Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

by Selkie Myth

The Gladiator Gauntlet

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons: Book Nine

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Selkie Myth

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Oathbound Healer

Adventures in the Argo

Ranger’s Dawn

Beyond the Wall

Moonveiled Journeys

Immortal Moments

Return to Remus

New Horizons

The Gladiator Gauntlet

Copyright Information

This is a work of fiction, and the views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Likewise, certain characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Cover Art by Kart Studios. Cover Typesetting by MiblArt.

The Gladiator Gauntlet (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, Book 9)

Copyright © 2023 Selkie Myth

All rights reserved.

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my wonderful wife, Lauren, without whom this wouldn't be possible. Her endless love and support keeps me going.

This story is also dedicated to my beautiful daughter Flora, whose smiles light up my every day.

I would also like to acknowledge my beta readers, who put up with my endless typos, fix my mistakes, and help guide the story, so it can be the best story possible.

I'd like to thank all the other supportive authors and writing communities, and all the kind words they have.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Royal Road. My story and success wouldn't be possible without their website.

Thank you, to each and every one of you.

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Chapter 1 - New Skills!

Chapter 2 - War Class

Chapter 3 - Deep Lore

Chapter 4 - The Hidden Library

Chapter 5 - General Skills

Chapter 6 - Interlude - Auri - The Great Brrrrptish Bake-off

Chapter 7 - Divine Errand

Chapter 8 - Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 9 - Citation Needed

Chapter 10 - Interlude - The Proof is in the Pudding

Chapter 11 - The Gladiator Gauntlet I

Chapter 12 - The Gladiator Gauntlet II

Chapter 13 - Interlude - Iona - The Gladiator Gauntlet III

Chapter 14 - Interlude - Takatane Sakai - The Gladiator Gauntlet IV

Chapter 15 - The Gladiator Gauntlet V

Chapter 16 - The Gladiator Gauntlet VI

Chapter 17 - The Gladiator Gauntlet VII

Chapter 18 - Interlude - Iona - The Gladiator Gauntlet VIII

Chapter 19 - The Gladiator Gauntlet IX

Chapter 20 - The Gladiator Gauntlet X

Chapter 21 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XI

Chapter 22 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XII

Chapter 23 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XIII

Chapter 24 - Orienting to the Future

Chapter 25 - A Mango A Day

Chapter 26 - Keeps the Doctor Away

Chapter 27 - Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Chapter 28 - Graduation I

Chapter 29 - Graduation II

Chapter 30 - Not Found

Chapter 31 - Interlude - The Pendulum

Chapter 1 - New Skills!

I opened my eyes after selecting the only class I could’ve.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve gained the class [Bookwyrm]!]

No levels in it. Drat. Resetting my class didn’t seem to bring stored experience over. I wanted the almost 900 stat points per level!

My improved senses made me the ultimate sneak. I could tell what Iona and Auri were doing in the living room. Skye was studying in her room, and Varuna had left about an hour ago. Reinhard’s room was the only one I couldn’t peek into, the kirin having established a number of privacy runes in her room.

Smart. I should probably offer to make a set for Skye, so she didn’t think I was constantly spying on her.

Onto my new skills!

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Spatial Affinity]!]

Affinity, fun.

Figuring out the affinity tree had been one of my earlier classes. It came in four tiers, corresponding to the four stars in the constellation I’d seen when I built [The Dawn Sentinel].

Affinity came first. It was the ‘basic connection’ to the element. I could technically ditch the skill, but my skills would be significantly more expensive. As I leveled the skill up, I was technically getting more efficient, but after the first few dozen levels I’d need to look long and hard to see any gains.

Authority came next. The connection was improved. The efficiency was dramatically better, and most importantly, I’d get offered better skills than I would with affinity. Upgrading affinity to authority wasn’t easy; I’d been trying for years now with no luck. The generally accepted method was to completely surround oneself with the element.

Iona had apparently done it while in a frost wyvern’s lair, ice all around her. It was why we went to stargaze at the lake together, hoping that being under the vast starry sky would nudge our affinity towards becoming authority.

Mastery came after that. It was the advanced connection, with great skills, and a minor ‘sense’ of the element around whoever had the skill. The efficiency was naturally greater than Authority. It also came with a minor resistance towards the element. If Iona got [Ice Mastery], she probably wouldn’t feel the cold until it got cold.

I had no idea how [Earth Mastery] would work on a high-speed rock, but I suspected that was the minor aspect of the protection.

Spirit was the final tier. A perfect connection, dramatically improved efficiency, a strong sense of the element, and the most powerful skills. Being able to turn into the element was one of the better-known skills that required spirit, but it wasn’t the only one.

The nice thing about improved efficiency is it pseudo-multiplied my magic stats. If I was getting triple the oomph out of each point of mana, it was like my mana pool was three times as large, like my regeneration was three times as strong, and my larger skills looked like I had three times as much magic power supporting them.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Reading]!]

Reading: You saw the name of the class, right? Read faster. Comprehend more. Let the visions that the book takes you down become richer and more vibrant. Always know where you left off. Always able to open a known book to the right page. Read in the dark. Read better.

The keystone skill for the class, it was exactly what the class wanted to do, just like my healing class wanted [Dance with the Heavens]. A pity there wasn’t an experience boost or anything.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Lair]!]

Lair: What good is a Bookwyrm without her own personal lair to devour books in? Small pocket dimension for reading. Can only store books and limited furniture. Space increased per level. 160,000 mana per cast.

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK. This was more like it! A personal pocket dimension!? Just for reading!? I had never heard of anyone having a personal pocket dimension. I suspected Acquisition had extra-large loot bags, but this was in a literal realm of its own.

The draconic theme of the class was starting to rear its head.

And that mana cost!! 160,000 mana per cast?? I only had 25,000 magic power! At 300 magic power per level, I’d need another 450 levels just to cast the skill!

[Channel] jumped to the top of my list for a general skill that I needed to acquire.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Bookwyrm’s Hoard]!]

Bookwyrm’s Hoard: Every bookwyrm needs a collection of the most precious books, safely stored away and immediately available. Book spatial storage. Increased collection size per level. Mana cost scales on book size.

My mind instantly jumped to spellbooks. Unless something about the skill was wonky, I could grab and store my spellbooks, spells already inscribed and ready to go, arcanite in them and everything, and have every single one at my fingertips at all times. With [Reading], I’d also be able to instantly open the spellbook to the right page.

And that was before I considered having books to read at any time, any place! If I ended up in a similar life to when I was a Ranger or Sentinel, I’d always have books to read, without needing to cart them around!

For the sake of completeness, I should see if I could store non-books in there, and see when something counted as a book. Could I slice a mango up finely, carve some words into the flesh, and store it in my hoard?

I was also a little concerned about the mana cost line. [Lair] was absurdly expensive, and I knew as a rule Spatial was the second-most expensive element, right after Storm.

Thinking about storing different objects made me realize a flaw with [Lair]. It didn’t say anything about other people. I doubted I could get Auri or Iona to join me in the [Lair].

This called for experimentation! Right after I finished seeing the rest of my skills.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes]!]

Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes: You’ve snuck around a dragon’s lair under her watchful eyes, trying desperately to read the contents of the books in her library, unable to touch or move them around to read the contents. No more! Now you can read the pages of a closed book! Forbidden archive? Secret library floor? Magical encryption? As long as you can see the book - and understand the language - you can read it!

That… huh. It was a skill. The practical use seemed limited for such a grandiose name. I quickly checked ahead, but no. I’d only gotten offered 8 skills.

I did wonder if [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] worked with [The World Around Me]. Something to test!

The skill jumped to the top of my list of ‘replace or evolve’. Maybe I could merge it into [Reading]! The two seemed like they had enough overlap.

These were the initial skills on a level 8 class, nevermind the purple draconic quality to the class. I’d need to work to develop the skills, just like I’d needed to work on my other classes.

Although… maybe I wasn’t giving ‘break magical encryption’ enough credit as a line. I hadn’t done a ton of digging into the subject. I believed knowledge should be freely available, and disdained the idea of locking or encrypting my notes, nor did I have the right mindset and inclination to try and break encryptions. For all I knew, someone would kill to have a skill like this.

I’d have to see.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 8 -> 9. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

Ooooh, I leveled! I briefly wondered if it was because I was reading the text of my new skills - a classic [Bookwyrm] activity - or if Auri was doing something phoenix-like, and I was getting experience funneled from her.

I was fairly certain she got experience just by living. It was unfair!

Wait, hang on. Something was weird.

Chimera (Elvenoid)!?

I pulled up my status.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 25]

Welp. I was pretty sure most biomancers had screwed with this race, but I was going to stay real quiet about it. The School officially didn’t like chimeras, and I wasn’t going to go around waving it in people’s faces. Not when literally the only person who could find out was Iona.

She was bound to do the honorable thing. I didn’t think tattling on me would qualify.

I’d be offended if I wasn’t getting a bunch more stats, and if it wasn’t true. Basically the only thing human about me was my skin, brain, and body shape - which didn’t really count. A pleasant surprise, and not one I was going to complain about.

A quick math check showed that the change wasn’t retroactive. Drat! I’d known that was the case, but I’d somewhat hoped to be the exception.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Dream Reading]!]

Dream Reading: Why waste all that time sleeping on nightmares and other unproductive activities? Read books from your [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] while sleeping instead, and wake up fully rested! You can even turn your dreamscape into the scene of the book you’re reading!

I leaped out of my bed and whooped for joy.

"Dream reading!? No more nightmares!? It gets to look like a fully immersive mirage show while I’m there!?"

Bloody hell, I took back every mean thing I said about [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes]. This class was amazing.

[*ding!* [Immortal Recollections] has evolved into [Astral Archives]!]

Astral Archives: Your perfect memories are like books, able to be rearranged and reordered at will. Archive memories for later, and hold open the knowledge you want directly at the forefront of your mind! Improved granularity, control, and open books at once per level.

This one needed work. Also, I was a little bummed that my high level [Immortal Recollections] got nerfed into a level 8 skill. Granted, [Immortal Recollections] leveling up never did much for me.

[*ding!* [Passionate Learning] has evolved into [Hunger for Knowledge]!]

Hunger for Knowledge: You are the fierce bookwyrm, and no morsel of knowledge, no little treat of a treatise, no little bit of information is left unread and unlearned in your presence. You devour knowledge like others devour food. There are no lengths you will not go to find something out. Fortunately, you’ve generally kept your search benign, and only vivisected a few people. 2% increased experience per level.

Gods curse them all.

[Passionate Learning] was one of my most powerful skills, the engine that kept everything else going. I’d just lost almost 450 levels of it, and at 1.25% per level, it was doing serious work for everything else. It was the reason I leveled quickly - relatively speaking - and it was a huge contributor to Auri catching up with my level. My experience had been getting multiplied, then shunted over to Auri.

Now it was back down to level 9. Sure, it’d level fast as [Bookwyrm] leveled up, and it now got a nice boost from [Sentinel’s Superiority], but ouch.

I decided to run some calculations. I used to have a 562.5% experience boost. I was now getting a 2.5% experience boost per level. [Sentinel’s Superiority] was one heck of a skill. That made the math easy - the boost was now twice as strong. Level 225 would be when I started to see real benefits, and the first 200 levels were…

Nope, not going to say it. Wasn’t even going to think it.

I looked over my skills and accepted them all. 8 skills, 8 skill slots, sometimes it was easy.

Shame I didn’t have a skill that helped me reach books on the highest shelf! Besides the very flashy "just fly up there".

That sounded like a fun skill to try and acquire. Just look at a book, think about it, and snap! Teleport it into my hands.

Oh. Hmm. [Blink] and [Teleport] were the most famous Spatial skills. While I was at the School, it was probably worth taking a class dedicated to getting those skills.

Time to experiment with my skills, and get a feel for how they worked.

I glanced at one of the books strewn around the room, my eyes landing on one of the bodice-rippers Iona and I enjoyed reading together. I thought about it, and I could immediately see through the cover, able to jump to whatever page I wanted.

I thought about one… particular… scene, and it was like my eyes zoomed, the pages ‘flipping’ through while the book remained closed, and I could read them like the book was open in front of me.

She panted with exertion as…

[*ding!* [Reading] leveled up! 1 -> 2]

[*ding!* [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] leveled up! 1 -> 2]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] leveled up! 1 -> 2]

That was even easier than usual!

I didn’t have the meta-skill or the power needed to cast [Lair]. I’d have to try it out another day.

Actually, hang on, it’d be silly if a skill didn’t let me cast it at all.

I focused on the skill, trying to activate it. I kept an eye on my mana, noting it was staying the same.

… I guess the System was silly at times.

The last test was [The World Around Me]. I closed my eyes and got close to a book, then tried to read it.

Yup, it worked. Heck, it was almost easier to read with [The World Around Me] than with my eyes!

[Bookwyrm’s Hoard] was next for testing, and I got up and grabbed the book I’d been looking at earlier. I then realized I wasn’t experimenting well, put the book down on the bed, and walked to the door of my room. I focused on the book and the skill, willing it to move into my [Hoard].

Predictably, nothing happened.

I slowly walked towards the book, focusing on my skill the entire time. Only when I was touching the book did it vanish with a faint pop.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] leveled up! 1 -> 2]

Right then! The skill was touch-based. It had used a worrying amount of mana for a simple book, almost 8000 points worth.

Probably. I had just leveled up.

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] leveled up! 2 -> 3]

I experimented with a second book, but once again it only vanished with a faint pop after I touched it. It was about twice as heavy, having a fat cover, and it took about twice as much mana to vanish.

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] leveled up! 3 -> 4]

I then held my hands out, and focused on summoning the book back. It appeared in my hands, but I noticed it had cost less to return than it had to store. Possibly an effect of the massively disproportionate role Affinity had at low levels.

I felt a wild grin split my face, and I pumped my free fist.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] leveled up! 2 -> 3]

This was so much fun!!! Books on demand! I could carry everything I wanted to read on me at all times! This magic was bloody amazing! Spatial had been the right call, and seeing what it could do, well…

Okay, fine. I probably would flip out just as much over Mirror making clones of myself, Brilliance letting me make anything I wanted out of hard light, Gravity letting me float and have [Telekinesis]... magic was just too damn cool.

I needed to check if I could put scrolls into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], along with notebooks, journals, loose papers, and everything else that might be a book.

There were a lot of arguments in both directions on each one of those items. If nothing else, expanding the skill to include those items was on my list. They were close to what the skill already did, and small ‘nudges’ were easier.

If the rumors were to be believed, it would be extra-easy on the island. [Students] claimed, one generation to the next, that the island made it easier to learn skills.

I personally believed it was the fantastic environment the School cultivated.

I’d need to sleep to explore [Dream Reading], but I could check out [Astral Archives] now. I thought about my memories, and it was like I was in a library, and I knew where everything was.

On a lark, I picked Operation: The Improved Elaine to see what would happen. I mentally took the book off the shelf, and realized I was being silly.

This was my mind. I was a Spatial… hang on, what was [Bookwyrm] tagged as? Mage? Artisan? Laborer? Probably laborer. Anyways, I was a Spatial person now.

I mentally teleported the book to my mental hands, and opened it.

Knowledge flooded my mind. I knew in every single detail what changes I’d done to my body, and why. I had the complete image in my mind, just like that, no effort.

I quickly tied [Dance with the Heavens] off with that image to my [Persistent Casting], marveling at how easy it was. No need to spend hours going over everything!

I’d need to work on it more with… hang on.

I dismissed the [Persistent Casting], and brought up a second book, the memory of the first time I’d ever built my [Persistent Casting] permanent heal, with Ocean on my very first Sentinel mission.

The knowledge flooded my mind, but I clearly could only hold the two ‘books’ at once.

It didn’t matter. I expertly "stitched" the two together, turning it into my new perfect heal.

It had taken me minutes.

Doing this properly used to take hours, almost days.

I was already in love with my new class.

I closed my eyes to exit the room, letting [The World Around Me] tell me exactly where everything and everyone was. I wasn’t sure, but I hoped that cutting off my other senses and using the sphere of awareness that [The World Around Me] granted would level it up faster.

That, and it was just good practice. I wouldn’t always be able to conjure up light, mainly if I was doing something like sneaking around. [The World Around Me] was also based on my senses, but it didn’t require them to be active if that made sense. It was just as good with my eyes closed as open, because magic was weird like that.

"Hey [Bookwyrm]! Welcome back!" Iona didn’t look up from her sketch as she greeted me.

"Brrrpt!" Auri was standing perfectly still as Iona drew her. She did conjure up a little [Mage Hand] and gave me a cheerful wave with it.

Honestly, the two were a match made in the divine realm. Iona loved drawing people, places, and things, and Auri was a great subject. Auri, on the other hand, was the vainest little bird I’d ever met, and people to draw and adore her?

Perfection.

I sat down on the sofa, a pair of mangos freshly sliced on a plate in front of me. A minor congratulatory snack, since ‘you’ve already gotten your third class before’.

Fair enough, I supposed. I started stuffing the slices into my mouth, practically moaning in bliss as the luscious flavor burst in my mouth.

In this moment, I’d do anything for Iona and Auri, my two mango hookups.

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked. I swear the little scamp waited for me to have my mouth full before asking a question.

"Oh, the skills are great! Let me tell you all about them." I explained my new skills to a rapt audience.

At the end, Iona stopped sketching and looked at me with her mouth open, her quill pointing at me accusingly. She was outraged as she spoke.

"Your class wants to read. You have [Reading], [Dream Reading], and [Hunger for Knowledge]. You are literally going to be leveling up in your sleep!"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 25]

[Mana: 610,990/610,990]

[Mana Regen: 297,721 (+613,971)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 248]

[Strength: 1,356]

[Dexterity: 2,134]

[Vitality: 17,320]

[Speed: 17,352]

[Mana: 61,099]

[Mana Regeneration: 61,244 (+61,397)]

[Magic Power: 25,516 (+654,485)]

[Magic Control: 25,516 (+654,485)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 513]]

[Celestial Affinity: 513]

[Cosmic Presence: 322]

[The Stars Never Fade: 11]

[Center of the Universe: 471]

[Dance with the Heavens: 513]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]

[Mantle of the Stars: 492]

[Sunrise: 470]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 401]]

[Radiance Affinity: 401]

[Radiance Resistance: 401]

[Nova Lance: 401]

[Lepidoptera: 160]

[Nectar: 401]

[Solar Corona: 401]

[Scintillating Ascent: 401]

[Kaleidoscope: 401]

[Class 3: [Bookwyrm - Spatial: Lv 9]]

[Spatial Affinity: 4]

[Reading: 2]

[Lair: 1]

[Bookwyrm's Hoard: 3]

[Beneath the Dragon's Eyes: 2]

[Dream Reading: 1]

[Astral Archives: 9]

[Hunger for Knowledge: 9]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 380]

[: ]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 256]

[The World Around Me: 21]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 513]

[Persistent Casting: 431]

[: ]

Elaine’s skills explained:

Cosmic Presence: A powerful and large healing aura, it dramatically speeds up natural healing. Bruises vanish in minutes instead of weeks.

The Stars Never Fade: Can rewind time on a person, making them young - and Immortal.

Center of the Universe: Anti-pain skill. Still can feel things happening, but it doesn’t hurt.

Dance with the Heavens: Panacea healing skill. The main skill of the class.

Wheel of Sun and Moon: Support skill for Dance with the Heavens. Lets it be ranged when Elaine is in sunlight or moonlight.

Mantle of the Stars: Shield skill. Lets Elaine conjure a starry barrier. It’s slightly flexible and can move a bit.

Sunrise: Energy skill. Let’s Elaine keep on going and going and going.

Nova Lance: Powerful Radiance beam attack.

Lepidoptera: Ability to make runes and cast spells with them. The keystone wizardry skill.

Nectar: Passive mana regeneration ability.

Solar Corona: Radiance support skill. Dramatic DPS buff to Nova Lance and Kaleidoscope.

Scintillating Ascent: Flying skill.

Kaleidoscope: Summons swarms of explosive butterflies.

Long-Range Identify: Checks level and class abstraction from a distance.

The World Around Me: A ‘sphere of awareness’ for what’s around Elaine.

Oath of Elaine to Lyra: Elaine’s Oath to heal others.

Sentinel’s Superiority: Buff to all class skills, and combat/fighting prowess.

Persistent Casting: Lets Elaine constantly channel skills without needing to think about or focus on them.

Companion Bond Between Elaine and Auri: Elaine and Auri’s bond, represented as a skill. Gives Elaine immunity to fire, faster thinking speed, the ability to heal Auri, and increased vanity.

Chapter 2 - War Class

"War." The professor paced in front of the class. He was built like a soldier, his robes clearly modified to let him run and fight at a moment’s notice, and he carried a sword strapped to his waist.

In a twist, the class was held in one of the stadiums, not in a classroom, and the uniform for the class was the exercise outfits, not the typical poofy robes that were required everywhere else. Mormerilhawn, the Black Rose, master of the arena, was lurking near the sidelines, chatting with Shirayuki. I could eavesdrop on their conversation, but then I wouldn’t be focusing on the first lecture of the War class. "It is a word that encompasses so much, and is boiled down to such a little word. War. What is a war? Anyone." He asked the moderately-sized class.

A few hands hesitantly went up, and one confident hand.

I kept my hands down. I didn’t know for sure, and venturing a poor guess would just waste everyone’s time.

The professor seemed to think the same thing, and immediately pointed at the student. He stood up and recited.

"War is simply a continuation of politics by violent means." He sat down after finishing his answer.

The professor nodded.

"Good. Eloquently put. There is always an objective to war, and while you’ll rarely be in a position to know what it is, attempting to divine it is useful. The objective can be dumb. Sometimes it is as petty as pride, or a desire to show off. This class, like a war, will be ugly and brutal. I’m not going to mince words. I’m not going to try and pretend war is noble and glorious. Those of you who believe that have been lied to." The professor continued to energetically pace in front of us like a caged tiger.

"The master of the arena has graciously agreed to assist with our class today, and will be assisting sporadically. All of you have gotten shielded. Nobody here is at risk of being harmed. I am planning on a practical demonstration later." He announced.

The fact that he was telling us this ahead of time told me that the ‘practical demonstration’ was going to be a surprise. I started to evaluate the students around me.

"There are a dozen different types of war, which I’ll get into in a minute. Fundamentally, nearly every war, by the numbers, is economic. It’s about amassing wealth and power for those directing the war. These are the least devastating on a large scale, and also the most common. I call these ‘raider’s wars’." He paused, like he expected the vast swaths of angry mutterings from his students.

"Yes, that’s what most ‘wars’ are." He continued on. "One noble doesn’t like another. They get a party together and raid the territory of the other. They’ll try to seize gems and goods, with the larger prize being capturing another noble and ransoming them back to their family. This can happen from small levels to a national scale, when an entire country ‘wages war’ on another country. In reality, the people there are simply trying to obtain wealth, in one form or another. Capturing and settling new land, a permanent source of wealth, is another, larger goal. Occasionally this is broken out into wars of conquest. End of the day, they’re all the same. Raider’s wars."

The angry mutterings were reaching a crescendo.

"Homework! For bonus points. Write an essay explaining why I’m wrong. Moving on." The professor had neatly and skillfully decapitated the brewing mutiny among his students.

"Knowing the motivation is important. If you’re against raiders, they’re in it for the money. Make it too expensive for them to continue, and they’ll generally cut their losses and return home. Can’t bribe them, they’ll keep extorting you for more. Need to hit them in the pocketbook for them to go home."

The mutterings were back, and he held up a hand.

"With that being said, I will acknowledge that pride and ego often come into play here. Attackers are willing to keep going, on the chance that they’ll end up making a profit, and because whoever’s in charge can’t retreat for various political and personal reasons once the attack’s commenced. It takes a significant kick to the teeth for them to retreat with nothing, but once it’s too expensive to keep going, and they get a minor win with which they can claim victory, then you can count on them leaving."

A hand shot up, the same as before. The professor eyed the student doubtfully, but then called on him.

"What’s your number?" The professor asked the student. The student with his hand up in the air pointed at himself.

"Me? Number?" He asked.

The professor nodded.

"How many intelligent beings have you killed in a team or army? Monsters don’t count."

The student paused a moment.

"23." He answered.

"Alright Mr. 23. What’s your question?"

"Will they still leave if it’s a war of conquest like you said, where the goal is land?"

The professor sighed.

"Less likely, and that’s where it gets… messy. And by messy, I mean a lot of blood, screaming, and stacked bodies. Let’s continue on. One aspect to raider’s wars which is particularly nasty to handle is when the people making the money are the arms suppliers. People who are making their money and wealth selling weapons, armor, and expertise to those actually waging the war. They’re getting paid either way, and have every incentive to keep the war going."

The professor continued to pace, and I was fascinated. He had a presence, an energy, that was captivating.

"Next up is what I’m broadly defining as an ideological war. The gods are only involved in a fraction of ideological wars, but fundamentally, they’re all the same. The attacker has a deep-seated belief that the defender must die. Rarely, the goal will be for something other than killing off another group. These are harder to deflect, and correspondingly rarer. It also segues nicely into my next type of war. Total war."

He stopped, and looked at us all.

"Total war is what most people think of when they hear war. It is a war for survival. It is a do or die war. One country’s ideological war is another country’s total war. When a country believes it is in total war, all the rules are gone. There is no Treaty of Kyowa. There are no rules of engagement. There is no proper treatment of prisoners. It is why I have such respect for Nime."

The students were talking loudly amongst each other, and the professor silenced us all with a gesture. It didn’t stop the students, of course, he simply used some Sound magic to mute them.

"Nime understands these principles better than anyone else. They cultivate Poison, Miasma, and Spore classers. Anyone attacking them knows that they’re not going to respect the so-called ‘rules’ of war, and will unleash anything and everything they can simply to survive. Every attack on Nime is an assault on the small nation’s very survival. They know how to properly threaten others. It is why nobody raids Nime. The cost to wage a raider’s war on the nation is too high, most of the attackers will get killed. An ideological war is likely brewing, as they are routinely condemned for openly violating Kyowa, but nobody acts on it. Nobody is harmed enough to do something about it. The nation is poor, and the cost-benefit analysis is always negative."

I saw his point. "I might die, but I’m taking you down with me." Was one hell of a deterrent.

"I want you all to spend a few moments thinking of conflicts you’ve heard of, and seeing if you can categorize them." The professor said. "Then we’ll move onto the next section."

I thought of the Formorian war. That had been a total war, Remus’s very existence hanging on the outcome. They were monsters. They didn’t want wealth or land, they simply wanted to consume.

From their point of view, it was probably a… raider’s war? They ignored the dwarves, who were too tough a nut to crack.

Lun’Kat attacking the dwarves was probably something of an outlier. Probably also an ideological war, but designed to cause damage to the dwarves, instead of enriching herself. Probably a good example from everyone muttering about ‘that’s not how wars work.’

At the same time, when faced with stiff enough opposition, she did leave the battlefield.

"Moving on. Who can tell me why armies are primarily composed of [Warriors]?" He asked the students.

More confident hands went up, and the professor called on one of them.

"Number?" He asked.

"Three. Solo kills all." The woman had a particular swagger to her voice. I could imagine her strutting, even though we were all sitting on the ground.

"Ms. 3. Why are armies primarily [Warriors]?" He asked her.

"Because they have staying power." She promptly replied. "Level for level, stat for stat, quality for quality, a [Mage] is more lethal than a [Warrior] or a [Ranger]. But they run out of mana quickly, on the order of seconds. A [Warrior] can fight for hours on end."

I snorted. A bad [Mage], sure. There was a reason all Rangers got trained, and were issued armor and weapons.

At the same time, I couldn’t deny that she was right. Most mages were significantly weaker without mana than a warrior of a similar level, and that was before armor and weapon skills were brought into consideration.

The professor nodded.

"Only partially correct. [Warriors] and [Rangers] are capable of fighting for hours, while [Mages] are only strong for a short period of time. A larger, more important aspect is that it’s physical work. Anyone with physical stats can pick up a spear and join a shield wall or picket line, letting armies recruit from the general population. Mages, in contrast, require significantly more time and training as a mage to get to a respectable level where they can make an impact. A mage is equivalent to a career warrior. Han’s generals, Rolland’s knights, Vollomond’s raid leaders, Lithos’s trolls and more are strong examples of career fighters from around the world, all of whom rival a mage in their ability to impact a battlefield. They simply do it over the course of hours, instead of minutes or seconds. Ms. Elaine, in the purple robes, would you be willing to give me a hand for this next section?"

It took me a tenth of a second to realize he was talking to me. The purple robes looked fantastic, but they made me stand out in the sea of black, and I was used to being the picked-on student in classes. I stood up.

"Sure! What are you wondering?"

"I picked you because you’re a healer, and healers are generally a known quantity in what they can do. Unlike, say, a mage, who could have any number of unusual skills. Please, feel free to decline, and I will pick on someone else to share. In broad strokes, would you be willing to tell us roughly how long it would take you, under ideal conditions, to empty your mana pool, and what you could accomplish in that time?"

I weighed his request. On one hand, skills were generally private, and asking someone to reveal their skills to the world was rude. On the other, the professor didn’t seem to give a damn about trampling over feelings, and he was right that healers were a known quantity.

That, and my skills had been on display in the arena, although I didn’t know if anyone here had watched me.

"I’m oathbound. I can empty my entire mana pool in a single second." I deliberately included the oathbound detail as a misdirection. I’d had time to learn what most healers were like, and broadly, what people thought of oathbound healers.

Harmless do-gooders. I had absolutely no problem leaning into that reputation… and it was the truth!

"A single second. What can you do then?"

I shrugged.

"Keep everyone inside the stadium alive, from heart wounds to decapitation, bringing everyone back to perfect health. Naturally, exactly how many people and how many injuries depends on the number of people and the severity."

The professor nodded.

"For a single second, the healer is a goddess, literally performing miracles. At the right time, at the right place, she can sway the entire battle her way, healing every single person. But what happens after that second? What happens after her miracle?"

"She dies." One of the students answered, unprompted.

I loudly snorted. Not likely. I wasn’t going to ruin the professor’s lecture though.

To my surprise though, he gave me a wink.

Oh fuck.

I saw exactly where this was going.

"The healer dies! Exactly! Now, as I mentioned at the start of this class, everyone is shielded by the arena master. Nobody here can get hurt. Elaine, if you would do the honors of demonstrating an empty mana pool?"

He totally knew I was part of the combat team. I was guessing that one of his lessons was something about deception in warfare, since he’d deliberately called me out as a healer - which, on the surface, was entirely reasonable.

Just wished he’d talked to me before. Was probably another layered lesson in always being prepared.

I knelt down and stuck a finger in the dirt, and unleashed [Nova Lance]. The layers of dirt helped hide what, exactly, I was doing, and after 20 seconds my mana pool was depleted.

I then threw up my [Mantle of the Stars] in a sphere around myself, the skill requiring a single point of mana upfront to cast.

With an added bonus - it gave me enough space around myself for what was about to happen. I already saw one or two students - including Ms. 3 - who had realized what was going on.

"Break it to empty my mana pool." I announced, putting my foot over the glassy hole I’d drilled through the dirt. I subtly bent my knees in preparation for what was going to happen next.

I looked at the professor.

"I can use regenerating mana, right?" I asked him.

He gave me a tiny nod as he started to speak.

"Right! First practical demonstration of the day! Remember, you’re allowed to go all out, nobody here will be harmed! The healer has arrived, and performed a major miracle, revitalizing and saving hundreds! If she escapes, she’ll be able to return soon and do it again! All [Warriors] and [Rangers]! Kill the healer!" He announced, and the world turned to chaos.

I promptly activated the greater invisibility rune in my chest and jumped. I’d known what was coming, and I’d reacted faster than anyone else had.

What was nice about the rune was it took just a hair less mana to run than my current regeneration rate, and I’d gain more and more regeneration as time went on. The cost was fixed, and one day I wouldn’t notice it at all.

I’d reacted fast enough that I needed to take down my own shield so I didn’t slam into it. Nobody had smashed it fast enough.

I soared over the thinnest part of the crowd. As I did, the professor made another announcement.

"Healers, Mages, and non-combatants, if you could please sit down for this demonstration."

People sitting down were off-limits. Got it.

I landed heavily on the arena grass, the force of my landing making the grass around me ripple. I carefully started to prowl around, trying to find the best place to start my part of the fun.

I heard a few students complain that they hadn’t known, and hadn’t brought a weapon along with them, and it was unfair and how were they supposed to participate.

Idiots.

That was the whole point of the exercise!

A few more people were wondering what was going on, since I’d clearly disappeared. Was the exercise over?

"The healer is still alive and around! What are all of you lollygagging around for!? Stop asking questions and find her!" The professor roared with a smirk.

That got a few students to jump, but I’d already found my quarry. One of the students had a longsword, and was marching around, swishing it through the air.

I took a deep breath. I was putting a lot of faith in Mormerilhawn here.

At the same time, I knew how his shields worked, and what was effective, what would transfer and what a lethal blow was.

I stalked up next to the student, and as he completed a swipe, I chopped down with my arm. I hit the wrist hard enough that it would’ve been broken without the shield, but it was enough to disarm the student. Before he could shout a warning I twisted, using my other hand to punch him in the throat, and he vanished.

The Black Rose’s shield had considered him ‘dead’, and teleported him out of the arena.

Leaving his weapon behind.

I quickly picked it up, my invisibility automatically extending to cover it as well.

The hunt was on.

I was likely stronger and faster than most of the warriors and other physical classers here. I didn’t have skills supporting my weapons. [Sentinel’s Superiority] was about fighting prowess, not hardening weapons.

There was still uncertainty and confusion, but a few Classers were starting to organize the other students. I didn’t have a whole lot of time here.

I dashed forward to the first likely target, another student who was staring at the ground, seeing something I couldn’t. He was intently looking at the path I’d taken though, and while greater invisibility was supposed to erase my footsteps, I wasn’t going to discount a more powerful skill somehow divining tiny traces.

I was unused to longswords and how they handled, but fundamentally ‘stick them with the pointy end’ was true of all weapons. A quick thrust at his chest, and he vanished without anyone noticing.

"Take in this feeling." The professor lectured as I worked on my next target, my sword flickering out like a spear to teleport him to the sidelines. "The sudden chaos. The fear. The lack of knowing. The violence and confusion. The unexpected. This is a small fraction of what war is like, and the best I can replicate in a classroom setting like this. In the real world, you wouldn’t get a warning. You wouldn’t get a lecture at the same time. Try to grab onto these feelings, and understand a small part of what war is. What you will subject others to. Master yourself."

I managed to take out three more students during his speech, focusing less on stealth, and more on speed.

I was tempted to force the professor to teleport off the field as well, to really hammer home the lesson he was trying to impart.

Instead I crept around a student who somehow had gotten himself a shield. I paused right before I was going to slice him in half from groin-to-head.

He didn’t exist in my sphere of awareness.

He was an illusion, a mirage. A clever lure by one of the other students.

The rest of the students had, by this point, realized something was up. That I was still here, picking people off, and they were organized and huddled together.

I skipped back a dozen steps and grabbed a pebble.

Time for Brawling’s favorite trick!

I wound up and threw the rock as hard as I could, aiming to brain the star organizer.

I cleanly missed. The rock went sailing over her head.

I mentally grumbled to myself.

I hadn’t fully figured out every last aspect of my new body, and it wasn’t like ‘how to throw rocks’ had ever been in any of my training courses.

"Stop! Halt the exercise!" The professor bellowed. "The healer has successfully escaped, able to come back later and heal dozens of people once again. What have we learned?" He asked the group.

I dropped my invisibility and rejoined the group. I got dirty looks from a number of the students jogging back from the sidelines, where they’d been teleported away. Didn’t care.

Mormerilhawn also came over.

"High level healers are hard to catch." Ms. 3 said, giving me a look that was hard to interpret.

"That this class is bullshit." A student muttered under his breath. I could still hear him.

"Level matters." A familiar student called out. I handed his longsword back to him, getting a small nod of thanks in return.

The professor nodded.

"Another important lesson is not to judge by tags or looks." The professor said. "Mormerilhawn?"

The arena master stepped up.

"For those of you who pay attention to these sorts of things, Elaine is the star of the School’s under-30 combat team." He announced. "She is a mage-healer, and yet took out a third of you with her physical capabilities alone. She was on track to successfully eliminate the rest of you, in spite of her stated goal being escape. Deception is the heart of warfare, but do not underestimate the System, and what it empowers all of us to do."

The professor turned to me.

"Elaine, given your age and level, are you willing to share your numbers with us?"

The request didn’t sting like it would’ve before I started seeing Linnet regularly. I closed my eyes, processing the numbers.

After passing the biomancy hurdle, and having a little more than a year left at the School, I was preparing for my Medical Track thesis. The Medical Manuscripts. I’d be getting endless looks and whispers… might as well start preparing.

Nobody would believe my numbers, but I didn’t care.

"14,878 intelligent beings killed in a team." I stated. The vast majority of them had been shimagu at Ochi, where I’d let rip. "13,565,516 System kill notifications while working in a team." I further stated. The end of the Formorian war was responsible for most of those, Destruction’s earthquake combined with the literal hand of a god descending to smite the dread queens.

I opened my eyes to a field of wide eyes and slack jaws.

Chapter 3 - Deep Lore

The professor had a controlled look on his face, and I got to watch in real time as the vast majority of my fellow students - probably the nobles with the training for it - controlled their faces and emotions.

Oh, now they’re able to properly control themselves in front of new information, and not before when the professor was lecturing.

"Ms. Highscore. You clearly have experience with war, would you mind sharing?" The professor asked me.

I was getting real annoyed being put on the spot.

I shrugged.

"Kinda. I don’t care if you don’t believe me, I’m more interested in what the expert has to say on the class."

I sat down where I was, pointedly staring at the professor to continue his lecture. I ignored the students sitting down around me, furiously whispering with each other.

"There’s no way, right?"

"She’s gotta be lying."

"Well, I’ve killed 15,000 people. See how easy it is to say!"

"I’ve seen her in the library. She’s got an excellent reputation for honesty, doesn’t care about our reaction, and seems annoyed by it all. [Cold Reading] says she’s telling the truth, somehow."

"Yeah, but in what conflict? Had to have happened in the last 10 years, and I haven’t heard of anything of that size."

"Worth investigating. If nothing else she’s unsponsored and high leveled, wonder if we can recruit her?"

"Even with her level and tag?"

"Details. It’s easy to work that out."

Okay, that particular conversation was fascinating, and I wanted to know more. There was an easy way to let me travel mortal lands?

Sadly, the professor started lecturing again, and they shut up to pay attention.

"I’m going to touch on honor for a moment. In a war, it is important for most of you. Honor means you are following a code of conduct, and while you are following it, your opponents will follow a similar code. It tells you that you are in a typical raider’s war, and that defeat in battle will generally mean a ransom. Expensive, yes, but the alternatives are worse."

He started pacing again, regaining some of the energy and attention he’d lost at my stunning pronouncement.

"What is worse? Simple. Your opponents believing they are at the end of their rope. Poisoning your food. Murdering your children in their cradle. Razing every stretch of land they can. Honor, as much as some sneer at it, is a social contract. It keeps the rules of war intact, and prevents small conflicts from escalating. It was mentioned earlier that war is simply a continuation of politics by other means. An honorable war suggests that non-violent resolution is still possible, is still manageable. It is half a step closer to peace. Once honor is gone, the only reason two parties will meet at a negotiating table is for one to attempt to assassinate the other."

I felt like that last bit was a little hyperbolic, but his point was made.

If I ever found myself in a conflict where honor mattered, I was in the wrong fight.

"Speaking of escalating conflicts! Let’s discuss Immortal wars. You’ll notice they didn’t show up in the list from earlier."

I knew Iona had quite a lot to say about the topic, although I’d come to realize she was a little biased on the topic.

"Immortal wars are the same as the other three. Raider, Ideological, and Total. Fact of the matter is, they simply have more power thrown around when they fight. A mortal mage is throwing high speed lumps of rock, an Immortal mage can throw a mountain. When two Immortals fight - not two countries, two people - the landscape is often rearranged, and they don’t care about collateral damage. When two countries fight, well. There’s a reason the end of the last major Immortal war is the start of the current era, with everything before being marked as ‘old’, and everything after being marked as ‘new’. Granted, there were a number of surviving Immortals, and civilization didn’t entirely collapse, but according to the records, this is a normal part of the cycle."

He paused for dramatic effect. I was enthralled.

"Yes, cycle. There is a high level, somewhat predictable cycle over centuries and millennia of how the world works. Now, please keep in mind the exact details and speed will differ on a case to case basis. I am simply trying to speak of the high-level brushstrokes that occur. We will start at the end of an Immortal war. The ‘survival’ era. The world lies shattered. Cities have been razed, newly created volcanoes dot the lands, and fields burn. Monsters thrive, and expand into the missing ecological niche, their populations exploding as civilization isn’t able to beat them back well."

"In that gap, people survive. Countries tend towards having a dominant race present in their borders, and the world ending doesn’t tend to cause mass migration of the sort needed to dramatically change what species lives where, although it does happen. Powerful fighters defend small enclaves from monsters as civilization begins to reassert itself. With the help of the System, and old knowledge, we rebuild. The powerful fighters are lauded and declared [Heroes], and they naturally turn into the first [Lords]. A crazy patchwork of civilization erupts, the small surviving villages turning into towns. We leave the ‘survival’ era, and enter into the ‘patchwork’ era."

He paused a moment to allow those who needed to take notes to finish scribbling.

"The patchwork era is interesting. Tens of thousands of small city-states, each with their own version of a ruler, generally a warrior-lord. This era is defined by a rediscovery of knowledge, and by a thousand small scale conflicts between the various locals. Some remember that cooperation and working together is optimal, others try to conquer their neighbors. After all, civilization has largely been reset for a few generations at this point. The ethics, knowledge, and philosophy we take for granted has largely been forgotten, except for small enclaves."

He gestured all around himself.

"The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft is an excellent example of this. The School’s highest calling is to help restore knowledge to the world after the cataclysm of a true Immortal war… when it isn’t burned down itself."

I remembered orientation, and how the guide mentioned the Vault was supposed to store knowledge against that. It had sounded far-fetched at the time… but maybe it was the truth.

"This era is where ‘ancient magics’ thrive, where discovering the lost and powerful artifacts of the prior era help define who does well. Slowly, as time passes, the nations rebuild themselves, as the patchwork of various civilizations merge and meld together. After all, a fledgling nation of seven cities can easily add an eighth with no allies to their ranks, with minimal violence, and the vast tapestry of elvenoid civilization is stitched together once again."

"As this process accelerates, we enter the ‘golden’ era. Lost knowledge is rediscovered, and life and civilization progresses in leaps and bounds. The old has been turned over, and there is vast room for expansion and discovery. The ancient forests are beaten back, monsters are driven back into their lair, and it is a bold, glorious time to be alive. Opportunities abound for everyone!"

Ah dang. Sounds like we weren’t in the golden era.

"The golden era moves onto the crystalline era. This is where issues arise. Nations are too large, butting up against each other. There is no room to easily expand, and the easily rediscovered lost knowledge has been found. True discovery and innovation is required. If only mortals lived on Pallos, it might be manageable. We might be able to find a way to move forward. But it is not only mortals that live on Pallos."

He paused with that ominous pronouncement.

"Immortals live on Pallos, and they feel the effects of the crystalline era more profoundly than mortals. See, throughout the survival, patchwork, golden, and crystalline era, mortals are born and die. Most Immortals that are born don’t die. Now, all Immortal countries have ways to mitigate undying [Lords]. The rulers that don’t tend to get killed by an ambitious underling, until enough turmoil settles into a sustainable pattern. Exterreri mandates retirement. The Golden Court along with the Tympestshard Council works along family and clan patterns, although with technical differences that aren’t the topic for this class. Draakveld culture doesn’t permit them to form anything larger than a village, and even then there is no village head. The Bhutai provinces have no interest in that sort of thing. Urwa, against all odds, does manage to have Immortal, undying [Lords] in positions of power for centuries. Study their succession if you wish to see how it goes wrong. Jurcor permits all this, but require enough paperwork, and the network and web of alliances and treaties is so confusing, that half the time the devils aren’t quite sure if they’re attacking their ally or not."

Urwa sounded overall like the least pleasant place to be.

"Speaking of going wrong, all the systems I mentioned go wrong in various ways. Immortals gather wealth and power, and soon they butt heads against rivals trying to gather similar wealth and power. Inevitably, the lesson from the start of the lecture comes into play. War is simply a continuation of politics by other means. When the powerful Immortal with thousands of levels, and tens of thousands of retainers under their banner with thousands of levels decides to take what they want by force, well. The defender fights back, and rare is the war waged by people with eternity to gather strength and make allies where nobody else is involved. If nothing else, the previously mentioned collateral damage is likely to draw in new parties."

"Thus starts and ends the shortest era of this lecture. The Immortal war era, or the cataclysm era. When the dust settles, the survivors rule over a world of ashes, and the survival era begins once again. Now, you may have mentioned I didn’t talk about empires in all this. The rise and fall of empires is a curious thing, generally accelerating the patchwork era…"

Mormerilhawn teleported next to me as the class ended.

"Elaine." He greeted me. I tilted my head at him.

"Mormerilhawn. Is there something I can do for you?" I asked him.

He studied me for a long moment.

"For what it’s worth, I believe you." He said, and without further ado, turned and walked away.

That was… kinda weird. Probably the closest thing to an apology I’d get from him, for helping enable the professor.

Still, I kept him in mind. If he believed me, and my story about Remus, he could be helpful when I went to prove my ownership of the Medical Manuscripts. It was going to take more than a bit of work to convince the people I wanted to convince that I was telling the truth.

I did get a chance to meet up with Auri after the lesson though.

"Hey Auri! Off to baking class?"

"Brrrpt!"

"Oh, sorry, your Specialty Breads course."

"Brrrpt." Auri nodded like she was the wisest [Sage] who had ever lived, one mage hand zipping in to straighten her crooked hat.

"Save some for me, will you?"

"Brrrpt!"

I continued on to my destination - the student center. The start of the quarter had some big wargame tournament thing going on, and Iona was competing. I was showing up to give her moral support… and get some advance reading in on my next few classes.

"Hey love!" I gave her a quick kiss.

"Hey spaceosaurus!" Iona grinned at me. "You didn’t have to come, you know."

I shrugged.

"I know. I wanted to."

I shoved my way to a spot with a stool, overlooking the Mirage-board where the war games were held. Good practice for budding [Strategists] and the like, and they could even level playing it! It was supposed to mimic a real war, although after this morning’s lectures I had my doubts.

The game began with enthusiastic, yet inexperienced, fanfare.

"Go Iona! Pillage his villages, burn his towns, and leave no stone standing on top of each other!"

It was easy being bloodthirsty when it was just a game.

I did discreetly summon and drop one of my textbooks to the floor. I’d found I could read anything that was in my sphere of awareness.

On one hand, it looked like I was intently staring at Iona’s game, watching her beat the stuffing out of her opponent.

On the other, I had words scrolling across my vision.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 21 -> 22. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has leveled up! 21 -> 22]

[*ding!* [Reading] has leveled up! 21 -> 22]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] has leveled up! 21 -> 22]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has leveled up! 21 -> 22]

"The northern continent." The professor started. "It remains largely unsettled. The reasons for this are legion. The wild and untamed nature allow creatures to obtain a much higher level than normal, giving a challenge to those who would explore. Natural treasures grow. But mainly, there is a significant aspect to might makes right. The non-elvenoid natives of the northern continent don’t tolerate elvenoid intrusion, and even the School flying over occasionally attracts… ire. Additionally, the Wardens, for reasons unstated, enforce the ban. Even during an Immortal war, they don’t permit others to settle there. Granted, crossing the ocean is a massive endeavor, and the ocean itself is theorized to have more high level creatures, but that is a topic for a different class."

"The name of this class is exactly what we’re talking about. Divine items. Now, every quarter, there’s some fool who thinks we’re talking about well-made items, mysteries from a forgotten era that we don’t know how to replicate, or oddities. No. This class is about items handed down to us from the very gods themselves. The Woundspear. Farwalker’s cane. The Sword of the Betrayer. The Solstice Banner. The Everflowing Chalice. Crow’s Cape, the Supple Dagger, the Lantern of Truth, and many more. They do not follow the normal rules of what can and can’t be done with the System. They are not of the System, they are of the Divine. In this class, we will go over the known divine items, as well as theorize what properties and rules the gods must follow when bestowing one of them upon their followers."

I glanced over at Iona, my eyebrows raised. She responded with a grin, and mouthed ‘love you’ at me, then turned back to the lecture.

I see why she’d convinced me to take this class with her! It sounded neat!

"Curses suck." The professor started. "They’re difficult and tricky to break. The easiest curses to break are ones that are supposedly buffs, skills that drain your mana regeneration to boost something else. In the proper situation, you want these buffs. The worst curses are impossible to break and spread themselves. The werewolf curse is the most prominent of these curses, and believe me, if it wasn’t for their long history, they would be wiped out to the last. Now, often curses have a limited lifetime, but that can still be enough to debilitate or kill. In order to break them, you’ll need to know how they work. We begin with classifying them into groups…"

"... and as you should all know, a Grand Feat occurs for a species when a member of the race achieves level 4096, and ascends…"

The tip of my quill snapped as I shoved it too deep into the paper. Damnit, I liked that quill!

What?!

Iona could’ve mentioned that when she was telling me about the gods!! I knew about the ascension, but the Grand Feat had been completely skipped! Hello, that detail might’ve been somewhat important!!

"Shera, the Dreamer. Wulfric, the Bloody. Baojunshe, the Tyrant. Inias, the Divine. Teruo, the Pure. Iztacoatl, the Arcane. Ragnar, the Renewer. Manadhion, the Nightmare. Learn these names. Know these names. They are the Guardians, and we believe them to be our great protectors, our shield against extinction." The professor started the lecture with a bang.

"Now, technically, the exact purpose and role of the beings known as Guardians is much speculated on. I will attempt to stick to known facts. There have never been more than eight spotted at a single time, a number believed to be significant for various reasons you should all find obvious. People have approached and studied them, and they act normal, if exceptionally high-leveled. The announcement declaring them as Guardians only appears during calamities, and they appear to know about them as they happen, appearing from around the world. This has led to speculation that they…"

"This is the Practical Spatial Magic class! If you don’t have a Spatial element, this isn’t the class for you. You’ll want the Introduction to Spatial Magic class right across the hallway." The professor in orange robes said. He obviously knew his stuff, and knew it well from a practical standpoint.

Our class of nine suddenly became a class of three, two in purple robes and one in blue. He clapped his hands and beamed at us.

"Excellent! Introductions!"

Everyone introduced themselves, and the names of my fellow students went in one ear and out the other. I could always retrieve them later from [Astral Archives].

"I’m going to start with the most famous Spatial skills, because frankly, that’s what everyone wants to know. Personal storage. Blink. Teleport. Portals. Intangibility. Dimension hopping. Distance manipulation. Spatial expansion. Spatial tears."

"As a rule, Spatial magic takes twice as much, or four times as much, magic power as the mass of the object being manipulated baseline. It is my take that almost all Spatial skills are really the same two aspects, just done in different ways. Let’s start with the basic one, storage skills."

"Storage skills of various sorts are easy, because they’re a straight double of the mass in grams. Almost. There’s a little bit of fuzziness around displacing air and the like, but at the numbers Spatial magic is dealing with, that’s a rounding error. A very, very useful rounding error, which I’ll get into in a minute. The object is removed from Pallos space, and is brought to what I’m going to call ‘personal space.’ Once there, it’ll stay there until you retrieve it."

Obvious enough, but I dutifully took notes. This was the introductory course.

I had noticed that my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] had required significantly more than twice as much mana as mass, but the class was new. My affinity was low-level, and my skills were at the starting line.

"Blink and teleport are generally the same thing. The only way teleport works is by specific restrictions and conditions permitting buy-offs that let the distances become manageable. Even then, it’s in the realm of the highest levels. Onto blink! It’s my take that blink is simply storing and retrieving the object being teleported. Think about it! It’s like it’s being stored, moved, then resummoned. That’s why, baseline, it costs four times as much mana and magic power as the mass of the object being moved. There is a steep non-linear scaling to the distance traveled as well, but end of the day? Storage, retrieval. Simple!"

I wanted to cry and curse. A ‘harmless’ side-effect of Operation: The Improved Elaine had been dramatically increasing my weight. I was about 60% heavier than before.

Dense jokes aside, that was screwing horribly with my numbers.

"Now, I’m going to go back to that little rounding error I was talking about before. See, you can teleport yourself into a wall if you’re not careful. Nasty when it happens, and if you’re stupid about it, you’ll probably kill yourself. However! Remember how I said you also need to move air around? Same with whatever you’re teleporting into, except wood and stone is heavy. The dramatically increased cost to the blink will alert you to an issue, and if you’re careful with how you cast your skill, it’ll fail to cast entirely instead of teleporting your head into a wall."

I took furious notes on that.

"Portals are next, and they’re only distantly related to dimensional hopping, even though most people lump them together. Portals are great for moving other people, since teleporting others is nearly impossible. Imagine the massive cost in the first place, now imagine that cost multiplied by vitality."

He gave a dramatic shudder. I wonder if he knew Mormerilhawn? The elf was teleporting others… although I suppose he was only able to do it to people a fraction of his level, and even then Iona was too much for him. In a free for all event. With a ton of other people.

"Portals work in one of two ways. The first is a type of distance manipulation. The [Mage] needs to twist and bend space to connect two points together. Extremely expensive, and scales terribly with distance. After all, twisting space between two points a mile away is an entirely different game than twisting space between two points ten miles away. The second are tears and rips in the fabric of reality. Still stupidly expensive, but the cost is fixed, no matter the distance. Of course, you’ll potentially invite divine disfavor, as you’re technically destroying the fabric of reality. Let’s all work hard at not getting smited."

I’d probably get smited extra-hard with Iona right next to me. Portals sounded fun, but given the orange robed professor was calling them ‘expensive’ I didn’t think I’d be looking at them for the next, oh, century or three at minimum.

"This leads me nicely into spatial tears. Best weapon and defense in existence, and in the top 5 ways to get a god to directly smite you. Might even invite one of the big five to do it personally! If a portal might get angry rumblings, a spatial tear will get you torn a new one. I am not going to discuss how to do them in this class, for obvious reasons."

When I dropped biomancy, I thought I was done potentially getting in trouble with the Divine Decrees. Noooooo, Spatial was another element that could screw me.

Then again, unlike with biomancy, I didn’t really have the urge to start ripping the fabric of reality apart. I liked reality.

"With that being said, occasionally there are old spatial tears lying around, being dangerous. Don’t fall into one, weird stuff can come out of them, and if you find one, do everything you can to close it. Come back to the School if you must, I’ll do it myself."

I’d never heard of this before. I was hoping it was a niche industry-specific concern, and not a larger, global concern.

"Intangibility is occasionally in Spatial, although it tends to be in the Dark and Void domain more frequently. It’s an odd duck, and there’s no real rules on how much it’ll cost, and what you can do with it. It all depends on the skill in question."

I doubted I’d be able to get intangibility in [Bookwyrm]. It just seemed too far removed. I suppose I had a minor form of it in [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes]? It let me sort of turn book covers intangible, in a sense?

"Dimensional hopping is next." I straightened up at that. [World Traveler] had been an option since my first class, and I had a powerful curiosity about it.

"Couple of ways of going about it. A teleport, a tear, a twist, manipulation, slipping away, it’s all possible. The end result is the same. Ending up in a different dimension. Some old, old records suggest that some dimensions don’t have a System, if you can believe that, and warn not to go there, else you’ll be stuck. Granted, we have no records from anyone who’s actually been to one of those worlds, so there’s no corroborating accounts… but maybe that’s because they get stranded. I’m covering this briefly for your understanding, but we’re not going into the topic in this class. Take the advanced class for it."

"Lastly, the one you’ve all been waiting for, and the first major topic of this lecture. Spatial expansion. Bags of holding, crates of storage, and so many, many more. Expensive in every sense of the word, and if you’re the ones selling it?"

The professor chuckled.

"You’ll be able to pay for your kids, all their grandkids, and all of their kids to attend the School without blinking."

It had taken me far too long to realize what the topic of The Apex Creature was. When I figured it out, I felt like an idiot, and immediately signed up for the class.

"The absolute pinnacle of creation doesn’t tend to bother itself with us." The dragonling professor started her lecture. "Unless we bother them. Now, thousands of things could bother them. There’s the obvious ‘break into their home and steal their stuff’, but I think we can all agree that would bother most of us. Then there’s the arbitrary. ‘I was watching that tree grow for decades and you cut it down!’ Unfortunate."

There were a few weak chuckles at that.

"I want to talk about one aspect in particular that explains why I am speaking so oddly in this room, and I fully expect all of you to follow. Please note that the source of this is the venerable Long Zhi, the Cerulean Scholar. He is a grand font of knowledge, a generous soul willing to share his research with us poor mortals. We will not mention him again. Names. Names are powerful things. Each time you mention one of them, it is like a tiny candle in the darkness, the smallest flicker of flame in the dark. They know. I believe they are proud of it, of a thousand small mentions lighting up the darkness of their mindscape, forming a flickering array. When you call them by their name, it is a much brighter signal, and the more powerful among them can ‘hear’ a small amount of what you say."

She paused, letting the implications sink in.

"Again, this feeds their ego. They enjoy it. What they do not enjoy is someone constantly calling them, setting off non-stop flares to their mind. Insulting them. Belittling them. Do it often enough, and you can provoke their wrath. Hence, the roundabout nature of this class."

NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT SAY HER NAME.

It made me wonder how calling their name worked as languages shifted. Just trying to think the logic through made my head hurt, and I decided my time and efforts were better spent on other tasks.

"Next, I want to talk about why ‘suicide by apex creature’ isn’t a viable technique…"

I grabbed a fun book for some casual reading, and plopped down into my favorite chair in the library. Classes were over, and while I did need to do some homework, and I could just read it in my sleep, I just flat-out wanted to read a book for fun. I had free time.

This was the life. Fluffy chair. Sun streaming through the window behind me, giving me beautiful natural light to work with. Books to my left. Books to my right. Books behind me.

Wait.

Books… behind me?

I looked at the window.

Sun. Light. I waved my hand through the sunbeam. Shadows.

I closed my eyes and focused on [The World Around Me].

A wall, yes.

No window.

And on the other side of the wall… a bookshelf, just like the rest of the ones in the library.

Chapter 4 - The Hidden Library

Books.

There was an entire bookshelf filled with books behind me, where the window claimed there was open air and light.

The obvious answer was the window was an illusion, filtering in "natural" light for the benefit of the students. The windows weren’t everywhere though, and up until now, they’d always been consistent with each other and how the outside of the library looked.

The library could be spatially warped, but given the power requirements not only to set a spatial warp, but to maintain it, I had my doubts.

The easiest solution was to skim a half-dozen of the books with my new skills - I could read through walls! - and see what section they belonged in, then go to that section and see what it looked like from the other side.

My language acquisition had gone decently. I was fluent enough in the ‘keystone’ languages of the world, although that didn’t mean I’d be able to speak to anyone. I had none of the ‘minor’ languages that were in active use, although when pressed I could possibly identify the language when presented with the written words. I didn’t have any ‘dead’ languages, or any way to even guess which dead language something was written in.

I mentally started paging through titles, [Reading] combining well with [The World Around Me], looking for one that was in a language I recognized. A number of titles were in dead languages, and some of the book bindings and pages were… creative.

I found the first title I could read in high elvish.

Daedalus: The Complete Guide to the only Self Correcting Wizardry.

I paused at the title. Maybe this section was all about obscure wizardry languages? Lothar had mentioned that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of other languages, and the School only focused on a few. I took a peek inside the book, reading over the words.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 22 -> 23. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Reading] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

That was fast. A benefit to taking a class doing things I wanted to do anyways!

The more I read, the more excited I got. The language was indeed self correcting. It recognized patterns in runes, and could easily restore runes that got slightly damaged or worn out automatically! The mana consumption was higher at first, and making true ever-lasting runes required a small arcanite supply, but only a tiny one.

This language was brilliant! I made a mental note to study it further, a little sad that I hadn’t discovered it in time for my biomancy modifications.

I mentally closed the book, resolving to check it out, put it into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], and read it tonight while I was sleeping.

I decided to check one or two more books before going to the obscure wizardry section of the library, and seeing what the wall looked like from the other side.

The next book was in Roami, a language I recognized but didn’t know. The language of the Kalea, of the ocean dwelling folk. I skimmed through it, but there wasn’t anything I recognized as a rune in the book. There were a few obvious spells in a wizardry language I didn’t know, but it wasn’t a guide to the language. Those had a certain look, for lack of a better word. The same way I could recognize a dictionary from a novel.

I skipped along a few more books. This section had an unusually high quotient of non-keystone language books! I eventually found the next one I could read.

The Sealing of Thraximundar the Terrible.

This didn’t look like a wizardry book at all.

Thraximundar was a familiar name. I poked my [Astral Archives], and the memory jumped to my mind.

A notification I’d gotten when I first exited the fairy ring.

[*whoop whoop!* Whoa, you won’t believe this one! Thraximundar the Terrible has wished for true, genuine, Immortality. Nothing can kill him! Nothing can stop him! I can’t wait to see what he does! Good luck everyone!]

I started to read the book, curious what was inside.

Welcome, members of the council of five who have unlocked this book. Inside details the location and bindings around one Thraximundar the Terrible, an ogre who wished for true immortality.

His reign of terror was legendary during our time, but we recognize that during the inevitable march of time, his name will be lost to myth and legend.

Unless the world itself is at risk of crumbling, do not unleash him. He will promise everything, and inevitably betray those he deals with. It is his goal to stand on top of the world, and have all subservient to him.

We tried everything. He cannot be killed. In desperation, we sealed him away in the deepest labyrinth, a thousand and one enchantments laid down to prevent his escape.

This book details the location and protections surrounding his imprisonment.

[*ding!* [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] leveled up! 7 -> 12!]

This… this was not a wizardry book. [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] and the opening lines of the book suggested that this was an encrypted book, one I’d casually ripped right through.

On one hand, I felt having knowledge of a literal unkillable monster might be dangerous. On the other, it’d be one hell of a feat for upgrading my class to read the book.

I was getting nervous as I flicked through another dozen or so books before landing on a third one I could read.

The Sunless Death. The title proclaimed.

