“You’re all invited to come to the tower for dinner, by the way,” Anthony said as the group filed out of the illusion chamber.
“Your dad is cooking?” Jess asked.
“Yes, of course.” Anthony replied, “Mom only cooks when he’s not around and I’m busy.” Anthony’s mother was a great mage, but not a great chef. You couldn’t be talented at everything, as it turned out.
“I’m in then,” Muhammad said.
“I’ll come along,” Jess nodded.
“Sounds fun,” Becca added.
They all turned to look at Alex, who hadn’t spoken up at all since the memory ended. Being quiet was unlike him normally, but fixating on something that interested him wasn’t unheard of by any stretch.
“What are you planning?” Becca asked.
“Huh?” Alex replied, having failed to notice all of them staring at him. “Oh, I’m not planning anything, just thinking about the memory. Plato was a cute puppy.”
“You’re a pathetically bad liar, bro,” Muhammad said.
“Yeah, you know we can’t get mana-related achievements because simulated feats in illusion chambers don’t count. We can’t get trial-related feats because they don’t let us out of the city and carefully watch the trials in the city.” Jess lectured, “The achievement upgrade exists because it's so hard to chase. Even if you got permission, you heard the narration. The trial wouldn’t let you in until you’ve entered the path.”
“Weren’t you guys discussing epic and legendary feats just a few minutes ago?” Alex asked grumpily, “I already know all of that, that’s not what I’m thinking about.”
“Then what is it?” Muhammad asked.
“I don’t know, I haven’t figured it out. I just feel like there’s something.” Alex replied, “It’s frustrating.”
“Well, tell us when you figure it out so we can make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” Anthony said, “Are you in for dinner at the tower?”
“Is your dad cooking?”
The rest of the group stared at Alex in frustration.
“I’m going to guess you already answered that question?” Alex sighed, “My bad, I’ll pay more attention.”
“Thank you,” Anthony replied, “And yes, my dad is cooking. I don’t know why you guys even bother asking. Mom rarely cooks, especially not for guests.”
The group had halted right outside of the illusion chamber and were talking in hushed voices as the third floor had filled up a little while they were inside. “Are you kids done with the chamber?” A man asked from one of the nearby desks.
“Oh, yeah!” Becca replied, “Sorry about that, we’ll get out of the way.”
They started walking over to the stairs and made their way downstairs together. The topic of the memory was interesting, but Muhammad was reminiscing about a time that Mrs. Stirling had cooked for them.
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t that bad!” Anthony protested, coming to his mother’s defense.
“I understand that a lot of people enjoy paella, myself included,” Muhammad had moved on to the topic of dessert, “But I really don’t think that burned rice is an element of that dish that transfers well to a rice pudding.”
“I’m not entirely certain how she burned the rice.” Becca added, “I get that she grew up with “modern” appliances, but the tower has plenty of its own amenities to make cooking easier. I’ve even made a few dishes there with your dad, Anthony.”
Anthony just sighed, giving up on the argument, “You all better hope I don’t get an opportunity to bring this up in conversation over dinner.”
“Your mom would laugh it off,” Muhammad rolled his eyes, “She’d probably just say something about throwing us from the top of her tower and cackle or something.”
“She does that a lot.” Jess noted, “Remember when she actually did throw Alex off the top of the tower?”
“Huh?” Alex asked, having mentally wandered off again despite his earlier promise to engage with his friends.
“Jess was bringing up the time that Mrs. Stirling threw you off her tower,” Becca replied.
“Oh, that was terrifying, yeah,” Alex replied.
“You fell like 10 feet before Mr. Stirling caught you.” Muhammad grunted, “I don’t see the big deal.”
“The tower was like 200 feet up in the air.” Alex defended himself, “I knew that she wouldn’t actually let me fall that far, but knowing something isn’t always enough, you know?”
“She wasn’t even that mad,” Anthony rolled his eyes, “If she was really upset with you she would’ve punished you through the Academy merit system or something like that. Throwing you off the tower was a joke.”
“It was pretty funny,” Alex agreed, “Your dad didn’t seem to agree, though.”
“I don’t understand you at all,” Jess shook her head, “You were just talking about how terrifying it was and now you agree that it was funny?”
“Well,” Alex replied, “Yeah. It only happened like four months ago. Maybe when I was a kid it would’ve left a more lasting impression.”
“Has it only been four months?” Becca asked, “It feels like way longer.”
“Certifications made every day feel like a week,” Anthony replied.
Seniors at the Academy went through certifications, or certs, instead of finals. They lasted the last 5 weeks of the year and students had a few attempts to receive certifications in each of their practical subjects like combat and mana control, but only one attempt in theoretical subjects like mana theory and history. The certs were especially important for students who didn’t plan on becoming fighters after graduation. Noncombatants could pursue certification in fields like construction magic and enchantment basics which would help them secure a good job after graduation.
