As soon as he handed the crown to Deidra the world went black for Azura. Next thing he knew he was standing back in the field with almost as many people as there had been when he left. Of his group it looked like Katy and Lily were the only ones back. They both turned to him as soon as he appeared, but he was more focused on the fact his weapons and armor were all laid at his feet. To say he was relieved while putting it all back in its proper place was an understatement. The materials themselves were hard to obtain and valuable, and the myriad of enchantments on them weren’t something he could replicate in a couple of days. Not to mention the time it would take to actually forge the materials into shape.
Katy just raised an eyebrow at him as he rapidly put it all back in place. “Well, it seems like you had an interesting time in there?” Judging by the sun he’d guessed only an hour or 2 had passed since he had initially been sent in the simulation. Despite the fact he had spent a few days inside. That was an impressive amount of time dilation, but probably not 1 they could sustain for very long. He’d be shocked if they could even maintain it till nightfall.
“More or less. I learned a lot for sure. I honestly didn’t expect for the bandit queen to be a relatively decent person.” Really he was quite glad that they had given him the book as a hint from the first event, otherwise he wouldn’t have even thought about the city of glass story outside of recognizing the crown as a dangerous artifact.
“She? I didn’t know the bandit leader was a she, or apparently not the bad guy. Well to be fair I also didn’t really hang around for long. I just snuck in, freed the prisoners and killed a bunch of the bandits. After the leader showed up I just left and brought the crown to the special hiding place.” He chuckled. That was one way to get it done. Much faster than his own too by the looks of it. He would guess she wasn’t too pleased about whoever died during the first part of the event though.
“This one was stupid. How was I supposed to know some random story from this continent?! I saw a pretty crown, and I wanted to try it on for a second. I was shunted back here the moment it touched my head.” That about fits. Shame too, given that Lily was probably the only one who could have safely destroyed the crown without causing a whole bunch of destruction. Katy must have filled her in on the story once they were both back.
“To be fair it is extremely rare for someone to move to another continent. It’s not an easy journey to make, and it’s for the most part unnecessary. There are usually several different kingdoms with different rules on each continent, so trying another continent instead of just moving around the one you’re already in is not something that happens often.” Lily still hadn’t told her whole story, but he had enough info at this point he could probably guess at a good chunk of it.
Lily just sighed. “I know, but still. I mean surely I’m not the only one here who had never heard the story, right?” He hummed in thought. Honestly she probably was. It’s a very common story here because there aren’t many others that can show just how dangerous artifacts can be in the wrong hands. The story is part of the propaganda that the kingdoms use to justify the laws they have about discovered artifacts. Of course they probably don’t actually care much about the danger, but as long as no one can prove otherwise they can take many valuable discoveries and pretend they are only doing the right thing.
“Well given that I grew up in a castle as a servant, and I’ve heard the story several times I wouldn’t put money on that if I were you.” He rolled his eyes. Katy wasn’t wrong, but she had only had to hear it several times because she kept falling asleep when he told it, or forgetting the story by the very next day. If it wasn’t such an important tool for explaining why the kingdoms run the way they do he would have just given up.
Lily frowned, and then sighed. “Whatever, at least these things aren’t graded like our performance in classes. When do you think we’ll get an event that just lets me go to town against enemies? Fighting the shades was cool, and if I had gotten that far burning some bandits would have been fun, but I want a real challenge, something that can really take the heat.” No one would dispute that Lily was the most aggressive member in the group.
“You’re welcome to spar with Reign. He’s just about as fireproof as it gets.” Probably not to the point where the dragon could shrug off her purple flames, but almost anything else she threw at him would be like trying to melt metal with a candle. “Besides, he could use the exercise. Fighting is about the only thing he’ll agree to, and I like to face other opponents now and then, not just him all the time.” Well the dragon had agreed to flying him out to Lake Spire, and even to accompany him on his journey to World’s End. He had honestly expected Reign to either try and stop him or to just leave him to his own devices.
“I might take you up on that. My familiar is a pretty solid sparring partner, but I have to go so far out of my way to avoid making everyone super uncomfortable.” He gave her a sympathetic look. Dragons were extremely rare, and for the most part considered to be non-violent creatures since they rarely attack people, and usually when they do it’s because they were provoked. Demons on the other hand were considered to be frightening monsters. They were well known for their deals. They always met their end of the deal, but usually not in the way the person intended. Of course they didn’t cause problems with stuff like that. Good old fashion slaughter was a crime they were known for as well entire towns wiped out in the blink of an eye.
