A week later, the whole Academy attended a funeral. After twelve centuries at the helm of the institution, Druxius finally hung his staff and went to join the Goddess in her inner paradise.
At least that’s how the official statement read.
The truth was darker, as it almost always was. Their feeblemindedness created a power vacuum which opportunists desired as much as the hefty chunk of Exp for kill a fourth-rank creature. They got only the former. Those opportunists now stood on the dais, teary-eyed as they delivered a speech that had as many flourishes as it was hypocritical. Instead of a triumvirate, the Academy would now be ruled by a council of nine, three of them appointed by the Crown. Killing someone as ancient as Druxius was never a simple thing, and any conspirator that wished the power for themselves would find the target moving from the old man’s back to theirs. Better to share and find safety in numbers, if you weren’t strong enough to hold the power.
The former Headmaster gave as good as he could, though. With his newfound physical prowess and a hefty 13x damage multiplier from Strength alone, he killed five of the seven [Assassins] sent to claim his life. They came with magic-suppressing tools but they failed to suppress his ridiculous Strength score. The old man was even faster than the Dexterity killers and shrugged most of the poisons used on him. But quantity had a quality of its own and Druxius found himself harried and saw his massive HP pool drain steadily during the fight. In the end, the surviving and wounded killers were “caught” by some teachers and dealt with. The same guys that now accepted the august task of leading the institution.
I felt the only silver lining was that my ribbons were clean. By how soon it happened, the assassination was already planned and it would’ve gone without a hitch if Druxius’ Attributes had remained the same.
Many students, Barbara included, demanded a temporary leave, to go and see their families or look after their fiefs and properties, in the case of the nobles. Their requests were all denied, under orders from the Crown. It seemed the King didn’t want the kingdom’s promising mages to scatter to all corners of the Realm and beyond. Word of the recruitment drive spread, and the naïve spoke loudly about joining the new Knight corps, or the “suicide company”, as the skeptical called it.
As the ceremony came to an end, I noticed the absence of the other two [Archmages] and Mrs. Blatherwick, that traitor. Their fate would come to light way later and it made what happened to Druxius seem like a blessing in disguise. After the Headmaster put up a nice fight, the others were either enthralled by Mind magic or zombified by the practitioners of dark arts among the docents. They were never seen again.
*
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*
Returning from the funeral, four students and a sentient book strolled down the still-ruined Academy grounds. The dust cloud, thankfully, had gone up. I kid not, it went up. Now it loomed a few dozen meters above ground, clouding the skies, diffusing sunlight, and making everything look gloomy and oppressive. At night, it cast pitch-black darkness as it blocked moonlight and the stars. Just like the weather, everyone’s mood was shadowy and gloomy.
“I feel bad for the Headmaster,” Barbara confessed.
“This is all a theater,” Isaac angrily lamented. “This Academy is done for. I managed to send my father a letter, I’ll wait a week for the reply. If none comes, I’ll take matters in my own hands.”
Margrave Hamilton belonged to the third echelon in the Kingdom’s political pyramid, below only the Royal family and the handful of Dukes. Burdened with the task of policing the northeastern border of the kingdom near Fulgen, he enjoyed a great deal of political clout. Economical too, as his fief was the only one trusted enough to trade with the Elves.
“Not much else left to do,” Eleanora whined. “Classes are suspended until further notice.”
Barbara shuddered as she remembered our hellish training session back when she unlocked her branching Path.
“It would be an honor,” Isaac answered for all the three nobles without even glancing at the two women.
That took us to the main building, where we tried to schedule a training room. Tried being the key word.
“I’m sorry, Lord Hamilton,” the clerk said. “The training rooms are undergoing maintenance. They were damaged when the Labyrinth exploded.”
Isaac tried a bit more, bribed the clerk, but it was useless. The facilities were fine, the problem was the resources required to run one of them. Everything not essential to either survival or the agenda of those on top was turned off to save resources. But that wouldn’t stop me. The whole Academy had ground to a halt, the students kept corralled in the campus and in the dark as to what was happening outside, a reserve of manpower ready to be drafted from to work for the betterment of the king…dom. The only facility that was still open to both faculty and students was the library. We naturally conveyed there, following a stream of students that decided to brush up their reading out of sheer boredom.
The line moved slowly, very slowly. Like a nightclub bouncer, one of Daisy’s helpers stood at the door and only allowed students inside when another exited the premises.
