Unsurprisingly, the heroes were glad to see that they had arrived, though slightly later than they’d like.
Amber watched from among the group of students as Frost talked with the newcomers, clearly furious.
"Why didn't you show up earlier? Someone could have died!" Frost shouted.
"I can't cast a drumfire spell in mere moments, you know? Besides, no one got killed anyway so I'd say mission accomplished," Mary answered while stifling a yawn. Unlike the heroes, who were still restlessly looking out for monsters, the three had a completely carefree attitude.
"Still, you couldn't have just helped out right as you arrived?" The heroine still looked pissed, but calmed down slightly after seeing the mostly unharmed crowd.
"We did!" Mary and Frost continued to argue back and forth until one of the heroes who had just jumped over one of the bunker walls yelped in surprise, drawing the attention of the rest of the heroes. Amber was confused by their reaction, but understood why as she rounded around the corner of the bunker.
Monster carcasses.
Several of them, some piled over others, could be seen littered over the now mostly flat wreckage. She had even recognized a few B rank monsters, though mostly from the few limbs here and there.
Mary shot a smug look at Frost, and concluded the argument with a wave of her hand.
"Hey, Paul, what are you doing?" Mary shouted to the man with the sword, who was rooting through the caress by using his sword like a butcher's knife.
"I thought I told you to call me sir during work hours." Paul glared at Mary, but it quickly soften into something way too endearing to be family-friendly.
Ew. Amber might have been a hormonal teenager, but one that grew up surrounded by religious zealots. The idea that they had done the deed was as unnerving to her as that time she had walked by a brothel. 'Wait,' Amber quickly latched on to that memory. She didn't remember walking by a brothel, much less in Avenir where prostitution was outlawed. Yet, she had lived in Avenir all her life. Even her mother had agreed that they have not left the city for long or far. As Amber tried connect the conflicting memories, a strange force invaded her mind, forcing her to relax.
'Right, this is normal,' Amber organized the memory to be just as boringly normal as her usual day at school, losing it in the recesses of her mind.
She refocused back on reality, completely unfazed by what just happened.
Mary was chatting with Paul, while their third member was talking to a familiar face.
"Ethan?"
His head snapped towards her, just as surprised as Amber was. Now that she had a good look at him, Amber noticed how bad he looked. Ethan had disheveled hair, with his face and clothes covered in dirt.
"Hey Amber. Surprised to see me?" He walked over to her, leaving his conversation partner behind.
After exchanging pleasantries, Ethan explained how he had survived. Apparently, he had to use the bathroom after he ran off, allowing him to survive the attack on the school. But he was buried under a ton of rubble while in the middle of taking a shit, which eventually ended in him getting saved by Paul and the others.
Amber listened to his tale in silence, causing him to shift his weight uncomfortably. But burst out laughing as he finished. She felt a hidden weight lift off her shoulder. As it turns out, almost getting killed in just a few hours was stressful. But hearing about Ethan's own misfortune was refreshing, especially after what he did earlier that day.
"Not the worst responds yet." Ethan wore a shit-eating grin that made Amber want to shoot him again.
The cloaked man watched for a while, before jumping in.
"Hi, I'm mark," He held out his hand for a handshake. "You?"
"Amber." She has learned her lesson, and glanced at his hand in disdain.
"Your no fun," He pulled his hand back.
"Speaking of which, I want that spell formula," Amber could use it for self defense, and it has potential with her new spell. Ethan groaned, but agreed to it anyways. They chatted for a while, mostly about useless topics, but eventually Mary called for Mark .
"Yeah yeah whatever sis," Mark grumbled.
"Your siblings?" That would explain their very loud exchange earlier. Mark nodded, before turning to Ethan.
"Remember what I told you," For once, he did not have a sarcastic or cheery tone. Ethan didn't respond, but Mark took it in stride and jogged to Mary before giving her the finger.
The next few hours were fairly exciting. Amber went around to talk with Emily and the others, while practicing Ethan's spell, which led to some fun results. Based on what Ethan told her and her own testing, the spell uses mana to simulate the pain receptors in the target's arm. It was not a unstructured spell but a fairly average spell that used a mana construct. Instead, it creates a small circle behind the users hand, hiding it but not diminishing it's effects. But it need physical contact due to how mana unattuned itself as soon as it leaves the body, thus making it harder to manipulate it. Thankfully, her ability allows her to use it at a distance, though she would need a medium that would open a connection to her like her new spell.
