to open up. She immediately sees a wide open cavern, filled to the brim with burrower ants. They¡¯re standing in rows, some on the floor, and some clinging to the walls and ceiling. In the centre of their neat rows stands tall arge structure of rock and dirt, the nest, with several holes spilling ants into the surrounding cave. Emily feels waves of earth attributed mana emanating from within the nest, causing the smile on her face to grow. Jackpot. The moment they spot the ants, the ants also see them. A flood of noise hits them as they step into the cavern and half of the ants, those close to the nest, start cking their mandibles together angrily, mana bubbling from them all to wrap their nest. The cavern shakes as thick walls of rock extend from the floor and ceiling, stretching to join in the middle andpletely seal off the nest with half the ants behind it. Emily points forward the moment she sees the barrier forming, sending her fireball flying forwards in a spiral of mes. The spell bursts against the rock wall, cracking it and flinging fire into the nearby ants, scorching their exoskeletons and ripping a few close to the detonation to pieces. However, the wall stands strong, the cracks quickly shrinking as more mana is supplied. The injured ants scream in anguish, signalling a full charge. ¡°Kill everything in sight!¡± Emily calls, sending her bird up to the roof of the cavern to illuminate the space fully, and sending arc¡¯s orb forwards while releasing her hold over it. ¡°Leave the wall to me.¡± Her orb of lightning crackles, sending out whips of sma tocerate the flood of bodiesing towards them. Hester casts her spell, wrapping their whole group in arge bubble of water just in time as the tide of ants smashes into it. Ripples spread across the barrier and Hester grunts in exertion as she pours more mana into the spell, but it holds fast. des of wind and fire fly out, slicing into the mass of bodies, drawing blood and severing limbs. A few heavy rocks fly up, leaving the top of the barrier beforending on the ants in front of them, crushing their bodies t. Tom tries shooting the armoured ants, cracking a few exoskeletons, but otherwise achieving little. Arc fires off rapidly, shocking dozens of ants and slowing their advance. In response to the assault, the ants at the front of the group ck their mandibles, gathering mana and forming jagged jaws of rock to armour their faces and enhance their attacks. They charge forward, biting at the barrier and weakening it, ignoring the iing spells to inflict as much damage as possible. The ants behind them, protected from the worst of the group¡¯s spells, ck out a rhythm together. Mana collects in their mouths, forming into a viscous mud. A few tendrils of lightning flick out, hitting the casting ants and interrupting them, but the majority of the spell is blocked by the armoured front beasts. Emily begins casting at the same time, spinning together another spell using fire, metal, and light. She notices the ants preparing an attack and ignores them, firing a few bullets into them while trusting her secondary core to use the defensive spell already prepared. The runes, forming aplicated tri-element matrix around her, pulse with power, gathering dense mana into a glistening bow and arrow, a third circle version of her zing arrow of light. The ants release their attack, sending a deluge of mud towards them that flows around the ants up ahead before smashing against Hester''s barrier, shattering it and threatening to engulf their group. ¡°Shit, Enzo!¡± Hester wins and cries in panic, hoping for another barrier. Instead, silver mana flows from the glittering magic circle waiting behind Emily. It quickly solidifies into a wall of shining metal that blocks the flood of mud in its tracks. Harsh screeching rings out as the ants on the other side m their rock covered jaws into the metal, trying to pull it apart to no avail. Emily''s friends freeze and turn to look at her, unable to keep casting spells with their targets blocked. ¡°It''s a bit basic,¡± Emily admits shamelessly, even as their attention is drawn to the extravagant bow and arrow hovering above her. ¡°It''s the simplest third circle metal defense spell I coulde up with. A thick wall that my allies can''t even see through.¡± ¡°How were you meant to shoot that thing with a wall in the way?¡± Tom asks, gazing up at the bow and arrow in awe. Emily points forward with a smug grin, opening a small window in the metal wall and releasing the heavy metal arrow above her. With an explosion of sound and mana, the arrow rockets out, drawing a straight line through the battlefield and into the defensive wall covering the nest. The wall bursts like the arrow impacts, shattering into pieces, and Emily quickly disperses the arrow before it can destroy the nest and whatever''s kept inside. The ants behind the barrier cry out in pain as the spell explodes, spreading fire, molten metal, and burning light. Emily flicks her wrist, grasping the arc and rapidly twisting it into arc-bolt. The orbpresses before sending a violent snake of power through the front attackers with a loud roar, vaporising the mud it passes through. Tens of meters in front of their group are cleared in an instant, the ants dropping dead quickly as Emily lowers her barrier, relieving herself of the mana draw. ¡°Like that,¡± Emily finally answers Tom''s question. Chapter 94 – Nest Chapter 94 ¨C Nest Emily¡¯s friends stand behind her, mouths open in shock as they gaze upon the destruction wrought by her spells. ¡°Don¡¯t just stand around, let¡¯s go!¡± Emily says, snapping them out of their stupor. She bends her legs and shes forwards at inhuman speed, disappearing into the remaining ants who quickly switch from spewing a flood of mud to wrapping themselves in rocky armour. Emily¡¯s friends move too, Hester forming another barrier as everyone else flings out spells or bullets to cut down the numbers. Damn, that used a lot of mana. Emily nces at her mana reserves and sees them reduced by twenty per cent as she drives a machina-charged w through an ant¡¯s neck, severing the nerves within. I definitely can¡¯t throw around third circle spells freely, though I can still use plenty and dip into my machina reserves if need be. Her limbs whip out rhythmically, her body bing a windmill of death as she cuts through the ants with ease. Runes wrap her body again as Emily starts casting arc-bolt, this time manually setting the targets. Green blood soaks her robes, and jaws of stone repeatedly snap at her, trying to catch her to no avail. Her spell finishes forming, as she slips behind into the back row of enemies, and she releases it instantly. A thick bolt of sma shoots out behind her, spreading across the bugs and killing almost everything behind her, other than the ants her teammates are actively fighting. The remaining thirty or so ants in front of her group up around their nest, using their bodies as ast line of defence. Emily holsters the Spitter, losing the rangebat buff to her stats as she summons two flying lightnings, one around each arm. ¡°It was a good fight,¡± she tells the ants with a smile before her arms blur into motion. shing arcs of silver slice through the creatures, splitting a few rocky projectiles they fire at her along with the bodies behind them, freezing each opponent in ce with a single sh. The ants quickly fall in a mass of limbs and flesh, and Emily pulls back in the deadly wires, still slick with blood, to wrap around her arms at rest. She taps the ground, sending out an earthen detection scan that forces through the interference now that she¡¯s closer. She finds no vibrationsing from the nest, the inside probably empty, and throws out an electrified dart to impale the head of thest ant to crawl out before turning to observe her friends with a satisfied smile. They¡¯re still wrapped in arge bubble of water, with six ants biting at it, and two more spewing jagged rocks at it. Deciding they need no help, Emily dismisses herbat spells and watches as Juliana knocks back the attacking ants with a burst of air and Enzo, Ivor, and Dante unload into them, crushing any resistance under fire and earth. Tom fires a few shots into the soft flesh revealed by the cracked and king chitin, ending thest squirming bugs¡¯ lives. Emily ps as her friends look away from their kills, checking for any remaining enemies and only finding Emily standing in a mountain of gore, bug parts and burn marks littered around her bloodstained form. She walks towards them, casting cleanse quickly and returning to pristine condition. ¡°That¡¯s everything I can detect in here dead. All that¡¯s left is the nest,¡± she says gesturing towards therge rock structure in the middle of the cavern with her head. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure there are earth stones in there, so Ivor and Enzoe with me, the rest of you please collect the nds of as many of these ants as possible. That¡¯s the most valuable part. The rest of them isn¡¯t worth much. Oh, grab any meat you want for cooking too, they¡¯re not poisonous.¡± Her friends follow her instructions withoutint as Emily turns around and walks towards the nest eagerly. Ivor and Enzo quickly catch up, walking on either side of her. They approach one of the nest¡¯s entrances and gaze in. The hole is small, only a metre in diameter, and would require crawling to get inside. Instead, Emily pulls out a spider without a vibration pack and rolls the little guy into the nest. ¡°One sec,¡± she says to Enzo and Ivor, focusing on her connection with the scout as it wanders into the ants¡¯ home. The nest is a windingwork of tunnels and chambers, filled with half-eaten herbs, minerals, and beast corpses, that lead down into the stone below the cavern. Emily guides her scout down, heading slowly towards the strong magical signature she can feel leaking from the structure and ignoring the discarded signs of habitation. It doesn¡¯t take long for her scout to step into a chamber, buried in the depths of the nest, with glistening brown crystals shining from the floor and severalrge eggs scattered around. Emily smiles as she locates their prize, but her eyes open wide in surprise when she notices the form curled up on top of it, wrapped in jagged, rocky armour. ¡°There¡¯s a queen,¡± she mutters quietly, shocking Ivor. ¡°Really?¡± he signs with clear excitement. ¡°What circle?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell because of the mana crystals she¡¯s sleeping on, but I don¡¯t think she¡¯s reached third yet. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d be able to feel it if she was, even from here.¡± ¡°Wait, why are you surprised? Don¡¯t ant colonies normally have queens?¡± Enzo asks in confusion. ¡°Not burrower ants,¡± Ivor exins. ¡°They don¡¯t always have a queen since they can multiply by burying parts of their bodies, or the bodies of their dead, and supplying them with mana over time. Queens are a rarity that usually only appear in massive colonies.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Enzo nods, noticing Ivor¡¯s enthusiasm. ¡°Is there something special about them that¡¯s got you so excited?¡± ¡°The heart of a burrower ant queen is the main ingredient in earth drops,¡± Emily says with a grin. Enzo¡¯s eyes open wide in surprise. ¡°Earth drops? How many can you make from one heart?¡± he asks with clear excitement and a hint of greed. ¡°Ha,¡± Emilyughs, patting him on the shoulder. ¡°One heart should be enough for three portions. Don¡¯t worry, you two can have first dibs. Also, if this queen is only second circle the elixir won¡¯t have any effect on me anyway, so I¡¯ll let Tom have mine.¡± Both men are surprised by her statement, looking at her questioningly. ¡°Are you sure? Earth drops are worth a small fortune even if you can¡¯t take them,¡± Enzo asks. ¡°Well, I never said I wouldn¡¯t take it out of his cut,¡± Emily responds, shing them a sly smirk. ¡°Now, let¡¯s actually get to the queen and crystals, otherwise this conversation is pointless. Enzo, I¡¯ll show you the correct route, so can you please soften the rock around the tunnel? And Ivor, you learned shifting earth, right?¡± Ivor nods in confirmation. ¡°Good. Can you focus on drawing the softened earth out, please? I¡¯ll reinforce the structure to make sure it doesn¡¯t fall on us.¡± Both men turn towards the nest, Enzo cing his hands on the rock above the hole, and Ivor the floor below. Two glowing brown magic circles flicker to life around them, sending a steady stream of mana into the nest. The ceiling of the tunnel in starts to melt, dripping down as a viscous fluid before being drawn towards Ivor. Emily channels a few spells, using a modified earthen detection to locate cracks forming in the tunnel as it starts to cave in, before reinforcing the structure around the failure points by hardening the remaining stone into dense rock. She also watches Enzo¡¯s spell spreading down, poking the edge of it with her own raw mana to show him the correct direction to go. It takes them a few minutes to dig the tunnel down ten metres before Ivor and Enzo start to struggle to push their spells further. Emily raises a brow at the limits of their range. ¡°Can¡¯t you dig deeper?¡± she asks Enzo with slight confusion when she notices him halt his spell. ¡°I could push my spell a bit deeper, yes,¡± he says calmly. ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t be able to sense your interference urately past ten metres. That¡¯s as far as my perception goes.¡± Ivor nods in agreement at his statement. ¡°I see,¡± Emily mutters thoughtfully, stepping into the widened tunnel the moment Ivor pulls out thest of the liquid earth. ¡°Let¡¯s continue from inside then.¡± Strange, my magical perception at second circle was over thirty metres. Actually, now that I think about it, it expanded to almost thirty before I ascended to third circle. Is magical perception tied to my intelligence stat? In that case, their intelligence must be less than half mine at the same circle... I guess being a dual awakener has more perks than I realised. She makes a note to review her stat improvementster, to try and understand her strengths more, and marches down the dark tunnel into the nest. They pass through the first small chamber and pause as the path narrows down again. Repeating the same process as before, they slowly dig down towards the centre of the nest, depositing piles of dirt in the chambers they pass. As they get closer, Emily starts to feel the queen ant¡¯s pulsing magic signature, releasing rhythmic waves of power and ever so slowly growing in strength. Emily watches her the entire time, but she doesn¡¯t move, remaining curled up and unresponsive even as they start widening an entrance into her chambers. ¡°I think she¡¯s asleep,¡± Emily muses. ¡°I thought we¡¯d have to fight. I could have just crawled in.¡± ¡°Ah well, we¡¯re in now,¡± Enzo says, cancelling his spell and wiping sweat from his brow. Ivor cancels his casting as well, leaning against the formed mound of stone next to him. Whoops, I¡¯ve exhausted them. So much for helping me excavate magic crystals. ¡°Good job,¡± Emily says, patting them both on the shoulders and walking ahead. ¡°Wait here for a moment. I¡¯ll deal with the queen.¡± Neither of them argues as they give her a nod and sit down to rest. Emily walks thest few metres to join her spider, finally seeing the ant queen with her own eyes. The queen is over two metres long, with a dark brown exoskeleton that blends perfectly into the jagged grey rocks jutting out from all over her body. The rocks seem to breathe, growing and shrinking slightly in time with the waves of mana rolling off the queen. I see. She¡¯s cultivating right now. She must have trusted her colony! She must be in a really deep trance to not notice us right now. Emily appreciates the creature¡¯s violent beauty while approaching her slowly, careful not to shock her out of her trance. She raises her hand above the centre of the queen¡¯s abdomen, feeling the pulses of power being released as the beast draws in mana, and locating the point where they¡¯re strongest. Emily casts a spell, instantly wrapping her hand in glistening ws of metal. She waits for the queen to draw in mana, her rocky armour shrinking slightly, and plunges her hand down. Her metal ws cut through the hard exoskeleton with ease, digging into the soft flesh below. A few inches in, Emily opens her hand wide and grasps the queen¡¯s beating heart. The ant queen wakes from her slumber, letting out a shrill scream of pain and anger, along with a pulse of mana, shaking the nest and calling for her children. Her screams reach deaf ears, not a single child left to respond or hear her plea, and, as Emily rips her heart out, her cries shift from angry confusion to destion. Emily holds the hefty, still-beating ovoid of flesh in her blood-covered hand, gazing down at the dying creature with cold indifference. She summons a ss jar from her belt and ces the queen¡¯s heart into it before reaching down, ignoring the still squirming ant, and picking up a few loose earth crystals to drop into the jar as well. She seals the jar and stores it, turning her attention to the queen ant again as she finally stops moving. Emily sends the corpse into her belt and crouches down on top of the glittering crystals filling the floor, cing a hand against them and shutting her eyes. She slowly sends a stream of mana into the ground, feeling around the vein of crystals to discern its size and opening her eyes wide in shock after a few moments. ¡°Woah. That¡¯s a lot of greater crystals,¡± she mutters in astonishment, sensing five greater earth crystals at the centre of the vein. ¡°Good haul?¡± Enzo asks, walking in with Ivor close behind. ¡°Take a look,¡± Emily responds with a grin, standing up and gesturing to the ground. Enzo and Ivor copy Emily, cing their hands on the floor and closing their eyes for a few seconds. ¡°Damn,¡± Enzo says as they both open their eyes and look at Emily with excited grins. ¡°There¡¯s at least a hundred lesser crystals, and twenty or so normal too!¡± ¡°One hundred and thirty-six lesser and twenty-six normal to be exact,¡± Emily corrects with a matching grin. ¡°Do you guys have enough mana to help?¡± ¡°No, sorry. Give me ten more minutes and I should be okay though,¡± Enzo says apologetically, stepping back. ¡°Same,¡± Ivor signs, shaking his head. ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs, waving them off. ¡°It won¡¯t take ten minutes.¡± She crouches down, cing both palms t against the ground and shutting her eyes to focus on her magical perception. She sends mana down into the ground, wrapping around ten lesser crystals on the surface with ayer of earth-attributed mana each. She gently pulls them out, using her mana to break down the rock connected to them and releasing ten perfect crystals. Emily opens her eyes, ncing at the crystals and sending them into her belt with a curious glint in her eye. It¡¯smon practice to excavate mana crystals of all types using the same attribute so you don¡¯t damage them. But, if I¡¯m then sending them straight to a dimensional storage, why don¡¯t I just use spatial mana? She shuts her eyes again, wrapping a single crystal in deep purple mana. She pulls it through space directly into her belt before summoning it back into her hand. Emily¡¯s disappointed when she sees several hairline fractures ruining the delicate gem¡¯s surface. I guess I need to separate them from the surrounding rock first. She tries again, wrapping a crystal with a mix of brown and purple. She disintegrates the connecting rock and instantly warps the crystal away. This time, when she summons it back to her hand, she grins with delight at the perfect, glistening gem. She quickly puts her new technique to work, excavating the gems ten at a time. Shepletely empties the vein, using her mana to reinforce the floor to keep it from copsing as she fills it with holes. Within a few minutes of starting she stands up, turning away to face her exasperated friends. ¡°You never cease to amaze me,¡± Enzo mutters wryly. ¡°It¡¯s always a pleasure to watch your mana maniption,¡± Ivor signs in agreement. ¡°I try my best,¡± Emily responds with a smug grin, walking towards the exit. Chapter 95 – Into the Waters Again Chapter 95 ¨C Into the Waters Again They head back through the nest, ignoring all of the valueless items scattered around by the ants. ¡°Why did you say my mana maniption was a pleasure to watch?¡± Emily asks Ivor as they rise through the earth. ¡°You''re very good at it. Your mana movement is so fast and precise it¡¯s like watching an artist at work,¡± he signs back, confusing Emily more. ¡°But mana maniption is easy. You just have to will it into shape and it follows without resistance,¡± she says, raising her hand and pouring out a small ball of mana before forming it into the outline of a ming bird, perched on her finger. Enzo and Ivor roll their eyes at her. ¡°For you maybe. Us normal people have to force our mana to listen to us,¡± Enzo says, raising his hand and gathering an orb of brown mana particles before slowly guiding it into the form of a bird. His mana construct takes him ten seconds toplete and has shaky, poorly defined lines. Emily raises a brow, her mind suddenly filled with questions. Why is it so different for me? I already know I¡¯m abnormally good at setting a mental image and manifesting my elements with raw mana, but what about this? I have a basic mana maniption skill, but that only gives me ten per cent more efficiency and control, and I generated it just by practising a little bit. It¡¯s never felt like forcing it to listen. She pulls up her system as they step out of the nest and into the well-lit cavern above. She scans through her status for the cause and her eyes pause on one of her talents. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Magical Genius] User is a natural-born mage. -Grants instantprehension of new magic [Knowledge] -Mana strength increased by +50% -Increased aptitude for creating new spells _____ Magical genius, could it be this? It doesn¡¯t say anything about mana maniption though. Do skills and talents give unmentioned benefits? Emily¡¯s broken out of her thoughts by their other friends approaching them. "You get anything interesting?¡± Dante asks. ¡°One hundred and thirty-six lesser earth crystals, twenty-six normal, and five greater,¡± Emily says with a proud smile, pushing her questions about her talents to the back of her mind. ¡°That, and a second circle burrower ant queen.¡± Tom and Hester both look shocked at the reveal of the queen, surprising Emily, but Juliana and Dante only react to the crystals. ¡°Damn, that¡¯s over half our entire haul from thest trip!¡± Dante says excitedly. ¡°Wait, a borrower ant queen?¡± Hester asks. ¡°Yep. She was sleeping on an earth crystal vein,¡± Emily exins. ¡°You two know about burrower ants?¡± ¡°Ah, yeah,¡± Hester responds with a nod. ¡°A while back there was a colony near Cairnorm, our home town. The Dahlia family made a big deal out of parading the queen back through town after killing it, saying that it was a rare and valuable find.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s used to make an elixir, so I can see why they were happy.¡± ¡°An elixir?¡± Tom asks with shock. ¡°What type?¡± ¡°It¡¯s called Earth Drops, an earth attribute elixir that will increase the mana capacity of a second circle earth mage.¡± ¡°Only earth mages?¡± Tom says with a hint of disbelief. ¡°Well, not exclusively. A mage with a different attribute could take the drops, but they¡¯d get a much smaller increase, so most don¡¯t have the same interest in them as earth mages.¡± ¡°Oh, cool. Will there be enough for me to have one?¡± ¡°Ha, yes. It wille out of your cut from the expedition though, since a single queen can only make three portions. Anyway, we can deal with that once we leave here. For now, are you guys done harvesting all of these ants, or do we need more time?¡± ¡°We¡¯re done,¡± Juliana answers for them. ¡°We¡¯ve collected every nd that¡¯s still intact.¡± ¡°Perfect. Let¡¯s get going then. I¡¯m hoping we can reach the luminisyer by nightfall,¡± Emily says, ncing around at the several entrances to the cavern and quickly picking out the one they entered through. They retrace their steps, back to where the path split, and continue the way they were going before Emily diverted to the nest. They journey through the dark tunnels, killing anything that stands in their way until they see a faint blue glow ahead. ¡°Just in time,¡± Emily mutters, ncing down at The Clock and seeing it¡¯s almost midnight, thetest she¡¯ll keep moving in the tunnels. ¡°Pardon?¡± Juliana says behind her, not quite catching Emily¡¯s quiet musings. ¡°I was just saying we¡¯re cutting it close. We were going to camp in this cave for the night even if it didn¡¯t have any luminis.¡± They step into the cavern as they talk, finding an open room, filled with shining blue flowers, with seven paths branching off ahead. ¡°Is this the same room as before?¡± Enzo questions, looking around at the paths. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to tell,¡± Emily says, tossing the barrier disc into the air, activating the light and sound arrays. ¡°If it is, it¡¯s changedpletely. Even the dimensions are different.¡± They quickly set out sleeping bags, crushing some of the blue flowers to make space and lighting a campfire. Hester cooks them some ant meat, and they eat quickly before turning in for the night. *** In the morning, they pick the first of the seven routes out of the cavern and set off. The tunnel angles noticeably downwards, leading them deeper into the earth. They run into a group of screamers half an hour in and this time Emily notices in advance, casting a sound-isting barrier before letting her teammates bombard the flying beasts with spells. Emily quickly strips the corpses before they continue on. Just under an hourter, after killing a few bugs along the way, the dark tunnel joins another tunnel, this one overflowing with light. Emily grins, sensing there isn¡¯t anything living close to the entrance they walk through, and spins on her toes to walk backwards. ¡°Wee to The Crystal Waters,¡± she deres, spreading her arms open in an exaggerated manner as the light swallows her. Ivor, Enzo, and Dante have mild reactions, chuckling and rolling their eyes at Emily¡¯s performance. Tom, Hester, and Juliana on the other hand are dragged into Emily¡¯s show, looking around in amazement and gasping at the sight of the beautiful underground river. Their eyes roam from the swirling, clear water, with ayer of shifting fog just below the surface, to the glittering crystals lining the ceiling. I can see why Oscar was dramatic before. It¡¯s fun to watch their reactions. Emily smiles, pulling her gaze away from Juliana¡¯s glistening eyes to take in the cave herself. It¡¯s much the same asst time, and she doesn¡¯t see any beasts or resources of value, so she makes her way to the water¡¯s edge. Her friends follow her, curious about either the water itself or Emily¡¯s actions. She crouches on the riverbank and reaches into one of her belt¡¯s pouches. She pulls out a small, fist-sized mechanical boat. It has a small, wind-up motor connected to a propeller hanging off the stern and a few small ones embedded into the sides and bow. There¡¯s a small lesser water crystal mounted on top of the motor, and several runes are scattered across the entire boat, from the hull to the tiny internal gears. Emily ces the boat on the water¡¯s surface, facing downstream, and connects a stand of mana to it. Half the mana activates the boat''s array and links to it, giving Emily a rendered underwater view, using the same reflected waves method as her vibration pack. The other half converts into machina, connecting to a small gearbox and flicking the pre-wound engine into action, connecting it with the front and left propellers to send the boat out into the middle of the stream while resisting the weak surface current urging it forward. ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± Juliana asks, watching the little boat drive out into the centre of the water ande to a halt. ¡°It scouts under the water like my spider does the ground,¡± Emily exins, standing up and turning around. ¡°Because of the change in medium, the spider can¡¯t tell when there are beasts in the water. Since it would require a much moreplicated array and extra weight from another mana crystal to power it, I decided just to make another machine for scouting the water instead of upgrading the spiders.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so well prepared,¡± Hester says with respect in her voice that slowly shifts into amusement. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised at this point if you said you¡¯ve prepared a way for us to breathe underwater.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles. ¡°Not yet. I¡¯ll have to work on it.¡± Hester rolls her eyes, but Emily pulls up a new folder in her notes to work on the idea when her sleeping cores wake up in a few minutes. Her birdnds on her head, and she quickly switches the unneeded light pack with a thermal pack before sending it out down the river. ¡°Let¡¯s keep going,¡± Emily urges, stepping out ahead of the group again. ¡°Hopefully this river will lead us back to the sameke. If not we¡¯ll have to try to search for another point connected to the end.¡± They walk downstream, following the river on its winding path. After an hour of walking, Emily¡¯s boat detects something lurking in the water as it guides the way ahead of them. She casts lightning orb, a second circle spell, and, after travelling a few metres, drops the crackling ball of electricity into the water, surprising her friends. Steam rises, and the water is instantly filled with millions of volts. No one says a word, as everyone watches the water where Emily has attacked. After a few seconds, as the lingering charge of her spell fades, four piranhas rise to the surface. ¡°I bet they¡¯ll taste good,¡± Hesterments as Emily detaches the des from her ws and throws them into the heads of two of the fishes. ¡°They¡¯re already half-cooked,¡± Emily responds with a smirk, reeling in the bodies. She pulls them up onto the riverbank, dropping them at her feet as she pulls the des free and tosses them again. With thest two kills confirmed, Tom puts them in his bag to harvestter, and they continue downstream. They run into a few more piranhas, and a couple of groups of bugs that were settled in the light of the river, as they steadily continue downstream, following the left bank. Eventually, the crystals above the water start to dim, signalling the arrival of night. ¡°Let¡¯s set up here,¡± Emily says, halting in her steps and tossing the barrier disc out above the river. The anchors fly into the surrounding walls, suspending it in the air as its light array takes over from the crystals on the ceiling. Theyy out sleeping bags as Tom and Hester start filleting the fish. Once all of the sleeping bags are set up, shrouded by the fog covering the floor, Emily settles down next to the twins at the small fire they have started. She nces at the offcuts pile, filled with all the parts of the fish that they can¡¯t eat and don¡¯t care to keep, since nothing in the fish is a valuable material worth taking back. Her eyes are drawn to the fish¡¯s gills and curiosity grips her. She picks up one of the decapitated heads with the gills still attached and runs a full machina scan. She carefully inspects the route water would take, being taken in through the piranha¡¯s mouth before flowing out through the gills, over the tiny,yered frills of flesh. Fascinating. She makes a few notes, adding to her design ideas, before tossing the head back into the pile. Emily leans against Juliana, with almost all of her focus on her design, drawing out blueprints for a piece of gear as she continues to tweak and refine the spell to add to it. Hester fries the fish fillets in a pan with a sprinkle of salt before handing them out for everyone to eat. ¡°Are we going to be okay only eating the things we kill? Won¡¯t we get ill from not eating our vegetables?¡± Tom asks as he digs into his fish. ¡°I¡¯ve never really thought about it,¡± Enzo responds, looking at his food thoughtfully. ¡°It¡¯s justmon practice on expeditions to eat the things you kill instead of bringing lots of rations. I guess the mana in the meat probablypensates for theck of variety.¡± ¡°Partially,¡± Emily adds, instantly drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Mana-dense meat and nts both act like a fully bnced meal. And even if they didn¡¯t, you¡¯d be fine. Mages¡¯ bodies are modified by their mana from the moment of awakening and are far more robust than normal humans. Even a first circle mage would be able to survive just fine on a single type of food.¡± ¡°Wait, just bing mages affected our bodies that much?¡± Hester asks with surprise. ¡°Yeah!¡± Emily confirms with an excited nod. ¡°In fact, even at first circle it¡¯s close to impossible for you to catch a mortal disease. It would need to be enhanced by an energy like mana in some way to affect you at all. Then there¡¯s the rest of the changes as you increase in circle.¡± ¡°What changes with each ascension?¡± Tom asks Emily. ¡°Your life span increases and you get stronger. Right?¡± ¡°Yes, those are two of the effects. Every time you go through an ascension, from the first to fourth circle, your body is refined closer to the perfect human. It improves your life span, strength, flexibility, hand-eye coordination, mental processing, hearing, eyesight, and your general fortitude.¡± ¡°Woah,¡± Dante exims. ¡°How much can a person even be improved?¡± Emily pauses, unable to answer his question. A small frown creases her brow as she nces at a note telling her to go over her past stat increases. ¡°I have some notes on it but haven¡¯t done the maths yet. Give me a second,¡± she says, diverting all of her processing power to the task. Chapter 96 – Understanding the Numbers Chapter 96 ¨C Understanding the Numbers Emily closes her eyes and pulls up her notes covering Gaius¡¯ findings on ascensions, supported by his countless observations of other mages. She opens a nk note as well and writes down her major attribute changes topare them to Gaius¡¯ observations, assessing the difference in her own experience from the norm. Awakening: Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22 Pre-first ascension: Strength 8, Dexterity 19, Agility 16, Vitality 8, Intelligence 34 Post-first ascension: Strength 12, Dexterity 32, Agility 25, Vitality 13, Intelligence 54 Pre-second ascension: Strength 15, Dexterity 40, Agility 31, Vitality 14, Intelligence 75 Post-second ascension: Strength 20, Dexterity 64, Agility 50, Vitality 17, Intelligence 118 Current: Strength 20, Dexterity 64, Agility 50, Vitality 17, Intelligence 120 My agility and dexterity increasing so much more than my strength and vitality is due purely to my machina, not mana. So, if I equalise them to match the increase of my strength and vitality, it should follow the pattern of a normal mage. She edits her notes, refining them as she goes and splitting out the stats into theirponents influenced by mana and machina separately. My intelligence growth is still abnormalpared to the rest of my stats, so part of that must be machina too. I need a baseline to reference if I want to try and work out how much. Emily opens her eyes, turning her attention to her friends with barely a second having passed. ¡°Jules, how big is your magical perception range?¡± she asks. ¡°About six metres,¡± Juliana answers instantly, tilting her head in confusion as she does. ¡°Thanks. What about you Tom?¡± ¡°Um. I think two metres?¡± he responds hesitantly. ¡°Check please,¡± Emily asks dryly. He shuts his eyes for a few moments, bringing a quiet that Hester jumps on to question Emily. ¡°Why do you need to know this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to work out a form to calcte the rough improvement a mage¡¯s body goes through at each ascension.¡± ¡°And the range of our magical perception will help that?¡± ¡°It will help me work out a few variables, yes.¡± Emily shrugs, unwilling to go into detail since it won¡¯t make sense without revealing the system. Hester hums thoughtfully at her response and turns her attention to Tom as he opens his eyes. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s just shy of two metres,¡± he affirms with a confident nod. ¡°Thank you,¡± Emily says, shutting her eyes again and returning to her notes. To start I need to work out a rough form for perception range to intelligence. I know my range was: around four and a half metres when I had twenty-two intelligence; thirty-six metres when I had sixty; and is now one hundred and forty-four when I have one hundred and twenty. She immediately spots the obvious pattern in her dataset. One hundred and forty-four is twelve squared, twelve is one hundred and twenty divided by ten. So it¡¯s just intelligence divided by ten then squared? It fits, and I don¡¯t know if anything else is affecting the perception range, so I¡¯ll try this for now. Emily plugs her friends¡¯ ranges into the temporary form and notes down the results it gives them. Jules: Six metres, intelligence 25 Tom: Two metres, intelligence 14 Enzo: Ten metres, intelligence 32 Shepares the values to the record of her own, seeing the obvious pattern. Below twenty for first circle, and forty for second. My other stats follow the same pattern, but my intelligence seems to fit the values for a circle higher since I have two cultivation systems increasing it. The information falls into ce as Emily brings the stat values back and rtes them to Gaius¡¯ findings, forming her notes into a sinct breakdown of a mage¡¯s improvement against her own. Mortals have a limit on their stats, keeping them ten and below. Awakening raises the body¡¯s limit to twenty in all stats and increases all stats marginally. Each subsequent awakening doubles the limit of a vocation¡¯s main stats: intelligence for mages; intelligence, agility, and dexterity for mechanics. My intelligence increases to the limit of the next circle up. Fifth circle and beyond may not follow this pattern. A satisfied smile parts her lips as she finishes and opens her eyes, looking at the note still floating in her vision. I can¡¯t be certain that the main stats limit doubles for fourth circle until I get there myself, and I¡¯m not sure if my system¡¯s stats represent a linear improvement or not, but this will do for now. ¡°Done,¡± Emily says confidently to her friends, all of them waiting for her results. ¡°When you awaken, your body¡¯s power limit doubles. Meaning from first to fourth circle, you should grow to be about twice as fast, strong, and resilient as the strongest mortal possible.¡± Her friends take in her words, each having different reactions. Dante seems disappointed, Tom excited for his future prospects, and Juliana curious. ¡°Does that include people like me who don¡¯t train our bodies at all?¡± she asks Emily, tilting her head. ¡°Yes.¡± Emily nods, finishing off her fish and casting cleanse on her te. ¡°Training your body will help push it towards the limit, but I believe any mage that reaches fourth circle will automatically reach that limit anyway. It¡¯s just a case of how soon you reach it.¡± With theplicated topic out of the way, everyone slowly finishes their food before settling down to sleep. Emily and Juliana sit under the dim light of the array disc, the level reduced so it doesn¡¯t bother their sleeping teammates, with Juliana weaving, and Emily¡¯s hands a blur of controlled motion as she pulls materials from her storage and uses some simple spells to form them into shape. The night watch passes without a single beast encounter, other than a few fish swimming by uninterested in their group onnd. In the morning, after the magical light of the crystals overhead returns, they set off downstream again. They follow the river along, harvesting a few herb outcrops along the way and killing more bugs and piranhas. Come lunchtime, they settle down at the water¡¯s edge, most of them with their shoes off and their trousers rolled up, hanging their legs into the water. The fog beneath the surface wraps around their legs, swirling in mesmerising patterns as it¡¯s disturbed, hiding the depths beneath from view. ¡°It¡¯s kinda unsettling not being able to see my legs. What if a fish bites me?¡± Tomments, shivering slightly at the thought of the piranha¡¯s vicious teeth. ¡°Ha, it¡¯s not the bites you should be worried about,¡± Emily says with a mischievous grin, taking a bite from her crispy grilled fish. ¡°They¡¯d cut your legs off with water des before eating them, you know.¡± Tom pales slightly looking at Emily with a pleading gaze. ¡°There aren¡¯t any in here, right?¡± Emily says nothing, maintaining eye contact as she eats, her grin never fading. ¡°Stop being so mean,¡± Juliana, sitting beside Emily with her legs curled up on the shore next to her, chides, poking Emily in the side. Emily relents, chuckling as she breaks eye contact and looks out into the water at her small boat getting closer. She drives it right up to her legs and pulls it out, pulling a metal key from her storage to manually wind the engine. ¡°No, there aren¡¯t any,¡± she finally answers, to Tom¡¯s relief. ¡°I¡¯d see anying through this little guy.¡± Tom lets out a sigh as Dante looks curiously at the boat in her hands as she slots the key into ce and begins turning it. ¡°Why do you need to wind that one but not your birds?¡± he asks curiously. Emily looks at him with her brows raised, surprised he¡¯d ask about anything non-explosive. ¡°This one had more free space since the internal mechanisms are very simple, so I have a wind up motor and it can basically run alone, with only slight input to engage the correct propellers to steer it. The birds and spiders, on the other hand, rely purely on me moving their internalponents with the maicponent of mana,¡± she exins, lying slightly and iming they run on lightning mana instead of machina, an equally possible but far less efficient method for her. ¡°Cool. Does that mean you could power vehicles with mana? I didn¡¯t realise that was possible.¡± ¡°Yes, I could. Though the engines would be very different from the steam engines we use now.¡± Emily releases the boat back into the water and they finish eating before continuing on their journey. Thirty minutester, at the mouth of a three-way split in the river, Emily¡¯s boat detects a group of four new beasts swimming towards them through the strong currents deep under water. They¡¯re much thinner than the piranhas, only about the size of a fist across, but they¡¯re four times longer. Eels? Emily follows her usual routine, summoning arge orb of lightning above the water, alerting her friends. They turn their heads to look at the crackling orb without much concern, already used to Emily wiping out their waterborne opponents. She holds the orb up, waiting for the eels to get closer. The moment they are beside the group, she drops the orb into the water, releasing a burst of steam as the water is charged with deadly voltage. However, instead of floating to the surface stunned or dead like the piranhas, the eels turn towards her. Emily feels mana building up around them and quickly summons a bubble of water to protect the group. A secondter, four loud, hissing cracks ring out as four thin streams of lightning shoot from the water, smashing into her barrier. The lightning crackles against the bubble, unable to pop it, and is harmlessly diffused. After a second of channelling, the streams fade, and four jagged spears of water are revealed to Emily¡¯s startled friends, floating above the river ready to strike back at their attackers. They watch as Emily calmly flicks her wrist downwards, sending the spears plunging down towards their targets below. The magical constructs cut through the water without meeting resistance and urately impale the two eels closest to the surface. The others sense a disturbance in the water and quickly flick their agile bodies into a different shape, narrowly dodging the untargetted spells. Emily clicks her tongue and starts trying to cast the same spell again, only to meet resistance from the water. Her influence over external mana weakens immensely the deeper into the water she tries to form the spears, destabilising the delicate bnce required to form her spell. Damn. I had a feeling the water here would cause issues, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this bad. This is at least five times worse than it should be for casting a spell fifteen metres away. It feels more like casting at the very edge of my range. As she¡¯s forming her spells,mitting to casting in the water close to the eels, the eels charge up another shot. This time, Emily watches the water bubble before two streams of lightning shoot out, hitting her barrier at the same point. She raises a brow at the mana cost to block the blow equalling that of the four individual streams earlier, as the impact sends stronger ripples through her barrier, which dissipates the force and charge behind the attack. They¡¯re quite clever. Her thought is punctuated as she sends two spears of water slicing up through the eels¡¯ heads from below, too close and fast for them to dodge when they are distracted by their own attack. Emily dispels her barrier and watches through her boat¡¯s scan as the four corpses start to sink. She frowns and sends out a burst of mana, bending the water forcefully and pulling the bodies in. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect any fish to be able to survive your attacks,¡± Julianaments, calming her breath from the shock of the exchange. ¡°They¡¯re lightning eels,¡± Emily says, raising one of the bodies out of the water and into her hand with her spell. ¡°It¡¯s only natural they¡¯d shrug off a dispersed second circle lightning spell. I didn¡¯t realise what they were at first and wasted my initial attack.¡± ¡°Wait, those orbs are second circle?¡± Tom asks in confusion. ¡°Yeah. You think I¡¯ve been wasting mana on third circle spells every time we meet piranhas? You should be able to tell from theck of magic circle: I was internal casting that one.¡± Emily ignores Tom¡¯s follow-up question about what internal casting is, leaving her friends to exin it to him, and instead focuses on the eel in her hand. It has dark skin, traced by faintly glowing blue lines that connect to several spines running down its body in rings, the tips glittering like crystals. ¡°How pretty,¡± Juliana says next to her, admiring the fish. ¡°Mm,¡± Emily hums in agreement, squeezing one of the deceptively soft spines between her fingers. ¡°Pretty and useful. I¡¯m always happy to have more lightning attribute materials.¡± She sends the corpses into her belt and turns to continue forward. They trek through the tunnel, with Emily keeping a keen eye on her boat¡¯s scanning, hoping to find more lightning eels. Unfortunately, they only run into more piranhas and bugs for the rest of the day, the only other beast they encounter being a few earth manipting moles that attempt to copse the tunnel on them. Emily notices them with her spider scout before they get the chance, and gets Enzo and Ivor to reinforce the roof as she waits for the moles to pop out and attack directly after their spell¡¯s blocked. She quickly dispatches them with a few well ced bullets and moves on. They eventually settle down beside the river again for the evening, cooking a mix of bugs and fish to sate their appetites, before passing the night in their usual fashion. The days in the cave system slowly blend together, with four more passing without more excitement than a small nest of acidic centipedes guarding a small outcrop of light crystals. However, five days after their encounter with the lightning eels, the monotony of their journey is broken as they step out into a wide-open cavern. In the centre of the cavern is a glitteringke and, ncing around the room hopefully while sending a bird with a light pack to illuminate the walls shrouded in darkness, Emily¡¯s gaze quicklyes to rest on the bloody writing sitting exactly where they left it before. ¡°We found it,¡± she says with glee, an excited grin spreading as she turns her focus to theke, trying to peer through the water to the gaping hole below. ¡°Time to see where you lead!¡± Chapter 97 – Swimming Chapter 97 ¨C Swimming Pulling her attention away from the water, Emily turns to her friends, meeting astonished and questioning gazes. Tom, Hester, and Juliana are all looking around in wonder, taking in the beautiful sight before them, while the other three look to Emily for confirmation. ¡°It¡¯s incredible,¡± Juliana mutters quietly, staring out into the glistening crystallineke. ¡°It is. But, is it the right ce?¡± Dante asks. ¡°Yeah, look over there,¡± Emily responds, gesturing towards her bird lighting up the writing on the wall. Dante squints, following her gesture and quickly spotting the faint red markings on the rock. ¡°Great! Now, how are you gonna find where the hole down there goes?¡± ¡°Is it actually still there?¡± Ivor signs before Emily can answer, asking a valid question. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she responds, looking back out over theke. ¡°I¡¯ve detected movement about halfway down, and my scan is being distorted past that, so I can¡¯t tell without getting closer. As for how I¡¯ll find where it goes, that¡¯s what this is for.¡± She summons a simple-looking ck and white metal ovoid, half the size of her forearm. The colours blend together in pretty, swirling patterns, with well-defined lines separating several sections on the back and sides, and several ridges protruding slightly. ¡°What is it?¡± Juliana asks curiously, finally done marvelling at the cavern around them. ¡°It¡¯s a far better, long-range and submersible version of my boat,¡± Emily says with glee, pressing in a small panel close to the back and twisting it while ncing at its system window. ¡°I call it a Depth Diver.¡± ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Depth Diver] [Rank:] E [Description:] A water-based drone designed to transmit its location across long distances. [Effect:] When activated, automatically drives to the lowest point possible in a body of water. _____ The Depth Diver whirrs to life with a series of clicks. The body splits along the seams, elegantly butterflying open to reveal theplicated mechanisms inside. There¡¯s a dense, wind-up gearbox fixed in the centre, with small propellers on the back and sides, covered by ps that slide out of the way when needed. Each of the ridges jutting out of the side is spring-loaded and linked to the gearbox as switches to activate the propellers. The nose of the Diver holds a purple crystal, and, inmon fashion for Emily¡¯s creations, the rest of the machine has aplicated magic circle woven into it, with some runes carefully ced on the moving parts, their motion ounted for to make sure the spell never breaks. Just in front of the crystal, filling a small gap between it and the outer shell, is a tiny disc of dense silver metal. ¡°Woah,¡± Tom exims, voicing a shared sentiment of wonder over the unintelligible mass of metal and magic. ¡°How does it work?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t bore you with the specifics,¡± Emily says reluctantly, holding back her desire to go on about her creation. ¡°It¡¯s very simple really. I just have to swim down to the hole and ce this in before activating it. It¡¯ll then go down as far as it can, hopefully reaching the end of The Waters, while transmitting its location to a linked receiver.¡± She summons a small silver metal te into her free hand. It¡¯s covered in runes, with two crystals embedded in the surface, one wind and one space. She injects mana into it, and the te lights up in sync with the space crystals in the Diver. The air above the tablet shivers, bending and twisting slightly as it takes on a purple hue. A shimmering image of two fist-sized dots, practically touching each other, forms from the wind. Her friends start slightly at the change before leaning in to get a closer look. ¡°Is it showing the Diver¡¯s location?¡± Juliana asks. Emily says nothing and, instead, she quickly twists the release panel on the Diver, letting it pop back into ce pulling the shell back in. She hands it to Tom and points along theke¡¯s edge. ¡°Walk away a bit please.¡± He nods and jogs a short distance from them, stopping after ten metres and turning around to look back. Emily and the others watch the two dots separate, moving quickly at first before shrinking down and slowing as Tomes to a halt. ¡°Cool,¡± Dante mutters. ¡°You like it?¡± Emily asks with a smug grin. ¡°I¡¯ll admit, it¡¯s kind of unnecessary, since I can just read the data output manually, but it looks cool. I got the idea when looking at the runes for the mental interface of The Dome¡¯s tokens.¡± ¡°It will let us see where we¡¯re going as well,¡± Juliana says with a kind smile. ¡°And if you enjoyed making it, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s unnecessary at all.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily says with a slight blush, gesturing for Tom to return. She takes the Diver from him, sending it and the receiver tablet back into her storage. ¡°Now I just need to go down and set it off,¡± she says as she drops to the floor on theke¡¯s edge to start removing her boots. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re going alone?¡± Tom questions disappointedly. ¡°Can Ie too?¡± Emily looks up at him with a raised brow. ¡°I thought you¡¯d be scared off by my mention of movement down there,¡± she says shing him a teasing grin. ¡°Not scared of fish eating your legs anymore?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be there, so I should be safe. Right?¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t stop you worrying before,¡± Emily responds with a shrug, sending the Spitter and its spare ammo into her belt with her shoes. ¡°Actually,¡± Hester interjects. ¡°I¡¯m interested ining too. You said there was strong mana leaking from that hole when you saw itst time, didn¡¯t you? Is it the same elements as the cursed object you found?¡± ¡°I think so. Darkness, ice, and death, along with water in the case of the hole itself. Why? Are you interested in studying them?¡± ¡°Yes. Ice is the higher form of water, so I¡¯d like to have a look at some raw, natural ice mana to see if I can gain any insights from it. The dense water mana will probably do me some good too.¡± Emily nods, agreeing with her logic. Exactly the same reason I looked at the darkness element imbued in the Mensacus. It¡¯s a shame that didn¡¯t work out. I still haven¡¯t manifested all sixmon elements because of it, and that¡¯s got to be a hidden achievement. She turns to her other friends, gauging their reactions as she asks, ¡°Who else wants toe?¡± Dante grimaces, ncing disdainfully at the water as he responds, ¡°No thanks. Fighting underwater is... unpleasant.¡± ¡°I¡¯m alright thanks,¡± Enzo declines politely. ¡°I¡¯m not that bothered about seeing this hole, and I don¡¯t fancy an underwater fight either.¡± ¡°No thanks. I¡¯ll just slow you down,¡± Ivor signs, taking a seat on the ground happily. Finally, Emily¡¯s gaze falls on Juliana, who shivers slightly and quickly shakes her head. ¡°Nope! I¡¯d rather stay on drynd please,¡± she says resolutely. Emily raises a brow, a gentle smile warming her features. ¡°That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m not gonna force you.¡± Juliana¡¯s shoulders drop as she rxes at the reassurance. Making a mental note to ask about her obvious fear of the waterter, Emily turns back to the twins, both of whom are sat, with their shoes removed, beside Tom¡¯s bag with his weapon harness draped over the top. ¡°Looks like it¡¯s just us three. We may be down there for a little while. You both know how to breathe underwater, right?¡± she asks, fixing them with a deadpan stare. ¡°No, we don¡¯t,¡± Tom answers with a suspicious re. ¡°But you don¡¯t either.¡± Emily¡¯s expression cracks into a grin as she slowly, exaggeratedly, reaches down for her belt. ¡°Well, actually...¡± she says, trailing off as her hand vanishes into a dimensional pocket. She pulls it out holding a metal face mask. It¡¯s big enough to cover everything below the eyes, with aplicated pattern of scale-like fins covering the front. In the centre of each cheek is a magic crystal, water on the left, air on the right. ¡°I do!¡± To Emily¡¯s disappointment, Tom and Hester both release exasperated sighs. ¡°Have you been making that down here because I joked about breathing underwater?¡± Hester asks. ¡°Yep! You mentioned it and I realised underwater breathing would probably be really helpful for this expedition if we ever need to explore underwater. So I made these Gills.¡± ¡°She¡¯s been making them while on watch,¡± Juliana adds proudly. ¡°Them?¡± Enzo picks up on her wording, and Emily silently pulls out two more Gills in response. ¡°It¡¯s only natural I make enough for everyone here just in case,¡± she responds. ¡°Though, I¡¯ve only finished six of them so far.¡± She hands the two face masks to the twins before rising from the ground with unnatural grace and stepping towards the water¡¯s edge. ¡°Let¡¯s get going.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Tom says, scrambling to her side. ¡°How do I use this?¡± ¡°Just ce it over your mouth and nose. It will attach on its own and work automatically,¡± Emily says dismissively, pulling three light packs from her belt. She ces one against her shoulder,tching it to her body armour facing forward, and hands one to each of the twins to do the same. ¡°Just channel a bit of mana into that one to activate it,¡± Emily says, turning to give Juliana onest smile. ¡°Back in a second.¡± She raises her Gills to her face, pressing them into ce, a small suction force holding it fast as the air crystal pulses, sending a wave of motion through the fins as she steps backwards. She drops off the edge and into the water below, plunging below the fogyer almost instantly. Emily activates the light pack mounted to her shoulder as the twins break through the fogyer arriving next to her. The glow of her light pack illuminates their Gills, letting Emily watch the small fins on the front constantly adjusting, breathing in and out in time with their breaths. They work perfectly! With a self-satisfied grin concealed by the mask, she signs for them to follow and turns to swim deeper into theke. She stays close to the steep bank, keeping one side covered as they descend, cautious of the creatures dwelling below. Emily stares out into the murky darkness as they swim down, infra-sight activated and her water detection spell running at full strength, the small blue magic circle following in the small of her back, allowing her to track the movements below slightly better than her boat. She pinpoints the closest creatures, finding them to be a school of ten piranhas. She holds her hands to her back, lit up by the twins¡¯ light packs, as she keeps swimming towards the school of fish. She quickly weaves together a few gestures to inform Tom and Hester about the approaching fight and begins casting attack spells. I somewhat agree with Dante here. I¡¯m quite limited underwater as well. My physical prowess is practically useless, and I can¡¯t use any of my guns effectively without wasting my special ammo. I can¡¯t even use most of my lightning spells without extra resources to not fry the twins as well, not to mention boiling the water around us. The piranhas notice them before the light of their packs reaches them, turning and quickly closing the distance. Emily halts her pointless thoughts and unleashes a barrage of spells on the fish. Two glittering blue magic circles appear, bending strong currents around the school, knocking them off target and sending them tumbling in a vortex of motion, being dragged into the middle of the two opposing flows. Two more circles form in front of the others, releasing two arcing des of water that quickly elerate, pushed by the current, and slice through the group of fish. Six of the fish are sliced in half, but the other four manage to push themselves out of the way of the des in thest second before they hit. Four smaller des of water shoot out from the fish gliding through the water towards the trio. Only two of the des are on target, the other two having been disced by the currents still relentlessly battering the piranhas. Hester casts a barrier a second before the des reach them, a barely tangible ripple in the water around them forming into a protective bubble, smoothly dissipating the force of the attack. Emily throws a thumbs up behind her back to Hester, approving of her choice to defend and leave offence to her. She dismisses the spells keeping the fish contained and forms four smaller magic circles around her in the blink of an eye. Four sleek teardrops of clear water bubble into being in the centre of the circles before rocketing forwards, smoothly cutting through the water and burrowing into the fish¡¯s heads before they can react. The bodies of the fish float to the surface as Hester cancels her spell, and they continue swimming into the darkness. They descend past another school of piranhas, dispatching them in much the same way, before thekebed starts to level out, turning into a gradual decline heading further out into the water. They swim along close to the bottom, just above the dense reeds and weeds that reach up a few metres from the dark rock beneath that was exposed on Emily¡¯sst visit. It looks like the Mensacus¡¯ curse affected the nts around it too. Emily¡¯s water detection locates six lightning eels stalking towards them through the nt life, weaving fluidly through the vegetation while barely producing a quiver of motion, disying their predatory nature. Emilyes to a halt, gesturing for her friends to do the same, and telling Hester to prepare a defence spell. Sheplies as Emily conjures four more teardrop-shaped water bolts to unleash on the unsuspecting fish. The eels slither up from the reeds and enter the small field of light around the trio with crackling blue lightning building around their bodies in rings, connecting the glistening blue gems on the end of their spines. Emily releases her water bolts at the same moment as the eels attack. Three streams of lightning connect the eels to the barrier Hester throws up, as three teardrops of water nt themselves in the heads of the attacking eels, extinguishing the streams almost instantly. However, the fourth teardrop flies off into the open water as the other three eels rocket forwards. The three long bodies cut through the water swiftly, closing the distance to the barrier. The first two m head first into the barrier, each releasing a strong burst of lightning that together break Hester¡¯s defence. The third eel sails through the gap created, straight towards Emily¡¯s chest. Emily watches the eel approach, her control core automatically turning on full assistive processing with her spare cores to slow time in her perception. She pushes her hand up against the water¡¯s resistance and snatches the eel. The moment her hand closes around it, the full force of its gathered lightning bursts, pouring into Emily¡¯s arm. The twins both flinch, looking at Emily in concern as their processing catches up and they notice the crackling fish in her grip, but Emily scoffs at the attack. The crackling lightning flows through her arm, meeting the cold buzz of machina inside before being methodically taken apart. Emily tightens her grip, crushing the life from the fish as she slips out of assistive processing and casts two more water bolts. The new spells finish off thest two eels quickly, and Hester swims forward to check on Emily in the aftermath of the fight. She taps her on the shoulder, ncing towards the crushed eel still in Emily¡¯s clutch, and her seemingly untouched hand around it. ¡°Are you okay?¡± she signs as Emily turns her head. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine,¡± Emily responds, sending the corpse into her belt and freeing up her hand. ¡°I¡¯m very resistant to lightning.¡± Chapter 98 – Diving Chapter 98 ¨C Diving Emily turns away from Hester, swimming over to collect the eels¡¯ bodies before they can sink into the weeds below. She sends all of them into her storage except thest, which she keeps in hand, looking at it contemtively. How are they able to use lightning so well underwater? It didn¡¯t feel hot at all when it hit me earlier, so maybe they just have a different mental image? Or are they just wasting extra mana to maintain their control? Her focus is drawn to the spines lining their bodies and the glistening growths on the end. Emily takes one between two of her fingers, pouring in a spark of mana to try and understand them. The organic crystal crackles, resisting the external influence even in death, but she¡¯s able to gleam a pertinent detail from the interaction. These crystals are lightning and water attributes. No wonder they¡¯re able to use their spells underwater: they¡¯re dual element. Why didn¡¯t I think of that? I¡¯ve used highlypatible elements to enhance certain aspects like piercing power in my spells before, and even elements with lowpatibility to counter each other in my alchemy. Why didn¡¯t I consider using lowpatibility elements to remove negative aspects from each other? It will make the spell weaker in attack power, but it will be far more efficient than spending extra mana and processing power just to forcefully control a spell. Mentally berating herself, she sends the body into her storage and starts one of her cores on quickly building a new spell as she gestures to the twins to keep going. They continue swimming along thekebed, following its gradual decline towards the bottom. They run into another group of eels in the reeds, sleeping in small burrows that they burst out of as Emily gets close. Luckily, the first attacks only target Emily at the front, and she simply absorbs their hits without flinching while throwing up a barrier as the first two m into her chest, saving her friends from the three follow-up charges. After the fish have wasted their first assault, Emily crushes the two that hit her and finishes off the other three with a water bolt each. They don¡¯t run into another enemy before the nt life covering the rock below them starts to reduce in density. The weeds slowly fade away until the rock beneath is fully exposed and, a few metres deeper, their goal enters their small area of light. A small, fist-sized hole in the rock, pitch ck despite the magical light around them and seemingly leeching the light away, with dark tendrils reaching up into the water above. Emily frowns slightly when she sees the hole, not remembering the small dark limbs trying to take apart her light. She holds up a hand to tell the twins to stop and focuses on her water detection spell. Unfortunately, everything around the hole is distorted in her scan, the tendrils seeming to pull apart her spell as it gets close. Clicking her tongue in her mask, Emily swims above the hole cautiously, hoping her infra-sight will reveal any hidden enemies. She gazes in and sees nothing but darkness. Still concerned about the strange shadowy limbs, Emily swims down with her left hand resting at her hip on top of The Clock¡¯s pouch, and a magic circle on either side of her. The moment she touches the first tendril of darkness, her caution proves warranted. The tendrils all react, suddenly solidifying into pitch-ck tentacles and wrapping themselves around Emily¡¯s arm. Emily reacts instantly, kicking up and pushing herself away from the hole, ripping her attacker from its hiding ce. Her vision is instantly filled with darkness, as the flexible body pulled from the hole expands into arge, pitch-ck octopus with six thick tentacles and a dozen thin tendrils. Emily¡¯s eyes widen and she freezes for a moment as she recognises the beast. Holy shit! What¡¯s an archite doing here? She quickly recovers herposure as she notes its size and counts the number of its limbs. Ah, never mind. It¡¯s only second circle. With slight disappointment, Emily releases the two spells held at the ready beside her. One magic circle fires a teardrop of water through the archite¡¯s centre mass, ripping through a few tendrils in the way and pulverising the giant octopus¡¯ first heart. The other releases a cold blue beam of lightning that cuts clean through the back of the beast¡¯s mantle, destroying the other two hearts held within. It worked! Shame I already have a spell called water bolt. Maybe aqua bolt? The remaining tendrils around Emily¡¯s arm release their grip, slipping away and returning to their original form, melting into shadows for a moment before melding together into two half-destroyed tentacles. As the body settles, Emily taps it, sending it into her storage before floating down to the open hole below. It appears the same as thest time she was here, so she gestures for the twins to approach. ¡°What was that?¡± Hester signs, most of her attention resting on the dark maw before them. ¡°It was a baby archite,¡± Emily responds calmly, her eyes shing with amusement as Hester starts in surprise. ¡°That was a titan of the deep?¡± ¡°I know right? Didn¡¯t look much like a titan, did it? It¡¯s only a second circle baby. It takes them tens of years to grow to full size.