Chapter 14
Nothing.
I pause, waiting for my consciousness to leave this avatar and be allowed to actually separate from this plane of existence.
Standing there, I’m so ready for this all to be over.
Yet, nothing happens.
For a moment, I wonder if I messed it up. Then a more sinister part of my mind has the idea that I did manage to separate from this avatar and that I cannot for whatever reason remember my time separating? It sounds plausible.
I mean honestly right now, everything has to be considered somewhat plausible. Everything from a glitch in the game making it so I somehow forget the outside world. If this is the case, then there are some serious ethical violations. As games should not be allowed to control or limit your mental inputs and outputs in that way.
Realizing that this is an ethical violation and one that should be reported immediately, I give a few commands that should be resolute and conducted outside the game’s logic.
“Data dump all collected data of current play session. Copy and store to external server, and post to social media platforms if not stopped within twenty-four hours by me.” I say out loud.
To anyone listening in, I likely sound like a fool, which is fine. At this point, I am beyond caring.
Instead, I give myself an eight count, more than long enough for my data to be stored and uploaded in triplicate.
Then nodding to myself I prepare for the next step.
“Logout.”
Pause.
Nothing.
Again, if I did log out, I don’t remember doing so. Almost as if no time has passed since I logged out to logging back in.
Tremble.
At this, my body begins to shake slightly at the idea that I am still having my memories stripped out with each logout and subsequent login.
Mentally I go through the different steps that could have happened. Right now there are two main ideas with multiple different variations, but as far as I can tell everything ultimately boils down to one of two options.
Option one. I am stuck in a game that is so immersive that my mind cannot recall my time outside of the game. This will make for a more immersive experience and would definitely be something I would sign up for on the outside, especially knowing how far I have gone with this character and how much time and effort I have put in. This option also assumes a few things. Namely that I am on some form of life support, and likely getting paid in some way. Probably something trivial, but when this is all over I should have over three months of back salary being paid. Unless of course this is a time dilation experience, where I will be paid, but not as much as normal. With this option it is in my best interest to keep going forward, towards pushing myself and seeing all of the new content and features that this world has to offer.
Honestly, I could really see myself signing up for some type of amazing beta testing of not only the new game scenario, but also the new immersion platform that is so realistic that I cannot differentiate when my mind is here and when it is out. Again, sort of scarry that this game can control my thoughts and effectively limit my mental experiences before entering, but that will all be part of the troubleshooting process at the end of this, right?
The other option, option two, is a bit more sinister, but ultimately means the same thing. Either my dream wish upon death has been achieved, or my worst nightmare has been achieved by being reincarnated into this Otome game. My dream was that I always wanted to be an actual character like Karen, one with blood of the ancients running in her veins and able to run around and fully explore every area of the world, not just the parts that don’t involve the Ancients. This is also my worst nightmare, as I am now inside the one avatar who cannot have a relationship with a paramour, especially with my sacred virgin blessing. Well, this isn’t entirely true as I can apparently have relationships with females, but that is something that I will deal with later as I still need time to think and adapt to this world.
Right now, I should focus on my goals. Both my goals in game, and goals I might have for when I am able to leave here.
As things stand, my main goal is above all else survival. For regardless of whether this is option one, or option two, my time here is fixed for as long as this avatar survives.
With survival as my key point, and now that I am finally at the University of Magic, I need to focus on what brought me here. Namely, I need to get my Attribute, Affinity, and Skill advancements chose and break through and past the standard C rank for almost all of my measurements that will help me survive longer in this world.
Then after my proficiencies in what I have are addressed, I next need to find more skills and learn to advance these to appropriate levels as well.
Now that I have had time to think about everything, I summarize all of my goals into three main parts.
Goals:
* Survive
* Improve and Specialize
* Learn new skills that can help you survive
With that as my reason for being here, I realize that I don’t quite need to stay here the full four years. The reason being is that tomorrow I will get a personalized recording plate, one that will track my Skills and Affinities that I want to have listed.
These Recording Plates are basically the game’s version of a portable and verified resume. While I don’t have to put all my Skills and Affinities onto the card, all that I allow to be placed on the card will be recorded with my proficiency as of the time of my last measurements and will serve as official documentation of my capabilities and accomplishments.
With this Recording Plate I can both prove myself as a talented magician, without having to wait an arbitrary amount of time to get a degree. Instead, I just prove myself proficient to the great system, the system notes my work and effort and then I have a permanent way to vouch for myself.
