Chapter 110.

PART 1.

“So, what you’re telling me is that this potion is the reason why people can literally disappear, and exist in a form of an unobservable form of a ghost for all eternity?” asked James, after Josh and Hatori were done sharing what they’ve learned from professor Dhiraj.

“Yeah. I was surprised when he mentioned the sorcerer, Samay. We got lucked out here since we are literally discussing this issue in his own underground lab.” Said Hatori.

“Yeah, but what are the chances that he left anything about that potion here?” asked Raven.

“Chances are not good honestly.” Said Josh. “But this is the only place associated with him we have access to.”

James looks at those locked doors. They still haven’t gone through this place, and catalog what has been left behind by a sorcerer. “I’ll check this place for clues. Since I’m done with my modification, I do have enough time to do that,” said James. “You two should leave, you have your own challenges to face, a tournament for you, and an election for you,” said James, pointing to Raven and Josh respectively.

“I’ll come with you to sense for any traps.” Said Hatori. “Though I do warn you, as good as my sensing is, the traps of a sorcerer may prove to be beyond my senses, we might not see them coming until we have triggered them.” Said Hatori.

“Yeah, but better if you’re with him.” said Josh, “Going at this task alone sounds foolish to me.”

As Josh and Raven leave, James opens the first room. they were surprised at how the room didn’t have any dust. Given how long these rooms have been closed for, they should be covered with layers of dust. Hatori senses for anything magical in the room but finds nothing. However, the entire room is stacked with documents.

“They are not made of human skins.” He observed, touching one notebook, which seemed to be made of paper, while the majority of the work in the room was written on the leaves.

“What, did you expect everything to be written in human or animal skin?” asked James, bringing a stack, and reading through it.

“For some reason, yeah,” said Hatori. “Just give me the organized pile, and keep anything related to that potion in a separate pile. I’ll shrink them both. we can do it faster this way since you are much faster at reading than me.” suggests Hatori.

“Sure.” Said James, giving him the first pile, which Hatori shrinks.

All of the info they might find here is useful, and even if it isn’t, they wish to preserve it all the same. They go to the next room, where Hatori comes with James’s levitating instead of walking. James is surprised at this feat of magic, since anyone who moves while levitating ends up falling. He wanted to ask about it, but it was not the right time to do this.

Hatori’s flying has gotten good enough that he can go for more distance, and hover for longer periods. at first, this used to exhaust him, but now, he can keep this up for hours. His control over other spells has also improved, about which Zeko will be pleased no doubt.

Hatori considers the modifications he did to himself last night. He had not done the joint enforcement until the last night, because he was looking to do the ritual in the same way as the last year. And given he has not visited the forest this year… he was able to sink into the same state last night, where he could modify the runes on his body without further carvings, and can even add more runes. He added the runes to turn into the ghostly state on his body, added the joint enforcing runes, and optimized the older rune for better performance.

“Did you know that we can actually change our runes, and even add new runes without going through a second ritual?” he asked James, who was reading the latest pile of the documents. Even the shrunken pile has started to increase, and the info related to the potion is still not much.

“That is surprising.” Said James. “This hasn’t been documented, probably because no one used this dialect of runes to modify their body. I doubt I could do that though,” he said.

“At least give it a try.” Suggests Hatori, to which James nodded.

‘Why does he keep hovering like a flighty spirit though?’ thinks James, ignoring the thought, and going back to finding more references to this potion.

As they have gotten deeper into the lab, they have found more mentions of that potion or things related to it. James is sure they will find something soon enough.

PART 2.

Raven forced Josh to design his ritual since he has been neglecting that due to his campaign. Politics does not appeal to all four of them, but their friend likes it and even thrives on the attention. ‘Strange, who is the fourth one again? Me, James, Hatori, and who else?’ he thinks.

While Josh designs his ritual, Raven has taken over his businesses and his campaign. True to his prediction, many candidates have appeared, but Raven is surprised after seeing Avinash’s name is missing from the new candidates. He thought he would be the first one to try and fight in this election.

Josh walks into the room. “Done already?” asked Raven.

“For the most part. I need some rest before I can find any mistakes.” He said, dropping in his bed.

“I’ll run our businesses until you are done with your campaign.” Said Raven.

“Sure.” Josh yawned, planning to take a nap. Looks like Hatori and James still are trying to find the info on that potion. Until they do that, it is best to rest some.

They cannot afford to ignore their businesses of finding questionable magazines or artifacts hidden in the old wards of the school, or their poison detection yantras. Those are making them money enough that even the adults have to sit up and take notice.

PART 3.

“Why do you need to find this potion?” asked James, the pile had grown very large, and Hatori was glad for the shrinking spell. they would have never managed to catalog it otherwise.

“Because our fifth friend, whom I can’t remember by name, is the victim of this potion.” Said Hatori.

This sounds odd to James. According to the description of this potion, all the memories of the victim of this potion should disappear. But Hatori and Josh seem to remember at least one victim. How is that possible?

‘Who cares? I’m just glad I’m getting to see this massive library. This Samay guy has dabbled in a lot of topics, from alchemy to shape-shifting, probably because he thought he had infinite time.’ thinks James. ‘But where did he disappear to?’

“Do you know what records say about Samay?” asked James.

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“Not much. he seems to have disappeared around 1000 years ago. Strangely enough, no battle or fight is recorded in which he could have died. It sounds like he just packed his bags one day, and left the planet entirely.” Said Hatori.