“We’ll stay here all day,” Elizabeth complained. “Maybe we should study in our rooms.”
I remarked to them.
Mom’s book, the [Lost Sage's Encyclopedia] needed only
“Let’s give up our place in the line then,” Isaac told Elizabeth.
The quickest way out of the building was past the library. A huge sign greeted us as we walked past the bouncer. It only had two words, “No checkouts.” The air coming from inside felt warm and stuffy. The library was clearly overcrowded.
I bemoaned.
Both noblewomen immediately pointed at Isaac. I felt some jealousy in the air.
*
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*
One good side of telling them about my origins was dropping the secrecy. I wanted to use one of mom’s contraptions to solve our needs. Isaac’s apartment at the noble’s dorm top floor had three rooms. His master bedroom, a sitting room for guests, and a smaller side room connected to both for the manservant. The latter was unused as Isaac didn’t bring one from home.
We checked it. The room was basically a long corridor with a narrow bed and an even narrower desk. A small window at the top would allow some sunlight in if any shone outside. It didn’t because of the ominous and pervasive dust cloud.
“You can use this room,” he said. “But the five of us barely fit in it.”
“I don’t mind. Feel free to remodel it as you wish. I think some students would like a new bed and desk. Some are sleeping on the floor.”
“We’ll go with Barbie fetch her stuff,” Elizabeth offered. “Isaac, you take Nethe to the shed.” She seemed eager to start training now that I’d offered it.
The women departed, leaving me with Isaac. He placed me on the desk and I crawled out of the dust cover. Once we both were alone in his room, he ran his hand over the item's fabric.
“This is [Living Silk], isn’t it?”
He spoke in his probing tone, one that allowed him to dismiss his affirmation-question as a jest if things went the other way. Charismatic though he was, I believed a younger Isaac saw his {Capstone} Perk and decided to steer his whole life and being down the path his previous incarnation treaded, instead of forging his own.
“Certainly.”
Isaac froze and his heartbeat went erratic as he pondered on my question. The answer was obvious. He did the latter.
His gaze unfocused as he studied his Status sheet. “My best bet is Willpower,” he confessed. “I have three unspent points. Should I use them?”
“I don’t know. Neutralizing one of the most insidious types of magic for everyone in range seems powerful.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“What about Magic?”
“If you could get a fourth Transcendental Perk, which one would you pick?”
“What makes it different from the Magic Transcendental?”
“How?”
It was funny how running out of MP just gave mages a mild headache at worst but one could voluntarily drop into negative SP and drop unconscious. Just like fatigue gave HP damage for the lack of a Stamina resource, I suspected it was another patched-in gimmick on the System.
"I can guess what it is. Please, ask away," the Lord said.
Isaac stopped and almost asked what I was talking about but the young Lord studied people-reading skills (lowercase S) his whole life. I wasn't so alien that he couldn't understand me even without body language. Perhaps the life-like eyes atop balled ribbons helped. What mattered was that he understood what I meant.
"It is every Lord's duty to improve the strength of his forces. Lady Ambrose..." he said her name with utmost respect, "she proved herself a mage above her peers. She was considered among the scum of this Academy, no offense intended, but with your help she rose above perhaps all freshmen students. And I don't say this regarding the ridiculous artifacts your mother gifted her. I couldn't {Appraise} them, no lack of tries. However, I can sense their power. I could see the exquisite craftsmanship. The exotic materials. The utter lack of worry for Resonance even though each of them might be powerful enough to crush nations. Or bankrupt them if they were for sale.
"So, I approached Ambrose with the intent of recruiting her. Any noble would. I swear she would be well-treated. My father used to say that mistreatment fostered loyalty... towards one's enemies, if at all. While I don't profess the faith, I follow the Matriarch's teachings. Ask your mother to read my heart. I make this vow, Netherbane. I will never do anything to harm Ambrose, even if not doing so costs me my title, my lands, even my life. I wouldn't even if she wasn't a [Chosen]."
I could feel his earnest wishes, among a faint but deep sense of nostalgia. I focused inward and felt the Universe with my magical Affinities. A small strand of Fate connected us. It was a spider's thread to the industrial steel cables that linked Barbara to me but it was there. Hundreds of other threads, some even thicker than the one linking Isaac and I stretched out into the infinite. Isaac and I, we've met before, in another time, in another land.
I knew what I had to do. I cast an Illusion spell. Haru's voice echoed in the Lord's chambers. Isaac immediately fell on his knee.