The Sunless Death was a curse-plague placed on the sun in the year 18573, by the Miasma Classer [REDACTED]. Any being who looked at the sun was infected, and the curse-plague ate at the brain, driving the victim mad. They tended to wildly lash out at everyone around them, spreading chaos and destruction, before dying in agony. The most characteristic mark of the curse-plague was the eyes going entirely black, hence the name, The Sunless Death.

It only lasted a day and a half before the Classer was slain, likely due to Guardian intervention. The lessons learned from the event, and the details of the skill in question, are worth preserving for future knowledge and learning, to better contain and prevent similar episodes.

I stopped reading as notifications popped up.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 23 -> 24. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Reading] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

Okay. Wow.

This was not the harmless ‘obscure wizardry’ section. This was something else entirely.

My guess was it was like the banned and closed-off areas of the Museum of All Things, a forbidden section of the library.

What the book didn’t mention, and I had some sneaking suspicions about, was the Classer might’ve ascended. If I could heal the entire world, all at once, I’d have level up notifications flying past me so fast I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I’d hit the cap in hours.

Someone going out and trying to murder a significant portion of the world population? That either ended in death, like the book suggested, or ascension. It was probably not mentioned, because who wanted to start going around saying ‘hey, murder as many people as you can as quickly as you can, and become a god!"

It made me think back to the war class I just had, and what the professor had mentioned about Immortal wars.

How many were triggered by an Immortal saying ‘forget the slow and steady way, let me just farm as much experience as possible, become a god and get out of here?’

The implication was terrifying. I had new respect for the Forbidden Four elements, and the pseudo-global ban on people taking them.

They were the ‘kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible’ elements, and cutting them off at their knees suddenly sounded like a wise idea.

The next book was a stupidly impractical one. [The World Around Me] let me use all my senses in my sphere of perception, and I was well familiar with blood, in dozens of different forms. The book was written in blood, and the leather was probably something uselessly macabre, like human skin or some nonsense.

Honestly. There was a reason paper and ink was standard, and it wasn’t because blood was secretly superior or something. The time and manufacturing costs alone meant whoever had written it could’ve made 20, 50 copies instead! What a waste.

Right then. There were a few different ways I could tackle things from here.

First, I could just sit on this wall, and read as many books as possible. They seemed to have a certain weight to them, the System granting me levels just by skimming through the introduction. Something about the rarity, difficulty, or gravitas was helping me level, and level quickly. When I was done, I could just move along the wall, find the next spot, and keep reading. I could build a whole ‘outer perimeter’ of the hidden library, reading what books I could find.

I could then collate the languages used, and try and pick up the most commonly used language, or bring a list of titles to Iona to translate for me. I could pick out the most promising books, and translate those, one word at a time while I made a copy for myself.

Rare, forbidden books in [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] could also do nice things for that skill, then [Dream Reading] would kick in hard.

The second was more daring. Trace along the edges of the library until I found a door. Open the door, my new sphere of awareness letting me know exactly how the tumblers in a lock were arranged. Sneak into the library, and read all the books, not just the ones at the edges.

The third?

Well, I wasn’t great with people, but I wasn’t a complete idiot.

"Martin! Just the demon I wanted to see!" I cheerfully called out to the [Librarian].

He slowly put down the book he was reading, peering at me over his half-moon glasses.

"Elaine. You’ve returned all the books, yes?" He asked me.

I nodded.

"Yup! All shelved back exactly where they belong. Even fixed a few misplaced books while I was at it!"

He gave me a small smile.

"Excellent! What can I do for you?" He asked me.

"Can I go into the hidden section of the library?" I asked him.

He sighed.

"There are no hidden, forbidden, secret, cursed, extra-dimensional, or other unknown parts of the library." He recited. "You know this. Indeed, I’m sure I’ve heard you tell other students the very same thing!"

I crossed my arms and lifted a doubtful eyebrow. I looked around his office.

"Is this place properly warded against eavesdropping?" I asked him.

He snorted at me.

"No, because there’s nothing to protect against. Nothing sends up a flare of ‘I’m talking about secrets’ like a bubble of complete and total silence, and I have nothing to hide." He emphasized.

"Well, alrighty then. You don’t mind if I work through the wall on the fourth floor and read Daedalus: The Complete Guide to the only Self Correcting Wizardry, The Sealing of Thraximundar the Terrible, or The Sunless Death, do you?"

Martin froze.

I stared him down.

"Is there a procedure to checking the books out? Anyone special I need to consult? Or do I check them out as normal?"

He unleashed a string of inventive curses in his native Frisian.

"All copies of Thraximundar are magically encrypted, how did you break it?" He complained.

I shrugged.

"New skill of mine lets me selectively break encryption on books."

"So you just waltzed in and started looking?" Martin grumbled.

"Nope! Second new skill lets me see through walls."

He eyed me unhappily.

"And read through walls. That’s a different skill!"

He threw his arms up in the air.

"Fine! Yes! It exists! We don’t tell people there’s a forbidden section of the library, because then every Tom, Dick, and Harry tries to break in and read things, convinced that the answer to their problem is inside! No, you may not check out books in there. I’ll talk with some of the other librarians to see if we need a student to do the cleaning inside. Just remember, half the books in there are cursed."

I grinned, and suppressed the urge to manically rub my hands together. That would be a bad look.

"Great! My new class is all about reading books. Think I can bother the Acquisitions team or the archivists to let me read some of their stuff to help level up?"

Martin glared at me from over the rim of his glasses. He was great at the look, but I was immune.

"I’m not sure you understand the gravity of your request, especially the implied one about reading books in the forbidden section. Knowledge should be preserved, but some knowledge shouldn’t be spread. The Sunless Death murdered hundreds of thousands at a conservative guess, and tens of millions on the high end in a single day. The book gives all the information needed to recreate the curse, although power and mana are major bottlenecks. Thraximundar is still alive, still exists, and wants nothing more than to be free to trample over the world again. Daedalus goes wrong, and when it does, you end up with the Labyrinth of Abydos. It keeps shifting because the language is constantly trying to correct itself. There is not a single harmless book in the collection, although if you find one, please let me know. We can return it to normal circulation."

I sobered up at Martin’s speech. He was right. I’d been giddy over finding a cool ‘harmless’ secret, catching the School in a lie. The prospect of thousands of hidden, banned books, each one fantastic experience for my class, the entire section of the library singing like a siren about improved [Bookwyrm] evolutions, had gone to my head. He was right to chastise me over it.

"Is there a double-secret hidden library? Like, is the one I found the ‘decoy’ hidden library, and there’s a second one with the really, really dangerous stuff in it? Or is there just one."

Martin gave me a look, and didn’t dignify my question with a response.

"As for the Acquisitions team, I don’t know, why don’t you go ask them instead of bothering me. Shoo!" Martin flapped his hand at me, banishing me from his office.

I was totally going to check for a double secret hidden library.

"Are you sure you’re going to sleep in the library?" Iona patted her bed lovingly, trying to entice me to stay with her.

My heart was torn. I wanted to stay and snuggle with Iona, but I also wanted the chance to level up [Bookwyrm] and improve the class quality.

"You know it’s best for me to spend a night now and then in the library." I told Iona.

She’d been given the rundown about the forbidden section after promising not to tell anyone. With her [Vow], I fully believed it was an ironclad promise. She couldn’t lie, and saying ‘I’m not going to tell anyone’ was good enough for me.

"Yeah, I know. I’m going to miss you." The [Paladin] said.

"I’m going to miss you as well. But hey! It’s only for one night a week."

We lingered over the goodbye. There was no reason to linger, I’d be back in the morning, but there was no rush.

I was back in the library in no time at all. The way to get into the forbidden section was interesting.

First, there was a false wall. I needed to pull the book How To Avoid Large Ships off the shelf, which triggered a mechanical wall to open up.

Inside was a cozy little reading cubby. There were some sofas and plush chairs, and a pair of bookshelves on the walls. The only books in here were common books that could be found all over the library, in the most available language. In other words, books that nobody would be inspired to pick up and idly look through.

Students occasionally found this room, and that was fine. The whole point of the room was to hide exactly how anyone accessing the forbidden library got in.

Rumors about the library occasionally ‘eating’ people suddenly made a lot more sense. Students saw librarians enter the room, but never leave. It wasn’t possible to perfectly hide that something was going on, although clearly the more oblivious students - like myself - completely missed what was going on.

The trick was getting through the second set. A round dozen books needed to be moved, picked up and replaced, rotated, and pressed in sequence.

Once that was done, a wall panel slid back for a few seconds. An illusion over it made it difficult to detect if a student happened to miraculously stumble upon the right sequence. A brisk walk through, and I was in the forbidden library.

I hadn’t found any double secret hidden libraries, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I’d walked along every single outer and inner wall of the library, searching for secrets. The only thing I’d found were a half-dozen books secreted away by old students then forgotten. Martin was delighted with my find, and I didn’t mention the circumstances of why I was looking.

A bored [Sentry] had a cozy desk and a pile of entertainment, the last line of defense against anyone sneaking in. Maybe I could get my job reassigned to that role, and get paid to sit and read rare books.

It didn’t look like anything particularly special or amazing. There were no books flying through the air, no magical constructs wandering the aisles. It was just… emptier, and the occasional bookshelf had shimmering barriers over them, the books on those shelves all cursed.

I was not going to try and tango with curses that even the experts at the School couldn’t break. It wasn’t like they wanted a ton of cursed books, but the [Cursebreakers] were only so good.

I browsed a few books, trying to find a few that were acceptable.

The Secret of the Pekari

Purple Gold Demonic Heaven Devouring Eclipse Technique

Ritual Sacrifice and You: How to Properly Tenderize Sacrifices to Maximize Output

Finally I found a fat one that made me curious enough to pick up and put in my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard].

The Kamo Report. Reading the synopsis made me clench my jaw, the book as ugly as the rest of the ones here. I might, just might, be able to learn something practical from the book, although getting the knowledge would be… painful.

The Kamo unit had been part of the Kalea marines during a war against Ralakar, and they had a creative interpretation of what prisoners of war meant. A check of the dates indicated that it predated the Treaty of Kyowa.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] has leveled up! 10 -> 11]

I settled into one of the chairs, drew a quick little glyph with [Lepidoptera] that turned into a floating sign that I was just sleeping, and everything was alright, and closed my eyes.

It took a few minutes for me to enter my dreamscape, [Dream Reading] kicking in and letting me read in my sleep.

I selected The Kamo Report from my stored books, and the scene started to slowly build itself around me.

I was on a beach, sand stretching as far as the eye could see, the ocean waves crashing against the shore. The sun appeared on the horizon, painting the tips of the waves red.

Pens appeared on the beach at regular intervals, sturdy constructions of wood and twine. As I continued to watch, each pen was populated by a number of dragonlings of all ages and sizes. Each one was faceless though, no visual details having been given. Levels, classes, and vitality populated over all of them, the book I was ‘reading’ having taken detailed records.

A number of aquatic elvenoids dotted the scene, armed guards patrolling between the pens. Every now and then they’d poke a trident into the prisoner pens, forcing the dragonlings back from the sides.

The scene zoomed into one of the pens.

Dragonlings withered and slowly died in the pen as the sun rapidly zipped across the horizon. Notes popped up above each one as they died, explaining how long it had taken each dragonling at what age and vitality to die of simple exposure to the elements, and the estimated cause of death.

Estimated formulas floated over a rapidly expanding pile of bodies, as the members of the Kamo Unit refined their estimates and calculations. One final equation was left floating over a pile of bodies, flies buzzing around them.

Interestingly, vitality started off rapidly having a powerful compounding effect on survival times, before plateauing hard. My guess was the early stats in vitality rapidly improved the body, and the improvements built off of each other. Then the cube root aspect to vitality’s improvement kicked in, dramatically lowering the returns.

IF the information was correct, it was useful. It gave me a framework to triage based on vitality, and who was likely to survive injuries like that, and who needed immediate attention. The syllabus of one of my classes mentioned I’d be learning similar functions.

Then I was moved to the next pen, as the section on simple exposure ended. Next up was a shaded pen, where the dragonlings were fed.

But not watered.

The dragonlings didn’t quite drop as quickly as the ones exposed to the elements, the meager shade delaying the cruel end. I watched a scene of some of the dragonlings killing each other, a "Useless Data" card floating over the slain dragonlings.

I got to watch a minor rebellion, a number of dragonlings bursting out of their pen, seizing weapons and turning them against their captors. It was ruthlessly suppressed.

The entire thing started off bad, and went steeply downhill from ‘let’s see how long it takes for people to die of dehydration.’

I flat-out quit the book when it got to the firing range experiments.

I didn’t need to know that badly.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 25]

[Mana: 635,470/635,470]

[Mana Regen: 319,486 (+638,272)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 1,339]

[Dexterity: 2,396]

[Vitality: 17,976]

[Speed: 18,008]

[Mana: 62,731]

[Mana Regeneration: 62,860 (+63,017)]

[Magic Power: 29,746 (+762,985)]

[Magic Control: 29,728 (+762,523)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 513]]

[Celestial Affinity: 513]

[Cosmic Presence: 323]

[The Stars Never Fade: 11]

[Center of the Universe: 472]

[Dance with the Heavens: 513]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]

[Mantle of the Stars: 492]

[Sunrise: 471]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 401]]

[Radiance Affinity: 401]

[Radiance Resistance: 401]

[Nova Lance: 401]

[Lepidoptera: 180]

[Nectar: 401]

[Solar Corona: 401]

[Scintillating Ascent: 401]

[Kaleidoscope: 401]

[Class 3: [Bookwyrm - Spatial: Lv 24]]

[Spatial Affinity: 24]

[Reading: 24]

[Lair: 1]

[Bookwyrm's Hoard: 11]

[Beneath the Dragon's Eyes: 12]

[Dream Reading: 16]

[Astral Archives: 24]

[Hunger for Knowledge: 24]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 380]

[: ]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 256]

[The World Around Me: 36]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 513]

[Persistent Casting: 431]

[: ]

Chapter 5 - General Skills

The School had a class for everything. With [Bookwyrm] eating two of my general skills, I had open slots, and I was determined to make the best of it.

The problem I ran into, the School was also too good at teaching, and general skills had the most options by far. The list was almost literally endless. Even after cutting it down to size I was struggling.

[Parallel Thoughts] would let me split my mind into multiple tracks, letting me think about multiple things at once. I could read and carry on a conversation at the same time. I could cast multiple different wizardry spells while focusing entirely on a fight.

I could rub my belly and pat my head at the same time effortlessly.

And that was the introductory skill, with only one extra thought track. It evolved in a series of well-documented improvements, getting more and more absurd.

I had already picked the skill over similar skills like [Secondary Processor], [The Voices Inside Your Head Are Real], and [Mental Helper], although [Mental Clone] was still on the list. Basically a subconscious ‘mini me’ to talk with and point things out.

The voices in my head would be real! I swear!

There were a half-dozen skills along the lines of [Inner World], [Mind Palace], [Shadow Boxing], and [Internal Trainer]. I could mentally practice or review things. It worked best when I knew what I was doing, but I could literally train in my mind. Fortunately, they were strict upgrades over skills like [Wizardry Testing Ground], and I could safely axe that skill from my list.

Naturally, the skills got absurd when combined with [Parallel Thoughts]. Multiple [Shadow Boxing] sessions going on at once? Dozens of internal mini-Elaines practicing wizardry or sparring? Combined with [Dream Reading], and I could barely imagine the results.

If those were the only amazing skills offered, it’d be easy. But nooooo. It was never that easy.

[Wisdom] promised to help me make better decisions, although the skill sadly took time to properly build up enough levels to become potent. I couldn’t just take the skill to help me figure out the best skill to take, although it was tempting.

[Critical Thinking] and [Common Sense] were two skills that weren’t common enough in the world, and both were in [Wisdom’s] vein. Instead of thinking more, I’d think better. The improved thinking speed I got from my companion bond was already helping with thinking more.

[Cold Thoughts] and [Emotionless] had some logic behind them, but I was a little too concerned what conclusions I’d come to while relying on them. Those skills were the harbingers of ‘it totally made sense to start a civil war, it was the only way I could fix things.’

[Timekeeping] was an available general skill, and I’d grown to rely on it for the few short years I had the skill. Sounded silly, but near-perfect timekeeping and alarms had proven their worth. There was something to be said for taking a skill I already knew… but I wanted to have my skills for the rest of my life.

This whole losing general skills and resetting from scratch was for the birds. I very well could end up finding skills were duds, removing them, and replacing them, like I had with [Spotless], but the goal was to grab permanent skills.

[Mental Journal] would let me make notes to myself, and keep them there. That, and other memory skills overlapped too hard with [Astral Archives]. It did give me the idea to make a ‘book’ inside my [Astral Archives] that were memories of me making notes to myself, and having a second ‘book’ of ‘completed’ notes.

Back to the stronger skills, [Imagination] promised to be a fantastically good one. My wizardry was limited by what I could think of, my ability to come up with ideas and think things through was only so good. [Imagination] would let me be more, be better. It was hard to describe… I lacked the proper imagination to do so.

[Curiosity] was the hallmark of intelligence. I was already curious enough to kill a dozen cats though, and I wasn’t sure if leaning into that aspect of my personality would be beneficial. Becoming more distractible?

Speaking of distractible, [Focus] was the best of the mental skills that could help me out. [Hyperfocus] was a bit too much, and [Concentration] had just barely lost in the pro-con analysis.

[Self Control] was another skill that not enough people had. I considered the skill, and it was still on my list, but I had a lifetime of discipline giving me a leg up. [Discipline] was another skill, and they just never ended.

[Comprehension] promised that I’d be able to absorb more information, faster, and it synergized well with [Bookwyrm].

And that was only a small fraction of the mental-type general skills! I’d cut down a list of thousands and thousands of mental skills to just that ‘short’ list.

The meta skills were up next, and [Channel] was on the top of the list. I couldn’t use [Lair] without it, and the skill was a critical prerequisite to get [Blink]. Mostly because a quick back of the napkin math suggested that [Blink] would take 320,000 mana at least to cast, and that was for blinking in place!

They got more interesting from there. [Trigger] let me make conditions for casting spells, and precharge them! A few of my competitors in the Gladiator Games used the skill to devastating effect. [Mages] with it literally spent weeks preparing skills, only for them to go off when needed.

A trigger word was a popular way of letting the spells loose, and they effectively gave themselves a mana pool that was 10 or 20 times the normal size with how many skills they prepared.

Every year there was grumbling that it should be banned, that it was basically arcanite. The counter-argument was that it was a skill, and anyone could take the skill. [Delayed Casting] was similar to [Trigger], and frankly, intelligent use of [Trigger] could replicate anything [Delayed Casting] could manage.

Interestingly, it combined well with [Imagination], but not [Parallel Thoughts]. I didn’t need to think more, I needed to think better.

[Automatic Aim] was a skill Artemis could use, but Radiance made life easy. At the same time, it could be good for wizardry spells…

… eh, I was trying to justify a bad choice. I happily crossed that one off my list.

[Twincast] was the best of the ‘doublers’, and like the name suggested, it ‘echoed’ any skill a second time, at the same level of [Twincast]. The upgrade path was obvious - [Triplecast], [Quadruplecast], it just went on and on. It was great for penetrating armor and hardened positions.

[Imbue] could let me have one skill deliver a second skill.

[Range] was a simple but powerful one. The range of all my skills would be increased.

The list went on and on and on.

Speaking of [Range], that also touched on the whole section of meta aura skills. Increased range, the ability to shape an aura, the ability to exclude people from an aura, compressing it… the list was just as endless, and I’d cut that train of thought off at the knees by saying I’d take the general meta version, not the specialized one.

[Preset Skill Casting] was the last meta skill I was considering. It let me ‘design’ a series of skills to cast in particular ways, along with time intervals between each casting. The higher the level, the more skills I could pack together, and the more sets of skills I could ‘save’.

I felt like I lacked the [Imagination] to properly appreciate all the things I could do with it! Then again, most of my skills were standalones.

There were emotional skills. That list I’d rapidly cut down to just [Joy], a skill that improved my appreciation for the little joyful things in life. It was awfully close to being a drug, and it was just barely toeing the line for what I considered acceptable mental changes on myself.

After all, in a way it changed me just as much as something like [Imagination] would change me.

Lastly were the more ‘normal’ general skills. [Running] would give me a hand with my minor dexterity issue, as would [Traction]. I wanted these skills forever though, and I would slowly get back in balance… especially after dumping the last of my free stats into my dexterity, and classing up [Bookwyrm].

[Prayer], [Sweeping], [Climbing], [Flying]... basically any and every activity could be a general skill. At the School, it was only too easy to find out exactly what each skill did, and how to get it.

"What do you think?" I asked Iona and Auri.

"BrrrRRrrrpt." Auri conjured up a pair of mage hands to grab her head, then wove her head around in a big circle.

"Yes, yes, you’ve got a huge headache. Thinking about this hurts." I rolled my eyes at the bird’s antics.

"Haven’t you mentioned something about spellbooks a few times now?" Iona asked me.

I nodded.

"[Bookwyrm’s Hoard] plus spellbooks sounds utterly disgusting to me." I confirmed. "As long as I’ve thought of the array and drawn it out, and I have quality spellbooks to use, I’ll always have an arsenal on me."

"Isn’t that 90% of what [Trigger] does anyways?" Iona asked.

I was so proud. She was using percentages in normal conversation! Correctly!

"Right, but the mana pool expansion is pretty nice, and it’s on sorcery, not wizardry. No penalty." I said.

"Much more limited though." She said.

I nodded in agreement.

"Brrrpt! BRPT!" Auri demanded.

I tilted my head and thought about it.

"That’s… a pretty good idea. Which categories do you think?" I asked my girlfriend.

Her eyebrows wrinkled in concentration.

"If it were up to me, I’d take a pair of social skills. Why insist on doing everything yourself, when you can form bonds with other people, and lean on their skills and abilities the same way they lean on you? Plus, making more friends? Yes please! End of the day, we’re just two people. A dozen, a hundred people can do more than we can. However, that’s me. That’s not you, and we both know that. The way I see it, you can expand in one or two of three directions." She slowly spoke, working her way through Auri’s question. "You can improve your mind with a mental skill. You can improve your magic with a meta skill. Or you can improve your body with a more general skill."

That snapped the whole discussion into focus for me.

"Right, let’s ditch the general skills. I’m pretty happy with my body, and I’d like to focus on magic and mind." I said.

"What synergizes well with your current skills?" Iona asked. She probably had some ideas of her own, but was asking good questions to help me better frame the problem and think of things.

"Everything." I grimaced. I’d already cut the stuff that didn’t work well.

"Brrrpt!"

"No, we can’t just burn the skills and pick the surviving one."

"Brrrpt, brrrrrpt."

I laughed at the little pyro’s logic.

"Okay, I’ll make you a promise. If I get stuck on a bunch of skills, and they’re all good, I’ll write their names on a piece of paper and let you burn them all. I’ll take the last skill standing."

A really fancy way of generating a random number.

"Well, we’re at the School, best place in the world for skills. Do you think you can pull off any mergers?" Iona asked.

I thought about the problem from that direction.

"[Lucid Dreaming] and [Dream Reading] are similar." The wheels in my mind slowly turned as I worked through the problem. "I cut [Lucid Dreaming] for having no benefit at all, because of [Dream Reading], but it’s in the same category as [Shadow Boxing]. If I take the right variant, it should be able to merge with [Dream Reading], and let me do anything in my sleep, not just read."

Iona gave me a brisk nod.

"Excellent! What else?

"[Channel] and [Blink] or [Lair]." I was getting excited. I’d let myself get overwhelmed, but looking at it from the lens of ‘how do I upgrade my current skills’ let me kick the can down the road, and give myself a solid powerup. This was something like a once in a lifetime chance, to use the School’s knowledge and resources for my own.

[Reading] and [Comprehension] could get merged, although I was being a little greedy trying to merge everything into the skill. [Astral Archives] and [Hunger for Knowledge] were already both top-tier skills, being an evolution of skills I’d evolved a couple of times already.

It was helpful for removing options. I was still on the fence on mental or meta skills though.

I did have two skill slots… ignoring synergies for a moment, what were the best skills in each category?

"Do I need to think more, or think better?" I asked Iona.

She didn’t even blink at my non sequitur.

"More." She instantly replied. "Elaine, I love you. I’m biased here. But you are the single most brilliant woman I’ve ever met, if a bit of an airhead. I can barely read your notes,-"

"Hey!" I protested. My writing wasn’t that bad!

"-not like that." Iona rolled her eyes and ruffled my hair. "What you’re reading and studying. I can’t imagine you even smarter, and if we’re being completely honest, I’m afraid you’d completely leave me behind if you went deeper. That’s not to say you’re not a complete idiot at times, but you’re a genius. Think more. Two of you at 100 is better than one of you at 110, right?"

I shuffled over next to Iona, giving her the biggest hug I could while burying my head in her chest.

"Love you too." I sniffled out, murmured into her shirt.

After that little speech, [Parallel Thoughts] went to the top of my mental skills list for a ‘final’ skill.

We held each other for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other’s company.

"BrRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrpt." Auri made some snoozing noises, breaking the moment.

"What meta skill is best for each class?" Iona asked me.

My mind raced through the skills, and the answer became obvious.

"[Imbue]. It’s the best for my healing class. It’ll let me attach a heal to [Nova Lance] or [Kaleidoscope], and both have a longer range than [Wheel of Sun and Moon]. Plus, no distance penalty! Yeah, I could blast harder or more, but end of the day, I’m a [Healer], and [Imbue] is perfect for it."

Mostly. There was the question of what would happen once I upgraded [The Dawn Sentinel] and [Wheel of Sun and Moon] merged with [Dance with the Heavens]. It might render the skill moot.

At the same time, I wasn’t going to try to play the grand guessing game of "what were my skills going to evolve into, and what was optimal for that?"

"Great! Are you all set with your general skill plans?" Iona asked.

"Yeah! Thanks again. When are we poking at your skills?" I asked the blonde.

She grinned.

"After we go shopping! The letter of credit finally made it, and Sigrun posted it before I left for the School! I’m looking to turn Fenrir’s scales into an aketon, and he needs a full suit of armor. Going to find one of the high level crafters looking for a project, and pay them. We all win!"

Iona had explained the letter thing before. She was a recognized Valkyrie, and could access some small sums from The World Bank - not to be confused with The First Bank - but to spend significant sums, she needed proof.

"Isn’t he still growing?" I asked.

Iona nodded.

"Yes, but Ashala got me a set of estimates. Given her level, I’d be surprised if Fenrir ended up a centimeter off her ‘uneducated guess.’" Iona snorted to let me know what she thought of Ashala being ‘humble.’

"Shopping! Let’s go! I need to pick up a good pair of enchanted boots. Do you think I can buy an improved Deception Ring? One that guards can’t see through? More people to heal in mortal lands than Immortal lands after all. Oh! And books! We should see what books they have!"

I shot out the door.

Shopping trip with my girlfriend!

It was a shame I only had a little more than a year left at the School. How quickly time flew by!

Chapter 6 - Interlude - Auri - The Great Brrrrptish Bake-off

"Welcome one and all to the Great School Bake-off! This quarter we have an exciting new set of [Amateur Bakers], drawn from the thousands and thousands of [Students] here at the School, to wow and impress the judges. Without further ado, let me introduce our illustrious judges!" Florena the Harpy announced to the meager audience. Amateur baking wasn’t the most exciting of activities, and the vast majority of the fans were here to see if there were any major screw-ups or epic fails. That was much more interesting than watching bread rise.

Silly fans! Baking was the absolute best. Making tasty food? Yes! Watching people be happy? Yes! Pulling off a neat challenge? Yes!

Burning was the best thing in creation. I could burn just a little, and make something besides ashes!

Well, actually… maybe these fans weren’t silly. They were smart enough to come see me! … and everyone else as well, I guess.

I would just have to wow them extra hard!

"Our returning judge is the famous Rabbitstew! Don’t let his green visage and simple name fool you, Rabbitstew is a [Gourmet] and [Chef] like no other! His biting words have left dozens, nay, hundreds of students in tears over the years! Anyone who can satisfy him can cook for nobility, nay, the very king and queen themselves! Everyone give it up foooooooooooooor - Rabbitstew!"

I was a little surprised at how enthusiastic the crowd was for Rabbitstew. He sounded mean. Still! He was the key to THE PLAN! THE PLAN to make everyone happy!

"Softening his harsh words, we have Corknarr! A new judge to this event, her sensitive nose is able to tell exactly what’s going on inside the baked goods before she even bites in! But wait! Corknarr prefers subtle flavors, while Rabbitstew likes them strong and bold! Will our contestants try to make a dish to satisfy both, or will they attempt to flatter one judge’s tastes over the other? Speaking of contestants, here they areeeeeeeeeeee!"

The [Announcer] flung her wing out. That was the cue to enter! Let’s gooooo!

I zipped ahead of the slowpokes, darting straight to my station! Fast bird! Quick bird! A hand to keep my black hat on!

Florena started to announce the contestants. The dread Aleesia was back. Booo! Hiss!

I refocused on the important things in this event. The big bird with bad wings made it clear. First this event, second cooking for [Kings] and [Queens]. Quick and easy.

After, I could order the [Servants] around, get fancy crowns and dresses for Elaine… and Iona, although she might like pants more. I would be rich! Famous! Successful! And I could share it with all my friends! They wouldn’t need to worry anymore!

People kept saying there were no shortcuts to success, but they didn’t think. They didn’t see the obvious shortcuts that popped up like that.

Like, DUH!

I looked over my station. It had a wide surface, with plenty of drawers filled with every cooking implement I could want! I also had a number of goodies I was allowed to bring with me. Mostly fruits and meat! Flour, eggs, salt, butter, and the like were provided to everyone.

For free!

"Right then! For your very first challenge, the judges would like to see your best savory pies. They need to be stuffed, and able to feed four. No itsy bitty pies! You have ninety minutes. Ready? Set? Baaaaaaaaake." Florena declared.

I sprang into action! A time limit! Just like when Elaine went to class, and I only had two hours to cook something tasty!

I conjured up two dozen [Mage Hands], and flicked my attention around as I ordered them all to perform!

Get the cups! Sharpen the knives! Place the bowls on the table! Scoop the flour! Level it off, now dump it into the pot! Crack the eggs, measure the butter, and grab a whisk!

Two hands to zest a mango! More hands to start cutting the meats! More mangos need to be carefully sliced just right. Too fat, and they won’t cook! Too skinny, and they’ll be dry and BLEH!

The contents of the pie were next. I was blatantly cheating. Sneaky bird! Mangos were the most delicious fruit in the world, so those were going in. Fruit and meats were delicious together, and clever me gathered a fine selection for the stuffing. Beef, chicken, and my secret weapon - rabbit. After all, the judge was Rabbitstew.

Rabbit would be perfect for him. They’d never see it coming!

Pork was right out though. Elaine hated pork! Boo pork! Tasted bad!

Three hands with knives were busy slicing and dicing the fruits and meats into tiny bite-sized pieces. As each slice of meat came off the whole, I quickly doused them in a perfect little flame, searing the outsides and trapping the moisture inside.

Tasty! Delicious!

Pieces to sample!

Two more hands got a little bit of mango zest into the crust, then the crust mixing was complete. I flew over, and had a finger dip into the dough to properly sample.

Doughy! Perfect! Ready to bake!

I conjured up a pan made out of flames at exactly the right baking temperature. Flip over! Dump! Don’t need spatulas to scoop things out! Just use the hands, shove all the dough out, then pat it down! When everything was in place, POOF! Dismiss the hands! Leftover dough falls into the pan!

Brilliant, brilliant baking. Others also had neat tricks! I watch! I steal!

My beak dropped open as I looked at the table next to me. The [Chef] there had carefully stacked all of his ingredients together, and I was just in time to watch them all meld and merge together into a pie!

No fair! I couldn’t do that, or steal that trick! Cheating! CHEATING!

"Cheater!" I brrrpted out. I looked around to see the accusation land, the stunned expressions… nothing.

Instead, they were all cheating in some way. Not fair! This should be skill less! The only allowed skills should be [Baking], [Mage Hands], and [Inferno Conjuration]!

The judges were wandering around, and had clearly seen the show. They headed over to the [Chef’s] table.

"Well, what do we have here? You’re already done?" Corknarr’s nose twitched eagerly as steam started to come off the pie.

The [Chef] nodded.

"Bit ahead of schedule, but I figure this lets me do some clean up and decorating. Hope you all don’t mind."

"If it tastes good, who cares?" Rabbitstew eyed the pie doubtfully. "Skill-based prep always tastes a little funny though. Doesn’t have that… love… to it."

The chef paled at that, but the judges were already moving on.

To my station. Of course they would! They could see the absolute marvel I was preparing! It didn’t matter how long they’d spend at the other places, I was going to win!

Then cook for kings! Riches, fame, rare ingredients to cook with, fancy nests, endless flowers to burn, the works.

"What do we have here?" Rabbitstew asked.

"Brrrrpt!" I smugly replied. People couldn’t understand me! I could sass all I liked!

But sassing Rabbitstew was a bad idea. Extra bad if he could understand me. He was the key to the kingdom! I wrote words in flames above me.

Meat and Mango pie! With cheese filling.

Rabbitstew’s eyebrow went up.

"Meat, mango, and cheese? That’s ambitious. The mangos look fresh, how are you planning on handling the moisture?"

I gave the judge a disbelieving look. He… knew how to bake, right? The announcer had talked him up a bunch.

Still! Question! Answer!

By baking it!

How else did one handle moisture?

"Right! Well, I’m very excited to see how this turns out." Corknerr said, and the two moved on.

I continued to slice and season each bit of the stuffing while the crust baked. I rolled out some more dough for the pie top, and neatly cut it out into a circle.

The moment the crust was done, I began to layer it all together, alternating fruit and meat slices, with liberal amounts of cheese to glue it all together. The top went on, I stamped on it a few times to give it a distinct phoenix-foot look on the edges, then whoosh! Flames for cooking!

Careful, careful flames. Needed to be exactly right! Just as hot as needed!

Nothing to do now but wait! Wait, snack on the leftovers, and scope out more of the competition.

Aleesia, the cookie-menace, was back, trying to steal my glory yet again. I had soundly thrashed her back when we’d set up competing stalls across from each other, and it had nothing to do with the fact that my food had been free, no.

I was just better.

Decorations!

Flowers! Everyone liked flowers! Decorative flowers for the pie!

Juice! Juice was tasty. Squeeze some leftover mangos to make juice to go with! … sample a bit, this was thirsty work! Yum yum!

Little juice pictures for the top of the pie when it was done!

Bugs! Insects! Spiders! All tasty and healthy, but most people found them icky as decoration. Poor taste! Bad taste! But this was an event for making food for others, so their taste was important! Yes!

Time passed in a blur, and the pies were ready! With plenty of time left over! Dozens of hands made baking fast. I couldn’t wait until after the contest, where I could chow down!

The judges wandered over.

"Well Auri, how do you think you did?" Corknarr asked.

"Great! It all went well!" I told her, while writing the same words above my head.

She took a deep sniff.

"It smells positively divine. I can’t wait to try it!"

"Let’s see." Rabbitstew grunted, grabbing a knife and cutting himself a generous chunk. He placed it on its side, and poked at it a few times.

"Good filling. But see here, you’ve got a soggy bottom. Too much liquid. The sear only works short term on meat, the juices leak when you cook it long enough. Next time, try squeezing the fruits before you put them in."

Who cared about the soggy bottom! It was all about the taste! THE TASTE! And it tasted great!

Water. My eternal nemesis, appearing to haunt me even in a baking contest!

The two judges took big bites of my pie, and I puffed up in delight.

"Mmm! Just marvelous! I doubted your flavors would work, but they’re spectacular together! A bit too much spice though, and mango zest is an… inspired choice." Corknarr praised me! Yes! Success! I let off a little multi-colored flame, to show her how happy I was.

Rabbitstew looked less happy.

"Rabbit. Everyone cooks rabbit. It’s overdone, and overcooked."

My beak dropped open as they left.

What!?

WHAT!?

Nooooooo!

Argh! Stupid bird! Silly bird! OF COURSE other people would think to make Rabbitstew food made out of rabbit! Bah!

Okay!

Right!

Time to get the fire on these wings! This round hadn’t gone so hot. Next round I’d show them!

I’d show them all!

The cake finale! The main event! The first round of the gauntlet of kings!

I had outdone myself this time, yes I had!

I made a huge lava chocolate cake, big enough that I could swim in! If I could get inside.

Decoration was big! Drizzles of chocolate on the sides as ‘lava flows’, fresh strawberries cut like flowers! Little bits of greenery for trees, and I’d made an entire little chocolate town at the base of the cake! Red frosting speckled with chocolate chips made the entire thing look like a volcano!

The ‘lava’ inside the cake utterly swallowing up the town at the bottom was a fun feature, oh yes! Appeal to the bloodthirst inside of everyone! Also appeal to the love of chocolate every living being had!

[Baking] had even leveled up! Yes!

And here came the judges! They hadn’t liked my other creations, but I came back! Time and time again! I learned! I improved!

Cooking for [Kings], here I come!

"Oh my! This is a lovely little cake you have here! What a scene! I practically feel like I’m sitting at the bottom of a volcano, waiting for it’s eruption!" Corknarr gasped as she reached my cake.

"Yes, thank you very much, I worked hard on it." I told her back.

"Village going to be destroyed by the volcano. Nice." Rabbitstew held out a fist.

I knew what that was for! [Magic Hand] go! Fist bump go!

Corknarr gasped.

"No! Those poor villagers!"

I couldn’t help it. I gave her the stink-eye. Really!? They were fake! Not-real! I could burn them to a crisp and Elaine wouldn’t be sad!

The judges cut into the cake. Tasty lava flows! The lava on the top even fell onto the chocolate ‘lava’ on the inside, making it look neat!

I had totally planned that. Yup. Just like that.

… I hadn’t planned that. I should remember what I did for next time.

"Oooh! A most excellent effect!" Corknarr sniffed eagerly, and the judges each had a slice.

"Tasty." Rabbitstew commented.

"Not usually my favorite, but this was a treat!" Corknarr said.

They moved on, and my heart fell to my feet. Not very far.

They had barely said anything!

I watched them go to Aleesia’s cake.

Bah! It was barely a cake! It was just a pile of cookies… floating cookies.

Okay, it was clever of her to make the cookies fly like a phoenix. That was smart!

The judges talked for a bit, then ate one of the flying cookies.

"Oh my! The flavor keeps changing! Did you link all of them together?"

Aleesia nodded.

Not fair! Magic! Cheating! Nooooooo.

"Well, this was an exciting first round of the Great School Bake-off! Thank you everyone who attended, this was an exciting first round. First, we’re going to announce our star baker for this round, the one who knocked our socks off the most, the tastiest food."

I puffed up. I was ready! I was going to be adored for something other than my looks and intrinsic nature! Elaine was in the stands, watching!

She loved the pie I had baked. Best thing she ever tasted! The mango juices had soaked the crust perfectly, and I barely got a slice! Said it made it feel much better after the ‘cheating potion smashers’ and the ‘only third place’.

I had made two more the exact same way.

"Aleesia! Congratulations!" The judges called out.

No. NO! Anyone but Aleesia!

I wanted to stomp on my hat, but this wasn’t the time or the place. Cool. Collected. Dignified. Yup, yup, that was me. I’d just win the star baker next round.

Or heck, maybe I wouldn’t! Only thing that mattered was winning the whole thing.

"Congraaaaaaaaaaaaaaatulations." I was only a little sarcastic with my words to Aleesia. Anyone else I’d be fine, but nooooo, it had to be her.

Still! Dignity in defeat! I had lost, I could do nothing but accept it and move on!

"Now, sadly, in each round one of us can’t continue on anymore. It was particularly difficult this time, as everyone is just so talented! Auri, I’m sorry, you won’t be joining us next week."

Nooo!!

Don’t stomp the hat. Dignity in defeat.

Don’t stomp the hat. Dignity in defeat.

Don’t stomp the hat. Dignity in defeat.

A single tear did roll down my cheek.

Chapter 7 – Divine Errand

"Librarian!" I cheerfully waved to my doppelganger.

"Elaine! Great to see you back!" Librarian waved me over.

"Let’s get right to it!" I strode over towards the stairs. Librarian put a hand over her heart and faked outrage.

"Ah! I see how it is! The moment you get access to real books, I’m cast aside! It’s been a year since we last talked and everything!"

I rolled my eyes at her - my - antics.

"We have all the books we could want now!"

"I do want to find out who the killer was! Did her ‘best friend’ kill her as a love rival? Or was it a political assassination? I need to knowwwww!" Librarian whined.

"Well, the faster we make our choice, the sooner we’ll find out, right?"

The room snapped around me, and I found myself in a chair, three books hovering in front of me.

"Right! We’ve got three real options after I filtered out all the nonsense." Librarian announced.

I looked at the books. They were pretty clear.

[Draconic Sage] - Neither rain nor snow, angels or dragons, mortals or gods, nor all the dangers of the world can keep you from knowledge. Your teachings have shaped the course of the world, and your hunt for new books has led you to peril, secrets, and to brave the wrath of dragons and administration alike. Take this class, and plunder the knowledge of the world. +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control, +300 Mana, +300 Mana Regeneration per level.

This class was all about mental skills, reading, knowledge, and the like. It was impressive with the offered stats. [Hunger For Knowledge] would get another upgrade, [Parallel Thoughts] would become a class skill, and the class essentially doubled down on the reading for levels aspects. [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] would merge into [Comprehensive Speed Reading].

However, the spatial skills basically went kaput. [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] and [Lair] would both bite the dust, and I wouldn’t be getting anything more.

[Spatial Scholar] - Oh traveler from another world, you are steeped in Spatial Magic. Most people go their entire life without encountering a smidge. You’ve carried your belongings in expanded storage, crossed between multiple worlds, own multiple personal pocket dimensions, have a sphere of senses around you, and more! You are a Spatial Mage, through and through. Dive deep down, and explore the endless dimensions, explore strange lands, and always have a book on you! +510 Magic Power, +51 Mana per level.

The class kept some of the learning and knowledge aspects of [Bookwyrm], but it was something of a side-grade into a pure spatial mage. The stats were correspondingly mediocre. In its defense, they were the two stats I needed to even think of casting the more advanced Spatial skills.

I tapped it with a frown.

"If I wanted to be a space mage, I would’ve taken it from the get-go." I complained.

Librarian shrugged.

"Third best class offered, and it is a logical progression. How many space magic classes have you taken by now? How many hours have you spent trying to get [Blink]?"

I muttered a curse at how right she was, and moved onto the last book.

[The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] - You were a poor, starving child, looking around to devour books but unable to find a single one around you. You went out into new lands to search for books, finding them with dwarves. Elves. Dragons. When flung to a new land, your first instinct is to find the nearest library, and catch up on what’s happened. Sleep was making you lose valuable reading time, so you found ways to keep reading in your sleep! Honestly, take a break… and take this class, and forge on all the more, never separated from your precious books. +80 Dexterity, +80 Speed, +80 Vitality, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level.

The stats were generous, and fixed my dexterity problem once and for - nope, wasn’t going to finish that thought and jinx it.

It was the ‘logical continuation’ class. It didn’t go as deep into the knowledge and mental aspects as [Draconic Sage], nor was it as Spatial-focused as [Spatial Scholar]. I was rewarded for all my hard work and efforts in my book finding and reading efforts though. Rare books. Forbidden books. Banned books. Hidden books. My endless search for the unknown tomes, along with generous helpings of more ‘mundane’ novels had helped the class quality.

[Spatial Scholar] was right out. I didn’t pick Spatial mage when I’d picked my third class for a reason. I was a [Bookwyrm]. I did understand why it was offered, with the amount of time I’d spent screwing around with [Channel] and [Lair], and the classes, but no.

The question was simple. Did I want to keep some interesting Spatial spells around, or go deeper into the knowledge and mental aspects?

Phrased that way, it was easy. I liked being able to haul around a ton of books. The idea of teleporting, even a little bit, was appealing. [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] literally let me level in my sleep.

"[The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] please!" I picked the book up, satisfied that this selection had been relatively easy and straightforward for once.

"Excellent! Let’s get you checked out."

I woke up to notifications.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm - Spatial] has upgraded to [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial]!]

[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 32 -> 76. +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Comprehensive Speed Reading] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

I loved the School. Classes for everything, which made upgrading skills a breeze. [Butterfly Mystic], ironically, was hard to upgrade further, since I’d already put significant work into it, and some of my Radiance feats were difficult to beat. [The Dawn Sentinel] just didn’t upgrade, due to the absurd skills in the first place, and the fact that it was a build-a-class.

[Bookwyrm], as a new class though? Upgrade opportunities, upgrade opportunities everywhere. I’d maxed my skills out, then gone hunting for various ways to upgrade and merge skills. Not everything came with a new name, but my [Reading] skill evolutions were nice.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

No [Lair] levels or upgrades, likely because I’d hit level 32 yesterday in it.

The skill was a bust in my opinion. It hadn’t mentioned light, and the [Lair] was pitch black. In a combat setting, it took ages to ‘escape’ into the [Lair], meaning it was no good as a life-saving tactic. I couldn’t bring anyone with me. It was uncomfortable.

Look at me, complaining about my own private pocket dimension.

[*ding!* [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Vivid Dream Reading] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* Would you like to merge [Vivid Dream Reading] and [Parallel Thoughts] into [Parallel Dreams]?]

I declined the offer. [Parallel Thoughts] was just too useful of a skill to merge.

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

Perfect.

The more balanced dexterity finally got my speed back under control, and my brand-new stats had increased my magic power and control by roughly 30%.

I was going to destroy the next Gladiator Games.

I got out of bed, and rejoined Auri in the main living room.

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked.

"Ended up taking the standard upgrade to the class. [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm]." I told her.

"Brrrpt!"

"You should class up soon. Use our last two quarters at the School to upgrade skills, and we can see how close you are to unlocking your third."

"Brpt!" Auri conjured up a little hand, giving me a salute.

I settled down, and started to work.

First things first. I split my mind in two with [Parallel Thoughts], able to think of multiple things at once. The skill wasn’t a passive - yet - and it took focus and mana to use.

I teleported out my fourth spellbook onto the table. I flipped it open to the next, fresh page, and started thinking about what spell I wanted to write next. What was complicated enough that drawing the array ahead of time was useful, but general enough that it wouldn’t rot in my spellbook for years? I’d looked up a few samples, but the really interesting stuff tended to be in private collections. Wizards tended not to share their spells, even if they were in a language I knew! The School was great at teaching us how to construct any spell we wanted, but that didn’t mean I could immediately think of dozens of brilliant spells, nor could I think up nifty shortcuts to make parts in three runes instead of thirty.

Octagony had completely defeated me. I had nothing but praise for the [Wizards] who could wrap their mind around the twisted ways the language worked.

Putting it another way. I’d been given a dictionary, and taught how to write books. There were thousands of brilliant minds out there who’d written their own books, and I’d love to, uh… borrow inspiration… from what they’d come up with.

It sounded pretty bad when I put it that way.

The second split of my mind teleported out the murder mystery I’d been working on before classing up. My left hand caught the book, and [The World Around Me] let me read the novel without needing to have my eyes on it.

Reading comfortably wasn’t good experience, but it did get things done.

There was no time magic, not with the System. But being able to easily do two things at once? I had practically doubled my available time. If I had taken the same class load as the first quarter I arrived, I’d be able to easily manage it. One hand to take notes, a second hand to do homework.

Becoming ambidextrous - or at least making my handwriting legible - was on my list.

I was quietly working and reading when a grim-faced Iona barged in through the door.

I immediately teleported my books back into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], snapping my focus back to a single train of thought.

"Who died?" I asked, half in jest, half completely serious.

Iona paused.

"Nobody yet." She said.

I stood up, splitting my mind in half again. One was focused on fighting preparations. What spells I had at the ready, what the rules of fighting were at the School, an estimate of where we were in the world and what falling from the island would mean, and more.

The other was focused on Iona.

"Sounds like a story. Do we need to leave now, or do you have time to explain?" I asked.

She paused, her eyes flickering.

"I can explain. Might as well, since I’ll probably get expelled from the School at the end."

Game face was on, and my ‘fighting prep’ track took a sharp turn into ‘oh goddesses no is Iona about to break up with me it’s too soon I thought we had more time noooooooooooooooooooooo’

"Yeah, you better explain." I internally winced. That came out a lot frostier than I’d intended.

Iona looked slightly hurt by my words.

"Sorry, that came out badly." I immediately explained. Communication!

"Right. Selene and Lunaris have made their first big ask of me. Some idiot cultivator," She spat the word with real venom, like finding half a worm in her apple, "has decided to class up, and that insulting the moon goddesses would make for a fine tribulation. The coward knows he’s protected by the School’s barriers, and the two goddesses also know that. Instead of wasting their power, they’ve tasked me to ‘handle it’."

I frowned as I thought back to how cultivators worked the System. They had a class that wanted to simply meditate about leveling, which was the most broken thing I’d ever heard. Well, until I’d gotten leveling up in my sleep, but I’d earned it, that was fair. Theirs wasn’t.

Because reasons.

They had a whole ‘defying the heavens’ theme going on, and their meditative leveling had no real risks or conflict. It was hard to get enough accomplishments and achievements for a powerful class when all they did was sit around. End of the day, they went for the biggest, baddest achievement they could find.

Insulting the gods. Enraging them to the point where they attempted to smite the uppity bastards.

Now, there were way more cultivators than gods… I think… and the numbers just didn’t make sense to me. If I was a betting woman - okay, to be fair, I was, my issue would be finding a bookie to take the bet - I’d bet that most ‘tribulations’ were just a high level Lightning Classer the Sects had on-hand, who threw moderately powerful bolts at the members trying to class up. Getting a divine’s attention was hard. Getting one of the more important god’s attentions was even harder, then surviving their attempts at judgment?

Whooof.

No wonder everyone said cultivators had a few screws loose! I’d seen divine judgment with my own eyes, it wasn’t pretty.

Now Iona was going to be that divine judgment. Being on a mission from a pair of goddesses was no excuse to break the rules in the School’s estimation, and their retribution would be swift.

A thought jingled at the edge of my memory.

"Hang on, I have an idea. I just need to think about it for a few minutes." I told Iona. Tension visibly drained from her shoulders, and she half-collapsed onto the sofa.

It sagged dangerously under her weight. We’d been putting a lot of abuse on that sofa…

"Brrrpt! BrrrrRRrrrPT! Brrrrpt, brpt brpt BRPT!" Auri suggested darkly. I gave her a withering look.

"Auri, do you really think nobody would investigate a ‘mysterious fire’ in a place warded to the high heavens, especially one where people die? You don’t think they’d look at the very public Inferno bird with a reputation for being able to burn straight through magic? Think about it! If you’re going to commit arson and murder, you need to do it intelligently!"

I’d given up on trying to teach Auri not to commit arson and murder… but at the same time, she was all talk, and no action on that front. I hadn’t seen her commit any arson or murder…

Wait, shit.

Was Auri actually good at covering her tracks, and had been committing sins behind my back?!

"Brrpt! BRPT!"

…

"You’re right Auri, nobody would ever trace a mysterious drowning back to you. That’s an excellent idea."

Nevermind on the ‘Is Auri secretly murdering people and getting away with it’ train of thought.

Iona gave a weak chuckle at Auri’s support.

"Thank you, Auri. I appreciate having a friend as good as you to back me up."

"Brrrpt!"

"Thank fuck." She said with feeling. "I was so worried about what you’d think. That you’d think me some heartless assassin or cold killer. That I’d cocked it all up."

I considered sitting next to her, or on her lap, but I didn’t think the mood was right.

Nor did I want the sofa collapsing under the two of us.

One track of my mind was chasing down various ideas, piecing everything I knew together into something resembling a plan. The other kept talking.

[Parallel Thoughts] was weird.

"I mean, how long have we known each other? How long have we been dating? You’ve made no secret of your profession, or how you handle problems."

Iona waved my comments away.

"It’s real easy to say and think that when it’s abstract. When we’re on a flying island, attending the School. Different when it hits home, when it’s staring you in the face. When I’ve been given my marching orders."

I snorted.

"My title of Sentinel wasn’t - isn’t - for nothing." I reminded her. "I don’t like killing people, but I’ve done it before, and I doubt I’ll avoid ever doing it again." Thank fuck for Linnet and her extensive therapy.

She shrugged her massive shoulders.

"You love the School and being here. Learning. I thought you might pick that over me."

"People matter more than a book or a fancy scroll." I retorted.

Please don’t notice the singular, please don’t notice the singular. I prayed. Not to the moon goddesses, they’d snitch on me in a heartbeat.

My plan finally came together.

"AHHA! I’ve got it!" I cried out.

[*ding!* [Parallel Thoughts] leveled up! 28 -> 29]

Iona arched a dubious eyebrow at me.

"I have to handle this. That’s not negotiable." She reminded me.

I flapped my hand at her.

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. Okay! The moon goddesses desire vengeance, right?"

Iona nodded.

"Prompt and thorough vengeance. They didn’t say what, exactly, had happened, but they sounded mad."

They never sounded mad.

"Right. Now, the worse the tribulation, the better quality class the cultivator gets. Tribulations can also impact how their class evolves. What if we gave them a curveball of a tribulation?"

Iona’s eyes unfocused as she talked with her patrons.

"Go on." She said.

"They told us at orientation that students weren’t to call down tribulations on the island. Unsurprisingly, the School takes a dim view on students getting lightning and fire rained down on them."

Iona slowly nodded.

"So, let’s bury them in paperwork. Bring our complaint to the guards, the clerks, the scribe, the administration, anyone who’ll listen. Complain to the priest at the temple. We’ve got a valid complaint, and while I have no idea how to run it well, you know people like I know books. I’m sure you can make it work. They get expelled from the School, a massive blow to their pocketbook, if not further arrested and imprisoned or fined, their ‘tribulation’ turns into a complete bust from a class quality aspect - what are they going to get, the Dao of Paperwork and Prisons? - and hopefully it assuages the goddesses."

Does it? I prayed to them myself.

Iona slowly grinned, and bounded back up, filled to the brim with energy.

"Yes… yeeeeeeessss! That works beautifully! With 100% less murdering!" She gave me a quick peck.

"Elaine, I love you, now and forever. Never leave, okay?"

I teared up at the unexpected confession and hugged Iona.

"I don’t plan on it."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 26]

[Mana: 772,480/772,480]

[Mana Regen: 368,980 (+858,781)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 1,327]

[Dexterity: 6,294]

[Vitality: 24,921]

[Speed: 24,953]

[Mana: 77,248]

[Mana Regeneration: 77,368 (+85,878)]

[Magic Power: 43,854 (+1,124,855)]

[Magic Control: 43,778 (+1,122,905)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 513]]

[Celestial Affinity: 513]

[Cosmic Presence: 323]

[The Stars Never Fade: 11]

[Center of the Universe: 472]

[Dance with the Heavens: 513]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]

[Mantle of the Stars: 492]

[Sunrise: 471]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 444]]

[Radiance Affinity: 444]

[Radiance Resistance: 444]

[Nova Lance: 444]

[Lepidoptera: 444]

[Nectar: 444]

[Solar Corona: 444]

[Scintillating Ascent: 444]

[Kaleidoscope: 444]

[Class 3: [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial: Lv 76]]

[Spatial Affinity: 76]

[Comprehensive Speed Reading: 76]

[Lair: 32]

[Bookwyrm's Hoard: 76]

[Beneath the Dragon's Eyes: 76]

[Vivid Dream Reading: 76]

[Astral Archives: 76]

[Hunger for Knowledge: 76]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 380]

[Parallel Thoughts: 29]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 256]

[The World Around Me: 36]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 513]

[Persistent Casting: 431]

[Channel: 25]

Chapter 8 - Practice Makes Perfect

I flung myself over the wooden wall, and kicked off the backside to nimbly leap over the mudpit waiting for me at the bottom. I let myself drop, kicking off against the ground the moment my right foot landed, leaping into the ropes. With far more agility and dexterity than any monkey or ape, I swung through the course, building up speed.

At the far end I let go, letting myself soar through the air without magic, entirely bypassing the sand pit that was the end of the obstacle course. My toes landed on the edge, and I bent my knees to absorb the impact.

There were no cheers or accolades. It was just another aspect to honing my body, and the few dozen other members of the School’s combat team were off doing their own thing.

I did give a small nod to Iris. The selkie had been on my team every School event I’d attended, and I was hoping she’d be on my team for this last one.

Finished with my 10th run through the obstacle course, I moved to an isolated section of the field, and started to practice my skills.

I wanted [Blink]. The way to get it was to practice a ‘similar’ skill, and the best I had was [Lair].

I started to [Channel] [Lair], the only way I could cast the skill.

The theory on [Channel] was great, but what Destruction had never mentioned was how inefficient it was at low levels. It took me a solid 15 seconds to cast [Lair], while at full efficiency it should’ve only been around 4 seconds.

[Spatial Affinity] was already giving me over 90% of its maximum theoretical efficiency. The curve on the early efficiency levels was steep.

I popped into my disappointing space after the skill finished, and immediately started to cast it again, to get out. I figured that was the closest thing to ‘blinking’ I could do, even if my mana pool only let me cast it a few times before I needed to pause.

The place was pitch-black, but [The World Around Me] let me see without light. I’d brought a sad little blanket with me that I snagged from where it was floating. I wasn’t sure what would happen when I dropped the skill, but why waste?

I’d picked an arbitrary direction, and called it the ‘floor’. A bit misleading, since there was no gravity in my pocket dimension. I just floated in the middle of space, the pocket dimension its own little world.

The floor was hard and unyielding, and best that I could tell, it wasn’t made of anything. It was just… there.

I was standing on the end of the world.

I’m sure if I didn’t have [The World Around Me] that it would just look like a black floor or something, but I had the skill. It was deeply unnerving to see nothing under the razor-thin ‘floor’. The world, the universe, literally just ended.

Same with the walls, and the ceiling.

Utter, suffocating darkness. I just floated there, slowly rotating in place.

It might’ve been fun to bounce off the walls and float like my own private trampoline park, but there was no getting over the thinness of the walls, the knowledge deep in my rune-etched bones that I was a hair’s breadth from oblivion. Intellectually I knew I was safe, but my intellect was entirely overruled by the rest of my body almost literally staring into the abyss.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [When You Stare into the Abyss, the Abyss Stares into You.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

I rejected the skill, only to get a few more.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [The Void At the End of the Universe.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Cracks in Reality.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [The End.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

I rejected them all, and tried to purge their memory from my mind.

Best I could do was put them all into one ‘book’ from [Astral Archives] and put it in a dusty corner.

To be fair, I could easily conjure up my own light, and I could turn off [The World Around Me].

I popped back into existence, and I held my breath, waiting for the notification.

…

…

…

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Channeled Blink]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? WARNING: Skill will automatically merge with [Channel].]

YES!

Channeled Blink: Vanish from the world, and reappear a short distance away! The skill is not responsible for existential crisis about the nature of the soul, consciousness, persistence, and if the person who reappears is really you, and not a perfect clone with your memory, knowledge, skills, and levels. Ah heck, what does it matter? You’ll always think you’re you, regardless of the truth. 0.1% decreased mana cost per level, improved channeling efficiency and retention per level.

I paused at the message.

I knew how clones worked, how they really worked. Too many people had the idea of making clones, and that it’d be ‘them’.

No. It didn’t work that way at all. Twins were an excellent example of how it did work. A clone was an entirely different person. There was no consciousness transfer. It was a distinct person, mind, body, and soul.

Oh!

Soul!

This was easy! If [Channeled Blink] really disintegrated me and created a perfect doppelganger, one so good that not even the new me could tell, then I’d be dead. If I was dead, my soul would go flying back into Samsara. I wasn’t on great terms with a lot of the gods, but I was dating the most wonderful woman in the world who was. I could just ask her to poke Selene for me, and they could tell me if Spatial mages tended to have a steady stream of extra souls showing up and marching towards reincarnation.

Putting it that way, it seemed unlikely. All those souls would have to come from somewhere, and I didn’t think blink and teleport-happy Spatial mages were creating a steady stream of souls.

Plus, like. I’d already been teleported a dozen times by the master of the arena.

I took [Channeled Blink], replacing [Lair].

I was "out of mana", and by that I meant [Channeled Blink] probably wanted half my prodigious mana pool for a single cast. If it was efficient! Right now, it might take more like my entire mana pool, although that would go down as the skill leveled. There was no way I was waiting to try out my cool new skill though!

I thought about ‘jogging’ over to the arcanite pillar in the stadium, but eh. My ‘jogging’ speed was a blistering pace that most people in my age bracket couldn’t follow. Why bother? New magic waited for no one!

The anti-friction runes on my skin lit up as I sprinted full speed at the arcanite. I would’ve plowed a pair of deep furrows into the dirt as I stopped, but my fancy enchanted boots did the job for me. I ignored the looks I got as I slapped my hand onto the pillar, draining a few hundred thousand points of mana out.

I wanted to test the skill here and now, but that would be rude beyond the pale. I went back to my testing area, blazing across the arena.

I made it back to a testing area, and stood at the corner. I focused on the far corner, and tried to cast [Channeled Blink].

Nothing. I felt that the skill didn’t even ‘take’. It was like trying to step on a stair, only to find nothing but air.

I slowly ‘walked’ my focus point back, until it ‘clicked’.

Then there was nothing to do but wait as the skill channeled. I felt it ‘charge’, and knew it was ‘primed’. I held the skill, noting that my mana had stopped draining - at least that I could tell, rounding errors in my regeneration made spotting small drains hard - then I unleashed the skill, teleporting a short distance.

Not to the spot I’d been aiming for though. I’d been trying to get myself to move about a meter straight ahead, instead I ended up more like half a meter at a 30 degree angle to my left.

[*ding!* [Channeled Blink] leveled up! 1->2]

I wanted to groan as I ‘saw’ my clothing fall in a pile behind me. [Channeled Blink] was the entry-level skill, and clothing apparently didn’t count as ‘me’ yet.

Iona was going to love my new ability. It was the ultimate stripper move.

Oh! It would also act as an instant, on-the-spot bath! I would be teleported, not any of my dirt and grime! I was probably going to hold off on that, Auri liked the daily flame baths too much.

I turned around and started getting dressed again as I mused.