So really people being uncomfortable around a powerful demon like that was more than understandable. Especially given that Lily herself wasn’t exactly what some would consider the patient type. “Oh good, if Reign is going to be busy sparring with Lily then we can get some sparring in. I wanted to test out some of my combo moves with my familiar, and you’re the only other fighter in our group that uses more technique based spells rather than power or utility.” Katy smirked at him confidently.
He narrowed his eyes. Her statement wasn’t entirely accurate since Siara could be considered a technical caster, but that wasn’t what concerned him. Her familiar wasn’t a direct combat type, so it wouldn’t really be 2 on 1 for the combatants, but that didn’t mean the familiar couldn’t be powerful support. That didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t win though. She wasn’t the only one who had picked up some new tricks. “Alright, I’m game. It will be good to see how much you’ve improved.”
“A lot. That damned cat is a menace.” His wolf ears twitched as he heard Lily’s grumbling. He laughed. He knew all his friends had been sparring, and had even had his copies spar with them every now and then, but he didn’t really know how well each match up went. Apparently Lily wasn’t a huge fan of Katy’s fighting style.Sadly he didn’t have a chance to make a jab about it since Roran appeared right as he opened his mouth. Followed less than a second later by Cynthia.
“Wow, that was a real blast! That simulation was amazing! Do you think they’d let me see the research notes?! We should ask Azura! I know you’d want to see them too. I bet between us 2 we could probably figure it out! Siara would probably be a big help too with her nature based magic, I’m not particularly good with that kind of magic myself!” It was a little challenging to keep up with Roran when he was super excited about something, but he was more than willing to make the effort. After all, Roran was the first person he’d met that enjoyed magical research as much as he did, and having a research partner had already proven its value on a few occasions.
“I don’t know, the bandit queen was terrifying. The second I tried to open a telepathic channel with her she became so much more aggressive. I ended up having to break my amulet.” He winced. He had been pretty worried when he first felt Cynthia in his head too, so he could understand how it would lead to that kind of reaction given the circumstances.
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“Yeah, she was super strong though! I had a ton of fun fighting her. She got super pissed when I disintegrated her scimitars, but she wasn’t as tough without them so I took her out fairly easily after that!” Ahh so maybe it was the lost scimitar that had made her so furious. Sentimental value? He guessed it didn’t really matter.
“Really? I never got a chance to fight her. I killed some of her bandits, but it wasn’t really worth risking to get close to her.” Katy was definitely the stealthiest of their party, if he was being honest he was a little jealous sometimes. Especially hearing that she had avoided the whole bandit thing by just sneaking in there.
“Yeah, she was pretty strong, I had to get pretty creative to fight her, but it also turns out that she wasn’t a bad guy so that was an interesting twist.” It hurt his pride a little to hear how easily Roran had bested Deidra, but he knew that different people had different abilities, and some of them were better suited to certain tasks. In this case Roran was far more suited to deal with an opponent that was overly reliant on their weapon.
“What?! She wasn’t bad? But she was a bandit?! I’m sure lucky it was a simulation, or I’d feel terrible right now!” He wondered if there was a right answer for this event. A correct path for them to take. At this point he wasn’t sure. Obviously breaking the amulet was a loss. He’d guess that putting on the crown was a loss. But Katy, Roran, and him had all completed the event in different ways. Was only 1 of them correct?
“I got that feeling too, but unfortunately communications kind of broke down as soon as they started.” Cynthia did have a disadvantage on that front for sure. Her telepathy was fine now since he understood how it worked, and was used to it, but when she first used it on him it had taken a surprising amount of focus not to attack her. They needed to find a way for her to broadcast her words audibly instead of just through the mind, just in case she’s ever on her own. He imagined Lilian wouldn’t be too happy with them if they let Cynthia get hurt.
“Yeah, turns out she was a descendent of the one who had originally had the crown made and giving it to her would allow her to purify it. At least she was able to sign a contract confirming that wasn’t a lie, and take the crown without immediately having her circuits tear her to pieces so I assume that was the truth.” Technically he had just confirmed that she had no intentions to bring harm with the crown and that her goal was in fact to protect it. She was a very ends justify the means kind of person though, so he couldn’t be sure that the contract would really work as well as it should, not that it really mattered since she didn’t actually exist… Or at least not anymore? He wasn’t sure how historically accurate the story was.He knew that the kingdom of glass was a real thing, but beyond that most of the story has no supporting evidence.
