People are obsessed with Status. Not only in the meaning of one's position on the social ladder but also one's position on the System ladder. The informal one, because the System has no such thing as a ranking of its users. Or if it does, nobody but the Administrators know.
Despite my protection against {Appraise} attempts, I couldn't be by her side all the time and some inquisitive eyes pierced it. Therefore, the secret was held for only a few days before the whole Academy learned about her jump in levels and branching Path.
Which prompted the mean-spirited folks to spread all sorts of baseless rumors about the girl, going as far as to accuse her of demonic ties. It soured her achievement and brought all sorts of undue attention and pressure on her, from several directions.
Sensitive as she was, she noticed the change in mood as she entered the dorm cafeteria for breakfast. Every girl in the dorm, even her usual friends and classmates gave her the cold shoulder and refused to make eye contact. Association with the halfling was social poison for the time being. She went to sit next to her usual mates and they had the gall to stand up and change tables.
"Guys? What is going on?" As fear took over, she asked with a faint voice.
The situation was bad and I wished I had one of the clone golems here with me. Mom said they went looking for Neanandil but one of the "matriarch" clones could turn the issue on its head. Everything could be explained off with the "a blessing from the Matriarch" excuse.
Barbara was eating slowly, forcing herself to get some food in her system, when Mrs. Cormak burst into the cafeteria. "Miss Ambrose, please come with me."
Snickers and sniggers flooded the cafeteria as she forced herself to stand up.
To help her, I activated {Commanding Presence}, granting her another six points to each of Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Mind, and Willpower. The boost in Willpower steadied her heartbeat, Mind gave her thoughts more clarity, and the Physical Attributes gave her more control of her body by lightening her load, making her step steadier, and the overall glow from a higher Endurance. Yet she still held tight onto me to comfort herself.
I knew I'd succeeded in distracting her as the halfling let out a light chuckle.
We'd reached Mrs. Cormak. The dorm mother took a glance at the girl, then silence the henhouse with a wide-angle glare. "Follow me, Miss Ambrose," she ordered tersely.
She led us out of the dorm and summoned a floating platform to take us all the way to the front of the campus. The two women sat on it because they would otherwise expose their underskirts to the passersby as we went over them. Only teachers could do that as students were required to move on foot. People flying at high speeds without much control of their magic or enough MP reserves usually lead to accidents. It also allowed us to quickly reach a landing on the second floor of the main building. From there, we went straight to the disciplinary committee meeting room.
You can always trust bureaucracy to fail you. Familiars needed to be vetted by the faculty and registered in the Academy. Daisy did that stealthily for us as part of our cooperation agreement. I offered her not only mimic adhesive but also some lost tomes that mom ate while she was cursed.
"Mrs. Cormak, would you please let Miss Dorlaminn at the library know I'm here? She is sponsoring one of my research projects for extra credits and can explain part of the situation."
The middle-aged woman stopped. "Yes, I heard you were at the library very often these days. We thought you were studying and working on your grades, but now…" She trailed off before she could overshare.
"I am! Or I was! I was working really hard, Mrs. Cormak!" Barbara protested vehemently, raising her voice in the corridor. "I don't know what's happening but I am working hard! I gained twenty points of [Spellcaster] Proficiency this week after I used up the Fast-growth from leveling up. I spent a whole day at the training facility until I dropped from exhaustion for that!"
Barbara was angry and hurt. But I was proud of how she managed to read the situation and counter the most obvious arguments. Her earnest if a bit rude protest softened the dorm mother's stance. She relaxed her shoulders a bit and nodded at the halfling.
"I'll call Miss Dorlaminn," she said with an agreeing nod and then cast a short-range communication spell. "{Message}. I'm here with Miss Ambrose at the disciplinary committee's meeting room. She would appreciate your advice." Cormak closed her eyes and nodded as she heard the reply. "She'll be here. Let's go."
We entered the meeting room and a lot of fantasy [Wizard] tropes stared at us. A tall whitebeard pipe-smoking geezer, the disheveled researcher, the haughty brooding potions teacher with ridiculous hair, and so on. All of them sported the lofty Class of [Archmage], none of them spotted my {Appraise}. On the corners of the room, chairs for different species' requirements lied in wait. Mrs. Cormak put a hand on Barbara's shoulder and cast a spell to move a halfling chair next to the table.
