Within the reinforced walls of the academy’s restraining chambers, nearly a dozen individuals stood around a particular chamber, watching the student raging within. The student was none other than Andrew Willowood, but his entire aesthetics had been changed so thoroughly that he was barely recognizable.
His usual vivid green hair had grown longer, falling nearly to his waist, and his entire skin had transformed to bark—the effect of a skill. A change that hadn’t come as a result of a skill, though, was the three blazing seals on his chest. They shone with a startling intensity that almost distracted the audience from the biggest change of all. An icon!
Icons were the ultimate skills, an embodiment of one's beliefs and ideals. It could be described as a person’s true nature given life in the form of their affinity. There was, however, one problem, and that was the fact that evolved awakeneds didn’t gain icons, or at least they weren’t supposed to. There were a few exceptional individuals who had achieved such a feat, though, but those people were geniuses, and Andrew, no matter how one spun it, certainly wasn’t.
Amongst the crowd of people watching in amazement was principal Zatya, Rahim, professor Caldwell, professor Aleran, professor Alaric, and a ton of other first-year professors who had rushed to the chamber as soon as they heard the news.
While they watched, Andrew roared and attacked the glass walls with a monstrosity of metallic vines and wood, causing the chamber to flare brightly with runes as it fought to contain the force behind his attack. The walls rattled violently, and Rahim winced. “Are we sure this chamber will hold him?”
Principal Zatya didn’t respond; instead, she glared at the glass chamber and said, “Notify his parents; we need them to be prepared for any possible fallout.”
Rahim nodded, moving out of the hall to complete his task. After he left, Principal Zatya turned to the other occupants of the chamber and asked. “Have you ever seen something like this before?”
“Never.” Professor Alaric responded, while the others just shook their heads in amazement. “I have heard of geniuses gaining an icon before the advanced class, but to gain three seals and an icon all at the same time? I can’t even imagine how such a thing is possible.”
“Yet here it is before our very eyes.” Professor Dubois frowned and cocked her head in fascination. “What do you think must have caused it?
They all exchanged confused glances until Gwendolyn Blackwood spoke, her tone slightly deferential. “We don’t know what caused it, and I doubt we will until he comes to his senses. However, from Agent Everglade’s report, Andrew had activated a skill that connected him to the trees in the forest.”
“That’s not nearly enough to cause something like this.” Professor Dubois snorted and eyed her curiously. “Do you not have a similar skill? I’ve seen you connect with trees before.”
Gwendolyn shook her head. “Andrew’s skill must be very different from mine then, because mine cannot do that.”
Professor Dubois sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering something about an insight-awakened being being completely useless in giving insight to something he had witnessed with his own eyes. Gwendolyn didn’t think Agent Everglade would take kindly to her words.
“What kind of skill could he have activated, though?” Professor Caldwell asked, too curious to leave the topic. “I mean, the amount of insight and understanding required to gain even a single seal is astounding, not to mention three seals!”
“And all at once.” Professor Alaric added. “That is a marked distinction. He gained everything all at once, not one after the other. That suggests he must have entered the origin plane with so much understanding of his element as to be accorded all three seals at once.”
Murmurs of amazement echoed from the other professors, but while they all tried to understand how such a thing was possible, Zatya was already wondering how to use this event to boost the academy’s reputation. This would be big news, and if handled well, a potential stepping stone for the academy. With people like Aodhán and Andrew being in the news all the time, the academy’s reputation was sure to take a huge leap forward.
In the last six months alone, the 5th academy had been at the top of the newspapers nearly a dozen times, courtesy of Aodhán and some other prominent students. By the time this got out, Zatya wanted to be prepared to take the most advantage of it. A glance at Kaelith was all the signal he needed, and the next minute, he excused himself from the chambers to begin drafting press statements and missives.
