The Academy Library was technically the largest building on campus, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the outside. The building didn’t sprawl nearly as much as the gymnasium, and none of its five floors matched the gymnasium’s massive first floor in height. The floors were all thirteen feet tall, a standard height for Academy construction. This made the building quite unassuming compared to the gymnasium, the arena, and the Stirling Tower.

What made the library so incredible were the underground levels, which doubled as a museum dedicated to the days before the Trialbringer. The Dean described the knowledge that had been saved in the years following The Fall of Civilization as New Chicago’s most precious treasures. He had designed many of the enchantments to preserve and protect the artifacts of days gone by personally. All New Chicago citizens visited during their education, regardless of whether they were students at the Academy or the more mundane schools out in the city.

Not even academy students could check out old-world books and movies, but any citizen could enjoy them in the library. Alex was one of many students who had attended movie nights nearly every week. He had only skipped a few because of homework coming due or angsty avoidance of a crush over something stupid. While no one had yet managed to get advanced technology to function properly in mana-dense environments, the Dean had created several manaless zones in the library where technology could be experienced in full.

The library’s underground floors were significantly larger than the space it occupied above ground. Only a few other buildings on campus even had basements to allow the library the room to store its greatest trove, books. After the fall, the Dean had sent his son’s team to recover books from all across the American Midwest. In the words of Micah Carvalho, they had raided hundreds of libraries on their noble quest.

Alex walked into the library a few minutes late. He had decided to not sprint to the library, as he would then be late, sweaty, and out of breath. He’d also stopped to grab a jacket. This had led to him being even more late than necessary, but he was at least confident he wouldn’t be missed.

His friend Muhammad had asked for some help with a few final adjustments as he worked on his final Mana Body blueprint. This was what he would submit to Instructor Martinez when he applied for a mana disbursement for his emplacement ritual. Muhammad was good enough with mana control to create a Rare standard body, but he hadn’t yet managed to design one that would work.

Alex would love nothing more than to figure it out for him, but Instructor Martinez had her ways of determining if someone received undue assistance, she loved to talk about how you needed to earn it. She would reject the application out of hand if she discovered that Muhammad had his Mana Body blueprint given to him. Then the young man wouldn’t have a Mana Body at all unless he successfully created a completely new blueprint without any assistance before graduation. In other words, he would need to unlock the soul attributes by leveling.

Alex was confident in his friend’s abilities, so it wasn’t too big of a deal to be fifteen or so minutes late to the gathering. He saw Muhammad’s request as more of an excuse for them to spend time together and chat than a genuine plea for help.

It wasn’t like he would be too much help. Becca was better at the “teaching” side of things, and she had a better understanding of the type of Enhancement Muhammad was trying to create. Alex would just be there to hang out, chatting with Jess and Anthony while those two worked.

As he entered, Alex saw a group of young kids checking in before heading to the basement. He was reminded of his first time visiting the library. It had been before he was even an Academy student. A six-year-old present with his classmates from grade school, that was the day he’d decided he would make it into the Academy and become one of New Chicago’s future defenders. He wondered if any kids visiting today would have a similar experience.

After checking in at the front desk, Alex made his way up to the second floor, to the Tier 0 runes section. The second floor of the library was dedicated almost entirely to Tier 0 magic, and since everyone spent some time as an Aspirant the collection was fairly expansive. Natural light spilled in through large windows while the center of the floor was illuminated by orbs that hung from the ceiling. At night, more orbs would bring light to the rest of the floor, but mana couldn’t be wasted when natural light was capable of doing the job.

Alex saw three of his friends in an alcove near the stairwell and some of the tension he had been holding about being late vanished when he saw that Anthony hadn’t yet arrived either. Surely Becca wouldn’t get upset about him being late when he wasn’t even the most late? Yeah, she’d left a note… but he could hope.

Alex made eye contact with Jess, who looked bored as she sat back from the table to stretch and look around. Sure enough, Becca and Muhammad were engrossed in a textbook, and Jess probably felt like the third wheel in a group with her boyfriend. Jess’s eyes widened slightly at Alex and she raised one eyebrow. He had to hold back a groan at the nonverbal message, it was time to face the music.

