The woman stepped onto the stage. She was elegant and sophisticated, wearing a sleek, form-fitting deep blue and silver uniform that exuded a sense of authority. Her horns were quite short compared to most other Exidians, and her fine white hair was tied in a high ponytail behind her head. Stopping a few meters away from Sofia, she bowed with an arm across her chest.
“Elizabeth Fraus,” she introduced herself, “I am honored to be of help, Teacher Vakaria.”
What do you want?! Sofia's mind screamed while she answered politely in return, “Thank you for coming down to help, Elizabeth. Since you are a mage, please send a few attack spells my way.”
‘Elizabeth’ nodded and took a few steps back. She raised a hand and warned Sofia, “I will attack now.”
A weird fluid-like ball of light shot from the woman's hand and flew toward Sofia in an unsteady trajectory. On high alert, Sofia activated [Heat Death] when it drew near, and for about 150 mana, the ball of light was dispelled.
That's it? Was I mistaken? Maybe she's really not the empress?
Sofia quickly dismissed the thought. Even if the woman was the empress, right now, in front of three hundred people, she was a level 82 mage, and her cover would be blown if she did anything out of the ordinary.
A second ball of light came, larger and faster than the first. Sofia dispelled it again; it had cost 1500 mana this time. Realistically, this was about all someone at level 82 should be capable of, but the woman kept going uninterrupted, and the next weird ball came, same as before, but this time with nine more following in quick succession.
That is way too much mana for your level! Sofia thought, but it seemed nobody in the public noticed anything. That was quite weird, and as the woman prepared the next attack, Sofia felt Pareth’s consciousness tug at hers and switched to his vision. From his point of view, the woman was still launching tiny attacks like the first one.
Some kind of illusion?
Seeing the magic at work from two different angles, Sofia recognized this kind of visual illusion magic and its kind of mana patterns. It was almost impossible to detect when you were oblivious to its presence, but once you knew and were looking for it, it was plain as day. She had already seen this somewhere else, during the opening ceremony in the Grand Hall when the scenery had temporarily changed to that of an island in the sky.
Of course she was there! So the illusion back then was her work! No wonder she could disguise herself like this and no one could recognize her.
Sofia was trying her best to control her facial expression, not to show any surprise, and continued to dispel all the magic the woman threw at her with a focused expression. The spells ramped up, costing 20, then 30, then 40 000 mana to dispel, and Sofia was starting to panic slightly as her mana disappeared in chunks. She only had about a hundred and fifty thousand left when the attacks stopped, and the empress started counting something on her hands.
From Pareth’s view, the woman was still throwing very weak balls of light in different trajectories or quick succession to demonstrate Sofia’s abilities to the public.
Then a tiny scepter appeared in the woman’s hands. Sofia seriously thought about fleeing, but the attack was instantaneous, so fast that not even Pareth had time to teleport. She activated [Heat Death] purely on instinct, and the concentrated beam of light aiming her way disappeared as fast as it had come.
Mana: 1 / 417 100
Holy fucking shit, she counted my mana to leave me at zero?!
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Sofia threw a wary glance at the woman, who smiled back at her. The empress bowed again, “My apologies, Teacher. It seems I have run out of mana, so I have no choice but to stop. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help; it was very instructive.”
“You're welcome. Thank you. You may return to your seat,” Sofia answered elegantly, trying to suppress the fear in her voice. Her real thoughts were more along the lines of ‘Please get lost already’. As she watched the woman climb the stairs back to her seat, she almost had a heart attack. At the very top of the stairs, the doors to the amphitheater had opened ‘by themselves’. A lot of the higher-leveled students turned around to see what had opened the doors, and the empress herself looked up curiously. But nobody saw anything wrong; the empress kept walking, and the students turned back to look at Sofia, at most whispering a hushed ‘weird’ to themselves.
To Sofia, however, the situation was more than just a bit weird as she observed a globulous iridescent creature looking like a cluster of grapes from hell trying to squeeze itself through the door frame.
Her mind whirring, Sofia only saw three ways to proceed forward. Either she accepted looking like a lunatic and evacuated the room, trying to convince everyone that an invisible monster was lurking here and putting everyone in danger. Or she invented some excuse to end the class early. And lastly, she could also keep going and act like everything was alright.
The creature finally managed to get through the door, and with its five spindly legs, it crawled into the amphitheater, its body unfolding until it was about four meters tall. It looked like a tall upright stick on five legs with a bundle of grapes dangling from the top.
“T- This is the kind of power you can expect from getting a specialization. If you want to have good future growth, both getting one and picking the right one are very important. So no matter what, remember to always give it your all during the trials. N- Now I will take a few more questions, and then I will showcase some neat things you can do with necromancy or summoning classes in general, as long as you use some creativity,” Sofia announced to the public, but her eyes were fixated on the creature, which was now slowly advancing through a row of seats.
It walked right through the students, and they did not notice anything. Suddenly it stopped in front of an empty seat, and its stick-like body bent slightly to rest on the seat’s edge.
IT FUCKING SAT DOWN!!!
Sofia was starting to wonder if she was going crazy or if the Empress was still playing visual tricks on her. Clearly, it was none of that. Not only did she still see the creature through Pareth’s eyes, but she also finally noticed the insistent and worried stares she was receiving from Alith in the corner. This further hammered down the fact that, yes, there was a creature from the Deep currently sitting in the academy's amphitheater, and it was supposedly listening to her lecture.
At least it's not a parasite…
As promised, Sofia answered a few more questions. By the time she was done, she couldn't remember anything she had just said as she was too focused on observing the iridescent being. However, in time, she was able to put it out of her mind and focus on her lecture instead. She demonstrated the many ways one could use bones. The class lasted for three hours in total and ended spectacularly with a duel between Pareth and a group of two level 200 and one level 150 students, which Pareth won in perfect Sofia style: without losing any health.
There was no trace of the iridescent creature anymore. It had left the same way it came, about half an hour before the end of class after sitting perfectly still for exactly two hours. Similarly, ‘Elizabeth Fraus’ had disappeared at some point in the middle without Sofia even noticing.
With her nerves right about to give out, she announced the end of class with a sigh of relief, receiving mild applause. She told the public to come back next time for her lecture on the theme of making the best of the system’s tools and errors.
The librarian was already waiting backstage to retrieve the voice amplifier.
“You did well; it was very entertaining and informative,” he complimented her.
“Thank you… I was very nervous, but I do think I pulled through.”
“Yes, yes, I believe the seats will be tightly packed next time. Students always like teachers who incorporate a lot of practical demonstrations like you did. Your stress was visible, but it is expected for a first-timer. You will learn to mostly manage it after a few more months; everyone does. But it’s hard to really get rid of it.”
Sofia gave the man a polite laugh in return and continued the small talk. The librarian gave her more tips on how to manage her anxiety, blissfully unaware that stage fright was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what had caused Sofia’s stress that day. He eventually excused himself to give her some space.
After taking a long break by herself in the staff toilets, Sofia trudged back to her room.
Alith was waiting in front of her door.
“Hey! Good work Sof. You look like you haven’t slept for a month,” Alith greeted her.
“Oh, it’s been longer than that.”
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