¡± Hester nods in understanding, turning her full focus on the hole leaking mana below them as Emily floats a metre away to allow them ess. She summons the Diver and presses the releasetch, opening the ess to the internals. She pulls a winding key from her storage and presses it into an empty slot to start winding the internal springs. This should give it enough power to move itself for a few days as long as it doesn¡¯t need to use the course adjusting propellers too much. After that, hopefully it will continue moving with the current long enough to find the end. I¡¯m not sure I can make a more self-sufficient drone that¡¯ll fit, so we¡¯ll have to search blindly if it doesn¡¯t. As she prepares the Diver for release, the twins both inspect the hole in their own ways. Tom repeatedly dips his hand in and out, like a curious child, while Hester sits on thekebed beside the hole, her eyes shut as she probes the leaking mana with her own. Emily finishes winding the Diver, the internal springs pushed to fullpression, locking the key in ce. She wraps the internals with her machina, holding them still as she removes the key. She closes the drone¡¯s body and approaches the hole, lightly pushing Tom out of the way. She lowers the Diver into the hole, pointing down into the darkness, and releases her hold. The moment her machina inside it dissipates, the propeller facing her whirrs into motion, churning out water and thrusting the machine down and out of sight. Emily moves back after the Diver vanishes, letting Tom y with the hole again as she pulls out the receiver tablet. She connects to it, not engaging the virtual disy and instead just reading the output directly. The signal from the Diver holds strong, quickly spiralling down below them, passing thirty metres while bouncing side to side. It¡¯s still narrow. That¡¯s promising. If it opens up too much before reaching The Abyss, my Diver will probably get lost. She watches the signal moving down for a short while before it starts to level out and move along sideways. Satisfied that it¡¯s working for now, Emily breaks the connection and puts away the tablet, turning her attention back to the twins. I¡¯ll wait for Hester to be done. This is a good opportunity for her. She floats down to thekebed and settles against the rock, using a small twisting of metal mana to keep herself anchored down with ease. Time slowly passes and, after ten minutes of sitting with her eyes shut, Hester opens them, looking at Emily and giving her an appreciative nod. ¡°You done?¡± Emily signs. ¡°Yes. Thanks for waiting for me to finish.¡± Emily waves off her thanks and releases her mana, letting herself drift up from thekebed and gesturing for the twins to follow. She kicks off, rapidly rising towards the surface. They burst out of the water without meeting any resistance, popping up on the opposite side of the cavern to their friends. Emily reaches up, pulling her Gills free from her face and sending it into her belt as Tom and Hester rise through the surface beside her. They both copy her, removing the masks from their faces and holding them out to her. ¡°Keep em,¡± she says, conjuring a current to push them back towards their friends on the shore. ¡°You¡¯ll probably need them again.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Tom says cheerfully. ¡°That was so cool! It felt like my arm was vanishing every time it went in the hole.¡± ¡°Wait. Felt like, or looked like?¡± ¡°Felt like. Why? Didn¡¯t you get the numbness when you put your arm in?¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t,¡± Emily muses, ncing to Hester with a questioning look. ¡°I didn¡¯t get full numbness,¡± Hester says, answering Emily¡¯s silent inquiry. ¡°I did get a strange tingling feeling though.¡± ¡°Interesting.¡± Emily nods thoughtfully. I didn¡¯t get that at all. Is it a difference in circle? I didn¡¯t get itst time either, so mental resistance maybe? ¡°Hey!¡± Dante calls out as they reach the shore, moving to help pull the twins from the water. ¡°Did it work?¡± Emily pushes herself out with ease, rising from the water in a single unnaturally smooth motion while answering his question. ¡°For now, yes. The Diver is heading through the tunnel connected to that hole, now we just have to wait and hope it leads us to the right ce.¡± ¡°Are we waiting here?¡± Juliana asks as Emily dries herself with a quick cast of cleanse. ¡°Yeah. We¡¯ll wait here for a day, then follow the Diver afterwards if it stays on course.¡± ¡°Great! I want to see the writing on the wall,¡± Tom chirps as Hester dries him off. ¡°Go ahead,¡± Emily says, pulling the barrier disc from her belt. ¡°We¡¯ll set up camp here, so you¡¯re free to roam the cavern as long as someone else goes with you.¡± Tom expectantly looks at his sister, but she shrugs him off. ¡°I want to digest my gains from looking at that hole¡¯s mana. Ask someone else.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take you,¡± Enzo offers, standing up and walking over. Tom and Enzo separate from the group, the way lit by the light pack still clipped to Tom¡¯s chest. Meanwhile, Emily sets up the barrier disc, turning the dial in the middle a full turn this time and watching as it stabilises mid-air at an odd angle, firing its anchors into the wall and the floor by the water¡¯s edge. Satisfied with the barrier, Emily joins Juliana and Dante in setting up the group¡¯s bedrolls and a campfire while Hester meditates at the water¡¯s edge, ripples asionally spreading from her across the water¡¯s surface as she ys with her elementalprehension. Emily positions her spiders by the cavern entrances leading to the section ofkeshore they upy, with her boat floating stationary a little way off the shore, and settles down beside the fire with Juliana and Dante. She takes out the Diver¡¯s tablet and activates the visual disy, two small dots of wind swirling into life above it, before cing it down. She then takes out the materials to continue work on the final set of Gills. The two rotating motes of purple wind slowly move apart in an unpredictable path as the day goes by, the Diver treading its lonely journey down into the depths. A single small group of piranhas swims past Emily¡¯s boat¡¯s detection during the day, but she chooses to ignore it since they don¡¯te close, diving down into the middle of theke quickly after she spots them. Early in the evening, an hour or so before the light in the tunnels should fade, Hester approaches Emily. ¡°Hey, Emily?¡± she asks tentatively. ¡°Yes?¡± Emily responds, pulling her attention away from Juliana¡¯s head in herp. Hester shivers slightly when Emily¡¯s warm smile immediately drops into a neutral stare as she looks up, but she continues unperturbed. ¡°Could you take me back down to look at that hole again, please? I think I¡¯m close to something.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Emily raises a curious brow, a small grin creeping up slowly to join it. ¡°In water or ice? I haven¡¯t noticed you make any attempts at an ice manifestation yet, only water.¡± ¡°Both? I¡¯m sure I¡¯m close to something new in my water manifestation, and I believe that will push me over the start line with ice,¡± Hester answers, gaining more confidence in her words as she goes. ¡°I see, I¡¯ll make you a deal then,¡± Emily responds, catching Hester off guard. ¡°A deal?¡± ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll take you back down if you show me your manifestations before and after.¡± ¡°What? Sure,¡± Hester agrees, rxing at the simple request. Emily slides out from under Juliana, recing her legs with a pillow and noticing a small pout following her as does. Chuckling, she leans down and nts a kiss on Juliana¡¯s head before she stands up. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a bit,¡± Emily says, catching Juliana¡¯s eyes and receiving a small smile in response. She and Hester head for the water¡¯s edge, pausing before they step in as Emily turns to Hester with expectation clear on her face. Hester closes her eyes, raising her hand before her and whispering: ¡°water.¡± At first, nothing happens. Then, with no warning, a sudden burst of blue particles washes out of her palm. It disperses slowly into the air as a second wave rushes out. The pattern repeats a few times until Hester lets out a breath and opens her eyes. Interesting. She seems to be viewing water as waves. I wonder if that will give her spells a different effect than my calmer, more malleable image. Maybe more power? Emily nods for her to continue, so Hester shuts her eyes and whispers: ¡°ice.¡± A few seconds of silence pass once again, and then a few faint, pale blue whisps of mana shimmer to life before her hand. The effect is so small Emily can¡¯t recognise any discernible pattern that may suggest the direction Hester¡¯s mental image is taking. She¡¯s certainly not close to achieving a manifestation. But, it¡¯s not far off her initial manifestation of water. If she can refine her image a little I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll enter the ranks of dual elementalists. Hester drops her hand and opens her eyes again, finished with her demonstration. Emily nods, summoning her Gills from her storage and cing them to her face. ¡°Thanks,¡± she says, stepping out over the water. ¡°Now for my end of the deal.¡± She plunges into the icy drink below. Chapter 99 – Fear the Deep Chapter 99 ¨C Fear the Deep Hester follows close behind Emily as they both swim down towards the hole again. They run into the piranhas Emily spotted earlier as they sink lower, but Emily quickly dispatches them all with a few casts of aqua bolt. They arrived beside the mysterious tunnel to The Abyss without any problems and both sit on either side of it. Emily copies Hester in closing her eyes, leaving her scans running in the background to protect them as she turns her main attention to the feeds of her scouts on the surface. It¡¯s odd that we haven¡¯t seen any bugs since entering this cavern: I would have thought there¡¯d be a group or two in such arge space. Unless there¡¯s something here they¡¯re avoiding. She takes one of her birds from its position on top of the barrier disc and angles it towards the ceiling. The thermal imaging provided by the pack strapped to its chest assists in seeing through the thick darkness coating the ceiling, but she doesn¡¯t see signs of anything out of the ordinary. Cautious, Emily keeps the bird trained on the cavern¡¯s roof, a small nagging in the back of her mind reminding her about the screamers that caught her off guard on their first day back in the caves. She doesn¡¯t move the bird closer, fearful of disturbing something she couldn¡¯t protect the others from whilst at the bottom of theke, but she does keep some of her attention watching just in case. Hester remains locked in ce, her eyes shut and her mana probing the hole as Emily watches patiently. After half an hour of waiting, Emily notices a disturbance in the currents around them. The water starts churning, being drawn towards Hester as her eyes sh open, a deep cerulean glow lighting them up for a moment. The phenomenon quickly fades, and Hester rises from thekebed with excitement. ¡°I did it!¡± she signs happily. ¡°Well done,¡± Emily signs back, kicking off of the rock below. ¡°Let¡¯s get back to the surface.¡± They quickly swim up, breaching the surface and heading for the shore under the push of Emily¡¯s magic. They rise out of the water into the boundary of their barrier, and the moisture falls off Emily smoothly. Hester takes a moment to conjure a dark blue magic circle that washes over her, cleaning her as well. She then turns to Emily with an excited grin, removing her Gills and hooking them onto her belt. ¡°I did it!¡± she repeats aloud, unable to hold in her joy. ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles. ¡°Let¡¯s see then.¡± Hester shuts her eyes and raises her hand, muttering ¡°water¡± again. Does the vocalisation help her focus? Emily¡¯s questioning halts as mana gathers before Hester¡¯s hand. It coalesces into a glistening blue mass that slowly takes on the form of a dark, pulsing water droplet. The droplet swirls and roils with barely contained force, and Emily marvels at the deep hues disyed. Fascinating. I can tell she still views water as violent waves, but it seems to focus more on the pressure at depth than raw power. I can almost feel the density of her mental image. She ps her hands, breaking Hester¡¯s focus, and is quickly joined in her apuse by their friends who were watching a few metres away. ¡°That¡¯s so cool!¡± Tom cheers. ¡°Well done,¡± Juliana says, the others quickly mirroring her in giving their congrattions. After a few minutes of bathing in her achievement, Hester turns back to Emily. ¡°Now for ice,¡± she says with determination, clearly less certain about theing attempt. She shuts her eyes again, raising her hand and muttering ¡°ice¡±. Slowly, pale, frosty wisps of mana form in the air, gently swaying in a non-existent breeze. Emily smiles, summoning a sheet of paper, her quill, and a light sheet of metal from her belt. Her hand moves in a blur of motion as Hester finishes her disy and opens her eyes, looking at Emily¡¯s actions with confusion. Before anyone can question her, Emily finishes and sends the quill and metal back into her storage. She holds the sheet of paper out to Hester, revealing the magic circle and chant drawn on it. ¡°Congrattions on bing a dual elementalist!¡± After another round of congrattions, their excitement dies down a little and they settle around the campfire again as Hester gets started on dinner. Emily takes the momentary respite to send two of her birds up into the looming darkness above, her curiosity getting the better of her. One of the birds carries a thermal pack, and the other a light pack just in case. Her friends notice the moving light above and join Emily in watching the birds¡¯ trip. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Juliana questions. ¡°Just checking the ceiling,¡± Emily exins. ¡°Theck of bugs after we¡¯ve been here for almost a day feels odd, so I¡¯m wondering if there are some screamers or something up there keeping them at bay.¡± The birds breach the thick shadows stretching down from above, revealing a dense mass of stctites. They sweep past, with nothing showing up in thermal sight, but Emily spots several holes dug into the hanging spikes of rock. Something¡¯s living up there. She keeps the bird with a light pack a little way back as she sends the other closer to one of the holes to inspect. The moment the birdnds on the edge, a sh of orange shoots out from within, smashing into the delicate mechanical scout, breaking the array Emily¡¯s watching through and sending metal pieces flying. Juliana lets out a sad noise as the bird is obliterated, and Emily¡¯s face falls into a harsh scowl as she res at the screamer who did it. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue, growling in anger. ¡°They killed one of my babies.¡± She has the other bird quickly pull back, flying after the scattered magic crystals from its destroyed partner and grabbing them in its talons before gliding away uncontrolled as Emily starts casting. The screamer shrieks at the top of its lungs, alerting its colony to the threat from below, but Emily and her friends only have to deal with a slight ringing in their ears thanks to the distance separating them. Before they can even start preparing for a fight, Emily¡¯s friends let out sounds of disbelief as a wave of warm mana floods out of Emily, bringing sweat to their brows. Eightrge, cracking orange and white magic circles spin to life above them as Emily pours all her focus, and almost forty per cent of her mana, into a single barrage. The screamers scramble about in the darkness above, preparing to attack, but the sounds of their wed wings scraping against the rock are drowned out by the sizzling fireballs raging away below them. Emily releases the fireballs in one go, sending the ming volley into the roof with a vindictive grin. ¡°Boom,¡± she mutters with a hint of grim satisfaction as the ceiling is illuminated in a bright sh of heat. Eight concussive sts meld into one, nketing the screamers in fire and disintegrating the stctites they lived in. The cavern shakes as ming rocks and scattered body parts fall into theke, sending waves crashing against the shore. Emily protects their camp with a wall of stone as her friends look on, stunned. Nobody says a word as the shaking subsides and thest remnants of the screamer colony sink into the water below, bringing silence to the cavern once more. ¡°That,¡± Dante says after a few moments, turning his gaze on Emily, eyes shining with admiration, ¡°was incredible!¡± Her other friends give simr reactions, agreeing with him and looking at Emily with a mix of respect, admiration, and a hint of fear. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you do that when we were fighting those burrower ants?¡± Tom asks, ncing at a scorched, bloody wing floating by the shore beside Emily¡¯s boat. She shrugs, standing up and walking over to inspect the damaged watercraft. ¡°As you can probably tell, blowing them to smithereens makes it pretty hard to harvest usable materials,¡± she says, picking up the boat and turning around. ¡°Also, that single volley used a lot more mana than if I¡¯d dealt with them slowly, and I can¡¯t cast that many spells while doing anything else. It¡¯s a matter of efficiency.¡± ¡°Fair point,¡± Tom says with a hint of disappointment. ¡°Personally,¡± Ivor signs, ncing up at the roof, the damage hidden by the returned darkness, ¡°I¡¯m d she isn¡¯t repeatedly trying to bring the cave down around us.¡± Emilyughs as she sits back down against Juliana, taking out a few tools to clean up the dents and scratches on the boat caused by crashing into her stone wall. The surviving bird flutters down, dropping a wind and a fire crystal in Emily¡¯sp beforending on Juliana¡¯s to let her pet it. Emily returns the boat to the water fully repaired as Hester serves out dinner. They eat and then turn in for the night as the glow of theke fades away, dropping the cavern into darkness. Emily and Juliana are once again left together under the light of the array disc, Juliana leaning her head on Emily¡¯s shoulder and watching as Emily deftly weaves metal pieces into the parts for another bird. A short while after everyone else has fallen asleep, Emily breaks thefortable silence to ask a question. ¡°Hey, Jules?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± Juliana responds softly, not taking her eyes away from Emily¡¯s work. ¡°Are you scared of water?¡± ¡°Ah,¡± she squeaks, her face flushing in embarrassment. Emily giggles, cing a kiss on Juliana¡¯s head before leaning her cheek against her. ¡°It¡¯s okay if you are,¡± she reassures her gently, pausing her hands and putting away the gearbox she was working on. ¡°A little bit,¡± Juliana quietly admits, turning to wrap her arms around Emily¡¯s waist and trying to bury her face in her shoulder. ¡°A little bit?¡± Emily coaxes, turning and pulling her girlfriend into herp. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not quite afraid of water itself,¡± Juliana exins, rxing into Emily¡¯s body. ¡°I¡¯m afraid of the deep.¡± Emily silently strokes her hair, waiting for her to continue. ¡°When I was little, my mum used to take me on trips to the beach. We have a few beautiful beaches in our territory where you can see the water stretch out into the horizon and meet the sky. I loved it. I¡¯d always ask, every time we went, if I could go for a swim. I wanted to try and reach where the sky touched the sea,¡± she exins with a wistful longing in her tone. ¡°But, mum always said it was too dangerous because monsters lurked in the water. So, on one of our trips when I was eight, I snuck away when she was distracted. I swam out into the water as far as I could. Mum noticed me pretty quickly and sent some guards after me, but I kept going.¡± She pauses, shivering slightly and taking a moment to calm down. Emily pulls back a little, sending her body armour into her storage before putting on a spare shirt and pulling Juliana back into a softer embrace. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a monster that attacked me,¡± she continues quietly. ¡°It was the water itself. I hit a strong current and it pulled me under. I tried to fight it, to swim back to the surface. But I was too small and weak. I just kept tumbling down, falling into that horrifying nothingness below. Luckily, the guards reached me and pulled me out before I could drown, but ever since then I can¡¯t stand looking into water and not being able to see the bottom.¡± Emily feels a damp patch forming on her shirt, so she pulls Juliana in tighter, offering her silent reassurance. *** The next morning, they rise early and check on the Diver. The dots on the receiver tablet have shrunk to the size of a fingernail, sitting an arms-length apart with one lower than the other while ever so slowly creeping apart further. Good, it¡¯s still moving. They eat breakfast and break camp before lining up with the direction of the lower dot, pointing them towards a tunnel on the far side of the cavern from where they entered, and marching forward. They enter the tunnel with high hopes and an air of excitement, keen to uncover a never-before-found secret, but the air slowly grows stale as the days go by. The tunnels continue on much the same as before, as they fight off small groups of bugs and creatures, letting Emily wipe out any fish before they can cause trouble. They find herbs and magic crystals to harvest along the way, and a few smallkes, less than half the size of the first. The dots on the Diver¡¯s receiver are always moving, even after it should have run out of power, giving Emily hope that it¡¯s being pulled by the current towards their target. It asionally visibly speeds up or slows down, creeping slowly lower, but nevering to a halt. They repeatedly switch between connected streams of the river under Emily¡¯s guidance, trying to follow the dot¡¯s path as closely as possible without wasting time. However, two and a half weeks after leaving the firstke, Emily¡¯s friends start to lose hope in her theory. ¡°We¡¯re back here again,¡± Tom grumbles, looking around the five-way junction they left four hours ago. The junction has three branches of the river flowing into it, and two flowing out, creating a churning of conflicting currents that sh against each other. Surprisingly, the maelstrom doesn¡¯t affect the surface of the water much, but the fog just below it violently thrashes about, belying the deadly flow that forced Emily to remove her boat from the water temporarily. ¡°The vertical distance between us and your Diver has only been increasing for a few days now,¡± Hester adds. ¡°And I don¡¯t think that¡¯s because your Driver¡¯s dropping faster.¡± Emily shrugs off their grumbling and points towards the path they haven¡¯t yet followed downstream of the junction. ¡°I never promised it would be fast,¡± she says as she casts a spell to form a small bridge of stone over the river. ¡°We may not even be on the right path and could end up having to backtrack a few days to keep making progress for all I know. Have patience.¡± No one elseins as they set off down the new tunnel and, after three hours of walking, they see something that instantly reignites their hope. Standing before them, carved into the wall alongside the river, is arge, ancient-looking doorway. The doors are a dark, shimmering metal that looks like it will vanish into the ether when night falls. The frame around them is a worn, faintly glowing, silver brickwork with jagged runes carved into the face of each brick. ¡°Woah,¡± Juliana gasps in admiration at the mysterious door. ¡°Is that the path we¡¯re looking for?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s a dungeon,¡± Enzo responds, his excitement palpable and quickly spreading to the rest of the group at his words. Emily steps forward, cing a hand on the worn brickwork. The moment her hand makes contact with the cold stone, she feels a flicker of mana lick against her palm, and a deep pulse floods through the door. The dull runes suddenlye to life, pouring out blue light as they shift, sliding across the stone to reposition. She steps back to rejoin her friends, a silver magic circle forming behind her as she prepares a defensive spell, just in case, and her hand resting on the Spitter. The runes find their new ces and pause, before twisting into a new form. Slowly, they turn into words Emily can understand, and an excited smile parts Emily¡¯s lips at the revealed message. Enter, foolish challengers, the trial of the divided. y everything that blocks your path and your reward shall be provided. The doors suddenly shake, peeling apart and silently gliding open on their own, weing them to the trials ahead. Chapter 100 – The Trial Chapter 100 ¨C The Trial The doors swing open wide but, instead of a path for them to follow, it opens into a swirling ck vortex. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Hester asks, looking at the swirling mass of darkness with nervously. ¡°I think it¡¯s a portal,¡± Emily says, approaching it. ¡°It looks simr to one I¡¯ve seen before. Though, maybe it¡¯s a barrier of some form.¡± She reaches up, bringing her hand close to the doorway. ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s safe to touch?¡± Juliana quickly asks with concern, making her pause in her steps. ¡°Nope,¡± Emily responds, shing a smile back to her girlfriend before pushing her hand in. Her friends jump slightly at herck of caution, but quickly rx as nothing happens and Emily pulls her hand back out. ¡°But its mana flow feelspletely stable and non-threatening, and dungeons aren¡¯t known for being impossible to enter,¡± she finishes with a teasing grin, trying not tough at the cute re Juliana fixes her with. ¡°So you checked first before doing that?¡± Enzo asks, ignoring Danteughing at Emily¡¯s stunt beside him. ¡°Yeah.¡± Emily nods. ¡°I did say it looks like a portal I¡¯ve seen before, but it also feels simr. Not quite the same though. The other portal was purely space mana, and I could tell it was linked to another portal. This one feels strange. It kind of seems like it¡¯s justpressing in on itself, a little like a dimensional storage, so I think the dungeon is a type of pocket dimension and this is the entrance.¡± ¡°I see,¡± he says, nodding as Emily pulls out a spool of thin steel cable. ¡°I¡¯m gonna take a look inside. Can you hold this and pull me out if I tug on it, please?¡± she asks with a smile as she tosses the spool to Juliana while holding the end, letting it unravel in the air. Juliana catches it, letting out a small sigh and dropping her re. ¡°Fine. Be safe.¡± ¡°What do you mean? I always am,¡± Emily says with a wink before turning and stepping into the darkness. The portal engulfs her, reaching out past the doorway¡¯s boundary to pull her in the moment half of her body passes the threshold. Her vision instantly turns ck, not even aided by her infra-sight. Strangely, the innate spatial awareness she¡¯s had since firstprehending space also fails to give her any information about her surroundings. From the moment the darkness embraces her, Emily feels as if she¡¯s stepped into a nk, floating expanse, with nothing around her but herself. Looking down, she sees the warmth of her own body clearly, a wee anchor in the sea of nothingness. She tries to cast light, a pure white magic circle appearing over her hand and morphing into a glowing ball in no time. But, other than her own body, the light doesn¡¯t fall on a single surface or object around her, and the darkness seems unaffected. Emily makes the light float above her head, just in case, and takes a step forward. Her feet find no purchase, but she doesn¡¯t lose bnce, and her foot stops at the same level as the other even though she doesn¡¯t feel a floor below her. However, she can¡¯t seem to move it further down no matter how hard she pushes. ¡°How odd,¡± she mumbles, still able to hear her own voice, but not hearing a single echo despite her enhanced hearing. Emily keeps walking, cing one foot before the other, but she doesn¡¯t seem to move. Do I have to keep going further in to find something? This is a strange dungeon. I¡¯ll let the others know first before I keep going. She tugs on the wire still in her hand but feels no resistance. Frowning, she quickly spins the cable between both hands, reeling it in for a moment until the end appears between her fingers. ¡°My cable¡¯s been cut. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to find the way I came in with this darkness,¡± she says, ncing over her shoulder and bringing a hand to her belt. ¡°Should I reset and warn the others that you can¡¯t leave once you enter?¡± Suddenly, as she questions whether to stay or not, a change urs in the space. A ripple spreads from her position, washing out over the nk expanse and wiping away the oppressive darkness. A dark stone floor appears below Emily¡¯s feet, spreading out to form a thirty-metre wide disc with her at the centre. The ripple appears to rise up, revealing walls of dark brickwork with four, closed silver portcullises spaced evenly around her, and several unlit torches mounted in violent-looking sconces formed from clustered barbs of metal. Emily drinks in the details around her with anticipation, lowering her hand from her belt as the ripplees back towards her, solidifying the darkness above her into a tangible surface that looms like a starless night sky. ¡°I guess it wasn¡¯t about distance then. It just started on its own,¡± she muses, enjoying the acoustics of the chamber as her voice rings out around it. My cable was probably cut when the entrance closed. I¡¯ll see if I canplete the dungeon alone for now, and resetter if I need to. The longer I leave it, the less of yesterday¡¯s march I¡¯ll have to relive. The torch directly in front of her suddenly flickers to life with a low, sickly-green me. It¡¯s followed a secondter by the torch to the right. Then another, and another, increasing in speed with each new me. Emily turns with the light, her heart beating a little faster each time a fire sparks into existence, an excited grin on her lips. As thest torch ignites, and Emily¡¯s gaze returns to the first, all of the mes grow massively, filling the chamber with their pallid light. A screeching noise fills the room soon after as one of the portcullises starts to rise. A ck portal, simr to the one Emily used to enter the dungeon, forms behind the gate as it rises. But, as opposed to swirling in on itself in a controlled manner, it seems to expand outwards, like a gaping wound in space, leaking into the chamber. Emily checks the other gates, finding them sealed shut and unmoving, before honing her focus on the new portal. The gate ms to a halt in the roof of the portcullis, and the portal roils as a figure steps through. Emily hears the sound of a battered leather sole hitting the floor as the creature steps free of the portal¡¯s grasp. She closes her grip around the Spitter¡¯s handle and pulls it free of its holster. She sees a small, humanoid creature, almost two full heads shorter than her. Its thin skin seems at home in the sickly light of the torches, and Emily can¡¯t quite tell if it¡¯s actually green, or just a pale shade reflecting the unnatural light. She recognises the snarling maw, filled with jagged teeth, and the piercing yellow eyes, as sharp as the points on the end of its ears. ¡°Goblins,¡± Emily mutters, keeping the Spitter pointed at the ground in front of her as she calls out. ¡°Are you a friend?¡± It¡¯s strange to see these guys outside of the Lerus Isles. The goblin growls in lieu of an answer, raising its surprisingly clean dagger before its chest and advancing. ¡°I guess they¡¯re less intelligent here.¡± Emily shrugs, raising the Spitter and sending out a single shot. The goblin tries to respond, raising its guard the moment it hears a bang, but the lightly machina charged bullet cuts through the air quickly, punching a hole through the goblin¡¯s throat. The creature drops its de, falling to the floor while grasping at its neck, leaking a dark, tar like blood through its fingers. As the dagger hits the ground with a harsh tter, two more goblins step through the portal. One wields a polished wood and metal shield, protecting its rag-covered torso, and the other holds a sturdy bow at the ready, with a quiver of arrows hanging at its hip. Emily meets their hostile gazes with a smile, snapping her aim to the bow-wielder and squeezing the trigger almost instantly. The goblin releases its arrow as a bullet shatters its skull, but it flies wide, missing Emily. The other goblin quickly ducks behind its shield, protecting its head. Emily scoffs, flicking the Spitter into burst and firing three shots into the centre of the wooden mass. The first bullet dents the metal te crossing the shield¡¯s body, the second cracks it, and the third meets little resistance, carving straight through and burrowing into the chest of the goblin behind, knocking it to the ground. Emily tracks it down to the floor and raises a brow in surprise as she sees her first two kills dissolving into liquid darkness and seeping into the ground. They¡¯re magical constructs, like the dummies in The Dome¡¯s training rooms. Emily clicks her tongue at the realisation that she won¡¯t be harvesting any organs from the creatures, finishing thest survivor with a single bullet to the head in her frustration. She looks back to the portal, waiting for the next opponent, and her silent request is quickly answered. The portal shakes violently, and body after body steps out. ¡°At least I should get a good fight.¡± She aims both hands at different targets, one holding the Spitter, and the other with her palm facing outwards, exposing the glinting metal of a w in her sleeve. A violent dance of death starts with a click, as a bullet and a de leap out to im their prey. Emily twists, ripping the de free of its new home in a goblin¡¯s head and shooting a few goblins as she turns, cutting through their front lines with the flying de. She drops infra-sight, and dismisses her light, internally casting bolt, channelling it through the w, filling the flying de with crackling lightning. The goblins press forward with reckless abandon, throwing themselves against the storm of metal biting away at their ranks, pushing further and further into the room by mbering over the fading bodies of their fallen. After culling a few dozen of the green beasts, Emily¡¯s rhythm is disrupted as an arrow nicks her cheek, and a burning sensation spreads across her face. ¡°Poison,¡± she hisses, her focus snapping onto the archer who shot her. In her moment of hesitation, a sizzling orb of fire, too weak to deserve the title of fireball, flies in from the back of the crowd, aiming for Emily¡¯s face. She reacts in time, bending her torso and slicing the w on her gun-wielding hand through the spell, bursting it in the air next to her, singeing a few of her hairs along with the fabric of her sleeve. They have mages now. Emily quickly kills the archer with a single bullet, checking her system and finding her health fixed at 269/270. I don¡¯t seem to be taking any more damage from that poison. It¡¯s either too weak to harm me right now, or only meant to cause pain. Her machina floods the site of intrusion, burning out the foreign substance as a glistening green magic circle forms above her head and fires ance of wind into the spellcasting goblin¡¯s chest, pinning it to the floor. The burning in her face fades as quickly as it came, but Emily triggers the first injector against the base of her spine just in case, sending aforting warmth through her body, knitting the scratch on her cheek back together quickly, as if nothing ever happened. She continues cutting down the swarm, getting close to the front-liners with shields, daggers, and swords to use their groups¡¯ numbers against them, blocking the spellcasters hiding at the back from wantonly attacking. They still do, scorching several of their teammates, but Emily keeps the melee close anyway, putting away the Spitter and revelling in the thrill of the battle. After ten minutes straight ofbat, the flow of goblins from the portal starts to slow, its violent motion receding and, after Emily reaps the lives of everything else in the chamber, it stops. She stands alone in the centre of the room, seeming no worse off than at the start of the fight other than a few tears and burns on her robes and a few inconsequential points of stamina lost. Emily breaths in the silence, staring at the portal expectantly, waiting for the next opponents to arrive. Nothing happens for a few seconds, the quiet stretching on slightly too long with Emily¡¯s high from the battle slowly ebbing away, then the torches lighting the chamber move again. They dim and brighten repeatedly, pulsing like the beat of a heart as the portal churns again. This time, only five figures appear from the portal, stepping out into the light of the chamber. They look simr to the goblins, but they stand at the same height as Emily, even being slightly taller in the case of the one at the centre of their formation holding a tower shield. Three of the others are armed, two with swords, and the third with a bow. Thest carries a wooden staff with two crystals mounted on the top, one red and one green. The shield-bearer has shining metal te armour, like the knights of old, and the spellcaster dons a flowing robe, simr to those worn by Covenant mages, with a hood draped low over its head, concealing its face in shadows. The other three all have lightweight, polished leather armour. ¡°Hobgoblins. And you¡¯re all well equipped,¡± Emily says through a manic grin, a dense, swirling magic circle of fire, metal, and light forming around her as she raises both hands and prepares to pounce. The archer signals the start of the fight by releasing an arrow that rockets forwards with immense speed. Emily leans to the side, deflecting the projectile with a w and springing forward to meet her opponents. The spell behind her finishes casting as she shes with the swords that sh forwards to meet her. A glittering arrow fires out of the magic circle, punching clean through the tower-shield and bursting inside the chest of the hobgoblin holding it, killing it instantly. Emily hears guttural chantinging from the spellcaster in some ancientnguage, indecipherable to her. She deflects an iing sword and kicks the wielder in the knee with her heavy boots, flicking out the spikes at the moment of impact and shattering her enemy¡¯s knee. She shes a w across the hobgoblin¡¯s throat as it falls unguarded, and raises a barrier of stone between herself and the chanting spellcaster as a half-moon de of wind mixes with a matching de of fire above its head and slices through the air towards her. The spinning des burst against the protective spell, cracking it but not breaching it. Emily takes the opportunity to dodge another arrow and parry an iing de, letting it run off her own before slipping inside the hobgoblin¡¯s guard and burying a de several inches deep in its chest. As thest meleebatant falls to the ground bleeding, she retracts her ws and pulls the Spitter from her thigh smoothly, levelling it at the archer. A single trigger pull halts the creature¡¯s breath as a bullet bores a hole through its chest. Emily calmly turns and points the pistol at the earthen wall blocking the enemy mage, cancelling the spell as she pulls the trigger again and the slide locks back, signifying an empty magazine. Another bullet whistles through the air, dropping the mage and interrupting its next spell as it forms. Emily drops the magazine from her gun with a well-practised motion, catching it and sliding a fresh one from the side of the holster and into the bottom of the weapon, clicking the slide back into ce before the mage¡¯s body hits the floor. She looks around the room, her tension high as the portal shows no signs of moving. She holsters the Spitter and finishes off each of the still breathing hobgoblins with a quick stab to the head as the portal shrinks in on itself and vanishes. The open gate falls shut as well, mming into the ground with a ng. Emily nces around, waiting for the next attack toe. But, instead, the torches flicker, shifting from a sickly green to a warm orange glow, and a crack appears in the wall between two of the portcullises. It slowly widens, forming into a doorway to another well-lit chamber. Why didn¡¯t the other gates ever open? Emily cautiously nces at the closed gates before approaching the new door, raising her brow as she feels several familiar mana signatures on the other side. She walks through into another circr hall, this one massive, with a diameter of at least a hundred metres. Stepping into the room with her, from simr doorways on either side of her, are Dante and Enzo, both scratched and battered, bleeding from several wounds, with Dante sporting a particrly nasty gash on his forehead. ¡°What are you guys doing in here?¡± Emily questions as they turn to look at her with pale faces, a cold realisation sending a chill down her spine. ¡°And if you guys are here, where¡¯s Jules?¡± Chapter 101 – A Greater Challenge Chapter 101 ¨C A Greater Challenge ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Enzo says, ncing at Dante¡¯s wounds with concern. ¡°A few seconds after you went into the dungeon, the wire you gave her snapped and the door started closing. We decided to enter together to help you, but the moment I stepped in, everything around me vanished.¡± A sinking feeling fills Emily¡¯s gut as she listens to him, and she doesn¡¯t even hear him and Dante continue to speak afterwards, her focus shifting to the other magical signature she still feels. She turns and sprints past Dante towards the next open door in the chamber walls, staring into the small chamber past it with unsettling calm as she sees Hester lying against the far wall. Her breathing isboured as she clutches her stomach, trying to hold in a gaping hole leaking blood, with her armour shattered, shards of it lying on the floor around her in a pool of red. Her face is half burned with her flesh king away from the bone beneath, and her eyes are dull as her strength slowly fades. Emily quickly takes in her state and barely spares her a thought, racing past the gruesome scene the moment she confirms it¡¯s Hester. She reaches the next door and sees Ivor copsed, lifeless in the centre of the room, the flesh peeled from his bones. Continuing on to thest door on this side, she slides to a halt finding Tom having suffered the same fate. Her blood runs cold as she turns and rushes back, passing Dante and Enzo calling for her help as they desperately try to stop Hester¡¯s bleeding. Emily doesn¡¯t stop, not even hearing their calls as her legs carry her towards thest open door. She skids across the stone floor, digging her boot¡¯s spikes in to slow her down and stop her in the open doorway. Her breath catches in her throat, and the world starts to buzz as the air around her ionises. Lying a few metres away from the door in a pool of blood, with her head facing the doorway, is Juliana. Her face is distorted in an eternal scream, her eyes wide and dull. There are shes across her cheeks, and her torso is torn to shreds, a mess of gashes, made by des, and chunks of missing flesh, ripped away by jagged teeth. Emily meets her lifeless gaze, echoes of broken promises swimming in her mind as arcs of lightning emanate from her, connecting with every nearby surface. I promised to keep her safe... She reaches down for The Clock without thinking, the mana around her still raging in response to her own tumultuous emotions. She presses the button, starting time¡¯s backwards march without breaking eye contact with her broken love. She didn¡¯t even survive long enough for me to try to help her. An immense feeling of helplessness washes over Emily as she¡¯s thrust backwards in time. *** Emily blinks as she finds herself back in the tunnels again, following along beside the river. She turns around suddenly, running her gaze over her friends. They all shiver as they meet her eyes, crackling with cold electricity. ¡°Emi?¡± Juliana calls softly as Emily steps towards her. Emily doesn¡¯t respond, pulling her into a tight hug and burying her face into the crook of her neck. Juliana is surprised, but she quickly wraps her arms around Emily and holds her tight. ¡°Are you okay?¡± she asks with concern as she feels the tension in Emily¡¯s shoulders rx under her touch. ¡°Hmm,¡± Emily hums in response, drinking in Juliana¡¯s calming floral scent. Their friends awkwardly wait behind them, unsure how to react to Emily¡¯s sudden outburst. After a few minutes, Emily rxes her grip on Juliana, pulling back a little and raising a hand to stroke her cheek. ¡°I¡¯m fine now,¡± she says with a tired smile before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. I shouldn¡¯t have freaked out that much. I knew for certain that she would be fine after I reset, but I still couldn¡¯t keep myself calm when I saw her. Instantly the image of Juliana¡¯s mangled body shes across her mind again, causing an odd feeling of disconnect as she squeezes her again for reassurance. She releases her breath, opening her eyes which have returned to their usual controlled calm, meeting a look of concern. She leans forward, cing a gentle kiss on Juliana¡¯s lips before separatingpletely and reaching down for her belt. She presses the button on The Clock again, rewinding to avoid having to exin her strange actions. *** Emily returns to a few minutes earlier, falling into the march after a quick nce back at her girlfriend to confirm her safety. She continues the journey in the same manner as the day before, taking the same paths until they set up camp in the evening, an hour off reaching the five-way split. Emily holds Juliana tighter than usual as she sleeps, not enough to cause her difort, but enough to force the image of her corpse out of her mind as she lies awake through the night. In the morning they set off as usual, but when they reach the five-way split, Emily leads the group towards the dungeon straight away. They arrive at the door, meeting it with just as much excitement as before, with only Emily¡¯s reaction slightly muted. She steps forward silently, cing a hand on the doorframe and stepping back as the words morph and the door opens. The wording catches her eye, and realisation strikes her. The trial of the divided. It told us that we¡¯d be split up from the start. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Hester asks. ¡°A portal,¡± Emily answers with confidence, pointing towards the writing. ¡°And by the looks of it, we¡¯ll all be sent to different ces.¡± Ivor, Dante, and Enzo barely react, but Tom and Juliana bristle with anxiety, and Hester casts a quick nce towards her brother. ¡°Isn¡¯t that dangerous?¡± Juliana asks cautiously. ¡°Very,¡± Emily says, turning to face her friends with a serious gaze. ¡°I think I should go in alone.¡± Her friends¡¯ expressions range from concern to disappointment at her suggestion, with Dante sporting a mix of reluctance and betrayal. ¡°You want me to sit back while you raid a dungeon alone?¡± he asks. ¡°Yes. If this dungeon really separates us then there¡¯s no way I can help you if a third circle threates out, and this deep into The Waters there¡¯s a high likelihood one will. It¡¯s not worth risking it by going in together,¡± Emily exins. ¡°Only you, Enzo, and Ivor have enough experience for me to not feel nervous leaving you alone. I¡¯d rather you stay out here together while I check it out.¡± And even Ivor couldn¡¯t handle all those goblins alone. Dante¡¯s expression morphs into understanding as he nods seriously. ¡°I¡¯ll blow up anything thates close.¡± Emily scoffs, taking out the barrier disc and setting it up as her friends reluctantly kill their excitement and settle down. Juliana approaches Emily before she can leave, a frown etched on her features. ¡°Be careful,¡± she says, wrapping her arms around Emily¡¯s neck and kissing her. ¡°Always am,¡± Emily responds as she pulls away, turning to the dungeon¡¯s entrance. She steps forward, sinking into the twisting darkness and once again losing any sense of her surroundings. This time, she doesn¡¯t bother moving forward any more, opting to wait for the trial to start. As expected, after a couple of seconds, a ripple spreads out from her. However, instead of stopping fifteen metres away from her, the ripple keeps going until it reaches a full fifty metres on all sides. Emily raises a brow at the change, looking around as the ripple of motion rises up, forming towering walls of ck stone with thirty portcullises, one every ten metres. The chamber looks identical to before but scaled up, and, as the roof far above finishes forming, Emily stares at the torches ahead, lining the walls, with bated breath. Is the size rted to the number of people who entered? Is that why only one of the gates openedst time? The torch in front of her bursts to life, a flickering, crimson me bringing light to the dark chamber. Emily feels a shiver run down her spine as her instincts re at the unsettling change, so she drops into abat-ready stance, grabbing the Spitter and preparing several spells. The torches follow the same pattern asst time, lighting one after the other in a slowly building spiral around her. By the time half of them are lit, the interval between each ignition grows so short that Emily wouldn¡¯t have been able to track them if she was still second circle. After thest torch flickers to life, all of the mes scream a symphony of rage, growing in size and ferocity enough to scorch the walls behind them and bathe the chamber in a blood-tinted hue. The entire hall starts to shake as all thirty gates slowly rise. An excited grin grows on Emily¡¯s face as fourrge orbs of lightning crackle to life in the magic circles surrounding her. A single, glistening silver magic circle hovers behind her at the ready, waiting to activate the moment she detects a sufficient threat. The gates slide home into the roof, revealing thirty bubbling portals. A chorus of ttering footfall reaches Emily¡¯s ears as she sees an armoured hobgoblin step through each entrance, all of them holding weapons ranging from polearms to tower shields. They move away from the portals, their hateful gazes locked on Emily, with vicious snarls curling their lips. ¡°You¡¯ll have to do better than that,¡± she calls out with expectation. As if rising to her challenge, goblins flood out of the portals in neat rows, gathered together in organised squads led by the hobs. ¡°That''s more like it,¡± Emily says, raising her gun to fire the starting shot. She charges the Spitter with machina, flicking it into burst and unloading into the first squadron. A hail of bullets flies out, tearing through the squadron¡¯s ranks. Bodies hit the floor, including the hobgoblin leader whose long spear offers no protection against the hail of metal mming into it. Emily smoothly reloads as the remaining twenty-nine groups grow, joined by more goblins still leaving the portals, and spread out enough to merge into one, marching forward to close in on her. She sprays bullets into them, receiving return fire from the archers in the group that she dodges with minimal movements, falling into the rhythm of battle. She releases all four arcs, sending one out on each side and letting tendrils of lightning cleave their way through the approaching numbers. She notices the iing wave slows as the spells wreak havoc in their ranks, stunning each goblin hit by a single tendril, dropping any hit by a second, and killing any hit by a third. Their bodies are really weak. The hobgoblins bark orders in their strange, ancientnguage that Emily doesn¡¯t understand, and the goblins behind them shift, moving the shield-bearers to the front to block as much of the lightning as possible. Emily frowns at their coordination, clicking her tongue and picking off some of the goblins blocking her assault, sending bullets into their exposed knees when they protect their vitals with their shields. As she¡¯s methodically knocking down the problematic goblins, she notices one of the sword-wielding hobgoblins tank four tendrils of crackling energy before it copses to the floor, where she nts a single bullet between its eyes to quickly finish it. Then, almost instantly, the goblins behind it break formation, scrambling forward wildly and running into the oing lightning. Well, that makes this easier. With a small grin recing her frown, Emily reloads the Spitter once more and flicks it back into single-fire before quickly rotating, shooting urately into the exposed eyes and throats of the hobgoblins. The goblins panic at the loss of their leaders, frantically rushing forward and closing the distance with her as expected, allowing the arcs to work to their full potential. As the first goblin reaches her, Emily decapitates it with a whip of her arm before holstering her gun and bending her active magic circles. The arcs bubble and morph before rocketing out as four bolts, culling the marked goblins on mass. The thick beams of sma bounce around the hall, surrounding Emily with scorched bodies that melt into the floor as no goblin is left unharmed. Even the few green critters that avoided being marked die as the beams pass towards their neighbours. There¡¯s barely any resistance. Are they all weak to lightning? The arc-bolts fizzle out, leaving a dead zone of thirty metres on all sides of Emily with nothing living left behind. The remaining goblins rush forward to fill the gap. But, as Emily raises the ws to fight them off, they suddenly pause. Emily notices the portals shaking violently as the torches pulse, and a familiar ttering fills the hall as a full squadron of twenty hobgoblins walks through each gate. The groups are a mix of swords and spears, protected by shields at the front and followed closely by five mages each, all holding gnarled wooden staffs. ¡°Fucking hell that¡¯s a lot,¡± Emily mutters, turning her head and counting the mages. The shield bearers m their heavy shields into the ground after their full squad steps from the portals, and the hall calms for a moment. Then, they roar guttural orders at the scattered goblins who resume their charge at full speed. Emily casts scattershot and three more arcs while shooting the ws¡¯ des with a magical steel thread connecting them to her arms and spinning, slicing through the front row of goblins like butter. She keeps culling them with the ws for a few seconds as her spells finish casting, then retracts the des into their housings while grabbing hold of the magical bow before her and tossing the crackling orbs of lightning into the crowd. I wish I could put my back to a wall right now. Emily draws back the bow, forming an arrow in ce as over a hundred small balls of fire rise above the goblins¡¯ ranks and a few goblin¡¯s arrows hit her armoured chest, trying to break her focus. Ignoring the dull pain of the impact as her armour blocks the shots, she marks fifty of the mages cowering at the back and points the bow to the sky before releasing the string of wind. The arrow cuts through the air, rising to the apex of its flight before bursting into fifty, bullet-sized metal shards and raining down on the hobgoblins. The arrow fragments reach their targets before the orbs of fire, but they m into a thin barrier of wind that stops most of them before shattering and letting the others in. Five mages die as the balls of fire fall towards Emily, but with barely a thought the waiting magic circle behind her activates, forming a wall of metal above her that blocks all of them. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue, drawing the bow back again and watching the mana movement around the hobgoblins to work out which ones are casting the barriers. She sees two thirds of them are casting fire element spells, and marks fifteen of those who aren¡¯t. ¡°Good luck blocking this one,¡± she says with a vicious grin, pointing the scattershot directly up and dismissing her barrier. An arrow flies up, bursting before it hits the ceiling and scatters fifteen hefty chunks of metal in a blooming pattern. They arc out, falling on the mages, cutting through their barriers with ease and splitting their heads open. She draws the bow again, selecting her marks and releasing two more shots before her blossoming arrows are joined in the air by the hobgoblin mages¡¯ retaliating volley of fire. Her rain of metal achieves its goal, removing all the barriers above the mages, along with their casters, as Emily sprints forward, rushing into the crowd of goblins and cutting down any blocking her path with a w. The balls of fire fall harmlessly on the empty space she has left, small explosions ringing out through the hall as Emily turns the arc closest to her into an arc-bolt and clears the nearby goblins with it. She draws the bow in the exposed gap and marks fifty more mages before firing. This time the small shards of metal meet no barriers, and all find their targets, cutting down the spellcasters'' numbers. She fires a second arrow before the goblins can close the gap to approach her, removing the rest of the mages from the equationpletely. With the main threat gone, Emily dismisses scattershot and turns her arcs into arc-bolts to clear more of the goblins. She sprints through the quickly thinning group towards a squad of hobgoblins, cutting down everything she passes before casting four more arcs to reap the remaining goblins. She arrives in front of the first squad, pulling back her fist and mming it into a shield, crumpling it inwards and knocking the air out of the hobgoblin braced behind it, sending it tumbling to the floor. ¡°I hope the rest of you can put up more resistance than that,¡± she mutters with a manic grin, casting her predatory gaze over the remaining squad before slipping into the centre of their formation through the exposed gap. Chapter 102 – Boss Fight Chapter 102 ¨C Boss Fight Emily bes a whirlwind of violence, her arms shing out, finding the weak points between the hobgoblins¡¯ armour before digging ws into their soft flesh. They try to fight back,shing out with des that she deflects gracefully before closing the distance between them at a speed they can barely react to. She disassembles the squad quickly, covering the floor with their dirty blood before locating her next target and dashing forward, leaving fifteen dying hobgoblins to slowly melt back into the floor. Lightning wraps her legs, letting her cover the gap between her and the next group in an instant. The five shield-bearers in the squad line up to block her, locking their shields together while the polearms behind them jut forwards to pierce her as she approaches. Emily simply crouches a little before springing up, clearing the shields and spinning in the air, releasing the ws¡¯ des and letting them whip out, slicing through the hobgoblins below her. The shield-bearers fall with their heads split open as Emilynds, deftly weaving the wires of the des around the spearmen beside her and filling them with machina, increasing their sharpness before retracting them. The wirescerate the hobgoblins, ripping apart their armour and flesh. She pushes forward as the des click back into ce before burying them into the throats of the remaining squad members. She falls into a consistent rhythm, systematically taking apart every squad one by one and obliterating the remaining goblins with her arcs. Thest hobgoblin falls from Emily¡¯s des as she lowers her arms, letting them slide out of its stomach. She looks around, taking in the empty chamber. ¡°Am I done?¡± she mutters, ncing at her mana and stamina reserves. ¡°My body¡¯s improved so much that, even after I¡¯ve burned through half my mana, I¡¯m barely short of breath. Hell, I only lost twenty stamina.¡± The chamber shakes as the gates slide shut and the torches change to a natural orange glow, bringing an end to the horde. Emily looks around for the door to move on to the next chamber, but she doesn¡¯t see anything. Weird, is the trial not done? She notices an unnatural glow spreading from the centre of the chamber with the same blood-red hue as the torches before. It grows to fill half the chamber with its light, and Emily recognises the pattern as arge-scale array. She keeps her back to the nearby wall, watching in fascination as a red haze slowly drifts up from the massive magic circle. The mana around her grows unstable, and a strange feeling of pressure envelopes her, as if crushing the air from her lungs. Frowning, Emily tries to cast a spell, but the moment her mana leaves her body it distorts, bending and twisting in strange ways, forcing her to divert more of her focus to correct it. The spell still forms, a crackling bolt arcing out and mming into the floor a few metres ahead of her, but it takes over twice as long as it usually would. ¡°It¡¯s a widespread magic inhibition zone,¡± she mutters with wonder, stepping closer to inspect the runes forming the circle. As she approaches, a low rumble fills the chamber, and a bubbling ck mass rises in the centre of the room. She pauses and lowers into abat stance as the mass grows, morphing into a towering humanoid figure. The ck liquid solidifies, taking on a dull, stone-like finish. It slowly gains definition, holes forming in the head to create an unsettling face with an empty, gaping maw and abyssal eyes. The ck stone giant finishes its birth after a few moments and slowly turns, its empty gaze falling on Emily. ¡°What are you?¡± she says with curiosity, beginning the slow casting of four fireballs as she starts slowly circling the creature. The thirty-metre-tall being doesn¡¯t respond. However, the moment Emily¡¯s mana flows out of her body and begins to form magic circles, it raises its thick arm with surprising speed and points towards her. Its fingers suddenly grow, shooting out and piercing her magic circles, ripping the mana constructs to pieces. ¡°Tsk,¡± Emily clicks her tongue and sprints away, avoiding the sharp spears of rock that fall towards her after breaking her spells. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem to want me to cast spells.¡± The creature follows her body with its eyes, drawing back its fingers and bending its legs. It springs forward, creating a thundering crash with each footfall, closing the distance between them to crush Emily. Grinning, Emily moves forward to meet it, internally casting an eleration spell that meets no resistance from the inhibition zone and wraps her legs with lightning. She runs through the giant¡¯s legs, shing a w along its ankle. The metal de bites into the dark stone, crackling with machina and cutting a clean line through. She skids to a halt, spinning around and killing her momentum with a knee against the ground and the spikes on her boots extended. The stone giant pauses its charge, mming a foot down to instantly halt its momentum before slowly rotating unnaturally at the waist to face Emily again. It¡¯s fast, but it''s slow at turning. Emily contemtes the creature as she watches the gash she left behind being quickly filled with more ck liquid that quickly solidifies, removing any sign of the wound. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue with a frown. ¡°And it regenerates small injuries.¡± She tries to summon a mana grenade from her belt but finds it slow to appear, also affected by the mana inhibition zone. Damn it. Emily charges the grenade with machina, turning the small metal orb into a brightly crackling harbinger of destruction before angrily hurling it up at the creature¡¯s chest. Sensing the danger, the creature quickly raises its arm, blocking the projectile as it fractures, spewing mes and metal shards that tear streaks through the stone limb and cause cracks to form along it. A small satisfied smirk starts to form on Emily¡¯s face before the arm simply liquefies itself and reforms as good as new. ¡°And big injuries?¡± she mutters with slight confusion. ¡°Wait, is it a golem?¡± She dodges as the golem ms its arm down towards her, smashing it against the ground with a loud bang that shakes the room. If it is, I just need to destroy the core. With newfound confidence, Emily starts summoning the Whisper from her storage as she sprints through the golem¡¯s legs again to dy its next attack, narrowly slipping between a sudden wall of spikes that shoot from its ankles to try to skewer her. She keeps running, creating distance between herself and the giant construct as a sleek ck rifle appears in her hands. Reaching the chamber¡¯s wall, she spins back to face it and raises the Whisper. She flicks the firing selector into full, lighting up the barrel with a green glow before lowering her finger onto the trigger and squeezing. A small crack and a light hiss, barely audible to the unenhanced ear, follow as a bullet flies out, almost instantly connecting with the golem¡¯s head. A narrow hole appears from the creature¡¯s forehead straight through to the back of its skull. The golem barely flinches, the hole in its head closing up as it pulls back its arm before thrusting it forward. The sturdy ck stone transforms into a torrent of pressurised viscous liquid that sts towards Emily. Reacting quickly, she digs her heels in and leaps to the side. Unfortunately, she¡¯s a moment toote and the stream catches her foot, sending her tumbling to the ground with a harsh cracking sound and a burning pain ring in her right leg. ¡°Shit!¡± she yells angrily as her gun tters away and she rolls to a stop. Pushing off the ground quickly, Emily nces down and sees her leg twisted at an awkward angle, her foot facing backwards and her boot heavily damaged. She snarls angrily, lightning crackling between her teeth as she grits them and stands up, activating all eight injectors along her spine, sending a flood of healing potion into her veins. Her leg slowly knits itself back together, her ankle rotating back into ce as she leaps towards her dropped weapon with the other, narrowly avoiding a spike of rock shooting towards her from the golem¡¯s extended arm. Making a snap decision, Emily shuts off the pain receptors in her leg temporarily as she runs along the chamber wall, splitting the control of her upper and lower body between multiple threads to maintain a perfect gait while racking the Whisper¡¯s bolt and taking aim at the golem¡¯s chest. She pulls the trigger three more times, absorbing the kickback without breaking her stride and boring three more holes in a line across the golem¡¯s centre mass. It barely reacts to any of them, continuing to swipe at her with its malleable arms to no avail. It¡¯s too big to find the core with normal bullets. I need to do arge amount of damage quickly to find it. Dropping and sliding under another arcing swipe from her opponent, Emily pulls the Whisper¡¯s bolt back and flicks the mag release, dropping the useless ammo from the gun before she reaches into her belt and pulls out another magazine with a small, ornate me engraved on the side. She ms the new mag home, racking the bolt to chamber a bullet before aiming the gun at the golem¡¯s head. She takes a deep breath and pulls the trigger before racking the bolt and adjusting her aim again: left shoulder, thorax, right shoulder, stomach, left hip, right hip. She sends seven bullets out in rapid session. The first shot reaches its target as thest leaves the barrel. The hollow bullet crumples against the giant stone body with devastating force, the impact alone sending a web of cracks across the stone as the fractured bullet digs in regardless. The real impactes at almost the same moment, when the runes tracing the metal projectile break, triggering the explosive mix within. A thunderous explosion rings out as the stone head is blown to pieces, shards of ck rock being flung across the room. Next, the golem¡¯s left arm falls off, its shoulder disappearing in a ball of fire. Then, the centre of its chest caves in, a burning, several-metre-wide hole punched through to the other side. Its right arm falls next, and another gaping hole appears through the golem¡¯s gut. Finally, as a heavy explosion rips through the oversized construct''s left hip, Emily hears a clear shattering sound, almost drowned out by the explosions but still discernible to her sensitive hearing. The golem starts to lose its form, its step towards Emily halting as it starts melting back into a liquid state, starting from the destroyed hip, like blood seeping from a grievous wound. Thest bullet hits as the stone has begun to liquefy, cutting straight through with ease and exploding against the wall behind the dying golem. Emily pauses in her sprint the moment the creature starts to dissolve, lowering her rifle as she no longer senses any danger from the dying golem. The red circle on the floor fades as the golem melts into it, and Emily lets out a small breath of relief as its pressure vanishes. ¡°Note to self: having my casting blocked feels gross,¡± she mutters with a small, victorious grin. She chooses not to rx her cautionpletely, still aware she is inside a dungeon, and keeps the Whisper in her hands. She reloads the gun, filling it with normal ammunition again and cing the explosive bullets back in her belt before resting it against her shoulder. ¡°It was worth using normal fire crystals instead of lesser in these. That firepower was perfect,¡± she says as she nces at the web of cracks in the chamber wall, still repairing after thest explosion. ¡°It¡¯s a shame I can¡¯t control the breakdown of a greater crystal yet.