Chapter 152: The City of Learning

“A storage power, a portal power, and a flying ship? I want to say I’m surprised you’re not a utility adventurer, but I’ve seen you fight.”

“Looting power too,” Encio added, boasting although he wasn’t the one with the looting power. “Two of them. Our healer has the other.”

John offered a cheery wave to acknowledge that he heard, but otherwise went back to reading some sort of potions text. All them had a few disciplines they studied—there wasn’t much to do waiting around as they got from once place to another, no Nintendo Switches or audiobooks, but at least there was a crystal recording playing some folksy music and board games.

Drew was interested in Sen and Nara and had been pestering the two with questions. Sen, for his background as an heir of Arlang. And Nara, for her flying ship. She eventually caved, spilling the secrets of the nebula flask to the expectant young teenager. She had labeled Sen as terrible at dealing with children, but she was equally as bad as he was, completely unable to wrangle any effectively.

“It’s actually a Nebula Flask.”

“A Nebula Flask. Like those Cloud Flasks!”

“Yeah, like that.”

“But what’s a nebula?”

“Um, good question…Just think of it as a cloud made of light instead of water.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Light is light, it doesn’t make anything. How’d you get one of those?”

Light did make no fucking sense, so she wasn’t even going to bother.

“I got it from a friend. He got it from a diamond ranker.”

“He didn’t want it? That’s insane! If I had one, I’d never give it up.”

“He didn’t have a looting power,” Nara said. “It’s much too expensive without one.”

“I’ve heard rumors of their exorbitant costs. I don’t know that I’d take one if offered the chance,” Anders said, ever one to look from the side of negatives.

“That’s sooo boring, Anders. I can’t believe you’d pass something like a cloud flask up. Nuh-uh, I can’t believe you really would!”

“I’d sell it,” Anders said firmly. “Those things are so priceless you can’t buy them.”

“If they’re so priceless you can’t buy them, how would you sell it?”

He sighed, beleaguered, “… you know what I mean, Miranda.”

“Do I?” she challenged nonsensically, and Anders gave up that argument.

Miranda was outgoing and cheerful, a capable talker that kept the conversation alive. She was friendly and personable, getting along with every member of the team with ease. A social butterfly or queen bee, Nara felt she’d be the life of the party, in a genuine way. The type of person everyone liked because she was likeable.

Anders, conversely, was serious and stern, and almost the opposite—the mood-killer to Miranda’s mood-maker. He balanced aspects that Miranda was not—an attention to detail for matters not related to people. He was the organizer and the planner; the one who rented their skimmers, purchased maps and supplies, and planned ahead. Miranda was spontaneous and had subsequently ruined his planning by hopping on a stranger’s sky ship. He knew well enough by now to expect it and had no recourse but to go along with her spontaneity.

He too, preferred a luxurious sky ship over their ordinary skimmers. So, he acknowledged that Miranda’s whims weren’t so bad after all. This time.

*****

After a meditation session, Nara proceeded with her light sparring with Sen. Developing her fighting style was an ongoing process. The Way of The Traveler provided the knowledge and techniques but refining that required practice.

A silver rank fight at such an early stage of bronze had boosted their progress, but it was still slow going. Once they reached Bronze 4, their progress would slow further.

Drew convinced Sen to give him some pointers. Sen, by any means, was not hard to convince. He took any opportunity to spar, even against someone more inexperienced than him. Drew utilized a practice spear, and Sen guided him through some basic techniques. The decorations on the deck of the ship had disappeared for a training circle of reinforced material. Their practice weapons did nothing to it, even as metal impacted it. Without a special attack, it wasn’t enough to damage the nebula ship.

“Fire, Potent, Crystal, Empower. That’s an unusual combination,” Nara mentioned to ask Miranda. Potent was an epic rarity essence, four stars in the Adventure Society’s rating system, and very popular. It boosted the whole combination, producing effects that made other abilities more powerful, spells that amped damage, or just outright powerful attacks on their own. It was the premier burst damage or burst anything essence. Crystal was also an expensive essence, although far less so, a rare essence, at three stars. Good at damage, at storage (such as mana and energy), and other more esoteric effects, it was flexible but with rare powers, which made it hard to counter.

