Pretending as if they hadn't just fought a gang of thugs and stolen all kinds of valuables from them, Jun, Sara, Cecilia, and Shiori headed over to the Crafting Branch where Cecilia walked her through selling the Grass Bear hide. Compared to the weapons they'd sold earlier in the morning, the hide was sold for just 20 silver and it took another few minutes of filling out paperwork and registering her medallion for the sale, but Jun knew that the hide had never been that valuable and really only served as cover for their being in the Crafting Branch compound. The true prize was the cores. Here Sara took the lead again, introducing Jun to a third year student who introduced himself as Rusty, though from the way Sara covertly rolled her eyes she knew it wasn't his true name.
The older student apparently bought and sold crafting items no questions asked, though at a lower rate than the school would. The cores Jun showed him would be worth 20 gold if sold to the school, but Rusty would only pay 16. Still, it was a far better deal than Jun had expected, and let her avoid the Kingdom's tax and any official record of the sale. Sealing the deal with a handshake, Jun stashed the coins in her bag and they met up with the rest of her team for lunch.
After the morning's sales, the party had made 25 gold, 78 silver, and 4 copper off their loot. Carrying that much money made her uncomfortable, so despite still needing to find someone to examine and price the jewelry, the party split what they'd made so far in a private corner of the cafeteria. Sara and Cecilia had tried to turn down a share, insisting that their help was minimal, but Jun knew better. The fight with the thugs had been dangerous, and both Sara and Cecilia had introduced her to contacts and negotiate prices. They'd earned a share of the loot for their help.
Despite keeping the true extent of her roommates' help a secret, such as the fight with the thugs, Jun's teammates joined her in pushing them to take a share for themselves.. However despite their insistence, the older students refused to take a single coin, and eventually Jun and her teammates relented, though not before Jun made a promise to herself that she'd pay them back when they finally went through the items from the thugs.
With the discussions of loot and money done, the students enjoyed a celebratory lunch before splitting up for afternoon classes.
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Arcana Theory was dry and boring despite the conveniently timed discussion on spell evolution that was the topic of that day's lecture. Spell evolution according to Professor Marcos was somewhat random, but could be influenced by the way one used their spells and the affinities they naturally possessed. Shiori's quiet scoffing and complaints over the lacking quality of magical education though told her that Professor Marcos was missing or leaving out a lot of information. Her own experience evolving her spells with Shiori's guidance alone proved that evolutions weren't random and could be guided. Regardless, Jun kept quiet as Professor Marcos lectured, and soon enough it was time for Practical Spellcasting.
A thrill of excitement and anxiety left Jun's stomach filled with butterflies as she and Aya walked to their usual spell range, Shiori still on Jun's shoulders muttering about "the inadequacies of today's mages." Her last few classes in Practical Spellcasting had just been more of the same attack and defense, though Jun had been permitted to use her [Arcane Snare] instead of [Piercing Missile]. When she'd first revealed her new spell and asked permission to practice it instead, Sam had given her a strange look before giving his permission. But ever since, she'd noticed strange looks from Sam and many of her classmates, and sometimes caught snippets of derisive comments aimed at her.
As she and Aya entered the range and joined the other students, Jun pretended not to hear the scattered conversation, though it provided an interesting view into what her classmates did while she was fighting for her life.
"...and then the club's security just threw us out!"
"Did you see those royal guards in Central? So handsome!"
"...said our team would be doing our first bounty soon!"
"Can't believe I'm stuck on a team with Ivar. I wish there was at least 1 girl with us!"
"...went missing last week..."
Jun froze as she heard someone talking about something going missing. Doing her best to tune out the chatter around her, she started to eavesdrop on the girls having a hushed conversation.
"That's so scary!" a girl said, her voice familiar though Jun couldn't place a face or name to the voice.
"Her roommate told me she went out to the early morning market before classes on Fourth Day and just never returned," the first girl said.
"What are the guards even doing? A student goes missing and nothing happens, probably because she's not a noble," a third girl with a familiar voice scoffed.