[Channel] was great for packing more mana into a skill than my power normally allowed, but it did nothing for my control. If I wanted accurate blinks, I needed more Magic Control. It’s why the class had offered balanced amounts!

Well, the skill was practically useless right now. It was going to take years, if not decades, of dedicated practice to level the skill up enough to pretend to be practical, let alone get enough magic power to instantly cast it. I also had noticed that the skill mentioned nothing about the range increasing with the level, just channeling efficiency and total cost reduction.

But it was the first step. The first step on a long road, one that would hopefully end with me being able to teleport at will, wherever I wanted.

That was worth a few decades of investment.

And hey, I was Immortal.

I had the time.

I finally had that last open general skill slot. I’d been practicing, getting skills and merging them into my class skills for some time, and I was now at the end of the road.

Only thing left to do was get [Imbue]. That one was a little tricky.

I knelt down to the dirt, and started hitting it with a lightly-powered [Nova Lance]. At the same time, I conjured up [Kaleidoscope] butterflies from where the lance was ‘hitting’, focusing on having one skill ‘make’ the other.

When that didn’t do anything, I took my butterflies and manually detonated them a short distance away from me, popping up my [Mantle of the Stars] as each one exploded.

I took the [Mantle] and touched it with my finger, triggering [Sunrise] as I did so.

It took a few rounds, mixing and matching different skills, before I got it.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Imbue]! Would you like to take this skill?]

I gladly hit ‘yes’.

"Attention everyone! Please come over here for a short meeting!" Shirayuki called from the middle of the field, her voice magically amplified.

I seized the moment to practice trying to move while channeling a blink. I could, but the skill ‘broke’, and the mana didn’t come back.

Drat.

I jogged on over, joining the rest of the members of the School’s team.

"The next Gladiator Gauntlet is fast approaching. I know you’ve all been eagerly waiting to see what the teams are. There’s been some background events going on that have caused us to delay. Well, no more! The teams are as follows. Unrestricted free for all: Floris, Renoir…" Shirayuki started to read off names.

"Now, for the under 100 and under 30 age groups, we have a new team member who’ll be competing in every group."

That got a murmur out of all of us.

"Someone under 30 who can compete with the under 100’s!?" I whispered to Iris. The mage returned a raised eyebrow.

"You can’t even compete in that group can you?" She asked back.

I shook my head.

I’d had a crazy life, and was a silly high level, with strong quality on all my classes.

The members of the under-100 team might not have had equally absurd lives - although some of them had - but more importantly, they’d had triple the time to work on themselves. More than that, if I ignored the first 8 years of my life where I couldn’t level up at all.

Someone my age who could compete with them!? I had to see this.

"Everyone, I’d like you all to meet Morning Breeze, the newest member of our team."

A black hat - just a black hat - floated through the air towards us, then started to swirl around the group.

"Good morning!" An eager voice whispered in my ear. "It’s really exciting to meet you all! I can’t wait, all of this sounds like just so much fun!"

My jaw dropped open as I realized what was going on. Someone else said it though.

"We got an elemental on our team!?"

I had no idea how I could even touch a Wind elemental, let alone harm one. My first instinct was to use Wind magic, but that would be like trying to fight a Fire elemental with Fire. It’d just make her stronger. My anti-friction runes might let me ‘slip through’ her, but that would just make it a stalemate.

Shirayuki gave a curt nod.

"Yes. The pendulum has been swinging the wrong way on cheating at the Gladiator Gauntlet for too long. This is one of the minor games outside of the 16 year cycle of major games, but we want to send a message. Nobody cheats, because when cheating is accepted, we win. With that said, I’m going to have specific directions for each team. The remaining members of the under-100 free for all are as follows…"

"... lastly, for the under-30 team event. Elaine, Iris, Ling Li, Sir Polarton, Pascal Bischoff, Sarama Dheer, Morning Breeze. Thank you."

We broke into our teams. There was no overlap this year, the School was serious about winning. They wanted our full focus and attention just on our event, no splitting practice.

I’d been with Iris, Ling Li, and Pascal since my first tournament. Sarama had joined us a bit later, the dragonling from Ralakar an excellent alchemist. She didn’t directly fight, but having her on our team allowed us to use the potions she brewed.

Morning Breeze was obviously new, and I had no idea how to talk with him or anything. Sir Polarton was new as well, although I’d encountered him before, leaving Linnet’s office.

I had to crane my neck back to look at him.

"I’ve never been teammates with a bear before!" I stuck my hand out for a pawshake.

"I’m not a bear." Sir Polarton denied. His mouth didn’t move at all, and his eyes had the characteristic movements of a Sound Classer.

I raised an eyebrow doubtfully, and opened my mouth to protest that, no, he was obviously a bear. Iris caught my eye and slowly shook her head.

"I propose Elaine acts as team leader this year." Sarama said. "She’s got the experience, and has successfully led the team in the past."

"Sure." Iris said while Pascal nodded his metal head. Almost five years at the School, and I hadn’t heard him utter a single word.

Ling Li gave a grudging nod.

"Errr, Morning Breeze, are you okay with this?" I asked nowhere in particular.

A black hat came on a light gust of wind.

"Sure! What do you need me to do?" She asked.

"I’m not sure what you can do. Did Shirayuki talk with you?" I asked.

"Oh yeah! She said I should just do this!"

With that, I got picked up off the ground, my teammates hovering next to me. Then we were involuntarily zoomed across the arena, and dumped on the sidelines.

"Just like that! That’s apparently all I need to do to win? Oh wait, I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?" Morning Breeze earnestly asked us.

I traded shocked looks with my teammates. We were all thinking it, but Sarama said it.

"This is going to be a breeze."

Chapter 9 - Citation Needed

I was excited for the upcoming tournament, but I wasn’t going to let it dominate my thoughts. Also, doing some quick math on how much time I had left at the School, how much time the Gladiator Gauntlet was going to take, and how long it was going to take to verify my claims had me realizing that I was in a little bit of trouble.

I had wanted to wait as late as possible to start telling people I had written the Medical Manuscripts, to enjoy a peaceful life at the School. I was happy at the impact they had, and I didn’t need the credit. The System had already rewarded me twice over for them, once in a capped [Oath], a second time in powerful classes.

But I wanted social recognition. Credit. I had earned it.

After doing the math, I teleported the book I was holding back into my storage, stopped writing my homework assignment - wartime triage was interesting, but the homework assignment wasn’t going to make or break me in the class - and strode over to my little storage chest.

I opened it up, looking at my little collection of treasures.

The cloth with the stitched prayer from my parents, the last memento I had of them. A few angel feathers. My Sentinel badge. A couple of gems.

Artemis had my armor, and it sounded like it had saved her life a few times. I just wasn’t sure if armor would do anything for me these days.

A few sets of nicer clothing. A few birthday presents from Iona - mostly romance stories she wrote about the two of us. They weren’t well written, but they were made with love, and that’s what counted. The rest were her best efforts at drawings of the two of us, and I treasured each and every one of them.

And in the corner, a few bamboo scrolls and charcoal sticks that Amber sourced for me. They weren’t exactly the same as the ones I had in Remus, but they were close enough.

I took them to my ‘office’, my old room where Iona and I had crammed both of our desks in to jam our beds together.

Technically, I could multitask, but some things just felt important enough to give my full and undivided attention to.

Like my ‘final thesis.’

I was rewriting the Medical Manuscripts, although for integrity’s sake, I was only going to present the ‘original’ version.

My major issue was going to be in validating them. I had a plan, but I had no idea if people were just going to blow me off. The truth was too wild, too fantastical, too out there. It was far, far easier to believe that I had a [Conwoman] or [Forgery] class.

I had some ideas of how to handle it, but fundamentally, I was taking a shot. I was going to flat-out hope curiosity and my reputation - as weak as it was - would be enough to get people to start looking at me and my work, instead of dismissing me outright.

That all came later. First, I needed to write a copy of the Medical Manuscripts as they existed in my time.

[Astral Archives] made it easy to remember exactly what I’d written, although I cringed slightly at a few errors I now realized had slipped through my editing, and a couple of flat-out incorrect bits of information I’d written down. I kept the language in the original Creation, although only a handful of people would be able to read it.

It took me a few hours to carefully write out the six scrolls. I didn’t sign them once I was finished, instead rolling them up and carefully storing them back into my chest.

It was time to arrange a meeting.

"Marcelle. Ratcatcher. Thank you both for agreeing to meet with me." I politely smiled at my biomancy mentor and one of the School’s [Archivists] I was friendly with.

Ratcatcher rubbed his hands together.

"Am I finally getting to see what goodies you’ve brought from Remus? Should’ve given them to me to study years ago, who knows how much damage you’ve done to them."

His hands slowly drifted towards the scrolls I was holding, before he clenched them and withdrew them. I shuffled them under my arms a bit more, hiding the title.

"Yup. In a sense."

"I’m curious what you have, and why we’re meeting here." Marcelle glanced around the fancy administration building.

I gave her my best mysterious smile, which for all I knew made me look like a loon.

"Well, you know how anything done before the School can also count as a thesis?"

Marcelle nodded, and recited.

"Knowledge is knowledge, no matter how or where the boundaries are pushed." Her tone shifted into a more normal one. "Although that’s only for the most advanced degrees. You can still qualify perfectly well in your healer tracks on knowledge. And that doesn’t explain why we’re here."

I shrugged.

"I needed one more person to help me out with this. Marian."

Marian was the name of the incredibly high level devil who was the head [Administrator] of the School. Over level 3000, it was kinda overkill to ask her for help, but she was the best person for the job.

Marcelle lifted an eyebrow at the door we were waiting outside of.

"You need Marian’s help? What on Pallos could you possibly need her for? She’s not a medical person."

"Signature validation!" I said.

"Now I’m real curious." Ratcatcher continued trying to stare a hole into the scrolls I was carrying. For all I knew, he had a skill like mine that let him read through the paper.

"That seems like overkill to ask her when every [Clerk] and [Scribe] in the School could do the same thing." Marcelle gently reprimanded me.

I shrugged.

"I figured with what I’m going to show you, the higher level the better. Makes it less likely that you think I’m running some sort of scam, or trying to pull a fast one."

Ratcatcher opened his mouth to say something, but the door opened, and a smiling professor I didn’t recognize left. I walked inside, impressed again by Marian’s office.

Books. Books everywhere. The ceiling was coated in them, and dozens of open books lined a hallway behind her, quills industriously scribbling in them. I had some vague idea of how she managed it, and I was all the more impressed.

I restrained my urge to peek into her books. They weren’t mine to read, and they were mostly student and other administrative records. I wouldn’t want someone poking into Marian’s office, and reading all about me.

"Marcelle. Ratcatcher. Elaine. Excellent, you’re perfectly on time. Now, what can I do for you Elaine? You mentioned this would probably be short, and I’ve got another appointment in a few minutes."

I gave her a curt nod.

"Real simple. I just need a signature done. I dunno if verified signatures have changed throughout the ages, but if they have, I’m hoping you can do an ancient Reman one?"

Marian gave me a doubtful look.

"To the best of my knowledge, signature skills have never changed. Why would they? It would ruin half the point of the skill. Right, place your papers here, and grab this quill."

I did what Marian said, and I got a scandalized gasp from Marcelle as she saw the title of the scrolls.

I quickly signed my name without a flourish, and turned to Marcelle with a grin.

"I did tell you I wrote these."

There was stunned silence from Ratcatcher and Marcelle. Marian looked with a quirked eyebrow between the three of us, then spoke.

"Well, if that’s all - ah, I just leveled, thank you Elaine." Her words broke the silence.

"What." Marcelle’s tone was stern, and she crossed her arms.

Ratcatcher grunted. Marian held up a single finger.

"Please wait one moment."

Ink flowed across the top paper on a pile on her desk, then neatly folded itself into a crane. It flew circled around the room once, then flew out the window at high speed.

"Now. Explain what all the fuss is about please?" Marian demanded.

She held a finger up, forestalling any of us from answering, then pointed it at me.

"Elaine."

"I wrote the original drafts of the Medical Manuscripts when I was living in Remus. I want to use them for my thesis presentation."

"Within the rules. Ratcatcher?"

The goblin looked longingly at the scrolls, and his shoulders slumped.

"I got excited in the moment, but they’re not Remus-era artifacts. Just a reproduction. You’ll want an [Appraiser] to judge it."

I frowned, but Marian shot me a glare, and I kept my mouth shut.

"Marcelle?" She pointed to the pale vampire.

"Elaine’s basically claimed to be the original author of the single most famous treatise in medicine. It’d be like someone coming along and claiming that they founded the School. It’s absurd. There’s no way to prove it, and nobody will believe it. Elaine, frankly, I’m disappointed."

I’d expected Marcelle’s reaction, but it still stung.

"And back to Elaine." Marian pointed at me.

"I wrote them. I deserve credit for them. And I can prove it. Look at my signature. Compare it to the degraded version on the Medical Manuscripts you have. Ratcatcher, you’ve got a skill for that, right?"

The goblin stroked his beardless chin.

"That… is a potential way to verify parts of your claim, yes. Get me a few more copies of your signature, and I’ll take a look. I was never big on the Manuscripts myself, I prefer [Runesmith’s] work, but in theory it’s incredibly easy to disprove… as you well know."

His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, putting together a bunch of questions I’d asked him over time.

"It does explain your curious obsession over signatures and validation though."

Marcelle sputtered in indignation.

"You’re not seriously considering her claims, are you!?"

Ratcatcher nodded, and Marian narrowed her eyes at us as she slid another paper and quill towards me. I quickly got the hint, and picked up the quill, signing my name a few more times.

"She did say she was from Remus, and-"

"I’m busy, and this discussion doesn’t seem to need my presence anymore. Out." Marian ordered. I picked up the paper I had signed, and passed it to Ratcatcher as we dutifully exited her office.

"I know a nearby conference room." Marcelle was still shooting me dirty looks, but we all went to the room anyway.

"Right, as I was saying, disproving her claim is trivially easy." Ratcatcher said. "A mismatched signature, a history that doesn’t work, it’s simplicity itself to demonstrate that Elaine’s pulling the biggest prank on us. If not? Well…" Ratcatcher looked significantly at me.

"I’m happy to sign my name any time, any place, anywhere. Just let me know what I need to do!" I told the two.

Marcelle crossed her arms and glared at me.

"This is a terrible prank."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"You should know how seriously I take this. Do you think I’d pull a joke at this stage? Come on. Here, let me tell you a story. The… slightly less edited version."

Marcelle finally uncrossed her arms, and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Right. I’m listening."

I leaned back in my chair, and started to tell the story of my reincarnation.

Marcelle and Ratcatcher were slightly less skeptical at the end of my story, but that just might be my own healthy dose of copium and self-delusion. They went off to verify my claims, and my school life didn’t stop just because they were looking into things.

I wasn’t going to sit around doing nothing while they investigated either.

I had let myself get way too distracted by my cool new skills, my classes - Triage and Warfare, Poisons Spores and Miasmas, Advanced Spatial Sorcery, and more - reading books, and I’d never properly sat down and tested my new [Bookwyrm’s Hoard]. I wanted to test what exactly I could stash and store.

The majority of testing woes came from acquiring niche things to experiment with. There wasn’t exactly a thriving market of books half-hollowed out for potions or daggers to slip inside!

The old round of testing had been lame. Books, and only bound books had qualified. Spellbooks with arcanite spines had been the most adventurous thing that had made it into my [Hoard], but hey. It was a level 8 skill. It had room to grow.

Plus, with my level ups, my [Hoard] was now larger, and I could…

Damnit System.

I was almost literally sleeping on a pile of books, wasn’t I?

The library was pretty good for this, and there was a collection of unusual books that I started with.

The first book wasn’t a book at all, but a scroll. I put my hand over it, and let out a little squeal of delight as it vanished with a faint pop.

"Yes!" I did a goofy little dance in the middle of the library, waving my arms one way as I jiggled my hips the other. It worked! My skill hadn’t said anything, nor had the name changed, but it was better!

Score one for testing!

Getting each of the books to test was a small adventure in and of itself, and had me madly running around the campus. Fortunately, I could split my mind into pieces, and keep doing my homework in one section as I ran around in another.

Or talked with Iona, or played with Auri, or…

Frankly, I should’ve learned about and picked up [Parallel Thoughts] when I was eight. This skill was stupidly good! How did I ever live without it!?

Then again, I’d never heard of anyone in Remus having it… not even Night had suggested it. Knowledge, education, and the strange properties of the island we were on struck again!

Gods, I loved Iona so much for getting me to take that skill. I was going to see if I could get Artemis to pick it up as well!

A hollowed book was next, and that was a dud. I believed it was because it wasn’t actually a book. It was storage masquerading as a book.

Artbooks had always counted, along with picture books. They were terrible for leveling though. Straight artwork on a wall didn’t work, but it was more than a bit of a stretch to call that a ‘book’.

A book made out of food required some of Auri’s finest work, the pastry flakes some of the most delicate things I’d ever seen. It didn’t count, in spite of being a perfectly valid story.

Magic was weird. Arcanite spine? Perfectly okay.

Pastry pages? Nope! Rejected!

Maybe the System was recognizing that it was more ‘food’ than ‘book’, although leather bound books had ended up in my [Hoard] no problem.

I wonder how much arcanite was too much for a book?

The thought had prompted a brainwave.

Fancy covers didn’t cause issues. They were just part of the book.

The currency the world used was entirely gem-based.

Could I get a book with a fancy, gem-encrusted cover, and use it to stash emergency funds?

Preliminary testing on a library book said yes! My issue was affording a book nice enough that I could stick gems into in the first place…

Novelty-sized extra large books went in without a problem, although my Spatial magic classes had warned me of a potential issue. Namely, it took up far, far more storage space than it should, roughly taking up the space that 10 books would take, instead of one.

Unfairly, going in the opposite direction didn’t help. Tiny books, perfectly scaled for ants and gnomes with powerful magnifying glasses, still counted as a full book.

And weirdly, thick, heavy encyclopedias counted as a normal sized book. It was only the novelty-sized ones, the ludicrously large ones made for giants, that caused issues.

Notebooks counted now, no matter how little had been written in it. I could even stash entirely blank ones!

Some clay slabs and stone tablets worked, and upon close examination, it seemed like what was written on them changed if it was valid or not.

That realization led me down a spiraling rabbithole of ‘what counts as a book’. Trying to get, say, a shield with a full story painted on it into my storage failed miserably, while the same words on a leaf got in.

The best I could tell was a ‘primary purpose’ test. Was the object supposed to be a book, or something else?

I wanted to test ‘origami books’. Specifically, metal bent and folded into a book, that with some clever manipulation, could be folded and refolded into a shield, weapon, or other supplies. That unfortunately fell squarely into the domain of ‘you want a what?’, and there weren’t any for sale or testing anywhere on the campus. A few [Craftsmen-Students] told me they could do it, but quoted me an insane number just to test an idea that might or might not work.

I also had book frustrations. Between [Parallel Thoughts], [Comprehensive Speed Reading], and [Vivid Dream Reading], I was churning through a lot of books every night. I tried to store an entire bookshelf all at once, only to fail miserably.

I was stuck at one book at a time.

For now.

A book made out of pure water did store itself nicely into my [Hoard], and the magic maintaining it even survived being taken out again!

"You should test how damaged a book can be before you can’t store it anymore." Iona suggested to me as I cooed over the water book that lived.

I turned to her, disgust and shock written all over my face. I didn’t need to say anything, I just looked at her… while my right hand was busily inscribing the newest spell I’d discovered into my spellbook.

She held her hands up.

"It was just an idea!" She protested.

I considered making a joke about her and the moon goddesses, proposing some manner of sacrilege, but no.

They weren’t the same, and I knew it. It didn’t stop me from continuing my withering glare.

"Why don’t you try making something out of books, and seeing if you can store that?" Iona suggested while she pulled me onto her lap.

"Mmmm, that’s right, I require pacification. Rawr!" I mock-growled at Iona as she dug her fingers into my shoulder, immediately finding exactly the right spot.

I tested dozens, hundreds of different objects, whenever inspiration struck and when time and resources allowed.

A single piece of paper didn’t work, but a folded piece of paper with words on it did. It should’ve been an early test, but I just hadn’t thought of it.

My heart started to beat faster as I realized the implications of that.

"Mom’s prayer." I whispered to myself, before blitzing out of the library, papers flying in my wake.

I half-sprinted, half-parkoured across the campus back to my room, Auri spinning in tiny circles as I blazed past her.

I think she put some extra spin on it just to complain.

"BrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpTTT!!"

I ignored my pyromaniacal friend, and reminded myself to open the chest, not smash it.

The prayer my parents had carefully stitched into cloth was still there, still protected.

Still fragile.

I could barely keep armor intact in my life. I had no idea how I was going to keep the last thing they’d ever given me intact.

With trembling hands I picked it up and folded it, then tried to store it.

It vanished with a faint pop, and I sagged in relief, a small tear running down my cheek.

"Brrpt? Brpt!"

My eyes widened at Auri’s idea, the little phoenix having followed me and seen everything.

"Auri. You’re a genius."

"Brrrpt!"

I laid down in my bed, skipping a class. Then a second class. My excitement was keeping me up, but I wanted to, needed to, sleep.

Sleep eventually took me, and I zipped through all my options in [Dream Reading] to get right to it.

I shamelessly cried as a memory-perfect image of my mom and dad appeared in front of me.

Chapter 10 - Interlude - The Proof is in the Pudding

Ratcatcher sat back in his chair, taking off his glasses and massaging his eyes.

Kelpie was a mess. The runic language had been invented by one of the seafaring folk, but none of them could agree who. Not even a race, let alone a specific author. They didn’t have the same traditions of respecting authorship like the elves did, and all of the records conflicted.

Ratcatcher had a special interest in wizardry languages, although he had no talent for wizardry himself. He enjoyed unraveling their history, their story. It was his niche, and the School allowed him to explore that to his heart’s content.

His eyes drifted back to Elaine’s signature, the girl’s claims absurd. He’d done a bit of reading into the subject, and she was essentially claiming to have founded medicine.

Ridiculous.

He took her signature, and went to grab a copy of the Medical Manuscripts from the library. The School was primarily on the Yaris branch of copies, and he sat down at a table right there to compare.

[All the Tiny Threads of the Rainbow] was his skill, and as expected, the signatures didn’t match.

But they matched enough. No copy was perfect, and signatures in particular were finicky. The higher level the [Copier], the better the signature. With that being said, people did start their lives at a low level, and had to work anyways, regardless of how ‘perfect’ their work was. It usually didn’t matter for day to day life, but it got more interesting when trying to trace the exact history of a book.

Most [Scribes] and [Actuaries], when comparing signatures, really checked for the match to be above a given threshold, then simply reported back if it was a ‘match’ like that or not.

Ratcatcher’s skill was a little more nuanced than that. Not only did it give him an exacting percentage, but it told him where and how the signature matched. It was incredibly useful for rederiving book genealogies.

The percentage that did match was fairly high, far higher than random chance. Ratcatcher’s own signature, if he wrote the word ‘Elaine’ instead of his name, would be maybe a 2% match. This one was closer to 40%.

Normally, 40% would be enough for him to entirely dismiss her claims. But the Medical Manuscripts were ancient. 40% of the signature matching was enough for him to continue investigating.

He [Noted] which portions of the signature matched, then went through the library until he found a copy of the Medical Manuscripts on the Rudolf line.

Another solid partial match. He [Noted] what parts matched, then went back to the archives.

The Lucienne copy was an ancestor of both the Rudolf and Yaris version of the Medical Manuscripts, and the School was blessed enough to have a copy in its archives.

Another partial match. The parts that were a match on the ‘later’ generations of the Manuscript were also a match against this sample. Interestingly, some parts that Rudolf, Yaris, and Lucienne all had in common weren’t matches, which implied they were miscopies that had been ‘properly’ copied down.

It meant one of two things.

Either Elaine was one of the greatest [Con Artists] Ratcatcher had ever encountered, or she was actually who she claimed to be.

Critically, if she was a [Con Artist], the high signature match, and the proper alignment to the Lucienne copy, implied that she had access to a much, much older version of the Manuscripts.

Either way, it was worth digging into further. Ratcatcher would have to see if a member of the Acquisitions team could be persuaded to borrow an old copy of the Manuscripts from a private collection, or maybe the Academy would be willing to lend them a copy.

He was friends with the town’s auction house [Appraiser], and maybe she’d be willing to take a look and give her opinion. Elaine was claiming to be the original, and that was more in their domain.

Marcelle was deep into her bottle of bloodwine. She’d specifically tweaked her personal tolerances such that she got exactly the right level of drunk when she’d drunk the perfect amount of wine. Handly life hack for a [Biomancer].

If she really wanted to, she could directly manipulate her blood alcohol content, getting her to the right level of intoxication. It was an interesting exercise, but it entirely defeated the fun of drinking.

The fun was the social aspect, drinking with friends and socializing. Hence her social circle.

She was gloomily mulling over Elaine’s claim. Why would her star student do something like that?

The annoying part was, even if she was right, she should’ve known just how impossible it would be to prove her claim. Inventing a cheap Immortality potion was worthless if the recipe couldn’t be distributed, after all. It just ruined the reputation of the person making the claim, and reputation was everything. People didn’t trust strangers because they didn’t know their reputation. A [Carpenter] who made wobbly chairs would find their customers going anywhere else.

Ratcatcher had mentioned some promising initial results though, and Marcelle felt duty-bound to give the matter some cursory thought. If nothing else, it could protect her from the fallout of her mentee’s fall from grace, if she was the one to poke a hole in the story, or stop it from spreading too far.

Elaine seemed to have some sense on that front.

"... and I leveled! It’s been months since the last time, I thought I was more than due for one with all my efforts." One of Marcelle’s friends said.

A minor spark lit in Marcelle’s mind as she offered congratulations, along with the rest of her friend group.

There was the mystery of Marcelle’s recent leveling speed. Could Elaine’s claims be true? Could they be related?

"Do you have a student called Elaine - yes, her name is Elaine - in your class?"

She shook her head.

Another one of Marcelle’s friends spoke up.

"I do. She’s one of yours, right?"

Marcelle swirled her glass, taking a measured sip before responding.

"She is. Have you been leveling much lately?"

He shrugged.

"Got an overdue level a few weeks ago, and got lucky on a second level recently. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary besides that."

Hmmm.

As Elaine’s mentor, Marcelle had access to her schedule. It was worth poking around, and seeing if there was a correlation between people leveling up quickly, and having Elaine as a student.

Marcelle’s other leads and ideas on her higher leveling rate hadn’t panned out, and it was worth checking out. If Elaine really was the reason she’d been leveling faster?

Well.

That would be interesting.

"Professor Marcelle. Welcome. Is there something I can help you with?" Mormerilhawn stood up to politely greet his fellow faculty member and Immortal.

He saw it as his duty to guide the younger Immortals, help smooth their path through life. Guide them, in a sense. If he didn’t do it, they’d be blind and helpless.

"Yes, I was wondering if I could borrow a few minutes of your time?" She asked him.

The master of the arena gestured into his home, sitting down in the guest receiving room where he always had a small spread of snacks for any visitors.

Hospitality was important.

"Please, make yourself at home." He waited for Professor Marcelle to sit down, before gracefully taking a seat himself.

The two made polite small talk for a few minutes. There was no reason not to, they both had eternity.

Eternity didn’t mean they didn’t have other duties, and soon enough they circled round to the topic of conversation.

"Is there an issue I can assist you with this… evening?" The island’s endless spinning around the globe made the greeting of the day permanently awkward.

"Yes. I’m wondering, have you been leveling at your usual pace, or if you’ve noticed anything unusual recently."

The Black Rose immediately shook his head.

"I have noted no change in my leveling speed. Why, have you encountered some phenomena?"

Professor Marcelle gave a slow, almost hesitant nod.

"Indeed. I believe I have traced it to an individual - Elaine - and I’m interviewing people who’ve had extensive contact with her."

That was more than a little interesting, given the tiny human’s history and prowess.

"Oh? What are your findings?"

"I’ll need to properly correlate my results, but as of this moment, those related to the medical and healing fields are seeing a marked increase in levels. Do you know anything about her history?"

Mormerilhawn let a minor grimace cross his face.

"It’s mysterious. I know what she’s claimed. A trip through the fae realm. The ancient Remus empire of old. I am unable to properly validate her claims, but they do not matter. I can tell you what I have noticed."

Marcelle leaned forward a hair, a huge movement with the level of perception Mormerilhawn had.

"She doesn’t fight like any organization I know of. She moves like she’s expecting to have gear that nobody wears. She has experience in wars, and her kill count speaks of large-scale conflicts. The only conflict that springs to mind, given her age, is the Han civil war, although her monster count suggests a second large conflict on the northern continent."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Between ‘being well-trained in a style that doesn’t exist, participating as a human in a secret war in the north, then campaigning relentlessly in the Han since she was 10’, or simply being a victim of the fae, a known, if rare, phenomenon, which do you believe is more likely?"

Marcelle looked thoughtful.

Flora stared at a few different reports that crossed her desk.

Her position was almost entirely hands off, letting her meditate and tend to her gardens. A calm, peaceful life that she had carefully carved out for herself.

The news was threatening her peace. It looked like somebody was claiming, once again, to be the Healer, the original writer of the Medical Manuscripts. Her mysterious disappearance when Flora was a little girl left the world ripe for imposters. The frequency had decreased as time passed and people forgot the details, but it looked like another one had been trotted out.

It had been quite some time since the last time an imposter had shown up, and Flora was wary. There had been a few attempts on her life, using the little-known connection between the two. The Witch in White had thought everyone that knew about their connection was dead - it had been over 20,000 years - but it was a little too much of a coincidence for this Elaine to be at the same School she was a board member of for her liking.

Seeing the name in the list of graduates had been one thing, but her claims were another.

Flora wasn’t particularly devoted to the gods, but she had a working relationship with a few of them. It was a pure business transaction. She provided them with mana, they kept a running account of how much she’d donated, and charged accordingly for various services or favors. It didn’t work for most Pallos inhabitants, but her level and longevity made her an attractive business partner.

Words anathema to any of the truly devoted, but Flora didn’t mind. She would never get a blessing, but at least she knew where she stood in relation to her gods, and they knew she was a thought away from joining them if she wished. Flora had been at the 3584 class up for so long, she’d immediately cap and ascend with a thought.

Delphine. Got an issue. Any insight? She prayed to one of her favorites - the patron goddess of flowers. She gave a quick breakdown of the issue to her goddess.

There was silence for a long moment.

Yes. It’ll cost though. The goddess replied.

Flora rolled her eyes. Of course it would cost.

How much?

Delphine named a number that was frankly usurious. It was only a mana request, against her established balance. No favors or offerings required. Flora could pay, and they both knew it. The goddess was simply getting as much as possible from her.

Deal. Flora replied.

There’s an Iona at your School. One of Selene’s [Paladins]. Can’t lie, can see statuses, close to Elaine. Talk with her, it’ll help.

Flora opened her eyes, a flowery clone flash growing on the main campus.

Time to do some digging.

Chapter 11 - The Gladiator Gauntlet I

I turned the innocent-looking amulet over in my hands. The [Enchanter] claimed it could beat even the most penetrative [Identify], leaving me safe and undetected from even high level mortal guards.

I just had no idea how it was so much better than my Deception Ring, or how it worked. I could only see a portion of the runes, written in a language I was unfamiliar with, and even after looking up the part I could see, I just didn’t get how it worked.

I was hesitant to trust it. At the same time, I was trying to remember that I could trust others, and how long had I been using gems and armor issued by the Rangers? I’d blindly trusted Origen’s Inscriptions back in the day, why was this different? I was using enchanted boots.

I guess it was because of how much was riding on it. If it worked, I could freely travel the world. If it didn’t, I was stuck until I figured out a new way to move around.

I’d never been one to let others tell me I could or couldn’t do something. On one hand, I had a healthy respect for the rule of law, but on the other, something about ‘your existence means you’re not allowed’ just grated on me on a fundamental level.

I gave myself a self-satisfied nod. I now knew why it was bothering me so much. All the sessions with Linnet helped me divine my own mind better!

I’d be able to give it a bit of a test run at the upcoming Gladiator Games. I was a known quantity in some respects, but enough new people were around that I could modify my level, and see if anyone noticed.

The purple robes were going to be a dead giveaway though. Argh!

I slipped the amulet over my head, and turned it on. One of the downsides to the amulet was it only set my level to 256. Making it more flexible was possible - but it made it much more expensive. I only had so much money to spend, and I prioritized the anti-penetrative properties.

"Brrrpt?" Auri flew back into the room, bringing another set of purple robes with her. My mind snapped back to what I was supposed to be doing.

"Excellent! Do you think I’ll need more than two hats?" I asked my little friend as I took the robe from her, and started to roll it up.

Auri perched on my shoulder, then darted her beak into my long hair. She grabbed a mouthful, and critically looked at it.

"Brrpt." She muttered to herself, and repeated the process a few times.

I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"Yes, I’ll be fine, and no, my hair looks great."

"Brrrpt…"

"You wanted to stay with Fenrir, remember? Can’t have your cake and eat it too!"

"Brpt!"

"Yes, I’m sure one day you’ll figure out the right skill to manage it. Maybe a Mirror element for your 3rd class?"

Auri flew off at that, and I resumed packing. The School’s team was leaving for the Gladiator Gauntlet tomorrow, and I didn’t want to be left scrambling.

I was just about done packing when I heard Iona coming back.

"Welcome home! How was the super secret cloak and dagger meeting? Were you given an honorary mask for your trouble?" I asked my girlfriend as she entered.

Instead of answering she strode over to where I was, wrapping me in her arms and tilting me back as she gave me the biggest kiss of my life.

"Goddesses, I wish you could always be around to welcome me home." Iona said.

"Mmmmmmm." I contently hummed back. "Same here. And?"

We straightened back up.

"And someone very high level had a lot of interesting questions about you." Iona laughed. "She even wanted to know if you had any [Assassin] skills!"

"Alas! I am caught! I’m secretly a deadly assassin, who took a vow to do no harm! I work by… convincing people to see the error of their ways and… going off to a hermitage or something?" I had no idea how an [Assassin] would work with the type of [Oath] I had.

Iona chuckled.

"She’s asked me to pass on a message. She believes you, and will work with Marcelle and the rest to present and confirm your claims when you present your thesis. She did ask for a specific date and time for your presentation. It’s the fourth day of the two week break after our last quarter."

Basically, I’d give my presentation, claim my credit, then vanish.

"That sounds fine. Will I ever get to know the name of my mysterious benefactor?" I asked Iona.

She chewed on her tongue.

"She asked me not to say. She’s not sure if she wants to talk with you or not."

Huh. Weird. Maybe she just liked her privacy or something?

Trying to get into unknown people’s minds was hard, and I had better things to do with my time.

"Are you all packed?" I changed the subject.

Iona looked me up and down with a familiar glint in her eyes.

"Almost! You’re just so cute I could stuff you into one of my bags. Wanna try it?"

I was going to strain my eyes rolling them so much.

"If it’ll make you happy, sure. But not if you’re bringing your armor, that just sounds uncomfortable. I got the schedule earlier. If we win fast, I’ll be able to run over and watch your strategy events. I’ll probably miss the opening moves, but I’ll be there."

Iona ruffled my hair.

"Once I’m knocked out of the strategy tournament, I’ll be able to cheer you on! Bringing my armor, sorry. I want to see what a professional [Enchanter] can do with it. The students here are pretty good, but…"

"But you want the absolute best for the equipment saving your life."

"Exactly!"

The benefits to wanting broadly legal equipment. My new amulet wasn’t exactly kosher in most places.

"Bye Auri! Bye Fenrir!" I waved off our companions as Iona and I boarded the skyship. It was a fat, lumbering thing, entirely enclosed and with significantly more cargo room than the ferries.

It wasn’t made for anything resembling long hauls, but the island usually moved around enough that it was a simple matter of timing our departure and return for when the island was nearby.

"That’s Fenrir?" Sarama asked in disbelief.

"Yup! Iona’s companion." I told her.

"He’s huge. He’d eat me alive in one bite! Are you sure he’s safe to have at the School? How have I never seen him before?" Sarama asked.

"He stays at the stables. I can understand why you’d be worried, but he’s a big softy."

I blinked, and took in Fenrir’s size again. Iona was going to need a special seat just to sit on him, she wasn’t going to be able to straddle his neck. I’d heard the story of how Fenrir’s mother had eaten Iona whole, but it was one thing to hear the story, and another to see just how massive a creature that could do that was.

I’d bet on Fenrir in any fight. Also, the School’s complaints about how much he ate suddenly made a lot more sense.

And the price tag of his armor. No wonder it was only large organizations that had super massive creatures! It gave me a much greater appreciation for Auri, and how cheep she was to feed, even with the bond-induced gluttony and baking supplies.

Iona finished saying her goodbyes and boarded the ship, and then we were waiting.

"Bye love. We’ve got a room reserved for our team, and we want to do some last minute review with Morning Breeze."

Iona grumbled good-naturedly, but gave me a quick peck. I met with the rest of the under-30 team in our reserved room.

I got in and everyone was here.

I assumed. The floating black hat with nothing there, not even in my [The World Around Me], was unnerving.

I closed the door.

"Oh my! Elaine, could you please open the door just the smallest crack? It’s a little stuffy in here otherwise, and I just hate being trapped." Morning Breeze fretted to me.

I obliged the elemental.

"Alright! Everyone ready for the tournament? Anyone gotten bribe offers yet?"

Pascal shamelessly raised his hand, his wolf’s mask morphing into a grin. Ling Li snorted derision at him. I lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Remember, accepting bribes then not acting on them is a great way to line our own pockets with the School’s blessing, and make people give up. Pascal, Vollomond again? Your family again?"

He nodded.

"Right, Pascal’s potentially compromised if we encounter the Vollomond team, and we’ll have him anchor if that’s the case. Not that I anticipate them making it through the qualifiers."

Pascal put a hand over his heart like he was hurt.

What would Iona say?

"...Because we have the best person in the entire country on our team."

He looked slightly mollified at that.

"Not all of us are immune to the pressure and temptation, and we all have levers that can influence us." Li primly replied, shooting Pascal a dirty look.

"Bribes! Oh my! That sounds so sordid! So much fun! I wonder if anyone will try to bribe me?" Morning Breeze shot around the room, my robes flapping in her… passing? Body?

"Maybe!" Sarama said. "Elaine, this year I’ve got extra security on my potions, and I’m going to be literally sitting on the chest the entire time we’re not fighting. No repeats of last year from me! That was embarrassing."

I shrugged.

"Eh. It’s not like anyone died. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you should explore and enjoy the event. Now, Morning Breeze. Sorry if this question is stupid, but you’re the newest member of the team. Can you tell us how the event works?"

"Oh! Oh! I know this! This is one of those questions to make sure I actually know what’s going on!" Morning Breeze immediately outed me, and threw me under the high speed carriage.

"... yes, yes it is." I squeaked out. "And?"

"Team battles! Seven people on each team! Single elimination tournament, 64 teams in the higher bracket after preliminaries, and each team fights twice! The first time is a singles battle, king of the hill style, and the second time is a full team fight! The team battle is worth 11 points, and each knockout in the singles battle is 2 points. The winning team of the singles part always gets the full 14 points, just in case a team isn’t full for some reason! Like a disqualification, or if someone thinks they can single-handedly win it all by themselves. If one team can eliminate the entire opposing team and only lose a single person, they win without needing the teamfight. Otherwise, it’ll depend on the teamfight to figure out who wins!" Morning Breeze whispered into all of our ears, her excitement in contrast to how softly she spoke.

"Exactly. Now, the singles elimination continues regardless if it matters for determining the winner of the round or not. The total points we get are cumulative, and stick with us for the entire tournament. They act as tiebreakers for the teams that get knocked out, and determine their final standing and prizes. Doesn’t matter for us."

"Why?" Sir Polarton asked, his muzzle not moving a hair.

I grinned at him.

"Because we’re going to win the whole thing!"

My comment was predictably well-met, and we spent some time on it.

"Right, circling back to how we’re going to win this. If there are no objections, and Shirayuki doesn’t come in and override me at the last moment with some special request, Morning Breeze, you’re going to be our lead in fights. Just blow them out of the arena, their shields will eventually trigger, and we’ll counter as needed if somehow you’re eliminated. I’m going to preferentially have Iris and I lead, so we can recharge enough mana to be useful in the teamfight. Similar strategy with the teamfights. I want quick, brutal wins. I don’t want to give anyone enough time to figure out a counter to Morning Breeze. If they do, we’ll adapt from there. Questions?"

"Yeah, are we going to be moving or watching Morning Breeze work?" Iris asked. "Last time we talked, you weren’t sure if you wanted the impact of the rest of us watching.

"Good question. I was thinking…" I started to go over the plans, my teammates helping me refine our strategy one last time.

The Gladiator Gauntlet was held at a permanent location in Cartref Clyd, the fauns famous for their hospitality and generosity.

I’d been skeptical that an entire nation managed on ‘we’re nice and hospitable’, and had gone digging at one point in my desire to learn more about the world.

They were terrifying diplomats, and had deep ties with all their neighbors, and their neighbors’ neighbors. They also played nice with mercenary companies, allowing them to create their own towns to winter in, as well as paying them to defend the country if needed. The conditions were generous enough, and the risk low enough, that they were able to get away with not paying them terribly much, while gems and coins flowed in from their foreign work. The sheer number of mercenaries made it safe, which meant it was free money to accept the defense contract, which…

All in all, it was a fairly brilliant maneuver that nobody else had quite managed to replicate. It gave them a strong reputation for peace, and their geographical position near the center of the mortal realms meant that they were the ideal host and organizer for events.

Which in turn made people think favorably of them… and gave the fauns a chance to show off all the bright and shiny mercenaries working for them, deterring greedy idiots.

All this to say, the Gladiator Games had multiple well-used arenas for the events, along with various suites and living areas for the contestants. The School had their own reserved wing for their team, and we made our way to our rooms.

I was arm-in-arm with Iona. She was at the Gladiator Gauntlet as an ‘independent’, not as a member of the School. She believed the wargame tournament she’d be participating in was a valuable learning experience, even if she wasn’t a member of the School’s official team.

I’d asked her why she wasn’t going as a Valkyrie and representing them.

"We don’t do that." Was her answer.

It meant she’d need to pay for her own lodging, and why pay a ton of money when we could shack up in the luxurious accommodations? We were going to do that anyway, and nobody minded.

"We made it! Seven days of exploring and adventure, seven days of fighting, one day of ceremonies, and that’ll be it! Let’s go explore the town together?" Iona asked after we dumped our stuff in my room.

I quickly thought about it. Limited time with Iona for a fun date in the tourist trap?

Or… doing what I should be doing?

I shook my head.

"Sorry love. I need to scout the arenas, and see what they have set up for us this time. I’ll be happy to go into town this evening or tomorrow though!"

Iona purred at me.

"Late this evening. I’m probably going to work up an appetite."

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Can’t wait!"

I slowly walked to the arena where my event was going to be held, splitting my mind into two different portions, both of them entirely focused on my senses and [The World Around Me].

The vast majority of people didn’t cast [Identify] on every single passing person. Out of the small fraction of people who did, most of them couldn’t break through my Deception Ring.

I was trying to find the few paranoid individuals who not only [Identified] everyone they crossed, but who could also break through my enchantments. A light test run of how good the amulet I had was, before I put my faith and life in its hands.

Cartref Clyd being home to mercenary companies had dozens of them sending teams to the Gladiator Gauntlet, and while not quite guards, they were a cautious lot. I picked a meandering path that brought me near as many of their quarters as possible, as well as near other team’s resting areas, and subtly checked out the guards as they eyed me with everyone else on the street.

No unusual reactions… but my damn purple robes could be screwing with that as well.

Argh!

I made it to the arena, and was let in without any fuss. Scouting the grounds was a well known and well honed practice, and I wasn’t the only one there.

This year it was a fort map. A simple four-walled fort was in the middle of the arena, with a deep moat around it. There was a small tower in the middle of the fort, with a spiral staircase inside. Holding the fort - more likely the tower inside the fort - was probably going to be the stallbreaker of the event, a hedge against a team or person turtling up or simply flying too high to get caught.

I checked out a few of the other scouts. I recognized some of my competitors, while others were new.

My duties done, I headed back to chat with my teammates, and meet back up with Iona.

I was dressed in something skimpy, lying alluringly in our bed, reading two different books at the same time while waiting for Iona. I wanted to give her a nice surprise to make up for not being able to go on a date with her earlier.

I was not prepared for an ugly crying Iona to come through the door, sniffling as hot tears stained her tunic.

I snapped my [Parallel Thoughts] closed and sprang up.

"What’s wrong!?" I rushed over, letting my girlfriend lean on me.

"The Valkyries." She sobbed out. "They’re gone."

Chapter 12 - The Gladiator Gauntlet II

I let Iona lean on me, being her support, her pillar. I half-wrapped an arm supportively around her, as I helped her sit down on the bed with me.

"The Valkyries are gone? What?! Tell me more. How did you find out? What do you know? Are you okay?" I fired off questions as fast as I could think of them.

Iona was shaky.

"Some - some nobles from Rolland. They were quite smug about it, and they had no reason to lie. They were even able to name which [Lord] had gotten which territory in exquisite detail. That’s not an off the cuff lie." Iona’s jaw was clenched, and her knuckles were white.

I thought of and discarded a dozen ideas, empty platitudes. I was thinking about this, using all tracks of my mind bent towards the problem.

I quickly settled on words to say.

"Could they have exaggerated? Overstated the effect? From what I’ve heard, the Valkyries are well respected, I can’t imagine they rounded them all up and executed them, right?"

Iona’s jaw relaxed, and I felt her become less rigid. Less like a block of ice. She spent several long moments thinking about it.

"You’re right. Sigrun and the rest wouldn’t have gone quietly if there was treachery, the brats would’ve been crowing about it, and I doubt the established nobility would accept such blatant maneuvers. They never considered us one of them, but we were close. They know that in their heart of hearts. They let the crown execute us, it’s a short jump before they’re on the chopping block themselves, and the cowards know it. Plus, [Valkyrie’s Valor] is still intact… although that might not mean much, a single Valkyrie is enough to keep the skill alive."

I could practically hear Iona going from denial, to depression, and straight to anger.

"What are you going to do?" I asked her.

"I should do nothing. I should just enjoy myself while I’m here. I should go try and find where they’ve relocated to. There’s no way they would’ve forgotten me, or any of the other Valkyries. But…" Iona trailed off, clenching her fists again.

"I don’t want to just let this go. To let the smug pricks insult us, and just get away with it. I want…" Iona trailed off.

"I want to hurt them. Badly. But it has to be done right." Iona was clenching her jaw again.

We’d shared our respective restriction skills with each other. Possibly not the smartest moves, but we were in love, and Iona could read my skills. She thought it was only fair to share.

She was bound to act honorably. She couldn’t, like, stab someone in their sleep over a grudge like this, because it was the furthest thing from honorable.

"Beat them in the strategy games! Rub their face in it!" I cheered her, trying to raise her spirits and redirect her anger in a productive manner.

She shook her head, her hair waving like golden wheat.

"I know you think the world of me, love, but I’m frankly not that good. I’ll beat most everyone, but any true [Tactician] or [Strategist] will beat my ass seven different ways. It’s why I’m here as an independent. Good practice for me, heck, it might be worth a level, but I have no delusions of grandeur. I’ll get deep into the preliminaries, but I doubt I’d even qualify for the main event. More time to cheer you on!" Iona tried to put a good spin on it, but I could see she was upset.

"Okay. Alright. Um. What if I tried to get you on the School team?"

Iona thought about it for a moment and shrugged.

"I appreciate the gesture, and I’m willing to talk with… Shirayuki, right? I don’t think they’d be alright with changing the lineup of either team of theirs on short notice, and for no better reason than my grudge." She said.

"What! Of course there’s a million good reasons! You’re a triple classed fighter! You’re a physical fighter with the best biomancy modifications possible! You could kick the ass of nearly anyone in our team in single combat! You’d be a great addition!" I rallied, continuing to try and raise Iona’s spirits, as well as giving a strong justification for why she’d be great on our team.

Iona gave a slow shake of her head.

"You know I’m right. An outsider, versus people who’ve trained and practiced with you all for weeks to years? You do have a good point though in trying other events…"

Iona stared off into the distance, the massive Valkyrie like a block of ice as she sat still. I continued to lean into her, to hug her, to comfort her with my presence.

"The free for all is too chaotic." She said out loud. "The singles tournament is more about the people, and less about the backers, although there is an element of that. You do have a point about the team event though…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Rolland’s a seeded team. You’d need to fight your way through the preliminary event, win a slot, then keep winning through the various high powered teams until you hit their team - if someone else doesn’t knock them out first." I said. "On top of that, you’d need to win out in the singles portion of the tournament, because if they can knock you out going one at a time, you’re unlikely to beat them when it’s seven of them against you, with how the point system works. I thought your build wasn’t great for that sort of thing?"

Iona slowly nodded a few times, processing what I was saying. She slapped her knee and stood up.

"Well, it sounds like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Do you think I should talk with Shirayuki first, or sprint for the tournament registration? Closes at midnight, right?"

I glanced out the dark window.

"Split up. Go register, I’ll talk with Shirayuki. If I somehow manage to get you onto the School’s team, it’s just money, right? Who cares if we lose some, if it salvages your honor?"

I got the biggest hug from Iona.

"Absolutely not." Shirayuki’s tails swished in annoyance. "I understand that she’s a high level warrior, and if she’d approached us before the event, before we’d formed the teams, maybe. There might have been a chance. Here, now? Right before the event starts? If something happened to a team member of ours, we’d replace them with someone else from one of our teams. From what you’ve said, she’s known about us for years, and is only just now interested. No. It’s not happening." Shirayuki said with finality.

I wanted to argue more, to advocate for Iona as hard as I could. At the same time, I knew it was fruitless.

"Thank you for hearing me out." I politely told the kitsune. "Is there any conflict with me helping her out?"

Shirayuki thought about it for a brief moment.

"No. Not unless she somehow manages to get paired against us. You’re compromised if that’s the case."

I snorted.

"Sure, but she’s a single person. If our entire team can’t win, I don’t know what to say. Especially with Morning Breeze. None of Iona’s skills can touch her."

Shirayuki nodded.

"Excellent. With that said, at her level, with a small amount of luck, she will actually manage to make it through preliminary rounds. It’s rare, but [Warriors] over 512 do occasionally show up in the team event and solo their way to the main event. It’s hard, it’s rare, but it does let them show off before the world stage, usually for recruitment purposes. Usually they’ll go for the singles tournament, as it’s a better bet, but what Iona is doing isn’t unheard of. She’s in trouble the first time she meets a grease mage though."

I couldn’t help but laugh at the mental imagery. Those were always hilarious. Not particularly amazing, but they were one of the counters to a powerful physical classer. Without good footing, without leverage, it was hard to throw a proper punch and have it do anything.

"One last note. She’s after the Rolland team, yeah?"

"Correct."

"Excellent. The one thing I can do for you is help arrange for her to meet the Rolland team in the first round of the main event. As you know, the seeded teams all sit down with the organizers and hash out what the brackets look like. I can advocate for her to meet the Rolland team in the first round, which they might be receptive to, and I know the organizers will love it. A grudge match to spice up the first round? They’ll eat it right up, and Rolland will see it as both an easy win, and a way to prove their decision was correct, while ‘crushing’ a minor ‘rebellion’. It’s not much, and she still needs to get there herself."

"Thank you!" I told Shirayuki.

"Now shoo! I have things I want to do!" She flicked her tails at me, and the dismissal couldn’t be more clear.

I paced outside the building where we were staying, waiting for Iona to come back, thinking about all the things I needed to tell her. All the advice that would serve her well.

There was a combined team weight limit to gear. That wasn’t going to be a problem for Iona, who only had a single contestant on her team. Gems weren’t allowed, but she didn’t have any. Being out of bounds wasn’t an immediate disqualification, but it did ‘burn’ the protective shield that determined when someone had been knocked out. If a contestant spent too long out of bounds, they automatically lost. The length of time depended on how strong of a shield they’d gotten, how far out of bounds they were, along with how much damage it had taken. The flight ceiling, or practical lack thereof.

Then there was the meta. Grease [Mages] were just the start. Mages abusing [Trigger]. Harpies needed to be taken out fast, at the start, or it’d devolve into an aerial battle where their natural gifts gave them a strong edge. Centaurs, in a twist, rarely engaged in their normal hit and run tactics, instead crashing through with furious momentum. Kitsune’s often ran clever meta illusions, making it look like their opponents won. When they left the stage, they’d win by forfeit. Of course, half the time they disguised themselves so they wouldn’t look like a kitsune, which had everyone paranoid.

Companions were allowed, but they counted as a full individual, and needed to follow all the same rules. Poison was also allowed, but had strict rules around the shielding and usage.

Iona came back, thunderclouds on her face.

"What’s wrong?" I rushed over, searching her face for clues.

"Money." I could hear the restraint in her voice. "Valkyrie’s accounts are no good now, given our uncertain status, and the entry fee’s more than I have on me."

"How much?" I asked, willing to open my pockets and give Iona whatever she needed.

She named a figure. I whistled.

"They charge that much to enter?!"

Iona nodded glumly.

"And entries are closing in about an hour. Might just go punch something to let off steam. It’s the healthier thing to do…"

There were quite a few other things she’d want to do to blow off steam, and while I was game, I also wanted to help Iona.

I shook my head.

"Hang on. Let me talk with Pascal. I’m not sure if his family’s nobility, or just has more money than the gods, but either way, they own a Mallium mine. I have enough money back at the School that I can pay him back."

"You don’t need to do that." Iona protested.

"Yes, I do." I firmly rebutted her. "We’re together. We’re partners. We support each other. We help each other. Right now, you need help. I have a potential solution. Now come on, let’s go talk with Pascal before registration closes."

I knocked on Pascal’s door.

"Hey Pascal! You around?" I asked.

I didn’t hear anything, but a few moments later the door opened.

"Mind if we come in?" I asked my taciturn teammate.

He nodded his wolf’s head helmet and gestured, welcoming us in.

"A [Vow of Silence]. Wow. I’ve never seen one of those before." Iona said. "I’m deeply impressed."

Pascal’s wolf mask morphed, first into a surprised-alarmed expression, then into a proud and satisfied one.

"I’ve got the ability to see stat sheets." Iona quickly explained.

"Pascal, we’ve got a favor to ask of you. A big one." I cut through the small talk. Wasn’t Iona concerned about the deadline?? Why was she chitchatting?

Iona shot me an unamused look for some reason.

His mask morphed into a quizzical expression, and Iona sighed. She gave me a significant look, which I think I correctly interpreted. I should do the ask here.

"Okay, so. I’m asking this as someone who knows you, and not as your team captain. Feel completely free to tell me no and throw me out. Iona here is looking to enter the same event we’re in as an individual. Because reasons. She’s short on the entry fee, and while I have the money at the School, I don’t have it on me right now. I can pay you back. Can you lend us a few coins, so she can enter? Registration is closing soon, and you’re one of the only people I know who could make this work."

Pascal thought about it for a few tense minutes. His true expression under his wolf’s mask was normally unreadable, but I inched a little closer to him, and got to see what was happening thanks to [The World Around Me].

He looked thoughtful, nervously licking his lips. His eyes flickered as he performed mental calculations, before he finally put on a resolute look.

He nodded at us, but his mask changed to display a 16.

"16?" I asked him.

His mask morphed into a 16%.

"Ah. You want us to pay interest. Deal!" I exclaimed, not bothering to think through the math on it. Yeah, I’d have to pay more than we borrowed, but whatever. It was all worth it.

He handed us the money, Iona made some polite noises, and we raced off to the registration.

"Team members?" The faun [Clerk] asked Iona, latest in a long list of questions.

Iona looked at me and shrugged.

Why was she doing that?

"Iona. Fenrir. Auri. Reinhard…" She named off a few more of her friends, bringing the total to 7 people. A full team.

"Hey!" I protested as the faun dutifully wrote down the names. Iona grinned and winked at me.

"All’s fair in love and war, right? Time to find a courier, I’ve got an urgent missive for the School."

Chapter 13 - Interlude - Iona - The Gladiator Gauntlet III

Elaine fussed around Iona, making sure every buckle and strap of her wyvern-scale aketon was properly strapped down and secured.

Not that there were a lot of them.

Iona had just barely made it under the registration deadline, and had a most interesting session with the [Judge] calibrating her shield. Biomancied subdermal armor was rare. She was close enough to a dullahan that they ended up using similar rules to build her shield.

The opening ceremonies had come and gone, Elaine with the full School team near the front, and Iona in the back with the rest of the teams without the backing or ranking to be showcased.

"Okay, so this is just the first round. It’s not over if you get beaten here, it’s a round robin format. They said that your shield slowly regenerates, but it’s practically a lie. It regenerates so slowly that it doesn’t matter, and damage persists between individual 1v1 fights. Don’t take all your blows on the same part of your body. Losing because of a technical shield-out sucks. They do look at total points though, which is unfortunate on your tiebreakers since winning one against seven in the main team battle is going to be hard, but winning out will make all that moot. So fight! Win! Beat them up!" Elaine babbled advice as quickly as she thought of it.

"I got this." Iona said with complete confidence as she studied her first round opponents.

Reading their status sheet, to get a better idea of what they could do. Checking for hidden trumps or obvious [Weaknesses].

Each individual had a number of them, but as Iona compared and studied, their respective strengths overlapped their team member’s weaknesses beautifully. Interestingly, they were running not one, but two supports, and their second support looked like they had close to zero combat capabilities.

It was a shame Iona’s [Vow] wasn’t active for these fights. The added boost would’ve been nice, but Iona was strong even without it. At the School, she was able to lift 125 lbs… in the 128x gravity floor of the gym. Right around 16,000 lbs.

That was without her wyvern-scale aketon, or mallium armor.

"In the seventh ring. Team Iona versus Team Fiona Academy. First contestants, please step up." The [Referee] quietly announced. With the skills at play, anyone focusing on this particular arena would hear him perfectly. There were simply too many teams for preliminary rounds to each get a full arena dedicated to them. There was an [Announcer] for the entire stadium, for all the teams participating, who ran commentary on all the fights, usually spotlighting one team or ring at a time to focus on and discuss to the broader audience.

"Go get them!" Elaine cheered as Iona stepped up onto the stone platform.

Selene. Lunaris. I ask for your aid, and dedicate this victory to you. Iona silently prayed to her patrons.

Normally there was a mental game of rock-paper-scissors as each team tried to figure out who the other team would lead with, and try to pick an early counter to gain an advantage. It wasn’t rare for the early advantage to decide the winner, as each team picked their team member to counter whoever was on the stage, giving the first round winner the final victory. The other aspect to consider was mage’s mana regeneration. Sending mages up early gave them more time to restore mana for the team battle. A mage anchoring a team could step in during the last rounds to knock out an opponent, but then they’d be useless during the teamfight portion. It was a minor way to balance their oversized impact in a single duel.

All that went out the window with Iona. She was the only member of the team present, and she didn’t have to worry about who the other team sent up. The warrior had to fight them all in the end.

They had two supports by the looks of it. The woman had a classic ‘my skills empower people’, but the man had a strange and unusual set of skills. He summoned food, and eating the food worked as a short buff.

She let her armor flow out from behind her back, coating her entire body. She didn’t have a weapon - the Valkyrie had left them behind at the School, not thinking she needed them - but her entire body was a weapon. Just not one boosted by [Weapon Mastery].

[New Moon’s Dance] and [Valkyrie’s Valor] did both assist with brawling though, and Iona could always reshape a portion of her mallium into a weapon. It was a trick she wanted to hide for as long as possible.

[Frost Wyvern’s Fang] was a skill she was more than happy to reveal early on.

With a thought, [Star-Forged] expanded from covering just her body, to coating her layers of armor in the protective skill. Anything hitting her armor wasn’t hitting Iona, and her shield was safe and intact.

Of course, if her armor was destroyed, it was a case of ‘too bad, so sad, hope you win enough to repair it’. People spent too much time focusing on the fortunes that could be won in the Gladiator Gauntlet, and completely ignored the fortunes obliterated by the fights.

Fiona Academy sent their heavy bruiser - Mubai - up to meet Iona. He had a number of tiger-themed skills, a [King of the Brawlers] class along with [Lord of the White Tigers]. Iona expected him to close in, and to swipe at her with large, heavy blows, reinforced with cutting claws.

He was only in the mid-300’s though. The sheer disparity in levels and stats would doom Mubai, but his face didn’t hold a hint of that. He approached the battle boldly, with confidence, chewing on the sausage his support companion provided.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] announced as his skill separating the two combatants dissolved, letting them at each other.

Iona exploded into motion, charging directly at Mubai. [As Steady as the Stars] gave her impeccable footwork, letting her balance on even the most treacherous terrain, along with not destroying anything she moved on. She could make fantastic leaps - or simply charge her enemy.

All of Iona’s staring at the brawler’s status hadn’t prepared her for him pulling out a crossbow and shooting her with it. It simply wasn’t one of his skills, and he’d cleverly hidden it in his clothing.

[Selene’s Grace] neatly nudged the projectile out of the way, letting Iona continue her assault. Mubai roared and charged at her, the shimmering paw of a white tiger appearing around his arms.

He swiped at her as they closed, the skill extending his reach. Iona ducked under, letting it pass clean over her as she stomped her right foot down. Twisting, putting her whole body into the strike, she blasted upwards with a vicious uppercut, catching the Fiona Academy’s brawler directly under the chin in a beautiful strike.

The arena flashed with a multitude of colors as a bright red shield appeared around Mubai, absorbing the otherwise-lethal strike and signifying his loss.

"Winner, Team Iona. Please return back to your respective sides." The [Referee] declared.

Mubai picked himself up off the ground, giving Iona a quarter-bow of respect before returning to his team. They huddled up and quickly strategized, before sending their next contestant up.

A slender bunnykin, the second-highest level fighter Team Fiona had, hopped onto the stage next, eating a chili pepper.

"Hiya! Please be gentle!" She waved merrily to Iona.

The big eyes, soft fur, and cheerful demeanor didn’t fool Iona. Her skills were uniformly nasty. She wasn’t quite as heavy of a hitter as Mubai had been, but Iona was resolved not to underestimate the bunny.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] announced, and the battle was joined.

Iona expected the crossbow this time. She stood still as her opponent whipped one out and shot a bolt at her, electing to snatch it out of the air in a stunning display of grace and dexterity.