“I wanted to get my little brother some of the nicer ones. I have only commons, you know.”

Miranda had Bird, Cat, and Swift for the Gryphon confluence, resembling the swift alserons over the traditional mighty griffons. The alserons were a subspecies of griffons and grouped into the same confluence. It could be called the ‘flying feline’ essence, but it didn’t hit with the same pizazz as ‘Gryphon’.

“Nothing wrong with that.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Nothing wrong with that indeed,” Miranda agreed. “I had to sign a loan for that swift essence.” From her bitter tone, it was clear that loan had caused her no small grief. “Or else I would’ve had to get another animal essence and end up with a Chimera confluence.”

“What’s wrong with that? Off the top of my head, I think it’s not restricted.” Although ‘chimera’ conjured images of warped monkeys and daughters fused with dogs.

“Oh no, it’s not. But triple animal combinations are hard to use. For many, they’re too flexible.”

“Jack of all trades, master of none?”

Her eyes squinted from the phrase as Nara’s translation power did the best it could. Nara was betting the hangup was ‘Jack’. Maybe it’d translate to a similarly common name.

“Something like that! Since they’re so variable and inconsistent, they’re had to use at lower ranks. No real guide to teach you how to use your new abilities, unlike traditional Master Confluence combinations, since each one is so different. At high ranks though, they have a solution to every problem. The problem is surviving until then. My brother’s combination is unusual, but yours even more so. Not many take Balance and Harmonic with a Dimension Essence.”

“Better used with Swift and Balance for the Time Confluence?” Nara responded wryly, completely understanding. Why pass up Time for Mystic? She thumbed at Encio. “That’s what he has.”

“You both lucked out,” she said with a sigh of wistful envy.

“I got mine from a mentor,” Nara said, something close to the truth. She had gotten her essence before Amara became her mentor, just a small technicality. “Encio got his from a relative.”

Miranda nodded. That was the usual way of it.

When a legendary essence like a Dimension, Sin, Void, Vast, Visage, or Myriad appeared, it was usually passed down to the most promising youngster in the family in the right age range.

They ended up being incredibly hard to buy, since they are kept within the family of whoever found or looted it.

Sezan likely held on to Encio’s before he was even born. Nara wondered if she had claimed something that Amara may have left for her own children, if she planned to have any. It was too late for regrets now, and Amara hadn’t rejected her request, so Nara wouldn’t dwell on it.

If Amara wanted one, she would make one for her. Whatever essences she wanted; it was easy enough for her to do anyway.

*****

Saggia, the city of learning.

The architecture was almost sacred—Vatican-like. Nara had no better word for it. Beautiful white arched bridges spanned rivers. Large, almost palatial buildings with domed roofs topped with small spires. Where crosses was a motif in European cities, the feather, the scale, the scroll, and the sword were the icons of Saggia; for it was a city not just of academic learning, but of adventuring and essence magic. The city was built of a mixture of dark and white marble, a reflection of the duality of learning on Erras—martial and academic. Bronze marble was used as a transition between the two, softening the contrast. Archways, windows, and domes were set with glow stones that illuminated the intricate architecture even at night.

Saggia was built inwards of where the Gulf of Venice would be, though the city itself extended down into the bay.

The academies were a centerpiece of the city, built into its heart metaphorically though not physically; The academies surrounded the city, instead of taking up valuable central city space. A massive library had been built in the city’s center, one of the few in the world that weren’t also a Knowledge church. Several academies besides the De Luca Academy made their campuses there, and they competed in inter-collegiate competitions to encourage learning and growth.

The buildings were tall; each floor reaching grandiose heights. Many buildings were just a single floor of heaven reaching archways. Murals of magic, religious texts, and legends painted onto the ceilings. Knowledge, Hero, Guardian, and Justice were important gods in Saggia, in contrast to the rest of the Tier-Media that held Wind, gods of economy, Ocean, Storm, and Traveler in high regard.

