Chapter 15

“WHOA-ha-hoe!” I screamed in excitement. As I had just hit the mecca of all rewards. Just seeing the reward, all three months of constant work and pushing, fighting through the Hell Mode CRET and everything else that I had been forced to suffer through finally seemed worth it.

I had done it.

No, I had always done it, since my third play through where I logged over two hundred hours of casting each and every spell and perfecting the casting of every spell form I had done this.

This time however, I finally got rewarded for my efforts.

The world even made it known that I had achieved something few others had ever managed to accomplish, as for the first time since I started my perfect casting of an ‘S’ Tier level spell was noted and observed by the world.

Master Casting Dominance: You managed to cast a perfect spell at the S-Rank. You have unlocked the highest markings of spell casting and are now and forever considered a Master Magician. New Master Magician skills unlocked: Casting Dominance, Casting Breakdown, Casting Dismantling. All Master Magician skills will be increased in value by a rank and a half when used against other non-Master Magicians.

Note: to show your dominance, a glowing five-pointed star surrounded by a circle will be made manifest on your left hand every time you invoke mana.

New Skills Unlocked: Casting Dominance: Base rank: F. Effective Rank: E+ New Skills Unlocked: Casting Breakdown: Base rank: F. Effective Rank: E+ New Skills Unlocked: Casting Dismantling: Base rank: F. Effective Rank: E+

Three new skills, all of which were at a Rank and a half higher than I managed to get them to on my own. Basically meaning that with these new skills I should be able to pown these little mages that might try to cast obnoxious spells against me.

Trust me, there were plenty of times that events would unfurl where I, or rather Claudia, would either need to deflect, dodge, or reflect a spell cast at her to avoid situational displeasures.

I had not doubt that as an unaffiliated Noble I would be subject to much the same scrutiny, particularly if any of the love interests showed interest in me. Or what would likely be more accurate if anyone did anything to me, to help pull me down in the eyes of others.

No, this was a perfect reward for people who went and had their AI spend a hundred thousand hours breaking the code of the printing press. The same press that had the workings to Bind Information on it, which I then took the time to memorize and learn to cast in the odd castles way that all Ancient magic seemed to follow.

Also, it should be noted that I didn’t exactly spend a hundred thousand of my AI’s precious hours on this decryption. Rather, I spun up a bunch of data servers that were great at large number modules, and then linked them all together to share and auto update logic processes. Then I had all the servers run wild for a week.

Granted I got fired from my job shortly after that, no, not for what you would think. It had nothing to do with the misuse of company data servers. Especially as I only siphoned off the cycles that the servers were not otherwise engaged in activities. No, I got fired for working from home, when all of my work with the servers had to be done while I was on prem. Made no sense to me, as I could clearly do the job just fine from my couch, as was noted.

Even then I was only noted as being absent when that annoying secretary tried to make me a birthday cake, and then got all butthurt that I wasn’t there to receive her cake.

Still, I don’t regret it, as I got the spell I wanted, time to perfect my new spell, and more time to play my game. This of course caused me to have to job hunt while trying to cram in as much time as possible to play To Love an Empire.

The only problem is that full time job hunting is so exhausting.

That’s why I often just settled for fast food. Then on reheating my fast food before heading out to interviews. Always in a rush because I was too late.

At that, I remembered a flash. Of my placing a foil wrapped burger into the microwave, along with my keys for whatever reason. As I would need to grab both before I left. Though I was too much in a hurry to read about the game I was giving up…

Shatter.

I felt something break within my mind.

Drip, drip.

At that point I also felt the odd scent of copper, as a warm liquid began pouring out of my nose.

Pinching my nose, I focused through the pain and cast by Rejuvenation spell that had become second nature to me by this point.

Blurry vision.

I noticed that the world became hazy as I began crying. The only thing drawing my attention was the glowing mark on my left hand.

Looking at the mark, I realized that I had only ever seen a similar mark one time. Though that mark was of a glowing star with three distinct circles around it, and belonged to the aged hand of the wandering Sage. Well he wasn’t really wandering, as he was always in the same spot, but whether you found him or not depended on where you were in the storyline. If you were nice to him, he would direct you towards rare quest items that you needed, but only if you paid in coins of the Ancients.

At the time, he was seen as little more than an in game tutorial helper, as no one else accepted the currency of the Ancient civilization, making those odd coins that were found rather useless. Unless you used them to find this man and bribe him for help. He knew where everything was. Though his usefulness was made moot on your second playthrough as the spawning locations for the items in question never seemed to change. Thus, you ended up visiting him less and less often.

Of course, a few people tried to attack him, only to have a complete party wipe a few seconds later. Though now that I think about it, if he was able to have access to these skills, many of which I only heard vague references to, I could see why he would win. Even with a fully leveled set of the most elite casters in the game, his skills would be able to stop any incoming attack.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Just thinking about him, my mind goes back to his one and only quest that he offered. A quest that no one was ever able to solve.

