Chapter 29

  It took a full hour to reach what could be best referred to as a begrudging tolerance of one another. That may not sound like a long time, but when you’re the one being spoken down to by a holier-than-thou teenager, it feels like an eternity. I considered myself a patient man, but Lloyd was moments away from losing a tooth.

  “I think we can all learn from this and do better next time, right?”

  Lloyd had sat between group 'pro-culling' and group 'whiny idiots' and spoke with the soft, measured voice of a faux therapist.

  I stared at him without a word, which he conveniently interpreted as an affirmation. Guy still looked displeased with me, but his anger had subsided, and he returned to his room.

  The moment everybody else had filtered out as well, I went outside. I wanted to be there for Soot before he returned, but the intervention consumed too much time.

  “Sorry, boy.”

  I found him in his pen. He had smashed the gate to get in and nestled in the soft cotton bed I had made for him. I would have to repair that at some point.

  He was already deep in sleep and snoring loudly, so I lay on my back with my head on his warm belly and faced the ceiling.

  “Oh, you made it.”

  As I looked into the dark corner above me, I saw the newest resident.

  “Guess I should think up a name for you, huh?”

  After some contemplation and some taps to indicate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to my numerous suggestions, we settled on a name.

  “Alright then, Vek, welcome to the crew.”

  The visceranid, Vek, tapped his legs excitedly at his new name. Tiara tried jumping at the wall to reach him, but was too small to make any progress. With my three friends keeping me company, I took a moment to consider my next move.

  I had the Stag Lord’s soul fragment now, but the only reaction it showed at any point was when our souls were materialised in the Crucible. How does one restore the life of a primordial being? If anyone would know it would be Poggy, so I should prioritise finding him again.

  The Crucible had changed significantly as well. I believed it was the Stag Lord who had me sent to the second layer, which wouldn’t have been done without purpose.

  Finally, there was my public position to consider. It would take three years to graduate and secure an official position that could then be used to gain influence. Was there a way to expedite that process? Well, not with my current skillset. Perhaps if the Empire were faced with a very real threat, I would have greater opportunities.

  Could we create a threat ourselves, then clean up our own mess? It was an option, but I wanted the Empire to remain as strong as possible. Harming it to help myself was counter-productive

  When the world loses its connection to the divine, things would become chaotic. Having a beacon of stability like the Black Crown Empire around would improve our odds of pulling through.

  I closed my eyes. There was a lot to consider, and I had to remind myself how ludicrous the goal of the primordials was. Remove the gods' influence, and allow nature to rule as it once did.

  A faint sense of rage bubbled inside me, and I knew it did not belong to me. The Stag Lord was hearing my thoughts and reacting.

  A deep sigh left my body, and I relaxed.

  “No need to rush…”

  I muttered aloud. The rage subsided as if to voice agreement.

  Our consciousness faded, and I decided my first change in routine would be to sleep for eight hours a day.

  ***

  I awoke to Meztili feeding Soot from a sack of fruit. She nodded to me, but remained silent as she watched the greedy boar crushing a watermelon underfoot and slopping up the remains.

  “What time is it?”

  I asked as I got to my feet. I noticed Meztili flinch as I walked closer.

  “What’s up?”

  Stretching my arms behind my back, I felt the cause of her behaviour. Vek had clung to my body at some point overnight.

  I considered removing him, but decided it would be best to bond with him as much as possible; thus, I had him walk alongside me instead.

  “...You’re keeping it?”

  Meztili asked cautiously.

  “Of course I am. He was a big help in breaking through your defenses.”

  I filled her in on the functions of visceranid venom and how it had been used to improve my and the goblins’ abilities. She didn’t warm up to Vek anymore, but she did acknowledge his usefulness.

  “Fine. To answer your earlier question, it’s 5:30 in the morning, you should get changed.”

  I did as she suggested and quickly ran inside to don my uniform. It took only a few minutes to ready myself for class and return to catch Meztili before she left. We were the last ones to depart, but still made it in time for class.