Her opponent bounded up to her and took a swing at Iona. The Valkyrie stood there, silently staring down her opponent who pulled her punch at the last second, dropping and trying to sweep her feet.

Iona jumped up, letting the blow pass under her as she tried to work out how she was going to beat this opponent.

[Counterblow] and [Perfect Dodge] promised any half-hearted attack by Iona would miss, then be brutally punished. At the same time, she was specced deep into speed and dexterity, lacking the power to punch through Iona’s protections easily. The odds were good that the bunnykin would break her hand punching Iona’s armor, instead of Iona feeling anything.

Which led to the strange stalemate between the two of them. Iona continued to neatly side-step any attack that might be a problem, not throwing a single punch back.

Showing off to anyone watching that, yes, she was the better [Warrior].

As the stalemate continued, she read each of the bunnykin’s skills in detail, looking for the critical piece of information that would turn the tide of the stalemate.

Iona almost laughed as she saw it. The bunny’s skills worked on attacks.

With a single graceful move, Iona brought her hand down on the agile opponent’s shoulder. Not an attack - a friendly grab.

The flexible fighter froze as Iona’s fingers tightened.

"Do I need to?" Iona asked in the rabbit’s native language.

She pouted and pulled a face.

"No…" She sullenly kicked the ground. Iona turned to the [Referee].

"Well?" She asked him.

"I need the words." He apologized to Iona.

"I surrender." The bunny said, twisting herself out of Iona’s grasp and leaping off the stage.

One member of the team was glaring murder at Iona. She didn’t need [Social Lubricant] or [Winter’s Allure] to tell that they were a couple. He was the highest leveled member of their team, and his restriction skill locked an entire class away, except for specific circumstances and conditions.

Naturally, the boost was insane if the conditions were met, and Iona was being gentle in small part to dance around them.

The bunnykin backflipped her way off the stage, tumbling like a [Gymnast], and the next member approached, cramming down three food-based buffs their support was handing out.

The dude loved food way too much, and a quick peek at his skills revealed a Fire mage. Every single skill related to flames, and Iona briefly thought about Auri as she studied him.

His physical stats were low, and he fit the definition of a glass cannon perfectly. He was boosting those stats with a fat sausage, but it wasn’t going to be nearly enough.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Iona instantly summoned her [Frost Wyvern’s Fang], a shortbow and arrow shimmering into existence in her hands. She was already twisting, bending the bow into a perfect half-crescent moon, then unleashed the arrow right at his center of mass.

No need for a [Trick Shot] or [Blizzard Shot]. Just straight violence.

A torrent of flames started to erupt from the mage’s mouth as the arrow landed, his shield bursting into a fatal red as the arena sparkled with colors, signifying Iona’s win.

"Winner! Team Iona!" The [Referee] declared as the mage looked on with shock.

"But… but…" He protested, getting a steely look from the [Referee] in turn.

"You have been defeated. Please send up your next team member."

"Wooo! Perfect victory!" Elaine gleefully cheered Iona’s victory from the sidelines.

The tall warrior didn’t relax or break her composure. This wasn’t the time or the place for screwing around. Three members down, four to go. Two of them were supports.

To her surprise, the food-buff making support stepped up next. Iona lifted an eyebrow under her helmet.

His skills were incredible. She’d never seen anything like them, even at the School, and having them at his level? She was impressed. He could conjure up food that acted like the most powerful potions, granting large stat boosts.

Of which he was currently horking down as many as he could, as fast as he could conjure them. One of his skills let him ignore the usual penalties and restrictions around stacking potions, and his stats were skyrocketing… relative to their starting point.

His stats utterly sucked. It must’ve been the tradeoff for the amazing class, and Iona felt a flicker of curiosity as to why he was being sent up now. If their team managed to win on one of their next two fighters, the Valkyrie wasn’t confident that she could properly take all seven of them at once. They’d win the entire match. Sending the support up now simply fed her free points.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] had no patience for Iona’s internal musings as he began the fight.

To Iona’s utter lack of surprise, another crossbow made an appearance as she strode across the stage to her opponent.

[Selene’s Grace] took care of the bolt, but then he threw out a half-dozen tiny metal balls. They exploded into motion on impact, thin metallic tendrils whipping through the air around them as they landed.

Iona didn’t even feel them. The layers of her skill-reinforced armor stopped them dead in their tracks, slapping impotently against her arms and legs, and she carried on through the hail of metal before reaching her prey.

He tried to fight back. He tried to dodge.

The tyranny of stats let Iona jab out once, his shield flaring protectively as she won another round.

The two teams reset, and Team Fiona’s speedster made her entrance onto the stage, eating more of the support’s conjured food.

Honestly, it was something of a blessing that the other support’s skills weren’t useable in the single’s format. Double-buffs might be enough to give Iona trouble, especially with dedicated specialists.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Iona was prepared for waves of inky black smoke that erupted from the speedster, the slender woman vanishing into the darkness. Iona’s blessing was simply unfair.

[Gaze of the Galaxy] along with [Lunaris’s Gaze] allowed her to pierce the veils of darkness without issue. She crouched into a ready stance, and as the speedster tried to silently flank her, dagger poised to strike Iona in the armpit, Iona lashed out with a vicious backhand, landing a solid blow.

That was enough to take out the fragile speedster, and the match was quickly called in Iona’s favor.

"Go Iona! You’re the best! Five down, two to go!" Elaine cheered from the sidelines. "Keep beating them in one hit!"

The second support stepped up onto the stage, and the Team Fiona Academy strategy crystalized for Iona.

They were reserving their heavy hitter for the last round, hoping to wear her down with the rest of the team. Hoping that she’d show off all her skills.

A beautiful and delicate woman stepped onto the stage, and Iona almost felt a moment of pity for her. Her combat abilities were next to nothing… although she had signed up and agreed to fight with the team.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The faun declared, and Iona implacably strode over to where the woman was standing.

The crossbow strategy made a lot more sense with her on the team, giving the woman a chance at defending herself. A high-tension crossbow with a single prepared shot could take out most warriors with a surprise blow, able to punch through metal and trigger the shield.

Iona was ready as Rong pulled out a crossbow at point-blank range. The paladin mentally grabbed the crossbow and jerked the top of it up with [Telekinesis] as the Fiona Academy support pulled the trigger.

Her shield flared red, stopping the bolt from puncturing her head, and the support started to cry angry tears as she stomped off the stage.

Iona mentally shrugged. There was a reason [Warriors] needed armor-reinforcing skills, and why people rarely wore armor or used weapons without the ability to reinforce them. At higher levels, it was just giving their opponents another weapon to use.

Any metal-coated mage against a high level Metal mage was in for a bad time, practically handing their opponent a perfect cage which they could use to crush them with. It didn’t work at lower levels, but at higher levels it was a risk.

Her last opponent took the stage, and Iona looked at him warily. Stan was in the high 400’s, pushing 500, and every last one of his skills was terrifying, before his restrictive [Promise].

"I am no threat to you, your team, or your loved ones." Iona clearly stated before the [Referee] could start the match. [Social Lubricant] and [Allure of Winter] both helped her read the cues Stan was giving off, letting her make minor adjustments to her speech. "We are both here to compete and show off, and that is all. Win or lose, we’re all walking away intact at the end of this, with the worst damage possible being to our pride."

He’d have to be a raving lunatic to think Iona was a threat to his loved ones after that, which was the critical condition for his [Promise] to activate.

No [Promise], no massive stat boost, no unlocked class. He’d be a single class [Warrior] against her triple classes.

He narrowed his eyes, and Iona smirked as she read the subtle tells that let the pieces of the puzzle click for him.

"Fame. Glory. Ho-" The [Referee] was interrupted right as he was starting the countdown for the fight.

A bright light suddenly illuminated the stage they were standing on, and the [Announcer’s] voice boomed.

"Well! [Lords] and [Ladies], do we have a treat for you here in Ring 7! Team Iona only has a single member, and in a fierce struggle against Team Fiona Academy, she has defeated all opponents with a single blow! I’m excited to see the final battle! Will the One Hit Wonder continue her spree? Will Fiona Academy pull a reversal and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Find out now!"

Iona was always good with people, and the logic immediately fell into place for her, in spite of the Valkyries tending to eschew these types of events.

Performing well, performing flashily would get more people interested in her and her one-woman crusade. More people watching would mean more people would see her defeat Rolland, and salvage the honor of the Valkyries - and her desire for vengeance.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Stan. How could she defeat him in a single blow?

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] made a bit more of a show of starting the event, conscious of the spotlight on the ring.

Iona burst into a sprint as vines erupted around her. They wrapped around her arms and legs, trying to drag her down, to bind and trap her.

Iona powered through them all, although they slowed her a hair. A cage of black grass enclosed Stan, acting as a physical barrier separating Iona from her opponent. Two thick tendrils shot from his hands, the grass morphing to look like a pair of striking snakes.

The Valkyrie sacrificed a portion of her armor to make an axe, sweeping through the attack and neatly ‘decapitating’ the ‘snakes’. As she charged at Stan, another vine pulled him away as a dozen metal balls were flung at her.

She pivoted, ignoring the storm of metal pinging against her helmet, chasing after her prey.

He was fast with his vine-like grass pulling him around, but not as fast as Iona. She quickly caught up, and started to morph her metal into a long spear. She thrust out at Stan, the spear elongating, her long arms giving the weapon even more reach, and Iona neatly ‘stabbed’ him through the heart.

It was a solid blow. [Stable As The Stars] gave her perfect footing to launch off of, [Lunar Mass] increased her weight and thus her momentum, and she’d timed her strike well. The arena exploded in light as a red shield popped into existence around Stan.

"Winner! Team Iona!" The [Referee] declared.

"Well I’ll be! Iona has done it again, defeating her opponent with a single blow! Let’s give it up for the One Hit Wonder!" The [Announcer] roared. The crowd was thin this early into the preliminaries, but she did get some cheers.

Iona bowed her head, praying to her goddesses.

Selene. Lunaris. I did it! Thank you for your support. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without your blessings and your grace.

You go, One Hit Wonder! Selene cheered. Lunaris was laughing herself sick.

Iona grinned and jumped down off the stage to an eagerly waiting Elaine.

"You did it! Great job! I’m proud of you! Alright, the team battle’s next, but that doesn’t matter, you still win the round even if you lose the battle. Then there’s a quick turnaround to the next round. It’s punishing on mages, they’ll be low on mana. You got this!"

Elaine gave Iona a hug, and she spent a moment refocusing. Paying attention to what was truly important in life. Elaine’s presence was reassuring, and she relished her embrace. She was more important than her desire for petty revenge.

In the end, her quest for vengeance was meaningless. It was simply to balm her heart. Iona would like to have her cake and eat it too though, getting both.

But she wasn’t going to lose sight of the people important to her in the attempt, nor what the Valkyries stood for.

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Mostly Human]

[Age: 26]

[Mana: 210,700/210,700]

[Mana Regen: 141,570]

Stats

[Free Stats: 300]

[Strength: 41,060 +(523,515)]

[Dexterity: 41,060 +(523,515)]

[Vitality: 74,968 +(194,917)]

[Speed: 45,615 +(581,591)]

[Mana: 21,070]

[Mana Regeneration: 47,402]

[Magic Power: 24,381]

[Magic Control: 24,381]

[Class 1: [The Dusk Valkyrie - Celestial: Lv 520]]

[Celestial Affinity: 520]

[New Moon's Dance: 520]

[Weapon Mastery: 520]

[Strength from the Stars: 520]

[Star-Forged: 520]

[Strike of the Twin Moons: 165]

[As Steady as the Stars: 130]

[Gaze of the Galaxy: 520]

[Class 2: [Traveling Archer - Ice: Lv 420]]

[Ice Authority: 420]

[Shortbow Skills: 420]

[Blizzard Shot: 420]

[Allure of Winter: 420]

[Trick Shot: 420]

[Weaknesses: 420]

[Glacial Slow: 420]

[Frost Wyvern's Fang: 420]

[Class 3: Skybound Paladin of the Moons - Gravity: Lv 130]]

[Gravity Affinity: 130]

[Telekinesis: 130]

[Lunaris's Gaze: 130]

[Lunar Mass: 130]

[Flight of the Valkyries: 130]

[Grasp of the Moon: 130]

[Selene's Grace: 130]

[Harmony of the Spheres: 130]

General Skills

[Spicy Drawing: 264]

[Valkyrie’s Valor: 520]

[Adaptable and Flexible: 385]

[Relentless Pursuit: 288]

[Vow of Iona to Lux: 425]

[Social Lubricant: 262]

[Determined Education: 380]

[Companion Bond Between Iona and Fenrir: 256]

Other

Blessing of Selene and Lunaris

Chapter 14 - Interlude - Takatane Sakai - The Gladiator Gauntlet IV

Scouting was difficult. Not only did Sakai need to study dozens, if not hundreds, of different [Warriors], [Mages], and [Rangers], but he needed to pay attention to the fights his own team was in!

Fortunately, he wasn’t alone. Kira - Takashige-dono in public, he reminded himself - had nominally divided the work up among the six of them.

Practically, the four of them. Futsu-sama was the shogun’s woman, one of the military dictator’s loyal retainers, sent to keep an eye on Kira. His lord couldn’t say no, and there did seem to be sparks between the two of them. Of the romantic sort. Either way, it didn’t change the fact that she had her own set of orders, and was only nominally scouting, taking two easy teams and calling it her contribution.

Nobody would dare suggest she wasn’t doing enough.

Sakura-chan - not that it was her real name - was a favor the Eventide Establishment had asked of Kira. He couldn’t say no, and the woman had been given her own set of goals and a private agenda that none of them knew.

She did fight in the event with them, and performed adequately, but vanished as soon as a round was over, performing tasks that only the ancestors knew. Sakai wasn’t quite sure if she truly had a Wood element, or if she had a Mirage class hiding a Poison element.

Deadly flowers fell under more than one element.

Sakai knew having Sakura-chan and Futsu-sama along with them was politically advantageous for Kira’s ultimate goals, but he couldn’t help but secretly grumble deep within his heart at the extra work being unceremoniously dumped onto him.

He kept one eye on the stage, where Sana-san was dueling one of the flea-ridden Vollomond werewolves, and the other roving over a dozen different teams he was supposed to scout.

Harper Hall had sponsored a team, the bards aiming to eke out just enough wins in the singles fight to dominate the teamfights. Sakai noted they were using an entirely different set of instruments this round, already showing off their wide variety early in the tournament.

He mentally marked them down low on his list. Anyone trying to show off all their tricks on the second day was doomed to mediocrity.

Black Rock had entered a single terrifying golem, just a hair under the weight limit, with six members to support it. It counted as equipment, and could remain on the stage round after round.

Defeat the golem, or defeat the controllers? Sakai wondered to himself, resolving to continue studying how their opponents handled the situation.

"Takatane-sama." Kuma-chan grabbed his attention. "I apologize for being unskilled. Can you confirm for me that’s the Eternal Legion?" She pointed to a team.

Sakai squinted, his vision much better than the [Mage’s].

"Yes. Keep a careful eye on them. They will be a great challenge to Takashige-dono’s ambitions here. You will be well rewarded for good information on them, should we encounter them."

Kuma-chan nodded, and Sakai continued looking around at various teams.

One of the teams caught his attention. They’d divided up the hundreds of teams among the four of them, knowing that day 1 intelligence was likely to be worthless. Many of their competitors would get immediately knocked out, and were not worth studying in detail. It was hard to know who would rise up, and who would fall, and knowing the capabilities of the losers did nothing for them.

A [Knight] of some sort had entered the tournament alone, a loss as sure as a kitsune’s ghostly flames. Sakai had been delighted for her to be assigned as one of the teams he needed to watch, as he could safely ignore her in favor of more likely opponents.

She had utterly crushed all of her opponents on the first day without a single loss, becoming the darling One Hit Wonder of the [Announcer]. The small wings on her helmet, the only decoration on her armor, jogged a memory for him.

She was a Valkyrie, a famed knightly order. Unusual to see one in a tournament; they tended to eschew these types of events.

One more team for him to track, and he spent a brief moment checking out her fight.

She had a walrus by the tail, and she was busy spinning it around in a circle. Sakai was entranced, watching the moment. He was rewarded by getting to see her launch the poor mammal in a beautiful spinning arc, before he moved onto more competitors.

A lich - a lich - had sunk its phylactery deep into the stone, and was slowly creating skeleton minions. A massive risk, but the creature was likely to win out unless someone could dig up his phylactery or win on stall rules. Crazy that the gods had recently answered the remaining lich’s prayer for another one, and even crazier that they let the phylactery go anywhere.

Unless it was a fake.

"Sakai-kun! Your turn has come." Takashige-dono ordered his childhood friend. The kitsune had disguised himself from the start as a human.

Sakai nodded, adjusting his grip on his katana, resolving to win.

The tournament continued, and the number of teams Sakai needed to scout rapidly dropped as they continued to win and win and win.

"Thanks to the excellent work of Sakura-chan, we know who our final opponent is tomorrow." Kira nodded at Sakura, who handed him a small slip of paper. He unrolled it and read.

"Team Iona. Sakai-kun, I believe you were responsible for scouting?"

Sakai nodded and clasped his hands together.

"If it pleases Takashige-dono, I will give my report on Team Iona." He said.

Kira nodded.

"Proceed."

"Team Iona initially consisted of a single [Warrior], predictably named Iona. She is clearly a Celestial [Warrior], an Ice [Ranger], and her third class isn’t obvious. I believe it to be a Wind, Gale, or Gravity element, and as a member of the Order Valkyrie, I believe it to be another [Warrior] class."

Sakai paused a moment to reorganize his thoughts.

"There’s only a single opponent tomorrow?" Futsu-sama asked incredulously.

Sakai hesitated a moment.

"Possibly. There was a commotion as a large, armored wyvern landed nearby at one point, and Iona seemed to know the monster. The beast has never taken the stage, and is merely 256. While large and powerful, I do not believe he has the power to pose a threat. Iona herself has defeated every single opponent sent against her single-handedly. What concerns me is who’s giving her advice, who’s been present at every battle of hers."

Takashige-dono’s eyebrow quirked up, and that simple move never failed to impress Sakai. The kitsune wasn’t changing his facial expression at all - he was masterfully modifying his illusion, pulling all the right muscles to show a ‘natural’ expression.

A show for his enemies, who naturally would have spies managing to watch them, even in this isolated location thousands of miles from home. A never-ending performance.

"Elaine, member of the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft’s team. An obvious alias, calling herself ‘healer’ when she displays as a healer. The School’s favored to win this year, and she’s their known sweeper. Nobody knows her background, her sponsors, not even where she was born! It’s like she popped out of the void, and there is a modest bounty from [Information Brokers] for her details. Her exact classes and breakdown are believed to be Celestial Healer, Radiance Sorcery, but there is some debate if her third class is physical, or Radiance Wizardry. She hasn’t displayed any obvious third class attributes, but has them. She’s demonstrated invisibility, but only invisibility, and other Mirage-like skills she’s used before have had mandalas involved." Sakai said.

"Takatane-kun. We will concern ourselves with the School’s team, and the exact details of their champions, when it is time to face them." Futsu-sama reprimanded him, her eyes flickering to Kira’s as she did.

The kitsune remained still, allowing the correction to stand.

"Apologies. Permit me to continue. Elaine is quite obviously in a relationship with Iona, and given her prowess, begs the question of why the woman is not a member of the School’s team. I believe there is some deeper plot that we are unaware of. Regardless, her perfect combat record has made it difficult to divine weaknesses, although I can share a number of observations I have been able to make."

Sakai took a breath, and at a nod from Kira, continued.

"She is incredibly strong. I witnessed her throwing an animal weighing hundreds of kanme. She out-wrestled multiple members of the Order of the Fivefold Cross. Tower Faust attempted to chain her down, and she simply ripped through the chains, using them to beat the mage down. For footing, no grease or Ice mage was able to unbalance her, although she was slowed by them. Her armor is mallium, and she formed spikes on her boots, stomping around the arena. Multiple teams raised pillars, attempting to control the battlefield. The ones she didn’t balance on top of she smashed through, touching once again on her monstrous strength. Tower Faust tried to lift the platform up, to out of bounds her by sheer redirection, and her reaction?"

Sakai watched too many plays. He paused a moment, looking at Iemori-kun and Kuma-chan.

"She folded her arms and did nothing. The mage ran out of mana before she could be thrown out."

Kira was frowning, and Sakai continued on.

"On the defensive front, she runs a classic set of aketon under metal armor. She naturally has skills empowering them, and light attacks will simply bounce off. Heavy blows are required to even attempt to pierce her armor. Her visage is terrifying to behold. A blank metal slate for a mask, the mallium allowing her to completely seal herself within her armor. A Water sorcerer attempted to drown her, but could find no purchase. Arrows occasionally swerve when they approach, although given how many hits her armor has deflected I believe the skill to be a weak one. She tanked an entire [Trigger] barrage, but the level of the casting mage left much to be desired. Now, looping back to the School’s Elaine being present, I would say the most dangerous part of Iona appears to be her intelligence network. She’s kept it quiet, but she appears to know all her opponents capabilities, and masterfully negates their skills and advantages."

"What weaknesses have you observed? What strategy would you have us employ?" Sakai’s oldest friend asked him, cutting to the chase and demonstrating a staggering level of trust in public.

"With respect. She struggled a bit against aerial foes who were able to get off the ground. Most she managed to reach or shoot with her bow before they attained a significant height, but one Windrider managed to get high, and the two stalled for the entire time I was able to observe. It is my great shame to admit that at the time, I had many other opponents to scout, and was unable to see how she managed victory."

Sakai bowed slightly, mentally begging Kira to forgive him.

"You are forgiven. Carry on." His [Lord] said.

"Invisibility doesn’t work well. She simply fires a blizzard arrow to unveil her opponents, but given how she’s moved to defend herself against mages in the past, I would say our best chance is to focus our efforts on overwhelmingly powerful strikes, and not give her a chance to retaliate. Her biggest weakness is she is a single woman. Iemori-kun and Kuma-chan should ignore retaliation, and pour everything they have into hitting as hard and as fast as they can. They will be eliminated, but their combined efforts should weaken her shield to permit myself, Sana-san, and Futsu-sama to land a critical blow that will grant us victory."

Sakai looked up at his [Lord], and there was one part unsaid.

Kira’s own trump card, a guaranteed victory against any team. It would only work once, and they wanted to save it for the main event, not use it in a preliminary.

"Excellent work Sakai-kun." Kira praised him. "We will attempt that, but given the critical juncture and stage we are at, I would like to try one more thing. Sakura-chan?" He asked.

Sakai didn’t get chills at the implication. He knew what Sakura-chan was, and for his [Lord’s] ambitions, distasteful tasks were occasionally necessary.

The [Poisoner] nodded at Kira’s implied request.

"Takatane-san. Sakura-chan still isn’t back." Kuma-chan told Sakai.

He frowned as he paused in strapping his armguards.

"She’s never missed a fight before, and this is the critical one." Sakari briefly pondered, before going to report to Kira.

The kitsune looked displeased, then brightened.

"She has selected an inopportune moment to go missing. I can only conclude that she was successful. Given our guaranteed victory, and the chaos present during the last round of the preliminaries, she must be off on some greater task, seizing a moment in the chaos."

Sakai politely bowed.

"Takashige-dono’s wisdom is unparalleled." He sincerely flattered his [Lord]. The kitsune snorted.

"Go, finish your preparations. We must look as if we are entirely unaware of any issue, that we do not know who our next round opponent is, and there is always a chance that Sakura-chan simply weakened our opponent, instead of eliminating her. There is a further chance that Sakura-chan’s intel was incorrect, and we shall have a surprise fight on our hands."

Sakai bowed, turned, and left to complete his preparations.

The team followed Takashige-dono to their assigned arena for the final round of the preliminaries.

"[Lords] and [Ladies]! Up next we have an exciting matchup! On the north side of the arena, we have Team Shining Shrine!"

The crowd cheered. Sakai watched his lord for cues on how to act. Takashige-dono stayed still and dignified, and the rest of his team followed his lead.

"And on the south side of the arena, the One Hit Wonder herself, Team Iona!"

The crowd was much more excited, and the [Warrior] herself exited the waiting area, striding up with her blank, faceless mask. A massive wyvern exited behind her, coated head to tail in shining armor, the mark of two entwined moons stamped in various places.

He was smoking a pipe, of all things.

"Sakura-chan failed." Futsu-sama muttered darkly.

Sakai couldn’t help but agree. His eyes were drawn to some action by the sideline.

The Elaine exited the arena, taking up a place by the halfway mark of the arena. She crossed her arms and glared at team Shining Shrine.

Sakai would’ve paid it little attention, but a second individual joined her, mimicking her actions. Crossing her arms, and glaring at the team.

A third. A fourth.

The entire School’s under-30 teamfights team - and they just kept coming.

The members of the under-30 team did not concern him so much as the much, much higher leveled individuals that started coming out. Cursed Immortals started to join them, demons, devils, and elves.

All told, nearly 70 individuals, all wearing the crossed wand and lightning bolt of the School, were on the sidelines, crossing their arms - when they had them - and glaring at team Shining Shrine.

They didn’t say anything. The pressure was palpable, pressing down on them without a single skill being used. The [Referee] looked at them but said nothing.

"I don’t think we can expect Sakura-chan to be coming back." Takashige-dono lightly remarked. "Takatane-kun. You have extensively studied our opponent. This battle is less strategy, and more about our ability to defeat a single foe. I place my hopes and dreams in your capable hands, and trust you to direct us to victory."

Sakai was honored.

"I will not fail you, my lord." He said. "Sana-san. Respectfully, I must ask you to go first, and test to see if she is at full capabilities. Attempting to win is futile, your goal is to try and draw out as many skills and abilities from her that you can, to drain her mana. If she is manaless against our mages, we stand a chance."

"As you command, Takatane-san." Takashige-dono’s retainer said to Sakai.

Sakai felt like an egg had been thrown on his face with how quick and brutal the fight was. Sana did her best, but the Valkyrie’s moniker of One Hit Wonder wasn’t for show.

The entirety of the School’s team continued to remain on the sidelines, throwing them death glares.

Sakai clenched his fists. Idiot. He berated himself. He glanced at Kira, who was standing stone-still.

His [Lord] must be up to something. The illusion wasn’t even breathing.

"Kuma-chan. Do not worry about defenses. Spend every skill at once, and aim for her chest. The goal is to do damage to her defenses. Iemori-kun, the same goes for you. She can defeat any one of us, but the purpose here is to trigger her shield, not win flawlessly. Go."

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The fight was on.

Kuma-chan put up a slightly better showing than Sana-san had, but the bar was low. The two traded long-range attacks, the Earth [Mage] firing dozens of high-speed pebbles. The rocky storm was powerful enough that none of Iona’s arrows could break through, and the Valkyrie was forced to hunker down behind a shield.

Kuma-chan managed to puncture the shield in a few spots, denting the Valkyrie’s armor before running out of mana.

"I surrender." The [Mage] declared, before hopping off the stage. She glanced at him, worried.

Sakai clasped the woman’s shoulder.

"It was honorable to admit defeat when you could not continue. It would have brought us shame if you forced her to throw you out."

Kuma-chan relaxed.

"Thank you." She said.

"Iemori-kun. Don’t try to blind her, the faceless mask implies she doesn’t need to see, and it blocks your attacks. See if you can take to the skies." The Brilliance-Radiance [Mage] stepped forth at Sakai’s commands.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] announced.

Iemori-kun sprang forth, stepping up into the skies. Platforms of brilliant light formed under his feet, and hexagonal panes of light bubbled around him in a shield.

The shield shifted and moved, deflecting arrows one at a time. Sakai was elated. The Valkyrie had to be spending more mana per arrow than Iemori-kun was spending to deflect them, and [Warriors] didn’t have large mana pools! Victory was in sight!

The Valkyrie seemed to come to the same conclusion, the barrage ending. Instead, she started to run, then leapt. The jump was impossible, some skill needing to fuel it, but it was odd.

Iemori-kun continued to step up into the air, running from the fearsome leap, but every step he took caused the Valkyrie’s flight to wobble slightly.

"Drop the platforms!" Takashige-dono ordered, and Iemori-kun promptly obeyed. The two of them fell, and Iemori twisted in the air, aiming at Iona, the fighter stuck hanging in the air with nowhere to run.

The [Mage] blasted burning Radiance at her, aiming to melt through her armor, or overheat her enough to trigger the shield.

Masterful. Sakai thought to himself. Takashige-dono certainly had an eye for talent, and Iemori was one of his lord’s better recruits.

The armor rippled as the Radiance played over it, the two contestants falling in the air.

Gravity was a cruel mistress, and Iemori-kun wasn’t able to trigger a victory before landing on the ground. Miraculously, he managed to arrest enough of his fall to not trigger a loss - but that was before Iona landed on his head, feet-first.

The crowd let out a collective oooooh in mock sympathy as the shield glowed red. From the heights involved, with the weight of the woman and her armor, Iemori’s brains should’ve been splattered over hundreds of shaku.

"Victory! Team Iona!" The [Referee] announced.

Iona opened up her armor, great gouts of steam escaping as the blonde shook her head, sweat running down her face in rivulets.

Cooking her in her armor works. If only we had another Fire Mage, or similar. Sakai cursed to himself.

The two teams reset, the School continuing their unnerving vigil. Sakai was starting to sweat.

"I will go." Takashige-dono declared, and Sakai sat back.

The [Referee] looked a little doubtful at Takashige-dono’s approach, but started the fight anyway.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Iona grabbed her glaive, and immediately started an intricate dance around herself like a kabuki dancer. She completely ignored Takashige-dono’s moves and actions, simply moving like a rushing river.

Her glaive flashed in the sunlight as she danced. Takashige-dono - no, his illusion, Sakai reminded himself - tried to poke in, and find a gap in the whirling blades.

He failed, getting struck by the blades and being sent flying. He tumbled over the dirt before crashing into a tree, his shield unable to take that one last insult. It flared red.

"Victory! Team Iona!" The [Referee] announced.

Iona didn’t stop her spinning dance, and the [Referee] frowned. The faun marched over to where Iona was continuing to spin her deadly dance.

"Excuse me. The round is over. Please return to your side." He ordered Iona. She didn’t move.

"Foul!" A member of the School cried out. The cry was quickly echoed by the remaining members of the School, standing on the sidelines.

"Foul! Cheating!" They cried out, a murmur rapidly spreading through the crowd. Iona continued her dance.

A faint pop occurred as the Black Rose himself teleported high above the arena. He touched a small rune on his shirt, and his voice was broadcast.

"Team Shining Shrine. Minor Penalty, Impersonating a Referee. Penalties must be greater than the attempted gain. Team Shining Shrine loses this round. Team Shining Shrine loses a second contestant, at their selection." The Black Rose decreed.

With a louder pop, Kira stumbled as his real body reappeared in front of the team, the illusion on the field fading - all of them.

The kitsune shook his head, and his usual illusion spun off of him as Sakai’s lord disappeared from view.

"Futsu-chan. With respect, Takatane-kun has the best chance of winning." Takashige-dono said.

Sakai stepped up, and mentally prepared himself.

He was going to attempt to end this in a single blow. It was his best - only - chance at winning and redeeming Takashige-dono. He needed to win, for his [Lord] and friend.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The normal [Referee] declared, although the Black Rose was still hovering over the battle. Still watching.

Sakai crouched down, one hand on his scabbard, the other on the hilt of his sword as he prepared his skills.

[Iaido]. [Lightning Strike]. [The Single Slash That Cuts Through the Heavens]. [Thunderbolt Speed]. [The Piercing Dark]. [Cut]. All his actives, buffed by a number of passives. [Kenjutsu]. [Stalwart Samurai]. [Retainer’s Resolve]. [Lightning Armaments]. [Sheathed in Darkness].

He couldn’t move, not with everything prepared and ready to go. He wasn’t worried about arrows, not after Iona had spent them all in her earlier fight, and his own defenses against such attacks.

Instead, he watched as the silent, faceless figure of death slowly approached. She didn’t run, she walked. One step at a time. An axe in one hand, a shield in her other.

Dread slowly mounted in Sakai’s heart. Who was he, to finally take down the invincible juggernaut? Nobody had stopped her. Nobody had slowed her down.

She had nearly 150 levels on him.

As she approached, he realized one last thing that he’d intellectually known, but was now standing in front of him.

The woman was a behemoth. She towered over Sakai’s slight stature, and her armor made her even wider.

Strength. Speed. Dexterity. Vitality. Armor. Toughness. Weapons. Skills.

She had it all.

Sakai carefully watched her, determined to make his mark. Determined to bring honor to his lord.

She paused, a single footstep outside of his range. A half-formed thought emerged in Sakai’s mind, wondering how she knew, before he banished it, and focused.

This was it. The final strike of the match. He was ready.

The two of them stared at each other. Sakai through the slits in his helmet, Iona with the blank, featureless mask.

The tension grew, and the crowd started to mutter as the two stared at each other. Sweat beaded on Sakai’s forehead, trickling down his face and neck.

Any moment now. I am ready. Any moment now. I am ready.

His grip tightened on his sword, and he shifted slightly, ready for the moment.

Then Iona suddenly jerked forward! This was the moment!

Sakai slashed out, only to watch Iona dance back, the movement having already been planned.

He had a brief moment to curse.

Shameless feints.

An axe to the face ended his hopes of winning a spot in the main event.

Chapter 15 - The Gladiator Gauntlet V

I wanted to leap and cheer at Iona’s victory over the Shining Shrine jackasses, but I maintained discipline and composure.

The idiots had sent a freaking [Assassin] after Iona, and compounding onto their sheer stupidity, they tried it right in the middle of the School’s living quarters!

It was almost stupider than me trying to sneak into Lun’Kat’s lair! Okay, so she had better disguises than I did, and the uncapped team had a lower level than the dragon, but there were 18 of them healthy and hale to the single injured Lun’Kat.

She had met a swift end at the hands of one of my high level Immortal schoolmates, who’d ended up disintegrating her so thoroughly that we didn’t have any evidence to bring to the administrators.

Whoops.

Instead, some quick detective work had determined that Team Shining Shrine had gone after Iona. We were all here as a show of force. A reminder not to fuck around by sending assassins in the night, and that bad things happened to people who tried that stunt.

We weren’t saying anything, but attracting quite a lot of attention. Shirayuki was responsible for planting a few well-timed and well-placed rumors, and the interest should do the rest.

Or something like that. I left all the people manipulating nonsense to others. I was just doing what Shirayuki said.

Crossed my arms and glared at the losers. The message was extra-potent by Iona winning out, although it’d been a close one. That Radiance mage almost got her.

"Team Iona versus Team Shining Shrine. Winner of the singles portion. Team Iona! 14 to 0." The [Referee] announced to cheers.

"Wait for it." Shirayuki ordered, and we continued glaring.

"Well [Lords] and [Ladies], what a show! The One Hit Wonder continues her undefeated string! Will we finally get to see a team fight out of her?" The [Announcer] wondered.

"I concede the team match portion." Iona promptly declared.

"Team Iona concedes the team match portion." The [Referee] repeated. "Team Iona versus Team Shining Shrine. Final score, 14-11. Victor. Team Iona!"

The team from Nippon-koku quickly slunk off as the crowd roared in approval.

"Team Iona secures one of the coveted spots for the finals!" The [Announcer] confirmed.

"They’re gone. Thank you everyone for your participation. Break." Shirayuki commanded, the teams rapidly dissolving so they could go have some fun.

"Elaine. Can you and Iona meet back in our rooms in a few minutes? I’d like to speak with the two of you. Mainly her." Shirayuki asked.

I nodded.

"You got it!" I turned and went down the field, meeting Iona at the end. She was murmuring quietly with Fenrir, patting the beast on his armored helmet. His oversized pipe continued to smoke.

"Having fun, Auri?" I asked.

"Brrrpt!" She replied from her little hiding place inside the pipe.

"Shame you never got a chance to pop out."

"Brrrpt…" She sadly agreed.

Fenrir and Auri had cooked up multiple wild plans together, including Operation: Dragonbreath. I’d nixed that one on the very real possibility of Fenrir swallowing Auri, and that ended with one of them dead, shields or no. I was also concerned that they were going to completely ignore me, and do it anyway.

Iona stopped her discussion with Fenrir, and I jumped in.

"You did it." I quietly said.

My girlfriend nodded.

"I did. Just one more fight." Her hands clenched and relaxed. Her armor started flowing off her body, forming into the solid block she always kept on her back, revealing the wyvern-scale aketon underneath.

"Let’s head back? Shirayuki wants to talk."

Iona gave a curt nod.

"Sure. Let’s get Fenrir out of his armor first."

"Please." The wyvern grunted with difficulty. Part of his bond let him speak, just a word or two at a time.

"Brrrpt! BRPT!" Auri conjured up a bunch of [Mage Hands], and they started to fly over Fenrir’s armor.

"Ooooor I guess we can let Auri be his [Squire]." I said.

Iona shrugged.

"Works for me… although, Auri, if you do this now, how are you going to get all the pieces back?"

"BRPT!" The swarm of hands paused, then started rebuckling everything.

Iona and I traded a look, then a laugh. I watched the solid rod of tension in her shoulders melt away, relaxing as the adrenaline slowly left her system.

"Let’s go see what the fox wants." Iona said.

"Valkyrie Iona. A stunning performance. Let me congratulate you on a blazing undefeated streak. Come, sit." Shirayuki greeted us in one of our suite’s living rooms.

Iona nodded and took the offered seat. I debated sitting on the best seat in the room, but decided that I should follow some measure of proper decorum. Plus, the sense I got from Shirayuki was she wasn’t amused by public snogging.

"Thank you for your kind words." Iona replied. The conversation was mostly between Shirayuki and Iona, but I couldn’t help but get a cheeky, shit-eating grin on my face as I thought about how we’d had the chance to get Iona on our team, passed on it, and she’d just proven herself as one of the strongest combatants on the field. "I heard you would be able to help me arrange a match with Rolland next round, during the seeding meeting?"

Shirayuki nodded.

"I can, but it’s not quite so simple. See…"

I knew this was somewhat important, but the interpersonal relationships, their management, and the politics involved quickly made my eyes glaze over. The long and the short of it was: The ‘big name’ teams all got together with the organizers and hashed out the bracket for the ‘finals’, aka the single elimination for the remaining 64 teams. Small teams - like Iona - didn’t get a seat in the meeting, because politics was a bitch. Shirayuki was going to help Iona get what she wanted… but wanted to see if she could get anything in return.

The whole thing was a headache, and I loved Iona, but I just couldn’t bring myself to be interested. We’d fight whoever it is we fought. Having all the brackets be drawn out of names in a hat seemed perfectly fair and reasonable to me, but noooo. That could have two powerhouses meet in an early round, and that wouldn’t be ‘exciting’ enough for the organizers, who wanted…

Honestly, it was almost enough to put me to sleep.

Iona and Shirayuki finished up their meeting, then Shirayuki went off to continue doing gods-knows-what before the big seeding meeting.

"Hey, want the details on the Rolland team?" I asked Iona.

She frowned.

"Is that allowed?"

I snorted.

"Duh. I can guarantee that they’ll be buying information about you as soon as possible. Plus, you’re going to peek at their stat sheet anyways, right? What’s the problem in learning about it a little early?"

Iona nodded.

"Makes sense. Help me get out of this?" She gestured to her aketon.

I gently shook my head and laughed at her utterly shameless ploy. We ended up in our bedroom, Iona facedown on the bed as I massaged her back.

"You know, I have no idea how we get all this information about people." I remarked. "Most people keep their skills close to their chest, but we’ve got tons of details about them."

"Are you serious?" Iona asked. "You’re wondering how the School knows about nobles and their classes?"

"Uhh… yeah?" I moved down from Iona’s shoulders to her back, digging my fingers in to loosen her muscles. "Most people keep it secret."

Iona scoffed.

"You say things like that, and it’s such a stark reminder that you’re not from around now. Alright, yes, people do try to keep their skills secret, but nobles have to be visible. People need to see them. People need to see them working and protecting them. Nobody respects the [Lady] who spends her days locked away in her castle. If nobody knows who she is, she has no influence, and no power. They need to be seen, and more than that, if they want to be halfway competent, they need levels. That means doing stuff, usually in front of dozens or hundreds of people, and being highly visible while they act. It’s literal child’s play to know what the local noble family has for elements and a few skills. Most will be able to keep passives or rarely used skills under wraps, but everyone knows their elements and bread and butter skills. That’s before we start talking about [Information Brokers]."

I’d never really thought of it that way. Rangers had kept moving, an anti-corruption method that also meant they never stayed in one place long enough for people to get dossiers on them… not to mention the high fatality rate. Sentinels were a little more visible with their skills and classes, but even then we’d kept a solid smokescreen on our abilities. Magic and Mirage were two examples that instantly sprang to mind as Sentinels who deliberately went out of their way to claim different elements than they truly had.

"Yeah, alright, fine." I stroked a finger along Iona’s side in a way I knew was particularly ticklish on the woman. A tiny bit of petty revenge… for honestly no good reason besides making me feel bad.

She twitched and bucked under my ministrations.

Success! I could do this ‘people’ thing every now and then! It just took a few years of dating! I switched tracks to useful, productive information.

"The Rolland team. In no particular order, we’ve got Elric Morgans."

"The Shining Prince?" Iona interrupted. "I haven’t been around for a few years. Did he finally hit 512?"

I paused, reorganizing my thoughts.

"Yes, but only recently. Not quite sure what it is yet." I replied.

Iona let out a pleased noise as I hit a particular knot in her muscles.

"Oh yeah, that’s the spot. Shining Prince. Youngest brother to the Queen. Speedster. Groomed to be one of the royal family’s Champions."

The idea of Champions had been novel to me when first introduced, but they made a ton of sense thinking about it. In short, nobles and royalty of all stripes didn’t need to be the biggest, baddest, strongest fighter around. Being good at killing things was no indication of governing or administrative ability. It also wasn’t a good measure of leadership or military strategy.

However, it was greatly in the Crown’s interest to have one of the strongest personal fighters under their direct control, and what better way than to have a close family member who’d taken to fighting? Everyone called them something different, but the generally accepted term was Champion. They didn’t lead the nation, but they were a deterrent against someone getting a really big stick and trying to overthrow the monarch.

"He’s nice enough according to rumors, but that could just be the royal family paying off the [Bards] to say that." Iona said. "I’ll bet fifty coins to your one that he’s brought Ruination with him."

"I have no idea what Ruination is, and I’m not taking that bet. What’s the point of my intel if you already know it all?" I asked in exasperation.

"You massage me. That’s the point." She replied into her pillow. "There’s literal thousands of nobles. I don’t know who’s come, and I might not know them all. Ruination is one of the Morgans’ famous greatswords. The entire blade is Ruinite, then it’s enchanted to the high heavens and back."

I grumbled a bit to myself.

"Isabeau Lakewood?" I offered a name up.

"Obsessed with hunting. That said, that’s the only thing I’ve ever heard about her. Up and coming hunter, will be a [Huntmaster] one day, too far down the line of succession for anything else."

"She’s triple classed now." I added in.

Iona swore.

"Mantle, Forest, Dark. I’d tell you not to try to run and hide from her, but that’s not a factor. Expect large arrows, and don’t try to rely on your armor to protect you from them. They’ll punch right through, she’s got skills around it."

"Ah yes. All I have to do is dodge dozens of arrows." Iona sarcastically replied. Her words were technically true, along with there being no intent to deceive, letting her get around her [Vow] restriction.

Weird how language, words, and tone worked like that!

"Grimwald Dragonfly." I offered up the next name on the team.

"I know of Count Dragonfly. Never heard of Grimwald." Iona said. "Also, lower please?"

I shuffled down on her back a bit, and started massaging her lower back.

"Sorcerer. Highly mobile, likes Fire a little too much."

Iona grunted.

"Eira Barnett." I gave the next name on the list, frowning as I remembered a detail. "She seems low level to be participating here."

"It’s political." Iona instantly replied. "Barnetts are a dukedom, and there’s more to this event than just winning. I don’t expect much out of her. What’s interesting is her level."

"What about it?" I asked.

"Well, I didn’t think she was the heir to the duchy." Iona said. "But a noble staying at 256 is a public declaration that they think they’re in line to inherit. Most of the nobility will publicly class-up when they take their position, showing they’ve taken the [Duchess] class, etcetera. Classing up before taking the role is a sign that they’re not interested in succession, removing them as a threat to their siblings who should inherit. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, and keeping a second or rarely, a third class at 256 to potentially grab the [Count] class if they’re given a lucky opportunity is a thing they’ll do."

My head was spinning at the politics and complex interpersonal interplay, and I just knew Iona was giving me the short, simple version. I decided to change topic away from interpersonal politics of damn nobles, and back to easier stuff.

"She is a wizard." My change of topic was about as subtle as a mango to the head.

"All the Barnetts are. It’s what they’re known for. They’ve got some logic behind it."

I shrugged and carried on.

"Annora Argent?"

"That jackass!?" Iona half-bolted up, before remembering that I was on top of her.

"Uh?" I dumbly replied as Iona settled back down.

"The Argents are the duchy that controlled most of the area around the Valkyrie’s." Iona explained. "I’ve met Annora a few times. She’s cute enough, but every time I thought about dragging her off to my bed she opened her mouth and I remembered that she’s completely insufferable. I do have standards, you know."

I flicked Iona’s ear.

"Well, you clearly don’t need the intel report on her." I primly replied.

"Just tell me if that damn griffin is here or not." Iona grumbled back.

"There was a griffin mentioned, yes."

"Ugh." Iona complained. "The two are as bad as each other. Let me guess, someone from the Connor family is the last member?"

I shook my head, before remembering that Iona couldn’t see me. Derp.

"No, Godwin Peacevale." I answered.

"Eh, close enough. They’re one of the counts sworn to the Connors. The team is nice and politically balanced among the six duchies. How convenient." I could feel the disdain dripping off of Iona’s voice.

"Easier for you to beat them up though, right?" I asked her.

"They’re only sending one dud, but yes." Iona said. "The Peacevales, by all accounts, have the right idea as nobility. That they’re there for the good of their people, and it’s a noble’s job to empower. They’re just so sanctimonious and annoying about it. Are the maces here?"

"Uhh… yeah, the intel report said Godwin’s using two maces, how’d you know?"

"The family has a pair of weapons called The Twin Sisters. Hard to know if they’ve given him the real ones, or he’s on a training pair. That’s good to know ahead of time. They’re made out of Phasite. They go straight through metal, trying to block them is a sucker’s bet. At the same time, the Peacevales tend towards large-scale buffs, so they’re practically wasted in his hands."

"He sounds easy enough to beat in a one versus one?" I cautiously offered up.

"Should be. Right, flip over. My turn to massage you."

The ‘massage’ didn’t last that long.

A few dozen of us were hanging around the School’s quarters, waiting for Shirayuki to get back from the meeting. Those of us who were here were the ones that really cared about the brackets.

Shirayuki stormed into the room, her tails lashing angrily. The temperature of the room plummeted as the Ice [Elementalist] stomped around the room.

Mormerilhawn walked in behind her.

"Disqualified!" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air, and my heart skipped a beat. "Those no-good, rotten, blasted…" She went along in that vein, cursing the judges, the fauns…

No.

What did she mean?

"You gotta say more than that!" One of the elves promptly shot back. "Did we all get disqualified? What for?"

Shirayuki stilled.

"You’re right. Let me clarify. Morning Breeze has been disqualified from all teams she was a member of. Under the disqualification rules, she can’t be replaced, and all six teams are going to be fighting down a person."

"Not fair!" I protested, my voice just one among the chorus objecting to this turn of events. Iona slipped her hand in mind and gave me a quick squeeze.

"If I may explain." The Black Rose spoke softly, but he had a way of cutting across the entire room, everyone silencing themselves to listen to the [Judge] speak.

"As you should all know, I am one of the premier [Judges] of this event. Neutrality, and adherence to the rules and laws is my calling, regardless of my affiliation with all of you. I will now attempt to explain the rules and policies that came into play here."

He slightly adjusted how he stood, and suddenly, he had presence.

"As an elemental, Morning Breeze’s exact age is impossible to determine, even by our experts. There is no way we can verify that she is within the age brackets given. Further, elementals tend to exist in one way, shape, or form, before springing into existence. What is the proper age metric? From the time the wind first started to blow, or from the time Morning Breeze was created? That was the first concern. The second concern is a shielding and protection one. While all combatants in an event may choose to forgo shields, I am the only one who is able to even begin to form a protection for Morning Breeze. This places her at great risk… from a rules and philosophy perspective. That said, a number of [Judges] did agree that common sense could apply, since she is an elemental. No, the last, great point came from the Silver Clause. Shirayuki, would you care to explain the Silver Clause?"

Our coach stopped storming around so much, and walked over to the Black Rose.

"The Silver Clause. In a way, it’s what I wanted. Just not quite like this." She explained. "When a team shows up with a way to flat-out win the entire event - multiple events even - and there’s simply no hope for anyone else to win, and the organizers are concerned for how the event is going to be viewed, they invoke the Silver Clause. In a nutshell, our secret weapon gets banned, but we get generously compensated, both with money, favors, and influence. I don’t like it. I’d much rather have Morning Breeze make our point for us instead. But I should be able to use it to crack down hard on all the other shenanigans that are going on. That idiot [Poisoner] who tried to sneak in last night will help us make our point."

"Boooooo!" I called out, and I wasn’t alone.

"Pathetic." The Black Rose’s voice cut across us. "Are you not members of the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft? Do you not have anything better to do? In many senses, you have already won this year’s events, in all categories. Do not be such poor sports. Lastly. You are the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. It would be to my eternal shame if you are unable to entirely sweep all of the events, even down a single person. Think!" Mormerilhawn ended his speech with a derisive snort, and teleported out of the room without another word.

He did manage to shut us up though. Shirayuki seized the moment.

"Mormerilhawn is correct. This is a chance for us to show the world that we are the best. I expect nothing less than total victory. Now, for the brackets. I will start with the unrestricted singles. Anyone interested please meet me in my room."

I filed into Shirayuki’s room with Pascal, Sarama, and Iona.

"Elaine. Pascal. Sarama. Excellent, please take a seat." We did as Shirayuki asked.

"We pulled some early round luck." Shirayuki said without preamble. "The seeded Lithos team met with disaster on the way over. They had three trolls with them, and something about an overly large tree, a rabbit, and the fact that they had imported Aerie wine meant the three trolls encountered sunlight."

We all gave a sympathetic wince. The troll’s curse was nasty. Instant death when sunlight was involved?

"They asked to meet against one of the powerhouses in the first round, and with some negotiations, I managed it to be us. Their one request is we take them out fast and hard, to minimize their time in the spotlight. That’s the first round taken care of. Second round’s going to be against the Yellow Jackets, unless the team that won through the preliminaries can beat them, and it’s possible that the Yellow Jackets don’t want us to beat the stuffing out of them. On a larger note, Hapensburgs is on the other side of the bracket, along with Chanlarr and the Wizard’s University. Calador’s and the elf Academy are on our side. Round 5 and 6 respectively. Round 3 and 4 are completely up in the air. Questions?"

Iona looked like she was physically in pain, and I had enough information to start.

"With the whole Silver Rule nonsense, does that mean I don’t need to worry about potion smashers anymore?" Sarama asked.

Shirayuki gave a curt nod.

"In theory, and the fauns know we’ll be quite cross with them if they let any shenanigans occur after the Silver Clause was invoked and we specifically asked for skullduggery to be reduced. They know we’ll be extra annoyed with them if anything happens to us specifically. I expect dramatically increased security. All this to say, no. Your potions should be safe."

"I’ll have to remove the traps then…" Sarama muttered to herself.

Iona was slowly dying in the background while all this was going on. Shirayuki turned to her.

"Yes. You’re against Rolland in the first round."

Iona’s triumphant shout almost burst our eardrums, and got people running.

Chapter 16 - The Gladiator Gauntlet VI

"Want company?" I asked Iona.

"Brrrpt?" Auri was also offering to come.

Iona shook her head.

"You should get enough sleep. You’ve got a long day tomorrow."

I snorted in derision.

"We have a bye tomorrow. We’d have to screw up beyond belief to lose." I retorted.

"It’s still not fair to ask you to stay up all night."

"What are girlfriends for?" I asked rhetorically, then saw the look on Iona’s face. "And don’t say what you’re thinking."

She closed her mouth and smirked at me.

"Thanks. You can come if you’d like. I doubt it’ll be particularly comfortable."

I shrugged.

"Eh. I’ll just loot some of the pillows, and make myself a nest."

"Brrrpt?"

"Yes, I did get the idea from the bestest bird ever, how’d you know?"

"Brrrpt." Auri puffed up in self-satisfaction.

The four of us wandered down to the local tabernacle after dinner. Fenrir curled up outside, the [Priests] less than amused by his presence but nobody was willing to make an issue out of it. Iona and I, trailed by an excited Auri, went inside, and without issue, found a small private chapel for her.

Iona kneeled down in her full armor in front of the altar, and started praying.

I arranged my pillows around me in a small fortress of fluff, and sent a quick prayer off to the moon goddesses. They were Iona’s patrons after all.

I didn’t know what to say, so I kept it short and sweet.

Heya! Thanks for looking after Iona! I appreciate it!

I teleported out a single book, getting ready for a long night. My stash of them was running low, otherwise I’d read two at once. If I burned through them too fast though, I’d have nothing to do, and boredom sucked.

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked me ‘quietly’.

"She’s doing a knightly vigil." I wanted to laugh at the pun. "Staying up all night praying to her goddesses."

"Brrrpt?"

"Yeah, you can go hang out with Fenrir if you want."

"Brrrpt!"

A blazing streak of flames was left in the air as Auri left to do something more fun.

Watching Iona though?

That never got old.

I settled further into my pile of pillows, and waited out the night as Iona prayed.

I blearily stirred as Iona gently shook my shoulder.

"It’s morning. You should probably get ready for your own event."

My new and improved senses helped me know it was just barely, technically morning. I went outside, and yup, the sun was a mere suggestion on the horizon.

Auri and Fenrir were still outside. Fenrir was curled up like the largest cat in existence, his tail almost covering his nose. Auri was sleeping on the tip of his tail, every exhalation of Fenrir’s stirring her flames.

"Need any help getting ready?" I asked my love.

Iona shook her head.

"I appreciate you staying with me. Thank you."

A quick hug and a kiss later, and I was off for my own preparations.

Weigh-ins were first. Each team had a combined weight limit of 700 lbs of equipment, and I could easily imagine what things could look like without a limit, with magic involved.

Like. A team with enough money and motivation could bring an entire mobile base, or even a flying fortress! The weight limit, along with the gemstone ban and age limits, were the major limiting factors.

Sarama, Iris and myself were all ‘lightweights’. In other words, we had the tight-fitting School uniforms that were as light as possible, weighing less than a pound each. We were all issued daggers, and Sarama and Iris were both bare-footed. I had on my fancy traction-improving boots.

Everything was enchanted. The big issue with enchantments was powering them. We’d need to use our mana to fuel the enchantments, and if we were doing that, we weren’t using our mana on other things.

Like [Nova Lance] to the head.

Sarama’s potion supply counted against our weight limit, and was easily the single largest weight expense. The second largest weight ‘expense’ was going towards Pascal’s and Sir Polarton’s armor and weapon sets, which were significant. Ling Li was a medium weight, the cultivator requiring a heftier range of weapons, without full heavy armor.

Naturally, backup weapons and spares for the armor pieces most commonly damaged were part of our loadout. It wasn’t unheard of for teams to make the finals, and the heavyweight warriors were simply missing pieces of armor. The only thing that was allowed to be replaced was simple clothing.

Melt a sword into slag? Better have a backup sword, or fight with the melted metal. The third option was to have a crafter on the team who could fix and supply weapons, like how Sarama being on our team allowed us to use potions.

[Bookwyrm’s Hoard] was, interestingly enough, a problem. It was impossible to verify that it was empty, but I wasn’t the first Spatial mage with personal storage. I thought it was complete bullshit that anything stored inside my Spatial storage counted against our weight limit, when magically conjuring the exact same thing with a conjuration skill didn’t count - and retrieving stored items cost about twice as much mana as conjuring the same thing!

It was completely unfair, but I didn’t write the rules.

"Place all your gear here please." The faun running things pointed to a large magic circle painted on the ground.

Most of our gear was already on, and I summoned the first spellbook - my offensive magics one - and placed it on an empty spot. One at a time, I grabbed my pre-written spellbooks and added them to the pile, the faun dutifully noting the details of each one. It’d be a minor penalty - aka losing the current round, and automatically losing a second one - if I took out a book that wasn’t ‘registered’, even if it was a mundane book.

I supposed, in theory, I could conjure up an extra-large book and drop it on someone.

I’d be obligated to say meep meep if I did.

"Is this everything?" The faun asked us.

I looked around at my teammates.

"I’ve got all my gear on. Ling Li?"

The cultivator nodded.

"Sir Polarton?"

"Everything on." He said without even opening his mouth.

Honestly, the bear could at least do a better job pretending he wasn’t a 9 foot tall polar bear.

A quick round of confirmations - with Sarama hovering over her potions like an overprotective hen - and I turned back to the faun.

"All set!" I confirmed.

He worked his magic, and confirmed the weight.

"691 lbs. Thank you for making this easy." He said.

We exchanged a round of high fives - I dodged getting swatted by Sir Polarton’s idea of a ‘gentle tap’ - and quickly started to change into our gear.

It was time!

There was another ceremony to kick off the ‘finals’.

"It is my great pleasure to announce the finalists of the 211th Gladiator Gauntlet! This year we have a star-studded cast like none before! First…"

I wanted to roll my eyes. Dude practically gave the same speech every year.

It had taken Shirayuki explaining it to me in small words, but I managed to get the logic. This was one of the times we were highly visible. This was one of the moments to show off. By showing off here, we got the attention we wanted, attracted eyes, and then by winning after, we got people interested in sending their kids to the School.

We hammed it up.

Sarama juggled ‘potions’ - really colored water, enchanted to glow - and her [Potion Handling] skill made it flawless. Ling Li had an elegant dance of her leaves around her, while Pascal had his wolf-mask in fierce and snarling shapes, ‘snapping’ at leaves that got close to him. Sir Polarton was flexing and stretching like he was some sort of [Body Builder], and Iris was seated on a moving throne of Ice, Lightning sparkling around her and through her chair.

I was being a little less subtle.

I just made a giant arrow out of [Mantle of the Stars] pointing down at us.

Different teams had different approaches, depending on their personality and goals. Iona was silently studying the Rolland team, and the Lithos team was trying to stay small and unobtrusive. Hapensburgs were acting like the entire event revolved around them, while Wizard’s University was shooting off celebratory magical fireworks.

The elven Academy members were all but turning up their nose at the whole thing, while Chanlaar had their own display of skills.

I think. They usually had an [Illusionist] showing off a completely different set of skills, given how easy it’d be to scout their elements otherwise.

I wanted to walk around the various competitors at some point, and see what I could see. [The World Around Me] easily penetrated all but the strongest illusions, letting me see what was real. There was usually a powerful illusionist team, and they could take anyone by surprise. Extra so if they were smart and careful about it. Unlike that idiot team Iona had beaten.

The stands were a bit light, but that was understandable. The biggest draw of the under-30 event was showing off how different places educated and trained their newest generation. Or so I thought. Solid for people thinking about their legacy and heirs.

People who just wanted a good show went to watch the unrestricted bracket, going on at the same time in a nearby arena. That was one impressive show, and I admitted with no shame that I snuck over there to watch the events when we were done.

A few vendors moved around the stands, selling hot food and cold beer to anyone with the coins to pay for them, extracting every last bit of value out of the tourists.

"... without further ado, let the game begin!" The [Announcer] roared, and one at a time we filed off the field, into one of the waiting rooms.

"Hey! School of Sorcery and Spellcraft! Great! You guys are up first, follow me!" A faun enthusiastically bounced up to us. [The World Around Me] was more or less automatic, letting me know he was authentic.

We’d caught a fake a few years ago trying to direct us somewhere else, which would’ve had us miss a round. That was part of the nonsense Shirayuki had been fighting against.

We followed him - unfortunately ruining my chance to quickly consult with Iona - and were soon at another door, back into the arena.

"... and from the north entrance, one of our favorites! Give it up for the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft!" The [Announcer] shouted, and we exited again to cheers.

I ignored the crowds this time, my eyes snapping to the four remaining members of the Lithos team. Three men and one woman, all of them dressed like the [Raiders] they were portrayed as. Unlike the popular rumor, their helmets did not have horns on them, but most of the other depictions were accurate.

They weren’t the nicest neighbors, using their longships to sail up and down the major rivers, finding villages and other small settlements to raid, pillage, and loot.

My sources of information might be a hair biased though.

"Shirayuki’s deal with them is we’re supposed to take them out fast and hard." I reminded my team. "Ling Li, sorry, going to hold you in reserve for this one. Iris, do you want to do it or should I?"

The selkie thought about it a moment.

"Two and two?" She suggested.

That sounded fine. Enough to quickly take them out, but neither one of us would burn so much mana that we couldn’t do anything in the teamfight portion. It’d also give them 2 points, giving them a tiny edge in the rankings against teams that were entirely eliminated. A small concession.

"Go first. You need the regeneration time more than I do." I told the selkie.

She nodded.

"Teams, present your candidates!" The [Referee] called. Iris and one of the Lithos warriors both stepped forward, on opposite ends of the generous arena. It wasn’t the flat stone of the preliminaries, no. It was back to the fortress setting I’d seen earlier.

The two teams could see each other clearly, across a dirt field. To the west side, there was a small fort, surrounded by a moat and with a small drawbridge. To the east side there was a small stand of trees acting as a ‘forest’.

Adding in some small torches along the inner walls of the fort gave the eight basic elements some representation each. Earth and Air were easy and obvious, from the dirt ground, the stone walls of the fortress, and… well, Air was everywhere. Water was in the moat, while the little torches provided the Fire. Metal chains supported a Wood drawbridge, and I expected a variety of mundane weapons inside the fort. The little grove of trees were also obviously Wood, and the shadows they provided were Dark.

The games being held during the day gave the obvious Light, and with that, the basic elements were all represented in a mix the game organizers believed was optimal. Nobody who relied on [Water Breathing] would be missing a body of water to use, and anyone who could [Rapidly Grow] had trees to start.