His exit didn’t go unnoticed as Professor Dubois shot her a look and quickly raised her chip to her lips, most likely sending a message to the Awakened council. Zatya didn’t care, though. It didn’t matter what moves the council wanted to make. This was her academy, and she would make sure to milk this entire event for what it was worth.
She turned her gaze back to Andrew, who had gone absolutely berserk, attacking the glass chamber even more violently than Aodhán did and with a lot more power too. Zatya wasn’t too concerned, though. The chambers had held peak advanced class individuals before. A single evolved class student shouldn’t be a problem. Icon or not.
The boy attacked the glass walls again, and this time he drained an entire seal into the attack, causing the runes to flare so brightly they lit up the entire room.
“Astounding!” Someone breathed from the back, and Zatya glanced to the side to see Professor Alaric moving towards the glass chamber, seemingly mesmerized as the boy attacked again, draining another seal and turning the entire chamber into a deathtrap of bladed vines and poison. When he was close enough to touch the glass chamber, he looked back and shook his head. “The most surprising thing about all this is that I never would have expected it from anyone, much less him.”
“Why not?” Principal Zatya asked, genuinely curious.
“Because he’s not a genius!” Alaric exclaimed. “Students like Cyrus and Aodhán are geniuses, but even their feats are nothing compared to this!”
“I beg to differ.” Professor Caldwell shook her head in disagreement. “Andrews's achievement is still within the acceptable bounds of his class. One more tier and he would have been qualified to gain an icon. Aodhán, on the other hand, has achieved what some mythics still haven’t, and that is just another level of genius.”
Another argument ensued about that, but while the professors argued, comparing the achievements of one student with another, Zatya was just glad to know that she might have just raised another champion candidate.
Rahim returned a few minutes later, and when they turned to look at him, he swallowed nervously and announced. “The entire Willowood family is at our doorsteps, principal.”
***
The rumors of Andrew’s unprecedented advancement had already spread like wildfire when Aodhán and the other students returned from Nilhal. So, with Gwendolyn’s permission, Aodhán skipped the assessment part of the exam and raced towards principal Zatya’s office, where he found all of Andrew’s immediate family, excluding Colonel Fortuna and Ashley, gathered on one side of the office while Rahim and Kaelith stood behind the principal on the other side.
The number of family members present wasn’t nearly as frightening as the rumors had suggested, but perhaps the fact that Andrew’s parents had shown up at all was noteworthy enough. The moment Aodhán stepped into the office, they all turned to stare at him, and Aodhán breathed out a sigh of relief when he noticed that no one was sobbing or consoling or any other dreadful stuff.
Aodhán had only heard a little about what happened before rushing over. All he knew was that Andrew was undergoing a twisted effect so intense that the school had to call his parents.
Andrew’s mother, Khaelar, glided towards him with a smile and wrapped him up in a tight hug. “Hi Aodhán, or should I say, Mr. Inheritor. Fortuna is pissed she wasn’t able to drag that information out of you the last time you were at the mansion.”
“Uhm…” Aodhán chuckled awkwardly and hugged her back. “It’s not something I really like to announce.”
“As should be the case.” Baron Willowood spoke up and walked towards them to shake Aodhán's hand after his wife finally let go. “I’m proud of you, son, and I couldn’t be more glad that you and Andrew are friends.”
“Yes. Very proud.” Khaelar added with a serious expression, and Aodhán just knew he wasn’t ever getting rid of Andrew even if he wanted to. With his new status as an Inheritor, he would be lucky to avoid marriage proposals within the next few months.
Diendre came to hug him next, and after some small talk about his studies and life in general, Aodhán moved on to the real reason he had come here. He took one of the empty seats and asked. “How’s Andrew really? I heard some things, but I don’t know the details.”
The whole family turned their gaze to Principal Zatya, who smiled tightly. “Andrew is just fine. He’s undergoing a very intense twisted effect, though, and we are thinking he probably wouldn’t be out of containment for a week or two with the severity of the mental inversion.”