  The seating arrangement seemed to have taken a subtle shift. Axel, Fleur, and Lily were all together and beckoned the two of us upon our entry, whereas the others were scattered on their own.

  “Welcome back, all of you.”

  Professor Kuhn walked in and immediately launched into his personal comments regarding our trial.

  “The outcome was better than expected, and a negotiator has already secured an agreement to cease all attacks on the merchantry from the Blood Thunderers. They will be supplying meat and herbs in exchange for better equipment and materials.”

  He looked at me in particular before carrying on.

  “These conditions did come with the addendum that 'Blood Thunderer Rex' must maintain contact regularly, and should he no longer be in the Empire, they will stop cooperating. I am, of course, rephrasing the wording Chief Gotrut chose so eloquently.”

  I nodded in understanding. I didn’t know what Gotrut’s motive was, but it served as a convenient excuse to go into the Verdant Divide freely from that point on. I would be able to save a daily use of Primal Fusion now.

  “Now for critiques, starting from the bottom. Paris, your over-reliance on your natural talent left you vulnerable despite your skills. And your refusal to coordinate with your allies resulted in none of them knowing you had been defeated, and thus, they were unaware of the impending ambush. I’ve signed you up for military tactics class and the Pillarball club. This is non-negotiable.”

  If Paris was annoyed by this, she didn’t show it. Surprisingly, she seemed to accept her failings—and the advice—without argument.

  He went on like this. The most common problem cited was teamwork, but there were also issues with poor decision-making, risk-assessment skills, and losing sight of the objective.

  “Rex, phenomenal work, I have no issues with your handling of things. The academy had put forward a reward of 20 gold pieces for the first-place student, and an additional 10 has been added for your remarkable performance.”

  He called me down and handed me a small pouch of coins. This was equivalent to three months' work for a low-class citizen, although I didn’t really have a pressing need for cash yet.

  “Thank you, professor.”

  “Before you go, take this as well.”

  He handed me a timetable. My timetable. A quick glance revealed that he had changed my classes somewhat.

  “These classes are the best for your personal growth. I would have liked to do this from the start, but my eyes don’t work so well on you.”

  “You took me out of alchemy and replaced it with spellcraft? I don’t follow.”

  It didn’t make sense for someone without a Mana Organ to learn how to cast spells, and alchemy was a core subject for me. It was how I made up for my deficiencies in certain situations. The only reason it hadn’t come up recently was because Oliver and Fleur covered those areas better than I could.

  “That’s right. To be transparent, I had Ada inform me of what you knew about alchemy. There is nothing that the course covers that you don’t already know, not until halfway through the second year at least. As for spellcraft, trust that this will become fundamental to all your future efforts.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  My knee-jerk response was one of dissatisfaction, but I knew that Ada trusted his judgment.

  “Okay. Thank you again, Professor.”

  Class was dismissed, but Axel stayed behind to speak to the professor. He grinned at me when he noticed I took an interest in this.

  Still, I had no reason to eavesdrop, so I left the room quietly. Vek was waiting on the ceiling and plunged onto my back as I went to my next class.

  ***

  Finishing up in military tactics, I left to find Meztili and Lily waiting for me. Paris, who did not interact with me in the classroom at all, silently passed by all of us.

  “Heya!”

  Lily waved and bounced happily.

  “We came to get you, seeing as you’ll be in our favourite class too now!”

  These two held the top spots of the Spellcraft class, so sticking with them should at least protect my image by proxy. After all, it was only a matter of time before I made a fool of myself in a class like that.

  “Yeah, thanks for coming. Lead the way.”

  Lily walked ahead, and I quickly made sure Vek was properly concealed in my clothing. I’d had enough fun tormenting people with spiders for one week, so I magnanimously decided not to give Lily PTSD.

  The classroom for spellcraft lessons was, like most specialised classes, custom-made to meet the unique needs of the students and teacher.

  At first glance, it looked like our homeroom, except that the ascending semi-circular seats were all made from a lustrous black material. In fact, the entire room was like that, as if one massive piece of marble had been carved from the inside out to create this appearance.

