POV Aron Brightcloud

As my wounds had been mostly physical nature, they healed very quickly with the help of some light magic. Tomorrow I would resume my study at the academy. The healers had ordered an additional day of rest to give me some time and space to recover mentally. This left my schedule free for things that didn’t require physical work or magic.

First, I returned to my own chamber. Bones still hadn’t contacted me through our soul. I began to worry if everything was alright.

Closing the door behind me, I stepped to my bed and wished my hand over the familiar ring, taking the incapacitated skeleton out.

Bones’s body greeted me with a deep snore. Evidently something trivial as an alternated space didn’t interfere with his beloved activity…

I checked his body. The bones had markedly changed. They had been bones before, now they seemed closer to steel alloy. Yet they retained their forms. They felt cold to the touch.

‘Bones, can you here me?’

I pushed a mental question towards his part of our soul. Nothing happened. I physically pushed him. No response either.

“Bones, common, wake up.” Still no reaction.

I appeased myself, most-likely he had over-drafted his body and needed additional rest. As long as he still snored, it couldn’t be that bad. Everything would be fine. The objective inconclusive, I grabbed my personal disaster and slipped it back into my familiar ring.

What should I do now?

I couldn’t study magic or train for the time-being so the most efficient idea would be to check out the library and see what I could get for the 100 contribution-points teacher Monrose had given me.

Anna’s death brought an additional benefit. I had a clue now which race my little brother belonged to. A world devourer…. It didn’t sound ominous at all… On the bright side, this would provide my former towel of death with unmatched growth. Exactly what my little brother wanted.

As long as we kept the little detail about world devouring below wraps, everything would be splendid.

Suddenly I felt that his artifact devouring tendencies were not that bad. Eating artifacts was fine, great even. Eating worlds, that was bad. Or at least I inferred that from the name. Most-likely they were not able to do that or only in their mightiest form. I couldn’t believe there existed a race with children that ate worlds for breakfast.

After searching my cub-boards, I finished donning new robes. My old armor had been turned to scrap metal when I fought the wolf packs. The present of my mother had found a well used yet quick end.

I walked down the stairs and left the arcane tower. On my way to the public library, I crossed paths with other students. The situation had changed. Had they looked at me with contempt before, they regarded me with a certain respect now. Obviously my tale had spread. The waste had changed. Against all the odds, he had survived the dungeon’s attempt at killing him and had even brought back the corpse of his good friend, showing off his courage and gallantry.

Sorry Anna, you didn’t deserve your end. Yet I won’t dwell on your unfair passing. You had to die so my little brother and I could live. I would make the same decision repeatedly, not hesitating for a second.

If I could protect your sister or family I would, but otherwise I would not invest any more feelings towards you and yours.

My spirit free of any remaining doubts, I moved further in the direction of the public library. Its ancient structure clearly visible. Had I had to compare it, I would have placed it somewhere close to the old gothic libraries from my home-world. The brown-black stone plates giving it a sombre appearance. I entered it through the wide open wooden with steel strips coated front doors. My eyes got caught by the ceiling.

It was decorated with a heap of intertwining lines. At first I didn’t know what they actually were. Only after a moment did I realize what I had before my eyes. A massive formation. I scanned further; the formation encompassed everything. It traversed trough out the corridors and different levels of the building. Carved into the stone, the lines would still be visible after many centuries. A part of me wanted to see it in action, yet I preferred not to. All the visitors would be in massive trouble if that happened.

On both sides close to the entrance, I found panels. Powered by magic stones, they were the arcane equivalent to a search computer.

Anna had the wealth and knowledge of a family that had hunted evil and mystic creatures for centuries, as a direct descendant she had most likely been privy to secret information. I didn’t have that benefit. Old searching and detective work had to do it.

I reached out with my hands to input the search-topic.

Naturally, I didn’t plan to directly investigate the race of my little brother. World-devourers had been kept a secret from the world, otherwise I would have heard of them. Who knew how detailed they monitored the searched topics. For now, History books with a focus on catastrophes would do. Knowing my little brother, I felt certain that one of his kin had to have been responsible for one of those or more.

Finished with inputting my search phrase, I waited. Soon the panel informed me I should enter one of the reading-booths on the first floor. Following the markings on the walls, I walked over. My destination was the room number seventeen slash two. Entering, I found a table with an assortment of books on it. To the side a cosy chair invited to read.

Grabbing the first book, I sat down, making myself comfortable. The first few books didn’t give me any usable information. There were some hints of catastrophes but the recordings always stopped before any actual information was told.

At the beginning I had hoped the last few books would give me some usable information, but they were too vague as well. My gut told me that some of the catastrophes had been orchestrated by a world devourer, yet there was nothing. Someone had erased the data I needed.

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It Looked like my first Idea was a bust. I could directly search my objective but I didn’t want to risk being flagged for having tried to find secret knowledge.

In any case, the absence in the history books told a story of its own. Coupled with Anna’s previous behavior, it made it clear to me that this knowledge needed to be hidden at all cost.

On the bright side, as long as Bones didn’t lose his cool because of having seen something with six arms he looked like a skeleton. Nobody would realize his actual race.

Standing up, I stretched myself, letting my bones pop against each other. The extensive sitting had been not exactly comfortable for my body. I had exhausted this venue. If I wanted to know more, I would have to find another source of knowledge.

It was time to move on to my second objective.