“That’s…that can’t be good.” Aodhán frowned. The mental inversion that came with the twisted effect was no joke, and to experience it for more than a week was definitely not great for a person’s mental health.
Principal Zatya shrugged. “It’s not like we can stop it from running its course. We’ll just have to hope he pulls out of this with his mental faculties intact.”
Khaelar whispered a quick prayer to Raol, and the others followed suit. Even Rahim and Kaelith bowed their heads while Principal Zatya simply sighed and said. “It’s good that you are here, Aodhán, because there are certain things we can’t explain with Andrew’s latest advancement. Perhaps you can shed some light on the matters.”
Aodhán nodded eagerly. “Sure. I’ll be glad to help. Is something wrong with his seal?”
There was a beat of silence in the room as everyone exchanged confused glances, but it was broken when Principal Zatya suddenly cleared her throat and asked. “Aodhán, do you even know what happened to Andrew?”
“Not really.” Aodhán frowned and shook his head. “All I heard were rumors of him undergoing a twisted effect, which meant he had finally gained a seal. I began to worry when I heard that it was a very intense, twisted effect, but when I heard that his family was around, I knew it had to be serious. That’s why I rushed down here.”
Principal Zatya sighed and massaged her temples, realizing that she should have expected this sort of impulsive behavior from Aodhán. It was sweet in a way to be so fiercely protective of his friends, but that was just another web of emotional entanglement she would just have to cut away in the end. What in the Ascendant's name was Helzarvauth doing with the boy anyway? She had asked him to carefully and discreetly manage the boy's emotions, yet several weeks later, there didn’t seem to be any signs of increased logic in Aodhán’s actions. Perhaps she needed to have another talk with the creepy empath.
While she thought of this, Baron Willowood spoke up, his face tinged with pride and worry. “There’s a reason Andrew’s twisted effect is so intense, and it’s not because he gained a very high level of inspiration but because he gained multiple.” He smiled and continued. “Andrew gained 3 seals and an icon all at once.”
The words echoed like thunder in Aodhán’s mind, and for a moment, he just stared open-mouthed in shock. After Andrew gained {Mycelium Network}, they had predicted this exact thing, but after a few weeks, Aodhán had discarded their earlier thoughts as delusional fantasies and had even encouraged Andrew to bring his expectations lower.
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His reasons had been pretty reasonable. The skill was a simple evolved skill, and they had never heard of an evolved skill granting a person that many seals at once. Secondly, Aodhán and Daruk had felt it was more likely that the skill would grant Andrew a single powerful inspiration that would grant him a single skill along with a very powerful skill. That was why Aodhán had rushed here, worried that Andrew had been granted an inspiration so large that it had broken him, and his parents had had to be called.
But the fact that Andrew had gained not one but three seals all at once, and on top of that, an icon?! It was unbelievable. To gain three seals at once was already unprecedented, at least that he knew of, but to gain an icon on top of all that was just beyond the scope of what even their fantasies had managed to conjure.
After nearly a minute of high-perception thinking, Aodhán let out a deep breath and shook his head. “Wow. Just wow.”
Baron Nikolai chuckled. “Yes, it took us a while to get over the shock too, but right now, we’re more concerned with how he managed to achieve such a thing than the impossibility of it all. Do you have any idea how he must have done it?”
“I…” Aodhán began but hastily shook his head. He trusted everyone within this office to a degree, but a skill like the {Mycelium Network} was precious, and from the look of things, extremely powerful, capable of granting a person three seals when activated in a forest like Nilhal for the first time, and not to shade the spiritual forest, but Nilhal was only ranked 6th amongst the largest forests in the entire kingdom.
It was far from the largest. It was barely even top five. What sort of miracle could a person conjure if they activated the skill in the VerdantSea, the largest forest in all of Ragnarok, which spanned a landmass so large and complex it was nicknamed the eternal forest, or AshenBriar, the second largest forest, which was located in the 1st sector, a place whose atmospheric energy density was rumored to be nearly double that of the 5th sector?
