CHAPTER 76: THE REPORT

After a few hours of helping around, Soren finally made his way back to his room. Another exhausting day had passed.

Still, he knew that there was still another hour or so before he fell asleep, so he decided to resume his reading. After all, the promised report was finally going to have to be made the next day.

I’ve learned most of what needs to be learned… I think. His thoughts glanced back at the past few laborious days—the constant shift from one book to the next without many meaningful breaks.

With his head full of review material, Soren blew the candle and tucked himself for bed. Another exhausting day was going to descend upon him.

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The next morning was the usual—help Nicholas with the library. Curiously, he spotted way less people roaming the endless book-filled halls. It was as if something else had taken all their attention.

How curious… He frowned.

Either way, Soren wasn’t about to slack off. Nicholas wasn’t the type to let anyone do so, not even himself.

Sighing to himself, he completed the boring work after a few hours. Though, this time, because of how many less people he had to deal with during the shift, he had much more time to peruse around and find books to read.

Most of his time during work today was spent in the history section, so he decided to go through the books there.

In the afternoon, his self-study session was spent writing a report of everything he had learned instead. He decided to keep it concise since Sienna was most likely going to test him.

And as the night rolled in, his time to visit the underground eden had finally arrived. Soren steeled himself and glanced down at the scroll-paper in his hand.

4 weeks, huh? He has spent around a month in this world now. Aside from his overall knowledge about the world itself, his own abilities have also been slowly growing with time. He also knew that it would probably speed-up now that his Soul Realm was close to solidifying.

Curiously, aside from all of that, he was much more proud of his language skills. Back then, he was only able to somewhat string along sentences in both Yasini, Yadrian and Vinuan. Now, however, he was able to actually write fully in Vinuan without any issues. His progress with the other two languages had slowed, but he doubted he would need them currently anyway. And then there was Scripted Runic as well. The language of mysticism. His time with Cassia had managed to help him a lot with that. Being able to see and even engage with spellform equations was truly a fruitful experience—he didn’t doubt his decision to be her assistant one bit.

As he made his way through the garbage heap of academic materials below the library and through the corridors of the abandoned dungeon, Soren finally made his way to the forest underneath a false night sky.

This was his second time here.

He slowly remembered the route Cassia had taken last time and headed for the marble canopy at the center. Just like the last time he had seen it, piles of books and scrolls were laid unceremoniously across the floor and cyan grass. Though, he did notice that their placements were different.

She must have done a lot of reading as well…

He walked confidently to the canopy where the woman with silver hair rested comfortably, one book in her hand and a miniature star in the other. She glanced at him and signalled for him to come closer.

“Soren. I see you’re much more comfortable then the last time I’ve seen you. I am very glad.”

“Comfortable?” He tilted his head. Sienna nodded.

“Yes. Back when you first visited me, there was a calculated look in your eyes.” She giggled, “As if you were trying to understand my motives. I can still see that look now, however. But there is something else missing.” She smiled gently.

Soren crossed his arms. “What is missing?”

“Desperation.” She said plainly.

Soren glanced down at the blades of grass covering his boots and smiled.

She followed, “I can see that your time with Cassia has definitely helped you find a good rhythm. I am very happy that you two are getting along…”

Soren nodded, “Yes, although she can be very bratty, Cassia is a good person.” Even with her mild impatience, she was diligent enough to answer every one of his questions, regardless of whether it seemed stupid or not. In fact, she went above and beyond to include him in her work whenever it seemed possible so that he could gain more experience, even when it slowed down her work flow.

In a way, he somewhat understood her perspective. After all, he too possessed rare affinities that would have given him nasty looks if any other scholar found out. To them, having an affinity that has no history or background was as good as saying that your career was dead.

In a way, Star Fate Guild flourished when it came to bringing even the most hard-headed people up. None of the members in this cohort should have possibly had a connection with each other—every one of them was different from the rest in a number of ways. And yet, they were all glued together by fate… Or maybe, Sienna’s presence itself acted as the glue.

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Cassia was one such odd ball in a group of odd balls. Her motivations were still unknown to him—he didn’t know what exactly was driving her to continue her studies as a magi even when it was infinitely harder for her than her peers. But it didn’t matter. Because he too shared in that motivation. Both of them faced similar challenges—at one time in her magi career, she too was just as clueless as Soren was now, and she understood that. Soren noticed just how much effort she was putting into teaching him because of it.

Sienna giggled. “The pressure that girl faced when she first joined the guild was somewhat similar to yours… Not completely though.” She closed the book in her hands—the miniature star slowly disappeared as well.

“How is your relationship with Myrin going?”

The mention of his name made him frown slightly. “Still rocky, but I don’t really care.” He glanced around the piles of books. “To him, an insult against you is like an insult against god. It’s kinda hard to recover from that.”

