Chapter 30
One of My Kind
Ten hours. Ten long hours of nonstop talking and narration on my part. I like Rahul, but maybe not this much. Well who am I kidding, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was clearly missing sleep to learn this spell and narrate the story, I would likely be on cloud nine. Especially as our book club got a new member, Sabrina Bane, who either liked the story, liked my narration of the story or both. It was clear from her reactions that she did not care for Tobias, an incident that sparked no end of internal laughter at my point. Seeing the odd teenage ghost try to get closer to the girl, only to get shot down at every turn and glared at until he stopped his never ending advancements.
With the addition of Sabrina, I managed to find a deeper want to continue and push through the narrative.
After ten hours, not only did I get to the start of book three of the Rahul saga. While I wasn’t certain if Sabrina would count towards my total of spirits needing to be consoled before they could move on, both Tobias and I found her a welcome addition. Also, this helped improve one of my favorite pastimes, skill grinding. I was working hard on increasing my Narrator, Acting, and Total Recall skills. I figured that having to do so in front of two people should earn double the experience towards these skills, so at the very least my associated attributes would increase at a faster rate. There was also the fact that I was in the spirit realm, so all of my skills should be at an artificially higher level here thanks to my skills related class perk. Needless to say I felt like I was doing better, I never look at the skill growth, that just jinxes it. Instead I just keep focusing on ways to improve on the components of the skill that seem to highlight to me.
Taking the William Shatner breath to add dramatic effect, speaking with a full lung of air while giving details of a particularly long fight scene. All of these went towards making me give a slightly better oration of events. Still, this was all exhausting, especially as I was running on fumes near the end.
Then I heard it, in all its glory.
Hidden Quest Updated: The Lost Spell Form: You have managed to reconstruct a variant of the spell you were given to analyze. You have found the spell Spirit Mana Potency (P) and managed to learn it completely. Rewards: Experience (Awarded), Hidden Skill (X2) (Already Unlocked), New Spell: Spirit Mana Potency (P).
Additional Requirements: Tome must not be lost, damaged, or stolen. Must complete conditions of this quest within 29 Hours, 22 minutes, 06 seconds…
Experience Gained: 500.
Ding.
Level up.
You have increased to level 7.
This of course meant that I got +2 Free Points, +1 Dexterity, +1 Appearance, +1 Willpower, leaving me with now 14 Free Points to spend. I almost want to do a minor dump, but again can only add two attributes per day. So I decide to spread the wealth, spending two attributes on each Mental and Physical Attribute, leaving me with two Free points to spare.
The minute I feel the surge of energy infusing my body and mind, I am met with a mental timer telling me to find a spot to rest, as these changes will take time.
Physical Adaptation occurring.
You must find a safe spot to rest.
Time remaining until you pass out from exhaustion: 4:59, 4:58…
That was more than enough encouragement for me, as I was beyond exhausted at this point, having pushed myself mentally beyond the threshold of what I could withstand in a single day.
When I awoke, I found that the world around me had changed, that or maybe my understanding of the world had increased?
My spell was probably one of the most overpowered spells in existence.
Spirit Mana Potency (P): You have unlocked a deeper understanding of your own internal being and have managed to increase your overall mana limit by 25%.
An amazing spell, one that pushed my spirit mana limits back up to over 99%, despite being my fourth passive spell I was set to channel. Honestly I had never heard of such a spell, one that increased mana potency, though it did seem highly focused in that I could only use this power with the spell. Now all I needed were more spells that I could cast other than tearing holes in the veil between the spirit and mortal realms.
Of course, all of that was secondary to what I found waiting for myself when I awoke.
As it turns out, Sabrina was apparently a social butterfly of the local spirit realm. When I awoke, I found not just her, and not just Tobias, but a whole gathering of spirits.
“Um, hello?” I asked.
“Hello. I know you we're on book three of your “Rahul and the Maiden” series, but would you mind starting over, for us?” Sabrina asked.
