That left only one building, the Arcanum. It was the largest building of the four and had the least sensible structure. Serenity didn’t remember it being as insanely laid out as the map indicated, but that could easily have been either his poor memory or the likely fact that he’d never tried to fully map it. It was also likely that some of the rooms that seemed to overlap were ones Vengeance had never visited; there were a lot of types of magic he’d never practiced, after all.

There were people all over the Arcanum. Some were students, but not many; more were faculty. There were more “other” than either. Oddly, unlike the theater, there were faculty and students together in some places but there wasn’t any place where “other” people were with either faculty or students.

“No matter how hard I try, I always find out that my solutions are incomplete.” Esme Tillon’s mutter sounded slightly depressed, but it didn’t show in her face. She spoke louder and more confidently when she looked up from the Register. “Let’s take a look at the other book you found; I think we’re going to need some help with the Arcanum and the Dungeon Lore building.”

The first page of the second book still said Defenses Active. When Serenity turned the page, the words were relevant enough that he wondered just how the Headmaster had managed to not mention the book. It was on his desk! He should have known where it was!

==External Defenses Active==

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==Internal Defenses Partially Active, Uncontrolled Mode==

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==Instructions==

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<>

<>

Serenity tried to turn the page but nothing happened. He sighed; clearly, the book was magically locked. He could probably bypass the lock given time, but it was usually simpler to figure out what the correct method to open a book was. Books were fragile.

There was an odd space below Headmaster. Serenity wasn’t certain if it was emphasis or a category the book didn’t display, but it might be useful to remember. First of all, though, there was a category that suited Serenity: Student. He was confident he wouldn’t have been Non-Combat and he couldn’t remember being “Assigned to Defense”, so he tapped the Student (Combat) line.

The book flipped its pages until it reached a spot that seemed to be near the back.

==Student (Combat) Information==

If you are reading this, then either something has gone very wrong or you have picked up a book you shouldn’t have.

If you aren’t supposed to have this book, return it, leave it in any of the Defense Coordination areas, or put it in the Library Book Return. I don’t care which you do, but I can find it and you won’t like it if I have to. If you try to use it and aren’t supposed to, things will not go well for you. I know how students are - I was one, once! - but you may not commit pranks with this.

Really. Don’t.

If you are supposed to have this book, I’m sorry. I hoped we’d never get to the point where a student had to lead at all, much less one who isn’t already acknowledged by the Defense System. Which means that’s the first task we need to take care of.

==Defense System Acknowledgement==

Defenses: Engaged

Attackers: Not Found

Can you reach the Arcanum?

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Serenity tapped the <>.

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Serenity looked up at Esme. “It looks like there’s a second reason to head to the Arcanum.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Esme nodded and picked up the two messaging books. She set one against the side of the building and tucked the other in her bag. “We’ll all go. Whoever returns first will find the messaging book and can contact us that way. We can figure out how to meet up at that point, but if there’s some way we can actually gain control of the defenses, we can do something about this whole mess. Bring in enough people to deal with the numbers here if nothing else.”

Serenity tilted his head. “Did you see anything that gave enemy Tiers? I didn’t, and that would be good to know.”

Esme shook her head. “Hopefully the defense enchantments will have something.”

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With the maps in the Headmaster’s Register, getting to the Arcanum was easy. Getting to the basement was somewhat less so; while they knew the way, it wasn’t clear and none of them wanted to leave enemies behind them or potentially alert others to an attack. They weren’t camped out in front of the entrance to the basement, but they were close enough that they’d hear if there was any noise.

Serenity wasn’t the right person to handle the group of six “others” that waited on the ground floor unless he wanted to reveal his Sovereign form and he’d really rather not do that. For all that he was getting more used to it, he knew just how he’d have felt about anyone that could turn into a cloud of smoke and stay that way; it was even worse if they knew what he actually was or that he could attack without becoming solid. Whether or not it was a problem here, Serenity knew there were people that would try to kill him simply because of the threat he represented.

Admittedly, there were also people that would try to kill him simply because he was a dragon and seemed weak enough to be killable. Serenity wouldn’t hold it against them; he’d just make sure to kill them first.

Serenity waited anxiously while Esme, Raz, Vurin, and Hutek snuck in. Serenity stayed outside with Narin with instructions to “keep an eye on” the draykin. Serenity had thought that was simply an excuse to leave him outside where he couldn’t make too much noise until the second time he had to stop the draykin from heading inside to “help”. The first time might have been excitement but this was silly. Serenity wondered what Narin did that made him valuable enough to accept the loss of someone to babysit him.