Realizing what he had said sounded rude, he scratched the back of his head. “I apologize.”

Sienna shook her head. “No, I understand…” She glanced down with a slightly sorrowful smile. “To Myrin, I am more than just a teacher. I am his savior. His salvation. His reason to live.”

Soren’s frown deepened. He remembered the bits about his past that he had picked up from others as well as what he knew personally during his time in Yadria. As an exiled noble, Myrin’s early teen years were spent mostly being a homeless artist scraping for pennies. Until Sienna showed up.

It kinda felt like deja vu. Nicholas had also told him about Cassia’s background as a street orphan.

Is the mistress going around collecting homeless kids or something? The thought made him chuckle inwardly—he tried not to show it.

Sienna followed up, “But I do know that eventually, he will grow his wings.”

Soren remembered the choice Myrin made when they were readying themselves to leave Yadria. He somewhat doubted Sienna’s statement here. The man had decided to leave behind his past for his current life, regardless of the past glory and luxury he used to enjoy.

Grow his wings? Talk about being hopeful… He doubted Myrin would ever learn to be independent. After all, his whole life had been him being chased away from others—how can he ever give up the one group of people that truly care for him? To him, this guild had become not just family, but a way of life itself.

Soren sighed. “No offense, but I honestly don’t care what he does with his life. If he chooses to stay the way he is, or changes, it doesn't really affect me.”

“You’re right,” she giggled. “Let’s begin the report then.”

Soren handed her the report he had written and waited for her to finish reading. When she did, she began to ask him questions regarding the info. Aside from general questions on how axioms function or the countless laws the govern spellforms, she would periodically also ask about his own opinions on the countless schools of thoughts that revolved around runology. After all, the book he read on the subject outlined many distinct forms of divinations practiced across Yarian. The mountain people of Tolarion for example, relied on the constellations. Yadrians on the other side of the continent were adept at using nature itself. Seed bowls, wooden tablets, and many other intricate mediums.

“Now that you have a basic understanding of most of this, there should be one main question in your mind. What medium should you use?” She said plainly.

Medium, huh… The question lingered in his mind. After witnessing Cassia and learning more about Runology, he realized that although different cultures utilized different methods for divination, most resorted to using personal mediums. This was because of the closeness the item holds to the person. The more personal the medium for divination was, the easier it was to interpret what the divination means.

Cassia, in her brilliance, managed to discover a way to utilize her own Soul Weapon as a medium for divination. Although he hadn’t seen Myrin utilize a personal medium of his own, his creativity in utilizing even the simplest aspects of nature itself as a medium could also be seen from the lens of his affinities being closely related to nature in the first place.

What should I use? His first thought was his Soul Weapon. After all, it literally was the closest item he had to himself. No, it was literally himself.

But as he thought about it more, he realized how daunting of a task it would be. Yes, [Eyes of the Fairy] did act as a medium that connected him to the Beyond. But it was also very taxing. Runological studies take hours to complete, unlike normal divinations.

As for his ability, even with his pain tolerance, the longest he had gotten it to work for was three and a half minutes. And even that was already straining it past its limit. Without rune fragments to increase the authority of his own abilities, that will most likely stay that way.

He glanced at Sienna who was patiently awaiting an answer and sighed. “I don’t know.”

She smiled. “That’s exactly the answer I was hoping for. Rushing this won’t do any good. And before even that, you’ll need to form a connection to The Records of Enigma.”

She glanced up and down at him, analyzing his state. “How is your Soul Realm going? Has it solidified?”

He shook his head. “Only partially. I can expand it for a few seconds before collapsing. Cassia said it might take a few more days.”

“No need for that,” Sienna said, much to Soren’s confusion. Opening her palm, a miniature star rapidly formed, and before he could react, she thrusted it into his chest once again.

Soren took a step back and glanced at himself. “What… What did you do?”

“Try expanding your Soul Realm,” she said with a grin.

Confused, he decided to do as he was bid. Soon, the familiar pink and violet fog expanded rapidly in all directions. It was as if he had been doused in perfume—countless floral scents invaded his nose. In the corners of his eyes, illusory butterflies could be seen that would immediately disappear the moment he focused on them.

“But… How?” His Soul Realm was not collapsing. It had been completely solidified. He glanced at Sienna with a curious fervor in his eyes.

Sienna giggled. “It’s simple really. I just accelerated time itself for your Soul Realm.”

Simple, my ass. The more he learned about Phantasms and their abilities, the more miraculous they seemed. Is there anything left in this world that can surprise me?

“Why didn’t you do this earlier then?” He questioned.

“Because I knew you wouldn’t be able to focus on your studies.” She giggled. “If I allowed you to use your Soul Realm earlier, you would have probably tried to sneak away time at trying to create your first Channel of Willpower, no?”

He smiled devilishly. How crafty of her… There was truly a lot going on behind that innocent smile of hers.