Sofia spent about two months in the sect. She would spend days and nights talking with Saria, and time would just seem to disappear. She also got better acquainted with the inner disciples and Zephir. Everyone was excited to discover the boss’ lost sister, and Cinthia in particular was very shocked and very happy at the news, as she was already Saria’s closest friend. The three girls would often hang out in Erredis’ new workshop, who decided that she wanted to stay away from the moon for a year or two, claiming it was a nice change of pace.
Zephir had made sure Sofia’s letter reached Alith and Ihuarah, and the two heroes eventually made their way to the sect, accompanied by Zerei and Astelia the Moon’s Oracle along with her butler Agran.
They all brought about some news. Alith had failed to be first to complete her quest from Sun, Mornn had somehow been faster by half a day. Despite that, she had gotten some nice things out of the ordeal. Sofia still hadn’t seen any level debt coming from her because she had never finalized her Specialization pick. She was undecided between two choices, but her level debt already amounted to 96 levels so she didn’t want to go for more. She had also managed to produce all the stat candies she had the recipe for during the time she had been waiting for news of Sofia’s whereabouts. Alith was so happy for Sofia finding her sister that she had wanted to rush there as soon as she learned the news. She had gone to check Sofia’s messages at a Vampire embassy on the way, which is how she ended up bringing Astelia and Zerei along, as these two unexpectedly had some business together that they wanted Sofia to help with.
Ihuarah came to congratulate Sofia and soon excused himself, explaining that he was going to use his reward to locate a precious artifact of Sorrow. Sofia suggested that they all go together but the shadow insisted on not wanting to impose on the newly reunited sisters. He was also of the mind that Sofia should take some time to rest and develop her skills at the moment, instead of diving head first into another perilous quest. Fact that essentially everyone else agreed with, so she could only reluctantly give up.
Astelia had somewhat of a mental breakdown when she learned the Moon Saintess was an ancient Dragon, but Erredis was really happy to meet her new ‘coworker’.
Zerei had changed her mind and passed her level 300 trial before trying to open her school, so that plan was still in the works. She also had new colorful clothes and accessories in ‘traditional Avian fashion’, which consisted of a mix of overlapping skin-tight and very loose clothes with an abundance of gold ornaments and jewelry. Ihuarah seemed to think this was in extremely good taste, it seemed to Sofia these two had become good friends in the little time they had spent traveling to the sect.
Eventually, after everyone was done catching up, Zerei and Astelia explained why they wanted to see Sofia. It had something to do with Zerei’s school project. All gathered around one of the sect’s banquet tables, Zerei explained her plan while stuffing herself with the tasty food provided by the sect.
“I want to open a school, yes? However, I fear both my knowledge and methods may be a bit… Outdated, yes. So, first I want to know what the modern magical academies have to offer, yes. I didn’t know who to contact, so I got in touch with Asty, and we decided to both go to the best school together, yes!”
Saria looked a bit unconvinced, “Go to school? That’s a way to learn firsthand, yeah, but why do you need Sofia?”
A whole fish disappeared within Zerei’s beak-mouth, and she answered, “It was Asty’s idea so she can explain.”
Astellia seemed a bit lost at suddenly having everyone’s attention on her, she blushed and lost her composure for a second, but managed to get through it. She calmly explained her idea, “I wanted to go for a while but Agran cannot come because of his other duties, so I couldn’t, as the Queen would never allow me to go alone…”
“So then you can have Zerei there to protect you and she also gets to see how things work there? That’s a nice way for things to work themselves out,” Sofia commented, trying to take some of the attention away from Astelia for a bit.
“Yes. So now I can go as a teacher on Spatial magic,” Astelia continued.
Wait, teacher? Hmm. Yeah that’s not too far fetched actually. She is level 249 too and her class is almost entirely spatial magic. I know she’s good at teaching it, too. “Do you need me to vouch for your capacity as a teacher or something like that? You taught me a lot during that one night so you definitely have what it takes.”