“Still don’t know why I let you guys talk me into testing for seven certs.” Muhammad sighed, “I thought part of why we are becoming adventurers was so that I didn’t have to jump through all those hoops.”
The group exited the library as they continued chatting. The cold air brought out jackets, and they started walking to the Stirling Tower.
“You think that we chose adventuring just so you don’t need to worry as much about bureaucracy?” Jess stared aghast at Muhammad’s claim.
“Of course!” Muhammad replied, “You’re all such good friends. It makes sense that you’d sacrifice a life of safety and paperwork to pursue danger at every turn so that I wouldn’t have to write an essay ever again.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“It’s a harsh life, but at least we have noble goals.” Becca laughed. She had loosened up a bit now that they weren’t in the library. Jess and Anthony chuckled with her, and Muhammad grinned at a successfully landed joke.
“Seriously, though, why do I need seven certs to become an adventurer?” Muhammad continued, “It’s not like we’re planning on recruiting any more members for our team. Basic combat trials limit members to five.”
“And when we tier up or want to face higher difficulties?” Jess replied in the tone of a woman who had argued this point several times before and wouldn’t let up now.
“Well, then I’ll just point out that our healer is Anthony Stirling and they’ll let us in the raid groups,” Muhammad replied.
“It’s a good strategy.” Alex chimed in, having started to pay more attention to his surroundings after almost tripping over himself a second earlier.
“We are not abusing Anthony’s family name for opportunities.” Becca scolded, swatting Alex’s shoulder as she spoke.
“I’d probably just quit adventuring if we’re ever reduced to that.” Anthony snorted, “My dad doesn’t ask anymore but I know he still wants me to join the Defense Forces after graduation so he can continue training me personally.”
Dylan Stirling was the greatest healer in New Chicago and an incredibly fair man. While no one doubted that he loved his son, their group knew that the offer to train him personally was based on Anthony’s merit as a prospective healer. Anthony had already started designing healing abilities that would work without mana attunement. Thanks to his dad providing a few runes useful for the task.
Incorporating those abilities wouldn’t be enough to reach Epic standard with his Tier 0 Mana Body. They would just make the team safer. Alex had a few ideas for abilities and enhancements he’d started working on as well, but he didn’t have a Tier 3 parent specialized in a similar field to show him when he screwed up.
“Well, now that we know that Muhammad might actually be accepted by the Defense Forces, maybe we should reconsider,” Alex mused, “I mean, we were all just doing it so he wouldn’t feel bad when the rest of us got accepted and he had to set out on his own, right?”
“Alas,” Muhammad sighed, “If only you all had been able to see the talent that I knew I possessed all along.”
“Well, I always knew you were talented,” Jess grinned at Muhammad, leaning into his side as they walked.
“We were having such a romance-free day, too.” Alex sighed as he looked away from his two friends with exaggerated disgust.
Muhammad let go of Jess to face Alex, and received an exaggerated pout, “I’m sorry, Alex, I forgot you hadn’t grown out of the girls have cooties stage yet. I won’t do it again.”
“Man,” Alex frowned, “I’ve dated before. I’m just not looking for a relationship right now.” Alex carefully didn’t look at Becca as he said this, which was made easy as she was on his other side.
“Sure you aren’t!” Muhammad crowed in triumph. He leaned down to place a kiss on Jess’s lips and put his arm around her shoulder as they walked. A large smile grew on both of their faces, and Alex didn’t try to score a point back. It was nice that they made each other so happy.
The group walked in companionable silence for a few seconds, and Alex’s mind quickly drifted off again. He had the sense that he was forgetting something, and once he remembered it he would be able to figure out a way to get that achievement bonus.
The chatting resumed around Alex, but he only paid half a mind to his friends as they walked.
Gaining a Rare Mana Body would provide a Rare achievement, but he wouldn’t be able to pull that off before he had entered Tier 0. As an untiered, the feat would come with too many problematic side effects. Mana rejection was a well-known phenomenon where a mundane body burned itself to a husk because of imprinted runes.
Alex had never bothered to learn too much about why atmospheric mana didn’t cause a rejection while an untiered Mana Body did. He was regretting that now.
Finally, they approached the Stirling Tower. It was still a bit early, and dinner likely wouldn’t be served for a while, but that was fine.
Depending on how charitable they were feeling, Alex and Muhammad would describe coming over and hanging out at the tower as either the best or second-best part of being Anthony’s friend. It swapped places with the joy of Anthony’s company frequently.
Alice Stirling had received the tower as a reward from an Imprinted combat trial. It was the only one that her team had delved into before choosing to return to the city and accumulate power. The difficulty had left all of them in poor health, and without Dylan being truly exceptional they would’ve lost Chester in the trial. Now, they all were too important to the city to risk another trial before they were certain.
