"What's wrong?" The man who just stepped inside the lab asked.
Darrick was clutching his nose as the stench was assaulting his being beyond what he expected. It was a much stronger stench than what he felt at Jimmy's store. It was sudden but after a few seconds passed it was subsiding very slowly. Darrick looked at the man who entered.
He was stepping towards Darrick, and after a few more steps from the door, his face was visible. He was a middle-aged man with a big brown beard. His eyes were very small, it looked like his eyes were closed as the fat on his cheeks were also doing their best to keep his eyes hidden.
The man was a giant as he was most likely two meters tall. His belly was slightly bulging out and his muscles were massive. For a two-meter giant, he had a lot of muscles on his body so much that his biceps were most likely to be thicker than Darrick's head.
Fuck! Did they already find me? I don't have anything on me to fight back now. I just have to hope Fulminar works.
Sweat trickled down through his forehead, Darrick's hands were slightly shaking and his left hand was slowly reaching for his pocket to bring the Fulminar out of his inventory. Even though he could pull it out of anywhere he was reaching for his pockets for some reason. He was already exhausted after making the artifact but the stench was making him weaker right now, on top of that he was a bit afraid of the man in front of him, only a bit afraid.
The man seemed to notice the tension in the air so he took a step back and asked again, "Are you okay student? It looked like you were clutching your nose hard for some reason. Is there anything wrong?" He asked in a very friendly tone and a soft voice unexpected from him.
"I, I would like to know who you are sir," Darrick asked politely even in a state of disturbed psyche.
"Ohohoho! You must be a new student if don't know me. I'm the one who is going to teach you magic engineering, name is Wargel Sata." He introduced himself with a big smile on his face.
"Oh! I'm sorry professor, I didn't recognize you." Darrick quickly apologized for some reason, even though there wasn't any fault or anything in particular that demanded an apology.
"Don't worry about it. I was very interested since I heard the cry of materials from here." He looked at Darrick's table. There were four failed products lying around there, the professor didn't pick up any of them but gave a sagely nod to himself.
"Looks like rune carving failed in the first few of them but you figured it out, right?" He said as he eyed the wand in Darrick's right hand. "Do you mind if I appraise it for you right now?"
Darrick was a bit lost but he still knew that denying this offer would look stupid. "Don't you need some artifact to do that?"
"No need for that when I can do it myself with ease." Said as he extended his hand towards Darrick. Seeing the hand Darrick flinched a bit but still placed the wand on the professor's hand, although very reluctantly.
He checked the wand by twirling it around and doing all kinds of things to it and then he opened his mouth. "It's a very good artifact for a beginner. I can see the trace of amateur here but these skills... It definitely has the potential to become a master. A wand, a common grade artifact, has a good speed for gathering mana. I like this. Very good."
The man handed the wand back to Darrick, "We will meet tomorrow in my class. Don't miss it and also don't miss the spirit contract ceremony in the first period."
"Yes, Professor Lana had.." informed us. Before Darrick could finish his sentence professor had vanished and left the second he gave the wand back.
Darrick collapsed on the ground gasping for air now that all the stench had disappeared. "What the actual fuck was that?" Darrick questioned the happening of the last few minutes in utter disbelief smitten all over his face.
***
"So you met Professor Wargel earlier and he is a bad guy according to your senses?" Jasmine asked with a flat look on her face.
It was almost 11 but the group had gathered at the central garden. They sat on the ground facing each other looking at Darrick since he was the one who called the meeting.
"Of course! That's why I called for you guys. You should also know about these people, if I suddenly disappear now, you know where to look for me. My senses were sensing the aura same as that of a black market woman but Professor is way stronger, that woman doesn't look like a bigshot compared to him and his aura."
"That's really hard to believe. It looks like you don't know but Ser Wargel is a former knight who was recognized by the great clans. He is someone who tirelessly tries to defend people so he has a lot of recognition all over the realm, almost every edge of this realm knows Professor Wargel for his bravery," Leon said when he looked at Darrick's clueless face "Except you, of course."
"Woah! I also look up to Ser Wargel, Leon. I took ME class just so I could meet him." Jasmine chimed in and Leon said, "Me too."
"Isn't your ratio 90 something? I don't think that's ideal for ME but you still want to attend for the sake of it?" Darrick asked in confusion.
It was one thing to look up to someone and a totally different thing to do something you are not suitable for just for them.
"That doesn't really matter as I said before. I didn't come-"
"Yeah yeah, I know. Don't bother with that." Darrick interrupted Leon and rolled his eyes.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Should we suspect him or not was the reason why we are here." Jasper reminded the group. Then Darrick asked him, "How do you go by with so little talking? Your presence is also quite dim so I literally forget sometimes that you are with us."
Jasper thoroughly ignored the question as he looked towards Leon looking like he was asking his opinion on the matter.
"We can't just rule out the possibilities but just some smell is not enough evidence for me to believe he is a terrorist. We are not even sure if Darrick's sense is actually correct." Jasmine said.
"What? You made the plan around me sensing the enemies but now you are accusing my senses. Please think twice about what you want to say, Jasmine, don't let your own words contradict yourself." Darrick retorted.
"How can you be so sure that it was Professor Wargel? It could be someone else who was passing by at the same time as Professor Wargel." Jasmine questioned.
"We are not sure that's why I called this meet-up. We are in the process of determining what to do but you are blinded by your fanaticism Jasmine." Darrick worded the truth harshly to her face.