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POV Archmage Mandor

The magician was in a dark mood lately. One of his plans had nearly been destroyed. By now the souleater should have been a prodigy in magic, standing out in his chosen element, pure light magic. With it his mother would have been in a celebrating mood and he would have soon been introduced into the deepest secrets the Brightcloud family possessed. Yet somehow there had been complications. Not able to control the element correctly, the beast had lost it. Ridding “Aron” from the chance of becoming a new heir.

The only ray of hope came in the form of his survival. With him unable to inherit, they would pass the opportunity to his younger sister. Mandor felt convinced that the souleater turned brother would succeed in coaxing the secret out of her.

For now, the most important step was to reestablish contact with it and assess the actual state of its body. The host would soon have his excursion to the close-by city. At that point, Mandor would know more. His most trusted servant had already departed.

As vexing as the setback was, in the great scheme of things it would not affect the picture much. With his son most likely dead, the ruler of Targos would grieve right about now. Distracted by his pain, he would be unable to read the signs or catch wind of the plans that had been set in motion. The fallen gods would be revived, of that existed no doubts in his mind.

________

POV Aron Brightcloud

Leaving the library, I made a quick detour to the canteen, filling my stomach. Finished with lunch, I arrived at the main-building. The contribution shop was located in it.

Entering the shop, many artifacts displayed in showcases greeted me. An alert assistant intercepted me before I could step closer.

“Good Afternoon novice, my name is Kathrine, how can I help you?” The slender woman smiled at me. I guessed her to be in her thirties.

“I have come into the possession of some contribution-points and had hoped to get an overview for what I could exchange them for.”

“Naturally. Please follow me.” She lead me over towards one of the many little alcoves built to give some privacy. In there a similar device to the magic search computer from the library had been set up. Kathrine introduced me to the operational menu and left me alone to browse.

“I will wait outside, if you have any questions please feel free to step out and ask. Good luck.”

Now alone, I went over the options. My contribution-points could be traded for a great number of things.

The articles were divided in different sections to make it easier to the buyer. First were the armors and weapons. From plate to fabric and dagger to claymore, everything could be found there. Then the magic enhancing treasures followed. For example, there was a pill that smoothed out your energy pathways, letting you cast a tick quicker or a paste to reduce the resistance your skin had to let your magic permeate through it easier. There were countless such treasures, Improving all magic parts of of the body. Scrolling down, I found the most expensive ones of the category. For a two-thousand contribution points, I would be able to improve my core by one level. The improvement was capped at reaching an advanced core. Still, countless magician dreamed of having this chance.

Afterwards the same was shown for the physical body. I think they left it here for the oddballs and warriors from the barracks. No magician would normally invest their contribution points for physical enhancement materials. Maybe there was something hidden for me here? I would have to check later. My dual path opened doors that normally remained closed.

Following the physical enhancements were an assortment of pills and potions intended for combat use, and as last I came to a list of tomes about different spells that were not normally taught in basic education. This section would be interesting in my second year. For now, I still had more than enough to learn.

I scanned the first section in more detail. I needed a replacement for my broken armor. Without my mum, I had little chance on getting a comparable set that fit into my budget. At the end I decided on a set that had been made of chitin plates and black leather. The whole thing was called black march-crawler armor. Equipped with a self-regeneration spell, it would let me save up massively in the future. The armor rating even surpassed my previous armor, coupled with its high flexibility and light weight it perfectly fit my fighting style. At forty contribution points it was in a good range. I selected it for now and moved it to the want to buy section.

Now came the big question. What did I want to do with my remaining points? Naturally it would be awesome if I could enhance my pathway walls to let less magic through, yet somehow I doubted there was such a pill. Scanning the options the search result proved me correct. I could widen them, but not enhance their density. The closest thing to a solution I found in the form of a treasure that enhanced the durability of my magic pathways. I was not too happy with that. My root-system self-regulated itself, that meant surplus energy got dumped directly into additional roots, making overcharged pathways which needed strengthening to not tear nearly impossible. The only hope I had was for the more durable pathways to be denser, yet that was uncertain.

My pathways leaked with a percentage when energy flowed through them. This meant that the actual amount of energy I dumped into my body got higher the more roots were used. With that being the case I didn’t need additional durability until I utilized all the roots to their capacity. I found many other good options, but none that specifically targeted my weaknesses. Not happy, my focus fell back towards the warrior section.

Browsing through it my attention got grabbed by one item. I found it by chance. As I had found out in the past, warriors were divided into different subclasses, and some of them used different worldly energies to supplement their fighting-styles. As they didn’t have a core, they fused the energies in different ways into their bodies. They seemed to have the same problem as myself! There existed a pill that counteracted this. It improved the compatibility between energy and body.

The only problem I had now, was that I had no clue if this also included elemental energy. The powers magicians commanded existed a strength level above the energies a warrior had access to. Still, I needed to try. If there existed a possibility to improve the way my body interacted with the leaking magic, I needed to find it.

At fifty contribution-points, the pill made for quite the expensive test, but it would be worth it in the long run. In an afterthought, I put a cheap interspatial ring for ten contribution-points on the list as well. The capacity would be just enough for the armor and pill.

Happy with my choice, I bought the armor, ring and the pill through the interface and walked out towards the counter. There, Kathrine had prepared the bought articles for me.

“Thank you very much for your purchase. I hope to see you again in the near future.” The armor lay neatly folded on the counter, ready for me to take. On top of it I recognized a small second package and the ring. I grabbed the ring first and build a connection with it trough my blood. I swiped my hand with the ring over the rest of my purchases and let them vanish within.

Hopefully, the pill would be worth its price. I left the building. I couldn’t wait to try it.