All five of their team members had received an incredible reward, as it was the first Imprinted trial cleared worldwide. The tower was the most famous, because of the way it frequently dominated the New Chicago skyline.
Alice didn’t advertise what the tower did, but its status as the most loudly magical building in the city made it impressive if nothing else. Beyond being cool, all of the training facilities inside were top-notch. Better than Academy students could normally access.
It was a bit unfair that Anthony had unfettered access to better training equipment and illusion chambers than any other student at the Academy by right of birth, but Alex had been around Mrs. Stirling enough to know that convincing her to not give her son access would be an impossible task.
Also, he had access to the tower through Anthony. Everything worked out quite nicely in the end.
The Stirling Tower was in rare form as the group approached, pushing hundreds of feet past any other buildings in a proud display of status. Alex’s attention was drawn by the exterior, the walls of the building seemed awash in colored light with no clear source. You could see the white tower underneath the coloration, but shades across the rainbow splashed across the building in a frenetic pattern that frequently shifted.
The mixed-together colors formed runes that were hard to look at, as Alex’s brain struggled to understand what the runes were accomplishing. Higher-tier magic frequently worked this way, where reaching too far too fast would cause headaches or potentially even a stroke as your mind attempted to comprehend knowledge too far beyond your station.
Alex’s eyes quickly slid off of the runes before a headache could form. Having a brain trauma risk on campus couldn’t be allowed, so several arrays around the tower prevented students or Aspirants from focusing on it. It was an odd sensation. Alex had pushed back against the compulsion to look away a few times before, never to any success. He didn’t bother today.
The mana surrounding the tower was dense, but it made way for them as they walked up to the front door. Anthony didn’t bother knocking and opened the door without any fanfare. It had been odd the first few times, but Alex had been friends with him long enough to be used to his nonchalance around magical displays.
It was all still wondrous to Alex, even after living around high-tiered magic for most of his life. The orphanage he’d lived in for the first eight years of his life had been relatively mundane. Maybe once he could do things like this himself, it would all seem less impressive.
“I’m home!” Anthony called out as he entered. Mr. Stirling was likely off at the hospital that he ran whenever he was in the city, but Mrs. Stirling should be home. Whether she’d be free to come say hi or was busy with some experiment would quickly become clear.
“Welcome home, honey.” Mrs. Stirling’s voice came along, a hint of tiredness coloring her tone. “You and your friends should stay on the first two floors, for now. Your dad has dinner in the oven, and he’ll be home in around an hour to eat.”
The group headed over to one of the spacious rec rooms, where several couches and cabinets were surrounding a pool table and a foosball table. “Wanna play anything?” Anthony asked, the Stirlings had an extensive collection of old-world board games in the cabinets.
Alex contemplated asking after a board game, but Muhammad spoke first, “2 on 2 foosball?”
“I’ll sit out,” Anthony smiled, falling back onto a couch as he spoke.
The teams were quickly divided up, and the next little while was wasted away as Muhammad and Jess thrashed Becca and Alex up and down the foosball table. Muhammad was quite good at the game, but Becca was better than him. The problem was Jess, who controlled her attackers with an adeptness that Alex couldn’t hope to defend. Becca swapped with him after the first several goals went through, but that just served to ruin their offense as he struggled to score against Muhammad’s self-proclaimed “iron wall.”
The game fell apart somewhere around Jess declaring that she and Muhammad were up thirty-four points. Demanding a swap of teammates never crossed anyone’s mind, and they soon found themselves sitting down around the room. Jess and Muhammad were sharing a chair meant for a single person, while Becca and Alex sat on either side of Anthony.
“That was fun,” Jess grinned. She was the least competitive of the five of them, but that wasn’t saying much.
“Yeah, sure.” Becca huffed exaggeratedly, “I had a great time.”
The group laughed at the sarcasm and chatted for a minute before Anthony realized he wasn’t playing host and got them all water.
Well, to some definition of realized. Mrs. Stirling’s voice came out of the wall behind him and asked why their guests didn’t have water. It counted as being a good host in Alex’s mind.
Soon, it was dinner time, and the group shuffled back to the dining room where they found Mrs. Stirling setting the table while her husband brought out a roast ham.
As soon as he saw Mrs. Stirling, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head. It was one of her favorite stories to tell that he had been forgetting. The time that Micah Carvalho had managed to ascend to Tier 2 in the middle of a difficult trial. More specifically, how the Trialbringer had fully restored his body and soul as he reached the next tier.
Tiering up came with a panacea, where the Trialbringer would restore the Pathwalker to full health. It had happened in the memory they watched earlier, but Alex had missed it in the midst of all of the other things happening. With that, the missing piece slotted into the puzzle in his mind.
Alex Moore had an idea.