At that, a gathering of nine ghosts, including Tobias or Sabrina, who all seem to be wishing for me to continue. Well not continue, to start over from the very beginning of the series. Sighing reluctantly, I took a mental look at my timer and saw that I still had 22 hours remaining before I needed to turn the book to Ms. Umbra. Realizing I still had time, I focused and with a reluctant sigh, I started over.
“Prelude, it was a dark and dreary day…” As we go on, I give each character a voice and certain inflections that I make sure to keep mental track of, as I go along. Already knowing the course of the entire series, I even know the voice to give the main villain, the one we only hear in whispered conversations in the distance.
Sadly, this is almost as fun as robbing the Legrand Airship was, also a lot less dangerous.
***
A mere Five and a half hours later, I am finished with book 1 again. Fortunately, these books are not that long, and I can easily describe the runes as detailed in the book, drawing them is a different matter entirely, but speaking to them is relatively easy.
The minute I am done, a few of the spirits speak out to me as one.
“Thank you.” They say, and with that, I hear a chime.
Quest Line Update: Arcanarus University Ghost Cleanser: Arcanarus University has an infestation of spirits who have been unable to move on to the next phase of their existence. You have been tasked with listening to ten spirits, hearing their concerns, and helping them move on to the next realm. Status (3/10). Rewards: Experience, Class Trait.
I pause, realizing that I just went up by two ghosts, even though my gaggle of ghosts were still here. Hmm, never thought I would use the term gaggle of ghosts, but that is apparently where my life has gone.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Shrugging to myself, and realizing that the books get increasingly shorter from here on out, at least on the story aspect, the hidden rune lessons end up taking more and more of the book. But that is a side component and one these ghosts don’t seem particularly fond of learning about. Shrugging to myself and realizing I have just over sixteen hours to go before class, I decide to not only try going through the full gambit of stories, but to do so at as fast a pace as possible. Book 2 should be a breeze, as I just did it last night, taking my time to not have to talk to much. Now that I had the motivation of nearing my class quest completion, I decided to push through as quickly as possible.
***
After book two, my tracker went to five of ten.
After book three, my tracker went to six of ten.
Book four I was at seven of ten.
Book five I was at eight of ten.
Book six I was at nine of ten.
Then after book seven, the last in the series, Sabrina and her entire entourage all disappeared.
Yeah, I was still at nine of ten, with just Tobias and his stack of seven books remaining.
“What is it?” I ask the boy.
At that, Tobias just lowers his head in shame. “I don’t want to go now. I finally have the series I’ve been dreaming about here, and an entire lifetime to read it.”
I held up one finger to protest, but then lowered it. I couldn’t really blame him, I mean that did sound like an amazing after life, just sitting around reading all day. “Honestly I would,” I begin, but then pause as I realize that is not entirely the case. “No wait, I wouldn’t. You have been given a gift. Your entire series given to you. Now it is time to go on and create your own story. To live out your own fantasy. You have been living in Rahul’s imaginary shadow for too long now. Isn’t it time that you moved on and lived your own adventure?”
Tobias paused and thought about what I said. There was a moment of silence as he seemed to contemplate everything I had mentioned.
“I… I just, I can’t…” Tobias says, his voice breaking as he clutches the books tightly to his chest.
I want to shout at him, to scream at him, to tell him he is being ridiculous, but I can’t. As much as I want to admonish him for wasting my time, he didn’t. I am now just one more odd ghost quest away from being complete. Granted I had to narrate nine stories to get eight ghosts, but that was a fun breaking of the cycle. I also liked the fact that I didn’t have to break the rules and restrictions of Arcanarus University’s Library policies on accessing the restricted section, particularly not for reading about Master Enchanter Rahul.
“That’s fine. Well, for what it’s worth. I do have to say thank you.” I tell Tobias.
“Wait, you aren’t coming back?” He asks, a slight tone of loneliness filling his voice.
Shaking my head, I reply “no. Though I do have to say thank you. I got to share my love of a good series with not just you, but a whole group of people. For that I am extremely grateful.”
I pause, as I look at my mental timer. I have five minutes before I need to be at class to do my turn in of the diary. Seeing the timer, I nod to myself then say. “Farewell.”