"Emily's dad said the guard is looking for her, but Cora's not the only one that's gone missing recently," the first familiar voice said. The name Emily was familiar. One of Melody's friends and a girl she avoided since Melody and her friends seemed to hold a grudge from when Jun broke Melody's wrist while sparring. That was enough for her to finally recognize the first voice as belonging to Mara, the apprentice healer who'd glared at her after that incident.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with what my dad said," the second familiar voice responded, and that was when she realized it was Gina, another of Melody's friends and teammates. "He said the guards pulled a few bodies out of the East Canal this morning and that I shouldn't move around the city alone anymore. Crime has always been a bit high in the city with all the adventurers, but murder that close to the Academy is new," Gina said, the frown obvious in her voice.
A fear shot through her as Gina, Mara, and their other friend talked about the murders. She'd hoped that the thugs' bodies wouldn't be discovered for some a while, but they'd been found in only a few hours. From her eavesdropping Jun learned that Gina's dad had heard about it from friends in the city guard. Apparently a group of street kids had noticed the sacks floating in the canal and fished one out but were scared off by the city guards before they could do more than open it, finding a dead man. The guards had apparently noticed the rest of the sacks and fished them out, finding another five dead bodies. The number of dead men couldn't have been a coincidence and had to be the thugs they'd fought that morning!
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Jun suppressed a shiver at the thought that the city guard were investigating the men as murder victims. Though they'd chased down her and her friends, Jun, Sara, and Cecilia had been the ones who'd ambushed them. Even though her friends had done the killing, Jun had helped them do it and hide the bodies. They'd even taken all of the men's stuff! Jun started to shake, her bag feeling uncomfortably heavy as she thought about the dead men's belongings sitting inside of it. Her heart pounded in her ears like a damning drum. She was a criminal. A thief. A mur—
"Is everything alright Jun?" Aya whispered as she placed a hand on her shoulder.
Jun jumped lightly at the unexpected contact and started to flush as she saw a couple of her classmates looking at her strangely. Clenching her shaking hands, Jun took in a deep breath and nodded as she exhaled. "I-I'm fine, just a bit nervous," she said.
"Why're you nervous? Is it the spell practice?"
Jun shook her head as she took in another steadying breath before answering. She couldn't tell Aya about the thugs and drag her into this mess, especially if any of their classmates were eavesdropping like she'd been doing, but she didn't want to lie to her friend and teammate. A partial truth then. "I... evolved my spells," she admitted in a quiet whisper. Part of her motivation in evolving her spells was the fight with the thugs and she worried that somehow her evolved spells would make it more obvious that she'd been involved in their deaths.
Aya smiled at her beautifully. "Wow, congratulations Jun!" she said with an excited whisper. "I'm sure you got some good evolutions though, so don't worry about them so much. Besides, if anyone teases them, I'll beat them up for you!"
Jun giggled as Aya shook her fist threateningly at an invisible enemy, some of the guilt and anxiety that ate at her fading. Aya's support and friendship were nice, but as she shoved the rest of her anxieties into a small box in the corner of her mind, an intrusive thought managed to escape. Would Aya feel the same if she knew what Jun had done?
Before that thought could go any further, Sam walked into the room, his assistants Stephanie and Gregory trailing in behind him as he set up another class of rotating offense and defense spell practice. Jun got lucky in that her first partner that day was Aya, and she was able to show her friend her new spells. Jun was on offense first as Aya cast a Novice [Arcane Shield] without any affinities layered in. Taking a deep breath, Jun fed her mana into [Sapping Snare], feeling a bit of surprise as the spell took almost double the amount of mana the Novice version had before the unaltered version coalesced. Where [Arcane Snare] had conjured 3 shining ropes that Jun could control by sending mental orders through her mana tendrils to the spells, [Sapping Snare] conjured 5 slightly muted ropes that she felt a closer connection to. Jun experimented by willing one of the conjured ropes to wiggle and shake, marveling at how the slight delay she'd adapted to with the unevolved form was almost gone.