No. Aodhán couldn’t even imagine it, but that alone made him realize just how valuable this skill was. It had the potential to be a family legacy, the sort of skill that nobles killed each other for, and it would be foolish to give it out so carelessly.
He glanced at Rahim and Kaelith apologetically and said, “It’s very sensitive information.”
His intentions were clear, and when Andrew’s family saw how serious he was, they perked up. Rahim and Kaelith, however, hesitated, and it wasn’t until Principal Zatya finally asked them to leave that they shuffled out of the office, glaring daggers at Aodhán.
After the door shut behind them, Principal Zatya waved a hand, unleashing a gentle wind that reminded Aodhán of autumn. The wind didn’t disperse as one would have expected; instead, it formed an almost solid bubble around the five of them, ensuring that their next words would be completely private.
The increased confidentiality eased Aodhán a little, but he still wasn’t completely comfortable. Not daring to glance at principal Zatya, Aodhán leaned towards the Willowoods and said, “What I’m about to say has the potential to raise your family from a barony to a county or even more. It’s that sensitive. Do you want me to say this in front of the principal?”
Baron Willowood’s eyes widened, and after exchanging a glance with his wife, he glanced at Principal Zatya, who was suddenly the picture of composed humility and politeness.
Maybe he was exaggerating the issue, or even underestimating the potential of the skill; Aodhán didn’t know, but he knew Principal Zatya, and if she decided to take an interest in Andrew, Aodhán didn’t think his friend would survive.
After a few seconds of tense silence, though, Baron Willowood nodded and said, “You can say it. I trust the principal.”
Aodhán nodded and then launched into an explanation, only reserving the most sensitive of information, because it would be better if it came from Andrew himself. He refrained from describing the skill in detail, only stating the parts that were most important to the matter at hand.
When he finished speaking, the office was completely silent as Principal Zatya and Andrew’s parents tried to figure out what to do with the information they had just been given.
The silence was broken a moment later when Principal Zatya suddenly cleared her throat and said, “There’s something else that makes this skill very concerning, and that is the fact that it is an evolved skill. It will grow in strength when Andrew ascends into the advanced class and once more when he gets into the Mythic class. My point is the skill may be limited in range and strength for now, but it will grow with each evolution. How much more of the forest will Andrew be able to connect his mind to at once when he steps into the advanced class?”
Aodhán’s heart shuddered when he finally understood Principal Zatya’s statement, but he was far from the only one. Diendre gasped, eyes bulging in shock, while Baron Willowood simply let out a bark of laughter so loud, it threatened to rip the ball of swirling wind apart.
Aodhán couldn’t believe such a thing was possible. In essence, the {Mycelium Network} was a cheat skill. No, it was the cheat skill.
If the range of {Mycelium Network} increased when Andrew stepped into the Advanced class, then that would grant Andrew the ability to connect his mind to a larger mass of the forest at once. Wouldn’t such an experience bring new understanding? New inspiration? And if that was the case, would Andrew even ever have to worry about his spiritual cultivation ever again? While the rest of them ruminated and meditated on the nature of their affinity, Andrew could just simply coalesce his understanding from the forest itself.
Aodhán doubted the skill would scale in such a manner, but what if it did? What if it scaled in an even larger manner?
Khaelar sighed and said to Aodhán. “Thank you for your discretion in telling us this. I am glad Andrew has you as a friend, and I must confess that I didn’t think my son had the mental capabilities to come up with such a powerful skill.”
“Me too.” Baron Willowood said. “It is most pleasantly surprising, and I can only imagine that it is as a result of your…influence. Thank you.”
Aodhán quickly deduced the meaning behind Baron Willowood's words, and he shook his head. “I had no influence in the creation of this skill at all. Andrew came up with it on his own.”
The baron and his wife exchanged a glance, and although they nodded after that, Aodhán doubted they believed him. Their conversation continued for a few minutes after that before it shifted to a discussion on how to handle the media explosion that would most certainly occur after this news hit the press if it hadn’t already.