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“I wish it was that simple…” Astelia complained, picking up another piece of meat with her fork.
Zerei became impatient and started explaining the situation more by herself, “It is not so easy, no. The academy already accepted Asty as a professor, but they have not accepted me, no.”
“And this is where I come in?”
“Yes. The headmaster said I am too scary for the students. I could be a runecrafting professor, but that would inevitably cause a lot of trouble for him, yes. He said he would take me if I solved an equally troubling problem for him, yes.”
Saria turned to Sofia, “See, this is where your weird lifestyle leads, you’re the problem-solver now.”
“Eh, I don’t mind. Zerei and Astelia both helped me a lot too. What can I do then? I suppose it’s not destroying some remote dungeon or you would have let me go with Ihuarah.” Not that I would mind.
“Well, you see,” Zerei said, stopping an instant to wipe her beak, “the headmaster needs to urgently replace a missing professor for a popular class, yes. The ‘Summoner combat strategies’ class. It sounds made for you, no? The pay is good too, yes. And you get free credits to assist to other classes as a student.”
“That’s an oddly specific thing to be looking for… But it does fit. Kind of. I’m not so sure about being a teacher though…”
Erredis, who hadn’t said a word all afternoon, suddenly asked a question to Zerei, “Where’s that academy? I’m curious about who might be running this, perhaps I know them.”
“It’s on the otherside, yes. In the Exidion empire. I think the headmaster’s name was Beligenus, yes. Tall old Exidian man with the usual blue skin and curved horns. He has a very long white beard, yes.”
Otherside? Exidion Empire? Exidians?
I realize now I forgot to ask Erredis about the hidden moon, but also it looks like I should maybe learn more about the planet first. What are all these names?
“Beligenus? Sweetie, that’s not an Exidian, that’s a Dragon. And a very old one, at that.”
Astelia dropped her fork, but everyone was too busy staring at Erredis to realize.
“What? Don’t trust me? Look.”
Out of nowhere, Erredis pulled out a gigantic horn the size of the table which she held up with a single finger.
[Horn of Beligenus] : A horn stolen from Beligenus the great sage. It is wise to forget that you ever saw this item.
Angel’s bolt resistance grade : C-
Level: 500. Grade: Draconic.
Why does she have this… And why is Mr Scribe showing the bolt resistance grade? I’m not that greedy, come on. And what’s with the description?
After a long silence, Erredis stored the horn and the conversation started again.
After some more deliberation, it was decided that they were all going. Except Erredis. Saria, Cinthia, Alith and Joah would enroll as students, all generously paid for by Zephir.
Communication was a lesser issue for Dragons, and the group soon received news that the headmaster accepted all the new students, but would have to judge Sofia’s capabilities as a teacher by himself. Erredis guaranteed that it wouldn’t be an issue, so Sofia didn’t worry too much.
The preparations took a while but the sect had great resources at its disposal and Zephir had no issue generously spending for the betterment of his disciples, which in his mind already included Sofia and Alith. He had been practically begging Alith to become an official inner disciple after he learned about her [Refined palate] skill.
As everyone was getting ready to depart, they still needed to wait for Alith to make enough stat candies for everyone because she had only prepared enough for herself, Ihuarah and Sofia at first. And she still hadn’t picked her specialization, so they would have a quick meeting about that as well.
In the meantime, Erredis informed Sofia that not only her new piece of armor was almost ready, and that she had ‘convinced’ a chromatic Dragon to help her, so they were going to travel a bit and get Sofia to the next stage of VPPV before the scholar year started.
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Sofia entered Erredis’ workshop. The large room filled with magical machinery and tools was oddly silent.
“Erredis?”
“I’m here child, wait a second, I’m doing the finishing touches right now, it’s a bit dangerous so stay at the entrance. I just realized a critical flaw last night, I’m almost done fixing it.”
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