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"Gentlemen, I request we wait a few minutes. Miss Dorlaminn will join us shortly. She was sponsoring Miss Ambrose's research project."
"We are aware of that," the haughty man with a mustache on her forehead stated. "It has come to our attention that our [Librarian] booked an exclusive training room for Miss Ambrose."
"We have things to do. Let's get over with it," the disheveled researcher grumbled, clearly out of his element.
Someone knocked on the door. It opened to reveal the half-elf [Librarian]. "Excuse me, [Archmages]."
"Is there anyone else who wishes to join in this meeting? Can we start already?" Whitebeard called.
Another rap on the door. It was Mr. Collins this time. "Sorry, [Archmages]. As Miss Ambrose's teacher, I believe I should be present."
"Come in, take a seat," Whitebeard replied, clearly annoyed. Once everyone was seated, he started. "First, is there anyone here who opposes the {Zone of Truth}?"
It seemed it was customary to enforce truth-telling on everyone. Whitebeard cast it and I felt the spell reach me. He sagged and grunted as the MP expenditure skyrocketed because of my resistances and Magic score. He cast a suspicious glower at everyone but I was underneath the table after Barbara took her elevated seat.
Whitebeard cleared his throat, still recovering from the unexpected mental strain of placing the spell on all of us. Maybe I shouldn't have dumped 120 Attribute Points on Magic. "We are here to investigate the reason why Miss Ambrose rose in level and switched Paths so early. First question, Miss Ambrose? Did you switch Paths?"
"No, sir. I took a branching Path upon rank up," she answered.
Apparently, it was against school rules to take multiple Paths. I wasn't aware of it and it was my fault. Mom had several versions of the Academy guidelines in her.
"Crystallomancer is an (ultra-rare) Class. How did you obtain it?" He continued.
"You don't have to answer that," Mr. Collins said.
It was good to see the teacher take her side. These [Archmages] were here to grill her. As I snaked a ribbon with an eye through the inside of the strap, I saw that all three teachers were facing the [Archmages]. I almost smiled. It was good to see them supporting Barbara.
"I studied hard," Barbara protested. "Then I obtained a spell-crystal which helped me unlock the Class once I trained how to use it."
"How did you get a spell-sliver?" Salty mustache hair Snaped. "I'm not aware of any shops in the city that stock them."
"A friend gave it to me. I'm not sure where it came from."
"Contraband!" The raven-haired teacher accused her.
"Do you have proof, [Archmage]?" Daisy challenged him.
"No," he admitted. "I withdraw my previous statement."
"Noted," whitebeard said.
"Who is the friend that gave you the shard?" Researcher asked.
"My familiar The Netherbane Syllabus was the one who gave me the enchanted crystal," she said as she pulled me up from her waist and placed me on the table. The silk strap was still going around her shoulder.
"Is the book?" Researcher mumbled as a dozen {Appraise} attempts landed on me. "I can't see his information."
"What kind of book can become a familiar? And is it registered?" Snapped the mustache-headed potions professor.
"My research showed he's a book mimic," Daisy replied. "He's a mimic who eats almost exclusively paper and other soft vegetable fibers. Netherbane is already registered."
"Who approved this registration?" Whitebeard haughtily demanded.
"I did," Mr. Collins said to our surprise. "Miss Dorlaminn approached me with Miss Ambrose's case and presented the result of her investigation. As her assigned teacher, I approved her familiar's registration after observing him for a week in class. Mrs. Cormak also agreed with my assessment."
"Miss Ambrose's troublemaking behavior only improved after she contracted The Netherbane Syllabus. She is striving to study and I am not surprised she achieved her dream of becoming a [Crystallomancer]. And if the mimic was a dangerous monster, it would've already done something. I can confirm that the critter is vegetarian."
"He's also contributing to my research into durable bookbinding. His mimic adhesive is perfect for paper and leather," Daisy said and produced a sheaf of paper sheets. "I have the metrics for the training session in which she unlocked her branching Path. You can see here the spells and the average effect of them. Please keep in mind she did all that in a single day."
I wasn't aware of all that was going on while Barbara was away from me. But the girl relaxed her stance when the teachers sided with her. After all the gloom at the cafeteria, it was heartwarming to see her regain her confidence.