  I halted in the doorway for a moment as I appreciated the view, but Lily pulled me along without letting me analyze the material.

  “It’s just normal marble. You’ll see why it’s like this soon.”

  As if reading my mind, she answered my unspoken question, and I obediently followed her to the back, where Meztili saved us a spot.

  This was clearly a popular class, as it filled up quickly despite its remarkable size.

  I didn’t fail to notice the repeated reactions of everyone who entered the room. They would walk in with a neutral expression, look for a spot, see me, raise their eyebrows, and stare for a few seconds too long.

  “What’s going on?”

  I asked Lily.

  “Somehow, the rumour that Axel was beaten for the first time has already been spreading around.”

  She giggled sweetly, but the way she said that made it clear to me who had been spreading such information.

  As the last of the students found their seat, a woman in her 30s stood before us. She had a homely look to her, attractive, but not in the supermodel way that Ada was. Lily let me know her name was Mrs. Abigail of Darrowby.

  “Hello all, I see we have a new face joining us today. Everybody, please welcome Mr. Jaeger to the class.”

  She led the humble applause and carried on with the lesson. Naturally, since I was coming in a month late, I was kicking off to a slow start.

  That was the excuse I wanted to fall back on, but the reality was I never had much of a mind for this sort of thing.

  Think advanced mathematics that needs to be calculated entirely in your head, and the answer has to be provided in seconds. If you can picture that, you now have a grasp of half of what spellcrafting involves.

  The other half was the total opposite. Instead of firm logic, you needed to emotionally resonate with the type of mana you were trying to manifest—anger or passion for fire, calm serenity for water, so on and so forth.

  When I used Soot or Tiara to channel magic, I skipped these things entirely and used the monster method of spellcasting instead. The monster method refers to how magical creatures can intuitively harness magic and instantly cast a more narrow collection of spells, such as Tiara’s Phase Leap.

  To be frank, for a human from modern-day Earth, I’d say maybe the greatest of geniuses could pull off traditional spellcasting. And I absolutely do not fall into that category.

  So were humans more intelligent here? No, the difference was that magic had always existed here, thus, they had generations to understand how to best teach and learn these things. Those born with Mana Organs also had a natural ability to understand the finer points, thanks to firsthand experience of how mana forms inside their bodies.

  Just as I could not explain to Lily how to best form your soul and body to be compatible with an animal’s natural skills, she could not explain the theory behind spellcrafting to me. It was a core difference in how we viewed the world.

  The first part of the class was all theory that touched on scroll crafting and the casting of a dual-circle novice spell. Mrs. Abigail went into detail about the benefits it offered over a single-circle intermediate spell.

  And I understood none of it. I still did not get the difference between the runes inscribed within a spell circle and the verbal components that could be chanted to increase intensity.

  I say this with utmost sincerity, I would rather be in the Crucible than try to wrap my head around this nonsense.

  But it only got worse. We had to try to apply all this knowledge in the second half of the class.

  “Please stand. Oh, Mr. Jaeger, you wouldn’t know yet. Please go to the side, sweetie, yeah, thanks!”

  Mrs. Abigail was the one saving grace of this class. I quite liked her soft voice and pleasant nature, even if her lessons made my brain cry in pain.

  She waited a beat after we all lined up along the walls, then she began casting a spell.

  Three spell circles appeared before her, they rapidly filled with runes I could not understand, and the spell’s effect was completed in seconds.

  All the furniture sank into the walls, leaving us in a wide-open room with no obstacles. Apparently, this entire room was as malleable to her as clay to a child.

  “Now we will try applying what we have learnt. Work alone or in groups, as you prefer. Mr.Jaeger, please come here.”

  I moved to the head of the class, carefully, so as to avoid disrupting any of the slowly materialising spell circles that the other students were conjuring.

  “I had a chat with Mr. Kuhn, and we came up with a special way to help you. Please bring out your little kitty.”

  Tiara was watching Meztili’s spell casting, but came running on command.

  “Now, to begin with, please… um… What do you call it exactly? When you use her mana?”

  “Soul Link.”