The field changed from year to year, but the idea was the same. Give people common resources they’d normally have access to, so they could best show off. Unfortunate for people who had advanced elements like Sand, but those were the breaks.

The fort was also the tiebreaker. If, say, a flying [Mage] shot up into the air, and couldn’t beat a [Warrior] on the ground, they’d otherwise stalemate. The fort allowed for a tiebreaker - whoever controlled the tower in the middle uncontested for long enough would automatically win.

Lastly was the arena shields. Powerful wards, they didn’t let skills in or out. Aura skills were prevented from going in, stopping interference, and the combatants could unleash powerful attacks without worrying about the crowd.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] announced, and the fight was on!

Iris walked forward as the Lithos warrior charged across the field, working on closing the gap. Most fights started that way, the two contestants simply meeting on the field of battle and exchanging blows.

Iris let him get inside her maximum range, then waited. And waited. And waited some more. Her rapid leveling had constantly increased her range, and there was no sense in showing it early.

When he was close enough she let out a steady stream of Lightning, the bright flashes and thunderous sounds hiding what was happening to most viewers. I could see no problem, and everyone saw the Lithos warrior’s shield flare a bright red, as the many-colored lights sparkled all over the arena, signifying the end of the round.

"Victory to the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft! The School shows once again why it’s one of the favorites to win the whole thing!" The [Announcer] crowed as Iris and the Lithos contestant walked back to their sides.

"An excellent victory." Ling Li graciously allowed.

"You’re still good for a second, right?" I asked Iris. She nodded.

"Only a quarter of my mana. I could take them all!" She said.

"You probably could. Let’s stick to the original plan. They might have a trump they’re hiding, and want to go down in a blaze of glory against us, instead of the original ‘let us beat them’ arrangement they made." I countered.

Iris and their second contestant took to the field, and the second match ended within seconds of the two contestants meeting. Iris’s initial blast of Lightning did nothing, some skill protecting the [Raider], but a blizzard in a bubble put him away nicely.

She returned back.

"Strong work." I told her. "I’ll take it from here."

Iris looked a little disappointed, but she knew it was the right call. I knew roughly what her mana to power ratio was, along with how many skills she had, and she was running low. The eternal curse of a mage - we were amazing for a few seconds, then nothing.

I stepped forward.

"The School is making a substitution!" The [Announcer] called. "We have the star of the School herself, Elaine Elaine! With fearsome Radiance magic, a nigh-unbreakable shield, and a powerful [Warrior] class, this combatant is a powerhouse and a half, and easy on the eyes to boot!"

I was going to strangle the faun’s scrawny little neck at the end of this. With that said, I didn’t mind the misinformation about my third class being spread around.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] ended my misery at the [Announcer’s] antics, and the fight was on.

For about a second.

My [Nova Lance] had reach. I could hit a combatant standing on the other side of the stage from where I was standing, and I had no issues showing it off. They’d already seen it in prior years, and people had to declare when they were fighting unshielded.

That was obnoxious. Bartolo had let everyone know I was an Oathbound healer about three minutes after he’d betrayed us, and people quickly gelled to the fact that going into a fight unshielded against me severely hampered my options. I hadn’t been a good enough wizard at first, nor had I gotten my biological upgrades done yet, and the year after had been rough. It wasn’t a spar, and it wasn’t a real fight, so I found myself entirely bound to do absolutely no harm to my opponents. They knew it, and completely abused the fact.

I had more tools at my disposal to fight back now. Two years of seeing what tricks people came up with, and how they got out of what I’d thought up had refined my arsenal of wizardry.

All in all, it was good to be a high level [Mage].

I basked in the brief adoration of the crowd and the announcer, not even needing to move to reset myself.

The next round was much like the first, and I still had a large chunk of mana. A blinding [Nova Lance] to the eye, carefully going through the eyeslit, and we were the winners.

"Winner of the singles portion. The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. 14 points to 2." The [Referee] announced, his words magically amplified.

The Lithos team shouted their surrender. I assumed. I didn’t know the language.

The [Referee] did though, and my suspicions were quickly confirmed.

"At 25 points to 2, the winner of the first round is the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft!" He decreed.

I skipped out on the [Announcer’s] inane, overly eager analysis in favor of finding Iona.

There wasn’t much I could say or do for Iona while we were waiting. She sat, almost perfectly still, and I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Honestly, the only thing I could do for her was be here. Be her support.

I knew how much this meant to her.

From where we were waiting, I could occasionally see flashes of lights from the unrestricted arena, along with hearing their [Announcer] giving the blow-by-blow of the fight.

There were some skill-shenanigans involved with the shield for those events, and the actual display. The events were over in seconds, the Immortals involved able to trade blows so quickly that it was over before the average viewer could see what was going on. They were somehow capturing the fight, and playing it ‘slowly’ for everyone to help with the excitement.

Those events were also risky. Genuine death was a possibility. The Black Rose couldn’t teleport out people at that level, and his shields were up against people of the same level he was. There was a strong possibility that an attack would penetrate his shields, and be lethal all at once.

Predictably, the crowds loved it. The event had more professional [Gladiators] than the other events, and I knew that only a tiny fraction of the world’s powerhouses were showing up for it.

Soon enough, it was Iona’s turn to fight.

"Hey." I grabbed Iona’s hand as she started to leave. "No matter what happens, remember I love you. Okay?"

She squeezed my hand back.

"I love you too." The Valkyrie said, before leaping down onto the arena. Fenrir and Auri joined her a moment later.

I ignored the fluff they said about the Rolland team. Boo Rolland! Go Iona!

"And on the south side! We have Team Iona! This warrior single-handedly fought her way through the preliminaries with a perfect, undefeated record! That’s right [Lords] and [Ladies]! Valkyrie Iona here won every single fight to stand before you today!" The [Announcer] shouted. "Will her record continue? Or can the Rolland team successfully bring her down? Find out soon!"

Iona stepped forward without her helmet on, and began speaking. Someone involved with the event quickly caught on, and magnified her voice for everyone to hear.

"I am Iona, the Dusk Valkyrie. Know that I am sworn to tell no lie, that I have taken a sacred [Vow] to that extent. Every word I speak here today is the truth. The history of the Valkyries is a storied one, a tale you are all familiar with. Under promises and treaties with the royal family of Rolland, we settled down in the country, having been promised support. Yet, when the Valkyries took to the field to defend Rolland, the [Duke] left us to die. When it came time to support us after years of upholding our bargain, the [Queen] abandoned us to the cold." Iona paused a moment, letting the murmurs ripple through the crowd.

"I name the nobility of Rolland cowards. The craven lot do not deserve the thrones they sit on, nor do they deserve the crowns they place on their heads."

I sucked in a cold breath through my teeth. Those were fighting words. If Iona said anything remotely like that in Rolland, they’d do their damndest to arrest her, try her for treason, and summarily execute her… if they didn’t skip straight to the last step.

There was no way they could back down from the challenge. The loss of face on the world stage… I had a hard time trying to figure out how bad it was going to be. Bad. Big. Even I could tell, and I had the social skills of a dimwitted goldfish.

… wait, there was no way Iona tailored that speech to my level of understanding, was there??

Rolland was definitely off my list of future destinations, at least in the near future. Maybe I’d give it a few generations before I poked my head in there again.

One of Rolland’s members stepped forward, and I recognized him as the Shining Prince. A solid candidate to rebut Iona.

"I am [Prince] Elric Morgans, brother to the [Queen], [Duke] of Bellington and [Champion] of the realm. The poor [Valkyrie] across from me is sorely mistaken. We filled our end of the bargain. We upheld our oaths and promises. The Valkyries failed. They failed to protect their land. They were inadequate to protect their people. They permitted monsters to breed and level in their lands, then spill over into their neighbors, where they ravaged the population. What were we to do? Let them continue to be weak, and destroy us from the inside out like some parasite? Or cut the festering wound out?"

He let the crowd process that.

I pulled a face. Ouch. That particular speech had been a little too on the nose. There was a little too much truth to it.

"For this insult to our honor, I demand that we fight without shields. To the surrender. Or is the Valkyrie the very coward she decries us to be?" He taunted Iona.

"I gladly accept your challenge. Make your peace with your gods." Iona shouted back, magically amplified by the arena.

The prospect of real bloodshed was getting the crowd excited.

"Both parties have agreed to an unshielded match. A reminder that killing a surrendering foe will not only get you entirely disqualified, but is illegal, and the penalties are stiff." The [Referee] announced.

The nasty part left unsaid - killing a foe in the heat of the moment happened. Everybody knew what they were getting into. Fighting unshielded was rare as a result. It was just a game, nobody wanted to die.

Iona reformed her helmet around her head as he spoke, picking up her glaive and shield. She was strong enough to use both at the same time comfortably, so why not?

I saw her bow her head slightly, praying to her patrons right before the fight. The Shining Prince himself stepped up as her first opponent. He had full heavy plate on, while carrying a greatsword as wide as his thigh, and almost as tall as he was.

Ruination. A blade forged of the magic metal ruinite, able to corrupt, destroy, and absorb other metal it came into contact with.

"Fame. Glory. Hono-" The [Referee] was starting the match when the world shifted.

The skies went dark, and on long unused instinct, I looked up into the sky. Ready to see a flock of ravenous dinosaurs ready to descend upon us and feast.

What I saw made me wish there was a ravenous flock of pterodactyls ready to descend upon us and try to eat us alive.

The moons had been knocked out from their normal orbit around Pallos. One was superimposed over the sun, creating a total solar eclipse.

The illusion on them shattered, revealing pale blue and yellow orbs. A column of light radiated down from each of them, anointing their chosen [Paladin] on the field.

Chapter 17 - The Gladiator Gauntlet VII

The moons had shifted in their orbit.

The moons had been shifted. Selene and Lunaris - I could imagine no other entity that could even begin to think about pulling off the stunt - had spun the moons in their orbit, eclipsing the sun and explicitly highlighting Iona before a crowd of hundreds. Soon to be thousands, if not tens of thousands. What was happening had to be visible before half the world!

Roughly?

This was going to cause all sorts of havoc with the tides, calendars… my mind boggled at just how many things got casually upended with a single move.

The fact that the goddesses could casually shatter the illusion Lun’Kat had on the moons was also interesting, with dozens, if not hundreds, of implications. Things to work through another day.

"-r. Match Pause!" The [Referee] caught himself in the middle of starting the fight, aborting right before saying ‘fight’.

The crowd exploded. We all got to our feet, cheering or screaming. The screaming portion of the crowd was mainly trying to flee the arena, and get out before something bad happened, while the cheering part couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

I was on my feet like the rest of them, yelling myself hoarse.

Then the howls started. I whirled around to one behind me.

Some of the spectators, scattered here and there, were werewolves. Generally harmless, all but the most sociopathic werewolves restrained themselves during the full moon. They knew the phases of the moon the way I knew where the nearest source of mangos was.

Divine intervention had understandably screwed with their careful planning, and now they were transforming. In the crowd. With no restraints.

Werewolves could transform into the wolf-elvenoid hybrid when they wanted, and still retained most of their faculties. It was different under a full moon, or two.

Chaos erupted. I split my mind into pieces, one focused on everything else going on, the other on the werewolf right in front of me. One was in fight mode, the other was in heal mode.

I didn’t want to kill anyone if I didn’t have to. None of the werewolves here had planned to transform, to become raging beasts attacking everyone around them.

The werewolf snarled and lunged at the woman next to him, who was screaming and falling back. I shot forward, throwing up a shield between the two of them. The werewolf bounced off my shield, and turned to me. His lips were curled back, showing his teeth, and he crouched before pouncing at me.

He was slow. A fat [Merchant] by… I wanted to say day, but it was daytime right now. Either way, he didn’t have significant stats boosting him. It was trivial to step into his wild swipes, and grab him by the throat.

The other part of my mind noted a dozen different people getting mauled. We were all under full moonlight, and it was trivial for my mind to flicker out, casting [Wheel of Sun and Moon] along with [Dance with the Heavens] to heal and stabilize everyone in my range.

None would die while I was here.

The part of me handling the werewolf was still going.

"Bad doggy." I said. He snapped at my face, his teeth closing an inch away from my nose. I used my other hand to clamp down on his snout, forcing his mouth closed.

"No. Down." I said.

What I was saying was terribly offensive to an untransformed werewolf, but most of the social rules of etiquette went out the window during a murder attempt. He started it.

He tried to scratch at my back. I snapped my shield up behind me, protecting my clothes. I doubted he could penetrate my subdermal rainbow serpent scales, but why go shopping for another outfit?

Then he kicked me. The angle was bad - I was holding his throat and mouth, and my shield was protecting my back. He had a significant height advantage on me, and with bestial cunning, let my grip on his throat hold him up.

His kick tore my shirt and raked across my belly, drawing the thinnest of bloody lines. It didn’t manage to get through my biomancied skin, but I felt a sharp chill spread from the source, starting to settle into my bones.

Oh fuck.

The werewolf curse. There was nothing else I could imagine that felt like that.

My healing had nothing on it. It just wasn’t something it could handle. I’d need to see a cursebreaker, and fast.

Then, so fast I only caught an azure blur, the werewolf was viciously ripped from my hands. I was left with a tuft of fur as blessed warmth spread through my body. The curse lifted.

I blinked, collapsing my [Parallel Thoughts] back together, mentally replaying what happened. [Astral Archives] gave me a perfect look.

A demon, probably one of the Immortal combatants in the unrestricted tournament, had shot through, picking up dozens of other werewolves before grabbing mine, and had continued on, seizing the beasts and securing them - and the audience - against further harm.

More Immortals were sprinting through the arena, moving so quickly they were blurring. A powerful [Cursebreaker] was clearly also at work.

The woman who’d almost gotten mauled by the werewolf was still lying there in shock. I took a few steps over and offered her my hand.

"Hey. You okay?" I asked in the language I thought she’d recognize the most, using a gentle tone.

She flinched at me, and I drew back.

I scanned the stadium, continuing to blast healing all around me.

It looked like things were rapidly coming under control again. I was reminded of the sheer tyranny of stats and levels. I was a cut above just about everyone my age. Heck, when it came to mortals it wasn’t bragging to say I was in the top fraction of the top 1%.

I was a complete baby when ancient Immortals entered the picture.

The [Announcer] had been blessedly silent the entire time, and I had a brief moment of hope that one of the werewolves had done him in. He spoke up, and my dreams were dashed.

"[Lords] and [Ladies], please remain calm. Our security has things well under control."

"Bullshit." I muttered under my breath. Their security had done nothing. It was all the other competitors. I had to imagine Vollomond was having a Bad Day.

I had some minor sympathy for Night. He’d told me about how the gods had kept messing with creation, but I’d never really appreciated what it meant for a pair of goddesses to just twist the moons in the sky and upend everything.

"Without further ado, let us continue the games! And yes! Here is Mormerilhawn, the Black Rose himself!" The [Announcer] shouted as Mormerilhawn teleported into the arena. He took in the situation at a glance, and had a quiet word with the [Referee], who nodded at him like a bobblehead.

He went to have a quiet word with Iona, and damn his skills. He had a [Private Conversation] skill or something. Great for investigations for [Judges], less great for when I wanted to eavesdrop on what was going on.

He did keep glancing at the moons while talking with Iona. A [Runner] of some sort sprinted onto the field, handed the [Judge] a slip of paper, and sprinted back off the field. Mormerilhawn took a quick look at the slip of paper.

My eyes let me peek at what was written, and the language was Combrogi, one of the keystone languages I’d learned. I could only make out ‘permit’ due to the angle, with no context.

Drat.

The Black Rose then had a quick word with the Shining Prince, then stepped forward to the middle of the field.

He stepped forward, and his voice was magically amplified.

"I have determined that the present events do not qualify as Outside Assistance. Iona is a [Paladin] of Selene and Lunaris, and their assistance is valid. If anyone has an issue with the ruling, take it up with them." Mormerilhawn drily added that last part, pointing up at the blazing moons hanging in the sky.

"Yes!" I screamed, the crowd having a similar reaction.

The… much larger crowd. Forget the werewolf assault, this arena was the place to be. People were pouring into the stadium to watch the match, and I spotted the first fliers hovering over the edge, peeking into the arena.

"The One Hit Wonder is permitted to continue fighting! What other miracles will we see today!?" The [Announcer] continued stating the obvious.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" Mormerilhawn decreed, and the fight was joined.

Iona was honored beyond words. Selene and Lunaris had shifted the very sky to show their blessing. To show they cared. To show their favor for the Valkyries and Iona’s fight for honor and recognition.

To bring attention to Iona and her cause in her hour of need.

She hadn’t asked, they’d just done it. Spotlighting her in the glowing beams of the two moons for the world to see.

Prayers and thanks would have to wait though. They clearly expected Iona to win, and win big, in front of the ever-growing crowd. Each victory Iona achieved would bring people to her goddesses, and that was right.

First was dealing with Elric, the Shining Prince. Triple classed with Brilliance and Gale being his main classes, and Sound being his new third. Iona had gotten a chance to study the Rolland team during the opening events, and had the start of a plan for each member of the team.

No plan survived first contact with the enemy, but the broad strokes and outlines were there.

Brilliance was his main [Knight] class, and the reason for his title. He had the standard fighting skills, armor and weapon reinforcing skills, an energy skill, a barrier skill, and a skill to let him [Shine]. People could always find him in a fight, a blazing beacon of hope - and it let him blind his foes.

Gale was his second element, focusing on passive speed, active skills to help him move faster, skills to sharpen his blades and a few diplomacy and politics-related skills. It wasn’t as scary as his Brilliance element, but still deadly.

His Sound class was last, and Iona was almost able to ignore it. The skills were primarily command-related, with a single skill dedicated to improving his speed.

All in all, he was fast. Possibly faster than Iona was, even after Elaine’s brilliant [Biomancy] additions. His greatsword, Ruination, also threatened to smash through Iona’s defenses, even with her skills.

However, nothing was free. His speed focus came at a cost, namely his vitality and strength, along with weaker magic stats than Iona had. Two of his classes were split, a leader-warrior hybrid. Wearing his mana out would slow him down, but would it slow him down enough?

Iona had two different plans for Elric. If she encountered him late, she’d take to the skies with [Valkyrie’s Flight] and pepper him with arrows. It would wear away at his defenses, and [Frost Wyvern’s Fang] let her apply her full strength to her arrows. She had a reasonable shot at punching through his armor and getting an arrow or two into him. It wouldn’t be enough to make him yield, but it’d give Iona enough of an advantage to directly clash with him.

Elric was her first round opponent though, and [Valkyrie’s Flight] was a mana-hungry skill. She didn’t want to blow all her mana on her first opponent, not when there were six more after him.

She was stronger than he was by a significant margin. More durable. Iona won the moment it became a slugging match, where she could trade blows with Elric.

Naturally, the Shining Prince would want to avoid that.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

The fight was on.

Iona charged the prince, glaive held in two hands while her shield was securely attached to her left arm. The prince’s armor began shining, but it was a useless attempt to blind Iona. He didn’t know Iona’s perception skills couldn’t be disrupted like that.

Iona’s own skills came online. [Weakness] was searching for any vulnerable point, while [Lunar Mass] increased Iona’s weight and momentum - and that of her weapons. [Harmony of the Spheres] would try to bridge the gap in their speed when it came to swinging weapons around, and [Star Forged] reinforced her own weapons and armor. All this was before her true passives came into play.

The Valkyrie shifted her grip on her glaive as she waited for the prince to make the first move. Anything she did, Elric was fast enough to counter. Iona’s improved reflexes suggested that she could react to his moves, even if she wasn’t fast enough, and the current mutual charge was beneficial to her.

If they collided, Iona would bowl Elric over like he was a child, Brilliance barriers or no. She was heavier than him, even before her skills, and she welcomed a direct clash that would let her apply her strength.

He was no idiot, bringing his greatsword up like a fencer’s foil, threatening to run Iona through with it.

The collision was like a high speed game of chess, but with hundreds of pounds moving at inhuman speeds. Most of the mortals in the overflowing stands wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Iona cursed. Normally, she could just batter the sword out of the way and continue her charge. Except Ruination would utterly destroy her glaive if she tried. Iona making the first move, or changing course, would give Elric the opportunity to gain the momentum advantage. With his speed and experience, it’d be trivial to turn the small advantage into a larger one, snowballing until victory was his. The same was true for Iona, both [Warriors] powerful and experienced.

Iona knew it.

Elric knew it.

Iona called his bluff.

At the last possible moment, she let go of her glaive with her left hand, retracting her armor from the same hand. She moved to slap the greatsword out of the way, but Elric twisted the blade, continuing to present the sharp edge of it to Iona’s hand as the point went towards her heart.

Iona twisted, casting [Frost Wyvern’s Fang] to summon her horn bow into her hands as she slapped the blade anyway. It was sharp and reinforced, slicing straight through the bow, but not only did Iona have a layer of padding on her gloves, but the ankylosaurus subdermal layer Elaine had modified her with added as a complete set of armor.

Biological armor, which Ruination couldn’t work its magics on.

The layers slowed the sword down, but it was still a greatsword moving at incredibly high speeds, reinforced to impossible sharpness by Elric’s Gale skill. It bit deep regardless, Iona’s hand half bisected between her middle and ring fingers all the way down to her wrist.

Without her modifications, without her stats, Iona’s hand and most of her arm would’ve passed through the greatsword, entirely failing to modify its trajectory. It would’ve impaled her through and through, and that’d be the end of her run. Her modifications, acting as a third layer of tough armor changed all that, letting her push the sword completely out of the way.

The sacrifice was worth it though. She was now inside of Elric’s guard, and in spite of his best efforts to change course, it was too little, too late. She slammed into him like a charging triceratops, and a triceratops would’ve done less damage than Iona did.

His Brilliance shield on his armor shattered, and Iona’s impact was enough to dent and break his skill-reinforced armor, transmitting the shock and the impact all the way to the prince’s body.

She didn’t pause. Didn’t rest on her laurels.

Didn’t give him a chance to get up.

Iona followed through on her charge, leaping on top of Elric before he finished tumbling across the field. Easy enough when her charge had never stopped, the only danger being the chaotically flashing Ruination.

Then the two were grappling, Iona able to leverage her greater strength and weight. It was an overwhelming advantage.

She grabbed Elric’s arm and professionally snapped his elbow with her knee, the prince unable to escape.

He screamed, an anti-pain skill not being on his list, and Iona grabbed his second arm.

Elaine had modified Iona with biomancy, giving her subdermal dinosaur armor. That had been secondary to the main modifications she’d made - making Iona strong.

Making Iona ridiculously strong.

With a savage tug, she ripped off the Shining Prince’s other arm, then started bashing his head with his own arm, slapping him back and forth as she rained blows down on him.

Her lips were curled back and she was practically snarling, the savage aspects of her bond with Fenrir bursting through.

"I yield! I yield!" The prince shouted his concession after the briefest of moments.

Iona got up, not being particularly careful how. She weighed a lot, and wasn’t particularly gentle in how she got up. She didn’t deliberately hit the prince or anything, and the two went back to their respective sides, the prince stoically carrying his ripped arm over one shoulder.

A [Medic] was rushing out onto the field to treat him.

The beams of moonlight followed Iona’s every move.

"Round 1, winner, Team Iona." Mormerilhawn officiously and clearly declared. "Current points are 2-0 in favor of Team Iona."

Yay! Go Iona! Whoo whoo whoo! Fight! Win! Huzzah! Selene cheered into her ears.

One down. Six to go. Shame you couldn’t nab Ruination and offer it up, or at least break it. Lunaris was a little more critical. It’s going to be back in the teamfight. Still, the arm ripping should give them all a moment’s pause, which will be useful.

Iona took stock as she moved back. She’d barely dipped into her mana reserves, but her left hand was busted. She could get a solid three-finger grip on a weapon, but her ring and pinky fingers were going to be useless. She was also bleeding, and the wound was deep enough that it wasn’t going to stop on its own.

It was acceptable. Elric Morgans was one of the largest powerhouses on the Rolland team, and Iona felt that she’d gotten a little lucky that he’d gone for the quick victory, and was unprepared for her sacrificial move. At the same time, she was now weakened for the next opponent.

And all the ones after.

A [Healer] tended to Elric on the other side, but Iona got no such respite. It was one aspect of the king of the hill format the tournament was based on. Their team was quietly chatting, but Iona had no hope of hearing them through the crowd’s excitement.

Not that it mattered. She had to fight through all of them.

"Rolland, please send your next contestant forward." Mormerilhawn declared, and Grimwald stepped up.

Iona briefly flicked through his stats and skills. Two split noble-sorcerer classes, Fire and Lightning. He had flight in his Lightning class, and was heavily power-focused with a relatively small mana pool. If Iona could endure his initial assault, she won.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Iona conjured up her [Frost Wyvern’s Fang] as soon as the fight started, snapping off a half-dozen arrows towards Grimwald. He had a defensive skill, but it was worth the attempt.

Iona took off sprinting towards the fort before her arrows landed. Grimwald took to the moonlit skies, bolts of Lightning neatly dispatching her arrows. Iona gave up on taking any further shots from even further away as the sorcerer rapidly gained height. She angled her shield to defend against any attacks, but none came. The [Mage] continued to soar up into the sky as Iona made a beautiful dive into the moat.

Any attempts at burning her out would need to get through the huge heatsink that was the water, reflecting the twin orbs in the sky. It also insulated in the most minor fashion against Lightning, providing a weak shield against the element.

Getting cooked out of her armor was one of Iona’s larger concerns. Lightning strikes were of a lesser concern, given her layers of skill-enhanced armor. Still, a stray jolt in the wrong place could be lethal.

Grimwald saw where Iona dove to, and vanished behind the castle. The [Announcer]’s voice quickly became filtered from the arena, along with the sounds from the crowd. A measure so Iona wouldn’t know a sneak strike was about to occur from the crowd’s reaction.

Iona flipped her bow back into her hands. The green-eyed [Warrior] didn’t need a perfect shot - she simply needed a [Blizzard Shot] to fill the air with ice and snow, which would foul Grimwald’s assault. Aiming anywhere near him would do the trick.

Iona had thousands of hours of practice. Along with her stats and skills, she could snap-aim her bow and arrow and hit a spinning ring from a field away. Any shot that would be in ‘roughly the right direction’ would be a heart-shot, the only question was which chamber of the heart the arrow was going for.

Once the mage was out of mana, the fight would be over. Grimwald’s stats suggested the exchange would only take seconds.

Iona slowly circled in the water, watching for any hint of the sorcerer. Would he come over the wall of the fort? Would he be clever, and go low? Would he try to electrify the entire moat, hoping the surprise and skill made up for the distance and lack of proper aiming?

"The fort’s flag has been raised by Rolland. Team Iona has five minutes to contest before the round ends." The Black Rose announced.

Iona cursed to herself as she started to swim to the shore. Grimwald wasn’t trying to fight - he was trying to use the anti-stall tiebreaker rules to win!

Blasted games and their rules. The contest should be determined by a fair fight, nothing else.

Now she’d need to storm the fortress and dislodge the mage from his spot. The only benefit to Iona was Grimwald needed to be in a fixed location to trigger the anti-stall rules.

The curling tower in the center of the fort.

A soaked Iona dragged herself up and out of the water, looking up at the fort walls.

She could go over them, and expose herself in a single perfect moment to Grimwald’s assault. She could try to go through the open drawbridge, but that presented the same challenge.

Iona didn’t like either of those options. She started to jog, then run along the side of the fort, her weight increasing with every step thanks to [Lunar Mass]. With enough momentum built up, at the right time and place, Iona twisted and went through one of the stone walls.

She continued to run as masonry fell around her, her entrance louder than any siren. The falling dust and rubble shielded her, and the element of surprise and poor visibility was enough for Grimwald to hesitate.

Iona slammed through the flimsy door at the bottom of the tower, and looked up. There was only a spiraling stone staircase, and Iona began her trip up.

There was a chance Grimwald would come down the stairs to ambush Iona early, but she doubted it. Leaving the top of the tower would reset the clock on the tiebreaker.

Iona reached the final stretch before the top of the tower, and grinned. Grimwald obviously knew she was coming. He must have every skill ready to launch the moment she turned the spiral in the tower.

Iona stepped back, letting her armor morph and flow off of her. A thin strand connected her to her armor, letting her continue to control and manipulate it, although no longer being on her body meant [Star-Forged] didn’t protect and enhance it anymore.

Using [Telekinesis], Iona ‘equipped’ the armor with her shield and axe. Then she had the empty suit of armor ‘charge’ around the corner, and leapt back.

The hallway exploded with Fire and Lightning as Grimwald unleashed his entire arsenal at an empty suit of armor. Heat washed over Iona as the stone started to melt, and her waterlogged clothes started to steam.

A cry of triumphant dismay escaped Grimwald’s lips. Triumph followed by horrified realization, with a note of despair added to the end.

Iona stepped over the molten puddle of her armor and former weapon, locking eyes with Grimwald. She quickly checked his status before doing anything else.

45 mana left. He was done.

"Yield." Iona demanded.

"No!" The sorcerer tried to leap off the tower, but Iona was too quick compared to the magically-focused [Mage].

She sprinted across the remaining distance, grabbed his shoulder, and yanked him back. Her hand crushed his shoulder joint into thousands of tiny bone shards, and he crashed to the ground. Iona stomped hard, turning the family jewels into pulp.

Grimwald shrieked.

"Yield." Iona knelt down, crushing his thigh and breaking it into four pieces as she did so. Her hand wrapped around his throat. "I will not ask a third time."

"Yi-yield." Grimwald croaked out. He was instantly teleported out of the arena, Mormerilhawn clearly judging his injuries to be significant enough to warrant immediate attention.

Iona walked back to her melted armor and focused.

The beauty of Mallium was how it flowed and moved. It practically was a liquid already, and Iona was able to ‘herd’ it along with her without needing to directly touch more than the smallest of threads.

She was using her left pinky for it, already mauled beyond recognition or usefulness. The burns it was leaving behind would heal.

Iona dipped the superheated metal in the moat on her way out, a great gout of steam heralding her poor armor returning to a usable temperature. Iona had it reform around her body as she moved back to her side, the moonbeams anointing her every step.

The [Paladin] briefly mourned the loss of her axe. It had been a necessary sacrifice. It didn't mean she was happy about it.

Selene was laughing herself sick in Iona’s ears.

OOooh, that’ll show them. They’re going to yield much more quickly now. Lunaris analyzed.

"Thank you." Iona whispered to her goddesses.

"Round 2, winner, Team Iona." Mormerilhawn pronounced, repeating his tone exactly if not the words. "Current points are 4-0 in favor of Team Iona."

Chapter 18 - Interlude - Iona - The Gladiator Gauntlet VIII

"Rolland, please send your next contestant forward." Mormerilhawn’s voice was loud and clear as a bell, and Eira Barnett stepped forward. The Rolland’s team strategy was clear - put their casters in early, and give them enough time to regenerate mana for the teamfight.

Iona stood where she was, basking in the light of her patrons. The two moon goddesses had shifted the moons in their orbit to cause a solar eclipse, then shone down beams of light from the illusion-shattered moons onto Iona, spotlighting her for half the world to see.

Just about everyone who could was watching Iona, and the skies were getting crowded as more and more people flew in to watch.

Eira was low level for the event - waiting on her 256 class evolution, probably waiting to become a [Duchess] before evolving to get the improved class as a result - but she was also a wizard. Iona’s usual trick of reading skills to know what was coming was completely useless here.

Iona hadn’t studied wizardry like her genius girlfriend, and wouldn’t be able to instantly figure out what kind of spell was being cast just by seeing part of the mandala. She’d need to wait until the spell was cast. A tiny time differential, but it could be important.

However, just because she couldn’t see the spells didn’t mean she couldn’t abuse her ability to peek at skills.

Eira had a high mana regeneration stat, excellent control, low power and low total mana. The Barnetts were famous - possibly worldwide, although Iona hadn’t traveled the entire world to know - for their wizardry, and had an ancient legacy of practice. Iona expected extremely efficient, well-placed spells. Running Eira out of mana wasn’t an option, Iona was going to need to take her out.

While Iona couldn’t tell what wizardry the [Heiress] was going to cast, the Valkyrie’s ability to peek at status sheets wasn’t entirely useless. Barnett’s skills revealed interesting information. She was heavily focused on her wand, with skills like [Maestro of Magic], [Conductor], [Wand Mastery], [Bind Trigger Spell: Wand], [Fractal Wand] and [Channeler of All the World’s Mysteries]. It was practically an artifact of power with how much she’d put into it and while she was holding it.

Iona hadn’t gotten a chance to look, but she’d bet there’d be dozens of sockets for gems on the wand, the spell-storing items removed for the event. Crucially, she didn’t see any skills that extended Eira’s vitality to the wand, unlike what most [Warriors] had for their armor. It was a rare skill for [Mages] in the first place.

She also wore no armor, but had a longsword at her hip.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" Mormerilhawn decreed, and Iona had no more time to plan.

She conjured up her bow and arrow, snapping off a trio of arrows. It wasn’t likely, but it was always worth checking if Eira lacked the skills or reflexes to handle arrows, and Iona would snag a quick victory.

The Valkyrie almost did. Eira flicked her wand as the fight started, but not quite fast enough. One arrow took the wizard in the gut, before the remaining arrows disintegrated around her.

Iona could try to simply wait things out from here. Gut wounds were nasty, and Eira was more likely to yield early to get treated, than risk death for a simple game.

The emerald-eyed Valkyrie wasn’t going to wait though, and was already blitzing down the field, the moons continuing to spotlight her. Eria flicked her wand a few more times as she started to half-run, half-limp away.

In a dozen different directions, as mirages were conjured up. They were eerily accurate, each one bleeding and limping, the blood splatters remaining on the field. A heavy mist filled the field, trying to obscure Iona’s vision.

More dangerous was Iona’s sudden inability to breathe. She inhaled and gasped as no air entered her lungs. It was one thing for the Valkyrie to hold her breath, it was another thing entirely for her to exhale and there to suddenly be no air anymore.

She was on a short clock.

Eira’s mirages faded into the Mist, and they were good enough to fool Iona’s skills. They weren’t good enough to fool her blessing, and it only took a heartbeat of rapidly scanning the fakes to find the real one. Iona turned in her charge, mentally reaching out with [Telekinesis].

Eira wasn’t going down without a fight, and discordant screeching, like the worst nails on chalkboard imaginable, filled the air. Iona staggered slightly, but kept going. Vines sprouted from the ground, trying to wrap around Iona’s ankles but the Valkyrie simply plowed through them.

Finally, she mentally latched onto Eira’s wand with [Telekinesis], and simply yanked it out of her hands.

"I yi-" Eira started to say as the wand snapped into Iona’s hands, where the Valkyrie promptly snapped it in half before Eira could finish her sentence.

"-ield." The [Heiress] slumped down as Iona shattered her wand - and the likely months, if not years, of preparation that had gone into making it. Iona took a deep breath in, air finally filling her lungs.

The advantage of wizards was they could prepare things ahead of time, and have a massive arsenal. The downside, of course, was the preparations getting thrown into a fire - or snagged and snapped in half.

Eira was promptly teleported off the field, and Iona walked over to the Rolland’s team side while the [Referee] declared the end of the match. They glared at her suspiciously, the moonbeams continuing to follow the [Paladin].

"Here. Hope Lady Barnett is able to eventually repair it." Iona handed the shattered remains of the wand back to Prince Elric.

He studied her silently for a moment before taking the pieces.

"Thank you."

Iona turned and strode back to her side of the field, looking at the crowd.

Elaine was still front and center at the middle of the arena, waving and cheering wildly. Iona shot her a thumb’s up, and noticed some of the vendors had seized the moment, swapping to selling little blue and yellow candies.

Iona wanted to roll her eyes. Whatever got people interested in the moon goddesses.

Almost instantly beat her! What a shame! Selene commented.

Snapped that wand. Good going! Classy move to return the pieces. Lunaris added.

"Rolland, please send your next contestant forward." Mormerilhawn decreed, and Iona wanted to curse as Annora stepped forward.

She was a Crucible [Knight], but more importantly, the element she was focused on was adamantium. The metal was practically indestructible, and her class was focused around using it. Her armor looked normal, but Iona was willing to bet that it had a nail-thin line of adamantium inside of it.

Annora’s skills supported that. She had a [Shock Absorption] skill, which would negate Iona’s attempts to rattle her around inside her armor like a die in a cup until she yielded. Her armor was cleverly made, with the straps and buckles on the inside, requiring another skill to put it on - but preventing anyone from taking it off. [Telekinesis] would lose in a heartbeat to her armor-reinforcing skill, Iona would simply burn mana to no effect if she tried. Lady Argent had a skill like Iona’s that let her wear a helmet with no holes in it. There wasn’t a slit for Iona to jam a knife into or anything.

Her second class was almost entirely focused on being a [Lady]. The only combat-applicable part was it was a Wind element class, with the ability to make air. Trying to drown, choke, or use gas was an exercise in futility.

She was a turtle inside an indestructible shell. A nearly-perfect defense.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

The two fighters sprinted at each other, Annora wielding a longsword and shield to Iona’s glaive. The two met in the middle, and Annora attempted to run Iona through with her sword.

There was a risk when an unbreakable weapon met breakable armor, and Iona wasn’t going to try and directly take an adamantium weapon to the chest, even if her superior stats and skills suggested it’d be harmless.

Almost contemptuously, Iona battered the sword out of the way with her glaive, the follow up move smashing into Annora and causing her to tumble and roll. It didn’t hurt her, but Iona could easily move her around.

Iona began a deadly [New Moon’s Dance], not giving the Crucible knight a moment’s reprieve. She smashed and battered at her, demonstrating her clear superiority, and trying to break Annora’s [Shock Absorption] skill.

It was also cathartic to be able to beat Annora up to her heart’s content. She had voluntarily entered the arena. She was trying to fight Iona. She could yield at any moment.

All the smug looks and snide comments Annora had ever made - Iona was paying them back. With interest.

Iona did try to break Annora’s joints and bones however she could. The armor was well-built, and it would lock onto itself before Iona could pull or twist a joint far enough to break.

The insufferable warrior refused to yield, and Iona could continue to smack her around as long as she liked. Punches, kicks, throws, slashes, shield bashes, and more. Iona threw Annora up and tried to impale the lady on her glaive, then smashed the handle down onto Annora’s helmet when she landed. Iona picked Annora up by the ankles, and used her as a sledgehammer on the fort’s walls. She grabbed the [Lady] by the shoulders and held her underwater.

Annora struggled the entire time. She was like a tiny kitten to Iona’s tiger. Her blows and attempts at resistance were entirely futile - the only thing she had going for her that could possibly compete was her toughness.

Eventually one of Annora’s skills would have to give, and Iona would win. The Valkyrie was a little concerned about the damage her weapons were taking, and stuck to using her fists and body more.

Her heart sang in relief. It just felt so good to beat the stuffing out of one of Rolland’s [Nobles], and as a massive bonus, it was the snooty, obnoxious, Annora.

Iona dragged her to the top of the tower, the woman still trying to fight back against Iona’s iron grip. Iona threw her off the top, then immediately jumped down after her.

Iona was a big woman to start. Taller than most men, and wider to boot, nearly every inch of her raw muscle made even denser thanks to her anatomy’s biomancied modifications. That was further amplified by [Lunar Mass], and every single kilogram of the weight and momentum crashed down onto Annora’s head.

It would be enough to kill even a 4-digit Classer. Annora’s adamantium armor absorbed it all, not even denting. Iona ended up doing more damage to her legs than she inflicted, the shock traveling through her body and rattling down to her bones. She swear she felt something crack.

It was almost the same issue she had against the bunnykin in the first round. Iona was almost hurting herself more than she was Annora as she beat on the woman.

She still wasn’t yielding, taking the moment to throw a weak punch at Iona’s leg. It harmlessly bounced off her [Star Forged] boosted armor, and Iona grabbed Annora by the neck, dragging her back to the center of the arena. The moons continued to spotlight her every action, and Iona lifted a struggling Annora by the neck in front of a crowd baying for blood.

The Valkyrie grabbed Annora’s head and tried to snap her neck by twisting the helmet, but no. Another clever latch saved the [Lady’s] life.

Iona slammed Annora to the ground, and walked a few steps to pickup her long-dropped longsword. She walked back over to Annora and punted the knight as she tried to stand back up, causing her to fall back to the ground. Iona wrenched her arms behind her back and knelt on her, pinning the lady.

She held the longsword up on two hands, an offering.

"Oh Selene and Lunaris, greatest goddesses of the pantheon. I wish to offer you this weapon, the spoils of war. Please accept this offering in the spirit it was offered." Iona grandly stated, pitching her voice loud enough to be carried.

Annora struggled even harder under Iona, but she was no match for the Valkyrie’s weight or leverage.

Yoink! Lunaris gleefully shouted in Iona’s ears, as the blade vanished.

Hey! No fair! I wanted that one! Selene complained.

Iona wanted to laugh at their reaction. If only people could hear them like she did. She grabbed Annora’s shield, and kneeled on her back again, offering up the shield in her hands.

"Oh Selene and Lunaris, greatest goddesses of the pantheon. I wish-"

"We yield!" The Shining Prince called from the sidelines.

"Is that the team’s consensus?" Mormerilhawn correctly asked back, the rules requiring more than one teammate on the sidelines to surrender for a participating member.

"We yield." Godwin confirmed.

Iona threw the shield down in disgust, got off of Annora, and walked back to her side. She ignored the dirty look Annora was surely sending her way. Losing an adamantium blade? Annora was going to be screwed when she got back home and her family found out.

"Round 4, winner, Team Iona." Mormerilhawn pronounced. "Current points are 8-0 in favor of Team Iona."

Wooo! Loot! Selene crowed in Iona’s ears.

How much more do you think we can shake out of them? Lunaris wondered.

Dibs on the next one! Selene called.

Whoever gets it gets it. Lunaris was all prim and proper, completely betraying her words.

Iona took stock of the situation. She was starting to feel a little light-headed. While Annora had been a crushing tactical victory, it had come with numerous benefits to the Rolland team. Namely, Iona had continued to leave a trail of blood all over the arena, and the fight had taken time. Enough time for Grimwald to regenerate some of his mana for the upcoming teamfight.

"I-O-NA! I-O-NA!" The crowd was chanting, celebrating her victory. Iona thrust a fist up in the air to the adoring crowd, and they loved it, cheering and screaming. The moons continued spotlighting her, showing off that she was the clear star of the show.

I can’t ever thank you two enough. Iona prayed.

Well, win three more then say that! Selene laughingly reproached Iona.

Don’t worry about the teamfight. Lunaris reassured Iona.

"Rolland, please send your next contestant forward." Mormerilhawn had been doing this a while. His voice and intonation was exactly the same each time.

Godwin stepped forward.

"I must profess my profound disappointment in you and your order." He sniffed before the match began. "It was your duty to protect, shelter, and nourish, and you abdicated it entirely. I find it hard to believe…"

Iona shot a pleading look - hidden behind her helmet - to Mormerilhawn, begging him to start the fight and shut up the sanctimonious idiot.

That, and the blood loss was starting to get to her. She mentally readjusted her mallium, clamping down on the injury. She didn’t need the Rolland team to win via stalling out.

Mormerilhawn was no idiot.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" He declared, cutting straight through Godwin’s speech.

Iona had studied his skills, and her opponents were dwindling in number. She sent off a round dozen arrows Godwin’s way, reloading and firing as quickly as she could.

He wasn’t wearing heavy armor, and he was focused on empowering others, not himself. The [Buffer] wasn’t entirely defenseless, and his personal barrier flared as arrows hit it, the man trying to run and dodge out of the way.

One, two, three, four arrows broke against it before the fifth punched through. The sixth missed him, but Iona had adjusted her aim as Godwin started to move. The rest quickly feathered him, and he crumpled in a spray of blood.

"YIELD!"

"WE SURRENDER!"

"WE GIVE UP!"

His team was shouting and roaring, and Mormerilhawn promptly teleported him off the field. Iona wanted to shake her head.

Supports. Best thing ever in the teamfight portion, a complete liability in the singles part. The current thinking had a single support on a team as optimal, but they were free wins as far as she was concerned.

"Round 5, winner, Team Iona." Mormerilhawn pronounced. "Current points are 10-0 in favor of Team Iona."

That was almost disappointing. Selene remarked.

What were they thinking, sending him out now? Lunaris said.

"Rolland, please send your next contestant forward."

Annora’s griffin stepped forward. Not as high-level as Annora herself, the beast still had solid levels. Iona noted that it was missing its usual armor, and she suspected the team weight limit had come to bite them.

The griffin could breath fire though. Fire and Gale were its elements, and it had a strong anti-projectile skill. Arrows would be a waste.

Iona frowned to herself. The only plan she could imagine was a powerful, decisive strike as the griffin dove onto her. With her glaive and stats, she was concerned that it would be an immediately lethal blow.

The animal hadn’t signed up for this fight. He hadn’t asked for this.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Iona took off sprinting for the fortress as the griffin, egged on by Annora, took to the skies. Iona leaped over the moat, climbed over the rubble that used to be the fort’s walls, and jogged up the tower. She grabbed the waiting flag, and tied it to the pole.

It looked terrible, but looks weren’t the point.

"The fort’s flag has been raised by Team Iona. Rolland has five minutes to contest before the round ends." The Black Rose announced.

Iona crouched down into a ready stance, hands on her glaive, slowly rotating to keep the griffin in sight. Blood pooled in her gauntlet, and Iona opened a tiny hole to let some of it out.

The half-eagle, half-lion grabbed some of the boulders lying around and took off with them. He flew above Iona’s head and dropped them down.

She contemptuously side-stepped the attack with plenty of time left for it to keep falling, and gave a derisive snort at the awful attempt. The stalemate continued, the clock ticking in Iona’s favor.

"One minute left until Team Iona’s victory. Rolland, you must dislodge Team Iona from the tower in order to prevent their win." The Black Rose clearly announced.

The griffin shrieked, but Iona didn’t break her stance. She didn’t believe Annora’s steed would just let it be, not with the advice she was yelling.

"Thirty seconds." Mormerilhawn declared.

The griffin, egged on by Annora, dive-bombed Iona. He had a skill relating to it, but Iona held firm, angling her glaive.

He would either have to break off, or impale himself on Iona’s weapon. She didn’t want to potentially kill the griffin, but she wasn’t going to pull her weapon either.

His beak opened, and flames washed over Iona as he curved, unwilling to impale himself on her glaive. The temperature inside Iona’s outfit jumped sharply and uncomfortably, but she held on.

"Victory! Team Iona! Rolland, please recall your member." Mormerilhawn said.

Boooooooo! Boring! I wanted a show! Selene complained.

Stupid bird. Lunaris said.

Iona walked back to her side, while the griffin returned to his.

"Round 6, winner, Team Iona." Mormerilhawn pronounced. "Current points are 12-0 in favor of Team Iona. Please send forward your last contestant."

Isabeau Lakewood stepped forward, and Iona tensed.

Most nobles in Rolland were given extensive resources and opportunities as they grew up. The chance to level and learn under the best. Some of them took to it and succeeded, letting the System fulfill their full potential. Others squandered the opportunity, and were usually left on the side. Everyone sent by Rolland were people who’d seized the opportunity and done well for themselves.

Then there was Isabeau. She’d taken the resources and opportunities, and done things with them. She’d been hunting from an early age, and simply didn’t stop, constantly going out to hunt bigger and bigger game, leveling the whole time. She would’ve gone far in life, rising up to a high level, even if she started with nothing.

She had started with far more than nothing.

Iona looked over her stats and skill. Lakewood had fairly evenly distributed stats, working on both her skills and physical abilities. Nearly everything was dedicated towards hunting, and the majority of the skills transferred over to combat like this.

There was an [Oath] that Iona couldn’t exploit, but it couldn’t be brought to bear against her either.

The [Lady of the Hunt] clearly favored spears and arrows, although Iona would need to be careful with the [Instant Trap] skill. The [Apex Predator] could fire off powerful arrows, although Iona bet if she could get in close it’d be over.

Honestly, that was the case with all of Iona’s fights. Get in close, and she won. Elric had been the only challenge in that respect, and he’d been first.

The [Bloodsoaked Stalker] had numerous concerning skills. [Prepared to Kill Everyone I Meet] was frankly alarming, and Iona was wondering if it was worth a quiet word with Prince Morgans after the event. [The Most Dangerous Game] further implied unsavory tactics, although it could be reasonably applied to the deadliest animals in the forest.

She only had two skills relating to being a noble. [Blue Blood], the utterly useless skill that let [Nobles] identify each other, and [Polite].

The rest were combat and hunting related. [Barbed Arrows]. [Penetrate]. [Instant Reload]. [Head Shot]. [Splinter Shot]. [Rapid Fire]. And so many more.

Her bow was nearly as tall as she was, and her quiver had arrows that were closer to ballista bolts than the regular arrows most [Archers] used.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

Lakewood took a knee and began firing, each arrow as long as Iona’s arm and as thick as her thumb. She was forcing Iona to sprint across the entire distance of the field under heavy fire.

It was only going to take Iona a few seconds to make it across the entire field. Most of the time would be spent on accelerating, and Iona had no issues going though Issabeau if needed.

At the same time, Lakewood’s skills let her fire dozens of arrows per second, each [Rapid Fire] shot [Instantly Reloaded], then split into a multitude of arrows with [Splinter Shot]. It let the [Lady] fill the air with a storm of wood and metal, a deadly barrage Iona needed to endure.

[Selene’s Grace] wasn’t going to cut it. It could slightly nudge the arrows out of the way, but they were reinforced with multiple skills, each one far higher level than [Selene’s Grace] was.

[Trick Shot] was fantastic. Iona unleashed arrow after arrow into the incoming barrage, one of her arrows striking the incoming bolts and fouling them into two more shots.

Even with a three-to-one advantage, Lakewood was simply able to fill the air with more arrows than Iona could. The advantage of more skills dedicated to a single art.

Not all of Lakewoods shots behaved the way Iona expected them to, different skills on different arrows causing a chaotic barrage. Iona fired a [Blizzard Shot] into the storm of arrows, hoping the changing conditions would send them off course.

The Valkyrie’s honed reflexes helped her snatch an arrow out of the air, a fraction of an inch away from her faceplate. She twisted to dodge a second one, a third arrow glanced off her armor, but a fourth one thudded into Iona’s chest, [Penetrate] helping pierce Iona’s gear.

Iona wasn’t a healer. She didn’t have perfect anatomy knowledge like her girlfriend did. The arrow might’ve clipped her lung, it might not have. Either way, it wasn’t a through and through, and Iona didn’t let it stop her. She kept racing towards the [Lady], intent on finishing the fight sooner rather than later. Iona repositioned her shield, protecting her head and chest.

As Iona got closer, she had less and less time to react to each arrow, and more and more skills came into play. She took an arrow in her arm, two in her gut, then one more in her shoulder. Arrows punched through her shield, but lost enough power and bounced harmlessly off her helmet. More arrows glanced off her armor, denting it or ripping pieces off. [Allure of Winter] kept the pain at bay, letting her keep moving.

The skill didn’t stop mechanical issues, and Iona took an arrow in the thigh, knee, and shin. Bones broke, and Iona was forced to clamp her armor down like a makeshift splint.

And kept going.

Every footprint was filled with blood as the unstoppable juggernaut charged, yelling and screaming. Arrows flew fast and thick, the [Apex Predator] realizing she wasn’t going to make it, and backing up, trying to get a little more space.

Hoping Iona would fall before reaching her.

Nothing could dissuade the makeshift pincushion from her goal though. Death or victory, there was no middle ground for Iona. Not when her goal was so close. Not when she could taste victory.

Not when Elaine was watching.

Not when the goddesses had spotlighted her for half the world to see.

A half-dozen more arrows slammed into Iona’s body, puncturing through her armor.

The Valkyrie was slowing. Bleeding profusely, internally and out. Half her organs were shutting down, ripped in half with metal barbs stuck in them.

Iona had no time to be playing nice. Her glaive came down like divine judgment, splitting the [Lady of the Hunt] in half from her shoulder to her groin.

She instantly collapsed, her eyes rolling up into her head, and Iona stepped forward to finish her off.

Instead, Iona blinked as the world shifted around her, and she appeared in a sterile white room filled with shimmering shields and white-clad [Healers] with a faint pop.

Healing magic washed over her, the arrows falling out of her like a tree shedding autumn leaves. Iona jerked back, turning the executioner’s blow she had been about to perform into an awkward move. Her heart fell into her boots.

She’d been so close. Being teleported out meant the round was over, the [Judge] having made his decision.

Mormerilhawn teleported in a moment later. He cleared his throat, and projected his voice.

"I have executed my discretion as the [Judge] to determine the winner of the Rolland vs Team Iona round, in order to preserve the lives of the contestants. Round 7, winner, Team Iona. Current points are 14-0 in favor of Team Iona. Team Iona has won the singles portion of the match." He declared.

[*ding!* [Skybound Paladin of the Moons] leveled up! 130 -> 180. +100 Strength, +100 Dexterity, +160 Vitality, +100 Speed, +85 Mana, +85 Mana Regeneration, +200 Magic Power, +200 Magic Control from your class! +1 Free Stat for being Mostly Human! +1 Mana, +1 Vitality from your Element!]

Iona ignored the rest of her level up notifications, shooting her fists up in a triumphant roar, not caring that her glaive went through the ceiling.

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Mostly Human]

[Age: 26]

[Mana: 254200/254200]

[Mana Regen: 162,508]

Stats

[Free Stats: 350]

[Strength: 45,488 +(579,972)]

[Dexterity: 45,488 +(579,972)]

[Vitality: 83,114 +(216,096)]

[Speed: 50,675 +(646,106)]

[Mana: 25,420]

[Mana Regeneration: 51,702]

[Magic Power: 33,236]

[Magic Control: 33,236]

[Class 1: [The Dusk Valkyrie - Celestial: Lv 520]]

[Celestial Affinity: 520]

[New Moon's Dance: 520]

[Weapon Mastery: 520]

[Strength from the Stars: 520]

[Star-Forged: 520]

[Strike of the Twin Moons: 165]

[As Steady as the Stars: 130]

[Gaze of the Galaxy: 520]

[Class 2: [Traveling Archer - Ice: Lv 420]]

[Ice Authority: 420]

[Shortbow Skills: 420]

[Blizzard Shot: 420]

[Allure of Winter: 420]

[Trick Shot: 420]

[Weaknesses: 420]

[Glacial Slow: 420]

[Frost Wyvern's Fang: 420]

[Class 3: [Skybound Paladin of the Moons - Gravity: Lv 180]]

[Gravity Affinity: 180]

[Telekinesis: 180]

[Lunaris's Gaze: 180]

[Lunar Mass: 180]

[Flight of the Valkyries: 180]

[Grasp of the Moon: 180]

[Selene's Grace: 180]

[Harmony of the Spheres: 180]

General Skills

[Spicy Drawing: 264]

[Valkyries Valor: 520]

[Adaptable and Flexible: 385]

[Relentless Pursuit: 288]

[Vow of Iona to Lux: 425]

[Social Lubricant: 262]

[Determined Education: 380]

[Companion Bond Between Iona and Fenrir: 256]

Other

Blessing of Selene and Lunaris

Chapter 19 - The Gladiator Gauntlet IX

I released [Channeled Blink] as Iona was teleported off the field. Rules and regulations be damned, I wasn’t going to let anyone die in front of me. Mormerilhawn was on top of his game, teleporting Iona and the archer out to the waiting healers the instant before I was going to unleash my skill, bypassing the arena’s barrier and blasting them both with heals.

That had been way too close.

"Round 7 winner…" Mormerilhawn was cool and competent. That wasn’t to say he didn’t know what the current score was, and how teleporting out both competitors at the same time looked. We were all hanging onto his every word, waiting to see who the winner of the singles segment was.

And he knew it, giving the crowd a moment to work itself up.

"Team Iona! Current points are 14-0 in favor of Team Iona! Rolland no longer has combatants for the singles portion of the team event, and we will now move onto the team fight portion."

He teleported away on the last word.

It was a day of miracles. It was a literal miracle that the goddesses intervened, and an even bigger one that Iona had somehow won, against all odds. Okay, maybe that one wasn’t such a miracle, I had faith in her. I was on my feet, cheering with everyone else. Underdog stories were popular. Just about everyone liked the story of the plucky [Knight] showing up a bunch of nobles.

I split my mind with [Parallel Thoughts]. One kept cheering, while looking at Auri and Fenrir, waiting for Iona to show up again, while the other started to work on a magic mandala.

Shame I couldn’t say anything to Shirayuki about not letting Iona into our team. She had helped quite a bit with Iona, and her reasoning made too much sense at the time.

The columns of light from the moons were still active, moving around, letting everyone know where Iona was. Right now, she was in one of the medical rooms, buried in the stadium, and the moonbeams were slowly marching along the stands as Iona steadily made her way back out to the field.

The reaction to being in the moonbeams was mixed. Most people didn’t care, occasionally having a minor elated look to be in the spotlight for a moment, or a disappointed look when the light didn’t do anything for them. Some fearfully jumped out of the way, not wanting to risk the touch of the divine, and a few lunatics pushed and shoved their way just for the chance to touch the light.

Iona walked out the door a few moments after I finished composing my mandalas, and with a thought, a dramatic wave, and [Lepidoptera], I slammed a blinding array of Radiance into being in front of myself, empowering it. The runes glowed, and bright letters formed above them.

Iona, the Dusk Valkyrie!

I had a fancy crackle of explosive noises going off, which was entirely lost as the crowd collectively lost their damn minds again.

I was in no position to criticize. I was up against the wall to the arena, screaming myself hoarse with the rest of them.

"What a show! What an incredible performance by Iona, the Dusk Valkyrie!" The [Announcer’s] voice magically cut through the din, perfectly hearable without being shouty or loud. "That was only the singles section! Iona hasn’t participated in a single team fight so far, but it sounds like she’s got quite the grudge against the Rolland team! Will Iona fight? It’d be some moonshot if she managed to beat them all! "

Iona bowed her head, her hair waving in the non-existent breeze. Fenrir snaked his armored neck forward, nuzzling her. The Rolland team was huddled up, discussing.

The distance, the noise of the crowd, and how quietly they were talking didn’t matter to my new and improved senses. I could pick their conversation out, and eavesdrop no problem.

Heck, I could even tell that two of them smelled an awful lot like each other, and from what I knew of the Rolland nobility, that would be something of a scandal if it came to light.

"... we fight. The Valkyrie struggled against myself and [Lady] Isabeau, and just the two of us together could probably win. That’s before [Lady] Annora comes into play, and the rest of us." Prince Elric said.

"We’ve lost the round, but we can exit with good grace. Being at the absolute bottom of the ranking would be humiliating. Even the Lithos team got two points!" Annora agreed.

"Shields on though." Isabeau shuddered. I wasn’t too surprised that she was advocating for them, given how she’d just been sliced in half. That tended to refocus and sharpen one’s perspective on safety equipment and life.

Mormerilhawn teleported back to the field. An opaque barrier appeared in the middle of the arena, hiding what the two teams were doing from each other.

"Contestants. 30 seconds until the teamfight begins." Mormerilhawn declared. Iona started to climb up onto Fenrir’s back, getting her weapons sorted. Auri flew onto his head, the three of them clearly planning to act in concert.

I didn’t have much hope for Fenrir or Auri to make a large difference in the fight. The two of them were still 256.

The seats around me shifted and warped, leaving me sitting on my own in the stands.

One moment there was nothing but air. The next, two beings were next to me. Their very presence screamed in [The World Around Me], a twisted otherworldly distortion that made me want to put an ice pick through my eye. They were impossible to begin comprehending, they-

I turned off [The World Around Me], and life snapped back into focus. Two women were on either side of me, unfolding chairs. One was in a dress of pastel blues, the other in light yellow… sundress had to be the wrong word, must be a moondress.

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 36 -> 37]

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 37 -> 38]

….

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 55 -> 56]

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 56 -> 57]

Joy. I could only hope the levels were due to witnessing the divine, and not because I was in massive amounts of danger.

I’d love to turn the skill back on, and rapidly acquire levels, but I was genuinely concerned of going utterly insane. Mortal minds were not meant to gaze directly into the faces of gods. My skin was prickling, and I was starting to sweat.

They set up in an impossibly short amount of time, lounging on their chairs, feet propped up on a footstool, and a pair of parasols shading them. Not that they needed shade from the sun, they’d already moved a fucking moon to block it!

Selene and Lunaris had come down to watch the games.

"Fire." Selene pointed at Iona, whose armor and weapons erupted with divine flames. She startled a bit as her equipment began to harmlessly burn.

Well, it was harmless for her. I did hear Auri’s shriek of appreciation all the way across the field.

"Food." Lunaris pointed into the crowd, at one of the vendors. A pair of beer mugs and a half-dozen snacks zipped into her hands, entirely ignoring whatever anti-theft skills the seller might’ve had… and the arena’s famous shield. She handed one… over? Through? Behind? Me to Selene, then looked out at the field.

"Yellow? Oooooh, no no no, we can’t have that." She tutted. "Blue!" Lunaris pointed her finger at Iona’s divine flames, their color changing from a deep gold into a blazing blue.

"What! That color was great!" Selene protested. "Gems." She pointed at the poor robbed vendor, a small torrent of glittering gems falling out of the sky, onto his tray.

He grabbed what he could and started to try and make his way out of the crowd as more people dove for the falling money. A dozen vendors changed path, angling towards us, hoping to get some of the divine bounty.

"Iona’s color is blue. It’s always been blue." Lunaris primly replied.

I just stood there and sweated as the goddesses bickered over my head. Somehow. Even though I was standing and they were sitting on either side of me.

"Contestants. Five seconds until the teamfight begins." Mormerilhawn was eyeing the goddesses warily.

"It’s about to start!" Lunaris rapidly patted Selene’s arm. "Mana." She pointed at Iona.

"Four."

"I can see that! Also, mana? Iona’s not going to notice she’s got unlimited mana." Selene said.

"Three."

"I know. That’s what makes it funny." Lunaris sounded way too pleased with herself.

I somehow both heard and smelled Selene rolling her eyes as she took a swig of her questionably-acquired beer.

"Two."

"Disintegration." She pointed her finger at Rolland’s team, and my heart jumped into my throat. I looked over, starting to breathe again as Isabeau simply looked shocked and despondent about losing her bow, instead of the goddesses having annihilated one of the competitors or something.

A hue and cry went up at that.

"Match pause!" Mormerilhawn aborted his countdown, teleporting over to us. He fearlessly looked up at the goddesses.