"What? Are you saying-"
"Jasmine, please. I'm with Darrick on this one. You are not thinking straight about the situation we are in. We can't rule out anyone simply because we want to." Leon interrupted Jasmine as she was about to question what Darrick said about her.
"Really? You too! Yeah, do whatever you want." Jasmine raged as she stood and left the central garden without turning back again. Leon also stood up and called for her once then Darrick asked.
"What did I say wrong? I was talking logically."
"None of you were wrong but Jasmine is angry so I'll talk to her. We can discuss this tomorrow." Leon said as he followed to catch up to her.
Now it was only two people here. Darrick and Jasper. Both were quiet for a few seconds before Darrick asked a question.
"What do you think about this?"
"Nothing. I'll think about it tonight and answer tomorrow. I won't be attending the spirit contract ceremony and my sister won't talk to you for at least half a day, Leon will be busy putting some words in her mind so you can also think about it tomorrow alone in peace."
Jasper stood as he said that. He also walked out of the garden slowly as the other two had gone in a rush. Darrick stared at him from behind until he disappeared out of the view. Then he just laid down on his back looking at the full moon.
"It was a full moon yesterday and it's a full moon today too. Maybe it will stay the same tomorrow too. That really reminds me I'm not in the same world anymore. It would have been nice if those stars weren't looking like a hole in the night sky but that's a different world for you, Darrick. Get used to it. Haa"
Darrick sighed as he also left the garden and headed towards his room. He had to check something in his profile for now.
***
Darrick was walking towards the spirit channel as informed by Professor Lana yesterday. It was set to be in the early morning and available for every magic section student even the ones who don't pursue spirit studies.
A day ago he was a bit excited about it but now something else was weighing on his mind. His unknown sigil and imaginary sigil.
He didn't find anything particular about the unknown sigil except it exists, somewhere. But it should be there on his soul even if he couldn't find it now, maybe he can use it at will when he grows stronger so it had to wait for now.
*But it's there. I mean the ritual I did to obtain my title as an emissary looked like I was gaining a sigil with the catalyst in the wooden box. That orb probably had the sigil. It mostly makes sense. I have to find out more about it but right now the imaginary is more interesting.*
Darrick thought as he remembered when he clicked the **[Ready for evolution]** option last night. It had shown him options he had to evolve his sigil.
Evolution available: Choose one to evolve to advance your Tier.
Imaginary:
1. Firebolt:
It is an elemental evolution of imaginary where you can shoot the flames from your hands. The damage depends on the mana put into the spell.
Catalyst: Flame crystals x3
2. water pulse:
It is an elemental evolution of imaginary where you can shoot a cubic litre of water from your hands. Water volume can be increased with more mana supply to the spell.
Catalyst: Water pearl x3
3. Kinetic field:
It is a normal evolution of imaginary where you can create a field of kinetic energy which you can manipulate freely for both offence and defence.
Warning: The mana cost is intensive for every use.
Catalyst: None
4. Slash:
It is a normal evolution of imaginary where you can throw a slash of around 15 cm in length. The length may be adjusted with the supply of mana to the spell.
Catalyst: None
Four options and all of them are interesting. I couldn't decide when I thought for the whole night yesterday but I will decide on one before tomorrow. I really want to advance to Tier 2 and these sigils are my path to it.
Unlike everyone else who advances the rank first and then evolves the sigil, it is the opposite for Darrick. He had to evolve the sigil first to advance according to what the system said on short notice. It sounded logical so even if it was different from the norm and Darrick was now seriously contemplating the pros and cons of the given options.
Firebolt is good. I can shoot flames from my hand. Also, it sounds like I can change the intensity of my attack, that should amount to something but...
Darrick looked at his inventory. The first artifact that he saw there was Firebreath.
Yeah, Firebreath can do all that and better so Fire Bolt is probably the lowest on my priority list right now. I'm more interested in the other three, to be honest, the non-elemental ones are more eye-catching to me for some reason.
Both elemental spells sounded pretty rigid in their explanations. In the class he was taught that spell sigil could be manipulated a bit to a lot so that you can do whatever you want with it but these two sounded like only a bit customizable.
I can also make a water artifact at some point. It's good but water doesn't seem that cool to me in showing and it's so generic in nature. If I want to be a protagonist then I have to have something unique on me like these two, hehe.
He looked at the other two options, [Slash] and [Kinetic field] Both of them were something unique according to Darrick. If he keeps evolving them then he may find something very overpowered at some point is what his thoughts were.
I can make slash evolve to the point that it can cut space and time but the kinetic field is also a good option since Professor Lana didn't mention any evolution path named this. It could be something very unique to me, of course, since I should be a special existence.
In yesterday's class professor had only mentioned three evolutions and the kinetic field wasn't one of them so Darrick was getting ideas about it. He even thoroughly ignored the system warning while considering the possibilities.
Professor Adil said I'm very talented and me making those artifact says something about me. That warning may just be a trial for me to overcome. Maybe it wants to see me reduce the mana cost of the spell with my maxed dexterity. I think I have a high amount of mana for Tier 1 so this could also be it.
Darrick had narrowed down his options to only two but those two had a lot of potential in his eyes so it was a bit harder to decide on one of them. He was now in front of a room, a very big room with a lot of people present. Maybe this was the place where he also could get a spirit for himself.
Darrick stepped inside while thinking about what his future actions should be to grow very strong so that he can return and every opportunity presented in front of him was a path towards that goal.