¡± She shivers slightly at the memory of a greater fire crystal blowing her room to pieces as time ground to a halt, The Clock saving her from the aftermath of her own experiment. As she shakes the memory away, Emily feels the mana in the room bubble with purpose, gathering in the centre. Her gaze follows it to where she sees arge, ck chest rising from the ground. Is that my reward, or another challenge? She steps forward to answer her question, wincing slightly as she reactivates the pain receptors in her right leg. epting the buzzing pain telling her that she isn¡¯t fully healed, she approaches the in ck chest, poking it with the barrel of the Whisper without attempting to open it. When nothing happens, she tries pulling up a system information window and sighs with relief as it works. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Dungeon Chest] [Rank:] E [Description:] A reward chest forpleting a dungeon¡¯s trial. ______ The exnation is brief, but it reassures her that the trial is over, so Emily lowers her gun and reaches out, pushing open the heavy metal lid. A bright light washes out of the chest, blinding her for a moment before her eyes adjust. At the bottom is ayer ofrge, greater mana crystals of various elements, and sitting above them, drawing Emily¡¯s focus, is a ring. It has a seemingly simple design, just a thin band of green metal. However, as Emily looks closer she realises the metal is actually a bluish-silver, mythril, with a dense mass of tiny green runes covering it. ¡°Incredible,¡± she mutters, picking up the ring and admiring the craftsmanship of the fine engravings while wrapping all the mana crystals with ayer of space mana and sending them straight into her belt. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Air Walker] [Rank:] E [Description:] A ring engraved with an easy-to-use flight spell. [Effect:] Upon activation, allows the user to step freely on the air around them. _____ Her eyes light up at the description, a giddy grin parting her lips. ¡°Jackpot! I couldn¡¯t find anything about flight spells in the library,¡± she says while storing the Whisper and sliding the ring onto her right pointer finger. The mana in the room moves again, and the chest morphs into a swirling portal, but Emily ignores it. Instead, she channels mana into the ring, lighting up the runes around it before taking a step forward and watching wind mana flow from the ring to form an invisible tform along her sole. Her foot freezes ten centimetres away from the floor, allowing her to step off the ground onto the nothingness above. Grinning, she takes one step after another, slowly climbing into the air. After rising ten metres, Emily removes the mana flowing into the ring, but it keeps pouring out wind mana on its own, and her next step freezes ten centimetres lower than thest. She keeps walking, slowly lowering to the ground where the ring¡¯s runes go dull again, losing their pale glow. ¡°So it drains twice as much mana as each step needs to lower you down afterwards,¡± Emily mutters, analysing the function of the ring. She tries attributing her mana before injecting it into the ring, pouring in wind mana and finding herself able to control it still after it leaves the ring. She gathers it around her foot when it¡¯s fifteen centimetres off the ground this time and steps up. She repeats this a few times, stepping up varying heights before cutting off the mana and finding herself lowering by the same odd distances each time. ¡°So I can gain more control, but still notplete control. I¡¯ll decipher these runester to make my own spell then give this ring to Jules. This will be helpful for someone without the ability topletely split their focus between multiple spells.¡± The walls of the chamber start to break apart as she finishes her tests, falling away to reveal the same void as when she entered. Getting the message, Emily finally turns to the portal and steps through to rejoin her friends outside. Chapter 103 – Reunion Chapter 103 ¨C Reunion Emily steps out of the portal, pulling free from the swirling ck mass of mana to appear in the cave system once again. Her gaze is instantly drawn to Juliana, standing with their friends, cautiously surrounding the doorway with spells at the ready. A small tension she didn¡¯t even realise she still held rxes as she sees her safe and sound after the dungeon¡¯spletion. Everyone dismisses their preparations the moment they see Emily, and Juliana rushes forward, checking her for injuries and instantly noticing her uneven gait. ¡°Are you okay?¡± she asks with concern. ¡°What happened?¡± Before Emily can answer her, the door behind her shudders, sliding shut and receding into the wall, being reced by smooth stone. ¡°I¡¯m fine, just a flesh wound,¡± Emily reassures Juliana, pulling her into her right side and leaning against her to take the weight off her leg as she turns to answer the questioning gazes of her friends, lingering on the now missing door behind her. ¡°The dungeon was an arena fight against a load of enemies. There were a few thousand goblins and six hundred hobgoblins, followed by a giant golem that I¡¯d ce at around third circle in strength since there was a mana inhibition zone around it.¡± Their faces pale at her words, and Ivor quickly signs a question dripping with incredulity. ¡°You fought thousands of goblins and a golem in a mana inhibition zone alone, and only got a flesh wound?¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± Emily corrects. ¡°The goblins and hobgoblins attacked first without the mana inhibition zone, then the golem spawned alone afterwards with the zone. Luckily, the zone only really blocked external casting, so I was able to keep ahead of its attacks most of the time. Also, I have some pretty heavy-hitting weapons, so I was able to destroy its core without spells.¡± His surprise lowers a little, but shock and respect remain in his gaze. ¡°We should havee with you,¡± Danteins. ¡°I bet even you could have done with some help against such a big horde.¡± Emily shrugs, unable to tell him the full truth. ¡°I¡¯m almost certain it would have made us fight the hordes separately, and I didn¡¯t have that much trouble against them. I¡¯m very good at one against many in a melee since there¡¯s a limit to how many can attack me at once. What¡¯s done is done now, so let¡¯s move on to the rewards.¡± Her distraction works, as all of her friends¡¯ eyes light up at the mention of rewards. ¡°Wait, do we get a share of them even though we did nothing?¡± Tom asks, surprisingly killing his own anticipation. ¡°I¡¯m the one who stopped you alling in, and I already said when we started this that I¡¯d give you all your fair share from the expedition, so yes,¡± Emily answers with a firm nod. ¡°Besides, by that logic, you wouldn¡¯t get anything from the expedition as a whole.¡± Everyone chuckles at her teasing remark, including Tom despite the small embarrassed blush on his cheeks. Also, I¡¯m more concerned aboutpleting my quest than gaining resources. I¡¯m already going to have enough mana crystals and magical metals tost me a while after this. ¡°First, there were these magic crystals,¡± Emily says, summoning two dozen greater crystals on the floor in front of her, a mix of water, ice, light, darkness, and wind. Her friends¡¯ eyes widen in surprise at the number of crystals, but Emily notices Enzo¡¯s reaction is far more muted, and Dante barely reacts after seeing no fire crystals. Enzo definitely understands the value of a dungeon far better than everyone else. ¡°Then the main reward was this,¡± Emily says, removing her right hand from Juliana¡¯s waist to show off the Air Walker. ¡°It¡¯s a ring with a flight spell engraved on it.¡± This time, Enzo¡¯s reaction is the strongest, his eyes shooting open wide, and his mouth falling open. ¡°You got a flight artefact?¡± he asks, a glint of greed in his eyes. ¡°Yep.¡± Emily nods, noticing his greed and making a note to remove any risk he may pose before giving Juliana the ring. ¡°I n on analysing the engravings and making my own spell, so I¡¯ll keep it with me for now. We can decide on who gets the ring itselfter, and give everyone else arger cut of the other loot.¡± No one has anyints about her handling of the situation, so Emily walks over to a rock, supported by Juliana, and sits down. ¡°We¡¯ll stay here for a little bit longer so I can deal with my leg, then we keep following my Diver.¡± Tom gathers the mana crystals Emily left behind in his bag, and everyone else settles down to wait for Emily. ¡°Do you need any help?¡± Juliana asks, crouching beside Emily. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if my ankle is set correctly, so could you help me get my boot off please.¡± Juliana nods, sitting down on the floor in front of her and looking closely at her right boot. ¡°Oh, Goddess,¡± she mutters as she sees the cracks covering the metal tes lining the boot. They¡¯re missing some segments, having fallen off during the battle, and some sections are folded in, poking into Emily¡¯s flesh below the leather inner shoe. Juliana carefully undoes the internalcing exposed at the top of the boot before gently prying out the folded sections. Emily turns off her pain receptors again as Juliana gets to work, but she doesn¡¯t say anything, letting Juliana continue with the same delicate care. Once she¡¯s certain she¡¯s removed all of the sections pressing into Emily¡¯s leg, Juliana pulls the mouth of the boot wide and slowly slides it off, ncing up repeatedly to make sure she isn¡¯t hurting Emily too much. Emily frowns slightly at the state of her boot but otherwise keeps a reassuring smile on her face as she watches. The moment her boot slides free of her foot, Emily winces at the colour of the flesh underneath, and Juliana gasps in shock. Emily¡¯s foot is an unnatural mix of pale white and purple, and, as Juliana takes out a pair of fabric shears and cuts up the inside seam of Emily¡¯s leather trousers, they both see the rest of her leg matching it. ¡°What the hell do you mean a flesh wound?¡± Juliana hisses, her voice tinged with concern and a hint of helplessness. ¡°How did you even do this?¡± ¡°The golem managed to catch me because I let my guard down a little. It was a thirty-metre-tall stone golem: I didn¡¯t expect its arm to turn into a torrent of water.¡± ¡°Water did this?¡± Juliana asks with a shiver. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think it was really water. More like liquid stone. By the looks of it, it was really dense and crushed my leg with high pressure,¡± Emily says, inspecting the damage to her leg closely. Juliana grimaces at the calm exnation, gently running her fingers over several divots in the leg where the boot was folded in on it. ¡°How aren¡¯t you bleeding?¡± ¡°I used all my injectors,¡± Emily says, reaching up and tapping the back of her neck to convey her meaning. ¡°And it still looks like this?¡± ¡°Yeah. The healing potions I can make are only meant for light wounds like cuts and gashes, not shattered bones. They did their best and kept me in the fight, but this will probably take a bit of time to fix.¡± I could reset and try again... Ah well. It¡¯s a chance to test the healing spell I copied from Fionn onrger injuries. Emily ces her hands on either side of her leg, starting at the highest point of damage as she starts casting a spell. A glistening white magic circle wraps her legs, pouring healing light onto the wounds. She carefully directs the spell, focusing on knitting back together the blood vessels and muscles, using her robust muscture to hold the still-damaged bones in ce. Unfortunately, this spell¡¯s too weak to help with damaged bones properly. I need some actual time to heal that fully. It¡¯s more effective on myself though, I guess my understanding of my own body does help. She carefully takes her time, moving the focus of the spell down her leg as the purple bruises slowly fade away to reveal healthy skin. Juliana silently settles down beside her, watching the process with concern but not interfering, fearful of breaking Emily¡¯s focus and prolonging her pain. After twenty minutes of repairing the damage, Emily cancels the spell, healing light, with a small sigh. ¡°It used a lot of mana, and it¡¯s not perfect, but my bones should heal within a day or two,¡± she says, turning her focus to her ruined boot lying on the floor before her. ¡°Tsk, I¡¯ll have to use a substitute until I fix that.¡± She sends the boot into her storage and produces a simple leather shoe as a temporary recement before moving to stand. Juliana holds out her hands to help Emily steady herself, but she stands without issue and lightly hops on the spot a few times: the feeling ispletely returned to her limb and only a dull ache remains. ¡°Are you sure you should be doing that?¡± Hester questions, surprising Emily. She looks around and finds all of her friends staring at her with various expressions, from slight horror and concern to respect. I guess it did look pretty bad. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve repaired everything except a few cracks in my bones. I can¡¯t target the remaining damage with my spells, since I¡¯m not very good with healing spells and only have one I managed to copy from Fionn, but I should be fine to keep moving and fighting like this. Quite frankly, moving with a few cracks in my bones is easy. Agnes gave me worse in our spars,¡± she says with an amused smile that only seems to unsettle her friends more. ¡°Right, let¡¯s get going!¡± With her healing finished, Emily takes down the barrier disc and continues to guide her friends down the tunnels, ignoring her low mana reserves and letting them slowly recharge with her passive regeneration. They wind through the passageway, away from the five-way split in the path they encountered before reaching the dungeon. They travel for several hours, stopping halfway through for lunch, before the water starts to pick up speed again and Emily¡¯s forced to remove her boat from the water. They continue forward and disappointingly find themselves at the five-way split once more. ¡°Damn it!¡± Dante groans, kicking a rock into the water. ¡°Do we really have to backtrack?¡± ¡°Probably. This tunnel appears to be a dead end,¡± Hester says. Emily tunes out their conversation, her eyes following the rock Dante kicked and remaining locked on the water. She steps closer to the water¡¯s edge, looking out into the centre of the junction at the roiling current. ¡°Actually,¡± she says, cutting off the ongoing conversation as her friends all turn their attention to her. ¡°I think we might be in the right ce.¡± Her friends follow her gaze, looking out into the river with confusion. ¡°Really?¡± Tom asks. ¡°Where are we meant to go though?¡± Emily turns back to her friends, answering his question with another question. ¡°How is there a current here?¡± They all pause to consider her words, but Hester makes the connection first. ¡°The water needs to go somewhere,¡± Hester mutters, ncing past Emily towards the junction. ¡°Exactly!¡± Emily says with an excited grin, noticing the still confused looks etched on the others¡¯ faces. ¡°Look at the pathways in and out of this junction. There are threeing in, and two leading out. The two leading out are both in a closed loop with two of those leading in, so there¡¯s only watering in through one path. Now, this may be an oddity of magic, but logically, if it¡¯s moving, it must be going somewhere.¡± A light of realisation slowly dawns on her friends'' faces she exins. ¡°An underwater tunnel,¡± Juliana squeaks, voicing Emily¡¯s theory. ¡°Possibly,¡± Emily agrees. ¡°I¡¯ve been removing my boat from the water near here to stop it getting swept away, but that means I¡¯ve never checked the riverbed around here. Our path forwards may be hidden in in sight.¡± She steps forward, bending down and pulling the boat from her storage once again. ¡°Only one way to find out!¡± she says, shing a confident smile over her shoulder before dropping the watercraft onto the surface and watching it get dragged to the centre of the river. Everyone watches with bated breath as it bobs in ce for a moment, before suddenly vanishing into the swirling fog below the surface. Emily¡¯s grin grows as she remains connected to the boat¡¯s sensory array, watching it sink deep below, far further than the usual depth of the riverbed. The boat is thrown about, sending back a jumbled mess of information that barely helps Emily for a few seconds before suddenly blinking out and severing her connection. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue. ¡°There¡¯s definitely a tunnel down there, but my boat was destroyed.¡± ¡°Is there something down there?¡± Enzo questions. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Emily says, shaking her head. ¡°It was being thrown all over the ce, so I think it¡¯s just a violent current.¡± ¡°What now then?¡± Juliana asks, ncing at the water with a nervous gaze. ¡°Do you have something else you can send down to check?¡± Emily nods, tossing off her robes and sitting down to remove her shoes. ¡°Myself.¡± Juliana jumps at her words, rushing forward to ce a hand on Emily¡¯s shoulder, gripping her hard. ¡°What do you mean yourself? Don¡¯t you have some machine you can send down there? You¡¯re still injured!¡± she fires off rapidly, ncing at the water repeatedly as her fear and concern mix. Emily reaches up and gently rests her hand on her girlfriend¡¯s, reassuring her as she looks over her shoulder with a smile. ¡°I only had one Diver prepared, and none of my other scouts are designed for underwater operation. I¡¯ll be fine though. I¡¯m pretty robust.¡± And I can always reset if I get stuck. Juliana doesn¡¯t look convinced, but Emily doesn¡¯t give her a chance to argue again, standing up and giving her a quick kiss before stepping backwards into the water. She turns around, ignoring the panicked cry behind her, and pushes forward to the centre of the current, where she feels a strong pull attempting to drag her down. She kicks against the current, holding herself above the water as she turns to face her friends. ¡°See, I can fight the current just fine,¡± she calls out, raising a single hand above the surface holding her Gills, pressing them to her face before giving a small wave as Juliana seems to rx slightly. ¡°See you on the other side.¡± Emily punctuates her goodbye by halting her movements, letting the current rip her down into the depths below. Chapter 104 – The Deep Dark Chapter 104 ¨C The Deep Dark Emily sinks below the surface quickly, the current gripping her and forcing her down the moment she rxes. She channels light through her hands, illuminating the water below as she approaches the riverbed at speed. The bottom is revealed, showing a gaping hole just wide enough to fit Emily, dragging in the surrounding water with immense force. The closer she gets to the hole, the stronger the current grows, to the point where Emily isn¡¯t sure she¡¯d be able to resist it in such a limited space. If there¡¯s purchase on the sides of the tunnel, I may be able to pull myself out. But there¡¯s no way the others will be able to swim out. This is possibly a one-way trip. Frowning, Emily grabs The Clock from its pouch before letting herself slip into the hole. She shoots through the tunnel, descending tens of metres before the narrow passage bends, mming her against solid rock and dragging her down further. She bounces off the walls a few times as the passageway twists and turns, quickly closing the vertical distance between her and her Diver. The travel is disorienting as her direction changes repeatedly, but Emily simply focuses on her feet, watching calmly and waiting for a change. After a minute of shuttling through the narrow, twisting channel, her feet hit a swirl of churning water, too rough for her to see through, before she¡¯s shot out into the open air, overshooting the water that continues to plummet into the unknown. The moment the space opens up around her, she calmly channels mana through the Air Walker, forming a solid barrier against the soles of her feet. Her legspress, absorbing her momentum, before rxing as she drops and twists gracefully to ce her feet below herself before creating a tform to stand on. Emily looks around, pulling off her Gills before pointing her hands in all directions to try and take in her surroundings. She finds nothing but the ever-persistent darkness that clings unnaturally to her skin, sending shivers down her spine as it noticeably encroaches upon the glow from her hands. ¡°It¡¯s gotten stronger,¡± she mutters, conjuring a ball of light and tossing it above her head, pouring mana into it. ¡°And I think it¡¯s alive.¡± A small zone of light slowly forms around her as more and more mana flows into the spell, forcing the darkness back. Emily looks around her haven of light, drinking in the new space. Behind her is a small waterfall, blooming from a solid stone wall and falling into a quickly flowing river below. The water is an eerie mix of ck and grey, the fog seemingly having lost its vigour, blending into the inky water, no longer separated like before. The riverbank ispletely clear of fog, and though there are still crystals lining the roof, they¡¯re all pitch ck, seemingly drawing the light away from the tunnel around them instead of providing it. Emily walks forward, lowering herself onto the riverbank and stepping onto the smooth stone. ¡°Might as well have a look around before I reset,¡± she mutters, ncing back up towards the mouth of the waterfall a dozen metres above her, watching the powerful torrent of water cascade into the flowing water, the hole she came through now obstructed by the living darkness. ¡°That would be a massive pain to go back through.¡± Emily takes out her boat as she walks, dropping it into the water beside her and checking The Clock. If I move for eighteen hours, I can return to right before I entered the dungeon to save damaging my boot and wasting potions. I guess I¡¯m getting a rematch after all. With an amused smile, she continues into the darkness. She reduces the size of her light to reduce the mana drain, opting to walk with a two-metre area of vision and sending a bird ahead with a thermal pack topensate. She pulls out the Diver¡¯s tablet and checks their rtive position as she moves, her amusement changing into excitement as she confirms that she¡¯s moving towards it now on the correct elevation level. I¡¯m getting closer. An hourter, walking through the empty tunnel alone, Emily suddenly freezes as she hears a faint clicking sound. She lowers into abat stance and advances, scanning through her bird¡¯s eyes to locate the source as the sound slowly grows louder. She sees a flicker of movement through the bird before her connection is suddenly severed. Emily pauses as her brows furrow in anger, before she activates her own infra-sight and continues on, a crackling magic circle forming behind her in preparation to greet her bird¡¯s killer. The cking sound gets closer, but Emily doesn¡¯t see anything in the tunnel ahead, and her opponent doesn¡¯t seem to notice her approach either. This darkness seems to be limiting the range of my infra-sight. No wonder it got my bird. I probably flew straight into it. At least it¡¯s providing cover for me too. Shees to a halt, cancelling her infra-sight and instead channelling earthen detection. Instantly she locates her target and, without wasting a beat, she unleashes an arc-bolt on it. The foe seems to notice her detection, turning to her the moment a pulse of her earth mana reaches it, but it¡¯s too slow to dodge her attack, taking a torrent of burning sma to the head. It lets out a horrid screech that quickly slurs as millions of volts surge through its body, melting through the armour that protected its head and causing it to slump to the floor in a twitching mess. Emily approaches the fallen figure, bringing it within the glow of her light and finally seeing her enemy. The creature is as big as Emily, with smooth, ck, chitinous armour and two deadly scythes lying limp before its chest, attached to multisegmented, whip-like arms. Its body is split into two torsos, one small one: connecting its head, and arms, and onerge one with twelve jagged legs sticking out. It¡¯s a grotesque mix between a praying mantis and a spider that sends Emily¡¯s survival instincts into overdrive the moment she sees it. Recognition shes through her eyes as she remembers a key piece of information about the abomination of nature. Mantolyc are metal and earth-based creatures with high lightning resistance¡­ And they have three brains. Her realisationes just in time, as her control core immediately diverts all her cores into assistive processing, cancelling her light and detection spells but slowing the world around her. Machina flickers beneath her skin in silentmand, and Emily twitches back, wrenching her head away from the creature in the nick of time. A sharp de whips up as she moves, carving a channel through her body armour, barely meeting any resistance, before catching against her throat and gouging a deep line from her corbone to her chin, taking a chunk out of her jawbone on the way past. It fucking baited me! Emily grits her teeth, ignoring the stinging pain and the gushing outpour of blood, forcing herself to go on the offensive to save herself from the perilous situation she has walked into. A near-instantly cast eleration spell charges her body with magical lightning to match the biological kind already coursing through her system, and she presses forward, sliding in under the now-raised scythe. Both her arms stretch forward, one moving to deflect the second scythe as it cuts towards her chest, and the other mming a palm home into the centre of the creature¡¯s smaller abdomen. The w underneath the palm crackles with machina, overdrive stressing it to the max as Emily activates the firing mechanism. A single, razor-sharp de flies out, punching a hole clean through the first torso and into the armour of the second behind it. Unfortunately, the de doesn¡¯t carry enough power, but Emily doesn¡¯t let her assault end there. With two of the creature''s three brains destroyed, Emily takes advantage of a slight pause in the mantolyc¡¯s movements to throw herself under the creature, arriving at its slightly softer underbelly. It immediately goes to crush her, rxing its legs to drop its full weight on her, but Emily reinforces herself with rock body, the spell wrapping her limbs in dense earth mana that allows her to forcefully hold up the oversized bug¡¯s immense weight by jamming her elbows into the floor at her waist. Her bones creak slightly under the force, even with the help of the spell, but Emily doesn¡¯t care, a manic, triumphant grin covering her features. ¡°Checkmate,¡± she mutters, ignoring the pain that shoots from her injured throat as a giant magic circle forms between them. Emily is given plenty of time to cast arge spell now that she doesn¡¯t have to worry about the creature¡¯s arms, and the mantolyc realises its mistake as a zing arrow of light slowly forms against its abdomen. It tries to stand up, but does so far toote as a clean, searing hole is bored through its centre the moment it releases the pressure on Emily¡¯s arms. Emily rolls to the side as the creature goes ck, dropping to the ground with a thud. She rolls onto her knees, standing up smoothly and casting a light again, to look at her fallen foe, while raising a hand to her burning throat. Ites away covered in blood and, looking past it, she sees a waterfall of red cascading down her front. Well, shit. She starts channelling a healing spell, but it only stems the bleeding, struggling to close the wound in a reasonable time. Clicking her tongue, and wincing in the pain, Emily reaches into her belt and pulls out a vial of healing potion. She pops the cork and pours the glistening crimson liquid onto the wound. It slowly starts to knit back together and, after two more potions, the loose ps of flesh on either side finally connect, sealing the wound with a raw scab. Emily frowns, resisting the urge to sigh while gently massaging her sore neck with healing light, and kicks the mantolyc¡¯s side in frustration. I let my guard down. I wasn¡¯t expecting to run into a third circle beast so quickly. Her frown slowly shifts into a grin as she looks out into the darkness ahead. I¡¯m getting closer. She sets off again, leaving the corpse behind and heading towards her Diver. She runs into a few groups of beasts in the dark, the moles, screamers, and lightning eels still present in the newyer, and she even encounters another mantolyc, which she brutally dismantles, shredding it to pieces with the ws in a battle of whips. By the end of her time limit, Emily manages to reduce the distance between herself and the Diver by a quarter. This is amazing. It may only take a few days to catch up with- Her thoughts are interrupted when the dot on the receiver in her hand suddenly vanishes. ¡°What?¡± she mutters in surprise, the aching in her neck already faded. ¡°Something destroyed it. At least I know what direction to go in.¡± She pulls out The Clock, ncing out into the darkness and watching it writhe as she turns back time. Now to convince Jules to go underwater... *** Emily drops out of the folds of time a hundred metres away from the dungeon gate, approaching it quickly with her friends. No injuries this time. She enters the dungeon alone, once again convincing everyone not to follow, and quickly gets to work culling the horde. She rips goblins to pieces with wide, sweeping arcs of her ws, punches holes through hobgoblins, and decimates the mages with deadly magical precision. She sessfully clears out the portals spewing monsters a few minutes faster than the first time: with less mana lost, and an inconsequential amount of extra stamina used. Emily pulls out the Whisper as the chamber begins creating its golem, loads it full of explosive bullets, and aims it at the growing tar-like creature in the centre of the hall. She lines it up with the forming left hip, flicks the firing selector into full, and unloads the moment the ck mass solidifies into stone. Five shots fly out in an instant, each a soft hiss followed by a harsh crack, then a thundering boom that drowns out the following rain of empty casings hitting the floor. The golem¡¯s hips, stomach, head, and chest are blown to pieces in that order, with the loud shattering of the core urring as the head vanishes this time. She calmly switches the magazine in her gun back to standard rounds and sends it back into her storage before iming her reward. Emily leaves with a smug grin, proud of the efficiency of her dungeon clear, and faces her friends with the loot once again. They leave to continue down the tunnel soon after, this time without having to wait for her to lick her wounds, and arrive at the crossroads after a short trek through the tunnel. ¡°Do we really have to backtrack?¡± Dante asks, kicking a rock into the water once again. ¡°No,¡± Emily answers decisively, drawing her friends¡¯ attention in an instant. ¡°Really? Where are we meant to go then?¡± Tom asks. ¡°Where else?¡± Emily asks with a grin, tapping the ground with her foot, a brown magic circle quickly spreading around them. ¡°Down.¡± Enzo and Ivor both recognise earthen detection instantly, activating the spell themselves and inspecting the ground below them. It takes them a few moments, but they both soon pick out the odd, faint vibrations descending further than they should, brought by the crashing current flowing down into the tunnel in the middle of the junction. ¡°There¡¯s a tunnel underwater,¡± Enzo mutters in surprise. ¡°Do you think we¡¯re meant to go through that?¡± Everyone turns to Emily for an answer, and she doesn¡¯t miss the look of horror on Juliana¡¯s face. She reaches out, taking Juliana¡¯s hand reassuringly as she nods. ¡°Yeah. The tunnel is wide enough to fit a person, and it continues down towards The Diver. I¡¯m certain that it will take us closer to our goal. But I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able toe back along this route,¡± Emily exins, herck of confidence sending a wave of unease through her friends. ¡°So, we may get stuck down there?¡± Enzo asks with a hint of caution. ¡°Yes and no,¡± Emily responds with a sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get stuck. I¡¯m confident in being able to work out a way back out, no matter what. I¡¯m just not sure how long it will take.¡± ¡°Then it should be fine, right?¡± Dante says, confidently hitting his fist against his palm. ¡°We came down expecting to jump into the unknown, right? Why are we getting nervous now?¡± Enzo casts a distasteful nce towards his friend, but his expression quickly falls into one of resignation as he lets out a sigh. ¡°I hate to admit it,¡± he starts. ¡°But he¡¯s not wrong,¡± Tom finishes, surprising everyone. They all look at him with varying degrees of shock, to which he responds with a small scoff and a self-deprecating smile. ¡°I know you¡¯re all pretending I¡¯m here to carry stuff, but Emily¡¯s belt could do a better job. However,¡± he grins. ¡°If there¡¯s one thing I am good at, it¡¯s throwing myself headfirst into stupid situations without thinking.¡± A small smile creeps its way onto Emily¡¯s lips. Maybe I was too harsh on him. Chapter 105 – Descent Chapter 105 ¨C Descent Emily¡¯s friends seem to calm down at Tom¡¯s words, an air of resolve settling over them as Emily continues to reassure them. ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m nning on being stuck down there forever,¡± she says, steadying Juliana¡¯s still-shaking hand with a light squeeze. ¡°Worst case scenario, I can lead us back to this tunnel, and I think I may have a solution with spatial magic. It will just take a while.¡± Inventing new teleportation arrays isn¡¯t exactly easy. Dante and Ivor grin as if they were expecting this, while Enzo, Tom, and Hester all give small sighs of exasperation. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you start with that?¡± Hester mumbles. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have had any doubts if you hadn¡¯t said we couldn¡¯te up through this tunnel.¡± ¡°No,¡± Emily says with a small smirk. ¡°I said it wouldn¡¯t be easy. I think I¡¯ll be able to force my way back up through the current in the tunnel. So, if I invent a new short-range teleportation array and carve half of it down there, then half up here, I could bring you all up. It would just take me a while to create a full teleportation array - I¡¯ve never done any work withrge-scale spatial maniption before - which is why I think it will probably be faster to look for another way out instead.¡± And I want to ease Jules into the idea of what I¡¯m about to ask her to do. I don¡¯t want to traumatise her too much¡­ The memory of Juliana¡¯s mutted corpse flickers across Emily¡¯s mind as she nces guiltily at her girlfriend, the weight of her broken promise twisting her thoughts. But maybe scaring her a little wouldn¡¯t be such a bad idea. Maybe she will adapt and consider travelling with me if she gets used to confronting her fear¡­ ¡°I¡¯m honestly surprised you¡¯re not confident you could create a new spatial array within minutes,¡± Tom says with a grin, pulling Emily¡¯s attention back to their conversation as he sits down to take his shoes off. ¡°Large-scale arrays areplicated,¡± Enzo responds while copying him. ¡°It¡¯s reasonable for her to take an hour or so.¡± Emily ignores their jabs, giving a small, reassuring nod to Ivor, thest person not getting ready to swim, ncing between her and Juliana with a concerned look. As he turns away, Emily gently pulls on Juliana¡¯s hand, guiding her away from the group. They walk down the riverbank a little before an invisible bubble wraps around them, blocking their voices from reaching everyone else. Emily stands before Juliana, taking both her hands and looking into her eyes. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Emily asks gently. ¡°No,¡± Juliana says, tears in her eyes that pull on Emily¡¯s heartstrings, the twistings of guilt in her chest only worsening. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can go down there. I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t want to ruin your expedition, and everyone else is prepared to keep going, but-¡° Emily pulls Juliana into a hug, cutting off her spiralling panic and turning it into a quiet sobbing against her shoulder. Is it too much for her? Emily bites her lip in disappointment and frustration, drawing blood as she brings a hand to Juliana¡¯s head, wiping the crimson liquid away in the process. It¡¯s not like I can really leave her here. Even if I leave everyone else with her, they¡¯re dead if a single third circle beast attacks them. Maybe I¡¯ll do the array to get us down? Emily keeps stroking Juliana¡¯s hair, giving her time to calm down while she starts running through ideas to avoid the underwater chute. Once Juliana stops shaking, Emily holds her tight for a short while longer before pulling back and gently running a hand along her cheek, wiping away the tears. ¡°What about if you stay in contact with me the whole time and keep your eyes shut?¡± Emily suggests, receiving an instant panicked head shake in response. ¡°Not being able to see anything will be way worse.¡± ¡°What about if I keep a light around us?¡± Juliana goes quiet, ncing between the water and Emily, a silent war raging in her head. She¡¯s considering it? Can she push through her fear? A small seed of hope nts itself in Emily¡¯s heart as she waits. After a minute of deliberation, Juliana lets out a sigh and drops her head back onto Emily¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ll be able to breathe the whole time, right?¡± she asks weakly. ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Juliana whispers, her grip around Emily tightening. ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± A small smile cracks Emily¡¯s lips as she ces a kiss against the side of her girlfriend¡¯s head. ¡°Thank you.¡± They separatepletely after another minute, the invisible barrier around them disappearing as they return to their friends who are all waiting by the water¡¯s edge, their shoes and cloaks tucked away into Tom¡¯s bag. Thankfully, none of them asks any questions about Emily and Juliana¡¯s conversation as the two quickly prepare to enter the water as well. ¡°So, how are we doing this?¡± Hester asks as Emily sends thest of her excess gear into her belt. ¡°The tunnel is too narrow to fit any more than one person at a time,¡± Emily exins. ¡°I also suspect you and I will be the only ones with a hope of fighting the current close to it, so I suggest we enter the water with a small gap between each other and just go straight for the tunnel.¡± Nods of acknowledgement spread across the group quickly. ¡°Who first?¡± Dante asks, leaning towards the water and shifting from side to side, seemingly impatient to dive in. ¡°It depends,¡± Emily says, reaching into her belt and pulling out a few light packs. ¡°We don¡¯t really know what¡¯s down there, so it¡¯s probably safest if I lead. But, if you¡¯re dying to go down first, you can.¡± Dante shes a confident grin that doesn¡¯t quite reach his eyes, presenting his chest for Emily to clip a light pack to his armour. ¡°I¡¯ll go first then. I want to see what¡¯s down there.¡± Is he impatient because he doesn¡¯t like the unknown? Emily nods, looking between the rest of her friends forints and seeing none. ¡°In that case, we go Dante, Enzo, Hester, Tom, Ivor, then me and Juliana. Sound good?¡± Everyone agrees, and Emily clips a light pack to Enzo and Hester, before walking up to the water¡¯s edge. ¡°I¡¯ll stay by the tunnel and guide you all down. Allow twenty seconds between each of you hitting the water so we don¡¯t get congested in the tunnel,¡± Emily says, gesturing for Dante to follow her as she shes Juliana aforting smile. ¡°I¡¯ll be back for you after everyone¡¯s gone.¡± Receiving a less than confident nod from her girlfriend, Emily shares a knowing nce with Ivor before cing her Gills to her mouth and stepping out into the water. He should help keep her calm until Ie back. Emily sinks into the swirling currents, falling down towards the tunnel without much effort on her part. She casts light as she sinks, conjuring a glistening white orb to dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the tunnel at the bottom of the riverbed. Before the fissure can pull her in, Emily uses a mixture of earth and metal mana to weigh herself down, reaching the rocky surface below before casting a spell to soften the rock, bending it with delicate mana maniption to reach up and wrap around her feet before solidifying, rooting her in ce beside the hole. She looks up, watching Dante sink towards her quickly at an odd angle, struggling to stay upright in the current. Emily reaches out and grabs his arm as hees close, letting his feet sink into the hole first before pulling both his arms in to cover his chest. She makes eye contact with him, the crinkle in his eyes the only sign of his signature grin hidden behind his shifting mask, and let¡¯s go, watching him vanish in an instant. She then turns her gaze to the surface again and, after a short wait, sees Enzo quickly approaching, sinking feet first towards her with his arms already wrapped around himself to reduce the influence of the current. Emily reaches out, grabbing him before he can hit the tunnel, killing his momentum and lining him up to enter smoothly. She repeats this with Hester and Tom, sending them off to join the others in the deep tunnels below. As Ivor arrives before her, weighing himself down with mana in a simr manner to her, he gives her a small nod and signs, ¡°Good luck,¡± before she releases him and he shoots down and away. Emily releases the rock¡¯s hold on her feet and kicks off, rising up against the current and kicking her powerful legs to propel herself towards the surface. She emerges in the centre of the river and sees Juliana sitting on the riverbank, staring back at her while fidgeting awkwardly with the Gills in herp. Emily swims over, ces both her arms over her girlfriend¡¯sp and rests her chin on them as she looks up at her. ¡°You ready?¡± she asks gently. Juliana shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, then releases it slowly as she opens them again and nods. Her fear is still evident in her eyes and the slight shaking of her hands as she brings the Gills to her face, but she pushes forward nheless. Emily floats back a little bit, offering both of her hands for Juliana to take before carefully pulling her forward, and lowering her into the water. Juliana shivers as she enters the river, ncing down nervously as Emily tilts, ces a foot against the riverbank behind them, and pushes off, propelling them out into open water. Kicking fiercely to keep both of them afloat, Emily pulls Juliana in close, wrapping her arms around her and leaning in to whisper in her ear, the mask on her face barely impeding her speech. ¡°Just rx and hold on tight, I¡¯ll keep it nice and bright so you can see the bottom at all times, okay?¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Juliana hums along with a meek nod, so Emily slows her kicking. They¡¯re pulled down in a controlled manner, and Juliana¡¯s grip on Emily tightens as they dip below the surface, as if trying to crush the air from her lungs. So much for rxing. Emily keeps pouring mana into her light spell, prating through the thick underwater darkness and keeping a beam of light illuminating their path down to the dark hole below. They sink down, and Emily once again anchors herself to the floor next to the hole, this time doing the same for Juliana. She taps Juliana¡¯s shoulder, gently trying to pull back tomunicate. Juliana doesn¡¯t budge at the first tap, but after a few seconds Emily taps again and sheplies, slowly rxing her grip and pulling back a little, her arms refusing to leave Emily¡¯s sidespletely. ¡°Would you rather go in first and hold on to me, or go in second and I hold you?¡± Emily signs, patiently waiting for Juliana to let go with one hand and sign out a response. ¡°Go in second,¡± she manages, her hand shaking the whole time. Emily¡¯s heart aches to see her in such distress, but she quickly pushes the feelings to the back of her mind. ¡°Through the tunnel fast or slow?¡± ¡°Fast,¡± Juliana responds with more certainty than Emily expected. ¡°Okay, you¡¯re going to have to let go of me. Keep your arms tucked into your chest. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t let go of you.¡± Juliana frowns, but reluctantly nods, slowly prying her remaining hand off of Emily before wrapping both her arms around herself like a protective nket. Emily releases the rock from her feet, letting herself float sideways to hover above the hole that tries to whisk her away. Her feet slip into the tunnel and she quickly spreads both her legs to press against the tunnel walls, slowing her descent as her hands run down Juliana¡¯s sides, then her legs,ing to rest in a firm grip around her ankles when Emily¡¯s entire chest is buried in the riverbed. Juliana¡¯s gaze remains locked on Emily the whole time, following her down in the light of the glowing white orb still floating overhead. Emily pins her legs against the tunnel, rooting herself in ce as she nods to Juliana and waits for a response. Juliana seems to gather herself, taking onest nce up towards the surface and noticeably shivering before locking eyes with Emily and nodding back. Emily bends the rocks around Juliana¡¯s feet back down into their original ce and rxes her legs a little, slowly pulling Juliana into the hole. They lower gradually until Juliana ispletely within the narrow tunnel, the orb of light following closely to keep herfortable. Fast it is. Emily pulls her legs in,pletely releasing her grip on the walls and letting the current take them. They shoot down, the walls racing past in their small bubble of light. Emily watches her feet, bracing before the firstrge twist in the tunnel, using her legs and a small burst of water mana to dampen the impact. She repeats this over and over, kicking off the walls with her bare feet and guiding them with a steady flow of mana each time the tunnel threatens to smash them into the hard rock walls, trying to make the chute less traumatic for Juliana. They fall for a minute and soon hit the bubbling swell that signals the exit. Knowing what to expect, Emily calmly rotates as she¡¯s shot out into the open air, letting go of Juliana with one hand and moving it to the small of her back before releasing the other and sliding it up her legs to sit behind her knees, never breaking contact. She uses the Air Walker to create a small, vertical tform likest time, wincing slightly as her already bruised feet m into it while she catches Juliana in a princess carry. Theye to aplete stop mid-air, before falling slowly as Emily twists tond on her feet on another invisible tform. Juliana looks around the surrounding pitch-ck darkness, disoriented and shaking slightly as she processes the air recing the water around them, before wrapping her arms around Emily and burying her face in the crook of her neck. Emily gently strokes her hair, drying them both with a quick cast of cleanse while walking through the air to the bank where she can sense their friends. The small, pulsing orb of light above them barely fends off the encroaching darkness, and they¡¯re within an arm¡¯s reach of their friends before they see them, huddled together in a small circle, faintly illuminated by their light packs. Tom jumps as Emily appears beside him, before stepping aside to let her into the circle and ncing down at Juliana¡¯s still quivering form. ¡°Is sh-¡° Tom starts asking about her, only to stop suddenly when Emily turns a cold, warning re on him, sending a shiver down his spine and forcing his words back down his throat. She silently raises a finger to her lips, warning him not to bother Juliana while she¡¯s still in distress, before her gaze warms and she turns her attention to the rest of the group. ¡°Did you enjoy the trip?¡± she asks. ¡°It was a rush!¡± Dante eagerly responds. ¡°Though, being thrown into the air in the pitch ck was a little unsettling.¡± The others nod in agreement, and Enzo quietly grumbles under his breath while rubbing his elbows: ¡°Personally, I would have preferred not getting mmed into the tunnel walls every few seconds.¡± Nobody responds as they all quietly nod in solidarity, their hands drifting towards the various scrapes and bruises they gained on the rough trip. Chapter 106 – Realisations in the Dark Chapter 106 ¨C Realisations in the Dark ¡°Speaking of unsettling pitch ck,¡± Hester says, ncing ufortably out of their small haven of light. ¡°Does anyone else get a bad feeling from the darkness here? It¡¯spletely blocking light from spreading. I couldn¡¯t even see Emily approaching.¡± ¡°It¡¯s even worse than it was above at night,¡± Tom adds. ¡°And the numbness was horrible.¡± ¡°Wait, numbness?¡± Emily questions, everyone turning to him with questioning gazes. ¡°Yeah.¡± Tom nods. ¡°When I got down here, I lost all feeling: it was just like when I stuck my arm in that hole in the bottom of theke. If I hadn¡¯t practicallynded on Hester, I think I may have drowned. I regained feeling once I was in her light though.¡± Emily nces around, contemting his observation. ¡°I see. There¡¯s definitely something off about this darkness. I think it¡¯s alive,¡± she says, pointing at the small tendrils of ckness trying to force their way into the light before dissipating. ¡°I don¡¯t feel any malice though.¡± Her friends start inspecting the edge of the light as Juliana¡¯s shaking finally subsides and she pulls away from Emily, tapping her shoulder to ask to be put down. She shes Emily a tired, grateful smile as she steps away, which Ivor notices. ¡°You okay?¡± he signs with concern. ¡°Yeah, I just don¡¯t like water,¡± Juliana signs back. With Juliana out of her arms, Emily pulls out the Diver¡¯s tablet. ¡°It worked! We¡¯re on the same level as the Diver now,¡± she says, drawing her friends'' attention away from the darkness and igniting a spark of excitement. ¡°Really? Are we getting close to the end?¡± Tom asks hopefully. ¡°I¡¯m not certain, but I think so,¡± Emily answers, stepping out ahead of the group and pouring more mana into her light spell to grow the illuminated area, taking advantage of her increasing passive mana regeneration in the mana-dense darkness. ¡°It¡¯s still moving. We should get going. We¡¯ll only know how close we are when we cover some more ground and, hopefully, we can finally close the distance between us.¡± Nobody voices anyints as they set off into the unknown. They march on, a quiet buzz of conversation apanying their travel as Emily once again sets up her scouts to watch for enemies. She ces her boat in the water, and sends a spider out ahead of them, not trusting a bird¡¯s sight to prate the darkness. An hourter, as their excitement has started to die down, Emily calls for the group to halt as she spots the first mantolyc ahead. ¡°There¡¯s an enemy ahead,¡± she says with a vicious grin, holding out her hand. ¡°One moment.¡± The sleek ck form of the Whisper appears in her hand from a light mist of spatial mana. Her friends fall silent as they watch her raise the rifle to her shoulder and line up a shot. The spider ahead approaches the mantolyc, tapping its feet periodically to send back a clear image of the unmoving creature. Try to bait me now. Emily flicks the gun into silent and pulls the trigger. She racks the bolt the moment the bullet leaves the barrel, adjusts her aim, and fires again, before repeating a third time. All three bullets vanish into the ether as they hit the nket of darkness surrounding them, but Emily watches through her spider¡¯s strange vision as three chunks are blown from the mantolyc¡¯s shell, scattering chitin and flesh as its legs go limp. Emily sends her gun away with a triumphant grin and gestures for her friends to follow her. They proceed forward until they reach the still-twitching body of the grotesque creature. ¡°What is that?¡± Tom asks, stepping past Emily towards the body. Emily reaches out, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and yanking him backwards before he can get too close. ¡°Not a good idea,¡± Emily says before he can object, stepping forward in his ce. A few stepster, the monster¡¯s arm suddenlyshes out, aiming for Emily¡¯s chest. She easily deflects it with one w before slicing the limb in half with the other, pressing forward and doing the same to the other arm before it can attack. She nces over its body, quickly locating the still-surviving brain in its torso, only half destroyed by the bullet still buried inside it, and fires a w at it. The creature goespletely still as Emily turns back to Tom, whoseplexion has turned sickly white as her stares at the deadly scythes lying on the floor in front of him. ¡°It¡¯s a mantolyc, and they¡¯re persistent bastards. They¡¯re a third circle beast that¡¯s been encountered deep in The de, and in the south of the Lerus Isles. They have three brains, and the fact that it was still twitching was a sign I hadn¡¯t destroyed all of them with my first three shots,¡± Emily exins, turning back to the corpse to begin stripping it for materials. ¡°Never approach a living mantolyc. It will not end well for you.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Tom says with a nervous gulp. ¡°I got the idea when I didn¡¯t see it move till you cut its arm off.¡± Her friends gather around as Emily peels tes of armour off the beast. Tom offers to help, but she brushes him off, knowing he won¡¯t have the strength to separate the chitin and flesh without several incisions. Emily gathers the armour, scythes, and undamaged heart of the beast before leading her friends onwards. Several hourster, after a few encounters in the dark with some groups of second circle beasts, they pause to harvest a small patch of vothral weed they find growing along the riverbank. ¡°You know,¡± Hester says, dropping a stalk into Tom¡¯s bag and ncing out into the darkness. ¡°As unsettling as this darkness is, it¡¯s quite nice to be able to see my footing again.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Tom chuckles, pulling a stalk free as Ivor softens the ground around it. ¡°I¡¯ve actually managed to go a few hours without tripping on something.¡± ¡°It was inconvenient,¡± Juliana adds. ¡°But I quite liked it. It made some interesting patterns while we were walking.¡± ¡°Fair point,¡± Hester concedes. ¡°There isn¡¯t exactly much to look at down here. I think I¡¯d go insane if I was stuck in this darkness alone.¡± ¡°Insane enough to eat someone?¡± Emily asks with a sly grin, standing at the edge of their small zone of light staring into the darkness towards an approaching group of moles. ¡°Hmmm,¡± Hester hums as if in deep thought, before ncing towards her brother. ¡°Depends on how annoying the person is. I¡¯m sure I could make some great food from Tom.¡± ¡°Hey! I¡¯m sure you¡¯d taste better. There¡¯s more m-¡° Tom cuts off as he receives a swift boot to the shin, making everyoneugh at his misfortune. ¡°Thinking about it though, mages probably taste alright,¡± Dante says as theughter dies down. ¡°All other mana-infused flesh we¡¯ve eaten has been nice, so I can¡¯t see why humans would be any different.¡± As a debate on the health benefits of eating other mages starts, only Ivor and Juliana notice when Emily slips out into the darkness. She shuts her eyes, walking ahead whilepletely relying on her spatial awareness and the vision of her spider to track the moles she detected ahead as they rush towards her, diving into the ground to close the rest of the distance between them. Emily takes a deep breath, rooting her feet in ce and holding both arms out at her sides, releasing the ws¡¯ des and letting out their reels till their tips lightly caress the ground. The left de¡¯s tip vibrates, and the dark tunnel bursts into motion. Emily takes half a step to the side as a mole bursts from the ground below her, its ws pressed together to form a sharp point. A flick of her wrist shes her de through the beast¡¯s soft flesh, bisecting it as a dozen other moles rise from the ground around Emily. She twists as a mole lunges at her, wrapping a wire around its throat and shing two beasts behind it in one movement. Her des weave between the moles, avoiding their ws and rending their flesh with ease, taking apart their offensive and leaving the beasts crumpled in a pile of blood and guts within seconds. Emily lets out the breath she was holding as she draws her weapons back in before moving between the corpses, cutting out their ws to save the valuable ck iron. She returns to her friends soon after, stepping into the light to find them waiting with no weeds left in the ground. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Juliana asks with concern, confusing Emily for a moment before she nces down and sees the blood coating her robes. ¡°Oh, this isn¡¯t mine,¡± Emily says, casting cleanse and removing the red stters in an instant. ¡°I just dealt with some moles. If you guys are done here, let¡¯s get going.¡± They continue their trek through the dark, the shrinking distance with the Diver and the tick of Emily¡¯s pocket watch the only signs of time passing in the void. Emily deals with most of the fights, her friends struggling to target enemies in the pitch ck. The evening arrives with no visible changes to the tunnel around them, but Emily watches the time on The Clock and calls to set up camp at the usual time. They keep their sleeping bags close together, as the light from the barrier disc doesn¡¯t spread very far, and set up a campfire in the centre of them. ¡°How long till we catch up to the Diver?¡± Enzo asks as he takes a bite from a skewer of bug meat. ¡°I¡¯d say about a week to its current position with the pace we¡¯ve been going, but it still appears to be moving so I can¡¯t be sure,¡± Emily says, knowing it will vanish the following morning, hoping that signals it¡¯s reached its destination. ¡°Are you hoping to find something at the end?¡± Juliana asks, drawing out simrly curious gazes from their friends. ¡°Not really.¡± Emily shrugs, unwilling to tell them about her quests. ¡°I just wanted to sate my own curiosity.¡± Her friends'' shoulders slump slightly, but no one seems too disappointed. ¡°Haha,¡± Juliana giggles, leaning into Emily¡¯s side. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t expect anything else from you.¡± ¡°Leading the most sessful expedition into The de ever just to satisfy your curiosity. You really do never cease to amaze,¡± Enzo says in a tired tone, making Emily chuckle and roll her eyes. ¡°I try my best,¡± she responds, tossing her finished skewer on the fire. After the meal, everyone slips into their sleeping bags, leaving Emily and Juliana together by the fire, using its warmth to fend off the chill spreading through the tunnels. ¡°It¡¯s a lot colder down here,¡± Juliana says, pulling her robes tighter around herself as she presses closer to Emily to steal her warmth. ¡°It is.¡± Emily nods, poking the fire with her mana and guiding the rising smoke to form shapes. They fall into afortable silence for a while, neither of them doing anything but enjoying each other¡¯spany and watching the fire, until Emily finally breaks it. ¡°Hey, Jules... are you okay?¡± she asks carefully, her fingers tracing patterns along Juliana¡¯s shoulder and feeling them tense as her question falls. Juliana lets out a sigh, lifting her head from Emily¡¯s shoulder. Emily¡¯s heart rises into her throat at the separation, before rxing as Juliana lowers herself down toy her head in Emily¡¯sp. She remains silent for a few seconds, gathering her thoughts as Emily gently strokes her hair. ¡°Not really,¡± she finally says, freezing Emily¡¯s hand in ce. ¡°I really didn¡¯t want to go underwater, especially not being pulled around by a strong current like that.¡± She starts shaking again, jolting Emily back into motion, her fingers weaving in a calming rhythm across Juliana¡¯s scalp. ¡°I keep thinking that I¡¯ll probably need to do something simr to get out again, and whenever I do it starts feeling hard to breathe,¡± Juliana whispers, her hand rising up from inside her robes to sp onto Emily¡¯s thigh forfort. ¡°But I hate feeling like a burden. I came on this expedition because I wanted to spend time with you. I wanted to see what it was about this ce that had you so excited toe back. But ever since arriving here, I¡¯ve just felt useless.¡± Emily opens her mouth to try andfort her, but pauses as Juliana continues, turning her head to gaze into Emily¡¯s eyes. ¡°You slip away to deal with attacking beasts when you think no one¡¯s watching. You went into a dungeon alone because you thought we may have to fight on our own. You have a machine or spell prepared for every situation we run into, and if you don¡¯t you make one within hours. It¡¯s not helpful for you to have us here. We aren¡¯t providing anything you can¡¯t do better alone. You don¡¯t need us,¡± Juliana says, her voice getting weaker as tears form in her eyes, and her words getting faster as they slice away at Emily¡¯s heart, the fresh seed of hope that she has only just began to nurture turning rotten and poisoning each word. ¡°On our first night in The de, I thought I found something I could do. When we talked about you leaving, you looked so sad, and angry, and confused! It hurt to see you like that, but, as much as I hate myself for it, I also felt hopeful.¡± Tears roll down Juliana¡¯s cheeks as she turns her gaze away, shame bubbling up in her chest as her words continue to spill out. Emily bites her lip at mention of the all too familiar form of guilty self-loathing, sucking in the blood that flows out so it doesn¡¯t fall on Juliana. ¡°As horrible as it is, I thought I¡¯d finally found what you need. Found your one weakness that made you need someone else. Need me. But, even then, you didn¡¯t. The next day you put your walls back up and kept going as normal, and now you¡¯ve spent more time on this tripforting me than I have you. I know you¡¯re still hurting inside. I know you brought us all along because you feel lonely, even if you refuse to admit it. But, I just don¡¯t know what to say. I don¡¯t know when the right moment to talk to you is when you always look so brave and strong, and I just don¡¯t want to be the one to ruin that.¡± Juliana falls silent, her body still, without a single quiver, as she turns her tearful face back up to look at Emily. She breaks into a sad smile, a mix of eptance and grief settled in her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m not strong enough, Emi. Not just as a mage, but as a person.¡± Juliana reaches up, brushing a tear from Emily¡¯s cheek and wrapping her arms around her neck, pulling herself up to sit in Emily¡¯sp. ¡°I love you, Emi. And I do think you love me. But you don¡¯t need me. You need an equal. A partner. Someone who¡¯ll jump into the fires of hell with you when they catch your curiosity.¡± Despite herself, Emily can¡¯t help the chuckle that spills from her lips along with fresh tears. She opens her mouth to try and respond, to refute the words she knows to be true, but Juliana ces a finger on her lips, noticing the torn edges and gently running her finger along them before pulling Emily into a hug. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I don¡¯t need you tofort me, for once. I know you realised I couldn¡¯t keep up with you ages ago, you¡¯re far too smart not to have, but I guess it just took me a while.¡± Emily silently cries into Juliana¡¯s shoulder for a while, the confusing mixture of guilt, anger, sadness, and longing slowly blending into a muted sense of eptance as she focuses on the tears soaking her own shoulder in turn. After a few minutes, the two pull apart, each running a hand over the other¡¯s cheek, wiping away the tears. ¡°I love you, Jules.¡± ¡°I love you too, Emi.¡± Chapter 107 – The Abyss Chapter 107 ¨C The Abyss The next few days pass in a blur for Emily, an odd sense of disconnect following her every move as Juliana¡¯s words echo in her mind. Early the next day, the Diver vanishes from the tablet¡¯s disy, leaving a single dot floating alone in the darkness. Emily reassures her friends that it¡¯s a good sign and that she can remember the location it vanished in, keeping them calm as they continue descending into the darkness. They run into several groups of beasts, including a few more mantolyc, and a few third circle screamers and lightning eels that Emily eagerly adds to their growing collection of body parts. The tunnels continue with the same twistingbyrinthine structure as the level above, and they even find a few pitch-ckkes that Emily dives into to look for further routes down, but she only finds creatures'' dwellings dug into the riverbeds, and never a deeper path. Emily spends much of her time as they travel with her attention split between her cores. Part of her cortex focuses on walking, fighting, and maintaining her various detection spells and machines: the other part spends most of its energy observing her friends, keeping at bay the gnawing sense of loneliness building in her heart. She starts to notice details and differences in their behaviours. Tom¡¯s gaze constantly roams the group, bing wary when he looks at Dante and Enzo, guilty when he nces back at Ivor, and taking on a mixture of respect and caution when he looks at Emily. He starts a conversation whenever he notices the energy or mood of the group dropping, doing his best to keep up morale as Emily often charges on ahead, inattentive to the emotional needs of her team. Ivor trails at the back of the group, not interacting with anyone much, other than at mealtimes when he asionally joins in with the conversation. His mood noticeably lifts when Tom struggles to form a few signs to ask him a question. Juliana flinches every time a noise sounds off in the distance. She winces every time Emily confirms enemy contact. She frowns every time Emily draws her des. Her reactions add to the bubbling guilt in Emily¡¯s stomach that only recedes when they settle down together for meals, and Juliana seems to rx ande to life again. I knew she didn¡¯t like fighting, but I hadn¡¯t realised just how ufortable she¡¯s been. No, that¡¯s not true. I noticed but I chose to ignore the problem by doing things like taking the fights where she can¡¯t see them. I just didn¡¯t want to ept the truth. The further they sink into the shadows, the more Emily¡¯s bitterness grows as she realises that she hasn¡¯t paid that much attention to her friends since the expedition started, her goal far more important to her. To make things worse, even after noticing their difort and efforts to make up for her shorings as a leader, she recognises her unwavering desire to finish her quest and find The Abyss hasn¡¯t faded, but instead grown stronger as they approach the point where the Diver vanished. Late afternoon, on the eighth day in the dark, Emily takes back all the processing power being used to observe her friends, leaving only a shred of focus on watching Juliana, and focuses it on the path ahead. At first, she doesn¡¯t hold much hope for the Diver¡¯s disappearance, assuming it to have run into a third circle beast, but the closer they get, the more oddities she notices that suggest otherwise. First, the spider detects a low rumbling vibration filling the cave, too low to be audible until they get closer, where Emily recognises the sound of running water growing louder. Second, the shifting darkness around them slowly starts to shudder, growing more active, more aggressive, wing away at their haven of light and forcing Emily to pour more mana into her light spell to keep them illuminated. And finally, the mostpelling piece of evidence that they¡¯re approaching a new revtion is the mounting pressure Emily begins to feel and recognise, the air around them growing denser as thick mana wraps around them. Her friends start to show signs of distress, slowing down and struggling slightly to keep walking as if pushing against immense resistance with every step. This feels like the Mandrago Patriarch¡¯s aura, but worse. Is The Abyss a fourth circle phenomenon? Or, is there a strong fourth circle creature ahead? Or both. Excitement rises in Emily¡¯s gut as they push forward, the rumble of flowing water growing louder and louder in the tunnel. ¡°What is that?¡± Hester asks as she forces herself to ce one foot in front of the other. ¡°I think,¡± Emily says, licking her lips with anticipation. ¡°It¡¯s our destination.