"I must insist that you refrain from any further interference in the match." He was polite, but firm. "Divinely assisting your chosen is one matter, but directly fiddling with the opposition can not be tolerated. Any further interference, and I will need to eject you from the match."

The two goddesses looked at each other and laughed.

"It’d be funny to see you try…" Lunaris said.

"But we’ll stay out of it! Somewhat." Selene took another long draft of her beer. "Should we?"

Lunaris didn’t answer, instead the two goddesses shifting, standing to either side of Mormerilhawn. The elf was cold and cool in the face of overwhelming power, and they each put a hand on his shoulders.

"See cheaters!" They decreed in unison, and Mormerilhawn’s eye twitched.

"Shoo." He swatted at the goddesses like they were mosquitoes, and the two shifted back to their seats.

I was continuing to keep very quiet, and as still as I could. I didn’t imagine for a moment that them appearing to either side of me, while shifting the rest of the crowd away, was any sort of coincidence. Not with my close relationship to Iona, and their patronage of the woman.

And I was a little good at putting my foot in my mouth. Hard to commit linguistic cannibalism if my mouth stayed shut. Actually, could I cast [Mute] on myself?

I spun out a [Parallel Thought] to work on that.

[*ding!* [Parallel Thought] leveled up! 29 -> 30]

[*ding!* [Parallel Thought] leveled up! 30 -> 31]

Oh fuck me sideways. I canceled trying to figure out how to cast [Mute] on myself, and went all-in on analyzing the situation, applying every single bit of what I’d learned in my life and read in books towards figuring out what the fuck I did next.

Mormerilhawn touched his vest again, his voice amplified once again, booming through the stadium.

"I have unfortunately been compromised by an unavoidable gift given by one of the parties involved in the match." His voice was impressively neutral. "The match will continue to be paused until a new [Referee] is located."

Given the sheer quantity of [Referees] they had running the events here, and that we were literally the center of attention, there was a new [Referee] on the field before Mormerilhawn had even finished speaking.

"Contestants. 30 seconds until the teamfight begins." He promptly stated, and the two teams tensed. Fenrir began an awkward, galloping run in the section they were allowed to roam in, flapping his wings and taking off right before the end of the section.

"Drink?" Selene somehow offered me a mug from a perfectly reasonable angle, in spite of being behind me and to my side.

I mentally discarded the how as ‘divine shenanigans’, and worked overtime on figuring out how I should react.

Polite offer of a beverage. Known person giving it to me, extremely unlikely to be spiked. Healing would purge any mundane toxin, before my abnormal biology is factored in. Safe to accept. Social norms dictate I accept it, thank them for their generosity, and take a sip.

"Thank you." My voice came out far more mechanically than I’d hoped, and I took a polite sip.

I wanted to spit it out, and spray beer across the field. I hadn’t tasted anything so foul since drinking Aegion’s ill-advised experiments!

"Awww, no spit-take." Lunaris sounded disappointed.

What?

"She’s far too polite and careful." I could practically see Selene sticking her tongue out at Lunaris.

"Contestants! Begin!" The [Referee] yelled, dropping the veil between the two teams. Where had the time gone!?

"Wooo! Go Iona!" The two goddesses cheered in unison, a pair of goofy little flags popping up in their hands. They vigorously waved them, cheering on their [Paladin] with gusto.

Selene and Lunaris were bantering about me. They were clearly close. I was an outsider. They wanted something with me. I could interject into their conversation, but it might be rude. They had just criticized me for being too polite. Perhaps the most polite option was the incorrect one. Maybe…

"So, what are your intentions with our [Paladin]?" Lunaris’s voice was unexpectedly serious, the question clearly directed at me.

Elaine.MANDALA has encountered a critical error.

"Buh, uhhh… cuddles, kisses, and massages? Moonlit walks? I guess?" I stuttered out as Fenrir and Annora, mounted on her griffin, charged at each other in the sky. Annora and Iona both had lances out, although Fenrir’s long neck was a massive liability in the clash that was about to occur.

"Hmmmm…" Lunaris trailed off with an unhappy tone.

"Tut tut. Cuddles and kisses? That doesn’t sound very serious at all." Selene said. "What are you planning to do for work?"

How did they not know that?

Actually. Who cared why they were asking, time to perform. Without stuttering. Or having bad answers. Short and sweet might be best here…? I’m not sure if they cared too much about money, or social status, or anything like that.

Uh. What did they care about? Knowing that would make this so much easier.

"Healing people." I answered.

"Are you religious?" Lunaris asked, and the interrogation was on.

It was surreal watching Iona fight while the goddesses interrogated me. One moment Grimwald was unleashing a torrent of flames at Auri - a stupider move I couldn’t imagine, as she effortlessly seized control of them all and sent them back at him with a derisive brrrpt - and the next, I was being asked if I had any plans for children by a goddess.

I got to watch Fenrir blasting the grounded team with Lightning and Ice coming from his mouth, while hearing Lunaris handle petitioners at the same time she was asking me questions.

"Would you say you like books or Iona more?"

Well, shit. The easy, obvious answer was Iona. That’s what they wanted me to say, that’s what I felt. But what if they thought it was a lie? Wait, they could see lies, couldn’t they?

I was back in full overthinking mode as Iona realized she had unlimited mana, and unleashed a torrent of [Blizzard Shot] from up high, blinding most of the audience and attempting to bury and freeze solid the Rolland team. Most of them vanished under the onslaught, and I could hear Auri complaining about all the ‘bad water’ and ‘nobody could appreciate her in these conditions’.

Honestly, letting Auri into this event was a mistake. Her ego was going to get way too big, and she was going to get more ‘second Triumph’ ideas.

"What do you think about Iona’s math skills?"

Finally, an easy one!

"Oh, they suck." I heard the words slip out of my mouth, my eyes widening in horror. No! I had been so careful until now to keep the filter between my brain and my mouth intact!

The two goddesses just burst into laughter at that one.

"Oooh, she’s finally fun!" Lunaris clapped her hands in delight.

"Yes! Alright Elaine, when are you going to propose to Iona?" Selene asked.

"Buh?" I responded stupidly, her question short-circuiting me again. "Propose?"

"Yes, propose. When you ask someone to marry you. I thought you were the smart one!" Lunaris teased me.

"Oh, stop teasing the poor girl, she’s trying so hard to impress us." Selene fussed. "Elaine, don’t worry too much. We’re already here for the show, and decided to say hi while we’re at it."

"CUT HER IN HALF ALREADY!" Lunaris yelled to Iona. "Why do you think we empowered your weapons?!"

Iona was far too disciplined to flinch, instead taking Lunaris’s advice and carving through Annora’s adamantium armor.

Oooooh, that was going to be expensive, even for a duchy. Annora was so screwed, between losing the heirloom weapon and now her armor getting sliced apart.

"No pressure on the marriage thing. When you’re ready, you’re ready. Don’t worry, we’ll handle all the arrangements!" Selene cheerfully gave me a new nightmare.

At the same time, I could relax a bit.

"Oh, we’ll just elope then." I flippantly responded. The Rolland team was down to just the Shining Prince, effortlessly cutting through Auri’s [I am the Brrrettiest] skill. Iona was flying high on Fenrir, peppering the prince with an endless barrage of arrows. Some were getting through, and it’d only be a matter of time before he was teleported out.

Iona’s victory was near.

I saw the divine blue flames gather around Auri, the little bird having figured out the trick of stealing the goddesses’s fire. She launched it as a tiny, spinning fireball into the mess.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 444->446! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +1 Magic power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Radiance Affinity] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Radiance Resistance] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Nova Lance] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Lepidoptera] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Nectar] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Solar Corona] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Scintillating Ascent] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

[*ding!* [Kaleidoscope] leveled up! 444 -> 446]

And that little stunt had been worth two levels. In the mid 400’s.

Yikes.

Soon, Auri would be leveling me, instead of the other way around! It was exciting, I had more than enough of not leveling [The Dawn Sentinel].

The two goddesses' heads snapped in the same direction, vaguely east and upwards, Lunaris’s twisting unnaturally far.

"That’s our cue." Lunaris grimly said.

"Elaine, it’s been wonderful chatting with you. One last note I’d like to leave on." Selene was speaking quickly, right on the edge of what I could understand.

"Many, many, many people get the impression that just because we, or another god, favor a mortal, that we’ll constantly intervene. Press our fingers on the scale, keep them safe."

"It’s not true." Lunaris took over. "Please understand, we do not care if Iona dies. It simply means she goes from enjoying her time on Pallos, to joining us as an angel."

"Much easier for her to visit!" Selene said. "She’ll always be with us. We can’t wait for the day to come."

"We wouldn’t do anything like hasten her demise." Lunaris said. "But we’re not going to bail her out of trouble."

"This isn’t trouble. This is important to her… and look at all the new worshippers we’ve gotten!" Selene was practically salivating as she gestured around the arena.

She was right. Already I was seeing dozens, if not hundreds, of symbols of the goddesses, and more than a few people were on their knees or bowing, worshiping them. One enterprising vendor had already managed to get copies of the little flags Iona’s patrons had been waving, and was doing brisk business selling them.

"Rolland has no contestants left on the field. Victory in the teamfight portion, Team Iona! Final score of 25-0!" The [Referee] announced to an adoring crowd.

"Yes! Go Iona!" Selene cheered, jumping to her feet and waving.

"Enough chitchat. It was wonderful meeting you, goodbye." Lunaris said, and without further ado, the goddesses were simply gone.

Lun’Kat’s illusions snapped back over the moons, and they started to drift through the sky again, baleful eyes staring down at us.

I looked up at them, spotting a distant figure high up in the sky.

My eyes let me pick out her iridescent black scales.

She circled as hundreds of powerful auras snapped into place, the effect rapidly cascading as more and more people noticed what was going on and turned on their effects. The air began to feel stifling and cloying.

The Stygian Deceiver circled once.

Twice.

Then left.

Chapter 20 - The Gladiator Gauntlet X

"Three cheers for Iona!" I shouted as the Valkyrie entered the School’s living room. After today, all of the School’s teams had competed at least once. Shirayuki had gotten a whole feast arranged for us.

With a single exception, the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft’s teams and contestants, regardless of category, had successfully won their first round. Granted a few events had enough time to have had several rounds go already… but the idea was the same.

Iona wasn’t a member of a School team, but she’d come with the School, and after today? I had to imagine everyone here was bragging as hard as they could that Iona was a member of the School, basking in the cast-off glory of her stunning victory.

The cynical part of me wanted to say that if she’d lost, the same people would quickly claim that while she attended the School, she wasn’t a member of any of the official teams.

I squashed that part, and tried to just enjoy the party.

One of the more outgoing members of the under-100 team coordinated the cheers.

"Hip hip!" He shouted.

"Hurray!" The rest of us roared.

"Hip hip!"

"Hurray!"

"HIP HIP!"

"HURRAY!"

Everyone politely piled onto Iona, slapping her back and handing her drinks. She wisely grabbed two of them, fending off further attempts by showing people her full hands, and the party was on.

There were almost 200 of us in total across all of the School’s teams. Add in that nobody partied like students did, the endless delicacies - and wholesale beer - that the fauns were busy marking up and selling to everyone, and a nearly unlimited budget?

We threw one hell of a party.

[The World Around Me] was fantastic for waking up. I didn’t need to crack my eyes open. I didn’t need to look around in confusion to see what was going on, and get a picture of… well… [The World Around Me].

The skill didn’t tell me how things had happened. Why was Auri hanging by a foot from the ceiling? Why were some of her flames weird? Why was there a pyramid of fruit pits on a desk? And why was Iona’s mallium armor shaped like that!?

On one hand, I didn’t have a hangover because of my new and improved biology. On the other, I hadn’t quite internalized that I was now a super lightweight. Half a drink and I was toast. Something I hadn’t quite considered - with my thicker blood, it took much longer for the alcohol to hit me, and when I kept going…

It was a good thing I was in a safe environment, with people who would look after me, and my own healing could instantly purge the alcohol from my system if I wanted to.

Some things were blessedly normal. Iona was snoring away next to me. We had blankets on, in roughly the right position. I’d liberated the proper number of pillows for myself from my lover. There were approximately the right number of clothes in the room.

There were no events today. I snuggled deeper into the blankets, spooning against Iona - the backpack - closed my eyes, buried my nose in her scented hair, and went back to sleep.

I slowly stirred awake, getting an excellent view of Iona doing her morning stretches.

"Morning." I yawned, shuffling over in bed. It was so comfortable, I just didn’t want to leave.

"The mighty pharaoh awakens!" Iona teased me.

Another nifty thing with [The World Around Me] was I could see my face without a mirror. I had a charcoal stain on my chin for some reason.

It bugged me, on some deep instinctive level. It was wrong for it to be on my face. I furiously scrubbed at it, not caring that a pillow was a casualty.

"Okay. Pause. Back up. What happened last night?" I asked Iona. I hadn’t been around for all the misadventures, and while I could easily consult [Astral Archives], there was something about hearing the story, and trying to piece it together that was fun.

She grinned savagely at me.

"It all started with Auri getting into a keg, and everyone encouraging her."

I could just imagine Auri getting drunk. She was a little gluttonous - totally not my fault, no matter what her companion skill said - and was a featherweight at best.

"How are we in a bed, and not in a pile of ashes?" I asked.

"Well, you see…" Iona finished her stretches and sat down next to me on the bed. I idly rubbed her leg while she regaled me about last night’s misadventures.

"... and when we pointed out that making a throne and sitting on it was high treason, and nobody here would be happy, you switched gears, and declared yourself a pharaoh. The fruit pharaoh. Then you started rummaging through the trash, and… tada, the mighty fruit-pip pyramid. We’ll be sure to embalm you with mango juice when you die, oh wisest ruler." Iona teased me.

"No. There’s no way I did that." I protested, finally consulting [Astral Archive].

My face fell as Iona’s grin grew wider.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo." I dove back under the pillows, covering my head.

It was true.

It was all true.

And…

"Auri classed up!? While drunk!?!" I practically shrieked.

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.

I looked up at Auri, and cast [Long Range Identify].

[Mage - 456].

A quick check confirmed my companion bond skill had leveled up as well. Maybe that’s why the charcoal on my face had bothered me so much? A huge spike in my bond-influenced vanity?

I needed to figure out if being drunk impacted classing up or not. What happened if I wasn’t entirely sober inside my own soul? I imagined nothing would change… but I could also believe my guide would be just as drunk as I was.

"Please tell me she got something good." I asked Iona. She whistled.

"Yeah. [Phoenix of the Divine Flame]. Look at her flames." The Valkyrie pointed at Auri, still slowly spinning from one foot on the ceiling.

I looked, and after Iona pointed it out to me, I figured out what the weirdness with parts of Auri’s flames - her body - was.

They were the same type of divine fire Selene and Lunaris had granted Iona during the fight. The same ones Auri had seized and used for herself.

"Okay, she probably picked a good class." I allowed. Should I start calling her Promethea?

Iona’s eyes briefly unfocused and refocused.

"It’s not a goddess-blessed class." She sounded surprised. "Just a very good one. Probably. I don’t remember what her stats were earlier."

I was briefly tempted to make a joke about Iona not doing the math properly anyways, but no. That would be too mean. I did send off a quick prayer of thanks to the moon goddesses, figuring that they deserved some credit for Iona’s win and Auri’s fantastic class. Then I changed the topic with all the subtlety of a brick thrown through a window.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" I asked her.

"I know how to hold my alcohol." She teased me, ruffling my hair. Goddesses, that felt good. She knew how to hit just the right spots. I popped back up.

"No, I meant about yesterday. Rolland. Beating them, and winning." I clarified.

"Ah." Iona said, going quiet. Her fingers subtly twitched as we sat in silence. She took a deep breath.

"I feel… empty, mostly." She said. "It was incredibly satisfying in the moment, but exactly zero of my problems got fixed. I still don’t know what I’m doing next. I don’t know what happened with the Valkyries. Heck, there’s a chance I’ve made things worse by embarrassing Rolland like this. I look back and ask… what was the point?"

Iona despondently stared out into space.

I squeezed her hand.

"I know what the point was." I tenderly, softly said.

"What?" Iona asked.

"Petty revenge!" I beamed at her with an unrepentant grin.

Iona’s mouth slowly widened into a grin, then she cracked up laughing. I joined in, and the tension vanished.

"I guess you could call it that!" Iona roared, quickly ending up in a good mood.

"Plus, the thing with your goddesses had to be good for you, right? You got to show them off in front of the entire world!"

Iona jumped out of bed and started pacing around our little room.

"Yes. That was…" She trailed off, a dreamy look on her face, her fingers moving like she was looking for the right words.

"Indescribable?" I suggested.

Iona twirled around and snapped her fingers at me.

"Yes! That’s it! Exactly!"

"Brrrrpt?" A sleepy Auri wanted to know why we were walking on the ceiling.

"Auri, you’re upside down." I said.

"BRRRPT!" She protested the impossibility of the situation.

"What do you think is more likely? The humans on the ceiling and the bird on the floor, or the mighty phoenix in the sky, and the puny humans on the ground?" Iona asked Auri.

"Brrrpt!!" Auri liked Iona’s logic. "Brrrpt, brrpt brpt."

I facepalmed.

"Auri, I’ve already made a nest with Iona. So to speak."

"Brrrpt."

"No, I am not making a bigger nest!" I protested as Iona started to laugh.

"You losing an argument to a bird with a brain the size of your pinky will never stop being funny." She said.

"Yeah, yeah…" I complained as Auri freed herself.

"Brrrpt!" She shot off to get breakfast.

"How are you feeling about the Valkyries? Now that you’ve had some time to process." I asked Iona. I hadn’t wanted to poke and prod when it was fresh, and when Iona was heaven-bent on exacting revenge.

She sat down heavily next to me, an explosive breath leaving her.

"I don’t know." She admitted. "I know we’ve been putting off the ‘future’ talk, but now it’s even more up in the air."

We had, by mutual unspoken agreement, not talked about what was going to happen with us after the School. The [Oracle] did not have a good forecast for us… not that they could be trusted in the first place. It looked like we were, surprise surprise, doing it now.

What would Iona say? The irony of thinking what Iona would say when talking with her wasn’t lost on me in the slightest. Linnet was also good inspiration.

"Why did you decide to become a Valkyrie in the first place?"

Iona was quiet for a long moment, her hands clenching. I put my hand on her arm, letting her know I was here for her.

"Stories. Luck. And disaster." She said, and I stuck my chin on her shoulder, saying nothing, encouraging her to keep speaking.

"I had a friend growing up. Lux. We were two peas in a pod, although she could be a bit of an airhead at times. We did everything together. Played. Learned. Explored. Just the two of us, in our little village. We… I…"

Iona shook her head, taking a deep breath.

"I fucked up. We were playing in an old mine, and I hit a support beam. Collapsed the entire thing on her head. One of the Valkyries - Alruna - was there. Just sheer luck. I didn’t think there was anything left for me in the village, and I wanted to be out there. To be strong enough to shield others. To protect the Lux’s of the world. Alruna accepted me, and the rest is history."

That sounded quite a lot like what happened with me and Lyra. An accident. A stupid, preventable accident, that I knew better than to do.

I opened my mouth, almost sharing my story again, then closed it.

No no, this wasn’t the time to make this about me. This was about Iona.

"Well, you’re still a Valkyrie, regardless of what the organization is doing, right?"

Iona gave a sharp nod.

"Yes. Even if I’m the last one standing. I am, and forever will be, a Valkyrie."

"And what does that mean to you?"

Iona straightened up.

"There’s lots to it. In short though? My [Vow]."

We’d shared our respective restriction skills with each other ages ago, and I instantly recalled Iona’s.

First, protect the meek.

I will defend those who cannot defend themselves.

I will act with honor and with integrity.

I will not lie.

I will not be silent in the face of injustice.

My shield might break, but my spirit never will.

I will be the sheltering light, driving away darkness.

I will be generous when I can.

I will never betray another, nor my conscience.

I will act with temperance and valor.

I will smite evil wherever I find it.

I will not sit by idly while evil triumphs, nor will I cower in the face of it.

I will be a force for righteous justice.

I will always remember you.

"Well, I don’t know what the future holds. But we’ll find a way. Together." I reached out and grabbed Iona’s hand.

She nodded.

"We will. Got any ideas on the how? I have no idea how I’m going to feed Fenrir after we graduate, short of retreating to the wilderness and carving out a territory for him, and true wilderness that can support a predator of his size is hard to come by."

"Alright. We need a base of operations, or more importantly, a home. We need money. Sad fact of life. I think Amber might be able to help me out, she should owe me some money." I technically had invested with her… I just wasn’t sure what the status of all that was. "Then we find problems, and go deal with them. Together. Let’s see if we can build something, you, me, Auri, Fenrir. I don’t know what it’ll look like. I don’t know what the future holds. Heck, maybe we should try wandering without a base of operations for a while to see if that works for us. Go visit the Han empire, there’s enough people who need defending and healing there right now to keep us busy for years. Assuming we can find enough food. But there are enough problems in the world to keep us busy forever. What do you think?" I stuck my hand out at her.

Iona hesitated, indecision warring on her face. My heart thudded in my chest as I waited for her response

"It’s a pretty picture." She finally said. "I need to see if there’s anything from the Valkyries first. If we have a new place or not. Plus, where do you imagine we make a home? You are an Immortal, and even with your… dubious artifacts… mortal lands aren’t going to be that friendly."

"Exterreri." Marcelle’s pitch was still fresh in my mind. "Although, I’ll have to see. If there’s somewhere better, I’m all ears. Either way, I want to be with you. I want to stay with you."

Iona nodded.

"Same here. We’ll figure something out. Together."

That was all I wanted to hear.

"Together." I reaffirmed.

The middle rounds of the Gladiator Gauntlet flashed by. Iona dropped out after beating Rolland, claiming that she’d done what she came here for and further participating was pointless. Her second round opponents were delighted for the bye. The organizers were a little less amused. Iona was a hit, and they were disappointed they couldn’t have another round with her in the arena, packing the stadium.

To my great amusement, they discovered they had absolutely no leverage. Prizes? Iona didn’t care if they increased them or decreased them. Future competition? The same. No matter what they offered her, she just didn’t care, and it was hilarious to watch them get increasingly frustrated over the whole thing.

Her winnings were more than enough to pay Pascal, who was very happy to remind us that the 16% interest was regardless of how quickly we managed to pay it off. I was probably going to leave this part out of my letter to Amber… I wanted to watch her have an aneurysm when I told her in person the next time we met! Whenever that was.

Speaking of byes, the School got a round 2 bye as well. Shirayuki had gotten us paired against the Yellow Jackets for round 2, and we were ready to humiliate them after their backstab a few years ago. We held something of a grudge.

They never showed up, electing to take the ‘minor’ hit of being an awkward no-show - made less awkward by Iona dropping out, to some minor grumbling - instead of fighting and losing.

They were all a bunch of thugs anyway.

The Vanishing Tower were our round 3 opponents, and the entire way the Phantasym Magocracy operated made my skin crawl. The basic idea was sound. A powerful wizard erected a tower for research and study, a fortified position for themself against the wilds - and other, less scrupulous wizards. It was an even toss up if they’d establish themselves in a town or village, or if people would come to the new, protected area and settle down.

Then, in classic master-apprentice fashion, they’d find a number of promising young individuals, and pass on their knowledge, raising up the next generation.

All good. Where it got weird - because of course they couldn’t just have a normal, civilized society - was there was a deep-seated cultural belief that part of the knowledge transfer involved sex. I didn’t want to know the exact details and reasoning behind it, because ew. Male, female, regardless of the gender of the master and apprentice.

And the master of the Vanishing Tower clearly had a type.

I was more than happy to stomp them as fast as I could.

One of the Aerie flocks was up next. Given that every harpy could innately fly on their own, they automatically negated half of our team. The rumor mill said the tiebreaker rules were introduced because of them. Ling Li and I were the only ones who could fly without potions, although Sarama had a small supply of them for Sir Polarton and Pascal. Iris had enough range with her sorcery, and Sir Polarton and Pascal were both tough enough to make good use of the tiebreakers.

Then we were in the final 8. The usual set of powerhouses were present, and Calador, the famous war college located over an active volcano in the Han empire was next. That was one hell of an aesthetic.

We clobbered them, although Iona let me know that their strategy game team had managed to win their entire tournament.

Like.

Their members secured 15 of the top 16 spots, with one elf from the Academy slipping in 7th. Calador was the place to become a [Tactician], [Strategist], or [General]. The School was more of an all-rounder.

Being a good leader didn’t make a good fighter, although the match was close. We only had 6 people to their 7, and we felt the lack of Morning Breeze hard.

The elven Academy were our semi-final opponents, but in an ironic twist, they were easier than Calador. A twist of the mortal-Immortal divide on Pallos was that mortals tended to have higher levels at a young age. Immortals had eternity to level up, and most of them took the ‘why take the risk?’ approach. The presence of powerful Immortals overseeing large stretches of land and dealing with problems before they could threaten anyone had a cascading effect where there simply weren’t enough threats or dangers to get the high levels at a young age.

There was something there with that thought. An idea of ‘total possible experience’ and the distribution of who got it. It all fell apart when non-combatants entered the picture, along with danger multipliers - or lack thereof - but there was something there.

Regardless of the low threats and relatively low levels, they were still elves, drawn from three different nations into a single great center of learning. I was completely sure it was the same one Awarthril had suggested I head towards once upon a time, and they had perfected gaining experience, leveling, and class quality over the eons.

It all balanced out at young ages.

Lastly, we were up against one of our eternal rivals. The great academy of the nobility, the place where all the young [Princes] and [Heiresses] spent several years getting to know each other in their rarified stratosphere, making connections and doing gods knows what young nobles got up to when crammed together.

Hapensburgs.

Chapter 21 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XI

"From the north side! The renowned center of learning, the temple of knowledge, the garden of minds, the place that’ll turn you into a genius! Please welcome The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft!" The [Announcer] shouted, and we exited the gates to great fanfare.

We were allowed a few people with us to give us advice on the field. Each final was held ‘on its own’ so to speak, with no other competing events at the same time. All the better to maximize crowds - and sales. Shirayuki was with us to personally oversee things and direct, and Iona was with us. Ling Li had a sect mate of hers with us, and Pascal had a cousin or something joining him.

"And from the south side! The leaders of tomorrow, the blue bloods, the most noble and honorable Hapensburgs!"

Unfortunately, they got a lot more cheering than we did. Hapensburgs was the place for nobles, and it wasn’t like the average person could travel halfway around the world to watch some games. The people filling the stands were the wealthy, rich, powerful, and well-connected, and were constantly rubbing elbows with the parents of Hapensburgs’s students - if they didn’t have kids at Hapensburgs themselves!

With that said, people who couldn’t send their proteges to Hapensburg wanted the School, so it was a bit of a wash at the end of the day.

Like how Rolland’s team had the Shining Prince wielding Ruination, each member of the Hapensburgs team had come equipped with fantastical weapons and amazing artifacts, helping them crush their way through the competition. They didn’t dare wield them against us.

The School had a well-deserved reputation for breaking and smashing all artifacts deployed against us. It had taken a decade or two of teams in the past focusing on nothing but destroying them, often to the detriment of our victories back in the day, but we’d earned a ferocious reputation thanks to them.

Artifacts deployed against the School died. Victory wasn’t worth the price of replacing them.

Very few other organizations could afford to throw so many matches for the sake of gaining a reputation, and those that did often wielded their own artifacts. They tended to have a sort of mutual respect for the cost and price, and while they did occasionally break, they didn’t deliberately try to smash them.

All to say, people put away the fancy, super expensive family heirlooms when facing off against the School, even if it cost them their chance at winning the entire event. Hapensburgs would reap the benefits of winning, while the individual team members would bear the price and the cost of losing a priceless heirloom.

It made the playing field a bit more even.

"Iris. You’re up first." Shirayuki said. "Barring significant issues, Ling Li, you’re second, followed by Elaine. Sarama, have the mana potions ready."

We’d made a half dozen plans in advance. Shirayuki was simply letting us know we were going with plan A - the mana regeneration one.

"Teams, please send forth your first contestant!" The [Referee] - not Mormerilhawn, being an employee of the School was a bad look in the finals here - announced.

Iris stepped forward, the selkie nearly indistinguishable from a human without her seal skin. She was busy drinking three different potions Sarama handed to her, a set of boosts to help her out. Blessedly, nobody on the Hapensburg team was a support. Something about most high-ranking nobility not taking such a ‘lowly’ role or some nonsense. Seven combatants was a legitimate strategy though, especially since we were down a combatant. On the other side, a falcon beastkin stepped forward. One of the [Pharaoh’s] great great grandchildren, I was unsure where, exactly, he was in the line of succession. Somewhere single-digit.

"For the first round! Netos Sekhemkhet of Ankhelt versus Iris of nowhere! We’ve seen both of these contestants through the event, and now, here at the finals, they’re all set to clash! Who will come on top? The…"

The [Announcer] had way too many words to say about things, and from the calculating look the [Referee] was shooting towards his booth, he was inclined to let him talk.

"I might be stating the obvious here, but Sand and Earth." Iona said. "Looks to be around… errr… two-thirds magic, one-third physical. A little heavier on the political and leadership skills than average, but higher stats than I’d expect."

Iona helping out felt like cheating. At the same time, we’d just gotten five other rounds of watching all the members of the Hapensburgs team fight. The only surprise was his element was Earth, not Mountain.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] blessedly started the event.

A rolling sandstorm exploded into being on the far side of the arena, barreling towards Iris at high speed. It was like a hundred ravenous beasts were lunging and snapping from the storm, threatening to devour all in their path.

Iris didn’t bother trying to blast anything through the storm. Sand was fantastic defensively in that respect. It had mass, but in thousands of moving parts. ‘Hard’ attacks like a stone shot could punch through easily, but ‘softer’ attacks like Lightning and Radiance got eaten and thrown a dozen different ways.

Iris might’ve tried to shoot Ice shards through the storm, but didn’t. I couldn’t read her mind, but Netos was no idiot. He would’ve moved from his starting position, so blind attacks wouldn’t hit.

Iris seemed to practically ‘slip’ into the storm. All I managed to see from my position was the Sand immediately around her ‘freezing’ and stopping, before she was in.

We spent a tense minute watching the storm, all while the [Announcer] wildly speculated what was going on inside. The occasional flash of Lightning made its way out of the top, along with rumbles deep inside.

"Ooooh! That had to hurt! That much bleed-off is more power than most Light mages can manage, and it’s just a cast-off from one of Iris’s attacks! Thank goodness our shields prevent blinding…"

This particular [Announcer] was only barely managing to rank over adventurers on my list. The only nice thing I could say about him was he worked a mostly honest job for a living.

I knew a magic array that would let me mute a single person, but I didn’t know how to modify it so I could mute a single person through their own Sound skills. It was worth thinking about… another day.

The sandstorm started to calm down, then a bright red light flashed deep in the arena, as bright lights started to sparkle across the barrier.

"And we have a winner!" The [Announcer] said.

No shit Sherlock.

The Sand fell like the world’s most abrasive shower. Iris was walking back to us, coughing and hacking, while Netos was angrily storming back to his side, shield bright red.

"Round 1 Winner, the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. Current points are 2-0 in favor of the School!" The [Referee] announced.

Shirayuki’s tails went up, and slowly moved back and forth in a happy motion.

"Excellent showing." She praised Iris.

Iris grimaced.

"I’m completely out of mana. That took everything I had." She said.

"Understandable. Try to bait out an attack, but if they call your bluff, concede before you make us look bad. Appearances are more important than ever here." Shirayuki said.

"Understood." Iris accepted a mana potion from Sarama, throwing it back before stepping forward again.

Sarama’s mana potions were good, but they couldn’t instantly restore an entire mana pool. Iris knew to blow the mana if she could find an easy chance to win, but otherwise, it was better ‘saved’ for the teamfight portion.

"From Hapensburgs! The Son of the Son of the Sun! Xocoh!" The [Announcer] said, and the kobold stepped forward. It was her first year here, and she was carefully removing a number of decorative feathers from her head. Kobolds were small, like miniature dragonlings. It was easy to tell the largest kobolds from the smallest dragonlings - dragonlings had horns, while kobolds had none. They were all distinct from Saurians, who each had a clear and obvious dinosaur ‘ancestor’.

"It still bugs me that they call her the Son of the Son, when she’s a woman. Like, seriously?" I complained to nobody in particular.

"They could at least call her the Grandsun." Iona punned, and we all groaned. "She’s Inferno, Inferno, Radiance. Radiance is relatively new." Iona said. We were all ignoring the [Announcer] blathering in the background. "Some of those Inferno skills are big ones. Wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of them."

Iona and I traded a knowing glance with each other.

"That’s interesting. She’s been primarily using Radiance this entire time, I’d assumed it was primary." Shirayuki said.

"She’s looking to level it." Ling Li said.

"Dibs on next." I glanced at Shirayuki. "Sorry, but my skill set counters her too perfectly for me not to."

"Elaine is… likely better suited to the task than I am." Ling Li admitted. The cultivator was big on leaves, and leaves against fire was a horrifically one-sided matchup.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] kicked the match off.

Xocoh immediately started to glow with a brilliant Radiance, stepping up into the air like she was ascending the steps of a ziggurat. Iris was taking a defensive stance, and Xocoh had called our bluff. She was showboating in front of the crowd, taking her time, and critically, not throwing any large attacks Iris’s way.

Iris was close enough that I could see her perfectly with [The World Around Me]. It let me see her conjure up hundreds of tiny Ice needles, so clear and perfect as to be practically invisible. Without a single obvious motion, she silently launched them at Xocoh. An ‘assassination’ attempt, so to speak.

A heartbeat later, and Iris raised her hand.

"I surrender." She turned around and walked back through the barrier to us, slowly shaking her head.

"Round 2 Winner, Hapensburgs! Current points are a 2-2 tie!" The [Referee] announced.

"A [Heat Aura]/[Flame Defense] merged variant." Iona quickly explained. "Melted the Ice before it got close. It doesn’t look like she was aware of the attack."

"Elaine, you’re up." Shirayuki confirmed.

"Iona, fast, Radiance is low level, Inferno is the rest, yeah?" I asked.

She groaned, knowing where I was going.

"Yes. It’s just a game though, it’s not worth the risk."

I snorted.

"What risk?" I asked.

"Elaine… don’t do anything stupid." Shirayuki’s voice was dangerous.

I bounded forward.

"From The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft! One of their main anchors! Elaine!" The [Announcer] started going over my history in the games - and my utter lack of background or known sponsors.

Annoying.

"Hey ref!" I called across the field to the [Referee].

"Is there an issue?" He asked.

"A really minor one. Can I fight this one unshielded?" I asked him. "To be clear, I don’t want a mutual unshielding, but Xocoh can’t hurt me. I figure I’ll save everyone the effort."

There was a collective gasp from half the crowd, and the other half oooohed. Then everyone exploded into discussion. Xocoh was glaring murder at me, and the ref came over to chat.

"Are you sure?" He asked quietly. "Can’t bail you out if you get in too deep, and I can’t teleport you out of danger if you go too deep."

I shrugged.

"Yeah, I’m sure."

Xocoh was going to try to murder me.

This was going to be hilarious.

"You are now unshielded." The [Referee] said. "Best of luck."

He walked back to the center of the field as the [Announcer] continued to rant and rave about my choice.

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!"

I let out a large, fake yawn, and slowly started to stroll to the center of the field. I split my mind in half with [Parallel Thoughts], and one half popped one of my spellbooks out of [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], while the other kept a razor-sharp eye on Xocoh, and what she was up to.

She was climbing steps again, and with each footfall, the shape of an ancient, massive ziggurat became clearer and clearer. With how the Radiance and skill were interacting, it was like she was standing atop a mountain of gold.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Glory of the Ziggurat]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

Butterfly Mystic’s ability to crib other Radiance skills coming in handy! Sadly, I liked my skills too much, and at this point I was simply looking to upgrade skills, not get new ones to merge around.

The kobold started to chant, a ritual skill forming out of burning flames in the air above her in the shape of a quetzalcoatl.

Nobles. Always needing to show off. Couldn’t just shoot me with a rock like a sensible Classer, oh no, they had to make a whole production out of it.

Honestly, how’d they ever get those levels?

At the same time, I had to admit - if I had a brazen target willing to stand still and let me wind up an attack, I’d wind up the biggest, baddest attack I had.

"[Itzel’s Divine Wrath]." Xocoh announced, imperiously pointing at me.

The flaming quetzalcoatl roared towards me, and I safely tucked my book back away into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard]. I instinctively braced myself for impact, my trained instincts unable to overcome my surefire knowledge that I was completely safe.

The flames crashed and roared over me, my companion bond letting me see straight through them as if they weren’t there. Xocoh looked smug.

She thought she was murdering someone in lukewarm blood, and she looked smug. I was starting to see where Iona’s hatred of the nobility came from, and I couldn’t wait to wipe that smug look off her face.

The only casualties were my lightweight clothing. Ah well, we’d all gone through a couple of pairs each this tournament, and it was the one area the fauns were fairly relaxed on us replacing without impacting our weight limit, unlike armor, weapons, or arrows and the like.

The skill finished, the beast of flames spending itself entirely and dissipating against the ground. A half-dozen smaller fires had started in the grass all around me, thin grey smoke spiraling into the air.

I brushed non-existent dust off my shoulder, and did my best to smirk at Xocoh.

"That’s it?" I asked.

Chapter 22 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XII

I looked up at Xocoh, who was going cyan with fury. Kobold quirk there.

Well, might as well rub it in a bit. I split one part of my mind off to work on a Water-generating spell, while taunting my opponent some.

It was terrible practice, but this was a show. I was being a [Showwoman] today. Or something like that. Rah rah go!

Either way, glory to the School! Down with Hapensburgs! Make them look bad!

I needed to get some serious practice and training in after this to unlearn any bad habits I might’ve picked up.

"I mean, yikes, that didn’t even warm me. Are you using illusions? Are you secretly a Mirage mage? Oh wait, hang on, the fires are real. Sheesh. You could think about how hard the fauns work to keep this place looking nice."

I popped out a spellbook, [Comprehensive Speed Reading] letting me instantly flip it open to the page I wanted. I put my hand on the pre-drawn mandala, the lines glowing and the page disintegrating as mana flowed through it.

A new outfit popped into existence on me, the material questionable and the cut so bad that any novice [Tailor] would want to gouge their eyes out, but it was clothing.

More importantly, it made a point. I was so unconcerned with Xocoh that I could blow mana on pointless clothing that was going to get disintegrated again.

I snapped my spellbook back into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], not wanting to risk it. I’d poured dozens of hours into crafting the spells inside, and it wasn’t protected. Taking a flaming blast would incinerate it, burn it to ashes, and I’d be a real sad panda if that happened.

My spell finished crystallizing, and I cast the mandala with [Lepidoptera], making it extra-large for the crowd. I sprayed the little fires that had erupted near the edge of Xocoh’s spell, deliberately ‘wasting’ a ton of mana doing something ‘useless’.

In other words - rubbing in how little Xocoh was doing, and how little concern I was appearing to give her.

In reality, I was still laser-focused on her. I was unshielded for the fight, mostly because I trusted in my fire immunity more than the organizer’s shields to protect me. Xocoh could still pull out a crossbow or some other tool, just like Iona’s first round opponents had surprises.

The other issue was Xocoh was another Radiance mage. Great for yoinking skills off of when she displayed them, but she had [Radiance Resistance] and possibly [Radiance Manipulation] herself.

If I sent my butterflies at her, the odds were great that she could simply seize control of them. My [Nova Lance] was significantly stronger than her resistance though, and it could probably take her out, although the mana cost would be prohibitive, compared to other ways I had of winning.

She couldn’t hurt me, and I had to use wizardry or physical blows. Easy enough once I got close, and I could close the gap at any time, ending the fight.

The big question was how I’d end the fight.

At this level, on this stage, it was more than just ending it and winning. It was about showing dominance.

I was carefully managing my mana, keeping myself close to full, knowing my regeneration would top up any issues I had.

Xocoh was still standing on top of her ziggurat made out of Radiance, her eyes narrowed at me in careful calculation.

She spat a word in what was probably Arawak, then searing Radiance came pouring out of her, bathing the entire arena in harsh rays.

I’d done the same thing often enough to recognize what was going on.

"Nope! No mirages here! Just 100% pure me! It feels nice though, keep going." I tilted my head back, ‘enjoying’ the ‘sunlight’, although I couldn’t bring myself to close my eyes. There was showboating, and there was being stupid. If she was in range of [The World Around Me], maybe I could keep my eyes closed, but it wasn’t quite high enough level to reach her.

Xocoh screamed in impotent rage - honestly, some nobles just had incredibly fragile egos - and launched a new barrage of flaming skills at me. I gave a dramatic yawn as they landed on and around me, stretching like I didn’t have a care in the world.

It stopped as suddenly as it started.

"Okay, we’re done." I announced, teleporting out another spellbook, opening it up to exactly the right page. With a press of my hand, I activate the spell, the handle of a shortsword forming in the center of the mandala. I grabbed the handle and slowly - from my point of view, probably not to everyone else - ‘pulled’ the weapon out of the spell, feeding it enough mana to form the weapon as I ‘drew’ it out.

There technically was a short window where my spellbook was vulnerable. In practice, I’d stash the book and abort the spell before any attack hit.

It was, by most objective standards, a shit weapon. It didn’t have any of the fancy… stuff… that regular blacksmiths could do to a weapon, let alone skill enhancements from either the maker, or from myself.

However, I could enchant it myself. A quick trio of Jiwa runes, drawn by [Lepidoptera], glowed as the metal melted around them during the engraving process.

Durability.

Gripping.

Heat Resistance. The sword was useless if Xocoh just melted it! While I was immune to fire, I wasn’t immune to molten metal.

My concerns were the weapon getting yoinked and turned against me. After the event? It’d probably get destroyed, so nobody passed it off as a ‘real’ weapon, and not a conjured one.

It only took me a second or so to arm myself, most of it spent carefully managing the spell generating the weapon. Then I snapped my wings open and soared up to Xocoh. She had to be out of mana at this point, and the longer I dragged this on, the more the kobold and Netos could restore their mana.

Having both of them be out of mana for the teamfight would be a major strategic edge, starting to even up the numbers between both sides.

She spat at me, and I used [Mantle of the Stars] to block it. I did not want to get spat on. That was the only resistance as I ‘impaled’ her, sword-first. A bright red shield appeared around her, signifying her loss.

There were no further saliva-based assaults as the match was called.

"Round 3 Winner, The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft! Current points are 4-2 in favor of the School!" The [Referee] dutifully called out the score as we retreated to our respective sides. Sarama offered me a mana potion, which I declined with a hand.

"Strong work. How much mana was that?" Shirayuki asked.

"Practically none. Didn’t need to heal anything." I said.

I got some raised eyebrows at that, then Hapensburgs sent forth their next member, a gnome. Short, wearing the classic uniform of the Hapensburgs team, with dark hair and brown eyes, carrying a crossbow nearly as tall as he was.

Gnomes were the single biggest loser in ‘the System multiplies the base’ of all the elvenoids in the world. With a height measured in inches - my opponent was about two inches tall - they simply didn’t have much to multiply in the first place, nearly every single combatant specializing in magic. Heck, most of their population did as well! Gravity was a popular element, since even a low-level mage could move more material than the average gnome worker, given the small scale they worked on.

Magic was magic. The rules and abilities stayed the same, regardless of size… mostly.

"Tinbeg. Spatial and Mantle, with a specialized [Trigger] variant." Iona quickly said.

Spatial was part of the mostly.

"Crossbows and [Teleport]." Shirayuki confirmed. "He’s slippery, but you should be a harder counter to him, with how fast Radiance is. I’d been planning to keep you for this match, why are they feeding him to us now?"

[Blink] and the closely related [Teleport] scaled their cost on mass, and gnomes, with their tiny mass, could use Spatial magic on themselves like nobody else.

The gnome called something out to the referee, who had a brief conversation with him in the gnome’s tongue. Switching back to Combrogi, he made the conversion clear.

"Tinbeg has requested to be unshielded for this fight. School representative, would you like to be unshielded for this fight?" The [Referee] asked.

I cursed. A huge amount of my arsenal was eliminated with that move. He wasn’t the first to take advantage of my [Oath] status, and he wouldn’t be the las-

Wait.

He very well might be the last person to ever take advantage of my [Oath] in an event like this.

Huh. That was kinda sad, in a way. This could be my last 1v1 fight ever.

"Heck no! He’s scary!" There was no way I was fighting unshielded against someone who could harm me. I wasn’t risking life and limb on a game, just no. Iona chuckled in the background. I stabbed my conjured sword point-first into the ground, leaving it available for me next round if I managed to win this one.

I couldn’t use it, and we both knew it. Why carry it around?

I continued to ignore the obnoxious [Announcer].

"Fame. Glory. Honor. Fight!" The [Referee] called with minimal fuss.

I couldn’t just blast Tinbeg. Blasted lack of shield and my [Oath]. I needed to force him to surrender without hurting him… and he knew I couldn’t hurt him. A sword - or heck, with his size, a fingernail - to the throat couldn’t force a surrender when the gnome knew it was a bluff, and I couldn’t follow through.

The gnome immediately shot his crossbow, the single ping! - not a thwack - of the bow firing resulting in three silver bolts - screaming across the field. They magically grew larger as they left the crossbow, otherwise they’d be roughly as potent as a toothpick. I neatly side-stepped the now full-sized bolts, letting them slam against the arena’s protective barrier. I then charged across the field at full speed, the anti-friction runes on my skin lighting up as my enchanted boots dug into the dirt.

I was going straight for the tiebreaker flag. This was going to be an endurance contest. Could I dodge or tank enough attacks to win via tiebreaker before my shield was triggered?

The gnome quickly and expertly reloaded, and fired a second barrage as I was three-quarters of the way to the fort. The single shot once again split into three. A deft twist dodged two of them, but I wasn’t able to dodge all of them. The third bolt ‘bounced’ off my skin, transferring momentum to my body but nothing else as my protective shield ‘ate’ the rest of the harm.

It was worth the minor hit to my arena shield, versus using [Mantle of the Stars] to deflect. An extension of Maximus’s ‘take it or shield it’ training from eons ago, delivered in a small field outside of a minor city from a long-dead empire.

Then I was through the gates.

Climbing up the tower was trivial, taking only a few seconds before I tied the School’s flag to the center pole.

Which started the countdown.

"The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft has claimed the center tower. Hapensburgs, you have five minutes to dislodge the School’s contestant before they win." The [Referee] announced.

I cracked open my spellbook to [Billowing Darkness], engulfing the top of the tower in blackness thicker than night.

… this was something of a bad look, wasn’t it? [Evil Queen] Elaine, on top of her tower, surrounded by shadows? With the smallfolk besieging and trying to take me down? Yeeeeeeah, oops.

Annoyingly, it didn’t seem to slow him down in the slightest. Given the massive hollowed-out trees they lived in, it should've come as no surprise that he was adept at fighting in the dark. He teleported on top of the fort’s walls, loosening another set of those damn bolts.

I predicted his next attack, dropping to the ground and doing a pushup, before springing back to my feet. As I jumped back to my feet, I summoned one of my spellbooks.

[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 76 -> 77. +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]

FINALLY! A level! Woohooo! It had been way too long since my last one!

I banished the distraction from my mind, feeling momentarily sad for all the spells I was about to burn through.

I flipped my spellbook open to the spell I wanted, putting my hand on the mandala. The Awarthril Special. The runes glowed and the page disintegrated as I cast the spell. Chains erupted from the mandala, chasing the gnome, as globs of sticky ooze liberally sprayed around in his direction.

If I tied him down, I could just sit back and relax. I didn’t like my odds of succeeding, but it was better than doing nothing.

"Fwoop!" He called out, but I was ready. I knew from prior matches that Tinbeg liked teleporting to blind spots, or even just to break up line of sight and force people to find him again, but neither were a concern with [The World Around Me]. I mentally directed the chains, the oversized manacles grabbing his entire body. His crossbow was being impossibly held by the tip of a single finger, implying skills at play.

"Boop!" He teleported again.

Fucking.

Trigger.

Mages.

This time he teleported practically under me, almost jamming the crossbow into my chin. He launched a shot from point-blank.

The [Triple Shot] slammed into my head, and I was reflexively slapping at him with my free hand as he called out "Gazoop!", vanishing again. This time he teleported far away, further than [The World Around Me] perceived.

My shield was calibrated to an absurd degree. I could take dozens of his shots to my head before I got concerned about losing.

The organizers didn’t quite believe me when I said my head wasn’t a weak point, and I wasn’t willing to demonstrate. I was fairly certain I was significantly tougher than the shield they’d given me indicated, but I wasn’t willing to prove it.

Binding wasn’t going to help. He’d just teleport out of whatever I did, assuming I could even trap something as small as him to begin with. I traded out my spellbooks, opening up a new set of abilities.

I shielded a second attack, pinpointing where the gnome was. Another spell, another page disintegrated, and a cone of screeching, disorienting noise blasted out.

It was on one of the lowest power settings I could manage, gnomes being particularly fragile. My spell couldn’t harm him, but it might make him feel dizzy.

I ducked another triple shot, cursing. So much for that.

Fuck, I couldn’t wait to get the skill to a combat-practical state for myself.

Binding and restriction wasn’t going to work, nor could I apply anything strong enough to slow or disorient Tinbeg. Harm was completely out of the question and far too easy to cause accidentally against such a tiny opponent. My hands were somewhat tied.

Same spellbook, different page, and I had the wind blowing around me, causing my hair to whip around. Tinbeg’s bolts wavered and were blown off course, and I was briefly elated that I could just stand here with the [Twister] spell going.

Then he adjusted his aim, and I dropped the spell. It was costing me significantly more mana to disrupt his shots briefly than he was spending, and I’d need to use a new spell every time he adjusted his aim. It wasn’t worth it.

Fine. Time to change mindset, track, and strategy.

I stood there, crossing my arms and wrapping myself in [Mantle], having it flow like a cape woven of starlight. Offense wasn’t working, and fundamentally, this contest was about showing off. Standing here, daring Tinbeg to attack, demonstrating a flawless defense would do more for our image than a thousand ineffective attacks from me.

That just made Hapensburgs look good.

I dropped the darkness spell, letting the crowd watch. Why be a [Showwoman] if I was hiding the entire event from the audience?

Tinbeg was no amateur, and bolts came flying thick and fast within seconds of me standing there, daring him to act.

I had a good amount of fun using [Nova Lance] to simply burn the silver bolts out of the air, utterly disintegrating them. It made for one hell of a lightshow, and an impressive display to boot.

I had to be extremely careful with each shot. The bolts were coming in a straight line from Tinbeg to me, and my Radiance beams only came in straight shots. Just a flicker of [Nova Lance] at the power needed to disintegrate bolts at Tinbeg could seriously injure or flat-out kill him.

I stopped after a close call had my heart leap into my throat. Winning a round in a game wasn’t worth someone’s life.

I dodged some, deflected others, shielded more, and flat-out tanked the rest. His goal was to get me to move. My goal was to stay here. It was an endurance contest within a showmanship contest.

I wasn’t too concerned about getting his [Trigger]-set [Teleports]. Tinbeg was too fragile to enter the teamfight unshielded, and I was going to blast his ugly little face into a thousand pieces the moment he had a shield on.

"Hapensburgs, you have four minutes."

An annoying reminder that winning via the anti-stall rules gave the Hapensburgs mages who’d already fought more time to recharge their mana. Bah!

Bolts flew up from one part of the wall in a steady stream, and I simply walked to the other side of the tower to avoid them. A moment’s pause, then they’d start up again from a different position.

I considered erecting a set of thick metal walls, but no. The mana requirement for something like that was absurd, and so far I was keeping my mana pool high. The gnome was blowing through mana at a prodigious rate, and I didn’t want to win the battle only to lose the war. Keeping me intact for the teamfight was more important than spending all my mana on a questionable defense.

[Mantle] got a strong workout as a billowing cape, making me look good. Didn’t cost anything when it wasn’t deflecting any attacks!

"Hapensburgs, you have three minutes."

I briefly tried flat-out lying down to not give any profile for Tinbeg to shoot at. He teleported above the tower, and rained bolts down on me. Being on the floor was terrible tactically, and he got in a few good hits before I rolled out of the way.

"Hapensburgs, you have two minutes."

The cheeky little shit tried to teleport on the tower, shooting me from point-blank. The angle was finally right, and a [Nova Lance] disintegrated half his crossbow. He teleported off.

It didn’t stop him for long - but he didn’t repeat the stunt.

"Hapensburgs, you have one minute."

Tinbeg teleported back onto the tower, and I sniped his crossbow again. He looked smug, dropping the smoldering embers of his bow, and I got a Bad Feeling.

Three ghostly crossbows appeared around him.

Then five.

A dozen.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

He intoned words I didn’t know, but I knew the general gist of.

Some utter horseshit [Noble] skill. Probably like [Every Man, Woman, and Child Picks Up A Weapon in Defense of the Tree] or some other nonsense like that.

I made the snap decision to showboat. This was obviously Tinbeg’s trump, and I was so close to winning. I could jump off the tower or fly away, but that’d reset the timer, and give the rest of his team all the more time to recover.

If I defiantly stood here, not flinching as I took the entire barrage, and won? The entire match would practically be over, people wouldn’t be talking about anything else.

All the bows fired. Each bolt and shot was weak, but there was the sheer quantity of it. A storm of metal rained down on me, feeling like a light breeze.

"Ten seconds left." The [Referee] declared.

I smirked as the storm petered out, and made the snap call not to make the same brushing motion as I did against Xocoh. The fight wasn’t over yet, and flubbing the last seconds could make me look bad.

My shield had to be low after all that abuse. Just a few more seconds.

"Nine." The ref counted down.

"Floop!"

Tinbeg teleported onto my head, a new bow pointing down at point-blank to my head.

He fired as the ref announced "Eight."

My shield sprang up, bright red.

Damn. Blasted accumulated-shield damage limit. I suppose having all my mana available was more than a fair tradeoff for my shield having a maximum amount of damage it could take before I was ‘out’, and frankly, I’d have probably taken enough ‘damage’ to drain a huge chunk of my mana anyways.

"Round 4 Winner, Hapensburgs! Current points are a 4-4 tie!"

Fucking unshielded jerk. Exploiting my [Oath] like this was so unfair.

… Then again, I’d been trained by Artemis. Her first lesson was literally ‘don’t fight fair’, and I guess it was being turned on me.

Ah well. While I’d lost the round, strategically, it had been a win. The 1v1’s didn’t matter anymore for determining who took the crown, and I came out of that fight looking much better than Tinbeg. The crowd wasn’t dumb. They knew he’d exploited the rules hard, and even then I’d just stood there and taken the brutal beating without blinking.

At this point it was all about weakening the various members of both teams, and given how reluctant Tinbeg had been to use that last, big skill, and all the teleporting around he did, he had to be out of gas, and mostly out of mana. I’d ask Iona to check.

Meanwhile, I was sitting pretty with 85% of my mana pool left, Sarama had mana potions, my mana regeneration was crazy, and I was pretty happy about our chances.

Sir Polarton went up next, and he had no issues about causing harm, and everyone knew it. A single devastating roar from the Sound Classer, impossible to teleport to avoid, crashed across the field and instantly eliminated the fragile gnome.

6-4. There was an argument that we should’ve substituted me out the moment Tinbeg wanted to fight unshielded, but that would’ve looked bad, compared to the display I’d put on. Plus, I’d ended up so close to winning.

Iona was happy to confirm that Tinbeg was entirely out of mana to boot.

The great-great-many-times-great grandson of Sultan Qizm took the field, the elf all flowing lines and elegant swordplay, dancing around Sir Polarton in a stunning display that had our jaws dropping.

Sir Polarton was still a fucking polar bear, and while elves were the god’s perfect creation, they had nothing on a half-ton killing machine. The two ended up in a mutual kill, eliminating each other.

8-6. We still had a lead!

We sent up Ling Li, and I was startled to hear the name Sahel announced from the other side, a beautiful naga slithering up to represent Hapensburgs.

Iya was a member of the Sahel family, and from what I understood, she was the heir. So why was this Norta being announced as the heir?

"Any ideas?" I asked Iona as we watched the fight.

She snorted.

"They’re all a pit of vipers. My ideas range from one’s a fake, designed to throw off assassins, to they’ve both been told they’re the heir, and they need to out-maneuver and kill each other for the survivor to end up ruling the house."

I eyed the magic Norta was throwing around.

"Iya is so fucked if it’s a direct fight."

Iona nodded agreement.

Ling Li was flying high on a gigantic leaf, firing an unending stream of razor-sharp, acid-edged leaves at Norta. They withered and died before they could reach her, and the naga kept drawing dark runes to fire spells back.

The [Cultivator] and the [Wizard] exchanged blows for far longer than I’d imagine, Shirayuki getting more and more impatient the entire time.

"She’s stalling." She finally declared. "Waiting for the rest of the team to regenerate. Ling Li! Concede!" Our [Coach] shouted across the field.

Ling Li stormed back, and it was 8-8.

We were down to Pascal and Sarama. Sarama was our potion maker, and potentially deadly in a fight, throwing her concoction. It was also the last round, so we were willing to go all-out, and Pascal was no slouch.

At the same time, it didn’t matter, and we all knew it. The teamfight would determine the final winner… although the more points the loser racked up now, the better prizes they’d get. Motivation from the fauns organizing the event to keep us fighting.

Pascal stepped up, and half transformed into the werewolf he was, his pool of mallium twisting around him. Norta had burned a good amount of mana fighting Ling Li, and he quickly beat her.

10-8 in our favor.

Someone announced as the Vollomond [Princess] was next, and Pascal turned to us with an awkward look on his face. Shirayuki gave an exasperated sigh.

Fucking politics. Even if it was ‘all clean fun’, and there were ‘no repercussions’, we all knew that was something of a lie. Openly ‘defying’ the princess of the country he and his family lived in, and were prominent, if low-level nobles, was a poor life choice for his future. At the same time, showing deference could easily get him and his family noticed in a good way, and he didn’t want to be made to potentially wreck his future over a single event.

Politics.

"We’ll pull you." Shirayuki’s tails told the real story of how she felt.

"Nobles." Iona spat onto the ground.

"Nobles." I agreed, adding my spit.

Pascal looked deeply disturbed at our display, but Ling Li of all people put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

10-10. Only Sarama was left. Sarama, and her limited supply of potions.

"We concede the rest of the singles portions." Shirayuki announced, and with that, we were moving into the teamfight.

My last fight. The one that would determine if I ever got to wear the crown of the Gladiator Gauntlet or not. The one that would let me feel I got the chance to repay the School for granting me free tuition, and a place to learn and read for years.

I - we - was determined to win.

Chapter 23 - The Gladiator Gauntlet XIII

"Potions!" Sarama broke open her chest, handing them out to everyone. "Physical stat buffs." Our [Alchemist] was meticulous, always explaining what she was handing out to everyone, even though we’d seen them a dozen times already. A safety precaution, given that some potions had the same color and even smell as other, entirely different ones.

We all got handed little blue vials of across-the-board stat boosting potions. I knocked mine back, feeling it burn and coil in my stomach. Iris retched, but the rest of us were a little more stoic.

Everyone but me got sensory-boosting potions. My senses were already absurd, and something about my new biology didn’t play well with the potion, turning the world into a kaleidoscope of colors and reflections, causing auditory hallucinations, instead of helping me.

A set of durability potions got handed out. At this level, with the sheer variety of things [Alchemists] could make, on-the-fly adjustments to our shields were critical, especially with some of Sarama’s more interesting concoctions.

"Last potion for everyone." Sarama dug deep into the bottom of her chest, before pausing and looking up at Shirayuki.

"This is the right time and place for them, yeah?"

The kitsune thought for a moment, her tails going still.

"Yes." She said.

"Great! I’ve got something special for everyone today. Potions of Potential!" Sarama emerged from her chest with six tiny vials filled with a murky white liquid.

"Very, very expensive." Sarama had never mentioned how expensive potions were before, even though my rough estimates had us drinking diamonds worth of liquid each tournament. I looked at mine questioningly, wondering what it did.

"Right, Potions of Potential. They make you your best. They push you to be more, to fulfill your full potential. It’s hard to describe. Just think of them as a boost to everything you can do, and more." Sarama said. "If, by some miracle, you can afford to drink these regularly, don’t. They’re not chemically addictive, but some people keep going back for more."

That sounded like they were addictive. But what did I know, I was only the team medic. Welp. Bottoms up.

I tipped the tiny vial back along with the rest of my team, and felt energized. Every cell of my body had seen the light and was singing in chorus with angels. I wanted to bounce and dance and move and fight and fuck and live. I immediately saw the appeal at being able to feel like this all the time.

Sarama handed out a special potion to Iris and Sir Polarton.

"Totally calibrated for humans." The dragonling said with a straight face.

Sir Polarton growled.

"Most excellent." He wandered a distance away from us before downing it. Sarama wandered off to the other half of our strip to prepare.

"Thirty seconds until combat begins." The [Referee] called out our remaining prep time.

"Elaine. Sweep their mages, then engage on the harpy." Shirayuki was rapid-firing orders. "Sir Polarton. Go after the werewolf. Pascal. You’re on the elf. Sarama. Hit the beastkin. Iris. You’re needed to take out the kobold, Elaine’s Radiance isn’t efficient against her resistance. Ling Li. You’re on clean-up behind Elaine if she doesn’t manage to take out the gnome and the naga. Pick targets of opportunity after. Iris, you’re with Pascal. This is it. Do us proud. Break."

Iris put a hand on Pascal’s shoulder, and downed her potion. She rapidly began shrinking, the [Mage’s] profile dramatically reduced. Her hand anchored her to Pascal’s shoulder, and he shifted his mallium to give her a defended place to sit on/attack from. Basically becoming gnome-sized, with the same ‘density’ as a full elvenoid. By the same token, at nearly the same time, Sir Polarton’s potion was causing him to grow enormous, nearly the size of Fenrir.

Sarama had a transformation potion. She had a whole variety of creatures she could temporarily transform into, but a manticore was her favorite. A series of cracking and popping noises put my teeth on edge as she transformed into a fierce manticore, cruel fangs, terrifying wings and vicious poisoned tail all.

Bless shields. My healing would interact poorly with that potion, attempting to force her back into her ‘true’ body.