He took in the state of the group as he walked over. Becca Brighton, his oldest, closest friend, was a tall, pale girl. She was only a few inches shorter than him at 6 feet tall. Her dirty blonde hair was up in a messy bun, and she was dressed casually. She appeared to be in her element, although Alex admittedly thought so most of the time. She was pointing out something in a book while she spoke, too focused to notice Alex’s approach.

Muhammad Ayad, the son of two Attuned enchanters, was not nearly so enthused. He was a young man of Middle-Eastern descent who stood above average height, but shorter than Becca, with plain features. His black hair was cut short to stay out of his face, and he was running his left hand through it. That was a clear tell that he was more stressed than Alex had expected.

Jess Thomas, the daughter of an Attuned construction worker who had been alive since the Trialbringer’s Arrival, rounded out the group. She was a black girl and the shortest member of their group, at “only” 5’9”. She frequently complained that the rest of them were giants. Her black dreads were braided tight, pulling her hair back and revealing features that were currently telling a story of Alex’s impending demise.

Jess was somewhere in between Becca’s passion and Muhammad’s stress, appearing more bored than anything while the other two spoke. She wouldn’t be able to add much to the conversation, since her expertise was so far from Muhammad’s, and blueprint design wasn’t one of her strengths.

“You’re looking to do is…” Becca was speaking animatedly when Alex crossed the soundproofing barrier set up around the table his friends had taken over. There were several books spread across the table, with three different Mana Body diagrams visible among them.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Alex tried to avoid interrupting them, sliding into a seat across from Becca and next to Jess. He was unsuccessful, as Becca simply didn’t resume talking about Muhammad’s design and instead glared at him, “And where have you been? How did you manage to sleep in this late?”

“I didn’t sleep in this late,” Alex began, scrambling to explain himself as the bill for his morning adventures came due, “I woke up two hours ago and… err, went to the gym.”

The reason for his pause was Becca’s expression. She was pretty when she was angry, but it was still a losing trade, “So you woke up, saw I left you a note reminding you to be on time, and then proceeded to go goof off in an illusion and be late anyway.”

“Practicing isn’t goofing off, Becca.” Alex began before seeing her expression grow even darker while Muhammad made frantic “stop” motions with his hands behind her, “I mean, uh, yes. That’s what I did. Sorry?”

“Whatever,” Becca sighed, “I should’ve known you wouldn’t be able to start your day without playing with your sword.”

Muhammad started chuckling at that, and Jess quickly joined him. Alex managed to avoid laughing, too worried about making her more upset to risk it.

Becca glared at Muhammad for a second before realizing what she said, “Oh, shut up. He’s a swordsman. How else am I supposed to say that?” her face was covered by a blush as she stammered out a justification.

That’s when Alex joined the giggling, and the tension was broken when Becca chuckled as well.

“You would think after a decade at the Academy you all would stop laughing at sword jokes.” Becca sighed as the laughter died down.

“You would think after a decade at the Academy you would know better than to give us such an easy one,” Muhammad replied, a grin still on his face.

Becca shrugged in defeat, and turned back to the textbooks on the table, clearly trying to put the whole thing behind them. Muhammad, on the other hand, seized the opportunity for a break, “How was the illusion scenario?”

“Three kobolds. Had a few levels under their belts, but I don’t know if that was just because Instructor Mark wanted to give me an extra challenge.” Alex replied, “dealt with them, but with the time I spent waiting and warming up, the shower after, and the walk here I ended up a bit late.”

Justifying his lateness was unlikely to help, and Becca seemed to have put aside her frustration with him, but he couldn’t help but try anyway.

“Ugh, I hate kobold scenarios.” Jess’s face scrunched in a frown, “They’re too human-like.”

“They have scales, Jess,” Muhammad replied, clearly trying to avoid sounding condescending about the topic.

Alex could understand where she was coming from, but the group had discussed this topic several times before, “They’re a fairly common monster for monster sweeps and wandering adventurers to face. With a full settlement of them to the South, it’ll be years before we’re able to dislodge them.” The ‘if we ever can’ was left unsaid.

“I know,” Jess sighed, her face relaxing as she visibly forced herself to move on from the point.