The card is also linked to you by blood, effectively making it soul bound, but not. Instead, there is a form of sympathetic magic associated with the card. Then if anyone casts a simple Verify spell on the card and the owner of said card is not within thirty feet of the card, then the recordings of the card will be erased.
You guessed it Verify is part of the open magic from the Ancients that almost everyone can use.
Yes, just thinking about that makes me so excited, as I realize that with this playthrough, or this life, whichever really happens, I can find all the open Ancient spells.
Mentally I try to call up and realize all of the spells that are known, along with those that are not as well known.
Known Spells of the Ancients:
Verify (L)- helps with proving the current status of Ancient generated documents and instruments.
Here the L means low, as in it is a lower tier of magic and can be used by everyone that has an E rank in magic or higher.
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Identify (M)- Can be used by anyone with sufficient understanding of magic to identify how someone else measures up the last time they were evaluated by Ancient technology, or magic.
This one shows a slightly deeper aspect of the world. With the M it means that it is Medium, or requires a D Rank or higher in magic to cast, and can only show the last imprint on the person, place, or object when they last came into contact with an Ancient evaluation system, similar to what we all used when joining the Academy. Or the last time someone was Appraised with Ancient magic.
Of course, this leads me to my next known ancient spell that everyone can use without a specified affinity.
Appraise (H)- This forces an intrusive scan on the targeted person, place, or thing that will evaluate its known Affinities, Skills, and Attributes, along with the ratings associated with each value.
Once again, the H stands for High, and requires a C Rank or higher in magic to cast. This one shows the information requested to the caster, but also updates the recipient of the spell’s ratings so that if they then had a Recording Plate, it could be updated with this new information.
However, this needs to be done by people that have the Very High, and Ultra level spells related to updating a Recording Plate. Also, as can be expected it requires a B Rank in magic to cast the Very High spells, and an A rank to cast the Ultra spells.
High Appraise (VH)- Forces the intrusive scan on a targeted person, place, or thing that will evaluate all Affinities, Skills, and Attributes, along with identifying the proficiencies, bloodlines, and blessings of said individual.
This was actually the spell used during the entrance ceremony. By getting the Ancient’s evaluation stone up and operational, the school is able to cast High Appraise on everyone, so long as a magician with sufficient power is there to continue channeling energy into the stone as students come up to be evaluated. These are things that you only learn in later years, as you beg more and more tasks assigned to you. One of the tasks is to effectively be a mana battery during the next year’s entrance ceremony. Not fun, and only gets a few merit points for you, which at that time are about worthless, but it does give you more insight into the world. That is also the only way to be exposed to the High Appraise spell, for it is carved into the stones that you empower and a quick AI translator copied the words and let you focus on casting the inscribed spell.
Next, we have the other important spell of the Ancients that the school had inscribed into a word press and that was of course Bind Information.
Bind Information (VH)- This forces the known information of a target to be bound to a particular metal slab. The higher the quality of metal used, the longer the binding will last.
Yes, that is how the game showed what was effectively a printing press, where metal was taken and squeezed with magic until it showed words written in common that identified a player’s true abilities to a perspective employer.
Of course, I already knew these spells as well, but before I accomplished my breakthroughs and was able to push my skills to their limits, there would be no point for me to record my progress in a slab of metal without having these breakthroughs. At least, there won’t be any purpose for me to engrave my current status in metal that will last.
Still, out of curiosity, I look around my room and then just as to be expected, there on my desk is my stuff I will need for the following day.
The list of items that I see on my desk bring back a wave of nostalgia for me. For there on the desk is a personalized note from the administrators welcoming me, and telling me about what to expect tomorrow, along with the items that I will need to take with me.
There on the desk is free paper, likely so I could write back to my parents or family if I wanted. This won’t happen, as I don’t have family. Well, I do, but it is just a father figure who sold me to nobility and who will soon be killed by bandits. Not necessarily the type of person that I want to create any meaningful relationship with.
That said, I look on the desk and true to form I find flat copper plate. Copper, one of the cheaper materials is designed to show that I am a first-year student. Copper is also one of the metals that fades the quickest, requiring multiple reapplications of the Bind Information spell to be applied throughout the year. This is good as it helps show your constant improvements throughout the year and shows that working hard does pay off. At least that is what it is supposed to show.