I grabbed the makeshift enchanted sword I’d made, and bent my knees a few times, shifting my weight from foot to foot. I was ready. The Potion of Potential had me raring to go. To show off what I could to, to fight, to dominate.

Potent stuff.

"Fame. Honor. Glory. Fight!" The [Referee] kicked off my final fight ever of the Gladiator Gauntlet, the cloaking veil between the two teams dropping.

I was off at a sprint, charging across the field, my eyes snapping to my targets.

Tinbeg was fast, his endless teleports making him slippery. [Nova Lance] was faster, instantly blasting him, triggering his shield and forcing his teleport off the field.

It was incredibly satisfying, and only took a fraction of my mana. My eyes flashed to Norta, and I spent a moment [Imbuing] my [Nova Lance] with [Kaleidoscope].

Radiance lanced across the field, taking her out. A kaleidoscope of butterflies made of Radiance formed where my beam hit, and with a tiny thought, they quickly spread across the Hapensburgs team.

I detonated them before they could get too far, before they could react, but I was a hair slow. Xocoh managed to seize control of a quarter of them, but the rest of the Hapensburg team was engulfed in explosions. I didn’t think it was enough to knock anyone else out, but it would’ve done significant damage to their shields, softening them up.

Two down already, the rest weakened, and we were less than a second into the match.

I started a third attack against the pharaoh’s heir, but a deadly wall of Sand was already forming, acting as a shield. Sir Polarton roared defiance against the Sand, the entire storm shuddering under his ferocious assault.

I changed targets to the harpy, snapping my wings open and taking flight. I kept up [Nova Lance] on the sandstorm generator for two more seconds as the harpy and I soared into the sky, above the raging tempest.

The rest of my team vanished into the storm, and it was just the two of us, soaring in the air at dizzying speeds.

Physically, I was better than she was. I was faster, stronger. My goal was to end this quickly, and return back to the rest of the battle.

She had the advantage of being a dedicated aerialist, a natural-born flier with multiple skills and classes dedicated to the art of soaring through the sky.

Another day, another place, and we might’ve had fun simply flying together under the vast blue sky. Alas, it was not that day… although I did take a chance to study her with [Scintillating Ascent], seeing if anything she did could improve my own flying.

I took careful aim and hit her with a [Nova Lance]. Instead of her shield flaring into existence and marking her out of the event, the part of her wing I hit exploded into burning feathers. A defensive skill at work, protecting her shield.

The harpy wasn’t taking my blows lying down. Oversized feathers with jagged ends formed around her, shrieking down as they fired down at me. It was like a hail of javelins.

The potion of potential was doing good things for me. It crystalized the world, let me see everything that was going on in slow motion and high detail. It helped me instantly path out a way through the javelins that I would be entirely untouched.

I twisted, turned, dodged, and occasionally smacked a javelin-feather out of the way, noting that she’d effectively gotten off two attacks with each feather launched. The first against me, then the second blind shot of the feathers against Sir Polarton, who was a gigantic target, if hidden in the sandstorm below.

We continued to spiral up into the sky, dancing a strange waltz across the blue. I’m not sure I could’ve kept up before my biomancy.

She couldn’t be made out of endless mana, and whenever I had an opening through her featherstorm, I hit her with [Nova Lance]. Three hits later, and she was teleported out of the event.

I dropped my wings, and let myself drop. I twisted so I was diving headfirst, back into the storm.

For a few glorious seconds, I just let myself enjoy life. I let the wind blow through my hair, the breeze caressing my body. I let the fight and the battle slip away from me, and simply lived in the moment. It was a shielded fight. Nobody was at risk of dying. This was more like a game than anything else, the lack of stress was freeing.

My friends were here. We were all happy, fed, and safe.

Then the sandstorm was coming up fast, and I opened my eyes, snapping my inner eyelids shut. A free pair of biological goggles, no matter where I was.

I dove through the storm, looking for signs of the fighting. [The World Around Me] was only so large, and I needed to see further than the skill extended. Flying through a sandstorm was vaguely like swimming underwater with powerful currents. The sand howled around me, pushing and pulling me as I flew. The Sand gave ‘weight’ to the wind, pushing me around like no breeze could. Lightning flashed in the distance, and I banked, heading towards Iris.

Without warning, the Sand stopped, falling around me in great curtains. As I flew up to get my bearings, the [Referee] began announcing the most glorious words, and the sound of the crowd filtered back into the arena.

"Hapensburgs no longer has any members on the field. The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft wins this round! At 21 points to 14 points, The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft wins the entire match! As this is the final round, I am pleased to present to you the winner of this year’s tournament!"

We won!

WE WON!

I flew up, above the sand, making a happy little circle as I did so. I unleashed a tiny trail of the smallest little [Kaleidoscope] butterflies that I could, having them explode harmlessly behind me.

Like a trail of sparkling stars, like my own personal firework show.

Wooo! We won! I let out a cheer, joining the rest of my teammates.

The [Announcer] was babbling on, and it was all over. It was my last event.

The consequences of my actions would never catch up to me! Muwahahahahahaha!

I flew over to his booth and hovered in front of him.

"Your announcing sucks."

I’d wanted to tell him that for years. I flew away cackling, off to find Iona and the rest of my team and celebrate!

The next few hours were complete chaos. We were leaving early the next morning back to the School, and had way too many things to do and not nearly enough time to do them in. End of the day, we were all students, and all missing classes to be here.

From wrapping up the last event, being shown off in front of various crowds, closing ceremonies where everyone, from all the different events and brackets got their prizes in front of screaming crowds, to a party mixing with everyone, it was just a non-stop whirlwind of activity.

We were back in our school robes, Iona and I both in purple. I wasn’t bothering with my Deception Ring or amulet at all. I was hanging on Iona’s arm at the party, letting the beautiful blonde be the lightning rod of attention. Not too many people wanted to talk with me when Iona, the [Paladin] that had her goddesses intervene during the event, was right there. With all that said, being on Iona’s arm made me look and feel good.

I might also have been a little tipsy. I had slightly better self-awareness of how much I’d drunk, but it was still a delicate line.

"Sir Polarton! Juuuuuuuusht the bear I wanted to seeeeeEEEEEe!" I greeted my teammate, half-swaying against Iona’s sturdy arm. Like a rock, like an anchor, she kept me upright.

"Elaine." He growled back, his massive muzzle not moving an inch.

"I wash thiiiiiiiiiinking." Wait, I’d be trying to sway? I was slurring my words? I’d had too much. Damn. I purged my system of alcohol, immediately sobering up. I shook my head.

"Sorry. I was thinking. Doesn’t matter you’re a bear, you’re practically an elvenoid like everyone else." I patted him on the thigh, not daring to go through his clear white fur. Dude was big.

Auri classing up had spiked my companion bond level hard, and I was feeling the effects. I brushed another errant strand of hair back, sabotaged by the little phoenix in question.

Auri in my hair was interesting to some people, but she wasn’t enough to distract people from Iona.

To her great displeasure.

"Brrrrpt."

"You’re right, they have no taste."

"Brrrrpt!!"

"You were totally part of the winning team, the most glorious part of it."

"Brrrpt." Auri fluffed her flames up more, strands of my hair getting knocked out of place. I put it back with a sigh.

"I’d just gotten that fixed." I complained.

"BRRRRRRRRRPTTTT!!!!" Auri shouted, grabbing my hair and tugging me to ‘look’ in a particular direction.

"Oooh! Mangos! Be right back!" I slipped my arm out of Iona’s, heading towards the most glorious of prizes spotted at the buffet table.

Mangos were an extreme luxury in Cartref Clyde, since Xerius was pretty far away. I shamelessly scooped up the dozen that were on the tray, Auri conjuring up a few [Mage Hands] to smuggle them under my robe.

As I gleefully pilfered the expensive delicacy, I was struck by the sight of a skinny demon, practically skin and bones, staring longingly at the buffet table. There was something about him that had me wander over for no good reason at all.

"Hey. You know you can eat the food, right?" I asked him in High Elvish.

He slowly, painfully shook his head.

"Gluttony is my Sin. To want, but never be satisfied." He tore his eyes away from the buffet.

"Excellent showing. A good evening to you." He walked off, vanishing into the crowd.

"Brrrpt?"

"Yeah, let’s get back to Iona." I agreed.

The whole exchange got me thinking about curses. Demons had a twist on a racial curse, where each one had something they desired, but would never be satisfied by. They collectively called it their Sin, and some indulged, vainly chasing satisfaction, while others, like the fellow I’d just talked with, clearly took an abstinent approach.

Difficult when it was something as critical as food.

My own body was on an accelerated timeline, and it had me wondering.

I had less than a single quarter left at the School. I’d need to use [The Stars Never Fade] on myself in the next decade or so, if not earlier to ensure that I had zero problems from one of my organs aging too fast.

Should I get it done and over with while at the School, and use their resources and knowledge to research and find ways of mitigating my curse?

I should talk with Marcelle, and see what she thought.

Chapter 24 - Orienting to the Future

"Brrrrpt!" Auri shot off down the hallway to our shared suite.

"Home!" I dramatically cried out, feeling a pang of regret and sadness.

My little rented suite was the only home I had. In just a few more weeks I’d officially be homeless.

And without a job.

Something had gone very wrong somewhere, and I wasn’t quite sure where. Apart from the whole fairy ring business.

I’d figure it out. With Auri and Iona.

"We’re back!" I cried out as I burst through the doors.

"Championosaurus won the whole thing!" Iona announced to our remaining suitemates, wherever they might be.

Frankly, it was only Reinhard, Skye having already graduated and left.

Reinhard burst through her door.

"You!" She yelled at me, stalking down our hallway and pointing accusingly at me.

"Me?" I asked, looking around. What had I done…?

Reinhard was poking at my chest with every sentence, but was staying far away enough to still remain polite and non-threatening.

"Yes! I don’t know what you’ve done, but I do not appreciate armed men accosting me to inquire about you and your whereabouts. You are supposed to be keeping a low profile! For Auri! For the rest of us! Whatever it is you are doing, please stop, or tell the goons that I am not to be bothered."

Having said her part, Reinhard whirled around, and stomped back to her room. She magically closed the door behind her, a large glyph burning on the door.

That was a ‘keep out’ if I’d ever seen one.

I scrunched my eyebrows up.

"Any idea what that was about?" I asked Iona.

She shook her head.

"Maybe if Reinhard had given us a better description of who had shown up, we’d have some idea."

I grabbed Iona’s hand and dragged her to our room, activating the privacy runes I’d etched in a long time ago for… reasons.

"Going through a quick list of why armed people would be looking for me." I started thinking out loud. "I’ve barely spent any time since my fairy misadventures outside of the School. People could want me because of my level and my tag, but usually people would only get annoyed if I’m living where they are, right? Nobody would chase after a healer over 256 in Immortal lands?"

I ended my thought with a question to Iona. She knew the culture of the world much better than I did, having grown up and all that jazz here.

"Unlikely. It depends on the exact relations - I can’t tell you how Geum interacts with Draakveld - but it’s expected that Immortals live in Immortal countries. Sure, there might be the occasional border dispute, but I’ve never heard of anyone traveling all this way just for a high level healer. You’d expect half the professors here to be harassed if that was the case."

"Maybe it’s because of the Gladiator Gauntlet? The Yellow Jackets wanted to try intimidating or bribing me to throw a fight? That doesn’t really make sense to me, you’d think they’d know the schedule of the Gladiator Gauntlet, and not completely miss me…" I said, then snapped my fingers.

"Wait! When I did all that biomancy! I had a few sketchy people, including some dullahans, ask for modifications. Maybe one of them’s come back to haunt me?"

I knew they had been too good to be true, and I’d done some reading after the fact. Adamantium armor for dullahans was a sign of the royal family… half of which was currently missing, thanks to the civil war ripping the Han Empire apart.

"That… sounds reasonable. Once you’re done with the School, you’ll be practically impossible to find. That, and you’d be protected by your sponsor, whoever they are. That’d be their thinking at least. If they weren’t supposed to be here, I can believe them staying for just a short time until the School realizes they’re not supposed to be here and kicking them out. From them interrogating Reinhard it sounds like they might’ve just landed and started asking questions, trying to find who you were and where you were. Maybe expect more annoyed people?" Iona theorized.

I groaned.

"That all sounds right. Still, end of the day, they paid so much money. Totally worth it, would do it again as long as nothing else happens. Right, unless I’ve got my days of the week horribly wrong, I have a class… now. I’m going to run and catch the tail end of it. Love you!" I gave Iona a quick peck, regretting that I’d just come back and didn’t have a mango to quickly grab on my way out.

"Love you too!" She said as I dashed out the door, straightening my robes.

I was going to be late, but I could at least look presentable.

I knocked on Marcelle’s door a few days later.

"Enter." She said, and I slipped in.

"Elaine! Oh my goodness, you should’ve said you were coming! I would’ve arranged a much nicer place for us to meet! Would you like a drink?"

I laughed and held my hands up at Marcelle.

"Whoa, chill! It’s still me! Nothing’s different about me than the first time I walked through your door. I will take that drink though."

"Oh, of course, of course! Here, take my chair, it’s nicer."

I shook my head.

"No need, it’s your chair! I’m used to the normal one."

Marcelle fussed over me like I was a [Queen] as I took a seat, my advisor clearly star-struck. She poured me a generous helping of one of her favorite vintages, and I took a deep sip, enjoying the fruity aroma.

She believed. She knew deep in her ever-shifting bones that I was the [Mother of Modern Medicine]. The only question was, would I still get quality advice from her?

"What can I do for you? Any issues with your classes?" Marcelle asked after some initial polite conversation.

"Looking for advice. As you guessed, I seized Immortality."

Marcelle lifted her glass in a toast.

"A thousand and one congratulations to you for your achievement."

I took a sip at Marcelle’s toast.

"My question is one of timing. Sorry if my next question is sort of personal. You were turned from mortal to Immortal. When did you decide to make the change from… human? To vampire? And why? I’m starting to think about my own time to change. Do I wait as long as possible? Do I get it done with now? Can the School help me with my curse? What’s your take?"

Marcelle leaned back in her chair, my questions grounding her. The star-dazzled look in her eyes faded, replaced with the cold, calculating look that I knew so well.

"An excellent question, ironically one that isn’t asked often enough. Most of the time, Immortality skills are passive, immediately granting their benefits the moment it is taken. No chance or question of timing. When given a choice, too often mortals who manage to seize Immortality will immediately use their ability, staving off death. I was in something of a similar position. When I was told that my contributions to the Exterreri Empire were enough that I was to be granted the gift of vampirism, I didn’t hesitate or wait. I immediately accepted, and was turned within the hour."

Marcelle got a faraway look in her eye as she took another sip of her wine.

"Part of it was that I'd grown up in Exterreri. I knew the place. I knew vampires. I knew what I was getting into. A larger part was juvenile excitement. I’d worked half my life for the opportunity, and I was afraid that it would just vanish. That they’d realize they had made a mistake, and I wasn’t worthy."

I cocked my head, puzzled.

"Didn’t you train as a [Biomancer]? Couldn’t you seize it on your own?"

Marcelle tilted her glass back and forth, the wine sloshing hypnotically.

"Yes, and no. Yes, I could’ve seized it on my own, but that was my backup plan. I’d always wanted to be a vampire. You have to understand, growing up in Exterreri, they were the top. The most beautiful. The coolest. The richest. The best. Everyone wanted to be one growing up, and I succeeded. But enough about me. We were talking about you."

I nodded, wanting Marcelle to continue expounding on her wisdom. She looked at her glass, and lifted it up, drawing attention to it.

"I have been drinking, so I will make absolutely no comments on your biomancy, or my estimates about it. With that said, I will give the general advice that people can die of old age, and the longer you wait, the more likely that is."

That… was stunningly obvious and worthless advice, although I guess Marcelle was being careful with her strict ‘biomancy and alcohol don’t mix’ rule.

"As for your curse. The School is the single greatest center of learning in the entire world. There are two whole curse departments in the Dark tower alone, one of which researches curses that White Dove hands out. Most of their effort is dedicated towards the common racial curses, but some will be interested in granted curses. They have a wide range of knowledge. My plan, back before I was offered the gift of vampirism, was to wait until as late as possible before privately turning myself. I would get the wording of White Dove’s curse, then poke around and discreetly ask the curse department about it, possibly modifying some of the wording if I could. Now, there are a few important caveats to that. First, I was waiting because I wanted to be a vampire. Second, I had permanent access to the School as a professor. You could simply speak the word and be made a professor after your contributions if you wanted to, but if you were planning on doing anything else, that doesn’t apply. In your position? Take the curse now, while you are in a safe and secure location, talk with some experts about what you received, and make plans for your life with that knowledge. What if you discover that you need to be submerged in the ocean once a day? You’ll want to look at coastal nations, and who’s friendly. What if your curse is to never touch the ground again? The School will happily take you, or you need to start looking into treehouses. A curse of your socks always being wet is mitigated by living somewhere dry, the list is endless. You’re lucky, you’re young and unsponsored. You can move anywhere in the world! Best to find out now."

I swirled my glass of wine, thinking about what Marcelle said.

She brought up a number of excellent points. I’d need to double check my biomancy notes, and cross reference with a book on aging to triple check what my internal age was - and if it was worth resetting early.

To use a human analogy with no vitality - a heart could last 90 years. However, at 60 years, it was starting to slow down, and show its age. It could be worth turning a 60 year old heart back to a 20 year old heart, even if it wasn’t ‘almost dead’.

"Thank you Marcelle. You’ve given me lots to think about."

"No worries! I heard that you managed to win the Gladiator Gauntlet this year?"

I gave her a grin, the vampire clearly wanting to chat about more mundane topics. Why not?

"Yeah! We had a blast! The first round was practically a bye, the Lithos team having run into some issues…"

"Iona. My endless condolences for your loss. May I borrow a half block of your time, along with Elaine’s, for a meal and a discussion?" Iya managed to find us in the grand central park, Iona drawing the people she’d met during the Gladiator Gauntlet while I lay on her lap, reading two different books at the same time.

With a mental sigh at being interrupted, I closed the least-favorite book in [Parallel Thoughts], shifting my attention to the beautiful naga. My other thought process kept going, gripped by the riveting tale of a poor alchemist in Suen trying to make his fortune.

"Sure. Does the last meal of the day work for you?" Iona asked. We couldn’t exactly call it the evening meal, given that the sun was just coming up over the horizon… in the ‘afternoon’.

Honestly, as much as I loved the School, the time and the sun aligning once again would be nice.

"That would be most excellent. I can’t wait for the honor of your presence." Iya looked like she wanted to say something more, but slithered off instead.

"Wonder what she wants?" I asked.

Iona shrugged and idly scratched my scalp just the way I liked it.

"Dunno. She might want to talk about her sister… cousin? You did face her in the games."

"Oh yeah, Norta. Alternatively, I dunno, there was some minor divine fucking intervention during the tournament, and she did explicitly call you out. Maybe she wants to talk about that? Either way, Iya has great food."

"Brrrpt!" Auri was a big fan of Iya’s treats.

Iya had a modest spread laid out for us and her other retainers when we arrived. It looked like normal fare, but a closer examination showed the quality hidden by the simplicity.

Also, she knew her audience. Mangos!

I noticed Raith subtly ducking out of the way, and my eyes narrowed at him. Still wasn’t a fan.

We sat down, Iona and I being given preferential seating near Iya, Auri having a little dish all to herself and Fenrir outside with a gigantic raw hunk of beef, and started some small talk. I sent a quick grace off to the moon deities. Was still kinda new to this whole ‘being religious’ thing, but hey, it couldn’t hurt, right?

"We met a relative of yours at the Gladiator Gauntlet." I smoothly and expertly changed the topic of conversation from the School’s current flight pattern and if we’d see the living storm or not, to what I suspected Iya wanted to talk about.

Iona started to choke-cough, pounding on her chest.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She nodded, her face starting to go red.

"Oh? Which one?" Iya asked.

"Norta. Part of the Hapensburgs team? Same family name as you, was alright as a mage."

Iya laughed.

"Oh, if only I could see you say that to her face. She’d have a conniption! ‘Alright as a mage’ indeed." Iya continued to laugh, and even a few of her retainers chuckled at the joke.

Something I liked about Iya - while she had minions, they weren’t obviously ‘laugh at the boss’s joke’ type. They seemed to take a perverse delight in pointing out when Iya was wrong about something, and she took corrections with good grace.

Iona seemed to recover - kinda strange, I thought she was practically immune to choking with her stats - and rejoined the conversation.

"What’s the deal with you and Norta? You’ve said you’re the heir, but Norta’s at Hapensburgs. The Omospondia Confederacy is a little hard to understand, pardon my ignorance."

Iya tilted her head at Iona.

"I understand the confusion. Frankly, it depends on who you ask, and I can’t be sure that even I know the truth. If such a thing as ‘the truth’ truly exists. Additionally, there is what I have been told, and a number of motives I suspect are the truth. The fundamental truth of Omospondia is that steel sharpens steel. Norta was sent to Hapensburgs. I was sent to the School. Aka was kept at home. We have all been given resources and opportunities. Our father wishes to see which one of us will rise above the others, and claim the family seat."

Iona raised an eyebrow.

"You’re going to be killing your sisters?"

Iya nodded.

"Yes. What better way to determine who is most worthy, who is the best suited to continuing the family? Selecting the first born is stupid. They could be feeble-minded. They get coddled. Spoiled. Never wanting for anything. You’ve seen it yourself in Rolland. How many of the [Lords] and [Ladies] are truly the best suited for their role? How many second sons and third daughters would do a better job? We Sahels inherit our seat, true. But we must earn it."

"BrrrRRRrrrpt! Brpt?" Auri was struggling to wrap her mind around the whole concept and idea. She was thinking that Iya had a few points.

Iona gave me a wordless look that said see? Told you they were a bunch of backstabbing snakes.

I rolled my eyes at her, hopefully telling her ‘yeah yeah you’re right no need to rub it in.’

"Fruits?" Iya offered us each a tray of the food. I’d already picked all the mangos out of it, but appreciated the gesture, and grabbed a nice apple. Iona shot a quick smirk at me as she grabbed a banana. We ate as Iya continued to talk.

"I am glad that you asked, Elaine." Iya must’ve noticed our ‘conversation,’ but smoothly ignored it. "It would be completely unfair for me to have this next discussion without the two - excuse me, three - of you having the proper context. Iona, once again, my condolences for your loss. Elaine. It is my understanding that the two of you are, at this time, tragically unsponsored. You have no place to be, no home to go to once your time at the School comes to an end, and from our discussions, your end is coming soon. I would like to offer the two of you the shelter of the Sahel family. Come with me. I can guarantee that even if I should lose the war of succession - which I have no plans to - you will be safe and secure as retainers of the Sahel family. I don’t expect an answer now, but please, think on it."

One of Iya’s retainers cut in after Iya’s offer had been hanging out in the air for a few seconds.

"Auri, in your expert opinion, what’s the best wood to burn?" He asked.

"Brrrpt? BRPT! Brrrrpt, brpt brpt Bbrrrrrrrrrpt!" Auri started to speak, carving flaming words in the air to describe what she meant.

Well, it depends on your definition of best. Do you want the hottest wood? The longest burning? The prettiest? Even within each type of wood, there are dozens of factors to consider. Take the common oak, for example…

I spent the rest of the meal chewing over Iya’s offer, and I could see Iona doing the same.

Chapter 25 - A Mango A Day

"What do you think of me getting cursed now?" I asked Iona, delighted by the surprise she was trying to hide from me. [The World Around Me] meant the number of things that could surprise me up-close were minimal!

She frowned. I knew what she thought of Immortals, and my heart fell.

"I’m not the biggest fan of Immortals in the first place, but what you’ve told me, it makes sense now. With that said, I’ve got a bigger concern."

"What’s that?"

"Please stay old enough. I’m not sure we could be dating if you were suddenly a child. Just… no. It doesn’t work for me."

Oh thank the moon goddesses. I sent them a quick prayer of thanks, donating a hefty chunk of mana. Iona’s concern was about us dating, and not breaking up or anything.

"But you think it’s wise for me to trigger now?"

Iona thought about it for another minute, mulling it over.

"Yes. What Professor Marcelle said about it makes sense to me. Here!" She tossed her ‘surprise’, a mango she’d found. My face lit up as I caught it.

"You’re the best."

"Elaine! Elaine! ELAINE!" Iona shouted as she burst through the doorway, the poor hinges never having a chance against her.

I closed my book with a sigh, my other thought process wavering at Iona’s interruption, but gamely still tracing the array I had mentally assembled into my spellbook.

[Gust] was a classic. Weak, but it could have a wide variety of uses.

"What’s up?" I asked, using [The World Around Me] to continue my perfect view of my array even while looking away from it.

Iona waved a piece of paper in an envelope at me, a little box tucked under her other arm.

My skills would let me be a great… mediocre… spy. I could read what was in the letter, closed and waving around.

Understanding the language was a different hurdle.

"The Valkyries! I got a letter!" Iona slammed down next to me, bouncing me up and out of the sofa.

The poor sofa never stood a chance, giving up the ghost with a resounding crack.

"Stop breaking things!" I complained.

"Sorry." Iona was sheepish as she put the box on the table. "You can fix them, right?"

"Yeah, but that’s not the point! I don’t want to figure out the right array for however the sofa’s broken this time. I have better things to do." I complained, then seized the moment. "Like kissing you! If I’m working, no cuddles."

Iona pouted, but the message got through. She eagerly tore the missive open, her eyes scanning it so quickly her pupils blurred.

She was done in seconds, leaning back on the broken sofa.

Something else went crack, and I gave her the Evil Eye.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Evil Eye]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N].

Not the time System.

"What’s up?" I prompted her, since she wasn’t speaking.

"It’s… a lot to take in." She said. "The short version is this. Sigrun has declared that we’re going to return to our ancient roots. We started off as [Knights-Errant] wandering the world, doing what we believed needed to be done. It’s how our tradition of acquiring squires came to be. We’d pick up anyone interested while we were on the road. We were poor by virtually every metric, but usually there’d be a farmer or innkeeper who’d be willing to feed us for the day, in memory of a time when one of us had helped them in the past. Eventually Rolland offered us territory and a place to stay, you know the rest. Well, Sigrun’s declared that we’re going back to that model. Only beholden to our conscience."

The implications of that were getting me excited for selfish reasons.

"That means…?" I asked.

"It means I’m free to do what I think is best." Iona said.

It was rude to be happy because of Iona’s misfortune. I tilted my hat down to hide the beaming smile I couldn’t control.

"Why are you - HEY!" Iona wasn’t exactly born yesterday, and was way better at people than I was.

"You JERK!" Iona complained as she jumped on top of me, her hands finding my sides and mercilessly tickling me.

"Ahahahaha no stop nooooooooooooooooooooo!" I protested as I squirmed under Iona’s assault.

I rested my head on Iona’s naked chest, tangled in the blankets, tickling having led from one thing to another. I idly traced one finger up and down her body, from her chin down to her navel.

Iona shivered with delight. She reached over, grabbed a slice of mango, and slowly, sensually, teased me with it before feeding it to my grasping mouth.

Fuck yes. Mangos. Hit almost as hard as sex, just in a different way.

"More?" I pleaded, already knowing I’d eaten the last slice. Iona knuckled my forehead.

"You know we’re out."

"What do we want to do?" I asked Iona, switching the subject away from the last mango I’d eaten.

"Well…" She playfully growled at me.

I flicked her nose.

"No, for real. After the School. Do we want to take Iya’s offer? It looks acceptable from where I’m lying. Do we want to explore the world? Settle down somewhere? I think the School’s also willing to offer me a job. We need to start thinking about this. We need to discuss this, seriously. I don’t want graduation to come around and we’re suddenly separated because we didn’t communicate."

Iona was silent for a moment.

"Do you really think Iya’s offer is good?" She asked, turning over a bit to look me in the eyes.

Goddesses, her eyes were beautiful. Emeralds and stars.

"It’s… alright?" I was hedging here. It sounded decent on the surface, but Iona’s reluctance had me sensing a trap.

Iona shook her head.

"Elaine, I love you to pieces, but you’re charmingly naive at times. I’m good at this, I sometimes miss or don’t realize just how naive. I’ve been willing to go along with Iya so far because there’s no reason to piss off a powerful family for literally no reason, and because you’ve been having fun, but she is a master manipulator and liar. After seeing her retainers and how she treats them, and how they treat her, can you really believe that Raith was acting on his own? That he didn’t have orders to see if you were susceptible to intimidation? Deliberately ‘missing’ that there were three of us, then correcting herself? Iya knows how much you like Auri, and that you two are bonded. She’s drawing attention to Auri, and how she considers Auri a full person. Boom! Deeper in your good graces. We’d be immune to fallout if she loses the succession fight? HA! There’s no trust there, they’d throw a noose around our necks in a heartbeat if they didn’t poison us in our sleep first. There are thousands of other small things Iya’s done. Each and every single one of them is designed to make her likable, improve her position, and manipulate every single person around her. She sees the world in levers and pressure points, and found yours years ago. She’s been carefully pressing and manipulating them ever since."

My mouth was forming a perfect "O" in outrage.

"What! She’s been manipulating me!? Why didn’t you say anything!?" I was mad at Iya and myself.

Iona pressed one hand to her eye. I was lying on her other arm.

"I did! I tried! Quite a few times, subtly! And less subtly! I called her a snake, how much more obvious do I need to be? I thought you knew, and were going along with it for whatever reason!"

Uhhh… all of those had gone completely over my head. I thought it was because Iya was a naga, and Iona was being a little rude.

I patted Iona’s arm.

"Well, let it never be said that you’re not extremely supportive, although you need to work harder to get through how dense I am with people. I take it you want to decline?"

"Yes. It’s one of the few places I won’t follow you to. I am willing to take a tour through the country to see if there are any problems that require a Valkyrie’s attention, but I will not make it my home."

I nodded, nestling deeper into Iona’s chest.

"Great, that’s one option down. What do you want to do?" I had a half-dozen half-baked plans. Eradicate diseases. Find Auri’s family. Find Night. Make sure Artemis and the rest were safe and secure. Go out and heal people.

I had a few more ideas in that vein. There was a drought in the Silver Horde, although I wasn’t sure how much I could do against that. The challenge would be worth some levels. There was a civil war in the Han Empire. Endless casualties, but dipping my toe in a civil war was dicey. Suen was having a terrible outbreak of the Pekari, although there was no telling if it’d be over by the time we got there.

I wanted to make a home. A base. A place to feel safe and secure.

In short, I had a hundred ideas, and no big flashing arrow telling me which one to pick. I’d been driven by something or given direction nearly my entire life. The whole world being open to choose was strange. Opportunity overload.

"Find problems and smash them. Preferably problems that respond well to being smashed. Find the injustices in the little tucked away places in the world, and be the sword and the shield. Preferably somewhere near Rolland, where I can see if I can bump into other Valkyries. Find a way to feed Fenrir. Now that I know what the other Valkyries are doing, I feel like I can make plans."

I started up in the middle.

"Fuck it. Let’s go to the Han Empire after we graduate. Civil war. Near Rolland - even near Castle Valkyrie if I remember my maps right. People for me to heal. Injustices for you to fix. The whole place is a mess. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Valkyries scattered through the area."

Iona gave me a long kiss on my head.

"Let’s think about it. Jumping into a civil war after a five minute conversation is stupid, but I’m open to the idea. Let’s make sure we’ve planned it out properly, but as ideas go… it works."

"Brrrrrrrpt!!" Auri yelled from the other room. I threw a pillow at the wall.

"Stop eavesdropping!" I shouted.

"BRRPT!"

I grumbled as I nestled back down into Iona’s arms, and sighed.

"She’s got a point though. We should get a home and a base first. Make sure we can feed Fenrir. Have a place to retreat to and lick our wounds."

Iona pursed her lips a bit.

"I… yeah, alright, she’s right. I’m trying to jump into this a little too hastily. I’ve always had a base of operations, I shouldn’t just assume I can work without one. Where are you thinking?"

"We should have Auri in this discussion. Fenrir as well, if we can manage it."

Iona grimaced.

"Fenrir… I’m not sure he’d care enough. Food, a hunt, a shelter, and he’s happy as can be." She said.

Fenrir did sleep a lot.

"Right. Auri, wanna join us?"

The little phoenix zipped in, trailing flames that briefly hovered in the air, then burned out like an afterimage.

"Xerius would be nice." I said carefully. "It’s where mangos grow, and I think it’s where Remus used to be. Or, errr, the Remus I knew. Sadly…" I trailed off, and Iona picked up right where I left off.

"It’s mortal territory, and we were just talking about you becoming Immortal." She finished off.

"Right. Would love to travel now and then, but I don’t think I can set up a home. Not without stepping on too many toes."

"Please don’t." The very idea of it seemed to pain Iona. "Unless it’s Nippon-Koku. They’re much more tolerant of Immortals. Practically cater to them. They’re right on the border, and they know Immortals have serious coin to spend on their shows."

"Right, I’ll put them on the list. Humor me for the sake of completeness. Nippon-Koku. Jurcor. Draakveld. Exterreri. Tympestshard. Golden Courts. Urwa. Modu."

"BRRRRRRRPT!" Auri protested. Modu was cold. And dark. It was where Iona had found Fenrir.

"I just asked you to let me finish my list for completeness, then we can start crossing things off." I scolded my little friend.

"Brpt." Auri had done No Wrong, fighting against the evils of Cold and Snow. How she was BFF’s with Fenrir, I’d never know.

"Modu," I said with a pointed look at Auri. "Bhutai, and Penujuman. Am I missing anywhere?"

"Gwyllt." Iona promptly replied. I smacked my forehead.

"Oh yeah, Gwyllt. Is… that even an option? Do apistles let other people settle there?"

Iona shrugged.

"Dunno, but it is classified as Immortal. Draakveld is right out."

I popped out a notebook into my hand, and Iona snapped a quill out from our desks in our other room into my hand.

"Fancy." I commented on Iona’s control and being able to hit things accurately without line of sight. I wrote down the list, crossing Draakveld off.

"There is no way I could tolerate Urwa from what I’ve heard of it." I crossed the desert country off my list. "My understanding is Lithos isn’t an option, although I could try to make it work if you want to go back…?" I trailed off. I knew Iona had been born there, and grew up there, and it was filled with Immortal trolls.

She shook her head.

"It’s not home, and it’s firmly a mortal country. They wouldn’t like you there."

Well, that answered that.

"BRPT." Auri nearly blew out my eardrums with the force of her shout, and Iona clapped her hands over her ears, bumping me. I was slightly exaggerating Auri almost blowing out my eardrums, but she’d earned the name Stentor.

Auri conjured a small fireball, slowly bringing it towards ‘Modu’ on my list.

"Alright, alright, I get it." I crossed the country off the list.

"I’m not big on trying to live with elves. Petty I know, but have you been around elves a bunch?"

I thought back to my travels with Awarthril, Serondes, and Aegion. I imagined living like that forever, not just a few months.

"Yup, nope, say no more." I crossed off the Golden Courts and Tympestshard. "Any other obvious exclusions?"

Nobody said anything for a minute, all of us thinking.

"No obvious issues. Less obvious issues?"

"Just thinking about Jurcor and all the paperwork they flash around gives me headaches." Iona flopped back. "Please, spare me from a lifetime of paperwork."

I crossed the country off with a flourish, and decided to address the elephant in the room.

"I’d like to take a serious shot at Exterreri." I said. "Marcelle suggested it. My reading, as much as you can read about a country, suggests it’s similar to where I came from. It has vampires, and maybe my old mentor. It protects people like me."

Iona shrugged.

"I have no problem with that, as long as you’re willing to look at other places if it doesn’t work out. Yeah?"

"Brrrpt!" Auri trilled her assent.

"Yeah. We’ll have more information to work with then." I circled Exterreri, leaving the rest of the list untouched. Our other options if things didn’t work, and countries and places we could revisit if things went poorly.

The two of us chatted a bit more, then got up.

"Oh yeah, there was that box." My eyes widened as I saw what was inside of it, seeing straight through the walls with [The World Around Me].

Iona opened the box, sucking in a cold breath as she saw the bounty inside. She picked up a handful of the ruby coins and let them fall back into the box, each one glittering like a drop of blood.

"Elaine! Just the elaine I wanted to see!" Marcelle ambushed me after one of my classes.

"Professor. Is there anything I can do for you?" I was extra-conscious of being a student, and wanting to make sure I didn’t get an overly swollen head.

"Yes. We’re still working on your final thesis presentation. We’re convincing a few people at a time, and as the pool of people who know what’s going on expands, it becomes easier. However, a few people want to meet you and talk with you. Mind giving us a few minutes of your time?"

A few minutes of my time here and there was a pittance compared to how hard a full thesis was to normally write.

Then again, I’d spent accursed months aboard a ship editing. I’d paid in blood, toil, tears, and sweat to write the manuscripts in the first place!

"Sure, lead the way. Anytime, anyplace, I’m at your disposal." I told Marcelle.

She beamed at me.

"Excellent! We’re talking with the Dean of Medicine today."

That meeting had been a little more tense than I’d expected. Grilled, sliced, diced, and fried. Dunno why my mind was on barbeque, maybe it said something about my mental state. Or my own musings were an attempt to distract me from what I was about to do.

I took a deep breath, and quintuple-checked my gear. A nervous tic I’d developed as a Ranger. If my gear and training were good, I’d be fine.

Not that any of my preparations could help against White Dove. They were simply to bolster my own confidence.

"Now Auri," I said. "This is an important meeting with White Dove. Please don’t be rude to her."

"Brrrpt!" Auri claimed she had learned her lesson from last time.

I entered the dangerous workshop building - the privacy and protection on the rooms were second to none - and had a quick conversation with one of the student workers manning the desk.

His eyebrows were missing, and his clothes had a distinct blast pattern on them.

"Rough day?" I asked.

"Rough week." He complained. "It’s just not worth replacing robes until they’re shredded beyond repair. Special permission and all that. Right, have you reserved a room?"

I nodded.

"Name’s Elaine. One of the black rooms. I think that’s the classification I need?"

The colors of the rooms corresponded with the estimated danger level, similar to the School robes. Black was the lowest level, then purple, blue, etc., all the way to red and white.

"Elaine, Elaine…" He muttered, running his finger down a schedule. "Elaine! Ah, here you are. Right, got a few questions for you before we begin." He pulled out another piece of paper.

"Sure, shoot."

"About how much mana is going to be used in your project?"

"A thousand or so? It might vary, but I’m not spending a ton."

He nodded and ticked a box.

"Are you involving Spore, Miasma, Poison, or Void elements?"

"Nope."

"Do you need a healer on standby?"

I snorted, and pointed to myself.

"Do I count?"

"I’ll mark that as a no. Is there any way your work produces toxic fumes?"

On and on the questions went. Self-perpetuating. Fae. Divine Edicts. A question that danced around itself, asking about dragons. Cultivators and tribulations. Anomalies.

"Right, good, good. Are you planning on summoning any extra-dimensional beings?" He asked, already ticking off the box ‘no’.

"Uh." I awkwardly paused. He froze.

"I don’t like the sound of that…" He glared at me.

"Maybe?" I squeaked out. "Define extra-dimensional beings?"

"If you need the definition, that’s a yes." He muttered. "Red room 3, subbasement 7. Please wait at least an eighth of a block before starting, that’s when I take my break and I do not need another containment breach."

"Brrrpt brrrrpt brrrrrrrrrrpt." Auri was laughing on my shoulder.

"Yeah yeah, real funny." I rolled my eyes and took the key to the room in question.

Going down the spiral stairs was interesting. The whole place felt and looked sterile, with thick layers of runes plastered on every wall. Runes for purification. Structure. Stability. Containment. And more! I made a new ‘book’ inside of [Astral Archives] and memorized everything here.

If I ever wanted to make my own workshop - I don’t know why I would, but who knew - the runes here, carefully iterated on over generations, would make an excellent starting point. Possibly finishing point as well!

Then I was in the room, and it was time.

I focused on myself, thinking of what age I wanted to be.

I was aiming for 26. My birthday was coming up soon, and I wasn’t quite sure how my differentiated aging worked, I was fairly confident that my internals were ‘older’ than my externals. Aiming for my current age - basically subtracting a day from how old I currently was - should fix any issues internally, while giving myself plenty of padding if I ‘overshot’.

I’d never overshot by more than three years before, and even if I doubled my biggest overshoot, that’d leave me at 20. Minimal risk of ending up as an 8-year old.

No sense in delaying. I opened up the relevant ‘book’ about my biomancy changes from [Astral Archives], and focused on myself, starting to channel [The Stars Never Fade].

The world faded away into pure darkness, even Auri’s flames eaten by the endless nothingness.

Then, in the distance, a single pinprick of light appeared. Then a second, a third, dozens, hundreds lit up all around me, placing me in the center of the vast cosmos. Rocks circled stars, which clustered together into galaxies. Those galaxies formed superclusters, and the entire universe circled around me in a glorious display of light.

Then I started moving through the various clusters, dashing through the display at a speed that made light look slow. I narrowly missed hundreds of galaxies, and was thrown through dozens more until I slowed at a spiral galaxy.

I started ‘falling’ towards the spiral galaxy, near the edge, one yellow sun growing larger and larger in my view as I zoomed in on this particular piece of the universe. Four gas giants circled around the star, but I wasn’t heading towards any of them.

Instead, I was brought to a small blue marble floating in the void, a moon almost the quarter of the size of the planet orbiting around it.

Then the changes started. Mountains receded as tectonic plates pulled away, and others rose up as plates clashed. Dirt and rock lifted themselves up, flowing back into volcanoes, while islands sunk into the ocean. Tons of dust lifted from the planet, forming into one massive asteroid that zipped away into the endless expanse of space. Continental plates shifted, slamming themselves back together in a single mass.

And then it was done. The world looked new and primal, cooled from the fires of creation but teeming with limitless potential.

[*ding!* [The Stars Never Fade] has leveled up! 11->12]

The world slowly faded back into existence, and my old nemesis was back.

White Dove.

I boldly stared her in the eye, back straight, unashamed of my actions and willing to look the consequences squarely in the face. Waiting for her to pronounce judgment.

"Oh great lover of fruit." She intoned.

Chapter 26 - Keeps the Doctor Away

I didn’t feel much different from when I’d started. Maybe a hair more energized. Wasn’t any shorter, thank the System, and I still looked like an adult.

Success!

All that was left was White Dove.

"Oh great lover of fruits." She intoned, and the world shook. Her words had Power to them, reverberating through Creation itself. Words spoken, almost directly into my mind, that I could instantly and innately understand. White Dove was Magic.

"Brrrpt!" Auri was very politely saying hello.

White Dove tilted her head at my phoenix friend.

"Cousin. Well-met. It’s been months since we last spoke. You should visit more often." White Dove toned it down for Auri, then she was back, Speaking to me.

Hang on, months, wait wha-

"Elaine of Earth. Elaine of Remus. Elaine of nowhere, and Elaine of Pallos. The Dawn Sentinel. Butterfly Mystic. The Very Hungry Bookwyrm. Mother of Phoenixes, Traveler of the Fae, Butcher of Ochi and Founder of Medicine. For too long have you evaded my grasp, slipped away through the cracks in time. For too long have you avoided my eye. No More."

The walls shook at that pronouncement, and I was sweating bullets. The start had gone well, and the sheer number of titles I had that White Dove noticed were almost a point of pride.

Until Ochi.

Then it rapidly went downhill. Her mentioning my love of fruits was also more than a hair concerning.

Not my mangos.

Anything but my mangos.

"You have denied me, and for this sin, I curse you. No more shall you enjoy the kiss of the red fruit. First, you shall not be able to approach anyone who has recently eaten one. A lover’s touch denied. A dying patient unable to be saved. A crowd unpassable. Second, the touch of the fruit is your bane, and incurable by your magics. No more shall you shrug off every wound. No more will injuries entirely cease to concern you. No more are you immune to every poison under the sun and moons. Third, should you partake of the fruit, your healing magics will be denied to you until the next day. You shall be forced to watch your friends swell up from an envenomed bite. Watch a child crushed by a cart. Witness an earthquake topple a city, and you shall be powerless to assist."

Each word was filled with hatred and venom. Every word was like a knife to my heart.

"I curse you." White Dove spat, before flying off, through a wall.

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked as I clutched my chest.

"I’m alright." I said, my mind half-frozen.

I’d expected the curse, I just… I was just thrown off kilter. Off-balance.

As far as curses went, at first glance, I’d gotten a fairly gentle one. I wasn’t risking death half the day, unlike the poor trolls. I wasn’t unable to touch anything, like the dude who’d gotten the gold-touch curse. My every word wasn’t going to be changed, unlike the lawyer. I didn’t have some doom hanging over my head. I could walk in the sun, swim in a river, and generally, the fullness of life was still available to me.

Except for one thing, the most important thing of them all.

Frankly, from a high level, it felt like Sextia’s curse. She’d been unable to bathe except in the light of two moons, and even then she’d found a workaround.

"But why did it have to be mangos?" I complained to Auri. Honestly, that was just rude.

"Brrrrpt…?" Auri asked.

"Yes, I - wait. WAIT. Auri, you’re a genius!"

"Brrpt." Auri puffed up in smug self-satisfaction. Of course she was a genius, she was Auri.

White Dove hadn’t said ‘mangos’ at all! She’d said the red fruit!

Mangos weren’t red! Orange, yes. Occasionally green. Sometimes they were speckled like a rainbow, going from green to yellow to orange, with the slightest hint of red at the end. An extremely overripe one, or a rare variant could be red, yes. The color was one of the things that just made them so perfect. That made them the most divine fruit, the best idea the gods had copied over to Pallos when they were creating the world.

It was one stretch of an imagination to call mangos the red fruit. I suppose like the poor fellow who’d been cursed with simply ‘doors’ I’d been given something of a mystery to solve.

What, exactly, was my curse centered around? Auri and I left the red room to a small crowd.

"Whoa. What’s up?" I asked, facing a wall of dangerous-looking Immortals. They had come here fast, I’d barely been in there ten minutes, start to finish!

"What was that?" One of the elves demanded.

"Uhhhh…" The main reason I’d used one of the dangerous workshop rooms was to have privacy. Big or small, all of White Dove’s curses were designed to inconvenience, if not outright kill, Immortals. A curse - my curse - was a deeply personal thing, and as soon as I figured out what the red fruit was, I’d know what my own personal kryptonite was.

I hadn’t even brought Iona with me, and she hadn’t asked or even seemed surprised. There was a good chance I’d end up telling her, but she recognized that our relationship did still have boundaries. Yay healthy relationships!

My own personal kryptonite that, from the sound of it, was the perfect substance to kill me with. I wasn’t big on being completely paranoid, but I wasn’t completely stupid. The moment ‘this thing can kill Elaine’ got out in the slightest, it was guaranteed to make it to an [Information Broker], and then it’d be out there. Quietly lurking, ready and waiting to bite me one day.

If I mentioned White Dove, it was entirely possible that one of the Immortals here could, with some crazy skill or another, figure out what she’d said in the room. It had happened recently, I bet a Sound Classer could hear the echoes or a Wind Classer could read the currents.

They were still waiting for an answer.

"Um. Why do you want to know?" I asked.

"You shook the entire building." The same elf crossed his arms and glared.

"Oops? Didn’t think that would happen. Used less than a thousand points of mana, in a reinforced room, didn’t think it was possible."

I got a sea of disbelieving looks. Most of these Immortals couldn’t shake the building from inside one of the reinforced rooms if they tried.

The student worker who’d originally let me in was at the back of the crowd, and spoke up.

"Wait, did you summon an extra-dimensional being to grow out your hair?" He asked.

"Uhhh… yes! That is an effect that occurred." I was being awkward and I knew it. "Aren’t my experiments supposed to be private? Especially since I filled out the paperwork?"

There was much grumbling and discussion, but with my steadfast refusal to say anything, and the lack of evidence, like scorch marks or the like, and the fact that I had followed all the rules properly got them off my back.

The crowd eventually dispersed, and I started to make my way back up through the building. Sub-basement 7 meant I was deep, and on sub-basement 2, I encountered an issue.

There was a single, huge spiral staircase to facilitate evacuations and rapid response to issues. I passed by people going down as I was going up, and I felt no need to rush past other people going up either. Just good old polite manners as we all moved through a dangerous building.

I suddenly stopped. It wasn’t like running into a brick wall, it was more like I simply couldn’t move forward. My limbs wouldn’t respond to my commands, my foot wouldn’t lift off the stair. The person behind me almost ran into me, and after a brief moment, cussed me out and moved around me.

My heart froze in terror. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I move?

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked. I gave her a tiny shake of my head.

Or tried to at least. I could move my head one way, but not back.

Alright. I wasn’t entirely frozen. Experimentally, I tried to step backwards, and my body let me. More people were passing by me, and I was starting to make something of a clog in the normal flow of people.

Then like a rubber snapping, I could move forward again. I instantly marked the person who’d passed me by, scanning him from top to toe, memorizing every detail.

[Artisan - 177]

The orc’s tag was nothing special, and nobody else had seemed inconvenienced by him. White Dove had mentioned a fruit, and I’d spent quite a lot of effort improving my senses.

The other thing she’d mentioned was ‘unable to walk through crowds’, and I saw what she meant. If random people had a pseudo force-field or something that I couldn’t cross, that promised to be a pain in the ass. The only thing going for it was the School was a great melting pot of foods, but the rest of the world wasn’t.

I took a deep sniff in, and I could smell everything. From meals to hygiene habits, all the way to the faint odors of people they’d recently been with. I could immediately tell that two people shared a class together. The harpy had just gotten laid. The naga didn’t sleep on a pillow, but on coals. One person had recently been in the library, a second had a frog as a companion, and a third had an omnipresent smell of salt.

Critically, I wanted to know what the orc had been eating. He’d had a stew for lunch, with rice, sausage - pork, with oatmeal and cherries - green bell peppers, red bell peppers, a white onion, carrots, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, water, bay leaves and cilantro. A slice - I assumed, I couldn’t get quantities - of apple pie had been his desert. Apples, sugar, wheat flour, butter, water, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, lemon juice. Breakfast for him had been Zuppa Toscana. Olive oil, sausages - chicken this time, with pineapple? - red onion, potatoes, tomatoes, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, heavy cream, kale, and bacon bits. There were a few more subtle notes that were being drowned out.

I also got a sharp note of strawberries and cream with sugar, a decadent midday snack.

Apples. Red Peppers. Strawberries. Cherries. Cayenne Pepper. My list of candidates was five possible red fruits, assuming White Dove hadn’t been fucking with me.

A few more sniffs got me a wide sample of other people on the stairs, and I rapidly started cross-checking and eliminating candidates.

Cayenne pepper instantly went off the list, a few other people around me having eaten it. I was free and out of the building, and continued to just walk through the crowds of students, strolling in the sunset as I worked through the rest.

Red peppers got crossed off next, and strawberries had clearly been a thing this morning. Shame I’d missed out, strawberries with cream were delicious.

Then it was like I hadn’t been paying attention and ran into a wall. It took a quarter of a second to identify who was giving me grief this time, and another half a second to figure out everything they’d eaten for their last few meals.

One commonality instantly jumped out.

Apples.

Apples?

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked from my shoulder.

"I’ll tell you in a minute, hang on." I said as I backed up, freed myself, and continued walking back to my dorm.

I thought about what White Dove had said. The practically omniscient White Dove, who’d called out my extra-Pallos origins. Who’d seemed to know about Earth flawlessly.

One line in particular stood out to me as I reflected.

unable to heal until the next day.

Apples.

Days.

Healer.

Did White Dove seriously curse me with an apple a day keeps the doctor away!?

Chapter 27 - Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

"You’re interested in White Dove’s curses for… academic reasons." Professor Lugon arched a doubtful eyebrow up at me, looking my purple robes up and down. "Riiiiiiight. What questions do you hypothetically have?"

Okay. In hindsight, being a high level healer asking about Immortality curses was a little more obvious than I thought. Extra-so if people regularly consulted the professor.

Given his reaction, the cat was already out of the bag, and I doubted he’d look favorably upon me if I endlessly danced around the truth we both knew.

"Alright, fine, yes, I’m wondering about my own curse, and portions of it."

Professor Lugon immediately held up his hand, avoiding his majestic set of antlers.

"I do not want to know the full content of your curse. When it inevitably gets out, as all such things do, I do not wish for you to place the blame at my feet. Far too many students have come back, attempting some measure of petty revenge for believing that I have violated their trust. No more. Please speak in abstracts."

I hesitated, my carefully organized list of questions shredded to pieces.

Somewhat. I’d just need to modify a few words.

"White Dove seems to give multiple examples after each part of her curse. Do they mean anything specific?"

Lugon shook his head.

"An excellent question, I didn’t think you’d ask! No, White Dove is simply attempting to, as best as I can tell, invoke despair. The specific examples are all possible, but are not prophecy or a look at the future. Indeed, you can think of them as helpful cautions as to what might happen." He peered at me, clearly waiting for my next question.

The backhanded compliment grated, but, well, elf. They believed, deep in their bones, that they were better than everyone else, and we poor little elvenoids needed their help. Which, admittedly, he was giving. But heck, even the word elvenoid was vaguely insulting.

Accurate, and a word everyone was on board with, so it was useful for good communication, but the etymology was irritating.

The examples thing was nice, and something I was already starting to realize. I could move through crowds, occasionally getting ‘buffeted’ by someone who’d eaten apples recently.

"Sorry, I’ve got a specific word I’d like to ask about. White Dove used partake. Does that mean anything specific?"

Lugon grimaced.

"That depends on far too many factors for me to properly comment on. A significant aspect of it is your native language, your mother tongue, and the language you speak in. Some are lucky for all three to be the same, but not always. Words have different meanings and connotations. Partake in High Elvish means something subtly different from the same word in Hakka, which has dozens if not hundreds of meanings to every syllable, and Tilan has such specific definitions that curses given in the language tend to be incredibly narrow and precise. White Dove generally gives her strongest curses in that tongue, but I digress. Languages and Curses is the course to take if you would like to know more. Generally, broadly, and do not quote me on this, partake in High Elvish means to use in the customary manner. Context depends. Partaking in hunting is different from partaking in drinking water, and there are further definitions depending on the tongue."

"What does the next night mean to you?" That part of the curse was easy enough to modify. Lugon didn’t want specifics, and flipping day to night was easy enough.

"Once again, this is cultural. When does night begin? Is it at the same time every day? Is it when the sun touches the horizon? When it is halfway down? When it is fully gone? When the last light dies? Does the change of the season change when night occurs? If you are the fastest runner in the world, does sprinting to meet the night count? Can you hide behind a mountain to bring on the night quicker? Some self reflection is required, and depending on the severity of the curse and the penalty, some experimentation may be required."

I wanted to groan at White Dove’s curse. I knew exactly when it was the next day. Not only was it an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but the third part was clear. I’d be refreshed at dawn.

I had to wonder if other people’s curses were as ironically well-tailored for them as mine was, or if White Dove had given me extra attention for granting it to a dozen other people first.

"Right, next question…"

"You’re sure about this?" Iona asked.

I nodded. My curse was both harmless enough, but had a knowledge-heavy component to it, that I wanted to share it with Iona. If we were going to be spending tons of time together - decades, centuries, or more - it was important that Iona knew.

"Yeah. Half the point of getting cursed now was I could use the School resources to help me figure out my curse and the limits of it."

"Brrrrrrpt!!!"

"Oh pshaw. You only want to drink gallons of apple juice, don’t lie." I teased Auri.

"Brrrpt!" She adamantly shook her head.

"And eat apples." I corrected myself.

"BRPT."

Auri puffed up and proudly confessed that, yes, those were her goals. I rolled my eyes.

Iona and Auri left, off to acquire as many apple-based products as reasonably possible, and were back in short order.

They managed to find six different varieties of apple, a slice of apple pie, apple sauce, apple chips, apple juice, apple cider, and a cider donut. On the weirder side, they also managed to find soap, shampoo, perfume, and candles that all claimed to be apple-scented. A more practical set of items that Iona found were potions, apples occasionally finding their way onto ingredient lists.

"Right. I think we should start with the least offensive items first, and move on. The moment I can’t touch you anymore, the rest of the items are hard to experiment with." I told Iona.

"Brrrpt?"

"You are a good backup, but I’m not even sure if it applies to phoenixes eating things. How weird would it be if I couldn’t approach an animal because they’d eaten an apple?" I said. Being around horses would be weird, even though apples were usually just a treat for them.

"Brrrpt, brpt!"

I smacked my forehead.

"You’re right! I should totally visit Bridget later!" Bridget, Auri’s main teacher and one of the ‘lower education’ teachers, was a dryad. Specifically, an apple tree dryad.

"Potion first?" Iona suggested, already having uncorked it, and more importantly, getting us back on task.

"Potion first." I agreed, Iona taking a sip.

"Anything?" She asked, and I waved my hand towards her.

"Nope, that’s fine." I confirmed. Iona took a deeper sip, and I waved my hand near her.

"Still nothing. I’m going to hold off on trying it myself for now." I said. "Candles next?"

Candles, soap, shampoo, and perfume each did absolutely nothing. I had a brief flash of panic when I realized that I was inhaling the candle smoke, but Iona nicked her finger with her knife, and I was able to heal it no problem.

"Nobody will be able to burn a ton of apples and smoke me out." I was satisfied by that discovery and realization.

"Assuming the [Candlemaker] put real apples into the candle, and isn’t just calling it apple-scented, or making it smell like apples with a skill." Iona rebutted.

I clicked my tongue. Damn. Iona was right.

"Brrrpt?" Auri asked.

"You can burn some apples at a point, yes." I told her.

"BRRRPT!!!" Nothing Auri liked more than being told ‘yes, please, commit arson.’

"Oh, hang on, dumb thought." I got up and walked next to the apples. Nothing stopped me from doing so. I went to pick one up, just barely stopping short of touching it. Nothing.

White Dove hadn’t said anything about not being able to touch apples, but it was worth a quick check.

"I think… let’s check the cider donut next." We’d gotten through all of the apple-derivatives, time for the apple food itself.

"Down the hatch!" Iona chomped down on the donut, eating it in two clean bites.

I waved my hand at her.

"Huh. Okay, weird, that doesn’t count."

"Apple pie next?"

I winced.

"I know that works, because that’s the original thing that stopped me. Let’s do…"

"BRRRRPT!"

"Alright, fine, we’ll do apple juice." The words weren’t even all the way out of my mouth before Auri had completed a perfect swan - errr, phoenix - dive into the juice.

I tried to move my arm towards Auri, and couldn’t.

"Right. It applies to you, but maybe because you’re considered intelligent? I dunno, I’m going to have to find a horse or something." I said.

Iona grabbed a few of the apple chips, and I wasn’t able to approach her either.

"Best guess. Anything that’s a, uh, half step away from apples also counts." Apple juice, apple pie, apple chips - all of them were practically apples, while the cider donut was processed quite a bit before arriving at its final form.

"Fairly generous." Iona commented. "What’s next?"

"Well, let’s see what I can do."

I moved back across the room, then tried to approach Iona. When I got near - about two meters away - it was like I just couldn’t move forward. I could think about it, I just couldn’t get my body to act on my thoughts. Iona took a step towards me, but nothing changed. I still couldn’t move towards her, but it wasn’t like I was being pushed away. I tried to speak, but only some garbled syllables came out. She lifted a finger to slowly poke me, and I took a step backwards. A second step, and I was out.

Critically, I could also speak again.

"Alright, it looks like I can move away from someone who’s eaten an apple, but I can’t move towards them. I’m guessing a side effect of that is I can’t speak well. My tongue can move away from you, but not towards you, and that’s just weird." Interestingly enough, I could still breathe, even if it caused my chest to expand towards the forbidden person. This curse was gentle. Then again, I could hold my breath for literal hours. Not being able to breathe was an inconvenience, nothing life-threatening.

"Can you keep moving towards me if you’re already in motion?" Iona asked.

"Let’s find out!"

We positioned ourselves, and I pitched myself sideways, falling like a tree.

"Timbeeeeeeeer!" I cried out as I collapsed sideways, straight through the ‘no go’ zone. I needed a better word for that.

Iona caught me and gently lowered me to the ground.

"Looks like you can move through the field, just can’t control yourself." Iona said.

Interesting. Being stopped from controlling my body in certain ways was annoying, but I didn’t run the risk of going from 500 mph to 0 when in an all-out sprint and hitting someone who’d eaten an apple. Otherwise it’d be like hitting a brick wall, except a brick wall would be more yielding and forgiving than an impenetrable force field.

Or hell. As I leveled and grew stronger, the change in momentum would get even larger.

Iona sat down on the couch, putting her legs on my back.

"I’m curious, can you escape when someone’s doing this?" She asked.

I quickly ran through a dozen different actions in my head, my body not responding to any of them. Physical movement was right out, although I could deploy my butterfly wings.

[Channeled Blink] was up next. I focused, trying to teleport away from Iona. A few seconds of charging later, and I repositioned.

Minus my clothes.

"Huh." I said as I looked around. Iona lifted an appreciative eyebrow.

"What’s up?" She shamelessly looked me up and down, in spite of seeing me almost every day.

"For some reason it never occurred to me that I could reposition my body when blinking. I started off lying down, but I blinked to a standing up position." Something I should’ve tested, but I’d always gone from standing up to standing up or lying down to lying down.

"What’s next?" Iona asked.

I eyed the apples with trepidation.

"Well, let’s see what they do to me."

I tentatively reached out a finger - left pinky, I could afford to sacrifice it - and tentatively touched a green apple.

Nothing happened.

I moved over and touched a red apple in the same way.

Nada.

"Well, this isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it could be." I grabbed the apple with my hand and picked it up. I tossed it up and down experimentally a few times.

The apple was just an apple. Nothing was happening, besides gravity insisting that the apple go down.

"Brrrpt?"

"Not time for the arson experiment no." I said, then thought about it.

Next was trying to injure myself with the apple, then eat the apple. Seeing what apple-smoke did to me was before eating the apple… but yes, I wanted to try to injure myself with it first. It would be optimal to eat the apple an hour before dawn, if I could accurate predict WHEN that would be. Damn flying island. It was fun at first, but it was getting real old.

"Smack me with the apple?" I asked Iona.

"Where?"

I thought about it.

"Left foot."

Iona smashed the apple down onto my bare foot with barely a moment’s hesitation, putting significant force into the blow. It was needed with how reinforced my body was.