¡± Chatter breaks out among the group, but Emily barely listens to them, staring off into the darkness with intense fervour as her hand rises to rest on The Clock¡¯s pouch. Either that, or we¡¯re approaching a very dangerous monster. The river next to them quickly starts to grow choppy, the smooth surface being broken for the first time by the current, bubbling up as Emily removes her boat, sending it into storage before continuing forward. With each advancing step, the unnatural darkness around them shifts, condensing and lowering itself bit by bit to the ground until Emily¡¯s light fills the whole tunnel, except for a swirlingyer of darkness that nkets the floor and water, a few inches thick. Emily pauses, signalling for her friends to stop as theyment on the loss of feeling in their feet, before crouching down to take a closer look, also feeling an odd, buzzing numbness in her feet that are now engulfed in darkness despite their magical lights trying to keep it at bay. I guess this is the feeling Tom mentioned. It¡¯s concentrated enough to affect me too now. ¡°Finally, we can see again,¡± Tom mutters behind her, receiving several grunts of agreement from the others as Emily takes out a light pack and activates it, lowering it into the thick darkness covering the ground. The magical light vanishes the second it touches the swirlingyer of ck, tendrils of shadows reaching up and swallowing the light it emits the moment ites into contact, numbing Emily¡¯s fingers as they lick against them. ¡°We should feel lucky the darkness hasn¡¯t been this concentrated the whole time,¡± Emily says, staring at the light pack as she pulls it free of the darkness¡¯ hold. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have been able to see at all: we probably wouldn¡¯t be able to feel much either.¡± Tom shivers slightly at the unnatural sight and nods his agreement, being the only one in the group to have experienced the total loss of feeling. Emily stands back up and gestures for everyone to follow her. The tunnel twists a few more times, now something Emily can easily tell at a nce with her vision ahead clear, and they follow it as the rumbling grows louder, building to an overwhelming level, blocking out any conversation behind her as they proceed. They follow the tunnel around onest bend before their destinationes into sight, and Emily lets out a gasp of astonishment. The tunnel opens up, the river falls away, and everyone freezes on the spot as they stare out into the gaping nothingness before them. ¡°The Abyss,¡± Emily mutters quietly under her breath, the sound quickly being washed away by the crescendo of falling water. Standing before them is a vast cavern, spanning hundreds of metres. The roof is lined with dozens of crystal formations releasing light into the dim space, struggling to brighten the room. The walls are made of ck and grey rock, with holes randomly formed at varying heights, all pouring water out into the gaping hole in the centre. There are a few narrow pathways connecting some of the nearby holes, but the rest of the space is without a floor. Looking out into the vast space, Emily sees darkness cascading down with the water, before pooling to form a shifting, liquidyer of shadows a short drop below her. She can¡¯t see a single detail past the writhing darkness and, as she moves closer to the edge to gaze down, a foreboding sense of dread fills her gut. She feels powerful mana emanating from The Abyss and, upon closer inspection, Emily recognises it as a mix of water, darkness, ice, and death, with death ying on her nerves far more than she ever expected. I can¡¯t go down there. I¡¯ll die for certain if I try right now. As this thought rises to the forefront of her mind unbidden, a system notification appears before her eyes. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Chain-Questpleted: The Abyss: Everything Flows To [The Abyss: Everything Flows To] [Rank:] D [Description:] You¡¯ve reached the magical underbelly of The de, The Crystal Waters. Now discover where The Waters end. Requirements: -Find the destination of The Crystal Waters¡¯ flow (Complete) Rewards: -Skill: Flow (passive) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Chain-Quest generated: The Abyss: Gaze Into [The Abyss: Gaze Into] [Rank:] B [Description:] You¡¯ve found The Abyss, the culmination of The de¡¯s darkness. Now risk a journey into it. Requirements: -Enter The Abyss (Not Complete) Rewards: -Chain-Quest: The Abyss: Gazes Back _____ A shiver runs down Emily¡¯s spine as muscle memory she never had flows into her body along with her new skill. Ignoring it for now, she frowns at the next quest in the line. This quest sucks. Comparing the details to her previous quests, Emily almost lets out a groan in frustration. The rank has jumped two levels, and it¡¯s very simple toplete, but there isn¡¯t actually a reward. She takes a deep breath, her eyes narrowing as her mind starts breaking down the information provided to her. The system hasn¡¯t given me a useless quest so far, why would it now? Assume this quest is here for a reason. What is it? A warning? Reading over the information again, and ncing down into the ominous pit before her, a clear picture starts to form in Emily¡¯s mind. None of my other chain quests have told me the next step before I got to it, but this one does. Gazes back. It¡¯s telling me that if I go down there something will notice me. And now, if I try using a time loop to have a quick look, the quest willplete and I¡¯ll have tomit to going in and out before I leave so I don¡¯t risk the system punishing me for iming the quest and then undoing the requirement. Do I really have to leave having only got this far? Her analysis of the quest blends with her instinct to avoid the gaping chasm and, despite her reluctance, she decides to turn back for now. A mixture of disappointment and relief churns in Emily¡¯s chest as she settles on the decision, cleansing the odd feeling of disquiet that bubbles in her stomach when she considers staying for longer. ¡°It¡¯s incredible,¡± she finally hears Hester say behind her, practically shouting, having shut out her friends the moment The Abyss came into view. ¡°It¡¯s terrifying,¡± Tom adds, clearly unnerved. ¡°What do you think¡¯s down there?¡± ¡°No clue.¡± Enzo joins in. ¡°But I get a bad feeling when I look at it. The mana it¡¯s leaking feels almost suffocating.¡± Emily looks back at her friends, seeing all of them with varying levels of stress etched on their faces, from gritted teeth to sweat dripping down their brows, all avoiding stepping up to join her at the edge of the path. Juliana, in particr, is drainedpletely white, a fearful look in her eyes as they remain fixed on the gaping maw of darkness. With a small sigh, Emily steps towards her and pulls her into a hug, breaking her gaze away from the hole. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s down there, and I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to find out for now,¡± Emily says, a flicker of mana flowing through her voice to make sure her friends all hear her over the crash of falling water. They immediately look at her with a mixture of relief and disbelief, her words seeming more shocking to them than the magical phenomena right in front of them. ¡°You¡¯re turning back?¡± Juliana asks from within her arms. ¡°Yeah. I also get a bad feeling when I look down there, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to go down yet.¡± ¡°Yet?¡± Dante questions. ¡°Yeah, yet. I think I¡¯lle back again once I¡¯m fourth circle, but for now, this is far enough.¡± ¡°Ha, once you¡¯re fourth circle,¡± heughs, before pausing with a thoughtful look. ¡°Actually, I can¡¯t see you not reaching fourth circle.¡± Emily chuckles as her friends nod along, all agreeing with his judgement. ¡°Thanks for the vote of confidence,¡± she says, before looking back across the cavern, pulling a bird from her storage and sending it out to float over The Abyss. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Hester asks curiously, watching Emily¡¯s bird flutter away. ¡°Looking for our way out,¡± Emily says as she flies the bird to the closest hole in the wall. ¡°One of those other tunnels must have a viable path out of here. At least, I hope they do.¡± ¡°Hope?¡± Tom questions. ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t exactly been here before,¡± Emily responds with a shrug. ¡°This may take a while. I can take you guys away from this area to wait if you want, it¡¯s clearly not veryfortable.¡± Her friends nce between each other, quicklying to a silent agreement. ¡°Yes please,¡± Hester answers for them, before continuing with a grin. ¡°What are you going to call this area by the way? You are the first to discover it.¡± Emily smiles, ncing over the edge once more as she fills her throat with mana. ¡°The Abyss,¡± she says, her voice echoing out and filling the space, reverberating off of every surface and slowly fading into a chilling whisper. *** Emily walks her friends back through the tunnel the way they came, sticking with them until they¡¯ve moved far enough to leave the influence of The Abyss, lifting the weight from their shoulders. She sets up the array disc for them before leaving and heading back to The Abyss¡¯ edge alone. As she arrives back in the unsettling cavern, she sits down and sends out four birds to scan the nearby streams of falling water for traversable paths. While they¡¯re doing their work, Emily pulls up her system to have a look at her new skill. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Flow (passive)] User is a master of their own flow and can read that of others. -Grants an instinctual understanding of smooth movement. _____ What does smooth movement mean? I thought I already had perfect control over my body. She nces down at her perfectly stationary form, not a single muscle twitching without her intent. But, I definitely felt something when I got the skill. ¡°Ah well. Only one way to find out,¡± she mutters, standing up. Emily closes her eyes, using her spatial awareness to form a near-perfect mental image of the space around her. She pictures goblins climbing out through the walls and floor to attack her. She takes a deep breath and blurs into motion. Her right arm flicks out, a de detaching from her w and flying in a straight line to the first imaginary enemy. It sails through the goblin¡¯s skull, cutting nothing but air and dispersing the first target in her mind. The others rush to close in on her, but Emily barely moves. Her arm retracts quickly in a downward sweeping motion, pulling the de back in an arc under her as she reels it in until it sails past her leg without catching the floor. Her hand locks onto the Spitter¡¯s handle on the way past, sliding it from its holster without resistance. Emily turns a full one-eighty, following the de around and raising the gun to point at a third goblin as the de shoots away from her, its reel unravelling to let it cut through the second. She pulls the trigger, nothing happening due to the gun being in safe, and the goblin¡¯s image fades from her mind. With barely a thought, Emily¡¯s left hand quickly begins shing through hand signs as she twists, pulling the trigger twice more to pick off the next two closest goblins, clearing a small gap. The w¡¯s de follows her rotation, gaining speed as it hits no resistance. Her left hand stops, the moment before the de makes contact with another illusory goblin, two fingers pointed a fraction ahead of the de. A glistening green magic circle forms and, the moment the de touches it, the sharp piece of metal rockets sideways, carving a line through the goblins. A grin creeps its way onto Emily¡¯s face as she stops rotating, the Spitter fading from her hand as she sends it into her storage and stretches her hand out, fingers apart and waiting. The wire of the de wraps around her body, gaining speed as it gets closer to her, ripping apart all the enemies she¡¯s pictured. Before the de can get close enough to catch her though, Emily¡¯s outstretched fingers move, snapping together with a crackle of machina. The de stops, held between her thumb and middle finger, rooted in ce by the fading electricity. She flicks the de back, letting it unravel and retract back into its housing as she takes a seat again, the satisfied grin never leaving her face as she takes out and slides the Spitter back into ce. ¡°This skill¡¯s amazing,¡± she mutters. It feels like my magic and weapons are an extension of my body. I didn¡¯t even need to think about cing that magic circle in the right ce, I just knew where my de would be when I finished casting. Not to mention grabbing the Spitter without breaking my attack with my w: I¡¯ve never managed to get the transition between weapons down that smoothly before. ¡°Is that mastering my own flow? I guess I can¡¯t test reading others without real opponents,¡± Emily says to herself, standing up and looking at one of her birds hovering before her first potential path. ¡°But even with just that, this skill was worthing here for.¡± Chapter 108 – Endless Search Chapter 108 ¨C Endless Search While Emily tests out her new skill, her birds assess the nearby streams of water pouring from the walls. Most of the falling torrents stem from small holes that theypletely fill, but a few are simr tunnels to the one they arrived through, with a river running through the centre and banks on either side. Emily¡¯s focus narrows on one such tunnel as she steps up to the edge of The Abyss. She pulls out The Clock, checking the exact time, before she steps out into thin air. An invisible tform forms beneath her foot with the help of the Air Walker, quivering slightly as Emily pours extra mana into the artefact to resist the fluctuating mana being drawn into the hole below. She walks through the air, rising up towards the tunnel entrance. Her birds flutter over, as she steps onto solid ground again,nding on her shoulders and head so she can store them again as she sets off down the tunnel. After tucking them all away, Emily breaks out into a sprint, lightning wrapping her legs and wind pushing her forwards as she races upstream relying purely on her spatial awareness to navigate in the dark. An hourter, not finding a single enemy, shees across a split in the path. It continues in two directions, so Emily slows down to a walk and sends a bird down one path as she takes the other. She maintains the connection with the bird on the other path for a short while, until the tunnels deviate, moving too far apart and breaking her link. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue in slight irritation, restarting her sprint. ¡°This is going to take a lot of resets. I should work on a third circle speed spell.¡± Emily sets her secondary cores to work and follows the river upstream, passing several splits and beasts as she goes, ignoring thetter and checking The Clock periodically. Almost exactly twenty-four hours after leaving The Abyss, she slides to a halt and looks around the bare cavern she has reached after turning back from several dead ends. She nces at the slowly moving pool in the centre, being filled by porous holes in the cavern walls, and quickly drops her boat in, using its scan to check the bottom for abnormalities. Finding nothing, she squeezes the button on The Clock, sending herself back to the ominous pit of darkness. *** Emily repeats her actions again: walking through the air to reach her target tunnel, wrapping herself in several second circle speed-enhancing spells, and rushing upstream, covering far more ground than her friends could in a day. She follows the same path asst time, taking the alternative route at the two-way junction that led her to the cavern, aiming to fill out her quickly forming mental map. This time as The Clock hits twenty-four hours she finds herself in a normal stretch of tunnel with no end in sight. ¡°Not this route,¡± she mutters, rewinding time once again. *** Emily falls into a monotonous pattern, slowly mapping more routes through her chosen tunnel. Most paths turn out to be dead ends, where she finds water flowing in through small cracks that she could never hope to fit through, stretching far enough into the rock to leave her detection range whilst remaining narrow. Each time she hits one, she turns back and returns to thest split, ruling out several options in less than twenty-four hours, much to her relief. Four perceived days into her task, Emily finishes a new spell: lightning step. It follows the same principle as wind rush, the second circle wind spell that she¡¯s been using, wrapping her legs in the chosen element. But, unlike her second circle speed enhancements, it¡¯s almostpletely contained. As she runs, other than a few tendrils singeing the floor and causing a sizzling crackle with each step, all of the power is focused internally on increasing her speed. However, due to the spell¡¯s mana cost being much higher than that of its two second circle predecessors, Emily notices her mana slowly draining as she moves. Luckily, she bnces out the loss by pulling from her machina reserves, doubling her mana regeneration speed since both reserves refill at the same pace regardless of the other, allowing her to maintain the spell the whole time. Lightning step helps her cover more distance with each reset, but it still takes her weeks of frozen time toe to the conclusion that the first tunnel leads nowhere. ¡°One tunnel down,¡± Emily mutters, looking over the nearby walls from her abyssal perch. ¡°Goddess knows how many more to go.¡± She lets out a small sigh, pulling up the system window of her two new spells to raise her mood. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Lightning Step] [Circle:] Third [Cost:] 600 Mana/minute [Description:] Charge the caster¡¯s legs with lightning to enhance agility. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Air Walk] [Circle:] Third [Cost:] 8 Mana/step [Description:] Solidify the air under the caster¡¯s feet to allow them to walk freely. _____ ¡°It took a while, but at least I can give Jules the Air Walker now.¡± Her eyes narrow as she looks at the two spells side by side. I wonder if I couldbine these? It would be convenient to only have to cast one movement spell inbat. I¡¯ll have to be careful not to make it tooplicated though. I¡¯m already pushing it by only using two threads for air walk: it requires more fine control than any of my other spells just to use it normally. Setting her secondary cores the challenge, Emily turns her attention to the birds fluttering between the nearby streams of water. ¡°It¡¯s kind of strange that there aren¡¯t any beasts here. I would have thought there¡¯d be something thriving in this dense mana,¡± she mumbles, ncing at her stats with a lopsided grin. ¡°Well, other than me.¡± ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 20 (26), Dexterity 64 (67), Agility 50 > 51 (56), Vitality 17 (22), Intelligence 120 > 123 [Health:] 270/270 [Stamina:] 530/530 [Mana:] 16605/16605 [Machina:] 16605/16605 _____ My cultivation has been noticeably faster since we came down into this deepyer. It¡¯s a shame none of these loops are adding to it. Maybe I should dy by a little bit of real-time before we leave... A flicker of motion below catches her eye, and her gaze instantly snaps down to rest on the swirling liquid darkness below. However, as her eyes scan across the shifting surface, she can¡¯t spot anything out of the ordinary, sending a shiver down her spine. ¡°Maybe a little further away from this hole...¡± Her contemtion is interrupted by one of her birds finding a second possible path. A glittering green magic circle forms beneath her feet as Emily calls back her birds, joined by a crackling blue weaving of runes surrounding her legs. Both circles finish forming and pulse with power as thest birdes to rest in her storage. Emily flexes her legs, springing forward, vanishing and reappearing in the middle of the air, suspended above The Abyss. She ms into an invisible barrier of air, the green runes around her pulsing,ing to an immediate stop as her legspress before firing her down at an angle towards the new tunnel. She flies through the mouth of the tunnel, kicking off the wall and smoothlynding on the ground in a sprint, maintaining her momentum as she treks upstream once again. *** Time drags by in frozen time as Emily checks tunnel after tunnel, slowly moving along the cavern walls. She runs past dozens of mana crystal veins, and hundreds of herb patches, ignoring them all in pursuit of an exit. A few of the third circle beasts she sprints past try to stop her, but the only one that seeds is a screamer she runs into in a narrow hallway without water that branches off from a tunnel with a flowing stream. The harsh screech that hits her as she approaches it hurts Emily enough, making her ears bleed despite her earrings, that she stops just to blow the offending creature to pieces with a few well-ced shots from the Whisper on full power. As Emily¡¯s beginning to lose hope, the monotony of her task wearing on her patience, she arrives in a cavern half a day into a tunnel. She pauses as she steps in, her keen ears immediately alerting her that something in the room is off. I only hear flowing water behind me. Curious, she sends an orb of light into the air, pouring arge amount of mana into it to force back the darkness and illuminate the space. The cavern is wide and open, surroundedpletely by solid walls, other than the path Emily has entered through. The ceiling is bare, with only a few stctites reaching down, and in the centre of the room, ringed by a thin walkway of stone, is a still, ckke. Emily¡¯s eyes light up with anticipation as she summons her boat to her hand. ¡°Please have an underwater path out,¡± she mutters, lowering the machine to the water. However, as soon as the metal disturbs the surface, Emily¡¯s instincts scream, and she feels a fluctuation of mana below the surface. Reacting quickly, she pulls away her hand and kicks back, narrowly escaping a whipping ck tendril of water that slices through the air where her head has just been. Emily drops into a crouch as the surface of theke bubbles and bursts. Tens of thick, ck tentacles reach up from the depths, swaying in the air as the water bends, rising up with them to double the number of limbs. At a quick nce, Emily counts over a hundred swaying limbs, filling the room and angling to strike her. ¡°Now that,¡± Emily mutters as a flood of crackling, sky-blue runes flow from her. ¡°Is a titan of the deep.¡± Both of them burst into motion at the same time. Emily sprints sideways as a flesh tentacle ms into the floor, narrowly missing her and cracking the stone it impacts. Two tentacles of water follow the flesh closely, redirecting to try to catch Emily as she runs away, her spells still forming. They both burst harmlessly against the rocks, shaking the ground beneath Emily¡¯s feet and covering her in a cold spray as they disperse. The architeshes out with more of its limbs aiming both at Emily and ahead of her. She grins as magic and muscle fall towards her, dropping into a slide to avoid an arcing horizontal swipe that brushes against her chest on the way past, sucking out a drop of her mana during the brief contact, before she springs off her palm to leap over a lower sweep and continue her sprint. Both of them move so quickly that Emily circles the entire room with tentacles shattering the ground behind her before her first spell finishes casting. What a great chance to test my new masterpiece. Filled with excitement, and with a manic grin fixed on her face, Emily pops the spikes out of her boots, digging her heels in and quicklying to a halt as she twists to face an approaching tentacle. She bends her legs, her muscles tense as a snake ready to strike as the blend of blue and green runes around her legs pulse, a new spell activating. She shes forward, leaping off the floor to meet the tentacle mid-air in a twisting kick. Her leg meets flesh with force and magic, blowing away a chunk of inky blood and muscle in a crackling ze of lightning, overpowering the beast''s mana draining spell with ease. The tentacle drops into the water, injured, and Emily starts to fall with it. Before another tentacle can bat her out of the air, or worse, catch her, Emily nts her foot on solid air and leaps up again. She kicks off the air twice more to dodge tendrils of water, visible streaks of lightning shing down her legs and growing thicker with each step, before meeting another physical tentacle. This time, instead of taking out a chunk, her kick rips the tentacle in half, sending electricity down into the water and draining the streaks condensing around her legs. ¡°KRAAAA,¡± a gargled screech emanates from the water, shaking the cavern. ¡°We¡¯re just getting started,¡± Emily says as she leaps off the air again, building up the charge in her legs once more. As she rips another tentacle to pieces, all the others pull back into the water, leaving only those formed from water to continue trying to catch her. She dances through the air, twisting and flipping to avoid each strike, never letting the water touch her as the lightning around her legs builds into a violently crackling mass. Emily bounces off the walls, stctites, and even the surface of some of the watery tentacles, using her magic to avoid touching them, as she waits for the beast to make its next move. After a few seconds of failing to touch Emily with its magic, the titan of the deep pushes apart the water¡¯s surface with eight thick tentacles, each twice the width of a person. Emilynds on the wall as they rise, hesitating for a fraction of a second and ncing up at her other prepared spells, hiding among the stctites waiting to be unleashed. Hmm. Not yet. I still have another feature of sky step to test. Her gaze falls back to the swaying tentacles as she kicks off the wall to meet them. Chapter 109 – A Way Out Chapter 109 ¨C A Way Out Emily flies into the centre of the cavern, surrounded on all sides by a formation of flesh and water. She twists to ce her feet before her as the archite reacts quickly,shing out with surprising speed with its thick limbs. Emily nts her feet on thin air, but instead of pushing off an invisible tform like before, this time the violently crackling lightning around her legs pours into it as she dodges, leaving a visible mass of buzzing electricity in her wake. The tentacle aiming for Emily swipes through the residual lightning instead, twitching and smoking as it¡¯s scorched by the high voltage. The water below shakes as the beast lets out a low, rumbling growl of anger, but Emily barely notices. Her focus remains on the threat surrounding her as she feels another mass of flesh sailing towards her following close behind the other. However, as she nts her foot on the air and kicks herself sideways to evade it, leaving some of her charge behind once again, she nces back and doesn¡¯t see a thing. Before she can question her senses though, she notices the first tentacle¡¯s shadow writhing as a dark, smokey mass separates from it, whipping up from the water¡¯s surface to slice through her second fizzling aerial footstep. The moment it makes contact, the mass solidifies, the blurred edges condensing to reveal another tentacle. Emily nces at the other tentacles shifting as they try to surround her and only counts six. It¡¯s hiding some of its tentacles in the shadows of the others. How interesting. I wouldn¡¯t have known to dodge that if it weren¡¯t for my spatial awareness. Carefully watching for vanishing tentacles, Emily dances through the air once more, ying a dangerous game as she weaves between the powerful striking limbs. The beast quickly realises the futility of its attempts to catch her with the slower tendrils of water, opting to drop the constructs and make do withunching fast-moving torrents of water at her instead. Emily alternates between evasion and building charge, leaving sparking footsteps behind in the path of the tentacles, and mming into them with a full-force kick to blow the limbs to pieces, enjoying her new spell. Each time a tentacle is destroyed, pulverised with a thunderous crash as Emily discharges most of the sma coating her legs, it sinks below the surface before rising again like new a few momentster. After a few minutes of ying with the beast, Emily finds it increasingly easier to read the titan¡¯s next move and decides it¡¯s time to end her fun, all her tests nowpleted. She stops discharging her legs, but continues to dodge without dealing any blows as she moves around the room in a hard-to-read pattern, forcing the archite to spread its tentacles as it tries to stop her. The moment she sees a clear gap opening near the centre of theke, where she has noticed the tentacles reacting fastest to defend when she approaches, she releases the spells waiting in the ceiling. Three beams of sma streak down through the battlefield, vaporising the tentacles they cut through and mming into the centre of the water, sending a cloud of steam into the air as the water sh boils. A pained screech fills the cavern as Emily herself ms off the roof, discharging one of her legs with a loud thunderp and sending herself rocketing down into the source of the screech, drawing a solid line of light as lightning trails behind her. She tucks forward and spins head over heels as she falls, building up momentum in her outstretched leg, still crackling with power. She cuts with ease through the remaining water that tries to form into a shield to defend the beast, the speed of her assault making it impossible for the archite to deploy its other tentacles before her foot connects with flesh. A thunderous roar shakes the cavern as Emily cuts through the giant beast, destroying all three of its hearts in one go and falling through to hit thekebed beneath. Her leg cracks as she impacts the rock, her bones breaking under the force of her own blow as the rocks shatter, but she barely notices, her body flooded with adrenaline and excitement from the battle. The archite above her doesn¡¯t have a chance to let out a sound as it twitches, lightning still ravaging its innards, before it goes limp. Emily releases a satisfied sigh as she looks at the giant corpse surrounding her from inside the hole she has bored through it. That was incredible! Sky step is so much more effective than I could ever have hoped. It¡¯s a shame it requires three dedicated threads to control, but it was a good idea to make it abat spell: especially when considering that the only time I¡¯ll have enough mana regeneration to use a third circle spell constantly is when I¡¯m in a mana-dense region. Using movement to build up charge was a good idea too, though maybe turning my own body into the medium for a ritual spell was a bit stupid. It gives the spell some amazing destructive power, but maybe a little too much. If I had forgotten the limiters on mana build-up, I would have blown my legs off. She winces, activating all of her injectors as she lifts her leg from the hole she¡¯s created, surrounded by a web of cracks, but her attention is quickly stolen from her healing by the sound of rushing water. Without a thought, she sends out a pulse of earthen detection to check thekebed for the source. She finds exactly what she was looking for, a hole in the middle of theke a few metres away from her, buried beneath the archite. The hole is bubbling with water, flowing up to refill theke Emily evaporated and seeping through the giant corpse, mixing with its inky blood and swallowing herpletely. Jackpot! Please lead back to the upperyer. Pulling out her Gills and pressing them to her face, Emily swims out of the centre of the corpse and around to the side, where she sees the edge of the hole under the light of a new orb of light, thest having been cancelled as she performed her finishing blow. Only a sliver of the tunnel is visible, so Emily swims forward, pushing against the surprisingly gentle current flowing out of the opening which is partially blocked by the smooth ck flesh of Emily¡¯s vanquished foe. She fails to find purchase on the slippery body so, with a small frown, she pulls back and casts several spells, conjuring a strong current to shunt the corpse aside. With the hole clear, Emily cancels her spells, letting the three blue magic circles behind her disperse with the current, and swims down. She ignores the aching pain in her leg and sinks into the hole that¡¯s wide enough to fit three people at a time while dropping straight down into the distance. Emily swims down in a small bubble of light for a few moments before the tunnel starts to curve, slowly levelling out and continuing in the opposite direction of The Abyss. After a few minutes, shees across a small hole in the tunnel wall. She pauses, floating in the middle of the water and staring at it for a moment before a bundle of ck tentacles bursts out. Emily calmly snatches the small archite, letting its tentacles wrap around her arms and squeeze, fruitlessly trying to crush her. Looks like this is where it was storing its young. The small creature¡¯s main body appears to be the size of her fist, so Emily simply squeezes, crushing the life out of it. She drops the corpse and pours mana into the orb of light floating behind her, revealing dozens of simr beasts ahead, some slightlyrger, oozing from the walls. Unconcerned, Emily casts arc, forming arge ball of lightning in front of her before the creatures can reach her. Power flows out of the orb, filling the water with uncontrolled charge and stunning everything in an instant, leaving everything but Emily in a twitching mess. She calmly swims on, the crackling orb floating along behind her until she¡¯s past the nest. She doesn¡¯t run into a single creature after that and, a few minutester, the tunnel curves up again. Emily follows it, rising towards clearer water far above, bursting from the surface in a small cave with glittering white crystals overhead, mist covering the floor, and only a single path out, away from The Abyss. ¡°Finally!¡± Emily cheers with glee, rxing and floating on her back as relief washes over her. After enjoying the feeling of satisfaction for a few moments, Emily reaches down for her belt, a familiar blend of several-month-old emotions returning to her heart as she considers meeting her friends again, and her hand slips into The Clock¡¯s pouch. ¡°At least I think I can make this bearable for Jules now,¡± she mutters bitterly as she turns back time. *** Emily turns away from The Abyss, heading back through the cave to reunite with her friends. Before she reaches them or their detection range, she settles down in the pitch-ck and meditates to create a slightly more reasonable time frame for finding an exit. A few dayster, she steps into the sound barrier around her friends¡¯ temporary encampment, looking forward to seeing them again. ¡°I¡¯ve found an exit,¡± Emily says the moment she sees them huddled around a campfire, receiving looks of surprise and relief. ¡°Already?¡± Enzo questions dubiously. ¡°That was fast.¡± His words give Emily a strange sense of dissonance, her feeling of separation from before the time looping back in full force and only growing as she creases her brow in frustration. Why does our differing perception of our time apart get to me so much? I¡¯ve never cared about spending time in frozen time before, why is it any different now? Why do I feel so¡­ distant? ¡°Yep,¡± Emily says ufortably, quickly shifting into a cold mask. ¡°There¡¯s another underwater tunnel that links back to the level above us. It¡¯s much calmer though. And wider. It¡¯s only a few days walk from here.¡± She doesn¡¯t miss Juliana flinching in response to news of more swimming, but she simply shes her a reassuring smile, thinking about the new idea that came to her in frozen time. Juliana seems to rx slightly, smiling back and helping to dull some of Emily¡¯s difort. ¡°What are we waiting for?¡± Dante asks, interrupting their silent exchange and standing up. ¡°Let¡¯s get going.¡± The group gather themselves and set off back towards The Abyss. It doesn¡¯t take long to return to the gaping maw of darkness, and they pause at the edge of the cascading river that pours down into it. ¡°The path we need to take is a little way away, so I¡¯m going to carry all of you across,¡± Emily calmly informs her friends, a hint of mana in her voice so she can be heard over the sound of rushing water. They nod in agreement, no one showing even a hint of hesitance to putting their lives in Emily¡¯s capable hands. Emily smiles at their immediate trust, feeling her perceived distance from them shrinking, and steps towards Dante to pat him on the shoulder. ¡°Try not to squirm too much,¡± she says before carelessly grabbing him and tossing him onto her shoulder. He lets out a grunt of difort, but quickly rxes, grabbing hold of Emily¡¯s side to stabilise himself. Emily does the same with Enzo, throwing him onto her other shoulder before turning and stepping towards the edge of the tform. ¡°See you guys in a second,¡± she says as she crouches her legs and kicks out into thin air. She feels the hands sping her clothes tighten their grip and ignores them as she simply pours extra mana into the Air Walker, using the artefact to form footholds as she makes her way over to the exit tunnel. Dante and Enzo rx as Emily runs through the air, the initial shock of the experience fading away as they stare down at the coiling ck expanse below. ¡°Is there really nothing else you can do here?¡± Enzo asks as Emily deposits the two men back on solid ground again. ¡°Not really,¡± Emily says with a shrug, ncing over the precipice. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s safe to go down there, so the only other things I can think of would be analysing the mana here for elemental understanding like Hester did earlier and looking around these tunnels for natural resources. But I¡¯ve been looking at the darkness mana down here since we got onto thisyer and it hasn¡¯t helped me at all, so I don¡¯t think staying close to this pit will make any difference.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we look for resources then?¡± Dante asks. ¡°I get not wanting to go down there, but what¡¯s the harm in hanging around down here to gather materials? You¡¯re strong enough to defend us and you found the exit quickly, surely you can find loads of magic crystals down here too, right?¡± Emily opens her mouth to argue it would take too much time and freezes. Am I stupid? I was so focused on finding The Abyss toplete my quest, and then finding the exit to get out in a reasonable time, that I stopped caring about gathering materials. I guess spending so long focused on one goal leads to tunnel vision. Ah well, I¡¯ve already mapped loads of these tunnels! I know exactly where the valuable herbs and crystals are. Who cares about how long it takes? I can move fast enough to reach the exit in half a day on my own and know there aren¡¯t any third circle beasts, orrge groups of enemies, between here and the archite. Why don¡¯t I send them off without me and I can spend a few days filling my spatial storage? ¡°I can,¡± Emily says with a nod, stepping out into thin air. ¡°I have an idea. Move further in while I go grab the others, then I¡¯ll exin.¡± She heads back over and quickly picks up Tom and Hester, carrying them unceremoniously over her shoulders too before returning for Juliana. She sweeps Juliana up in a princess carry before strolling through the air with her at a leisurely pace. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the swim back too much,¡± Emily reassures her, whispering into her ear as they walk alone through the darkness above The Abyss. ¡°I have a n to make it morefortable for you. I¡¯m working on the spell for it as we speak.¡± Juliana quietly nods, leaning her head against Emily¡¯s shoulder and staring into her eyes to avoid looking down. Emily smiles at her, but a slight difort squeezes her chest at theck of a proper response, and she doesn¡¯t push the issue anymore. After dropping Juliana off with the others, Emily returns and grabs Ivor before starting to exin her n. ¡°I¡¯m going to make a quickmunication system that works down here, then I¡¯m gonna stay here while you guys head towards the exit.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Juliana cries, panic flooding her eyes instantly as she grips Emily¡¯s sleeve. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily says, taking Juliana¡¯s hand in hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze. ¡°I just want to search some of the nearby tunnels for herbs and magic crystals. I move fastest alone, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a great idea to stick around here for too long, so I think it¡¯s best if you guys head straight towards the exit.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that dangerous?¡± Hester asks with a frown. ¡°A little, yes.¡± Emily nods. ¡°Hence why I want to keep in contact the whole time. I¡¯m going to repurpose the Diver¡¯s receiver: it should work despite the interference from the dense mana down here.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be fine!¡± Dante says confidently. ¡°We can handle ourselves for a few days. Hell, we may actually get a proper fight in now.¡± Emily scoffs and pulls out a few light packs, handing them to Hester to distribute. ¡°You guys set off now. I¡¯ll draw up a map and quickly make ourmunicators then catch up before the first split in the path.¡± Juliana looks unconvinced, so Emily sits down and gestures for her to join her as the others prepare to leave. She wraps Juliana in her mana to help fend off The Abyss¡¯ pressure and pulls out the Diver¡¯s tablet, setting it down on the stone beside her before pulling out a lesser space crystal, some white iron, and some engraving tools. Juliana watches her quietly as their friends vanish into the darkness, waiting until they¡¯re gone to speak up. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d take my words as a sign to separate from uspletely,¡± Juliana grumbles unhappily. ¡°It¡¯s not because of what you said, don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily says, pulling her into a side hug without looking away from the white iron as she moulds it to fit around the crystal. ¡°I just keep getting a bad feeling when I think about staying here for too long. I was nning on leaving with you guys, but Dante pointed out it¡¯s a waste of a trip toe down here and not gather resources.¡± Juliana remains silent for a few moments before letting out a tired sigh and nodding. ¡°Okay. It¡¯s probably the best choice if you don¡¯t think it¡¯s safe here. Just... be careful.¡± Chapter 110 – Suspicions Confirmed Chapter 110 ¨C Suspicions Confirmed They sit together in silence as Emily creates an orb of metal, covered in runes. She hands it to Juliana after applying the final touches and adjusting the runes on the Diver¡¯s receiver to link with the new transmitter. ¡°This thing¡¯s very simple,¡± she says, pointing to a dense cluster of runes on the top of the orb. ¡°Just inject a burst of mana here, and I¡¯ll get feedback on the receiver.¡± Juliana does as instructed, pouring a small burst of mana into the tool and watching the disy above Emily¡¯s tablet light up. ¡°And in return, it will vibrate if I do the same.¡± Emily injects mana into the tablet, and the orb buzzes lightly in response. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have just mademunication crystals?¡± Juliana asks, inspecting theplicated weave of runes around the silver orb. ¡°The less information transferred, the less it¡¯s affected by the dense mana down here,¡± Emily exins. ¡°Themunication crystals used by The Covenant are great for normal long-range transfer, but they suffer once you step into areas with strong mana or vast fluctuations. They give simplicity and ease of use over reliability.¡± Emily pulls out a sheet of paper and her quill as Juliana considers her words, quickly drawing a diagram of the turns needed to reach the archite¡¯s cavern. ¡°This is the path you need to follow,¡± she says as she hands the finished map to Juliana. ¡°We¡¯ll keep in contact the whole time. Send me a signal every two hours and I¡¯ll send one back. Okay? If I don¡¯t hear from you on time, or if you send three pulses to ask for help, I¡¯lle straight away.¡± Juliana nods as Emily stands and offers her a hand, pulling her up too. ¡°Oh, and make sure you don¡¯t enter thest cavern without me. Send five pulses in a row when you arrive, then wait a little distance away. I think there¡¯s something big living there.¡± ¡°How big?¡± Juliana asks with a hint of nervousness. ¡°Big enough to be a threat to you guys,¡± Emily says, sweeping Juliana up and preparing lightning step. ¡°But I¡¯ll be able to deal with it easily enough.¡± She sprints down the tunnel with Juliana clinging to her, surprised by the sudden burst of speed. It doesn¡¯t take long for them to catch up to the others, where Emily drops Juliana and the barrier disc off, quickly exining how to use thetter, before turning and racing back towards The Abyss. *** The next few days roll by without much rest for Emily. She keeps her cores on a rotating sleep pattern as she delves into the caves to fill her belt with herbs and crystals. Juliana keeps to their schedule, sending a pulse via themunicator every two hours, even passing it to someone else to keep it up while she sleeps. However, on the third day of gathering loot, nothing happens when their nned time formunication passes, and Emily¡¯s heart rises to her throat. She starts racing back towards them, her hand resting on The Clock, ready to reset if any harm has befallen them, but is quickly broken from her anxious trance by a single pulse of purple light. Breathing a sigh of relief, she returns to gathering resources, ignoring the sour taste left in her mouth. On the morning of the fifth day of separation, Emily receives five pulses in a row through the tablet, letting her know the others have arrived. The moment she receives the message, Emily sends thest of the darkness crystals she¡¯s been harvesting into her belt and starts running towards the exit. It takes her a little over half a day, but, in the evening, she arrives at a small encampment a few hundred metres down the tunnel from the archite¡¯s cavern. She steps through the sound barrier, entering a small bubble of light formed by a campfire and several light packs. ¡°Hey,¡± she calls out, her friends turning to greet her. ¡°Wee back. Good harvest?¡± Enzo asks curiously. ¡°You could say that,¡± Emily says with a grin. ¡°There¡¯s quite a lot of mana crystals down here.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Enzo responds, his voiceced with barely concealed disappointment, confusing Emily. Before she can question his strange response, though, Dante interrupts. ¡°You should keep everything you gathered down here.¡± Emily¡¯s focus snaps to him, confusion tinting her gaze. ¡°We¡¯ve been talking about it, and we all agree,¡± Hester adds. ¡°We¡¯re already getting more than we could have hoped for with everything else we¡¯ve collected so far,¡± Tom joins in. ¡°And you¡¯ll need resources more than us,¡± Ivor signs, only adding to Emily¡¯s confusion. ¡°What do you mean I¡¯ll need them more?¡± she asks, a hint of caution in her tone. ¡°When you leave The Covenant, you won¡¯t have easy ess to magical resources anymore,¡± Enzo exins. Emily¡¯s eyes widen, her gaze drifting to the still-silent Juliana, a budding sense of betrayal twisting her gut. Before the feeling can take root, Hester cuts in to reassure her. ¡°Juliana didn¡¯t say anything, don¡¯t worry. In fact, she refused to even confirm you were nning on leaving. Ivor did that, and he still didn¡¯t borate.¡± Emily silently moves to sit beside Juliana under the watchful gaze of everyone else, pulling the guilty-looking girl into a hug to calm them both down a little. I never even specified that I was leaving straight after the expedition to Ivor. Ah well, I don¡¯t think anyone here would warn the Mandragos even if they knew the truth. I wouldn¡¯t have brought them with me if I thought they would. Her eyes soften a little as she looks over her friends and releases a sigh. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll keep everything from down here, but how¡¯d you know?¡± ¡°We guessed,¡± Tom answers, everyone else but Ivor nodding along with him. ¡°You guessed?¡± Emily says with slight disbelief, raising a hand to rub her brow. ¡°Was it just a wild shot in the dark till Ivor confirmed it?¡± Ivor frantically shakes his head, his hands blurring into motion to exin himself. ¡°They were already pretty much certain. It was weirder to keep denying the truth.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not his fault,¡± Hester adds, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder to get him to rx. ¡°I¡¯ve had my suspicions for a while, but the expedition and gifts were the main giveaway.¡± She taps her armour as she speaks. ¡°It¡¯s not expected that you provide high-quality gear for other members of your expedition and, other than to Juliana, you aren¡¯t exactly in the habit of giving us things. Also, you clearly favour efficiency - you literally just ran around alone for the past few days because it was more efficient than getting us to help - yet you brought Tom on this expedition.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Tom cries with mock offence at the sudden jab, drawing a few chuckles as Hester ignores him and continues. ¡°If you weren¡¯t treating this as ast chance to spend time with us, I don¡¯t see why you would do that.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t strike you as a gift giver?¡° Emily asks, slightly surprised by Hester¡¯s reasoning but unable to refute it. ¡°Ha, no,¡± Hester scoffs. ¡°Be honest. If you weren¡¯t nning on leaving soon after, you would¡¯ve juste on this expedition alone, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Emily takes a moment to consider before reluctantly nodding her head. ¡°Yeah. I probably could have found The Abyss within a week or two if I tried.¡± ¡°That fast?¡± Dante questions. ¡°Yeah. I have several speed spells, and you already know I don¡¯t need sleep. So, I probably would have run straight here at full speed without rest.¡± ¡°Crazy,¡± he mutters, going quiet again as Hester once again takes control of the conversation. ¡°Anyway, can you tell us why you n on leaving?¡± she asks carefully, fearful of pushing too hard and striking a nerve, with barely held-back curiosity obvious in her tone. ¡°Sure.¡± Emily nods, slipping out of Juliana¡¯s arms and standing up. ¡°But first let me deal with the beast in the cavern ahead. I¡¯d rather not get attacked in the middle of the night.¡± Hester shes her an understanding smile, and nobody else utters a word ofint. ¡°Good luck. I¡¯ll get started on some food then.¡± Emily moves to leave the barrier, but pauses as an idea strikes her. Her lips curl into a grin as she turns to interrupt Hester. ¡°Hold off on cooking for now.¡± Without another word, she vanishes into the darkness outside. Instead of charging ahead to start the fight, Emily walks upstream slowly. As she moves, she pulls a small drawstring pouch from her belt and opens it, revealing a glistening purple powder inside that seems to distort the space around it: powdered space crystals. She holds the pouch in one hand and pulls a small chunk of mythril out with the other. With a delicate blend of fire and metal mana, she turns the metal into a putty-like texture and splits off four small orbs, each the size of a fingertip. After withdrawing her mana from the remaining chunk, she ces it back in her belt while keeping the four orbs afloat with her mana control. She uses her free hand to reach into the pouch, taking a small pinch of the purple powder and pouring it onto one of the orbs. She repeats this with the other three before pulling closed the drawstring and putting the pouch away as well. Emily kneads two orbs with each hand, fully incorporating the powder and dying the silvery metal with a pale, purple hue. She presses the orbs into t discs before deftly working them into perfectly even coins. Satisfied with the result, Emily withdraws her fire mana, releasing the now-solid coins and keeping them afloat with her metal mana as the Whisper falls into her arms from a faint purple mist. She racks the bolt, catching the ejected bullet with her mana before she pops the magazine out and produces a new one from her belt, this one with a small water droplet engraved on the side. She slides the magazine into ce and racks the bolt forward silently as she steps into the open, dark cavern. Lifting the Whisper onto her shoulder, Emily lowers the coins into one hand, releasing her metal mana and injecting a burst of space mana into each, suddenly causing the coins to take on a dim, otherworldly glow. She holds one coin between her forefinger and coiled thumb, flexing her thumb and firing the coin out over theke. With a few precise, lightning-fast movements with her fingers, she repeats this three more times and all four coins hit the water with one sound. The moment the coins hit the surface, they¡¯re suddenly pulled down into the centre of theke. Emily grins, unable to see it happening but feeling her mana, still infused into the coins, moving down rapidly. She drops the Whisper from her shoulder, taking it in both hands and aiming at the floor as four twisting, purple magic circles form in front of the barrel. She shuts her eyes, focusing on the position of the moving coins as she lines up her gun and flicks it into silent. The moment the four coins pause in the same location, Emily fires a single shot towards the rock below. As the bullet silently leaps from the barrel, the first magic circle pulses with power and the bullet vanishes. Emily listens carefully for a reaction, hearing a low, irritated hum. The coins are below its mouth. Instantly understanding that her bullet missed the creature¡¯s body, Emily rapidly shifts her aim. I need to fire up. She points to the ceiling, picturing the archite¡¯s form above her. She lines up the barrel of her gun, flicks it into full power, and fires three shots in quick session, each aimed for one of the beast¡¯s hearts. All three bullets vanish through the magic circles in front of the barrel, and Emily hears three soft thuds as the bullets carve their way out of the water and embed themselves into the roof far above. ¡°KREEEE!¡± A harsh screech of pain follows soon after, signalling her sessful attack. Emily conjures a light, filling it with mana to illuminate the cavern as she watches the water with bated breath, waiting to see if her initial assault ended the battle or not. To her delight, the surface remains still, not a flicker of motion from the denizen below. Did I destroy all three of its hearts, or is it waiting for me to enter its domain? With an air of caution, Emily approaches the water, summoning her boat and tossing it out into the middle of theke to check. She connects to the detection array of the machine, scanning the water below and finding a giant, motionless form sitting on thekebed. ¡°Looks like I killed it,¡± she mutters with a pleased grin. ¡°Teleportation is such a useful skill. It¡¯s a shame The Covenant only gives out a few, barely useful spatial spells and their teleportation circles are obscured. If I had some more solid reference material, I may be able to actually move myself, instead of being stuck performing tricks with small objects.¡± Emily steps out into the water, sinking down with her light orb close behind, struggling to force back the darkness underwater. As she approaches the archite, it doesn¡¯t move a muscle, and the inky ck blood filling the water around her all but confirms its death. cing a hand against the smooth ck flesh of the oversized octopus, Emily considers how to deal with the corpse. It¡¯s far too big to take with me. I¡¯ll just grab its ink sac and a few portions of flesh. Emily gets to work, quickly separating several slices of flesh from the thick tentacles sprawled around thekebed before moving to the centre of the corpse and digging through the beast¡¯s organs to find its ink sac, a useful ingredient in several potions. Finished with the body, Emily checks the tunnel below, realises it¡¯s once again blocked, and takes a few minutes to push the archite out of the way with a few well-ced currents. Afterwards, she returns to their camp, delivering a b of tentacle to Hester to cook. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± she asks, poking at the stic flesh, oozing ck blood as she prods at it. ¡°A piece of a third circle archite,¡± Emily responds with a grin, settling down beside Juliana again. ¡°Really? How big was this one? Is it actually a titan?¡± Hester asks curiously as she starts separating the meat into slices to cook. ¡°About twenty or so metres tall for the main body I guess?¡± Emily says, making a rough estimate. They chat casually as food is prepared and eat without bringing up Emily¡¯s departure again until their tes are scrubbed clean. ¡°Damn that was good,¡± Dante says with a satisfied sigh. ¡°I should eat seafood more.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Enzo concurs, silence falling over their group as everyone slowly turns their attention to Emily. Noticing their interest, Emily lets out a tired sigh and braces herself to exin her rtionship with the Mandrago family. Chapter 111 – Escaping the Darkness Chapter 111 ¨C Escaping the Darkness Emily gives her friends a brief overview of her situation, from her awakening to her attempted brainwashing. She manages to hold in her anger with the help of aforting squeeze from Juliana as she speaks about Herber¡¯s death once more, but the pitying expressions on her friends¡¯ faces don¡¯t help. Her friends hang on her every word till the end, listening to her in silence until she finishes. ¡°That¡¯s disgusting!¡± Dante growls, righteous indignation burning in his gaze. ¡°It is,¡± Enzo agrees, anger in his gaze along with a calcting glint. ¡°But do you really need to be an ouw? Oscar seems interested in scouting you, even if just as an ally, and I¡¯m sure his family will happily take the excuse to destroy the Mandragos and take over their resources.¡± Emily pauses for a moment before responding, taking a deep breath and considering her words, months of frozen time having dulled the edges of the truth, making it easier to confront. ¡°No, I probably don¡¯t have to be an ouw,¡± she admits, gazing off into the darkness as she borates. ¡°However, I don¡¯t want to stay in The Dome. I want to travel, to explore different magical phenomena, to find strong opponents to fight. I want freedom to progress.¡± ¡°You¡¯d have freedom in The Covenant if you got out from the Mandrago¡¯s influence,¡± Hester points out. ¡°Yeah! If you receive a family name you¡¯ll be able to do whatever you want while using The Dome as a free trading hub,¡± Dante adds, his anger bleeding away as Emily shifts to a tone of eptance and resolution. ¡°Maybe,¡± Emily acquiesces with a nod. ¡°But I don¡¯t n on dealing with this quietly. It wouldn¡¯t satisfy my anger if they just vanished and they have allies who¡¯d probably keep making life difficult for me. I think it¡¯s unlikely even their enemies will be too happy for Modo to lose a fourth circle mage. The idea of dancing through politics sounds like a massive headache to me: I¡¯d rather leave the country, probably even the continent, until I¡¯m strong enough that they wouldn¡¯t even think of bothering me. Besides, there are plenty of other interesting ces on the for me to explore.¡± Her friends consider her words, showing mixed reactions to her ns. ¡°That said,¡± Emily continues before anyone else can say anything, a touch of uncertainty creeping into her tone. ¡°I¡¯m still not sure what I¡¯m going to do after going back to Eimdon. I may end up back at The Dome for all I know. But, my main priority is meeting up with Anna again. Everything else can go from there.¡± Nobody can argue with her final statement, nodding along with reluctance as an air of mncholy settles over the group. ¡°Your sister¡¯s safety takes priority,¡± Ivor signs with respect and understanding, the others nodding along. ¡°I¡¯d avoid politics too if I were you,¡± Dante says with a visible shiver. ¡°Of course you would,¡± Enzo says, leaping on the chance to lighten the mood a little. ¡°You¡¯d avoid anything you can¡¯t blow up if given the choice.¡± There are a few subduedughs as everyone slowly moves towards their sleeping bags, sensing the end of the conversation and preparing to turn in for the night. After everyone but Emily and Juliana has settled in their sleeping bags, Tom speaks again, breaking the silence of the camp. ¡°We¡¯ll miss you, you know. The Dome won¡¯t be the same without you,¡± he says. ¡°Yeah, and if you ever find yourself near Cairnorm while on the run, you¡¯re wee toe hide in our family¡¯s museum,¡± Hester adds, humour in her tone. ¡°It¡¯s been fun fighting with you,¡± Dante mumbles, his face already buried in his pillow. ¡°I hope we meet again eventually,¡± Enzo says. ¡°It would be a shame not to get to see your magic again.¡± A small smile parts Emily¡¯s lips as she listens to the heartfelt words of her friends. A light tapping on the stone floor draws her attention, and she turns her head to see Ivor sitting up in his sleeping bag, staring straight at her. ¡°It¡¯s been a pleasure. If you ever need help, let me know. I still owe you my life,¡± he signs seriously, his eyes glistening with tears, surprising Emily. ¡°Just make sure J stays safe,¡± Emily signs back with a tearful smile. ¡°You have my word,¡± Ivor finishes with a nod before lowering himself down to sleep. Emily turns back to face the fire, leaning her head against Juliana¡¯s as afortable silence settles once more, no more words needed between them. A bubbling warmth fills Emily¡¯s chest as she sits there, touched by her friends¡¯ consideration and feeling a hint of regret at the idea of leaving them. *** The next morning, they pack up camp and head into the nearby cavern. ¡°There¡¯s a tunnel under thiske connecting to the upper level,¡± Emily exins as they pause on the shore, looking out into the pool of dark water. ¡°The current is weak, so we shouldn¡¯t have any trouble going up, and it¡¯s wide enough to fit three people at a time, so we¡¯ll go through together.¡± Her friends all give signs of acknowledgement and sit down to start removing their shoes, Juliana nces nervously at Emily as they do, but Emily stops them. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary,¡± she says with a grin, snapping her fingers. A flood of green and blue runes flows from Emily at hermand, wrapping around the group to form a dancing barrier of colour. Tens of twisting lines spring from her feet, connecting the runes in a swirling pattern around them, joining at a single point directly in the centre of the barrier, above Emily. Everyone shivers as they feel a twisting breeze form, brushing against them and rustling their robes as the runes around them pulse. Water droplets start appearing around them, quickly bending and joining together in a constantly shifting, rotating balloon of water. ¡°Woah!¡± Tom exims, reaching out to touch the barrier. ¡°Is this another defence spell? Why are you using it now?¡± ¡°I call it windpool. It does work as a defensive spell,¡± Emily excitedly exins, stepping up to the water¡¯s edge and gesturing for her friends to follow. ¡°But it¡¯s only as strong as a second circle spell on that front. The main draw is in its utility.¡± She steps forward, out into the water, but her foot doesn¡¯t sink. Instead, it stops against the barrier, allowing Emily to walk along the surface without trouble. Her friends are all shocked by the oue, eagerly stepping forward to join her on the water. ¡°This is amazing!¡± Juliana marvels as they walk to the centre of theke. ¡°Does it work underwater?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the whole point,¡± Emily responds, gesturing for everyone to stop and controlling the windpool, slowly lowering them below the surface. ¡°We can do our whole journey back up and stay dry!¡± As the barrier dips below the surface, the dark water around them mixes with the outeryer, turning into a twisting vortex descending through theke with them held safely within. The orb of light floating above Emily¡¯s head illuminates the inside of the barrier, only releasing a few twisted beams of light into the water around them. Juliana quickly buries her face into Emily¡¯s shoulder as they lower into the darkness, while the others look out into the water with interest. Approaching thekebed, they start to spot glimpses of the looming corpse in the darkness, barely able to discern its outline. ¡°Is that the titan?¡± Tom asks, leaning close to the edge of the barrier and squinting, trying to get a clear view. ¡°Yeah. Wanna see it?¡± Emily asks, calmly stroking Juliana¡¯s hair. Tom nods enthusiastically, so Emily conjures a second light and sends it out of the barrier, pouring mana into it to illuminate the water. The forceful burst of light reveals the massive dead beast, sprawled across thekebed and taking up a majority of it. ¡°Woah!¡± Tom exims, joined in his wonder by the others as everyone but Emily and Juliana move to the edge of the barrier to admire the dead creature. ¡°How did you kill it?¡± Enzo asks after noticing theck of obvious wounds. ¡°I shot through its hearts,¡± Emily responds, narrowing her eyes as she spots a few shifting ck masses trying to blend into the corpse. ¡°Like this.¡± She quickly unholsters the Spitter, popping out the magazine and sliding in another with a water droplet carved on the side. She raises the gun, aiming at one of the creaturestched to the corpse and flicks it into burst, squeezing the trigger. Three bullets fly out, passing through the barrier and slicing through the water outside. The blue runes delicately engraved into each bullet glow and they barely slow down in the water, gliding forward and punching three holes in the wriggling ck mass. Everyone watches as the small, second circle archite floats down to the riverbed, limp. ¡°I thought bullets didn¡¯t work underwater,¡± Dante says with a sceptical nce towards Emily¡¯s gun. ¡°They don¡¯t normally,¡± she responds with a smug grin, putting away the gun and ignoring the other archites happily gorging themselves on their brethren¡¯s corpse. Emily turns her focus to the hole below them, only wide enough for three people, and starts moving her hands, bending the spell around them. The twisting winds gently shift, raising Tom, Hester, Dante, and Enzo above Emily, Juliana, and Ivor, holding them in three tiers on solidifiedyers of air. Emily ignores the exmations of her friends and carefully lowers them all into the tunnel, watching ahead to make sure nothing is approaching them from below. They slowly sink lower without issues. Emily only has to cast a few aqua bolts to remove two archites in their way, and the tunnel soon levels out, allowing them to walk forward again as Emily settles the barrier on the ground, dissipating the solid sheets of air keeping her friends afloat. She nces at her mana as they quietly walk through the tunnel, noting it¡¯s fallen to half thanks to therge expenditure of the barrier. Juliana removes her solid grasp on Emily as they start walking again, the enclosed walls and roof of the tunnel seeming to help calm her fear. They shift around as they walk, moving Hester to the front to help Emily deal with archites ahead as they push on through the tunnel. It doesn¡¯t take long for them to clear the path, killing the entire remaining nest and arriving at the sharp upward bend leading to the nextyer. Emily shifts the barrier once more, carrying them up in an elevator of wind and water. They break through the water¡¯s surface, arriving in the light of the sparkling crystals overhead. They move to the shore, stepping onto solid ground and allowing Emily to finally disperse her barrier. A collective sigh is released by the group, d to be out of the oppressive darkness of the deepestyer. ¡°Take a break here for a little bit,¡± Emily says, reaching her hand into a pouch at her belt. ¡°I¡¯m going to mark this tunnel to try to make it easier to find The Abyss if Ie back.¡± Everyone spreads out in the tunnel. Enzo, Dante, and Ivor position themselves slightly upstream, just in case something attacks them, and Tom and Hester sit against the wall, watching Emily work. Juliana sits down beside Emily, also watching with interest as she pulls out an earth crystal, space crystal, chunk of white iron, and an ingot of ck iron. ¡°Why earth and space?¡± Juliana asks as Emily forms the ck iron into a t te. ¡°To handle mana gathering and location transmission separately,¡± Emily answers as she makes two sockets from the white iron, fusing them to the ck iron te and starting to draw lines onto the te with thin beads of white iron. ¡°I¡¯m going to bury this marker in the rock partway down the tunnel so it hopefully won¡¯t move too far from the path down. The earth crystal will help draw mana in through the surrounding rock to keep the space crystal full while it sends out a signal for the receiving space crystal to track.¡± She finishes drawing aplicated runic matrix around the te, covering the top and bottom with a delicate mix of runes and connecting shapes, before dropping both crystals into ce. They instantly link to the magic circle, lighting up the white metal with a brown and purple glow. ¡°There we go,¡± Emily says, pulling out a space crystal with a dull hue,cking the usual lustre of the mystic gems. ¡°Now we link them.¡± She takes out an engraving knife, gently bringing it to the dull crystal¡¯s surface and carving a detailed set of runes. Everyone falls silent to let her focus as her hand races along the crystal in fast but precise movements, quickly forming a spell on the crystal without shattering it. They all let out a collective sigh of relief as she finishes, everyone understanding the vtility of even a drained mana crystal. Emily taps the crystal to the marker te and a small purple strand of mana reaches out, connecting to the crystal and slowly returning its vibrant glow. She holds it in ce until the connection breaks itself, then drops the linked crystal into her belt as she stands up. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back,¡± she says to her friends before stepping into the water again. She swims down twenty metres before stopping and floating over to the tunnel¡¯s wall. cing a palm against the rock, Emily casts a spell to soften the rock before coating her hand in earth mana and pushing it forward, discing the stone and burrowing into it. She keeps going for a few minutes, until her arm is shoulder-deep in the wall, before pulling it out. She ces the location marker in the back of the small alcove before starting to fill it back in again. Halfway out, Emily pauses again, holding her hand out before herself with a vicious grin. I don¡¯t want any archite borrowing in to try to find those mana crystals, so let¡¯s add a precaution. A faint purple mist flows up from her belt, coalescing together to form a small ck disc with silver circuits running along the surface. The centre of the disc is a disconnected ring holding a small, white, mana detection crystal and several strands of silver metal. The central ring¡¯s wires don¡¯t connect to the others, twisted a quarter turn out of ce. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mana Mine] [Rank:] D [Description:] A proximity-based magical explosive. [Effect:] Explodes dealing massive damage when a living being¡¯s mana signaturees within a set distance. _____ This detonating should scare them off trying to burrow in for the marker for a while at least. She flips the mine over, revealing arge rotating ring on the back as well, with zero to ten carved around it. She barely turns the indicator on the ring, moving it a tiny amount from zero, setting the mine to go off if somethinges within twenty centimetres of it. Then she ces the mine in the hole, facing outwards. Emily turns the front dial counterclockwise, releasing it from atch inside and setting off a ticking inside as it slowly starts shifting clockwise back into ce. She quickly moves the stone back into ce, burying the explosive before it has finished priming. After the wall is back to normal, looking identical to when she first swam down, Emily gives a satisfied nod and kicks off, heading back towards the surface. Chapter 112 – Elemental Understanding Chapter 112 ¨C Elemental Understanding Emily rejoins her friends, and they set off into the tunnel, following the river upstream. ¡°How are we going to find our way out from here?¡± Tom asks as they leave the underwater passage behind. ¡°Easy,¡± Emily responds, reaching into her belt and pulling out the first log pose they used to find The Waters. ¡°With this. We just do the same thing we did when following the Diver and try to go in as straight a line as possible in the direction this points. It may take a little while, but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡± They trek on through the tunnels, killing anything that gets in their way and asionally stopping to collect herbs and crystals. Every so often, Emily rewinds a day to save the group travelling down a long dead end, speeding up the journey but making it drag even longer for herself. A week and a halfter, halfway through the afternoon, Emily raises a hand and gestures for everyone to stop as they approach a new cavern. ¡°There¡¯s a strong mana signature ahead,¡± she warns everyone, ncing back over her shoulder at them. ¡°It¡¯s almost certainly a third circle beast. Be careful.¡± Dante grows excited at the prospect of a hard fight, a savage grin spreading across his face. ¡°What is it?¡± Hester asks as they slowly move forward, confusion in her tone. ¡°Haven¡¯t your scouts seen it?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± Emily says with a grin matching Dante¡¯s. ¡°I can feel it leaking mana from here. We aren¡¯t close enough yet for my scouts. I think it¡¯s already spotted us, though, but it¡¯s not approaching.¡± Her friends are surprised, their interest deepened by the reveal. ¡°What makes you think it spotted us?¡± Juliana asks. ¡°A few moments after we got close enough for me to feel it, its mana started fluctuating a lot,¡± Emily responds, feeling the faint bubbling mana swirling around them as if in excitement, getting stronger as they approach. ¡°But I don¡¯t feel any hostility.¡± She watches through the eyes of the bird flying through the tunnel ahead of them as it arrives in a small cavern, only a dozen metres across, leaking the powerful presence. However, looking around through its thermal vision, she doesn¡¯t spot a single creature in the room, nor a hint of heat near the surface of therge pool in the centre. It must be underwater. She keeps the bird focused on the water as they steadily grow closer, watching for any changes. They step into the cavern, Emily in the lead with her ws drawn, and everyone else following behind her, muttering chants in preparation. They look around, their gazes a mix of caution and curiosity as everyone¡¯s focus quickly gathers on the pool of water in the centre of the room, the only notable thing other than the three other connecting tunnels. Emily approaches the water¡¯s edge, feeling the mana pouring out from within, but stops and steps back as the surface begins bubbling. She prepares a defensive spell, arge silver magic circle forming behind her and hanging at the ready as the surface roils. The bubbling pool shifts, as a mass of water and mist slowly starts to rise in the centre. Emily looks into it through her bird¡¯s eyes, expecting to see the outline of a creature within, but she still sees no heat. An attack? She waits with bated breath, expecting the water to fly at them suddenly, but, instead, it continues rising, drawing in more mass until it breaks free of the surface. The floating water continues to bubble as it starts to shrink, the mist within flowing back into the pool below, revealing something glowing blue in the centre, as the rest of the form takes on the faint blue hue of pure water. Emily¡¯s eyes light up with recognition as the bubbling subsides, leaving a floating orb, norger than Emily¡¯s torso, of crystal-clear water with a fist-sized glowing blue core at the centre. ¡°An elemental!¡± she mutters in surprise, sending a wave of shock through her friends. ¡°Seriously?¡± Enzo asks incredulously, staring at the floating orb in wonder. ¡°To think we¡¯d find a dungeon and an elemental in one expedition.¡± ¡°Are they rare?¡± Tom asks, admiring the creature with caution still in his gaze. ¡°Are they dangerous?¡± ¡°Possibly,¡± Emily says, stepping forward and holding her hand out palm up. ¡°But I don¡¯t think so.¡± She gestures for her friends to stay still with her other hand as she slowly approaches the water¡¯s edge. ¡°Elementals¡¯ personalities depend heavily on what element they are,¡± Enzo exins to Tom as Emily moves forward. ¡°A water elemental is unlikely to be outright hostile, but there¡¯s still a chance it might be. The fact that it revealed itself peacefully is a good sign though. If it was hostile, it probably would have stayed in the water spewing attacks at us.¡± Emily tunes them out and watches the elemental for a reaction to her advance. It quivers, shaking almost excitedly before slowly floating closer to her. She pauses, bing unnaturally still as she waits for the mass of elemental mana to close the distance itself. It approaches slowly, pausing a few centimetres away from Emily, letting her get a good view of the glistening, gem-like core suspended in its centre. The creature¡¯s surface shakes and bends as a small tendril of water reaches out for Emily¡¯s hand, pressing down into her palm. The moment she makes contact with the elemental, she feels a cool, calming sensation spread through her body. When the sensation reaches her heart, the circles of power surrounding it seem to resonate with the sensation, taking on the tint of water and flooding her system with water-attributed mana. Following her instincts, Emily lets the water mana bubble out of the skin on her arm, sending a stream of ethereal water back into the elemental. Her mana starts to drain as power flows out of her, but, in response, the elemental pulses, a bright blue light flowing through its body from its core and connecting to her hand. She feels a powerful, pure water mana flow into her body, heading straight for her heart where her circles quickly pull it in, breaking it down and refilling her reserves instantly, a fractionrger than before. It¡¯s boosting my cultivation! The elemental ripples excitedly as they circte their mana together, a feeling of joy spreading to Emily across their connection, bringing a smile to her lips. ¡°Thank you,¡± Emily says to the elemental as it floats closer, its tendril retracting until its body rests on her palm. ¡°Would you like to meet my friends?¡± She feels another burst of joy across their connection and takes it as a yes, turning and gesturing for her friends to approach. ¡°It¡¯s safe,¡± she says to her friends, removing thest of their reservations. ¡°Come say hi.¡± They quickly walk over, curiosity and excitement stered across their faces as they look at Emily, her arm wrapped in water, talking to the elemental. ¡°Can it understand you?¡± Juliana asks as she stops beside Emily, her gaze locked on the orb of water. ¡°Yes,¡± Emily says, attempting to replicate the elemental¡¯s method ofmunication by imbuing her mana with thoughts of encouragement. ¡°I can feel its emotions through our link right now.¡± The elemental seems to understand her message, stretching out a tendril to offer to Juliana. Seeing the presented limb, Juliana reaches up and touches it. However, after a few seconds the elemental ripples and retracts its tendril, sending disappointment across its connection with Emily. ¡°It felt calming, but nothing else,¡± Juliana says, looking at Emily with concern in her eyes. ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡± Emily shakes her head, sending the elemental reassurance. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so. It¡¯s not angry or anything, just disappointed. I think it¡¯s rted to your element. It''s water mana that¡¯s connecting us right now, so I think it can¡¯t create a connection with you because you can¡¯t send water back. Hester, how about you try?¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Hester says, stepping up to the orb and presenting her hand like Emily did, waiting for the elemental to initiate. Another tendril splits off from the orb, and this time Hester has a simr reaction to Emily, water mana pouring out of her hand to join the orb. ¡°Woah,¡± she exims as the connection is made, and Emily feels another burst of joy from the elemental, this one mixed with a hint of confusion as well. The elemental quivers for a moment, pulling up from Emily¡¯s hand and keeping a tendril connected before dropping back down again a momentter. A moreplicated mixture of emotions flows into Emily, and her spare cores quickly pick it apart, trying to unpick the meaning. ¡°What does that mean?¡± Hester asks, clearly confused by the mixed signals. ¡°I think,¡± Emily says, with a chuckle. ¡°It can¡¯t work out which one of us it likes more.¡± The elemental shakes frantically, and another pulse of emotions flows into Emily and Hester, with reassurance and affection mixed with a few more abstract signals, as if trying tomunicate something beyond emotions. Emily quickly breaks down the signals, trying to understand their meaning as the elemental keeps changing them. ¡°What-¡° Dante starts to ask, being silenced immediately when Emily raises a finger to her lips and shuts her eyes. After a few moments, Emily opens her eyes again and starts speaking. ¡°I think it¡¯s trying to say that it likes both of us, but our connections are different.¡± A burst of happiness pushes Emily in the right direction as she continues her trantion. ¡°Hester¡¯s closer to it? But I¡¯m more connected to it? Hmm, no, that¡¯s not quite right. Hester¡¯s element is closer to it, but it can still transmit to me more easily? Closer.¡± Emily¡¯s eyes widen slightly as the meaning of the strangemunication clicks in her mind. ¡°Hester¡¯s elemental affinity is more aligned with it, but my connection with mana is stronger.¡± The elemental bubbles excitedly, bobbing up and down on Emily¡¯s hand in agreement. ¡°Wait, Hester¡¯s more aligned with it?¡± Enzo says with confusion, turning a questioning gaze on Emily. ¡°How is that possible? I understand she¡¯s got a great affinity for water, but didn¡¯t youplete a full manifestation for water on your first attempt? She onlypleted hers a few weeks ago. Surely you have a higher affinity.¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± Emily says, her friends curiously hanging on her every word. ¡°My ability to manifest so many elements is due to a high elementalprehension, not affinity.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± Dante questions. ¡°There¡¯s a massive difference. One moment,¡± she says as an eager grin spreads across her face. Emily turns her full attention back to the elemental, relying on her analysis of the elemental¡¯smunication to try and transmit a message ofparableplexity herself. ¡®Break¡­ Connection¡­ Small¡­ Time¡­ Stay¡­ With¡­ Other¡­ Please?¡¯ She forms a blend of mental signals into a simple message and sends it to the elemental. The orb of water doesn¡¯t react for a few moments, deciphering Emily¡¯s message, before it suddenly droops around her hand while sending back a simple mix of understanding and sadness. A momentter, it returns to normal and lifts off of Emily¡¯s hand, breaking their connection and dissipating the flow of water around her arm, moving to sit on Hester¡¯s instead. ¡°So,¡± Emily says, taking a few steps away and turning to face all of her friends at once. ¡°Affinity andprehension. To start with, what do you think these two terms mean?¡± ¡°How connected you are to an element, and how you understand it?¡± Ivor signs with a questioning tilt of his head. ¡°Exactly! These are the two things you need to use an element. You use yourprehension to form a solid mental image of the element, and your affinity to innately connect with it. The higher your affinity, the easierprehension wille naturally, and the easier it will be for you to control the element. But, and here¡¯s the point most of The Covenant¡¯s mages seem to forget, you don¡¯t need a high affinity to use an element. Practically everyone has a connection with fire, water, air, and earth, hence them being called themon elements, and most people also have some affinity with either light or darkness as well. Just think back to when you first tried to manifest elements, how many of you got some reaction from something other than the element you use now? No matter how small.¡± All of her friends seem surprised by her words, taking pause to think back to their first attempts at finding their element. After a moment, they slowly start raising their hands until everyone has. ¡°See. All of you would be able to cast spells with a multitude of elements if you studied them and built up yourprehension, but a single specialisation makes it easier to go further so most people don¡¯t. My initial manifestations just followed that to the extreme. I do have a high affinity for a lot more elements than most, but the main cause was my mind being very good at forming mental images, and my understanding of the elements being very high to start with, so I ended up with a lot of sessful manifestations. However, I still have my natural alignments. Look.¡± Emily raises both of her hands before her, pouring mana from them with a different element in each. Above her left hand, a flickering orange me with glistening white sparks forms, growing to the size of her fist. Above her right, streams of lightning form, violently crackling as they form into a single bolt that grows to the same size as her forearm. ¡°I¡¯m using the same amount of mana to form each of these,¡± she exins. ¡°But do you see the difference?¡± ¡°The lightning is bigger,¡± Tom says, receiving an approving nod from Emily as her gaze sweeps across everyone else, still waiting for another answer. ¡°It¡¯s more violent?¡± Dante questions, looking between the two elements with his eyes narrowed in concentration. ¡°No,¡± Hester says, noticing how Emily doesn¡¯t react to his question. ¡°It¡¯s more controlled.¡± Emily¡¯s mouth breaks into a wide smile as she nods. ¡°Correct. It looks more violent, but it¡¯s actually more controlled since lightning itself is a harder element to handle than fire. And yes, it¡¯srger. See, my affinity for fire is my third strongest, whereas lightning is my strongest. You¡¯ve probably noticed I tend to use more lightning spells than anything else, and that¡¯s because, for the same mana cost, I can create and control stronger spells.¡± ¡°Is water your second highest?¡± Enzo asks as she releases the two manifestations. ¡°No, it¡¯s metal. Water¡¯s probably my fourth or fifth? I¡¯m not sure exactly since it¡¯s harder to tell the difference between my lower affinities, but it¡¯s definitely not my strongest. But, for Hester it is, so it¡¯s no wonder that the elemental likes her so much. As for why it likes me even though my water affinity isn¡¯t that high? It¡¯s probably because I¡¯m a higher circle, so my mana is denser and purer. Also, I have a high connection with mana itself.¡± ¡°You can have an affinity for mana?¡± Juliana asks, taken aback by the statement. ¡°Yep! Have you ever heard stories of the first mages?¡± Emily asks, noticing Tom¡¯s eyes light up with excitement. ¡°I have!¡± he says. ¡°I read about them. The first mages discovered magic when they found an oasis in the desert that passed over a mana vein. They said that the mana spoke to them and revealed its secrets, allowing them to awaken.¡± ¡°Exactly. Some people have a high connection with mana itself, and that¡¯s the base requirement for bing a mage. Even normal unawakened mortals have elemental affinities, but it¡¯s the connection with mana that allows us to realise them.¡± As her friends are processing the revtion, Emily approaches the elemental again and ces her hand against it, recreating their connection instantly. ¡°Is that how you know all this? Neither our teachers nor families have ever mentioned this before. In fact, I was always told stories of the first mages were fairytales,¡± Enzo questions with a raised brow. ¡°Partially. And I¡¯ve read a lot, including an ount from a fourth circle mage,¡± Emily says, using Gaius¡¯ notes as an excuse for her system knowledge. ¡°I also don¡¯t know if the stories about the first mages are true, so take my words with a grain of salt if you want. What you gain from what I say is your choice, I just enjoy sharing my knowledge.¡± Chapter 113 – Journey’s End Chapter 113 ¨C Journey¡¯s End ¡°If we all have some affinity for water,¡± Hester asks, drawing Emily¡¯s attention. ¡°Why couldn¡¯t Juliana link with the elemental?¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s because she can¡¯t attribute her mana with water yet,¡± Emily says, considering her current connection with the creature in question. ¡°The link we¡¯ve created is a two-way exchange. Even if Juliana can process the water mana it sends her, it can¡¯t process her wind-attributed mana: elementals are purely made from their element, they have no affinity for any other elements.¡± Hester nods, but the others seem confused still. ¡°Why can¡¯t she just send it unattributed mana?¡± Ivor signs. ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Emily shrugs. ¡°There¡¯s nothing about creating a connection with elementals in any of the books I¡¯ve read on them. I¡¯m in the dark here too. However, if I were going to guess, it¡¯s probably because unattributed manacks intent. I¡¯ve been tweaking the emotions and will behind my mana tomunicate with it, so I¡¯d guess that using its element is a requirement to properly convey intent.¡± ¡°That sounds... Confusing,¡± Tom mutters with a confounded look on his face. ¡°It is.¡± Emily nods, forming another message to send to the elemental. ¡°In fact, I¡¯d quite like to stay here until tomorrow morning so I can try and speak with it some more. I¡¯m making progress in understanding it, and it¡¯s increasing the speed of my cultivation a fair amount too.¡± Hearing her desire, Tom happily drops his bag and starts pulling out bedrolls, handing them to the others to getfortable. Emily smiles, giving them a grateful nod and setting up the barrier disc before sitting down cross-legged facing Hester, who also appreciates the gains in her cultivation brought on by the elemental, both of themying their arms across theirps with the elemental held between them. ¡°Eat without me,¡± Emily says as she shuts her eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll leave a few birds to help with the night watch, but I probably won¡¯t respond much till the morning.¡± Barely listening to her friends¡¯ responses, Emily focuses on her now-formed next message for the elemental. ¡®We. Stay. For. Short. Time.¡¯ The elemental processes her message and sends another back,ced with joy and a hint of worry. Emily picks apart its message, processing the signals and emotions mixed together to trante the meaning. ¡®Great. But. Can¡¯t. Speak. Too. Long. Get. Weak.¡¯ Emily eagerly throws herself into speaking with the orb of water, sending messages back and forth as she slowly improves her ability to speak in its strange manner. *** Hourster, well into the third and penultimate watch of the night, a few hours after Hester broke her connection with the elemental to sleep, the elemental¡¯s strangenguage finally clicks into ce in Emily¡¯s mind. ¡®It¡¯s so nice to talk with someone again. I haven¡¯t met one of us in so long.¡¯ As she finally fully understands a message as it¡¯s being transmitted to her, a system notification pops into view. It¡¯s joined by an oddly familiar yet different sensation of her cortex changing, new instincts clicking into ce that don¡¯t quite give her knowledge yet instil a feeling of understanding and confidence that wasn¡¯t there before. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Hidden-Questpleted: A True Connection [A True Connection] [Rank:] D [Description:] Completely understand another species¡¯munication method with no external help. Requirements: -Be fluent in 1/1 non-humannguage (Complete) Rewards: -Skill: Linguist (passive) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [Linguist (passive)] User is a master ofnguage and can understand almost anynguage after a few short interactions. -Grants an instinctual understanding ofnguage. _____ Woah! Master ofnguage? This will definitelye in handy in the future. Emily dismisses the system window and turns her attention back to her conversation with the elemental, slowly probing it for more information. ¡®That must be lonely. Have you met many of your own kind down here?¡¯ she sends back, with barely a pause from receiving thest message. ¡®Not since leaving the darkness,¡¯ the elemental responds disappointedly. ¡®I travelled for a bit, looking for some, but didn¡¯t find any, so I settled down here for a while, since it¡¯s connected to the darkness. Hopefully one of my brethren will use this link to leave!¡¯ ¡®There are more of your brethren in the darkness? Why don¡¯t you just go back then?¡¯ ¡®No!¡¯ the elemental shakes, primal fear coursing across their connection, sending a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine. ¡®Once he tells you to leave, you don¡¯t go back.¡¯ ¡®Who told you to leave?¡¯ Emily questions, sending reassurance with her words. However, the elemental falls silent, refusing to borate. Is there a creature in theyer below us that scared it, or is it talking about The Abyss? Either way, it¡¯s probably good we didn¡¯t stay there for too long if something there can scare an elemental this much. As Emily considers its fear, the elemental sends her another message. ¡®Not long left. Getting sleepy.¡¯ Noticing its decrease in coherence, Emily opens her eyes to look at the elemental for the first time since shest spoke to her friends. It¡¯s sitting in herp on her open palms, shrunk to the size of her head with its core only releasing a faint glow, having lost most of its lustre. Smiling, Emily moves one of her hands to pat the top of the orb, transmitting raw feelings of understanding and appreciation across their bond as she does. ¡®Thank you. Forpany. Was. Nice,¡¯ the elemental sends, losing a little more mass with each word. ¡®It was a pleasure,¡¯ Emily sends back, with one final pulse of mana and affection as she stands. The elemental silently sits in her grip, making no effort to move as she carries it to the water¡¯s edge. She crouches down and ces it back into the water, watching as it melts into the pool and vanishes, its core drifting below the fogyer. With a warm smile still on her lips, Emily stands and turns back to her sleeping friends, nodding to Enzo who was silently watching as she released the elemental. She walks back over and sits down beside him, gesturing to his sleeping bag with her head. ¡°You can sleep if you want,¡± she whispers softly. ¡°I¡¯ll keep watching for the rest of tonight.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± he says, standing up before pausing and turning to ask her a question, a teasing smile ying on his lips. ¡°Did you get what you wanted from that? I half expected you to kill the elemental when you were done.¡± ¡°Hey! That elemental was very friendly and helped me a lot. I¡¯m not that callous. But yes, I did get what I wanted,¡± she answers with mock offence that has morphed into a satisfied grin by the end. ¡°Good,¡± Enzo says with a nod, turning away again to go to sleep. I didn¡¯t just get what I wanted, I got more than I could have hoped for! ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Attributes:] Strength 20 (26), Dexterity 64 (67), Agility 51 (55), Vitality 17 (22), Intelligence 123 > 127 _____ I gained four intelligence from just a few hours of meditation with it. What a strange creature. It willingly gave up part of its own cultivation just to interact with someone for a few hours. I guess istion makes even sentient masses of mana do strange things. *** In the morning, they set off into the tunnels again, leaving behind the elemental¡¯s pool. The rest of their journey back is uneventful. They find the exit to The Waters a few weekster, stepping out of the undergroundbyrinth back into the warmth of the sun, much to everyone¡¯s relief. They trek back through the forest, the rain and trees a wee change from the darkness and stone they¡¯ve grown used to, and approach the edge of the forest a few dayster. ¡°What do you n on doing when you get back?¡± Tom asks Emily mid-morning, a few kilometres away from the edge of the trees. Everyone¡¯s attention instantly focuses on Emily, keen to find out the answer to the question they¡¯ve all been avoiding since leaving The Waters. ¡°First, we¡¯re going to look at distributing the loot from this expedition,¡± Emily says while shing a grin over her shoulder, bringing excited smiles to her friends¡¯ faces. ¡°Then, I¡¯m going to visit the docks and find out when the next airship is leaving for Eimdon.¡± The mood instantly drops, their excitement giving way to a sombre air of eptance. Emily keeps going, noticing the shift but choosing not to address it. ¡°Once I have a departure date set, I¡¯m going to convert anything from this expedition I don¡¯t need, along with the rest of my remaining contribution points, into a stock of magical metals and mana crystals. Then all that¡¯s left while I wait to leave is spending a little time in the library and a few, other ns,¡± she says, ncing at Juliana and shing her a smile. Juliana tilts her head with curiosity, but Emily simply smiles and turns away, not borating yet. They walk on in silence for a short while, until Tom breaks it with another question. ¡°How are you nning on converting all of the beast parts from this expedition into useful resources? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll need most of them either.¡± Emily turns to walk backwards, making eye contact with the non-vassal members of their group. ¡°Well, first I¡¯ll get you guys to check with your families if they want to buy anything specific: you should probably ask the Dahlias first. Then, if they don¡¯t want to buy anything, I¡¯ll probably talk to Oscar. His family seemed happy to take the bulk of the bounty on thest expedition.¡± Enzo and Dante both nod in agreement. ¡°The Salvias make a lot of their wealth through alchemy,¡± Enzo exins. ¡°Our families sell a lot of beastponents to them already, since they burn through them so fast with their experiments, so we were probably going to do the same. I¡¯m honestly surprised he didn¡¯t tell you about it, he¡¯s normally very proud of his father¡¯s achievements in the field.¡± ¡°Oh, he mentioned his dad briefly,¡± Emily responds with a shrug, turning back to face the front. ¡°But he didn¡¯t say more than he¡¯s a great alchemist. I think he was trying not to damage my ego.¡± Chuckling at the idea, Emily smiles as one of her birds breaks through the treeline into the empty fields beyond. ¡°That¡¯s silly,¡± Tom says with a grin. ¡°How could he damage your ego? It¡¯s far too big to be-¡° He cuts off as his sister¡¯s hand snacks into the back of his head, and everyone breaks intoughter as he yfully cries out at the injustice. Their yfulughter and teasing continue until they reach the edge of the forest, stepping from the trees in high spirits and breathing a collective sigh of relief as the slight tension held throughout the whole trip finally dissipates. ¡°You know, I said itst time and I¡¯ll say it again,¡± Enzo says, rolling his shoulders and stretching. ¡°I¡¯m definitely looking forward to sleeping in a real bed.¡± Murmured agreement spreads as they walk out into the open, putting a little distance between themselves and the dangerous forest. ¡°How are we getting back though?¡± Tom asks, looking around the open fields and not seeing a single person. ¡°I sent a message to one of my family¡¯s servants in Chroni yesterday when I finally got a connection with them,¡± Juliana reassures him. ¡°Our lift should be arriving around midday.¡± ¡°Great! I don¡¯t know about you guys, but I¡¯m looking forward to eating some real food,¡± Tom says with a mischievous grin, dodging the expected strike from his sister as he insults her cooking. Emily grabs Tom by the bag before Hester can start her full assault, slipping it from his shoulders and tossing him to the wolves before sitting down on the grass. ¡°We may as well use this time productively,¡± she says as Juliana drops down next to her and the others settle too. She undoes a few drawstring pouches tied to her belt, each with a different pattern woven into them courtesy of Juliana, andys them out beside herself before reaching into the bag and pulling out some of the magic crystals within. Hester quickly notices and releases her brother from a headlock so they can join everyone in watching Emily divide their spoils. They spend the next few hours deciding who to give what to, filling the spatial pouches with only items they want to keep and leaving anything to sell for points in the bag. When they reach the end of the collection, Emily is surprised by the value Dante and Enzo assign to the Wind Walker, ten greater crystals. However, they quickly exin the rarity of convenient flight artefacts, so she epts their valuation while making a mental note to double-check once they return to The Dome. Enzo, Ivor, and Tom all agree to leave the burrower ant queen¡¯s heart with Emily, asking her to brew them earth drops when they return. Emily happily agrees, eager for a chance to brew theplicated potion. The car, the same one as on the trip there, arrives as Emily is doing one final check of the pouches. Noticing it¡¯s time to leave, she hands a pouch to each person, the weavings customised to fit them: Dante¡¯s is covered in mes; Enzo¡¯s depicts a muddy quagmire; Ivor¡¯s is made to look like a cauldron, with small vial¡¯s pouring multi-coloured liquids into it; Hester¡¯s shows crashing waves; and Tom¡¯s looks like a miniature fort with sturdy portcullises that reminds Emily of the dungeon they encountered. Holding their gifts close and thanking Emily and Juliana, they all pack into the car to leave. The drive back is quiet, with half the group falling asleep, and the other half happy to sit in silent contemtion. Juliana uses Emily¡¯s shoulder as a pillow, while Emily watches the countryside slide by the window, slowly getting closer to the city she¡¯s called home for thest year and a half as she considers her departure. Chapter 114 – Quiet Return Chapter 114 ¨C Quiet Return They arrive at the city¡¯s entrance in the early evening as the sun dips below the horizon. Emily gently shakes Juliana, waking her up as the car¡¯s engine turns off and theye to a halt before the towering city wall. ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± she says gently as Juliana lifts her head and wipes the crust from her eyes. ¡°Okay,¡± Juliana responds with a yawn. ¡°I¡¯ll go talk to the guards.¡± ¡°Do you needpany?¡± Juliana lightly shakes her head as she stands up and ces a kiss on Emily¡¯s cheek. She steps up to the door and shes a confident smile over her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯s just an identity check as a precaution,¡± she says as she slips out of the vehicle. Emily nods and remains seated, watching through the window as Juliana approaches the guards. She talks to them, with a friendly smile, for a few minutes and, after a few familiar procedures, checking her mana just like they did with Oscar on theirst return to Chroni, she walks back over to the car calmly. ¡°It¡¯s all sorted. Please head for Southern Edge Station,¡± she says to the driver on the way past before climbing into the passengerpartment again. Juliana settles back down against Emily as the car engine rumbles to life again, carrying them further into the city. They fall silent again as the car rolls along, only waking their other sleepingpanions when the door to the heavy-duty station elevatores into view. They leave the car, thanking the driver before joining a few wealthy-looking merchants and filing into the elevator to rise into the upperyers of the city. They step out of the elevator just in time to see a train roll into the station, and head straight for the noble¡¯spartment at the front. Only one of the booths is filled, holding a few mages Emily doesn¡¯t recognise that barely spare them a second nce as they pass, so they quickly grab an empty one and settle down for thest leg of their trip back. ¡°Do you guys have any ns now that we¡¯re back?¡± Emily asks as they wait for the train to move, keeping Tom from drifting off again as he rests his head against the window. ¡°Sleeping in a real bed,¡± he grumbles, the exhaustion of the long trip weighing on him heavily. Emily chuckles, and everybody else nods, agreeing with the sentiment of his words. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about going home for a bit,¡± Dante says thoughtfully, drawing his friends¡¯ curiosity. ¡°I haven¡¯t been back in a little over four years now, so I was thinking I should go visit.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t visited your family in four years?¡± Juliana asks with slight disbelief. ¡°Yeah.¡± Dante nods, tilting his head in slight confusion. ¡°That¡¯s normal, isn¡¯t it? When did youst visit home?¡± ¡°Ah, about two years ago,¡± Juliana admits shamefully. ¡°I haven¡¯t gone back to visit since Emi came to The Dome. I¡¯ve talked to my parents a few times, but they encouraged me to stay here since I¡¯m improving now.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t hold high hopes for you?¡± Dante asks with a teasing grin. ¡°Not really,¡± Juliana says with a shrug, leaning into Emily¡¯s side more. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for Emi, I¡¯d still be skipping my boring theory lessons, and they knew that. In fact, thest time I went back, I asked if I could just stay home. But, Dad told me to stay in The Dome at least until I reached second circle, since it would be shameful for a member of the family not to. I¡¯m d I did, but I think I may be heading home for good soon.¡± She turns her face into Emily¡¯s neck, and Dante gets the message to stop pushing, quickly turning his focus to the others instead. They spend the short train journey discussing ns for the next week. Tom falls asleep against the window, not joining in with the conversation, but Hester mentions ns for them to visit home again soon when Dante asks her. As they approach The Dome¡¯s station, their conversation dies down as they prepare to move, everyone excited to get a proper night¡¯s rest. Hester wakes her brother by wrapping her hand in a thinyer of water and pressing it to the back of his neck, making him jump awake with fright and giving the rest of them a goodugh. The train slides to a halt and they quickly disembark, walking through the quiet station and out along a suspended gangway, with the members of the other upied booth, to re-enter the city¡¯s magical hub. The quiet entry corridor echoing their steps brings Emily an odd sense offort as she bathes in the familiar magical light leading their way. It¡¯s strange, but I think I¡¯ll miss this ce a little once I leave. She nces sideways at Juliana, walking hand in hand with her, and smiles a sad smile. Maybe more than a little bit. *** The next morning, Emily slips out of bed at the crack of dawn. She gently ces a kiss on Juliana¡¯s cheek, smiling as her girlfriend pulls in a pillow to rece her, before quietly getting dressed. With her armour, boots, and ws prepared, leaving the Spitter in her belt, she moves to the door. cing her palm t against it, Emily closes her eyes and pushes her mana into it. She quickly feels out the runes making up the enchantment engraved into it, before attributing her mana with space and charging the connections around the activation rune with her mark. With a light pulse to the activation rune, the door fades out of ce as usual, but her mark remains. Good. Jules should still be able to get out. Emily takes off down the corridor as the door appears back in ce. She leaves The Dome and boards a train heading towards the airship docks. Sitting alone in herpartment, she watches the city through the window, admiring the way the early morning light pours between the towers of metal and mist surrounding her. I wonder if they took inspiration from The de? She calmly steps off the train after it slides into the extravagant station connected to the docks, taking in the vast hall around her to figure out where to go next. She scans through the crowd of people, busily shuffling about their business despite the early hour. There¡¯s more people here than before, despite it being so early. Looking around, Emily notices several details she ignored on herst visit when she was far more interested in the trains themselves than the station. The wall she entered through upon her first arrival to Chroni is lined with doorways, varying in size from small, single-person pathways down to hangars up to wide channels leading further into the city¡¯s wall. There are several guards stationed along the wall watching the doorways, all of them a mix of first and second circle mages, judging by the mana signatures Emily can sense. I guess it makes sense that they¡¯d station some of their stronger guards at the city¡¯s main entrance. I can even feel a few third circles nearby. She turns around, ncing at one of the doors she feels a stronger signature behind, marked with ¡®staff only¡¯. Continuing past it, she sees the far wall is lined with shops: some take the form of open holes in the wall offering mouth-watering food, the scent of which Emily can faintly detect under the stench of metal, oil, and coal filling the room; the others are enclosed with wide windows disying their wares to draw in the passing pedestrians. Emily turns back to the exit wall, leaving the tform as she tries to locate the staff desks where she can ask about theing departures. She spots her target down one of thergest channels leaving the main hall and quickly weaves through the crowd, barely brushing against the surrounding people as she nimbly slips past them. However, as she steps into the wide hallway, she feels a hand reaching for her shoulder from behind. Instantly, she spins around, her hand shing up to sp the unknown assant¡¯s wrist before they can make contact with her. Emily looks at the surprised face of the man who has approached her, and quickly adopts a simr expression. ¡°Anton?¡± she asks in slight disbelief, taking in the short man and the familiar rat¡¯s nest on his head. ¡°Hey, Emily!¡± he greets, wincing slightly as she releases his wrist. ¡°It¡¯s been a while. Have you put on some muscle?¡± ¡°Clearly more than you,¡± she scoffs, looking over his greasy overalls covering his scrawny frame with a look of disdain. Antonughs, and Emily immediately breaks into a grin. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again, kid. How¡¯s the big city treating you?¡± ¡°Well enough,¡± Emily says, rolling her eyes at his use of Ang¡¯s nickname for her. ¡°You say that as if I¡¯m from a small city.¡± ¡°Haha, fair point. So, what are you doing here? Heading somewhere?¡± ¡°I was going to check when there¡¯s a ship next heading to Eimdon. I want to go visit my sister,¡± she responds, watching his reaction closely. ¡°Really?¡± he asks, his friendly smile unwavering. ¡°We¡¯re heading by there on one of our routine cargo runs in a few days. You can catch a ride with us if you want.¡± ¡°That would be perfect, thank you! Are you taking anything interesting back? Any guarded cargo?¡± she asks with a mischievous grin, prodding for more information. ¡°No, no. Nothing like that. We¡¯re just taking some standard textiles, minerals, and preserved food. We can make a fair profit by selling simple stuff from Chroni to desert-locked cities: there are always people there willing to pay for things from far afield.¡± ¡°What a shame,¡± Emily responds, rxed now she knows the Mandragos are not involved in the trip. ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound like there¡¯s anything fun to take even if no one¡¯s protecting it.¡± ¡°Maybe I should have Tony stand guard after all,¡± Anton says, narrowing his eyes in mock caution. ¡°Like that big softy would ever stop me! Anyway, when will we be leaving?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve nned for 8 am in four day¡¯s time. I¡¯m not sure which hangar we¡¯ll be in, we may get moved around between now and then, so I¡¯lle meet you at the train.¡± ¡°Got it. I¡¯m looking forward to being on Calypso again.¡± ¡°Of course you are! No one can resist our beautiful ship!¡± Anton beams with pride as he waves goodbye and starts off into the crowd again. Four days to finish my business in The Dome. Not long now. I¡¯ll see you soon, Anna. *** Emily returns to The Dome and heads straight to the information hub to gather materials. She purchases a small collection of items, from sandworm bile to rockthawn sap, before returning to her room. She walks in through the still unlocked door, finding Juliana still fast asleep, clutching a pillow tightly. Chuckling silently, Emily removes the remnants of her tampering from the door, re-engaging the magical lock, before moving to the workbench in the middle of the room. She quietly sets up her equipment for potion creation and prepares her materials. The morning passes quickly as Emily pours her focus into theplicated brew, mixing pieces from almost a dozen different creatures and nts in a delicate process that fills the room with the sound of bubbling water and a warm, earthy fragrance. It¡¯s midday by the time she finally pours the contents of her cauldron into three small ss vials. The viscous, dark-brown liquid fills them all to the brim before running dry, and Emily¡¯s focus is finally broken by a voice behind her. ¡°Can you even put a cork in those?¡± She turns around and sees Juliana sitting up in bed, her chin resting on the pillow still in her arms, watching intently. ¡°Not yet,¡± Emily says, shing her a smile and gesturing for her toe over. Emily turns back to the workbench, as Juliana crawls out of bed, and picks up three fingertip-sized, white-spotted, green seeds, resting in a bath of murky, sand-coloured liquid. ¡°Earth Drops were named after the final form the potion takes when you add these little things, mycorium seeds soaked in earthworm bile,¡± Emily exins, holding out the seeds for Juliana to see. ¡°Those horrible vines are used for Earth Drops?¡± Juliana asks in surprise, taking one of the seeds from Emily¡¯s hand and holding it up to inspect. ¡°No wonder we were told to be careful not to step on their seed pods.¡± ¡°The vines themselves don¡¯t get used that much, only for a few poisons as far as I¡¯m aware. But the seeds are very useful. Depending on how you treat them, they can react with potions in some interesting ways. Drop that one into one of the vials and watch,¡± Emily says, stepping aside to allow Juliana ess to the potions. Nodding, Juliana raises the seed above a vial and drops it in, watching it vanish into the opaque liquid within. Instantly, the brew starts to quiver, forming a small vortex around the seed as it falls to the bottom. The water level lowers slowly as the reaction continues, and Emily reaches over to ce a cork on the top just as it hits halfway. The moment the airflow into the vial stops, the water level freezes, and the mixture shifts in colour until it¡¯s a translucent light brown, revealing the seed within. The seed has grown to twice its original size and transformed into a faintly glowing brown orb. ¡°Woah!¡± Juliana exims, staring at the vial in wonder. ¡°Impressive, right? It¡¯s my first time seeing the reaction too,¡± Emily admits as she drops the other two seeds into their vials. ¡°Very!¡± Juliana agrees with an enthusiastic nod before turning to Emily and wrapping her arms around her waist. ¡°Are you done now? We should probably head to lunch soon.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m ready,¡± Emily says as she corks the vials with one hand, the other resting around Juliana. ¡°More ready than you in fact. Unless you n on going dressed like that?¡± Juliana blushes at Emily¡¯s teasing smile, pulling back a little and ncing down at her nightgown. ¡°This is your fault,¡± she grumbles, looking back up with an adorable pout. ¡°If you weren¡¯t so pretty when you¡¯re focused I would have gotten dressed ages ago.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emilyughs before wrapping her other arm around her girlfriend and pulling her in for a kiss. ¡°Go get dressed while I clean up then,¡± Emily says after they separate. ¡°Unless I look too good while doing that too. Then you¡¯re wee to keep watching.¡± Juliana sticks out her tongue and turns around, walking towards the bathroom. Emily chuckles as she does, but a pang of sadness quickly dampens her mood. We only have four days left. Chapter 115 – Settling Affairs Chapter 115 ¨C Settling Affairs ¡°Did you guys sleep well?¡± Emily asks as she and Juliana join their friends at a table in the cafeteria. ¡°Like a pop frog in the talons of a sominal bomber,¡± Tom replies with a satisfied smile. ¡°I woke up about ten minutes ago!¡± ¡°He wouldn¡¯t have woken up at all if I hadn¡¯t mmed on his door,¡± Hester grumbles. ¡°Ha,¡± Danteughs, throwing his arm around Enzo. ¡°We¡¯ve been up for hours training already!¡± Everyone looks at them with curiosity, confused by theirck of rest. Enzo lets out a tired sigh, rubbing his brow as he exins. ¡°Oscar asked us to join him in his training room for a catch-up this morning, and this idiot decided that meant we should exhaust ourselves,¡± heins before focusing on Emily. ¡°Oh, and I mentioned that you may be interested in selling some materials to him. He was excited by the idea and told me to let him know when to approach you about it.¡± ¡°Oh, thanks,¡± Emily responds. ¡°I¡¯ll go have a little chat with him after lunch. Speaking of, have you guys asked any of your families yet about anything they¡¯d like? I¡¯d like to know what I can actually sell him before we meet.¡± ¡°Mine have responded,¡± Dante says first. ¡°They requested as many mandibles and armour tes from fire-spitting bugs as possible. Oh, also they gave me permission to trade the resources I got for them as well as points. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯d be easier for you if your portion was in the form of crystals and metals, right?¡± Emily is momentarily taken aback by his careful consideration, but she quickly recovers and nods with gratitude. ¡°It would be, thank you. The less obvious it is to The Covenant that I¡¯m hoarding materials, the better. I don¡¯t think it will happen, but I don¡¯t want anyone contacting the Mandragos to ask about it. I¡¯lle see you after talking to Oscar to discuss it properly.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll be in my room.¡± Emily moves her gaze clockwise around the table, focusing on Enzo next. ¡°My family doesn¡¯t want anything,¡± he says with a yawn. ¡°Though, my mother asked if she could have a little bit of the archite flesh you kept. She wants to try some, but it¡¯s rare for someone to catch and sell one.¡± ¡°Oh, sure,¡± Emily quickly agrees. ¡°She can have some of the second circle flesh for free, or I can split off a small chunk of third for a crystal or two.¡± ¡°She only needs second, but are you sure about not charging me? We gave it a value when you imed it.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine,¡± Emily shrugs. ¡°A portion for eating won¡¯t be enough to dent my stock. I¡¯ll bring it to youter.¡± Besides, I only wanted it because I think I can use it in a brew of imperception to rece shadow boa flesh. I may not actually be able to. ¡°Thanks,¡± Enzo says gratefully as his and Dante¡¯s food arrives. ¡°No problem.¡± Next, Emily sweeps her attention past Ivor, who has been sitting still watching since she and Juliana arrived, to the twins. ¡°What about you guys?¡± she asks. ¡°We have a short list actually,¡± Hester says for the both of them, reaching into the spatial pouch at her waist and pulling out a small sheet of paper. ¡°We also got permission to trade our resources for them. In fact, we were encouraged to since they¡¯d have to send another member of the family with the points to negotiate and they think they¡¯d get a worse deal.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles, looking over the list. ¡°Well, they don¡¯t want too much anyway, so it won¡¯t take that much from you guys. I¡¯lle visit youter as well.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll be in my room whenever you¡¯re ready.¡± Finally, Emily turns her attention to Juliana beside her. ¡°What about you, Jules? Your family want anything?¡± ¡°They just asked for a few of the herbs we gathered and said thank you for the ring,¡± she responds with a light blush, running her thumb over the air walker resting on her right forefinger. ¡°You were the best fit for it anyway,¡± Emily says as Hester, Tom, and Ivor get their food. ¡°We¡¯ll talk about the herbs they wantter.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Juliana happily agrees, resting her head on Emily¡¯s shoulder as they wait for their food to arrive. *** After eating, Emily gives the finished Earth Drops to Ivor, Enzo, and Tom before heading to Oscar¡¯s dorm. Their discussion doesn¡¯t take long, as he agrees to buy all of the materials she offers for a bulk sum of points. Emily stays to talk to him for a little bit afterwards, probing him to make sure Enzo and Dante didn¡¯t mention hering departure and leaving soon after she¡¯s sure. The rest of her afternoon is spent visiting her friends, giving them their share of the sale to Oscar, and making small deals for their families. In the evening, after having dinner with her friends and making several bulk orders for magical resources at the hub, draining all of her newfound wealth, Emily and Juliana return to her dorm together. They kick off their shoes and copse on the bed together, where Emily reaches into her belt to pull out a small, empty leather-bound book. She frowns slightly as her hand vanishes into the ether, noticing a slight dy as she searches for the item within her packed storage pouch. Well, that¡¯s annoying. I should probably either refine the enchantment on this belt or make another item for longer-term storage. I don¡¯t need this many crystals and monster parts on hand in a fight, and I certainly won¡¯t need my workshop. ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± Juliana asks as she getsfortable curled up against Emily¡¯s side, pulling her from her thoughts. ¡°It¡¯s a little gift for Ivor,¡± Emily exins, pulling out her quill and starting on the first page. ¡°I talked to him earlier about the potions he wanted to try with the resources from the expedition, and he mentioned losing the notes he had on one of the recipes he wanted to try. Apparently, when he went to the library to remake them, he couldn¡¯t find the book with the best version of it, only a few halfpleted ones.¡± ¡°Wait, why are there halfpleted recipes in the library?¡± ¡°Quite a lot of alchemists are very prideful,¡± Emily says with a chuckle, remembering Mrs Myrtle¡¯s speech in her first lesson. ¡°So, they don¡¯t like giving away their full, perfected recipes. They miss out key details like timings and quantities sometimes to force the person following their instructions to work it out themselves. Some are better than others and don¡¯t do this, hence Ivor looking for a specific book, but, if not, you have to work out the recipe either through your own experimentation or by cross-referencing a lot of different books that miss out different details. That¡¯s what I had to do for the Earth Drops. So, I¡¯m writing down all the recipes I¡¯ve taken from the library for him.¡± ¡°Aww,¡± Juliana coos, cing a kiss on Emily¡¯s cheek. ¡°That¡¯s very sweet.¡± Emily scoffs, a light blush colouring her cheeks as her hand continues moving quickly across the pages. ¡°I¡¯m just paying back a favour I owe him.¡± It¡¯s the least I can do for the help he gave me on the brew of imperception. It would have taken a few more days of frozen time if he hadn¡¯t been there. *** The next day, after eating breakfast with her friends, Emily makes her way to the staff dorms. She goes straight to Agnes¡¯ door and knocks three times before stepping back and waiting. Almost a minute goes by without any response, but just as Emily turns to leave, the door vanishes. ¡°Hey, Emily. I was wondering when you¡¯d visit me.¡± She turns back, seeing Agnes standing in the doorway dripping with sweat, her greatsword strapped to her back as usual and an excited grin on her face. Emily looks her over, raising an eyebrow at her exhausted state. ¡°I had some admin to deal with first after returning,¡± she says dismissively. ¡°Did Ie at a bad time?¡± ¡°Not at all. I was just doing a light workout. Did youe to spar?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Emily says, a matching grin forming on her face. ¡°Now that I¡¯m properly used to my circle, I thought it only fair Ie kick your ass.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Agnes barks, stepping past Emily and gesturing for her to follow. ¡°Let¡¯s use the main training hall then. I¡¯ve been working on something new and don¡¯t want you saying you lost because you didn¡¯t have enough room to move around.¡± They quickly reach the teleportation circle, moving through The Dome and heading for the training hall. Therge door to the hall is open when they arrive, and they step in to find a group of twenty first and second circle mages sparring in a ten vs ten battle. The moment they enter the room, Agnes stomps on the ground, releasing her mana and letting her heavy aura fill the room. The fighting mages all instantly halt, their attention snapping to the threatening presence, a few of them letting out quiet, disgruntledints as their spells are interrupted. ¡°Everyone out!¡± Agnes calls, her voice filling the room as she uses a technique Emily recognises, filling her vocal cords with mana. ¡°But we booked the ha-¡° one of the braver, older-looking mages tries to argue before falling silent under Agnes¡¯ fierce, one-eyed re. The group cancel all of their ongoing spells and quietly file out of the room, casting fearful gazes towards Agnes as she doesn¡¯t remove her pressure, and curious gazes to the silent Emily beside her. Once they¡¯re all out, Emily follows her obsolete habit of warming up before a spar, and Agnes shuts the door behind them before drawing her sword and performing a few practice swings herself. They maintain a tense silence as they prepare, like the calm before a storm. After a few minutes, Emily stands up from stretching her legs and holds her hand out to the side. A faint purple mist flows from the belt at her waist, twisting up and around her arm before solidifying into a long, uniform, wooden staff. She grips the staff lightly, flicking it into a spin and twirling it deftly around her body before halting its momentum with a fierce crack against the ground, bouncing it back into a neutral position. ¡°Going with a staff today?¡± Agnes asks. ¡°What¡¯ll you use when I break it?¡± Ignoring her taunt, Emily remains silent, calmly raising her free hand and gesturing for Agnes toe at her. Agnes obliges, her manic grin growing with each step forward as she quickly closes the distance. They meet without a single spell being cast, having reached a silent agreement to follow their usual sparring pattern. Agnes starts with a sudden downward sh the moment she steps into reach, but Emily simply steps back, moving with controlled grace as she sweeps her staff across her body, lightly shifting Agnes¡¯ sword aside, before spinning it around to strike Agnes¡¯ shoulder in the same motion. Agnes halts in her step, a look of surprise on her face as she watches Emily move back further. ¡°Damn,¡± she says with aplex mix of emotions flickering across her face. ¡°You were moving slower than me just then, weren¡¯t you.¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Emily responds proudly. ¡°I can read you now.¡± Agnes nods, a look of eptance mixed with a hint of pride crossing her face before she settles back into apetitive grin. ¡°I guess I¡¯m going to have to learn from you now,¡± she says before charging forward again, restarting her offensive. Emily grins as well, her eyes scanning Agnes¡¯ body to take in every twitch of her muscles and every shift in her bnce, her mind running through an instinctual calction to predict her next move. Slowly, Emily spins her staff around, deflecting each of Agnes¡¯ blows while retreating, constantly moving backwards, side to side, and even slipping past Agnes to switch ces after a particrlyrge opening. They dance a waltz of wood and steel across the hall, with Emily drawing Agnes into her pace and leading her around by the nose. After a few minutes, Emily decides to push her flow skill further and starts to switch weapons. First, as Agnes attempts a heavy overhead sh, Emily presses her staff against the t of Agnes¡¯ de and slips past it, sliding her hands up her staff at the same time and summoning a pair of daggers from her belt. She shes towards Agnes¡¯ blind eye, but Agnes reacts just in time, flinching back and letting the de sail past her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood. Emily changes the direction of her des in an instant with a deft flick of her wrists, pressing the attack, but Agnes knocks her back with her shoulder before sweeping her de horizontally, forcing Emily to pull back. However, as Emily steps away, she also twists, thrusting her hand forward as a spear appears in her grip. Agnes pauses her sweep and hastily lifts her sword, knocking the spear aside and exposing a gap in her stance. Emily immediately ducks forward, closing the distance before Agnes can recover and delivering a solid blow to her gut with a pair of brass knuckles. Agnes grunts in pain, leaping back and sping her stomach. Emily doesn¡¯t pursue her, giving her a moment to recover. ¡°Does this mean we can use magic now?¡± Agnes goads, spitting out a mouthful of blood. ¡°Well, the winner was clear without,¡± Emily fires back, before slowly raising a single finger with a taunting smile. ¡°For the first minute, I won¡¯t use any offensive spells or speed enhancements. I¡¯ll start counting after you finish your preparations.¡± ¡°Confident, are we? I¡¯ll make you regret saying that,¡± Agnes ims, driving her sword into the ground beside her and cracking her knuckles. ¡°I finished making a new toy with Jenny recently. I¡¯ve been itching to test it on you!¡± Chapter 116 – Final Spar Chapter 116 ¨C Final Spar Agnes follows her confident words by starting a repetitive chant and weaving her hands together in an abstract set of hand gestures that Emily struggles to find sense in. ¡°I will not bend, my will won¡¯t shake. My body is steel, I will not break.¡± Emily watches in silence as a dense mist of silver and brown leaves Agnes¡¯ body. Some silver clings to her skin, forming into glistening runes that fade away to leave a metallic sheen, and the rest joins the brown in inscribing arge twisting magic circle on the dirt below. Agnes opens her eye as the circle pulses, and Emily instantly feels a shift around her as an invisible weight presses down on her shoulders. She twitches her fingers, feeling the difference in their movement, and focuses on her spatial awareness, feeling an odd distortion around her. Her cores run into overdrive to analyse the spell while Agnes halts her gestures and reaches for her sword, her mouth still moving, repeating her words. She¡¯s only using earth and metal, but she¡¯s managing to affect space somehow. It¡¯s not quite spatial disruption... is she attributing the space itself? It¡¯s making me slower and increasing my weight. Does it do more? Agnes raises her sword and bends her knees, her exposed tattoos lighting up as lightning buzzes across her skin. She shes forward, the circle on the ground following while keeping her in its centre, quickly closing the distance between them. Emily preempts her attack, stepping back using her full, natural speed, and raising her hand to bat aside the heavy, falling de. A flood of mana erupts from her, as she starts an internal timer, weaving together to form two magic circles. She deflects a few more attacks, the magic circle restricting her movement, forcing her onto the back foot as she switches from brass knuckles to a broadsword and meets Agnes de to de. Her two magic circles finish forming after a few exchanges, the first solid green and wrapped around her legs, and the second a mix of blue and silver hovering at her back. Emily pushes forward as they finish forming, driving a stab towards Agnes¡¯ chest as liquid metal shoots from the circle behind her, flying between Emily¡¯s cheek and Agnes¡¯ iing de before solidifying and blocking the blow. Agnes, holding the advantage in speed at the moment, deftly slips past Emily¡¯s attack and swipes her sword towards Emily¡¯s feet, but Emily leaps off the ground, stepping on an invisible foothold and propelling herself out of Agnes¡¯ reach. Agnes¡¯ eye follows her, a look of intrigue crossing her face as she keeps chanting without end. Trying not to let Emily take control of the battle¡¯s pace again, Agnes pursues her closely, aiming blow after blow towards her retreating form. Emily switches to dual daggers and falls into a rhythm of deflecting blows and controlling her magical shield, using her manoeuvrability to stay just at the edge of Agnes¡¯ reach despite her inferior speed. She¡¯s made me slower and herself faster, but she doesn¡¯t seem as used to high-speedbat as me, especially while multicasting. She¡¯s not taking full advantage of the speed that tattoo gives her yet. Her mental processing appears to begging slightly, and there is a lot less variation in her speed than there is in her normal unenhancedbat. Is that a fault in my tattoo? Does it not give her enough adjustability, or is it just an issue with her control? As the time ticks down, fast approaching the end of Emily¡¯s given one-minute grace period, she can¡¯t help but admire Agnes¡¯ restriction spell. Therge circle on the floor slowly grows in brightness, exerting more and more force on Emily, attempting to hold her still. It also slows the mass of liquid metal flying around to protect her, gradually challenging her more and more. If I was forced to fight in these conditions for another few minutes, she might actually beat me. What a useful spell. Emily¡¯s internal timer hits two seconds left as Emily leaps over a low sweep, but a small warning bell goes off in her mind. Agnes stomps lightly on the ground, suddenly sending a spike of packed dirt towards Emily¡¯s back. At the same time, Agnes changes the direction of her sword and shes at Emily¡¯s side with a surprising burst of speed. Reacting calmly, Emily creates another foothold of air and kicks off, arcing backwards and sliding narrowly between the de and spike. Agnes chases her, a new spike rising from the earth with each step, but Emily makes her metal shield slide beneath her, stretching out and solidifying into a sheet that blocks all the spikes. Emily calmly pushes herself off the rising metal sheet with her hands, flipping around tond outside Agnes¡¯ range with a gloating grin. ¡°It was a good attempt. But your time¡¯s up,¡± she says as she cancels air walk, and casts sky step. Agnes, sensing danger, leaps forward to try and cancel Emily¡¯s casting, but Emily falls back, forming her metal guardian into a solid wall between them that slows Agnes down. By the time Agnes steps around the thin wall blocking her, Emily¡¯s spell has finished casting, wrapping her legs in crackling lightning. Agnes barely has time to blink as she catches a single glimpse of Emily standing, wreathed in lightning, before she dashes away, reaching the edge of therge magic circle that fills half the hall before Agnes can move to follow. The moment she leaves it, her speed increases explosively, the restraints holding her back gone, and she vanishes from Agnes¡¯ sight. Emily springs around the room, bouncing off every surface around her as she builds up more charge in her legs. Agnes¡¯ head spins, trying to keep up with her to no avail. She stands in a defensive stance, quickly backing up towards the wall to force Emily to approach from the front. You lost the moment I finished casting. Emily kicks off a wall, rocketing towards Agnes and dropping into a slide, discharging her legs against the ground below her, ripping Agnes¡¯ magic circle to shreds as a scorching line is drawn across the hall. She appears in front of Agnes before she can even react, rising up and slipping a de past her guard in a single motion as shees to a sudden, jarring halt. Emily lightly presses the de against Agnes¡¯ throat as both of their spells disperse. ¡°Good fight,¡± she says before rxing and pulling back, stowing her daggers in her belt. ¡°Damn,¡± Agnes mutters with a chuckle, sheathing her sword with one hand and raising the other to rub her throat. ¡°You¡¯ve really be a monster.¡± ¡°Haha, I had the best to learn from. Speaking of, you¡¯re triple casting now?¡± Emily questions with intrigue. ¡°The triple casting is an old trick,¡± Agnes says, copsing down to sit on the floor, leaning against the wall. ¡°It¡¯s not true triple casting. I can¡¯t maintain two or more third circle spells at once, but I can internal cast earth spikes while channelling one third and one second circle spell. How about you?¡± ¡°Ha, trying to gauge my abilities through conversation because you can¡¯t inbat?¡± Emily teases, settling down beside Agnes. ¡°Well, it depends on the spells. I can cast up to eight at once if they¡¯re simple, but when they get moreplicated, like guardian and sky step, my defence spell and thest attack spell I used to beat you, it goes down.¡± ¡°Eight?¡± Agnes says with a disbelieving scoff. ¡°Goddess, that¡¯s insane. Even during the height of the war I never met a mage able to use more than four spells at once. Still, it¡¯sforting to know that those two spells are a big deal even to you. My wrist still hurts from hitting that damn metal, and that lightning ripped through my earth lock with ease.¡± ¡°Earth lock, is it? It was very impressive. Does the slowing effect have a limit to its increase?¡± ¡°It does. It would have kept increasing for another minute before hitting its peak if you¡¯d stayed within it. Unfortunately, it seems even that wasn¡¯t enough to hold you.¡± ¡°Well,¡± Emily says, pushing off the ground and walking away backwards, gesturing for Agnes to follow. ¡°Why don¡¯t I give you two minutes this time?¡± *** Emily and Agnes spar until Emily checks The Clock and sees it¡¯s time to meet her friends for lunch. ¡°I think we¡¯ll have to call it there,¡± Emily says, standing over Agnes¡¯ fallen figure. ¡°Urgh,¡± Agnes groans, wiping sweat and blood from her brow and sitting up. ¡°Finally letting me go are we?