  "Oh, I see. Please link with them if you would."

  I did as asked after answering her question. I felt the usual rush of magical power enter my body.

  “Wow! I knew about it, but it truly is amazing to see for myself.”

  Abigail clapped her hands together and smiled with pure joy.

  “Now, Mr. Kuhn told me the kitty—”

  “Tiara.”

  “Yes, Tiara. He told me Tiara’s mana naturally favours the darkness element, but also fits the mould often used in illusion spells. He thinks you should be able to do something special thanks to this.”

  She handed me a scroll.

  “You know what this is, correct? We spoke about it not long ago.”

  “Yes, it’s a spell scroll. Even I can use the magic inside if I just pour mana into it.”

  “That’s half right. This spell scroll is intentionally unfinished, however. It has the necessary circle, but only half the runes have been written inside of it. The parts left unfinished all relate to the illusion school. There is also no mana in it.”

  “Huh? How’s that make sense?”

  Without any mana imbued into the circle or runes, they were nothing more than scribbles on parchment. Even if I infused my own mana as a trigger, there would be no 'fuse' to ignite, so to speak.

  “Well, I’m not certain it will work either, but the theory Mr. Kuhn presented makes sense. Please try using it as you would a regular scroll.”

  I did as commanded. I felt the mana in my fingertips emerge and cross into the parchment.

  It then burned away in green flames, and a sphere of darkness engulfed both of us.

  It vanished as quickly as it came with a snap of Abigail's fingers.

  “Amazing! Rex, this is incredible!”

  She took my hands and beamed at me with excitement.

  “I don’t follow… How did the spell function?”

  Sure, it was neat that I cast a spell, but without any understanding behind the process, I couldn’t exactly utilise this.

  “The monster method needs no circles, chanting, or runes, right?”

  I nodded along and listened carefully.

  “Mr. Kuhn said your magic was the same. There have been numerous theories over the years attempting to find a way to utilize this for our benefit, and now you have proven it can be done! Mr.Jaeger, listen carefully.”

  She stepped back and calmed herself.

  “You have a way to ignore certain requirements when crafting a spell. If you learn just the parts that can’t be substituted with the monster method, you could cast spells with a greater efficiency than anyone.”

  ***

  After class, Lily and Meztili brought me to the cafeteria for the first time. Usually, I ate handmade lunches with Felicia and Axel, but Lily insisted that I joined them today.

  I had explained to them what Mrs. Abigail told me, and they were both shocked at my lack of enthusiasm.

  “What’s the problem? I’d kill for that kind of advantage.”

  Lily commented between mouthfuls of powdered donut.

  “You don’t get it, even learning a portion of a spell is difficult for me. This is good news, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t even properly form a basic spell circle yet.”

  To demonstrate my point, I used more of Tiara’s mana and formed a green glowing…

  …I couldn’t call it a circle because it wasn’t. It resembled an audio waveform, but even more crackly and crooked. I tried to form a single rune inside, and it all immediately fizzled out.

  “We’ll help, right, Tilly?”

  Meztili nodded in agreement and added her own reassurance.

  “This is bigger than you seem to realise, Rex. If you can master this, it would be proof of concept for the next step in magical evolution. We would benefit as well if we could understand that concept.”

  “Besides, darkness magic is my specialty! And Tilly is a genius at spellcraft. Illusion or whatever, she can help you out.”

  I finished my handmade meal—a simple ham sandwich— and took the half-donut Lily had pushed aside. Using too much mana always left the caster hungry.

  “...My schedule has gotten hectic…”

  That was all I could mumble as I stuffed my face with the sugary treat.

  “That’s surrender! We got him, Tilly!”

  Lily jumped up in a victorious pose.

  “Ah! Watch it!”

  She bumped straight into a couple of support class girls.

  “Nyahaha! Sorryyyyy!”

  She laughed and sat back down, not a shred of shame on her face.

  “...Rex?”

  I looked over at the girls with a blank expression. Then I saw her.

  “Is that really…”

  A girl with short, blood red hair and green eyes just like mine.