This all explains a lot. Too bad Alith didn’t get any Processing pill to candify.
Looking at it… It looks less like the system made up stats to magically improve and more like it merely labeled already existing stuff like Aura. Maybe the most mysterious stat is just Health. Such a weird thing. It’s counterintuitive. I think the issue is that its efficiency isn’t linear.
Which makes me wonder how I could improve Pareth now… Without new skills or anything, he’s going to become too weak to follow me in just a filter or two at this rate. I’ll see after the next trial I guess, it’s supposed to be different this time.
Next Sofia opened a book about Exidion’s history and the Imperial lineage. It was exceedingly boring and was missing all the juicy details about things like the Emperor’s class or anything like that. At first it was weird how the Empress wasn’t mentioned anywhere, it turned out that the reason was quite simple, Empress Delivia was very ‘young’ compared to the whole history of the Empire, she was ‘only’ a few hundred years old. She was apparently a very talented daughter of the lower nobility and she had somehow found herself becoming the new Empress. And that was it. No detailed history about her, no physical description, no heirs, no level, not even the name or rank of her original family.
That’s all there is?
Does she never come out? Is she allergic to the sun or something? How does the author know so little?
Checking the author of the book, it was a name Sofia had never heard of. Probably a retired teacher. The book is dated from thirty years ago after all. I should ask Eternam about the Empress next time I see him, he was the one who mentioned her last time.
Her main objective for coming to the library accomplished, Sofia fell to greed, and started devouring all the books she found that looked even slightly interesting. She went through more than two hundred of them by the time she needed to leave. Night fell on this last day of the second school week, it was time for the first event of the competition. Her head full of newfound knowledge, Sofia made her way to her classroom.
She hadn’t been informed of the details, only that as a new teacher she would be responsible of a group of five students. She wondered if it would be her usual class, and the answer she got as she opened the classroom door was: almost.
Waiting there were Lola, En and Shaily as usual, but the last two weren’t Erian and Guerand but two identical-looking human girls instead. They had long black hair tied in ponytails, and their uniforms looked normal, but were heavily enchanted compared to the other students’,
[Princess - Lv. 66]
[Princess - Lv. 72]
Princess? Quite high level too. They look about sixteen I think… Thinking about it, I did notice them during the opening ceremony when I was looking for everyone, though I didn’t [Identify] them.
“Hi everyone, I am Sofia Vakaria, the teacher assigned to you five for this event,” she started, and her students greeted her as they usually did, then she looked in the direction of the human twins, “I do not believe we have met, you two are?”
The highest level of the twins answered, “I am Topaz Drakron and this is my sister, Opal.” Opal smiled and waved. “Opal is unable to speak,” Topaz continued, “It cannot be healed so do not ask about it. Please be patient with her, she’s mute, not dumb,” she explained with a straight face.
“There should be a lot of magical workarounds you can find at higher levels… But you probably know better than me. Happy to meet you both, I had no idea Xeros had kids.”
Opal’s eyes opened wide, Topaz glanced at her then at Sofia, “You know of our father?”
“Hum, I had a run in with him last year. I am from Sovuln originally, but he gave me a Red Winds citizenship and a baroness title right then when I didn’t even ask. I barely ever go to the Red Winds in the first place, but it is nice to have, I guess.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The twins looked at each other and nodded, “That does sound like the man,” Topaz confirmed.
Well yeah, there aren’t many ‘Human Emperor Xeros Drakron’, it was unlikely to be someone else… Sofia thought but said nothing.
“Well, we can talk at length about that later; I was told we would be teleported at some point and that was about it. Are you all ready? You need to turn off teleportation protections if you have any.”
“As ready as can be!” En confirmed with a big smile from her chair.
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Minutes passed and due to being asked by Lola about how the thing she had been gone for the week went, she started a short improvised lesson on classless skills. She also got to see how Opal communicated when she wanted to say something precise: she wrote with a pencil in a notebook. Sofia couldn't help but think that there had to be a thousand more convenient ways to go about it, but again, she said nothing, as she felt it wasn’t her place to say anything about it. At one point, Sofia had the idea to summon the soldier skeleton and to send it away from the classroom, so she would have a reference point to know how far they were sent and the direction of the Academy. Just in case.
Just as she watched the skeleton leave the classroom, the scenery around her and the five girls changed.
They were now outdoors, in a dark snowy forest of tall conical pine trees, only lit by Pareth’s halo and the faint light of the waning crescent moon. In front of Sofia was a small wax-sealed envelope sitting on a tree stump. The first thing which hit the group was the sudden change in temperature to the extreme cold.
“Is everyone alright? Do you need help with the cold?”
“We’re good,” Topaz was first to answer, and En followed, “Same!”
Sofia could tell that the enchantments of the twins’ uniforms were working against the cold. For En, she knew now from her trip to the library that the Odon race En was a Princess of, lived in extreme mountainous environments, which explained why she was fine in the cold.
“I- I’m not good.” Lola gasped, shaking. A red light appeared between her and Shaily as she said it.
“I’ve got this,” Shaily told her as the red light ignited, the fire sprite looked like a small flying flame, but it was deceptively hot, Sofia could feel it radiate all the way to where she was.
“That was smooth, Shaily, but pace your mana, alright? Judging from the position of my skeleton, we are… Extremely far from the Academy. Now give me a second.”
Sofia opened the sealed letter then stored it. Group 14, the week-long night…
“A- Are you not going to read it?” Lola asked.
“I just did. It says the name of the event is ‘The week-long night’, I will stay with you five to grade your score and protect you in case something you cannot handle crops up. I am allowed to offer some advice but no direct help. The tokens you get at the end will depend on a few things which I’m not allowed to say anything about for now. At the end of the letter, it says your first task is to locate and reach ‘The cabin’. That’s all I have for you.”
“Can I go alone or do we need to stay as a group?” En asked.
“I will send a Skeleton with you if you really want to go alone.” But that would cost you some tokens…
En nodded, a difficult expression on her face. The girls looked at each other, still trying to organize their thoughts. Sofia jumped up and deployed her wings just above the treetops, she looked all around.
Don’t see it.
She flew further up a good hundred meters and stopped, folding her wings. She took the occasion to use her newfound ability to walk on air and walked in a circle, observing the giant forest extending far beyond the horizon. Oh, I think I found it. In the distance, a singular weak source of light shone through the trees. That’s a long long walk. Sofia came back down.
“Did you see anything?” Shaily asked innocently.
“I can’t tell,” Sofia answered with a smile, “But you girls better get moving.”
Oh, and turn off the light, Pareth. Apparently the wildlife won’t be scared by our presence but we’re not supposed to help them at all. The fire sprite makes more than enough light, but still, let’s not ruin the experience for them.
After the girls were done consulting with each other. Sofia watched as En used her flying totem to try to emulate her strategy. You’re never going to fly high enough to see it.
As expected, the small fur-covered girl shook her head after landing back down in the snow.
“My turn then,” Lola sighed.
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