"Also, what are you going to name your spell?" Emily asked Amber.
They were in a random room in the bunker that Emily took over. It was the size of a small apartment, with several small gadgets and mechanical pieces left on the bed while Emily worked at the desk.
"No clue. Maybe mana strings?" Amber sat at the foot of the bed, fidgeting with a heavy metal ball.
"Taken already for a unstructured spell. And that's a bomb with enough gunpowder to blow up this entire room," Emily pointed at the metal ball with a screwdriver. Amber stared at it for a moment, before gingerly placing back among the other gadgets. "What about string blast?" Amber did not like it, but it was better than nothing.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Can you make a portable mana storage?" It would be nice to have extra mana when you have below average mana capacity. But Emily shot it down in a instant.
"If a novice like me could, than why doesn't everyone use it?" Emily snorted. "Mana would naturally attunes itself to it's surroundings. I could make something that stores mana, but it would only be atmospheric mana. Maybe a master soul mage and artificer could, but I can't."
Amber tried to recall what they were taught. "Mana taken in and stored in the soul, So in theory, someone could break off a piece of their souls and place it in another object right?"
Emily nodded in agreement. "Yup. Fun fact, that's how necromancers create high ranking undead like liches."
Amber frowned. "You alright?" She did not usually joke about those topics. "You seem down."
"I'm fine."
Amber was concerned, but did not push it. She and Emily had mostly maintained their friendship by not asking about too personal topics, and she did not want to ruin what they already had. A awkward silence filled the room.
"Testing, testing, one two three." A female voice sounded from the loudspeakers. "Hello, one and all! I'm Mary, from the... hang on." The PA system screeched to a stop.
A moment later, it came back online. Distant shouting could be heard, along with a dull thud. "Sorry for that everyone, but Mary got the name wrong." This time, Mark's voice came out of the loudspeaker. "Our official name is The Afterlife LLP. If you want to contact us, please don't. We are dealing with enough stupidity as it is. Anyway, can everyone come to the bunker entrance?" The loudspeaker screeched again as it turned off.
By the time they reached the now open hall, It was already filled with several people young and old. Both Mark and Mark were standing in front of the crowd, but Paul was nowhere to be seen.
"they are all here?" Mark shrugged his shoulders, but Frost gave Mary a firm nod. "Alright."
She cleared her throat. "Everyone, You all are getting rescued!" She seemed disappointed by their lackluster reaction. "The higher ups are sending a-"
"AHH!" She was interrupted by Sarah, who was pointing at the ground. "Another monster is coming!"
Amber frowned, focusing her senses on the ground. She froze as she felt a low rumbling. Several other people seem to feel it too, as they clawed past one another in an attempt to escape. But the heroes stood in front of the door, stopping all of the civilians.
Amber tried to run as well, but Emily held her hand, stopping her.
"Emily, let go! Your going to get us killed!" She tried to pull her hand out of her grasp, but Emily held strong.
"It will be fine Amber. I trust the heroes." Emily looked Amber in the eye, A confident expression on her face.
Well, Amber felt the exact opposite, but she could not just leave Emily to die. Emily let go of her hand, but Amber stood still next to Emily and waited.
Mary shouted something, but Amber could not hear her over the panicking mob. Mark sighed in frustration.
""Everyone, calm down!" This time, she used magic to amplify her voice. "Even if it was a monster, we can kill it easily!" Rather than calming the mob, it had the opposite reaction. They were trying to get past the heroes with even more vigor. Some of them even tried to use magic to move the human barricade.
Frost shot a glare at her, before moving to address them herself. "Please calm down, citizens of Avenir, I swear, on our name as heroes, that it is completely safe." This time, her words had managed to get through to them. Most of the civilians calmed down, though a few of the younger students needed to be held down.
Mary checked her phone, and seemed to perk up as she read something on the phone. "Late as always, Paul."
Amber noticed several blocky figures approaching them in the distance. Taking a portion of her mana reserves, she enhanced her vision, sharpening it. She gasped, surprised by what she saw.