“Oh really? That sounds neat.” He rolled his eyes at Katy’s nonchalant response. He knew her well enough to know she was doing it just to aggravate him. Not that she was pretending not to care. Though it baffled him Katy had never seemed to take any interest in anything historical in nature. Like the fact it actually happened somehow automatically made the story boring.
“Fascinating! So defeating all the bandits wasn’t the only way to complete the simulation! Also given what you're saying, I have to assume that the means by which the constructs of the simulation were given personalities was far more in depth than I had assumed. I assumed they just had someone controlling Arbeid directly, and that’s why he was so life-like, but if multiple characters had that same depth then there simply isn’t any way for the school to have enough people on staff to manage that for every student. Oooh! This is so exciting! What kind of magic do you think it took to set something like this up?! Not to mention managing it for hundreds of students all at the same time with at least 4 different simulations going at the same time. Each one having roughly 40-50 people going through it?”
At least Roran wouldn’t get bored when he talked shop. “I have certain theories on that front. I don’t have any guarantees just yet, but I’m assuming they are using spirit magic for the simulations of living creatures. It would have to be fairly advanced, but I think given some time I could make a much less advanced version of the skill.” Spirit magic was after all his specialty. Plus enchantments would probably make it much easier. Since setting an enchantment that would cause certain behavior and give the temporary being certain autonomy would be less inclined to run into issues than whatever overarching control system they had used for the simulation.
“Ughh. The 2 of you shouldn’t be allowed in a room together. No one wants to hear you guys rambling about magic theory.” He glared at Lily. She just raised her eyebrow with an unspoken challenge. His eyes narrowed, he was going to have to get Reign something nice to make sure the dragon mops the floor with his friend.
He heard Katy groan. “You have no idea. I had to listen to him drone on and on about theory for years. At least now he has someone to talk about it with who isn’t me.” Ah it seemed that he’d have to get back at Katy as well in his own spar. He wondered if they’d agree to a 3 v 2. Counting Katy’s familiar even though it’s currently only effective as support.
“I’ll remember that next time there is a test we need to study for. I hope both of you have been attending the theoretical classes since that’s your weakest area.” They both paled. He’d still get them back during the spar, but he could get in a few shots before then. Siara appeared during the brief silence his comment had caused.
“Stupid desert. Why couldn’t the event have been in a jungle, but no it had to be a desert.” Siara was grumbling to herself. He was only even able to hear her because of his increased senses, and even then it was a close thing making out the actual words.
“Rough time in the simulation?” He decided to let Lily and Katy stew in their worry for a bit longer as Cynthia was laughing soundlessly, and Roran appeared to be holding in a laugh of his own.
“The first part was fine, but I’m not well designed for fighting in the desert. I was only even able to hold out as long as I did because of Gaia.” Katy’s head snapped up. Apparently putting her worry about future tests on hold for a minute.
“What do you mean with Gaia’s help? I thought we weren’t allowed to have our familiar’s with us for these events?” He laughed. She really needed to pay more attention to how things are worded. He would have thought she’d have learned that by now, but she always seemed to rely on him for that kind of thing.
“I believe the announcer’s words back during the fall festival were that you couldn’t have your familiar with you for this event. Not for events as a whole.” He had tried to get Reign to do it, but Reign had insisted that he had already agreed to doing him a pretty major favor. Which to be fair the dragon had. Flying him to Lake Spire, and then traveling with him the rest of the way were by no means small things even individually. Together… Well he felt it was more than fair to let the dragon laze about for a bit longer.
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier! I mean I finished it easy enough anyway, but it would have been way easier to make sure no one spotted the escaping prisoners if I had Phantasma with me.” In all honesty it just hadn’t occurred to him that Katy didn’t know that already, but he didn’t have to say that.
“You shouldn’t rely on me so much. It was 1 thing when you literally had no other options, but now you are just as capable of gathering info as I am. You have access to all the same tools.” Well if he wasn’t counting his copy ability anyway, but there wasn’t much that could be done to equalize that particular skill.
Katy’s eyes narrowed. “Not all of us can be in 5 places at once you know. I don’t get to study, hangout, and train all at the same time. At best I can do 2 of them at once.” That was a mistake Katy made regularly. It seemed a sound enough argument on the face. He’d even agree with her, assuming it was just him and her on that metric that was.
“And yet most of the other students go to theory classes and make sure to keep their grades up. Believe it or not I don’t have enough time on my hands to tutor everyone who is passing their classes.” She frowned, but didn’t refute his argument. Of course he’d still be helping them study, but it wasn’t untrue that they needed to be able to get this information on their own. Especially given that he was going to have very limited manpower at the school soon.