Locke was alone. Again. While he spent his morning cleaning the courtyard, he assumed Gust was in the Swordsman’s home, probably sitting on a nice cushion, cultivating. There was some jealousy in his heart for the Demon who had access to an ancient mages’ wealth, but the more he grew to know Gust, the lesser that feeling became.
When he went to the Swordsman’s home to find his friend, no one was there. He called out Gust’s name, since the dangerous mana would cut him well before he reached the door, but there was no response.
He finally checked with the guards at the southern gate and grew worried when he heard Gust hadn’t yet returned. He thought Isaac or one of the recently returned Masters had pounced on Gust while he was away from the school and taken what they could from his corpse. If they weren’t satisfied with what they found, they might even take it out on Gust’s only friend: Locke himself.
So, when the school’s newest student showed up around midday, Locke was immediately in a good mood. Maybe the Mother’s luck was with him after all.
Gust told Locke the same story he gave Ephraim, about how he lost track of time and had to find shelter from the rain. In the end, he added with a teasing tone, “And the best part is that I don’t have to split those 600 merits with anyone!”
Locke’s eyelids drooped. “Well, you had to sleep outside in the rain to earn ‘em, so I guess you deserve it. Congratulations,” he said flatly,” maybe I’ll go with you next time.”
Upon hearing this, Gust regretted his gloating. Myles and Philo were already on edge. Bringing another mage to meet them was not a good idea, even if Locke was more trustworthy than the rest. Information was dearly valuable, and by lending a path manual to a pair of random young cultivators, Gust was betraying his school. He worried his friend wouldn’t approve of his decision to help these outsiders.
“So, what are you going to do with all this new-found wealth?” Locke asked next.
“Read,” Gust shrugged. “If I’m going to be a competitor next month, I’ll need to know more about everyone’s paths.”
“Just save your merits and read in the library. They don’t deduct points unless you take something home.”
“Ah, right. Good idea.” Gust already knew that, but he didn’t want to drag out the conversation. Lying to a friend made him uncomfortable, even if it was necessary.
It was true that Gust would need to know his opponents if he hoped to do well in the coming tournament, but that was only the secondary purpose of his research. If Myles and Philo were going to be safe, Gust knew he would have to find the best cultivation method to fit their situation. In order to do that, he would need to familiarize himself with the options.
A quarter of the courtyard was already clean, and Locke had gathered enough water for the entire day. Once the pair of mages returned to their work, the time passed quickly.
And afterwards, Gust found himself at the library. He’d only visited once before, and quickly at that. The geomancy book he borrowed was very basic, and so it was gathered on a bookshelf near the entrance along with many other introductory tomes.
Mistress Dyonelle was the resident librarian and one of the best alchemists in the school. She had pale skin and straight red hair, with piercing blue eyes which stood out among her purple robes.
Her gaze never left the book in her lap, as her mana sense always permeated the library’s four floors. She noticed the young mage who walked in, but didn’t concern herself with him. Sword mana was far from her specialization and if the other Masters were going to distract themselves with this boy, then she would take advantage of their lapse in judgement.
Gust paused and bowed politely, but when the Mistress ignored him, he kept moving. Immediately, Gust was assaulted by a wealth of options. The first floor held the most books and there were large sections dedicated to history, alchemy, and various other cultivation disciplines. Gust quickly found the shelves holding numerous cultivation methods, and struggled to decide where to start.
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Myles and Philo’s main goal was survival. They needed to fend off beasts and mages alike, but without a Master to provide guidance, they would need to figure it all out for themselves. Gust narrowed his attention to the Mother and Pestilence’s paths, as the wood mana they used would be the easiest to find in this forest. With little more information to go on, Gust started with the leftmost tome and worked his way through them all.
He didn’t spend much time on any given manual. Gust only turned as many pages as he needed to get a basic understanding of what each path had to offer. He used that information to narrow it down to a set of three choices, then gathered the three books and settled into a table in the corner of the library near a window.
The first was Locke’s Thousand Insect Mastery path. It was created by a patron named Pestilence who, alongside the Mother, was the most respected within the School of Fallen Leaves.
Gust thought of the previous night. One of the more annoying aspects of sleeping in Myles’s bed of dried grass and leaves was the bugs. On several occasions, Gust felt the bite of a mosquito, or the light landing of a beetle on his bare skin, and swatted them away. If Locke could find plenty of insects around the school to work with, then Myles and Philo would have no trouble at all.
The path did, however, take a lot of time. Mages like Locke would need to spend their days using a unique spell to refine insects into spiritual companions before they could be used in combat. Even then, if the bug died, the mage had to start over. This was part of the reason for keeping entire colonies of insects, as Locke would always need backups.
From what Gust could tell, Myles and Philo wanted to get moving. Predators, both human and beast, had already found their little home and if the pair of siblings wanted to feel truly safe, they couldn’t stay where they were. Especially if a mage found them cultivating and started asking too many questions.
Two options remained. The Path of the Virulent Host, and the Path of the Will of the Woods.
The first focused on disease and poison. A Virulent Host cultivator used potions and herbs to strengthen their body’s vitality, then they would load themselves up with diseases and infections. The mage would attempt to refine such maladies into poisons, or fast-acting diseases which could be empowered by mana. It was a vicious method which tortured the user as well as his enemies and, while it seemed powerful, it also required numerous resources to keep the mage alive while they developed their abilities.
Putting that book aside, Gust was left with the Path of the Will of the Woods. It was one of the Mother’s paths and focused on living in harmony with the forest. These mages created weapons of the materials available to them, whether it was wood or leaves or thorns. The book even hinted at spiritual companions in the form of birds or deer, though that was an advanced topic.
The manuals on the first floor only described the first six levels of Pathway Establishment and offered little advice on forming a mana source. That information was kept on the second floor and above, which Gust couldn’t access yet even if he wanted to.
By the time Gust made his choice, the sky was dark and the library was lit by bright stones which were infused with mana. He tucked the Will of the Woods path manual under one arm and sought out Mistress Dyonelle.
She was not at her usual post, a small office near the entrance to the library. Instead, Gust found her standing over a young student and offering him some stern words.
“No, no, no. Jonas, when I give you a recipe, I expect you to follow it. I appreciate your penchant for experiment but do it with your own materials.”
The lanky mage spoke up for himself. “But it worked the last time I tried, and resulted in a thirty percent increase in yield!”
Dyonelle slapped her hand against the table. “Well this time it resulted in zero percent! There may be some promise within your ideas, but that doesn’t change the fact that you failed. I’ll have you tending my garden every morning for the next two weeks!”
Before Jonas could complain, the Mistress snapped her fingers and pointed toward me as I approached. Jonas’s face darkened and he started packing up his things.
Gust bowed slightly. “Sorry to interrupt, Mistress, but I wanted to check this out for a few days.”
The woman held out one hand and inspected the book Gust placed in her palm. One eyebrow rose, “Seeking to supplement the Swordsman’s spells with a bit of wood aspect? You might want to wait until you’ve formed your source before you branch out.”
“That would be wise, but no. I’m just studying. So far, I’ve been so focused on my own path that I don’t know how to prepare for the tournament. My own spells are… undeveloped, but strong. Now I need to know what I’ll be fighting against and figure out how to defend myself.”
The librarian gave that some thought, then nodded. “Yes, I suppose the Swordsman would be overly focused on offense.” She handed the book back and took out a small gem which she scanned with her mana sense. “It will be a hundred merits per night, so do your best to read quickly.”
With a quick bow and a polite ‘thank you,’ Gust left the library behind. He was so focused on the promise he made to Myles and Philo that he didn’t even notice the tall mage who followed him home.