"Is that a truck?"
"Surprised to see so many?" Amber could almost feel Mark's grin. But indeed, she was. Vehicles were notorious for their insane mana requirements. While buying one is fairly cheap, with prices low enough for a average person to buy after a few years of working at a office job, it takes way too much mana for most people. Hell, even some of the most efficient cars out there still take several mages just for a few hours of driving.
As they got closer, Mary looked back to the crowd. "So, who's up first?"
----------------------------------------
It's been three days, and Amber is being forced back to school.
"I don't understand why your so happy," Amber groaned.
"What? School is fun," Emily said with a smile plastered on her face.
As it turns out, the Luna empire does not mess around when it comes to obtaining promising students. The government paid a fortune for all the Avenir academy students to go to the Aldea academy. Even her scholarship was a bribe, with their current apartments and school fees waivered as part of it.
As Amber sat down, she turned on the screen embedded into her desk. It was mostly the same as the one at Avenir, but with one key difference.
"Oh sweet, they have a internet!" Emily shouted, before shrinking back as the rest of the class looked at her.
Avenir was not part of the Luna empire, and as such, did not have access to the Luna empire's online network. Amber did a quick search for the Shamsi kingdom, only to find a crap ton of propaganda about how their religion was a sham. One article even talked about how their capital, Heliopolis, was built off the lives of millions of slaves.
Yup, still the same, The Luna empire and Shamsi kingdom were famous for their constant bickering. It would be weirder for the Luna empire controlled internet to not talk shit about the Shamsi kingdom. As she continued to scroll, Amber came across something interesting. It was a picture of a newspaper, dating back to 1939. The title was talking about a cataclysm?
What? Amber has never heard of it before. But before she could read the rest, a old man walked into the classroom.
"Right class," The old man stopped behind the teacher's desk. "Can all the new students go to the hall?"
Amber gave Emily a questioning look, but she shrugged her shoulders and got up to leave, with Amber following soon after.
As they walked through the glass doors, Amber was greeted to most of her old schoolmates sat down together in the back of the class.
"Right on time," A teacher looked over to them and called them over.
"The Aldea academy has a mentorship system. It is similar to a extracurricular activities." As the teacher explained the limitations the teachers have as a mentor, the curtains of the stage parted, showing a handful of teachers sitting behind a long desk.
"You guys came here unexpectedly, so your options are limited. Just sign the paper in front of them."
Amber watched the rest talk to the teachers, but one was quite unpopular. They looked like a beggar, with a worn and torn brown robe.
"Hello!" A male voice greeted her as Amber approached.
"Hi. Are you part of The Afterlife company?" Amber added after seeing his familiar mask.
"Part of it?" The man snorted. "I founded it."
Oh? While she did not know much about Aldea, she could read between the lines. The mentorship system is for the teachers to personally teach strong talents, but also for the students to network with the teacher. He looked weak, but he must have quite a bit of influence if he can recruit people as powerful as Paul. There are not many downsides to getting closer to him.
She moved to sign on the paper, startling the man. "Wait, your actually interested?"
Amber raised a eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I be?" She was the only one who was taking him as a mentor, which also means his attention would not be split between multiple mentees, unlike the rest of the teachers.
"That's great!" Amber was taken aback by his sudden enthusiasm, and jumped back to dodge his hug. "Oh, I tell ya, we are going to have a lot of fun!"
Just as Amber started to regret her life decisions, he pulled out a pill from a hidden pocket in his robes.
"Take it," The man moved at inhuman speeds, and shoved the pill down her throat. "Think of it as a introduction."
Amber choked on the pill, audibly gagging, but the man just ignored her in favor of calling someone. "We got a new member!" The person on the other end of the phone shouted loud enough for Amber to hear, but the man silenced him. "Yes yes, I remember last time. But I can't just back out now! Think of the memes!"
The pill had started to take effect. She could not think straight, any train of thought dissipated in a instant.
By the time she came to, Amber met with a confusing sight.
"Marcus, release the hostages!" One of the many heroes shouted using magic to amplify his voice like Mary.
"It's over, Commando!" The teacher who drugged her cackled. "I have the high ground!"
...Amber took everything back. This was the worst choice she could have ever made.