Then next year, we go to tin plates, then silver, and finally platinum for our senior year. Yeah, gold is apparently too flimsy to survive being in most kids’ pockets during their training. Particularly with how dangerous the final year of school will be.
Smiling to myself I take up the copper plate and then focusing on the unique structure of unaffiliated spells, I cast.
Bind Information.
Yes, this too was an AI stolen spell from the University’s press machine that was taken out, analyzed and eventually focused on so much that we could finally cast it, if we tried.
Oddly enough, it was always Karen that had to cast the spell first. Almost like these types of spells were locked until Karen of the Ancients cast the spell first. Then once she did, these spells became an unlocked hidden feature of the game. Even the Verify, Appraise, and Identify spells all had to be practiced by Karen first. Or over a hundred times of fizzling out if you didn’t choose Karen to be a revenant for your team. But this again only went to show how amazingly important Karen was to having an easy playthrough. Or at least as easy of a playthrough as possible.
With that, I saw all of my information present in my mind and with a slight focus of will, I took away things that didn’t need to be called out.
I listed that I had all three affinities, which put me up there with Royalty, but I made sure to have
While this was a huge red flag to most people, it showed that I had gone down the path of mastery for a specific skill, in tis case Arcane Machinery, and hid both the skill and my subsequent mastery from the world.
Looking down at the information on my card, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment.
Name: Karen Laurain Age: 14 Gender: Female
Magical Affinities: Current Rating Primary: Combat Support C Secondary: Spatial C Tertiary: Arcane Repair (Disruption Fields) A+
Attributes Current Rating Strength: C Dexterity: C Stamina: D Perception: C Intelligence: (Magical Skills) B+ Magic: (Linking Multiple Spells) A
Skills: Ranking Dual Casting C Mana Exertion Casting C Mana Circulation C Sneak Attack C Focused Casting C Camouflage C
Bloodline: Yes, awakened
Abilities:
1 General Purpose
5 Casting Related
For a moment I thought about leaving off my Bloodline and Abilities, but then I realized that since I cast this spell, I could modify how it was presented. While everything presented had to be truthful, there was a bit of wiggle room allotted. As such, I just noted that I had a bloodline and it was awakened. Then for Abilities I noted that I had six, and five of them were casting related.
This was all general knowledge that would soon come out. In fact, I would be surprised if some of the knights and guards that were present at the ambush didn’t already suspect me of having at least some of the perks. Especially with how quickly and seamlessly I was casting spells.
Also, having my information out there might make certain people think twice before coming after me.
With the information on my school card set, I mentally nod to myself.
The spell was relatively easy to cast, despite it being supposedly at the edge of my casting ability. While I figured that my Precision Caster might have played a part in this, I realized that this couldn’t be the case as it specifically only covers my Affinities.
Precision Caster: You managed to cast one perfect spell in each of your magical affinities. All magic spells related to your affinities are reduced in terms of mana cost by one ranking. Note: Minimum mana required per spell one unit of mana per cast.
Then something hits me, as I realize I likely cast a Perfected Ancient spell, or All Source spell as it was often referred to.
Gulping, I took a breath, and then cast High Appraise on myself. Everything seems the exact same, until I get to my abilities, when I realize that I now have not one, but two new abilities.
Perfect All Source Caster: You managed to cast a perfect form of an All Source magic spell. All future All Source magic type related spells are cast as if one Rank Higher. Note: All Source magic are cast at the value of the caster’s base Magic Attribute. Current Rank: A. Effective Rank: S.
This of course sent shivers down my spine as this had been something that was previously left out of prior game versions. In fact, just seeing this let me realize just how improved this new world and playthrough would be. Seeing this, and realizing that we were allowed to cast these spells from the start made me kick myself for not practicing these spells earlier while I was in the mana laboratory. But then I realize I would have likely fallen behind my pace if I also tried to focus on the All Source spells.
Still, this was impressive.
With this, I then read the other new Ability.
Then I paused as I looked at the new accomplishment and couldn’t help but dance excitedly.
For I had done it, or the game had finally made the Ability everyone who loved the magic system ultimately begged and pleaded for.
Master Casting Dominance: …
Just those words alone caused a giant smile to come to my lips as I was suddenly very enthusiastic about trying round two of this marathon playthrough. But this time, I knew it would be so worth it.