The poor apple never stood a chance. For lack of a better word, it practically disintegrated, small chunks and mash flying off in every direction. Iona quickly stepped back two elegant steps, removing the ‘no movement’ zone.

"Yeowch!" I complained, grabbing my foot and hopping on my other one. "That hurt!"

I hadn’t felt pain like this in ages. [Center of the Universe] had been dulling and translating my pain.

"Fuck fuck FUCK!" I continued to hop around the room. "She didn’t say anything about them hurting! Just no healing!"

"Your skill is part of your healing class." Iona pointed out.

I had quite a few choice words for White Dove, and it wasn’t like I was trying to stay on her good side anymore. I’d been cursed, it was done and over with, I could cuss her out to my heart’s content. Doubted I’d make any soldiers blush, I’d heard most of the insults from them in the first place!

I looked at my foot. Iona had controlled her strength enough that she hadn’t broken anything, but I had one hell of a bruise. My healing magic wasn’t doing a thing to it. I tentatively poked at it, to see if there was anything special about it.

Nada. Just a bruise.

"Can I make a suggestion?" Iona said.

"Yeah, what’s up?"

"What happens if we cut off your foot?"

I held up my hand.

"I am all for it, but maybe when you’re not filled with apple-repulsing power?"

"Why don’t I nick an ear to see if me eating apples empowers me? Worst-case, you get to wear more earrings for a few hours?" Iona suggested.

My eyes widened.

"That’s brilliant! Go!" I promptly threw myself onto the sofa, a ready and willing patient for Iona’s proposed plan.

A quick prick of my ears showed a nice aspect of my curse - people who’d eaten apples weren’t specially empowered against me.

"About that foot?" Iona suggested.

I’d come to terms with myself a while back about how minor self-mutilation wasn’t harm. My healing instantly snapped everything back while I felt no pain. I wasn’t about to start throwing myself into woodchippers to try and level up though. I had some standards.

The earring experiment suggested that there would be no issues. However, how it interacted with the bruise was going to be interesting.

"Do it." I clenched my teeth and watched my foot get cleanly sliced off, instantly popping back into place.

Without the bruise.

Iona had moved away after chopping my foot off, giving me full motion again.

"Auri, could you do the honors?" The words were barely out of my mouth before my old foot was ashes. Leaving biological waste lying around was just plain rude.

"Next experiment…"

"BRRRRPT!"

"Alright, fine, burn the apples. We need a lot of smoke…"

The experiments continued, the three of us testing the limits of my curse.

Smoke made me cough a bunch, but otherwise didn’t cause any issues. Iona eating an apple wore off, somewhat predictably, at dawn. The color of the apples in question didn’t matter - green apples were just as problematic as red apples. Crabapples didn’t count for whatever reason. Me touching or juggling apples didn’t cause any issues, I had to eat the apple - or apple-derived product. Apple juice, apple pies, cider, etc., were all off the menu.

Unfortunately, it seemed like ‘partaking’ had a generous definition. Simply passing my lips disabled my healing until dawn, and the School’s island flying all over the place kept changing when that was. Occasionally we would fly into the rising sun, and my curse would be over quickly. Otherwise it seemed to try and stay in the light or darkness, and I’d be in trouble for an extended period of time.

"Basically, if you’re ever in trouble, fly east." Iona summarized. "Make things wear off faster."

Partaking of apples in non-conventional ways didn’t count, but I wasn’t about to start regularly…

Honestly, the less said about partaking of apples in unconventional ways the better. It wasn’t like I got any flavor or nutrition out of it.

As for creatures causing issues, it was only creatures the System deemed as ‘intelligent’, in other words, those that came up with [Mage], [Artisan], etc. when [Identifying] them. Bacteria eating apples didn’t count, which made sense - otherwise I wouldn’t be able to approach any apples. Horses, and more importantly, Fenrir, could eat apples and wouldn’t cause me a single moment of concern.

My shield was worthless against apples. Even a lightly tossed apple went straight through my shield like it wasn’t there - except it also left a perfect apple-shaped hole behind it. Appleseeds were just as bad as apples. I wasn’t quite willing to test a lethal dose of cyanide derived from appleseeds to see what would happen, but I suspected it was too far removed from apples to count.

Poisons mixed with apple juice probably would. Again, not an item I was willing to test, and my LD-50 on poisons were wack in the first place with my biomancy.

Iona whacked me a few times with a club made out of apple wood, which didn’t do a thing to me. The leaves were equally mundane. Only the fruits themselves caused issues.

I was happy that we’d crossed Modu off our potential list of places to go. Accidentally eating an apple, then needing to wait months before the next dawn? Yikes.

I wasn’t able to experiment with illusions or perspectives, but the island’s non-stop flying did let me experiment with timing. In short, whenever the dawn occurred, I was good, no matter if it was three hours since the last time I’d experienced a sunrise, or thirty.

The biggest issue that came up was ‘oiling’ weapons with apple juice. Iona’s blade, dipped in apple juice, caused injuries that didn’t respond to my healing. It also didn’t respond to [Cosmic Presence] boosting my innate healing rate, and I’d cheated and skimped a little when making my biological modifications. Iona had proven earlier with the bruise on my foot that other injuries could ‘overwrite’ the injury, at which point I was healing a ‘mundane’ injury.

The other critically important aspect was eating apples. If enough less-processed apples made it into my food, my healing would be disabled, and I’d be relatively easy pickings.

My dramatically improved senses helped with avoiding apples. I could figure out the ingredient list of a stranger’s breakfast simply by passing them on the road. Figuring out what was in my food was trivial, unless some powerful skills were brought in against me. I doubted anyone would be able to casually slip me some apple without me knowing.

I was pleased with my efforts to keep my curse a secret. As long as nobody knew my aversion to apples, I was safe. The moment it got out, I was potentially in trouble.

After all.

White Dove had armed the world with a way to kill me.

Chapter 28 - Graduation I

I knew I needed to graduate. That my time at the School was coming to an end. That I had reached the end of my knowledge acquisition, that the School simply didn’t have much left to teach me in my chosen fields of expertise. That a single month of travel would teach me more than a year in the School.

Knowing that it was the right thing didn’t have me dreading the end of my time here. Like a cruel joke, time seemed to speed along, our birthdays came and went - 27! - and finals were upon us.

My last finals. The classes were easy enough, but the tracks were a different matter.

I wasn’t presenting a thesis for my Wizardry Track, but there still was a final panel examination. I wasn’t familiar with any of the professors performing the examination, and they all looked tired and irritable. Doing a few dozen intense hours-long back-to-back exams would do that to a person.

"Elaine of Remus." The first examiner flipped his papers with a sigh. "Applying for Wizardry Track graduation in Jiwa and Anaconda."

The second examiner snorted at Jiwa. Must be one of those wizards who thought Jiwa was cheating, and ‘too easy’.

"Young lady, where are your preparations? This is the Wizardry Track exam." A third examiner peered over her glasses at me.

I held out my hand, and teleported one of my spellbooks into it.

"Preparations like this?" I asked.

"One spellbook is doable." The first examiner muttered.

I gleefully pulled out thirty more at that.

[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 79 -> 80! +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]

"Silver in Jiwa. Silver! The only question I missed was Vetisan’s Binding, and that’s niche because Kunada’s Method is superior in every way!" I complained to Auri and Iona.

"Brrrpt." Auri sympathized.

"How’d Anaconda go?" Iona helpfully asked.

I made a disgusted noise.

"Even worse if you can believe it. My specific spells weren’t general enough. My general spells weren’t specific enough. My ability to write arrays on the fly wasn’t ‘up to standard’, which they never named or stated. They seemed to expect I’d have meta skills that I just don’t have the slots for. Who dings a student in an Anaconda exam for not being able to integrate Delas into it?! That’s not part of the language! That’s an entirely different language! Honestly, I almost suspect that they gave me bronze just so I wouldn’t appeal a fail and take up even more of their time."

I muttered more about their supposed proclivities and their mother’s weight.

I yanked my mind away from my train of thought on myself, and focused on Iona. "How about you?" I asked, trying to be a good girlfriend.

"Gold in Politics, gold in Interpersonal Relationships, gold in Drawing and Painting, bronze in Art, bronze in Mathematics, bronze in Logistics and Supply, and silver in Individual Duels."

I started at the last one.

"Wait, Individual Duels is a track?"

Iona nodded.

"Apparently. They tracked me down to give it to me. Something about having the entire world watch me crush a team with a divine blessing in play made them want to make sure they had a claim on me. Figured it’s harmless, and I get an extra track. What’s up with your Medicine Track exam?"

"Brrrrpt!!" Auri made impressed noises at Iona’s accomplishments.

"Marcelle said it was going to be scheduled special. Speaking of, I need to sit down and study it more. I do not want to make any mistakes on this, not with all the effort she’s going through with my thesis. I can not make her look bad."

With that I sat back down, popped out three reference books - hurray [Parallel Thoughts] level-up milestone! - and got cracking.

My Radiance Sorcery exam was about as straightforward as I could hope for. Blast things to pieces. Show off my utility skills. Demonstrate any neat tricks I had.

Sorcery was hard to properly evaluate, as it was, by definition, a grab bag of tricks. Some of the professors believed breadth was important, whilst others graded on how well I used the abilities I had.

It was a fierce argument, but my ability to utterly annihilate every target given - including a few mirrors - managed to edge out a Gold in Radiance Sorcery by a narrow 3-2 vote.

"Are you ready?" Marcelle asked for the fourth time.

"I’m ready. I’m sure." I’d done everything I could to prepare. I’d reorganized my entire [Astral Archive] to properly make a mental ‘shelf’ for all my medical knowledge, then carefully rearranged and ordered all my knowledge into books. Most tidbits of information ended up in five or six different books, just so no matter which one I ‘picked up’, I’d have the knowledge handy.

It was a perfect memory skill, and not only that, but I could organize it. I had unlimited storage - as far as I could tell. Why not make use of it?

My clothes were perfect. Fresh, clean, magically pressed, put on after breakfast, with my earned tracks stitched into the hem. I looked every inch the dutiful student.

"Alright. Here we go." Marcelle opened the doors to the lecture hall, and we entered.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was that instead of the normal five examiners, I had a whole panel of fifteen, each of them an old Immortal. The one in the center had been one of the professors interviewing me to enter the School in the first place, and I’d had him for my The Art of Medicine in Warfare class. The second thing I noticed was the minor audience. A dozen or so professors and other faculty members had each claimed their own seat in the lecture hall. I recognized most of the faces here as people Marcelle and Ratcatcher had been working with, introducing me to as the author of the Medical Manuscripts.

"Welcome all. Today we have a special event. Healer Elaine here is one many of you are familiar with. You have seen her in the hospital, or taught her in class. Some of you know her for a different reason. Elaine has given credible evidence that not only is she a listed contributor to the Medical Manuscripts that we have all studied, but she wrote the original copy. This has been corroborated a few different ways, and we’d love to show you our evidence after this graduation panel. Without further ado - Elaine of THE Remus Republic."

Slowly expanding knowledge of what I’d done felt something like a conspiracy, and I could immediately see which members of the interview panel hadn’t been ‘read in’ so to speak. Some had their eyes widen, a few sucked in a breath.

Kinda hard to get large rises out of old Immortals.

"Explains why this one got scheduled special." One devil on the far left end said.

"Each in turn." The middle elf said. "Elaine. It feels like yesterday you were in front of me, being interviewed for admittance to the School. Congratulations on successfully completing your classes. I would like to start with a question you struggled with on your initial entrance exam. If you encounter a rapidly spreading malady that you determine is created by a Miasma Classer or similar, what steps would you take?"

The open-endedness was part of the beauty of the question. Also, I knew what I’d done wrong last time.

Contact proper authorities - I wasn’t the authority anymore!! I had been in the mindset of ‘I am the boss, the final authority, and I am empowered to do whatever is needed to fix this shit.’

Except… the average healer wasn’t. The average healer wasn’t able to kill a Classer on a suspicion - not only was it legally dicey (I hated the phrase ‘it depends’ on the legal readings I did) - but most healers just didn’t have the skills, ability, or mindset to take a life. The professors here also frowned on it. The proper answer was to alert the correct authorities, then continue on with the rest of the plague methods.

"A creature with copper-based blood has a heart attack. What is your method of treatment?" The next question came in the middle of my description of how I’d organize different levels of healers.

I blinked, dropped the mental books I’d been holding with [Astral Archive] and picking up a new set of books.

The question was plain unfair, designed to trip me up. It was a trap, but it didn’t feel aimed at me. Just at cocky students in general. To no surprise, it came from one of the professors who occasionally taught some of the biomancy courses.

"Carefully. Since there are no copper-based blood species with a heart, I have to assume I’m dealing with a complex biomancied subject. My exact plan of action would vary depending on a thousand factors, primarily the heart design itself. How do I know they’re having a heart attack? Are they an elvenoid? What size are they? Do I have a reason to believe their changes are permanent, and I can simply address the problem, or are they in the middle of an operation and my tactics need to change? With that being said, a cardiovascular event can broadly be treated…"

On and on the questions went, and the difficulty just went up. Even a few professors who had liked me in class, who believed that I was the originator of the Medical Manuscripts, weren’t pulling any punches. Either this was the treatment everyone got, or people wanted to see me fail, or people wanted to give me a chance to show off, or ensure there were no accusations of people going easy on me. Or there was something else going on, a mix of multiple motives, or whatever. I wasn’t in a position to think or analyze it, and without Iona to spell it out, I was lost.

What I wasn’t lost on was what I needed to do.

Hit it out of the park. Crush every question thoroughly and perfectly. Prove that I knew my stuff.

[The World Around Me] let me see every single detail. [Parallel Thoughts] let me split my minds. I was close to the professors. After I hit my stride, I was able to skim through the entire list of questions they all had - each professor had a different set - then send off my parallel thought processes down my literal memory lane, grabbing books and preparing answers. Frankly, it almost felt like cheating. To avoid accusation of impropriety, I made sure to wait and let professors ask their questions before I started to answer.

On and on it went. Some professors let me finish the prior professor’s question before jumping in, others simply asked when they were satisfied by the prior answer - regardless if other people wanted to hear it or not. It was easy enough to figure out who needed concise answers to their questions, and who I could expound with, and fully answer all the details.

[The World Around Me] also let me see professor’s eyes flicker off to the side, focusing on nothing, a quick and subtle movement that let me know they’d just gotten a System notification.

Levels for everyone!

"Thank you all." The central figure said after a grueling six hour interrogation. No other final exam had taken nearly so long, but given that everyone had leveled a skill or even a class, nobody seemed eager to bring the event to a premature close.

"I have one last question for Elaine. What do you plan to do after you graduate?"

That question took me by surprise. It wasn’t written down on his list. It was also easy.

"Find people to heal, and heal them." I shrugged, letting them know my answer was done.

"I believe we’ve heard enough. I propose Elaine should be awarded gold for the knowledge portion of the exam. All in favor?"

Fifteen hands were up in the air before he even finished speaking.

"Congratulations, Elaine. I look forward to your thesis defense." The center professor said.

[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 80 -> 81! +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]

It took me another three hours to get out of there, and that was only because Marcelle ended up swooping in to extract me.

I took a sip of Linnet’s magical tea. It was snowing outside, the island on a brisk flight path over the northern continent.

Honestly, I’d be pretty happy to be in a stable location soon, where I didn’t need to pack winter clothes for the afternoon during a blazingly hot morning. Where the sun set at a reasonable hour.

Linnet had a fire roaring in her hearth, heavy blankets she’d sewn herself strewn over the sofa and a never-ending supply of warm tea.

I wanted a room like this wherever I ended up.

I put my teacup down and broke the companionable silence.

"Linnet. You’ve been amazing these last few years." I said. She sipped her tea.

"Oh peshaw. I’ve just done what anyone would do. Cookie?" She offered me the tray.

I’d never seen the tray empty, and the smell of baking filled the room. I happily accepted one.

"I think sadly, this is our last meeting. Our goodbye." I was starting to tear up a bit. I didn’t want to leave Linnet. I didn’t want to lose the grandmotherly ear, the shoulder I could always rest on.

But life moved on. Time marched forward, without pause, without rest. The sun rose, and the sun set. Time goes by, we can never stay the same.

All that would be left of today were memories, drifting like a snowflake in the wind.

Linnet was quiet a long moment.

"A goodbye is simply another chance to say hello. Who knows what the world will bring? Don’t worry about me so much, worry about that thesis you’re presenting! It sounds like it’ll be quite the event! Exciting! I’ll be sure to mosey on down myself and watch."

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the answer, but I plowed on.

"Linnet. I’d - if you want, I can make you young again. Just -"

Linnet cut me off with a slow shake of her head.

"That’s very generous of you, but I’ll have to decline. I’ve made my peace with the world already. White Dove will be taking me soon enough. No need for any of that frantic running around you Immortals do for me, oh no. I’m happy here."

Linnet made it clear that she didn’t want to argue or discuss the topic more. We switched to more mundane matters, although we got interrupted near the end of our time.

The island had a broadcast system, powerful inscriptions fueled by kilos of arcanite to make announcements when needed.

"Warning. Warning. Warning. Take shelter. Take shelter. The island is about to pass through Xyris, the Living Storm. Take shelter. Warning. We are about to pass through Xyris."

Linnet gave an overly dramatic sigh.

"Well! I don’t feel like swapping my skills with anyone else, do you?" The question was purely rhetorical. Nobody wanted their skills randomly swapped around with other people caught in the storm - especially not with the absurd number of fish with silly skills around.

"Not at all." I agreed.

"Good! Help me get the cookies out of the oven. Want to make a fresh batch with me?"

Did I ever! It was almost a treat that the island’s flight path was bringing us through Xyris, extending my final moment out with Linnet.

Linnet watched the door close on Elaine, her heart breaking just a little once again.

Another one she’d helped. Another one who’d left, who she wouldn’t see again. Sometimes it was just so hard to see people leave, and Elaine was just so lonely.

Linnet cheered herself up by reminding herself that she’d freed up some time, and helped Elaine. Another poor lost soul would come knocking on her door soon enough, another person who needed a fresh cookie and warm tea.

She took out a tiny, specially made teacup, and poured the smallest splash into it.

"For you." She called out into the empty air.

The teacup was half-empty when Linnet next looked, a gentle coooo echoing through the air.

Chapter 29 - Graduation II

A few more days went by where I had nothing to do but pack, repack, fret, worry, compete with Auri in ‘who can burn more’, prepare for my thesis defense, and cuddle with Iona.

"You’re sure you’re okay with Exterreri? I’m not pressuring you to do something you don’t want to? It’s not just because of me?" I asked for what must’ve been the… 60th time or so.

43rd a quick review of my memories said.

Iona sighed.

"Elaine, I swear, if you ask me this question one more time, I’m going to tickle you. Until you beg for mercy, and then I’ll keep going. YES. I am sure. Why don’t you read a book?"

"I am! And writing in my spellbook. [Parallel Thoughts] for the win!"

"Go read more books."

She did have a point. My book-access was about to sharply go down.

Blessedly, the time came to present my thesis before I could annoy Iona into breaking up with me.

"All ready?" Marcelle asked with Ratcatcher.

I nodded, filled to the brim with a frenetic, nervous energy. This was it. This was the time. I’d prepared and over prepared for this. Checking over my notes. My evidence. Rehearsing questions. Then going a little too far, and paying for someone to help pretty me up. Hair, clothes, makeup, nails, everything. Cost a pretty penny to go into the town to get it done - no student practitioners here - but it was worth it.

Shame I didn’t have [Pretty] anymore, this would’ve been good for a few levels.

Iona, Auri, and even Fenrir tagged along, eager to watch and support my thesis defense.

The trip to the grand stadium - the grand stadium - was practically a blur. I knew the whole thing was going to be an event, but I hadn’t quite realized the sheer scale of the event.

An island wide broadcast went out as we were almost there, echoed not only in the four keystone languages, but in a dozen other popular languages as well.

"Attention all students, professors, members of the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft, and town members. If any of you have an interest in medicine, history, linguistics, people, literature, teaching, or just flat-out leveling for watching an event, please make your way to the Grand Stadium."

Iona and I traded looks.

"BrrrRRRRRrrrpt!!" Auri made an impressed noise. A speedster blazed past us, through the main gates of the Grand Stadium, and we hustled through before too many others could cause us trouble. Fenrir flew up with Iona, and perched on the platform designed for large fliers.

Marcelle, Ratcatcher, Auri, and myself waited in one of the antechambers as an inquisitive crowd started to filter in. It was the two break weeks between quarters, and most students were taking a break, or didn’t have much to do. The practical promise of leveling - regardless of class - just for watching an event was enticing. I’d be tempted to show up to such an event. Worst-case, I could just read in the stands.

"I need to get going. Best of luck. Ratcatcher is going to stay with you. You’ll know when to make your entrance." Marcelle vanished down another passageway after that.

In no time at all, I heard her magically amplified voice speaking.

"Welcome one, welcome all, to a very special thesis defense! Yes, you heard me, today’s specially broadcast event is a thesis defense, one like you’ve never seen before, nor will you ever see again. Yes, I’m including the ancient Immortals among us in this. You too have never seen a thesis defense like this, nor will you ever see one again, and depending on your speciality, I can almost guarantee a level. But first! Let me introduce to you all our panelists. We will start with the head of the Department of Medicine, Professor…"

Marcelle then went on to list virtually every single professor in the medicine, biomancy, history, and a few other departments. I had a good 80 or so members on my panel.

"Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering what could cause such a stir. What thesis gathered so many people here today, that has caused such interest. Has there been some revolutionary breakthrough in the field of medicine? Was the Riddle of Aelia solved? Not today! The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft accepts theses written before students attend the School. Pushing the boundary of knowledge is pushing the boundary of knowledge, no matter when or where. What I have for you is something ancient. Blasted through time, born before every known Immortal alive today and young enough to compete on the School’s combat team, deceived by the fae and founder of medicine as we know it today, it is my great honor to present - Elaine of Remus!"

I looked at Ratcatcher and he gave me a quick nod. I exited to confused murmurs from the crowd.

Marcelle had simply introduced me and the panelists. She hadn’t done the reveal yet. Explained why we were here.

The panelists were something fierce. They were on what I could only describe as a ‘short’ bleacher, twenty to a row and stacked four high. They loomed over the spot I was clearly meant to go to, peering over glasses and papers at me.

Maybe a third had been previously convinced of what was going on. This was news to the rest of them.

I could only imagine how hard this would be if we hadn’t done all the prep work ahead of time.

"Elaine of Remus. Elaine. Her name means ‘healer’ in nearly every language. One has to wonder - what were her parents thinking when they simply named her ‘healer’?"

Marcelle either had a talent for public speaking, or more likely, had developed the skill over her long immortality. She paused a moment for a brief chuckle.

"I’ve mentioned Elaine is ancient. She is so ancient that she predates her name meaning healer." Marcelle paused and grinned. I could see the coin slowly, oh so slowly, starting to drop for a few people. A single breathy "Impossible." A jaw unhinging.

"Indeed, there is strong evidence that she is single-handedly responsible for the word ‘Elaine’ taking on the meaning it has. Mortals and Immortals, Elaine here wrote the original draft of the Medical Manuscripts. Not an early copy. Not an early contributor. The original. She is the first author, the one who got the idea. Who took charcoal to bamboo, and penned the foundations of medicine as we know it today."

A slow murmur went through the crowd as people processed and realized exactly what Marcelle had said. She let people talk for a few seconds, before seizing the moment and carrying on before someone else could butt in.

"Now, these claims are extraordinary. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Elaine will take more normal thesis questions after the evidence is given. Next is the woman who needs no introduction. Director Flora."

Needs no introduction? I’d never heard of the woman before! I’d never met her in all of this!

And yet, as a flower unfurled near me and an old lady in dazzling white robes stepped out, I realized I did know her. She was the one who’d stepped in with the skinwalker.

"I am Flora. I too was born in Remus, although I came here today the hard way."

There was a brief round of chuckles at that.

"While I never had direct knowledge or interaction with Elaine, she was active in a similar time and location that I was in. Without giving away too many of my own secrets, I am satisfied that Elaine is who she claims to be."

The witch in white - Flora - didn’t even give me a look before dissolving into a flurry of pink petals, dancing on the wind.

That summary seemed useless to me, but I wasn’t well versed in Immortal politics, Flora’s reputation, and what weight her words would have. A number of professors looked impressed, and were quickly twisting and talking with each other, dozens of rapid conversations held at speeds only high level Immortals could manage. Flora’s words clearly had significant weight to them, and I only spotted three frowns in the crowd.

Looking good, looking good.

By Flora’s own words, she was ancient. Like, five times older than Night had been when I knew him. It reinforced my belief that Night could be around. One person had made it from Remus until now. Why couldn’t a second one?

Wait.

WAIT.

Artemis’s School of Sorcery and Spellcraft had been founded during my era. Flora claimed to have been from Remus, around my era. She was at a School with the same name. Was this School the sam-

"Next up, I would like to present our resident [Archivist], Ratcatcher." Marcelle announced after a carefully calculated - I assumed - time had passed. Damn her for interrupting my musings! "He specializes in tracing signatures and their lineage."

The goblin stepped forth next to me, and handed out dozens of folders, then began to speak.

"Welcome. Please take a copy of my paper and pass the rest along. Thank you. Elaine is an interesting case, given the extreme age of the signature, the sheer prevalence of the Medical Manuscripts, and the tens of thousands of different signature lineages associated with such an old work. Elaine’s signature against contemporary works - Specifically, the Yaris branch - is a stunningly low 41.90% match, which is normally entirely disqualifying. The specifics of where and how the signature matched is the subject of the paper in front of you, for those of you willing to delve into the technical details. Given the extreme age in question, and the utter lack of precedent for a signature so copied over the ages, and a survivor claiming to be the author in question, I deemed it reasonable to continue investigating. The Rudolf line was next, and…"

Ratcatcher was no Immortal. He hadn’t been given the chance of multiple lifetimes to polish his social skills, goblins weren’t exactly famous conversationalists, and his job in the archive didn’t exactly have a constant whirl of people coming in and chatting with him.

All this to politely say that while Ratcatcher was correct, and technically going over everything properly, he was boring as sin. I had to use [Sunrise] three times on myself to keep my eyes open and look interested.

"... in the end, the part that convinced me more than any other was the System." Ratcatcher was finally winding down. The professors that had been stated as part of the Department of History looked like cats that had been dropped into a vat of cream, while a few of the Department of Medicine professors looked confused and lost. Two were playing cards under the table with each other, and I was a little offended.

Only a little. Ratcatcher was boring. Thorough, convincing, but he’d gotten everyone on board forty minutes ago… and was mostly just rereading the paper he’d just handed out to everyone.

"I have gained twenty levels directly related to my investigations here. Looking into an imposter or conwoman wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding, and I believe only the true author could provide such experience. Any questions?"

"Yes, I-" One professor opened his mouth and started to ask a question, only to wither under the combined glare of literally every single other person in the stadium. Except Ratcatcher. The demon sitting next to him clasped one massive hand on the clueless professor’s shoulder, and she leaned in to whisper something to the man.

Marcelle clapped her hands.

"Thank you Ratcatcher for the thorough explanation."

"You’re most welcome."

He tilted his hat at the assembled professors, and walked away.

"Ratcatcher brings up an interesting point. Levels. Being around significant figures tends to cause more levels and experience than being around people who haven’t accomplished much. Those who are blessed to discuss philosophy with Long Zhi, long may he protect this School, can confirm. I am embarrassed to admit that it was only in Elaine’s third year that I noticed my own leveling rate had dramatically increased. Seven levels. Seven levels in three years, and we vampires drew a short straw, usually only getting one every decade. This led me to suspect something was going on, and I chased down hundreds of false leads before Elaine came to me with her revelation. Cross-checking with other professors and students - many of them sitting here today - has indicated a moving locus of levels. Those who have taught Elaine in medicine or biomancy have reported increased levels. Those who have worked with her, or assisted with her own biomancy work have gained surprising numbers of levels compared to their peers who have not. A few have been offered powerful classes that look and sound strange - [Assistant to the Founder] being one such example - but all neatly and directly tie back to Elaine. I have presented my example of levels, you will now hear from others."

Thus began the veritable parade of people coming forward and adding their testimony. Some knew what was going on ahead of time, others hadn’t. Some professors added in their weight.

An [Authenticator] from the island’s auction house came around, although I didn’t think he was that helpful. Of course I’d written it, and I had to use modern supplies for it. Still, he was another mango in the bowl. Never could have too many of those!

Throughout the storm I stood there in my robes, carefully watching each of the professors without saying a word myself. Careful not to stare at anyone too long. The picture of a healer.

The healer.

The Elaine.

It was fun to see how many levels I was handing out to the various professors, every silent ding! another nail in the coffin.

That might not be the best analogy.

Only one storm could blow forever, and it wasn’t this one. Things started to wind down, and it was my turn.

"Thank you all. Now, this is still a thesis presentation! We’ve gotten the background and evidence that Elaine is capable of presenting the work in question, and that she is indeed the author. With that said, now it’s time for the healer in question to take the stand, present her work, and have the capable men and women of the panel decide if it’s good enough." Marcelle finished with a wicked smile. Someone sputtered and choked at her words.

"If it’s good enough!?" She cried out in protest.

"Shhh!" Another one silenced her.

I stepped forward and laid down my scrolls in front of the panel.

"I am Elaine of Remus. I would like to present my thesis to the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. It is my collection of notes and understanding of medicine, collated and written in a single location to try and spread my knowledge." I kept it simple, knowing I was in for a brutal grilling.

If nothing else, the examiners would be salivating at the chance to level. They quickly got an order to ask questions in, and an agreement not to cut me off as I was answering. The chance to level was too good.

"Elaine. I’m a big fan. How did you get such knowledge, at such a young age? Is your work a compilation of other scraps of knowledge? Walk me through how it was made."

I never expected to keep all my secrets, not when how much of the Medical Manuscripts had come from my reincarnation. Hadn’t quite realized it at the time, but as we prepared, yeah. It became obvious. People didn’t seem to flip out that much when I mentioned my history, and I was well-shielded here.

"Best way of explaining it is I’ve been god-touched. Shortening a long and confusing story, I was born with excess knowledge, primarily of a medical nature. My mother was also a healer, and it was only natural that I follow in her footsteps. As I grew up, I got the opportunity to place all my knowledge down in a single place, to try and spread it throughout the city I was living in. Maybe - just maybe - it’d end up in a few extra cities. I had no idea that it’d reach this scale. To loop back around to your question. I stood upon the shoulders of giants - of a completely different world. I can’t exactly claim originality, broadly, but in a Remus sense, I can."

So much for short and sweet. I thought about discreetly wiping my sweaty palms on my robes, but no. Everyone would see the motion, there was no hiding from so many Immortal eyes.

My answer set off a fresh round of discussions, and a few well-worn arguments reanimated. Did my answer count as I had originally done the work? Or was I simply a collator of others' knowledge? "Both" was a bit of a surprise, wildcard answer.

The conversations and discussions weren’t all done when the next professor in line wanted to ask her question.

"Elaine. The [Oath] written down is quite something. What can you tell us of its origins and inspiration?"

Lyra was an old scar at this point.

"The inspiration is easy. I fucked up. Hard. I was still concerned with the world. With my knowledge. I… didn’t put forth my best efforts. My friend died. I swore to myself - never again. At the time my System was freshly unlocked, and I didn’t have good memory skills. I made my [Oath] on the spot, with what I thought was right. I included it when I wrote the Medical Manuscripts, in case one or two people were interested in it."

The last part was said sardonically, and I got a number of sympathetic, understanding looks.

“You’ve mentioned a high kill count in some of your classes, yet you’re also claiming to be the originator of the healing [Oath]. The most famous line, of course, being ‘First, do no harm’. How do you reconcile your statements together?”

Ooof, I recognized that type of question. ‘This looks like you’re lying but I don’t want to say it like that’ turn of phrase.

“My high kill count is primarily around being a team of soldiers during a war against monsters, and I was clear that it was team kills. I was acting as medical support, with some self defense. For individuals, the topic is worth an entire lecture and debate on its own, but fundamentally, I was healing and defending.”

The questions continued, prior commitments forgotten, the time limit blown to pieces. I was trying to ignore the crowd, but I had an awareness of my surroundings, trained into me, that didn’t let me quite ignore them. People were coming in and out, but on average, the crowd was growing.

The island was flying fast, against the rotation of the planet. Nightfall came, the moons flashed by the sky, the sun peeked up over the horizon, and minions were acquired to bring snacks and drinks to everyone.

Marcelle finally stepped in.

"Professors, I’m sure Elaine will be happy to meet with you all on an individual basis. However, we have been here a long time. Out of respect for each other’s time, I move that we discuss if Elaine’s thesis is sufficient for graduation from the School."

I have no idea how Marcelle said that with a straight face, but she did.

A privacy veil shimmered over the professors, but it wasn’t particularly good. Only really stopped sound. [The World Around Me] easily pierced it, and I was able to follow the proceedings.

There was fierce arguing for some reason, with rapid shows of hands as less than half the professors raised their hands, then a different less than half of the group raised theirs. A number of them weren’t voting at all, and people kept switching sides around.

Marcelle put a hand on my shoulder.

"Good job." She said. "I can’t tell you how impressed and honored I am to have met you, and been your advisor."

I gave her a crooked grin.

"I’m still me. I was so lost when I came here, you helped me find my feet. You organized all this! I would’ve tried with barely anything backing me up and gotten laughed out of the room, if not outright expelled. Because of you, I had strong evidence. Because of you, I found my feet in this world. Because of you, I’ll be heading to Exterreri after this, to try and make a home. I don’t know how I can say thank you enough."

Marcelle gave my shoulder another squeeze, and gave me a toothy grin.

"Well, that’s easy enough! When you’re settled in, write me a letter, invite me over, and have a nice bottle of wine ready!"

Finally enough votes got cast one way - was I really that close to getting Silver instead of Gold, or hells, not qualifying at all? - and a large scroll was pulled out. Everyone present shuffled around to sign the scroll, then the veil dropped.

"Elaine scored a gold on the knowledge portion of her Medical Tracks. After much discussion, we have determined that Elaine’s thesis in Medicine is beyond all standards we have, and she has earned a platinum for her thesis. Given that platinum is an impossible knowledge designation, we hereby award Elaine a platinum grade for her Medicine Tracks. Congratulations."

I accepted the scroll and the handshake with a tear in my eye.

Chapter 30 - Not Found

Hey Artemis!

I’m about to graduate from the School! I got Platinum in medicine! Apparently the scrolls I wrote back when we were traveling together as Rangers managed to become a little important. Ha! And to think you teased me about them. Well, who’s having the last laugh now?

Iona’s Valkyries have had a spot of trouble, and she doesn’t exactly have a place to return to. She also made something of a small mess in Rolland, and we’re avoiding the country for a short time. 100, maybe 200 years.

Exterreri looks promising. Iona and I are going to see if we can settle down there. We’re aiming for the capital, Sangino. Marcelle has given me a letter of introduction which should make things smoother.

I have no strong evidence for this, but I believe Night is alive. My studies have suggested that the Exterreri Empire is similar culturally to how Remus was, and I struggle to believe that there isn’t the guiding hand of vampires from Remus in how similar they are. It’s also the country of vampires. I’d love for you and Julius to visit at some point! I’ll send you my address once we’re settled in a bit, otherwise we could miss each other and never find each other again. That would suck.

I miss you and Julius. I wish we could see each other more often, but being at the School has made me more aware of just how violently people see healers like me. I also ended up being a little bit of a big deal, and I suspect I’m a little too famous to be anonymous for long if I settle down in mortal lands. I could probably take some trips now and then though!

Say hi to Julius for me!

All my love,

Elaine

I made eight copies of my letter, and sent it to eight different places I thought Artemis might get it. Communication and keeping in touch with people was hard, and I was determined to put in the work - and the money! - to stay in touch with Artemis.

Amber was next.

To my favorite money munchkin-

Hey! Long time, no see! I haven’t heard from you in a while, and I hope it’s just your adventures combined with the bad post, or letters are too expensive.

I’ve graduated! Iona and I are heading to Sangino in Exterreri. We think our prospects are best there.

I know you mentioned occasionally taking trips to Urwa. I can’t promise anything right now, but Exterreri sounds like it’s safe enough for me to sell that thing you want me to sell. Everyone else is protected from the type of concerns we have in other places, and it sounds like I’d be naturally folded into the same protections.

Please let me know that you’re alright! Then again, getting letters to me is going to be difficult for some time. I’ll be sending more messages out when I can.

I have a few books I think you should read. Given that I’m copying this letter to a few different locations, I can’t attach them to the letter. Anyway, here’s the list…

…

Cheers,

Elaine

I paid a [Scribe] to copy Amber’s letter 31 times, and sent the copies all over the place, hoping one would reach her.

"Elaine! Just the person I wanted to see!" Martin the [Librarian] half-ambushed me as the [Scribe] was finishing up his copies.

"Martin. Everything alright? I’m pretty sure I’ve returned all my books, and there are no books left hidden in secret corners."

He paused.

"The way you phrased that last part is deeply concerning. No, everything’s alright. I’m just wondering if you’d be willing to sign a few books for us? The Museum of All Things got the original you submitted, but I’m hoping to get a couple of copies for the Library."

I looked at him suspiciously.

"Define ‘a few’." I said, and since I was dealing with Amber’s letter, I was in a mercantile mood. "And are you willing to pay per signature?"

We struck a quick deal that was going to cramp my hand, and have me stay a little longer than I technically was allowed to - I should be booted off the island before the next quarter started, but the School really, really wanted a few more bites out of me.

I whistled all the way back home, funding for the next year or two secured. Maybe enough to buy a small, out of the way home.

"We’ve got two more weeks here?" Iona confirmed.

I nodded.

"Yup! School wants me to do a few more things for them, and Martin pulled a few strings. They’re paying me well enough that it’s worth it, and it gives us a little bit of time to say goodbye."

Iona frowned.

"Like. I’m fine with this. I just wish you’d talked with me before deciding."

I internally cringed. Shit! I’d been rude, acting without thinking.

"Sorry! Martin was right there, and it seemed like too good of a chance to pass up."

Iona sighed and ruffled my hair.

"You’re good. Just keep us in mind, yeah?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. Got anything special you’d like to do? As my way of saying ‘whoops, sorry’?" Nothing like shameless bribes to get back in my girlfriend’s good graces.

"Of course!" She grinned wickedly at me. "A date! To all the places we’ve seen!"

"That sounds nice. When and where?"

"Well, first the gardens, a tour of the arboretum, then when it gets dark let’s go to the Museum. I hear they have a fancy new exhibit!"

I grinned, touched by Iona’s thoughtfulness and quiet pride in my work.

"Sounds great!"

The date almost went well. My concerns about having a normal School life were well-founded as every fourth person seemed to recognize me, and wanted to interact with me.

"Why me?" I complained to Iona after casting a complicated spell to change the look of my face.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Why do I get bothered, and not any of the other famous people here? Like the [Princesses] and whatevers."

Iona gave me a Look.

"Are you - no, no you’re not. Alright, it’s like, three different things going on. First is the sheer scale of things. There’s a bunch of [Princesses], there’s only one you. Second is the importance. The really important nobles end up in Hapensburgs, not the School. Third is deterrence. Your house doesn’t have a reputation for beheading annoying petitioners. Fourth is accessibility. Fundamentally, anyone interested in the Rolland [Princess] can probably petition the crown for their issue, while you’re the entire locus. Plus, no bodyguards."

Iona somehow said the last part with a straight face. I punched her arm.

"Isn’t that why I’m dating you?" I asked rhetorically, then slipped my hand into hers.

She squeezed, and I squeezed back.

Iona and I were giggling as we got back to our suite, only to be ambushed by Auri and a half-dozen flaming images.

Not that I was really surprised, being able to see them through the wall and all. [The World Around Me] was busted.

"BRRRPT! Brrrpt, brpt bbbbrrrrrrrrrrppPPpppTT!!" Auri frantically explained. Iona was nodding along, and I agreed.

"Yes, we can throw a big fancy going away party for everyone. How many of your friends did you want to invite?" I asked.

"Brrrpt!"

"‘All of them’ is sweet, but we need numbers! You’d bake more cookies for eight people than you would for three, right?" I said.

"Plus, I’d like to invite a few of my friends over, and it could be nice to invite your combat teammates." Iona said.

"Brrrpt!" Auri gave me a number, and I wanted to pinch my nose. But no, no. I was Auri’s companion. I should be supportive. Instead, I gave her a beaming smile.

"Great! Alright, what do you need me to do to get ready for this party?"

"Brrrpt! BRPT! BrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpT!" Auri started sending off orders like the world’s smallest [General]. Iona and I traded each other amused looks, and got to it, followed by a flurry of [Mage Hands].

"This party might’ve gotten away from me a little." I admitted to Iona as we watched Auri putting the finishing touches on the preparations, and the first guests started to arrive.

Iona shrugged.

"Like, yeah? At the same time, why not? We only live once, we’re leaving, and why not celebrate this moment with our friends?"

I nodded.

"Oh yeah! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but…" I gestured out to the three different grills Auri had going, along with the it’s-better-to-ask-forgiveness-than-permission fire pit Iona had dug out with four whole pig carcasses starting to slow cook. We had two tables dedicated to desserts that we’d spent the last week baking - and I was happy to say we because Auri had kept me running around, buying supplies and making everything go smoothly for her baking marathon. There was a table for non-grilling food, two kegs of the cheapest beer I could find - we were already breaking the bank, and full kegs weren’t cheap - and all in all, we had an entire feast going.

Iona sagely nodded over the prep work.

"We might be able to feed the three gluttons with all of this."

Three gluttons? Auri for sure, she was always eating, Fenrir required silly amounts of food, and -

"HEY!" I protested and punched Iona in the arm as she cracked up laughing.

People started to trickle into the party, everyone contributing something to the party, and Auri lit up the fires. Fenrir lay there like a small hill, curling around half the park where we were throwing the party and leaving his head near the large grill, waiting for his food to finish.

I thought he liked it raw, but maybe Auri had gotten to him. Auri cooking and Fenrir eating was a potent combination.

I recognized a number of the people who were here. Marcelle brought a number of bottles of wine. Professor Lothar had a taste for smoked meats that he was happy to share. Martin brought a stack of stroopwafels. Sir Polarton brought a basket of berries. Even Reinhard showed up, towing a freshly caught shark!

It wasn’t just my friends who showed up. Iona’s friends and some professors came over, and Bridget - carrying baskets of apples, why - came with a number of Auri’s classmates. Children of other professors and students at the School.

Iona leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"I got this, but we won’t be able to socialize a ton." She moseyed over to where Bridget had put down the lethal basket of apples, and plucked a few out. Iona shot me a cheeky wink as she downed an apple in two bites.

I spun off a [Parallel Thoughts] mind just to smell everyone and track who’d eaten an apple, and who I needed to avoid, along with potential escape routes to make it less obvious that something was going on. I was starting to regret this party. I was hours away from flying literally halfway around the world from any forbidden fruit.

"BRRRRRRRRRPT!!" Auri gave the mightiest cry she could as she ascended up a pillar of multi-colored flames, hovering in the middle of the crowd. With a thought, a tiny chef’s hat made out of brilliant white flames appeared on her head. She started to give a speech as best she could with her limitations.

"Brrpt! Brrrrrrrpt, brpt brpt bRRRrrppT!!"

She wasn’t dumb, and she wrote words in flames above her head as she spoke. Only in one language, and the few unfortunate souls who didn’t know the language needed someone else to translate for them.

Hello! Thank you everyone for coming here, it means a TON to me! It’s been quite a journey these past few years with you all, and…

Auri gave one hell of a speech, but forgot two critically important parts.

One - this was an informal BBQ, not a fancy dinner. There wasn’t room for big, fancy speeches, and people were starting to chat with each other and carry on instead of listening. I didn’t blame them, I was starting to think about splitting off a third thought process to read a book. The part about having baked a special treat for every single person invited was sweet.

Two - food didn’t stop cooking in awe of her speech abilities. Her grandstanding ended with an untranslated brrrrrrrrrpttt!!!! As one of her projects started billowing black smoke.

I chuckled at that. A phoenix burning something. She must’ve been so distracted with her speech.

People came and went, saying hi, enjoying the party.

"This is for you!" Marcelle handed me a beautifully detailed set of biomancy references. A [Bookbinder] must’ve spent hours on making it. "You simply must write and tell me your address once you settle in." Marcelle said. "Being your advisor these past five years has been a joy, and I’d love to keep in touch."

I smiled at her, noting Iona swooping back to the apples and eating a few more.

"I’d like that as well! I’ll make sure to write once I settle in. And thank you for the books, they’re wonderful."

We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and the party moved on. Lothar, one of my main wizardry teachers found me next.

"Congratulations." He rumbled at me. "I heard about your final exam. Remember, a wizard can never be too prepared."

It took me a few moments to realize he was talking about my wizardry final exam, and had nothing to do with my medicine thesis.

"Thank you. I’m aware I’m only at the start of my wizarding journey, and I have miles and decades to go before I can even think I’m halfway competent at it."

I felt like I was something of a bruiser with my wizardry. I could throw huge amounts of power and mana at a problem, so I never needed to work under tight constraints. A downside of coming to the discipline with a high level.

It was weird to think of myself as a thuggish brute, but like. The complex seven-ring array to make things happen, or the quick and dirty sigil for the same effect? I did have the spare power and mana to burn.

I made a mental note to practice my efficient spell forms when bored.

Lothar nodded.

"You’ve got the right mindset. You’ll do well." He spotted another professor he wanted to talk with - I assumed - drifting back into the crowd.

I found myself needing to dodge and weave through the crowd a bit to not have awkward forcefield instances with my curse. Auri was in deep discussion with Bridget, and my plan to check if apple tree dryads caused issues were thwarted by an obvious, stupid thing.

Didn’t matter if I could approach her or not, apples were a critical part of her diet. I carefully backed off, mentally noting escape routes if Bridget wanted to talk with me. Which was likely, given my relationship with Auri.

Blessedly, Auri and Bridget came to an arrangement - I wasn’t sure what, I wasn’t eavesdropping on every single conversation here, that’d be rude and take up way too much mental space and social energy - and a bunch of apples went into the grill, and up in smoke.

Auri shot me a look, and I gave her a grin.

Good job! I mentally shot at her. [Telepathy] wasn’t a skill, but Auri and I understood each other. She puffed up proudly at her brilliant - actually brilliant - method of disposing of most of the apples in a way that nobody would think twice.

Apple-smoking meat was a thing, and Auri was a [Baker]. Maybe not with the class, but it was her thing.

Goddesses. I loved Auri and Iona so much. The way they just found ways to try and help me without saying anything. I had to figure out a good way to say thank you.

Ling Li was at the party with the other members of the School combat team, and she also found time to chat with me. Her robes were slightly modified from the base, looking more like a cultivator’s robes than a witch’s.

She clasped her hands and half-bowed to me.

"Fairy Elaine. It has been a great pleasure to make your acquaintance. If you should ever find yourself near the Blue Luan Paradise Sect, I would be honored if you would give us some face and visit."

Surprisingly formal from her, but I guess we weren’t about to get into a fight - or technically on the same team anymore. I tried to mirror her bow.

"Ling Li. I’d be honored to swing by at some point." I started off strong and formal, and completely punted it with the casual swing by. Ah well.

The party continued. Fenrir made a big show of eating the roast pigs whole, to the excited squeals of the kids and paling of a few less martially-inclined members.

On and on it went. People got drunk and threw skills into the air, fireworks exploding above us. A strong [Whistler] could get an entire multi-part song going - between bites of food! Fenrir somehow got a cutthroat game of cards going, manipulating Ice to finely handle the cards.

As far as parties went, it was pretty good.

"Humor me for a second?" I asked Iona.

"Yeah, what’s up?"

"I know we’ve talked about Exterreri extensively, but I just wanted to double check that you’re alright with me trying to find Night."

Iona chewed her tongue for a moment.

"Like. I’m fine with you looking for him, but can you promise not to turn it into an obsession or anything, or burn too many resources on it? The odds of him being alive, in this place, and findable are vanishingly small, and I’d hate to lose you on a greased pig chase."

I pouted at that.

"I don’t think it’s a greased pig chase. But… yes, I see your point. I can’t make it my entire life, but I’ll be kicking myself if I don’t try. If I don’t put forth a real effort. He’s the only person I can imagine has survived this long, and he’s important to me. He was my mentor, my teacher, my boss and my coworker. Dare I say he was also a friend? Imagine if you got twisted through the world. Wouldn’t you want to find Alruna?"

Iona was nodding along the entire time.

"No no, I totally get it. I’m with you. Just… I don’t want to lose you down an impossible rabbit hole. If something can’t be found, if someone’s died thousands of years ago, how will you ever know to stop looking?"

She had a painful point.

"Well, it’s not like I don’t have any leads." I said. "Vampires need to be turned. I can just ask who turned which vampire, and try to trace the turning tree, so to speak."

"Unless it all ends in a dead end. Entirely possible with your Night being alive."

Iona was right, but it was somewhat frustrating.

"I get it, it’s imperfect, but it’s the best I’ve got. Anyway, you’re all packed?"

Iona nodded, and drew me into a cuddle.

"I am. Your attempt to change the topic is as subtle as always. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be such a downer. I’m here for you. I’m happy to search. I just don’t want to spend my entire life on a futile search. Does that make sense?"

I nodded, letting Iona wrap her strong arms around me.

"No, absolutely. I’d never ask you to spend your whole life on a search with me. That’d be insane."

Unsaid was Iona’s reluctance to become an Immortal.

"Packing! Are you all set?" Iona asked.

"I think so, but I’m not great at organization. Usually had a list to help me out. Doing it alone is not great."

Iona kissed me.

"Well, that’s what I’m for. Let’s go see if you’ve got everything.

It was time. Fenrir was wearing his full armor - easier for him to carry it. I had as many books as I could legally take stashed in my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard]. Iona and I each had a chest full of our stuff - clothes, coins, and the rest - and another chest simply for generic travel supplies, like tents, bedrolls, tinder kits and more. Two more chests were filled with preserved foodstuffs, and a single barrel of the most dread evil water rounded out our carrying supplies. Each of these were attached to Fenrir in some way, shape, or form, the massive wyvern making logistics easy. He didn’t count as a protective wagon, and there were no great arcanite reserves on him, but I’d take him over the Argo any day of the week if dinosaurs attacked.

Auri had an easy-come, easy-go attitude towards possessions, her biggest desire in life to have a kitchen and a nest. Fenrir had his well-loved pack of cards and pipe tucked away with Iona’s gear.

I circled Fenrir one last time, triple-checking our preparations.

"Ready?" Iona asked.

"Brrrrpt?" Auri added her voice, letting me know she was impatient and ready to GO! ON! ADVENTURE!

"Go." Fenrir growled, his deep voice rattling my teeth.

The packs were on, triply-strapped. The armor had all the latches done. The sky was clear, the sun was just peeking over the horizon, and there was a soft summer breeze, the scent of flowers drifting on the wind.

"Alright. Everything looks good." I flew up onto Fenrir’s back, settling in front of Iona on the saddle.

"Let’s go." I said.

Fenrir charged down the field, jumping off the edge of the island and snapping his armored wings open.

The four of us flew into the rising dawn.

Chapter 31 - Interlude - The Pendulum

"Why are we here?" Decimus unhappily threw another branch into the fire. The fire didn’t need the extra fuel, but Decimus was bored out of his mind.

Livia arched an eyebrow, the two Rangers on nightwatch.

"Because we think the idiots calling themself the Circus of Smiles went this way?" She answered.

"No, no, I get that. I mean, why are we camping here? We’re not exactly stealthy, and Palma is just a few miles away. Why camp?"

Livia didn’t say anything for a minute or two, adding another log to the fire while she waited.

"I figure because it’s harder." She finally answered.

"Yeah, but why make it harder? We’ve proven we’re the toughest. We’re the best. Why camp, instead of staying in a tavern? I know it’s deliberate we’re out here, I just can’t wrap my head around it." Decimus said.

Livia was quiet for a minute, organizing her thoughts.

"Have you heard of the pendulum theory?" She asked.

"Pendulum theory? Can’t say I have." Decimus answered. "Is the blasted pendulum why we’re here?"

Livia nodded.

"Yeah, pendulum theory. It only applies on the largest of scales. Countries and decades. It’s somewhat controversial, not everyone agrees. Alright, think of this. You’ve got two cities fighting each other. Everyone levels, yeah?" Livia said.

"Yeah." Decimus said.

"What happens when someone starts winning?" She asked.

Decimus shrugged.

"Easy. They win."

Livia shook her head, then nodded.

"Well, yes. If they win, they win, it’s over. Burn their fields, salt their cities, destroy their monuments. Simple. Pendulum theory applies more when one side doesn’t manage to immediately win. My scale might be off. Here’s how I see it, on a grand scale. Two cities - no, two countries - fight each other. One starts winning, and winning hard. Issue is, as they’re winning, fewer of the soldiers are getting into scraps and fights. They’re on guard duty. Logistics duty. They’re not getting in fights anymore. The pendulum’s swung towards one side. There’s also the question of committing elite troops, and regulars. If they’re winning hard, it’s easy, and there are fewer levels to be had after the initial push. On the other side of things, the second country is losing, and losing badly. Everyone is in every fight, and the odds are impossible. What does that do for your level, fighting every day against impossible, overwhelming odds?"

Decimus grunted.

"Levels. Levels like crazy, for everyone."

Livia nodded.

"Exactly. Unless the winning country can quickly overwhelm and thoroughly exterminate the opposition, the opposition’s going to get real strong, real fast. In the meantime, the winning country’s going to be going soft. The losing country is making elites, and the winning one’s focused on getting rich. Eventually, things will shift and change enough that the pendulum swings back the other way. The people who almost lost are now the powerful ones, and the first country is filled with soft targets."

Decimus chewed over that for a minute.

"We’re the first country." He concluded. "We’ve won too much."

Livia nodded.

"Aye, that we have. I think the government knows it, the vampires aren’t stupid. Why is there still wilderness? Why are great forests and deep caves allowed to stand? Why don’t we raze them all to the ground, and tame the wilds once and for all? Same reason Sentinels have a minimal threshold before they’ll step in. You think Arachne couldn’t find the Circus of Smiles, kill them all, and be back before lunch? They don’t get any experience for crushing a level 500 threat, while we’ll all get a few levels for it. No monsters? No levels. No levels? No elites. No next generation. We’d be a sitting target for even a mortal country to invade. Can’t ruin the source of experience, even if it costs a few lives from the occasional attack."

Decimus immediately made another connection.

"That stupid imposter Sentinel mission. I thought it was something of a set up. A single aged letter sent years ago, for a single person who said it once, in one of the hardest targets in the world that’s conveniently accessible, and who just so happens to be on a trip when we get there!?" Decimus was working himself up the whole time. "I get ‘impossible challenge for levels’ but come on! That was absurd!"

Livia shook her head.

"For what it’s worth, I believe that was a real mission. Fake missions just aren’t worth it. But that mission does illustrate my point nicely. How peaceful are things that the Roaming Ranger Team can be deployed on something so petty? How good are things that we can fail a mission and it doesn’t matter? How many times have we leveled recently? How many missions have we gone on this year? Not enough. Things are too peaceful, too quiet, too easy. Which is why we’re here, in the forest, and not in a tavern."

Decimus sighed.

"Levels."

"Levels." Livia agreed. "Makes it easier knowing why?"

Decimus nodded.

"Yup. Just gotta find the biggest, baddest thing in here, fight it, level, then we can sleep in a tavern."

Livia laughed at his unrepentant grin, and threw another stick into the fire.

Viria readjusted the jug on her shoulder, cursing her ancestors once again for building their house so far away from the main well. Water jar readjusted, she continued to limp into the village.

The walk wouldn’t be so bad if she hadn’t twisted her knee running around when she was a teenager. The one moment of fun, running through a field, ruined her whole life when she rolled her ankle on a rock, fell badly, and wrenched her knee.

The local [Witch] was good for cuts, scrapes, potions, midwifery, setting broken bones and hundreds of other little tasks, but something as large as Viria’s knee injury had been too much for her. She’d tried to set it and fix it, but it never set right.

The jug started to slip from her grip, and Viria paused to readjust it. Putting it down would mean picking it back up again, and that was worse than pausing a moment.

"Need a hand?" Rusticus asked Viria, the man bounding up with a grin.

Viria frowned at him. She didn’t think he was being entirely altruistic.

"No." She curtly refused him, continuing to limp along. Rusticus didn’t take the hint, walking literal circles around Viria, as if showing off how well he could walk would endear him to her.

"Awww, come on, don’t be like that. Here, let me-"

Rusticus was in the middle of trying to grab Viria’s jug off her shoulder when he froze, staring off into the woods behind her.

"This isn’t funny." He curtly jabbed at Viria. "Knock it off."

Viria had no idea what he was talking about. She carefully twisted her head around, making sure not to put any more weight or stress on her bad knee.

Her water jug slipped from her hands, shattering on the dirt road.

Viria had never seen one before, but she’d grown up on stories of them.

Everyone had.

"PEKARI!" She screamed at the sight of the mottled green-brown elvenoid golems. She started limp-running as fast as she could towards her home, water forgotten. She knew there was no chance at outrunning them, not with her knee, and that hiding was the only chance she had.

Rusticus roared with anger. No stupid metal construct without a level was going to invade his village, not while he drew breath. He was level 140. The golems were level 0. He picked up the closest weapon he could find - the handle of Viria’s broken jug - and charged the marching Pekari soldiers.

The cry of alarm had been picked up by the rest of the village, and people were running, hiding, or fighting, no real organization present. The majority tried to scatter into the woods, hoping to evade the tightening cordon. A father tossed his kid high up into a tree, a safe hiding spot - so long as the Pekari didn’t look up. The local [Brewer] hustled through his kegs, smashing the plug out of one deep in his stocks. He hauled himself up and into the barrel, knowing that Pekari never came for goods - only people.

The golem’s arms blurred as it thrust its spear through Rusticus’s chest, mechanically and efficiently killing him. The line of Pekari didn’t even pause as they killed Rusticus, the constructs marching over his fallen body, stomping him into the ground. A second golem took aim at the fleeing Viria, and with a soft cough, fired a metal slug at the fleeing woman.

Viria screamed as she fell, clutching the stump of her leg as the magically propelled slug ripped through her bad knee. The force of it ripped half the limb off, and she hit the ground hard, bleeding into the dirt.

They won’t take me. Viria swore to herself through the blinding pain. They’ll never take me.

Adrenaline warred with pain and won, and Viria turned over onto her belly. She started crawling towards a wood pile, hoping against hope that she could bury herself in it, and the automatons would pass her by. One arm in front of the other, she half-crawled, half-dragged herself to the pile as screams of fear, panic, pain, and loss erupted all around her as the Pekari mercilessly mowed down any resisting villagers, and crippled anyone who tried to run. Her destroyed leg spurted blood onto the dirt, mixing to make a disgusting mud, and a trail even a toddler could follow.

The Pekari weren’t known for the ability to follow any trail.

Viria was three arm-pulls away from the pile when a cold foot mercilessly stepped on her hand. She screamed as the weight broke her hand, and her screaming took another note as a hot brand pressed against her bleeding leg.

She passed out from the pain, and the Pekari grabbed her leg. Uncaring of any damage it might do, the construct turned around, and started to drag her back to their lair.

Along with the rest of the villagers.

Ebbot coughed and knuckled his forehead.

I didn’t even drink all that much last night! He silently complained as he rolled with the swaying of the ship’s deck. Captain Gil must’ve bought the cheap stuff. Again.

He squinted up at the sun, dunking his mop in his bucket and slapping it down onto the ship’s deck.

Bad food. Bad pay. Bad cargo. Bad port. Why am I here again?

Ebbot cursed all his prior life choices that led him here, to Captain Gil’s ship. When he’d signed up to be a [Sailor] he imagined a daring life on the high seas, transporting valuable cargos - spices, gems, magical woods and more - all around the world. He’d be with a crew of competent sailors, working by day, drinking by night, and ripping through the port town brothels and bars like wildfire when he had a chance.

Only the last one had even a shadow of coming to pass. Instead of gems and gold, they were transporting grain, and from how well-sealed the ship was combined with the smell that wafted out whenever Ebbot got too close, he doubted anyone would buy it. It’d put the captain in a worse mood, their pay would go down, far below the promised rates - and it wasn’t like Ebbot had anyone he could complain to about that, ships and crews were notoriously difficult to enforce the law on - the [First Mate] was a bad-tempered brute who looked for any excuse to beat Ebbot - if one of the other [Deckhands] hadn’t sparked his ire already - and the entire ship was cheap. Bad lines, repaired and returned to service that looked like a stiff breeze would snap, rotting timbers that were ‘good enough’ and ‘too expensive to replace’, and now even the grog was bad.

That’s it. Ebbot swore to himself. Last trip. I’m getting off at the next port, and finding a different ship - any ship - to sign onto. Don’t care if it’s a slaving ship, it’s got to be better than this. Just two more days until port.

A port found in the storm that was his life, Ebbot got to mopping with renewed vigor.

"Squeak?"

Ebbot turned at the noise, and threw his mop down in disgust.

"Rats! Now we have rats!" He complained to the sky. His complaint was cut short by a short, vicious cough.

"[Sailor] Ebbot!" The [First Mate] roared at him, and Ebbot jumped. Between his hangover and his own reflections, he hadn’t seen the ugly gorgon sneaking up on him.

Ebbot snapped to attention.

If he showed proper deference now, he might reduce the lashing he got.

"Sir!" He called out properly, his head swimming in pain.

As the [First Mate] got in his face and roared at him, all Ebbot could see was the rat fleeing back into the depths of the ship.

Arachne was well named. It was natural that the name fit like a spider silk weave dress, given that it was bestowed upon her rise to Sentinel.

She was, among other things, a [Thinker], her mind expanded and improved dozens of times over by skills and classes. The tiny threads she wove through the entire city sent tiny vibrations to where she sat in her lair, like a spider who’d woven a city-wide net.

She heard everything that happened in Sangino.

She felt every footprint, every movement, every vibration.

She knew all.

Thank you all! There's even more Beneath the Dragoneye Moons!

Hello everyone!

After months of blood, toil, tears, and sweat, I'm pleased to deliver this installment of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons to you! Hurray! I am so grateful to you - yes, you - for making the investments needed to make this story happen.

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Selkie Myth