“That is not as odd as you might think. Remember, we do have extraterrestrial species.” Said James.

“True. But we only got in contact with them recently. There are no mentions of anyone from outside of Earth 1000 years ago.” Said Hatori.

“Do you think he is still alive?” asked James.

“Let’s just hope he decides not to come back here if he is. I doubt he will be amused at the sacking of his library.” Said Hatori.

PART 4.

The girls have gathered for their weekly girl talk. The author is a reclusive male, so he is not certain whether a ritual like this exists for real or not. but it is popular in fiction, therefore he is putting it here.

In this girl talk, Daphne and her friends are talking about the boys in their class, which has been reduced in size a lot since their first year. A lot of people have met some ahem. Unfortunate ends, and the student count has reduced as a result.

But other events are happening in the Academy, such as the elections, in which a girl has proven to be a strong rival to Josh. Though Daphne doesn’t like her personally. “So, which boy do you like, huh?”

Daphne snaps out of her reverie. “What? Oh.” She takes a moment to think about it. “Hatori—”

“Seriously?” say all the girls together.

“Daphne, that boy is like an animal. Calm one moment, and on a rampage on the very next moment.” Said Jaya, one of the girls.

“Yeah, but could you blame him? The events of the last two years didn’t leave him much choice. Besides, we’re nearly two months into this year, and he hasn’t caused any chaos.” Said Daphne.

“I have to agree with you there.” Said Maya, one of the twins.

“If anything, Josh has caused more chaos this year.” Said Chaya, the second twin.

“I prefer Josh’s chaos over Hatori’s,” said Ramya. “Less violence and blood.”

“I’m not a fan of him either, but I really like to fight him one day.” Said Ravina, with a dangerous smile. “Maybe he’ll give me a challenge.”

“More like he’ll destroy you,” said Daphne.

“You take that back!” screamed Ravina.

“Make me.” the girl's talk devolves into a brawl, and once more the author is unsure whether this could happen in real life or not.

PART 5.

After dusting off his entire library, James and Hatori found the only good info about this potion available in Samay’s journals. So, they discarded the rest of the notebooks and other things they had collected so far, and they looked at his journals.

But there are a lot of journals, and they won’t be able to go through them in a short amount of time. unless they go to a room where time is slow or frozen. That is what they did. They went into the room of frozen time, where they read the journal entries, and took turns to avoid the madness of doing the same task in an isolated room. when James read the entries, Hatori worked out or took naps. When Hatori read the entries, James did no workouts and slept like a log.

After they go through most of the journal entries available here, they finally find what they are looking for. The sorcerer expresses regret at the creation of this potion, since another mage stole the formula (which itself is actually incomplete), and used it against his enemies. But Samay has a way of bringing back anyone, though he does not explain why is he immune to the potion entirely, and how he achieved that immunity.

“There are two formulas here. First is to bring back one person, and second is to cancel the effects worldwide, and nullify the effects of this potion forever.” Said James.

“But you read the note, right? It is incomplete.” Said Hatori.

“I can complete it,” said James with complete confidence.

“Well, good luck. We at least have a lot of time in this room. do tell me if you need anything, I’ll get it for you.” said Hatori.

“Sure.” Said James distractedly.

PART 6.

The reporters of the school’s newspaper are getting a lot of work due to this election. Kangana, the rival of Josh, has used the newspaper to spread her message, much like how Josh did. Despite her words being not as passionate as Josh’s, she seems to be gaining the attention of the students all the same.

However, this has caused a war of sorts among the reporters, presenting the points of their favorite candidate, and other reporters countering their points. Take the newspaper for today as an example. The reporter gushes over Kangana and her promises. And yet, in the very next article, the second reporter pokes holes in her promises, calling them false and unrealistic.

In particular, he has used the promise to improve student marks to counter this claim, explaining that no amount of student politics will ever affect the marks. This is in the hands of the Academy itself, and Corvus will never agree to give easy marks and cheapen the education value that way.

The newspaper also says that the voting will begin in a week since the professors do want this election to be concluded by the eleventh month.

PART 7.

James is working to complete the formula to cancel the effect of the Time Stopping potion worldwide, while Hatori has trained with his ghostly transformation. Given how much time they have compared to the world outside, Hatori is often amazed at the wonderful way this room offers him to cheat, and get ahead in his training.

He wouldn’t have been able to perfect his transformation so quickly outside, it would have taken two or three weeks at least. but now, he has practiced with it as if he has used it for weeks. He turns into a cloud of smoke and then congeals into his human form while being able to go across walls and other physical objects in his ghostly form.

“Hatori, the formula is done.” Said James, sounding worn out.

Hatori goes to him, congealing into his human form. James is unable to keep himself awake anymore and falls asleep right on the table. Hatori levitates him and takes him outside of the room, where he conjures a futon to rest his friend. He watches over him while sinking into a nap himself, but his senses remain active, looking out for any threats.

PART 8: THE ALCHEMIC CLASS, THE BODY.

“Tell me, students. What is this?” asked Dhiraj.

“A corpse. You finally snapped, and murdered someone?” asked Avinash.

“No mister Avinash, I did no such thing.” Said Dhiraj. “This is a fully functional body, created through alchemy. However, as you can see, it has no consciousness, therefore it appears like a corpse.”

“Pay attention.” Said Sultan. “Just creating the skin alone is a difficult task.” The formulas and ratios create the skin scroll on the board, and the students note them down furiously.