Once the atlantian finished explaining the general rules, Villin had to admit he was surprised by how lax they were. The runemasters would have free access to the vast majority of the city. If they wished to enter the barracks they had to be accompanied by a general and if they wanted to enter the palace the royal guards would have to stay with them but otherwise it was free play.
There were a few other rules but all of them were very understandable. For one they may not say negative things about the atlantian leadership or culture while they were here. This was a natural rule since Atlantis was clearly preparing for some sort of war and civil unrest was the least of their concerns.
They also couldn’t leave Atlantis without permission, but this too was extremely natural in the Magus world since it was best to keep locations mostly a secret.
As for after they left Atlantis and headed back to The Academy, there were no rules there. They weren’t sworn to secrecy or anything like that, it seemed that Atlantis didn’t care if people knew it existed, it was just a place that accidentally became a rumor.
“So, with that out of the way. Do you all have any questions before I return to my duties?” the atlantian asked in his odd accent.
After a moment, Ruby responded, “Yes sir, I have one. The mission reward was said to be some of your ‘basic techniques’, I would like to know what is seen as basic.”
Hearing the question, the atlantian nodded before responding, “This includes the techniques we teach our children up to the age of nine.”
Hearing this response, both Villin and Ruby frowned slightly but Cornelius wasn’t so composed, “Children techniques?! You’re giving us some trash techniques in return for repairing your weaponry?! We are damn runemasters and powerful magi, not some damn kids!”
Seeing how heated Cornelius got, the atlantian immediately became angry, it seemed like he was about to yell but held himself back at the last second before responding. “Atlantian techniques are lost to the rest of the world. The techniques we teach here are unknown to the outside work. Tell me boy, what underwater spells and techniques does The Academy have? Other then some breathing spell I doubt they have anything, even out children know how to quickly move across the sea, it is a valuable technique for magi anywhere.”
The Atlantian paused for a moment and relaxed further before continuing, “Furthermore, the true reward isn’t these techniques. You will be allowed to fix, and thus learn, the runes we use on our armor, weapons, and more. This is as valuable as the techniques we offer. Lastly, The one who performs best will get a lesson from me, and the technique I will be teaching is extraordinarily powerful, I assure you.”
After saying this, he once more turned to Cornelius again, “Now boy, let me warn you. If you raise your voice at me again you will be sent back to The Academy instantly. Even though you are a runemaster, I am one of the three Atlantian leaders, our positions stand equal.”
With that said, the Atlantian turned around and left the room, leaving the three runemasters behind.
“Damn!” Cornelius cursed, “Anyway, that special technique is mine, got it! Don’t you two try to fight me over it!”
Hearing his exclamation, Villin felt like laughing, “Oh please. It goes to the highest contributor, are you now asking us not to do our jobs and continue to repair devices and equipment here?”
Hearing Villin’s rebuttal, Cornelius got slightly red from embarrassment, after thinking for a few moments he spoke again, “Okay then, you two spend some of your time studying the ward around the city then I’ll focus on the task, how’s that?”
Unwilling to entertain Cornelius, Villin and Ruby left the room at practically the same time, leaving the angered boy behind.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Once they left the teleportation building, Ruby and Villin were immediately stunned by what was before them. They could see dozens of round buildings all over the city. The architecture was beautiful, there were glowing statues everywhere, illuminating the area.
The city didn’t have any roads as people simply walked on the ground.
The vast majority of people seemed to be human with pale skin but it seemed like some of them did have gills on their necks. It also only took a moment for them to realize that everyone here seemed to be a part of the army as people walked around with varying degrees of armor on.
And even though the armor on these people wasn’t quite as stunning as those of the leaders or royal guards they saw earlier, it was still very pretty, clearly, appearance was an important factor when it came to armor.
Looking up, Villin saw water all around the city. The city was massive in reality but the fact that it was completely surrounded by water made it look insignificant.
After looking at the scene for a couple of seconds, Ruby spoke up, “A military state of this size. I think we’ll have plenty of work the following month.”
Hearing her words Villin had to agree, seeing as how Cornelius had also walked out of the building and was spectating the city he commented, “It should be best to split up. If there is a project that needs multiple of us we can work together but I think splitting up will be most effective overall.”
Without saying a thing to Villin, Cornelius scoffed and walked towards one of the large circular buildings in the distance, noting his response Villin turned to Ruby and they both sighed, “I just hope he won’t become a problem.” Villin noted and Ruby agreed, soon after they also split up to go look at different areas of the city.
Villin decided to do some exploring and information gathering on the first day. At this point, he still didn’t know who Atlantis would be fighting against. He had wanted to ask the Atlantian leader but lost his chance when Cornelius angered him.
Depending on the enemy, Villin would focus on repairing and duplicating different equipment.
Even though overall his knowledge was limited, he knew some things about the various continents. His knowledge of the central continent was obviously the vastest. They had a lot of people who studied transfiguration, there were pill makers and wands were nearly always used. When faced against these people, increasing the strength of various pieces of weaponry would most likely be the most useful.
The eastern continent didn’t have magi that were quite as strong but they had numbers, a massive amount of numbers. They still used cold weapons as well, similar to Atlantians, and used magic to enhance their fighting strength. Overall, the individual Atlantian should be stronger than them, focusing on repairing and duplicating armor would probably be best there, to make it harder for the cold weapons to pierce it.
Lastly, there was the western continent. They were severely lacking in numbers but each magus was generally extremely powerful. It was said that most of the magi on the western continent knew how to teleport. They didn’t use wands and used a bunch of environmental spells. They also enhanced their own bodies using gene solutions and runes.
Thinking about this bit of information he had, Villin figured that if Atlantians were to fight against the western continent it would probably be best to increase the strength of various wards and magic arrays to restrain the magi and powerful weapons so that the Atlantians could pierce the defenses of these human tanks.
Figuring that he needed information, Villin asked one of the Atlantians where the most popular bar was only to figure out that these people had no idea what bars were. If they wanted to drink or eat, they would go to one of the shops that sold these essentials and then take it home.
When Villin straight-up asked one of the residents who they would be fighting, they looked at him suspiciously and refused to answer, a somewhat expected response.
Villin sighed as he thought of how to get this information, then his gaze fell on the statues scattered around. It was clear that this place was full of culture, every big happening was most likely recorded with sculptures and murals.
When Villin asked an Atlantian where to find the most recent murals and sculptures, they were quick to answer, proudly leading Villin towards the building where he could find the more recent murals.
And so, he stood before a massive hemispherical building with patterns all over. He had to admit it was very surprising. Atlantis seemed like a city full of soldiers and with constant war, yet they had such an incredible focus on art. It was rather incredible when he thought of it.
And so, with curiosity, Villin entered the building. It seemed that this was one of the more popular buildings around as Atlantians wearing varying degrees of armor were looking at, and talking about the murals depicted.
If there was anything Villin could compare this place to, it would be a library. With bookshelf after bookshelf filling up the entire room. The difference was that, instead of books, murals and engravings were made on the stone walls that littered the building.