Pausing for a moment, I try to remember the wording, but it had been so long since I last interacted with him. Even then the last time I truly interacted with him was on one of my complete party wipes that I mentioned earlier. Even losing was fun. Though he somehow managed to shrug off the effects of each and every one of our spells cast, I found the challenge of killing the old man entertaining for a bit.

Yet, after the last try and failure to wound the old man, I never went back to him.

With that memory brought up, I realize that the old man was likely an Ancient himself. I mean the hints were all there, the attraction to Ancient coins. Now the old symbol of a three circle Master Magician.

Let’s see with my one star coming after casting an ‘S’ Ranked spell, that must mean the old master had cast an ‘SSS’ Ranked spell. Pausing, I realized that I might be able to do the same, though I would need a spell of more complexity than I already have at my disposal. Trying to think of where I could find such a spell to improve my standing, only one answer comes to mind. Going to the old man and seeking his guidance.

Smiling, I add yet another task to my growing list for the time between semesters.

I also wonder if the old man will be pleased that I have blood of the Ancients in me, or find that to be a threat. In the game, he came out for Claudia regardless of whether Karen was in her party or not. So, did that mean that he didn’t care about the blood of the Ancients? Or did it mean that despite everything Claudia herself had the blood of the Ancients in her as well, but to a much lesser extent than Karen did? These were all questions that were banded about on forums.

At the time, I hoped that Claudia had the blood of the Ancients and that she would eventually be able to awaken her potential in future iterations, but alas that never happened.

Ding, dong.

The morning alarm bell sounded.

Hearing it, I felt a shiver run down my spine as I remembered this being the first sound that always sparked the new school year. That despite everything, Claudia always stayed up late with excitement and then ended up sleeping in until the first bell woke her.

As for me, I did manage to sleep, though I will say I had more than a few visions playing out in my mind. Most importantly, I saw the burning remains of wyverns and wizards being charred to cinders right before me.

Pausing for a moment, I am about to leave, but then looking down at my exposed left hand, I decide to go back to my classroom approved accessories and get a pair of gloves. The gloves, along with my pressed copper student plate denoting my information that I am okay with providing to the school and anyone who would look at the symbols. With that, I take one last look around, grabbing parchment, ink quills, pens, and any other items I might need for my first day of class. I even make sure to check that my mask is in place and secure.

Then feeling comfortable with my selections I go out.

I stop by the chow hall to grab some food and water, though I make sure not to eat in sight of anyone. This is done for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I don’t want to eat in sight of anyone due to the fact that I am clearly wearing a mask for a reason. Secondly, I don’t need much food to sustain myself. Technically the reserves I have should be enough to survive a week, though I can tell from the way my clothes are loose on my skin that I am not at my fully functional but healthy level of fat. A girl’s gotta eat after all.

Fortunately, I know this academy like the back of my hand, and quickly sneak out to find a dark corridor where I can remove my mask and take a quick few bites of food.

The food, a simple buttered biscuit tastes delicious, though I can feel the food going immediately to my thighs and my fat reserves that would make a camel jealous. Reluctantly I reach down and tug at the fabric that was relatively loose a second ago, only to feel that there is far less give than I originally had.

Looking at the biscuit, I find myself talking out loud, “you sure know how to make a girl feel self-conscious.”

Still, I need to eat, and end up eating the rest only to feel my sides slightly plump out as well. Taking a breath, I realize I am once again back to my original weight that I had before entering. It is also abundantly clear that unless I do some major casting, that is all the food this body will need to survive for the next week.

Ding dong.

The second warning bell rings, letting me know that breakfast time is over and it is now time to go to class.

Well not class exactly, as today is the sorting day, where we will all have our cards pressed and made. This is where we will be filled with the grandeur of the Academy and its inventions. Which basically means we will see how good the University has gotten at antiquing. Sad to say that was not my thoughts on this process, but one I read on a forum thread. Still after reading it and finding out about the lore, I couldn’t refute the claim.

The University that we all went to was nothing more than a glorified magical antiquing shop that showed off repurposed works of the Ancients that had been modernized and renovated to perform their same exact tasks as previously noted, but they will do so at the command of anyone without the blood of the Ancients. Which I guess is a feat in and of itself, though less amazing given how few of the Ancient items around campus can actually work on command.

As I get into the grand auditorium, I notice that everyone from last night’s entrance ceremony was there. This again is meant to be a time where we could talk with love interests and find out more about them. Oddly enough, this was the time when you could speak to anyone, including background characters, though only the Princes ultimately mattered as they were the only ones that Claudia could actually form meaningful relationships with.

“To those of you who have finally joined us, know that your placement for today will be determined solely on when and where you finish with getting your Student Identification Slab, or SIS pressed.” Lady Von’Graysing says, her eyes scanning the entire student body, but then hovering on me as if I failed some unknown task.