Of course, no god was disrespected. Even the deception gods, the misery gods, and the god of undeath were respected, in the same way people feared diseases and calamities. They respected them to keep their wrath at bay.

They had left early in the morning. The trip took ten hours; their original estimation accounted for stops and delays due to fighting wayside monsters. It was now evening, and the sun began its descent over the west mountains. Even in Erras, the sun rose from the east and set in the west.

The team parted ways with their new acquaintances, who headed off into the city in search of lodging.

“You didn’t want to invite Drew to the academy?” Nara asked Encio.

The team walked together as a group, taking in the sights as they headed to their destination, the De Luca Academy.

“It’s not my call to make,” said Encio. “The academy is run by my parents and relatives, not I.”

“You didn’t invite the silver rankers into the Emerald Sun either,” Sen noted.

“Emerald Sun?”

“It is the adventurer guild headed by his grandfather,” Sen said. “A potent draw.”

Encio smiled, “I do not think a single encounter is enough a judge of character to invite others to my grandfather’s guild. Besides, I did not want to leverage my connections to curry favor.”

“There’s nothing wrong with currying favor,” Eufemia said. “Look where it got Nara.”

“I do like curry,” Nara agreed. And Eufemia was completely right. Nara wasn’t above being a suck up…to the right people and if she thought it’d actually get her anywhere. The sort of people being a suck up would be effective with weren’t the sort of people she’d call ‘the right people’ so maybe she wasn’t all that good at actually being a suck up.

“You’re not interested in the Emerald Sun yourself?” Encio asked.

“Not yet,” Nara mused. “I’m actually more interested in the guild Amara is part of.”

“The Radiant Quill?”

“Yeah.”

“You are qualified for it,” Encio said. “Beyond an interview and acceptance, the requirement is well known.”

“Invent something.” Nara answered the unspoken question. “But the requirement for it isn’t a grand invention. It can be anything small. Or even a technique, like a new type of dance, or a new musical composition.”

“Like Amara’s aura pen.” Which was one of her more famous inventions, at least among essence users.

“Yeah.”

“Team members are usually part of the same guild, but it isn’t always the case. There’s nothing wrong with it,” he assured. It could be a bit complicated during surge duty, but the Radiant Quill was primarily a crafting guild anyway. They likely had no duties beyond materials contribution.

“Will you join Emerald Sun?”

“I am trying to leave my grandfather’s shadow, not become a part of it. Neither is it an option I’ve discarded entirely. I may be too sensitive to my grandfather’s legacy. A guild is not very restrictive, but rather an additional support system for adventurers. For those like you Nara, their prestige is a reliable source of backup in political settings.” Encio gestured to the De Luca Academy in the distance, “A perk of graduating from the academy is an invitation to Emerald Sun.”

“It would be hard to turn down an invitation to a guild with an active diamond ranker.”

“A lot accept. Those with guilds from their own families tend to turn it down, but the Aciano Academy has many students of ordinary backgrounds. We’re big on scholarships, just like you, the oh so generous sponsor,” he teased, elbowing her.

She elbowed him back.

They finally approached the gates of the De Luca Academy, grand and elegant. Like much of the city, it was wrought with intricately shaped metal, with designs of nature, but especially the moon and sun, the symbols of the Aciano, along with the symbol of the De Luca, an alseron with unfurled wings in a circular crest.

The moon and sun motif of the Aciano family was a reflection of Sezan’s combination: Sun, Moon, and Balance for the Eclipse Confluence. He was a master of weight manipulation (gravity, though Sezan didn’t know the name, but as a diamond ranker with diamond rank sense he probably had an intimate understanding of the force beyond Erras’ understanding), able to send his enemies into orbit, or crush them with untouchable weight.

Two figures stood at the gate, their welcome entourage. The woman had luscious wavy dark brown hair pulled into a sporty ponytail, vigorously waving at the team.

“It’s time to finally meet your parents, I wonder if they’ll approve?” Nara joked.

Encio smirked. “Shall we bet on it?”

“Please don’t say anything that make your parents hate me.”