"Isaac Hamilton. You offer a vow of your own free will. I shall raise the ante and offer a Covenant. Fulfill your vow to the day this body of yours stops breathing, and I shall grant you a boon that will extend onwards your next incarnations. Look after those important to me and become one yourself. Betray my trust and may your soul forever be cursed. What do you say?"
"I accept your challenge with an open heart, Matriarch. I bare my soul before you. May it rot in the Abyss if I ever betray your trust."
"Then it is settled. May your ambition and greed never surpass your reason and compassion, young Lord. The path to true greatness is paved with selflessness. Netherbane will teach you what you need to know to ascend above everyone. But beware. Power begets envy. As you choose a path at the crossroads of Fate, many others fade in the distance."
"I would tread on molten magma if it would bring me an inch closer to you, my Lady."
I let the illusion fade. I felt the spider string thicken and become almost visible. As the moment faded, Isaac's face became transfigured. For long minutes, he remained silent, head facing the knee resting on the floor. His very aura changed as he underwent an epiphany.
"Netherbane!" He rose to his feet, tears streaking down his face. Trembling, he shared the news. "I unlocked the Faith Attribute!"
*
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*
"We leave you alone for half an hour and this is what happens?" A jealous Elizabeth fumed as Isaac told the girls an abridged version of his encounter.
Barbara raised an eyebrow at me but I sent back the mental equivalent of a shrug. I hadn't coerced Isaac, and what I intended to gift him certainly was worth the exchange. I intended to craft him a ring like the one Haru made for Raleigh Whisper, Mirina, and Jocelyn back in Windemere. A storage ring that would follow him across his lives. An improved version of [The Immortal Agent].
Wealth, knowledge, equipment. His future selves would have a head start if he planned his legacy well. With the {Capstone} Perks giving him a cumulative Exp bonus, that would guarantee his progression. What would happen once someone collected all ten? I bet the System had some sort of reward, a title, or a boost to those Perks. Especially for the first person to climb that summit, as it did in the past.
"Nethe's mom is recovering, she can't manifest or talk for too long in the mortal realm," Barbara offered a half-truth. "But I'm sure that she wouldn't keep the boons she planned only to Lord Hamilton."
Barbara's subtext was that I dug this hole, now I should deal with it. To be clear, I should gift "boons" to both girls as well. Speaking of them, they also shared the faint Fate link with me. This was not the first time the five of us converged in the same place.
"The Goddess bounty is endless," Eleanora prayed, hoping some would fall on her lap.
"Look outside," Isaac said to his peers. "The world is broken. The Goddess is wounded. We should help, work hard, and prove our worth before we can claim any rewards. Even the heavens are clouded from our sight," his last statement was quite literal. Isaac's epiphany awoke his inner troubadour and it was his odd but inspired verbosity that was putting the girls on edge. They felt the change.
But the skies were clouded. The wind picked up the dust cloud and moved it around, pushing even more dust from elsewhere to replace the one that moved. The thick cloud seemed endless and covered the whole sky, from horizon to horizon. At least it stayed up above, leaving clean air near the ground. As I stared into the dust cloud, I also felt something familiar lingering about the dust. What could it be? I dismissed the hunch and focused on the next step of my plan.
"I hope this door is as marvelous as it is ugly," Eleanora remarked. "It creeps me."
It wasn't designed to be pretty. This was one of Percival's evil carriage doors, the ones that led to pocket dimensions. They were on mom's item box and she took one out to remove the door when I used {Suppress Curse} in the carriage shed.
"You've seen nothing," Isaac shuddered as he remembered the carriage. He'd seen both inside and outside, and my explanations didn't help change his impression.
Illusionary sunlight poured from the threshold, lighting the gloomy and narrow room. The four of them crowded around the door frame to peek inside. They were met with stone buildings, green grass, and a sky so blue it rose suspicion.
"An inner world?" Elizabeth asked. "I've read about them, but on fiction books."
"This magical door was crafted by the Goddess herself," Isaac rebutted, a bit offended at the Lady's skepticism.
While the other two bickered, Eleanora jumped inside, and danced on the grass. "It's real. Goddess above, this is so warm!" She rubbed her arms, then threw her head back to enjoy the sunlight on her face.
The other three followed the bubbly girl, Barbara taking me along as she picked me from the desk. We decided to remove only the bed to make room for the door.
They explored the stone village, entering the houses, admiring the Imperial architecture, and finding remnants left behind by the people that migrated to Raswaria.