With that, I turn my back on Tobias, seeing him raise one hand to try to stop me, but it is already too late. I am already opening a portal to the mortal realm.
Going to class, I can’t help but feel the same sense of unease, as I did the other day. It is an odd grading sensation, one where I feel like my back teeth are slightly hollow and causing just enough of a distraction to make it, so I never quite feel at ease.
I enter the classroom, with the borrowed tome in hand. As I enter the classroom, I can feel that the wards in the room have been fixed, no not just fixed but improved in some way. I try to look at the runes, and am shocked to see that they now include anti-teleportation runes within them. I guess they either learned from my earlier display or made the runes for me specifically. I instantly shake off the idea of having specific runes set up to block my personal brand of Trait based Teleportation, first that seems excessive, and second why would they want to block me while in a classroom?
Shaking my head, I carefully enter the classroom and seeing Ms. Umbra make my way towards her.
Holding the still undamaged book up, I move forward to hand it to her.
“Oh good, you returned the book on time.” Ms. Umbra says, once again generating a second quest completion notification.
Hidden Quest Complete: The Lost Spell Form: You have managed to turn in the diary of a legendary Dark Elf Spirit mage, while also learning her sacred spell. You also managed to turn in the book undamaged and on time, earning yourself additional rewards and the continued ability to stay at Arcanarus University. Rewards: Experience.
Experience Gained: 500.
Ding.
Level up.
You have increased to level 8.
With this level up, I gain not only the same +2 Free Points, +1 Dexterity, +1 Appearance, +1 Willpower that I gain with every level, but I also gained the even level bonuses of +2 Willpower and +1 Intelligence. I now have four free attribute points, but I decide to hang onto them for the moment, particularly as applying them now will almost definitely mean I will have to pass out in class. The last thing I want to do is get caught napping in the class of the vice principal.
With the book turned in, I almost expect the nervous tension I had been feeling to dissolve or dissipate slightly, but that is sadly not the case. If anything, the sensation of unease only grows as the class continues. This time the instructor continues.
“The Spirit realm is inherently dangerous. Every time one of us enters not only do we risk permanent and everlasting soul damage, but we also will find ourselves surrounded by dozens of hostile ghosts. In fact many scholars have theorized that the spirit realm is a personal prison, or mirror into the personal Hell that awaits us, when we die.” Ms. Umbra says.
“Last class I had on our spirit mouse trap, but sadly the trap was disabled before class began.” Ms. Umbra said, giving a pointed glare towards me, before continuing. “Fortunately, we were able to reset the wards and are now ready to try to catch a wandering spirit.”
With that she applies power to a few runes that look strangely familiar, and in no time, I feel the electrical thrum of mana circulating around me.
“Now we will add the spiritual bait.” Ms. Umbra says, once again looking at me and all but daring me to try to take the treat from the trap. I of course don’t bite, but I am tempted as the substance in the vial she has all but screams to me with spiritual energy.
“This is condensed spirit mana extract, highly potent and indeed toxic to most of us. It is said that this is the closest we can get to mirroring the effects of the spirit realm here. I am using a special beaker to contain the liquid, making sure to not pour any of the liquid onto my body. I am also using a mask, as the fumes from this substance are also enough to cause severe internal damage if you do not take proper precautions when dealing with this substance.” Ms. Umbra says.
As she speaks, I can almost feel the call and pull of the energy coming from the bottle. I also try to clamp down on my own personal emotions towards this substance as everyone around me seems to be having the exact opposite reaction as they are all leaning back and away from the open vial.
“Now we will just continue our lesson, while we wait for a minor spirit to come through. This is a layered spirit trap and one you will go further into detail on how to construct your own in later classes. But a brief rundown of the wards are, there are dense protective wards on the outside that fend off larger spirits, a channel where only the weakest of spirits will be attracted, then the honey pot layer where our vial of spirit essence is capable of bleeding through the veil to the spirit world and drawing in an unsuspecting spirit that we can then summon and converse with here.” Ms. Umbra said.