Serenity spent the time while he was waiting trying to come up with a plan for what to say when Esme noticed that he didn’t show up in the Headmaster’s Register. It would happen eventually and he needed to be able to say something.

Half an hour later, Raz emerged from the Arcanum’s side door to let Serenity and Narin know there was no longer anyone in the way. Serenity kept an eye out as they headed down the hallway but he didn’t see any signs of combat.

They went down to the basement together. The only people marked on the map in the Headmaster’s Register were the six of them - well, five, really, since Serenity still didn’t show up. Serenity didn’t spend more time with it open than was needed to confirm that there was no one to worry about.

The Defense book, on the other hand, had a new line appear once he reached the basement with it.

Proceed past the furnace (currently inactive / unpowered) and turn left. Face the wall, then place this book against it.

Serenity followed the instructions and had to catch the book when the wall he held it against simply disappeared. There was an open staircase there now. Like the basement, it was well-lit with magelights set into the ceiling.

This time, Serenity led the way. It was just as well, because he actually tripped when he walked into a sudden upwelling of power when he was most of the way down the staircase. It felt like ley line power, almost, but it also felt somewhat like a dungeon. That was strange, since he knew Stallet didn’t have a dungeon; he remembered having to portal away from the Academy to delve.

Perhaps it was because the Academy used the ley lines for power? A year was a long time for an enchantment to run without recharging unless there was a constant supply like a ley line. If he remembered correctly, Blackthorn wasn’t even on a ley line; it depended on mana “donations” from the staff and students. If Stallet did the same thing, there had to be a significant reserve somewhere.

Whatever it was, it was strange, because Serenity found himself falling slower than he should have. Much, much slower. Slow enough that he had all the time in the world to catch the small handrail. “Be careful at that step,” he told the others. “This is strange.”

Serenity continued down. With each step, he noticed the same thing: he slowly floated down. He could make it go faster, but it wasn’t really necessary as long as he went slowly. He also noticed that he seemed to have traction in the air, though it didn’t actually slow him down as he moved forward. It definitely wasn’t just an area of lower gravity, because there was no tendency to bounce upwards at all.

If anything, it reminded him more of movement in the Origin. It wasn’t hindered, but there were no outside forces and movement was purely by Intent rather than physical motion. This clearly wasn’t that extreme, but it was similar.

“I don’t know what you tripped on,” Raz said as he got to the stair where Serenity stumbled. “I don’t see anything.”

Serenity looked back and saw that Raz was still a step above that stair. “Go ahead and take a step down, it’s not the stair. It’s the environment.”

Raz shrugged and carefully stepped down once, then again. He shook his head. “Nope, nothing.”

Serenity took another couple of steps down. Each one seemed to make him float more and more, but Raz didn’t seem to have the same reaction at all, even when he caught up to Serenity. Raz was able to confidently move faster than Serenity was.

That was enough to make Serenity try movement-by-Intent instead of simply walking. The first thing he tried was floating forward and down.

It worked. Serenity slowly floated off one step and onto the next. It was extremely odd to do in a seemingly normal place, but at least it worked.

The next step was to integrate it into his natural movements. That had to be possible; he was still moving and it was still taking him forward. He just wasn’t moving down the way he expected, since some of that was from gravity. Really, all he should have to do was practice and get the reflexes right; Intent was involved in normal movement, after all. He just needed to remember that he intended to go down as well as forward.

Serenity still didn’t have it quite right when he got to the end of the staircase and the second basement. He had a tendency to end up floating just a little after each step, especially once he got onto flat ground. He definitely needed to practice if he wanted it to look normal. With luck, that wouldn’t be a problem once they got out of whatever area they were in now that made his movement odd.

It still felt like being in a ley line near a dungeon, but at the same time he knew there wasn’t a dungeon nearby. Despite that fact, there was something almost dungeon-like ahead. Serenity moved forward a few paces and looked out the door that separated the stairs from the rest of the second basement.

The area in front of him was filled with some sort of magical machine. It was made of several different metals, all of which were inlaid with small lines that had to be enchantments. There were small colored crystals in holders in a number of different places.

A second look changed Serenity’s mind. It wasn’t a magical machine. It looked like a machine, but there was absolutely no resonance from his Magitech Affinity. It didn’t have any way to move, either. It had to be a frame for a complex enchantment of some sort, but the emphasis was on the enchantment, not a split between magical function and physical function.