"It feels like this village was frozen in time," Elizabeth sagely remarked as she examined a teapot. "I don't recognize this craftsmanship. The glaze is quite exquisite."
The Cataclysm sent the world back several thousand years. Much was lost in the aftermath of the clash between Percival and the Broodmother, as people struggled to survive. In a sense, it was a post-apocalyptical era. Only a few pockets of civilization survived, like the Necropolis. But the teapot in her hand was uncommon even during its time.
She let her jaw drop. "The Empire sank under the ocean when the Goddess fought the dragon deity," Elizabeth remarked. "Their final days are shrouded in mystery. Today, only storms and raging seas can be found where the most advanced nation this world had ever seen flourished. This teapot is priceless!"
Everyone gathered to admire the archeological discovery that was lying about in mom's item box.
Grinning, Isaac suggested, "{Appraise it}!"
> Last Emperor's Teapot
> Price: Inestimable, unique.
> Materials: Ceramics, gold, silver.
> A glazed porcelain teapot from which the Last Emperor drank tea from days before the Cataclysm. It was kept frozen in time for thousands of years.
I could almost hear Loki laugh. Maybe it was just my imagination. But the description was far from truthful.
*
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*
After I gave them my blessing, the teapot was safely stashed away in Elizabeth's storage ring. Apparently, the Crown Prince's birthday was next month and that would make a suitable gift for the Royal scion, from Margrave Hamilton's faction. The porcelain pot was apparently that valuable. I understood their reasoning. It was a symbol of status. It meant the Prince was on the same level as the Emperor that ruled over a continental landmass bigger than any on Earth.
That was yesterday. Today, it was crafting day. Barbara was out with the girls, enjoying the boredom of house arrest in the campus. Isaac was elsewhere, calming the spirits of some nobles who wished to rebel against the Academy lockdown.
I pushed that aside as I set to work in the pocket dimension. While the dimension, the sky, and the forest at the edge of the spatial bubble were fake, everything else was very, very real. The layers of ground, the grass, the buildings. I needed the space to place some training rooms like the ones in the Academy.
Spending the daily use of {Suppress Curse}, I let my full self into being.
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I felt glad for the tiny blessing of Netherbane's early confusion regarding their origin. Most creatures would freak out at the thought they shared their headspace with an eldritch, ancient sentience like Nethe did. The precious little moments I have access to my full memory and feelings are blank spots to the little book. Yet he willingly allowed me to take over.
The least I can do is to rise to his expectations. He wants training rooms; he will have them.
It took a few weeks to finish the job because I could work only an hour per day. Nethe used the rest of the time to work on easier tasks following my instructions, and in half a month we were done.
I carved out the buildings and placed them in my item box, covering the holes left by the foundations. I left only two, the town hall and the church although I moved them out to the sides of the entrance. Right where the portal deposited the visitors and between the two civic buildings, I created a square. As they entered the space, they would be greeted by a rusty fig, the tree they associate with the Matriarch, the shadow of its branches pierced by sunlight and casting curious patterns over the paving. An ornate wrought iron fence would surround the fig, with benches to admire the scenery. Around the benches a channel, with running water fueled by a self-sustaining enchantment. Algae and aquatic weed would sway in hypnotic and calming patterns under the water current.
The ceiling illusion followed the day-night pattern of the outside world, to make the transition to and from the pocket world easier and avoid jetlag. I raised tall lamps around the square, shedding a soft light during the night. Paths decorated with colorful stone tiles led from the portal to the fig, going around the mighty tree and in three directions, to either building to the sides and the place with the training arenas on the far end.
These were easy to enchant. Using several high monster Cores to fuel the necessary magic, the array was an improved version of the one originating in Windemere, back when Haru was just an apprentice under Marlowe. I laid seven hexagonal slabs of stone. The middle one would have restrooms and dressing rooms for each gender, along with a small open kitchen and cafeteria for meals. The other six would be the actual training arenas.
The reason to have this many was that the pocket world had too little ambient mana. The energy-heavy enchantments needed to generate their own power and they couldn't be run all the time on their own. While one arena recharged, the next one could be used. Or they could use their own MP to power it, but then they wouldn't have enough juice to train. Redundancy was the answer to that, and I felt six were more than enough for them.
Just like the ones I made in the Labyrinth City in Windemere, they also gave learning bonuses. We were ready to start.
Cue in training montage music.