“How’s the diagram going?” Alex asked.

“I can’t get the heart right,” Muhammad sighed, “I understand the modification I need to make but integrating it into the Heart Rune alongside the attribute Enhancements is proving difficult. The conversion array is fine.”

Alex nodded, it made sense that Muhammad would struggle with that part. Untiered students didn’t have access to runes directly from the Trialbringer or gleaned through personal insight. Instead, they created mana bodies using existing blueprints and the logic they’d spent years learning. The benefits of attribute Enhancements and the easy Achievement for Tier 0 Mana Body creation were both too valuable to go without.

The soul attributes would naturally be unlocked while progressing through Tier 0. Sensitivity, which measured the perception of mana, was unlocked at level two. Durability, which reinforced the mana that circulated inside the body and later made Abilities harder to dispel, was unlocked at level four. Power, which increased the power behind Abilities and Enhancements, was unlocked at level six. Speed, which made mana circulate inside the body faster and could even speed up the effects of Abilities at higher tiers, was unlocked at level eight.

As an individual leveled up through Tier 0, mana would begin to circulate through their body, and it could be acted upon to a limited extent. Once Speed was unlocked, this went through a qualitative transformation to allow fine control.

Attribute Enhancements had been found to unlock those attributes earlier, with the problematic caveat of needing to control mana to create a Mana Body and integrate the Enhancement. This was quite difficult for people who had not yet gained the soul attributes and couldn’t control mana.

The solution, designed by several of New Chicago’s brightest minds, was the emplacement ritual. Newly Tier 0 graduates, and other citizens, could apply for a mana disbursement from the city’s storage to use for a ritual that would allow them to control mana without leveling up for a limited time. During that time, the Aspirant would be able to create their Mana Body to enjoy the benefits ahead of schedule.

Of course, the city didn’t have unlimited mana stores, and if someone screwed up their Mana Body it could have actively deleterious effects. To minimize accidents and mana waste, the standards for mana control and Mana Body design were quite high. Alex had needed to demonstrate Tier 1, Neophyte, standard mana control to get approved for a Rare blueprint. The rest of his friends except for Jess had also reached that standard and gotten similar approval. Jess was slightly behind them but was still approved for a standard Uncommon blueprint.

Becca, Anthony, and Alex had all chosen the most famous, and most difficult to imprint, Mana Body blueprint available. A Rare quality Heart Rune that unlocked all four soul attributes at level one. This blueprint was clearly the best option available, but Muhammad’s mana control wasn’t quite good enough to reliably create such an intricate Heart Rune and he had been working on a different Rare Mana Body instead.

He planned on using the same attribute enhancements as Jess, which would unlock one soul attribute at each level. This would unlock the last attribute, Speed, four levels early. Still quite the advantage.

To maintain the Rare standard and get the achievement that came with it, Muhammad was working on integrating a less complex Enhancement that would improve his eyesight. It wasn’t quite the same as a boost to his Perception, since it only affected one of his senses, but it would be enough to reach the Rare standard and collect the achievement.

“Any news on where Anthony is?” Alex changed the topic while he considered the issue.

“His dad got back from a sweep late last night.” Becca replied, “Mrs. Stirling sent along word that he’d be here after family lunch.”

“Damn, sucks that I missed that.” Alex said, “Mrs. Stirling always makes messages interesting.

Their friend Anthony was the son of two of New Chicago’s Imprinted, people who had reached Tier 3. Alice and Dylan Stirling. Alice was considered the city’s second strongest defender and Dylan had pioneered magical healing for the citizens of New Chicago, so the family was quite famous. They lived on campus in the Stirling Tower, but Anthony also had a dorm on campus that he lived in most of the time because his parents were frequently either out on monster sweeps or performing high-level magical experiments.

Alice was a former illusionist who had at some point managed to branch off into making her illusions real. She liked to send very… exciting messages. She was not one of the librarian’s favorite people.

It turned out that you could get away with a lot when you were one of the city’s greatest defenders. Alex could only hope that was him one day.

Come to think of it, he could do a lot more than hope, “You’re working on the layering for the Heart Rune so it can express all of the different Enhancements?” It was time to get to work.