The [Librarian] stood up and gave each [Archmage] a copy of her report. They spent a silent minute checking the numbers.
"She spent half a million MP in a single day?" Researcher remarked with a gasp. "That's nearly impossible at her level."
"Nethe can share MP with me," Barbara revealed. "And he has a caster Class so he seems to have plenty of MP."
I could see a gleam in the Researcher's eyes. A gleam of greed, that is. "Can I check him? You said he's harmless, right?"
"It talks? Is the book mimic sentient? It's an undiscovered species!" Researcher raised his voice. "We must catalog it and check if we can find more of them. Maybe even start a breeding program!"
I finally had it. "That's not happening, sir," I said after forming a mouth along my fore-edge. "I have no desire to participate in any of the endeavors you propose."
The three [Archmages] stared at me along with Cormak and Collins, who haven't seen me talk yet. Well, neither did Barbara or Daisy for the matter although we communicated through other means.
Researcher ground his teeth and I thought he would either attack, use some bullshit rule to try and steal me away, or something along those lines. It was Whitebeard who settled the matter.
"Thydor, enough. I will not stifle the next generation to satisfy the wiles of the former. Netherbane Syllabus, is it?"
Researcher, or [Archmage] Thydor, it seems, begrudgingly acquiesced Whitebeard's seniority and shut his wrinkled food-trap.
"Yes, that's me, [Archmage] sir. But it seems I'm at a disadvantage since you know my name," I replied.
The guy gave a grandfatherly chortle. For some reason I saw him wearing gray robes, then visualized him wearing a red and white suit that would sell a lot of soda. "I'm [Archmage] Druxius, the Academy headmaster."
Barbara just nodded, afraid she would be found out.
"How did you meet Miss Ambrose, Netherbane? Can I call you Netherbane? Mr. Syllabus seems odd to me."
"Netherbane is fine. I was created for Barbara by my mother. I am not at liberty to discuss her motives as they are her own. Nor her identity as she chose to remain anonymous. I can only assure you it is in your utmost interest to not draw her ire."
The truth spell was still ongoing. That's why the hirsute [Archmage] raised an eyebrow.
> > Level 85 male quarter-elf-human-gnome-giant [Archmage]
>
> > You gained 1 point of Appraiser.
His bloodline was interesting, to say the least. I'd pierced whatever obfuscation he used to keep his species mix-up a secret.
"I insist," Druxius grinned menacingly. He used some aura thing.
> > Contested Charisma test won.
Barbara flinched in fear. That was the last drop. It was time to drop the hammer on this meeting.
"Look, old geezer. You may have thrice my level, but I can kick your wrinkled butt in a spellcasting duel any day of the week. If you want to learn about my mom's secrets, you better go die and get reborn a few dozen times. You already cleared suspicion on Barbara's leveling up and Class upgrade, so I think we should call it a day."
To push my point, I dispelled his {Zone of Truth} spell.
> > The Leader activated. Contested Charisma test won.
Now that I think of it, he was the asshole that locked the book in that vault in the first place. He made mom lose almost a thousand years trapped down there. Maybe I should provoke him.
As if sensing my emotions, Barbara pressed her hand down on my cover and pulled me back to her lap.
"Yes, we should adjourn the meeting. Miss Ambrose, we'll move you to the Starlight dormitory near the main building. It makes no sense to leave someone with an (ultra-rare) Class where you are now."
Whitebeard relented but I still sensed an edge on his voice. He was obviously not happy with the way I treated him but he had sensed the difference in skill by the way I unraveled his magic. Moving Barbara to another dorm was his way to get back at us. I was sure she didn't want to leave Mrs. Cormak and move to the noble Ladies' dorm where we would have little peace but on the other hand, we could deal with any challenges this Academy threw at us and it would be nice to avoid the half-hour walk on halfling legs.
Outside, the three teachers congratulated and encouraged Barbara on her new leg of life. Mrs. Cormak said her goodbyes and promised Barbara could go straight to the new dorm. She would take care of sending her stuff over to her new room. Daisy volunteered to escort her there and show her around since it was her dorm too.
Everyone went on their merry way while my new enemies grumbled in their meeting room. Remarking that the brooding goth teacher was the nicest one despite his outlook and demeanor, I was sure it wouldn't be the last time I heard from Researcher or Whitebeard, their real names be damned.