Aodhán wasn’t sure he should be present for this part of the meeting, but it was too enlightening to willingly walk out of. After a few more minutes, though, as the discussion began to delve deeper into noble politics and the situation of the war, Aodhán was finally asked to leave by the principal.
The Willowoods wished him well, urging him not to be a stranger in their home and even inviting him to an event during the holidays. Aodhán couldn’t say no, and five minutes later, as he stepped out of the office, he was holding two invitation cards in his hands, one for Daruk and the other for himself.
Aodhán sent a text to Daruk, but when no reply was forthcoming, he assumed his brother was still busy with his exams. That reminded him that he still had his own assessment to complete, and with a less worried heart, Aodhán rushed back to get his plants evaluated.
Fortunately, the assessment was still ongoing when he arrived, and without hesitation, Aodhán joined the queue. With the thought of Andrew now settled in his mind, Aodhán’s earlier excitement returned, and as the queue slowly moved forward, Aodhán couldn’t help but wonder just how much he would gain after the assessment.
After making away with the rare shadow plant, he had spent the remaining five minutes of the exam gathering shadow plants as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he only managed to gather 3 plants, the last of which had been poorly harvested because he had been rushing. It was an uncommon-ranked plant, and although Aodhán was sure it wouldn’t sell as well as the others, he figured he could still get a couple of silvers for it.
The line moved quickly with many students submitting the exact amount of plants requested or even less than that. Azul had managed to gather a total of fifteen plants, only five of which were uncommon ranked, and she was ranked second so far. The first place was currently held by Ursaz Urdania, who had gathered the same amount of plants but with seven uncommon-ranked plants instead.
Aodhán was certain that had Andrew participated in the exam, he probably would have gathered as much as he did or even more considering the effects of {Mycelium Network}. That skill was truly the ultimate cheat skill.
When he finally reached the front of the queue several minutes later, Aodhán smiled at Gwendolyn and said, “Thank you for letting me go earlier. Andrew is fine.”
“I know.” Gwendolyn nodded. “I saw him, even though I can barely understand what happened.”
Aodhán chuckled. “It is strange, I’ll give you that.”
“It is. I’m sure the principal and his family will get to the bottom of it before news gets out. The press can be very intense at times.”
“Tell me about it.” Aodhán laughed and then carefully poured out all the common and uncommon ranked plants he had gathered onto her table, eliciting a chorus of shocked gasps and widened eyes from the students who were still hanging around.
Even Gwendolyn seemed shocked, although he suspected her reasons were very different from those of his classmates. She raised an eyebrow and said. “I see that you were very busy within Nilhal. That core sensing ability of yours is a great cheat.”
“Thank you.” Aodhán grinned and pointed to the carefully stacked pile of plants. “How much will these fetch me?”
On the assessment table was a total of 39 awakened plants, seventeen of which were uncommon. Aodhán had held back the nightshade lotus, hoping to understand the difference in prices before revealing the rare ranked plant, which would obviously be priced higher. Also, since the nature laboratory was buying the plants at a slightly higher rate compared to the merchant pavilions, Aodhán was looking to learn a few important things first.
Gwendolyn assessed the plants with an experienced eye, separating them into two different piles, one for uncommon plants and the other for common plants. After that, she further separated each pile into two more piles, one elemental and the other conceptual.
Just when Aodhán thought she was done, she created two more piles, both consisting of light and shadow plants, one common and the other uncommon.
When she was finally done, she said. “Conceptual plants are costlier than elemental plants, but these two that can’t actually decide where they fall are even more expensive, so I believe you’ve bagged quite the fortune for a one-hour expedition.” She pointed to the common-ranked pile of elemental plants and said, “These are 6 silvers each, while the common conceptual plants are 8 silver coins each. The Light/Shadow ones are 9 silvers each.”