At that, I am at a slight loss for what to expect, as I can’t help but feel that I ruined the first day of class when we would have likely found and summoned a random spirit. Apparently the first few chapters that we were to cover were all related to just understanding spirits.
No sooner is the trap on and armed, than I start seeing a ghost begin to make the trek through the narrow tunnel that I found the other day. Of course, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor spirit. My familiar Zero, was once again at the far end of the cage, just looking in, but this poor spirit was clearly walking into a trap. The odd thing was the more the spirit moved, the more I couldn’t help but feel that I recognized the spirit in some way.
“No, no, no.” I said, almost silently to myself as I suddenly realized the shape of the poor weak ghost. A ghost that was clearly carrying a stack of books.
“Ah, looks like we have one coming now.” Ms. Umbra said, a slight mirth filled tone filling her words. “If you turn on your Spirit Sight, you will be able to see what I am talking about.”
“Oh.” The students who hadn’t kept the channeled spell on did so, and were now treated to seeing Tobias walking forward almost in a dazed state towards the open vial at the center of the classroom.
“You will notice that they have an almost sleep walking quality to them. This only works for weaker spirits, but it is something to be aware of. This condensed spirit essence is akin to a spiritual version of an opiate, with believed mild hallucinogenic effects.” Ms. Umbra says.
As she speaks the silhouette of Tobias takes step by languid step forward, then finally he enters the main chamber.
Zztt.
There is a flash and discharge of mana, as the entire room lights up for a moment with brilliant streams of mana. At least it lights up to my Angel’s Sight, I am not certain how this looks to everyone else.
“There, now we have them.” Ms. Umbra says a slightly sadistic smile and tone filling her words. “Now we just summon the wayward spirit.”
At that, Ms. Umbra enacted multiple different sets of runes. “This first set of runes I am enacting are what is known as the spiritual seal. This is effectively a door that prevents the spirit from being able to escape from our trap.”
At that, the spell that had hold of Tobias broke and he clearly looked panicked, as he looked about and realized not only was he trapped, but he had no way of getting close to the spiritual catnip that had lured him into this trap in the first place.
With that, Ms. Umbra began igniting and applying energy to a second set of runes. “This next one is a spiritual vortex that will create a seal around the spirit allowing us to pull them into this realm with minimal damage to the spirit. Know that this will likely kill the spirit as most spirits cannot last in this state for long, so we will have to make our interaction fairly quick.”
Badump, badump.
At that statement, my heart began to race, as I could only imagine Tobias being burned away slowly because he found himself part of a spirit trap.
Whoom.
There was a thrum and surge of mana, as Tobias instantly appeared in our realm.
“Ahhh!” Tobias began to scream as parts of his soul instantly began to burn away due to contact with our plane of existence.
“Now class, as you can see. The flaking and boiling away of skin. Just as spirits have this when coming to our realm, we will experience a similar effect when going to the spirit realm.” Ms. Umbra said, speaking as casually as if she was talking about the weather, and not burning away the immortal soul of a person.
“AHHHHH!” Tobias continued to scream out in agonized pain.
Seeing that, and realizing that Tobias had only been summoned here to be burned away to a crisp, like a vampire brought to baptismal waters, I acted.
Without thinking too much about the process needed, I mentally targeted Tobias and cloaked him with my Death Shroud. Within seconds the flaking away of astral skin stopped, and Tobias who had been crumpling to the ground suddenly stopped and began breathing in deep panting breaths.
“Oh my, this is strange…” Ms. Umbra said. “I wonder what has happened?”
“What has happened! You ruined my books!” Tobias said, holding up his stack of books that seemed to have taken the brunt of the astral damage meant for his body. Panting wildly his eyes started to glow a bright red, as his body began to grow in size as rage clearly began taking control of his body
“He’s becoming a specter.” Ms. Umbra said, as she began turning on a few more runes, but when nothing happened, she seemed to look around in a panic. “Quickly class, out of the room. I will hold it off…”
Then just those few words, complete pandemonium broke out.