Jun commanded her spell to attack Aya's barrier and the dummy she protected, spreading her snare out to take on 5 different lines of attack. Aya for her part had learned some of Jun's own tricks with barriers as hers ballooned in size all of a sudden and wrapped around the dummy like an egg to provide a thin shell of protection from all angles. As Jun's spell wrapped around Aya's barrier she ordered it to squeeze. As the spells touched Jun felt her spell's drain kick in, each tendril draining slightly more mana than the last. With every passing second, Jun felt her spell grow in power while Aya's barrier weakened, the physical pressure her spell applied growing more and more as it reinforced itself with mana. It took nearly 20 seconds, but between her spell's draining ability and the pressure she applied through it, Aya's barrier finally popped and Jun's spell slammed into the dummy with an audible thud where it continued to squeeze, sucking mana out of the enchanted target.
Before she caused more damage to school property that she'd be scolded for, Jun dismissed her spell and turned to look at her friend, who stared at her with wide eyes. Jun shrugged nervously. "So... that was my evolved [Arcane Snare]?"
"That was awesome! I told you your spell evolution would be good!" Aya said excitedly. "I thought I'd surprise you with that shell trick, but I didn't expect your snare to somehow steal the mana from my spell!"
Jun shushed her excited friend as their neighbors looked at them curiously. "Not so loud!" she hissed with a touch of embarrassment at the attention. She knew her evolved spells wouldn't stay secret for long, and she wasn't even the first student in the class to evolve their spells, that honor having gone to Aya weeks ago, but she already attracted attention being the only student who used snare spells instead of missile spells. The longer she could put off the fresh wave of attention for her already strange use of a spell that Sam hadn't taught them, the better.
"Sorry," Aya said, bowing her head in apology, though her happy grin didn't fade. "I'm just excited for your progress! Anyways, switch?"
With a nod, Jun cast her new [Swarming Barrier], coalescing the spell right in front of the dummy in it's combined form. Copying Aya's trick, she ordered the 4 parts to split before wrapping around the dummy in layers, fiddling with the shape so that all 4 layers touched the others in a tiny, complicated knot of spell energy centered just above the dummy's head. If things worked as she thought they would, each of her layers should be stronger than her old barrier had been, but each layer would need to be overcome individually, weakening as each layer was overcome. "Ready."
Aya sent an excited look over at Jun before a serious look came over her face. Normally they held back in class to focus more on practice and technique than raw strength, but Jun had seen and felt when Aya got serious. Her mana sense started to go wild as she felt Aya channeling far more than usual, reminding her of the fight with the goblin mage yesterday as she felt Aya pull together a spell with multiple affinities. Earth mana formed the outer layer, while her favorite fire mana formed most of the inner layer. A core of wind mana made up the center, fueling the fire to burn hotter. As the spell coalesced, a thought immediately came to mind of news stories she'd seen growing up about airstrikes on Earth that targeted underground bunkers. Aya had formed a bunker buster spell.
Excitement and a touch of fear bolted through her as Aya's spell manifested and immediately shot for Jun's barrier. The earthen layer of the spell formed a sharp shell protecting the fire and wind within that drove the spell forward. As their spells collided, the earthen layer punched through the first layer of Jun's spell and shattered before Aya's fireball exploded. While the outer layer failed to stop Aya's spell from penetrating, it still siphoned away energy from the blast that followed, taking as much of the strain as it could handle before shattering, weakening the other 3 layers, though it'd taken more than half of the spell's energy before it did. The next layer absorbed more of the blast, consuming more of the blast before it too shattered. The third layer started to crack, it's capacity far below that of the previous layers, but held as Aya's spell finally ran out of energy, leaving behind an untouched inner layer and cracked second layer of shimmering barrier around the dummy.
Despite her spell's failure to destroy Jun's barrier, Jun was in awe of her friend. Against her old barriers, that spell would have broken straight through, highlighting both how much more skilled her friend had become, and how much of an improvement her evolved [Swarming Barrier] was over the original. Turning to look at Aya, she saw a shit-eating grin plastered across the girl's face.
"I evolved a spell too," she said with a giggle.