Aodhán nodded, having expected a much lesser price. In total, there were 7 elemental plants, 10 conceptual plants, and 5 versatile affinity plants within the common rank. This meant that if he chose to sell them all, he would get a total of 167 silver coins. That was about 17 gold coins.
Nodding in appreciation, Aodhán pointed to the uncommon pile and asked. “How about these ones?”
“The elemental plants are 12 silvers each, the conceptual plants are 15 silvers each, and the light/shadow ones are 16 silver coins each.”
Aodhán grinned, but before he could respond, Gwendolyn cut him off with a frown. “I can’t help but notice that one of these shadow plants was poorly harvested. I hope you don’t expect it to sell for the same rate as the others?”.
“No.” Aodhán grimaced, internally cursing Gwendolyn’s keen eyes. “How much can you buy that?”
“10 silvers at best, and that’s even stretching it.”
Not bothering to negotiate, Aodhán said. “Take it. I’m selling everything.”
Among the uncommon pile, there were 6 elemental plants, 8 conceptual plants, and 3 light/shadow plants. Aodhán did a quick mental calculation, and after deducting the price reduction for the poorly harvested shadow plant, he couldn’t suppress his growing grin. From the uncommon pile alone, he would gain a total of 234 silver coins.
Selling the entire thing would bag him a total of 400 silver coins, which translated into 40 whopping gold coins, and all for an hour of work. Damn! The life of a herb gatherer was looking more and more lucrative by the day.
Satisfied with the money he had earned so far, Aodhán decided it was time to bring out the rare ranked shadow plant and its fruit. With a grin, he gently pulled out the plant from his storage space and placed it on the table, eliciting a louder chorus of gasps from his classmates and a muffled curse from Azul, who looked like she couldn’t decide whether to punch him or marry him.
Ursaz, on the other hand, was more resigned, accepting that his moment in the spotlight had come to a brutal end. However, it was Gwendolyn’s reaction that caught Aodhán’s attention, and somehow, he just knew he had caused another problem!
His suspicions were proven correct an instant later when Master Lamarr suddenly appeared within the hall, with shadows clinging to her skin like water. Barely a second later, Professor Jorendil also appeared, stumbling out of the shadows in one corner and scowling at Master Lamarr as if to say, “How did this bitch get here before me?”
“Professor Jorendil—” Gwendolyn began, but he cut her off with a wave of his hands, saying, “I need the lotus. I sensed it. I will buy it.”
“I was here first. I will buy it.” Master Lamarr growled.
“Woman, nobody cares about you.”
Before their bickering could continue, however, another person suddenly appeared in the room, and when he released his aura, it was all Aodhán could do to keep himself from falling on top of the assessment table and squashing all of that money he had so judiciously gathered.
He looked up at the new arrival, noting the mythic eyes of swirling shadow and the utter sense of malevolence that hung oppressively around him. The man was tall and indubitably handsome, but the oppressive aura of malevolence that radiated off him made his beauty utterly impossible to appreciate.
“Professor Daemon,” Professor Jorendil scowled. “What are you doing here?”
But Professor Daemon completely ignored him and fixed his gaze on Gwendolyn. “The nightshade lotus. I sensed it. I’ve come to buy it off your hands. A student of mine needs it.”
Aodhán didn’t understand what all the ruckus was about with this nightshade lotus, but from the expressions of his classmates, many of whom were on the ground with him or outright unconscious, he suspected he might have missed the class where Valerie taught about this particular plant. One thing he did understand, though, was that this was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.
Leveraging nearly a quarter of his willpower pool, Aodhán forced himself to his feet, eliciting surprised looks from everyone, including Professor Daemon, who frowned in annoyance. Taking the flicker of emotion as a warning, Aodhán stopped halfway to his feet, back crooked and feet shuddering from the weight of the aura pressing down on him.
When he finally got himself to a reasonable degree, he forced a grin and said, “Dear esteemed professors, how about we make this an auction?”