¡± ¡°Hey, you¡¯re the one who asked to keep going after draining your mana. You can¡¯t me me,¡± Emily responds with a grin, offering her hand. ¡°You got me there,¡± Agnes chuckles, taking Emily¡¯s hand and pulling herself up. ¡°I have to make the most of having a good opponent to fight while you¡¯re here.¡± Emily pauses, her eyes narrowing with a cautious glint. ¡°Who told you?¡± ¡°Ha, no one,¡± Agnes responds, throwing an arm around Emily¡¯s shoulders and leading her towards the door. ¡°I¡¯ve sparred with you enough to somewhat understand you. There¡¯s no way you¡¯d stay in The Dome. There¡¯s not enough conflict here for you.¡± Emily rxes slightly, raising a brow at Agnes¡¯ statement. ¡°You think I seek conflict?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Agnes responds without a hint of humour in her voice, surprising Emily with her serious tone. ¡°We¡¯re very alike, Emily. I left my home when I was young to join the army, to shed blood as I forged myself into a weapon for my kingdom. You¡¯ve been born into a time of rtive peace, but I can see it in your eyes. The drive to fight. The need for excitement. The desire for blood.¡± They stop by the closed door to the hall, moving apart as Agnes spins Emily to face her, resting her hands on her shoulders. ¡°We may not follow the same path, but I can tell yours will still be paved with death, and you won¡¯t find that here. So, obviously, you¡¯re leaving soon. Am I right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Emily nods, an odd sense offort rising in her chest at the calm manner in which Agnes confronts her bloody nature. ¡°I¡¯m leaving in three days. This will probably be thest time we see each other.¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± Agnes says, pulling Emily into a firm hug. ¡°You¡¯ll always find friendship if youe looking for me, and I pray to Goddess that we never meet in battle. I fear I wouldn¡¯t be able to keep my head.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles, giving Agnes a squeeze before pulling away and facing her with a smug grin. ¡°You think I¡¯d kill you? Nah, capturing The Iron Valkyrie alive surely has more benefits.¡± ¡°Ha. You could certainly try.¡± Emily pushes the door open and steps out into the corridor, turning to see Agnes standing still inside the hall, not intending to follow her out. ¡°Goodbye, Agnes.¡± With a final appreciative nod, Emily turns and walks away. *** Emily joins her friends to eat, receiving a disappointed pout from Juliana as she wipes the dried blood from an already-healed gash on Emily¡¯s cheek, reminding her to use cleanse. After eating, their friends leave for lessons and private study, while Emily heads to the library with Juliana. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Juliana asks as they step out of the transportation circle into the tall stacks of books. ¡°Nothing in particr,¡± Emily says, picking a small table and making her way towards it. ¡°I want to finish the recipe book for Ivor, and there are a few potions I know of but haven¡¯t looked at yet. Other than that, I have a short list of some interesting books from the A grade section that I want to read before I go.¡± ¡°What are they about?¡± Juliana asks, pulling out a notebook and dropping down in a seat as Emily stops beside a table. ¡°Various things, from elementals to history. Quite a lot of them may be useless to me, but I thought it important to use the information I have ess to before I lose it. Wait here, I¡¯ll be back with some books in a moment.¡± Emily walks past, running a soft hand along Juliana¡¯s shoulders as she does, before vanishing into a nearby corridor of books. A green magic circle forms around her legs, carrying her up into the topyers of the shelves to browse on a set of invisible stairs. She pulls up a map of the library drawn into her notes, looking over the various titles marked down forter reading. If I¡¯m fast this should only take a few days of frozen time. I can also prepare for that¡­ She nces back at Juliana with a warm smile before turning her attention back to the stacks. Let¡¯s leave Ivor¡¯s gift till the final loop. *** That evening, after several uses of The Clock, Emily shuts the cover of Ivor¡¯s gift, the pages within filled with valuable information. Sheys her palm t against the nk cover, delicately spreading her mana across it to form a title before igniting it and scorching it into the surface. ¡®Alchemy Basics¡¯ She holds up the book with a satisfied smile, hearing a soft giggle in her ear from Juliana, resting her head on Emily¡¯s shoulder half asleep. ¡°Is that what counts as the basics for you?¡± Emily chuckles, rxing against her girlfriend as she sends the book into her storage. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not basic because everything in it is simple. It¡¯s basic because I think you could give it to someone with zero experience in the field and they¡¯d be able to start brewing without any other texts,¡± Emily exins. ¡°I added a fair amount of my own observations and notes on the processes required, and I went a little bit overboard. Most of the extra information will probably be irrelevant to Ivor, but I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t mind.¡± Juliana hums in agreement, reaching out to take Emily¡¯s now empty hands in hers, ying with her fingers idly. They quietly rx in the calm atmosphere of the library for a short while, until Emily checks the time and decides to head to the cafeteria. They arrive to find only Ivor and Enzo sitting together, both silently staring into space as they wait for their food to arrive. ¡°Hey,¡± Emily says as they join them at their table. ¡°Just you guys?¡± ¡°The twins haven¡¯t arrived yet,¡± Ivor signs with a nod. ¡°And I haven¡¯t seen the pyro since lunchtime,¡± Enzo adds. ¡°I see.¡± Emily nods, narrowing her focus on Ivor as Juliana orders them food. ¡°I have a small gift for you.¡± Ivor and Enzo both look on with intrigue as Emily reaches into the belt at her waist and pulls out the book. She holds it out to Ivor, who tentatively takes it in both hands, turning it around to read the title. ¡°You told me you couldn¡¯t find the recipe for the iron-wed brew, so I decided to write you a little recipe book,¡± Emily exins casually. ¡°I¡¯ve included some extra notes on the processes that may help you, but feel free to ignore them if my methods don¡¯t suit you.¡± Ivor carefully opens the book, slowly flipping through the pages as Enzo watches over his shoulder. Tears slowly build up in his eyes, shocking Emily, and after reaching the back cover, he finally looks up. ¡°Could you sign the inside cover, please?¡± he signs, passing the book back to Emily. ¡°Why would you want my signature?¡± Emily asks with confusion. ¡°When you make a name for yourself, I¡¯d like to keep this as a family heirloom to remember an old friend,¡± he responds with surprising sincerity. shing him a gentle smile, Emily takes the book from him and opens the front page, cing her hand against the inside cover to burn a message into it. To my dear friend Ivor Juric, Thank you for your friendship and support in my time at The Covenant. I hope you live a happy, fulfilling life, and I look forward to seeing the potions you create. I expect great things from you. -Emily Coldstone She hands the book back and watches as Ivor reads the message before bursting into tears and clutching the gift to his chest. ¡°Thank you,¡± he signs through his tears, pulling on Emily¡¯s heartstrings. Chapter 117 – Last Date Chapter 117 ¨C Last Date The next day, Emily spends her morning working on a new spatial storage. She crafts a small bag holding several spaces within, linked together like her belt, which she sorts through, moving the excessive magical materials within to the bag. Afterwards, she begins the slow process of taking apart the pipe system in her room, disconnecting every machine and stowing them in her new long-term storage. Her friends join her after lunch to help. Before eveninges, the room is back as it was when Emily moved in a year and a half ago. They spend the remainder of the evening rxing in Emily¡¯s room together, talking andughing about their time in The Dome until the early hours of the morning. As everyone leaves to make their way back to their own rooms, Emily and Juliana are left alone. Emily approaches Juliana, hugging her from behind as she waves their friends goodbye, resting her chin on her shoulder. ¡°Hey, Jules?¡± Emily asks softly. ¡°Yes, Emi?¡± Juliana responds, leaning back into her. ¡°Let¡¯s go on a date tomorrow.¡± Juliana tilts her head to face Emily with a smile. ¡°dly,¡± she whispers against her lips, letting Emily close the distance. *** In the morning, Emily and Juliana leave The Dome and board the train together, dressed casually, with Emily¡¯s weapons in her belt for once. ¡°Do you have any ns in mind for our date?¡± Juliana asks excitedly as the train leaves the station. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have the full day nned out. Only the evening,¡± Emily replies. ¡°Is there anything you¡¯d like to do in town?¡± ¡°I¡¯d quite like to visit Auntie Annie, and you could do with a haircut.¡± ¡°Fair point,¡± Emily says, running her fingers through her long hair. ¡°I¡¯ve been putting it off for a while and it¡¯s gotten quite bad.¡± ¡°Perfect! I know exactly what you should get,¡± Juliana chirps, her eyes lighting up in anticipation. ¡°So, you¡¯re choosing, are you?¡± Emily asks with a raised brow, a teasing smile ying on her lips. ¡°Yep!¡± ¡°Haha, fine. Would you like to help me pick my piercings too? I want to get some more.¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to. How many more are you thinking?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Maybe five or six.¡± Juliana nods enthusiastically, reaching out and tucking Emily¡¯s hair behind her ears to get a better look at them. ¡°I definitely have some ideas. This is gonna be so fun!¡± The train carries them out into the city, towards themercial district. They first visit a popr hair stylist, where Juliana happily debates with them about what to do to Emily¡¯s hair while she simply sits back and watches on, happy to trust her girlfriend¡¯s judgement. ¡°Have you finally decided?¡± Emily asks as Juliana bounces over with the stylist, Roberto, in tow. ¡°Yep! We¡¯re trimming your fringe and bringing the rest of your hair back to shoulder length,¡± Juliana exins. Emily nods, sitting back and letting Roberto run a brush through her silky locks. ¡°It¡¯s such a shame to cut all this off. You nobles always have such lovely hair,¡± Roberto mutters wistfully, cing down the brush as he doesn¡¯t find any knots. ¡°She looks prettier with shorter hair!¡± Juliana states resolutely, making Emily chuckle. ¡°It also gets in the way less when fighting,¡± she adds, receiving an eye roll from Juliana. ¡°Your hair didn¡¯t seem to cause you any issues in The de.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just that good.¡± They joke andugh as Roberto cuts Emily¡¯s hair, removing the long excess grown during months of disregard. By the time he¡¯s done, Roberto can¡¯t help but agree with Juliana¡¯s judgement as Emily pulls silver from her belt to pay him. ¡°It was a shame to remove so much, but it really does suit you,¡± he says as he takes his payment with a grateful bow. ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily replies, turning to face Juliana. ¡°How do I look?¡± Juliana steps forward, reaching up and taking Emily¡¯s chin in her hand, tilting it from side to side. A blush rises to Emily¡¯s cheeks as she stands still under her girlfriend¡¯s intense gaze, letting her move her to her will. ¡°Stunning,¡± Juliana whispers, pulling her hand back and shing a dazzling smile. ¡°And you¡¯ll look even better with more piercings. Let¡¯s go.¡± Emily nods, the colour in her face fading again as she steps forward and wraps an arm around Juliana¡¯s waist, leading her out of the shop. They slowly walk along the suspended gangways, taking in the sights of the expensive shops selling their wares and the well-dressed people browsing them. They eventually reach the piercing studio, a small shop down a quiet alley with disys of simple jewellery in the window. They step in, looking around at the art on the walls as their eyes quickly fall on the thin, heavily tattooed woman sitting in the corner drawing. She looks up as Emily and Juliana walk in, revealing her face, covered in metal and smiling warmly as she recognises them instantly. ¡°Hello again, it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen you two. What can I do for you today?¡± ¡°Hey, udia,¡± Emily says, shutting the door behind them. ¡°We want some more piercings.¡± ¡°Well, you came to the right ce then!¡± udia says with a chuckle, gesturing to the chairs in front of her table. ¡°Take a seat. I assume you know what you want done.¡± Emily and Juliana oblige, both nodding as they sit down. ¡°I want my seconds done on both sides,¡± says Juliana, tucking her hair behind her ears so udia can see them better. udia leans forward, narrowing her eyes for a moment as she focuses before she sits back and nods. ¡°Sure, you have plenty of room. What about you, Emily?¡± Raising a brow, slightly surprised the woman remembers her name, Emily grins. ¡°I want a lot.¡± udia¡¯s eyes light up, but she quickly schools her expression, offering Emily a warning. ¡°How many? It¡¯s not a great idea to get too many at once. It will slow down your healing.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Emily waves off her concern. ¡°I heal very quickly anyway. I was thinking of seven.¡± udia excitedly leans forward again, her caution abandoned with Emily¡¯s disregard of her clear warning. ¡°All on the ears?¡± Emily quietly shakes her head, and udia ps with joy. ¡°Finally! It¡¯s been ages since I did something other than ears. Come on. Give me specifics.¡± ¡°I was thinking two more on my left lobe,¡± Emily starts, tucking her hair behind her ears and pointing to the inner left fold. ¡°And one here. Then on the right, two up here.¡± She runs her finger along the cartge of her ear as udia nods along, inspecting the cements with a practised eye. ¡°And finally, a lip and eyebrow on the right side.¡± ¡°Good choices,¡± udia says after a few moments of silence, leaning back in her seat. ¡°Asymmetry suits you.¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± Juliana chirps, having suggested most of the cements herself. ¡°That¡¯s what I told her. It matches her eyes.¡± Emily doesn¡¯t react, remaining still despite the bubbling difort that rises in her chest at the mention of her eyes. Neither Juliana nor udia notice as they keep talking. udia rises from her seat, gesturing towards the disys at the front of the shop. ¡°Take a look and choose the jewellery you want while I prepare,¡± she says before turning to the drawers behind her. Emily quickly presses down her difort and moves with Juliana to the disys, looking over the various hoops and studs presented. Juliana picks a pair of simple silver-coloured hoops, while Emily chooses an assortment of ck studs and hoops. By the time they turn back, udia has rolled her chair over to the padded table in the middle of the room, with a small portable table beside her holding needles and mps. ¡°Right. Which one of you wants to go first?¡± Juliana eagerly steps forward, sitting down on the edge of the table. ¡°Me!¡± ¡°Haha,¡± Emily chuckles at her enthusiasm, pulling over a chair to sit beside her as udia grabs a needle, mp, and hand mirror. ¡°Could you hold this for me please,¡± udia says, handing Emily the mirror. Emilyplies, holding up the mirror for Juliana to look at as udia moves the blunt end of the hollow needle along her earlobe, adjusting the cement until Juliana is happy. Emily lowers the mirror after she¡¯s happy, cing it down and taking Juliana¡¯s hand in hers. udia mps her ear in ce, putting the sharp end of the needle to it and noticing Juliana tense slightly. ¡°I¡¯m going to count down, and I want to you take a nice deep breath for me on two,¡± udia says gently ¡°One. Two.¡± On two, Juliana takes a long, deep breath, and on three, she sps Emily¡¯s hand tighter as the needle pierces her flesh. Emily strokes her hand in a soothing motion, and she rxes after barely a moment. ¡°There we go,¡± udia says, hooking one of the silver hoops into the end of the needle and sliding it into the new hole. ¡°Now for the other side. Do you need the mirror again?¡± ¡°No thanks,¡± Juliana replies. ¡°Just make them match.¡± udia nods, grabbing another needle and positioning it, following the same process of counting down for her. After Juliana¡¯s finished and has a satisfied look, she and Emily switch ces so she can hold up the mirror as udia starts on Emily¡¯s left lobe. They choose the ce for the first piercing quickly and, as Juliana ces the mirror down, Emily offers her hand with a grin. Juliana happily takes it as Emily calmly waits for udia to start. ¡°Would you like a countdown as well?¡± she asks. ¡°No thanks. I¡¯m ready whenever you are.¡± udia nods, pushing the needle in without hesitation. Emily focuses on the sensation of the cold metal sliding into her skin, letting out a sigh of satisfaction that even surprises herself. Her eyes widen, and a light blush appears on her cheeks as Juliana gives her a curious look. ¡°Metal feels...fortable,¡± Emily admits quietly, struggling to put her feelings into words. ¡°Haha,¡± udiaughs at the exchange, patting Emily on the shoulder after putting a cap on the back of the new stud in her ear. ¡°No need to be embarrassed. I feel the same. Why do you think my face looks like this?¡± The slight tension in Emily¡¯s shoulders rxes at the reassurance, and Juliana silently squeezes her hand, tracing her other hand up Emily¡¯s arm in a soothing motion that warms Emily¡¯s heart. ¡°Thanks,¡± she says with a grateful nod as they continue to the next one. After finishing her left lobe and the two new piercings in her right ear, udia asks Emily to lie down for the rest. Emily finds the process rxing and, by the time they¡¯re done, she¡¯s almost tempted to get more. This will do for now. I can always pierce myselfter. It¡¯s not like my hands will shake. Running her tongue over the metal loop on her lip, tasting the metal and grinning with satisfaction, Emily pays udia. They both thank her before leaving to roam the city, eating meat skewers from a food stall for lunch, and visiting Annie to chat and browse her clothes. As eveninges, and Emily¡¯s departure grows ever closer, she leads Juliana towards the edge of the city, approaching the wall in the northwest from the ground. ¡°Why are we out here?¡± Juliana asks, ncing around at the quiet streets, and up at the tall buildings surrounding them. ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± Emily says as they step onto a street with a clear view of the base of the wall. They walk closer and, as they approach the looming wall, Emily turns and sweeps Juliana up into her arms. ¡°Ah,¡± Juliana squeaks, wrapping her arms around Emily¡¯s neck and looking at her sceptically. ¡°I¡¯m notining, but why did you just pick me up?¡± ¡°So I can do this,¡± Emily responds with a grin, leaping up into the air as a green magic circle forms around her legs. She climbs invisible steps, rising up to the top of the wall before stepping onto the open metal top. ¡°Emi!¡± Juliana cries quietly as they crest the top, ncing around with concern. ¡°We¡¯re definitely not allowed up here. What if the guards find us?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily replies with a confident smirk, setting her down. ¡°They won¡¯te by this section again until an hour or so after dark, and they don¡¯t have a magical warning system for people scaling the wall from the inside.¡± Juliana narrows her eyes, following Emily to the outside edge. ¡°How do you know this?¡± Emily simply shes her a smile, summoning a pair of cushions from her belt and setting them down. I don¡¯t need to tell her about pissing off the guards in frozen time to prepare for this. She sits down with her feet hanging over the edge, tapping the cushion beside her. Juliana drops down on the cushion with a huff, leaning against Emily¡¯s shoulder and gazing out across the grasnd stretching into the horizon, staring at the setting sun. Emily silently pulls out tters of meats and bread and they eat infortable silence, no words needed as they enjoy each other''s presence. The sun creeps lower the whole time, eventually bathing the ins in a golden hue. After they finish eating, Emily puts the empty tters away and wraps an arm around Juliana, who leans her head against her shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful,¡± Juliana whispers, finally breaking their silence. ¡°It is,¡± Emily agrees, tracing the skyline with her eyes. ¡°I thought it fitting for our...st date.¡± ¡°Mmh,¡± Juliana hums, tearing her eyes away from the horizon and turning to kiss Emily on the cheek. ¡°I certainly won¡¯t ever forget it.¡± She pulls away, and Emily looks over to see her reaching for her ne. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to work out the right time to give you this, and you¡¯ve set the scene perfectly!¡± She pulls her hand back with a long, sandy brown length of fabric following. One side is bare, but the other has a long chain of faintly glowing green runes. ¡°I thought that if you were going back to the desert, you¡¯d probably want a scarf to keep away the sun and sand,¡± Juliana exins with a faint blush, tentatively holding the scarf out. Emily smiles and lowers her head, letting Juliana wrap the gift around her neck. She reaches her hand up to run her fingers along the soft but sturdy fabric, noticing a floral scent and bringing it closer to her nose to sniff. ¡°I gave it an enchantment for air cleansing,¡± Juliana says. ¡°If you breathe through it, it will block all bad odours and dust. Instead, you¡¯ll smell the lilies I imbued it with. They¡¯re my house flower, and I hope it will always remind you of me no matter where you are.¡± Emily meets Juliana¡¯s tearful gaze, dropping the scarf and reaching out to wipe the tears from her cheeks. ¡°It¡¯s perfect,¡± she says, unable to keep the croak from her voice as her own eyes water. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have anything to thank me for. You¡¯ve already given me so much: I just wanted you to have something to remember me by. I love you so much, Emi, but I can¡¯t follow you.¡± Emily feels something in her heart break at Juliana¡¯s straightforward admission, and her tears flow freely. ¡°I can¡¯t be with you forever. I¡¯m just not strong enough.¡± Emily wants to say something. To tell her it¡¯s fine and she can protect her anyway. But images rise to the front of her mind: images of Juliana¡¯s body, lying lifeless and broken on the dungeon floor; images of Juliana cowering in her arms after descending into the depths of The Crystal Waters; images of Juliana shaking in fear after Emily scared off a group of lowlifes in the city. Her churning emotions bend the air around her, making the winds sway to a slow beat as a faint mist of water surrounds them as if the air itself was crying. Juliana leans forward, pressing her forehead to Emily¡¯s and running a hand along her cheek, releasing the tension in her jaw with her touch. ¡°I¡¯ve¡­ epted that,¡± she whispers quietly, her words dripping with pain and only fuelling the magical maelstrom around them. ¡°After tonight, we¡¯re done. So, please. Just for tonight. Can we forget about that and just be each other¡¯s onest time?¡± Emily can¡¯t bring herself to speak, gently nodding before shutting her eyes and locking their lips together in a final embrace of sorrow and desire. Chapter 118 – Goodbye Chapter 118 ¨C Goodbye The next morning, Emily wakes up an hour before her departure. She slides out from under Juliana, leaving the peacefully sleeping girl alone before climbing into the shower. She stands under the warm stream of water, letting the calming flow wash away her doubts about theing goodbyes. After a few minutes, she leaves the shower, drying herself off before equipping herself with armour and weapons, this time without her robes, with her new scarf wrapped tightly around her neck instead. She steps out of the bathroom to find Juliana sitting on the end of her bed, fully dressed and staring at her with a wistful smile. ¡°Is it time?¡± she asks quietly. Emily walks over and pulls her into a hug, nodding her head as Juliana¡¯s arms wrap around her waist. ¡°Yes. We should go,¡± she says, holding their embrace for a few moments before pulling back and offering Juliana her hand. She pulls the girl onto her feet and leads her to the door. Taking onest nce around the almost empty room behind her, ignoring the case the Mandragos sent her with, Emily steps out into the corridor. They quickly head for the transportation circle at the end of the hall, taking a short jump to arrive at the exit hallway leading to the station. They run into Ivor before they make it out of The Dome, and he joins them without a word as they leave. In the station, they find Enzo and Dante, who both quietly nod in acknowledgement when the others enter. Nobody speaks as they stand together on the tform, waiting for the train to arrive with an air of morbid anticipation. It¡¯s not until the train slides into the station a few minutester that the twins arrive, running into the hall and frantically looking for the others. ¡°Thank Goddess,¡± Hester mutters with a sigh of relief, casting a disappointed re towards her brother. ¡°I thought we might have missed her because of your stupid sleeping habits.¡± Emilyughs at their entrance, releasing the unseen tension that held the group''s silence. ¡°You¡¯re certainly cutting it close. Am I not worth losing your beauty sleep over?¡± she asks Tom with a teasing tone. ¡°Of course you are!¡± Tom jumps to defend himself. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m any better at getting up in the morning.¡± Emily chuckles, turning and leading everyone onto the train. They settle down in a private booth and fall back into silence as the heavy machine carries them though the city to the wall. No one speaks much during the ride with everyone waiting for Emily to initiate the conversation, which she never does. The train arrives at the docks a few minutes before eight, and Emily leads her friends off. The moment she steps onto the tform, Emily immediately spots Anton waiting for her. He notices her as well, sharing a nod of acknowledgement before heading towards her across the busy tform. Emily turns her attention to her friends as he approaches, taking a deep breath and finally speaking to them. ¡°I guess this is goodbye,¡± she says, watching theplicated expressions on her friends'' faces. ¡°I¡¯ve never really had many friends before, but I¡¯m d you guys are on that short list. If it wasn¡¯t for you¡­ Well, it¡¯s thanks to you that I¡¯ve enjoyed my time in The Covenant. Thank you!¡± Emily¡¯s friends all start with surprise, caught off guard by her sudden sincerity. Dante recovers first, stepping forward and pulling Emily into a firm hug. ¡°It¡¯s been an honour to fight with you,¡± he says before forcefully patting her back and pulling away, shing her a wild grin. ¡°I¡¯ll miss blowing things up with you.¡± ¡°Me too,¡± Emily says with a matching grin. ¡°Also, your fire¡¯s gotten hotter since I met you. Focus more on your mana maniption. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s your mental image that¡¯s holding you back right now.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± he says, stepping back into the group with an appreciative nod. ¡°Thanks, Emily.¡± Enzo steps forward next and offers Emily his hand. She shakes it firmly as he speaks. ¡°It¡¯s been an honour to see your magic first-hand. I look forward to hearing about your future achievements,¡± he says, drawing an eye roll from Emily. ¡°You¡¯re so oddly rigid at times,¡± Emily says with a chuckle, patting the back of his hand. ¡°It¡¯s good. I think it suits you better. You should focus more on your mental image. If you¡¯re going to specialise in restraining and controlling, you should specialise your image of earth first.¡± Enzo nods thoughtfully, giving Emily a small bow as he steps back and thanks her for her advice. Tom steps forward next, pulling Emily into a hug with tears forming in his eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll miss you,¡± he says quietly before pulling away and putting on a foolish grin. ¡°Got any magical advice for me?¡± ¡°Haha. Learn to shut up,¡± she replies with a teasing grin. ¡°In all seriousness though, if you can work out how to present as a bit less of an idiot, I think a leadership role would suit you. You¡¯re good at reading the room, I think you¡¯d manage people well.¡± Tom nods, a thoughtful yet slightly disappointed look crossing his face as he steps back. ¡°Leadership is a talent, Tom. I mean it,¡± Emily says quickly, noticing his mixed feelings. ¡°It¡¯s not one I have either. You¡¯re the one who kept everyone¡¯s morale up in The de. Don¡¯t underestimate yourself.¡± Tom¡¯s shoulders rx a little as he shes Emily a warm smile. ¡°Thanks.¡± Hester steps forward next, meeting Emily in a hug. ¡°I¡¯ll miss you,¡± she says as she squeezes Emily before whispering into her ear. ¡°I meant it by the way. Even if you be a fugitive, you¡¯re wee in our home.¡± Emily pulls back and smiles. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°No, thank you. I never would have made it this far this quickly if you hadn¡¯t taken me to The de.¡± ¡°You made the most of that experience on your own, I can¡¯t take much credit. Stay curious, Hester, and question everything. I believe it¡¯s an important trait for a mage. Oh, also give runes a closer study. I think you¡¯d be good at spell creation.¡± Hester nods and steps back, giving Ivor ess to Emily. He steps forward with tears rolling down his cheeks, clutching the book Emily gifted him on Alchemy to his chest with one hand while offering the other. ¡°Come here, big guy,¡± Emily says, rolling her eyes and using his hand to pull him into a hug. ¡°I¡¯ll miss you.¡± She pulls away, releasing the tall man from her grip and smiling at him with tears in her own eyes as she switches to signnguage. ¡°I hope the book serves you well. Please look after J for me.¡± Ivor nods, a firm resolution set on his face. ¡°Good luck,¡± he signs before stepping back. Emily finally turns to Juliana, her heart aching as she looks at the tearful girl who steps forward with purpose. No words are needed as they meet in a tight embrace, burying their faces into each other¡¯s shoulders onest time. They remain locked together for a short while before Juliana pulls back and lifts a hand to gently stroke Emily¡¯s cheek. ¡°I¡¯ll never forget you, Emi,¡± she whispers, biting her lip and trying to keep her pain from her voice. ¡°Nor I you,¡± Emily says, lifting a hand to hold Juliana¡¯s against her face. ¡°Goodbye, Jules. Thank you for loving me.¡± Emily steps back, Juliana¡¯s hand following her for a moment before slipping away as she turns and walks towards Anton, who¡¯s waiting patiently for her to finish her goodbyes. He tactfully chooses not to say anything as Emily walks straight past him, turning on his heels to quickly follow her. As they disappear into the crowd, Emily wipes the tears from her cheeks and casts a final gaze over her shoulder at her friends. She waves goodbye before turning back to the front, the image of Juliana weeping into Ivor¡¯s shoulder burned into her mind. It¡¯s not until they reach the far wall, covered in passages to different hangars, that Emily finally pauses and addresses Anton. ¡°Where¡¯s Calypso?¡± she asks quietly, making eye contact with him, her cold gaze sending a shiver down his spine. ¡°Hangar eighteen,¡± he says pointing towards one of the small doorways a short distance away. Emily nods, her gaze warming a little as she shes him a weak smile before turning and walking over to the indicated path. She steps into the narrow metal corridor with Anton close behind, leaving the bustling station. ¡°You don¡¯t seem like you n oning back,¡± Anton says cautiously after a few minutes, as they reach a stairwell sinking into the wall. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I n on doing,¡± Emily admits as tears form in her eyes again. ¡°I mighte back, and I might not. I decided it best to give my¡­ final goodbyes. In case I don¡¯t.¡± Anton nods in understanding, giving her a supportive pat on the shoulder and not pushing any further, giving the girl time to process her emotions. They continue down the stairs in silence, the sound of their feet hitting metal their onlypany in the narrow chute. It doesn¡¯t take long for them to reach the end of the passageway, and it levels out as it opens up into arge, open hangar. Sitting in the centre, exactly as she remembers it, is Calypso. Emily¡¯s eyes run over the smooth metal panelling, lingering on every dent and scratch that only add to the beauty of the craft as methods to fix them quickly run through her mind regardless. Anton walks past her as she pauses to take in the ship, gesturing for her to follow. Emily pulls her focus away, noticing a young-looking boy, probably fourteen or fifteen, frantically circling the ship with a clipboard in hand. The moment the boy notices Anton, he runs over to meet them excitedly, his choppy blonde hair bouncing with each step. ¡°Everything is in working order!¡± the boy announces proudly as he stops in front of the pair, failing to hide his curious nces towards Emily and her gear. ¡°Good job,¡± Anton responds, pointing to Emily. ¡°This is Emily. She¡¯ll be joining us for our trip to Eimdon. Treat her with respect, she¡¯s a guest. Emily, this here is Podrick. We picked him up over in Folkard on ourst major trade run. His dad runs one of the shipyards up there and wanted him to get some hands-on experience maintaining a working trade vessel.¡± ¡°Hello, Emily!¡± Podrick chirps, offering her a quivering hand. ¡°Wee aboard.¡± Emily raises a brow, reaching out and sping his hand, holding it steady as she slowly shakes it. ¡°Hello, Podrick,¡± she says calmly, without a hint of emotion on her face. ¡°Have you been enjoying your time on Calypso?¡± ¡°Yes! It¡¯s been very interesting. She¡¯s a wonderful ship.¡± ¡°Indeed she is,¡± Anton says with pride, stepping forward. ¡°Now let¡¯s board her. It¡¯s time to leave.¡± Emily follows, walking beside him without missing a beat, and Podrickgs behind a step, hurrying to catch up and walk on Anton¡¯s other side. They approach the lowered steps onto the ship and climb up, entering the side of the hull. ¡°You¡¯ll be staying in the same room asst time,¡± Anton says to Emily as he shuts the hatch behind them. ¡°Can you remember the way?¡± Before Emily can answer, Podrick eagerly offers his services. ¡°I can show you if you want.¡± ¡°That¡¯s alright,¡± Emily declines, stepping past him towards the crew¡¯s quarters. ¡°I can remember the way perfectly fine. I¡¯ll join you guys on the bridge after dropping off my bag.¡± She quickly makes her way through the ship, the pathways as fresh in her mind as if she had explored them yesterday. Heading up the stairs to the crew¡¯s quarters, she heads straight for the far end, opening the door to the room she usedst time and slipping in. She shuts the door behind her and tosses her bag onto the bed before reaching into a pouch on her belt. She pulls out a small metal box with a few air runes carved into it and a pin sticking out of the top. She holds it against the wall beside the door and uses a light touch of metal and fire to fuse it in ce. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Screamer¡¯s Surprise] [Rank:] E [Description:] An artefact made from a screamer¡¯s voice box to warn the user of a break-in. [Effect:] When the pin is removed, releases a sonic attack to stun intruders and alert the user. _____ I pity the bastard that sets this thing off without protection. Taking a thin wire from her belt, Emily ties it between the pin and a scrap piece of metal before she slips out of the door. She closes it until only a gap narrow enough for her arms is left, and ces the metal scrap against the inside face of the door, fusing it in ce as well. Satisfied with her makeshift defences, Emily makes her way to the bridge. She hears a loud screeching whistle outside and feels the ship shifting beneath her as she leisurely strolls through the narrow corridors, taking a long route to waste some time as the crew prepares to depart. She walks past a few storage rooms, peeking in to see stacked crates and barrels held down by fabric straps, and she even pokes her head into a crawlspace on the way past, hearing shuffling within and spotting a pair of legs crammed between two pipes deep inside. By the time she steps into the bridge, Calypso is already sliding forwards and up, leaving the dock¡¯s mountings with graceful ease. ¡°Hey, kid. It¡¯s good to see you again,¡± Ang says, spinning in her chair to face Emily. ¡°Hey, Ang,¡± Emily responds with a subdued smile. ¡°It¡¯s been a while.¡± ¡°Sure has,¡± Ang responds, raising a curious brow as she looks Emily up and down. ¡°You expecting a fight? That looks like some quality gear.¡± ¡°Nah, not unless you really annoy me. And thanks. I made it all myself.¡± Ang whistles in an impressed tone before spinning back to check on the ship¡¯s surroundings through the periscope. ¡°So cool!¡± Podrick squeaks, drawing Emily¡¯s attention to him, standing beside Anton¡¯s chair. ¡°Clockmaker turned weapon smith, ey?¡± Anton remarks with a grin, not looking away from his control panel. ¡°Is that why they sent you to the capital?¡± ¡°Something simr,¡± Emily says dismissively, approaching the wide ss window spanning the front of the room. She gives Tony a polite nod as she passes him, receiving a light smile in response. She stands in the window, admiring the view of the stretching ins from above for a few minutes before turning back again. ¡°Wanna see the city onest time?¡± Ang asks, spinning the periscope to face her. ¡°Yes please.¡± Emily leans into the viewing lens, finding it already set to a rear view. She takes in the sprawling city of metal and steam, her gaze drifting from the high wall and the pirs of smoke to therge Dome near the centre, a pang of sadness squeezing her chest. A tear rolls down her cheek as she pulls away, lifting the scarf around her neck to take a shaky breath, breathing in the painfully familiar floral scent before she turns to leave the bridge. Goodbye. Chapter 119 – The Call Chapter 119 ¨C The Call Emily decides not to return to her room immediately, instead taking a stroll around the ship to calm down. She wanders around, lost in thought and listening to the light hum of the engine, ever-present while the ship is in motion. She isn¡¯t surprised when she looks up after a while and realises she has made her way to the engine room unconsciously. Feeling that no one is close, Emily approaches the door and opens it before stepping into the warmth and noise of the ship¡¯s beating heart. She shuts the door behind herself, walking to the centre of the room and appreciating the suspended mass of metal pumping out steam. ¡°I wonder if I can scan the whole ship now,¡± she mutters to herself absentmindedly. Emily sits down in front of the giant engine, cross-legged with her eyes shut. She releases a slow stream of machina into the floor, first flooding the engine room before guiding her energy to spread throughout the rest of the ship. Her cortex processes the vast quantity of information flowing in as her reach spreads, creeping out to epass the whole ship and showing her every nook and cranny of the giant machine. Emily¡¯s focus drifts around the ship, watching the fine workings of theplicated craft as her tension slowly dissipates, the process rxing her immensely. After a few hours of watching the ship work and analysing everything from the pipes to the rotors, she opens her eyes and lets out a breath of satisfaction. ¡°It¡¯s incredible,¡± she says with admiration, looking at the system window floating before her. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Machina scanplete! Blueprint created: Calypso [Calypso] [Type:] Steam Airship [Tier:] 1 [Rank:] E [Description:] A medium-sized cargo airship built for the Mandrago family¡¯s private transport needs. Designed for speed and stability while carrying a heavy load. _____ ¡°And yet it¡¯s only E rank,¡± she says, standing up with a confident grin. ¡°I can definitely improve it.¡± With a new goal in mind, Emily stands up and leaves the engine room. She returns to her room, detaching the metal scrap that would activate the Screamer¡¯s Surprise through the door before opening it and stepping in, not bothering to reset her trap behind her. Settling down on her bed, she pulls up a new page in her system notebook and pulls in the blueprint of Calypso. However, as she starts to pull apart the propellers in order to tweak their design, she feels a light pulse of manaing from her belt. What¡¯s that? Uncertainly, Emily reaches into the belt, feeling about for the source and quickly pulling it out. Her heart drops when she sees themunication crystals sat on her palm, the very same one she first saw on this ship on the way to Chroni. ¡°Why are they trying to contact me now?¡± she hisses. ¡°Did Anton tell them I was returning?¡± Taking a single, deep breath, Emily regains her mask of absolute calm and sends a stream of mana into the crystal. ¡°Hello, girl,¡± Diego¡¯s familiar voice flows from the crystal, igniting a spark of rage in Emily¡¯s chest that she quickly suppresses. ¡°Introduce yourself.¡± ¡°Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago,¡± she responds, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Why is he getting me to introduce myself? ¡°Report on your progress in The Covenant. How far have you progressed?¡± Do they know I¡¯m third circle? Did someone tell them? Have they been watching me? Without hesitation, not even a quiver in her voice to betray her suspicion, Emily begins a falsified report. ¡°I¡¯vepleted the basic etiquette, geopolitics, and English courses. I¡¯ve alsopleted intermediate maths, and I¡¯m the top student taking intermediate magicbat and theory,¡± she says, pausing for a moment to see if he reacts to her falsehoods before continuing. ¡°I¡¯ve reached second circle, and I feel my progress growing with each day. I believe I¡¯ll make third circle before the deadline.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Diego responds, a pleased note in his tone. ¡°We have heard great things about you. We¡¯ve also heard you joined an expedition with house Salvia. Why did you not feel the need to ask us if you were allowed?¡± He didn¡¯t question me missing out all the extra courses I¡¯ve been taking, but they have heard about my first expedition. They must not be watching me closely at all. Rxing a little, Emily quickly spins a reasonable excuse. ¡°I was never told to report to the family to ask for permission for anything. You told me to attain honour for the family and advance as much as possible. I thought entering The de to gather resources and experience there would help to that end.¡± She hears a tongue click, and a quietly mutteredint that mixes together into an unintelligible buzz through the crystal. A small vindictive grin creeps onto her face, satisfaction bubbling in her chest at his irritation. ¡°I understand. In the future, you must request permission before doing anything other than direct orders. Now, on to the main reason for my call,¡± Diego says, his voice overflowing with malicious intent that sends a shiver down Emily¡¯s spine as a foreboding feeling of dread forms in her gut. ¡°Return to Eimdon and kill your sister.¡± The crystal in her grip disintegrates as her hand clenches and lightning explodes from her in an instant. A raging maelstrom of power and anger consumes her, melting lines into the walls of the room and causing the entire ship to shake. Emily notices the shaking and takes a deep breath, forcing her anger down and drawing her mana back under her control as she falls into a calming state of meditation. Once the violent storm has reduced to a faint crackle dancing along her skin, Emily¡¯s eyes open again, a simmering rage still buzzing within. ¡°Why do they want her dead?¡± she growls, standing up from the shredded remainder of her bed and pacing within the narrow confines of the ckened room. ¡°And why are they asking me to do it? Is it just to torture me? I wouldn¡¯t be surprised, the sadistic bastards.¡± She grits her teeth as lightning sparks between them, holding her anger under control. It could be a test, or maybe they¡¯re just trying to break me. Their brainwashing method has obvious ws, and it¡¯s probably easier to control their vassals if they break their wills as well. Maybe they saw me going on an expedition and decided that showed enough disobedience to warrant breaking me. A loud bang fills the room as somebody ms their fist against the door repeatedly. Emily pauses her steps, turning her attention to the presence on the other side. ¡°Hey, Emily. You alright in there?¡± the captain of the night crew, Jon, calls from the other side. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m fine,¡± Emily calls back. ¡°What was that shaking?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll go check in the bridge.¡± She feels him walking away down the corridor, none the wiser to her involvement. I¡¯ll keep lying about that outburst for now and reset tomorrow. I don¡¯t want to relive my goodbyes, but I can¡¯t show Diego anything is wrong, or they may execute Anna before I get back. She restarts her pacing, bringing her hand to her mouth and biting down on her thumb. Still, why now? It¡¯s been a while since that expedition and even if news was slow to get to them, I doubt it took till now. Did Anna do something to annoy them? Do they already have her captive? Shit, this makes it so much moreplicated. I should havee back sooner. Emily drives her fist into the wall, denting the solid metal ting before turning around and cing her back to it, sliding down to sit on the floor. ¡°There¡¯s no point thinking about that. Whatever¡¯s happened to Anna, I can¡¯t go back far enough to change it. I can only move forward. If they have her, I¡¯ll just have to get her back when I kill them.¡± With the lightning gone from her eyes, and her usual calm returned, Emily opens her notes again to pass the time. *** The next day, she resets to moments before Diego¡¯s call, returning to sit in a pristine room on her bed. She gives him the same lies as before, following the script until he brings up Anna. ¡°Return to Eimdon and kill your sister.¡± The moment the wordse through the crystal again, Emily grits her teeth, lightning shing behind her eyes as she holds in her rage. ¡°Understood,¡± she responds with a carefully controlled tone, betraying none of her anger. ¡°How should I get back?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll send the same airship asst time to collect you. They should arrive in five days, so be prepared to leave then,¡± Diego says, sounding almost disappointed by her calm response. ¡°You¡¯ll be returning to The Covenant to continue your training afterwards, so only bring what you need for a few days. That will be all.¡± The signal to the crystal cuts off the moment he¡¯s done, giving Emily no time to respond. ¡°Haa,¡± she lets out a long breath, crackling with charge. ¡°At least it seems like Anton never said anything to them: they¡¯re expecting me to arrive in a week.¡± She drops back onto her bed, staring at the ceiling as she puts the crystal back into her belt. She absentmindedly pulls out the bullet casing with the crystal skull carved into the side, rolling it between her fingers in a rhythmic pattern as her mind races, filling with different fears about what could be happening to her sister. ¡°Fuck it,¡± she spits, sitting up suddenly and flicking the casing into the air. ¡°I need a distraction.¡± She snatches the spinning casing and sends it away as she stands and leaves the room. Emily makes her way through the ship, returning to the engine room. She finds the heavy door unlocked, and steps in to see Podrick and Ash, the primary mechanic of the day crew with cropped ck hair and a sturdy build, looking at one of the belts dropping coal into a furnace with a tool kit spread across the floor beside them. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Emily asks, poking her head over their shoulders and making them both jump. ¡°Oh, Goddess, Emily,¡± Ash says, flinching away from her as they put a hand to their chest. ¡°I didn¡¯t hear youing. It¡¯s been a while. What are you doing in here?¡± ¡°I wanted to clear my head, and I like the sound of machines working,¡± Emily says, gesturing towards the belt in front of them with her head. ¡°Anyway, what¡¯s wrong? I may be able to help?¡± Ash raises a brow, looking at Emily sceptically as Podrick watches their exchange with intrigue. ¡°Have you been working on airships in Chroni? Didn¡¯t you say most of your experience is with clocks and the like?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve dabbled with a fewrger machines,¡± Emily says with a shrug, covering up herck of experience. ¡°It¡¯s worth having another set of eyes if I¡¯m here anyway, right?¡± ¡°Fair point,¡± Ash concedes with a nod. ¡°I¡¯ll never say no to free help. This belt here¡¯s sticking. I¡¯m not quite sure why though.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Emily hums with a thoughtful nod, stepping forward and inspecting the belt. The bearings in the upper rollers are worn down. I saw it with my scan earlier. She moves along the belt, pretending to look for issues at the bottom before grabbing a few sturdy pipes and pulling herself up to the hole a few metres off the ground where the belt enters the room. ¡°Here¡¯s your problem. The rollers up here aren¡¯t turning properly. The bearings are probably finished.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Ash asks, mbering up to join Emily with less grace and looking closely at where she¡¯s pointing. ¡°Damn, you¡¯re right. That was fast. Kid,e take a look at this.¡± Ash lets go of the wall, dropping to the floor with a thud, making way for Podrick to climb up. Emily does the same,nding without a sound and looking at Ash¡¯s scattered tools. ¡°I¡¯m assuming you don¡¯t have any spare bearings in there.¡± ¡°Not for these belts,¡± Ash says with a nod. ¡°We¡¯ll disable this one for now and have a look at the bearings still there to see if we can get away with just some oil. If not, I¡¯ll go grab some spares from storage. Wanna help?¡± ¡°Sure. I was looking for a distraction.¡± With a nod, Ash turns and moves to a panel on the wall, grabbing a wrench on the way past. While they¡¯re creating ess to the valves to turn off the spinning belt, Podrick nimbly drops down from above and looks at Emily with curiosity. ¡°Are you a mechanic?¡± he asks, looking down at her armour. ¡°I thought you were a soldier or something.¡± ¡°I¡¯m certainly not a normal mechanic, but yes,¡± Emily says with a grin. ¡°I made all of my gear.¡± ¡°Woah,¡± he exims, his gaze drifting to the pistol on disy on her leg. ¡°What¡¯s that? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen anything like it before.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a gun,¡± Emily exins, proudly pulling the sleek ck and grey pistol from its holster and pulling out the magazine to show the bullets within. ¡°I call it the Spitter. It uses a magazine system to hold bullets instead of a cylinder like most other pistols. They allow for much higher capacities in a small form, and they¡¯re very quick to reload.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so cool! What¡¯s that crystal for?¡± ¡°Decoration,¡± Emily lies, not feeling the need to exin the truths of magic to the boy. ¡°Oh,¡± Podrick responds with a bit of disappointment, quickly moving on to something else. ¡°What are those arm guards? Do they do something?¡± Emily drops the Spitter back into its holster and pats him on the shoulder as the belt beside them grinds to a halt and Ash starts walking back over to them. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll show youter.¡± *** After fixing the faulty belt, and recing the old bearings that had worn too much to be salvageable, Emily heads to lunch with Ash and Podrick. They enter the mess hall, a small room with a few tables to seat ten or so people, and see Anton and Ang already sitting with Eva, the daytime cook, a short, plump woman with wiry, brown hair. ¡°Hey,¡± Anton says, waving them over to join them at the table with arge steaming pot in the middle. ¡°Didn¡¯t expect to see you guys together. You nning to be more social on this trip, Emily?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Emily responds with a shrug, sitting down and grabbing a bowl to serve some stew into. ¡°I went by the engine room and found these two doing some repairs, so I decided to help.¡± ¡°She¡¯s good,¡± Ash cuts in, noticing the surprised look on Anton¡¯s face. ¡°She spotted the issue with one of the coal belts within seconds. She¡¯d be a big help if she joined me for the rest of my repairs: she has better eyes than me.¡± Anton nods, looking at Emily with a mixture of respect and a teasing grin. ¡°Have the Mandrago¡¯s been teaching you to be a mechanic in Chroni?¡± Anton asks sceptically. ¡°Last time you were onboard, you were excited to just look at the engine. You definitely weren¡¯t up to repairing it.¡± Emily looks back at him with a yful glint in her eye, pressing down the simmering rage threatening to rise at the mention of that name. ¡°Well, I am now, but if you¡¯d rather not have an amateur working on your ship, I understand,¡± she says, reaching over to pat Ash¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll just sit back and leave the work to the professionals. Sorry, Ash. I wish I could help.¡± Anton chuckles, as Ash looks towards him, unamused. He holds up his hands in mock defeat. ¡°Sorry, sorry. Please do us the honour of helping to fix our puny ship,¡± he says, bowing his head in an exaggerated manner. ¡°Ha,¡± Emilyughs, joined by the others at the table, enjoying the show. ¡°Fine. Since you asked so nicely, I guess I¡¯ll have to.¡± They continue eating and joking around, but Emily slowly withdraws from the conversation, the yful banter reminding her of mealtimes with her friends in The Dome. Damn. I miss them already. Chapter 120 – The Calm Chapter 120 ¨C The Calm After lunch on the first day on the ship, Emily sticks with Ash and Podrick, ducking into crawlspaces and pulling off panels in the corridors to ess the ship¡¯s internals. Ash is amazed by Emily¡¯s uncanny ability to find the ship¡¯s faults at a nce, and, by the end of the day, they give her free rein to make repairs alone, designating a section of the ship for her to work on. The next day, Podrick chooses to follow Emily around, mesmerised by her increasing working speed as she slowly slips into her own pace, only limiting herself enough not to give away her superhuman nature. He barrages her with questions about her weapons and creations between repairs, showing a passionate interest in machines. In the evening, as she meditates alone in the engine room after dinner, enjoying the hum of the ship¡¯s beating heart, Emily starts to consider the excitabled. I wonder if he could be an awakened mechanic. I¡¯ve never really stopped to think about it, but if I awakened as one, surely someone else with as much passion for machines should have a chance. The air around her starts to buzz as she lets the machina in her body flow out, crackling along her skin. I couldn¡¯t find a single reference to a second type of awakening in The Dome¡¯s library, so I assume I¡¯m the first. How would a normal awakening for a mechanic work? I know mages can help each other awaken in a multitude of ways, but can I help another mechanic awaken? Do I want to? I have no reason to help Pod in particr, but it¡¯s nice to see another person as passionate about machines as me. The thought bounces around her mind as she cultivates and by the time she opens her eyes to stand up, she still hasn¡¯te to a decision. ¡°I¡¯d quite like to try awakening someone else to see if it¡¯s possible, but I probably want it to be someone I¡¯m close to. I¡¯d rather keep information about my dual awakening hidden. So, I need to be sure they won¡¯t tell others,¡± Emily mutters as she stands up. ¡°I could always try to awaken him, just to see if it¡¯s possible, then reset time if it works. Then again, if the system counts it as a hidden quest to awaken someone else, I¡¯d be forced to leave him be or kill him, and I¡¯d rather not do thetter. He¡¯s a sweet kid.¡± Emily leaves the engine room, her debate about awakening Podrick fading into the background as she walks towards her room and the foreboding dread in her gut bes her focus again. We¡¯re arriving early in the morning tomorrow. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m ready to face Anna again. The image of Anna staring at Herber¡¯s corpse with tears streaming down her face rises to the front of her mind unbidden, a ball of anger and grief forming in her chest. She takes a deep breath to calm herself as she disables her trap and opens the door. ¡°I¡¯ll just have to be,¡± she whispers to herself as she shuts the door and drops into her bed. ¡°She deserves a proper exnation.¡± *** Early the next morning, Emily intercepts Anton on his way to the bridge and pulls him into a half-empty cargo room. ¡°What¡¯s up, Emily?¡± Anton asks with a raised brow. ¡°I wanted to offer you a deal,¡± Emily responds, leaning against a crate and gesturing for Anton to getfortable. ¡°First, I want you to swear you won¡¯t say a word about what I¡¯m about to tell you to anyone.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t work for a noble family for as long as I have without learning to keep your mouth shut,¡± Anton responds with a grin, settling down against a barrel as his face drops into a more serious expression. ¡°I won¡¯t say anything. You have my word.¡± ¡°Good. Because what I want to talk about involves said noble family. To keep things short, the Mandrago family killed my father,¡± Emily says with a fierce glint in her eye, raising a hand as Anton¡¯s expression twists in outrage, gesturing to let her continue. ¡°So, I n to kill their Patriarch and a few of the others involved in return.¡± ¡°You what?¡± Anton exims, his anger giving way to pure disbelief. ¡°I get that you¡¯re angry, but that¡¯s suicide!¡± ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not. You see, magic¡¯s real,¡± Emily responds, lifting her hand and conjuring a crackling bolt of lightning above her palm, ¡°and I¡¯m quite good at it. I¡¯m confident in my ability toplete my goal and escape the country safely.¡± Anton stares at the fizzling glow above her hand in silence for a few seconds before shaking his head and looking into Emily¡¯s eyes with a look of resignation. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s crazy, but I¡¯ll take you at your word for now. What does this have to do with making a deal with me? Do you want me to help you escape?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Emily nods calmly. ¡°I¡¯ll be a wanted criminal and you¡¯ll be one too for aiding me and stealing Calypso, but think about it. It¡¯s a chance to be free. Isn¡¯t that the best part of taking to the skies?¡± ¡°Where would we go?¡± Anton asks, a flicker of hope igniting in his gaze. ¡°We can¡¯t go to Morzea. I¡¯m not a traitor.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to. I may n to kill important members of a noble family, but I don¡¯t n to join my birth country¡¯s enemy. We¡¯ll go to Dennari.¡± ¡°Ha, the war-torn continent? Now that¡¯s a death sentence.¡± ¡°No, it isn¡¯t actually. You may not know, but most of the fighting only happens on the frontlines, and New Denntimo is rtively stable within its borders. It¡¯s not perfect, but that¡¯s where we¡¯d go if you agree. I¡¯ll defend the ship until we get there, and I¡¯ll outfit it with defences and weapons as well in payment. Then, in a few years when I¡¯m strong enough to return to this continent without fear of the consequences, I¡¯ll help you get a pardon so you can return with pride and full ownership of Calypso, even if I need to talk to the royal family myself.¡± ¡°And why will they listen to you? Just how strong can you get in a few years?¡± Anton asks, disbelief still written in his expression. ¡°I¡¯m a prodigy in magic and machines,¡± Emily says with confidence. ¡°I know you don¡¯t understand magic - hell, you¡¯re probably struggling to believe it¡¯s real - but in thest year and a half, I¡¯ve grown enough that I could destroy the entire family on my own if I chose to. Give me a few more years and I¡¯m confident the royal family themselves won¡¯t want to make an enemy of me. You don¡¯t have to make a decision now. I n on making sure my sister is safe then gathering some information on my targets before I strike. So just consider it. Anyway, we should head to the bridge, we¡¯ll bending soon.¡± Anton hesitates for a few moments, judging her with a scrutinising stare before nodding with a small sigh and leading the way out. They quickly arrive at the bridge and Anton settles down to check hismand console silently as Emily¡¯s gaze is drawn to therge window and the rolling desert before them. The city, wrapped in a metal wall with a sea of sandy-brown surrounding it on all sides brings an odd sense of familiarity andfort to her. ¡°Ha,¡± she chuckles. ¡°I didn¡¯t think I missed it.¡± Anton nces back at her as he hears her muttering. ¡°You¡¯re excited to be back?¡± he asks with a confused quirk to his brow as she leans against the side of his chair. ¡°Mixed feelings,¡± Emily admits, her eyes trailing across the city, from the clustered scrap heaps outside the walls to the sparse noble¡¯s district. ¡°It looks so small now.¡± ¡°Ha, that¡¯s what travelling does,¡± Ang says, her face pressed to the periscope as she adjusts the dials on her control panel. ¡°Your hometown never quite looks the same when you have something topare it to.¡± Tony and Anton both nod at her words, and Emily turns her gaze towards the sky as they begin their descent towards the docks. She sees thick, dark clouds looming above, a rare oddity for the desert-locked city. ¡°Was there no rain herest year?¡± Emily asks as she stares at the clouds with a frown. ¡°Not as far as I¡¯m aware,¡± Anton says, his eyes remaining on his controls. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°We¡¯d normally get rain every three years,¡± Emily exins. ¡°Andst year marked three years since thest time.¡± ¡°Is that a problem?¡± Tony asks, noticing Emily¡¯s frown. ¡°No, not really,¡± she says with a shrug. ¡°It¡¯s just a dumb local superstition. Thest time the rain skipped a year, there was arge beast wave when it finally came. Since then, people say the rainingte is a bad omen.¡± ¡°Well, it looks like it¡¯s going to rain soon,¡± Ang says. ¡°And I can¡¯t see any beasts. So, I think you¡¯re fine.¡± ¡°Probably,¡± Emily agrees. ¡°As I said - just a dumb superstition.¡± *** The shipnds,tching onto a track on the floor that spins it around before carrying it deeper into the docks to its hangar. Emily says goodbye to Tony and Ang before walking with Anton to the exit, her backpack slung over her shoulder. They find Podrick, Ash, and Eva waiting by the door with Jon and a few other tired-looking members of the night crew when they arrive. ¡°Hey,¡± Emily says as they approach. ¡°Why are all of you here?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going out to check the ship¡¯s exterior,¡± Ash exins, pointing to Podrick. ¡°And we wanted to say goodbye. Thanks for all your help. You¡¯ve reduced my workload by a substantial amount in the few days you¡¯ve been here. I honestly wish you were staying with us.¡± ¡°Haha, it¡¯s no problem,¡± Emily responds with a smile. ¡°I enjoyed it.¡± ¡°Thanks for telling me about your weapons,¡± Podrick says, offering his hand. ¡°Next time we meet, I¡¯ll make something cool to show you!¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily chuckles, shaking the enthusiastic boy¡¯s hand. ¡°Sure thing. I look forward to it.¡± Yeah. I don¡¯t want to risk killing him. I guess I can find another test subject for awakeningter. ¡°We¡¯re going to visit our families or sleep in better beds,¡± Jon exins with a yawn, gesturing to the tired faces behind him. ¡°And I¡¯m going to buy more spices,¡± Eva says quietly before falling silent. Emily nods, unbothered by her reticent nature. The ship shudders slightly beforeing to a stop as a familiar horn res, telling them it¡¯s finished docking. Anton flips the lever by the door, opening the hatch and dropping the steps. ¡°I guess this is goodbye again,¡± he says, patting Emily on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll think about what you said, but regardless of what choice I make, it¡¯s been a pleasure flying with you again.¡± ¡°Sure thing. Thanks for the lift,¡± Emily says with a smile and a nod, stepping backwards onto the path down. ¡°I¡¯ll see you around.¡± She waves goodbye and turns to continue down to the floor. Not wasting any time, she heads straight for the pathway to the main hub of the docks, ducking into the narrow corridor and walking ahead with speed bordering on unnatural. She quickly reaches the end of the private hangar ess, stepping into the open hall with a surprisingly sparse crowd. Strange. There were at least double this amount of people here when we left. Has the rain really made people jumpy? She continues towards the exit to the docks, noticing groups of people huddled together around the stalls at the edge of the room, quietly chattering with each other. As she looks around, Emily spots a familiar, chubby man with salt and pepper hair, Gregory, sitting at his stall whispering to a few rich-lookingdies. She considers going to ask about her letter, but her desire to see Anna gets the better of her as she continues walking, leaving the docks. She steps out into the street and notices the guards she passes, standing by the side of the entrance to the dock, checking her out cautiously, their eyes sweeping over her cloaked figure. They share a few looks and quietly muttered words before one of them lets out a sigh and starts to approach her. ¡°You there. Stop,¡± he calls out in a gruff tone as she approaches. Fuck that. Emily ignores him and quickly ducks into a side street. She hears him increase his pace to catch up to her, but she dashes forward, reaching the other side and stepping out of the alley before he can even look in. ¡°Why are the guards on edge too?¡± she mumbles, slipping into another alley topletely lose her pursuer. ¡°It can¡¯t just be the rain. Something¡¯s wrong.¡± The feeling in her gut only grows worse as she speeds through the familiar, winding streets of Eimdon, finding them surprisingly empty of people. It doesn¡¯t take long for her old home toe into view, and a pang of pain twists in her chest as she takes in the changes. The small shop no longer has disys of watches and clocks in the window. Instead, the windows are full of trinkets and toys with a few cheap-looking dresses hanging behind them. Above the door is a small signbelled ¡®Scrappy Merchants¡¯, and in the centre is a sight that sends chills down Emily¡¯s spine and causes her to grit her teeth in anger: a carved crest of the Mandrago family. She approaches the shop, pushing on the door lightly and finding it unlocked. The door swings open, a familiar bell ringing out as it does, and Emily steps in. The room¡¯s empty of people, and the disys inside have been rearranged, new items filling the ss cabs that used to be popted by Herber¡¯s favourite works. Emily looks around with tears forming in her eyes. There¡¯s no sign of him left. Taking a breath to calm herself, she walks towards the kitchen door, hearing no movement deeper within the building. Why is the door unlocked if no one¡¯s in? Anna isn¡¯t that careless. Did she move out? She pushes open the door with concern, finding the kitchen unchanged. After a quick nce around, she continues on to the hallway, approaching the living quarters. She stops in front of the first two doors, first turning to her old room and pushing the door open. Inside she sees the room shifted about slightly, clothes that aren¡¯t hers left lying on the bed and a cab hanging open, clearly inhabited since she left. Frowning, she turns to Anna¡¯s room and opens the door, expecting the worst. The room is as Emily remembers it, but a cursory nce reveals a few changes. Beside the bed, lying on the floor, are a few weights that Anna certainly never owned before and, on the bedside table, there is a pile of used bandages, stained with old blood. But, she lets out a sigh of relief as she sees a unique picture frame made of clockwork pieces sitting on the bedside table, facing away from her, holding a picture she remembers drawing. ¡°It is still her room,¡± she mutters walking closer. She walks around the bed, heading straight for the chest of drawers that she knows Anna keeps her diary in, and pulls out the bottom drawerpletely. Underneath is a smooth panel of wood with a few finger-sized holes In the corner. She pulls up the panel, revealing a hiddenpartment that she made for her sister with a small, leather-bound book sitting in the bottom. Emily pulls out the diary with a small smile, remembering Anna asking her to help hide it from Herber, and turns around to be greeted by a sight that breaks her heart. The picture beside the bed that used to show her, Anna, and Herber sitting together has a violently scribbled blotch of ck inkpletely covering her image. ¡°Did she do this?