“For those of you that don’t know, or didn’t understand the importance, the copper slab that was on your bed, is now needed for this event. If you don’t have your slab, then I highly recommend you run back to your rooms now and retrieve this slab of copper before it is too late.” Lady Von’Graysing stated.

With that a number of the students left, fleeing back to their rooms to pick up the seemingly innocuous slab of copper.

“Now for those of you that do have your slabs, know that you will be graded and rewarded based on your place when arriving today. Know that this like most things here is a test. Everything you see, do, and accomplish here is a test.” Lady Von’Graysing begins speaking and delivering a dialog that is surprisingly familiar to me by this point.

This was a hidden quest in the game. Either you got here early by skipping breakfast and becoming the first in line, or you stayed back and chatted with the princes and their entourage. You could also speak to Karen or Marie, but that didn’t exactly help you with your conquest of the world as those two were already fully loyal to you at this point.

“You will go through station by station,” Lady Von’Graysing states, point out each individual location that will be used. “Then you will end up here by my side. The first one done with this process will get a special prize for today.”

Hearing that, I smile devilishly and then just walk forward, cutting through the line and standing in front of Lady Von’Graysing.

Seeing me, Lady Von’Graysing’s face changes, as she gets into her disciplinary role. “You seem to not know your place. Just because I have taken you as my student, does not mean that you are…”

As she speaks, I quickly reach into my pouch and pull out my fully minted copper SIS plate.

Lady Von’Graysing pauses, as she can clearly see the engraving on the card. Pausing, she looked first to the card. As she did, her eyes glowed with a magical milky hue, a sign that she was using her enhanced Perception to truly view the card.

Then her eyes went wide with surprise as she took in the card, and struck out her hand to steal the card from my outstretched fingers. Her moves were so fast that even if I tried to resist, I would not have been able to act within time. However, I actually wanted her to take the card.

Holding my card, Lady Von’Graysing did a number of strikes and scratches to the card, trying to test the magical adhesion, something that counterfeit SIS plates would not be able to protect against. Then she was surprised when the magical protection held true.

By this point, Victor Longly, an energetic ranger type character was finally finishing the process of getting his own SIS fully formed. He was always the student who arrived first, unless you cheated and bypassed breakfast to come here first on the first day.

As it was, Victor was a terrible conversationalist, mainly grunting. Making your time exceedingly painful to wait out, as you stood in line waiting for this event to begin. While the reward was something magical, it wasn’t game changing. No, it was just a onetime use stat booster, but such a reward was nothing in comparison to the future morale rankings you could have with a perspective love interest that you got to talk to while in line.

Even now I didn’t really care about the booster, but rather about the hidden student tracking points that were assigned to each student today based on their spot in line. Being within the top five for this event actually accounted for as many points as doing all of your homework for a month. Yeah, stupid, but I was fairly certain that I could answer the homework fairly easily by this point, as the classroom grades also helped open up future upgrade paths and packages.

“Let me see that,” Lady Von’Graysing demanded, going over to Victor Longley and stealing his recently finished SIS plate. Victor for his part looked like he wanted to protest, but then seeing who was making the demand, he quickly held back and just watched.

There Lady Von’Graysing looked at the two plates comparing them side by side. Even going so far as to hold the two plates up to the light, where she looked at them.

Alexandera Caldera was next to finish, and she too had her SIS plate taken for comparison.

Then looking at the three, Lady Von’Graysing’s eyes glowed, and that was when she seemed to come to a conclusion. With that she handed the cards back to Victor and Alexandera respectively, though she kept my SIS plate.

“Come with me,” Lady Von’Graysing demanded, as she held my plate up and waved it like it was indisputable proof that a murder had been committed.

“Ohh!”

The other students all let out a reflexive gasp at the sight, but I followed trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with this particular spell work. My spell work had been perfect, the system even told me as much. I even have the mark on my left hand now that can prove this to be the case.

I follow Lady Von’Graysing, realizing that this has never happened to me before.

As we walk, I realize that she is not taking me to a classroom, nor to her office. Then after a second, I realize where we are going and I instinctively stop.

The moment I stop, Lady Von’Graysing takes one more step, before she too stops and turns around to face me.

“So you know where we are going?”

I pause, realizing that my in game knowledge of the location that we are going could prove to be problematic. Still I nod, not wanting to lie in this case.

“Very well, since you will not go willingly into the interrogation room, I will have to ask you here.” Lady Von’Graysing states coldly, while holding up the SIS that I created with my own magic. “Now, tell me where you got this card made, and don’t lie to me as it wasn’t done here.”

At that, I pause wondering how she found out.

I pause trying to come up with a believable lie, but before I can say anything, the spymaster blurs forward, and I know that I am in trouble.