¡± she quietly mutters in shock. Tears roll down her cheeks and a small, bubbling cloud starts to form around Emily as she walks back around the bed to pick up the picture and take a closer look. I thought she might me me, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this bad. What happened? After a few moments of staring at the picture, she sets it down and sits on the bed, flipping the diary open in herp. She wipes the tears from her face and draws her mana back under control as she flicks through the poorly divided entries, searching for the day it all went wrong. I buried Dad today. Emily stole something from the Mandrago family, and they put him to death for it. I watched him bleed out as she left with them. And I buried him. They sent someone after me too. At least I think they did. He showed up at our door while I was trying to move Dad¡¯s body. All he said was ¡°Your sister sends her regards.¡± as he drew a sword across my face. It hurt so much. I wasn¡¯t sure I could stop the bleeding. I¡¯m not sure I could have if it wasn¡¯t for the nice couple next door hearing my scream anding to help. Was that really from Emily? I don¡¯t want to believe it, but why did she go with them? Emily¡¯s tears flow again as the air around her crackles, anger and sadness mixing as she turns the page to the next entry. I went to ask her today. I walked all the way into the noble¡¯s district, despite what Dad always said. How can he stop me now? He¡¯s gone. He¡¯s dea I asked at the gate to speak to her. But they said she refused to see me. Why? Why is she working with them? Did she want this? I need answers. ¡°Wait, does she not know I left the city? Did she not get my letter?¡± Emily mutters, her mind shifting to the chubby merchant as a low growl leaves her throat. ¡°Gregory!¡± With a decision made to confront himter, she continues reading. I went to ask for her again today. It¡¯s been a month now. She hasn¡¯t agreed to meet me once. Did she even love us? I think I¡¯ll have to force her to. Dread starts to fill Emily¡¯s chest as she frantically flips through the diary¡¯s pages, skipping between the important entries. I applied to join the guards today. I needed an excuse to get into the Mandrago estate. Theyughed and told me I was too weak. They said toe back when I¡¯d built some strength. Two guards came to find me today. They said their names were Todd and Howard. They said they knew Emily and wanted to help me because of that. They think I want to join because I need the money now that Dad¡¯s gone. Like I want help from her friends. They gave me some weights and said one of them would visit every day to help me train until I was strong enough to join the guard¡¯s training. I let a merchant move in today. I ran out of money to keep buying food, and I wanted to focus on training. Apparently, I would need to train for years until I¡¯m considered elite enough to join the Mandrago¡¯s estate guards, so I think I¡¯ll have to break in. It¡¯s a year since Dad died today. I went to the Mandrago estate again to ask for Emily. She still refuses to see me, but I met the man who ordered Dad¡¯s death. He taunted me about it. I never understood Emily getting into fights, but I think I do now. I would have shot him if I¡¯d brought my gun. Why does he get to live? Why does she? Today¡¯s the day. I¡¯ve been watching the estate for a while now. I¡¯m confident I have the guard¡¯s schedules memorised. There¡¯s a gap between their watches. I can sneak in. I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m going to see Emily. I wish she never left. I¡¯m going to get answers. I¡¯m going to kill the ones that took my father from me. Even if that includes her. Chapter 121 – The Storm Chapter 121 ¨C The Storm Emily explodes into motion as her eyes fall on thest, tear-soaked diary entry, the reason for her sense of dread suddenly painfully obvious. They caught her. That¡¯s why they called me. She bursts out of the room, rushing through the building and onto the street before making a break for the Mandrago estate. She races through the city at inhuman speed. Discarding The Covenant¡¯s rule that dictates she shouldn¡¯t reveal magic publicly, she casts lightning step as she moves, zing a path through the city and ignoring the confused and panicked shouts of pedestrians as she flies past them. Within a few minutes, she arrives at the noble¡¯s district and charges towards the Mandrago estate¡¯s gate. The moment ites into view, she cancels her spell and digs her feet into the ground, deploying the spikes in her shoes and carving a channel into the neatly paved street as she grinds to a halt. Emily looks up at the gate and her breath catches in her throat. Above the delicately woven metal roots and the proud crest of the Mandrago family, impaled on spikes of metal, are several heads. On either side are a man and woman she doesn¡¯t recognise, and between them are Todd and Howard. In the centre, her expression frozen in an anguished scream of pain, is Anna. She¡¯s dead. Emily¡¯s hand instinctively reaches for The Clock¡¯s pouch as Herber¡¯s words echo in her head. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ They called me over twenty-four hours ago. Her eyes run over the gnarled scar running from Anna¡¯s left cheek to her right eyebrow. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ They called me here to rub it in. The air around her starts to ionise with a dull hum. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ I can¡¯t save her. The guards by the gate approach her, calling out to deaf ears. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ I can¡¯t apologise. The clouds above rumble with thunder. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ She was terrified. Her eyes light up with an otherworldly blue glow, sending shivers down the spines of the approaching guards. ¡®What have you done?¡¯ She died hating me. Something inside Emily snaps as she lets out a scream of rage, the crackling buzz around her being overpowered by a crash of thunder that she doesn¡¯t hear as the buzzing grows ever louder in her head. Lightning falls from the clouds above,nding on her and spreading outwards, tearing the approaching guards to shreds. Searing tendrils of electricitysh out from her, scorching the street and smashing into the gate, ripping it apart as Emily falls to her knees, tears forming in her eyes that instantly evaporate in the heat. Her gazends on therge mansion in front of her where she sees mages and servants frantically rushing out to check on themotion at the gate. Her eyes scan across them, every Mandrago family crest she sees adding fuel to the fires of her despair as more lighting falls from the sky, shredding the lush green estate and sending ripples across arge magical barrier that surrounds the buildings. Her mana quickly drains, therge phenomena taking its toll on her and bringing a sense of exhaustion that dulls her emotions, allowing the seething anger and sadness within her to solidify into a cold resolution. I¡¯ll kill all of you. She slips her hand into The Clock¡¯s pouch, pressing its activation button as she sees the Patriarch rise into the air above his home, angrily ring at her. Emily doesn¡¯t even flinch as he raises his hand and sends an invisible de of wind towards her, slicing her right arm clean off as time grinds to a halt. You¡¯ll be first. *** Emily finds herself back on Calypso, lying on her back in a crawl space with a wrench in her hand, raised above her to change a rusted section of piping. The buzzing screech in her mind is still present, almost drowning out Podrick¡¯s next words. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± he asks beside her as she suddenly stops mid-repair. ¡°Nothing,¡± she responds with a frigid tone that sends a shiver down the young boy¡¯s spine. She moves her scarf up to drape over her nose as she quickly finishes taking the pipe apart to rece it with a fresh one, hoping the calming floral scent will help to quiet her mind. The buzzing remains though, and with a quick inward nce, Emily sees her machina crackling away in her cortex doing something without her consciousmand. A nagging feeling in her gut tells her to ignore it, so she does, lowering the scarf as she slides out of the narrow space, the smell only adding a bittersweet longing to her cold simmering fury. She stands up and looks Podrick in the eye, pushing away thoughts of the activity in her head and the annoying, slightly painful, buzzing that is still making it hard to focus, but he takes a step back as a look of slight fear and confusion shes across his face. ¡°Go find Ash. I have something to do,¡± Emily says, barely registering his reaction before she turns on her heels and marches towards the bridge. I¡¯m going to wipe out a noble family. Let¡¯s see if Anton is willing to join me. Arriving on the bridge, Emily approaches Anton¡¯s seat. ¡°Hey, Anton. We need to talk,¡± she says, drawing his attention. He turns in his seat, eyes widening in surprise the moment he sees her. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with your eyes?¡± he asks with a tone of concern. Confused, Emily conjures a mirror with a small flex of metal mana, shocking the cabin¡¯s inhabitants. In the reflective surface, she sees her face. Her eyes are alight with the glow of power as lightning flickers deep in her irises, reacting to the seething anger writhing in her chest. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that,¡± she says with a shrug, dismissing the mirror and wrapping both of them in a soundproof barrier. ¡°That just happens when I¡¯m angry.¡± ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Anton asks, a mixture of curiosity and fear in his gaze as he looks back and notices he can¡¯t hear Ang and Tony talking a few metres away from them. ¡°Magic. It¡¯s real and nobles use it. It¡¯s the reason they sent me to the capital, to train in it. Anyway, there¡¯ll be time to talk about this in detailter. For now, I want to give you a choice to think about.¡± Anton narrows his eyes, clearly struggling to process the new information, but he nods for her to continue nheless. ¡°The Mandrago family just killed my sister,¡± Emily starts, the lightning in her eyes pulsing and rippling out along her skin for a moment, making Anton and both crew members watching through the barrier flinch. ¡°So, I¡¯m going to kill them all.¡± He starts in shock, opening his mouth to say something, but Emily keeps going before he can. ¡°I can do it, and nothing you say will change my mind. Your choice is simple, are you with me or not? Because once I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll be hunted. I quite like Calypso, and I¡¯d like to escape on her. When Ie back to the docks, there won¡¯t be time to deliberate. If I can¡¯t find a ship that wants to take me, I¡¯ll have to take one by force.¡± Fear twists Anton¡¯s face as he slowly nods. ¡°Where will you go?¡± ¡°Dennari.¡± Having said her peace, Emily turns on her heel without waiting for a response, dispelling the barrier around them and walking away. She hears Anton let out an anxious sigh, and Ang and Tony start asking him about the silent conversation and strange supernatural phenomena before she pauses and looks over her shoulder. ¡°Oh, and I expect you won¡¯t say anything once we dock. I don¡¯t take kindly to people who betray me.¡± Anton gulps and nods, terror evident in his eyes as he watches Emily depart. She turns to return to her room, a n to wipe out the Mandrago¡¯s quicklying together in her mind. *** The next day, Emily leaves her backpack in her room and heads straight for the ship¡¯s hatch as it slides into the docks, already masking her mana by wrapping her circles in machina. She stands by the exit silently, and the other crew members waiting with her keep their distance due to the unnatural, zing light of anger in her eyes. The moment the ship stops, Emily opens the hatch and leaves without a word. She flips up the hood of her cloak and makes her way through the passage to the main hall. As she walks, she reaches into her belt and pulls out a thin needle and a small vial of a clear, odourless liquid: dyed death, a simple potion made for usage against mortals that guarantees a painful death exactly six hours after a single drop enters the bloodstream unless the antidote is consumed. She takes off the cork and dips the needle inside before putting away the potion and holding the needle between two fingers as she enters the crowded hall and walks towards the exit. With a flick of her wrist, Emily throws the needle into Gregory¡¯s arm as she passes, sealing his fate for breaking their agreement without any care for what his excuse might be. She slips into an alley as the guards try to stop her again, escaping their sight before making her way towards the Mandrago estate. Before she steps onto the open streets of the noble district, she takes out the Whisper with a new leather strap attached and slings it over her shoulder. She downs a vial of the brew of imperception, vanishing and breaking into a sprint, approaching the estate quickly. She leaps over the hedge around the grounds without attracting attention and runs towards therge main building, passing several servants tending to the garden and gritting her teeth, each crest she sees making it harder and harder to hold in her anger. Emily cycles her machina as she approaches therge main building, using the cold energy to force her emotions into check as she walks through the open front doors nked by guards. She follows the plush green carpet through the entrance hall, stepping onto the stairs leading up towards the imposing pressure of the Patriarch that she can already feel with her heightened senses. She arrives before the ornate door to the Patriarch¡¯s reception hall and stops, taking the Whisper from her shoulder and raising it to point at the door. Emily brings up the image of the hall, which is burned into her memory from her first visit, and angles her gun to point where the Patriarch¡¯s heart should be. She pours her machina into the weapon, sending arcs of rippling electricity across the gun as she uses Overdrive to the maximum. She flicks the firing selector into full and takes a deep breath before pulling the trigger. Her hand blurs to rack the bolt before dropping back to the handle again to pull the trigger. She fires over and over again until her magazine is empty, sending a stream of bullets enhanced by metal element engravings to improve their piercing power and impact force through the door. The bullets punch a hole in the door, blowing arge chunk out of the wood and revealing the room behind to Emily. Her mind enters full assistive processing mode as she watches the four people in the room reacting to the sound of the door breaking. The three people standing before the Patriarch flinch and start turning around, and the Patriarch nces up, barely having time to register the attack before the first bullet reaches him. The first bullet ms into an invisible barrier around his chair, sending visible cracks along its surface as if space itself is breaking, before the bullet crumples and falls. The second bullet shatters the barrier and falls to the floor to join the first as the third bullet reaches the Patriarch¡¯s chest. It ms into a swirlingyer of wind mana that bursts from the Patriarch¡¯s body the moment he notices the attack, sending a ripple along it and pressing the man back into his chair, but the bullet crumples and drops to the floor without further effect. The fourth and fifth bullets do the same, flying off at random angles after hitting the barrier, but the sixth disperses the protective winds before it¡¯s deflected, causing the Patriarch¡¯s eyes to open wide in shock and panic. The seventh bullet bores a hole clean through his chest, and the eighth, ninth, and tenth widen it as he flinches at the forceful impacts. As the dust settles from the attack, blood gushes out of the Patriarch¡¯s chest and the presence that Emily has felt since entering the building diminishes. The three people before him, two men and one woman, all cry out in distress. The two men rush forward to help him as the woman turns to confront his attacker. Emily sends the Whisper into her belt and kicks the door open, releasing her emotions as her face morphs into a vengeful re that makes the woman pause in her step, watching lightning flickering out of Emily¡¯s eyes and along her skin as she walks forwards. ¡°You!¡± the Patriarch spits in anger as he sees her, sping a hand to his chest. Emily doesn¡¯t say anything as runes flow out of her, wrapping around her legs as she casts sky step to begin her ughter. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 122 – The Fall of a Family Chapter 122 ¨C The Fall of a Family Emily finishes casting sky step and springs forwards, closing the gap with the third circle woman in front of her, the strongest of the three other mages in the room, before she can finish her own casting. Emily¡¯s mind registers the golden crest pinned to the woman¡¯s chest as she thrusts a w through her throat, but she barely spares it a second nce before ripping the de out again and letting the woman drop to the floor clutching at her neck. A de of fire and a rippling orb of water fly at Emily as she continues towards the Patriarch. She sidesteps the former and spins, whipping out her lightning-wrapped leg to shatter thetter. The two gold-crested men each frantically start casting another spell, but Emily kicks off, discharging some of the power built in her legs and shing forward, closing the distance in an instant to drive her knee into the fire mage¡¯s face. His skull cracks and his head snaps back as it¡¯s engulfed in lightning. Emily raises her hand and fires a de into the chest of the other without looking at him, ripping through his heart as she slows down and approaches the Patriarch, slumped against his throne, in an intentionally calm manner. The snarling expression of rage on his face brings Emily a sick sense of satisfaction. ¡°Monster,¡± he hisses. ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs. ¡°You killed my family and you ca-¡° she cuts off as she notices him twitch his fingers and her instincts scream a warning. Her mind falls into full assistive processing as she leans to the side, narrowly dodging an invisible de that shes past her cheek, carving a deep groove through the bone below her right eye. Her rage res, lightning flickering out of her mouth and across her face as she lets out a guttural growl. Fuck you! You don¡¯t get to mark my face too! She activates half of the injectors of healing serum along her spine as her patience runs out, dashing forward and smashing her fist into his head, mming it back into his wooden throne, shattering his nose and cracking the seat. Emily pulls her fist back before driving it home again repeatedly, pulverising the bones in his face and spattering blood, gore, and fragments of wood and bone across the floor as his head crumples along with the top of the backrest behind him. She pulls back after a few moments and drops her bloodied fist, looking at the slumped body hanging backwards over his chair while letting out a crackling breath, a tiny fraction of her rage quelled. A quick nce at her system¡¯s progression requirements confirms his death, so she turns to leave the hall as the flesh on her cheek knits itself back together. She hears amotion outside as the guards rush to check on the sounds ofbat within the building, and breaks into a sprint towards them, building up more charge in her legs and flying through the open doorway just as the guards arrive at the top of the stairs. Emily runs through them, shing at their vitals with her ws faster than they can react, sending sprays of blood flying as bodies drop behind her. Her secondary cores start casting detection spells, locating the few scattered people, most of them unawakened servants, moving within the building. She sprints through the corridors, kicking down doors and slicing apart everyone bearing a Mandrago crest while wreathed in wrathful lightning, leaving a trail of death in her wake. She feels nothing as she kills mages and servants alike, theck of resistance only adding to her frustration and anger, leaving an unsatisfied, bitter taste in her mouth. Deep into the main building, Emily bursts into a room to find a familiar face, Elder Santiago, standing with his unsettling ivory cane pointed at her, wrapped in a milky-white magic circle as he mutters an incantation. She feels his spell trying to stab at her mind, but it bursts against her cortex without even making her flinch. She drives her foot into his chest, pinning him to the floor and slowly flooding his body with electricity that rips him to shreds as he screams in anguish. Emily grabs his cane after his howling finally stops and sends it into her storage before she moves back into the corridor to kill thest few survivors in the main building. As she clears out the mansion, she can feel a group of mages and guards gathering outside from the other two wings and the rest of the estate, preparing to intercept her as she leaves, so she slows down as she makes herst few kills, giving them time to gather and prepare. By the time thest body falls from her des, only a couple of minutes have passed since she fired the first shot, and the gathered enemies have finished getting into their formation. Emily returns to the entrance hall, the charge in her legs buzzing violently, built up to the maximum, and runs through the air towards a window high above the door. She crosses her arms in front of her and leaps through the ss, shattering it and drawing all eyes of the gathered group to her. She notes their formation in groups of ten with a mage casting a defence spell in the centre of each, a few guards surrounding them with guns raised, and two or three mages preparing attack spells. Emily creates a tform of crackling lightning and freezes for a moment, casting rock body in preparation as her gaze scans the scene below. Ideas on how to break their formation or use it against them quickly form in her mind thanks to her flow skill, but she dismisses them after judging the battle too easily winnable, channelling her raging emotions instead and choosing to let them guide her in a dance of brutality over efficiency. Emily locates four third circle mages as her eyes scan the crowd, and she quickly locks onto the group with two of them near the back: Diego and his goons. Her emotions spike, the buzzing in her mind rising to a deafening crescendo, and the clouds overhead let out a thundering roar in response to her rage. I¡¯ll leave you forst. I want to make sure you suffer. ¡°Attack!¡± Diego screams a moment after Emily appears. Dozens of gunshots go off, and an eclectic mix of elements shoot up towards her in different forms, but Emily vanishes before they can hit her. With a small flex of her legs, she appears above the group, twisting and flying through the air upside down before kicking off an invisible tform and shooting down towards the ground, joined by several bolts of lightning striking from the looming clouds above. She spins and ms, feet first, into a barrier of wind, ripping it to pieces in an instant and continuing down to the people within without further resistance. She cuts through the third circle defensive mage with her heel, killing him instantly and smashing into the floor with a shocking boom, releasing all the built-up charge in her legs. Lightning erupts from her, disintegrating the people nearby as the force of her impact cracks the ground, creating a small crater. Half the barriers covering the groups shatter, only those further away or cast by a third circle mage survive, and all the exposed people are burnt or worse by the flood of electricity. The bolts falling from above finish off some of the survivors before stopping as Emily rises up and switches off the pain receptors in her legs to ignore the ache resulting from her immense impact despite reinforcing them with a spell. Ance of wind collides with her chest as she stands up, creating a small crack in her body armour and making her take a small step back. She looks up and sees a mage shiver under her re, frantically sputtering out another chant to repair the dome of rock between them, the only nearby barrier that didn¡¯t break in her initial impact, to close the hole in the side exposing him. Emily bursts into motion again, silver runes flowing out of her body as she dodges a few more bullets fired at her old position and tanks the few that catch her. The bullets dent her armour and bruise the flesh beneath, but Emily barely notices, taking the pain in her stride. She slips inside the earth barrier before it can close and delivers a de to the wind mage¡¯s throat. She fires the other w at one of the guards as he points his rifle at her and fires, his shot digging into her thigh and getting stuck in the reinforced flesh. The other three guards within the barrier shoot at her as she pulls her de from the mage¡¯s throat, but she finishes casting guardian and spreads the liquid metal out in front of her, catching the bullets. They barely have time to process their loss as Emily whips the de out of theirpanion, charging it full of machina and shing it across their chests, slicing them all open and wrapping the cable around the third circle earth mage now standing defenceless in the middle of their encirclement. She feels an unstable build-up of mana begin in the mage¡¯s chest, but it ends the moment she pulls on the wire with all her strength, breaking their focus andcerating their flesh. The mage cries out in pain, and Emily ends their suffering with a lightning-charged boot to the face. The barrier around them falls, allowing a few spells and bullets through, but Emily kicks up into the sky, avoiding them before picking a new target from within the four remaining barriers. She rips through a barrier of water with ease and starts shredding its inhabitants, but she¡¯s surprised as a crackling orb of firends on the group before she can even finish. Her guardian wraps around her in an instant absorbing most of the heat and force, melting a little as she pours mana in to maintain it, taking a few small burns as some of her skin is exposed to the immense heat. The earth around her bubbles and erupts in a move she recognises all too well, several spikes of rock rising towards her on all sides. I shouldn¡¯t be surprised Diego would attack his own family to create an opening. I guess that fireball was Carlos. Emily grits her teeth, sweeping her leg out to shatter the spikesing from one side before kicking up and stepping off the top of another, rising into the air away from the attacks. Several bullets hit her shield as she exposes herself above the ming mass of mana, as her enemy begins to recognise her pattern and predict her movement. The softened guardian lets several shots through, but the weakened bullets harmlessly knock against her armour and reinforced skin, rock body still in full effect. Emily kicks off the air again, backing away from the three remaining groups. Shends on the ground a short distance away and breaks into a sprint, circling around them. The guards try to shoot her, but they struggle to track her inhuman speed which quickly increases as the charge in her legs builds again. It only takes a few moments for her to be so fast she is impossible to track, so she kicks off, quickly changing angles and ripping through one of the three remaining barriers. She slices through three people who thought they were still safe as she passes through them in a straight line before twisting and kicking off another invisible tform to change direction in an instant to target another barrier. She charges through a swirling dome of fire, stabbing its creator in the chest and drawing her de through her, practically ripping her in half as she bursts out of the other side of the dispersing barrier. Emily repeats this a few times, shooting across the battlefield in a dizzying disy of speed as she picks off everyone outside of Jose¡¯s barrier of ice. The moment thest guard falls, Emily turns her full focus onto the remaining group, noticing ayer of earth now coating the inside of the ice, reinforcing it against her approach. Like that will work. Emily jumps towards the barrier at full charge, unleashing everything built up in one leg to gain a ridiculous burst of speed towards it before releasing the other leg in a mighty kick that shatters bothyers of protection along with her boot. A spray of lightning, ice, and rocks flies out, smashing into the side of the servants¡¯ wing and bringing the wall down. Emily stopspletely, standing still and looking down at the four mages lying on the floor before her, battered and bruised, with a vengeful re twisting her features. She pulls the Spitter from her thigh and quickly finishes the five guards lying with them, not even sparing them a nce, as she slowly approaches the mages. She fires a shot into Miguel¡¯s head and heart as well, to prevent him healing himself, and shoots Jose three times in a line from his stomach to his chest, leaving him to sumb to his wounds. Diego tries to push himself off the floor with one arm, the other twisted at an awkward angle beside him, but Emily presses her foot into his chest, forcing him to lie back down. She cancels all her spells other than guardian, bringing the small mass of metal to float in the small of her back as she purposefully ignores Carlos trying to stand up behind her. ¡°Hello again, Diego,¡± she snarls, watching anger and confusion mix on his face as he recognises her. ¡°You!¡± he snarls back. ¡°How are you attacking us? You¡¯re under our control!¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs, raising her still-whole boot to stomp on his healthy hand as he starts trying to twitch out gestures for a spell. ¡°You scum could never control me.¡± ¡°ARGH!¡± he cries in pain as she shatters every bone in his hand, releasing the spikes from the sole of her shoe and grinding his flesh into a bloody pulp. Carlos stumbles to his feet behind her and pulls the knife from the small of his back, slowly approaching her while treading carefully, trying not to make a sound. Diego groans pathetically as Emily eases off on his hand, looking past her and noticing his approachingrade. A glint of hope appears in his eyes as he gasps for breath. ¡°Maybe not,¡± he sputters between breaths, trying to ignore the pain as a twisted grin distorts his face. ¡°But I could certainly kill your sister.¡± Carlos lunges forward to stab Emily, and a triumphantugh leaves Diego¡¯s lips, but Emily calmly moves her guardian without looking back, having followed Carlos¡¯ every movement through her spatial awareness, and quickly shapes it into a spike that he drives through his own chest with his momentum. He freezes, his de dropping from his hand as he looks down in disbelief at the spike through his heart. Emily crouches down, cold wrath burning in her brightly glowing eyes as she enjoys the look of horror dawning on Diego¡¯s face as thest of his hope is crushed before his eyes and he realises, no one is left to save him. ¡°So¡­ it was you, was it?¡± Emily whispers with a spark of machina distorting her voice, her inhuman hiss ringing in Diego¡¯s ears like the call of the reaper as she presses the de of her w to his face and slowly traces a deep line across it. She pulls the guardian from Carlos¡¯ chest with a light flex of her will and instantly wraps it around Diego¡¯s limbs to hold him still as he tries to squirm away from the pain. ¡°You should¡¯ve stayed quiet.¡± Carlos¡¯ corpse drops to the floor with a thud and the battlefield goes still, not a soul left to hear the harrowing screams of Diego begging for release. Chapter 123 – Explosive Departure Chapter 123 ¨C Explosive Departure Emily stands up from the unrecognisable bloodied remains of Diego¡¯s corpse, wiping her ws off on her tattered cloak as her mind falls quiet, the irritating buzzing fading to a dull background noise. ¡°Fucking scum. He didn¡¯t even have the balls to try detonating his circles,¡± Emily mutters disdainfully, reaching down to take a spatial storage bracelet from his wrist. She recognises the runic structure from some of the storage items she bought in The Dome and quickly locates the runes responsible for holding a mage¡¯s mana signature to bind it to them. With a powerful pulse of her own mana, she effortlessly crushes the existing signature, wiping the item clean and allowing herself ess. Just a few earth crystals,munication crystals, and some healing potions. Disappointing. She takes the useful items and pulls the spatial crystal from the bracelet with a small flex of mana, carefully severing the runes binding it to the storage enchantment, before looking around the scattered bodies surrounding her, scanning for the third circle mages while checking for enchanted items with her magical senses. Her senses draw her attention to all of the discarded crests, all of them bearing The Covenant¡¯s contribution tracking enchantment, and she notices that not all of the dead mages belonged to the Mandrago family. Did they call reinforcements from their nearby allies¡¯ estates? Emily stops before the shredded corpse of the earth mage and nces at their crest. They aren¡¯t from the Mandrago family. Emily shrugs as she grabs the drawstring pouch from their waist. Inside, she finds some more earth crystals, a fewmunication crystals, and a couple of spells written on parchments. She discards themunication crystals and sends the rest into her belt before tying the pouch at her hip. This one can be used by non-mages. I¡¯ll give it to Anton if he chooses to join me. Emily nces over at the first third circle mage she killed, shaking her head when she sees their scorched corpse without a single surviving item left. She spends a few minutes walking through the pools of blood and viscera, checking for anything valuable. She takes a few clockwork rifles to pass on to Anton¡¯s crew for self-defence but otherwise finds nothing of value. She turns away from the dead and walks slowly back to the main mansion. Emily runs a few scans as she does, detecting a few unawakened people moving about in the servants¡¯ wing that she chooses to ignore for now, her anger dulled to a quiet background hum now that her main targets are dead. If they run away now, I¡¯ll let them live. If not, they¡¯ll die when I get rid of this ce. Emily reactivates the pain receptors in her legs as she walks through the entrance hall, frowning as she notices a few cracks in the bones of one of them. I need to work on a better self-reinforcement spell. I can¡¯t keep breaking my legs when I use sky step at full strength. She activates another injector on her spine, letting the healing potion soothe the leg as she walks up the stairs, the once-green carpet now stained red, and enters the Patriarch¡¯s great hall. She checks the dead direct line mages for storage items, finding all three to have small owner-locked spatial storages with some gold, crystals, potions, and even a few simple enchanted items within. After stripping the corpses and removing the space crystals from their storage items, Emily approaches the body of the Patriarch. She grits her teeth as she looks him over, wishing she could have made him suffer more as she slips the storage ring from his finger. Removing his signature takes her a few minutes and drains a substantial amount of her remaining mana, but she calmly converts machina to make up for it before binding the now ownerless item to herself to look through it, opening her eyes wide in surprise as she does. ¡°Rich bastard,¡± she mutters, finding nearly three hundred gold coins and a stockpile of greater crystals almost asrge as her own. ¡°Why does he even need this many different elements? He only ever used wind spells as far as I saw.¡± Emily slides the ring onto her finger and turns her attention to the enchantment on the floor behind his throne. She walks around him and looks down, seeing a nk spot on the floor from which she can feel faint mana emanating. It looks like something¡¯s hidden back here. I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed if I were a normal third circle mage. She crouches down and ces her hand on the stone, closing her eyes and pushing her mana into it. Her senses extend down into the floor, and she quickly locates an empty space below that causes her brow to crease. Is there a room below this one? She quickly runs through her memories of running through the building clearing it out to build a mental map of it, and confirms her suspicions. There isn¡¯t. At least, not one you could ess from downstairs. Emily tries casting a spell to soften the stone so she can move it out of the way, but she finds the unknown enchantment resisting her influence. ¡°Brute force it is,¡± she mutters, standing up and raising her only foot with a whole boot. She activates the enchantment on the boot to increase its weight before driving it down with all her strength. Arge thud sounds as her foot ms into the stone, spreading a web of cracks from the point of impact. She lifts her foot and ms it down again. On the third blow, the stone below her shatters, and Emily leaps back as she watches a hole open up in the ground. She feels the unknown enchantment vanish, and a strong flood of mana rises up to rece it. Emily steps up to the edge, looking down into the hole and seeing a narrow, straight chute leading down into the earth. ¡°A hidden passage,¡± she says to herself calmly, resting her hand on The Clock¡¯s pouch as she steps out into thin air and drops into the dark tunnel. She falls and crystals embedded into the walls light up as she passes, letting her see the neat brickwork surrounding her as she descends towards the dense mana below. She drops past the ground level, sinking deep into a hidden basement, tens of metres below the surface. It doesn¡¯t take long for her to reach the bottom, where she reinforces her legs with rock body before mming into the ground, absorbing the impact without difficulty and looking around the open chamber before her. Other than the low ceiling, which is only two times as tall as Emily, the room is the same size as the great hall above. Emily is standing at one edge, and filling the rest of the space is a massive magic circle. ¡°Woah,¡± she mutters with awe, looking around the glowing, twisting, geometric patterns filling the room and stretching from the floor up to the walls and ceiling. There are dozens ofrge magic crystals embedded into sockets around the circle, and a dense, barely visible, mist of mana sits over the massive construct. So this is why he needed all those crystals. Emily walks into the centre of the circle, her eyes scanning over the runes surrounding her as she breathes in the dense, refreshing mana. ¡°There isn¡¯t the same feeling of pressure here, but the mana density is probably the same as in the depths of The Crystal Waters,¡± she mutters, reading the runes near the centre and trying to decipher them. ¡°It¡¯s drawing mana from something... a mana vein? Using these crystals as a catalyst... To spread mana across... Do these runes designate the area?¡± She pulls up a page in her notes, quickly filling it as she walks around the circle. As her mind absorbs the vast amount of information she gleans from seeing such arge magic circle for the first time, an idea forms, bringing a vicious grin to her face. That could work. Time to erase this Goddess-forsaken family from the city. Emily walks around, pulling the crystals from their sockets and disabling the magic circle, removing the glow from the room but leaving the barely perceptible mist of mana. Next, she moves back to the first runes she identified on the floor as controlling the spread of mana and pours mana into the ground, casting a spell to soften the rock and using a delicate maniption of mana to bend the runes below her. She changes them into a familiar set used for condensing mana instead. After finishing with the first area, she moves around the circle, doing the same at every point responsible for dispersing mana, using air walk to reach the runes on the ceiling. That should do it. Satisfied with her modifications, Emily ces the magic crystals back into ce, feeling a sudden increase in the mana density of the room, as the mist grows thicker by the second. She moves to the next stage of her n, pulling a few greater fire crystals from the Patriarch¡¯s ring and cing them at the centre of the circle along with a thick metal disc with a dial on the top, the numbers one through thirty carved around it: a timed explosive. This circle doesn¡¯t have any runes for stabilising such arge amount of mana, so it will either detonate on its own or disperse after reaching critical mass. Based on the current increase, that shouldn¡¯t happen for about twenty-five minutes though. Emily turns the dial to twenty, sealing the fate of the estate, and quickly moves back to the exit. She casts air walk and springs up into the vertical chute propelling herself up into the mansion above. Landing back in the main hall, she runs through the building, casting lightning step to boost her speed as she rockets out of the building, past the piles of corpses. She arrives at the front gate and pauses, looking at her sister¡¯s decapitated head onest time. ¡°I never got to say this to you properly,¡± she says, a tear rolling down her cheek as she uses air walk to lift herself closer, reaching out and shutting Anna¡¯s eyes while burning her sister¡¯s agonised expression into her mind. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± With that she turns, wiping her cheeks and speeding through the city streets. She first runs into her old home, grabbing Anna¡¯s diary and the ruined picture of their family before lighting the front of the building on fire to cleanse the Mandrago¡¯s mark from it. She then speeds away towards the docks, her face falling back into a cold mask the moment she leaves the shop she used to call home for good. She runs through the sparse crowd in the main entrance and into the passage to Calypso, using her ws to draw a single sh through the centre of the Mandrago crest hanging above it. She reaches the ship less than five minutes after setting off the timer in the mansion¡¯s basement, finding Anton sitting alone on the bottom step leading up to the ship. Emily stops, cancelling her spell and grinding her heels in to kill her momentum. Anton¡¯s eyes open wide in shock as she appears before him, and he looks her up and down with an ufortable, fearful expression. ¡°Are you, uh¡­¡± He pauses, unsure what to say. ¡°Are you done?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Emily nods, ncing down and noticing her tattered, bloodstained clothes. She casts cleanse, calming Anton slightly before asking for his response. ¡°So, are we leaving together? Or do I need to find another ship?¡± Anton gulps down his fear before standing up and taking a deep breath to steel his resolve. ¡°I¡¯ll take you,¡± he says, ncing at the pool of blood left on the floor by Emily¡¯s cleanse. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s go,¡± Emily says, walking past him up the steps to the ship. ¡°Wait!¡± Anton cries, reaching out to grab her shoulder and flinching as she turns to look at him, her eyes still glowing with simmering anger. ¡°Half the crew is missing. We can¡¯t take off yet.¡± ¡°I told you there wouldn¡¯t be time when I was done. You should have kept them aboard if you wanted to take them with you.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say anything in case you considered it a betrayal,¡± he responds with a fearful shiver. ¡°You could have told them to stay without giving a reason. Anyway, we have just over ten minutes left until the gift I left in the Mandrago estate activates, and I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯ll ground all ships the moment that happens, so there¡¯s no time now. Besides, you have me, you don¡¯t need the rest of the crew.¡± Emily sends a stream of machina into the ship via the stairs below and raises her hand. She snaps her fingers for effect, pushing a spark of machina out of them at the same time and letting it run down her arm while activating the ship¡¯s start-up procedures. The ship¡¯s horn sounds, and Anton looks up in surprise. ¡°Magic can control ships?¡± he asks incredulously. ¡°With the right spells? Probably. But that¡¯s not quite what I used.¡± Emily turns and continues up the steps, expecting him to follow. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll exin it to youter. Come on.¡± ¡°Damn it,¡± she hears him mutter under his breath, a mixture of frustration and resignation present in his tone as he turns to call over the nearby crewmembers. ¡°Ash! Pod! Get in!¡± Emily boards Calypso with Anton hot on her heels. He pauses at the entrance to wait for the other two as Emily keeps walking. ¡°Gather everyone still on board to the bridge,¡± she calls over her shoulder as she moves in that direction to calm the two frantically trying to take back control from her. She reaches the ship¡¯s control centre as the steps withdraw into the hull and the ship shudders, the track below starting to pull it back towards the outside world. ¡°Damn it!¡± she hears Ang cry as she steps in. ¡°I can¡¯t fucking stop it. My controls are locked!¡± ¡°Calm down,¡± Emily says, instantly drawing the attention of Ang and Tony. ¡°We¡¯re leaving now. I¡¯m in control.¡± ¡°What do you mean we¡¯re leaving now? And how are you in control? The fuck¡¯s your problem?¡± Ang growls angrily, standing up and stepping towards Emily. Emily¡¯s expression remains cold as she pushes Ang back into her seat with a light burst of wind. ¡°I¡¯ll exin properly in a minute, but if we don¡¯t leave now we won¡¯t be leaving at all. Anton has agreed to follow me, and from this moment the ship is for all intents and purposes his, so that¡¯s why I¡¯m telling you what to do.¡± Ang grits her teeth, confusion and anger overpowering the hint of fear Emily notices in her eyes. Even when she¡¯s scared she refuses to back down. I like her. ¡°I¡¯ll give you guys back control now, so please get us out of this port as fast as possible.¡± ¡°Tsk,¡± Ang clicks her tongue, turning around to face her controls. ¡°Fine. But you better not be lying about Anton agreeing.¡± Tony gives Emily a conflicted look but nods and turns to focus on the ship. Anton enters the room with Ash a few minutester and takes his seat as the ship sits on the edge of the docks inting its balloon. ¡°How long do we have?¡± he asks Emily without looking at her. ¡°Eight minutes,¡± she replies, pouring machina into the ship and directing it towards the engine, speeding up the take-off. ¡°How long till we get in the air?¡± Anton asks Ang as she looks through the periscope. ¡°Normally, I¡¯d say ten minutes,¡± she responds, displeasure still clear in her tone. ¡°But whatever she¡¯s doing is helping, so probably six.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Anton says with relief. ¡°We can make it.¡± He takes control, directing them through their final lift-off checks as they rush to get off the ground in time. Six frantic minutes tick by, and the ship detaches from the docks, floating forwards and up into the air quickly as Podrick walks in with Sam, the stout night shift cook. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Sam asks, wiping the crust from his eyes. All eyes in the room turn to look at Emily: most gazes confused and fearful, but Ang¡¯s is outright hostile. Anton goes to say something, but Emily raises her hand and he instantly stops. ¡°I¡¯ll exin in a moment, but first we should watch the fireworks,¡± she points towards the front window as she uses her machina to take control of the ship again, turning it in the air to face the city and fly in reverse. Everyone follows her gesture, looking out over the city with confusion as nothing happens. ¡°What are we looking for?¡± Podrick asks. ¡°Five,¡± Emily says in lieu of an answer, her own anticipation building. ¡°Four. Three. Two. One. Boom¡± A bright sh of light fills their vision as a pir of mes connects the earth and the heavens, ripping a hole through the clouds overhead. The pir starts in the centre of the Mandrago estate, growing wider and engulfing half the noble district in an instant as a thunderous shockwave hits the ship, sending a violent shudder through it and shaking everyone to their cores as the deafening boom rings in their ears. Everyone but Emily grabs onto something nearby to stay upright until the shaking subsides, watching in shock and horror as the explosion dies down, leaving a scorched crater where people once lived, over a quarter of the city missing. Emily calmly watches on, feeling the anger in her chest fading away as her revenge ispleted, leaving only a hollow sense of emptiness in its wake. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 124 – Part of the Ship Chapter 124 ¨C Part of the Ship ¡°Did you just blow up a noble family?¡± Ang asks in disbelief, turning to Emily with a blend of fear and respect, her previous hostility forgotten. ¡°I blew up their estate to be exact,¡± Emily says calmly, the glowing of her eyes gone and reced by a cold glint. ¡°I¡¯d already killed all of them.¡± She turns the ship northbound as everyone stares at her with horrified expressions. ¡°Why?¡± Podrick asks nervously. ¡°They killed my family.¡± Everyone nods in understanding, the exnation doing nothing to assuage their fear. ¡°More importantly, how?¡± Ash asks. ¡°That explosion was insane.¡± ¡°Magic,¡± Emily says, receiving scoffs from several members of the crew, and dubious nods from Tony, Ang, and Anton. Seeing they don¡¯t believe her, Emily raises her hand and conjures a crackling lightning bolt in her palm. ¡°Magic is real. The nobles of this country all know it, and it¡¯s evenmon knowledge at our destination,¡± she exins, twisting the electricity into the form of a bird and sending it out to p around the crew. ¡°I gained the Mandrago family¡¯s attention because of my talent as a mage. And to answer your question specifically, there was a hotspot of natural mana, the fuel for magic, below their estate. I basically lit that hotspot on fire, causing that explosion.¡± Seeing the ethereal bird flying around them, everyone¡¯s shock slowly turns to eptance despite the ridiculous nature of her ims. ¡°It sounds crazy, but I guess it exins everything,¡± Ang says, remembering how Emily was able to take control of the ship. She rubs her brow and lets out a tired sigh as she turns her attention to Anton. ¡°Is what she said about you making a deal with her true?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± he admits with a nod before turning to face Emily with a slightly confused expression. ¡°I agreed to help her flee the continent to Dennari. Though, there were no other terms specified to make it a deal.¡± ¡°For starters,¡± Emily says, pulling the spatial pouch off her belt and tossing it to him, ¡°that¡¯s a magical storage bag and there are some guns in there to help you arm yourselves. On top of that, I don¡¯t want to keep Calypso, so from now on she¡¯s yours, and I¡¯ll even give her some upgrades for you. I take it that¡¯s payment enough to make it a proper deal.¡± ¡°Plenty,¡± Anton responds with a satisfied grin, most of his fear evaporating in wonder as he gazes into the storage pouch and considers the lucrative payment. ¡°So, you made the decision without knowing the terms or talking to us?¡± Ang grumbles, ring at Anton. ¡°Hey, it was better than the alternative,¡± he says, throwing his hands up and ncing nervously at Emily. ¡°Also, I didn¡¯t expect we¡¯d have to leave half the crew behind.¡± Emily shrugs, turning to leave the bridge. ¡°You knew I was going to cause amotion, you should have kept them on the ship. I¡¯m going to rest now. I¡¯ll leave plotting a route to you guys,¡± she says before pausing in the doorway and ncing back at everyone gathered. ¡°No one needs to stay. I only made a deal with Anton. Everyone else is free to leave at the next stop if you don¡¯t want to join us, but I promise as long as you travel with me I¡¯ll do my best to keep you safe.¡± She makes eye contact with Anton onest time, and he shivers but nods, understanding it¡¯s on him to convince the others it¡¯s worthwhile if he wants them to stay. Emily walks out into the hallway, falling into her thoughts as she returns to her room. I could reset and tell him to keep everyone on board, but I refuse to relive today for someone else¡¯s convenience. It¡¯s his own fault he didn¡¯t force them to stay. The image of Anna¡¯s head on the gate shes into the front of her mind again, and she frowns as the buzzing in her head grows momentarily stronger, but she quickly pushes the memory back down into the depths of her mind. It will probably take a few days to stop that. Her frown deepens as an ufortable feeling gnaws at the back of her mind, something about the calm way she suppressed the memory bothering her, but she quickly pushes that feeling away as well, not wanting to think about it now as a dull ache fills her mind, reminiscent of a headache, a foreign feeling to her since awakening. Instead, to distract herself, Emily raises her hand and conjures a bird of lightning again. ¡°That lightning storm was strange. I know Jenny said mages can cause small magical phenomena when their emotions are strong, but that was on the level of a full third circle spell without a magic circle,¡± she mutters, ying with the lightning bird as she walks. ¡°Something feels different, I have even more control over my manifestation than before now...¡± As Emily is trying to figure out what¡¯s different with her magic, she hears hurried footsteps behind her and feels Podrick approaching. ¡°Hey, Emily! Wait up!¡± he calls as he skids to a stop beside her. Emily looks over at the boy, confusion flickering across her brow. Isn¡¯t he scared of me? ¡°What?¡± she asks, pausing in her stride and violently crushing the crackling bird in her hand as she disperses the manifestation. ¡°Can you teach me magic?¡± he asks, looking up at her expectantly with excitement clear in his eyes,pletely ignoring her hostile disy. What¡¯s with this kid? Emily is about to ignore him and continue to her room, but the glowing excitement in his eyes makes her hesitate. ¡°Why would I teach you?¡± Emily asks with a cold tone. ¡°I have more important things to do with my time.¡± Podrick¡¯s shoulders slump and his face drops like a scolded dog. ¡°I could help you.¡± Emily scoffs and starts walking again, but then gestures for him to follow as something about his determination catches her interest. ¡°Perhaps you should find out what I¡¯m going to do before you offer to help,¡± she remarks as they walk, immediately making Podrick¡¯s expression brighten. ¡°Does this mean-¡° ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to teach you magic,¡± Emily cuts him off with a hint of irritation in her voice that dissipates as her mind drifts back to an idea she had before setting down in Eimdon. ¡°I have no interest in teaching someone else magic from scratch at the moment. However, I may be willing to help you awaken as something else instead.¡± Theye to a halt outside Emily¡¯s room, and Emily looks down at the small boy before her as she pushes machina from her eyes, letting the energy crackle across her face. ¡°I¡¯m more than just a mage, I¡¯m a mechanic as well. Give me some time to rest, and after dinner, we can discuss whether I might help you be one too.¡± Podrick stares at the cold, flickering lightning travelling across her skin and his eyes practically glow in response. ¡°That¡¯s so cool,¡± he cries, before his enthusiasm is quelled by Emily¡¯s cold gaze. He meets her eyes with a new caution: ¡°What would you want in return?¡± Good, he learns quickly. The corner of Emily¡¯s lips curls up, but the small smile feels empty and quickly falls from her face again. ¡°For one, you are not to say anything about mechanics to anyone else before I give you permission,¡± she says, watching as he nods his head with a serious expression. Should I make him sign a magic contract? I¡¯ll see how he is with the crew for now. If he can¡¯t keep a secret, then I will. ¡°Then I would also need you to let me do full invasive scans of your body before and after. I¡¯ve never tried this before and want to observe the whole process scientifically.¡± ¡°Scan me?¡± Podrick asks in confusion, before shrugging and continuing confidently. ¡°Sure, scan me all you want!¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see if you¡¯re still so keen once you understand how it feels,¡± Emily says cruelly, pushing open the door to her room. ¡°And finally, after I awaken you, you¡¯re on your own. I give no promises to teach you anything else.¡± Podrick frowns ¡°Awaken? You mean I¡¯ll just be like you? It¡¯s not something I learn?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have plenty to learn.¡± ¡°Can I at least watch you work?¡± ¡°Depends what I¡¯m working on. I won¡¯t stop you fromwatching the modifications I¡¯ll make to the ship though.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± he exims as his expression brightens. ¡°Rest well!¡± Emily turns into the room and shuts the door behind her without another word before pulling out the barrier disc, activating it, and dropping it in the middle of the room, plunging the room into silence as she flops face-first into her bed. She shuts her eyes and tries to rx, but despite her emotional exhaustion, she can¡¯t bring herself to sleep, so, after a few minutes, she sits up and gets into a meditative position to pass the day in the Spellweave. *** Later that afternoon, having spent what was left of the morning working on spells and designing some rough modifications for Calypso, Emily is pulled out of the Spellweave by a system notification. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Quest generated: Traitor¡¯s Escape [Traitor¡¯s Escape] [Rank:] C [Description:] You ended a noble family alone, now you must survive the consequences. Requirements: -Leave the country alive (Not Complete) -Leave the country without killing any of your pursuers (Not Complete) {Optional} Rewards: -Spell: Blink -Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Computer Systems -{Quest: Path of the Righteous} _____ She opens her eyes and stares at the floating window before her eyes. ¡°Why did this appear now?¡± she mutters to herself, reading over the quest details. ¡°Has the kingdom realised it was me already and that¡¯s triggered it?¡± Emily stands up and begins pacing in the narrow confines of her cabin. Why is escaping the country a quest, but killing the Mandragos wasn¡¯t? I would have thought destroying a family would have been a better challenge, more worthy of a quest. Also, C rank seems quite high for such a simple thing. Maybe it¡¯s higher because of the optional requirement. She bites her thumb, as her eyes fall on the rewards. I wonder what that spell will do. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen one as a quest reward. Is that a knowledge rted to maths? Is it rted to the system? I¡¯m guessing the follow-up quest is only for if Iplete the optional requirement. A path of the righteous sounds like something you¡¯d walk if you spare those attacking you. I guess I can try not to kill anyone else for an extra quest. I should focus the ship¡¯s modifications on defence. Closing the system window, Emily returns to her bed and pulls up her blueprints and gets back to work. *** That evening, Emily is torn away from her designs by a presence outside the door. She rises from the bed in one smooth motion and walks to the exit, deactivating and collecting the barrier disc as she passes. She pulls the door open, surprising Pod with his hand raised to knock. ¡°Oh, hey. That was weird. Did magic tell you I wasing?¡± he asks as he lowers his arm. ¡°I don¡¯t need magic for that. My natural senses make it pretty easy to tell when someone is nearby, even when I¡¯m in a soundproof room,¡± Emily responds with a dismissive shrug. ¡°Anyway, why are you here?¡± ¡°Ah, I was justing to let you know food is ready, since you didn¡¯t show up for lunch,¡± he replies, ncing away awkwardly. ¡°Impatient, are we?¡± Emily asks as she shuts the door behind her and walks past him. ¡°Come on then.¡± Podrick hurries to follow her as she makes her way to the mess hall. They arrive to find everyone else on the ship, other than Ang, already eating, and all eyes are drawn to Emily as she walks in. Emily nods in greeting, ignoring their mixed reactions as she grabs a bowl of curry from Sam and drops down next to Ash. ¡°I¡¯ve got a few ideas I¡¯d like to go over with you for some modifications to the ship. Can you spare some time tomorrow morning?¡± she asks the mechanic, surprising them. ¡°You¡¯re starting already? Why not wait till we¡¯re out of the country?¡± they question. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure the royal family will send out orders asking for my head for what I¡¯ve done, and I¡¯m guessing they¡¯ll work out what ship I¡¯m on before we leave the continent,¡± Emily exins, noticing a wave of fear spreading through the room. ¡°So, I want to modify the ship quickly to help us escape easily. I mostly want to improve the engine and add some proper armouring for now. We can look at adding some weapons once we¡¯re sure we¡¯re safe.¡± ¡°That sounds great and all,¡± Ash says, taking the news in their stride, ¡°but how are we going to afford this? I don¡¯t know how you n on improving the engine, but I doubt it will be free, and we¡¯ll need a lot of materials to armour even just the essentials.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pay for it. I have a few hundred gold so I should easily be able to cover the cost.¡± ¡°A few hundred!¡± Anton exims in disbelief on the other side of the table. ¡°Can I borrow some from you to hire new crew at our next stop?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really want to lend people money. And why do you need more crew so soon? You¡¯re probably best waiting till we get to Dennari to find locals.¡± ¡°I know that, but we need people to man the ship at night. Currently, me and Ang are gonna have to pull an all-nighter just to get us to dock tomorrow.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that,¡± Emily reassures him, waving off his concern. ¡°I¡¯ve already told you that you don¡¯t need the rest of the crew. I¡¯ll watch the ship at night. I don¡¯t technically need sleep and I can control the whole thing alone.¡± Anton stares at her with a mixture of doubt and disbelief. ¡°Are you sure? That will be a lot of work.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t even need to sit on the bridge. I¡¯ll show you how after eating.¡± Anton gives her a grateful nod, his doubt giving way to curiosity. ¡°Thanks. I¡¯ll look forward to seeing it.¡± ¡°Speaking of changing the crew, is anyone nning on leaving us at the next stop?¡± Emily asks, ncing around curiously and not missing the way everyone seems to shiver as her gaze passes them. ¡°No one,¡± Anton says quickly, a bead of sweat running down his brow. ¡°Everyone agreed to stay after I talked to them.¡± Emily nods, calmly raising her spoon to her mouth. ¡°d to hear it. I have to admit, even with me here, it would have been annoying to have less crew. What did you offer to make them stay? I assume some of you are giving up your families for a few years bying.¡± Tony, Podrick, and Sam all nod at her guess. ¡°Simple, I offered them the same thing you gave me,¡± Anton says with a proud grin. ¡°The ship.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Emily raises a brow. ¡°Did you offer to split ownership with everyone?¡± ¡°Exactly. I¡¯m going to write up a contract when I have time, tonight now I guess, that gives everyone partial ownership of the ship and any profit it generates as long as they stick with it until I¡¯m set up on Dennari. After that they¡¯re wee to either stick with the ship for longer or leave to settle down or return to Modo, assuming we don¡¯t individually get marked as criminals.¡± ¡°Very smart,¡± Emily says with a nod. ¡°Also, from what I¡¯ve read and heard about New Denntimo, I doubt most of you will want toe back.¡± ¡°We¡¯re nning on joining the rebels?¡± Sam asks, surprised and slightly horrified. ¡°Aren¡¯t they untrustworthy?¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs derisively. ¡°Don¡¯t believe the stories you hear in Modo about the situation on that continent. Most of it was spread by noble families with ties to Denros, the Old Denntimo nobility. From what I know, New Denntimo is a far nicer ce to live than even Modo. And, as I said earlier, magic is public knowledge.¡± Chapter 125 – Part of the Crew Chapter 125 ¨C Part of the Crew ¡°Really? Evenmoners know about it?¡± Anton questions. ¡°Yep,¡± Emily says with a nod. ¡°Do you want the long exnation, or the short?¡± Anton looks around, getting nods from all members of the crew who are listening to Emily quietly. ¡°We¡¯d like to know about where we¡¯re heading. The long.¡± ¡°Okay. So, Old Denntimo followed a simr system to the one Modo does currently, hiding magic frommoners and taking any they find with talent as vassals. And, simr to Modo, any vassal mage that reached third circle, the level of power I¡¯m currently at, was given a noble title. This worked fine for a while, but a lot of themoners who rose to power were treated like ves by their old noble family, and arge divide grew within the nobility as the number of these new houses grew. Eventually, the new houses started a revolt and drove the old royalty from their capital, iming half of the continent for themselves and naming it New Denntimo.¡± Emily pauses to take a sip of water, looking around and seeing everyone hanging on her every word. ¡°They didn¡¯t appoint a new king,¡± she continues, ¡°and instead formed a system where all noble families are given a vote, weighted based on how many mages they have and favouring high levelbat power. Because of this new system, and a lot of the nobles having once beenmoners themselves, they started to spread knowledge of magic to themon folk, and use structured education to pick outmoners with talent to add to their numbers.¡± ¡°Does that help them grow their numbers that much?¡± Tony asks from the corner. ¡°Yes. Doing proper testing of everyone gives them a much higher number of awakened each year.¡± ¡°How haven¡¯t they won the war yet then?¡± Sam questions. ¡°Because of time,¡± Emily says, finishing off her bowl. ¡°They have a lot of first and second, and even a few third circle mages, but the country hasn¡¯t had enough time for fourth circle mages to arise. There¡¯s a reason I said the votes were favoured towards high levelbat power. A single fourth circle mage can fight against half a dozen third with ease.¡± ¡°That sounds impressive, but how strong is a third circle mage? Can all of them do things like thatrge explosion this morning?¡± Ash asks with a shiver. ¡°Kind of but not really,¡± Emily says, shaking her head. ¡°That was using arge-scale array carved into the basement of their mansion over a very powerful source of mana. That sort of thing requires being very good with arrays, which are difficult for most mages, and a lot of resources. So while a third circle mage can set up an array like that, it takes ages to prepare, and it has to be done in specific ces. As for how strong a third circle mage is? It varies wildly, but a standard third circle mage could probably fight an armed force with around fifty people if not more. If you¡¯re looking at a specialist though, it could go up by a lot.¡± Agnes would stomp over a hundred armed mortals with energy to spare. ¡°Woah,¡± Podrick exims. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that mean fourth circle mages can fight three hundred people?¡± ¡°Something like that,¡± Emily says with a shrug. ¡°I can¡¯t be sure, since I¡¯m not that strong yet myself, but it seems reasonable if not conservative for the one I fought.¡± ¡°You fought one? Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯re third circle?¡± ¡°Yep, but I¡¯m not a standard third circle mage,¡± Emily responds with a small, prideful grin. They continue questioning Emily as they eat, the fear and tension gripping the hall slowly fading as they chat. Emily asks Anton about their next destination as the meal winds down, finding that they are docking the following evening. After they finish, Sam leaves to go crash in his bed, exhausted after having his usual sleep schedule interrupted; Tony leaves to let Ang know Emily¡¯s taking over; and Emily leads Ash, Podrick, and Anton towards the ship¡¯s hatch. ¡°Is this rted to how you were controlling the ship before?¡± Anton asks as they walk through the ship¡¯s confined hallways. ¡°Kind of,¡± Emily responds without looking back. ¡°I¡¯ll be controlling the ship using the same trick I was using then, but this is something slightly different. It¡¯s more about seeing the ship¡¯s surroundings.¡± They stop before the hatch, and Emily reaches into her belt before opening it. Ash notices the strange way Emily¡¯s hand seems to vanish as they watch closely. ¡°What¡¯s with your belt?¡± they question. ¡°Space magic. It¡¯s like the bag I gave Anton: it¡¯s bigger on the inside,¡± Emily replies dismissively, ignoring them turning to question Anton and pulling out one of her bird scouts. ¡°Anyway, this little guy is my scout.¡± The bird spreads its wings, taking off and flying around the crew¡¯s heads nimbly beforeing to a rest on Emily¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Using magic, I can see through his eyes whenever I want. I¡¯m going to send him out to sit on top of Calypso¡¯s balloon to look around for me,¡± she exins as she uses a small burst of machina to open the hatch beside her without dropping the connecting stairs. Her scout leaps off her shoulder, sailing out of the open doorway and spreading its wings under several admiring gazes. Noticing the looks of awe on the faces around her, Emily proudly manoeuvres the bird in a series of twisting flips, elegantly performing an aerial disy for them before moving it into ce to perch on top of therge balloon holding the ship up. She locks the small scout¡¯s talons onto the robust spine of the balloon and sets a single thread to monitor the surrounding desert through it, watching the clear night sky as two more threads micromanage therge vessel¡¯s flight. ¡°That¡¯s amazing,¡± Anton says as the bird vanishes from view. ¡°Magic aside, that bird is a work of art. It¡¯s so much more animated than our docking drones.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Emily replies, pulling out another bird to let them have a closer look. ¡°They were a long-term project I only finished recently. Speaking of though, I would quite like to see your drones. I don¡¯t remember seeing them when we toured the ship.¡± ¡°We tend not to need them much since the Mandrago family usually organised our routes for us, but I¡¯m sure Ash can show you when we stop at Ashdon if you want.¡± ¡°I can indeed, they pale inparison to this though, it¡¯s beautiful. Do you have any magicless ones I could buy?¡± Ash asks, gently pulling open the wing of fine metal feathers. ¡°I don¡¯t have any spares, but I can make you one,¡± Emily responds, the warmth building in her chest generated by their keen interest in her creation vanishingpletely as their reactions remind her of Juliana receiving Harold as a gift. ¡°It will have far less control than my magic ones though.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s fine, thanks,¡± Ash says, without looking up. ¡°How much will it be?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t charge you. The materials are cheap, and I can make them pretty quickly now. Think of it as an apology for making you leave the country.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Ash responds with a smile, looking up and flinching slightly as they meet Emily¡¯s cold, expressionless mask. Emily nods and shuts the hatch, giving Anton and Podrick a chance to look at the bird before making it slip from their grasp and fly back into hers. ¡°Right, you guys should go rest now. I just need to keep the ship on its current course, right?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Anton confirms with a nod, patting Emily on the shoulder, seemingly unperturbed by her cold stare, before turning to walk towards his cabin. ¡°Good luck!¡± Ash says goodbye and follows him, leaving Emily and Podrick alone, the small boy eagerly looking up at her. ¡°Is it time?¡± he asks with barely contained excitement. ¡°Yes.¡± Emily nods, striding past and gesturing for him to follow. ¡°Now, I can¡¯t promise this will work since I¡¯ve never attempted it before, but I¡¯m eager to try.¡± She nces back, seeing Podrick following her while nodding seriously. ¡°It will also hurt a lot, especially if it¡¯s sessful, so be prepared. I can give you a potion to help numb the pain, but I¡¯m not sure if that will hurt your future development, so it¡¯s up to you if you want it or not.¡± They reach a mostly empty storage room, and Podrick stops at the entrance to consider her warning as Emily quickly pushes the few crates and barrels in the room to the edges to clear space, leaving only one in the centre. She looks up at Podrick after she¡¯s done, watching his expression of conflicted excitement settling into one of resolve as he shuts the door properly and walks forward. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. And I don¡¯t want the potion.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Emily hums with a raised brow, the corner of her lips turned up ever so slightly. ¡°Good. Now sit down on that box and take your shirt off.¡± Podrick follows her instructions without missing a beat, sitting down and removing his shirt as Emily pulls out and sets up the barrier disk. ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± he asks as she turns to face him again. ¡°It soundproofs the room. I can¡¯t have your screams waking the rest of the crew.¡± Podrick shivers and gulps down his fear, chuckling ufortably as he¡¯s unable to tell if she¡¯s joking or not. ¡°Stay still, I¡¯m going to run my preliminary scan now. You may feel some slight difort.¡± Emily moves behind him, cing a palm t against his exposed spine and shutting her eyes as she sends a tiny stream of machina into his body. She starts off with the smallest amount possible, so little it barely even prates his skin, being careful not to hurt him as she slowly increases the amount of energy being transferred until it doesn¡¯t just dissipate. He flinches and squirms ufortably the moment the cold energy holds together within him, feeding Emily information about the muscles and nerves down to a few centimetres below the surface where her hand makes contact. Emily ces another hand on his shoulder, pushing down to remind him to remain still as she maintains the same concentration of machina and slowly pours in arger quantity, guiding the energy to flow out from the boy¡¯s spine. She takes her time carefully mapping his body with clinical interest, noting the differences in everything from muscle density to organ activity and even organ cement between him, Agnes, and herself. Is this a male and female thing, or is it rted to our awakenings and ascensions? I need more live test subjects if I¡¯m going to figure it out. Preferably some pre-awakening women as well to get a better point ofparison. Adding some less-than-savoury ns to her to-do list, Emily finishes her scan, drawing out a detailed map of Podrick¡¯s body topare with after trying to awaken him, before retracting her energy. ¡°Haaa,¡± Podrick lets out aboured gasp as her machina leaves his body, sweat running down his brow. ¡°What was that? It felt like something was burning my insides, but it wasn¡¯t hot.¡± ¡°That was my preliminary scan,¡± Emily exins, seeing no reason not to inform him properly. ¡°I used the special energy type of mechanics, machina, to flood your body and give me a detailed view of the insides.¡± ¡°Will I be able to do that?¡± ¡°If you sessfully awaken? Maybe. You probably will with a bit of practice. I¡¯m not sure what it¡¯s like for normal mechanics controlling machina, but if it¡¯s anything like with mana, it may take you a while to get to my level of fine control.¡± ¡°Cool! What do you need to do to awaken me then?¡± ¡°Well,¡± Emily says, running through the information she has on mages¡¯ assisted awakenings in her mind. ¡°For a mage, the process for awakening someone else is pretty simple. You just inject raw mana into someone and flood their entire body with it, focusing it around their heart. Then, the body will see it as a threat and react: either by fighting it, and likely dying or bing disfigured in the process, or by adapting to absorb and store it.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that what you just did with machina?¡± Podrick questions. ¡°Yes, but I kept the concentration as low as possible and spread it out, to try not to let your body have a full reaction to it. We¡¯re going to try the same thing again, but I¡¯ll increase the concentration, and I think it will be more effective if I only send the energy along the pathways that will carry it in the future. Unlike mages, who have to form new mana circuits throughout their bodies to aid in the cirction of mana, mechanics use the neural pathways already in ce in their bodies. Also, I¡¯ll focus it around your brain, that¡¯s what will be your energy store, not your heart like a mage.¡± ¡°Neural pathways?¡± ¡°The connections within your body used to transfer signals around. It¡¯s what lets your brain tell your fingers to move,¡± Emily exins. ¡°Now, prepare yourself, this is going to hurt.¡± Podrick nods, taking a deep breath and sping the edge of the crate he¡¯s sitting on until his knuckles turn white. ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± he says resolutely, screwing his eyes shut. ¡°Here goes nothing,¡± Emily responds, cing her hand on the top of his head. I¡¯ll start at the same concentration asst time and slowly increase it. I can always reset if this doesn¡¯t work and I need to keep a consistent concentration like with mage awakenings, but I won¡¯t gain any information if I instantly fry his brain, so better safe than wasting my time. She floods his body in an instant, guiding her machina through his brain and into his nervous system, keeping it contained within the pathways as she feels him shudder slightly. Slowly, she starts increasing the concentration of energy leaving her hand, watching as Podrick¡¯s entire body tenses before growing hotter and starting to shake. He grits his teeth and hisses, doing a good job of not screaming under the searing pain, and Emily keeps going until cold lightning is flickering out and across the surface of the boy¡¯s skin, making his hair stand on end. Suddenly, as if a switch is flipped, she feels a change ur and his body goes from trying to force the foreign energy out to drawing it in hungrily. It¡¯s working! ¡°AAAHHHH!¡± Podrick lets out a guttural scream as his body convulses and starts drawing in energy from the air around him. Emily lets go of his head and steps back, letting the awakening process continue on its own as she watches with rapt attention. Podrick curls in on himself, his fingers locking out straight and his arms and back flexing under tension. He convulses violently as he continues to scream with tears rolling down his face, mixing with the stream of blood running from his nose. Is he being damaged by the process? I don¡¯t think I was. I¡¯ll have to check his cortex afterwards to make sure there are no abnormalities. After a minute, the lightning flickering across the suffering boy¡¯s skin slowly dies down as Emily feels the energy drawn around him weakening. His screaming stops, and he goes limp in an instant, like a puppet with its strings cut, falling forward towards the floor. Emily nces at the system notification sitting before her eyes as she catches him before he can drop off the crate, lifting him up and lowering him to the floor gently. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Hidden-Questpleted: The Spread of Knowledge [The Spread of Knowledge] [Rank:] D [Description:] As the first true mechanic of your world, you¡¯ve taken it upon yourself to spread the vocation. Congrattions on bing the mother of Ulean mechanics. Requirements: -Awaken 1/1 mechanic (Completed) Rewards: -Skill: Mother¡¯s Blessing _____ Podrick opens his eyes weakly and looks up at Emily, seeing the small, barely noticeable, triumphant grin on her face. ¡°Congrattions,¡± she says, meeting his eyes, ¡°on bing the second Ulean mechanic.¡± Chapter 126 – True Elementalist Chapter 126 ¨C True Elementalist Podrick shes Emily a weak, giddy grin. ¡°Thanks,¡± he rasps, his throat hoarse from screaming. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve been hit by an airship.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs, pulling out a healing potion and sitting down beside him. ¡°This potion will help with that. But first, I want to do a quick scan to check what¡¯s damaged.¡± Podrick tries to nod, wincing as he moves his neck. ¡°Just stay still and don¡¯t resist,¡± Emily says, pushing his head back down before cing her palm on his chest. The moment she pushes a small stream of machina into him, Emily feels a fierce resistance. The energy resting within his new cortexshes out in reaction, trying to force out her influence. Emily leaves it for a moment, gauging the strength of the machina. I could force through his resistance if I didn¡¯t mind hurting him. Good to know. ¡°Stop resisting,¡± she repeats. ¡°How?¡± Podrick asks with slight panic. ¡°Take a deep breath,¡± Emily instructs. ¡°Feel the energy leaving your cortex, the new organ recing your brain, and try to tell it not to move.¡± Podrick closes his eyes and does as she says, trying to feel out the energy within him. Emily maintains a light stream into him as he does, keeping his body in a state of distress, forcing him to calm it himself. It takes a few minutes of focus, but he eventually manages to draw the hostile machina back into his cortex and hold it there. ¡°This is so weird,¡± Podrick mutters as Emily slowly scans his body. ¡°I couldn¡¯t really tell what you were doing before, but now it feels like you¡¯re staring straight into me.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Emily hums with a nod. ¡°You¡¯re far more sensitive to my energy maniption after awakening. It¡¯s not surprising you have some idea of what I¡¯m doing now.¡± ¡°I see. How are you doing that by the way?¡± ¡°Doing what?¡± ¡°Moving your machina so delicately. I¡¯m still struggling just to stop it reacting on its own.¡± ¡°Oh, talent I guess,¡± Emily says with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯ve never had trouble moving mana or machina to my will, but that was odd among mages. Most of them had to train their mana maniption, so I guess it will be the same for you. It¡¯s just like having another limb: I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to adjust to using it just fine after a while.¡± ¡°I see,¡± he responds, his brow creasing when Emily moves her machina towards his head. She instantly feels the barely-contained machina in the boy¡¯s cortex reaching out to interfere. I can¡¯t scan his cortex? That¡¯s a shame. The rest of him hasn¡¯t changed very much, just a little all-round strengthening and a bit of stress damage from the seizing and screaming. I¡¯m guessing most of the change from the awakening was in his cortex, and the blood was just indicative of that. I wonder why I didn¡¯t bleed though. Did the mage part of my awakening help heal me? ¡°Okay,¡± she says, retracting her energy and lifting the vial of red liquid to Podrick¡¯s lips. ¡°I¡¯m done. Drink this.¡± He greedily gulps down the cool, soothing liquid, letting out a satisfied sigh as he empties the vial. He goes still afterwards, shutting his eyes and slowing his breathing. After a few moments, he opens them again and sits up. ¡°Thanks, that feels so much better,¡± he says, rolling his shoulders and clicking his neck side to side. ¡°You¡¯re wee,¡± Emily says, standing up and walking towards the door. ¡°That¡¯s all for now. Go get some rest, or y about with your new body, whatever. I¡¯m going back to my room.¡± She pauses as she opens the door, ncing back over her shoulder. ¡°Just remember. Don¡¯t tell anyone about this.¡± Podrick nods quickly, a shiver running down his spine as he meets Emily¡¯s stormy warning re. Satisfied, she turns on her heels and vanishes into the corridor, sending half of her cores to sleep for the night now that her main experiment is finished. *** Back in her room, Emily copses on her back in her bed, staring up at the ceiling and opening her system to check out her new skill. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how I feel about this name,¡± she mumbles. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Mother¡¯s Blessing (active)] [Cost:] 50% total mana, machina, and stamina A unique ability to help raise a strong following. -Grants a blessing to a target that temporarily boosts their cultivation speed and processing ability. -Can only be used on targets of a lower level. -Can only be used on a target considered the User¡¯s child. _____ Increasing someone else¡¯s cultivation speed? That sounds incredible, but only being usable on my children is weird. Presumably, since it gave me the skill for awakening Pod, he¡¯d be included. But I certainly don¡¯t consider him my child. Does it just mean people I¡¯ve awakened? Frowning, Emily starts pulling out small mechanicalponents, idly weaving together another clockwork bird as she thinks. It does say the skill is for raising a strong following, not family, so surely I don¡¯t actually have to be rted to the targets. The quest was called The Spread of Knowledge, so maybe it would count someone as my child if I taught them. Honestly, I consider my machines my children more than I would any people. Emily¡¯s hands pause in their work as an idea strikes her. She sits up and pulls one of her spider scouts from her storage, setting it down in herp. cing a hand on top of it, she tries to activate the skill. She feels a pull on the concept of the skill, more abstract in nature than the rest, but nothing happens and she doesn¡¯t feel a proper reaction. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicks her tongue, putting the scout away. ¡°Never mind, I guess inanimate objects don¡¯t count as my children. I¡¯ll have to test it on some people in the future. I¡¯ll wait till I think I can trust Pod for now.¡± Moving on from the skill, Emily moves into a meditative position and lets her mind wander back to the fight of the morning. Her brow creases slightly as something about the memories feels off, somehow not quiteplete, but an ufortable churning in her gut pushes her to ignore it, so she focuses on her original target, the thunderstorm. Those bolts falling from above were stronger than arc, but weaker than arc-bolt. Definitely a third circle spell. I didn¡¯t use a single rune but made a third circle spell. How? A buzzing static fills the air around Emily as she submerses herself in the memory of shooting to the ground with half a dozen lightning bolts following her, focusing on the feeling of her connection to the bolts. Are runes actually needed for spells? They can certainly help. After all, the system has unlocked skills to help me improve using them; but maybe they¡¯re not required. Like chants! They control the effect of some spells, but it¡¯s possible to use them without if you have a solid mental image. The static starts condensing into little, sparking bolts, wreathing Emily in a glowing cloak of primal electricity. To get rid of chants you needed a solid mental image of both the magic circle, and the spell you want to cast. If you¡¯re to get rid of the magic circle and only hold the spell, what¡¯s the catalyst to actually cast it? Realisation strikes and a thunder crack rings out across the open desert, waking everyone on the ship. ¡°Elemental connection,¡± she mutters as her eyes flit open. Her eyes glow with a crackling blue light, and the buzzing sma surrounding her shudders as she takes control of it with a light flex of her will. Emily raises her right hand, moving the pure elemental mana to form around it into a fierce-looking bracer with a de extending a metre out over her knuckles. A satisfied grin forms on her lips as she gazes at the spell, feeling the full strength of her third circle being put to use without a runic magic circle. After a few seconds of admiring the weapon, Emily releases her control, and the air around her calms as her eyes lose their otherworldly glow. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ Insight gained! [Skill upgraded] [Intermediate Mana Maniption (passive)] User has fine control over external mana use. -Grants +15% efficiency and control over mana outside the body -Grants +5% power to elemental manifestation -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hidden-questpleted: True Elementalist [True Elementalist] [Rank:] C [Description:] You¡¯ve independently realised the folly of Ulean mages and understood the true nature of their pursuits, an important step towards reaching the fifth circle. Through refining your understanding, earned inbat and emotional distress, you¡¯ve taken the first step down the path of a true Elementalist. What you be now is your choice. Requirements: -Cast a spell without using a magic circle intentionally (Completed) Rewards: -Talent: One With The Elements -Mage Knowledge: Magic Vocations _____ She feels a refreshing shiver running down her spine as the upgraded skill and new talent settle into ce, and new information floods into her mind in a familiar manner. Well, that¡¯s two requirements for my progression ticked off. Wait, an important step for reaching fifth circle? Why? Emily lets out a long breath and stands up from her bed to pace around the room as she processes everything she¡¯s just learned, trying to understand what makes it important for progressing to fifth circle. ¡°That aside though, this exins so much. No wonder Lebard¡¯s magic was called strange in all the reports I read in the library,¡± she mutters to herself. A presence at the door breaks Emily¡¯s focus from breaking down her new knowledge, so she walks over to open it with an irritated scowl. ¡°Yes?¡± she says to Anton on the other side, who flinches back as he meets her eyes. ¡°Um,¡± he says, swallowing down his fear and straightening his back. ¡°I was justing to check everything was okay. We were all woken by that thunder, but it doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s a storm outside.¡± Emily¡¯s expression softens as her eyes widen. ¡°Wait, you guys heard that?¡± she asks. ¡°Yeah. Why? Was it you?¡± ¡°Yeah, sorry about that. I swear my sound-proofing barrier was up. Please ignore it.¡± ¡°Oh, ok. I¡¯ll let everyone know it was a false rm then. I¡¯m going back to bed for now.¡± With a tired nod and a yawn, Anton turns to address the heads poking out of their rooms as Emily slips back into hers and shuts the door. Instantly, all the noise from outside is cut off again. ¡°I thought so, my barrier is still working,¡± she mutters. ¡°That thunderp must have been like the ones I get with my ascensions that bypass barriers. Strange. It¡¯s almost like the world is celebrating my achievements.¡± Shaking her head at the ridiculous thought, Emily settles down to finish her consideration of magical vocations. ¡°The fun of the moment is gone now, let¡¯s just break this down quickly. Why is this apparently so important?¡± Mages can be split into three major categories, Elementalists, Arcanists, and Supplicants. Lebard mages probably follow the path of True Supplicants. All ounts said they imed that they pray to their deities and are given magic in return. Their deities are probably just some fourth circle extra-dimensional beings. It would even exin the scarcity of fourth circle mages among their ranks: a Patron can¡¯t create many Supplicants at the same level as themselves. Then, the rest of Ulean mages follow a sub-branch of the other two vocations without even realising it. Emily lets out a derisive chuckle as she understands why the quest called it their folly. They¡¯re losing the best parts of both vocations just to make up for theirck of knowledge and talent. Elementalists focus on creating a strong connection with their highest affinity element, rarely a second or third even if they have multiple high affinities. They cast spells without magic circles, using elemental manifestation alone, focusing on power and flexibility, and they even go as far as permanently attributing their mana circles to further that. ¡°Maybe that needs to be done before reaching fifth circle?¡± she mumbles. Arcanists on the other hand, focus on understanding runes and cultivating raw mana for utility and adaptability. Ulean mages though, are a shitty excuse for elemental-arcanists. They focus too much on each developing a single element to have the adaptability of Arcanists. Theirck of a true elemental connection weakens their power, and their reliance on magic circles reduces their flexibility inbat. She raises a hand to bite her thumb as thest line of the quest¡¯s description bugs her. What I be now is my choice. Is it telling me to pick a vocation? Her lips crawl up into a grin as another option urs to her. ¡°Or is it telling me to fix their faults and be a proper elemental-arcanist?¡± She opens up her new talent to have a look on instinct, and her grin only grows. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [One With The Elements] User is at one with magic itself. -Grants an increase of 1% affinity in all elements and concepts. -Increased aptitude for connecting with elements. _____ ¡°Why would I ever attribute my circles with a single element after earning this talent? I guess I¡¯ll need to find ways to connect with more elements in the future,¡± Emily mutters, settling into a meditative position again. ¡°None of them wille as easily as lightning, that¡¯s for sure.¡± *** After meditating through the rest of the night while steering the ship onwards, Emily leaves her room to join the rest of the crew for breakfast, massaging her brow and feeling surprisingly drained. Weird, why am I so tired? I was just meditating. ncing at her status, she immediately spots an issue. ¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥¡¥ [Status] [Name:] Emily Coldstone [Race:] Human [Age:] 17 [Magic Circle:] Third Circle [Machina Cortex:] Third Stage [Attributes:] Strength 20 (26), Dexterity 65 (68), Agility 52 (57), Vitality 17 (22), Intelligence 129 [Health:] 267/270 [Stamina:] 135/530 [Mana:] 1490/17415 [Machina:] 1525/17415 _____ Woah, my stamina has dropped so much, and my mana and machina regeneration has also slowed by the looks of it. Why? It can¡¯t have been the fight yesterday, was it awakening Pod? I didn¡¯t feel much different at the time though. Also, I¡¯m injured. Maybe it¡¯s this Goddess forsaken buzzing and whatever my machina is doing to my cortex at the moment. Emily drops into a seat between Ash and Podrick, gratefully epting a serving of porridge that¡¯s offered to her. Shenguidly scoops some into her mouth and looks up at Anton sitting across from her. ¡°Was everything okayst night?¡± he asks. ¡°Yeah, we maintained the same speed as usual and didn¡¯t stray from our path,¡± Emily reassures him between mouthfuls. ¡°What time do you think we¡¯ll be arriving at Ashdon?¡± ¡°If we keep the same speed as yesterday then we should have about six hours till we get there.¡± Emily notices him shifting ufortably as he answers but chooses not to bring it up. Seems like he¡¯s expecting trouble. She nods and finishes her food in silence, the buzzing in her head drowning out the chatter around her. After eating she heads back to her room, waving Podrick off when he tries to talk to her, and copses in bed. I feel like it¡¯s a bad idea to use healing magic to interfere with whatever my machina is doing, so hopefully it will be done when I wake up. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 127 – Severance Chapter 127 ¨C Severance Emily wakes up several hourster. A quick nce through the bird scout stilltched to the balloon above tells her that they¡¯re approaching another desert city, Ashdon, and almost at its walls already. The walled city is about half the size of Eimdon: the sandy buildings follow a simr design style andyout, with the noble and trading districts being noticeable at a nce from above. However, outside the city walls is a sprawling cluster of tents and ramshackle houses spanning a farrger area than her home city. Emily slides out of bed feeling refreshed. A quick nce at her status shows her resources filled to the maximum, including her health. ¡°That¡¯s better,¡± she mutters, her mind finally quiet now that the buzzing activity within has gone. What was my machina doing that whole time? With the irritation gone, she lets her curiosity get the better of her despite an instinct telling her to ignore it. She focuses inwards on her cortex, searching for the areas affected by the recent phenomena. She quickly locates them, and the well-ordered structure along with her intimate understanding of the magical organ tells her immediately what those areas could affect. My memories and emotions. Why are they being messed with, and why was it such a long process? Poking a little closer, memories start flickering through her mind rapidly: standing in Herber¡¯s shop, watching her father being dispatched by the now-dead Carlos; ripping the offending mage¡¯s master to pieces as he begs for death; cowering under a pile of rags as her birth parents are torn limb from limb; discovering Juliana¡¯s mangled corpse. Emily quickly opens her eyes, tearing her focus away as she recognises the danger of looking through those memories again. However, the moment her eyes snap open, she discovers an odd discrepancy. I don¡¯t feel anything. As opposed to the expected reignition of her deeply buried emotions, she feels a disquieting sense of calm. Cautiously, she focuses on the affected memories again, picking out a single one to relivepletely. She watches with cold apathy as she storms the Mandrago mansion, calmly judging her own actions within the final melee as she rips the gathered mages to shreds, not feeling an ounce of the rage she was consumed by in the moment. ¡°Huh,¡± she mumbles, opening her eyes. ¡°It seems like I¡¯vepletely separated my memories from the emotions associated with them. This could be useful.¡± Her lips curl in a satisfied grin that sends an odd pang of guilt through her core as she quickly realises why she felt conflicted as the change was happening: she feels nothing about her recent sister¡¯s death. The thought twists her gut in self-loathing and disgust, but those emotions fade abnormally quickly as she returns to a state of calm. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s not just affecting my memories,¡± she mutters in realisation, a frown twisting her expression. This could be a problem. Just how much has it altered my emotions? Is it just forcing me to regte out negative ones, or will it bnce positive ones too? To test, Emily splits her focus and raises her hand, her eyes igniting with a cerulean glow as lightning flows out of her. She guides crackling sma in a delicate dance, a smile creeping onto her lips as she enjoys ying with her power. Another core tracks her emotional state as she focuses her primary consciousness on the energy maniption, and she continues for a few moments before dropping the manifestation and letting her smile quickly fall back into her signature scowl. Afterpletely resetting to neutral, she starts again, this time twisting the energy into a shimmering serpentine creature swimming through the air, her smile reappears and grows wider as she starts forming crackling scales along the illusory creature before bursting it in a fizzling disy of light while releasing the manifestation again. It¡¯s definitely affecting all my emotions. My normal level of enjoyment seems to be muted slightly, though less than it has been since leaving Chroni. When I made the snake, my happiness peaked and seemed to reduce more slowly afterwards than it did with the first test. Does that mean I can slow the bncing with a strong burst either way? ¡°That seems fair for regting my negative emotions. As much as my anger helped me work out how to properly utilise elemental manifestation, I still could have dealt with that fight with the Mandragos better if I¡¯d been calm,¡± she mutters. ¡°Is this a normal change for mechanics?¡± Without any way to answer her question, for now, she looks within her cortex again. I definitely didn¡¯t remove the emotions rted to those memories though. Where are they? Poking around a little, she quickly finds the answer as she reaches a dense bundle of microstructures that seems to resist her attention. With a little extra push, willing her cortex to give her ess, she breaks through the weak resistance, more a suggestion than an actual boundary to her, and instantly regrets it. An overwhelming wave of anger, sorrow, happiness, longing, and so many other emotions she can barely differentiate washes over Emily. She instantly flinches away from the closed-off section of her cortex, resisting the urge to scream, cry, and kill someone. Within a few seconds, the aftermath of the emotional rush fades as she bnces out again and slumps back onto her bed. Fuck me, that was awful. Let¡¯s not do that again any time soon. Absentmindedly, Emily pulls her scarf up to cover her nose, breathing in the calming scent and letting out a rxed sigh. ¡°At least I can enjoy this without feeling too sad,¡± she mutters before a frown creases her features. ¡°Or much at all.¡± She sits up and runs her fingers through the soft fabric as she processes theck of any emotional response to the keepsake other than a calming sense of familiarity. ¡°I really am a monster,¡± she mutters, a lump forming in her throat that she quickly swallows as she inhales again, letting the scarf rx her. ¡°I don¡¯t think I should test overwhelming the bncing in the negative direction for now. I can cry about Jules as much as I wantter. For now, we have a city to visit.¡± As if on cue, the ship¡¯s horn sounds, and a familiar presence approaches her door. Emily stands up and moves to greet them. ¡°Hey,¡± she says, swinging the door open. ¡°Are we docking?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Podrick nods, not batting an eye this time at her predicting his approach. ¡°Anton asked me toe grab you. He seems to be on edge, he¡¯s been getting restless as we get closer to the dock. Also, he said you wanted to see the docking request drones that we use, so it¡¯s better to get you now than to let you rest longer.¡± Emily nods as she steps past him, skipping over thements about the drone and thinking of the captain¡¯s unease. He¡¯s definitely expecting trouble. Will they have marked our ship yet? ¡°It¡¯s been bugging me, but why do you guys always call him by his name?¡± Emily asks as they walk side-by-side, her curiosity peaked by the boy¡¯s seemingck of respect. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you usually call him captain?¡± ¡°I tried to when I first joined the crew.¡± Podrick shrugs, a yful smile creeping onto his face. ¡°But he told me it¡¯s too annoyingly formal: we¡¯re not noble pricks so why bother.¡± He says thest part while making his voice deeper in a poor impression of the man. ¡°Haha,¡± Emily chuckles lightly before quickly falling silent again. Podrick pauses and, after taking a few more steps without him, Emily nces over her shoulder with a raised brow. Podrick is standing, staring at her with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide in shock. ¡°What?¡± Emily asks, tilting her head as she halts for a moment. ¡°N-nothing,¡± Podrick stutters, a red tint to his cheeks as he breaks out of his shock and hurries back to match pace with her. ¡°I just think that¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen youugh.¡± Emily rolls her eyes and continues walking. Podrick guides her in a different direction from the bridge, taking her to a small room around the midpoint of the ship where Emily knows a vertical hatch is installed. They enter the room to find Ash and Anton waiting for them. ¡°Sup,¡± Emily greets them, her attention quickly falling on the dog-sized object covered in fabric between them, sitting on top of the room¡¯s hatch. ¡°This our drone?¡± ¡°Indeed, it is,¡± Ash says, lifting up the fabric to reveal a boxy metal shape with several grills and pipes along the sides and a few propellers on the back and sticking out of the sides. ¡°It¡¯s not pretty, but it does the job.¡± Emily nods, approaching and cing her hand on the drone to scan it. She realises the fabric is an uninted balloon, and she finds a half-decent miniature steam engine within, along with a storagepartment big enough to carry an ingot of metal. She frowns as she looks at the internals, a question immediately rising to the forefront of her mind. ¡°How do you control this thing?¡± she asks, looking up at Ash andpletely ignoring Anton beside them, awkwardly trying to find a moment to butt in. ¡°It looks like it will just go in a straight line.¡± ¡°It does,¡± Ash replies with an exasperated sigh. ¡°These things are kind of useless. They only go in a straight line and either up or down as they do. It¡¯s only helpful for getting messages to and from the docks without having tond, and even that we have to do by attaching that.¡± They gesture over their shoulder to an obvious winch system bolted to the floor and wall, powered by a pipeing from the ship¡¯s engine. It has arge spool of thin, finger-width cable with a clip on the end that¡¯s attached to a mounting point on top of the drone, between the body and the balloon. Emily grimaces at the solution, her mind spinning to create methods to control a drone. I could do it with magic, but that defeats the purpose. Maybe I could do something with electricity? The universal transmitter works on long-distancemunication, so maybe I can pick that apart and make a short-range version for sending instructions to machines. I¡¯ll need a specialised workshop to start working on that though, and I¡¯m still not quite sure how I¡¯m meant to control the transmitter itself, or even how to receive the data they send. The blueprints mention data connection points to link to other systems, but nothing about those systems. It¡¯s like I¡¯m still missing key information. ¡°Emily?¡± Anton says, snapping her out of her thoughts and drawing her gaze away from the disappointingly basic drone. ¡°Can we send it now?¡± ¡°Oh, sure,¡± she says with a dismissive wave, stepping back to let Ash get it running. ¡°I was just thinking about ways to improve it.¡± Anton nods and takes out a folded letter from the spatial pouch tied at his waist, crouching down to ce it into the drone¡¯s storagepartment as Ash loads the engine with coal and fires it up. The balloon slowly intes as they all watch, and Podrick turns to Emily with curiosity. ¡°How do you want to improve the drone?¡± he asks. ¡°Well, other than refining the visual design so it isn¡¯t so ugly, I was thinking about how to sendmands to it remotely so we can control it,¡± she replies without a thought. ¡°I think I have some blueprints that may help me, but I don¡¯t have a concrete way to do it without using magic at the moment. I¡¯ll have to think about it.¡± Podrick nods and falls silent, a thoughtful look on his face. After the drone¡¯s balloon is filled, Ash flips a selector switch on the side, redirecting the steam flow from the balloon to the propellers, before turning a dial on the side to set off a timer connected to the stops holding said propellers still. Moving quickly, they move to a lever beside the hatch and flip it, opening a hole in the floor and letting the drone slowly float down through it as the attached spool unreels. Emily steps up to the edge, gazing down the long drop to the ground far below and watching as, a few seconds after clearing the ship, the drone¡¯s propellers start spinning. The miniature airship slowly chugs forward, lowering down slowly as it heads towards the city walls. ¡°Are you sure the city will be the ones to receive it?¡± Emily asks, noticing the ramshackle housing spreading out from the wall even in front of the docks. ¡°They should be,¡± Anton answers. ¡°The second they see a ship hovering nearby to request docking they send a guard out to receive the drone, and it¡¯s a criminal offence for anyone else to interfere. There have been a few cases where the guards have beenzy and people have tried to steal the drones, but it¡¯s quite rare.¡± Emily nods in understanding. ¡°Howe you don¡¯t know this?¡± Podrick asks curiously. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it the same in Eimdon?¡± ¡°No.¡± She shakes her head in response. ¡°The scrap and slums are only on the south side of the city, and the docks are in the east. It¡¯s illegal to get within a certain distance of them outside the walls, and the city guards were constantly patrolling there. Now that I think about it, I¡¯m pretty sure the Mandragos were paranoid about their magical resources being stolen in transit.¡± ¡°Is that what the deliveries they sent with guards will have been?¡± Anton asks, a light of realisation shing in his eyes. ¡°Probably. Now, how long will we be waiting for a reply?¡± Emily asks. ¡°They should send the drone back in twenty to thirty minutes. Then, we¡¯ll either be told which hangar to dock in now, or to wait nearby for a certain amount of time until one is free. I¡¯m hoping we won¡¯t have to wait: it looks unlikely, judging by theck of other ships hanging around, but if we do, and it¡¯s more than a few hours, we can just keep moving. We¡¯re only about six hours from the next closest stop on our route.¡± ¡°Well, for now we wait.¡± Emily nods and turns to Ash, pulling a clockwork bird from thin air. ¡°Here, I made this for youst night.¡± She passes the bird and a small winding key to them, watching their eyes light up with interest as they take it. ¡°Thank you,¡± they say with a warm smile. ¡°No problem. I¡¯m always happy to share my babies with people who appreciate them,¡± Emily responds with a matching smile of her own. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 128 – They Know Chapter 128 ¨C They Know Ash stares at Emily in stunned silence. Emily tilts her head in confusion as her expression slowly returns to normal. ¡°What?¡± she asks. ¡°Nothing,¡± Ash says, quickly shaking their head to clear their shock. ¡°I was just surprised you smiled like that. You looked like you¡¯d cut off anyone¡¯s head if they tried to talk to you this morning.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emily scoffs. ¡°I probably would have. My head was killing me. Oh, speaking of, I asked you to put aside time for me then totally bailed, sorry about that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We have time now, don¡¯t we? So, how are you nning on improving the ship?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± Emily pulls out some paper and starts drawing out some of her ideas, picking Ash¡¯s brain for their experience working on the ship to improve her ns. Podrickes over to quietly listen to them chat, giving his own input when possible, and Anton leaves the trio alone, watching the hole in the floor for any signs of the drone returning. After only fifteen minutes, he breaks up the enthusiastic discussion about armour-ting material choices and calls the other three over again. ¡°It¡¯s moving again,¡± he says, a frown creasing his brow. ¡°That was fast,¡± Emilyments, storing her illustrations of the ship and walking over to the winch as he turns it on. ¡°Too fast,¡± Anton agrees with an ufortable nod. ¡°You¡¯re really expecting shit to hit the fan, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you?¡± he retorts. ¡°Fair point,¡± Emily responds with a mischievous grin that sends shivers down the spines of everyone in the room. Anton shes her a cautious look, but Emily chuckles and waves away his concern. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not going to cause too much trouble.¡± More like can¡¯t if I want my full quest reward. ¡°I just suspect they will have identified me as the culprit already.¡± ¡°How would they know?¡± Podrick asks. ¡°It didn¡¯t look like you left any survivors.¡± ¡°Well, for one, I did. I only killed everyone in the main mansion and everyone who gathered to fight me from the other wings. I left the servants who weren¡¯t in the main building alone and went back in to set up that explosion. I know a couple of them ran away when I was inside, and there¡¯s a high chance they told people what they saw.¡± ¡°Why did you leave witnesses?¡± Ash questions. ¡°Simple. I want them to know it was me,¡± Emily says with an unsettlingck of change in her expression. ¡°And, I doubt it would make a difference even if I¡¯d killed all the servants. I didn¡¯t exactly go in quietly, I was far too angry for that, and I used a lot of lightning. It¡¯s my main element, but it¡¯s actually pretty rare. There aren¡¯t many lightning mages in the country, and I only personally know one at third circle.¡± As her exnation finishes, the drone arrives below the hatch, steam pouring from its outlet pipes as it rises closer to the ship. The winch cable slides over a pulley at the edge of the hole, pulling the drone up into the gap. Ash moves to the lever beside the hatch, waiting for the perfect moment to push it, causing the open hatch door to pivot up, catching the bottom of the drone and lifting it into the shippletely. Emily reaches out and flips the selector switch on the side of the small machine to disable the steam flow to both the balloon and the propellers, increasing the amount of vapour pouring into the room. ¡°Thanks,¡± Ash says with a nod, moving to open a few vents in the floor to remove the steam. Anton quickly moves to open the storagepartment, pulling out a letter telling them to dock immediately at hangar twelve. He stares at the note, reading it carefully as if looking for a hidden de about tosh out at him. ¡°Anything out of the ordinary?¡± Emily asks. ¡°No, but how much do you want to bet someone will be waiting there to arrest us?¡± he responds, ncing up at her. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t think you want to gamble like that with me,¡± Emily says, her hand moving up to rest on The Clock¡¯s pouch at her belt. ¡°You won¡¯t win. Don¡¯t worry though. If they are waiting for us, I¡¯ll deal with it.¡± ¡°I think that makes it worse,¡± Anton sighs, walking out of the room as Emily grins savagely. He returns to the bridge, starting the ship on its descent towards the docks as Emily remains behind to chat with Ash and Podrick about the nned modifications, making the most of time she suspects will be rewound. As the ship touches down, Emily moves to the main exit, meeting Anton there to leave together. They stand side by side in silence as the track below the ship carries it into the city with a constant low hum. ¡°Maybe we should wait on the bridge so we can see if there are any guards waiting for us,¡± Anton suggests, shifting ufortably on the spot. ¡°I doubt they¡¯ll be visible until I show myself,¡± Emily exins. ¡°They should know no mortal guards stand a chance against me alone, so they¡¯ll probably try to wait till I move deeper into the docks to surround me with mages.¡± Not that I¡¯d let them. ¡°I see.¡± He nods before falling silent, waiting for the quivering underfoot to stop. After a few moments, the ship halts with a deep ng, locking into ce as the hanger doors shut behind it. Anton flips the lever to open the door, and Emily steps out into the seemingly empty hangar. Walking down the steps, she focuses on her magical senses while calling upon her connection with lightning, feeling several powerful magical signatures slowly converging upon their position. Yeah, they know. With each step down the stairs, a dense pressure builds around Emily before bursting out as her foot hits the floor and her connection solidifies. She lifts a hand to rest on The Clock¡¯s pouch as crackling lightning dances along her skin, her eyes lighting up in an azure glow. In an instant, three panicked third circle mages rush into the room from different doors on all sides, magic circles prepared behind them as they finish their chants. Several second circle mages follow them in, joined by a flood of city guards. Emily presses The Clock¡¯s button as several spells and a hail of bullets start flying towards her. I guess they don¡¯t want to take me alive. She steps aside, lightning wrapping her body and almost leaving an afterimage from the speed of her movement, dodging a powerfulnce of wind that carves a deep groove into the side of Calypso behind her as time grinds to a halt. *** Emily is thrown out of her lightning-charged state as she finds herself back in her room aboard Calypso again, her ns for the ship¡¯s modifications floating in the air before her and a loud thunder crack from outside shaking her to the core. The irritating buzzing in her mind has returned, and a sickening blend of emotions fills her chest to join it. ¡°Fucking great,¡± she growls. ¡°I guess the emotional severance doesn¡¯t reset with me.¡± Sighing and rubbing her brow, she focuses on the thunder crack to distract herself. Curious. I guess my connection with lightning is still there, so this is now considered the time I made it? She calls upon her connection again and, after a few seconds to solidify her control, she forms a twisting maelstrom of charge around herself to satisfy the True Elementalist quest¡¯s requirement, before pushing herself off her bed and leaving the room. She runs into Anton in the corridor and waves off his concerns about the thunder before sending a stream of machina into the floor and using it to search for Ash. Locating them deep in one of the storage rooms repairing a damaged pipe, Emily approaches them and exins her ns to modify the ship before continuing to pick their brain to optimise her ideas. Come evening, she¡¯s finished the purely mechanical part and is ready to move on to nning some enchantments to help reinforce it against magical attacks like the windnce that tore a hole in the hull with ease. She eats with the rest of the crew, the conversation flowing much the same as the first time as she volunteers to take over at night and informs them about New Denntimo. Afterwards, she awakens Podrick again before returning to her room to continue working on somerge-scale enchantment designs. After a long night of throwing herself into her work to avoid focusing on the sickening emotions churning in her chest and buzzing in her mind, she meets the crew for the morning meal. ¡°Hey,¡± she grunts as she drops down between Ash and Podrick. ¡°Hey,¡± they both greet her back. Emily reaches out, a light purple mist flowing up and along her body to form together above her hand into a clockwork bird that she offers to Ash. ¡°Here you go. I threw it togetherst night.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Ash says with a grateful smile, taking the bird carefully and drawing curious nces from Ang, Tony, and Sam. ¡°No problem,¡± Emily replies without much change in expression. ¡°I¡¯m always happy to share my babies with people who appreciate them.¡± Emily turns her attention to the rest of the crew, ncing around to check Tony, Ang, and Anton are paying attention to her before her next words. ¡°I maintained the same speedst night, so we should be six hours out from Ashdon. I¡¯m gonna go sleep for a bit now, but when we get closer, stay out of sight of the city. Try to find some dunes to set down behind. It doesn¡¯t matter even if it¡¯s a fair distance from the city.¡± Anton raises his brow and anxiously looks to the rest of the crew, who share his concern. ¡°You¡¯re expecting trouble?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you?¡± Emily says, repeating his future words back to him. ¡°I¡¯m pretty certain they will already have worked out it was me that wiped out the Mandragos, and this ship left the docks in a hurry right before the estate blew up. Even if they aren¡¯t certain I¡¯m on board, they¡¯ll at least send out a message to stop and search it, and even if they don¡¯t find me, they recognise the ship as Mandrago property so they¡¯ll try to take it back.¡± ¡°Fair point. Are you thinking we should walk into the city without you then?¡± ¡°Ha,¡± she scoffs at his question. ¡°Quite the opposite. Who cares if they¡¯re searching for me? They¡¯ll never find me if I don¡¯t want them to. I can close the distance between the ship and the city quickly, sneak into the city without being noticed, and carry all the supplies we¡¯ll need in my magic storage. So, I was nning on going myself.¡± She finishes emptying her bowl of porridge and passes it to Sam as she stands up. ¡°I¡¯ll put together a list of things we need then,¡± Anton says as she starts walking out. ¡°Sure,¡± Emily says before pausing and ncing at Podrick as he hurries to finish his food to follow her. ¡°Actually, give the list to Pod. I¡¯ll take him with me.¡± The boy¡¯s eyes light up at her words, but she simply waves him off and continues out to return to her room. *** Emily wakes up as a shudder passes through the ship. Looking through the eyes of her scout on top of the balloon she sees sand all around, with a tall dune stretching up to cover the horizon a few hundred metres ahead. The buzzing in her mind has subsided, the cold apathy of severance having set in once again. She rises from her bed and leaves her room, making her way to meet Anton and Podrick by the ship¡¯s main entrance. ¡°Oh, hey, Emily,¡± Anton greets with little surprise as she approaches, her footfall nearly silent despite the metal floor. ¡°I was just about to send Pod to grab you.¡± ¡°No need,¡± Emily shrugs, ncing at the freshly awakened mechanic and noticing the spatial bag hanging at his hip now. ¡°You got a list?¡± ¡°Yep!¡± He grins, pulling a sheet of paper from the pouch and presenting it to her. Emily reads over the list quickly before nodding and handing it back. ¡°Perfect. Let¡¯s get going then.¡± Anton flips the lever beside the exit hatch and the door swings open as the metal stairway lowers to the desert floor. ¡°Good luck,¡± he says as they walk past him. A dry wind blows by as they descend the steps, carrying a fine mist of sand into their faces. Podrick squints, lifting a pair of goggles from around his neck, and Emily grabs her scarf, unravelling it from around her neck before deftly wrapping it around her head to cover everything, leaving a small slit to see through. ¡°Nice goggles,¡± she says as she nces over her shoulder to check on Podrick. ¡°Thanks! Ang lent me them.¡± Emily¡¯s footnds on the soft sand below the steps, the uneven, shifting ground offering a sense of familiarity as she shifts her weight topensate, walking with unnatural stability. Podrick stumbles as the surface beneath his feet slides away a little with each step, the slight slope they¡¯re parked on doing him no favours. Emily reaches out a hand to steady him. ¡°Let¡¯s do this quickly. I¡¯d rather not leave the ship alone out here on the ground - you never know when a pack of stalkers wille across it,¡± she says, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return. ¡°Climb onto my back. I¡¯ll carry you to the city.¡± Emily turns around and crouches on one knee, offering her back to Podrick. ¡°Really?¡± he asks nervously. ¡°Either you get on now,¡± she replies, ncing over her shoulder and letting him see her unamused gaze through the slit in her scarf, ¡°or I throw you over my shoulder. It¡¯s up to you.¡± Swallowing down his apprehension, Podrick immediately wraps his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist. ¡°Good,¡± Emily says, turning to the dune ahead and casting lightning step, a crackling magic circle wrapping her legs. ¡°Hold on tight.¡± Podrick tightens his grip, looking down at the mesmerising twisting of runes and power with awe for a fraction of a second before the ground below them blurs. He lets out a surprised yell as Emily rockets forward, each step leaving a glistening ss footstep on the sand as it melts under the heat of the crackling sma pouring into it. She rises up the dune with the boy holding onto her back for dear life, cresting it and immediately seeing her target in the distance. Emily runs over dunes and open sands alike, ignoring the changes in elevation and incline while putting one foot in front of the other, nothing breaking her even stride until she reaches thest dune close to the sprawling city border, with familiar towers of scrap metal junk on the other side. She skids to a halt, digging her heels into the sand and sending up a spray of particles around them. Cancelling her spell, Emily taps Podrick¡¯s arms to tell him to let go before turning to face the spluttering boy, trying to clear the sand from his mouth. ¡°That,¡± he says, spitting out thest few grains between his teeth and looking up at Emily with shining eyes, ¡°was incredible!¡± The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 129 – City Infiltration Chapter 129 ¨C City Infiltration ¡°d you enjoyed it,¡± Emily says, pulling a in ck cloak from her belt and throwing it over herself before shing Podrick a small, mischievous grin, only visible by her eyes in the gap of her scarf. ¡°Now, are you ready to sneak into a possibly hostile city?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± he practically shouts in response, eagerly nodding his head. Emily turns away from him, her face falling back into neutral as she suppresses her mana cirction and wraps her heart with a concealing veil of machina. She sure-footedly climbs the steep dune, with Podrick scrambling up behind her, and stops as the cityes into view. Her gaze quickly scans over the bustling slums beforeing to rest on therge metal wall shielding the inner city. It rises up about twenty metres, taller than the one around Eimdon but paling inparison to Chroni¡¯s, and from her raised vantage point Emily quickly locates all the guards stationed along it. She mentally marks all their positions, drawing a map in her mind and quickly spotting a few possible dead zones in their perception. Before Podrick can even ask why she¡¯s stopped, Emily moves again, stepping forward and dropping into a slide down the slope towards a scrap pile. She hits the t ground below and smoothly continues walking as Podrick hits the floor on his arse, scrambling to stand up and follow her. ¡°Do I not need a cloak?¡± he asks with obvious disappointment as he awkwardly mbers over the pile of junk a few steps behind her. Emily nces back at him and scoffs, ¡°It¡¯s mostly to conceal my obviously magical armour and weapons, but if you really want one, knock yourself out.¡± She pulls another nk cloak from her belt and tosses it back to him, returning her focus to scanning the discarded materials around her. She grabs a few random scraps of metal as she passes, keeping those that could work and tossing away any that she deems too weak or misshapen to help. Halfway over the pile of junk, Emily starts producing tools and fastenings from her belt, weaving together a simple item without the help of her magic. ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± Podrick asks as she nods with satisfaction at the strange item with multiple ws of metal curving down from a central metal cylinder, like a gnarled metal tree. ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± she answers dismissively, changing their direction to walk parallel to the wall, extending their stay in the piles of junk as her eyes scan for the final piece of her puzzle. It¡¯s not until they reach the edge of the junk piles, a quarter of the way around the city from where they started, that Emily locates something usable. Jutting out of the pile is a discarded winch, reminiscent of the one used for pulling back in Calypso¡¯s drone. She bends down and ces a palm against the winch before sending a spark of machina into it, quickly analysing its state. Just a little bit of rust, the cable should still hold. She pulls the winch out of the pile, barely impeded by the wood and metal resting on top of it. After it¡¯s exposed, Emily undoes the rusted bolts holding the reel to the rest of the structure before she continues walking. Podrick watches with interest as she detaches the hook on the end of the thin cable and mounts her scrap contraption to it. With her preparations finished, Emily tucks the junk under her cloak and leads Podrick into the slums. He follows quietly as she winds between tents and dpidated buildings, sticking close to her and trying to ignore the people lying in the dirt in the shadows, some begging for scraps as they pass, but most not moving at all, leading him to question if they¡¯re even still alive. Emily for her partpletely ignores the slum-dwellers, her eyes locked onto the wall as they approach the dead zone between watches. The closer they get to the wall, the fewer tents they find, with more structured buildings taking their ce, all in a state of disrepair with rust and rot colouring the sorry excuse for streets a dirty brown shade. A dozen metres away from the first dead zone she marked, they step onto a street with a straight run to the base of the wall. Emily instantly notices several shifty figures looming in the dark corners between the buildings lining the street, watching them closely as they approach. It looks like they¡¯re guarding this section of the wall. Is it a known smuggling route? Ah well, not my problem. Emily nces over her shoulder at Podrick, noticing how ufortable the boy looks as he nces around. ¡°Don¡¯t make too much noise,¡± she says, drawing his focus as she raises a finger to the fabric against her lips. ¡°No matter what happens.¡± Without another word, she turns and walks towards the wall. The shadowy figures tense as she approaches, and the moment she steps in line with the first, he steps out of the shadows and pulls a small knife from his pocket. ¡°You should turn a-¡° he starts in a deep, rough tone before cutting off as Emily¡¯s arm shoots out, the de of her w severing his head from his neck with ease. Emily keeps walking without sparing the corpse a nce, hearing Podrick squeal in shock behind her before covering his mouth as he follows. ¡°HEY!¡± one of the other figures watching cries as he sees his friend¡¯s head fly, stepping out of the shadows to confront the killer. An unseen flicker of irritation crosses Emily¡¯s brow, and she rushes forward in a burst, burying her w into the loud man¡¯s throat. None of the people watching can follow her movement and, the moment they see her dropping another body, they turn tail and run away, deeper into the alleys they lurk in. ¡°Pathetic,¡± Emily mutters with disdain as they run, wiping the blood from her de before turning to nce at Podrick. He¡¯s standing beside the headless corpse, a hand over his mouth and his face pale as he nces between Emily and her kills. Without a word, she gestures for him to follow before turning away and approaching the wall. Looking up at the towering metal above, Emily¡¯s eyes scan for purchase, quickly locating a cluster of pipes jutting out near the top. She pulls out her scrap contraption and holds the cable firmly, spinning the head around to gain momentum before deftly flicking it up, releasing it and sending it sailing up towards the pipes above as the spool of cable unwinds. The jagged metal head falls onto the pipes and catches, holding firm even when Emily gives it a few strong tugs. ¡°That¡¯s what it¡¯s for,¡± she says, ncing at Podrick beside her and finding his face has returned to a healthy colour. ¡°So, we¡¯re climbing over the wall?¡± he asks with a slight quiver in his voice, still shaken. ¡°Won¡¯t the guards see us?¡± ¡°There should be a gap in their watch directly above here. It¡¯s why I didn¡¯t want anyone making enough noise to grab the guards'' attention.¡± ¡°So, you killed those men to keep them quiet?¡± ¡°The second one, yes. The first pulled a knife on me and seemed like he¡¯d cause trouble,¡± she exins, meeting the nervous boy¡¯s eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t feel pity for them Pod, they¡¯re not worth the effort.¡± Emily reaches up the cable and pulls herself off the ground, pinching the cable between her feet to reach up further. ¡°Wait until I signal for you, then grab on,¡± she says before she rises up past the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. Within a few seconds, she arrives at the pipes holding up the cable and climbs over them. After utching the hook, she kicks off the pipes, clearing the short distance to the top of the wall and smoothly rising to stand on it. She nces towards the nearby guards, confirming their line of sight to her is obstructed before reaching out and gesturing for Podrick to grab the cable. The moment his hands sp on, Emily begins reeling him in, quickly pulling the boy up the wall. As he mbers up to join her, she raises a finger to her lips and gestures towards the nearby guards. He nods in understanding, his nerves nowhere to be seen as excitement lights up his eyes. Emily leads him across the wall to the inside edge and nces over. Below them is a group of four, rough-looking men gathered in a narrow, otherwise empty alley between the wall and arge warehouse. They¡¯rezily hanging around, two of them sitting on the steps to the warehouse¡¯s back door, and the other two standing on either side of them, smoking from pipes as they talk quietly. Looks like this is a smuggling route after all. If that doesn¡¯t scream crime, I don¡¯t know what does. Podrick watches from the side as Emily reaches into the belt at her waist and pulls out four simple knives. She takes all of them in her right hand and snaps her arm forward with four precise flicks of her wrist, burying the knives in the skulls of the men below. All four of them go limp and hit the floor at the same time, barely a fraction of a second between their deaths. Nodding with satisfaction and ignoring the mixed look of fear and awe from the boy beside her, Emily hooks her climbing tool into a small gap between two panels of metal, lodging it firmly into ce before lowering the reel quietly to the floor below. ¡°Follow me,¡± she whispers, grabbing the cable and swinging herself down to hang on it. She slides down smoothly, her feet hitting the floor below with barely a sound. She steps out of the way as Podricknds with a thud. Emily grabs the cable after the graceless boy moves out of the way, giving it a quick flick and sending up a burst of machina. The hook above unbinds itself from the metal panels with a crackle of electricity before falling into her waiting, outstretched hand. ¡°Are people not going to find their corpses?¡± Podrick asks quietly, nodding towards the four dead men. ¡°Probably not,¡± Emily responds, walking over to try opening the door beside them. ¡°But we¡¯ll hide them anyway.¡± She finds the door locked shut. Unphased, she crouches down beside the corpses on the steps and starts patting down their pockets, searching for the keys. Podrick grimaces but moves to help, doing the same to one of the men slumped away from the door. Emily finds several knives tucked into the first man¡¯s clothes but no keys, but on the second she finds a keyring hooked to the back of his belt. Trying the keys from it, she opens the door after a few attempts and looks into the warehouse. Inside is full of loud, metalworking machinery, with several people moving between them with purpose, some carrying clockwork rifles. Ignoring the obvious criminal activity, Emily looks around, quickly spotting a tall, metal scrap bin a short distance from the door with a conveyor belt dropping offcuts into it. She turns back to Podrick, gesturing for him to quietly move back as she slings two corpses over her shoulders before ducking into the warehouse. She stalks forward, ducking behind a few machines as she moves to stay out of sight, and quickly approaches the metal bin. As a worker walks past the bin, Emily tucks herself between a wall and arge industrial metal cutter to hide from him, watching calmly as he takes a few readings from a few gauges at the base of the machine she¡¯s pressed against before moving on. The moment the worker¡¯s back is turned, Emily silently steps out of her hiding spot and throws both bodies up and into the scrap bin, eachnding with a light thunk. ncing around and making sure no one saw her; Emily returns to the door and brings in the other two corpses to do the same. After disposing of the evidence, Emily meets Podrick outside again, locking the door behind herself before clipping the keys to her belt for now, just in case. ¡°Right,¡± Emily says as she walks past Podrick, patting him on the shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go do our shopping and get out of here.¡± They quickly walk away from the wall through the narrow alleys of the industrial district, heading towards themercial centre of the city. ¡°Did Anton give you enough money to buy everything you need?¡± Emily asks a few minutes after they join a more crowded street with wealthy-looking people milling about. ¡°Yes, I should have enough in here to pay for everything on my list,¡± he responds, tapping the pouch at his waist. ¡°Good. Also, don¡¯t make it obvious that that¡¯s a spatial pouch. Best to take out and put away things when you¡¯re out of the public eye. We want to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± They continue walking in silence until they reach an open street with several stalls lining the edges, offering everything from expensive fabrics to rich spices. ncing around at the nearby shops and noting their wares, Emily nods to herself in satisfaction. ¡°You should find everything on your list here. Meet me back here once you¡¯re done shopping,¡± she says, her eyes flicking to a few people ducking into the side alleys of the market street. ¡°I¡¯m going to go dig for some information and do my own shopping. If you¡¯re not back here in an hour, I¡¯ll assume you¡¯ve run into trouble.¡± Podrick nods and goes to respond, but as he turns his head to look at her, Emily vanishes into the crowd, disappearing from his view. ¡°Okay,¡± he says quietly to himself with a hint of disappointment in his voice, nervously bringing a hand to grasp his spatial pouch as he sets off toplete his tasks. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!